Among pacts, Beijing will provide loans beneficial to African nation

President Xi Jinping holds a ceremony to welcome President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti on Thursday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. FENG YONGBIN/CHINA DAILY

China and Djibouti signed three cooperation documents covering such areas as the economy and technology, finance and agriculture on Thursday during Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh's state visit.

According to one document, China will provide beneficial loans to Djibouti. The cooperation documents were signed at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and witnessed by President Xi Jinping and Guelleh.

The two presidents agreed to establish a China-Djibouti strategic partnership and deepen cooperation in all areas.

Before their talks, Xi hosted a grand ceremony in the capital to welcome the African leader.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 38 years ago, China and Djibouti have boosted mutual understanding and respect, supported each other's core interests and major concerns and set an example for China-Africa friendship, Xi said.

China would push forward practical cooperation with Djibouti in such areas as railways, seaports, construction of a liquefied natural gas pipeline, free trade zone and agriculture, Xi said.

He said Beijing would continue to help Djibouti improve local medical facilities, broaden human resources cooperation and boost people-to-people exchanges.

Noting that China attaches great importance to deepening relations with Djibouti, Xi called on joint efforts to push forward collaborating on the Belt and Road Initiative, enhance cooperation in all areas and benefit the people of both sides.

Xi expressed gratitude for Guelleh's congratulatory message on the success of last month's 19th CPC National Congress and his re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

The congress has made blueprints for China's long-term development, Xi said, adding that China will continue to be a sincere friend and reliable partner for developing countries.

Since Guelleh became Djibouti's president in 1999, he has led the people to explore a development path fitting for the country's situation, maintained a stable political situation and achieved sustainable economic and social development, Xi said.

Guelleh once again offered congratulations on the success of the congress and on Xi's re-election as general secretary.

Djibouti would like to proactively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and enhance cooperation with China by constructing infrastructure and improving the people's livelihoods, Guelleh said.

Guelleh appreciated China's efforts in joining the United Nations peacekeeping operations and fighting pirates. He expressed gratitude for China's key role in safeguarding global peace and prosperity.

Chen Xiaodong, assistant foreign minister, told reporters that the two presidents exchanged viewpoints on the PLA's Djibouti Logistics Support Base, which was officially established in July.

Building the Djibouti base will not only help China better fulfill its international duties, including peacekeeping and rescue, but also bring security for the development of Djibouti, Chen said.

The Djibouti Logistic Support Base could benefit multiple parties, he said, adding that it will contribute to the security of the Horn of Africa.

The base is conducive to overseas tasks, including military cooperation, joint exercises, evacuating and protecting overseas Chinese and emergency rescue, as well as jointly maintaining security of international strategic seaways.

On Nov 3, while inspecting the Central Military Commission's joint battle command center as its commander in chief, Xi had video chats with troops at frontier posts and the support base in Djibouti.
HOLLISTER  A former Twin Falls County Sheriffs captain arrested for drunken driving in September had a blood alcohol content level as high as .229, according to documents obtained by the Times-News.

Brent Hilliard was stopped by a county deputy north of Hollister on Sept. 7, following reports of a pickup truck swerving between lanes. The case was immediately turned over to Idaho State Police to avoid a conflict of interest, as Hilliard was at that point employed as a patrol captain for the Twin Falls County Sheriffs Office.

Hilliard was off-duty at the time of his arrest and was not driving a county vehicle. He had been drinking alone in the desert, as the Times-News previously reported.

Witnesses called 911 after noticing Hilliards truck weaving in and out of lanes, nearly hitting cars traveling in the opposite direction, according to statements the newspaper obtained from the Idaho State Police through a public records request. Multiple witnesses noted a near-collision with an oncoming semi truck.

Three breath samples showed results of .229, .201, and .206 BrAC, the responding state trooper reported.

The original charge of excessive DUI  meaning a person has a blood alcohol content level of more than 0.2  was amended, and Hilliard pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for driving under the influence on Oct. 23. On Nov. 14, he was sentenced to a year of supervised probation and 48 hours of community service.

Hilliard had worked at the Twin Falls County Sheriffs Office since 1996, and was a captain since 2011. He was suspended from his position at the sheriffs office shortly after his arrest and no longer works there, according to staff.
TWIN FALLS  The preliminary hearing for a Twin Falls woman charged with the murder of her infant daughter has been delayed again.

Amanda Jean Dunlap, 22, is charged with first-degree murder, eight felony counts of injury to a child and one misdemeanor count of injury to a child. A preliminary hearing for Dunlap, scheduled for Friday, has been pushed back to Dec. 19. The hearing was initially supposed to take place on Nov. 3.

Dunlaps daughter, 20-month-old Lyryk Jean Altom, was flown to Boise on Oct. 8, after police responded to a call about a baby in distress. She died on Oct. 14, and Dunlap was arrested on a warrant less than week later.

Lyryks father, Logan Altom, previously told the Times-News that his daughters death was caused by a brain injury.

The preliminary hearing for Dunlap will determine whether there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
TWIN FALLS  Virginia Valdez brought her two children to volunteer Wednesday at the Twin Falls Salvation Army to teach them the importance of serving others.

It was the familys first time volunteering at the nonprofits yearly Thanksgiving meal. But Valdez had thought for years about getting involved.

I always wanted to do it, she said, but was waiting until her children were at a stage of understanding about helping others.

She and her children  Malaky, 10, and Rosalinda, 8  arrived 90 minutes before the noontime meal to help set 26 tables.

Valdez said she hopes her children will take away life lessons from the experience: to not take life for granted, and the importance of getting to know and serve others  and not just during the holiday season.

The family was among about 40 volunteers who helped serve a Thanksgiving meal Wednesday at the Salvation Armys gymnasium in downtown Twin Falls.

The Thanksgiving meal has been a big event for the Salvation Army for more than 20 years. But feeding those in need is a year-round effort, with lunches served every weekday.

Some of the people who attended the meal Wednesday are homeless. Others may not have family members nearby or are struggling financially.

A line formed outside the Salvation Armys front doors more than 30 minutes before lunchtime started.

Some people came by themselves, while others were couples and young families with children. The youngest attendee was a baby, who was covered in a fuzzy pink blanket in a removable car seat carrier.

The Thanksgiving meal included the traditional fixings: turkey and ham, stuffing, salad, green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls and pumpkin pie.

Lt. Troy Cook with the Twin Falls Salvation Army said he expected theyd feed 200 to 250 people.

Before the meal, Cook greeted the crowd, prayed and read a Bible scripture from 1 Chronicles 16:34  Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

No matter what kind of trouble youre facing today, we all have something to be thankful for, Cook told the group.

The Salvation Army is a church first, he said, with a Sunday morning service. As for the Thanksgiving meal, it is my hope you fill your bellies today with as much as you can eat.

Preparing for the meal was an effort that spanned a few days, starting with defrosting and cooking the turkeys. About 25 turkeys were donated by Albertsons, Walmart and Grocery Outlet. Falls Brand donated ham.

About 10 minutes before guests arrived for lunch Wednesday, there was a flurry of activity in the kitchen  tossing salads in large bowls, warming rolls and stirring mashed potatoes.

Four employees from CapEd Credit Union, which is under construction on Cheney Drive West, were volunteering in the kitchen and helping the Salvation Armys cook.

They arrived two hours before the guests and were getting all the goodies ready, said assistant branch manager Dianna Belt.

Since the credit union is brand new to Twin Falls, Belt said they want to get involved in the community. They were also planning to volunteer Friday at Christmas in the Nighttime Sky at Kimberly Nurseries.

An opening date for the credit union hasnt been set, but will likely be in early January.

About 10 employees from Cactus Petes Resort Casino in Jackpot, Nev., who were wearing matching blue shirts, were also among the volunteers. They set tables, cut slices of pumpkin pie, served food and interacted with guests.

As one elderly couple arrived, a Cactus Petes employee greeted them and pulled out chairs for them at a table. Ive got two seats here for you, she said. Happy Thanksgiving.

Its the second year the company has volunteered at the Salvation Armys Thanksgiving meal. Some of the employees had Wednesday off, while others were planning to head to work later that day.

Even though Cactus Petes is based in Nevada, many employees live in the Magic Valley, said company spokeswoman Kris Ann Brown. We do a lot of volunteerism in the Magic Valley.

The casinos bakery department also donated 25 pies for the meal.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, whats next for the Salvation Army this holiday season?

On Friday, Success Martial Arts is slated to transform the gym into a space to organize toys before theyre distributed to families in need, Cook said.

The Salvation Army also kicks off its red kettle, bell ringing fundraiser on Black Friday. It started Nov. 10 at Fred Meyer and Shopko, but will be up-and-running Friday at all 14 retail stores.

This years goal is to bring in $100,000, Cook said, which would cover the nonprofits operating expenses for one-third of the upcoming year.
President Donald Trump nominated Alex Azar to serve the next secretary of health and human services last week, tweeting that he would be a star for better healthcare and lower drug prices!

In fact, Trump has made many grand claims that he will bring drug prices way down. But if the president is serious about drug pricing, Azars record isnt promising. During his tenure as head of the U.S. division of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., Azar tripled the price of that companys insulin, and he has played down the problem of high drug prices, arguing that they do not drive health-care costs.

The selection of Azar is important because the president already has significant power to tackle drug prices without the help of Congress. But he needs help from the HHS secretary.

So what could an administration serious about lowering drug costs do? For one, it could allow importation of more affordable drugs from Canada. Congress authorized pharmacists and wholesalers to do this in 2003, subject to the approval of HHS. But as a drug company executive, Azar went on record rejecting this approach. He said  as the industry long has  that the quality of these drugs cannot be guaranteed. But history shows that safety concerns can be properly managed, since the Food and Drug Administration previously has imported drugs to respond to critical shortages, and more than 40 percent of finished U.S. drugs  brand name and generic  are already manufactured overseas. The FDA could help develop similar safeguards for this purpose while guiding foreign manufacturers through U.S. inspections and approval, ultimately expanding even beyond Canada.

Once sensibly implemented by the FDA, importation provides an important way to combat unjustified price hikes for older, off-patent drugs. Turing Pharmaceuticals, for example, made news a few years ago when it acquired the U.S. rights to Daraprim, a drug long used to treat an infection that can affect those living with HIV/AIDS, and raised the price from $13.50 to $750 per dose. But the drug was being sold for $1 to $2 per tablet in other countries.

Second, Congress provided a pathway to ensure drugs developed directly from federal government funds are fairly priced in the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. The federal government funds a great deal of research, and some of our most important new medicines come from that funding. One review found that public-sector research institutions directly contributed to the intellectual property covering more than 150 drugs and vaccines over the past four decades. If the Trump administration were serious about addressing the drug-pricing problem, HHS could require fair pricing of products developed with federal funds, and define circumstances when the government will intervene  such as if the drug is priced far beyond the average price in a set of comparable countries around the world. This would ensure that taxpayers get reasonable prices in exchange for their investment in a drugs development.

Finally, Trump and Azar could bring the pharmaceutical industry to the negotiating table for excessively priced essential drugs covered by government payers such as Medicare and Medicaid. Current law allows federal programs to seek competitive bids for patented medicines, even if they come from companies other than the patent holder. In return, the government awards reasonable compensation to the brand-name manufacturer. If the government and company cannot agree on the compensation level, a court will set the amount  which may be quite lucrative but will likely be less than the price set by manufacturers in the inefficient U.S. market.

The government already used this law to obtain cheaper generic antibiotics for the military in the 1960s. In 2001, when anthrax attacks led the government to seek a stockpile of ciprofloxacin, George W. Bushs administration threatened to use the provision, and reportedly achieved a 50 percent discount as a concession (Azar was serving as HHSs general counsel at the time). HHS could explore the use of this option for federal programs and to work with states that want to invoke this strategy to expand drug coverage to local residents in need.

There are many other strategies that could be employed to help control rising drug prices, but these three are immediately available to a presidential administration serious about helping the vast majority of Americans who want something serious done about drug prices. Azars nomination is another ominous sign that these approaches will continue to be ignored in favor of useless tweets.
Iraqi militia groups fighting on the side of national army to quash the Islamic State group (IS) said Thursday they will return weapons they use to the Iraqi army as US and Saudi Arabia worry the groups might be used by Iran to further expand its influence in the country.

The heavy weapons belong to the Iraqi government, not us. We are not rebels or agents of chaos and we do not want to be a state within a state, said Hashim Al Mouasawi, the spokesman of Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba, a militia group member of Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) backed by Iran.

The PMF is under the command of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and naturally when the war is over and victory is declared, the final decision will be his, Mouasawi said referring to the Prime Minister Al Abadi.

Nujaba regroups around 10,000 Iraqi fighters and answers to Iraqi forces but also receives training and support from Tehran and Lebanon-based Hezbollah Shia group.

The PMU, largely made of Iraqi Shia, has been backing the Iraqi army in stamping out IS and has been important in recent victories over the terror group in Mosul and other parts.

The disbarment of the militias after IS group is totally defeated has become the concern of the Iraqi governments international allies. Washington last month told Iran to withdraw from Iraq in reference to the militia groups.

The US and Sunni-dominated nations in the region fear that the militias will become an army within the army and will enable Tehran to increase its influence in the region when the terror IS group is expelled from Iraq and eventually from Syria where Iran is also engaged through its support to the Assad regime.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States are wary of greater Iranian influence at their gates.

Mouasawi also rejected US authorities proposal to put the militia group on the US black list of terrorist organizations.

A bill seconded by Republican US Representative Ted Poe has targeted Nujaba and another militia loyal to Iran as terror group. The bill is yet to be passed.

Accusing us of terrorism is not new or surprising. It is not a coincidence, and does not shock us, because we have never been part of the American bloc or project, Mouasawi said.

Prime Minister Al Abadi also lambasted the bill making it clear that he would not allow anyone who fought IS to be treated as criminal.
The Lagos-listed cement giant Dangote group owned by Africas richest man Aliko Dangote has officially opened a $300 million cement production plant in the Republic of Congo, the group said in a statement.

The plant, which has a production capacity of 1.5 million metric tons per annum, is located at the Mfila area of capital Brazzaville.

The Congolese president Denis Sassou Nguesso and representatives from the Nigerian government have attended the inauguration of the plant.

According to Denis Sassou Nguesso, his government has observed the operations of Dangote cement in other African countries and it has helped buoyed their economies by sparking off other allied industries, as he expressed the hope that Congo situation would not be an exception.

Aliko Dangote, who also attended the ceremony, commended the Congolese government for its economic decisions in the wake of fall in global commodity prices.

Congos total government revenues have plummeted by 31.3 percent due to a slide in global crude prices, the prime minister said last week.

Constructed at a conservative cost of $300 million, the Dangote Plant is expected to directly employ more than 1000 people, as thousands of indirect jobs will also be created. The Plant, which is now the largest in Congo, rolled out its first bag of cement on the 7th of August, 2017.
Three journalists, who work for the Red Pepper newspaper in Uganda, are facing treason charges after the publication of a story alleging that President Yoweri Museveni was planning to overthrow Paul Kagames government in Rwanda.

The three journalists, Ben Byarabaha (Managing Editor), Richard Kintu (News Editor) and Francis Tumusiime (also News Editor) are also charged with disturbing the peace of the president and others according to the charge sheet.

The suspects are being held at the Nalufenya prison outside the capital Kampala along with five directors of the Pepper Publications Group.

During the raid on Red Peppers office on Tuesday, police confiscated employees phones and computers. The police also searched the homes of some of the staff.

Ugandas foreign ministry accused Red Pepper of reproducing a malicious article.

Under Ugandan laws, any person who publishes or is behind the publishing of any story that threatens or compromises national security is liable on conviction to a prison term up to seven years.

The U.S. media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Uganda to immediately release the eight.

Local media, including Red Pepper, have reported this month on tensions between Uganda and neighboring Rwanda. Over the years, some Rwandan exiles and refugees in Uganda have complained about the risk of abduction by Rwandan secret agents.
Chads President Idriss Deby, on Thursday, sacked Finance Minister Christian Georges Diguimbaye and his deputy, Banata Tchalet Sow.

Diguimbaye was replaced by Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul, the minister-secretary general of the government in charge of institutional reform, who will serve as interim finance minister.

The move of President Idriss Deby comes at a time the central African nation stalled talks with Glencore on restructuring more than $1 billion in debt.

Glencore and its banks agreed in late 2015 to restructure two oil-for-cash loans with Chad, dating from 2013 and 2014, extending the repayment to seven years from an initial four years.

The African nation received the loans to help finance state-owned Societe des Hydrocarbures, Tchads acquisition of the stake held by Chevron Corp.

However, Chad is seeking to delay repayment of Glencore Plc-led oil-for-cash loans after crude prices plunged.

The International Monetary Fund has said Chads external commercial debt, most of which is to Glencore, was unsustainable as it eats up most of the countrys oil revenues.

The international lender who approved over $300 million in credit for Chad released $48.8 million but said the release of further funds would depend on progress reports at subsequent meetings.
@NewsbySmiley and @joeflech

Miami politics can be a lot like Thanksgiving dinner: at times, there's so much goodness it's just too much to consume in one sitting.

That's what makes leftovers so great.

And so, at the end of a short week in which former Miami mayor Joe Carollo returned to office, opponent Alfie Leon sued to keep him out, ex-Congressman David Rivera finally mounted a legal defense over a 2012 elections scheme, police scrambled to downplay Art Week terrorism concerns, former Miami mayor Tomas Regalado gave an expletive-laced goodbye, and his daughter, Raquel Regalado, withdrew from the Republican Primary to replace Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, we wanted to come back with a piece of political fodder from Carollo's Tuesday election night victory that we just couldn't squeeze in before the holiday:

After running a gloves-off campaign for Miami City Commission that focused as much on his enemies as his own platform, the sharp-edged Carollo dedicated plenty of time on election night to naming his foes in his half-hour victory speech and in subsequent media interviews.

Carollo, who can be sworn into office Dec. 2, basically laid out who'll be getting coal this holiday season.

Here's who made the list:
For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
During a recent Missoula Community Theatre rehearsal, a staff member remarked to Joe Martinez that the songs for "A Christmas Carol: The Musical" sounded familiar, despite never having heard them before.

Audiences will "walk in and hear music that's familiar even though they've never heard it before," said Martinez, MCT's artistic director and the director for this production.

The tunes for this adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale were written by Alan Menken, the composer behind his own share of Disney earworms. He was behind the 1990s animated versions of "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid" and its live-action musical, "Newsies."

Martinez said the music is one of the overwhelming appeals of this Christmas story, since it adds a new spin on a story we're familiar with: One night, a wealthy miser named Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by ghosts from his past who teach him to change his ways.

Martinez is effusive about the way the whole show comes together. He tears up during rehearsals. This is the fifth time he's directed it, although this is the first time in Missoula. The previous productions came during his tenure at Arizona Broadway Theatre in Phoenix. They performed a version that was significantly pared down from the New York one, which required hundreds of actors.

Martinez is following the scaled-down version that he honed in Arizona. The MCT cast of 30 is led by Malcolm Lowe, who's been with MCT productions since the mid-'90s. Martinez said he had the right experience, age and vocal ability for the part. Lowe has a baritone voice and has sung with local auditioned choir Dolce Canto. The role of the miser requires stamina, too: Lowe will be onstage for almost the entire show.

Thain Bertin plays Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's beleaguered employee. Bertin starred in MCT's "Tarzan: The Musical," "Les Miserables" and "Mamma Mia!"

Tiny Tim is played by Ian McLean, age 9, who's performed in several kids shows but is making his debut in a community show.

Overall, Martinez said the show and their production has a lightness to it. The costumes will be appropriately Dickensian. For the ghosts that haunt Scrooge, he told the costumers to think "Disney's Haunted Mansion"  he said the show should be a little scary, but a little funny.

"To me, it's a Halloween story and it just happens to take place at Christmas," he said.

He noted that MCT last performed the show in 2009, but it had a different director, cast and concept.

"If you saw the show in 2009, you haven't seen this production," he said.
Broken glass installations, ceramics about endangered species, and experimental photography, all with a conceptual heft, are on display at the University of Montana Faculty Exhibition.

The show, held once a year in the Gallery of Visual Art, is a chance to see established mid-to-late career artists at work, some of whom don't exhibit that frequently in Missoula.

You'll want to tread lightly around a new piece by Brad Allen, a sculptor and outgoing director of the School of Art.

"Reinstallation of a Sliding Glass Door," an installation floor piece, is made of actual broken glass. The materials and the emotional effect are raw.

Allen broke the door several years ago while he was renovating his home. Home ReSource didn't want it, and it was an odd thing to take to the landfill. He thought it would be a dramatic action and leave him with material for a sculpture. So he deliberately (and safely) shattered it and kept the material for a future art project.

To install the piece, he projected a map of his neighborhood in the South Hills onto the floor of the gallery at a dramatic, skewed angle. He shifted and piled the pieces of glass into stark white lines that mark the most frequent routes, all leading to his house at the center.

He recently went through a divorce, and thinks of it as a map of his separation from "that place that I know so well," like a "drawing of when that turned into a memory" more than daily presence in his life.

He's highlighted those routes with small squares of white correction tape. Lately he's been drawing with "materials that have meaning." Correction tape is something you use to "elicit a change," he said.

"Something happens, you want to change it, you want to start over. You make a mark and then begin anew," he said.

***

Allen created his new sculptural work while on a semester-long sabbatical. Part of his mission during the time away from teaching was to develop work that was more portable than the metal-casting and installation art that he's focused on.

The pieces contemplate perspectives of "scale, time and character," he said. While those are abstract concepts, the work itself lays them out clearly.

"Time and Place" merges drawing and sculpture. Two white metal trapezoid frames stand less than a foot apart. Atop each rests a diagonally situated, mixed media drawing. He included references to land and place, such as a print of a bird's-eye view of center-pivot irrigation system and a geological cross-section map. Red-ink-stamped words such as "RUSH" and the numbers of birth date refer to time. Allen, a former geology major, has a preference for maps and aerial views.

He said the piece "crosses time, geologic and location, place to equal some sort of here and now at the crux. A centered moment."

Another piece in the show uses an X-motif, which he says is a marker, a "signifier for being here."

As part of his separation from his wife, Allen moved into a new house and no longer has a studio space. He's been working in mediums that are more conducive to that environment than metal work.

One piece, titled "MMWW" or "Listen," invites viewers to refile through it. He thinks of it as an abstract book, inspired by his young children's interest in vinyl records. He made a record box and a set of sleeves with paper "records" that collectively tell a story, in sequence, of his time as director of the School of Art.

The sleeves have drawings and prints and quotes and real song titles and lyrics from songs by Modest Mouse and quotes from the television show, "The West Wing."

One Modest Mouse song quote is: "And I said you can't make everybody happy/He said you'd like to at least make yourself happy though."

There are Radiohead song titles and songs by the 1990s post-rock band Slint, who still sound contemporary thanks to bands' adoration of them. One piece of text reads, "You are this place," with "this" in italics. It's a phrase Allen told to a staff member who was worried that their job was going to be cut.

He said the pieces as a whole use "perspective to encourage these different ways of experiencing a story, but also utilize the perspective shift itself as verb and content."

***

The faculty exhibition, on view at the Gallery of Visual Arts in the Social Sciences Building, covers most of the major disciplines: painting, drawing, functional ceramics, installation and photography; and gives a window into the various faculty members' personal projects.

Allen said faculty have a two-fold mission. First is teaching. Secondly, they're required to develop and exhibit their work, whether in the form of art or lectures. Depending on the artist, they might show their work more frequently in larger art centers in order to maintain a connection to the broader art world outside of geographically isolated Montana.

Some of them show their work around Missoula frequently. Gallery director Jack Metcalf built a sculptural piece, "Choose your own topping," that consists of two boxes set atop one another. Each side has "tops" or "bottoms" of figures and symbols that you can rearrange by turning the box. Jason Clark contributed layered prints with images of fish set against a rich palette of color. MaryAnn Bonjourni, a longtime member of the local art community, has found-object constructions, some with allusions to her work with horses.

Trey Hill, a ceramics professor, included some of his most recent series that combines abstract clay forms with wire sculptures, which were on display at the Missoula Art Museum earlier this year.

Jin Zhou, a visiting scholar from China, showed technically skilled paintings in landscape and still life, in addition to several pieces about his time in the U.S.: He painted junk food like brownies and candy canes onto platters, set against the American flag.

***

Ceramic professor Julia Galloway's new series of ceramic pots draws attention to species that are on the brink. Each pot is decorated with a drawing of an animal on the Endangered Species List.

The project as a whole could take three to five years to complete. The pots are designed as urns, and the scale will reflect the volume of ash left behind if one of the animals had been cremated. (There is a minimum size, since some species on the list are quite small.) She wants to emphasize that it's a positive-minded project. "The urns are empty for a reason," she said, adding that the "optimism is in the emptiness."

Galloway hopes ultimately to show the pieces in a museum where she can include all of them, as a visual representation of the size of the problem. Her inspiration in part came from the AIDS Quilt project.

"There's something so powerful about making something unseen, seen," she said.

She said her project is still in the study phase, and she's learning the best techniques for drawing and painting on the surface and firing the pots.

She's working from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife list and the international Red List. The number is around 2,000, but changes as species are removed and added. She's consulting with Chad Bishop, director of UM's Wildlife Biology Program on the scientific aspects. She said it's "a wonderful project" to work across disciplines: art, science, conservation, water management and more.

Another piece also delves into the contemporary concerns. Matt Hamon, a photographer who's worked in documentary and art contexts, is displaying a picture he took at the Standing Rock protests. He said he uses the Faculty Exhibition as a chance to share something experimental.

"While I had shot the Standing Rock protest from a strictly 'documentary' mode, the image in the show is composited from about eight different frames shot from roughly the same perspective over the course of about an hour. The image combines people from all of these frames, though I don't think any person is repeated in this, now, fabricated scene," he said. He included several instances that make it obvious if you look closely.

***

Elizabeth Dove is exhibiting two large-scale pieces that further develop her dictionary-related pieces. Earlier this year, the Missoula Art Museum exhibited "It Starts With Aardvark," a series of prints that used every illustration in the dictionary in layered prints.

She converted photographs into a large number of single-tone pixels and printed them on squares of paper cut from the pages of dictionaries, a way of transitioning that interest into digital information systems.

One of the initial photographs is more utilitarian. It was a large pile, since that could "convey accumulation and quantity."

The other landscape image "is more personal, it's a photograph of the field and woods behind my childhood home. That kind of place that is so far away when you are young, so mysterious, forbidden and epic, a place that looms in your memory," she said.

"With this I was curious about translating such an emotional place, a sensory place, into bits of data: and then the resulting impossibility of its meaning being adequately conveyed. Ive been interested in that failure before. Im always looking for meaning and investigating structures that support and convey meaning, but then finding they fail, that they are incomplete and meaning remains elusive," she said.
Sabrina Smith, the owner of the Green Light in downtown Missoula, is one of the many local entrepreneurs who depend on Small Business Saturday.

Her store specializes in eco-friendly gifts, kitchen supplies, apparel and locally made arts and crafts. She doesnt try to compete with Amazon, and like many brick-and-mortar small retail stores in Montana, she separates herself from online mega-retailers by providing friendly customer service and unique items.

Small Business Saturday our biggest day of the year, she said. Its all about getting people down here to support the local community.

The event, which is coming up this Saturday, Nov. 25, was started by the credit card company American Express in 2010 as a way to promote shopping small at locally owned shops rather than the big, corporate-owned box stores where profits flow out of state.

Linda McCarthy, the executive director of the Downtown Missoula Partnership, said locally owned businesses will be rolling out the red carpet this Saturday with sales, deals and holiday treats.

The Missoula Downtown Association has seen a steady increase in the number of participating businesses each year, and the number of community members supporting Small Business Saturday continues to rise, she said. Last year multiple merchants indicated they had more than doubled their previous Small Business Saturday sales. This is a clear indicator to us that Missoula believes in supporting small, locally owned businesses. When our small businesses succeed, the entire economic system of Missoula is strengthened.

The MDA will again host a Shop Small Headquarters at the MSO Hub at 140 N. Higgins from 10 a.m.3 p.m. during Small Business Saturday. Free hot cocoa, "Shop Small" goodies and a list of sales and deals at downtown boutiques, shops, restaurants and cafes will be available.

At the Green Light, Smith said theyll be offering 20 percent off the entire store and an additional 50 percent off clearance items. Smith hopes Missoulians will choose to buy Christmas gifts at local businesses, which keep more money in the local economy.

I live on the other side of town, and Ive lived there for over 20 years, she said. I talk to people at the grocery store, and they say they dont shop downtown. Its disappointing to hear, because all the best shops and restaurants are downtown. Its a totally different scene than the big box stores on Reserve.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Carson College of Business at Washington State University, many people have good intentions to shop at local stores but end up making many of their actual purchases online.

The study found that 69 percent of Pacific Northwest consumers reported that they were likely to shop in-store only, but 76 percent also reported Amazon was the top retailer they planned to purchase from. Most consumers said they would be more likely to shop locally if they could match prices found online and also have an easy return policy.

According to the Montana Small Business Association, approximately 41 percent of hourly-wage and salary jobs in Montana are businesses that employ fewer than 20 people, and 75 percent are businesses that employ fewer than 100 people.

Small businesses account for more than 99 percent of businesses in Montana, so theyre truly the lifeblood of the states economy, said Montana Department of Commerce director Pam Haxby-Cote. Supporting our local entrepreneurs is important year-round, and the holiday season is a great opportunity to show our support in full force.

Small Business Saturday is the kick-off event for the holiday shopping season in downtown Missoula, according to McCarthy. In the weeks that follow, the downtown area will host a large number of community events aimed at creating a festive and welcoming atmosphere for shoppers and their families.

Free horse-drawn carriage rides provided by The Resort at Paws Up, and sponsored by Lithia Ford of Missoula, will take place every Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on East Pine Street, starting Nov. 25 and continuing until Dec. 17.

Santa and Mrs. Claus will be making appearances at the Florence Hotel Lobby for the Parade of Lights on Saturday, Dec. 2, and also will visit Liquid Planet, 223 N. Higgins, on Dec. 16 and Dec. 23 from 1 to 5 p.m. The Festival of Trees, a new event for the MDA, will be hosted on the sixth floor of the First Interstate Bank Building at 101 E. Front St. on Dec. 1-3.

Our downtown, along with Missoula businesses, provides one of the most unique, personal, and festive experiences during the holiday season, McCarthy said. We welcome everyone into the heart of Missoula to shop and spend locally.

The Downtown Missoula Partnership is the umbrella organization composed of the MDA, the Downtown Business Improvement District and the Missoula Downtown Association.

McCarthy is encouraging shoppers to remember their license plate number when using the multi-space, digital parking meters. The meters allow people to switch spots as long as their time is paid for. Parking downtown is free after 5 p.m. weekdays, and on weekends and federal holidays. Smartphone users can use the new Passport Parking app via the App Store, which allows them to store license plate info and make payments.
Things are coming up aces for the Western Montana Fair.

The first year of free admission saw record attendance this decade, with large bumps in advertising money, concessions and carnival earnings.

All of that caught the eye of the Rocky Mountain Association of Fairs, an industry group that handed Missoula Countys fair an award for innovation.

The purpose of this award is to recognize members in our association who have implemented a successful new project, program or effort that demonstrates excellence in innovation and creativity, RMAF wrote, according to a release from the Western Montana Fair.

The innovation award isnt undue, as Missoulas fair this year  from attendance, to donations to concessions sales  blew previous years out of the water, despite steep competition from two new amphitheaters in town and wildfire smoke that hung in the Missoula Valley for weeks over the summer.

But those events may have drawn more people to the fair, events manager Tom Aldrich told the Missoulian in August. On their way to a music festival, they would stop in at the fair, especially given that it was free, he said.

It was just terrific to see it full all week long, Aldrich said.

The fair also won three design awards, including first place for logo, second place for the event guide and third for the premium book.

All this years fair materials were designed by local artist Josh Quick.

Earlier this fall, the Missoula County Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed to continue the free fair model, given its success.

We definitely met our revenue goal in order to make it sustainable, Aldrich said.
Black Friday? Check. Holiday weekend? Check. Unofficial food hangover day? Naturally. Meanwhile, here's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. (You can also get "5 Things You Need to Know Today" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

1. Russia investigation

2. Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has a new president. Emmerson Mnangagwa has been sworn in as the country's new leader following Robert Mugabe's resignation this week after nearly four decades of rule. Mnangagwa was vice president under Mugabe, and has vowed to serve as the interim president until elections are held next year. Known as "The Crocodile" for his political cunning and longevity, the 75-year-old Mnangagwa fled the country after Mugabe fired him earlier this month, a dismissal that triggered the political turmoil and apparent military coup that led to Mugabe stepping down.

3. Submarine search

The search for a missing Argentine sub carrying 44 crew members continues, and the latest news isn't good. The Argentine navy says a noise detected near the last known location of the sub on the day it vanished was consistent with an explosion. A spokesman called the sound "an anomalous, singular, short, violent and non-nuclear event." Teams from a dozen nations have been searching by air and sea for the ARA San Juan, which was last contacted off the coast of Argentina on November 15. Experts say the sub has enough air to last seven to 10 days, if it remains fully underwater.

4. Oscar Pistorius

A South African high court more than doubled the prison sentence of Oscar Pistorius, the former Olympic and Paralympic sprinter who was charged with murder after shooting and killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. Pistorious previously was sentenced to six years in prison for the murder, which he says was an accident after he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder. Prosecutors argued the punishment was too lenient, and this new ruling increases Pistorius' sentence to 13 years and five months. Steenkamp's family says she "can now rest in peace" after a more appropriate allotment of justice has been served.

5. Rohingya crisis

Could the path be paved for the persecuted Rohingya to return to their homeland? Myanmar and Bangladesh have signed a memorandum of understanding on the return of possibly hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees to their homes in Myanmar's Rakhine state, but details -- like how such a return would be orchestrated and whether the refugees' safety could be guaranteed -- are fuzzy. An estimated 615,000 Rohingya refugees have fled across the border into Bangladesh since August, when a new outbreak of violence began between the Myanmar military and armed militants in the area.

BREAKFAST BROWSE

People are talking about these. Read up. Join in.

These are the 11 hottest toys for this holiday season

Let's see, there are creepy finger puppet monkeys and ... a Teddy Ruxpin? What year is it?!

Your deep-fat fryer could actually help cool the Earth

This is absolutely not an excuse to deep-fry the holiday ham.

A homeless vet gave a woman his last $20, so she helped raise thousands to thank him

And it makes for the most perfectly delicious post-Thanksgiving story.

Increasing light pollution may mean the end of starry nights

This virtual AI politician wants to run for office

Or, the latest thing to make you wonder if we're actually just living in a dystopian novel.

AND FINALLY ...

The ideal holiday dinner

Lots of pets and no talking? This is how we're trying to be. (Click here to view.)

CNN's Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Katelyn Polantz and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.
A central Montana county will move its coroner's office to neutral ground after a Lewistown funeral home sued the county for housing its coroner's office in a rival funeral home owned by the coroner.

The settlement to consolidate the Fergus County coroner's and sheriff's offices was approved during the county commission's meeting Nov. 15. It will also include a payment of $5,000 to Creel Funeral Home, which filed the lawsuit last year.

The two Lewistown-based funeral homes are the only such businesses operating in the county, although a crematorium also offers services in the town.

In the complaint, filed Aug. 24, 2016, in Fergus County District Court, Creel's owners alleged that Fergus County Coroner Dick Brown "assigns bodies to his private business and benefits financially from the sale of funerary items and performing funeral services from those assignments."

While the coroner's office still operates out of Brown's Cloyd Funeral Home, it will be moved over to the Fergus County Sheriff's Office to "avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest" beginning in 2019, County Attorney Kent Sipe said Tuesday.

"The first point of contact with the deceased person's family would be with the sheriff's office" under the new setup, Sipe said.

Prior to the lawsuit being filed, Creel had requested a policy change from the county multiple times, according to the complaint. At the county's request, both Sipe and an attorney with the Montana Association of Counties reviewed the arrangement, the latter finding that Brown's business had a "built-in advantage" as a result of his position.

The settlement will become official once Creel's owners sign onto it.

"Our whole reason behind this is we feel it's a conflict to have the coroner's office in the funeral home," said Ralph Mihlfeld, who co-owns Creel with his wife.

Mihlfeld said he's satisfied with the outcome of his lawsuit, although it's difficult to tell whether the prior arrangement had a negative impact on his business.

"That would be speculation," he said. "We simply needed to make a change."
Although nearly a year has passed since around 3,000 snow geese perished on the Berkeley Pit, the Environmental Protection Agency has not decided on whether to fine the responsible parties, Montana Resources and Atlantic Richfield Company.

EPA project manager Nikia Greene confirmed, however, that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has jurisdiction over migratory birds, has decided not to fine the companies responsible for the Berkeley Pit. The wildlife service could have fined the companies as much as $5,000 per dead bird.

USFWS spokesperson Jennifer Strickland said "no comment" when asked about the decision not to fine the companies.

The U.S. District Attorneys Office for Montana, in Billings, is in charge of enforcement for USFWS. Its spokesperson Leif Johnson would not comment on the matter.

But EPA is still investigating whether Montana Resources and Atlantic Richfield adhered to the 1996 plan intended to keep migratory birds off the pits waters. The companies and agencies devised that plan  consisting primarily of wailers making loud sounds and gunfire  in 1996 in response to 342 snow geese dying on the pit water ahead of a snowstorm.

Those efforts were largely successful for 21 years but proved ineffective the night of Nov. 28, 2016, when somewhere around 10,000 geese landed. The pit, which is more than a square mile in size, was white with birds.

But while EPA's investigation continues, the companies have created a robust, comprehensive approach to keeping migrating birds off the Berkeley Pit going forward, Greene said.

So far during this fall migratory season, nine birds have died  one coot and eight snow geese.

Last week four snow geese landed on the pit and looked unhealthy, Greene said. The mine called the agencies, and a decision was made to rescue the birds and take them to a veterinarian.

Montana Resources vice president of environmental affairs Mark Thompson said the birds wandered up onto a ramp that leads to the pits waters. That enabled MR employees to capture the birds.

After given fresh water at a veterinarians office, the birds recovered and were released, Greene said.

It seems they were just tired from migrating, Greene said. It appears they didnt have a lot of exposure (to Berkeley Pit water).

Thompson said most snow geese flew over Montana on their way from their Arctic breeding grounds to various points south the weekend of Nov. 4. When the birds landed last year, they left their summer home two weeks late due to abnormally warm fall weather.

Local bird experts blamed climate change for the reason the birds mistakenly landed on the pit in such overwhelming numbers last year. When snow geese head south each fall, their first landing spot to rest along the way is Freezout Lake in northern Montana. But last fall, Freezout Lake was frozen by the time the birds came through. Warm Springs Ponds, west of Butte, were frozen, too.

That left the exhausted birds with virtually nowhere to rest except the Berkeley Pit.

In response to the incident, MR and Atlantic Richfield put together a bird advisory council filled with local ornithological experts who could advise the companies on how better to plan for such an event.

Greene said the companies, the agencies, and the bird advisory group are still considering the various technologies, which now include a machine called a VRAD that produces a sonic boom. MR tested the machine last spring.

The companies have bought $6,000 spotting scopes so the mining crew can identify the bird species that land on the pit. That helps the workers know how to respond to get the birds to leave.

Overall, the companies have spent maybe as much as $500,000 on the new hazing technologies, Thompson said.

One boat is still being built. It will travel up to 30 mph and will be powered remotely. Another boat built by Montana Tech researchers in 2016 was tested and launched in the pits waters last spring to sample the metal-laden water via remote control.

That boat now has a propane cannon added to it to scare birds.

Propane cannons, as well as wailers, sit at strategic points along the pits walls. The companies also employ laser technology and new drones. One drone can also sample pit water. One drone looks like an eagle. Some of the lasers simulate a predators eyes to scare the birds from landing on the pit water.

There are also fireworks to keep the birds from landing.

But Greene said that perhaps the most effective tool is communication. Thompson said the mine now communicates with the bird advisers, who communicate with points in Canada and Freezout Lake as well as with a meteorologist, who can advise on weather patterns that affect where the birds might land.

When large flocks are headed this way, the bird advisers put MR on alert, Thompson said.

One of the most important things is the effort Montana Resources made to put together the advisory committee with experts and create communication with the northern migratory sites," Greene said. "Its one of the biggest, one of the most important things to understand, is where these birds are going and what theyre doing and be prepared early."

The effort appears to be working. Thompson said that with nine bird mortalities this fall, that translates into a 99-percent hazing effectiveness.

We were ready (this fall) and prepared, Thompson said.

Greene said he expects to see a finalized waterfowl mitigation plan with a definite list of effective bird hazing technologies fully in place by fall 2018.
Its official. Montana has joined 23 other states and provinces with wild cervid populations infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD). Ironically, the two infected mule deer were harvested south of Billings within days of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks release of its draft CWD management plan. MFWP has proactively moved to limit the emerging threat, and rightfully so.

An infectious, neurodegenerative disease caused by abnormal proteins, called prions, CWD affects deer, elk, moose, and caribou. Its virtually always fatal. CWD first emerged in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming about 1980. It percolated along without much fanfare until the late 1990s when it began popping up elsewhere both in game farms and wild herds. At most new locations, its geographic distribution in the wild has expanded; and disease prevalence has trended upward.

CWD is unlike periodic outbreaks of botulism or blue tongue, quickly killing ducks or deer and then burning out. CWD persists; its relentless. Contributing to its persistence is the indestructibility of prions in the environment. Prions shed in saliva, urine, feces, and infected animal carcasses bind to soil and may be taken up by plants. There, prions remain infectious to cervids for years. Infected animals survive for months or years, all the while shedding prions. As more sick animals shed the pathogen, the cycle perpetuates.

In some Colorado and Wyoming deer herds infected longest, CWD infects 2050 percent of animals. Wyoming officials whove played down CWDs threat to wildlife have recorded annual declines of 10 percent and 21 percent in whitetail and mule deer herds, respectively. Some modelling efforts suggest that herd extinctions may occur in time.

Theres no way to treat the disease and no vaccine prevents it. Instead, proactive intervention is the best bet to stem CWDs impacts. CWD proliferates where animals congregate. Montana can reduce the disease risk by implementing strategies that limit cervid numbers to state population objectives.

CWD has now spread across neighboring Wyoming to all but Uinta and Teton Counties, the latter home to the National Elk Refuge where I worked the final 22 years of a career that spanned CWDs march across Wyoming. CWD is knocking at the door of 8,000 elk that winter on the refuge and 16,000 more at 22 state-operated elk feedgrounds. A looming nightmare.

Dan Vermillion, chairman of the MFWP Commission, recently noted, To me, the arrival of CWD is terrifying and its heartbreaking . Common sense, in the face of a disease event, points to getting rid of the (Wyoming elk) feedgrounds A resolution unanimously passed by Montanas Senate called upon Wyoming to do just that. But Im not hopeful. For 20 years I and other scientists and conservationists have warned that feeding elk is a worst-case scenario for CWD.

What should Montana do to protect its treasured wildlife? Disease surveillance followed by inaction, as in Wyoming, is not an option. Montana has two choices. The window for both wont stay open long: 1. try to rid the disease along our border, or 2. contain and limit CWD prevalence, as the Montana CWD plan prescribes. Both options require controversial management actions, public cooperation, a sustained commitment and funding. Neither option is guaranteed success. Both deserve debate. But accepting some level of cervid infection means that the longer CWD is here, the more animals will become infected and likely spread this deadly disease across the landscape. Thats CWDs lesson from the past 40 years.

Decisions made now will affect our ecosystems, economy and Montanans way of life far into the future. Talk to others who are knowledgeable. Read up on the issue. Comments on our states CWD plan are due by Dec. 8.
It has been 30 years since the last time our nations tax code has been overhauled. In that time, the tax rate we levy on businesses has become one of the highest in the world, the tax code itself has become an incomprehensible mess, and special interests have drilled it full of loopholes that benefit narrow constituencies.

The only bright spot is that bipartisan support to reform the tax code is at an all-time high right now. According to one recent poll, 81 percent of Americans say tax reform should be among the top priorities of Congress.

It is obvious that the time is now to pass a tax reform package and it certainly appears that Congress is close to getting the job done. They just need one last push to achieve tax reform before the end of the year.

Modernizing our tax system is especially important for small businesses. Small-business owners spend a disproportionate amount of time on tax compliance, and they cant afford the teams of CPAs and tax lawyers employed by large businesses.

Increasingly, small businesses are competing in a global marketplace. Under our current tax code, that extraordinarily high 35 percent tax rate we levy on businesses put us at a competitive disadvantage right out of the gates. Lowering business tax rates is the only sensible thing to do if we are to expect American entrepreneurs to excel on the world stage.

The resources that small businesses currently invest in compliance will be reallocated to more productive endeavors if the proposed tax simplification measures are implemented. That means resources to invest in expanding businesses, hiring new workers, and raising wages.

In fact, the Tax Foundation projects that the proposed tax reform package will create 975,000 new jobs and result in a boost in our GDP by nearly four percent. They estimate that economic growth will translate into a $2,600 increase in wages for the average middle-income household.

Those wage increases are on top of the tax savings that Americans will enjoy under the plan. The package passed in the House of Representatives doubles the standard deduction for middle-class families, simplifies filing and closes loopholes to make sure everyone pays their fair share.

We are close to achieving reforms to our countrys tax system. However, Congress is not quite across the goal line yet. That is why all Montanans should weigh in with our congressional delegation to let them know that there is significant support for the tax reform package.

Tax reform is important for Montanas small business owners  who provide the majority of employment opportunities in our state and form the backbone of our economy. It is also important for families of all income levels, who will experience a much-needed boost in the form of lower taxes and higher wages.

Lets get this done before the end of the year. Lets start 2018 off in a positive position for our country and our state to grow and prosper. Lets all encourage our congressional delegation to pass tax reform now.
Professor Rob Natelsons critique and criticism of the Montana Supreme Courts decision striking down Constitutional Initiative 116, Marsys Law, on Nov. 22 and 23, is simply wrong-headed.

The court very conservatively and very narrowly correctly applied Montana Constitutions Article XIV, Section 11, which clearly provides that if more than one amendment is submitted [to the Constitution] at the same election, each shall be so prepared and distinguished that it can be voted upon separately (italics added).

The court did not rule that Marsys Law was a good idea or a bad idea. Rather, the Constitution mandates in no uncertain terms how the Constitution can be amended, and requiring voters to decide on each amendment separately is part of that process. The court held that CI-116  by including a number of amendments to the Constitution within the Marsys Law initiative  violated the process of amendment. Nothing more; nothing less.

With all of his purported expertise in constitutional law, one would think that Professor Natelson would have understood Article XIV, Section 11, by now inasmuch as he was the driving force behind CI-75, which was declared unconstitutional a number of years ago for violating the same provision.

However, rather than demonizing the Montana Supreme Court for doing its job and protecting the integrity of Montanas constitutional amendment process, it would be more intellectually honest if Natelson had simply stepped down from his political soap box and correctly described the courts actual decision.

The court very carefully analyzed the language of CI-116 and the applicable constitutional law. After doing so, the court held that the initiative, besides enacting the various victims rights under new Section 36 to Article II, of the Constitution, also amended Article II, Section 17 (right to due process); Article VII, Section (2)(3) (power of Supreme Court to regulate attorney conduct); Article II, Section 21 (right to bail); Article II, Section 20 (criminal procedure rules); Article II, Section 24 (rights of accused persons); Article II, Section 9 (publics right to know); and Article II, Section 10 (right of individual privacy).

But then, dont take my word for it  or his, for that matter. Here is the link to the decision: www.leagle.com/decision/inmtco20171101531. Read it yourself; it is very clear and understandable.

Finally, if Professor Natelson wants to pontificate against someone or some organization for various citizens initiatives that are declared unconstitutional or otherwise fail, he ought to take on the politicians, special interests, think tanks and academics that dont know squat about Montana law or Montanas Constitution but nonetheless feel qualified foist upon voters feel-good, discriminatory, partisan-biased or similar proposals.

The moral to the story here is simple. If you want to amend the Constitution, follow the process that we the people enacted when we adopted the Constitution. And hire a qualified Montana lawyer to assist you in getting it right.
DILLON  Local author Francis Davis will appear at a book signing at The Bookstore in Dillon from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 25.

Davis will be available to sign and discuss his book "West of Love," which was published in September by Brighthorse Books, an independent press from Omaha. "West of Love," a collection of linked short stories, was named a finalist for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction.

Deirdre McNamer, a professor at the University of Montana, wrote that "West of Love" is a "fierce and moving elegy to young love in a world that's about to change, in essential ways, forever. The narrator of these linked stories tries to plumb his life and attachments in the '90s for clues to the man he is in middle age, and he does so in a pungent and obsessive voice that aches with yearning for the mysterious just-beyond. A memorable debut collection by a writer who knows how to get to the heart of it."

Davis said his collection is in the tradition of Matthew Klam, Denis Johnson, and Tim O'Brien and that he was attempting to go beyond the parameters of a "workshop story" when composing his book as well as hoping to blur the distinctions between genres.

"I was very interested in using the confessional voice and tone of a memoirist in the mode of fiction," he said. "I wanted the stories to sound true, to be true, without worrying about being factual."

Davis, originally from Philadelphia, came to Montana in 1994 to attend the University of Montana's MFA program, where he studied with noted environmental writer Bill Kittredge. He's worked as a journalist for a number of Montana newspapers, including The Montana Standard, Helena Independent Record, Daily Inter Lake, and Ravalli Republic.

Since 2012, he's lived in Dillon, where he's an assistant professor of English at The University of Montana Western.

Another book signing is planned from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17, at Books & Books, 206 W. Park St., Uptown Butte.
Motorists will soon see radar speed signs along Continental Drive near Hillcrest Elementary School even though a panel of commissioners rejected a version of the idea only weeks ago.

Trustees for Butte School District No. 1 agreed Monday night to pay more than $15,000 for the signs and the county will install and maintain them. Butte-Silver Bow commissioners gave their OK to the arrangement last week.

It really looked like this was going to be shot down, but there are other ways to do things, Commissioner Cindy Perdue-Dolan said Tuesday.

Public Works Director Dave Schultz said it could take a month to get the signs ordered and delivered and several days to get them installed with power. But they could be up within five to six weeks.

The signs will show the speed limit, which drops from 35 mph to 25 mph during school hours at Hillcrest, and flash speeds of approaching vehicles from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on school days.

In October, the councils Public Works Committee recommended against the county paying for and installing permanent radar signs at the school. They could cost up to $9,000 each and county officials said many drivers would ignore permanent signs, just as they do other speed-limit signs.

The committee voted instead to have mobile signs placed at Hillcrest, but like other locations in town, only temporarily.

Several residents took their case to the full council, saying the signs were needed to protect kids because many drivers speed along that stretch of Continental and the speed limit during school hours is 25 mph, not 15 mph as in other school locations.

A few aimed barbs at the council, essentially saying they didnt care about child safety, and that sparked terse responses from some commissioners. The council agreed only to seek input from state transportation officials on the issue.

But Perdue-Dolan reached out to Butte school officials and Superintendent Judy Jonart said she would try to find money within their budget to pay for the signs, saying it was a matter of protecting kids.

Schultz then had the agreement drawn up that got the final OK needed from school trustees Monday night.

The purchase of two signs and mounting posts is estimated at $15,865, which the school district will cover. The county will have them installed, provide power and maintain them.

The school district agrees to pay for new signs should they need replacing and the county would handle their operation after that.

Perdue-Dolan said she was very excited that a deal was worked out because it would enhance child safety.

We thought about a public-private partnership but working with the school district was the way to go, she said.
Americas national parks have fallen into neglect and disrepair after decades of underfunding of their upkeep and operations.

The National Park Service estimates that the 417 National Parks need $11.3 billion in deferred maintenance. That backlog is evident in Yellowstone National Park where popular trails remain closed for years for lack of money to rebuild, where roads wear out much faster than they are repaved, where a recent 40 percent increase in visitors brought virtually no increase in restrooms, parking, road capacity or visitor centers.

The Trump administration proposed a federal budget that would slash NPS funding, including cutting 1,200 employees and reducing deferred maintenance by $34 million, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.

Last month, the administration announced that it would tackle the park maintenance backlog  by raising entrance fees at 17 of the most popular parks, including Yellowstone and Glacier.

According to the NPS, the plan outlined would raise about $70 million a year in revenue. Thats not enough to take a bite out of the $11.3 billion backlog. It wouldnt even keep the backlog from growing.

A bipartisan group of 12 senators (none from Montana or Wyoming) introduced a bill in March that would authorize using $500 million in oil and gas revenues for park maintenance every year through 2047. Thats the size of investment needed to reduce the backlog and preserve these national treasures for our children.

The National Park Service Legacy Act ought to become law, but it hasnt even had a hearing yet in the committee chaired by Montana Sen. Steve Daines.

Unpopular as a fee increase is, Yellowstone and Glacier need the resources to handle the surge in visitors. For the safety of visitors, the quality of their park experience and the preservation of historic and natural wonders, NPS must have money to shrink the maintenance backlog.

A peak-season fee increase can be justified only if all of the proceeds stay in the park where its collected. The Interior Department proposed 20 percent would be used in other parks. Diverting any more entrance fee money from the park where it's collected is unacceptable. Every one of the 17 parks on the fee increase list has needs that greatly outstrip what the proposed fee increase would cover.

However, considering the dire need to maintain our parks, a peak-season fee increase is reasonable if:

-- Its less than the proposed $40 per private vehicle and set with public input.

-- 100 percent of collections stays in the park where collected.

-- Peak-fee funded projects are publicly identified.

-- The peak-fee money is strictly accounted for.

-- Peak-season fees arent used to supplant federal funding.

-- Fee-free days are offered and publicized.

Park visitors now pay $30 per private vehicle for a seven-day pass to Yellowstone. The NPS proposal would raise that to $70 starting in May 2018. Thats too soon and too steep.

Along with the private vehicle fee increase during peak season, NPS proposed raising fees charged for visitors who come to the parks on commercial tours starting in 2019. The estimate of $70 million in peak season fee revenue includes $18 million from commercial tours, according to an NPS spokesperson.

The NPS proposal notes that commercial tour entrance fees havent been raised since 1998 when they were first implemented under a federal law enacted a few years earlier.

Fees charged by tour operators certainly have increased since 1998. The tour business is booming in Yellowstone. In 2016, the number of buses entering the park doubled and bus tours increased again this year.

The National Park Service set a too-short comment period  scheduled to end on Thanksgiving Day. The comment period was extended for 30 days, according to Daines' office, after he requested an extension.

So there's still time to speak up. Go to the NPS link with this Gazette opinion at billingsgazette.com

Yellowstone and the other great Western parks need maintenance money now. Fees can help with a sliver of the need; Congress must act on the rest.

-- The Billings Gazette
My 14-hour flight from New York to Seoul was just the beginning. The next morning, my CNN crew and I found ourselves strapped into the Navy's C-2 COD (carrier onboard delivery) aircraft. Only this plane doesn't exactly come with peanuts and a Coke. Instead, I was tethered to a metal seat by four seat belts and facing backwards, helmet on, with only two tiny windows in the entire cabin.

Ninety minutes later, our Navy pilots lined us up with the USS Ronald Reagan, the aircraft carrier in the waters below. As the C-2 started its sharp descent, my heart started to pound. I knew I'd only have two hours to shoot our story and get it right.

I also knew, having done this once before, the adrenaline rush that comes with the "catch." Because the carrier's runway is so short, our plane had a tail hook to catch one of the cable wires on the flight deck and keep us from skidding into the ocean. The pilot has to get it just right. In a successful catch you go from 150 knots to zero in five seconds.

The sailors seated with us gave us the cue to brace ourselves, shouting "Let's go, let's go LET'S GO!" Then we heard a THUDDDDDD and a loud grinding of metal. I had no idea where we'd just landed  I wasn't allowed to know our location  but what I did know was that my journey in Korea had officially begun.

The idea for my trip

I remember sitting in my office in New York several months ago  it was one of those weeks when the war of words between Washington and Pyongyang was particularly intense  and saying to my producer: "I wonder what it's like to be an American in South Korea right now."

My mind instantly went to our men and women in the military who are based precariously closely to North Korea. Could they feel the intensity that we were feeling back at home? And what about their families, many of whom moved with them to Korea? Are they afraid or anxious? In a worst case scenario, what would they do?

I remember tornado drills at school as a kid and wondered, do these American kids in Korea hold nuclear drills? I wanted to know, and I thought CNN's viewers would want to know, too. The US Army offered rare access to several soldiers and their families. And the US Navy gave me access to sailors.

Theirs are the voices I needed to tell this story.

Proud of their daddy

The Army portion of our journey included a road trip, a tour in Blackhawk helicopter and a step  if only for a minute  into North Korea.

We visited Camp Casey, Yongsan Garrison, Camp Bonifas and the DMZ.

I interviewed Lt. Col. Aaron Bright, who serves as commander of the 1st Battalion, 38th Field Artillery regiment. His battalion operates multiple rocket launchers and is part of the northernmost deployed brigade in South Korea, making them a first line of defense. I also spoke to his soldiers, who told me why they signed up to serve.

And I interviewed Col. Bright's wife and their three daughters, who live an hour and a half away. They talked about the adjustment to life in South Korea and how normal it has become.

And as they talked about how proud they are of their daddy, the tears started to fall.

'That there... is North Korea'

Another day, I boarded a Black Hawk helicopter and flew over the countryside. Our CNN crew didn't fully appreciate until we'd arrived how picturesque Korea truly is.

We arrived in the fall when the leaves in the hills had just started to turn  at sunset, it looked as though we were flying over the Catskills. As I peered through my window, I saw villages and rice fields punctuated with Army bunkers and rocket test sites. It was this juxtaposition of normal life alongside endless uncertainty.

And then I heard over my headset... "That there... is North Korea." Col. Jon Howerton was pointing to an imposing mountain range in the distance. I just stared. That was it  this secretive country we know so little about.

I talk so often about it from the comfort of my studio in Manhattan, but to be flying close enough to make out its towering flag was something I will never forget.

Against a molten sunset, I thought of the grim gulags and the daily misery of North Korea's people. I thought of my interview with Otto Warmbier's parents and his inhuman suffering. I thought of the Americans still being held there today.

And I was grateful to the men and women in the US military for protecting us.

The DMZ

I arrived at the DMZ -- along the 38th parallel which divides North and South Korea -- and was instructed not to point or wave at anyone. We were surrounded by armed guards and prying towers with cameras. Behind dark sunglasses, the South Korean soldiers hold a ready jiujitsu position. A concrete curb defines the line between the two nations.

One visitor asked: "What would happen if someone ran towards the line?" A soldier responded: "You don't want to find out."

No, we didn't. Our group was directed inside one of the blue UN buildings where negotiations are held. This building straddles the border, so for a brief moment inside, you're allowed to cross into North Korean territory. I did and got a photo.

Nearby, I interviewed 19-year-old PFC Joshua Roberson from Florida. He joined the Army after graduating high school. He'd never left the US before, and now he's stationed a stone's throw from North Korea.

Octopus, kimchi and fried chicken

My journey to South Korea wouldn't be complete without spending time with Americans who choose to live here. So on a Saturday night in Seoul, over a dinner of octopus, kimchi and fried chicken, I talked to a group of expats who spoke about their love for Korea, what it's like living under constant nuclear threat and who worries them more -- North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un or President Trump.

What's my takeaway from all of this? Americans in Korea, much like Koreans themselves, are just like us. They go to work every day, send their kids to school and try not to fixate on the threats that hang over them... threats that they acknowledge are on the rise.

CNN's Jake Kwon contributed to this report.
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 []
After just two weeks on the job, Amy Carabba-Salazar said she is bustling away, working hard and dealing with a lot as the new CEO/president of the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce.

During an interview this past week, Carabba-Salazar said the holiday decorations will go up in St. Helena on Mon., Nov. 27, and the chamber is throwing an evening holiday party at the Wydown Hotel on Sat., Dec. 16.

Were planning a pretty fun event and everyone will be invited, she said. It is an appreciation party to bring everybody together and celebrate the holidays. Im hoping to meet everybody, so I hope theyll come out. It will be a great time for the city to meet me and to celebrate the holidays.

When asked what her first impressions of St. Helena are, Carabba-Salazar said she loves St. Helena, but it is not so much a first impression for me, because Ive been here so many times. My husband and I come here all the time and I love it. Its beautiful.

Carabba-Salazar said shes been coming to St. Helena for about six years, although she added her family always came here, even when she was a little girl.

Why should people do their Christmas shopping in St. Helena?

The new CEO and president had a ready answer: Because St. Helena is beautiful and gorgeous and has some of the best shops around. And great restaurants. Its such a great city, why not?

In the new year, Carabba-Salazar said the chambers focus is going to be on its members.

I think people are going to be excited about that and what were offering to our members in the new year to come, she said.

Carabba-Salazar also announced a new hire, Joaquin Razo, who is vice president and chief strategy officer for the chamber.

Whats great about Joaquin is he has a wonderful background working with nonprofits and great experience working with members and being able to show hospitality to our members, so thats really the direction we want to go, Carabba-Salazar said.

She added the chamber is seeking to help local businesses and giving them options to be successful.

Both Carabba-Salazar and Razo have backgrounds in social media with digital backgrounds.

We can offer tips businesses can utilize and really help their business, she said.

For the past dozen years, Carabba-Salazar has been a broadcast television news anchor, most recently in Sacramento, where she spent five years.

She began her career as an intern at KPIX in San Francisco and has worked as an award-winning journalist in Wyoming, Bakersfield, Las Vegas and San Diego. As a news anchor for a morning television show in Sacramento, she would have guests who own local restaurants or stores.

They would come in and do marketing segments, to market their businesses, she said.

They would end up hiring me to help them, because their business would be struggling and they wanted more media attention.

Taking the job as CEO and president of the St. Helena Chamber, then, seems like a natural transition.

After her work in Sacramento, it made this job seem like something I could do, Carabba-Salazar said.

It seems like I can be a leader and help our membership and really spread a positive attitude throughout the city.

In a news release announcing her hiring, Marcus Marquez, the chambers chairman of the board of directors, said, Amy Carabba-Salazar is a renowned journalist with an extensive background in communications and a track record of implementing successful marketing campaigns. I look forward to working with her to help St. Helenas local businesses thrive year-round.

Her responsibilities will be to expand digital resources for community members, strengthen operations, increase membership, manage the flow of visitors and drive marketing initiatives, including St. Helenas Little Book of Big Experiences.

The news releases states that Carabba-Salazar has served as communications director in the social media world for more than two years, where she was responsible for creative direction, brand management, product launches and campaign strategies.

Carabba-Salazar replaces Pam Simpson, who held the same title with the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce since 2011. Simpson left on Aug. 31 after choosing not to renew her contract for the upcoming year.

Instead, she signed a short-term contract to help with the transition of a new CEO/president. She said she had lived in and around St. Helena for the past 27 years and was looking for new opportunities in the private sector.

In June, the St. Helena City Council approved a one-year $210,000 marketing contract with the chamber, with $30,000 of that amount to be spent on community events.
For one group of Napans, turkey and trimmings could wait while they sought to fulfill the gratitude baked into the holidays very name.

Twenty worshipers spent their Thanksgiving morning at Napas Christian Science church, joining other believers across the U.S. in a distinct holiday melding of faith and civic-mindedness. Their service inside the Second Street sanctuary was a time for them to publicly express gratitude for healing and other blessings in the past year  and also to recite not only Scripture and the works of the churchs founding mother, but also the Thanksgiving proclamations issued each by presidents each November for more than 150 years.

While many people are giving thanks today, we have a chance to sit together, to show our gratitude to God  and to open up to the community, said Kathy Ball, a 60-year member of Napas First Church of Christ, Scientist.

For this occasion, the congregations Sunday staples of hymns, scripture and Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddys 1875 work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was joined by newer words from Washington, D.C.

The Christian Science faith may be most familiar to Americans through its network of reading rooms and its online newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor, but its embrace of Thanksgiving may be almost as distinctive.

Christian Sciences Boston-based Mother Church prepares a program for the occasion, featuring passages of the Bible and Eddys writings on healing through faith, for use by congregations across the U.S. (A similar service is used by churches in Canada for that countrys Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October.)

Following the singing of the first hymn and before the recital of the Lords Prayer, Mikal Johnson, one of the services two readers, read out the full text of the Thanksgiving statement issued by the office of President Trump, continuing a Christian Science tradition dating back more than a century. The presidential holiday statements began in 1863  before the religions birth  when Abraham Lincoln issued the first such proclamation during the Civil War and set the holidays late-November date nationwide, records show.

On Thursday, the words expressed sympathy for Americans wracked by natural disaster in recent months  including those affected by the wildfires that swept Napa and Sonoma counties last month.

In the midst of heartache and turmoil, we are grateful for the swift action of the first responders, law enforcement personnel, military and medical professionals, volunteers, and everyday heroes who embodied our infinite capacity to extend compassion and humanity to our fellow man, said Johnson, reading from the White House proclamation published last week.

Later, it was the turn of a few women to rise from their seats and share stories about blessings of a more personal nature  of colds and flu avoided, rental checks arriving in the nick of time, even what one worshiper called a divinely inspired snap decision to pay off her car just a week before she was laid off. Another believer reached far past the good fortune of the current year, recalling an older brother who avoided maiming his hand after a childhood knife accident.

As the hour-long worship ended, Jenny Pratt, a member of the Napa congregation for 35 years, described Thanksgiving as the most meaningful of holidays to her, if not the most prominent.

The people who come in here and take part, their presence and their gratitude overflowing  that gives me more gratitude for God, she said. It wraps it all up in a little present, a better present even than anything at Christmas.
A 35-year-old man was arrested Thanksgiving morning in connection with reported vehicle break-ins, according to American Canyon Police.

At 10:15 a.m., officers received reports from residents about a man looking inside cars and checking their doors on the north side of American Canyon, police said in a news release.

The officers saw a vehicle driven by Sean Matthew Abeyta of Vallejo and pursued it down southbound Highway 29 to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and Spa at 3600 Broadway St., where the driver pulled into the parking lot, ran out and jumped a fence into a nearby apartment complex, according to police. After apartment residents pointed police toward Abeyta, officers pursued on foot and finally detained him, according to the statement.

Abeyta was booked into the Napa County jail for investigation of felony evasion of police officers, resisting arrest, vehicle theft and misdemeanor methamphetamine possession. The vehicle he was driving was reported stolen from Pittsburg in Contra Costa County, police said.

Abeyta also was on probation in Solano County for vehicle theft and possessing stolen property, according to police.

No officers were reported injured in the American Canyon incident.
Charles Manson is dead and the timing is definitely appropriate. The most notorious inmate in the California prison system died this week at 83 of natural causes in a Bakersfield hospital where he had been taken from Corcoran State Prison. Death came not long after an abdominal condition from which he suffered had been found inoperable this fall.

The timing of Mansons death was right if only because Jerry Brown, the last California governor with any chance of remembering the terror Manson and his murderous gang spread around Southern California, has barely a year left in his term.

Once Brown leaves office, other members of the gang, better known as the Manson Family, may find it much easier win parole. But at least Californians can be certain that the mesmerizing, unrepentant Manson himself will never be loose to encourage more gruesome killings by either new or old followers.

Most of the Manson gang members now in prison have been model inmates, encouraging some who dont personally remember their uniquely cruel and vicious quality to plump for their paroles.

Even as Mansons body was prepped for a funeral or other disposition, follower Leslie Van Houten was up for release, her freedom recommended by a state Parole Board panel. Brown is in the midst of a 120-day period before he has to veto that ruling or let it stand.

Brown, who lived in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angles during the 1969 Manson murder spree, was only two canyons east of the most notorious Manson family operation. That was the carefully-planned murders of actress Sharon Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, and four others in a sprawling Benedict Canyon mansion above Beverly Hills. The nighttime assault saw Mansons followers carefully cut all phone and electric lines to the isolated house in a time before cellphones rendered the tactic obsolete.

The victims of Manson followers Charles (Tex) Watson, Linda Kasabian, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel could not call for help.

Trial testimony showed Manson, who had ordered the four to commit those killings and told the women to follow Watsons instructions in the process, felt the operation was a bit sloppy. So he went along the next day, when he decided to kill more people, this time in the Los Feliz area near Hollywood, and invaded the home of grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary.

There, he carefully instructed followers, including Watson and Leslie Van Houten, in what to do before leaving the scene. First, Van Houten and another woman held down Rosemary LaBianca while Watson stabbed her husband to death. Watson next bayoneted Rosemary LaBiana, then gave Van Houten a knife, which she used to stab her victim 14 times. The blood of the LaBiancas was used to scrawl macabre messages from the Mansons on walls and other surfaces.

Now, Van Houten is described by her lawyer as a victim, despite the key role she played. She was only 19 at the time, they claim, and addled by LSD. Van Houten has been a model prisoner since her 1978 sentence of seven years to life imprisonment. Shes earned two college degrees in prison and has led self-help groups for other inmates. But Brown should not let her go, any more than hes released other Manson followers. In refusing parole to them, he has speculated that some killers can change their thinking, but never put the Manson group in that category.

Nor should he or any future governor concede anything like that about the worst of Californias other imprisoned killers, including Juan Corona, who killed 25 farm workers before his skein ended; or Edmund Kemper, the Santa Cruz areas 1970s-era Coed Killer, or Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, who raped, kidnapped, tortured and murdered five young women in 1979 in Southern California.

While most elderly prisoners pose little risk on parole, putting this kind of person on the streets would justifiably cause many to look over their shoulders while walking down streets or even sitting at home. If Mansons death does nothing else, it should renew the sense of horror at the crimes he ordered and committed and add pressure to keep his remaining followers where they can do no further harm.
Uber's voluntary disclosure of a year-old hack that exposed the personal data of 57 million drivers and customers could be taken as a sign that under new Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, the company is changing its ways. But no, Uber's biggest problem is still its culture of dishonesty -- something the leadership change hasn't fundamentally altered.

The October 2016 cyberattack was not the only one Uber tried to cover up under CEO Travis Kalanick. Last year, the company was fined for failing to disclose a 2014 hack. In the more recent case, the company merely paid hackers $100,000 -- ostensibly for not using the stolen data, but really for their silence.

There are numerous examples of a deceitful culture at Uber, from the use of the Greyball software, which made it difficult for law enforcement officials to book rides, to the surreptitious tracking of iPhones in violation of Apple's terms of service. More examples keep coming out. On Monday, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission fined Uber $8.9 million for not running proper background checks and letting dozens of people with felony convictions and driver's license issues ferry passengers around. The background check issue is chronic: It's at the heart of the London transportation authority's decision to lift Uber's license. Uber has pretended to go along with requirements but often neglected to do it in practice.

All this, Khosrowshahi would have us believe, is now a thing of the past. "While I can't erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes," he wrote in a press statement after the hack disclosure. But how much has really changed?

The hack admission was the result of an investigation by a law firm hired by Uber's board, which is trying to minimize the company's legal problems. It wasn't an internal investigation. Uber couldn't have swept its results under the rug. Khosrowshahi has published a new, vegetarian set of the company's cultural norms ("We are customer obsessed... we celebrate differences... we do the right thing... we value ideas over hierarchy") -- but in his preface to the publication, he mentioned the limits of his overhaul: "Rather than ditching everything, I'm focused on preserving what works while quickly changing what doesn't."

"What works" appears to include fighting prolonged legal battles in which Uber is clearly in the wrong, on principle if not necessarily in the legal sense.

Instead of complying with the requirements of London regulator Transport For London, Uber is still pursuing an appeal against its license ruling in the courts. The process, according to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, could take "years", allowing Uber to keep operating without a license -- not the kind of responsible behavior that's covered by the new cultural norm that says Uber seeks to "harness the power and scale of our global operations to deeply connect with the cities, communities, drivers and riders that we serve, every day."

It was clearly wrong for Uber to hire engineer Anthony Levandowski from Google affiliate Waymo and pay $680 million for his just-created self-driving truck start-up: Both decisions made sense only if Levandowski could bring over his Waymo work. Uber actually fired the engineer in May, and he's refused to testify citing his Fifth Amendment rights. But Uber is still fighting Waymo in court rather than admit that it had tried to cheat in order to jump ahead technologically. It won't even settle the case and "do the right thing"; instead, it's clearly doing "what works."

In another sign that the company hasn't changed much, Khosrowshahi, like Kalanick before him, won't admit that Uber is a transportation company rather than a tech "platform" -- the key issue in a European Court of Justice case brought by a Spanish taxi lobbying group that didn't take kindly to Uber's attempts at regulatory arbitrage. But Khosrowshahi's biggest business move so far -- the plan to buy 24,000 self-driving Volvos, more than $1 billion's worth -- shows the company's insistence that it's an app-based marketplace is no more than a ruse. If it owns the cars and the technology needed to operate them, it's very clearly in the transportation business. And, in some parts of the world, Uber has already bought cars. In Singapore, this practice, combined with the company's trademark contempt for safety rules, led to an Uber-owned car's catching fire with a driver inside. But, instead of admitting the obvious, Khosrowshahi is content to keep defending the "platform" claim.

Uber, already under Khosrowshahi, fought to the bitter end in a London arbitration case, in which two drivers insisted they were really employees, not independent contractors picking up orders on a "platform." That ended in defeat -- but Khosrowshahi didn't come out with any plan to provide more protections for drivers in the U.K. or elsewhere. Instead, Uber announced the Volvo deal, showing the company would rather replace the drivers -- whom it still calls "partners" in promotional material -- with robots.

Essentially, doing "what works" was Kalanick's approach, too. Continuity is usually good for business, but not in Uber's case. Complete honesty and openness -- about the business model, the relationship with "partners," the origins and functions of technology used, the old (and possibly new) cover-ups -- would be costly but transformative and also potentially life-saving. As it is, Uber continues to run the risk of ending up like Enron, a company brought low by the same kind of dishonesty that still runs in Uber's veins.
My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky -- Wordsworth

Maybe not.

St. Helena High School graduate Laurie Shields (nee Wilkerson) recently sent me a photo of a beautiful rainbow that arched over downtown Calistoga, the same day residents were allowed to return from the mandatory evacuation. Normally I am a big fan of rainbows. However, this one left me in a quandary.

Was this a Noah-esque sign from God, or a random, meaningless coincidence? It must have been a wonderful sight for Calistogans whose homes were spared, but I suspect that it offered little solace to the thousands of people who have lost their homes, jobs and been displaced by the Tubbs Fire. Interestingly, Galileo may have offered some perspective:

Nature is inexorable and immutable and does not care one jot whether her secret reasons and modes of operation be above or below the capacity of mans understanding.

In other words, as horrifying as it might be, man is not exempt from the powerful forces of nature such as hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods and fires.

Therefore, I guess this means that I have to consider this rainbow for what it was; a mysterious sign of beauty, hope and wonder in the midst of all the horror.

However, it dawned on me that humans are capable of creating spiritual rainbows, connecting each to the other.

Paraphrasing Mr. Rogers; when disasters occur, look for the helpers and you will see man at his finest.

Our eldest daughter owns a home in the upper Rincon Valley area of Santa Rosa and it was directly in the path of the fire. Although she was not in the mandatory evacuation zone, she frantically watched hundreds of her neighbors homes burn to the ground.

After the evacuation order was rescinded, she visited Molsberrys Market, which also miraculously survived the blaze. While there, a very weary fire crew arrived, probably responding to the sign, Free lunch for first responders.

Through the soot, sweat-stains, ash and grime she recognized the familiar face of the husband of one of her teaching colleagues. Overwhelmed with gratitude that her home was saved, and the role that this man played in helping to save it, she eschewed any latent trace of Victorian etiquette, threw her arms around him and gave him a huge hug.

He was absolutely exhausted and said that he was coming off a 100-hour shift. It began with 48-hours straight because replacement crews had not arrived.

We learned later that more than 9,000 firefighters, belonging to over 350 fire departments, arrived from as far away as Alaska, Montana, Utah, Arizona, Florida and even a crew from Australia. More than 50 police departments sent hundreds of officers to help with traffic, logistics and securing property.

We watched courageous pilots fly helicopters and huge airplanes into heavy smoke in repeated attempts to douse the terrifying conflagration.

Since then, hundreds of stories have emerged where people committed heroic acts to save others, their property and animals.

The damage will cost many billions of dollars and the Tubbs Fire (and surrounding Sonoma County fires) has already been designated as the most destructive wildfire in California history. However, without the selfless dedication of the thousands of firefighters, first responders, and law enforcement officers, it is highly likely that much of the city of Santa Rosa (and other Sonoma County towns) would have been reduced to ashes. Many of the dedicated workers continued to battle even though they learned that their own homes had been destroyed.

As awful as this experience continues to be, the heroic responses of these men and women transcend normal human behavior and offer us hope for humanity that will hopefully last longer than a transitory rainbow.

Even so, I doubt that I will ever to be able look at a rainbow again without pausing to reflect on the most destructive wildfire in our history.

Lowell H. Young
On a hill looking out on the Bay, a winery straddles two worlds. Grown from Spanish roots in the foothills between Mount Veeder and the Carneros, that winery, Artesa, hosts the meeting place between centuries of Old World familial winemaking and the future.

In its latest chapter, Artesa today is in the throes of self-discovery, says President Susan Sueiro, and making a bid for relevance with the wine drinkers of tomorrow.

During an unveiling of sorts earlier this month, intimacy and a head-long embrace of the winerys Spanish-American id were the obvious overtones of a tasting room remodeled this past year. Taking a page from the tapas and pintxos bars of Barcelona, the space comes complete with a cadre of new guest experiences and food pairings offered by reservation. A remodel of the winerys front room is on deck for this winter.

Instead of that classic belly up to the bar, too many deep at the bar on Saturday afternoon, Sueiro said, visitors are intended to by appointment, come, sit, have a food-and-wine experience, really get to learn who we are.

In tandem with the renovations, a label re-launch has an updated logo sporting commissioned artwork based on street tiles of the Barcelona thoroughfare Passeig de Gracia, while a redevelopment plan in the vineyards sees roughly 10 acres being replanted each year. An experimental block of mixed soils and new clones serves as a staging ground of sorts for redevelopments to come.

The revolution all happens, of course, around Artesas center of gravity, the wines of Ana Diogo-Draper. A native of Portugal, Diogo-Draper took the reins of the estates winemaking in 2015 and now coaxes out its latest expressions, not the least of which is a wine meant to mark this, the next chapter in Artesas story.

Founded in the mid-1980s, with Napa Valley ascending the global wine stage, the winery is one of two New World satellites of Codorniu Raventos Group, Spains oldest family company and inventors of the sparkling wine cava. Dating to 1551, the company today is owned by the familys 17th generation, the first to set roots in Napa and the New World.

Planting the estate mainly to the Carneros two staple grapes, pinot noir and chardonnay, the winery began as Codorniu Napa, naturally with sparkling wine ambitions. While estate fruit still goes into a brut wine made under the Codorniu Napa name, the propertys potential for small, potent grape clusters ideal for still wines, eventually won out.

In 1997, the name Artesa  Catalan for hand-crafted  was applied, and the winery is today a pinot noir house, first and foremost. The varietal makes up roughly 85 of the estates 150 acres of vineyard, and five bottlings of its wine, soon to be six, Sueiro said. Chardonnay plays a close second, complemented by small bottlings of Spanish varietals and vineyard designate cabernet sauvignon.

The foothills of the estate offer a soil profile at odds with the rest of the Carneros, said vineyard manager Jesus Hernandez. While much of the region is composed of heavy clay, the estates influence from Mount Veeder comes in the form of rocky slopes of sandstone, limestone and gravelly loam.

Its almost like an accordion, Diogo-Draper said of the topography.

Despite some vines being more than 25 years old, she said, the terrain makes finding water a struggle, which comes as a boon to the wine. What we get are extremely small clusters with very little berries and by that, incredible concentration and wonderful flavors.

To say the estate had a close call with the areas recent wildfires would be an understatement. Seen from cabernet sauvignon blocks at the highest point of the property, technically in the Mount Veeder AVA at 420 feet above sea level, the Partrick Fires path down the surrounding mountains is particularly chilling. Blackened earth stops abruptly at the estates vineyards, which, as in other hillside areas throughout the county, acted as breaks for the fire and halted its spread.

On a lower portion of the property, near the estates edge, sits the experimental block. In fact seven irrigation blocks carved from one previous 12-acre block, the site holds a variety of soils, Hernandez said. Theres an area of clay not far from a swath with an extracurricular activity of rocks, including sandstone with fossils.

Then you move to the third section over here, he gestured, and it has a completely different type of rock structure. Theres no rhyme or reason.

The mash-up of soils hosts new clones of pinot noir and chardonnay alongside varieties that had underperformed in other areas.

Among the experiments growing near the unoccupied Brown family house, home of the sites former tenants, are great-great-granddaughter tempranillo vines from Codorniu property in Spain.

Sueiro traced the vines time in California from being sent as cuttings to UC Davis, then back to Spain, then back again to the Artesa property where they were planted in the shadow of a mountain and failed to prosper. Transplanted to a Duckhorn property in Alexander Valley, the vines bore Artesa fruit for years before being returned to the site where they grow now in an amply lit gravel portion of the experimental block.

Though yet to see its day in the winery, the tempranillo will one day lend itself to the new wine that perhaps most embodies Artesas sea change, the one Sueiro calls our spirit animal: Galatea.

A blend split almost equally between Atlas Peak cabernet sauvignon and (for now) Alexander Valley tempranillo, the wine was born in a blending room session between Diogo-Draper and Sueiro.

It kind of started with the two of us sitting in the blending room and brains turning around it and deciding Could we do this? Diogo-Draper recalled. And this blend was done in an hour maybe.

Calling on Greek mythology, the name references the story of Pygmalion, the sculptor who fell in love with the lifeless statue of a woman. Pitying the sculptor, Aphrodite brought the statue to life, with the name Galatea. Another famed muse to share the name was the wife of none other than Spains own Salvador Dali.

This is a style of wine that no one but Artesa could really produce, Sueiro leveled. And no one but Ana would have the two sides of the brain to really do as well as she did. Diogo-Draper insists on sharing the credit with Sueiro, dubbing the wine a creative collaboration.

Yet the concept extends beyond a single wine, giving shape and articulation to the idea of the winerys renewal, Sueiro said, Giving it some soul, giving it some flesh and blood and bringing the Artesa story to life.

Through the winery renovations, a bit of rebranding, Diogo-Drapers command of the winemaking and Hernandezs charge in the vineyards, the team today drafts the new pages of that story, spurred by the Codorniu family.

Napa Valley is known for having some of the greatest estates in the world and 25, 26 years ago, this family invested in making one of them, Sueiro said. And what theyre now challenging Ana and Jesus and I and the rest of the team to do, is make that estate relevant for the next 25 years.

Its really been about the soul-searching experience of, Who is Artesa, and who do we want to be when we grow up? she said.

This is just the beginning.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-23 19:39:48|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Afghan security force members inspect the site of an attack in Jalalabad city, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Nov. 23, 2017. At least eight people have been confirmed dead and 17 others injured after a suicide bombing rocked Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar provincial capital Jalalabad city on Thursday, a local official said. (Xinhua/Rahman Safi)

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people have been confirmed dead and 17 others injured after a suicide bombing rocked Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar provincial capital Jalalabad city on Thursday, a local official said.

"A terrorist blew up his explosive device in first precinct of Jalalabad city today afternoon killing eight people and injuring 17 others," provincial spokesman Attaullah Khogiani told Xinhua.

All the victims were civilians, he said.

Without providing more details, the official said that investigation has been initiated into the case.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 00:56:34|Editor: yan

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YANGON, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Foreign affairs ministers from Myanmar and Bangladesh have exchanged instruments of ratification of the agreement on the demarcation of the land boundary north of the Naf River, Myanmar's foreign ministry said late Thursday.

The agreement was signed in 1998.

Officials from both sides also signed the Supplementary Protocol of the Naf River Boundary which was agreed in 2007.

Myanmar and Bangladesh carried out boundary survey and demarcation on the inland boundary of the northern part of the Naf River in 1984.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 01:01:36|Editor: Zhou Xin

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MANILA, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte signed a proclamation to formally terminate talks with the country's communist rebels, the government said on Thursday night.

In a statement, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte has directed the office of the presidential peace adviser to cancel talks and meetings with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP).

"While we agreed to resume peace talks with the aforementioned group and exerted our best efforts to accelerate the signing and implementation of the final peace agreement, the NDFP-CPP-NPA has engaged in acts of violence and hostilities," Roque said.

"We find it unfortunate that their members have failed to show their sincerity and commitment in pursuing genuine and meaningful peaceful negotiations," he added.

The Duterte administration revived the talks with communist rebels in August last year. But the talks have since bogged down due to a series of attacks launched by the rebels against troops and civilians.

Since 1986, the government has been trying to reach a peace deal with the communist rebels but failed to make any headway.

The communist rebellion began in 1969 and reached its peak in 1987 when it boasted 26,000 armed guerrillas.

However, the movement has since dwindled due to differences in strategy and tactics and the arrests of many of its top leaders in the late 1980s. At present the military estimates the communist armed rebels at around 4,000.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 02:16:57|Editor: yan

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BAGHDAD, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces Thursday retook control of 77 villages as part of a large-scale military operation to dislodge the Islamic State (IS) militants from their hideouts in the desert in western Iraq, the Iraqi military said.

The Iraqi army, paramilitary Hashd Shaabi brigades and federal police recaptured the villages as they cleared more than 5,800 square kilometers from the extremist militants in the first day of the second phase of the offensive, Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah, commander of western Iraq operations, said in a brief statement.

The troops, backed by the army's helicopter gunships, also seized a bridge and a small airbase in south of Hatra area, some 60 southwest of Mosul, Yarallah said.

Earlier in the day, Yarallah announced the launch of the second phase of the offensive with the aim of dislodging IS militants from their hideouts in the vast desert near the border with Syria, which extends to the Sunni heartland in Iraq's northern province Nineveh, Salahudin province north of capital Baghdad, and western province Anbar.

The forces ended the first phase of the offensive on Nov. 17, when they drove out IS militants from their last urban stronghold in Iraq and raised the Iraqi flag over buildings in the city of Rawa and nearby border areas north of the Euphrates River.

The IS seized large swathes of territory in Iraq in 2014. After three years of fierce battle, Iraqi forces have retaken most of the occupied areas, including Iraq's second largest city Mosul.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 02:47:08|Editor: yan

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MOSCOW, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Google's intention to "de-rank" Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik is equal to censorship, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

It is a violation of freedom of speech and censorship at the technological level, she told a weekly news briefing.

Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet, said last week that RT and Sputnik could be de-ranked on the popular Google News service, which ranks various media outlets depending on their reach, article length and veracity.

Washington accused Russian media outlets of influencing public opinion during the 2016 presidential election by spreading fake news. But Moscow said the U.S. government is trying to oppress Russian journalists.

The practice of hampering distribution of information by artificially selecting news is "categorically inadmissible," Zakharova said.

She said the Russian Foreign Ministry has information that Google made this decision under "serious political pressure."

Earlier this month, RT America, the Washington, D.C.-based arm of Russia's state-owned English language news channel RT, was forced to register as a foreign agent in the United States at the demand of the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act enacted in 1938.

In response, the Russian parliament has passed a bill granting the government the right to label foreign media outlets as "foreign agents."

The bill, which has yet to be signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is likely to result in restrictions on some of U.S. government-sponsored media in Russia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 03:07:11|Editor: yan

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TIRANA, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- The representatives of five business organizations in Albania and representatives of Confederation of Farmers of Italy on Thursday signed an agreement of cooperation, aimed at increasing business cooperation in agriculture and agri-business.

The agreement envisages support to Albanian-Italian entrepreneurs in the field of agriculture, a joint press release of Albanian business association informed.

According to the associations, the main field of cooperation will be agriculture and especially the creation of cooperatives, mechanization of agriculture and undertaking of different agri-business projects.

Albania's Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ilir Halilaj told Italian entrepreneurs that its government reforms improved the business climate and attracted foreign investors.

Italy's ambassador to Albania Alberto Cutillo said this new cooperation agreement between Albanian and Italian business associations supported and encouraged the new enterprises in the two countries.
Google hardware products are displayed during a launch event in San Francisco, California, U.S. October 4, 2017. (REUTERS PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Google's intention to "de-rank" Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik is equal to censorship, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

It is a violation of freedom of speech and censorship at the technological level, she told a weekly news briefing.

Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet, said last week that RT and Sputnik could be de-ranked on the popular Google News service, which ranks various media outlets depending on their reach, article length and veracity.

Washington accused Russian media outlets of influencing public opinion during the 2016 presidential election by spreading fake news. But Moscow said the U.S. government is trying to oppress Russian journalists.

The practice of hampering distribution of information by artificially selecting news is "categorically inadmissible," Zakharova said.

She said the Russian Foreign Ministry has information that Google made this decision under "serious political pressure."

Earlier this month, RT America, the Washington, D.C.-based arm of Russia's state-owned English language news channel RT, was forced to register as a foreign agent in the United States at the demand of the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act enacted in 1938.

In response, the Russian parliament has passed a bill granting the government the right to label foreign media outlets as "foreign agents."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 03:27:20|Editor: liuxin

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Libyan Interior Minister of the UN-backed government, Al-Aref Al-Khoja (L) speaks at a press conference in Tripoli, Libya, on Nov. 23, 2017. Al-Aref Al-Khoja on Thursday said the government has improved living conditions of the country's immigration housing centers. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

TRIPOLI, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Libyan Interior Minister of the UN-backed government, Al-Aref Al-Khoja, on Thursday said the government has improved living conditions of the country's immigration housing centers.

"Everyone knows the political complexities and economic conditions in the country. However, the Ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs and the Anti-Illegal Immigration Department have, with available means, made great efforts to improve conditions of illegal immigration housing centers," Al-Khoja said in a press conference on Thursday in Tripoli.

The Interior Minister believes that addressing the issue of illegal migration cannot be solved by Libya alone, "but with planned cooperation of Africa and the EU."

A recent CNN report showed auctions in different parts of Libya, where stranded African migrants were sold as slaves for as little as 400 U.S. dollars.

UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) in a statement on Wednesday condemned slave trade of African migrants in western Libya, calling on the Libyan government to "address comprehensively this outrage to the conscience of humanity."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 04:07:30|Editor: Liangyu

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by Osama Radi and Emad Drimly

GAZA, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- An internal Palestinian reconciliation dialogue, which was held in Cairo on Tuesday and Wednesday, achieved no real progress to end the decade-long internal division, according to Palestinian analysts.

The final statement issued after the two-day meeting of the leaders of 13 Palestinian factions was "disappointing" and evaded critical issues amid "continuing differences," they said.

"The participants welcomed the agreement signed between Hamas and Fatah on Oct. 12 under the auspices of Egypt, and all expressed their support to this agreement," the statement said.

"What was achieved in the Cairo meeting is only a small progress, mainly the revival of the committees of freedoms and community reconciliation and agreeing on holding another meeting in early February," said Hani al-Masri, director of Masarat Center for Researches and Studies.

"Resuming the talks on activating the committee to reform Palestine Liberation Organization and the Legislative Council yet without setting up specific dates lowered the high expectations before the meeting," he explained.

"Reconciliation and true unity requires serious agreement on a national program" which has not happened yet, al-Masri noted.

Mohamed Daraghma, a Ramallah-based political analyst, said the absence of a detailed agreement "shows the Cairo meeting miserably failed and has only resulted in a general statement similar to previous ones and is not applicable."

"The gap between Fatah and Hamas is still large and wide, in light of the dispute over the full empowerment of the Consensus Government in the Gaza Strip," he said.

Daraghma warned of the continuing dispute over security control in Gaza as the Islamic movement demanded the government to pay salaries to more than 40,000 civil and military employees.

On Oct. 12, Egypt brokered a reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah, which set up a timetable for the power transition from Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, to the consensus government of the Palestinian Authority headed by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.

All ministries, except the ministry of interior, had been transferred to the consensus government. Hamas has handed over the administrative control, but still controls security on the crossing points on the borders either between the Gaza Strip and Israel or with Egypt.

Akram Atallah, a political analyst from Gaza, said the security issue, along with the weapons of the armed groups such as Hamas' armed wing al-Qassam Brigades, remains thorny and the genuine reconciliation rests with a real solution to it.

"No one knows the extent to which Hamas will enable the government," Atallah said.

"The Palestinian Authority talks about control without militias and control over the ground and underground, and this is not consistent with what Hamas confirms on its quest to strengthen its weapons, and therefore this is still a controversial issue," he noted.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 04:12:32|Editor: yan

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HARARE, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday implored Zimbabweans to remain peaceful and avoid revenge against each other.

In a statement to the state broadcaster ZBC, Mnangagwa said vengefulness is not in the nature of Zimbabweans.

"While all this is going on, I implore all Zimbabweans to remain patient and avoid any form of revengeful retribution," he said.

He also urged Zimbabweans to refrain from settling political or social scores outside the ambit of the law.

Mnangagwa will be sworn in as the new president on Friday to finish off the remainder of the term of office of former president Robert Mugabe, who resigned Tuesday following military and public pressure.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 05:52:47|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Eric J. Lyman

ROME, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Positive economic signals continue to trickle in for Italy, but most analysts say a full-blown economic recovery will likely remain elusive.

In the latest figures released, the Bank of Italy this week predicted the Italian recovery would grow 1.5 percent this year, more or less in line with expectations from other groups including the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the World Bank. Most estimates are now that the Italian economy will grow either 1.5 or 1.6 percent this year.

Additionally, consumer confidence, exports, and industrial production are all on the rise. But commentators told Xinhua that it was notable Italy's economic growth still trailed that of the European Union as a whole -- as it has for 13 of the last 14 years.

"Italy's growth this year seems relatively strong at 1.5 percent compared to last year," Fedele De Novellis, an analyst with REF Ricerche, a private research group, told Xinhua. "But if you exclude Italy from European Union calculations the EU will grow 2.5 percent this year."

De Novellis continued: "When the EU economy grows strongly, Italy does well but a little less well than the EU," he said. "When the EU economy fails to grow, Italy does a little worse off than the EU does overall."

Veronica De Romanis, an economist with Rome's LUISS University, agreed, telling Xinhua that Italy continues to be dogged by a lack of structural reforms and high levels of debt, something which leaves the economy less competitive.

"Italy lacks the structural reforms necessary and is too weighted down with debt to take full advantage of circumstances," De Romanis said. "Right now, many things are lining up for Italy: other EU economies are growing, oil is cheap, demand for exports is on the rise. And yet the economy is still going to grow just 1.5 percent."

De Romanis said that Italy's public sector must be reformed, along with further modernization of the labor markets, better tax compliance, and incentives for research and development.

But the notion of looking at Italy as an entity with national problems requiring uniform national solutions is also outdated, according to Valerio De Molli, managing partner for The European House-Ambrosetti, a Milan-based think tank.

"It is wrong to think of the economic problems of Italy," De Molli told Xinhua. "We should be thinking of Italy, in plural. When we think of the country's macroeconomic indicators what we are talking about is the fusion of numbers that don't really add up, merging the realities of a vibrant economy in the north with the slow growing south."

While every country has rich and poor areas, De Molli said the gap between the most and least developed regions is particularly acute in Italy.

"The difference in wealth between the poorest euro-zone country, Greece, and the richest, Luxembourg, is smaller than the economic gap between Italy's poorest region, Reggio Calabria, and the richest region, Bolzano," De Molli said.

De Molli said that any prescription to improve the country's economic situation should be tailor-made to reflect specific needs and challenges of different regions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 08:33:19|Editor: Zhou Xin

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MILAN, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian forward Robinho has been sentenced to nine years in prison for participating in the 2013 gang rape of a woman in Milan.

An Italian court convicted Robinho and five other Brazilians of assaulting the Albanian woman after a drunken night out at a discotheque.

The 33-year-old was also ordered to pay the victim 60,000 euros (around 71,000 US dollars) in compensation.

The trial of Robinho's companions has been put on hold because their whereabouts are unknown.

Robinho, who played for AC Milan from 2010 to 2015, did not attend any of the court hearings but pleaded not guilty via his lawyer.

"We would like to clarify that he has already defended himself against the accusations, affirming that he did not participate in the episode," read a statement on Robinho's Instagram account. "All legal measures are being taken."

The sentence will not be enforced until the appeal process ends. Brazil does not allow for the extradition of its citizens, meaning Robinho would only risk being arrested if he left his home country.

Robinho, who currently plays for Brazilian club Atletico Mineiro, has been capped 100 times for Brazil and scored 28 goals. His career has also included spells at Santos, Real Madrid and Manchester City.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 09:13:30|Editor: Zhou Xin

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CANBERRA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Major retail organizations have come out fighting as American e-commerce giant Amazon prepares to launch its Australia operation in time for the Christmas shopping splurge.

Woolworths, whose main operations include supermarkets, liquor retailing and discount department stores, has said it will step up its own online offerings.

Chairman Gordon Cairns told the company's annual general meeting in Melbourne on Thursday night the chain was ready to take on Amazon by boosting delivery and click-and-collect services.

"We want to be obsessive about our customers, their needs and how we serve them better," Cairns told shareholders.

"If we do not, we will lose out to those who do, like Amazon."

Cairns also revealed the company would open four so-called "dark stores" by the end of 2018, closed to customers and used to pack and ship online orders.

He warned retailers planning to sell on Amazon that the U.S. giant could cut prices, causing other retailers not to stock their products.

"They can end up cutting their own throat. Before they step into the breach, they should perhaps consider what the long-term ramifications are," he said.

One thing is certain that Amazon's entry will shake up the Australian retail sector in a huge way.

Market research firm Nielsen found Amazon United States was the second most popular website for online shoppers in Australia last month behind Woolworths, with 4.6 million customers compared with 6.7 million.

Megan Treston, Nielsen's executive director of retail services, said she expected Amazon to have a significant impact on the Australian retail sector in the lead-up to Christmas.

Investment bank UBS expects Amazon's entry into Australia to double growth in online shopping and force high street retailers to lower prices and improve service.

Its survey suggested electronics, apparel and cosmetics are most exposed.

UBS said online shopping accounted for 8 percent of retail sales in Australia but has grown by 70 percent over the past year.

E-commerce rival eBay warned retailers selling via Amazon Marketplace they risked having their products ripped off for Amazon's private labels.

eBay Australia and New Zealand managing director Tim MacKinnon said that competition was great for everyone but "where you get players that try to use the data they get and then decide to go and retail those items themselves, that's where it becomes a little unfair. We will be watching that carefully".

Retail billionaire Gerry Harvey said he will "wait and see" what Amazon's prices are like before deciding whether his Harvey Norman chain will price-match.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 09:13:31|Editor: Zhou Xin

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CANBERRA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Construction on the world's most powerful lithium ion battery has wrapped up in South Australia (SA).

The array of batteries, built by U.S. energy storage giant Tesla, was constructed alongside a windfarm near Jamestown, 220 km north of Adelaide.

SA taxpayers subsidised the 100-megawatt battery to the tune of 38 million U.S. dollars in return for the state's government being able to tap into the battery's storage to stabilize the electricity grid during the high-demand summer period.

The facility will be able to power 30,000 SA homes for over an hour when the grid is operating above its peak capacity.

Testing of the battery will begin immediately with Tesla operating on a December 1 operation deadline.

The battery was one of SA Premier Jay Weatherill's initiatives announced in March under a 420 million U.S. dollar package to counter energy supply shortfalls and soaring prices.

A fleet of diesel-powered generators to supplant the grid have also been installed.

"The world's largest lithium ion battery will be an important part of our energy mix," Weatherill told reporters in Adelaide on Friday.

Elon Musk, chief executive officer and founder of Tesla as well as space exploration company SpaceX, visited the site of the battery with Weatherill in September to mark the halfway point of construction.

"This serves as a great example to the rest of the world of what can be done," Musk said at the time.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 09:28:36|Editor: Liangyu

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Partizan's Marko Jevtovic (3rd R) vies with Young Boys' Michel Aebischer (2nd R) during the UEFA Europa League match in Belgrade, Serbia on Nov. 23. 2017. Partizan won 2-1. (Xinhua/Predrag Milosavljevic)

BELGRADE, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Serbian outfit Partizan beat the Young Boys from Switzerland 2-1 to seal qualification for the next stage of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.

Tawamba scored the first goal in the 12th minute of the match after catching the ball with his head following a free-throw, while Moumi Ngmaleu set the score even in the 25th minute after a poorly defended corner kick, sealing the half-time draw.

However, Ozegovic scored in the 53rd minute after a counterattack from Red Star, evading the possibility that this match would end as well as the first one between two teams this year that ended in a 1-1 draw.

Partizan is second in Group B behind Dinamo Kyev with 2 victories, 2 draws and 1 lost match.

This will be the first spring in some of the European competitions after 13 years for the team, but before that, they will meet Dinamo Kiev in the 6th matchday of the group stage in December.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 10:03:45|Editor: Zhou Xin

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YANGON, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's Union Parliament has agreed to establish two new ministries, namely the Ministry of the Office of the Union Government and the Ministry of International Cooperation, Myanmar News Agency reported Friday, quoting an announcement of the parliament.

U Thaung Tun was named as Union Minister of the Office of the Union Government, while U Kyaw Tin was appointed as Union Minister of International Cooperation.

The proposal of addition of the two new ministries and appointment of the related ministers were sent to the parliament by the President.

The incumbent government has established a total of 22 ministries since it took office in April 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 10:08:49|Editor: Zhou Xin

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YANGON, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A 300-ton massive jade stone, discovered in Phakant, Myanmar's northernmost Kachin state and cut into pieces, will be sold at Myanmar's Gem Emporium set for December, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Friday.

Local and foreign experts are being invited to assess the price of the jade stone.

The jade stone was unearthed in October 2016 at Mat Lin Chaung mine, jointly operated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation and the private Yandanar Taung Tann Gems Company.

Stored in a warehouse in Nay Phi Taw under tight security, the jade stone is currently valued at over 10 billion kyats (7.35 million U.S. dollars), from which the government has collected over 2 billion kyats as extraction tax, the report said.

The profit will be shared between the government and the private company at a percentage of 25 and 75 respectively.

According to official statistics, Myanmar earned 23 million U.S. dollars from export of jade in the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2017-18 which began in April, increasing by 746,000 dollars as compared with the same period of the last fiscal year.

The country also fetched 61.9 billion kyats (45 million U.S. dollars) earlier in March when over 4,200 lots of raw jade were sold at a government-sponsored jade exhibition, said the Ministry of Commerce.

Myanmar jade is mainly exported to China and India with China being the biggest purchaser.

During the last fiscal year 2016-2017, Myanmar exported over 11,000 tons of raw jade worth of 246.7 million U.S. dollars to neighboring markets.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 10:28:53|Editor: Lifang

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A man works with a forklift in Ghibli Logistics Park in Csepel Port, in Budapest, Hungary on Nov. 10, 2017. A trade hub established by a Chinese enterprise in Hungary has been acting as a "matchmaker" between Chinese and European businesses, and is poised to further facilitate bilateral trade cooperation as the Belt and Road Initiative continues to unfold, the company's CEO has said. (Xinhua/Yang Yongqian)

BUDAPEST, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A trade hub established by a Chinese enterprise in Hungary has been acting as a "matchmaker" between Chinese and European businesses, and is poised to further facilitate bilateral trade cooperation as the Belt and Road Initiative continues to unfold, the company's CEO has said.

The hub, formally known as the Central European Trade and Logistics Cooperation Zone, currently comprises an exhibition center in Budapest, and two logistic parks respectively in the Csepel Port in Hungary and the Bremen Port in Germany, Wu Jiang told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The Chinese businessman, with over 20 years of experience in commerce and logistics in Hungary, said his motive to start the trade service company was to help Chinese enterprises find competent local partners in their exploration for new markets in Europe.

"I have noticed that many Chinese enterprises, often unfamiliar with local languages and laws, spent most of their energy dealing with accountants, lawyers and government agencies when they came here, with only limited time spent on expanding actual business. They could stay for only a year or two, without achieving much breakthrough in business and had to call off their endeavor," said Wu.

He compared his exhibition center in Budapest as a bridge linking Chinese enterprises with local partners.

Activities at the center, such as exhibitions and bushiness presentations, allow the two sides to find suitable partners in a more efficient way, he said.

Meanwhile, the logistics park in the Csepel Port provides services such as cargo distribution, customs clearance and warehousing, among others, according to Wu.

In the past, the goods used to flow southeastward from the base ports of northwestern Europe such as Hamburg, Bremen and Rotterdam, he noted. With the Chinese Railway Express cargo trains and China-Europe land-sea express coming into operation, the trend is that the goods go from the southeast to the northwest, Wu added.

The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has brought tangible benefits for businesses in Hungary, noted Wu. "The logistics volume in the park and the whole country has grown very rapidly this year. Our truck fleet is running at its maximum capacity and we have to rent trucks to cope with the trade flow," he said.

The Logistics Park also serves the Chinese Railway Express cargo trains. "Since the start of freight service of Hunan-Europe freight trains from Changsha in south central China's Hunan Province to Budapest in June this year, every train is full," he said.

The logistics park plans to send a cargo train from Budapest to Changsha on Nov. 27.

It is also planning a "Rainbow Line" route with China's shipping giant COSCO starting from China's eastern coastal city of Ningbo, via Shenzhen in south China, to Piraeus port in Greece by ship, and from there all the way to Budapest by rail.

Wu said that against the backdrop of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Central European Trade and Logistics Cooperation Zone will surely thrive and play a greater role in helping Chinese enterprises go global.

Proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 10:33:54|Editor: Liangyu

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LONDON, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Countries along the Belt and Road can benefit from China's Belt and Road Initiative by seeking further economic integration, greater investment and better governance.

"The continued focus on strengthening institutions, investing in sustainable infrastructure and integration into the global economy should remain the priority for Central Asian economies," Sergei Guriev, chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), told Xinhua on Thursday.

The international development bank launched on Wednesday its annual transition report at its headquarters in London, a health check for economic and social progress in the EBRD area, which covers emerging economies from the Western Mediterranean, much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The EBRD this year identified an upturn in the pace of reform in emerging economies, four years after reporting that reforms were stalling or even being thrown into reverse.

In its "Transition Report 2017-18: Sustaining Growth," the bank charted progress and setbacks in reforms in the past year and identified many remaining challenges.

In 2013, the EBRD warned in its annual transition report that a failure to restart a reform process could leave emerging economies trailing behind their more advanced neighbors.

The EBRD responded to this challenge by stepping up its own support for policy reforms in 38 economies where it invests to promote sustainable open-market economies.

"Attracting sustainable infrastructure investment to these countries will promote accelerated economic growth as well as job creation in their isolated sub-national regions," said Guriev.

In Azerbaijan, authorities has made progress in the restructuring of the country's largest bank, IBA, in preparation for its eventual privatization, the EBRD reported.

Integration has advanced in Southern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro all having made major progress in road-building.

However, the report noted important road projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina had been delayed by failure to amend the law on fuel excise duties that would allow an increase in prices.

"Our research identifies large infrastructure investment gaps in all our countries -- including the BRI countries," Guriev said.

The EBRD urged reforms aimed at making economies more competitive, and highlighted Uzbekistan, where it has begun investing again after a seven-year pause.

Uzbekistan remained low on the list of overall transition successes, but the report pointed to a move to freely convert the Uzbek currency, which is seen as a test for other reforms.

Several countries have made important progress in privatization, with projects in Greece covering concessions for Piraeus port, regional airports and the sale of the railway company TrainOSE.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 11:04:02|Editor: Zhou Xin

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TOKYO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks lost ground Friday morning as investor sentiment was dented by the yen's appreciation against the U.S. dollar and a data falsification scandal involving Mitsubishi Materials Corp.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 77.02 points, or 0.34 percent, from Wednesday to 22,446.13.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 3.54 points, or 0.20 percent, to 1,773.54.

Brokers noted the U.S. dollar dropping to a two-month low versus the yen as median market forecasts are now for the U.S. Federal Reserve to hike interests rates at a slower pace than previously thought, weighed on exporters reliant on a weak yen.

They also said that sentiment was soured by concerns following another data fabrication scandal in Japan, this time involving Mitsubishi Materials' subsidiaries.

Nonferrous metal, marine transportation and transportation equipment-related stocks comprised those that declined the most by the morning break.
Xinhua| 2017-11-24 13:03:17|Editor: Lu Hui

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HOUSTON, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- As Thanksgiving arrived on Thursday in the United States, some Houston police officers did not follow the tradition to spend the holiday with their families, but rather worked to rebuild Puerto Rico which was hit badly by Hurricane Maria in September.

The officers are "thankful for being able to help, making new friends, and bringing hope and smiles to the community," the police department said in a tweet.

They are the last of the three 25-person Houston police groups headed to Puerto Rico after a nationwide request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 300 volunteers. The first and second groups left earlier this month. All three groups will return to Houston by Dec. 15.

The officers chosen to go to the island assist local law enforcement agencies with responsibilities including traffic control, said the Houston police.

Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, causing at least 48 deaths as well as widespread flooding.
President Xi Jinping will attend, and address, a high-level gathering of leaders of global political parties on Dec 1, a senior Party official announced on Friday.



Guo Yezhou, vice-minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, told a press conference in Beijing that as of 8 am on Friday, political parties from more than 120 countries and more than 200 party leaders from across the globe have confirmed their attendance at the meeting, which will end on Dec 3.



This is the first major multilateral diplomacy event taking place following the recently concluded 19th CPC National Congress, Guo said.



In addition to the first and second plenary of the meeting on Dec 1 and 3 respectively, seminars will be hosted on Dec 2 to cover topics such as the 19th CPC National Congress, boosting party building, promoting governance, jointly building the Belt and Road and advancing the building of the Community with a Shared Future For Mankind.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 13:07:00|Editor: Zhou Xin

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ISLAMABAD, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least two police personnel, including a high-ranked officer, were killed in a blast in Pakistan's northwest provincial capital of Peshawar, local media reported Friday.

According to the reports, the blast hit a police vehicle near the Tatara Park in the Hayatabad area of Peshawar, the provincial capital of the country's northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Additional Inspector General of Police, Muhammad Ashraf Noor, and his guard lost their lives in the attack.

Police and rescue team rushed to the site and shifted the bodies to a hospital in the city.

The police officer was on the way to his office when he came under the attack.

Nature of the blast is not known yet. However, some reports said it was a suicide attack, but no official has confirmed it.

The vehicle was completely destroyed in the attack. No group has claimed responsibility for it.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 13:07:02|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NEW DELHI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will attend the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Russia, the ministry announced here on Thursday.

"Swaraj will be representing India at the SCO summit in Russia's Sochi city on November 30 and December 1," Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar told media Thursday.

The minister will also have bilateral meetings with several leaders on the sidelines of the summit and attend a reception to be hosted by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, he said.

"We attach special significance to the SCO in promoting political, economic and people-to-people contacts," the spokesman said.

India had been an observer at SCO since 2005 and became a full member in June this year. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed this year's summit in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 13:07:03|Editor: Zhou Xin

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LOS ANGELES, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A total of 29,604 people took part in the annual turkey trot held Thursday in Sacramento, capital of the state of California, setting a new record for the local Thanksgiving Day traditional charity event.

Thursday's competition was the largest Thanksgiving Day fun run in the country. About 30,000 participants cruised along the main streets in Sacramento, wearing hats resembling roasted turkeys and various dishes found on the Thanksgiving menu, including corncobs and cans of Campbell soup to capture the "turkey spirit."

This race, drawing participants from across the United States with the formal name Run to Feed the Hungry, was also an important event to raise money for the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services.

Blake Young, chief executive of the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, was quoted by local Sacramento Bee newspaper as saying that the Sacramento community is a very generous community and he expected Thursday's event to generate more than 950,000 U.S. dollars.

The money from those race fees will help pay for food in all the Sacramento county's food banks, along with other programs including ones that provide parenting education and clothing for the needy.

Run to Feed the Hungry can be dated to 1994, when 796 participants turned out for the inaugural event. According to report, approximately 29,000 people registered in 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 13:12:11|Editor: Liangyu

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PANAMA CITY, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Panama has created a "China team" within its government to improve relations with China after President Juan Carlos Varela visited Beijing in the past week.

The "China team" comprises those from the ministries of economy and finance, trade and industry and the maritime authorities, the country's Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo was quoted by Daily La Prensa as saying on Thursday.

"We have created commissions and teams in all topics to advance as quickly as possible," Saint Malo said.

Malo said the highlights of Varela's China trip included the opening of a direct Air China flight from China to Panama, via Houston, and a feasibility study to build a railway from Panama to Costa Rica which is part of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

The Belt and Road Initiative aims to create a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond along and beyond ancient trade routes.

Malo added that China had granted Panama favors in maritime affairs, and "ships with a Panamanian flag will have a preferential berth in Chinese ports."

According to Malo, Panama had signed agreements with entities such as Bank of China and the Export-Import Bank of China, which plan to open up offices in Panama and build finance infrastructure projects in the country.

The minister said that Panama is actively contemplating investing a multimillion U.S. dollars to build a railway between Panama and Costa Rica, in a bid to transform the capital into a logistical, air, port and financial hub.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 13:12:12|Editor: Zhou Xin

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HARARE/BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa Thursday called on Zimbabweans to show restraint and avoid revenge against each other.

"While all this is going on, I implore all Zimbabweans to remain patient and avoid any form of revengeful retribution," Mnangagwa said in a statement to the state broadcaster ZBC.

He also urged Zimbabweans to refrain from settling political or social differences outside the ambit of the law.

Mnangagwa is set to be sworn in Friday to serve the remainder of long-serving former President Robert Mugabe's term until the general election next year, according to the state broadcaster.

The 75-year-old former vice president returned to Harare Wednesday and made his first public appearance at the headquarters of the ruling ZANU-PF party after being sacked by Mugabe on Nov. 6.

The termination led the military to move in and kick off a series of extraordinary events ending with Mugabe stepping down Tuesday amid impeachment proceedings.

Mnangagwa Wednesday appealed to Zimbabweans to be united as the country works to revive its economy. He also asked for international support.

"We want peace in our country. We want jobs for our people," he said.

However, he will have to turn words into action as the country grapples with high unemployment, rising prices of basic commodities, cash shortages and a general sense of helplessness.

While opposition parties are clamoring for electoral and other reforms to ensure a level political playing field, ordinary citizens are more interested in bread and butter issues.

Social media is awash with a "things to do and not to do" list as Zimbabweans hope that his leadership will usher in a new era of prosperity.

The international community, meanwhile, urged all parties in Zimbabwe to exercise restraint and maintain political stability and development.

Chairman of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat welcomed Mugabe's decision to step down, saying it will go down in history as an act of statesmanship that can only bolster his political legacy.

The AU "looks forward to Zimbabwe continuing to play a leading role in the affairs of the African continent, as a democratic and prosperous state meeting the aspirations of its people," Mahamat said.

Gwede Mantashe, general secretary of South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, said in Johannesburg Wednesday that they were ready to work with Zimbabwe to rebuild the country.

"We must continue to respect and celebrate Mugabe for the role he played over the last decade. We will continue working with comrades in Zimbabwe. We will not tell them...who should lead," he said.

The European Union (EU) said in a statement that Mugabe's resignation showed that he has listened to the voice of the people.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said the new government must now work to consolidate constitutional order and ensure that inclusive dialogue is established to encourage acceleration of key reforms in the country.

China's policy toward Zimbabwe will not change, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing Wednesday. China expects to enhance cooperation with Zimbabwe under the principles of equality and mutual benefit.

Lu said China respected Mugabe's decision to resign. "He remains a good friend to the Chinese people," Lu said, adding that "China respects Zimbabwean people's choice" and hopes that other countries will not meddle in Zimbabwe's internal affairs.
Xinhuanet| 2017-11-24 14:08:56|Editor: Liangyu

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Meimei Huff, chairman of the California-based think tank Huff Strategies, accepts Xinhuanet's interview in Beijing, on Nov. 19, 2017. (Xinhuanet/Song Jiahui)

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- "China has made remarkable progress in infrastructure construction, leaving a great impression on me and many other overseas Chinese," Meimei Huff said Sunday.

She received an interview with Xinhuanet as the chairman of the California-based think tank Huff Strategies in Beijing.

Meimei has been living in the United States for decades, playing an active role in public services for Chinese communities in California.

She recalled her first experience when she came back to China in 1993, which in her words, was  drastically different from what she sees today.

Meimei especially mentioned the Beijing International Airport, which has taken on a completely new outlook for the past years.

This represents the advance China has made in infrastructure construction, with the eye-catching development of highway and high speed railway outstripping the United States, she stressed.

In the eyes of Meimei, although China is now flourishing and promising, it never stops its efforts to help people forge ahead towards better-off life.

The 19th CPC National Congress, which concluded last month, is Chinas most significant political event in five years.

Meimei said that overseas Chinese also pay great attention to this event as their hearts are always with their motherland.

Living in California , Meimei and the Huff Strategies aim to help Chinese communities better integrated into the American society.

She joined a delegation visit to China this month. The delegation includes representatives of the government and enterprises in California , aiming to enhance economic and trade, cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 14:07:21|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Argentina's Navy (ARA) confirmed Thursday that there was a "singular, abnormal, short, violent and non-nuclear" explosion in the area where the submarine ARA San Juan went missing on Nov. 15 with 44 crew members on board.

The explosion had been detected by the U.S. Navy and an international nuclear test-ban monitoring organization in Austria, which has a network of hydroacoustic seismic stations, ARA spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters here.

The sources said a "hydroacoustic anomaly" was produced near the submarine's last known location just three hours after the vessel lost all contact.

"According to this report, there was an explosion... We don't know what caused an explosion of these characteristics at this site on this date," Balbi said, describing the "anomaly" as being "singular, short, violent and non-nuclear."

The ARA San Juan, a TR-1700 submarine manufactured in Germany, was commissioned by the ARA in 1985 and most recently refitted at a cost of 12 million U.S. dollars in 2014, during which the vessel was cut in half and had its engines and batteries replaced.

According to the ARA and some experts, the submarine could only provide its crew with a steady supply of oxygen for 7-10 days if it's in good condition. The submarine's captain had reported a battery failure before it vanished.

However, Balbi said that "the malfunction could not be associated to the disappearance. This had been notified earlier, the submarine had a problem in its electrical power equipment."

He also denounced rumors that the submarine had been attacked, saying there was no evidence of an attack.

The submarine was originally scheduled to arrive Monday at the Mar del Plata Navy Base, about 250 miles (400 km) southeast of Buenos Aires, after carrying out a surveillance mission near the southern city of Puerto Madryn in Argentina's exclusive economic zone.

It disappeared in the San Jorge Gulf area, 240 nautical miles (432 km) southeast of the Valdes peninsula, in the South Atlantic.

Balbi said that "we are continuing to look for the submarine and the 44 crewmen. Until now, there is no certainty or evidence, the search will continue."

The operation, which involves 4,000 men and is led by Argentine Defence Minister Oscar Aguad, has seen the participation of vessels and aircraft from Brazil, Britain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Norway, Peru, Russia, Spain, Uruguay and the United States.

Straddling the edge of continental shelf, the search operation is conducted with widely varying ocean depths, some even at a depth of up to 3,000 meters, where experts say the submarine could not have supported the pressures.

"If a submarine goes below its crush-depth, it would implode, it would just collapse," which would "sound like a very, very big explosion to any listening device," said James Patton, a retired Navy captain.

Argentine Naval spokesperson Captain Gabriel Galeazzi said on Tuesday that it was "an arduous task, it is not simple and takes time. We must have patience, the area is being covered" with a search range of over 480,000 square km, which is roughly the size of Spain.

Speaking at a forum on open government in Buenos Aires, Argentine President Mauricio Macri said: "In these difficult hours, I did not want to start without sending once again all my support to the families of the crew of the ARA San Juan submarine."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 14:12:24|Editor: Liangyu

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CARACAS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Thursday that his country is "building a new type of relationship" with China, after meeting with new Chinese Ambassador to Venezuela Li Baorong.

Arreaza's remarks were posted at the ministry's Twitter account, which quoted him as calling China "a brother country."

Li presented his credentials to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a ceremony at the Miraflores presidential palace here on Tuesday.

During their meeting, Maduro and Li "agreed to strengthen bilateral ties and close links that exist between both nations," said a government statement.

Venezuela and China established diplomatic relations in 1974 and the bilateral relationship has witnessed faster development since the establishment of their strategic partnership for common development in 2001.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 15:16:16|Editor: liuxin

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SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military will send six stealth fighter jets to South Korea next month for a joint air force exercise, local broadcaster YTN reported Friday citing South Korea's Air Force.

Six F-22 Raptor stealth fighters of the U.S. Air Force will join the South Korea-U.S. joint air force exercise, codenamed Vigilant Ace, which was scheduled for Dec. 4-8, South Korea's Air Force was quoted as saying.

According to Yonhap news agency, the U.S. combat airplanes will fly from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, and stay at an air base in South Korea throughout the joint air drill.

It would mark the first time that six U.S. stealth fighter jets make a sortie to the Korean Peninsula.

Three nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carriers conducted maritime exercises recently in waters off South Korea's east coast.

In addition to Raptor fighters, up to four F-35A Lightening stealth fighter jets were likely to participate in the Vigilant Ace exercise, according to Yonhap report.
Zimbabwe's incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa (L, center) makes a public address at ZANU-PF headquarters in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, on Nov. 22, 2017. Zimbabwe's incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived at ZANU-PF headquarters on Wednesday as he made his first public appearance after he was back into the country. (Xinhua/Chen Yaqin)

HARARE, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa has implored Zimbabweans to remain peaceful and avoid revenge against each other.

In a statement to the state broadcaster ZBC on Thursday, Mnangagwa said vengefulness is not in the nature of Zimbabweans.

"While all this is going on, I implore all Zimbabweans to remain patient and avoid any form of revengeful retribution," he said.

A file photo of Zimbabwe's incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa.(Xinhua)

He also urged Zimbabweans to refrain from settling political or social scores outside the ambit of the law.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 15:51:22|Editor: ZD

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KIEV, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- As an embodiment of the achievements of Chinese-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of science and technology, the China-Ukraine E.O. Paton Institute of Welding (CUPIW) is attracting visitors at the ongoing China-Ukraine Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) exhibition here.

BRAINCHILD OF CHINA-UKRAINE HIGH-TECH COOPERATION

Founded in South China's Guangdong Province in 2011, the CUPIW has been an effective model of innovative cooperation in the scientific and technological sphere between China and Ukraine. It has played a key role in the rapid development of high-tech equipment production in China in recent years.

The Ukrainian partner of CUPIW is the Paton Electric Welding Institute (PEWI). As one of the world's leaders in welding technologies, the Kiev-based institution has been among the world's leading scientific research bodies for years, despite the changing global environment.

Being a brainchild of China-Ukraine scientific and technical cooperation, the CUPIW has managed to achieve an outstanding success during the initial years of its work, helping to raise the welding technologies of China to the highest international level.

Dong Chunlin, vice-director of the CUPIW, told Xinhua in a recent interview that the CUPIW's secret of success lies in its innovative model of cooperation.

Since the establishment of the world-class research institution, the first project in the modern history of China's international high-tech cooperation, Chinese and Ukrainian scientists and technical experts have launched joint research and development projects and practically implemented them.

STORY OF CREATION

In June 2010, Cao Jianlin, China's then vice minister of science and technology, visited the PEWI in Kiev, suggesting that the institution seek new models of scientific and technical cooperation between China and Ukraine.

He also put forward the idea of creating the "joint China-Ukraine international research institute," which was well considered both in Guangdong and in Kiev.

Three months later, the two sides signed a memorandum on the establishment of a Joint China-Ukraine International Research Institute in Guangdong.

In February 2011, Borys Paton, head of the PEWI, who is also the chairman of Ukraine's National Academy of Science, signed a cooperation agreement with the Guangdong Institute of Industrial Technology and the local government.

The deal has laid the cornerstone for scientific and technical cooperation between China and Ukraine.

EFFECTIVE MODEL OF SUCCESS

The main tasks of the PEWI are attracting high-quality personnel, conducting joint international research and finding ways to apply it in practice.

During the interview, Dong said that the CUPIW has established an effective model of partnership with the PEWI in the course of cooperation.

The CUPIW, which combined the state's needs and advanced technologies, has created five world-class research platforms operating in such areas as modern welding equipment and technologies, surface engineering, welding materials, laser and plasma processing.

The CUPIW research platforms could be used in aerospace, nuclear power, metallurgy, shipbuilding, marine engineering, 3D-printing, as well as in the automotive, electrical and biomedical sectors.

PARTNERSHIP FOR WIN-WIN RESULTS

The CUPIW has established a comprehensive interaction with research institutes, universities and high-tech hubs in China. Now it is in the process of negotiating a possible partnership with Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, Tianjin Binhai New Area and Shanghai's Lingang area.

Through strenuous work, the CUPIW has carried out 48 research projects at the state, provincial and city levels and provided services to more than 100 enterprises.

Dong said that the CUPIW's development path was determined by the Belt and Road Initiative. The institution has approved a bi-directional strategy for international cooperation, which includes both adopting the best international practices and sharing its own experience with others.

In particular, the institution sends its young technical personnel to study at the PEWI, and exports welding materials and services to the countries along the Belt and Road.

Next year, the CUPIW plans to open an exchange center at the PEWI to promote its goods and services in the countries bordering Ukraine.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 15:56:27|Editor: Lifang

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Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, meets with media representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait at a summit in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng has pledged the "utmost sincerity" and "greatest efforts" by the Chinese mainland in promoting the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks Friday when meeting media representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait at a summit in Beijing.

"Both sides of the Strait belong to the Chinese nation and are brothers and sisters sharing the bond of kinship," Yu said. "The two sides should work together in promoting the development of cross-Strait ties and creating a beautiful future for all Chinese."

"Guided by the conviction that we are all of the same family, we are ready to share development opportunities on the mainland with our Taiwan compatriots first," he added.

He also expressed a willingness to jointly safeguard the peace across the Taiwan Strait and work for the bright prospect of peaceful reunification.

"We adhere to the 1992 Consensus that embodies the one-China principle and stand firm in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity and opposing all forms of 'Taiwan independence' separatist activities," he added.

Yu said this year marks the 30th anniversary of cross-Strait exchanges, including between the media. Media cooperation has "built a bridge for mutual understanding between the mainland and Taiwan."

He expressed hope that the media on both sides would enhance their commitment and responsibility to voice for the public, uphold the 1992 Consensus, promote cross-Strait affinity and Chinese culture, oppose separatist attempts and create a good public opinion environment for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 16:21:34|Editor: liuxin

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MANILA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine finance chief said on Friday that over 86 percent of Filipinos remain unbanked, vowing to bring them to the financial mainstream and effectively mobilize local capital for investments.

"(The over 86 percent of Filipinos who remain unbanked ) to this day is an intolerable ratio of the population excluded from the financial mainstream," Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said in a speech released on Friday.

He said the government aims "to reduce that number dramatically over the next few years. Continuous technological innovation in banking practices will help bring us closer to financial inclusion."

Based on an early survey of the Philippine central bank this year, the main reason cited by respondents for not having bank accounts was not having enough money to keep one. Others said they did not need accounts, they could not manage an account, they found banks or similar institutions inaccessible and service charges were too high or they did not trust banks.

In the third quarter of this year, Dominguez said the Philippine economy performed "beyond expectations."

"Our gross domestic product grew by a remarkable 6.9 percent. The highest growth was posted by the manufacturing sector. This encourages us all the more," he said.

He said the economic strategy that the Philippine government is pursuing seeks to shift the economic growth from being consumption-led to one that is investments-led.

"The shift will enable us to create meaningful jobs for our young population. It is never enough to design our policies to encourage investments," he said, adding that the country's financial sector "must be both robust and innovative to fund new investments."

He said the Philippines now needs the keen experience of (banking) institutions in getting more people enrolled in the banking sector, mobilizing capital effectively and allocating funds for investment adeptly.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 16:26:39|Editor: liuxin

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SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- San Francisco is planning to spend tens of millions of U.S. dollars on salvaging its landmark tourist attraction waterfront that is threatened by earthquakes and a rising sea level, media reports said Thursday.

The City Hall and port authorities of San Francisco, a tourist city in the U.S. western coast state of California, are grappling with the pressing likelihood of natural disasters hitting the city's landmark waterfront, the Embarcadero.

The Embarcadero, along the city's eastern shoreline, is home to several waterfront attractions of San Francisco, including its iconic clock tower and the 1898 Ferry Building, a major food lover's attraction featuring restaurants and gourmet shops.

The city authorities are moving to sign a 10-year contract valued at 40 million U.S. dollars with a group of 21 consultants, including a Dutch firm, to remake the Embarcadero into a landmark capable of withstanding future natural threats.

San Francisco port authorities estimated last year that the cost of upgrading the Embarcadero seawall could top 5 billion dollars.

Built in 1916, the rock-and-concrete seawall keeps San Francisco Bay from reclaiming inland blocks built on landfill, including portions of the Financial District, the city's business center.

A 2016 study for the port authorities said that although the seawall is not likely to collapse in a major earthquake, it could sag and lurch toward the bay.

Such a consequence could cause buildings along the Embarcadero to collapse while water floods into the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) tube, which is a rapid transit public transportation system linking downtown San Francisco with other cities around it.

BART is the fifth-busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the United States.

"We need to address a problem that hasn't been confronted before -- how do you prepare a city for sea level rise?" said Peter Wijsman of Arcadis, a Dutch environmental consulting firm that is leading a study plan for the rehabilitation of the Embarcadero.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is expected to call a public ballot next November on a 350-million-dollar bond that is designed for seawall improvements.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 16:31:41|Editor: liuxin

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SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's parliament on Friday passed a bill to designate Aug. 14 as a special day for victims to sexual slavery for Japanese military brothels during World War II.

The revision to the law on support for the wartime sex enslavement victims and remembrance of their sufferings was passed through the National Assembly during the plenary session.

The designation was aimed to make known and remember the sufferings of the victims as sex slaves for the Imperial Japan's military brothels during the Pacific War.

Historians say about 200,000 women were forced into sexual servitude during wartime. The victims are euphemistically called the comfort women.

On Aug. 14 in 1991, Kim Hak-sun, one of the late comfort women victims, made the first-ever public testimony on the wartime crime against humanity. Currently, only 33 comfort women victims survived in South Korea.

The revised law also required the government to listen to opinions of the victims before drawing up policies related to the victims' rights.

The Moon Jae-in government, which was inaugurated in May, has been reviewing the legitimacy of an agreement with Japan in December 2015 to "finally and irreversibly" settle the comfort women issue.

The deal was criticized by the victims as well as ordinary people as it failed to listen to the victims' opinions before announcing it and lacked the mentioning of the Japanese government's legal responsibility for the wartime atrocity.

The Moon government has said such a deal cannot be emotionally accepted by the victims and the general public.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 16:31:41|Editor: liuxin

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TOKYO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Japanese prosecutors at the Naha District Court in Okinawa on Friday sought life imprisonment for a former U.S. Marine and civilian base worker who stands accused of raping and killing a 20-year-old woman in Japan's southernmost prefecture.

According to the prosecutors, the defendant, Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, committed "extremely heinous and selfish crimes," as quoted by local media.

In their closing arguments, the prosecutors maintained that the defendant "stabbed the victim in the neck with a knife three to four times and struck her with a bar on the back of her head five to 10 times, therefore he had the intent to kill the victim," according to local reports.

Shinzato's defense counsel reiterated their client's denial of intent to murder, suggesting that the victim may have died as a result of falling.

Shinzato, 33, was working at a company within the premises of the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa at the time of the incident in April, 2016.

He has admitted to the charges of rape resulting in death and abandoning the victim's body, but denies accusations of premeditated murder.

The fatal attack is believed to have taken place on a road in Uruma in central Okinawa at around 10:00 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) on April 28, 2016.

According to the indictment, Shinzato struck the woman on the head with a metal bar and fatally stabbed her in the neck with a knife to stop her from struggling.

Shinzato said he had intended to let the woman go after raping her, and denied that he had intended to murder her, with his defense counsel stating that he did not stab her during the initial assault, local media reported.

But prosecutors maintained that Shinzato had intended to murder her and referenced the victim's neck being stabbed multiple times and the fact that Shinzato had prepared a knife and a suitcase to transport the body.

The accused also changed his clothes at a hotel following the murder, prosecutors previously said, according to local media accounts.

Amid rising anti-U.S. base sentiment in Okinawa, prosecutors said Friday that Shinzato committed "grave crimes as he assaulted an innocent woman like a phantom killer and took her future."

"No sincere apologies have been offered to the victim's family and he has shown no remorse," the prosecutors also said.

In August last year, Shinzato requested that the trial to be held outside Okinawa, fearing a local lay judge trail could be biased by the rising anti-U.S. base sentiment on the island. But the demand was rejected by the Supreme Court.

The court will hand down its ruling on the case on Dec. 1.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 16:46:49|Editor: liuxin

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HANOI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's top legislature on Friday decided to spend over 1 billion U.S. dollars on site clearance for construction of Long Thanh international airport in southern Dong Nai province.

According to a resolution adopted by the National Assembly on Friday, the last day of the legislature's 4th session, Vietnam will, from now to 2019, recover nearly 5,400 hectares of land to build the airport.

A total of 22,938 billion Vietnamese dong (over 1 billion U.S. dollars) will be spent on compensating households that have to relocate and on resettling them.

The airport will be designed to serve 100 million passengers annually and handle 5 million tons of cargo.

The airport's construction will have three phases, with the first phase costing 5.45 billion U.S. dollars, excluding the site clearance expense.

The first phase is scheduled to be completed in 2025 when a runway and a terminal become operational, serving 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo a year.

Vietnam's aviation sector served 38.3 million passengers in the first 10 months of this year, up 11.4 percent year-on-year, said the country's General Statistics Office. Meanwhile, the sector transported 262,100 tons of cargo, up 8.8 percent than the same period last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 16:51:51|Editor: Lifang

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Syria's presidential political and media advisor Bouthaina Shaaban in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday that counter-terrorism, dialogue and reconstruction should be the focal points currently for resolving the Syrian issue.

Wang made the remarks in a meeting with Syria's presidential political and media advisor Bouthaina Shaaban, as the issue moves to a new development stage dominated by the process of political settlement.

"Counter-terrorism is the foundation, dialogue is the way out and reconstruction is the guarantee," Wang said.

Wang said that the recent intensive interaction among related parties on the future political arrangements in Syria will contribute to the positive outcome of the UN-sponsored Syrian political talks in Geneva.

Noting dialogue and negotiation are the only solution, Wang said that during the talks, "Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity must be maintained, and the Syrian people's core position in the political settlement process must be protected."

As a permanent member of the UN security council, China will participate in and support the Syrian political settlement process in accordance with security council resolutions.

Wang said that the international community has made important achievements in counter-terrorism cooperation, but the situation in Syria is still serious.

"The international community should put aside differences and continue to work together to fight against terrorist extremist groups and prevent them from spreading," he said.

"Only by steadily advancing reconstruction can we give hope to the people and guarantee the long-term stability of Syria. The international community should pay attention to and actively support the reconstruction of Syria," Wang said.

Shaaban agreed with Wang, speaking highly of China's stance.

Shaaban expressed the Syrian side's will to take part in the political solution, welcoming bigger Chinese role in the process.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 17:01:53|Editor: Lifang

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HONG KONG, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Nomination for 36 deputies to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) started on Friday in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

During the nomination period, from Nov. 24 to Dec. 4, eligible candidates who have gathered enough nominations from members of the Conference for Electing Deputies of the HKSAR to the 13th NPC can get registered for the election.

According to a presidium bulletin released on Wednesday after the electoral conference's first plenary session, Hong Kong residents of Chinese citizenship aged 18 or above are eligible to contest for the candidacy of the NPC deputies. They need to obtain at least 10 nominations from the electoral conference members for their registrations to be effective.

A 19-member presidium, elected by Wednesday's plenary session to preside over the NPC deputy election, will submit a final list of candidates to the electoral conference members for voting. The voting will be held at the electoral conference's second plenary session on Dec. 19.

According to NPC deputy election methods, candidates shall declare in their registration forms that they uphold China's constitution, the HKSAR Basic Law and the "one country, two systems" principle, bear allegiance to China and the HKSAR, and have not received directly or indirectly any form of funds in relation to the election from any foreign institution, organization or individual.
Mug shot of Salvaore "Toto" Riina, Italy's most notorious mafia boss known in mob circles as "Boss of Bosses". Riina died of cancer on Nov. 17 at age of 87. He had long ruled over Sicilian mafia, called "Cosa Nostra", when it was the most powerful and dangerous of Italy's three mobs. He was jailed in January 1993, and was serving 26 life sentences for ordering dozens of killings, including those of Italy's top anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

by Eric J. Lyman

ROME, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- In the days since his death, commentators remain divided over the extent to which the end of Toto Riina, the Mafia kingpin who died in prison a day after his 87th birthday, will have on the organized crime activities he had tried to control.

Riina -- who was born with the name Salvatore on Nov. 16, 1930 -- was known in mob circles as the "Boss of Bosses" even though he had spent the last quarter century behind bars, serving 26 consecutive life sentences, some for murders dating back as far as the 1950s.

Mafia watchers are divided over the extent to which Riina was able to direct the activities of the Sicilian mob from his jail cell, but almost everyone assumes he retained at least some influence.

"Riina most likely remained, to some significant extent, in charge right up to the end," Enza Rando, an attorney who was the state prosecutor in two of Riina's trials, told Xinhua. "As long as he was alive, whoever was running the Mafia on the outside would have to be deferential to Riina's views."

Salvatore Lupo, a professor of modern history, said he thought Riina's influence from prison was more limited. But Lupo did say that Riina's death represented the "passing of an era".

What is even less clear is how whatever power vacuum created by Riina's death will be filled, and what this period will mean for the Sicilian Mafia's long-term prospects.

Rando, who is now vice-president of Libera, an anti-Mafia association that offers support to victims of mob violence, said it was unclear whether Riina hand picked a successor. She said that if he did not, there could be a succession battle that could "make some noise."

But she also noted that when power was passed from one figure to the next in the past, the changes in Mafia strategy and power. "In the short term, any changes will be limited," Rando said. "The Mafia as it will exist in a month or two will be almost identical to the one that existed a month or two ago."

Lupo agreed that Riina's death was unlikely to yield major changes in the way the mob operates, and he said he believed that whoever ends up running things going forward they will be unlikely to halt the Mafia's steady decline in influence and power.

"Right now, the Sicilian Mafia is at its weakest point since the Fascist governments in the 1920s and 1930s," Lupo told Xinhua. "The Mafia has been in decline because it is not evolving with technology and because it chose a path of terror and disruption."

Still, Lupo, who has written multiple books about the Sicilian Mafia, said the organization is unlikely to fade away completely.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 17:52:13|Editor: ZD

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SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Facebook will launch a new online tool that it said will let users see whether they followed Russia-linked accounts or contents disguised as U.S. users, media reports said Thursday.

The feature, which Facebook said will be released by the year-end, will allow users to see if they interacted with certain pages created by the Internet Research Agency -- a Russian Internet company, which was revealed as allegedly running fake campaign ads during the 2016 U.S. General Elections.

"A few weeks ago, we shared our plans to increase the transparency of advertising on Facebook. This is part of our ongoing effort to protect our platforms and the people who use them from bad actors who try to undermine our democracy," Facebook said in a statement.

The allegation that Russia had interfered in the U.S. presidential elections has been a huge controversy among the political circles in Washington.

Russia has repeatedly denied the allegations.

"We will soon be creating a portal to enable people on Facebook to learn which of the Internet Research Agency Facebook Pages or Instagram accounts they may have liked or followed between January 2015 and August 2017," Facebook said in the statement.

"This tool will be available for use by the end of the year in the Facebook Help Center," it added.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said his company will introduce a host of measures to "provide better security and transparency for the social network."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 17:57:15|Editor: ZD

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MANILA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine National Privacy Commission (NCP) said on Friday that Uber failed to provide vital information as to whether the data of Filipino Uber users were compromised in a massive breach the company experienced in October last year.

The commission summoned on Thursday top businessmen of Uber Philippines to shed light on the breach that affected its clients around the world.

"Unfortunately, Uber failed to provide the commission with vital information at the (Thursday) meeting, especially on whether Filipino data are involved, citing limited information from the office (in the United States)," Privacy Commissioner Raymund Liboro said in a statement.

He said the commission "cannot rule out at this time that any Filipino data was compromised."

Liboro sad Uber "committed to responding in detail to the commission's queries about the nature of the breach, what data was involved, and what measures were applied to address the breach, as soon as confirmed data becomes available."

"The commission has set a 48-hour deadline for Uber to provide vital information about the breach," Liboro said.

Liboro said that the commission made it clear to Uber that concealment of a data breach that involves sensitive personal information is a criminal offense in the Philippines.

Uber chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi acknowledged in a blog post on the company's official website on Tuesday that a year ago two hackers broke into a third-party cloud-based system that contained the private information of Uber's customers.

Khosrowshahi admitted that sensitive information had been illegally downloaded, including names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers of 57 million Uber users around the world, and the names and license numbers of 600,000 drivers in the United States.

Uber, the ride-hailing giant, has around 66,000 active units in the Philippines.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 18:42:30|Editor: ZD

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Workers tear down a rainbow-shaped gate on Chang'an Avenue at Fuxingmen in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 25. 2017. Two rainbow-shaped gates on Beijing's Chang'an Avenue will be dismantled and rebuilt from Saturday, according to Beijing Municipal Commission of City Management. Located on Fuxingmen and Jianguomen, two major crossroads in Beijing, the gates have become iconic since being installed in June 1997 to celebrate Hong Kong's return to the motherland. (Xinhua/Luo Xiaoguang)

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Two rainbow-shaped gates on Beijing's Chang'an Avenue will be dismantled and rebuilt from Saturday, according to Beijing Municipal Commission of City Management.

Located on Fuxingmen and Jianguomen, two major crossroads in Beijing, the gates have become iconic since being installed in June 1997 to celebrate Hong Kong's return to China.

Over the past 20 years, the exterior structure of the gates suffered rust and corrosion, and the internal wiring systems has aged, the commission said.

The gates will be rebuilt in the same place without altering their original appearance. But the neon lights on the gates will be changed to energy-saving LED lights,

The rebuilding will last more than two months.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 18:52:34|Editor: liuxin

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PHNOM PENH, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- New Cambodian lawmakers, who received seats from the dissolved opposition party, would be sworn into the National Assembly on Nov. 27, a National Assembly's spokesman said on Friday.

The Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) on Nov. 16 in a treason case committed by its leader v. The 64-year-old leader was arrested on Sept. 3 and charged with treason for allegedly attempting to topple the government.

The dissolution left 55 CNRP lawmakers and 5,007 commune councilors lost their positions.

The National Election Committee said on Thursday that CNRP's 55 parliamentary seats had been redistributed to five minor parties: the Funcinpec Party of Prince Norodom Ranariddh got 41 seats, the League for Democracy Party six, the Khmer Anti-Poverty Party five, the Cambodian Nationality Party two and the Khmer Economic Development Party one.

However, the League for Democracy Party and the Khmer Anti-Poverty Party did not accept the seats.

National Assembly's spokesman Chheang Vun said 44 politicians from three minor parties that accepted the seats would take oaths as lawmakers in front of King Norodom Sihamoni on Monday.

"National Assembly's President Samdech Heng Samrin will declare their validity as lawmakers during a plenary session on Monday morning, then they will probably be sworn in at the Royal Palace on Monday afternoon," he told reporters after a parliament's permanent committee meeting.

According to Chheang Vun, the 11 seats that rejected by the League for Democracy Party and the Khmer Anti-Poverty Party would be reallocated to four parties in the National Assembly, including Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

The current National Assembly consists of 123 seats in which 68 are possessed by the CPP.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 19:07:37|Editor: liuxin

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JAKARTA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Jakarta metropolitan police has cooperated with Australian Federal Police to expose a case of chemical liquid attack on an investigator of the anti-corruption watchdog, top police officer said on Friday.

Novel Baswedan, who was leading investigation into a graft scandal that allegedly involving top politicians, was attacked by two assailants with chemical liquid in April in north Jakarta.

Jakarta police chief Inspector General Idham Azis said that the cooperation is badly needed to analyze some of the evidences.

"We are assisted by the Australian Federal Police as several evidences recorded by CCTV in the scene require our cooperation with foreign experts (for analysis)," he told a press conference.

Aziz said one of the cooperation is to make the recorded clips display clearly.

The Jakarta police released the sketches of the two alleged assailants on Friday.

"These two persons are allegedly attackers of Novel Baswedan. We got these sketches through the cooperation with the Australian Federal Police," he added.

Baswedan was attacked by two assailants riding motor cycle when he was returning from a mosque at dawn in north Jakarta.

President Joko Widodo condemned the attack and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 19:17:43|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend an upcoming dialogue between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and other political parties from across the globe, the organizer said Friday.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, will deliver a keynote speech at the dialogue opening ceremony, according to Guo Yezhou, deputy head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Leaders from over 200 parties and political organizations in more than 120 countries have registered for the meeting, which is scheduled to last from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3.

During the period, the CPC will also hold routine discussions with political parties from Africa, Central Asia and the United States.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 19:22:44|Editor: Lifang

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- China pays great attention to the peace process in Myanmar, and is willing to play a constructive role in this regard for the security and stability in their border areas, President Xi Jinping said here Friday.

Xi made the remarks while meeting with Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 19:48:41|Editor: ZD

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Decorative lights are illuminated during a light festival at Nanshan park in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Nov. 23, 2017. The exhibition area of the festival are about 30,000 square meters. (Xinhua/Purbu Zhaxi)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 21:23:26|Editor: ZD

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BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The concept of a community of a shared future for mankind is important as it calls on all nations to work together to solve global problems, said Maldivian Ambassador to China Mohamed Faisal.

For me it is a very simple concept, although it can sound very big. It is first working together for some common goals, the ambassador said in an exclusive interview with Xinhuanet recently.

We are all countries separated by borders, but what is common, is the problems that we face, said the ambassador, adding issues like environmental problems, terrorism, global warming have no borders and they impact the future generations in all countries regardless of where they are.

It is therefore important to have the concept as no country can deal with these problems separately, he emphasized, noting the concept has earned global recognition from the UN and a lot of other nations.

For small countries like Maldives, the ambassador highlighted it is important to see China has based its foreign policies on win-win cooperation, respects for others and is clearly against bullying, adding that because to solve the problems that we have today, we need to work together and there is no big or small.

He further mentioned uneven development as another issue haunting the global community.

Therefore, the proposal to make economic globalization more open, inclusive and balanced is another of Chinas articulation with international implications, he said.

Its very important that global trade be done on a very even platform, and all countries benefit from global trade, the ambassador said.

The world should be able to find a way in which all these countries can benefit from global trade. No country should be left behind, he added.

In this regards, the Belt and Road Initiative is very important, the ambassador said, hailing it as one of the most important 21st century development initiatives.

It can be seen as a vehicle that carries forwards new concept, new way of globalization, of how countries can cooperate together in economy, culture, and people-to-people contact, etc.

It is important for countries with little resources to get both financial and human resource from big countries through such international cooperation, he added.

Referring to the recently concluded 19th CPC National Congress, the ambassador sees great potential in the initiative, saying there is a key role for it to play in the years to come.

Well see it becomes articulated better, well know where we really want to go and will see more countries coming on board the Belt and Road train so that it will benefit all countries in the future, he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 19:52:56|Editor: liuxin

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KABUL, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Afghans have expressed mixed reaction to the alleged U.S. strikes on drug processing and heroin labs in the poppy-growing Helmand province, which reportedly have claimed scores of lives including militants and drug traffickers.

The U.S. military, according to local officials and media reports, conducted airstrikes against drug producing factories in Bahramcha, Musa Qala, Kajaki, Nawzad and Washir districts of the southern Helmand province on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, destroying some 20 heroin labs besides killing more than 50 people including drug smugglers.

Helmand's provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Safi confirmed to Xinhua the bombardment of drug producing factories.

"The decision of the plan has been taken by the central government," he said, without providing details.

Meanwhile, a local official on condition of anonymity told Xinhua on Wednesday that "up to 44 alleged drug smugglers were killed after the U.S. aircraft conducted air strikes against Taliban-run heroin labs in Bahramcha area of Dishu districts on Tuesday night."

Spokesman for Helmand's provincial government Omar Zawak also confirmed the raids but declined to provide details.

However, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan said in a statement on Monday that "Afghan and U.S. forces launched a new campaign to destroy Taliban's funding network" in southern Helmand province.

"Over the past 24 hours, U.S. and Afghan forces conducted combined operations to strike seven Taliban drug labs and one command-and-control node in Kajaki, Musa Qalah and Sangin districts of Helmand province" the statement said.

"The strikes are just the beginning, and it represents the U.S. and global will to defeat terror and the criminals who support terrorists," it quoted Gen. John Nicholson, commander of the NATO-led mission, as saying.

Bahramcha, a remote area along the border with Pakistan, is a hub of illicit drug from where part of Afghanistan's narcotics is trafficked abroad.

Spokespersons for the Taliban have, however, rejected the allegation and stressed that the armed group is running no heroin labs in Helmand or elsewhere in Afghanistan.

The Taliban outfit has also claimed that all those lost their lives in the airstrikes were civilians.

The strikes have reportedly been sharply criticized by former Afghan President Hamid Karzai as a violation of Afghan sovereignty.

In a statement released by his office, Karzai expressed concerns over the alleged death of 10 members of a single family in Mosa Qala district in the airstrikes, saying such airstrikes by the U.S. forces demonstrated the clear violation of U.S. forces of the Afghan sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Ali Mohammad, a resident of Helmand province, said that targeting heroin labs believed to be the financial resource of Taliban militants would help the country to achieve peace.

Echoing the notion, another Helmand resident Nazar Mohammad also told Xinhua that crippling Taliban financial machine can help the government win the war against insurgents.

"Some 80 percent of Afghanistan's narcotics are produced in Helmand province where Taliban militants have stronger presence than in any other province in the country, so therefore destroying heroin labs which funds Taliban to continue the war is a welcome step by Afghans," Kabul resident and senior journalist Khan Mohammad Daneshjo said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 19:58:00|Editor: liuxin

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MANILA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told leftist rebel leaders, who were temporarily freed from detention to participate in the peace negotiations, to surrender or face punitive actions.

In a speech before the scout rangers in San Miguel, a town north of Manila, Duterte said he had freed up to 40 detained communist leaders to show that his administration was sincere in talking peace with the insurgents.

"I am ordering those I have released temporarily to surrender or face again punitive actions. You have to go back where you belong. I released you because I thought it might help you," Duterte said in a military camp in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija province.

Duterte issued the fresh warning a day after he decided to terminate the peace negotiations with the rebel group.

Duterte accused the rebel group of being unable to control its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA) rebels, in attacking the troops and civilians who refused to give them money.

On Wednesday, Duterte also threatened to arrest armed communist rebels and all the "legal fronts" helping the leftist rebels.

Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla, the Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman, told reporters on Friday that the military was bracing for more attacks from the rebels.

"We have already provided guidance to our units to be vigilant, to stay alert," Padilla said.

Since 1986, the government has been trying to reach a peace deal with the communist rebels but failed to make any headway.

The rebellion began in 1969 and reached its peak in 1987 when it boasted 26,000 armed guerrillas.

However, the movement has since dwindled due to differences in strategy and tactics and the arrests of many of its top leaders in the late 1980s.

The military estimated the communist rebels at around 3,800 armed members.

Peace negotiations with the leftist rebels were suspended in 2011.

The Duterte administration revived the talks in August last year. But the talks have bogged down due to a series of attacks launched by the rebels against troops and civilians.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 20:03:01|Editor: Lifang

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Wang Huning (C, rear), member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, attends a symposium on the second volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior official said on Friday that studying President Xi Jinping's new book on governance will deepen the understanding of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks at symposium on the second volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," which was published earlier this month.

Wang said that "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is considered as the Chinese Marxism of the 21st century, which shows its originality and reflects the features of the times."

"According to the 19th CPC National Congress, it is an important strategic task to equip the whole Party with Xi's thought," said Wang.

The first volume was published in 2014 and received widespread attention and praise from readers at home and abroad.

The second volume, covering 17 topics, collects 99 of Xi's speeches, conversations, instructions and letters between Aug. 18, 2014 and Sept. 29, 2017.

The new volume depicts the practice of the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core in uniting and leading Chinese people to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era.

It reflects the development and achievements of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

It also provides Chinese wisdom and solution for developing a community with a shared future for mankind and in promoting peace and development.

Wang called for deep understanding of the historical background that produced Xi's thought, the original contributions it made to Marxism and the guidance it provides for the realization of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.

Studying and publicizing the newly-published volume will further ingrain Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in people's hearts and enhance the international community's understanding of Xi's thought," Wang said.

Huang Kunming, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, also addressed the symposium, calling for leading cadres to take the lead in studying the new volume.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 20:13:05|Editor: liuxin

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CAIRO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 150 were injured on Friday in an attack carried by militants near a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province, state-run Nile TV reported.

An explosive device planted outside the mosque went off, before militants opened fire at the prayers, an official security source told Xinhua.

The attack occurred in the village of Rawda in Beir el-Abad near the Arish city, the source added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 20:18:07|Editor: Lifang

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HANGZHOU, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Lu Yonglin, 79, now has care workers to help him look after his paralyzed wife thanks to long-term care insurance introduced in October in Jiashan County of China's Zhejiang Province.

An elder care provider comes to Lu's home minutes after he makes a call to an old-age service company. One hour of a care package, which includes personal hygiene services and clinical care, costs between 20 yuan (about 3 U.S. dollars) and 80 yuan, and will be covered by his wife's insurance.

Each month, his wife, Zhu Aiying, who receives home-based care, gets 300 yuan in cash and electronic coupons worth 300 yuan to cover her care costs.

"We have a low retirement salary. The insurance helps a lot to cover my wife's care costs," said Lu.

Lu's wife is one of the first 299 beneficiaries since Jiashan introduced long-term care insurance in October.

She has been paralyzed and bedridden since 2011, when she was diagnosed with encephalic angioma. Lu takes care of his wife as their children work in distant cities.

"It is a heavy burden for me to provide daily care to my wife as I am getting older," said Lu.

Jiashan has an aging population, coupled with surging chronic diseases. The county has 108,000 people aged 60 and older, with at least 4,000 of them partially or fully disabled.

"It is the right time to introduce this new social insurance program as a preemptive approach," said Tao Wenzhou, deputy director of Jiashan Civil Affairs Bureau.

Currently, China has five social insurance programs: elderly care, health care, unemployment, work injury and maternity. They are run by the government and premiums are paid by the individual and the employer on a compulsory basis.

Long-term care insurance is expected to become the sixth.

In 2016, Jiashan became one of the pilot cities to implement long-term care insurance in Zhejiang.

Urban and rural residents who are recipients of health care insurance can participate in the long-term care insurance program. Those who have a difficult time living independently due to age, illness and disability and will not recover after six months of medical treatment can become recipients of the long-term care insurance.

Jiashan set up a committee to assess recipients according to various levels of dependency. So far, the committee has completed assessment of 896 people, with 689 severely disabled.

The insurance premium is 120 yuan annually for each person, with individuals paying 30 yuan and the Jiashan government providing 90 yuan. Currently, Jiashan has collected more than 52.2 million yuan in insurance premiums.

"Elderly who choose to receive care services in their homes, nursing or medical institutions will be given different subsidies," said Tao.

The attempt in Jiashan mirrors that of China in general.

The aging of China's population is accelerating. By the end of 2016, the country had 230 million people aged 60 and older, with at least 40 million of them partially or fully disabled.

Only children in many families face double pressure in terms of manpower and time to take care of their elders, who need long-term care, independently on their own.

To cope with ever-increasing needs for long-term care, in July 2016, China released a guideline to launch the long-term care insurance program in 15 pilot cities, including Shanghai and Guangzhou.

It aims to form a long-term care insurance system adapted to China's actual conditions by 2020.

"The program proved helpful in addressing the long-term care demands of the elderly with disabilities," said Lu. "A future scale-up of the program nationwide is expected."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 20:28:10|Editor: liuxin

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JUBA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Aid agencies operating in South Sudan have stepped up dialogue with the government on aid workers' registration and work permit fees, the senior UN relief official for South Sudan said on Friday.

Alain Noudehou, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, said relief agencies met with the government on Thursday to assess the impact of the hiked work permit fee on the delivery of aid in the East African country.

Noudehou said during the meeting, agencies discussed concerns about the fee hike and the impact it will have on their ability to deliver much-needed aid to vulnerable people in the country.

"The Humanitarian Coordinator continues to engage with humanitarian actors and the government to ensure unhindered delivery of assistance by eliminating bureaucratic impediments and securing unimpeded access," Noudehou said.

He clarified that though the newly increased fees do not apply to UN agencies and staff, non-governmental organizations are required to pay fees for registration and work permits in order to operate in South Sudan.

In March, South Sudan increased work permit fees for foreign workers from 100 U.S. dollars to 10,000 dollars for professional/business class, 2,000 dollars for blue collar jobs and 1,000 dollars for casual laborers.

The South Sudanese finance ministry said at the time that the hiked fee would raise vital revenue for the cash-strapped government to fund its activities.

But the fee hike prompted an outcry from humanitarian agencies who described it as a way of restricting work of foreign aid workers in the war-torn nation, forcing the government to suspend the policy the following month.

The Ministry of Labor and Public Service in October announced revised annual work permit rates for foreigners ranging from 500 to 4,000 dollars.

Under the new fee structure, consultants and managers will pay 4,000 dollars, professionals 3,000 dollars and technicians 2,000 dollars. The directive does not affect members of the diplomatic corps.

Skilled workers will pay 1,000 dollars and casual laborers will be charged 500 dollars. Defaulters will be charged an extra 200 dollars in fines.

South Sudan's relief agency said early this month that it identified more than 1,000 illegal expatriates working with humanitarian organizations in the country, and gave them a one-month ultimatum to acquire work permits or face the law.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 20:58:23|Editor: Lifang

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by Zhuang Beining, Lu Shuqun

YANGON, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Scholars of China and Myanmar are optimistic over the prospect of a tentative plan of building China-Myanmar economic corridor, proposed by the Chinese side and conveyed during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Myanmar from Nov. 19 to Nov. 21.

Wang, in a joint press meeting with Myanmar State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi in Nay Pyi Taw on Sunday, told the press that China proposed building a herringbone-shaped China-Myanmar economic corridor.

The economic corridor, in consideration of Myanmar's national development plan and its actual needs, will start in north from China's Yunnan province, go down south to the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, and further extend east to the new city of Yangon and west to the Kyaukpyu special economic zone, forming a three-pillar giant cooperation pattern, he explained.

U Khin Maung Lynn, Joint Secretary-1 of Myanmar Institute of Strategic and International Studies, said Wang's proposal is based on the long-term interest of the peoples of the two countries, especially that for improvement of the living standard of poor people in rural areas.

He added that it would accelerate the development of areas lagging behind by connecting respective projects of the two countries under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Dr. Song Qingrun, Associate Professor of Unit Chief of Bay of Bangal Rim Unit, Institute of South and Southeast Asia and Oceanian Studies and China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, held that there is relatively great feasibility of building the China-Myanmar economic corridor, highly corresponding to the development plan of the two countries.

He is convinced that the successful construction of the corridor would also represent a model cooperation project of the Belt and Road Initiative.

As far as China is concerned, Song said the China-Myanmar corridor also connects Bangladesh-China-India economic corridor, facilitating China's trade link with Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and even with Middle East and African countries.

For Myanmar, it would contributes to the improvement of the country's infrastructure and attracting investment, Song added.

Aung San Suu Kyi, when meeting with Wang, also expressed Myanmar's appraisal over China's advocation of the China-Myanmar economic corridor, saying the construction of the corridor would resolve the issues of transportation and electricity supply.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 21:03:24|Editor: Yang Yi

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The All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) opens its 12th national congress in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 24, 2017. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with delegates to the 12th ACFIC national congress, which opened here Friday, and gave a congratulatory address. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with delegates to the 12th national congress of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), which opened here Friday, and gave a congratulatory address.

Industrial and commerce federations have made significant contributions to China's non-public economic development, which has been an important foundation for economic stabilization, major source of tax revenue, and played a crucial role in technological innovation, financial and economic development, Li said.

The premier encouraged the federations at various levels to facilitate integrated and common development of public and non-public sectors, and improve the environment for the development of the private sector to ensure a steady growth in private investment and nurture new economic impetus.

The federations should also adhere to new economic concepts while pushing for development of better quality, efficiency, fairness and sustainability, as well as providing better services for enterprises, he said.

Founded in 1953, the ACFIC is a non-governmental organization chiefly made up by enterprises and people in the non-public industrial and commercial sector.

The congress will hear and deliberate a work report of the previous executive committee, adopt amendments to the ACFIC's charter and elect a new executive committee.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 21:03:25|Editor: liuxin

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DOHA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior British official has praised Qatar's efforts in fighting terrorism financing, the Gulf Times reported Friday.

Alistair Burt, minister of state for the Middle East at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, made the remarks on the sidelines of the Qatar-sponsored anti-terrorism conference held in London, the report said.

Burt said his country rejected accusations against Qatar of supporting terrorism by its neighboring Arab countries, adding that Qatar is a "strong partner" in the battle against terrorism.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt severed political and commercial ties with Qatar in June, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism and interfering in their internal affairs.

Qatar has strongly denied the charges, while rejecting a list of tough demands put forward by the Saudi-led quartet for restoring the diplomatic ties. Previous mediation efforts launched by Kuwait, Turkey and the United States have failed to broker an end to the stand-off in the Gulf.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 21:13:30|Editor: liuxin

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COPENHAGEN, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A Danish girl was found guilty of planning to blow up two schools, local media reported Friday.

The 17-year-old from the village of Kundby on the island of Zealand was arrested in January last year and charged with attempted terrorism, according to Danish news agency Ritzau.

She was reportedly planning to blow up her previous school, Sydskolen in Farevejle, and a Jewish school in capital city of Copenhagen.

She was arrested after teachers at Sydskolen had alerted the authorities because of her social media posts.

According to Danish law, a person can be imprisoned indefinitely if found guilty of a very serious crime and judged to be a risk to the society.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 21:23:34|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Emmerson Mnangagwa speaks during his inauguration ceremony in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, Nov. 24, 2017. Emmerson Mnangagwa was on Friday sworn in as the second president of Zimbabwe at a colorful ceremony attended by thousands of Zimbabweans and foreign dignitaries. (Xinhua/Chen Yaqin)

HARARE, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's newly installed president Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday rallied all Zimbabweans to unite and work together to revive the battered economy.

In his inaugural speech soon after being sworn in as president, Mnangagwa said his government would prioritize economic revival to create jobs and a better life for Zimbabweans who have endured more than a decade of economic hardships.

"The people of Zimbabwe, the task before us is much bigger than competing for political office," Mnangagwa said.

Mnangagwa paid special tribute to former president Robert Mugabe, who he described as a father, mentor and comrade in arm.

He said Zimbabweans must never forget the work that he did for the country before and after independence.

Mugabe resigned on Tuesday after military and public pressure, ending his 37-year stay in power.

While pledging Zimbabwe's commitment to clear its external debts to multilateral creditors, Mnangagwa implored Western countries to remove sanctions imposed on the country.

"As we build a new democratic Zimbabwe, we ask those who have punished us in the past to reconsider their economic and political sanctions against us," he said.

He said Zimbabwe stood ready for a steady re-engagement with all nations in the world, saying the country will take bold steps to reengage with countries that have isolated it.

KEY POLICIES HIGHLIGHTED

In his speech, Mnangagwa highlighted the political, social and economic agendas his government will push for, including boosting exports, fighting corruption and tackling liquidity challenges the country currently experienced.

The new president said his new government would ensure national elections scheduled for 2018 will go ahead as planned.

He also said Zimbabwe's land reform program will not be reversed, adding that his government is committed to compensating white farmers whose land was taken for redistribution to black Zimbabwean farmers.

Moreover, Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa said, welcomes gainful partnerships with international investors in order to revive the economy.

"The bottom line is an economy which is back on its feet. Only that way can we recover our economy, create jobs and reduce poverty."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 21:33:38|Editor: liuxin

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HARARE, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's former finance minister who had been in military custody since the military took over government on Nov. 15 was released on Friday and is in a hospital for injuries sustained from beatings while in detention, his lawyer told Xinhua.

Lovemore Madhuku said Ignatius Chombo was receiving treatment under police custody and faces charges of corruption and abuse of office while as local government minister 10 years ago.

"He (Chombo) was handed over to the police this morning. He was dumped at his home gate and immediately picked up by a group of police officers who were waiting form him at his residence," Madhuku said.

Chombo is among former president Robert Mugabe's associates who were picked up by the military after their intervention that culminated in Mugabe resigning Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 21:43:41|Editor: liuxin

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GENEVA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Europe's Mediterranean border is "by far the world's deadliest," the UN migration agency, IOM, said Friday, citing a new study reviewing four decades of evidence.

The study titled Four Decades of Cross-Mediterranean Undocumented Migration to Europe: A Review of the Evidence, was carried out by the Global Migration Data Analysis Center, said IOM spokesperson Jorge Galindo.

"The report states that at least 33,761 migrants were reported to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean between 2000 and 2017, as of June 30," Galindo said.

IOM also reported Friday that 161,010 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2017 through Nov. 24, with about 75 percent arriving in Italy and the remainder divided between Greece, Cyprus and Spain.

This compares with 345,831 arrivals across the region through the same period last year.

Professor Philippe Fargues of the European University Institute, the study's author, is quoted as saying that that number of deaths cited over the past 18 years likely under-reports the actual scale of the human tragedy.

That is despite the data that the record number of migrant deaths may have begun to subside in 2017 due in part to cooperation between the EU and Turkey, and now Libya, to stem migrant flows.

"Stopping migration and eradicating deaths at sea may [be] conflicting objectives. Shutting the shorter and less dangerous routes can open longer and more dangerous routes, thus increasing the likelihood of dying at sea," Fargues states in the report.

The report analyzes irregular migration across the Mediterranean since the 1970s. It highlights that irregular arrivals to Europe have increased in response to more restrictive migration policies by some European countries.

Prime examples from the report are the irregular migration from North Africa and Turkey to Europe in the 1970s, after visa requirements were introduced for temporary labor migrants from these regions.

Absence of legal pathways for asylum-seekers and refugees to travel to Europe and seek asylum also increased arrivals by sea along the Eastern, Central and Western Mediterranean routes from 2009, said the report.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 22:03:46|Editor: Lifang

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by Xinhua writers Liu Lu and Lai Xing

NANCHANG, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Mao Haofu, 28, has returned from studying in Britain to his hometown in Ciping in east China's Jinggangshan City, which was the first rural revolutionary base established in 1927 by the Communist Party of China (CPC).

He is now an on-site teacher at Jiangxi Executive Leadership Academy. Although most tourists are Chinese, he is prepared to tell the Party's story in English.

He has been influenced by his father and grandfather, both masters of Party history, as well as his colleagues who have devoted themselves to teaching despite poor living conditions.

"I felt a sense of achievement when I saw more foreign officials come to our academy. They were keen to know more about our country," he said.

Kuang Sheng, vice president of the China Executive Leadership Academy of Jinggangshan, said the world is eager to know more about the CPC and the Chinese path and experience, as China offers Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to solving problems.

To introduce the former residence of Comrade Mao Zedong, Mao Haofu studied materials in a local museum and the authoritative English versions of the works of Mao Zedong, rather than directly translating the tour guide introduction.

The Jinggangshan Mountains are known as the birthplace of the Chinese Red Army, and the cradle of the Chinese revolution.

Liu Hong, Party chief of Jinggangshan, said that the city is developing an open economy led by tourism. It has been visited by delegates from several foreign countries, including Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and African countries.

Liu said a leader of an African delegation told him that China's experience in helping people get rid of poverty were worth learning from.

Red tourism sites have attracted more visitors in recent years and are receiving huge investment from the country.

China's National Development and Reform Commission has encouraged more efforts to preserve revolutionary sites and released a list of red tourism sites in 2015.

In 2016, a total of 1.55 billion yuan (about 228.3 million U.S. dollars) was spent to support "red tourism," according to the Ministry of Finance.

At another revolutionary site, Xibaipo, in Pingshan County of north China's Hebei Province, Duan Keqian, a tour guide of the Xibaipo Memorial Hall, was busy preparing an English version of her speech.

Xibaipo is an old revolutionary base where the leadership of the CPC was garrisoned from May 1948 till early 1949, drawing up the blueprint for a new country and preparing for the CPC's new role as the ruling party.

"We have been really busy in the last month, but are happy to introduce more information to our audience," said Duan, adding that she has witnessed a growing number of visiting foreign teachers, doctors and business people who work near Xibaipo.

"We have taken exams to qualify as guides. Each of us should focus on a certain field, and I focus on people's daily lives," Duan said. "People will be fired if they get poor regular assessments."

According to Duan, there are about 80 such guides at the memorial hall, as well as at the revolutionists' former residences, working in Chinese, English, Russian, Italian and Japanese languages.

Russian Andrey Lyakh, 45, visited Xibaipo after doing business in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, about a two-hour drive away.

He listened carefully to his interpreter and nodded at times, walking in the yard of the former residences.

"I have heard of Lenin and Mao Zedong since I was a child, and I think they are all great men," said Lyakh. "The site impressed me very much."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 22:08:49|Editor: Mengjie

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CAIRO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in an attack on Friday on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province rose to 184, official news agency MENA reported.

At least 120 others were wounded when suspected militants attacked the mosque, the report said. Earlier report said at least 155 people were killed in the attack.

An explosive device planted outside the mosque near Arish city went off, before militants opened fire at the prayers, an official security source told Xinhua.

The attack occurred in the village of Rawda in Beir el-Abad, 40 km from Arish, the source added.

Some 50 ambulances rushed to the scene after the attack. Most of the wounded were transferred to the Arish Hospital for treatment.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi will chair a meeting of the security committee on the attack, MENA quoted presidential sources as saying.

The meeting will be attended by the ministers of defense and interior in addition to the heads of general intelligence and military intelligence services, the report said.

The Egyptian presidency declared a three-day mourning across the nation.

Grand Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed el Tayeb denounced "the terrorist attack," stressing the importance of working to eliminate terrorists.

Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Egypt Ambassador Ivan Surkos also condemned the attack.

"Media bringing news on attack against mosque during today's Friday prayers in Rawda, northern Sinai, reporting many injured," Surkos tweeted.

"I condemn this barbaric terrorist act against innocent civilians," he added.

Egypt is suffering a wave of terrorist attacks, mostly centered in Sinai where militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers since the army-led ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 22:13:51|Editor: Lifang

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by Xinhua writer Zhang Jianhua

SHENZHEN, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The mission of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to support infrastructure investment is good for the world's economy, and the institution is operating "to the highest international standards," according to Sir Danny Alexander, the bank's vice president and corporate secretary.

Alexander was a cabinet minister in the British Treasury from 2010 to 2015. He was appointed as vice president and corporate secretary of the AIIB in February 2016.

In an interview with Xinhua, Alexander said he was one of the senior ministers in the British government at the time "who advocated strongly that the UK should join the AIIB."

In March 2015, Britain became the first major western country to announce its intention to join the new multilateral development bank, which started operations in January 2016 and has grown to 80 approved members from around the world.

"The AIIB seems to us to be a very good initiative to create a new framework for countries to work together and to further that common interest in infrastructure investment," he told Xinhua in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.

He noted that there had been more than 20 countries choosing to join the AIIB since the founding of the bank.

The fact shows that "they [members] can see that the bank is developing in the right way and to the highest international standards," said the former British politician.

GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

In the interview, Alexander said that it is "a great responsibility" to work for the AIIB.

"It is very rare for new multilateral development banks to be set up. Ours is the first in the 21st century, and it is the first ever to be headquartered in China, so it is a great responsibility to do that well and to get it right," he explained.

As vice president, he is responsible for the bank's relations with its members, the board of governors, the board of directors and other aspects of governance, including the admission of new members.

"I have a role as part of the senior management team in the bank, with a particular responsibility for the governors of the bank, making sure the board of directors, the board of governors and so on operate in the right way," he said.

"We have a very good team ably led by President Jin Liqun. And I think together we are helping to ensure that the AIIB is built in a way that fulfills the vision that our institution is lean, clean and green," he said.

HIGHEST STANDARDS

In the interview, Alexander repeatedly stressed that the AIIB is committed to "operating to the highest international standards."

The bank is focused on its work "to ensure high standards in everything that we do: high standards of governance, high standards of environmental and social management and high standards of project development," the AIIB vice president said.

By focusing on investing in "good projects" that have strong safeguards on environmental and community impact, the AIIB "can help to ensure through those investments that we spread the high standards and that we share better practice," he noted. "That helps to ensure that there is a good business environment, so I think that is the main way in which the AIIB can make that contribution."

PRIORITIES

In January, the AIIB unveiled its three priorities for the year ahead, namely sustainable infrastructure, cross-country connectivity and the mobilization of private capital, according to a statement on its website.

Alexander said sustainable infrastructure helped to support the transition for Asian countries to be "more environmentally sustainable," which requires renewable energy and sustainable cities.

On connectivity, the vice president said it meant "improving the connectivity between Asian countries, and through Asia, and other parts of the world."

"That means transport projects, like roads, railways, airports and ports, but also things like electricity transmission and energy pipelines," he said.

"The scale of the need for infrastructure in Asia is so huge that all of the national government resources and all of the international financial resources are too small," he said, highlighting the need to mobilize private capital.

"We must mobilize more private capital, so we also have a role to play in helping to make infrastructure more attractive for private sector investors as well as institutions like ours," he urged.

SHARED AIM

In the interview, Alexander also shared his views on the links between the AIIB and the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013 with the aim of building a trade, investment and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along ancient trade routes.

He said that though the AIIB and the initiative are two separate initiatives, they also overlap at certain intersections and share a similar goal.

"There is overlap and there is mutual interest and mutual benefit in terms of their shared aim to promote productivity within the Asian region," he told Xinhua.

The AIIB, together with five other major multilateral development banks, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Ministry of Finance at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in May this year.

"That created a framework for all of the major international financial institutions to work with the Belt and Road Initiative," Alexander said.

He stressed, however, the AIIB would invest in good projects, "according to its own strategy" and would apply the same high standards and tests to its investment projects. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 22:18:54|Editor: Yang Yi

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Premier Li Keqiang said Friday Djibouti is an important partner for China in east Africa, and he encouraged Chinese enterprises to invest there.

"China and Djibouti will continue to deepen mutual trust and partnership to become a model for South-South cooperation," Li said when meeting with Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh.

China will work with Djibouti on infrastructure and industrial production capacity cooperation to make the African country a regional trade and logistics hub and improve its economy and people's livelihoods, Li said.

"China encourages well-established enterprises to invest in Djibouti and hopes the country will offer security and convenience to Chinese companies," the premier said.

Guelleh hailed the productive, mutually beneficial cooperation since the two countries established diplomatic ties 38 years ago. He thanked China's support for Djibouti's development and said the country will use its geographical advantage to further cooperate with China.

Guelleh was on a state visit to China from Wednesday to Friday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 22:29:00|Editor: Yang Yi

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Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli visits an ecological restoration site in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, Nov. 23, 2017. Zhang paid a visit to Qinghai on environmental protection from Nov. 23 to 24. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

XINING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli has underlined the importance of environmental protection in northwest China's Qinghai Province.

Zhang made the remarks during a visit to Qinghai between Thursday and Friday.

As an important shield for China's ecological security, the province should make clear areas that are off-limits for development and the rules for access to create natural space in which people and nature co-exist in harmony, Zhang said.

Qinghai should build a green and sustainable industrial system with its own distinctive features and push ahead construction of projects including the Qilian Mountain water conservation area and the region surrounding the Qinghai Lake, Zhang said.

He also said that the environment supervision system and the natural resource asset management mechanism must be improved.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 22:49:07|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Studying President Xi Jinping's new book on governance will deepen the understanding of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, said senior official Wang Huning Friday.

Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks at a symposium on the second volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," which was published and put up for sale earlier this month.

"Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is considered as the Chinese Marxism of the 21st century, which shows its originality and reflects the features of the times," said Wang. "According to the 19th CPC National Congress, it is an important strategic task to equip the whole Party with Xi's thought."

The first volume was published in September 2014 and received widespread attention and praise from readers at home and abroad.

The second volume, covering 17 topics, collects 99 of Xi's speeches, conversations, instructions and letters between Aug. 18, 2014 and Sept. 29, 2017.

Sales are likely to exceed those of the first book, which has sold about 6.6 million copies worldwide in 24 languages, according to the Foreign Languages Press, the book's publisher.

The new volume depicts the practice of the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core in uniting and leading Chinese people to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era.

According to Wang, the new book reflects the development and achievements of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It also provides Chinese wisdom and solutions for developing a community with a shared future for mankind and in promoting peace and development.

Wang called for deep understanding of the historical background that has produced Xi's thought, the original contributions it has made to Marxism and the guidance it provides for the realization of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.

"Studying and publicizing the newly-published volume will further ingrain Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in people's hearts and enhance the international community's understanding of Xi's thought," Wang said.

"The main reason why foreigners should read these books is that they are the first time that a Chinese leader has sought to capture his whole philosophy and communicate it to the international audience in so many languages," said David Ferguson, the English editor of both books, with the Foreign Languages Press. "There is everything you need to know about where China is now, and where China is trying to go."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 22:54:08|Editor: yan

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WAKISO, Uganda, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Uganda's main opposition party Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) delegates convened on Friday to choose a new president to steer the party ahead of the 2021 presidential elections.

Dan Mugarura, the party's electoral commission chairperson, told Xinhua that 1,209 party delegates are expected to cast their votes to choose the party leader for the next five years.

Four candidates including the incumbent FDC president Gregory Mugisha Muntu are competing for the party's top job.

The race is tight between Muntu, a former Ugandan army commander, and Patrick Amuriat Oboi, former legislator for Kumi County in eastern Uganda.

The elected president will be charged with mobilizing support to remove the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) from power in the 2021 elections.

The NRM legislators have been seeking to amend the country's constitution to remove the 75-year age limit for presidential candidates to allow incumbent president Yoweri Museveni to stand in the 2021 polls.

Museveni, 73, has been in power for over 30 years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 23:09:12|Editor: yan

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HOHHOT, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese archaeologists have found evidence of an ancient ethnic minority group following Confucianism over 1,000 years ago in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Remains of Confucian temples have been found in the ruins of Shangjing, the upper capital of the Liao Dynasty (916-1125), said Dong Xinlin with the research institute of archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The team of archaeologists from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Inner Mongolia archaeological institute started excavation of the site in 2011 with Dong as the team leader.

Dong said the first Confucian temple was built as early as the Khitan started building the upper capital. Besides Confucian temples, Buddhist and Taoist ones were also found at the site.

"The Khitan had an inclusive culture," he said.

The Liao Dynasty was founded by the nomadic Khitan and ruled the northern part of China. Shangjing, now located in Bairin Left Banner in Inner Mongolia, was first built in 918. The capital was the dynasty's political, economic and cultural center on the prairie for over 200 years.

The ancient capital was also found to be divided into two parts, with the Khitan living in northern part and Han Chinese people in southern part.

"This showed Khitan's respect for the Han population and its culture," said Dong.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 23:34:19|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Premier Li Keqiang said Friday that China will strengthen cooperation with France in civilian nuclear energy and work jointly to cope with climate change.

Li made the remarks during a meeting with visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Beijing.

There is huge potential for deepening all-round cooperation between China and France, Li said, calling for more cooperation in fields including nuclear energy.

He called on the two sides to play an active role in coping with climate change and the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and work jointly to promote an open world economy and safeguard multilateralism.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 23:39:21|Editor: yan

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MOSCOW, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Japan support a settlement of the Korean Peninsula crisis on the basis of the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and hope a way would be found to resume negotiations, the foreign ministers of the two countries said here Friday.

"We hope that in the end it will still be possible to find a way out of this spiral of confrontation and try to find ways to resume the negotiation process," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono following bilateral talks.

"To denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, which is a common task of Japan and Russia, a full implementation of the resolutions of the UNSC is necessary. We have reached an agreement to cooperate closely in this sphere," Kono said.

Lavrov said Moscow does not accept the "missile and nuclear stunts" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in flagrant violation of UNSC resolutions. However, Russia, together with China and a number of other countries, insist on implementing the UNSC resolutions with their provisions for resuming negotiations, he said.

Russia is also concerned at the United States deploying elements of its missile defense system in South Korea and Japan under the pretext of threats from the DPRK, Lavrov said.

Though the DPRK did not carry out any tests or missile launches in the last two months, Washington, however, was attempting to provoke Pyongyang by holding military exercises in the region and imposing new sanctions on the DPRK, so as to "finally switch to military options", he said.

The use of force in the region, he pointed out, would result in hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of victims, which leading experts and even representatives of the U.S. administration recognized.

The Japanese foreign minister said that Japan saw "an unprecedented threat", not only to Japan and Russia, but also to the international community in general from the DPRK's nuclear tests and launch of missiles.

Kono said Japan considers it necessary to use all available methods and means to increase pressure and persuade the DPRK to halt its nuclear and missile program.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 23:39:22|Editor: yan

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BRUSSELS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis discussed Baltic security in Brussels on Friday.

According to NATO's press release, NATO's continued adaptation to meet current security challenges and preparations for NATO's 2018 Summit topped the agenda in their talks.

In light of the Ukraine crisis, NATO has deployed four multinational battlegroups to the Baltic States and Poland and increased air and naval patrols in the Baltic region.

During the discussion, Stoltenberg welcomed the decision by Latvia's parliament to strengthen national defense, including by increasing defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2018.

He also thanked Latvia for its contributions to NATO's training mission in Afghanistan and for its support to NATO partners Georgia and Ukraine.

Vejonis was paying a working visit to Brussels to attend the European Union's Eastern Partnership Summit.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 23:54:26|Editor: yan

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BRUSSELS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Leaders from The European Union (EU) and six former Soviet countries on Friday pledged to cement their ties, which "is not directed against anyone".

"The participants stress that the Eastern Partnership aims at building a common area of shared democracy, prosperity, stability and increased cooperation and is not directed against anyone," said a joint declaration released following the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels, which gathered leaders of the EU and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.

"They reaffirm their shared commitment to this strategic and ambitious Partnership... which brings the Eastern European partner countries closer to the European Union," said the declaration.

The leaders in the joint declaration also "reaffirm the sovereign right of each partner to choose the level of ambition and the goals to which it aspires in its relations with the European Union."

They also pledge their commitments to 20 deliverables for 2020 in four areas eyeing "stronger governance", "stronger economy", "better connectivity" and "people-to-people contacts."

The dulcet tone of the text is in stark contrast with the biting remarks of British Prime Minister Theresa May, who told reporters after her arrival at the summit that "we must be open-eyed about the actions of hostile states such as Russia who threaten the potential growth of eastern neighborhood and who try to tear our collective strength apart."

The EU has been walking a tightrope between wooing its eastern neighbors and avoiding rankling Moscow.

There are association agreements and free trade pacts between the EU and Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, which hope to join the bloc eventually. Citizens of these countries are allowed to travel to the Schengen Area with a visa for 90 days in any 180-day period.

However, the EU has stressed the Eastern Partnership initiative is not an EU accession process.

The EU has a "more tailored approach" when it comes to relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko did not attend the summit. He was represented by foreign minister Vladimir Makei.

The EU launched the Eastern Partnership in 2009, in a bid to "promote economic integration and European values" in the six Eastern European countries.

Under the framework, leaders from the EU member states and the six Eastern Partner countries meet every other year in Eastern Partnership Summits. The previous summit was held in May 2015 in Riga, Latvia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-24 23:59:30|Editor: yan

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BAGHDAD, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Iraq on Friday strongly condemned the attack on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province that killed and wounded hundreds of worshippers, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said.

"The ministry confirms its solidarity with the brotherly Republic of Egypt and extends its sincere condolences to the families of the martyrs and wishes swift recovery of the wounded," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry renewed its call to "eradicate terrorism and its extremist intellectual resources, which target innocent people all over the world," according to the statement.

Earlier in the day, suspected militants detonated an explosive device and opened fire on worshippers in a mosque during the weekly Friday prayer at the village of Rawda in Egypt's North Sinai province, leaving at least 235 people killed and over 100 others wounded.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 00:04:33|Editor: yan

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MOMBASA, Kenya, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's hotels in the tourism resorts of coast region on Friday announced that they had registered high bookings this holiday season.

Most of the hotels are already booked as both local and foreign tourists are flocking to the coastal region this holiday season despite the prolonged political season.

The Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers Coast Executive Sam Ikwaye told Xinhua in Mombasa that the destination is doing very well.

"From the start of November many hotels have been doing very well. We have bed occupancy of between 60 and 80 percent currently. This is expected to hit 100 percent by mid-December," Ikwaye said.

He said initially they were pessimistic that the projection will be appealing because of the prolonged political season that began around February. "We cannot complain because the numbers are really good now," he said.

Mohammed Hersi, the chairperson of the Kenya Coast Tourists Association and the Chief Executive of Sun Africa Beach Hotel, said they expect a 100 percent hotel booking this December.

He said the international visitors have confidence in the region, given the fact that two Neos charter planes from Italy, the Turkish Airline, Condor Air from Germany and Tui Travels charter plane from Britain are now doing trips to Mombasa.

Neos, Condor Air, Turkish Airline and the Tui Travels charter flights do at least two trips to Mombasa every week, which is good sign of the improving sector that was once on its knees.

"Despite all the political challenges we have had, international visitors still have great faith in Kenya. Mombasa and Kenya Coast is bouncing back," said Hersi, noting that the Italian market supports Malindi and Watamu in Kilifi County.

A cruise ship, MV Nautica is expected at the port of Mombasa this Saturday. Hersi said that tourism has serious multiplier effect on the country's economy.

"Cruise tourism is also building up slowly and we are happy that the planned new terminal at the port of Mombasa is now at about 70 percent complete," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 00:14:37|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday sent a congratulatory message to Zimbabwe's new president Emmerson Mnangagwa, a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Xi said in the congratulatory message that China and Zimbabwe are good friends, partners and brothers. Bilateral ties have withstood the test of time and changing international situation.

China values the traditional friendship with Zimbabwe and stands ready to work together for strengthening all-round cooperation and advancing bilateral ties, so as to bring benefits to the two countries and two peoples, according to spokesperson Geng Shuang.

Mnangagwa was sworn in as the president of Zimbabwe Friday.
A man injured in a mosque attack in Egypt's North Sinai province receives medical treatment at a hospital in Cairo, Egypt, on Nov. 24, 2017. The death toll in an attack on Friday on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province rose to 235, Egypt's state TV reported. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in an attack on Friday on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province rose to 235, Egypt's state TV reported.

At least 109 others were wounded when suspected militants attacked the mosque, the report said. Earlier report said at least 115 people were killed in the attack.

An explosive device planted outside the mosque near Arish city went off, before militants opened fire at the prayers, an official security source told Xinhua.

The attack occurred in the village of Rawda in Beir el-Abad, 40 km from Arish, the source added.

Some 50 ambulances rushed to the scene after the attack. Most of the wounded were transferred to the Arish Hospital for treatment.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi will chair a meeting of the security committee on the attack, official MENA news agency quoted presidential sources as saying.

The meeting will be attended by the ministers of defense and interior in addition to the heads of general intelligence and military intelligence services, the report said.

The Egyptian presidency declared three-day mourning across the nation.

The presidency in a statement condemned that terrorist attack as treacherous and heinous action that wouldn't be passed without punishment.

"The pains that the Egyptians are suffering now wouldn't be overcome without strict response, and the hand of justice will reach all those took part in the attack," the presidency statement added.

Egypt will continue its war against the black terrorism with hope and willingness and will uproot it, it added.

Grand Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed el Tayeb denounced "the terrorist attack" stressing the importance of working to eliminate terrorists.

Head of the European Union Delegation to Egypt, Ambassador Ivan Surkos, also condemned the attack.

"Media bringing news on attack against mosque during today's Friday prayers in Rawda, Northern Sinai, reporting many injured," Surkos tweeted.

"I condemn this barbaric terrorist act against innocent civilians," he added.

Egypt is suffering a wave of terrorist attacks, mostly centered in Sinai where militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers since the army-led ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Most of the attacks, which recently expanded the city and some other cities, have been claimed by the Islamic State branch in Sinai.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 00:19:41|Editor: yan

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BERLIN, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- German Social Democrat (SPD) leader Martin Schulz has signaled his party's willingness on Friday to hold talks with Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) over the formation of a new federal government in Germany.

Schulz said that he was hereby reacting to a "dramatic appeal" made by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. While the SPD would not "refuse" talks with the CDU/CSU, however, any legislative cooperation "in whatever form" would ultimately still have to be decided in a vote of its party base.

The SPD leader further emphasized that there would be "no automatism in any direction" as a result of negotiations.

Following heavy SPD losses in September's federal elections, Schulz had repeatedly insisted that his party was not be available for another "grand coalition" with the CDU/SU and would instead return to the opposition benches.

Nevertheless, the SPD has come under heavy pressure to reverse this stance amid the collapse of "Jamaica" coalition talks. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) unilaterally broke off official negotiations with the CDU, CSU and Greens (Gruene) late on Sunday night, thrusting Germany into a moment of political crisis.

Without the FDP, the CDU, CSU and Greens do not have a sufficient majority to pass legislation in the federal parliament (Bundestag). Re-elections will consequently become necessary, unless the SPD can be persuaded to form a government with the CDU/CSU, or other parties agree to tolerate a CDU/CSU minority government.

Immediately after the failure of "Jamaica" negotiations, President Steinmeier launched urgent high-level talks with party representatives during which he reminded them of their political responsibility to voters.

Schulz met with Steinmeier on Thursday night for what the SPD leader subsequently described as a "good, very long and trusting conversation." Senior SPD functionaries then spent the remainder of the night debating "in whatever form or constellation" their party could make a contribution towards the formation of a new government.

Speaking to the press on Friday, Schulz stressed that all further steps would have to be discussed intensely within the SPD and its parliamentary faction.

Schulz also attacked the CSU, CSU Greens and FDP for having "failed catastrophically" in their coalition negotiations, placing Germany in a "complicated situation."

The SPD leader added that his party had never considered blocking the formation of a new government. "It was always clear: We will not be obstructive in the federal parliament, just for the sake of being obstructive," Schulz said.

Given Schulz earlier resistance to another "grand coalition", the reversal of his stance prompted speculation that SPD leader might resign. German Foreign Minister and former SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel denied the possibility of such an outcome on Friday.

Schulz was currently SPD leader "and would certainly remain so," Gabriel told the press.

Gabriel also advocated for all parties to "talk to each other" in the wake of failed "Jamaica" negotiations, as this was in the interest of Germany, as well as Europe.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 00:39:44|Editor: yan

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ATHENS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos conveyed condolences on Fiday to Egypt over the deadly terrorist attack at a Sinai mosque.

"Greek Ambassador to Egypt Michael Diamessis conveyed the condolences and solidarity of Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi... The Greek president also expressed his condolences to victims' families and his wishes for a fast recovery of those injured," said a press statement from his office.

The Greek Foreign ministry also condemned "in the strongest terms" Friday's "hideous attack", according to an e-mailed press statement. "Greece condemns terrorism in the strongest terms, whatever its origins."

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias spoke by phone with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry to convey Greece's support and condolences, it said.

Over 200 people lost their lives and dozens more were wounded when suspected militants attacked a mosque near Arish city in the north of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula Friday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 00:44:48|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- All parties should work together to bring the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue back to the track of dialogue and negotiation, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

Wang made the remarks when meeting with visiting French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian.

It was comforting that, with the backing of UN Security Council resolutions, the situation on the Korean Peninsula was stable recently, said Wang.

According to Wang, there are three ways forward: resuming negotiations, maintaining the status quo or returning to confrontation.

"The most valuable lesson learned from the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, which has lasted for more than twenty years, is if all parties concerned work for a common goal, agreements then follow," Wang said.

On the other hand, if some countries misunderstand and flex their muscles, the opportunities for peace disappear, Wang added.

It is important to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions and bring the the issue back to the negotiating table as soon as possible, Wang stressed.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 00:44:48|Editor: yan

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MOMBASA, Kenya, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenyans who have been recruited by Al-Shabaab are fleeing Somalia following sustained airstrikes by the U. S. forces, officials said on Friday.

Joseph Kanyiri, director of Operation Linda Boni (Swahili for Operation Protect Boni), who has been overseeing operations to flush out the militants in the vast Boni forest, said some youth fleeing Somalia are part of the Al-Shabaab elite squad Jaysh Al-Ayman that comprises mainly Kenyans.

Kanyiri said more than 100 Islamist militants were killed on Tuesday at a camp 200 km northwest of Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

In March 2016 more than 150 fighters were also killed in similar airstrike by the United States.

Kanyiri said a multi-agency team has scale up security along the Somali border to deal with fighters who are fleeing from Somalia.

"We are aware the condition in Somalia is not conducive for them and they have decided to flee Somalia to the country. We urge them to surrender to authorities," said Kanyiri.

He said the ongoing Boni enclave campaign has also affected the Al-Shabaab operation inside Somalia after security agents managed to flush them from the vast forest by destroying their camps.

Over 300 members of the group had operated from the forest since 2012 to launch attacks against Kenyan troops.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 00:49:51|Editor: Lifang

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Delegates attend the third ministerial summit on cooperation in tourism between China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Nov. 24, 2017. China and CEEC vowed here Friday to enhance cooperation in the field of tourism. (Xinhua/Haris Memija)

SARAJEVO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) vowed here Friday to enhance cooperation in the field of tourism.

Speaking at the third ministerial summit on cooperation in tourism between China and CEEC, Vice Chairman of China National Tourism Administration Du Jiang stressed that the Chinese government attaches great importance to tourism development.

"We are pleased to see that in recent years, tourism cooperation between China and CEEC has made notable advances," said Du.

According to Du, between 2011 and 2016, two-way tourist exchange between China and CEEC increased from 507,000 to 1,249,000, up by 146.3 percent.

Mirko Sarovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, said at the meeting that the number of Chinese tourists to BiH has increased five times in the past five years.

In a joint statement adopted by the meeting, China and CEEC agreed to support the strengthening of the existing as well as creation of the new platforms for the exchange of tourism offers and information.

They also agreed to initiate the establishment of thematic tourism routes linking the tourism offer of China and CEEC in the field of world cultural heritage.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 00:54:52|Editor: yan

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NAIROBI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Friday launched a new body that will oversee the regulation of all veterinary medicinal products in the country.

Andrew Tuimur, principal secretary at the State Department of Livestock, said the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) will oversee the manufacture, importation, exportation, registration, distribution, prescription and dispensing of veterinary medicines.

"Efficient livestock production and animal welfare can only be enhanced with proper regulation of veterinary medicinal products," Tuimur said during the launch in Nairobi.

He noted that the new body will protect farmer's interests, guarantee food safety and animal welfare while ensuring the livestock industry supports economic growth and family livelihoods.

Tuimur told members of the council and management of the new body to engage with all stakeholders to ensure that its objective is met.

VMD's role previously was handled by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board and the Pest Control Products Board.

In recent past, it has been widely reported that arid and semi-arid lands in Kenya, home to 80 percent of livestock, suffer from veterinary drug misuse which affects the health and well-being of their animals and hurts the livestock trade both in local and international markets.

The body will enable Kenya to export livestock products to European and other international markets with ease as it will help address requirements by the international market regulators.

It would greatly support both the dairy and poultry industries whose products are often banned for export due to unacceptable drug and chemical residues arising from misuse and mishandling of veterinary medicines.

Since their discovery in the early 20th century, antibiotics and related medicinal drugs have substantially reduced the threat posed by infectious diseases.

However, according to Tuimur, their misuse and mishandling exacerbated by weak legislation and lack of enforcement of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act has actually disadvantaged livestock farmers.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 00:59:56|Editor: Zhou Xin

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KAMPALA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Defense ministers from the east African countries meeting in Uganda on Friday agreed to strengthen regional cooperation in defense affairs, implementation of protocols on security and peace to deal with insecurity and conflict that continues to plague the region.

Adolf Mwesige, Uganda's minister of defense and veteran affairs, told sector ministers and experts that strengthened cooperation in defense affairs will promote lasting peace, security and stability in the six partner states of the East African Community (EAC).

EAC brings together Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi.

"The EAC defense sector needs all the support necessary to strengthen its capacity in different areas given that it is on the right path to deal with insecurity in our region," said Mwesige while closing the five-day meeting.

"I urge you to facilitate this support and where a need arises, our principals [heads of states] be put in the know," he said.

The minister said the continued insecurity and conflict in South Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Somalia continues to plague the region.

He said the ongoing conflict in South Sudan pitting troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, poses a serious concern in the region as thousands of civilians continue to lose their lives and their livelihoods while attempting to flee for safety.

As of October 2017, the number of South Sudan refugees fleeing the country's civil war into neighbouring countries was estimated at 2,073,105, according to the UN figures.

"Conflict is at our door step as a region. Being ambassadors of peace, this is the correct time to review the political and cultural dynamics that leads to various forms of conflict in the region," said Mwesige.

"We need to re-align our strategies to emerging conflict situations and scenarios. This includes enhancing the early warning systems, which may help prevent conflict and identify mechanism and interventions at various stages," he said.

Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko, the Secretary General of the EAC said security remains one of the primary concerns for the region given the prevailing situation in Somalia.

Militant group Al Shabaab continues to carryout attacks on military bases and civilians in the Horn of Africa country.

"I am happy to note that through your cooperation we have been able to minimize external threats of Al Shabaab and through your interventions, the group have been disenfranchised and normalcy is slowly coming back in that country," said Mfumukeko.

Mfumukeko said the defense sector has recorded significant progress in widening and deepening cooperation by having all the partner states ratifying the protocol on cooperation in defense affairs.

"This step brings the community closer to the fulfillment of the long awaited ambition of having a mutual defense pact," said Mfumukeko.

The five-day meeting that kicked off on Monday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala aimed to further the peace and security strategy that was adopted in November 2006 and the protocol on peace and security.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 01:10:00|Editor: yan

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DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A Tanzanian senior government official said on Friday the country's Indian Ocean fish stocks were running dry caused by overfishing and dynamite fishing.

Abdallah Ulega, the Deputy Minister for Livestock and Fisheries, said sea pirates were also wreaking havoc in the east African nation's Indian Ocean.

As a result of the depleted fish, Tanzania was currently importing at least 2,000 tonnes of mackerel fish from China monthly, said Ulega.

Speaking on a visit to Mafia Island, Ulega said fish catches in the country has declined to at least 360,000 tonnes in 2016 compared to 390,000 tonnes of fish in 2012.

"The declining fish catches could even be worse as the number of fishermen getting the licenses has risen to over 66,000 in 2016 from 56,000 in 2012," said Ulega.

The minister said 60 percent of the population of Mafia district in Coast region depended on fishing but the declining fish catches was wreaking havoc to residents in the district.

"Illegal fishing and sea pirate is not only a threat to the economy of Mafia district, but a problem that also destroys marine resources, including coral reefs, which are breeding grounds for fish," he said.

Ulega said the government has deployed 2,000 sea patrol army officers to be stationed on Mafia Island to protect and control illegal fishing and pirates from operating in the country's Indian Ocean territories.

"Pirates have no place in Mafia and our ocean territories. We will hunt them down wherever they will be," the minister said declining to give further details for security reasons.

He added that the government was in the process of amending some fisheries laws to enable Tanzanians benefit more from their resources.

A 2017 report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said illegal fishing was still rampant in the western Indian Ocean coast, occasioning Tanzania 400 million U.S. dollars loss annually in landings or nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars in processed products.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 01:20:03|Editor: yan

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MONROVIA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Liberia's electoral body on Friday thrashed the call for a rerun of the Oct. 10 presidential and parliamentary polls by political parties.

A board of commissioners of the National Elections Commission hearing the appeal cases in the country's capital of Monrovia upheld an earlier ruling by the chief hearing officer to proceed with the second-round of voting.

The governing Unity Party and the opposition Liberty Party were seeking a rerun of the October elections because of what they described as "massive irregularities and fraud."

The Liberian electoral body on Friday admitted there were errors in the presidential polls, but said they were corrected and did not have an effect on any candidate's votes.

The electoral body said the testimony of local and international observers, including the National Democratic Institute, among others, indicated that the polls were transparent and credible.

Following the electoral body's ruling, lawyers representing the political parties have vowed to file an appeal at the Supreme Court in Liberia.
Photo taken on June 1, 2016 shows the wreckage of Ambassador Hotel after a suicide car bomb attack in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. At least 10 people have been killed and 25 others injured in an attack by Al-Shabaab on the Ambassador hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse)

MOMBASA, Kenya, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenyans who have been recruited by Al-Shabaab are fleeing Somalia following sustained airstrikes by the U. S. forces, officials said on Friday.

Joseph Kanyiri, director of Operation Linda Boni (Swahili for Operation Protect Boni), who has been overseeing operations to flush out the militants in the vast Boni forest, said some youth fleeing Somalia are part of the Al-Shabaab elite squad Jaysh Al-Ayman that comprises mainly Kenyans.

Kanyiri said more than 100 Islamist militants were killed on Tuesday at a camp 200 km northwest of Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

In March 2016 more than 150 fighters were also killed in similar airstrike by the United States.

Kanyiri said a multi-agency team has scale up security along the Somali border to deal with fighters who are fleeing from Somalia.

"We are aware the condition in Somalia is not conducive for them and they have decided to flee Somalia to the country. We urge them to surrender to authorities," said Kanyiri.

He said the ongoing Boni enclave campaign has also affected the Al-Shabaab operation inside Somalia after security agents managed to flush them from the vast forest by destroying their camps.

Over 300 members of the group had operated from the forest since 2012 to launch attacks against Kenyan troops.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi (C) chairs a meeting of the security committee,which is attended by the ministers of defense and interior in addition to the heads of general intelligence and military intelligence services, on the attack on a mosque, Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 24, 2017. The death toll in an attack on Friday on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province rose to 235, Egypt's state TV reported. (Xinhua Photo)

CAIRO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi vowed on Friday a "fierce action" will be carried out in response to a mosque's attack in North Sinai province that left at least 235 killed, state-run TV reported.

"The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period," he said in a televised speech.

"Such attack is aimed at destroying our unity, but it will steel our resolve to defeat terrorism," he added.

Earlier the Egyptian presidency declared a three-day mourning period across the nation.

An explosive device planted outside the mosque near Arish city went off, before militants opened fire at the prayers, an official security source told Xinhua.

The attack occurred in the village of Rawda in Beir el-Abad, 40 km from Arish, the source added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 01:40:10|Editor: yan

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PARIS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Friday denounced "with the strongest possible term" the attack that struck a mosque in Egypt's north Sinai region.

"I offer France's condolences to the victims' families and to the Egyptian people and authorities," Le Drian said in a statement.

"France stands resolutely with Egypt in this latest ordeal. We will continue to stand together in the fight against terrorism and fanaticism," he added.

The attack on a mosque in a village in northern Sinai near the city of El-Arish left 235 victims, according to Egypt's state TV.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 01:45:12|Editor: yan

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BRUSSELS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) on Friday denounced the terror attack on a mosque in Egypt which killed 235 people.

"No one should be killed because of their religion, no sacred place should be profaned by violence and terrorism. People of all religions...are united in the fight against terrorist violence," Federica Mogherini, EU foreign policy chief, said in a statement.

"Perpetrators of such unbearable acts must be held responsible," she said, adding that the EU "will continue to stand with the Egyptian authorities and people as they confront the threat from terrorism."

The death toll in an attack on Friday on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province rose to 235, Egypt's state TV reported.

At least 109 others were wounded when suspected militants attacked the mosque, the report said. An earlier report said at least 115 people were killed in the attack.

An explosive device planted outside the mosque near Arish city went off before militants opened fire at the prayers, an official security source told Xinhua.

The attack occurred in the village of Rawda in Beir el-Abad, 40 km from Arish, the source added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 02:00:15|Editor: Zhou Xin

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The White House on Friday condemned "in the strongest terms" the deadly attack at a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province earlier in the day.

Condoling the families of those killed and wounded, the White House said in an announcement that "there can be no tolerance for barbaric groups that claim to act in the name of a faith but attack houses of worship and murder the innocent and defenseless while at prayer."

The United State urged the international community to "collectively discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence," said the statement.

Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump also condemned the "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack" via twitter.

"The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily," he said.

Meanwhile, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement that this "attack on those at prayer is an unconscionable act of evil."

"We will continue to stand with Egypt and the Egyptian people as they face the scourge of terrorism," she said.

An explosive device planted outside a mosque near Arish city of Egypt went off before militants opened fire at the prayers, leaving at least 235 killed and more than 100 wounded.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 02:05:17|Editor: Zhou Xin

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KIGALI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda on Friday joined the rest of the world launching the 16 days of activism campaign, which is aimed at galvanizing action to end violence against women and girls around the world.

The international campaign will last from Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to Dec. 10, Human Rights Day. It is originated from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Center for Women's Global Leadership in 1991.

The Rwanda gender activism campaign that was launched at Petit Stade in the capital city Kigali will run under the theme "End Violence against Women and Girls: Speak Out!"

The activities which marked the event started at 3 p.m. with a walk from Kigali Convention Center to Petit Stade. It brought together students, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, private sector, development partners, government and the United Nations' officials, police, military, women rights activists, among others.

During the campaign, the country will use various platforms to encourage everyone to become an ally in the elimination of GBV by listening to others, speaking up against gender-based violence and taking action which can make communities safer for everyone including women and girls, said Rwandan gender minister Esperance Nyirasafari at the event.

"Children and young people need to know and understand their rights and responsibilities in ending violence against women and girls," said the President of the Senate of Rwanda Bernard Makuza.

"Let's unite and fight against gender based violence (GBV) and as well violence against women and girls."

Makuza noted that one of Rwanda's approaches to ending gender based violence is the rollout of 44 Isange One Stop centers that offer counseling services for GBV victims in all district hospitals across the country.

It is estimated that 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lives, according to UN Women. However, some national studies show that up to 70 percent of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime, it said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 02:15:21|Editor: Zhou Xin

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OTTAWA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Friday made a formal apology to former students of residential schools in Canada's most eastern province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL).

He also apologized to the families and communities for the painful and tragic legacy the residential schools left behind, acknowledging his words alone are not enough to heal the wounds of the past.

Delivering the apology before an audience of hundreds in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL, Trudeau said the apology was long overdue, and a stain on the relationship between the Indigenous people of NL province and those non-Indigenous individuals who claimed to be educating them.

Between 1949 and 1979, thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their communities to attend five residential schools that were run by the International Grenfell Association (IGA) or Moravians. Many students reportedly were sexually and physically abused, and suffered language and cultural losses.

The prime minister called on Canadians "to take part in the next chapter, a time when Indigenous and non-Indigenous people build the future we want together."

Some 1,000 students who had attended residential schools accepted a 50 million Canadian dollars (around 40 million U.S. dollars) settlement last year from the Trudeau government after launching a class-action lawsuit.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 02:25:26|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A homeless man in U.S. city of Philadelphia had used his last 20 U.S. dollars to buy gas for a woman. The woman, in return, raised over 300,000 dollars in 13 days to pay him for a comfortable Thanksgiving resting in a hotel and a new vision for the rest of his life.

Kate McClure first met Johnny Bobbitt Jr, a homeless veteran in Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania at a night in October, when she was driving down Interstate 95 and ran out of gas.

Scared and nervous, she got out of the car to head to the nearest gas station and met Bobbitt. He told her to get back in the vehicle and lock the door.

Minutes later, he emerged with a red gas can, which he paid with his last 20 dollars.

Bobbitt didn't ask for money and McClure didn't have any money then, according to a CNN report on Friday.

About two weeks ago, McClure and her boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, who both live in New Jersey, started a GoFundMe page, wishing to raise 10,000 dollars to pay the good Samaritan for rent, a reliable vehicle and a few months of expenses.

The story ran in a local paper and later went viral on social media. By noon Friday, the fund for the kind man has exceeded 316,730 dollars, most amount of the donations came on Thanksgiving Day which fell on Nov. 23.

More than 11,100 people have made donations, and the donations have been continuing, the GoFundMe page showed Friday.

"We wanted to make sure he was safe, and go from there," McClure told CNN Thursday.

Bobbitt, a North Carolina native, has served in Marine Corps and studied nursing. He was also a former paramedic and firefighter, according to his Facebook page.

"The whole game changed in the last 24 to 48 hours. His expectations changed, and what he wanted to do changed," D'Amico said on CNN. "He has a couple of places in Philadelphia that got him through and got him by. He wants to pay it forward."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 03:05:38|Editor: yan

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NICOSIA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Italian ENI energy company will make two natural gas drillings within the coming months in two blocks of the Cypriot exclusive economic zone, Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said on Friday.

His announcement was made after a meeting of ENI's CEO, Claudio Descalzi, with Cyprus's President Nicos Anastasiades.

He said ENI will make its first drilling, called Kalypso, in block 6, and later will start another drilling, code-named Cuttlefish, in block 3 of the Cypriot exclusive economic zone.

"We consider it to be very important that ENI announced action just nine months after receiving its exploratory and exploitation license," Lakkotrypis said.

Descalzi said that exploratory drilling will start in the next two or three months and added that he was confident that more gas deposits will be discovered.

He said that ENI has so far invested 150 million euros and this is an indication of its confidence that gas deposits do exist.

"The geology of Cyprus is in the middle of an interesting system and the island itself is a connecting hub between the Middle East and Europe," he said.

Descalzi also said he was confident about the outcome of negotiations between Italy, Cyprus, Greece and Egypt for the construction of East Med, a pipe that will start in Egypt and end in Italy, to transfer gas from the Mediterranean to Europe.

The project has the support of the European Commission.

Lakkotrypis said that Anastasiades and Descalzi discussed the possibility of ENI participating in a planned project for the transfer of natural gas to Egypt.

Discussions on this project will be continued in the negotiations between officials and technocrats of the companies involved, he said.

Cyprus has already discovered a natural gas field, codenamed Aphrodite.

Egypt has said it wanted to buy as much gas as Cyprus could sell from this field, discovered by Texas-based Noble Energy. (1 euro = 1.19 U.S. dollars)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 03:35:46|Editor: yan

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TRIPOLI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed prime minister, Fayez Serraj, on Friday condemned the terrorist attack on a mosque in northern Egyptian Sinai that killed hundreds of people.

"Prime Minister, Fayez Serraj, strongly condemns the cowardly treacherous terrorist attack on Al-Rawda mosque in northern Sinai on Friday," Serraj said in a statement.

"This terrible crime against a house of God can only be carried out by those who have no human or religious morals," the statement added.

Serraj expressed condolences to the Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian government, people and families of the victims, stressing that "the Libyan people stand by their Egyptian brothers in these critical times," the statement added.

An attack on Friday on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province killed 235 people and injured 109 others so far.

Egypt is suffering a wave of terrorist attacks, mostly centered in Sinai where militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers since the army-led ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Egyptians walk past bodies following a gun and bombing attack at the Rawda mosque, roughly 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish, on November 24, 2017. (AFP PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday sent condolences to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi over a deadly attack in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, the Kremlin said in a statement released on its official website.

"The murder of civilians in the course of an act of worship is striking with its cruelty and cynicism. We are once again convinced that the notion of human morality is absolutely alien to terrorists," Putin said.

Putin confirmed that Russia was ready to further enhance cooperation with Egypt in fighting against international terrorism, according to the statement.

He also offered sympathies to the relatives and friends of the victims and wished all the wounded a speedy recovery.

Earlier on Friday, gunmen broke into a mosque west of the city of Arish in the north of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, set off an explosive device and shot those running out. So far, the attack has killed 235 people and injured at least 109 others.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 03:55:54|Editor: yan

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BEIRUT, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin highlighted Friday the "proper functioning of institutions" for the Lebanese people to decide their fate without external interference.

"The Lebanese government and state institutions must be effective in the social and economic fields in preparation for the upcoming parliamentary elections," said Zasypkin in his meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the latter's residence, according to a statement by Hariri's media office.

The Russian ambassador also said Russia is working within the framework of the International Support Group for Lebanon to guide the country to self-sufficiency.

Concessions would have to be made by all parties, he noted.

"As Speaker Nabih Berri has said, each side must concede as part of the road to reach common ground," the statement quoted Zasypkin as saying.

On France's role in Lebanon's political crisis, Zasypkin said it is helping "mediate."

France has played a leading role in easing Lebanon's political crisis following Hariri's announced resignation on Nov. 4 in a televised statement in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun did not accept Hariri's resignation by accusing Saudi Arabia of putting Hariri under house arrest, saying it was "an act of aggression against Lebanon."

Hariri, however, left Riyadh on Nov. 18 and headed to Paris where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, before leaving on Nov. 21 to Cairo to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

He arrived in Beirut late Tuesday night to participate in Independence Day celebrations a day later.

On Wednesday, he told the press that he had put his resignation on hold upon the request of Aoun following a meeting with the president.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 04:05:57|Editor: yan

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GENEVA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A number of wild-life related matters will be highlighted in the upcoming 69th meeting of the standing committee of the CITES next week in Geneva, the CITES secretariat said Friday.

According to the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES), other concerns of the meeting include the rosewood crisis in Africa and Asia, saving totoaba and vaquita from extinction, illegal trade in pangolins, poaching of African elephants and the related trade and legislations of wildlife products, it said.

The week-long 69th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee is expected to kick off next Monday in Geneva with a packed agenda of 76 items that address the most pressing wildlife trade issues affecting the survival of a myriad of wild plants and animals.

A record number of 600 participants from all over the world have registered to attend next week's meeting, the CITES secretariat said.

During the meeting, members of the Standing Committee will consider for the first time information concerning Japan's "scientific research programme" in sei whales, one of the world's fastest cetaceans.

CITES secretariat said that the Committee will discuss whether the introduction from the high seas of sei whales is conducted in accordance with CITES provisions regulating non-commercial trade in Appendix I species.

According to the CITES secretariat, thousands of tons of precious rosewood have been seized from illegal loggers in Madagascar, showing that the control and disposal of the vast stockpiles of highly valuable rosewood cut from Madagascar's rainforests has been a huge challenge.

As for the illegal trade in pangolins, the secretariat said that data shows that a total of 1,557 seizures involving an estimated 192,576 pangolins took place between 1999 and 2017.

"Data reflects that illegal trade in pangolins significantly escalated in recent years, with the majority of these seizures, approximately 94 percent, having taken place from 2007 onward."

Concerning the poaching of African elephants, the CITES secretariat pointed out that there has been "a steady decline in poaching levels since its peak in 2011", and the overall poaching trends of African elephant have now dropped for five consecutive years and in eastern Africa to pre-2008 levels.

However, the secretariat added, illegal killing continues at unsustainably high levels that exceed the natural rate of population increase, and a lot of hard work remains to be done, especially in central and west Africa, in this regard.

A great diversity of other species, such as African lions, cheetahs, great apes, helmeted hornbills, tortoises and freshwater turtles, rhinos, sharks and rays, sturgeons and paddlefish, are also on the agenda of the upcoming meeting.

"This is the first meeting of the Standing Committee following the largest World Wildlife Conference ever, the CoP17, held last year in Johannesburg," CITES Secretary-General John E. Scanlon said.

"With many of the ground-breaking decisions and resolutions adopted at CoP17 being fully embraced by the new UN General Assembly resolution on Tackling illicit trafficking in wildlife adopted two months ago, it is now for the Standing Committee to review how the 183 Parties to CITES and its Secretariat are progressing with the implementation of these decisions and resolutions, and to determine what further steps are necessary," he added.

The CITES remains one of the world's most powerful tools for wildlife conservation through the regulation of trade.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 05:06:13|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Students send gifts to company representatives during the launching of the first stone of the construction project in Lewi Pethrus Primary School in Maputo, Mozambique, on Nov. 24, 2017. China's liquor giant, Maotai Group, has donated nearly 500,000 U.S. dollars on Friday, for the expansion of a primary school in the Ka-Tembe district of Maputo city in Mozambique. (Xinhua/Nie Zuguo)

MAPUTO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's liquor giant, Maotai Group, has donated nearly 500,000 U.S. dollars on Friday, for the expansion of a primary school in the Ka-Tembe district of Maputo city in Mozambique.

The launching of the first stone of the construction project in the Lewi Pethrus Primary School was chaired by the mayor of Maputo City, David Simango, the general manager of the Maotai Group, Li Baofang and the Chinese ambassador to Mozambique, Su Jian.

Li Baofang said it was a special occasion because Mozambique is the first African country to benefit from the Maotai's social responsibility and charity.

"In our social responsibility initiative, we decided to help the Ka-Tembe district community in the expansion of the Lewis Pethrus School, where children study in a condition that is not very good," the general manager said.

The fund donated will be used on the construction of classrooms, teacher offices and recreational facilities, which will be operated by the Guizhou Chamber of Commerce in Mozambique.

"Our desire is that once the school has been expanded, it will be able to accommodate more students than it is today, and the learning condition for children will be better," he added.

The mayor of Maputo City, David Simango, hailed the donation in his speech and said that the country is making significant progress resulting from cooperation with the Chinese people.

Simango acknowledged that the quality of teaching for now is limited due to scarcity of resources, so the Municipality praises the Maotai initiative.

"As a result of the friendship between China and Mozambique, we see the participation of the Maotai group as the only viable alternative to quality education in this country," he said.

China's ambassador to Mozambique, Su Jian, said the construction of classrooms is part of the cooperation between the two countries in the field of basic education.

"This project we are witnessing today will help the community here at Ka-Tembe district," said Su Jian, adding that "another project of school desks is under consideration".

The ambassador said that with more cooperation efforts, the infrastructures of primary and secondary schools can be improved, and not only that.

"The projects that are to be installed in Ka-Tembe, namely the construction of the cross-sea bridge, roads and schools, will stimulate development in this area," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 05:21:16|Editor: yan

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TUNIS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian presidency said on Friday that it strongly condemned the bloody attack on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai, which killed at least 235 people.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi sent a message of condolence on Friday evening to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, it said.

In his message, Essebsi expressed his solidarity and compassion with the Egyptian president and people, calling the attack a "cowardly terrorist" one.

"We are convinced that the Egyptian people will win their fight against terrorism and will be able to guarantee its prosperity and stability that we see as the guarantor of stability of the entire region," he said.

"Tunisia is fully committed to the Egyptian side in this painful circumstance, especially as we support all measures from the Egyptian authorities to ensure the safety of citizens," the president added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 05:51:21|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BRUSSELS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- European leaders and officials have joined the international condemnations of Friday's terror attack on a mosque in North Sinai of Egypt that claimed at least 235 lives.

Militants attacked a mosque during Friday prayers in Egypt's North Sinai, detonating a bomb and gunning down worshippers in the deadliest ever attack on Egyptian civilians by Islamic extremists.

An explosive device planted outside the mosque near Arish city went off, before militants opened fire at the prayers, an official security source told Xinhua. The attack occurred in the village of Rawda in Beir el-Abad, 40 km from Arish, the source added.

European Council President Donald Tusk said in a tweet that he was "appalled by the attack on a mosque in North #Sinai. My thoughts are with Egypt and all those affected by this evil and cowardly act".

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he would like to offer most sincere condolences to the people of Egypt and to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

"I condemn in the strongest possible terms this barbaric and cowardly act deliberately targeting peaceful and innocent people in their place of worship," Juncker said in a statement.

"Europe stands beside you in solidarity just as you have stood with us in the past," he added.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also denounced the attack in a statement. "No one should be killed because of their religion, no sacred place should be profaned by violence and terrorism. People of all religions...are united in the fight against terrorist violence," Mogherini said.

"Perpetrators of such unbearable acts must be held responsible," she said, adding that the EU "will continue to stand with the Egyptian authorities and people as they confront the threat from terrorism".

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian denounced the attack "with the strongest possible term".

"France stands resolutely with Egypt in this latest ordeal. We will continue to stand together in the fight against terrorism and fanaticism," he said in a statement.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Germany was appalled by the massacre and it stands firmly by Egypt's side, according to German dpa news agency.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this perfidious terrorism, which once again has not even spared places of worship and peaceful people of faith from its brutal atrocities," Gabriel said in a statement.

Swiss President Doris Leuthard expressed that "her thoughts are with the victims and their families".

The Swiss foreign ministry said Switzerland condemned in the strongest terms this further heinous act in Egypt's North Sinai province, as well as all others which targeted this country.

In these tragic circumstances, Switzerland extends its deepest sympathy to the victims' families; and it hopes for a quick and full recovery for all those who were injured in the attack, the ministry said in a statement.

Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar tweeted that he was "deeply saddened by the horrific attack". "This is a terrorist attack that deserves all condemnation. My thoughts are with the victims and their close ones," he wrote.

"We strongly condemn this hideous attack ... Our thoughts are with all those affected. Solidarity and condolences to the Egyptian people," the Slovenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, the Slovenian Press Agency reported.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) welcomes U.N. special envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura during a meeting in Moscow, Russia November 24, 2017. (REUTERS PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Progress has been made in achieving a political settlement in Syria and it is urgent to advance the process of intra-Syrian negotiation, representatives of Russia and the United Nations said on Friday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov exchanged views with visiting UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura about the latest international contacts on the Syrian issue and its possible political settlement, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

On Wednesday, presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to continue their joint efforts to facilitate a possible transition to a political settlement in Syria and restore peace and stability to the war-torn country.

"Particular emphasis was placed on the importance of building up international efforts to launch a comprehensive intra-Syrian negotiation process with the leading role of the United Nations based on the UN Security Council resolution 2254," a ministry statement said.

The two sides agreed to maintain close contact on the whole complex of Syrian issues, it added.

Later on Friday, the UN special envoy talked with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in a separate meeting and they discussed the organization of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress.

De Mistura said Russia has made many efforts to create the basis for the political settlement of the Syrian crisis.

They agreed that it is necessary to "arrange a political dialogue as soon as possible" as well as organize and conduct a political settlement process in Syria.

The Syrian National Dialogue Congress, proposed by Moscow in late October at Astana talks in Kazakhstan for Syrian settlement, is expected to bring together opposition and pro-government forces, as well as representatives of all Syrian ethnic and religious groups to work for the peace process in the country.

The date and participants of the congress have not been confirmed yet.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 06:06:23|Editor: ZD

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An activist participates in a protest in Chicago, the United States , on Nov. 24, 2017. Several dozens of activists staged a Black Friday protest and boycott stores in Chicago's busiest street for the third year in a row, to demand justice for minorities of police misconduct. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

CHICAGO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Several dozens of activists staged a Black Friday protest and boycott stores in Chicago's busiest street for the third year in a row, to demand justice for minorities of police misconduct.

Protesters gathered at Water Tower Place in downtown for a rally Friday morning before beginning to march down North Michigan Avenue, which is also called Mag Mile. They are asking shoppers to boycott stores, and they plan to block the doors of stores on the Mag Mile to get their message heard.

Holding slogans like 'Boycott Black Friday', 'Stop Police Crimes' and 'Black Lives Matter', protesters lined up in front of the Macys' and Nike store to intervene store's operation while police officers formed another line separating protesters from the store's main gate and let customers move freely.

The protest was peaceful and many of the customers said they can understand their proposal but it has little impact on their shopping and happy holiday atmosphere.

The protests started in 2015, with the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video that sparked days of protests on Chicago streets. Laquan was shot and killed by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014 as he was walking away from the officer, holding a knife. Activists say they're still waiting for justice. Van Dyke is facing murder charges in the case.

Fridays protest wasn't as big as those in years past, especially in 2015 over one thousand protesters took to the North Michigan Avenue to express their anger and call for more police accountability beyond body cameras and the newly formed Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli visits ZTE Corporation in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 30, 2015. Zhang made an inspection tour in Guangdong from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BAKU, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijan's Smart Systems Technology company and Chinese telecom giant ZTE signed an agreement here on Thursday to enhance cooperation in the telecommunications market of Azerbaijan.

As part of bilateral cooperation, the large projects implemented by Smart Systems Technology will make use of the Enterprise-class equipment, which will strengthen the position of the leading Chinese telecom equipment maker in the Azerbaijan market.

"Cooperation with ZTE will allow the company to expand coverage of broadband services both in Baku and in the country's rural areas in a short period of time," general director of Smart Systems Technology Firudin Akberov told local media.

"Based on the price-performance ratio of ZTE equipment, we will be able to expand the coverage of broadband services using GPON technology, which will also allow the development of IP-TV and telephony services," he said.

ZTE Vice President Yang Jun said that Smart Systems Technology has a huge technical and engineering potential, which was highly appreciated by ZTE.

ZTE is also a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the mobile Internet.

Azerbaijan's Smart Systems Technology is a software development and telecommunication solutions provider.
A worker passes by construction signs in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, on April 22, 2016. (Xinhua/Chen Junfeng)

MINSK, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- China will build as many as 22 apartment buildings for Belarus as part of the second stage of Belarus-China public welfare housing construction project.

A ceremony to launch the second stage of the project took place on Friday in Smolevichi, Minsk region. Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying, Belarusian Economy Minister Vladimir Zinovsky and Belarusian First Deputy Architecture and Construction Minister Alexander Kruchanov attended the ceremony.

During the second stage, 22 apartment houses with 1,854 apartments will be built in various parts of the country.

The Belarusian-Chinese public welfare housing construction project envisages building 58 apartment houses in Minsk and the regions in three stages. China intends to allocate about 102 million U.S. dollars for it.

With China's technical and economic assistance, the first stage has been completed with 1,432 apartments built in 16 houses across the country. The first stage took about two years to complete.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 06:26:30|Editor: yan

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RAMALLAH, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- The spokesperson of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party Nasser Qudwa said anti-Palestine laws in the U.S. are used by pro-Israeli lobbies against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representation in the country, but it is unlikely to shut down the office of PLO in Washington.

Qudwa warned in a special interview with Xinhua that shutting down the PLO office would bring harsh reaction from the Palestinians, although such a decision has not yet materialized as a final order.

"For us, closing down the office is something that is extremely negative, and that, of course, there is going to be a harsh reaction from the Palestinian side," he said. "We will see, but its going to be extremely negative development affecting everything effectively in the Palestinian-American relationship."

This shutdown order came in accordance with an 1987 anti-terrorism bill, passed by the U.S. Congress, that has set many restrictions on the PLO existence in the United States.

He went on explaining that the U.S. State Department is playing down the effect of former notification of the office shut down, which is also allowed under American law, in a period of 90 days, during which the U.S. President is allowed to sign a waiver for the office, but only for one year.

Qudwa described the context behind the shut down order as "a web of laws that are hostile to the Palestinian people and the PLO."

However, "the State Department is saying things that are a little bit more positive. For instance, yesterday (Tuesday), they said that they want to have this office, they want to keep it functioning, and they are looking into ways to do that," he pointed out.

With the hostile environment in the U.S. and the lack of a peace vision, the Palestinians have tried to take advantage of their new status in the UN and international legitimacy resolutions.

The experienced diplomat, who represented Palestine in the UN for the first time in 1987, became a permanent observer there between 1991 and 2005, said it is time for the Palestinians to focus on implementation tools of the UN Security Council resolution 2334, which states that "Israel's establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity."

"It has been barely a year since the Council adopted Security Council resolution 2334, which is very very important document, a very important legal tool and I think we should focus on the need to implement the resolution," he added.

Meanwhile, as Palestinian factions agreed to broaden the internal reconciliation process and work to hold general presidential and legislative elections during their recent Egypt-brokered talks in Cairo, the veteran Fatah strongman and former diplomat showed no high expectations.

When asked about the intra-Palestinian dialogue that took place in Cairo, he said: "our hope to make serious progress toward more efforts in this regard to enable us to achieve the goal of reunification and reconciliation between all in Palestine."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-25 07:01:37|Editor: Zhou Xin

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OTTAWA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) could be determined early next year when negotiators from the United States, Canada and Mexico meet in late January for a sixth round of talks to rework the tripartite trade deal, a Canadian official involved in drafting NAFTA has said.

Retired Canadian diplomat Colin Robertson, who also helped negotiate the pre-NAFTA Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the late 1980s, believes that if no significant progress is made on the most contentious issues early next year in the Canadian city of Montreal, NAFTA could be dead and its predecessor FTA could come back into force.

The fifth round of negotiations, which have concluded in Mexico City, produced no movement on such key areas of dispute as rules of origin in the automobile manufacturing industry, and raised the question of whether "the Americans are serious or are looking for an excuse to exit," Robertson told Xinhua in an interview.

Following the end of the Mexico talks this week, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement that American negotiators "have seen no evidence that Canada or Mexico are willing to seriously engage on provisions that will lead to a rebalanced agreement" and that "absent rebalancing, we will not reach a satisfactory result."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters here that Canada "simply cannot agree to" some "extreme proposals" from the the United States.

"Our approach is to hope for the best and prepare for the worst and Canada certainly is prepared for every eventuality," she said.

Mexico, Canada and the United States have been renegotiating NAFTA since August, at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has alleged that the 23-year-old agreement has harmed his country and has threatened to withdraw from it.

The Trump administration wants to raise the minimum threshold for autos to 85 percent North American content from 62.5 percent as well as to require half of vehicle content to be from the United States.

Canada and Mexico as well as all North American carmakers and autoworkers unions oppose both proposals.

The Americans also want to eliminate the dispute-resolution mechanism under NAFTA, which has implications for Canada regarding its ongoing cross-border conflict with Washington over Canadian softwood lumber exports to the U.S. and the Boeing-Bombardier feud that affects both countries' aerospace sectors.

In addition, the United States seeks to have a five-year sunset clause included in NAFTA in which the trade pact could terminate if all three countries fail to renew the revised agreement after five years.

Robertson said that such a clause could discourage investment from companies that typically seek a 15-to-25-year timeframe to realize some returns.

Canada's participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, its trade agreement with the European Union (EU) and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's upcoming trip to China to advance exploratory talks for a trade deal could "send a signal to the U.S. that Canada has other options" for trade agreements, said Robertson.

Should NAFTA fall apart and the Trump White House rejects the Canada-U.S. FTA, both countries would revert to most favored nation status.

Robertson said that under that basic trade arrangement, "tariffs would be applied to most things Canada sells to the U.S." and vice versa, and it could mean that it would be cheaper for Canada to buy tariff-free goods from Europe through the free trade agreement Canada has with the EU.
BEIJING - President Xi Jinping on Friday sent a congratulatory message to Zimbabwe's new president Emmerson Mnangagwa, a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Xi said in the congratulatory message that China and Zimbabwe are good friends, partners and brothers. Bilateral ties have withstood the test of time and changing international situation.

China values the traditional friendship with Zimbabwe and stands ready to work together for strengthening all-round cooperation and advancing bilateral ties, so as to bring benefits to the two countries and two peoples, according to spokesperson Geng Shuang.

Mnangagwa was sworn in as the president of Zimbabwe Friday.
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Cable TV providers and telephone companies once operated on completely different planes. The cable TV companies focused pretty much exclusively on CATV subscriptions; telcos focused on providing businesses and residential customers with phone service.





Then, the idea of video-on-demand became popular, and the VoD battle began. VoD is widespread now, but it wasnt ready to roll at that point, until the Internet arrived and changed the playing field. It was then that the cablecos and telcos took off in a new direction, focusing their efforts on rolling out broadband networks and services for faster Internet access.

That led to a telco industry debate about how and to what extent to use fiber. AT&T (News - Alert) early on decided it would supplement its copper network with some fiber. For new builds, it said, it might use fiber throughout. However, Verizon laid out much more aggressive plans, including bringing fiber all the way to the home in select areas.

All of this was to support new broadband services, sure, but Verizon (News - Alert), at that time, justified its fiber investment by emphasizing the savings it would yield. Maintaining fiber, the company said so many years ago, is much less expensive than maintaining copper. Fiber is also much more reliable, it explained.

Verizon is making a similar argument as it works to replace copper with fiber today. The fact that some of its copper infrastructure has been damaged from major weather events, like Hurricane Sandy in 2012, provide the company with the perfect opportunity to do it.

The companys network suffered $1 billion in damages from the storm and the floods it created. You may remember national news outlets showing images of the companys flooded New York switching center. Some of the companys New Jersey switch facilities were also damaged.

The company has made a lot of improvements since then. One of them has been to upgrade these facilities from copper to fiber. Kevin Service, senior vice president of network operators at Verizon, recently told FierceTelecom that fiber is more resilient to floods than is copper. With fiber, he said, the outside plant report rate is about a tenth of what it is on the copper network.

Meanwhile, a 2014 Ars Technica article notes that fiber optics also is a safer medium because it doesnt conduct lightning and you dont have to worry about crossing fiber wires with electrical wires. But, it suggests that copper is more reliable than fiber in a power outage. Thats because copper conducts electricity and fiber doesnt.

In any case, fiber is clearly the way of the future. In fact, just earlier this month the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules making it easier for telcos to replace copper with fiber.

This language comes directly from the FCCs Nov. 16, 2017, press release announcing these changes:

One set of changes approved govern access to utility poles and conduits, which can be a costly and time-consuming barrier to broadband deployment. Changes include rules that:

Reduce costs faced by broadband providers by barring pole owners from charging for certain costs they have already recovered from others (called make-ready fees).

Speed resolution of pole attachment disputes by the FCCs (News - Alert) Enforcement Bureau through use of a 180-day shot clock.

Allow local providers equal access to each others poles.

Another set of reforms revise rules that needlessly delay or even stop companies from replacing copper with fiber and that delay discontinuance of technologies from the 1970s in favor of services using Internet Protocol (IP) technologies. The reforms will:

Allow providers to notify customers, including federal agencies, earlier of upcoming network changes and copper retirements.

Reduce consumer confusion and carrier burden caused by duplicative Commission-mandated copper retirement notices.

Speed the timeframe for upgrading copper to fiber.

Expedite applications filed by carriers seeking to: (1) stop taking new customers for low-speed voice and data services; (2) discontinue previously grandfathered low-speed data services; and (3) discontinue low-speed services for which there are no customers.

Eliminate section 214(a) discontinuance requirements for solely wholesale services.

Reverse a 2014 interpretation that diverted investment from next-generation networks by requiring carriers to receive FCC approval before upgrading legacy services.

Edited by Erik Linask
Nigeria on Thursday in Abuja emerged as the new Chair of the Gulf of Guinea Commission, GGC.

At the 4th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the GGC, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo called on member states to urgently address the socio-economic and security challenges facing the commission.

He said the members would achieve this by collectively taking measures to check violations of domestic and international treaties in the Gulf.

The vice president identified the challenges facing the commission to include a rise in maritime insurance premiums for vessels coming into the Gulf, increased threats and reduced commercial traffic to the region as well as unregulated and unreported fishing.

He also charged the member states to take measures to reduce pollution and environmental degradation in the Gulf of Guinea.

In conformity with the theme of the 4th Ordinary Session which is; A Vibrant Gulf of Guinea Region for sustainable Development, let us renew our commitment to making the Gulf of Guinea more effective and a truly vibrant partner in all our efforts, be it regional, national or international, to ensure a zone of peace, security and sustainable development for our countries, our peoples and other stakeholders in the region.

He, however, lauded the individual efforts of some of the member states who improved the capacities and capability of their Navy and other relevant organisations to enable them perform their duties more effectively.

The vice president commended ECOWAS and Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS/CEEAC) for establishing maritime regional centres for maritime security.

This effort is capped by the establishment of the inter-regional coordination centre based in Yaounde, Cameroun, as the collaborative link between the two maritime regional centres led by ECOWAS and ECCAS.

He called on the member states to always fulfil their financial dues and obligations to the commission to ensure effective operation and performance of the Commission.

The vice president, who lauded staff of the GGC secretariat for their untiring efforts in sustaining the commission, congratulated Ghana for being a new member of the Gulf of Guinea Commission.

In his remarks, the National Security Adviser to the President, Babagana Monguno, observed that the meeting was a framework for consultations among the countries of the GCC.

According to him, current situation in the Gulf of Guinea region especially the surge in illegal activities of piracy, illicit drugs, arms and human trafficking, illegal immigration, environmental pollution and degradation calls for greater attention from member countries to curb these activities.

Suffice it to say that maritime security and economic prosperity are interdependent and mutually re-enforcing.

The NSA maintained that an improvement of Maritime security could positively contribute to increased national, regional and continental stability and by the same token make a sustainable contribution to global security.

He noted that Nigeria on its part had continued to develop the capacity of its armed forces particularly the Navy and other Maritime agencies to effectively tackle these challenges.

He said: Indeed, the surveillance capabilities of the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency are being developed to ensure a secure environment within the domain as well as in the Gulf of Guinea.

Similarly, the Nigerian Navy has been maintaining a strong presence in Maritime area with a band configuration and operations capabilities to deal with surface, air and underwater threats.

In addition, the Nigerian Navy has been cooperating with neighbouring countries and allies in Nigerias Maritime area of interest with a view to pursue security and safety.

He said other measures being implemented include: employment of the robust maritime domain awareness capability through the employment of the original maritime awareness capability and the Falcon Eye Project; activation of a Naval Taskforce to combat piracy and related attacks on shipping and oil and gas infrastructure.

Others, according to him, are the establishment of 37 check points by the Nigerian Navy to ensure continuous presence and monitoring of crude oil thefts in the Niger Delta area; the conduct of regular sea exercises by the Nigerian Navy such as exercise Eagle Eye, to improve its state of readiness and proficiency.

Mr. Monguno disclosed that Nigeria had also prepared the draft anti-piracy bill to give effect to the relevant provisions of the United Nations Conventions of the Law of the Sea of 1982 and the Convention for the Suppression of Illegal Acts at Sea 1982 and its protocol of 2005 to punish and deter piracy and other maritime crimes.

Nigeria has ascribed to the continents maritime charter on maritime security safety and development in Africa, this was done on 15th of October, 2016 with the aim of strengthening the inter-agency for national coordination and cooperation to tackle maritime issues for the region.

Nigeria has also ratified The United Nations Organised Crime Convention which enjoins parties to criminalize practices and combat that subject human beings to all forms of exploitation.

Nigeria has adopted a strategic framework such as the 2015 Africas Integrated Maritime Strategy and the Yaounde Code of Conduct for the repression of piracy and other illicit maritime activities within the Gulf of Guinea.

He noted that the security challenges confronting the member states of the GGC which had continued to impact negatively on the development of the region, called for concerted and unrelenting efforts by all stakeholders.

The NSA observed that the Gulf of Guinea provided a verifiable platform to tackling these numerous security challenges.

He, therefore, called for increased cooperation and collaboration among member states as well as support for the GGC to enhance its capacity to deliver on its mandate.

The Executive Secretary of the GGC, Florentine Ukonga, called on member states to support the proposed Revitalisation Strategy of the GGC, saying that under the proposal the secretariat would establish five new committees for effective management of the commission.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that members of the GGC, which was established by the Treaty signed in Libreville, Gabon, on July 3, 2001 included Cameroon, Togo, Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe and Ghana.
Members of the Senate from the southern part of Nigeria on Friday began a conference on the governance and political structure of the country.

The two-day retreat by the Southern Senators Forum, which is holding in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, was tagged, National Unity and Restructuring.

In his keynote address at the opening session of the event, Depute President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, called for patience, more enlightenment and dialogue to actualise the restructuring of Nigeria.

He blamed opposition to restructuring to misconception and ethno-sectional suspicions.

Ekweremadu likened Nigeria to a vast building expected to accommodate a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious and politically diverse people, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Uche Anichukwu.

He said, To ensure equity, justice and prosperity of the various families and sections; and to allay fears of possible domination, our founding fathers settled for a federal constitution or structure after various conferences on the type of building, the architectural design, number of rooms and rules of cohabitation.

Sadly, the rain started beating us from that fateful January coup, especially following the violation of the covenant of our fathers by the promulgation of Unitary Decree 1966. Although the July 1966 counter-coup was, among other things, predicated on the need to correct the General Aguyi Ironsis misadventure, subsequent regimes after him have steadily and deliberately corrupted the architectural design and undone all the foundations laid by the founding fathers.
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Moroccan authorities are taking the necessary measures to repatriate the migrants who are held by human trafficking networks in Libya, their crossing point to Italian coasts, Spokesperson for the government Mustapha El Khalfi said.

The Libyan army has freed several Moroccans, estimated at more than 200 people, from the yoke of the criminal networks and placed them in detention centers pending their repatriation to Morocco, El Khalfi told the press following the weekly cabinet meeting Thursday.

He said the ministry in charge of the Moroccans living abroad and migration is coordinating with Libyan authorities to take back the Moroccan nationals stuck in Libya.

This is a priority issue for the government, which is making sure to bring back the Moroccan nationals held in Libya in best conditions.

Libyas porous borders and its proximity to Italian coasts have offered propitious conditions for the surge of illegal migration attempts organized by human trafficking networks. But the tightening of security conditions and the ill-treatment received by migrants in the war-torn country have considerably led to a shift in illegal migration routes to Algeria and Morocco.

Yesterday, Tunisian authorities announced that they have saved 22 illegal migrants at sea, including 9 Moroccans, who have embarked from Libyan coasts with the hope of reaching Italy. Other migrants include Tunisians, Egyptians, Sudanese, Bangladeshis and Nigerians.

In September, 1400 illegal migrants landed in Italy, said the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Last year, the UN said that 5000 migrants perished in the Mediterranean while trying to make the perilous crossing from Africa to southern Europe.
Once a Royal Palace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and laying at the foot of the Western High-Atlas mountains, the edifice will soon be turned into a landmark resort adding to the tourist attraction of Moroccos second tourist destination, Agadir, Moroccan media outlets reported.

The palace, 20 km north of Agadir, was established by the late Saudi Defense Minister before being sold to the Emir of Qatar for 150 million dollars, who in turn presented it as a gift to King Mohammed VI in 2014.

According to Moroccan media, the palace is undergoing a face-lift to become one of the main resorts in Agadir.

The plan is to transform the palace -which stretches over a surface area of 45 hectares, including 37 hectares of green space- into a luxury hotel with a marina and a corniche as well as other tourist facilities.

The project will create job opportunities for the locals in the nearby village of Aourir and will add to the momentum witnessed in the Atlantic coast north of Agadir.
The second African Trade and Investment summit held this week in Ifrane wound up on a tone of support for Moroccos membership in the Economic Community of West African States.

The participants in the event, notably investors and businessmen from across the continent and beyond, expressed their support for Moroccos bid to join the West African economic bloc in recommendation number 22 of the final document, which they intend to submit to all African heads of state.

According to participants, such a membership will give a boost to regional integration efforts as part of a win-win approach and in line with the recommendation of the African Union for the creation of integrated free trade zones in the continent.

Such an integration will be conducive for the free movement of persons, goods and services between African countries in view of the upcoming adoption of the African passport.

The final statement of the summit also stressed the importance of air transport and called for lowering air travel costs between African states.

After its triumphal return to the African Union, Morocco applied in March 2016 to join the ECOWAS. Before submitting its application, King Mohammed VI paid visits to the countries in the region where Morocco is already one of the largest investors.

Morocco opted to look southwards and reached out to its partners in West Africa with whom it has been building partnerships on a sound foundation underpinned by a south-south cooperation approach.

Moroccos bid to join ECOWAS is, therefore, a continuation of a decades-long process of fostering ties with the countries of the region.

The admission of Morocco to the ECOWAS sub-region will make it the second largest economy after Nigeria. Thanks to its geographic location and trade agreements with the EU, Turkey, the US and several Arab countries as well as its port and airport hubs, Morocco will offer West African countries a gateway to new markets.

With the inclusion of Morocco, the ECOWAS will bolster its aggregated GDP to the 16th rank globally ahead of Turkey and right after Indonesia.
The terror attack perpetrated on a mosque in Egypts restive northern Sinai during the Friday prayers recorded the heaviest toll ever among civilians in the province.

At least 235 people were killed and another 109 injured in the attack on the Al Rawdah mosque, situated in the village of Al Rawdah between Bir Al-Abed and the city of Al-Arish,

Egyptian state-run Nile TV reported.

According to state-owned Ahram Online, at least two explosions were heard, before gunmen stationed outside the mosque started firing at worshipers who were trying to flee. They also fired at ambulances rushing the wounded to hospital, according to local media.

The attack has not been claimed yet but fingers are pointed at the groups affiliated to the Islamic state, as Egyptian security forces face almost daily attacks from ISIS-aligned militants, whom they have been battling in northern Sinai for several years, and especially after the bloody overthrow of elected President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. Mosques were relatively spared as the militant attacks have mostly targeted security and police forces.

Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who convened an emergency security meeting and declared three days of mourning, described the attack as criminal and cowardly, and pledged it will not go unpunished.

Several world leaders have condemned the terrifying crime as barbaric, horrible, cowardly despicable and heinous, denouncing extremism and terrorism.
Flypped? Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Michael Flynn is itching for some snitching. Or so his lawyers have led the presidents legal team to believe.

On the night before Thanksgiving, Flynns attorneys notified Trumps that they could no longer discuss the special investigation into Russian interference in last years election. The presidents lawyers took the call as a sign that Trumps former national security adviser is, at the very least, negotiating with special counsel Robert Mueller over the possibility of turning states witness, according to the New York Times.

That suspicion is sound. Its common for defense attorneys representing different clients targeted by the same investigation to share information with each other. But once the interests of those clients diverge  say, because one is trying to rat out the other to keep his (large adult) son out of prison  then such chatter becomes unethical. If Flynn has decided to formally consider cooperating with prosecutors, then it would be standard practice for his lawyers to quit talking shop with Trumps team.

Its possible that Flynn is merely in discussions with Muellers office, and that those talks will ultimately fall through. Theres also a small chance that Flynns lawyers are freezing out Trumps for an entirely unrelated reason.

But the evidence points to Flynn flipping. Earlier this month, NBC News reported that Mueller has enough evidence to bring charges against Trumps former national security adviser. This makes sense: Flynn was on the Turkish governments payroll for most of the 2016 campaign, a fact he failed to disclose until after he left the White House. Mueller has already indicted Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort for similar failures of disclosure. Further, Flynns early exit from the White House was triggered by lies he told to the FBI.

Last December, Flynn spoke to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak about U.S. sanctions against the Putin regime. In January, he told federal investigators that he had done no such thing. Unfortunately for Flynn, Kislyak was under routine surveillance by the U.S. government, and a recording of their phone call exposed his fib (eventually, the Washington Post did, too). Lying to the FBI is a federal crime, one that Mueller nailed former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos for, before securing his cooperation.

The special counsel is also eyeing Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., for offenses far more severe. Last December, the Flynns allegedly took a meeting with agents of the Turkish government, in which they discussed arranging the extrajudicial rendition (a.k.a. kidnapping) of a legal U.S. resident in exchange for $15 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. That resident was Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric turned American charter-school founder whom Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed for the failed coup attempt against his regime in July 2016.

At the time the coup was in motion, Flynn praised it. Erdogan might have been democratically elected, but he was also an Islamist with authoritarian tendencies, and thus, Flynn reasoned, his ouster would be worth clapping for. Then, the coup failed  and Flynn Intel Group won a lucrative contract with allies of the Erdogan regime. On Election Day, Flynn wrote an op-ed calling for Gulens extradition. Months later, as the incoming national security adviser, he was allegedly considering extraditing the Pennsylvania resident himself, with the aid of his son. According to the Times, Flynn has expressed serious concerns to friends that prosecutors will bring charges against his son, Michael Flynn Jr. in recent weeks.

So, Flynn has plenty of motivation to make himself useful to the feds. And he almost certainly has information theyd find interesting. Flynn was an early high-ranking member of the Trump campaign, and played a lead role in the transition. During the latter period, Flynn and the presidents son-in-law, Jared Kushner, took a private meeting with Kislyak. Mueller is reportedly investigating that interaction.

In other news, President Trump told the Coast Guard on Thursday that his administration would never share its best military equipment with other countries  including Americas allies  because even if theyre allies, you never know about an ally; an ally can turn.
Anti-Mugabe protesters gather in Harares Unity Square on November 21, 2017. Photo: TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe fired his deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa earlier this month, clearing a path for his wife, Grace, to succeed him with Trumpesque subtlety. That proved a bridge too far for both the military and his ZANU-PF party, the underwriters of the 93-year-old dictators nearly four decades in power. Mugabe resigned on Tuesday after both pillars of his authority turned on him, while Mnangagwa, who fled the country to escape an alleged plot against his life, is expected to take over the presidency within 48 hours.

For a 37-year dictatorship to end without bloodshed is no small miracle. Africas other most famous post-colonial dictators  like Ugandas Idi Amin, Libyas Muammar Qaddafi, and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo)  required wars to dislodge them, and none of these cases led to freedom and democracy. Uganda has come a long way since Amin was deposed in 1979, but it has now had the same president (Yoweri Museveni) for 31 years. Freedom Houses 2017 report on the state of freedom in the world actually labels Uganda as not free, whereas Zimbabwe is considered partly free.

As for Libya and DR Congo, the collapse of their longterm dictatorships led to devastating wars that turned these countries into failed states for years to come. With past as precedent, to see Zimbabwe remove Mugabe nonviolently is a heartening development. It gives the country a much better chance at coming out of this transition a freer country than it was a week ago. It has certainly raised hopes of more honest elections being held there in the future.

But theres also a good chance those hopes will be dashed.

Just as many in the western media have been taken in by Saudi Arabias palace coup masquerading as a genuine drain the swamp anti-corruption project, those cheering on the Zimbabwean military for putting Mugabe under house arrest and convincing him to finally cede his office may be putting too much faith in the people who made this happen. Both the ZANU-PF and the military want Mnangagwa, not Grace Mugabe, to be their next leader; they are less concerned about whether he uses that position to democratize Zimbabwe or not. In fact, they might not appreciate it if he does.

Zimbabwe, after all, has never exactly been a free country. The white colonial leaders of what was then Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence in 1965 (citing the precedent of 1776), but Britain did not grant the country independence until 1980, when Mugabe took power. In the interim, nationalist militias including Mugabes ZANU battled the white settler government in a brutal civil war. There literally was no Zimbabwe on the map before Mugabe put it there, and hes only leaving now because he has lost the support of the army. His party is set to remain in power under new management.

Part of the reason Mugabe lost the army is that he has run the country about as far into the ground as it can bear to go. Corruption and mismanagement under the Mugabe regime  including his theoretically just but economically destructive land reforms that seized white farmers property and redistributed it to landless black Zimbabweans  turned the nation from Africas agricultural powerhouse of the 20th century to an economic basket case in the 21st. In light of how bad things got under Mugabe, even something less than full democracy would still be a huge improvement over his geronto-kleptocracy.

In other words, even if Mnangagwa doesnt make Zimbabwe all that much more democratic, if he is more competent, less greedy, and less brutal than Mugabe, thats still a small win for the country. The Trump administration isnt likely to make guiding Zimbabwe onto a more democratic course a priority. But even if it did, Zimbabwes biggest foreign trade partner, investor, and influence is China, not the U.S.

Thats all the more reason to doubt whether Zimbabwes future will be free. China values stability in its African clients, not democracy. It has stood behind ruthless dictators like Qaddafi and Sudans Omar al-Bashir as long as they keep handing out oil contracts to Chinese firms. While these relationships have forced Beijing to get more involved in African politics and wars than it had intended, its objectives there remain economic, not political. Mindful of the lessons of Libya, where it paid a price for sticking with Qaddafi and lost those precious contracts after he fell, China wont stand in the way of Zimbabwes deep state replacing the aging Mugabe, but it is unlikely to demand much of Mnangagwa in the way of reform, as long as he keeps the country open for business.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development has finally got a place where small-scale gold miners that were evicted from Mubende about three months ago can operate.

Vincent Kedi, the ministry's principal engineer, said they have called back all miners for registration so that they can resume their businesses without disruption. We have demarcated 10 square kilometers where they will operate from. But this time, they will have to be organised and also pay government taxes, he said.

However, he is non-committal on how much government expects to collect as royalties from these miners. Kedi said this at the recent national stakeholders dialogue on artisanal and small-scale mining at Hotel Africana.

It was organised by Global Rights Alert, a non-governmental organization that seeks to promote good governance of Uganda's natural resources; SaferWorld, an independent organisation working to prevent violent conflict, and the ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.

In August this year, government deployed a joint force comprising the police, UPDF and military police to evict about 60,000 people who were carrying out small-scale gold mining in the area. The evicted people were given two hours to leave the area they had occupied for five years.

Kedi said that, this time, they only have space for 2,000 who will be strictly monitored to en- sure they don't cross from their allocated area.

Vincent Kinene, the Mubende district environmental officer, welcomed the ministry's move, noting that artisanal miners had greatly contributed to the economic development of the area.

Companies that were given mining leases were not con- tributing to Mubende's development, but I believe that once artisans return, they will be able to pay taxes and that will be used to construct schools, health facilities and roads, he said.

He added that Mubende district used to get about Shs 300m per year from other businesses associated with artisanal miners.

Emmanuel Kibirige, the chairman of Ssingo Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners Association, is not enthusiastic about the new development. He pointed out that the new place where they have been sent is a wetland, has no gold, has several trees and is already occupied by other people.

He wondered how miners with no excavators would be sent to such an area. Kibirige asked government to allow them back to Lujinji where they were operating at first.

Florence Namayanja, the Bukoto East MP, demanded to know from Kedi why thousands of people would be evicted for the sake of a single investor.

We went to Mubende when the eviction was being enforced and, my God, people were suffering! Parents could not locate their children and a lot of property worth millions was lost... But who is this person the government is protecting? How could they even think of doing such a thing? she asked.

But Kedi said the situation in Mubende had gone out of control and that's why an eviction was inevitable, promising that such a thing will never happen again.

tusiime.chris20@gmail.com
Members of the Uganda Electricity and Allied Workers Union (UEAWU) have accused the executive committee of failure to provide the unions financial standing for over five years.



In a petition before the ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, they blame the unions secretariat for failure to organize annual general meetings or a single delegates conference since 2012. UEAWU membership includes employees from different companies including Umeme, Eskom Uganda Limited and Uganda Electricity Transition Company Limited (UETCL), among others.







The September 11, 2017 letter is copied to the head of human resource, Umeme limited, secretary general of the National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU), UEAWU general secretary and the director of industrial labour relations, which falls under the ambit of the Labour ministry.



The secretariat has failed to check gross mismanagement and embezzlement of the unions funds coupled with lack of accountability. Absence of annual delegates conferences implies that all the budgets have not been approved by the supreme body...the account and statement are never prepared and kept in accordance with generally acceptable financial regulations and are hardly audited, reads part of the petition.



We the undersigned [in this petition] demand for an investigation in respect of the gross mismanagement of the unions funds and property, an interim committee that shall be mandated to restore confidence in existing members and also woo back those who exited.



The revelation puts NOTU under close scrutiny over its reluctance to take action because UEAWU is one of its 20 labour affiliates. NOTU coordinates and supervises the activities of labour unions. In one of the correspondences seen by The Observer, Joseph Ndawula, the acting UEAWU national treasurer, told members the committee is doing its best with auditors to conclude audit of books from 2011 to 2017.



Accounts concluded are 2011, 2012 and 2013 and 2014 is in final stages, Ndawula said.



From Umeme alone, for example, documents show that UEAWU receives about Shs 15 million in monthly remittances. This means that over the past five years without financial records, Umeme employees estimate the figure to be about Shs 1 billion unaccounted for by UEAWU.



SUSPEND REMITTANCES



In their letter to Umeme managing director, Selestino Babungi, the unionized staff of Umeme, requested that the monthly deductions from their earnings be suspended until investigation into the conduct of the secretariat is completed.



We hereby request Umeme management to immediately stop remitting out monthly union subscription to UEAWU until our petition has been resolved, the letter reads in part.

One of the petitioners, Cedrick Sserubiri, said their request to suspend monthly remittances was not granted by Umeme.

They have never stopped remitting the monthly subscription to the union. They brought up a lot of legal issues that they have a contract with the union, he said.



However, Sandor Walusimbi, Umeme spokesman, remained cagey about the situation but said Umeme had communicated to the aggrieved workers.

Sam Lyomoki, a Workers MP, said Umeme cant decline a request from workers to suspend monthly remittance because they should first get consent from workers before remitting their money to the union.

The workers can actually go to court if they (Umeme) fail to grant their request, he said.

When The Observer reached out to Wilson Owere, the NOTU chairman, he said there is need for an urgent meeting to solve the impasse.

I have not seen this letter from the trade union. But in such a circumstance, we would urgently call the secretary general to a meeting and we try to arbitrate between the workers complaining, he said.

alitwaha@observer.ug
Five directors and three editors of The Red Pepper publications are charged with treason, offensive communication and disturbing the peace of President Yoweri Museveni, Security Minister Henry Tumukunde and Museveni's brother Gen Salim Saleh.



Those facing charges include directors, Arinaitwe Rugyendo, Patrick Mugumya, Johnson Musinguzi, Richard Tusiime and James Mujuni and editors Ben Byarabaha, Richard Kintu and Francis Tumusiime. They are all detained at Nalufenya prison in Jinja district.



The group was arrested on Tuesday evening following the publication of a story published on November 20, headlined; "M7 plotting to overthrow Kagame - Rwanda."



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs later swiftly dismissed the story as a reproduction of a malicious article by a Rwandan online publication "Rushyashya" of an alleged plan by the Ugandan government to overthrow Rwanda President Paul Kagame.

Police van outside Red Pepper offices

Ministry permanent secretary, Ambassador Patrick Mugoya, said the two countries are currently enjoying strong and cordial relations. He described the publications as "mischievous at best, irresponsible at worst and meant to sow discord between our two nations."Dickens Byamukama, one of the company lawyers told URN that the directors were brought back to Namanve yesterday where a charge and caution statement was read for them.In a charge and caution statement, a detective reads to the suspect the charges they intend to prefer, the suspects are asked whether he accepts the statement or not. It also means that the detectives have made up their minds to charge the suspects with the offences disclosed in the investigations."According to the charge and caution statement read to them, they will be charged with offensive communication, disturbing the peace of president Museveni, Salim Saleh and Security Minister Henry Tumukunde. The main charge preferred against them is treason," Byamukama said.The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will, however, have a final say on the charges that the journalists face. After investigations, detectives will submit their files to the DPP.When asked why police included disturbing peace of President Museveni on the caution and charge statement, Police spokesperson, Emilian Kayima said; "I have not looked at the charge and caution statement. I don't want to speculate."Byamukama says after yesterday's search the directors were taken back to Nalufenya. He says police promised to return them today as the search continues.
Opposition working on minority report



A critical assessment of witnesses who appeared before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee to give views on the age limit bill shows a slight majority want the 75-year cap removed.

Igara West MP Raphael Magyezi drafted the bill seeking to scrap presidential age limits from the Constitution. On Tuesday, the committee finalized hearings in which 34 individuals and groups participated. At least 18 supported the removal of the age limits while those against the removal were 12.

The committee had initially invited more than 60 stakeholders, including political, religious and civil society organisations as well as opposition legislators but many declined the offer. Makerere University law dons described the process an illegality while some said it was already a done deal.

Others who declined to appear include Uganda Law Society (ULS), Dr Kizza Besigye; Inter Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU); former premier Prof Apolo Nsibambi and political parties FDC, UPC and Peoples Progressive Party (PPP).

Chairman Jacob Oboth-Oboth presiding over the committee

Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission, Uganda Law Reform Commission and Equal Opportunities Commission had no clear position on the amendments and remained neutral.



REMOVE AGE LIMITS

Among those who supported the amendments were Magyezi, Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Kahinda Otafiire, NRM Deputy Secretary General Richard Todwong, youth pressure group Kick All Age Limits Out of the Constitution (KALOC), Rtd Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi (NRM Veterans) and Prof Tarsis Kabwegyere.

In their presentations, these groups opined that the current provisions in Article 102 (b) limit participation in electoral politics and are discriminatory in nature.

Todwong, for instance caused uproar when he insinuated that the clause on presidential age limit was smuggled into the Constitution.

However, his assertion was discredited by Dr Rugunda, who told the committee that all the provisions in the Constitution were debated and agreed upon by Constituent Assembly delegates, including himself as a representative of Kabale municipality.



NO AMENDMENT

The 12 witnesses who opposed age limit removal include Amanya Mushega, Prof Fredrick Ssempebwa, Peter Mulira, Prof Venansius Baryamureeba, Prof George Kanyeihamba, Leader of Opposition Winnie Kiiza and DP leader Norbert Mao, among others.

In their opinion, the amendments provide an avenue for President Museveni to easily breeze through the 2021 presidential election without legal inhibition.

Norbert Mao with Ken Lukyamuzi before the committee

Wilfred Niwagaba, the Shadow Attorney General, told The Observer that the absence of key stakeholders in the consultations raises doubts about the credibility of the whole process.

Many of those invited to the committee were simply parroting the same message as the NRM party and the process of smuggling the bill would not have been endorsed by right thinking members of society, he said.

The bill was not brought in good faith but to favour specific individuals. We respect the fact that they declined to be part of this process, marred with illegality. We plan to capture this in our minority report, he added.



REGIONAL CONSULTATIONS

By press time yesterday, some committee members were holed up in a meeting with the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to endorse their five-region consultative meetings on the bill, budgeted at Shs 700 million.

As a committee, we agreed to go and meet the people upcountry but since we do not have the funds, we need the speakers counsel on the way forward, one of the MPs said.



eyotaru@gmail.com
Emails have emerged showing how Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa and his wife Edith allegedly attempted to get what is believed to have been Crane Bank sold to a Chinese energy enterprise days before the central bank seized the Ugandan institution.

Recent revelations in a US court show how Kutesa was given $500,000 (Shs 1.8 billion) as part of an international plot to advance the Chinese firms business interests in Africa, specifically Ugandas energy and financial sectors.

Details of this transaction emerged following last weekends (November 18) arrest of Chi Ping Patrick Ho, a former home secretary of Hong Kong and head of a non-governmental organisation funded by the Chinese conglomerate.

Ho is now in US custody along with Cheikh Gadio, a former foreign affairs minister of Senegal, on charges of international money laundering, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to commit both crimes sometime between 2014 and last year. These crimes attract a 20-year jail sentence in the US.

Minister Sam Kutesa

It is alleged that Ho bribed Chadian president Idris Deby as well as Kutesa, and also gave gifts to and promised financial rewards to President Museveni.Kutesa was on Thursday quoted by Daily Monitor as rubbishing the bribery allegations.

The foundation does exist, it receives support and donations from well-wishers. Calling this a bribe is utter nonsense, he reportedly said in a text message referring to the $500,000 donation to a charity linked to him.

Don Wanyama, the senior presidential press secretary, had earlier described the dragging of the presidents name into this case as madness, saying Musevenis ideological orientation puts him above such.

Emails covered in documents before US magistrate judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox in New York city show a trail of Edith Kutesas correspondence with Ho. Her husband, who was president of the UN General Assembly (PGA) at the time, was copied-in.

The documents indicate that Ho promised Kutesa future benefits in exchange for help in acquiring a Ugandan commercial bank which was bought in January 2017 by another commercial bank.

The only transaction in Uganda fitting that description is the sale of Sudhir Ruparelias Crane Bank by Bank of Uganda to dfcu Bank.

Around March 17, 2015, the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) says that Kutesas wife emailed Ho stating, Dear Patrick... It was so nice to have such quality time to talk and discuss about different opportunities of investing in East Africa and Uganda in particular. Thank you so much, we enjoyed having youWe talked about the banking sector with possibility of acquiring a bank creating a direct link between our currencies, a project for which I would be happy to facilitate and we should discuss this further when we meet in HK  I hope and wish that my message finds you well and thank you again for your time, the gifts and willingness to help me.

On February 29, 2016, the court documents say that she reminded the Chinese of the financial vacuum a global bank, which some reports have named as Barclays, had created after departing Africa.

Considering the growing trade between China and Africa, this is a great opportunity in the banking sector in Africa, she wrote.

Two months later in May,2016, after a Chinese delegation attended the swearing-in of President Museveni in Kampala, Ho emailed Edith thanking her for hosting them and said: We are very enthusiastic about the prospect of joint venture in Uganda.

Ho further stated that they were very interested in acquiring controlling shares of this global banks branch in Uganda, and that they needed the Kutesas help in going about this.

This will be our first priority and please work with us to accomplish this, he wrote.

On May, 27, 2016, Edith replied, we appreciate your interest in Uganda and excited to work together. The same day, Ho answered, saying that the energy company would like to partner with Kutesas family and Musevenis local operators.

The key is to get the bank in Uganda up and running to become the first offshore renminbi (Chinese currency) exchange centre in Africa, Ho wrote.

Then we can establish relationship through this bank in Uganda with other banks in China and banks in Europe and this route [for] cash flow to Africa would enable us to invest in a host of ventures.

Enter Crane Bank

Other emails referring to a global bank followed until mid-October when, according to the FBI, Kutesas wife contacted Ho to announce the opportunity of actually acquiring a Ugandan bank.

According to Hos indictment papers, on October 13, 2016, she sent Ho an email titled Opportunity to invest in banking sector .

Therein she stated that the central bank official you met during your visit has contacted us to inform you about the possible acquisition of a local bank but as you know, selling a bank is a very confidential and urgent process.

In the email, she provided the website of the Ugandan bank which was to be bought and instructed Ho to express the energy companys interest by sending a letter to the Deputy Governor of Bank of Uganda, Louis Kasekende.

It is imperative that that letter is sent by close of business today through email, she said. In the mean time I would love to talk to you on phone.

The FBI asserts that Ho forwarded this email to another employee whom he instructed to write to Kasekende. The FBI says a letter was subsequently written to Kasekende, copying Ho and Kutesas wife but it seems to have arrived late.

According to press reports, on or about October, 20, 2016, the central bank took over the Ugandan bank, the US court documents state.

It was on October 20, 2016 that Bank of Uganda took over management of Crane Bank and suspended its board members.

The FBI investigation found that on or about October 24, 2016, Edith emailed Ho, copying Kasekende, stating, I tried your number in vain, adding, Please try to contact the vice governor as soon as you can.

She provided a telephone number on which Ho could reach Kasekende.

It is quite urgent, thank you, she wrote.

Ho then emailed Kasekende, stating, Please send me whatever you have through this mail.

On October 25, 2016, the FBI says that he received an email from an unnamed BoU official who inquired whether the energy company was still interested in acquiring a bank in Uganda.

Yesterday, Kampala Associated Advocates, the law firm representing Sudhir in the Crane Bank affair, declined to comment, pleading that they have made their case in court.

BoUs communications director, Christine Alupo, said in an email that all actions Bank of Uganda taken during pre-takeover of Crane Bank were in accordance with the law and regulations. She declined to go into detail since the case is in court.

Alupo observed that given its role in the macro-economy, and as regulator of the financial sector, BoU is frequently approached by those exploring business options in Uganda.

As a matter of routine, bank officials refer them to standard and publicly available information related to the regulation and supervision framework, Alupo said.

During these engagements, the bank advises the prospective investors to acquaint themselves with the regulatory regime and for them to independently assess the opportunities within the economy as well as their capacity to meet the legal requirements, she said.

On Tuesday, November 21, Ministry of Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Patrick Mugoya defended Kutesa, saying the ministers interaction with Ho was in line with his duties as PGA.



dkiyonga@observer.ug
Its one thing to rule a country for 37 years. Its quite another to do so up to age 93.

Its also entirely another to bow out under remotely humiliating circumstances. But state power is unparalleled in its allure and the tendency to delude rulers. A staggering 37 years is an awful long time to hold the most important and deeply-pressing job of any country.

Robert Mugabe was kicked out of the presidency of Zimbabwe under very peculiar and unexpected circumstances. Not many saw it coming, even though Mugabes legitimacy had long gone to the winds. The men in uniform pulled the plug, doing it in a manner that reflects our times.

Overt military takeovers are out of fashion and unwelcome, especially to the international community of nation-states. Its one area where one can make a case for the place of norms in international politics.

There was a time when launching a coup was not only morally legitimate but politically acceptable. Not anymore. The generals in Zimbabwe were acutely aware of this fundamental change in the relationship between domestic and international politics.

Gaining power by military coup now means no seat at the African Union and the United Nations. So, the men in uniform in Harare overthrew Mugabe without launching a coup.

That in itself is astounding in the scheme of the drama that unfolded over several days and is likely to continue in coming weeks or perhaps months. But there are two illustrative issues worth highlighting.

First, if word on the grapevine from Harare is accurate, the fact that the external force behind Mugabes departure came from Beijing, and not the traditional global-policing capitals of the West, bespeaks of the changed times.

Coups on the African continent used to be the handiwork of Washington and London in their interminable struggles against the Soviet Union. Both capitals loathed Mr Mugabe for long and wished he was overthrown yesterday. They engineered an economic blockade for years to break Mugabe in vain.

Zimbabwes economy has been heavily dependent on Chinese trade and investment, and apparently Uncle Bobs missteps and the inevitable weakening of his grip on power persuaded Beijing time was neigh.

The sacked vice president and ostensible heir apparent, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is reportedly strongly ensconced in Beijing and decamped there upon his controversial exit from the country. Sections of the military leadership, according to sources, followed him there.

The definitive assessment was that Mr Mugabe was not just a liability to his country, his continued stay in power was bad for Chinese long-term economic interests.

But the second, and more important, issue is that a one-time highly-regarded statesman, a doyen of African independence struggle and an intrepid pan-Africanist has to depart in undesirable fashion and unceremoniously.

Mugabe was the last one standing of the independence era nationalist African leaders who fiercely fought for the liberation of Africa and to reclaim the sovereignty of the African people. Along with other Rhodesians, he took up the challenge of resisting the nefarious rule of Ian Smith and the white nationalists.

Southern Rhodesia, before it became Zimbabwe at independence in 1980, was one of the three southern African nations along with Southwest Africa (later Namibia) and South Africa that remained under the yoke of white supremacist rule long after the rest of the continent had attained political independence.

For most of the 1970s and 80s, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and much of independent Africa was mobilized in the fight to end apartheid in South and Southwest Africa and white minority rule in Southern Rhodesia.

In the latter, the guerrilla campaign stalemated in late 1970s but Southern Rhodesia ultimately gained independence in 1980. Mugabe took the helm of the new nation and went on to treat the presidency as his permanent job!

The last line of liberation in south and southwest Africa climaxed in 1990 with the independence of Namibia and the start of the process leading to majority rule in South Africa. Nelson Mandela became president in 1994 and stepped down in 1999. He died honourably and received easily the most global acclaim of any political leader of the last century.

Regrettably, the Mandela way has been the exception. The Mugabe way has been the rule  to rule until pushed out ignominiously. The script is easily predictable: the same masses that dance and praise rulers while in control suddenly erupt in jubilation when tables turn. Yoweri Museveni would take heed, but he wont: hes sloshed with power.

Mugabes advanced age has helped spare him adverse humiliation. While he repressed opponents, with power slipping away, he has benefitted from a strong African value of respect and empathy for the elderly.

But his treatment may well give us some glimpse into what is easily a mere change of guards, from Mugabe to Mugabes deputy short of his wife. The countrys economic woes will continue. Elite corruption and runaway abuse of state power is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

Western media and academics tend to be obsessed with rulers, and not systems. If Mugabes departure had happened through a credible election, Zimbabwe would be declared a democracy overnight! Mugabe is gone, but his rule isnt.



moses.khisa@gmail.com



The author is an assistant professor of political science at North Carolina State University.
Junking reports in a section of news media about cheque books being the next casualty in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's agenda of digital push, the Ministry of Finance on Thursday clarified that there was no such proposal to withdraw the bank cheque book facility. The reports emerged when Secretary General of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said on Wednesday that "in all probability, the Centre may withdraw the cheque book facility in the near future to encourage digital transactions."

Talking to the reporters at the launch of 'Digital Rath', a joint initiative of the CAIT and Mastercard, Khandelwal said the government needed to encourage the use of debit and credit cards. "The government spends Rs 25,000 crore on the printing of currency notes and another Rs 6,000 crore on their security and logistics. Moreover, banks charge 1 per cent on payments through debit and 2 per cent through credit cards. The government needs to incentivise this process by providing subsidy directly to the banks so these charges can be waived," Khandelwal said.

The Finance Ministry, meanwhile, clarified in a tweet that there was no proposal to withdraw cheque book facility. "The Government of India has reaffirmed that there is no proposal under consideration to withdraw the bank Cheque Book facility," Finance Ministry tweeted.

Post-demonetisation, the government has been pushing digital transaction with an aim to move towards less cash society. Following demonetisation, digital wallets, quick response (QR) codes, near field communication (NFC) technology, sound wave systems, virtual cards, unified payment interface (UPI) and Aadhaar Pay have given much needed push to cashless transactions. However, more than 95% transactions happen via cash and cheques.

In fact, most of the business transactions are done through cheques. The cheque is used by businesses against the delivery of goods where the supplier secures payments due in future from its customers. It is also common in dealing with the purchasing and selling of land. Landlords too prefer taking rent from tenants via cheque. But cash usage is still strong.
Nawaz Sharif remembers Charter of Democracy only when his own person matters: Asif Zardari

Nawaz Sharif remembers Charter of Democracy only when his own person matters: Asif ZardariLAHORE: It appears that efforts to bring the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leadership to the negotiating table will be futile for now as PPP leaders Asif Ali Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari have, once again, turned away the olive branch offered by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.



Shortly after his appearance before an accountability court on Wednesday, Mr Sharif had announced that he was ready to shake hands with Mr Zardari for the sake of the country, and not personal interests.



But Mr Zardari was quoted as having responded to the request in earnest with a scathing: [He] remembers the Charter of Democracy only when his own person matters. Sorry, I cannot meet him.



PPP chairperson Bhutto-Zardari also rejected the PML-N chiefs overtures and asked the go-between, sent by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, to contact the partys parliamentary leadership instead.



We have empowered the parliamentary leadership to take decisions on matters of national importance. As far as Im concerned, Im not ready to meet [the PML-Ns leaders], he said.



Meanwhile, PML-N leaders Senator Pervaiz Rashid and Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah spoke to journalists, explaining the backdrop of the overtures they had been making to the PPPs leadership for some time.



We have sought cooperation for ensuring the passage of the new constituencies bill, so we can hold the 2018 elections on time...and ensure civilian supremacy, Mr Rashid told a TV channel.



Rana Sana told reporters outside the Punjab Assembly that Mr Sharif did not need crutch support from Mr Zardari, nor were any personal interests involved. The PPP leader was only approached to discuss the matter of passing the law about new constituencies, he said, adding that if Mr Zardari placed hurdles for delaying the polls due next year, it would tarnish the PPPs claims of upholding democracy.



PPPs senior vice president Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo dismissed the possibility of a meeting between the two leaders, saying there was no way that the PPPs leadership would agree to facilitate the government in passing the new constituencies bill in the Senate.



Mr Wattoo said that the PPP had supported the bill in the National Assembly because it knew that it could never defeat it in the lower house, considering their strength. We played our cards well at the right time when the government introduced the bill in the Senate where we enjoyed a majority. Now everyone is looking at our move and the leadership will take a decision in the best interest of democracy and the country.



He rejected the PML-Ns fears that failure to enact the law would delay the election, saying the electoral exercise could be conducted on the basis of the 1998 census.



Mr Bhutto-Zardari advised Mr Sharif to respect democracy and the army, and distanced himself from the statements made by the ousted premier in the wake of the Panama Papers case. Mian Nawaz Sharif should think about democracy and set aside his personal matters, he said, adding: Mian Sahib is a threat to democracy.



Recalling Mr Sharifs views on then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilanis ouster by the Supreme Court, he advised the PML-N leader to follow his own advice offered by back then.



Speaking to journalists at the baraat ceremony of the nephew of PPPs central information secretary Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmad on Thursday, Mr Bhutto-Zardari said firmly that despite the PML-Ns attempts to start a dialogue, he had no intention of speaking to Mr Sharif about anything.



Commenting on Mr Sharifs statement that he represented an ideology, he said Mr Sharif was an opportunist who did not even know the meaning of ideology. Working for ones personal interest cannot be termed as working for some ideology.
From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
The mathematical (and other) thoughts of a (now retired) math teacher,
Forest rangers in Washington County were called out to assist an injured hunter in Washington County on Monday, as Southern Zone rifle season got underway. We haven't heard how he is doing, but tree stand falls can be fatal. Knock on wood, so far it has been a safe hunting season around here, and let's hope it continues as we get into the final weeks of big game seasons.

Below is the DEC's weekly forest ranger activity report.

-- Don Lehman

Town of White Creek

Washington County

Rescue: On Nov. 20 at 6:28 a.m., Washington County 911 contacted DEC Central Dispatch requesting Forest Rangers assistance in helping a 73-year-old hunter who had fallen from a tree stand. Forest Rangers responded along with local fire department and ambulance personnel. The hunter was extricated from the woods and transported by EMS to an area hospital for evaluation and treatment. The fall is being investigated by DEC Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs).

Town of Diana

Lewis County

Search: On Nov. 18 at 3:32 p.m., DEC Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from Lewis County 911 requesting Forest Ranger assistance to locate a 50-year-old male lost in Jadwin State Forest while hunting. The subject's coordinates were obtained by Lewis County Dispatch placing him near the Kimballs Mill Road. Two Rangers responded and located the subject and returned him to his vehicle by 5:32 p.m.

Town of Rochester

Ulster County

Search: On Nov. 19 at 5:20 p.m., DEC Central Dispatch was notified by Ulster County 911 of a hunter reported lost by his hunting companion. Forest Rangers were dispatched to the camp at 54 Dymond Road and cell phone coordinates were obtained for the missing hunter. Responders located the hunter in good condition near the area of the cell phone coordinates. All parties were out of the woods by 7:30 p.m.
SOUTH GLENS FALLS  South Glens Falls is looking for photographs as it finishes a brand new website.

The photos from the old website were too small, said Village Board member Nick Bodkin, who is leading the project. Photos of the village can be sent to him at trusteebodkin@sgfny.com.

The new site is live, but only in draft form. It can be found at http://sgfny.ipress2000.com/.

It will have far more information to help the public stay up to date with their government.

It will have audio files of each Village Board meeting, uploaded quickly after each meeting. Currently, the site doesnt even have recent meeting minutes  but because minutes are often approved weeks or months after a meeting, they are not as useful as an immediate audio file, Bodkin said.

The site will also have agendas for each meeting, which isnt on the current site either. Right now, residents must go to Village Hall a few hours before each meeting to pick up a copy of the agenda in person. That is not helpful for people who work far from the village and are trying to determine whether they should attend the 7 p.m. meeting.

For those who arent sure when the meetings are, there will be a calendar. That will also be a technological leap for the village, which regularly holds special meetings that are only advertised in the newspaper and in a notice taped to the front door of Village Hall.

There will be minutes, agendas, the things people most want to see, and the calendar will be at the bottom of every page, Bodkin said.

The current site doesnt even have a page for the Zoning Board, so the new site will address that deficiency as well.

The website will also have photos and email addresses for public officials.

A number of items on the current website will also vanish, at least temporarily.

Bodkin is removing every item that is severely outdated. The Village Board will review each one and update them. Items include the emergency shelter information, which is no longer correct.

The village treasurer/clerk will be able to update the website regularly. Thats also a big step forward because the current site could only be updated when village officials emailed requests to the website creator. When she had health problems, the village could not get its agendas and minutes posted.

Board members recently previewed the site and were thrilled with it.

I think its great, said board member Tim Carota.
GLENS FALLS  Robert Greene scooped cooked carrots onto his fork, but they wouldnt make it to his mouth for the next 25 minutes.

Donald Trump, Alzheimers cures, Roe V. Wade and gentlemens clubs were more important to the 83-year-old than eating. His bushy eyebrows rose each time he got a new train of thought  which was often  and he laughed at his own jokes, which revealed the few missing teeth on his bottom row.

Meanwhile, Emma, a small, white-haired elderly woman sitting across from Greene had finished her heaping plate of Thanksgiving food and was onto dessert: pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top.

But Greene wasnt in any hurry to leave the 33rd annual Hometown Thanksgiving Dinner. He came alone and didnt have any plans afterwards.

At least not at the moment I dont, Greene said.

Instead, Greene wanted a conversation and some company.

He shared that he has a metal rod in his leg which goes off occasionally when he walks through metal detectors, and that he hasnt had an alcoholic drink since his neighbor handed him a Mike's Hard Lemonade nearly eight years ago.

Thanksgiving is a time to lend an ear and chat; even if its about selenium, or whatever Greene had moved onto. Its a time to share delicious food with friends and family.

Its also a time for a short history lesson.

Just ask Aiden Wallace.

The history of the holiday can be traced back to when the Pilgrims and Native Americans feasted together in 1962 after a successful harvest season, the 10-year-old explained.

The Wampanoag Indians, specifically, Wallace noted with his index finger pointed to the ceiling.

I love history. It tells you the stories of our freedom, Wallace said as his hot plate of food was being served.

He quickly shared that money was tight this year so he couldnt make it to Florida and his old house was haunted.

The only one who seemed to be excited about the food was his little sister, Aurora, 2, who blew on her chicken noodle soup and shoved fistfuls of mashed potatoes into her mouth.

Luckily for Aurora, there was plenty to go around.

The menu had 70 turkeys, 460 pounds of potatoes, 37 gallons of gravy, 160 loaves of bread and 1,600 dinner roles. By 12:30 p.m., the dining room was in full action.

Each year, volunteers serve about 1,500 meals, but this year they were expecting closer to 1,600.

By 12 p.m., they had already delivered 525 meals to homes.

Ava, 12, Ruby, 9, and Vinnie Janssen, 5, havent had a Thanksgiving in their home the past several years.

Instead, theyd rather be at the Christ Church United Methodist with mom and dad helping serve the Hometown dinner.

Same with Joan and Bob Flanagan, who were on their way out the door to make more deliveries.

Weve been doing it 22 years. This is what we do, Joan said.

Nabil Eldib, of Lake George, brought his two teenage sons for the first time to help out.

We want to give back to the community, and it gives mom a break, Eldib said.

Volunteers had two jobs: scoop turkey and stuffing onto plates and chat with the guests to make them feel at home.

By 2:30 p.m., Greene wasnt ready to head home yet.

Pie was on the way.
Editor:

My family has a small farm in the town of Fort Ann, where a new ordinance is being proposed to regulate farmers with fewer than 200 animals. I recently returned to Fort Ann to pursue my own farming ambitions with my partner, believing that our hometown was the best place to put down our roots.

The regulations proposed by the ordinance issued by the Town Board will create serious barriers for anyone who wishes to start a small farm on land affected by the law. Almost a third of New Yorks farmers are over age 65  so it is especially poor timing to increase hardships for young and beginning farmers. Part of what drew me back to the area was the agricultural integrity of Washington County, but it is disheartening that my own Town Board appears to view farmers as nuisances who need strict regulation.

The ordinance contains a laundry list of broad-sweeping rules that are far removed from most accepted animal husbandry practices. The law proposes that each animal, regardless of whether its a chicken or a cow, must have 100 square feet of free space in its shelter. If a person wanted to raise 10 chickens, they would need to construct a coop that was at least 1,000 square feet, a space larger than where many young adults live. The law also requires that farmers go around at least once every seven days to remove livestock feces from outdoor areas, completely missing the point that well-managed animals help spread their own manure and fertilize the soil.

The town is jeopardizing the future of small farmers with this ordinance and will likely drive them away from Fort Ann if passed.

Olivia Fuller, Fort Ann
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An Eldridge man was arrested Wednesday after sheriffs deputies say he went into a womans home without permission and threatened her with a knife.

Darnell Robert Bonner, 35, was booked into the Scott County Jail just before 1 p.m. on charges of first-degree burglary, a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison, and assault while displaying a dangerous weapon, an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison.

He will remain in the jail without bond until he makes an initial appearance on the charges, according to an order to issue arrest warrant that was filed Wednesday in Scott County District Court.

Scott County sheriffs deputies said in an arrest affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint that Bonner went into the home of a woman without permission around 11:08 p.m. Tuesday.

He then threatened her with a butcher knife by holding it up to her stomach, according to the affidavit.
State and federal officials said Friday Iowa does not need approval to move some 213,000 Iowans on Medicaid to a managed-care organization without offering them a choice.

The officials said they are working together on the issue but did not offer a timeline as to when it would be resolved.

Department of Human Services officials had announced in late October that one of its three insurers in Iowas Medicaid program, AmeriHealth Caritas, would exit the program on Dec. 1.

The states two remaining Medicaid insurers  Amerigroup Iowa and UnitedHealthcare of the River Valley  both re-signed contracts with Iowa for 2018.

Those enrollees previously covered by AmeriHealth would be transferred to UnitedHealthcare, department officials announced earlier this month. Those beneficiaries then could switch Amerigroup.

However, Tuesdays notice obtained by The Gazette stated Amerigroup does not have the capacity to take additional members, including those who have actively chosen Amerigroup Iowa as their (managed-care organization) after AmeriHealth Caritas withdrawal.

That would leave 213,000 Medicaid enrollees with UnitedHealth care as their only choice for a managed-care organization.

This could create complications for some beneficiaries and health care providers, as some doctors and providers have signed with only one or two of the managed-care organizations.

An approval from CMS to suspend choice is not necessary. Iowa has not requested any additional waiver authority as part of this transition, but is in constant communication with CMS, Department of Human Services spokesman Matt Highland wrote in an email Friday. Iowa Medicaid is proceeding forward in temporarily suspending choice for Medicaid beneficiaries.

Highland added that Amerigroup is actively ramping up their capacity, which the department will be monitoring.

Once Amerigroup Iowa and the Department are confident they have capacity to take additional members, members will again have choice, Highland wrote.

Neither Highland or federal officials gave further information on a timeline for the solution.

DHS officials currently are undergoing a search for a new managed-care organization, which wont be available for beneficiaries until July 1, 2019.

TEMPORARY SUSPENSION

Medicaid enrollees are guaranteed a choice among managed-care organizations according to a provision within federal law, and a state must obtain a waiver from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for any suspension of that provision.

Tuesdays notice from DHS stated it had approval for a temporary suspension of managed-care organization choice from CMS, which oversees nationwide Medicaid programs.

However, a later email to The Gazette by CMS regional spokeswoman Julie Brookhart, based in Kansas, said the state had not received federal approval.

On Friday, Highland clarified the inconsistency, saying that using the term approval was inaccurate.

States generally have the ability to manage their programs in situations such as this within existing statutory and regulatory authorities, Highland said in Fridays email. CMS has offered our full support to Iowa to help provide as smooth an experience as possible for all impacted beneficiaries.

State or federal officials did not offer clarification on how long the temporary wave of choice would last for beneficiaries.

Iowa has kept the federal office apprised on the state of the Medicaid program since AmeriHealths withdrawal, as well as the challenges associated with the capacity at Amerigroup, said Johnathan Monroe, a Washington, D.C.-based spokesperson for CMS, in a separate email to The Gazette Friday.

CMS has been working with the state to address their immediate needs and we have no pending decisions before us for consideration related to this transition, Monroe said in the email. CMS intends to continue working with the state to help ensure it comes back into full compliance with the choice provisions in the managed-care regulations in a meaningful and measured way so as not to create further disruption to the beneficiaries and providers.
A funny thing happened to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the way to the exit door: He didn't leave. He may be "Dead Man Walking," as many Washington analysts assume. Yet he's still pursuing the same list of quiet but mostly correct diplomatic goals as when took the job 10 months ago.

Tillerson has had a catastrophically bad encounter with official Washington. The White House disdains him; the State Department resents him; the press corps mostly scorns him. Tillerson presses on as if he doesn't care. Many officials claim they don't give a damn about "inside the Beltway" opinion; Tillerson seems to mean it.

The latest instance of Tillerson clashing with his subordinates, according to Reuters, was a dissent memo from about a dozen foreign-service officers accusing him of giving Iraq, Myanmar and Afghanistan a pass on a federal law opposing the use of child soldiers. That's just one example of internal criticism from the unhappiest State Department I've seen in more than 30 years of covering Foggy Bottom.

Tillerson often seems out of sync with President Trump on major issues including North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Lebanon. And White House insiders have been predicting for months that this marriage can't last. Yet it not only continues, but on many areas of supposed disagreement, Trump has ended up adopting, more or less, the diplomatic course that Tillerson recommended.

Tillerson has one secret survival weapon: He's running a three-legged race, figuratively speaking, alongside Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who respects Tillerson's judgment and stays aligned with him through all the palace intrigue. Trump may not be a soulmate with his secretary of state, but he's not going to pick a fight with Mattis.

Two policy areas where Tillerson's approach seems to have the president's support, despite noise to the contrary, are dialogue with China on the North Korea crisis, and cooperation with Russia to stabilize Syria. Administration policy could change at any moment, given the "iron whim" of the man in the Oval Office. But the persistence of diplomacy is one of the little noted facets of this most undiplomatic president's first year.

U.S. engagement with China was the centerpiece of Trump's Asia trip this month. But observers overlooked one of Tillerson's signature initiatives: During the Beijing visit, the U.S. continued a high-level, secret dialogue with China about how to secure North Korea's nuclear weapons if the regime implodes.

Tillerson lobbies China to encourage talks with the Kim Jong Un regime, even as the administration keeps escalating pressure. Two more turns of the screw came this week: On Monday, Pyongyang was added to the list of state sponsors of terrorism; on Tuesday, the U.S. applied new sanctions to Chinese and North Korean companies. But Tillerson cautioned that even as the U.S. seeks more pressure points, there's no "silver bullet."

Asked how the Chinese are helping, a U.S. official noted last weekend's visit to Pyongyang by a high-level Chinese emissary. The message was that the administration is still pursuing the Sino-American diplomatic track, along with sanctions and military options.

Trump and Tillerson also share the unpopular but probably inescapable view that the U.S. must work with Russia to stabilize Syria. Russia's centrality in the miserable Syrian war was dramatized anew by President Vladimir Putin's meeting Monday with President Bashar Assad, who thanked the Russian leader for "saving our country." Putin will enhance his leverage as regional broker when he meets Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hasan Rouhani.

Putin has emerged as a dominant player in Syria, and he wants to play the peacemaker there now, but he doesn't hold all the cards. U.S. allies control big swaths of Syrian territory, and they're the missing pieces of Putin's peace process. Tillerson, working with America's allies, has pushed for a resumption of U.N.-organized peace talks in Geneva. A meeting there is now scheduled for Nov. 28, followed by a gathering in Sochi on Dec. 2. These talks aren't a cure-all; but they can help reduce Syria's violence and begin a gradual political transition.

Trump made the Russia connection personal with an hour-long phone call Tuesday with Putin, discussing Syria, Ukraine and North Korea. Trump may get hammered for it, but the conversation was sensible, and it capitalized on Tillerson's patient spadework.

Tillerson is famously a former Boy Scout. He talked in 2014 about the character-building value of suffering in silence, during a "frog-strangler" downpour as a 12-year-old scout. Trump has tested Tillerson's determination and dignity, but at Thanksgiving, the secretary of state is still at the table.
Nebraska Extension in the Panhandle has recognized a Lakeside woman and a diversified family farm and ranch operation near Hay Springs for their years of service to agriculture and Extension in the Panhandle.

Linda Andersen of Lakeside, who has spent four decades volunteering with the local 4-H program (and 59 years altogether as a member or volunteer), was recognized for Service to Panhandle Extension. Terrell Farms near Hay Springs was recognized for Service to Panhandle Agriculture.

The Service to Panhandle Extension Award, initiated in 2015, recognizes persons or groups whose contributions have furthered Extension activities in the Nebraska Panhandle. Andersen was nominated by 4-H Assistant Melissa Mracek.

As a 40-year volunteer to the Sheridan County 4-H program, Andersen has been extremely dedicated and loyal, helping her two children and four grandchildren become 4-H alumni. She has also been an Extension Board member and county fair donor.

She has taught sewing and quilting to a number of youth, and is currently helping with a monthly sewing group. She still offers to teach at summer workshops and can be seen helping at the Sheridan County Fair every year.

She has helped grow the Sheridan County goat program and sewing program tremendously. While she participated in 4-H she showed market steers, breeding heifers, sewing, baking, public speaking contest, and demonstration contest. She even showed her market steers and breeding heifers in Denver. Linda was a Sheridan County 4-H Queen in 1968-69 and was a recipient of the Friend of 4-H award.

When the Extension office in Sheridan County was understaffed during the employment search for assistants and educators, Linda was an active part of the hiring process, attending all the interviews. She did her most to help welcome everyone new who came through the office doors.

The Outstanding Service to Panhandle Agriculture Award recognizes persons or groups who provide outstanding service to agriculture in western Nebraska. Award criteria include value of work done or cooperation with UNL specialists or educators; leadership in agriculture; community service other than agriculture; and level of impact on Panhandle agriculture. Terrell Farms was nominated by Extension Educator Jack Arterburn.

Terrell Farms is a progressive and diversified farming and ranching operation in west central Sheridan County managed by Vern and Marjean Terrell and their son and daughter-in-law, Brock, and Heidi Terrell, as well as several employees.

Terrell Farms has a reputation as leaders of innovation and their management continues to evolve. They grow both irrigated and dryland row crops. On the livestock side, they run a cow-calf operation and recently acquired sheep to help graze their pastures. The sheep tend to follow the cattle and will eat the grasses that cattle will not.

In addition to running sheep, they use other new or innovative practices, such as cover crops and annual forages, and irrigated perennial pasture.

The Terrells are active in numerous agricultural organizations including the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition, Nebraska Cattlemen, Sandhills Cattlemen, and Nebraska Extension.

They are tremendous supporters of agricultural research and participate in on-the-farm research with Nebraska Extension. These include dry-bean harvest methods, along with Extension Educator John Thomas, and grazing cover crops along with Cow-calf and Range management Specialist Mitchell Stephenson and support by the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition.

In 2002, they received the Sheridan County 4-H Alumni award. Vern is also currently serving as a Sheridan County Extension Board member.
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. | You may know him as Grizzly. You probably call him Roadkill. And perhaps you even remember him as the High Plains Warrior.

And a warrior he is. He has represented Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, for almost three decades at missile competitions hosted by Strategic Air Command, Air Combat Command, Air Force Space Command and Air Force Global Strike Command.

With a musket in hand and a bear skin draped over his shoulders, the mysterious mountain man energizes Airmen with his rousting traditional battle cry:

Aces in the Hole, Read em and weep! Malmstrom, Malmstrom, cant be beat!

The origins of Malmstroms mascot are as murky as the Upper Missouri River, the legendary headwaters that drew trappers and fur traders in the early 1800s.

There were no mascots at Strategic Air Commands first Missile Combat Competition in 1967. Wings evolved their demonstrations of pride throughout the next decade for the annual competitions held at Vandenberg AFB, California, eventually developing full-fledged mascots by 1981. Early mascots for the 341st Strategic Missile Wing included a cowboy in 1985 and a bear in 1987.

The buckskinned bellower made his debut around 1989 and was then known as the High Plains Warrior. The warrior fronted the team in 1991 when the 341st SMW became the first wing to win the Blanchard Trophy for Best ICBM Wing in two consecutive years at SACs Olympic Arena Missile Combat Competition.

SAC inactivated in 1992. Air Combat Command hosted the final Olympic Arena competition in 1993.

The following year, Air Force Space Command became the home of the six Minuteman wings. The missile competition was revamped as the Guardian Challenge Space and Missile Competition to include AFSPCs space wings. Missile wing mascots were nearly eliminated because of the restructuring.

The space wings dont have mascots here, and there was some debate on whether or not missileers could keep theirs, according to the Guardian Challenge 1994 event newsletter. But mascots have been a tradition, and in the end, they stayed. Still, there was some uncertainty as to what role theyd play at Guardian Challenge.

Many acted as their teams bus driver. This gave mascots an official purpose at competition events.

Peter Woelkers, now 341st MW chief of weapon safety, accepted the role in 1997. He was a captain in the 12th Missile Squadron then, and a few years older than his counterparts. The wing commander wanted a bus driver with maturity. And it didnt hurt that Woelkers was also a Lewis and Clark Honor Guard member familiar with muskets and frontier apparel.

Woelkers remembers the nickname Roadkill was already firmly established then, probably attributed to the fur headpiece the High Plains Warrior wore. Woelkers chose to wear a brimmed hat from his personal collection instead, pinned up on one side in early 1800s fashion. He also wore a brain-tanned, elk hide shirt and carried his personal musket, giving the mascot a unique look that year.

Firing blanks was a tradition for the High Plains Warrior and other missile wing mascots  loud, smoky blasts at indoor rallies and on flight lines, at the competition venues and even the score posting ceremony at Vandenberg AFB. Woelkers said he fired off three pounds of gunpowder at Guardian Challenge 1997 events. He used his experience to write safety guidelines for Malmstroms future mascots.

The High Plains Warrior returned to his Roadkill roots in 1998, complete with the pelt on his pate. The 341st SW brought home the Blanchard Trophy that year and again in 1999. The talisman powers of Roadkills carrion cap helped the wing garner the trophy once more in 2002.

The next Guardian Challenge competition was in 2004. It continued as a biennial event in 2006 and 2008 and both were Blanchard Trophy years for Malmstrom. The 341st SW mascot began wearing his signature snarling bear headdress during this period and was introduced as Grizzly.

Malmstroms bruin-wearing backwoodsman endured as a tradition at AFGSCs first Global Strike Challenge in 2010. He helped the 341st MW bring back the Blanchard in 2015 and the consecutive GSC in 2017 for yet another back-to-back win.

Regardless of the name the 341st MWs mascot is known by, he continues to energize competitors, roust crowds and symbolically represent the wing at GSC events every competition year.
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE | A freshly-pressed suit, sharp tie and holstered sidearm; truly a look that could kill. Much like the secret agents you see in the movies, and certainly dressed for the part, agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations ensure the branch is protected from any threat.

The Airmen work against anything that undermines the mission of the U.S. Air Force or the Department of Defense. While they arent investigating series of unregistered close encounters, the agency handles a wide range of serious offenses from espionage to terrorism, crimes against property and violence against people.

Since Aug. 1, 1948, at the suggestion of Congress to consolidate Air Force investigative activities, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations has been the Air Force's major investigative force reporting to the Inspector General and Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.

We deter, detect and neutralize counter-intelligence, said Michael Horn, Special Agent assigned to Detachment 816. Our job is to investigate crimes that occur within the Air Force, affecting its personnel or Department of Defense assets.

The goal for the OSI agent is to accomplish RIC: recovery, indictments and convictions, whether its attempting to recover monetary assets for the government, indicting an individual trying to sell military secrets, or attempting to convict someone with enough information to have them go to trial.

According to Special Agent William Velez, the superintendent assigned to Det. 816, OSI agents are jack[s] of all trades. They are able to adjust to any situation and be ready at the flip of a hat.

As an OSI Special Agent, you are responsible for being able to conduct criminal and fraud investigations, as well as work and operate with counterintelligence and counterterrorism, Velez explained. You have to be able to be able to flip from a criminal case to providing assistance with deterring an act of terrorism. Its the rule of threes for us, crime, fraud and counterintelligence.

Horn explained the agency is here to help and that they are not the enemy. The agency is here not only in the interest of administering justice, but in order to find the truth.

The stigma of OSI is, in a lot of cases, just not knowing who we are, or what we do, Velez said. Ninety percent of what we do we can talk to people about; only ten percent of our job is classified, but we never have people come over and ask about that 90 percent.

One challenge that OSI faces is conveying who the agents are, what they do and why they do it.

The agency speaks during commanders calls, First Term Airmen Course, Right Start, the Company Grade officers council, and First Shirt Emporium to introduce themselves to the base.

When we go out to talk to people, its not just as a recruitment piece, Horn said. We are trying to build that bridge between us and those we are trying to help.

Though sometimes seen as the shadowy Men in Black, the agency remains a trusted and relevant global investigative agency. Acting as a reliable and indispensable partner both enabling and protecting the Air Force, OSI has a heavy burden to bare, but a necessary one at that.
PIERRE | Since the start of 2015, state government has paid South Dakota lodging establishments $55 per night for its employees from check-in Sept. 1 through checkout June 1. The rate goes to $70 from check-in June 1 through checkout Sept. 1.

Now the South Dakota Hotel and Lodging Association wants state government to pay more. The organization sent a team to meet Tuesday with the state Board of Finance that sets the rates.

Lobbyist Michele Brich said the association would like the state rate to match the federal governments rates or be set to a specific percentage. She gave board members a grid of current federal rates.

Amounts ranged from $93 year-round for most South Dakota hotels, to a tourist-peak $148 June through August in Pennington County.

The hotel owners who accompanied her said businesses face sky-high operating costs for insurance, supplies, labor, bedding, exercise equipment, breakfasts and internet.

Among neighboring states, Brich said Montana uses federal rates capped at $157, North Dakota pays 90 percent of federal rates, Iowa negotiates contracts with lodging operators, Nebraska reimburses actual costs, Wyoming allows up to federal rates, and Minnesota is what she described as "actual reasonable costs."

Several finance board members said state employees might find too much complexity with four federal rates, depending on the county, and multiple summer rates too.

Colin Keeler, representing the state Bureau of Finance and Management, said state agencies would have only certain amounts of funding for travel regardless of rates.

Tony Venhuizen, chief of staff for Gov. Dennis Daugaard, acknowledged innkeepers had been told several times to wait for an increase that hasnt happened.

Thats because we think it will get better someday, and it hasnt, Venhuizen said.

State government revenues fell short of the original estimates for the fiscal year that ended June 30 and have come in lower than expected again since July 1.

None of the board members spoke very strongly in favor of paying more for lodging. Some said nothing, their silence perhaps an indicator of how they would vote.

Brich is the sister of former Gov. Mike Rounds, now the junior U.S. senator for South Dakota. Daugaard was lieutenant governor during the Rounds administration.

Keeler said he would use direct-payment data from the state treasurer to develop a 10-year history. He said the report should be available for the boards December meeting.
State governments Board of Education Standards must hold two more hearings next year before members decide whether to further change what South Dakota teachers are presenting to students, its departing leader said Monday.

Board president Don Kirkegaard of Sturgis made the remarks after the board conducted the second public hearing in Sioux Falls. Board members are considering proposed revisions to state standards for ten sets of subjects, including math, English and the history and culture of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota tribal peoples.

The Legislature passed a state law in 2012 requiring the board to hold at least one public hearing in each of Aberdeen, Pierre, Rapid City and Sioux Falls. The board first considered the changes at a Sept. 18 meeting in Aberdeen at Northern State University.

State governments Department of Education plans to present the proposals for public comments at board meetings Jan. 26 in Rapid City and March 19 in Pierre. Kirkegaard said Monday board members could decide immediately after the Pierre hearing whether to accept changes yet that day or wait until May 8 in Vermillion.

Wed be done with our four hearings, he said.

Kirkegaard is in his final weeks as superintendent for the Meade school district. He starts Jan. 1 as state education secretary, replacing Melody Schopp. Kirkegaard served eleven years on the state board, including the last six as president.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced Oct. 13 that Schopp would retire Dec. 15 after seven years in the departments top post.

Daugaard was fifteen months into his first term as governor in March 2012 when he signed the four-hearings legislation into law. The measure, House Bill 1128, came after lawmakers realized the state board adopted the controversial Common Core national standards Nov. 29, 2010, during the final weeks that two-term Gov. Mike Rounds held the office.

Daugaard was lieutenant governor at the time. Both are Republicans. Rounds now is the junior U.S. senator for South Dakota. He won the seat in 2014 when U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat, didnt seek re-election.

Republican legislators saw the then-new math and English standards take hold in 2011 and reacted to complaints from their school superintendents, administrators and teachers.

Led by Republican Jim Bolin of Canton, the state House of Representatives voted 66-4 to require four public hearings. The Senate adopted the House version 32-0. Schopp testified in favor at the committee hearings.

Bolin intended to slow down any future standards proposed under the Common Core system through the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Five years later, the law remains in effect. Bolin now is a senator.

Administrators at the Sioux Falls New Technology High School hosted the meeting Monday. Board members considered once again proposals to revise school standards for:

 Health education;

 Oceti Sakotwin essential understandings and standards;

 Business management and administration;

 Capstone courses in high-school career clusters;

 Government and public administration;

 Hospitality and tourism;

 Marketing;

 Transportation, distribution and logistics;

 English language arts; and

 Math.

Oceti Sakowin is a phrase that refers to seven council fires. The project began in 2008. The latest revisions represent the collective perspectives of 37 people who came from throughout Indian country that overlaps South Dakota.

Oceti Sakowin focuses on seven understandings: Lands and environment; identity and resiliency; culture and language; kinship and harmony; oral tradition and story; sovereignty and treaties; and way of life and development.

We have a great website, Schopp said about Oceti Sakowin standards. She said it helps school districts weave Native American culture and history into their courses.

Board member Scott Herman of Mission said people of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe were thankful. He is the tribes vice president.

Kyle Schaefer testified in support of the Oceti Sakowin standards. He is program and development officer for the South Dakota Humanities Council based in Brookings.

Schaefer described the 10 percent of people who are Native Americans in South Dakotas as woefully misunderstood.

Many school districts including specifically Lead-Deadwood were pleased with additions of hospitality and lodging courses, Kirkegaard said.

The transportation standards drew seven comments. Bill Lindskov from the Northwest Area Schools cooperative, based at Isabel, suggested the small-engine standard should be broader.

Lindskov wrote: I do not think that we should teach a class called small engines without having standards that address engine construction and operation, disassembly and reassembly, and overhaul procedures.

These standards should be included so that our students are being taught skills that are at the very core of engine repair.

The committee that developed the transportation standards however responded that the procedures are covered in various areas and didnt recommend changes.

Kirkegaard said there are questions among some school district leaders whether there are too many standards. I do know that is a concern with of our teachers out in the (Black) Hills, he said.

Board member Kay Schallenkamp of Spearfish suggested assessments should be considered. She was president of Black Hills State University from July 1, 2006, until June 30, 2014.

Proposed modifications to the English language arts drew about 30 commenters. One was Northern State University history professor Art Marmorstein.

Marmorstein said eliminating the Common Core label is misleading.

These are still pretty much the Common Core standards, Marmorstein wrote. Copy any of the standards, do a Google search, and one gets dozens of hits from dozens of states. It's pretty clear that no-one has yet done the work of cleaning up the awful, jargon-filled language of the Common Core.

He added, This is the kind of language George Orwell (among others) warned against. Be great to see some of your work-group members read Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" and then clean up the standards following Orwell's suggestions.

Sixty people worked on revising the math standards. One goal was to make them clear. They looked at standards for two grades below and two grades above their levels.

Board member Gopal Vyas of Mitchell asked why there werent more comments from more schools. He said he was really surprised to see one school comment on math.

Nicol Reiner, a department official, said about one hundred comments on math came during the earlier pre-hearing period.

Schallenkamp said one concern in higher education was the relatively high number of incoming students who need remedial courses in math.

Board member Lori Wagner of Webster said the proposal defining the difference between algebra one and algebra two is important. She teaches high school math and is the 2017 South Dakota math teacher of the year.

I thank you for your time on that, because its huge  huge, Wagner told Reiner.

The audience Monday included Sen. Jim Stalzer, R-Sioux Falls. While a House member in 2014 Stalzer voted for changing the 2012 law to remove references to Common Core, tighten the time period for the hearings to six months from one year and require a quorum of the board to be present at each of the four hearings.
As most people in rural South Dakota can tell you, the wind is almost always blowing. Living on the prairie, windy days are inevitable. It just comes with the territory  which is why it only makes sense for us to develop this fast resource and put it to good use.

Over the past decade South Dakota has been doing just that. Wind power has contributed more than $2 billion in capital investment to our state for the construction and maintenance of the 14 wind projects now in operation. These projects, along with the South Dakota businesses that supply goods and services to the wind industry, support nearly 2,000 good-paying jobs in our state. Better yet, there are numerous wind power projects being planned across our state and, if built, these wind farms will attract billions of dollars of new private investment, millions of dollars of new revenue for farmers and rural communities, and thousands of new jobs.

Today, I am proud to say that South Dakota is one of only two states where wind power provides over 30 percent of in-state power generation. Thats power that the whole region can count on. In fact, the regional operator of our energy system has noted they can reliably meet over 50 percent of the current demand for our 13-state region with wind power alone, and thats not even the limit.

The growth in wind power in our state and region did not happen overnight or without careful planning and advances in technology. Wind works well with South Dakotas other major power resources such as hydroelectric, coal-fired, and natural gas power plants, adding to our fuel diversity and reducing our reliance on imports. That diversity helps protect our businesses and homeowners from price and supply volatility, as well as changing national and global policies.

Beyond helping keep electricity prices stable, wind power can also benefit the families and communities that host the projects on their land. Wind farms now pay approximately $5 million each year in lease payments, creating a new, drought-resistant revenue stream that can help family farmers and ranchers expand their operations or withstand market fluctuations in crop prices.

South Dakotas wide open spaces and high quality wind resource can potentially provide affordable and reliable electricity to those living beyond our borders. By continuing to expand and modernize our electricity grid, we can deliver more of South Dakotas wind resource to high-demand areas.

Renewable power is proving its worth throughout the Great Plains. South Dakota is committed to keeping our state open for more wind development. The renewable energy sector is one of the fastest growing in the nation, and renewable energy will continue to play a crucial role in creating new jobs and growing our states economy. As wind power has grown to be nearly a third of our energy production, our grid is as reliable as ever. With this experience in mind, I will continue to support the expansion of renewable energy in South Dakota. I hope you will too.
VISALIA, Calif. | Whenever this country mouse comes home to Central California, as I did recently to speak to citrus farmers, one thought comes to mind:

"How is it that a nation like ours  founded not by politicians but by farmers  finds it so difficult to show the proper respect for farming?"

A holiday set aside for us to be thankful and indulge our palate seems like the perfect time to show gratitude to those who supply the bounty. Or as Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, puts it: "If you criticize farmers, don't do it with your mouth full."

If there's one thing for which Americans should be grateful, it's that we don't have to depend on other countries for our food supply. If there are two things, it's that there are still people who will do the hard and dirty job of picking crops  even if we have to import them.

Who are these folks? Not the 22-year-old barista at Starbucks with dreams of writing a screenplay.

Take it from someone who grew up on his grandfather's ranch, I get it. Times change. Families evolve. People leave the farm. Many of us live in cities and raise kids who think vegetables come from supermarkets.

Don't laugh. My Harvard roommate, who was from New York City, once asked what time of year we pick raisins.

Hint: We don't pick raisins. We pick grapes, and the sun does the rest.

But just because many Americans have abandoned the farm doesn't mean they should also abandon common sense about farming. For instance, no matter what you hear from populists on the right and the left, it is not true that most farmers exploit workers to maximize profits. That's how you go out of business.

This Thanksgiving Day weekend, let's remember that farming remains a thankless profession.

You're a hostage to the weather, blackmailed by labor unions, and subject to the whims of the market. You get up early to tend the crops, and stay up late doing the books. You worry about having enough water and enough workers.

You have to deal with insects one minute and politicians the next; one is a parasitic menace with an insatiable appetite that can wipe out a harvest because it usurps resources and only cares about its own survival. Then you have the bugs.

You are often played for a sucker by elected officials who see you as an ATM. Democrats take your money and promise to get you more water; Republicans take your money and promise you a dependable workforce. Neither delivers.

You inherit a farm from your father and spend your whole life caring for it with blood, sweat and tears  only to have your own kids come back from college one day and announce that they don't want to be in the family business. Time to sell.

I don't speak for farmers. But because I listen carefully when they speak to me, I can tell you there are five things they want you to know.

First, even if our national pride won't let us admit it, Americans are not going to do these jobs. Not ever. Most millennials would rather work for Apple in Silicon Valley than go pick apples in the Yakima Valley.

Second, farm work isn't unskilled labor. Lawmakers who think that America should admit only "skilled" immigrants need to spend a few hours in the fields where human beings work with the speed of machines but with more precision.

Third, speaking of machines, while it may be convenient for restrictionists to dream about robots replacing farm workers, that won't happen. Many crops still need to be picked by hand. Besides, anything with an "on" and "off" switch needs to be tended to by people.

Fourth, while it's easy for politicians to kick the immigration reform can down the road, farmers don't have the luxury of waiting 10 or 12 years to bring in their crops. They need a solution now.

And fifth, farmers aren't part of the "elites" who are supposedly keeping down the working-class. Often, the workers decide the wages that they're willing to work for. If they don't get that price, they'll go up the road to the next "Help Wanted" sign.

The populists are way off track. Farmers aren't the problem. And, out here in the real world, they're tired of being the scapegoats while the rest of America refuses to accept its aversion to hard work.

An aversion that explains why there are so many "Help Wanted" signs in the first place.
A Hamilton High School softball player is the only Montanan selected to play in the Netherlands.

Junior Sophia Doyle, 16, loves to play softball. She has played for the Sparks travel team each summer starting at age 9 and currently plays for the Bronc team.

Softball is a fun team sport and a really fast game, so there is always something happening, Doyle said. It is really fun and never boring. I usually play second or third base because Im fast, can get to balls and make the throws to the diamond.

A recruiter found Doyle by watching her softball skills in a YouTube video. In January, Doyle will travel to Amsterdam for the 2018 Softball Cup tournament with the Queen of Diamonds, a softball organization based out of Ohio.

Its a great opportunity to meet new people, make new friends, and build some good memories, Doyle said. Mom and I will go to Paris for a few days to explore when softball competition is over.

Doyle will compete against teams from the Netherlands, France, and other European countries.

The organizers of the competition challenge the girls to pay their own way for the trip. So far she has sold her horse trailer and cookie dough made by Elliotts of Montana, held a yard sale, a consignment store clothing sale, and lots of work around the house and yard for her parents.

Doyle is selling raffle tickets in front of Hamilton businesses, now through January.

One raffle ticket costs $5 for a chance to win $500 cash.

Were getting close to our goal of $7,000 total, Doyle said. Ill go out and sell raffle tickets in front of Hamilton businesses every chance I get. This trip is a great opportunity because Ill be playing against people who played in the Olympics.
Guwahati : Assam Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday had apologized for his controversial remarks that cancer is divine justice for sinning.

A day after his controversial remarks on people suffering from cancer, which sparked massive controversy across the country, the Assam Health minister offered his unconditional apology to those hurt by controversy surrounding on his remarks.

The Assam minister said that, his speech on divine justice and Karmic deficiency is being quoted out of context.

In their bid to trivialize and sensationalise, no one is looking at content of my whole speech and intent. It was said in the context of helping poor students of Government schools and request to teachers not to neglect them. It was also a message to indicate district eduction officers not to harass teachers, Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The Assam minister accused that, a section of national media, local media and few in congress party is now playing the story.

I am pained to say, will cause agony among cancer patients and their relatives. I lost my father, best friends and relatives to cancer. And everyone in Assam and outside know my passion to work on containing cancer through best possible cancer treatment facilities including free chemotherapy, financial scheme to help up to Rs 2 lakh to cancer patient, one state-of-art cancer hospital in Guwahati with PET CT, banning chewing tobacco and now starting a grid of hospital in across Assam are some of my humble contribution as health minister of assam, Sarma said.

A philosophical discourse designed purely to help poor students is being misused and which in turn is causing avoidable anxiety among surviving cancer patients and their close ones. I still believe divine justice will catch up with each and every one us for trying to cash in on someone elses pain to gain political mileage and cheap publicity. I reiterate at no point my statement was intended to cause any pain to cancer patients. However, if owing to the blatant distortions, it has caused any anxiety and problems to anyone, I hereby offer my unconditional apology for the pain, the Assam Health minister said.

Himanta Biswa Sarma further said that, detachment from life, karmic action and rebirth are some of core principles of Hindu philosophy developed over last 5000 years, western thought process can never dominate or dilute the spirit and eternal meaning of our philosophy.

So many oncologists in TV studio are citing reason for cancer? But why it is happening to certain individuals and not to other in spite of living under same environment. Science has not been able to give answer to many of our perennial queries and therefore at our last moment, we are asked to pray God, the Assam minister said.

Himanta Biswa Sarma said that, he is not against science and strongly believe there is strong merit in spirituality and teachings contained in Bhagvad Gita as well as those of our ancestors.

The purity of the philosophy and its essence help us in bringing sanity and balance in life. I once again offer my apology to those who might have been hurt owing to this absolutely mindless controversy triggered by few political desperado, the Assam minister said.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Most of the countries that are hostile to Moroccos sovereignty over its Sahara and that are still supporting the Polisario Front and its pseudo-republic SADR, share many similarities.

These countries, which are mostly producers of oil, diamonds or other precious metals, are currently facing deep economic and financial crises following the fall in commodity prices.

These crises can also be explained by the non-diversification of their economy, corruption, bad governance, embezzlement of public funds and their leaders desperate attempts to cling to power.

One of these examples is South Africa. President Jacob Zuma and his clan are known for being corrupt but they continue to lead the country despite the fierce disapproval of the opposition and civil society.

Another country falling in this category is Mozambique. Its subsoil harbors huge natural resources, but the country is ranked among the poorest in the world, and its president Robert Mugabe remained in power for more than 37 years, before he resigned this week at the pressure of the army.

Venezuela is a major oil producer, yet its disputed president, Nicolas Maduro, has managed to throw his people into the abyss of misery and is driving his country to the brink of economic bankruptcy.

Algeria is ruled by moribund President Bouteflika. Despite his physical disability following a stroke he suffered in 2013, he clings to power and even intends to run for a fifth term, or to cede the presidency to his brother Said. Algerian economy is deteriorating, while the oil and gas revenues benefit mostly the oligarchy.

Angola, which also recognizes the ghostly SADR, does not stand out. Its outgoing president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who served as President of the Republic, President of the Peoples Liberation Movement of Angola (MPLA), and Commander-in-Chief of the Peoples Armed Forces Angola Liberation Movement (FAPLA) led his country with an iron fist from 1979 to 2017.

After 38 years of unchallenged reign, Dos Santos, who handed over power last August to Joao Lourenco, is, with his family members, at the head of a huge fortune of some 31 billion dollars, consisting of real estate in Europe and bank accounts in Switzerland and in offshore tax havens.

He bequeathed to his successor a country engulfed in a deep economic crisis. Angola, a major oil producer, draws from hydrocarbons nearly 70% of its tax revenues and 40% of its Gross Domestic Product, yet, the Angolan population is one of the poorest in the world. Nearly 70% of Angolans survive on less than $2 a day.

The list is still long of these corrupt regimes and despots who continue to support the mercenaries of the Polisario and display a fierce hostility to Morocco, whose only demand is the right to complete its territorial integrity and recover the territories that were under French and Spanish colonization.
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These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.

The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/

and they are also distributed through the Constant Contact email server.

You may subscribe to this email service by contacting the author.
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low around 40F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low around 40F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
During a reception in Hanoi on November 23 for President of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hiroshi Ozaki, the PM described Japan as Vietnams leading economic partner, the largest supplier of official development assistance, the second largest investor and the fourth largest trade partner.He pledged to direct ministries, agencies and localities to offer all possible support to Japanese businesses in any field of their demand and in any locality.The host suggested that the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry work closely with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry to further promote business partnership in localities, adding that Vietnam encourages Japanese and Osaka enterprises to become strategic shareholders that actively join equitisation of State-owned enterprises in the country.Ozaki, for his part, said Osaka firms want to seek opportunities in advanced and eco-friendly technology, urban development and energy and are willing to partner with Vietnam in fields of strength such as exploitation and processing of aquatic products, health care and tourism.Receiving Chairman of SK Group of the Republic of Korea Chey Tae-won the same day, Phuc hailed the group for joining in the equitisation of the State-owned enterprises in Vietnam and committed all possible support to them during the process.He suggested SK Group join a joint investment fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam, especially start-ups.The PM wished that SK Group would continue assisting Vietnam in human resources development, semi-conductor industry and key infrastructure construction.Chey, in reply, wished to extend investment in Vietnam, adding that SK Group is strong in green and eco-friendly industry.He proposed that Vietnam should build a strong data platform to adapt with the industrial revolution 4.0 as well as improve workforce quality.

VNS
SIOUX CITY | Gray Thursday is starting to make the torrent -- or the insanity, in the view of some -- associated with Black Friday shopping fade into retail history.

Big waves of people arrived in Sioux City stores on Thursday, which was also the Thanksgiving holiday, to nab low-priced special items they bought for themselves and as Christmas presents.

That means people who chose to shop sometime fit it around family Thanksgiving events. Some Siouxlanders said they had no problem doing both, while others, such as Alan Alvarez, of Sioux City, moved their holiday meals to Friday. The shopping was done in large part for the next holiday on the horizon, when Christmas presents will be torn into in a month.

Leading the way in Thanksgiving Day openings in Sioux City was Dollar General at 7 a.m. Later-day openings included Younkers at 11 a.m., JCPenney at 2 p.m., and Old Navy and Shopko at 4 p.m.

An hour after that, Best Buy and Kohls opened. James Gifford, of South Sioux City, was one of the first four people in line at Best Buy.

"The main doorbuster is the thing you want. You learn that over the years," Gifford said.

The line for the JCPenney store had Jessica Postma, of Sheldon, Iowa, and her two children at the front. Postma arrived 70 minutes ahead of the 2 p.m. opening.

"We look at ads and we map out what we want in every store," Postma said.

She added, "Some people think it is crazy. We think it is fun."

People didn't seem to mind the outdoors wait, on a bright day when a new Sioux City record-high temperature was reached at 63 degrees, for Nov. 23.

By 10 minutes before the JCPenney opening, the line stretched west from the main entrance, then back south on a street, with 344 people gathered. That number grew by the seconds.

"My god, look at the line," said a young woman who was about 30th in the line, as she took in the mass of people.

People entered the store without any skirmishes, and in the first minute emptied an entire rack of shopping carts not far inside the door.

"Go, go, go!" one young person urged a shopping compatriot.

Three women walked in wearing green-and-red tie-dyed shirts with the words "Black Friday Professionals."

By 2:07 p.m., Postma was checking out, having gotten all the desired items, for $57.68. She got a bunch of towels for $1.70 rather than the $10 regular price. The big deal was a piece of luggage that went for $40, or a pittance of the normal $180.

JCPenney Manager Larry Morrison said preparations went well, including how the staffing was set up.

"It is all hands on deck," Morrison said.

He noted the store was going to stay open continuously for 32 hours, through 10 p.m. Friday.

A bit east of JCPenney at Best Buy, Austin Jansen, of Lawton, Iowa, had arrived first in line, by virtue of showing up at 4 p.m. Wednesday, or 25 hours before doors would be thrown open. Jansen and others were hoping to get the limited supply of 50-inch televisions that were going for $180 instead of $500.

"It would be nice to have and definitely an upgrade. I am definitely going to use it for gaming," he said.

Jansen, who was in line with buddy Zach Twillman, of Sioux City, said it was fun to talk with others in line, a total that reached 25 people four hours before opening. He never lost his place outside the building, even though overnight he walked away to his vehicle in the Best Buy parking lot.

"I slept in my car. I woke up about every hour to see if there was a line," Jansen said.

Some Sioux City retailers, such as Pflanz Electronics on Pavonia Street, didn't follow the trend of opening on Thanksgiving Day. Pflanz will be in the mix of retailers seeking to nab shoppers on Friday.

Thursday and Friday are not the only days of the long holiday stretch with a specialty shopping marker. The National Federation of Independent Business since 2010 has been encouraging people to visit local small businesses on Saturday.

NFIB Iowa State Director Matt Everson explained Shop Small Saturday: "Instead of sitting at home and ordering online or driving to the nearest shopping center or big-box store, you shop at small, locally owned businesses for things you simply cannot find at the mall.
Dear Doctor: I read that yoga mats can reduce fertility. If so, what's in them? Whatever it is can't be unique to just yoga mats.

Dear Reader: As happens with many health-related topics, that yoga mat story hit the news cycle thanks to the published findings of a scientific study. In this case, researchers were looking for a correlation between certain widely used flame retardants and the fertility of 211 women in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment program.

Previous studies have indicated a link between infertility in animals and the presence in their bodies of organophosphate flame retardants, commonly referred to as PFRs. But as the researchers note, theirs is the first study to examine the effect of organophosphate flame retardants in human fertility.

Flame retardants are routinely incorporated into the manufacture of scores of items we all have in our homes. They can be found in couches, futons, upholstered chairs, carpets and carpet padding, TV sets and remotes, cellphones and children's products, including clothing, car seats and crib mattresses, to name just a few. They're present in many building products, plastics and some nail polishes.

These chemicals are so widespread that most of us living in the United States have measurable quantities of them in our bodies. Earlier flame retardants, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), were phased out of production in the mid-2000s due to health concerns. However, the PFRs that replaced them have drawn similar scrutiny.

In this new study, researchers chose to study healthy women undergoing IVF in order to account for as many variables as possible. Unlike in natural conception, when ovulation and fertilization are hard to pinpoint, each milestone of the pregnancy is monitored and recorded in IVF.

Participants also shared information like age, weight, race and ethnicity, their smoking history, their levels of education and whether they had ever previously been pregnant. Each participant's body mass index was calculated, and the levels of hormones crucial to successful pregnancy, such as FSH, were measured during the IVF process.

Researchers found a 10 percent decrease in the rate of fertilization among women with the higher levels of PFRs in their bodies. These same women had a rate of embryo implantation that was one-third lower than those with lower levels of the chemicals in their blood. The rate of live births was 38 percent lower.

The numbers are arresting, but as when any new information comes to light, we need more research to understand the whole story. The sample size of 211 women is small. The fact that the women are enrolled in an IVF program means they are already facing fertility problems. Also, the sperm involved in each attempt at pregnancy is not being evaluated.

However, decades of study have shown that the chemicals present in flame retardants do adversely affect various hormones. It's quite likely that, with the results of this most recent PFR study, the research will expand and move forward.

So what about the yoga mats that made it into so many headlines? It turns out that the study cited gym mats, those thick pads from PE class, as a source of PFRs. Most yoga mats are made of PVC and don't contain flame retardants.
Derick Havens, 43, was arrested by the Drug Task Force. He was cited for two counts of possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | The top executives of the Democratic parties in all three Siouxland states will meet to discuss progressive issues in a South Sioux City event Thursday.

The Siouxland Progressive Women group have set the the event, called the Tri-State State of the State Democratic Parties Conversation, for 11:30 a.m. at Delta Hotel by Marriott, at 385 E. Fourth St., in South Sioux City. The chairwomen, chairman and executive directors of the parties will take part.

Expected topics for the day include the current political landscape, rural perspectives in Plains states, and opportunities to boost Democratic principles and expand the party.

The participants include Chairwoman Ann Tornberg and Executive Director Sam Parkinson, from South Dakota; Chairwoman Jane Kleeb and Executive Director Eric Aspengren, from Nebraska; and Chairman Troy Price and Executive Director Kevin Geiken, from Iowa.

Ben Nesselhuf, a former state legislator and South Dakota Democratic Party executive director, will moderate the discussions.

Attendees must e-mail their reservations to chulinsar@cableone.net by Monday. The $10 fee covers both attendance and lunch.

The Siouxland Progressive Women is an organization of about 180 members devoted to resisting an erosion of human rights and ensuring social and economic justice.
SIOUX CITY -- Local officials are encouraging residents to sign an online petition that urges Iowa's congressional delegation to save a federal tax incentive program that has financed the restoration of a long list of historic structures in Sioux City.

The federal Historic Tax Credit, or HTC, program, which has been around for more than three decades, is on the chopping block as part of a Republican-led effort to reform the federal tax code. A bill in the House would eliminate the program while a Senate version would cut the credit in half.

The Change.org petition, titled "Save The Historic Tax Credit," says the incentives are "critically important" to several significant renovation projects on the drawing board, including a $56 million proposal to breathe new life into the historic Warrior Hotel and adjacent Davidson Building.

"I would encourage all of our citizens to participate in this online survey because we have over $89 million of projects right now that will need these credits to become a reality," Mayor Bob Scott said. "These credits are vital to our continued development of our old buildings in downtown Sioux City.

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, 130 people had signed the petition, which was started by the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce.

The petition notes the historic tax credits have been an "invaluable development tool" for "significant Sioux City building projects like the Orpheum Theatre, Pierce Warehouse/United Center, Heidman Law Firm, Castle on the Hill, and the Tyson Events Center/Long Lines Rec Center to name a few."

"While Congress works to reform the U.S. tax code, we respectfully urge our elected officials to protect and retain the Historic Tax Credit (HTC) program which has been so important to our local efforts to save, restore, and repurpose historic buildings. Just as this program has been critically important to past redevelopment projects, the HTC will become even more important to future projects," the petition states.

The Warrior/Davidson restoration, for instance, would create a 146-room boutique Marriott brand hotel, complete with bars, restaurants, and other retail outlets. The project would create an estimated 200 to 300 construction jobs, as well as 250 full-time positions once completed.

Copies of the signed petitions will be delivered to Iowa's entire congressional delegation -- Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst and Reps. Steve King, David Young, Rod Blum and David Loebsack.

The petition states HTC is a nonpartisan issue and noted the Sioux City Council last month unanimously passed a resolution supporting the HTC program and encouraging Iowa's congressional delegation to retain it.
SIOUX CITY  The former Sioux City Kmart store is taking on a second life as a U-Haul storage facility.

U-Haul Company of Iowa acquired the 45-year-old former big box store at 5700 Gordon Drive in August. The Kmart store closed at the end of March after 45 years in business.

U-Haul, an Arizona-based moving company, intends to convert the building into a climate-controlled storage facility and retail store, according to a U-Haul spokesperson.

The store is located on the east edge of Sioux City, next to a Menards and near Gordon Drive's intersection with U.S. Highways 20 and 75. U-Haul signage is already visible on the property.

Additionally, U-Haul plans to construct two self-storage buildings on the northeast quadrant of the property.

In about two weeks, U-Haul plans to open a temporary showroom at the site, where customers will be able to purchase moving supplies and rent trailers and moving vehicles.

A full renovation of the property wont be complete until spring 2019.

U-Haul plans to hire local contractors to work on the project and the store will employ six to 10 local employees, according to minutes from an Oct. 10 meeting of the Sioux City Board of Adjustment.

The former Kmart, which covered about 105,000 square feet, was among dozens of Kmart and Sears stores shuttered as a cost-cutting measure by their parent company, Sears Holding.

The Sioux City store, built in 1972, was one of the first national big box stores to open in Iowa's fourth largest city.

At one time, the store included an auto service and tire center and a lunch counter.
Russia, Turkey and Iran call for 'broad dialogue' on Syria solution

MOSCOW - The presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed on Wednesday to continue their joint efforts to facilitate the possible transition to a political settlement in Syria and restore peace and stability in the war-torn country.

"Large-scale military operations against terrorist gangs in Syria are coming to an end. ... Militants in Syria suffered a decisive blow and there is a real chance to end the civil war that has lasted for years," Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a summit of leaders of the three countries in the Russian city of Sochi.

According to them, the creation of the de-escalation zones in Syria have been efficient and greatly helped to reduce violence, alleviate the humanitarian suffering, curb the flow of refugees and even provide conditions for the safe return of refugees.

"The presidents acknowledged that the 'Astana format' and its achievements have become an effective instrument for contributing to peace and stability in Syria. ... Russia, Iran and Turkey would continue their coordinated efforts to ensure that the progress in reduction of violence is irreversible," said a joint statement issued after the summit.

As a result of seven rounds of meetings on the Syrian conflict in the Kazakh capital of Astana, a nationwide cease-fire has been established in Syria, of which Russia, Iran and Turkey are guarantors, and four de-escalation zones are operating in key regions of the country.

"It can be stated with certainty that we have reached a new stage that opens the door to a real political settlement process," Putin said.

In particular, the three presidents expressed their support for "a broad intra-Syrian dialogue" among all segments of Syrian society, calling on representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition to participate constructively in the upcoming forum of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi, according to the statement.

The Syrian National Dialogue Congress, proposed by Moscow in October at Astana talks in Kazakhstan for a Syrian settlement, is expected to bring together opposition and pro-government forces, as well as representatives of all Syrian ethnic and religious groups to work for the peace process in the country.

"We have reached a consensus on helping the transition to an inclusive, free, fair and transparent political process that will be carried out under the leadership and ownership of the Syrian people," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

The presidents also underlined the need for all Syrian parties to take confidence-building measures, including the release of prisoners and hostages, the handover bodies and the identification of missing persons in order to "create better condition for political process and lasting ceasefire," the statement said.

Foreign intervention

Noting that the Syrian crisis has been accompanied by foreign intervention since the beginning, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the international community should keep out of the internal affairs of the country in the future.

"The people of Syria will not allow foreigners to interfere in their domestic affairs. Naturally, they will resist any attempts to encroach on their national sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and independence," he said.

In the meantime, the leaders called upon members of the international community to support the process of de-escalation and stabilization in Syria, by providing aid, facilitating demining, preserving historical heritage and restoring infrastructure assets including social and economic facilities.

The presidents also expressed their readiness to meet again over the Syrian settlement if necessary, the statement added.

The Syrian armed conflict broke out in 2011 and quickly turned into a full-fledged war. So far, the Syria war has killed more than 330,000 people and displaced millions.

On Tuesday, first deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council's Defense and Security committee Frants Klintsevich said that the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria will possibly be over by the end of the year.

Xinhua

(China Daily 11/24/2017 page11)
Investigators heard several reports of sexually suggestive comments by Iowa Republican caucus staff members and senators, but found no provable incidents of sexual harassment in the state Senate, a review released Friday shows.

The three-page report features staff members recollections of at least seven incidents of sexually suggestive or offensive comments, but no allegations of physical harassment. The report reveals two incidents in which what appears to be senators made offensive comments, but their names are censored.

The report shows the workplace culture needs to improve, according to Senate President Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, who originally had refused to release it.

The internal investigation followed former staff member Kirsten Andersons successful sexual harassment lawsuit this summer that resulted in a $1.75 million settlement to be paid by taxpayers.

Anderson was the Republican caucus communications director between 2008 and 2013 when she was fired hours after lodging a sexual harassment complaint. Leaders cited poor work performance as the reason for her dismissal.

During Andersons trial, GOP Senate staff members testified to ongoing sexual harassment, which led to the internal inquiry of allegations from December 2012 to now. Current members of the staffs of the Republican Senate caucus and the Secretary of the Senate were interviewed between July 25 and Aug. 7.

The leaders, who have brought in former ambassador and Senate President Mary Kramer to help them address what Anderson described at trial as a toxic environment, said workplace culture at the Senate can improve, and with a lot of hard work, it will improve.

But Senate Minority Leader Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, found the report deeply troubling because investigators heard about senators making sexually suggestive comments as recently as the 2017 legislative session  after Dix and other GOP leaders said they had zero tolerance for such behavior.

The report will increase the disgust that Iowans feel about the harassment, discrimination, and retaliation against Kirsten Anderson and other legislative staff, Petersen said in a statement. The report paints a picture of an environment in the Iowa Senate that will lead to more lawsuits against Republicans senators and staff unless dramatic changes are made.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Kim Reynolds, who earlier called for the report to be released, said Friday that the governor had no comment.

In releasing the report Friday, Whitver and Dix said they were trying to balance two competing concerns: openness and protecting staff.

The first concern is to be open with Iowans about the workplace issues in the Iowa Senate, they said in a statement.

Names were redacted from the report because to improve the workplace culture, employees need to know they can share their concerns without those issues being shared publicly.

Publicizing those individuals could have a chilling effect on the willingness of employees to make reports of future incidents, they added.

Whitver and Dix also shared a letter from the Des Moines law firm of Ahlers Cooney advising them to black out the names of employees because participation in the investigation related to job conduct and performance would be confidential information under Iowa law.

The attorneys also advised that senators names should be redacted because under Iowa law, personal information in personnel records of government bodies relating to identified or identifiable individuals who are officials, officers or employees of government bodies is protected.

In their investigation, Secretary of the Senate Charlie Smithson and Whitvers senior aide Mary Earnhardt looked at incidents and comments in and by the Senate caucus staff and office environment, the Senate floor environment and the Secretary of the Senate staff.

Among the findings:

-- An staff member said an person made a sexually suggestive comment during the 2013 legislative session.

-- Another provided copies of handwritten documentation of offensive comments within the GOP staff office that occurred after December 2012.

-- A person specifically noted a sexually explicit story told by a fellow staff member. The staff member asked that the story be stopped.

The report notes that documentation of the events was provided, but it was not included in the materials released.

-- A member of the Secretary of the Senate staff indicated a person overheard what could possibly be interpreted as harassment, but declined to give specifics.

-- Many caucus staff members indicated there is an environment on the Senate floor of senators making sexually suggestive comments or about sexual preferences.

-- One recalled one occasion of a senator making a sexually suggestive comment in 2017.

-- Another detailed a story about a senator making sexually suggestive comments regarding proposed legislation on dense breast tissue.

-- There were other reports involving former senators.

Some staff members told investigators they feared retaliation, say that is why they did not feel comfortable reporting harassment. Other staffers, however, said they were comfortable reporting potential harassment.

The investigators said that, in conclusion, it does not appear that any provable incidents of sexual harassment as defined in Section 17 of the Personnel Guidelines have occurred.

Democratic leader Petersen said the report by a political appointee and a Republican staffer confirms her belief that an independent, outside investigation is needed.

We called on all senators to work together to fix this problem, she said. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans have ignored the calls for action by refusing to fire any of their staff or to make any changes in their leadership.

The report can be found at https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/WMD/SenateInternalReview.pdf
Kim Reynolds said this week she would not rule out campaigning with President Donald Trump next year as she seeks to remain Iowas governor.

Not all of Reynolds GOP gubernatorial colleagues across the country feel the same as they prepare to navigate next years elections.

Reynolds recently attended a meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Texas, where GOP governors discussed winning in next years mid-term elections while potentially facing some national political headwinds.

A decisive victory for the Democrat in Virginias recent gubernatorial election grabbed the attention of some Republican governors, according to a New York Times report from the governors associations meeting.

And other GOP governors acknowledged the challenge of running while the Republican president has an historically low approval rating.

Trumps approval rating is just 39 percent nationally, according to Real Clear Politics average of recent polls.

Any time the titular head of the party is underwater, obviously theres going to be issues there. You cant just ignore that, said Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, according to the Times.

Reynolds does not appear to share Sununus concerns. This week, she did not rule out campaigning with Trump next year, assuming she secures the Republican Partys nomination in the June primary election.

Well take a look at that moving forward but I wouldnt say no, Reynolds said.

The disparity between Sununus and Reynolds perspectives on campaigning with Trump may simply boil down to voter behavior in their respective states.

In Sununus New Hampshire, Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by less than half a percentage point.

In Reynolds Iowa, Trump defeated Clinton by more than 9 percentage points.

Reynolds, along with then-Gov. Terry Branstad, did not shy away from supporting Trump during the 2016 campaign, even when other prominent Republicans were less enthusiastic about embracing their partys candidate. And it does not appear Reynolds feels any differently now.

What kind of impact that could have on next years gubernatorial campaign -- if any -- remains to be seen.

Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University, said he could see multiple scenarios play out.

On the one hand, Goldford said, voter turnout historically drops in midterm elections, which then become more about appealing to the parties base supporters.

In that regard, to the extent that Trump appeals to that more populist base, that could help (Reynolds), Goldford said.

On the other hand, he added, campaigning with Trump could subject Reynolds to questions about the authenticity of her support for preventing and addressing sexual harassment and sexual assault if she campaigns with Trump, who has been accused of harassment by at least a dozen women, and who has supported Alabamas GOP U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of sexual assault or misconduct by eight women.

Campaigning with Trump also could motivate more Democratic and no-party voters to turn out and vote against Reynolds, Goldford said.

It raises questions of her commitment to the prohibition and prevention of sexual harassment, and could continue energizing likely voters that might not have turned out otherwise, Goldford said.

Reynolds is between a political rock and a hard place when it comes to campaigning with Trump, said Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University.

Because Iowa voted for Trump, Reynolds needs to appeal to those voters, Schmidt said. But, he added, she also must appeal to no-party voters, the type that polls show are not happy with Trump.

Iowa voted for Trump so she needs to harvest the voters that turned out for him. They like him. The base of the party in Iowa and around the country is still on board with Trump, Schmidt said. She also needs to argue that she can get enough of a slice of non-party voters compared to the other GOP contenders, because there are not enough Republicans to win an election. ... Can she campaign with Trump and then pivot away from him for the general election?
For decades, Medicaid has been a lifesaver for millions of Americans. Established in 1965 as an amendment to the Social Security Act, Medicaid was created specifically to provide medical care for societys most vulnerable citizens. As of June 2017, more than 600,000 Iowans qualified for Medicaid.

Medicaid is now in trouble in Iowa. Last year, Iowa privatized Medicaid, turning over the management of the $4.2 billion program to three for-profit companies. This was done because lawmakers thought it would save taxpayer money. The program is underfunded and one of the companies recently pulled out. That company managed 75 percent of the Medicaid recipients in Iowa, forcing many Iowa Medicaid recipients to shift in their managed care provider.

We need to avoid pointing fingers and just sufficiently fund Medicaid in Iowa. Perhaps it was not the wisest decision to privatize Medicaid, but switching systems back and forth repeatedly is not the answer; we should work to improve the present system and fund it properly. Voters want elected officials to work together in a bipartisan fashion to fix problems. We dont want lawmakers to bicker back and forth and blame others.

We cannot leave Iowas most vulnerable citizens out in the cold. - Ruth Kociski, Sioux Center, Iowa
Government cuts in funding have affected every aspect of the lives of disabled citizens. Funding has been cut to care facilities, community-based service programs, sheltered workshops, even case workers. We must give these citizens a voice. They are the poorest of the poor and the weakest of the weak. Tell your elected officials this is not acceptable.
Canada  November 24, 2017  Andre Frappier

Parallels Between Catalonia and Quebec A major item on the agenda of the upcoming convention of Quebec solidaire (QS), to be held in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil December 1-3, will be a proposal for fusion with another pro-independence party, Option nationale (ON). This will entail revisiting the relationship between the parties support for Quebec independence (basically the entire program of ON) and Quebec solidaires attempt to link the national question with its social justice program. The current struggle for national self-determination in Catalonia quite naturally suggests parallels with the issues posed in the Quebec pro-sovereignty movement. In recent weeks, two leaders of Quebec solidaire  Manon Masse, a party spokesperson and member of Quebecs National Assembly, and Andre Frappier, a member of the QS National Coordinating Committee  have visited Catalonia as invited guests of the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), a left pro-independence party that is now contesting the December 21 Catalan election. In the following article, which I have translated from Presse-toi a gauche , Andre returns to a topic he has frequently addressed in recent months as a coordinator of a pan-Canadian network of left social movement activists that is now beginning to develop. An earlier article by him was published here on October 5. Andres article is followed by a statement of the newly-formed Quebec coalition of solidarity with Catalonia, which includes major nationalist organizations, trade unions and political parties. Its first public meeting will be held on November 18, in Montreal. See its web site for particulars, at www.solidarite.cat.  Richard Fidler

The political situation in Quebec and internationally, with the escalation of the Catalan national struggle, impels us to deepen our thinking on these issues. What role can Quebecs national liberation struggle play in class terms, in the context of the fight for emancipation of the peoples in the Canadian state? The following is an attempt to address these questions.

For more than forty years the national question in Quebec has been dominated by the Parti quebecois (PQ). But it was not the PQ that invented nationalism, that was the product of the domination that has existed since the British Conquest and which was structurally integrated at the time of the Canadian confederation.

Nationalism is not, by definition, necessarily progressive. That depends on the political situation and the role nationalism is summoned to play as a vehicle for transformation toward an egalitarian society. Historically, in Quebec, national oppression has always been a source of social mobilization against capitalist domination, which appears beneath the face of a foreign domination.

This domination has been introduced in various ways  in the cultural, media, educational systems as well as at the economic and social levels. For many years now, American and Canadian culture have inundated our television screens. Quite recently, the CBC produced a purportedly historical narrative of Canadas history that in no way reflected the historical roots of Quebec or of the indigenous nations. And for many years, as Yvon Deschamps used to say, you worked in English or were unemployed in French  which is still the situation in many areas of activity today.

Rise and Fall of PQ

It was this feeling of excess that the PQ built on in its origins. The nationalization of electricity resources previously controlled by various private interests, initiated by Rene Levesque under Jean Lesages Liberal government, showed the way and prompted a major economic take-off, boosting national pride.

This Quiet Revolution completed by Rene Levesques PQ soon came up against some antisocial economic choices with the rise of the recessionary period at the turn of the 1980s. The national liberation struggle was never able to develop its full potential, therefore. In the years that followed, the PQ built itself as a party of neoliberal state administration with the consequences that entailed in terms of disillusionment and the stifling of mobilizations if not direct confrontation as in 1983 during the public sector negotiations.

The sovereigntist perspective was dimmed both by the neoliberal policies implemented by the PQ when it was in office and by the identitarian nationalism that has come to replace the strategic impasse which the party had reached and which ultimately became the gravedigger of what it had once been. Herein lies the necessary distinction between the deviation of the PQs nationalism and the scope of the struggle for sovereignty in terms of social change, not only in Quebec but in the Canadian state.

Struggles in Catalonia

In Catalonia, where the political struggle is now much more intense than it is in Quebec, the fight for a popular reappropriation of society is crucial. The issue of fiscal independence emphasized by the middle classes arouses no sympathy among the popular classes in the rest of the Spanish state or in a significant part of Catalonia as well, in particular the popular sectors in the working-class neighborhoods of Barcelona.

The Catalan independentist movement, and more precisely the left, will have to take this into account, especially because Rajoy accuses Catalonia of benefiting from economic resources more ample than the Spanish average and claims that the Catalan population wants to keep its wealth for itself, depriving the rest of Spain. The Spanish working class is in this way pressed to support those who are applying the rules of austerity against it and to fight against its objective ally in Catalonia.

The struggle of the Catalan people must therefore find a way to link their fight for national liberation to a perspective of struggle against the austerity imposed on the entire Spanish state by the government in Madrid, as the movement of the indignados did a few years ago.

The dynamic of struggles is not linear. The fight for social change and the overthrow of the old state does not begin everywhere at the same time, and develops more intensely within nations oppressed by the central state. It is essential that the Spanish working class likewise find the way to supporting the struggle of the Catalan people against the oppressor state headed by Mariano Rajoy. This is in its own interests. A defeat of the Catalan struggle would be a major victory not only for the right-wing government in Madrid; it would also ensure some stability to the European Union in its domination of the working class throughout Europe, which could continue to enrich itself through increasingly drastic austerity measures as it did with the Greek population two years ago.

So also in Quebec. The fight for control of our national fate, our resources, our environment and our industry cannot be successful without challenging the control by the ruling classes. That inevitably means looking beyond Quebecs borders and calling on the working people in the rest of Canada to support our fight for social justice against the equally inevitable intervention of the Canadian state and its financial institutions, which will apply the same medicine as the World Bank did to Greece or Madrid and the European Union is doing to Catalonia. Didnt Trudeau say that there was only one united Spain? 

Quebec Solidarity with Catalonia

In the wake of events in Catalonia, especially since the Declaration of Independence of the region by the Catalan Parliament, several major organizations of civil society and four political parties in Quebec have agreed to come together to form a broad coalition of citizen solidarity and cross-partisan support for Catalonia.

The Coalition supports the Catalan population and the Carles Puigdemont government, which was democratically elected in 2015. It calls on Spain to respect democracy and condemns the continuing wrongful proceedings against the Catalan leaders, as well as any recourse to violence. In addition, the Coalition intends to support the efforts of the Catalan government to have the new Catalan Republic recognized.

International Solidarity

When we see the inertia of the international community, the intransigence, use of force and violation of the civil and political rights practiced by the Spanish government with regard to Catalonia, it is imperative that Quebecois who support the principle of democracy speak out in solidarity with the Catalan people and government who have fought peacefully and democratically for their right to self-determination.

The objective of the Coalition established today is to ensure that these rights are respected by the Spanish State and also recognized by the international community, starting with the governments of Quebec and Canada.

Broad public meeting on November 18th

As a first activity, the partners in the Coalition have agreed to organize a big public meeting on Saturday, November 18 to take stock of the situation in Catalonia, and to show Quebecs support to the Catalan people. It is intended that a Declaration of Quebec Solidarity with Catalonia be announced, along with with artistic performances and an open discussion period. The details of this gathering will be announced soon.

Call for broadening of the Coalition

In order to broaden the reach of the message and make the action of the Coalition even more powerful and effective, an appeal is made to all groups, civil society organizations and political parties that respect the right of the Catalan people to choose their future to express their interest by email via the address coalition@solidarite.cat.

Full details of the activities and actions undertaken by the Coalition will be available on the website www.solidarite.cat.

The following organizations have, to date, agreed to join the Coalition (in alphabetical order):
In February 2017, Leah Gardner attended a community dinner at the LightHouse of San Franciscos headquarters on Market St. She was one of 20 or so people who sat around a table and listened to Laura Millar, the LightHouses new Sexuality Health Programs Coordinator, share her vision of having a contingent at the annual San Francisco Gay Pride Parade.

I could almost touch the energy in that room, Gardner said. About 20 people shared ideas, life experiences and excitement; a true community spirit was tangible.

Gardner, who is a lesbian and visually impaired, shared she had always had some hesitation about attending the Pride march, but through the LightHouses new Sexual Health programs, she was able to tuck away her uneasiness.

Marching amid the euphoria of Pride, I finally felt part of something purely unique. I was always nervous and rather apprehensive about trying to march in such a gigantic event as a visually impaired person; Laura gave me and so many others a reason to bond together, to feel pride and joy in who we are, said Gardner.

According to lesbian and disability rights activist Corbett OToole, the LightHouse is the first disability organization to partake in the Pride festivities and applauds Millar for her efforts in making the Pride contingent a reality for many.

Laura's contingent, said OToole, showed the disability and LGBT communities that queer rights are inseparable from disability rights. Her decision to offer a contingent for the San Francisco Pride Parade is unprecedented. No mainstream disability organization has made that commitment before.

In addition to marching in the San Francisco Pride Parade, some of Millars past programs included a masturbation workshop with Shauna Farabaugh, a trip to Good Vibrations, where Carol Queen and Andy Duran gave workshop participants a tactile tour of some of the stores most popular products -- explaining how and why someone might use a specific toy -- and a dating workshop cleverly titled: World of Sex with Jan McClain.

Millar is bisexual and legally blind. She holds both a Masters in Public Health and a Masters in Human Sexuality from San Francisco State University. She is also a single parent and believes it is just as important to train parents, teachers, and educators on accessible sexual health practices, as it is to train blind youth.

I have done workshops and presentations with youth, seniors and everyone in between, said Millar. The youngest student so far Ive had in one of my workshops I believe was 14, and the oldest in their mid-80s.

But while the events and workshops offered through the LightHouses sexual health programs have been well-received by LightHouse students and community members, Millar points to a lack of sex education for young people with disabilities.

Too often in the blind community, youth will say to me they are tired of not being given the information they need, or treated like young adults. They dont want to be coddled, and they want a lot more independence, Millar said.

My programming, continued Millar, fills in a lot of gaps related to sexual health and health literacy. Educating young adults about how to access their sexual health needs, using resources available to them in their community is an important part of being an independent adult.

The LightHouses sexual health program also offers a monthly youth workshop, which Millar shares is similar to what a sighted youth would receive in high school or in an introduction course to sexuality in college.

Currently, I have a model of a 3D uterus, vulva, and clitoris, which have been very useful to help educate people about their bodies. It is exciting to see a room full of young folks with shared lived experiences -- that often feels very isolating -- and to be able to give them the opportunity to learn in a manner that is accessible and designed for them.

As the only full-time employee at a blindness organization that manages sexual health programs, Millar spends a lot of time working with people from across the country.

She explained, Ive had a number of one-on-one conversations and meetings with people who are blind and LGBTQ across the country, and have been able to help link them up with services in their area.

The LightHouses CEO, Bryan Bashin, recognized the importance of further diversifying their programs and in 2016, hired Millar.

He said, The LightHouse knows that theres more to living a full life than cane skills and screen readers. Thats why when we met Laura, we knew we had found the perfect person to enrich our programming with skills for healthy sexuality, intimacy and relationship building -- the stuff that really makes us tick, as people.

The LightHouses sexual health program has built partnerships with the Transgender Law Center, San Francisco Women Against Rape, Positive Resource Center, and the DAs Special Victims Unit. You can learn more about the LightHouses sexual health programs and their other services by visiting Lighthouse-sf.org.

Belo Cipriani is a disability advocate, a freelance journalist, the award-winning author of Blind: A Memoir and Midday Dreams, and the spokesperson for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Learn more at www.belocipriani.com.
Recently I spent my Saturday afternoon at the Veterans Day event hosted by the City of Wilton Manors, a fitting tribute to the many men and women who have served in the military of our great nation and deserve our unequivocal gratitude and respect. No one should ever overlook, minimize, or forget their bravery, sacrifices, and service to protect our essential American values, freedom, and way of life.

Looking over the diverse crowd and listening to the impassioned speakers, I felt a sense of anger and contempt towards the radical rightwing fanatics who falsely claim a God-given ownership over patriotism. These fascists wrap themselves in the American flag and chant, Make America Great Again. In reality, the only way we will make America great again is to realize that every one of us makes America the great nation it already is.

Our brave veterans come from very different backgrounds. Some are wealthy, poor, white, black, Latino, gay, straight, male, female, transgender, and some not even U.S. citizens when they volunteered. They were Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, liberal, socialist, conservative, and more. They all came together as Americans willing to serve a country they believed in, to defend the dream of freedom for all! Only when we begin to recognize ourselves as a nation of many, instead of a select privileged class, will we truly make America great again.

Our Mayor selected verses from Maya Angelous poem, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, to talk about defending our freedoms. Perhaps a more appropriate choice would have been a poem written by Langston Hughes, Dream of Freedom, part of which reads:

There are those who claim

This dream for theirs alone--

A sin for which we know

They must atone.

This dream knows no frontier or tongue,

The dream no class or race.

The dream cannot be kept secure

In any one looked place.

It must be saved for ALL-

Our dream of freedom!

Looking at those who make life better for the many here in our Island City of Wilton Manors, I would like to move the subject to last weeks SFGN edition and the selections for SFGNs Best of 2017. Having spent the past week pondering or perhaps actually channeling the spirit of Emma Goldman, a political activist, union organizer, and writer, while reviewing her influence during the first half of the 20th Century, I feel the need to share my thoughts and Emmas wisdom, on who should be our local Wilton Manors choice for Best Local Politician and Best LGBT Activist.

While Debbie Wasserman Schultz might qualify as best politician for being able to hold on to elected office after her actions over the past few years, her failure at the helm of the Democratic Party paved the way for the Trump Presidency. Her backing of the payday loan industry was a slap in the face for many Florida working families struggling to get out of the vicious cycle of debt. A far better choice for Best Politician would be Congressman Ted Deutch, who represents Wilton Manors and serves as Chair of the Congressional LGBT Aging Issues Task Force and as Vice Chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus.

It is often said that all politics are local, so perhaps we should look right here in our Island City where we can choose any one of our City Commissioners for doing a great job, Vice Mayor Justin Flippen and with Commissioner Scott Newton could both be our hometown favorites. Looking outside our borders, Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Dean Trantalis would be a formidable contender. Sorry, Debbie!

Now lets look at the selection for Best LGBT Activist. Doing a spectacular job, one that pays you a six figure salary, does not make you a great activist, it makes you a great CEO. A true activist is someone who fights for a cause about which he or she is passionate, someone willingly accepting the personal costs and unpopularity that advocating for a controversial issue may bring.

There are many in our wonderful city who are committed and who struggle to bring about the change in which they believe, but no one fills that role better than our own Michael Rajner. On many occasions Michael reminds us of the issues that we as a city and a community need to address, rather than remain silent or ignore. Activist Rajner does not win a lot of friends along the way, but activism is not a popularity contest. Love him or hate him, but always respect Michaels commitment to make our community better, even though we would rather him shut up at times. Activists like Michael Rajner force us to consider and make hard choices about what it means to stand for equality, justice, and freedom for all! That is the work of a true activist.

Thank you, Michael, for making life just better here -- and Emma thanks you too.
I'm rolling out my third edition of Browards Real Estate Yearbook, providing a detailed view of pricing, sales and inventory trends in 35 distinct East Broward neighborhoods (with new expanded coverage of Lake Worth in Palm Beach County).

Last time, I assessed pricing trends in the three neighborhoods of the Island City. In this issue I will have a few things to say about the inventory levels of single-family homes here.

Realtors frequently complain about low inventory levels. Sometimes this is warranted; sometimes not. Of course, the principal measure of success among some Realtors is getting new listings, the more the better. But if there are too many homes on the market, buyers may get suspicious about neighborhood desirability and pricing.

In theory, an inventory calculation (measured in the number of months needed to sell the homes on the market at the current rate of sales) should be trivial. Just take the number of homes for sale and divide it by the sales per month.

This has made me uncomfortable for a couple different reasons at least. First of all, there are ways of manipulating this statistic (to a degree) to produce a misleading result. But by hearkening back to my previous career in Actuary-Land, I have developed a methodology to correct for that. (For purposes of this column, you dont need to know the details, but I may do a technical note on it for my website, someday, if anyone is interested. Next year I will serve on the Research Advisory Committee for Florida Association of Realtors, and perhaps I can work on that with them.)

The second reason is easier to explain. Here in South Florida, our real estate sales vary seasonally, sometimes dramatically so. Further, with the variability in sales rates known among owners (and, one would expect, Realtors), the level of inventory at any given time would be what is known in statistics and economics as a leading indicator of coming sales activity, and not a coincident indicator.

To see what effects these matters would have on the months of inventory calculation for the Island City as a whole, I looked at average sales over three, six and 12-month periods, compared with average inventory levels for periods ending three months prior to the date in question. The results are shown in the graph.

Two observations in closing. First, overall inventory levels in WilMa have been acceptable, even ample, over the last several years. Second, the analysis raises a question of what, exactly, is the optimal level of inventory. Looking across the 41 neighborhoods in the yearbook, inventory levels by neighborhood increase (from a base level) at a rate of roughly one month for every $100,000 of price. This suggests that the Realtor rule of thumb that inventory of less than six months indicates a sellers market is not universally applicable. And my frequent readers know how I feel about rules of thumb.

James Oaksun, Florida's Real Estate Geek(SM), is Broker-Owner of New Realty Concepts in Oakland Park. In addition to having degrees from Dartmouth and Cornell, he is a Graduate of the Realtor Institute (GRI).
Diane Hill-Hinse, former wife to trainer Leonard Hill, passed away on November 16, 2017.

She was always known as a very spirited woman who loved her family, friends and pets. For many years she worked at tracks all over Canada and the United States racing horses with her former husband, Leonard Hill. She kept the barn organized while handling the book work and raising their son Brent.

A gathering for a celebration of life is planned for Tuesday, November 28 from 1-3 p.m. at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church located at 20097 72nd Ave in Langley, British Columbia. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences.
Before this meet, Rene Goulet had not competed at Cal-Expo in 18 years, but hes happy to be back and enjoying the warmer temperatures.

The people here are nice and friendly and its been fun catching up with everybody, said Goulet, who has brought eight performers down from Canada along with his partner, Glenda Smith.

Its also nice to get away from that cold and snow.

Included in the group that came down with Goulet is the three-year-old pacing filly Cenalta Call Girl, who has provided him with his first two victories at this stand, including a tally as the odds-on choice in the Annette Funicello Pace last week4.

Rene was born into the sport, learning about harness racing from from his father, Art, and uncle, Al Goertzen.

I pretty much knew by the time I was 10 this is what I wanted to do, said the 50-year-old native Manitoba.

Goulet cut his teeth on half-mile tracks, but has also done his share of driving on five-eighths and mile ovals in the Great White North.

I actually prefer a mile track like the one here at Cal Expo, because I like to let my horses sit and finish.

Goulet's favourite horse of his is KG Explorer, who is among the performers who have shipped down with him this season.

Hes 13 now and Ive had him since I bought him for $1,500 as a 3-year-old.

The Saturday, November 25 program at Cal-Expo is headed by an Open Trot featuring Pridecrest, a Filly and Mare Open Pace featuring Capitol Hill, and the Bill Conlin Prep.

First post for the 12-race program is 6:10 p.m. The Open Trot goes as the fourth race, while the Conlin Prep is the sixth race and the Distaff Open is scheduled as the eighth contest on the card.

A five-year-old son of Angus Hall from the Wesgate Crown mare Spilled Milk, Pridecrest races for Mark Hinshaw with Luke Plano doing the driving and training. He comes into this assignment with $177,000 to his record and will start from the assigned-post 10 this weekend.

The black horse made his California debut on November 3 and wired the field for Plano, crossing the wire nearly 10-lengths clear of his nearest rival while establishing a track record with the 1:53.2 clocking.

Suiting up the next week from the outside post in a field of nine, Pridecrest stalked early, took over turning for home and drew off by six-and-a-quarter lengths as the 2-5 favourite.

Taking him on are Becky Badger Baby for Nick Roland, Agrestores Comet and James Kennedy, One Chief and Steve Wiseman, Talkin Tootsie and Mooney Svendsen, and Itzaziam with Sean Smithpeters.

In the Filly and Mare Pace, Capitol Hill, a six-year-old daughter of Badlands Hanover, has fired in all four of her starts at the meet and has come away with a pair of victories, including last weeks Distaff Open in a first-over performance with Steve Wiseman. George McChrystal and Kathie Plested own with Plested the conditioner.

(With files from Cal-Expo)
Seventh Dimension Series Wins Twenty-Ninth Award

Contact: Lorilyn Roberts, 352-359-6941; www.LorilynRoberts.com GAINESVILLE, Fla., Nov. 24, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- The Prescience takes the reader on a time travel adventure to the first century where the protagonist experiences an apocalyptic battle that transcends dimensions."When I began writing The Prescience, I was diagnosed with breast cancer," says Lorilyn. "My own scare with cancer was as much an apocalyptic battle as penning the words to this book. I hope the Seventh Dimension story captures the underpinnings of God's redemptive work in a world at the crossroads of heaven and hell. We've all been there in one form or another."Awards for the Seventh Dimension Series include the following: Literary Classics Book Awards, USA Book Awards, National Indie Excellence Award Winner, International Book Awards Finalist, Readers' Favorite Awards Winner, Best Indie Book Award, Florida Authors and Publishers Association Award Medalist, Global eBooks Award Winner, Best Book Awards Finalist, Shelf Unbound Notable 100 Award Winner, Book Excellence Award Winner, BooksAndAuthors.com Winner, INDIEFAB Book of the Year Finalist, New England Book Festival Honorable Mention, New York Book Festival Honorable Mention, Great Southeast Book Festival Runner Up, Grace Awards Finalist, Selah Awards Finalist, and Book Goodies Best Cover Contest Winner.The Prescience, Book 5, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-9760745-1-6Author, speaker, Lorilyn Roberts, www.LorilynRoberts.com , has appeared on Discovery Channel's Monsters Inside Me and blogs regularly at LorilynRoberts.blogspot.com
Check the Naughty and Nice List Before You Shop

Contact: Liberty Counsel, 407-875-1776, Media@LC.org; Press Kit

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 24, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- Before you do your Christmas shopping, Liberty Counsel provides the Naughty and Nice List, which catalogs which stores are censoring Christmas and which are publicly celebrating it.



Liberty Counsel's Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign educates, and if necessary litigates, to make sure that Christmas and Christian themes are not censored. Liberty Counsel pledges to be a Friend to those celebrating Christmas and a Foe to those who try to censor it.

You can download or print the entire list here. Liberty Counsel encourages you to incorporate the information on this list into your Christmas shopping plans.

For the last 14 years, Liberty Counsel has been tracking retailers and how they are increasingly acknowledging Christmas again. Years ago, Walmart had banned its employees from even responding with the phrase Merry Christmas. But after Walmart heard from its customers, it moved to the Nice List, completely embracing the Christmas season. Fortunately, many other companies have followed suit.

As our Nice List continues to expand, we are happy to report that retailers are once again recognizing Christmas, said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. We are now seeing a return to honesty in advertising. If stores are trying to sell items for this special season, then they should call it Christmas. We encourage you to spend your dollars with those businesses that acknowledge Christmas rather than censor it, 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.






Israels top diplomat attacked American Jews yesterday. Deputy Foreign Minister Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said of American Jews:

People that never send their children to fight for their country most of the Jews dont have children serving as soldiers, going to the Marines, going to Afghanistan, or to Iraq. Most of them are having quite convenient lives. They dont feel how it feels to be attacked by rockets, and I think part of it is to actually experience what Israel is dealing with on a daily basis

She spoke at the end of a 5-minute interview in the Israeli i24 News (in English), as noted by Haaretz today. Hotovely is top diplomat, because Benjamin Netanyahu holds the Foreign Minister portfolio himself.

Now, had these words come from a non-Jew, we would no doubt have had a riot going on in the media about anti-Semitic vitriol  about Jews being lazy, privileged, unpatriotic and all the rest of it. But apparently, Hotovely is allowed, because shes a Jew herself, an orthodox one no less, and shes ultra-Zionist and all, so no one is going to call her a self-hater.

Hotovely was lashing out against American Jewry, on the background of her being disinvited by Princeton University Hillel a couple of weeks ago, following a petition by progressive activists on campus. Hotovely has been on a major collision course with American Jewry recently, and also said earlier this month that American Jews are losing it bigtime, in that they are supposedly threatening the existence of world Jewry, given their 80 percent assimilation rate and growing indifference to Israel.

Haaretz notes the facts regarding the presence of US Jews in the military, including their presence in the Israeli military:

The U.S. military stopped recording the religion of recruits decades ago, but until then Jews served in slightly greater proportion than their percentage in the general population. There continues to be a Jewish presence in the military, including in the highest ranks. Gen. David Lee Goldfein is the U.S. Air Force chief of staff. There is an organized Jewish presence at military academies. A number of Jewish ex-servicemen have run for public office in recent years. Estimates say that around 200,000 U.S. Jews live in Israel, with many young people serving in its military.

In fact, Haaretz does not appear to be quite up to date on this issue. In 2006, this site did a survey regarding the representation of various religious communities in the US military, and managed to get statistics from the Pentagon. The survey showed that Jews were underrepresented by about 50% in the military. Still, Hotovelis statement about them never sending their children to the military shows that she is both uninformed and incendiary.

When asked about why Jewish Americans may not feel connected to Israel, the deputy minister said that perhaps they are too young to remember how it feels to be a Jewish person without a Jewish state  in a classical Hasbara diversion of the discussion from uncomfortable current issues, playing up the Holocaust card  the card that is always kept in pocket in case all else fails.

But even I dont remember what its like to not have a Jewish state; Im 45. And if I dont remember, Hotovely certainly doesnt  shell be turning 39 soon. Maybe she should have used leftist leader Avi Gabbays saying that he stole from Netanyahu  that the left have forgotten what it means to be Jewish and applied it to American Jews instead.

Hotoveli has said unabashedly in the past that this land is ours  all of it is ours. But so far, she seems to have meant it regarding the whole of historical Palestine. Now she seems to be patronizing American Jews as if the whole of USA was hers too.
Mutilated and processed is not a phrase that you ever hope to read in any context whatsoever.

But it fits good to Sacred Ridge in Colorado, an ancient Native American settlement consisting of 22 pit houses.

Genocide at Sacred Ridge: Excavations at an ancient Pueblo site uncovered crushed skulls (one shown) and other bones from at least 35 victims. via Science News

One day, as archeologists were cataloging the usual pots and tools and petrified turds and such, they stumbled straight into a problem: scientists didnt have enough room on their checklist for the huge amount of two-headed axes spattered in human blood that they were finding.

And the pit homes were absolutely filthy with mutilated and processed human bodies.

So what happened here?

Attackers with a deadly plan climbed a knoll to a Pueblo village called Sacred Ridge around 1,200 years ago. What happened next was anything but sacred.

The site of Sacred Ridge. via Science News

The bloody conquerers indeed diced approximately 35 people into nearly 15,000 horror nuggets and scattered them all over Sacred Ridge. In other words, each person had been divided 430 times with an ax.

This pit home was absolutely filthy with mutilated and processed human bodies. via Science News

Theres also evidence that, before being butchered, burned, and pulverized, the victims were hobbled and generally beaten about the feet and ankles, most probably because that hurts!

And even with the astounding number of human bits scattered all around, some were conspicuously missing, because the killers took heads, hands and feet as souvenirs.

Evidence of hobbling and torture discovered at ancient massacre site in Sacred Ridge, Colorado. via WesternDigs

By analyzing the teeth and whatever other parts of the victims could be pieced back together, researchers discovered that they were of a different ethnic group than the other residents at Sacred Ridge, meaning that what we have here is a case of good old-fashioned genocide.

It seems that such Middle Ages actions are always trendy, especially in Mexico, right now.

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A new round of state grants will fund robots, coding classes for special education students and teacher training across Southwest Washington.

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is funding science, technology, engineering and math programs  more commonly known as STEM  across the state, including ones at Vancouver Public Schools, Battle Ground Public Schools and Educational Service District 112.

A $5,000 grant will allow Vancouver Public Schools to launch a pilot class for coding in five special education classrooms next year. The Foundation for Vancouver Public Schools added a matching $5,000, bringing the total to $10,000 for the program.

Grant funds will pay for iPads in kindergarten through second grade special education classrooms, as well as training for their teachers, according to a district news release. Students in those classes will learn basic coding as well as robotics, which the district says will lay an early foundation for future career opportunities, according to the release.

Battle Ground, meanwhile, received $11,800 in grants to support STEM programs at CAM Academy, Daybreak Middle and Tukes Valley Middle schools.

Students, through nonprofit FIRST Washington, will build and program competitive robots. CAM Academy will receive $9,200 for the schools robotics team, The CloverBots, while Daybreak and Tukes will each receive $1,300 to participate in the non-profits LEGO League competitions. Students will design robots to solve various challenges in front of a panel of judges, such as transporting water.

ESD 112 received $5,000 to expand computer science professional development for teachers. STEM Director Vickei Hrdina said the grant will train kindergarten through second grade teachers in coding activities, introductory robots and ways to teach students about problem solving using computers.
Journalist hurt in knife attack in Jessore

Jessore Correspondent :

Ananda Das, 55, Assignment Editor of Jessore- based daily Protidiner Katha was wounded seriously in a knife attack by unidentified miscreants on Thursday evening.

Confirming the information, Abul Bashar, officer in-charge (investigation), Kotwali police station told that he was rushed to Jessore General Hospital after rescuing him from Barmanpara of Chansra area on the outskirts of Jessore town in the evening.

Journalist Ananda told that he lost sense as three miscreants stab his throat, the left hand and two legs after abducting him from Barmanpara area in the evening. 'I don't know the reason,' he added.

Dr Habibur Rahman, medical officer, Jessore General Hospital told that the journalist had excessive bleeding although he is now out of danger.






Solar powered health posts for Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar

Cox's Bazar Correspondent :



IOM, the UN Migration Agency, is harnessing solar energy to power its remote health posts in Cox's Bazar's giant Kutupalong and Balukali makeshift settlements, which are now home to an estimated 440,000 Rohingyas from Myanmar, an IOM press release said.

Violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State has forced over 620,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh since August 25, bringing the total number of people seeking safety in the Cox's Bazar settlements to over 833,000.

Many of the new arrivals and those already living in the settlements, as well as local communities, are desperately in need of healthcare.

Prior to the latest influx of Rohingyas, IOM coordinated the work of agencies working in the health sector, in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Bangladeshi Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As people have flooded into the settlements over the past three months, pressure on the health sector has steadily risen.

Since August 25, IOM has carried out over 75,000 health consultations for both Rohingyas and the local community in Teknaf and Ukhiya upazilas. In October alone, over 3,865 women received pregnancy-related care, including 3,030 antenatal care, 525 postnatal care and 310 deliveries.

Prior to the introduction of solar power, IOM's healthcare teams were confined to working during daylight hours, because the lack of lighting made it impossible to provide patient care from dusk to dawn. A plan for a 24-hour care system is now being developed.

The new energy supply also powers wells and water purifications systems, ensuring clean water is available at the health posts. It also means that the health posts are not affected by power cuts and the patients can charge their phones while they wait.

The introduction of solar energy was made possible through the support of Solevolt, a solar energy company, Kopernik, a non-profit organization that distributes low-cost technologies to recipients in less-developed countries, and BPO Data Exchange, a Bangladeshi Social Enterprise.

"As the demand for our healthcare services increases, solar-powered lighting means we can provide round the clock emergency consultations and medicine distributions," explained Mariam Abdelkerim-Spijkerman, the IOM Emergency Health Officer in Cox's Bazar.

"The health needs of the refugees are immense - providing 24-hour lighting helps save lives," she added. IOM's health clinic in Leda, a village where Rohingyas have been settling south of the main settlements, also uses solar power as a back-up source of electricity, ensuring that the clinic never has power outages.

IOM currently supports 13 health facilities, seven mobile medical teams (six in Ukhiya and one in Teknaf) and ten ambulances for transporting urgent and emergency cases. In collaboration with partners, it also works with over 350 community health workers throughout Cox's Bazar.

The humanitarian community is now responding to the needs of over 833,000 Rohingyas in Bangladesh, including new arrivals and people who had fled following previous outbreaks of violence. IOM has appealed for USD 120 million to meet the needs of the most vulnerable refugees and the Bangladeshi communities hosting them through February 2018. This includes USD nine million for health.

IOM's health response in Cox's Bazar is currently funded by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID).
Refusal of claimed balance is not criminal offence

High Court Division

(Criminal Miscellaneous Jurisdiction)

Md Habibul Gani J

Md Akram Hossain Chowdhury J

Shawkat Alam (Md) .....

Accused-Petitioner

vs

State and another ........ Opposite-Parties

Judgment

June 5th, 2017

Code of Criminal Procedure (V of 1898)

Section 561A

Penal Code (XLV of 1860)

Sections 420 and 406

Refusal to the claimed balance does not constitute any criminal offence under Sections 420/406 of the Penal Code; rather, it may be a civil liability, if so claimed. On the self same dispute there is a civil suit pending between the parties before a competent civil Court to settle the title of ownership of the car in question and it further admitted that a part payment was made in this particular case to deliver the car in question by putting the signatures to the transfer documents by his own initiative of the complainant, (13 & 14)

Islam Ali Mia alias Md Islam vs Amal Chandra

MandaI, 45 DLR (AD) 27; Abdur Rouf (Md) alias Nayan vs State. 53 DLR 283; Khandker Fazlul Haque vs Md Aftabuddin Ahmed @ Abtabuddin, 11 MLR 357 = 57 DLR 166 ; Golam Sarwar Hiru vs State, 13 MLR 103 = 14 BLC (AD) 26 Rafique (Md) vs Syed Morshed Hossain. 50 DLR (AD) 163;

None appears -For the accused-Petitioner.

Md Ozi Ullah with M Shaiful Alam, Advocates-For the Accused-Petitioner.

Abul Hossain, Advocate-For the Opposite Party No.2.

Judgment

Md Akram Hossain Chowdhury J : At the instance of the accused petitioner namely Md Shawkat Alam, on an application under Section 561A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, this rule was issued calling upon the opposite parties to show cause as to why the proceeding of CR Case No.1004 of 2013 (Kotwali) under Sections 406/420 of the Penal Code, now pending in the Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Comilla should not be quashed and/or pass such other or further order or orders as to this Court may seems fit and proper.

2. Pending hearing of the rule, the impugned proceeding of CR Case No. 1004 of 2013 (Kotwall) was stayed by an ad-interim order of this Court.

3. Short facts leading to this Rule are that the opposite party No.2, Md Abdul Kaium Bhuiyan being complainant on 28-10-2013 filed a petition of complaint before the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Cognizance Court No.1, Comilla implicating therein the present petitioner and another one as accused alleging inter-alia that the complainant is the owner of a private car bearing registration No. Dhaka Metro-Ga-14-8455 which was purchased by him on 18-10-2009 from one Abu Reja Eahia at the price of Taka 6,50,000. After the purchase of above private car the complainant submitted necessary documents in the office of BRTA on 19-8-2013 for its registration infavour of him and got a slip thereof for delivery of the registration document as to be delivered on 28-10-2014. It further asserted in the petition of complainant that the above car was purchased by the said Abu Reja Eahia with a bank loan financed by the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited and the said previous owner by paying the installments of the loan took a clearance from the bank and in support of which the bank authority issued a letter addressing to BRTA for issuing registration certificate infavour of him. In the meantime the complainant being very much acquainted with the accused petitioner No.1 made a proposal to him to sale the said car and in response the accused petitioner expressed his desire to purchase the same at the price of Taka 7,10,000. Accordingly, the complainant upon received a part payment of Taka 3,00,000 handed over all the documents of the car by putting his signatures thereon on 2-9-2013; on condition that the accused petitioner after scrutinizing the documents of the car from BRTA will pay the rest amount as settled between them. Then the accused petitioner along with the witness No.1 on 2-9-2013 taking the alleged car with them went to the office of BRTA, Dhaka Metro Circle (South) and at one stage the accused petitioner leaving the witness No.1 at the office of BRTA went to the house of accused No.2 on the plea to bring the rest amount of money as settled to be paid. After some time since the accused petitioner did not rerum back, the complainant in the situation lodged a GD Entry with the Keranigonj Police Station on 2-9-2013. Ultimately the whereabouts of the accused petitioner being could not be traced out, the complainant then lodged a written allegation with the office of BRTA on 5-9-2013 and filed a Miscellaneous Case being No. 175 of 2013 before the Additional District Magistrate, Comilla for issuing a search warrant about to recovery of the car as alleged. Eventually pursuant to the court's search warrant the private car in question was recovered by the police from Narayangonj and then it Was brought to the Kotwali Police Station, Comilla. Narrating the said facts the complainant filed the present petition of complainant.

4. The learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Comilla upon received the said complaint directed the Officer-in-Charge, Kotwali Model Police Station, Comilla for submitting inquiry report thereto and after the report the learned Magistrate took cognizance against the accused persons including the present petitioner under Sections 406/420 of the Penal Code and issued the process against them.

5. The accused petitioner being informed about the said case voluntarily surrendered before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Comilla on 24-2-2014 and obtained his bail. Then he moved to this Court by filing an application under Section 561A of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing the proceeding; upon which a Division Bench of this Court issued the present rule and also passed an ad-interim order staying the impugned proceeding.

6. Mr Md Ozi Ullah appearing with Mr M. Shaiful Alam, learned Advocate for the accused petitioner, at the very outset, submits that in the whole petition of complainant there has been no discloser of any offence attracted under Sections 406/420 of the Penal Code and it has been admitted therein that a part payment was made to purchase the alleged car; however, ultimately upon an initiative of the complainant himself the alleged car was taken into the custody of Kotwali Police Station, Comilla. Learned Advocate further submits that the alleged car was though proposed to be purchased by the present petitioner but after searching in BRTA Office it was found that the complainant has got no registration of the car infavour of him and therefore, the final settlement was not at all held. Learned Advocate also submits that by now it is the settled proposition of our apex Court that where an admitted fact arrived for making part payment and the claiming amount is not admitted by both the parties, that liability mere a civil in nature but not in criminal. He again submits that on the self same dispute a civil suit has already been filed by the present petitioner against the complainant for having the title of the car in question which is now pending before the competent civil Court. Learned Advocate thus argues that in the whole petition of complaint the complainant himself made some complications about the title of the car in question which is admittedly not yet registered in his name and by his own assertion he disclosed that by his own initiative the car in question has been taken into the custody of the police for recovery of rest amount of money which shows that the allegation as made in the petition of complaint is a pre-posterous one and the liability mere may has to be a civil in nature. In such prevailing circumstances if the impugned criminal proceeding is allowed to be continued further it will be clear abuse of process of the Court. As such, he urges that the proceeding as impugned is liable to be quashed. In support of such submissions learned Advocate for the petitioner referred before us one of the apex Court decision, the case of Islam Ali Mia alias Md Islam vs Amal Chadra Mandal, reported in 45 DLR (AD) 27 and the case of Abdur Roul (Md) alias Nayan vs State, reported in 53 DLR 283.

7. On the other hand, Mr Md Abul Hossain, learned Advocate appearing for the complainant opposite party No.2 submits that the accused petitioner in a fraudulent manner agreed to purchase the complainant's car in question and induced the complainant by making part payment but ultimately he taking over the possession of the car as well as the documents signed by the complainant for transferring the title of the car's ownership did not pay the rest amount as has been settled.

(To be continued)
British PM in crunch Brexit deal talks with EU chief

AFP, Brussels :

British Prime Minister Theresa May holds a crunch meeting with European Union President Donald Tusk on Friday as hopes mount that she will offer compromises to secure a Brexit deal in December.

The talks, on the sidelines of a summit with ex-Soviet states in Brussels, come a week after Tusk gave May until the start of December to make "much more progress" on divorce terms in order to unlock trade negotiations.

After months of deadlock, European officials say they hope May will finally bring a new proposal on Britain's exit bill after senior British ministers agreed earlier this week to improve the offer to a reported 40 billion euros.

The EU has demanded "sufficient progress" on the bill as well as the increasingly delicate issue of Northern Ireland and the rights of EU citizens, if it is to move onto the next phase of negotiations at a December 14-15 summit.

The Tusk meeting-for which no timing was immediately available-launches a frantic few days of Brexit diplomacy, during which May will also meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on December 4.

Juncker indicated there was movement when he said on Thursday that "we are out of the woods" on the first phase, although he stressed that "the situation isn't so that I can now definitively say that we have made enough progress". "We have to see in the next few days," he said.

EU member states have become increasingly impatient for Britain to meet its terms, and increasingly worried that May's fragile Conservative government is unable to do so even if it wanted to.

Former Polish premier Tusk has warned that without progress by early December "at the latest" it will be too late to prepare guidelines for the summit for the move towards talks on a future trade deal, and on a post-Brexit transition period of around two years.

Tusk was "more optimistic" after meeting May a week ago on the sidelines of an EU summit in the Swedish port city of Gothenburg, but when it came to tabling a new offer "the earlier the better", an EU source told AFP.

Britain is reportedly set to double its offer to settle its commitments to the EU budget from 20 billion to 40 billion, but the EU has so far said the true figure should be closer to 60 billion.

The British position on the bill was "evolving, they are laying the ground for domestic public opinion", another EU official added.

"But if they want 'sufficient progress on December 15 they can't come with their offer on December 13 or 14. We have sent them a simple message: don't wait until the last minute!"




From Myanmar to Zimbabwe, China's global footprint grows

Beijing has been flexing its military muscle, opening its first overseas military base in Djibouti and building militarised artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea .

AFP, Beijing :

China has traditionally rejected US-style interventionism, but its deepening economic involvement in volatile countries like Myanmar and Zimbabwe is thrusting Beijing towards a more assertive global role, analysts say.

China's foreign policy has been guided by its principle of "non-interference in other countries' internal affairs", which emerged in 1954 when it was a much weaker nation.

While Beijing remains rhetorically committed to the stance, it is now a very different power, boasting the world's largest standing army and the second biggest economy.

This change has coincided with a shift in diplomatic engagement that most recently saw Beijing take the unusual step of proposing a strategy to resolve the crisis over Muslim refugees flooding over the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh.

It has also stepped up its role in the Middle East-on which it depends for oil-after having long taken a backseat in the powder-keg region, offering to host talks on the Syrian and the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

China is now expected to take greater responsibility in world affairs as "it's no longer the little underdog," said Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London.

"You can't have an elephant pretending it's a mouse."

China's footprint abroad is growing with its One Belt, One Road infrastructure project, with $1 trillion in investments across Asia and Europe to revive ancient trade routes through a massive rail and maritime network.

As the scope of Beijing's foreign interests extend, "naturally the question of how to safeguard those interests also comes up," said Chinese political commentator Chen Daoyin.

President Xi Jinping presented an ambitious goal of turning China into a global superpower with a first-rate army during a Communist Party congress last month that further consolidated his power.

Chen noted that Xi vowed to "uphold the international order", implying a much more active role increasingly similar to that of the US, which China has decried as overly meddlesome.

Though China would not publicly disavow its non-interventionist approach, it would likely "gradually dilute it, so that it evolves from non-interference to neutrality to interference," Chen said.

"When China's national interests are harmed abroad, it's entirely possible that it could use the need to protect its investments and diaspora citizens as an excuse to deploy troops."

Beijing has been flexing its military muscle, opening its first overseas military base in Djibouti in August and building militarised islands in the disputed South China Sea.

Yet even without direct military intervention, China has found itself embroiled in politics abroad despite its wish to remain an amoral political force.

Zimbabwe's army chief, General Constantine Chiwenga, happened to be on an official visit to Beijing days before his forces took over the country, sparking speculation that Beijing had some role in the decision.

China had a long-running relationship with Robert Mugabe and has significant investments to protect in the country.

Brown said he was "sceptical" of such rumours but they demonstrate the impossibility of not taking sides as a superpower.

"If people attribute power to you, you have it, you have influence," he said. "The comfortable fence-sitting is then not very sustainable."

In Cambodia, China is the largest source of foreign direct investment, having pumped in a total of $11.2 billion by the end of 2016.

The poverty-striken country's dependence on Chinese money emboldened its Prime Minister Hun Sen to "make political moves that erode democracy and democratic processes," said Brian Eyler, director of the Southeast Asia programme at the Stimson Center, a US-based think tank.

"As long as China continues to hold economic sway over Cambodia, Cambodia will remain authoritarian without an opposition party."

Myanmar has faced global outrage over a military crackdown on minority Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state that the UN has called "ethnic cleansing".

But its government has seen unflinching support from China, which has invested billions on ports, gas and oil in Rakhine-including a $2.45 billion pipeline that opened in April.

Earlier this month, strong Chinese opposition forced the UN Security Council to drop plans to adopt a resolution demanding an end to the violence.

Instead, Beijing has presented its own proposal to resolve the crisis with a ceasefire, refugee repatriation and poverty alleviation.

"Everything seems to have a link with China now, whether it's Zimbabwe or Burma or Sri Lanka or political issues in New Zealand-it's an extraordinary change," Brown said, using another name for Myanmar.

"The idea of non-intervention has sort of become impossible. Even if China just wants to sit in glorious isolation, problems will now come and find it."




US intelligence official told Israel Russia had `leverage` over Trump : Report

Russia had \"leverages of pressure\" over Donald Trump, Israeli intelligence officials were reportedly told earlier this year by their US counterparts.

The Independent :

Russia had "leverages of pressure" over Donald Trump, Israeli intelligence officials were reportedly told earlier this year by their US counterparts.

Members of Mossad, the nation's foreign espionage agency, and other Israeli intelligence officials, attended a meeting at the CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia, shortly before Mr Trump's inauguration on January 20.

There, they were told by a senior US intelligence official he believed Moscow had leverage about the man set to become America's 45th president, according to Vanity Fair.

While the official did not provide specific details, he reportedly told Israel to "be careful" as it was possible sensitive material could be passed to the Russians. Months later, Mr Trump sparked widespread controversy when he revealed highly classified intelligence information during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in Washington.

Earlier this week, Vanity Fair revealed that during that meeting, at which Mr Trump called his sacked FBI Director James Comey a "nut job", the President told the Russians about extremely sensitive information that revealed details of a covert Israeli operation that exposed Isis' plans to create new laptop bombs and smuggle them on commercial airliners. US reporters were barred from the meeting and the only images that documented it were taken by Russia's TASS news agency.

Two experts told the magazine the operation carried out Israeli intelligence took place last winter. In the operation, two helicopters flew a team of commandos and Mossad operatives into Syria to gain information on a reported new Isis weapon. They landed some miles from their target and proceeded in vehicles with Syrian Army markings before bugging the Isis cell and getting back out, the magazine said.

The White House has yet to respond to the latest allegations.

At the time it was revealed that Mr Trump had talked about classified information during the meeting in May, the White House denied the President had done anything wrong.

"I was in the room - it didn't happen," said Lt Gen HR McMaster, Mr Trump's national security adviser.

"At no time - at no time - were intelligence sources or methods discussed, and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known."

Back in January, Israeli intelligence officials were warned by U.S. intelligence agencies they had evidence to suggest that Russia had "leverages of pressure" over President Trump. According to reports, a few select members of Mossad, Israel's foreign espionage agency, and other Israeli intelligence officials attended a meeting in Langley, Virginia, a short time before Trump's inauguration. While the meeting started out as ordinary until an American "spymaster" announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had leverage over Trump.

Israeli intelligence officials were warned in January that American intelligence agencies believed Russia had "leverages of pressure" over President Donald Trump, Vanity Fair reported Wednesday.

Members of Mossad, Israel's foreign espionage agency, and other Israeli intelligence officials attended a meeting in Langley, Virginia, a short time before Trump's inauguration.

The meeting was largely uneventful, until an American "spymaster" announced the conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin had leverage over Trump. The official did not offer further specifics, Vanity Fair reported.

The official warned Israel to "be careful" once Trump was inaugurated, adding that it was possible sensitive information shared with the White House and the National Security Council could be leaked to Russians.




ULAB faculty selected as WIF Ambassador for Bangladesh

Campus Report :



Sajid Amit, Director, Center for Enterprise and Society (CES), and Director, Executive MBA, at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) has recently been selected to be the Ambassador for Bangladesh for the World Innovation Forum (WIF). WIF is supported by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and it aims to double the entrepreneurial success rate from less than 10 percent today to more than 20 percent by 2035, and significantly increase prosperity in all participating countries.

The responsibilities of the Ambassador will entail identifying 20 of the most capable and innovative minds in Bangladesh to attend the World Innovation Forum in Lucerne, Switzerland in June 2018. These 20 innovative minds can be 5 start-up entrepreneurs; 5 investors, VCs, and angels; 5 enablers such as incubators, accelerators, and mentors; 3 corporate intrapreneurs; and 2 government representatives responsible for innovation and economic development.

Over 1200 attendees will attend the World Innovation Forum, from 50 countries to collaborate in 50 sessions on the most burning global and local challenges.


Brazil striker Robinho given nine-year term in Italy for rape

Former AC Milan and Real Madrid striker Robinho has been sentenced to nine years in prison in Italy after he was convicted of gang rape, according to local media reports Thursday. The alleged incident occurred in January 2013, when the Brazilian was playing for Milan in Serie A.

He was found guilty in absentia by an Italian court for raping a 22-year-old Albanian woman. Five of the player's friends were accused of the same crime. One of the accused was also given a nine-year prison sentence while the trial of the four others has been suspended because they are on the run.
Goodbye Mugabe, Hello new Zimbabwe

Busani Bafana :

Robert Mugabe - the world's oldest head of state - is dead, politically at least. After 37 years in power, Mugabe, 93, had become almost synonymous with the country he led. Nothing was said about Zimbabwe without a mention of Mugabe: his rule, his candor and his unforgettable one-liners. Events of the last fortnight culminated in the removal of one of Africa's political godfathers and a grandmaster of guile.

It was his wit combined with his political astuteness that made Mugabe more feared than he was adored. Mugabe has missed an opportunity to die in office, a wish he personified by holding on to power for so long.

Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabwe has known since independence from the British in 1980, resigned today after facing impeachment by his own party - which a few months back had endorsed him as their sole presidential candidate for the national elections due in 2018. If he had won, Mugabe would have been in office until the age of 98 - another world record. But at the party Central Committee meeting last week, Minster Obert Mpofu said it was with "a heavy heart" that the Central Committee was removing Mugabe, who had contributed "many memorable achievements."

The ruling Zanu PF party made a record of its own. It dramatically fired Mugabe as its leader and endorsed a decision to impeach him after Mugabe ignored a Nov. 20 deadline to voluntarily step down. But events of the last fortnight culminated in the removal of one of Africa's political godfathers and a grandmaster of guile.

The sacking of Emmerson Mnangagwa as the country's Vice-President from the government and ruling party Zanu PF because he was disloyal and accused of plotting to dethrone Mugabe set in motion events that saw Mugabe fighting for his political life.

Mugabe appears to have given in to his wife Grace's penchant for power. He purged the party's senior leadership, seen as an obstacle to Grace's goal of a Mugabe dynasty. It was too much to take for the army, Zanu PF and the people. Enough was enough and Mugabe had to go. Grace - 41 years Mugabe's junior - had to be stopped. A joke is told that Mugabe was once asked when he will say goodbye to the people of Zimbabwe, only to retort: "Where are they going for me to say goodbye to them?"

Now Mugabe himself has been forced to say goodbye. "I have resigned to allow smooth transfer of power," he wrote in his resignation letter, which was read aloud to applause at a joint session of the Zimbabwean Parliament. "Kindly give public notice of my decision as soon as possible."

Mugabe 's avowed principle that 'politics shall always lead the gun and not the gun politics' was reversed when army tanks rolled into the streets of the capital Harare last week, held Mugabe and his family under house arrest and took over the state broadcaster. Their action, justified as a means to rid the country of criminals who had misled the President, was never referred to as a coup. The gun took over the politics, putting Zimbabwe on a new unknown path to change.

Yet Mugabe initially brazenly brushed off the events of the past week as no threat to his leadership. After the last week's massive public clamour for Mugabe to step down, a frail and feeble Mugabe appeared to give the Zimbabwean populace a middle figure in a rambling speech last Sunday that he would preside over the forthcoming congress of the Zanu PF which has fired him as its leader and head of State.

A former teacher turned revolutionary leader, Mugabe espoused the reverent statesman, reconciler and nation builder. His pro-development policies are credited with creating educated, savvy citizens, many of whom have made a mark on the global stage. But an educated people quickly understood the suppression of their rights as Mugabe consolidated power. He changed the law to become executive President in 1987, the same year he forged a Unity Agreement between Zanu PF and rival political party, PF Zapu led by his erstwhile opponent, Joshua Nkomo.

"Mugabe is history already. Unfortunately, he has destroyed whatever legacy he had 20 years ago," says economist and parliamentarian, Eddie Cross. "He will now be remembered as the man who destroyed our agricultural industry, brought hunger to the majority of people's homes and allowed Africa's most diversified economy to collapse."

Cross says under Mugabe's watch, incomes have declined by two-thirds, agricultural production by two-thirds or more, industry by over 80 per cent and employment is down to less than 10 per cent of the adult population. Mugabe, Cross believes, has driven over 5 million Zimbabweans into the Diaspora, the majority skilled, well-educated people with capacity.

"We are immediately faced with a cash crisis, a fiscal crisis and a complete lack of confidence in the State, the Banking sector and in government policy," Cross told IPS. "All these issues have to be dealt with simultaneously. The economic wish list is a mile long - very difficult to prioritize but clearly we have to curb recurrent expenditure by the State, we have to increase revenue, we have to balance our budget and we have to restore confidence in our monetary policies and banking industry."

The new government - when it is in place - will need to form a national government which has both popular support and international credibility if it can address the many problems facing Zimbabwe, economic recovery being one.

Cross is convinced the international community will demand a return to democracy as soon as possible and the full implementation of the Constitution as well as the restoration of the rule of law and adherence to human rights.

"They are going to demand respect for property rights and for strict compliance with an IMF programme," says Cross, a founding member of the MDC and currently its Policy Coordinator General. "This tough wish list needs a strong government, it needs time and it needs credible and competent and incorruptible leadership."

Mnangagwa, 75 - an ally and comrade in arms of Mugabe - has been mentioned as the new leader for Zanu PF, with his expulsion reversed this week. Described as a subdued contriver, Mnangagwa served in various portfolios of security, intelligence and justice. He has been seen as Mugabe's go-to man with an uncanny ruthlessness in dealing with opponents.

In a widely circulated statement attributed to Mnangagwa, the former vice president who fled the country after being fired had urged Mugabe to step down and take heed of public calls.

"Mugabe can be tried domestically, but not by the ICC [International Criminal Court]," says Dave Coltart, a human rights lawyer and former cabinet minister. "Impeachment would be a legal way of terminating his presidency. Mnangagwa needs to comply with the Constitution."

Touted as heroes, Zimbabwe's army has pulled off epic public relations campaign to restore the country's political and economic fortunes through a new government. But will there be a new order in Zimbabwe? As Zimbabwe remains on edge about what is to come, Coltart warns against celebrating the unclear promises of the military men.

"In all of our euphoria we must never become so intoxicated as to forget that it was the same generals who allowed Mugabe to come to power in 2008 and 2013," said an opinion piece this week, urging that Zimbabweans should not forget how the military and war veterans spearheaded the violence which followed the March 2008 elections to ensure that Mugabe got back into power.

"So our message to the military must now be 'thank you for cleaning up the mess you created but you must now return to your barracks as soon as possible and never again get involved in the electoral process," Coltart said. "The real danger of the current situation is that having got their new preferred candidate into State House, the military will want to keep him or her there, no matter what the electorate wills.We, and the international community, must make it loud and clear to the military that they have no role to play in that election, other than assisting the police to keep the peace."

For many decades fear has been a powerful instrument in the hands of Mugabe and his supporters. Fear was used to cajole, silence and eliminate dissent. It worked to keep Mugabe in power, kept his supporters in line and opponents in check.

Jennie Williams, a human rights activist and founder of the movement, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), bears emotional and physical scars of crossing swords with the Mugabe regime in calling for change.

"I will be vindicated to hear Mugabe himself saying I resign," says Williams, who was arrested more than 65 times for criticizing the Mugabe regime. "I am saddened that today the Zanu PF members have realized what we have been saying and calling for all this time but they did not have the courage to tell Mugabe to go."

Williams, 55, is conflicted on what should be delivered in the post-Mugabe era.

"I am desperate for justice," she told IPS by telephone. "I wanted justice for this country, for the people, for my family. Many people suffered under Mugabe's rule and today have no jobs, cannot pay their bills, families have been torn apart but I am happy people have shaken away fear."

The wish list is long. Zimbabweans seeks a restoration of economic stability, a return to the international fold, the revival of industry and the promise of jobs, peace and security to get on with their lives. Maybe Mugabe had an easy solution:

"We must learn to forgive and resolve contradictions real or perceived in a comradely Zimbabwean spirit," Mugabe earlier told a stunned nation that was eagerly waiting for his resignation.

It finally came today as his own party introduced a motion to impeach him. According to news reports, after the letter was read by Speaker Jacob Mudenda, once-bitter rivals from ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change shook hands and hugged.



(Busani Bafana is a multiple award-winning correspondent based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe with over 10 years of experience, specialising in environmental and business journalism and online reporting).
Alarming rise in city air pollution

THE presence of pollutant particles in Dhaka's air has become quite high with alarm signals to public health. It was even higher than Delhi and Beijing on last Wednesday, as per a report in a national daily. We know Delhi had closed schools and put other emergency measures only last week as smog heavily hit the city forcing the city administration to ask people to stay indoor to avoid respiratory troubles and accident from poor visibility in city streets. Beijing and many other Chinese cities very often take such precautionary measures to protect city dwellers.







The State of Global Air Report 2017 said, Dhaka has ranked second on a global list of cities with worst air pollution, which claims 122,400 lives in Bangladesh a year. Air pollution is the leading environmental cause of death worldwide when 92 percent of the world's population lives in areas with unhealthy air. India and Bangladesh experienced the steepest increase in air pollution levels between 1990 and 2015.





We must say the new development is taking place as carbon emission in the air is fast rising from industrial pollution. Nations across the world are taking the issue seriously in the recent past committing to keep the carbon in the air under tight control. But the damage that has already been done to the environment is irreparable and industrialized and developing nations are facing serious consequences from it. Moreover, their slow move to switch to clean energy is further aggravating the situation.





Dhaka was not however hit by heavy fog on Wednesday but presence of injurious pollutant particles were so high in the air that it deteriorated air quality very much to harm public health. Needless to say Dhaka is heavily suffering from pollution of brick kiln, digging city roads, renovation of city pavements and repair in city streets. Dust is spreading in the air to add to industrial pollution now heavily growing from city suburbs.







The Directorate of Environment (DoE) found air quality at dangerously low level at least at three city points. Usually air quality falls drastically during the dry season and the time is quite critical for public health. It no doubt requires close attention of the city corporation authorities to keep the city clean while the Health Authorities and the DoE in particular must have binding rules to keep the air less polluted.







Air pollution contributed to 4.2 million premature deaths and to a loss of 103 million healthy years of life in 2015 according to the report. It said pollution is the fifth biggest cause of death. Bangladesh and India now have the highest exposures to air pollution related diseases. It is causing slow death to people unnoticed but it is time to take note of the danger and take measures accordingly.






Banks now turning to family business

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :

The government is going to hand over the private sector banks to powerful partymen and wealthy people to run them as 'family business', say economic analysts.

A parliamentary body on Wednesday recommended for passing the Banking Companies (Amendment) Act-2017 that allows the doubling of the number of directors in a bank's board from a single family and extends the tenure of directors.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on finance made the recommendation in a meeting after scrutiny of the proposed law.

The committee recommended passing the bill without any change and the bill is likely to be passed in the ongoing session of Parliament.

The analysts observed said if the Amended Act was passed, it would establish full control of a family to run a private bank,

The amendments, proposed by the Finance Ministry, were approved in a cabinet meeting earlier on May 8.

The Finance Ministry reportedly took the initiative to amend the law following pressure from a powerful quarter having affiliation with the ruling party.

Later, it sought opinion from the central bank that opposed the amendment proposals, saying the governance of the private banks will be affected if the law was amended, as the banks do business with a huge amount of money from depositors.

As per the proposed legislation, the tenure of bank directors would be extended to nine years from the current six years. They could become directors again after a three-year hiatus.

Besides, four members of a family would be able to become Directors of a Bank's Board. The number is currently two.

Analysts and former central bankers also opposed the proposed law saying it would not only hurt the interest of depositors but also affect the smooth running of the private banks.

"The government is apparently going to handover private banks to a powerful quarter and wealthy families by passing the Banking Companies (Amendment) Act-2017," Mirza Azizul Islam, a former adviser to the caretaker government, told The New Nation yesterday.

He added, "I don't find any justification for the amendment because it will impair the good governance in the banking sector".

"The government surrendered to the pressure exerted by the powerful quarter and brought changes in the Banking Company Act. Four directors in a bank from a single family and extended directorship tenure will turn the bank into a family venture," he added.

Terming the government move 'unethical,' former Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed said if passed it would be regarded as bad law for banking sector, as it would establish more control of owner families over the banks.

"The law will also chop some sort of regulatory power of the central bank," he added.

Former BB Deputy Governor Dr Khondoker Ibrahim Khaled, said, "It will go against the interest of the depositors and it will establish family domination in banks."

He said as banks are run with the depositors' money, the sheer control of a single family is not desirable.

"The change in the law will yield bad results to the governance of banks when directors getting involved in irregularities, he said, adding, "The sector has already been gripped by bad governance."

Dr Ibrahim Khaled observed that the owners of private banks give money to the government for various purposes, particularly for relief work, during natural calamities. "As a result, the owners of the banks have been able to exert pressure on the government to make the changes," he added.

The Banking Companies Act was last amended in 2013 regarding share-holding directors' tenure and how many of a family could become Directors.

The 2013 amendments were in line with the advice of the International Monetary Fund and followed international best practices.


Witness crisis prolonging trial

Different Labour organisations placing wreaths at Jurain graveyard marking the 5th anniversary of Tazreen Garments killing in building collapse. This photo was taken on Friday.

Staff Reporter :

Trial proceedings of the cases regarding deadly Tazreen Fashions carnage, which took lives of at least 113 workers and left many crippled for the rest of their lives on November 24 in 2012, still continue due to witness crisis though five years have already elapsed.

Two cases were filed against the owner and some officers of the garment factory after their negligence was found in the investigation report of the Home Ministry.

Only seven out of 104 witnesses appeared in the court in last two years in one case.

The state prosecutor said that the witnesses did not appear in the court. That is why the court fixes new dates.

To this, other law experts and activists said that old strategies were being taken to weaken the cases. The worker dies, but the owner is not tried.

Five years passed, but survivors and victims of the carnage are passing bleak days.

Government could not ensure justice, while the compensation the victims' families received are very little in terms of the damage they have sustained. The devastating fire, in which 10 workers also went missing with over 1000 injured, left many workers in the lurch.

Of the two cases, one was filed by Ashulia police Sub-Inspector Md Khairul Islam after the incident and another case was lodged in May 2013 by Motikul Islam, sibling of a dead worker of the factory, accusing factory owners and others on charge of killing workers.

The case filed by police is in the stage of giving depositions by witnesses. However, the prosecution was able to produce only seven witnesses out of 104 witnesses named in the chargesheet.

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police pressed the charge sheet on December 22, 2013 bringing the charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the Penal Code, causing death by negligence under Section 304A, voluntarily causing hurt under Section 323, mischief causing damage under Section 427 and mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy building under Section 436 of the code.

The trial court on September 3 in 2015 framed charges against 13 accused including Tazreen Fashions Managing Director Delwar Hossain, his wife Mahmuda Akter, also its chairperson, and 11 other staff of the apparel factory. However, life sentence is the maximum punishment that could be imposed on the present charges.

On the other hand, the case filed by Motikul, sibling of slain Rehana, has not yet seen any progress. Motikul alleged that he is being pressurized to withdraw the case. He, however, sought justice to be ensured for the fatal incident.

According to sources, a hearing was conducted for four days out of 19 scheduled dates, from the commencement of the trial, for recording testimony of prosecution witnesses. However, Additional Public Prosecutor Kazi Shahnara Yeasmin said that the witnesses could not be found in the addresses mentioned in the charge sheet while repeated summons were given.

The State cousellor Khondoker Abdul Mannan said that the witnesses lost interest to testify in these cases. "There is no chance to say that we have negligence. Non-bailable arrest warrants have been issued against the witnesses," he added.

"Maximum witnesses are tenants of the area. They did not mention their permanent adress in the case."

Human Rights activist Shahidul Islam told the jounalists that it was never seen to try a owner of a factory any day. The State always accepts the technics to save them, he added.

Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua said, "The matter is not so that the State does not have anything to do if the witnesses do not appear. The State has additional responsibility in this case. They even have full responsibility to present witnesses."
Body recovered from Mirpur child, wife missing

Staff Reporter :

Police recovered the body of an unidentified man from the city's Mirpur area on Friday.

The severely decomposed body was found in a tin-shed house of Mirpur-13 in the morning, said Jashim Uddin Molla, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Mirpur zone) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The locals informed police around 10:00am that a very bad odour was coming from inside a house, which was locked from outside. Police broke into the house and found the body in a highly decomposed state, the police official said.

The neighbours told that the man was a mason, who moved into the house with his wife and child on the 13th day of this month, and they were last seen on November 21.

But the whereabouts of the deceased's wife and child could not be known till filing of this report in the evening.

An Unnatural Death (UD) case was filed with the police station in this connection.
BNP takes two-way strategies ahead of polls

High command thinking to participate in election

Reza Mahmud :

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is moving ahead to take part in the upcoming national election fixing specific strategies, party insiders said.

The first strategy is to take all-out preparation for the 11th Parliamentary election. The another is to put pressure on the government continuously for a neutral or election time government.

Senior leaders of the BNP said, the country's people and international community, especially the development partners, will not accept another one-sided polls like the 10th Parliamentary election held on January 5 in 2014. They believe strongly that the incumbent government will not be successful if it tries to hold another January 5 election.

"The people will not cooperate with the government to hold another one-sided polls. We believe that the people will play an important role to regain their rights to franchise," BNP National Standing Committee Member Mirza Abbas told The New Nation.

Mirza Abbas said, "The BNP's stand about the next election is clear. We want a participatory polls only under a neutral government, which AL wanted in the past. And even it observed 173 days hartal to meet the care taker government system for an election in free and fair manner." Senior party leaders said, the BNP leaders and activists in different districts have become disappointed at the situation which has been created in last couple of years.

"The BNP has been staying outside the state power for a long time. It highly frustrated the partymen across the country. We need to cement the organisation by any means. The election preparation is an effective strategy to bring back enthusiasm among the party men from its grass root levels," said one of the members of the party's policy making body preferring anonymity.

Most of the leaders and activists are careful to skip arrests as they have been sued in many cases in the past, he added. The other senior leaders also agreed with the views.

They said, the party high command is also anxious with the situation. They are now trying to overcome it and make the party workable ahead of the next polls.

The party men are waiting for long to overcome the frustration and bring themselves in the mainstream of the politics.

As part thereof, party Chairperson Khaleda Zia directed the party senior leaders to take all out preparations for next polls.

She met the several stages of leaders of her party in the Chairperson's Gulshan office in recent days to take strategies to foil ruling party's tricks to keep BNP out of polls and politics.

The leaders requested the party chief to take poll oriented strategy which will be effective for keeping pressure on the government to compel to accept the demand of polls time neutral government, reviving the grass root leaders and activists.

Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin, a Vice-Chairman of BNP told the New Nation, "The government may try to hold election under them. But the people will not accept that. The people may not be soft to the government's blue print."

He said, "We have met our party chief Begum Khaleda Zia recently to discuss the political situation. Most of them are doubtful about fairness of election under the current AL government."

He said also the party has some plans to involve people with its pro-people movement in days ahead.


Refugee returns must meet int'l standards: UNHCR

Ensure safe, dignified conditions in Rakhine State

Staff Reporter :

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has asked the Myanmar authorities to create an enabling environment in Rakhine State to ensure safe and dignified return of Rohingya refugees to their homeland.

It also said that returns of refugee must meet international standards.

The UN refugee agency gave the call following the framework deal between Bangladesh and Myanmar on the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. Some 6,22,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar's northern Rakhine State since 25 August, triggered by a wave of violence underpinned by denial of citizenship to Rohingya people and decades of deep discrimination and brutal army crackdowns.

"UNHCR takes note of reports that the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar have reached agreement on the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. It has not yet seen the details of the agreement. Refugees have the right to return. And a framework that enables them to exercise this right in line with international standards, will be welcome.

First and foremost, this means that return must be voluntary, and take place in safe and dignified conditions that pave the way for lasting solutions," said UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards at a press briefing in Geneva on Friday.

The UN refugee agency said that at present, conditions in Myanmar's Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns. Refugees are still fleeing, and many have suffered violence, rape, and deep psychological harm.

Some have witnessed the deaths of family members and friends. Most have little or nothing to go back to, their homes and villages destroyed. Deep divisions between communities remain unaddressed. And humanitarian access in northern Rakhine State remains negligible, according to the UNHCR.

"It is critical that returns do not take place precipitously or prematurely, without the informed consent of refugees or the basic elements of lasting solutions in place. People must have the option of returning home, and not to be confined to specific areas. Progress towards addressing the root causes of flight, including their lack of citizenship, as recommended by the Rakhine Advisory Commission, will also be crucial," it added. Edwards.

"UNHCR looks forward to seeing details of the agreement between the two countries, and stands ready to help both governments work towards a solution for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh that meets international refugee and human rights standards," said Adrian Edwards.

Earlier, UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Protection UNHCR's Volker Turk said, any return of Rohingya refugees must be voluntary, safe and dignified.

"For return to happen, it's clear there has to be safety and guarantees of protection. There has to be a very serious commitment to immediately implement the recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Commission report that was launched and validated by the State Counsellor. We really need to see urgent action that will build the confidence of different communities. They will need to find a way to live together again, as they have done in the past, " he added.
Commodity price rise feared

Threatens for legal battle against power tariff hike

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :

The latest power tariff hike will contribute to a significant rise in commodity price leading to an adverse impact on consumers.

The rise would result in cost of production to supply chain management, according to Consumers' Association of Bangladesh (CAB).

Terming the power tariff hike 'illogical,' the consumer rights group on Friday threatened to move for a legal battle challenging the government decision.

"The hike in electricity tariff will add to the woes of ordinary people who have already hit by rising commodity prices," Prof Shamsul Alam, an Adviser of CAB, told The New Nation on Friday.

Referring to a CAB study, he said, prices of commodity specially rice will go up significantly as a chain effect of the power tariff hike. "The hike will have tremendous affect on millions of consumers as well as detrimental impact on trade, business and industries," he added.

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) on Thursday announced an average 5.3 per cent rise in retail electricity tariff in defiance of an objection from industry bodies and consumer rights groups.

They said the government move was unjustified when it has options to cut the electricity tariffs. Mismanagement and corruption by power distribution companies forced the government to raise power tariff.

"The government has to give relief to the people by overhauling electricity tariffs in line with the falling oil prices. But, instead of this, it goes for another hike putting further pressure on them," added Prof Shamsul Alam.

CAB earlier proposed for reducing the power tariff taking different measures.

Terming power tariff hike 'anti-people' and 'arbitrary,' the CAB adviser said the Association will move the court challenging the hike by the BERC.

Prof Dr Shamsul Alam said they have been pursuing at the administrative level to ensure 'justice' over power and gas tariffs. We will move the court to seek a remedy to the unjust, unfair and illegal order of the BERC.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister's Energy Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury said that the new

tariff would not affect public life.

"The hike is negligible so it would not affect public life," he said while talking to reporters on Friday after attending a programme at Bidyut Bhaban in the capital.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said consumers who use 200 units power have to pay Tk 20 to Tk 25 more per month and its effect on customers is tolerable.
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The American Nuclear Society of S.C. State University has received a $1,500 grant from the American Nuclear Societys Nuclear Engineering Education for the Disadvantaged Committee.

The awarded grant will be used to support ANS-SCSUs James Allen Anderson Seminar Series. The seminar series, named after a substantial contributor to S.C. States nuclear engineering program, Dr. James Anderson, will allow more researchers to visit S.C. State and give informative seminars to students.

Gianni Nelson, the president of ANS-SCSU, is appreciative of the ANSs support as well as contributions made by the students.

The support from the American Nuclear Society is a boost for the ANS-SCSU student chapter. We may be the only student organization on campus that receives external funding. I would like to thank all of the student officials who were working on the proposal as well, Nelson said.

Dr. Zaijing Sun, advisor of ANS-SCSU, expressed his gratitude for the grant and its positive implications for the nuclear engineering program.

It is very encouraging to know that the American Nuclear Society will continue to support our seminar series. Now, we can invite more topnotch nuclear researchers to the campus to give seminars to our students," Sun said. "We will be able to produce more engineers who are highly skilled and well prepared in the fields of nuclear and radiological engineering. This seminar series will be an ongoing tradition of ANS-SCSU and the Nuclear Engineering Program."

The purpose of NEED is to aid institutions with recruitment activities for women and minorities and to cultivate their educational pursuits in the nuclear science and technology fields.

The ANS is a nonprofit, international, scientific and educational organization. Its purpose is to promote awareness and understanding regarding the application of nuclear science and technology.

The ANS-SCSU is currently the only student chapter of its kind at a historically black college or university, and S.C. State is the first historically black college to offer an undergraduate program in nuclear engineering.

For more information about the James Allen Anderson Seminar Series and the ANS-SCSU student chapter, contact Dr. Zaijing Sun at 803-536-7924 or zsun@scsu.edu.
A love of teaching came early to Tanya Anderson.

The Orangeburg Consolidated School District 4 Teacher of the Year remembers her first classroom.

It was sectioned off on her grandmothers porch, she said. She made out lesson plans and taught her playmates.

Today, Anderson is teaching real students.

Eighth-grader Kendreanna Bell-Gilyard calls her my best teacher ever.

She a great teacher because she makes sure every student gets everything they need, but she makes it fun, too, she says. We watch videos so we can connect as students.

For example, the class recently listened to a song called Rake it Up that encouraged them to rake it up and behave well and get good grades.

We do things as a class and then break up and work as a group, Bell-Gilyard said.

The best thing about Anderson is that she makes the lessons fun, the student said.

She tells jokes and entertains during the lesson, she said. Shes my best teacher ever.

Anderson learned early on that teaching was more than just a job.

I dont think I could ever have found any other profession that would be more fulfilling, she says. I think Ill keep it up as long as I can or until they tell me to leave.

One of her most rewarding experiences came in her first year of teaching, she says.

There was one special boy that taught me two things. One, I was called to this, and two, all children can learn, Anderson said.

The young boy, identified as having learning disabilities, came to her for help in one class. He sat and watched the other students doing math.

I want to do some of that, he told her.

She looked at him and saw someone who actually had the ability to perform.

I thought he just needed someone to push him in the right direction, Anderson said.

She talked with the principal and the childs parents, and they agreed to let her work with him.

We put him in itinerant status  regular classes with the understanding that he could return to special services if he had difficulties, she said.

Anderson wasnt surprised when the child performed so well that he was placed in regular classes permanently.

Today, hes serving as a police officer in another state, she said.

She has a picture of him with his young son.

I consider him my grandson, too, she said. His mom keeps me up with everything.

Its special when a parent meets you in the grocery store and remembers you taught her child 10 years ago, Anderson said.

Whether it comes from the kids or the parents  thats when you know youre making a difference, she said. Those are the things that let you know teaching is the best profession ever."

The other side of teaching is the difficulty in keeping up with the requirements and mandates and new programs within the school district, Anderson said.

Sometimes you get one this year and then its gone and you have something else, she said. You dont have them long enough to know what works and what doesnt because its always changing.

And the people it affects the most dont even get a voice in the matter because theyre students, she said.

In addition, students are over tested, which doesnt allow for accurate data, Anderson noted.

If youre testing kids constantly, theyll start clicking on things and not putting all of themselves into the tests, she said. I allow my students to talk about the things theyre experiencing, and theyre tired of being tested all the time."

The teacher is qualified to know where kids are, she said, adding that to know what a child needs, you dont need a test.

Anderson was first chosen as Hunter-Kinard-Tyler Teacher of the Year before going on to compete for District Teacher of the Year.

I was completely shocked, she said.

She said she believes one of the reasons she was selected was that shes a team player.

Im always willing to help, to go above and beyond for my kids and my colleagues  whatever they need. I dont really have to be in the spotlight, Anderson said.

As one of three finalists, she was interviewed by a panel of current and retired educators.

One question referred to the major problems with education today.

A lot of students are falling through the cracks, Anderson said. Theyre not performing on grade level, and sometimes it takes two years for a student to make a grade, especially for kids who have disabilities, she said.

The problem is that people who are not in the realm of education are making the decisions, Anderson said.

We need to have a balance of current and retired educators making those decisions, she said. A lot of people want to tell us how to make things work, but that have no background except they had to be educated themselves.

It would be fine to have business leaders, etc., involved if it wasnt unbalanced, she said.

Anderson said she thinks South Carolina needs to design something for the state and for the kids. You truly need to individualize things for todays kids, she said.

I would like to see some of these legislators handle all of the rigor thats in the classrooms in South Carolina  just to walk in their shoes for a week, she said. That would be interesting.

As District Teacher of the Year, Anderson enjoys using the car supplied by Plaza Chrysler of Orangeburg for parades. Shes already appeared in several Homecoming parades and will participate in the local Christmas parades.

But serving as District Teacher of the Year isnt the first recognition Anderson has received. Last year, she was selected as WLTX Teacher of the Week.

Anderson, a native of North, graduated from North High School and Benedict College. She and her husband, Calvin Anderson, have four sons and two grandchildren.
WASHINGTON -- It seems more than coincidence that the first year of Donald Trump's presidency coincides with a trend that was heretofore unrecognized -- groping.

Gropers abound, it seems. From Harvey Weinstein to Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore to Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken -- and dozens in between -- it would seem women are swimming in groper-infested waters.

One can hardly turn on the news without landing on a panel discussion of groping and punishment. How long before groper-fatigue sets in? The challenge for everyone, but especially the media, is to not overwhelm ourselves with trivial pursuits and blind leads. Groping is wrong and bad and awful, but it doesn't rise to the level of rape as we commonly understand it. And while a forced kiss is disgusting (and you want to brush your teeth forever), it wouldn't seem to be a life-altering event. If it is, we're talking about more than groping.

I'm not excusing anyone's behavior. I find the whole bunch of accused men, including the president of the United States, revolting and pathetic. May every groper find a larger man's hand down his britches and see how he likes it. Crude -- my apologies. But this is what it's come to.

While the debate about these offenses is, one hopes, constructive, there's a tendency to put all these monkeys in the same barrel. There are notable differences of degree among them and we should always give consideration to context and other possible extenuating circumstances lest we become blind to fairness and enamored of "justice," with or without due process.

Do I believe every accuser who has come forward? I'm inclined to. In fact, without good reason otherwise, I'm inclined to first believe the woman in any case. This isn't because I happen to be a woman but because men historically have been unfairly believed over women. Assuming no relevant pathologies, why not believe the woman?

In Moore's case, of course, there is credibility in numbers. Several women unknown to each other reported similar experiences. But are these alleged offenses from so long ago sufficient to end his Senate campaign and his political career? The fact that Moore totes the "Ten Commandments" around like an ash sack of piety makes the allegations all the more repulsive -- America hates the hypocrite more than the criminal -- and makes people more inclined to send him packing.

But is it really fair to judge him based on unprovable recollections by women who were teens at the time? Is it not possible that Moore has repented or that, as he claims, these things never happened? Might four decades have changed him? Or don't we care? We have to ask.

Franken is helped only insofar as he wasn't yet a Minnesota senator when his guerrilla groping took place. The fact that he expressed remorse and didn't deny his acts is hardly courageous given that we've all seen a photograph of him as he's about to grab a woman's breasts while she was sleeping. He and the woman, Leeann Tweeden, whom he reduced to an inhuman object for his audience's amusement, were on a USO tour at the time.

In the picture, Franken, erstwhile comedian and, apparently, lifelong buffoon, is looking over his shoulder at the camera grinning like a baboon. It was a stupid, thoughtless and demeaning performance. Context for Franken may simply have been his outdated sense of humor. What's funny for one generation isn't remotely humorous to the next.

How does one punish a Franken? Democrats may be willing to sacrifice him since Minnesota's Democratic governor would appoint another Democrat to replace him. If so, they gain the high road over Republicans, who are stuck not only with Moore but with the leader of their party.

Trump, whom more than a dozen women have accused, is the gorilla in the ointment.

We know that he's an admitted forced-kisser and a groper, thanks to the "Access Hollywood" tape. It's easy to think he's guilty as charged based on his generally dismissive behavior toward women and his alarming impulsivity.

What will happen to Trump is probably nothing. He, like Moore, stands only accused. We may not be at a point where recompense is possible for past aggressions, but there can be little doubt that groping, the trend that suddenly defined 2017, is on its way out.
NEW YORK - A self-taught rocket scientist in the United States will launch himself into the sky with a homemade rocket in a bid to prove the Earth is flat.

"Mad" Mike Hughes, as he is known, built the rocket out of scrap metal in his garage.

The location of the jump will be Amboy, a ghost town in the Mojave Desert and along the historic Route 66. The fictional town of Radiator Springs in the Disney movie Cars was loosely based on Amboy.

Hughes got permission from the town's owner, Albert Okura, who purchased the rights to Amboy in 2005 for $435,000. The launch will take place on an air strip next to a dilapidated hangar.

"It is absolutely the most wacky promotional proposal I have had since I purchased the entire town in 2005," said Okura, who's also the founder of the Juan Pollo restaurant chain. "He is a true daredevil and I want to be part of it."

The 61-year-old limousine driver's project has cost him $20,000, which includes cheap paint to fancy it up and a motor home he bought on the internet that he converted into a ramp.

The rocket will travel at a speed of around 804 kilometers per hour and reach 167 meters high, Hughes claimed, adding that the 1.6 km flight will be streamed on his You-Tube channel.

"If you're not scared to death, you're an idiot," Hughes said. "It's scary as hell, but none of us are getting out of this world alive. I like to do extraordinary things that no one else can do, and no one in the history of mankind has designed, built and launched himself in his own rocket.

"I'm a walking reality show."

The ultimate goal for the man is to build a rocket that can take him to the space, where he can get a photograph proving the Earth is flat.

"Flat Earth" theorists like Hughes contend that the Earth is a disk, not a globe, criticizing a "conspiracy" of astronauts to fabricate the shape of the Earth.

"I don't believe in science," said Hughes, whose main sponsor for the rocket is Research Flat Earth. "I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that's not science, that's just a formula. There's no difference between science and science fiction."

Following the jump, which is scheduled for between 2 pm and 3 pm, Hughes said he's going to announce his plans to leap into the race for governor of California.

First things first: this jump over a ghost town. He will be tinkering with his rocket right up to takeoff.

"A guy who builds his own rocket in his garage, about to jump a mile, is pretty cool," Hughes said. "It's the most interesting human-interest story in the world."

Xinhua - Ap
WASHINGTON -- Can the descent of American political culture into ugly tribalism be halted? Alabama voters will give their answer when they decide whether to send Roy Moore to the U.S. Senate.

Moore, 70, has built a long, disgraceful career out of smarmy religiosity spiked with tribal grievance. Having posed for years as the most pious of Christians, he now stands accused by nine women of shockingly un-Christian behavior: They claim convincingly that Moore, when he was in his 30s, aggressively pursued romantic or sexual relationships, including with teens barely half his age.

One woman says Moore molested her when she was 14. Another says Moore called her at her high school -- during trigonometry class, she recalls -- to plead with her to go out with him. Residents of Gadsden, Alabama, where Moore was working at the time, say he was well-known for lurking around places where teenagers hung out, such as the local mall, and approaching young girls.

Moore denies everything -- but without specifically denying much of anything. In one interview, he said that while in his 30s he did not "generally" date teenage girls. He added that he cannot "remember dating any girl without the permission of her mother." How weaselly does all of this sound? How creepy?

Hardly any officeholders have said they believe Moore is innocent of -- at a minimum -- serious moral transgressions. Even Alabama's Republican governor, Kay Ivey, said she has "no reason to disbelieve" any of Moore's accusers. But Ivey said she nevertheless plans to vote for Moore in the Dec. 12 special election, and her reasons sound more tribal than political.

"We need to have a Republican in the United States Senate," Ivey said. But Moore has been as strident in his attacks against the establishment wing of the Republican Party as against the Democrats. He has been a grandstanding maverick for decades, and there is no reason to believe he will change. Having Moore in the Senate would probably mean more grief for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell than losing the seat to Moore's Democratic opponent, Doug Jones.

Ivey's problem is that Moore defeated her hand-picked candidate, interim Sen. Luther Strange, in a bitterly contested primary. Moore pulled this off by positioning himself as the self-anointed voice of Christian grievance and resentment. "Populist" is too neutral a description. Moore is really a tribal leader, claiming that his followers are the only true Americans -- while disqualifying his opponents as illegitimate.

The problem with tribalism is that it is absolute. In Rwanda in 1994, you were either identified as Tutsi or as Hutu; there was no in-between. For Moore, you are either among the good people or among the evil.

Moore's philosophy is properly seen as Manichaean, not Christian; it has no room for universal love. The fact that most of his supporters, thus far, are sticking with him -- enough to cow the state Republican Party into sticking with him, too -- means he has convinced many Alabamians that child molestation is a lesser sin than believing in the Constitution's separation of church and state.

Successful demagogues can use tribal enmities to blind their followers to such moral and logical contradictions. Some of his followers have told reporters they believe all the accusers are lying for partisan political reasons, which seems unlikely given what we know about the women's politics; most describe themselves as conservative and several said they voted for President Trump. Some Moore supporters charge that the women are seeking publicity, which is ridiculous; reporters sought the victims out and convinced them to tell their stories, and the women must have had some idea of the kind of vicious attacks that would follow.

Moore uses his angry Christianity as a tool of self-aggrandizement. He uses the trust and passion of the Alabamians he defrauds to sully the reputations of women who bravely testify to his allegedly vile and creepy behavior. He rages about filing lawsuits, but don't hold your breath. Lawyers for potential defendants can't wait to see what the discovery process might unearth.

Alabama's three major newspapers ran rare front-page editorials Sunday imploring voters not to send this unworthy man to Washington. It is a sad sign of the times that I am not sure whether that hurt Moore's prospects or helped them. The "mainstream media" is an enemy whose disapproval Moore cultivates to make his supporters love him more.

Moore is not invincible. He can be defeated -- but only if Alabamians decide that honor, integrity and morality are more important than tribe.
By Azernews





By Rashid Shirinov

Three unexploded ordnances (UXOs) were found in Jojug Marjanli village of Azerbaijans Jabrayil region, Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) told Trend on November 24.

During the past day, ANAMA cleared an area of ??24,000 square meters in the village, while 7,900 square meters were prepared for cleaning by special mechanical means.

As a result, the Agency found and removed three UXOs, which include two anti-tank unguided missiles PQ-7 and a mine accelerator TM-62.

The operation involved 56 people. Currently, ANAMA continues clearing of territories from mines and UXOs.

The Agency was established in 1998 for planning and coordination, management and monitoring of mine action related activities all over the country.

The problem of unexploded ordnance in Azerbaijan can be divided into the areas that are still under the occupation of Armenian forces and other areas of the country. Most of the unexploded ordinances are the result of Armenian aggression.

Since the creation of ANAMA, its staff has cleared more than 40,000 hectares of Azerbaijans territory, discovering and defusing over 760,000 mines and unexploded ordnance.




















Qatar Rail has won the ITA Awards 2017 for its Doha Metro project, which was nominated under the category of Major Project of the Year - More 500 Million.



It won the award after being shortlisted alongside the Confederation LRT line in Canada, Delhi Metro Line 3 and Tehran Metro line 6. The ITA awards are considered the highest award in the world in the field of tunneling and underground projects.



The United Nations NGO ITA comprising membership of 74 nations awarded its most coveted award for projects over 500 Million Euros to Qatar after its panel of 17 international judges cast their votes. International experts from China, South Korea, France, Canada, Singapore Finland, Brazil Norway, Germany, Australia, Denmark, and Switzerland deliberated over four finalists - ultimately deciding on Qatar in a secret ballot. The Doha Metros Scale, tight delivery time frame, technical complexity amongst other factors were taken in consideration.



Abdulla Abdulaziz T Al Subaie, managing director & CEO said: Qatar Rail will be a world-class railway company providing safe, reliable and attractive railway transportation services to the cities of Doha and Lusail. Our network will enable the sustainable development and economic growth objectives of Qatars National Vision 2030.



We are now in the most critical phase of our construction program; ongoing works include the installation of trackwork and railway systems, mechanical and electrical plant and equipment and architectural fit-out of stations. We are also preparing for operational readiness and commencement of revenue service.



I am very pleased that our project has been recognized by the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA). This is symbolic of the significant progress that we have accomplished despite major challenges.



Instituted in 2015, the ITA Tunneling Awards recognize the most ground-breaking international innovation and outstanding projects in tunneling and underground space utilization. The two first editions of the ITA Tunneling Awards received more than 200 entries and 64 nominations, rewarded 21 projects and personalities and gathered more than 450 attendees.



Through nine categories and one Lifetime Achievement Award, the ITA Tunneling Awards is becoming an international standard for tunnelling projects. The awards ceremony was held in Paris end of last week at the completion of the French Underground Spaces (AFTES) conference which was attended by more than 5000 participants. The Awards ceremony was a grand finale of the two days conference and offered a vibrant Parisian evening at famous Salle Wagram, drawing a crowd of 400 attendees.



Doha Metro joins the ranks of the UNs most awarded mega projects of the word including the tunnels of the 32,690 km Tibet railway in China and the Eurasia Tunnel Project in Turkey (linking Asia and Europe under the Bosphorus in Turkey).



Qatar Rail had completed on September 2 2016, all tunnelling on the Doha Metro project with the final breakthrough taking place at Terminal One of Hamad International Airport (HIA). The first tunnel boring machines started tunnelling in July 2014 and the final 111th kilometre was crossed by TBM Msheireb on the southern part of the Red Line. In order to achieve 100 per cent of the tunnelling for the Doha Metro project 470,497 concrete segments were required to produce 70,071 tunnel rings to make the 111km of tunnels. The overall completion of Doha Metro now currently stands at 70 per cent.  TradeArabia News Service
Gulf Petrochem Group (GP) has further strengthened its global trade with the addition of a dedicated Southern Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa Trading Desk at its office in Rotterdam.

Three dedicated professionals with extensive local market knowledge and sectoral experience have joined the Trading Desk to support clients in boosting trade with the promising markets in Africa.

Ngari Githitho has joined GP as Trader  Petroleum Products, East Africa, and will report to Avik Ghosh, Global Head - Fuel Oil & Distillates, while Yolanda Nell and Gert Nell have joined as Bunker Traders, South Africa in GP Global ARA BV. Both will be based in Rotterdam, and report to Chris Todd, Head  Bunkering, West of Suez.

Prerit Goel, Group Director at Gulf Petrochem Group, said: The addition of a dedicated Southern Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa Trading Desk will further support our global client base providing them informed insights into the trading dynamics of the region. The two regions have tremendous growth potential and are central to the new global trade links that are being fostered, especially with Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative. The regions have a strong role in meeting global demand for commodities and serve as a vibrant market for developed and developing nations in meeting their demand for raw materials.

The new Trading Desk is underpinned by the extensive market knowledge of the three team members who have over 20 years of experience in the region. Ngari Githitho was previously associated with Mena Energy DMCC as Trader - Middle Distillates looking at Physical Oil Trading for Middle Distillates in East & West of Suez. He has exposure to calculating arbitrage economics for East of Suez to West and vice versa, to take advantage of the spot opportunities arising. He has also worked as Manager - Commercial Trading Operations managing Cross Barrel Commercial Trading & Operations, and with MOGAS International Kenya Ltd in Trading & Finance Operations as well as with Standard Chartered Bank as Manager Import LC Desk.

Yolanda Nell was associated with Bomin (Mauritius) Ltd as Senior Physical Bunker Trader. Apart from trading, she was responsible for project support, compliance, legal & accounting structures.

She managed the coordination of physical operations with Cargo & Bunker supplies. She has also worked in the capacities of Operational & Administrative Manager and Accountant.

Gert Nell was also previously with Bomin (Mauritius) Ltd as General Manager and Bunker Trader. He was responsible for meeting with government officials for negotiations and establishing a new group physical supply in new countries. He successfully built the Sub-Sahara supply network, covering 25 new countries, 50 new ports and more than 500 supply contacts.

Headquartered in United Arab Emirates, 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.

Gulf Petrochem Group is fast expanding its global market spread and plans future expansion in the Europe, Middle East and APAC. - TradeArabia News Service
MCI Middle East has announced a new strategic partnership with Zahara Tours in Oman and has now launched MCI Oman.

The partnership reaffirms MCIs strategy of growing in the Middle East and driving the meetings industry forward in its emerging markets, said a statement.

With 130+ associations based in Oman, the country has the opportunity to host large international conferences and conventions over the coming years. MCIs goal is to support the market and assist with the development of the local meetings industry which in turn will attract regional and international meetings to the region.

With MCIs global expertise and Zaharas local knowledge, the partnership will design innovative programs and products to help enhance the experience of conducting meetings in Oman. The aim of the partnership is to support and be part of the fabric of Omans vision and goals and help drive strategic and economic benefits into the country, said the statement.

Co-creating and developing the meetings industry aligns with Vision 2040 of Oman, it said.

Ajay Bhojwani, Managing Director MCI Middle East, said: Oman is one of the newest and most exciting markets in our region and it has all the hallmarks of being a great business meetings destination. Currently 8 percent of our events are held in Oman. Given the opportunity platform, this joint venture will help us consolidate our presence in the Middle East and also grow our presence and influence in the market. We are certain that our presence will help drive more events to Oman, elevate the level of the industry and generate the added interest from our international clients. MCI is proud to be the Meetings Partner of Zahara Tours.

Gautam Broota, CEO Zahara Tours, said: We share the positive outlook of MCI with our partnership. We stay committed to Omans vision and looking forward to be a significant contributor to the business and association meetings Industry in Oman.

Over the last decade, Oman has invested in infrastructure, products and services that greatly support the exhibitions and meetings industry. With the opening of the Oman Exhibition and Convention Centre and the consolidation of the Convention Bureau in Oman, the country is proactively driving business tourism. - TradeArabia News Service
Meet award-winning artisans and buy their products at Kerala Arts and Crafts Village
Tax bills passing through the U.S. Congress right now could delay millions of dollars in mineral royalty payments to Wyoming.

It wouldnt be the first time some of the money has been withheld. The federal government has a history of keeping mineral royalties owed to Wyoming, a money-caching consequence in recent years of Congress over spending or failing to pass a budget.

And that risk has cropped up again. Either tax bill would add more than $1 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. If Congress cant make up that money elsewhere, it initiates sequestration. That could mean a year delay to some or part of Wyomings 48 percent share of federal mineral royalties and lease income.

Wyoming has its own $770 million two-year deficit to contend with, a result of the downturn in key energy industries. The missing income would hit the states K-12 school purses particularly hard.

Some say the state is not in a position to shrug off a reduction in anticipated federal revenue. Wyomings delegation to Washington, on the other hand, insists that the mineral revenue is safe. If their budget bill causes sequestration, they say they have means to fight it. Theyve done it before.

Bending the rules

If Congress wants to pass a budget bill similar to what theyve proposed without sequestration measures, it can pass accompanying legislation that addresses the deficit increase, the Congressional Budget Office wrote in a Nov. 13 letter to the House.

Or, it can bend its rules.

Congress made the  law and Congress can also waive its requirements, said Sen. Mike Enzis spokesman Max DOnofrio in an email. Congress has done it before on a bipartisan basis many times.

Enzi has made tax reform a top priority, and he would fight any cuts in mineral payments that the budget proposal instigates, according to his spokesman.

Rep. Liz Cheney and Sen. John Barrassos spokeswomen were equally adamant that the mineral revenue would come back to the state.

Congressman Cheney will always fight to protect Wyomings rightful share of mineral revenues, said spokeswoman Maddy Weast, via email.

She also took issue with the Congressional Budget Offices estimates. They dont account for increased revenue that will be achieved by this tax reform, she argued.

But those estimates from the Congressional Budget Office are what counts when it comes to sequestration, according to the Pay As You Go Act, a budgeting restriction from the early 90s that was reinstated in 2010.

The CBO decides if sequestration is needed and determines the percentages that can be sequestered from a host of programs. The president is then required to sign off on that sequestration.

Gov. Matt Meads spokesman David Bush said its premature to speculate on potential cuts.

[The governor] does not want to see reductions in federal mineral revenue, is following the tax bills, and will work with our Congressional Delegation to do what is best for Wyoming, he said.

Heard it all before

This wouldnt be the first time Wyomings been hit by sequestration. In fact, the state is dealing with it right now. In the last quarter, the state missed out on about $3 million a month.

But the state is also currently being paid back money that was withheld the previous year thanks to the Wyoming delegations work, Don Richards, a financial staffer with the Legislative Services Office.

Its evened out so far, he said.

A potential risk in the sequestration story is if there is a significant increase in the percentage of the mineral payments that the feds holds onto.

That withheld portion can add up to a lot of money. Wyomings total federal mineral income for fiscal year 2017 was about $700 million. Sequestration hovers around 7 percent of that.

Between October 2016 and June, the feds withheld about $43 million in mineral payments, said Wyoming State Treasurer Mark Gordon.

Similar Congressional actions hit Wyomings mineral payments in 2013, due to the Budget Control Act, a piece of legislation devised to avoid hitting the debt-ceiling when negotiations between the White House and Congress stalled out. Wyoming was informed it would lose about $10 million in royalty payments every month due to sequestration, adding up to $53 million in withheld payments.

The potential of more sequestration down the line isnt crippling, Gordon said. Wyoming has weathered this before and it can again, he added.

But thats not to say cuts are insignificant for the state as it faces tough fiscal times, he said.

In the context of a $3 billion budget, they dont seem substantial. But in the context of a program, they can make the difference, he said. Every dollar counts.
An announcer called the audience at the Deaf Expressive Arts Festival to move to the front rows. The stories they were about to be told were visual, so theyd want a good view.

American Sign Language students from middle school through college joined members of the local Deaf community Nov. 14 at Casper Colleges Wheeler Concert Hall to celebrate Deaf culture. The event was a way to help ASL students experience and learn more about the culture and language theyre studying, Casper College ASL instructor Gail Schenfisch said.

Dean Morgan Middle School seventh-grader Kami Fehringer learned something as soon as she arrived and agreed to fill in to introduce a percussion cheer.

A student beat a large drum as words appeared on a screen welcoming the audience with a cheer for learning about Deaf culture, stories and art. Many audience members signed along to the beat, in whats known as percussion signing.

... They beat the drum so that the deaf people can actually feel the vibrations, Kami said. I did not know about that, but thats really cool.

Students and members of the Deaf community took to the stage to tell brief stories using ASL, hand gestures and facial expressions. Some performers used ABC and number storiesDeaf culture traditions that involve using ASL signs for letters and numbers as part of gestures rather than words. The word deaf is typically lower case, but as it pertains to culture and traditions, the community asks that the word be upper case.

Many of the silent, skit-like stories drew laughter, like when Casper College students Cecilea Daniels and Angela Mock winced under imaginary tattoo needles and admired their finished body art. ASL teachers interpreted the stories in voices conveying the suspense, excitement or woes. The audience waved hands to applaud the performers in Deaf tradition.

Some stories came from Deaf folklore. Deaf community member Lizzie Mason told a joke about two people looking for a fellow deaf friends house but they didnt know the house number. So they honked the horn and watched all the houses lights come on except at one.

I think the stories on Deaf culture are really fun to watch because of the facial expressions, Kami said. Especially the people that are actually in the Deaf community, they make it really fun, because they use really good facial expressions to tell their stories.

Shes learning to use facial expressions more in ASL class, she said. She noticed the more advanced students also performed with more expression, she said.

Thats what really helps shape the story, I think, Kami said.

A poster she made was part of a display in the lobby about significant events and people in Deaf history. Hers featured the 1880 conference of deaf educators in Milan, which decided to ban sign language and nearly destroyed the language, she said. She was happy to see people looking at the posters, including one member of the Deaf community who took her time reading them all.

Schenfisch was happy to see strong support from deaf community both on stage and audience. They also attend other student events, including deaf socials, she added.

The one thing that I know the students often comment on and are aware of, is how encouraging and open the Casper Deaf community is to new signers, Schenfisch said. They always seem to have the time for ASL students and offer encouragement to the students who are there. This is not true in every community where there are deaf people. We are truly blessed to have such support from our Casper Deaf community.
CODY  Had there been a grizzly bear hunting season in 2017, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department would have released tags for six boars and four sows.

That was one of the tidbits Game and Fishs Dan Smith and Tim Woolley shared with the Park County Commissioners Tuesday.

Smith, the Cody regions wildlife management coordinator, and Woolley, the areas regional wildlife supervisor, promoted an upcoming G&F meeting soliciting public input on how to manage grizzlies following their removal from the Endangered Species Act in June.

Scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, at the Cody Holiday Inn, the meetings format will be open-ended, Smith said, but he also promised the timelines going to be fast.

Thats so the department can gather enough public input to make a recommendation to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission regarding a 2018 hunt season.
For years, we have been hearing that the Republican Party was on the ropes: when Bill Clinton won in 1992 and 1996; when Barack Obama won in 2008 and 2012; when the tea party launched in 2009; when Texas Senator Ted Cruz and company shut down the federal government for a few days in 2013. (Remember when we were told that voters were going to punish Republicans in 2014? Yeah, that was right before they handed the GOP control of the House and Senate.) When Donald Trump roared into the primaries in 2015 and knocked out his more  shall we say  traditional GOP rivals one by one, and even (perhaps especially) since Donald Trumps election, the medias go-to narrative has been how the Republican Party is fragmented and crumbling.

Now we know that its the Democratic Party thats rotting from within.

This isnt about the staggering loss of seats in state governments. Its about the sex scandals that have enveloped Hollywood  and now the media and Washington. Whats even more shocking than the reprehensible conduct itself is how intimately entwined these scandals are with the Democratic Partys politics, its operatives and their tactics.

Lets start with Harvey Weinstein. One of the biggest Hollywood fundraisers for Democrats, he has become the poster boy for the most egregious sexual harassment and assault. As journalist Ronan Farrow has exposed, Weinsteins modus operandi included hiring high-powered attorneys like David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner. Boies law firm paid Black Cube  an intelligence-gathering company Weinstein employed  to dig up dirt on and silence potential accusers. According to Ronan Farrow, K2  another intelligence firm  was hired by Elkin Abramowitz, also one of Weinsteins defense attorneys. K2s job was to ensure that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.  a Democrat  did not prosecute Weinstein after sexual assault charges were filed against him in New York. Vance was once employed by Abramowitz firm, and has since drawn criticism for taking campaign contributions from lawyers having dealings with his office.

Weinsteins attorneys also had his victims sign iron-clad nondisclosure agreements that effectively covered up his behavior.

As I wrote last week, David Boies name appears with some frequency in these accounts. PBS and CBS host Charlie Rose was fired this past week after eight women came forward with sordid stories of sexual harassment and abuse of power. Lo and behold, who has turned up as one of Roses former attorneys? None other than David Boies.

New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush has also been suspended following accusations of sexual misconduct involving younger women at the Times and Politico. Remember Glenn Thrush? His was one of many emails released by Wikileaks that demonstrated how far in the tank the media was for 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Thrush sent a potentially negative story to Clinton campaign manager John Podesta for approval before publishing. Thrushs email read, in part, Because I have become a hack I will send u the whole section that pertains to u (sic). Please dont share or tell anyone I did this.

The Wikileaks email dump also exposed that Donna Brazile  at the time, a contributing political correspondent at CNN  was feeding debate questions to Clinton in advance of the event. Brazile lost her position at CNN, and has now written a best-seller, Hacks, in which she gives her take on why Clinton lost the election. Among her revelations: that the DNC was financially controlled and manipulated by the Clintons, to the political detriment of the other (and arguably more popular) Democratic candidate, Bernie Sanders.

Brazile stepped in as DNC chair after Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned in disgrace, only to be scooped by Clinton and named honorary campaign chair. Wasserman Schultzs handsomely paid former IT staffer Imran Awan has since been indicted, and is suspected of selling sensitive data to Pakistanis and Russians.

Charles Mansons recent death brought disturbing reminders that even the Democratic Partys golden boy, Barack Obama, has unsavory alliances in his background. After the grisly murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in July of 1969, Weather Underground founder Bernardine Dohrn said, Offing those rich pigs with their own forks and knives, and then eating a meal in the same room. Far out! The Weathermen dig Charles Manson.

Manson and his followers were murderous lunatics. Bernardine Dohrn (along with her husband Bill Ayers) was a communist revolutionary and domestic terrorist responsible for multiple bombings. Dohrn expressed admiration for the Manson murders. And Barack Obama launched his political career in her living room.

The Democratic Party  at least at the level of national leadership  is riddled through and through with questionable affiliations, political scandals, sexual deviants and interconnected teams of lawyers and paid spies protecting them.

Its time for the Democrats to clean house.

New leadership needs to come from the grass roots  mayors, city council and school board members  fresh faces and people who step up from every walk of life to cleanse their party of the rot that has corrupted it for the past 40-plus years. No more Clintons, Podestas, Obamas, media shills, communist agitators or community organizers.

The Democratic Party is dead. Long live the Democratic Party.
The chief of the Arizona National Guard is mounting a last-ditch effort to save Apache attack-helicopter training at the Silverbell Army Heliport near Marana, as the Army moves to transfer most of the Guards Apaches to active-duty units.

The plan could cut hundreds of soldiers from the already diminished AH-64 Apache combat unit at Silverbell, which together with other units contributes an estimated $147.4 million annually to the local economy, according to a recent report.

After initially proposing to swap out all of the Guard Apaches for less-capable UH-60 Black Hawks, the Army is now planning to retain four Apache attack battalions in the Guard, with a decision on where those units will be based due from the Army chief of staff in the near future.

The adjutant general of the Arizona National Guard, Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael T. McGuire, says hes concerned about the potential loss of the 400-member Apache combat unit at Silverbell, the 1st/285th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, and its impact on the region.

But McGuire said his main worry is that the Armys plan to cut the number of Apache attack units in the Guard to just four battalions  with 18 aircraft each, compared with the normal complement of 24  is unsustainable and will waste the skills of hundreds of trained aviators, maintainers and support personnel.

I see that the nation now needs every available Apache aviator based on the current threat environment, said McGuire.

The Army initially had planned to transfer all 192 of the Army Guards Apaches to active-duty units, in exchange for Black Hawks, but Congress in 2015 required the service to study the issue further.

In January 2016, the Guards Apache units got a reprieve of sorts when the Commission on the Future of the Army recommended that the Army keep four battalions of 18 Apaches each in the Guard.

But with high demand, required maintenance rotations and the need for 24 Apaches for each deployed combat battalion  which will apparently require deployed units to borrow helicopters from non-deployed units  the Guards attack capabilities and readiness will quickly erode, McGuire said.

Were signing up for a program that essentially delays the inevitable, which is the removal of all attack aviation from the guard, he said.

DISSENTING VOICES

McGuire was part of a panel of nine state National Guard adjutant generals appointed by Army Chief of Staff Mark A. Milley last year to reach a consensus on a Guard Apache stationing plan.

The panel voted 7-2 to back the four-battalion plan, with Arizonas McGuire dissenting along with the adjutant general of Pennsylvania, home to another Apache training center.

In a dissent letter to Milley in July, McGuire said the plan will risk attack-aviation readiness and recommended that the Guard keep a total of six Apache battalions, instead of four.

McGuire also recommended that the Army reactivate Apache training at the Western Army Aviation Training Center (WAATS) at the Silverbell Heliport. Apache flight and maintenance training were discontinued at WAATS a few years ago, and the center now trains on the Black Hawk and Lakota scout helicopter.

The Guards Apache training should be expanded, not cut, to address a worsening shortage of pilots due to retirements and departures for civilian pilot jobs, McGuire said.

I think now more than ever, we need to consider turning that pipeline back on, because the threats that face the nation today are going to require that second pipe, he said.

In March, Director of Army Aviation Maj. Gen. Erik C. Peterson told a congressional subcommittee the service had accumulated a shortage of 731 active-duty aviation warrant officers from 2010 to 2017. Most Army pilots are warrant officers.

Americas allies need more Apache training, too, McGuire noted. The Silverbell Heliport has been used for an Apache training program for the Republic of Singapore, and foreign nations including India and Saudi Arabia have stepped up their Apache purchases.

APACHE CUTS UNDERWAY

The Army already has withdrawn scores of the helicopters from Guard units including the 1st/285th at Silverbell.

The attack battalion has already lost all but four of its former fleet of 20 Apaches, and unless Silverbell is picked as one of the Guard Apache battalion sites, the unit faces possible deactivation.

Under the the Armys original Aviation Restructuring Initiative, 70 of the 1st/285ths personnel including 20 pilots were to be shifted to a unit with seven Black Hawks and three UH-72A Lakota light utility helos.

The battalions more than 300 other members would be transferred to non-aviation units in transportation, logistics and military police. McGuire says it would be foolhardy to jettison skilled Apache pilots and maintenance crews when both the Guard and the active-duty Army are facing personnel shortfalls.

Active Army is suffering the same exodus, and so what I keep telling them is, lets not make a decision thats irreversible, McGuire said. If you fully divest this battalion of people now and retrain them as truck drivers, and logisticians or infantry members, I think its going to be a hard narrative to explain that to the American people in the current threat environment.

They dont grow on trees, and no matter how much money you pour on it, you cant replace those 400 overnight, he added.

A defense analyst said all the military services with flying units, including the National Guard, are facing shortages of pilots.

The military is hemorrhaging pilots because of demand from commercial airlines and business-jet operators, said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of The Lexington Institute, a non-profit think tank based in Arlington, Virginia.

The Apache is the most capable attack helicopter in the world, and it takes a fair amount of time to train people up, Thompson added. And once you let these training organizations disband, you may never get them back.

Army Guard aviators train and fight just like active-duty units. The 1st/285th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2007 and in 2012.

Despite the loss of most of its Apaches, the 1st/285th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion has maintained readiness, flying remaining rotorcraft two or sometimes three times a day, McGuire said. The 1st/285ths 402 authorized personnel include 68 pilots.

Weve been doing everything in our power to keep them on life support, to keep them qualified, McGuire said. My trump card in this negotiation has been to try and corner the market on the combat capability and capacity that we have.

LOCAL LOBBYING EFFORT

McGuire and local military supporters have been lobbying Sen. John McCain and the rest of the Arizona congressional delegation to save the Apaches at Silverbell.

Amber Smith, chair of the Southern Arizona Defense Alliance, said her group has met with McCain, Rep. Martha McSally, Sen. Jeff Flake and other delegation members and went on a tour of Silverbell with Army officials in September.

Smith, CEO of the Metropolitan Pima Alliance, said cuts to Army aviation units at Silverbell could cost the area hundreds of jobs, but bigger things are at stake.

All of these folks live in our community, shop in our community, but I think whats not recognized as much is the national defense importance of that training mission, she said

With the presence of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Southern Arizonas vast aerial gunnery ranges, Smith said, the area offers year-round opportunities for Apaches to train with fixed-wing planes such as D-Ms A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack jets.

You cant underestimate the importance of that kind of training, she said.

McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has expressed concerns over the Apache withdrawals from the National Guard to Army Chief of Staff Milley, an aide said.

As the threat and budget environment has changed since the initiation of the Aviation Restructuring Initiative and the National Commission on the Future of the Army, Senator McCain has urged the Chief of Staff of the Army to make a decision that is in the best interests of U.S. national security and that does not disproportionality degrade pilot training or the overall readiness of our National Guard, McCain spokeswoman Julie Tarallo said in an email.

A spokeswoman for the Army said information on the timing of a basing decision for the remaining Guard Apaches was not immediately available.

Thompson said the root cause of the Apache dilemma was the Armys failure to develop a new light-scout helicopter as the Kiowa was headed for retirement, prompting the Army to look to use Apaches to fill the scouting role.

That is not a great plan, he said. It would make much more sense to develop a new scout helicopeter and leave the Apaches where they are but the Army is very strapped for money.
PHOENIX  The attorney for a Chandler opioid manufacturer says his firm cant be sued by the state over its marketing practices because anything it may have done wrong is in the past.

In legal filings, attorney Joel Hoxie points out that a lawsuit filed earlier this year by Attorney General Mark Brnovich seeks an injunction to stop Insys Therapeutics and its employees from engaging in unfair, deceptive or misleading acts or practices that violate the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.

But Hoxie tells a Maricopa County Superior Court judge theres a big flaw in that: The lawsuit does not allege any risk of future harm.

The state has not alleged a single fact tending to show Insys will engage in any wrongful behavior in the future, he wrote in his filings. On the contrary, the state appears to recognize that most of the relevant conduct took place years ago, and the most recent violation alleged in the complaint took place in December 2016.

Anyway, Hoxie said, the individuals who oversaw the practices are no longer associated with Insys; several former employees and doctors are already facing criminal charges.

The list of people charged includes company founder John Kapoor. But while he has stepped down from the board of directors, he remains a majority shareholder.

Hoxie, however, is not relying solely on the claim that whatever happened in the past cant happen again in his bid to have the lawsuit dismissed.

One of the charges in the lawsuit is that Insys misled insurers and pharmacy benefit managers about the conditions of patients for whom they wanted to get payment for Subsys, a sublingual form of fentanyl, a powerful opioid.

Brnovich charges that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Subsys only to manage breakthrough pain in cancer patients 18 years of age and older who are receiving and tolerant to around-the-block opioid therapy for their underlying persistent cancer pain. He said the FDA-required label spells out the things the drug should not be used for, such as postoperative pain and headaches and migraines.

But Brnovich said Insys misrepresented patients conditions to get payment approval for the drug, even in situations where its use was neither necessary nor appropriate.

Hoxie, however, pointed out that the states allegations all pertain to consumer fraud. And he said whatever Insys did in getting payment authorization did not mislead any consumers.

Although patients have a vested interest in whether their prescriptions are preauthorized, they have no similar interest in the reasons why certain insurers may have chosen to preauthorize prescriptions, he said.

He also asks Judge Rosa Mroz to dismiss the claim that Insys had some duty to warn patients about the foreseeable risks of harm from Subsys.

Hoxie said the FDA-approved label for Subsys highlights two dangers: fatal respiratory depression and a potential for abuse. Also, patients who use medications like this are required to sign an agreement acknowledging the risks they pose.

Every patient who received Subsys, therefore, received all of the FDA-required warnings, Hoxie wrote. Insys canot be held liable under the Consumer Fraud Act based on its alleged failure to provide additional warnings to patient-consumers.

Hoxie also brushed aside Brnovichs contention that Insys engaged in fraud by not telling patients about its program that provided speaker fees to doctors who increased the number of Subsys prescriptions they wrote.

First, he said, federal law requires only that manufacturers disclose any such fees to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Hoxie said the state cannot impose its own disclosure requirements on top of that.

Anyway, he said, the failure to tell patients about the way doctors were compensated would not be material to the average patient-consumer.

The claims in the Brnovich lawsuit and the federal criminal charges against Kapoor are all based on the same basic allegations that company officials were dissatisfied with lackluster sales after Subsys hit the market in 2012.

According to both complaints, Insys set up a program to pay speaker fees to doctors to talk about the drug. The contention is these were little more than thinly disguised kickbacks to convince doctors to prescribe the drug in situations where it was not warranted, or in dosages and volumes that were inappropriate.

There also are allegations that Insys pushed doctors to use the drug for uses beyond the breakthrough pain for which the FDA had approved.

Hoxie said, however, that nothing in federal law or regulation prohibits doctors from prescribing off-label uses of the drug. He acknowledged that courts have said it is illegal for a manufacturer to actually market the drug for off-label uses.

But he said that is not inherently fraudulent. And he said any violation, to the extent one exists, is of federal law, which the state is not permitted to enforce.
PHOENIX  Facing re-election next year, Gov. Doug Ducey wont say whether he wants the help of the nations chief executive.

These political seasons are way too long, the Republican governor said when asked if he wants President Trump to come to Arizona to campaign with him. Were going to be focusing on our day job and the holidays.

The New York Times reports the question of the presidents role in the 2018 election was a topic of discussion at the meeting of the Republican Governors Association earlier this month in Austin, Texas.

Ducey did not attend. But some who were there were concerned about negative feelings about Trump spilling over into their own races.

For example, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan told a Times reporter that it was pretty safe he would work to keep the president out of his state.

By contrast, Maine Gov. Paul LePage said Republicans should absolutely campaign with the president.

And Florida Gov. Rick Scott would not answer questions at a news conference about whether he believes Trump would help Republicans in the midterm election.

Ducey, asked about his own views, fell into the same category.

Were going to be informing the voters of Arizona of what weve done, the governor said, saying campaign decisions will be made at the proper time. And this, he said, is not that time, given that its still 2017.

I think people, quite frankly, are sick of politics, Ducey said, saying he read something in the newspaper that people didnt want to talk politics at Thanksgiving dinner. And neither do I.

The governor has been raising money since September 2016 for next years race.

At this point the two top Democratic contenders are state Sen. Steve Farley of Tucson and Arizona State University professor David Garcia.

Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 162,000. But it could be the non-affiliated voters who hold sway, as they comprise 34 percent of the nearly 3.7 million registered to vote.
Tucson police have arrested a man in connection with the shooting death of a 38-year-old man who was killed during an argument on a midtown street Thanksgiving morning.

Police said Lamont Adams, 37, was arrested Friday at an apartment complex in the 2000 block of East Roger Road. He has been booked into the Pima County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.

On Thanksgiving Day, Carlos Simmons died at a hospital shortly after he was shot in the chest about 9 a.m. during an argument involving several people in the 800 block of North Alvernon Way, near East Third Street, said Sgt. Pete Dugan, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.

Officers arrived at the shooting scene and found Simmons on the ground and bystanders performing CPR, Dugan said. Detectives determined there was some type of verbal altercation with several people near the intersection. During the altercation, a shot was fired and Simmons was shot in the chest.
For some Tucson drivers, sticker shock doesnt end at the car lot. It can strike again when they shop for auto insurance.

The rates major insurers charge local motorists are all over the map, with some charging hundreds or thousands of dollars more than others  in some cases more than double  for the same coverage, data on file with the state insurance department show.

An 18-year-old single woman with a clean driving record, for example, can pay anywhere from about $1,700 to nearly $3,800 for six months of minimum liability coverage in one case cited in the Arizona insurance departments 2017 rate comparison.

A married couple with clean driving records can pay between $664 and $1,886 depending on which company they pick, the states hypothetical examples show.

Similar price spreads were also reported for several other types of customers in this years annual state sampling.

The Arizona Daily Star examined premiums for Tucson drivers from the top five insurers by volume in Arizona: State Farm, Geico, Farmers, Progressive and Allstate.

Geico consistently charged the lowest rates, and Farmers the highest, with the others falling somewhere in between.

What accounts for the steep variations?

Lanny Hair, executive vice president at Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Arizona, Inc., said insurers base rates on formulas that try to predict each drivers risk of having an accident. But they differ on the factors they consider and the importance of each factor.

Each company has their own secret sauce, their own way of slicing and dicing the data, Hair said.

Everyone has their own algorithm that uses different actuarial indicators. For example: are you married? Do you have a checking account? Do you own a home? Theyre all trying to find the magic formula that will bring them the best price for that risk.

Credit ratings, education levels and ZIP codes can also figure into the rates insurers charge.

So can the level of customer service a company provides.

For example, while Geico offers the lowest rates, it has the highest rate of customer complaints: about one complaint for every 8,000 Arizona vehicles covered. Conversely, Farmers charges the most but has the fewest complaints: roughly one for every 20,000 vehicles it covers in the state.

The Consumer Federation of America, which tracks insurance rates in Arizona and elsewhere, says the price variations in Tucson are common in insurance markets nationwide.

Auto insurance rates throughout the country make no sense, J. Robert Hunter, the federations director of insurance, said in a recent news release on the topic.

The extreme dispersion of prices for identical risks means that market competition is not working to assure prices are reasonable.

Stephen Briggs, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Insurance, disagreed.

The wide range of prices demonstrates a very competitive market, he said.

Some customers might want the cheapest coverage, some might want the best customer care.

We put out the comparisons so people can make an informed decision. What they choose is up to them.
Help India!

By TCN News

A high-level delegation of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) today visited Jamia Millia Islamia to discuss the preparatory aspects of the 36th International Geological Congress (IGC) to be held in Delhi, India, from March 2-8, 2020. The delegation comprised of President IUGS, Prof. Dr Qiuming CHENG; Prof. S C Finney, Secretary-General, IUGS and Prof. H Kitazato, Treasurer.

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Described as the Olympics of Geosciences, the IGCs are held quadrennially under the aegis of the IUGS through a process of global bidding. India won the bid in 2012 at Brisbane, Australia to host the Congress in 2020. The win is a remarkable achievement as the event makes a come back to the Indian soil after nearly 6 decades much to the excitement of the entire geo-scientific community. The 22nd IGC, which was the first IGC in Asia, was held in India in 1964.

The Organising Committee for the 36th IGC is headed by Padma Shri Prof. V P Dimri, former Director of National Geophysical Research Institute as its President, Dr.P R Golani as its Secretary-General, Prof. Talat Ahmad, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia as the Chair, Scientific Programming Committee, Prof. Somnath Dasgupta, former VC, Assam University as Chair, Field Trip Committee and other eminent geoscientists as Chairs of various other sub-committees.

Chairing the meeting, Prof Talat Ahmad welcomed the international delegation on a four day trip to India and assured the highest level of support from JMI to IUGS and IGC. Prof Ahmad, himself an eminent Earth Scientist said that JMIs well established Department of Geography will also contribute to this very significant event in 2020. He put on record the efforts made by Geological Survey of India and by its Secretary-General, Dr P. R. Golani.

Prof. Dr CHENG said that he was very satisfied and impressed with the facilities and preparations for the International Geological Congress in 2020. He said that he was very confident about the quality and the pace of preparations.

It will be the second time that IGC will take place in India. Very few countries have the honour of holding it twice, Prof CHENG added.

Prof Finney, Secretary-General of IUGS and Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, California State University, Long Beach, said that in the last three days of their visit to India, IUGS and IGC members have already established a very good working relationship. He said that he was very happy to note the preparations for 2020 Congress were moving rapidly.

Prof Dimri said that he wanted to thank JMI for the 100% support it has given to IGC. Prof Dasgupta gave the vote of thanks. The session was followed by technical sessions on short courses and themes that would be offered during the 36th IGC.

The event is being jointly funded by the Ministry of Mines (MoM) and Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) with the active support of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), and the Science Academies of the other neighbouring co-host countries, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The delegation, during its visit, inspected the India Expo Mart Limited, the venue for the event and expressed its satisfaction with the facilities available. The mega Congress is conventionally attended by approximately 6,000 delegates.

Earlier, the IUGS dignitaries interacted with Shri Arun Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Mines; Dr M Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, senior officers of the two Ministries, and key functionaries of the Organising Committee. They also delivered lectures to a select audience comprising of eminent geoscientists, academics, students and researchers.

The IUGS was given detailed accounts of the progress made on technical, administrative and other fronts by the Organising Committee including the scientific program, field excursions and the legacy & publication programs.

The IUGS team expressed its satisfaction over the entire spectrum of preparatory activities and wished India a very successful IGC.
Help India!

By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net

New Delhi: On Friday, September 15, Dhrupadi Ghosh a PhD student in the Department of Sociology, Jamia Millia Islamia received a letter notifying that she has been deregistered from the course. The University administration accused the student of violating the statutory norms at the time of admission and the decision was taken in order to streamline the PhD admissions in general by the Dean Office to scrutinise admissions.

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The admission of the candidate has been found to be in violation of the statutory norms of the University. A three-member committee including an outside expert was appointed by the Vice Chancellor to review the admission and the issue of eligibility, university said in a statement issued to press.

The committee examined the case and found that the candidate doesnt fulfil the basic eligibility criteria required for PhD admission in Department of Sociology, it further said.

The student protests and media backlash prompted JMI Vice Chancellor, Talat Ahmad to assure a delegation of PhD scholars in the last week of September, that he will reconsider the decision of PhD cancellation.

After playing hide and seek for over two months and several rounds of meeting with Ghosh, the VC seems to have finally decided to stick with the September 15 order.

Negotiation process with the Vice Chancellor failed yesterday. He gave nothing on paper and said that he was trying.If the highest authority uses this diction, I would rather feel depressed, Ghosh told TwoCircles.net.

It was a breach yesterday. The Head of the Department is a manipulator. She said that I didnt do chapterisation. How do chapterisation and revocation connect in the first place? she asked.

After deregistration, an RTI was filed with the University seeking the minutes of the meeting which recommended the action. The RTI reveals that the three-member committee constituted on July 17, 2017, and headed by Pro- Vice-Chancellor, Shahid Ashraf examined the documents submitted by the concerned Dean and Head of the Department and found out the admission in violation of para 1 (a) and (b) of Ordinance 9 (IX) academic.

The subject MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) is not approved as an allied subject by concerned Board of Studies, read the RTI reply.

According to Ghosh, the meeting took place on August 23, 2017, and she was not informed about such meeting.

I was not even informed for once which reveals that Jamia is breaking its own Law, as per the university ordinance is concerned. They should have at least given me a chance to defend myself in front of any committee and it is an act of breach of natural Justice, she said.

She has now decided to move to the court as all other means of getting justice have failed.

Court is now the last resort. I am meeting my lawyer and will discuss the future course of action, she added.

Ghosh is also a student activist and has been vocal about issues related to payment of dues to workers, implementing labour laws in the university, attack on female students by male university guards and police entering the campus without permission.

Related:

Targeted for activism? Jamia cancels PhD registration of a student activist without giving a reason

PhD student deregistered by Jamia asks why University took two years to find a statutory violation

Following student protests, Jamia VC assures students he will reconsider the deregistration of PhD student
Okay, hands up who has been counting down the days for season 2 of 'Stranger Things'. Yes, us too.

Few details have been revealed about the fate of our favourite Hawkins Town residents, however, there have been some heart-pumping trailers released to leave us wanting more as we see Eleven making her return.

Now, just in time for Halloween, we re-join Will, Eleven and the gang.

There is a new after show

For the die-hard fans, Netflix has announced a very thrilling treat in the form of a new after show, hosted by the actor Jim Rush. Just like Thronecast, it will examine each episode with the cast and crew.

Viewers have been warned not to watch the after show until they have finished watching the full season, to avoid spoilers.

Before you settle down for a sofa denting binge, what do we need to remember from series 1?

12-year-old Will goes missing and his friends begin to look for him after enlisting the help of the strange Eleven (Millie Bobby) who has powers and has recently escaped from a government lab. It is revealed Eleven was trained to spy on the Russians by Dr Brenner and her henchman who soon begin to hunt her down. Wills Mums Joyce played by Winona Ryder struggles with her sons disappearance and discovers she can communicate with him via electricity. The friends along with Wills Brother and Mikes Sister join forces after their friend Barb disappears. They find an alternative reality they call the Upside Down where Will is being kept, alongside the blood feeding Demogorgon monster. Joyce and the Police Chief Hopper (David Harbour) enter the Upside Down to rescue Will while the gang lure the Demogorgon and try to kill it. However, it reappears in the same place they have been hiding Eleven and Dr Brenner has now tracked them down. Eleven kills the majority of the henchman and suddenly disappears with the Demogorgon leaving the gang wondering if she will be back.

New characters

Not only do we have a new after show to obsess over but also some brand-new characters have been revealed via trailers and cast members.

Sadie Sink plays Max which eagle eye viewers will see the first episode MadMax is likely to be named after. Billy (Dacre Montgomery) also joins the gang. Joyce has a new love interest played by cult classic Goonies actor (Bob Newby).

With the multiple questions we all have been asking will we finally get the answers we are looking for?

Where has Eleven been? Is the Demogorgon coming back with her? Is Will really okay since being in the Upside Down? Can the gang really move on after events?

And the most important of all

Is there really enough Eggos to get us through what promises to be a nail-biting season 2?

Available to watch on Netflix now.
Harvey Weinstein was on top of the world a few weeks ago. He was one of the most successful film producers in Hollywood history, but when dozens of actresses came out to accuse him of sexual misconduct, unwanted advances, and in some cases, even rape, he was fired from his own company and ostracised from the film industry.

Hes now one of the most maligned people in the world and his allegations scandal has started a wider situation where more and more people are coming forward to allege other powerful Hollywood players of sexual misconduct. Tom Hanks has referred to this as a watershed moment. Many of Weinsteins colleagues spoke out in the wake of the allegations to either condemn his actions or deny that they knew anything about it.

But Uma Thurman hadnt released a statement, because she was waiting to be less angry. This is because when she has spoken in anger in the past, she has usually come to regret it later, so she was waiting until she had calmed down enough to speak properly about the issue. Thurman has starred in many Weinstein productions, namely those directed by Quentin Tarantino, who has admitted that he knew about Weinsteins morally deplorable actions the whole time. These films include Pulp Fiction and the two volumes of Kill Bill.

Thurman used a still from Kill Bill to express anger at Weinstein

In an Instagram post to express her anger at the situation with Weinstein, Thurman used a still from her film Kill Bill. It was the opening shot, filmed in beautiful black and white, showing Thurmans character The Bride driving towards her assassination target with a vengeful look in her eye.

Shes been beaten and left for dead, and now shes back with a vengeance. This reflects how she feels about Weinstein  shes coming after him.

After previously telling her fans, When Im ready, Ill say what I have to say...stay tuned, Thurman came out with a message to her fans that wished them a happy Thanksgiving. She then went on to add, Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators. These conspirators include Tarantino, who once referred to Thurman as his muse, so this is a big deal.

Shes burning all of those bridges and doing the right thing by doing it. She also wrote, Im glad [the legal process is] going slowly  you dont deserve a bullet.

#MeToo, in case you couldnt tell by the look on my face

Thurman wrote in her post that she has a few reasons for the anger that she publicly expressed recently.

The main such reason being: #MeToo. #MeToo is a trending hashtag for people who have been sexually harassed or assaulted to use on social media, the idea being that so many people will be using it that it should be a wake-up call for harassers to realise the effects that their actions are having on people.

The Weinstein scandal has fortunately marked a time of change in the film industry, with a grand total of sixteen unions, guilds, and other organisations pledging to to end sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying, and violence. Also, the film and television industry of Canada will be outlining a code of conduct that clearly defin[es] expectations of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.

Thurman added after the hashtag #MeToo: in case you couldnt tell by the look on my face. This was in reference to the film still she attached to her post, showing The Bride ready for action, driving to see Bill.

Remember how the movies called Kill Bill? That should give you some idea about how Uma Thurman feels about Harvey Weinstein right now. She said that an important thing in these situations is to take your time, be fair, be exact, and thats what shes done.
Mass panic gripped one of the busiest shopping streets in London tonight after police were called to Oxford Circus station after reports of shots being fired. Oxford Street was evacuated on what is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, Black Friday after the reports came in of the incident at roughly 16:38 this evening. BBC Reporter Helen Bushby reported seeing people fleeing the scene crying and that there was a "mass stampede." Dozens of armed police vehicles attended the scene and quickly evacuated the surrounding area, telling patrons to remain inside the shops along Oxford Street.

At one point the department store Selfridges was evacuated "as a precaution." Many conflicting reports came in, ranging from a possible terror incident to a potential gang fight. It is believed that the reported "gunshots" came from a platform of Oxford Circus.

A mass panic after a bad year for London

The Police released a statement at roughly 17:30 saying that there had been no suspects located, no casualties reported apart from a woman who sustained minor injuries and there had been no evidence of gunfire. The Met Police confirmed that they had received numerous reports of shots being fired around the area of Oxford Circus and responded as if the incident was terror-related, but by 18:00 this evening, the station was reopened and the response was stood down, although The Met said that extra officers would remain on patrol in the capital this evening.

London and the UK have been on high alert this year after five terrorist attacks which have claimed the lives of dozens of people, 4 of those terror incidents have occurred in the capital. On the 22nd March 2017, Islamist extremist Khalid Masood killed 4 people after driving into them with his car on Westminster Bridge, and after crashing the car he proceeded to stab a police officer to death in the parliament grounds before Masood was shot dead by police.

Exactly 2 months later on the 22nd May, Salman Abedi detonated a bomb inside the Manchester Arena after an Ariana Grande concert, killing himself along with 22 other people, many of the victims killed in the attack were children.

On the 3rd June, 3 Islamist extremists ran over pedestrians with a van on London Bridge, before exiting the vehicle and beginning to stab members of the public in nearby Borough Market.

The 3 attackers were eventually shot dead by armed response officers. 8 people died in the London Bridge attack. 16 days later on the 19th June, a man targeted worshippers leaving the Finsbury Park mosque in North London, killing one man and injuring 8 others. A man was detained by members of the public at the scene and is due to stand trial for the terror attack. Then on the 15th September, a man attempted to detonate a bomb on a Tube train in Parsons Green in West London, the bomb failed to properly detonate but 30 passengers were still injured in the attack.

After a year in the UK which has seen 5 major terrorist attacks and many other foiled attacks, it is understandable that people in a city like London remain on edge, it was feared in the early stages of this incident that unfolded tonight that the unthinkable could be happening again and we were again under attack, but thankfully, the incident in Oxford Circus this evening appears to have been a false alarm.
It is unbelievable that the EU can choose to deal with the United Kingdom in the way they presently are doing. This is not all the Government's fault as anti-democratic troublemakers from all sides are trying to pervert the will of the people and sabotage negotiations. We cannot tolerate it. As an illustration of the absurdity, imagine for a moment that we were now, as a nation, considering joining instead of leaving the EU. Perhaps Jean Claude Juncker and Michel Barnier would be chatting easily after a replete meal at an expensive restaurant with Theresa May and David Davis.

It might go something like this:

Do we really want a deal with people like this under these conditions?

"So you UK types wish to join our thriving EU do you?"

"Well we were thinking of it, we could perhaps negotiate a deal? Could we see your accounting reports?"

"There will be no negotiation. We do not require accountants to confirm our accounts are true and accurate. We make our own rules. You are in the big boy's yard now. This is what you will do! Hand over to the EU 350 million per week 18.2 billion per year. There will be no silly rebate of 6 billion per year as some of your advisers suggest. We will, however, return 6.7 billion per year for farmers and other UK science, education etc projects so your net payment will only be 11.5 billion pounds per year about 220 million per week."

"Crikey that seems a bit steep!"

"Silence!

you must also hand over absolute control of your laws to our wonderful European Court of Human Rights."

"But we've controlled our own laws since the 13th century. We have the longest established legal system in the world and a lot of people in our country think your laws are too soft on the villains and care more about their rights than the victims.

Abu Hamza, Abu Qatada, votes for prisoners, prosecutions of troops defending their country. The list goes on."

"Imbeciles, we are not interested in what ordinary people think. We have five various presidents of institutions within the EU. They are the people who make all decisions. Now, we will also allocate numbers of refugees from Asia and Africa for you to home.

Angela Merkel declared European borders open and we now have tens of thousands each year flocking over. You will need to allocate and pay for rescue boats, the bigger the better, to cruise the African coast collecting migrants from small craft and ferrying them, some to Italy and Greece, but those countries have taken many already, so you will have to take most directly to Dover. This will reduce the pressure on the French in Calais, the programme will have many benefits as you can see."

"If I might just ask, how do we know none of these people is Islamic extremists? After all, ISIS swore to send Jihadist fighters over, mixed in with the migrants."

"You racist wretches. You already have thousands of homegrown terrorists on watch lists, why do you discriminate against adding more Asian and African terrorists?

Dear Lord. Now back to our demands. You will not be allowed to trade with any other countries outside the 27 members unless we all agree on a trade deal with them. You are fortunate, we will negotiate on your behalf."

"But the USA, China and Japan have the biggest economies in the world and India, Canada, Australia and dozens more are desperate to sign trade deals with us as well. Please let us trade with them, our economy will thrive."

"No, you abide directly by our desires. You pay as soon as you enter and we expect ongoing payments for five or ten years after you leave."

"So we inherit all the idiot schemes you already have and then have to pay for any more you force us to make, years after we go?

What about the assets the EU buys with our money?"

"Obviously they remain with us after you leave so our enterprise can thrive. Come on, hurry. Your Labour and Liberal friends and Scottish Nationalists have already told us you will agree to any of our demands. What are you waiting for?"

Threatened and blackmailed by the school bully. Not standing for that!

All this is what we are being blackmailed into agreeing to by an organisation we have been the second biggest net contributor to for many years and to whom we have offered parting terms that already help them far more than ourselves. The EU has massive problems with Hungry, Poland the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Holland France and Germany all seeing massive gains from right-wing anti-EU parties, as well as economic chaos in Italy and Greece and social upheaval in Spain's Catalonia region.

Germany the biggest driver of the EU presently cannot even form a government after months of trying.

We would never consider joining an organisation in so much trouble and who treated us in the way illustrated above. It would be ridiculous and insulting. The UK is the fifth biggest economy in the world. We must put down a deadline that says accept the 20 or 30 billion pound offer by Christmas or we walk away. We will then strike trade deals with the dozens of powerful established and emerging countries who wish to trade with us and utilise World Trade rules with the rest. We will adjust our trading to be even more business-friendly and use the 40 billion demanded by the EU to offset any temporary financial difficulties for UK businesses instead of throwing it to the mad project to waste.

Then look at the faces of Juncker and Barnier. They will be a picture!
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is one of the more sensitive producers from Mumbai. His latest offering Padmavati has ignited the passion of some Hindus who want the film banned. The film is cleared by the Censor Board and due for release on December 1 this year. The story about the infatuation of the Sultan of Delhi, Allauddin Khilji for the Rajput queen of Chittor, Rani Padmavati forms the basis of the film.

The story is well known in India but in the present atmosphere, the very idea of a Hindu queen committing "Jauhar," ritual suicide by burning to escape the Delhi Sultan, is perceived as an insult by many Hindus.

Allauddin won the battle and sacked Chittor but could not lay his hand on the queen. This has led to a vociferous demand to ban the film and fringe elements from the Rajput community have started protests in various cities of Rajasthan and Gujarat, demanding the film be banned.

Trouble from shooting days

Bhansali has been facing trouble from the Rajput community right from the time he commenced shooting of the film. As reported by Times of India, his set was attacked in Jaipur by an extremist Hindu organisation called the Karni Sena forcing him to shift his shooting schedule to Madhya Pradesh.

Things appear to be getting out of hand and the BJP government with an eye on vote bank politics has allowed the Agitation to spread.

NDTV has reported that some of the extreme elements of the Rajput Samaj have threatened to cut off the nose of Deepika Padukone the heroine of the film.

Agitation

The agitation is mainly confined to Gujarat and Rajasthan and the people agitating are from the higher caste. Generally, the other parts of India are peaceful and no untoward incident has been reported from any other place, apart from a small protest in Bangalore.

The government has however been sitting and watching as the protest gathers steam and dire threats are being hurled against the stars and the producer. The Maharashtra government has now given police protection to Bhansali after one of the members of the Karni Sena threatened to behead him.

Allauddin

Most sensitive Indians would like Padmavati to be released as it portrays a historical fact.

Despite all the shouting by the Rajput and Karni Sena, the fact is Allauddin was a great warrior and the acts of committing Jauhar was a negative concept. This fact is hurting the Rajputs and is mainly the reason for their agitation. Unfortunately, the state and central government are silent and this has emboldened these fringe elements.
Over 230 people have been killed by militants in the small village of al-Rawda, with a further 109 injured. The bomb and gun attack targeted worshipers taking part in Friday prayers.

The attack is the first large-scale Jihadi assault to take place against Egyptian Muslims in recent times. Militants in the area have previously targeted security forces rather than civilians. It is believed the mosque was targeted because of its popularity with followers of Sufism, a branch of Sunni Islam regarded as heresy by certain Jihadist groups including so-called Islamic State.

Sufis are accepted across most of the Muslim world, but they have been threatened by IS in recent years. Sufis revere saints and shrines, which IS considers being idolatry. Two men reported to be Sufi clerics were beheaded by IS in the region last year.

Pictures from the scene have emerged showing scores of bodies covered in blood on the floor of the mosque. The high number of casualties is believed to have overwhelmed local hospitals.

President Sisi has announced three days of mourning and threatened to respond to the attack with "brute force".

Around 40 Gunmen opened fire on worshipers

Egyptian State-run newspaper Al-Ahram has reported that the militants bombed the mosque before opening fire on the fleeing worshippers.

Cars were set on fire to block access to the mosque with the gunmen later targeting some of the ambulances that arrived to treat the victims.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Sinai Province, a group affiliated with IS has been active in the region for some time.

Hundreds of policemen and soldiers have been killed in attacks carried out by Sinai Province group, which has also targeted members of the Coptic community.

Just hours later, Egyptian security forces are reported to have carried out air strikes in mountains around Bir al-Abed in response to the attack.

Ismailia prosecutors and high state security prosecutors have been deployed to the scene to carry out investigations.

The shocking attack on a place of worship has caused outrage amongst Egyptians.

The attack has also been met with condemnation from the international community.

Appalled by the sickening attack on a mosque in North Sinai. Condolences with all those in #Egypt affected by this evil and cowardly act.  Theresa May (@theresa_may) November 24, 2017

Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt. The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017

The attack is not the first terror-related incident to have occurred in the Sinai region. 18 policemen were killed by Sinai Province in September, with the group also claiming responsibility for the bombing of a Russian plane in 2015 which killed all 224 people on board.
On Tuesday night, a new report broke that claimed the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hired an outside firm to dig up research and fund the now controversial "dossier" about Donald Trump and his ties to Russia. As expected, the president made sure to give his thoughts on Twitter by quoting his favorite cable news network.

Trump on dossier

During the 2016 presidential election, speculation surrounded Donald Trump and his candidacy over his potential business ties to foreign countries due to his decades as a businessman.

The former host of "The Apprentice" set off several alarms with his questionable behavior, including, but not limited to, his refusal to release his tax returns and his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. After Trump pulled off the historic upset with his win over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, several well-respected news sources and government reports were released and exposed the fact that not only did Russia hack into election, but did so with a Trump victory in mind. Trump and his administration have since denied any wrongdoing in regards to being in possible cahoots with the Kremlin, with the president going as far as calling reports that say otherwise as "fake news." On Tuesday night, an explosive report by the Washington Post noted that the Clinton campaign and the DNC reportedly hired a firm that put together what is now known as the "pee tape" dossier.

As seen on his Twitter feed on Wednesday morning, Trump has spoken out.

"Clinton campaign & DNC paid for research that led to the anti-Trump Fake News Dossier. The victim here is the President." @FoxNews  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2017

Taking to his Twitter feed on Wednesday morning, Donald Trump used a simple quote from Fox News to express his thoughts about the latest revelation surrounding the dossier.

"'Clinton campaign & DNC paid for research that led to the anti-Trump Fake News Dossier. The victim here is the President.' @FoxNews," Trump tweeted.

Dossier and the DNC

In the aforementioned report by the Washington Post, the paper notes that lawyers from the Clinton campaign and the DNC hired a Washington research firm known as Fusion GPS to dig up information on Donald Trump.

The firm then reportedly hired Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, who put together the pieces of the puzzle that eventually became the dossier in question.

The Clinton camp and the DNC helped pay for that Trump-Russia dossier: Heres what it means. https://t.co/aFmV7lm8uR  Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 25, 2017

The documents were then released and reported by CNN, revealing alleged information about the president's time in Russia. Buzzfeed went further and reported that Trump had hired Russian prostitutes to engage in controversial sexual acts, which triggered massive backlash from the White House. As of press time, the information obtained in the dossier have yet to be confirmed and are seen as questionable.
Tax reform bills introduced by Republicans in the House and Senate and promoted by President Donald Trump would primarily benefit businesses and not middle-class individuals, a new study has found.

An analysis from the Tax Policy Center found that tax savings that middle-class households would earn under the bills will be cut in half by 2027, according to NPR. This is attributed to multiple temporary tax credits that expire within five years if they are not extended by Congress.

People in the top one percent, however, can expect to see their tax savings double by 2027, according to the bill.

Among other proposed changes, the bills would slash the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent. The changes to business taxes are permanent, unlike many of the cuts that would affect individuals, according to NPR.

Economists in the IGM Economic Experts Panel agreed across the board that the proposed Tax Bill would significantly increase the national debt, according to Mother Jones, and mostly disagreed that it will increase the GDP or gross domestic product.

Hand-outs to the rich

Harvard Professor of Economics Oliver Hart described the majority of the changes as hand-outs to the rich, according to Mother Jones, adding that the incentives appeared unclear.

Polls of voters across the country have found that the majority do not approve of the proposed tax bills, according to USA Today.

The most common complaint among those who disapproved of the changes was that the proposed bill will benefit the wealthy, but not the lower and middle classes.

There are two versions of the bill - the House and Senate - currently on the floor. The House bill fulfills a presidential promise to cut down the number of tax brackets from six to four, according to Yahoo!

Finance. It also caps state and local tax deductions at $10,000, increases the Child Tax Credit to $1,600, repeals medical expense deductions entirely and repeals the estate tax after 2024.

Senate bill

The Senate version will increase the number of tax software, completely remove a cap for deducting SALT taxes and increases the Child Tax Credit to $1,650.

It also increases the estate tax deduction to $10 million but does not repeal it.

Congress will need to agree on a version of the bill before sending it to Trump for approval or veto.

Trump has been a vocal supporter of tax reform, a key platform of his presidential campaign. However, he has been critical of some provisions in both the Senate and House tax bills, tweeting that income tax should be capped at 35 percent for the highest bracket, according to CNBC. The Houses highest bracket is 39.6 percent, while the Senate bill taxes the highest bracket at 38.5 percent.
Over the last two weeks, one of the top political stories has involved the sexual assault allegations directed at Roy Moore in Alabama. After Donald Trump came out in support of Moore, one host on MSNBC decided to speak out.

MSNBC on Trump

Heading into the special Senate election in Alabama, the consensus was that Republican nominee Roy Moore would have little trouble defeating his Democratic challenger Doug Jones. However, earlier this month the Washington Post broke a bombshell report featuring the stories of four women who claim they were sexually harassed by Moore when they were under the age of consent.

The paper provided 30 sources for credibility, which led to other women coming forward, with at least one accusing the Senate hopeful of sexual assault. To the surprise of no one, Moore denied the allegations and deflected the blame onto the "liberal media." The reaction from conservatives has been split, with some in the GOP calling for Moore to drop out of the race, while others have stood by his side. When pressed on the news last week, Donald Trump and the White House appeared to take the high road, but the president elaborated further while addressing reporters on Tuesday. At the White House, Trump supported Moore's candidacy by saying "we don't need a Democrat in the seat." These issues and more were discussed during a November 21 panel discussion on MSNBC.

While speaking to panel guests, including network contributor Elise Jordan, former Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards, and contributors John Heilemann and Jonathan Lemire, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace didn't hold back her disdain for Donald Trump over his support of Roy Moore, who is an accused child molester. "I have this physical feeling of just being repulsed listening to (Trump)," Wallace said.

Breaking News: Trump defended Roy Moore who is accused of sexual misconduct with minors: He totally denies it https://t.co/uzVYgdenQr  The New York Times (@nytimes) November 21, 2017

"I dont know what other word to use other than repulsed," Nicolle Wallace went on to say. "The head of the Republican Party essentially threw his weight behind someone accused of engaging in sexual activity with a 14-year-old," she noted.

Nicolle Wallace sickened by Trumps embrace of Moore: I have this physical feeling of being repulsed https://t.co/pthXrPffuH  Raw Story (@RawStory) November 21, 2017

Double down

Not stopping there, Nicolle Wallace continued on with her criticism of Donald Trump for publicly supporting Roy Moore over a Democrat despite the allegations against him. "Theres nothing normal about throwing your weight behind a child molester," she said. "When this president says he denies it, he denies it I almost heard in him, 'I denied it too,'" Wallace concluded, in reference to the sexual assault and harassment allegations previously directed at the commander in chief.
As most Americans gathered together with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, Donald Trump had other ideas in mind. With questions hanging over the future of health care, the president lashed out on social media.

Trump on Thanksgiving

During the early days of the 2016 presidential election, not many people gave Donald Trump a realistic chance to become president. Despite this, the former host of "The Apprentice" was able to find success, and rode that momentum to a primary victory at the Repubican National Convention last summer. Just a few months later and Trump was able to pull off the upset by defeating Hillary Clinton on Election Day.

Over the course of his entire campaign, Trump made various promises, including his vow to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). However, even with a Republican majority-control in the House of Representatives and the Senate, he has been unable to rally enough support behind his plan for health care. Fast forward to president day and Trump is almost complete with his first full year in the White House, and Obamacare continues to remain the law of the land. As seen on his Twitter feed on November 23, the commander chief didn't let turkey and stuffing hold back his thoughts.

ObamaCare premiums are going up, up, up, just as I have been predicting for two years. ObamaCare is OWNED by the Democrats, and it is a disaster. But do not worry. Even though the Dems want to Obstruct, we will Repeal & Replace right after Tax Cuts!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2017

Taking to Twitter on Thanksgiving night, Donald Trump wasted no time bashing Obamacare and the Democrats during a holiday tweetstorm.

"ObamaCare premiums are going up, up, up, just as I have been predicting for two years," Trump tweeted.

Obamacare enrollment is up, despite the Trump administration's efforts to scale back the health law https://t.co/jjNHmHuaWW  The New York Times (@nytimes) November 22, 2017

Not stopping there, Donald Trump continued with his attack.

"ObamaCare is OWNED by the Democrats, and it is a disaster," he wrote. "But do not worry. Even though the Dems want to Obstruct, we will Repeal & Replace right after Tax Cuts!" Trump concluded.

Health experts: Repeal of ObamaCare mandate will lead to spike in premiums https://t.co/1XnvmCh4Jw pic.twitter.com/2TPXGqbpds  The Hill (@thehill) November 16, 2017

Twitter reacts

Within minutes of his Twitter attack on Obamacare, Donald Trump was hit with backlash from his critics.

"Premiums are going up because you tried to sabotage it!" one tweet pointed out.

I guess your done eating Thanksgiving dinner!! Back to tweeting about the Democrats and ObamaCare   Tim Dutton (@TimDutton_) November 23, 2017

Ha, you couldnt hit water if you fell out of a boat. Congrats on being a total failure and laughing stock on the worlds stage. Happy thanksgiving  Taz Atkinson (@Taz_Atkinson) November 24, 2017

Premiums are going up because you tried to sabotage it!  Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) November 23, 2017

"No dude, you own it after you stopped funding the payments to support it," another tweet added. "Ha, you couldn't hit water if you fell out of a boat. Congrats on being a total failure and laughing stock on the worlds stage.

Happy thanksgiving," one Twitter user noted.

Wrong. YOU will be repealed and replaced. And your brand is the one going down. Trump name off the buildings. Low income low profits.  jerry dragoon (@mrjowsy) November 23, 2017

@realDonaldTrump and his family is a waste of taxpayers money. You are breaking this country day by day  Michelles Sawyer (@michellesawyer6) November 24, 2017

People aren't stupid (except your base). It's so transparent that YOU are intentionally sabotaging the ACA! If you were a man.... if you had a soul... if you had one ounce of empathy, you would CARE about real humans with real needs! Shame!  Leon Edwards (@arloforbes) November 23, 2017

"I guess your done eating Thanksgiving dinner!!

Back to tweeting about the Democrats and ObamaCare," yet another tweet stated. "Wrong. YOU will be repealed and replaced. And your 'brand' is the one going down. Trump name off the buildings. Low income low profits," an additional tweet read. The negative response continued as Donald Trump relaxed on Thanksgiving by tweeting about the possible repeal of Obamacare.
The latest updates and spoilers for "Avengers: Infinity War" reveal two major characters returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cast member Mark Ruffalo told Michael Rapaport during his podcast show that Hela and Ancient One will likely appear in the movie. The two characters made their MCU debut's in "Doctor Strange" and "Thor: Ragnarok" played by Tilda Winton and Cate Blanchett.

There is also a new theory regarding the location of the last Infinity Stone in the movie and Thanos heads to earth to claim its power and complete his Infinity Gauntlet.

Hela and Ancient One

According to Michael Rapaport, Ruffalo dropped both Swinton and Blanchett names after being asked about which actor he had the pleasure of working with that gave him a lasting impression. This led to comic book fans speculating that the latter has worked with the two actresses separately on the set of "Avengers: Infinity War," but the studio has not yet made any comments about it.

The Ancient One is Stephen Strange's mentor during the events of the "Doctor Strange" movie and she was killed by her former disciple, Kaecilius after obtaining a small fraction of Dormammu's power.

Hela is the evil older sister of Thor and the main antagonist in the "Ragnarok" movie. She has been rumored to return to the third "Avengers" film and she will join Thanos on his mission to collect all of the Infinity Stones to rule the universe.

Soul Stone's location leaked

Reddit username TheAscendedAncient claims that the location of the Soul Stone is inside the body of the Asgardian gatekeeper, Heimdall. Thanos and his Black Order are coming to Earth to hunt down Heimdall, Doctor Strange, and Vision for the three stones.

The Redditor is also responsible for posting the leaked HD photos of the sequel's first trailer and it featured Captain America's underground team fighting Proxima Midnight.

Cap must reunite Earth's Mightiest Heroes with Iron Man to stop Thanos and save the universe from the Stones' power.

The Guardians of the Galaxy are also present in the movie and comic book fans will love how these two teams interact and fight side-by-side against the invaders.

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige told Collider that the third and fourth will feature several character changes as they want to evolve the heroes not just physically, but also emotionally to gain a new perspective on things. Feige pointed to Thor's missing eye and hammer as an example of that change to give him an interesting depth of his character.
On Tuesday's episode of "General Hospital" a number of Port Charles residents were in shock after watching a press conference, called by Nora Buchanan. She read a statement on live television that may exonerate Julian Jerome and lead to all charges against him being dropped. Mrs. Buchanan spoke on behalf of Olivia Jerome because Scott reached out to the mobster's wife. This led Alexis to make a visit to both Valentin and Nora. The result was Olivia agreeing to make a sworn statement indicating that she threatened her brother's loved ones. She also stated that Olivia made it very clear that Julian's family would be in grave danger if her sibling had not done her bidding.

The chain of events that will set Julian free

Viewers already know that William deVry has renewed his GH contract, but no details came forth as to how his character would be able to exit Pentonville. Last week, however, Scott Baldwin notified Alexis that her spouse was beaten within an inch of his life and it was dangerous for him to remain imprisoned. This caused Julian's wife to visit him in prison and the sight of his bruised face caused her to be very troubled.

Alexis later figured out that Nora was representing both Olivia Jerome and Valentin Cassadine. She paid a visit to her half-brother letting him know that she was aware of the connection. She also suggested that Valentin was paying the attorney fees for her husband's older sibling.

Alexis eventually convinced the Cassadine heir that it was in his best interest to see that Olivia exonerated her brother. The next stop the lawyer made was to her colleague Nora, but she left not knowing for certain if she got through.

Nora reads Olivia's statement

On Tuesday Nora held a press conference and read a prepared statement that was from Olivia Jerome.

Many Port Charles residents were watching and in shock at this turn of events. Sonny and Carly were troubled while Sam was dumbfounded and took note that her mother did not seem very surprised by the news. Alexis went on to explain to her daughter that she and Julian had much in common and both came from worlds filled with drama.

Sam did not look pleased but this obviously is the opening that lets GH fans know a "Julexis" reunion is soon coming. Scott, Nora, Oliva, Valentin, and Alexis all have set in motion the return of Julian Jerome to Port Charles. It also looks like his wife is preparing to forgive and forget which will be exciting news for fans of the popular couple.
Amber Portwood may be a busy bee as she and her boyfriend, Andrew Glennon, prepare for the upcoming birth of her second child, the first for Glennon, but when it comes to her family, the "Teen Mom OG" star has her priorities straight. In fact, the longtime reality star has been sharing tons of photos of her daughter in recent weeks as her baby bump remains under wraps.

In her latest image of her nine-year-old daughter, Leah Shirley, Amber Portwood was seen sitting beside the child as she read one of her birthday cards. "Such a good hearted little girl!" the reality star wrote in the caption.

"[Leah] always makes sure to read the whole card before the presents."

Portwood confirmed she and boyfriend Andrew Glennon were expecting a baby weeks ago after just a few months of dating. The couple first met one another on the set of WEtv reality series "Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars" this past summer.

Amber Portwood met Andrew Glennon while dating Matt Baier

At the beginning of the summer, Amber Portwood and Matt Baier began filming "Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars" in hopes of making amends. However, instead of mending their romance, Portwood ultimately embarked on a new romance with Andrew Glennon, who was working on the production of the series.

Amber Portwood and Andrew Glennon went public in August

Portwood and her boyfriend first shared their romance with her fans and followers on Instagram in mid-August and a short time later, they teamed up for their first red carpet appearance in Los Angeles at the MTV Video Music Awards. One month later, they traveled to Hawaii and shared a few romantic images from their trip.

Amber Portwood is keeping her baby bump under wraps

Amber Portwood may be a couple of months pregnant but thus far, she hasn't shown any images of her baby bump, if she has one, with her fans and followers on social media. Although she and Andrew Glennon did participate in a photo shoot weeks ago, they stood in a way that her baby bump wasn't visible and on her social media pages, the reality star hasn't shared many photos of herself at all for the past couple of months.

To see more of Amber Portwood, her boyfriend Andrew Glennon, and their co-stars, including Gary Shirley, Catelynn Lowell, Farrah Abraham, Tyler Baltierra, Ryan Edwards, Maci Bookout, and Taylor McKinney, tune in to the upcoming Season 7 premiere of "Teen Mom OG" on Monday, November 27 on MTV at 9 PM.
As Thanksgiving night came to a close, Donald Trump decided to spend some time on social media. After tweeting an attack on Obamacare, the president went on to give a shout out to Fox News host Sean Hannity, as well as internet and TV personalities and supporters "Diamond And Silk."

Trump on Hannity

Throughout the entire 2016 presidential election, it was more than obvious that Donald Trump was not going to be in good standing with the mainstream media. After Trump referred to illegal immigrants from Mexico as "rapists" and "murderers," he was at odds with the press, which has only escalated since that time.

While most in the media have come down hard on the former host of "The Apprentice," he's found a political safe space on Fox News, with host Sean Hannity being the most vocal supporter. In the year since the shocking results of the 2016 election, Hannity has continued to stand by Trump's side regardless of the controversy that has occurred. From defending the president's reckless rhetoric and questionable policy proposals, to dismissing the evidence backing the allegations of Trump's collusion with Russia, Hannity has gone out of his way to be a strong partisan voice in support of the commander in chief. After Hannity sent out a Thanksgiving tweet, the president decided to pass it along and add his own comments on November 24.

A great guy (with great ratings)! https://t.co/S0S6xqrjSC  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017

To all my Deplorable friends, I am extremely thankful to each and every one of you for just being who you are, Great Americans! Happy Thanksgiving to all!!  Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 23, 2017

Taking to Twitter on Thanksgiving night, Donald Trump retweeted Sean Hannity's post.

"To all my Deplorable friends, I am extremely thankful to each and every one of you for just being who you are, Great Americans! Happy Thanksgiving to all!!" Hannity tweet. In response, Trump shared Hannity's tweet, while adding, "A great guy (with great ratings)!"

Trump on Diamond and Silk

In addition to Sean Hannity's support for Donald Trump, others on the internet and on TV have taken time to stand by the president's side.

Known as "Diamond and Silk," the two outspoken internet, TV, and radio personalities have made a name for themselves by being a rare pair of female African-Americans supporters of the billionaire real estate mogul.

Here's how you respond when someone mentions the @POTUS @realDonaldTrump during Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving. We Love Y'all. pic.twitter.com/LRtHE6iPll  Diamond and Silk (@DiamondandSilk) November 23, 2017

"Here's how you respond when someone mentions the @POTUS @realDonaldTrump during Thanksgiving dinner. Happy Thanksgiving. We Love Y'all," Diamond and Silk tweeted out, while attaching a video to their post.

In response, Trump also retweeted their message, while adding, "Two great people." As the night came to a close, it appeared that the president was not going to let a holiday take him away from social media.
Jerry Chen, a member of the famed Flying Tigers of World War II, is greeted by the audience at the opening ceremony of the exhibition The Forgotten Camp: Allied POWs of Shenyang in San Francisco on Tuesday. The exhibition details the life and ordeals of Allied prisoners held at Japans notorious Mukden camp in what is modern-day Shenyang, China. Liu Dan / China News Service
Founded in Beijing in 2013, the China Will Registration Center now has six branches across the country. Gao Erqiang / CHINA DAILY

The writing of wills is still relatively uncommon among Chinese today because the topic of death is considered taboo. However, perceptions are now changing as more and more people seek professional help in drafting these documents

Hu Yinyin wants her apartment in downtown Shanghai to be sold after she dies, but her husband and daughter are in for a rude shock  they won't be inheriting all the proceeds. In fact, most of the money will be going to a monk.

The 68-year-old woman has not told her family of this decision. With home prices in downtown Shanghai surging to 100,000 yuan ($16,000) per square meter, she is certain that her wish would cause much uproar in the household.

Hu said that her plan is to have the monk inherit most of the cash so that he could help her to continue caring for stray animals, including those she adopted. Her husband is the only other beneficiary and the amount he would be getting would be enough to last him the rest of his days in an elderly care center, she said. As her daughter is married and has her own apartment, Hu believes that she no longer needs financial assistance.

To ensure that her wish is fulfilled, Hu is planning to write a will, something that is not common among many Chinese because talking about death, much more planning for it, is a taboo in society.

Growing demand for wills

A staff member shows the database containing wills handled by the China Will Registration Center that were used in court to settle disputes. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

But Hu admitted that she has little idea about writing wills, and has approached the China Will Registration Center, a nonprofit organization that helps the elderly to draft and store their wills, for help.

Founded in Beijing in 2013, the center has amassed more than 70,000 wills for about 100,000 elderly people since its establishment. The organization started expanding its footprint in 2015 and opened its sixth center in Shanghai earlier this month. Its other branches are located in places including Tianjin municipality, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces.

The services provided by the center are free to people aged 60 and above, though charges are levied for future amendments. The center also works with psychiatric organizations that perform mental health evaluations on elderly people so as to determine if they are of sound mind when they are drafting a will.

"We tested the water in Beijing first, and have upgraded our system many times over the years before we came to Shanghai," said Huang Haibo, executive director of the center's Shanghai branch.

"We wanted to ensure that everything was perfect before we opened our center in Shanghai as we foresaw a huge demand for such a service here."

This prediction was spot-on  more than 1,500 elderly residents made appointments to draft their wills just two weeks after the center opened in Shanghai's Changning district. Huang said that the center is now planning to open another branch in the city to cope with the growing demand. Staff from the Shanghai branch of the center also said that about 95 percent of the wills are related to property.

According to official statistics, Shanghai has the fastest-aging population among all Chinese cities. As of the end of 2016, the city had 4.58 million registered residents who were aged 60 and over, accounting for 31.6 percent of the registered population. Meanwhile, those aged 80 and above reached 796,600 as of 2016, accounting for 5.5 percent of the total.

Zhu Xiuqin, a lawyer with East & Concord Partners, said that she has also seen an increase in the number of Chinese clients consulting her about wills in the past few years. She pointed out that those who do not have substantial inheritances should consider approaching non-profit organizations such as the China Will Registration Center for assistance.

"I think such organizations that specialize in helping the elderly draft their wills is a good thing. After all, it would be a little costly for people to find a lawyer to do this if their inheritances are not very large," she said.

Changing perceptions

Chen Kai, the founder of the Shanghai branch, said that he is eager to dispel the social stigma about writing wills, pointing out that such a procedure helps to prevent conflicts between family members from happening after a person's death.

Chen said that the idea to promote a greater acceptance in writing wills came about in 2007 after he had a conversation with his colleagues at an Australian law firm.

"This incident left a deep impression in me because I realized that most of my Australian colleagues, who were only in their 30s and 40s, had already written their wills," he said.

"In contrast, most Chinese people don't write wills  they just pen their wishes in a note when they are near death and this causes problems later because what they wrote might not be legally binding," he added.

Chen returned to China in 2009 to work as a legal consultant at the China Ageing Development Foundation. This was when he revisited the idea of helping elderly Chinese write their wills. In 2013, he turned the idea into reality with the support of the foundation and the Beijing Sunny Senior Health Fund.

But perceptions have already started to change. According to the center, most of the people who sought help to write their wills during the first two years of its operations were those aged 70 and older. Today, people in their 60s make up the majority.

Gong Jinhua was one of the first clients of the Shanghai branch of the China Will Registration Center. The 68-year-old, who has a son and an adopted daughter, owns two apartments  one in Shanghai and one in Jiangxi province. She is planning to leave the apartment in Shanghai, which has a higher value, to her daughter. She expects her son to be against this decision.

"Even though I am her foster mother, I feel she is more dutiful than my son," she explained. "I learned from my elder sister that notarizing a will is a complicated issue so that is why I came to the center to learn more about it."

When asked why she does not view the topic of death as taboo, Gong said: "Everyone will get old and die someday. Instead of waiting till the last minute, why not make preparations in advance?"

Zhao Yuqin, 65, registered her will this year with the center's branch in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, because she wants her only son to inherit her wealth without encountering any problems.

There's a common belief among the Chinese that a son should inherit his parent's wealth. But the reality is more complex. In China, if someone dies without a will, their spouse, parents and children can all stake a claim on the assets left behind.

In Zhao's case, her son would need to provide the death certificates of his grandparents. Zhao's husband would also need to state in a written document his intention to relinquish his right to the property.

"I was concerned in the beginning, since it's taboo for someone to write a will," Zhao said.

"But I thought it through and decided to do it anyway. I told my son that what I was doing would make things less of a hassle for him."

xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn
Fengxian district, a quiet suburban area in Shanghai that has for decades been ranked near the bottom among the city's 16 districts, will be getting a makeover as authorities plan to turn it into the "Silicon Valley for China's beauty industry".

While southern Guangdong province has always been known to be China's cosmetics hub - the region accounts for 70 percent of the market share in China - Gu Yi, deputy head of Fengxian district government, pointed out that Fengxian can stand out by being a vibrant research and development hub.

"If Guangdong is the factory for China's cosmetics industry, we can be the laboratory. Most of the companies here develop and design their own products and we believe Chinese brands and companies can only compete with their Western competitors when they create their own products," said Gu.

Covering 687 square kilometers, about half the size of New York City, Fengxian is already home to a number of big cosmetics companies such as Jala Group, Nu Skin and Pechoin.

Statistics from the municipal government show that 40 percent of the cosmetic products made in Shanghai come from Fengxian. In 2016, the 70 mid-to-large-scale cosmetics companies in Fengxian generated 18 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) in revenue, up 13.9 percent year-on-year.

Pechoin, a Shanghai cosmetics brand founded in 1931, moved to Fengxian in 2016 and is one of the district's newest residents.

The company's 300-million-yuan plant is equipped with 16 production lines and can manufacture 3 billion yuan worth of skincare products every year.

Though business was severely affected in the 1990s following the entry of foreign cosmetics giants such as L'Oreal and Estee Lauder, Pechoin bounced back into the fray by rolling out products made with Chinese medicinal herbs. The company said that they have been growing at an average rate of 30 percent over the past decade.

During this year's Single's Day shopping extravaganza, Pechoin retained its position as the bestselling brand in the skincare category, generating a sales record of 294 million yuan within 24 hours.

xujunqian@chinadaily.com.cn
Industry experts point to government policies in the United States and China as the primary reason for the decline

The total value of Chinese takeovers of US companies has plummeted by 67 percent in the first three quarters of this year, according to a new report released by global research firm Rhodium Group in early November.

Bloomberg stated that the top US takeovers by Chinese companies in 2017 were worth less than $1 billion each. In contrast, this figure was more than $5 billion last year. In addition, the report found that Chinese companies' investments around the world fell by 23 percent.

This drop in Chinese companies' M&A volume comes on the back of the China government's efforts to rein in overseas investment and ensure that they are in compliance with regulations.

The central government said before that it would help guide more investments into the real economy and reduce investments into sectors that Chinese companies are not proficient at managing.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, the nation's outbound direct investment from non-financial sectors plunged 40.9 percent year-on-year to $86.31 billion between January and October.

Michael Froy, co-chair of the global corporate practice and global manufacturing sector at law firm Dentons, pointed out that the regulations set by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) have also played a part in slowing the pace at which Chinese investments are entering the US.

"The Trump administration has taken a more restrictive view on foreign investments. The US Congress is considering legislation that would make a larger number of transactions to be subject to CFIUS view," he explained.

At an operational level, Chinese investors have shown concern over the M&A process in the US, especially when it comes to one-on-one negotiations, the auctioning process and their understanding of compliance issues, he added.

However, Froy noted that Chinese investors should not be disheartened by these changes, as M&As have been the main channel for Chinese investors to enter the US.

Between 2000 and the third quarter of this year, Chinese companies have completed up to 660 M&As in a wide range of industries in the US, with the total transaction value amounting to $126.4 billion, according to Dentons.

Jason Cheng, senior partner at Dentons Shanghai, said that a number of government policies announced earlier this year will help Chinese companies to conduct M&As in a more sustained manner.

On August 18, the General Office of the State Council unveiled a guideline on overseas investments, defining the investment categories that the central government encourages, limits and forbids. In early November, the National Development and Reform Commission released a draft regulation regarding Chinese companies' overseas investment as part of efforts to provide a public, transparent and clear systematic guideline for such activities.

"As the government's supervision and execution policies become more transparent, Chinese companies will continue to expand their business in overseas markets in the long term," said Cheng.

"We expect the number of M&A transactions to continue to grow in 2018, while the value will increase accordingly."

Industry insiders at a China-Canada cross-border investments trends seminar in Shanghai held on Nov 14 by Dentons also said that Chinese companies should consider investing in privately-owned enterprises in Canada as the country has a sound economic system and transparent government policies.

Cherry Ma, a manager at the investor reporting department of Canadian firm Azimuth Capital Management, said her company has noticed that Chinese interest in Canadian companies has been growing since 2012. She added that there is still much room for cooperation between companies from the two nations in terms of energy.

Publicly available statistics show that the bilateral trade value between China and Canada reached $45.6 billion in 2016. However, experts pointed out that there is still much room for growth as this figure accounted for only 1.1 percent of the total foreign trade amount in China, and 7.2 percent of the total in Canada, last year.

In a bid to further boost trade between Canada and China, the two nations started discussing the feasibility of a free trade agreement in Beijing in late February. The Canada China Business Council estimated that the free trade agreement could result in Canada exporting an additional CAD$7.7 billion ($6 billion) worth of goods to China every year by 2030, and in the process create 25,000 job opportunities in China.

The former prime minister of Canada Stephen Harper, who was in attendance at the seminar, said that his country has only "scratched the surface" in the Asia Pacific region in terms of trade, and that Chinese companies should act now instead of wait for the free trade agreement to be implemented.

shijing@chinadaily.com.cn
President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Vietnam's central city of Da Nang on November 10, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

President Xi Jinping has returned from his first overseas trip after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October. The last leg of his trip took him to Laos, and before that he attended the 25th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam, as well as paid a state visit to Vietnam.

While addressing the APEC CEO meeting, Xi emphasized the need to "uphold justice while pursuing shared interests", saying the dream of the Chinese people is closely connected with the dreams of the peoples of other countries, and the Chinese Dream can be realized only in a peaceful global environment and stable world order. He had used pretty much the same words in his speech at the 19th Party Congress while offering a glimpse into the "hybrid identities" of the countrytraditional, modern and global.

Today's China is committed to socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and is a leading developing and emerging country. So while making efforts to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, China will "keep in mind both our internal and international imperatives" and pursue common prosperity at home and sustainable development globally.

As a major country, China also feels the urge to help other developing countries see the flaws of "universal models" and thus find their own development path and work together to develop a more inclusive global order.

Its multiple identities are what make China unique in global governancea peacekeeper, an economic contributor and a guardian of the world order. By including a community with a shared future for mankind, the pledge to uphold justice while pursuing shared interests, and the Belt and Road Initiative in the amended Party Constitution, the central leadership has made clear that China is dedicated to a reciprocal, win-win diplomatic approach.

The promise to uphold justice while pursuing shared interests, in particular, serves as a key diplomatic principle for "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era". The fundamental thought of Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, was included in the Party guiding principles at the 19th Party Congress.

The Party is committed to ensuring the well-being of the Chinese people and human progress, while making new and greater contributions to humankind is the Party's abiding mission, Xi said in his report to the 19th Party Congress. Attaching equal importance to "justice" and "shared interests", which originate from Chinese moral codes, is proof that the Party has never forgotten the basic reason why it was formed.

The Party does not believe in just paying lip service to its commitments. China has actively developed global partnerships and expanded the convergence of interests with other countries while working with them to build a framework for major country relations featuring overall stability and balanced development.

By highlighting the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness in its neighborhood diplomacy, China has enshrined both win-win cooperation and humanitarian assistance in its foreign policy while engaging with other countries, especially the least developed ones, to help build a better world. It has also doubled its efforts to fight climate change and promote internet-driven innovations. In other words, its diplomatic goals are not just about securing national interests but also about shouldering global responsibilities.

The author is Jean Monnet chair professor at and director of the Institute of International Affairs, Renmin University of China.
Top: College students learn Chinese at the University of Helsinkis Confucius Institute in Denmark. Zhong Xin / For China Daily Above left: American K12 teachers visit an exhibition about Dunhuang at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, in a summer public program by UCLA Confucius Institute in 2016. Above right: Russian children attend a Chinese characters competition at a Confucius Institute in Vladivostok in February. Photos Provided to China Daily

The UCLA Confucius Institute is spreading the spirit of the ancient Silk Road with its cultural programs and collaborations. Fang Aiqing reports.

Dunhuang, located on the edge of the Gobi Desert in Gansu province, was once a bustling oasis on the ancient Silk Road. Today it is famous for the Mogao Grottoes, one of the world's largest sites of Buddhist art.

In the eyes of Susan Pertel Jain, director of the Confucius Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, Dunhuang was once "a cultural crossroads where people speaking different languages, holding different values and belief systems met, interacted and achieved something amazing that can still inspire us today" .

"Since the late 4th through the 14th centuries, artists from all over made artworks here," she says. "It is a place of tolerance and collaboration."

With this in mind, Jain's team has developed programs exploring different aspects of the art of the grottoes.

Last year, the Getty Center in Los Angeles held a four-month exhibition of Dunhuang art titled Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China's Silk Road. It featured models of the caves from China, along with paintings and manuscripts taken from Dunhuang in the early 20th century and held by British and French libraries and museums.

The exhibition was to celebrate the 25th year of collaboration between the J. Paul Getty Museum and Dunhuang Academy in the conservation of the cave art and preservation of the site.

Before the exhibition, the UCLA Confucius Institute was asked by the Getty Center to create public programs that would expand people's understanding of Dunhuang in collaboration with Peter Sellars, a professor at UCLA and a theater director in the United States.

Jain's team also hosted an exhibition-related concert titled East and West of Dunhuang: Music Carried on the Wind in May 2016.

Master musicians and scholar-performers of UCLA from China, India, the Middle East and Central Asia brought the ancient exchanges to life by presenting music from their own cultures.

"People may never have heard the types of music depicted in the artworks before, but the concert showed us how things happened in ancient times," Jain says.

Which in these ritual spaces, as Sellars once said, was the stimulation of all the senses.

Inspired teaching

In another program, Jain's team took history, art and sign language teachers to Dunhuang and had each of them create a lesson to bring Dunhuang into the classrooms of California's public schools.

Among them was the Mexican-American teacher, Marisela Ruiz, who taught social studies to students of the sixth grade at a school in the US where all of the students speak Spanish.

Some of their families lived in small apartments with 10 to 15 people. One of her students once told her that his bed was under the kitchen table because there was no other spare space.

Thus, on seeing Dunhuang which was abandoned for years until the beginning of the 20th century, the teacher created her lesson around the idea of "a sacred space" and what makes it special. She wanted the students to know that they could have their own special spaces despite their home situations.

Last year, she attended a six-week summer course about Dunhuang in another poor neighborhood where most students were from African and Latino communities and about one-third of the students had no parents and were in foster care.

Again, she used the idea of Dunhuang being a special place and one where people from different cultures came into contact with one another, to tell the children that it doesn't matter who they are and what kinds of life they are leading, they are still special.

The kids were taken to the Dunhuang exhibition and introduced to the dances, music and the different instruments that might have been encountered along the ancient Silk Road.

For Jain, an important goal of these public programs was to move the thinking of Dunhuang away from being simply "pretty paintings on the wall", but also a place of inspiration for global culture in the 21st century.

"If I want to get people interested in China, an artist can communicate a lot. Besides, I think artists have a way of reflecting contemporary ideas and pushing things that other people don't," Jain says.

Expanding vision

In May, the team carried out a workshop called Visioning Dunhuang. During the weeklong session, artists and experts from Russia, Ethiopia, China, Australia, the United Kingdom and the US were able to view Dunhuang art in its authentic setting and meet artists and scholars from the Dunhuang Academy.

Yulia Mylnikova, a China expert and director of the Confucius Institute at Saint Petersburg University, Russia, described it as a "creative and forward-looking initiative that brought artists and researchers with creative thinking together" .

"The approach adopted in this trip was timely and important and it has led to a number of interesting programs," Mylnikova wrote in her feedback.

According to Jain, the next workshop is planned for December. Twenty-five renowned artists such as visual artists Julie Mehretu and Anish Kapoor, jazz composer Vijay Iyer, filmmaker Lynette Wallworth and architect Greg Lynn will be participating.

For Jain, what began as a short-term collaboration with the Getty Center around the Dunhuang exhibition has become a major international arts initiative for UCLA that will connect to major cultural and educational partners around the world over the next 10 years.

"The project will tap the network of educational partners created through the Confucius Institute initiative," says Jain, who was speaking in Beijing in September during a visit to attend the 2017 Confucius Institute Open Day. The theme of this year's conference was "My story with Confucius Institute" .

Directors, Chinese language teachers, volunteers and students of the Confucius Institute branches, as well as writers, scholars, filmmakers and entrepreneurs were invited to share their stories and connotations of bridging the exchanges between Chinese and foreign cultures in terms of language education, art, music, literature, films and technology.

More than 360 Confucius Institute branches in more than 100 countries were celebrating the Confucius Institute Open Day at the same time.

Contact the writer at fangaiqing@chinadaily.com.cn
Maksim Mrvica, a Croatian pianist has just premiered two singles in Beijing, New Silk Road and China Rhapsody

In 2001, Maksim Mrvica, a Croatian-born classical pianist studying in Paris, gained fame as a promising young musician after winning piano competitions in Europe. After watching his performance on TV that year, Tonci Huljic, a Croatian songwriter and producer, approached Mrvica and introduced him to Mel Bush, a concert promoter and music manager, who put on concerts for artists like Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, and Elton John.

At that time, Bush was looking for a classical pianist and hoping to break into the classical crossover market. On meeting Maksim, Bush was impressed by both his rock star image - tattoos, chic hairstyle - and solid piano playing technique.

Maksim Mrvica is about to kick off a 34-city tour of China. Photos by Zou Hong / China Daily

Bush signed Mrvica on the spot after hearing him play just one piece.

Nearly two decades later, Mrvica, with 11 crossover albums since 2003, has grown into one of the top selling crossover pianists in the world.

His albums, including the hit one, Croatian Rhapsody, in 2015, have sold more than 4 million copies in 57 countries.

Meanwhile, the pianist has just premiered two singles in Beijing, New Silk Road and China Rhapsody, both written by Huljic.

To support of these releases, Mrvica will kick off a tour in China - his biggest one in the country - by visiting 34 cities, including Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shenzhen.

"I've performed over 100 shows in China and I want to give something back to my fans here. The two songs are inspired by China, especially Chinese culture," the pianist says in Beijing. Mrvica first came to China in 2008 to record a piece, Olympic Dream, for the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Since then, the pianist has toured China every year and has built a large fan base.

In 2016, he has visited 26 Chinese cities, playing his signature pieces, including an energetic version of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee.

As for the two new songs, the New Silk Road, was recorded in Budapest along with more than 60 musicians from the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.

For the six-minute song, the composer, Huljic, combined music elements from China, Russia, India and Central Europe, including the sounds of Chinese instruments - the erhu and bamboo flute.

Speaking about his work, Huljic says: "As composer, I collect music elements from all over the world. And I am very interested in Chinese music, especially ethnic music.

"This is my first time in China and before composing these two songs, I asked myself 'How can I describe China in a few words?' Then I chose the words like 'great', 'wisdom' and 'humanity'. I put these words into music."

Speaking about the songs, Huljic says that while New Silk Road is a grand and dazzling piece for piano and orchestra, China Rhapsody is just for piano.

"China Rhapsody is much simpler technically. There are many kids in China learning piano and this piece is material for them to practice," he says.

Huljic also says that this year marks the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Croatia and he dedicates these two pieces to the two countries.

Giving details about his tour, Mrvica says that he will divide his upcoming visit China in 2018 into two seasons - spring and autumn.

"The number of the cities (for the tour) is still growing, so I can take a short break between these two parts.

"It (the tour) can be very exhausting. So, I usually stop playing the piano for a while after each segment so that I can recharge myself."

Mrvica, 42, who was born in Sibenik, Croatia, started piano lessons at the age of 9 and by the age of 11, he had held his first concert as a soloist with an orchestra.

It was not easy for him to become a concert pianist, especially when, at the age of 15, war broke out in Croatia.

But he continued to practice his piano in the basement of his music school.

By that time he had won the first prize in a national competition in Zagreb.

Later on, he won the first prize at the Rubinstein Piano Competition in Paris and the first prize at the Pontoise Competition in France.

He then went on to study at the Music Academy in Zagreb before he spent a year at the Franz Liszt Conservatoire in Budapest.

His debut album, Gestures, was released in 1999.

The album, featuring works by contemporary Croatian composers, became one of the fastest-selling classical recordings released in Croatia.

Speaking about his musical journey, Mrvica says: "No one in my family is a musician. So, when I told my parents that I wanted to become a pianist, they were very surprised."

The pianist is recording a new album in London and Budapest, and it is scheduled to be released in January.

The two new pieces, New Silk Road and China Rhapsody, will be in the album, and for the first time, he will integrate pop music into his work.

"In the new album, audiences will find familiar pop songs from Coldplay, John Legend and music from the popular TV drama, Game of Thrones. It's a challenge to adapt pop music into classical music but I like it," he says.

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn
Boutique hotel doubles as cultural center promoting ethnic group

Yunnan province has long been a magnet for travelers looking for a taste of China's exotic ethnic cultures. Few, however, have followed their passion as far as Brian Linden.

For a decade, he has devoted himself to promoting the arts, crafts and way of life of the Bai people. Visitors come from far and wide to stay at his Linden Center, an institution he has dedicated to the ethnic group in the small town of Xizhou. Along the way, he has forged links with top universities in both China and his native United States.

"Even though I'm a foreigner, I have always dreamed of finding a way to learn, share and discover Chinese culture," Linden said. "The Linden Center allows me to do just that."

Linden's road to Xizhou was a long one. It started in 1984 when he was working as a carpet cleaner in his homeland and took up a friend's invitation to go to China. Once there, he was impressed enough to travel widely. He supported himself by taking several film roles, as well as working as a photographer.

He returned home, but in 2004 he sold his house in the US to bring his wife and two sons back to China and embark on a two-year odyssey across the country.

"My sons needed to study, so hotels and trains became classrooms," Linden said, explaining that the family bought standing tickets when seats were hard to come by.

"We just wanted to show the kids how important it is to follow dreams and make those dreams come true."

From the northwest to the far south, it was Xizhou that captivated the family enough to settle. The town is close to Erhai Lake and Cangshan Mountain, making it a "land of idyllic beauty" in the words of writer Lao She.

Yunnan is home to 26 of China's 56 ethnic groups. Among them are some 2 million Bai, who live mainly in the western Dali Bai autonomous prefecture.

Xizhou township in Dali is quintessentially Bai, and contains many protected heritage sites. Of particular interest to the Lindens was the "Yang family compound", a building with many distinctive features of Bai architecture. It was built in 1948 and listed under State protection in 2001.

Linden wanted to turn the compound into a boutique hotel. After four years of negotiations with the local government, he was given permission.

The family decided against outside contractors, preferring to renovate the building themselves. "Just the cost of fire safety measures and rewiring exceeded 1 million yuan ($151,000)," Linden said.

During the renovation, he spent half his time at the construction site, and the other half in the village talking to people, making friends and explaining what he was doing.

"If the Linden Center really wants to be part of Xizhou, the support of local people is very important," he said.

Around 100 people were involved in the renovation, and the center now has about 50 staff members. "We could keep the ball rolling with just half of them actually, but I want to help local employment," he said.

In 2008, after almost nine months of work, the Linden Center opened with the structure of the original compound and delicate wood carvings intact. Since then, it has been more a place of cultural exchange than just a hotel. When it opened, Linden invited dozens of foreign painters to work there.

The property today comprises five big courtyards and 16 guests rooms. Besides accommodation and catering, visitors can take part in all kinds of cultural activities, including textile dyeing and cookery lessons.

One of the courtyards has become a place of education, receiving groups from around the world. Linden has hosted students with affiliations to Shanghai's Fudan University and Yale and Stanford in the US.

"In the Linden Center, I have found my way to learn, share and explore Chinese culture," he said.

Xinhua
CANBERRA, Australia - Papua New Guinea authorities on Thursday ratcheted up pressure on more than 300 asylum-seekers to abandon a decommissioned immigration camp, where refugees reported their shelters, beds and other belongings have been destroyed.

Police Chief Superintendent Dominic Kakas said 50 police and immigration officials entered the Manus Island camp on Thursday and persuaded 35 of the 378 men there to leave for alterative accommodation in the nearby town of Lorengau.

Shen Narayanasamy, a human rights campaigner for the activist group GetUp!, estimated 40 men left Manus by bus and some of those reported being forced to leave.

Water, power and food supplies ended when the Manus camp officially closed on Oct 31, based on the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court's ruling last year that Australia's policy of housing asylum-seekers there was unconstitutional.

But asylum-seekers fear for their safety in Lorengau because of threats from local residents.

Kakas said force would not be used to empty the squalid Manus Island camp.

"There's no raid. It's an ongoing negotiation with the refugees," Kakas said. "It's not an eviction exercise. We're telling them to move because there's water, food and proper shelter on the other side."

Kakas denied reports from within the camp that authorities burned and destroyed asylum-seekers' property in an effort to persuade them to leave.

Australian Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton revealed in a radio interview the police operation in the camp.

"There is an operation involving police at the center this morning. It's like the tenant that won't move out of the house when you've built a new house for them to move into," he said.

Authorities have previously made conditions tougher in the camp by emptying drinking water tanks and removing shelters. Deadlines to abandon the camp have passed without authorities taking action.

Australia pays Papua New Guinea, its nearest neighbor, and the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru to hold thousands of asylum-seekers from Africa, the Middle East and Asia who have attempted to reach Australian shores by boat since mid-2013.

Ap - Reuters
Snuggled between the Sierra Nevadas and Lake Tahoe, Reno is called "The Biggest Little City in the World." Considered a less glitzy cousin to its big and rich brother Las Vegas, Reno manages to pack a lot of fun and entertainment into a small town. Reno is famous for its casinos and excellent nearby ski resorts. National Automobile Museum is a car buff's delight with more than 200 vintage cars.

We recommend that you call the attractions and restaurants ahead of your visit to confirm current opening times.

1. Nevada Museum of Art  Nevada Museum of Art

The Nevada Museum of Ar, Nevada's only accredited art museum, is located in downtown Reno in a magnificent new four-story building designed by architect Will Bruder. This thematic museum focuses on the interaction between humans and the environment and the growing effort to protect the land. The museum's Permanent Collection consists of over 2,000 works of art from as late as the 19th century. The primary focus is on built, natural, and virtual environments. The museum's growing Contemporary Collection consists of paintings, photography, works on paper, digital media, sculpture, and mixed media installations created by national and international artists. The Center for Art + Environment is the museum's research department and has an Archive Collections with more than 12,000 items. 160 W Liberty St, Reno, NV 89501, Phone: 775-329-3333

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2. Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center  Courtesy of hit1912 - Fotolia.com

A part of the University of Nevada, Reno and Extended Studies, Fleischmann Planetarium & Science Center was built in 1963 and offers digital planetarium shows open to the public in their dome theater. The center also organizes field trips and education in space and Earth science, as well the University's Redfield Campus observatory viewing. The center is one of the first world planetariums to use the Spitz SciDome digital projector. This high-resolution visualization tool produces colorful and bright 3-D images of space objects. The planetarium's interestingly shaped building, called a "hyperbolic paraboloid," was designed by architect Ray Hellmann. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings. Besides the Dome Theatre, the center also has an exhibit Hall, a Science Store, and a classroom for education purposes, special events, and birthday parties. 1664 N Virginia St, Reno, NV 89557, Phone: 775-784-4812

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3. Animal Ark  Courtesy of jwjarrett - Fotolia.com

Animal Ark is a wildlife sanctuary and education center established in 1981 to provide a safe habitat for abandoned, injured, and wild animals that could not be rehabilitated and released into their normal habitats. Animal Ark goes out of its way to build enclosures for each animal with large boulders, native trees, bushes, grasses, and other vegetation that recreate the animals' natural habitat. Special effort is made to provide activities for the animals in order to relieve boredom. Watching them going about in an environment similar to their natural environment is a very different experience from going to the zoo. There is no captive breeding at Animal Arc, and all animals are offered sanctuary for life. The Ark has bears, coyote, wolfs, foxes, bobcats, cheetahs, many reptiles, and raptors. 1265 Deerlodge Rd, Reno, NV 89508, Phone: 775-970-3111



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4. Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum  Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum



The Nevada Discovery Museum is a 67,000 square-foot playground, hands-on science center, and kids' museum in downtown Reno. There are so many possibilities for learning that are well-disguised as games; kids can try exploring caves and dark mineshafts, climbing three- stories up into the clouds, and traveling from the past to the future without breaking a sweat. Youngsters are engaged in science, history, art, construction, animals both living and extinct, destruction, and live performances. Kids can explore The Shop, Da Vinci's Corner, Spark!Lab Smithsonian, an 80-foot-long river, the Cloud Climber, a permanent night gallery, and much, much more. The museum also organizes many special events and kids' day camps. 490 S Center St, Reno, NV 89501, Phone: 775-786-1000

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5. National Automobile Museum, Reno, Nevada  Courtesy of Nikolai Sorokin - Fotolia.com



The National Automobile Museum in Reno is the ideal playground for car enthusiasts, who can easily spend a whole day roaming among more than 200 glorious old cars. They are not just on display, they are set out on a real cobblestone street in front of a hardware store or movie theatre with appropriate artifacts from the car's era. The cars in the museum are from the late 19th and 20th centuries and in general belong to the collection of the late William F. Harrah, once a wealthy casino owner. The cars are displayed in four galleries. One of the galleries includes the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame and a number of race cars. The most famous cars in the museum are the Cadillac Eldorado that belonged to Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra's Ghia, JFK's Lincoln Continental, and John Wayne's Chevrolet Corvette. Visitors can take a photo in one of the historic cars dressed in a period costume. 1 Museum Dr, Reno, NV 89501, Phone: 775-333-9300

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6. What to Do in Reno: National Championship Air Races  Courtesy of itsallgood - Fotolia.com



Every year in September at the airport just outside Reno at the site of the former Stead Air Force Base, thousands of air race enthusiasts from all over the world come to watch the National Championship Air Races, an exciting event for northern Nevada. The races last a week, and during that time hundreds of pilots and crews descend on Reno with their lovingly maintained aircraft. There are six racing classes, a huge standing display of aircraft, and a number of civil and military flight demonstrations. Bill Stead organized the first races in 1964, and since then they have missed only one year  the year of 9/11. Unfortunately, the Reno air races are the last of their kind. Reno Air Racing Association, 14501 Mt. Anderson St. Reno, NV 89506, Phone: 775-972-6663

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7. Reno Aces Ballpark, Reno, Nevada  Courtesy of mtsaride - Fotolia.com

Located on the bank of the Truckee River in the Freight House District in Reno, Greater Nevada Field is a Minor League Baseball stadium that opened in 2009. It is the home field of the Triple-A Reno Aces from the Pacific Coast League. Greater Nevada Field can accommodate 9,100 spectators, featuring 6,500 fixed seats, plus general admission. Behind right field, there is a berm with standing room. Two party areas have picnic tables and benches. The stadium also has 22 opulent skyboxes, two comfortable dugout suites behind the stadium's home plate that can fit 15 people each, and a 150-person club suite. The stadium has natural grass surface. 250 Evans Avenue, Reno, NV 89501, Phone: 775-334 7000



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8. Mt. Rose Ski Resort  Courtesy of kvdkz - Fotolia.com

Reno is not exactly a typical ski town, but only 30 miles south of the city in the Carson Range, you will find the first class ski resort Mount Rose Ski Tahoe. The resort covers an area of 1200 acres and is located in the heart of the magnificent Toiyabe National Forest. The resort was opened in 1953, and today it has more than sixty runs and eight lifts, and the longest run is 2.5 miles long. There are three terrain parks: the Badlands, the Pondo Park, and Double Down. While skiers can easily stay in a hotel in Reno and come to Mt. Rose on the resort shuttle every day, the resort has its own new facility, Winters Creek Lodge. 22222 Mt Rose Hwy, Reno, NV 89511, Phone: 775-849-0704



9. Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts  Courtesy of Roman Rvachov - Fotolia.com

The Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, a private cultural organization in Reno, is located in a spectacular gold geodesic dome that was completed in 1967 and is nicknamed "Golden Turtle." The theater has 987 seats on the ground level and 513 in the balcony. The Pioneer Theater is the home of some of Reno's most renowned art companies such as the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra and A.V.A. Ballet Theatre. The center also hosts the "Broadway Comes to Reno" series that brings Broadway touring musicals to Reno. The theatre hosts more than 100 diverse cultural events every year, from Broadway productions to dance recitals. The center's Pioneer Center Youth Programs, its educational outreach division, works on encouraging an appreciation for the performing arts in young people by presenting them with a rich variety of exciting programs. 100 S Virginia St, Reno, NV 89501, Phone: 775-686-6610

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10. Reno Riverwalk District, Reno, Nevada  Courtesy of donyanedomam - Fotolia.com

The Riverwalk District is the most obvious sign of Reno's exciting urban renaissance. Stretched along the scenic banks of Truckee River, the area between Arlington Ave. and Lake St. in Reno is quickly becoming the city's fast beating heart. Something is always going on, and there's an activity or attraction for everyone: you'll find 35 bars, cafes, taverns, and restaurants, five studios and art galleries, three museums, and three theaters, and everything is just a short distance from all the city's attractions and historic monuments. They are all competing to see who will bring the most exciting events to visitors. There are street concerts, kids' face painting competitions, wine walks, and Dine the District foodie tours, or you can just sit on one of many benches and watch the river and the world go by. 148 West St, Reno, NV 89501, Phone: 775-825-9255



11. What to Do in Reno: Rancho San Rafael Regional Park  Courtesy of Mariusz Blach - Fotolia.com

Rancho San Rafael Park offers beautiful views of both mountain and desert landscapes, as well as a wetland habitat. The land, once home to a working cattle ranch, was converted into a park after Washoe County purchased the land in 1979. Two of the original ranch houses still stand on the property. In addition, the park contains pavilions for picnicking, walking trails, fishing, biking, playgrounds, volleyball courts, and more. The William D. May Museum and Arboretum are also part of the park and are open to the public Wednesday through Sunday. 1595 North Sierra St., Reno, NV 89503, Phone: 775-328-2000

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12. Bartley Ranch Regional Park  Courtesy of svetlana_cherruty - Fotolia.com

Bartley Ranch Park is an impressive 56-acre park located in Washoe County. Naturally, it has the picnic pavilions and walking trails that are common to parks, but Bartley Ranch also contains acres of pastureland, a horse arena, an outdoor amphitheater, and several historic buildings. The Western Heritage Interpretive Center is a western-themed building with a full kitchen that can be reserved for parties and meetings. Guests can also tour the restored Historic Huffaker School or see a show at the Robert Z. Hawkins Amphitheater. The park is open daily, year-round. 6000 Bartley Ranch Road, Reno, NV 89511, Phone: 775-828-6612



13. Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive  Courtesy of RedStormPhoto - Fotolia.com

Called the "wildest, richest rodeo in the West," the Reno Rodeo has been a premiere event since 1919. Today, this 10-day rodeo draws over 140,000 fans to the Reno area each June. Events include cattle roping, steer wrestling, barrel racing, bull riding, and family themed activities such as the carnival and parade. And each year, a massive cattle drive brings its herds through Reno. Guests can enjoy a Western breakfast and watch the cattle come through town. Reno Rodeo Association, 1350 N. Wells Avenue, Reno, NV 89512, Phone: 775-329-3877



14. Galena Creek Park  Courtesy of Marianne Catafesta - Fotolia.com

Galena Creek Park is a natural recreation area situated next to the Humbolt-Toiyabe National Forest. The park contains miles of hiking, bicycle, and horse trails that cross into the forest and back out into the park. The park covers both Alpine and high desert ecosystems, giving visitors a unique experience with nature. At the Visitor Center, guests can learn about the different birds, animals, insects, and plants they will find in the park and get a map to guide them on the trails. Galena Creek Park also offers events for children such as science and summer camps. The park is open daily, year-round. Hours vary by season. Galena Creek Recreation Area, Mount Rose Highway, Reno, NV 89511, Phone: 775-849-4948



15. McKinley Arts and Culture Center  Courtesy of Roman Sigaev - Fotolia.com



The McKinley Arts and Culture Center is housed in the former McKinley Park School. The building was renovated in 1999 and now houses office spaces, two art galleries, arts and crafts workshops, and an auditorium and boardroom that are available for rental. The McKinley is also the home of the Reno Philharmonic and the Reno Chamber Orchestra, the Masterworks Chorale, and the Reno Pops Orchestra. Guests can immerse themselves in the arts and cultural climate of Reno by taking a guided tour of the center and viewing the artwork in the galleries or by taking in a musical performance at the center. 925 Riverside Drive, Reno, NV 89503, Phone: 775-334-2417

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16. The W.M. Keck Museum  The W.M. Keck Museum



The 2nd oldest museum in Nevada, the Keck Museum is dedicated to showcasing the mineral and geological variety of Nevada. The museum contains an impressive display of minerals and geodes such as quartz, gypsum, amethyst, copper, and of course, silver and gold ores. It also features tools and maps related to the state's rich mining history. The museum houses the amazing 1250-piece silver collection of John W. Mackay, one of the founders of the Bonanza Firm which developed the famous Comstock Lode. The establishment is open Monday through Friday and one Saturday a month and is closed on University holidays. 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89557, Phone: 775-784-6987



17. Great Full Gardens Cafe and Eatery  Great Full Gardens Cafe and Eatery



Great Full Gardens Cafe and Eatery is a health-focused eatery in Reno's Midtown District, opened to the public in 2013 by Juli and Gino Scalia with the assistance of Cyndi Wallis. The restaurant strives to provide unique menu options for diners with dietary concerns, including Paleo, vegan, and gluten-free options. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner service are offered daily, highlighting options such as signature Great Full bowls and the restaurant's special-recipe GinoTheSoupMan soups. Full barista service is available daily, with superfood beverages such as turmeric lattes and matcha green tea beverages offered. The restaurant also serves up local craft beer and wine offerings on tap, with selections rotating regularly. 555 So Virginia #107, Reno, NV 89501, Phone: 775-324-2013

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18. Reno Philharmonic, Reno, NV  Courtesy of Chekunov Alexandr - Fotolia.com



The Reno Philharmonic Orchestra has been bringing classical and popular favorites to Northern Nevada since 1969. Each season, the "Phil" performs an impressive array of pieces from the classical repertoire, as well as pops pieces from Broadway and Hollywood. Each summer, their "Pops on the River" concert is a major fundraiser for the orchestra, and each December, the Phil showcases their holiday spirit with their "Spirit of the Season" extravaganza. The show features singers, dancers, and even Santa Claus himself. 925 Riverside Drive, Ste 3, Reno, NV 89503, Phone: 775-323-6393



19. What to Do in Reno: Peppermill Casino  Courtesy of ellisia - Fotolia.com



The Peppermill Casino is more than just a casino; the property contains a resort with luxury lodging, multiple dining options including fine and casual, two nightclubs, and a full-service spa. The Peppermill is a AAA 4-diamond award winner and is the #1-ranked hotel in Reno. The casino offers table games, poker, keno, and slots, all housed in a clean, upscale environment. The casino's Passport Rewards Club members can take advantage of VIP services including a complimentary room and concierge services. The resort is also has available spaces for weddings, meetings, and corporate events.

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20. Casino at Silver Legacy Resort  Courtesy of Tomasz Zajda - Fotolia.com



The Silver Legacy Resort has everything you need for a spectacular vacation all in one convenient location. The resort contains high-end accommodations, six restaurants, bars and lounges, boutiques and shops, a spa, and a fitness center. Silver Legacy draws some of the biggest names in entertainment, including country singers, comedians, and dancers. One of the biggest draws at Silver Legacy is its casino. You'll find table games, slots, keno, and a wide array of games with progressive jackpots. The odds are that guests will have a great time and win big at Silver Legacy! 407 N Virginia St, Reno, NV 89501, Phone: 1-800-687-8733 | 775-325-7401



21. Atlantis Casino, Reno, Nevada  Courtesy of cooperr - Fotolia.com



The AAA 4-Diamond Atlantis Casino Resort and Spa is ideally located on the Strip in the heart of Reno, Nevada, and shopping, dining, and entertainment are all nearby. Atlantis offers its guests world-class accommodations, award-winning restaurants, live entertainment such as concerts and cabaret shows, a 30,000 square foot luxury spa, and of course, exciting gaming action. At the Atlantis Casino, rooms are clean and well-organized. Atlantis offers card games, table games, progressive jackpots, and tournaments. They also have non-smoking sports betting and poker rooms. At Atlantis, the jackpots are bigger, the slots are looser, and the service is outstanding. 3800 S. Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89502, Phone: 1-800-723-6500



22. Casino at the Eldorado  Courtesy of Foap.com - Fotolia.com



Covered in bright neon lights, the Eldorado stands out amidst the hotels and casinos in downtown Reno. Their luxurious accommodations have been voted "Best Rooms and Suites" by Casino Player Magazine. Guests can dine in one of their nine award-winning restaurants or see a show at their Broadway-style theatre. When you're ready to play, check out the slots, card games, table games, and sports betting at the Eldorado's casino. The casino offers many different tournaments so guests have even more chances to win big, and the casino's hosts are there to help guests plan their trip or offer a credit application. 345 N Virginia St, Reno, NV 89501, Phone: 1-800-879-8879 | 775-786-5700

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23. Grand Sierra Resort Casino  Courtesy of Volodymyr - Fotolia.com The Grand Sierra Resort and Casino has it all; the hotel boasts modern, upscale decor and 1900 rooms with luxurious accommodations. Enjoy world-class dining at their seven on-site restaurants. Hang out by The Beach Pool, a large pool surrounded by shaded cabanas. There's even family fun with go-karts, mini-golf, and laser tag. The casino at the Grand Sierra is the largest in Reno and offers a variety of games at skill levels from novice to expert. Guests can test their skills at keno, blackjack, poker, baccarat, and craps, or press their luck by betting on sporting events in the casino's 14,000 square foot book lounge. 2500 East Second St, Reno, NV 89595, Phone: 800-501-2651



24. Circus Circus Casino  Courtesy of bartsadowski - Fotolia.com Circus Circus is the resort that's fun for the whole family; their spacious rooms and suites provide an ideal environment for both adults and children. The resort contains six restaurants, including Dos Geckos Cantina with its bright, funky decor. Circus Circus provides a variety of kid-friendly entertainment such as concerts, acrobats, and animal shows. The casino offers card and cable games, slots, and race and sports betting. Tournaments often take place, and the casino hosts are always there to provide world-class service to their guests. 500 North Sierra St, Reno, NV 89503, Phone: 1-800-648-5010 | 775-329-0711



25. Wilbur D. May Center  Wilbur D. May Center Have you ever wanted to step into the shoes of a world adventurer? Visit the Wilbur D. May Center and get a glimpse into the life and collections of the world traveler, rancher, pilot, artist, businessman, and philanthropist. Located inside the Rancho San Rafael Regional Park, guests of all ages can enjoy a fun learning experience through the venters museum, arboretum, and botanical gardens. The museum, designed in a ranch-style aesthetic in favor of Mays own ranch-style home, displays thousands of unique and rare artifacts from Mays many adventures throughout his life. Visitors can view exotic treasures such as Egyptian tomb items, African tribal masks, Polynesian carvings, Chinese pottery, and many more. Guided tours are also available to help navigate and learn about the enormous archive of historical and foreign objects. When visiting, dont forget to stop by their store which offers several fair-trade pieces from all over the globe. 1595 N. Sierra Street, Reno, Nevada 89503, Phone: 775-785-5961



25 Best Things to Do in Reno, Nevada

More ideas:

Sommersett Golf and Country Club

Set against the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is the Sommersett Golf Course. This par 72 course designed by Hall of Famer and U.S. Open Champion Tom Kite features 62 sand bunkers, 7 lakes, and challenging elevation changes throughout its 18 holes. The facility also contains a driving range, putting green, and chipping green so golfers can perfect their swings before hitting the course. Private lessons and golf clinics are also available. The on-site restaurant, the Sunsett Grille, is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day except Monday.

2019 Championship Trail, Reno, NV 89523, Phone: 775-787-1800 ex.2

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HA NOI  Viet Hung Urban Development and Investment Joint Stock Company (Vihajico) on Thursday introduced its Ecopark Grand and Marina Arc.

This is the second phase of its Ecopark urban township in the northern province of Hung Yen.

Vihajicos deputy general director, Nguyen Dung Minh, said it was the right time for his company to invest in ultra, high-end real estate, which will be perfect pieces in the 500-ha Ecopark complex, with a total investment of nearly US$10 billion.

The Ecopark Grand villa complex features the magnificent palm island, similar to the one in Dubai, where all the villas are built atop the lush landscaped grounds by the worlds five leading companies.

Meanwhile, the Marina Arc will comprise 20 high-rise shophouses, with prizes from VN36 billion (US$1.31 million) for the 280sq.m ones and VN100 billion ($3.64 million) for the ones covering 630sq.m.  VNS
HA NOI  The Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) agreed to promote smart tourism in the country.

They signed a comprehensive co-operation agreement in this regard in Ha Noi on Wednesday.

Under the three-year agreement, the two sides would support each other in their development. They would annually build suitable co-operation programmes to advertise the countrys tourism sector to local and foreign tourists by applying modern IT solutions and services.

VNPT would consult and co-operate with VNAT to build a master plan on IT application for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the tourism sector and to build a development plan for smart tourism.

In addition, the two sides would build an IT management system to connect information among localities in developing tourism. They would build digital products to serve tourists and promote tourism through e-marketing.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Pham uc Long, VNPTs general director, said the group has a co-operation with 52 cities and provinces, as well as 10 ministries in several sectors to develop e-governance, IT applications in management and to provide smart IT applications.

"The tourism sector has been one of our most important customers. Currently, VNPT has been leading in launching smart city solutions for 15 cities and provinces nationwide, including big localities such Ha Noi and HCM City," Long said.

He added that the sector was seeing a strong growth and expected a boom in the time to come. VNPT hoped to contribute to the boom.

Many localities, which signed co-operation agreements with VNPT in smart city development, have paid attention to tourism development. Last month, the group signed an agreement with Saigontourist to develop smart tourism.

VNPT is expected to accompany the sector for a long-term period to take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to further develop the countrys tourism, while meeting the tourists increasing demand.

Nguyen Van Tuan, VNATs general director, said tourism and IT had been two different sectors. However, they had a common target of serving tourists, thus supporting each other.

Tuan said the countrys tourism sector had a lot of potential and opportunities for development. Last year, Viet Nam for the first time welcomed more than 10 million international tourist arrivals, representing a 26 per cent year-on-year rise. It also served 62 million local tourists, with a total revenue of VN400 trillion (US$17.5 billion) or 18.6 per cent higher than the previous year.

This year, the sector is expected to see over 13 million international tourist arrivals, increasing 30 per cent from last year, while serving 75 million local tourists to earn VN500 trillion ($22 billion).

If the sector reaches the set targets, it could contribute one percentage point to the countrys GDP in 2017, he said, adding that the sector had striven to digitalise its activities as smart tourism would be a requirement, a trend and a task to keep up with the current situation.  VNS
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) recently cut 675 business and investment procedures, equivalent to 55.5 per cent of total business conditions.  Photo anninhthudo.vn

HA NOI  The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) recently cut 675 business and investment procedures, equivalent to 55.5 per cent of total business conditions.

This historic decision was the first step of its reforms, said Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Khanh.

Minister Tran Tuan Anh, on September 20 signed Decision No 3610a/Q-BCT to cut the large number of administrative procedures and to simplify many business conditions under the ministrys management in the 2017-18 period.

Khanh told the online forum on its administrative reforms held in Ha Noi on Wednesday that such reforms would be regularly and continuously implemented in the ministry. State leaders and the business community have hailed the move as the most active and the strongest one among the countrys ministries.

The reduction will focus on 16 industries, including important sectors such as petroleum, logistics, alcohol and tobacco, he said.

Specifically, the ministry is considering cutting business conditions in petrol trading to ensure supply, while improving competitiveness for the sector.

Meanwhile, business conditions would also be removed in the electricity sector to attract other firms to invest into the market.

Khanh said that after the cutting of procedures, the ministry would focus on post-checkups. In addition, the removal of a large number of administrative procedures is also in accordance with the international commitments, of which Viet Nam is a member.

Localities should be given more power in administrative reforms, he said.

The business community was surprised about the cutting. However, the ministry affirms that we will follow the set targets, Khanh added.

Move to cut procedures applauded

Nguyen inh Cung, director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), applauded this move, as unprecedented work" with huge reductions in the number of administrative procedures managed by the ministry. The performance is determined by the specific criteria.

However, Cung said people were worried about sub-licences after the cutting, and that some staff could deliberately cause more difficulties for enterprises because they could lose their benefits, which they used to gain from taking advantage of the procedures.

Khanh affirmed that when business conditions were abolished, no place would require additional sub-licences.

The deputy minister said by the end of this month, the revised documents of business conditions would be submitted to the Government for approval, thus contributing to improving the business environment.  VNS
Viet Nam needs more investment from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the areas of renewable energy, hotels, tourism, infrastructure construction, seaports, aviation, real estate and agriculture processing. Photo baocongthuong

HA NOI  Viet Nam needs more investment from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the areas of renewable energy, hotels, tourism, infrastructure construction, seaports, aviation, real estate and agriculture processing.

Bui Thi Thanh An, deputy head of the Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade delivered this statement at a business forum held on November 23 in the capital, which saw the participation of more than 20 firms from the UAE.

To date, businesses from the UAE are involved in 12 investment projects in Viet Nam, with capital totaling more than US$142 million. These projects are mainly in the mining, real estate and tourism sectors.

Two-way trade has also experienced positive growth, reaching $5.45 billion in 2016 and $4.8 billion in the first 10 months of this year. Of the total, Viet Nam exported $4.37 billion worth of goods including telephones, electronics components, machinery, footwear and farm produce.

These figures, however, remained modest, An said while encouraging two nations businesses to take the initiative in studying each other import-export demand and explore new co-operation opportunities.

Le Thai Hoa, deputy head of the ministrys Asia-Africa Market Department, said the UAE was considered one of Viet Nams most important partners in the Middle East. Over the years, Viet Nam has implemented many trade and investment promotion activities in the UAE, a move designed to strengthen its ties with the nation, he said.

According to Hoa, there remains room for the two business communities to accelerate bilateral co-ordination.

Representatives from Dubai Exports, the export promotion agency of Dubai Economy, agreed that the potential for co-operation between enterprises from the two countries is largely untapped. He added that Viet Nam would be a gateway for UAE firms to penetrate the whole Asian region.

Viet Nam and the UAE are making a greater effort to raise two-way trade to $10 billion in the next few years.

The Vietnamese Trade Office in the UAE said it will strengthen trade promotion through exhibitions and showcases of Vietnamese foods, farm produce and fruits in major supermarkets in the UAE.

At the same time, the office will also help enterprises seek UAE partners and verify their information.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue negotiating and signing co-operation deals to support enterprises from both sides.  VNS
HA GIANG  Work on a VN100 billion (US$4.4 million) clinker grinding unit kicked off on Friday in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang.

Financed by the Manh Binh Minh construction material company, the facility will have an annual capacity of 700,000 tonnes.

It is expected to begin operations in the third quarter of 2018. The technologically-advanced station will produce cement in line with national standards while ensuring labour safety, hygiene and environmental protection.

Le Van Ngan, deputy head of the provincial Economic Zones Management Board said the station is one of three investment projects in Binh Vang Industrial Park to be licensed this year.

It is expected to create jobs, contribute to the local budget, and meet the provinces demand for cement, Ngan said. VNS
HA NOI  Afforestation and timber trade campaigns are among various events that will be held across Viet Nam to highlight co-operation between Viet Nam and Finland and particularly to celebrate 100 years of Finlands independence, which falls on December 6.

The events include a workshop on forestation being held on Friday by the Finnish Embassy in Viet Nam and ActionAid Viet Nam within the framework of the project funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and ActionAid Viet Nam.

The project, themed Peoples participation in improving forest governance and poverty reduction, is implemented in a context that Viet Nams timber exporting potential is hindered by a shortage of supply while the domestic raw timber market is underutilised.

A platform for decision-makers and stakeholders to discuss the current status, trends and solutions to maximise the capacity of the domestic timber market, as well as the standards that domestic suppliers need to reach to meet the international markets requirements will also be presented at the workshop, according to a press release from the Finnish Embassy.

The Finnish Embassy will aslo coordinate with the Ha Noi Peoples Committee to hold a tree planting ceremony at the intersection of Tran Thai Tong, Ton That Thuyet and Pham Van Bach streets on Saturday, Finnish Ambassador to Viet Nam Kari Kahilouto said at a press conference in Ha Noi on Thursday.

The 100 trees to be planted demonstrate 100 years of Finlands independence and the close friendship between Viet Nam and Finland. The event will also contribute to Ha Nois effort to build a green and sustainable city.

Other activities include a launch ceremony that will be held on November 27 to announce the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments decision to issue the Forest Resources Monitoring System, the ambassador said.  VNS
A NANG  Artists from a Nang, Quang Nam and northern provinces have exhibited their 26 silk paintings at the a Nang citys Fine Arts Museum till December 4th.

Museum representatives said 11 artists were invited to create the silk paintings.

The exhibition features the beauty of the culture of different regions of Viet Nam and ethnic groups in rural areas.

Silk painting was seen as a unique art in Viet Nam and Asia, but the art is gradually disappearing in modern Viet Nam, with only few young artists training at fine arts colleges nationwide.

The museum, whish locates at 78 Le Duan Street in a Nang, is the only one of its kind in the Central and Central Highlands region. It displays more than 400 works by artists from the city and provinces in spaces for contemporary fine arts, sculpture and paintings, and regular exhibitions.

The museum is among popular cultural destinations for tourists such as the Cham Sculpture Museum and the a Nang Museum.  VNS
HCM CITY  Ta Minh Tam, one of Viet Nams leading tenors, will host a concert at the HCM City Conservatory of Music on November 25 to celebrate his 40-year singing career.

Live concert TAM reflects my gratitude to my friends, colleagues, students and fans who have supported me for a very long time, said Tam, lecturer and deputy headmaster at the conservatory.

He said the concert would include well-known Vietnamese songs and excerpts from famous foreign operas.

In the first half of the concert, the 57-year-old will perform with Vo Ha Tram and Pham The Vi, graduates of the conservatory.

They will sing songs praising the country by famous Vietnamese composers, such as Tieng Hat tu Thanh Pho Mang Ten Nguoi (Singing from the City Named after Ho Chi Minh) by Cao Viet Bach, Nhung Anh Sao em (Starlight) by Phan Huynh ieu, and Que Nha (Homeland) by Tran Tien.

The second part will feature O Sole Mio, the well-known Neapolitan song written in 1898 with lyrics by Giovanni Capurro and music by Eduardo di Capua and Alfredo Mazzucchi.

Songs from 19th century famous operas by Puccini, Donizetti and Lehar will be featured as well.

The sopranos Cho Hae Ryong and Vo Thuy Ngoc Tuyen will perform with Tam, who will end the concert with the composition La Bang (Leaf of Malabar Almond Tree) by Meritorious Artist Tran Vuong Thach, director of the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO).

Thach wrote the song in 1998 for the TV series Vien Ngoc Con Son (Pearl of Con Son). It is about the love between the Vietnamese people and soldiers during wars.

Thach will conduct the live concert TAM, while Le Thuy, who has directed several music and television shows, will be the concert director.

Tam said: My friends and I have spent a lot of love and time on concert TAM in hopes of bringing a quality show to audiences.

Tam, a native of An Giang Province, became well-known after winning the top prize at the National Singing and Dance Festival in 1977.

He later studied vocal music at the citys conservatory and graduated in 1983 with excellent results. He also studied at the Canford School in the UK.

He continued to win national and international singing contests such as the ASEAN Golden Festival in Ha Noi in 1996 and the Spring Friendship Art Festival in North Korea in 1997.

He is known for Vietnamese revolutionary songs such as Tinh Ca (Love Song) by Hoang Viet and at Nuoc Tron Niem Vui (The Nation is Full of the Joys of Reunification) by Hoang Ha.

He has also performed major roles in operas staged by HBSO.

Tam was granted the title Meritorious Artist in 2001 and received the third-class Labour Medal in 2002 for his contribution to the countrys music industry.

The concert TAM will begin at 7.30pm at the conservatory at 112 Nguyen Du Street in District 1.  VNS
HCM CITY  The Viet Nam  South Korea Literature Exchange Workshop 2017 was held on November 23 in HCM City to celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and South Korea.

The workshop, hosted by the Dongni  Mogwol Memorial Association and the HCM City Writers Association, is part of the HCM City  Gyeongju World Culture Festival 2017.

Tran Van Tuan, the associations president, and Nguyen Quang Thieu, the vice president, attended the event with renowned writers and poets from South Korea.

Tuan said that Viet Nam and South Korea have many similarities in terms of culture and history.

South Koreas rapid economic growth brought valuable lessons to the development of Viet Nam and HCM City. Literature from South Korea, which has become more accessible, has brought great inspiration to local writers, he said.

Jun Han-tae, head of the Dongni-Mogwol Memorial Association, said: The workshop aims to foster a literature relationship between the two countries, enable writers to exchange ideas, and motivate them to come up with better work.

Some of the topics discussed were an overview of Vietnamese literature, Viet Nam in Korean literature, and translations of literary works from Korean to Vietnamese, among others.

The HCM City  Gyeongju World Culture Festival 2017 runs until December 3.

Multiple cultural and art events, sport and youth exchanges and trade cooperation activities are taking place across popular sites such as Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street, 29/9 Park, and Ben Thanh Theatre, among others.  VNS
Ha Cong Tuan

Ha Cong Tuan, deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, speaks to the newspaper Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) about his ministrys resolve to make forests a key resource for national economic development

How does the 2017 Law on Forestry compare to the 2004 Law on Forestry Protection and Development?

The new forestry law consists of 12 chapters with 108 articles stipulating management, protection, development and use of forests, along with processing and trade of forest products. The law will come into force on January 1st 2019.

The 2004 law only focused on forest formation, ranging from forest management to forest development. Meanwhile the 2017 law covers a wider range, from forest product processing and trading to science and technology and international co-operation. The law then reiterates that forestry is the foundation of the value chain of forestry products. The laws concerns range from management, protection, development, forest use, forest product production and commerce. These are the new points of the 2017 Law on Forestry, and they build significantly on the 2004 Law on Forestry Protection and Development.

Another point I just want to emphasise is that the new Law on Forestry has been institutionalised in the 2013 Constitution. Where the previous forestry law says that the forests belong to the people, the 2017 Law on Forestry divides forest ownership into two types: first, forests that are owned by the people but the State is their sole representative; and second, forests owned by organisations, households or individuals in accordance with Vietnamese laws.

The new forestry law focuses on the economic development of forests. Dont you think that the task of forest protection will now be secondary to the economic development function?

I just want to reiterate that the 2017 Law on Forestry has been expanded, but forestry protection remains one of the essential tasks of the law. The potential economic value generated from the forests has been carefully calculated. In reality, we have closed the natural forests and have done everything to develop sustainably all the production forests. We have tried to help foresters develop their business and expand while still protecting forests.

The new law includes provisions on forest environmental service, a type of non-forestry product that has been created by the demand for economic development and the realities of peoples daily lives. But that policy is mainly based on the principle that forest environmental services beneficiaries must pay their service providers. Thats a new point in the 2017 forest law  a new financial source to reinvest into the forest.

In 2016, we already collected VN1.35 trillion from the forest environmental services. In 2017, we expect to earn about VN1.65 trillion. And in 2018 the sum will be about VN 2 trillion.

Could you talk a bit about benefits that foresters enjoy when the new law comes into force?

I hope the new law will benefit both forest owners and forest protectors. The rights and responsibilities of forest owners have been further expanded and consolidated in the 2017 law.

We all agree that the forest is a natural resource that can be regenerated, so if we have good policies towards forest ownership well be able to encourage organisations and individuals to invest in poor forests and then enjoy benefits from them. No doubt they will manage the forests better and more efficiently.

The new forest law will create favorable conditions for forest product processing and business. The law has focused on forestry development policies that will create favorable conditions for enterprises to co-operate or to go into joint ventures with forest owners to apply advanced technology in forestry development.

How will the new law help State forest enterprises improve their forest management tasks?

Of the 16.2 million ha of forest land, only 1.6 million ha is managed by 154 State enterprises.

In a near future, well launch a campaign to restructure all 154 State enterprises into 139 enterprises in accordance with Government Decree 118. According to the plan, some 500,000ha of forests will be re-allocated to households. We have set a deadline to accomplish the re-arrangement of State forest enterprises by June 2018 in accordance with Government Decree 118.  VNS
President Tran ai Quang on November 23 congratulated the outgoing Uruguayan Ambassador to Viet Nam, Carlos Irigaray Santana, on a successful term in the Southeast Asian country.  VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sang

HA NOI  President Tran ai Quang on November 23 congratulated the outgoing Uruguayan Ambassador to Viet Nam, Carlos Irigaray Santana, on a successful term in the Southeast Asian country.

The President praised efforts made by the ambassador and his colleagues in bolstering ties with Viet Nam. He said he was delighted at the comprehensive development of bilateral relations. This was reflected through visits of high-ranking leaders and officials from ministries and agencies of both nations.

He said the two countries had paid due attention to enhancing co-operation in economy and trade, culture, tourism as well as education and training.

The President said he expected both sides would deepen ties while affirming that Viet Nam attached much importance to developing relations with countries in South America, including Uruguay.

The Vietnamese leader also hoped that with considerable understanding of Viet Nam-Uruguay relations, the diplomat would continue his efforts to support and promote sound friendship and co-operation.

The Uruguayan diplomat thanked the Vietnamese Government, ministries and sectors for helping him fulfill his tasks over the past six years.

Santana said that over the past six years, the two sides had signed a number of co-operation agreements, creating a foundation for collaboration in various fields. He noted that Uruguay wanted to complete a deal with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to bring Uruguayan beef and other farm produce to the Vietnamese market.

Santana said that as part of efforts to increase links between ministries and sectors of Uruguay and Viet Nam, Uruguay opened a consulate in HCM City earlier this year.

The ambassador also convey an invitation from President Tarabe Vazquez to President Quang to visit Uruguay, saying that the Vietnamese Presidents first visit to the country would be a significant milestone in bilateral relations.

President Quang said he would do this, and invited President Tarabe Vazquez to visit Viet Nam.  VNS
President Tran ai Quang has affirmed that the success of the just-concluded eighth National Congress of the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) demonstrates the robust growth and unity of Viet Nams Buddhism.  VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sang

HA NOI  President Tran ai Quang has affirmed that the success of the just-concluded eighth National Congress of the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) demonstrates the robust growth and unity of Viet Nams Buddhism.

He hosted a reception for representatives from the new Patronage Council and the new Executive Council of the VBS in Ha Noi on November 23.

He expressed his hope that the Patronage Council and the Executive Council in the 2017-22 term will work to encourage monks, nuns and followers to join in soundly implementing Party guidelines and policies, and State law while performing their duties and responsibilities as citizens.

They should also work to promote unity and harmony between Buddhism and other religions, and people of all walks of life, he added.

He noted that the Party, State and people have always valued the concrete contributions of the VBS and its monks, nuns and followers to national unity and nation-building efforts.

The Party and State have consistently pursued the policy of respecting and safeguarding the peoples right to religion while creating conditions for adherents to exercise their faith practices in compliance with the law.

The VBSs eighth congress concluded in Ha Noi on November 22, with Most Venerable Thich Pho Tue re-honoured as Supreme Patriarch of the VBS.

The event was attended by 1,250 Buddhist dignitaries, monks, nuns and followers from home and abroad.

The congress also elected 96 members of the Patronage Council with Most Venerable Thich Pho Tue as the Patriarch of the councils standing board, along with 225 official members and 45 alternate members of the Executive Council headed by Most Venerable Thich Thien Nhon for the 2017-22 tenure.

The VBS has chapters in all 63 cities and provinces, and Associations of Vietnamese Buddhists in 11 countries worldwide. There are four Buddhist universities, eight college-level training programmes and 34 Buddhist primary schools in Viet Nam.  VNS
The National Assembly voted in a favour of the amended Law on Public Debt Management on November 23 during its morning session. VNA/VNS Photo Van iep

HA NOI  The National Assembly voted in a favour of the amended Law on Public Debt Management on November 23 during its morning session.

With 85.74 per cent of NA deputies in support of the new bill, the law will come into effect on July 1, 2018.

Numerous control mechanisms and legal frameworks were added to improve the countrys financial sustainability and marco-economic stability.

One of the highlights of the law was lawmakers insistence on reigning in the level of public debt. For instance, the Government will not allow its regular expenditures to be financed with loans and the transparency and accountability of public debt management agencies will be improved.

Regarding NA deputies concerns over the relationship between the public debt level and debts incurred by State-owned Enterprises (SOEs), the NAs Standing Committee confirmed that SOEs are responsible for repayment of their own debts and their debts will not be classified as public debts.

In the event that SOEs are unable to meet their financial obligations, they can proceed to declare bankruptcy just like any other business.

Cyber Security

NA deputies continued with a discussion on a draft version of the law on cyber security.

Lawmakers stressed the importance of the law on cyber security, saying the law will help protect national security, social order and civil rights in the face of the increasing number of online threats.

The NAs Committee on National Defence and Security said the law will also provide the country with a legal basis to collaborate with the international community to combat cyberterrorist acts and attacks aimed at disrupting global security and order.

Viet Nams cyber security is vulnerable and the country ranked 10 in a list of most attacked countries according to a report by Symantec published in May. Notably, in July 2017 the countrys flag carrier Vietnam Airlines suffered an attack on its website by hackers for more than an hour, leading to the leak of information of 400,000 customers.

Minister of Public Security To Lam said the introduction of the cyber security law will provide law enforcement with the necessary legal framework to fight cyber crimes, especially in an increasingly integrated and unpredictable cyber world.

Deputy Trieu Tuan Hai said the law will also help the judicial sector overcome shortcomings and limitations of the existing Law on Cyber Information Security and better protect national security and social order.

Deputy Nguyen Huu Cau said Government agencies must step up efforts in managing online service providers to prevent potential tax losses and protect citizens rights in the cyber world.

He cited a clause in the new bill which dictates that service providers must maintain offices and main servers within Viet Nams territory.

Internet service providers are for-profit economic enterprises. They must be treated fairly and equally just like other businesses. We are only asking for data servers for Vietnamese users to be maintained within the country. This is a practice already implemented in 14 countries around the world. Why cant Viet Nam do it? Cau asked.

He noted that the measure is not to set up trade barriers or hinder investment opportunities but a necessity to protect Vietnamese citizens and the countrys national interests.

Revised law on denunciation

Later the same day, NA deputies discuss the revised Law on Denunciation, asking compiling agencies to continue studying to complete the law, focusing on main issues such as the concept and forms of denunciations and anonymous denunciations.

They also proposed adding regulations on denouncing retired officials and cadres.

Deputy Nguyen Huu Cau from the central province of Nghe An said there were many officials who were going to retire soon but still committed wrongdoings.

Deputy Pham Van Hoa from the Mekong Delta province of ong Thap shared the same view, stressing that the law should include such regulations to prevent retirement meaning safety or lack of punishment among many officials.

Some deputies suggested adding more forms of denunciation, such as by fax, email or phone to make it easier for people to make denunciations and help cases get addressed in a timely fashion.

They also agreed to not accept anonymous denunciations, raising the responsibility of those who make denunciations, as well as preventing people from abusing the regulation to harm others.  VNS




National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan received Singaporean Ambassador to Viet Nam Catherine Wong Siow Ping in Ha Noi on November 23, discussing her upcoming visit to Singapore. VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan received Singaporean Ambassador to Viet Nam Catherine Wong Siow Ping in Ha Noi on November 23, discussing her upcoming visit to Singapore.

Ngan acknowledged tight coordination between the diplomat and the NAs Committee for External Affairs and the Foreign Ministry of Viet Nam in preparation for the upcoming visit of a high-ranking NA delegation to Singapore.

The visit is an activity marking the 45th anniversary of Viet Nam  Singapore diplomatic relations, she noted.

Lauding the growth of bilateral cooperation in economics, trade and investment, the legislator revealed that some Vietnamese enterprises working with Singaporean partners and leaders of localities housing Viet Nam  Singapore industrial parks are set to join the NA delegations trip.

The visit will be a chance to develop partnerships and improve mutual understanding, Ngan added.

For her part, Catherine Wong Siow Ping said Viet Nam and Singapore organised regular exchanges of delegations, particularly high-ranking ones, in recent years.

The ambassador praised the upcoming trip to Singapore made by the NA delegation, led by her host, saying it reflects a desire to enhance the strategic partnership between the two countries. She pledged to do her best to make the visit a success.  VNS
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Portugal Teresa Ribeiro in Ha Noi on November 23.  VNA/VNS Photo Thong Nhat

HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc suggested that Viet Nam and Portugal continue promoting their traditional relationship that started 500 years ago since the first Portuguese arrived in Viet Nam.

He gave a reception for Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Portugal Teresa Ribeiro in Ha Noi on November 23.

The PM expressed his hope that the the two countries will exchange their business delegations to explore each others investment co-operation opportunities.

He also called on Portugal to push the European Union to sign and ratify the EUViet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) to facilitate the economic-trade relations between the two countries.

Viet Nam  Portugal trade exchange stood at US$350 million in 2016, the PM said, noting that the figure is below the two countries potential.

For her part, the Portuguese Secretary said the two sides have signed a number of agreements and continued realising these documents, with a focus on economic and trade relations.

The Portuguese side has spoken with Viet Nams Ministry of Planning and Investment about measures to promote economic co-operation, she said, affirming that Portuguese firms are interested in Viet Nam, particularly in tourism and hotels, renewable energy and water management.

She expressed her belief that the EVFTA will be signed in 2018, opening up a new chapter for the Viet Nam  Portugal relationship.

Business ties with Japan, RoK

Viet Nam wants firms from Japan, and especially Osaka, to expand operations in the country, particularly in farm produce processing and consumption, support industry, health care and technological transfer, said Prime Minister Phuc.

During a reception in Ha Noi on November 23 for President of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hiroshi Ozaki, the PM described Japan as Viet Nams leading economic partner, the largest supplier of official development assistance, the second largest investor and the fourth largest trade partner.

He pledged to direct ministries, agencies and localities to offer all possible support to Japanese businesses in any field of their demand and in any locality.

The host suggested that the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry work closely with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry to further promote business partnerships in localities, adding that Viet Nam encourages Japanese and Osaka enterprises to become strategic shareholders that actively join equitisation of State-owned enterprises in the country.

Ozaki, for his part, said firms from Osaka want to seek opportunities in advanced and eco-friendly technologies, urban development and energy, and are willing to partner with Viet Nam in fields of strength such as exploitation and processing of aquatic products, health care and tourism.

Receiving the Chairman of the SK Group from the Republic of Korea Chey Tae-won on the same day, PM Phuc hailed the group for joining in the equitisation of the State-owned enterprises in Viet Nam and committed all possible support to them during the process.

He suggested that SK Group join a joint investment fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Viet Nam, especially start-ups. The PM hoped that SK Group would continue assisting Viet Nam in human resources development, semi-conductor industry and key infrastructure construction.

Chey, in reply, wished to extend investment in Viet Nam, adding that SK Group is strong in green and eco-friendly industry. He proposed that Viet Nam should build a strong data platform to adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution as well as improve workforce quality.  VNS
HA NOI  On a recent weekend, Janet took two children she was taking care of home after watching a movie at the cinema. She then cooked lunch, fed them and tucked them in for a nap before cleaning the house.

Janet, 35, is a Filipina who has been working in HCM City as a domestic helper for a Vietnamese family for three years.

She earns US$600 a month, way more than any Vietnamese domestic helpers. Normally, a Vietnamese could earn $150-$200 a month for the same position.

But the difference in the income is because of the differences in skills that employers are asking and paying for.

Lan, Janets employer, said Janet could also teach her kids basic skills about taking care of themselves, and sometimes even help them with their studying.

She knows too well what my kids like, what food is good for them. And I have nothing to complain about her housework, Lan said.

Huong, who lives in District 11, HCM City, is also happy with her domestic helper who comes also from the Philippines.

Shes meticulous and careful. She washes clothes of light colour separately. She knows which clothes can be machine-washed or need dry cleaning. And shes professional - never talks about our family with other people, Huong said.

A director of a domestic workers service company in HCM City said domestic helpers from the Philippines were mostly trained and they worked professionally, unlike most domestic helpers in Viet Nam.

Of course, not all families can afford the payment for Filipina domestic helpers, which ranges from $600 to $850 a month. While Filipina domestics are more professional, the advantage of Vietnamese domestic helpers is that they charge less, he said.

Vu Quang Tho, director of the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions under the Viet Nam Labour General Conferderation, said according to the commitment Viet Nam made under the ASEAN Economic Community, ASEAN member countries must open their doors for labourers in eight occupations.

Domestic workers are not included in these eight occupations, he said.

Of course, workers who come to Viet Nam to work are not under international or regional agreements, Tho said.

Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, former director of the Institute for Social and Labour Science under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said while Vietnamese laws said that Viet Nam only welcomed labourers with high technical skills or artisans to work in the country.

However, its very difficult to identify those with high technical skills or can be defined as artisans, Huong said.

Tho said the reality that many families in Viet Nam preferred domestic workers from other countries could not be ignored.

Once there is a demand that domestic workers in Viet Nam cant satisfy, families will find ways to hire the people they want, Tho said.

However, he urged Vietnamese domestic workers to raise their skills level to be competitive.

Tho suggested opening training class for domestic workers so that they would not only be able to work in Viet Nam, but could also go and work abroad.

Nguyen uc Vy, vice head of the Employment and Safety Unit of the Ha Nois Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said currently foreign domestic workers were not permitted to work in Viet Nam.

Of course we cant conclude that Filipina domestic workers in Viet Nam are working illegally or not, because they might have many legal papers to support them," Vy said, adding that the department might carry out investigations into the matter.  VNS
HA NOI  The northwest was rich in social-cultural diversity, unique natural attributes and enormous agro-ecological potentials. Its strategic location was within reach of some of the largest and fastest growing regional and local agri-food markets.

Experts agreed upon these key highlights at the Northwest Viet Nam Research Symposium with the theme Mountains of Opportunity.

The symposium, held on Thursday by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in Ha Noi, attracted more than 300 experts from government organisations, research institutes and agribusinesses.

But, they said, the region was also home to persistent and high rates of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly among the ethnic families who form the majority of the populatuion. Spectacular natural landscape and untapped agricultural potential were threatened by widespread degradation of the natural land and water resources.

During the symposium, experts showcased key learnings, insights and implications from ACIAR research partnerships in northwest area reaching back more than 10 years.

The experts said they hoped to understand and overcome technical constrains to agriculture in a way that secured the future of mountain areas and ensured smallholders and the poor had an opportunity to participate and benefit.

o Van Hung, a researcher from the World Agroforestry Centre, said that organising groups of farmers to form co-operatives and develop farm business models to assess markets, building trust and guaranteeing the quality and quantity of agroforestry products needed to be developed for sustainable agroforestry expansion.

Peter Lane, an expert from the University of Tasmania, said that including village heads or well-practicing farmers would help set up a broader group as well as an efficient organisation for adoption and education of knowledge within the community.

He said it was apparent that collaboration between researchers and practitioners was important in developing a value chain, he said.

Le Quoc Doanh, deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the symposium was a good chance for researchers to exchange information and opportunities for inclusive agricultural-led growth in northern mountainous regions.

Opportunities exist for agricultural market development capable of delivering livelihood benefits to poor and agricultural products to consumers and contributing significant economic benefits to Viet Nam, he said.  VNS
HA NOI  The Water Resources Directorate (WRD) plans to repair some 700 reservoirs at high risk of bursting by 2030, an official said on November 23.

Dam safety was one of the key issues discussed at a conference on the national irrigation strategy until 2030 with vision towards 2050 held in Ha Noi on Novermber 23. The conference was jointly organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the World Bank.

WRDs Department of Clean Water and Rural Environment Deputy Director Le Hong Nam said that authorities were planning to improve reservoir safety, in particular 700 seriously-degraded ones.

According to a report by the WRD, there were a total of 1,200 degraded dams nationwide, most of which were built three to four decades ago, currently at imminent risk of bursting especially during heavy rains or storms.

A project funded by the World Bank, Viet Nams Dam Rehabilitation and Safety Improvement Project, was already working on some 450 damaged reservoirs which were facing safety risks.

Nam said that the 700 dams in question are not those being fixed by the World Bank project, implying that Viet Nam for the first time might seriously tackle the dam safety problem.

The application of technology was also a key part of a general development strategy for Viet Nams irrigation.

Technology (used in irrigation) aims to reach Asias average level in 2020, and the global average in 2050, Nam told the conference.

According to Nam, advanced technology will be applied in forecasts of drought, flood and salinisation, as well as in building a map of flooded areas in river deltas.

The general goal of Viet Nams future irrigation system is to meet the water demand of an irrigated agriculture and of the peoples daily lives in adaptation to climate change, he added.

Agriculture and rural development deputy minister Hoang Van Thang said that the nations water resources were facing newly emerging challenges from climate change, notably the increasingly severe droughts and salinisation in recent years.

The irrigation system had no other choice than to seek new investment resources, instead of relying solely on the limited State budget, to prepare itself for such challenges.

Thang said that the Government encouraged public-private partnerships (PPP) in irrigation projects, calling on people and society stakeholders to participate in the development of the national irrigation system.  VNS
BINH DUONG  The southern province of Binh Duong plans to seek more partnerships with neighbouring cities and provinces, businesses and local and international experts to build a Binh Duong smart city, Mai Hung Dung, deputy chairman of the provinces Peoples Committee, said at a press conference on November 23.

Dung said the first Binh Duong Smart City Summit held last year was a big success as it improved Binh Duongs brand at the international level, helping the province attract interest from foreign businesses.

But the biggest highlight of the previous summit was the launch of the Binh Duong Smart City Project in collaboration with the city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

This year, the province is continuing its cooperation with the Netherlands Consulate General in HCM City to hold a second smart city summit from November 25-27 in Binh Duong New City.

Carel Richter, the Netherlands consul general in HCM City, said his organisation was proud of co-organising the summit with the province as the two parties could learn from each other about creating a sustainable future.

He said that smart cities and smart urban planning were important in addressing the challenges of climate change and urban issues such as affordable housing, sustainable building, education and infrastructure.

The province has carefully worked out a plan called Binh Duong Navigator 2021 to tackle these challenges, he added.

The strategic programme implements the Triple Helix model of collaboration, which involves a partnership between research institutions, businesses and the government.

It lists the tasks to be performed in various sectors but focuses on four key areas: people, technology, business and basic conditions such as environmental conditions, quality of living, ITC and infrastructure, among others.

The Triple Helix model, which Binh Duong adopted from Eindhoven, has helped Eindhoven solve many of its problems, according to Peter Portheine, the director of the Dutch think tank Brainport Development.

He said the partnership between Binh Duong and Eindhoven had been built on the sharing of failures.

When we first met the leaders of Binh Duong, we shared with them all the misfortunes we had in Eindhoven because we made many mistakes before we made a wise decision, he said. Sometimes you learn more by sharing the failures than the successes.

Portheine said his organisation would work with Binh Duong to expand the public-business-academia model to include engagement of communities as Viet Nam should be concerned about inclusive social and economic development.

The annual Binh Duong Smart City Summit is part of Binh Duong Smart Citys yearly agenda.

The summit will feature five activities, targeting a wide range of stakeholders: the public sector, communities, social and political organisations, businesses, and education institutes in and outside the province.

On November 27, there will be a plenary session which will serve as a platform for discussion and sharing of ideas from national and international leaders and experts about the vision, strategy and action programmes of smart city projects around the world.

Among the key events will be a science conference, a business seminar, and an exhibition showcase and demo of high-tech products, IT applications, digital technology trends, industry 4.0 and smart cities.

The second Smart City Hackathon will be a place for young Vietnamese and international enthusiasts in the field of technology to showcase their talent and creativity in designing state management apps (mobile or web-based) for Binh Duong in various sectors such as tourism information, transportation information, information for citizens on policies, and administrative procedures, among others.

The hackthon will be held on November 25 and 26, with the winning teams presenting their solutions at the summit.  VNS
HA NAM  Police in northern Ha Nam Province on Thursday arrested a woman for allegedly torturing an infant.

Nguyen Thi Han, 58, from northern Nam inh Province, was found to be repeatedly hitting a two-month old baby while working at a house in Ha Nam Provinces Phu Ly City. Han had been a domestic helper for the babys family for nearly two months.

The abuse was discovered by the babys father when he checked the houses security camera system. The video showed Han slapping the infant on her face, head and back. Han was also seen throwing the girl in the air and screaming at her for crying.

The babys mother told Phapluatnet online newspaper that the family decided to install the camera after noticing some suspicious signs -- the babys face would often get red and she often hiccupped while breastfeeding.

The babys father has reported the case to local authorities.

Some 3,000-4,000 Vietnamese children suffer from abuse and maltreatment every year, humanitarian organization World Vision Vietnam said.

Earlier this year, two teachers in Ha Noi were fined VN2.5 million (US$110) each after an online video showed them beating crying children on the head with various objects, including a slipper.

In a rare case, a court in the Mekong Delta Province of Kien Giang sentenced two babysitters to three years in jail back in January 2014 for torturing children at an unlicensed private nursery.

Another babysitter in HCM City received an 18-year sentence the same year for killing a baby after she couldnt stop his crying. She escaped the death sentence because she was under-18 when the fatal incident occurred.  VNS
Phuong Ha

People in Thanh Thuy Village in Binh Hai Commune in the central province of Quang Ngai have long taken pride in their natural masterpiece, Ganh Yen, a volcanic lava reef consisting of hexagonal columns of basalt lying on their side.

Now they have created their own masterpieces to complement it. They have painted murals on the walls of 14 old houses. Most are in three dimensions. Others glow at night.

The recent development in local tourism has created extra income for many people in Thanh Thuy Village.

But first - natures handiwork. Millions of years ago, rivers of molten basalt cooled after pouring out of a nearby volcano. As the fluid rock quickly cooled, it formed into huge crystals of rock, known in Australia and Ireland as Devils Causeways. In Viet Nam, like in other countries where the rare formation appears, tourists flock to the sites.

Thanh Thuy Village is about 35km north of Quang Ngai City. After passing by green, terraced fields, visitors set foot on the first impressive destination of the journey, a beautiful strait in the shape of a crescent moon.

According to a tourist from HCM City, Tran Thi Anh, the structure of the volcanic lava reef in Thanh Thuy Village is as unique as Phu Yen Provinces Ghenh a Dia or a Dia Reef which has become a symbol of the province. However, the rock in Thanh Thuy spreads over a wider area and has not been interfered with by people.

After settling in to the peacefull surroundings, visitors can join villagers catch fish or dive into the sea to contemplate the coral reefs. Each basket boat (coracle) used by local fishermen can carry two tourists to fishing or diving spots.

It is such an exciting experience for me. I could see the stunning beautiful coral reefs with my own eyes, said Vu uoc, a tourist from Quang Ngai City.

To ensure safety, the fishermen always make tourists wear life jackets before boarding the boats - and telling them not to dive too deeply.

The peaceful village has become more attractive to tourists since an art project was implemented there in July.

The moss-covered walls of 14 old houses in the village were given lively 3D paintings by 16 artists from Kien Hoa group in HCM City. Some of the murals even glow when the night falls.

When we first arrived here, seeing the dilapidated houses and moss-covered rough walls, we felt very discouraged, said Nguyen Thanh Tuyen, head of the group.

Determined to freshen the atmosphere of the poor village, members of the group were very enthusiastic about their work, he said, adding that four 3D paintings glow at night.

It took the artists nearly five days to turn the rough cement walls into painting surfaces. The murals that glow are complicated, requiring layers of paints and at least three days to finish, double the time to create a plain one. The finished work is really eye-catching, especially at night as they sparkle mysteriously in the village.

The big-sized paintings, each from 20 to 30sq.m in dimension, were created with the theme: Active Youth, Connecting Culture to the World. They feature local culture, life and youth aspirations.

They include images of basket boats floating on a peaceful sea, or local farmers planting onions under the sun. Visitors can also see paintings portraying features of Japan or Western countries.

Tuyen also said the group was continuing to draw paintings in nearby areas, consulting the local authority for its opinions.

The project has been well supported by locals, making them realise the beauty of their ordinary life and astonishment at the stunning beauty of the murals.

"I cannot believe the image of the basket boats, which has been closely associated with the life of local fishermen for a long time. They have become so lively and lovely in those pictures, said bystander Nguyen Thi Thanh.

The Kien Hoa painters have also taught local children to decorate the walls of their houses with simple paintings. This has helped to evoke their affection for nature and their hometown.

The painters have created beautiful work. We cannot take our eyes off them. They have also painted on the basket boats then used them to decorate the village entrance, said 10-year-old Nguyen Huong Sen.

To create more tourism highlight for the village, the local authority has invested more than VN1,5 billion (US$66,000) to improve its infrastructure, including building a flag tower and constructing new roads.

The region is endowed with unspoiled nature with a diversified eco-system and marine life and sincere hospitality of the locals. The project is therefore expected to promote its tourism and create more jobs for fishermen, Tuyen said.  VNS
BRUSSELS  British Prime Minister Theresa May holds a crunch meeting with European Union President Donald Tusk on Friday as hopes mount that she will offer compromises to secure a Brexit deal in December.

The talks, on the sidelines of a summit with ex-Soviet states in Brussels, come a week after Tusk gave May until the start of December to make much more progress on divorce terms in order to unlock trade negotiations.

After months of deadlock, European officials say they hope May will finally bring a new proposal on Britains exit bill after senior British ministers agreed earlier this week to improve the offer to a reported 40 billion euros.

The EU has demanded sufficient progress on the bill as well as the increasingly delicate issue of Northern Ireland and the rights of EU citizens, if it is to move onto the next phase of negotiations at a December 14-15 summit.

The Tusk meeting -- for which no timing was immediately available -- launches a frantic few days of Brexit diplomacy, during which May will also meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on December 4.

Juncker indicated there was movement when he said on Thursday that we are out of the woods on the first phase, although he stressed that the situation isnt so that I can now definitively say that we have made enough progress.

We have to see in the next few days, he said.

Dont wait!

EU member states have become increasingly impatient for Britain to meet its terms, and increasingly worried that Mays fragile Conservative government is unable to do so even if it wanted to.

Former Polish premier Tusk has warned that without progress by early December at the latestit will be too late to prepare guidelines for the summit for the move towards talks on a future trade deal, and on a post-Brexit transition period of around two years.

Tusk was more optimistic after meeting May a week ago on the sidelines of an EU summit in the Swedish port city of Gothenburg, but when it came to tabling a new offer the earlier the better, an EU source said.

Britain is reportedly set to double its offer to settle its commitments to the EU budget from 20 billion to 40 billion, but the EU has so far said the true figure should be closer to 60 billion.

The British position on the bill was evolving, they are laying the ground for domestic public opinion, another EU official added.

But if they want sufficient progress on December 15 they cant come with their offer on December 13 or 14. We have sent them a simple message: dont wait until the last minute!

One potential sticking point remains the fact that Mays cabinet says that an increased offer can only be part of a final deal on leaving the EU  which is at odds with the Brussels line on tying up divorce terms before discussing future relations.

Irish worries

Ireland is meanwhile pushing to ensure its concerns about the border with British-ruled Northern Ireland are taken into account, adding an unexpected hurdle to a December deal.

I believe we have a reasonable chance of there being progress in December, but nobody should underestimate in my view the strength of feeling in the Irish government on this border issue, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

We will not be a government that undermines the peace process upon our own island, he said, referring to the 1998 Good Friday agreement that ended decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

Failure to reach a deal at the December summit would leave little time for trade talks, which the EU wants to wrap up in October to allow time for a deal to be ratified by national parliaments ahead of Brexit Day on March 29, 2019.

May meanwhile said her presence at the so-called Eastern Partnership Summit with six former Soviet states showed that Britain was unconditionally committed to maintaining Europes security despite Brexit.

The British premier also took aim at Moscow, saying Europe must be open-eyed to the actions of hostile states like Russia which... attempt to tear our collective strength apart.  AFP
Im a recently retired community college instructor who taught online for 15 years, helped pioneer computer classrooms for teaching writing and piloted a class showing education students how to integrate technology into their lesson plans.

My husband, Mike, managed technology for two public libraries, began using social media almost a decade ago and manages a blog.

But our geek credentials were not apparent when we visited a local store to look for a new office chair. The young man helping us saw we were not happy with the selection.

We have more models online, he said. Then he hesitated, looked at me dubiously and said, Do you know about the internet?

I took a breath.

Im a retired college teacher, I said. I manage four websites and a blog. Mike would have gone to Amazon to pick out a chair, but I thought it would be nice to go into a brick-and-mortar store instead. So, yes, I DO know about the internet!

My husband sighed and we left. He ordered a nice chair from Amazon.

I find the major downside of being retired is being seen as old. Businesses would do well to encourage young workers to not assume everyone older than 50 is lacking in technology skills.

According to a May Pew internet report, almost 70 percent of seniors use the internet, and half of older Americans have internet access at home. In addition, 40 percent have smartphones. Another 30 percent use an iPad or Android tablet, and almost one in five have an e-reader. Overall, seniors ages 65-69 who are college educated and more affluent are more likely to be technology users.

In fact, many of todays seniors were pioneers of technology use in the workplace.

Early on, I wrote a grant for my own Gateway laptop and wheeled it from classroom to classroom in a two-wheeled cart. I hooked up cables to a device to switch the image on my laptop to the television in the classroom to show my PowerPoint presentation, announcements or class agendas.

I taught on the Iowa Communications Network, Iowas innovative distance learning telecommunications system that connects hundreds of classrooms using fiber optic cable.

When John Deere donated Mac desktops and laptops to Hawkeye Community College in 1997, my communications department there established a computer lab devoted to composition classes. I spent 15 years teaching online classes, as well as integrating technology into my face-to-face classes with those class websites.

With the advent of class websites, much of my work consisted of adding content to the website, checking work submitted there, reading discussion boards, updating the online grade book, answering messages from students, posting announcements and links to web resources and monitoring sophisticated statistics that let me know who was participating and who had not logged on in 10 days.

In retirement Im an active volunteer and host committee meetings where, using screen sharing, I project whats on my laptop to our large TV.

So please, if theres a young person in your life who works in retail, remind him his generation didnt invent the World Wide Web.
DUNKERTON  A Dunkerton man has been arrested on federal firearms charges after officers found a loaded gun in his backyard while investigating a business burglary in December.

An officer with an Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms task force filed a complaint seeking charges of felon in possession of a firearm for Patrick Ryan Lindquist, 38.

Lindquist appeared in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday and was detained pending a further hearing.

According to court records, Waterloo officer were searching Lindquists home on West Sycamore Street in Dunkerton on Dec. 2, 2016, as part of an investigation to a November 2016 burglary at Lovells Truck and Trailer Center where tools and a handgun were taken.

The search turned up a 9mm SAR handgun that had been stolen from Lovells as well as other items taken from Lovells, records state.

Lindquist is prohibited from handling firearms because of prior felony theft, burglary and methamphetamine convictions, records state.

He had been arrested earlier on state charges in connection with the weapon.
Mason City fire chief quits post

MASON CITY (AP)  A city official says Mason Citys fire chief has quit his post.

Interim City Administrator Kevin Jacobson confirmed Wednesday that Chief Al Dyer Jr.s resignation letter had been submitted to the city. Jacobson and Mayor Eric Bookmeyer declined to say why Dyer had stepped down. Dyer had been put on administrative leave Nov. 2 for reasons that have not been disclosed either. Hes declined to comment.

Dyer began work as chief in October 2016, coming from Lincoln Park, Mich., where he had served for 22 years, including two years as chief.

Businesses align to boost airport

MOLINE, Ill. (AP)  An airport in western Illinois is launching an initiative to encourage area businesses along the Illinois-Iowa border to prioritize flying local.

The Fly Local Alliance program comes as the Quad-City International Airport in Moline works to increase its passenger numbers, the Quad-City Times reported. The airport is looking for ways to dissuade area travelers from choosing airports in Chicago or elsewhere.

Stairs a concern in Ottumwa

OTTUMWA (AP)  Officials are questioning the safety of the fire escape stairs at the Wapello County Courthouse in Ottumwa.

The Ottumwa Courier reports the stairs may be starting to pull away from an outside wall. The escape stairs are required to support 800 pounds, and they failed during a recent test.

3 plead guilty in bank robbery

DAVENPORT (AP)  A father and son and an accomplice have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from credit union robberies in Davenport.

The Quad-City Times reports 33-year-old David Denney pleaded guilty in Davenport to three counts of bank robbery and one of conspiracy. His sentencing is scheduled for March 20.

His 59-year-old father, Kevin Denney, pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery and one of conspiracy. His sentencing is set for March 19.

Their co-defendant, 32-year-old Cynthia Niebuhr-Hartley, of Muscatine, earlier pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy counts. Her sentencing also is set for March 19.

U.S. district court documents say the three were involved in robbing an Ascentra Credit Union office in August 2016 and a Vibrant Credit Union office in November 2016 and again on March 30.

Man pleads in sex assault case

IOWA CITY (AP)  An Iowa City man charged with sexually assaulting numerous students and employees on the University of Iowa campus has taken a plea deal.

Court records say 34-year-old Adam Weinstein entered an Alford plea Tuesday to assault with intent to commit injury and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. In an Alford plea, a person doesnt admit guilt but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a likely conviction.

Police say Weinstein sexually assaulted, groped and harassed at least eight women on the campus during a 15-hour period Nov. 10, 2015. Police say the incidents took place at the university hospital, near residence halls and the law school.
WATERLOO  The Waterloo Community Foundation has made the 2017 grant awards to local nonprofits.

Each grant will benefit residents in Waterloo during 2018 in one of these areas: health and human services; arts and culture; education or economic development.

Fall 2017 recipients include:

Silos and Smokestacks  promotes the value of agri-tourism and its positive impact on the local economy. Promotion efforts will include a kiosk at the Waterloo Regional Airport, updates to mobile site and production of short videos that promote local historic sites in Waterloo.

Youth Art Team  encourages young people to develop creative potential, empowering both personal and social change through art.

Eye of the Needle  assists those struggling to meet basic needs such as clothing, transportation and household essentials. Serves and connects economically or mentally challenged, the elderly, families, incarcerated, immigrants or anyone needing access to a community resource.

Together for Youth  prevents teen pregnancies and strengthens young families by partnering with the Waterloo Schools in presenting an evidenced-based sexual health education programming to all middle school students and reaching 10th graders through health education classes.

Grants committee chair Joe Vich said the foundation received 50 grant applications that represented a wide depth and breadth of the community.

A formal awards ceremony will be planned after the first of the year. For information, call 883-6022 or go to www.wloocommunityfoundation.org.
Finally, one thing a divided nation  conservative and liberal politicians and commentators  can agree upon: Endangered African elephants shouldnt be hunted for fun and profit.

After a public outcry, President Donald Trump put on hold a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finding that the killing of African elephant trophy animals in Zimbabwe  will enhance the survival of the African elephant.

The administration recently lifted a similar ban in Zambia.

Ten million elephants roamed Africa more than a century ago, according to the Global Elephant Census, but have dwindled to 374,000 today  declining by 30,000 annually since 2007.

Elephants are falling prey to hunters engaged in mass slaughter using AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. Bloody battles in national parks have pitted poachers against rangers and soldiers trying to protect elephants.

The prize is the ivory in the elephants tusks, which is highly valued in Asia, particularly China, where it is carved into statuettes, boxes and other items.

In 2014, President Barack Obama banned the import of elephant heads, feet and other body parts severed as trophies after being shot for sport. Although the Endangered Species Act states hunted trophies only can be imported if they dont contribute to the extinction of the species, Americans still lead the world in bringing those protected species home.

According to the Humane Society, U.S. hunters had imported an average of nearly 200 elephant trophies annually between 2005-14 from Zimbabwe alone. That fell to three in 2016 following the ban.

Although Trumps sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have hunted African elephants, the president has stated he is not a hunter. Yet until the backlash  including from Fox News host and Trump supporter Laura Ingraham, who wondered how his decision would not increase the gruesome poaching of elephants  it seemed another instance of Trumps insatiable desire to shoot down Obama decrees.

Ill-advised decisions by the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species previously had worsened the elephants plight. In 1999, it allowed a one-time sale of stockpiled ivory to Japan and in 2008 to China and Japan. That stimulated demand, poaching and illicit trading.

In Hong Kong, one of the ivory trades main transit points, seized ivory rose from 3.2 tons in 2010 to 7.9 tons in the first 10 months of 2013  the equivalent of 1,675 dead elephants, according to a Smithsonian report. Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines have also become major purchasers of elephant tusks. In December 2012, Malaysian authorities seized 1,000 elephant tusks hidden in secret compartments in two shipments of mahogany from the West African nation of Togo. The 24-ton seizure, worth tens of millions of dollars, is believed to be the largest such haul in history.

Things were looking up thanks to Obamas order and a joint commitment made with Chinese President Xi Jinping to impose near-total elephant ivory bans in both countries.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the review of the ban began with the Obama administration and determined Zambia and Zimbabwe had met new standards, strict international conservation standards that allowed Americans to resume hunting in those countries.

The review stated, The government of Zimbabwe, nongovernmental organizations, safari outfitters, professional hunter associations and individuals provided the service with additional information  demonstrating that the facts on the ground have changed and improved.

Yet safari outfitters and professional hunters have an obvious bias, as did the Zimbabwe government of Robert Mugabe, which was ousted last week in a military coup.

Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle has stated, Government officials allegedly have been involved in both poaching of elephants and illegal export of ivory tusks.  Mugabe even celebrated his birthday last year by feasting on an elephant.

The contention that revenues from hunters permits will help manage elephant herds is fantasy. Australian-based Economists at Large found those fees were only 1 percent of the revenue generated by wildlife-related tourism, while National Geographic reported the fees fed government corruption, not conservation.

Elephants are not alone among protected species in the crosshairs of trophy hunters. After the killing of Cecil, an iconic lion, by a Minnesota dentist in Zimbabwe last year, Obama put lions under the protection of the Endangered Species Act. Other nations and even airlines  more than 40 wont carry hunting trophies  followed suit. Rhinoceroses and leopards also need protection.

The main constituency for overturning the ban is the Safari Club International, trophy hunters who sued the Obama administration in 2014 and may have an ally in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

A White House official told the Washington Post that Trump now has a discomfort with reversing the ban. We suspect much of the public does too. It would be smart to heed that sentiment.
Airline decision

CHERYL HANNAH

WATERLOO  I was very disappointed to learn the Waterloo Airport Board decided to go with United rather than American for the next two-year contract. I attended one of the meetings that was held to give input and was told business was up significantly in the past two years and most of the input received from customers was to keep American.

Yet they said there were issues with delays and cancellations with American and seemed to already be justifying a decision to go with United. I fly several times a year and have not personally experienced any problems. My biggest concern is the tickets, however. United is consistently and significantly more costly than American. If I can get cheaper flights by going to Cedar Rapids I will drive there as I did in the past when Northwest was more expensive out of Waterloo. Im sure others will too. Checking a ticket price from Waterloo to New York City for a date in December, American was $370. Out of Cedar Rapids American was $488, United was $526.

The newspaper article said Waterloo had outgrown American. Since American flies to NYC, Chicago, etc., how could little Waterloo have outgrown it?

North Korea

RONNIE DEAN HOLMAN

LA PORTE CITY  USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is a banner-class environmental research ship, attached to Navy intelligence as a spy ship, which was attacked and captured by North Korean forces Jan. 23, 1968, in what is known today as the Pueblo incident. What your so-called president wont tell you is the little Rocket Man holds his currently commissioned U.S. Navy ship in North Korea and uses it as a public propaganda display.

When will you be taking back our ship? This Marine veteran (70-74) is not holding his breath.

Bike Park

DAVID J. GIBSON

CEDAR FALLS  Cedar Falls recently opened the Tondro Pray Bike Park at the former Fourth Avenue area. Its commendable the unit was named for the original white landowners, but you forgot Boone.

Tondro and Pray filed the plat Dec. 18, 1863, and George Boone joined in the endeavour Dec. 25, 1863. They sold a dozen lots to C.B. Stilson in 1879 for the back taxes of 1868 through 1875. Eventually one lot filtered down to me.

I had pleasure living on Fourth Avenue for 18 years. (Our shotgun wedding at The Red House Road Park on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Logan Street, was the most funnest wedding Ive ever attended.)

Fourth Avenue life was much better than our five years in South Cedar on South Main Street, where the city woefully and thoroughly dropped the ball enforcing yard-police citations and Cedar Falls code violations, resulting in our homes resale value dropping precipitately. After five years we jumped on the chance to get back across the river, where we now enjoy life.

As for the bike doings, you could spray-paint Boone on the lovely Dump Road sign.
Advertisement

By Brandon Porter, Commonwealth Policy Center

Nov. 17, 2017 | CAVE CITY, KY

By Brandon Porter, Commonwealth Policy Center Nov. 17, 2017 | 06:56 PM | CAVE CITY, KY

Is Expanded Gambling Worth the Risk? - By Brandon Porter



Being a state that is closely tied to the horse racing industry, its not a surprise that expanded gambling is frequently discussed in Kentucky. Even more, its no surprise this issue comes up when the woes of Kentuckys economy are mentioned. Keeping those things in mind, there are a few questions we should ask.



Would expanded gambling improve the work ethic of Kentuckians?

The prosperity of the Commonwealth is built on the hard work and ingenuity of previous generations. Its the only way the Commonwealth will be shared with the generations to come. The Apostle Paul said if anyone is unwilling to work, he shouldnt be allowed to eat. The allurement of easy riches doesnt promote the valuable principle of hard work.



Would expanded gambling promote false hope to Kentuckians?

When you think of a skilled trade, what comes to mind? A vocational school would never teach the trade of learning to pick lottery numbers or how to play a slot machine. Hopefully, students go to school to learn a skill or trade with the understanding that they will use this ability to provide for themselves and others. Gambling is built on the hope that the next coin, the next ticket, the next race, or the next pull of the lever will pay huge dividends.



Should the state government partner with an institution that could contribute to addiction?

Race tracks and casinos are usually established through state sponsored incentives. This is different than an industry that is regulated by state government, because it is the state government partnering with a business a business that could cause harm to citizens.



Did you know the National Center for Responsible Gaming estimates 1.2 million Americans struggling with gambling addictions annually? Compare that to the 600,000 people that the Center for Disease Control say die from cancer each year. This means there are twice as many families affected by gambling addiction than by cancer. Whether we hear about them or not, gambling addictions are prevalent in the United States.



Yes, there are rebuttals to each of these questions. Yes, expanded gaming is legal in states that border Kentucky. Yes, there might be tax revenue generated by expanded gambling sites. But is it worth the risk to the overall health of Kentucky in this generation and for the ones to come?



Brandon Porter is the Media Director for CPC. He and his wife are raising their family in Cave City, KY.


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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
Chinese enterprises have actively participated in the infrastructure construction in Latin America, with cumulative investment volume reaching more than $192 billion, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Wednesday in a forum.

The forum, part of the 2017 International Industrial Capacity Cooperation Forum and the 9th China Overseas Investment Fair, focused on China-Latin America industrial capacity investment cooperation.

Li Xiaoyan, official of the department of foreign capital and overseas investment under the NDRC, said the commission has actively supported Chinese enterprises' pragmatic investments in Latin American countries.

"We have signed framework agreements on production capacity and investment cooperation with Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Jamaica, Cuba, Panama and Ecuador," said Li.

Latin America has become one of the most important destinations of China's investment in recent years. China's nonfinancial direct investment to Latin America reached $31 billion in 2016, an increase of 40 percent year-on-year, compared with China's stock of foreign direct investment in Latin America -- $30.6 billion in 2009.

"This is a remarkable number," said Zhang Zhenxi, vice-chairman of China Overseas Development Association. "China put forward the Belt and Road Initiative, which offers a good opportunity for Latin American countries to promote their infrastructure construction."

Fernando Lugris, Uruguay's ambassador to China, said: "China is a very important partner to Latin America. Uruguay will further strengthen cooperation with China under the Belt and Road Initiative."

"We will provide favorable conditions for China, such as preferential tax policy and no restrictions on foreign capital," Lugris added.

Li Xiaoyan suggested Chinese enterprises should abide by the laws and regulations of the host country, respecting the local cultural and religious customs.
The silver miners' stocks have really languished this year, grinding sideways to lower for months on end. This vexing consolidation has fueled near-universal bearishness, leaving silver stocks deeply out of favor. But once a quarter when earnings season arrives, hard fundamentals pierce the obscuring veil of popular sentiment. The silver miners' recently-reported Q3'17 results reveal today's silver prices remain profitable.

Four times a year publicly-traded companies release treasure troves of valuable information in the form of quarterly reports. These are generally due by 45 days after quarter-ends in the US and Canada. They offer true and clear snapshots of what's really going on operationally, shattering the misconceptions bred by the ever-shifting winds of sentiment. There's no silver-miner data that is more highly anticipated than quarterlies.

Silver mining is a tough business both geologically and economically. Primary silver deposits, those with enough silver to generate over half their revenues when mined, are quite rare. Most of the world's silver ore formed alongside base metals or gold, and their value usually well outweighs silver's. So typically in any given year, less than a thirdof the global mined silver supply actually comes from primary silver mines!

The world authority on silver supply-and-demand fundamentals is the Silver Institute. Back in mid-May it released its latest annual World Silver Survey, which covered 2016. Last year only 30% of silver mined came from primary silver mines, a slight increase. The remaining 70% of silver produced was simply a byproduct. 35% of the total mined supply came from lead/zinc mines, 23% from copper, and 12% from gold.

As scarce as silver-heavy deposits supporting primary silver mines are, primary silver minersare even rarer. Since silver is so much less valuable than gold, most silver miners need multiple mines in order to generate sufficient cash flows. These often include non-primary-silver ones, usually gold. More and more traditional elite silver miners are aggressively bolstering their gold production, often at silver's expense.

So the universe of major silver miners is pretty small, and their purity is shrinking. The definitive list of these companies to analyze comes from the most-popular silver-stock investment vehicle, the SIL Global X Silver Miners ETF. This week its net assets are running 6.6x greater than its next-largest competitor's, so SIL really dominates this space. With ETF investing now the norm, SIL is a boon for its component miners.

While there aren't many silver miners to pick from, major-ETF inclusion shows silver stocks have been vetted by elite analysts. Due to fund flows into top sector ETFs, being included in SIL is one of the important considerations for picking great silver stocks. When the vast pools of fund capital seek silver-stock exposure, their SIL inflows force it to buy shares in its underlying companies bidding their prices higher.

Back in mid-November as the major silver miners finished reporting their Q3'17 results, SIL included 29 "silver miners". This term is used loosely, as SIL holds plenty of companies which can't be described as primary silver miners. Most generate well under half their revenues from silver, which greatly limits their stock prices' leverage to silver rallies. Nevertheless, SIL is today's leading silver-stock ETF and benchmark.

The higher the percentage of sales any miner derives from silver, naturally the greater its exposure to silver-price moves. If a company only earns 20%, 30%, or even 40% of its revenues from silver, it's not a primary silver miner and its stock price won't be very responsive to silver itself. But as silver miners are increasingly actively diversifying into gold, there aren't enough big primary silver miners left to build an ETF alone.

Every quarter I dig into the latest results from the major silver miners of SIL to get a better understanding of how they and this industry are faring fundamentally. I feed a bunch of data into a big spreadsheet, some of which made it into the table below. It includes key data for the top 17 SIL component companies, an arbitrary number that fits in this table. That's a commanding sample at 92.7% of SIL's total weighting.

While most of these top 17 SIL components had reported on Q3'17 by mid-November, not all had. Some of these major silver miners trade in the UK or Mexico, where financial results are only required in half-year increments. If a field is left blank in this table, it means that data wasn't available by the end of Q3's earnings season. Some of SIL's components also report in gold-centric terms, excluding silver-specific data.

In this table the first couple columns show each SIL component's symbol and weighting within this ETF as of mid-November. While most of these silver stocks trade in the States, not all of them do. So if you can't find one of these symbols, it's a listing from a company's primary foreign stock exchange. That's followed by each company's Q3'17 silver production in ounces, along with its absolute year-over-year change.

After that comes this same quarter's gold production. Pretty much every major silver miner in SIL also produces significant-if-not-large amounts of gold! While gold stabilizes and augments the silver miners' cash flows, it also retards their stocks' sensitivity to silver itself. Naturally investors and speculators buy silver stocks and their ETFs because they want leveraged upside exposureto silver's price, not gold's.

So the next column reveals how purethe elite SIL silver miners are. This is mostly calculated by taking a company's Q3 silver production, multiplying it by Q3's average silver price, and then dividing that by the company's total quarterly sales. If miners didn't report Q3 revenues, I approximated them by adding the silver sales to gold sales based on their quarterly production and these metals' average third-quarter prices.

Then comes the most-important fundamental data for silver miners, cash costs and all-in sustaining costs per ounce mined. The latter determines their profitability and hence ultimately stock prices. Those are also followed by YoY changes. Finally comes the YoY changes in cash flows generated from operations and GAAP profits. But an exception is necessary for companies with numbers that crossed zero since Q3'16.

Percentage changes aren't relevant or meaningful if data shifted from negative to positive or vice versa. Plenty of major silver miners suffered net losses in Q3'17 after earning profits in Q3'16. So in cases where data crossed that zero line, I included the raw numbers instead. This whole dataset offers a fantastic high-level fundamental read on how the major silver miners are faring today, and it's reasonably well.

That's reassuring given silver's serious underperformance relative to gold this year. As a far-smaller market, silver usually amplifies gold's advances by at least 2x. But as of the end of Q3, silver was only up 4.6% YTD compared to 11.3% for gold. That's horrendous 0.4x leverage! And by mid-November as Q3's earnings season wrapped up, silver's YTD gain of 6.6% was still way behind gold's 11.1% for 0.6x leverage.

Production is the lifeblood of miners, and thus the best place to start fundamental analysis. In Q3'17, these top 17 SIL components collectively produced an impressive 79.0m ounces of silver. If 2016's world-silver-mining run rate is applied to this year's third quarter, that implies 221.5m ounces of silver mined. Thus these top SIL silver miners would account for nearly 36% of that total, they truly are major silver players.

Their collective silver production looks robust, surging 3.7% YoY and climbing 0.6% sequentially quarter-on-quarter. Unfortunately that is misleading, with huge growth in a couple mining conglomerates masking sharp-to-catastrophic YoY declines for most of the rest of these elite silver miners. Fresnillo and Industrias Penoles enjoyed gigantic 24% and 34% YoY gains in silver production off already-massive bases!

Fresnillo and Industrias Penoles have an incestuous relationship, as the former used to be wholly ownedby the latter. Industrias Penoles spun off Fresnillo back in May 2008 on the London Stock Exchange. While Fresnillo's financial reporting is decent, Industrias Penoles' is murky. Neither my decades studying financial statements as a Certified Public Accountant nor my rudimentary Spanish can penetrate very deep.

So I haven't been able to track down how much of Fresnillo that Industrias Penoles still owns, nor whether the silver production reported by these silver-mining behemoths is actually mutually exclusive. I'm assuming it is for this analysis, but I'm skeptical. Both companies reported their huge YoY growth in silver production was the result of Fresnillo's new San Julian silver mine coming online, which is a big one.

San Julian produced 3499k ounces of silver in Q3'17 alone, along with fairly-large gold, zinc, and lead byproducts. It's anticipated to produce 11.6m and 63.7k ounces of silver and gold annually for 12 years. Without San Julian, which could be double-reported between Fresnillo and Industrias Penoles, the top SIL silver miners' production would look very different. These elite silver miners have had a challenging year.

Excluding Fresnillo and Industrias Penoles, the rest of these top SIL components saw their collective silver production fall a sharp 9.3% YoY to 45.9m ounces! It's been quite ugly out there in silver-land, for both industry-wide and company-specific reasons. Between Q3'16 and Q3'17, the average silver price dropped 13.9% YoY to just $16.84. That was far worse than gold's 4.2% YoY decline, testing silver's economics.

With silver prices so weak, sentiment so bearish, and silver-stock prices so darned low, silver miners are both starved of capital for expansions and reluctant to invest heavily in the silver side of their businesses. Mining gold is far more profitable at today's precious metals' prices, so they continue to allocate scarce resources to growing their gold production. That certainly isn't helping the purity of the major silver miners.

A couple long-time favorites of American investors saw silver production plummet over this past year. Tahoe Resources was originally spun off by Goldcorp to develop the incredible high-grade Escobal silver mine in Guatemala. Over the past year that country's corrupt government shut this mine down after a frivolous and baseless lawsuit by anti-mining activists. They sued the government regulator, not Tahoe itself!

That lawsuit claimed Guatemala's Ministry of Energy and Mines did not properly consult with the Xinca indigenous people before granting Escobal's permits! That shouldn't even be Tahoe's problem if the government bureaucrats didn't hold enough meetings, yet Escobal's mining license was still temporarily suspended. It has since been reinstated, but the government is not breaking up an illegal roadblock to the mine.

This whole situation is ludicrous, highlighting why third-world countries stay that way. The government of Guatemala isn't respecting the rule of law, which will greatly hurt future investment. It's allowing violent anti-mine militants to physically attack trucks and their drivers heading to Escobal. They should be arrested and the blockade cleared. Thus Tahoe's silver production collapsed 100% YoY from 5000k ozs in Q3'16!

SSR Mining saw a similar sharp 62% YoY plummet in silver production to just 1156k ounces in Q3'17. It had nothing to do with geopolitics like Tahoe's mess, but is simply due to the forecast depletion of its old Pirquitas silver mine. SSR Mining, which used to be called Silver Standard Resources, is exploring in the area trying to extend the life of this mine. But most of its financial resources are being poured into its gold mines.

That gold focus among these top silver miners is common across SIL's component companies. As the silver-percentage column above shows, most of these elite silver miners are actually primary gold miners by revenue! Only 6 of these 17 earned more than half of their Q3'17 sales from mining silver, and they are highlighted in blue. 8 of SIL's top 17 component stocks are also included in the leading GDX gold miners' ETF.

While they only comprised 10.0% of GDX's total weighting in mid-November, this highlights how difficult it is to find primary silver miners. SIL's managers have an impossible job these days with the major silver miners increasingly shifting to gold. They are really scraping the bottom of the barrel to find more silver miners. In Q3'17 they added Korea Zinc, making it SIL's 4th-largest holding at 9.0% of this ETF's total weighting.

That was intriguing, as I'd never heard of this company after decades of intensely studying and actively trading silver stocks. So I looked into Korea Zinc and found it was merely a smelter, not even a miner. The latest financial data I could find in English was 2015's. That year Korea Zinc "produced" an incredible 63.3m ounces of silver! But it also smelted large amounts of zinc, lead, copper, and gold that same year.

I ran the numbers for the heck of it, and silver was implied as 32% of Korea Zinc's 2015 revenues. The fact SIL's managers included a company like this that doesn't even mine silver as a top SIL component shows how rare major silver miners have become. The economics of silver mining at today's prices are inferior to gold mining. Thus the average silver-purity percentage of revenues of these SIL miners is only 40.1%.

That's right in line with the trend over this past year, with Q3'16, Q4'16, Q1'17, and Q2'17seeing SIL's top-component silver purity averaging 42.8%, 40.6%, 38.5%, and 37.6%. Silver mining is as capital-intensive as gold mining, requiring similar large expenses for planning, permitting, and constructing mines and mills. It needs similar heavy excavators and haul trucks to dig and move the silver-bearing ore.

But silver generates much lower cash flows due to its lower price. Consider hypothetical mid-sized silver and gold miners, which might produce 10m and 300k ounces annually. At last quarter's average metals prices, these silver and gold mines would yield $168m and $384m of yearly sales. It's far easier to pay the bills mining gold than silver, which is unfortunate. But until silver surges again, that's the way things are.

While I understand this, as a long-time silver-stock investor it saddens me primary silver miners have apparently become a dying breed. When silver starts powering higher in one of its gigantic uplegs and way outperforms gold again, this industry's silver-purity percentage will rise. But unless silver not only shoots far ahead but stays there while gold lags, it's hard to see major-silver-mining purity significantly reversing.

Unfortunately SIL's mid-November composition was such that there wasn't a lot of Q3 cost data reported by its top component miners. 4 of its top 5 companies trade in the UK, South Korea, and Mexico, where reporting only comes in half-year increments. Lower down the list there are more half-year reporters, an explorer with no production, and primary gold miners that don't report silver costs. So silver cost data was scarce.

Nevertheless, it's always useful to look at the data we have. Industrywide silver-mining costs are one of the most-critical fundamental data points for silver-stock investors. As long as the miners can produce silver for well under prevailing silver prices, they remain fundamentally sound. Cost knowledge helps traders weather this sector's fear-driven plunges without succumbing to selling low like the rest of the herd.

There are two major ways to measure silver-mining costs, classic cash costs per ounce and the superior all-in sustaining costs. Both are useful metrics. Cash costs are the acid test of silver-miner survivability in lower-silver-price environments, revealing the worst-case silver levels necessary to keep the mines running. All-in sustaining costs show where silver needs to trade to maintain current mining tempos indefinitely.

Cash costs naturally encompass all cash expenses necessary to produce each ounce of silver, including all direct production costs, mine-level administration, smelting, refining, transport, regulatory, royalty, and tax expenses. In Q3'17, these top 17 SIL-component silver miners that reported cash costs averaged $4.86 per ounce. That plunged a whopping 13.6% YoY, making it look like silver miners are far more efficient.

But that too is misleading. This past quarter SIL's 17th-largest component was Silvercorp Metals, which enjoys big lead and zinc byproducts at its China silver mines. These base metals are sold and used to offset the costs of silver mining. That forced SVM's cash costs down to negative $5.16per ounce, which dragged down SIL's overall average. A year ago in Q3'16, SVM ranked 18th in SIL and missed the top-17 cutoff.

Still even ex-SVM, these top SIL silver miners reporting cash costs last quarter averaged just $6.54 per ounce. As long as silver prices stay above those extreme levels, the silver miners can keep the lights on. And there's no way silver is going to plummet down under $7 in any conceivable scenario. So even at 2017's vexingly-low gold-lagging silver prices, the major silver miners face no existential threats today.

Way more important than cash costs are the far-superior all-in sustaining costs. They were introduced by the World Gold Council in June 2013 to give investors a much-better understanding of what it really costs to maintain a silver mine as an ongoing concern. AISC include all direct cash costs, but then add on everything else that is necessary to maintain and replenishoperations at current silver-production levels.

These additional expenses include exploration for new silver to mine to replace depleting deposits, mine-development and construction expenses, remediation, and mine reclamation. They also include the corporate-level administration expenses necessary to oversee silver mines. All-in sustaining costs are the most-important silver-mining cost metric by far for investors, revealing silver miners' true operating profitability.

In Q3'17, these top 17 SIL components reporting AISC averaged just $9.73 per ounce. That was down 3.9% YoY, and far below last quarter's average silver price of $16.84. Again SVM's incredible byproduct production dragged down the average though. Ex-Silvercorp, these top SIL silver miners' AISC ran at an average of $10.98 in Q3. That's still well below prevailing silver prices, generating nice operating profits.

All-in sustaining costs and production are inversely related. Lower silver production, which many of SIL's top components suffered last quarter, leaves fewer ounces to spread the big fixed costs of mining across. Thus AISC surged at Pan American Silver, First Majestic Silver, and SSR Mining. PAAS discontinued mining at an older mine, while other mines processed lower-grade ore that was on the way to better rock later.

AG's lower production was due to land-access issues and mine inspections necessary following Mexico's big earthquakes in mid-September. And of course SSRM is winding down its lone primary silver mine. Yet even with lower production driving higher per-ounce costs, the major silver miners still enjoyed solid operating profits. That's certainly not apparent based on silver miners' super-low stock prices mired in bearishness.

At $9.73 AISC, the major silver miners still earned big profits in the third quarter. Once again silver averaged $16.84, implying fat profit margins of $7.11 per ounce or 42%! Most industries would kill for such margins, yet silver-stock investors are always worried silver prices are too low for miners to thrive. That's why it's so important to study fundamentals, because technical price action fuels misleading sentiment!

Today's silver price remains really low relative to prevailing gold levels, which portends huge upside as it mean reverts higher. The long-term average Silver/Gold Ratio runs around 56, which means it takes 56 ounces of silver to equal the value of one ounce of gold. Silver is really underperforming gold so far in 2017, with the SGR averaging just 73.5 YTD as of mid-November. So silver is overdue to catch up with gold.

At a 56 SGR and $1300 gold, silver is easily heading near $23.25. That's 38% above its Q3 average. Assuming the major silver miners' all-in sustaining costs hold, that implies profits per ounce soaring 90% higher! Plug in a higher gold price or the usual mean-reversion overshoot after an SGR extreme, and the silver-mining profits upside is far greater. Silver miners' inherent profits leverage to rising silver is incredible.

While all-in sustaining costs are the single-most-important fundamental measure that investors need to keep an eye on, other metrics offer peripheral reads on the major silver miners' fundamental health. The more important ones include cash flows generated from operations, actual accounting profits, revenues, and cash on hand. They generally corroborated AISC in Q3'17, proving silver miners are weathering low prices.

The collective operating cash flows of these top 17 SIL silver miners slumped 14.4% YoY to $1350m. That's really impressive considering the 13.9% YoY drop in average silver prices, so these miners are holding their own despite silver really lagging gold this year. GAAP accounting profits looked far worse though, plunging 77% to just $88m. Many of these top SIL silver miners suffered net losses in Q3'17.

That was generally just the result of lower silver prices. There were two outliers, Tahoe Resources and Coeur Mining. With its silver mine temporarily shuttered by Guatemala, TAHO's profits swung massively from +$63m in Q3'16 to -$8m in Q3'17. That $71m drop alone was responsible for 24% of the YoY drop in these top SIL silver miners' GAAP profits. CDE simply had higher costs as it worked on expanding mines.

So its profits plunged from +$68m in Q3'16 to -$17m in Q3'17, for an $85m total drop. That accounted for another 29% of the total slide in collective top SIL miners' profits. Other than that, the YoY declines were reasonable based on the lower silver prices. Interestingly these top 17 SIL miners' collective sales surged 15.2% YoY to $3003m, driven by their aggregate silver and gold production rising 3.7% and 2.4% YoY.

And despite the weak silver prices, serious operational challenges, and ongoing expansions especially on the gold side of their businesses, these elite SIL miners' total cash balances only edged 0.1% lower YOY to $2682m. So overall the silver miners' operating results were pretty good in Q3'17 considering all the big trials they faced. Based on the individual miners' travails, I was steeling myself for much worse.

Silver miners' earnings power and thus stock-price upside potential will only grow as silver mean reverts higher. In mining, costs are largely fixed during the mine-planning stages. That's when engineers decide which ore bodies to mine, how to dig to them, and how to process that ore. Quarter after quarter, the same numbers of employees, haul trucks, excavators, and mills are generally used regardless of silver prices.

So as silver powers higher in coming quarters, silver-mining profits will really leverageits advance. And that will fundamentally support far-higher silver-stock prices. The investors who will make out like bandits on this are the early contrarians willing to buy in low, before everyone else realizes what is coming. By the time silver surges higher with gold so silver stocks regain favor again, the big gains will have already been won.

While investors and speculators alike can certainly play the silver miners' ongoing mean-reversion bull with this leading SIL ETF, individual silver stocks with superior fundamentals will enjoy the best gains by far. Their upside will trounce the ETFs, which are burdened by companies that don't generate enough of their sales from silver. A handpicked portfolio of purer elite silver miners will yield much-greater wealth creation.

At Zeal we've literally spent tens of thousands of hours researching individual silver stocks and markets, so we can better decide what to trade and when. As of the end of Q3, this has resulted in 967 stock trades recommended in real-time to our newsletter subscribers since 2001. Fighting the crowd to buy low and sell high is very profitable, as all these trades averaged stellar annualized realized gains of +19.9%!

The key to this success is staying informed and being contrarian. That means buying low when others are scared, like late in this year's vexing consolidation. An easy way to keep abreast is through our acclaimed weekly and monthly newsletters. They draw on my vast experience, knowledge, wisdom, and ongoing research to explain what's going on in the markets, why, and how to trade them with specific stocks. Easy to read and affordable, they'll help you learn to think, trade, and thrive like contrarians. Subscribe today and get 20% off in our Black Friday Sale!

The bottom line is the major silver miners fared fine in Q3 despite some real challenges. A combination of silver continuing to seriously lag gold, along with anomalous company-specific problems, weighed on miners' collective results. Yet they continued to produce silver at all-in sustaining costs way below Q3's low prevailing silver prices. And their accelerating gold-production growth leaves them financially stronger.

With silver-stock sentiment remaining excessively bearish, this sector is primed to soar as silver itself resumes mean reverting higher to catch up with gold's current upleg. The silver miners' profits leverage to rising silver prices remains outstanding. After fleeing silver stocks so aggressively this year, investors and speculators alike will have to do big buying to reestablish silver-mining positions. That will fuel major upside.

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Nov 24, 2017 | By Benedict

3D printing continues its role as a tool for creative empowerment, as evidenced by new 3D printed fashion, 3D printed design, and 3D printed furniture offerings from Jef Montes, Klemens Schillinger, and Mathias Bengtsson.

Jef Montes Tormenta 3D printed shoe

First up in our triplet of 3D printed design innovations is a 3D printed shoe from Dutch fashion designer Jef Montes, whose Tormenta fashion collectioninspired by the maritime industry and stormswas first seen in Paris in October.

The spectacular collection included soluble garments that changed shape when steamed: a special steam installation at the Paris Fashion Week show served to transform a smooth satin piece into a plisse one, for example.

The collection, which was influenced by shipbuilding materials like brass, carbon, fiberglass, and nylon, also included a 3D printed shoe consisting of nylon and leather elements.

The shoe was designed by Montes and Chris van den Elzen and 3D printed by Shapeways in Eindhoven. Its design is said to resemble wind caught in the sail of a ship, with its 3D printed nylon heel combined with a thin leather strap around the ankle.

Montes and van den Elzen took part in several experiments with Shapeways to determine the best 3D printing material for the shoes insole and outsole that could be printed on Shapeways SLS 3D printers.

The 3D printed footwear, which can be purchased on request, is sure to take the fashion world by storm.

Klemens Schillingers 3D printed Offline lamp

The Tormenta 3D printed shoe might be lighting up catwalks, but Austrian designer Klemens Schillinger has created a 3D printed product that illuminates in a more literal sense: a lamp that lights up once the user relinquishes their smartphone.

Designed to encourage procrastination-free activities like reading and working, the clever Offline lamp is unlike any other lighting fixture. To turn it on, the user opens a small draw, into which a smartphone must be placed.

The drawer is like a magical chest that requests a small object like a smartphone to be put inside, Schillinger says.

While some smartphone-addicted folk might find the concept annoying, its easy to see the motivation behind this impressive 3D printed work of design. Give up your smartphone for a few hours and get rewarded with lightits the kind of simple encouragement we often require to switch off for a few hours.

The lamp, which fits all standard-sized smartphones, was partly inspired by hotel keycard systems that require a card to be placed into a reader in order to activate the rooms electricity.

But the lamp is also a lot more magical-looking than a regular hotel appliance, a fact reflected by the ornate brass knob and blue velvet lining to the drawer.

The base of the lamp is made from steel, but its actually the cool objects lampshade thats benefitted from 3D printing technology. The shade is 3D printed in white polyamide, which allows light to shine through while keeping the glow gentle and soft.

Mathias Bengtssons biomorphic 3D printed Growth furniture

If youre going to be reading under the glow of your new 3D printed Offline lamp, youll need a chair to sit in. Why not make that 3D printed too?

Danish artist and designer Mathias Bengtsson has designed a collection of biomorphic pieces of 3D printed furniture for the Growth collection, whose exhibition wraps up this week at the Galerie Maria Wettergren in Paris.

The collection of highly porous, abstract-looking pieces contains items of furniture made of wood, including a walnut-colored table measuring 163 x 66 x 76 cm.

From our perspective, the most exciting items in the collection are those that have been 3D printeda process the designer considers valuable for replicating organic forms.

Bengtssons 3D printed designs arent all new, however. Many date back several years, but the London-based designer gathered several thematically connected pieces together for his Paris exhibition.

The items include a 81 x 140 x 66 cm 3D printed titanium table (2016), a 74/42 x 82 x 64 cm 3D printed resin chair in silver (2011), and a 100 x 200 x 70 cm 3D printed bronze lounge seat (2016).

The designer is releasing a book, Growth Catalogue, documenting the partly 3D printed collection.

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Nov 24, 2017 | By David

We know that 3D printing technology can produce all kinds of devices and products for the treatment of people suffering from various medical problems that are often life-saving, but what about those not looking to save their life but to end it? This apparently counter-intuitive medical function could become more and more important as euthanasia becomes increasingly acceptable and common around the world, and a recent 3D printing breakthrough made by a controversial Dutch assisted dying expert looks well-placed to take advantage of the potential suicidal spread.

Dr. Philip Nitschke, a well-known proponent of euthanasia who has been given the nickname Dr. Death, created this suicide machine using 3D printing technology. Its known as the Sarco capsule, and was developed alongside engineer Alexander Bannink. The machine allows users to kill themselves easily and painlessly with the single press of a button. The plan is for the 3D printing files to be made open-source and available online for free, in order to allow anyone with access to a 3D printer and a death wish to download digital designs for their own death-dealing device.

Dr Nitschke told The Weekend Australian that "the limit will be the availability of the new 3D printers." His team is looking at printing (it) using biodegradable wood and plastic for the capsule. Printing materials are readily available (in Australia) as is liquid nitrogen. Printing cost is only an estimate at this point, but probably around 1000 ($1500).

According to Nitschke, Sarco does not use any restricted drugs, or require any special expertise such as the insertion of an intravenous needle... Anyone who can pass the entry test can enter the machine and legally end their life.

The entry test he refers to is an online questionnaire, which is intended to assess the mental wellbeing of potential users, in order to judge whether or not they are a suitable candidate for taking their own life. Based on the results of this psychological test, the user may or may not be given a 4-digit code, which needs to be entered a keypad inside the Sarco capsule for it to carry out its solemn duty.

The Sarco terminates the existence of its users by releasing liquid nitrogen inside its sealed capsule, which gradually reduces the oxygen level until breathing, and survival, are no longer possible. The capsule can then be detatched and used as a coffin, while the base can be re-used by another person who has chosen to shuffle off this mortal coil.

Nitschke previously released a suicide kit online which was disguised as equipment for home brewing beer. This sold for roughly $340 and was available in the UK for over three years. Before becoming one of the worlds most infamous euthanasia activists, Nitschke was a doctor practicing in Australia. He got into hot water with the law after neglecting to refer a suicidal patient, who eventually committed suicide, to a psychiatrist. This affair caused him to burn his medical license and set up the assisted suicide campaign Exit International. His work has apparently been prompted by growing demand for choices by the elderly and an ageing population, as well as difficulties associated with sourcing the best drugs to end a life safely and comfortably.

The Sarco is undeniably a disruptive solution to many problems facing the medical industry and society at large, albeit a controversial one. It is due to be demonstrated (presumably not with an actual human subject) at this years Exit NuTech Conference New Technologies for a Peaceful DIY Death, which wil be held in Toronto on Sat 28th October.

(In the UK and Republic of Ireland, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14)

https://save.org/

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Dr. Death wrote at 11/28/2017 6:03:23 PM:3D printed hand guns would still be faster and cheaper. And not require a survey.R2-D2 wrote at 11/27/2017 5:17:44 AM:Why is this depressing shit on the site at all? this is probably the single most disturbing use of 3D printing tech that I've ever had the misfortune to read. Please get rid of this ASAP.Paul wrote at 11/25/2017 6:25:37 PM:Usual Nitschke bollocks. Just designed to swell Exit membership numbers, increase website membership and increase sales of the Peaceful Pill Handbook. It will go exactly the same way as his Destiny Machine, another flight of fantasy. The man is a charlatan who overcharges for everything and exploits the vulnerable




Nov 24, 2017 | By David

3D printing can enable the fabrication all kinds of precisely customized products, at significantly more affordable prices than would otherwise be possible. This has been incredibly useful for the treatment of medical conditions, particularly in the developing world, and weve seen the technology used to produce highly personalized prosthetic limbs and other medical devices for people in some of the worlds poorest and most troubled places. Continuing this trend, a recent breakthrough has seen researchers at Canadas University of Victoria 3D printing braces and corrective devices for children with scoliosis and club foot.

The kind of orthotic conditions they will be treating are much more common amongst adults in the developing world than in Canada and other more economically prosperous countries, as the corrective measures are relatively cheap and simple to carry out for children at a young age. According to UVic team member Nick Dechev, In Western countries, it is relatively rare to see an adult with a clubfoot...But if you go to the developing world, its not uncommon to see adults with their feet rotated outwards at 90 degrees.

Dechevs team should be able to put together an effective treatment device for around $50, with the help of a 3D printer and some plastic filament. These immobilizing foot platforms and braces will be worn by infants and toddlers to treat clubfoot, and plastic girdles worn by children, ages six to eight, for scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine. The team was recently awarded a $CA100,000 seed grant for their project, which will begin by providing the devices to kids in Nepal.

This funding was part of the federal governments Grand Challenges Canada program, which announced a total of $CA3 million in awards last week. This initiative was started in 2010 as an independent, non-profit agency funded by Global Affairs Canada. It has a mandate to assist with new ideas in the treatment of womens and childrens health in countries with low or middle-income. Since it began, a total of 470 different ideas have received funding. Of those, 60 per cent actually arose from the affected countries themselves, while 40 per cent arose in Canada. These Canadian ventures must partner with local people in order to qualify for funding.

The new research grant will be used by the UViC team to initially test out the technology, with 12 children affected by scoliosis and 24 cases of clubfoot being treated by the devices and monitored by clinicians over a 2-3 year period. Its not just thrown over the wall to people, said Dechev. There is a process of two to three years of follow-up to make sure everything is going well.

The Victoria Hand Project, also instigated at the University, has already had great success in treating medical problems in the developing world using 3D printers. It has deployed 3D scanners and 3D printers to create customized prosthetic hands for people in Nepal, Guatemala, Ecuador, Haiti, Cambodia and Egypt. Dechev is also a member of this project, and he hopes that eventually the new scoliosis and clubfoot devices will be adopted by the same team in order to more quickly expand the reach of the technology across the parts of the world most in need.

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American punitivenessin our policing, courts, prisons, and lawcant be fully understood outside the context of white supremacy. Louisianas state penitentiary is on the site of a former plantation called Angola, so named because that was where its slaves came from; black men in bondage continue to farm the land. And the incarceration rate for black men in the USis an astronomical 2,207 per 100,000, nearly six times the rate for white men and higher than in South Africa under apartheid. In recent years, videos of lethal police violence against unarmed African Americans have become a constant on TV and online, making the problem virally visible. Two new books, part of an ongoing bumper crop of necessary writing on criminal justice in the US, explore the relationship between black America and our steroidal punishment system. James Forman Jr. and Paul Butler are both lawyers turned academics who regularly publish in legal journals and the mainstream press. They combine scholarly erudition with a practical knowledge of how the system works, writing with hard-won clarity about prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys, witnesses, victims, and offenders. Approaching the same broad subject, both have produced immensely valuable books written from very different perspectives. One of Formans many talents is his ability to make radical, unsettling points in the calmest of voices. For example, his 2009 article Exporting Harshness makes a convincing case that the so-called excesses of the war on terror are not aberrations. They are, he argues, fairly consistent with the norms of the American penal system, and if they have been harder to ignore, thats because they have occurred in places like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, where they have attracted press attention and international outrage. Although journalists have described domestic law-enforcement abuses as the war on terror coming home and adopted CIA terms like black site to describe police torture facilities in Chicago, Forman suggests it would make more sense to refer to Abu Ghraib as a Mesopotamian Rikers Island.

In his bracing (but always generous) 2012 critique of Michelle Alexanders best seller The New Jim Crow (2010), Forman takes on an even more firmly established piece of conventional wisdom. Alexanders thesis has become dogma among liberal criminal-justice reformers: Namely, mass incarceration is driven by a racist backlash against civil-rights advances, carried out under cover of the war on drugs. Her argument rests in part on the widely held belief that most inmates are nonviolent drug offenders, but Forman points out that only about 25 percent of our prison population fits this description. While its undeniable that racism is one of the most powerful engines of our punitive state, Forman asserts that the metaphor of mass incarceration as neoJim Crow is limited: In emphasizing mass incarcerations racial roots, the New Jim Crow writers overlook other critical factors, such as the steady rise in violent crime rates from 1960 to the early 90s and the broad support for disciplinary overkill in overwhelmingly white places like Idaho and Wyoming, which have also seen a steep climb in incarceration rates. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 35 percent of the nations prisoners were black in 2015. Though thats an undeniable overrepresentation of black Americas 13 percent share of the overall population, it means the other 65 percent of US prisoners were nonblack. As Forman writes, Thats a lot of collateral damage.

More here.
Q: You describe how many of the Pilgrims were treated in Holland with the disrespect that immigrants so often encounter today  forced to live in hovels and take low-level jobs that nobody else wants. Do you connect them to immigrants of our time?

As I was writing this book, the plight of refugees coming from the Middle East and Africa began to be very visible in Europe. The parallel for me was that a lot of these people are like the Pilgrims  many had professional qualifications in their own countries. Todays refugees are surgeons and doctors and lawyers who have nothing to show their status in their home country. One of the most important Pilgrim leaders was an ex-diplomat who descended from a long line of members of Parliament, and many others came from wealthy families. The Pilgrims had to leave England because there was a clampdown by King James I. To practice their religion, they had to live in Holland, which was in favor of all Protestants, and in the town of Leiden, whose town government gave financial support to all reformed foreign churches that sought sanctuary within its walls. But the downside of Leiden was that the Pilgrims had to abandon their homes and work for Dutch cloth manufacturers who exploited them. Spending 12 hours at their looms was normal. And like most refugees, they were living in pretty unpleasant circumstances because they had very little money.
Patrick Leahy in the New York Times:

In The Uncounted, their article in The New York Times Magazine last week, Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal laid bare a tragic reality of American military operations against the Islamic State: the untold harm inflicted on civilians.

That the Islamic State is guilty of horrific atrocities is common knowledge. But most Americans seem unaware of the human toll of our own actions, the consequences this has for our national security and our reputation, and that too often the civilian casualties we cause are the result of avoidable mistakes. This must change.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the number of violent extremist groups has grown across multiple continents. From Syria to Somalia to Pakistan, the United States is combating many of these groups  usually with bombs and missiles. Large numbers of innocent people are invariably caught in the middle.

There are practical ways that we can improve how we protect civilians as we fight violent extremists. These changes will improve our military operations and make our country safer in the long run.

More here.
Wedding Inspiration: A Fall Wedding In Tahoe with Rustic yet Elegant Touches


Share Consolidation Update

Adelaide, Nov 24, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - As previously announced, at the Annual General Meeting on 15 November 2017, the shareholders of Mithril Resources Limited ( ASX:MTH ) (the 'Company') approved a ten for one consolidation of the Company's shares and options.



The consolidation involved the conversion of every ten fully paid ordinary shares on issue into one fully paid ordinary share and the conversion of every ten options on issue into one option with the exercise price amended in inverse proportion to that ratio. Where the consolidation resulted in a shareholder having a fractional entitlement to a share or an option, the Company has rounded up the entitlement to the next whole number.



The Company advises that it has completed despatch of shareholding statements for the share consolidation. Due to the effect of rounding up fractional entitlements to the next whole number, the number of new issued shares post consolidation is 98,649,014 and the number of new issued options post consolidation is 4,195,000.





About Mithril Resources Limited





Mithril Resources Limited (ASX:MTH) is an Australian resources company whose objective is the creation of shareholder wealth through the discovery of mineral deposits.

The Company and its exploration partners are actively exploring throughout the Kalgoorlie, West Kimberley and Murchison Districts of Western Australia for economic nickel, copper, zinc, and vanadium deposits.

In the Kalgoorlie District, Mithril is exploring for nickel on the Kurnalpi, Lignum Dam and North Scotia Projects which lie along strike from, or adjacent to previously mined high-grade nickel at the Silver Swan and Scotia Nickel Deposits.

In the West Kimberley, Mithril is exploring for zinc on the Billy Hills Project which lies adjacent to the previously mined Pillara Zinc Deposit.

In the Murchison, Mithril is exploring for copper, nickel and zinc mineralisation on the Nanadie Well Project and for copper, silver, zinc and lead on the Bangemall Base Metal Project. Mithril's exploration partner  Monax Mining Ltd is also exploring for vanadium on the Limestone Well tenements.
Countrys foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo announced Wednesday Kigalis eagerness to welcome up to 30,000 African migrants stranded in Libya following CNN report on the existence in the North African country of slave markets.

Mushikiwabo indicated that her country is talks to receive the migrants. The announcement came following a call by the African Union to member-states to help return thousands of migrants stranded in Libya.

Rwanda, as the rest of the world, has been horrified by the ongoing tragedy in Libya where African men, women and children who were on the way to exile, have been arrested and turned into slaves, she said.

Given Rwandas policy and out own history, we cannot afford to remain silence when human beings are maltreated and sold at auctions like live stocks, she added.

The UN Secretary General Antonion Guterres and Paris have condemned the slave trading of Africa migrants. Paris has likened the inhuman treatment to crime against human and announced it would convene with other members of UN Security Council to discuss the matter.

A CNN report aired on November 14 showed some African migrants being sold as farm laborer as little as $400, at auctions.

The Eastern African country is also rumored to have signed a deal with Israel to take in African refugees considered by the Jewish state as infiltrators.

Israeli media notes that Kigali will be given $5,000 each migrants.

Around 40,000 African asylum seekers largely from Sudan and Eritrea are currently living in Israel.
Sacked Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been sworn in as president at the revelations about Robert Mugabes Tuesday resignation emerge.

Mnangagwa has officially become Friday the second President of Zimbabwe after former President Robert Mugabe stepped down on Tuesday after his party Zanu-PF gave up on him and army pushing him in the corner.

Mnangagwa Wednesday addressing the party members after being picked up as the partys new leader pledged to create jobs.

Thursday a source who witnessed Mugabes last hours in power indicated that the 93-year old former leader who led the country since its independence in 1980 gave up power in exchange guarantees including protection from prosecution.

The retired President according to the source who did not want to be named will receive a retirement package that includes a pension, housing, holiday and transport allowance, health insurance, limited air travel and security.

Mugabe also wanted to die in Zimbabwe the source noted.

It was very emotional for him and he was forceful about it, the source said.

For him it was very important that he be guaranteed security to stay in the countryalthough that will not stop him from travelling abroad when he wants to or has to, the source added.

Thursday Mnangagwa urged Zimbabweans to refrain from revenge.
On Tuesday, 21st November 2017 we had published a lead story, Railways should provide compensation to contractual workers. In this report, we had mentioned about how three contractual women labours lost their lives after being run over by an express train near Malad. We also raised our concern regarding hardships faced by contractual workers family members after they lose the breadwinner of their family. Often it has been observed that railways turn a blind eye towards the safety of contractual workers and fail to provide compensation to them after the occurrence of a mishap. The kin of deceased workers have to run from pillar to post for claiming compensation from railways which is a tedious task.

Often gangmen risk their lives while carrying out track maintenance work as they have to concentrate on their work and keep an eye on running trains. After we published the story Gajanan Kirtikar, Shiv Sena MP and member of Railway Board intervened in this matter and have forwarded a letter to the Railway Board, New Delhi urging them to offer compensation to the kin of deceased women labourers. Mr Kirtikar has also assured us that he will look into this matter and ensure justice to contractual workers.
HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. is looking to invest more in the capital goods sectors and a range of companies that are expected to benefit from a major government push to build more homes and roads.

Funds are likely to be put into cement makers, suppliers of building materials such as tiles and paints, and financiers of road and housing projects, Prasun Gajri, chief investment officer at HDFC Life said.

I think the entire capital goods sector could start looking better than what it has been in the past, said Gajri, who oversees management of more than USD 15 billion of investments in debt and equity. We could look to increase exposure in some of these areas as we go along.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis government has pledged to spend billions of dollars under its housing for all programme through 2022. The government also has an ambitious roads programme with planned spending of more than USD 100 billion over the next five years in an effort to bump up growth in Asias third-largest economy.

The insurer, however, does not expect better days any time soon for property developers, many of whom are weighed down by high debt levels and stricter regulations, Gajri said.

Among other areas HDFC Life is positive on are consumer discretionary sectors such as automakers, which, Gajri said, could report positive earnings growth as the impact wanes from both the governments surprise removal of high-value banknotes from circulation and its new goods and services tax.

Gajri said he would also look to allocate a bit more to commodity stocks, especially metals, as a supply clampdown in China has led to higher prices in India. The insurer is bearish on information technology and pharma stocks.

Helped by strong foreign fund inflows, Indian stocks have hit a string of record highs this year, with the main index gaining more than 26 per cent so far in 2017, even as corporate earnings remain muted and businesses struggle with the new tax rollout.

Gajri said he expected a recovery in corporate earnings beginning from the current quarter and that it would continue for the next two to three years.

If the earnings story plays out, then frankly, that will be a buying opportunity.

HDFC Life, a joint venture between Indian mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp and Standard Life Aberdeen Plc, went public earlier this month after a $1.34 billion IPO.

The insurer has just under 60 percent of its assets invested in debt and the remainder in equity.
Childhood sexual abuse is a major problem in India and one in three rape victims is a child. One in every 10 children is sexually abused once in their lifetime and every second a child is being exposed to one or the other form of sexual abuse. There was heart-wrenching news on Wednesday of a four-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted twice by her classmate in a Delhi school with a sharpened pencil and his finger, and no teacher was around to prevent the attack that left the child writhing in pain and badly wounded. Sexual abuse is the worst thing that can happen to anyone especially to a kid. The accused is also of the victims age; god knows what is in his mind and who must have influenced him to do so? What kind of environment he has in his family? Or somewhere he is also a victim of circumstances?

Shockingly, three days after the assault, the Maxfort School told the parents that it is safe for them to send their daughter again as the boys section had been changed. School authorities had no shame in addressing the issue. The police have filed a case against the boy, who is also four, and are consulting experts, as a child below seven cannot legally be held responsible for any crime. The girls mother says the school must be punished for extraordinary negligence, but so far, it does not face any case. In Delhi, there are many such cases. School kids get raped, murdered, molested in school premises but the authorities never get punished. There is no sense of responsibility.

In the washroom and then in the classroom, everywhere this little four-year girl was molested. She returned home in great pain and somehow bore it. That day the boy had finished eating his food; he had not washed his hands and then touched her private parts. In the washroom, there was no Didi who could help her; in the classroom, her class teacher was not around and the child says he sharpened his pencil and put it inside. Its the most disturbing occurrence, the pain worsened as the child was able to convey that it was in her private parts. At night, just before going off to sleep, she started crying profusely. She narrated the incident that left her mother aghast. She told her mother what another boy in her class had done to her. She cried a lot and went on the look for an ointment that she usually applies when they are hurt, Arnica.

Mother was shocked to see the injuries; the signs of assault were visible as her private part was red and swollen. The paediatrician and hospital, where she was taken for check-up, confirmed sexual assault. Security footage corroborates the girls version, her mother says. She was the last to come out of the classroom when all the children had long left; there was no teacher or attendant around. Looking at whole scenario, the teachers negligence is also clearly visible. Parents send their children to school hoping that their kids are safe there, what is considered a second home, in the custody of her second mother, teacher, only to be let down.

Rape is the fourth most common crime against female in India. Childhood sexual abuse proves our country is full of paedophiles that want nothing but to exploit every child they see. People who take advantage of someones innocence are nothing but pure monsters some of which lies in our own house/school/neighbour or in surrounding, most of them are very well known to us. India has the largest number of child sexual abuse cases in the world. But here the rape accused is kid himself. For every 155th minute a child, less than 16 years, is raped, for every 13th hour a child under 10. It can be three months to 10 years; there is no barrier for perverts whom to choose.

According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2015 statistics, Madhya Pradesh has the highest raw number of rape reports among Indian states, while Jodhpur has the highest per capita rate of rape reports in cities. Several rape cases in India received widespread media attention and triggered protests since 2012. This led the Government of India to reform its penal code for crimes of rape and sexual assault. The number of juveniles or minors, legally those under 18 years of age, taking up crime has seen an alarming high over the past decade. This should be a particular reason to worry about for a country where 47.21 crore i.e. almost 39 per cent of the population is under 18. According to latest NCRB data, 33,526 cases against juveniles  majority of them in the age group of 16 to 18 years  were recorded for various offences during 2014. This marks a huge spike of 88.14 per cent from the 17,819 cases registered against minors in 2003.

Of the total juveniles apprehended in last year, 2,144 were accused of rape and 1,163 were involved in murder. By 2014, this figure has seen a constant rise with over 380 per cent hike from just 466 rape cases registered against juvenile in 2003.

Causes for concern is that the highest share of cases registered against juveniles were reported for theft (20 per cent), rape (5.9 per cent) and grievous hurt and assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty (4.7 per cent each). In 2014, Delhi recorded over 140 rape cases against juveniles. A year before the number stood at 137. In 2003 only 22 cases of rape were registered against juveniles. God knows where are we heading, and what have we decided for our kids.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
A 22-year-old Pakistan-born man has been jailed for six years in the UK for preparing acts of terrorism after being arrested in an undercover police operation in 2016.

Mubashir Jamil, a warehouse worker for the online retailer Amazon, had told an undercover police officer he wanted to wear a suicide vest and press the button, the Old Bailey court in London heard during his trial.

He was arrested in April, a few days before he planned to leave for Turkey, after messaging the officer on a mobile app in which he also revealed that he wanted to fight for the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group in Syria.

If you or some brother you know can put an explosive belt on me and tell me how to press, as soon as possible for security reasons, I can do something in the UK even tomorrow after I find a good target, he told the undercover officer using the name of Abu Hasan.

Jamil had denied the charge of preparing acts of terror and claimed that he was hearing voices and wanted to go to Syria to be exorcised of the jinns that were plaguing him.

The court was told that he had suffered bouts of mental illness and the judge ruled that a part of his six-year sentence will be served in a secure hospital.

Jamil was a former A-grade student from Challney High School for Boys in Luton, near London.

He became obsessed with the idea of martyrdom after surfing the internet for execution videos and ISIS propaganda, his trial was told.

Jamil, who moved to Luton from Pakistan with his family when he was two-year-old, had planned his trip to Turkey carefully and deliberately changed his appearance, shaving off his beard after reading ISIS guidance online about how to be a secret agent in a non-Muslim country.

Judge Peter Rook said Thursday his crime was only in part explained by his mental health disorder and described him as dangerous.

He handed Jamil a hybrid order, meaning he will continue to be treated in a secure hospital until he is well enough to be transferred to prison.

Jamil will also have to serve a further five years on extended licence, or under police monitoring, on his release.

The undercover officer who entrapped Jamil had posed as ISIS handler Abu Hasan to persuade Jamil to send him a copy of his passport, photographs of himself and even a copy of the boarding pass for a flight to Turkey leaving on April 30, 2016.
The United Nations said a group of experts on freedom of expression will visit Mexico at the end of November to assess the safety of journalists in the country, one of the most dangerous in the world for reporters.

David Kaye, U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, and Edison Lanza, who holds the same position at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, will visit from Nov. 27 to Dec. 4 after an invitation by the government.

This visit is about the crisis the press is going through in Mexico, the exponential increase in violence, said Leopoldo Maldonado, the protection and defense program officer in Mexico at Article 19, a freedom of expression advocacy group.

The visit comes as Mexico`s journalists live through one of the worst waves of violence in recent history, with at least 11 reporters murdered in 2017, the same number killed in 2016.

Over the past 17 years, 111 journalists have been killed in Mexico, more than one third of them under the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto. Reporters are also having to contend with other forms of intimidation.

In June, activists, human-rights lawyers and journalists filed a criminal complaint after experts found that their smartphones had been infected with advanced spying software sold only to the government.

The Mexican government said at the time that there was no proof it was responsible for the spying and that it condemned any attempt to violate the privacy of any person.

The rights experts will travel to Mexico City and the states of Guerrero, Veracruz, Tamaulipas and Sinaloa to meet legislative, executive and judicial authorities plus journalists and representatives of civil society, the U.N. said.
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NOTE: Vaccines have become an offer Italians can NOT refuse - without steep penalties. Disgrazia. Kim



(ANSA) - Rome, November 22 - The Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected the Veneto regional government's appeal against compulsory vaccinations for school admissions, saying the issues in question were the business of the national legislator.

In its ruling, the top court said making vaccinations compulsory was justified by the fall in the numbers of children that have been vaccinated. The government has made 10 vaccinations compulsory for school admission. Several parents across Italy have seen their children refused admission because they have not had the necessary vaccinations.



There have been public protests against the government move.
C'est la guerre. French Nobel Prize winner Dr. Luc Montaigne was criticized for his discussion of vaccine safety. In Europe, just as here in America, when you question vaccine safety or vaccine side effects, you are considered "alarmist." Mustn't allow Mama to do her own thinking for her baby after all, oui? This article below is particularly noxious in its tone and derision.



Read the full article in French here.



Professors Luc Montagnier and Henri Joyeux held a press conference against vaccination in a Parisian theater on November 7, 2017. Their alarmist and unfounded comments were vigorously denounced by the academies of science, medicine and pharmacy.



It was a funny duet that held the poster of the Michel Theater in Paris on November 7, 2017. On one side, Professor Luc Montagnier. On the other, Professor Henri Joyeux. The first is a virologist, Nobel Prize in Medicine, member of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medicine. The second, a former professor of oncology, specialist in digestive surgery, is also laureate of the Antoine Lacassagne cancer prize awarded by the National League against Cancer. Two impressive CVs that unfortunately do not immunize against the virus of pseudoscience. Indeed, the two accomplices had made an appointment "to the journalists of the press health, well-being and society" to tell them all the harm they thought of vaccines. This, a few months from the passage of three to eleven of the number of compulsory vaccines in children.

If from the beginning of the conference, they said loud and clear not to be opposed to vaccination it was only to better undermine its foundations thereafter. "We risk with vaccines to poison little by little all the population that will succeed us, children, babies," for example, launched Luc Montagnier in an attack of alarmist fever. "We are entering a kind of vaccine dictatorship ..." Henry Joyeux claimed on his side. Problem: most of their arguments are based on untruths, bias reasoning or misinformation, all against the background of conspiracy theory.

With the help of Professor Brigitte Autran of the Pierre and Marie Curie Faculty of Medicine in Paris, a vaccine specialist, we have tried to decipher the main arguments put forward by Professors Montagnier and Joyeux. An exercise that at times proved difficult or even impossible in some cases, both the sources and the scientific references were lacking in their words:

Vaccines may be responsible for sudden infant death.

https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/sante/vaccins-decryptage-de-l-etrange-conference-de-presse-des-professeurs-luc-montagnier-et-henri-joyeux_118446
Ethiopian Airlines took delivery of its second Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on November 21, less than a month after it received its first aircraft of the same type.

The new aircraft brings the carriers total fleet to 95. Ethiopian recently confirmed an order for four B777 Freighters  a new order for two of the aircraft type, plus a firmed-up order for another two that had already been announced as a commitment in June.

Ethiopians cargo operations currently take in 39 destinations in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, and include a new state-of-the-art cargo terminal that was opened in June.

The airlines 15-year strategic plan, Vision 25, aims to transform the airline into the leading aviation group in Africa not only with regard to passenger and freight transportation but also in express, MRO, training, in-flight catering and ground services.

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A Texas-based solar power company is eyeing two sites in Colbert County for a solar power farm.

The TimesDaily is reporting that the farm, which could be operational by 2020, could power 23,000 to 35,000 homes.

Two sites are up for consideration: one east of Leighton and one in the Cherokee area. The solar farm could power 150 megawatts to 230 megawatts.

Representatives of First Solar, based in Houston, are talking about a $149 million solar farm that would tie into the Tennessee Valley Authority's 161 kilovolt lines. The company, which is mostly active in the Southwest, is looking to expand eastward.

A TVA spokesman said the company has submitted a request for proposals.
One day, Pierre and I were having lunch at El Barrio, a Mexican-inspired restaurant in Birmingham. Pierre mentioned that he thought that Juan, who worked as a server there, would be a great person to ask to read for Whitman, Alabama. He had met Juan previously, and they had hit it off. So, we asked Juan if he might want to read for us.

Juan said sure, and he told us that he would try to recruit his then partner, and now friend, Tim, to read with him.

"I was a little apprehensive because I'm shy," Tim said. "Getting in front of people makes me extremely nervous."

We decided to film Juan and Tim while they ate lunch at Feast and Forest, only a couple blocks away from where Juan worked.

We only had about an hour to film. Juan had to come between shifts at El Barrio, and Tim, who worked at a bank, was on his lunch break. While Tim was driving to meet us, he got stuck in traffic, which didn't do much to calm his nerves.

"So then we're down to like ... 45 minutes," Tim said.

The filming was quick, but we got it done. Tim says the reading was no big deal for Juan, who is an extrovert and doesn't get stage fright. But for Tim, it was a pretty big accomplishment.

"I kind of enjoyed it," Tim said. "Doing something I usually would not do, out of my comfort zone."

So thank you, Juan and Tim. We imagine it's not easy to test the boundaries of your comfort zone while on camera, eating lunch, reading poetry.

And also a shout out to Kristen Hall and Victor King, the co-owners of Feast & Forest, for letting us disrupt their day a bit so we could film at their wonderful restaurant.

Every 4th of July I tend to wonder who the people are who are behind the scenes, lighting up the night skies with fireworks for us. On the 4th of July in 2016, I had those same thoughts -- I figured it'd be the longest of long shots to make something happen that day, but I called a number I found on a website for the show at Lake Martin.

Robert Gunn, who works with the Lake Martin Amphitheater, picked up the phone. It was the afternoon of the fireworks show, the event was already in gear, when we asked if he could help put us in touch with the folks shooting off the fireworks. We're so thankful Robert didn't hesitate, just said he'd see what we could do. We soon got word from Robert that Joel Hart, a twenty-eight-year old lead technician, would meet us.

Pierre and I jumped in the car and drove from Birmingham toward Lake Martin to meet Joel. We were excited, and I was holding my breath, not certain we'd actually end up being able to film anything.

Joel Hart was less excited about seeing us

Robert had called and warned him that we were coming. We wanted to interview him -- something about a project, something about Alabama?

Joel said that his first thought was to say no.

"I don't think we want to deal with it," Joel said. "We had just done our final test [for the fireworks show that night]. But we said, 'Yeah, y'all can send them down.'"

When asked why he agreed to talk to us, Joel had a simple answer.

"That's just southern charm," he said. "That's what that is. It may not be something that we want to do, but we're going to do it because we've been asked to do it."

His answer struck me because it was much like something that Billy Wayne who read part of Verse 43 said. He didn't agree with some of the words in the poem, and when I asked him why he agreed to read it, he said, "Because you asked me to."

After Pierre and I further explained the project, Joel mentioned we might want to have his younger brother Andrew read, too. Andrew is a woodworker, cabinet maker, small business consultant, writer, and avid poetry reader. We didn't know all this at the start of the read.

"I thought [the project] was a fascinating thing," Andrew said. "Even though it's [titled] 'Song of Myself,' [Whitman] is including someone else. He's using he, she, them, they, I, and we. In a sense, [the poem] is reawakening that concept: that we are all the same."

"My brother was real interested because he's read a lot of Whitman," Joel said. "So I said, 'Okay, I'll do it with you.' It was something I figured I'd do because I never did that before. We were brothers trying to do it together."

Still, the actual filming took much longer than Joel expected.

"We had several takes and we probably did it fifteen times, and they did different camera angles," Joel said. "At one point I said, 'We're going to have to shut this down.' But after [it was over], my brother and I talked, and we were like, "Wow, that was pretty cool."

Joel admits that he didn't really know what would become of the project with the two filmmakers who visited him out of the blue and told him they were filming people who ARE Alabama.

"I didn't really have any preconceptions," Joel said. "But it was pretty neat to see what the end result was. When I saw the video of that guy down south in Alabama, who worked with tires, (Jason Tabor, Verse 39) that one who said 'I'm all sweaty and stuff' on camera, that's Alabama to me. Down and dirty. Changing tires. They hit it on the nail."

Andrew agrees. "I love to see [this poem] read by Alabamians," Andrew said. "It made me feel proud. The more hands this is in, the better. Something like this [Whitman, Alabama project] ought to go mainstream."

Towards the end of their read was when we found out that Andrew was a writer and fan of poetry. I remember Pierre remarking how amazing it was that somehow, we came across two brothers and were able to capture each doing something they had a passion for -- Joel with fire, Andrew with poetry. Joel and Andrew agreed.

When recently asked whether Andrew thinks the project could help reduce stereotypes about Alabama, he mentions that he's grown up and lived in Alabama his entire life.

"When we are not really focused on how everybody [outside of Alabama] feels about us, we are making inroads. You lead by example," Andrew said. "I think the truth is proved right in time."

By Jennifer Crandall, as told to writer Liz Hildreth. For more stories across Alabama, visit us at Whitman, Alabama
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson will hear arguments next week on the Alabama prison system's plan to hire more correctional officers and mental health caregivers in response to the judge's finding that mental health care in prisons is "horrendously inadequate."

Thompson ruled in June that Alabama is in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which bans cruel and unusual punishment, because of what he said was the poor level of care.

In a 302-page opinion, Thompson wrote that the DOC failed to identify many prisoners with mental illness and failed to adequately treat those who were identified. He found that prisoners were punished for symptoms of their mental illness, like sitting in segregation cells for prolonged periods. The judge found that shortages of correctional staff and mental health staff were key factors.

Lawyers for the state dispute Thompson's findings and say they have reserved the right to appeal. But in the meantime, the case is moving into a remedy phase that is likely to take months and could be expensive for taxpayers.

In October, the state submitted to the court its proposed remedial plan for increasing correctional staffing and mental health staffing. It calls for nearly doubling the mental health staff, adding 125 full-time employees at an estimated cost of at least $10 million a year. That does not include the additional cost for employing more correctional officers.

The state staffing plan is contingent on increased funding from the Legislature. Lawmakers begin their annual session on Jan. 9.

The mental health case is part of a wider lawsuit filed on behalf of inmates by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program in 2014. Claims alleging poor medical care are on hold. The state and plaintiffs agreed to a settlement on claims that the Department of Corrections failed to provide for prisoners with disabilities. A plan to fix those deficiencies is in the works.

As for staffing, the DOC has acknowledged a shortage of correctional officers and has noted a corresponding increase in violent incidents inside the state's prisons, which hold about 160 percent of the population they were designed for.

The state hired experts, Merle and Margaret Savage, to analyze staffing needs in the prisons. They completed assessments at three major prisons and will do so at the 11 other men's prisons with the court's blessing.

The state says DOC could be up to comprehensive staffing within two years of the plan taking effect if the Legislature provides the funding.

The DOC has also hired a consultant to analyze recruitment and retention of correctional officers and has entered an agreement with the Troy University Center for Public Service to do a comprehensive analysis of correctional officer pay and benefits, including comparisons to other law enforcement jobs.

Lawyers representing the inmates say the state's plan is incomplete.

William Van Der Pol, an attorney for the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, says the plan lacks important information to support the staffing numbers.

"What you can't look at is sort of under the hood, OK, how did you figure out how many correctional officers you need?" Van Der Pol said. "Are you factoring in the need to get guys in segregation out of their cells, the need to get people to their treatment? The need to have a certain number of guards literally on the floor to ensure security? How are you calculating those numbers? Or are you just literally throwing a dart at the board?"

The Department of Corrections declined an interview request for this story, saying it was standing by its plan as submitted to the court.

Southern Poverty Law Center attorney Maria Morris said the plaintiffs generally agree with the mental health staffing ratios proposed by the state. She said an important consideration is that the staff should accommodate more mentally ill prisoners than DOC counts in its caseload because one of the court's findings was that mental illness often went undiagnosed in Alabama prisons.

"The court found that they're missing a lot of people and one reason they're missing people is they don't have enough staff to identify people," Morris said.

The DOC provides mental health care and medical care through contractors. The DOC has issued a request for proposals to companies to handle both the mental health and medical care. The increased mental health staffing level is included in the request for proposals.

Van Der Pol said it's important that when the state chooses a provider that it enforces the increased mental health staffing levels. He said history shows there is no guarantee the state will do so.

While the lawsuit plays out, an overlapping question is whether the state will build a prison or prisons to relieve overcrowding and replace aging facilities. Under former Gov. Robert Bentley, the DOC proposed building several large prisons and closing many of the existing prisons. The plan called for a bond issue of up to $800 million. The DOC said it could pay off the debt with savings, mostly achieved through reduced staffing and overtime that it said would be possible with modern prison designs. The Legislature gave serious consideration to several versions of that plan last year and this year but none passed.

Under Gov. Kay Ivey, the DOC is planning to hire a project management team to consider how to proceed on prison construction. Ivey has stressed that Alabama initiate plans to fix its prisons without federal court mandates and that prison construction should be part of the plan.

Last week, the DOC announced plans to convert Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore County into a vocational and educational center. Draper is the state's oldest prison, built in 1938, and holds about 1,000 inmates in a facility designed for 600. An assessment by Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, an architectural and engineering firm, found that Draper had outlived its useful life and would need $30 million in repairs to meet minimum standards, the DOC said.

The inmates at Draper will move to other prisons and the staff will be reassigned to Elmore, Staton, Kilby and Tutwiler prisons, increasing staffing in those facilities by 20 to 25 percent, DOC says.

Also, DOC announced it would transfer Childersburg Work Release Center to the Alabama Department of Pardons and Paroles, which will use it as a Life Tech Transition Center, providing vocational and educational training for parolees reentering society. Pardons and Paroles already operates a Life Tech Transition Center in Thomasville.

Inmates at Childersburg will move to either St. Clair Correctional Facility or to minimum custody level facilities. Staff at Childersburg will be offered positions at St. Clair and other facilities, the DOC said.

Sentencing and criminal justice reforms passed by the Legislature have reduced the prison population from about 25,000 to about 21,000 since 2013, the DOC says. The inmate population is expected to reach about 20,000 in about two years.

The Southern Poverty Law Center opposed the prison-building plans proposed by the Bentley administration. Morris said the SPLC is not flatly against new prisons, but thinks it's more critical to use the limited amount of funds to address the constitutional issues with medical and mental health care.

"It's not that we want to keep our clients in terrible conditions." Morris said. "It's certainly not that. We want them to live in habitable prisons. But we also think it's always going to be a question of where are you spending the money that you've got. And what needs to be the focus of spending the money right now is fixing the constitutional violations."

The hearings on prison staffing that begin Wednesday in Thompson's courtroom are expected to last several weeks.

At some point, Morris expects Thompson to rule whether the state's staffing plan is adequate or, if it's not, what is needed to make it adequate. The state has asked Thompson to approve its plan or, in the alternative, not issue a remedial order.

Late last year and early this year, Thompson heard seven weeks of testimony from inmates, mental health experts, DOC administrators and others, before issuing his ruling in June.

The first mentally ill inmate to testify in the case last December, Jamie Lee Wallace, hung himself in his cell at Bullock Correctional Facility less than two weeks later, shortly after being taken off suicide watch.

In response, the DOC entered a court-ordered settlement to intended to prevent suicides.
Bombardier would like to build jets in Mobile, but it's wrapped up in a trade dispute with Boeing that has generated some mixed omens for the company's Alabama plans.

There's no firm timetable for the proposed Alabama assembly line. Boeing has gone so far as to say it'll probably never happen and the jobs it might bring to the Gulf Coast are "pure fiction."

With a ruling expected by early next year, recent court filings have outlined at least one point of agreement - Boeing, Bombardier and Delta all agree that the plan to build a new jet assembly line in Mobile is a separate issue from the current case before the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration (ITA). But that doesn't mean one won't affect the other.

The fracas goes back to April 2016, when Delta announced it was ordering 75 of Bombardier's new C Series jets, a deal reportedly worth up to $5.6 billion. A few months later, Business Insider explained the potentially game-changing significance of the deal: "Although Bombardier has been a global leader in business and regional jets, the C Series is the first product from the Canadian airplane to compete against Boeing and Airbus in the mainline market. The decision to enter the market with the C Series was a major financial gamble for Bombardier, with a program price tag of $5.5 billion. Since its inception more than a decade ago, the aircraft has been beset by a series of development delays and slow sales."

The Delta order was a huge vote of confidence for a brand-new family of aircraft just entering the market. But Boeing alleged that Bombardier, with support from the Canadian government, was selling the jets at unfairly low prices. In April 2017 Boeing asked the Commerce Department to look into the matter.

The probe requested by Boeing was launched. In September the ITA recommended a 220 percent tariff on every imported C-Series jet, and then in early October it recommended tacking another 80 percent on top of that. According to Flight Global, an aviation industry news site, final findings in the probe are expected on Dec. 18, and the International Trade Commission is expected to rule on the tariffs in February.

Against that backdrop, Airbus and Bombardier made an astonishing announcement in mid-October: Airbus was taking a majority stake in the C Series Aircraft Limited Partnership (CSALP), which would build a new assembly line in Mobile, one of four global locations where Airbus builds its A320 family of jets.

Airbus wasn't buying in with cash. Instead, it was taking on a share based on its manufacturing and marketing prowess. Essentially, Airbus was getting a pair of cutting-edge commuter jets that complemented its lineup -- the CS100 and CS300 are smaller than Airbus' popular A320 and A321 - while Bombardier was getting some muscle to keep its promising new product from dying on the vine.

In recent weeks, various parties in the trade dispute have filed briefs about whether the Airbus-Bombardier plan should be a factor in the Bombardier-Boeing dispute. The good news for Mobile's ambitions as a rising aerospace hub is that everybody seems to agree the two issues should be kept separate.

"The proposed deal between Bombardier and Airbus has no bearing whatsoever on the Department's current investigations," said a Nov. 13 Boeing filing. "Quite simply, there is no deal to evaluate at this time -- only materials outlining a transaction which, according to Bombardier's and Airbus' own optimistic estimates, will not close until well into next year."

The Canadian government argued that because the deal was announced after the current inquiry's specified period of investigation, "the Department should take no action now and should instead wait until the facts are more certain and can be addressed appropriately in the future."

Bombardier entered two separate filings. One dated Nov. 6 played up the estimated 400 to 500 direct jobs that would be provided by the proposed Mobile assembly line, along with a range of other positive economic impacts. In the other, dated Nov. 13, Bombardier argued that it would be improper to consider a deal that hadn't yet been finalized, and that if necessary the Airbus-Bombardier alliance could be subjected to administrative review in the future.

The Airbus A320neo, right, and the Bombardier CS300 are similar aircraft in that they're twin-engine, single-aisle craft designed for medium-range routes. Bombardier's C Series jets are smaller, however, making them complementary rather than direct competitors. (Rendering courtesy of Airbus)

The bad new for Mobile is that the court filings suggest any new plant is years down the road, and quite likely will face a separate legal challenge. All parties seem to agree that it'll be well into 2018 before the Airbus-Bombardier partnership even gets regulatory approval.

In its Nov. 13 filing, Boeing portrays the partnership as unimpressive. If and when the deal is closed, it says, "we will not know the nature or extent of the work, if any, that the C Series Aircraft Limited Partnership ("CSALP") and its partners might decide to perform in Mobile. It would take additional time -- likely, years - to implement that decision. In other words, it would be many months to years from now before any C Series work could possibly be done in Mobile at all. ... Bombardier and Airbus are extremely unlikely ever to actually establish a C Series assembly line in Alabama. Such plans would make no economic sense."

The Boeing brief goes on to argue that the only reason for building the assembly line would be to circumvent tariffs. "But even as a circumvention scheme, this will fail," it says, maintaining that the tariffs should apply to any imported components used in domestic assembly.

Boeing repeatedly challenges the idea that the Mobile plant ever will be built: "Simply put, absent antidumping and countervailing duty orders, the purported plan to assemble the C Series in the United States will never materialize. In its November 6, 2017 factual submission, Bombardier submitted various estimates of the number of U.S. jobs and investment that would result from the proposed transaction with Airbus. 30 These estimates are pure fiction. They are based on a scenario which, again, will never materialize in the absence of antidumping and countervailing duty orders."

In the high-stakes dispute, Boeing hardly has a lock on tart language. The Flight Global report quotes a Delta Airlines brief in the case in which the company wallops Boeing: "In Boeing's view, any action would be a potential form of 'evasion.' ... Modify a purchase agreement - evasion. Look at options to acquire a 109-seat aircraft that the US industry does not currently produce - evasion. Support expansion of the US aerospace industry and competition in the service of customers - evasion."

A Business Insider analysis from May suggests a historical motivation for Boeing's aggressive stance: It simply doesn't want Bombardier to become another Airbus. Boeing doesn't want to repeat strategic missteps that made it easier for Airbus to become a heavyweight competitor over the last 40 years.

"It's a crucial entry market," one Business Insider source said of Boeing's trade complaint over the C Series. "This is the case Boeing might have brought against Airbus 40 years ago. Not taking action at the start led to consequences."

Not all the recent action has taken place in legal papers: Bombardier has announced at least two significant orders totaling up to 85 jets.

Whether any of them might eventually be built in Alabama is a question that, for now, remains very much open.
The U.S. Navy called off its search for three sailors missing since Wednesday, when a transport plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean on its way to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.

Eight people were rescued and are in good condition, but the remaining three sailors had not been found after two days of searching, the Navy's 7th Fleet, which is based in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, said in a statement Friday.

The Reagan had been leading the search effort, joined by eight U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft.

They had covered nearly 1,000 square nautical miles in the search for the sailors, who had been missing since the C-2A Greyhound crashed about halfway between Okinawa and Guam on Wednesday afternoon.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families," said Rear Adm. Marc Dalton, Commander of Task Force 70. "As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates."

The names of the sailors have not been released as their families are still being informed.

The C-2A, a twin-engine cargo plane designed to transport people and supplies to and from aircraft carriers, was on a routine flight from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in southern Japan to the Reagan, which was in the Philippine Sea for exercises.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known and an investigation is being conducted.

This is the first time since 1973 that a Navy C2-A has been involved in a fatal crash. Then, seven people were killed when both of the aircraft's engines failed shortly after take off from Chania-Souda airport in Greece.

This crash comes at the end of a bad year for the 7th Fleet, which had already lost 17 sailors in two separate collisions involving guided-missile destroyers.

Ten sailors were killed when the USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker near Singapore in August, and seven died when the USS Fitzgerald ran into a much heavier container ship off the coast of Japan in June.

The Navy removed the admiral in charge from his position in August, citing a "loss of confidence" in his ability to lead, and the Navy's top admiral ordered a fleetwide review of seamanship and training in the Pacific after the McCain collision.

The Fitzgerald, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, left Yokosuka Friday, headed to Pascagoula, Mississippi, for repairs. The Fitzgerald was towed to deep water and over the next few days will be lifted onto the heavy lift transport vessel Transshelf to be moved to the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipbuilding facility in Mississippi for repairs and upgrades.

The McCain and Fitzgerald incidents followed a collision between another guided-missile cruiser, the USS Lake Champlain, and a South Korean fishing vessel, and an embarrassing incident when the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam ran aground in Tokyo Bay in January.

Just last week, the USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, was scraped by a Japanese tug during a towing exercise. The destroyer suffered minimal damage.

The 7th Fleet has about 50 to 70 ships assigned to it and is responsible for an area that spans 36 maritime countries and 48 million square miles in the Pacific and Indian oceans, according to the Navy.
Ginthota, Sri Lanka  Muhammad Abrar is still in shock, nearly a week after his house in Ampitiya village in the southern Sri Lankan town of Ginthota came under attack from a Sinhalese-Buddhist mob.

On November 17, he had returned from the mosque after evening prayers and was about to retire for the night, when he heard his neighbours home being attacked.

The first attack on our home was when our window panes were broken by rocks, said Abrar, who drives a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled taxi) for a living.

There was a mob of about 150 to 200 people armed with steel crowbars and other makeshift weapons. They smashed our gate and came in and poured petrol on my tuk-tuk and set it on fire.

The burned tuk-tuk is still parked in front of his house, with little hope of being salvaged. What was once the painted pink facade of his house is now black with soot. The tiled roof of Abrars house collapsed as flames engulfed the wooden rafters.

Fear and shock have gripped the Muslim community in Ginthota  about seven kilometres from the tourist city of Galle  and rows of burned houses and businesses bear testimony to the violence.

Police and Special Task Force (STF) personnel were deployed after the violence, which spread across many administrative divisions in Ginthota.

Residents say a scuffle over a minor road accident escalated into mob attacks between Buddhist and Muslim youths. It later developed into full-blown, targeted anti-Muslim violence, with dozens of houses and at least two mosques damaged in arson attacks.

Growing Buddhist-Muslim tensions

Tensions have been growing between the two communities this year, with Buddhist nationalists attacking a United Nations safe house for Muslim-majority Rohingya in September, while a number of Muslim homes and businesses were attacked in June.

Mohammed Faizal, the secretary of the Ginthota Young Muslims Association, who was himself a victim, says that fresh tensions started building after an accident involving a Muslim woman and a Buddhist on November 13. Police intervention prevented immediate escalation.

November 17 was calm and as usual we went for Friday prayers and returned. There was a heavy police and STF presence, Faizal said.

The violence erupted that night, after Faizal says a lack of security measures allowed the situation to spiral out of control.

Manusha Nanayakkara, the member of parliament for the Galle district, agreed that the withdrawal of the STF was a grave mistake that facilitated all these violent groups.

This incident did not begin due to a Sinhalese-Muslim issue. Both parties are to blame for letting this matter escalate from a minor road accident, Nanayakkara said. Peace committees should be activated with representations from the village mosques and temples to prevent any such attacks taking place again.

Fear and trauma

In the wake of the violence, police have arrested 22 people. Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekera confirmed that 127 cases of attacks had been reported to police.

The violence has brought back memories of the 2014 Aluthgama attacks, during which three people were killed.

Muhammad Yasir told Al Jazeera that he was at home with his wife and two daughters when a mob of about 50 youth started attacking homes in the narrow lane where his house is located.

My motorcycle was dragged to the street and completely torched. Three minutes after the first attack, another group of five youth destroyed our front door and entered our home, Yasir said. They broke open cupboards and looted the jewellery inside.

I do not choose between Sinhalese and Muslim. by Muhammad Fahim, local resident

Businesspeople in the area explained how their shops and lifelong savings were destroyed.

Muslims in Ginthota and across parts of the island nation, where they form 10 percent of the population, have been living in fear and trauma, with many women and children refusing to return to their homes.

Galogodaththe Gnanasara  the hard-line monk from the Bodu Bala Sena, known for his incendiary remarks, particularly those that fuelled the anti-Muslim attacks in Aluthgama  told a press conference that there were approximately 500 youth who had assembled at the temple, presumably in response to the hysteria spread through social media. Addressing a media conference on November 21, Gnanasara, who has ties to Ashin Wirathu of Myanmar, was reported by one local newspaper as having boasted that he can orchestrate a bloodbath in under two hours.

Police say social media rumours about Muslims planning to attack a Buddhist temple triggered the violence.

Many local residents told Al Jazeera that the mob included people from inside the village. But one Sinhalese resident, a construction professional living in Ampitiya, denied involvement of village insiders. Sunil Gamage, who spoke under a pseudonym, noted that his home also came under attack.

The residents in this area [Muslim and Sinhalese] live in peace, and there is no problem between us, he told Al Jazeera.

Police and STF personnel have been patrolling the streets, along which most houses have had their gates smashed down and the glass window panes destroyed.

Muhammad Fahim, a young father of four boys, earns his livelihood by manufacturing and selling cement blocks for construction. The pick-up truck he used to transport his blocks was set ablaze.

A tearful Fahim explained how his home manufacturing plant was damaged and 800 of his cement blocks, which were ready for sale, broken to pieces.

Fahim cannot fathom how this could have happened to him: I do not choose between Sinhalese and Muslim, he said.
Saudi-led coalition has shut air, land and sea access to country, saying it will halt arms from reaching Houthi rebels.

The White House has said it looks forward to further steps by the Saudi-led coalition to allow humanitarian work to resume in Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition closed air, land and sea access to the Arabian Peninsula country for all humanitarian workers and organisations on November 6, saying the blockade would halt arms from reaching Houthi rebels.

Full and immediate implementation of the announced measures is a first step in ensuring that food, medicine, and fuel reach the Yemeni people and that the aid organisations on the frontlines of mitigating this humanitarian crisis are able to do their essential work, the statement said.

A UN spokesperson told Reuters news agency the coalition gave permission for UN aid workers to resume flights to the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa last week.

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The spokesperson said that aid workers are still not allowed to dock ships with much-needed wheat or medical supplies.

Years of conflict and international embargo have caused a famine in Yemen.

Roughly seven million Yemenis are dependent on food and assistance from humanitarian sources for their continued survival.

Yemens civil war has been raging since 2015, with the Houthis, a group largely composed of the Zaidi Shia minority, stormed Sanaa and deposed the internationally recognised president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The Houthis have links to Iran and the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah, which Saudi Arabia views as regional enemies.

Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, has also reportedly asked the Saudis to ease the blockade.

The United States continues to believe that this devastating conflict, and the suffering it causes, must be brought to an end through political negotiations, the White House said.
After the high court dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party, the Khmer looks virtually unopposed in next years elections, but the government insists that democracy is alive and well in Cambodia.

After the high court dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party, the Khmer looks virtually unopposed in next years elections, but the government insists that democracy is alive and well in Cambodia.

Cambodias ruling Party has been left unopposed in Parliament after the Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition party, the CNRP, last week.

It is the latest in a series of moves aimed at cracking down on criticism of the government.

But some opposition groups are not giving up.

Al Jazeeras Rob McBride reports from Phnom Penh.
Justin Trudeau delivers long overdue apology for decades of abuse of indigenous children at residential schools.

Justin Trudeau has apologised to hundreds of indigenous peoples in Canada who were forcibly placed into a system of boarding schools that were rife with abuse, but some local leaders say the prime ministers apology does not go far enough.

Trudeau apologised to the indigenous students who attended residential schools in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, on Canadas east coast, on Friday morning.

Today, I humbly stand before you to offer a long overdue apology, Trudeau said during a ceremony in the town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

To all of you, we are sorry.

About 150,000 indigenous children attended residential schools across Canada between the 1940s and late 1990s, when the last of the schools were closed.

Residential schools were created in an effort to assimilate indigenous children into white Canadian culture.

Students were neglected, separated from their families and communities, prevented from speaking their native languages and learning about their culture, and many endured severe physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

Today, we apologize to former students of Newfoundland and Labrador residential schools and to the families, loved ones, and communities for the painful & tragic legacy these schools left behind: https://t.co/BKatosyFfM pic.twitter.com/PsJ30Zr6zj  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) November 24, 2017

These are the hard truths that are part of Canadas history. These are the hard truths we must confront as a society, Trudeau said on Friday.

Speaking at the ceremony, Sarah Anala, a residential school survivor, said: to have the strength to stay alive until today is a miracle.

Anala said she hoped the apology would have an effect on younger generations.

Maybe today our younger people, our grown children, our grandchildren, will finally understand what had happened to us. And maybe our tears will now be more dry than before, she said.

Not satisfied

Trudeau also apologised to the families, loved ones and communities impacted by the tragic legacy of these schools and to anyone who attended the schools but has since passed away.

Sadly, not all former students are here with us today, having passed away without being able to hear this apology. We are sorry for not apologising sooner, for not righting this wrong before now. We honour their spirits and cherish their memories, Trudeau said.

However, in a statement earlier this week, the Innu Nation said it would not accept the prime ministers apology.

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Our elders are not ready to accept an apology that is made for such a small part of our experience, Grand Chief Gregory Rich said in the statement, according to CBC News.

Frankly, I dont think Canada is truly ready to make an apology to Innu if it does not include recognition of other damages done to our people  Im not satisfied that Canada understands yet what it has done to Innu and what it is still doing.

Indigenous children are over-represented in Canadas child welfare system: while Aboriginal children represented seven percent of all children in Canada in 2011, they accounted for 48 percent of all those in foster care.

Federal settlement

In 2008, Stephen Harper, Canadas then prime minister, apologised for the governments role in the countrywide residential school system.

But survivors in Newfoundland and Labrador were excluded from that apology  and an accompanying settlement  because Ottawa said the schools were in operation before the province formally joined the rest of Canada in 1949.

Hundreds of Indigenous children were placed in residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador between 1949 and 1979.

The schools were run by International Grenfell Association, an agency that provided health, education and other services in the province, and the Moravian Church.

Last year, about 800 residential school survivors from the province reached a nearly $40m settlement with the federal government in a class-action lawsuit.

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Canada owe a fiduciary obligation to the students who attended residential schools in the province, the lawsuits statement of claim stated, and to protect them from any abuse, be it mental, emotional, physical, sexual or otherwise.

The vulnerable children at the School relied upon Canada, to their detriment.

Toby Obed, a named plaintiff in that case, attended a residential school in Northwest River, Newfoundland, in the 1970s.

This apology has been a long time in the making. Too long, Obed said on Friday, his voice breaking several times during an emotional address.

Canada has now accepted responsibility for all that we went through and Canadians must now commit to learn more about their own history.

Cultural genocide

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Obed said the governments apology will allow survivors to finally begin to heal.

He added that he hoped it would lead to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Canada.

There is so much work left to be done. But now together, we can start, Obed said.

Canadas Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body entrusted with investigating the residential school system, concluded in 2015 that Canada had committed cultural genocide through the schools.

Residential schooling was always more than simply an educational program: it was an integral part of a conscious policy of cultural genocide, the commission said in its report.
After almost 40 years of one-man rule, Emmerson Mnangagwa faces many challenges as the countrys new president.

Harare, Zimbabwe  On Wednesday, two weeks after fleeing to South Africa, a beaming Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa emerged from his car to the thundering chants of Garwe! Garwe! Garwe!.

The roar only grew louder as the 75-year-old later took to the stage to address the cheering crowds.

Today, we are witnessing the beginning of a new and unfolding democracy, he told the thousands who had gathered to welcome home the man they believe can take Zimbabwe into a new era.

Popularly known as Garwe, or crocodile in Shona, after his days as a member of the 1960s Crocodile Gang that waged anti-colonial resistance acts against the white minority regime of the time, Mnangagwa is set to become Zimbabwes second leader and third president since independence in 1980.

Mnangagwa  also known as Ngwena (a totemic name for a crocodile) or E.D., after his initials  has long been seen as the man most likely to replace his mentor and Zimbabwes longtime leader, Robert Mugabe.

But things took a different turn as factional battles within the ruling ZANU-PF party over Mugabes succession pitted him, a vice president, against the presidents wife, Grace.

On November 6, the internal power struggle led to the dismissal of Mnangagwa, who fled to South Africa for safety.

But in a sudden move, the military seized power on November 15 and placed 93-year-old Mugabe under house arrest at his Blue Roof Residence in Harare. As pressure grew, Mugabe finally resigned on Tuesday, putting an end to his reign of 37 years.

Great expectations

Mnangagwas political shrewdness and ability to survive seemingly dire situations have seen him grow into his nickname.

Tales of his dramatic escape from Zimbabwe shortly after his firing as vice president could make for an action movie script, and have earned him wide popularity and sympathy among many Zimbabweans.

Many believe he represents change and could turn the countrys fortunes around.

During his vice presidency, Mnangagwa introduced the Command Agriculture scheme, an African Development Bank-backed programme designed to help communities become more self-sufficient.

Launched two years ago, the initiative is still in its infancy. But some analysts believe it has the potential to return Zimbabwe to its status as the breadbasket of the region.

As a prominent ZANU-PF official, Mnangagwa backed the seizures of white-owned commercial farms at the turn of the millennium.

However, in his home province of the Midlands he reportedly secretly protected some white farmers from being driven from their lands.

According to leaked intelligence reports reviewed by Reuters news agency, re-engaging white farmers could be one of the potential priorities in a post-Mugabe era.

Mnangagwa realises he needs the white farmers on the land when he gets into power  he will use the white farmers to resuscitate the agricultural industry, which he reckons is the backbone of the economy, reads part of the report.

International relations

In his first public remarks since fleeing into exile for safety, Mnangagwa expressed keenness in reshaping Zimbabwe into a more inclusive nation across the lines of race and political affiliation.

His vision for the country, he said, also includes re-engagement with the international community.

As Mugabes second-in-command, he has brokered multi-million dollar trade deals with Russia, China and South Africa.

In 2015, he led trade delegations to Europe in an effort to re-open lines of communication with the West which, in 2001, imposed targeted sanctions on top government leaders, including Mnangagwa, during one of Zimbabwes darkest decades of political and human rights violations.

Much to the chagrin of Mugabe, Mnangagwa has built up a rapport with foreign investors, the International Monetary Fund and local diplomats, including Britains ambassador to Zimbabwe, Catriona Laing.

Despite denials by Laing, the ambassador was criticised by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) opposition party for backing an incorrigible regime.

Old guard

While many supporters wave banners inscribed E.D. for a new Zimbabwe, in the belief the 75-year-old could reform the countrys economy, the reality is that Mnangagwa belongs to ZANU-PFs old guard.

Since 1980, he has held a number of roles, including minister of state security, minister of justice and ZANU-PFs chief election agent in 2008  all helping create the system that enabled Mugabe to remain in power.

The two have been close allies since the 1960s, when Mnangagwas family took in the young Mugabe when he was deployed as a rural teacher in their area.

They forged a friendship, with Mugabe taking Mnangagwa under his wing as his protege. Both were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for their anti-colonial acts. In jail, they studied law via correspondence.





Although tarnished by his role in ethnic massacres in the 1980s and intimidating the opposition, Mnangagwa has promised a new era of democracy under his leadership.

Alex Magaisa, a law professor and former government adviser, told Al Jazeera that Mnangagwa will have to work hard to cleanse his reputation.

With the economy in tatters and political stability wavering, Magaisa said improving peoples wellbeing could work well in his favour.

If the economy is fixed, people will generally be happy, he said.

On Wednesday, in his first public address since his dismissal, he vowed to bring a different political reality in Zimbabwe, which is scheduled to hold elections next year.

Never should the nation be held at ransom by one person ever again, whose desire is to die in office whatever the cost of the nation, he told the cheerings crowd.

After almost 40 years of one-man rule, Mnangagwa faces many challenges as the countrys new president.

Whether he will succeed remains to be seen.

Follow Tendai on Twitter and Instagram: @i_amten
Hafiz Saeeds release from house arrest in Lahore follows governments failure to get a court to extend his detention.

Islamabad, Pakistan  The US has expressed deep concern at the release of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed more than 160 people, calling for him to be arrested and charged for his crimes.

Saeed was released in the early hours of Friday in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, after a court rejected a government application to extend his detention under anti-terrorism laws, saying there was no evidence to support the application.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder had been under house arrest since January.

The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan, Heather Nauert, US state department spokesperson, said in an emailed statement.

LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens. The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes.

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Saeed denies any involvement in the Mumbai attacks or connection to LeT, which has been blamed for a series of deadly attacks against Indian security forces and civilians, mostly in the disputed territory of Kashmir.

In 2012, the US placed a $10m bounty on his head for his alleged role in the Mumbai attacks.

Saeed says he now heads Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a charitable organisation. Both the UN and US have designated JuD as a front for LeT, and many of its leaders, including Saeed, remain subject to UN and other international sanctions.

In 2002, Pakistan banned the LeT as a terrorist organisation, and, since 2008, authorities say they have been abiding by UN sanctions that subject JuD to an assets freeze, arms embargo, and international travel ban.

JuD, however, continues to operate freely across the country, and is often seen at the forefront of humanitarian relief efforts following natural disasters. It also runs a network of seminaries, and releases several periodical publications.

In August, the group launched a political party, taking part in a key by-election in Lahore.

Fiery Friday sermon

Addressing scores of supporters at midday prayers in Lahore on Friday, Saeed blamed his incarceration on Pakistans eastern neighbour, India.

He labelled Nawaz Sharif, who was recently removed as prime minister over corruption allegations, a traitor for pursuing peace with India.

Sharifs PML-N party remains in government, and he was succeeded by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a party loyalist, in August.

India registered its protest shortly after Saeeds release was ordered by the court.





India as indeed the entire international community is outraged that a self-confessed and UN proscribed terrorist is being allowed to walk free and continue with his evil agenda, Raveesh Kumar, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Thursday.

Kumar accused Pakistan of shielding and supporting non-state actors.

At the JuD headquarters in Lahore, Saeed was defiant, shaking hands with long lines of jubilant supporters who had gathered to welcome him after his release.

I am very happy that no accusation against me has been proven that would detrimental to either myself or my country, he said in a video statement shared just after his release in which he pledged to continue fighting for the Kashmiri cause.

I am fighting for the Kashmiri people, and will continue to do so.

Pakistani rebuttal

In response to the Indian criticism, Pakistan said it remains committed to the implementation of UN Security Council 1267 sanctions regime.

Pakistans resolve, actions and successes in the fight against terrorism, terrorist violence and terrorists is unmatched in the world, the Pakistan foreign office said in a statement.

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Pakistan condemns and opposes all forms of terrorism by any individual or group.

Pakistan also opposes and condemns acts of terrorism inside Pakistan and elsewhere by India, which claims to be a champion of democracy, and international law.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947 over Kashmir, which both claim in full but administer separate parts of.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting LeT and other armed groups that back the separatist movement in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan denies any role in the separatist movement.

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras Web Correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim
Mauritania has bolstered a contentious law on apostasy after an appeals court ordered the release of a local blogger.

Mauritania has moved to strengthen a law criminalising apostasy and blasphemy, after a court in the West African nation ordered the release of a local blogger who faced the death penalty for allegedly criticising the Prophet Muhammad.

An amendment to Article 306 of the countrys penal code will now see the death penalty applied to every Muslim, man or woman, who ridicules or insults Allah, his messenger, his teachings, or any of his prophets, even if [the accused] repents, according to state news agency AMI.

The change aims to adapt procedures to new situations that were not previously taken into account when the law was first passed in 1983, said Justice Minister Brahim Ould Daddah.

Officially an Islamic republic, Mauritanias legal system is based on a mix of French civil law and Islamic law. Previously, any person found guilty of apostasy under Article 306 faced the death penalty if he or she did not repent.

Someone charged with apostasy who showed remorse could be sentenced to up to two years in prison and a fine.

Blogger released

The change comes after a court in Nouadhibou, a town on Mauritanias northwest coast, ordered the release of blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir, who was sentenced to death for apostasy earlier this month.

Mkhaitir was arrested in January 2014 in relation to an online post in which he argued that some people in Mauritania justify discrimination on the basis of religion.

A Mauritanian court charged and convicted him of apostasy for allegedly speaking lightly of the Prophet Muhammad, and handed down a death sentence.

Mkhaitir repented before the courts, saying he never intended to disparage the prophet.

Mkhaitir spent several years behind bars as the case navigated the Mauritanian court system.

On November 9, an appeals court in Nouadhibou re-sentenced him to two years imprisonment and a fine of about $170.

Day of triumph

The ruling was welcomed as a great victory for Mauritanian justice, according to his lawyer, Mohamed Ould Moine. The judges respected Mauritanian law, taking into account his regrets and repentance, he told Reuters after the hearing.

Alioune Tine, Amnesty Internationals West and Central Africa director, said the decision marked a day of triumph for [Mkhaitir] and his family, as well as all those who campaigned on his behalf since 2014.

But Mauritanian prosecutors appealed the decision to release him and have called for the death penalty to be issued again, the Reuters news agency reported.

Thousands of people protested in the capital, Nouakchott, and other cities during the trial, demanding Mkhaitir be put to death, Reuters reported.

Mauritania has not carried out a death sentence since 1987.
Qatars foreign minister says countries must not use fighting terror as an excuse to attack opponents.

London, United Kingdom  Qatars Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has called on the international community to unite against groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Al Thani told the audience at the Westminster Counterterrorism Conference in London on Thursday that it is time for the international community to say enough is enough.

The event organised by the prestigious Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) brought together former and current counterterror officials and other experts in the field.

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According to Al Thani, Qatar is resolutely committed to ending extremism of all kinds and since 2004 had taken aggressive steps to cut the flow of finance to groups that have been designated terrorist organisations.

Qatar wants constantly to seek new collective approaches to the global threat of terrorism in a changing world, he said, before condemning neighbouring rulers in the region who had used terrorism as an excuse to persecute opponents.

Impulsive leadership

Al Thani told Al Jazeera that the impulsive leadership of Saudi Arabia was behind its attempts to isolate Qatar and for the crisis in Lebanon, whose Prime Minister Saad Hariri had purportedly been forced to resign by the Saudis.

I must emphasise the role of the rule of law and due process, because one of the main reasons terrorism flourishes is the absence of justice, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman told the conference.

We should not allow governments to disrespect the rule of law and due process and use terrorism as an excuse for persecuting their political opponents.

Dr Mutlaq Majed Al Qahtani, Qatars special envoy for counterterrorism, said no country was immune to what is now a global problem, making partnerships essential in the battle against extremism.

There are some countries, some politicians, some leaders, that are also using this concept to demonise, or victimise, or just attack their opponents by Dr Mutlaq Majed Al-Qahtani, Qatari special envoy for Counterterrorism

However, he said conflicts in countries such as Syria, Yemen and Somalia fuelled by the adventurism of some countries were exacerbating the political, legal and intelligence challenges that were obstructing cooperation in tackling terrorism.

There are some countries, some politicians, some leaders, that are also using this concept to demonise, or victimise, or just attack their opponents.

Calling for the agreement of a comprehensive international convention on counterterrorism to address these challenges, Al Qahtani called for the creation of a coalition of coalitions to consolidate a global response to terror.

Analysts at the event warned that while ISIL has suffered significant setbacks in Iraq and Syria in recent months, the group still posed a potent threat to security.

Dr Shiraz Maher, an expert on radicalisation at Kings College London, warned against the assumption that ISIL had been defeated in Syria.

He suggested that the organisation could return in some form to tap once again into the popular grievances that had sparked its acts in the first place.

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The sense of vulnerability, of insecurity, has only deepened with time, and to an extent our own involvement in this military campaign against ISIS by pummelling Raqqa has helped to deepen a crisis that will precisely provide ISIS with the narrative, the conditions, it would seek to exploit again in another year or two in order to come back, said Maher.

Franz-Michael Mellbin, the European Unions special representative to Afghanistan, warned about spillover of defeated ISIL fighters from Syria and Iraq into Afghanistan.

One of the very important lessons we need to learn from the Afghan context is that we prepare too little for when terrorism ends, he said.

This lack of preparedness we can see also in the post-Iraq/Syria situation.

Mellbin added that it was well known which states sponsored terrorism as a tool to further their foreign policy objectives.

We need to find a way to convince these actors that there are alternative ways, more legitimate ways, to achieve their foreign policy objectives, he said.
Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Herzegovina  In the early morning of July 10, 1992, the Bosnian Serb Chetnik army forced residents out of their homes in the village of Biljani, in western Bosnia, separating the men and women.

They set their houses on fire, killed the men and thew their bodies in a deep cave. Then they told the survivors they could go back to their homes.

When the women and children returned, they witnessed a devastating scene: everything had been burned to the ground, with their husbands and fathers nowhere in sight.

Amina Sljivo Becic was only four days old at the time when she lost her grandfather and 10 other family members in Biljani.

Yesterday, when they sentenced 74-year-old Mladic to life in prison, I asked myself, So, what now?' recounted Becic, 25.

Nothing can bring back my grandfather, who was overjoyed at the arrival of his first grandchild, me, who he didnt even get the chance to meet. Nothing can bring back the fathers of my friends, she said.

On Wednesday, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague sentenced former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic to life in prison.

The court found him guilty of 10 out of 11 counts, charged with genocide and war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s.

While the court found the general significantly contributed to genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995, it was not convinced of genocidal intent in six other municipalities.

I dont think the verdict against Ratko Mladic has satisfied justice, especially since the international community wants to throw dust in our eyes, wants us to be satisfied with the conviction for genocide in Srebrenica, Becic said from Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

But the six other municipalities werent treated in the same way. Percentage-wise, Biljani had the most victims.

More than 260 civilians were killed that day in Biljani, 15km west of Kljuc, one of the municipalities where Mladic was accused of committing genocide. Only about 50 men from the village survived  those who were by chance out in the orchard that day or working temporarily abroad.

After spending 16 years in hiding and five years standing trial, Mladic was also found guilty of carrying out and overseeing a deadly campaign of sniping and shelling of Sarajevo.

War victims agree that the charge of genocide should have applied to the six additional municipalities across Bosnia as well.

However, they are still partially satisfied with the outcome, since Mladic was found guilty of heavy qualifications, calling it a historical verdict.

While the ICTY prepares to shut down next month, victims still find little closure as reminders of the brutal war and threats of a subsequent one are ubiquitous.

Twenty years on, the countrys political scene is still of serious concern.

I think Mladics arrest and trial went on for a very long time, said Munira Subasic, who managed to bury two bones of her son just a few years ago.

While this was going on, a lot of Mladics were born in Bosnia and Serbia. Im not worried about Mladic himself anymore; he will end up where he belongs. But Im worried about these other, newly born Mladics who are perhaps even worse than Mladic himself.

Mladics vision realised

More than 100,000 people were killed during the war in Bosnia, while as many as 50,000 women were raped.

On November 21, 1995, the Dayton Peace Accords officially ended the three-and-a-half-year war, dividing Bosnia and Herzegovina into two semi-autonomous entities: the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska.

Today, Mladics vision of an ethnically cleansed Greater Serbia is a reality in the form of the Republika Srpska entity. Support for Mladic is widespread among Serbs in the Serbian entity and Serbia alike.

On the day of his verdict, posters of Mladic were put up on the streets of Srebrenica, in Republika Srpska, reading: You are our hero!

Following Mladics verdict, Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, stated in a press conference that a spot as a hero was reserved for Mladic long ago and this verdict cant change that.

[Mladic was] a man who prevented a new genocide on Serbs in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia  This is just one more shameful slap for Serbian victims, said Dodik.

For years, Dodik has repeatedly called for Republika Srpskas secession and openly denies that genocide occurred in Srebrenica.

Srebrenicas first Serb mayor, Mladen Grujicic, who was elected last year, shares this belief.

With their rhetoric, theyre supporting younger generations in glorifying him as a hero, said Fikret Grabovica, whose 11-year-old daughter was killed by a shell in besieged Sarajevo in 1993.

Its tragic to praise this criminal as a hero; this will affect the youth, many of whom still dont know the real truth. They dont want to be told the real truth; they are actually misinformed.

In recent years, reports of the Serbian Chetnik paramilitary group gathering and marching across the Serbian entity have been published in the news media.

They openly threaten another war in Bosnia and spread messages of reclaiming territory. Yet, this has not spurred any reaction from authorities.

Buildings and streets have been named after convicted war criminals and memorials have been set up in their honour. One such memorial praising Mladic was set up in Bosnias capital Sarajevo in 2014 on the line dividing the two entities.

Srdjan Susnica, an attorney from Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, explained to Al Jazeera that the Bosnian Serb society is not coming to terms with what happened, with the facts.

The Hague tribunal in this part of Bosnia is completely demonised, discredited, said Susnica.

[We have here] a relativisation of crimes, glorification of war and war participants. In Banja Luka, in the last five, six years, weve had streets renamed after people who were bandits, robbers during the war.

Ratko Mladics political idea was rewarded with the [Republika Srpska] entity, said Susnica. Republika Srpskas youth have been raised on narratives of Great Serbias legacy.

Meanwhile, in Serbia the media has left residents largely uninformed about the atrocities that occurred next door. According to an IPSOS poll conducted in October 2011, nearly half of residents in Serbia did not know why Mladic was standing trial at The Hague.

Only 15 percent of residents believed that more than 7,000 people were killed in Srebrenica.

Residents say for instance, Ive never even heard of that event. For example, Sarajevo was under siege for over 1,000 days, yet only 53 percent of residents said that theyve heard about this, said Svetlana Logar, of IPSOS.

Researchers say the media in Serbia simply has not been reporting on the crimes committed by Serb forces in neighbouring Bosnia. Following the news of Mladic;s landmark verdict, some of the headlines featured in Serbian newspapers the next day included: All of Ratko Mladics secrets, The Hagues doctor Mengel is killing Ratko Mladic, referring to the military chiefs heath issues, and Is The Hague tribunal the biggest concentration camp for Serbs?

Like Susnica, Marko Attila Hoare, historian at Londons Kingston University, believes the creation of Republika Srpska by way of the Dayton peace agreement drafted in November 1995 has been fostering anti-Bosnian nationalism and curbing Bosnias progress.

Bill Clinton and Richard Holbrooke [creators of the Dayton agreement] saved Ratko Mladics genocidal project Republika Srpska from destruction and legalised it, said Hoare.

Bosnia was destroyed as a functioning state and multi-ethnic society, and an ethnically homogenous Republika Srpska was established on its ruins.

As long as the Dayton system persists, you cant really have stabilisation. The issue of Republika Srpskas threats of sovereignty and of Bosnias territorial unity would have to be resolved by conflict eventually  Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot go on the way its been going indefinitely.

Follow Mersiha Gadzo on Twitter @MersihaGadzo
The issue of comfort women, women abducted from Korea and enslaved by Imperial Japan, has long complicated Japan-South Korea relations.

The issue of comfort women, women abducted from Korea and enslaved by Imperial Japan, has long complicated Japan-South Korea relations, and now a decision by the US city San Francisco to accept a memorial to the women has prompted accusations of Japan-bashing from the island nation.

A decision by San Francisco to recognise a memorial to women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military in World War II has strained ties with its sister city, Osaka.

The statue is part of a long-running effort by activists to shed light on a very dark chapter in the history of the conflict.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for South Korea to remove similar statues, while South Korean President Moon Jae-in has cast doubt on a 2015 agreement intended to settle the traumatic legacy between the two countries.

Al Jazeeras Rob Reynolds reports.
Foreign affairs minister says Rwanda is in negotiations to take in about 10,000 asylum seekers from Israel.

Israel is currently home to about 27,500 Eritrean and 7,800 Sudanese asylum seekers. Figures in a previous version of this story were incorrect.

The foreign affairs minister of Rwanda has confirmed the country is in negotiations with Israel to take in as many as 10,000 African asylum seekers, according to a local Rwandan newspaper.

In an interview with The New Times, Louise Mushikiwabo said the two countries have yet to reach an agreement on how many asylum seekers currently in Israel could eventually be resettled in Rwanda.

We have had discussions with Israel on receiving some of the immigrants and asylum seekers from this part of Africa who would be willing to come to Rwanda, Mushikiwabo told the newspaper.

If they are comfortable to come here, we would be willing to accommodate them. How its done and their livelihoods, once they are here, are details that have not been concluded yet, she said.

Mushikiwabo did not say when a possible transfer would take place.

40,000 asylum seekers

The ministers comments come less than a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his government would seek to remove 40,000 asylum seekers from the country without their consent.

This is very important, Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday, the same day the Israeli cabinet voted to close a detention centre in the countrys southern Negev desert that currently houses just over 1,000 asylum seekers.

Israel is currently home to about 40,000 asylum seekers, according to government figures. That includes 27,500 Eritrean and 7,800 Sudanese asylum seekers, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has reported.

Israeli officials have said they intend to shutter the Holot detention centre within the next four months and give remaining African asylum seekers two options: indefinite detention in Israel, or deportation to a third-country, with or without their consent.

$5,000 per person

According to Israeli daily Haaretz, Israel will pay Rwanda up to $5,000 for each asylum seeker it agrees to take in.

It will also pay each asylum seeker $3,500 to leave Israel and buy their flights out of the country, the newspaper reported.

The United Nations has raised concerns about potential deals to deport asylum seekers to a third country such as Rwanda, however.

As party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Israel has legal obligations to protect refugees and other persons in need of international protection, Volker Turk, UNHCRs assistant high commissioner for protection, said in a recent statement.
Activists say they have been abducted, tortured and interrogated over social media posts deemed critical of military.

Islamabad, Pakistan  When Zafar Achakzai, a journalist in the restive Pakistani province of Balochistan, heard a loud, insistent knocking on his door just before sunrise on June 25, he did not quite know what to expect.

When he answered, he was met by about a dozen armed men, some in Pakistani paramilitary uniforms.

They ordered me to come with them, the 21-year-old reporter told Al Jazeera by telephone. When we were some distance from my home, they blindfolded me, and then I was held at some unknown place.

For hours, he remained in the dark. Eventually, men came to ask him questions, to confirm his identity and take down details about his work. It was then that he asked them why he had been taken.

I was told that I use Facebook quite a lot. That is all that they said.

Achakzai was held without charge and interrogated repeatedly over the next three days. His interrogators, who refused to identify themselves, only said that they were concerned about several Facebook posts he had made that were critical of Pakistans powerful military.

They specifically identified three posts that were critical of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force, which controls much of the law and order in Balochistan, where an armed separatist movement and increasing Taliban-linked violence has raged for over a decade.

I responded by saying that the posts you are talking about come under my right to freedom of expression, he told Al Jazeera.

They said, dont talk about rights here.

He was released shortly after he was informed that an official case under the cybercrime act had been filed against him.

Achakzais abduction came soon after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) issued dozens of summons to people across Pakistan asking them to explain their social media activity and charging them with posting material that was against the national interest.

Those targeted included political and social activists, as well as at least one other journalist.

Achakzai and dozen others were accused of maligning state institutions under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), a law passed in August 2016.

PECA allows the government to issue takedown notices for any material deemed to be in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan  or public order, decency or morality.

The law was passed despite opposition from rights activists, who say the new legislation created overly broad categories for those who could be acted against, was against the principles of free speech, and left major definitions and rules vague or undeclared.

At the time, the government dismissed their concerns, saying the law was necessary to regulate a digital space that was not under any specific regulations or legislation until that point.

Activists now say that everything they were arguing is coming to pass.

Targeting dissent

Since the law came into effect, at least 147 people have been arrested and 194 cases registered under the law for various offences, including online sexual harassment, according to the interior ministry.

When the law was passed, all the concerns we raised when the law was in the making  those all came true after enactment, said Nighat Dad, a lawyer and executive director of the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF). All the provisions we said were vague that could be interpreted any way [the authorities] wanted, they have actually have done so.

Dads organisation, based in the eastern city of Lahore, runs a cyber-harassment hotline, which helps women who are harassed online to file complaints under the law. The governments priority, however, appears to be to act against those expressing dissent, she says.

I am seeing that the priority is not being given to those cases [of sexual harassment]; they are being given to cases that have to do with criticising the state.

Farieha Aziz, director at digital rights advocacy group Bolo Bhi, concurred, saying that the FIA and others appear to be targeting dissent.

There is a fixed mindset regarding national security and national interest, and that is deeply embedded in our entire system, she said.

The FIA says that people are being paid to say the most vile things about the army, and while that might be true, the line that has been blurred between raising questions and criticising, is very worrying.

International rights groups such as Amnesty International also say the crackdown has resulted in a shrinking of space for political and public expression.

The crackdown on freedom of expression in Pakistan is extremely worrying, as it is elsewhere in South Asia. One of the hopes of a return to civilian rule in Pakistan was a restoration of peoples rights. However, what we are seeing is a shrinking of civic space that is even worse than under [military rule], said Omar Warraich, the deputy South Asia director at Amnesty.

People are being arbitrarily detained and even disappeared for peacefully expressing their views, creating a climate of fear that runs counter to the promises of greater political freedoms that the PML-N government made.

Abducted, tortured, forced into exile

One of the first of those to disappear was Aasim Saeed, an IT manager based in Singapore who was visiting his home in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore last winter.

He was forcibly picked up from his home on the afternoon of January 6, and thrown into an unmarked pick-up truck by men in plain clothes.

They put handcuffs on me and a hood over my head, he said.

After a few minutes, during which Saeed says he was slapped and his mobile and other belongings were taken from him, they arrived at an undisclosed location.

They stripped me naked and made me change into a prisoners uniform. There were other people in the cells there as well, he said. I asked if I could keep my underwear on, and they said no.

After he had changed, he was once again handcuffed, with additional cuffs attached to his legs. He was blindfolded and taken to a basement, sat down at a desk and handed a blank sheet of paper.

I was told to write the story of my life. Everything about myself, when I was born, where I went to school, everything.

It took a few hours, he said: In that building, you lose sense of time.

What followed was three weeks of daily interrogation and torture, Saeed says.

They would keep me blindfolded and tie my hands above my head, he said. And then they would hit me on my back and legs  with a leather strap. Once, I fell unconscious, I fell off the contraption.

Every day, they would ask him about his political beliefs and accuse him of running a Facebook page that posted content critical of the Pakistani military, which has ruled the country for roughly half of its 70-year history.

No matter what answer I gave, I was slapped for every answer.

Saeed was one of five social media activists to be picked up within days of each other in early January. The men would later be accused of posting blasphemous material online, a charge that can carry both a judicial death sentence and the threat of murder by a mob in Pakistan.

The Pakistani government has repeatedly denied having any role in their disappearances. All of them were released by the end of January.

Saeed says he was held by members of an intelligence agency alongside at least two of those who were abducted during that time. During his three weeks of incarceration, he says he suffered a fracture in his right hand, a burst eardrum and bruises all over his body.

After you are tortured, you realise there is nothing else that can be done to you  so you become a bit brave, he said. I asked why are you doing this; put us in front of a court if we have committed a crime.

But there was no answer.

Saeed and several others were released from custody on January 27, after signing a confession and promising never to criticise Pakistans intelligence agencies again, or to speak to the media.

The next day, he fled back to Singapore, fearful that a mob may kill him over the blasphemy accusations that spread during the time he was in custody. At the time of Saeeds incarceration, his family told Al Jazeera they had received multiple death threats by phone and over SMS.

Government defends policy

The disappearances in January, and the subsequent crackdown by the FIA, has had a chilling effect on freedom of expression in Pakistan, say rights activists.

I absolutely believe that the disappearances were aimed at silencing critiques, said Dad, of the DRF.

We clearly have seen self-censorship. We see people who were very vocal and who have bold opinions about the state machinery and the things they are doing, they have tamed down their voices. There is a lot of self-censorship. Lots of people reached out to us, especially political bloggers and activists, asking us if they say something, whether it comes under PECA.

The government, however, disagrees with that assessment, claiming that authorities have been ordered to show restraint when taking on cases of dissent using the law.

We have a policy, that despite the law, that until there is not a post that is at a very extreme level, then we neither allow an inquiry nor authorise any arrests, Talal Chaudhry, minister of state for the interior, told Al Jazeera.

Article 19 of Pakistans Constitution Every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, and there shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, [commission of] or incitement to an offence.

Asked to define what that extreme level would be, Chaudhry said it would entail harsh criticism of the states institutions, including the military, or material deemed to be blasphemous.

As a policy and as a political party, we believe that there should be freedom of expression. But we have to look at this very carefully. First [there are] our religious beliefs  and second, if a military force is fighting against terrorism, and people are then [criticising] the martyrs of that force and you do not tackle it, then I think the force will be disheartened.

Asked if the law and its application have an effect on free speech, the government is clear in its stance.

It is very important to understand that in Pakistan  it is very clearly mentioned in Article 19 of the 1973 [constitution] that freedom of expression is conditional. It is conditional upon four or five things, including [not criticising] state institutions, friendly countries and some religious beliefs.

For activists who are facing the full force of the law, however, the implications are clear.

After all of this happened, of course I have been forced to change my online behaviour, said Achakzai, the journalist. Anything to do with raising questions about the government or law enforcement agencies, I have stopped doing that.

Saeed, who has applied for asylum in the United Kingdom over fears for his familys safety, says he, too, has started to self-censor, despite being in a foreign country.

I could only stay [in Singapore] as long as the job existed. If it ended, even after five years, I would have to go back to Pakistan, and these allegations will be with me my whole life.

I would have to go back to Pakistan, but I cannot do that. Killing me is a ticket to heaven for some people.

Follow Asad Hashim on Twitter: @AsadHashim
Senior police official and guard killed after their vehicle is hit by suicide attacker in northwestern Pakistani city.

Islamabad, Pakistan  A suicide attacker on a motorcycle has struck the vehicle of a senior police official in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing him and his guard, according to police.

Ashraf Noor, an additional inspector general of police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was on his way to work when the attack occurred on Friday morning.

Local police official Zaman Khan said three others were wounded in the explosion, which sent a plume of dark smoke rising above Peshawars Hayatabad area.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The attack was a latest in a series of attacks against the countrys police services.

Earlier in November, senior official Hamid Shakil was killed in a roadside bombing that targeted his vehicle in the southwestern city of Quetta.

Last month, another roadside blast killed at least seven police officers and wounded 22 more when it targeted a truck carrying elite anti-terrorism police, also in Quetta.

Pakistan has been battling the Pakistan Taliban (TTP), an umbrella organisation of armed right-wing groups mainly based in the countrys tribal areas, and its allies since 2007.

Violence has fallen sharply over the past few years, as the countrys military has taken on the TTP and others in operations first in the tribal districts and later elsewhere.

The Pakistani military says it has killed more than 3,500 members of armed groups over that period and suffered more than 600 casualties among its ranks.

Al Jazeera is unable to independently verify those figures, as access to the conflict zones is strictly controlled.

While attacks have now become more infrequent, major bombings have continued to occur in urban centres in 2017, particularly in Quetta, where the military is also battling an armed ethnic Baloch separatist movement.

Follow Asad Hashim on Twitter: @AsadHashim
Ordinary citizens in Harare tell of the issues they want the countrys new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to tackle.

Harare, Zimbabwe  Thousands of Zimbabweans from all walks of life have celebrated the inauguration of the countrys third president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, a man in whom many are placing their hopes for the future.

Mnangagwa is taking over from Robert Mugabe, the 93-year-old long-standing leader who resigned as the countrys president on Tuesday after 37 years in power.

Inaugurated on Friday, Mnangagwa symbolises a potential change from his predecessor.

He promised economic change, political inclusiveness and unity in his inauguration speech, saying that the country belongs to the [bigger] family of nations.

Al Jazeera spoke to Zimbabweans on the issues they want the countrys new president to tackle:

Theresa Hanga, 53, war veteran

I came all the way from Rusape [a small town 175km east of Harare] to see the new president being put in charge and Im just so happy that we have a new person to lead us.

I was a chimbwido [a female war collaborator] during the war. I was a young girl who would cook for the soldiers and tell them when the colonial soldiers were coming.

If it had not been for us working as their spies and feeding them, it would have been very difficult for them to win the liberation struggle, so I hope the new president will consider the needs of war collaborators.

He must not be like Mugabe who forgot us when he got into power.

Alice Mubaiwa, 48, vendor

Im very happy with the change in leadership and my biggest cry as a vendor is that there must be a change in the way the police treat us. I hope the fact that we now have a new president will mean this.

When they raid us, they round us up take us to the station and fine us $20 and they take our things. I have been arrested two times because I could not pay the fine, and when I came out, the police never returned my vegetables.

I hope President Mnangagwa will stop the police from treating us like this.

Im just struggling to send my children to school and to survive, but if the police keep taking my things, then how do I live?

Tendai Madanzi, 38, university administrator

Ive been working for the past 20 years  but I feel like Ive got nothing to show for it.

I should be accumulating things while Im still energetic and I have the ability to do it, but I cant.

I didnt leave Zimbabwe like other people. It was my choice to stay and build my life here.

So I hope the new president will consider that those who didnt leave Zimbabwe also deserve to earn a decent living and live a comfortable life.

Vernon Chidonga, 23, unemployed graduate

I studied chemical engineering in Cuba, but since I graduated in 2015, Ive not been able to find work.

I hope that the inauguration of a new president will mean that there will be more opportunities for young and qualified people.

I have lots of expectations of President Mnangagwa and I hope the system of appointing people because of connections or because of [their] tribe will come to an end.

The government should give people jobs and opportunities because they are capable and not because they are related [to them] or they have been paid something.

Those who are capable of delivering deserve to be given a chance to empower themselves.

Silent Chifere, 25, vendor

Today shows there could be a big change in our country and Im happy for that. But if we want Zimbabwe to succeed, then President Mnangagwa must find a way to solve this economic problem of ours.

I moved from the rural areas to the city with the hope of finding a job, but now Im here in the streets selling mangos.

I should be the one buying mangoes on my way home from work instead of being the one who sells them.

This really hurts me and I hope Mnangagwa can be a man who can create opportunities, not like Mugabe who destroyed so many.

Follow Tendai Marima on Twitter and Instagram @i_amten.
Myanmar and Bangladesh have signed a deal to send Rohingya refugees back to Rakhine State. But is it safe to return?

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar for nearly three months.

The mostly Muslim minority escaped a military crackdown in Rakhine State that the UN has labelled ethnic cleansing.

Today, more than 600,000 Rohingya are living in makeshift refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Now, the governments of the two countries have signed a deal to send the refugees back to Myanmar.

It is a decision human rights groups are calling unthinkable. They say the refugees should not be sent back if their safety cannot be guaranteed.

Extensive reports of abuse, rape, torture and killings have been detailed in Rakhine State.

The military says it is combating Rohingya fighters, but the operation has been condemned around the world. The government of Aung San Suu Kyi strongly denies accusations of abuse, however.

Will Myanmar guarantee the safety of the Rohingya refugees who return to Myanmar?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan

Guests:

Tun Khin  President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK

Ben Phillips  Humanitarian Officer, Oxfam

Gwen Robinson  Chief Editor, Nikkei Asia Review
Reza Aslan and Lawrence Krauss debate whether religion is inherently violent, and if science and faith can coexist.

Is religion a force of good or evil? A controversial question at times, but one that cant be avoided in the modern world. From violence and terror, to gender equality, to science, reason, and education  the faithful and the faithless tend to repeatedly clash over whether religion is a net positive or negative, whether it helps humanity more than it hurts it.

Religion is both a force of good and evil because religion is a man-made institution, and human beings are both good and evil, says Reza Aslan, a scholar of religion and best-selling author.

I dont know why it would come as a surprise to learn that the religious institutions that we create can also be responsible for profound acts of good and compassion and positivity, and for equally profound acts of violence and bigotry and hatred.

Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist and atheist, says religious institutions tend to be harmful to people.

Religious institutions have not only usurped the notion of morality, but on the whole promulgate ideas that are not useful, and often harmful for people, and take many people  many, many, many people who simply want to ask questions about the universe and make them feel bad, says Krauss.

When asked whether people will outgrow religion, Aslan, who just released his latest book, God: A Human History, says we are not going to outgrow faith.

The fact of the matter is that religion has always been in a state of evolution, says Aslan. Scientific knowledge is going to change religion. Its going to alter religious people, but it wont make it go away.

Krauss, who is also a best-selling author of numerous books on science, including his latest, The Greatest Story Ever Told  So Far, doesnt believe religion will disappear, but says more will turn to science.

When I was a young person, I thought by now we would have outgrown religion because, lets face it, the evidence of science is that theres no evidence for anything, for any purpose to the universe, any divine inspiration, says Krauss.

The more scientific literacy there is, the less of the intellectual basis will be there to support religion and well see more and more people finding other ways to add meaning and purpose to their lives.

In this weeks UpFront special, Reza Aslan and Lawrence Krauss debate religions place in society, whether religion is inherently violent, and if religion will continue to exist in years to come.

Follow UpFront on Twitter @AJUpFront and Facebook.
On 21 November, as part of the Coordination Framework for International Technical Cooperation with the State of Libya, the Libyan authorities, with the support of the UN Migration Agency (IOM) launched the Migration Working Group, chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and co-chaired by IOM. The Migration Working Group is one of the six []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
All or nothing at all -- three-quarters of a country never appealed to him, nor did the idea of a political entity called Northern Ireland that was created in 1920, comprising the six northeastern counties of Ireland in the province of Ulster. Gerry Adams is still adamant about the need for a united Ireland. As a political entity, the Republic of Ireland, first called the Irish Free State, was created in 1922. On November 18, 2017 the 69-year-old Adams, president since 1983 of Sinn Fein, the left-wing political party, announced that it was time for a change and that he would not run for another term in 2018, or seek re-election to the parliament of the Republic of Ireland, the Dail Eirean, which he represented in the border constituency of Louch.

Adams has been the dominant person in Irish republican politics for over 30 years, an individual whose activity made Sinn Fein, founded in 1905, a political force and a dominant group in the republican movement. He has been a major political figure, among other things an MP in the British Parliament for the constituency of West Belfast for a number of years. However, like his party colleagues he was an absentee from Westminster, unwilling to take his seat in order to avoid the obligatory House of Commons oath of loyalty to the Queen.

The essential controversial aspect of the complex Adams is the amnesia about his membership, role, and indeed leadership of the IRA, the Irish Republican Army. He had entered politics to defend the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland from discrimination and attacks by Loyalist extremists, as did other Catholic republicans concerned with discrimination in employment, housing, and police actions. His introduction was the civil rights march in Londonderry (Derry to the republicans) on October 5, 1968. But this led to his membership in the IRA, which he never admitted, and whose actions he never condemned.

Ambiguity surrounds him. Is Adams to be regarded as a terrorist or helpful in peacemaking? At the core of the problem is his denial, against the opinion of unprejudiced people, that he was a member of the IRA. His father was an IRA member who was jailed for eight years for his activity in an ambush. Adams may, probably, have joined the IRA in the 1960s and became its commander. The armed wing of the IRA, the Provisionals, was a violent group to which 1800 deaths are attributed between 1970 and 1997.

It is almost certain Adams was a member of the IRA Army Council and was involved in the July 1972 Bloody Friday events when the IRA set off 26 bombs in and around Belfast. In recent years, Adams was accused of taking part, indeed ordering, in December 1972 the execution of a woman wrongly accused of being a police informer; her body was not found until 2003.

It is worthwhile to compare Adams with his longtime associate Martin McGuiness, an acknowledged proud member of IRA, who admitted his role, and who renounced terrorism and became the chief negotiator for Sinn Fein in peace talks.

McGuiness is assumed to have been the IRA chief of staff., and the second in command of the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre in Londonderry. But he became minister of education between 1999-2002 in the power-sharing arrangement, and on May 8, 2007 became deputy first minister, under Ian Paisley, his former rival, the loyalist politician, Protestant religious leader, and founder of the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP.

On an historic occasion McGuiness met Queen Elizabeth and exchanged handshakes, a highly symbolic union of nationalists and unionists. He even toasted the Queen at Windsor Castle. He was admitted to President Obama's St. Patrick's Day celebration, while Adams was not, for "security" reasons.

But the legacy of Gerry Adams remains, and the future of Northern Ireland remains unresolved. The republicans, mostly Catholic, primarily want to be part of the Republic of Ireland though the conflict is basically territorial, not religious.

The Northern Ireland entity functioned as a self-governing region of the United Kingdom, with headquarters at Stormont, outside of Belfast, and controlled by Protestant Unionists who did not want to be part of a self-ruled Ireland. Violence occurred, with over 3,500 killed and more than 50,000 injured over the 30-year period known as the time of Troubles. It was the multilateral Belfast Agreement, Good Friday April 10, 1998, that set up a devolved system of government and introduced power sharing in Belfast. The coalition between the two groups ended in January 2017, when the chief nationalist group, Sinn Fein, withdrew from the coalition. effectively bringing government to a standstill.

Can peace come and the coalition be restored? Sinn Fein is now the largest left-wing party in the Republic of Ireland, with 23 of the 158 seats, and the largest national party in the Northern Ireland Assembly with 27 of 90 seats. If love is not present, can hatred be ended between the two sides? As Adams is departing his party leadership, Sinn Fein appears to have increased its demands, especially for the use of the Irish language to be given the same legal status as English and to legislate same-sex marriages.

The Troubles of the late 20th century seemed to be over after the 3,500 killed between 1968 and 1998. The essential problem is whether Sinn Fein nationalists can return to support power sharing, or whether the problems of culture and identity will continue. Will Sinn Fein still honor the memory of the IRA, and continue to commemorate IRA members killed in conflict? The answer is made more uncertain because the whole issue is interrelated with the problem of Brexit in Britain and the likelihood that the citizens of the Republic of Ireland would have to pay higher taxes if it absorbed the northern six counties.
What's a witch-hunter to do when there's no witch, and witchcraft itself turns out to be imaginary? When even the latest accusation against the biggest scapegoat of the house is a crock?

Alan Dershowitz, a liberal in good standing with occasional fits of constitutional sanity, has called on Bob Mueller, aka "The Special Prosecutor," to resign, 'cause there's no there there.

Professor Dershowitz points out that Trump may be guilty of sins "but not crimes." Well, if POTUS Trump is a sinner, I hope the Lord forgives him, along with the rest of us. But if all sinners went to Hell, there would be no room for the rest of us.

The case against Bob Mueller and his squad of Democrat witch-hunters is much stronger than merely fraud against the taxpayer. Purely politically motivated persecutions under color of law are major violations of the United States Constitution and English Common Law, from which our everyday laws are largely derived. In civilized legal codes, persecutions of designated witches under color of law (any law they can find or make up) are strictly forbidden and should be punished by ABA disbarment, imprisonment, and perhaps confiscation of ill gotten gains. This would include every single taxpayer penny spent on this enormous hoax.

This is the problem that faced the Vatican Office of the Inquisition in the 19th century, when Vatican cardinals began to wonder if burning Catholic heretics was still trendy. In Massachusetts, the Puritan divines stopped ordering scarlet letters for women accused of adultery. And with the rise of the political Enlightenment and the Constitution, scapegoating went out of fashion in civilized circles, with the exception of KKK lynchings in the South and numerous mobs aimed at victims of agitprop in Marxist and Hitlerite parts of the world.

So here's Bob Mueller's big, big problem.

Byron York, one of the best conservative reporters, has leaked a guvmint confession that, just as you thought, the FBI "was never able to verify" the infamous Moscow pee-pee report that triggered the totally phony campaign against Donald J. Trump. "The FBI was never able to verify" is an admission against interest, as they say in the legal game, meaning "Oops! The prosecution doesn't have a case!" It is indeed a confession of criminal prosecutorial misconduct, and all the perverters of justice in the FBI and DOJ have violated their oath of office and must resign. Or go to prison. Or both.

In other words, the FBI and those phony intelligence agencies that dropped malicious disinformation to start the political wildfire of Trump-Putin misconduct were spreading lies, lies, lies. In a just world, the accusers would be standing in the dock, wearing fireproof clothing to get ready for the witch's pyre.

Unfortunately, once the special prosecutor is launched, backed by the U.S. guvmint, he can never confess to being wrong. This is why the U.S. Constitution makes no provision for witch-hunters in the first place.

Don't forget that the Founders saw the French Revolution (from a distance) and knew that the French aristocrats who were guillotined to delight the sans-culottes were not found guilty by any rational means after due process. Nope, they were just head-chopped to satisfy the bloodthirsty mobs in Paris, and that stopped only when Napoleon started to shoot down the mobs. Napoleon shot and hung the biggest perps and then crowned himself emperor. The founders, on the other hand, had tried to write a Constitution to avoid that whole slew of disasters.

Now, Byron York's report that "the FBI has been unable to verify" the pee-pee dossier is a serious problem for that ugly pimple on the US Constitution called the "special counsel" or the "special prosecutor."

The special prosecutor is a made-up critter who violates all the principles of justice, fairness, and the Constitution. It was created by legislative fiat and never reviewed by the Supremes, who just danced around it to avoid the heat of controversy. Let's face it: the Roberts Court is not the most heroic court of justice in U.S. history.

But now Robert Mueller and his gang of witch-hunters have spent a year and wasted vast amounts of your money pursuing a mirage  while they've also been illegally feeding red meat to a media whose members have lost their senses in a classical scapegoating campaign. Shakespeare wrote about it in "Julius Caesar," Plato and Cicero wrote about it, and the Scriptures cover it. Hammurabi wrote about it. None of them approved of mob "justice."

The tradition of secret prosecutorial leaking to the liberal media was started by Counsel Sam Dash of the Senate Watergate Committee, who kept the hungry sharks and hyenas fed with Nixon tidbits while swearing up and down that he was doing no such thing.

So what's Bob Mueller to do? Byron York just leaked his confession that the case against Trump is completely, you might say, trumped up. There's nothing there  zilch, zero, nada  and the truth is that the whole Washington mob that ate up the "dossier" before it was made public, to satisfy their crazed hatred of Trump, also knew that it was a crock. The now infamous MI6 spook Chris Steele must have known that the peeing prostitutes in Moscow were a crock, or he would have demanded video evidence. Mueller, Comey, Clapper, Brennan, and all the Obamanoids of yesteryear also knew. The NYT-WaPo knew. Any sane conservatives keeping track knew. The Russians, Chinese, and Slovaks knew. Heck, even the corruptocrats of the United Nations knew it, but then that's their warped sense of due process anyway.

Mueller and his hot-breathing persecutors are doing Gestapo-style early-morning FBI raids on Paul Manafort and his wife, in their holy zeal to find a victim, any victim, for sheer suspicion of misconduct, with charges to be made up as an afterthought.

This violates the U.S. Constitution's prohibition against ex post facto laws and Bills of Attainder, which are basically phony laws made up long after the perp is known to be innocent. Martha Stewart and Scooter Libby are classical victims of ex post facto "laws," and somebody in Trump's orbit is now being tortured (if only by punitive costs and public shaming) because Bob Mueller's job is to find a scapegoat, any scapegoat. After promising a satisfying revenge to the Hillary die-hards, the liberals are afraid of their own running mob and need a bleeding carcass for the happy ending.

Got that? Bob Mueller and the posse are deathly afraid of their own mob, because if they come back without a victim, their own mob is going to turn against them. And they'll never be invited to those D.C. cocktail parties again.

That's Mueller's problem.

The obvious answer is to go back to the Bible, the Book of Leviticus, which provides for two sacrificial goats  one for God and one for Azazel, to be sacrificed by being thrown into the Valley of Hinom. The bad goat would bear all the sins of the people, who could then face a new year of sinning without guilt. It was a get out of jail free card.

The Democrats and their fellow primitives want blood, and the solution of the Hebrew Bible was to give them a consolation prize, a sacrificial goat killed in the name of Azazel. That would solve Bob Mueller's problem today, and it would satisfy the NYT-WaPo as long as they got the front seat at the sacrifice. Under the relatively humane rules of Kosher animal slaughter, it wouldn't hurt the goats much more than the electrical stunning slaughterhouses use today.

The special prosecutor statute is invoked by the NYT-WaPo Axis of Evil, the Democrats, and the monsters of the deep only when they hate a president to death. How's that for constitutional law? It applies only to folks like Nixon, George W., and Donald J. Trump. These duly elected Republican presidents are nailed on the cross for the rock-hard faith of the media-Democrats-mad left that POTUS has committed crimes  without due process of law, needless to say.

The special prosecutor is a run around the Constitution, and it suggests to sane observers that the Supreme Court can no longer limit itself to reviewing challenges to existing statutes and madcap regulations. The Supreme Court must conduct a regular review of all federal statutes and regulations that are plainly unconstitutional and present them to Congress for reversal.

All it requires is a constitutional amendment, since the current role of the Supremes was just a decision by John C. Marshall that was never in the Constitution in the first place. The new Amendment should abolish special prosecutors and other witch-hunting aberrations of constitutional principles forever. They are an offense to common sense, a reversion to lynch mob law, as Clarence Thomas so famously said when the electronic lynch mob went after his nomination.

So now we know beyond a reasonable doubt that Bob Mueller is guilty, guilty, guilty.

Do you want a scapegoat? Here's one that's clearly guilty.
The pro-immigration lawyers are apoplectic, which is always a sign for celebration. As in other Trump achievements during his first year, the President is accomplishing a cutback on foreign tech workers displacing Americans entirely on his own. The Republican Congress remains stubbornly opposed to the immigration restrictions Republican voters want.

The main tool at President Trumps disposal is the appointment of a new agency head, in this case Francis Cissna as director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), who came on board in October, followed in swift order by the novel idea of actually following the law and scrutinizing visa applications.

Unsurprisingly, the law calls for high-skilled visas for foreign workers to fill critical jobs. Instead, Silicon Valley and the Obama Administration abused the privilege and used it to import cheap STEM workers to replace higher-paid Americans. H-1B visas are heavily used by outsourcing firms. First, they bring a worker here to be trained by skilled Americans. Then they shut down the American facility and outsource the jobs to India. Not a nice policy for the U.S. government to actively support.

Wages in the IT industry rose rapidly throughout the 1990s, but have been essentially flat or declining in the past decade, which coincides with the rising number of guest workers on temporary visas. (snip) Companies so routinely evade protections in the visa system designed to prevent displacement of American citizens that immigration lawyers have produced videos about how it is done. For instance, tech companies that import temporary workers, mainly recent graduates from India, commonly discard more expensive, experienced employees in their late 30s or early 40s, often forcing them, as Ron Hira and other labor-force researchers note, to train their replacements as they exit. Age discrimination, Hira says, is an open secret in the tech world.

Controlling the abuse of H1-B visas is a core part of Trumps agenda to bring jobs of American companies back home.

Outsourcing companies use the temporary visas to bring workers to the US to learn the jobs that the client company is planning to move to temp workers home country. The 10 firms with the largest number of H-1B visas, the most common visa for high-skill workers, are all in the business of shipping work overseas, and former Indian commerce minister Kamil Nath famously labeled the H-1B the outsourcing visa. These practices have helped to reduce incomes and career prospects in STEM fields drastically enough to produce what UC Daviss Norman Matloff calls an internal brain drain of talented Americans to other, more promising career opportunities such as Wall Street, healthcare, or patent law.

Under Trump, our immigration agency is doing its job, to protect American jobs. More than a quarter of the applications are being sent back for further proof of necessity. Most of the refused visas are for programming jobs at the low end of the pay scale, unlikely to be critical skills Americans cant supply.

More immigration restrictions are expected soon. Obamas Immigration service automatically granted wives of H-1B visas the right to work here, taking American jobs. That regulation was challenged in court, and the Trump DOJ is expected to drop the defense and allow it to become illegal.

Obama also instituted a program giving green cards to every foreign graduate of an American college with a masters or PhD in a STEM field -- even though hundreds of thousands of STEM graduates are unemployed or underemployed, and are being forced to leave science and engineering fields.

The Wall Street Journal:

Two big regulatory changes are looming that would undo actions by the Obama administration that eased the way for high-skilled foreign workers the Optional Practical Training program, which allows foreign graduates from U.S. colleges in science and technology an extra two years of work authorization, giving them time to win an H-1B visa. The Trump administration could kill that benefit or reduce the two-year window, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Including subcategories, we have 185 different visa programs, a rich field for abusing the law and American workers by large multinational and IT firms.

Another section of the swamp is being drained, one destructive regulation at a time.
The Associated Press has come out with a treacly, coddling, awww story about Colombia's wonderful narco-terrorist guerrillas getting free state money to broadcast communist propaganda.

That's the gist of the superficially reported story headlined "Colombia rebels trade combat for cameras with new TV network."

It shows the mainstream media's soft spot for leftist causes and its nonstop romanticization of terrorists.

Because sure, it sounds innocuous enough. What could be more wonderful than previously jailed terrorists turning their lives around and becoming TV announcers? You know  the old story of downfall and redemption? The Sorosian "narrative" of incarceration bad, let-'em-out good? The AP starts with:

The live program is produced by Nueva Colombia Noticias, a budding video network started by former guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that aims to offer an alternative to what some see as a media landscape crowded with biased, traditional outlets.

Bias, of course, is reporting any of the facts about FARC's car bombings, kidnappings, drug-dealings, assassinations, and the like.

If you haven't been following Colombia much, here's the broad backstory in two paragraphs:

After 50-some years of narco-guerrilla communist warfare, Colombia, under the great President Alvaro Uribe, had the terrorists on the run. There were only some 7,000 of them left, and they could have been wiped out victory-style. Problem is, his term ended. And President Obama, as you can imagine, not so subtly discouraged him from running for a third term, which he likely would have won. Uribe's successor, Juan Manuel Santos, wasn't the same kind of leader as Uribe. Coming from an old patrician family that ran the capital's top newspaper, El Tiempo, he was conservative in the older sense of Colombia's conservatives, meaning he did things the way things were always done in Colombia, which was to pay off and amnesty the guerrillas.

He negotiated a "peace" settlement with Castro's help in Cuba, and after several years, he came up with one, in which FARC's Marxist narco-terrorists, naturally, got a great deal for themselves, with impunity, free government cash, all kinds of rewards for a life of terror and horror on the Colombian public. A referendum was held last year. Much to the establishment's shock, the public rejected it. The Nobel committee was so upset about this that they gave Santos a Nobel Peace Prize to embolden him. So, naturally, the peace agreement went through via the legislature and the public's voted-on wishes were simply ignored. Pope Francis this year came to Colombia to whip up support, but not with much luck. The Colombian public remembered all too well the kidnappings, the car bombings, the torture-murders, the child murders, the child soldiers, the woman-trafficking, the village and church burnings, the drug money corruption, the vast displaced populations in the cities, and the sick tissue of lies and propaganda the communist terrorists kept feeding to the intelligentsia about how ordinary Colombians were the real bad guys.

Now the AP is reporting a glowing tale of guerrillas turning their lives around, becoming "productive."

Later on in the piece, we learn that they had already been "productive," well experienced in filming car bombings and making hostage videos:

A number of the rebels already had some experience working with cameras as de-facto war correspondents, when they recorded bombings and other confrontations with the military using camcorders provided by their commanders.

And when they say "productive," they don't exactly mean self-sustaining. They expect government funds.

Manuel Bolivar, the director of Nueva Colombia Noticias, said the outlet is focusing its coverage on issues like social movements, inequality and human rights  many of the same topics that the FARC's political party has identified as priorities. He said news organizations like Venezuela's Telesur and the Russia's RT network, both of which are state-sponsored, were examples of the type of outlet his endeavor aspires to be, though with its own distinct voice.

So what they are about is becoming a station for communist propaganda, funded by the state. The state doesn't fund other kinds of media  just the communist media.

Just as it feeds and houses the terrorists themselves:

One year after the signing of the accord, the ex-combatants are living in a hotel paid for by the Colombian government, teaching themselves how to operate cameras and gearing up to launch a daily newscast.

The AP didn't see anything funny in that, given their advocacy and sympathetic portraiture of the guerrillas themselves.

Its cuddly, coddly portrait of the lead terrorist, Marilu Ramirez, in its opening grafs is a case in point.

Portrayed as a guerrilla turning over a new leaf, and giving plenty of time to her claims of no wrongdoing, the reality is, Ramirez was sentenced to 27 years in prison for a reason.

The Colombian press reports that she infiltrated Colombia's war college as a civilian in 2006 with a certificate in national defense; sidled up next to the generals in sleazy clothing; got their addresses and the names of their kids and their personal information; forked it over to the FARC command; and then let a car-bomber in in a big SUV, who exploded a bomb during a time when the U.N. human rights commissioner was paying a visit, injuring 27 people. She got caught when her information was found on a captured FARC computer out in the jungle, and she got convicted and thrown into jail in 2007. She complained that she was innocent but then got to what was really bothering her: that her four FARC confederates got shorter sentences than she did.

Here's a photo montage from Semana.

Wittingly or not, the AP piece serves as a window on how awful the Colombian peace accords really are based on all the gamy details and the unpunished crimes. Wittingly, it's nothing but a coddly pro-terrorist piece that seeks to romanticize nasty terrorists in the full radical-chic tradition.
CNN has a long, pious, pompous, doleful piece out about how President Trump has diminished America's standing in the world, by its international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson.

File under Must Be Read To Be Believed.

When I last came to Washington in January days after Donald Trump's inauguration, the city was the epitome of pull power. Theresa May had dashed over from London to be the first world leader to congratulate Trump face to face. They even held hands. Now, 10 months later, despite May extending the Queen's offer of a State visit to the UK  the pomp and pageantry of which would no doubt delight Trump  he has not taken up the offer. There is a chill on the "special relationship." Indeed, the 45th President is having a significant cooling effect on most of America's international relationships.

So let's get this straight here: Trump is being thrown the red carpet, he's playing hard to get, and somehow America is growing weaker and more diminished because of it?

That's what Robertson is arguing, incredibly enough, with that engine-starter anecdote above. And his conclusions are here [italics and boldface mine]:

One former career public servant told me that the country's global standing as a power for good is being undermined by the Trump White House.

...and...

Theresa May is not the only international leader to have discovered President Trump is in fact Candidate Trump and that he heads an America in retreat.

...and...

America's influence is thereby diminished.

...and...

Washington feels less international because of Trump's rhetoric and policies.

Memo to Nic: Global standing comes from power. When great nations are throwing out the red carpet as never seen before, not just the U.K. as his example above describes, but China, too, which feted President Trump in the Forbidden City for the first time for any U.S. president, instead of making a president exit out the back end of Air Force One, as the Chicoms did with President Obama, what we are seeing is greater U.S. power and influence, not less.

It's as if Robertson doesn't know how power works.

Yet we are seeing astonishing foreign policy success as never before. We see China cooperating on North Korea to an unprecedented extent. We are seeing ISIS shriveling into grease spots on the desert floor, and having recruiting problems. We are seeing the military freed to fight without one hand tied behind its back from the White House micromanagers. We are seeing Iran getting some real problems from Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia itself cleaning up its Wahhabist act, allowing female drivers and throwing corrupt princelings who likely funded al-Qaida under arrest.

These are amazing achievements in just one short year. Nations are awed and offering their finest red carpets, royal invitations, Forbidden Cities, and sword dances.

In the Middle East in particular, as Spengler (David P. Goldman) writes, Trump has had astonishing success, summing up the reality quite well with his opener.

President Trump's Middle East policy is simple: Back our friends and scare the hell out of our enemies, and negotiate where possible with our competitors like Russia and China. By and large it's working, unlike the catastrophically failed polices of the previous two administrations. Trump did what he said he would do and succeeded. You wouldn't know that from the #fakenews media.

Listen to Spengler, not the swamp things crying in their beer.
Alabama voters may not behave as MSM liberals and NeverTrump conservatives expect them to. Both groups are not taking the bait expensively dug up by Bezos Washington Post reporters sent into Alabama to dig up dirt on Moore. Maybe it is distrust of the media, or maybe it is something else, but Roy Moore has surged into a lead in two different polls of Alabama voters (hat tip: Breitbart).

Alabama Today on Wednesday:

Alabama's special U.S. Senate election is less than one month away and a new poll shows Republican nominee Roy Moore holding a solid lead over his Democratic opponent Doug Jones. In a poll conducted by Sky Research on Tuesday Nov. 21 among registered Alabama voters, the results show Moore with 46.7 percent support to Jones' 39.6 percent. 13.7 percent of voters polled remain undecided. With a margin of error of 3.1 percent, Moore maintains significant lead over Jones, but the undecided voters could swing the election either way. When asked "Do you consider your political views to be more in line with the Republican or Democrat party?," 62.3 percent of 1,059 respondents identified as Republican, while 37.7 percent Democrat.

Another poll a few days earlier also showed Moore with a lead, as reported by Breitbart the same day:

MEMORANDUM TO: Major Donors and SuperPAC DirectorsFROM: Rick Shaftan, Atlantic Media and Research @shaftanRE: Survey, Alabama 11/18-21DATE: 11/22/17 Atlantic Media and Research completed 623 surveys of Alabamavoters who had participated in both the 2014 and 2016 general elections and said their chances of voting in the December 12th special election for U.S. Senate were "definite" or "very likely." The theoretical margin of error is +/- 3.9 percent in 95 percent of cases at a 50 percent response level. All calls were made by live operators to both landlines and cellphones from our facilities in Rodanthe, North Carolina.43 percent of respondents were reached on cellphones and 27 percent are identified on the voter file as being African-American. The project was completed at the request of several major SuperPAC donors. SUMMARY Republican Roy Moore holds a 43-40 lead over Democrat Doug Jones under a "worst case" weighting scenario where younger voters turn out at a level equal to that in the 2014 general election. Moore led 43-37 in the raw data. Both candidates have high negatives. Roy Moore has a favorable rating of 31 percent and an unfavorable rating of 39 percent. But Jones is also a net negative, with just 32 percent viewing him favorably and 35 percent unfavorably. These numbers are a bigger problem for Jones than Moore, however. While 88 percent of Jones unfavorables are voting for Moore, Jones is only able to win 75 percent of Moore unfavorables, while Moore still holds 8 percent of their votes.

A Moore victory is far from certain, but his defeat has been confidently predicted (just as was Hillary Clinton's victory). If Moore wins, can we expect efforts to boycott Alabama on the model of gay marriage bullying of North Carolina and Indiana?
(ANSA) - Florence, November 24 - Leonardo da Vinci's famed Codex Leicester is set to return to Italy after over 20 years.

The codex will be loaned by its owner Bill Gates to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence which will put it on show from October next year until January 2019 in the run-up to 2019's 500th anniversary of the death of the Tuscan genius, Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt said Friday.

The manuscript, which mainly treats scientific subjects, was bought by Gates in 1994 who paid American oil tycoon Armand Hammer some 30.8 billion dollars for it.

It is coming back to Italy on the basis of an agreement, Schmidt said, "on which intense work was done since 2015, when the Codex was shown in Minneapolis".

The last time the Codex was shown in Italy was in 1995, at Palazzo Querini Dubois a Venice. Its last appearance in Florence was in 1982, when it was the focus of a monographic show that attracted huge crowds.

The Codex Leicester (also briefly known as Codex Hammer) is named after Thomas Coke, later created Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1719. Of Leonardo's 30 scientific journals, the Codex may be the most famous of all. The manuscript currently holds the record for the second highest sale price of any book, as it was sold to Microsoft founder Gates at Christie's auction house on 11 November 1994 in New York for US$30,802,500 (equivalent to $49,772,200 in today's money).

The Codex provides an insight into the inquiring mind of the definitive Renaissance artist, scientist and thinker as well as an exceptional illustration of the link between art and science and the creativity of the scientific process.

The original title of Leonardo's notebook may have been On the Nature, Weight and Motion of Water. The Codex has been described by exhibit curators as a "booklet of notes, observations and experiments for strictly personal use".

Physically, it consists of 72 handwritten pages bound in red leather, containing 360 diagrams and drawings relating to Leonardo's experiments in hydraulics, geology, paleontology, mechanics and astronomy, as well as speculative designs for such then-unheard-of inventions as the submarine and the diving mask.


In Cisternino, conference on the most beautiful Med villages Focus on preservation and promotion

(ANSAmed) - CISTERNINO (BRINDISI), NOVEMBER 24 - Mediterranean towns and their historical centers are a heritage of great value that urgently needs protection, promotion and sustainable development. For this reason, the municipality of Cisternino - in cooperation with the Association 'The most beautiful villages of Italy' and the Puglia region - is hosting an initiative called 'The most beautiful villages in the Mediterranean area'. The event includes a series of conferences and thematic meetings that are open to experts, citizens, tourists, operators in the historic, artistic, architectural, food and agricultural sectors to promote and develop policies of international cooperation, social integration and youth employment, as well as to promote the history, culture and tourism sectors.



The conference, which was officially inaugurated last night, has reached its fifth edition. Today's session will focus on 'Preservation, recovery and valorization of historic centers in small villages', which is also the theme of upcoming events and projects until November 26. Exhibits, concerts, food and wine tastings have also been organized. The day will continue with a session on the future of historic centers through strategies of sustainability.



The theme on Saturday morning will be the 'Recovery of architectural activity', then two panels will examine the issue of the regeneration of villages and development policies. On Sunday, sustainable tourism will be on the agenda. Delegates from Mediterranean countries including Morocco, Albania and Palestine are scheduled to participate. (ANSAmed).




Migrants: Libyan sources, total of 450 Africans rescued By Libyan Navy, in addition to 250 announced last night

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, NOVEMBER 24 - The Libyan Navy has rescued 200 migrants from Africa in addition to 250 others yesterday east of Tripoli, Libyan sources said Friday.



The rescue operation was reportedly carried out by the ''Ibn Auf'' vessel. The announcement was not made yesterday because, when the press release was about to be published by the Libyan Navy and coast guards, the ship was still carrying out other rescue operations, according to officials.



Last night, 250 African migrants aboard two vessels were reportedly rescued by the Libyan Navy off the coast of Gasr Garabulli, east of Tripoli. The migrants included 93 women and 26 children.



The migrants were taken to the naval base of Tripoli where humanitarian assistance was provided by UNHCR and IOM personnel, the Libyan Navy said. (ANSAmed)
ANSAmed - Today's events in the Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) - ROME, NOVEMBER 24 - These are some of the main events scheduled for today in the Euro-Mediterranean area: BARCELONA - MedaWeek, week of economic leaders of the Mediterranean, which includes the Women Entrepreneurs Forum and the Mediterranean Islamic Finance Forum, comes to an end.



CAIRO - Film festival continues (to November 30).



BRUSSELS - EU, Eastern Partnership Summit with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, and commissioners Johannes Hahn and Cecilia Malmstrom. (ANSAmed).




Egypt can count on Italy agst extremism, says Mattarella Italian premier Gentiloni voices horror over mosque attack

(ANSAmed) - ROME, NOVEMBER 24 - Italian President Sergio Mattarella sent the following message to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi: "I heard with deep pain the news of the cowardly attack that struck the Bir Al-Abed Mosque a few hours ago with a dramatic toll in dead and injured.



In the common struggle against terrorism and religious extremism - mortal enemies of the free expression of religion - Egypt will always be able to count on Italy's determined support".



"May the expressions of the most deeply felt condolences of all Italians reach you, Mr President, the Egyptian people and the families of the very numerous victims, together with the sincere wish that the injured will get better," Mattarella went on Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni on Friday voiced "horror" at a terror attack on a Sinai mosque that killed over 200 people.



Gentiloni said later, as the death toll reached at least 235, that "it was not only a terror attack but also a spine-chilling massacre. Our thoughts go out to that community". (ANSAmed).




BRUSSELS - The European Commission has allocated 40 million more euros to support Italy in managing migration flows from the central Mediterranean route. The EU government stressed that the decision was part of an action plan drawn up by the European Commission to help the country.

The funds will go towards 11 projects to improve services for migrants and asylum seekers, from medical treatment to cultural mediation as well as surveillance at sea and rescue operations.

The European Commission is also assessing another project proposed by Italy for assistance to the most vulnerable migrants, such as unaccompanied minors and victims of human trafficking. With the funds allocated on Friday, the European Commission's contribution made available to Italy through the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and the Internal Security Fund has risen to 189 million in addition to the over 634 million allocated in the 2014-2020 national programs.


VATICAN CITY - Fomenting fears of migrants sows the seeds of racist violence, Pope Francis said in his message for next year's World Day of Peace Friday. The pope also called on government officials to be "prudent and responsible" in treating migrant issues. He stressed that migrants must not be pushed back to places of persecution and said migrants are not a threat but an "opportunity" for a future of peace.



"Many destination countries have seen the spread of rhetoric decrying the risks posed to national security or the high cost of welcoming new arrivals, and by doing so demeans the human dignity due to all as sons and daughters of God," Francis said in his message.



"Those who, for what may be political reasons, foment fear of migrants instead of building peace are sowing violence, racial discrimination and xenophobia, which are matters of great concern for all those concerned for the safety of every human being," said the pontiff.



"All indicators available to the international community," he stressed, "suggest that global migration will continue for the future. "Some consider this a threat. "For my part, I ask you to view it with confidence as an opportunity to build peace." Pope Francis called for four "mileposts" for action: welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating.


Sisi vows to respond with 'brute force' to mosque attack Over 200 killed in Sinai, 'pain will not be in vain'

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, NOVEMBER 24 - Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi vowed revenge on Friday after a deadly terrorist attack on a mosque in North Sinai killed at least 235 people.



Sisi said that the military and police "will avenge our martyrs" and will respond "using brute force against those fragments of terrorists".



Gunmen attacked Al-Rawdah mosque in Bir Al-Abed in the Sinai peninsula, after Friday prayers.



''Egyptians will take the will to deal with terrorism from the pain'' of this attack, he added. (ANSAmed).




ISTANBUL - US president Donald Trump ''has given clear instructions and said that from now on, (US) arms will not be given to the YPG'', Syrian Kurdish fighters considered to be closely linked to the PKK, internationally recognized as a terrorist organization.



Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made the announcement after a telephone call on Friday between the White House and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. If confirmed, the move will help reduce one of the main reasons for tension in relations between Ankara and Washington.






Merger would not bring any relief to the ailing banking industry as the increasing Non Performing Assets.

Gross NPA in Canara Bank as on September 30 this year stood at Rs 39,164 crore while the net NPA at Rs 25,166 crore.

Chennai: The employees of Canara Bank on Friday requested the Centre not to consider cross merger of smaller public sector banks having high NPAs.

"Centre has already ensured the merger of five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with SBI. Now it is pushing for the second round of cross mergers with public sector banks", founder of Canara Bank Staff Federation S Revanna said.

The merger would not bring any relief to the "ailing" banking industry as the increasing Non Performing Assets (NPAs) pass the burden from one entity to another, he said in a press release.

The gross NPA in Canara Bank as on September 30 this year stood at Rs 39,164 crore while the net NPA at Rs 25,166 crore, he said.

The Federation would hold the fourth edition of the two day All India Conference here from tomorrow.

Over 800 delegates were expected to participate in the event which would be formally inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.

During the two day conference discussions and deliberations affecting bank employees and the industry would be taken up, the release said.
India's foreign-language Oscar hopeful 'Newton' bagged two wins, with Rajkummar Rao winning the best actor.

New Delhi: India's foreign-language Oscar hopeful 'Newton' bagged two wins at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Brisbane, with Rajkummar Rao winning the best actor, and writer Mayank Tewari and director Amit V. Masurkar grabbing the best screenplay honour.

Dedicating the award to his late mother, Rajkummar, in his acceptance speech, said, "Let's keep doing this beautiful work, let's keep making these wonderful stories. Here's to cinema!"

Lets keep doing this beautiful work, lets keep making these wonderful stories. Heres to cinema! - @RajkummarRao thanked his late mother for blessing @NewtonTheFilm in his acceptance speech #APSA2017 pic.twitter.com/knbG4jLDqK  Asia Pacific Screen Awards (@APScreenAwards) November 23, 2017

Later, the 33-year-old actor took to his Twitter page to say, "Won the best actor award at the most prestigious #APSA2017 (Asia Pacific Screen Awards). Thank you Maa. Thank u team #Newton. Don't stop chasing your dreams because they really do come true."

Won the best actor award at the most prestigious #APSA2017 (Asia Pacific Screen Awards). Thank you Maa. Thank u team #Newton. Dont stop chasing your dreams because they really do come true. pic.twitter.com/4GPRqRHyd1  Rajkummar Rao (@RajkummarRao) November 23, 2017

At the ceremony, where Australia's 'Sweet Country' won the top award, India's 'Lady of the Lake' by director Haobam Paban Kumar won a special mention in the Cultural Diversity Award Under the Patronage of UNESCO category in which Dede was the winner.

'Newton' revolves around a rookie but idealistic election officer as he struggles to hold elections in a Chhattisgarh village despite the threat of Naxalite violence.
Former chairperson of CBFC, Pahlaj Nihalani, wonders how movies can be sent to the overseas boards, without clearance in India.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has cleared Padmavati with no cuts, but has restricted its viewing to audiences above the age of 12 years, for its minor violence. The movie can also be released in the UK as per its old schedule of December 1.

However, the producers Viacom 18 Motion Pictures wont release the movie anywhere abroad unless Padmavati has been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), on the same day as its release in India.

Former chairperson of CBFC, Pahlaj Nihalani, wonders how movies can be sent to the overseas boards, without clearance in India. This is against the law, he says. You cant send your film, or any other Indian goods for that matter, out of the country, without the clearance of the government. If a film isnt cleared by the CBFC, it cannot go abroad. However, for decades now, film producers have been following this practice of sending their film for certification to foreign countries, without obtaining clearance from the CFBC. Now, with films going digital, they dont even have to pass through immigration. I think the practice of allowing films to go out of the country without a certificate shouldnt be legalised.
Father of the student concerned Rizvi told that he also met the District Magistrate regarding the school's order, but to no avail.

The father of the student concerned, Mohammad R Rizvi, said that his daughter had been studying in the school since kindergarten, and as per Islam tradition, had to cover her hair after reaching the age of nine. (Photo: Representational)

Barabanki (Uttar Pradesh): A school in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki has barred Muslim students from wearing headscarves to class, citing that they don't go with the dress code of the school.

Anand Vihar School is a missionary school that objected to one of its Muslim students wearing headscarf to school. When the student's father asked permission for the same in a written application to the principal, he received back the following reply.

"It is to clarify to you that this is a minority school, but there are many communities in minority category, and one community cannot impose its rules on other communities," the letter read, and further said, "The school will not be able to provide any exemption from its rules."

Principal Archana Thomas also asked him to not "disrupt the school's functioning by asking unnecessary questions."

"If you face any inconvenience, you can admit your ward in an Islamic school," she added.

The father of the student concerned, Mohammad R Rizvi, said that his daughter had been studying in the school since kindergarten, and as per Islam tradition, had to cover her hair after reaching the age of nine.

On being questioned on it, Rizvi wrote to the principal.

"My daughter was asked not to wear headscarf to school, another girl was made to remove it as well. I argued that our Sikh brothers are also allowed even though their turban is not part of the dress code" he said.

Rizvi told that he also met the District Magistrate regarding the school's order, but to no avail.

"It felt like talking to the principal. He didn't hear anything that I had to say, and made it clear that he will not help me in any way. Generally, people at least give an assurance," Rizvi said.

The school's principal meanwhile said that the letter did not imply that the students were told to leave school.

"It said if they have a problem with the rules, they can admit their child in another school, not necessarily an Islamic school," Thomas said.

On the question of differentiating among communities by allowing Sikhs and barring Muslims from practising their beliefs, Thomas said, "Sikhs don't study here."
The elections in Gujarat will be held in two phases on December 9 and 14 while counting of votes will be held on December 18.

Speaking for the three Congress candidates, Jignesh Mewasa, a candidate from Congress said that they were merely inquiring about what the workers had done, but were detained by the police. (Photo: ANI)

Surat (Gujarat): Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) Convener Alpesh Kathiriya and three Congress candidates for the upcoming Gujarat polls were detained by Surat Police in the late hours of Thursday.

Some PAAS workers had been detained in the Varachha Police Station for protesting against the office inauguration of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karanj.

Kathiriya, along with few PAAS workers reached the police station to get them released, and protested against the workers' detention. He was later joined by three Congress candidates.

Following this, all four were detained by the police.

Outside the police station, a candidate from Congress, Jignesh Mewasa said that the detained workers were not protesting.

"The PAAS workers were shouting slogans of 'Jai Sardar' but BJP made it out to be a protest against them, and taking help of the police, BJP got them arrested. This is not protest," Mewasa said, adding that the ruling BJP had resorted to dictatorship in the state ahead of elections.

Speaking for the three Congress candidates, Mewasa said that they were merely inquiring about what the workers had done, but were detained by the police.

The elections in Gujarat will be held in two phases on December 9 and 14.

The counting of the votes will be held on December 18.
A 25-yr-old woman, who went missing from Ayodhya in UP when she was a child and landed in Mumbai, has found her family 14 years later.

Pooja remembered the names of her parents and brother, their house in Ayodhya near the Sarayu river and a Ram temple, and that her father owned a shop of garlands and audio cassettes. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: A 25-year-old woman, who went missing from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh when she was a child and accidentally landed in Mumbai, has found her family 14 years later.

Pooja Subodh Verma, who grew up in an orphanage in adjoining Navi Mumbai, was trying to find her parents for the last few years.

In 2003, while playing at the Ayodhya railway station, she accidentally boarded a Mumbai-bound train.

After reaching the metropolis, police spotted her, and sent her to an orphanage in Nerul. She was also enrolled in a school.

In 2009, Pooja started working as a domestic help with Nitin and Sunita Gaikwad, a couple living in Nerul.

She remembered the names of her parents, Subodh and Meera, brother Alok, their house in Ayodhya near the Sarayu river and a Ram temple, and that her father owned a shop of garlands and audio cassettes, said Nitin.

With these scanty details, Nitin and local activist Girish Patil started the search for Pooja's parents in Ayodhya by contacting Uttar Pradesh Police. Through some contacts they approached Santosh Tiwari of the Anti Terrorism Squad in Lucknow.

Tiwari assigned the task of making inquiries to his men. Police looked for men who dealt in garlands and cassettes, and also went through voters' lists in Ayodhya and Faizabad.

As the search operation was on, Pooja herself decided to visit Ayodhya earlier this month. On reaching Ayodhya on November 5, she started searching the areas along the banks of the Sarayu, and after a few hours, managed to locate her house at Naya Ghat and find her family.

A jubilant Pooja then called Gaikwad and Patil, informing that she had found her parents.

"We were trying our best to locate Pooja's family members... One day I got a call from Pooja about her reunion with her parents and also spoke to her father. We are happy to hear that she has safely reached her home," Tiwari said.

"This is the happiest moment of my life. I got my daughter back. I don't want anything from the almighty now," Pooja's father Subodh said.

"We searched for her for weeks after she went missing. As the river is close to our house, some people thought she drowned and then we stopped the search," said one of Pooja's kin.
Bilkis Bano, gangraped in 2002, while she was pregnant, lost 7 of her family members in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident.

The court also made it clear that the separate plea seeking enhancement of compensation to be awarded to Bilkis Bano, would be taken up next week for hearing. (Photo: File/AFP)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted six weeks time to the Gujarat government for apprising it on whether any disciplinary action has been initiated against policemen convicted in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang-rape case.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, considered the submission of Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, that some more time be given to get instruction on the authorities concerned in the case.

The bench listed the plea for hearing in the first week of January.

The bench, however, made it clear that the separate plea, seeking enhancement of compensation to be awarded to Bilkis Bano, would be taken up next week for hearing.

The apex court had already granted time, on October 23, to the state government to apprise it whether any departmental action had been initiated or taken against police officers whose conviction was upheld in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case.

The Bombay High Court had on May 4 upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 12 people in the gang-rape case, while setting aside the acquittal of seven people including policemen and doctors.

Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped in March, 2002, while she was pregnant, lost seven of her family members in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident.

The bench had convicted seven persons, including five policemen and two doctors, for not performing their duties (sections 218) and tampering of evidence (section 201) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The convicted policemen and doctors are Narpat Singh, Idris Abdul Saiyed, Bikabhai Patel, Ramsingh Bhabhor, Sombhai Gori, Arun Kumar Prasad (doctor) and Sangeeta Kumar Prasad (doctor).

A special court had on January 21, 2008, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men in the case.

They later approached the Bombay High Court challenging their conviction and sought for the trial court's order to be quashed.

The CBI had also filed an appeal in the high court seeking harsher punishment of death for three of the convicted on the grounds that they were the main perpetrators of the crime.

According to the prosecution, on March 3, 2002, Bilkis Bano's family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots and seven members of her family were killed.

The trial in the case began in Ahmedabad. However, after Bilkis Bano expressed apprehensions that witnesses could be harmed and CBI evidence tampered, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.
Two Bombay HC judges are to facilitate the auction and the Official Liquidator is directed not to allow obstruction in the process.

A three-judge bench warned Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy that it may send him to jail again following SEBI's submission that there was confusion with regard to the ownership of some properties. (Photo: File/PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted liberty to two Bombay High Court judges to adopt procedures to facilitate the auctioning of Sahara's prized Aamby Valley properties and directed the Official Liquidator not to allow any obstruction in the process.

A three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri, also warned Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy, facing contempt proceedings, that it may send him to jail again, following SEBI's submission that there was confusion with regard to the title or ownership of some properties in the Aamby Valley.

"Does the property belong to the contemnor," the bench asked. On being told by SEBI that "some are on lease and some are sold", it said "then we will send this man to jail and close the chapter".

The Sahara Group had earlier sought 18 months to repay around Rs 9,000 crore balance of the principal amount of Rs 24,000 crore.

The apex court took note of the submission of senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for the market regulator, that the High Court judges intended to have "certain directions from this court to proceed with the auction".

"Having heard Arvind P Datar..., we think it appropriate to state that the Judges of the High Court are at liberty to adopt the procedure which will facilitate the auction and the mode of auction as suggested by the Official Liquidator (OL) shall be considered by the Company Judge in consultation with Justice A S Oka (another HC judge)," it said.

Taking into account the apprehension of senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, who is assisting it as an amicus curiae, that there could be a possibility of encroachment, it directed the official Receiver of the Bombay High Court to act as custodian of Aamby Valley properties till the conclusion of auction.

"In view of the aforesaid, we appoint the Official Receiver of the Bombay High Court as Receiver in respect of the Amby Valley city.

The said arrangement shall remain in force till the auction is over.

The duty of the Official Receiver is also to see that the property is properly maintained and no encroachment takes place so that valuation does not reduce and auction takes place in peaceful manner.

"The Receiver is at liberty to take instructions from the Company Judge and Justice A S Oka, who are requested to work in harmony," the bench said.

It also directed that a sum of Rs 84 lakh be released in favour of the Bombay High Court's OL, who has been entrusted with the task of conducting the auctioning process, for "publication or advertisement".

"If more expenses are required, the same can be requisitioned by the Bombay High Court from the SEBI-Sahara account," it said, adding that requisite steps would be taken by the SEBI and the OL.

During the hearing, the bench warned the OL that there should not be any hindrance to the auctioning process.

"We are warning you today (Thursday) to see that the properties are auctioned. Don't allow any obstruction," it said and posted the matter for hearing in the first week of February, 2018.

Earlier, the apex court had taken strong exception to the Sahara Group allegedly obstructing the auctioning process of Aamby Valley and warned that anyone indulging in such an act would be held liable for contempt and "sent to jail".

The apex court was irked when SEBI claimed that the group had allegedly obstructed the process by writing a letter to the Pune police raising the issue of law and order at the prime property.

On August 10, the apex court had rejected Sahara chief Subrata Roy's plea to put on hold the auction process.

It had said that the auction process would proceed as per schedule and if Rs 1,500 crore is paid by Roy in the SEBI- Sahara refund account by September 7, then it may pass an appropriate order.

Roy, who has spent almost two years in jail, has been on parole since May 6 last year.

The parole was granted the first time to enable him attend the funeral of his mother. It has been extended since then.

Besides Roy, two other directors -- Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary -- were arrested for failure of the group's two companies -- Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL) -- to comply with the court's August 31, 2012 order to return Rs 24,000 crore to their investors.
The SCO summit will be held on November 30 and December 1 and it is likely to discuss the regional security scenario besides several other issues.

New Delhi: Even as Russia, China and India are expected hold trilateral talks in New Delhi on December 11, external affairs minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj will represent India at the upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Russian city of Sochi where she is expected to interact with both Russian and Chinese leaders. Ms Swaraj will leave New Delhi on November 29 and return on December 2.

The SCO summit will be held on November 30 and December 1 and it is likely to discuss the regional security scenario besides several other issues. It is unclear whether she will have a bilateral meeting on the sidelines with her Pakistani counterpart there. Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on Thursday said there was a need for both India and China to foster a favourable external environment.

Both China and India are developing countries and face common tasks. At a crucial stage at deepening reform and advancing modernisation, both countries need to foster a favourable external environment, Chinese embassy spokesperson Xie Liyan was quoted as saying.
Hafiz Saeed also targeted the Pak govt for taking dictation from foreign masters.

Supporters of Hafiz Saeed (second from left), head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, kiss his hands as he arrives after his release at a mosque in Lahore. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad/New Delhi/ Washington: Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba founder Hafiz Saeed, mastermind of the 26/11 atta-cks on Mumbai nine years ago, who was freed from house arrest late on Thursday night, on Friday attacked Pakistans ousted PM Nawaz Sharif as a traitor for advocating peace with India. He said Mr Sharif had committed treason by seeking friendship with India and ignoring the Kashmir cause while delivering a sermon at the JuD headquarters in Lahore. A large number of JuD and LeT activists had gathered at the Jamia Masjid Al-Qadsia at Chaub-urji to hear his speech.

Saeed also targeted the Pakistani government for taking dictation from foreign masters, in a clear reference to the US, which had put a $10 million bounty on his head.

Nawaz Sharif asks why he was ousted? I tell him he was ousted because he committed treason against Pakistan by developing friendship with (Indian Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, he said, warning the PML(N) government not to take dictation from the US and other countries and take its own decisions.

After his release, meanwhile, the United States on Friday asked the Pakistan government to make sure that Hafiz Saeed was arrested again and charged for his crimes. The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated foreign terrorist organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens, US state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said, adding: The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes.

In New Delhi, reacting sharply to Hafiz Saeeds remark after being released that he would continue fighting for Kashmiris till they get freedom, the Union home ministry said this was a mere rearticulation of the agenda of terrorists who have thrived across the border. While maintaining that Jammu and Kashmir will always remain an integral part of India, a senior MHA official said Indias security forces had given an appropriate response to such comments by subversive elements. Not just the security forces, but even the people of Kashmir have given a suitable response to provocative comments by terror elements operating out of Pakistan, the official added.

Late on Thursday night, Pakistan formally released Hafiz Saeed and withdrew the jail staff from his Johar Town residence in Lahore. Saeed spent 297 days in detention.

Hundreds of his supporters had gathered outside his house and showered rose petals on Saeed as he came out on Friday morning. They also distributed sweets amid full-throated slogans welcoming their leaders release.
Uma also hailed the role played by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to mediate between the communities.

Bhopal: Union minister for drinking water and sanitation Uma Bharti on Friday said hope of building Ram temple in Ayodhya has soared with the issue no longer provoking interfaith conflict in the historical city.

The issue (of building Ram temple) is no more causing tension between two faiths (Hindus and Muslims) in Ayodhya. It clearly demonstrates that people of Ayodhya irrespective of their faiths have reached the common ground that the Ram temple should come up in Ayodhya, Ms Bharti told reporters at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. She was currently on a days tour to MP.

The recent court verdict on the contentious issue has also been hailed by all sections of society, she said, adding, This is a significant development to pave way for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Muslims have accepted the court verdict on Ram temple issue. It clearly indicates that there has never been any opposition to it from the Muslim community.

Only the Congress and SP used to instigate some mischievous elements in the minority community for political gains.

The Congress and SP always believed in riot politics to come to power, she added. She also hailed the role played by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to mediate between the communities.
The bench granted six weeks time as additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for Gujarat, sought time to take instructions in the matter.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted six more weeks time to the Gujarat government to inform it whether any disciplinary action has been initiated against policemen convicted in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud listed the plea for hearing in the first week of January.

The bench, however, made it clear that the separate plea, seeking enhancement of compensation to be awarded to Bilkis Bano, would be taken up next week for hearing.

The bench granted six weeks time as additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for Gujarat, sought time to take instructions in the matter. Counsel for Bilkis Bano opposed the plea and said in the digital world instructions could be obtained without any delay. She alleged that all the six police officers who were convicted in the case had been given fresh postings and it was not clear whether any departmental action was initiated against them. The ASG, however, informed the court that the police officers who had been given postings had served the sentence imposed on them.

The court had already granted time, on October 23, to the state to apprise it whether any departmental action had been initiated or taken against th convicted police officers.

Counsel for Bilkis brought to the notice of the court that meagre compensation was paid to her. The court said her appeal for higher compensation would be taken up separately.

The Bombay High court had on May 4 had upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 12 people in the gang rape case, while setting aside the acquittal of seven people including policemen and doctors. Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped in March, 2002, while she was pregnant, lost seven of her family members in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident. The bench listed the plea for further hearing in the first week of January, 2018.
This move is to counter SPs sudden love for Lord Krishna.

Lucknow: To counter the Samajwadi Partys sudden love for Lord Krishna, the Yogi Adityanath government is all set to counter the move by co-hosting the International Gita Mahotsav that is being held in Kurukshetra from Saturday.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has invited UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath as a special guest to the event that will be inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will also be present at the event.

Officials in the state culture department revealed that Haryana government approached Uttar Pradesh for the partnership in the weeklong event.

In fact, certain political parties (read Samajwadi Party) developed a sudden affinity for Lord Krishna only after they learnt that the UP government had agreed to co-host the event. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had already announced celebrations on a large scale for the Holi in Barsana and we are preparing to project the event on an international level and invite foreign tourists, said an official in the chief ministers secretariat.

The Yogi government has been pushing religious development on a massive scale. Dev Deepawali in Varanasi are proof of this.

The state government is also planning to enhance the celebrations in Vrindavan for Holi and Janamashtami next year and also Shivratri in Varanasi.

The International Gita Mahotsav is a celebration of the Srimad Bhagvad Gita, the philosophy of which is universally recognised.

Kurukshetra, where Lord Krishna is believed to have shared the wisdom of Gita with Arjun adds a sense of sacredness of the event.
Election Commission last week allotted the partys arrow symbol to the Nitish faction and not to the rebel group led by Sharad Yadav.

New Delhi: Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United) has now decided to contest upto 100 seats in the coming Gujarat polls.

A major chunk of these seats would go to Patels who have been up in arms against the Bharatiya Janata Party but are not satisfied with the seat-sharing agreement reached between the Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti and the Congress.

The major factor which the JD(U) is trying to exploit is the fact that JD(U) chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is Kurmi  a caste which is equivalent to Patels of Gujarat.

JD(U) national secretary K.C. Tyagi told this newspaper that Nitish Kumar was one of the first leaders PAAS chief Hardik Patel had met after coming out of jail.

But much has happened since then, with Mr Kumar walking out of the Congress-RJD grand alliance in Bihar and joining the NDA and Mr Patel openly declaring his support for the Congress in these elections.

The Election Commission last week allotted the partys arrow symbol to the Nitish faction and not to the rebel group led by Sharad Yadav.

However, with the Congress officially allocating only five to six of the seats for the PAAS members so far, it was the disgruntled elements among Patels which the JD(U) is targeting. The community which is 12 per cent of the population.

But it is very influential has been traditional supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party but has been disgruntled with the party over its demand for reservation spear-headed by Mr Patel.

The JD(U)s move to field so many Patel candidates was likely to benefit the BJP as it would lead to three corner contests in the Patidar dominated seats.

The other area where the JD(U) was focussing was the triabal belt where its rebel leader Chotubhai Vasava was contesting on the Autorickshaw symbol of the Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP).

The JD(U) has been quiet strong in this belt which has been under the influence of legendary socialist leaders like Mama Baleshwar Dayal.

Though Mr Vasava is the tallest leader in this area, the Nitish Kumar faction has left no stone unturned to defeat him including fielding a namesake in his constituency Jhagadiya who will fight on the arrow symbol.

In total we are fighting nearly 100 seats. Neither are we fighting to help defeat anybody nor are we helping just to make any body win Mr Tyagi said.

He added that many JD(U) members who had sided with the Sharad Yadav led faction have now come back as they wish to contest under the Arrow symbol which they consider as the original JD(U) and tribals identify with.

This is also an attempt to establish the fact that we are the real Janata Dal United, he said.

The party has already released a list of 25 candidates for the first list.

Mr Vasava on the other hand is fighting five seats on Autorickshaw symbol and two on the Congress symbol.
Also find out what happened to the chef after he died.

Pasta and tomato sauce was Adolf Hitler's last meal before he committed suicide.

Constanze Manziarly his chef noted in her peronal letters to her sister, the Daily Mail reported.

Manziarly was only 23-years-old when she started working for Hitler in 1943 till 1945.

Hitler and his wife Eva Braun committed suicide as the Red Army was just a few hundred yards away from his bunker in Berlin.

In the letters uncovered by a German historian, Manziarly complains to her sister about being unable to please Hitler, who was a vegetarian.

She also spoke of a "demoralised" Hitler who left her "feeling that I have one foot in the grave", the report revealed.

On the evening of April 30, 1945, the young chef was busy cooking fried eggs and mashed potatoes for Hitler, and had not known he was already dead.

A few days after the suicide, Constanze along with his secretary Traudl Junge and a group led by SS-Brigade leader Wilhelm Mohnke fled the scene.

Junge later reported seeing the cook being captured by two Red Army soldiers who took her to an underground station and she was never seen again.
Prince Harry was on the receiving end of the tongue lashing by Australian polo player Beau Skerrett.

Beau also described the young prince as being a spoilt brat' and the entire incident took place on the polo pitch. (Photo: AFP)

While most people go all fuzzy seeing the young Royals of UK, not everyone is so taken to them.

In a recent occasion, the younger of Prince Charles son, Prince Harry got told to f**k off and not in jest either.

Prince Harry was on the receiving end of the tongue lashing by Australian polo player Beau Skerrett.

Not only was he asked to go and copulate, Beau also described him as being a spoilt brat.

The entire incident took place on the polo pitch during a charity match Beau was umpiring between Prince William, Prince Harry and the princes of Malaysia back in 2014.

Speaking to The Courier Mail, Beau explained that he felt he had to say something after Prince Harry lost his temper on the field.

While he added that William was "the perfect bloke", his assessment of Harry was a little more brutal.

He went on to add that Harry lost his cool and was a spoilt brat.

He added, It got to the point where I couldn't send anyone off but something had to be said because he was just getting a bit serious. He didn't take it too well. I think Im the only guy who ever told him to f**k off in front of a crowd that pay 5000 pound to shake his hand.

He adds that it was very funny and Prince William actually apologized for him, but admits, it is an impressive claim to fame.
According to the report, 11 women, on an average, were kidnapped or abducted every day in the national capital in 2016.

'Out of 699 cases of abduction registered in 2016, 524 cases had women victims,' the report said. (Photo: File/Representational)

New Delhi: Eleven women, on an average, were kidnapped or abducted every day in the national capital in 2016, an RTI query by a non-governmental organisation has revealed.

In its report on 'Status of Crime and Policing' in Delhi, Praja Foundation said more than 50 per cent of the cases of kidnapping and abduction registered in the city in 2016 involved women.

Of the 6,707 kidnapping and abduction cases registered in 2016, 4,101 cases had women victims. Besides, more than 75 per cent of the cases of abduction involved women, the NGO said.

"Out of 699 cases of abduction registered in 2016, 524 cases had women victims," said the report.

In 2015, 7,937 cases of kidnapping and abduction were registered in Delhi. Out of these, 792 cases were of abduction and 52.78 per cent of the total cases involved women victims, it added.
The court said that dengue occurs every year despite the state's claim that it adhered to the Centre and WHO guidelines to control it.

The Mamata govt reported that 38 people have died of dengue this year, of whom 23 died in state-run hospitals and 15 in private facilities, even as some media reports claimed that the figure was higher. (Photo: File/PTI)

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday expressed concern over the outbreak of dengue in West Bengal, saying more needs to be done as current steps seem inadequate.

It also observed that it wants to satisfy its judicial conscience that sufficient steps are being taken by the state for the control of the disease and proper treatment of the people.

Hearing PILs on the outbreak of dengue and deaths of a number of people in the state, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee said that dengue occurs every year despite the state's claim that it was adhering to central government and WHO guidelines to control it.

"This shows that more steps need to be taken as these seem to be inadequate to control the disease in West Bengal," the bench observed.

To a plea by state Advocate General Kishore Dutta that the petitions were based on newspaper reports only and there was no research conducted by the petitioners before moving the court, the bench said, "Writ petitioners would not have had to come to the court if you on your own conducted research for further steps to deal with the issue."

Dutta submitted, "In the garb of PILs, people with political motives have come before the court based on newspaper reports and without research. The petitioners have not questioned any part of our report to the central government."

When the AG questioned the maintainability of the petitions, the bench said, "We want to satisfy our judicial conscience that sufficient steps are being taken."

Noting that at least two petitioners have claimed to have done independent research on the issue, the bench said that the petitioners are drawing the notice of the court and for directions to the state for taking necessary steps.

Observing that sufficient materials are there before the court, the bench said, "It is a matter of public concern."

The state government had told the court on November 16 that 38 people have died of dengue in West Bengal, of whom 23 died in state-run hospitals and 15 in private facilities, even as some media reports claimed that the figure was higher.

The state was verifying 22 other cases of dengue deaths reported by various private hospitals, Dutta had told the division bench.

He had also said that around 21,000 people have been affected.

The AG on Friday submitted that claims by some petitioners that the state government was suppressing the number of deaths and affected people are frivolous and there is no credence to such allegations.

Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General Kaushik Chanda submitted that the state government has failed to make a gazette notification and make dengue a notified disease despite proddings from the Union government.

"If the disease is notified then all state-run and private hospitals would have been bound to report the number of dengue patients and deaths everyday to the state headquarters so that the exact numbers could have been received," Chanda submitted before the court.

At least 10 other states have notified the disease, he said.

Chanda also claimed that the West Bengal government has not provided any report to the Centre on the number of people affected by the disease and deaths since October 4 when the guideline is to send daily reports during the outbreak season.

Replying to a claim by counsel Srijib Chakraborty, who appeared for one of the petitioners, that he had collected copies of death certificates of four persons who had died of dengue in government hospitals and whose names did not figure in the list provided by the state government, the AG said that three of these deaths were not due to dengue.

The fourth victim is yet to be verified, Dutta submitted.

Hearing in the PILs seeking appointment of an expert committee to suggest ways to deal with the disease, compensation to the kin of those who died and steps taken by the state to deal with the disease was adjourned by the court till December 1.
The members of the legislative assembly will elect the person for this MLC.

Mumbai: Ahead of the important Maharashtra Legislative Council by-election, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reached out to its sulking alliance partner, Shiv Sena on Thursday, where two senior BJP ministers, Chandrakant Patil and Vinod Tawde met with Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at latters residence, Matoshree.

The by-election for the one seat vacated upon Narayan Ranes resignation has been scheduled for December 7. The members of the legislative assembly will elect the person for this MLC.

As it is clear now that Mr Rane will not contest the election now, the BJP is looking to take other leaders into its fold. But to win this seat, its important for the party to get Sena on board with them. Sources have confirmed that the Sena leadership is positive about supporting BJPs candidate and it strictly against supporting Mr Rane.

On Thursday evening, Maharashtra BJPs core committee met to discuss the names of candidates for this election. The committee has reportedly given all the rights to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for taking a decision and the CM will now discuss the issue with Sena chief before finalising the candidates name that seems convenient to both. It is also likely that Mr Fadnavis will discuss the names and get the final nod from BJP chief Amit Shah.

Names of BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, Shina NC and BJPs state vice-president Prasad Lad are doing rounds for the post. Sources also confirmed that Sena leadership has no issue in supporting Ms Shaina in case she gets the candidature.
Saxena also said that the SC has now removed this section, which will impact all the PMLA cases including that of Mr Bhujbal.

Mumbai: Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Chhagan Bhujbal on Thursday submitted a Supreme Court order before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court contending that in light of this SC judgement he is entitled for bail.

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down twin conditions of PMLA terming them to be unconstitutional and violative of right to life and liberty granted under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The special PMLA court judge M.S. Azmi granted time till Friday to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) counsel Hiten Venegaonkar counsel to study the judgment and file his reply.

Bhujbals lawyer Shalabh Saxena said, The Supreme Court has struck down section 45 of the PMLA which says that to get bail the accused should come clean from the charges. This is equivalent to getting an acquittal and is one of the biggest hurdle for any accused to get bail in a PMLA case.

Mr Saxena also said that the SC has now removed this section, which will impact all the PMLA cases including that of Mr Bhujbal.

Hence, we submitted this judgement before the court, which is already hearing his bail plea. According to advocate Saxena the ED has sought a days time to file reply and court has deferred hearing for a day.

Striking down the provisions, a bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Sanjay Kishan Kaul said: The twin conditions laid down in Section 45 would have no nexus whatsoever with a bail application which concerns itself with the offence of money laundering.

The ED has arrested Bhujbal for cases pertaining to the Maharashtra Sadan scam and Kalina land allotment case, where Bhujbal, who was the then PWD minister, is accused of taking kick-backs for allotment of the projects. The second case is related to a housing project in Navi Mumbai.
The passport was issued in the name of Riyasat Ali Khushi Mohammad and bore Jundals photograph.

Mumbai: After a gap of more than a year, trial in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks has resumed with prosecution beginning examination of witnesses against lone accused, Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal. According to prosecution, Jundal was one of the handlers of those who carried out attacks in Mumbai and was present and directing perpetrators of the attacks from a temporary control room set up in Karachi, Pakistan.

Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) terrorist David Coleman Headley was the first witness in this case who deposed in February 2016 before a special court in Mumbai via video-conferencing from an undisclosed location in the US.

At the time, he told the court how top LeT leadership along with officials from Pakistans Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had conspired to execute the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 which killed 166 persons and injured 309 others.After Headleys deposition, no new witness was called until earlier this month.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam has now examined five more witnesses, including an official translator who translated details mentioned in Urdu in the Pakistani passport allegedly seized from Jundal at the time of his arrest.

The passport was issued in the name of Riyasat Ali Khushi Mohammad and bore Jundals photograph. After him, the court has started calling police officers who registered different complaints with regard to attacks at different places.

The officers include one who filed a complaint with regard to murder of fishermen in the boat Kuber that was hijacked by the terrorists and used to reach and enter Mumbai; and one who registered a complaint about firing and lobbing of bombs at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).

Summons has also been issued to ACP Manishi Chandra from Delhi to depose aswitness in court. This officer had seized passport and other documents from Jundal at the time of his arrest. Deposition of this witness has been delayed as some of the original documents are lying with the Delhi high court and this officer has been asked to appear before the court with those documents.
Khotkar said that he had filed two applications on September 26, 2014 and September 27, before 3 pm.

Mumbai: The Aurangabad bench of Bombay high court on Friday set aside the election of Shiv Sena MLA Arjun Khotkar  who is minister of state (MoS) for textile, animal husbandry, dairy development and fisheries  as he filed his nomination papers after the deadline had expired.

Mr Khotkar, said that he would file an appeal in the Supreme Court soon.

Mr Khotkar was elected from the Jalna constituency in the 2014 Assembly elections, had previously been elected as MLA in the 1990, 1995 and 2004 polls. In the last election, he won by a mere 296 votes. Former MLA Kailas Gorantyal, a Congress candidate challenged his victory in the HC on the grounds that he had not submitted his nomination to the returning officer (RO) in time.

Mr Khotkar said that he had filed two applications on September 26, 2014 and September 27, before 3 pm. The RO accepted my applications. So, I had filed my applications in time.
The WH-1000XM2, WF-1000X, WI-1000X and WH-H900N will be available across all Sony centres and major electronic stores in India.

Sony, The Walkman maker on Friday expanded its noise cancellation line-up with the launch of four new wireless headphones  The line-up includes WI-1000X, WH-1000XM2, WF-1000X and WH-H900N at Rs 21,990, Rs 29,990, Rs 14,990 and Rs 18,990 respectively.

The key features of new headphones include  Active noise cancellation, and support for smartphone application to control and fine tuning the sound preferences.

The premium models; WH-1000XM2, WF-1000X and WI-1000X have unique features such as atmospheric pressure optimisation, adaptive sound controls, NFC, inbuilt microphone, Bluetooth and quick attention mode.

Sony claims that they have made number of advancements make the headphones industry leading in noise cancellation technology. Users can adjusts to their individual listening style with atmospheric pressure optimising sound based on ones altitude.

There is also a mobile app Sony Headphones Connect App which utilises mobile devices accelerometer sensor to detect the users activity and adjust music and sound settings to best suit the environment. Using the app the new 1000X headphone series allows for more flexibility in customising how users want the headphones to adjust to their surroundings. The sound effects offers to choose from Arena, Club, Concert Hall or Outdoor Stage.

"WH-1000XM2, "WF-1000X" and WI-1000X" come with Sony's integrated technology called "SENSE ENGINE" that will offer a personalised experience for every sound, including music and ambient sound, has been customised for individual needs.

Taking about battery life, "WH-1000XM2" is said to last 40 hours with an wired audio cable or 30 hours wirelessly. On the other hand the WI-1000X, has up to 14 hours of battery on wired connection and 10 hours of battery life wirelessly. The "Quick Charge" function pumps in 70 minutes of battery life in 10 minutes of charging.

The WH-1000XM2, WF-1000X, WI-1000X and WH-H900N will be available across all Sony centres and major electronic stores in India.
The report says that authorities visited Apples office and questioned the Cupertino companys business practices.

The iPhone X will be available in South Korea and in several Asian countries from November 24.

According to a report from a London Metro newspaper, Apples offices in Seoul, South Korea have been reportedly raided, just ahead of the iPhone X launch in the country. The iPhone X will be available in South Korea and in several Asian countries from November 24.

The report says that the raid is likely to raise questions about whether South Korean authorities are trying to hamper the success of the X, which has sold out across the world. Though Apple products are very popular in South Korea, it is the home of several giant tech firms including Samsung and LG.

The Metro reports that authorities visited Apples office and questioned the Cupertino companys business practices. It is also believed that the raid is part of a probe that was launched after Apple took action to address South Korean authorities concern about some unfair contracts that the Cupertino company had with South Korean firms commissioned to repair iPhones and other gadgets.

So this comes as a bad news for Apple fans, who were planning to buy the latest iPhone X.

Apples latest flagship  iPhone X is initially available only for pre-order from the companys online store. The iPhone X was launched in several parts of the world on November 3.

The iPhone X is also coming next month in South America and will be first available in Colombia.

(Source: Deccan Chronicle)
Egypt is battling an Islamic State insurgency and militants have killed hundreds since fighting intensified over the last three years.

President Abdel Fattah al Sisi convened an emergency security meeting soon after the attack, state television reported.

Cairo: At least 235 people were killed on Friday when Islamist militants set off a bomb and opened fire on people attending prayers at a mosque in Egypts restive northern Sinai, state media said.

No group claimed responsibility for the assault but it was the deadliest yet in the region where for three years Egyptian security forces have battled an Islamic State insurgency that has killed hundreds of police and soldiers.

State media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of the city of El Arish. At least 235 people died and over 109 people were wounded, the state news agency MENA reported.

They were shooting at people as they left the mosque, a local resident whose relatives were at the scene told Reuters. They were shooting at the ambulances too.

Arabiya news channel and some local sources said some of the worshippers were sufis who hardliners such as Islamic State regard as apostates because they revere saints and shrines, which for Islamists is tantamount to idolatry.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces commander who presents himself as a bulwark against Islamist militants in the region, convened an emergency security meeting soon after the attack, state television said.

Militants have mostly targeted security forces in their attacks since bloodshed in the Sinai worsened after 2013 when Sisi, then an armed forces commander, led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

But jihadists have also targeted local Sinai tribes that are working with the armed forces, branding them traitors for cooperating with the army and police.

In July this year, at least 23 soldiers were killed when suicide car bombs hit two military checkpoints in the Sinai, an attack claimed by Islamic State.

Militants have tried to expand beyond the largely barren, desert Sinai Peninsula into Egypts heavily populated mainland, hitting Coptic Christian churches and pilgrims.

In May, gunmen attacked a Coptic group travelling to a monastery in southern Egypt, killing 29.
Throughout the day Trump boasted about the economys performance since he took office.

Trump told deployed military members via a video conference that theyve achieved more progress in Afghanistan and against the Islamic State group under his watch than had been made in years of the previous administration. (Photo: AP)

Florida: Trump thanked US troops for their service on Thursday, assuring them were really winning against Americas foes as he celebrated Thanksgiving at his private club in Florida and provided lunch for Coast Guard men and women on duty for the holiday.

Using the occasion to pat himself on the back, Trump told deployed military members via a video conference that theyve achieved more progress in Afghanistan and against the Islamic State group under his watch than had been made in years of the previous administration.

Everybodys talking about the progress youve made in the last few months since I opened it up, he told the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, whose members are conducting operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Were being talked about again as an armed forces  were really winning.

Speaking from a gilded room at his Mar-a-Lago club, Trump said: Were not fighting anymore to just walk around, were fighting to win, and you people are really, youve turned it around over the last three to four months like nobodys seen, and they are talking about it, so thank you very much.

Turning to the 74th Expeditionary Fighters Squadron based at the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, Trump suggested the Obama administration hadnt allowed soldiers on the ground to do their jobs. They say weve made more progress against ISIS than they did in years of the previous administration, he said. And thats because Im letting you do your job.

Throughout the day  at events and on Twitter  Trump boasted about the economys performance since he took office, pointing to recent stock market gains and the unemployment rate, along with his efforts to scale back regulations and boost military spending. So youre fighting for something real, youre fighting for something good, he told the service members

Trump and his wife, Melania, also made a trip to a nearby Coast Guard station in Riviera Beach, Florida, where they delivered a lunch of turkey sandwiches, giant muffins, heaping baskets of fruit, chips and cookies to men and women on duty for the holidays.

During his remarks, Trump, singled out the service for its hurricane relief efforts during Harvey and the other storms that battered the country earlier in 2017. Theres no brand that went up more than the Coast Guard, Trump told them What a job youve done.

Trump praised the superiority of US military equipment, too, yet said he tries to make sure that equipment the US sells abroad  even to allies  is not quite as good as that kept at home. I always say, make ours a little bit better, Trump said. Keep about 10 percent in the bag. He added: You never know about an ally. An ally can turn.

Among the equipment admired by Trump is the F-35 stealth fighter jet, which he recalled asking Air Force guys about once. In a fight, you know a fight like I watch on the movies  how good is it? he recalled asking. They said, Well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it, even if its right next to it,' Trump recounted, prompting laughs.

The F-35, plagued by development problems and cost overruns, is in fact not invisible to people nearby. Its stealth technology is designed to evade detection by radar and other sensors.

At the earlier video conference, Trump cleared the room of press after about 10 minutes so he could have very confidential, personal conversations with those on the line. Borrowing a line from his Apprentice days, he told the reporters Youre fired, then wished them a happy Thanksgiving, too.

On the Trumps own Thanksgiving menu for family and friends at Mar-a-Lago: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, red snapper, Florida stone crab, baked goods, local produce and cheeses, and a selection of cakes and pies for dessert.
Saeed, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after his 10-month detention.

The Pakistan Govt decided against detaining Saeed further in any other case, in a setback to Indias efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.(Photo: AFP)

Washington: The US on Thursday asked the Pakistan government to make sure that Hafiz Saeed is arrested and charged for his crimes, following the release of the 26/11 mastermind and JuD chief from house arrest.

Pakistan on Thursday freed Saeed, the LeT founder, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the cause of Kashmir.

The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens, state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes, Nauert said in a statement after the release of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief.

The JuD leader, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after his 10-month detention as the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case, in a setback to Indias efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.

In May 2008, the US Department of the Treasury had designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.

Saeed was also individually designated by the UN under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December, 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people, including six American citizens, were killed, Nauert said.

LeT and several of its front organisations, leaders, and operatives remain under both state department and Treasury department sanctions.

Since 2012, the US has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice, she said.
The two governments signed a pact on Thursday settling terms for the repatriation process.

The memorandum of understanding signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh on Thursday said that a joint working group would be set up within three weeks to prepare the way for the Rohingyas return. (Photo: AFP/Representational)

Yangon: Human rights groups called on Friday for international agencies to be allowed to monitor the planned repatriation of hundreds of thousands Rohingya Muslim from Bangladesh to the homes they fled in Myanmar during the past three months.

The two governments signed a pact on Thursday settling terms for the repatriation process. They aim to start the return of Rohingya in two months in order to reduce pressures in the sprawling refugee camps that have mushroomed in the Coxs Bazar region of Bangladesh.

The idea that Burma will now welcome them back to their smoldering villages with open arms is laughable, said Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch, using the former name for Myanmar.

Instead of signing on to a public relations stunt, the international community should make it clear that there can be no returns without international monitors to ensure security, an end to the idea of putting returnees in camps, the return of land and the rebuilding of destroyed homes and villages.

The memorandum of understanding signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh on Thursday said that a joint working group would be set up within three weeks to prepare the way for the Rohingyas return.

But it gave scant details about the criteria of return and of what role, if any, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, could play.

It is a standard practice in voluntary repatriation operations that UNHCR would be involved to ensure international standards are met for any type of return agreement, said UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic.

More than 600,000 Rohingya sought sanctuary in Bangladesh after Myanmars military launched a brutal counter insurgency in their villages across northern parts of Rakhine State following attacks by Rohingya militants on an army base and police posts on Aug. 25.

The United Nations and United States have described the militarys actions as ethnic cleansing, and rights groups have accused security forces of atrocities, including mass rape, arson and killings.
The explosion was so intense that it broke the window panes of nearby buildings.

Islamabad: A senior Pakistani police officer and his guard were killed in a suicide attack on Friday in Peshawar city.

Additional Inspector General (AIG) Headquarters Ashraf Nur and his security guard were killed when a suicide bomber on a motorbike rammed into their vehicle in Hayatabad Phase 2 area of Peshawar.

The AIG was travelling to work when the explosion targeted his vehicle as a result of which it caught fire killing Asharf Nur and his guard. Five other people including three policemen were injured in the incident and were shifted to Hayatabad medical complex.

The explosion was so intense that it broke the window panes of nearby buildings.

Heavy contingent of police personnel cordoned off the area and initiated a search operation.

Funeral prayer of the deceased was offered in police line Peshawar later in the day.
Xis remarks came as Myanmars military chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing called on him.

Beijing: China pays great attention to the peace process in Myanmar and is willing to play a constructive role in it for the security and stability of the border areas, President Xi Jinping said on Friday, amid the Rohingya refugee crisis in the neighbouring country.

Mr Xis remarks came as Myanmars military chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing called on him.

During their meeting, Mr Xi said that the recent congress of the ruling Communist Party of China has adopted a blueprint for Chinas economic

and social reform and development for the years to come. It will not only inject great vitality into Chinas own development, but also bring new opportunities for various countries, including Myanmar, in their cooperation with China, he said.

Hailing the profound bilateral friendship, Mr Xi called on the two countries to strengthen strategic communication and accommodate each others concerns.

Gen. Hlaing congratulated Mr Xi on his re-election as the general secretary of the CPC.
Robinho has denied the charges and can appeal the decision.

Robinho and five friends made the young woman drink to the point of making her unconscious and unable to resist. They were then said to have engaged in sexual intercourse multiple times in a row with her. (Photo: AFP)

Rome: Former AC Milan and Real Madrid striker Robinho was sentenced to nine years in prison in Italy after he was convicted of gang rape, according to local media reports.

The alleged incident occurred in January 2013, when Robinho was playing for Milan in Serie A. He was found guilty in absentia by an Italian court for sexually assaulting a 22-year-old Albanian woman.

Five other people were also accused of the same crime, but their sentences are not yet known.

According to Milan daily Corriere della Sera, Robinho and five friends made the young woman drink "to the point of making her unconscious and unable to resist". They were then said to have engaged in "sexual intercourse multiple times in a row" with her.

Robinho has denied the charges and can appeal the decision.

After hearing the news, he posted brief messages on his official Instagram and Facebook profiles protesting his innocence.

It is not the first time the player has faced allegations of sexual misconduct. He was briefly detained in 2009 after a young woman accused him of assault at a nightclub in Leeds, northern England.

He was eventually let go without charge. The 33-year-old is currently playing for Atletico Mineiro in Brazil. He has 100 international caps for his country.
Putin this week hosted a round of diplomacy meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as the leaders of Turkey and Iran.

Moscow stepped into Syria's multi-front war in September 2015, sending planes to back the Assad regime and turning the military situation around in his favour. (Photo: AP)

Sochi: Russia's military plans to reduce its involvement in Syria in 2017 as it is nearing the completion of its goals there, the General Staff chief has told journalists.

"Of course, there will be a decision taken by the commander in chief and the group (working in Syria) will be decreased," said Valery Gerasimov yesterday when asked whether Russia would be scaling back its forces in Syria by the end of 2017.

"When we complete our tasks, military tasks. There is only a little left," Gerasimov said.

Asked about the extent of the pull-out, Gerasimov said it would be "extensive," though it was not clear if he was also referring to this year or a later date.

He said some military will be left behind even after

Moscow scales back its involvement in bombing and combat.

"We will leave the Centre for Reconciliation, our two military bases (in Tartus and Hmeimim) and several necessary structures to maintain the state which has developed at this time," said Gerasimov.

Putin this week hosted a round of diplomacy meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as the leaders of Turkey and Iran as he declared the Syrian crisis was entering "a new stage" after the country "has been saved as a state."

Moscow stepped into Syria's multi-front war in September 2015, sending planes to back the Assad regime and turning the military situation around in his favour.
Myanmar announced the agreement but provided no details on how many Rohingya refugees would be allowed to return home.

Under the agreement, Rohingya are required to present residency documents, which few have, before being allowed to return to Myanmar. (Photo: AP/File)

Bangkok: Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement on Thursday covering the return of Rohingya Muslims who fled across their mutual border to escape violence in Myanmars Rakhine state.

Myanmar announced the agreement but provided no details on how many Rohingya refugees would be allowed to return home. Bangladesh said the repatriations are to begin within two months.

More than 620,000 Rohingya have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh since August 25, when the army began what it called clearance operations following an attack on police posts by a group of Rohingya insurgents. Refugees arriving in Bangladesh said their homes were set on fire by soldiers and Buddhist mobs, and some reported being shot at by security forces.

The office of Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the agreement on the return of displaced persons from Rakhine state was signed by Cabinet officials in Naypyitaw, Myanmars capital.

It said the pact follows a formula set in a 1992 repatriation agreement signed by the two nations after an earlier spasm of violence. Under that agreement, Rohingya were required to present residency documents, which few have, before being allowed to return to Myanmar.

Read: No return of Rohingyas without international monitors: Human Rights Watch

Were continuing our bilateral talks with Myanmar so that these Myanmar nationals (Rohingya) could return to their country, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was quoted as saying by the United News of Bangladesh news agency. Its my call to Myanmar to start taking back soon their nationals from Bangladesh.

Rohingya at a refugee camp in Bangladesh expressed deep doubts about the agreement. They burned our houses, they took our land and cows  will they give us these things back? asked Abdul Hamid from Hoyakong. Im not happy at all. First, I need to know if they are going to accept us with the Rohingya identity, said Sayed Alom, also from Hoyakong.

Rohingya Muslims have faced state-supported discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar for decades. Though members of the ethnic minority first arrived generations ago, Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship in 1982, denying them almost all rights and rendering them stateless. They cannot travel freely, practice their religion, or work as teachers or doctors, and they have little access to medical care, food or education.

Read: Bangladesh to start Rohingyas return to Myanmar in 2 months

The Myanmar government has refused to accept them as a minority group, and the statement issued Thursday by Suu Kyis office did not use the term Rohingya.

The United States on Wednesday declared the violence against Rohingya to be ethnic cleansing, and threatened penalties for Myanmar military officers involved in the crackdown.

The human rights group Amnesty International said in a report Tuesday that the discrimination against Rohingya has worsened considerably in the last five years, and amounts to dehumanizing apartheid.

There can be no safe or dignified returns of Rohingya to Myanmar while a system of apartheid remains in the country, and thousands are held there in conditions that amount to concentration camps. Returns in the current climate are simply unthinkable, the groups director for refugee and migrant rights, Charmain Mohamed, said in a statement Thursday.
The JuD chief said that the US, on India's request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. (Photo: File)

Lahore: Mumbai attack mastermind and banned JuD chief Hafiz Saeed Friday walked free from house arrest and said he would gather people across Pakistan for the "cause of Kashmir" and try to help Kashmiris get their "destination of freedom".

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head, who carries a USD 10 million American bounty for his role in terror activities, was freed after the government decided against detaining him further in any case. He was under detention since January.

"I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir," Saeed told his supporters gathered outside his residence to celebrate his release.

"I fight for the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir and we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom," he said upon his release.

Punjab province's Judicial Review Board comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday unanimously ordered Saeed's release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest which expired Thursday.

Saeed said that he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris in January.

Read: Rescind Paks major non-NATO status: US expert as Hafiz walks free

Using the release order to buttress his claim of "innocence", Saeed said: "I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release... India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHC's review board decision has proved that I am innocent".

The JuD chief said that the US, on India's request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.

"I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," he claimed.

Several JuD supporters, gathered outside Saeed's house in Lahore's Jauhar town to celebrate his release, shouted anti-India slogans and described their leader as "a hope for the Kashmiri people".

"We are happy to see our leader free. Hafiz sahib received his release order from the jail officials. Now he is a free man," JuD spokesman Ahmad Nadim said.

"Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case," a top government official said.

He said that after a long deliberation, it has been decided to follow the review board's decision.

Saeed's release would invite strong criticism from India and the US, official sources said.

"It remains to be seen as how would the PML-N government handle the foreign pressure to again detain Saeed," they said.

Read: 26/11 attacks mastermind Saeed's release order reflects Pak's 'duplicity' on terrorism

Punjab Assistant Advocate General Sattar Sahil said the government law officer had presented "some important evidence" to justify Saeed's detention, but all three members of the board unanimously rejected it and ordered his release.

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The last two extensions were made on the 'public safety law'.

The board refused to give further extension to the detention of Saeed's aides. They were set free in October.

According to the rules, the government could detain a person for up to three months under different charges, but for extension, it needs approval from a judicial review board.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack in November 2008 but he was freed by a court in 2009.

India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and demanded trial of Saeed and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi in the light of evidence it had provided to Islamabad.

Ten LeT militants had killed 166 people and wounded dozens in Mumbai in November, 2008. Nine of the attackers were killed by police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught and executed after a court found him guilty.

Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN after the Mumbai attack.
The incident is the deadliest on the peninsula in years. The mosque was known as a gathering place for Sufi Muslims. The Sinai is the Islamic States favourite battleground.

Cairo (AsiaNews/Agencies)  At least 235 people have been killed and 130 wounded in an attack today on a mosque in the northern Sinai.

The massacre occurred during Friday prayers in the al-Rawda mosque, in the town of Bir al-Abed. Islamist militants launched a bomb against the mosque, then gunmen opened fire.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in the Sinai Peninsula in years.

According to local sources, the victims are all Sufi Muslims, deemed apostates by the Islamic State (IS) group.

The attack is but one in a series against non-Muslims as well as non-mainstream Muslims.

Over the past year, Egypts Christian community has been the subject of several acts of violence, the latest being an attack against a bus carrying Coptic pilgrims on 26 May. Scores were killed.

The Islamic State has led an insurgency in the Sinai for several years. The region is a mostly barren, underpopulated desert. The groups campaign is aimed at overthrowing the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Since Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was deposed in 2013, Islamists have killed hundreds of soldiers and members of the security forces.
Dhaka authorities expect the repatriation to commence within two months. Aung San Suu Kyi has promised that transfers will be "safe and voluntary". Activists are concerned about the conditions of refugees, who no longer have the villages to return to.

Dhaka (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Dhaka and Naypyidaw have reached agreement on the repatriation of Muslim Rohingya refugees. The agreement was signed yesterday in Burmese capital by the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali and Democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi. More details about the transfer conditions will be announced in the coming days. For now, sources close to the Bangladesh authorities suggest that repatriation will "start in two months".

Activist groups raise concerns about the repatriation process. In particular, they ask to specify where the refugees will be relocated, after hundreds of villages have been burned or razed to the ground.

The agreement comes after weeks of intense negotiations between the two countries and on the eve of Pope Francis journey to both states, starting next November 27. The Rohingya refugee crisis has reached proportions of a major emergency. According to the latest data, nce August 25 more than 620,000 Rakhine state refugees have crossed the border with Bangladesh in an attempt to escape the violence committed by both sides, the army and militants of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army(ARSA).

These refugees are added to 200,000 more people who also fled from Myanmar in recent years. They mostly live in makeshift huts in the Cox's Bazaar area, and survive through the help of humanitarian agencies and the support provided by the Church.

At first reluctant to welcome the massive wave of refugees, the Dhaka government later opened its borders, at the same time pointing out that the displaced would remain in the country only until the end of the emergency, and would then be returned to their places of origin. On the Burmese side, Aung San Suu Kyi has promised that repatriations will be "safe, dignified, voluntary and sustainable".
Children were given a dense syrup to make them sleep. Three teachers were suspended. The Kindergarten belongs to RYB Education Institution, also listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The fee is the equivalent of half the average salary in the city.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Chinese police have opened an investigation into a private kindergarten after many children's parents found signs of needle marks on their children.

A group of parents gathered yesterday in front of the kindergarten building (see photo) where RYB Education Institution is located in Chaoyang, denouncing the presence of needle marks on the arms, forehead and buttocks of children. Others have said that their children had been given pills and a dense, brown syrup, and after having taken the medication the children went to sleep.

Others have also said that at least three children were stripped naked and locked in a dark room as punishment for their bad behaviour.

RYB Education manages 80 kindergartens, and franchises 175 pre-school institutions in 130 cities of China, serving about 20,500 children. Small children from four years old are welcomed into these pre-schools for a monthly fee of between 3,600 and 5,000 yuan (US $ 540-750), accounting for almost half of the average wage in the city.

Last September, RYB made its debut at the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the first Chinese school to be listed on the US market.

The company apologized to the parents on social networks and ensured that the offending teachers would be expelled. Yesterday, three kindergarten teachers were suspended.

This is not the first time RYB's kindergarten has been accused of child abuse. In October 2016, four teachers of a RYB pre-school in Siping (Jilin) were sentenced to 30-34 months in prison for "maltreatment" after needle marks were found on children.
The economy is expected to grow by 6.9 per cent next year, slightly higher than this. Investments from China, Cambodias main economic partner, play a crucial role. Hun Sen remains defiant vis-a-vis foreign donor, especially the US and EU, which are threatening to end aid to protest against repression.

Phnom Penh (AsiaNews)  Cambodia's economy is expected to be one of Asias most dynamic, growing at a fast pace despite political turmoil and uncertainties, the World Bank said on Wednesday.

In 2018, the economy is forecast to grow 6.9 per cent, up from a projected 6.8 per cent in 2017,

Cambodia's political turbulence, including the dissolution of the main opposition party, has had little impact on economic growth, which has hovered around 7 per cent for the past six years.

The World Bank noted that textile exports had moderated and the construction sector showed signs of slowing, but other manufacturing exports have increased and Cambodia was also drawing more tourists  particularly from China.

"The outlook remains positive," it said in a report. "A possible slowdown of the regional economy, especially China, and potential election-related uncertainties, however, pose downside risks to the outlook."

World Bank senior country economist Miguel Sanchez said uncertainty had affected Cambodia in previous election years, leading to postponed investment decisions and a decline in foreign currency deposits. "It was temporary," he told a news conference.

Foreign investments are crucial, especially from China, which is now Cambodia's main economic and trading partner.

Cambodia is also leveraging donor support, although international governments have been threatening to block funding due to the growing internal repression that has struck the members of the main opposition party with particular violence.

On orders of Hun Sen, who heads the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), Kem Sokha, his greatest threat in 30 years, was arrested, and his party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, disbanded. Sen also cracked down on media and civil society groups.

The government accuses Sokha and his party of treason and plotting to take power illegally. For critics, the charges are politically motivated ahead of next years parliamentary election.

Experts and analysts have warned that cuts to aid will adversely affect economic growth, especially Cambodias garment sector, which provides more than a million jobs.

Observers note that Cambodia relies heavily on trade preferences with the United States and the European Union to support that industry.

Still, Prime Minister Hun Sen remains defiant, saying he would welcome any withdrawal of aid and that Cambodia will rely on assistance from China for economic growth.
State elections are slated for 9 and 14 December. In a letter, the archbishop of Gandhinagar urges the faithful to pray for good leaders", noting a growing sense of insecurity among the minorities. However, reciting the Holy Rosary will be of great help".

Gandhinagar (AsiaNews)  Mgr Thomas Macwan, archbishop of Gandhinagar, has issued a pastoral letter in connection with the upcoming election in the State of Gujarat, set for 9 and 14 December.

With the letter, the bishop has decided to jump into the election debate. Whilst reiterating that the Church does not side with any candidate or party and urging voters to cast their ballot according to their conscience, he appeals to them to save the country from nationalist forces and "pray for good leaders", adding that "We are against narrow minded people."

According to Mgr Macwan, "The results of this election are significant and they will have repercussions and reverberation throughout our beloved nation. It will influence the future course of our country. "

Gujarat is a key state in Indian politics. It is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, head of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party) (BJP), and has also known sectarian violence for years.

One such incidents was the 2002 anti-Muslim Gujarat massacre, which was triggered by an attack in Godhra against the Sabarmati Express train carrying hundreds of Hindus. Some 59 people were killed.

Hindu extremists reacted by going on a rampage that led to the death of more than a thousand people, mostly Muslims, over a three-month period in several cities in Gujarat.

Prime Minister Modi, who at the time was Gujarat chief minister, has been blamed for complicity in the massacre, for doing nothing to stop it, and for failing to investigate it. Since then, a court ruled that there was no evidence of his involvement. But a cloud of criticism still hangs over him.

In his letter, Mgr Macwan states that "We are aware that the secular and democratic fabric of our country is at stake. Human rights are being violated. [. . .] [C]onstitutional rights are being trampled. Not a single day goes [by] without an attack on our churches, church personnel, faithful or institutions. There is a growing sense of insecurity among the minorities.

Stressing that "Nationalist forces are on the verge of taking over the country," the archbishop notes that "The election results of [the] Gujarat State Assembly can make a difference!"

That is why he writes that bishops of Gujarat want people "to organize prayer services in your parishes and convents so that we may have such people elected in the Gujarat State Assembly who would remain faithful to our Indian constitution and respect every human being without any sort of discrimination."

To this effect, "The recitation of the Holy Rosary on an individual, community, family and parish levels will be of great help," he writes.
by Paolo Fossati

About 200 people ae travelling from the remote north of the country, carrying with them the joy, prayers and suffering of the Christian majority ethnicity. Many are unable to see the pontiff because blocked up in refugee camps. They found hospitality at the parish of Saint Francis of Assisi. In the next few days, parishioners will receive around 1,300 Catholics. From our correspondent on the ground.

Yangon (AsiaNews) - Three days and two nights on trains and railroads dating back to the colonial period. This is the arduous journey undertaken by the nearly 200 pilgrims who have arrived at the parish of Saint Francis of Assisi in Yangon. They are almost all Kachin, a Christian majority ethnicity, and they come from the far north of the country, devastated by the conflict that opposes the ethnic army to Burmese government forces. Despite the recent intensification of the clashes, the pilgrims did not want to miss the chance to meet Pope Francis, who on November 27 will begin his historic apostolic journey to Myanmar. They come largely from Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State, but many are faithful from Hpakan, Putao and Bhamo.

"We are tired, but we will be rewarded when we see the Holy Father," some women say (photo 2). "Seeing the Pope is for us to see the face of Jesus. It is a grace, a blessing. Now we can die happy and at peace," they say. Along with all the other pilgrims, they bring with them the prayers and the suffering of all the Kachin who for economic and security reasons will not be able to attend the solemn Mass of November 29 at the Kyaikkasan Ground in Yangon, the main event of the Pope's visit to Myanmar . "Our Idp brothers and sisters [Internal displaced people] cannot move from the refugee camps they live in. That is why we hope the Pope's visit can contribute to peace and stability in Kachin state. We hope for a change in the situation." Despite the difficulties faced to reach Yangon, the joy of pilgrims is tangible. Petru Longgam, 83, can hardly contain his happiness: "This is how we Kachin are, we like to talk, we are expansive. For the first time since we were converted, we will be able to see a Pope. It's incredible!".

The large group is only the first to be welcomed to the parish church of St. Francis of Assisi. Tomorrow 500 more pilgrims are expected, and 700 more days later. The parish, like all Yangon churches, collaborates with the Bishops' Conference (Cbcm) to cater for all the pilgrims who will pour into city from all over the nation. Every parish wants to make a contribution and there are several volunteers to care for arriving pilgrims. Some prepare food, some are in charge of laundry and others register new arrivals (photos). The apostolic journey of Pope Francis represents the third opportunity for all Burmese Catholic communities to meet and exchange their own experience of faith. The first was in 2012, for the 100th anniversary of St. Mary's Cathedral. In 2014, Catholics celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Burmese Church.

Father Jacob (photo 3), parish priest of St. Francis of Assisi for over eight years, comments on these moments: "The visit of the Holy Father is a miracle. Everyone is happy to help, it's a formidable celebration. This event encourages faith and love. Our parish has about 1,300 faithful and will host as many pilgrims as possible. Everyone is happy to welcome them, even the Muslims and Buddhists living here. This is a sign that the Pope's journey may also be a time of dialogue and can contribute to the process of national reconciliation. Catholic faith unites, it does not divide. I am an example: I am of Kharen ethnicity, I have buddhist father and mother," concludes the priest.

Not far from the parish, the Kyaikkasan Ground is located, where teams of workers work day and night to finish the stage decorations where Pope Francis will celebrate Mass. It was built according to Burmese tradition for religious buildings, which can be found in many Buddhist temples. On the pediment stands a golden christogram (photo 4).
by Melani Manel Perera

Pope Francis appointed him bishop two days ago. He will meet dioceses staff to understand its most urgent needs. The province is still feeling the consequences of the countrys civil war. The new bishop plans to continue in the footsteps of his predecessors. Politics and religion do not mix, but it is urgent to defend people.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  Mgr Fidelis Lionel Emmanuel Fernando is the new bishop of Mannar, a diocese in Sri Lankas Northern Province, scene of major fighting during the countrys civil war. Pope Francis appointed him two days ago.

His appointment will give him an opportunity to serve the Tamil people, "use my mother tongue and help the people in Mannar who are looking for a leader, who need someone who can speak to them, who can listen to them." The new bishop plans to be close to those who " lost their land" and to the relatives of those who "disappeared" or were "killed".

Born on 20 May 1948 in Jaffna, he was ordained in January 1973. In 1987 he obtained his doctorate in Moral Theology from the Catholic University, Washington. In February 2012, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Colombo. He has held several positions, including professor, vice rector and rector at the National Seminary, Kandy.

Here is his interview with AsiaNews.

Your Excellency, what is your impression of this new appointment?

Well, I know Mannar is a big diocese. More than one hundred thousand Catholics. More than one hundred priests and also many religious. I have to serve this diocese so I look it as a big task given to me. I have to take on this responsibility and be prudent. Thus, I can only prepare myself with the help of the Lord to handle this huge task.

What is your plan for new pastoral work in the diocese?

Although the appointment was made three days ago I have not yet met the priests there, so I will work on a plan for the diocese only after I meet the priests and the religious in the diocese. I need to know what its urgent needs are, what its priorities are. Only afterwards will I be able to lay down a plan.

How are you going to identify the need of the people, especially the Tamils who suffered because of the long civil war?

I have recently visited Mannar and I know that it still has lot of problems. After the war, they [the Tamils] lost their land, their dear ones who disappeared. A lot of people were killed. Families have been suffering as a result of the absence of family members, especially the heads of families. They are still in a situation that has not yet been settled. There are a lot of things that need to be solved. Therefore, we have to help them find solutions to the many different types of problems they are facing.

For example, in some places their homes are near churches, and have been occupied by soldiers. So, they have to travel two, three kilometres just to come to church. We need to find various solutions to this kind of problem.

Your Excellency, previously you were auxiliary bishop in the south, in Colombo. Now you are going to take on a big responsibility as the bishop of Tamil people, in the northern part in the country. Soon after hearing about your appointment, some people, especially in social media, raised questions as to why a Sinhalese bishop was chosen for a Tamil area and Tamil People? They wonder: What does he know about Tamil people to serve them . . . So what is your take on this challenge?

People who really know me, know that I studied at St Benedict's Collage in Tamil, in Kotahena, Colombo. So, I have a firm foundation in the Tamil language. I took pains to study Sinhalese in order to be close to the people in Colombo. It [Sinhalese] is not my mother tongue. My mother tongue is Tamil. And I would love to serve Tamil speaking people. I did that in Colombo, wherever it was possible to serve the Tamil people in Colombo. In fact, I feel sorry that I have to leave them because they depended on me for Tamil services in Colombo. But now I have the opportunity to use my own mother tongue and help the people in Mannar who are looking for a leader, who need someone who can speak to them, who can listen to them.

Bishop Rayappu Joseph led the diocese of Manar for a long time, and will never be forgotten. People wonder if the new bishop will follow his path.

Yes, in the Catholic Church, it is not like politics. When we accept a task, our main duty is to continue what our predecessors did. Mgr Thomas Savundaranayagam was the first bishop of Mannar. What he did was deepened by Bishop Rayappu Joseph who succeeded him. So, it is now my duty to continue from where Bishop Rayappu Joseph left off. I don't know whether I have the talent and the capacity to do so. It is up to God to give me the strength, to help me in continuing what Bishop Rayappu Joseph did for his people.

I of course will be very careful of not mixing politics with religion. Whatever we can do for the people, we will do. Even speak on their behalf. Speak of their rights. That is all that we will do. I have the support of other bishops. About three or four bishops have been with me at the National Seminary, either as staff or students. So, I know them. I also have the support of His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith with whom I have served for many years. Therefore, on that score, the Catholic Church has seen it all before I was appointed to this important position.

My message is that God has entrusted me with a huge task. It is an episcopal ministry of very high order. I would be grateful to people who will cooperate with me, people who will pray for me, people who will give me a hand.
by Kamran Chaudhry

Communities already living in fear suffer discrimination. Activists and politicians complain that whilst the number of seats in national and provincial assemblies has increased, reserved minority seats have not. Catholic bishops note that the current electoral system does not represent their communities. One lawmaker complains that her fellow parliamentarians are indifferent to the issue.

Lahore (AsiaNews)  Pakistans religious minorities are increasingly underrepresented in the countrys legislative bodies. Even though the total number of seats has increased, the number of reserved minority seats has remained the same since 1985.

Christian and Muslim activists and parliamentarians raised the issue yesterday in Lahore at a seminar on Shrinking political space for minorities.

Speakers shared their views on the role of media, civil society, education and political system in protecting the rights of religious minorities who make up less than four per cent of the country's 220 million residents.

With the increase in population, the Pakistan government increased the seats of national and provincial assemblies in 2002 but no efforts have been made to increase minority parliamentarians. Even reserved seats for women in legislative bodies went up, said Sarwar Bari, a Muslim and National Coordinator at the Pattan Development Organisation. This is discrimination and an injustice against communities already living in fear, he explained.

For the Catholic Church, minority representation is a source of great concern. In 1985, ten seats out of 237were reserved for non-Muslims in the National Assembly. This remained unchanged in 2002 when dictator Pervez Musharraf increased the number to 342.

"Unfortunately, their representation has diminished in all four provincial assemblies," Bari added.

Since the 2002 expansion, the number of non-Muslim lawmakers has remained the same. It was 8 seats out of 248 in Punjab, 9 out of 109 in Sindh, 3 out of 43 in Balochistan, and 3 out of 83 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Now Punjab has 371 seats; Sindh, 168; Balochistan, 65; and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 124.

In a statement released this month, Pakistans Catholic bishops criticised the existing joint electoral system, in which Muslim political parties select minority parliamentarians via a proportional system.

For the bishops, the current electoral system "does not represent the community, and so we urge the government to create a just and fair system".

Shunila Ruth, a member of the Punjab provincial assembly, said that representing minorities in parliament is a difficult challenge.

"The problems of minorities are raised only by non-Muslim parliamentarians, and we get almost no support, not only from the majority, but also from minority representatives. There is no coordination between us," Ruth said. "The same indifference is displayed by MPAs of our own party," she added.

We are not allotted any constituency, and a provincial MPA caters to the whole province, she explained. Electoral or parliamentary rules do not even mention minority MPAs.
"Decision-makers should establish practical measures to welcome, protect, promote and integrate and  so far as the good of their own community, rightly understood, permits  to further the aims of those who may wish to become members of a new society." At the same time, newcomers must not forget that they have a duty to respect the laws, culture and traditions of the countries where they are welcomed. "

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Pope Francis's message for the World Day of Peace should be framed in the context of "care for our common home" as, as is the case with the family, decision makers are responsible for managing complex situations and quick changes, and allocating limited resources, noted Fr. Michael Czerny, S.J., Under Secretary of the Migration and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, intervening in the presentation of the papal document.

"Compassion, to open our hearts to brothers and sisters seeking a safe place to live in peace, is essential, but not enough," he explained. It "As the Holy Father has said several times, compassion and prudence need to go together. Really welcoming others requires concrete commitment, effective forms of support and, eventually, integration. Family life is a very good example. Each member has real needs. The family heads need to distinguish these from frivolous desires. Prudent parents respond and allocate resources accordingly. If resources are inadequate, they adjust goals  they do not block or expel members who seem too needy."

And as in the family, public opinion leaders "need to be both compassionate and prudent, both caring and careful. Decision-makers should establish practical measures to welcome, protect, promote and integrate and  so far as the good of their own community, rightly understood, permits  to further the aims of those who may wish to become members of a new society.They should bear in mind the needs of all members of the human family and the wellbeing of each and every one. At the same time, newcomers must not forget that they have a duty to respect the laws, culture and traditions of the countries in which they are received.

"How does a civic or religious community welcome, protect, promote and integrate the newly arrived? Whatever measures are taken, they must also fairly exercise care for the residents already in place. This can include appealing for resources from outside. For example, wealthier countries should donate generously to the places where many asylum seekers flee to settle temporarily or long-term.. "

"In support of the important processes of reflection and discernment underway, this years World Day of Peace Message invites us to consider migrants and refugees as men and women who are seeking, bringing and building peace."
In the message for the World Day of Peace, Francis states that all members of the one human family have the same rights to the goods of the earth, even migrants. "Those who, for what may be political reasons, foment fear of migrants instead of building peace are sowing violence, racial discrimination and xenophobia, which are matters of great concern for all those concerned for the safety of every human being."

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - To welcome, protect, promote and integrate those who are forced to migrate to escape wars and violence or to seek better living conditions. Solidarity and sharing that derive from being all part of the one human family - and therefore also having the same rights to the goods of the earth - are a path to peace, says Pope Francis in his message for the 51st World Peace Day. The message for the Day, which will be celebrated on January 1, was published today and condemns those who fuel racial discrimination and xenophobia.

Titled "Migrants and Refugees: Men and Women in search of Peace," the document, dated November 13, "Liturgical memory of Frances Xavier Cabrini Patron Saint of Migrants", also calls for the definition and approval by the United Nations, in 2018, of two global pacts, one for safe, orderly and regular migrations, the other with respect to refugees.

The message opens with a "wish for peace", "peace to all people and all the nations of the earth". Peace especially for those who most keenly suffer its absence. Among these whom I constantly keep in my thoughts and prayers, I would once again mention the over 250 million migrants worldwide, of whom 22.5 million are refugees." "In a spirit of compassion, let us embrace all those fleeing from war and hunger, or forced by discrimination, persecution, poverty and environmental degradation to leave their homelands."

But, "we know that it is not enough to open our hearts to the suffering of others. Much more remains to be done before our brothers and sisters can once again live peacefully in a safe home. This requires concrete commitment, a network of assistance and goodwill" and," practising the virtue of prudence, government leaders should take practical measures to welcome, promote, protect, integrate, " and, within the limits allowed by a correct understanding of the common good, to permit [them] to become part of a new society". They have a clear responsibility towards their own communities, which must ensure their rights and harmonious development. "

There are many causes that push so many people to leave their homeland: war, violence and "misery aggravated by environmental degradation". " Most people migrate through regular channels. Some, however, take different routes, mainly out of desperation, when their own countries offer neither safety nor opportunity, and every legal pathway appears impractical, blocked or too slow."

"Many destination countries have seen the spread of rhetoric decrying the risks posed to national security or the high cost of welcoming new arrivals, and by doing so demeans the human dignity due to all as sons and daughters of God. Those who, for what may be political reasons, foment fear of migrants instead of building peace are sowing violence, racial discrimination and xenophobia, which are matters of great concern for all those concerned for the safety of every human being.

Migrants do not come empty handed

Migrations will continue in the future and if "some consider this a threat. For my part, I ask you to view it with confidence as an opportunity to build peace. The wisdom of faith nourishes this gaze, able to see that all of us belong to one family, migrants and the local populations that welcome them, and all have the same right to enjoy the goods of the earth, whose destination is universal, as the social doctrine of the Church teaches."

Migrants and refugees also "do not arrive empty-handed. They bring their courage, skills, energy and aspirations, as well as the treasures of their own cultures; and in this way, they enrich the lives of the nations that receive them." Those responsible for the public good should see this and and encourage them to pursue policies of welcome, within the limits allowed by a correct understanding of the common good[11]  bearing in mind, that is, the needs of all members of the human family and the welfare of each. Those who see things in this way will be able to recognize the seeds of peace that are already sprouting and nurture their growth. Our cities, often divided and polarized by conflicts regarding the presence of migrants and refugees."

"Offering asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and victims of human trafficking an opportunity to find the peace they seek requires a strategy combining four actions: welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating.

Welcoming calls for expanding legal pathways for entry and no longer pushing migrants and displaced people towards countries where they face persecution and violence. It also demands balancing our concerns about national security with concern for fundamental human rights.

Protecting has to do with our duty to recognize and defend the inviolable dignity of those who flee real dangers in search of asylum and security, and to prevent their being exploited. I think in particular of women and children who find themselves in situations that expose them to risks and abuses that can even amount to enslavement.

Promoting entails supporting the integral human development of migrants and refugees. Among many possible means of doing so, I would stress the importance of ensuring access to all levels of education for children and young people. This will enable them not only to cultivate and realize their potential, but also better equip them to encounter others and to foster a spirit of dialogue rather than rejection or confrontation.

Integrating, lastly, means allowing refugees and migrants to participate fully in the life of the society that welcomes them, as part of a process of mutual enrichment and fruitful cooperation in service of the integral human development of the local community.

UN pacts for safe migration and refugees

In this logic Francis hopes " his spirit will guide the process that in the course of 2018 will lead the United Nations to draft and approve two Global Compacts, one for safe, orderly and regular migration and the other for refugees. As shared agreements at a global level, these compacts will provide a framework for policy proposals and practical measures. For this reason, they need to be inspired by compassion, foresight and courage, so as to take advantage of every opportunity to advance the peace-building process. Only in this way can the realism required of international politics avoid surrendering to cynicism and to the globalization of indifference.

Dialogue and coordination are a necessity and a specific duty for the international community. Beyond national borders, higher numbers of refugees may be welcomed  or better welcomed  also by less wealthy countries, if international cooperation guarantees them the necessary funding.

The Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has published a set of twenty action points that provide concrete leads for implementing these four verbs in public policy and in the attitudes and activities of Christian communities.[17] The aim of this and other contributions is to express the interest of the Catholic Church in the process leading to the adoption of the two U.N. Global Compacts. This interest is the sign of a more general pastoral concern that goes back to very origins of Church and has continued in her many works up to the present time."

"Let us draw inspiration from the words of Saint John Paul II: If the dream of a peaceful world is shared by all, if the refugees and migrants contribution is properly evaluated, then humanity can become more and more a universal family and our earth a true common home.[18] Throughout history, many have believed in this dream, and their achievements are a testament to the fact that it is no mere utopia. Among these, we remember Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini in this year that marks the hundredth anniversary of her death. On this thirteenth day of November, many ecclesial communities celebrate her memory. This remarkable woman, who devoted her life to the service of migrants and became their patron saint, taught us to welcome, protect, promote and integrate our brothers and sisters. Through her intercession, may the Lord enable all of us to experience that a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (FP)
The announcement came on the second day of ongoing meetings in Riyadh. There are 140 opposition leaders. The goal is to find unity in view of the new round of peace talks, scheduled for 28 November. But Assad's fate continues to be a source of division.

Riyadh (AsiaNews / Agencies) - This morning, the various Syrian opposition groups found consensus aimed at sending a united delegation to the next peace talks under the auspices of the UN, scheduled for Geneva (Switzerland) next week. An important breakthrough, coupled with the pact signed by Russia, Iran and Turkey in recent days to launch an "inclusive, free, fair and transparent" political process, confirms the efforts of international diplomacy to put an end to the conflict.

The announcement came on the second day of opposition talks held in Riyadh (among the main supporters of the anti-Assad factions) in the presence of United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura. 140 opposition leaders are meeting in the Saudi capital with the aim of tightening their ranks and reaching an agreement in view of the November 28 meeting.

Bassma Kodmani, a member of the opposition groups, confirms the achievement of the "agreement with the groups in Riyadh, together with the platforms in Cairo and Moscow, for the formation of a unitary delegation to participate in the Geneva talks." Today, the names and number of representatives of each group will be defined, for a total of 50 delegates.

Until now, UN-mediated talks had been attended by the High Negotiation Committee (HNC), a Saudi-backed umbrella group that represents only a part of the vast galaxy of anti-government opposition movements in Syria. This lack of unity had undermined past encounters on several occasions.

However, within this new formation that emerges from Riyadh's meetings there are still substantial divisions: one of them concerns the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, whose expulsion according to some remains an indispensable condition. Firas Al-Khaldi, spokesman for the opposition, stresses that "the participants agree on the importance of [Assad's] resignation and the fall of the regime," while Russia expresses reservations on this issue.
Hundreds of boys and girls, mostly of immigrant background from India and the Philippines met in Oman and the Emirates. They asked the apostolic vicar many questions anonymously. Mgr Hinder noted a great desire to interact with him. Social and new media are seen as a new "tool for evangelisation".

Abu Dhabi (AsiaNews)  The Apostolic Vicarage of Southern Arabia (United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen) recently sponsored a number of youth gatherings. The latest were the fifth annual Teens United for Faith retreats (TUFF) for youth aged 14 to 18 from the region.

The first meeting was held on 3-4 November at the Holy Spirit Church, Ghallah, Muscat (Oman) The second took place on 10-11 November at the St Anthony of Padua Church, Ras Al Khaimah (United Arab Emirates).

Speaking to AsiaNews about the meetings, Mgr Paul Hinder could not but be very happy about the enthusiasm and involvement shown by the hundreds of participants.

The latter discussed a range of topics, like youth networking across the vast region to share experiences of faith and talk about the difficulties of everyday life, addressing the issue of faith and belief in this day and age, interacting with other religions, and engaging in dialogue from the perspective of ones own Christian identity.

The formal agenda included how to be Catholic, life in Christ, morality, and apologetics. Prayers were a key aspect of the meetings, with the mind on the next Synod of Bishops slated for October 2018, which Pope Francis dedicated to "Young people, the faith and vocational discernment ".

In the first meeting, more than 300 young people came all of Omans parishes. In the UAE, participants numbered more than 900. Most of these kids are "children of immigrant families, mostly Indian and Filipinos." Other young people came " from Arabic-speaking countries, even though they constitute a tiny minority".

During the retreats, which the apostolic nuncio attended, participants were able to raise some questions anonymously (written on notes placed in a basket) on major topics. They asked me about sexuality, vocations, the problems of the local Church and in the world, he said.

"Some questions were deep; some were more superficial; others were about me, my personality, my encounter with the faith, my vocation. In some cases, the questions turned out to be a starting point for a discussion among those present. There were hundreds of questions and "it was not possible to answer everyone".

This led Mgr Hinder to realise that "one of the greatest wishes of young people is to keep in touch with their bishop," interact with him, and not be afraid to "ask questions whilst I sit among them.

This back and forth was "very much appreciated". It allowed for further discussion of other "topics close to their heart, like new media, the internet, social media and their importance not only as amusement but also as a tool for evangelisation as they suggested themselves."

The two aforementioned retreats were not the only events organised by the Church in Arabia. On 17 November, the Young Adult Ministry for 18- to 28-year-olds held a seminar in a number of parishes. This too was done with the Synod in mind, Mgr Hinder said.

What the kids want to do is "to network among young people in each emirate and throughout the whole Vicariate, Mgr Hinder explained. They want to support each other on their journey of faith. They also want to understand better the reasons that may push a young person today to believe and bear witness to the encounter with young people of other religions."

The apostolic Vicarage of South Arabia includes the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen, for a total surface of about 929,000 square kilometres. Out of a combined population of 39.5 million people, about 992,000 are Catholics according to Vicariate data.

The region has 15 parishes with 13 diocesan priests, plus 49 priests from religious institutes and a permanent deacon who lives in the diocese. There are also three lay brothers, as well as 64 nuns in total. (DS)


(Syda Productions/Shutterstock.com) (Syda Productions/Shutterstock.com)

Same sex couples should be able to use marriage certificates from overseas to apply for visas to live together in Australia early next year.Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wants the new legislation to legalise same sex marriage to become law by the end of this year. It is not clear when the change will come in but according to immigration agents marriage licenses already issued overseas must be recognised.Experts say that once it does married same sex couples will be eligible for spousal visas, opening up opportunities for couples who had previously been separated by visa requirements.Currently the Prospective Marriage Visa (subclass 300) allows people to come to Australia to marry their fiance. Once the visa is granted they must marry and apply for a Partner Visa (subclass 820 and 801) before the Prospective Marriage Visa expires.The cost of the Prospective Marriage Visa is $7,000 and it normally lasts for nine months. Applicants must be 18 years old and currently the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) website says an applicant must be 'the opposite sex to your prospective spouse' and clearly this will need to be changed.Same sex couples have been eligible for a Partner Visa and for this they have to prove they are in long term relationships by providing evidence of living together, without the official backing of a marriage certificate.It can also take some time for a visa to be granted. The most up to date figures from the DIBP show that processing times can vary. Some 75% of applications are processes within 13 months and 90% within 18 months.The Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force (GLITF) is urging couples to take their time and wait until the changes are made. According to Roman Deauna, GLITF president, there has been a spike in inquiries since the positive vote on same sex marriage.He warned that there is still a culture of scepticism among officials. 'You would not believe how many married partner visa applications by straight people are assessed by officials as being contrived,' he said.He explained that there are a lot of people who might be misled into thinking that as they can now get married they should put a visa application in. 'Immigration officials still have to be subjectively convinced that your relationship is real, and the wait times are now are up to a year and a half,' he pointed out.


(David Carillet/Shutterstock.com) (David Carillet/Shutterstock.com)

The number of people visiting Australia continues to grow with most arriving for a holiday as 7.3% more took a vacation in the 12 months to September 2017 than in the previous year.Figures show that that in September alone there were 663,500 visitor arrivals, a rise of 2.6% compared to the same month in 2016.And in the 12 months to September there were 8.7 million visitors, a rise of 7.4% on the previous year, led by people arriving for a holiday.China is leading the growth with 1,364,700 visitors over the 12-month period and there has also been a rise in visitors from other Asian countries with numbers up 15.3% from India and up 13.3% from Hong Kong.A new report suggests that with an increasing number of people from China visiting Australia, more needs to be done to welcome them, in particular when it comes to language.Australia needs to boost the learning of Mandarin, provide more Chinese language signs, improve its airports and ensure its visa processes are quick and easy, according to a report from international management consulting firm L.E.K. Consulting.'Investment must go towards ensuring that Chinese visitors to Australia have not just a positive experience, but an excellent one. A frequent lack of signage and customer service in Chinese suggests a need for more education in the language for Australians not of a Chinese background,' the report says.The report, based on extensive interviews with Chinese visitors and senior executives from across the tourism, trade and related sectors, shows there is a lot more work to do if Australia is to capture the full value from the Chinese tourism boom.It points out that the kind of visitor from China is changing with more independent travellers and many are return travellers seeking a high quality experience with more wanting to take part in active, outdoor activities. The introduction of a 10-year visa for Chinese citizens last year is also boosting numbers.Research also suggests that a lot of Chinese people are tourists, but around 20% are visiting family and friends, 13% are students and around 9% are in the country on business.Tourism Australia is actively encouraging businesses in the industry to gear up for Chinese visitors. It suggests that hotels can consider employing Mandarin speaking front desk staff or offering Chinese TV channels or newspapers as well as restaurants providing Chinese food options or translated menus.'Many of these measures seem pretty simple, but they are also highly symbolic gestures that say welcome,' said John O'Sullivan, managing director of Tourism Australia.According to Margy Osmond, chief executive officer of the Tourism and Transport Forum Australia the record breaking run of international visitor arrivals confirms the importance of the visitor economy as Australia's next super growth sector.She warned against complacency and urged the industry to make sure there is further investment in destination marketing 'to ensure that our tourism sector continues its current golden run well into the future'.
Photo of Land Rover Range Rover Sport courtesy of Land Rover.

Jaguar Land Rover is recalling more than 29,000 vehicles in the 2017 and 2018 model years so dealers can address malfunctioning instrument clusters, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The automaker is issuing two separate recalls, the largest of which covers nearly 22,000 2017 Land Rover Range Rover and Range Rover Sport SUVs. The second recall involves more than 7,000 2017-2018 Jaguar XF and F-Pace vehicles, 2016-2017 XJ vehicles, and 2018 XE vehicles.

The instrument clusters in these luxury cars may intermittently go blank, NHTSA said, increasing the risk of a crash. Dealers will update the vehicle software to fix the problem. There will be no charge for this service.

Vehicle owners can reach Jaguar customer service at (800) 452-4827. The number for the Jaguar recall is H056. Land Rover customer service can be reached at (800) 637-6837. The number for the Land Rover recall is N124.
Richard Lowden, founder and CEO of Green Motion, gives a presentation at the company's 2017 international conference. Photo courtesy of Green Motion.

Green Motion held its 2017 international conference in Woburn, Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom at its international head office.

The management team of Green Motion, including the company's founder and CEO, Richard Lowden, welcomed representatives from its worldwide network from over 30 countries. Franchisees had the opportunity to meet staff members from each department including accounts & finance, business development, operations, central reservations, customer service, franchise development and marketing.

Richard Lowden and Chay Lowden also gave a presentation on this year's successes and the future developments that Green Motion has planned for 2018.

"This is our largest conference ever with us receiving a full uptake from our international network," said Lowden. "It was a fantastic opportunity to spend time with our franchisees and for them to meet our entire head office team and, of course, celebrate the successes of the year and focus on our future objectives."

Following its international conference, Green Motion held its annual car rental award ceremony. The awards are designed to celebrate individuals, franchise locations, and franchise countries within the Green Motion network. The award categories covered several topics including branding, revenue management, the environment, and delivering the highest levels of customer service.

Franchise countries that won awards included Green Motion Netherlands, Italy, the U.K., Croatia, Czech Republic, Iceland, Greece, Finland, Poland, Sweden, and operations in the United States (Orlando, Miami and San Diego).

The "Dedication to Green Motion Award" was presented to Sergio Ochoa, the founder of Green Motion Mexico. In addition to supporting the Green Motion brand and delivering high levels of customer service, Ochoa mobilized his entire network to collect and distribute aid following the earthquakes that hit Mexico.

"The awards ceremony was amazing and gave us the opportunity to mark the successes and triumphs of the Green Motion franchise family," said Lowden.

Green Motion's supply partners Rentalcars, CarTrawler, and Expedia also received customer service awards.
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A 5-year-old boy struck by a car while crossing a busy Tampa roadway with his mother and younger brother was released from the hospital Thursday morning. His mother and brother remain hospitalized with serious injuries.

PREVIOUS STORY: Tampa Police: Mother, 2 children struck while crossing street

Mother Cassandra Spicola in critical condition

Cassandra, 18-month-old Noah may have brain bleeds

Jordan Williams is staying with his mother's aunt, Beva Thiem, while his 18-month-old brother, Noah, and his mother, Cassandra Spicola, 29, receive treatment for their injuries. The three were hit by a southbound Toyota Camry on Wednesday while crossing South Dale Mabry Highway to reach Wyoming Avenue.

Spicola was holding Jordan's hand while carrying Noah as they crossed the street. They were not using the crosswalk.

Police said the driver immediately stopped and was not impaired at the time of the incident. The driver said he didn't see the family crossing until it was too late.

Thiem said police told her the driver would not be charged in the crash because Spicola was jaywalking.

Meanwhile, Spicola is in critical condition and may be suffering from more than a broken pelvis.

"They said pelvis, but now my brother's wife is up there now, and she just called and told me that it might be her spine, too," Thiem said.

Thiem also said Spicola and Noah are suffering from brain bleeds.

"Maybe the bleeding will go down and heal itself, because children can heal faster than an adult," Thiem said. "I'm praying for both of them."

Residents who live near the scene of the crash said despite the absence of a crosswalk, many people cross the street at that point because it's convenient.


Operation Toy Soldier, a local non-profit, is kicking off its big holiday campaign and needs the communitys help in collection Christmas gifts for families of our service members.

'Operation Toy Soldier' collecting Christmas gifts for military families

Organization helps families during the holidays

For more information, click here

Jim Rudolph, owner of Veterans Funeral Care in Pinellas County, helped start the organization a few years ago as a way to give back to our service members who have sacrificed so much.

"It is a big deal and they do have kids and these kids are tired of having moms and dads that are not home for the holidays," Rudolph said.

Army Staff Sergeant Danny Billek is just one of countless veterans who will benefit from Operation Toy Soldier. He served for nearly fifteen years and spent a total of 56 months in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Staff Sergeant Billeks trips home were few and far between and spent countless holidays without his wife and four children.

"It was really hard, I know my kids wanted me there, my wife wanted me there, and not being able to be there makes it really tough seeing things through skype or Facebook," Billek said.

Staff Sergeant Billek was medically discharged in 2016. Hes now a fourth grade teacher and said adjusting to civilian life has been anything but easy because resources are limited and expenses add up.

"My ten year old son gets sick a lot and we go to the emergency room, and it is money out of our pocket. Of course money out of our pocket means you can't do as much for the holidays," Billek said.

Staff Sergeant Billek said hes grateful for community support and for organizations like Operation Toy Soldier.

"Their compassion and giving nature is just paramount in a country that's just so divided right now, and it's amazing that there are people that can reach out to other people and know what patriotism is and what brotherhood is and what love really is," Billek said.

Operation Toy Soldier is currently collecting donations. For more information: http://operationtoysoldier.com/
Oregon Coast Holiday Weekend Travel Advice, Weather, Waves, Roads

Published 11/23/2017 at 5:55 PM PDT - Updated 11/23/2017 at 6:15 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Oregon Coast)  Expect the busiest holiday travel times to be on Sunday, highways that are really wet at times, some high water on Oregon coast roadways but some good moments of sun. The forecast for weather may not be great for the beaches, but traveling to and from the coastline won't be much of a problem, nor will finding lodging for the weekend. (Above: Newport's Moolack Beach).

A host of different facts and statistics for those traveling this holiday weekend will mean mostly pleasant times but a few annoyances, mostly in traffic  and the vast majority of that will be for those motoring up and down I-5.

Meanwhile, waves will be putting a decent show along the Oregon coast over the holiday, especially on rocky stretches like those around Oceanside, Yachats or Depoe Bay. Wave height will be in the mid teens  primarily around 12 to 15 feet  through Monday. Look for good wave action on those rocky spots, but stay well clear of them and jetties, and be sure to watch from a distance.

Beachcombing should be mostly safe, however be cautious in the mid afternoons as high tides will be of a medium concern in many areas, up around 8 feet.

According to the Portland office of AAA, the busiest travel times are behind Oregonians: that was Tuesday and Wednesday. Sunday is expected to be another dense period of traffic, but not nearly as much, said AAA's Marie Dodds.

You can avoid the biggest traffic bottlenecks if you can travel outside of these times, said Dodds. Still, plan on lots of company whenever you go. Give yourself extra time to make it to your destination.

Roughly 556,600 Oregonians will drive over the holiday weekend, and it's expected to be some of the heaviest travel period in years because of good economic conditions. This is in spite of gas prices: they are the most expensive since 2014, about 40 cents a gallon more than last year.

On the Oregon coast, travel to and from the beaches should pose no issues, although some delays due to accidents were reported on Highway 18 and Highway 26 on Thanksgiving. Some stretches of Highway 101 are experiencing extremely high water, such as south of Seaside, which is causing delays.

Lodgings on the coast have room aplenty, although you may have some trouble finding kitchen units. Most hotels, motels and vacation rental agencies are at about half full for the weekend. Oregon Coast Hotels for this - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

Weather on the coast will be mostly cloudy through Monday, but with some sun breaks. Rain will be scattered but heavy at times, possibly as high as half an inch on some days. See Oregon Coast Weather - See Oregon Coast Traffic Conditions.





















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Robert Valvano's job is to make sure customers have no complaints when they leave one of his restaurants.

The regional manager for Madison's, Rikenjaks and Bar Local stops by tables to check on the experience. Was the server attentive? Did the food come out as ordered? Was the atmosphere enjoyable?

Usually, customers will nod, say yes and tip accordingly.

An hour later, Valvano logs on to social media and finds a complaint.

Things to consider when writing a review How long has the restaurant been open? If it's only been a month or so, consider waiting to write the review until the restaurant is more established and has worked out the kinks.

If it's only been a month or so, consider waiting to write the review until the restaurant is more established and has worked out the kinks. Did you raise concerns during your meal? Giving a restaurant a chance to correct an issue lets the restaurant show how they serve customers. That can play a big role in giving an accurate review of your experience.

Giving a restaurant a chance to correct an issue lets the restaurant show how they serve customers. That can play a big role in giving an accurate review of your experience. Are your comments constructive? If you have something bad to say, is it something the restaurant can learn from and use to improve? If not, consider trying to make your review more constructive.

If you have something bad to say, is it something the restaurant can learn from and use to improve? If not, consider trying to make your review more constructive. Are you being specific? General reviews don't give restaurants a clear view of what happened. Try to be as specific as you can so restaurants can identify issues. See More Collapse

"I'm reading a review and I knew the exact food that was brought out and the exact table they were at and they made no reaction that something was wrong," Valvano said.

Restaurant owners and servers have come to accept that Yelp and other social media are a big part of their businesses.

They aren't all bad. Having an online presence can lead customers to restaurants they wouldn't otherwise know about.

But when reviewers are careless with their posts, the stigma that comes from a slew of bad reviews can be hard for restaurants to overcome.

It's a frustrating dilemma for those who work in restaurants, especially when customers don't raise a complaint while at the table.

"Now they've become keyboard warriors and rail on you online instead of saying something while they're there," said John Swift, owner of Republic Chicken in Beaumont.

Part of business

Visitors to Republic Chicken's Facebook page will see that Swift responds to almost every review of his restaurant.

"Thank you so very much for coming to dine with us as well as the amazingly gracious review," he writes. Or "I'm very sorry to hear your experience was anything less than perfect today."

Whether he likes it or not, social media is a big part of Swift's local business. While chains might be able to ignore what people say, he feels he can't.

"Everything about our life is tied into that restaurant," Swift said. "We try to watch it very closely."

Having social media pages helps generate interest in Swift's restaurant, which is tucked in an Old Town neighborhood and invisible from main roads. The pages let people know he's there and help them find Republic Chicken.

But with the publicity has come a way for customers to voice complaints. It's an added a layer to doing business that wasn't always there - or more accurately, was there, just in a different way.

Swift said in the past, reviews were only done by newspapers and magazines at high-end or highly anticipated restaurants. Now, anyone can join in the conversation online about every restaurant, from fine-dining establishments to corner coffee shops.

As customers have been given a platform to talk about problems after the fact, they've become less likely to say something in person.

Valvano said in the seven years he's been in the business, he's noticed the shift.

"Unfortunately social media is an unnecessary evil I wish would go away," Valvano said.

Ready to criticize

When server Hannah McMahan walks up to a table, she can easily spot the telltale signs of Yelpers, people who dine out just to review restaurants.

They're usually scrolling through Yelp on their phones or taking pictures of the menu.

It tells McMahan, who has worked in several restaurants around Southeast Texas for the past three years, that she needs to be on top of her game.

"People who are Yelpers go into a restaurant with the intention of criticizing it," McMahan said. "They are usually unrealistically critical."

McMahan said part of the problem is customers forget that real people, who are trying to make a living or pouring their hearts and souls into a restaurant, are involved.

"I wish people understood how much thought was put into the experience that they're having before they showed up," McMahan said.

Michelle Cate used to be an avid Yelp reviewer. She said she followed the Thumper rule of "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

She enjoyed the online community and liked letting people know about hidden gems.

But she began noticing some users weren't what she considered sincere foodies.

"If the only reviews I saw from a writer were negative ones, I would tend not to trust that person's reviews," Cate said. "If I saw the writer went to a diverse range of places and seemed not prone to hyperbole, I would follow them."

Over time, she became jaded. The reviews seemed to turn into an online smear campaign of local restaurants, so she stopped using apps like Yelp altogether.

"The app can make people feel like they are overly important," Cate said.

Swift said he thinks some people are looking to make themselves the center of attention. They'll drop some money, look to have a bad experience and then go and complain so everyone feels bad for them.

"What kind of sucks is you get those people that want to effectively draw attention to themselves so they can be the momentary center of attention," Swift said. "Unfortunately that's where Yelp has ruined the restaurant business."

Using feedback for good

Swift is the first to admit that some negative reviews have been valid, especially early on when they were working on recipes, and it has shaped changes at his restaurant.

"The benefit side of social media is we do get some very good feedback from customers and it gives us a chance to address it," Swift said.

Valvano said he also uses the feedback to guide meetings with employees and look for ways to improve.

But improvement can only happen if feedback is constructive.

McMahan has said she has seen reviews criticizing what a server looks like or where the restaurant is located instead of the dining experience.

Often, if a place already has bad reviews, it's hard to overcome.

McMahan said she has worked at restaurants with bad reputations and felt that no matter how well she did her job, it wouldn't matter.

Swift said he's always surprised at how quickly people will write off a place because of something they read online.

"We tend to be so quick to read reviews and take it at face value that many good establishments are never able to recover from that," Swift said.

What people in the restaurant business want is to be given a fair chance to address an issue. How they do so says a lot about an establishment.

"It's a tough thing and it's one of those things I just wish - from a management perspective - I wish that when the issue happens, they'd speak up," Valvano said. After the fact, it can be hard to track down who the server was and what issues cropped up. It makes it harder to address and harder for the establishment to improve the customer experience.

McMahan said if a customer doesn't speak up and let the restaurant attempt to fix a problem, they've lost their right to complain online.

"If you're not willing to say how you feel to the people in person, then you probably shouldn't be saying it," McMahan said.

McMahan wishes customers acknowledged that restaurants aren't out to make sure they have a bad time.

It's better for them if customers want to come back.

But Swift and Valvano know they can't please everyone all the time.

And if Swift feels a review is flat out wrong, he'll try to address it as politely as he can.

"We have to be fair to our businesses and address some things that are just unrealistic," Swift said.

AFletcher@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/afletcher727
From fried turkeys to flying airplanes, Houston's favorite TV personalities had much to be thankful for this year.

Local news anchors and meteorologist shared their Thanksgiving activities on social media, giving residents a peek inside their off-camera lives.
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A Houston-area woman accused of mailing bombs to Gov. Greg Abbott and former President Barack Obama previously told the Chronicle she was being set up.

Julia Poff was indicted in federal court this month for a trio of 2016 mail bombs, including a botched explosive stuffed in a cigarette pack that failed to detonate when the governor opened it.

The 46-year-old was "upset with Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General, because she had not received support from her ex-husband," according to federal court documents.

Using a salad dressing cap from a bottle purchased for an anniversary dinner, Poff allegedly cobbled together an explosive with black powder and pyrotechnic powder, then slipped it in the mail to governor.

PREVIOUS LAWSUIT: Waller County woman sues man accused of calling her 'purple Martian from hell'

When Abbott opened the package in early October 2016, it didn't blow up because he didn't open it as designed.

"Had the device exploded, it could have caused severe burns and death," according to court documents.

Agents working the case later found an damaged shipping label addressed to the mail bombing suspect, from when she originally had received the packaging through EBay.

A similar package sent to Obama was detected in screening and never made it to the intended target.

"Poff had stated she did not like the President," according to court documents.

Now Playing: FOX 26 News reporter Ivory Hecker Video: Fox 26 Houston

A sloppy packaging job on the D.C.-bound explosive helped build the case against the accused bomber. After diverting the package, agents discovered that cat hair caught in the shipping label was "microscopically consistent" with the hair of one of Poff's pets, according to court records.

A third package was sent to the Social Security Administration in Maryland, where Poff had been denied benefits.

A search of Poff's home turned up a trove of fireworks in the garage, according to court records.

In an unsolicited Facebook message asking for prayers and PayPal donations to cover legal fees, Poff told a Chronicle reporter that trash had been taken from her family's home that "had our fingerprints on it" and was "used in some serious crimes that we did not commit and know nothing about."

She also was charged with more than $5,000 of food stamp fraud and false bankruptcy declaration. A federal public defender on Thursday declined to comment.

Court records note that Poff has been evicted repeatedly, in one case allegedly leaving a rented home with potatoes stuffed down the toilets and cement poured in the drains.

Her criminal history includes a misdemeanor theft conviction, which netted deferred adjudication and probation that later was revoked, according to court records. She also was convicted of felony fraud.

Last year, using a Sealy mailing address but describing herself as a Waller County resident, Poff sued her leasing company's manager for allegedly calling her a "purple Martian from hell," according to paperwork filed in Harris County court.

The suit also claimed that the Cypress Four Property Ventures manager "verbally attacked" Poff on the phone and described her as a "professional squatter." A judge ultimately tossed the case.

Poff later said the Chronicle's December 2016 coverage of her civil case was "sooo incomplete!!!" and went on to accuse the judge of corruption.

On Friday, a federal judge ruled against releasing Poff, citing a "serious risk that the defendant will flee."

The case is due for a pretrial conference early next year.
Von: Antje Schippmann

The ruling was issued in the dispute about Kuwait Airlines.

The state-controlled airline owned by the Gulf Emirates is refusing to accept Israeli citizens on board. When an Israeli challenged the regulation in court, judge Wolfram Sauer agreed with the airline (BILD reported on the story).

The regional court of Frankfurt has now published the opinion of the court, which was obtained exclusively by BILD.

Among other aspects, it is stated in the verdict that:

 It is not appropriate for the airline to transport the plaintiff, even within the scope of applicable German laws, because it is punishable under Kuwaiti law. The fact that the airline is government owned, which means the owner is the lawmaker, did not receive further attention.

 The anti-Semitic boycott law is merely being rated as an embargo imposed on one state by another state. The embargo imposed on another state was not unknown to German established law, such as the arms embargo and the financial embargo imposed on North Korea or Iran, it was furthermore stated.

Auch interessant

So, the German judge is putting sanctions against terrorist states on the same level as discrimination against people from Israel.

 The absolute low point: According to the court, the boycott law was a regulation applicable to contractual relations with individuals of a different nationality, obviously against the background that Kuwait does not want to have a connection with Israeli citizens and, therefore, it has imposed their decision on Kuwaiti citizens. Furthermore: It does not burden the plaintiff as an Israeli citizen in such a way that the decision is intolerable for him.

It obviously did not occur to the judge that such discrimination against Jews living in Germany is quite unbearable.

Lesen Sie auch Israeli nicht befordert : Kuwait-Airline soll nicht mehr landen Weil sich Kuwait Airways auch in Deutschland weigert, Israelis an Bord zu lassen, soll nun die Bundesregierung dagegen vorgehen!

The plaintiff will have to pay the costs of the lawsuit. He wants to file an appeal. The ruling stresses him out: As a Jew, I feel discriminated against, and I feel hurt, says Adar M. to BILD.

The plaintiffs lawyer criticized the ruling as being contrary to German law. He said, that it was even more absurd than earlier press releases had suggested. Nathan Gelbart added, that the ruling was not at a very high level legally-speaking.

Those who foster defenders of the boycott against Jews and hide behind a spurious argument of citizenship may need lessons in German history, Gelbart told BILD.

In addition, the ruling would encourage other racist regimes. Our legal system and our democratic values are being trampled all over. We are not puppets of anti-Semitic oil sheikhs and we should not give up our rights.

Minister of transport, Christian Schmidt, announced that the government was going to make an effort to avoid cases of this sort. He was going to make this clear to Kuwait, Schmidt said in response to a BILD inquiry. Kuwait Airways practice was disconcerting and unacceptable.

Lesen Sie auch

It worries me deeply when a citizen has the feeling that he is being discriminated against in Germany, Schmidt remarked.

Lawyer Gelbart very much welcomed Schmidts clear statement, and hopes now that these words are followed up with action. I expect that the minister of transport ends the practice that our legal system has to unreasonably comply with Kuwaiti laws in which he withdraws the airlines take-off and landing rights and encourages his colleagues in the EU and Switzerland to do the same.

The Greens politician Volker Beck also criticized the court ruling: It is absurd that the court is of the opinion that the airline can make excuses by evoking the laws of its owners, the Kuwaiti government. On the contrary: The airline must assume responsibility in respect to the Kuwaiti legislation in light of ownership rules, said Beck to BILD. If you let them get away with their argument, you become accomplices of the Kuwaiti boycott activities against Israel.

In addition, he doesnt think it is admissible to compare the boycott law with other country embargoes: It is outrageous that the court found that this boycott is comparable to embargoes imposed on other countries.

BILD has sent the judge and the president of the court eight questions, among them the following:

Does Kuwaiti law stand above German law? What does it remind you of, when Jews in Germany arent allowed to use certain transportations? And how do you conclude in your ruling that anti-Semitic boycott laws and their consequences for Jews in Germany are acceptable?

The questions remained unanswered at the time of publication of this article.
Doug de Villiers, currently CEO of Brand Science, and his team will join Brand Union to form a dynamic new market offer. De Villiers, who is one of Africa's leading brand professionals and who previously helped build Interbrand Africa into one of the continent's pre-eminent branding consultancies, will assume the vice-chairmanship of the business.

Managing director of Brand Union Africa, Mathew Weiss and Doug de Villiers, CEO of Brand Science.

Managing director of Brand Union Africa, Mathew Weiss shared, Weve made this decision to better respond to the needs of our clients. The capability that Doug and his team brings will help us connect with the evolving needs of our clients in Africa in wider and deeper ways.

Commenting on the move, De Villiers explained, This will afford our clients access to a breadth of local and global services that covers almost every aspect of brand strategy and design.

Winning partnership

Together, Weiss and De Villiers will lead a team of around 50 of the best strategic and creative brand thinkers in the industry, with offices in South Africa across Johannesburg and Cape Town as well as Cairo, Egypt.

Executive chairman for the network Simon Bolton added, I have known and admired Doug for over a decade. He has been a passionate advocate for the importance of building brand across the African continent, as well as in South Africa. Dougs conviction, coupled with Mathews deep understanding of our business, will create a winning partnership.

At point of going to press, Brand Union has announced that it is to converge with 4 other WPP Brand Consulting agencies: Addison Group, Lambie-Nairn, The Partners and VBAT, forming a network of 750 employees across 20 locations.
The first-ever Big Connect, hosted by South Africa-based travel marketing firm Big Ambitions, recently took place in Cape Town and saw South African travel companies and influencers come together to discuss how travel marketing can be enhanced through working with influencers. Big Connect aims to connect influencers and travel brands and initiate important conversations that will take travel and destination marketing in South Africa to the next level.

Images Supplied

The future of travel marketing, said Lyle Scritten, digital PR and outreach strategist at Travelstart, is telling a story and keeping it authentic, predominantly through video.

There are also immense opportunities to be found in dark social, added Theresa Szejwallo, MD Trafalgar South Africa. We dont know what people are saying about our travel brands on platforms like WeChat and SnapChat so thats a very exciting travel marketing space to look at. To get involved in that conversation takes us to a whole new level.

Paying influencers with priceless experiences

Influencers attending #BigConnect addressed the sensitive topic of being paid for generating content from blogger/media trips, with travel brands acknowledging that they do not pay influencers for their time away from the office.

We do not pay influencers, but pride ourselves on offering money cant buy experiences like meeting Richard Branson or attending the MTV Music Awards in New York. These are not necessarily experiences you could buy, explained Lee Raskinen, executive: marketing and communications at Virgin Atlantic.

Negotiations

Sending an influencer on a trip is a huge investment on our side so while we dont pay for their time, we do sometimes pay for their content generated during the trip. We recently worked with Stevo and Chanel from How far from home on a Trafalgar trip to New Zealand and negotiated up front with them to buy some of their images from the trip. We also negotiated an affiliate marketing agreement where they promoted the trip to their followers and received a commission from whatever bookings they got. There are ways to earn an income by working with travel brands by enticing your followers to travel with that brand, said Szejwallo.

Influencer Mike Eloff asked if travel brands minded when influencers conducted micro-campaigns for other brands during a trip, for example, camera equipment. The consensus was that they did not, provided the brand being promoted is not in competition with the travel brand. As an influencer, you need to look at what your value is and if an offer does not work for you, just say no. Otherwise, do the trip because its an experience and travel brands pay a lot of money to host you.

Raskinen encouraged influencers to have an open conversation with travel brands and ask what the value of the trip is. Lets put together a budget, assess the value and compare what it is you can offer on your social media platforms. Lets have a conversation about what the expectations are.

The difference between a media trip and campaign work

The Incidental Tourist Dawn Jorgensen, who shared first-hand insights into being a successful influencer in South Africa, explained that there was a difference between a media trip and campaign work.

The value of the experiences I have had in travel have been phenomenal. But we need to differentiate between a media trip where were joining a group of bloggers to have an experience and write about it and campaign work where we need to produce a certain amount of content. With the latter, theres more responsibility because theres a contract with deliverables. Then we have the conversation about being paid.

Quality of influencer content determines success

Szejwallo explained that as a global brand, Trafalgars global head office has in the past worked with South African influencers whose quality of work has been exceptional. If we like what you do for us in South Africa, theres a good chance, and weve done this with a number of South African bloggers, that youll get to work with our global team.

We have a global team called The Collective and if the influence you offer and content is amazing, we put you in touch with that team. Every year, we choose 12 bloggers to join The Collective, added Raskinen.

Influencer content is very attractive for travel brands like Travelstart, concluded Scritten. Theres always a need for fresh content and were happy to pay for quality photos and video footage.

The Big Connect event will be run again in other major centres in South Africa. For more information about Big Connect or Big Ambitions, contact Danica Helfrich, 072 953 7983 or email az.oc.snoitibmagib@acinaD. Follow the #BigConnect hashtag or visit the Facebook page to find out whats happening in travel marketing.
The Department of Health, in partnership with the Department of Transport and the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) will next week launch the first-ever health promotion campaign targeted at the taxi industry. The PHILA Taxi Industry Campaign will be launched on 27 November in an effort to strengthen the delivery of health and wellness services in the industry.

Mike Gerhardt via Wikimedia Commons

The launch also serves as an official collaboration between the Department of Health's PHILA campaign and Santaco's Operation Hlokomela (which means take care), in an effort to promote and contribute towards responsible behaviour, as part of the 2017 World Aids Day focus.

The PHILA campaign uses behavioural communication about targeted health topics to effect a positive change in people's health. Operation Hlokomela is a response from Santaco that is aimed at reducing and eliminating preventable road accidents and care for drivers, passengers, pedestrians and the community at large.

During the launch, which will take place at Bosman Street Taxi Rank, Pretoria, taxi drivers and commuters will be encouraged to participate in health screening, including HIV testing, TB screening, measuring blood pressure and testing for diabetes and other non-communicable diseases.

The launch will be attended by Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi; Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi, Gauteng Health MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, Gauteng Transport MEC Ismail Vadi and Santaco President Phillip Taaibosch.
Suspended Eskom acting CEO Matshela Koko has threatened to take action against the Tiso Blackstar Group for its continued reporting on his troubles at the power utility.

Koko is currently facing disciplinary procedures and made the threat on the sidelines of his hearing.

"Eskom is responding to the Tiso [Blackstar] Group reporting and I think it's fair for Eskom to say, 'We read what we read [in] the newspapers and we can't let it pass, we have to follow it up'," he told TimesLIVE. "The bone I have is with [the Tiso Blackstar Group] and the question you should be asking is what do I do with [you]."

He was speaking before the commencement of his hearing after a new evidence leader, advocate Cassim Moosa, wanted to familiarise himself with the details of the case.

The postponement follows the ouster of Koko's lawyer, Sebetja Matsaung, after he made threats against the Financial Mail's deputy editor Sikonathi Mantshantsha, who was covering the hearing, six weeks ago. Financial Mail is also a member of the Tiso Blackstar Group.

"I want to be able to say at the end, 'This is what you reported, there was an investigation, there was a hearing and this is the outcome of the hearing' and based on the outcome of the hearing, with evidence having [been] led, I then can approach whoever I want to approach based on that [but] I don't think Tiso [Blackstar] Group should get away with it, I honestly don't believe so. I will take advice, but I don't think this kind of reporting should be allowed to continue unabated," added Koko.

Koko was suspended earlier this year and is facing six charges of misconduct relating mainly to his failure to declare a conflict of interest concerning contracts worth about R1bn that were awarded to Impulse International, a company of which his step-daughter, Koketso Choma, was a director and shareholder.

The conflict of interest was reported on by the Sunday Times and Business Day, both Tiso Blackstar publications.

Koko will also face charges relating to undermining his colleagues and irregularly removing some from their positions. The charges emanate from a forensic probe that was instituted after a whistle-blower report.

Eskom has alleged that Koko, in February this year, instructed Frans Sithole, a project director at Kusile, to remove a senior manager for contract management, France Hlaukudi; a project manager for a consultant company at Kusile, Gopal Kambi; and a company called GTC, from the Kusile project.

In March this year, Koko also moved group executive for group capital Abram Masango to the office of the group CEO. Masango was Sithole's manager. Eskom said Masango would assist the now-suspended group financial officer, Anoj Singh, and Koko with the execution of Eskom's 2017-18 corporate plan.

The hearing was due to begin at 2pm on Thursday.
As most South Africans made their way to the office on Thursday morning, 23 November, SA's top recruitment agencies came together to celebrate another year of recruitment excellence at the 2017 RecruiterAwards. This year marks the 14th annual RecruiterAwards, hosted by CareerJunction, one of SA's leading online job boards, which took place at Remo's Maximilliano in Sunninghill, Johannesburg.

Each year, accolades are awarded to those recruitment agencies, big and small, that stand out for the level of service they provided to jobseekers who used the CareerJunction website to find employment. What makes this event so unique is that award winners are determined by jobseekers, who get to cast their votes throughout the course of the year.

This year, almost 200 agencies received votes and nine agencies walked away with special accolades for their contributions during 2017.

Awards were presented across three categories (based on the number of jobs posted over the past 12-month period):

Platinum 100 (advertised an average of 71 to 100 job ads per month)



Platinum 70 (advertised an average of 26 to 70 job ads per month)



Platinum 25 (advertised up to 25 job ads per month)

And the winners are:

From left to right: Martinette van Wymeersch (Sinakho Staffshop), Schalk Verwey and Patience Chisoro (Edge Executive Search) and Janine Azevedo - Consultant of the Year (Sinakho Staffshop)

Paul Byrne, Managing Director of CareerJunction, presented the awards.

Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up as well as Janine Azevedo, from Sinakho Staffshop, who was awarded the title of Recruitment Consultant of the Year.

This year, two lucky voters were also given the opportunity to advance their careers with a free online course of their choice, to the value of R15,000, through GetSmarter! GetSmarter is an online education company based in Cape Town and London, collaborating with leading universities to offer premium online short courses to working professionals. You can read more about GetSmarter here.

The 2017 RecruiterAwards voting results and winners were again audited by Nexia Levitt Kirson.

For more information on the event, winners and runners-up, please visit https://www.careerjunction.co.za/marketing/recruiterawards2017.




The 13th annual SANParks Kudu Awards ceremony was held at the CSIR Convention Centre in Pretoria on Thursday, 23 November, recognising conservationists for their contribution to the protection of the environment in SA.

CEO Special Award winner Ronnie Steinbrucker.

As part of the awards SANParks board chairperson Joanne Yawitch bestowed a Lifetime Contribution Award to Ananias Jamie Mulhovo from the Kruger National Park. Mulhovo joined SANParks in 1971 as a general worker in technical services. Mulhovo was later assigned to the Skukuza Camp maintenance team in 1998 where he continued to serve the camp with distinction until his retirement last month.

When you enjoy your job like I do, time flies. I cannot believe that I have been in the park for so many decades seeing the lifetime achievement award and certificate is proof that I have received this prestigious honour, said Mulhovo.

SANParks CEO Fundisile Mketeni also bequeathed two CEO Special Awards to Dr Freek Venter of the Kruger National Park and Ronnie Steinbrucker of Table Mountain National Park for the impact they have had in their various operations of SANParks. This years winners have spent over three decades each of unbroken and loyal service in the employ of SANParks.

CEO Special Award winner Dr Freek Venter

Winners of the 2017 Kudu Awards in the respective categories are:

Associated Partners: Carlos Lopez Pereira from National Administration of Conservation Areas for his enormous support to anti-poaching efforts in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park.

Business Partner of the Year: For best year-on-year business growth and financial contribution to SANParks, Lukimbi Safari Lodge in the Kruger National Park was awarded the Best Business Partner of the Year for the 2016/2017 financial year.

Corporate Contribution (NPO): Cape Town Environmental Education Trust in recognition of the trusts commitment and wide reach in developing young people and also imparting environmental knowledge to different communities and schools in Cape Town and surroundings.

Environmental Media, Best Journalist: Forbes Africa magazines Jay Cabez for his immense contribution to the dissemination of environmental, conservation and eco-tourism information through the use of print media.

Community Contribution to Conservation: Twin Mosia from Elandskop Museum / VKB, Free State in recognition of the trusts commitment and wide reach in developing young people and also imparting environmental knowledge to different communities in Mamafubedu / Pieter Stuyn and surroundings.

Individual Contribution: Vincent van der Merwe from Endangered Wildlife Trust for his contribution to conservation through the growing of the cheetah population in and outside the national parks system.

Women in Conservation: Petro Botha from Cape Town Environmental Education Trust for contribution to sustainable conservation of fynbos through ground-breaking research on using the Eland as a management tool (as opposed to fire) to conserve the vegetation of the Cape Flats.

Youth in Conservation:

Gerhard de Beer from Starke Ayres for his contribution to conservation through sourcing of funds, volunteering for rhino preservation, as well as using personal time assisting in the processing of rhino carcasses in the Kruger National Park.

Reginald Christiaan for his contribution to conservation through his Scorpion Project to raise awareness on the ecology and diversity of this understudied Arachnida fauna of the Namaqualand.

Honorary Ranger Best Region of the Year:

Diamantveld Region (small region) for achieving the highest growth rate amongst all 31 SANParks Honorary Rangers regions in the areas of membership growth, growth in transformation, environmental education and total contribution to SANParks.

Lowveld Region (large region) for achieving the highest growth rate amongst all 31 SANParks Honorary Rangers regions in the areas of membership growth, growth in transformation, environmental education and total contribution to SANParks.

Honorary Ranger Best Project of the Year: KNP Birding Weekend for outstanding volunteer service by running 76 trails camps per year to raise funds for SANParks.

Environmental Education / Capacity Building Award:
South African business executives continue to adopt a wait-and-see approach to business due to political and economic instability in the country, according to the.Grant Thornton International Business Report for the third quarter of 2017.

Faith Ngwenya, technical executive: Saipa

Of the 100 South African business executives surveyed for the quarterly report, 72% confirmed that turbulence in the economy over the past six months have affected operations and decisions, 38% were considering investing offshore and 28% were contemplating selling their businesses.

The problem with keeping operations stagnant and simply focusing on keeping heads above water is that were not solving the problem  were perpetuating the problem and adding a steady stream of fuel to a slow burning fire. If everyone adopts a wait and see approach, were not moving businesses or the economic prosperity of our country forward.

Spotlight on growth and success

As professional accountants, we have a key role to play in changing the perspective of business owners and this can be achieved in a number of ways. Were encouraging clients to dig deep into the financial histories of their clients so that a spotlight can be put on what they have been able to achieve amidst tough turbulent times, economic downturns, and setbacks that have affected their industry or business specifically.

Many times, despite barriers, hurdles and challenges, businesses have been able to show positive growth. These are the things that your clients need to be reminded of and as an accountant, you should be drawing their attention to their successes and achievements.

Besides being the opposite of a doomsayer and essentially becoming nothing short of a cheerleader for your clients business mission and goals, you can also highlight viable investment opportunities within our own borders. Money can be made by investing overseas, but theres also money to be made by investing in South African investment opportunities.

Research investment opportunities that would appeal to your clients and that would align with their business operations, interests and industries to show them how they can benefit themselves as well as inject money into South African opportunities. Economic upliftment and sustainable development starts at home and if your clients are taking their wealth, jobs and businesses overseas, then it has a butterfly effect that negatively impact many South African citizens, their families, and the economy.

South Africa is still a major driver in the global economy

Its also important to look at different economic indexes that can give your clients a better, broader perspective. Instead of waiting for the results of upcoming political events, which is essentially a short-sighted approach, delve into the indexes that are painting a much brighter picture. When compared to other Brics, South Africa has become a major driver in the global economy and a force for change in the developing world. Context is key.

As accountants, we also need to do our part in making foreign investment in South Africa more attractive. Many businesses want to start operations in South Africa for myriad reasons, ranging from our natural resources to our proximity to booming African markets. One of the things that is holding them back is cumbersome legislation.

Our employment regulations are seen as a huge barrier to entry in the country and this is something that government needs to carefully rethink. In September 2017, the World Economic Forum announced that South Africa had slipped down 14 positions in the World Economic Forum Global Competitive Index and restrictive labour regulations were cited as one of the reasons for this.

South Africas unemployment rate is high and it is disturbing. Accountants need to join forces with the appropriate unions and challenge these legislations so that we can make it easier and more attractive for companies to invest in our country; the natural result will be more employment opportunities for our people.

In conclusion, your clients need to be made aware of what theyve been able to achieve despite economic situations that are far outside their realm of control. Show them how they have continued to grow, what they could be doing better.
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will conduct a door-to-door campaign in Olifantshoek, Postmasburg, Danielskuil, Lime Acres and Kathu in the Northern Cape from Monday, 27 November.

The point of the campaign is to visit employers and assess the level of compliance with the Unemployment Insurance Act (UIA) and Unemployment Insurance Contribution Act (UICA), as well as to promote on-line declaration through U-Filing.

The team of UIF employees, accompanied by employer audits inspectors, will be knocking on doors at various workplaces to assist employers on all aspects of registration and compliance as well as to resolve UIF enquiries.

These outreach and door-to-door campaigns are essential in ensuring that the Department of Labour keeps in touch with the employers and employees, and assesses the quality of services it renders, while it promotes compliance with the Unemployment Insurance Act, said Zolile Albanie, the Chief Director of Operations in the Northern Cape.

Employees and the public will also be assisted with enquiries and information on UIF matters and to keep them abreast of legislative amendments.

The campaign will end on Friday, 1 December.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has welcomed the Supreme Court of Appeal's (SCA) decision on Friday to overturn the initial sentence handed down to fallen paralympian Oscar Pistorius.

The SCA on Friday increased the sentence of Pistorius to 13 years and five months in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013.

The NPA is pleased with the decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal to substitute the six year sentence to an appropriate 13 years. We believe it is in the interest of justice and we hope the family will find closure in knowing that an appropriate sentence has been handed down, NPA spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku told SAnews.

Judge Legoabe Willie Seriti said at the court sitting in Bloemfontein that the former paralympian should have been sentenced to 15 years. However, the SCA took into account the time he has already served.

"The sentence imposed by the...[high court] with respect to murder is set aside and substituted with the following  the respondents imprisonment for 13 years and five months," Justice Seriti said.

North Gauteng High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa initially sentenced Pistorius to five years for culpable homicide in 2014. Pistorius served 10 months of the five-year sentence in prison before being released and put under house arrest.

The NPA appealed the culpable homicide conviction and it was later replaced with murder by the SCA in 2016. Masipa then handed down a six-year jail term for murder.

The NPA petitioned the SCA directly, arguing that the six-year sentence was too lenient.

We respectfully submit that the sentence of six years imprisonment, in all the circumstances, is disproportionate to the crime of murder committed, in casu, that is to say, shockingly too lenient, and has accordingly resulted in an injustice and has the potential to bring the administration of justice into disrepute, the NPA said a year ago when applying for leave to appeal the six-year sentence of murder convicted Pistorius.

Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013, claiming that he believed she was an intruder.

The State was led by advocate Andrea Johnston after Gerrie Nel resigned from the NPA earlier this year.

The paralympian who is currently serving his sentence had opposed the states appeal.
Property company Stenprop said on Thursday, 23 November, it was looking to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in May and would convert to UK real estate investment trust (Reit) status.

Stenprop is likely to list under the specialist fund segment on the LSE, a platform it says could attract wealth managers, pension funds and other investors seeking real estate income yield in their portfolios.

Currently listed on the JSE and the Bermuda Stock Exchange, the company said it aimed to sell assets in its portfolio and use the proceeds to fund acquisitions in the UK.

The company has identified UK multi-let industrial as a sector likely to deliver growth in earnings as a result of the structural imbalance in supply and demand dynamics.

"Stenprop believes that its proposed listing ... and its conversion to a Reit will have a positive impact on the company's liquidity and access to capital, to the benefit of all of its shareholders," it said in a half-year results statement.

Dividend per share was up 2.6% to 4p in the six months to end-September, from a year ago. Diluted adjusted (European Public Real Estate Association) earnings per share rose to 4.87p, from 4.35p.

Source: BDpro
The Capital Pearls Resort Hotel in Umhlanga, Kwa-Zulu Natal, will officially open its doors in December 2017 - Capital Hotels & Apartments' eighth property in South Africa and its first outside main cities Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town.

Offering 140 apartments and extensive conference and meeting facilities accommodating up to 200 delegates, the hotel has direct access to the main Umhlanga Beach.

The contemporary apartments are a mixture of executive suites, and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, each including a modern fully equipped kitchen and living area, all designed to strike a balance between the comfort of home and the luxury of resort living.

Images Supplied

The hotel is in the fifth phase of The Pearls of Umhlanga development, offering easy access to a swimming pool, bar, sun deck, more than 16 restaurants and a childrens play area. Complimentary access to the developments Planet Fitness Gym is also available to all residents.

The Pearls Mall, the Umhlanga Pier and Lighthouse, Umhlanga beach promenade and the many other local restaurants and amenities that make Umhlanga a popular also within walking distance.

Focusing on the things that really matter

According to Marc Wachsberger, MD at The Capital Hotels and Apartments, guests choose The Capital's hotels and apartments because they are 25% more affordable than other hotels of comparable size and quality. We have implemented our strategy of eliminating unnecessary costs typical of the hospitality industry at The Capital Pearls too, and focus on the things that really matter  because thats good for our clients business, he continues.

The Capital Pearls, along with all The Capitals properties across South Africa, will not offer services such as porters, bedtime turndowns, sewing kits or unlimited toiletries. Instead, it is designed to make travellers stay more efficient and cost-effective by offering free uncapped high-speed internet, laundry services, secure parking, and shuttle services.

Bolstering business facilities in Umhlanga

The Capital Pearls offers conferencing facilities for up to 200 people, with six different spaces that can be configured and equipped to host banquets, lectures, workshops, or private meetings and fine dining.

We noticed a shortage of business facilities within or close to Umhlanga, especially close to the beach, and designed The Capital Pearls to offer world-class conferencing solutions and accommodation options, Wachsberger explains.

Conference rooms at The Capital Pearls offer 2.4m x 1.4m screens, with built-in sound systems including wireless microphones and data projectors. The boardrooms are equipped with 55-inch HD TV screens, video conferencing facilities and flipcharts, with all facilities able to use the propertys complimentary high-speed uncapped Wi-Fi.
The South African and Angolan governments' decision to exempt each other's ordinary passports from visa requirements has been welcomed by Wesgro.

As of 1 December 2017, citizens of Angola and South Africa travelling to each other's countries will be able to enter for a period of 90 days per annum, provided that each visit does not exceed 30 days in total  this recent development is set to have a positive effect on business and leisure tourism, including opening doors for future trade and foreign direct investment.

Cape Town Air Access, a partnership between Wesgro, the Western Cape Government, the City of Cape Town, Airports Company South Africa, South African Tourism and Cape Town Tourism, helped secure direct flights from Luanda and Cape Town on TAAG Airlines. The airline currently flies to Cape Town three times a week on a Boeing 777-300. This service will be increased to daily this summer from 1 December 2017 until 15 January 2018.

Angola and tourism market potential

With this visa-free exemption, Wesgro hopes to see this direct route grow even further, bringing many more tourists to our shores.

Angola is a key market for tourism in the province with bed nights from the market reaching 225,000 in 2016. Angolan tourists stayed an average of 19 days in the province in 2016 and the average spend by an Angolan tourist increased by R3,300 in 2016, with a total of R22,600 being spent per tourist.

Angola is also one of the largest trading partners of the Western Cape, with the Wesgro trade team having already prioritised Angola in terms of wine promotion, as well as helping more Western Cape companies export to the country. Together with WOSA, our trade team has embarked on several wine sales missions, partnering with Shoprite. The in-store promotions we facilitated were a great success and led to R405,000 worth of wine being sold.

The rest of Africa is front and centre of the Western Capes trade strategy. Wesgro, in particular, has assisted Western Cape companies to grow their exports to the rest of the continent. Over the last two years, these exports will generate R535m over five years, as well as create 839 jobs. Wesgro has also facilitated R737m in outward foreign direct investment into Africa, in terms of our mandate to also ensure our work benefits the rest of the continent.

Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris said: Wesgro is thrilled about this very important decision taken by the South African and Angolan governments. Easing up on travel restrictions like this will provide new markets for tourism, and help take the Western Cape economy to new heights."
The President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina has said that high taxes imposed on airlines by government agencies was a major challenge dwarfing the growth and development of air transport in Africa. This according to him, explains why the region loses about 80% of its market to foreign airlines.

Dr Akinwumi Adesina. Africa Progress Panel via Wikimedia Commons

Cost of travel, high taxes undermining growth

Adesina who spoke at the International World Aviation Forum (IWAF) organised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the federal government said it costs much more to travel in Africa than any other part of the world by air and that has undermined the growth of the sector in the region, thus denying the continent thousands of more jobs that would have been created by the aviation industry.

He said: "The cost of air travel in Africa remains exorbitantly high and is 200% more than costs in the European Union and 250% higher than in India for similar distances.

"A big part of this is the very high taxes, fees, and levies that are charged in Africa. For example, it costs $128 to fly between London and Rome, but $597 to fly between Abidjan and Niamey, a shorter distance. And just to go from Johannesburg in South Africa to next door neighbour Lilongwe in Malawi, the cost is $406, which again, is a much shorter distance than from London to Rome.

"If you require another example of this serious imbalance, consider for a moment that taxes paid for a Lagos to Kinshasa ticket amounts to $397 which is 300% higher than the total air travel costs between London and Rome. And that's just the taxes alone."

Restrictive regulatory environments

He also lamented that Africa's aviation growth is held back by very restrictive regulatory environments which limit market size, profitability, and drive up costs, noting that a study by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) shows that liberalising aviation markets through open skies for 12 African countries alone would increase annual GDP by $1.3bn and create an additional 150,000 jobs, remarking that essentially, open skies meant more jobs and increased trade and investments.

Aviation key to economic surge

The President of AfDB said that the bank would support the development of airport infrastructure in the region, noting that aviation is the key to economic surge in the continent and, therefore, must be supported and developed. "The aviation sector is especially important as it opens up doors to investors. Very few invest where it's difficult to travel to. That's why ease of access via air travel is strongly correlated to economic growth.

Air transport promotes trade, investments and tourism, and boosts economic growth. Today, Africa's aviation industry adds $73bn to the continent's annual GDP and employs about seven million people - an average 130,000 people per country in Africa. And that's a lot," Adesina said.

He noted that with rapid economic growth, increasing population, urbanisation and income growth for the middle class, the aviation industry is projected to grow by 5% annually for the next 20 years, adding that from serving 120 million passengers in 2015, the industry would triple and serve over 300 million passengers by 2035.

African aviation in need of modernisation

"We need to develop airport terminal capacity to expand passenger growth, develop regional aviation hubs to improve connectivity and upgrade air navigational services and air traffic control to improve safety. Modern and cheaper technologies such as the satellite-based air navigation services now preclude the need for ground infrastructure and make it possible to serve remote areas with radars. We must also develop within Africa, aircraft maintenance services and strengthen regional and sub-regional aviation safety agencies," he said.

Adesina said that Africa needs to procure about 970 jets and 700 turboprops over the next 20 years, so the financing needs would exceed $150bn, adding that African aviation needs fleet modernisation, efficiencies, better connectivity and much-improved quality of services for an exponential growth in the number of passengers.
OSLO, Norway: Norway, a world leader of zero-emission vehicles, has abandoned plans for a proposed "Tesla tax", a controversial measure that would have cut a tax rebate granted to heavy electric cars.

Photo: Tesla.com

Plans for the tax, which was to have entered into force in 2018, were halted after a budget compromise was reached between the right-wing government and its centre-right allies, which they presented on Wednesday evening.

"It's a happy day," Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association secretary general Christina Bu said.

Norway, a large oil and gas producer, has introduced numerous incentives to encourage the purchase of electric cars. Buyers pay almost no tax, making the sale price very competitive.

As a result, sales of zero emission vehicles account for more than 20 percent of new car registrations, a market share unparalleled in the world.

In its budget bill, the government had in October proposed to abolish one of the tax exemptions granted to electric cars weighing more than two tonnes.

The proposal was immediately dubbed the "Tesla tax" because it would primarily have affected the high-end models made by the American manufacturer, hiking the price of a new Tesla X by about 70,000 kroner (7,500 euros, $8,800).

The Liberal party, a key ally of the minority government, was opposed to the tax, arguing that a 2015 accord had called for the tax exemptions to remain in place until 2020.

Norway has set an ambitious target of ending the sale of new cars with combustion engines as early as 2025.

The Scandinavian country is powered almost entirely by green hydro power, and must make an effort in its transport sector if it wants to meet its greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.
On 14 January 2014, M&C Saatchi Abel hosted the first-ever Street Store event in Cape Town - a rent-free, premises-free, pop-up clothing 'store' for the homeless. The Street Store is stocked with donations from the public and the homeless can enjoy a dignified 'shopping' experience for free.

We didnt want to keep the idea to ourselves, or to leave it as a once-off event, so we went open-source. This means that anybody, anywhere in the world can host a Street Store event in their community, says Kayli Levitan, Creative Group Head. To date, hundreds of Street Store events have been hosted around the world, clothing an estimated 700,000 homeless people with 1,7 million items of clothing.

When you break down the numbers, there have been 700 Street Store events hosted over 1460 days since the concept was launched. This works out to a Street Store being hosted every two days somewhere in the world. It endorses the scale and reach of the idea and the potential to make a real difference and amplifies the inherent generosity and empathy of people towards those in need, adds Jason Harrison, MD of M&C Saatchi Cape Town.

To celebrate the milestone of reaching the 700th Street Store, M&C Saatchi Abel are launching World Street Store Day on 10 December - a day where people from around the globe are encouraged to host a Street Store event at the same time, creating a more connected future.

Consider the potential - one day when seven continents, 195 countries and 4416 cities can connect for a good cause just as the festive season begins, a time of giving, adds Gordon Ray, Executive Creative Director, Founding Partner.

M&C Saatchi Abel will be hosting an event at the place it all began, outside the Salesian Institute on Somerset Road, Cape Town, from 10:30am time to 2pm. To host an event or find one in your area, visit www.thestreetstore.org for information or check them out on Facebook at The Street Store.




The details of the multimillion-rand broadcasting deal between the SABC and MultiChoice may never be made public if the two companies get their way in the Constitutional Court.

The five-year agreement entered into by the two entities in 2013 resulted in the SABC pocketing more than R500m in exchange for extensive rights to its archived content, with an added pact that MultiChoice would not encrypt SABC TV channels when the country migrates to digital terrestrial television.

If the applicants have their way, not only will the Competition Commission get to investigate whether the deal between the SABC and MultiChoice constitutes a measure, but will also allow the public an opportunity to scrutinise the value of the material the public broadcaster traded with MultiChoice.

Disgraced former SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng secured himself a R33m bonus, R11.4m of which was paid out to him in August 2016.

On Thursday, the media companies' legal representatives told the court, during an application for leave to appeal an April decision of the Competition Appeal Court, that the four-year-old matter had dragged on for long enough and the Competition Commission had no power to revive its investigation into the matter as it had missed the opportunity to do so on numerous occasions.

The SOS Coalition and Caxton and CTP Publishers and Printers want the court to determine whether the Competition Commission was entitled to use its provisioned investigative powers to determine whether a channel licensing agreement concluded between the SABC and MultiChoice was a notifiable merger in terms of the Competition Act.

While lawyers Rafik Bhana for the SABC and David Unterhalter SC for MultiChoice said the question of the Competition Commission's investigative powers was not applicable in the case as Caxton had sidestepped it by approaching the Competition Tribunal directly, the applicants argued the body could still effect section 49 (a) of the Competition Act, which granted it the power to do so. "When Caxton went to the tribunal and when the matter was before the Competition Appeals Court, the commission sat there silently," argued Bhana.

The tribunal dismissed the application, saying there was no basis for it as the applicants had failed to make a case for an order directing the commission to conduct an investigation into the agreement. The subsequent urgent application made to the Competition Appeal Court, seeking to reverse this decision also failed after the court found that the first order was clear in its refusal to authorise the commission to exercise the disputed investigative powers.

Ngwako Maenetje SC - for the Competition Commission - said in his argument that the order made by the Competition Appeal Court did not hamper the institution's investigatory powers.

The applicants argue that the Constitutional Court should overturn the Competition Appeal Court decision.

Judgment has been reserved.

Source: Business Day
Motion Icon's escalator step branding offers unlimited creative visual opportunities for brands looking to a new advertising channel that delivers ROI and hyper proximity communication.
KAMPALA, Uganda - The editors and directors of one of Uganda's most popular tabloid newspapers have been detained over what authorities called a fake news story about a political plot implicating the president.

 ALEXANDER JOSE SANCHEZ RODRIGUEZ via 123RF

The offices of the privately-owned English-language Red Pepper, and its vernacular sister publications, were raided and eight employees arrested, police said.

The story in question, published on Monday, said President Yoweri Museveni was plotting to overthrow his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame. Besides being false, the story was a threat to regional security, police spokesman Emillian Kayima said.

"The Uganda police force initiated investigations into the serious statements and insinuations in that story, that have grave implications on national and regional security and stability," Kayima added.

The article, a version of which first appeared in Rwandan media, was carried by the Red Pepper and other publications owned by the publisher, and claimed a Ugandan plot to destabilise neighbouring Rwanda.

BREAKING Police have served a search warrant at our offices. The warrant was issued by chief magistrates court. Staff have been ordered to stop work pic.twitter.com/60LgLePiaJ  Red Pepper Uganda (@RedPepperUG) November 21, 2017

The newspaper's lawyer Dickens Byamukama said the eight directors and editors are being detained at Nalufenya prison outside the capital Kampala.

"Their phones, laptops were confiscated, plus other official and private equipment," Byamukama said, adding that the Red Pepper's premises have been cordoned off. The newspaper did not appear on newsstands Wednesday.
The Ibex seeks to finish the week above 10,100 points. And on this last day of the week it seems that he is counting on the help of the bank. The six financial entities are the ones that rise the most from the selective Spanish, with Caixabank (+ 2.2%) and Banco Santander (+ 1.6%). This leads the selective to live this Friday a rebound of 0.7%.

As for the agenda of this last session of the week, the German IFO index for November has been known, which has registered a nine record in November. The US manufacturing, services and composite PI of November will also be known. Apart from this, few more data in a session in which investors will also closely monitor the political situation in Dublin and Germany. In Dublin, there is a government crisis before the possibility of the resignation of the deputy prime minister. In Berlin, the Social Democrats are under pressure to enter into talks to make a coalition government with Chancellor Angela Merkel and avoid new elections.

"Now it seems that (the Social Democrats) would be willing to support a minority Merkel government but excluding the possibility of reissuing the 'grand coalition' that has done them so much political harm, so this possibility, that of a conservative minority government , that should agree all laws with the opposition parties, it opens the way and, even if it is not what the investors expected, it is better than a repetition of the elections of which it is feasible that the most radical, right-wing parties left, could take advantage given their populist approaches, so in vogue lately, "say the experts of Link Securities. "If confirmed the possibility that the SPD supports a government Merkel in minority, we understand that the markets will celebrate with increases as it reduces political uncertainty in Germany, at least in the short term," they add these experts. In other news, some Amazon workers in Italy and Germany will go on strike this Friday, which could affect the retailer on the 'Black Friday'.


Women cadets who were inducted into the Indian Navy at Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala. A PTI photo

KANNUR, KERALA (PTI): In a first, a woman has been inducted as a pilot in the Indian Navy.



Shubhangi Swaroop, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, will soon be flying Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft.



Three other women cadets, Astha Segal from New Delhi, Roopa A from Puducherry and Sakthi Maya S from Kerala, also created history by becoming the country's first women officers at the Naval Armament Inspectorate (NAI) branch of the Navy.



After their Naval Orientation course, all the four in their early 20s, had passed out of the Ezhimala Naval Academy at a glittering function here Thursday attended by Naval chief Admiral Sunil Lanba.



For Shubhangi, who is the daughter of a Naval commander, its a dream come true on being selected as a pilot.



Though Shubhangi is the first Naval woman pilot, the Navy's Aviation branch has had women officers operating as air traffic control officers and as 'observers' in the aircraft who are responsible for communication and weapons, Southern Naval spokesperson Commander Sreedhar Warrier told PTI.



The NAI branch is responsible for auditing and assessing the state of weapons and ammunition of the Navy.



All the four will be undergoing subsequent professional training in their respective chosen branches before being employed on duty, Commander Warrier said.



Shubhangi will be trained at the Air Force Academy at Hyderabad which trains pilots of the Army, Navy and the Air Force, he said.


A member of the RNLI says the Buncrana pier tragedy will stay with them for a very long time.

Yesterday the deaths of five people at Buncrana pier in March 2016 were ruled as death by misadventure.
A pilot has told the High Court a lot of cockpit chat among colleagues working for Ryanair was about the job not being the one they would like to retire in" and about "where we are going next".

"Most peoples view was that Ryanair was a stepping stone to something else", Captain Paolo Cova said.

Capt Cova, who worked for Ryanair for 11 years until joining Easyjet in 2016, was giving evidence in Ryanairs action against three founders of the Ryanair Pilot Group (RPG) over a 2013 email which the airline says falsely inferred the company misled investors.

Captains Evert Van Zwol, John Goss and Ted Murphy deny they defamed Ryanair.

Capt Cova worked for most of his time at Ryanairs Milan Bergamo airport base in Italy. Pay and conditions negotiations were done at each base under under the airlines representation system, called "employee representative councils" (ERCs), he said.

He told his counsel David Whelan he took part in some of the meetings which led up to the 2015 agreement which was first presented to pilots earlier that year by Ryanairs director of flight operations, Peter Bellew.

Capt Cova had been concerned about a number of it provisions of the previous agreement including one which said a favourable five day-on four day-off rostering system would revert to a less favourable five day-on three-day off roster if a new agreement was not made. If that happened, it would mean that many people who spent a lot of time commuting would get to see their families less, he said.

He said the 850 hours maximum flying time limit provided for in Ryanair contracts was very close to the legal limit of 900 hours and did not include time spent preparing for take off, turnaround time and post-flight duties of reporting into the office.

When negotiations for a new agreement came up in 2015, he and others assisted the Bergamo ERC rep who dealt with management but they did not get involved in any official capacity because they first wanted to be sure the negotiations were meaningful. Captn Cova said for most of his 11 years with Ryanair he was a member of the Irish pilots union, IALPA.

He said two drafts of an agreement were produced by the company and there was very little of what pilots had asked for initially were in the final agreement. In March 2015, it was presented as "a take it or leave it" agreement and they were told the companys budgets had been decided.

He got a look at some draft agreements for other bases in Italy and there was almost no difference between them. It was a "quite frustrating experience" and they felt powerless. "It showed us that it did not make any difference what we brought to the company".

Between 50 and 60 pilots had a right to vote in Bergamo and although 75 per cent voted in favour of the 2015 agreement he believed the vote was constrained by the fact that they were told they would go back to a less favourable roster if they did not back the agreement.

Ryanair had advised the less favourable 5-day/3-day roster was already planned in the event of a no vote, he said. A majority of the pilots at Bergamo, some 150 he estimated, had no vote at all because they were contracted rather than directly employed pilots like him.

When the Bergamo pilots asked could they discuss the new deal with pilots at other bases, they were told by Ryanair this was not possible.

Under cross examination by Thomas Hogan SC, for Ryanair, Capt Cova said he did not directly state flying safety was an issue when he wrote letters to management about the stress on Italy-based pilots like him as a result of changes in pilots tax status following changes in Italian law.

The tax status change issue was very stressful and since he joined Easyjet it has been removed because he was now regarded as an Italian employee.

Capt Evert Van Zwol, under continuing cross examination on Friday, denied his purpose in referring the sell off of shares by Ryanair management in June 2013 in the RPG email was to "outcast management" in the eyes of pilots.

The trial before Mr Justice Bernard Barton and a jury goes into its fourth week next Tuesday.
By Tom Tuite

A solicitor is facing trial accused of bringing cocaine into an inmate at Mountjoy Prison during a professional visit.

Aonghus McCarthy, 32, faces a single count under Section 15c of the Misuse of Drugs Act for conveying a controlled drug into Mountjoy Prison or a person in the prison, on February 8 last, a charge he denies.

Cocaine worth 25 was allegedly found when his wallet was searched, a court heard today.

The solicitors practice is based at Conyngham Road, Dublin 8, directly across from the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) building where he appeared this morning.

His law firm is also among the panel of solicitors on the free legal aid board assigned to represent clients unable to fund their defence. The firm also has a civil practice.

Mr McCarthy, represented by solicitor Michael Hanahoe, appeared before Judge Anthony Halpin at the Dublin District Court on Friday.

Mr McCarthy, from county Cork, but who has an address at Wellington House, Clancy Quay, Dublin 8, stood silently during the brief hearing.

He had been charged within the last month and had been granted Garda station bail pending his appearance today.

Evidence of the arrest and charging procedure was outlined in a certificate furnished to the judge by court Garda sergeant Eimear Curran.

The sergeant told the Judge Halpin that the Director of Public Prosecutions has directed summary disposal meaning the case was suitable to be heard in the district court and not at circuit court level, which can impose lengthier sentences.

In a summary of the prosecution evidence, the sergeant told the court it would be alleged the defendant entered the prison for a professional visit with an inmate. He went through a search area where he put his belt and wallet on a conveyor belt to be scanned, it was alleged.

Gda Sergeant Curran alleged that as they passed though the scanner a prison officer observed a black object inside the wallet. The prison officer found a bag with a white powder substance inside.

It was suspected that it was a controlled drug and gardai were contacted, the court heard.

Gda Sergeant Curran said the accused agreed to be interviewed at Mountjoy Garda station where he denied having known possession of the suspected drug or that he intended to pass it to an inmate.

The substance was found to contain cocaine worth 25, the court heard.

Judge Halpin accepted jurisdiction for the case to remain in the district court.

Defence solicitor Michael Hanahoe said he was seeking a date for a hearing which he said would only take about 15 minutes. He said that there was a single issue which required his client to give evidence.

The court heard that there will also be two State witnesses giving evidence.

Judge Halpin ordered that the trial would take place on March 14 next but he agreed to Mr Hanahoes request for the case to be listed for mention next Friday to see if an earlier trial date was available.

Mr McCarthy was excused from having to attend the case next week. Before his own hearing he had been acting for his clients in other court cases in the CCJ; afterwards he went back to work representing defendants in the district court.
The UK government has backed away from suggestions that Northern Ireland's continued membership of the EU customs union could be up for negotiation in Brexit talks.

Theresa May is coming under intense pressure from the Irish Government for fresh assurances that there will be no "hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar warning that deadlock in Brexit negotiations cannot be broken until the issue is resolved.

A Number 10 spokesman told reporters today that the UK continued to look for "an innovative way forward" on the issue.

Asked whether Northern Ireland could remain in the customs union following Brexit, the spokesman said: "That is a matter for negotiations."

But a Downing Street source later insisted that the Government's position that the whole of the UK will leave both the customs union and single market after Brexit has not changed.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said today it was difficult to see how border checks could be avoided if the UK's departure from the customs union and single market resulted in "regulatory divergence" between the North and the Republic.

Mr Varadkar has previously suggested a "bespoke" arrangement, similar to that operated on the Isle of Man, under which Northern Ireland, or the whole of the UK, would continue to observe the rules of the single market and customs union without necessarily remaining a member of them.

But Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster warned against any divergence between the regulatory framework of Northern Ireland and the British mainland, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "What we don't want to see is any perception that Northern Ireland is in any way different from the rest of the UK, because that will cause us great difficulties in relation to trade.

"The single market that really matters to us is the single market of the United Kingdom."

She accused the Irish Government of "using the negotiations in Europe to put forward their views on what they believe the island of Ireland should look like in the future".

Arriving in Brussels for a gathering of leaders from the EU and former Soviet states, Mrs May said it was time to move on to the "next stage" in the negotiations, including talks on a free trade deal.

However, Minister Coveney insisted EU leaders would not give the green light for the phase two negotiations to begin at their summit in December unless there was progress on the border issue.

He said British assurances on the issue were "aspirational" and that there had to be a "credible roadmap" from the UK setting out how they would ensure there was no return to a hard border.

"We can't move to phase two on the basis of aspiration," said Mr Coveney.

"We have move to phase two on the basis of a credible roadmap or the parameters around which we can design a credible roadmap to ensure that it doesn't happen," he said.

"The truth is that if we see regulatory divergence between the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland it is very hard to see in that scenario how you avoid hard border checks.

"So we need progress on this issue in the context of the regulatory divergence issues.

"I hope and expect that we can get that by December so that we can all move on.

"If we can't, then I think there is going to be a difficulty coming up."

Mr Coveney added that the other member states were fully behind Ireland's stance on the issue.

"I don't think Ireland will have to block anything on its own. There is absolute solidarity across 27 countries here. They are with Ireland on this," he said.

"We are not talking about a 'no deal' here.

"What we are talking about is whether we can move on to opening up phase two in parallel with phase one issues in December.

"Without sufficient progress on the Irish issues that can't happen."

Mrs May said she hoped the EU and the UK would be able to "step forward together" into the second phase of the negotiations.

"These negotiations are continuing but what I am clear about is that we must step forward together," she said.

"This is for both the UK and the European Union to move onto the next stage."

The UK Prime Minister is due to hold one-to-one talks with European Council president Donald Tusk, after he warned last week that the phase two negotiations would not get the go ahead at the December summit unless there was further progress on the terms of Britain's withdrawal by the start of the month.

Since then the Cabinet has met to discuss what it would be prepared to pay to settle the UK's "divorce bill" in order to end the stalemate.

Mr Tusk will be expected to probe her on reports that ministers agreed to double the sum originally put on the table by Mrs May to around 40 billion.

However it is thought she does not want to name a precise figure until she has a clear idea of what kind of trade deal is available with the remaining EU member states in the phase two negotiations.

The Downing Street spokesman declined to comment on a report in British tabloid The Sun which suggested that leading Brexiteers Michael Gove and Boris Johnson believe they have secured Mrs May's commitment to insist on the UK diverging from EU "regulatory harmonisation" after withdrawal.

UK Liberal Democrat deputy leader Jo Swinson said: "Theresa May's Brexit plans have descended into utter chaos on the same day she's trying to secure a breakthrough in negotiations with the EU.

"The simplest way to solve the issue of the Northern Ireland border would be for the UK to stay in the single market and customs union in the long term.

"Ministers must change course and stop recklessly ruling this out as an option."

Ahead of her talks with Mr Tusk, Mrs May also had a one-to-one meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel.

She also held talks with Danish premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Belgium's Charles Michel, and Lithuania's Saulius Skvernelis in the margins of the summit.

Labour's former Northern Ireland secretary Lord Hain, a leading supporter of the Open Britain campaign against hard Brexit, said: "Another day, another dose of confusion about the Government's position on Ireland.

"Ministers are in such chaos because their position is so impossible and illogical.

"They want a totally open border in Ireland and the continuation of the Common Travel Area, while leaving the customs union and ending free movement.

"The circle cannot be squared."

At a press conference at the end of the Eastern Partnership summit, Mr Tusk declined to comment on his expectations for his upcoming meeting with Mrs May.

"I prefer to comment on my meetings, not only with Prime Minister Theresa May, after my meetings, not before," he told reporters.

Discussing allegations of Russian interference in Western elections, the European Council president incorrectly suggested that Mrs May had accused Moscow of "hostile activities during the British referendum".

The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier had a meeting with Mr Coveney in the margins of the summit.

He said there was "strong solidarity" with Ireland, adding that "Irish issues are EU issues".
Update 8.45amTheresa May has issued a fresh call for European Union leaders to move onto the "next stage" in the Brexit negotiations.

Arriving in Brussels for the EU Eastern Partnership summit, the Prime Minister said the EU and the UK needed to "step forward together" in the ongoing talks.

She confirmed she will be meeting European Council president Donald Tusk in the margins of the gathering later on Friday.

It follows Mr Tusk's warning that the EU needed greater clarity on the terms of Britain's withdrawal, including the divorce bill, by early December if there was to be any chance of leaders giving the go-ahead for phase two of the Brexit negotiations to start at their next summit later in the month.

Mrs May told reporters: "I will be seeing President Tusk here today, talking about the positive discussions we are having looking ahead to the deep and special partnership I want with the European Union.

"These negotiations are continuing but what I am clear about is that we must step forward together.

"This is for both the UK and the European Union to move onto the next stage."

Earlier: Theresa May will reaffirm Britain's ongoing commitment to European security as she faces further pressure from EU leaders to spell out how she intends to settle the UK's Brexit "divorce bill".

The Prime Minister will hold fresh talks on Friday with European Council president Donald Tusk during a summit in Brussels between the EU and former Soviet bloc "partner" states.

She was warned last week by Mr Tusk the EU needed greater clarity on the terms of Britain's withdrawal - including the financial settlement - by early December if there was to be any chance of leaders giving the go ahead for phase two of the Brexit negotiations to start at their next summit later in the month.

Mrs May is due to travel to the Belgian capital again on December 4 to meet European Commision president Jean-Claude Juncker in what is being seen as a final opportunity to meet Mr Tusk's deadline.

Mr Juncker said on Thursday that he was not yet in a position to say that sufficient progress had been made for a breakthrough at the European Council summit on December 14-15, but was hoping the process would "move forward" when he met Mrs May.

The Commission president said he was "not crazy enough" to be drawn on whether a 38 billion "divorce bill" offer expected from the PM would be acceptable to the 27 remaining EU states.

The Sun reported that Mrs May will demand a very swift agreement on a transition period after the date of Brexit in 2019 in return for the sum. And the paper reported that leading Brexiteers Michael Gove and Boris Johnson now believe that she will insist on the UK diverging from EU "regulatory harmonisation" after withdrawal.

Mrs May is also facing a demand from Irish premier Leo Varadkar for a written guarantee there will be no return to the "hard border" of the past between Northern Ireland and the Republic as the price of his support for the second phase of the negotiations to begin.

Since last week's EU gathering in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Cabinet has met to discuss what they would be prepared to pay to settle the "divorce bill", with ministers reportedly agreeing to double the sum originally put on the table by Mrs May to around 40 billion.

But it is thought she does not want to name a precise figure until she has a clear idea of what kind of trade deal is available with the remaining EU member states in the phase two negotiations.

Speaking ahead of Mrs May's talks with Mr Tusk, the Prime Minister's official spokesman played down suggestions it was a meeting to set out the divorce bill.

"I would not characterise it in that way," the spokesman said.

"We saw from his comments at the end of the press conference in Gothenburg that he (Mr Tusk) was hoping to meet the PM this week.

"They will be discussing progress towards the December council.

"There are a number of issues which I'm sure they will want to discuss - the financial settlement, that will be one of them, also of course Northern Ireland and citizens' rights."

With leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine also due in Brussels on Friday, Mrs May will take the opportunity to highlight Britain's continued support for the region in the face of the threat from a resurgent Russia.

She is expect to point to the 50 million the UK is providing this year to the region to support projects like tax reform in Moldova and de-mining in Ukraine, with a further 100 million over the next five years to counter "disinformation".

"From agriculture in Ukraine to the tech sector in Belarus, there is a huge amount of potential in the Eastern neighbourhood that we should nurture and develop," she is expected to say.

"But we must also be open-eyed to the actions of hostile states like Russia which threaten this potential and attempt to tear our collective strength apart.

"This summit highlights the crucial importance of the European countries working together to protect our shared values and ideals.

"The UK may be leaving the EU but we are not leaving Europe, and we are unconditionally committed to maintaining Europe's security."
Lawyers for former national security adviser Michael Flynn have told US President Donald Trump's legal team that they are no longer communicating with them about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.

Mr Flynn's legal team communicated the decision this week. The New York Times first reported the decision.

The decision could be a sign that Mr Flynn is moving to co-operate with Mr Mueller's investigation or negotiate a deal for himself.

In large criminal investigations, defence lawyers routinely share information with each other. But it can become unethical to continue such communication if one of the potential targets is looking to negotiate a deal with prosecutors.

Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Mr Flynn, declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Mr Flynn's son, Michael Flynn Jr, who has also come under investigation from Mr Mueller's prosecutors.

Robert Mueller

Mr Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February after White House officials concluded that he had misled them about the nature of his contacts during the transition period with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

He was interviewed by the FBI in January about his communications with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The deputy attorney general at the time, Sally Yates, soon advised White House officials that their public assertions that Mr Flynn had not discussed sanctions with Mr Kislyak were incorrect and that Mr Flynn was therefore in a compromised position.

Mr Flynn was facing a Justice Department investigation over his foreign business dealings even before Mr Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to investigate potential co-ordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mr Mueller has since inherited that investigation.

Mr Flynn, a prominent Trump backer in the campaign, has been a key figure in Mr Mueller's probe and of particular interest to Mr Trump.

Former FBI director James Comey, for instance, said that Mr Trump encouraged him to end an FBI investigation into Mr Flynn during a private Oval Office meeting in February.

In addition to scrutinising Mr Flynn's contacts with Russia during the transition and campaign, Mr Mueller has been investigating the retired US Army lieutenant general's role in $530,000 worth of lobbying work his now-defunct firm performed for a Turkish businessman during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

The lobbying campaign sought to gather derogatory information on Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric and green-card holder living in Pennsylvania.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Mr Gulen of being behind a botched coup and has sought his extradition. Mr Gulen has denied the allegations, and US officials have rebuffed Turkey's extradition demands, citing a lack of evidence.

Mr Flynn and his firm, Flynn Intel Group, carried out the lobbying and research work for several months, meeting with officials from the US and Turkish governments.

Mr Flynn also published an op-ed on Election Day in The Hill newspaper, parroting many of the Turkish government's talking points about Mr Gulen. At the time, neither Mr Flynn nor his company was registered with the Justice Department to represent Turkish interests.

Soon after the publication of the op-ed, the Justice Department began investigating Mr Flynn's lobbying work, and in March, he registered with the department as a foreign agent. In federal filings, Mr Flynn acknowledged the work could have benefited the government of Turkey.

Since then, FBI agents working for Mr Mueller have been investigating whether the Turkish government was directing the lobbying work and not a private company owned by a Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, as Mr Flynn's firm has contended.

FBI agents have also been asking about Mr Flynn's business partner, Bijan Kian, who served on Mr Trump's presidential transition, and Mr Flynn's son, who worked for his father as part of the lobbying campaign.

Donald Trump

Mr Flynn Jr was also a near constant presence around his father during the Trump campaign and presidential transition period.

Mr Mueller announced his first charges in the investigation last month, including the guilty plea of a foreign-policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, and the indictments of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and business associate Rick Gates.

AP
Oscar Pistorius's prison sentence for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp has been increased to 13 years and five months by South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal.

Friday's decision more than doubled the Olympic and Paralympic runner's jail term for the murder of his girlfriend.

In an announcement that took a matter of minutes, Supreme Court Justice Willie Seriti said the Supreme Court upheld an appeal by prosecutors against Pistorius' original six-year sentence for shooting Ms Steenkamp multiple times in his home in 2013.

Prosecutors had called that six-year sentence "shockingly" lenient.

Pistorius should have been sentenced to the prescribed minimum of 15 years for murder in South Africa, Mr Seriti said, as he delivered the verdict that was reached by a panel of five judges at the Supreme Court in the central city of Bloemfontein.

The new sentence of 13 years and five months took into account time Pistorius had already served in prison and at home under house arrest, Mr Seriti said.

Pistorius, who turned 31 on Wednesday, has served over a year of his initial six-year sentence.

Pistorius killed Ms Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day 2013 after shooting four times through a closed toilet cubicle door in his home.

Claiming he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, he was initially convicted of manslaughter.

That conviction was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court in 2015.

Friday's decision likely brings an end to a near five-year legal saga surrounding the double-amputee athlete, a multiple Paralympic champion and record-breaker who was once one of the most celebrated sportsmen in the world.

Pistorius' lawyers have just one avenue open to them if they want to challenge the new sentence handed down by the Supreme Court, and that is to appeal to the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa.

Pistorius failed with an appeal to the Constitutional Court last year to challenge his murder conviction.

AP
A "sadistic predator" has been jailed for life for stabbing a City worker in the head and leaving her for dead just yards from her London home.

Business analyst Qing Qing Rao, 30, had been married for less than six months when Barry Peacham attacked her as she walked home from work.

The weapons-obsessed Peacham, 26, plunged a knife into her head and then mutilated her before stealing her handbag, mobile phone and laptop computer.

Ms Rao, who is just 5ft 3in, was found lying unconscious by a path in Castle Green Park in Dagenham, east London, having suffered "catastrophic" injuries.

Since the attack on February 13, she has been in a persistent vegetative state and is considered "extremely unlikely" ever to recover consciousness.

Peacham was found guilty of wounding with intent and robbery following a trial at the Old Bailey, but cleared of attempted murder.

Judge Anne Molyneux handed him a life sentence with a minimum term of nine years given the seriousness of the offence.

She also handed him 12 years for robbery which will run concurrently.

She said: "This was a brutal, sadistic and cowardly attack on a lone female making her way home from work.

"You were a predator and showed her no mercy.

"The violence you used went way beyond that necessary for a robbery."

She added that the "gratuitous" sexual and sadistic violence he subjected his vulnerable victim to was particularly grave.

Following his conviction, Detective Chief Inspector Gary Holmes, of Scotland Yard, had said: "To me this is a crime of pure evil.

"On that night he has effectively ended the life of a 30-year-old lady, who was on her way home from work, in the most brutal and vicious manner, stabbing her in the head, penetrating her brain.

"Peacham is one of the most dangerous men I have ever dealt with in my police career, which spans over 28 years."

Qing Qing Rao

Ms Rao's husband, Ansgar Wenzel described her as a "wonderful, warm-hearted and happy girl, always friendly and happy to help anyone who needed her help".

He said: "I would not miss a single day of the almost 10 years we have shared; I will always remember how she smiled and turned her head laughing on the morning of 13th February when she left for work; the goodbye kiss is one I will always cherish."

The court heard that Ms Rao, who worked in Finsbury Square in the City, was still wearing her Apple earphones when she was found gravely injured just minutes from home.

Jurors were told that gardener Peacham had previous convictions dating back to 2008, when he was found guilty of possessing an offensive weapon in public.

He also had convictions for attacking his girlfriend in 2012 and robbery.
Latest News MFAA elects board members One re-elected, two newcomers welcomed

ANZ raises fixed rates Forty other lenders have hiked at least one fixed rate in the last month, data shows

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Other body corporates other than credit providers ($1,284)

Other body corporate credit providers ($2,826)

The government has opened for consultation on more changes to its proposed industry funding model for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) including higher fees for Australian credit licence (ACL) holders.The consultation paper released on Wednesday (22 November) details a new fees-for-service model which would retrieve funds from those creating the need for added regulation. This would include individuals and firms applying for or modifying an ACL.The Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly ODwyer said this was a key recommendation of the Murray Financial System Inquiry and would ensure that ASIC has the funds and resources it needs.The industry funding model is an important component of the governments plan to improve consumer outcomes in the financial services sector, ODwyer said.Proposed changes to fees for those wishing to apply for an ACL are as follows:Previously, fees for ACL applications were as low as $523 for electronic application processes with charges calculated according to the type of organisation and certain financial figures including volumes of credit advanced and value of property rented to consumers in the year prior.For those seeking to vary authorisations or conditions on their current ACL, the government has proposed the following fee structures:This currently costs $115 to change details of an ACL electronically and $140 by paper.ASIC has welcomed these changes, saying that 10% of its regulatory activities will be covered through these fees-for-service. The remaining 90% will be recovered through industry funding arrangements.The current fees for these activities do not reflect their actual cost and the government is seeking input from industry on changes to address this, said ASIC commissioner John Price.Those interested in providing a submission around the proposed changes can do so through the Treasury website . The closing date for submissions is 15 December.
Latest News MFAA elects board members One re-elected, two newcomers welcomed

ANZ raises fixed rates Forty other lenders have hiked at least one fixed rate in the last month, data shows

Following the Finance Brokers Association of Australias recent revelation that only around half of new-to-industry brokers make it through the first 18 months of business, only the very best and brightest young brokers successfully build a solid industry reputation and achieve impressive volumes in their first two years of business.With the odds stacked against them, Australian Brokers sister publication, Mortgage Professional Australia, is looking to recognise Australias most successful young brokers for its 2018 Young Guns report Now in its seventh year, the report is the mortgage and finance industrys most established and well-respected roundup of brokers on track to become future industry leaders.To be named on the years report, brokers must be aged under the age of 35, have worked as an accredited broker for no more than two years and have written more than $15m in loans in the past 12 months.Australian Broker readers interested in nominating a Young Gun can do so by completing the short online entry form here ; self-nominations are also encouraged.Entries close
Latest News MFAA elects board members One re-elected, two newcomers welcomed

ANZ raises fixed rates Forty other lenders have hiked at least one fixed rate in the last month, data shows

The FBAA 's National Industry Conference on the Gold Coast kicked off on Friday with a record attendance of about 900 industry professionals, 45 exhibitors and speeches on mental and physical health, as well as the economy.

Were taking a very strong coporate citizenship [role] ... about peoples health. Thats their mental health, their physical health and its also their business health," FBAA executive director Peter White told Australian Broker at the conference.



I firmly believe if we get all those things right, [brokers] will not only be better within themselves, theyll be better in their production of business, so theyll be more successful as brokers, family life is better, business is better, its good for lenders, its good for aggregators, its good for us, nobody loses," he said.



The conference began with a welcome address from White, who spoke about mental health, the changes in the industry this year and the FBAA's achievements. The industry association's membership is up now to 7,949, compared to last July when it was 6,433. He also talked about the number of submissions to government the FBAA has made on behalf of brokers this year. That number has risen to 13 from five in 2016.



Following White, leading business and financial commentator Peter Switzer spoke about the economy and improving one's business offering by "thinking outside the square", a talk that one broker found "uplifting".



Thy Ha, a broker with The Loan Lounge in Sydney and a first-time attendee at the conference, said she found Switzer's speech "very positive" and took a lot away from it, including to work on cultivating and fostering your team's strengths and leveraging that.



Ha said she was keen to attend the conference this year to "see what the leaders are doing" and to learn and gain new knowledge. Ha said she really appreciated the focus on mental health awareness as well.



"I love the language they're using, it's so encouraging," she said. Referring to White's opening address on the topic, she said a "man of his calibre and status" coming out to discuss a traditionally taboo topic on such a big stage in front of so many people was important. "I love the language they're using, it's so encouraging," she said.



The conference continues Friday with talks from Mark Blundell, Lisa Montgomery, Angry Anderson and Graeme Edwards as well as an industry leaders' panel discussion and a gala dinner and awards night.



I hope they take away the strengths that will be portrayed by people. Out of peoples journeys comes great learnings, you can take a lot of strength from what people go through," White said.
Latest News MFAA elects board members One re-elected, two newcomers welcomed

ANZ raises fixed rates Forty other lenders have hiked at least one fixed rate in the last month, data shows

What were talking about is change both acknowledging the difficulty of change and recognising the opportunity that change brings. Theres never been a more disruptive year for the industry for anyone.These were the thoughts of Connective CEO and director Glenn Lees in an exclusive interview with Australian Broker at the aggregators NSW conference in the Hunter Valley yesterday (23 November).Change comes from all angles including in regulation and consumer behaviour, all of which can become quite fatiguing for brokers, he said.Our role is to help them make sense of that change, to take away some of the pain of that change and present that back as opportunity.This is the theme inherent at the Connective Conference 2017, So Much More, which has been held in Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia with one final stop to make in South Australia.The strong positive message is that brokers are never more relevant than they are today in that really complicated world. Its a great chance for them to shine and deliver fantastic solutions to their customers who are trying to live their lives.The core value proposition that brokers offer, solving for complexity, has always been there, he added, saying that the true worth of the industry can be seen in the increasing broker market share which only recently hit 55.7%.The main theme is to recognise that change is the new normal. Change is the new constant. Its a bit of a contradiction but as soon as you recognise that and as soon as you get comfortable with it, then you get the chance to grow through the opportunity it presents.Lees continued, saying that brokers will need the right strategies to deal with these trends including bringing in efficient technology or networking with the proper people. Partnering with a good aggregator is also a part of this, he said.In helping brokers deal with rapid change, the Connective conference has featured keynote speeches from The Essentialists on personal wellness, The Impossible Institute on building a personal brand, and Connective Champions  elite brokers chosen from each state  to discuss their individual stories of success.So far, the conference has attracted 700 people around the country, growing from 550 last year, with 180 attending in NSW alone. The aggregator currently has 3,300 accredited brokers across Australia.
R Praggnanandhaa shares third in the World Juniors with two rounds to go. The 12-year-old has completed his first Grandmaster norm. He has until March to become the youngest-ever GM. If he does win the World Juniors, he would get the title direct. A strong finish from him could result in a historic win. Past winners include Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand.
It was October 2012. A team of conservationists visited a remote dam in to study the migration behaviour of a bird of prey, the Amur Falcon, which roosts here for a month every year as it makes its way from its breeding grounds in Mongolia to Africa. When they reached the Doyang reservoir in Wokha district of Nagaland, they found that the birds were being massacred en masse. Trees on the banks of the reservoir were covered in nets that trapped them by thousands. The air was thick with the smell of their meat being smoked. Local tribes who have a long tradition of hunting (not just for the table but also as a means of livelihood) sold the meat of the falcons as far as Dimapur, 120-odd km away. Many confessed to earning over Rs 20,000 selling falcon meat in the one month that these birds stopped in Wokha to roost and recuperate from their long flight. They referred to this cruel annual practice as a harvest.
Few people have travelled as extensively through the remote mountains and forests of Thailand, Myanmar and north-eastern India as the Swedish journalist and strategic affairs analyst Bertil Lintner. In an earlier book, The Great Game East: India, China and the Struggle for Asias Most Volatile Frontier, Lintner provided a dramatic, if somewhat overdrawn, account of the Sino-Indian rivalry in the region, based on his travels and encounters with a colourful variety of tribal insurgents.
Ahead of the "super-premium" iPhone X launch in South Korea, regulators have reportedly raided Apple's offices in Seoul.

According to a report in London-based Metro late on Thursday, the raid was likely to raise questions about whether South Korean authorities were trying to hamper the success of the iPhone X.

The iPhone X went on sale in the country on Friday.

"Investigators visited Apple's HQ earlier this week to ask questions about its business practices ahead of the launch of the smartphone," the report said.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission has been accused of protecting local against competition from Apple and others.

Apple products are very popular in South Korea which is home to Samsung and LG.

In 2016, the investigators began a probe in a bid to discover whether Apple struck "unfair" contracts with local phone networks.

"It's understood the latest raid is part of this ongoing probe, which was launched just months after the American firm took action to address officials' concern about other aunfair' contracts with South Korean firms commissioned to repair iPhones and other gadgets," the report said.

Apple had 33 per cent market share when it launched iPhone 6 in South Korea in 2015.

Samsung has launched a scheme called "Upgrade To Galaxy" offering up to 10,000 iPhone users a one-month trial of the Galaxy Note 8 or Galaxy S8.
plans to increase the share of branded formulations in its sales to 20 per cent, from 14 per cent at present, as it targets $1 billion revenue by end of FY 2019.
Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra today said it will bid for the second stage of the tender for supplying 9,500 (EVs) to state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL).

"We will bid for the second stage of EESL tender," M&M Managing Director Pawan Goenka told reporters here.

The order for the second phase will be issued after the completion of deliveries of 500 EVs in the first phase by November 30.

M&M had earlier said that it would have to take a "hard look" whether it would be justifiable to participate in the second phase of the tender as it was finding it difficult to match the per unit price being offered by Tata Motors.

Tata Motors had quoted the lowest price of Rs 10.16 lakh exclusive of GST for the tender. Later, Mahindra also decided to participate in the tender.

The EVs procured under the tender will be used to replace petrol and diesel cars being used by the central government and its agencies over a 3 to 4-year period.

Goenka said the company is looking to ramp up the EV production to 5,000 units by the end of 2019.

"Currently, we have 4,000 EVs on Indian roads which amounts to around 50 million kms of drive," he added.

Goenka said the company is making progress in the long term contracts in assembling batteries, manufacturing of motors and power electronics.

"We have invested Rs 500 crore in EV technology till date. Another Rs 600 crore will be invested over the next 2-3 years," Goenka said.
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The Reserve Bank of Indias (RBIs) dispensation to allow (ARCs) to hold more than 26 per cent stake in distressed assets might bump up the valuations of the ARCs for foreign investors.
Kannada actor Prakash Raj on Thursday sent a legal notice to BJP Lok Sabha member from the state Pratap Simha over his alleged trolling of the actor.

"I have sent a legal notice to Pratap Simha as a citizen of this country for the way he has trolled me which has disturbed my personal life. I am asking him to answer legally and if he doesn't, I will be taking legal action," Raj told reporters here.

Simha, who represents Mysuru constituency, had tweeted on October 2: "Being sad due to son's death, having left your wife and ran behind a dancer, Mr. Raj, do you have any right to say anything to (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) Yogi (Adityanath), (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi."

The tweet from Simha, along with a link to an article by a Kannada website with the same line as its headline, had come just after the actor had blamed Prime Minister Modi for following those people on social media who were celebrating the murder of senior Kannada editor and activist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead on September 5.

Raj had also criticised the UP Chief Minister for his statements and said he was a "better actor than him and that he must give away his national awards to him".

Reacting to the legal notice, Simha told a Kannada news channel that he had only retweeted the article.

"Even Twitter mentions that retweets don't necessarily mean endorsements. I had only retweeted an article," Simha had responded.

Raj said the legal notice had nothing to do with the political party that Simha belongs to, but was only a fight against the individual.

"Let the court decide if he should remain in politics. Citizens will not stop asking questions," the 52-year-old actor said, calling Simha a "serial offender".

Raj had lost his son at the age of five, few years ago.
has become a household name, thanks to the swirling row over 'Padmavati', but not many know that Delhi Sultanate's most powerful ruler lies buried in the Qutub complex.

Ironically, the tomb which is located in the same complex as the Qutub Minar, a popular tourist spot, is often overshadowed by the grandeur of the world's tallest brick minaret built by his ancestors.

Historian and writer R V Smith argues that the popular contention that Khilji was a womaniser is untrue, and asserts that he was the one who "saved Hindustan from the Mongols".

"Had he not been there, the shape of Hindustan would have been different, in terms of geographical and racial compositions," he told PTI Bhasha.

He clarified that Khilji invaded Chittor, but only to expand his kingdom like any other ruler.

"It was not done for Rani Padmini," he said.

According to Smith, Khilji defeated Rajput king Ratan Singh, conquered his territory, and then asked to see the queen, about whose beauty he had heard.

Rakesh Batabyal, a professor of history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said there is not much left for historians to say on the 'Padmavati' issue, as it has now become a debate on freedom of expression, creativity and a political discourse.

"History is a product of knowledge but today, forces have emerged in the country who do not recognise history.

"Ignorance levels are so high that period films are now being considered history," the professor said.

A careful tour of the complex reveals that the tomb is located within a madrasa built by Khilji as a college for education on Islamic scriptures and theology.

However, even the security guards at the complex seem to be unaware of this significant name in history.

"Is he the same Khilji, who is being talked about in the film 'Padmavati'?" asks one of them.
Beijing's offer to rename the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to address India's concerns over the project if New Delhi joins Chinese President Xi Jinping's centrepiece One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative might be on the table again, months after China's ambassador to India made the suggestion, which was subsequently retracted according to reports.
A court on Thursday sent an Army Colonel arrested on charges of raping a fellow officer's daughter to three days in police custody.

The young woman, aged 21 and an adopted daughter of a Lt Colonel, filed a police complaint on November 20 against the 56-year-old accused posted at the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) here. The Lt Colonel is also posted at the ARTRAC.

After preliminary investigations, a case under the Indian Penal Code was registered and the Colonel arrested on Wednesday evening.

In her complaint, the woman said she was called by the Colonel to his residence with a promise to introduce her to people associated with the modelling industry.

She accused the Colonel of forcing her to drink alcohol and raping her. He even allegedly threatened to 'ruin' her father's career if she revealed the crime to anyone.

Superintendent of Police Soumya Sambasivan said the medical examination report of the young woman was awaited. Police did not disclose the identify of the accused officer.

Director General of Police Somesh Goyal told reporters that investigation into the woman's complaint was on.

(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.)
and dark energy may not actually exist, according to a study which suggests that accelerating expansion of the universe and the movement of the stars in the galaxies can be explained without these concepts. For close to a century, researchers have hypothesised that the universe contains more matter than can be directly observed, known as dark matter. They have also posited the existence of a dark energy that is more powerful than gravitational attraction.

These two hypotheses, it has been argued, account for the movement of stars in galaxies and for the accelerating expansion of the universe respectively. However, according to a researcher at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) in Switzerland, these concepts may be no longer valid: the phenomena they are supposed to describe can be demonstrated without them.

The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal, exploits a new theoretical model based on the scale invariance of the empty space, potentially solving two of astronomys greatest mysteries.

The way we represent the universe and its history are described by Einsteins equations of general relativity, Newtons universal gravitation and quantum mechanics.

The model-consensus at present is that of a Big Bang followed by an expansion.

In this model, there is a starting hypothesis that has not been taken into account, in my opinion, said Andre Maeder, professor in UNIGEs Faculty of Science. By that I mean the scale invariance of the empty space; in other words, the empty space and its properties do not change following a dilatation or contraction, said Maeder. The empty space plays a primordial role in Einsteins equations as it operates in a quantity known as a cosmological constant, and the resulting universe model depends on it. Based on this hypothesis, Maeder is now re-examining the model of the universe, pointing out that the scale invariance of the empty space is also present in the fundamental theory of electromagnetism.

When Maeder carried out cosmological tests on his new model, he found that it matched the observations.

He also found that the model predicts the accelerated expansion of the universe without having to factor in any particle or dark energy.

In short, it appears that dark energy may not actually exist since the acceleration of the expansion is contained in the equations of the physics, researchers said. In a second stage, Maeder focused on Newtons law, a specific instance of the equations of general relativity. The law is also slightly modified when the model incorporates Maeders new hypothesis. It contains a very small outward acceleration term, which is particularly significant at low densities. This amended law, when applied to clusters of galaxies, leads to masses of clusters in line with that of visible matter: this means that no is needed to explain the high speeds of the galaxies in the clusters.
Pakistan on Friday freed Hafiz Saeed, the chief of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) outfit and mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, from detention. Saeed immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric by saying he would mobilise people for the "cause of Kashmir".

The JuD head, who carries a $10 million American bounty for his role in terror activities, was released after the government decided against detaining him further in any other case.

He was under detention since January this year.

The fire-brand cleric's release after midnight came ahead of the 9th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.

India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and also demanded the trial of Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi in light of the evidence it had provided to Islamabad.

While addressing his supporters gathered outside his residence, Saeed said: "I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir. I fight for the cause of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir and we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom."Punjab province's Judicial Review Board comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday unanimously ordered Saeed's release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest, which expired last night.

India had expressed outrage over the decision of the judicial board to release Saeed, calling it an attempt by Pakistan to mainstream proscribed terrorists and a reflection of its continuing support to non-state actors.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Saeed's release confirmed once again the lack of seriousness by the Pakistan government in bringing to justice perpetrators of terrorism, including individuals and entities designated by the UN.

"It also appears to be an attempt by the Pakistani system to mainstream proscribed terrorists. Pakistan has not changed its policy of shielding and supporting non-state actors and its true face is visible for all to see," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in New Delhi on Thursday.

Saeed said that he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris in January.

Using the release order to buttress his claim of "innocence", Saeed said: "I am very happy that none of the allegations against me were proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release... India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHC's review board decision has proved that I am innocent."



"I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," he claimed.

Several JuD supporters, gathered outside Saeed's house in Lahore's Jauhar town to celebrate his release, shouted anti- India slogans.

"We are happy to see our leader free," JuD spokesman Ahmad Nadim said.

"Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case," a top government official told PTI.

He said that after a long deliberation, it has been decided to follow the review board's decision.

Saeed's release would lead to strong criticism from India and the US, official sources said.

"It remains to be seen as how would the PML-N government handle the foreign pressure to again detain Saeed," they said.

Punjab Assistant Advocate General Sattar Sahil said the government law officer had presented "some important evidence" to justify Saeed's detention, but all three members of the board unanimously rejected it and ordered his release.

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid, and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti- Terrorism Act 1997. The last two extensions were made on the 'public safety law'.

The board refused to give further extension to the detention of Saeed's aides. They were set free last month.

According to the rules, the government can detain a person for up to three months under different charges, but for an extension, it needs approval from a judicial review board.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned LeT, which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack in November 2008 but he was freed by a court in 2009.

Ten LeT militants had killed 166 people and wounded dozens in Mumbai in November 2008. Nine of the attackers were killed by police while the lone survivor, Ajmal Kasab, was caught and executed after a court found him guilty.

Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN after the Mumbai attack.
Congress vice-president will be on a two-day campaign tour of Gujarat from Friday, during which he will accept a giant tricolour made by the Dalit community.

The flag was meant to be presented to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani a few months ago but officials in the state capital had reportedly refused to accept it citing lack of space.

Gandhi will visit Gujarat to lead his party's election campaign ahead of the first phase of polling for 89 seats next month.

The highlight of his two-day tour is the visit to the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), a vocational training institute run by Dalit activists, near Sanand town of this district tomorrow.

"During his visit, Rahulji will accept a giant flag, measuring 125 feet in length and 83 feet in height, from Dalit students of the Kendra. He will also address locals and Dalits of surrounding areas at the centre," Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

"This is the largest flag ever made. Though it was meant to be presented to Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani, he had refused to accept it when Dalits went to Gandhinagar in August. When Rahulji learned about it, he conveyed his desire to accept the flag with full honour," Doshi added.

According to the founder of the DSK, Martin Macwan, the giant flag was made as part of their movement to end untouchability in the country.

"This flag, made from khadi and weighing around 240 kgs, was prepared by around 100 DSK students from Dalit and backward communities. Though we went to Gandhinagar to hand it over to the CM on August 11, he did not meet us. Officials at the Gandhinagar collectorate also refused to accept it, saying they don't have the space to keep it," Macwan said.

"It was disheartening because we just wanted to spread the message and wanted to urge the CM to do his bit in Gujarat to end the practice of untouchability. When learned about it, he informed us that he will accept the flag when he will visit the DSK tomorrow," Macwan added.

Apart from interacting with Dalits in Sanand, Gandhi would interact with fishermen, doctors, teachers and villagers on his route covering Porbandar, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mahisagar and Dahod district during his two-day visit.

After landing at the Porbandar airport on Friday, Gandhi would start his tour by meeting local fishermen to understand their problems, a release by the party said.

In the afternoon, Gandhi would visit the DSK near Sanand. He will then arrive in Ahmedabad to take part in two separate interactive sessions, one with doctors and medical professionals and another with lecturers and primary school teachers.

Late evening, he will address a gathering in the Nikol area of the city, the release said.

On Saturday, he would visit various villages and towns on his journey covering Gandhinagar, Arvalli, Mahisagar and Dahod districts.

Polling for the two-phase elections in the state, having total 182 seats, will take place on December 9 and 14 and votes will be counted on December 18.

Eighty nine seats of the Saurashtra and South Gujarat region are going to polls in the first phase, while the remaining 93 seats in the central and northern regions would go to polls in the second phase.
Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief on Friday said ousted Pakistan prime minister had committed "treason" by seeking friendship with India and ignoring the "Kashmir cause", hours after his release from house arrest.

Saeed gave an hour-long Friday sermon at the JuD headquarters here, for which a large number of JuD activists had gathered at the Jamia Masjid Al-Qadsia at Chauburji here.

After Friday prayers, the charged workersgreeted Saeed on his release and renewed their pledge for "Kashmir Jihad".

Saeed in his speech alsotargeted the Pakistani government for "taking dictation from foreign masters" and spoke of "Indian atrocities" in Kashmir.

He told his supporters the "reasons" behind his10-month detention, and also as to why Sharif was ousted as prime minister.

"Ousted prime minister has been punished for forsaking Kashmiris. Sharif is ousted from the prime minister house because he committed treason with Kashmiris. He wanted friendship with India and completely ignored the Kashmir cause," he said and warned the PML-N government not to bow before the international community for loans.

"The rulers must not take dictation from the US and other countries and take its own decisions," he said.

Saeed walked from house arrest as a free man in the early hours of today after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any case.

He had been under detention since January this year.

The JuD head, who carries a bounty of USD 10 million announced by the US for his role in terror activities, reiterated that he was detained for raising his voice for the Kashmiri people.

He said Pakistan should not hold peace dialogue with India till it withdraws its army from Kashmir.

He said he would continue fighting for Kashmiris till they get freedom.

Saeed reiterated that the US, on India's request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.
Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief today walked from house arrest as a free man and moments after the release he said he will gather people across Pakistan for the "cause of Kashmir" and help the Kashmiris secure "freedom".
Early in November was conferred the Piolets dOr Asia Lifetime Achievement Award from the Union of Asian Alpine Associations, which hands out the Oscars of climbing. How did he celebrate? By climbing another mountain, of course. This time, he and his group headed out to explore Incheon in South Korea.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed a medical college in Lucknow to grant compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the 150 students it had admitted in the MBBS course without formal permission from the government, according to the Times of India.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi today condemned the terror attack on an Egyptian mosque that claimed over 200 lives and said India supports the fight against terrorism.

Armed attackers today killed at least 235 worshippers in a bomb and gun assault on a packed mosque in Egypt's restive North Sinai province.

"Strongly condemn the barbaric terrorist attack on a place of worship in Egypt. Our deep condolences at the loss of innocent lives," the prime minister tweeted.

Strongly condemn the barbaric terrorist attack on a place of worship in Egypt. Our deep condolences at the loss of innocent lives. India resolutely supports the fight against all forms of terrorism and stands with the people as well as Government of Egypt.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 24, 2017

He said India "resolutely supports" the fight against all forms of terrorism and stands with the people and the Egyptian government.
The Kerala High Court on Friday declined to stay a single bench order to screen the controversial Malayalam film "S Durga" in the Panorama section of the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice A Muhamed Mustaque refused to stay the single judge order while admitting an appeal filed by the Centre.

In the appeal, the government stated that the film though selected by the jury had not secured the exemption as required by the Panorama regulation in the absence of any certification from the Central Board of Film Certification.

It was also contended by the Centre that inclusion of the film is likely to upset the arrangements of the 48th IFFI, which comes to a close on November 28.

'S Durga' narrates the horrifying experience of a hitchhiking couple.

The director of the film Sanal Kumar Sasidharan moved the court after the film was dropped from the Indian Panorama section of the festival along with the Marathi film "Nude".

According to the petitioner, the I&B Ministry's decision to overrule the recommendation of the 13-member jury and pull out the two films was "unconstitutional".
Nepal on Friday closed its border with India and China as it gears up for the historic round of provincial and parliamentary polls, eleven years after the country began its journey toward democracy, that many hope will bring much-needed political stability to the Himalayan nation.

Land-locked Nepal is holding provincial and parliamentary elections in two phases on November 26 and December 7.

The elections are being seen as the final step in Nepal's transition to a federal democracy following a decade-long civil war till 2006 that claimed more than 16,000 lives.

More than 300,000 members of the security forces will be deployed for the two-stage election, with northern provinces voting on Sunday and southern areas and Kathmandu going to the polls on December 7.

Results are expected a few days after the second vote.

While many hope Nepal's first state elections will hasten regional development, others fear they will spark a fresh wave of violence.

In 2015, when Nepal adopted a new Constitution that split it into seven states, dozens of people were killed in ethnic clashes over territory and rights.

"We created the Constitution after years of struggle, but that is not enough," said Nabindra Raj Joshi, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress, the country's largest political party.

"The most important part is implementation. This election will launch the provincial administration that will turn our achievements into reality."



Following the adoption of the new Constitution in 2015, the ethnic Madhesi group, mostly of Indian-origin, protested for months, saying they were not getting enough territory in one of the states and were also facing discrimination.

Violent clashes not only left more than 50 people dead, but also left the country with severe shortages of fuel and medicine because protesters blocked the borders with India.

The protesters finally agreed to the elections after some amendments were made to the constitution.

According to officials, the crossing points with India will be sealed from today till the evening of Sunday.

Nepal-China border crossing at Rasuwagadhi and Kimathanka have been closed for 72 hours from midnight, ahead of the first phase of elections scheduled for November 26.

According to Rasuwa Chief District Officer Chomendra Neupane, the move is in line with the mandatory requirement to seal international borders ahead of the elections. The borders will remain shut till Sunday midnight.

Navaraj Dhakal, an official with the Election Commission, said there have been some incidents where candidates and their supporters have been attacked during the campaign. He said the federal government and security forces have a plan to ensure voting remains peaceful, The Himalayan Times reported.

The Election Commission has said no political party, candidates, party office bearers, independents, civil society, voters and mass media can be involved in publicity for the polls.

The EC has urged the media not to violate the election code of conduct during the silence period as that would influence voters of the first-phase polls even though campaigns for the second phase vote scheduled for December 7 continue in the remaining 45 districts.

In the first phase, 3,191,945 voters are eligible to caste their ballot from 4,465 polling centres. As many as 702 candidates--including 282 (266 male and 16 female) for federal parliament and 420 (400 male and 20 female) for the provincial assemblies--are contesting for 37 federal and 74 provincial seats, according to election officials.

With stiff competition expected from the UML-Maoist alliance in the polls, the Nepali Congress (NC) and Madhes- based parties are under pressure to forge electoral alliances across the Madhes districts neighbouring India even at the eleventh hour, according to political observers.

Party insiders said there was mounting pressure from local level leaders and cadres in various districts to work further on the electoral alliance.

Earlier, the NC and the two Madhes-based parties had been engaged in negotiations, but could not forge an electoral alliance.

Election campaign will end on Friday mid-night, 48 hours ahead of the polls.

The polls are taking place under a new Constitution passed by lawmakers in September 2015 as part of a peace process that began with the end of a decade-long civil war.

The polls are a major step toward implementing the new Constitution.
After the Union health ministry, the Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has stepped in to investigate Fortis Hospital on the huge bill given for the treatment of a young girl, who eventually died.
Tukaram Kapse was only 10 when his father, Madhav, passed away. The oldest of six siblings, Tukaram took on most responsibilities at home and on the family farm in Pimpalgaon Dhage village in Nanded district of south-central Maharashtra.
will soon monitor suspicious vessels and boats venturing into seas as part of the fortification of the country's coastal security, the home ministry said on Friday.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will provide 1,000 transponders by March next year as part of the coastal security ring, being set up to thwart terrorist attacks on the lines of the 26/11 Mumbai carnage.

For boats under 20 metres, satellite monitoring has been proposed, a senior home ministry official said.

India has strengthened the coastal security after the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai which claimed 166 lives. Ten terrorists reached the metropolis from Pakistan sailing through the Arabian sea.

So far, 19.74 lakh fishermen have enrolled for biometric identity cards and of whom, 18.60 lakhs have been issued identity cards.

For monitoring of boats, automatic identification system would be installed in all boats above 20 metres, while colour coding of boats was being undertaken by coastal states and Union Territories for easier monitoring in the high seas and on the International Maritime Boundary Line, the official said.

India has a coastline of 7,516 km running through Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal and the Union Territories of Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) were developed for dealing with the breach of the International Maritime Boundary Line and SOPs were issued for upgrading security in non-major ports and single point mooring facilities, another official said.

The SOPs were issued to coastal states and Union Territories for better coordination among stakeholders, coastal mapping started in states for entering terrain details, coastal and local police stations, bomb disposal facilities, ports railway stations, bus stands, fishing villages and fish landing points, the official said.

Security of the coastline is vital for the country as there are nuclear stations, missile launching centres, defence and oil installations along the coast.

India's long coastline presents a variety of security concerns that include landing of arms and explosives at isolated spots on the coast, infiltration/ex-filtration of anti-national elements, use of the sea and off-shore islands for criminal activities, smuggling of consumer and intermediate goods through sea, the official said.

The absence of physical barriers and the presence of vital industrial and defence installations also enhance the vulnerability of the coasts to illegal cross-border activities, the official said.
One day in the summer of 2013, Balakrushna Jani, one of the leaders of Burlubaru village in Kandhamal district of southern Odisha, heard from a farmer that some men were planting saplings on forest land a few kilometres outside the village. As per the Forest Rights Act, the land in question belonged to the villagersprimarily of the Kutia Kondh tribe, classified as particularly vulnerable due to their small numbersand was part of the 50 hectares they had left fallow as per usual practice.
India has become inexplicably safer over the past years since the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks but her vulnerabilities have not diminished, argues Ajai Sahni. Crucially, India's policing apparatus  the 'first responders' in case of terrorist attacks and the most productive sources of counter-terrorism intelligence  remains decrepit, ill-equipped, and substantially unprepared.



India's internal security apparatus continues to move with characteristic and elephantine slowness nine years after the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, when the national leadership had promised it would take all possible measures to ensure that such incidents would never be repeated. A constellation of factors  domestic, regional, and global  have nevertheless worked to ensure that there have been no repeats of the 26/11 attacks since, but vulnerabilities remain endemic. Indeed, speaking of the threat of Islamist terrorism, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh rightly observed, "There has been a decline in the incidents of extremism. The credit for this should go to the followers of Islam in India."

Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal. They do not reflect the view/s of Business Standard.
Many Rohingya people who have fled the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar are now living as refugees in Bangladesh. And now, the two countries have reportedly struck a deal to return them home. Returning Rohingya people to the hands of their persecutors not only violates international law, but raises fundamental questions about how the world protects those fleeing the most heinous crimes and abuses.
Bank of Baroda (BoB) recently invited applications from candidates for specialist officer recruitment at Baroda Corporate Centre, Mumbai. A total of 427 posts available, and the last date to apply and pay the examination fees is December 5, 2017. Candidates are required to apply online through website www.bankofbaroda.co.in. No other means/mode of application will be accepted.
36th International Geological Congress On the Visit of the IUGS Delegation

A high level delegation of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) comprising its President, Prof. Qiuming Cheng; Prof. S C Finney, Secretary General; and Prof. H Kitazato, Treasurer visited India during 20-24 November 2017 to discuss the preparatory aspects of the 36th International Geological Congress (IGC) to be held in Delhi, India in the year 2020.

Described as the Olympics of Geosciences, the IGCs are held quadrennially under the aegis of the IUGS through a process of global bidding. India won the bid in 2012 at Brisbane, Australia to host the Congress in 2020. The win is a remarkable achievement as the event makes a come back to the Indian soil after nearly 6 decades much to the excitement of the entire geoscientific community.

The event is being jointly funded by the Ministry of Mines and Ministry of Earth Sciences with the active support of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), and the Science Academies of the other neighbouring co-host countries, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The delegation, during its visit, inspected the India Expo Mart Limited, the venue for the event and expressed its satisfaction over the facilities available and its convenient location. The team described the state-of-the-art Centre as impressive, and equipped in all respects to host the mega Congress which has conventionally an attendance to the tune of 6000 delegates.

The IUGS dignitaries interacted with Shri Arun Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Mines; Dr. M Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, senior officers of the two Ministries, and key functionaries of the Organizing Committee.

The Organizing Committee is headed by Dr. V P Dimri as its President, Dr. P R Golani as its Secretary General, Prof. Talat Ahmad, VC, Jamia Millia Islamia as the Chair, Scientific Program Committee, Prof. Somnath Dasgupta, former VC, Assam University as Chair, Field Trip Committee and other eminent geoscientists as Chairs of various other subcommittees. The IUGS was given detailed accounts of the progress made on technical, administrative and other fronts by the Organizing Committee. The Scientific Program, Field Excursions and the Legacy & Publication Programs and an overview of the preparations were presented to the visitors.

The IUGS team expressed its satisfaction over the entire spectrum of preparatory activities and described the quantum of work done as focussed and effective. It was of the view that the necessary pro-rata ground work has been done as part of the homework. They stated that going by the momentum of the preparatory activities, India is firmly getting ready for a very successful IGC.

The key functionaries, during their visit, also delivered lectures to a select audience comprising eminent geoscientists, academia, students and researchers.

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Communal Harmony Flag Day observed by National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH) Various functions mark Communal Harmony Campaign Week being observed from November 19-25, 2017

The National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH) is observing the Communal Harmony Campaign and Fund Raising Week from November 19-25, 2017 and the Flag Day was celebrated today with enthusiasm and fervour. Publicity material like Flag stickers, wrappers, posters, brochures, pamphlets etc. were dispatched to about 1.24 Lakh units for appropriately marking of this significant occasion all over the country during this year including all States / UTs and covering all Ministries / Departments, Central Public Sector Undertakings, Paramilitary organizations, Universities, educational institutions, Nationalized Banks, etc. Out of these 1.03 Lakh units were educational institutions.

In response to the appeal made by the NFCH, programmes are being organized by different stakeholders including educational institutions, public sector enterprises, Government Departments/ agencies, NGOs and voluntary organizations, etc. during the Week to promote the ethos of Communal Harmony and National Integration. The Weeks last working day, today, is being observed as the Flag Day throughout the country. This occasion is also utilized to generate financial support for destitute children affected by communal, caste, ethnic or terrorist violence.

Six children, two each from the States of Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir and one each from Assam and Uttar Pradesh were invited by the Foundation along with their mothers/guardians and escorts (State Government representatives) to participate in the Communal Harmony Campaign Week & Flag Day celebrations. These children viz. Amrooz Shabir and Sawan Kumar from Jammu & Kashmir; Gopalbhai Vakhatsinh Parmar and Km. Azim Bibi Chiniwala from Gujarat; Km. Martina Saikia (Assam) and Shakeel Ahmed (Uttar Pradesh) were privileged to meet, greet and stick Communal Harmony Flags on the persons of the President Shri Ram Nath Kovind, Vice-President Shri M Venkaiah Naidu, Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh and Union Home Secretary Shri Rajiv Gauba today to mark the Flag Day.

These children were taken to local sight-seeing in Delhi and nearby places of historical, religious and cultural importance i.e.

Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House, India Gate, Qutub Minar, Rajghat, Lal Quila, Nizamuddin Dargah and Rail Museum during their weeklong stay in the national capital. They were very excited to see these places and enthused to intermingle with their fellow friends coming from different states for this celebration.

The Foundation also organized an Inter School competition on Hindi Declamation on the topic: ??????????? ????? : ??????? ?? ???????? to observe the Communal Harmony Campaign Week & Flag Day 2017 amongst children of different schools in Delhi on November 22, 2017. Students from 18 different schools participated in the programme. This event provided a platform for interaction between students of various communities. Winners were felicitated with Awards and Certificates by the Foundation.

The programme was presided over by Shri Syed Ghayorul Hasan Rizvi, Chairman, National Commission for Minorities. Shri Awadh Kumar Singh, Secretary, NFCH; Shri Paramjeet Singh Chandhok, Member, Governing Council, NFCH; Dr M D Thomas, Founder Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies and Smt Naaz Rizvi of the National Museum of Natural History also graced the occasion and shared their valuable thoughts on the theme. About 500 school children from different communities assembled on the occasion.

The National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH), an autonomous organisation with the Ministry of Home Affairs, organises the Communal Harmony Campaign coinciding with the Qaumi Ekta Week and also observes the Communal Harmony Flag Day. The Foundation promotes Communal Harmony and strengthens National Integration. Under its Project Assist, the NFCH also provides financial assistance for relief and rehabilitation of children rendered orphan or destitute in communal, caste, ethnic or terrorist violence.

The Foundation has appealed for participation of every citizen from all sections of the society during the Communal Harmony Campaign Week and Flag Day for promotion of this noble cause.
Multi State Mega Mock Tsunami Exercise 2017 held Tsunami disaster scenario simulated to assess preparedness along the vulnerable eastern coastline

The Ministry of Home Affairs through National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) today conducted a first-of-its-kind multi-State mega mock exercise on tsunami preparedness covering the entire eastern coastline of the country.

Simulation exercises were conducted simultaneously in 35 coastal districts across four States of West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Puducherry along the entire East Coast, to assess and improve the early warning and response mechanism to mitigate the impact of a high-intensity tsunami.

The NDMA experts, who led the exercises from the State Capitals, briefed the participants about the proceedings of the day. The exercise scenario depicted a high intensity earthquake near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, at about 0930 hrs. Within moments, the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), INCOIS, issued a massive tsunami threat notification for the eastern coast through e-mails, fax and SMSes. It also put out detailed bulletins on its website.

A two-hour reaction time was notified within which the entire State machinery needed to be mobilised so as to efficiently respond to the situation such that the impact of the tsunami is reduced.

In less than half an hour, the State Emergency Operation Centres (SEOCs) were activated. Besides mobilising the State machinery to respond, public warnings were sent out to the communities. Evacuation instructions were issued, rescue teams were formed under Incident Commanders and kept at standby in the Staging areas.

Evacuation drills were conducted in coordination with various agencies, such as Traffic control, Fire Fighting department, Ambulances, Police, Coast Guards, Civil Defense and community stakeholders.

Post the simulated landfall of the tsunami, damage assessment was carried out at the SEOCs on the basis of information received from affected districts and first-hand information by air sorties, both fixed wings and helicopters. This helped the administration in prioritising the response and dispatching the appropriate task forces to the affected sites.

Representatives from 11 Pacific Island countries observed the exercise for key lessons and best practices to be adopted while preparing for and responding to a disaster situation.

Their participation was part of a training programme meant for enhancing their ability to improve the preparedness of their organisations to reduce disaster risks, especially for tsunamis.

After the drills, post-exercise analyses were carried out by NDMA representatives, in which all concerned officials took part. Detailed discussions were conducted on gaps and shortcomings, and ways to improve coordination among participating agencies and officials.

Initial reports and analyses suggest that the response of the State/UT machinery was effective and encouraging. A detailed analysis is underway which will help us further help improve our response to such disasters.

The exercise is one of the various activities planned on the occasion of the 2nd World Tsunami Awareness Day held on 5th November this year. It began with an orientation conference on 8th November, which was held to ensure the smooth facilitation of the exercise. This was followed by coordination conferences and table-top exercises at various SEOCs in which all the involved districts participated through videoconferencing.

Tsunami is a highly devastating natural hazard, and requires rapid response when it occurs as the reaction time is limited. The exercise is significant as India's eastern coast is susceptible to both cyclones and tsunamis. The region was one of the worst affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. This exercise will go a long way in helping States/UTs in updating their resources, procedures and plans.
The President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind attended the closing ceremony of the 42nd ICMM World Congress on Military Medicine, where 1,187 delegates from 74 member countries participated, at Vigyan Bhavan here today. .

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Speaking on the occasion, the President said the theme of this years World Congress has been is appropriately kept as Military Medicine in Transition, which portrays both the dynamic and evolving nature of medical science per se and the ever changing and volatile environment of the practice of military medicine in particular. .

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Complementing the Congress for addressing aspects of training and research, Shri Kovind said that in keeping with the present world scenario, it was important that we focus on two aspects of medicine, that is, training and medical research. He said both are progressive and mandated requirements of the medical profession, which help the organisation and individual to constantly grow and expand. .

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Noting that a special panel discussion was held on role of women as a combat soldier, the President said women have always in some role or the other been an important part of armed forces across the world. Different countries have different terms of engagement at employment of women in uniform. He said more and more countries are going forward to give them greater responsibilities. In India too, women have evolved as able soldiers in whichever arm our Service they have served in. Shri Kovind said in the field of combat medical care historically, women have had a distinguished record as healthcare providers. He said the Indian Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) has had women adorned the uniform as medical, dental and nursing officers since our Independence and they have served and proved themselves even in extremely difficult situation with great distinction..

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Raksha Rajya Mantri Dr Subhash Bhamre, while addressing the Congress, said that the nature of armed conflict has been changing with time and operations have shifted from conventional to unconventional during the past century. He said unconventional conflict has been accompanied by its own peculiarities, and the military medicine professionals have had to suitably adapt to them. Dr Bhamre said the member states have been getting together in such scientific gatherings during the last four decades or so, and over this period of time, have enhanced their skills, knowledge and policies to ensure that they are well equipped and well prepared to face and accomplish any operational commitment as and when one arises. He said disaster can hit any part of the world at any time, and it is the armed forces which, in addition to its duties of defending its country, has been found to be the most appropriate responders to such eventualities, be it earthquakes, tsunamis, floods or other natural and man-made disasters. .

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The closing ceremony was also addressed by Director General of AFMS Lt General Bipin Puri. The ceremony was attended among others by Chief of the Army Staff General Bipin Rawat and Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa. The five-day deliberations at the Congress came to an end with a decision to organise 43rd ICMM World Congress on Military Medicine 2019 at Basel, Switzerland between May 19-24, 2019 on the theme Medicine on the Move. .

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MJPS/NA/DK
President of India addresses closing ceremony of the 42nd World Congress of the International Committee of Military Medicine

The President of India, Shri Ram NathKovind, addressed the closing ceremony of the 42nd World Congress of the International Committee of Military Medicine (ICMM), today (November 24, 2017) in New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that for nearly a century now, ICMM has been making a meaningful impact in the practice of military medicine across the world. It truly works at the cutting edge of the medical profession. Through its Regional and World Congress, ICMM provides a global platform for sharing and meaningful learning.

The President said that the medical service is an important pillar for any military.

The Armed Forces Medical Services of India have been providing stellar service not only to the Armed Forces but have also been in the service of the nation both in peace and war. They are the most valuable first responders in times of natural and man-made calamities and crises and are in a perpetual state of readiness. The onus of promoting and delivering preventive, curative and rehabilitative medical care for the serving soldier and his family, including our esteemed veterans, has been carried out by the Armed Forces Medical Services with commendable professionalism.
Winter Session of Parliament to be held from December 15, 2017 to January 5, 2018

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) today recommended convening of Winter Session of Parliament this year from December 15, 2017 to January 5, 2018, subject to exigencies of government business. This was informed by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Shri Ananthkumar to media persons after the meeting of CCPA.

Shri Ananthkumar further stated that the ensuing Winter Session will have a total of 14 sittings over a duration of 22 days.

The meeting was chaired by Union Minister for Home Affairs Shri Rajnath Singh to discuss legislative agenda for the coming session of Parliament.

Talking to media persons, Shri Ananthkumar noted that it is not unprecedented that the schedule of the Parliament Session has been decided so as to avoid any overlap with the Assembly Elections in the States. This practice has been followed on many occasions by different Governments in the past.

Shri Ananthkumar appealed to all Political Parties for fruitful and constructive discussions on important Bills and ensure smooth functioning of both the Houses of the Parliament.

Answering a question on Triple Talaq & the National Commission for Backward Classes, Shri Ananthkumar stated that it is a strong desire of the people of India that Parliament should legislate on these two important issues and the Government is committed to respond to this desire.

Three Bills are to be taken up in the coming Winter session to replace three Ordinances viz.,

1. The Goods & Services Tax (Compensation to States) Ordinance, 2017 (promulgated on 02.09.17)

2. Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017

3. Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017

Parliament will also discuss the Supplementary Demands for Grants in this Winter Session.
When Theresa May visits Brussels on Friday, EU negotiators will be listening intently for signs the British prime minister is preparing to risk a domestic backlash and raise her offer to secure a deal in December.
The money came from all over China  its wealthy southern and eastern coasts as well as the arid northwest  as thousands of people scrambled to circumvent the countrys strict controls on wealth. In the end, more than 10,000 people had used an underground bank to effectively funnel $3 billion out of the country before the authorities put a stop to it, Xinhua, Chinas state-run news agency, reported on Thursday.
At least 235 worshippers were killed and 109 injured when heavily-armed militants bombed a mosque and opened fire on people attending Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, in the deadliest terror attack in the country.
The Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of El Arish, the main city in North Sinais branch is one of the Islamic States surviving branches following the collapse of its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq. (Photo: Reuters)
European Union privacy regulators will discuss ride-hailing app Ubers massive data breach cover-up next week and could create a task-force to coordinate investigations. Uber faces regulatory scrutiny after CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the firm covered up a data breach past year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts.
The general in charge of Americas nuclear arsenal, John Hyten, recently said he would resist carrying out an illegal order from the president to use those weapons.
Iraqi forces announced the launch of a major operation on Thursday to flush remaining Islamic State group fighters out of the western desert near the border with Syria.

The arid, sparsely populated wastelands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are the last refuge of the jihadists in Iraq after troops and paramilitaries ousted them from both valleys and all urban areas.

"The Iraqi army, the federal police and the Hashed al- Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation paramilitary units) this morning began clearing the Al-Jazeera region straddling Salaheddin, Nineveh and Anbar provinces," the head of Joint Operations Command, General Abdelamir Yarallah, said in a statement.

The region's dry valleys, the oases and steppes make up around four per cent of the national territory, Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi expert on IS, told AFP last week.

Iraq's close ally Iran has already declared the victory of IS but Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday that he would not follow suit until the desert has been cleared.

"After the operation has ended, we will announce the final defeat of Daesh in Iraq," he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Over the border in neighbouring Syria, pro-government forces and US-backed Kurdish-led forces are conducting similar operations to clear IS fighters from the countryside north of the Euphrates valley after ousting them from all urban areas.

(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.)
Six months ago I won the lottery  the processing lottery for skilled foreign workers. I called my thrilled parents and celebrated with friends. Im from northeastern China and have an M.B.A from Stanford, and was planning to stay in Silicon Valley to help start a company based on a promising new technology to improve the use of data. I was overjoyed because, historically, being selected in the lottery was a near guarantee that an applicant could remain in this country at least three more years.
A South African appeals court increased paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius' sentence for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to 13 years and five months on Friday.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein more than doubled his original sentence of six years after the state appealed that it was unduly lenient.

Prosecutors argued earlier this month that Oscar Pistorius failed to show genuine remorse after killing his girlfriend.

"One of the essential ingredients of a balanced sentence is that it must reflect the seriousness of the offence," Andrea Johnson, of the National Prosecution Authority, told the court.

The Paralympic athlete shot dead Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013 when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

He pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014 and has always denied that he killed Steenkamp in a rage, saying he mistook her for a burglar.
Hafiz Saeed, head of the Pakistani religious party, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, waves on his arrival to a court in Lahore, Pakistan. (Photo: AP | PTI)

The US today asked the Pakistan government to make sure that is arrested and charged for his crimes, following the release of the 26/11 mastermind and JuD chief from house arrest.

Pakistan today freed Saeed, the LeT founder, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the "cause of Kashmir".

"The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT) leader has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens," state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

"The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes," Nauert said in a statement after the release of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief.

The JuD leader, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after his 10- month detention as the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case, in a setback to India's efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.

In May 2008, the US Department of the Treasury had designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.

Saeed was also individually designated by the UN under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December, 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people, including six American citizens, were killed, Nauert said.

LeT and several of its front organisations, leaders, and operatives remain under both state department and Treasury department sanctions.

Since 2012, the US has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice, she said.
The S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices hit their respective new high on the BSE on Friday, following an extending rally in infrastructure, auto ancillary, education, textiles and public sector banks.
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At least 50 people were killed and 150 others injured on Friday after terrorists stormed a packed mosque in the Bir al-Abd region of north Sinai, said the local media reports.

An explosion reportedly took place inside the mosque when worshippers were carrying out their afternoon prayers.

Following the explosion, gunmen arrived in cars and opened fire at the fleeing crowd.

According to sources, most of the people who came for prayers were friends and family of the security forces.

The injured have been rushed to hospital.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Security has been beefed up in Hyderabad ahead of the visit of United States President Donald Trump's daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 28.

V V Srinivasa Rao, Commissioner of Police Hyderabad informed ANI that the state police, along with the US Secret Service, intelligence Security Wing, City Security Wing have taken up different measures for the security of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump.

"The Security for Prime Minister Modi and Ivanka Trump would be totally different. SPG, ISW and state police will take care of Prime Minister Modi's security and US Secret Service, ISW and state police will take care of Ivanka Trump's security," said Srinivasa.

"If we speak about security, US Secret Service, intelligence Security Wing, City Security Wing and State Law & Police, these four departments are primarily involved, we will also be getting inputs from various collateral intelligence units, which will be implemented or used or applied," he added, "We have made arrangements and sanitised both the areas, security wise. We have taken area into our control. We are also having several meetings with stake holders, including intelligence security wing, SPG from Delhi. We are also going to have meeting with the US secret service personals".

Srinivasa further informed that on November 28, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be inaugurating the Metro Rail and later he will be inaugurating Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), with Ivanka.

Ivanka will be visiting India to attend the GES, and is expected to have dinner with international delegates on the 101 dining table, one of the world's largest dining tables, at Taj Falaknuma Palace, in Falaknuma area here.

"Ivanka Trump would be staying little longer till 29th November afternoon. There are two important events in Hyderabad. One is Prime Minister Modi and Ivanka Trump, with delegates, having dinner in Falaknuma Palace and second is at Golconda fort, where dinner will be hosted for the delegates, but PM Modi and Ivanka Trump will not participate in it", he added.

"2000 police personals will be dedicatedly deployed for this event. They will be working on it. All city forces will also be focusing on these Golconda and Falaknuma events," said Srinivasa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
All the five juveniles were arrested on Friday in connection with a case where a 17-year-old boy was allegedly stabbed to death on a bus on Mathura Road after he objected to them stealing his mobile phone.

The phone has been recovered from the accused.

Earlier on Thursday, a first-year B.Com student was stabbed to death after a scuffle with five boys in school uniforms in a moving bus near R K Ashram in the capital.

The boy was immediately taken to the nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead.

The incident took place on a government-run cluster bus on the Punjabi Bagh-Badarpur route at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday.

The accused will be presented before the Juvenile Justice Board for further custody.

The argument turned into a scuffle, and some of the boys allegedly restrained Mohammad Anas while one of them stabbed him in the neck.

Government figures show 56 juveniles in Delhi were involved in murder cases in the previous two years.

Overall, 2,499 crimes in the city were committed by juveniles in 2016, according to police data.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
England bowlers presented a formidable show as Australia came to bat in the first innings of the first Test of the Ashes Series, to overcome the shortcomings of their batsman on Friday morning here at the Gabba.

On the opening day of the first Ashes Test, England met Australian fighting talk with quiet defiance and scored 196-4 with the help of a spectacular show put up by under-rated James Vince.

On the first morning of the Ashes, Vince proved himself as the "in-vince-able" by scoring 83 and showed that his selection was worth a risk.

Vince produced a spectacular partnership of 125 runs with Mark Stoneman 83 for on Day 1 to give England a strong start.

However, the momentum swung to the Australian side on Day 2 as England tumbled from 246 for 4 to 302 all out in a harum-scarum display.

Dawid Malan, who resumed the day on 28, was dismissed for 56, whereas Moeen Ali succumbed to Nathon Lyon at 38.

Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins took three wickets each for the team in first innings, whereas Lyon settled for two.

From the Australian side, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner came as openers.

England got its first breakthrough very soon with Bancroft, who was dismissed for a cheap five.

At tea, Australia were batting at 76-3 and trailing England by 226 runs with 7 wickets remaining and Smith (19), Peter Handscomb (14) on crease.

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In a bid to resolve the vexed issue of 'assured return' on private equity investment, industry body wrote to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, urging a meeting between his officials and the global private equity funds so that investments worth several thousand crores of rupees stuck in litigation can be freed.

"Pre-agreed price rights and fixed ROE (Return on Equity) clauses have become an integral part of most private equity (PE) deals all over the world.Similarly, India witnessed an increasing trend where companies entered into such covenants and committed fixed ROE conversions either directly or indirectly. However these agreements have run into regulatory hurdles," the letter noted.

"This has led to a precarious situation of uncertainty over the exit of the PE investors from the deals and has affected the overall the market sentiments which has directly affected the fund raising ability of the Indian firms," it said in identical letters written to the Finance Minister and Reserve Bank of India Governor Dr Urjit Patel.

It argued that while the government wants to earnestly address the issue of assured return for the PE investors for the future, it is equally important to address this issue with regard to earlier investments struck up at various stages of litigation (like Arbitration, Courts).

In last two years, investments worth more than Rs. 3,200 crore have landed in courts. Therefore, to send right signals to attract the FDI into the country, has suggested that the Ministry of Finance and RBI can invite the affected PE investors and discuss with them about the acceptable assured return as one time solution to resolve the pending issues which will help PE investors besides making India a much more attractive destination for FDI."

While there seems to be a certain degree of choice in pricing for convertible securities, this is still subject to the overarching principle that foreign investor should not be entitled to any "assured exit price".
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has expressed doubts on the Rohingya repatriation pact.

The Bangladesh Foreign Ministry on Friday said that the Rohingya repatriation process will commence within two months'.

Earlier on Thursday, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Rohingya repatriation.

More than 620,000 Rohingya have crossed the border into Bangladesh since August, running from a military crackdown that Washington said this week clearly constituted ethnic cleansing.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday said Rohingyas are still entering Bangladesh every day as Myanmar army did not stop persecution on them.

"We think taking step to repatriate Rohingyas without stopping repression and genocide in their homeland will be tantamount to pushing them to the hell," Dhaka Tribune quoted Alamgir as saying.

He added that his party wants displaced Rohingya people to be sent back to Myanmar with their citizenship through the signed instrument "or else, it'll turn out to be a failed deal".

Myanmar said the deal was based on a 1992/93 repatriation pact between the two countries that followed a previous spasm of violence.

A study prepared by the New York-based Amnesty International charged the Government of Myanmar with promoting and practicing a form of "apartheid" against the Rohingyas in that country's northern Rakhine state.

The study said that this suffocating control of the Rohingya population amounts to "apartheid", even as it continues with its probe into the root causes of a crisis.

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UK-based Baloch nationalist leader Mehran Marri has warned the Pakistan establishment not to trust China, especially when it comes to the latter's ongoing involvement in the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Speaking to the Asia Times, Marri, who was denied political asylum by Switzerland recently, when asked about the possibility of China establishing a hegemony in Balochistan, said, "To be honest, it's much worse than the Punjabi hegemony - I've said that on many occasions. In fact, the Punjabis should start fearing the Chinese as well. These guys will eat your children. Beware of the Chinese."

Marri squarely blamed Pakistan for convincing the Swiss authorities to bar his entry into that country.

Senior Pakistani officials said the ban was requested by Islamabad as follow up to the take down of the 'Free Balochistan' banners that appeared in Geneva.

Similar posters also emerged on London taxi cabs and buses, with Transport for London taking them down following the Pakistani High Commission's request.

He said the Swiss authorities have been harassing him with questions for the past ten years, but this (rejection of political asylum) was the last straw.

Marri said, "I've been going to Switzerland since 2001. Since 2006, they've started interrogating me, whether or not I have another passport, where I was born - blatantly foolish questions the answers to which they can find on my passport. This is because the Pakistani consulate there has provided them details of somebody with my credentials - but no picture - that claim that I'm a Pakistani citizen. I am a British citizen, not born in Pakistan."

Marri described Islamabad as being very desperate since the campaign for freeing Balochistan has picked up in Geneva and elsewhere in Europe over the past year.

"They (Switzerland) deported me and put a 10-year ban on me, but I'm taking them to court," he said.

".I believe I have been accused of supporting terrorism and that I'm involved in militant activities, which is basically the line that the Pakistani establishment toes. Pakistan has always been great at blackmailing the Western countries. But what is shocking is that Switzerland, a neutral country, the home of UN Human Rights Council, is falling into the trap. This is why humanitarian groups are absolutely shocked by the developments," he said.

He said, "My struggle for the past 17 years is evidence that there is actually an increase in awareness of the Baloch cause. If anything, the fact that the Pakistani establishment is acting in desperation shows how big a thorn in the backside we are for them. They're clearly getting paranoid..."

He believed that the Baloch movement for independence is now taking proper shape and moving forward.

".We are demanding the restoration of our sovereignty - separatist makes it look a bit radical and militant. We just want independence, which is a basic human right. Every nation has that right and that is what is mustering worldwide support," he said.

"Pakistan has been framing Baloch nationalists from day one. We have been dubbed Iraqi agents, Israeli agents, Russian agents, Indian agents. Today, they're accusing us of being affiliated with the BLA and the UBA, tomorrow it's going to be ISIS and al-Qaeda," Marri said.

When asked if the final goal is the creation of an independent Balochistan state, Marri said, "Our goal wasn't the creation of an independent Balochistan to begin with. To be honest, my father and all Baloch nationalist leaders all tried to work out a union within Pakistan. But they were all disappointed since Pakistan cannot exist as a union, because of the hegemony of Punjab of every other nation. So now we've reached the conclusion that we need to struggle for our rightful independent state of Balochistan."

Pakistan would eventually self-implode, he added.

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Actor Billy Baldwin has accused US President Donald Trump of hitting on his wife after gate crashing a party two decades ago.

In response to a tweet from Donald Trump Jr. about the latest sexual harassment allegations against Democratic Senator Al Franken, Baldwin said Trump once "hit on my wife" at a Manhattan hotel.

The tweet read: "Your Dad is a 5th degree black belt when it comes to sexual impropriety allegations. In fact. I once had a party at the Plaza Hotel. your father showed up uninvited & hit on my wife. invited her on his helicopter to Atlantic City."

"She showed his fat a-- the door," he added.

Your Dad is a 5th degree black belt when it comes to sexual impropriety allegations.

In fact. I once had a party at the Plaza Hotel. your father showed up uninvited & hit on my wife. invited her on his helicopter to Atlantic City.



She showed his fat ass the door.#TrumpRussiahttps://t.co/A8BInetbbZ  Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) November 23, 2017

The 54-year-old, who has been married to Chynna Phillips since 1995, used to be cordial with Trump but has been a staunch critic since the campaign, regularly lashing out against him over Twitter.

Baldwin's brother and fellow actor, Alec Baldwin has on several occasions drawn ire for his Trump impersonation on 'Saturday Night Live.

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A three-member team of the British High Commission met British nationals Jagtar Singh Johal and Jimmy Singh, arrested in connection with targeted killings in the state on Friday, to ascertain whether they were subjected to any human rights violation.

Both the accused are in police remand till November 28.

Earlier in the month, Punjab Police said that they had sufficient evidence to prove the complicity of Johal and Jimmy in the targeted killings.

They also added that they have found them to be involved in conspiracy, coordination, funding and arranging of weapons for members of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) module busted in connection with the targeted killings.

Five incidents of targeted killings had taken place in the state between April 2016 and February 2017.

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The Canadian film and TV industry is making an effort to introduce a code of conduct to end sexual harassment on movie and TV sets.

Canadian industry representatives said in a statement that they will "collaborate on an industry-wide response to sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying and violence."

The day-long meeting that was held in Toronto on Thursday was attended by industry unions, guilds and associations with an aim to come up with more effective enforcement of existing industry policies

"We agree to zero tolerance for such behavior. We recognise that increasing gender equality and diversity across our industry is an important part of the solution," the statement added.

The proposed code of conduct will also define "expectations of appropriate and inappropriate behavior, enforcement and consequences."

The Canadian industry also proposed "more effective reporting mechanisms and supports" so that actors/actresses can report allegations quickly without fear.

This step was taken following criticism from Canadian actress Mia Kirshner, who accused that Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) did not protect her against an 'ordeal' with Harvey Weinstein, and that actors still fear speaking out against sexual predators to avoid putting their careers in jeopardy.

In a recent interview Kirshner said, "As a proud Canadian, I would like to see my union, ACTRA, create the gold standard for how complaints of sexual harassment and abuse are handled in the workplace," Hollywood Reporter stated.

Representatives of ACTRA, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, the Director's Guild of Canada, the Casting Directors Society of Canada and the Canadian Media Producers Association, representing indie producers, were part of the day-long discussions on addressing sexual harassment in the Canadian industry.

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China's health care sector has turned to Artificial Intelligence to scale up operations in the mainland region with hopes that self learning computer programmes expand customer base by intuitively responding to a rapidly growing market.

In 2015, Ping An Insurance Group launched a health care and mobile application 'Good Doctor' that provides free diagnosis of select health problems and a booking suite that helps users in procuring appointments with doctors. Most of the diagnosis of ailments are conducted through photos, text or video that link the patient to the doctor via the app.

"We will continue to further invest in AI next year because the technology can speed up our health services by eight times," said Wang Tao, group chairman of Good Doctor, in an interview to the South China Morning Post.

Wang Tao went on to add that the 'Good Doctor' app would continue to invest in self-learning technology that can identify patterns in data to assist in medical diagnosis and treatment. According to the 'Good Doctor's' Chairman the app had a registered user base of 180 million and would target smaller cities in China where access to medical facilities is limited.

Ping An Insurance Group saw an exponential surge in it's shares this year making it the World's second largest insurer by market cap. The largest insurance group currently is the Nebraska headquartered Berkshire Hathaway founded by famed American business magnate Warren Buffet. Ping An Insurance Group's valuation stood at $210 Billion according to a recent Bloomberg article and had room to rise further with adoption of internet technology in it's various units.

The use of Artificial Intelligence by Chinese companies comes on the heels of the "Made in China 2025" clarion call issued by China's State Council for industries to upgrade their units using advanced technology and adopt smart manufacturing practices.

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The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the United Kingdom next April will explore the issue of cyber security and work closely to enhance our collective ability to tackle threats through an ambitious capacity building programme, said UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon.

The summit offers Commonwealth members the opportunity to share expertise and work together to enhance our collective capability in cyber security, he said.

Writing for ORF website, www.orfonline.org, Lord Ahmad, who is now in Delhi to participate in the Global Conference on Cyber Space, hosted by the Government of India, said "I know this idea has already been welcomed by many members and by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation."

He said the Internet, and digital technology, make a powerful contribution to the economic, social and political life of the Commonwealth, from mobile payment systems in Kenya to e-government in Australia and the ambitious vision of Digital India.

"All of us in the Commonwealth have a shared interest in the security of the networks that enable this technology, the services that run on them and the people that use them. If our people and businesses cannot trust the online world, they will not fully embrace its potential. The biggest losers would be our growth figures and the livelihoods of our people. That's why the UK is investing nearly 2 billion over the next five years to transform cybersecurity and make the UK the safest place in the world to do business online," he wrote.

The Minister pointed out that our collective security, however, is only as strong as the weakest links in our interconnected systems. "That is why we hope that, at the summit, Commonwealth leaders will agree to work more closely together on the issue and to enhance our collective ability to tackle threats through an ambitious capacity building programme".

He said UK's ambition for the summit is to build a Commonwealth that is fit for the 21st Century, and relevant to the needs of its people, especially the young, who make up two thirds of its citizens. For many of them, the internet unquestionably represents the future.

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The death toll rose to 235 after terrorists stormed a packed mosque in the Bir al-Abd region of north Sinai, said the local media reports on Friday.

At least 130 were wounded, the Gulf News reported.

Al Azhar, Sunni Islam's leading centre of learning, has condemned the attack on the mosque.

"Shedding blood, desecrating houses of God and terrorizing worshippers are corrupt deeds, which must be struck hard and firmly. After targeting churches [by militants], the turn has come for mosques as though terrorism wants to unify Egyptians in death and devastation. But terrorism will be routed," head of Al Azhar Shaikh Ahmad Al Tayyeb said in a statement.

President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi has called for an emergency security meeting soon after the attack, the state television reported.

An explosion reportedly took place inside the mosque when worshippers were carrying out their afternoon prayers.

Following the explosion, gunmen arrived in cars and opened fire at the fleeing crowd.

According to sources, most of the people who came for prayers were friends and family of the security forces.

The injured have been rushed to hospital.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

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The Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has proposed to move towards the centralised payment system using National Payments Corporation of India platform for payment to the beneficiaries.

"Present decentralised system of for making payment to its beneficiaries involves higher cost of transactions, delays in recredits in case of failed transaction and does not provide for Aadhaar enabled payments," Ministry of Labour and Employment said in a statement.

ALSO READ: EPFO subscribers will get benefit of equity investments from FY19



The benefit of the proposed system is that the funds will be transferred on the same day to the beneficiaries through NPCI platform.

The office may reconcile the transaction status on T+0 basis and thus help in early recredit in the accounts of beneficiaries in the case of failed transactions, the official statement said.

"The availability of the facility of Aadhaar enabled transfer of funds and the transaction cost by way of bank charges will also come down," it added.

The meeting of the Central Board of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) was held in New Delhi on Thursday under the chairmanship of Union Minister of Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar approved the proposal.
United States President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn's lawyers have told the President's legal team that they can no longer discuss the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The move could be an indication of Flynn's cooperation with the investigation into whether Trump aides colluded with Russia in the U.S. election last year, reported the New York Times.

Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election and Trump has said there was no collusion.

Citing four people involved in the case, the newspaper reported the cooperation agreement had ended

However, this does not necessarily mean that Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors.

"Some lawyers withdraw from information-sharing arrangements as soon as they begin negotiating with prosecutors. And such negotiations sometimes fall apart," the report said.

Lawyers for Mr. Flynn and Mr. Trump declined to comment.

Flynn served briefly as national security adviser to Trump.

He resigned after only 24 days in the administration after reports surfaced that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence regarding conversations he had had with top Russian officials.

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Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said Pune will soon experience a new lifestyle with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) being made available to two-wheelers.

Speaking to media, the Union Minister said, "I congratulate people of Pune that a new chapter has been added to their lifestyle where CNG will be provided to two wheelers also. The pre-loan will be provided with alliance to Maharashtra bank".

He added that the target in Pune is to convert 23 lakhs two-wheelers into CNG.

"It is cheap and will bring change in the environment also, giving more mileage and only 70 paise will be spent in 1 liter. In Pune there are 90 petrol pumps, which were made in 60 years. If you want cheap then you will have to stand into lines but to lessen this trouble many initiatives are being taken," Pradhan said.

He added that the Centre will soon roll out the new policy on bio-fuels as well.

The Union Minister was attending the inaugural session of conference on "Ethanol as Transport Fuel" organised by CIRT jointly with Indian Federation of Green Energy here today.

Pradhan also informed that the government has agreed to the demand of enhancing research collaboration with IIT Bombay in the area of alternative green fuel.

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The United States on Friday called on Pakistan to ensure Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed was arrested and charged for his crimes.

Saeed, accused of masterminding the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people, was released today after a Pakistan judicial body on Wednesday ordered his release from house arrest, rejecting a request from the government of Punjab to extend his detention by three months.

"The US is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. The LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens. The Pakistani Government should make sure he is arrested and charged for his crimes," US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said, in a press statement.

The US State Department spokesperson said Saeed was a United Nations designated terrorist and had a USD 10 million bounty on his head.

"Saeed was also individually designated by the United Nations under UNSCR 1267 in December 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which six American citizens were killed. In May 2008, the United States Department of the Treasury designated Saeed as a Specially-Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224," the statement added.

"LeT and several of its front organisations, leaders, and operatives remain under both State Department and Treasury Department sanctions. Since 2012, the United States has offered a USD 10 million? reward for information that brings Saeed to justice."

In his first address after being released, Saeed had blamed India and the US for detention and raked up the Kashmir issue.

The decision to put Saeed under house arrest in January was seen as a response to actions by US President Donald Trump's White House against nations deemed linked to terrorism.

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Mumbai mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Lahore.

Police guards have been removed from his residence where a large number of supporters gathered to celebrate the end of his house arrest.

His social media spokesman announced in a tweet that Hafiz Saeed is a free man.

In his first address after being released, Saeed blames India and the U.S. for detention and raked up Kashmir.

Saeed is said to be the head of the U.S.-designated terror outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba and had been under house arrest since January 31 this year.

The decision to put Saeed under house arrest in January was seen as a response to actions by US President Donald Trump's White House against nations deemed linked to terrorism.

Saeed has been declared a global terrorist by the United Nations and the US for his role in the Mumbai attack which claimed the lives of 166 people and maimed over 300 others.

He has a USD 10 million bounty on his head.

A judicial body of Pakistan had rejected a request from the government of Punjab to extend his detention by three months.

The LeT chief had been produced before the review board by Pakistan's Punjab government on Tuesday.

According to reports, a government official told the board there were enough evidences against Saeed to justify his detention.

The review board had earlier allowed a 30-day extension to Saeed's detention, which is set to expire in the last week of this month.

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The Islamic State (IS) terror group has beheaded 15 of its own fighters in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar because of infighting.

The incident took place in Surkhab Bazar area of Mamand Dara in Achin, reported Khaama Press, citing provincial government's statement.

The reasons for the eruption of infighting are unknown yet.

According to the provincial government, the beheading of the fifteen men has resulted into a major crack among the ISIS ranks in this province.

Nangarhar is among the relatively calm provinces, however, the Taliban and ISIS militants have increased their insurgency activities in some its remote parts during the recent years.

Both the Taliban and Islamic State have been targeted by sustained U.S. air strikes.

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Actor-comedian Jim Carrey recently revealed that he was struggling with mental illness and depression back in the nineties when he was at the height of his fame and it took him a long time to conquer it.

Opening up about his battle with depression, Carrey said that he is now 'sometimes happy'.

He also revealed that his depression does not 'immerse and drown' him anymore.

The 'Dumb and Dumber' actor said, "At this point, I don't have depression. There is not an experience of depression. I had that for years, but now, when the rain comes, it rains, but it doesn't stay. It doesn't stay long enough to immerse me and drown me anymore", Contactmusic reported.

The 55 year old actor, who is best known for his comic roles in 'The Mask', 'Liar Liar' and 'Ace Ventura', disclosed that he ironically actually found humour and inspiration from his depression.

"Some people have come at me in the last couple of years with the intent of breaking off a piece of the Holy Grail for themselves, but the Grail isn't a thing that you can break off. So they're going to learn that the hard way. It's not pleasant", he added.

Over the last few years, Carrey has constantly been in the news for he was sued by the mother and the estranged husband of his ex-girlfriend Cathriona White, who committed suicide in 2015.

Carrey has been alleged of giving Cathriona White STDs and supplying her with pills that she overdosed on.

He will be standing trial in the lawsuit in April 2018.

On the professional front, Carrey has returned to the small screen with Netflix's 'Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond' and he is also preparing for the 2018 comedy series 'Kidding'.

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A key leader of the Haqqani terrorist network was killed, along with dozens of other terrorists, by Afghan special forces in central Maidan Wardak province of Afghanistan.

The operation was carried out in the Nerkh district, the Khaama Press reported.

More than 20 insurgents were killed in the operation, provincial governor's spokesperson Abdul Rahman Mangsal said.

However, another official said more than 30 insurgents, including a top leader of the Haqqani terrorist network, Qari Qudrullah, were killed.

No terrorist group has commented on the incident so far.

Earlier this week, at least 16 terrorists belonging to the Taliban group, including three key commanders, were killed in an operation by security forces in the province.

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There is neither a legal or a technical issue with the name Vandemataram Mahavidyalaya, the chairman of Dyal Singh College said at a press conference on Friday

Chairman of the governing body of Dyal Singh College and Supreme Court lawyer Amitabh Sinha said some opposition parties are misleading the people in general and the fraternity of teachers and students in particular by propping up the Shiromani Akali Dal in order to make it appear like an issue concerning the Sikh community.

Sinha cited rules, precedents and orders of the University of Delhi to establish how this was not the first occasion when an evening college was given the morning slot and renamed.

Sukhbir Badal has been misled, Sinha said and invited the former deputy chief minister of Punjab for a discussion or debate to clear the air over the renaming exercise.

"Either he convinces me and I reverse the decision to rename the new college, or I convince him and he issues a statement clarifying that he was misled," Sinha said.

Giving the examples of Deshbandhu College and Ram Lal Anand College, which were renamed as Ramanujan College and Aryabhatta College respectively, Sinha asked why there was no controversy over those exercises. "Are Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das and Ram Lal Anand not respectable figures?" Sinha asked, adding, "When those colleges were renamed, were the legacies of C R Das and R L Anand insulted?"

The governing body chairman related the history of Dyal Singh College, wherein the Trust that ran it failed to pay its measly dues, following which the control of the college was transferred wholly to the University of Delhi. Thereafter, he said, the university was free to take all decisions for the said college.

Dyal Singh Majithia, who was born in a Sikh family, who also managed the affairs of Harmandir Sahib also known as the Golden Temple, later embraced the Brahmo Samaj.

While the college in question is named after him, it was established by a trust as mentioned above.

Technically, Sinha explained, the morning and evening colleges are separate institutions. "What is more important," he said, "students of an evening college are unfortunately looked down upon in society and unduly stigmatised."

"We wanted to remove that undue stigma from the careers of these future citizens of the country," Sinha said.

"When it came to giving the new morning college a new name, we thought nothing could be better and superior than an invocation of the motherland. Hence Vandemataram!" Sinha asserted.

The Supreme Court lawyer wondered why a hymn dedicated to the country should disturb anybody if not the detractors have an anti- agenda. He said that the Akalis have been hoodwinked by a lobby in the college to make them believe it was a Sikh issue.

"I have immense respect for Guru Nanak Dev ji, Guru Teg Bahadur ji, Guru Gobind Singh ji and I believe the nation shall forever remain indebted to all the Sikh gurus for their teachings, sacrifice as well as fight to preserve the culture and civilisation of our beloved nation," Sinha said.

Sinha explained that separate and sufficient resources have been allocated to both Dyal Singh College and Vandemataram College. He said it was a mischievous campaign to incite our dear Sikh brethren that a college named after a Sikh social reformer was being renamed. "The Dyal Singh College remains Dyal Singh College," he said, adding, "What has been named Vandemataram Mahavidyalaya is a separate college."

Sinha said it shocked him that, while the members of the governing body had adopted the resolution of naming the morning-turned- evening unanimously, a few of them reached out to some politicians and provoked them to stall the process.

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shatrughan Sinha on Friday said filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali must show his magnum opus 'Padmavati' to the Rajput community before the release.

Sinha's comment has come in the backdrop of the protests the movie has been facing for alleged tampering of historical facts.

"If Bhansali has committed the Rajput or any other community for showing them the movie before the release, then he must do that. The warrior or the Rajput communities are good people and are the witnesses of history. If there is nothing in the movie which hurts the sentiments, valour, loyalty of the great Rajputs, then Bhansali must show them the movie. If the distortion of facts is done, then its not good," Sinha told the media.

He also called out Bhansali, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Minister of Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani for keeping mum on the whole issue.

"The situation has become very livid. The situation is getting worse day by day. I appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali to intervene in this matter. Bhansali must come forward and must clarify the whole issue," he added.

Earlier in the day, a body was found hanging on the ramparts of Jaipur's Nahargarh Fort, with a threat note engraved on the a rock in protest of the movie 'Padmavati'.

Bhansali has denied the alleged tampering with historical facts in the movie repeatedly. The film features Deepika Padukone in the title role as Rani Padmavati, alongside Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Sultan Alauddin Khilji.

Meanwhile, the release of the film, which was earlier slated for December 1, was deferred as the filmmakers were yet to procure a censor certificate.

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The brother of the victim, who was found dead at Nahargarh Fort in Jaipur, on Friday demanded an investigation into his death and alleged it to be a case of murder.

Earlier in the day, Saini's brother's body was found hanging on the ramparts of Jaipur's Nahargarh Fort with a threat note engraved on the rocks in protest of the movie 'Padmavati'.

"My brother cannot commit suicide. It appears to be a murder. We will demand an investigation into the death. He has nothing to do with it (threat note written on rocks," Ram Ratan Saini said.

It was initially speculated to be a suicide case, but when the police reached the spot they found a message written on the rocks stating - "We not burn effigies only, in protest of Padmavati".

The Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed epic drama has been in the eye of the storm following protests from conservative groups over alleged tampering with historical facts.

The film features Deepika Padukone in the title role as Rani Padmavati, alongside Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Sultan Alauddin Khilji.

The release of the film, which was earlier slated on December 1, was deferred as the filmmakers were yet to procure a censor certificate.

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The Music and the Muse

PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Former High Commissioner of Pakistan to India Abdul Basit on Friday said Islamabad could not be blamed for the release of Hafiz Saeed from house arrest, and that New Delhi failed to share hard evidence against him.

Basit's statement has come in the wake of the United States calling on Pakistan to ensure the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief was arrested and charged for his crimes.

Saeed, accused of masterminding the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people, was released today after a Pakistan judicial body on Wednesday ordered his release from house arrest, rejecting a request from the government of Punjab to extend his detention by three months.

"Pakistan cannot be blamed for this. It is India that has failed to share hard evidence. People cannot be tried and sentenced on the basis of literature and self-serving accusations," Basit told ANI.

"The US is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. The LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens. The Pakistani Government should make sure he is arrested and charged for his crimes," US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert had said, in a press statement.

The US State Department spokesperson added Saeed was a United Nations designated terrorist and had a USD 10 million bounty on his head.

"Saeed was also individually designated by the United Nations under UNSCR 1267 in December 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which six American citizens were killed. In May 2008, the United States Department of the Treasury designated Saeed as a Specially-Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224," the statement added.

In his first address after being released, Saeed had blamed India and the US for detention and raked up the Kashmir issue.

The decision to put Saeed under house arrest in January was seen as a response to actions by US President Donald Trump's White House against nations deemed linked to terrorism.

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A top Pakistan police official was killed in a suspected suicide blast in Peshawar's Hayatabad area on Friday.

According to Dawn, the attacker, who was on a motorbike, rammed into the police vehicle carrying the Additional Inspector General (AIG) Headquarters, Ashraf Noor, and other officials.

The blast, which left the police vehicle in flames appeared to be a suicide attack, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Tahir Khan said.

The blast occurred near the Zarghooni Mosque, when the police officials were on their way to work this morning, the CCPO added.

Khan, confirming the death of the AIG, said at least six policemen were injured and shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex.

The police has cordoned off the blast site and further investigation is underway.

Earlier in October, the deputy governor of Afghanistan's Kunar province, Muhammad Nabi Ahmadi, was abducted by unidentified gunmen in the Dabgari area of Peshawar.

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Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said Hyderabad University scholar Rohith Vemula's death was not a suicide, and that the Indian Government was responsible for his 'murder'.

While addressing the Dalit Swabhiman Sabha here, the Congress leader said, "Rohith Vemula did not commit suicide, rather he was murdered by the Government of India".

He added, "A letter came from a minister and he was crushed to the ground."

Vemula, a research scholar at the Hyderabad Central University, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in a hostel room on January 17, 2016.

He was allegedly upset over disciplinary action taken against him by the university.

His suicide had triggered a huge political furore with the then HRD Minister, Smriti Irani, coming under attack along with Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya for having written a letter related to the matter.

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Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will embark on a four-day visit to Russia from November 26.

This will be Rajnath's first visit to Russia as the home minister, where he will hold discussions with Russian Minister of Interior Vladimir Kolokoltsev and Minister of Civil Defence, Emergency Situations and Disaster Relief Vladimir Puchkov, besides other meetings.

The visit is part of the traditional high-level exchanges between India and Russia and will further strengthen cooperation in key areas of security, fight against terrorism, narcotics and disaster management.

During his visit, the home minister will also meet representatives of the Indian community in Moscow.

The visit takes place during the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Russia.

India and Russia enjoy a special and privileged strategic partnership.

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The Bhubaneswar Road to Entrepreneurship Summit was inaugurated by Prafulla Samal, Minister, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Women and Child Development, Government of Odisha.

Making his inaugural address he stated, "The Government of Odisha is ready to provide proactive support to startups in the state. We are keen to support the women entrepreneurs in the state in every possible way. The state government is trying to bring all women, irrespective of their socio-economic class, caste, creed and religion, in Odisha, into the fold of Self Help Group (SHG) mechanism by 2018. We have even signed an MoU with Facebook to assist our women in digital marketing of their quality products not only in state but also worldwide."

Badri Narayan Patra, Minister, School and Mass Education, Science and Technology delivered his Special Address - "S&T ministry is committed to creating a conducive environment for startups with the creation of workshops, seminars and incubation cells."

Giving a welcome address at the inaugural session, Nirankar Saxena, Assistant Secretary General and Head Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation - FICCI said, "FICCI has been working with the governments, developmental agencies and academia to provide incubation, acceleration, scale up, mentoring and networking support for more than a decade. We strongly feel the need to replicate these successful programs in the state of Odisha to nurture and create unicorns of Odisha."

"The initiatives of the Government to support startups are yielding encouraging results. For instance, more than 2 dozen startups from Odisha will be joining the main GES Summit at Hyderabad. MSME department has 24 incubation centres out of which 5 are being supported by MSME Department," added L. N. Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, MSME Department, Government of Odisha.

Odisha Television Network Director Jagi Mangat Panda, the leading woman entrepreneur of the state, said, "The most important part of women empowerment is to create an entrepreneurial culture which can only happen if issues concerning women are addressed at the grassroots level. There are gender biases and stereotypes that are so deeply entrenched in our society that a simple passage of a law will not be able to take care of it, rather some extraordinary efforts have to be taken."

With the focus on women entrepreneurship and gender equality, FICCI partnered with NITI Aayog to organise five interactive entrepreneurial events as a part of "Road to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) Series". These events brought together industry leaders, start-ups, serial entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors as well as enablers of the innovation ecosystem such as government, international agencies and industry associations not only from India but across the globe.

The stakeholders deliberated on several aspects related to start-ups such as finance, investment, mentoring and human capital. These events showcased success stories, social impact and also the gaps to be filled to ensure that women entrepreneurs are successful in fulfilling their dreams and ambitions.

Touching on various important subjects, the summit sessions included topics like "empowering women entrepreneurs-empower, engage and elevate" and "challenges, success and opportunities for women entrepreneurs in Tier II cities".

A special session was focused on pitches from start-ups to give impetus to women entrepreneurs. The winner received two gold tickets and one silver ticket to the main GES event in Hyderabad between November 28 and 30. During the pitching, two startups from Odisha got a commitment of investment from the investors.

In partnership with the Government of the United States of America, NITI Aayog is hosting the eighth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in India from November 28-30, 2017. The Summit will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The US delegation will be led by Ivanka Trump, Advisor to President Donald Trump.

Since the inception of GES in 2010, it has travelled across the world from Washington D.C. to Istanbul, Dubai, Marrakech, Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur, Silicon Valley, and now finally Hyderabad.

This year is the first time GES will be hosted in South Asia, and the event will highlight India's enabling environment for innovation and entrepreneurship - including actions by the government to increase the ease of doing business, eliminating unnecessary regulations and supporting start-ups.

At GES 2017, over 1500 attendees, including entrepreneurs, investors, educators, government officials, and representatives will represent the full measure of entrepreneurial talent from diverse backgrounds across our nation and the world. Through networking, mentoring and workshops, the GES seeks to empower entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas, build partnerships, secure funding, and create innovative products and services that will transform societies for better tomorrow.

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Former Real Madrid striker Robinho on Friday was sentenced to nine years of jail after he was convicted in a gangrape case in Milan in 2013.

An Italian court ruled that the former AC Milan striker and five other Brazilians assaulted a 22-year-old Albanian woman after plying her with alcohol in a discotheque in January 2013.

While one of the accused has also been handed nine years of imprisonment, the trial of the four others has been put on hold as their whereabouts is not known.

Besides imprisonment, the court has also handed a fine of 60 000 to those found guilty in the incident.

According to the Sport24, Robinho and his acquaintances made the young woman drink to the point of making her unconscious before they engaged in "sexual intercourse multiple times in a row" with her.

The 33-year-old, who was not in court when the verdict was declared, pleaded not guilty via his lawyer and has also launched an appeal against the verdict.

Robinho, who left AC Milan in 2015 after five years, took to his Instagram and Facebook account protesting his innocence.

"We have already said that he has defended himself against these accusations and stated that he played no role in this incident.All legal measures have already been taken," he wrote.

This is not for the first time that Robinho has faced allegations of sexually assault.

In 2009, the striker was questioned by British police after a woman accused him of assault at a nightclub in Leeds when he used to play for Manchester City. However, he was eventually released without any charge.

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The Bangladesh Foreign Ministry has said that the Rohingya repatriation process will "commence within two months".

"The return shall commence within two months," Bangladesh foreign ministry said in a statement, adding, "A Joint Working Group will be established within three weeks of signing the 'arrangement'."

The statement came after Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a deal on Rohingya repatriation after both the countries came to a consensus following a meeting between Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali and Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday morning.

"A specific bilateral instrument (physical arrangement) for repatriation will be concluded in a speedy manner," reads the foreign ministry statement.

The long pending talks started on Wednesday with the aim of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enable both the countries to start the repatriation process of Rohingyas from Bangladesh to their homeland Myanmar.

"If things go well at the meeting, both sides will sign the MoU on Thursday," a Bangladesh official said yesterday.

A study prepared by the New York-based Amnesty International charged the Government of Myanmar with promoting and practicing a form of "apartheid" against the Rohingyas in that country's northern Rakhine state.

The study said that this suffocating control of the Rohingya population amounts to "apartheid", even as it continues with its probe into the root causes of a crisis that has sent 620,000 refugees fleeing to Bangladesh and other countries in the South Asian region.

There is global outrage over the distressing plight of dispossessed Rohingya in Bangladeshi camps currently.

A majority of them left the Rakhine state at the end of August this year, recounting incidents of murder, rape and arson at the hands of the Myanmar Army.

Till now, Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed in principle to repatriate some Rohingyas, but are in disagreement over the details.

More than 5,00,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since the Myanmar security forces launched an operation in response to the alleged attacks by militants on August 25 against 30 police posts and a regimental headquarters.

In October, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali had said that a total of 3,000 Rohingya refugees were killed since the army crackdown.

On October 12, a United Nations' report based on interviews conducted in Bangladesh found that brutal attacks against Rohingyas in the northern Rakhine state have been well-organised, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar, but preventing them from returning to their homes.

The Rakhine state is home to the Rohingya community of Myanmar, ethnic Muslims, who have long faced persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, especially from the extremists.

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Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan inaugurated the centenary celebrations of the 19th Kushok Bakula, Lobzang Thupten Chognor at Mavlankar Hall, Constitution Club in New Delhi on November 23.

Suresh Soni, General Secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), was the chief guest at the function.

Acclaimed as a statesman and diplomat, and popularly known as the architect of modern Ladakh, Kushok Bakula was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1988.

He has been recognised by the 13th Dalai Lama as a direct disciple of Gautam Buddha.

While paying tributes to Kushok Bakula as a great parliamentarian and for his contributions in all fields of life, Sumitra Mahajan reflected that good persons need to be introduced to the people.

Elaborating on the commitment of Kushok Bakula towards the nation, she remembered that when he visited Lhasa (Tibet) as representative of the Government of India, he reported back to then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru about the dangerous situation emerging vis-a-vis Chinese activities. His observations later turned out to be true. The Lok Sabha Speaker congratulated the organisers of the centenary celebrations for embarking on such a mission.

Speaking on the occasion, Suresh Soni said Kushok Bakula was a great personality, but few people know about him. "Great personalities should not be seen in the context of their place of birth. They belong to the entire nation and should be recognised as such. He was a Buddhist monk. Monks are peace-loving ascetics. But when Pakistan tried to invade the territory of Ladakh, he took it upon himself to motivate the youth to repulse the invasion."

Kushok Bakula was a member of the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, which also functioned as the first State Assembly under the leadership of Sheikh Abdullah. However, he never shied away from raising his voice for the rights of the people of Ladakh, even at the cost of angering Sheikh Abdullah. Later, he went to become Member Parliament (MP) and retained his seat for 10 years.

Kushok Bakula was later appointed as Ambassador to Mongolia. His stayed in Mongolia for almost a decade. He became so involved with the people there that even today the people of Mongolia remember him for his immense contributions.

Dr. Manmohan Singh called him the "Architect of modern Ladakh" when he named Leh airport as the Kushok Bakula Airport

The Kushok Bakula centenary celebrations are proposed to be organised across India for a year jointly by Jammu Kashmir Study Centre (JKSC) and Himalayan Sanskriti Sanrakshan Sabha. Shashank, a career diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service who retired as Foreign Secretary will preside over the organising committee of the centenary celebrations. JKSC is an independent think-tank dedicated to research and policy relevant studies on all aspects relating to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

It has been the endeavor of JKSC to bring to the fore the rich cultural diversity of all regions of Jammu and Kashmir state. JKSC director Ashutosh Bhatnagar said Kushok Bakula's contributions to the nation were so great that the people deserve to know about him.

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Three men were arrested on Friday for allegedly attacking a public health nurse in Kerala's Malappuram.

The nurse, Shyamala B, was roughed up and her arm was twisted by the accused during a vaccination drive at the GLP school in Edavoor.

The police said the attackers were local residents of rural Malappuram.

The vaccination drive is being held across Kerala to vaccinate children upto the age of 15 years against Measles and Rubella.

Some groups in Malappuram, traditionally, have been resistant to vaccinations.

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Tibet is not seeking independence from China, but only asking that country to ensure that it also benefits from development-related initiatives, said Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, here on Thursday.

Speaking at an event organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here, the Dalai Lama said, "We are not seeking independence... We want to stay with China. We want more development. Tibet has a different culture and a different script... The Chinese people love their own country. We love our own country."

"From Yangtze to Sindhu rivers, major rivers ... come from Tibet. Billions of lives are involved. Taking care of the Tibetan Plateau is not only good for Tibet, but (also) for billions of people," the Dalai Lama said.

India also came in for praise from the Tibetan spiritual leader.

India he said is a country where the spirit of religious tolerance is alive and respected. But he also admitted that the country also has its share of problems because of political manipulation.

He also said that the average Indian is more lazy than th average Chinese.

"I think Indian people are lazy but that may be due to the climate. But India is more stable and can play a role in the world stage," he added. "India has a tradition of living together. (It is) a living example of different traditions being carried together," he said, adding, "I can proudly state the same about Tibetan culture."

"India is rich in traditional teachings. These, rather than just religion, can help bring people together. If modern India can combine newage education with lessons on inner values in a secular way, then the country can head in the right direction. Modern education is a bit too materialistic," he said.

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The sidelined All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader TTV Dhinakaran has objected to the decision of the Election Commission (EC) of allotting the "two leaves" party symbol to EPS-OPS faction, and accused it of conducting inquiry in an unfair manner.

Dhinakaran also alleged that the Centre influenced the poll watchdog's decision in the case.

"Election Commission did not conduct inquiry in a fair manner. I believe there is Centre's hand in today's EC order," Dhinakaran told media here, on Thursday.

Refusing to accept the EC's decision as final, Dhinakaran said that his faction will move the Supreme Court challenging the order.

"We'll go to Supreme Court and retrieve the symbol," he said.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister E Palaniswamy told that the EC had allotted the two leaves party symbol of AIADMK to the party faction led by him and his deputy O Panneerselvam (EPS-OPS faction).

Palaniswamy also said, "We had facts on our side and majority of MLAs, MPs and party workers were with us. All this was taken into consideration."

Dhinakaran on the other hand claimed that "90 percent of the cadres were with [him]."

Both the merged EPS-OPS faction and the Dhinakaran-led faction had laid claim over the party symbol, which led the EC to freeze the "two leaves" symbol.

Following the demise of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa in December last year, a tug of war had broken out between the warring faction to retrieve the official party symbol.

Both claimants to the symbol had filed a written submission in the Election Commission on November 13.

In a general council meeting on September 12, the merged factions of EPS and OPS had passed a resolution stating that the AIADMK would be a unified faction and shall retrieve the two leaves symbol and the AIADMK name.

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A school in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki has barred Muslim students from wearing headscarves to class, citing that they don't go with the dress code of the school.

Anand Vihar School is a missionary school that objected to one of its Muslim students wearing a headscarf to school. When the student's father asked permission for the same in a written application to the principal, he received back the following reply.

"It is to clarify you that this is a minority school, but there are many communities in minority category, and one community cannot impose its rules on other communities," the letter read, and further said, "The school will not be able to provide any exemption to its rules."

Principal Archana Thomas also asked him to not "disrupt the school's functioning by asking unnecessary questions."

"If you face any inconvenience, you can admit your ward in an Islamic school," she added.

Speaking to ANI, father of the concerned student, Mohammad R. Rizvi, said that his daughter had been studying in the school since kindergarten, and as per Islam tradition, had to cover her hair after reaching the age of nine.

On being questioned for it, Rizvi wrote to the principal.

"My daughter was asked not to wear headscarf to school, another girl was made to remove it as well. I argued that our Sikh brothers are also allowed even though their turban is not part of the dress code" he said.

Rizmi told that he also met with the District Magistrate regarding the school's order, but to no avail.

"It felt like talking with the principal. He didn't hear anything that I had to say, and made it clear that he will not help me in any way. Generally, people at least give an assurance," Rizvi said.

The school's principal meanwhile said that the letter did not imply that the students were told to leave school.

"It said if they have a problem with the rules, they can admit their child in another school, not necessarily an Islamic school," Thomas said.

On the question of differentiating among communities by allowing Sikhs and barring Muslims from practising their beliefs, Thomas said, "Sikhs don't study here.

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Zimbabwe's former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn-in as the president of the country, on Friday, thus beginning a new era for the long-troubled nation.

Mnangagwa became the country's second leader since Independence from white minority rule in 1980.

According to the The Guardian, Mnangagwa took his oath of office in front of tens of thousands of jubilant Zimbabweans who had gathered at a stadium in Harare.

Mnangagwa had returned from Johannesburg at a military airbase in Harare. He had fled to South Africa two weeks ago following his sacking by Robert Mugabe, citing threats to his life.

Many supporters carried placards thanking Mnangagwa for his "resilience and endurance", reported The Guardian.

Mugabe sacked Mnangagwa as vice-president two weeks ago to smooth a path to the succession for his wife Grace.

75-year-old Mnangagwa's sacking triggered a political crisis that culminated in the resignation of 93-year-old Mugabe on Tuesday.

The news that Mugabe was stepping down sparked wild celebrations across the country late into Tuesday night.

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Of Rs 15 per share

Monsanto India announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 23 November 2017, inter alia, have recommended the interim dividend of Rs 15 per equity Share (i.e. 150%) , subject to the approval of the shareholders.

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Key indices extended initial gains and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade as the Government promulgating the ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 perked up sentiment. At 10:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, advanced 120.50 points or 0.36% at 33,708.58. The Nifty 50 index rose 41.15 points or 0.4% at 10,389.90.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.55%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 0.63%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The broad market depicted strength. There were more than two gainers for every loser on BSE. 1,390 shares rose and 673 shares declined. A total of 104 shares were unchanged.

IT stocks were mixed. Tech Mahindra (up 1.79%), HCL Technologies (up 0.8%), and Infosys (up 1.48%) edged higher. Oracle Financial Services Software (down 0.19%), TCS (down 0.13%) and Wipro (down 0.44%) declined.

Most capital goods stocks gained. Havells India (up 1.54%), BEML (up 0.24%), Bharat Electronics (up 0.48%), L&T (up 0.28%), Thermax (up 1.65%), and Siemens (up 0.74%) gained. Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) (down 0.22%) and ABB India (down 0.23%) declined.

Swaraj Engines jumped 13.49% after the company said that a meeting of its board of directors will be held on 28 November 2017, to consider the proposal of buyback of equity shares of the company. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

Cox & Kings rose 2.67% after the company said MEININGER Hotels and Peter Simmel will open a hotel in Germany. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017. Cox & Kings said that the company-owned MEININGER Hotels and Peter Simmel signed an agreement for opening a hotel in Dresden in Germany. The 165 rooms and 639 beds hotel is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2021.

MEININGER is a subsidiary of Holidaybreak, a travel group specialising in educational and activity holidays. Holidaybreak is a subsidiary of Prometheon Holdings (UK), which is a part of Cox & Kings. MEININGER currently operates 17 hybrid hotels in Europe, with a total of 8,409 beds in 11 European cities.

On the macro front, the Government of India promulgated yesterday, 23 November 2017, the ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Earlier, the President of India had given his assent to the ordinance to amend the code.

The ordinance aims at putting in place safeguards to prevent unscrupulous, undesirable persons from misusing or vitiating the provisions of the code. The amendments aim to keep-out such persons who have wilfully defaulted, are associated with non-performing assets, or are habitually non-compliant and, therefore, are likely to be a risk to successful resolution of insolvency of a company.

In addition to putting in place restrictions for such persons to participate in the resolution or liquidation process, the amendment also provides such check by specifying that the committee of creditors ensure the viability and feasibility of the resolution plan before approving it. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has also been given additional powers.

Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed while investors viewed Chinese shares with caution after their big fall the previous day. Japanese manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than three years in November, a preliminary survey showed. The Markit/Nikkei Japan Manufacturing flash Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 53.8 in November on a seasonally adjusted basis from a final reading of 52.8 in October.

US stock markets remained closed yesterday, 23 November 2017 on account of Thanksgiving holiday.

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Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari has said that the Centre has approved projects of value of more than one Lakh crore rupees for Tamil Nadu.

These projects will cover the Highways, Shipping and Port and for finding a permanent solution to the irrigation and drinking water requirements of the state.

Shri Gadkari, announced 40,000 crore rupees worth of Road and Highway projects approved at the meeting today. He outlined the proposed projects with details of the financial outlay.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Eddapadi K. Palaniswamy said that the meeting was fruitful and thanked the Union Minister for largely accepting projects and programmes put forward by the state government.

Focussing on the decongestion of Chennai Traffic, Shri Gadkari said Three New Elevated Corridors have been approved first being the Tambaram- Chengelpatu at a cost of 2250 crores, Poonamalee- Maduravoyal Corridor with an outlay of 1500 crores and the Tiruvallur Corridor budgeted at 1000 crore. He also said that Tambaram- Vandalur ,Vandalur -Guduvanchery section of the Highway will be upgraded to 8 lane Highway with a budget of 72 crores which will also solve the traffic congestion at the Tambaram -Perungalathur bridge.

The Chennai- Bengaluru Expressway is being taken at a projected cost of 20,000 crore rupees and will boost industrialisation and development activities along the Express way. The Minister requested the state Government to earnestly take up land acquisition, shifting of utilities to help timely starting of the project.

The Minister said to ease the congestion in the extended suburban areas of Chennai, approval has been given for six laning of the Koyambedu- Poonamalee -Wallajahpet road at a cost of 1500 crores.

Listing the new projects to be awarded this year, Mr Gadkari said Tiruchi-Chidambaram Highway project is being taken up with a budgeted outlay of 4000 crore, while the Villupuram- Nagapattinam section is being upgraded at a cost of 6000 crore rupees. Other projects to be approved include Chennai- TADA (500 crore).

Elaborating on the Bhartmala project that links port terminals to the hinterland, he said six projects are being taken up the major one being Nagapattinam to Tuticorin (355 kms ), Madurai- Kollam (62kms) Vellakoil-Erode (71kms), Madurai-Natham (38kms), Madurai -Theni(44kms) and Musiri -Namakkal (44kms). Along with these, the ring road development will be taken up in Madurai, Tiruchi and Salem.

Rs. 2000 crore has also been sanctioned to the State PWD to develop the Dindigul-Kottampati road into a National Highway. 1300 kms of State Highways are being upgraded to National Highways in the state. The state highways being upgraded include Perambalur- Attur (55kms), Salem-Vanniyampadi (141kms), Thoppur- Mettur-Erode (85kms),Tirupur-Ottanchatiram (91kms).

In a bid to, reduce traffic accidents, the Centre is funding 2300 crore rupees to take preventive measures in 61 identified black spots where there are frequent accidents take place.

The Minister said the DPR for Madurai, Coimbatore and Salem bus ports - terminals with the latest facilities like an airport will be prepared and the report will be submitted soon.

On the Shipping front, the Minister said Tamil Nadu is only state with three major ports and said these would be enhanced to facilitate exports and industrialisation, and value addition under the Sagarmala programme.

Coal movement from Orissa through Paradip to Ennore and Tuticorin will significantly reduce the logistics cost of coal.

He hoped to improve the coal handling productivity in all three ports. Coastal movement of petroleum products, LPG and automobiles is the lifeline of the industry of Tamil Nadu. Referring to Tuticorin port, shri Gadkari said the depth is to be increased from the present 14m to 16.5 meters at a cost of Rs.3000 crore rupees and this would help the port to handle 1,30,000 tonnage vessels from the present capacity of 60,000 tonnage ships. This would reduce the logistic cost by 30 percent.

He said coastal movement of containers from Chennai to Puducherry will commence soon and this would reduce the congestion on this road sector.

The Minister said a Passenger ferry services between Kanyakumari and Rameshwaram and between Kanyakumari and Thiruvananthapuram are being planned and urged private operators to come forward and participate in the project, stating that the centre would provide full support.

Coastal berths are being built at Cuddalore at a cost of Rs 115 crore and similar facilities are coming at Chennai and Tuticorin ports.

The Minister said that as the Prime Minister has assured a doubling of income of farmers by 2022, the present NDA government has taken up the interlinking of river projects and has given priority to the water scare southern states. The Minister said Water resources ministry has therefore decided on transfer of surplus Godavari river waters to the Cauvery via the Krishna and Pennar Rivers. He said a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu will be convened soon to discuss the project. Initially about 300tmc of water is proposed to be lifted from Godavari river upstream of Pollavaram project and would be released into the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam on River Krishna. Further the water would be taken from Krishna upto Somasilam project on river Pennar and from there to Grand Annaicut on the Cauvery.

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Benchmark indices provisionally settled with modest gains as Government promulgating the ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 perked up sentiment. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, advanced 91.16 points or 0.27% at 33,679.24, as per the provisional closing data. The Nifty 50 index rose 40.95 points or 0.4% at 10,389.70, as per the provisional closing data. Gains in global stocks also underpinned sentiment. Stocks gained for the seventh straight day.

The market opened higher and held firm in the positive terrain throughout the session.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index provisionally rose 0.58%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index provisionally advanced 0.45%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The breadth indicating the health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1,510 shares rose and 1,225 shares declined. A total of 159 shares were unchanged.

IT stocks gained for the second straight day. Tech Mahindra (up 1.03%), HCL Technologies (up 0.39%), Infosys (up 1.77%), TCS (up 0.53%) and Wipro (up 0.2%) gained.

Reliance Industries gained 0.47% after Reliance Marcellus II, LLC, a subsidiary of Reliance Holding USA, Inc., and Reliance Industries announced the closing of recently announced sale of its interest in certain upstream assets; which were operated by Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc to BKV Chelsea LLC, an affiliate of Kalnin Ventures.

In a transaction announced on 6 October 2017, Reliance agreed to sell its entire working interest in these upstream assets to BKV Chelsea for purchase consideration of $126 million with an effective date of 1 April 2017. Additionally, under the definitive documents, a contingent amount of up to $11.25 million may be paid to Reliance between years 2018 to 2020 based on certain gas price thresholds being achieved.

The transaction closed on 21 November 2017 and Reliance received the purchase consideration subject to usual and customary purchase price adjustments. The announcement was made before market hours today, 24 November 2017.

Mahindra & Mahindra rose 0.93% after the company announced that it will collaborate with Uber, the global transportation technology company, to explore the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) on the Uber platform in several cities across India.

To begin with, the companies will deploy hundreds of electric vehicles in Delhi and Hyderabad. M&M's electric vehicles on the Uber platform will include the e20Plus hatch and the eVerito sedan. As part of this collaboration, both the companies will also explore deployment of M&M electric vehicles to other cities. The announcement was made during market hours today, 24 November 2017.

Indian Hume Pipe Company rose 1.52% after the company said it has secured work order of Rs 119.73 crore from Public Health & Municipal Engineering department, Government of Andhra Pradesh - Ongole Municipal Corporation, for providing water supply improvements scheme under AMRUT project. The project is to be completed within 15 months. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 24 November 2017.

On the macro front, the Government of India promulgated yesterday, 23 November 2017, the ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Earlier, the President of India had given his assent to the ordinance to amend the code.

The ordinance aims at putting in place safeguards to prevent unscrupulous, undesirable persons from misusing or vitiating the provisions of the code. The amendments aim to keep-out such persons who have wilfully defaulted, are associated with non-performing assets, or are habitually non-compliant and, therefore, are likely to be a risk to successful resolution of insolvency of a company.

In addition to putting in place restrictions for such persons to participate in the resolution or liquidation process, the amendment also provides such check by specifying that the committee of creditors ensure the viability and feasibility of the resolution plan before approving it. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has also been given additional powers.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs today, 24 November 2017, recommended that the winter session of Parliament be held from 15 December 2017 to 5 January 2018. The ensuing winter session will have a total of 14 sittings over a duration of 22 days. Three bills are to be taken up in the coming winter session to replace three ordinances namely, the Goods & Services Tax (Compensation to States) Ordinance, 2017 (promulgated on 2 September 17); Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 and Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017.

Overseas, European stocks edged higher in sluggish post-Thanksgiving trading. Asian stocks gained after volatile trade. Japanese manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than three years in November, a preliminary survey showed. The Markit/Nikkei Japan Manufacturing flash Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 53.8 in November on a seasonally adjusted basis from a final reading of 52.8 in October.

US stock markets remained closed yesterday, 23 November 2017 on account of Thanksgiving holiday.

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Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could gain 1.15 points at the opening bell amid mixed Asian stocks.

Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed while investors viewed Chinese shares with caution after their big fall the previous day. Japanese manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than three years in November, a preliminary survey showed. The Markit/Nikkei Japan Manufacturing flash Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 53.8 in November on a seasonally adjusted basis from a final reading of 52.8 in October. US markets remained closed yesterday, 23 November 2017 on account of Thanksgiving holiday.

US crude futures hovered near a two-year high hit in thin trade on the shutdown of a major crude pipeline from Canada and a draw on fuel inventories.

Back home, key benchmark indices settled with tiny gains after range bound trading session yesterday, 23 November 2017, as the Government constituting a task force to review the Income-tax Act, 1961 and to draft a new Direct Tax Law in consonance with economic needs of the country supported gains on the bourses. The Sensex rose 26.53 points or 0.08% to settle at 33,588.08, its highest closing level since 6 November 2017. Indices gained for the sixth straight day.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 73.22 crore yesterday, 23 November 2017, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also bought shares worth a net Rs 222.21 crore yesterday, 23 November 2017, as per provisional data.

Among corporate news, Cox & Kings said that the company owned MEININGER Hotels and Peter Simmel signed an agreement for a hotel in Dresden in Germany. The 165 rooms and 639 beds hotel is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2021. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

Swaraj Engines said that a meeting of its board of directors will be held on 28 November 2017, to consider the proposal of buyback of equity shares of the company. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

Camlin Fine Sciences said that its qualified institutional placement (QIP) committee at its meeting held on 23 November 2017 approved the allotment of 1.72 crore equity shares to eligible qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) at the issue price of Rs 87 per share, aggregating to Rs 149.99 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

Reliance Marcellus II, LLC, a subsidiary of Reliance Holding USA, Inc., and Reliance Industries announced the closing of recently announced sale of its interest in certain upstream assets; which were operated by Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc to BKV Chelsea LLC, an affiliate of Kalnin Ventures.

In a transaction announced on 6 October 2017, Reliance agreed to sell its entire working interest in these upstream assets to BKV Chelsea for purchase consideration of $126 million with an effective date of 1 April 2017. Additionally, under the definitive documents, a contingent amount of up to $11.25 million may be paid to Reliance between years 2018 to 2020 based on certain gas price thresholds being achieved.

The transaction closed on 21 November 2017 and Reliance received the purchase consideration subject to usual and customary purchase price adjustments. The announcement was made before market hours today, 24 November 2017.

On the macro front, the Government of India promulgated yesterday, 23 November 2017, the Ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the Code). Earlier the President of India had given his assent to the Ordinance to amend the Code.

The Ordinance aims at putting in place safeguards to prevent unscrupulous, undesirable persons from misusing or vitiating the provisions of the Code. The amendments aim to keep-out such persons who have wilfully defaulted, are associated with non-performing assets, or are habitually non-compliant and, therefore, are likely to be a risk to successful resolution of insolvency of a company.

In addition to putting in place restrictions for such persons to participate in the resolution or liquidation process, the amendment also provides such check by specifying that the committee of creditors ensure the viability and feasibility of the resolution plan before approving it. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has also been given additional powers.

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Benchmark indices remained firm with modest gains in mid-afternoon trade as Government promulgating the ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 perked up sentiment. At 14:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, advanced 108.07 points or 0.32% at 33,696.15. The Nifty 50 index rose 45.95 points or 0.43% at 10,394.70. Gains in global stocks also underpinned sentiment.

The market opened higher and held firm in the positive terrain so far during the session.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.49%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 0.64%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The breadth indicating the health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1,538 shares rose and 1,085 shares declined. A total of 161 shares were unchanged.

Shares of power generation and power distribution companies were mixed. Torrent Power (up 0.78%), NHPC (up 0.01%), Power Grid Corporation of India (up 1.08%), Reliance Infrastructure (up 0.77%) and Reliance Power (up 0.01%) gained. NTPC (down 0.11%), Tata Power Company (down 0.21%), and Adani Power (down 0.28%) declined.

Shares of psu coal mining major Coal India gained 0.24%.

Metal & mining stocks were also mixed. JSW Steel (down 0.54%), Bhushan Steel (down 1.37%), Vedanta (down 0.5%), Hindalco Industries (down 1.25%), Hindustan Zinc (up down 1.23%), and Tata Steel (down 0.44%) declined. Steel Authority of India (Sail) (up 0.18%), National Aluminum Company (up 0.49%), NMDC (up 0.12%), Hindustan Copper (up 0.05%), and Jindal Steel & Power (up 0.23%) gained.

Kesar Terminals & Infrastructure lost 3.58% after net profit declined 16.73% to Rs 4.13 crore on 7.15% decrease in net sales to Rs 10.52 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

Star Paper Mills dropped 4% after net profit fell 6.68% to Rs 14.68 crore on 3.43% decrease in net sales to Rs 81.30 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

On the macro front, the Government of India promulgated yesterday, 23 November 2017, the ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Earlier, the President of India had given his assent to the ordinance to amend the code.

The ordinance aims at putting in place safeguards to prevent unscrupulous, undesirable persons from misusing or vitiating the provisions of the code. The amendments aim to keep-out such persons who have wilfully defaulted, are associated with non-performing assets, or are habitually non-compliant and, therefore, are likely to be a risk to successful resolution of insolvency of a company.

In addition to putting in place restrictions for such persons to participate in the resolution or liquidation process, the amendment also provides such check by specifying that the committee of creditors ensure the viability and feasibility of the resolution plan before approving it. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has also been given additional powers.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs reportedly today, 24 November 2017, recommended that the winter session of Parliament be held from 15 December 2017 to 5 January 2018.

Overseas, European stocks edged higher. Asian stocks gained after volatile trade. Japanese manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than three years in November, a preliminary survey showed. The Markit/Nikkei Japan Manufacturing flash Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 53.8 in November on a seasonally adjusted basis from a final reading of 52.8 in October.

US stock markets remained closed yesterday, 23 November 2017 on account of Thanksgiving holiday.

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In a section of the media, it has appeared that there is a possibility that the Central Government may withdraw bank cheque book facility in the near future, with an intent to encourage digital transactions.

It is denied that there is any proposal under consideration of the Government to withdraw bank cheque book facility.

In this regard, it is emphasized that while the Government is committed to transform India into a less cash economy and promote digital and electronic transactions through multi-pronged initiatives, cheques are an integral part of the payments landscape, and form the backbone of trade and commerce, by being negotiable instruments, which often serve as the security for underlying trade transactions.

In fact, the Union Finance Minister, in the Budget Speech 2017-18, had announced, As we move faster on the path of digital transactions and cheque payments, we need to ensure that the payees of dishonoured cheques are able to realise the payments. Government is therefore considering the option of amending the Negotiable Instruments Act suitably.

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Key indices continued to trade firm in early afternoon trade as Government promulgating the ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 perked up sentiment. At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, advanced 112.15 points or 0.32% at 33,696.86. The Nifty 50 index rose 44.40 points or 0.43% at 10,393.15.

The market opened higher and held firm in the positive terrain so far during the session.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.6%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 0.65%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The breadth indicating health of the market was strong. On BSE, 1,551 shares rose and 906 shares declined. A total of 147 shares were unchanged.

Pharma stocks gained for the second straight day. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 0.74%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 1.75%), Cipla (up 0.74%), Lupin (up 0.43%), Wockhardt (up 0.45%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 0.14%), and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.15%) gained. Divi's Laboratories declined 0.45%.

Cadila Healthcare rose 0.83% after the company said it has received approval from the USFDA for Minocycline Hydrochloride Extended - Release tablets. The announcement was made during market hours today, 24 November 2017. Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cadila Healthcare, has received the final approval from the USFDA to market Minocycline Hydrochloride Extended - Release tablets in strengths of 45 mg, 80 mg, 90 mg and 105 mg and 135 mg. Zydus also received the tentative approval for Minocycline Hydrochloride Extended - Release Tablets, 55 mg, 65 mg and 115 mg.

Minocycline Hydrochloride Extended - Release tablets are a tetracycline-class drug, indicated to treat only inflammatory lesions of non-nodular moderate to severe acne vulgaris in patients 12 years of age and older, Cadila Healthcare said. It will be produced at the group's formulations manufacturing facility at Moraiya, Ahmedabad, the company said.

Cement stocks also gained. Shree Cement (up 0.56%), Ambuja Cements (up 0.4%), and UltraTech Cement (up 0.54%) gained. ACC declined 0.13%.

Grasim Industries advanced 0.59%. Grasim has exposure to the cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

MT Educare surged 6.29% to Rs 72.70 after a fund bought shares of the company in a bulk deal on NSE yesterday, 23 November 2017. VISA CAPITAL PARTNERS bought 2.5 lakh shares of MT Educare at Rs 68.05 per share in a bulk deal on NSE yesterday, 23 November 2017. The stock had jumped 20% to settle at Rs 68.40 yesterday, 23 November 2017.

Skipper rose 1.63% after the company said it entered into a joint venture with Israel-based company for drip irrigation business. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

Skipper said its board gave in-principal approval to form a joint venture (JV) with MetzerPlas Cooperative Agricultural Organization, which is one of the largest and most specialised manufacturers of drip irrigation solutions from Israel. The drip irrigation business holds immense potential in India and is one of the focus sectors of the government. The current domestic industry size is estimated at over Rs 5000 crore and the company expects this sector to grow at a robust pace and for the JV to become a major player in it in the years to come. Detailed terms and conditions are yet to be decided and will be informed to the exchange separately when things will get finalized, the company said.

On the macro front, the Government of India promulgated yesterday, 23 November 2017, the ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Earlier, the President of India had given his assent to the ordinance to amend the code.

The ordinance aims at putting in place safeguards to prevent unscrupulous, undesirable persons from misusing or vitiating the provisions of the code. The amendments aim to keep-out such persons who have wilfully defaulted, are associated with non-performing assets, or are habitually non-compliant and, therefore, are likely to be a risk to successful resolution of insolvency of a company.

In addition to putting in place restrictions for such persons to participate in the resolution or liquidation process, the amendment also provides such check by specifying that the committee of creditors ensure the viability and feasibility of the resolution plan before approving it. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has also been given additional powers.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs reportedly today, 24 November 2017, recommended that the winter session of Parliament be held from 15 December 2017 to 5 January 2018.

Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed while investors viewed Chinese shares with caution after their big fall the previous day. Japanese manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than three years in November, a preliminary survey showed. The Markit/Nikkei Japan Manufacturing flash Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 53.8 in November on a seasonally adjusted basis from a final reading of 52.8 in October.

US stock markets remained closed yesterday, 23 November 2017 on account of Thanksgiving holiday.

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Swaraj Engines said that a meeting of its board of directors will be held on 28 November 2017, to consider the proposal of buyback of equity shares of the company. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

Cox & Kings said that the company owned MEININGER Hotels and Peter Simmel signed an agreement for a hotel in Dresden in Germany. The 165 rooms and 639 beds hotel is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2021. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

Camlin Fine Sciences said that its qualified institutional placement (QIP) committee at its meeting held on 23 November 2017 approved the allotment of 1.72 crore equity shares to eligible qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) at the issue price of Rs 87 per share, aggregating to Rs 149.99 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

Skipper said its board gave in-principal approval to form a joint venture (JV) with MetzerPlas Cooperative Agricultural Organization, which is one of the largest and most specialised manufacturers of drip irrigation solutions from Israel. The drip irrigation business holds immense potential in India and is one of the focus sectors of the government. The current domestic industry size is estimated at over Rs 5000 crore and the company expects this sector to grow at a robust pace and for the JV to become a major player in it in the years to come. Detailed terms and conditions are yet to be decided and will be informed to the exchange separately when things will get finalized, the company said. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 November 2017.

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In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to create a "New India" over the next five years, the government on Friday said it had identified 115 backward districts for rapid transformation by 2022.

Senior level government officials, at the rank of Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary, have been nominated as 'Prabhari' officers for each district, an official statement said.

A detailed briefing of these officials was held under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha on Friday, which was also attended by secretaries of important Central ministries.

In his keynote address, Sinha expressed confidence that nominated officers would accept this challenge and succeed in their mission.

Terming this as an important initiative to make a difference in the lives of millions of citizens in these districts, he advised the Prabhari officers to immediately form a team with state representatives and bring convergence in their effort.

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant emphasised that for dramatic improvement in Human Development Index, transformation of these backward districts was urgently required.

He said the government was committed to make all round efforts to achieve these objectives in partnership with states.

Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba said if these districts were transformed, there would be tremendous improvement in security environment of the country.

He said while 35 districts have been selected on the basis of reported violence by Left Wing Extremists, 55 districts are affected by Left Wing Extremism and another 15, including districts in Jammu and Kashmir and northeast, are affected by terrorism.

--IANS

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At least 155 people were killed in a bomb attack on a mosque in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Friday, Egyptian state media reported.

The assailants planted home-made explosives in the al-Rawdah mosque in the northern city of Arish and detonated them as worshipers were leaving after prayers. They also shot at anyone who tried to escape, a security source told Efe news.

More than 100 people were wounded in the attack, reports said. Pictures from the scene showed rows of bloodied victims inside the mosque.

One report said the target appeared to be supporters of the security forces who were praying at the mosque. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has called for a meeting of the security committee.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

--IANS

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At least 184 people were killed and scores of others injured in a gory terror attack on a mosque in Egypt's northern Sinai region on Friday, Egyptian state TV reported, making it one of the deadliest ever carried out against civilians in the province.

The assailants planted home-made explosive in the al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, near Arish, and detonated them as worshipers were leaving after prayers. They also shot at anyone who tried to escape, a security official told Efe news.

Besides the 184 dead, at least 125 people were injured in the horrific attack.

Pictures from the scene showed rows of bloodied victims inside the mosque. The blasts from improvised explosive devices caused considerable damage to the mosque, Al Ahram Online said.

Speaking to state-run Masriya TV, Egyptian Health Ministry spokesman Khalid Mujahid described the incident as a "terrorist attack".

One report said the target appeared to be supporters of the security forces who were praying at the mosque. Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi was meeting with a security committee to discuss the bloodbath.

Egypt declared three days of national mourning. No group has claimed responsibility for the massacre.

--IANS

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Two persons were killed and one injured when a multi-storey building collapsed here on Friday, police said.

Three persons were extricated from under the debris and taken to hospital, where two of them, including the building's owner, were declared dead and the third admitted for treatment, police said.

The incident occurred in south Delhi's Taimoor Nagar around 9.45 a.m.

"The building is 50-60 years old. During the rescue operation, it was found that the building belonged to Dhruv Kumar, a retired government servant," Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baniya told IANS.

"He, along with two labourers Krishan Mandal and Montu Mandal, was trapped under the debris. Three fire tenders and a team of Disaster Management department and police pulled them out of the rubble.

"They were rushed to AIIMS where Montu Mandal was admitted with external injuries, while Dhruv Kumar and Krishan Mandal were declared brought dead," Baniya said.

The building collapsed when they were surveying it from the inside. Kumar had hired the two for demolition work, he said.

--IANS

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The two major unions in the banking sector - All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA) - on Friday announced sector wide strike on December 27 in support of wage revision in .

In a joint statement issued here, the two unions said they have been taking up the matter repeatedly with management and with the central government but the matter is dragging on endlessly.

Hence it has been decided to give a call for all-India strike in all the on December 27.

According to AIBEA and AIBOA, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has decided to extend support for the December 27 strike.

The UFBU is an umbrella body of nine unions in the Indian banking sector.

According to the statement, the wage revision for employees was due on 1.11.2012.

The IDBI Bank employees went on two-day strike in October demanding revision of wages.
The body of a man was found hanging at Jaipur's Nahargarh Fort on Friday with messages denouncing "Padmavati" scribbled on rocks nearby even as passions for and against the controversial film continued to rage.

While National Award winning actor Prosenjit Chatterjee and actress Rani Mukerji voiced distress over the violent rant against the film's producer-director and actors, some people in New Delhi burnt filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali's effigy outside a metro station.

However, there was some much-needed relief for Bhansali and Viacom18 Motion Pictures.

The Delhi High Court dismissed a PIL seeking an expert committee of historians and social activists to examine "Padmavati" to ensure there were no "distortions", saying such "hopeless and misconceived" pleas were "encouraging" those agitating against the film.

Also, West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee became the first Chief Minister to say she was ready to welcome the film and its crew -- at a time when Chief Ministers of at least four other states have opposed the movie's release.

Hindu groups backed by the BJP are up in arms against the movie over conjectures that it distorts history about Rajput queen Padmavati and Rajput culture.

Police in Jaipur said they were finding out whether the 40-year-old man's death -- his body was found on the outer walls of the Nahargarh Fort -- had anything to do with the "Padmavati" row.

The message, scrawled on rocks nearby, read, "Hum putle nahin jalate... latkate hain" (We don't burn effigies, we hang them).

"'Padmavati' ka virodh karne walon... Hum main hai dum." (Those protesting against 'Padmavati' ... We have guts)

Deputy Commissioner of Police Satyendra Singh told IANS that the dead man had been identified as Chetan Saini, a resident of Jaipur's Shastri Nagar who ran a jewellery and handicrafts business.

Singh said it was not clear if it was murder or suicide and that it would be too early to relate the messages on the rocks to "Padmavati".

The Rajput Karni Sena, which is most vocal against the movie, denied any involvement in the case.

"We express complete disapproval of it and deny our involvement in any manner," Vivek Singh Shekhawat, the Rajasthan General Secretary of the group said.

The release of the Hindi film, earlier scheduled for December 1, has been deferred.

Bhansali continued to get the support of the film fraternity.

Prosenjit Chatterjee said "directors will stop doing historical films the way it has been handled". Rani Mukerji said she stood by Bhansali: "He knows that I back him, love him. He is my darling and Sanjay truly believes how much I love him and he knows how I stand by him."

--IANS

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HMD Global that sells the Nokia brand on Friday announced the rollout of Android 8.0 Oreo update for its flagship Nokia 8.

"We're proud to deliver pure and secure take of Android 8.0 Oreo on the Nokia 8. We've taken the time to test, optimise and refine the platform," Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer of HMD Global, said in a statement.

HMD Global launched the Nokia 8 smartphone in September for Rs 36,999.

The phone features 13MP + 13 MP rear camera system with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection auto focus (PDAF), IR range finder and dual tone flash.

The selfie camera has a 13MP sensor with PDAF and f/2.0 aperture.

The device has "Dual-Sight" video or "Bothie" feature that lets simultaneously livestream a selfie while also using its main camera, in a splitscreen visual, for both photos and videos.

The phone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor paired with stock Android Nougat operating system (OS). A 3090mAh battery powers the device which is comes with Qualcomm "Quick Charge" compatibility.

There is 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory with MicroSD card slot to expand storage up to 256GB.

--IANS

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday declared its fifth list of 13 candidates for the Gujarat Assembly elections.

With this the BJP, which is ruling the state since last two decades, has declared contestants for 148 out of total 182 seats.

The party has fielded Gujarati film actor Hiteshbhai Kanodiya, son of former BJP MLA Naresh Kanodiya, from Ider constituency in Sabarkantha district. He had contested unsuccessfully the last election in 2012 from Kadi Assembly constituency in Kheda district. The party has fielded Karshanbhai Punjabhai Solanki from Kasi Reserve seat.

The BJP has also given ticket to Congress defector Amitbhai Chaudhary, who left Congress to join the saffron camp during the Rajya Sabha election early this year. A close confidant of former Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, Chaudhary has been fielded from Mansa constituency. In 2012 he had defeated BJP's DD Patel by a margin of over 8,000 votes.
Taking a dig at RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and veteran BJP leader Sushil Modi on Friday said the alliance between Nitish Kumar's JD-U and his party was "natural" and the "unnatural" Nitish-Lalu partnership died "naturally".

In July, Nitish Kumar became Bihar Chief Minister for the sixth time after he ended his two-year-old alliance with Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress.

"Nitish Kumar was with the BJP for 17 years. And again, the BJP and the JD-U have come together. That is the natural alliance.

"The unnatural alliance with Lalu Prasad died naturally. No gentleman can work with people like Lalu Prasad, a chaotic and disorganised man," Modi said at the India Today Conclave East.

Modi said he did not expect the Janata Dal-United and RJD alliance to come apart in such a short span of time but he knew it was bound to happen.

"How can Nitish Kumar defend Tejashwi Yadav (Lalu Prasad's son) who was facing corruption charges?" he asked.

Asked whether he saw any difference between the present JD-U-BJP partnership as compared to earlier one, he said: "I don't find any difference."

"During our earlier alliance, there was a government at the Centre which worked against Bihar. Now, there is a synergy between the Centre and state government.

"In the second tenure of the JD-U and the BJP, more development would take place. There is no confrontation between the state and centre now," Modi added.

--IANS

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The Election Commission on Friday announced by-election to the Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu on December 21, a day after it allotted the AIADMK's "two leaves" symbol to the ruling faction headed by Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam.

The counting of votes and results would be announced on December 24.

The poll body also said the bypoll for assembly constituencies in Arunachal Pradesh (Pakke Kasang, Likabali), Uttar Pradesh (Sikandra) and West Bengal (Sabang) will also be held on the same day.

According to the EC, the two constituencies of the Arunachal Pradesh are reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

The Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly seat fell vacant after the death of then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016.

The EC had to earlier cancel the by-election of the constituency on April 12 this year following allegations of large scale bribing of voters.

The EC stated that filing of nominations would begin on Monday, the day on which notification would be issued.

Nominations can be filed till December 4, and their scrutiny would take place on December 5. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is December 7.

The poll panel said it will use Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) with Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in all the four constituencies.

"The model code of conduct comes into force with immediate effect in the districts," the EC added.

The Madras High Court had directed the poll body to hold the bypoll to the Radhakrishnan Nagar seat before December 31.

"We will win the bypoll with huge margin and prove that we are truly the successors of late Chief Minister and party leader J.Jayalalithaa," former MP and spokesperson K.C. Palaniswamy told IANS in Chennai.

He declined to comment on the party's probable candidate to fight the by-election.

In April, when the AIADMK was divided into two -- one led by Panneerselvam and the other by jailed leader V.K. Sasikala and her nephew T.T.V.Dinakaran --, the former faction fielded E. Madhusudhanan and the latter Dinakaran.

Later the Sasikala faction broke into two with Palaniswami leading one.

With Panneerselvam and Palaniswami factions coming together and the Election Commission allotting the "two leaves" symbol and the party name to Panneerselvam/Madhusudhanan, AIADMK leaders told IANS there was no need to scout for another person in the place of Madhusudhanan.

Speaking to television channels on the by-election to Radhakrishnan Nagar, Tamil Nadu Congress Chief S. Thirunavukkarasar said it will be a major test for the ruling AIADMK.

He said this will be the first election to be faced by the AIADMK government after the death of Jayalalithaa and also after it got the "two leaves" symbol.

Thirunavvukkarasar said Congress will support the DMK in the by-election.

The Tamil Nadu BJP Chief Tamilisai Soundararajan said a decision to contest or not will be taken after consultations within the party.

Last time, BJP had fielded music director Gangai Amaran as its candidate.

J. Deepa, niece of Jayalalithaa too, jumped into the electoral fray last time forming MGR Amma Deepa Forum. It has to be seen whether she would contest this time.

Dinakaran had earlier said he would contest in the by-election whenever it is held.

--IANS

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The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a PIL seeking setting up of an expert committee of historians and social activists to examine Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmavati" to ensure there were no "distortions", saying such pleas were "encouraging" those agitating against the film.

The court said the plea against the release of the period drama was "hopeless and misconceived" and such pleas are "encouraging" people who are agitating against it.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by Akhand Rashtrawadi Party, which claims to be a political party, said the committee headed by a retired Delhi High Court Judge should include a Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) member and ensure that there were no "distortions" of historic facts in respect of Rani Padmavati of Chittorgarh, on whose story the film is based.

The committee should ensure that no sentiments are hurt with the release of the film, the plea said.

The plea also said the CBFC should examine/re-examine the movie's contents with the help of historians or authors with excellent knowledge of historic facts about Rani Padmavati, so that "wrong or fictitious" image of the 14th century queen should not go before the people worldwide and public sentiments are not hurt.

The PIL, filed through lawyer Puneesh Grover, has made the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, producer Viacom18 Motion Pictures, director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali, movie's scriptwriter and the CBFC as respondents.

--IANS

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Dineshwar Sharma, the Centre's Special Representative on Jammu and Kashmir, is arriving here on Friday on a six-day visit to the state in an effort to pave the way for a sustained dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue.

Sharma will remain in Jammu till Sunday after which he will leave for the Kashmir Valley, officials told IANS.

"The Special Representative is scheduled to visit the Jagti migrant camp in Nagrota area to interact with the members of the Kashmiri Pandit community.

"Sharma will have detailed discussions with the migrants to understand their problems and also explore ways and means for a dignified return of the community to the valley," the officials said.

He will also meet residents living along the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC).

Sharma is slated to meet representatives of West Pakistan refugees who came to Jammu from Pakistan in 1947, 1965 and 1971.

These people have limited citizenship rights in Jammu and Kashmir. They can vote in the Lok Sabha elections, but are debarred from voting in the state Assembly elections.

They cannot own property neither can they apply for a government job.

Sharma is scheduled to visit south Kashmir districts.

--IANS

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An Election Commission (EC) team led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) A. K. Jyoti will visit three northeastern states -- Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya -- next week to review the poll preparedness, an official said here on Friday.

"Assembly elections are due in February next year in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. The EC team would visit the three northeastern states next week to review the poll preparedness," an official of the Tripura election department said.

He said that the CEC accompanied by Election Commissioners Om Prakash Rawat and Sunil Arora, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain along with other EC officials would arrive here on November 28 from Nagaland. From Tripura, they are likely to visit Meghalaya.

"During its visit, the Commission would hold a series of meetings with the police, district and state election officials besides high-ups and leaders of various political parties," the official added.

The five-year term of the assemblies in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, with 60 seats each, would expire on March 6, 13, and 14, respectively.

The Left Front rules in Tripura, Congress holds power in Meghalaya, while the Naga People's Front-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland rules in Nagaland. The Democratic Alliance is supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

A four-member EC team led by Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain had visited Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya last week and held a series of meetings with the leaders of various political parties and asked them to make all preparations in place for the next assembly polls.

The Election Commission on November 13 held a meeting in New Delhi with Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland to take stock of preparations for the February 2018 assembly elections in these states.

"EC officials have apprised the three CEOs on the use of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines at all polling stations in these states. Effectiveness of booth-level officers in the states was also discussed," the official said refusing to be named.

--IANS

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A team of Enforcement Directorate on Friday interrogated Indrani Mukerjea, inside the Byculla women's jail, in connection with a money laundering case lodged against her, official sources said.

A Special CBI court -- conducting the trial in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case, in which Indrani, her husband Peter Mukerjea and former husband Sanjeev Khanna are the prime accused -- on Thursday granted permission to the ED to question her for two days.

The interrogation by the ED pertains to a case it had registered in May this year under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against several persons, including the Mukerjea couple, their company INX Media, former Union Minister P. Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram and others.

Charging them of financial misappropriation, the ED had contended that the Mukerjeas had "allegedly siphoned off 90 million pounds and the money is suspected to have gone to foreign countries through the unauthorized route of hawala".

Following the Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance, the INX had received Foreign Direct Investment for Rs 46.20 million, but it actually received FDI of Rs 3,053.60 million between August 2007 and May 2008, the ED had said.

Accordingly, this excess foreign exchange equivalent to Rs 3,004.40 million, beyond the disclosed the permitted foreign investment, was received by INX from three Mauritius-based investors, according to the ED.

While Rabin, Peter's son from a previous marriage, was managing the funds in the form of bonds in New Zealand, the trio of Peter, Indrani and Rabin laundered money and were involved in transactions in Britain linked with illegal funds generated from India, said the ED.

The next round of ED interrogation will be conducted on December 6, as per the court orders.

--IANS

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Former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's lawyers have told other defence lawyers in the ongoing Russia probe, including President Donald Trump's legal team, that they were no longer able to share information, the media reported.

An informed source told CNN on Thursday that the decision to cease informal information-sharing could be an indication Flynn was preparing to plead guilty in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election.

While Flynn's lawyers had previously shared information with Trump's team, the change does not necessarily indicate that Flynn is cooperating with Mueller.

Jay Sekulow, a member of Trump's legal team, said that the decision to no longer share information "is not entirely unexpected" and should not be seen as an indication of cooperation.

"No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the President," CNN quoted Sekulow as saying.

Lawyers can pull out of information-sharing arrangements for a variety of reasons, including concerns of potential conflicts of interest that may arise at a later date.

Information-sharing may also be abandoned, for example, when a lawyer is attempting to negotiate with prosecutors, but those negotiations aren't always successful.

Flynn's lawyers declined to comment.

Meanwhile, former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates already face charges relating to their undisclosed foreign lobbying for Ukraine.

They were indicted by Mueller's grand jury last month. Both have pleaded not guilty.

--IANS

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National security agencies from across the world must forge greater collaboration to ward off cyber threats and work together to counter cyber criminals including terrorists, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said here on Friday.

Speaking at the ministerial forum of countries participating in the fifth Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS), Doval said that the cyber challenges of our times are unique as terror groups are using Internet at far greater level than before.

"The cyber space provides opportunities and challenges at the same time. While it provides global connectivity, it also provides connectivity to terrorists which is worrisome," Doval told the gathering.

According to Doval, an orderly management of the cyber space is very important as it is expanding very fast.

"The timely and swift response to the threats posed by cyber criminals is the key," Doval stressed.

The cyber world has changed the way we live, he said, adding that never before had there been such a change that has such a wide ramification affecting all of us.

"The world needs a new jurisprudence to deal with the growing challenges. We need a specific regime to deal with the cyber threats," he added.

The private sector will have a very important role in that regime, Doval said, along with the state and there is a need to evolve consensus among various stakeholders which should also ensure due representation from all people and geographies.

According to Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, India's will be the voice of reason and moderation when it comes to digital equality.

"India's will also be the voice of assertion for the digitally-deprived in a global platform. We need an egalitarian global cyber space," Prasad said.

--IANS

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Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, accused by India and the US of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai massacre, was on Friday freed after 10 months of house arrest here and vowed to continue the "jihad" for Jammu and Kashmir's "independence".

In an address to his supporters massed outside his Johar Town residence, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader thanked the Lahore High Court for refusing to buy the government's arguments that his release would pose a threat to public safety.

His release, he said, was a victory for Pakistan.

"Just as I am free today, Kashmir will also be free one day," Saeed said. "It is because of Kashmir that India has been after me.

"I pray to Allah to give us strength so that we keep fighting for Kashmir's independence (from India)," he told his supporters who had begun gathering outside his house even before the midnight hour.

Saeed, who carries a $10 million bounty announced by the US for his role in terrorist activities, was released just after Thursday midnight, after a Lahore High Court review board turned down the government's arguments that he was a threat to public safety.

A court on Wednesday ruled out prolonging Saeed's house arrest due to a lack of evidence or justification for it. Saeed was placed under house arrest on January 30 this year and a court regularly renewed his detention.

As his detention order expired on Thursday midnight, authorities withdrew jail staff from his residence.

"Now he is free and can go anywhere," JuD spokesperson Ahmed Nadeem told Efe news. Police left Saeed's house at midnight, he said.

The US and the UN classify JuD as a terrorist group and it is alleged to be a front organization for the terror outfit LeT, whose attack on Mumbai led to the death of 166 Indians and foreigners and almost brought India and Pakistan to war.

Interpol has also issued a red notice for his arrest.

New Delhi also accuses the LeT of carrying out terror attacks in other parts of India, including Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist campaign backed by Pakistan and raging since 1989 has left thousands dead.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack but was released about six months later.

India had earlier denounced the Pakistani court's decision to free Saeed, saying it "confirms once again the lack of seriousness on the part of the Pakistani government in bringing to justice the perpetrators of heinous acts of terrorism".

Although seen as a terrorist, Saeed's group is popular for its charitable work in Pakistan.

--IANS

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Jean-Noel Scherrer, Antoine Baschung, Julien Peultier and Timothee Gerard -- members of French rock band Last Train who are currently on a visit to India -- may be nervous about tasting "spicy food" in the country, but they clear about one thing: Indian music influences artistes globally.

The band is here as part of the Bonjour India Rock tour, presented by the French Institute in India.

Baschung, the drummer, told IANS: "We are very excited to be here and about exploring all the cities we are travelling to. We haven't seen much yet, but we will be seeing the city. We are nervous about the food also because we don't really eat spicy food; so that will be an experience."

Last Train performed with Colt Silvers in Delhi on Wednesday, and they will perform in Chennai on Friday as part of a 10-city tour presented by music management company Mixtape.

A band from the east of France, it was formed by four childhood friends who have been making music together for over a decade. Their first two EPs, "The Holy Family" and "Fragile", received critical acclaim.

They have since performed to sold-out audiences, opening for musicians like Muse and Rival Sons. In 2016, Last Train won the biggest French festival for upcoming bands, Le Printemps de Bourges, and toured across Europe with 40 shows in two months.

Earlier this year, the band released a full-length album "Weathering" on their own label Cold Fame Records.

Excited about their first India trip, Scherrer, the vocalist, said: "It's our first time in India; so we will be playing our music because we want to share ourselves with the Indian audience. We want to stay honest to our music and to our audience. But after every performance we try to tweak it according to our audience."

As a global music band, they are proud of the transformation of the Indian music scene.

"We worked with an American psychedelic rock band with an Indian musician and some Indian sounds. We also listen to Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka Shankar... The sounds of the sitar have been used by several musicians. Indian music does influence artistes globally.

"We also made a joke that we will come back to France after visiting India like The Beatles went back post their India visit," said guitarist Peultier.

Gerard, the bass player in the band, said Bonjour India 2017-18 is just the start of their India association.

"We went to Japan and then we went back again and got a booking agent there. We definitely plan on coming again after Bonjour India. Also, we think two weeks are not enough to see India; so we have to come back and see more of it," Gerard told IANS.

Bonjour India Rock Tour brings together youth from France and India to take French rock to new audiences and allow new collaborations in lesser-explored parts of India.

With an aim to strengthen Indo-French ties, the platform aims to promote innovation and creativity.

(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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It has barely been a month since acclaimed poet Jeet Thayil's "The Book of Chocolate Saints" hit the stands, but even in this short period, the novel has made a mark in literary circles.

Aleph publisher David Davidar was seen recommending the book to several Western authors at private parties of the just-concluded Dhaka Literature Festival. Instagram and other social media platforms are full of pictures of the book, often with a reader in frame, floating in their feeds. The publisher has billed it as the most awaited literary novel of the year and by its track-record so far, one cannot but agree.

In this novel, the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author paints a hallucinatory portrait of an ambiguous soul: A self-destructive figure, a charismatic contrarian, and a tortured, damned artist battling with his conflicting instincts. Vividly set in both Delhi and Manhattan, "The Book of Chocolate Saints" explores our deepest urges in a novel that is sexy, dangerous, and entirely uncompromising.

It is a sheer pleasure to read fiction works by a poet because poets break the staid rules, they experiment and play with words. Thayil mesmerises his readers with the way he uses his poetic tools to structure the many lines of his novel.

Below are nine brilliant quotes from the book, explained in Thayil's own words:

"Praise the broken world for it will vanish in a day and in a day be replaced by nothing."

Self-explanatory. Get your praise in while the world still works; it may not be around much longer.

"In my experience it's always the brightest that you have to watch. They cause the most trouble."

The problem with intelligence is that it comes with unpredictable riders, including a tendency towards insurrection, interrogation, and self-destruction.

"In other words they were the kind of English poems that the English no longer wrote."

In the mid-twentieth century, English poets stopped writing the kind of poems associated with a Romantic idea of English poetry. Indian poets continued to do so.

"The body is a cell and the soul a hermit who lives therein."

We are trapped in a prison of skin, hair, and cranial geography.

"I remember the old days better, when we were young and the world was beautiful."

Youth is wasted on the young.

"Words are cheap when you are talking to the press."

Case in point: Me, now, talking to you.

"But what books they were! You will not see the like again."

Once, Bardic utterance was the model for poetic speech. E.g. Homer, John Clare, Blake, Wordsworth, Whitman, Rimbaud, Ginsberg, Emily Dickinson, to name but a few. This is no longer the case. The reference here is to Newton Xavier's first two books of poems, which fall firmly in the Bardic and prophetic mode.

"Everybody wants to know about writer's block and how terrible it is. They love the idea of the tortured artist. Nobody talks about how super it is. How much like a paid vacation. You are giving yourself permission to not work."

Adding to this would be like gilding the poppy. But here goes: Writer's block is nothing more than the psyche repairing or recharging itself. Telling yourself you have writer's block is a way of giving yourself a holiday.

"The only poem that matters is the poem that picks up a gun."

In 2017 in India, literature seems irrelevant. What difference can a poem make in the time of hate, when the criminals are in government and the lunatics are in charge of the asylum?

(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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A jewellery trader from Amritsar in Punjab died and his companion received injuries as unidentified criminals on Friday night opened fire at them in Bihar's Chhapra town, the district headquarters of Saran district, police said.

The injured jewellery trader has been admitted to the Chhapra Sadar Hospital.

According to a police officer, the two traders were returning on a rickshaw after selling their gold and jewellery and collecting cash when motorcycle-borne criminals stopped them near the bus stand in Bhagwan Bazar area of Chhapra. They shot dead Sarvajit Singh and seriously injured Avar Singh.

Saran Superintendent of Police Harikishore Rai said the police had started investigation into the killing of the jewellery trader.

According to Sub-Divisional Police Officer Ajay Kumar Singh, the criminals looted Rs 2 lakh cash and over 500 gram gold from them.

This incident comes two days after a businessman was shot dead in Patna and son of another trader was killed in Hajipur of Vaishali district. Patna businessmen had on Thursday downed their shutters in protest against the killing.

--IANS

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Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asked the Delhi Minorities Commission to be more proactive to raise and solve problems of minorities in the city.

Kejriwal made the comment during the release of an annual report of the Commission led by Chairman Zafarul-Islam Khan.

"Releasing the annual report, the Chief Minister asked the Delhi Minorities Commission to be more vocal and proactive to raise and solve problems of the minorities in Delhi," an official statement said.

--IANS

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Three days after the arrest of two suspected members of Bangladesh-based Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a Bangladeshi who helped them cross over to India illegally was arrested here on Friday, a senior officer said.

"Mohammad Sahadat Hossain, a Bangladeshi tout, was arrested from near the Sealdah railway station. He helped the two ABT members cross over and also helped them get jobs in Hyderabad," Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police (STF) Muralidhar Sharma told IANS.

The officer said Hossain himself had entered India illegally as he failed to produce any legal documents to this effect after his arrest.

The Special Task Force also released photographs of two more suspected ABT members on Friday.

"We have released the pictures of two ABT members -- Shopon Biswas alias Sajol Ahamed Alias Tamim (23) and Nayan Gazi alias Zafor alias Ariful Gazi, aged between 28 and 30. Both are residents of Bangladesh," Sharma said.

"They were in Kolkata in October but we are now unaware about their current location. So, we have released their pictures so that anyone aware of their whereabouts can report to us," he added.

The STF arrested the two members of ABT, a front for Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, and a local arms dealer on November 21 from a city railway station and seized a cache of arms, gadgets and incriminating documents from them.

All three have been remanded to police custody till December 5.

--IANS

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A policeman on duty was killed and a policewoman seriously injured when suspected Maoists triggered a blast in a bustling market place here on Friday afternoon, a police official said.

The incident occurred when the two were on security duty in Kotgul village of Kurkheda region as the weekly market was in full swing with participation of hundreds of tribals and traders from surrounding areas.

Suddenly, an improvised explosive device (IED) triggered off by Maoists exploded, seriously injuring the two security officials, Suresh Gawde and Sonal Khevale, standing close by.

The injured police personnel were airlifted to Nagpur for treatment, but Gawde succumbed while undergoing treatment in the hospital, and Khevale's condition is reported to be stable.

Gawde will be accorded a funeral with full state honours in the presence of top police and civil officials on Saturday, the official said.

--IANS

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It is easy to rave about a film that champions the middle-class housewife's cause with such intense enthusiasm. "Juice" is the new film -- or short film if you must insist -- by Neeraj Ghaywan, who made the wonderful "Masaan", and also a heartwarming ad on the life of a transgender mother.

This time, Neeraj's vision is on the war-path. His camera prowls confidently into a dinner party scenario in a middle-income home where the man of the house, played with vehement integrity by the wonderful Manish Choudhary, sits with his office colleagues in the tiny living room, while the wives busy themselves in the kitchen with the endless supply of food that the men require to replenish their appetite for small talk.

I have to admit that this living room-versus-kitchen politics is not unfamiliar to me. However, its existence is on the wane now. Wives do not run into the kitchen at such get-togethers. Cooking and kitchen work is no more the incriminating legacies of patriarchal tyranny that they used to be 20 or even 10 years ago. Ghaywan's film, though brilliant with its eye for topographical and emotional detail, must be seen in the context of the nostalgic rather than the contemporary.

This is a claustrophobic view of a domestic despotism that grabs the cult of misogyny by its arms and tugs hard. The men in the living room (all played by accomplished actors) babble hard and loud about Hillary, Obama, emails and females, while the wonderful Shefali Shah playing the hostess of this noisy evening, shuffles in and out with plates of fried chicken and other snacks.

Shefali makes her presence felt even though she plays that near-invisible entity that housewives in middle-income homes used to be in the last millennium.

Watching "Juice", I was reminded of what Satyajit Ray had said about making the young Soumitra Chatterjee's character in "Charulata" a progressive feminist as a way of making himself feel like a progressive feminist.

In "Juice" (why juice???), one late guest walks in with his pregnant wife and tells his hostess, "Bhabhiji, take her inside. She has learnt some new recipes."

To these men, their wives acquire a definition only through their culinary skills. That seems terribly unfair to the working class Indian male, specially at a time when in the recently released "Tumhari Sulu" Vidya Balan's husband, right out of the milieu that "Juice" recreates, was shown to be so encouraging and supportive .

The men in "Juice" are uniformly apathetic. But you feel the strong presence of the invisible Liberal Male in the director's perception of domestic tyranny. Ghaywan fills up the tiny apartment home with more people eating (in the living room) and being fed (from the kitchen) than Jennifer Lawrence was shown coping with in the recent horror extravaganza "Mother".

Tyranny, specially patriarchal tyranny, makes for compelling cinema. Neeraj Ghaywan's "Juice", though engaging in its detailing and its rigorous quest of misogyny, ends up seeming misandrist.

Why "Juice", you may well ask. See that glass of beverage in the housewife-protagonist's hand at the end when she decides to join her husband and his friends in the living room? That's orange juice.

So, there.

Three stars for this film.

--IANS

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Actress Uma Thurman has broken her silence on the issue of sexual assault allegations concerning Harvey Weinstein, hinting that she herself was a victim of the Hollywood producer.

Thurman, who worked with Weinstein in films like "Pulp Fiction" and the "Kill Bill" series, slammed him in a Thanksgiving post over Instagram on Thursday, reports theguardian.com.

Alongside a photograph of herself as The Bride from "Kill Bill", Thurman wrote "Happy Thanksgiving. I am grateful today, to be alive, for all those I love, and for all those who have the courage to stand up for others."

She later referred to a video interview from October in which she said she was too angry to discuss the Weinstein scandal.

"I said I was angry recently, and I have a few reasons, #metoo, in case you couldn't tell by the look on my face. I feel it's important to take your time, be fair, be exact, so... Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators -- I'm glad it's going slowly -- you don't deserve a bullet) -- stay tuned Uma Thurman," she added.

--IANS

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Mysterious booming sounds have been recorded from different places across the globe leaving people as well as experts baffled, the media reported.

The terrifying noises, nicknamed as "Bama Boom", have been recorded from the Middle East to the East Midlands to Australia, with the majority heard on America's eastern coast.

The boom has left experts stumped, with suggested causes ranging from supersonic aircrafts to meteors exploding in the atmosphere, the dailymail.co.uk on Wednesday.

The latest boom was reported from the US state of Alabama and Idaho in the last week.

"Loud boom heard: we do not see anything indicating large fire/smoke on radar or satellite; nothing on USGS indicating an earthquake," the Birmingham National Weather Service said in a tweet.

While the cause remains unknown, suggested explanations include a sonic boom from an aircraft or a meteorite from the Leonid shower. But Nasa has since cast doubt on these explanations.

The boom could have been caused by a supersonic aircraft, a ground explosion, or a bolide -- a large meteor that explodes in the atmosphere unrelated to the Leonid shower, Bill Cooke, head of Nasa's Meteoroid Environment Office, was quoted as saying to ABC 3340.

The noise, which was also picked up by the US Geological Survey, noted that the boom was not the result of an earthquake.

The boom may have been caused by a military flight by a supersonic jet, they said, although the US Air Force is yet to confirm this.

The Bama Boom is just one of many mysterious booms heard worldwide this year.

According to some reports, this is not the first time the mysterious sound has been heard. In 2017 alone, 64 booms have been heard worldwide, in locations including Michigan, Lapland, St Ives, Swansea and Yorkshire.

On October 10, a similar sound left Cairns locals confused. Many suggested it was an FA-18 Hornet plane was heard flying, news.com.au reported.

Two weeks later, another boom was heard over the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia at the same time a blue meteor passed across the sky.

"It just got bigger and bigger and it was just this big flash across the sky and there were sparks coming off it," Port Lincoln local Lisa Watson was quoted by News Corp.

"I pulled up home and I heard two massive bangs, maybe a second apart, and then the sky lit up again I just felt the whole earth shake twice," he added.

According to Cooke, NASA's meteor scientists will continue to analyse new data in hopes of determining the cause of the boom.

--IANS

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Dismissing the opposition against the renaming of Dyal Singh College (Evening), the institution's chairman on Friday said there wasn't anything illegal about it and that there couldn't be a better name than Vande Mataram.

Amitabh Sinha also said that some opposition parties were misleading the people in general and the fraternity of teachers and students in particular by propping up the Akali Dal in order to make it appear like an issue concerning the Sikh community.

The General Body of Dyal Singh College on November 17 decided to change the evening college's name to Vande Mataram Mahavidyalaya after turning it into a day college.

"This decision of renaming the college was passed unanimously by the entire governing body. There is nothing legally or ethically wrong about it... Couldn't be a better name than Vande Mataram," Sinha told media here.

"Akalis have been hoodwinked by a lobby in the college to make them believe it was a Sikh issue," he said.

Noting that Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal asked for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in the matter, Sinha invited him to come ahead and debate on a neutral forum.

"Sukhbir Singh Badal has been misled. Either he convinces me and I reverse the decision to rename the new college, or I convince him and he issues a statement clarifying that he was misled," he said.

Delhi BJP legislator Manjinder Singh Sirsa had on Monday filed a police complaint against the college's principal and chairman over the name change.

The Congress' student wing NSUI criticised the move, saying the governing board should have focused on improving the college infrastructure rather than changing its name.

But Sinha asked why a hymn dedicated to the country and every mother should disturb anybody if the detractors do not have an anti-national agenda.

"There have been attempts to create a misunderstanding between different communities in addressing Dyal Singh as a Sikh or Punjabi," he said, adding that he was a nationalist.

He added that Vande Mataram is not just any other name but a "clarion call to nationalism".

"I am ready to sacrifice anything for it. If anybody has any problem with it, come speak with me individually. Convince me I am wrong, otherwise why should I change the decision?" he asked.

Set up in 1958, the college was named after Dyal Singh Majithia, who established The Tribune newspaper in Lahore in 1881, and was also the founder chairman of the Punjab National Bank established in 1894.

--IANS

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Coming down heavily on the BJP-led central government on issues of development, Congress' national spokesperson Gaurav Gogoi on Wednesday said the only development happening under the present regime is of those connected to the BJP.

"BJP is neither with the minority nor with the majority, they are only for themselves. The real development is happening for the son of certain party president or the private secretary of some central minister," Gogoi said, in a veiled reference to the controversy over the alleged abrupt growth of BJP president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah's company.

Talking at the India Today Conclave East here, he said while the BJP government and its ministers are talking about inclusive development, the country's economy has gone down and the industries, export business and farmers are suffering.

Bringing in the reference of the agreement between the centre and National Socialist Council of Nagaland-IM, Gogoi alleged that the centre does not practice cooperative federalism though it talks about it.

"There is a massive difference between BJP talking about cooperative federalism and practising it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed an agreement with the Nagaland-based terrorist organisation named NSCN. Neither the Assam government nor the Nagaland government were aware of the details of the agreement," the Congress leader from Assam said.

"Cooperative federalism is just a slogan of the BJP government like Make In India, Digital India that are used for advertising but are not practiced," he said.

--IANS

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The body of a 40-year-old man was found hanging from the outer walls of Nahargarh Fort here on Friday morning, with messages against the film "Padmavati" scribbled on rocks nearby.

However, police said they are finding out whether the death has anything at all to do with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film "Padmavati", which is facing a storm of protests from some Rajput groups and political quarters for allegedly "distorting history".

The message, written on stones near the fort wall adjacent to the body, read, "Hum putle nahin jalate....latkate hain" (we don't burn effigies, we hang them).

"'Padmavati' ka virodh karne walon hum kile par sirf putle nahin latkatea. Hum main hai dum. (Those protesting against 'Padmavati' don't just hang effigies from the fort walls. We have guts)"

There are other things also written, eyewitnesses said.

Satyendra Singh, DCP Jaipur (North), told IANS that the man has been identified as Chetan Saini, resident of Shastri Nagar. He is around 40 years old and runs a jewellery and handicrafts business.

"He left his house in the afternoon on Thursday and spoke to his wife around 5.30 p.m., after which the situation is not clear," Singh said.

He said whether it is murder or suicide would be known after the investigation. "Without post-mortem report I can not say anything," he said.

"There are messages written about 'Padmavati' on nearby stones. We will investigate it too... Who has written them, when was it written, why was it written and whose handwriting is it," he said.

On one of the stones 'Tantrik' is also written, he said.

He said it would be too early to relate the messages to the threats against Bhansali's "Padmavati".

Sources in the police told IANS that it seems that to confuse investigators an attempt may have been made to link it with the "Padmavati" controversy.

The Shri Rajput Karni Sena has denied any involvement in the case. "We express complete disapproval of it and deny our involvement in any manner," Vivek Singh Shekhawat, state general secretary, Shri Rajput Karni Sena said.

Even the family of the deceased considers it to be a murder and has demanded detailed investigation. They say the dead man has nothing to do with the "Padmavati" controversy.

Bhansali's "Padmavati" has been mired in controversies since its shooting started. Activists of the Karni Sena, a Rajput community, besides other groups have been protesting against the movie, claiming the film "distorts" historical facts.

"They are trying to defame queen Padmavati by distorting historical facts. It is not acceptable," an activist of the Karni Sena said.

Activists of the Karni Sena earlier this month vandalised a theatre in Kota, Rajasthan, over reports that it was showing a trailer of "Padmavati". A Karni Sena leader threatened actress Deepika Padukone, who plays the lead in the movie, with physical harm.

The release of the movie, earlier scheduled for December 1, has been deferred.--IANS

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Hyderabad police on Friday conducted cordon and search in residential areas around Taj Falaknuma, the palace hotel in the old city of Hyderabad where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be hosting dinner for Ivanka Trump and other delegates of Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) on November 28.

The search operations were conducted in Madina Colony, Bibi Ka Chashma and Vatepally from 5.30 to 8.30 a.m.

Police also conducted census of the residents of Farooq Nagar, Fatima Nagar, Al- Jubail Colony and Jangammet areas surrounding Falaknuma and collected data, a senior official said.

They have urged people not to entertain or give shelter to any stranger and inform police about the relatives visiting them.

Police were keeping a tight vigil and surveillance in the colonies surrounding the palace located in the old city of Hyderabad, considered a sensitive area.

Deputy Commissioner of Police V. Satyanarayana told reporters that during cordon and search operations on Friday, 60 persons were taken in custody and their antecedents were being verified. Eight persons having criminal history were also picked up.

Two Omani nationals were among those taken in custody and police were verifying their claim that they were in the city for medical treatment.

The DCP over 250 policemen including additional deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners conducted cordon and search operations

With the help of E-Finger Prints Recognition Device and 'Hydcops' app, police checked the fingerprints of the persons moving in suspicious circumstances. Police used geo-tagging in the operations to avoid inconvenience to the common people.

Police seized 51 two-wheelers, 3 auto-rickshaws and 2 four-wheelers and were verifying the documents.

The official said the operations were part of the efforts to provide foolproof security for the Prime Minister, US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and other delegates attending the dinner at Falaknuma.

Modi is hosting the dinner for all 1,500 delegates attending GES from 150 countries.

--IANS

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Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will chair the 12th Standing Committee meeting of the Inter-State Council (ISC) here on Saturday to discuss the recommendations of the Punchhi Commission on Centre-state relations, a Home Ministry statement said.

Those taking part in the meeting are External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot.

The Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh, who are the members of the Standing Committee, will also attend the meeting.

The 11th meeting of the Standing Committee of ISC was held on April 9 after a gap of 11 years.

The convening of the Standing Committee meetings twice in the same year reflects the importance attached to the promotion of harmonious Centre-State relations, the statement said.

It said that the representatives of 30 Union Ministries or departments and seven state governments have also been invited to assist the committee in its deliberations.

"Views of the state governments and the Union Ministries will be considered along with the recommendations made by the Punchhi Commission in the meeting.

"The Standing Committee will finalise its recommendations," the statement said.

The Central government on April 27, 2007 constituted the Punchhi Commission under the chairmanship of former Chief Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi to look into the new issues of Centre-state relations keeping in view the changes that have taken place in the polity and economy.

--IANS

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday dismissed an agreement signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh to repatriate Rohingya refugees, calling it "laughable".

"(Some) 620,000 Rohingya refugees have only just escaped one of the most brutal cases of mass persecution in recent times... The idea that Myanmar will now welcome them back to their smouldering villages with open arms is laughable," said HRW's Bill Frelick.

Bangladesh and Myanmar on Thursday signed a memorandum of intent that opens the way for the return of the displaced Rohingyas, whose exodus began on August 25 after attacks by an insurgent group and the subsequent retaliation by the Myanmar Army, reports Efe news.

The memorandum contains "the general guiding principles and policy arrangements to systematically verify and receive the displaced persons from Rakhine state", said the office of the State Counsellor of Myanmar and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Frelick called on the international community to "make it clear that there can be no returns without international monitors to ensure security", calling the bilateral agreement a public relations stunt.

He also called for a rejection of plans to establish detention camps, urging the return of their land and the reconstruction of towns and homes belonging to the Rohingya, the Muslim minority not recognised by Myanmar.

"Even then, it will be hard to build the trust necessary for many Rohingya to voluntarily return unless the Myanmar Army begins the mammoth task of reversing decades of abuses and discrimination against its Rohingya population," Frelick added.

Neither the Myanmar nor Bangladeshi authorities have revealed the details of the agreement, including when the repatriation of the 622,000 refugees will begin.

Myanmar has said it was willing to receive them as soon as possible but only after identifying them, determining their place of origin and sharing this information between the two countries.

The current Rohingya exodus began with the retaliatory operations of the Myanmar armed forces launched after the rebel group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked some 30 military and police checkposts in Rakhine.

--IANS

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RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Friday said there was no good governance in Bihar but 'maha jungle raj' which was evident on the ground.

"Bihar mein maha jungle raj chal raha hai, kaha ja raha hai ke sushashan ka raj hai (there is utter lawlessness in Bihar, but it is being said there is good governance)," Lalu Prasad told the media here.

The former Chief Minister said if there was good governance as claimed, why were there murders of businessmen and traders on a regular basis, increase in rape cases, and open sale of liquor in the dry state.

Lalu Prasad was referring to a protest by shopkeepers in Patna against the killing of a shoe trader Jitendra Kumar Gandhi late on Tuesday night, followed by the murder of a son of another businessman in Hajipur in Vaishali district.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief said he also supported senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shatrughan Sinha's statement that notebandi (demonetisation), Goods and Services Tax, lies (jhuthbandi), and hype (hawabandi) had led to big losses to the country and its people.

--IANS

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Ahead of Gujarat elections, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday raised the pitch for a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying it will be constructed only at the disputed site and "nothing else" will be built there.

"The Ram temple will be constructed at the site of Ramjanmabhoomi and nothing else will be built. It will be constructed and that too in its original form and with the same stones. It will be built under the leadership of those who led this movement and have been holding its flag for 20-25 years," he said at a three-day 'Dharam Sansad' of the VHP here.

"Time has come close. We have to be very careful and take steps one by one. We don't have to think about anything else.

"For the welfare of Hindu society and for the universal welfare of the world, let the Ram temple be built at Ramjanbhoomi in Ayodhya. This is my only wish," Bhagwat said after the head of Pejawar Mutt, Vishweshateertha Swamiji, said that construction of Ram temple would begin within one yera after crossing all hurdles.

This is for the first time that Bhagwat has spoken so vehemently on the Ram temple issue in a public address.

His comments assume significance in the context of renewed mediation attempts by Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to find a solution to the dragging dispute in Ayodhya.

The Shia Central Wakf Board said earlier this week that it was ready to build a mosque in Lucknow so that the temple could be built in Ayodhya, a proposal which was also submitted to the Supreme Court.

Recalling his association with Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackrey, Bhagwat said: "Balasaheb once told me clearly that you cannot build Ram temple by kar sewa only. It needs a tough fight which may take even 20 to 30 years. If you continue with this fight then there is a possibility of construction of Ram temple in 20 to 30 years.

He said 'swayamsewaks' often come to him and ask when the temple will come up Ayodhya.

"I do not say anything to them as I am not an astrologer. It started in 1990. What Balasaheb used to say, we have completed 20 years in 2010 and would complete 30 years in 2020. His words would not go in vain," he said.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists tore down the 16th century Babri Mosque at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, claiming it had been built after destroying an original Ram temple. The VHP then raised a makeshift Ram temple, saying it was where Lord Ram was born.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat was on Friday questioned for nearly three hours by Goa Police Crime Branch's Special Investigation Team (SIT) in an illegal mining case.

Kamat, who filed for anticipatory bail this week and was granted interim relief by a trial court, said he was cooperating with the investigators.

"There are certain files on which they had some questions," Kamat told reporters after his questioning. He however, refused to comment on whether action against him was a result of "political vendetta".

Kamat, along with then Mines Principal Secretary Rajiv Yaduvanshi and several other bureaucrats, is accused of allowing mining companies to avail of the 'condonation of delay' clause to renew their iron ore mining leases in return for bribes.

Yaduvanshi, currently Health Secretary in the Delhi government, has turned an approver.

Superintendent of Police (SIT) Karthik Kashyap did not rule out summoning Kamat again for questioning.

"We interrogated him for three hours because we wanted certain clarifications. We will call him as and when required," Kashyap told the media.

Kamat's son Yogiraj and brother in-law Satish Lawande have already been questioned in the case.

Kamat is a Congress legislator from Margao and had been a minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government in the early 2000s.

--IANS

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A 25-year-old man was killed by a group of four or five school students in a moving bus here over a row over a stolen mobile phone, police said on Friday.

The incident took place on Thursday at around 3.30 p.m. in the bus plying from Punjabi Bagh to Badarpur border.

"According to witnesses, the unidentified victim boarded the bus at Lajpat Nagar. When the bus reached Ashram Chowk, the teenagers aged 13 to 16 and in school uniform got in," Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baaniya said.

"The victim alleged that his mobile phone was stolen by the teenagers, leading to an altercation following which one boy slit the man's throat. They escaped after threatening the driver.

"The man received a single wound and was declared brought dead in a hospital," Baaniya added.

"Police teams are investigating over 15 government schools located between Lajpat Nagar and Mathura Road to identify the teenagers. Student records are being checked," a senior officer told IANS.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three persons, including a teenaged girl, were killed and 10 others injured when a three-storied building collapsed in Maharashtra's Bhiwandi town on Friday morning, officials said.

According to the Disaster Management Unit of Thane, the seven-year-old building named 'Tahir Dinjore', where seven families reside, crashed around 9 a.m., trapping several people beneath the debris.

The body of 18-year old Ruksa Ahmed Khan was retrieved from the rubble and ten others were dug out injured.

Among the 10 injured were Khwaja Ahmed Sayyed, 70, Vihang G. Khan, 8, Salma Tahir Azmi and Abdul Asif Khan and they were taken to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital.

The toll rose to three after two of the injured succumbed to their injuries at the hospital in the afternoon. However, the deceased have not been identified so far.

Maharashtra PWD Minister Eknath Shinde visited the injured at the hospital and spoke to the medical authorities about their condition.

Few more are believed to be trapped in the debris and rescue works continued in the evening.

Though the building was a recent construction and allegedly unauthorized, it is not known if it was included in the list of dangerous constructions. However, the owner Tahir Shaikh has been detained.

The building was located in congested K.G. Nagar area of Navi Basi area in this powerloom town and rescue teams had to demolish adjoining structures to clear the narrow lanes for passage of fire brigade and other vehicles.

Two teams of Thane and Bhiwandi fire brigade, two teams of National Disaster Response Force, along with more than 60 workers are engaged in rescue operations.

--IANS

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President Donald Trump highlighted how the US military was "really winning" since he took office as he spoke to five branches of the military serving overseas via satellite on the occasion of Thanksgiving Day, the media reported.

After sending out two tweets on Thursday praising his own administration, Trump addressed the troops stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Bahrain and on the USS Monterey from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida where he is spending Thanksgiving with his family.

In the teleconference, Trump told members of the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division stationed in Afghanistan: "Everybody is talking about the progress you've made in Afghanistan since I opened it up, and you've turned it around in the last three-to-five months like nobody has seen," CNN reported.

Trump also spoke directly to a Marine Corps unit serving in Iraq, thanking them for their efforts against the Islamic State (IS) terror orgainsation.

"What you are doing with IS is again being talked about -- with armed forces, we're really winning. We know how to win, but we have to let you win. You weren't winning before. They were letting you play even. We want to let you win," Trump said, referencing to his predecessor Barack Obama's administration.

At various times during the conference Trump contrasted his own leadership with that of Obama: "They say we've made more progress against IS than they did in years with the previous administration, and that's because I'm letting you perform your job.

"We're very very proud of you. Everybody in this country is watching and they are seeing positive reports for a change. Instead of the neutral and negative reports."

Later on Thursday, the President and First Lady Melania Trump visited members of the US Coast Guard and their families stationed at Coast Guard Station Lake Worth in Florida, reports CNN.

Speaking to the attendees, Trump called meeting with the troops an "honour" and thanked the Coast Guard for the work they did saving stranded people in the hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico this year.

"You saved 16,000 lives. Nobody knows that."

He also commented on the "Cajun Navy" civilians who take their boats out in hurricanes.

"I still haven't figured out how people take their boats out in to a hurricane.

"There is no brand, of any kind, not just talking about a military brand, that has gone up more than the Coast Guard," Trump added.

Thanksgiving is celebrated in many countries but is a national holiday in the US and Canada. It is a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Late Union Environment Minister Anil Dave and Centre for Science and Environment's (CSE) Deputy Director Chandra Bhushan have been conferred with awards by the United Nations Environment.

The awards recognise the exemplary role played by individuals and institutions in protection of the ozone layer.

Dave, who died while in the office in May, was posthumously awarded the 'Political Leadership Award' at a ceremony held in Canada on Thursday to mark the 30th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol.

The award is in recognition of his leadership role in getting an amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer endorsed in the Rwandan capital in October last year. It is named the Kigali Amendment.

Bhushan was given the 'Partnership Award' for providing policy and research support to the negotiations during the Kigali Amendment.

The amendment is the single largest contribution the world has made towards keeping the rise of global temperature to "well below" two degrees Celsius, a target agreed upon at the Paris climate conference in 2015.

It aims to phase down climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used widely in refrigerators, air conditioners and aerosol sprays. It will enter into force on January 1, 2019.

Hailing India's role at the negotiations at Kigali last year, Bhushan said: "India did many things differently during negotiations. For one, NGOs and government worked as a team. India was proactive and not reactive. It submitted its own proposals, instead of reacting to the proposals of developed countries."

"Most importantly, India negotiated on the principal of positive reciprocity -- it came forward and took more responsibilities, thereby pushing developed countries and China to do more," he added.

--IANS

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The US on Friday said it was "deeply concerned" over the release from house arrest of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and asked Pakistan to "arrest and charge" him for his terrorist crimes.

"The US is deeply concerned that Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement. "The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes."

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head, was freed after midnight Thursday after 10 months of house arrest following an order from the Lahore High Court.

Saeed, accused by the US and India of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, was placed under house arrest on January this year. After his release, he vowed to continue the "jihad" for Jammu and Kashmir's "independence".

"Just as I am free today, Kashmir will also be free one day," Saeed told his supporters. "It is because of Kashmir that India has been after me."

--IANS

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The US on Friday demanded that Pakistan arrest Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed, who carries a $10 million US bounty, and charge him for his crimes.

The State Department said in a statement that the US is "deeply concerned" about the release of Saeed, who heads "a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens".

Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/8 terrorist attacks on Mumbai that killed over 160 people, was let go by Pakistani authorities in Lahore after a court refused to extend the detention that ended Thursday and ordered him released from house arrest.

After Donald Trump, who had made strong statements during his campaign about fighting terrorism, assumed the US presidency, Islamabad placed him under house arrest.

In 2008, the US Treasury Department declared Saeed a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order and placed him under sanctions.

His release came in defiance of Trump's calls for Pakistan to act against terrorists endangering regional security and warned that it had "much to lose" by harbouring terrorist.

Last month aduring a visit to Pakistan, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson demanded that Islamabad step up "efforts to eradicate militants and terrorists operating within the country".

Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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The US Navy on Friday called off its search for three sailors missing since two days when a transport plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean on its way to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.

Eight people were rescued but the remaining three sailors have not been found, the Navy's 7th Fleet based in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, said in a statement.

The Reagan had been leading the search effort, joined by eight US Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft, the Washington Post reported.

They had covered nearly 1,000 square nautical miles in the search for the sailors, who had been missing since the C-2A Greyhound crashed about halfway between Okinawa and Guam on Wednesday afternoon.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families," said Rear Admiral Marc Dalton, Commander of Task Force 70.

"As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates."

The cause of the crash was not known and an investigation is being conducted.

--IANS

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A Delhi court on Friday granted 10 days interim bail to Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) agent Anand Chauhan in a disproportionate assets case involving Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

Special Judge Bharat Parashar released Chauhan on interim bail to attend his niece's marriage in Shimla from November 25 to December 5.

The court asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs two lakh and two sureties of like amount each.

The court directed him not to leave the country or influence witnesses and tamper with evidence in the case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed a chargesheet against Chauhan and accused him of investing Virbhadra Singh's "tainted" money of Rs 5.14 crore in LIC policies purchased in Virbhadra's name and those of his family members, including wife Pratibha Singh.

The ED booked him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

A probe had allegedly found that during his tenure as the Union Steel Minister from 2009 to 2011, Virbhadra Singh had accumulated assets worth Rs 6.03 crore in his name and in the name of his family members, which were disproportionate to his known sources of income.

--IANS

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It is undoubtedly a great achievement for to make it where the courageous Radhabinod Pal didnt 70 years ago. But amidst the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth in Britain at Sir Christopher Greenwoods defeat for a seat on the International Court of Justice, I cannot but reflect whether the honour in the Hague will make any difference to Indias tortuous legal system.
This is where we stand in the India of 2017: you could either choose to know more about the mysterious death of a judge presiding over an investigation into the acts of Indias second most powerful man, or you could outrage about a movie made by a filmmaker of middling talent and featuring an entirely imaginary character in medieval India. We have become so detached from reality that the overwhelming majority of public attention is fixed on the latter; the former, if it is covered at all, is pushed into a few scant column inches on the inside pages of the more courageous newspapers.
Delhi Chief Minister on Friday demanded a probe into the death of Justice B H Loya. He said the circumstances of the judge Loya's death, as reported in the media, come across as suspicious and leads one to believe that he was murdered.
Clarifying his remark on people suffering from cancer, Assam Minister on Thursday said he was quoted out of context in a bid to sensationalise his speech and offered an unconditional apology.

In a statement, the minister said, "My speech on divine justice and Karmic deficiency is being quoted out of context. In their bid to trivialise and sensationalise, no one is looking at the content of my whole speech and intent... However, if owing to the blatant distortions, it has caused any anxiety and problems to anyone, I hereby offer my unconditional apology for the pain."

"It was said in the context of helping poor students of Government schools and request to teachers not to neglect them. It was also a message to indicate district education officers not to harass teachers. I reiterate at no point my statement was intended to cause any pain to cancer patients," the minister added.

He said that the way a section of and local media and a few in the Congress Party are playing the story, it will cause agony among cancer patients and their relatives.

"I lost my father, best friends and relatives to cancer. And everyone in Assam and outside know my passion to work on containing cancer through best possible cancer treatment facilities, including free chemotherapy, financial scheme to help up to Rs 2 lakhs to cancer patient, one state-of-art cancer hospital in Guwahati with PET CT, banning chewing tobacco and now starting a grid of hospital in across Assam are some of my humble contribution as the health minister of Assam," Sarma said.

He added a philosophical discourse designed purely to help poor students is being misused and which in turn is causing avoidable anxiety among surviving cancer patients and their close ones.

"I still believe divine justice will catch up with each and every one us for trying to cash in on someone else's pain to gain political mileage and cheap publicity. Detachment from life, karmic action and rebirth are some of the core principles of Hindu philosophy developed over last 5000 years. Western thought process can never dominate or dilute the spirit and eternal meaning of our philosophy," the minister asserted.

Sarma further said so many oncologists in TV studio are citing reasons for cancer, adding, "But why it is happening to certain individuals and not to other in spite of living under the same environment? Science has not been able to give answer to many of our perennial queries and therefore at our last moment, we are asked to pray God."

"While I am not against science, I strongly believe there is strong merit in spirituality and teachings contained in Bhagavad Gita as well as those of our ancestors. I once again offer my apology to those who might have been hurt owing to this absolutely mindless controversy triggered by few political 'desperado'," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sarma sparked controversy by saying that cancer and accidents suffered by people are "divine justice" served for their past sins.

Speaking at an event in Guwahati, Sarma said, "God makes us suffer when we sin. Sometimes we come across young men getting inflicted with cancer or young men meeting with accidents. If you observe the background, you will come to know that it's divine justice, and nothing else. We have to suffer that divine justice."

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader further elaborated, saying that the sins could be of this lifetime or previous life, or could be of the parents for which the person has to pay.

Lashing out at Sarma, Congress leader P Chidambaram tweeted, "Cancer is divine justice for sins' says Assam Minister Sharma. That is what switching parties does to a person."

Notably, Sarma left the Congress to join the BJP in 2015 over ideological differences.

He received flak from few other politicos as well, who called him out for his insensitivity.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The West Bengal government has seized 1.41 crore fake digital ration cards in the last five years, the Assembly was informed today.

Food supplies minister Jyotipriyo Mullick said that the department recovered 1.41 crore fake digital ration cards between June 2011 and December 2016.

Mullick told the Assembly that the department has terminated licences of 72 distributors and 771 ration shops since they were involved in corruption.

The minister also said that the government has distributed digital ration cards to 8.42 crore people.

Around 75,000 digital ration cards were yet to be distributed, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Thirteen Burmese people were killed today when their van collided with a truck in central Thailand and burst into flames, police said, the latest gruesome accident on the kingdom's notoriously dangerous roads.

The van was travelling from the border town of Mae Sot, a common entry point for Myanmar migrant workers, to Bangkok when it crashed into the 10-wheeler in Singburi province early this morning, said a local police officer.

"Authorities are still identifying (the victims) as their bodies were heavily burned," the officer said, adding that the Thai driver was also killed in the accident.

Thailand's roads are some of the most lethal in the region.

Around 24,000 people die on the kingdom's roads each year, a figure well above the relatively prosperous country's neighbours, according to data from the World Health Organisation.

While more than half of accidents involve motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians, bus crashes involving migrant workers and other travellers are also common.

Earlier this month four Japanese tourists and their Thai guide were killed in Ayutthaya province when their van crashed into a truck and was engulfed by flames, leaving no survivors.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 155 worshippers were killed and 120 others injured when militants struck a mosque during Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, in the deadliest terror attack in the country.

Miliatants launched a targeted bomb and gun attack on the al-Rowda mosque in Al-Arish city during the Friday prayers, the state-run MENA agency reported.

After the bomb ripped through the mosque, the gunmen on four off-road vehicles opened fire on the worshippers who tried to escape from the site after the explosion, it said.

About 50 ambulances were rushed to the attack site to shift the injured to hospitals.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

The Egypt government has announced three days of mourning, even as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi chaired an emergency meeting with officials to review security situation after the deadly attack.

Egypt's North Sinai region has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has witnessed a series of terror attacks this year claiming scores of lives.

On May 26, gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others.

On April 9, two suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services at churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta left 46 people dead.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 184 worshippers were killed and 125 others injured when heavily-armed militants struck a mosque during Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, in the deadliest terror attack in the country.

The militants launched a targeted bomb and gun attack on the al-Rowda mosque in Al-Arish city during the Friday prayers, the state-run MENA agency reported.

After the bomb ripped through the mosque, the gunmen on four off-road vehicles opened fire on the worshippers who tried to escape from the site after the explosion, it said.

Pictures from the scene show rows of bloodied victims inside the mosque.

The blasts from improvised explosive devices caused considerable damage to the mosque, Ahram Online said.

Speaking to state-run Masriya TV station, Egyptian health ministry spokesman Khalid Mujahid described the incident as a "terrorist attack."



One report said the target appeared to be supporters of the security forces who were praying at the mosque.

Local people are also quoted as saying that followers of Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, regularly gathered at the mosque.

Islamist jihadist groups, including so-called Islamic State (IS), see Sufis as heretics.

About 50 ambulances were rushed to the attack site to shift the injured to hospitals.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack and there is no word yet on what happened to the militants involved. However, it bears the hallmarks of an attack by ISIS, reports said.

There have been regular attacks blamed on militants on the Sinai peninsula since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak, but this is the deadliest assault of its kind.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

The Egypt government has announced three days of mourning, even as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi chaired an emergency meeting with officials to review security situation after the deadly attack.

Egypt has witnessed a series of terror attacks this year claiming scores of lives.

On May 26, gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others.

On April 9, two suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services at churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta left 46 people dead.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 200 worshippers were killed and 130 others injured when heavily-armed militants struck a mosque during Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, in the deadliest terror attack in the country.

The militants launched a targeted bomb and gun attack on the al-Rowda mosque in Al-Arish city during the Friday prayers, the state-run MENA agency reported.

After the bomb ripped through the mosque, the gunmen on four off-road vehicles opened fire on the worshippers who tried to escape from the site after the explosion, it said.

At least 200 worshippers were killed and 130 others injured in the attack, Ahram Online said.

Pictures from the scene show rows of bloodied victims inside the mosque.

The blasts from improvised explosive devices caused considerable damage to the mosque, the website said.

Speaking to state-run Masriya TV station, Egyptian health ministry spokesman Khalid Mujahid described the incident as a "terrorist attack."



One report said the target appeared to be supporters of the security forces who were praying at the mosque.

Local people are also quoted as saying that followers of Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, regularly gathered at the mosque.

Islamist jihadist groups, including so-called Islamic State (IS), see Sufis as heretics.

About 50 ambulances were rushed to the attack site to shift the injured to hospitals.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack and there is no word yet on what happened to the militants involved. However, it bears the hallmarks of an attack by ISIS, reports said.

There have been regular attacks blamed on militants on the Sinai peninsula since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak, but this is the deadliest assault of its kind.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

The Egypt government has announced three days of mourning, even as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi chaired an emergency meeting with officials to review security situation after the deadly attack.

Egypt has witnessed a series of terror attacks this year claiming scores of lives.

On May 26, gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others.

On April 9, two suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services at churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta left 46 people dead.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The report of the SIT, which probed the deaths of farmers allegedly due to inhalation of poisonous pesticides in Yavatmal, has revealed that names of 4 farmers, who had committed suicide earlier, also figure in the list of the pesticide victims, an official said today.

According to the official, the report, which was submitted to the government recently, also says that there has been violation of standard operating procedures by several departments, including the home department, headed by Maharashtra chief minister.

As per a state government report, around 21 farmers died in Yavatmal district due to inhalation of poisonous fumes during the spraying of pesticides on cotton plants. Over 400 farmers and labourers have fallen sick, of which around 21 have died, it says. Yavatmal district is also infamous for large number of farmers' suicides.

According to the official, inclusion of the names of the 3-4 farmers, who had killed themselves earlier, in the list of pesticide poisoning deaths reported in September- October this year, could have been done at the departmental level.

A senior IAS officer posted in the state Agriculture Department alleged, "It is a deliberate attempt to show these suicide cases as victims of pesticide inhalation possibly to misappropriate the compensation amount (at the departmental level) given by the state government."



"It is not just about inserting the farmers' names for compensation. It seems officials from the health, agriculture, home and revenue departments, apart from private companies selling these pesticides, are involved in this mess..." he alleged.

The SIT report will be soon be made public, after the government officials hold a high-level meeting next week.

"In case of these 3-4 farmers, there was no post-mortem report, that is why the issue was probed further. It revealed that those farmers had already committed suicides and their names were mentioned in the accidental death reports of the state government," he added.

"All this raises some serious questions. How come local health officials ignored such basic procedure and allowed mentioning of farmers' names into the list of alleged victims of pesticide fumes? In such cases, the revenue and home departments also come into the picture and it will have to be probed further as well," the officer said.

In the report, the SIT also mentioned that the local government doctors collected the blood samples of pesticide victims and in most cases, asked their relatives to get the samples tested from the Nagpur-based laboratories.

These instructions were given despite the government having funds to carry out such blood tests and obtain results, the report said.

"Who will go to Nagpur, which is 150 kms away from Yavatmal to first submit the sample and later collect the report? Hence, many relatives did not do it and the samples were lost. And then local health officers submitted a report that pesticides were not responsible for these deaths," the officer said.

On the role of private companies in the pesticide deaths, the official said, "As per our information, a company introduced a new variety of BT cotton into the market without prior permission. Incidentally, this under-development variety was sown in Yavatmal and it grew bigger than the normal height of a cotton plant.

"Some local farmers have claimed that because of such height, the spraying of pesticides increased the exposure of farmers to the chemicals and it worsened the situation," he said.

"We will find out how the company brought its BT cotton variety, which was still under development, into the market without permission. This is nothing but playing with the lives of farmers," the officer said.

On October 11, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced setting up of special investigation team (SIT), which probed the farmers' deaths allegedly due to pesticide inhalation. The three-member committee comprised Inspector General of Amravati, Divisional Commissioner of Amravati and Joint director of Public Health Department from the state secretariat.

"Not a single person from local department, such as district collector or district health officer was included in this committee," the IAS officer said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Five juveniles in school uniform allegedly stabbed to death an 18-year-old college student in a bus on southeast Delhi's Mathura Road, following which four of them were apprehended, the police said today.

The incident took place yesterday when the victim was checking the pockets of the accused on suspicion that they had stolen his mobile phone, they said.

The juveniles were apprehended today, the police said.

Mohd Anas had boarded a cluster bus from Ashram to go to Jamia Nagar. The accused, who had also boarded the bus from the same stop, snatched Anas' phone which led to an argument, they said.

When Anas started searching their pockets, one of the juveniles stabbed him in the neck while another restrained him, the police said, adding following the incident, the juveniles jumped off the bus and fled.

The victim was rushed to the Holy Family Hospital where he was declared brought dead, they said.

Eyewitnesses told the police that the accused were wearing the uniform of a government school and were in their teens.

On the basis of the information gathered from other passengers, the police started scanning government schools in areas near the bus stop.

Five juveniles, allegedly involved in the incident, were identified. They were studying in class eight, nine and 10, and were residents of Ali Vihar and Badarpur, a police official said.

Four of them were apprehended today and the snatched mobile phone was also recovered, he said.

Police are probing whether they were earlier involved in similar incidents.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A bomb explosion during Friday prayers near a mosque in the Egypt's restive North Sinai injured at least 75 people, police said.

The bomb was planted near al-Rowda mosque in Al-Arish and went off during prayers.

The gunmen opened fire on worshippers during the Friday prayers and also on the people fleeing out from the mosque after the explosion, the sources said.

Khaled Megahed, Health Ministry spokesperson said that 75 people were injured during the attack.

However, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Egypt's North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January, 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belong to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 85 people were killed and 80 others injured when suspected militants launched a bomb and gun attack on a mosque during Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, state media reported today.

The bomb, which was planted near al-Rowda mosque in Al- Arish city, went off during the Friday prayer, security sources said.

The gunmen in in four off-road vehicles opened fire on the people who tried to exit the mosque after the explosion, MENA state agency reported.

About 50 ambulances rushed to the attack site to shift the injured to hospitals, it said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

The Egypt government has announced three days of mourning, even as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was set to hold an emergency meeting with officials to discuss the incident.

Egypt's North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two well known film actors have been booked for allegedly forging documents and getting their vehicles registered in the union territory of Puducherry to evade motor vehicle tax in Kerala.

Police said actors Fahadh Faasil and Amala Paul used fake documents to register their cars in Puducherry to evade the 20 per cent tax in Kerala on luxury cars costing Rs 20 lakh and above.

They said the actors, residents of Kerala, had availed of vehicle loans from Kerala and got their vehicles registered in Puducherry.

They forged documents to show that they were residents of the union territory and registered the vehicles there to evade a motor tax of vehicles above Rs 20 lakh,police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A suicide bomber today rammed his motorcycle into a vehicle, killing a senior Pakistani police officer and his gunman in Peshawar city, capital of the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Additional Inspector General (AIG) Headquarters Ashraf Noor and his gunman were killed and six cops escorting the vehicle were injured in the blast, police said.

Ashraf Noor was on his way to work when his vehicle came under the attack. The vehicle caught fire after the blast and a thick cloud of smoke could be seen billowing from the area, police said.

The blast was so powerful that the windowpanes of the passing vehicles also broke and the nearby trees caught fire.

The suicide bomber, on a motorbike, targeted the police convoy. The blast appeared to be a suicide attack, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Tahir Khan was quoted as saying by the Dawn .

The CCPO confirmed the death of the AIG and added that at least six policemen were injured and shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex.

Following the blast, security officials cordoned off the area and began a search operation in the surrounding area.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the report said.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi strongly condemned the blast in Peshawar. The premier also lauded the sacrifices of policemen in the fight against terrorism.

He said that dastardly acts of the militants cannot deter our law-enforcement agencies and the nation in taking the fight to its logical conclusion. Our resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism cannot be shaken, Abbasi said.

For decades the city of Peshawar has faced the threat of militants, due to its status as a front line for the ongoing war on terror as well as its proximity to the restless tribal areas and the Pak-Afghan border.

In September, at least three policemen were killed by two Taliban gunmen in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Air India plans to introduce two non-stop flights per week between Birmingham and Amritsar in the new year to meet the increasing consumer demand from the Midlands region to Punjab, Birmingham Airport said in a statement today.

The airport's aviation director, William Pearson, said the new non-stop connection will add to the existing daily direct flight to Delhi.

"With over 200,000 British-Indian people who travel to India to visit friends and relatives, and for tourism and business interests, this additional destination shows the large demand within the region for non-stop Amritsar services from the Midlands," he said.

"Air India has been a successful partner for over four years and offers great connections to India with services operated by the new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft," he added.

Pankaj Srivastava, director of commercial at Air India, said the new flights are in response to the consumer demand from the Midlands region to Punjab.

"Air India is always very sensitive to the needs of the consumer and is pleased to be connecting the two cities, thereby adding a new city pairing for Air India's expanding global network with the only non-stop UK Amritsar service," he said.

Preet Kaur Gill, Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, said the new flights will lead to more business cooperation between the two regions.

"These flights will not only make it easier for Punjabis in the area to travel to Amritsar, but also provides a great opportunity for local and regional businesses to both deepen existing ties and create new ones," said Gill, who is also the councillor for the UK borough of Sandwell which is paired with the city of Amritsar.

Air India officials in New Delhi did not respond immediately.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kolkata Police today arrested a man allegedly linked to two terrorists of the banned Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), who were held earlier this week, near a cinema hall in the busy Sealdah area, a senior officer said.

Md Sahadat Hossain was arrested by a special task force after the two ABT terrorists - Samsad Mia and Rizaul Islam - provided information to the police on his dealings with them, the police officer said.

Shahadat is suspected to have been helping several others in crossing the porous India-Bangladesh border, he said.

"It appears that Sahadat has helped many from Bangladesh to cross the border. He used to do this in exchange for money. We are grilling him to find out how many people he has helped in crossing the border," the police officer said.

A city court has sent him to police custody till December 5.

On Tuesday, the STF arrested Mia and Islam with arms supplier Monotosh Dey and seized several fake documents and arms from them. They are suspected to be behind the killing of secular bloggers and writers in Bangladesh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Engineers from the Indian Army have started work on three foot-overbridges (FOBs) at suburban stations in Mumbai after the Railways gave necessary approvals, a senior official said today.

The Army engineers have begun piling and foundation work for FOBs at Elphinstone Road on the Western Railway, and Currey Road and Ambivli on the Central Railway after obtaining necessary approvals from the transport PSU, said the Railway official.

The official said the permission from the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) for the FOB at Elphinstone Road was expected "any moment".

He said the General Arrangement Drawing (GAD) of the Elphinstone Road FOB was submitted by the Army engineers yesterday.

The Railways and Army have jointly set January 31, 2018 as the deadline to construct the three FOBs, including the one at Elphinstone Road, where 23 people were killed in a stampede on September 29.

The under-construction bridge at Elphinstone is an extension of the current north-end FOB at Parel station and will land at the west side of the Elphinstone Road station. It is estimated to cost Rs 11 crore, officials said.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had visited the Elphinstone Road station a few weeks ago and announced the January 31 deadline for completing the three FOBs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig (Retd) B D Mishra today called on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at New Delhi and discussed various issues including recruitment of the state's youth in Assam Rifles.

The governor, who is on an official visit to the National Capital, also apprised the union minister about absence of scheduled caste candidates in the state and said the vacancies remained unfilled in the states quota for recruitment in Assam Rifles, an official release said.

He requested Singh to see to it that the states scheduled caste vacancies be transferred to scheduled tribe so that the recruitment numbers could justifiably be met for the benefit of eligible youth from the state.

Mishra, who recently met the Director General of Assam Rifles, called for further strengthening of the paramilitary force. He also suggested empowering the paramilitary forces to apprehend any person engaged in unlawful activity and attach officers from Narcotic Department with Assam Rifles units for prompt and effective action to control the drug menace in the state.

Expressing concern over the depleting population in the border areas due to non availability of infrastructure for the people living in remote areas, the governor suggested that a modest beginning could be made by taking up 3-5 villages and making them self sufficient in terms of dwelling, toilet facilities, health centres, schools, small shopping complex, water facilities, communication and emergency helipad.

Ration support could also be extended to them the same way as is being done to many villages in border areas, he said.

Such schemes would go a long way in confidence building and sensitive border security scheme, the governor pointed out.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today said the Assam government would celebrate 'Lachit Divas' at various state capitals in the country from next year to promote the ideals of Lachit Borphukan -- the legendary general of Assam's history.

Taking part in the Lachit Divas celebration at the statue of the General at Brahmaputra riverfront here, Sonowal said Borphukan is one of the best examples of heroism and patriotism in world history.

Lachit Borphukan was a commander in the Ahom kingdom in Assam known for his leadership and valour in the 1671 Battle of Saraighat that thwarted a drawn-out attempt by Mughal forces under the command of Ramsingh I to take back Kamrup now modern day Guwahati.

"People all across the country and especially the youth, must know about his heroic deeds and how he fought for his motherland even when he was severely ill. The youth must emulate his ideals and get inspired by his vision and patriotism," Sonowal said.

The first such countrywide celebration would take place in New Delhi followed by state capitals such as Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata in a phased manner, he said.

Sonowal also called upon the Assamese diaspora to join hands with the state government in successfully celebrating Lachit Divas in different parts of the country.

Sonowal said a chapter on the life and accomplishments of the Ahom dynasty 17th century army General Lachit Borphukan would be included in the school curriculum.

He also said the park in front of Lachit Borphukan's statue on the bank of River Brahmaputra would be shortly developed as part of the Smart City mission reflecting the rich legacy of Borphukan.

Cultural Affairs Minister Naba Kumar Doley in his speech highlighted the secular nature of Lachit Borphukan's character citing the example of Ismail Siddiqui alias Bagh Hazarika who was one of his able lieutenants in the fight against Mughals.

Doley also urged the people to follow Lachit Borphukan's footsteps to maintain peace and harmony amongst all communities in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 54 people were killed and 75 others injured when a bomb exploded near a mosque during Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, state media reported today.

The bomb, which was planted near al-Rowda mosque in Al- Arish city, went off during the Friday prayer, security sources said.

Gunmen also opened fire on the people who tried to exit the mosque after the explosion, the sources added.

Earlier, the Egyptian TV reported that 150 people were injured in the explosion.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will hold an emergency meeting with officials to discuss the incident.

About 50 ambulances ruched to the place of the incident to transfer the injured to hospitals.

Egypt's North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An Auckland-bound passenger has been apprehended at the Delhi airport for allegedly carrying three live bullets in his bag, official sources said today.

The man, identified as Baljit S, was going through security checks at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport yesterday when a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel detected a bullet-like object in his cabin luggage, they said.

Three live bullets were seized from the man's bag. He was handed over to the police as he could not produce valid documents for carrying the ammunition, the sources said.

He was travelling to Auckland via Bangkok, they added.

Carrying arms and ammunition on board an aircraft without authorisation is banned.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today directed the police to be vigilant against radicalisation campaigns on social media and step up crackdown on drug smugglers.

He also asked the police force to maintain "greater vigilance" along the Indo-Pak Border as "infiltration activity moves southwards once the passes close due to inclement winter weather", an official release said.

The police should remain vigilant against radicalisation campaigns being carried out on social media platforms, he said at a high-level meeting here to review the law and order situation in Punjab.

The chief minister said prevention of terror-related crimes was his government's priority and directed officials to combat such threats to Punjab's peace and stability.

Emphasising his government's "zero-tolerance approach in handling cases of sacrilege", Singh said attempts to disturb the state's communal harmony would be strictly dealt with.

Deputy commissioners and district police officers would be held responsible for any incidents of sacrilege in their respective areas, he said, directing them to have CCTV cameras installed through community participation.

Singh also instructed police officials to crackdown on drug smugglers.

Police commissioners, senior superintendents of police (SSPs), sub-divisional police officers and station house officers would be held accountable for supply and sale of drugs in their jurisdiction, he warned.

The chief minister said that district police officials must lead from the front and carry out raids under their supervision against terrorist and militant elements, and drug smugglers.

He instructed the officials to take firm action against gangsters and stern steps to control petty street crimes such as snatching to instill a sense of safety and confidence among citizens.

The chief minister directed the Home Department to build a statewide database to keep a tab on arms dealers and to also monitor the supply and inventory of arms and ammunition.

The meeting was attended by Punjab DGP Suresh Arora, DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta, DGP (Law and Order) H S Dhillon and SSPs and SPs among others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Muslim organisations today reacted sharply to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's strong pitch for building a Ram Temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, terming it as a direct challenge to the apex court before which the matter wass pending, and demanded action against him.

They also alleged that the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) chief was trying to help the BJP in the upcoming Gujarat elections by diverting the attention of voters from "real" issues with such statements.

"The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has faith in the judiciary and will try to implement its order... by issuing this statement Mohan Bhagwat has taken law into his hands," the spokesman of the AIMPLB, Maulana Khaild Saifullah Rehmani, said.

He demanded that the government take action against "such people who are openly showing disrespect to the courts and taking law into their hands".

Bhagwat has issued "a one-sided statement that only a temple will be constructed at the site and this is unacceptable to us", Rehmani said, adding this amounts to showing disrespect to the court.

The convenor of Babri Masjid Action Committee and member of the Board, Zafaryab Jilani, alleged that such remarks "challenging" the apex court are a threat to democracy.

Jilani, who is also a senior counsel, said that it appears that Bhagwat has tried to help the BJP in the Gujarat Assembly elections through his statement.

"Bhagwat has given an open challenge to the Supreme Court .... As per the Constitution, the apex court is supreme and its orders have to be implemented in the country ...it has asked for maintaining status quo on the site ...through this statement Bhagwat has given a direct challenge to the Supreme Court and this is also a threat for democracy," he said.

The spokesman of All India Shia Personal Law Board, Maulana Yasoob Abbas, said "Sangh chief is not above the Supreme Court, he will also have to accept the court verdict".

"Despite the issue pending in the court, Mohan Bhagwat has given this statement only to divert the attention of voters in Gujarat from real issues," Abbas said.

Addressing the "Dharma Sansad", a congregation of 2,000 Hindu sages, mutt heads and VHP leaders from across the country in Udipi earlier today, Bhagwat said there should be no ambiguity that Ram Temple will be built at Ayodhya.

"We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of our faith. It will not change," Bhagwat said.

The RSS chief said that after years of efforts and sacrifice, building the Ram temple seemed possible now, while also noting that the matter was in the court.

"Ram Mandir only will be constructed and nothing else. It will be constructed there only," Bhagwat said.

He said the temple would be constructed in the same grandeur as it existed before, using the "same stones" under the guidance of those who were the flag-bearers of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement for the last 25 years.

The Supreme Court will on December 5 commence the final hearing on the cross-appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute.

The high court had ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acre area at Ayodhya among the parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Shiv Sena today said if the government decided to introduce a legislation for a ban on triple talaq it would permanently free Muslim women.

The demand comes at a time when the Centre is mulling bringing in a legislation in the Winter Session of Parliament to put an end to instantaneous triple talaq which is still in practise despite the Supreme Court striking it down.

A ministerial committee has been set up to propose a suitable legislation or amend the existing penal provisions, which would make instantaneous triple talaq an offence.

"It would a good step if the Union government introduces a bill on triple talaq as it would permanently free Muslim women. The tradition should be banned completely and its exercise should considered as a crime," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said.

"Earlier, the voice of Shah Bano was suppressed. But through the case of Shayara Bano, it would be the dawn of Muslim women's freedom," the party claimed.

In the editorial, the party took potshots at its senior partner by raising its long-standing promises of constructing a Ram temple in Ayodhya, implementing uniform civil code and repealing Article 370 which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

"The way the Union government is following directives of the Supreme Court on triple talaq, it should do the same with the Uniform Civil Code. The Supreme Court had given directives to the Centre thrice over the UCC but still the government did not take any steps for it," the party claimed.

"The issue of Article 370 can be solved but it is always opposed by Kashmiri leaders," it said.

"And for Ram temple, the BJP has sufficient political power at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh. If the government takes it seriously, it can complete the promises it made to the people," the party added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A city court today sought the response from the Enforcement Directorate on an application filed by Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan seeking bail in a Rs 5,000-crore money laundering case.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma directed the agency to file its reply by November 29 when it will hear the matter.

In his application, the accused, who is currently in the judicial custody, sought the relief saying he was not required for further investigation and no purpose will be served by keeping him in custody.

Dhawan, arrested on November 1, was sent to custody on November 15 by the court after Rana had said he was not needed for further custodial interrogation.

The ED had alleged that Dhawan had facilitated the directors of Gujarat-based pharma firm Sterling Biotech Ltd (SBL) in the purchase of several properties and helped in misuse and diversion of the credit facilities of several bank totalling Rs 5,000 crore.

"Rs 1.5 crore was received by the accused from SBL group. Prior to that, the amount of bank loans was rotated in various group companies of SBL group," according to the agency.

The lower court had on November 14 issued non-bailable warrants against two other persons -- SBL directors Nitin and Chetan Sandesara. The agency told the court that Chetan may have left the country.

Dhawan was arrested in an alleged bank fraud case involving SBL under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The firm and Dhawan were also being probed by the ED for allegedly bribing senior Income Tax department officials in an earlier criminal complaint.

The CBI had recently booked Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, former director Andhra Bank Anup Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case.

It had alleged that the company had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which had turned into non-performing assets.

The FIR had also alleged that the total pending dues of the group companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016. The ED had taken a cognisance of this FIR to file a money laundering case against them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
president claimed today that the BJP might make its main plank in the next parliamentary election to cover up its "failures".

The former chief minister also said the next Lok Sabha polls, scheduled for 2019, might be advanced, and alleged that central agencies are being misused to "finish" the .

"To cover up failures of its central and state governments, the BJP can make the (main) plank in the general election and the work on building a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya would begin (ahead of polls)," she said.

was addressing party workers from and Chhattisgarh at a function here.

"This time around, there is a possibility that the Lok Sabha polls may be held early," the chief told her partymen, who felicitated her by giving a silver sword and a gold crown on a silver plate.

The Dalit leader said the BJP can play "tricks" in the name of patriotism to win polls and weaken her party. "This party (the BJP) can play tricks in the name of patriotism to win elections and weaken the ."



asked BSP workers to strengthen the party in and Chhattisgarh, the BJP-ruled states where Assembly elections are due in 2018.

"Don't sit quietly. Go back home, start work and strengthen the party. The people of and Chhattisgarh have made up their mind to throw out the BJP governments, according to reports coming in," she said.

She said the people from disadvantaged sections of the society were reaping the benefit of reservation in jobs and education primarily due to Dalit icon B R Ambedkar's efforts and not because of the Congress or the BJP.

"The political parties (averse to the BSP) are unhappy with the facilities you all are getting (due to quota). Now, these political parties, without extending reservation in the private sector, were outsourcing work of big ministries.

"(In this way), they are curtailing the reservation facility. Reservation in promotion has almost become minimal," the former chief minister said.

"Central agencies, especially the CBI, the Income Tax department and the ED, are being misused to weaken and finish the opposition and make the country opposition-free," Mayawati claimed.

"Besides, in the name of fighting black money and corruption, the leaders of are being targeted. On the other hand, they are covering up allegations against their own people," she alleged, adding the "media has been made ineffective".

Without naming the BJP, Mayawati alleged, "They have weakened democracy to a large extent. Their dictatorship...is prevailing in the entire country. They have gone far beyond the Congress party's 1975 Emergency.
Security forces today recovered the body of an unidentified militant killed in an infiltration bid foiled by Army in Keran sector near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

The body of the militant was recovered during search operations, a police official said, adding, it was handed over to local auqaf committee for last rites.

The security forces recovered one AK rifle, one UBGL, six UBGL grenades, three AK magazines and 126 rounds from the spot where the body of the militant was found, the official said.

One soldier was also killed while foiling the infiltration bid and two other soldiers sustained injuries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bombay High Court today annulled the election of Shiv Sena MLA and Maharashtra minister Arjun Khotkar's election to from Jalna in 2014 on the ground that he filed his nomination papers after the deadline had expired.

Khotkar is currently the Minister of State for textile, animal Husbandry, dairy development and fisheries.

Justice T V Nalawade of the Aurangabad bench of the high court passed the order on an election petition by Kailash Gorantyal of the Congress party who had contested against Khotkar.

Gorantyal had claimed in his petition that Khotkar filed his nominations after the expiry of the deadline. The petitioner also prayed to the court to declare him elected from the seat.

The court said though it was nullifying Khotkar's election, it will not pass any order declaring Gorantyal as MLA.

The bench stayed its order for a period of four weeks to enable Khotkar to appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.

"The high court bench has given the ruling on a technical issue. We will challenge it in the Supreme Court," Khotkar, a fourth-term MLA, said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Brett Ratner, who is facing sexual harassment allegations from multiple women, has been barred by a posh salon in Beverly Hills.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ratner will no longer be entertained at the Sally Hershberger's La Cienega branch, where he was a regular.

Earlier this month, six women claimed the producer sexually harassed them, including actors Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge.

Actor Ellen Page also accused the producer of homophobic behaviour and that he outed her on the sets of 2006 movie "X- Men: The Last Stand".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lawmakers from across the country would converge here in February next year to take part in a four-day meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association - India Region, Bihar Vidhan Sabha Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary said today.

"The meeting of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association - India Region will be held in Patna from February 16 to February 19, 2018. The meeting will be Chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and attended by members of both Houses of Parliament", Choudhary told reporters here.

"In addition to members from Parliament, those who will be taking part in the meeting include Speakers and Chairpersons respectively of legislative assemblies and councils of state. Each assembly and council can send one member in addition to the Speaker or the Chairman", he said.

Choudhary, who recently took part in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference at Dhaka, followed by a post conference study tour of Hong Kong, Japan and the US claimed "upon observing the functioning of lawmaking bodies in various parts of the world, I can say with confidence that the legislature in our country is among the best and the most vibrant across the globe".

"There may be instances of unruly behaviour by members of the legislature from time to time which end up grabbing headlines. But, it would be no exaggeration to say that our legislative system is second to none when it comes to productivity and quality of debates", the Bihar Speaker claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha today chaired the first meeting of Prabhari officers, tasked with the responsibility of rapid transformation of 115 backward districts, and expressed confidence that they would succeed in their mission.

For each of the 115 backward districts, senior level officials of the central government at the rank of additional secretary and joint secretary have been nominated as Prabhari officer.

The areas have been ranked on the basis of state of poverty, health, education and infrastructure.

The move is in consonance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a 'New India' by 2022.

According to an official release, Sinha said in his keynote address that it is an important initiative of making difference in the lives of millions of citizens in these districts.

He advised the Prabhari officers to immediately form teams with state representatives and bring convergence in their effort.

Sinha pointed out that funding is not a constraint in this programme as already, large funds are available under different schemes.

He advised the officers to also explore the availability of funds in District Mineral funds, wherever available for this purpose.

In addition, Sinha asked them to use flexi-funds which are significant in amount and are available under different schemes of the government.

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant stressed on the need of dramatic improvement in Human Development Index in these backward districts.

The government is committed to making all round efforts to achieve these objectives in partnership with states, Kant said, advising the officers to assist district administrations in articulation of their vision for 2022.

Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba noted that if these districts are transformed, there would be tremendous improvement in security environment of the country.

He pointed out that while 35 districts have been selected on the basis of reported violence by Left Wing Extremism, 55 districts out of 115 are affected by it.

Another 15, including districts in J&K and North East, are affected by terrorism, he said.

The 115 backward districts identified by the government include Naxal-hit Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Banka, Nawada, Jamui and Aurangabad (all in Bihar), Koraput and Malkangiri (in Odisha), Khammam (Telangana), Gadchiroli (Maharashtra) and Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).

Besides, several districts in Jharkhand, including Paschimi Singhbhoom, Purbi Singhboom, Bokaro, Ranchi and Latehar, and Chhattisgarh's Bastar, Kanker, Sukma, Dantewada, Kondagaon Narayanpur and Bijapur have been identified as backward.

A prabhari (in-charge) officer, has also been appointed by the Centre for Morbu district in poll-bound Gujarat, according to the order.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Canadian Film and TV industry are taking steps to end workplace sexual harassment and make environment safer for women in the wake of sexual harassment scandal in Hollywood.

In a statement posted on ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) official website, Canadian industry representative said that they will "collaborate on an industry-wide response to sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying, and violence".

ACTRA is a union of more than 23,000 professional performers working in English-language recorded media in Canada including TV, film, radio and digital media.

"We agree to zero tolerance for such behaviour. We recognize that increasing gender equality and diversity across our industry is an important part of the solution," the statement stated.

The Canadian industry proposed "enacting an industry-wide code of conduct, clearly defining expectations of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, enforcement and consequences".

The Canadian industry follows the footsteps of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is also planning a new "code of conduct" for its members in the wake of allegations of misconduct against film mogul Harvey Weinstein and several other prominent figures in Hollywood.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The employees of Canara Bank today requested the Centre not to consider cross merger of smaller public sector banks having high NPAs.

"Centre has already ensured the merger of five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with SBI. Now it is pushing for the second round of cross mergers with public sector banks", founder of Canara Bank Staff Federation S Revanna said.

The merger would not bring any relief to the "ailing" banking industry as the increasing Non Performing Assets(NPAs) pass the burden from one entity to another, he said in a press release.

The gross NPA in Canara Bank as on September 30 this year stood at Rs 39,164 crore while the net NPA at Rs 25,166 crore, he said.

The Federation would hold the fourth edition of the two day All India Conference here from tomorrow.

Over 800 delegates were expected to participate in the event which would be formally inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.

During the two day conference discussions and deliberations affecting bank employees and the industry would be taken up, the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Union government has no plan to set up composite townships for displaced Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, according to an RTI reply.

The Union home ministry's reply came in response to a query on the matter by social worker Rohit Choudhary. Ram Krishna Swarnakar, director in the home ministry, said, "This ministry doesn't have any plan to set up composite townships for displaced Kashmiri Pandit migrants."



On the measures taken for the return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, Swarnakar said: "It is advised to you to seek the information directly from the state government of J&K".

Kashmiri Pandits have been demanding the setting up of the townships for their rehabilitation in the Valley.

The RTI reply has come to light on a day the Centre's special representative Dineshwar Sharma was to visit Jammu and Kashmir for his second trip to the state. Sharma is expected to visit migrant camps in Jammu and in the Valley, and listen to their problems.

He met Kashmiri Pandit representatives during his first visit to Kashmir earlier this month and discussed roadmap for their return and rehabilitation. The Pandits had demanded the setting up of a Welfare Board for the community.

Sharma was appointed the Centre's interlocutor on October 23 to hold talks with all stakeholders in an effort to find a lasting peace in the Valley.

Nearly 60,000 Kashmiri Pandit families migrated out of the Valley in the 1990s after militancy surged. Of these, 39,000 families now live in various camps in Jammu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
iStock/Thinkstock(ST. LOUIS) -- Seven people were arrested Friday at a Missouri mall after nearly 100 protesters disrupted Black Friday shopping, according to local media.



Galleria Mall, located near St. Louis, was forced to close because of the protests, mall security told ABC News.



Protesters entered the mall around 1:15 p.m. local time and help their fists up, chanting "No justice, no profit," an eyewitness told ABC News.



They walked through the mall corridors and entered several stores, including a Dillard's. The protests lasted nearly two hours.



Bruce Franks Jr., a Missouri state representative, was one of the people arrested, according to his legislative assistant, Danielle Spradley.



The eyewitness said the protests were peaceful until the arrests happened.



Right at the end of the group, police grabbed people. People ran back to try to help, and the police started throwing them down. It got real ugly, the witness said.



Earlier this month, African-American clergy members and activists announced a boycott of the Galleria Mall and other business in St. Louis. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the protests were in response to police treatment of blacks, bank loan practices and infrastructure neglect in parts of St. Louis.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Cisco Chairman John Chambers will lead a business delegation of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum for the annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) at Hyderabad, beginning November 28.

This year's theme of the GES is 'Women First, Prosperity For All' with an emphasis on womens empowerment and support for women entrepreneurs, the forum said in a statement.

Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to the US President Donald Trump, will lead the American contingent for the three-day summit.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the conference, which will include an audience of about 1,500 people including entrepreneurs, investors, government officials and business representatives from across the world.

US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) President Mukesh Aghi said the summit will provide an opportunity to further develop the relationship between the US and India, particularly from a business and trade perspective.

He said a lot of US companies are looking at investment potential in India.

"Indian government is willing to take tough decisions and carry out structural reforms," Aghi said, adding that continuous focus on further improving the ease of doing business would help India attract investments.

USISPF board members from companies like KKR India, Dell EMC would be part of the USISPF delegation for GES.

GES was previously held in Washington, Istanbul, Dubai, Marrakech, Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur and the Silicon Valley.

This is the first time that the summit will take place in South Asia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China today denied reports that the closure of a key border bridge connecting it with North Korea was aimed at punishing the reclusive Communist state for its defiance over its nuclear programme.

"It was closed temporarily because the North Korean side needs to carry out some maintenance work on this bridge," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a media briefing here.

It will be opened again for passage after repair and maintenance work, he said when asked whether the closure was aimed at punishing North Korea for continuing to pursue its nuclear programme in defiance of UN sanctions and international pressure.

Geng however did not give a time-line for its reopening.

"Just for recent days," Geng said when asked for how long it would be closed.

The 944-metre-long China-North Korea Friendship bridge over the Yalu river in Dandong, Liaoning province is a lifeline for North Korea as it facilitates all essential supplies from its big neighbour.

The river is the border between the two countries. It is the route of 80 per cent of trade and a large amount of personal travel between the neighbours. North Korea is virtually dependent on China for most of its essential goods.

The closure came in the immediate backdrop of the visit of President Xi Jinping's special envoy Song Tao to North Korea.

Reports said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un snubbed China by not meeting him leading to strained ties between the Communist neighbours.

North Korea, regarded as a close ally of China, was reportedly cut up with Beijing over the implementation of UN sanctions that increased pressure on Pyongyang which is not willing to give up its nuclear and missile programmes.

The closure came as relations were strained because of China's sanctions against North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

North Korea's recent missile and nuclear tests demonstrating its ability to launch long-range ballistic missiles have sparked fears that the regime is developing nuclear weapons faster than previously estimated by the US.

Regular joint USSouth Korea military drills as well as US warnings to North Korea have also raised tensions recently in the region and beyond.

Both Beijing and Pyongyang have tried to put a positive spin on Song's trip but have remained tight-lipped about whether the Chinese envoy met the reclusive North Korean leader, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported earlier.

Although Song met Choe Ryong-hae, a vice-chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and Kim's right-hand man, and Ri Su- yong, Pyongyang's top diplomat, analysts said his failure to meet Kim if confirmed was a deliberate snub to Xi and again showed China's limited influence over the unruly regime, it said.

China is also increasingly coming under pressure from US President Donald Trump to use its influence over North Korea to curb Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Nepalese power company today signed a deal with three Chinese firms to develop hydropower projects in Nepal with an investment of up to USD 3 billion.

The joint venture was launched in the capital.

The three Chinese companies are Sichuan Provincial Investment Group (SCIG), Chengdu Xingcheng Investment Group (CXIG) and Qing Yuan Consulting Co (QYEC).

The joint venture between Nepal's Butwal Power Company (BPC) and its Chinese partners will begin with the Lower Manang Marsyangdi Hydroelectric Project located in Western Nepal that would generate over 100 MW of power.

The joint venture is aimed at developing hydro projects that will add up to 1,000 MW to Nepal's electricity grid in the next five years with an investment of up to USD 3 billion, according to media reports here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Feeding banknotes to a caged circus tiger proved costly for an elderly man in China as the big cat bit off two of his fingers.

The tiger was part of a circus being staged at Jingziguan in Henan province on Wednesday.

Bai, 65, approached a caged lion and the tiger, trying to feed them banknotes.

A video posted online showed that the lion picked up the money and started chewing, but the tiger bit his right hand and would not let it go.

Circus staff rushed to his rescue, hitting the tiger with iron bars until it let go of his hand.

"He fainted with a bleeding hand. Two fingers were missing," Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted local media reports as saying.

He was rushed to a hospital and is now out of danger.

His middle finger had been entirely bitten off and he lost half of his ring finger, Bai's granddaughter said.

Another relative of Bai said he had been drinking alcohol before he went to the circus.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The civil aviation ministry is in touch with the district administration here for acquiring land for building an airport terminal near the Hindon airbase for operation of domestic flights, a top district official said.

In August, the Indian Air Force had agreed to allow the use of its Hindon airbase for civilian flights under the government's regional connectivity scheme (RCS).

It would help to take the load off Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport which is facing slot constraints with Hindon serving as the "second" airport in the national capital region for flights operating under the scheme.

Representatives of the civil aviation ministry and the district administration today visited the land at Sikanderpur village near the airbase, District Magistrate Ritu Maheshwari said.

Flights will operate from the runway of airbase. But, keeping in mind the security of the Hindon airbase, a separate gate for passengers would be built, she said.

The RCS, also known as UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik), aims at making flying affordable for the masses by capping airfares on selected short routes -- such as from Delhi to Shimla -- at Rs 2,500 per hour of flight.

Airlines that are awarded routes under the scheme are offered government subsidy and in return need to set aside 50 per cent of the seating capacity for discounted fares.

There are 23 defence airports across the country which are also used as civil enclaves for the purpose of operating commercial flights.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Claiming conflict of interest, the Congress today alleged a company floated by Nitin Gadkari's private secretary has been receiving government funds, and demanded that the Union minister come clean about it.

The BJP, however, rubbished the allegations against Vaibhav Dange as "baseless". It said the Congress' charge stemmed from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "rising popularity and spotlessly clean" governance which has left the opposition party "rattled".

Senior Congress MP Jairam Ramesh listed the alleged "scam" by Dange in a series of alleged irregularities by BJP leaders and their relatives, including its president Amit Shah's son Jay. He also referred to alleged irregularities and conflict of interest in the running of India Foundation of Shaurya Doval, son of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

portal The Wire had published two articles recently about the turnover of a company run by Jay Shah growing manifold after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014, and several Union ministers being directors of India Foundation of Shaurya Doval.

Jay Shah has dragged The Wire to court, filing criminal and civil defamation cases against the portal, while Shaurya Doval rejected the charge that there was any conflict of interest in ministers being directors of India Foundation.

Ramesh said Dange and a man named Motiram Kisanrao Patil floated a company-- Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE)-- on October 9, 2014 with a paid up capital of Rs 1 lakh. The IFGE, Ramesh alleged, received Rs 1.5 crore since its inception.

"...and the money came from the ministries controlled by Gadkari. IFGE organises conclaves and programmes with ministries and PSUs, and receives financial contributions.

"It receives contributions also from corporate entities and persons who deal with the ministries," Ramesh told reporters here.

The Congress leader claimed his allegation was based on information available with the Registrar of Companies.

He said it was "unacceptable" that the minister was unaware of the money being received by Dange's firm.

Ramesh claimed Dange's firm also had the patronage of Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Piyush Goyal but without much elaboration. He only said the company's website had Prabhu's photograph and that the ministry of new and renewable energy supported IFGE when Goyal headed it.

The former Union minister said Dange had violated the Central Civil Service (conduct) Rules that prohibit a public servant from accepting contributions or raising funds.

Ramesh said, according to a corporate filing by the IFGE, its office is at Rohit House on Tolstoy Marg in the national capital. The office, he claimed, is owned by IFGE's national executive member Ravi Boratkar, who is also a director of Purti Power and Sugar Limited owned by the Gadkari family.

"So, Gadkari cannot say he is not aware of the dealings of his private secretary's company...Gadkari should come clear about it...Dange has to resign immediately," the Congress leader demanded.

"This is a quintessential case of conflict of interest... Will the prime minister speak up, act now?" Ramesh asked.

Responding to Ramesh's allegations, BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao said the were "baseless" and aimed at sullying the government's image.

"The Congress party's allegations against Mr Vaibhav Dange are much noise about nothing. Vaibhav himself has refuted these allegations in a written statement," Rao told PTI.

He said the Congress was repeatedly making such allegations hoping "in desperation that something would stick". The only effect of such "flimsy" charges is "erosion" of the Congress' credibility, he said.

"The Modi government is spotlessly clean and a corrupt All India Corrupt Congress can never challenge the BJP's integrity. The Congress would be fooling itself and nobody else by its petty and pointless allegations," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said the Congress in Gujarat has "failed" to play the role of a responsible opposition.

The BJP leader also targeted Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi over the alleged stalling of projects in Gujarat during the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, and said he needs to answer certain questions related to that.

"Instead of replying to these questions, he keeps asking more questions. It is the responsibility of the opposition party to answer questions related to its government when it was in power at the Centre," she told reporters here.

Sitharaman is here to campaign for the BJP for the next month's polls.

Sitharaman said the opposition party's strength in the Gujarat assembly has gone down to 43 as the party has "failed to project an image of a responsible opposition".

"From 57 MLAs in 2012, the Congress is down to 43 MLAs today. The party was rejected four times by the people of Gujarat...What have you (the Congress) done as a responsible opposition party?" she asked.

Sitharaman rejected the Congress criticism of visits by Union ministers to poll-bound Gujarat to campaign for the BJP, saying no work of the government had been hampered due to their trips.

"We are party workers even when we are in the Cabinet. If he (Gandhi) says the work of the central government is hampered (due to our visits), then let him say so. We will say that the work there is going on without any hindrance."



She criticised the Congress for taking its MLAs to a Bengaluru resort to prevent alleged poaching by the ruling BJP ahead of the Rajya Sabha election in July when parts of the state were reeling under floods.

She claimed the UPA government prevented a 32km national highway project in Gujarat on environmental ground.

Sitharaman asked Gandhi to question former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot as to why he wrote to the Centre opposing construction of a dam under the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi's pet "Sujalam Sufalam" project for water harvesting.

Gehlot, now the party's Gujarat election in-charge, "worked against the interest of Gujarat," she said.

The Union minister said a Congress MP from Maharashtra had protested against the Narmada dam.

"He (Gandhi) asks questions instead of giving replies. He will ask questions to the entire world but not to his own MLAs, his own UPA government which created hurdles in construction of dams roads in Gujarat," she said.

She attacked Gandhi for allegedly diverting Rs 2,000- crore party fund to the National Herald Trust.

On the Dokalam issue, the Congress leader should have met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to get details about the stand-off instead of meeting the Chinese ambassador, Sitharaman maintained.

It was an "irresponsible act" on the part of the opposition party, the defence minister said.

Sitharaman said the Congress, when in power, did little to curb black money despite a Supreme Court orders on the issue.

The BJP leader said the Gujarat government has taken a slew of welfare measures for fishermen.

Gandhi earlier had an interaction with fishermen.

The measures include a Rs 11,000-crore 'Sagar Khedut' programme which is going on well, the minister said.

She said the NDA government has also announced projects related to marine product processing and export which will benefits the fishermen of Gujarat.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today attacked the Congress, saying the party regularly makes statements that seek to "break the Army's morale and reduce its stature".

She rued leaders of the Sonia Gandhi-led party often speak the language of separatists and support those who talk about dividing the nation.

Talking to reporters here, the minister also slammed the opposition party over the "chai-wala" meme directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying it has failed to learn from its past mistakes.

"Today, the Congress talks in separatists' voice and enthusiastically joins them. The Congress vice president supports those misdirected youths of the JNU who talk about break-up of the country (desh ke tukde karenge)," she said.

"A senior Congress leader advocates autonomy (for Jammu & Kashmir) and says separatists talk about autonomy and not independence. He gives different definitions of 'azadi'. When he was the home minister (in the Congress-led UPA government), he said the Army is against peace process," she said, referring to reported statements of Congress leader P Chidambaram.

"A Congress leader (Sandeep Dikshit) likened the Army chief to a 'goon on the street'. The Congress is always ready to break the morale of the Army and reduce the Army's stature," she said.

Sitharaman said Modi is needlessly targeted by the main opposition party. "Our prime minister, who works for the benefit of the country, was accused of 'khoon ki dalali' and described as a 'chai-wala' (tea seller)."



The Congress has damaged itself with such statements, Sitharaman, here to campaign for the BJP in the Gujarat assembly polls, said.

"Before every election, the Congress has the habit of inflicting damage to itself (by making statements against Modi)," the Union minister said.

She referred to Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's "chai-wala" remark and said his jibe against Modi ahead of the 2014 polls "changed the course of election".

"Who had said Modiji, 'I will offer you a stall to sell tea'?...The Congress is again daring to insult the prime minister with 'tu chai bech (go sell tea) meme," she said.

The Congress comes up with such select comments before every election and does not even learn from its mistakes, she said, adding the party did not even spare the Army.

"They (Congress leaders) said surgical strike was 'khoon ki dalali'. The party should introspect before making such comments," Sitharaman added, referring to the Army's surgical strike on terrorist launchpads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

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A police jawan was killed and another was injured in an IED blast triggered by Naxals at Kotgul in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra today, police said.

Jawan Suresh Gawde (47) succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Nagpur, while another police personnel, Sonal Khewle, was injured and is undergoing treatment.

Both were patrolling in a market area when the blast took place around 2.30 pm.

They were immediately flown to Nagpur by helicopter for treatment, a press release by the Gadchiroli police said here.

Gawde belonged to Bhakrondi village in Armori district of Gadchiroli. His last rites would be conducted at the Gadchiroli police grounds tomorrow.

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A trial court at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra has acquitted all nine accused in the Dalit youth Nitin Aage murder case.

The murder, which took place in April 2014, had rocked the state due to its honour killing and caste conflict angle as well as the brutality involved.

District and Sessions Court Judge Vivek Hood yesterday acquitted all the accused in the case, as most of the prosecution witnesses turned hostile.

Aage (17), a class-12th student and resident of Kharda village in Jamkhed tehsil in the district, was killed on April 28, 2014, allegedly because he was suspected to have an affair with an upper-caste Maratha girl.

His father had named 13 people including three minors, most of them relatives of the girl, in the police complaint.

The accused forcibly took away Aage from his school to a brick kiln where he was subjected to inhuman torture, according to the prosecution. He was later hanged from a tree.

However, during the trial most of the witnesses, including the staff members at the school who had allegedly seen Aage being taken away by the accused, turned hostile.

The court acquitted all the accused for the lack of sufficient evidence, said public prosecutor Ramdas Gawali.

Raju Aage, Nitin's father, lamented after the verdict that his son had been denied justice. "I am at a loss as to what to do next," he told reporters.

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The Delhi government said today it would prepare a policy to give a boost to wrestling in the national capital with the help of existing 'Akharas'.

The assertion came after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia held a meeting with the representatives of various city's Akharas (wrestling rings)



"I had a discussion with the representatives of various Akharas. To promote wrestling (Khusti), the government is formulating a policy," the deputy chief minister tweeted.

Sisodia also said that Delhi's wrestling rings had a glorious history as wrestlers from city's Akharas brought laurels to the country from across the world.

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The Delhi High Court today dismissed a plea against the film "Padmavati", observing that such petitions were encouraging those agitating against the movie.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar termed as "hopeless" and "misconceived" a petition seeking that a committee be set up prior to the release of the movie to check whether there was any distortion of history.

"Have you (counsel for the petitioner) seen the film. Have the people, who are burning cinema halls seen the film? By this kind of petitions, you are encouraging the people who are agitating," the bench observed.

It further directed the petitioner, Akhand Rashtrawadi Party, which claims to be a political party, to approach the Censor Board as the court was not inclined to entertain it.

The plea has said that the committee was necessary as there was alleged distortion of historical facts in the film starring Deepika Padukone.

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The Delhi Police today rescued three women from a brothel at GB Road here, even as the Delhi Commission For Women (DCW) chief, Swati Maliwal, alleged that 14 other women were allowed by the police to stay back.

The police, however, said the 14 women were found to be above 18 years of age as per their Aadhaar cards, and were staying there of their own volition.

A 27-year-old woman pimp, who was allegedly involved in confining the three women to the brothel, was arrested, they said.

The raid was conducted based on an information by the Child Welfare Committee. The committee had informed the Delhi Police's Crime Branch after the former received a complaint from an NGO that some women were being held captive at a GB Road brothel, said a senior police officer.

The 17 women found at the brothel were counseled by the NGO, out of which, three claimed that they were kept there against their wishes.

The three women, in the age group of 19-26 years, claimed that they were forced into flesh trade, were not paid wages and raped repeatedly, the police officer said.

A case was registered on the basis of their statements, he said.

"The three rescued women are from Nepal and were brought to Delhi either on the pretext of a good job or for marriage. They have been sent to a shelter home. Their bone density test will be done shortly to check whether they are minors," said the officer.

The DCW chief, however, claimed that the Delhi Police did not follow due procedure and that all the women should have been sent to the shelter home.

"Seventeen girls were rescued from GB Road today by CWC and Crime Branch on a tip off from an NGO. But shockingly Crime Branch sent 14 girls back to the brothels, stating 14 girls had their Aaadhar cards showing them as major," she said.

Maliwal said the CWC which has immense powers under the JJ Act had ordered the police to keep all 17 girls in Nirmal Chhaya and get their bone ossification test done.

"They were appearing to be minors and Aadhar Card cannot be relied upon solely," the state women panel chief said.

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The Calcutta High Court today expressed concern over the outbreak of dengue in West Bengal, saying more needs to be done as current steps seem inadequate.

It also observed that it wants to satisfy its judicial conscience that sufficient steps are being taken by the state for the control of the disease and proper treatment of the people.

Hearing PILs on the outbreak of dengue and deaths of a number of people in the state, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee said that dengue occurs every year despite the state's claim that it was adhering to central government and WHO guidelines to control it.

"This shows that more steps need to be taken as these seem to be inadequate to control the disease in West Bengal," the bench observed.

To a plea by state Advocate General Kishore Dutta that the petitions were based on newspaper reports only and there was no research conducted by the petitioners before moving the court, the bench said, "Writ petitioners would not have had to come to the court if you on your own conducted research for further steps to deal with the issue."



Dutta submitted, "In the garb of PILs, people with political motives have come before the court based on newspaper reports and without research. The petitioners have not questioned any part of our report to the central government."



When the AG questioned the maintainability of the petitions, the bench said, "We want to satisfy our judicial conscience that sufficient steps are being taken."



Noting that at least two petitioners have claimed to have done independent research on the issue, the bench said that the petitioners are drawing the notice of the court and for directions to the state for taking necessary steps.

Observing that sufficient materials are there before the court, the bench said, "It is a matter of public concern."



The state government had told the court on November 16 that 38 people have died of dengue in West Bengal, of whom 23 died in state-run hospitals and 15 in private facilities, even as some media reports claimed that the figure was higher.

The state was verifying 22 other cases of dengue deaths reported by various private hospitals, Dutta had told the division bench.

He had also said that around 21,000 people have been affected.

The AG today submitted that claims by some petitioners that the state government was suppressing the number of deaths and affected people are frivolous and there is no credence to such allegations.

Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General Kaushik Chanda submitted that the state government has failed to make a gazette notification and make dengue a notified disease despite proddings from the Union government.

"If the disease is notified then all state-run and private hospitals would have been bound to report the number of dengue patients and deaths everyday to the state headquarters so that the exact numbers could have been received," Chanda submitted before the court.

At least 10 other states have notified the disease, he said.

Chanda also claimed that the West Bengal government has not provided any report to the Centre on the number of people affected by the disease and deaths since October 4 when the guideline is to send daily reports during the outbreak season.

Replying to a claim by counsel Srijib Chakraborty, who appeared for one of the petitioners, that he had collected copies of death certificates of four persons who had died of dengue in government hospitals and whose names did not figure in the list provided by the state government, the AG said that three of these deaths were not due to dengue.

The fourth victim is yet to be verified, Dutta submitted.

Hearing in the PILs seeking appointment of an expert committee to suggest ways to deal with the disease, compensation to the kin of those who died and steps taken by the state to deal with the disease was adjourned by the court till December 1.

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BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav today expressed confidence his party will perform better than the last Assembly polls in Gujarat as people have supported demonetisation and implementation of the GST "despite some anger".

He called the two measures taken by the Union government "transformational" and said "no transformation is painless".

Madhav said the party was aware that people had to face difficulties due to the sudden demonetisation of high-value currency in November last year and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July this year.

But there was a need for such steps to "correct the basic economics" of the country, he stressed.

"We will win with better margin than the last time (in Gujarat assembly elections). Some journalists have told me that despite some anger among the people, they (the people) will support the BJP... Half of that anger is that of journalists. Nobody in your family gets angry with you? They get angry because there is sense of belongingness," he said.

Addressing a gathering on 'Vision India-New India' organised by the National Democratic Teachers' Front (NDTF) at the Delhi University, Madhav said the Narendra Modi government has support at the grassroots level because people understand that the Union government was "doing good for the country".

Without naming anyone, he said "some intellectuals in Delhi" were scared of the support for the BJP, adding that a new word has been reserved for the intellectuals - 'demophobia' - "a phobia where these intellectuals are scared of people".

He also urged people to "become a stakeholder" in India's development and participate in government programmes such as the Clean India Mission.

He said Mahatma Gandhi used to say that India has got the political freedom but still needed to get economic and social freedom.

"Goray log to gaye, hamaare gore aa gaye (Englishmen left, our own Englishmen came). I am not talking in racial terms. Please don't mistake me because somebody will show in pieces that I have given a racial statement," he said, claiming that Jawaharlal Nehru, in an interview to a European journalist in 1956, said: "'I am the last British to rule over India.'"



"England ke angrej chale gaye (British left)... That was political freedom but did we really get freedom in social context," he asked.

Gandhi had dreamt of a movement in India to get economic and social freedom for people, Madhav said, adding the BJP government at the Centre has resolved to achieve a new India - free of poverty, corruption - by 2022 when India completes 75 years of Independence.

Hitting at those criticising Aadhaar over privacy concerns, he said there was no threat to privacy due to Aadhaar card.

"It is not even one-tenth of the privacy than that you face have on your gmail account," he claimed.

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The AAP and the BJP today blamed each other for the fare hike while the Congress held both the Centre and the state government responsible for it, after an RTI query revealed that the public transporter lost over three lakh commuters a day due to the fare increase.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the fare hike has not benefited anyone as people switched to other modes of public transport.

"That many passengers have taken to other means of transport, thus increasing pollution and congestion on roads. Metro fare hike has not benefited anyone," he tweeted.

Blaming the BJP-led Centre, Delhi Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Gopal Rai said that the metro fares were hiked "adamantly" despite opposition by the party.

The AAP, led by Kejriwal and his ministers, had vociferously opposed the hike.

Last month, Kejriwal had called metro fare hike "anti- people".

Delhi BJP too hit out at the Rail Corporation (DMRC) for the fare hike and held the Kejriwal government responsible for it.

"We had been saying that should think over the hike. It is a public transporter whose basic goal is to make the roads less crowded by providing mass transit.

"However, the Kejriwal government cannot escape the blame for fare hike as it is also a stakeholder in Delhi Metro," said party spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor.

The BJP ruled-Centre had strongly supported the fare hike, with Urban Development minister Hardeep Puri justifying it by saying that Delhi Metro will turn into loss-making Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken blamed the Delhi government and the Centre for the fare hike and loss of commuters by the metro rail.

"The fare hike results in a daily drop of 3 lakh passengers. Both Centre and Delhi government are responsible," Maken said in a tweet.

On October 10, the DMRC effected the fare hike, leading to a rise of around Rs 10 for nearly every distance slab. This came barely five months of another hike of up to 100 per cent.

According to the RTI query by a PTI correspondent, the metro's daily average ridership came down to 24.2 lakh in October from 27.4 lakh in September, a fall of around 11 per cent.
India today condemned the "heinous" terror attack on an Egyptian mosque that claimed over 200 lives and said the incident is another stark reminder of the need to develop a global strategy to fight terrorism.

Armed attackers today killed at least 235 worshippers in a bomb and gun assault on a packed mosque in Egypt's restive North Sinai province.

"Government of Indian strongly condemns the heinous act of terrorism that has claimed innocent lives in Bir-al-Abed, North Sinai in Egypt today," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

In this hour of tragedy, the government and the people of India stand by the government and the people of Egypt, he said.

"We offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those affected in this attack.

This incident is another stark reminder of the need to develop a global strategy to fight this menace of terrorism," Kumar said.

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The EU pledged to deepen ties with six former Soviet states today, as part of efforts to counter Russian influence, but warned them they had no chance of joining the bloc any time soon.

EU leaders agreed a package of 20 "deliverables" with Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus to help them tackle corruption, improve the rule of law and modernise their economies.

Brussels insists its so-called Eastern Partnership with the six states is "not aimed at any country" and a joint declaration issued after the summit scrupulously avoided any mention of Russia.

But concerns are running high in Europe over the Kremlin's use of cyber tactics and misinformation to cause political destabilisation around the continent and draw former Soviet states into its embrace.

As she arrived for the summit British Prime Minister Theresa May warned that Europe needed to be on guard against "the actions of hostile states like Russia which... attempt to tear our collective strength apart".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU's partnership with the six states was "very important for our own security", without mentioning Russia specifically.

The likes of Moldova and Ukraine have urged the European Union to send a welcoming signal to their people to counter the siren call of Moscow.

Moscow regards the countries as part of its sphere of influence and has opposed them getting closer to the EU.

Moldova and Ukraine argue that without a clear signal that at least in principle they could one day join the EU, their populations could turn their back on Europe and go the way of Belarus -- which lies firmly in Russia's orbit.

But there is no appetite in the EU for eastward expansion, particularly after Dutch voters rejected the first attempt at an association accord with Ukraine in an April 2016 referendum.

"This is not an enlargement or accession summit," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said as he arrived.

A European diplomat gave an even more blunt assessment.

"Maybe they see this as the waiting room for the waiting room (for membership) but for us it's clear that before the waiting room there are 18 locked doors," the diplomat said.

Lithuania's outspoken President Dalia Grybauskaite warned Ukraine had "a long way to go" before it could be ready to join, while Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel gave a flat "no" to the EU taking on new members soon.

The final summit declaration simply acknowledges the "European aspirations and European choice" of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.

The EU hopes that focusing on concrete measures that will improve people's lives in the partner countries -- such as small business loans and reducing mobile phone roaming charges and energy costs -- will improve its popularity and see off the lure from Moscow.

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Terrorist networks like the ISIS and Al Qaeda may soon begin instructing recruits on how to create killer viruses just like bomb-making lessons, a senior European Union (EU) security expert has warned.

Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's counter-terrorism co- ordinator, said that terror networks based in the Middle East like Al Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS), could begin using the internet to instruct on the use of biological agents.

"If we don't address the grievances which led to the creation of Daesh (ISIS) Sunni grievances against sectarian Shia policies and state violence from [Syrian President] Assad, we are likely to see the resurgence of something that could be Daesh 2.0," Kerchove told a conference organised by the UK-based think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London this week.

Tracing thatthe first edition of 'Inspire', Al Qaeda's online propaganda magazine, had an article on "how to make a bomb in your mum's kitchen", he said: "What if anyone will have a similar article on how to process a virus in your mums kitchen?



"Unfortunately, it's probably easier than before for a lone actor to perpetrate an attack with catastrophic consequences."



Kerchove also warned that terrorists could tap into networks of cyber criminals to develop or buy the expertise to launch a devastating cyber-attack.

Patrick McGuinness, the UK's Deputy National Security Adviser and one of British Prime Minister Theresa May's senior-most security advisers, agreed that all terrorists needed was the "internet and a mindset" to perpetrate global atrocities and it was important to defeat them online.

"The frontline [against ISIS] is now online...Until there is not a presence online, until ISIS cannot occupy space online freely, we will not be safe," he said.

He said the speed at which people are"brought to violence" was now "almost too fast to catchwithout the most extraordinary intrusive surveillance techniques which are not going to be sustainable or acceptable in a Western democracy."



The UK's security minister, Ben Wallace, told the conference a total of eight planned attacks had been thwarted since the ISIS-inspired attack on the UK Parliament building in Westminster in March this year, bringing the total to 21 since 2013.

"Nearly 600 investigative leads are ongoing, covering about 3,000 people and approximately another 20,000 people who we have at some stage had concern about," he told RUSI's Westminster Counter-terrorism Conference".

"It is not a spike in the threat, but a shift that we are now facing, and that is something we all have to deal with," he added.

Wallace said a new counter-terrorism strategy is set to be unveiled by the UK government in the New Year, to keep "one step ahead of the terrorists".

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Two Indians -- ex-environment minister Anil Madhav Dave and deputy director of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Chandra Bhushan -- have been honoured with ozone awards by the UN Environment Programme.

Dave, who died in May this year, was posthumously given the Political Leadership Award in recognition of his leadership role in getting the Kigali Amendment signed in October 2016.

Bhushan was given the 'Partnership Award' for providing the policy and research support to the negotiations for the Kigali Amendment.

CSE's Down To Earth magazine also got the the Best Media Coverage Award.

The ceremony was held in Canada to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol.

Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Twitter said, "Matter of great pride for India as Late Shri Anil Madhav Dave, the then Hon'ble Minister of State (independent charge) environment, forest and climate change, GoI, was given the 'Ozone Award' posthumously."



He said, "On behalf of India, the award was received by Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change and was handed over by Ms Catherine Mckenna, Minister of Environment, Government of Canada, at a glittering #OzoneAwards Ceremony."



These awards recognise the achievements of individuals, groups and organisations that have demonstrated extraordinary contribution to progress of the protocol in the last 10 years, he said.

"Untimely demise of Late Shri Anil Madhav Dave has been a great loss to the nation. This award is yet another testimony to his dedication to environment, his work won't go in vein," Harsh Vardhan said.

To combat climate change, about 200 nations, including India, had last year in Kigali , Rawanda, struck a legally- binding deal after intense negotiations to phase down climate-damaging HFCs that have global warming potential thousand times more than carbon dioxide.

HFCs are used as a refrigerant in refrigeration and air conditioning sectors.

It is a super greenhouse gas with global warming potential thousands of times higher than Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is considered as the most successful international environmental treaty.

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A CPI (Maoist) couple, carrying a reward of Rs 2 lakh each on their heads, today surrendered before police in Odisha's Malkangiri district.

The duo, identified as Bijal Kadme (26) and Soni Oyam (23), were involved in serious offences, including murder, robbery and blasts at police establishments, in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Malkangiri Superintendent of Police Jagmohan Meena said.

"Both of them decided to give up the path of violence and return to the mainstream citing miserable condition of lower-ranked members of the outfit. They said the senior cadres were self-centred and paid no heed to their problems," he said.

Kadme had joined the outfit in 2008 and Oyam was inducted the year after. They hailed from Pedakarme village in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh.

The couple further alleged that the outfit has deviated from its original ideology and was indulging in atrocities on innocent tribal people, the SP said.

"The duo decided to surrender in Odisha as they found the benefits under the surrender and rehabilitation policy attractive," Meena said.

The Odisha government, under the surrender and rehabilitation policy, offers financial assistance to purchase a homestead land, construct house and pursue education or vocational training.

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The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has asked Fortis Healthcare to provide copies of bills in relation to the case of alleged overcharging of a dengue patient by its hospital in Gurugram.

Reacting to reports that Fortis Gurugram charged approximately Rs 16 lakh from Jayant Singh for treatment of dengue of his late daughter Adya, NPPA shot off a letter the company's CEO/MD seeking copies of invoices/bills raised, name of medicines administered along with details of quantity and price charged towards medicines and consumables.

Citing the reports, NPPA in its letter said apart from the hospital charges, "the billing include the inflated cost of medicines, syringes and injectables etc".

"NPPA is mandated to enquire and take action on cases wherever there is a violation of various provisions of Drug Price Control order, 2013," it said in the letter.

Cautioning the healthcare chain to respond with the information sought, NPPA said in case of failure, its team will inspect records of the hospital to collect information.

When contacted, a Fortis Healthcare spokesperson told PTI the company has received the letter from NPPA and would respond to it within the December 6 deadline.

NPPA's action comes a day after the union Health Ministry asked all states to issue strict warnings and take action against hospitals, including private ones, which indulge in malpractices such as overcharging and do not follow standard treatment protocols.

Earlier, Health Minister J P Nadda had sought a "detailed report" from the private hospital in the matter.

Already, the Haryana government has set up a three-member committee to probe allegations that Gurugram's Fortis Hospital overcharged the family of the 7-year-old girl, who died of dengue.

Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan has also weighed in, saying her parents should approach consumer court for adequate compensation.

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Five persons, arrested in connection with a former village head's killing, have been booked under the Gangster Act, a top district administration official said.

Former gram pradhan Ammar Ali of Sikri village was shot dead allegedly by the five accused on August 22. The assailants had received Rs 5 lakh for killing Ali, a police official had said.

According to district magistrate G.S.Priyadarshi, apart from other charges, the accused have also been booked under the Gangster Act.

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The Greek government has come under fire over a planned arms sale to Saudi Arabia that fell through amid accusations of incompetence against the defence minister, a key ally of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Opposition lawmakers say the botched deal for surplus military stock cost Greece 66 million euros (USD 78 million), while ruling party officials have questioned the sale of munitions to Saudi Arabia owing to its involvement in the Yemen conflict.

"Perhaps it's better that this deal was not concluded," Nikos Xydakis, a former junior foreign minister, told Skai TV today.

The previous day one of Tsipras' top ministers and two other prominent lawmakers also expressed unease.

"Obviously, every country has a right to exploit its surplus munitions, but we need to be much more careful," Interior Minister Panos Skourletis told state TV ERT.

"A country of Greece's size (cannot) sell weapons without caring how it will be used," he said.

There are fears that the missiles could have been used in Saudi Arabia's fight against rebels in Yemen.

More than 8,750 people have been killed in the conflict and the country also faces a deadly cholera epidemic and millions stand at the brink of official famine.

Tsipras, whose coalition government depends on the nationalist ANEL party headed by defence minister Panos Kammenos, says the accusations are "baseless" and plans to address the issue in parliament on Monday.

Kammenos' office has released a document showing that the Greek defence ministry in June had agreed to sell 300,000 tank shells at a cost of 66 million euros to a Greek contractor claiming to represent Saudi Arabia.

But on the day the deal was signed, Greece's Riyadh embassy wired to say that the Saudi military had no knowledge of the Greek contractor's activities.

The opposition has also accused Kammenos of trying to bury the issue by transferring the officer who oversaw the attempted sale.

An opposition lawmaker investigating the case has also been threatened with prosecution after submitting to parliament documents which the government says are covered by state secrecy laws.

The opposition says the government's refusal to shed light on what was supposed to be a legal bilateral deal is suspect.

"What is the government trying to hide? Why are lawmakers unable to access documents pertaining to the sale?" New Democracy spokeswoman Maria Spyraki said today.

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Taking a swipe at disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein over the allegations of sexual harassment, actor Uma Thurman said the Hollywood mogul does not "deserve a bullet".

The "Kill Bill" star had earlier said that she is "waiting to feel less angry" before she addresses the scandal surrounding Weinstein and the ongoing problem of sexual harassment in Hollywood.

"Happy Thanksgiving. I am grateful today, to be alive, for all those I love, and for all those who have the courage to stand up for others," the actor posted on Instagram.

The 47-year-old actor suggested that she was also a victim of unwanted sexual advances and used the hashtag MeToo in her post.

"I said I was angry recently, and I have a few reasons, metoo, in case you couldn't tell by the look on my face.

"I feel it's important to take your time, be fair, be exact, so... Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators - I'm glad it's going slowly - you don't deserve a bullet) -stay tuned," she added.

Weinstein, who worked with Thurman on "Kill Bill", "Pulp Fiction", and various other films, is currently under investigation by police in New York, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and the UK for sexual assault accusations.

Numerous women have come forward against Weinstein in the wake of exposes from The New York Times and The New Yorker, while even more individuals have alleged similar behaviour from men like former Amazon Studios head Roy Price, Kevin Spacey and directors Brett Ratner and James Toback.

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The Delhi High Court today dismissed a PIL questioning the powers of the censor board to recertify a film after it has undergone changes, saying the plea was "entirely misconceived".

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said the petition was based on a "complete misconception, bordering on ignorance, of the manner in which the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) functions" and imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the petitioner "for wasting judicial time".

The petition claimed that the CBFC did not have to power to recertify a film even if it undergoes changes later for screening on television channels.

However, the court refused to accept this contention, saying once a film has been modified, it ceases to be the original movie as far as certification by CBFC is concerned. "It would be deemed to be a fresh film," the court said.

The plea, filed through advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, contended that movies with adult certification are recertified for public viewing, including children, on TV with hardly any changes made in them.

It said that such recertification and screening of the film on TV was a violation of the Cinematograph Act and the Cable TV Network Act.

However, on being asked by the bench, the lawyer could neither orally, nor in the petition point out such instances when unmodified adult-rated movies were shown on TV during timings when even children are watching.

The court said when allegations of violation of statutory provisions are made, instances of such violations must be pointed out.

It said the courts ought to "deprecate" the practice of filing of PILs by merely relying on the statutory provision and not pointing out the violations, as was done in the instant case.

As the petitioner was not able to point out the instances of violations, the court slapped him with the cost of Rs 50,000, half of which has to be deposited with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The remaining amount has to be deposited with the advocates' welfare fund, the bench said.

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The Allahabad High Court today directed a CBI inquiryinto the murder of a businessman in the city in February last year.

A bench comprising justices SK Gupta and Rajiv Mishra passed the order on a petition filed by Vinod Kumar, father of deceased businessman Lalit Verma.

It was alleged that Lalit Verma along with his brother Vikram was going somewhere when they were shot at by assailants on February 3 last year. While Lalit died, his brother was seriously injured.

An FIR was lodged at police station in Civil Lines Allahabad against Puja Pal, former MLA of BSP, Mukesh Kesharwani, Rajesh Tripathi, Prithvi Pal and others.

It is alleged in the petition that during investigation the local police, in collusion with the named accused, gave a clean chit to them and falsely implicated Vikram in the murder case along with two others.

The petition alleged that the police were not investigating the case fairly and urged the court to order a CBI inquiry.

Accepting the plea, the court ordered the Uttar Pradesh police to hand over the investigation to the CBI.

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The Madras High Court today decided to compare former chief minister J Jayalalithaa's thumb impression on documents relating to a bypoll last year, with the late leader's fingerprints available with the Parappana Agrahara jail at Bengaluru.

Justice P Velmurugan also asked the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to furnish Jayalalithaa's thumb impression details to the court.

The superintendent of central prison at Parappana Agrahara and UIDAI regional officer, who handles Aadhaar, should give fingerprints' details to the court by December 8, the judge said.

The matter relates to a petition filed by P Saravanan, DMK candidate for the November 2016 Thirupparankundram Assembly bypoll, challenging the election of AIADMK's A K Bose.

During the pendency of the case, Saravanan had filed an additional affidavit, questioning the validity of the election documents.

He contended that the thumb impression of Jayalalithaa was obtained without her consent and knowledge while she was unconscious, with the "connivance" of the doctors who attended to the former chief minister and others.

Jayalalithaa was lodged in the jail after her conviction in the Rs 65.66 crore disproportionate assets case in 2014.

She subsequently secured bail from the Supreme Court and was released on October 18, 2014, after spending 21 days in prison.

The Karnataka High Court later acquitted her and three of her associates of all charges, but the Supreme Court on February 14 this year set aside the order.

However, since Jayalalithaa passed away on December 5 last year, the apex court abated the proceedings against her.

The apex court convicted Sasikala, deposed AIADMK general secretary, and her two relatives in the case and had restored the trial court's order awarding four year jail term to them. She is at present in the jail.

In his petition, Saravanan had also questioned the EC's decision to accept the left-thumb impression of Jayalalithaa affixed on the documents filed in support of Bose's nomination papers.

He further submitted that following the attestation, the AIADMK candidate (Bose) was allowed to contest on the 'two leaves' symbol under the "defective form A and form B" of the documents, which had materially "affected the outcome of the election".

The Election Commission (EC) had last month submitted that it had accepted the left-thumb impression of the late leader, affixed on documents relating to the bypoll, based on a letter from AIADMK presidium chairman E Madhusudhanan.

The letter stated that Jayalalithaa was not in a position to sign as she was unwell and hence, her left-thumb impression attested by the doctor could be taken on file, K F Wilfred, Principal Secretary of the EC, said.

The court had summoned the official for giving evidence on the election plea.

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The Allahabad High Court today asked the central and the state governments to file their replies to a PIL seeking a CBI probe into a boiler explosion at an NTPC plant in Rae Bareili earlier this month in which at least 34 people died.

Vinod Kumar, a high court lawyer, requested the court through the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that the accident be investigated either by the Central Bureau of Investigation or a retired high court judge.

In the PIL, Kumar demanded that a "Standard Maintenance Policy" be framed by the governments for accidents at sensitive establishments so that there was no discrimination in the payment of compensation to the victims.

He has also sought a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the kin of those who died, Rs 10 lakh to those who were seriously wounded, and Rs 2 lakh to those who sustained minor injuries in the blast at the plant in Unchahar in Rae Bareili district.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale and Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta listed the next hearing in the matter after three weeks.

On November 1, a blaast ripped through the NTPC plant, killling at least 34 people, which made it the country's worst industrial disaster in eight years.

The 1,550-MW plant supplies electricity to nine states, according to officials, and employs around 870 people.

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The Delhi High Court today said it was "deeply pained" that no action has been taken by the Medical Council of India (MCI) on the issue of registration of an Indian doctor who was barred from practising in the US for sexual offences.

The bench said several months have passed since its July 19 order asking the MCI to expeditiously and effectively complete its consideration regarding the doctor, who was present in court today, and pass an order to enable the court take a comprehensive view in the matter.

The submission of the MCI counsel that three months would be needed to file an affidavit, did not go down well with the bench which observed that the apex medical body was taking so much time to decide on a simple matter.

"Despite July 19 order, six months have passed and the matter was adjourned for the same purpose. We are deeply pained to see that no action has been taken.

"Today, time of three months is sought to file an affidavit (is being sought) which is unreasonable as no authority can take 10 months to decide the issue under a single law," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said.

The bench granted two months to the MCI to comply with its earlier order and listed the matter for February 6.

During the hearing, the doctor's counsel submitted that he has been denied his valuable right of an opportunity to show cause against the action of the Delhi Medical Council, which has serious consequence of depriving him from the right to process his renewal of registration.

The court was hearing a PIL initiated by it after coming across a report about the doctor who, after being barred from practising by a US court in 2011, was now treating patients in the National Capital Region (NCR).

As per the report, a court in Georgia in the US had asked the doctor to surrender all US medical licences, leave the country and "not practice medicine in any form within the United States or any other country".

The report had also said that the medical practitioner had pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual battery and unwarranted medical examination on women patients, a crime that carries a mandatory 25 years in prison in the US.

The court said women in the US had the courage to report his conduct, but here not many would complain when there is an offence of sexual violence or of such nature.

The court, in its July 19 order, had said it cannot be denied that the MCI was required to consider the issue of registration of the doctor, his conduct and the orders against him in the USA.

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The Madras High Court today directed the police to register an FIR against actor Kamal Haasan if a cognisable offence is made out against him over his alleged comments on "Hindu terrorism" in a Tamil magazine.

Justice M S Ramesh passed the order on a petition by G Devarajan, a registered advocate clerk in the high court, seeking a direction to the police to register the FIR against the actor based on his complaint.

According to the petitioner, the actor said in an article published in the magazine's November 8 edition that the presence of "Hindu terrorism" in the country cannot be ruled out.

"By making such statements Kamal Haasan is trying to brand Hindus as terrorists. He should understand that no religion preaches violence but only peace. The actor with vested interests is trying to divide the Tamil community on basis of religion," the petitioner said.

He further said he had approached the Chennai police commissioner on November 4 and Teynampet police on November 6 with his complaint against the actor.

Since no action was taken on the complaints, he moved the high court.

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The Hyderabad Police is making elaborate arrangements for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump's daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump to the city next week.

During his day-long visit on November 28, Modi would inaugurate the Hyderabad metro rail project and also the three -day Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES).

Ivanka Trump would attend the eighth annual GES, which will highlight the theme 'Women First, Prosperity for All' this year, and focus on supporting women entrepreneurs and fostering global economic growth. Ivanka Trump will lead the US delegation at the summit.

Hyderabad police commissioner V V Srinivasa Rao told reporters today that the prime minister will arrive here on November 28 and inaugurate Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd project at Miyapur.

After inaugurating the metro rail project, he will go to the Hyderabad International Convention Centre where he will inaugurate the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

Modi and Ivanka Trump, along with 100 special guests, would also attend a special dinner at the Falaknuma Palace in the old city on November 28, he said.

The dinner will be served on a Nizam-era table at which 101 people can sit at a time. The palace is now a plush hotel.

A separate dinner has been arranged for about 1,500- 2,000 delegates on the lawns of the 19th century palace, Rao said.

According to available information, Ivanka Trump may attend the GES during the day on November 29 and leave the city the same night.

A meeting was held today between the US Secret Service, central government officials and the city police to discuss Ivanka Trump's security, Rao said.

She would be using three of her own vehicles, he said.

About 2,200 police personnel would be deployed for the twin events, the commissioner said.

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A three-member team from the British High Commission today met UK national Jagtar Singh Johal, arrested in connection with targeted killings in Punjab, to ascertain whether he was subjected to any human rights violation.

The team from Delhi remained with Johal for about an hour, said DCP Dhruman Nimble.

The commission officials asked the accused whether he was being given facilities available to all prisoners. He was also whether he was being tortured.

Johal alias Jaggi is among five persons arrested in connection with the killing of RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja.

Johal, who got married last month, was apprehended from Jalandhar.

Five incidents of targeted killings had taken place in the state between April 2016 and February 2017.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had rejected the allegations of "torture" of the British citizen, a day after the UK government said it would take "extreme action" if any British citizen was being "tortured".

The chief minister had maintained that such allegations of torture were "baseless", adding that every due legal process was followed in the case.

The Punjab Police had earlier claimed that it had "sufficient" evidence to prove Jaggi's complicity in the case.

The state police force has accused the British national of conspiracy, coordination, funding and arranging of weapons for members of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) module busted in connection with the targeted killings.

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: Despite Supreme Court's ban on timber operations in Arunachal Pradesh, illegal logging at Pasighat Reserve Forest in East Siang district continues unabated.

Hundreds of timber trees have been felled by the mafias during the monsoons, posing a serious challenge to the officers of the forest department, additional deputy chief conservator of forest (ADCF) Tasang Taga said.

Recently, a team of forest officials, led by Taga, seized heaps of timber logs, especially of Hollock (Terminalia Myriocarpa) variety, from Loki - a riverine island - under Pasighat reserve forest.

"The mafias take advantage of the flood situation in the area during the monsoon season. We came across 100 stumps in Loki. There could be more in other parts of the reserve forest," said Taga, who is in charge of a mobile squad under chief conservator of forest of central Arunachal circle.

Taga also rued the lack of means for proper patrolling in the reserve forest.

"Hollock trees have a huge demand in the timber market. The mafias use power chain saw and push cart with motor bike wheels to cut down and skid the logs to the Siang River. There they build a raft that could float down the river. But we do not have enough manpower to control the menace," he explained.

Pasighat Range Forest Officer (RFO) Jumgo Geyi said the department had been trying their best to stop illegal felling in the area, notwithstanding the adverse weather conditions during the monsoons.

"On several occasions, we have arrested people involved in illegal timber operations, but all of them got their bail pretty easily. I have even engaged a local youth, paying him Rs 3000 from my pocket, to keep vigil on such activities," Geyi said.

Around ninety per cent of staff under Pasighat forest division is women. They keep a tab on the check gates and nursery or engage themselves in administrative works. Only a few officials are tasked with patrolling duties, he said.

"Arunachal lacks its own Forest Act and for tackling such activities, the state still goes by the forest laws of Assam," Geyi added.

Illegal timber operations are also rampant at Mebo reserve forest in the district, Range Forest Officer Obang Tayeng admitted.

The department was short of manpower and equipment to deal with such activities, he said.

"At times we are not even in a position to bring the seized logs from jungles to our office for auctioning due to lack of vehicles. Also, it takes time to process funds for auctioning under Suspense Work Advance Recovery (SWAR)," Tayeng added.

According to the forest officials, the easy availability of power chain saws in the market needs to be regulated by the state government to check the felling of trees.

Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal East constituency Ninong Ering said he had had informed Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Tabang Jamoh and East Siang SP Pranav Tayal about the illegal logging operations, but not much was done about it.

"No initiatives were taken to stop the illegal activities during the monsoons," Ering added.

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India can easily achieve 200 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 as against the "conservative target" of 175 GW, Power Minister R K Singh said today while unveiling the roadmap for clean energy.

Buoyed by the success of reverse auction of renewables, which resulted in tariffs dropping to all time low rates, Singh also unveiled the plan to auction up to 21 GW solar and wind capacity by March 2018.

On the RE capacity addition, he said: "175 GW of Renewable Energy by 2022 is a very conservative target. India can easily achieve 200 GW of renewable capacity by 2022."



There was a long pending demand from the industry to declare the renewable energy roadmap, he said at a press conference to unveil solar and wind energy capacity addition plan of the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE).

"Hence, today, with the declaration of this trajectory, the government has clearly spelt out its plan of speeding up of RE installation in country and strengthening the RE manufacturing base in India," he added.

Singh said that in order to encourage 'Make in India' in the RE sector, the MNRE is working on a scheme and will issue Expression of Interest (EoI) for establishing domestic manufacturing facilities for up to 20 GW.

He further said that MNRE is exploring innovative ways to achieve additional installed RE capacity through floating solar power plants (FSPP) over dams, offshore wind energy systems (OWES) and hybrid solar-wind power systems (HSWPS), which may provide over 10GW additional capacity.

The MNRE team of experts has already surveyed the Bhakra Nangal dam for FSPPs and Gujarat and Tamil Nadu for wind power plants, Singh said.

Talking about the issues in Power Purchase Agreements, he said the sanctity of the PPAs have to be ensured and they would have to be mandatorily honoured.

The ministry is in constant discussions with state governments, including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, to ensure that, he said.

Talking about the Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPOs), the minister said that these obligations are mandatory and need to be adhered to strictly.

Elaborating the RE Development road map , MNRE Secretary Anand Kumar said that for achieving 100 GW solar power target by 2022, the ministry, along with states, would lay out bids for ground mounted solar parks for 20 GW in 2017-18, of which 3.6 GW has already been bid out.

He said 3GW of solar energy capacities will be bid out next month, 3 GW in January, 5 GW in February and 6 GW in March.

As much as 30 GW each will be bid out in 2018-19 and 2019-20 to add 60 GW solar capacities.

Kumar said that as against the target of 60 GW for wind power, 32 GW has already been commissioned.

The central government, along with states, intends to issue bids of cumulative capacity of about 8 GW of wind capacities this year. Of this, 5 GW (including present 2 GW) has already been bid out and 1,500 to 2,000 MW will be bid out in January and as much in March.

He also informed that 10 GW will be bid out each fiscal in 2018-19 and 10 GW in 2019-20, leaving a margin of 2 years for commissioning of projects.

Kumar said that the ministry soon issue the Wind Bidding Guidelines.

He also said that with wind power tariffs becoming competitive and state DISCOMs encouraged to buy more of RE, the government has doubled the auction capacity for the third national level wind auction from 4GW last year to around 9GW in this year.

Regarding clarity on GST rates on Solar panels, Kumar said that the MNRE is in talks with the Ministry of Finance and in the next 7-10 days all the issues would be resolved.

On the occasion, Power Sale Agreements (PSA) under second wind auction were also signed between states, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and utilities of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Punjab, Goa and Odisha.

The last reverse auction for SECI-II wind bid was conducted on October 4, which resulted in very competitive tariff of Rs 2.64/2.65 per unit.

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India has made "impressive" progress on the metrics of child development in the last decade, but there is a section of children who have been "left out" due to inequality or lack of access to resources, says a top official.

According to Justin Forsyth, deputy executive director of the United Nation's Children Fund, India can address the issues involved and become a "model for development" for the rest of the world.

"We are impressed by the country's progress made on so many issues related to child development. There has been a 67 per cent reduction in under-five mortality, stunting rates have reduced," Forsyth told reporters yesterday.

Poverty reduction and extreme poverty reduction had also come down, he added.

A India official said data quoted by Forsyth was taken from the Family Health Survey (NFHS). The figures he cited were from the surveys of 2006 to 2016, she said.

Forsyth, who is on his first visit to India, was accompanied by Unicef's India representative Yasmin Ali Haque, during the interaction at the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

Forsyth, who is based in New York, said he has met with Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and representatives of various private companies.

"India has made progress on various metrics but in some areas of the country like in Jharkhand recently, we saw, many children have been left out of the progress cycle, either because of caste discrimination or lack of access to resources due to remoteness of the area.

"India has a dynamic environment and the Centre, state governments, corporates, civil society must work together and set an example for the world to follow," Forsyth said.

Haque said it was also heartening that in many parts of the country, children were taking a lead in becoming part of missions like the Swachh Bharat mission.

The senior official added that a global report will be released on the impact of technology on children on December 11.

Haque and Forsyth concurred that child marriage was another problem that needed to be addressed.

"In few areas of Jharkhand rates of such marriage were very high," he said.

The issue of online child pornography and child trafficking were affecting societies globally, Forsyth said.

"Criminals are using e-transaction in trafficking of children. So, technology has helped us and so has social media, but there is a flip side," he said.
An Indian Air Force aircraft with relief material for distribution among the displaced persons in Myanmar's restive Rakhine State landed in Yangon today.

"With best wishes from the people of India. Indian Air Force aircraft lands today in Yangon, Myanmar with 3,000 family relief packs consisting of daily essentials including rice, oil, salt, sugar, soap, etc. for distribution amongst the displaced persons in Rakhine State," external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

Rakhine Sate has witnessed unrest in recent months.

In September, India had asked Myanmar to handle the situation in the Rakhine State with "maturity and restraint" while focusing on the welfare of the civilian population along with that of the security forces.

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Building a case for safe internet access for all, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said the country will "assert its voice" for the digitally deprived and marginalised.

At the same time, India will be a "voice of moderation and reason" in the global digital discourse, he said while addressing the Ministerial Forum at Global Conference on Cyberspace 2017.

"India firmly stands for digitally egalitarian order where we will lend our weight to those who are digitally deprived and marginalised but with logic, reason and moderation," he said.

The panel, which discussed challenges faced by countries in ensuring citizens have access to secure and inclusive cyberspace, included policy makers from nations like Iran, Japan, Russia and Venezuela.

"Cyberspace must be equal space, free from threat," Prasad said, adding that governments globally will have to play a crucial role in making internet safe against radical elements, terrorists and extremists.

He stressed that countries can move forward only by building trust, undertaking reciprocity and having certain agreed norms of behaviour in cyberspace.

Prasad said India is open to sharing its best practices for greater collaboration and cooperation in the area of cyberspace.

"Digital inclusion, digital access and digital security should become important signposts of cyberspace. Access to internet should not be negotiable, and should be available without discrimination," he said.

There is a raging debate going on over net neutrality globally. Recently, US regulator Federal Communications Commission had said it plans to roll back the "net neutrality" rules adopted in 2015.

In India, sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is slated to announce its recommendations on the issue soon as the consultation process is still on.

Earlier today, TRAI Chairman R S Sharma told PTI that the regulator's recommendations on net neutrality will be in the Indian context, guided solely by national interest.

"We are going to be pragmatic and guided solely by what is in the interest of the country," Sharma said.

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American niche bike maker Indian Motorcycle today launched its Scout Bobber model in India with price starting at Rs 12.99 lakh (ex-showroom).

The motorcycle is powered by a 1,133 cc engine which is coupled to a 6-speed transmission, Indian Motorcycle, a wholly-owned division of Polaris Industries, said in a statement.

Commenting on the launch, Polaris India Country Head and Managing Director Pankaj Dubey said the Scout Bobber has been one of the most awaited motorcycles from the Indian line-up.

"I am confident that this motorcycle will attract a good number of customers and will maintain the legacy of Indian Motorcycle with its powerful performance," he added.

The company, which imports all of its products in India from the US, currently has eight models in its line-up. The Scout Bobber is the ninth.

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Indian-origin businessmen are among 20 people banned from managing a company after they were found to be employing illegal workers in their establishments across the UK.

The UK's Insolvency Service said its countrywide crackdown over the past few months had found that all 20 had already been fined for employing illegal workers.

Ashim Kumar Saha, a director of Save & Pick Limited in London, was disqualified and fined 10,000 pounds for employing one illegal worker.

Manoj Barua and Vipan Kumar Sharma, directors of MV Hospitality Limited which traded as a restaurant known as Caf India in Glasgow were disqualified for employing four illegal workers and fined 40,000 pounds.

Eighteen people have been banned from being company directors or being involved in the management of companies for six years each, whilst two have been disqualified for seven years.

Between them, they employed 41 illegal workers and were fined a total of 505,000 pounds by the UK Home Office, none of which was paid. Two of the companies have now entered into liquidation, with a further two having been dissolved.

Cheryl Lambert, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said those caught sought an unfair advantage over law abiding competitors by employing people who were not entitled to work legally in the UK.

"Employing illegal workers is not consequence free, either for the employer, the employee or the consumer," she said.

"By definition this is a set of people who are without the protection of the law and knowledge of the authorities, and thereby extremely vulnerable to exploitation in all its forms. It is bad for business and bad for society as a whole," she added.

The businesses caught up in the investigation, which include 11 restaurants, four takeaway/fast food establishments and a shop, are based in London, Sussex, North West, South Wales, Glasgow, Antrim, Frome and High Wycombe and cover South Asian and Chinese cuisines.

The Home Office, which carried out the joint investigation, warned that illegal working is not victimless.

"It undercuts honest employers, cheats legitimate job seekers out of employment opportunities and defrauds the taxpayer. Businesses should be aware that they have a duty to check that their staff have permission to work in the UK," a spokesperson said.

The matters leading to all 20 disqualifications are that the directors failed to ensure that the companies complied with statutory obligations under the UK's Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 to ensure that relevant immigration checks were completed and copy documents retained, resulting in the employment of illegal workers.

Following visits from Home Office Immigration, during which the breaches were discovered, the companies were issued with penalty notices ranging from 10,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds per worker, which remain unpaid.

All were directors of the companies at the time of the Home Office visit.

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Cybersecurity has taken centrestage of discussion at global forums as the borderless nature of internet and anonymity of threat actors has heightened the need for closer cooperation among nations, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said today.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Global Conference on Cyberspace 2017, the minister said internet has not only expedited the pace of political, social and economic growth, but also thrown up new set of challenges for which there are "no preset solutions".

"The lack of borders in cyberspace and the anonymity of the actors has ensured that the traditional concepts of sovereignty, jurisdiction and privacy are challenged...The global community -- which has so far benefited from cyberspace -- is beginning to wake up to its threats," she said.

Swaraj asserted that India is committed to an open, safe, inclusive and democratic internet that responds swiftly to challenges.

Highlighting the growing concerns around cybersecurity globally, she said there is hardly a meeting between the heads of states where discussions on such issues do not figure.

"It points to the growing penetration, significance of internet on the social, economic and cultural lives of the nations. The linking of devices and growing Internet of Things (IoT) has made cyber issues a critical aspect of cybersecurity and development politics," she added.

While "peaceful" uses of technology have fuelled growth of economies and connected citizens globally, cyberspace is also infiltrated by malicious actors looking out for opportunities to exploit the vulnerabilities, Swaraj cautioned.

"The anonymity, borderless spaces and speed has helped these elements to carry out nefarious activities ranging from cyber espionage, concerted attacks on networks, data theft, infringement of privacy, extremist propaganda to name a few," she pointed out.

Crime syndicates and terrorist organisations are leveraging malicious tools in cyberspace to carry out complex crimes, posing considerable challenge to the law enforcement agencies, she said, urging nations to come together to counter this growing threat.

Swaraj said there is a greater need for countries to enter into agreements and arrangements for cooperation at various levels.

Speaking at a previous session, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval urged global security organisations to enhance cooperation and look at evolving cyber-related security structure to counter the threats in cyberspace.

He warned that advent of new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics could compound the complexities of cyber threats.

"It may also be necessary that security organisations of the world will need much greater cooperation and specific cyber-related security structure for fast sharing of information, identifying defaulters, proceeding against them and supporting to law enforcing agencies," he added.

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The Centre's Special Representative for Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma today met Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Governor N N Vohra here.

During the meeting, he briefed the chief minister about the schedule of deliberations during his stay in the state, an official spokesman said.

In his meeting with Vohra at the Raj Bhawan, Sharma discussed the significant geopolitical developments in the region since his last visit to the state, a spokesman said.

Sharma began his second visit to Jammu and Kashmir today by reaching out to displaced Kashmiri Pandits at the Jagti camp on the outskirts of the city.

He was appointed the Centre's interlocutor on October 23 to hold talks with all stakeholders in an effort to find lasting peace in parts of Kashmir.

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Spain's Supreme Court said today it had taken over the investigation of all deposed Catalan separatist leaders, a move that could see those jailed by another court set free.

Until now, Judge Pablo Llarena of the Supreme Court had only been in charge of the investigation for alleged rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds involving members of Catalonia's parliament.

But the court announced Friday he has also taken on the probe of deposed Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and his 13 former ministers, which had initially been managed by Spain's lower-level National Court.

The separatist leaders, who were axed by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on October 27 after the Catalan parliament declared unilateral independence, are also charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.

Llarena will also take responsibility for the probe into the heads of two Catalan pro-independence associations, accused of sedition.

Judge Carmen Lamela of the National Court sent all of them to jail pending further investigation, and issued an arrest warrant for Puigdemont and four former ministers who are currently in Belgium and didn't turn up for questioning.

The move prompted accusations that Madrid was taking "political prisoners" over Catalonia's independence drive.

Llarena, on the other hand, decided the former parliament members could remain free as the investigation goes on.

This implies that he could also order the release of the separatist leaders who were jailed, just weeks before regional elections in Catalonia on December 21.

Llarena, who knows Catalonia well after having lived there several years, said the cases involving members of the regional parliament, government and independence associations were connected, the court statement said.

He said all probes should come together, especially given that the charge of "rebellion" implies the "coordinated" action of all defendants.

The charges brought against Puigdemont and his former ministers are severe, and could see them jailed for up to 30 years.

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Financial services player JM Financial has got the regulatory approval to launch a housing finance subsidiary.

"JM Financial Home Loans, a step-down subsidiary of JM Financial, has received certificate of registration from the National Housing Bank for carrying out housing finance activities," the company said in an exchange filing today.

Announcing the annual earnings for fiscal 2017, the company had said it would enter the affordable mortgage segment along with a property brokerage, to leverage on its existing real estate lending business.

Mumbai-based JM Financial is into investment banking, institutional equity sales, trading, broking, wealth management, private equity, and asset reconstruction among others.

JM Financial already has two non-banking arms--JM Financial Credit Solutions focused on real estate lending and the other is into regular credit business which together has an asset of around Rs 12,000 crore.

**************



Axis launches blockchain-based int'l payment service



Private sector lender Axis Bank has launched an instant international payment services using Ripple's enterprise blockchain technology solution for retail and corporate customers.

Though an international offer, the bank is offering the facility only to its retail customers in the country to receive payments from the UAE-based Rak Bank and for its corporate customers to receive payments from Standard Chartered, Singapore, the bank said in a statement today.

************** APM Terminals open ICD in Pune



APM Terminals Inland Services HAS opened an inland container depot for the Pune district which can handle 60,000 containers annually.

The facility, spread over 12 acres, will be offering services including customs clearance, bonded and non-bonded warehousing, empty container acceptance, transportation solutions and container repairs, a company statement said.

It can be noted that the largest container port JNPT is also working on plans to have dry ports in two pockets of Maharashtra at an investment of Rs 800 crore.

**************



Vertoz Advertising lists on NSE Emerge



Vertoz Advertising has got listed the NSE Emerge platform at a premium at Rs 120 and closed at Rs 129.60 as against issue price of Rs 108.

Vertoz will utilise the funds for acquisitions, working capital and for general corporate purposes.

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A junior health nurse was attacked at a primary school in Malappuram district by some persons during the state government's ongoing Measles Rubella (MR) vaccination drive, police said.

They said three persons were arrested today in connection with the attack and a case registered against them for non-bailable offences.

The nurse was attacked at the school in Edayoor panchayat yesterday by some persons when she was administering the MR vaccine to children.

The Kerala government had last month extended the campaign deadline as it did not receive the expected results in some districts due to an anti-vaccination campaign.

Taking a serious view of the incident, Kerala Health minister K K Shylaja today said all the accused would be arrested as early as possible.

The DGP had been directed to take stern against those responsible for the incident, she said in a Facebook post.

She said there have been instances in the past by a group of people, in a well planned manner, to cause hurdles to the government's vaccination drive. They launch fake campaigns in the social media and corner meetings, she said.

However, health department officials have overcome such attempts and the result is that the state has succeeded in keeping serious diseases from its doorsteps, she said.

Protesting against attacks on doctors and nurses at various places,Kerala Government Medical Officers Association (KGMOA) boycotted attending out patients in government hospitals throughout the state from 9 AM-10 AM this morning.

Attacks on members of the medical fraternity has been reported from Kozhikode, Kasaragod, Thalassery and Thrissur, and such incidents should be viewed seriously, the KGMOA said.

Indian Medical Association state President Dr E K Ummer and secretary, Dr Sulfi said in a statement that IMA would observe a 'black day' throughout the state tomorrow.

If stern measures are not taken against those behind such incidents, IMA would be forced to other modes of agitation, he said.

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Karnataka Assembly was today adjourned sine die after repeated disruptions by BJP over 'pressure' exerted on the family of a slain party member to withdraw the case allegedly at the behest of a minister.

When the House met, opposition BJP leader Jagadish Shettar raised the issue citing media reports and demanded that the matter be immediately taken up for discussion.

BJP worker Yogish Gowda was hacked to death by unknown assailants in Dharwad on June 16 last year.

BJP and Gowda's family called it a political murder.

Shettar said it was reported that a DySP in Inspector General's office here was "pressurising" the family to withdraw the case and come to a compromise at the behest of a minister. This was an important issue, he said.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra said the House should function according to rules and any such issues could be taken up only after the question hour.

When BJP remained firm on its demand, Speaker K B Koliwad also said discussion could happen only after the question hour. Following this, BJP members entered the well of the House and started a dharna.

JDS members too entered the well and staged dharna demanding discussion on the house committee report on Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises's Bengaluru-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project.

The Speaker then adjourned the House for 10 minutes.

The Gowda's family alleged that they were being pressurised to withdraw the case and it was being done at the behest of District in-charge Minister Vinay Kulkarni.

The minister maintained that he was in no way connected with it and the charge was an attempt to malign him.

Meanwhile, local TV channels aired an audio clip purportedly of the minister talking over phone and putting pressure on the victim's advocate to withdraw the case.

Speaking to reporters outside the assembly, Kulkarni denied the charge and said he was not even aware of it (the audio clip).

When the House met, BJP members continued their protest and demanded that the case be handed over to CBI.

The speaker again adjourned the House for 10 minutes.

As the House resumed proceedings again amidst chaos, the speaker directed Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy to table his reply on the issue.

Reddy said the murder was due to a property issue and five persons have been arrested in the case. The charge sheet had been filed in the court, where the case is pending.

He said Gowda was a history-sheeter and cases were pending against him.

The Speaker then adjourned the House, which began on November 13, sine die.

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President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the request to attend the World Telugu Conference to be held here next month, the state government said today.

"President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's request to participate in the Telugu Mahasabhalu (conference)," a release from the CM's office said.

The state government-organised conference is being held under the aegis of the Telangana Sahitya Akademi from December 15 to 19 at different locations in the city.

The president would be the chief guest for the closing ceremony of the event on December 19, the release added.

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Security forces today arrested a Pakistani militant belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) from a forest area in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, an Army official said.

"A Pakistani LeT terrorist was arrested during a joint search operation by the Army and the police in Magam area," he said.

The official said that the arrested militant, whose identity has not been disclosed, is being interrogated.

Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in the same area on Tuesday.

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Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma today inaugurated the Noida Management Association's (NMA) 16th Annual Convention based on the theme 'Emerging Trends for business opportunity in India'.

"Search for better than best has been going on as management techniques are changing with change in technologies. If any project fails, it is not due to lack of infrastructure or facility but it is totally management failure. Managing from the available resources is big challenge for such personnel," said Sharma.

Best leadership award was given to Mahesh Gupta, Chairman Kent RO Systems.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Make in India, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna, Digital India, etc were also discussed during the session.

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A 50-year-old man, whose DNA samples helped police in China trace him after more than two decades, was today sentenced to death for raping two women and killing one of them.

The Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court also deprived Qian Caigui of his political rights for life.

In 1993 and 1994, Qian attacked and raped two women in separate incidents in Chun'an district of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, causing death to one and injuries to another, the local procuratorate said.

In 1984, he was jailed for six years for molesting women multiple times, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

A manhunt for the suspect was launched, but he managed to evade police by staying anonymous in Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.

Police finally found traces of the suspect with DNA samples early this year.

Qian did not appeal against the sentence in court.

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A city court has sent a bakery unit owner here to jail for two years and slapped a total fine of Rs 3.5 lakh on him for discharging untreated waste into the Yamuna, saying such an insensitive approach has led to pollution in the river.

It is only because of the insensitivity of the people like the bakery unit owner that "the current generation is unable to have a pure and clean Yamuna and thus is deprived of the use of natural resources," the court said, adding that the appellant had "not cared for the principle of intergenerational equity."



Awarding the jail term to Vikas Bansal and imposing Rs 2.5 lakh as environment compensation on him to be paid to the Prime Minister's relief fund on Vikash Bansal, Special Judge Sanjay KumarAggarwal said the Delhi-based bakery unit Haryana Paneer Bhandar, in which he was a partner, had polluted Yamuna by discharging untreated waste in it.

The court additionally imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on Bansal, holding him guilty under various provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974.

Highlighting the principle of intergenerational equity, the court said it was the onerous duty of citizens to pass on the natural resources to their next generations.

"Rivers are considered as sources of life in this agrarian country. The rivers have cultural, spiritual and religious connotations. However, it is also a fact that we are unable to ensure the physical protection of rivers owing to industrialisation, urbanisation etc," the court, in its 44- page judgement, said.

The victims of pollution of sacred water bodies are not individuals but collective members of the society at large, it said.

"Since the society has suffered due to polluting the stream and consequently river Yamuna ..., it would be appropriate to consider the aspect of compensation in addition to sentence of imprisonment and fine," the court said.

The sessions court, however, reduced the jail term to two years from three years awarded to Bansal earlier by the magisterial court.

A vigilance squad of the Delhi government had on June 5, 2000, inspected the bakery unit of Bansal which was used to prepare sweets and namkeens and found that it was discharging all untreated effluents generated during the process into the public sewer.

Bansal had questioned the inspection and claimed that when the standards for proper discharge of effluents were issued on June 21, 2000, how could his unit commit an offence when the inspection had been carried out on an earlier date of June 5.

The court dismissed his claim and said that the apex court has time and again for several years sensitised such units about the rise in pollution.

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President Ram Nath Kovind said today that medical services are an important pillar of the armed forces and it's important to focus on training and medical research to keep up with the present world scenario.

Delivering the valedictory address at the 42nd World Congress of the International Committee of Military Medicine (ICMM), Kovind said the Armed Forces Medical Services of India has been providing a "stellar service" not only to the forces, but has also been in the service of the nation during peace and wartime.

They are the most-valuable first responders in times of natural and man-made crises and are in a perpetual state of readiness, he said.

"In keeping with the present world scenario, it is important that we focus on two aspects of medicine - training and medical research. Both are progressive and mandated requirements of the medical profession, which help the organisation and the individual to constantly grow and expand," he said.

Kovind also lauded the role of women in the armed medical services, saying they have evolved as able soldiers in whichever arm or service they have served in.

"The Indian Armed Forces Medical Services has had women adorn the uniform as medical, dental and nursing officers since our independence, and they have served and proved themselves even in extremely difficult situations, with great distinction," he said.

There was also a special session on how to deal with medical emergencies after women are inducted in combat role. Currently, of the three services, only the Air Force has inducted fighter pilots in combat roles.

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Three members will be appointed to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, which is functioning below its full administrative capacity, in four weeks, the Centre today told the Delhi High Court.

The government's statement came when the bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar warned the counsel appearing for the Centre that it would adopt coercive process if the appointments are not made soon.

The bench listed the matter for February 13 next year and directed the ministry to place before it the details regarding the appointments in the NCPCR by then.

The Centre informed the court about the time, after it was asked to explain the "inordinate delay" in appointing the three members to the child rights panel.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation brought by advocate Radhakanta Tripathy, aimed at ensuring better administration in the panel for safeguarding the interests of children.

As per the statutory mandate under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act 2005, the panel should have six members and a chairperson. At present, the child rights panel has three members. Stuti Narain Kacker is its chairperson.

The plea has said that inaction of the government in not appointing members of the panel over the years was "arbitrary, unreasonable and in violation of Article 14 (Right to Equality), 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution".

Under the mandate, fresh appointments must be made within 90 days from the time of the occurrence of the vacancy, the PIL has said.

The petition has said that non-appointment of commission members frustrated the mechanism for dispensing justice and increases the pendency of cases pertaining to child rights.

The NCPCR, established in 2007, is responsible for implementation of child rights such as right to food, protection of children from sexual offences and free and compulsory education, among others.

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Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers today staged protest against north Indian fish-sellers in several parts of the city, alleging that they were eating into native fish-sellers' business.

Avinash Jadhav, Thane district chief of the Raj Thackeray-led party, said the agitation was carried out in Kopri, Uthalsar, Wagle Estate and Kalwa, among other places.

Jadhav said the fisherfolk in the city, especially women and the younger generation of sellers, had been complaining that they were being driven out of business by north Indian sellers.

"As a last resort we had to carry out this agitation," the MNS leader said.

The party had recently launched an agitation against illegal hawkers on railway station premises in Mumbai and surrounding areas following the Elphinstone Road station stampede.

It had also asked banks to conduct their transactions in Marathi alongwith other languages.

The latest campaigns of the party are being seen as an attempt to revive its fortunes following several electoral setbacks.

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The Andhra Pradesh government today appointed 1984-batch IPS officer N Sambasiva Rao as the state police chief despite the Union Home Ministry rejecting his candidature on earlier occasions.

The MHA had twice rejected the list of names forwarded by the state for the post of DGP saying it was "in contravention of the Supreme Court orders in the Prakash Singh case".

Rao has been holding the DGP's post as "full additional charge" since July 23, 2016, while his actual position was DGP (Coordination).

He is due to retire on December 31. As a regular DGP, he could continue in the post for a full two-year term as per a state law.

The MHA had rejected the first list sent by the state government on October 23 and on November 2 wrote to the state asking it to prepare a panel afresh. The list contained names of seven DGP-rank IPS officers, including Sambasiva Rao.

"It is learnt that after the retirement of J V Ramudu in July 2016, the state government has not appointed full time DGP which is in contravention of the Supreme Court orders in Prakash Singh case.

"Having not found an officer fit for full appointment since July 2016, recommending his name in the panel on the verge of retirement is against the spirit of the Supreme Court judgement," the MHA said in a letter to Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar on November 2.

The MHA directed the state to send a list afresh by excluding the names of three IPS officers who were due to retire within a year.

Taking it as an affront, the state government sent back the same list again and the MHA promptly rejected it a second time on November 20, a senior official in the General Administration Department said.

Nonetheless, Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar issued a one-line government order this evening "transferring and posting" Sambasiva Rao as the DGP (HoPF) with immediate effect.

The order did not specify whether Rao will hold the post for two years or till December 31.

There are currently seven IPS officers in the AP cadre of the rank of Director General of Police. Of them, Varun Sindhu Kul Kaumudi is currently on central deputation to the National Investigation Agency.

Besides Rao, the MHA had objected to the names of S V Ramana Murthy (1982 batch) and M Malakondaiah (1985) as they are due to retire within a year.

The other four officers, of 1986 batch, are eligible for the DGP post but the state government apparently chose to ignore them.

Kaumudi is the senior-most of the four and will be in service till the end of November 2022. Ram Prawesh Thakur, who is currently DG of Anti-Corruption Bureau, has four more years of service while Damodar Gautam Sawang, now Vijayawada police commissioner, will retire in July 2023. Vinay Ranjan Ray, current DG of Prisons, will superannuate in September 2019.

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Continuing his giant-killing spree, young Sumit Nagal today scalped country's top singles player Yuki Bhambri in the Bengaluru Open and earned a chance to win his maiden Challenger level title.

Coming into the match after an upset win over top seed Blaz Kavcic, Nagal, ranked 321 knocked out Bhambri 6-4 6-0 in the semifinals of the USD 100,000 hard court event at the KSLTA Courts.

The 20-year-old Indian will now fight it out with Britain's 19-year-old Jay Clarke, who dispatched Taiwan's Yang Tsung-Hua 6-3 6-4.

"The pressure was on Yuki. Because he is number one and if he wins here, he will be in the main draw of the Australian Open. All that was playing on his mind. On the other hand, I had a simple approach and played aggressively," he said at the post-match press conference.

After seven games on serve, Nagal broke Bhambri in the eighth and kept the lead to serve out the set.

With no sign of a fight from Yuki, ranked 122, Nagal went on to claim the match without dropping a game in the second set.

"I felt I had to be aggressive against him and it worked," Nagal said.

However, Yuki said he had a very bad day because he did not get his plan going right at any point of the match.

Talking about tomorrow's match, Nagal said he knows Clarke's game because they have played against each other on the junior circuit.

"I will play with the same attitude, with an aggressive attitude. I won last two matches against Kavcic and Yuki, and it worked. So, why should then I change my attitude for the finals tomorrow?" he quipped.

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Naxals hacked a 25-year-old man to death suspecting him to be a police informer in Chhattisgarh's Gariaband district, police said today.

The district, which borders on Odisha, has witnessed an incident of Naxal violence after a long time.

Anit Kumar Sori was killed at Pendra village under the Mainpur police station limits last night, a local police official told PTI.

A group of armed rebels entered the village, located around 130 km away from the state capital Raipur, and asked Sori to come out of his house, he said.

Sori was attacked with an axe. Afterwards the rebels fled into forest, the official said, quoting eyewitnesses.

A police team reached the spot this morning and sent the body for autopsy. Some Naxal pamphlets, accusing Sori of being a police informer, were found on the spot, the official said.

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The Centre's special representative Dineshwar Sharma today met a delegation of the minority cell of the opposition National Conference (NC) party, which strongly batted for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in clusters to "ensure preservation of culture" of the community.

Sharma today began his second visit to the state.

He was appointed the Centre's interlocutor on October 23 to hold talks with all stakeholders in a bid to find a lasting peace. He will visit migrant camps in Jammu and as well as the Valley during his four-day visit to the state.

Soon after his arrival today, Sharma reached Jagti Township to interact with displaced Kashmiri Pandits living there.

"We met Sharma here today. We told him Kashmiri Pandits cannot live in their original places. They should be accommodated in clusters in Kashmir when they are brought back after normalcy returns to the Valley," NC leader Vijay Bakaya told reporters at the township.

Bakaya, a former chief secretary in the state government and an advisor to ex-chief minister Farooq Abdullah, led the delegation.

"Living in clusters will ensure preservation of culture and traditions of the community besides giving them a sense of security," he said.

Bakaya asked the state government to ensure a conducive atmosphere for the return of the displaced community to the Valley, saying the Pandits were "ready to play their role".

A delegation of Jagti Tenement Association also met Sharma. Its president Shadi Lal Pandita raised the issue of constructing a township in the Valley and criticised the statement of the Union government that no township will be set up.

Some people at the township were angry after finding their names were not on the list of those allowed to meet Sharma. They claimed that Sharma had come to interact with the residents of Jagti Camp but the Kashmiri Pandits from non-camp areas and political parties were invited instead.

"He should have met us, the residents of Jagti instead of meeting political parties," a Jagti resident said.

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The NCP will launch an agitation in Maharashtra next month to highlight the "failures" of the BJP-led government and hardships caused to people due to policy decisions like GST and demonetisation, a party leader said today.

The Sharad Pawar-led opposition party will launch "halla bol" (raise your voice) agitation on December 1 and it will go on till December 11, Maharashtra NCP chief Sunil Tatkare said here.

The stir comes in run up to the winter session of Maharashtra legislature scheduled to begin in Nagpur on December 11.

Claiming that the BJP government has "failed" on all fronts, Tatkare said the stir's objective is to "awake the government from its deep sleep on the issues of incomplete loan waiver scheme, deteriorating law and order situation, lack of jobs and hardships faced by people due to the adverse impact of GST and demonetisation."



The farm loan waiver scheme, which was widely publicisedby the Devendra Fadnavis government, has not served its stated purpose and cultivators are still committing suicide, the former minister said.

He said the 'halla bol' padyatra will begin from Yavatmal on December 1 and end in Nagpur on December 11. All prominent NCP leaders will take part in the stir.

Similarly, a joint 'halla bol' agitation with the Congress and other like-minded opposition parties will be held on December 12 at Nagpur during the winter session, he said.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar will address a gathering being organised as part of the stir, Tatkare said.

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The odd-even scheme, if implemented next, will have the NCR towns of Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad under its ambit, in addition to Delhi, the Supreme Court-appointed EPCA said today.

The Centre-notified Graded Response Action (GRAP), of which the odd-even is a part, says that the car-rationing scheme is to be implemented across Delhi-National Capital Region, but it has not been done yet due to logistical concerns.

In a meeting, where the Environment Pollution - Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) reviewed the ongoing implementation of the GRAP here today, the pollution watchdog also said that it will study the implementation of the scheme in cities such as Beijing and Paris and bring necessary modifications.

"The EPCA will work out a manual for odd-even. The recent NGT order on the scheme will also be looked into. We will come up with a short note," environmentalist Sunita Narain, who is an EPCA member, said.

Meanwhile, the air quality slipped back to the 'very poor' category from 'poor' today, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said.

Earlier this month, when pollution had breached emergency levels, the Delhi government had decided to implement the scheme based on odd and even number plates of cars, but had to call it off at the last moment as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had struck down the exemptions given to women and two-wheelers.

Subsequently, the government had expressed its inability to do so, citing inadequacies in the city's public transport system.

A senior official of the Delhi Transport Department (DTC), who was present in the review meeting, said exemptions should be on "functional requirements" and not on individual basis.

Narain also reminded the Delhi government that it had gone ahead with its plan without the EPCA's approval.

The EPCA was not in favour of its implementation as pollution levels were expected to dip and secondly, it was against exemptions.

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India is not against discussion on new issues such as e-commerce at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) but these should not be used as a ploy to overshadow the important development agenda especially the Doha Round, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said today.

The commerce and industry minister said that the "plate" for negotiations is already full and the pending issues like the agenda of Doha Development Round should be concluded first.

"Some countries are raising the issue of e-commerce. But if you want to discuss that, let it be discussed in a work programme first. It should not be taken to negotiating position," Prabhu told PTI in an interview.

"We are not against any thing. We are only saying but let us follow a process," he added.

While India is pitching to fulfil the pending agenda which includes finding a permanent solution to the issue of food stockpiling, developed countries are pushing for inclusion of new issues like investment facilitation, e- commerce and rules for MSMEs in the WTO agenda.

Prabhu said that conveniently the issues of Doha Round are getting relegated and virtually people want to call it off.

"We feel that the agenda items which came through Doha have relevance even today. Therefore, the developmental aspect of trade negotiations cannot be overlooked," he added.

He also said that one should not bring new issues everyday and instead first focus on the most important matters.

"By raising new issues, you are relegating the previously identified priorities in the background," he said.

These remarks assumes significance as the trade ministers of 164-member WTO will assemble at Buenos Aires, Argentina for ministerial conference next month.

The ministerial conference is the highest decision making body of the Geneva-based multi-lateral organisation.

Talking about India's focus during the meet, he said the country's priority would be to ensure that "WTO remains intact, stonger...better".

On fisheries issue, the minister said: "We must have fisheries which will be allowed for small fishermen so that there livelihood should not be affected. Sustainable fishery will help all countries".

On finding permanent solution to public stock holding issue for food security purposes, Prabhu said this is in the interest of India's food security and it should not be equated with trade issues.

The Doha Round of negotiations launched in 2001 have remained stalled since July 2008 when the trade ministers' meeting in Geneva collapsed due to differences between the rich and the developing nations mainly on the level of protection for farmers in developing countries.

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A nurse working with the Rohilkhand Medical College Hospital here was allegedly abducted and gangraped, police said today.

Three persons have been arrested in this connection with the incident which occurred on Wednesday night in Suresh Sharma Nagar, SP (City) Rohit Singh Sajwan said.

The accused Jeetu alias Shyam Sundar, Hardwari and Vicky had allegedly abducted the nurse when she was returning home from the hospital and dragged her to a nearby bush where they committed the crime, he said.

The FIR was lodged last night, he added.

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Former Union minister Arun Shourie today advocated unity among Opposition parties to defeat the BJP, saying they should together field one candidate in every seat against its nominee in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

"If you really think the country is in peril... then you must get together. There must be one candidate against people who we all believe are taking the country to a dangerous zone," he said, sharing the dais with AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

His comments came on a day West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave a similar call, saying democracy is under threat under the BJP rule as she asked Opposition parties to work together for the greater interest of the people before the next Lok Sabha polls.

The leaders were together at a panel discussion following the release of a book, "India Social", written by AAP's social media strategist Ankit Lal.

Kejriwal, who has been kept out of the Congress-led unity efforts among Opposition parties, said the next election will be "Modi versus people of India" as he hit out at the BJP government over its economic policies which, he claimed, have derailed people's lives and left them angry.

"The discontent will rise if they don't do much on the economic front," Kejriwal said.

Both leaders also attacked the government over the "suspicious death" of a judge.

Shourie, who had supported Modi in the 2014 polls before turning a critic of his government's policies, said even at the height of Modi's popularity in the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had got 31 per cent of votes but it won due to fragmentation of the remainder 69 per cent votes.

The opposition needs a minimum working programme to field a joint candidate, he said. "KC (a reference to a member in the audience) and I can write it in 15 minutes," he said.

Asked about the Moody's rating upgrading India, Shourie shrugged it off, claiming that the government has "gamed" the rating system.

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AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi today alleged that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and the BJP wanted take political advantage in Gujarat polls with his "obnoxious" remarks on Ram temple issue and warned the Sangh that it was "playing with fire".

The Hyderabad MP alleged that the RSS and BJP were trying to create an "atmosphere of fear" ahead of the hearing on the Ayodhya dispute on December 5 and hoped that the Supreme Court will take note of what he called "nefarious designs".

"This statement (by Bhagwat) is neither good for the country nor for the country's Supreme Court," he said and asked is the RSS chief "was trying to influence or pressurise the Supreme Court in some way".

Bhagwat today made a strong pitch for building Ram temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, saying only a mandir would come up there and not any other structure.

Reacting to it, Owaisi told reporters, "(I) hope that Supreme Court takes note of how the government, BJP and RSS are trying to trigger an atmosphere of strain in the whole country, when the hearing is going to take place from 5th (December), make it a political issue in the whole country once again, so that they can take political advantage."



Owaisi alleged that the Sangh was trying to take " advantage in Gujarat polls and later in 2019 (general elections)".

"Is he trying to influence or pressurise the Supreme Court in some way? Is he trying to say that he knows that the Supreme Court will base its judgement on faith and not on Constitution, evidence? That is the message he is giving," he said.

"This is a delicate matter and RSS is playing with fire by making such obnoxious comments," Owaisi added.

"We hope the Supreme Court gives decision on the basis of evidence and not on the basis of faith. It was a title suit.... We hope the Supreme Court takes note of this," he said.

Addressing "Dharma Sansad", a congregation of 2,000 Hindu sages, mutt heads and VHP leaders from across the country at Udupi in Karnataka, the RSS chief said there should be no ambiguity that Ram temple will be built at Ayodhya.

"We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of our faith. It will not change," Bhagwat said.

The Supreme Court will on December 5 commence the final hearing on the cross-appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute.

The high court had ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acre area at Ayodhya among the parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla.

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Pakistan today freed Hafiz Saeed, the LeT founder and mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the "cause of Kashmir".

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case, in a setback to India's efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.

Saeed, in his late 60s, was under house arrest for 297 days since January.

The fire-brand cleric's release after midnight came ahead of the 9th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.

India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and also demanded trial of Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi in the light of evidence it had provided to Islamabad.

Saeed, addressing his supporters gathered outside his residence said: "I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir.

"I fight for the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir and we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom".

Punjab province's Judicial Review Board comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday unanimously ordered Saeed's release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest which expired last night.

India had expressed outrage over the decision of the judicial board to release Saeed, calling it an attempt by Pakistan to mainstream proscribed terrorists and a reflection of its continuing support to non-state actors.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Saeed's release confirmed once again the lack of seriousness by the Pakistan government in bringing to justice perpetrators of terrorism, including individuals and entities designated by the UN.

"It also appears to be an attempt by the Pakistani system to mainstream proscribed terrorists. Pakistan has not changed its policy of shielding and supporting non-state actors and its true face is visible for all to see," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in New Delhi yesterday.

Saeed said that he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris in January.

Using the release order to buttress his claim of "innocence", Saeed said: "I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release... India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHC's review board decision has proved that I am innocent".

"I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," he claimed.

Several JuD supporters, gathered outside Saeed's house in Lahore's Jauhar town to celebrate his release, shouted anti- India slogans.

"We are happy to see our leader free," JuD spokesman Ahmad Nadim said.

"Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case," a top government official told PTI.

He said that after a long deliberation, it has been decided to follow the review board's decision.

Saeed's release would lead to strong criticism from India and the US, official sources said.

"It remains to be seen as how would the PML-N government handle the foreign pressure to again detain Saeed," they said.

Punjab Assistant Advocate General Sattar Sahil said the government law officer had presented "some important evidence" to justify Saeed's detention, but all three members of the board unanimously rejected it and ordered his release.

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti- Terrorism Act 1997. The last two extensions were made on the 'public safety law'.

The board refused to give further extension to the detention of Saeed's aides. They were set free last month.

According to the rules, the government could detain a person for up to three months under different charges, but for extension, it needs approval from a judicial review board.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack in November 2008 but he was freed by a court in 2009.

Ten LeT militants had killed 166 people and wounded dozens in Mumbai in November, 2008. Nine of the attackers were killed by police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught and executed after a court found him guilty.

Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN after the Mumbai attack.

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National Conference president Farooq Abdullah today asked women to gear up for the panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir, saying 33 per cent reservation will enable their larger involvement in decision making in the democratic institutions at the grass roots level.

"Panchayats are key to political empowerment of women", Abdullah said while addressing a day-long women convention at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan here this evening.

The convention was organized by the former MLA Bimla Luthra.

Abdullah favoured larger role for women in shaping the destiny of the society and the state, saying panchayats and local bodies institutions could be catalyst of change in this regard.

The former chief minister said that women continue to suffer from discrimination, and conditions were required to be created for their growth as equal partners in the decision making.

"A beginning has to be made by women themselves for their empowerment and economic emancipation," he said and urged the opinion leaders among women to fan out in their areas and identify public-spirited candidates for the elections.

Cautioning against machinations of divisive forces, Abdullah called for maintaining strict vigil as elements inimical to communal amity and harmony would attempt to create mistrust by "generating euphoria over religion being under threat."



"There has never ever been any threat to religions but elements with vested interest always generate fear psychosis to safeguard their own malicious interests", he added.

National Conference president said the society will progress only when the people at large maintain their time- tested heritage and isolate those creating wedge for petty political ends.

"Time has come when forces inimical to peace and unity are completely isolated", he said and urged the party cadre to work for forging unity and amity between various segments of the society.

Regarding Jammu and Kashmir he said that nothing was going to change with the present status of the state. "While this side of the state will continue to remain part of India, the PoK will be under Pakistan."



The former chief minister invoked the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee saying that the sanctity of the Line of Control (LoC) could not be trampled by crossing over during Kargil incursion.

He also referred to return of the strategically crucial Haji Peer, conquered in 1965, to Pakistan. National Conference had not advocated for this but "Indian nation as such took this decision."



He alleged that the present coalition dispensation was depriving women of old-age and widow pensions.

"The prices of essentials and LPG are increasing as a result of which poor were suffering hugely," he said.

He criticized the present government for its "anti-poor" policies and said that jobs have become out of reach for eligible and poor job-seekers. "Nepotism and favoritism are ruling the roost."



The NC chief said that the previous PDP-led government and the present dispensation have put development on the backburner.

He said the government has not been able to optimally harness the resources, especially on hydel power front and the state was suffering as a consequence.

He also questioned the rationale being adopted in release of widow pension and expressed concern over pendency of 25,000 applications for disposal.

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A 29-year-old paraplegic man is planning to drive across the breadth of India--from Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat--as part of his campaign to make the country "more accessible" for Divyangs.

Delhi-based Eric Paul aims to drive from Arunachal Pradesh's Tezu to Gujarat's Koteshwar, covering over 3,500 km in six days (144 hours) in a bid to enter the Limca Book of Records.

During the journey, Paul, who was left paralysed from below the chest after a road accident in 2012, will raise awareness about troubles faced by specially-abled people in public places through his campaign "Accessible India".

Union minister Rajnath Singh met Paul and his family at his official residence here this morning. He flagged off the campaign and extended best wishes to Paul before he left for Tezu from where he will start his drive on November 28 to reach Koteshwar on December 3.

"During this excursion, I'll be educating people to contribute towards making India 'Accessible India' by setting up ramps, contribute in donating specially-designed gadgets, props, helping in audio-video aids and being more supportive and helpful to people with special needs," he said.

Last year, he entered the Limca Book of Records twice after driving from Leh to Kanyakumari (nearly 4,000 km) and completing the Golden Quadrilateral (6,000 km) in record time in his customised hatchback with hand controls.

A keen follower of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan', he has campaigned for cleanliness during his two expeditions across the country.

Paul said his physiotherapist, Pradeep Kumar, will accompany him during the journey.

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The Patna High Court today rejected the bail plea of suspended RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, accused of raping a minor girl.

Justice Vinod Kumar Sinha dismissed the bail petition of Yadav.

It may be noted that the Supreme Court had in November 2016 cancelled Yadav's bail granted by the Patna High Court.

Yadav had allegedly raped the minor girl at his residence in English Pathra village of Nawada district on February 6, 2016.

After evading arrest for a considerable amount of time, he surrendered after a local court issued proclamation notice and an order to attach his properties for not surrendering before the police.

Bihar Police, in its charge sheet, had also named a woman and her relatives as accused on the ground that they had been allegedly "supplying women" to the MLA representing Nawada Assembly constituency.

RJD had suspended Yadav from the party on February 14 last year, a day after his arrest warrant was issued.

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The UK Police today said they have received reports of shots being fired in central London's Oxford Circus area and were responding as if the incident was terrorist related.

London's Metropolitan Police have asked the people to avoid the area until further directions and those already there to seek cover in buildings.

"If you are on Oxford Street go into a building and stay inside until further direction. Avoid travelling to the Oxford Street area. At this stage police have not located any casualities," the Met Police said on Twitter.

It said the police were called at 16:38 hours (local time) today to a "number of reports" of shots fired on Oxford Street and underground at Oxford Circus tube station.

"Police have responded as if the incident is terrorist related. Armed and unarmed officers are on scene and dealing along with colleagues from British Transport Police," it said in a statement.

"At this stage the police have not located any casualities," the statement added.

Armed officers of the metropolitan police and transport police were at the spot.

"Three fire engines and 15 firefighters are in attendance at the site," the London Fire Brigade said on Twitter.

Nearby Bond Street Tube station had also been closed, to prevent overcrowding in wake of the incident.

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Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said today that "certain pro-Khalistani elements" were politicising the arrest of a British national in the state, and slammed opposition parties for making baseless statements.

Jagtar Singh Johal, 30, was among five people arrested in connection with targeted killings, including that of RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja. The Scottish-bornSikh was arrested from Jalandhar, where he had come for his wedding last month.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have raised doubts over Punjab Police's claims about Johal's involvement in targeted killings. They have asked the state government to provide evidence to prove his complicity.

The chief minister said it was "unfortunate" that the opposition parties were siding with those allegedly conspiring to malign the Punjab Police and the state government.

Describing those opposing Johal's arrest as "working against the interests of India, particularly Punjab," Singh said such elements were trying to disturb peace and harmony in the state.

"The whole issue was being sought to be politicised by certain pro-Khalistani elements and it was unfortunate that Punjab's own leaders were adding their voice to these elements," he said.

"Radical elements based in Britain and some other countries had launched a false and slanderous orchestrated media campaign against the Punjab government/Punjab Police."



The police have claimed they have "sufficient" evidence to prove Johal's complicity in targeted killings. They have also claimed Johal was involved in conspiracy, coordination, funding and arranging of weapons for members of the KLF module busted in connections with the targeted killings.

There was a well-planned conspiracy at work in this whole affair, the Punjab chief minister said in a statement.

He said his government was more concerned about maintaining Punjab's peace, rather than worrying about perceived embarrassment at the hands of foreign forces, which had no stake in India's security or development.

Singh said India never interfered in other countries' policing and legal matters, even if an Indian citizen were involved, and expected the same respect and diplomatic propriety to be followed by other nations.

On Tuesday, the UK government said it would take "extreme action" if any British citizen is being tortured after Johal's case was raised in the the House of Commons.

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The Delhi High Court today asked the authorities, including municipal bodies, to put online the details of status of complaints received by them regarding unauthorised constructions in the national capital.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said it was of the view that many of the grievances relating to illegal constructions could be addressed by the authorities through a proper mechanism.

It suggested putting on their websites various details like the date of receipt of complaint, action taken on it, reasons of delay, non-implementation of orders passed thereof, details of new incumbent officers.

The bench issued the direction while hearing a PIL alleging inaction by authorities on complaints made about unauthorised and illegal construction over some drains here.

The petitioner also sought direction against the officials of municipal corporations for not taking action on the complaints.

The court said prima facie, the petition appears to have substance as it raised the grievance of encroachment and unauthorised construction and such complaints must be addressed on priority.

It asked the authorities, including the municipal bodies to filed their status report on the plea and listed the matter for March 16 next year.

The counsel for north MCD informed the court that they already have a similar software in place, after which the bench asked the corporation to take steps for deciding the format for placing the data on the website.

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Reaching out to the fishermen community in Gujarat ahead of the next month's Assembly polls, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today promised to create a separate ministry for fisheries if the party comes to power at the Centre.

He criticised the BJP government in Gujarat for stopping the subsidy given to fishermen to buy diesel for their boats.

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi alleged that the fishermen from Gujarat are now forced to venture deep into the sea because of the pollution caused by 10-15 industrialists, who are "Modiji's friends".

Gandhi, during his address to the fishermen at this coastal town on the first day of his two-day campaign tour of Gujarat, expressed confidence that the Congress will emerge victorious in the state, where the party has been out of power for 22 years.

"Fishermen's work is equivalent to that of farmers. Sometime back, you demanded that if there is a ministry to look after the agriculture sector, then why not for fishermen? I agree with you, and I promise that the Congress will set it up after forming the government at the Centre," Gandhi said.

He claimed that the BJP-led state government, during the tenure of Narendra Modi as chief minister, gave away Rs 33,000 crore to Tata Motors for its Nano car plant.

"When Congress was in power, fishermen used to get 25 per cent subsidy on the purchase of diesel. That subsidy, which was just Rs 300 crore (per annum), has been abolished by the BJP government here. What kind of magic is this? They can give Rs 33,000 crore for Nano factory but they cant give Rs 300 crore to you," he asked.

"I have learnt that now you have to go deeper into the sea to catch fish. Why? Because of pollution. But, who caused this? Definitely not the fishermen. It was caused by some 10- 15 industrialists who are Modiji's friends...He took all your money and gave it to those 10-15 persons," he alleged.

Gandhi added that instead of doing anything concrete for the fishermen, Modi has gifted ports to "some of his industrialist friends".

Taking a jibe at Modi's radio programme 'Mann ki Baat', the Congress leader promised that the doors of Congress government will be opened once the party comes to power in Gujarat.

"I am confident that the Congress will win this election. After that, doors of the Chief Minister's Office and the Assembly will be opened for you, so that you can tell us your 'mann ki baat'. Till now, those doors were open only for the rich, and only their voice was heard. Your voice never reached the government," he alleged.

Rahul Gandhi is in Gujarat for two days to lead his party's election campaign ahead of the first phase of polling on 89 Assembly seats next month.

During the campaign, Gandhi would interact with Dalits, doctors, teachers and villagers on his route covering Porbandar, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Arvalli, Mahisagar and Dahod district.

Polling for the two-phase elections in the state, having a total of 182 seats, will take place on December 9 and 14 and votes will be counted on December 18.

Eighty nine seats of Saurashtra and south Gujarat region are going to polls in the first phase, while the remaining 93 seats in central and northern region would vote in the second phase.

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BJP's move to become a prominent force in Kerala has been checked following the emergence of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi as a strong leader at the national level, leader of the opposition Ramesh Chennithala said today.

Chennithala is leading a UDF "Padayorukkam" protest march from Kasargod to Thiruvananthapuram against the "misrule" of BJP governments at the Centre and CPI(M)-led LDF in Kerala



He claimed that the future of Congress in Kerala was bright as people who had left the party have started coming back to the Congress fold.

The congress leader also claimed that BJP's 'fading image' was helping UDF gather more support from the majority community.

At the same time, minorities were convinced that only Congress could effectively counter the rise of BJP at the state and the Centre, Chennithala, whose yatra entered Alappuzha district, told PTI.

Admitting that there has been a shift of Congress's traditional votes' towards BJP and the Left in Kerala, he said the scenario has ended and people have started reposing faith in Congress and the United Democratic Front.

"All these positive developments we witness in the state are the result of Rahul Gandhi's continuous fight against the Modi government's misrule for the last 42 months and his emergence as a strong leader at the national level," he said.

In a bid to reach out to former ally Kerala Congress(M), he said the party, led by veteran leader K M Mani, was a "natural ally" of UDF and there was no problem in taking them back to the UDF fold.

"Kerala Congress is our natural ally.We have no objection in taking them back. But they should take a decision first. We are very open minded on this matter," he said when asked about the possibility of KC(M)'s re-entry into UDF.

The "padayorukkam" will cover 140 assembly segments before concluding at Thiruvanathapuram on December 1 when Rahul Gandhi is expected to address party workers.

Asked about steps he took during the yatra to increase the UDF base by adding smaller parties in its fold,he said the priority now was to strengthen the front further as a major political force in the state.

"If anybody wants to come, we will discuss further," said Chennithala.

His statement on KC(M) assume significance in the wake of that party preparing for a mega three-day conference in the second week of December at Kottayam, where it is expected to clearly state its political position.

KC(M) had ended its 30-year-long alliance with Congress led United Democratic Front in August 2016 soon after the front suffered a humiliating defeat in the Assembly polls.

Mani had announced the separation, accusing several Congress leaders of working against his party.

The former Finance Minister-led KC(M) had been at loggerheads with the Congress over the bar bribery scam.

He had hit out at the Congress,saying KC(M) had received only 'insults' and 'humiliations' from it.

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Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray today came out in support of the embattled real estate developer D S Kulkarni and urged depositors to support the "Marathi" real estate developer.

Thackeray today met as many as 600 to 700 depositors, who have invested in fixed-deposit schemes of DSK Builders, the construction firm founded by Kulkarni.

The firm has been accused of cheating its depositors.

"He (Kulkarni) is not a cheater. He himself is in trouble and there is a need to help him in his difficult times.

"There are some people who are active against Marathi builders like DSK. Some of them are associated with a political party and are conspiring against Marathi businessmen to help some non-Marathi real-estate developers," Thackeray alleged, while talking to reporters.

Fellow Marathi real estate developers should extend a helping hand to Kulkarni, the MNS chief said.

One of the depositors who was present at the meeting said MNS chief appealed them to stand by Kulkarni.

Pune police registered a case against Kulkarni and his wife on October 28 on a complaint lodged by a depositor who alleged that for the past several months he was not getting interest on his FD, nor could he retrieve the principal sum.

More complaints followed. According to police, around 1,500 complaints have been lodged against the DSK group.

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Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa has urged his successor and party rival Maithripala Sirisena to end the current government of national unity with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's UNP, to pave the way for reunification of their respective SLFP factions.

"As a pre-condition he must end his government with the United National Party (UNP)," Rajapaksa said last night, referring to reunification talks between his faction and that of Sirisena in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Rajapaksa handed Sirisena the SLFP leadership after he was defeated by his rival in the presidential election of January 2015.

Sirisena became the UNP-backed common opposition challenger to Rajapaksa, having quit his position as health minister in the Rajapaksa Cabinet.

Since Sirisena became president, the Rajapaksa camp has formed its own party to challenge Sirisena.

However, Sirisena wants to unify the SLFP to face the upcoming local council elections.

Sirisena has been postponing local elections since 2015 and the Rajapaksa camp alleges that it was his fear of losing which drives Sirisena to keep postponing the polls.

"We have a committee of three talking to SLFP. We want to see if our conditions will be met," Rajapaksa stressed.

The SLFP-UNP understanding on the unity government is due to end by the end of the year.

The UNP however is intent on continuing the current government with or without the SLFP until the end of its term in 2020, the UNP sources said.

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Religious structures cannot be allowed to encroach on public land for private gain and at the expense of others' rights, the Delhi High Court said today and asked the AAP government to prepare a plan to relocate them.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar called for a plan to relocate encroachments, including some religious structures which have come up around a 108-feet tall Hanuman statue in Central Delhi.

The court, while making it clear that it has protected the statue located near Karol Bagh here, said the encroachments around it "cannot be allowed to stand".

The bench said the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has undertaken several projects involving relocation of temples from various parts of the national capital region.

"Therefore, there is no reason that religious structures cannot be relocated when they are encroaching on public land," the court said while hearing several PILs in connection with unauthorised constructions and encroachments in Karol Bagh and the Ridge areas of Delhi.

On the encroachments in the Ridge area, the DDA, represented by senior advocate Rajiv Bansal, said it has recovered about 1177 square yards and handed it over to its horticulture department.

Bagga Links, a popular car dealer whose parking area boundary wall was demolished by DDA to recover the 1177 square yards, had moved the bench against the action saying it had only received a notice for payment of damages.

While issuing notice to the DDA and other authorities on the dealer's plea challenging the demolition, the court asked from where did it get permission to build a wall as it has not shown any document which entitled it to do so.

The bench also said the payment of damages does not create a legal right of possession or occupation.

It said that prima facie it was not satisfied that the dealer has any "legally enforceable" right over the land.

The DDA and the other authorities have to file their response to the dealer's plea before the next date of hearing on December 12.

During the hearing today, the municipal corporations of Delhi informed the bench that from December 1, all information relating to encroachments and unauthorised constructions would be put in the public domain.

Earlier data on the issue would be addressed on a warfooting every month, the corporations assured the court.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government and the police said that probe was underway into who erected the 108-feet long idol, other unauthorised buildings, the funding of such activity and the persons controlling the encroachments.

The court asked them to file a report on it before the next date.

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The RSS workers are free to join any political party including the Congress, but the opposition party does not accept them, senior Sangh functionary Krishna Gopal said today.

Gopal, who was speaking at a panel discussion on a book on the rise of the BJP in the Northeast, said that the Congress never bothered the Sangh in its works in the region.

"The Congress never bothered us in our work during the time of insurgency in Assam. But at the same time, it failed to stop killing of our workers," the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader said.

He was replying to a question whether there was any understanding between the BJP and the Congress during the time of crisis in Assam.

Gopal said that the Sangh never stops its workers from joining the Congress, but the party denies them entry.

"Our workers are free to join any political party including the Congress, but the party does not accept them and closes its doors for the Sangh workers," Gopal said.

He further said the opposition parties not only reject them but criticise and ridicule them for their ideological commitment.

This push them towards the like-minded political outfits, he said.

Gopal, a joint general secretary of the RSS, was participating in the panel discussion on the book, 'The Last Battle of Saraighat', written by Rajat Sethi and Shubhrastha, fellows of India Foundation.

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Russia's military plans to reduce its involvement in Syria this year as it is nearing the completion of its goals there, the General Staff chief has told journalists.

"Of course, there will be a decision taken by the commander in chief and the group (working in Syria) will be decreased," said Valery Gerasimov yesterday when asked whether Russia would be scaling back its forces in Syria by the end of the year.

"When we complete our tasks, military tasks. There is only a little left," Gerasimov said.

Asked about the extent of the pull-out, Gerasimov said it would be "extensive," though it was not clear if he was also referring to this year or a later date.

He said some military will be left behind even after Moscow scales back its involvement in bombing and combat.

"We will leave the Centre for Reconciliation, our two military bases (in Tartus and Hmeimim) and several necessary structures to maintain the state which has developed at this time," said Gerasimov.

Putin this week hosted a round of diplomacy meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as the leaders of Turkey and Iran as he declared the Syrian crisis was entering "a new stage" after the country "has been saved as a state."



Moscow stepped into Syria's multi-front war in September 2015, sending planes to back the Assad regime and turning the military situation around in his favour.

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A South African appeals court increased paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius' sentence for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to 13 years and five months today, local media reported.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein more than doubled his original sentence of six years after the state appealed that it was unduly lenient.

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A South African appeals court increased paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius' sentence for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to 13 years and five months today.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein more than doubled his original sentence of six years after the state argued that it was unduly lenient.

Pistorius, 31, was not in court for the hearing.

Prosecutors argued earlier this month that Oscar Pistorius failed to show genuine remorse after killing his girlfriend.

"One of the essential ingredients of a balanced sentence is that it must reflect the seriousness of the offence," Andrea Johnson, of the National Prosecution Authority, had told the court.

Pistorius' lawyer Barry Roux mounted a strong defence of the judge who handed down the six-year sentence, saying she took into account his claim that he believed he was shooting an intruder.

The Paralympic athlete shot dead Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013 when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

He pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014 and has always denied that he killed Steenkamp in a rage, saying he mistook her for a burglar.

In 2015, Pistorius was found guilty of murder and given less than half of the minimum 15 years in jail for that crime.

Pistorius was originally convicted of culpable homicide -- the equivalent of manslaughter -- but the appeal court upgraded his conviction.

Nazreen Shaik Peremanov, a constitutional law expert at the University of South Africa's law school, told AFP that Pistorius could now appeal the latest sentence at the country's highest court -- the Constitutional Court.

But National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said he was pleased with the Supreme Court's ruling.

"We always maintained as an institution that this appeal is not about an individual. It has got everything to do with the proper administration of justice," he said.

"We hope the family will find closure knowing that justice has been served and the proper sentence has been handed out."



Oscar's brother Carl Pistorius tweeted that he was "Shattered. Heartbroken. Gutted" following the court's ruling.

"We have all suffered incomprehensible loss. The death of Reeva was and still is a great loss for our family too," he wrote.

Previously an ambassador for disabled people worldwide, Pistorius was released from jail in 2015 after serving one year of the initial five-year term for culpable homicide.

He returned behind bars after his conviction for murder.

The year before he killed Steenkamp, Pistorius became the first double-amputee to race at the Olympics when he competed at the London 2012 games.

In a television interview, he said he believed an intruder was in the house and "instant fear" drove him to grab his gun and walk on his stumps towards the bathroom.

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The SAD-BJP combine today asked the Punjab Assembly speaker to extend the sittings of the House's winter session to at least 10 so that debate on emergent issues concerning the state could take place.

The three-day winter session of Punjab Assembly would commence from November 27.

A delegation led by former minister Ajit Singh Kohar and senior BJP leader Som Parkash, met Speaker Rana K P Singh and asked him to take note of summons issued to AAP leader and MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira by a Fazilka court in a drug case.

Urging the speaker to extend the sittings of session, the delegation also sought debate on other issues like problems faced by the farmers and "non-implementation of poll promises" by the ruling Congress.

The delegation accused the Congress government of "playing a friendly match" with Khaira by not presenting a supplementary charge sheet against him in the court.

Briefing the meidapersons about the meeting, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said the delegation had asked the speaker to extend the sittings of the winter session from three to at least 10.

Among other things, the SAD-BJP legislators also wanted to discuss the plight of farmers declared defaulters by banks and they were not getting fertiliser from cooperative societies as they thought that the loan waiver announced by the government would soon be implemented, he said.

Majithia said the delegation also wanted the government to make the contents of the proposed Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act (PCOCA) public.

"There is a widespread feeling that PCOCA will put constraints on personal freedom and liberty. The government should call an all-party meeting to discuss the same, besides holding meetings with the civil society," he said.

Majithia also urged the state government to lay the facts in the case pertaining to UK citizen Jagtar Singh Johal, recently arrested for targeted killings in the state, before the Assembly.

"Our image is at stake. We must clarify if any human rights violation has occurred in this case," he said.

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Hours after his release from house arrest, Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed gave an hour-long Friday sermon at the JuD headquarters here, accusing the Pakistan government of taking "dictation from foreign masters" to appease India.

A large number of JuD activists had gathered at the Jamia Masjid Al-Qadsia at Chauburji here.

After Friday prayers, the charged workersgreeted Saeed on his release and renewed their pledge for "Kashmir Jihad".

Saeed in his speech alsotargeted the Pakistani government for "taking dictation from foreign masters" andspoke of "Indian atrocities" in Kashmir.

He told his supporters the "reasons" behind his10-month detention, and also as to why Nawaz Sharif was ousted as prime minister.

"Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been punished for forsaking Kashmiris. Sharif is ousted from the prime minister house because he committed treason with Kashmiris. He wanted friendship with India and completely ignored the Kashmir cause," he said and warned the PML-N government not to bow before the international community for loans.

"The rulers must not take dictation from the US and other countries and take its own decisions," he said.

Saeed walked from house arrest as a free man in the early hours of today after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any case.

He had been under detention since January this year.

The JuD head, who carries a bounty of USD 10 million announced by the US for his role in terror activities, reiterated that he was detained for raising his voice for the Kashmiri people.

He said Pakistan should not hold peace dialogue with India till it withdraws its army from Kashmir.

He said he would continue fighting for Kashmiris till they get freedom.

Saeed reiterated that the US, on India's request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.

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The Supreme Court today granted six weeks time to the Gujarat government for apprising it on whether any disciplinary action has been initiated against policemen convicted in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, considered the submission of Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, that some more time be given to get instruction on the authorities concerned in the case.

The bench listed the plea for hearing in the first week of January.

The bench, however, made it clear that the separate plea, seeking enhancement of compensation to be awarded to Bilkis Bano, would be taken up next week for hearing.

The apex court had already granted time, on October 23, to the state government to apprise it whether any departmental action had been initiated or taken against police officers whose conviction was upheld in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

The Bombay High Court had on May 4 upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 12 people in the gangrape case, while setting aside the acquittal of seven people including policemen and doctors.

Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped in March, 2002, while she was pregnant, lost seven of her family members in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident.

The bench had convicted seven persons, including five policemen and two doctors, for not performing their duties (sections 218) and tampering of evidence (section 201) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The convicted policemen and doctors are Narpat Singh, Idris Abdul Saiyed, Bikabhai Patel, Ramsingh Bhabhor, Sombhai Gori, Arun Kumar Prasad (doctor) and Sangeeta Kumar Prasad (doctor).

A special court had on January 21, 2008, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men in the case.

They later approached the Bombay High Court challenging their conviction and sought for the trial court's order to be quashed.

The CBI had also filed an appeal in the high court seeking harsher punishment of death for three of the convicted on the grounds that they were the main perpetrators of the crime.

According to the prosecution, on March 3, 2002, Bilkis Bano's family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots and seven members of her family were killed.

The trial in the case began in Ahmedabad. However, after Bilkis Bano expressed apprehensions that witnesses could be harmed and CBI evidence tampered, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.

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The mobile phone of slain journalist Sudip Datta Bhaumick has been recovered from the possession of arrested Tripura State Rifles (TSR) commandant Tapan Debbarma, police said today.

Debbarma, who was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the case, had a mobile phone that belonged to the journalist, Superintendent of Police (west) Abhijit Saptarshi told PTI.

Datta Bhaumick, a senior crime reporter of local Bengali newspaper 'Syandan Patrika', was allegedly shot dead on Tuesday inside the headquarters of the 2nd battalion at RK Nagar, 15km from here, when he had gone there to meet Debbarma.

"Sudip was called by TSR 2nd battalion commandant Debbarma and shot inside the battalion headquarters. The journalist had written 11 items about the commandant's misdeeds," Editor of 'Syandan Patrika' Subal Kumar Dey told reporters.

Tripura Journalist Union (TJU) secretary Pranab Sarkar said the Press Council of India (PCI) has taken cognisance on the killing of the journalist.

"PCI Chairman Justice C K Prasad informed me through e-mail that it had suo motu registered a case on the killing of Datta Bhaumick inside the battalion headquarters. After receiving the email, I called him up and requested for a visit by a PCI team to the state. He assured to do the needful," Sarkar said.

Meanwhile, editors and working journalists yesterday convened a meeting and expressed their deep concern over the safety and security of journalists in the state. They formed a new platform -- Forum for Protection of Journalist -- to launch a democratic movement here demanding more safety and security for journalists.

"Within two months two journalists have been killed in the state. We have decided to launch regular movements demanding security for journalists. We have also decided to keep in touch with journalists' organisations in Delhi and other parts of the country asking them to raise their voice against the killings," Sarkar told reporters.

In September, TV journalist Shantanu Bhowmick was killed when he had gone to Mandai in West Tripura district, about 20 km from here, to cover a political event organised by the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT).

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The AAP government today told the Delhi High Court it was taking steps to enforce the pending eviction orders against encroachers of 990 Waqf properties in the national capital.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar was also informed by Delhi government that the officers will be directed to take action against the encroachers.

"The Divisional Commissioner will have interface through video-conferencing with all the District Magistrates and the Sub Divisional Magistrates and other concerned revenue authorities to take a call for execution of order passed under the Waqf Act to remove encroachments," Delhi government's additional standing counsel Naushad Ahmed Khan said.

The court listed the matter for hearing on January 22.

Earlier the bench had directed the Delhi government, Waqf Board and other authorities to file an action taken report (ATR) with regard to the recovery of properties, failing which it "shall be compelled to initiate action against the officer concerned of the area".

The court had issued the direction during the hearing of a PIL filed by advocate Shahid Ali on 990 waqf properties, claiming these have already been ordered to be vacated from illegal and unauthorised occupation of encroachers under the Waqf Act, but the concerned sub-divisional magistrates were not enforcing the orders.

Earlier, the court had asked the counsel for the Revenue Authority, under which all sub-divisional magistrates of Delhi fall, why were the Waqf laws framed and what was their utility if there was no intention to enforce them.

The counsel in his plea said that between 2006 and 2013, SDMs had been requested to get the properties vacated through police circle officers.

Earlier, these officers had the power to get the properties vacated, but through an amendment in 2013 in the Waqf Act, this right was transferred to the Waqf tribunal, the plea has said.

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Bollywood actress Sunny Leone and her husband, Daniel Weber, took to Twitter today to complain about delays experienced on four Jet Airways flights this week.

"Seriously, it's crazy the amount of delays @jetairways is having everyday. Was on a plane all week and usually only with Jet (Airways) but everyday was delayed at least by 1 hour. Ruined my week of sleep (sic)! Something needs to be done," Leone wrote in a tweet.

Her husband, Daniel Weber, posted that he received a call from the airline's customer care who sought to blame the airport instead.

"Call from @jetairways this morning to me after a complaint about 4 flight delays this week -- sir, it is the airport's fault , not the airline's, don't be mad at us !... Good response @jetairways," Weber wrote.

Weber told PTI that the four flights included two from Delhi and a flight each from Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

"Jet Airways is always late," he claimed.

Jet Airways, however, did not comment on the matter.

A three-week long protest by Jet Airways pilots last month severely affected the airline's punctuality.

The protest against the management's alleged failure to clear salary dues saw pilots refuse to operate flights beyond their roster.

The Naresh Goyal-owned full service carrier also registered the lowest on-time performance (OTP) last month with only 64 per cent of its flights arriving and departing on time.

Its OTP was the worst for Mumbai (56.9 per cent) and Delhi (64.1 per cent), which account for most of its flight operations.

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A Suttur Math seer today stressed the need for deliberating on containing "pseudo religious" groups engaging in "lumpen" activities in the name of Hinduism.

Jagadguru Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra of Suttur Math in Mysuru was speaking at the inaugural session of the three-day Dharma Sansad being held at the temple town of Udupi in coastal Karnataka by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

The seer spoke in the presence of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, VHP international general secretary Dr Praveen Togadia and a host of eminent religious leaders.

"The most dangerous threat is from some pseudo religious groups, who in the name of Hinduism, indulge in lumpen activities and cause irreparable damage to the religion, such as cow vigilantes, moral policing, heralding pseudo-sanyasis.. shall not be tolerated," the seer said.

He emphasised that the Sansad should make efforts towards achieving the goal of zero tolerance towards corruption in all its forms.

He also highlighted the need for improving the status of women and their safety.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today called on Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and discussed ways to deepen bilateral ties.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said both sides deliberated on steps to further intensify the already close relationship between the two neighbours.

"EAM @SushmaSwaraj called on Sri Lankan PM @RW_UNP today morning, both sides discussed steps to further intensify the already close and mutually beneficial relationship between the two counties," he tweeted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with Wickremesinghe yesterday.

Wickremesinghe's four-day India visit ended today.

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Syria's fragmented opposition announced early today they had reached an agreement to send a united delegation to next week's UN-brokered peace talks.

The announcement came on the second day of a Saudi- sponsored meeting in Riyadh, where around 140 opposition figures are gathered to unify their ranks before direct talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Geneva on November 28.

Several rounds of talks hosted by the United Nations have failed to bring an end to the six-year war in Syria, which has killed more than 330,000 people since 2011 and forced millions from their homes.

"We have agreed with the two other (opposition) branches to send a united delegation to participate in the direct negotiations in Geneva," Bassma Kodmani, a member of the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee, told reporters in Riyadh.

Kodmani added that further meetings would be held on Friday to finalise the names and number of representatives each group would have in the 50-strong unified delegation.

The delegates at the meeting have been under heavy pressure to row back on some of their more radical demands after a series of battlefield victories that have given Assad's regime the upper hand.

A Cairo-based Syrian opposition group was reported to have agreed earlier yesterday to join ranks with other opposition clusters including the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) -- the largest bloc in the opposition -- and the Istanbul-based National Coalition.

Kodmani's announcement implies that a Moscow-based Syrian opposition group has also agreed to join forces with that delegation.

Several key opposition figures have boycotted the meeting, including the Moscow group's Jamil and Riad Hijab of the HNC.

Hijab stepped down as leader of the Saudi-backed HNC this week over "attempts to lower the ceiling of the revolution and prolong the regime".

Assad's fate has been a major stumbling block in multiple rounds of negotiations between the Syrian regime and the opposition.

The HNC and its closest allies have consistently demanded Assad step down from power as a prerequisite for a transitional phase to end the Syrian war.

Other branches of the opposition have taken a softer stance against Assad.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN's Syria envoy, attended the opening session of the Riyadh gathering on Wednesday and said the goal of the meeting was to give momentum to next week's peace talks.

The Riyadh talks come as Syrian regime ally Russia is seeking to organise a "congress" to bring together Assad's forces and various opposition groups to reinvigorate the peace process.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the leaders of Iran and Turkey for a key trilateral summit aimed at finding a political settlement of Syria's conflict. Putin also met with Assad this week.

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Three students of IIT (ISM) at Dhanbad have been injured when a speeding car collided with an auto-rickshaw carrying them, police said today.

The accident took place at Memko roundabout here at 10.30 pm yesterday when the three first year students were returning to the campus from a restaurant.

On receiving the information, the dean of students welfare of the institutionm G N Singh and safety officer Rammanohar reached the spot and admitted the students to Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH).

The students were identified as Aswani Raj from Tamil Nadu, K Nikhil from Hyderabad) and Sandeep from Telangana, the police said.

Hospital spokesperson Dr Vikash Rana said the condition of the students was stable.

The driver of the car had fled from the spot after the accident, the poliec said.

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At least three people, including two women, were today killed and nine others injured after a four-storey residential building collapsed in Bhiwandi town of Thane district, officials said.

The 'Tahir Biznor' building, situated in Navi Basti area, was unauthorised, a district official said.

The building collapsed around 9 am this morning, Regional Disaster Management Cell chief Santosh Kadam said.

The deceased were identified as Ruksar Yakub Khan (18), Asfaque Mustaque Khan (38) and Jaibunissa Rafique Ansari (61).

The nine injured, including a six-year-old boy, have been admitted to the state-run Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital and the civic hospital here, District Disaster Management Control officer Asmita Nikam said.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams were rushed to the spot, along with fire-brigade teams from Bhiwandi, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan civic bodies.

Bhiwandi Tehsildar Shashikant Gaikwad, who was supervising the rescue operations, told PTI that the building, over 10 years old, was not in the list of dangerous buildings.

At least eight families lived in it, the officials said.

The officials said the possibility of some more people being trapped under the debris can not be ruled out yet.

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US President Donald Trump today denounced as "horrible and cowardly" the terrorist attack on "innocent and defenceless worshippers" in Egypt and said the world must discredit the extremist ideology.

At least 235 worshippers were killed and 109 others injured when heavily-armed militants bombed a mosque and opened fire on people attending Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, in the deadliest terror attack in the country.

"Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenceless worshippers in Egypt," Trump said in a tweet.

"The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!" said the US president as world leaders strongly condemned the terrorist attack.

White House also condemned the "horrific terrorist attack.

"There can be no tolerance for barbaric groups that claim to act in the name of a faith but attack houses of worship and murder the innocent and defenceless while at prayer," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The international community must continue to strengthen its efforts to defeat terrorist groups that threaten the US and its partners and they must collectively discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence, Sanders said.

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert termed the attack as an "unconscionable act of evil".

"We will continue to stand with Egypt and the Egyptian people as they face the scourge of terrorism," Nauert said.

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The iconic Trump Tower comprising 140 ultra-luxury apartments has been been launched in Kolkata and its Indian developers are expecting to garner around Rs 700 crore in sales from this project.

Realty firms Unimark Group, RDB Group and Tribeca Developers have already sold about 50 per cent units since the project was soft-launched in mid-October. The starting price is Rs 3.75 crore for a 2,500 sq ft size flat.

This is the third Trump Tower to be launched in India.

The Trump Organization -- founded by US President Donald Trump -- already has Trump-branded project in Pune partnering Panchshil Realty. It tied up with Lodha group in 2014 for housing project in Mumbai.

"We will be developing about 130-140 units in this Trump tower. The construction work has already started and the project will be delivered in mid-2020," Tribeca Developers Managing Partner Kalpesh Mehta told PTI.

Asked about the project cost, he declined to disclose the number but said the construction cost would be around Rs 7,000 per sq ft in this project.

On sales, Mehta said the response has been very good and the company has sold 50 per cent of the unit within one month.

Mehta said the company would soon increase the price by 15 per cent.

On sales realisation, he said: "We expect to generate about Rs 700 crore from this project."



"There was a big gap in the super-luxury residential segment of Kolkata, with no branded luxury developments. Despite a price increase, we anticipate a complete sell-off of the development in the next 6-12 months," Mehta said.

Harsh Patodia, CMD of Unimark Group, said, "We always believed that the product and the Trump brand would do well in Kolkata, but this has surpassed even our best estimates."



Vinod Dugar of RDB Group said: "The global appeal of the Trump brand along with the absolute best product offering performed extremely well for us."



Tribeca, Unimark and RDB partnered last year to build this Trump tower, which is located on EM Bypass, the city's main arterial road and has some of the finest luxury hotels of Kolkata in its neighbourhood.

Tribeca is a boutique branded real estate developer. It has worked with the Trump Brand for the last seven years.

Unimark is one of the leading real estate developers in Kolkata, while RDB Group has interests in many businesses including real estate and infrastructure.
: Two labourers were today killed and at least seven others injured when a portion of a granite quarry caved in at Marayamuttam in Neyyattinkara, a nearby suburb, police said.

The deceased were identified as Binil Kumar (23) and Satheesh, they added.

The condition of two of the injured, admitted to the medical college hospital here, is stated to be serious, police said.

According to locals, the mishap happened when a portion of the quarry collapsed during mining.

About 20 labourers, including migrants, were working at the privately-owned quarry, when the tragedy occurred, they said.

More people are suspected to be trapped beneath the piles of rocks, the locals added.

All the injured were rushed to the government medical college hospital here and the taluk hospital in Neyyattinkara.

Meanwhile, medical college authorities said treatment including surgery and implants would be given free of cost to all the injured.

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A British judge today handed a five-year sentence to a 16-year-old girl accused of manslaughter over the death of a seven-year-old who died of injuries sustained in a playground attack.

Katie Rough was found near her home in York, northern England, in January having been attacked with a box cutter and smothered, a case that grabbed headlines across Britain.

The defendant, who was 15 at the time of the attack, had been given a life sentence with a minimum five-year term of detention at a previous hearing in Leeds after admitting manslaughter due to mental issues.

Judge Michael Soole today called the case "truly exceptional" as he issued his ruling on the teenager, who appeared via video link, clutching a teddy bear.

Her identity was not disclosed because she was a minor.

"The gravity of the offence of killing a small child speaks for itself," he told the court.

"The level of danger to the public is high, he added. "In the circumstances of your continuing silence, the critical question is whether there is any reliable estimate as to how long that danger will continue."



Rough was found with severe cuts to her neck and chest on a playing field, but her death occurred after being smothered, the court had earlier heard.

Prosecutors said the defendant was suffering from delusional thoughts, including the belief that people "weren't human and were robots".

Several murders by children have rocked Britain in recent years, including the case last year of two girls who battered a 39-year-old woman to death at her home in Hartlepool in northeastern England. They were aged 13 and 14 at the time of the killing.

The most notorious case involved Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who were convicted of killing two-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool in 1993 when they were 10 years old.

Yesterday, Venables was ordered to return to prison after being found with child abuse images for a second time.

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Unattractive men are not viewed as potential dating material by women and their mothers even when they possess the most desirable traits, a study claims.

Researchers at the Eastern Connecticut State University in the US assessed the mate preference of 80 women between the ages of 15 and 29 years old, and 61 mothers.

The women were presented with colour photographs of three male targets varying in attractiveness. Each photograph was paired with one of three trait profiles.

The "respectful" profile included the traits "trustworthy and honest", and the "friendly" profile included being "friendly, dependable and mature".

The "pleasing" profile meant that the man was "of a pleasing disposition, ambitious, and intelligent," according to the study published in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science.

The women had to rate the photographs and trait descriptions in response to how attractive they found the man, how favourably they rated his personal description, and whether they would consider the person as a dating partner for themselves or their daughters.

Physical attractiveness strongly influenced how women and their mothers saw the target men. The attractive and moderately attractive ones came up trumps.

Men with the most desirable personality profiles were rated more favourably than their counterparts only when they were also at least moderately attractive.

Even when unattractive men possessed the most desirable traits, the mothers and daughters did not view them as potential dating material.

"We conclude that a minimum level of physical attractiveness is a necessity for both women and their mothers," said Madeleine Fugere, from the the Eastern Connecticut State University.

It was also found that daughters are pickier than their parents when it comes to choosing between potential mates.

Mothers rated all men, even the least attractive ones, as potentially desirable partners for their daughters, while the younger women did not.

"This may signal that unattractiveness is less acceptable to women than to their mothers," she said.

"It might also mean that women and their mothers may have different notions of what constitutes a minimally acceptable level of physical attractiveness, with mothers employing a less stringent standard than their daughters," she added.

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A day after three Muslim clerics were beaten up in a moving train in Baghpat for wearing scarves, principal of a missionary school here today asked a Muslim student to remove her headscarf or take admission in an Islamic institution.

The incident was reported from Anand Bhavan School in Nagar Kotwali area, prompting the local authorities to order a probe into the matter.

"We got a complaint and we have asked the block education officer to conduct a probe. The school has been served with a notice, but it has not replied to it so far," Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) P N Singh said.

"We have also asked the officer to visit the school and make an on-the-spot inquiry," he said.

The student's father Mohammad R Rizvi alleged that he had approached the school principal, Archana Thomas, with a written request to allow his daughter to wear the religious headscarf.

But the principal asked him to get his daughter admitted to an Islamic school if he could not abide by rules laid down by the school.

"It is to clarify to you that this is a minority school, but there are many communities in minority category, and one community cannot impose its rules on other communities," Thomas reportedly told Rizvi, adding, "The school will not be able to provide an exemption to its rules".

The principal also asked the student's father not to "disrupt" the school's functioning by asking unnecessary questions.

"If you face any inconvenience, you can admit your ward to an Islamic school," she told him.

The principal of the missionary school further noted that wearing a headscarf did not conform to the 'dress code' of the school, while reprimanding Rizvi for questioning the school management's decision on this issue.

Rizvi later met the district magistrate regarding the school's order.

He said his daughter had been studying in the school since kindergarten and as per Islamic tradition, the child had to cover her hair after reaching the age of nine.

"My daughter was asked not to wear a headscarf to school, another girl was made to remove it. I argued that our Sikh brothers are allowed to wear turbans, even though the same is not part of the dress code," he said.

The principal, however, clarified that she did not ask the student to leave the school.

"If they have a problem with the rules, they can admit their child to another school, not necessarily an Islamic one," Thomas said.

On the question of differentiating among communities by allowing Sikhs to keep the turbans and barring Muslims from practicing their beliefs, the principal said, "Sikhs do not study here".

The incident came to light a day after three Muslim clerics were beaten up by allegedly by unidentified persons in a moving train in Baghpat.

The 'maulvis', who had boarded a passenger train at Delhi last night, were on their way to their village in Baghpat, when they had a tiff with some youths who allegedly beat them up. The accused reportedly wanted to know why did the clerics cover their heads with handkerchiefs.

The clerics received injuries on their heads, hands and legs.

The Baghpat police registered a case in this regard and are on the lookout for the culprits.

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The US will send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill, reports said today, in a new show of force aimed at Pyongyang.

Six fighter jets, normally based in Okinawa, Japan, will be deployed to the South for a five-day joint military exercise, Vigilant Ace, starting December 4, local media reported.

A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an "unspecified number" of F-22s would take part in the drill.

A US Air Force spokesman declined to give details.

Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets.

The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against the North's nuclear program.

Earlier this month, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes.

This was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships in the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade.

North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainland -- which were described by the country's leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to "American bastards".

It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test in September -- by far its most powerful yet.

Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back onto a US blacklist Pyongyang was taken off nearly a decade ago.

The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme.

Trump said that the terror designation and new sanctions are part of a series of moves over the next two weeks to reinforce his "maximum pressure campaign" against Kim Jong- Un's regime.

Pyongyang condemned the listing as a "serious provocation" on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the North's sole ally, also rejected as "wrong" new US sanctions, which target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state.

Russia said yesterday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a "PR move" that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global "catastrophe".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A US vice-consul in Brazil was shot in the foot during an attempted robbery at a seaside holiday resort near Rio de Janeiro, police said today.

The vice-consul, who was not identified, "was hit in the foot by a shot from a firearm" while in Angra dos Reis, Rio state police said in a statement.

The victim was taken to Samaritano Hospital in Rio de Janeiro "to undergo an operation."



The US embassy said it would issue a statement later on the incident. The hospital would not comment.

A British tourist was shot and wounded in Angra dos Reis in August when she, her husband and their three children accidentally drove into a favela controlled by criminals.

The Rio area is one of the world's most famous tourist destinations but many favelas -- largely unregulated communities of working class Brazilians -- are effectively no-go areas for outsiders and even for police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US today welcomed a move by Saudi Arabia to allow humanitarian aid to reach Yemen.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Yemeni rebels announced yesterday that it would allow the resumption of humanitarian deliveries to Sanaa airport and the crucial Red Sea port of Hodeida, after a more than two-week blockade following a missile attack on Riyadh.

The US welcomed the move.

"Full and immediate implementation of the announced measures is a first step in ensuring that food, medicine, and fuel reach the Yemeni people and that the aid organisations on the frontlines of mitigating this humanitarian crisis are able to do their essential work," White House Press Secretary Sarah sanders said.

The United States, she said, looks forward to additional steps that will facilitate the unfettered flow of humanitarian and commercial goods from all ports of entry to the points of need.

"The magnitude of suffering in Yemen requires all parties to this conflict to focus on assistance to those in need. All sides must support a political process with facilitating humanitarian relief as the top priority," Sanders said.

The Trump Administration, she said, remains committed to supporting Saudi Arabia and all its Gulf partners against the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aggression and blatant violations of international law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today distanced itself from spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravishankars attempt to mediate in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, saying he should not have involved himself in the matter.

"He (Ravishankar) did not discuss the matter with us. If he is mediating, he is doing so at his personal level. VHP has nothing to do with it," VHP general secretary Champat Rai said here.

He was briefing reporters on the opening day proceedings of the three-day 'Dharma Sansad", a congregation of 2,000 Hindu saints, mutt heads and VHP leaders from across the country at this temple town.

Rai also said if Ravishankar succeeded in arriving at a solution, he would have to submit it in the Supreme Court, where the matter is being heard.

"It is not a dispute between four-five parties but between two communities, he said.

Speaking to PTI later, Rai said, Sri Sri Ravishankar should not have involved himself in (resolving) the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute."



He claimed that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat too has not appreciated Sri Sris efforts while addressing the gathering of saints in the second session of the meeting.

"Mohan Bhagwat will never ever appreciate Sri Sris efforts but he did not criticise it too. Bhagwat Ji clearly said (from the podium) that Sri Sri has not discussed with us about (mediating on) the Ram Janmabhoomi issue.

"He also said whoever discusses this matter has to ultimately come to us (dharma sansad)," said Rai.

Ravi Shankar recently met various religious leaders in Ayodhya and Lucknow as part of his efforts to mediate a solution to the protracted Ram temple dispute.

But his efforts have found favour only with a section of both the communities, while the major parties including the AIMPLB (All India Muslim Personal Law Board) and VHP have expressed reservations over his role.

In his briefing, Rai said during the Dharma Sansad today VHP denounced temples being under government control.

Earlier in the day at the inaugural session, international working president of VHP Praveen Togadia demanded at the inaugural session that the governments should be kept away from temples and they should be maintained by the temple managements only.

Is there a single instance of government managing a mosque or a church? Why then the government is taking over the management of Hindu temples? Togadia questioned.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
LIC agent Anand Chauhan, an accused chargesheeted in a money laundering case allegedly involving Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, was today granted interim bail by a special court from November 25 to December 5.

The court granted relief to Chauhan for attending the wedding of his niece.

Advocate Tarannum Cheema, who moved the plea on behalf of Chauhan, had sought the relief for her client for 15 days.

Chauhan was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9 last year under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was allegedly not cooperating with the investigating officer.

Advocate N K Matta, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, had alleged before the court that during Chauhan's interrogation, it was found that as an LIC agent he had entered into a modus operandi to launder disproportionate assets by investing in LIC policies.

The agency had alleged that Singh "while serving as a Union minister, invested huge amounts in purchasing LIC policies in his own name and that of his family members through Chauhan".

"Virbhadra Singh, while functioning as a Union minister during the period from May 28, 2009, to June 26, 2012, acquired assets, disproportionate to his known sources of income to the tune of Rs 6,03,70,782 and further tried to justify the same in the form of agricultural income," the ED had alleged.

Chauhan is also chargesheeted, along with 82-year old Singh, his wife and others, in a separate case filed by the CBI in the matter.

Singh and all the other accused have denied all allegations made against them by the CBI and ED.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China pays great attention to the peace process in Myanmar and is willing to play a constructive role in it for the security and stability of the border areas, President Xi Jinping said today, amid the Rohingya refugee crisis in the neighbouring country.

Xi's remarks came as Myanmar's military chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing called on him.

During their meeting, Xi said the recent Congress of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has adopted a blueprint for China's economic and social reform and development for the years to come.

"It will not only inject great vitality into China's own development, but also bring new opportunities for various countries, including Myanmar, in their cooperation with China," he said.

China pays great attention to the peace process in Myanmar, and is willing to play a constructive role in this regard for the security and stability in their border areas, he said.

Hailing the "profound bilateral friendship", Xi called on the two countries to "strengthen strategic communication and accommodate each other's concerns".

Hlaing congratulated Xi on his re-election as the general secretary of the CPC and on the success of the National Congress.

Calling the two countries close neighbours, he said Myanmar appreciates China's help for its national construction and military building over the years, as well as support for its peace process.

Myanmar expects to actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and cement exchanges and cooperation with China in various fields, state-run Xinhua agency quoted him as saying.

China in the past has provided unwavering support for Myanmars military junta over two decades. China also built a USD 7.3 billion deep-water port in Rakhine, which plays a pivotal role in Beijings belt and road trade initiative.

Meanwhile, China also welcomed a pact between Myanmar and Bangladesh to repatriate over six lakh Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar' violence hit Rakhine state since August when the military intensified crackdown against alleged militant outfits.

"China always supports Myanmar and Bangladesh in properly resolving the issue through dialogue and consultation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told the media.

The situation in Rakhine state in Myanmar from where the refugees fled is "clearly alleviating", Geng said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 38-year-old woman with pulmonary fibriosis has got a new lease of life after a successful lung transplant surgery.

At a press meet here yesterday, Dr Sandeep Attawar, who performed the six-hour-long surgery on her at a Chennai hospital said, the woman is now as good as any healthy woman of her age walking, jogging, running and dancing.

Pulmonary fibrosis is a disease of the lung when its tissues are damaged with irreversible scarring resulting in reduced oxygen supply in the blood.

Her husband, Rajesh Agarwal, a plywood manufacturer from Jalpaiguri, said that the lung transplant surgery took place in July this year and she was now leading a normal life.

The woman, a mother of two, was operated upon at the Heart and Lung Transplant Centre of Excellence at Gleneagles Global Health City in Chennai.

Agarwal said his wife had developed breathlessness in 2011 and soon her condition aggravated with severe bouts of coughing. Doctors had then said that she would not survive without the support of artificial oxygen supply.

"Her daily oxygen intake had increased from two litres to eight litres and her condition started deteriorating. The hospitals said her condition to be a no cure stage," he said.

"That was when I started searching on the internet and stumbled upon the possibility of a lung transplant," Agarwal said.

Dr Attawar said the patient's name was on the wait-list in the state organ sharing registry for donor lungs.

In June she was allocated a pair of donor lungs and a bilateral lung transplant surgery was performed on her.

"She was discharged three weeks after the operation in a fully fit condition. She is as good as any healthy woman of her age walking, jogging, running and dancing," Dr Attawar said.

A total of Rs 35 lakh was spent for her treatment and surgery.

The woman was also present at the press meet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - JP Morgan has become the latest big bank to respond to Britain's looming exit from the European Union by renting extra office space in the German financial capital Frankfurt to accommodate more staff.

A source familiar with the matter said on Friday that the U.S. investment bank had rented enough room in the Taunusturm for 200 staff, while it could fit more into its existing offices in the 40-storey skyscraper.

The comes days after CEO Jamie Dimon held face-to-face talks with Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss Brexit - Britain's decision to leave the EU that she has pledged will happen by March 2019.

Slow progress in negotiations with Brussels has raised fears of a so-called "hard Brexit" that would cause banks running their regional operations out of London to face barriers to doing business on the continent.

JP Morgan plans to build hubs in Frankfurt, Dublin and Luxembourg - it already has banking licences in all three. Exactly which functions will be hosted at which location has yet to be decided, the source said, requesting anonymity due to the sensititivity of the matter.

JP Morgan joins an exodus in which competitors like Goldman Sachs - which is expanding in Frankfurt and Paris - are shifting operations to more than one location, a reflection of the sheer scale of London's financial district and how difficult it would be to replicate operations elsewhere in short order.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper first reported on JP Morgan's decision to rent more space in the Taunusturm, saying it would be able to accommodate up to 300 staff in addition to the 450 already based in the 170-metre (560 ft) building.

JP Morgan declined to comment on the report.

(Reporting by Hans Seidenstuecker; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Arnab Paul

(Reuters) - Indian shares rose for a seventh straight session on Friday led by IT firms, while bonds dipped on market talk of a potential sovereign ratings upgrade by Standard & Poor's (S&P) later in the day.

Speculation about an S&P rating upgrade on India surfaced late on Thursday. This comes after a surprise upgrade by Moody's last week.

"There is a knee-jerk reaction in the market because of the S&P expectation," said Guarang Shah, head investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"There could be a bump of 200-300 points, but the markets will consolidate again. However, these upgrades could see new foreign investments coming in."

Foreign investors have net bought $2.33 billion worth of Indian shares in November so far.

The broader NSE Nifty was up 0.36 percent at 10,385.8 as of 0637 GMT, while the benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.27 percent higher at 33,679.92.

The last time the NSE index rallied for seven straight sessions was between June 12 and June 23, 2015.

The benchmark 10-year bond yield was up 7.01 percent after rising to as high as 7.02 percent earlier in the day.

The Nifty IT index, up for a second session with Infosys Ltd leading the gains, was one of the top gainers among sectoral indexes.

"IT stocks were the underperformers when the indexes rallied earlier this month, but better-than-expected quarterly numbers and the ability to scale up operations by launching high margin products will bring traction in this sector," Shah added.

Shares of Swaraj Engines Ltd soared as much as 16.9 percent after the company announced a proposal for share buyback.

(Reporting by Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the past week, Silicon Valley has faced renewed calls for greater regulation of social media platforms amid the growing scandal of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
On November 12, 2017, a new project, Rahakott, was launched. Rahakott is a cryptocurrency wallet that allows anyone to send or receive digital currencies and to monitor their balance. The surge in demand for cryptocurrencies drives demand for solutions that are more convenient and simpler to implement.



Digital currencies do not exist in physical form and are not stored in a single place. All that actually exist are transaction records in a blockchain. Therefore, when Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are transferred, the ownership rights to a certain amount are simply rewritten to your wallets address. However, to take control of that currency, the private key for your wallet has to match the public address to which the currency has been allocated. If they match, a withdrawal happens at one wallet and a deposit at the other. And all of this is just a record in the blockchain.



The market does not currently offer that many choices of suitable, easy to use wallets that would give both security and speed in processing transactions, comments Akke Svenson, the wallets founder. We have had the audacity to address all the existing issues with the Rahakott wallet.



The key issue is registration. It is on this step that some users simply cannot make sense of the system and go on to look elsewhere. The Rahakott service offers simple registration without email or phone, with just a mnemonic phrase.

Despite the simplicity of registration, the wallet is well-protected from hacking by two-factor authentication. In addition, users that conduct business using cryptocurrency can set up subaccounts for their clients and generate requests for payment. Rahakott has functionality that allows batch generation of a large number of addresses. Miners have the ability to set a wallet address as where they would like to receive their reward for mining.



The wallets are algoristic, meaning that a new address is generated for each transaction, which increases user anonymity. The existence of an API allows for the wallets functionality to be integrated into external web services and software.



Rahakott went live on November 12, says Akke Svenson. We plan to keep perfecting the services functionality as we go. Our next step is to integrate currency exchanges, so that clients can choose the best exchange rates when converting to other cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies (P2P exchange). Our service serves to disrupt the status quo in the modern financial system, which is riddled with limitations, fees, and difficulties in processing transactions. We find ourselves at the starting point of a new, independent, and transparent financial future. And were building that world together!



Project Team



Akke Svenson, Rahakott.io cryptocurrency wallet founder



Entrepreneur, IT specialist, blockchain enthusiast. Graduated from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and Stanford University in the US. He began his career at Ericsson, then worked on developing services for financial companies in Europe. For a few years he served as CTO at a Silicon Valley fintech startup. After that, he returned to Sweden and founded his own company, specializing in IT consulting. He became interested in blockchain in 2013, believing that modern technology will help build new economic relationships in the world.



Maksim Shreyder, Rahakott.io cryptocurrency wallet cofounder



IT expert. Graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the University of London. He began his career as a programmer, developed projects in the e-commerce sector, and headed IT departments at Russian and English companies. In 2015 he became interested in cryptocurrencies and mining.



Website: Rahakott.io
Billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of India's largest mobile company Airtel, on Thursday announced that the Bharti family has pledged about Rs 7,000 crore to philanthropy and will open a new university modeled on America's Massachusetts Institute of Technology, primarily to offer free education to meritorious but underprivileged students.

The Bharti family's commitment to give away 10 per cent of their personal wealth, also includes three per cent of their stake in telecom firm Bharti Airtel. The pledged amount, totalling Rs 7,000 crore would mostly go into setting up of a new technology-oriented university in North India, while some part of it would also be used for expanding the existing Satya Bharti School Programme, a flagship initiative of the Bharti Foundation.

"We are not in this for business," said Sunil Mittal at a media conference to announce the family's philanthropic plans. The proposed university will come up on a 100-acre plot and active discussions are on with various states including Punjab and Haryana to finalise the location.

Mittal, who was flanked by his brothers Rakesh and Rajan, said he expected the ground breaking ceremony to take place by early next year and the first academic session would commence by 2021.

The proposed Satya Bharti University for Science and Technology would focus on advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality and virtual reality and Internet of Things in addition to offering degrees in electrical and electronics engineering and management. The setting up of the university will require Rs 1,000 crore initially and a large amount will be needed to run it thereafter, he noted.

"Given our attachment to technology we would like it to be very significantly focused on technology on the lines of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Stanford and Berkeley," said Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises and Bharti Foundation.

The new university will seek partnerships and industry linkages with tech giants like Face-book, Microsoft, Google and Apple, among others. Over a period of time the fully-residential university will have 10,000 students, Mittal said.

About 10 per cent of our family wealth is being earmarked and pledged to Bharti Foundation, the Group's philanthropic arm. There are certain structuring and restructuring that are right now being undertaken by lawyers and accountants (in this regard), Mittal disclosed.

In Satya Bharti School programme there is zero fee, we do not charge anything, and even here, the idea is to bring meritorious underprivileged students to give them education, it will require a lot of money, Mittal said.

While courses will be free for meritorious students who belong to economically weaker sections of society - that being the prime focus of the institution - in case of any unfilled vacancies, only nominal amount will be charged in line with the Government fee.

Mittal's philanthropic move comes close on the heels of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini Nilekani committing half of their wealth to philanthropy by joining the 'The Giving Pledge', a movement spearheaded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
Sunil Bharti Mittal & family's pledge of giving away one tenth of their wealth, or Rs 7000 crore, makes him this year's most generous.

For the previous three years, Azim Premji had been the most generous, with his 2015 charity amount of Rs 27,514 crore, still the highest amount pledged for donation by a single individual in a year.

Mittal's announcement comes close on the heels of the recent announcement by Nandan & Rohini Nilekani pledging half of their $1.7 billion wealth - roughly Rs 5,500 crore - to The Giving Pledge, founded by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates & his wife Melinda.

Of course, in line with the general trend, Mittals' charity will focus on education, by setting up the Satya Bharti University offering free science & technology education to the poor. Education, in fact was the top charitable cause last year in India, with the highest amount donated for it, at Rs 818 crore.

India, whose ranking in The Giving Index improved 10 places, from 91 to 81 in 2016, also tops the list of countries with the highest number of people - 265 million - donating money.

According to Bain, Indian philanthropic activity, while still lagging behind global peers, has seen a six-fold increase in 5 years - from Rs 6,000 crore in 2011 to Rs 36,000 crore in 2016. Hurun India, which considers Rs 10 crore as the minimum qualifying amount as a charitable donation, pegs the total philanthropic amount for 2016 at Rs 2,334 crore.

Sources: Hurun, Bain
Central government employees vying for increase in their minimum salaries may be left disappointed if reports of Ministry of Finance sources saying the government has no plans to increase their minimum basic pay are true. According to reports circulating in the media, anonymous sources from the ministry have said there are slim chances of the government revising the minimum basic pay of the Central government employees. The government staff unions have been demanding that their minimum pay is hiked to Rs 26,000 from Rs 18,000 that was defined on recommendations from 7th Central Pay Commission.

Reports quoting Finance Ministry sources stated that the government has no plans to make any changes to the minimum basic pay for central government employees with reference to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) letter to Staff Side, National Council (JCM) dated October 30, 2017. The letter stated that the minimum wage decided by the 7th Pay Commission does not qualify as an anomaly as per the parameters set by the National Anomaly Committee (NAC).

The NAC had laid down three conditions for an item to be considered an anomaly arising on account of recommendations from the 7th Pay Commission. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier suggested that a hike in minimum basic pay for central government employees was in offing. With NAC setting aside the matter as of now, the Cabinet is unlikely to take a decision on changing the minimum basic pay for central government employees either. Several employee unions had staged a three-day dharna earlier this month to protest against the delay in minimum wage hike.

The 7th Pay Commission had decided on a fitment factor of 2.57 which resulted in the minimum basic pay increasing from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000 with effect from January 01, 2016. The representatives of central government employees, on the other hand, have been demanding the fitment factor to be bumped up to 3.7 so that the minimum wages are raised to Rs 26,000. Expressing dissatisfaction over the methodology to calculate the minimum wages, the Staff Side had even asked for the pay matrix to be altered.

Meanwhile, there still is a chance for an increase in minimum pension of retired central government employees. The same NAC letter also asks the government employees representatives to take up the matter with Director of Pension as the matter falls under his purview.
If you have been struggling to buy tomatoes at a reasonable rate, that is because prices have indeed shot up. In fact, in Delhi, tomato prices have reached upto Rs 80 per kg depending on the quality and locatily. This is due to a slump in supplies as showed in trade data. The effect of this price hike has been felt all across the country. In Bengaluru, that is one of the major producers of tomatoes, prices have reached upto Rs 45-50 per kg. In Aizawl, Mizoram tomatoes are being sold upto a whopping Rs 95-100 per kg!

"The availability of tomato is less at present because the crop has been hit badly due to recent rains in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh," said Ashok Kaushik, President of Tomato Merchant Association at Delhi's Azadpur mandi.

Traders have been unable to get tomatoes from Madhya Pradesh as well, as 90 per cent of the crop has been damaged there as well. Farmers have sown again and that crop is likely to arrive in the next 15-20 days, he said.

Even at Azadpur mandi, Asia's largest wholesale market for fruits and vegetables, tomatoes are being sold at Rs 40-50 kg. It means that retailers are selling those batches at an even higher rate.

According to Kaushik, tomato supplies in the national capital are less by 25 per cent at present. Tomatoes were available at Rs 30-35 at the same time last year.

On an average, 225-250 tonnes of tomato are traded every day in six major mandis in Delhi. Now, only 170-180 tonnes are being traded. Some have been sourced from Uttarakhand, while some from Chhattisgarh to meet the needs, he said.

(With agency inputs)


If once people become inattentive to the public affairs, "you and I, Congress and Assemblies, judges and Governors shall become wolves." - Thomas Jefferson, author of Declaration of Independence and the third President of the US, in a letter dated January 16, 1787.

From the verdict recognising the right to privacy as a fundamental right, it emerges that the case about Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) of 12-digit Unique Identification (UID)/Aadhaar numbers is deeply linked with the Supreme Court's infamous verdict in ADM Jabalpur versus Shivkant Shukla (1976) case.

Recalling the latter case, Justice Dr D.Y. Chandrachud, as part of the nine-judge Constitution Bench in the CIDR case, noted how in the I.R. Coelho versus State of Tamil Nadu (2007) case, the nine-judge Constitution Bench took the view that the majority verdict of the court in ADM Jabalpur was flawed as it was based on "restrictive reading of right to life and liberty" and observed that it "stood impliedly overruled by various subsequent decisions". Taking these decisions into account, in his decision in the CIDR case, Justice Chandrachud observed, "We now expressly do so," adding "ADM Jabalpur must be and is accordingly overruled" on August 24. This view has the approval of the nine-judge Constitution Bench, set up in the CIDR case.



From a careful reading of the 547-page long verdict, it becomes apparent that although the verdict in the ADM Jabalpur case has been expressly overruled 41 years later after it was impliedly overruled 31 years ago, it is yet to be sufficiently overruled. Whether or not it has been overruled will become visible from the court's verdict in the CIDR project that entails linking of UID/Aadhaar with essential services and citizens' entitlements, benefits, and services, making the right to have rights, including the right to life and personal liberty, dependent on biometric identification-based UID/Aadhaar as per Section 2 of the Aadhaar Act 2016.

Prior to this Act, biometric identification was required only for prisoners under Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920, whose object "is to provide legal authority for the taking of measurements of finger impression, footprints and photographs of persons convicted of or arrested in connection with certain offences". Aadhaar makes citizens worse than prisoners.

In the opening paragraph of his order, Justice R.F. Nariman states that one of the grounds of attack on the said scheme is that the very collection of such data is violative of the Right to Privacy referring to Aadhaar scheme, akin to the 21st-century version of the panopticon called CIDR.

The first verdict in the CIDR of UID/Aadhaar case has recognised the right to privacy as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty. In the context of CIDR of UID/Aadhaar numbers, the violation of privacy primarily concerns personal sensitive information such as "biological attributes" of the whole nation comprising present and future generations of citizens, including present and future soldiers, Presidents, Prime Ministers, National Security Advisors, Chief Ministers, legislators, security officials and judges. Therefore, it is deeply connected with national security. The verdict is significant because UID/Aadhaar-related schemes and the Aadhaar Act exist on the assumption that right to privacy is not a fundamental right.

In the ADM Jabalpur case, a majority of four judges of the court (with Justice H.R. Khanna dissenting) shocked the world by pronouncing that liberty is not an absolute freedom. In the now discredited verdict, the four judges (Chief Justice A.N. Ray and Justices Mirza Hameedullah Beg, V.V. Chandrachud and P.N. Bhagwati) held: "Liberty is confined and controlled by law... It is not an abstract or absolute freedom," incorrectly assuming that right to liberty is not an absolute right.

The court in CIDR case has observed that the verdict in ADM Jabalpur case needs to be buried "ten fathom deep, with no chance of resurrection" while overruling it. It follows from the overruled verdict that it cannot be inferred that right to privacy as part of the right to life and personal liberty is not an absolute right.

In his order as part of the right to privacy verdict, Justice Nariman cited John Stuart Mill's thesis "On Liberty" (1859) and said, "In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign."

Despite citing Mill's thesis that underlines the existence of individuals' "absolute freedom" and that "his independence is, of right, absolute", the court observes, "But this is not to say that such a right is absolute." The court may have to revisit this proposition in the light of the authorities they have cited and in its own decisions.

Justice Nariman recalled the decision in the Peter Semayne versus Richard Gresham (1604) case in the UK to underline that "the King of England cannot enter - all his force dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement" of citizen's frail and shaky house, which is his castle. It is clear from this verdict that the right to privacy has been held to be an absolute right.

It implies that no government has the right to enter the tenements of the Indians in any disguise. If it is not allowed to enter even the huts of the Indians, how can it be allowed to intrude into their body through biometric identification based on "biometric information" meaning photograph, fingerprint, iris scan or such other biological attributes as per Section 2(g) of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.



Widely held views do not necessarily capture the truth. If the right to privacy is not deemed an absolute right, it would be tantamount to the restrictive reading of the right to life and liberty, akin to the blunder in the ADM Jabalpur case.

In his last address to India's Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, Dr B.R. Ambedkar said, "I do not say that Fundamental Rights can never be absolute and the limitations set upon them can never be lifted." Absolute rights cannot be suspended or restricted, even during a declared state of emergency. History is replete with instances wherein a 'ticking bomb' or a 'weapon of mass destruction' situation is engineered to make public institutions blind in the face of infringement of absolute fundamental rights.



As part of the Constitution Bench, Justice Nariman concludes his order saying, "These cases are, therefore, sent back for adjudication on merits to the original Bench of three honourable Judges of this Court in light of the judgement just delivered by us." The original Bench is now seized with the CIDR of UID/Aadhaar number-related petitions and will hear them soon to determine whether the treatment of Indians and Indian residents with the provisions of Identification of Prisoners Act safeguards or violates their constitutional rights.

Notably, the first petition against the CIDR project was filed on October 18, 2012, after almost two years of the launch of the project. After that, over two dozen cases are pending in the court, seeking scrapping of Aadhaar Act and the CIDR scheme. Rarely does it happen that public institutions do not pretend to be surprised in situations where "fundamental rights" of citizens go to the dogs "on account of some ill-conceived" delay in judgements.

Human life is a gift of privacy of our ancestors, our mother and father. Will "individuals clothed with the powers of the state" dare say to their parents that they do not have an absolute right to privacy? Can Mother India be told that she does not have the right to privacy as an absolute right? Will Mother India tell her children that they must be exposed to the public at large like animals? Who will have the heart to tell their children and grandchildren that they do not have the right to privacy as an absolute right?

The verdict in the reference case of the right of privacy follows the footprints of stalwarts like Justice Louis Brandeis, Justice Radhabinod Pal, Justice Fazl Ali, Justice Subba Rao, Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha and Justice H R Khanna. The second verdict on the constitutionality of CIDR of UID/Aadhaar is awaited by the fourth Constitution Bench in the case that is all set to be constituted by Justice Dipak Misra, the new Chief Justice of India. The Bench will have the choice to either adopt the path of illustrious judges or to traverse the path of infamous ones.



If life and personal liberty are inalienable to human existence, it follows that the right to privacy being an intrinsic part of it is an absolute right.

The author is a public policy and legal researcher, convenor of Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties and editor of www.toxicswatch.org


Jeep Compass, the first locally made product from the Fiat Chrysler stable and a hugely popular SUV in India, has hit its first speedbreaker. Yesterday, the Italian-American carmaker announced that it will recall 1,200 units of the SUV for "replacement of the front passenger air bag". According to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) India, the decision is a part of a bigger recall by the parent company in the US, where 7,000 units of Jeep Compass were recalled.

"A supplier has advised FCA that during its airbag module assembly process, loose fasteners may have inadvertently found their way undetected into a small number of modules. Should such a vehicle be subject to an impact that causes the front passenger airbag to deploy, the loose fasteners may pose a hazard," the company explained in a statement. It is a concern because it basically means that the airbag may not work on time.

In the coming weeks, the company and its authorised dealers will directly contact the Compass customers to check whether they require a front passenger airbag replacement and FCA will reportedly ensure that customers don't have to pay anything for the replacement. The number of affected Compass is expected to be less than 1 per cent of the total recall units, according to the company statement.

The popularity of this SUV can be gauged by the fact that over 10,000 units were sold within two months of its launch this July. In October, the volumes reportedly stood at 2455 units. The company has also started exports to Australia and Japan, shipping out 600 right-hand drive units from the Mumbai Port last month. Does that mean there will be more units recalled in the near future?

In fact, it's not been a good year for FCA at all - just last month it recalled some 700,000 sport utility vehicles (SUVs) at risk for a brake defect in the US and earlier in July, it had to recall 1.33 million vehicles worldwide (in two separate campaigns) for potential fire risks and inadvertent airbag deployments.
The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA) - two of the biggest unions in the banking sector - have called for an all-India strike on December 27, demanding the implementation of the long overdue wage revision in IDBI Bank. The United Forum of Bank Unions, an umbrella body of nine bank unions, has reportedly support the strike call.

AIBEA has been demanding a wage revision for employees and officers of the IDBI Bank, allegedly due for the period from November 1, 2012 to October 31, 2017. According to media reports, all other banks have not only completed and implemented the wage revision in May 2015, but have also commenced negotiations for the next revision due from November 2017. Even the likes of the Reserve Bank, Life Insurance Corporation, General Insurance Corporation, and Regional Rural Banks have reported completed the exercise.



So the miffed trade unions again discussed the issue at a joint central committee meeting held in Delhi, according to The Hindu Business Line, and took the decision for the sector-wide strike. In a joint statement, the two unions said they have been taking up the matter repeatedly with IDBI Bank management and the central government but it's been dragging on endlessly.

The bank's management on it part has been steadfastly pinning the blame on its bad loans. During the September quarter, IDBI Bank reported a loss of Rs 197.84 crore - its fourth straight quarterly loss - against a profit of Rs 55.52 crore a year back. The percentage of gross non-performing assets (NPAs) to total assets rose to 24.98 per cent, the highest among all lenders currently. That's really bad news for the employees seeking wage revision.

Incidentally, the associations had previously gone on a two-day strike in October to protest the "inadequate response" to their long-pending demand. The management had reportedly offered a hike of only 7-8 per cent against a demand of 15 per cent, on the lines of the industry-level 10th Bipartite Settlement. Will the coming strike succeed where all other efforts have failed?
Airtel has launched a new data plan at Rs 198 for a validity period of 28 days. This new plan surfaces one day after Vodafone announced Talk Non-Stop offer at Rs 199. However, there are many differences in both the plans.

On one hand, the Airtel plan will be a good choice for people with average data requirements and lesser calling on the other hand, Vodafone's plan is geared towards customers that have phone calls as a priority.

The Airtel plan at Rs 198 offers 1GB of data per day for a period of 28days but does not offer any amount of talk-time with it. On the contrary Vodafone offers unlimited talk time for a period of 28 days.

The Airtel plan is focused on a consumer who needs a good amount of data on a daily basis but won't need unlimited calls. Vodafone is targeting a user whose primary requirement is talk-time and minimal usage of internet with this plan.

Both plans come with limitations of their own. According to the terms and conditions of Vodafone's new plan, users cannot make calls of more than 250 minutes per day or 1000 minutes per week. Anything north of this threshold will attract a sum of 30paisa per minute. For instance, if a customer consumes 1000 mins on 2nd day, she/he would be charged for rest of the five days of the week.

Another condition will be that the user shouldn't call more than 300 unique numbers in a period of seven days. If they manage to cross the threshold, the user will be charged at 30 paisa per minute for the extra calls.

Airtel's new Rs 198 plan has not been officially announced but the plan has showed up on the MyAirtel app for a few users. The company might soon launch the offer across more circles in India. Both the plans are only available for pre-paid users.

Reliance Jio triggered the tariff-war in India which has led the entire telecom industry to a state of flux. Industry giants are being pushed in mergers and acquisitions in the face of growing competition.
There seems to be some hope for Anil Ambani's debt-laden firm, RCom, after a fierce price war started by his brother's Reliance Jio that left the company in tatters with tumbling revenue and exponential rise in its debts. Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is likely to buy its select spectrum and some equipment. A loss-making entity with Rs 45,000 debt to pay, RCom recently announced to close 2G and 3G operations from November 30. The company on November 11 confirmed a quarterly loss of over $27.09 billion as compared to 620 million of profit a year earlier.

Reliance Communication has offered pay Rs 27,000 crore of the total debt through asset monetisation, Rs 7,000 crore through a 'non-loan write-off' plan to lenders to convert it into equity, and Rs 6,000 by carrying forward it to new business. However, lenders are yet to accept the proposal, reported PTI, adding that ever since RCom announced the sale of its assets, including spectrum, equipment and fibre, several companies like Bharti Airtel Reliance Jio, Vodafone and Sistema, have shown their interest in buying these properties.

However, the deal will not be a cakewalk for Airtel as Reliance Jio will also be vying for the spectrum in 850 MHz band, which is considered super efficient for 4G internet services. Lenders comprising several local and international banks have appointed SBI Cap - the investment banking arm of RCom's top lender State Bank of India (SBI) - to seek interests for the telco's assets, reported the Economic Times.

On November 20, lenders of debt ridden Reliance Communications approved the sale of its real estate assets in Delhi and Chennai to Canada-based asset management firm Brookfield, PTI quoted a source. As part of its asset monetisation plans, RCom has been working on finding investors or buyers for prime real estate assets, including at Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, Navi Mumbai, measuring nearly 125 acres with development rights of potentially over 17 million sq ft and prime property of 4 acre near Connaught Place, New Delhi.

The company is in a standstill period (for interest and principal repayments) till December 2018 and expects to complete the SDR process as per the RBI guidelines. RCom is also in talks with Brookfield for selling its mobile towers. The company expects telecom tower and real estate businesses to help pay off Rs 27,000 crore.

On November 4, a unit of Canada's Brookfield Asset Management said it is evaluating a number of telecom tower portfolios in India to scale its presence after talks to acquire over 40,000 towers from debt-laden Reliance Communications hit a snag, reported Reuters. The deal with Brookfield hinged on Reliance Communications or RCom merging its mobile operations with rival Aircel but the merger was called off last month due to regulatory delays and legal uncertainties, the agency added.
Nokia 2 was unveiled earlier this month and the company had revealed everything about it with the only exception of its Indian price. However, the company has finally given us a price. The device has been launched in India at a price of Rs 6,999. This price point puts it in direct competition with favourites like Redmi 4, Redmi 4A and Moto C Plus. The device will start selling from November 24 across various offline stores in the country.

Nokia 2 is the company's basic Android offering with Snapdragon 212 chipset. The device will fall under the ultra-cheap segment and is aimed at increasing Nokia's market share in India.

Nokia 2 is the Finnish brand's cheapest Android offering up to date. HMD Global re-launched Nokia as a new Android line-up this year. The Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 were the first ones to hit the Indian market. The following Nokia 8 was aimed at premium segment smartphone and is Nokia's current flagship device. The Nokia 2 however, has been launched in India's most popular price segment, the sub- Rs 10,000 range.

Here are the specifications of the Nokia 2:

Processor- Nokia 2 is powered by Snapdragon 212, along with a Adreno 304 GPU. Although details about the RAM on Nokia 2 were not divulged during the launch event, it is expected to come with with 1GB RAM and 8 GB internal storage.

Battery- The Nokia 2 draws power from a 4100 mAh battery. HMD Global has promised 2 days worth of battery life with the Nokia 2, given that the phone is used for 5 hours a days. The modest Snapdragon 212 SoC on the phone is likely to aid the battery life.

Display- One of the biggest selling points of the device is the 5-inch HD screen which comes with a contrast ratio of 13000:1. Moreover, the display comes protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

Camera- Nokia 2 houses an 8-megapixel primary camera and a 5-megapixel front facing camera. In the camera segment, the device should suffice the basic requirements of an average smartphone user.

Software- In terms of software, the device will come with Android Nougat 7.1.1 which is a first for a phone in this segment. Nokia has kept the interface pretty close to stock version which will keep it easy on the processor. Moreover, Nokia is promising to keep the Nokia 2 'pure secure and up to date', making it future-proof. This means that the Nokia 2 will receive the update for Android Oreo in due time.

Features- Apart from the stock Android, the Nokia 2 will also feature Google Assistant, with the option to get search results in Hindi. The voice assistant has featured for the first time in the budget phone segment. The smartphone will come with LTE 4G support.

Design- The body of Nokia 2 has been milled from 6000 series aluminium. The phone has a polycarbonate back. The phone will be available in Black, White and Copper colour options.
| BY Lynchy |

Marianne Admardatine is to become the new chief executive officer for J. Walter Thompsons Indonesian companies, comprising Mirum and J. Walter Thompson.

Over her career Admardatine has worked on a wide range of accounts including Indonesian Ministries of Tourism, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Communication and Informatics, Bank of Indonesia, HSBC, Unilever, Pertamina, SONY, Disney, Tokopedia, Ford, Google, Twitter, LINE, Bukalapak and Prudential.

Until recently, Admardatine (pictured) held senior management roles, including responsibility for network and business development, within the Ogilvy Group Indonesia. She was also Managing Director of Ogilvy PR and Pulse Communications, and in August this year she was named as one of Campaign Asias Women to Watch

Admardatine commented: I am honored to join the J. Walter Thompson Company in Indonesia, given its outstanding reputation in the advertising and digital communities as one of the countrys most progressive agencies. With Mirum in the group we have a regional digital thought leader in-house and I am looking forward to working with the team to open new doors and widen our reach of brand management, creative services and communications. With the advent of startups, innovation and disruption, these are exciting times indeed!

Jacco Schegget, Southeast Asia CEO of J. Walter Thompson, said: We are thrilled to bring Marianne on board. She is a true powerhouse, thought leader, and a prominent figure on Indonesias corporate and brand communications scene. Her trademark passion and energy will help the JWT group further unlock growth for clients  Indonesian companies or ambitious multinationals  helping their brands grow by creating ideas that travel and systems that scale. Marianne is uniquely positioned to drive our brand and consumer understanding across all touchpoints of the customer journey, be it digital, PR or offline.
"In particular, the material before the commission points to the other driver being the primary instigator of the incident, though Mr Thomas's conduct in 'flipping the bird' to the other driver and damaging the other vehicle were contributing factors," he said.
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Ahead of this weekends Abu Dhabi season finale, two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso has unveiled his very own eSports racing team.



The Spaniard joined forces with McLaren sponsor Logitech and professional outfit G2 in order to tackle the world of competitive gaming. Meanwhile, his team will be known as FA Racing G2 Logitech.

I am a team principal finally, said Alonso during the launch of the team. There will be no meetings very early. We will change completely the way we work!!

According to Autosport, the McLaren driver was approached by Logitech and G2 a few months ago, and thought this was the right time to get involved in the business.

It is very exciting, and its a completely new thing to discover. I think eSports in other formats has been very successful but in racing, it is at the very beginning, and huge potential will come.

I am happy to be one of the first investing in this direction and I think good and fun times are coming  not only for us, but for gamers at home and for fans.

Apparently, Alonso hasnt signed himself to his own team just yet, but one of the ideas being thrown around was for the fans to have online competitions on a monthly basis, where they can race against not just the teams pro drivers, but also against Fernando himself.

I will definitely be slower  more amateur level. We will have fun, that is the first thing, and we will develop a platform that is available for everyone in the world.

PHOTO GALLERY
TV judge and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro will be on the other side of the courtroom after being clocked driving 119 mph in a 65 mph zone in New Yorks Tioga County.



NY Daily News claims that Pirro was driving a Cadillac at the time and was stopped by a trooper at approximately 1:15 pm on Sunday afternoon.

The 66-year-old claims she was visiting her sick mother at the time of the infraction.

I had been driving for hours to visit my ailing 89-year-old mom and didnt realize how fast I was driving. I believe in the rule of law and I will pay the consequences.

If convicted, Pirro will be slapped with a hefty fine and could have her license hit with 11 points. If that were to happen, her license would be automatically suspended.

Funnily enough, Pirro was pulled over just one day after hitting out at the Clintons, suggesting that they are above the law.

If only she followed the law like she expects everyone else to

VIDEO
Indian car maker Mahindra has officially opened its new North American HQ and manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, the first new OEM plant in the Detroit area in 25 years.



The new factory will be used to produce Mahindras upcoming new SUV, called the Roxor. The Indian company will reveal the new model towards the end of the year. The brand is known for rugged SUVs such as the Willys Jeep-esque Thar seen in the video below.

Mahindra expects its new US factory to churn out 12,000 Roxor SUVs per year. The car maker was recently announced as one of the five manufacturers selected by USPS (United States Postal Service) to produce prototype delivery trucks for testing and evaluation as well.

According to reports from the Indian press, the new Roxor will be based on a modified platform of the Thar model, an off-roader that looks a lot like the classic Jeep Wrangler, and will be powered by Ssangyongs 1.6-liter engine as used in the Tivoli small SUV.

The company didnt give a timetable for when they will start selling passenger cars in the U.S. but Anand Mahindra, executive chairman of Mahindra Group said that their options include the introduction of the Ssangyong brand to the US public first.

We have stated on record that amongst the options open to us are to come in with SsangYong Motors, which is our Korean subsidiary, said Mahindra to AutoNews. As you know its the third Korean auto company that Americans dont know about.

So that could be a very logical step for us to introduce that brand here but thats a decision that will be taken by the SsangYong Motors board, he added.

The new manufacturing facilities are part of a $230 million investment that also includes a new warehouse, a logistics operation in Pontiac and an existing prototype operation in Troy. By 2020, Mahindra expects to have created 650 jobs and add another $600 million in local investment.

This is an exciting day for Mahindra, our terrific employees and Detroit. I couldnt be prouder to be here to help open this new facility today, said Anand Mahindra. This building opening represents our companys growing presence in North America and locally in the Metro Detroit area where we have tripled our workforce during the past 18 months. We are committed to growing the Mahindra brand in North America and Michigan.

PHOTO

Video
David Fischer is one of the biggest car dealers in America. But soon hes going to embark on a new mission as an ambassador.



Not a goodwill ambassador or a brand ambassador, but an actual emissary of the United States to one of its key allies in North Africa.

Autonews reports that Fischer is being nominated by President Donald Trump to be the next US ambassador in Morocco.

If confirmed, the new job would be a major change for the chairman of The Suburban Collection, which ranked last year as the 15th largest dealership group in the United States with over $2 billion in revenue.

The company operates 52 dealers, mostly in Michigan with some in California, ranging from domestic mass-market brands like Ford and Dodge all the way up to exotic imports like Aston Martin and even Bugatti.

Beyond his role with his familys chain of dealerships, Fischer is an active philanthropist, a member of the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, and honorary chairman of the Detroit Auto Show. He was also a major donor to the Trump campaign, giving a reported $250,000 to the presidents inauguration committee.

Photo Gallery
Photo: Alanna Kelly The body of Russia Nicholson was found near Orchard Park Mall Oct. 11.

While Kelowna had the ninth highest murder rate in the country in 2016, the region is on track for a reduction this year.

Last year, five people were killed in Kelowna's Census Metropolitan Area, which includes Peachland, West Kelowna, Kelowna and Lake Country. Figures released Wednesday by Statistics Canada show the murder rate was 2.54 per 100,000 people

In 2016, 611 people were killed across Canada, a murder rate of 1.68 per 100,000, while 87 murders occurred in a B.C., a murder rate of 1.83 per 100,000.

Four people were killed in the Kelowna CMA in 2015, while three murders occurred each year in 2014, 2013 and 2012.

This year, the region has had three confirmed homicides.

Most recently, 23-year-old Russia Nicholson was found dead in an orchard near Orchard Park Mall. The month prior, 27-year-old Joel Pennell was found shot dead in West Kelowna.

In April, 23-year-old Michael Madsen was found dead inside a Stockwell Avenue home that had exploded and burst into flames.

Police have not said if they have any suspects in any of the three deaths.

While B.C. had 10 fewer murders in 2016 than 2015, there were actually 10 more gang-related murders in the province, for a total of 29.

Two of Kelowna's five murders in 2016 were gang-related. Canada-wide, 141 people were killed in gang-related murders, up from 96 the year before.
Photo: Nicholas Johansen

After spending tens of thousands of dollars in tuition at a Kelowna private school, David Brough found his Grade 2 son was reading and writing at or below a kindergarten level.

Prior to leaving Kelowna Waldorf School, his report cards said he had been meeting all expectations.

Brough's son is one of several former Waldorf students who have been left behind, Castanet has learned.

The Broughs were one of dozens of families who left the school last year, after political infighting drove many away.

Upon leaving, Brough had his son assessed by an education specialist before transferring to another school. His son didn't know the sounds of most letters in the alphabet.

This is about students who are dramatically behind, while their report cards say they are at the levels they need to be, Brough said. Their report cards are a lie.

His son's last report card stated that he met grade levels across the board, including spelling high-usage words, applying spelling knowledge, and printing and handwriting neatly.

My kid can't spell at all today, Brough said. This is where I get angry.

The assessor said she has seen similar reading and literacy issues with 10 other former Waldorf students.

Typically, (they're) at least two to three years behind grade level in, not necessarily math, but in spelling and reading, she said.

It would be difficult to go into a public school ... even though they may be strong in some of the math skills, they don't know the vocabulary to read it. In my opinion, every subject, they're going to struggle in.

As with Brough's son, her assessments contradicted many of the Waldorf report cards.

I'm not sure what they're looking at to get those results, she said. I'm not sure how they're finding that they can read and yet they can't.

Independent schools in B.C. receive government funding in addition to tuition from their students. For the 2016-17 school year, Kelowna Waldorf School received more than $500,000 from the province.

The Ministry of Education responded to several concerns at the school last year, but says the school complied with all requests for adjustments to programs and reporting. The ministry would not say what those changes were.

Other parents of former Waldorf students shared similar stories.

My Grade 5 boy was at ... pretty much a Grade 1 reading level, and my Grade 3 boy was at a kindergarten reading level, said Tammi Organ, whose two sons now attend public school in Alberta. Everybody who assessed the kids, they don't believe there's any disabilities, because they're learning when they're given the opportunity.

Jennifer Hales pulled her daughter out in Grade 2 last year.

We asked her what sound does the letter B make, and she kind of looked at us like she had no clue what we were talking about, Hales said. That day was when we decided to pull her.

In response to the parents' concerns, Rick Salsa, president of the school's board of trustees, said in an email: I can say with confidence that our teachers and administrative staff make every effort to help all our students meet their expected grade levels.

Salsa said he didn't have time for an interview.
Photo: Transportation BC/file photo

UPDATE: 4 p.m.

The landslide west of Lillooet on Highway 40 has been cleared and the route reopened, DriveBC reports.

UPDATE 12:30 p.m.

Highway 40 remains closed in both directions from Gold Bridge to Highway 99 at Lillooet, due to a mudslide.

No detour is available. Estimated time of opening, 5 p.m.

ORIGINAL: 5:50 a.m.

A mudslide near Lillooet has closed Highway 40.

DriveBC reports the highway is closed in both directions from Gold Bridge to 30 kilometres west of the junction with Highway 99 in Lillooet, a distance of 76.2 km.

No detours are available, and an estimated time of reopening is not yet unavailable.

A scene assessment is in progress.
The annual Salvation Army Christmas Kettle campaign officially kicked off in Vernon Thursday and the need has never been greater.

Lt. Stephan Reid said more people are using services the Sally Ann offers.

We've been very busy this year, said Reid.

While the hamper totals for 2017 are similar to last year, Reid said more people are stopping by for conversation, a cup of Joe or some snacks.

Those who are accessing our services, the need is higher than it's ever been. Our foot traffic has increased substantially and we see more people each day coming in for basic items such as bread and a hot cup of coffee, he said.

The Salvation Army has a goal of $500,000 between its kettle and mail-out campaigns.

We're confident this community will pull through, said Reid, adding the agency has many ideas for new programs.
Photo: Google Street View

A teenager has been arrested in relation to a school lockdown in Langley.

RCMP Cpl. Holly Largy said the 17 year old is believed to be the "suspicious male" seen in the east field of Brookswood Secondary School, Wednesday.

The events leading up to yesterdays lockdown still require some clarification, said Largy. It would appear there had been a confrontation involving pepper spray in the morning between a Brookswood student and our suspect. Police believe he returned to the school grounds later in the day and may have been in possession of a firearm.

The firearm has not been recovered at this time, and there are multiple witnesses and involved parties still to be interviewed. The possibility the firearm was a replica is being investigated.

Largy said rumours and conjecture on social media did little to assist police in their efforts.

Rather, the rumours served to hinder the investigation and escalated the anxiety suffered by the parents waiting for their children, she said.

The suspect teen was released from custody bound by a number of conditions.
Photo: The Canadian Press

British Columbians were invited today to help shape the referendum due next fall on reforming the voting system in the province.

Attorney General David Eby says a government website asks for public input on the question to be on the referendum ballot and for suggestions about possible voting systems.

The New Democrats promised electoral reform during last spring's election campaign and last month introduced legislation calling for a mail-in vote that sets a 50 per cent, plus one margin to be successful.

The Opposition Liberals criticize the changes and during debate in the legislature members said a system of proportional representation gives urban areas too much power at the expense of rural zones.

Kootenay Liberal Doug Clovechok told the legislature the current first-past-the-post system has served B.C. and Canada well for the past 150 years and his party will not support a system that benefits the current political partnership between the NDP and the Greens.

Eby says if the referendum passes, legislation will be introduced in time for B.C.'s next election in 2021.
Photo: Samuel Hartmann A Jeep entered the wrong lane on Highway 33 Thursday and hit a Toyota Tacoma head on.

UPDATE: 1:05 p.m.

The driver of a Toyota Tacoma who was hit head-on by a Jeep on Highway 33 Thursday had his two toddlers in the back seat and his dog leashed in the truck's bed. Miraculously, Sam Hartmann, his wife, two children, and even his dog walked away unscathed.

In the early afternoon, the Hartmann family was driving out of town, when they came around a corner, just past the hairpin turn on Highway 33, and saw the Jeep coming at them in their lane.

I went around to the left ... and I almost made it and just clipped him, my bumper just hit him like six inches into his car, Hartmann said. We spun out, hit the barricade, kept spinning up the road and the truck was filled by airbag smoke so we couldn't see anything.

Then we got T-boned by another car coming down the hill.

When his truck finally came to a rest, Hartmann's one-year-old and three-year-old children were fine, as was his wife.

Hartmann's dog had been thrown from the bed of the truck but was hanging by her leash, which was still attached to the bed.

My wife, after we checked on the kids, just undid her collar and she was fine, Hartmann said.

There was tons of people that were helping, one of the ladies held our one-year-old and everyone kind of cheered up.

Hartmann said the driver of the Jeep was in shock and the woman driving the third vehicle broke her hand, but everyone involved avoided serious injury.

Police said the 31-year-old driver of the Jeep has been charged under the Motor Vehicle Act.

UPDATE: Friday 10 a.m.

Police say three vehicles sustained significant damage, and a man and a woman were taken to hospital in Thursday's crash on Highway 33 in Joe Rich.

The three-vehicle crash happened about 1:45 p.m. near Daves Road.

RCMP say a westbound Jeep Liberty failed to keep right, crossed the centre line and collided nearly head on with an eastbound Toyota pickup.

The driver of an eastbound Chevrolet Equinox was unable to stop in time and collided with the Toyota, which had spun out of control after the initial impact.

Police believe the Jeep driver may have fallen asleep behind the wheel. The 31-year-old Kelowna man has been charged under the Motor Vehicle Act. He was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, as was the driver of the Chevy, a 34-year-old Kelowna woman.

The driver of the Toyota and his three passengers were assessed at the scene and released.

All three vehicles sustained major damage and were towed from the scene.

UPDATE: Thursday 8 p.m.

The crash on Highway 33 has been cleared and the road is now open to traffic.

There were reportedly no serious injuries in the crash.

ORIGINAL: 3:20 p.m.

A three-vehicle crash has been reported on Highway 33, east of Kelowna.

The collision happened in Joe Rich about 2 p.m.

Resident Hanna Lambert urged motorists to drive to conditions and offered a reminder now that ski season has begun at Big White and traffic through the rural neighbourhood is increasing.

"Today being the first day of Big White open, there has already been a multiple-vehicle accident on Highway 33 near Heartland Ranch," she said.

"Please take your time to get where you're going so everyone can make it home safe."

There is no word yet on injuries or their severity in the crash.
Photo: Contributed

A senior manager with Uber Canada was in Kelowna Thursday, calling on B.C.s government to finally let ride-sharing services into the province.

At a Kelowna Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Michael van Hemmen said Uber is ready to come to B.C. as soon as the government makes it possible.

If the government put forward a framework that supports ride sharing, wed be here as quick as we can, he said.

Van Hemmens request came on the same day Green Party leader Andrew Weaver announced ride-sharing legislation is on its way to a legislative committee.

For more on how the provincial government is approaching ridesharing in B.C., as well as what van Hemmen has to say about the massive hack that targeted Uber last year, check out the full story on Okanagan Edge.
Photo: CTV

UPDATE: 6:30 p.m.

A series of mudslides that rolled over Highway 1 in British Columbia's eastern Fraser Valley won't be completely cleared away until Saturday, the Transportation Ministry said.

The muck and debris is creating delays for both drivers and rail traffic.

Fraser Valley Regional District spokeswoman Jennifer Kinneman said the slides came down early Thursday in several locations on the Trans-Canada about 120 kilometres east of Vancouver.

"It's a fairly long stretch of the highway and I understand there were five separate points where there was a mudslide on that road," she said.

Kinneman said the nearby Popkum Fire Department responded to the first calls for help because some drivers and passengers in vehicles were stranded by debris or power lines that had come down.

An RCMP news release said there were no injuries reported.

The slide has also impacted Canadian National Railway traffic that runs beside the highway and while some trains are still moving, there have been delays.

A CN spokeswoman said rail crews were on the scene clearing debris from the tracks and are expecting to work through the night.

UPDATE: 4:40 p.m.

The Ministry of Transportation anticipates it will have one lane of the Trans-Canada Highway at Bridal Falls open to alternating traffic by noon Friday, but a full opening won't happen before Saturday afternoon.

Geotechnical engineers have completed a detailed review of the area, and crews and heavy equipment have begun removing debris from the landslide, the ministry reports.

Crews will focus on clearing the westbound lanes first and establish counterflow traffic on the west side of the highway.

The eastbound lanes are buried in considerably more debris and are not expected to be cleared until Saturday afternoon.

ORIGINAL: 4:20 p.m.

A series of mudslides that rolled over Highway 1 in British Columbia's eastern Fraser Valley won't be cleared away until Friday.

The muck and debris is creating delays for both drivers and rail traffic.

Fraser Valley Regional District spokeswoman Jennifer Kinneman said the slides came down early Thursday in several locations on the Trans-Canada about 120 kilometres east of Vancouver.

"It's a fairly long stretch of the highway, and I understand there were five separate points where there was a mudslide on that road," she said.

Kinneman said the nearby Popkum Fire Department responded to the first calls for help because some drivers and passengers in vehicles were stranded by debris or power lines that had come down.

An RCMP news release said there were no injuries reported.

The slide has also impacted Canadian National Railway traffic that runs beside the highway in the area and while some trains are still moving, there have been delays.

A CN spokeswoman said rail crews were on the scene clearing debris from the tracks and are expecting to work through the night.

DriveBC says geotechnical experts assessed the stability of slopes along the highway on Thursday, the cleanup is in progress and the estimated time of reopening is noon on Friday.

A detour is available via Highways 7 and 9 through Agassiz and the lines were long on the route on Thursday afternoon.

Environment Canada lifted a rainfall warning on Thursday for eastern sections of the Fraser Valley that had been deluged with rain over the past several days.
Photo: Nicholas Johansen A man on a motorcycle collided with a bicyclist in downtown Kelowna Thursday night.

Two people were treated by paramedics Thursday night when a motorcycle collided with a cyclist in downtown Kelowna.

The collision occurred just after 6:30 p.m. on Richter Street, just north of Bernard Avenue.

Witnesses at the scene said the motorcyclist was travelling north on Richter Street when he collided with the person riding the bicycle.

Three RCMP vehicles attended the scene, along with two ambulances and a fire truck. Emergency crews closed the northbound lane of Richter Street while paramedics attended to the two people involved.

Witnesses said the cyclist was taken into an ambulance, but was conscious.

The motorcyclist was initially treated as he lay on the sidewalk in a neck brace, before being taken to a separate ambulance using a spinal board.

The extent of either person's injuries is unknown at this time.
Photo: Trevor Nichols

A senior manager with Uber Canada was in Kelowna Thursday, calling on B.C.s government to finally let ride-sharing services into the province.

At a Kelowna Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Michael van Hemmen said Uber is ready to come to B.C. as soon as the government makes it possible.

If the government put forward a framework that supports ride sharing, wed be here as quick as we can, he said.

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The sounds of a 300-year-old, $5.5 million violin rang out across Kelowna's Blackbox Theatre Thursday.

The 1717 Windsor-Weinstein Stradivari violin is currently in the possession of 23-year-old Timothy Chooi, a Victoria native who now lives in New York City.

Two years ago, Chooi won the prized instrument for three-years through the Canada Council for the Arts Music Bank.

Each winner gets to choose one of the 15 violins or cellos, and we're able to use them for the next three years, Chooi said.

The acclaimed violinist is the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra's special guest artist during their three concerts this weekend. The OSO held a rehearsal Thursday in preparation for their weekend run.

The Symphony will be playing three different works at each concert, in Kelowna Friday, Penticton Saturday and Vernon Sunday.

People who have never been to a symphony tend to think of us as very stuffy and very elitist, and that's kind of the old way of thinking about an orchestra, but what I love about symphony orchestra is that the power of the acoustic sound of all those instruments pulling together is such a visceral, physical experience, so hearing it live is very different from hearing it on a, do people still listen to CDs? said Rosemary Thomson, OSO music director and conductor.

This weekend's show involves 65 musicians, plus Chooi on the renowned violin.

The OSO has ticket information on their website.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The Sobeys grocery business will be cutting about 800 office jobs across Canada as part of efforts to create one efficient national organization out of five regional operations, the company announced Friday.

"The future success of Sobeys, and our continued service to over 900 communities across the country, depends on our steadfast commitment to transform our business," said Michael Medline, who is chief executive of Sobeys and its parent company, Empire Co. Ltd.

Local reports of the news began to emerge late Thursday ahead of an internal announcement to Sobeys staff. The company confirmed the reports Friday morning.

Sobeys is Canada's second-largest grocery company and faces many of the same challenges in the industry: competition from new rivals, higher costs from rising minimum wages in some areas and technological change.

However, the company has also been struggling for several years with problems arising from its acquisition of Safeway Canada  which gave Sobeys a much bigger presence in Western Canada.

"The first phase of our plan to transform our business, which has been focused on resetting the foundation of Sobeys and creating a new organization structure, is now substantially complete," Medline said in a statement to the media. "This will allow us to be more efficient in many ways and to be more agile as we pursue new opportunities to compete and win the loyalty of Canadians."
Photo: Krystal Roberts

Emergency crews needed the Jaws of Life to help free motorists from inside a pickup following a two-vehicle crash Friday morning in Rutland.

The crash occurred about 7:45 a.m. at the intersection of Hollywood and Leathead roads.

A silver sedan appeared to have T-boned a black pickup, causing the truck to tip onto its side.

Fire crews used the Jaws of Life to free those from inside the truck.

There is no indication yet as to the extent of injuries to those involved.
Photo: Contributed

Kelowna's newest  and most controversial  waterfront project is now underway.

Construction began this week on the new $2.8-million Kelowna Visitor Centre at the foot of Queensway.

ANR Construction was awarded the contract to build the new tourist centre.

It's anticipated the centre will be open sometime in the early summer of 2018.

While initial construction begins, Tourism Kelowna staff continue to finalize the interior layout of the 3,150-square-foot building.

The tourist centre, which will replace the current facility on Harvey Avenue, is going ahead despite vocal opposition from some in the community.
Photo: Google Maps

RCMP say road conditions may have been the cause of a single-vehicle rollover on Highway 33 Thursday evening.

The crash occurred shortly after 7 p.m. on the 13000 block of Highway 33, east of Kelowna.

Police say a black Dodge Dakota pickup rolled after its driver lost control. The vehicle sustained severe damage after it struck a highway speed sign and a tree before landing back on its wheels.

Cpl. Jesse O'Donaghey says both occupants were able to extract themselves, despite minor injuries. Both were taken to hospital as a precaution.

Police ruled out alcohol as a factor in the crash, says ODonaghey.

Investigators believe that a dramatic drop in temperature, combined with wet roads, possibly led to black ice and poor road conditions.
Photo: CTV

UPDATE: 3:15 p.m.

A false killer whale is the fourth cetacean to die at Vancouver Aquarium in the past year.

The aquarium said in a statement that Chester's behaviour changed Wednesday and despite intensive veterinary care, he died Friday morning.

Chester was estimated to be just weeks old when he was found stranded on a beach near Tofino in 2014. He was in poor condition and had several wounds and lacerations on his body.

Dr. Martin Haulena, the aquarium's head veterinarian, said that stranded animals can have renal problems later in life, but he's waiting for the results of a post-mortem to determine Chester's cause of death.

The animal was given just a 10 per cent chance of survival when rescuers brought him to the aquarium's rescue centre.

False killer whales are members of the dolphin family, and the aquarium said little is known about the species.

They get their name because they resemble killer whales. False killer whales are found in the waters around North America and Australia.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada determined in May 2015 that Chester could not be released back into the wild and the aquarium was asked to continue caring for him.

The aquarium now has just one cetacean, a Pacific white-side dolphin named Helen. After the Fisheries Department made its determination on Chester, the aquarium said he would be staying in the same tank as Helen.

Chester, who was named after Chesterman Beach where he was found, became a beloved member of the facility's family, but remained a "health challenged animal" throughout his life, the aquarium said in the statement.

"Chester connected with more than four million people during his time with us, sharing his joy and curiosity with every person he encountered. We've been incredibly lucky to love him and to learn from him," said Brian Sheehan, the aquarium's curator of marine mammals.

Last November, two beluga whales  21-year-old Qila and her mother, 30-year-old Aurora  died nine days apart from what officials said was a mysterious illness.

In June, a nine-year-old rescued harbour porpoise named Daisy died. The aquarium said at the time that preliminary necropsy results showed the animal had pulmonary disease.

A bylaw passed by the Vancouver Park Board in May bans the aquarium from bringing any new whales, dolphins or porpoises to its facility in Stanley Park.

 The Canadian Press

ORIGINAL: 12:45 p.m.

Another devastating blow for Vancouver Aquarium.

Chester, the false killer whale who had been rescued three years ago off the beach in Tofino, has died.

Staff noticed a change in Chester's behaviour on Wednesday and placed the animal in intensive care. Despite veterinarians' best efforts, Chester died early Friday morning.

"It is devastating to have to announce his passing," the aquarium said in a news release. "His health was compromised when he stranded on the beach and he continued to be a health-challenged animal."

-With files from CTV
Photo: CTV

Call it Green Friday.

Online cannabis dispensaries are jumping on the "Black Friday" bandwagon and offering discounts on your favourite products.

Several online cannabis stores are holding sales for the first time this year in an effort to stay competitive and draw new customers in what they call an increasingly competitive market.

Savings typically range from 10 to 35 per cent, though some deals advertised go as high as 45 per cent off.

Eric Chan, manager of the Vancouver-based Canada Weed Dispensary, says jumping on the Black Friday bandwagon seemed like a simple way to spur sales.

Chan says their site has seen a spike in traffic since they announced a 25-per-cent markdown on all stock.

-With files from CTV
Photo: Peter Waterman

Summerland Mayor Peter Waterman had dead rats deposited on his doorstep on two occasions this summer.

Waterman said the incident occurred on Aug. 15, but is just speaking publicly about it now as council becomes increasingly targeted by recent bad behaviour.

The first rat was found stuffed into a cracker box in his driveway at his home, which was reported to RCMP.

The next day as he arrived home to meet with police about the situation, someone had placed another dead rat in the same spot.

Pretty brazen, right out in the middle of daylight, he said. Little weird.

Summerland has had a polarizing year, with the controversial Banks Crescent development and now-dead compost facility proposal. Recent council meetings have been rowdy affairs, often standing-room only.

Its been getting more aggressive, we've seen fairly strong emails come through, and a lot of intimidation and comments in council chambers, he said.

He said graffiti has also surfaced recently, targeting him personally.

The last council meeting  which saw Waterman bring forward the compost plant for reconsideration  was the Mayor's breaking point.

I wasnt going to say much, because it's (the rats) pretty extreme, but I felt it was time to not be an enabler and call it out.

Because when you dont call these episodes out, you tend to be an enabler of those activities. You sort of say, Its OK, it doesnt bother me, lets carry on, he added. Its not OK.

Waterman pointed out that it's a very small number of people that take things too far.

People get worked up, and there is strong rhetoric, and there is fringe elements that get involved and take advantage of the situation.
Police have arrested a woman in connection to an armed gas station robbery in Penticton.

The robbery occurred Nov. 18 at 10:20 a.m. at the Husky gas station on Skaha Lake Road.

The woman was caught on surveillance footage trying to stab the clerk and hit a computer screen multiple times.

A 46-year-old Penticton woman was arrested Thursday and released on a promise to appear in court. RCMP received several tips about the identification of the woman, and thank the public for the assistance.

A 27-year-old Penticton man has also turned himself in in connection to the theft of a TV at Walmart, where police say he flashed a knife at a security guard. He was also released on a promise to appear.
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Black Friday has long brought to mind images of shoppers busting through doors at the crack of dawn, elbowing their way to the latest toy or deeply discounted TV.

A new image, however, may be more fitting: Consumers lounging at home in their pajamas, coffee and credit card in hand, as they shop from smartphones and tablets.

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Bricks-and-mortar stores across the Chicago area still drew many consumers Friday  shoppers who sought to continue family traditions, see items in person before buying or just enjoy some activity on what otherwise might be a sleepy day off from work. But online sales also continued to grow, especially on mobile devices.

About 60 percent of Chicagoans who took part in a recent Deloitte survey said they planned to use smartphones to make purchases this holiday season, compared with 37 percent last year. And for the first time, Chicago shoppers expect to spend more money shopping online this holiday season than in-store, according to Deloitte.

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The shrinking significance of the post-Thanksgiving shopping ritual was evident early Friday morning outside the Best Buy store at Harlem Irving Plaza in Norridge. Several dozen shoppers were lined up, but when the store's doors opened at 8 a.m., there was none of the mayhem of previous years. Customers filed in one or two at a time, most in silence after a few halfhearted "yeahs" and claps as the line began to move.

Larry Adcox, first in line, arrived four hours early after trying and failing to score a deal on a television for his daughter at the same Best Buy the night before. "Today's not bad at all," said Adcox, 55, a vending machine installer who lives on Chicago's North Side.

Troy Radunsky, 45, of Chicago's Oriole Park neighborhood, was also in search of a TV at Best Buy. Radunsky, an attorney, said he's usually more of a last-minute shopper. But he decided to look for a gift for his wife after hearing about her post-Thanksgiving dinner shopping run the night before. It took less than 25 minutes, and she saved $150, he said. "I hate crowds, but this isn't so bad," he said.

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By 10 a.m., the mall's usual opening time, the halls were livelier.

Almost 116 million consumers planned to shop or were considering shopping on Black Friday this year, according to a National Retail Federation survey. Two-thirds of people surveyed said the deals were too good to pass up, while 26 percent cited tradition.

However, a separate survey by consultant PwC, also known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, found that only 35 percent of consumers expected to do most of their Black Friday week shopping on Black Friday itself, down from 59 percent in 2015.

And many people who did buy products on Black Friday this year did so without necessarily leaving their homes.

By Friday at 9 a.m., consumers had spent $640 million shopping online, according to Adobe Analytics. That followed the $2.87 billion shelled out online on Thanksgiving. Adobes survey measured 80 percent of online transactions at the nations 100 largest web retailers.

More than 61 percent of online visits and more than 46 percent of online revenue came from smartphones and tablets as of 9 a.m. Friday, Adobe said.

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This years best Black Friday deals were on electronics, including TVs and computers, according to Adobe. Hot electronics included Apple AirPods and Sony Playstation VR, while top toys included PJ Masks, L.O.L. Surprise!, Hatchimals and Hatchimals Colleggtibles.

Shelley Fulla, 45, of Mount Greenwood, does most of her shopping online, but makes an exception for an annual shopping, eating and drinking day with her sisters. They visited North Michigan Avenue on Friday.

Not everyone was on North Michigan Avenue to shop. Early Friday afternoon, a couple of dozen protesters gathered near the historic Chicago Water Tower, holding signs saying CPAC Now, Stop Trump and Boycott Black Friday, calling for a civilian police accountability council to oversee city law enforcement. Less than a block away, a group of animal rights activists protested outside the recently opened Canada Goose store. Shoppers streamed past both groups.

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In Schaumburg, Jessica Welmers, of Wood Dale, arrived at Woodfield Mall at about 7 a.m. Friday. But she admitted that she had already finished much of her shopping before setting foot in the mall. "I've been shopping a good amount on my phone," said Welmers, 21. "I've probably got at least 50 percent of my presents on there."

Target, acknowledging the shift to shopping online, decided to close between midnight and 6 a.m. on Black Friday, after remaining open around-the-clock last year.

At Toys R Us, Black Friday has morphed into a two-week period when customers are increasingly hungry for deals, especially online, said Chief Merchandising Officer Richard Barry. Its what customers expect, and our job is to satisfy the needs of our customers, he said. Were firmly in the camp of Cyber Week at this point.

Kmart started promoting holiday sales even earlier, on Nov. 1. Shoppers said it was hard to cross off every item on their lists when deals were crowded around the Thanksgiving holidays, said Kelly Cook, chief marketing officer for Sears and Kmart.

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And at least one store had some trouble ringing up purchases Friday. Macys confirmed early Friday afternoon that it was taking longer than usual to process some credit cards and gift cards in its stores. A Macys spokeswoman, however, said in a statement the store had added additional associates to the floor and was working to resolve the issue.

Last year, Black Friday shoppers who trekked to bricks-and-mortar stores spent, on average, $110, more than any other day that year, according to market research firm The NPD Groups Checkout Tracking service. Online, they spent an average of $129, second only to Cyber Mondays $130 per shopper.

Overall, the average Chicago shopper is expected to spend $1,220 this holiday season, up from $1,125 last year, according to Deloitte.

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Amy Bouchard, 48, of Roselle, is one of those shoppers who wanted the physical experience inside stores. She and her sister clipped coupons after their Thanksgiving dinner, and headed to Woodfield Mall on Friday. "My sister did some online shopping last night but I did not," she said as she took a breather outside Banana Republic. "I like to touch it. I like to feel it."

Kathleen Sweeney, 58, of Roselle, has continued her tradition of shopping on Black Friday, even as other family members have opted to stay home and shop online instead. "I'm not one that likes to be online because I like to be out with the crowd looking for the deals, trying on the clothes," she said as she perused electronics at the Elk Grove Village Walmart on Friday morning. "It's kind of boring when you're sitting in your pajamas."

For Esther Castano, 42, of Edison Park, Black Friday is less about the deals than the tradition of shopping with her mom and sisters. They've done it each year for the past 10 years, she said. By about 10 a.m. Friday, she was shopping for toys at Harlem Irving Plaza, already about seven hours into their shopping trip.

"It's something we can do as a family, and our husbands know it's their day to take care of the kids at home," she said.

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MORE BLACK FRIDAY COVERAGE
Attention! While I am flattered by your attempt to steer me through each page of this menu, I must respectfully decline your generosity. I have been to a restaurant before and I can read. THANKS! (Your name here)

By the time you read this I may already be gone, having headed for the thickest clump of wilderness, anywhere that might exist where I can still walk into a restaurant and a waiter won't ask ...

"Have you dined with us before?"

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It's not the question itself that has me on the run. It's what comes after the question that has brought on the night sweats and is so queasily inevitable that I will kick family members and friends under the table whenever I hear it: I kick, smile, widen my eyes, then nod ever so slightly, telepathically pleading for a yes.

Because a "no" means you might as well cancel those plans to see a movie after dinner. "No" means you should settle in for the long haul. "No"  i.e., your naive moment of honesty in which you stupidly admit to having never dined there before  means the waiter will explain the worldview of the chef and the sourcing of the food, then suggest 1,700 dishes. Worse, "no" means the waiter will take you on a lengthy, didactic tour of the menu, not merely describing individual items but where the food can be found on this document before you.

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You think I am overstating this, but a sample guided tour goes something like:

"On this side of the menu are appetizers and below that are salads, and there are small plates, and if you turn the page ... these are more medium-size plates, and below those are entrees. And now here, on this menu ... these are beers on tap, these are beers in a bottle, this is wine, here are drinks. As for dessert. ..."

That's the abbreviated version.

"I believe there are times I have sat through 15 minutes of explanation," said David Manilow, creator of WTTW's popular "Check, Please!" restaurant review television show. I asked him: Was I the only one who noticed that restaurants feel the need now to explain their menus with the kind of thoroughness that Charlton Heston brought to helping flight attendant Karen Black land a crippled 747 in that "Airport" movie? And Manilow replied, clearly traumatized himself: "Oh, when they ask if you've eaten there? Never say 'no'! I just had a server give a five-minute explanation of the menu. Then I asked for a suggestion, and she read me the menu."

Where does this happen?

Restaurants big and small, fancy and complicated, ordinary and familiar. I don't remember the first time I noticed that a server was taking an excessively long time with the menu, but it was within the past few years. Most likely, I smiled blankly and went with it. Also, the second time. But by the third time, I shifted uncomfortably. And somewhere between the fourth and the 50th  during those lapses in judgment when I dumbly admitted that I had never been there before  I grew impatient, even interruptive. Basically, I have become a monster. Lately, before servers can launch into their spiel, I tend to wave them off and say we understand the menu, thank you. Recently, at Analogue, a Cajun restaurant in Logan Square, I congratulated the waiter for not reading the menu. He seemed puzzled.

On New Year's Day, at brunch, at Farmhouse in Evanston, a warm, understandable restaurant, I sensed the inevitable looming, broke in, said I just landed on Earth, had never been to a restaurant and was unable to read.

Our server didn't get the hint.

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Also, I was rude and he was just doing his job. Scott Hinden, the manager, told me later that servers are not instructed to walk everyone through the menu, but brunch is "more of an amateur hour, where you do get some customers who are confused." He added, however, that if he is "going into a nice new restaurant like (Gold Coast's) Nico Osteria, where there are tiers of dishes, all divided between cold and hot, and you don't know the size of the pastas, I don't mind a walk-through at all."

Funny he should mention Nico Osteria  only a few days earlier I had interrupted my waiter there. I felt bad about that the whole meal.

"You shouldn't," said Kimberly Galban, a managing partner and vice president of operations for the One Off Hospitality Group, which also runs such high-end Chicago staples as Blackbird, Avec and the Publican. "We have always explained a lot, but we also preach that a server should watch a diner's body language  if they're looking at the menu, not interested in their spiel, shorten it."

She did say, though, that lengthy menu explanations have become a byproduct of "the changing ways people eat out, not necessarily ordering entrees, but sharing dishes, big and small. When we walk people though, it's so they're not disappointed."

Tim Miner, a restaurant consultant with Technomic, the Chicago-based food-research firm, offered an even more practical explanation: "Floor staffs are being trained now to know in great detail what is in dishes, where every ingredient comes from. It's a lot to remember, which becomes 'You can find appetizers here. ...'"

Paradoxically, the trend toward restaurant-service-as-oral-narrative may be happening when diners know more about the food than ever before. It's also a moment defined by impatience. As Ruth Hayden, director of training for Wildfire restaurants, said: "Like you, everyone doesn't want to hear the walk-through, but really, it's about being polite and helpful."

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Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

Common decency?

"Common decency. You want to give an overview, to note that steaks are here, but there's fish and chicken here, and those are on other pages, and then there are nightly specials, because there are three pages"

I cut her off.

"I'm impatient just listening to you," I said, joking, but not really.

And she laughed, because she's pleasant, understanding and knows how to handle a jerk.

cborrelli@tribpub.com

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Twitter @borrelli
When Candace Chong Mui Ngams Wild Boar premiered in Cantonese in the playwrights native Hong Kong in 2012, the South China Morning Post described the play as exploring how urbanites react when they are trapped like wild animals. At Silk Road Rising in Chicago, where the play currently is receiving its English-language premiere, as adapted by the estimable David Henry Hwang, the billing is a bit more on the nose: a turbulent thriller about media manipulation, fake news and who gets to speak for the poor.

Much, clearly, can change with translation.

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I suspect somebody knew that the South China Morning Post  which now has owners generally regarded as sympathetic to the central government of China  wouldnt be eager to focus on the plays exploration of the growing media censorship in Hong Kong, a grave concern to Chong, who has been outspoken on this topic, as well as to those who cherish the freedoms of an independent press in so vibrant and crucial a global center.

But thats what Wild Boar, which is directed very tentatively at Silk Road by Helen Young, is all about. The action follows the disappearance of an activist professor in suspicious circumstances, and then explores the attempts of an editor (played by F. Karmann Bajuyo) and his intrepid young collaborators to find out exactly what transpired. At times on Saturday afternoon, the piece put me in mind of the Medill Justice Project at Northwestern University, although Wild Boar deals with governmental incursion, not just allegedly wrongful imprisonment.

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Its an interesting if less-than-subtle piece about a topic we rarely ponder in Chicago theater, and it is sincerely and competently acted by Christine Bunuan, Emily Marso, Scott Shimizu and others. The issues at this juncture involve a lack of clarity in the heavy-handed storytelling  this production, which feels under-rehearsed, does not build tension in the way that such a thriller ought, mostly because the scenes are choppy and the energy intermittent and inclined to easily disperse. All around me, people seemed to be checked out, which is a shame, given all the talent here.

Moreover, there are a lot of very short scenes in a script that (at this outing, anyway) feels more built for the screen than the stage, a genre that Yeaji Kims video-heavy set emphasizes.

In essence, Young has yet to communicate a central theatrical narrative, something that might carry the audience into the world of the play and its exposure of a threat to democratic freedoms that should concern us all.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com

Review: Wild Boar (2 stars)

When: Through Dec. 17

Where: Silk Road Rising at the Chicago Temple Building, 77 W. Washington St.

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Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Tickets: $35 at 312-857-1234 and www.wildboarplay.org

Enjoy someone else's drama A great theater city deserves a great theater critic. Enter Chris Jones. Subscribe now and get 4 weeks of full access for only 99.

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Tabion Jones, 19, is charged with trying to rob a woman of her car keys as she stepped out of her car in the Pilsen neighborhood the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017. Two other would-be robbers were still at large as of Friday, Nov. 24, 2017, according to police. (Chicago police photo / )

A 19-year-old Lawndale man accused of trying to steal a woman's keys as she got out of a car in Pilsen was ordered held in lieu of $25,000 bond Friday.

Tabion Jones and two other people threatened the 29-year-old woman about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday with what appeared to be a firearm, prosecutors said in court Friday.

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The two demanded the woman's keys as she got out of her car in the 900 block of West 21st Street.

Police later found Jones with a BB gun and identified him as one of the three assailants, Assistant State's Attorney Kathryn Roy said in court Friday. While Jones is charged with attempted robbery, the other two would-be robbers have not been caught, according to police and court records.

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The Wednesday incident comes as there have been more than 700 carjackings reported in Chicago so far this year, outpacing last year's total of 663, which was nearly double the 2015 levels, the Chicago Tribune reported this month.

Jones, of the 1500 block of South Trumbull Avenue, had a prior case as a juvenile, Roy said in court. In 2015 he was found delinquent on an aggravated robbery charge and sentenced to nine months in the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, Roy said. She provided no further details in court about that case.

Under the conditions of his bond, Jones must post $2,500 to be released from the Cook County Jail, Judge David Navarro said. Jones' next court date was scheduled for next Wednesday.
A federal judge has ordered the city of Chicago to pay $62,500 for withholding records in a wrongful death lawsuit, marking the eighth time Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration has been sanctioned for failing to turn over potential evidence in a police misconduct case.

The city agreed to the amount this month after U.S. District Court Judge Joan Gottschall upheld an earlier ruling that the city acted in bad faith when it ignored a court order and made little effort to provide documents to the lawyer for the family of 20-year-old Divonte Young, who was shot and killed by an officer five years ago.

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A plainclothes officer fatally shot Young after authorities alleged Young opened fired on two people in West Englewood in August 2012. Police never located a gun.

The city is continuing to waste taxpayers money and the courts time, said attorney H. Candace Gorman, who is representing the Young family. Its ridiculous. The taxpayers are angry. The judges are angry. And the city just doesnt get it.

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In the Young case, the judge repeatedly has criticized the city for its approach to discovery, the legal process that allows the two sides in a lawsuit to uncover relevant facts through the exchange of documents, the taking of depositions and other disclosures. When the process breaks down, plaintiffs can find themselves at a disadvantage, their lawyers uncertain they are working with all of the evidence.

As part of the discovery process, Gorman sought documents from the Independent Police Review Authority, the city agency that investigated all officer-involved shootings and other misconduct allegations. (IPRA has now been succeeded by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA.)

Gorman was initially told by a Law Department attorney that he could not ask IPRA for the documents because the agency operated separately from the city, according to court records. An IPRA official, however, then refused to give Gorman the records and said she had to go through the city Law Department.

In her ruling, Gottschall noted that IPRA was a city agency and concluded that Gorman had been given the runaround. The judge also ruled that city attorney Matthew Hurd, who has since gone into private practice, made an honest effort to obtain the documents but was caught in a tug-of-war between the departments.

The fault here lies with the paddles rather than the human ping pong ball Hurd became, Gottschall wrote.

Gottschall originally sanctioned the city in January. After the city asked her to reconsider, the judge upheld the decision and ruled that Gorman should be compensated for the cost she incurred trying to obtain the documents.

The city recently settled with Gorman, agreeing to pay her $62,500 for the fight she waged since subpoenaing the records more than a year ago.

The city believes that its attorneys acted in good faith; however, we accept the judges ruling that the city should pay some measure of attorneys fees and costs associated with resolving this discovery dispute, Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey said in a statement. In order to avoid further litigation, we reached an agreement with the plaintiffs counsel regarding the amount.

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Gorman agrees Hurd made an honest effort to comply with the subpoena, but she takes exception to how the citys agencies stonewalled her request. It took her over a year to obtain the documents, a process that should take no more than two months, she said.

Thats just crazy, she said. The city plays games and they dont play fair.

The ruling marks the eighth punishment against the city since Emanuel took office in 2011 and is the largest pre-trial sanction it has paid in a police misconduct case, according to court records. All totaled, discovery-related penalties which include two large post-trial sanctions  have cost the city more than $1 million over the past six years.

The ruling also renews questions about how the Law Department handles potential evidence in police misconduct cases, which are often high-profile, controversial and potentially costly for taxpayers.

A Tribune investigation last year that analyzed nearly 450 cases alleging police misconduct since Emanuel took office found that a federal judge had to order the city to turn over potential evidence in nearly 1 of every 5 cases.

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In January 2016, Emanuel asked former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb to lead a review of the Law Department's handling of police misconduct cases. Webb found no pattern of intentional misconduct among city attorneys, but he also recommended more than 50 reforms to address problems in the office.

The Law Department has worked with COPA (the successor agency to IPRA) to develop a protocol for obtaining documents that are in COPAs possession and are responsive to discovery requests, McCaffrey said. However, if opposing counsel makes what the Law Department believes is an overbroad, burdensome or otherwise inappropriate discovery request, the Law Department will continue to make appropriate objections.

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

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sstclair@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @stacystclair

[ RELATED: Former city of Chicago attorney accused of withholding information in police shooting suspended for 90 days ]

[ Emanuel's Law Department sanctioned again for not disclosing police files ]

[ Senior city lawyer quits after judge rules he hid evidence in fatal police shooting ]
Bail was denied Thursday for a 27-year-old West Side man who prosecutors say fatally stabbing his father in an alley while onlookers pleaded with him to stop his attack.

Jimall Murphy faces first-degree murder charges in the Tuesday afternoon stabbing death of his father, Dennis Murphy, 53.

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Authorities never offered a motive for the slaying and two relatives who showed up for Thursday's hearing also said they didn't know what sparked the violent attack.

In court, Murphy stood quietly handcuffed, his right hand bandaged, as prosecutors laid out the case against him during a bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Witnesses called police at about 2:20 p.m. Tuesday after spotting the younger Murphy stabbing his father with a "butcher-style knife" in an alley behind the family home in the 4800 block of West Superior Street in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, authorities said.

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Murphy momentarily turned toward the witnesses as they pleaded for him to stop, but he quickly continued the attack, Assistant State's Attorney Jason Coelho told the court. Police arrived to find Dennis Murphy unresponsive from his multiple stab wounds. Murphy was later pronounced dead on the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Jimall Murphy, who remained on the scene, was captured on a police body camera confessing to stabbing his father, before making additional statements to detectives later, Coehlo said. Murphy was later treated for a cut he suffered to his right palm, according to his arrest report.

Calling Murphy a clear and present threat to the public, Judge David R. Navarro ordered Murphy held without bond.

Murphy is expected to return to court next Monday. If convicted, he could serve a life sentence.

wlee@chicagotribune.com

Twitter: @MidNoirCowboy
Police officers and members of the public walk near Oxford Circus subway station in London after it was reopened on Nov. 24, 2017. (Alastair Grant / AP)

LONDON  Shoppers scattered in panic and police flooded one of London's busiest areas Friday after multiple reports of shots being fired at Oxford Circus subway station.

But an hour later police said they had found no sign of any gunshots, suspects or casualties.

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The panic erupted on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, in a jittery city that has been hit by four violent attacks this year.

The area, full of big-name chain shops and department stores, was packed with shoppers browsing Black Friday sales.

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Amid reports of several shots being fired, commuters and shoppers ran from Oxford Circus station and took shelter in nearby stores.

"I was next to the Tube station and everyone started screaming and shouting and then a flood of people came up the stairs," said Greg Owen, 37.

Police said they were responding "as if the incident is terrorist related," sending armed officers to the scene, cordoning off several blocks and telling people to avoid the area.

Some stores filled with people taking shelter; others were evacuated. At upmarket department store Selfridges, shoppers were ordered to leave. At least three heavily armed men believed to be police could be seen on the escalators inside.

About an hour after the first report of shots, the Metropolitan Police force said officers "have not located any trace of any suspects, evidence of shots fired or causalities." Oxford Circus subway station reopened soon afterward.

It is not yet clear what set off the panic.

British Transport Police said one woman suffered a minor injury while leaving the station. The force, which patrols the train and subway network, said it was investigating what had caused the initial report of shots inside the station.

After declaring the incident over, the Metropolitan Police said that "given the nature of the information received, the Met responded in line with our existing operation as if the incident was terrorism, including the deployment of armed officers."

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Kensington Palace officials said the security alert will not keep Prince William and his pregnant wife Kate from attending a Royal Variety Performance Friday evening at the nearby London Palladium. Officials said in a statement that the royal couple will arrive later than had been planned but should be in place by the start of the show.

Britons in general, and Londoners in particular, have been jumpy after a string of extremist attacks this year, including deadly attacks using vehicles to hit pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, London Bridge and outside a London mosque.

The city of Manchester was also traumatized by a bombing at a concert arena, which killed 22 people.

Britain's official terrorist threat level is set at "severe" indicating an attack is considered highly likely.
A lawyer for former national security adviser Michael Flynn informed an attorney for President Donald Trump this week that he can no longer discuss the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, a sign that Flynn may be preparing to cooperate in the probe, people familiar with the investigation said.

The call from Flynn lawyer Robert Kelner to Trump attorney John Dowd came Wednesday evening and is a potentially ominous sign for Trump and other close associates to the president. Before this week, Kelner had been strategizing with lawyers for Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, among others.

The split suggests that Flynn, who has been a top target of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team, may be looking to share information with the prosecutor and his team.

The development was first reported by the New York Times.

Kelner did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, said: "This is not entirely unexpected."

"No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president," he said, adding "It's important to remember that Gen. Flynn received his security clearance under the previous administration."

In complex investigations, lawyers for subjects often enter into agreements that allow them to share information without waiving attorney client privilege. Such agreements generally include provisions that require the lawyers to immediately end the arrangement if their clients begin discussions with prosecutors or if other developments pose a conflict of interest.

Even if Flynn has begun discussions with Mueller's office, there is no guarantee he will ultimately reach a deal with prosecutors.

Flynn served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama before he was pushed out in 2014 amid criticism of his management style and clashes with other Obama administration officials.

He then established a private consulting firm and gave paid speeches, work that has drawn intense scrutiny from Mueller.

In December 2015, Flynn was paid by the Russian government-funded television network RT to attend a dinner in Moscow, where he was seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Even as he became an adviser to Trump's presidential campaign, his consulting firm was paid to promote the interests of the Turkish government. Flynn failed to initially report his payments from either engagement.

Flynn served 24 days as Trump's national security adviser, but was forced to resign after acknowledging that he had secretly discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during Trump's presidential transition in December.

Lawyers for the president and senior White House aides had been quietly speculating over the last few weeks that Flynn was under increasing pressure to cooperate because Mueller had signaled his ability to charge his son alongside the father.

Michael Flynn , the retired general's son, helped his father with business arrangements and served as chief of staff at his father 's consulting firm, the Flynn Intel Group.

Barry Coburn, an attorney for Michael Flynn, declined to comment.
Judge Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Alabama, speaks on Nov. 14, 2017 at the God Save American Revival Conference at Walker Springs Road Baptist Church in Jackson, Ala. (Dan Anderson / ZUMAPRESS.COM/TNS)

There's a consensus aborning: There should be zero tolerance for sexual harassment, exploitation and violence of any kind. Enthusiasm for the new dawn varies widely. Some think it's a great feminist or moral awakening. Others see an era of witch hunts, prudery and weaponized politics in our future.

Put me down for all of the above.

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As a conservative, this seems natural to me. Almost every good thing comes with a downside, and virtually every bad thing comes with an upside.

We've seen cultural, political and religious awakenings before. The abolition movement also brought with it American abolitionist John Brown. Prohibition had some positive (though hotly debated) effects on public health, and the temperance movement helped pave the way for women's suffrage. Anti-communism was a good thing in my book, but no one can honestly dispute that it had its unfortunate excesses.

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Whenever popular passion swamps politics, true-believing zealots and opportunistic demagogues will exploit that passion. The zealots will overreach. The demagogues will demagogue  using a good cause to destroy political enemies and defend unworthy allies.

Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore is credibly accused by nine women of preying on teenagers, one as young as 14. Harvey Weinstein is credibly accused by at least 50 women of a long list of offenses, including rape. Democratic Sen. Al Franken has been accused by two women of inappropriate advances or groping.

These are just the recent lowlights. A host of prominent journalists as well as Hollywood actors, writers and producers have been accused of varying degrees of misconduct.

We shouldn't stand for any of it. And yet, the severity of our intolerance should run on a spectrum. Rape should put you in jail. Making a pass at a subordinate in the workplace should have consequences. Making one at a bar? It depends. Taking harassment seriously also requires making serious distinctions.

The problem is that the logic of zero tolerance often renders every bad act as equally unacceptable.

As much as I dislike Franken, making a gross pass at an adult woman is different than molesting a 14-year-old girl. Groping a woman's backside is not the same thing as raping a woman. And yet Franken's name is routinely listed alongside Moore's and Weinstein's. Some of this leveling is simply journalistic laziness. But a lot of it is partisan demagoguery and opportunism.

Partisanship also leads to what you might call anti-leveling: people who ignore wrongdoing on their side even as they attack their enemies.

Some Republicans insist that Franken must resign but say that the people of Alabama should decide what to do about Moore. (Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders says the people of Minnesota should determine Franken's fate.)

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When asked why people should judge the accusations against Moore and President Donald Trump differently than accusations against Franken and others, the White House says Moores and Trump's denials inoculate them from condemnation or any practical consequences.

Denials should matter, and accusations absent additional evidence should invite skepticism. But the upshot here is that alleged miscreants should simply deny rather than admit wrongdoing and apologize. According to this logic, Bill Clinton deserved the benefit of every doubt until he was finally forced by the evidence to admit (some of) his misdeeds.

Worse, implicit to the White House argument is that on-the-record testimony from victims doesn't count as evidence, even when corroborated by testimony from confidantes.

But the most dangerous and corrupting force in all of this is not the weaponization of bad behavior, but the weaponization of hypocrisy. The pastor Franklin Graham even argues that the real villains are Moore's critics, who are guilty of doing much worse than what Moore has supposedly done.

This obsession with hypocrisy leads to a repugnant immorality. In an effort to defend members of their team, partisans end up defending the underlying behavior itself. After all, you can only be a hypocrite if you violate some principle you preach. If you ditch the principle, you can dodge the hypocrisy charge. We're seeing this happen in real time with some of Moore's defenders, just as we saw it with Bill Clinton's in the 1990s.

We'll sort it all out eventually, but not before it gets even uglier.

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Jonah Goldberg is a senior editor at National Review Online and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

JonahsColumn@aol.com
When an ill child's request for early Christmas cards went viral on social media, greetings poured in from strangers around the country. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

For a wildly popular worldwide phenomenon, social media certainly gets a lot of bad press  and often, its for good reason. The latest conscientious objector to humanitys insatiable craze for digital oversharing is none other than Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster and Facebooks founding president.

God only knows what its doing to our childrens brains, Parker declared in an interview with Axios earlier this month, adding that Facebook specializes in exploiting human psychology, purposefully addicting users to an endless social-validation feedback loop.

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This appears to be both obvious and true, and deep down, pretty much everyone knows it  but regardless, many of us continue to regularly wander into the wilds of various social media networks anyway. Heres the good news: Deep in the mixed bag of proverbial squalling cats that cross our paths each day  the petty, and the petulant, and the weird and the sometimes hilarious  occasional bright spots rise to the top.

Recently, one such bright spot came paired with a heartbreaking story. Jacob Thompson, a 9-year-old in Maine, had been fighting for four years against neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that tends to afflict young children. On Oct. 11, he was checked into Barbara Bush Childrens Hospital, as his mother put it, for the last time.

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Doctors predicted that Jacob, who loved penguins  and whose personal motto, Live like a penguin, according to the boy, translated into be friendly, stand by each other, go the extra mile, jump into life and be cool  had about one month to live. He had one simple request: An early Christmas, along with Christmas cards from anyone inspired to reach out. Thanks to social media, the request went viral.

Christmas greetings poured in from strangers around the country; according to the local CBS affiliate, the boy received almost 10,000 Christmas cards in just one day. Hundreds of police officers from around New England  Jacob also loved police officers  traveled in a procession from Boston to his hospital. Connecticuts Mystic Aquarium, upon hearing of Jacobs love for penguins, provided one of the birds for the boy to hold.

Jacob loves the holiday season, his mother, Michelle Thompson Simard, told the media, and we want him to know that Christmas wishes come true and that there are good people who care all around the world. Jacobs Christmas celebration came on Nov. 12. He died just a week later.

So there it is: a minor miracle and a display of empathy and kindness, set amid tragedy, delivered by the same digital networks that drive many people bonkers each and every day. Its amazing that just one little boy has touched lives from all around the world, Jacobs mother told New England Cable News. Its also a reminder of the miracle of an ordinary day  something that many of us take for granted.

If youve ever had a serious health scare or a potentially life-altering close call, followed by a reprieve, you know the feeling: a slow, shaky exhalation, paired with the sudden glory of an ordinary day. Boring isnt boring if you know the alternative; once youve faced certain terrifying possibilities, uneventful becomes beautiful. Its human nature, of course, to slowly lose this sense of clarity. The sad irony of social media, for all of its potential to do tremendous good, is that it often robs us of our ordinary days.

A few weeks ago, I accompanied a class on a field trip to some local caverns and had a delightful ordinary day. (Well, semiordinary, I guess, given that light spelunking is infinitely more fun than paying the bills or unloading the groceries.) Texas is chock-full of caves and limestone layers, and these particular caverns went 180 feet below the ground. You know whats not 180 feet below the ground, unless youre in some top-secret NASA tunnel? The internet  that lovable yet persistent friend, constantly beeping for attention, churning with news, and trivia and angst.

Im not going to lie to you: It was lovely in that cave.

In Kurt Vonneguts 1961 short story, Harrison Bergeron, a futuristic society mentally handicaps certain citizens by piping regular bouts of disruptive noise  bleeps, crashes and general clanging cacophony  into their ears. Today, in a sense, theres no need for a sinister government to get involved; we often do this to ourselves.

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So how can we sift through the noise? The story of Jacob Thompson and his family, after all, reminds us that social media can be used for good. This holiday season, perhaps we can all start by celebrating our oft-unsung ordinary days  and, where we can, reach out to help those whose days are anything but.

National Review

Heather Wilhelm is a National Review Online columnist.
The chemical spill from the U.S. Steel facility in Portage caused beaches in and around Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to close and left officials scrambling to determine the extent of damage caused to the local environment. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

Environmental activists and particularly Chicagos surfing community welcomed news this week that the city of Chicago is initiating legal action against a Lake Michigan polluter based in Indiana.

For years, surfers have traded stories of skin rashes and infections they blame on oil and chemical pollutants along the curved beaches of northwest Indiana. There, lake enthusiasts share a coastline with steel mills and oil refineries. Surfers know to follow certain protocols: Wear a wetsuit. Dont swallow the water. Shower immediately afterward.

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But theyve also started asking questions. Their group, Surfrider Foundation, linked up with the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. Surfers and law students began documenting and mapping illegal discharges into Lake Michigan, mostly based on companies self-reporting. In April  after U.S. Steel admitted its Portage, Ind., plant had released an alarming plume containing toxic hexavalent chromium into a ditch that drains into Lake Michigan  the group began to draw up plans to sue under the Clean Water Act.

As we got further into it, the issues at the plant were not just a one-time thing, said second-year law student Ben Segal who led the research project into lake pollutants this past summer. The plant violated permits on a number of occasions.

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During a final comb of documents, law students found that the Portage plant reported another chromium spill that exceeded permitted levels in late October. The company asked Indiana environmental regulators to keep it quiet: U.S. Steel requests that this submittal be afforded confidential treatment under all applicable statutes, the company wrote in an Oct. 31 letter to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

And Indiana officials did keep it quiet  until Tribune reporter Michael Hawthorne started calling. Why Indiana officials didnt immediately notify the U.S. EPA of yet another illegal discharge is unclear.

A U.S. Steel spokeswoman said the discharge wasnt serious enough to report to the feds and did not pose a threat to public health. In other words, move along. Nothing to see here.

The October spill pumped into the lake nearly double the amount of chromium allowed over a 24-hour period. We dont know how much of it was the really bad stuff, hexavalent chromium. And neither does the EPA. It should.

The public was not informed and likely would not have known, if not for those diligent law students. On Monday, the city of Chicago sent a notice of intent to file its own federal lawsuit, also alleging violations of the Clean Water Act.

U.S. Steel is committed to complying with all environmental standards, to ensuring the safety of our employees and our neighbors in the communities in which we live and operate, and to safeguarding our shared environment, the company responded. We take that responsibility very seriously and recognize this as a critical aspect of our role as a member of each community in which we operate.

Wed like to take the companys word for it, but documents uncovered by the law students show multiple violations of the companys permits dating back several years. Both the April and October discharges occurred at the same sewer outfall. Because of that and the severity of the April spill, U.S. Steel should have notified federal officials of the second discharge. The public deserves to know. Were dealing with drinking water.

We also have to ask: Where is Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb or Attorney General Curtis Hill on the companys pollution record? Why is the city of Chicago taking a more aggressive posture than the state where the steel plant is located and the spills occurred?

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We will not stand idly by as U.S. Steel repeatedly disregards and violates federal laws and our natural resources, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.

Yes. Underline that. The April plume caused beach closures and water intake centers to be shut down.

U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt visited East Chicago earlier this year, promising a back to basics agenda at the EPA that would focus on clean air and water, despite budget cuts proposed by President Donald Trumps administration.

Mr. Pruitt, book another flight. Companies that discharge into Lake Michigan should not get away with minimal  and secretive  reporting. Taxpayer-funded environmental protection agencies at the state and federal levels should not be in perpetual reactive mode. They have powerful tools of proactive enforcement at their disposal. They should use them.
Saudi Arabia has been using starvation to squeeze Yemen. The Saudi regime stepped up its air, land and sea siege of the war-ravaged Middle East nation in the last two weeks. The global reaction has been harsh. And Wednesday brought news that the Saudis, who aspire to a greater role in geopolitics, just might be getting the message: Stop punishing Yemeni civilians.

The Saudi regime said it would reopen Yemens international airport in the capital, Sanaa, as well as a primary Red Sea port, so that humanitarian aid could flow into the war-wracked nation.

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Thats a step in the right direction, though we hope it amounts to a genuine  and not temporary  reprieve for a population struggling to survive.

International relief groups say up to 7 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine. Cholera has stricken at least 900,000 people. More than a quarter of those victims are children under 5. Nearly 400,000 Yemeni children need treatment for severe malnutrition  treatment they havent been getting because of the blockade, according to Save the Children, an international relief group.

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That created desperation in a country heavily dependent on imports of food, medicine and fuel. The Saudis had been allowing a trickle of relief through the port of Aden, but U.N. aid groups say it hasnt been nearly enough.

Yemen has been in the throes of civil war since the spring of 2015. From the conflicts start, the Saudi regime, which opposes Yemens Shiite Houthi rebels, has intervened on behalf of the countrys ousted Sunni leadership. The Saudis also accuse Iran, their long-standing regional archrival, of actively helping the Houthis. Saudi bombing and relentless fighting over the last 2  years have devastated Yemeni society  more than 60 percent of the population was in need of food assistance before the siege.

That blockade was significantly tightened after the firing of a missile from Yemen toward the Saudi capital, Riyadh, earlier this month. Saudi forces intercepted the missile and blamed Iran for supplying the Houthis with the weapon, though they have yet to muster conclusive evidence. Yet the Saudi blockade has done little more than isolate starving Yemeni civilians, millions of whom are children.

Not surprisingly, a Trump administration that has cozied up to the Saudi regime has reacted to the Yemeni crisis with barely a yip. Saudi Arabia has been a U.S. ally for decades, but President Donald Trump has further embraced the Saudi government in his pursuit of other goals in the Middle East.

Trump hasnt seemed fazed by recent examples of Saudi recklessness: An attempt earlier this year to isolate Qatar in retaliation for what Riyadh claims is Dohas linkage with Iran; the regimes purge of more than 200 princes, businessmen, officers and officials; a wave of arrests widely seen as a consolidation of power rather than an anti-corruption initiative; and Riyadhs meddling in Lebanon, where the prime minister has stepped down  at the Saudi regimes behest, many in Lebanon believe  from a coalition government that included politicians from the Iran-allied militant group Hezbollah. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he was putting his resignation on hold.

Tightening the blockade had been Riyadhs latest aggressive tack. While Saudi regime appeared to be easing its restrictions on aid to Yemenis, the Trump administration can do a lot more to rein in Saudi aggression. Trumps closeness with the Saudi regime has given him a good deal of clout with Riyadh. He should use it to get the Saudis to begin working toward a day when Yemeni citizens are free from the gears of conflict. Alliances, regardless of their importance or usefulness, should never require turning a blind eye to outright cruelty.
Business: Detective Dan

Address: 931 W. 75th St., Naperville

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Phone/website: 630-699-5054, detectivedan.com

Owner: Daniel W. Draz

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Years in business: "I've actually been in the fraud business for 32 years, fighting very sophisticated, organized criminal activity," Dan Draz said.

What does this business do? "I research, write and edit content that reflects what's going on in this country in regards to fraud, crime, safety and theft, internet issues and cyber security, children's and parents' safety issues. And then, what I do is I go into the recording studio at (College of Dupage) with my sound engineer, and I record what are called short-form news features, which I can then upload to syndicated media outlets for distribution across radio, TV, video, print and internet formats."

What was the impetus for starting this business? "While I was in grad school in 2005, my thesis research showed that there was a disconnect about how we educate people about fraud and risk and theft and crime. So there needed to be a better way to educate the American public. This project has been on the drawing board for 10-plus years,  This has brought me to a point of saying we need to do something better. This is the 'one person can make a difference' philosophy. If I take this out nationally and globally, and I just make an impact on one or more."

What is the best thing about being in Naperville? "Being close to Chicago is phenomenal, but at the same time being in the suburbs instead of right there."

What is the biggest challenge about located in Naperville? "Again, what makes it good also makes it bad. Every conference, every association, have events in Chicago. For every meeting and every event, every social hour, if I want to go to those, even if it's just a one-hour luncheon, it is a six- to eight-hour day for me. Now that's fine for people that are getting paid by somebody else, but when you are doing your own thing and that's time you need to be doing other productive things, not only did you spend hours at the event, but you also didn't spent eight hours on things that needed to get done."

When is your busiest time of year? "We are going into one of them. We are going into big-time holiday fraud time. Typically in December you will see spikes in retail theft and fraud for obvious reasons.  Gift cards, compromised information. The reality, though, is that beyond that there isn't really a busy time because it's busy all the time. It's literally every day, every month, every season."

Whay do people need to be aware of in terms of fraud? "Perfect example, we've just had one of the largest data breaches in U.S. history. Equifax. It affected 145 million Americans, or about 45 percent of the population. We had 1.4 billion records compromised in data breaches last year. ... So the reality is that the information I provide can benefit everyone, and there is a need."

Is there anything new you're developing? "I'm really trying to come up with more insightful, reality-based content. A lot of times we just don't know what steps to follow. ... (One thing people need to be aware of ) is what we call personally identifiable information, or PII. That's your date of birth, your Social Security number, your mother's maiden name, various factors. People ask for it and we just freely give it to them. But why do you need that? And once we give it, what are you going to do with it, how long are you going to keep it, how are you going to destroy it, who as access to it?"

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What is the format of your segments? "All of this content is short. Meaning, the short-form news feature genre is 60 seconds, including the introduction, here's the problem, here's what's going on, here's the solution, and the close. The other content I have in development, let's say for businesses, is maybe two minutes. And we have a podcast in development, which is probably going to be eight or nine minutes. And all of this content can be repurposed for print. I can do a column, I can do print syndication. ... I can do any number of things with the content."

What do you like most about what you do? "To creatively have a vision and execute that vision."

What is your least favorite to do? "I think it gets back to that whole you have to wear every hat. I think what makes something exceptional is also what makes it tough."

What is the best thing about owning your own business? "Honestly, I think the best part is controlling my own schedule. It doesn't mean I goof off. I work insane hours because it is global and people work in different time zones. The ability to have a creative project that you own, that is your intellectual property, that you have a vision and that you have the ability to act on."

What is the biggest downside? "It's a global project but I'm still a small business owner. You still have all that comes with that  the sales, the marketing, social media, consulting, recording, accounting and all that."

How would you describe your business philosophy? "I think communication is exceptionally important to me."

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How has your business changed over the years? "I've been in fraud business for over 30 years. The internet definitely changed the landscape."

Daina Saleh is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
An Indiana State Board of Accounts audit has cited Gary Community School Corp. Superintendent Cheryl Pruitt for collecting $30,000 in bonuses without documented school board approval.

The 11-page report, released Wednesday, stated Pruitt received $30,000 in bonuses in March 2016. A clause under her three-year contract between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2015, provided for a $10,000 bonus per year under a "Growth Incentive Plan and Bonus to be agreed upon by the Board and the Superintendent," it stated.

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"No documentation that the School Board agreed upon or approved the amounts or the timing of the payments of the Growth Incentive Plan and Bonuses was presented for audit," the report said.

The report asks Pruitt to repay the money. Auditors forwarded the report to the Indiana attorney general and Lake County prosecutor's office. State auditors notified Pruitt of their findings Sept. 20.

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Pruitt said Friday she believed proper procedures were followed for the bonus payouts.

"From my understanding, (the board) went through several meetings, including executive session meetings," she said.

Pruitt said she turned in all goals to the board and went through evaluations, which would have had to be signed off by the board, the state-appointed fiscal manager and the school district's attorney.

"If something was missed and I owe the money, I have no problem with paying it back" if it was found to be paid in error, she said.

Pruitt said she had not been contacted by the Indiana attorney general's office or Lake County prosecutor about the matter.

When asked to clarify whether she would repay the money as requested, Pruitt said the state would need to first speak with her attorney, whom she initially declined to identify.

She then called back, saying Gary attorney Clorius Lay was representing her case. Lay, a Calumet Township board member, is also a member of the fiscal advisory board to the district's emergency manager, a volunteer role.

In a written response, school board President Rosie Washington disputed the findings.

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"(If) the board had not paid Superintendent Cheryl Pruitt the $30,000 bonus agreed upon, then the board would have illegally 'breached' her contract," Washington wrote.

Pruitt's 2012 contract could not be found on the district's website. However, a search of past documents from 2012 also did not include Pruitt's contract. Those documents did contain a 2016 addendum to her contract and an extension through June 2019. No mention of bonus incentives appeared in the addendum.

In the addendum, the board agreed to pay Pruitt a $136,000 base salary, plus an $18,500 annual annuity. She also received a $1,000 monthly vehicle allowance for the business use of her own vehicle.

Lay also filed a lawsuit in October to stop the state-appointed emergency manager from meeting individually with elected school board members, stating that it violates the state's Open Door Law. A Lake County judge recently gave the emergency manager an extension until January to respond to Lay's complaint.

Lay said Friday he believed that Pruitt had documentation of benchmarks to be met, but the state was missing documentation that the board formally approved the bonuses to be paid in a public meeting.

"There's no criminal liability here," Lay said.

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"Dr. Pruitt didn't do anything, of course, but accept the money," he said. "She worked. Her evaluations were outstanding. She basically had earned the bonus."

School board Trustee Carlos Tolliver said he inquired into what paperwork the board considered before Pruitt's bonus payments were paid when he joined the board in January 2017.

"I was advised that no plan was available for that review," he said.

Tolliver said he did not believe Pruitt should have been paid the bonus due to the district's growing debt, lack of financial oversight and poor academic record.

In 2014, the Indiana Department of Education, under Democrat Glenda Ritz, designated Gary as a high-risk district, the lone one in the state. The state stripped Gary of control over its Title I money, and Ritz sent staff members to the district to try to rectify lingering problems, especially in special education.

"One could certainly argue, that were it possible, if the superintendent review was based on performance," Tolliver wrote to the state Nov. 4, "perhaps a 'refund' rather than a 'bonus' may have been more appropriate?"

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Along with the school board, the state should also share some responsibility for its role in oversight over the district's finances, he said.

A state law enacted earlier this year stripped Pruitt and the school board of its authority and installed a state-appointed emergency management team led by Peggy Hinckley, a retired superintendent and Gary native.

"I believe the board approved the raise. However, there was no accompanying documentation of the performance bonus metrics," Hinckley said via text. "Dr. Pruitt remains under contract as superintendent by action of the board in Dec. 16 through June 2019."

In September, Hinckley said her accounting team discovered the district had "no internal controls for anything" and continued to struggle to dig out of a $108 million financial hole.

"Our fiscal house is in disarray," Hinckley told the Distressed Unit Appeal Board in Indianapolis.

She said the district has operated on an antiquated payroll system that dates back 30 years. Many of its functions are done manually, she said.

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A two-year audit examining the district's books between July 1, 2014, and June 30, 2016, released earlier this month found Gary made little progress tackling the district's financial disarray, even under a state-appointed fiscal manager.

The state cited extensive missing records and noted that a systemic absence of internal controls over most accounting procedures made it difficult to gauge an accurate picture of the district's finances.

Many of the findings echoed those found in the prior 2012-2014 audit, released in 2015, which led Indiana State Board of Accounts state examiner Paul Joyce to question whether the district could continue as a going concern given its financial liabilities. It cited the school board for failing to meet "responsibilities to taxpayers" by ensuring "adequate budgeting, accurate accounting and informative reporting of all financial transactions and the establishment of sound business practices for effective and efficient operation of all schools."

In her written response, Hinckley accepted nearly all of the audit's findings and agreed to submit a plan to the state to fix cited issues by January.

Freelance reporter Carole Carlson contributed.

mcolias@post-trib.com

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On her wedding day, Feb. 11, 1918, Francesca Chavez Ornelas chronicled her holy nuptials with new husband Pablo Ornelas. She wrote in cursive in the family's leather-bound Bible.

"We had a very small wedding but solemn at church," the new bride wrote in English, her second language.

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An orchestra played at the church early that morning and again at the couple's wedding reception in San Francisco del Rincon, the municipal seat in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. The groom requested the song, "Siempre te amare," or "I'll always love you."

The young Francesca had no idea how important her writings would become to her family into the 21st century.

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"At noon time, we departed to our honeymoon to Mexico City," she wrote. "Our hometown was expecting Garcia Chavez (no relation to me) one outlaw during Revolution  under temporary ruling  of the country by Pancho Villa."

Yes, Pancho Villa, the infamous Mexican Revolution general who ruled that part of the country when the young couple later immigrated to the United States. Pablo figured he had to leave his homeland until the revolution ended, seeking a stable job and a hopeful future.

He crossed the border legally into Laredo, Texas, on Feb. 18, 1920, for a job in Fort Worth, according to U.S. immigration documents.

Three months later, Francesca followed him there with their first child, Joseph, named after St. Joseph, the patron saint of workers, she wrote.

"Our first baby was born under the most undesirable circumstances  Spanish flu," Francesca wrote on the following page in her Bible. "I beg  to Jesus  so he won't die without baptism. He was so little and frail."

Francesca documented many of her family's stories and struggles in her Bible, underneath the heading, "Short memories of mine."

Later in 1920, the couple made their way to Gary so Pablo could find a better paying job in the steel mills. The Steel City officially was just 14 years old when the young couple arrived at Union Station on Broadway.

Thousands of other Mexican families made the same pilgrimage to Gary and East Chicago to forge their American dream.

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The couple had 10 children in all, plus two newborns who didn't survive. The 10 kids were raised on the wages of a U.S. Steel laborer and a housewife who raised rabbits to feed her family. And they did this for many years during the Great Depression.

The couple lived in an apartment at 1609 Pennsylvania St., where their second child, Rachel, was born March 3, 1921. Six years later, after living in other apartments, the couple saved enough money to buy property at 4121 Lincoln St., near Lew Wallace High School.

"They built the home in 1928. It's engraved in the basement," said Rachel Ornelas Schutz, who's 96 and living in Merrillville.

I met her at a recent family reunion hosted by her niece, Susan Dzyacky, who unveiled her decades-in-the-works genealogy book, "A One Time Journey: How One Mexican Family Fulfilled the American Dream."

The 160-page manuscript contains the names, dates and stories of family ancestors dating to 1846, with exhaustive research and documentation. Dzyacky and her husband George, a Vietnam War veteran, live in Schererville.

"This is a truly a Region story," George told me above the chatty noise of more than three dozen family members.

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Susan, who had copies of her book available for every one of them, worked for years on the book, interviewing older relatives, researching the family heritage and unearthing old documents dating back almost a century. She accessed an Ancestry.com international license, and visited the Calumet Regional Archives and several libraries.

"If there is such thing as a chromosome for penning, I have inherited that DNA molecule," she wrote in the book's introduction. "I can't help but think my interest to write came to me by way of my grandmother Francesca, and my mother."

"My grandmother had the foresight to write a few notes about how she and my grandfather immigrated to the U.S., and Mom was a two-time award winner of poems in high school and had an appreciation for the fine arts," Dzyacky wrote in the book.

Susan Dzyacky's mother, Consuelo Ornelas Garcia, was the third oldest child of Pablo and Francesco, born in 1923. She died in 2004, but not before being honored in 1996 as the first Hispanic registered nurse in Northwest Indiana, according to documents in the book.

"I was so proud of Mom, with a lump in my throat; I held back my happy tears when the room of over hundred people gave her a standing ovation," Dzyacky wrote.

Garcia (who went by Connie) began her nursing career in 1945 at St. Mercy Hospital in Gary, practicing for 32 years before retiring as the head nurse at U.S. Steel.

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Joseph Ornelas went on to become the first Hispanic physician to graduate from Indiana University in Bloomington, according to records in the book. Coincidentally, he was my childhood pediatrician at the Ross Clinic in Merrillville during the 1960s.

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The couple's other children went on to become educators, medical professionals, steelworkers and carpenters.

"They were all first-generation Americans who placed a very high value on education and family relationships," George Dzyacky said.

I wondered if Francesco and Pablo knew before their deaths, in 1953 and 1959, respectively, that they indeed fulfilled the American dream.

"Just the fact that their first child, who was once so little and frail, would become a successful, influential physician in this country," Susan replied. "This alone was such a sense of accomplishment for my immigrant grandparents, not to mention the other nine children and all the rest of us here tonight."

"They may not have said it out loud, but they knew," George added. "They knew."

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Twitter @jdavich
All votes in the CO-3 election won't be counted until the end of this week
An editorial in the South China Morning Post this week has discussed the potential for a looming trade war between the China and the US. In the editorial, Scott Kennedy, a deputy director at the Freeman Chair in China Studies and director of the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, lays out how the US may be preparing itself to battle with China over what Washington DC and President Donald Trump have labelled unfair practices. Kennedy writes that the US is in the process of building regulatory mechanisms to support the US in the event of a major trade conflict.

This comes as China has removed Skype from the Chinese app stores, citing security and legal concerns. To be fair, given what weve learned over the past few years concerning US surveillance, that should hardly come as a surprise: if the US spies on its own citizens, it is sure to have infiltrated software used in global communications. Isolating American influence is a strategy increasingly being played out by both China and Russia, with Russia also about to block Facebook. LinkedIn is already restricted in both countries.

The isolation of America continues via trade, and some of it not necessarily inflicted upon it by either Beijing or Moscow. The pull back from the Trans-Pacific Partnership by the Trump administration was an ill-thought out and inaccurate reaction to a perceived loss of American jobs. Yet those jobs  unless American workers really want to be engaged at Bangladeshi wage levels making garments  are never coming back. Economies constantly need to adapt and evolve. Denying the wage differences between Asia and the United States is fool-hardy  products will simply cost the American consumer more to have them carry a Made in the USA label and an entire supply chain industry will be damaged.

The TPP, meanwhile, has been reinvented as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), excluding the US, and will benefit other Asia Pacific nations, Vietnam among them. What should have secured basic, cheap imported products from Asia, which US manufacturers could have added value to in terms of design, innovation and completion, will now be the remit of high-end Japanese, South Korean and Australian businesses instead.

Washington DCs rhetoric as regards the potential for a trade war, therefore, alarmingly fits in with the new American isolationism. But as the West is starting to learn from imposing sanctions upon Russia, a trade war between the US and China will only strengthen Chinese capabilities to secure trade and supply routes elsewhere. It will be to Asia and Eurasias benefit, in fact, if this does happen. China has a free trade agreement with ASEAN that has been expanding in volume by just under 20 percent per annum and is expected to reach US$1 trillion by 2020. China runs a trade surplus with ASEAN by a considerable margin; a China engaged in a trade war with the US would see that imbalance partially removed as it would seek to buy more from ASEAN members.

Other countries likely to benefit would be India, whose China trade has a long way to go to reach true potential, and would receive a large boost from a China on the hunt for new supply chains. Russia too, and especially in light of the upcoming China-EAEU Free Trade Agreement being signed can also be expected to receive a boost in bilateral trade. The China-Russian corridor has been growing at over 30 percent this year, partially because Western sanctions have motivated Russia to look east for trading partners.

Washington DC needs to think very carefully about engaging with a trade war with China. Such a move would be tantamount to a temporary burst of sanctions and tit-for-tat retaliation. Under such circumstances, China will fast track its Belt & Road infrastructure development reach to secure alternative supplies, and boost its trade with Asia.

Notably, Chinas new Administrative Measures for Outbound Investment by Enterprises, which was released on August 4 this year, already specify encouraged areas. These include:

Investment in One Belt, One Road (OBOR) related projects and infrastructure;

Investments that advance Chinese manufacturing technology;

Investment that improve Chinese high-tech and R&D centers abroad;

Investment that secure supply chains in raw materials and energy sources, such as oil, gas, and minerals;

Investment in trade, culture, logistic services is encouraged, as well as finance.

This signals that China is also prepared for a trade war with the US should it come to pass. With alternative supply chains, free trade agreements, and nearby Asian nations keen to close their trade gap with China all in place, any resulting conflict would be a huge boost for the Asian and Eurasian regions, and potentially spell disaster for the US economy. The way out for American manufacturers? Set up alternative production facilities in Asia, and fast.

Chris Devonshire-Ellis is the Founding Partner of Dezan Shira & Associates, and he celebrated the 25th year of operations in China with the practice earlier this month. The firm has facilitated several billion dollars worth of American investment over the years into Asia, with offices throughout China, India, Russia and the ASEAN nations. The practice provides business intelligence, legal and tax advisory, due diligence, and on-going administrative and professional support to foreign investors throughout the region.

Dezan Shira & the United States

This year, Dezan Shira & Associates turns 25 years old in Asia. We retain extremely strong ties to the United States, employ numerous US nationals throughout Asia, and have serviced several thousand US companies in China and the Asian region at large since 1992. Explore Dezan Shiras partnership with American investment in China in this brochure.

An Introduction to Doing Business in China 2017

This Dezan Shira & Associates 2017 China guide provides a comprehensive background and details of all aspects of setting up and operating an American business in China, including due diligence and compliance issues, IP protection, corporate establishment options, calculating tax liabilities, as well as discussing on-going operational issues such as managing bookkeeping, accounts, banking, HR, Payroll, annual license renewals, audit, FCPA compliance and consolidation with US standards and Head Office reporting.

Chinas Investment Landscape: Identifying New Opportunities

Chinas foreign investment landscape has experienced pivotal changes this year. In this issue of China Briefing magazine, we examine how foreign investors can capitalize on Chinas latest FDI reforms. First, we outline new industry liberalizations in both Chinas FTZs and the country at large. We then consider when an FTZ makes sense as an investment location, and what businesses should consider when entering one. Finally, we give an overview of Chinas latest pro-business reforms that streamline a wide range of administrative and regulatory measures.

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Our weekly round up of other news affecting foreign investors throughout Asia:

Investing in Manila

Manila, the capital and main city of the Philippines, offers a variety of business possibilities in industries ranging from manufacturing to information technology (IT), and financial services. In this article, we provide a brief overview of the citys investment climate.

Italian Investment into India

In the 2015 financial year, Italian companies invested US$334.7 million dollars into India. In this article, we explain how Indias Tier II cities are attracting Italian manufacturers while highlighting the active role Italy can play in Indias Smart Cities Initiative.

Eurasian Economic Union FTA: The Hot Ticket to Participating in Chinas OBOR Trade

Recognition is finally dawning that having a free trade agreement with the Russian backed Eurasian Economic Union is fast becoming the motorway to participating in and profiting from Chinas Belt & Road ambitions.

TPP Revived as CPTPP: What it Means for Vietnam

Trans-Pacific Partnership has been revived by the remaining 11 countries as Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership. Without the US, its largest partner, member countries still have much to gain in terms of trade, investments, market access, and policy reforms.



About Us Our Briefing updates are written by and provided by the various regional offices of Dezan Shira & Associates throughout Asia. To obtain a complimentary subscription to Asia Briefing please click here. To contact Dezan Shira & Associates concerning foreign investment and assistance in Asia, please email us at asia@dezshira.com

Dezan Shira & Associates Brochure

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 ASEAN 2017

Doing Business in ASEAN introduces the fundamentals of investing in the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, concentrating on economics, trade, corporate establishment and taxation. We also include the latest development news in our Important Updates section for each country, with the intent to provide an executive assessment of the varying component parts of ASEAN, assessing each member state and providing the most up-to-date economic and demographic data on each.

An Introduction to Doing Business in China 2017

Doing Business in China 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in China. Compiled by the professionals at Dezan Shira & Associates in January 2017, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Chinese market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to keep up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes.

An Introduction to Doing Business in Hong Kong 2017

Doing Business in China 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in China. Compiled by the professionals at Dezan Shira & Associates in January 2017, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Chinese market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to keep up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes.

An Introduction to Doing Business in India 2017

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.

An Introduction to Doing Business in Singapore 2017

An Introduction to Doing Business in Singapore 2017 provides readers with an overview of the fundamentals of investing and conducting business in Singapore and outlines the citys role as a trading hub within ASEAN. The guide explains the basics of company establishment, annual compliance, taxation, human resources, and social insurance in the city-state.

An Introduction to Doing Business in Vietnam 2017

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.
The first China Cultural Center in Bulgaria was inaugurated on Thursday.

The center, covering an area of almost 4,000 square meters, is located in the downtown of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital city, and includes exhibition halls, a library and rooms for teaching Chinese language, calligraphy, music, martial arts, dance and cuisine.

Zhang Xu, China's Vice Minister of Culture, said at the ceremony that the inauguration of the China Cultural Center marked a new stage in the cultural exchange and cooperation between the two countries.

"We will actively cooperate with the Bulgarian side to build this cultural center as a platform for cultural cooperation and sharing between China and Bulgaria," Zhang said.

Bulgarian Minister of Culture Boil Banov also said at the ceremony that the audience in his country would be pleased to welcome China's art, because acquaintance with Chinese culture was an unforgettable experience.

"I also express hope that a Bulgarian cultural center will soon be opened in Beijing to become an important unit for conducting a more active and coordinated Bulgarian cultural policy in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region," Banov said.

Chinese Ambassador to Bulgaria Zhang Haizhou said that the China Cultural Center in Sofia was the first of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe and was a symbol of the importance of Bulgaria in the cooperation between China and the countries in this region.

The ambassador said he expected that the center would play the role of bridge and link, and would give a new dynamic to the practical cooperation and all-round friendly partnership between China and Bulgaria.
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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has highlighted the importance of skilled workers and craftsmanship for China to realize quality development.

Li made the remarks during a meeting Tuesday with workers who participated in this year's WorldSkills Competition in October and won the most medals and points among 68 countries and regions.

Young skilled workers are "irreplaceable" in pushing manufacturing and service sectors to a higher level and in realizing quality economic development, Li said.

With an average age of less than 21 years, the 52 Chinese participants won 15 gold, seven silver and eight bronze medals.

For the Chinese economy to move toward the medium-high end, workers must first master more sophisticated vocational skills, Li said.

The premier asked workers around the country to perfect their skills to "make extraordinary achievements in ordinary posts."

"It will be good for Chinese brands entering the global arena if youngsters are keen to become craftsmen and pursue excellence," Li said.

Craftsmanship should be reflected in every product and every procedure, and should become "a pillar for building a strong manufacturing nation," he added.

At present, there are 165 million skilled workers in China, but they cannot meet the needs of economic development.

Li said China should deepen reform, improve policy and increase input to build a skilled workforce and solve problems including low pay and narrow career prospects.

Shanghai will host the competition in 2021.
China on Thursday banned businesses from getting involved and profiting from Buddhist or Taoist temples' operations and religious activities.

Buddhist and Taoist religious leaders said the move will ensure the healthy development of the two religions, as many commercial activities in their names have long been damaging the religions' image.

People have voiced concerns that temples are being turned into moneymaking machines by some businesses. Some people have said the businesses invest in constructing and operating temples just to make a profit. Such behavior has triggered social problems and even cultivated corruption, said a State directive published on Thursday banning businesses from profiting through temples.

No group or individual is allowed to invest in constructing and operating Buddhist and Taoist temples, which are supposed to be nonprofit entities, according to the directive jointly issued by 12 departments including the State Administration of Religious Affairs, National Development and Reform Commission and China National Tourism Administration.

Although temples are allowed to engage in commercial activities, such as publishing books or selling religious objects and artwork, the activities should be for maintenance and operation of temples or for charity programs, it added.

Master Xuecheng, head of the Buddhist Association of China, said in March that some people have been using Buddhism as a tool to make money, which is why fake temples and monks have begun to appear.

"Many of the commercialized Buddhist temples are actually not authorized religious facilities run by religious personnel," Master Xincheng, head of the Buddhist Association of Jiangsu province, said on Thursday.

Staff members in those temples force people to pay ridiculously high prices for lighting incense to prove they are devout Buddhists, Xincheng said. "People will then think all temples are like that, so the reputation of authorized temples are damaged too."

The directive prohibits unauthorized religious facilities to put out donation boxes. Collecting donations from unauthorized online platforms is also banned.

The government will crack down on organizations and individuals that hire fake monks or Taoists and hold illegal rituals to collect donations or encourage irrational spending on religious rituals.

The directive stated that tourist sites with Buddhist and Taoist temples as key attractions shouldn't overcharge for tickets.

Building such a scenic spot in the future will go through stricter approval processes to prevent a "religious craze" in the name of developing tourism.
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China and Djibouti on Thursday agreed to establish strategic partnership to strengthen all-round cooperation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) holds a welcome ceremony for visiting Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh before their talks in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 23, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

The announcement came as Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Guelleh is the first head of state of an African country to visit China since the conclusion of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October.

Stressing that China attaches great importance to relations with Djibouti, Xi said the two countries have always treated each other with equality and showed mutual respect and support since the establishment of diplomatic ties 38 years ago.

China is willing to work with Djibouti to speed up the implementation of the results of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), jointly forge ahead with Belt and Road construction, and fully strengthen bilateral cooperation in all fields, said Xi.

China welcomes Djibouti to participate in the Belt and Road construction, and is ready to advance cooperation on infrastructure projects including railways, ports, water supply, liquefied natural gas pipeline, as well as building of a free trade area and cooperation in agriculture, Xi said.

Guelleh, who is on a state visit to China from Wednesday to Friday, said he was very pleased to be the first head of state of an African country to visit China since the 19th CPC National Congress and congratulated Xi on his re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

Calling Djibouti "a good friend of China," Guelleh said his country views China as a top-priority and indispensable partner.

He expressed satisfaction with the development of bilateral ties over the past three decades and more, and thanked China for its assistance and support to Djibouti.

Djibouti would like to take an active part in the Belt and Road Initiative and enhance cooperation with China on infrastructure and areas important to people's livelihood, he said.

Guelleh said his country appreciates China's active engagement in UN peacekeeping and international anti-piracy efforts, thanking China for its role in maintaining world peace and prosperity.

China had made long-standing contribution to security and development in Africa even in the days when China itself was poor, said Guelleh, reiterating Djibouti adheres to the one-China policy and saying he is delighted to see China regain its due status in the world and will work closely with China in multilateral affairs.

"Whatever changes may take in China's development and the international landscape, China will stand by the developing countries including African countries and be their sincere friend and reliable partner," Xi said.

Xi called on both sides to maintain high-level exchanges and expand cooperation between the two governments, legislative institutions, political parties and local governments. He suggested both sides share experience in governance and development and support each other on issues concerning their core interests and major concerns.

China will continue to assist Djibouti in improving its healthcare and deepen cooperation in human resources development as well as people-to-people exchanges, said Xi.

"China supports Djibouti's role in international and regional affairs and will work with it in communicating on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and peace and security in Africa."

Xi hoped the two countries would work together to protect their own and other developing countries' interests and play a constructive role in safeguarding peace and stability of the Horn of Africa.

The two countries signed deals on economic, technological and agricultural cooperation after the talks.
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Zimbabwe's incoming President Emmerson Mnangagwa has a mammoth task ahead of him.

As he prepares to take the oath of office as the second executive president of the republic Friday, people have expressed great expectations.

While opposition parties are clamoring for electoral and other reforms to ensure a level political playing field, ordinary citizens are more interested in bread and butter issues.

Social media is awash with a "things to do and not to do" list as Zimbabweans hope that his leadership will usher in a new era of prosperity.

Some have even written open letters to him imploring him to serve the people well and to his wife Auxillia, advising her to desist from interfering with his work as had become the norm with former First Lady Grace Mugabe.

Mnangagwa on Wednesday appealed to Zimbabweans to be united as the country works to revive its economy. He also asked for international support.

"We want peace in our country, we want jobs for our people," he said.

However, he will have to turn words into action as the country grapples with high unemployment, rising prices of basic commodities, cash shortages and a general sense of helplessness.

Motor mechanic Martin Zengeni said Mnangagwa should quickly move away from the hate language that had characterized Zimbabwe's diplomacy for a long time.

"We should court international goodwill by coming up with policies that convince the outside world that we are moving along a more democratic path.

"We also need him to come up with a leaner and more efficient Cabinet that is prepared to serve the people first and that is not bent on looting state resources. We don't want patronage and this matter of appointing relatives to Cabinet should stop," he said.

Zengeni said Mnangagwa should also push for the reduction of the size of the presidential motorcade because it was too big.

"But most important of all he should cut down on the number of foreign trips. He should not be an embarrassment to the nation by going to some international conferences and end up being the only foreign head of state attending.

"This is a waste of state resources. The former president was always accompanied by a huge entourage of hangers on and we hope this will stop under his charge," he said.

Peter Chengeta, a bank clerk in capital Harare, said Mnangagwa had less than a year to prove his worth and should, therefore, come up with policies that were investor friendly, uplifted democracy and created an air of harmony in the community.

"He should move away from hate speech. Denigrating his enemies won't take us forward. Let us see a new dispensation in which leaders do not only preach love and unity, but also one in which national healing is allowed to address issues of the past," he said.

Office orderly Amos Muduva, 61, said the government should ease problems at health institutions where patients were not getting the required treatment because of a shortage of resources.

"You go to clinics and hospitals and you do not get all the required drugs that are prescribed by doctors. And when you go to private pharmacies you realize that you cannot afford the drugs. Our hospitals also need to be refurbished because they are in a sorry state," he said.

Muduva said investors should be given a conducive environment to operate in so that industries are reopened and jobs are created.

"We want to see our university graduates getting real jobs and not the phantom 2 million jobs the ruling party promised in the last election. We don't want to see the graduates loitering in the streets selling phone recharge cards," he added.

Mnangagwa on Wednesday said he had already begun to receive pledges of support from several countries in the world.

Zimbabwe, he said, was witnessing the founding of new democracy after Mugabe was removed from power.
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Google's intention to "de-rank" Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik is equal to censorship, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

It is a violation of freedom of speech and censorship at the technological level, she told a weekly news briefing.

Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet, said last week that RT and Sputnik could be de-ranked on the popular Google News service, which ranks various media outlets depending on their reach, article length and veracity.

Washington accused Russian media outlets of influencing public opinion during the 2016 presidential election by spreading fake news. But Moscow said the U.S. government is trying to oppress Russian journalists.

The practice of hampering distribution of information by artificially selecting news is "categorically inadmissible," Zakharova said.

She said the Russian Foreign Ministry has information that Google made this decision under "serious political pressure."

Earlier this month, RT America, the Washington, D.C.-based arm of Russia's state-owned English language news channel RT, was forced to register as a foreign agent in the United States at the demand of the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act enacted in 1938.

In response, the Russian parliament has passed a bill granting the government the right to label foreign media outlets as "foreign agents."

The bill, which has yet to be signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is likely to result in restrictions on some of U.S. government-sponsored media in Russia.
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Argentina's Navy confirmed on Thursday that there was a "singular, abnormal, short, violent and non-nuclear event" consistent with an explosion in the area where the submarine was lost.

Enrique Balbi, spokesman for the Argentine Navy (ARA), speaks during a press conference about Argentine's missing submarine ARA San Juan, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Nov. 23, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

The event had been confirmed by two sources, "the U.S. and a nuclear testing control agency in Austria, which has a network of hydroacoustic seismic stations," Enrique Balbi, spokesman for the Argentine Navy (ARA), told reporters here.

The submarine, ARA San Juan, went missing in the South Atlantic on Nov. 15 with 44 crew members on board. The sub was originally scheduled to arrive Monday at the Mar del Plata Navy Base, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Buenos Aires.

According to Balbi, the event was "consistent with an explosion" and occurred in the area in which contact with the vessel was lost.

The ARA San Juan's last known position was in the San Jorge Gulf area, 240 nautical miles (432 kilometers) southeast of the Valdes peninsula, in the South Atlantic.

The submarine lost all contact at 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 15 and the explosion was detected at 10:31 a.m. that same day.

Balbi said that "we are continuing to look for the submarine and the 44 crewmen. Until now, there is no certainty or evidence, the search will continue."

He also denounced any rumors that the submarine had been attacked, saying there was no evidence of an attack.
 Flash

Zimbabwe's incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa Thursday called on Zimbabweans to show restraint and avoid revenge against each other.

"While all this is going on, I implore all Zimbabweans to remain patient and avoid any form of revengeful retribution," Mnangagwa said in a statement to the state broadcaster ZBC.

He also urged Zimbabweans to refrain from settling political or social differences outside the ambit of the law.

Mnangagwa is set to be sworn in Friday to serve the remainder of long-serving former President Robert Mugabe's term until the general election next year, according to the state broadcaster.

The 75-year-old former vice president returned to Harare Wednesday and made his first public appearance at the headquarters of the ruling ZANU-PF party after being sacked by Mugabe on Nov. 6.

The termination led the military to move in and kick off a series of extraordinary events ending with Mugabe stepping down Tuesday amid impeachment proceedings.

Mnangagwa Wednesday appealed to Zimbabweans to be united as the country works to revive its economy. He also asked for international support.

"We want peace in our country. We want jobs for our people," he said.

However, he will have to turn words into action as the country grapples with high unemployment, rising prices of basic commodities, cash shortages and a general sense of helplessness.

While opposition parties are clamoring for electoral and other reforms to ensure a level political playing field, ordinary citizens are more interested in bread and butter issues.

Social media is awash with a "things to do and not to do" list as Zimbabweans hope that his leadership will usher in a new era of prosperity.

The international community, meanwhile, urged all parties in Zimbabwe to exercise restraint and maintain political stability and development.

Chairman of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat welcomed Mugabe's decision to step down, saying it will go down in history as an act of statesmanship that can only bolster his political legacy.

The AU "looks forward to Zimbabwe continuing to play a leading role in the affairs of the African continent, as a democratic and prosperous state meeting the aspirations of its people," Mahamat said.

Gwede Mantashe, general secretary of South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, said in Johannesburg Wednesday that they were ready to work with Zimbabwe to rebuild the country.

"We must continue to respect and celebrate Mugabe for the role he played over the last decade. We will continue working with comrades in Zimbabwe. We will not tell them...who should lead," he said.

The European Union (EU) said in a statement that Mugabe's resignation showed that he has listened to the voice of the people.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said the new government must now work to consolidate constitutional order and ensure that inclusive dialogue is established to encourage acceleration of key reforms in the country.

China's policy toward Zimbabwe will not change, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing Wednesday. China expects to enhance cooperation with Zimbabwe under the principles of equality and mutual benefit.

Lu said China respected Mugabe's decision to resign. "He remains a good friend to the Chinese people," Lu said, adding that "China respects Zimbabwean people's choice" and hopes that other countries will not meddle in Zimbabwe's internal affairs.
State, private firms to manage special body on mixed-ownership basis

The central government is planning to set up a special fund of up to 100 billion yuan ($15.19 billion) to accelerate mixed-ownership reform by the first half of next year, China Securities Journal reported on Thursday.

The fund will be jointly invested by a number of State-owned enterprises and private companies. Each side will hold half of the fund's stock rights to manage it as a mixed-ownership fund, said the report.

The move came after the central government announced earlier this month that it had selected a group of 31 SOEs, under local authorities or the central government, for the third round of SOE mixed ownership reform, aiming to bring more private capital into the State sector. Li Jin, chief researcher at the China Enterprise Research Institute, said the government's next move will be to further promote mixed-ownership reform at local SOEs.

Mixed-ownership reform is designed to further diversify the ownership structure of SOEs, going beyond mergers, acquisitions and reorganization, and has helped improve the efficiency and competitiveness of SOEs directly under the central government.

"As local SOEs face more competition between each As the reform will take place soon, a number of funds backed by State capital have also appeared to support the project across the country.

The China Structural Reform Fund led by State-owned capital joined forces with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Beijing branch and Beijing Wealth Capital to establish a special fund in August. It aims to invest in mixed-ownership reform and the restructuring of central and local government-controlled enterprises.

A similar fund was set up by Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co and Beijing-based Phoenix Tree Capital Partners, which jointly launched a 10 billion yuan mixed-ownership reform fund in Taiyuan earlier this month, the first in northern China's Shanxi province, while such funds have also appeared in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Wang Wen, executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, said these specific funds are vital to expand capital investment and could best use market forces to inject vigor into the new round of SOE reform.

"The fund will promote an overhaul of SOEs, pilot mixed ownership programs, encourage mergers and acquisitions, and downsize overstaffed companies," he said.

"Like central SOEs, local SOEs should also set up a modern company system during the reform process," said Zhu Houlin, a business partner at Beijing-based Zhongjin Guoxu Asset Management Co.

Zhu said the management mechanisms of local SOEs may not be as sophisticated as those of centrally administered ones.

The first two rounds of reform covered 19 SOEs, including China State Shipbuilding Corp and China Unicom. These are gradually implementing restructuring programs and more than a third of them have completed most of their reforms, including introducing new investors, boosting corporate governance and setting up new internal incentive mechanisms.
A tourist borrows an umbrella provided by Zhima Credit at a scenic site in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhima Credit, the online credit scoring service of e-commerce giant Alibaba, said on Wednesday that it would invest 1 billion yuan ($151 million) to eliminate security deposits in the sharing economy.

The company said it would upgrade its deposit-free plan for customers with high credit scores. It will also come out measures like bringing in insurance companies to provide support to merchants and service providers who do not charge any deposit from consumers.

Zhima Credit will extend the scheme gradually to other sectors such as house rentals and hotels.

Hu Tao, general manager of Zhima Credit, said some merchants have expressed concerns that users would not return their products. If no deposit is charged, companies will face losses. Therefore, insurance will be included in Zhima Credit's system so that merchants can claim insurance to cover their losses.

Shenzhen-based portable charger service provider Jiedian Technology connected to Zhima Credit's risk control system and started to charge no deposit from its users since April this year. Since then, orders have surged sixfold and only 0.014 percent of the users did not return the charger after the seven-day use limit.

As Hu explained, deposit will no longer be necessity when the merchants or service providers can seek enough profits and little risk. Some industries, which have seen rapid growth in the past few months, are starting to be less reliant on deposits and resorting to business models that are reliant on rental income.

"Probably it will be very difficult. But we have decided to put all our efforts into it," he said.

The company's decision follows the series of sudden collapses of bicycle sharing companies recently due to the panic withdrawal of deposits. Beijing-based Coolqi saw a flurry of panic deposit withdrawals in September and was subsequently brought over by Chengdu-based Baike Technology.

Beijing-based bicycle sharing company Bluegogo faced a similar situation in late October. On Nov 16, its founder Li Gang posted a statement online admitting that the company was facing operational difficulties. It was also taken over by Baike Technology.

Reports say that Bluegogo owes nearly 200 million yuan to bicycle makers. A large number of its employees have not been paid for up to six months.

But Li did not attribute the downfall of this one-year old startup to the problem of deposits. He vaguely implied that lack of investment and the overwhelming competition from the top two playersMobike and Oforesulted in Bluegogo's failure.
Paul Eremenko, Airbus' chief technology officer. [Photo/VCG]

Airbus SE is looking to develop autonomous aircraft and technologies that will allow a single pilot to operate commercial jetliners.

This will help the giant European aviation corporation cut costs, according to Paul Eremenko, the company's chief technology officer.

"The more disruptive approach is to say maybe we can reduce the crew needs for our future aircraft," Eremenko said.

"We're pursuing a single-pilot operation as a potential option and a lot of the technologies needed to make that happen has also put us on the path toward an automated operation," he added.

The aerospace industry has begun seeing a similar trend as the car market, where automakers are investing in or acquiring autonomous driving startups.

Plane manufacturers, including Airbus and Boeing Co, are racing to develop artificial intelligence that will one day enable computers to fly planes without human beings at the controls.

Turning that idea into a practical reality will not be easy in an industry where at least two pilots in the cockpit have been the norm for commercial flights for several decades.

After a Germanwings pilot flew an A320 aircraft into the French Alps in March 2015, killing all 150 people on board, many airlines around the world made at least two people in the cockpit mandatory at all times.

In addition to there being no transport-category aircraft certificated for a single pilot or pilotless flight, it is unclear whether passengers, or their insurers or carriers, would accept or permit it, said aviation consultant Robert Mann, a former American Airlines executive.

"People are arguably apprehensive about these kind of things," said Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consulting firm Endau Analytics in Malaysia. "You have driverless cars, driverless buses, but for something that flies, that is something different."

Airbus has a division called Urban Air Mobility that is exploring technology from on-demand helicopter rides to delivery drones.

Boeing announced last month it had purchased a company that is developing flying taxis for Uber Technologies Inc and also bought into a hybrid electric aircraft company.

Last week, Airbus agreed to set up an innovation center in Shenzhen, Guangdong province in China.

The facility will help accelerate research needed to chart the future of air travel, and China will provide Airbus an opportunity to design and develop such technologies.

"I think the general aviation space in China is just opening up," Eremenko said.

"There's an opportunity for China to sort of take a leap ahead as it has been prone to do in other areas," he added.

Airbus has also signed a cooperation agreement with Invest Shenzhen, an organization affiliated with the municipal government.

It was set up to establish long-term strategic partnerships to accelerate innovation and shape the future of flight.

"The innovation center will benefit from policy planning, talent resources and a favorable investment and financing environment from Shenzhen to impact aviation innovation," said Luo Gang, CEO of the Airbus China Innovation Center.

The France-based company is also exploring technologies that will bring more automation to the cockpit of planes that could help resolve a shortage of pilots in countries such as China, which is set to emerge as the world's biggest aviation market in less than a decade.

Talks are taking place with Chinese firms such as Baidu Inc to find ways to apply self-driving vehicles to aircraft.

Boeing estimates that 637,000 pilots will be needed to fly commercial aircraft globally in the next two decades.

"The industry needs to find ways to produce more cockpit crew," Eremenko said.

Airbus's A3 Silicon Valley think tank has been working on its proposed Vahana flying taxi, due for its first test flight this year. The single-person electric vehicle could cut journey times for city dwellers over a range of 50 miles, according to Airbus.

CHINA DAILY-BLOOMBERG
Gordon Domlija, chief executive officer of Wavemaker China. [Photo/VCG]

Media, content and technology company to expand digital business, clients to maintain its growth in China

Wavemaker,the new media, content and technology agency created through the merger of MEC and Maxus, under GroupM, the world's largest advertising media company in terms of billings, said this week that it would continue to focus on expanding its clientele and digital business in China.

"Nearly 70 percent of our business in China comes from digital initiatives and we will continue to focus on that," said Gordon Domlija, chief executive officer of Wavemaker China.

"This is partly deliberate and partly because this is how our business has grown."

Wavemaker China will be officially launched in December in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Nanjing.

According to Domlija, the company's proportion of digital business is greater in China than in any other market. Same is the case when compared with other multinational agencies present in China, he said.

Even people who do not directly work in digital have to be digitally minded, because the information generated and used to make the right decisions comes from digital sources, said Domlija, who has over 20 years experience in media and marketing in the UK and China.

The new company will have a huge analytics team that processes and reports on data, he said.

Domlija said he believed the new company's growth will be driven mostly by local businesses, and the company will continue injecting investment into understanding China's micro and macro-economic trends within the marketplace.

"Some 85 percent of our business in China is generated locally, and the percentage is much higher than our peers for international agencies," he said.

"There will be more localized decision-making and more local customers."

MEC and Maxus have been focused on driving Chinese brands in the past few years, including Huawei, China Mobile, Bank of Communications, Shanghai Automotive, UnionPay and Meituan.

"The resource and capability we build, focusing on local business will be the cornerstone of how we will continue to grow and how we plan to develop our business," he said.

According to Domlija, China's Belt and Road Initiative will create huge growth opportunities for Wavemaker as well as other companies.

Western companies are angling actively for a piece of the trade initiative, with multinationals like technology and manufacturing company Honeywell and General Electric tweaking their businesses to win more orders.

Zhang Jianping, director of international economic cooperation at the National Development and Reform Commission, said the initiative enables domestic and multinational firms to jointly explore overseas markets.

Many Western firms are interested in being a part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, offering either technological edge or knowledge of local conditions, he said.

"The initiative offers huge opportunities to companies that can understand how Chinese brands work," said Domlija.

Zou Shuo contributed to the story.
Zhujiang Brewery Co Ltd, one of the major beer producers in China, is expecting the Belt and Road Initiative to help further expand its offshore sales in the coming year.

Chen Xuande, general manager assistant of Zhujiang Brewery, said overseas expansion has great potential for the company, as foreign sales now represent only about 5 percent of the total sales volume.

Yu Hong, a manager in charge of overseas sales, said her company will give its top priorities to develop the Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Russia markets in 2018.

"To achieve the goals, the company is now studying and producing the beers with the different flavors which are popular in these foreign countries and regions," Yu said.

In the previous years, the company has participated a series of promotion activities organized by relevant government departments in Belt and Road-related countries and regions to promote its brands and products, she said.

"The country's Belt and Road Initiative, which helps boost Sino-foreign cooperation and cultural exchanges, will certainly become a big push for increasing our presence in the world market in the years to come," she said.

Yu added that expanding beer sales abroad is a long-term task for Chinese companies, as beer was originally considered an exotic product, and it took time for foreigners to recognize the high quality of Chinese beers.

"But our production equipment and technologies have reached the advanced standard of the world while the quality of our products has been able to compete with many world brand name beers," she said.

The company, which is a Shenzhen Stock Exchanges-listed company, reached a sales volume of more than 4 billion yuan ($615 million) last year.

And the company had reached last year's total expected volume in the first 10 months.

The company's beers have now been exported to more than 40 nations and regions worldwide.
LONDON - Britain will attach great importance to its economic ties with China after Brexit, and looks forward to further cooperation with China in areas such as green finance and the Belt and Road Initiative, a senior British official said Wednesday.

"The relationship between the UK and China is absolutely important. It is one we take extremely seriously," Britain's Economic Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay said in an interview with Xinhua, ahead of Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond's scheduled official visit to China to take part in the China-UK economic and financial dialogue in December.

Barclay made the remarks after giving a press briefing on the autumn budget delivered by Hammond Wednesday at the British parliament.

There is a lot of areas of common interest between Britain and China, which would yield more cooperation in different fields, Barclay said. The UK with its expertise in financial services, for example, he said, could partner with China to help deliver investment in green finance.

The two countries are already working together on green finance in their capacity as co-chairs of the Green Finance Study Group formed under the G20.

Another area of key opportunity, Barclay said, was the Belt and Road Initiative.

The initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, was proposed by China in 2013 with the aim of building a trade, investment and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient trade routes.

Regarding preparing for Brexit, Hammond has set aside an extra 3 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) in the budget to make sure the government is ready on day 1 of the exit. It will include funding to prepare the border, the future immigration system and new trade relationships.

The economic secretary believes that Britain will eventually strike a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU) despite the present difficulties and uncertainties.

Saying it was very much in the UK's intention to reach a free trade agreement with the EU, Barclay added that it is in the interests of both sides as well as the interests of China and global investment community for businesses around the world.

"All they want to see is the ability for businesses not to be harmed from fragmentation cost (and) market instability because the free trade agreement hasn't been reached," Barclay said.

He called the budget balanced and addressing some short-term challenges in the economy while investing for the long term to address the challenge of productivity, ensuring that the British economy met its fiscal target of moving forward.

The budget also earmarks 44 billion pounds ($58.6 billion) in investment, loans and guarantees over five years to boost the annual number of new homes built to 300,000 in the middle of the next decade.

"We need to address the productivity challenge within the UK. That means investing in infrastructure, in schools, in housing and that's why we got a record level of investment going into housing, and we got a record level of investment going into research and development," he said.

The British economy is forecast to grow by 1.5 percent in 2017. It will then grow at a slightly slower rate in the next three years, before picking up in 2021 and 2022.

Barclay is optimistic about Britain's position, calling the economy resilient and well-placed. Also, the foreign direct investment flow doubled this year to 158 billion pounds ($210.6 billion) from 80 billion pounds ($106.6 billion) last year, he added.
LONDON - Countries along the Belt and Road can benefit from China's Belt and Road Initiative by seeking further economic integration, greater investment and better governance.

"The continued focus on strengthening institutions, investing in sustainable infrastructure and integration into the global economy should remain the priority for Central Asian economies," Sergei Guriev, chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), told Xinhua on Thursday.

The international development bank launched on Wednesday its annual transition report at its headquarters in London, a health check for economic and social progress in the EBRD area, which covers emerging economies from the Western Mediterranean, much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The EBRD this year identified an upturn in the pace of reform in emerging economies, four years after reporting that reforms were stalling or even being thrown into reverse.

In its "Transition Report 2017-18: Sustaining Growth," the bank charted progress and setbacks in reforms in the past year and identified many remaining challenges.

In 2013, the EBRD warned in its annual transition report that a failure to restart a reform process could leave emerging economies trailing behind their more advanced neighbors.

The EBRD responded to this challenge by stepping up its own support for policy reforms in 38 economies where it invests to promote sustainable open-market economies.

"Attracting sustainable infrastructure investment to these countries will promote accelerated economic growth as well as job creation in their isolated sub-national regions," said Guriev.

In Azerbaijan, authorities has made progress in the restructuring of the country's largest bank, IBA, in preparation for its eventual privatization, the EBRD reported.

Integration has advanced in Southern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro all having made major progress in road-building.

However, the report noted important road projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina had been delayed by failure to amend the law on fuel excise duties that would allow an increase in prices.

"Our research identifies large infrastructure investment gaps in all our countries -- including the BRI countries," Guriev said.

The EBRD urged reforms aimed at making economies more competitive, and highlighted Uzbekistan, where it has begun investing again after a seven-year pause.

Uzbekistan remained low on the list of overall transition successes, but the report pointed to a move to freely convert the Uzbek currency, which is seen as a test for other reforms.

Several countries have made important progress in privatization, with projects in Greece covering concessions for Piraeus port, regional airports and the sale of the railway company TrainOSE.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma lectures 24 African entrepreneurs at the company's Xixi headquarters in Hangzhou, Nov 14, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

A total of 24 entrepreneurs from seven African countries arrived between Nov 11 and 14 at Alibaba Group Holding's Xixi headquarters in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, to begin studying internet business and entrepreneurial knowledge.

Jack Ma, founder and chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba, lectured them Nov 14.

"We want to learn from the best and Alibaba is the best internet company in the world," Jessica, a Nigerian entrepreneur whose full name is not available, said before the course started.

The training program is an initiative on internet entrepreneurship that Alibaba proposed for African young people. Twenty-four young African entrepreneurs were selected from more than 700 applications.

They would receive training in three major courses -- concepts, examples and launching a business -- by studying the transformation of business models from the industrial age to the data age, visiting Taobao village and getting practice at Alibaba's various businesses.

The program would last 15 days.

On July 21, Jack Ma announced four projects to support African entrepreneurs, African young people and conservation efforts in Africa.

"I will work with UNCTAD to support 200 African entrepreneurs in the next five years," Ma said.
Editor's note: The article is part of a program to visit State-owned enterprises and better understand their study and implementation of the report delivered by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, at the opening of the 19th CPC National Congress. And the fourth stop is China Electronics Technology Group Corporation Wednesday.

There is a crucial need for China to make breakthroughs in core IT technology, said Liu Huaisong, president of Taiji Computer, Wednesday.

"If the nation's chips, operating systems and databases are still built on the fundamental frameworks of other countries, it is hard to say they are essentially secure," Liu added.

He said that China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), which is a major shareholder of Taiji Computer, and CETC's subsidiaries, have made industrial layout plans, covering such areas as major systems, to meet this requirement.

At the same time, CETC remains open and welcomes cooperation with other players in the field, Liu said.

According to a report released by China Internet Network Information Center in August, China had 751 million internet users as of June 2017, equivalent to one-fifth of the total netizens in the world. And China's internet penetration rate was 54.3 percent, 4.6 percentage points higher than the global average level.

In the same period, 5.06 million websites have their domain name registrant in China, the report said.

Given the large size of internet use, Liu said network space security has to be enhanced by technology innovation and more proactive network defense, while the network refers not only to the internet, but also other networks, such as the controlling system in a power plant.

From his perspective, co-creating and sharing have become important as China shifts from the information technology era to the digital technology era. In this process, the industry also experiences change from vertical specialization to forming an interconnected environment.

Established in 2002, CETC is a technology corporation in China featuring defense electronics, security electronics and informatization. In 2016, revenue from its main operations was 181.3 billion yuan ($27.56 billion), with total profits of 18.16 billion yuan.
KUALA LUMPUR - Southeast Asian countries' economic prospects look bright over the coming years, supported by greater regional integration, better transport connectivity, and continued reform momentum, a report from Fitch Group said Friday.

Citing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and China's Belt and Road Initiative as two key factors aside from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)'s Economic Community (AEC), Fitch Group unit BMI Research said such elements will bring the region closer together and fuel growth in the coming years.

Among the countries, the research house expected Myanmar and Vietnam to be the growth out-performers, while Singapore and Brunei which already have much higher gross domestic product (GDP) per capita are likely to see much slower rates of expansion.

Myanmar is expected to grow 7.2 percent average per annum over the next 10 years due to an increase in investment, aided by improvements to the business environment and greater political stability, the report said.

As for Vietnam, the growth will be supported by a stable political environment, growing reform momentum, an improving business environment, and with the manufacturing sector benefiting from multinationals relocating in Vietnam for lower production costs.

The research house continued to see the Philippines as one of the regional bright spots, with GDP growth likely to average a solid 6.2 percent over the coming decade.

"But the risks are weighted to the downside as the business environment has been weakening slightly," it added.

BMI also remains positive on Indonesia's growth prospects, due to its huge young population, and the country will be one of the largest recipients of projects under the Belt and Road Initiative in ASEAN, the report said.

"We continue to expect the economy to benefit from further improvements to the business environment," it said.
British Columbia, a province of Canada, has sent its first shipment of liquefied natural gas to China, marking a milestone in LNG transportation between the two countries.

The 950 gigajoules of gas, about 17 metric tons of LNG, was transported from Canadian company Fortis BC's Tilbury plant in the Vancouver suburb of Delta. It was shipped by CIMC Enric Holding with container ships.

This is the first time for LNG to be exported from Canada to the Chinese market, an event of great significance at a time when China's demand for LNG is growing rapidly.

China is now the world's third largest LNG importer. According to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, the country is expected to surpass South Korea in 2018 and Japan by 2020 to become the largest LNG importer in the world.

"This export will be the beginning for British Columbia to export LNG to China on a large scale," Michelle Mungall, the province's minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources, said.

Compared with traditional transportation modes, a container shipment of LNG is more flexible and cost-saving with no need for massive export and import terminals.
A GAC technician assembles a car at a plant in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. The company is negotiating with its Iranian counterparts on jointly constructing a facility in Iran. [Photo/for China Daily]

Company banks on upcoming venture to open doors in competitive Middle Eastern market

GAC New Energy Automobile Co Ltd is in talks with its Iranian counterparts to jointly construct a completely knocked down facility in the Western Asian country.

According to Xiao Yong, deputy general manager of GAC New Energy, the new facility will help the company to boost sales in the huge Middle East market.

He, however, refused to reveal any further details about the Iran project until the final contract is signed.

Earlier this year, the company had signed a similar CKD project in Nigeria, Xiao said.

"Both the Nigeria and Iran projects are part of the company's strategic development plan to explore overseas markets," he said.

Meanwhile, GAC New Energy, which was officially established in July by Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd, is also negotiating with many big-ticket automobile dealers and partners to expand overseas sales.

In addition to the Middle East market, GAC New Energy Automobile Co Ltd is sparing no effort to tap the southeastern Asia, Africa, North America and European markets, said Xiao.

Xiao said Chinese new energy cars have great potential to expand their reach in the global market.

"Unlike fuel vehicles, Chinese carmakers have a big advantage in new energy automobiles due to China's lead in the sector and the fact that such vehicles are viewed as environmental-friendly options for the future," he said.

"GAC's new energy cars have been able to compete with those produced by big brands from Japan and South Korea, both in terms of quality and technology," he said.

According to Xiao, China will be able to produce electric vehicles, capable of operating up to 600 kilometers once they are fully charged, in 2019.

"Many Chinese-made electric cars can run about 300 kilometers once they are charged," he said. By 2020, all the electric cars would be fully charged in 15 minutes compared with the several hours required now.

Meanwhile, the production cost between a new energy car and a fuel one will be reduced to less than 10,000 yuan ($1,538.46) from more than 100,000 yuan at the moment thanks to the introduction of new technologies and the usage of new materials in 2021.
BAKU - Azerbaijan's Smart Systems Technology company and Chinese telecom giant ZTE signed an agreement here on Thursday to enhance cooperation in the telecommunications market of Azerbaijan.

As part of bilateral cooperation, the large projects implemented by Smart Systems Technology will make use of the Enterprise-class equipment, which will strengthen the position of the leading Chinese telecom equipment maker in the Azerbaijan market.

"Cooperation with ZTE will allow the company to expand coverage of broadband services both in Baku and in the country's rural areas in a short period of time," general director of Smart Systems Technology Firudin Akberov told local media.

"Based on the price-performance ratio of ZTE equipment, we will be able to expand the coverage of broadband services using GPON technology, which will also allow the development of IP-TV and telephony services," he said.

ZTE Vice-President Yang Jun said that Smart Systems Technology has a huge technical and engineering potential, which was highly appreciated by ZTE.

ZTE is also a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the mobile Internet.

Azerbaijan's Smart Systems Technology is a software development and telecommunication solutions provider.
KIEV - As an embodiment of the achievements of Chinese-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of science and technology, the China-Ukraine EO Paton Institute of Welding (CUPIW) is attracting visitors at the ongoing China-Ukraine Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) exhibition here.

Brainchild of China-Ukraine high-tech cooperation

Founded in South China's Guangdong province in 2011, the CUPIW has been an effective model of innovative cooperation in the scientific and technological sphere between China and Ukraine. It has played a key role in the rapid development of high-tech equipment production in China in recent years.

The Ukrainian partner of CUPIW is the Paton Electric Welding Institute (PEWI). As one of the world's leaders in welding technologies, the Kiev-based institution has been among the world's leading scientific research bodies for years, despite the changing global environment.

Being a brainchild of China-Ukraine scientific and technical cooperation, the CUPIW has managed to achieve an outstanding success during the initial years of its work, helping to raise the welding technologies of China to the highest international level.

Dong Chunlin, vice-director of the CUPIW, told Xinhua in a recent interview that the CUPIW's secret of success lies in its innovative model of cooperation.

Since the establishment of the world-class research institution, the first project in the modern history of China's international high-tech cooperation, Chinese and Ukrainian scientists and technical experts have launched joint research and development projects and practically implemented them.

Story of creation

In June 2010, Cao Jianlin, China's then vice-minister of science and technology, visited the PEWI in Kiev, suggesting that the institution seek new models of scientific and technical cooperation between China and Ukraine.

He also put forward the idea of creating the "joint China-Ukraine international research institute," which was well considered both in Guangdong and in Kiev.

Three months later, the two sides signed a memorandum on the establishment of a Joint China-Ukraine International Research Institute in Guangdong.

In February 2011, Borys Paton, head of the PEWI, who is also the chairman of Ukraine's National Academy of Science, signed a cooperation agreement with the Guangdong Institute of Industrial Technology and the local government.

The deal has laid the cornerstone for scientific and technical cooperation between China and Ukraine.

Effective model of success

The main tasks of the PEWI are attracting high-quality personnel, conducting joint international research and finding ways to apply it in practice.

During the interview, Dong said that the CUPIW has established an effective model of partnership with the PEWI in the course of cooperation.

The CUPIW, which combined the state's needs and advanced technologies, has created five world-class research platforms operating in such areas as modern welding equipment and technologies, surface engineering, welding materials, laser and plasma processing.

The CUPIW research platforms could be used in aerospace, nuclear power, metallurgy, shipbuilding, marine engineering, 3D-printing, as well as in the automotive, electrical and biomedical sectors.

Partnership for win-win results

The CUPIW has established a comprehensive interaction with research institutes, universities and high-tech hubs in China. Now it is in the process of negotiating a possible partnership with Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, Tianjin Binhai New Area and Shanghai's Lingang area.

Through strenuous work, the CUPIW has carried out 48 research projects at the state, provincial and city levels and provided services to more than 100 enterprises.

Dong said that the CUPIW's development path was determined by the Belt and Road Initiative. The institution has approved a bi-directional strategy for international cooperation, which includes both adopting the best international practices and sharing its own experience with others.

In particular, the institution sends its young technical personnel to study at the PEWI, and exports welding materials and services to the countries along the Belt and Road.

Next year, the CUPIW plans to open an exchange center at the PEWI to promote its goods and services in the countries bordering Ukraine.
A still photo from a video shows Ben Giaimo learning ancient Chinese characters from a stone inscription, which is both his major and hobby. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

Confucius once said: "studying and guiding my students will never tire me." He would be more than glad to know that 2,500 years later his ideas have spread worldwide and even been translated into other languages.

Ben Giaimo, an international student from Chicago, is now pursuing a master's degree at Shaanxi Normal University. Majoring in ancient Chinese philosophy and literature, he is attracted by ancient Chinese culture especially Lunyu, a book by Confucius, an ancient Chinese educator and philosopher.

While reading the book Lunyu, Ben found that Confucius is like one of his old friends: Santa Claus.

"Confucius brings wisdom, and he brings wisdom to everyone who is a good person. Santa brings presents to everyone who is nice and respectful." Ben explained.

He also found the virtue of Confucius is in accordance with sages in superhero comics, who lead people like superheroes and help them.

"So I took this whole book and I translated all of it into American slang, into words that people can understand."

From time to time, Ben would turn to his Chinese roommate to discuss whether he has made a proper interpretation. One of Confucius' mottos was translated by him as, "If I'm just walking along, chilling with some dudes, if they say or do something wicked cool and helpful, I'm gonna follow their ways and do like they do. But if they say something dumb or dangerous or stupid, I'm gonna make sure I don't do what they do."

"America and China are two big powers in the world now. They really need to work together and better understand each other, in order to help each other," said Ben. "And if they can help each other and better understand each other, it will help people. It'll be a really big impact on the whole world."


A delegation of central government officials provided information on Thursday about the fundamentals of the recent national congress of China's ruling party, offering Hong Kong a clearer look at the country's future road map.

It is the first such event held in the city regarding a national congress of the Communist Party of China since the city's return to China in 1997.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will greatly benefit from the detail provided by the delegation, a government spokesman said. The statement was issued after an internal seminar for the city's high-level officials on the 19th CPC National Congress.

The seminar was led by Leng Rong, director of Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Party Literature Research Office, and was attended by 240 people, including SAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, senior government officials and nonofficial members of the Executive Council.

"The 19th CPC National Congress is of the utmost and far-reaching significance for the development of our country and also great importance to Hong Kong," the spokesman said. He said the seminar is "conducive to a deeper appreciation" of the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and its contents by government officials and will facilitate the work of the Hong Kong SAR government.

Previously, the SAR government had organized series of seminars on national affairs by inviting mainland officials, experts and academics to speak on various topics.

Also on Thursday, Yi Gang, deputy director of the General Office of the Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, hosted an open seminar for the public on the congress.

He noted that the Party highly values Hong Kong's lasting prosperity and stability, and attaches great importance to Hong Kong's advanced experience in the service sector.

Yi spoke about Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, which was written into the Party's Constitution on Oct 24, as well as the basic policy for carrying out the Thought.

He also presented new strategies outlined in the report for China's economic and social development.

Attendees from different walks of life praised Yi's talk, saying it clearly presented the new outlook of the country and new opportunities to arise from it.

Stanley Ng Chau-pei, a National People's Congress deputy, said that following the 19th CPC National Congress, Hong Kong should ride on the momentum of the country's rapid development in a better way. He also said the briefing has provided guidance for the youth of the SAR on how they can equip themselves to meet the needs of the nation's development.

Jonathan Choi Koon-shum, permanent honorary president of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, said the briefing group's visit to Hong Kong is important as it has made the country's ideas clearer to many local people who had limited knowledge of the congress.

Francis Lui Ting-ming, professor emeritus of economics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said Yi's speech has laid out a convincing blueprint for China's future development.

HK will play 'larger part' in growth

A higher level of economic collaboration between the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will help the city play a bigger role in the rapid development of the world's second-largest economy, a central government official said.

"The winning growth formula for the Chinese mainland's economic miracle over the past four decades is our unswerving adherence to the national policy of opening-up," Yi Gang, deputy director of the General Office of the Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, said at a seminar in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Hong Kong, ranked the world's freest economy for the 23rd straight year by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, has exported a pragmatic, results-based and market-oriented approach that helped transform the Chinese mainland from a closed, centrally planned economy into the global powerhouse it is today, Yi said.

The meeting focused on giving an official interpretation of the just-concluded 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China for the Hong Kong public. The seminar was organized by Our Hong Kong Foundation, one of the city's leading think tanks, founded by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa in 2014.

Yi is among a group of prominent central government officials invited by the Hong Kong SAR government to brief Hong Kong officials and the public on the congress.
China and ASEAN member states proposed an initiative to enhance media cooperation for a closer community of shared future at a meeting of information officials on Wednesday.

The China-ASEAN Member States Information Ministerial Meeting in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, aims at deepening the China-ASEAN strategic partnership for peace and prosperity and boosting mutual media exchanges and cooperation.

Information ministers and representatives from China and ASEAN member states including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand attended the meeting.

The meeting determined that news and media authorities should increase international exchanges to promote harmony, inclusiveness and respect for differences, which serves as a bridge to strengthen friendship among all peoples. It also determined that media organizations should become good storytellers about economic and trade development and people-to-people exchanges between China and ASEAN member states.

The meeting highlighted eight priority areas of cooperation, such as communication, mutual visits and exchanges among media outlets in various forms like film co-production and joint news coverage, for "a closer China-ASEAN community of shared future" .

President Xi Jinping first proposed the concept in his speech at the People's Representative Council of Indonesia in 2013. He reiterated this commitment at the 25th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam.

"China is deeply impressed with the development of the ASEAN countries during these 50 years and firmly supports the establishment of the China-ASEAN community," Jiang Jianguo, minister of the State Council Information Office of China, said in a keynote speech at the meeting.

The advanced cooperation of media organizations between China and ASEAN member states is to play a vital role in realizing this vision and promoting sustainable, healthy and in-depth development of China-ASEAN relations, Jiang said.

China and ASEAN established dialogue relations in 1991. They have been entering a new stage with increased political mutual trust, significant outcomes in economic and trade and expanded cultural exchanges.

"We are pleased to offer, as a dialogue partner with China, a renewed partnership to develop the region's information sector, improve our media platforms and professionalize our personnel for better information services," said Jose Martin Andanar, secretary of the presidential communications operations office of the Philippines.

Charoon Chaisorn, deputy director-general of the government public relations department in Thailand, said China has opened the door of opportunity for more countries to link to much larger markets worldwide.
Premier hosts national team that took the top spot at global meet

Premier Li Keqiang meets the Chinese delegation to the 44th WorldSkills Competition which was held in October in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, at the Zhongnanhai compound in Beijing on Tuesday afternoon. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's young, skilled generation carries with it the huge responsibility of shouldering the country's economic transition, which lies in fully implementing an innovation-driven development strategy and further boosting mass entrepreneurship, Premier Li Keqiang said.

Li spoke at the Zhongnanhai compound in Beijing on Tuesday afternoon, where he met the Chinese delegation to the 44th WorldSkills Competition, held in October in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and learned about their experiences. The global competition helps youths develop their abilities in many areas.

Skilled workers are expected to make great contributions to China's efforts in building a modern socialist country, Li said, and he called for further improvements in existing policies to enhance training of skilled workers.

"In the past, we've been relying on growth and demographic dividends, and now we need to nurture and rely on the talent dividend," Li said.

The current situation, in which skilled workers receive lower salaries and have limited career choices, must be changed, he said.

This year's Chinese delegation of 52 competitors, ranging from 18 to 21 years old, led the gold medal count at the 44th WorldSkills Competition, which closed on Oct 19. They participated in 47 disciplines and won 15 gold medals, seven silver medals and eight bronze medals, marking the best performance by a Chinese delegation in the competition since it joined WorldSkills in 2010. This is the fourth time China has participated in the competition.

"The essence of quality lies in the spirit of craftsmanship," Li told the delegation. He called their achievement a great encouragement for the development of China's manufacturing in the international arena.

To drive China's economy to a medium to high level, it is important to improve workers' skills, he said.

Several competitors who won gold medalsin disciplines including car painting, bricklaying and mechanical troubleshootingtold Li about their experiences.

"We feel we are strongly backed by the country's policy in recent years of encouraging the training of skilled workers and innovation, especially since more teachers have been hired at our college and learning facilities have been improving," said Song Biao, 19, from Changzhou Technician College in Jiangsu province.
A business owner transports mannequins on Tuesday in Xinjian village of Beijing's Daxing district, as the village demolishes illegal buildings in the wake of a deadly fire that claimed 19 lives on Saturday. WANG JING/CHINA DAILY

People who died in a fire in the Beijing's Daxing district were poisoned by carbonic oxide from a newly installed underground refrigeration facility, authorities said.

None of the 11 workers working on the refrigeration facility, including those wiring the electrical circuits and debugging the facility, were professionally qualified for their jobs, the local government said.

The blaze, which occurred in an apartment building with more than 400 residents on Saturday night, killed 19 people and injured eight others. Six of the injured who were hospitalized have been discharged. The police are still investigating the cause of the fire, district officials said at a news conference on Thursday.

Of the victims, eight were under 18 years old, with the youngest just 1 year. The oldest victim was a 60-year-old male. Most of the victims were from Shandong, Henan and Hebei provinces, which are home for many migrant workers.

The building, with a total floor space of 20,000 square meters, has two floors above ground in most parts and three in another partplus a basement. A person identified only as Fan started building the structure in 2002.

Fan began installing the refrigeration facility in the basement in March. It was undergoing testing before the fire.

The police detained the refrigeration workers, as well as seven people who managed the apartment block.

Disciplinary watchdogs at the city and district level established a joint investigation group on Sunday, dispatching five teams to government departments to collect evidence. The group is also coordinating with the police to investigate how the building could have been built and used without any government objections, the authorities said.

Beijing ordered a 40-day citywide safety check following the fire.

Cai Qi, Party chief of Beijing, demanded that inspectors comb the capital inch-by-inch.

He also called for the rooting out of unqualified industrial compounds used for illegal business operations in rural areas of the city to ensure safety.
The All China Lawyers Association has pledged to strengthen information sharing and joint investigations with the judicial authorities to prevent infringements of lawyers' rights.

The association will draft and circulate a notice about the rights of lawyers, coordinate some cross-regional cases, direct local branches to investigate incidents and tackle major cases, association spokesman Jiang Min said on Thursday.

Lawyers associations at both the national and local levels have set up a cooperative mechanism with judicial authorities, and officers in charge will meet regularly to discuss major concerns, including lawyers' difficulties in meeting with clients during detention and their personal safety. Solutions will be sought, he said.

"Upon receiving reports of serious violations of lawyers' rights, we will start the emergency response mechanism. Representatives of the lawyers association and judicial departments will immediately set up a working team to deal with the case and give feedback about the results," he said.

In October, the All China Lawyers Association and its local branches received 52 complaints alleging infringement of lawyers' rights. Of those, 19 cases have been resolved, with lawyers' rights protected. The others are still under investigation, the association said.

Jiang said most complaints were about the infringements of lawyers' rights to defend their clientsfor example, lawyers said they were prevented from meeting with suspects during detention, or from reviewing case documents or collecting evidence.

Some lawyers were interrupted in their defense statements during court hearings, were expelled from the court or even assaulted or criminally detained by the opposing party or bailiffs, the association said.

In recent years, a growing number of cases involving harm to lawyers' rights have occurred across the country, attracting the attention of the public and media.

Since March, the lawyers' association has set up two centersone to protect lawyers' rights, the other for handling complaints and negative reports about lawyers.

A typical case occurred in early October, when the Xiamen city lawyers association in Fujian province received a report from Peng Haitang, a lawyer from Xiamen Wenrong Law Firm, asserting that he had been assaulted by the opposing party during a break in a hearing in Zhenjiang Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu province.

After receiving the report, the Xiamen lawyers association immediately asked the Zhenjiang lawyers association to conduct a joint investigation.

The Zhenjiang association reported it to the Jiangsu provincial lawyers association, which then reported the case to the Jiangsu provincial justice department and immediately set up a working team with judicial authorities in Xiamen and Zhenjiang.

On Oct 20, the Zhenjiang association and associated judicial departments met and assigned the tasks with different sectors to deal with the case. The parties involved have been criminally detained for disturbing court order.

According to the All China Lawyers Association, valuable experience will be gathered from local branches to smooth the channel for receiving and tackling lawyers' rights cases, while enhancing communication and cooperation with the judicial authorities to cut back on problems.
Liu Qiang, vice-governor of Liaoning province, is under investigation on suspicion of "seriously violating Party discipline", according to a statement from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

He is the first sitting senior official to be probed for suspected graft since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October.

Last year, Liaoning made headlines around the country as its economic growth declined by 2.6 percent yearon-year.

The province was also criticized for electoral fraud in connection with a leadership change in the Standing Committee of the Liaoning Committee of the CPC in 2011 and the election of deputies to the National People's Congress in 2013.

Liu was born in February 1964, in the province's Faku county. He first served as a technical worker, deputy general manager and general manager at the Fushun Petrochemical Co, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp, from 1987 to 2002.

In March 2002, he was promoted to be a member of the Standing Committee of Fushun and then served as the city's mayor and Party chief.

In 2013, he was appointed vice-governor of the province. According to the Liaoning government website, he was responsible for industry, science, technology, quality and technical supervision.

Two other senior officials appointed in 2013, Wang Yang and Zheng Yuzhuo, both former deputy heads of the Standing Committee of the Liaoning Provincial People's Congress, have also been hit with corruption charges.

The Liaoning provincial inspection team examined Fushun from July to September this year.

Zhu Lin contributed to this story.
Police in northern Guangdong province break up two major underground banks

A major channel used to transfer money to the Macao Special Administrative Region for gambling activities has been cut off after police broke up two major underground banks in Shaoguan in northern Guangdong province earlier this month.

Officers detained seven suspected gang members. The banks were involved in more than 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) of transactions, according to a statement published online by the Shaoguan public security bureau on Thursday.

Private banks usually charge 0.3 to 0.7 percent per transaction as commission for helping clients transfer money overseas, according to the Chinese authorities.

Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people are suspected to have used the illicit banks to transfer money in and out of the mainland or to exchange foreign currency, the police said.

A special task force was immediately set up to investigate the case in July after the Shaoguan public security bureau learned from the local People's Bank of China branch that a resident, Zhong, appeared to be involved in illegal trading via an underground bank to provide cash to a suspect named Shen.

Because Chinese yuan cannot be used in Macao casinos, Shen transferred large sums into Zhong's bank account ahead of every visit Shen made to Macao for gambling purposes, police said. The money was exchanged for Hong Kong dollars or other foreign currency by others involved in the scheme via a secret bank, and then sent to Shen once he arrived in Macao, the police said.

Shen exchanged 50 million yuan worth of foreign currencies and illegally transferred them to Macao for gambling since the beginning of 2016, according to the police.

After months of investigation, the two major secret banks were shut down and police seized a large number of computers, mobile phones and bank cards. Police operations were launched in Shaoguan, Zhuhai and Maoming simultaneously on Nov 9.

The gang was believed to have earned large profits from the illegal foreign currency settlements using 148 bank accounts opened using fake documents in more than 20 provinces, municipalities and regions of the Chinese mainland.

Police froze bank accounts with balances of more than 30 million yuan. Much of the money had been sent to Macao to fund gambling, the police said.

A senior police officer from the economic crime unit of the Guangdong Public Security Bureau said Guangdong police would expand cooperation with their counterparts in the Hong Kong and Macao SARs and continue their cooperation with the People's Bank of China, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and other entities to combat underground banks. Transactions through such banks are considered serious economic crimes that undermine the country's financial stability.
Court streamlines reduced sentences, paroles

By Cao Yin | China Daily | Updated: 2017-11-24 07:53

China's information-sharing platform for handling parole applications and sentence commutations was launched on Thursday, with the aim of improving judicial transparency and reducing trivial matters in legal systems.

The platform not only helps Chinese courts collect and locate information but serves as a bridge to connect courts, prosecutors and prisons, according to the Supreme People's Court.

"Prison management departments can record the performance of inmates and submit applications and other materials for commutation or parole to courts using the platform. That will save a lot of time and can ensure that each procedure is regulated," said Xia Daohu, chief judge of the trial and supervision tribunal of the top court.

After the applications come to the court, he said, "Judges can read, file and hear the cases through video on the platform and disclose judgments to the public. It's a way to increase our work efficiency and allow public supervision."

If prosecuting authorities find that judges have improperly dealt with cases or do not approve applications, they can provide advice or intervene, Xia said.

"The platform can also ease the burden on judges caused by the rising number of parole or commutation cases, giving them more time to study case hearings instead of spending their energy on trivial administrative matters," he added.

Chinese courts handle more than 600,000 cases of paroles and sentence reductions each year, with many provincial high people's courts and intermediate people's courts tackling more than 5,000 a year.

"That's why we urgently established the e-platform," Xia said, adding that it will cover all courts nationwide by the end of this year.

Wang Jinyi, director of the prison management bureau at the Ministry of Justice, applauded the online service. He said it contributes to making judicial work and procedures more transparent and regulated.

In the past, information on inmates' parole or commutations was shared independently between prisons, courts and prosecuting authorities.

"But now we have integrated the sources, and related messages can be exchanged efficiently," said Zhou Wei, deputy director of the criminal enforcement department of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

He added that prosecutors nationwide are learning how to use the platform "hoping it can improve the prosecuting system next year."

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/24/2017 page5)
Xu Huiping and his wife make pipa at their workshop in Lankao, Henan province. [Miao Yucai/for China Daily]

Traditional musical instrument helps raise people out of poverty

For centuries, Chinese farmers have battled poverty with sickles and hoes. Now, they have a new tool: the pipa, or Chinese lute.

Xuchang village in Lankao county, Henan province, is known as Pipa Village. It has abundant paulownia trees, an ideal raw material for making the four-stringed instrument, and 54 workshops.

About 80 percent of the 628 residents are involved in the manufacture of traditional musical instruments, producing more than 50,000 pipa a year, with sales exceeding 60 million yuan ($9 million). Some large factories even export their instruments.

Frequent floods and sandstorms during the last century left the area with poor soil and crop failures, but in 1962, Jiao Yulu became the Party chief of Lankao and led the locals in planting trees to help soil and water conservation.

In the 1980s, when the trees were thriving, many villagers took up carpentry and sold furniture in the coastal cities.

When a professional instrument maker in Shanghai found that instruments made of paulownia sounded clear and melodious, villagers in Xuchang began opening workshops.

"We used to sell paulownia as a decorative material, but half a square meter of the wood was only worth 3 or 4 yuan. If we crafted a pipa, it would fetch at least 400 yuan," said Dai Shiyong, who opened Lankao's first instrument factory in 1988.

Dai was successful, and others followed, despite some early complaints that the instruments were poor quality.

Xu Huiping left home to become a city factory worker, but by the 1990s, he was earning just 40 yuan a month at a pipa factory in Kaifeng, about 60 kilometers from Lankao. He could barely support his two children and disabled wife, and the family was one of the most impoverished in the village.

But Xu worked hard and mastered the process of pipa making after a decade. In 2008, he returned home and opened a small workshop. Initially, he made fewer than 20 instruments a year. Most sold for more than 1,000 yuan, but some sold for up to tens of thousands of yuan.

Xu said he is happy in his work: "I work at home, so I have more time to take care of my family."

This year, Xu bought two machines with a loan supported by the local government. He has received more orders and produced more than 3,000 pipa. "I am speeding up, so I can complete all the orders," he said.

Instrument-making has lifted 102 people in Xuchang out of poverty, and three families have opened workshops like Xu. "The annual income of the poorest people has surged from 1,400 yuan in 2014 to 3,500 yuan," said Xu Shunhai, the village Party chief.

In 2014, President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, visited Lankao twice as part of a campaign to pair top Party officials with poor areas. At the time, about 11.8 percent of Lankao's population lived in poverty. County authorities made a commitment to improve livelihoods in three years and achieve moderate prosperity in seven.

Lankao withdrew from the national list of impoverished counties in March, and its poverty ratio is down to 1.27 percent. About 7,000 residents now run instrument workshops or factories, employing 65,000 people.

Xu Huiping's favorite pieces are two pipa that he gave to his daughter, Xu Siqian, on her seventh and 18th birthdays. He carved his name and poems on the soundboards, which were made of premium materials. Each could have been sold for 50,000 yuan, "but they are priceless to me", Xu Huiping said.

Xu Siqian, 20, started college last year and majors in music. She plays the pipa at home during breaks, drawing cheers and applause from neighbors, and making her father proud.

The industry has promoted the study of music. At weekends, parents send their children to music classes and almost every primary school now offers the national music curriculum.

Lankao is planning to create a music village where professionals from across the country can hold concerts.

Xu Siqian wants to teach children in her village how to play the pipa after she graduates. "I hope one day all the villagers know not only how to make a pipa, but can also play and enjoy its beautiful music," she said.

Xinhua
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BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend an upcoming dialogue between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and other political parties from across the globe, the organizer said Friday.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, will deliver a keynote speech at the dialogue's opening ceremony, according to Guo Yezhou, deputy head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Leaders from more than 200 parties and political organizations in more than 120 countries have registered for the meeting, which is scheduled to last from Nov 30 to Dec 3.

"The dialogue is held in response to the request from parties around the world for in-depth knowledge of the 19th CPC National Congress, Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and the concept of building a community of shared future for mankind and a better world," Guo said.

"It is aimed at providing an opportunity for equal communication between global parties and pooling their wisdom to deal with development difficulties and challenges the human society is facing," Guo noted." It is hoped that parties can learn from each other about the experience of party and state governance, and reach consensus on major issues concerning the future of mankind."

"It will be the first high-level dialogue the CPC holds with the world's parties and is of great significance for both the CPC and other parties," Guo said.

During the dialogue, the CPC will also hold routine discussions with political parties from Africa, Central Asia and the United States.
BEIJING -- "China has made remarkable progress in infrastructure construction, leaving a great impression on me and many other overseas Chinese," Meimei Huff said Sunday.

She received an interview with Xinhuanet as the chairman of the California-based think tank Huff Strategies in Beijing.

Meimei has been living in the United States for decades, playing an active role in public services for Chinese communities in California.

She recalled her first experience when she came back to China in 1993, which in her words, was "drastically different" from what she sees today.

Meimei especially mentioned the Beijing International Airport, which has taken on a completely new outlook for the past years.

This represents the advance China has made in infrastructure construction, with the eye-catching development of highway and high speed railway outstripping the United States, she stressed.

In the eyes of Meimei, although China is now flourishing and promising, it never stops its efforts to help people forge ahead towards better-off life.

The 19th CPC National Congress, which concluded last month, is China's most significant political event in five years.

Meimei said that overseas Chinese also pay great attention to this event as their hearts are always with their motherland.

Living in California , Meimei and the Huff Strategies aim to help Chinese communities better integrated into the American society.

She joined a delegation visit to China this month. The delegation includes representatives of the government and enterprises in California, aiming to enhance economic and trade, cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
BEIJING -- Top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng has pledged the "utmost sincerity" and "greatest efforts" by the Chinese mainland in promoting the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations.

Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks Friday when meeting media representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Straits at a summit in Beijing.

"Both sides of the Straits belong to the Chinese nation and are brothers and sisters sharing the bond of kinship," Yu said. "The two sides should work together in promoting the development of cross-Straits ties and creating a beautiful future for all Chinese."

"Guided by the conviction that we are all of the same family, we are ready to share development opportunities on the mainland with our Taiwan compatriots first," he added.

He also expressed a willingness to jointly safeguard the peace across the Taiwan Straits and work for the bright prospect of peaceful reunification.

"We adhere to the 1992 Consensus that embodies the one-China principle and stand firm in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity and opposing all forms of 'Taiwan independence' separatist activities," he added.

Yu said this year marks the 30th anniversary of cross-Straits exchanges, including between the media. Media cooperation has "built a bridge for mutual understanding between the mainland and Taiwan."

He expressed hope that the media on both sides would enhance their commitment and responsibility to voice for the public, uphold the 1992 Consensus, promote cross-Straits affinity and Chinese culture, oppose separatist attempts and create a good public opinion environment for the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations.
HONG KONG -- Nomination for 36 deputies to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) started on Friday in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

During the nomination period, from Nov. 24 to Dec. 4, eligible candidates who have gathered enough nominations from members of the Conference for Electing Deputies of the HKSAR to the 13th NPC can get registered for the election.

According to a presidium bulletin released on Wednesday after the electoral conference's first plenary session, Hong Kong residents of Chinese citizenship aged 18 or above are eligible to contest for the candidacy of the NPC deputies. They need to obtain at least 10 nominations from the electoral conference members for their registrations to be effective.

A 19-member presidium, elected by Wednesday's plenary session to preside over the NPC deputy election, will submit a final list of candidates to the electoral conference members for voting. The voting will be held at the electoral conference's second plenary session on Dec. 19.

According to NPC deputy election methods, candidates shall declare in their registration forms that they uphold China's constitution, the HKSAR Basic Law and the "one country, two systems" principle, bear allegiance to China and the HKSAR, and have not received directly or indirectly any form of funds in relation to the election from any foreign institution, organization or individual.
The posters are released at the conference site on Nov 24. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Beijing - Two posters entitled A Community with a Shared Future for CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting were officially released on Nov 24, 2017.

Guo Yezhou, deputy head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, told a press conference in Beijing that the high-level gathering of leaders of global political parties will be held in Beijing from Nov 30 to Dec 3.

The posters use "tea" as the main creative element, skillfully applying the Chinese cultural tradition of drinking tea with friends, which vividly reflects the theme of this dialogue that building a community with a shared future for mankind and building a beautiful world is the responsibility of world political parties.
Participants of the 2nd Workshop for Thought Leaders take a group photo in Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, on Oct 30. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Recently more than 30 city planners and experts from across the globe gathered in Guangzhou to share their experiences and brainstorm innovation on urban governance at the second Workshop for Thought Leaders.

Global thinkers in attendance discussed cutting-edge technologies and shared experiences in peer transport projects from across the world in a bid to help governments to design and implement high quality transport systems and policy solutions that make cities more livable, equitable, and sustainable.

"For Guangzhou it is very challenging, trying to protect the city's heritage while at the same time looking to the future," said Octavio de la Varga, Secretary General of the World Association of the Major Metropolises (Metropolis). His first visit to the city was in December, 2016, where he took part in the third Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation and toured the city's many arcades, the Guangzhou Theatre and Guangzhou Museum.

Metropolis is working on the development of governance of metropolitans, but the models vary a lot from city to city, according to de la Varga.

"Currently, a lot of cities are committed to building a metropolis, but there is not a specific pattern for all, nor a perfect pattern", said de la Varga.

Dr. Lee W. Munnich, senior researcher of University of Minnesota, is a veteran expert on urban transport systems, who started to research traffic-congestion charging systems in the 1990s and whose study prompted the legislation of a high-occupancy-toll (HOT) lane in Minnesota as early as in 2003. It has led to the development of MnPASS Express Lanes in the Twin Cities metropolitan area (Minneapolis and its neighbor Saint Paul).

At the workshop, Munnich shared the successful implementation of the MnPASS system where the local government designated three Express Lanes in 2005, 2010 and 2015. During peak-travel times, motorcycles, and vehicles with two or more occupants including children or infants may drive in the designated MnPASS Express Lanes for free. Solo motorists who have a MnPASS account and a MnPASS tag must pay a fee to drive in the MnPASS Express Lanes during peak-travel times. Drivers can quickly receive traffic information via a MnPASS tag  an electronic device placed on the inside of the windshield. The MnPASS system has largely reduced traffic congestion in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Munnich spoke highly of Guangzhou's BRT project and said he was impressed by innovative technologies in mobility systems as well as the popularity of the bike sharing system in the southern Chinese city.

Munnich reiterated the importance of courageous leadership in solving traffic congestion issues in a big city or mega city in order to further improve livability.

"Metropolises like Guangzhou should prepare for change in the future, there will be a transition to driverless vehicles," Munnich added.

Education key to innovation

Voicing her concerns that innovation starts with education, Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General of the United Cities and Local Governments Asia Pacific (UCLG-ASPAC), said "The environmental education level is not in parallel to people's education level. People have PhDs, masters or bachelors, but their environmental education could be very poor."

Bernadia suggested that energy-saving systems should be employed in public buildings since there are a lot of public buildings in the city, which could help to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"I like to start with the small things; they lay foundations for the big ground," said George Ferguson, former mayor of Bristol, speaking of the UK city's practice in building a green city. "These little things help change the culture for people, for the children to understand how important it is for the city environment and how important it is for their own health."

The former Bristol mayor emphasized the great value of children's education, "They (children) start to educate their parents and get them to accept those small projects."

In 2015 while in office as mayor, Ferguson helped Bristol become the first UK city to be named a European Green Capital since the awards were established in 2010. The city was chosen not only for its green spaces and easy access to the countryside, but for its enthusiasm for all things sustainable.

Ferguson introduced "carrot and stick" policies to encourage people to share their cars, reducing the use of cars in a bid to build a green city.

He advocates streets should be free of vehicles, gaining people an opportunity to see their communities in a different way.
Solutions sought between EU and Eastern partners

By Fu Jing in Brussels | China Daily | Updated: 2017-11-24 07:56

The leaders of 28 European Union countries were scheduled to meet Eastern European partners in Brussels on Friday to inject "political will" into delivering their updated cooperation priorities by 2020.

The six Eastern European countries, with a population of 75 million, are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, which are also close to Russia economically, politically or geographically.

Among them, Belarus and Armenia are part of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union.

European Council President Donald Tusk met the visiting Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova Pavel Filip, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili on Thursday ahead of the summit.

Russia and the EU's relations have soured since 2014 due to the Crimea issue.

Dries Lesage, director of the Ghent Institute for International Studies, at Ghent University in Belgium, said the EU needs to "properly" deal with Russia, pointing out that the bloc has still not lifted economic sanctions on the country.

"Our relationship with Russia should not be so bad," said Lesage.

In asking the EU to come up with proactive approaches to deal with the global powers, Lesage suggested the EU should sit down to talk with Russia and find more constructive solutions to engage the countries.

Tusk had said: "I would like to respond to those who claim that the 'Eastern Partnership' is directed against Russia. It is not."

It is expected that more countries will be given visafree status, with Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine already on the list.

The EU said that since 2009 it has aimed to increase "political association and economic integration" with the six countries, while the bloc's expansion process has come to a standstill amid Brexit, immigration and terrorism challenges.

Tusk tweeted on Thursday that he was scheduled to meet British Prime Minister Theresa May, who is also in Brussels for talks over Brexit.

This is the fifth time the EU and the six Eastern partners will hold such a meeting, with the previous one held in 2015 in Riga, Latvia. The 20 priorities, which were announced in 2016 and updated this year to prepare for the summit, range from trade, mobility, digital sectors, civil society and education.

The European Council said in a statement that the meeting will discuss how to further strengthen cooperation in the four priority areas agreed in Riga - the economy, governance, connectivity and society.

To prepare for the meeting, the EU Political and Security Committee, composed of member states' ambassadors based in Brussels, visited Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia early in October.

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/24/2017 page11)
Wray Armstrong (below) is the man behind the recent successful staging in China of Dream of the Red Chamber, a San Francisco Opera production based on the classic Chinese novel by the same name.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]

After successful staging in China of Dream of the Red Chamber, Canadian impresario plans to take it on a major tour of Europe. Andrew Moody reports.

As a Canadian classical music impresario, Wray Armstrong might cut an unlikely figure in the projection of China's soft power.

The 67-year-old, however, was the man behind the recent hugely successful staging in China of Dream of the Red Chamber, based on the classic Chinese novel.

And he plans to take it on a major tour of Europe in the summer of 2019.

He believes it is the sort of project that fits into the message about the importance of promoting Chinese culture sent out by President Xi Jinping in his report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October.

"President Xi has been very strong about culture and soft power, and following on from the congress we are looking at taking it to Europe," he says.

Armstrong, an imposingly tall figure, was sitting behind an enormous desk in his new office at the North Pingod Arts Community in Beijing.

The table is made out of a 100-year-old Chinese country house door, which is now encased in toughened glass.

"I had it made by a carpenter in the Gaobeidian district of Beijing where we get a lot of our props for historical dramas. They had to put it together in my office. It is a bit of an artistic statement," he laughs.

Armstrong is chairman of Armstrong Music and Arts, which he founded in the Chinese capital in 2009.
A cheongsam show at the the opening ceremony of the Sofia China Cultural Center, Nov 23, 2017. [Photo by Li Jieying/provided to Chinaculture.org]

Another China cultural center found a home in Sofia, Bulgaria. The opening ceremony of the Sofia China Cultural Center was held in the city on Nov 23.

Zhang Xu, deputy-minister of the Ministry of Culture of China, Zhang Haizhou, Chinese ambassador to Bulgaria, Boil Banov, cultural minister of Bulgaria, Yordanka Fandakova, mayor of Sofia, along with over 100 representatives from the two countries attended the ceremony.

The deputy-minister addressed the event. He said the establishment of the center shows the cultural communication and cooperation between China and Bulgaria has risen to a new level. The center gave a new start to the mutual relations in the cultural field.

Ambassador Zhang expressed Chinese governments determination to make the cultural center a platform that will bridge the two nations through cultural exchanges and communications. He said the center will deepen and vitalize the relations between the two countries.

Officials from Bulgaria said the cultural center could contribute to the friendship between China and Bulgaria.

Banov said enhancing the cultural communication and exchange is a common wish of the two nations. The establishment of the center is the fruit of the endeavors of the both countries.

As Sofia is the largest city and hometown of many of the major local universities, cultural institutions and commercial companies in Bulgaria, Fandakova said he hoped the cultural center would help more Bulgarian people better understand Chinese culture.

At the opening ceremony, artists from the Ningbo Arts Troupe featured a series of performances, including traditional Chinese music Jasmine, Shaoxing opera Butterfly Lovers and Bulgarian folk dances.

Chinese intangible cultural heritage inheritors also displayed paper cutting, Chinese calligraphy and Chinese ink painting during the event.

Before the opening ceremony, a dance drama Ten Miles Red Makeup (Shi Li Hong Zhuang) from the Zhejiang Song and Dance Theater was put on in Bulgaria on Nov 22. The performance attracted about 1,000 local people and officials from China and Bulgaria.

As the 34th overseas China Cultural Centers, the center in Sofia is the first one established in Central and Eastern European Countries. Ningbo in Zhejiang province participated in the establishment and will support the centers running.
National liquor nourishes friendship between China and Namibia ( chinadaily.com.cn ) Updated: 2017-11-24

China's national liquor Kweichow Moutai is gaining popularity in Namibia as a result of the company's launch of a brand promotion initiative in the capital Windhoek on Nov 20.

A company delegation led by general manager Li Baofang was in Windhoek on that day. The visit shows the ambition of Moutai Group to enter the African market, following its similar branding initiative in Cape Town, a port city in South Africa.

The business delegation of Kweichow Moutai visit Namibia on Nov 20. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"We would like to push forward the sustained and steady development of overseas markets to make Moutai a global first-class brand," said Li.

Chinese Ambassador to Namibia Zhang Yiming described the leading liquor maker as "a pride of the world" during a welcoming dinner for the Moutai delegation.

"The African trip of Moutai not only helps the company look for investment opportunities in Namibia, but also promotes economic and cultural exchanges between China and Namibia," said Zhang.

A welcoming dinner for the visiting Moutai delegation is held in Namibia on Nov 20. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Namibia's Industrialization, Trade and SME Development Minister, Immanuel Ngatjizeko, said Moutai was welcome to set up shop in the country.

"We have an environment conducive to their business to grow and for them to diversify their business into areas other than liquor. They are welcome," said Ngatjizeko.

The next stop for the businesses delegation is expected to be Mozambique.
Workers test industrial robots at a Siasun Robot & Automation Co Ltd plant in Shenyang, Liaoning province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In his report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping re-emphasized the urgency to deepen reform and revive the industrial base of Northeast China.

In fact, since the 16th Party Congress in 2002, revitalization of the northeastern region has been a significant strategic measure of the Chinese leadership to promote harmonious regional economic development. But even after more than a decade of efforts by governments at various levels and despite a series of supportive policies and special funds, the desired results have not been achieved.

Many scholars have come up with suggestions and plans to revitalize Northeast China. Economist Justin Yifu Lin's research group, for example, released a report, suggesting that Jilin province make use of its comparative advantages to regain its "glorious past".

Reform should be aimed at solving the economic problems and overcoming the development shortcomings. The problem is that the key economic weakness of Northeast China may not be related to a specific industry, as professor Lin's team said, but to the business environment in the region as a whole.

The key to revitalizing the region, therefore, lies in making it more attractive to investment, by improving its business environment. For investors, reviewing the local business environment is necessary before making any decision to invest in order to make sure their invested capital yields satisfactory returns.

Since the beginning of reform and opening-up, foreign investment has flowed into reform pilot regions with comparatively good business environments. And the continuous improvement in China's business environment ensured foreign investment in China increased with each passing year.

There's a direct relationship between a region's business environment and an increase in its investments. China's eastern and southern coastal regions attract more investments because of their good business environments. But investors are unwilling to cross Shanhaiguan in Hebei province and "risk" their money in the northeastern region, as a recent Chinese saying goes.

Entrepreneurs generally assume the business environment in Northeast China lags far behind that of the coastal regions, and hence they are reluctant to invest there.

In the first half of this year, the fixed-asset investment growth rates of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces were 6.6 percent, 2.4 percent and minus 31.4 percent, respectively, all lower than the national average. Last year, the fixed-asset investment growth rates of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning were 5.5 percent, 10.1 percent and minus 63.5 percent, respectively, with only Jilin registering a slightly higher rate than the national average.

Fortunately, the governments of the three northeastern provinces are aware of the poor business environment and its impact on the region's economy. Liaoning has issued an ordinance to improve the province's business environment. And the three provincial governments are expected to make more efforts to improve their business environments, through deepened reform measures such as streamlining the administration and delegating power to the lower levels of governments, in order to attract more investments. The governments could also release a negative list, allowing potential investors to choose which industries they want to invest in.

Some surveys show enterprises in Northeast China are burdened by problems, lack vitality and have low profitability, because of the region's poor business environment.

So the region's governments have no choice but to improve their business environments if they want to make their enterprises more competitive and profitable. And an improvement in their business environments will also help reduce their enterprises' institutional costs and allow the entrepreneurs to pay more attention to business development.

An improved business environment will make the region more attractive to investors, too, and thus promote the virtuous circle of economic development and enterprises' profitability, which ultimately will help revitalize Northeast China.

The author is a researcher at Chinese Enterprise Confederation.
The recent move in the United States against foreign media organizations that receive government funding has raised serious concerns about press freedom and political bias against certain countries.

About two weeks ago, Russia's RT America was forced by the US Justice Department to register as a "foreign agent" under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, an outdated anti-Nazi propaganda law. Days later, Reston Translator, Sputnik Radio's partner in the US, also registered as a foreign agent, although it said the course was not taken on the Justice Department's instructions.

In apparent retaliation, the Russian parliament, or Duma, passed a bill on Nov 15 requiring all mass-media outlets in Russia which get overseas funding to register as foreign agents.

Back in the US, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, in its annual report to the Congress last week, recommended that FARA be strengthened to make mandatory the registration of all staff of Chinese State-run media outlets posted in the US, because "Chinese intelligence gathering and information warfare efforts are known to involve staff of Chinese-run media organizations and in light of the present uneven enforcement of the FARA".

China's Foreign Ministry denounced the commission's recommendation, with spokesman Geng Shuang saying: "The content in the relevant report is sheer fiction, and the viewpoint of the report reflects their bias and stereotype against China."

News organizations receiving government funding is not unique to China or Russia. It is a common practice in other Asian and European countries, too. For example, the NHK World and France 24 are fully financed by the Japanese and French governments.

The current row reminds me of a debate at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in early 2011 on whether news organizations should accept government funding. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, two students and I debated as the team in favor of government funding. Bollinger, a noted First Amendment legal scholar, argued that US universities, which more or less receive government funds, are still able to maintain academic freedom.

At the end of the debate, students at the school voted 28 to 17 in favor of government funding. And I remember saying that what matters is doing good journalism, rather than the source of funding. We have seen lousy journalism by privately funded media outlets and excellent journalism by media outlets that receive full or partial government funding.

NPR and PBS, the two US stations that receive some government funds, are widely seen as doing good journalism.

The truth is, international media outlets operating in the US, from RT, CGTN, TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corp) to NHK World and France 24, are doing a far better job of informing Americans about the outside world than major US outlets such as CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

The three US networks often cater to single news stories a day, focusing of late either on Russia and US President Donald Trump, or Russia and former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, or Roy Moore, or Robert Mueller. Such disservice to the American people should be the real concern.

Indeed, Gallup polls in recent months have revealed such serious concerns among US citizens. A Sept 14 Gallup report showed Americans' trust in mass media has sunk to a new low, with only 32 percent saying they had a "great deal" or "a fair amount" of trust in mass media, down 8 percentage points from a year ago. And in an April 5 poll, 62 percent said the news media favor one political party over the other.

So, for those US politicians and lawmakers who care about keeping US citizens well informed, they should stop demonizing international news outlets and, instead, start thanking them for bringing to Americans different perspectives.

The author is deputy editor of China Daily USA.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
Myanmar's State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi and visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meet for talks in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, November 19. 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

Will finger-pointing and the threat of sanctions help solve the crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state? Definitely not. Casting accusations at a sovereign government for how it has been handling its domestic affairs is not constructive in helping to navigate what is a complex issue anywhere near to a final settlement.

It is anything but sober-minded to point an accusing finger at any particular party. Whatever the root causes and immediate spark for the crisis, efforts are needed to get the parties involved to the negotiation table. It is important for all involved to realize that nothing could be more conducive to ethnic reconciliation and the well-being of the whole nation than the stability necessary for development in the region.

Being a neighbor and long-time friend, China has proposed a three-step way to resolve the crisis.

The first step is securing a ceasefire and restoring order, which is the precondition for the parties involved to engage in talks.

The second is working out feasible ways to solve the issue through consultations and implement as soon as possible the memorandum of understanding on repatriation signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh on Thursday. These address the current symptoms of the crisis.

The third step, which is development, aims to bring the crisis to a final settlement once and for all.

This is because, aside from historical reasons, poverty is the source of the conflicts between the ethnic groups in the north of the country. If the local economy remains underdeveloped and people there continue to live a hand-to-mouth existence, it will be impossible for reconciliation to be permanent.

China is the last to want its next-door neighbor to be in chaos. And it will do whatever it can to extend a helping hand.

What Myanmar and its people need most are peace, stability and development.

To these ends, Li Zuocheng, the chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, speaking with visiting Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Wednesday, said China is willing to maintain communication with the Myanmar military to promote peace and stability along the border and is willing to help its neighbor seize the opportunities offered by its development.

China believes that regional stability, with its neighbors in particular, can be better guaranteed by economic growth and social progress, and it has proposed a Y-shaped China-Myanmar Economic Corridor that would advance balanced development across Myanmar, a country that the UN listed as one of the least developed in a report it released on Thursday.

By working with China to build this economic corridor, Myanmar can actively facilitate its domestic development.

The international community should play its part by helping to create the necessary conditions to find a settlement to the current crisis.
Police examine a rented truck used by a driver who fatally ran over eight people on a bicycle path on the West Side of Manhattan on Oct 31. [Photo/Agencies]

IRANIAN PRESIDENT HASSAN ROUHANI declared the end of the Islamic State group on Tuesday, while Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on the same day the terrorist group had been defeated from a "military perspective". Beijing News commented on Thursday:

The two state leaders' optimism cannot hide the truth that although "the foundation and roots (of the IS group) have been destroyed" the remnants will continue. Still, the international campaign to combat the IS extremist group has gained ground.

Since the terrorist group no longer controls any major population centers in Syria or Iraq, it is tempting to celebrate the "final collapse" of the IS. But that should wait. The IS fighters have shown notorious resilience and adaptability in the past. The remnants of the terrorist organization may resort to guerrilla tactics or bide their time while recruiting followers overseas before reemerging.

The terrorist group has lost most of its strongholds, but not its leaders, who retain control over eight global branches and networks. That said, the group may work harder to deepen operational connectivity across its global enterprise in order to create a new terrorist center. The IS is not the only terrorist group either, and its military success over the past several years has inspired wannabes like Tahrir al-Sham in Syria.

Teheran's declaration of the defeat of the IS also has geopolitical implications, not least when Washington and Moscow are yet to make such a claim.

A senior Iranian military commander paid tribute to the "thousands of martyrs" killed in operations organized by Iran to defeat the militant group in Syria and Iraq. That, on the one hand, aims at elevating the role of Iran in regional anti-terrorist efforts and dissuading extra Western sanctions.

On the other, closer security ties with Syria and Iraq might help Iran regain some footing in Middle East affairs and better cope with challenges from the Sunni-majority alliance led by Saudi Arabia.

And let us not forget the United States, under Donald Trump's watch at least, aims to contain Iran's rise with its Sunni Muslim-ruled allies. There is a possibility that the IS remnants will be able to rise in the midst of an intensified geopolitical tussle.
The first meeting of the Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform of the Communist Party of China Central Committee has approved a guideline for establishing a lake chiefs system.

The meeting stressed that implementing the system should be based on the complete implementation of the river chiefs system nationwide, and should stick to the basic strategy of harmonious co-existence between humans and nature.

According to the guideline, the lake chiefs should strictly manage and control the lake water space, enhance protection and management of the shores of lakes and lake water resources, and improve law enforcement in the lake areas.

The river chiefs system has been implemented in China since December last year. Till now there are about 270,000 river chiefs at provincial, city, county and township levels nationwide, among which there are 330 provincial-level chiefs.

In 2012, Central China's Hubei province, which has 755 lakes within its region, issued the first local lake regulation in China, which first advanced establishing a lake chiefs system.

Experts said the system is a necessary supplement to the river chiefs system, and is of great significance for the management and protection of China's water space.
The 2018's Beijing museum ticket package goes on sale in Beijing on Thursday.[Photo by Luo Xiaoguang/Xinhua]

Sightseers in Beijing are now able to buy a book of tickets covering 113 museums in the nation's capital.

The package, costing 120 yuan ($18), allows visitors into the listed museums for free or at a discount in 2018. It was released by the Beijing Museums Association on Thursday.

The booklet also provides a brief guide, such as contact and transportation information, for each institution.

"People will be willing to visit some of the impressive museums in Beijing more often because of the lower entry threshold," said Cao Wei, general manager in charge of the tickets.

Each ticket can be used by two adults, which encourages family visits to museums. Children already enjoy free or discounted entry to many museums in Beijing.

The list of museums includes key historical sites around the city's old communities, such as the Confucius Temple and Guozijian (imperial college) Museum, Beijing Stone Carving Art Museum in Wuta Temple and Deshengmen tower.

Tickets are also applicable to the country's top-tier science museums, such as the Beijing Planetarium, National Zoological Museum and the China Aviation Museum.

Most tickets are for publicly owned museums, but some renowned private museums are listed as well, including a gallery of rare art focused on Mayan culture.

The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, is not included.

Visitors can buy the ticket books at post offices, museum ticket offices and Xinhua bookstores in Beijing. The books are also available on WeChat and Taobao.

"It's convenient that the tickets offer many choices and save money," said Li Rui, a Beijing-based office worker who often visits museums.

It would cost more than 3,000 yuan to buy all the entry tickets individually.

"However, one year is too short," she said. "I can only pick some."

Beijing has 179 registered museums, ranking second in the world after London.

"Visiting museums is a way for Beijing natives to rediscover the glamour of this city, which originates in their childhood memories," Cao said. "It can also help migrants to Beijing acquire emotional attachments."

Zhu Hong, a 68-year-old retired chemistry teacher, has been a volunteer tour guide in Beijing museums for 15 years. He expected to see more organized tours.

"I'm getting old," he said. "Maybe more young people will join me to be volunteers if they visit museums more frequently and gain more professional knowledge."
The Sino-Kazakh border gate is seen at the Alataw Pass in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, July 28, 2016. China's far western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is becoming better connected with the international community after the implementation of the Silk Road Economic Belt. Trade volume at Alataw Pass, the region's largest land port on the Kazakhstan border, reached 25 million tons in 2014, after an average annual growth of 27 percent since 1991. [Photo/Xinhua]
The launch ceremony of the app, hosted by the People's Daily, features an impressive line-up of participants in Beijing on Nov 23, 2017. Liu Yongfu (fourth from right), director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, along with other officials and researchers. [Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In today's technologically advancing world, harnessing the power of information could further help reduce the numbers of those living in poverty worldwide, said Chinese researchers at a launch ceremony of an app in Beijing on Thursday.

Developed by the Beijing-based People's Daily, it is the country's first app in Chinese that facilitates knowledge-sharing on poverty reduction.

The product is in response to the great determination in achieving the 2020 poverty relief target set by the nation, said Zhang Jianxing, vice-president of the newspaper group. He said that China has already set this goal as its top priority since reducing poverty is the primary goal of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The number of Chinese people lifted out of poverty in the last 30 years accounts for more than 70 percent of the world's total, according to a blue paper on poverty reduction released in Dec 2016.

These achievements not only can benefit China, but also bring experience to the world and make great contribution to global poverty reduction, said Li Guoxiang, director of Rural Development Institute at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He said that China's overall poverty reduction is going through a critical phase. The app features solutions on poverty-related issues and touching stories, thus serving as the positive power to help the poor fulfill the most difficult part of finishing the "last mile".

More people are using smartphones. "It is very accessible to have the information at hand," said Lei Ming, head of the Institute on Poverty Research at Peking University.

Practical contributions could be made to benefit the remote communities and the vulnerable groups nationwide as information gathered against the backdrop of the digital transformation centered on Internet Plus, added Lei

The app has so far published more than 400 articles and videos focused on anti-poverty projects and cases, according to the event organizer.

Contact the writer at liuhui1@chinadaily.com.cn
International community urges stability after Mugabe's resignation

Zimbabwe's incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa is set to be sworn in on Friday to serve the remainder of long-serving former president Robert Mugabe's term until the general election next year, the state broadcaster has said.

Greeted with cheers by supporters at the headquarters of the ruling ZANU-PF party, Mnangagwa, the 75-year-old former vice-president, made his first public appearance on Wednesday after being sacked by Mugabe on Nov 6.

The termination led the military to move in and kick off a series of extraordinary events ending in Mugabe stepping down on Tuesday amid impeachment proceedings.

Mnangagwa thanked Zimbabweans for receiving him back into the country, saying, "Today we are witnessing the unfolding of democracy in our country.... I appeal to all genuine, patriotic Zimbabweans to come together so that we grow our economy."

A week after Mugabe fired Mnangagwa, his political ally for more than 40 years, army commander Constantino Chiwenga issued a rare public rebuke, saying the military would "step in" to calm political tensions and criticizing the handling of the once-prosperous southern African nation's crumbling economy.

Armored personnel carriers were seen on the outskirts of capital Harare. The military moved in overnight, taking control of the state-run broadcaster.

The 93-year-old Mugabe and his wife Grace were reportedly put under house arrest by the military on Nov 15 on allegations of disloyalty and deceit.

Mugabe made his first public appearance a day later, attending a graduation ceremony at the Zimbabwe Open University.

The founding father of Zimbabwe, accused of allowing the formation of cabals who clouded his judgment, was deposed by the ruling party Central Committee as party leader on Sunday.

The same day, the party reinstated Mnangagwa and nominated him to replace Mugabe as its leader.

Mugabe was given until midday on Monday to resign, but he ignored the deadline, prompting ZANU-PF legislators to start parliamentary impeachment proceedings against him.

Tribute paid to Mugabe

As the impeachment proceedings got under way, Mugabe abruptly resigned on Tuesday, ending almost four decades of near total dominance of Zimbabwe's political landscape.

The ruling party later paid tribute to the ousted leader, who had led Zimbabwe since independence from the United Kingdom in 1980, for his contribution.

ZANU-PF spokesman Simon Khaya Moyo said on Tuesday that people must "acknowledge that (Mugabe) did so much for the liberation of Zimbabwe and indeed as prime minister and president, post-independence".

The international community, meanwhile, urged all parties in Zimbabwe to exercise restraint and maintain political stability and development.

Chairman of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat welcomed Mugabe's decision to step down, saying it will go down in history as an act of statesmanship that can only bolster his political legacy.

Following Mugabe's resignation, South Africa's members of parliament on Wednesday called on Southern African Development Community heads of state and government to provide strategic assistance to all stakeholders in Zimbabwe, if so requested.

Gwede Mantashe, general secretary of South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, said on Wednesday that they are ready to work with Zimbabwe to rebuild the country.

"We must continue to respect and celebrate Mugabe for the role he played over the last decade. We will continue working with comrades in Zimbabwe. We will not tell them ... who should lead," he said.

The European Union said in a statement that Mugabe's resignation showed that he has listened to the voice of the people.
British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves the EU headquarters after the first day of the two-day EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, early Oct 20, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

LONDON - This month has been described by British media as "make or break" for Theresa May, the embattled British prime minster under pressure due to stalled Brexit talks and intra-party challenges.

On Friday, May is scheduled to hold private talks with Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, as the duo attend the European Social Summit in Sweden on the future of Europe's welfare systems.

Political commentators in London say it will give May a chance to air her views on Brexit with Tusk ahead of the key European Council meeting in December, which many believe will shape the Brexit deal.

The meeting in Sweden comes towards the end of what has been one of May's most turbulent months in the Brexit roller-coaster ride.

Just weeks ago, the headlines were of a leader facing the prospect of a challenge from around 40 MPs from her own Conservative Party.

EU negotiators called for Britain to state details of its divorce bill before any future relationship could be discussed.

Among the more than 300 Conservative MPs, there are constant squabbles between remainers and leavers, while among the leavers there are squabbles among those who want to pay for a get-out-of-EU card, while others don't want Britain to hand over a single British pound to the EU.

In addition, issues such as the Brexit bill, Northern Ireland border and the role of the European Court of Justice still need to be signed off.

Keir Starmer, Labour's top Brexit shadow secretary, has accused May of resorting to a desperate gimmick when she stipulated this month the precise moment Britain and the European Union will part company, 11 p.m. local time on March 29, 2019.

Starmer said it was more about Conservative party management rather than the national interest.

Critics of May also waited patiently to see the outcome of Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond's spending budget which was made public on Wednesday.

National newspaper political commentators were filled with columns about the so-called rift between May and Hammond. Hammond's budget was not the disaster some had feared, providing an unexpected boost to May's longevity as the occupant of Number 10.

Some commentators say May's decision to call a snap general election in June may go down in history as one of the biggest blunders ever by a British prime minister.

Going into the election with a thin majority, she emerged heading a minority government, with support from the Northern Ireland-based Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to prop up her numbers.

Weakened, but not defeated, May has soldiered on, heading into the next big hurdle, the start of the journey of the Brexit bill through the Houses of Parliament.

Politicians, scrutinizing the crucial piece of legislation line by line, tabled over 400 amendments. Now into its second week of debates, May has survived the challenges so far made, but there are tough times ahead with reports some of her own MPs will rebel and vote against her.

Other say May's staying power has been cemented by fear that ditching her would pave the way for a general election and a Labour government.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, continues to ride on the crest of a wave as a hero of young voters, with a strong chance of moving into Downing Street in any early election.

Seasoned political experts see May continuing as leader for the foreseeable future, even leading the March 2019 celebrations when Britain leaves the EU.

Political expert Prof. Jon Tonge from the University of Liverpool says two things are keeping May at Downing Street. "She is committed to Brexit and there is no obvious alternative to her," Tonge told Xinhua.
PANAMA CITY - Panama has created a "China team" within its government to improve relations with China after President Juan Carlos Varela visited Beijing in the past week.

The "China team" comprises those from the ministries of economy and finance, trade and industry and the maritime authorities, the country's Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo was quoted by Daily La Prensa as saying on Thursday.

"We have created commissions and teams in all topics to advance as quickly as possible," Saint Malo said.

Malo said the highlights of Varela's China trip included the opening of a direct Air China flight from China to Panama, via Houston, and a feasibility study to build a railway from Panama to Costa Rica which is part of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

The Belt and Road Initiative aims to create a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond along and beyond ancient trade routes.

Malo added that China had granted Panama favors in maritime affairs, and "ships with a Panamanian flag will have a preferential berth in Chinese ports."

According to Malo, Panama had signed agreements with entities such as Bank of China and the Export-Import Bank of China, which plan to open up offices in Panama and build finance infrastructure projects in the country.

The minister said that Panama is actively contemplating investing a multimillion U.S. dollars to build a railway between Panama and Costa Rica, in a bid to transform the capital into a logistical, air, port and financial hub.
Myanmar's Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing's visit to China has been "successful", President Xi Jinping said on Friday.

Xi made the remarks while meeting with Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar's Defense Services at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The two countries have exchanged in-depth views and reached consensus on a range of issues, Xi said in his opening remarks at the start of their talks.

On Wednesday, General Li Zuocheng, member of the Central Military Commission and chief of staff of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, met with Min Aung Hlaing in Beijing.
LONDON - London police said there was no evidence of shots having been fired nor of any casualties in an incident that sparked panic in the city's Oxford Circus shopping district early on Friday evening.

Police had earlier said they were responding to reports of shots fired as if they could be terrorist-related.

"To date police have not located any trace of any suspects, evidence of shots fired or casualties," the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

"If you are in building stay in a building, if you are on the street in Oxford Street leave the area," they added.
The Sixth Summit of China and Central and Eastern European Countries will be soon held in Budapest, Hungary. The cooperation between China and the 16 CEE countries has grown from strength to strength and increasingly matured over the past five years, as marked by a number of early harvests in the areas of trade, investment, infrastructure, finance, education, tourism and people-to-people exchange.

Zhang Ming, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Head of Mission of the People's Republic of China to the European Union. Photo provided to China Daily.

The "16+1" cooperation has delivered benefits to its members and has become a highlight of China-Europe cooperation as a whole.

Since I arrived in Brussels, and in fact even before that, I have heard some concerns expressed about "16+1" cooperation. Some even misunderstood it as Chinas "divide and rule" tactics against the EU. However, such concerns and misunderstanding are totally unfounded if one looks at why China chose to start "16+1" cooperation in the first place and how China has gone about it since.

China is always a supporter of European integration. This position is clear-cut and consistent. To divide the EU is not in Chinas interests.

As President Xi Jinping put it, "16+1" cooperation is an important part of and useful complement to the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership and can play a role in promoting the China-EU partnerships for peace, growth, reform and civilization.

The "16+1" cooperation is transparent, open and inclusive. China welcomes the EU and other relevant parties to get actively involved. The EU has been invited to many activities under the "16+1" framework as an observer.

China respects EU laws and regulations; likewise, it's also by complying with EU laws and policies that EU member states have participated in "16+1" cooperation. China firmly supports the European integration process. What China wants to see is a united EU, a prosperous Europe and a stable euro. In fact, China's support is backed by concrete actions.

The "16+1" cooperation and China-Europe cooperation are interconnected. China-Europe cooperation provides a solid foundation for "16+1" cooperation. As China and Europe work together to synergize the Belt and Road Initiative and the Investment Plan for Europe as well as development strategies of European countries, CEE countries will play a more prominent role as a hub that connects Asia and Europe.

Meanwhile, "16+1" cooperation could serve as a new engine of China-Europe cooperation. In promoting "16+1" cooperation, we are exploring new areas, approaches and practices in light of the industrial features and development needs of CEE countries. In doing so, China-Europe cooperation has been significantly broadened and deepened. Without "16+1" cooperation, China-Europe relations would not have been so productive and successful.

The cooperation is conducted on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. It benefits CEE countries by diversifying and complementing their existing trade routes and sources of investment and financing. It benefits all its members by promoting economic development and livelihoods through concrete projects.

The past years have seen tangible outcomes of "16+1" cooperation, the Budapest-Belgrade railway, the 16+1 financial holding company, the 16+1 interbank consortium, to name just a few. The "16+1" cooperation also benefits the EU and Europe as a whole, as faster development in CEE countries contributes to more balanced development across Europe and European integration.

I am confident that the Budapest Summit will produce even more fruitful results. The "16+1" cooperation is a creative framework that enables countries in different regions and with different social systems to work together. It goes hand in hand with China-Europe cooperation and constantly injects new vigor into such cooperation. With that, China, CEE countries and the EU will become better off together.

The author is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Head of Mission of the People's Republic of China to the European Union.)
Chinese artists perform in the acrobatic show "Rainbow on the Silk Road" in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Aug 18, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

BISHKEK - Chinese artists performed acrobatic show "Rainbow of the Silk Road" in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and received big applauses.

The two-day show, performed by the Troupe of Acrobatic Art from Shanxi, China, was held in the Kyrgyz National Philharmonic Hall and the first day of the show draw a full house of spectators on Thursday.

Chen Haiyan, deputy head of the group, told Xinhua that the show tells about the history of the Silk Road and various events associated with it, adding that the show was performed earlier in China, and has received numerous awards.

A Kyrgyz spectator who only gave her name as Kymbat told Xinhua that she was very impressed by the show and that it was the first time for her to see performance of Chinese artists.

"I saw more than expected. Chinese acrobats were well prepared, one by one they appeared on stage in various indescribable colorful costumes. And they performed such tricks, which thrilled the audience. Previously, I had seen such acrobats only on TV, but seeing acrobats alive is much better," she said.

Another spectator Nazgul, who came to the show with her children, said she was lucky to attend the exceptionally beautiful and inspiring charity event.

"This is a unique show -- the complex and spectacular stunts, beautiful costumes. My children and I watched the performance of actors in a burst of inspiration," she said.

The performance of the Chinese circus troupe is dedicated to the Year of History and Culture in Kyrgyzstan in 2016.
Premier Li Keqiang (left, second) and his Latvian counterpart jointly launch a financial joint venture Sino-CEEF Holdings Co Ltd in Riga, Latvia, on Nov 5 .

A financial holding company was officially established on Saturday under the cooperative framework of China and 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, a crucial move to promote China-made equipment and products by helping finance joint projects in the region.

The Sino-CEEC Financial Holding Company Limited was inaugurated by Premier Li Keqiang and his hosting Latvian counterpart Maris Kucinskis after the 5th Meeting of Heads of Government between China and CEE countries in the Latvian capital Riga.

A financial holding company is a financial institution that engages in nonbanking activities to offer customers a wide range of financial services, including the chances to purchase insurance products and invest in securities.

The company will focus on projects in connectivity and production capacity cooperation that will purchase China-made equipment and products, Premier Li said while addressing the 6th China-Central and Eastern European Countries Economic and Trade Forum.

The company was part of Lis proposal to enhance financial cooperation in order to support China-CEE cooperation, also known as 16+1 cooperation, and provide financing for joint projects through diverse forms.

In 2013, China announced it would offer CEE countries loans of $10 billion, aiming to boost production capacity and infrastructure cooperation with the region. The company was originally an initiative proposed by Premier Li during the 4th annual China-CEEC leaders meeting in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, last November. Industry and Commerce Bank of China, Chinas largest commercial bank, takes the lead in contributing funds to the company with participation of two other Chinese banks.

Li said a large amount of yuan and certain euros will be injected into the company, but didnt unveil the specific amount. China has signed memorandum of understanding with Poland and Czech to make contributions to the financial holding company and other CEE countries are welcome to join us, Li said.

Financial cooperation is still a shortcoming for China-CEE cooperation and it takes more time to establish an inter-bank consortium that is able to better finance joint projects, said Kucinskis.

China is ready to use more yuan and euros to promote the companys financing capacity in the international market, meanwhile Chinese financial institutions such as the Silk Road Fund will support China-CEE projects in forms of equity and bonds, Li vowed.

More than 15 cooperative agreements were signed between China and CEE countries on Saturday after the fifth annual leaders meeting. Premier Li is scheduled to fly to St Petersburg on Sunday to visit Russia and attend the 21st Regular Meeting between Chinese and Russian Prime Ministers.
China should develop more innovative approaches to agricultural cooperation as a combination of trade and investment to more efficiently boost collaboration on international capacity with Russia, an official said Wednesday at a forum in Beijing.

The forum, part of the 2017 International Industrial Capacity Cooperation Forum and the ninth China Overseas Investment Fair, focused on economic and trade cooperation among countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

He Zhenwei, secretary-general of China Overseas Development Association, said: "Russia's agricultural products are popular in China, such as flour, honey and chocolate, but they don't have that much production capacity to meet the demand from China's market."

According to data from the General Administration of Customs of China, the volume of China-Russia bilateral trade reached $69.53 billion in 2016, where China is the largest food exporter to Russia while Russia's agricultural exports to China increased 4.1 percent year-on-year during the first half of 2017.

China and Russia maintain close agricultural cooperation, and the industries of both countries are highly complementary.

"So China can take advantage of its sufficient capital and production capacity to promote production in Russia, and then meet the huge market demand in China," He said.

"It's a win-win strategy to achieve economic and trade cooperation," he added.
home World #RedWednesday: Churches across the world lit in red in solidarity with persecuted Christians

Hundreds of churches and other landmark buildings across the world were lit up in red on Wednesday in an effort to draw attention to the persecution of Christians and other religious minority groups.

As many as 50 buildings in the U.K., including the Houses of the Parliament and the Westminster Cathedral, have agreed to light up their facades in red as part of the #RedWednesday campaign pioneered by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

In the Philippines, more than 45 cathedrals, 24 shrines and five basilicas participated in the initiative after it was endorsed by the country's bishops' conference.

At the Manila Cathedral, Bishop Edwin Dela PeAa recalled the destruction of Marawi City and likened it to the devastation in Mosul, Iraq and Aleppo, Syria following intense battles with the Islamic State terror group.

"We never thought that this persecution of Christians that started in the Middle East, the upsurge of violent terrorism and extremism of the radical Islam would come to the Philippines," he said, according to ABS-CBN News.

"Not only they burned the cathedral, they tried to make it dramatic by bringing with them cameramen to record the act of desecration," he continued.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil said that his church will be lit in red and local Christians will also be participating in a prayer vigil. The bishop, whose diocese has been caring for more than 100,000 people displaced by ISIS, noted that the vigil will end in a newly opened church that will cater for the influx of refugees.

ACN stated that the campaign not only highlights the persecution of Christians but also the "injustices perpetrated against other faith groups."

John Pontifex, the spokesman for the Catholic charity, said that the initiative is also aimed at drawing attention to the role of U.N. institutions and the international community, which he said had so far "failed to help persecuted faith communities."

ACN has partnered with the London-based persecution watchdog group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) for this year's initiative.

CSW hosted an event at the Westminster Cathedral Piazza in London this year as part of the campaign to raise awareness for Christian persecution.

The national director of ACN-UK, Neville Kyrke-Smith, told the Huffington Post that his organization is "calling for people to be given the right to express and live their faith."

"In so many parts of the world today, people are denied work, housing, liberty or even their life because of their religious belief," he said in a statement.

"Aid to the Church in Need is delighted to work with CSW and others including representatives of different religious communities to stand up for faith and freedom," he added.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - Some information technology companies are growing so concerned about their inability to find enough digital talent that they're training their own.

IBM, Amazon and Microsoft now have apprenticeship programs that pay workers while they train for jobs demanding hard-to-find IT skills. Tech companies view apprenticeships - a staple of European labor for centuries and common in the U.S. for trades like welding and carpentry - as addressing the shortage of workers trained in skills that growing companies need.

It's a problem that the U.S. Labor Department identified 20 years ago. And it persists even though the median pay last year for computer and information technology occupations was about $83,000, compared to $37,000 for all jobs, with demand growing rapidly over the next decade, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

IBM now has several hundred open jobs in the U.S. for people early in their IT careers - a number expected to grow over time - and is tackling the vacancies with its new apprenticeship program, vice president for talent Joanna Daly said.

"It's not just IBM," Daly said. "When you look at nationally, there's a half-million open technology jobs in this country and we're only producing 50,000 computer science graduates each year. So for the industry, we have a technology skills gap."

IBM has long had apprenticeships at its operations in Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia, Daly said.

The tech giant hired hundreds of people who've completed those apprenticeships but hasn't pinpointed if the program is mainly responsible for greater talent supply, she said.

Industry coalitions as well as states like Minnesota and Washington have invested in encouraging IT apprenticeships.

Trade groups including the Information Technology Industry Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association say more federal funding is needed.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed into law legislation increasing access to apprenticeship programs which train veterans.

But individual companies too are launching apprenticeship programs - a mix of classroom and paid on-the-job training to master skills - that cost them tens of thousands of dollars per person.

Carousel Industries, which integrates and maintains communications and data networks, spends about $54,000, including salary, for each of the apprentices in its yearlong program, Chief Client Officer Tim Hebert said Wednesday.

"Finding good talent today is really hard, especially at entry levels," where searching can take months, Hebert said. "We feel that the amount of money we're saving in the recruiting process helps offset some of the expense that we have, but it also gives us better-quality candidates."
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A Bexar County jury awarded $43.5 million to a Lytle woman injured in 2015 after her vehicle was rear-ended by an SUV driven by an employee of an oil field services company using a hands free cellphone immediately before the accident.

Tuesdays jury verdict against JC Fodale Energy Services, a now-defunct oil field services company based in Shreveport, Louisiana, included $30 million in punitive damages. The employee, Mickey Hunt, was directed to pay $2.5 million in punitive damages.

Personal injury lawyer Thomas J. Henry, who represents plaintiff Jenny Hennes, said the verdict sends a message to companies that they need to be responsible for developing and implementing policies addressing cellphone usage in vehicles.

RELATED: Driver crushed to death in rollover crash at North Side H-E-B

Now Playing: It looks like itas not just Teen drivers we need to worry about being distracted on the road, Parents do it to. Video: Brandpoint

This case really represents setting a standard for companies and people making sure theyre not using their cellphones (while) driving, Henry said in a phone interview Wednesday. He cited studies that show the impairment level of talking on a cellphone while driving is the same as having a blood alcohol level of 0.08  considered to be legally intoxicated in Texas.

JC Fodale and Hunt will appeal the verdict, according to their lawyer, Brian Cano of Houston.

I just dont think this verdict is going to stand, Cano said. We think this thing will probably end up getting retried. We didnt agree with some of the things that went on in the trial court.

State District Judge Stephani Walsh presided over the trial, which started Nov. 6.

Just how much Hennes will be able to collect if the verdict stands isnt clear. JC Fodale filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in February 2016, though Henrys firm indicated in a bankruptcy court filing that they would not pursue any claims against the companys bankruptcy estate.

That leaves the firm to pursue JC Fodales insurance coverage. Cano didnt know the amount of JC Fodales insurance coverage, but Henry said its about $30 million.

Hennes suffered neck, back and shoulder injuries as a result of the wreck and likely will have trouble obtaining employment, according to Henry.

RELATED: 3 suspects at large, 1 detained after police chase through Bexar County

Hennes was driving a 2009 Cadillac STS in stop-and-go traffic on I-35 in San Antonio when she was rear-ended by a 2012 GMC Yukon driven by Hunt, according to a court filing. The SUV was owned by JC Fodale.

Jurors were told that Hunt had texted more than 2,000 times while he was driving in the five-month period leading up to the wreck, Henry said. He described Hunt as a company executive in charge of safety, which Hunt disputed.

He had been in a phone conversation for two minutes just before the incident and he had been texting within four minutes before that, Henry said.

Henry said they discovered JC Fodale had numerous different cellphone policies while driving for both executives and nonexecutives.

Jurors decided the wreck was caused by the companys lack of safety management and Hunts failure to drive carefully, according to Henry.

There are many companies now, Fortune 500 companies, that have 100 percent cellphone bans, which is great because it protects all of us, Henry said.

The jury verdict included almost $7.3 million for physical pain and mental anguish, $2.9 million for physical impairment, almost $1.3 million for medical expenses and $1.1 million for loss of past and future earnings.

READ MORE: Driver allegedly told police he was texting when he hit man at San Antonio bus stop and then fled

pdanner@express-news.net, News researcher Misty Harris contributed to this report.
CrossFit your thumbs and charge up your mobile device because Cyber Monday is a ticktock away. Forget the sales on chenille socks and pour-over coffee makers. Instead, splurge on a vacation. Here is a roundup of the best Cyber Monday deals this Thanksgiving season. Click the gallery above for a list of deals. A few examples are below.

Royal Caribbean is offering savings of 40 percent for the second guest and 25 percent savings for the third and fourth passengers, plus up to $400 onboard credits per stateroom, depending on cruise length. Deal applies to all sailings (except China) departing on or after Dec. 24. Book Nov. 24-27 at royalcaribbean.com.
The George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts is encouraging all schools impacted by Hurricane Harvey from Texas and Louisiana to apply for a chance to receive $2,000 art kits.

The funds will be raised through the re-release of the famous silkscreen print "We Will Rise Again" piece that was first seen post-Katrina.

All money raised through the sale of the silkscreen print art pieces, the George's Art Closet program, and funds contributed from other supporters, the foundation was able to raise enough to donate a number of $2,000 art kits.

"Dad would be proud to have taken part in this effort to help schools affected by Hurricane Harvey," said Jacques Rodrigue, executive director of GRFA.

The kits are geared toward elementary, middle or high school classrooms. Any schools from either Texas or Louisiana are asked to apply through an online form to determined which school is in the most need.

"These same communities in Houston and elsewhere in Texas helped us get back on our feet after Katrina and it is our turn to do the same," Rodrigue said.

The foundation has raised millions in for humanitarian efforts and arts organizations right after Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana in 2005.

The originally Blue Dog print of We Will Rise Again raised $700,000, which the foundation notes were mostly generated by Texans.
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A coffee shop in Denver, Colo., drew ire from activists and community members after posting a sidewalk sign that read, "Happily gentrifying the neighborhood since 2014."

The reverse side of the sign had a message that read "Nothing says gentrification like being able to order a cortado," local news station KUSA reported.

The coffee shop in question, ink! Coffee, hastily posted an apology to Facebook as photos of the sign and angry messages about it spread on Wednesday.

"Hmmm. We clearly drank too much of our own product and lost sight of what makes our community great," the apology post read. "We sincerely apologize for our street sign. Our (bad) joke was never meant to offend our vibrant and diverse community. We should know better. We hope you will forgive us."

The sign was placed on the street near the chain's outpost on the corner of Larimer and 29th streets in the Five Points neighborhood, where the median income more than doubled from 2000 to 2015, pushing longtime residents out, according to the Denver Post.

"yo @inkcoffee we are not cool with this sign on 29th and Larimer. Bad decision. Bad design. BAD. W.T.F." read the tweet from Denver writer Ru Johnson that appeared to draw much of the attention to the sign.

Some found the sign offensive enough that they called for boycotts of the business, and hundreds of others flooded the coffee chain with one-star reviews on Facebook. The president of the Colorado, Montana and Wyoming chapter of the NAACP weighed in as well, asking via email for the sign to be removed, the Denver Post reported.

Julie Gonzales, a candidate for state senate in the district where ink! Coffee is located, posted a statement to Facebook decrying the sign.

"Gentrification is nothing to joke about," she wrote. "The anger and frustration around the soaring cost of living in Denver is real."

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter.
Authorities are trying to identify a man who robbed a bank on Friday afternoon in Midtown, according to a news release from FBI Houston.

The man wore a navy-blue hooded sweatshirt as he robbed the Wells Fargo Bank around 1:30 p.m. in the 2700 block of Smith Street, the release said.
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An Arizona death row inmate's Supreme Court case could force an end to capital punishment in Texas and across the country.

The appeal, filed by the high-profile attorney behind the Hawaii federal case fighting Trump's travel ban, challenges the overly broad qualifying factors that can make a murder conviction death-eligible in Arizona. But if the court chooses to take up the question, any ruling could impact the Lone Star State's death chamber - or shut it down entirely.

"It's a broken system," said Ben Cohen, a lawyer with the Promise of Justice Initiative, which filed an amicus brief supporting the appeal. "I think the Supreme Court will ultimately come to the place that the vast majority of Americans have come to, which is that the death penalty is unnecessary and excessive."

Now Playing: These people have committed terrible crimes, and they are awaiting the ultimate punishment -- death. Life for inmates on Arizona's Death Row were strict in the past, but that has changed. FOX 10's Troy Hayden reports. Video: Fox10Phoenix

Attorney Neal Katyal is representing Abel Hidalgo, who was convicted in a gang-related $1,000 contract killing in 2001. His petition, filed in August, asks the Court to consider two factors: whether Arizona law is not narrow enough to be constitutional and whether the death penalty as a whole is unconstitutional.

The Court can choose to take up either or both of those questions - or refuse to hear the case altogether. If the justices accept the case, it'll head into oral arguments and a decision could come by mid-2018.

"As it stands right now, if the court took up the issue, nobody knows how it would come out," said Robert Dunham of Death Penalty Information Center. "There are people who guess it's five-to-four with Justice Kennedy as the deciding vote, but even then nobody knows."

The issue of the breadth or narrowness of capitally punishable crime statutes is a decades-old legal debate. In 1972, a groundbreaking Supreme Court decision eliminated the death penalty, deeming existing laws too arbitrary.

States responded by revising their laws to include specific "aggravating circumstances" that could make a case capital - and the justices validated the new statutes in a 1976 decision.

In Texas, those aggravating factors include things like multiple murders, slayings of children under 10, murder-for-hire, and murders committed in the course of other crimes like rape or burglary.

In Arizona, a slightly broader set of aggravating factors includes killings involving a stun gun, "especially heinous" slayings, murder-for-hire, murders committed in a "cold, calculated manner with pretense of moral or legal justification" and more.

The court hasn't really looked at death penalty as a whole since 1976, Cohen said.

"But it looks at cases about the death penalty and the machinery of the death penalty," he continued. "And every year, it tinkers with that machinery and every year it fails to yield a system that accurately identifies the worst of the worst."

The justices could have announced a decision on whether to take the case this month, but a conference slated for Tuesday was called off. The earliest a decision could come now is December.

Even if the court doesn't rule on the broader question, the Arizona-specific question could end up impacting Texas, where "almost every murder" is eligible for the death penalty, according to Jessica Brand, legal director at the Fair Punishment Project.

Having a case heard by the Supreme Court is always a long shot. But some experts are optimistic the time is ripe for a reconsideration of the nation's harshest punishment - especially since Justice Stephen Breyer's 2015 landmark dissent calling for a "full briefing" on the matter.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy and Sonia Sotomayor have all expressed concerns about capital punishment in different contexts - and it only requires four votes for the Supreme Court to take up a case.

"I don't know which case they'll take and I don't know when they'll take it," Cohen said. "But I do know that it's coming."
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As Black Friday bargain-hunters shopped inside, two men were injured just after noon Friday in a stabbing-turned-gunfight outside Willowbrook Mall.

Both were airlifted to hospitals in the Texas Medical Center for treatment, according to the Houston Police Department.

The popular north Houston shopping center off Tomball Parkway was filled with thousands of Black Friday deal shoppers when the incident happened. No one besides the two men were hurt, police said.

A spokeswoman for GGP, the mall's Chicago-based property manager, said the "isolated incident occurred in the parking lot near Sears" and directed further inquiries to HPD.

"We take safety and security very seriously," Lindsay Kahn, GGP's senior manager of public relations, wrote in an email.

HPD spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the melee began as a fight.

"The first male stabs the second male," she said.

The stabbed man responded by firing a gun at his attacker, Silva said.

The stabbed man was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital in stable condition. The man with the gunshot wound went to Ben Taub Hospital. His status was unknown, Silva said.

Police did not release the name of either man. No charges have been filed and no motive has been determined, Silva said.
A manhunt ended late Thursday in Waller County for a suspect officials say shot and killed a Texas Department of Public Safety officer in Freestone County.

Dabrett Black, 32, was captured around 8:45 p.m. in Prairie View after allegedly firing multiple shots from a rifle at a trooper, identified as Damon Allen, around 4 p.m. on Interstate 45 in Fairfield, roughly two-and-a-half hours northwest of Houston, authorities said.

Allen was a married father of three, according to the DPS.

"Our DPS family is heartbroken tonight after one of Texas' finest law enforcement officers was killed in the line of duty," said DPS Director Steven McCraw. "Trooper Allen's dedication to duty, and his bravery and selfless sacrifice on this Thanksgiving Day, will never be forgotten."

Now Playing: A manhunt ended late Thursday in Waller County for a suspect officials say shot and killed a Texas Department of Public Safety officer in Freestone County. Video: METRO Video

Gov. Greg Abbott called the killing a "callous" and "heinous" crime.

"The killer will face justice, and the State of Texas will continue to offer our unwavering support for the men and women in law enforcement who keep our communities safe," Abbott said in a statement.

The suspect apparently fled the shooting in a gray 2012 Chevrolet Malibu with a Texas license plate. Authorities caught up with him in Waller County, where they fired some shots at him. The suspect fled on foot and authorities followed him for more than an hour.

Using night goggles, authorities said the suspect was on top of some hay bales and didn't appear to have a long gun. He then crawled along some brush near Wyatt Chapel Road, authorities said.

"We got this guy," one officer said over the scanner around 8:25 p.m. "Let's go get him on our terms, not his."

They approached the suspect with help from SWAT teams and Harris County Sheriff's officials.

"Suspect in today's fatal TXDPS trooper shooting in Freestone County has been captured in Waller County near Prairie View. Excellent operation by numerous agencies to take this suspect into custody with no additional casualties," the Navarro County Office of Emergency Management tweeted.
On the outside, 18-year-old Christian Morrison might look like your average high school kid.

Tall with long, dark blonde-ish hair, Morrison, a student at The Woodlands High School is a kind of a jack-of-all-trades with musical instruments, dabbling in lead guitar, bass guitar and double bass in the orchestra program. He also loves his anatomy and science classes.

The 18-year-old, along with about 50 other student musicians, is even performing at the Holly Jolly Jingle at Cynthia Woodlands Mitchell Pavilion on Thursday, Nov. 30, and again in his school's auditorium Dec. 9 for a Trans-Siberian tribute concert.

But for 14 years, Morrison has been battling Cystic Fibrosis, a rare genetic disease that causes repeated lung infections and an excess buildup of mucus that limits breathing, according to The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

He is one of the more than 30,000 people in the United States and 70,000 people worldwide who currently live with CF.

Christian's grandmother, Jana Morrison, said her grandson is a remarkable and inspirational child who has never been defined by this disease.

"He once told me he is glad he has CF because it makes him appreciate life more," she said. "This attitude has fostered a love of music that began at very young age and has continued through his life."

While the median predicted life span for people living with the disorder is 40 years old, the disease hasn't dampened Christian Morrison's spirits.

"I actually feel very positive about this disease," Christian told The Villager. "I actually really appreciate that I have this in the first place."

Cystic Fibrosis, he said, has taught him to appreciate things that others might take for granted, including health, family and hardships some people might face every day.

Christian, who was diagnosed at 4-years-old, said he believes that even though the life-threatening disease has been a part of his life for almost as long as he can remember, CF hasn't taken it over.

"It is almost like the CF is losing," he said, adding that his prognosis from his doctors is mostly positive. "I am fighting. It shows in the statistics that I have been improving."

No cure exists for Cystic Fibrosis, but the 18-year-old said he could never imagine himself lying in a hospital bed. And, he said he is positive that advancing technology and research will help him live a longer life. It's even encouraged him to want to possibly pursue a career in the medical field.

Christian and his band, who are in the process of renaming themselves, are looking at venues for gigs in downtown Houston, such Walters. He said he is blessed to have a family and best friend-Raafay-who are so involved in his life.

As for his grandmother, Christian called her a "big blessing" in his life.

"She has not only helped me learn about my condition, she has guided me to the right path," he said.
The troubled Texas Education Agency has fired its new special education director.

Laurie Kash, who started work in August, was recently accused in a lawsuit of trying to cover up child abuse allegations while she worked as a special education director at Rainier School District in Oregon. The $1.85 million suit claims that Kash ordered several employees to keep quiet about the child's allegations.

"These allegations were not disclosed during the hiring process, and if these serious allegations had been disclosed, she would not have been hired," according to a statement issued by TEA.

"The existence of allegations of this nature, given her roles and responsibilities, prevent her from carrying out her duties effectively in Texas, and the agency has terminated Dr. Kash's employment," the statement added. "Dr. Kash has no business being in charge of special education policy and programming in Texas."

Kash's attorney, Bill Aleshire, says his client was open about the circumstances behind the lawsuit and never hid anything. Aleshire said his client learned about her firing from the media.

"Laurie absolutely denies the allegations filed in the Oregon lawsuit - one day before the statute of limitations expired for the 2015 events," Aleshire said. "The allegations were previously investigated by three different Oregon state agencies and found to be without merit. Laurie mentioned these allegations in her job interview for her Texas position."

Kash's termination comes a few days after the Texas Tribune reported that the lawsuit had been filed.

Her firing also comes one day after Kash filed a federal complaint against the Texas Education Agency, claiming the agency wrongly entered into a $4.4 million, no-bid contract with a Georgia company to analyze private records for children with disabilities.

Kash asked the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General to investigate the TEA's contract with SPEDx, a company hired to find trends and patterns in student records. In her complaint, Kash says that she is worried that parents do not realize such information is going to a for-profit company, that TEA should have gotten bids from other companies and that she doesn't believe SPEDx can do the work with which it is charged.

"In what I've seen so far, I am extremely doubtful that this company is capable of providing anything particularly useful, and I worry that the end-result may actually be harmful to special education in Texas," she wrote.

TEA officials say that they chose SPEDx after "a thorough review of the landscape of vendors in the US" because the company is the only one with the sophisticated analytics capacity necessary for the work.

Aleshire insists that Kash was fired because she went to the feds.

"This is how TEA treats a whistleblower, plain and simple," he said.

Special education in Texas remains under fire after a 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation revealed that the state set an arbitrary cap of 8.5 percent on the number of children who could receive help, leaving many students left behind. A federal investigation was launched and the state legislature passed sweeping changes to ban the cap, give parents more rights and increase public input.
Houston police are investigating a shooting that left a man dead Friday outside Ortiz Middle School in southeast Houston.

The Houston Police Department's homicide division received information about shots fired in the 6700 block of Telephone Road just before 10 a.m.

Ortiz, a Houston Independent School District school, is closed for the holiday break, HISD spokesman Tracy Clemons said.

"He was found underneath the marquee just on the edge of the campus," Clemons said. "We don't believe the shooting happened on campus."

The victim is a man between 25 and 35 years old, according to Houston police. Police have not yet identified him, but Clemons said he is not believed to be an Ortiz student or employee.

"According to the information I have, he is a guy from the neighborhood," Clemons said.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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A 17-year-old Texas girl was rescued from trafficking and forced prostitution in the Houston area after Harris County deputies went undercover and arrested three people Thanksgiving Day.

The girl, a runaway from La Grange, was reported to have been trafficked to the Express Inn Motel at 16720 North Freeway, officials wrote in a press release Friday. The alleged traffickers posted Backpage ads to social media, deputies say.

READ ALSO: +250 people arrested in Houston area in sweeping prostitution, trafficking sting

Now Playing: Houston has long been known as a major hub for human and sex trafficking. Video: John-Henry Perera

Tevin Brown, 25; Kendra Kimball, 23; and Jaimian Sims, 25, were arrested in connection to the case. Sims was charged with aggravated promotion of prostitution and unlawful possession of a firearm. Kimball faces a charge of compelling prostitution of a minor and Brown was charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon. One of them reportedly threatened the girl by holding a gun to her heard to make her submit to prostitution.

The teen was released into the custody of her mother and grandmother.

"Rescuing this teen on Thanksgiving Day by our law enforcement was something to really give thanks for," Constable Mark Herman said in the release. "I am very proud of our law enforcement men and women who worked on this special day."

Half an ounce of marijuana and $6,467 in cash were also recovered from the scene.

See mugshots of the people arrested in a recent prostitution bust at a Houston brothel.

Tulsi Kamath is a Digital Producer for Chron.com and Houston Chronicle. You can find more of her stories here and follow her on Twitter @tulsi_kamath.
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NEW YORK - The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade featured balloons, bands, stars and heavy security in a year marked by attacks on outdoor gathering spots.

With new faces and old favorites in the lineup, the Americana extravaganza made its way through 2  miles of Manhattan on a cold morning.

"The crowds are still the same, but there's a lot more police here. That's the age we live in," Paul Seyforth said as he attended the parade he'd watched since the 1950s.

"Not a lot's changed - the balloons, the bands, the floats - and that's the good thing," said Seyforth, 76, who'd flown in from Denver to spend his 50th wedding anniversary in New York and see this year's parade.

The televised parade was proceeding smoothly, though about midway through, a gust of wind on a largely calm day blew a candy-cane balloon into a tree branch, and it popped near the start of the route on Manhattan's Upper West Side. No one was injured.

Timothy McMillian and his wife, their 9-year-old daughter and his in-laws started staking out a spot at 6:30 a.m. They'd come from Greensboro, N.C., to see in person the spectacle they'd watched on TV for years.

McMillian, a 45-year-old schoolteacher, booked a hotel months ago, but he started to have some concerns about security when a truck attack on a bike path near the World Trade Center killed eight people on Halloween.

"With the event being out in the open like this, we were concerned," he said. "But we knew security would be ramped up today, and we have full confidence in the NYPD."

Authorities say there is no confirmation of a credible threat to the parade, but they were taking no chances after both the truck attack and the October shooting that killed 58 people at a Las Vegas country music festival.

Four activists jumped over barriers and briefly sat down in the street about 9:10 a.m. to protest the end of a program that extended protections to immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children, according to a spokesman for activist group Cosecha. Police quickly escorted them back. No one was arrested, and the parade was not delayed.

New York Police Department officers with assault weapons and portable radiation detectors were circulating among the crowds; sharpshooters were on rooftops; and sand-filled city sanitation trucks were poised as imposing barriers to traffic at every cross street. Officers also were escorting each of the giant balloons.

The mayor and police brass repeatedly stressed that visitors shouldn't be deterred. And Bekki Grinnell wasn't.

"When your kid from Alaska is marching in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, you come," said Grinnell, whose daughter was marching with the band from Colony High School in Palmer, Alaska. Grinnell said she wasn't worried about security because of the police presence: "I think we're in a safe spot."

Other paradegoers also showed their appreciation for police: The NYPD marching band and a group of mounted officers got some of the biggest cheers from spectators.

The 91st annual parade featured new balloons including Olaf from the Disney movie "Frozen" and Chase from the TV cartoon "Paw Patrol."

Smokey Robinson, The Roots, Flo Rida and Wyclef Jean were among the stars celebrating, along with performances from the casts of Broadway's "Anastasia," "Dear Evan Hansen" and "SpongeBob SquarePants." The lineup included a dozen marching bands, as well as the high-kicking Radio City Music Hall Rockettes - and, of course, Santa Claus.

"This is my favorite thing ever," musician Questlove said as he got ready to ride the Gibson Guitars float with his bandmates in The Roots and late-night host Jimmy Fallon of "The Tonight Show." Questlove said being in the parade is "probably my favorite perk" of the job.

"To go from being a spectator to being up here, it's kinda cool," he said.
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PALM BEACH, Fla. - President Donald Trump thanked U.S. troops for their service on Thursday, assuring them "we're really winning" against America's foes as he celebrated Thanksgiving at his private club in Florida and provided lunch for Coast Guard men and women on duty for the holiday.

Using the occasion to pat himself on the back, Trump told deployed military members via a video conference that they've achieved more progress in Afghanistan and against the Islamic State group under his watch than had been made in years of the previous administration.

"Everybody's talking about the progress you've made in the last few months since I opened it up," he told the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, whose members are conducting operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan. "We're being talked about again as an armed forces - we're really winning."

Boasted about economy

Speaking from a gilded room at his Mar-a-Lago club, Trump said: "We're not fighting anymore to just walk around, we're fighting to win, and you people are really, you've turned it around over the last three to four months like nobody's seen, and they are talking about it, so thank you very much."

Turning to the 74th Expeditionary Fighters Squadron based at the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, Trump suggested the Obama administration hadn't allowed soldiers on the ground to do their jobs.

"They say we've made more progress against ISIS than they did in years of the previous administration," he said. "And that's because I'm letting you do your job."

Throughout the day - at events and on Twitter - Trump boasted about the economy's performance since he took office, pointing to recent stock market gains and the unemployment rate, along with his efforts to scale back regulations and boost military spending.

Trump and his wife, Melania, also made a trip to a nearby Coast Guard station in Riviera Beach, Fla., where they delivered a lunch of turkey sandwiches, giant muffins, heaping baskets of fruit, chips and cookies to men and women on duty for the holidays.

Praise for the F-35

During his remarks, Trump praised the superiority of U.S. military equipment, including the F-35 stealth fighter jet, which he recalled asking "Air Force guys" about once.

"In a fight, you know a fight like I watch on the movies  how good is it?" he recalled asking. "They said, 'Well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it, even if it's right next to it,' " Trump recounted, prompting laughs.

The F-35, plagued by development problems and cost overruns, is in fact not invisible to people nearby. Its stealth technology is designed to evade detection by radar and other sensors.

On the Trumps' own Thanksgiving menu for family and friends at Mar-a-Lago: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, red snapper, Florida stone crab, baked goods, local produce and cheeses, and a selection of cakes and pies for dessert.
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe's incoming leader Emmerson Mnangagwa, widely known as the Crocodile, is seen as a smart, ruthless politician, and many question if he will be able to bring the change the country craves.

"We are witnessing the beginning of a new, unfolding democracy," the 75-year-old announced Wednesday upon his return to the country, two weeks after his firing by longtime mentor Robert Mugabe led to the president's downfall.

Despite the message of inclusion, Zimbabweans noted that Mnangagwa made his first public remarks outside ruling ZANU-PF party headquarters and, switching to the local Shona language, praised the party.

They ask whether Mnangagwa will be adequately independent from ZANU-PF to revive the battered economy and restore democracy with the backing of the opposition and others.

The ruling party has proven it protects its own. It assured Mugabe he would not be prosecuted if he stepped down, ZANU-PF chief whip Lovemore Matuke told The Associated Press: "He is safe, his family is safe and his status as a hero of his country is assured."

On Thursday, the opposition MDC-T party said it had not been invited to Mnangagwa's inauguration Friday morning at a 60,000-seat stadium. That's after the MDC joined the efforts to remove Mugabe, seconding the motion in Parliament to impeach him.

Mnangagwa's remarkable rise to power - from being sacked as vice president and fleeing the country to being named Zimbabwe's next leader - was largely thanks to the military, which put Mugabe under house arrest, and ruling party lawmakers who introduced the impeachment proceedings.

It is widely expected that Mnangagwa will continue to rely on them.

"Can a crocodile change its scales? Everybody is asking that question. Certainly his first speech was a lost opportunity. He did not speak about the need for an inclusive government," said Piers Pigou, southern Africa expert for the International Crisis Group. "He has a long past with ZANU-PF and the military and that past may stick to him like chewing gum on a shoe."

Pigou said more will be known when Mnangagwa announces his new government and policies. "It will be difficult for him to escape his history," he said. "But the door is open."

Mnangagwa served for decades as Mugabe's enforcer and among Zimbabwe's population, he is more feared than popular.

Despite his past, "some people see redeeming features in Mnangagwa," said Tichaona Zindoga, political editor of the state-run Herald newspaper. "He is seen as business-oriented, which may help him improve the economy."

However, Zindoga added, "politically his ties to ZANU-PF cannot be wished away. And the events of the past two weeks mean that he is ingratiated to the military."
WASHINGTON - Suggesting he's a victim of revenge porn from a jilted lover, Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas says he plans to go silent about the release of a nude photo of him online because police are investigating the disclosure as a possible crime against him. Authorities have not confirmed an investigation.

The 68-year-old Barton, who joined the House in 1985, has acknowledged sharing intimate material with a lover and accused her of threatening to make it public when he ended the relationship. The unidentified woman told The Washington Post that she did not put it online and said the congressman sought to intimidate her by threatening to go to the authorities if she exposed his conduct.

The he-said, she-said dispute erupted in the midst of sexual misconduct allegations drawing in several other members of Congress as well as Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore of Alabama, who is accused of disrobing a 14-year-old girl. The consequences for Barton are not immediately apparent aside from his mortification: The relationship with the woman was evidently consensual.

Revenge porn law

The Post published details of a secretly recorded conversation between Barton and his lover from 2015 in which he threatened to "take all this crap to the Capitol Hill Police and have them launch an investigation" if she did not agree to keep "inappropriate photographs and video" that he had exchanged with her from becoming public. He said she had already shared material with other women with whom he had been involved.

In a statement after that report, Barton said the "Capitol Police reached out to me and offered to launch an investigation and I have accepted. Because of the pending investigation, we will have no further comment." He said the woman's comments on the tape could be evidence of a "potential crime against me."

Capitol Police have not said whether they have begun an investigation. A message left by The Associated Press at Barton's district office in Arlington was not returned. The voicemail for his office in Washington was full.

Making explicit images available without the subject's permission is a felony in the District of Columbia and a Class A misdemeanor in Texas under revenge porn laws passed several years ago. More than 30 other states have such a law; there is no corresponding federal law.

These laws have historically protected women whose boyfriends or spouses publish or publicize nude or embarrassing photos sent to them privately while they were in relationships. The jurisdiction responsible in this episode could depend on where the photos were taken or where they were put online.

Posted anonymously

In a portion of the recorded conversation, the woman asked Barton what he would tell police if he went to them.

His reply: "I would tell them that I had a three-year undercover relationship with you over the Internet that was heavily sexual and that I had met you twice while married and had sex with you on two different occasions and that I exchanged inappropriate photographs and videos with you that I wouldn't like to be seen made public, that you still apparently had all of those and were in position to use them in a way that would negatively affect my career. That's the truth."

Barton is the longest-serving congressman in Texas and his seat has always been considered reliably safe for Republicans.

The photo of Barton appeared on an anonymous Twitter account. It was not immediately known who posted the photo or when it was taken.

Barton issued an initial statement saying that while separated from his second wife, prior to their divorce in 2015, he had sexual relationships "with other mature adult women." Barton said each relationship was consensual and has since ended.

"I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down," Barton said.

Barton, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, announced his re-election bid this month. His district includes several counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
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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BAY VILLAGE, Ohio - Warrant, Cahoon Road: On Nov. 14 an officer stopped a car for a traffic violation. It was determined the driver had an active warrant. The 51-year old Bay Village resident was arrested.

Drunken driving, Upland Road: On Nov. 16 an officer stopped a car for a traffic violation. After speaking with the driver, the officer suspected she had been drinking. Field sobriety tests were administered, and as a result, the underage driver was arrested. A 19-year-old passenger was also arrested for underage consumption and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Suspicious, Osborn Road: A resident reported Nov. 18 his neighbor was up on a ladder at a utility pole across the street messing with the lines. I was later learned the homeowner, who worked from home, was having Internet problems. His Internet provider was unable to come out prior to Monday and he needed service to work, so he took it upon himself to fix the problem.

Suspicious, Walker Road: A resident reported Nov. 19 a man was reported banging on his front door. The California resident had been dropped off by an Uber driver at what he thought was his friend's house. The man, who had been drinking, was allowed to arrange for a ride to his parents' house.

Drunken driving, East Oakland Road: On Nov. 19 an officer stopped a car for a traffic violation. After speaking with the 41-year-old driver, the officer suspected he had been drinking. Field sobriety tests were administered, and the driver was arrested.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
No doubt many of us are in a giving mood this holiday season and numerous charities are seeking our dollars, but probably none more worthy than Kiwanis-led national and international relief projects.

Recent Kiwanis fund-raiser helped bring relief to victims of natural disasters in Texas, the Caribbean, Sierra Leone, the Philippines, Ecuador and North Carolina.

Kiwanis International and our local community-based Kiwanis organizations this holiday season are sponsoring A Season of Giving in an effort to raise dollars for the Kiwanis Children's Fund, online or by mail.

The Eliminate Project, sponsored by Kiwanis International and UNICEF have joined forces to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus, a disease that kills an estimated 34,000 babies and a significant number of women each year.

Make your gift before Dec. 31 and help the Kiwanis family reach more children and change more lives in 2018.

Applauding the Martins: Kudos to Nikita Martin, a May, 2017 Baldwin Wallace University graduate, who has been selected as a Peace Corps volunteer to Mozambique, Africa.

Martin, a Berea resident, departed the U.S. in late August and will return home in December 2019.

While in Africa, she will teach English as a second language in Homoine Mozambique.

Congratulations, too, to Nikita's brother, Ivan Martin who has been selected for an internship at NASA Glenn Research Center in spring 2018.

Martin is majoring Aeronautical Systems Engineer.

Ivan's and Nikita's mothers, Toty, says she couldn't be a prouder mom.

BW collects for kids: Baldwin Wallace University's Learning Center, in association with the BW Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra will accept donations for Cleveland Kids in Need through Dec. 7.

Donations can be dropped off at donation bins at BW's Strosacker Hall, 120 East Grand St., Bonds Hall (administration building), 275 Eastland Road and BW Learning Center (top floor of Ritter Library), 57 East Bagley Road.

CKIN is a local, independent non-profit that helps to ensure that every child is prepared to learn and succeed by providing free school supplies to teachers of students who are most in need.

The supplies teachers ask for most include (but are not limited to) construction paper, filler (lined) paper, pencils, pens and markers, colored pencils and crayons (24-pact).

To learn more about CKIN and the ways in which you can help impact the lives of Northeast Ohio school children, visit clevelandkildsinneed.org.

A musical event: Brendan Caldwell and Tiffany Chang will conduct Baldwin Wallace University's Symphonic Wind Ensemble & Symphony Orchestra at 7 p.m. Dec. 1 at the Kulas Musical Arts Building's Gamble Auditorium, 96 Front St. in Berea.

The Symphonic Wind Ensemble will perform Puts' "Millennium Canons," Stravinsky's "Octet" and Milhaud's "Suite Francaise."

The Symphony Orchestra will perform Ravel's "Mother Goose Suite."

Scan has holiday hours: The SCAN Hunger Pantry, formerly at 85 South Rocky River Drive in Berea, is now located at 398 West Bagley Road, Suite 7, in the Williamsport Plaza building.

November's holiday hours will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 10 and 4-7 p.m. Nov. 17.

Holiday hours in December will be 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 8 and 4-7 p.m. Dec. 15.

The pantry's regular hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the second Friday of the month and from 4-7 p.m., the fourth Friday of the month.

SCAN's phone number is 440-260-7226.

New location: The Middleburg Heights Food Pantry has moved to a new home at 7000 Paula drive.

The pantry's hours of operation remain 10 a.m. to 12 noon Tuesdays and 5-7 p.m. Thursdays.

Please email information (people photos, too, including ID's) on items you'd like to see included in this column to richatsun@gmail.com.





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GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio -- A Sagamore Hills man has escaped from Garfield Heights jail, authorities say.

Donnie Thomas, 34, escaped shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, according to a news release from the city.

He attacked a jailer and escaped, the release says. Thomas was last seen running east on Oakpark Boulevard.

He was last seen wearing a while T-shirt, black jeans, a light gray stocking cap and may be without shoes, the release says.

He was arrested in a robbery earlier Friday.

Anyone who sees someone matching his description is asked to call 216-475-1234 or 911.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments section.
GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio -- A Sagamore Hills man who escaped from Garfield Heights Jail has died after a car crash, police say.

Donnie Thomas, 34, died in the crash that happened after he escaped from the jail shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, Garfield Heights police Chief Robert Byrne said.

He attacked a jailer and escaped, police said. Police set up a perimeter around the area looking for Thomas, Byrne said.

Maple Heights police began to receive calls of a man going door to door asking for a phone. Another call came in about a car that was stolen and another about a woman's purse being stolen, Byrne said. They also received a call about someone driving recklessly.

Police pursued the stolen vehicle after it was spotted in the area of Transportation Boulevard and Interstate 480, according to a news release.

The driver headed west onto Interstate 480 then north onto Ohio Interstate 76. Police stopped the pursuit because of the high speed, the release says. The car drove over an embankment and crashed into a concrete median, Byrne said.

The driver, who officers determined was Thomas, was taken to MetroHealth, where he was pronounced dead, Byrne said.

Police are putting together what happened at the jail, he said.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments section.
UPDATE (10:02 a.m.): Man returned home Friday morning

GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Police are searching for an 88-year-old man who went missing after going to run an errand on Thanksgiving, reports say.

Joseph Forbes left home about 4:15 p.m. and was set to go to Walgreens on Turney Road near McCracken Road, Fox 8 reports.

Forbes was seen by Twinsburg police asking for directions to get back to Interstate 480 before he was listed as missing, the TV station reports.

He was driving a 2009 white Chevrolet Impala with license plate ESU6612, WKYC reports.

Forbes suffers from dementia and gets confused easily, the TV station reports.

He was last seen wearing blue pants, brown shows and a navy blue sweater with flannel underneath, Channel 19 reports.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - -Why don't more girls and young women study science and pursue careers in scientific fields? Is it because they don't see the faces of female scientists making important strides?

Perhaps it's time to change that, locally and nationally.

That's the gist of "Celebrating Women in Science," a series of lectures, exhibits and special programs at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The series, which runs through April 28, champions the work of women in science at Cleveland's Museum of Natural History as well as in Northeast Ohio and around the globe.

Women such as Denise Su, the History Museum's own Curator of Paleobotony & Paleoecology

"She (Su) does field work in Tanzania, China and Ethiopia, and she is one of the women we are celebrating," said Evalyn Gates, Executive Director and CEO of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Cleveland has many talented female scientists, and the museum is excited about showcasing these women who make discoveries and impact science around the globe, she added.

The series was inspired, this past summer, by a Cleveland Foundation Common Grounds discussion about how to encourage girls into science, Gates said.

"The discussion drew parents, teachers and community leaders and more," Gates added. "It was one of the most productive and exciting discussions I've seen. We came together as a community to really invite girls into science. After that we built this series of programs to offer opportunities for families and young women in high school and college to talk to scientists."

Scientists working to encourage more females to enter various scientific fields were greatly heartened last year by the movie "Hidden Figures," the true story of black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race.

"To me one of the challenges of encouraging girls to enter science is that it (the field) is portrayed as something that's good for you, but it's hard and boring and all of these other things," said Gates. "But we (female scientists) love what we do and I was personally thrilled to see that very deep and multifaceted portrayal of these brilliant women. It sent a strong message."

On Sunday, January 28, "Hidden Figures" will be shown at 2 p.m. at the Cedar Lee Theater and there will be an accompanying discussion led by Gates.

Here is what the series involves:

Exhibits

THE BEARDED LADY PROJECT: CHALLENGING THE FACE OF SCIENCE, through February 18

Women have made discoveries since the beginning of scientific inquiry, yet are often less celebrated or even acknowledged than their male peers. This national touring photography exhibit, featuring Su, asks the question: would these women be better known if they had a beard?

I AM A WOMAN IN SCIENCE, through February 18

Meet the incredible women who work in science and science education at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. This companion exhibit to The Bearded Lady Project explores the diverse backgrounds, career paths and talents of the many women who make the museum a global leader in discovery.

SCIENTIST SATURDAYS, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. through April 28

On select Saturdays, experience a face-to-face meet-and-greet with a female scientist and learn about what inspired her to follow her passion and pursue a career in science.

Special Programs

WOMEN IN FIELD SCIENCES PANEL DISCUSSION, January 23, 6-9 p.m.

Do you want to know what it's like to be a woman field scientist? A panel of scientists will answer hard-to-ask questions and discuss what it's really like to be a woman in the field. Pizza party at 6 p.m. followed by the panel discussion.

EXPLORING OSTEOLOGY, January 30, 7-8:30 p.m.

Join museum Curator of Human Health & Evolutionary Medicine and leading health expert, Nicole Burt, for a special class exploring the human skeleton.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SCIENCE DAY, February 10, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.

Join the museum for a full day of celebration, packed with hands-on activities and chances to meet real women scientists from the museum and around Northeast Ohio. The day includes a family-friendly panel discussion with local female leaders in science, including Betsy Kling, chief meteorologist for WKYC, and a showing of The Bearded Lady documentary film.

The series is presented by KeyBank.

The museum is at 1 Wade Oval Drive in University Circle. For more information, call 1-800-317-9155 or 216-231-4600, or visit cmnh.org.
LORAIN, Ohio -- Police are searching for a man who pulled a woman over and impersonated a police officer, a report says.

The incident happened about 7 a.m. Wednesday on West Erie Avenue near Convenient Food Mart, the report says.

The woman told police she was on her way home when a car behind her turned on a spotlight and flashing red and blue lights that were mount on the inside of the windshield, the report says.

The woman, assuming it was a police officer, pulled over, the report says.

A man got out of the car, came up to the driver side window and asked for her driver's license and registration, the report says.

The woman said the man "appeared nervous because he was rocking back and forth and could not stand still," the report says.

She asked him why he pulled her over, and he said her tail light was out, the report says. The woman knew that wasn't true, the report says.

The man said, "I could give you a ticket, but what would you be willing to do to avoid it?"

She asked the man for his name, badge number and supervisor's name.

He ran back to the car and drove off on West Erie Avenue, the report says.

The man was wearing a black police officer uniform with a state trooper style hat and a utility belt with handcuffs, the report says. The woman did not see a gun or radio. The car was a black Ford Crown Victoria. The woman was not sure if it had license plates.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comment section.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- If any Michigan fans or players believe the Wolverines should have won last year's Ohio State-Michigan game, Ohio Gov. John Kasich offered a reminder in his annual resolution for the Ohio State-Michigan game.

Ohio State prevailed a year ago, 30-27 in double overtime, following a controversial spot that still sticks in the craw for some in the maize and blue.

"I think everyone knows we definitely won that game, hands down," Wolverines running back Karan Higdon told reporters in Michigan this week.

Gov. Kasich begs to differ.

The resolution released Friday in the name of Gov. Kasich and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor reads in part:

"WHEREAS, players from that team up north have recently discovered facts, just like first downs, are difficult, including the fact that last year the Buckeyes most assuredly scored more points than their rival, and will do so again, and again, and again. ..."

So the governor wanted to clear that up. And, as usual, he wanted to make sure Ohio residents refrain from using the letter M on Saturday, when the Buckeyes will face the Wolverines in Michigan Stadium in the 114th edition of the rivalry.

Since 2013, Gov. Kasich has proclaimed game day "Scarlet Letter Saturday." Here are the previous resolutions.

* 2013

* 2014

* 2015

* 2016

Read this year's resultion in full below.
Why You Can't Win

Now, we're not saying that he's jealous because you're so incredibly awesome and dude, he's so incredibly lame. We're saying that no matter what age you are, everyone feels threatened by younger members of the same sex. This is why we have these creepy stereotypes of "daddy's little girl" and "mama's boy" -- parents tend to favor their opposite-sexed children. It's partly because we condition boys to be our competitors, and partly because we're all petty animals at heart. You showing up on your girlfriend's dad's doorstep is like slapping the old man in the face with his own flaccid manhood.

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Keep in mind, every middle-aged guy has some regret. You will too once you reach his age and realize that you will in fact never have your own rap label. So when you show up to pick up this guy's daughter, it's not just that he sees the douche who's going to be boning his little girl later (which he does, but more on that in a minute). He also sees himself at your age, and all the wasted years in between.

Then again, maybe your girlfriend's dad is a billionaire skydiving globetrotter who's accomplished everything he ever dreamed of doing. Maybe you're dating Virgin Branson Jr. Surely a guy like that won't feel threatened by some punk-ass kid such as yourself? Think again.
It is that time of the year; where one of the excuses I use to escape Thanksgiving dinners that have degenerated into to food fights over our current president is: "I have to go write my exam questions".

This year though, for those writing Corporations exams, Mr. Maduro has written an exam question whose facts I could not have imagined. I don't know the answer, but this is a topic that Mark W has written a brilliant article on already (even he didn't quite imagine these facts though) and Anna G has thought about too (and maybe has an article in the offing). So, I'm throwing this out in the hope that they might answer it.

Put simply, the question is:

Has the risk of the corporate veil of PDVSA (Venezuela's state-owned oil company) being pierced increased significantly after Mr. Maduro fired six of the top executives of Citgo, the refining arm of PDVSA (Citgo a Delaware corp, wholly owned by PDVSA). Officially, the charges are of corruption; but it is quite possible that they are trumped up (at least, let us assume that for purposes of the hypothetical exam question). Reality, the NYT suggests, is that Mr. Maduro is trying to use the arrests of the executives (four of whom are US citizens) to build political support. His administration has described the alleged corruption as "putrid" (that's a new one).

As background, creditors of Venezuela who have been defaulted on, have already been trying to get at PDVSA's assets, by arguing that PDVSA and the Republic are, for all purposes, one and the same and should be viewed that way. And at least one such creditor, Crystallex (a Canadian company) has made considerable progress in its suit.

Put another way: Have Crystallex's chances of victory suddenly increased?

My two cents is a Yes. The more Mr. Maduro uses these subsidiaries as his playthings for non-corporate purposes (and particularly purposes that were not disclosed to creditors ex ante), the more likely is a court likely to decide the veil piercing is appropriate. After all, if Mr. Maduro won't respect that separate status of the subsidiaries, why should the court?
Ive been spacing out more than usual lately.

This fall has been particularly good for star gazing, not too cold, not too buggy. If you stare into the night sky long enough, you cant help but wonder if there is someone or something else out there. Id say the odds are pretty good. Do the math.

On a clear night there are about 3,000 stars visible to the naked eye, and with a decent telescope you can see a 100,000 or so. In our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are 400 billion stars. Factor in there are about 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, and each galaxy contains between 10 million to one trillion stars, and you end up with 10 billion trillion stars out there.

Even allowing for some kind of interstellar zoning regulations regarding lot size, you have to figure with all that room we have to have neighbors. I mention this because the other night I was visited by weird blinking lights. At first I thought it was an airplane or a helicopter, but it darted around too fast for that. Then I thought it might be a distant spotlight or something. Then I thought it could be the vino. Then it was gone.

UFO?

I waited around for a while to see if it might reappear or maybe even drop in for a chat. I was kind of disappointed that it just vanished. Ive always wanted to see a UFO up close. A guy I knew in college was driving home late one night on a rural country road when he swears he was followed for several miles by a spaceship. I never knew whether to believe him or not. On the one hand, he was pretty shaken up. On the other, there is a good chance he may have been one toke over the line.

While Id like to see a UFO, I dont think Id like to go for a ride in one. People who claim to have been abducted by aliens often talk about being probed. I have no desire to be probed. Ive had a colonoscopy, thank you. That noted, it would be interesting to see what a space alien might look like. Would it have a light-bulb shaped head like in ET, or would it resemble a narrow-headed catfish with over-active saliva glands like in Independence Day?

A woman running for congress in Florida says she was abducted by aliens when she was 7, and they still keep in touch with her telepathically from time to time. She described her abductors as three tall blond space people who resembled the Christ the Redeemer statute in Rio de Janerio. I tend to believe her. You couldnt make that description up. I also think she has a good chance of winning. Space cadets always do well in congressional elections.

If visitors from beyond did made contact with us, I wonder what they would make of President Trump? If they were tall and blond, I think they would not only make a connection, but also want to know who his stylist is.

Stephen Hawking, the famous theoretical physicist, has said there could be intelligent life elsewhere, but doesnt believe aliens have visited Earth. Im discounting claims that UFOs contain aliens, he said in 2012. Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos?

I was trying not to take that personally, when a few days after my sighting the matter of what exactly I encountered was cleared up. Seems one of my neighbors has a new, high-end drone.

I was a bit disappointed to learn this, but at the same time relieved to know that the chances of being probed had been significantly reduced.

Jim Shea is a lifelong Connecticut resident and journalist who believes the keys to life include the avoidance of physical labor and I-95. He can be reached at jimboshea@gmail.com and on Twitter @jimboshea.
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BRIDGEPORT  Officials believe they have salvaged a major economic and environmental project for the downtown aimed at providing cheaper heat to neighborhood residents and large tenants like Housatonic Community College, the University of Bridgeport, the Webster Bank Arena and Peoples Bank.

Now the initiative just has to get through state utility regulators.

The bottom line is its not a done deal, said state Rep. Steven Stafstrom, though he said he is optimistic.

The thermal loop  underground pipes that would pump otherwise wasted heat from sites like a to-be-built fuel cell and the Wheelabrator trash-to-energy plant to downtown and South End buildings  was first initiated under former Mayor Bill Finch. His successor, Mayor Joe Ganim, has continued the effort.

Developer NuPower LLC and United Illuminating unsuccessfully sought state utility regulators approval for the project, so the company and Bridgeport lawmakers got legislation passed earlier this year allowing the loop to move forward without it.

But in July, Gov. Dannel Malloy vetoed that legislation, arguing the project lacked proper oversight which could hurt ratepayers.

So all of the sides got together over the subsequent months to try and reach a compromise. And they did, with language in the recently passed state budget giving the loop a third chance at being built.

We appreciated the governors concerns, said Stafstrom. Im not sure we quite saw all of them in the same way he did. But we had very collaborative discussions with the governors office ... to make sure we did what we could to mitigate (Malloys) concerns.

Proponents of the Bridgeport thermal loop have defended it as a forward-thinking pilot project that, if successful, could be replicated in other municipalities.

Theres a significant number of buildings in the downtown of the largest urban area in Connecticut who will no longer have to purchase natural gas or oil for heat, said Av Harris, a Ganim aide and the mayors liaison with state lawmakers. It will not only have obvious environmental benefits but significant cost savings for people who participate in the thermal loop and, if done successfully, could really be a new trend.

The new legislative language in the budget is very specific to the Bridgeport-based project. For example, it refers to an electric distribution company serving customers located in a distressed municipality ... that has a population in excess of 127,000. Translation: United Illuminating and Bridgeport.

UI has until Jan. 1 to move forward on a deal with NuPower for a fuel cell that will provide a cleaner source of electricity for UI to purchase and produce much of the waste heat NuPower needs to make the thermal loop successful.

NuPower would build and own the fuel cell generating facility and come to a power purchasing agreement with UI  sell their energy to the utility, said Harris.

Once that deal between UI and NuPower is struck, the former then has 15 days to submit it to the states Public Utilities Regulatory Authority for review and approval  a step aimed at securing support from the Malloy administration.

Their argument was PURA was cut out of the process and there wasnt enough oversight from the regulators, said Stafstrom.

So what will PURA consider when reviewing the fuel cell and thermal loop? Whether or not the project serves the long-term interests of ratepayers.

So theres some wiggle room there, said Joseph Rosenthal, an attorney with the state Office of Consumer Counsel  an independent watchdog for utility customers. They can think about economic interest of ratepayers, the environmental and efficiency interests of ratepayers.

Rosenthal said he expected his office would review and analyze the thermal loop proposal once it is in PURAs hands.

Could they (PURA) kill it? Sure, said Harris. But we have a pretty clear understanding that this is a very worthy pilot project and we can really show the whole country a new, energy-saving way and emission-reducing way of providing heat.
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BRIDGEPORT - A lawsuit challenging the second primary for the citys North End council seat, based on allegations of absentee ballot irregularities, will go forward.

Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis on Friday rejected a motion to dismiss the case by lawyers for city officials and candidates.

I believe it is the courts duty to adjudicate this matter, Bellis said, in ordering the case to go forward. Its the courts obligation to hear these allegations.

But the judge warned the lawyer for challenger Robert Keeley that he better be ready with specific allegations when the hearing begins Monday morning.

Keeley, who lost a primary for the second time for the seat in the 133rd district against the Democratic Party-endorsed candidates, is again seeking to have the judge over turn the results.

He succeeded last month when Bellis ordered a new primary and continued the election for the district seat to Dec. 12. Keeley had lost that primary by a single vote which turned out to be in an absentee ballot that turned up during a recount.

During the second primary Keeley lost by 18 votes.

Keeley got 212 votes while the endorsed candidates Michael DeFilippo got 240 votes and Jeannette Herron got 230 votes. The top two candidates are the partys nominees.

Local lawyer Max Medina who was appointed by Bellis to oversee the second primary did not find any irregularities in how the primary was conducted but did note two odd situations concerning absentee ballots.

Prior to primary day nine ballots were delivered by a police officer who said he had been instructed to do so by either Democratic Town Chairman Mario Testa or one of Testas employees, Medina wrote in a report. Then on primary day he said the same officer delivered four more ballots at Testas request.

Medinas report continues that also on primary day he was told more ballots had been brought over from the post office to City Hall. But 12 of the ballots bore no post marks and Medina states he did not get a definitive answer why that was.

Testa and the police officer have both been ordered by the judge to appear at Mondays hearing.

During Fridays hearing, Deputy City Attorney John Bohannon argued that Bellis does not have jurisdiction to hear the case and that the allegations by Keeley are vague and without merit.

In my opinion this is a fishing expedition, he told the judge.

Keeleys lawyer, M. Leonard Caine III, promised the judge he would file a more specific complaint after he goes through all the primary documents the city has turned over to him.
MILFORD  An East Haven man was charged Wednesday after city police said he sped away from officers attempting to pull him over and eventually crashed his vehicle.

Eric Torres, 28, of Messina Drive in East Haven, was charged with reckless driving, driving without proper insurance, operating an unregistered motor vehicle, failure to obey an officers signal, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license, failure to drive right and traveling too fast for conditions.
WASHINGTON - Rep. Joe Barton, who apologized Wednesday for a lewd photo of him that circulated on the Internet, told a woman to whom he had sent sexually explicit photos, videos and messages that he would report her to the Capitol Police if she exposed his behavior, according to a recording reviewed by The Washington Post.

The woman spoke to The Post after the lewd photo was published Tuesday by an anonymous Twitter account. She shared a secretly recorded phone conversation she had with Barton in 2015 in which he warned her against using the explicit materials "in a way that would negatively affect my career."

The woman described encounters and contact spanning a five-year period that began online after she posted a message on Barton's Facebook page in 2011, leading to the sexually explicit exchanges and ultimately a pair of physical sexual encounters in Washington and Texas. Over time, she said, she became aware of and corresponded with multiple other women who engaged in relationships with Barton, who represents a suburban Dallas district and is one of the most senior Republicans in the House.

The woman, who is not married, spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy.

In the 2015 phone call, Barton confronted the woman over her communications with the other women, including her decision to share explicit materials he had sent. In that context, he mentioned the Capitol Police, a comment the woman interpreted as an attempt to intimidate her.

"I want your word that this ends," he said, according to the recording, adding: "I will be completely straight with you. I am ready if I have to, I don't want to, but I should take all this crap to the Capitol Hill Police and have them launch an investigation. And if I do that, that hurts me potentially big time."

"Why would you even say that to me?" the woman responded. " . . . The Capitol Hill police? And what would you tell them, sir?"

Said Barton: "I would tell them that I had a three-year undercover relationship with you over the Internet that was heavily sexual and that I had met you twice while married and had sex with you on two different occasions and that I exchanged inappropriate photographs and videos with you that I wouldn't like to be seen made public, that you still apparently had all of those and were in position to use them in a way that would negatively affect my career. That's the truth."

In a statement late Wednesday, Barton said a transcript of the recording provided by The Post may be "evidence" of a "potential crime against me."

He said that he received word Wednesday that the Capitol Police are opening an inquiry. While there is no federal law prohibiting the disclosure of intimate photos of adults without consent, the Dallas Morning News on Wednesday reported that the Twitter photo of Barton could violate a 2015 Texas law banning so-called "revenge porn," which is the portrayal of another person's intimate body parts and distributing the images without consent.

"This woman admitted that we had a consensual relationship," Barton said. "When I ended that relationship, she threatened to publicly share my private photographs and intimate correspondence in retaliation. As the transcript reflects, I offered to take the matter to the Capitol Hill Police to open an investigation. Today, the Capitol Police reached out to me and offered to launch an investigation and I have accepted. Because of the pending investigation, we will have no further comment."

The woman said she never had any intention to use the materials to retaliate against Barton.

A request for comment from the Capitol Police was not immediately returned late Wednesday.

Earlier Wednesday, Barton acknowledged "sexual relationships with other mature adult women" that he said took place while he was "separated from my second wife, before the divorce."

"Each was consensual," he said in a statement. "Those relationships have ended. I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down."

Barton, 68, is the fifth-longest serving Republican in the House, now in his 17th term. He is a former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and now serves as vice chairman of the panel.

The Texas native has built a reputation on Capitol Hill as a fierce advocate for the oil and gas industry and a reliable vote for conservative legislation. A member of the Freedom Caucus, Barton regularly receives top scores from socially conservative groups such as the Family Research Council that analyze members' stances on positions such as abortion and gay rights.

But he is not known as an outspoken culture warrior. In 1998, amid the scandal over President Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern, Barton was quoted in the Los Angeles Times saying, "I personally don't care a fig about what he does in his bedroom with his wife or any other sexual partners he may have, but I do care if he lies under oath."

Barton was still married to his second wife when his relationship with the woman began. His wife filed for divorce in April 2014, according to court records; the divorce was made final in February 2015. A spokeswoman for Barton did not respond to a question about when his separation began.

Besides the recording of the phone call, the woman shared text and social-media messages she exchanged with Barton, as well as a 53-second cellphone video Barton recorded of himself while masturbating. The conspiracy theory website InfoWars obtained a copy of the video and published it Wednesday night, though the video appeared to have been removed from the site several hours later.

The lewd Twitter photo that Barton acknowledged on Wednesday appears to have been captured from that video. The woman said she did not post the image herself. She shared phone numbers for Barton that match his personal and government-issued cellphones. Barton was not abusive or coercive in his interactions, the woman said, but said she felt he was "manipulative and dishonest and misleading" in his dealings with her and other women.

"It's not normal for a member of Congress who runs on a GOP platform of family values and conservatism to be scouring the Internet looking for a new sexual liaison," she said, explaining her motive for coming forward.

The woman said Barton first reached out to her in 2011 after she posted a comment about politics on his Facebook page. As the two struck up a friendship, they would exchange messages for hours, including when he was on the House floor or in committee meetings, she said.

Soon, Barton began flirting, making suggestive comments and sending explicit messages, she said. She described feeling uncomfortable with his advances at first.

"He says to me, 'Do you want me to send you a picture of myself?' I said, 'Oh no, no. Please do not do that.' It kind of started there," she said.

In the spring of 2012, the woman flew to Washington, where he gave her a tour of the Capitol building, she said. The two slept together during that visit, and he reimbursed her in cash for her flight, she said.

In 2014, she visited him in Texas, where the two slept together for the second and final time, she said. He again paid for her travel, she said.

"I was in it for the politics connection," the woman said of their relationship. "I was kind of unwittingly drawn into it with him because of just the amazement of having a connection to a congressman."

- - -

The Washington Post's Alice Crites, Julie Tate and Michelle Ye Hee Lee contributed to this report.
A former firefighter is taking the modelling world by storm, working for the likes of Elle, Vogue and Calvin Klein - as both a man and a woman.

Rain Dove, 27, from New York is a self proclaimed 'gender capitalist', which means she takes advantage of the opportunities she's given based on whatever sex people perceive her to be.

Standing at 6ft 2in tall, with chiseled cheek bones, broad shoulders, muscular arms and size 32DD breasts, Rain dresses in either male or female clothing depending on how she feels that day.

'Im not gender fluid, Im not gender non conforming, Im not gender free,' she told FEMAIL.

'I believe that if you want gender then you can have it. If you want to label yourself then sure. If you want to use history to describe who you are then there is nothing wrong with that. But dont limit me on the way that you limit yourself. I am "I". That is it. Im not my body.'

Rain is currently starring in Illamasqua's Gender Fluid Christmas Campaign and recently delivered a talk at the DIVA Literary Festival and Awards in Birmingham, but her success hasn't come overnight.

Rain Dove, 27, is a model and activist who believes that people be themselves and not feel put into boxes by society

Rain grew up in a small town farming down in Vermont, she explained that she was off the grid and didn't watch television.

So when class mates began to call her her 'Tranny Danny' she thought that the word tranny meant someone that liked trains.

She even got her mum to buy her a train conductor cap and wore it to school for the next three years. 'People would smile as they greeted me with 'Tranny Danny' and I thought I was cool, no one else had a cool nickname.

'Then when I was in 6th grade I found out what a tranny meant and I realised Id been made fun of by all my peers for years. My reputation was that I had bad BO and I was poor, and I was ugly.'

She poses in both men's and women's clothing and shares them on Instagram with statements or quotes in the captions

But in that moment I realised that if I gave them I didnt give power to them they wouldnt have power over me.'

Rain explained that whilst she went through a dark time growing up, she is appreciative of her struggles.

She said: 'In order for a book to be interesting the character has to go through some kind of conflict. I realised that not a lot of people get the privilege of having a good story.

'But I knew I was destined to have a good story, and maybe Im not meant to be the girl next door, maybe Im not meant to meet the guy who sweeps her off her feet, takes her to prom. Maybe due to my aesthetics Im due to be the girl who survives the apocalypse instead.'

After school Rain became a local firefighter and on her first day all of her colleagues just assumed she was a man. She recalled: 'After introducing myself I realised that they thought I was a dude.

She always thought that she was the ugly girl growing up, but it turns out she wasn't ugly, she just looked more manly than most girls

Her hashtag is 'educate don't hate' and she strongly believes on talking to those who disagree with her lifestyle as she believes that they need the most help

Rain feels that it's part of her job to talk to those who don't agree or understand her views on gender. She says that she often gets death threats but sees them as an opportunity to educate

'But I thought this was great. I didnt have to be perceived as the ugly girl anymore. Id done it my whole life and I was tired of it.'

Thinking it would be fun to keep it up for an hour or so, Rain explained that an hour became a week, a week became a month and a month became a year - it got to the point where it was impossible to come clean.

Discovering who she was it took some time. She first came out as a lesbian, then she was gender fluid, then she was gender non conforming and now she has evolved to gender capitalist.

She explained that her supporters are often her harshest critics and she had to be careful that she wasn't offending any communities with her identity.

'I love my body. It's awesome, it's my vessel and I don't plan on changing it. So I took myself of social media and after a lot of thought I realised that what Im trying to say is I am I thats it.

She stumbled onto her modelling career by accident after losing a bet with her friend that resulted in having to go to a casting for men's underwear campaign for Calvin Klein

While pursuing a degree in genetic engineering, Rain fell into the world of modelling by mistake. After losing a bet with a friend she ended up having to go to a casting call for Calvin Klein which turned out to be for mens underwear.

She got the job and decided to walk the runway topless, and from there her modelling career took off.

Her success has lead to her gaining over 165,000 followers on Instagram, but despite the love she receives, she accepts that not everyone will be approving of her lifestyle.

'I have people who hate me, to the point where they actually want me to die. But I want my platform to be an invitation to everybody. I want to talk to these people, I want to hear their fears and I want to address them because everyones fears come from a moderately valid place.'

Rain tackles feminist issues, like shaving legs, as well as the expectations that are put on men

Rain explains that she wears what she wants to wear depending on what she wants to get out of a day

'I have the privilege because the queer community have come together to support me, so by clicking the like button on my Instagram theyve endorsed me. With their support its given me a career and I would be doing a disservice to them if I didnt put myself in the line of fire and dealing with the haters.'

'Social media is a safe space, its a space where you can attend without a body, without a sexuality, without a body, without anything other than your intentions and your follow through.

'Youre basically just words and a profile picture that could be you, it could be a cat, or it could be a plate of spaghetti. Its the closest thing to being the us that is us.'

Rain often poses on her social media in both men's and women's clothes, to point out the stark differences, and the differences in how she feels or is treated. She says that she wears what she wants, and it depends on how she is feeling that day or what she wants to get out of the day - comparing her wardrobe to a tool box.

She says: 'We didnt choose our gender, we are being punished for it. No matter who you are, youre punished for it. Youre so out of control of our lives because society controls what we can and cant do.

'We have to enjoy life and live right now, dont let people limit your s***, because you may never have this s*** again.'
A Queensland couple with three young daughters have been left with just the clothes on their backs after a fire completely destroyed their home.

At first Tara, 32, did not suspect anything was amiss when she returned to her Kingaroy residence from work last Friday afternoon.

'I was just on autopilot, being a mum getting the girls organised from school,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

But then one of Tara's daughters yelled out something that stopped the mother in her tracks: 'Mummy, the door is black'.

Tara and Blake, of Kingaroy, and their three young girls lost everything they own in a house fire

Tara had just picked up her girls from school and was coming home from work when she realised their front door was covered in soot from smoke

The front door was covered in soot from smoke, and Tara immediately called emergency services.

But it was too late. The house was engulfed from the inside in heavy smoke.

By the time firefighters arrived on the scene the house was smoldering, but a massive heat pocket remained behind the front door.

'Because the house is brick the fire contained itself, and the smoke got into everything,' Tara explained. 'Every shut cupboard, every shut door, everything.'

Tara's three daughters - a six-year-old and twins aged four - have taken the tragedy hard, Tara said, but the resilient mum is trying to make it feel like an adventure for them

The family of five soon found out they had lost everything they own.

'Everything has been completely destroyed because of the smoke,' she said. 'It could have been burning for hours and hours.'

Kingaroy Fire Brigade has not determined the exact cause of the fire but told Daily Mail Australia it was believed to be accidental.

Meanwhile, Tara is feeling the loss of the things in her home that she will never be able to replace.

Photographs of her children, taken in a professional studio, used to hang in frames at the front door. Snapshots in time that are gone forever.

But Tara said she is trying to focus on keeping life as normal as possible for her girls - a six-year-old and four-year-old twins - who she said have taken the tragedy hard.

'I don't think it's really sunk in for them,' she said. 'They just know we can't go back into the house.'

The family is living between Tara's grandparents house and Blake's mother house, trying to find a new place they can call their own before Christmas

'They were upset the first few nights, we just tried to make it a little adventure for them.'

The family is living between Tara's grandparents house and Blake's mother house, trying to find a new place they can call their own.

'We're just trying to get a house for our little girls before Christmas, really,' Tara said. 'To try and make life as normal as we can for them.'

Blake's sister has since started a GoFundMe campaign for the young family, and Tara said the community has been incredibly supportive.

Her partner's work put on a huge raffle for the family, giving them gift cards they can use to get the simple essentials like toothpastes and toothbrushes.

'Our whole community here has just been amazing and have all pulled together,' Tara said. 'And our poor family putting up with us living with them all.'

'I can't thank them all enough.'
She has been left with scars on her legs and is too self-conscious to wear dresses

An axe-wielding thug kicked his former girlfriend in the head as she was impaled on a metal spike, leaving her with a scar looking 'like a shark bite,'.

Dangling in agony from her speared right leg, Charlotte Mitchell, 33, then felt Andrew Newman's heavy shoe smacking against her head, in an attack so vicious he was jailed for five years.

Speaking of the horrific March 2017 incident, Charlotte, who was living in Southampton but is now too frightened to disclose her current location, said: 'I genuinely thought I was going to die that day. I remember screaming his name over and over again to try and get through to him, but he just looked blank.'

The attack took place shortly after Charlotte had ended her relationship with Newman for good and was the culmination of years of abuse he had subjected her to.

The pair had met in a pub three years earlier but within months Newman had changed from the kind and considerate man Charlotte had fallen for and transformed into a controlling beast who enjoyed emotionally and physically tormenting her.

Charlotte Mitchell, 33, escaped the clutches of her abusive ex boyfriend Andrew Newman before he tracked her down

Sharing her story as part of 2017's 16 Days of Action Against Domestic Violence, organised by The Corporate Alliance charity, Charlotte is now keen to urge other abuse victims to take action and find safety.

She continued: 'Realising this person you have loved will never change is a bitter pill to swallow.

'It's almost like a mourning process, but it's important to know that, once you're ready to leave, there are people to help, and places to go.

'I'd also like more of a spotlight to be cast over emotional abuse, like coercive and controlling behaviour. I don't think enough people realise that is a crime too. Abuse isn't always physical. The mental scars Andrew have left me with run far deeper than the one on my leg.'

She was hiding at a friend's house when Newman tracked her down and wielded an axe at her. She ran off to escape and impaled herself on a gate

Charlotte first met Newman, 46, in December 2014 in her local pub, where he was sat with some mutual friends.

Shy, he intrigued her and as they got chatting, they felt a spark.

Going on their first date a week later, he revealed that he was still living with his ex, insisting there was nothing between them.

So, as they grew closer, Charlotte said he could stay with her while he found somewhere else to live.

Despite it being an interim measure, determined to impress her and make it permanent, Newman cooked her dinner every night and surprised her with treats like candle-lit baths.

'I think about the night we met a lot now. I remember not particularly wanting to go to the pub and standing at a crossroads - the pub was right, and my house was left  and I was wondering what to do,' she recalled.

Newman was jailed for five years after pleading guilty to unlawful wounding, being in possession of a weapon, affray and breaching a restraining order in August 2017 at Southampton Crown Court

'In the end, I decided to pop in for one. That split-second decision changed my life. If only I'd turned left, I'd have saved myself an awful lot of heartache.'

Still, their relationship was great at first, although, after around six months, Charlotte noticed her boyfriend's behaviour changing.

Becoming withdrawn and mysterious about where he was going when he went out, she began to fret in case he was cheating.

He also became demanding and seemed unconcerned about her feelings, virtually refusing to talk about anything that made her upset.

'He became so cold. The person he was at the beginning disappeared,' she said.

'But, while he was demanding, I never thought he had it in him to be violent. Then, around the end of our first year together, I was cooking him a roast when he started a silly fight, saying I'd put too many potatoes in the pan.

Charlotte said realising Newman would never change was like a 'mourning process'

'I told him to do it himself and he reacted absolutely furiously, grabbing me by the hair and holding me over the hob.

'I was absolutely terrified and when he finally released me, I ran outside and phoned the police. They came and removed him from the property, but by then I was totally under his spell and he convinced me he was sorry, manipulating me into dropping the charges.'

From there, life turned into a cycle of abuse and apologies for Charlotte, whose confidence was so broken she felt she had nowhere to turn.

'I was so confused. I loved him so much and couldn't understand why he was treating me this way,' she explained.

'I was so sapped of energy, that I don't think I realised the gravity of what was happening at the time.'

The first time Newman was violent with Charlotte he disagreed with her cooking method and then grabbed her by the hair and held her over the hob

Newman monitored Charlotte's phone, checking her text messages and demanding that she delete social media.

On a couple of occasions, she said he even followed her to her then-job as an NHS administrator.

Things escalated further in 2016, when she went for a few drinks with a friend while Newman was at a stag do.

She recalled: 'I got home and was looking for my keys, when I heard a car door slam behind me. Without even turning round, I knew it was Andrew.

'He came at me with indescribable rage. He didn't even give me a chance, just started punching and kicking me.

'He dragged me inside by my hair. There was blood everywhere.'

Charlotte says she is too self-conscious to wear dresses because she was a big 'shark bite' scar on her thigh

After hearing her horrified screams, neighbours rang the police and, this time, Charlotte went through with the prosecution.

In November 2016, Newman was sentenced to 12-months in prison at Southampton Crown Court and handed a five-year restraining order over the attack. After a few months, he was released and began a campaign to get her back, threatening her family and friends until she agreed to meet him.

Eventually, she relented in March 2017, taking a friend along for safety.

The meeting seemed to be going okay, until the pair went outside together, and Charlotte said Newman issued a chilling threat, telling her: 'Wait until I get you on your own. I'm going to kill you.'

The next day, in a bid to distract herself from his menacing words, she went to a friend's house to watch rugby.

But, just as she settled on the sofa, Newman burst into the house with an axe in his hand.

While Charlotte was impaled on the gate Newman kicked her in the head while she screamed for help

'Thinking back to that day still makes me panic,' Charlotte said. 'When he burst into the house, I dropped my glass in shock. I remember just thinking, 'Run.'

'I fled to the front gate, but couldn't open it so, eaten up with fear, I thought I'd climb over instead.

'I felt something catch and thought it was my jeans, so tried to fling myself backwards, but I stayed attached. I was dangling there, upside down, watching Andrew come towards me.'

Once Newman reached Charlotte, shockingly, he kicked her straight in the head, later claiming in court it was to help free her  which she does not believe.

Then, horror washing over his face as he realised her leg was impaled, he fled.

Charlotte's friends, who'd witnessed the attack along with two children, ran outside to help her, propping her on a wheelie bin to help support her weight whilst they waited for an ambulance.

Charlotte said that Newman was initially a very romantic and caring boyfriend before his moods started to change

Paramedics arrived, pumping her with painkillers as they cut through the metal.

Raced to Southampton General Hospital, she was taken in for emergency surgery, before remaining in hospital for a week, with police escorts posted outside her room in case Newman showed up.

Eventually, he handed himself into the police and, despite initially denying the charges, finally pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, being in possession of a weapon, affray and breaching a restraining order in August 2017 at Southampton Crown Court.

Sentencing the monster, Judge Christopher Parker branded him 'dangerous,' in particular to those people who were in a relationship with him, when he had been drinking,' saying of Charlotte: 'She was petrified of what she thought you would do. You were armed, angry and drunk.'

Left with a scar like a 'shark bite,' spanning her right leg, Charlotte still struggles with her self-esteem in the wake of the attack, while her wound has left her too self-conscious to wear shorts or dresses.

Charlotte says she's trying to 'rebuild and discover' who she is now her abusive ex is in prison

Now determined to use her ordeal to encourage change in the way in which perpetrators are dealt with, Charlotte believes more would benefit from completing courses aimed at discovering why they think abusive behaviour is acceptable, with the hope it will help alter their pattern of thinking.

She said: 'By trying to work with perpetrators to rectify their behaviour, we'd be getting to the source of the problem.

'Abuse survivors have that lightbulb moment when they realise they have to leave, so what's to say the abusers can't have it, too, and be taught to realise their behaviour is unacceptable?

'I know that, with Andrew, I'll always be looking over my shoulder, and that one day he'll be out of prison, but until then, I'm going to rebuild myself and rediscover who I am.'
L.K.Bennett Kara velvet dress, 221.25, down from 295, lkbennett.com

The biggest shopping day of the year  Black Friday  is finally upon us. Usually lasting over the weekend, it sees the High Street slash prices on thousands of goods, often by hundreds of pounds.

An American import (Black Friday falls the day after their Thanksgiving holiday and marks the start of the Christmas shopping season), it was adopted by the UK seven years ago  and gets bigger every year.

This year, there are 24 million of us gearing up for the bargains and data from research company Kantar suggests that the average Black Friday shopper in the UK will splash out 246, meaning that figures look set to rise by almost 10 per cent from last year.

But the experts at consumer watchdog Which? warn that its worth checking just how good the deals really are.

A year-long investigation, which the Mail highlighted at the beginning of the week, showed an astonishing six out of ten of last years deals were for products that were, in fact, cheaper or the same price at other times of the year.

But there are bargains out there. You just need to know where to find them! Alice Smellie reveals her top tips...

Flawless beauty: The stylish steals Lip smacker: Lord and Berry Vogue Lipstick, 7.50, down from 15  enter BLACK50 at checkout lordand berry.com/uk Grow up: Nanogen 5IN1 Thickening Shampoo/Conditioner for Men, 7.96, down from 9.95, nanogen.co.uk Left, Fake Bake The Face, 14.99, buy one, get one free, fakebake.co.uk, and right, Tria Hair Removal Laser 4X, 249.99, down from 375, current body.com Advertisement

Top five items you should look out for

Here are Which? magazines five electrical household essentials to search for today. All of these scored well in consumer tests and are carried by multiple retailers, so its worth shopping around to get the best deal, as its likely competing shops will cut the prices on them all.

Don't fall victim to conmen Harry Rose, the editor of Which? Money, says: We did a recent investigation which showed how easy it is for fraudsters to send texts that pretend to be from shops offering bargains. Consumers must be extra vigilant this Black Friday and think twice before clicking on the link in any unsolicited messages. 1. Dont give any website your credit card PIN for any reason and try to buy only from those you know and trust. 2. Dont rush into a decision. If you feel pressurised by a website  many retailers use tools such as a ticking clock or a just one left banner to make you feel that you need to act swiftly  then you should take a step back. 3. Do their contact numbers look bona fide? If they have a PO box number rather than a proper address, or they only offer a mobile number or premium-rate 09 phone line, they may be fine  but if alarm bells ring, dont proceed. If you dont know a brand, be especially cautious. 4. Dont necessarily trust social media  if it sounds too good to be true on Twitter or WhatsApp, then it probably is! 5. If you do fall foul and are affected by a data breach, change any passwords linked to the account or website in question. Keep an eye on bank accounts and complain to the company that lost your data. Advertisement

THE CORDLESS VAC

Dyson V6 Animal: This lightweight vacuum cleaner is designed to remove pet hair from carpets and furniture. It also features a wide head that is suitable for all floor types.

What price should you pay: If this isnt less than 180, its no cheaper than normal.

THE CAPSULE COFFEE MACHINE

Nespresso Inissia: Makes espresso, cappuccino, latte and ristretto, among others, from coffee pods.

What price should you pay: This usually costs from 50 to 70, so avoid Black Friday deals unless you spot it for less than 50.

THE BLENDER

Nutribullet 600: A powerful blender that can be used to make smoothies and juices.

What price should you pay: Usually 60 to 70 but we saw it on sale for 40 last January. If you can find it for less than 60, its a deal.

THE TELEVISION

LG OLED55B7V: This is a 55-inch TV with great picture quality.

What price should you pay: Its normally on at 2,500  but retailer very.co.uk will slash the price to 1,500. There may be even further reductions on Black Friday, so shop around. However, we may see bigger discounts in the Christmas and January sales, so it could be worth waiting if you are not in a rush.

THE PRINTER

HP Envy 5646: A powerful, wireless laser printer.

What price should you pay: It was on offer with 50 per cent off in August  it retails at 79.99  so be sure it costs less than 40.

Tech tresures: Best gadgets on sale Flexible working: HP Pavillion Gamer 17in Core i7 8GB ITB Laptop, 749, down from 1,099.95, johnlewis.com Listen up: Clarity HD Bluetooth headphones in rose gold, gold, matte black and silver, 99, down from 169.99, argos.co.uk Dream screen: Dell 28 Ultra HD 4K monitor S2817Q, 260, down from 541, dell.co.uk/blackfriday Advertisement

The top five big discounts

1. Oral-B Smart Series 6000 Rechargeable Toothbrush, 54.99, down from 229.99, amazon.co.uk.

2. Braun Silk-expert IPL hair removal device, 135, down from 449.99, boots.co.uk.

3. Topshop wool-blend blazer for women, 70, down from 235, selfridges.com.

4. Mens Accurist Chronograph Watch 7003, 72, down from 240 goldsmiths.co.uk.

5. Next clothing, whose 70 per cent off sale started at 3 am, next.co.uk.

Jewellery gems: Dainty accessories to snap up Left, Georg Jensen silver wheel dress ring, 105, down from 150, berrysjewellers.co.uk, right, Frederique Constant mens automatic, 720, down from 960, berrysjewellers.co.uk Sparkle and shine: Pilgrim Bella gold plated bracelet, 20, down from 40, debenhams.com Put a ring on it: Tresor Allure white crystal sterling silver ring, 39.90, down from 57, tresorparis.co.uk Advertisement

Blink and youll miss them...

Every year, the most popular products tend to sell out in the frenzy of Black Friday.

To help, heres the list of the items most searched for last year. If you want any of these, put them at the top of your shopping list . . . and move fast.

1. Laptops

2. Curtains

3. Rugs

4. Kettles

5. Microwaves

Argos says that key categories last year were:

1. TVs

2. Mobiles

3. Computers

4. Video Games

5. Floorcare

Tech fans were early-bird shoppers, with 57 per cent of all deals purchased between midnight and 4.30am being video games consoles, games and tablets. John Lewis says its best electricals sellers last year were the Sonos Play 1 speaker, GHD hair straighteners and Samsung TVs, as well as the ever-popular KitchenAid food mixer.

In fashion, Ted Baker and Michael Kors took the top spots, along with Calvin Klein pyjamas and lingerie. In the home, shoppers snapped up Joseph Joseph and crockery from Le Creuset and Portmeirion.

Fashionably fabulous: Gorgeous garments available Party on: Jacques Vert Portia Lace Dress, 89.50, down from 179, jacques-vert.co.uk (left) Immie top, 79, down from 99, fennwright manson.com (right) Pink pouch: Mulberry purse, 88, down from 110, johnlewis.com Dress chic: Dobell mens velvet dinner jacket, 69.99, down from 99.99, dobell.co.uk, left, Boss red dress, 144, down from 179, hugoboss.com, right Top tote: Michael Kors bag, 252, down from 315, michaelkors.co.uk Advertisement

Apps the way to do it

This year, its easier than ever to check prices on the High Street against other shops thanks to the rise of consumer apps.

These download to your smartphone, and you can use them to check youre getting the best deal.

Just open the app store on your phone, search for the name and download.

Heres five of the best. Better yet, all of them are free . . .

Which? Reviews app: This easy-to-use app contains 8,000 unbiased product reviews, and has a handy feature that allows you to search for a particular type of product (a microwave, for instance), which it then sorts into the Best Buys from the Dont Buys. Download free for 30 days.

MYSUPERMARKET: A comparison app that allows you to search products in all of the major supermarkets to find where branded items are cheapest.

IDEALO: Compare the prices of millions of products in almost 30,000 shops. Has more than ten million monthly users across Europe.

PRICESPY: Log in to create lists of products you want to compare or make a wish list. You can then keep returning to this list to see if any have gone on sale.

PRICERUNNER: Check deals from hundreds of the UKs best-loved shops and websites including Amazon, Debenhams, Dixons, Tesco, Boots and Toys R Us, as well as specialist stores.
Our lives tend to be packed to the brim and one of the things people may not have time for is washing their sheets and underwear regularly enough, which can be detrimental to our health.

FEMAIL spoke to 10 Australian women about their washing habits, with the majority sticking to the same routine, but the results may surprise you.

Lifestyle blogger Michelle Mitchell, from Glamor Hippie, explained why we need to stay on top of it.

FEMAIL spoke to ten Australian women about their washing habits, with the majority sticking to the same routine

UNDIES

All 10 women that FEMAIL polled only wear their undies once before washing, which Michelle explained is what we should be doing.

'Underwear should be washed after every wear. It's tempting to reuse underwear that you have only thrown on for a short time thinking they'll be good for another wear but the reality is we need to pop them in the wash,' she said.

'Our underwear covers the most sensitive skin on our bodies. Every day of the month we can have a completely different environment going on in our most delicate region.

'Used underwear can harbour all sorts of hidden issues that can cause us harm. If you have worn them you should wash them.'

Underwear should be thrown out every year for health reasons to reduce the risk of urinary tract and other infections and the failure to do allows bugs such as E. coli and dust mites to flourish.

Underwear should be thrown out every year for health reasons to reduce the risk of urinary tract and other infections

This was one of the only things the surveyed women agreed on unanimously.

'I have a lot of undies so I only wear them once and then I put on a big undies wash once a week,' said one woman.

'I mean obviously the amount of times will change on how often you get your period and how heavy it is,' explained another.

Michelle also said that we should be chucking out any underwear that is no longer in good condition.

'If our underwear drawer is full of items that work for us throughout the course of the year they should be replaced at the end of the year,' Michelle explained.

'Old items run the risk chaffing, harbouring bacteria and causing us harm. Our underwear should make us feel fabulous no matter the occasion, if your underwear isn't doing this for you, its time to clean out that treasure chest.'

Michelle said that we should be chucking out any underwear that is no longer in good condition should be thrown straight in the bin

BRAS

Although people seem to be able to agree on the rules of underwear washing, when it comes to bras, the water seems to get a bit murky.

'Bras aren't in charge of protecting out delicate regions, they are more robust and can be treated a little differently depending on their purpose,' Michelle said.

'As a rule of thumb, you can go four wears without washing your bra. However, this is dependent on the individual.'

'If you sweat more than average or if you have had a recent spray tan, it's best to wash them more frequently.'

The crease in your bust and the area under your arms are hot, sweaty environments so wearing them no less than after four times is ideal.

Bra washing was the thing that the women FEMAIL spoke to were able to agree on the least.

'I wash my bras every other week but it's hard to keep track so I often wash my bras once they start to smell,' one woman shared.

Another said: 'I wash my bras every two weeks unless I'm out partying or something but I don't wear bras very often.'

All women surveyed said that they aimed to wash their sheets once a week but many knew this goal was unrealistic for them due to their busy lifestyles

Although the answers varied a little bit here and there none of the women wore their bras more than five times before washing them.

'Parting ways with a bra is difficult. They are expensive. We often buy and treat them as investment pieces, as we should,' Michelle stated.

'So, when it comes time to throw them out making that decision is hard. But we must get rid of them when the elasticity has gone if the hooks and eyes are broken if they no longer fit or they are just uncomfortable.'

SHEETS

One of the places we spend a large chunk of our days is in bed, which can be a breeding ground when it comes to germs if not cleaned regularly.

All women surveyed said that they aimed to wash their sheets once a week but many knew this goal was unrealistic for them due to their busy lifestyles.

'Our sheets can harbour a multitude of bacteria and viruses that can cause unwanted illnesses. Its best to regularly change your sheets based on your lifestyle, this most important element is to be consistent,' Michelle said.

'If you ask my Mum she works on the old rule that sheets must be changed once a week.

'Who in this day and age has the time to change the sheets once a week? I know I don't.

'If you have a shower prior to collapsing into bed at night, it's ok to stretch that wash a little longer. You can comfortably go two weeks before changing them.'

Three out of the ten women said they washed their sheets every two to three weeks, three said once a fortnight, two said once a week and two said they don't keep track and only do it when it is noticeably dirty.

'If I'm honest I forget about changing my sheets, it's only when my mum reminds me that it gets done,' one woman shared.

'I hate the idea of sleeping in a dirty bed so I consistently wash them once a week but I'm the only person I know who does,' said another.


A Queensland mother has revealed her son, who suffers from a rare condition - Niemann -Pick Type A disease - is slowly dying from the incurable illness.

Cassie Lamos, 35, learnt just months ago that her youngest child, Malakhai Riley, was suffering from the disease, one she explained was due to a genetic disorder.

Her son, now 16-months-old, is the only known person in Australia with the incurable condition.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Cassie revealed Malakhai's illness - Niemann-Pick Type A - is triggered through an enzyme deficiency that affects his liver, spleen and central nervous system.

Malakhai Riley (pictured) is is the only known person in Australia with the incurable disease

Mum Cassie Lamos (pictured) with her son who was diagnosed with the incurable condition in August

'Because of this he can't sit, crawl, talk or breathe. All he can do is lay on the ground and play,' she said.

Cassie explained both her and Malakhai's father were carriers of the gene which causes the disease to develop in the womb, but doesn't start showing until the child is around three months of age.

While the mum-of-three had her suspicions Malakhai wasn't developing as he should, it took months of MRI scans and blood testing before he was diagnosed in August.

Though there had been no signs Malakhai had the condition, he started showing some symptoms at six-months-old

She said that Malakhai started showing some symptoms at six-months-old, but she wasn't aware that he had the condition.

'I started noticing his stomach being so bloated and he wasn't meeting his milestones.

'I had a gut feeling there was something more wrong than what some doctors were first initially thinking.'

Malakhai's condition is so rare there is nothing available in regards to research or finding a cure, mum Cassie said

Finding out her son was suffering from Niemann-Pick Type A - a condition that could not treated was devastating, Cassie said.

'It's so rare there's nothing there in regards to research in regards to finding a cure.'

She said life expectancy for children with the condition is estimated between 18 months and three years.

Right now, Malakhai is just over one, and Cassie is all too aware the family may well be facing heartbreak in the coming months.

The family are doing all they can to make sure the time they have left with Malakhai is as special as possible

'I have shed plenty of tears, I have had meltdowns, and I have had to explain it to my two older children.

'Amelia is only eight, and Khoen is only four so they took it pretty hard.

But she said, both children have slowly come to terms their little brother may not be with them for much longer, and are doing all they can to 'love him that every bit more.'

As for herself, Cassie said, 'I am doing okay because he hasn't reached that 18-month mark.'

Doctors have said it's unlikely Malakhai will live past his third birthday - right now he is just over one

For now Malakhai is on pain medication so he is as comfortable as possible, and recently he had a feeding tube put in his stomach to make sure he is getting enough nutrient-rich food.

What is Niemann Pick disease type A? The condition prevents fat from being distributed in the body for normal growth It appears during infancy and is characterised by an enlarged liver and spleen Other symptoms can include failure to gain weight and grow at the expected rate Source: npcd.org.au Advertisement

Cassie said that despite the 'rollercoaster' of emotions, the family have been doing all they can to make sure each day with Malakhai is special.

'We do everything together. We go places and do things to make memories.

'It's hard because you've got to cram everything that you expect to do over a lifetime into three years. But we're trying,' she said.

Though the single mum has the support of her family, the community has also rallied to offer their help.

On November 25 Goodstart Early Learning Warwick will hold a Family Fun Day to raise much-needed funds for Malakhai and his family.

Speaking to Warwick Daily News centre director Jodi Sweet said the team had a connection to the cause as Malakhai's older brother was attending Goodstart when he was diagnosed with the disease.

'When they first started doing tests and everything was up in the air, a lot of educators were very close to the situation.

'When we finally found out it was very heartbreaking.'

Cassie said tomorrow will be a special day for Malakhai who 'smiles regardless of what he is going through.'

'I've got my family and friends and the community who have jumped on board to help fund for my son to give him the best life he can have, it's just amazing.

'I am forever grateful,' she concluded.
He previously opened up about how he was on the path to sobriety after a three-year battle with alcohol and drug addiction.

But Byron Bay artist Mitch Gobel has come under fire on social media after he likened 'freedom' to the powerful hallucinogenic drug 'LSD'.

Taking to Instagram, the New South Wales hipster shared a photograph of himself relaxing by a river, with his bohemian girlfriend Sally Mustang resting on a rock.

Byron Bay artist Mitch Gobel (pictured with his girlfriend Sally Mustang) has come under fire on social media after he likened 'freedom' to the powerful hallucinogenic drug 'LSD'

Taking to Instagram, the hipster shared a photograph of himself relaxing in front of a river, with his stunning bohemian girlfriend Sally Mustang resting on a rock

'Freedom is a fire. A waterhole... some LSD... and a gypsy #fearandloathinginthejungle #muchmagic #home #notsorry,' he wrote.

But many were far from impressed, with some saying they were 'saddened' and 'disappointed' after Mr Gobel implied he may have relapsed.

'All the tears and sadness we witnessed on your road to recovery?!' one wrote.

Another posted: 'I really wanted to come to your beautiful ladies retreat but if drugs are a part of your lives them [sic] no thank you.

One said: 'I thought you had vowed sobriety???

Another posted: 'Glamorising drugs..no thanks. See ya.'

However, Mr Gobel quickly defended himself against critics, saying: 'LSD isn't for everyone and I respect and honour that

The Byron Bay hipster previously opened up about his alcohol and drug addiction

Another wrote: Some LSD?.. I thought you were in the right path of sobriety?.. so basically ur [sic] spirituality is bulls***!'

And another said: 'Disappointed that you have lost your way on your journey to to being you. Drugs just mask reality which is sometimes hideous I'll accept. But I thought you were so much more interesting when the real you was emerging.'

However, Mr Gobel quickly defended himself against critics, saying: 'LSD isn't for everyone and I respect and honour that.

'The more energy we put into resisting others, relates to the amount of energy we pour into resisting ourselves,' he added.

'To love our shadows is empowering, and helps us evolve as humans. Manifesting darkness will create darkness around us, just as if we see beauty, it too manifests in our lives. Love the shadows, and they will love you. #conciousnessisfreedom.'

In April, Mr Gobel told Daily Mail Australia he was struggling to overcome his addictions despite being on a path to sobriety after turning his home into a rehab

In April, Mr Gobel told Daily Mail Australia he was struggling to overcome his addictions despite being on a path to sobriety after turning his home into a rehab.

'At the height of my using, I was doing four days on drugs, sometimes five, then three or four days in bed recovering, I'd be a ghost of a human, just useless - no emotions, no energy, no love,' he explained to FEMAIL.

'I'd lay in bed for a few days until I felt better and then repeat the process all over again. It was the darkest time of my life, I just couldn't get my s*** together.

'I did that for about seven months straight and I didn't create [art] at all while I went through this phase.'

Mr Gobel said his art had helped him turned his life around - and he believed by speaking publicly about his addiction would help him stay sober.

'I'm very particular about what I put online, a lot of people have a window into my life through Instagram and I knew that by putting myself on the line like this I'd scare myself into committing to my recovery,' he said.
There are fresh calls for venue owners and promoters to take more responsibility for the safety of women in a bid to stamp out sexual harassment and bad behaviour.

The issue which came to light again this week when visiting Canadian rapper Drake called out a concertgoer for their inappropriate behaviour towards women.

Backing the push is UNSW lecturer in Criminology Dr Bianca Fileborn, who believes more should be done to address the reality of sexual harassment and assault at festivals and gigs.

Scroll down for video

UNSW lecturer in criminology Dr Bianca Fileborn believes more should be done to address the reality of sexual harassment and assault at festival and gigs (stock image)

Dr Fileborn said anecdotal evidence suggests the problem is widespread in the Australian music industry, in part because of a culture that often exploits and objectifies women.

'The music industry is a really male-dominated industry and that has a big impact on the culture. You are not getting women running festivals or managing venues,' she said.

She added venue owners and festivals promoters needed to consider making certain changes in order to foster a culture of positive behaviour.

'The music industry is a really male-dominated industry and that has a big impact on the culture. You are not getting women running festivals or managing venues,' said Dr Fileborn

'We need to think about the broader culture that allows this to happen. What kind of imagery are venues and festivals using? Are they friendly and supportive of trans gender patrons, and do they have diversity amongst their staff and the musical line-up?,' she asked.

Dr Fileborn said introducing campaigns would help raise awareness of inappropriate behaviour and encourage patrons to speak out about objectionable incidents.

'Also, all staff should be aware of the policy, should believe and support victims if they report something, and should take action to remove the perpetrator from the venue or contact police where appropriate,' she said.

Venue owners and festivals promoters need to consider making certain changes in order to foster a culture of positive behaviour, said Dr Fileborn (stock image)

'Women are saying: 'We are not going to stand for this any more'.

Currently Dr Fileborn is working on a programme developed by the Victorian Government to help train venue staff to identify sexual harassment and assault, and to develop skills to intervene if necessary.

Though in its pilot phase, if the programme is successful, Dr Fileborn hopes it will be rolled out nationally.

'Women are saying 'We are not going to stand for this any more', said Dr Fileborn

The Your Choice movement, which calls for an end to bad behaviour in the music industry, rolled out earlier this year, is helping drive the momentum for change.

'Your Choice is a music industry supported campaign initiated to address the growing cultural issues around behavior and lack of personal accountability within Australian venues and event space,' the campaign's website states.

'These issues are not exclusive to the music industry, theyre prevalent within our society.'
He's regarded as one of the more affable members of the royal family but a fellow polo player has dubbed Prince Harry 'a spoiled brat'.

Beau Skerrett, an Australian polo player, revealed that he was embroiled in a fleeting tussle with the redhead royal on the polo pitch back in 2014 - even telling Prince Harry to 'f*** off' during the tiff.

Speaking to the Courier Mail, the Queensland-based player who has been playing professionally for 12 years, said: 'Harry loses his cool (on the field). He is a spoiled brat.'

Beau Skerrett, right, an Australian polo player, revealed that he told Prince Harry to 'f*** off' on the polo pitch back in 2014 - and described the royal as a 'spoiled brat'

Beau was refereeing a match between the British princes and the princes of Malaysia, which was held at Sir Andrew Lloyd Webbers house.

'It got to the point where I couldnt send anyone off but something had to be said because he was just getting a bit serious.

'He didnt take it too well. I think Im the only guy who ever told him to f*** off in front of a crowd that pay 5,000 to shake his hand.'

Beau, who described William as 'the perfect gentleman', added that William actually had to apologise on behalf of his little brother but noted that there were no hard feelings.

Beau Skerrett is pictured at the match in question, which was between the British princes and the princes of Malaysia, which was held at Sir Andrew Lloyd Webbers house.

Prince Harry (left) and the Duke of Cambridge are huge polo fans. They are pictured taking part in the annual Audi Polo Challenge at Coworth Park polo club in Ascot earlier this year

Beau described William as 'the perfect gentleman' and said that William actually had to apologise for his brother

Beau began riding before he could even walk. Growing up on a cattle station in Australia he spent his childhood on horses, and with the help of one of the Jackaroos, started his first youngsters at the age of nine.

The son of one of Australia's best players, Beau took to the sport like a natural, and was soon working with the likes of Ross and Kel Ainsley from New Zealand, and Ale Muzzio from Argentina.

Kensington Palace declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline.
A plastic surgery addict dubbed 'Britain's vainest man' who splashed 55,000 on procedures has revealed plans to spend even more because he hates the way he looks.

TOWIE super fan Sam Barton, 25, has spent tens of thousands on emulating his idol, Joey Essex, in a string of operations - including one on the NHS.

Sam, from Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, claims he battled body dysmorphia which has led to him altering his image in a bid to look like 'the perfect man'.

The celebrity wannabe is now set to go under the knife to have a nose job, hair loss treatment and filler for his lips, cheeks and jaw.

Is this Britain's vainest man? TOWIE super fan Sam Barton, 25, has spent tens of thousands on emulating his idol, Joey Essex, in a string of operations - including one on the NHS

All in the name of beauty: Despite already splashing 55,000 on procedures, Sam has revealed plans to spend even more because he hates the way he looks

He is currently halfway through the 20,000 treatment, which is being done by the Aesthetica Medispa skin clinic in Birmingham.

He also plans to have surgery on his abs to create a fake six-pack after he initially cancelled the procedure in Brussels in March last year following the terror attacks.

Sam said: 'I am never happy with the way I look and this is down to my body dysmorphia.

'I'm having work to hopefully erase the stigma attached to me, I hate who I have become and how I look.

'I want to be unrecognisable. I want to be me now and not base my image on someone else like Joey Essex.

Sam before his surgery splurge began. He said: 'I am never happy with the way I look and this is down to my body dysmorphia'

Ongoing project: For his next treatment, Sam plans to have surgery on his abs to create a fake six-pack after he initially cancelled the procedure in Brussels in March last year following the terror attacks

Sam's idol, reality star Joey Essex. The 25-year-old celebrity wannabe is now set to go under the knife to have a nose job, hair loss treatment and filler for his lips, cheeks and jaw

Sam with Joey. Despite his newfound fame, his life has not been without controversy; in July last year, police launched a hate-crime investigation after a Facebook troll posted a picture of the star with the caption: 'Where are IS when you need them?'

'I want people to say I look amazing. I will be spending around 20,000 on the treatment in total and I am half way through it.

'I have been having treatment at Aesthetica Medispa in Birmingham.'

Sam first hit the headlines after revealing he had a free nose job on the NHS.

He is the grandson of Tony Barton, Aston Villa's European Cup winning manager, later applied for free botox treatment for life to combat anxiety from his 'new-found fame'.

Freebies: Sam has spent tens of thousands on emulating his idol, Joey Essex, in a string of operations - including one on the NHS

Sam with friend Gemma Massey. In January 2015, Sam revealed that he was preparing to declare himself bankrupt after racking up 35,000 debts through his champagne lifestyle

TOWIE super fan with reality star Amy Childs. Sam is the grandson of Tony Barton, Aston Villa's European Cup winning manager, previously applied for free botox treatment for life to combat anxiety from his 'new-found fame'

In January 2015, he revealed that he was preparing to declare himself bankrupt after racking up 35,000 debts through his champagne lifestyle.

He was due to enter the Big Brother house in May 2015, but claims Channel 5 bosses barred him because he had threatened to headbutt Jodie Cunningham during an argument on Facebook.

In July last year, police launched a hate-crime investigation after a Facebook troll posted a picture of the star with the caption: 'Where are IS when you need them?'
The fury of Black Friday shoppers has already led to one shooting today, and there have been 10 deaths in the last 10 years.

Each year, paramedics have to spend the day after Thanksgiving treating trampled shoppers, bruised brawlers and people hit in parking lots.

Emergency rooms and ambulance services, across the US have to bolster their staffs and supplies to cope with the incoming traumas.

Here are some of the most common ways that more than a hundred people in the last 10 years have been injured on this auspicious day.

Customers rushed the gates as an Ohio store opened for Black Friday in 2011

1. Parking spot spars: Concussions, broken bones and beatings

Shoppers rushing to and from the stores on their Black Friday hit list are more likely to drive aggressively and focus more on their bargain goals than the pedestrians around them.

Last year in the US at least four people were seriously injured in store parking lots, including a man who tried to help a woman who was being beaten in a Walmart parking lot was shot and killed, and another man was shot and killed over a parking spot.

Pedestrian accidents usually result in much more minor injuries, but many still need immediate attention to ensure that they do not get worse over time.

The most common injuries are head traumas, internal bleeding, fractures, and spine and hip injuries.

Paramedics focus first on assessing victims for head and spinal injuries, stabilizing them to prevent long term brain damage or paralysis.

2. Stampedes: Crushed organs, internal bleeding and broken bones

It only takes six or seven people to exert nearly 1,000 pounds of pressure, enough to easily crush internal organs.

Last year, at least one woman was trampled in South Africa, sustaining a shoulder injury on Black Friday.

A fight between two shoppers in Alabama today led to an all out brawl, and left one woman on the ground

Hordes of shoppers rushing the just-opened doors of big box stores like Walmart and Best Buy never fail to make Black Friday headlines.

Real stampedes, injuring people who fall and trampled by others, are fairly rare, but the risk at packed shops is very real.

Stampedes may be triggered by a crowd's excitement or desperation. Retailers rely in part on creating a sense of scarcity to lure shoppers out to claim the best deals.

So when there's news - of a new discount for a limited time or that supplies are running low - the fear of missing out can get the best of people, leading them to charge ahead of, and sometimes over, their fellow shoppers.

If you find yourself caught in a surging crowd, the best thing to do is stay on your feet. If you do fall, curling up helps to protect you from too much pressure in one place. Turning on your side so that your shoulders absorb shock is better than leaving your spine or stomach vulnerable.

Bruising and pain can indicate to paramedics trampling may have caused someone internal bleeding.

But not all ambulances carry ultrasound equipment to assess the extent of the damage. Patients may have to be rushed to hospitals to prevent potentially fatal blood loss.

3. In-store injuries: Crushed by boxes and slammed by carts

As customers clamber to grab merchandise off of shelves, heavy boxes can become unstable, threatening to fall on heads or crush feet.

Like car injuries, if something heavy has fallen on a patient's head, paramedics have to work quickly to assess if the impact has caused a concussion, or damaged neck vertebrae.

Black Friday shoppers scramble to grab TVs on Black Friday in Brazil this year, passing the heavy boxes over heads

Smashed fingers and feet are more easily treatable, and paramedics are equipped to stitch up cuts or set possible broken bones.

Stores like Target use plastic shopping carts, which are lighter and don't have the sharp edges of old-fashioned metal baskets. But overloaded carts can tip over easily, knocking over shoppers and crushing appendages.

4. Violence: stabbings, shootings and fist fights

Already today, once person has been shot while shopping at a Missouri Mall, and a brawl has broken out in Alabama.

Black Friday shoppers are in the competitive spirit when they are bargain hunting, primed and ready to defend their prized finds.

But the excitement can quickly escalate into aggression when we feel like someone else is threatening our access to one of 'a limited supply' of products, and even more so if they got what we've been in line for since four in the morning.

Last year, a woman was beaten, a man used his belt as a whip, there were three shooting incidents and a police officer was stabbed by a shoplifter.

Mine: Fights tend to break out during Black Friday shopping because stores create an atmosphere of competition for the best deals

Many malls in the US prepare for violence by hiring their own ambulances for the day, and scheduling additional security staff.

Most violent incidents do not involve weapons, but even a well-thrown punch or hard kick can cause life-threatening head trauma or internal injuries.

As is the case in any violent incident, paramedics primary concern is to make sure a victim does not bleed to death before reaching the hospital for treatment.

If a brawl turns bloody. paramedics mostly rely on tourniquets and gauze to pack wounds and minimize the blood flow to the area before getting a patient to a hospital.
Pus lovers will be more than satisfied by the latest grotesque video of a huge cyst being popped by a doctor.

As soon as he takes a scalpel to the infected lump that had grown on a woman's chest, a gush of thick, yellowish gunk oozes out.

Dr Michael Lewis, who runs his own practice in Woodland Hills, California, recorded the footage  but it's not recommended viewing for the faint of heart.

Perhaps anticipating that the cyst will require a substantial incision which could hurt, the unnamed patient asks 'Would you shoot me up pretty good?'

When the doctor asks her if she can feel pain she says that she can't  so the anesthetic has worked.

As soon as the pus is released, the woman lets out a sigh of relief.

Dr Michael Lewis takes a scalpel to the infected lump on the unnamed woman's chest

Pus lovers will be pleased with the video  but it's not recommended for the faint of heart

Almost instantly,a gush of thick, yellowish gunk oozes out and the woman lets out a sigh

Dr Lewis explains that it's 'probably an epidermoid cyst' as it has grown in a hairless area instead of a pilonidal cyst which are thought to be caused by ingrown hairs.

He then cleans out the infected tissue and neatly sews up the gaping hole.

Dr Lewis said: 'This nice young lady had a cyst which inflamed over two days and needed drainage.

The doctor then cleans out infected tissue and neatly sews up the gaping hole

Dr Michael Lewis runs his own practice in Woodland Hills, California

'After I dissected out the sac and infected tissue, the surrounding tissue was healthy and strong, most likely because the infection was fresh. I then sutured it closed.

'I have always enjoyed performing these sorts of procedures  it's one of my favourite things to do.

'I perform multiple procedures weekly from simple things like cleaning out ear wax and joint injections to removal of masses on the skin.

'Nothing bothers me too much as far as procedures go, however if the smell is bad it can be really tough.'
A near-topless picture posted by Playboy model Lindsey Pelas has sent her fans into a frenzy over why her breasts appear different sizes.

The 26-year-old, who is from Louisiana, shared the image of her 30HH breasts on Instagram three days ago with her 7million followers, causing many to question if their shape was healthy and normal.

The snap, which has had 184,937 likes, caused one person to ask 'What's wrong with one boob??? while another wrote 'A little lopsided?'

Another fan asked her: 'What's going on with your right boob?' and one remarked 'Why is the right boob sagging more?'

A second picture posted yesterday also showed Lindsey's breasts did not look the same and appeared to be different in size.

However health experts say having asymmetrical breasts is common for women and nothing to worry about.

This post by the 26-year-old, from Louisiana, caused her fans to question her apparent different breast sizes

A second picture posted yesterday on her Instagram account also showed Lindsey's breasts appearing to look different shapes

One supportive fan wrote: 'It's so refreshing to see a woman with large breasts comfortable with their shape. Good for you, you gorgeous Goddess!'

Asymmetrical breasts are common

A 2011 study in the European Journal of Plastic Surgery that examined over 300 breast augmentation patients found that 47 per cent of the women had different sized breasts.

And the British Channel 4 program Embarrassing Bodies reported that up to 40 percent of women have a difference of one to two cup sizes in their breasts.

The issue is so common San Francisco underwear brand ThirdLove has even launched a new type of bra specifically catered to those with asymmetrical breasts.

Lindsey has previously revealed she suffered through years of back pain and bullying due to her naturally large breasts

POSSIBLE CAUSES OF DIFFERENT SIZED BREASTS The cause of why women's breasts are different sizes is not fully understood. Arpana Naik, assistant professor of Surgery Oregon Health & Science University Portland, writing for Healthy Women, explained that possible reasons include hormonal changes or traumatic injuries. 'For instance, one report in the medical literature describes two cases of breast asymmetry that developed as the result of injuries the girls received to their 'breast bud' area during gymnastics when they were 10 and 11,' she said. Occasionally, an underlying medical may be the cause, she explained. This includes juvenile breast hypertrophy of the breast, a very rare problem in the connective tissues which causes one breast to grow significantly larger than the other. This can cause psychological distress and sometimes physical problems and can be fixed with surgery. Sometimes, fibroids  which are non-cancerous tumors  may be the cause of asymmetry, according to Professor Naik. She warned that sudden or recent differences in breast size should be checked out by a specialist. Other possible causes include scoliosis, or curvature of the spine, and deformities in the chest wall. Advertisement

Indeed experts say having perfectly symmetrical breasts is not the norm.

Adrian Richards, Consultant Plastic Surgeon at The Private Clinic of Harley Street has previously told MailOnline: 'In reality, no female has entirely symmetrical breasts.

'Every woman has one breast which is slightly larger or a slightly different shape than the other.

'For some women, that asymmetry is almost impossible to spot. For others, its far easier to spot.

'Asymmetrical breasts are entirely natural. However in some instances there may be an underlying reason why one breast appears different to the other, so if youre concerned you should visit your GP as a first point of call.'

And you may notice that your breasts change size during your menstrual cycle  and just one may appear bigger.

Arpana Naik, assistant professor of surgery at Oregon Health & Science University Portland wrote for Healthy Women: 'Your breast tissue changes according to your menstrual cycle.

'For instance, you may find that your breasts feel fuller and are more sensitive when you're ovulating; and, in fact, they actually get bigger because of water retention and additional blood flow.

'This is also when they're most likely to be the same size, however; one study found that breasts have the least amount of asymmetry on the first day of ovulation. During menstruation, breasts shrink again.'

The glamour mode explained on an episode of The Doctors that natural 30HH cups are not without disadvantages

She previously said: 'There's a lot of bullies and a lot of hate for having natural large boobs,' Lindsey said. But being busty is really a part of who I am now. I feel beautiful this way'

Back pain

The model, from Loranger, Louisiana, has previously revealed that she is bullied over her natural 30HH cups which she says have caused her years of severe back pain.

She discussed her problem during a new episode of The Doctors which aired in September.

Lindsey said: 'Having big boobs is not all it's cracked up to be. There's a lot of bullies and a lot of hate for having natural large boobs. But being busty is really a part of who I am now. I feel beautiful this way.'

The show's experts recommended appropriate exercise to help relieve her pain, as well as wearing the right bra, and avoiding high heels when she travels

In August, the model took to Instagram to tell her followers she has to 'smile through the pain' in her pictures because her breasts cause intense pain in her back

However, her large chest has long had a negative impact on her life, by causing her pain on a daily basis.

'Lately I've been feeling this nagging pain in the lower left side of my back in particular,' the model added. 'Some days it hurts all over. And I'm not sure where it's coming from.'

Orthopedic surgeon Dr Hooman Melamed explained hat Lindsey's spine is actually 'perfect', as shown in MRI scans and X-rays.

He suggested instead that Lindsey's frequent travels, as well as her increasing number of modeling jobs, could be the cause of her pain, because 'the body hates being in one position constantly'.

The show's experts recommended appropriate exercise to help relieve her pain, as well as wearing the right bra, and avoiding high heels when she travels.
Children who are fitter have more brain power, according to new research.

A study of eight to 11-year-olds found exercise boosted grey matter in nine different areas.

These were important for cognition, executive function and academic achievement, say scientists.

It is the first time the dramatic effect of physical activity on the structure of the brain has been identified.

The Spanish team believe it will have an influence on their performance in exams and, consequently, future career success.

A third of children in the UK are overweight or obese with a fifth afflicted even before they begin primary school.

A Spanish study of eight to 11-year-olds found exercise boosted grey matter in nine different areas (stock image)

Dr Francisco Ortega, of the University of Granada's Sport and Health Institute in Spain, said the findings add to evidence exercise protects older people against Alzheimer's disease.

Key findings

His researchers found the children's physical fitness, especially aerobic and motor ability, was directly linked to more neurons in specific areas of the brain known as the cortical and subcortical regions.

Aerobic fitness is the capacity to do exercise for a long time and efficiently.

In particular, this was associated with more grey matter in the premotor cortex, which is important for learning (imitation) and social cognition (empathy) as well as controlling movements.

This type of exercise also boosts the power of the the parahippocampal gyrus and hippocampus which controls memory.

It also affects the inferior temporal gyrus, which plays a role in remembering to recognize visual stimuli and the caudate nucleus which is involved in learning.

The study, published in Neuroimage was part of the ActiveBrains project and involved more than 101 overweight and obese children.

Dr Ortega said: 'Our work aims at answering questions such as whether the brain of children with better physical fitness is different from that of children with worse physical fitness and if this affects their academic performance.

'The answer is short and forceful: yes, physical fitness in children is linked in a direct way to important brain structure differences, and such differences are reflected in the children's academic performance.'

'To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has examined the association of physical fitness with gray matter volume in overweight or obese children using whole brain analyses.'

Improved academic performance

Importantly, he said the research found motor ability helped fuel grey matter in two regions essential for language processing and reading  the inferior frontal gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus.

Interestingly, there was no link between muscular strength and better function in any area of the brain.

Main author Dr Irene Esteban-Cornejo said grey matter volume in the cortical and subcortical regions influenced by physical fitness improved the children's academic performance.

Moreover, she added: 'Physical fitness is a factor that can be modified through exercise, and combining exercises that improve the aerobic capacity and the motor ability would be an effective approach to stimulate brain development and academic performance in overweight or obese children.'

The group found the children with higher aerobic fitness have more neurons in 'nine cortical and subcortical brain regions relevant for cognition, executive function and academic achievement'.

The researchers called for their findings to be taken into account by educational and public health institutions.

Exercise reduces dementia risk in adults

CHILDREN'S EXERCISE PLUNGES BETWEEN AGES 5 AND 12 Children's exercise levels drop by 40 per cent between the ages of five and 12, NHS figures reveal. They are meant to do at least 60 minutes of moderate activity a day which counts as anything which raises their heartbeat. But only 29 per cent of five year olds manage to achieve this falling to 17 per cent of 12 year olds. Just 23 per cent of boys aged 5 to 15 and 20 per cent of girls meet the Governments activity levels. The figures were released in July by Public Health England as part of a drive to encourage children to do ten minute bursts of activity. Advertisement

Exercise has long been known to improve brain health by boosting blood flow to grey matter. One hour a day has even been found to halve the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Dr Ortega said: 'Differences in brain volumes according to physical fitness are not only observed in the growing brains of children, but also in adults and in older adults in which brain volume is known to shrink as a person ages.

'Several investigations have consistently shown that hippocampus volume is larger in fitter older adults than in their less fit peers.'

He referred to the results of another study which showed that one year of aerobic training in older adults did not only reduce the natural decline in the hippocampus, but even reversed increasing its volume by 2 percent and leading to improvements in memory function.

'Collectively, existent evidence concisely supports that individuals with a better aerobic fitness level, have more developed certain regions of the brain, which in turn has shown to positively influence cognition.

'Therefore, there is emerging evidence suggesting that to exercise and be in a good fitness level is healthy not only for the body, but also for the brain and cognition.'

He said the message is: 'Be smart, exercise your heart.'
A glamorous equestrian has been left in agony and vomiting her excrement after she claims minor keyhole surgery went horribly wrong.

Kelly Yeoman, 34, was admitted to hospital to have a small fluid-filled sac on her ovary removed.

But she was re-admitted two weeks later after her wound 'exploded' and she was told she had an infection in her bowel.

An operation failed to fix the problem and she now vomits after every meal - a mixture of food and her own faeces.

Three months after the cyst procedure, she is still confined to a hospital bed with her body slowly filling with her own excrement.

Every day, medical staff battle to drain the toxic waste from her body and her family fear she may need a colostomy bag or worst, that it may suffocate her.

Disillusioned with the NHS care she has received, her friends and family are trying to raise over 10,000 for private treatment.

Kelly Yeoman had day case surgery to have fluid-filled sac on her ovary removed

The 34-year-old was re-admitted 2 weeks later after getting infection in bowel

A scan of the carer's abdominal area shows a tube inserted by medics to drain the faeces

Waste remains stuck

Kelly's nightmare began in August when she went into hospital  which she has chosen not to name for legal reasons  for the surgery and was admitted as a day case.

The carer, from Bristol, said: 'It was a routine operation. I was home later that day and it didn't seem like anything to worry about.'

But she soon realised there was something more serious wrong.

An operation failed to fix the problem and she now vomits after every meal

She has been left 'severely faecally impacted,' meaning her waste remains stuck in rectum

'The wound on my stomach was getting increasingly puffy and, after two weeks, it exploded, so I went straight to my GP,' she said.

Re-admitted to hospital the next day, Kelly was told that she would need further surgery on her bowel.

But, even after the operation, Kelly's bowel function did not improve.

Instead she is 'severely faecally impacted,' meaning her faeces remain stuck in her rectum, which is now slowly leaking into her body.

Risk of bowel perforation

Kelly has struggled to go from an active horse-rider to suffering excruciating pain and being unable to keep down any food.

Furthermore, her bowel could perforate at any moment  at best meaning she would need a colostomy, which is an operation to divert one end of the bowel through an opening in the tummy.

Faeces is slowly leaking into her body, risking her suffocating or needing a colostomy bag

Kelly's poor health has meant she has been separated from her beloved horse, who is called Huckleberry Finn

She has spent 10 weeks lying in a hospital bed, taking a cocktail of painkillers, but still, doctors have not found a solution.

Kelly, who is single, says she has been surrounded by an incredible group of friends, who are doing everything they can to get treatment for her.

They have set up a GoFundMe page, raising over 10,000 for private treatment at the specialist bowel hospital St Mark's, London.

Spending weeks in hospital has also meant Kelly being separated from her beloved horse, Huckleberry Finn, which she rescued in a poor state and nursed back to health.

Now she is desperate to get home for Christmas and to be back with him. To donate to Kelly's cause, visit here.
Sharon Beaulieu (pictured in her most recent work ID photo) was fired from her position as a medical records clerk at Essentia Health

A Midwestern hospital chain fired more than 50 of its nearly 14,000 employees for refusing to get a flu shot.

Essentia Health introduced a mandate requiring all of its employees to get vaccinated against the flu, whether or not they work in one of its clinical facilities in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Ohio.

None of those states legally require healthcare workers to get flu vaccines, which reduces the flu's prevalence by between 40 and 60 percent, according to the CDC.

At least two groups plan to take action against the healthcare network.

Sharon Beaulieu worked for Essentia as a medical record clerk, until the company fired her last Friday.

Her former employer called her back in to say that she had a shot at keeping her job, if she qualified for a medical or religious exemption from the new policy.

Beaulieu went back to her office, and filled out the exemption paper work.

'I just wrote "N/A" on everything [and] sent them a letter that that's not what I'm claiming as exempt; I'm going to claim this is a human rights violation,' she says.

In fact, Beaulieu has gotten a flu shot every year until now.

'It's never been about the vaccine,' she says, 'I just don't feel that anyone as a right to tell me what to inject into my body or not, that's what it boiled down to for me.'

Beaulieu works in one of Essentia's non-medical warehouse facilities in west Duluth, Minnesota. She has no contact with patients. She says she hardly even interacts with co-workers from her basement post.

Beaulieu, 68, recalls getting emails notifying her that she would be terminated if she did not get vaccinated, beginning about a month ago. Her supervisor spoke to her once, asking if she intended to get the shot.

Essentia told her she could come back to work today, and she suspects she'll find out later whether or not she's been terminated for good. Beaulieu is not optimistic, and she says she will not get the shot under any circumstances.

As a clerk, Beulieu says she makes $15 an hour.

'Not enough to afford a lawyer,' she says, half-jokingly.

In October, the United Steel Workers union filed a lawsuit against Essentia, alleging that the company denied valid exemption requests and failed to negotiate with the union.

A Midwestern hospital network fired more than 50 of its employees for refusing to get flu shots

Now, the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) is also taking action. The union filed an unfair labor relations complaint against Essentia at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The flu shot mandate 'violates the contract that the nurses have with the employer because it introduced a policy without bargaining and the contract expressly says that if you're going to introduce something new, you have to bargain,' says Rick Fuentes, a communications specialist at the MNA.

He says that the union attempted to bargain with Essentia on November 7.

The employer 'had no intention of negotiating,' he says.

Essentia has held its ground, arguing that it is acting in its patients' best interests.

'Essentia Health cares for vulnerable patients every day. Immunization significantly minimizes the risk of patients contracting influenza while under our care,' says Dr Rajesh Prabhu, an infectious disease specialist and patient quality and safety officer.

THE LATEST ON THIS YEAR'S FLU In the US, between 140,000 and 170,000 have been hospitalized due to the flu since 2010, the CDC estimates. As many as 56,000 may have died of the illness in the same time period. The CDC estimates that the flu shot reduces the number of cases by between 40 and 60 percent. Very few people have an allergy to the flu shot, which cannot give you the flu. It can however give you side effects that mimic some of the flu's milder symptoms, including: soreness

low fever

aches

runny nose

headache

sore throat

cough Advertisement

In an email to Daily Mail Online, he stated that 'more than 99.5 percent of Essentias 13,900 colleagues have made a commitment to the safety of their patients and community by receiving the flu vaccine, being approved for an exemption or in the exemption process.'

Fuentes argues that company mandates are not necessarily the best way to ensure patient safety.

While many other vaccinations are mandatory for healthcare workers, a study published in January called into question the effectiveness of required flu shots in particular. It found that the benefits were negligible.

In 2014, Minnesota state legislators introduced a bill to mandate flu vaccination for all healthcare workers, but it did not pass.

'When you rely on a shot to keep from getting sick from healthcare workers, you see healthcare workers develop this bullet proof mentality,' says Fuentes.

'You see fewer flu prevention methods such as ordinary hand-washing practices and protective equipment like masks,' when flu shots are mandated, he claims.

'MNA nurses are not opposed to the flu shot. However, they are opposed to a mandated flu shot policy,' Fuentes says.

He says that the union wanted to negotiate for 'protection' for nurses who might experience allergic reactions or get sick after having the shot.

An estimated one to two percent of people are allergic to the shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all people over six months old get the shot, which it says cannot cause the flu itself.

'Nurses are caregivers and patient advocates, at their bedsides or away, and getting flu shots is something they strongly advocate, but nurses believe that a mandated flu shot policy against their rights and is counterproductive to making sure that their patients are well taken-care of,' says Fuentes.
HISTORY

THE BRAMALL PAPERS: REFLECTIONS ON WAR AND PEACE

by Field Marshal the Lord Bramall of Bushfield (Pen & Sword 25)

Field Marshal Lord Bramall, universally known as Dwin (short for Edwin), is a remarkable man. For a start, he is one of the dwindling band of British soldiers who landed in Normandy in 1944  indeed, he won an MC there.

Among many reasons why I have always admired him is that he is fearless about voicing unpalatable truths, whether about the past, present or future.

Early in this collection of his speeches and writings, he says that Hitlers army was probably the most formidable and effective fighting machine since the Roman legions; that the Wehrmacht was impressively better than the wartime British Army.

Field Marshal Lord Bramall (pictured right with the Queen) has collated his iconic speeches and writings into a new book

Historians share this verdict, but it took courage for Dwin to brave the wrath of many other veterans who were around when he first said it 40 years ago. He likewise told me that when he joined his battalion of the Rifle Corps on the battlefield, it was worn out.

They had shot their bolt. Everybody who was any good had been promoted or become a casualty.

When this line appeared in a book of mine, it brought down the indignation of surviving fellow officers on Dwins head, which he could have deflected by saying it was all young Hastingss fault for misquoting him.

Instead, he increased my respect for him by shrugging to the old boys: What are you complaining about? You know it was true.

He has carried his commitment to speak truth to power to the highest commands in Britains Armed Forces and then through retirement.

In a 1972 speech to officers of the armoured division, which he then commanded in Germany, he said: Why are we here? The answer is simple: to prevent war, not to fight it.

This is a simple lesson that our modern politicians, busy dismantling Britains Armed Forces, would do well to heed: our best chance of avoiding having to fight another ghastly war comes from convincing enemies we are willing and able to defend ourselves if we must.

Lord Bramall (pictured centre) received an apology from the police in 2015 as a result of fabricated claims of sexual misconduct

Bramall reprised this theme in a 1992 speech: No one, in any country, likes paying insurance premiums. When everything is quiet, we bitterly resent doing so. But my goodness, when the wind blows and the floods come and we find ourselves in the worst winter or monsoon or whatever for five years, how glad we are that we didnt suspend paying those premiums.

As Chief of the Defence Staff in 1984, after President Reagan had announced his enthusiasm for the Star Wars anti-ballistic missile defence system, Bramall unhesitatingly offered his absolutely justified opinion that the whole thing was nonsense and should signal funny farm time for anybody who advocated it.

He has a bold eye for pernicious nonsense  for instance, denouncing in a 1993 House of Lords speech a clamour for war crimes charges to be brought against some officers and men of 3 Para for supposed atrocities during the 1982 Falklands War.

The allegations are complete hearsay, Bramall said.

If there is any doubt, should not the benefit go to those who went 8,000 miles to risk their lives for our kith and kin and for the benefit of the whole nation?

In 2001, after the success of the initial allied operations to topple the Taliban government of Afghanistan, he warned: I hope that we do not spoil it by forcing bodies of British troops on to the reluctant Afghans to do heaven-knows-what for heaven-knows-how-long. He displayed similar scepticism about the 2003 campaign to unseat Saddam Hussein, saying: This time, the aim is much more obscure.

THE BRAMALL PAPERS: REFLECTIONS ON WAR AND PEACE by Field Marshal the Lord Bramall of Bushfield (Pen & Sword 25)

Before the event, he rehearsed in print the prudent words of General Gerald Templer before the disastrous 1956 Suez invasion: Of course we can get to Cairo, but what I want to know is this: what the bloody hell do we do when we get there?

Bramall also offers some good jokes  for instance, a story of his old chief Field Marshal Montgomery visiting Winchester College and asking a pupil to name the greatest general of World War II.

The boy instantly replied: Alexander, which, for a moment, threw Monty. Then he recovered and said: Quite right, quite right! Alex always did everything I told him.

It is, of course, a badge of shame for our society that Lord Bramall was subjected to a 2015 persecution following fabricated claims of sexual misconduct, for which the police have now been obliged to provide grovelling apologies and compensation.

This book reminds us how fortunate we are to have had the sort of leadership Dwin provided to the Armed Forces for so many years  together with the wisdom that he still offers to this day.
Crime committed online by cyber hackers is increasingly becoming daily news.

Last week, Cash Converters revealed it had suffered a major breach of security with thousands of UK borrowers' personal data being held to ransom.

It comes hot on the heels of one of the worst ever data breaches at credit agency Equifax, which saw 694,000 customer records in the UK have their data stolen.

Politicians, newspapers, telecomms and energy firms have all been targeted by hackers

Earlier this year, the NHS ground to a halt after hackers hijacked its systems using ransomware, sending doctors, nurses and patients into temporary chaos as their computers locked them out, causing operations and scans to be cancelled.

Politicians, newspapers, telecoms and energy firms have all been targeted.

Scarier still, in a little under two months' time, European legislation called the Payments Services Directive II - also known as open banking - will come into force.

In a nutshell, this change will mean that banks and building societies will have to share your data with registered third parties as long as you consent.

>> Read more on open banking and what it means for your money

Hard as it may be to believe, the reality is your data shouldn't be any more or less safe after open banking than it is now.

But according to Stephen Walker, lead analyst at Global Data, its advent is likely to escalate attempted hacks.

'Its a well-known fact that banking receives 300 to 400 per cent more cyber security attacks than any other industry,' he explains.

Nik Whitfield is a cyber security expert

'Thats because the rewards are that much higher, in terms of not only lost funds, but fraudulent identity, identity fraud, and banks have traditionally protected that by keeping the drawbridge closed.

'Open banking effectively asks them to open the front door. Banks will be exposed to, I think, more risks in more places, with little guidance on how to address those risks, and as things stand, as my understanding is, full liability in the event of any breach.'

Whether or not you choose to allow your bank to provide access to your information to a third party - such as a budgeting app for example - it always pays to do everything you can to stay safe online.

To help, we have asked data security specialist Nik Whitfield, of Panaseer, to give his top 10 tips to protect yourself and your business from hackers.

1. Keep software up to date

The idea of auto updates is great. The reality is far more difficult as most updates require testing in the environment prior to implementation.

Many companies also have large backlog of updates or patches, which requires prioritisation. Ultimately, if companies build updates into their normal IT operations, it becomes more feasible to have auto-updates turned on for the most common systems.

Top 10 most crackable online passwords One in 10 of us use one of 25 passwords. Here are the most overused and least safe passwords - so steer clear! 123456 password 12345 12345678 football qwerty 1234567890 1234567 princess 1234 Use Have I been pwned to check if your password is still safe.

2. Practise good password behaviour

This may be one of the oldest tips for security but its still a huge problem. Forcing the use of strong password usage is still the most effective approach to this issue - ensuring a minimum password length and complexity, making sure they get updated regularly and not letting staff re-use old passwords.

This approach, coupled with good and ongoing awareness training on other important password controls (dont use the same passwords for personal and business use, dont store your passwords in a software tool, never share passwords) is key.

Staff need reinforced education on passwords and the risks.

Use password vaults to store passwords safely - here are a few to consider: LastPass, Dashlane, KeePass and 1Password. Hopefully one day authentication techniques will be improved to the degree where we no longer need passwords.

3. Make security part of your buying decision when purchasing software

As we move more to software as a service, cloud, and other operating models, the importance of incorporating security from the start becomes more important.

This means product and development teams should engage the security department from the very beginning of the decision and implementation process.

By getting involved early, key security decisions over access, logging, and monitoring can be addressed up front and potentially avoid becoming an obstacle for implementation later in the cycle. Businesses should integrate dual factor authentication for all new applications/systems - without it, the system should not be integrated.

The same goes for individuals - if you're upgrading your computer, software or home systems, think about security first.

4. Keep firewalls turned on

There is always a temptation to consider turning off security measures such as firewalls when running into application or system implementation issues.

But sometimes the problem with this is that they are not turned back on, which can expose the entire company or your personal computer to compromise. Using tools to automate the monitoring of firewalls (such as xxxxx) will ensure that doesn't happen.

5. Change wifi passwords from the default

All default passwords on all IT devices and software should be changed as part of the initial implementation procedures. Since wifi is a gateway into a companys network or your home network, it is critical that there are no easy ways for unauthorised users to gain access.

Most intruders, regardless of their motive, will first try to breach a company using weaknesses in their basic security.

Any companys normal assessment processes for devices and software should include searching for default passwords.

This is really important - hackers have successfully used household devices including baby monitors, smart TVs or wifi to hack into people's homes and gain access to their data.

MOST COMMON CYBER CRIMES Phishing: bogus emails asking for security information and personal details Webcam manager: where criminals takeover your webcam File hijacker: where criminals hijack files and hold them to ransom Keylogging: where criminals record what you type on your keyboard Screenshot manager: allows criminals to take screenshots of your computer screen Ad clicker: allows a criminal to direct a victims computer to click a specific link Source: National Crime Agency

6. Try not to connect to public wifi

Businesses need to marry IT policy with employee behaviour. In a ideal world, staff would never connect corporate devices to a public wifi network.

However, with the human need to be always connected, Im not sure its worth trying to fight the tide on this.

Sure, for our users with higher level privileges or key personnel, it might be a good approach to advise they do not use public wifi, but even they may not comply.

It may be best to focus on steps we can take to help reduce the risk of using public wifi, such as making sure antivirus is running and current on the device, turning off user admin rights on the device, making sure data loss prevention software is running and not permitting privileged access when not on the company network.

It's also worth noting that last month researchers at a Belgian university revealed hat huge numbers of wifi-enabled devices are vulnerable to a newly discovered hack nicknamed Krack.

Computers and phones running iOS, Android Windows, Linux, as well as wifi hardware from companies including Cisco and Ubiquity Networks, are all affected by the issue. Make sure you are up to date with Krack patches.

7. Use antivirus software

USE IT! Also make sure you keep the 'definition files' current. While many businesses are now questioning the value of todays antivirus applications, not using it is foolish.

This comes down to the simple premise that the bad hackers always go for the easiest way to compromise your system and not using this very basic security approach will make it much more likely that you will be compromised.

Would you leave your house and never lock it?

Earlier this year the NHS lost access to all its files as part of a massive global cyber attack

8. Use an old laptop for all your online banking

Often people just ditch an old laptop, or leave it somewhere to gather dust.

Rather than do this, it's actually a great idea to keep an old laptop working but use it for online banking transactions only.

Of course, it's still important to be smart about your banking application safety (use complex passwords, change the passwords frequently, use dual factor authentication), keep your device software updated and closely monitor your banking activity.

9. Never respond to incoming links

Not responding to links embedded in email is a strong security practice for consumers and businesses alike.

Not responding to links embedded in email is a strong security practice for consumers and businesses alike

If you must use an embedded link, make sure you know the source sending the email and that you trust the sender. If not, you should not connect to the link.

Also, looking at the details of the source of the message, the content of the message and link, you may be able to identify that the message isnt from who it appears to be from.

If so, discard or send to your IT support person to research if it is valid. Again, if you are not sure, never click on a link.

10. Tell vulnerable customers about the risks and how to protect themselves

One of the most important facets of information security is education and awareness.

Unfortunately, most businesses allocate less to this area of security than most other areas.

In the end, most breaches start with human behaviour, which means we need to do as much as we can to educate users.

Any opportunity to teach secure computing should be seized, especially when that education is using a real example pertinent to the user.
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Black Friday madness has officially gripped the nation.

The elbows-out shopping bonanza began on Thursday night as stores across the country opened their doors early to crowds of frantic bargain hunters.

It carried on throughout the day on Friday as millions flocked to malls, stores and retail websites to snag a bargain.

While most were peaceful in their pursuit of cut-priced goods, brawls and tugs-of-war erupted in different stores. One, in a Buckle store in Hoover, Alabama, resulted in two women being arrested.

The violence was even more severe in Missouri where a 19-year-old man was shot outside a mall as shoppers rushed to snap up cut-price goods inside. He is in a critical condition.

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ALABAMA: At the Buckle store in Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama, a mass brawl which began with two women shut down the whole shopping center

ALABAMA: Both of the women were arrested. Police have since revealed that their fight was personal and not shopping-related

For the most part, the shopping was civilized and, in some cases, orderly.

At the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2,500 lined up neatly in rows for the doors opening at 5am.

Others camped outside a Walmart in Massachusetts which opened at 1am and will remain open until 11pm on Friday night, giving bargain hunters almost 24 hours of uninterrupted shopping.

Traditionally, most on-the-ground shopping is done on Black Friday and online shoppers wait until Cyber Monday when prices are reduced even further.

But this year at-home shoppers flooded retail websites early, causing some, including Lowes home improvements, to crash.

MASSACHUSETTS: At BJ's in Northborough, Massachusetts, people filled their shopping carts with wine, TVs and toilet paper as the sales got underway

MASSACHUSETTS: At BJs in Northborough, a man picks up one of the discounted 65in flat screen televisions on offer

MASSACHUSETTS: In Dartmouth, Massachusetts, Jeffrey Clark and Jania Carreiro waited outside Walmart for its doors to open at 1am on Friday. The store will be open for almost 24 hours - until 11pm on Friday night

MASSACHUSETTS: People slept outside the Walmart in Dartmouth in order to go through its doors as soon as they opened at 1am

MASSACHUSETTS: At a Best Buy in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, a man rushes to pay for his TV at Best Buy

MASSACHUSETTS: Shoppers rush to snap up Playstations and other electronics at a Best Buy on Black Friday

MINNESOTA: At the Mall of America in Minneapolis, thousands queued up before the mall opened at 5am on Friday to snag thousands of free gifts and snap up deals which were being offered

MINNESOTA: The Mall of America is a world famous shopping destination with 520 stores inside. It is offering extended hours on Black Friday and will be open from 5am until 10pm

CHICAGO: One video taken at a Walmart in south Chicago shows shoppers swarming over a table to pick up discounted goods

As is the case every year, Target, Walmart and Best Buy were the big winners and had snaking queues outside their stores long before staff welcomed in the first customers.

In Massachusetts, dedicated shoppers braved freezing temperatures to camp outside stores with blankets.

They waited patiently for Walmart and Best Buy to open at 1am. Walmart in Dartmouth will be open until 11pm on Friday night - 22 hours after it opened its doors to the first shoppers.

Neither incident of violence in Missouri and Alabama were sparked by fights over sale items, according to local police.

This year's frenzy will see Americans spend an astonishing $20billion in stores and online, according to consumer experts.

Experts predict 164 million Americans will spend nearly $1,000 each over the holiday weekend.

The mayhem began at 5pm on Thanksgiving Day as thousands of bargain hunters rushed inside stores across the US in search of amazing sales, door buster deals and limited-time offers.

Macy's Herald Square in Manhattan saw hundreds of people lined up outside their doors waiting to get their hands on deals like cosmetic and perfume sets from $10 to $20 as well as 40 per cent off on boots and shoes.

Shoppers were also seen flocking to its Apple shop for deals on gadgets like the Apple Watch.

NEW YORK STATE: There were long lines for the Best Buy at Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York, on Friday morning

NEW YORK STATE: At the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York, a woman piles more goods into a trolley full of items

NEW YORK STATE: An overwhelmed shopper takes a break at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York

MANHATTAN: Two women try on sunglasses at Century 21 in downtown Manhattan in New York on Black Friday

MANHATTAN: Women ride the escalators at H&M on Black Friday as they hunt for bargains

MANHATTAN: H&M released an entire Black Friday collection for cost-conscious shoppers

MANHATTAN: A woman carrying a Macy's bag makes her way through New York City after snagging a variety of goods

MANHATTAN: Women in Macy's at Herald Square survey the merchandise at the Michael Kors accessories concession

MANHATTAN: Lord & Taylor, another popular NYC department store, attracted others with its deals

MANHATTAN: A woman makes her way through Herald Square with a KitchenAid blender

MANHATTAN: Shoppers laden down with bags from the Disney Store and Old Navy carry on in search of more bargains

MANHATTAN: Shoppers in Manhattan braved the cold to make the most of the deals across the city's stores

MANHATTAN: At Target in Herald Square, a woman makes the most of the buy one get one half-price deal on toys

BROOKLYN: In Brooklyn, New York, a young woman carries a large Target bag and children's toy down the street

BROOKLYN: A man pushes a cart of refrigerators and microwaves in to Target store

WEBSITES CRASH AS ONLINE SHOPPERS GET AHEAD OF THEMSELVES BEFORE CYBER MONDAY Lowes website crashed on Friday as online shoppers rushed to place orders While millions raced out on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday to get their hands on good deals, many are waiting to spend their cash online. On Monday, countless more deals will appear on retailers' websites. This year, experts predict that $6billion will be spent online on Monday alone. The figure last year was $3.45billion, a new online sales record. It is too soon to say whether more money will be spent on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. By 5pm Thursday, shoppers had already spent $1.52 billion, which is a 17 per cent increase from last year. Some websites began taking online orders on Friday after putting deals online early. Lowes, the home improvement retailer, buckled under the surge in traffic and its website crashed. 'The site is currently offline and will be available within the next hour. Until then, we invited you to check out these other Lowes affiliated sites. Thanks for your patience,' was the message which greeted shoppers. It was back up and running after an hour or so. Advertisement

An estimated 164 million people are planning to shop or are considering shopping during the Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation (NRF).

Of those considering shopping the long holiday weekend, the survey found that 32 million plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day, but Black Friday will remain the busiest day with 115 million shoppers descending on US stores.

Consumers said they will spend an average $967.13 this year, according to the annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.

That's up 3.4 per cent from the $935.58 consumers said they would spend when surveyed at the same time last year.

Cyber Monday is expected to become the largest online shopping day in history, generating $6.6 billion in sales, 16.5 per cent growth compared to last year.

The initial sales on Thanksgiving Day were expected to increase 15 per cent to $2.8 billion. But by 5pm Thursday, Americans had already spent $1.52 billion, which is a 17 per cent increase from last year.

FLORIDA: Shoppers in the Sunshine State enjoyed balmy temperatures as they hit the shops

FLORIDA: In Naples, a man and woman peruse storefronts as they make their way through the sales

IOWA: Renee Hantelmann and her husband Josh wore onesies to shop at Target in Dubuque

IOWA: Other shoppers in Home-Farm-Auto were also in the Christmas spirit and donned costumes

IOWA: Robert Carey and h is four-month-old son Nash were among the shoppers at Theisen's Home-Farm-Auto in Dubuque

TEXAS: Shoppers wait for Dillards to open at 8am in Tyler, Texas, on Friday

IDAHO: Shoppers at a Walmart in Idaho search bargain buckets for body massagers and discounted DVDs

IDAHO: Three-year-old Tyler Green entertains himself as his family shops in Target in Idaho Falls

TEXAS: Gun stores enjoyed the sales too. There were lines of people waiting to pay for their weapons and accessories at this Superior Firearms in Tyler

CALIFORNIA: In Burbank, a woman pushes an enormous television and sound bank through Best Buy

CALIFORNIA: A woman tries to maneuver a 55in television out of Best Buy in Burbank

VIRGINIA: At Valley View Mall in Roanoke, Virginia, DJ Russell Prusak entertained shoppers in one of the mall's ploys to keep people coming in rather than shop online

WHAT THEY ARE BUYING The Amazon Echo is among the most popular items At the Mall of America, staff said the biggest demand was for voice-activated electronic goods like Amazon's Echo speaker and clothes. The Echo is being sold for $79.99 online and in stores, a discount of $20. At Best Buy, televisions were enormously discounted. Macy's, Nordstrom, and Best Buy were the most crowded of its 520 stores. Shoppers are also rushing to snap up Hatchimals, a children's toy which has surged in popularity Another popular purchase was the Hatchimal - a children's toy which has been discounted slightly across stores including Target and Best Buy. The iPhone 8 was also expected to be a big it. Best Buy was offering $200 off on financing deals. Advertisement

Adobe also projects $5 billion will be spent by the end of Black Friday.

Between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday, sales are predicted to hit $19.7 billion.

The NRF expects holiday retail sales in November and December  excluding automobiles, gasoline and restaurants  to increase between 3.6 and 4 per cent for a total of $678.75 billion to $682 billion, up from $655.8 billion last year.

US stores had to get creative this year with tricks to lure shoppers off the internet and back into the thick of it.

Shopping malls in several states scheduled Santa photo shoots with family pets as one way to attract customers in the face of the exploding online shopping realm.

Brick-and-mortar stores have expanded their bag of tricks - and gotten increasingly bold - as they look to lure shoppers who might otherwise be happy to stay on the couch and pick up gifts while still in their pajamas.

For the holiday shopping season, malls are hosting gingerbread decorating sessions, visits from the Grinch and ugly Christmas sweater nights.

Temporary ice skating rinks and magical winter decor - like the famous Macy's window displays in New York - are also being used to draw customers intent on an in-person holiday experience.

Walmart stores plans to throw more than 20,000 'holiday parties' at which children can pose for 'selfies with Santa'.

The flagship Bloomingdale's store in New York has held yoga classes in the past, while Nordstrom has displayed Tesla cars near the section for men's suits. A number of shops now also ply visitors with food and drink.

'All of these retailers are desperate to get people into their stores,' said analyst Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, who added a note of caution about all the promotions.

'Whether they work or not is open to debate.'

More than 800 people lined up outside a Best Buy in Irving, Texas, on Thanksgiving.

The electronics store had some of the most impressive lines with line in Tennessee snaking into the parking lot.

MANHATTAN: Eager shoppers were seen cramped against the store's doors as they waited patiently to get their hands on early Christmas gifts at Macy's in Herald Square on Thursday night

MANHATTAN: Macy's opened its doors at 5pm on Thanksgiving Day for thousands of early Black Friday shoppers in search of amazing sales, door buster deals, and limited-time-offers

MANHATTAN: The Manhattan Macy's store has deals like cosmetic and perfume sets from $10 to $20 as well as 40 per cent off on boots and shoes that have enticed shoppers this Black Friday

MANHATTAN: Within minutes of the store doors opening on Thursday night, Macy's was packed with shoppers eager to make the most of the deals

MANHATTAN: A woman looks at a pair of boots in Macy's Herald Square, which is offering 40 per cent off of boots and shoes

MANHATTAN: People shop for items in Macy's Herald Square during early opening for the Black Friday sales in Manhattan

MANHATTAN: The initial sales on Thanksgiving Day were expected to increase 15 per cent to $2.8 billion. But by 5pm Thursday, Americans had already spent $1.52 billion, which is a 17 per cent increase from last year

Some shared tactics for cutting the line by wearing store uniforms. Other enterprising Twitter users were prepared to sell theirs

In Nevada, more than 40 dispensaries are offering discounts on marijuana flower products, edibles such as chocolates, and concentrates, this Black Friday.

This is the first Black Friday since legal sales of recreation marijuana began in Nevada.

'It's a great stocking-stuffer, and now you can treat it like alcohol in that regard,' said state Sen. Tick Segerblom, who helped legalize recreational pot in the state. 'As long as no kids can get to it. It's for adults only.'

Some dispensaries are offering an eighth of an ounce of select flower products for $35, down from $53. One dispensary is gifting shoppers a 10-pack of fruit chew edibles with any purchase, while another one has a buy-one-get-one-free special on edibles.

Legal sales of recreational marijuana began in the state July 1. Those 21 and older with a valid ID can buy up to an ounce of pot. People can only use the drug in a private home as it remains illegal to consume it in public, including the Las Vegas Strip, hotels and casinos.

'Cannabis use has been misunderstood and vilified in our country for over 80 years, so this day will feel both surreal and celebratory,' said Andrew Jolley, owner of dispensaries and president of the Nevada Dispensary Association. 'We're very excited about the first holiday season of adult-use in Nevada.'

TEXAS: Holiday shoppers create aisle traffic at Best Buy during an early start to the Black Friday sale at Chimney Rock Shopping Center in Odessa, Texas

CALIFORNIA: Thanksgiving holiday shoppers wait in a check out line at the JCPenny store in Glendale, California on Thanksgiving Day

KENTUCKY: Lines formed round the block of this Best Buy in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on Thursday afternoon

KANSAS: A woman waiting to be allowed in to Best Buy in Overland Park, Kansas, picks out what she is going to choose once inside from a catalogue

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Shoppers in Target had more room to themselves and snagged cut-price TVs on Thursday night. Above, Jane Sousie and her son with their matching TVs in a store in Keene
The Las Vegas gunman who killed dozens of people at a concert last month fired more than 1,100 rounds and had 4,000 more rounds left.

The newly released estimate from Sheriff Joe Lombardo offers more detail about the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

Paddock murdered 58 people and injured hundreds more when he used his Mandalay Bay hotel suite as a vantage point to fire on crowds enjoying the country music show. He then turned one of his weapons on himself.

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Las Vegas gunman, Stephen Paddock (left and right), who killed dozens of people at a concert last month fired more than 1,100 rounds and had 4,000 more rounds left

Sheriff Joe Lombardo said authorities found about 4,000 unused rounds in Paddock's Mandalay Bay suite

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the new total includes about 200 rounds fired from Paddock's Mandalay Bay suite and into the hallway of the 32nd floor on October 1, which injured hotel security guard Jesus Campos.

Lombardo said he was aware of the previously unreported figure because his department's forensics lab is working with the FBI to process all ballistics evidence.

The sheriff also said authorities found about 4,000 unused rounds in the suite.

Authorities have not determined Paddock's motive or why he stopped shooting.

The sheriff also said that 'multiple weapons' had jammed, but Lombardo did not provide a specific number.

FBI investigators are still speaking with Paddock's girlfriend, Marilou Danley.

The last conversation they had with Danley occurred on Monday but 'nothing substantial was obtained,' according to the Review-Journal.

The sheriff said he hopes to release more information on the shooting in the next two weeks.

Authorities have not determined Paddock's (his body is seen right) motive or why he stopped shooting. The sheriff also said that 'multiple weapons' (pictured) had jammed, but Lombardo did not provide a specific number
It's not just teenagers having a good time at schoolies, with one female police officer caught busting some extraordinary moves on the dancefloor.

Queensland Police Senior Constable Tara Stanton was captured cutting loose on stage at Schoolies celebrations on the Gold Coast on Thursday.

At a dance party for school-leavers, Sen Con Stanton was seen dancing enthusiastically dancing atop a podium as amused teenagers watched on.

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Queensland Police Senior Constable Tara Stanton (far right) was captured cutting loose on stage at Schoolies celebrations on the Gold Coast on Thursday

The officer took to the stage as part of a nightly dance competition called Blow Zero.

School leavers were encouraged to showcase their dance moves, with a winner being crowned each night.

In a Queensland Police effort to discourage drinking, the winner needed to blow a blood alcohol reading of zero to claim their prize.

While police made more than 50 arrests this year, not all school leavers had negative experiences with officers.

At a dance party for school leavers, Sen Con Stanton was seen dancing enthusiastically atop a podium as amused teenagers watched on

The officer took to the stage as part of a nightly dance competition called Blow Zero

Photos of school leavers with police officers have been flooding social media.

Appearing to harbour no ill-will for the police presence on the Gold Coast, teenagers posted happy snaps of themselves alongside officers.

Police officers were also more than happy to keep young school leavers on side, as they posed for the stream of photos.

hotos of school leavers with police officers have been flooding social media

Appearing to harbour no ill-will for the police presence on the Gold Coast, teenagers posted happy snaps of themselves alongside officers
An 18-year-old girl almost ended up in a wheelchair after she fell while trying to jump a fence during schoolies celebrations.

Acacia Hardman lost sensation in the right side of her body after injuring her neck in the fall on Wednesday night.

The Bunbury schoolgirl said she tried to climb over a waist-high barrier in the leavers zone in Dunsborough, in southwest WA, taking a shortcut to a fairground ride.

Acacia Hardman, 18, almost ended up in a wheelchair after she fell while trying to jump a fence during schoolies celebrations

'I tried to jump the fence but didn't make it and fell. I think my foot got stuck and I was kind of just laying there screaming,' she told The West Australian.

'I lost all feeling in the right side of my body, I had pain in my shoulder and my head and my neck. It was all so scary. I was just worried I could have ended up in a wheelchair just because of one week.'

The young woman admitted she probably shouldn't have taken the risk of climbing over the fence while drunk, as her blood alcohol level was at least 0.12.

The young woman admitted she probably shouldn't have taken the risk of climbing over the fence while drunk, as her blood alcohol level was at least 0.12

Acacia was flown to Royal Perth Hospital by rescue helicopter where she remains in a neck brace two days after the accident.

She has regained the feeling and movement she lost but doctors were still checking her for neck and spinal injuries.

More than 8,000 school leavers partied at the event and thousands more in private accommodation across the popular region.


The man who allegedly killed a mother and daughter leaving their parent-teacher interviews has been charged for the fatal hit-and-run.

Tom Adamson, 26, reportedly ran down the duo after leaving a bar on the eve of August 9.

The Devon Meadows local had allegedly been involved in an argument with someone he knew prior to leaving the bar, the Herald Sun reports.

Tom Adamson, 26, reportedly ran down the duo after leaving a bar on the eve of August 9

It has been alleged Adamson had overtaken a number of vehicles in quick succession before the accident took place and he fled the scene

Mei-Li Dai and her 14-year-old daughter Xinyu Yuan were leaving private school Lighthouse Christian College in their Toyota when Adamson's Holden Commodore collided with them on the South Gippsland Highway.

Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives said the pair were killed instantly.

It has been alleged Adamson had overtaken a number of vehicles in quick succession before the accident took place and he fled the scene.

Mei-Li Dai and her 14-year-old daughter Xinyu Yuan were leaving private school Lighthouse Christian College in their Toyota

He had to be 'held back' as emergency services pulled his wife and daughter's bodies from the car (pictured)

Ms Dai's husband Zheng Chuan Yuan, who said Adamson has 'torn his family apart', was on night shift at a welding factor when he heard the news.

He had to be 'held back' as emergency services pulled his wife and daughter's bodies from the car.

The 26-year-old has now been charged by authorities.

He is facing seven charges  two counts of culpable driving causing death, two counts of dangerous driving causing death, disqualified driving, exceeding the prescribed alcohol limit and driving under the influence.

He will appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court tomorrow.

Ms Dai's husband Zheng Chuan Yuan, who said Adamson has 'torn his family apart', was on night shift at a welding factor when he heard the news
The family of young woman who plunged to her death while taking a selfie has rushed to London to bring her back home.

A London coroner ruled the woman fell from the upstairs window while taking a photo of herself.

Toni Kelly, who is described as 'happy and beautiful', died in London on life support after suffering a serious brain injury.

A spokeswoman for the Inner West London Coroner told the Evening Standard an inquest had been opened and completed.

'We can confirm she fell from the window,' she said.

Toni Kelly (pictured) who is described as 'happy and beautiful' died in London on life support

A hearing is scheduled to take place on January 24.

Toni's aunt, Sharon Kelly, said the family had been left 'totally devastated'.

Friends and family are now raising money to bring her home and have set up Givealittle page 'Bring our Toni home'.

They said Toni's organs have been donated to 'help save other lives in the UK'.

The money raised will help the family bring Toni home and pay for any extra expenses.

More than $33,400 had been raised by Wednesday morning.

Paige Hourigan, who was best friends with Toni in primary school and kept in touch through the later years, told Daily Mail Australia 'the girl who was always smiling' was 'the most fun' to be around.

Toni's family have traveled to the UK to bring her body back to New Zealand

Friends understand she fell out of a window but that has not been confirmed by UK officials or family

'When we were young Toni was one of those people that never had anything bad to say about anyone, she was super girly, laid back and fun which I loved.

'I remember just laughing and giggling with her all the time about nothing. She was a beautiful girl that will definitely always be remembered - especially for that smile.'

Tributes have poured in for Toni with friends, family and strangers pledging their support for the cause.

'So so tragic. The hardest thing ever to experience. Much love to all of you. Another beautiful angel watching over us all. xx,' wrote Lisa Hankinson.

'I'd hope this will help get your gorgeous girl home,' wrote a guest donor.

Money raised on a Givealittle page will help Toni's family with the high costs of bringing her body back home to New Zealand

Others shared their condolences and offered well wishes as well as prayers.

Her sister Stacey Kelly thanked girls on Facebook who had set up the page to bring her cherished family member home.

'I just wanna say thank you from the bottom of my heart for the endless support so far.

'Also a huge thank you to the girls who thought of & created this beautiful page for our baby girl.

'We are completely lost for words & can't wait to be home.'
Britain's biggest energy firm has suffered a mass exodus of customers in protest at rising prices.

Since June, more than 820,000 households have switched from Centrica, the owner of British Gas, after it put up electricity tariffs by 12.5 per cent.

The power giant yesterday issued a profit warning, and its shares fell by more than 15 per cent in early trading, wiping about 1.4billion off its stock market value.

The price rises from British Gas added 76 a year to the average annual dual fuel bill for millions of people on its standard variable tariff (SVT).

At the time, ministers and consumer groups advised customers to switch to cheaper rivals where they could save more than 300 a year, and it appears many customers followed the advice.

The big switch: Since June, more than 820,000 households have switched from Centrica, the owner of British Gas, after it put up electricity tariffs by 12.5 per cent

Meanwhile British Gas, along with other energy firms, faces a further threat to profits from the Governments plans to impose a price cap on the SVT, which is the most expensive and profitable tariff.

Centrica said only 150,000 of the 823,000 households who closed their accounts did so because of the price rise, which came into effect in September.

It said 650,000 accounts were lost as a result of so-called collective switching, where large groups of households join forces with a new provider to get a cheaper deal.

Following the customer exodus, British Gas has 13.1 million customer accounts from 7.9 million households.

Mark Todd, co-founder of the price comparison website, Energyhelpline, described the customer exodus as terrible news for the company. He said: This is a historic loss for the UKs biggest energy supplier and shows that the shocking 12.5 per cent electricity price hike in the summer has not gone unnoticed.

Power giant Centrica yesterday issued a profit warning, and its shares fell by more than 15 per cent in early trading, wiping about 1.4billion off its stock market value

Energy prices are now at a record high and customers simply cannot afford to stay with suppliers who are rising prices and thus punishing loyal customers.

These astonishing numbers from British Gas really demonstrate that customers are savvy and switching, which is without a doubt the best way to pay less.

The reality of the modern energy market in the UK means that suppliers will lose customers if they charge standard prices to a lot of their base.

More and more customers are unafraid to vote with their feet, and this trend shows no signs of slowing.

Centrica chief executive Iain Conn this week launched a campaign to kill off the Governments price cap.

He also called for the cost of levies to support a switch to green energy and support vulnerable customers to be moved from bills to general taxation. Mr Conn said yesterday: Although some aspects of our delivery in the second half of 2017 have been disappointing, I remain encouraged by our progress in implementing our strategy.

n Nearly a third of households have stayed with their home insurance provider for more than five years  potentially paying more than they need to.

A survey commissioned by Citizens Advice found that 31 per cent of households have had their policy for more than five years  meaning they could be paying 70 per cent more than a new customer would, or 110 a year on average

Citizens Advice said companies can make large hikes in premiums when customers renew their existing policies rather than shopping around for a cheaper deal.

It said vulnerable consumers must be protected from the loyalty penalty.

Older people are particularly likely to have stayed with their provider, the research found.

Four out of ten over-65s have held their home insurance policy for more than five years, the poll of 4,000 people found.
James Bulger's father Ralph has said his toddler son's killer should never be freed again after he was dragged back to jail over child porn for the second time.

Jon Venables was arrested last week after officials making a routine visit to his home discovered the 'sickening' images on his computer and alerted police.

It is the second time that the monster, now 35, has been put behind bars for child porn offences, having been caught with a large hoard of images in 2010.

Venables and Robert Thompson were ten when they abducted James, 2, from outside a Merseyside butchers before torturing and murdering him in 1993.

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Jon Venables (pictured after he was arrested as a 10-year-old), one of the killers of James Bugler, is back in jail after being caught with child porn - the second time he's been recalled

Ralph Bulger (left, in 2011), James' father, said that monster Venables could kill again and should spend the rest of his life behind bars

In CCTV footage that shocked a nation, Venables (seen holding the toddler's hand) and Thompson are seen leading James out of the shopping centre and towards his death

Ralph and Denise Bulger, parents of James, during an emotional police press conference in the aftermath of his death

Ralph Bulger, James' father, said that monster Venables could kill again and should spend the rest of his life behind bars.

'You cant rewire evil and that is what he is,' Mr Bulger told The Sun. 'Let him out again and he will strike again.

'The child abuse offences he has committed over and over as an adult are part of a very frightening build-up to him murdering another child like James.'

It comes after James' mother Denise accused the probation service of 'covering up' for 'vile, perverted psychopath' Venables.

She said: 'I predicted Venables would re-offend unless they kept a very tight rein on him and I pray that now, someone from the UK government will finally listen to me.'

Venables, now 35, was arrested last week after officials making a routine visit to his home discovered the 'sickening' images on his computer and alerted police.

How Bulger killer Jon Venables is back in jail for the second time in seven years Jon Venables is back in prison Jon Venables was first released from prison in 2001, at the age of 18, and given a new identity to protect him from the risk of vigilante attacks - but he has been returned to jail twi At the time, a psychiatrist ruled that he did not pose a danger to the public and was extremely unlikely to commit any further offences. However, he developed drinking and drugs problems, and he compromised his identity at least twice by telling friends he was a convicted murderer. When a probation officer visited his home in Cheshire in 2010 to discuss his fears that he could be in danger, he was attempting to destroy the hard drive of his computer. The hard drive was later examined by police, who discovered that it contained dozens of indecent images of children. Venables admitted that he had posed online as a 35-year-old woman who had abused her eight-year-old daughter, and was returned to prison. Advertisement

It is the second time that the murderer has been put back behind bars having been caught with a large hoard of child porn in 2010.

The killer's new identity is protected by a lifelong anonymity order and has been changed four times since his release in 2001, costing taxpayers 250,000 each time, and around 5million in total has been spent trying to rehabilitate him.

His arrest has led to calls for him never to be released again and a source close to the family said: 'The question has now to be asked whether he has finally run out of chances'.

The Sun reported that Venables was rushed to a maximum security prison, which cannot be identified for legal reasons.

A source told the newspaper: 'Every expense has been afforded him, every expert opinion offered, every opportunity given.

'And yet here we are again. If he is found to have committed a new offence, then why should the public continue to pay through the nose to protect his anonymity any longer?'

Venables is now being held for breaching the life-long licence he and Robert Thompson were given after the brutal torture and murder of James Bulger in 1993.

Venables, who has not yet been charged with any offence, and Thompson were both 10-years-old when they shocked Britain by abducting James, then just two-years-old.

The crime made the boys the youngest killers in modern English history and public enemy number one with millions of Brits.

The duo snatched Bulger from outside a butcher's shop in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1993, while his mother popped into a store for just a few seconds.

The toddler's mutilated body was found on a railway line in Walton, Liverpool, two days later.

Venables and Thompson were found guilty of killing Bulger in November 1993 and were sentenced to custody until they reached 18.

Ralph Bulger's solicitor reads out a prepared statement following a parole hearing at Liverpool Crown Court for Jon Venables in 2011

The parents of James Bulger (left), Denise Fergus and Ralph Bulger (right, in 1996), said they were 'filled with terror' by the decision to grant parole to Venables in 2013

Thompson and Venables became public enemy number one during the trial into James's death (an angry crowd are pictured remonstrating as the pair arrive at court)

The crime made Thompson (pictured) and Venables the youngest killers in modern English history

CCTV footage shows the final moments of James Bulger's life, as he is led to a railway track by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson

They were freed in 2001 after serving eight years behind bars, but by 2010 Venables was back in prison for violating the terms of his release by possessing child porn.

It was revealed that he had downloaded and distributed more than 100 images of child abuse, some involving victims as young as two being raped.

In one instance he messaged another paedophile claiming to be a married mother who abused her eight-year-old daughter, and offered to sell access to the child.

He was freed from prison for the second time in 2013 after a recommendation from the Parole Board.

At the time, Denise and Ralph Bulger said they were 'filled with terror' by the decision to grant parole to Venables.

Secret new life of Venables' co-murderer Robert Thompson During the highly-publicised trial in 1993, it was Robert Thompson who the prosecution painted as the ringleader. In fact, a report by famed psychiatrist Sir Michael Rutter release said Venables posed a 'trivial risk' to the public should he be released. But while Venables quickly reoffended after getting out of prison, Thompson set about starting a quiet life in the North West, having impressed prison officials with his talents in art. He also took A-levels while behind bars and ended up in a stable relationship with another man. The pair are banned from contacting each other under the terms of their release. Thompson is thought to have stuck to the terms of the licence, so details of his new life have never been revealed in court. Reports surfaced in 2005 that he was addicted to heroin, while a childhood friend claimed to have bumped into him while he was working as a steward at a major sporting event in the North West of England. Advertisement

Mr Bulger said: 'It is only a matter of time before he caves in to his lust for young children again.

'Jon Venables is and always was a predatory sex killer who will never be changed. He will always be a danger to children which is why he must be locked up for life.'

After Venables's conviction for child porn, a review discovered he had regularly breached a condition of his original release that he must not go back to Merseyside.

The probe said he would 'certainly' have been returned to jail sooner if officials had known his movements  which could have been monitored by a satellite tag.

Under strict rules put in place following his release from prison, the murderer has lifelong anonymity, meaning anyone he speaks to online will not know about his past.

Only a tight-knit cabal operating under conditions of extreme secrecy are allowed to know who he really is.

Under the terms of his life-long licence, one or two senior probation officers regularly visit Venables to ensure he is adhering to the conditions of his release.

The terms include a ban on travelling to Merseyside, and he also faces restrictions on accessing the internet.

Venables was given his first new identity when he was jailed in 1993, and a second when he was released from a sentence of indefinite imprisonment in 2001 aged 18.

In May 2011, his name and background was changed once again after a 'serious breach' in the security of the identity he had been using.

In 2013, officials said they would not give him another identity because he could not be trusted to keep it secret.

But they were forced to change their minds amid mounting fears for his safety if he is ever outed.

Pictures purporting to be of Venables were circulated on the internet in 2013, despite an injunction granting him lifetime anonymity.

The toddler's mutilated body was found on a railway line in Walton, Liverpool, two days after he was abducted

The canal in Bootle, Merseyside, where it is thought Jon Venables and Robert Thompson threatened to throw James Bulger in as they toyed with how to torture him

The duo snatched Bulger from outside a butcher's shop (shown) in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1993, while his mother popped into a store for just a few seconds
A Labour party member who suggested horse whipping Bristols black mayor has been forced to apologise for using words with unintentional racial connotations.

Mal Sainsbury called for a metaphorical horse whip to lick our mayor and councillors into shape in a post on Facebook.

The message provoked fury among equalities activists from Operation Black Vote, who called on Mrs Sainsbury to be expelled from the party.

They brought it to the attention of Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, who responded by asking if it was an appropriate way of describing an interaction between a person of white European and black African heritage in a city like Bristol?

Mal Sainsbury called for a metaphorical horse whip to lick our mayor and councillors into shape in a post on Facebook

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, who responded by asking if it was an appropriate way of describing an interaction between a person of white European and black African heritage in a city like Bristol?

Mrs Sainsbury claimed she was referring to an incident in 1909, when a suffragette whipped Winston Churchill at the citys Temple Meads train station.

But she later apologised and conceded it was a lesson in how language matters.

She said: My words were intended to reference white patriarchal dominance over women. It was about gender and power, not colour.

But although unintentional, the imagery also conjured up racial connotations of another dark and dreadful part of Bristols history.

Mrs Sainsbury said she deeply regretted any offence and offered a full and unremitting apology to all those affected.

Bristol has strong links to slavery. Thousands of ships left Bristol for Africa between 1698 and 1807 to exchange enslaved Africans for goods.

Equalities campaigner Marvin Rees became the Bristol mayor in May 2016. He describes himself as the mixed race son of a white single mother.

In his mayoral victory speech, Mr Rees, 45, described his difficult upbringing where he said he was a rare brown face on a Bristol housing estate. He said his main reason for entering politics was to create a fairer, more inclusive society.

Campaign group Operation Black Vote said they had spoken to her at length personally and agreed she was not motivated by racism. They said they were pleased with her apology.

Simon Woolley said: Above all, what this episode shows me is that language matters. Whilst I can accept there was no racial intent, it doesnt mean to say there was no racial hurt.

The image of a white person horse whipping a black man in a city like Bristol has clear racial connotations.

Im pleased that Mal Sainsbury has acknowledged this and unreservedly apologised to Marvin and the wider black community.
Abortion should be fully decriminalised, a leading medical group demanded yesterday.

The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (FSRH) council overwhelmingly voted to remove the threat of criminal sanctions against doctors who perform abortions.

The organisation - which represents 16,000 specialist doctors, GPs, nurses and midwives - is the latest in a string of groups to back legal reform.

A woman can only have an abortion under certain circumstances and on approved premises - and breaking the law can, in theory, result in life imprisonment

But pro-life groups last night warned such a move would be the first step on a slippery slope to the horrifically inhumane prospect of abortions on demand at any point in pregnancy.

Asha Kasliwal, president of the FSRH, insisted the current 24-week gestational limit for abortions would remain in place.

The current law - the 1967 Abortion Act - states abortions are illegal without consent from two doctors

But she said the threat of prosecution is currently putting doctors off carrying out abortions at all.

It is crucial to stress that supporting the decriminalisation of abortion does not mean supporting deregulation, quite the contrary, Dr Kasliwal said.

We believe that abortion care should be subject to the same regulation by healthcare authorities as other medical procedures. High professional standards must also guide the provision of abortion services.

The current law - the 1967 Abortion Act - states abortions are illegal without consent from two doctors.

A woman can only have an abortion under certain circumstances and on approved premises - and breaking the law can, in theory, result in life imprisonment.

The two doctors must agree termination is necessary to prevent grave, permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the woman or child.

Mark Bhagwandin of the Life charity, said: 'If you have decriminalisation what is there to say you cant do abortions past 24 weeks?'

Abortions can take place only before 24 weeks, unless there is a substantial risk to life or severe abnormalities.

Removing this law would make it easier to get an abortion - although doctors insist strict rules would remain in place.

The Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Medical Association have all called for the law to be removed.

Groups which have backed decriminalisation of abortion Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health The Royal College of Midwives Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists British Medical Association British Society of Abortion Care Providers Family Planning Association Advertisement

But Mark Bhagwandin of the Life charity, said: There is a difference between regulation and law.

You can break regulations - you cannot break the law.

If you have decriminalisation what is there to say you cant do abortions past 24 weeks? Best practice guidelines are not binding in the same way.

The vote also backed the easing of regulations to allow abortion pills to be taken at home.

Dr Tracey Masters, vice president of the FSRH, said: We know that it is safe for women to take their prescribed medication at home. Indeed, for women with miscarriage, this is a standard option that is offered.

Peter Williams of the Right to Life charity said: Such an extreme move would be horrifically inhumane, and polling shows has no support outside a tiny minority of the population.

Rather, the vast majority want to see lower abortion time limits, more support for women in unplanned pregnancies, and tighter legal controls on abortion.
Temperatures soared to over 90 degrees in Southern California with several areas smashing records by Wednesday afternoon.

According to the National Weather Service temperatures reached 10 to 15 degrees above average, SFgate reported.

In San Diego, temperatures had never reached above 90 degrees this late in the year, however, today temperatures soared to 92 degrees.

Pictured here is a map of California showing the various different temperatures Wednesday

Additionally temperatures escalated to 90 degrees in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

The Carmel Valley, Pinnacles National Park and King City hit highs of 90 degrees, with Big Sur sitting a warm 80 degrees.

Meanwhile an all-time high for November was recorded at the Camarillo Airport, where temperatures reached a staggering 99 degrees.

Julia Hahn of Hermosa Beach, California builds a Thanksgiving turkey in the sand on November 22 at Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California

Additionally Oxnard broke the record temperature for November 22, hitting 91 degrees before noon and eventually pushing to 97 degrees.

San Jose reached 76 degrees, breaking the previous 1924 record of 75, while Salinas peaked at 85 degrees, exceeding the 2015 record of 78.

The San Francisco area was a little cooler at 70 degrees thanks to a gentle breeze.

Similarly Napa was a comfortable temperature of 68, whilst Concord was 72 and Livermore 70.

A man and his daughter walk into the water, November 22 at Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California
Seizures of ammunition and weapons at Britains borders almost trebled last year.

Officials confiscated 110 real and 353 imitation firearms at air, rail and sea ports. The Border Force also seized 5,849 firearms-related items, including pepper sprays and stun guns.

Police and the security services are desperate to keep such weapons out of the hands of Islamic State-inspired militants. Investigators are also concerned at continued attempts by organised crime gangs, particularly from Eastern Europe, to obtain guns.

The gangsters use the weapons to run lucrative drug, human trafficking and racketeering networks.

Seizures of ammunition and weapons at Britains borders almost trebled last year. Officials confiscated 110 real and 353 imitation firearms at air, rail and sea ports. The Border Force also seized 5,849 firearms-related items, including pepper sprays and stun guns. (File photo)

According to the latest statistics, released in a parliamentary answer, 6,312 firearms and associated paraphernalia were seized in 2016-17. This was a sharp jump from 2,299 in the previous 12 months.

There was also a rise in the number of offensive weapons seized by Border Force, from 8,931 in 2015-16 to 10,935 in 2016-17.

A spokesman said: The UK has some of the toughest gun laws in the world and we are determined to keep it that way.

As well as making physical checks on arriving luggage and cargo, Border Force works with their fellow law enforcement agencies, using intelligence and advanced technology, to detect and stop dangerous weapons at the border.

Our targeted operations and routine searches led to the seizure of over 10,000 offensive weapons last year.

Last year a gang of gun-runners were jailed for shipping machine guns into Britain from the same European dealers who supplied the Charlie Hebdo terrorists.

Police and the security services are desperate to keep such weapons out of the hands of Islamic State-inspired militants. Investigators are also concerned at continued attempts by organised crime gangs, particularly from Eastern Europe, to obtain guns. (File photo)

The 22 AK-47-style machine guns and nine Skorpion sub-machine guns were bought on the black market in Slovakia.

They were smuggled into Britain by boat up the Medway in Kent before being intercepted by officers from the National Crime Agency.

Investigators said the haul, the largest ever, included four times as many weapons as used in recent attacks.

The final customers were never identified.

In September a leading counter-terrorism police officer warned that the next strike against Britain would come from in our midst.

Neil Basu, who is a deputy assistant commissioner at the Met, said a more extreme second generation of lone wolves inspired by Islamic State were desperate to get firearms. And he warned that our borders remained weak.
Outspoken Tasmanian politician Jacqui Lambie has expressed sympathy for Yassmin Abdel-Magied when asked about their fiery clash earlier this year.

'I did feel for her, she was getting absolutely belted out there,' said Lambie when asked about the now-infamous encounter by Waleed Aly.

Lambie, appearing on The Project for the first time since resigning from the senate over dual citizenship, also had some frank criticism for Abdel-Magied.

'I still don't think she handled it as well as what she should have. In saying that, she's still quite young and we learn from our mistakes,' she said.

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Outspoken Tasmanian politician Jacqui Lambie (pictured) has expressed sympathy for Yassmin Abdel-Magied when asked about their fiery clash earlier this year

Lambie, who openly opposes sharia law, clashed with Muslim activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied (pictured) on ABC's Q&A earlier in the year

'Sometimes when things aren't going that well, you need to pick it up yourself and you've got to change course. You're not [always going to] get it quite right.'

Aly began by grilling Lambie about her stance on sharia law, before Lambie made her comments about Abdel-Magied on The Project on Thursday night.

Aly, who is Muslim, repeatedly asked Lambie if she regretted previous controversial comments on the subject.

Lambie, who openly opposes sharia law, clashed with Muslim activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied on ABC's Q&A earlier in the year.

Aly and Lambie pair went head-to-head on The Project on Thursday night where Aly, who is Muslim, repeatedly asked Lambie if she regretted previous controversial comments on the subject

'We have one law in this country and it is the Australian law. It is not sharia law, not in this country. Not in my day,' she said to Abdel-Magied on the program.

Aly was keen to see if her opinion had changed since February.

'When you'd go off on things like the sharia stuff, you didn't really know that stuff very well, but you had a really strong view about it,' Aly said.

'I wonder was that something that you look back on and think you could have done it better?'

Although Lambie admitted she 'could have handled it better', she said her stance remains the same.

'I think it could have been done better,' she said of her comments made in February.

Aly was keen to see if Lambie's opinion on sharia law had changed since February

'It could have been, knowing the topic.

Aly pressed Lambie, again asking if she had any regrets.

'I don't like it. We have one law in the country and that's Australian law- nothing will change my mind on that,' Lambie replied.

'I might not have had a grasp three years ago. I have a clear grasp now. There is one law and one law only- that is Australian law.

'If we make a better understanding, this country needs to learn there's nothing wrong with bringing up a subject and putting it across the table and speaking about it, but respecting each other's views and trying to get it out so we can sort it out.'
Britain will never be safe from jihadis unless Islamic State is wiped from the internet by web giants, a Downing Street terrorism expert said yesterday.

Patrick McGuinness, the Prime Ministers deputy national security adviser, said the speed at which fanatics were being radicalised was becoming almost too fast to catch.

His comments came as an EU counter-terrorism chief warned that young fanatics could use the internet to learn how to create viruses instead of bombs.

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institutes counter-terrorism conference in London, Mr McGuinness said the internet had become the new front line.

The PM's deputy national security adviser fears Britain will never be safe from jihadis unless Islamic State is wiped from the internet

In a stark intervention, he said technology firms had a choice when it came to allowing extremists content on their platforms  and had the power to minimise the threat by deploying their A-team.

It is the online space that is the front line, he said. Until Islamic State cannot occupy space online freely, we will not be safe.

This is because the speed at which people are brought to violence is almost too fast to catch without the most extraordinary intrusive surveillance techniques, he added  techniques which are not going to be sustainable or acceptable in a Western democracy.

Laying out how the online threat should be tackled, he said: It is massively about the choice that the tech companies make as to what they have on their networks.

Asked if firms were doing enough, he said: Im not entirely convinced that we are genuinely at the peak of what we are able to do online.

These companies have got it in them to resolve this issue very substantially and free us largely in that space.

Speaking at the same conference, Gilles de Kerchove, the EUs counter-terrorism co-ordinator, warned of fanatics going online to learn how to make biological weapons.

There are fears of a new terrorist group being formed from the remnants of Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, which carried out the September 11 attacks

He said: Unfortunately, its probably easier than before for a lone actor to perpetrate an attack with catastrophic consequences. While some of them have learned it on the battlefield, he also warned of the prospect of biological weapons being made in radicalised fanatics homes.

Recalling an online magazine for jihadis that included instructions on how to construct a bomb, he asked: What if anyone [publishes] a similar article on how to process a virus in your mums kitchen? Chemical substances could even be carried on drones, he warned.

The Belgian also predicted that a new Daesh 2.0 group could emerge after the defeat of IS militants in Iraq and Syria if not enough is done to address their grievances. The successor group could be made up of Al-Qaeda and the remains of IS, he said.

Jane Marriott, UK director of the Joint International Counter Terrorism Unit, said that although crushing the IS caliphate was a positive step, more needed to be done to stop a new group forming.

Also speaking at the conference, foreign office minister Alistair Burt said terrorism was the scourge of our age and warned: No doubt the threat will continue to grow.

Security minister Ben Wallace said it was vital that the Government stops jihadists returning to the UK, and prosecutes extremists where possible. However, he said this would be almost pointless if others were not prevented from being radicalised online.

It is important that we deal with that online content because if we dont we will allow a safe space to develop in the future, he said.
A BWS bottle shop has told a 49-year-old teacher they were not allowed to serve him because he was wearing a jacket emblazoned with the school's logo.

Perth man Sean Ebert questioned Western Australia's liquor licensing laws after he was told he would be refused service because of the school logo.

'It's crazy isn't it, it's like nanny-statery gone completely mad,' he told Today Tonight.

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Perth man Sean Ebert (pictured) has questioned Western Australia's liquor laws after he was told he would be refused service because of the school logo

'The guy actually said to me 'Oh look, I'll serve you this time, but next time I won't be able to''.

'I said, 'why is that?'. He said 'because you've got a school crest, logo, on your jacket'.'

The private girls' school teacher described the law as 'the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard'.

While he was eventually served his carton of beer, he said he did not deserve the awkward confrontation at the counter.

'People who are clearly of age and just minding their own business, should be able to buy a legal product,' he said.

Private girls' school teacher Mr Ebert (pictured), described the law as 'the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard'

When he complained to BWS, the company defended the rule saying it existed to 'uphold a positive image of both the school and the store within the community'

When he complained to BWS, the company defended the rule saying it existed to 'uphold a positive image of both the school and the store within the community'.

Mr Ebert called for a review of the liquor law which prohibited staff from serving alcohol to people with a school logo on their clothes.

Owned by Woolworths, BWS has a nationwide policy which prevents staff from selling alcohol to people in school uniform.
Bosses at an NHS trust who wanted to stop providing life-support treatment to a brain-damaged baby boy have won an anonymity fight after telling a High Court judge that doctors and nurses might be harassed by members of the public.

They said staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London received abuse after a judge ruled that 11-month-old Charlie Gard should be allowed to die earlier this year - and raised fears of a similar reaction.

Their lawyers also told Mr Justice Moor that publication of the trust's name might create an information 'jigsaw' which could lead to the three-week-old baby being identified.

Connie Yates and Chris Gard, pictured, leaving the Supreme Court after losing their appeal to compel doctors at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital to continue to treat their son Charlie Gard

Journalists from The Daily Mail and Press Association argued the public had a right to know the identity of hospital authorities asking judges to make such life-and-death decisions.

But Mr Justice Moor ruled in favour of trust bosses.

He gave permission for doctors to stop providing life-support treatment and said the trust, which has responsibility for the baby's care, could be referred to only as 'an NHS trust in the Midlands' in an any media report.

The judge, who analysed the case at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London on Thursday, said he was satisfied there was a 'remote' chance of staff being harassed, and was satisfied there was a chance of an information 'jigsaw' being created.

He oversaw the case at a private hearing but said journalists could report his decisions.
Workers in the public sector will earn 11 per cent more on average than those in the private sector after Philip Hammond signalled the end of the Governments pay cap.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that even after years of pay restraint, workers employed by the State now earn almost 13 per cent more on average per hour compared with private sector staff.

If the public sector pay cap remained in place, this would have fallen to around 7 per cent by 2020/21. But after the Budget spelled the end for the cap  which has limited annual pay rises to 1 per cent for the past six years  the difference will settle at around 11 per cent, the IFS forecast.

Workers in the public sector will earn 11 per cent more on average than those in the private sector after Philip Hammond signalled the end of the Governments pay cap

The figures do not take into account that the public sector benefits from gold-plated final salary pensions, which are now virtually unheard-of in the private sector.

The higher wages are expected to cost the taxpayer 2.8billion a year in 2020. Of this, 900million will go towards the NHS and 800million to schools, with 1.1billion to other public sector workers, the IFS said.

The analysis casts doubt on claims that austerity is causing widespread hardship for State workers.

The forecast, unveiled at a conference in London yesterday, is based on the assumption that public sector pay will start to rise at around the same level as private sector pay. Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the IFS, said pay restraint had brought the wage gap back to where it was before the recession. On average, public sector workers get paid more per hour than private sector workers, he said. Thats not surprising  they have on average higher levels of education.

So, for example, you would expect a surgeon to get paid more than the average private sector worker.

The figures do not take into account that the public sector benefits from gold-plated final salary pensions, which are now virtually unheard-of in the private sector

Two decades with no real growth in pay Britain faces almost two decades without earnings growth  while the national debt will not be under control for another 50 years, according to a bleak assessment yesterday. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said it was truly astonishing that average earnings would still be below their 2008 level, in real terms, in 2022. And it said the net national debt may not fall to its pre-crisis levels of 40 per cent of national income until well past the 2060s. It currently stands at 86 per cent. The IFS based its projections on figures in Wednesdays Budget. The forecasters director Paul Johnson said they made grim reading, adding: Despite all the gloom we may hope for better  though we may still fear for worse. The think-tank also said Philip Hammonds Budget suggested the end of austerity was still a long way off. It said public services outside the NHS were facing further spending cuts of 7 per cent in the next five years. Forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility suggest GDP per head will be 3.5 per cent lower in 2021 than was forecast two years ago. This will equate to a 65billion hit to the economy, Mr Johnson said. Average earnings in 2021 look set to be nearly 1,400 lower than forecast in March 2016  lower in real terms than in 2008. He added: We are in danger of losing not just one but getting on for two decades of earnings growth. The UKs growth is predicted to be well behind the other G7 advanced economies  the OBR said it may not exceed 1.6 per cent in the next five years. The IFS said this means Mr Hammonds desire to hit his target to balance Britains books in the 2020s looks remote. Mr Johnson said meeting the target would require cuts worth another 20billion. Responding to the IFS, a Government spokesman said: The Budget set out the next steps in our plan to build an economy that is fit for the future, deliver the homes our country needs and support families and businesses. Advertisement

Public sector pay restraint since 2010 has brought this ratio back to pre-crisis levels  its unwound the unintended increase in public sector pay relative to private sector pay that occurred during the Great Recession. At one point, in 2011/12, public sector wages were 18 per cent more than the private sectors.

But Mr Emmerson said with the pay cap in place, Britain would have seen the ratio fall below anything weve seen for the last 20 years, adding: Clearly, this would risk problems of recruitment and retention in the public sector and make it increasingly difficult for the Government to deliver the public services that it wants.

He said that has now changed after the Chancellor promised a Treasury-funded pay rise for some health workers, raising expectations that the public sector will also benefit  and prompting the Office for Budget Responsibility to raise its forecast for wage growth for State workers.

Unions had welcomed Mr Hammonds commitment to cover the cost of higher public sector wages in his Budget speech.

If that moneys spent well, recruitment and retention problems might remain around their current levels, Mr Emmerson said. This is all good news, but the difficult thing is it costs money  an extra 2.8billion in 2020/21.

The question is, will the extra funds come from the Treasury or will the public sector employers have to find them from their existing budgets? The wage comparison is based on a crude measure of average hourly wages for the 5.1million people working in the public sector, and the 26million in the private sector.

The public sector tends to be more highly educated, whereas there are more lower-paid workers on the minimum wage in the private sector.

The pay gap was last as low as 11 per cent in 2001/02. It was just over 12 per cent in 2007/08 when the financial crisis hit. This caused a collapse of average wages in the private sector while public sector wages were protected, causing the gap to widen.

Chloe Westley, of the TaxPayers Alliance, said last night: Taxpayers are grateful to public sector workers and expect them to be paid fairly.

Unions had welcomed Mr Hammonds commitment to cover the cost of higher public sector wages in his Budget speech

However, too often we forget that most people who work in the private sector  and whose taxes pay for the salaries of public sector workers  havent seen a pay increase in years.

The Government should give everyone, in all sectors, a break by cutting taxes, and allow people to keep more of the money they earned so they can provide for their family and save.
The Church of England yesterday condemned the Chancellor for failing to raise welfare benefits or do enough to subsidise cheap housing.

It said the Budget was disappointing and argued Philip Hammond should have gone much further to help the many at the sharp end. The Church singled out the continuing freeze in state benefits for working-age people and the Chancellors determination to stick with plans for Universal Credit.

The Bishop of Birmingham, the Right Reverend David Urquhart, who speaks for the 26 CofE bishops in the House of Lords, said: There is more that could have been done to alleviate the situation of those who are struggling to manage.

The intervention from the Bishop of Birmingham, the Right Reverend David Urquhart, brought fresh criticism of the Church for involving itself in politics

His intervention brought fresh criticism of the Church for involving itself in politics.

Bishop Urquhart, who lives at one Birminghams grandest addresses, called for help for people on low incomes in private rented homes.

He said that help for first-time buyers and housing developments needs to be matched with attention to other policies that might drive a rise in homelessness.

Lowered growth forecasts were worrying, Bishop Urquhart said, and the country faced substantial financial challenges.

While the bishop supported the idea of encouraging people into work through Universal Credit, the overall system will need to be properly implemented and funded if it is to retain its credibility.

He said plans to cut the work allowance  the level at which earnings affect someones benefit payments  will still push many low-income working families into poverty. That is why so many have called for these cuts to be reversed and it is disappointing that the Chancellor has not acted.

On the benefits freeze, Bishop Urquhart added: Rising costs have already eroded the living standards of low-income families who rely on benefits and tax credits to top up their earnings, and many more are likely to fall into poverty if no adjustment is made. Childrens benefits at least ought to be given the same protection from rising prices as is given to the basic state pension.

The Budget reaction is the latest in a series of complaints about the way the Government runs the economy from the CofE, which included an unprecedented attempt to influence voters in the 2015 election, a move which offended David Cameron.

Two months ago the Archbishop of Canterbury took a part in an economic inquiry by a Labour think-tank.

Anglican churchgoer and former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth said: The Church of England has a lot of money. Perhaps it might consider doing something for the homeless itself. The Church always seems to have all the solutions to political problems, but it never seems to be able to solve its own difficulties.

Palatial: The bishop lives in part of this imposing Birmingham mansion, which dates back two centuries

I do not think the Church needs to be so closely identified with the policies of a single political party. The Reverend Jules Gomes, pastor of St Augustines in Douglas, Isle of Man, said: The CofE should keep its nose out of politics and economics because it approaches economics exclusively from the Left wing.

It has almost entirely bought into the socialist ideology of equal distribution of wealth. The CofE has also lost the plot on the work ethic, and does not offer radical solutions by addressing the problems of the breakdown of the family, single parenthood, divorce, poverty as a result of laziness, the obscene morality of entitlement, and so on.

Bishop Urquhart, like the Archbishop, was a public schoolboy who spent the first years of his career in the oil industry.

His father was a distinguished Scottish doctor and he went to Rugby School, where he became head boy and rugby captain.

He lives at Bishops Croft, a house built for a nail manufacturer two centuries ago. It has since been divided, with some of the house given to homes for other clergy, and much of the ground floor devoted to offices.
Next week, companies on the London Stock Exchange will be involved in a promotion and relegation battle when the blue chip FTSE100 index is updated.

Favourite to fall out of the index (because its market value has shrunk) is the boiler-maker and engineering services group Babcock International, which has an industrial heritage dating back to the 19th century.

The odds-on favourite to replace it is the home food delivery service Just Eat, which is using the latest hi-tech logistics to challenge the traditional high street restaurant industry by bringing cuisine straight to peoples homes via internet orders.

The odds-on favourite to replace it is the home food delivery service Just Eat, which is using the latest hi-tech logistics to challenge the traditional high street restaurant industry

In many ways, the two firms represent the best of the old and the best of the new in British business. And it is the thrusting success of firms such as Just Eat that lead me to believe the downbeat assessment of the economy by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) after Wednesdays Budget is not only misguided but inaccurate. The OBR  set up by George Osborne to offer independent economic forecasts  says its very worried about productivity in Britain, based on the old-fashioned way of counting the output of each worker per hour.

But the fact is that while its easy enough to count how many widgets each person produces, for example, in a Babcock factory, the brilliant technology used by firms such as Just Eat is far harder to quantify. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) in Britain, along with economists around the world, are struggling to come to terms with the digital technologies transforming every aspect of our daily lives.

That means our highly successful service industries, which dont produce tangible goods, along with the development of artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology and pioneering software in our great research universities, are not captured by the traditional models used to produce these financial predictions. Thats why placing so much faith in the economic forecasts of the Office for Budget Responsibility is a huge mistake. With its gloomy forecasts, based on disputed measures of productivity, its doing Britain an enormous disservice as our nation strikes out on its own into a post-Brexit future.

Large parts of the Budget were about financing growth in innovative firms, supporting them via better infrastructure and through efforts to make teachers and young people more proficient at maths, computer coding and technology. Certainly, if Britain wants to keep up with digital nations such as South Korea and Singapore, it will need a huge investment in ultra-fast internet and 5G mobile telephony.

The encouraging thing is that Britain is not coming at this from a standing start. Four of our top research universities, Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College London and UCL, rank among the worlds best. Our continental partners have nothing to match them.

It is no accident that one of our leading pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca, is engaged in building an enormous billion-pound research centre in Cambridge. Last year, the Japanese investment fund SoftBank paid an astonishing 24billion for Cambridge-based ARM, the global leader in designing the silicon chips that will run autonomous cars, wifi-connected household gadgets, and perhaps whole smart cities in the future.

It is no accident that one of our leading pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca, is engaged in building an enormous billion-pound research centre in Cambridge (file photo)

Indeed, scarcely a day passes in the City of London without overseas investors seeking to buy into Britains pioneering technology.

The UK is the leader in online price comparison sites. Yesterday, Compare The Market was partly sold to a Canadian pension fund which placed a value of 2.5billion on the enterprise. It should come as no surprise that Britain, as the worlds leading banking and foreign exchange centre, is at the forefront of the latest in financial technology, too. The Bank of England has a fund that backs the new so-called fintech companies  firms that increasingly make the world go round.

Worldpay, for example, is the leader in the payment systems used by the big global digital giants. The South Bank of the Thames in London is littered with hundreds of fintech innovators who will change the way we do banking. Elsewhere, our digital industries are thriving.

Edinburgh is the home of a world-class computer gaming industry. And its no accident in a nation of shopkeepers that UK online fashion retailer Asos now has a higher market value than Marks & Spencer.

The trouble is, its very difficult for traditional measures of productivity to assess these cutting-edge industries, because what they create is not as tangible as the output of a car production line or an oil well. To its credit, the Office for National Statistics recognises this and is conducting studies so it can better understand why, despite the UKs exemplary record of invention and technological advances, we lag behind our competitors in productivity. It is certainly not because British workers are lazier or less efficient than their counterparts overseas, or that weve failed to be early adopters of new production techniques. After all, the advanced Nissan car plant in Sunderland regularly comes out as the most efficient in Europe.

The answer, in my view, is a deficiency in the data available.

The ONS is experimenting with a new measure of productivity called multi-factor, which seeks to embrace hard-to-measure industries such as communications, broadcasting, software, mobile devices and the amazing IT in the City of London.

The data up to now has been volatile and unreliable.

The bottom line for me is that its almost impossible to believe that in a nation where new technology is making such dramatic advances, the economy will stagnate in the coming years.
A man who tried to exit a Kmart with a trolley of 'dangerous toys' he claimed to be confiscating, has been charged.

The 40-year-old customer had allegedly been trying to remove the items - a series of roller skates - around 11am Thursday from the Australia Fair store, according to Yahoo 7.

Footage obtained by another shopper shows the man ranting about his 'concerns' regarding the toys before being confronted by police.

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A 40-year-old man who tried to exit a Kmart in Queensland's Australia Fair shopping centre with a trolley of 'dangerous toys', has been charged

'If I bring up concerns about the item it should be removed from the shelf for duty of care,' the man told staff.

Officers then appear to surround the man, with the 40-year-old continuing to proclaim his views to the shoppers at the Gold Coast outlet.

'Sorry to inconvenience you, I have only the best intentions for your children and for the benefit of everybody and man kind,' the man said.

'It's these people and their hierarchy, who don't care about us.'

The customer had allegedly been trying to remove the items - an series of roller skates - around 11am Thursday after stating he had brought up concerns about them that were ignored

Another shopper, who was in the Kmart store at the time and filmed the incident, said that the manager had approached the man as he tried to leave and he became aggressive (stock image)

Christopher Hiesler, who was in the store at the time and filmed the incident, said that the manager had approached the man as he tried to leave.

'(The man) was protesting that this product for sale was too dangerous and killing kids and that the labels has had just been switched out,' Mr Hiesler told Yahoo 7.

'He was doing this across the road from the biggest police station in the Gold Coast... I don't know what his plan was.'

A Queensland Police spokesman confirmed to Daily Mail Australia officers were called to the store following the disturbance, with the man 'protesting loudly' over the roller skates.

He was later charged with causing a public nuisance and will appear in Southport Magistrate's Court on December 8.
A Melbourne motorist feared he was going to die as he was repeatedly stabbed in a terrifying road rage incident whose bloody aftermath was filmed by the attacker's family.

Sam Walsh was attacked after pulling over to confront another motorist for 'deliberately' and repetitively cutting him off in Cranbourne North, southeast of Melbourne, last month, Seven News reports.

Vishal Sharma, who was driving with his wife and 13-year-old son, approached Mr Walsh on foot before thrusting the full length of the weapon into Mr Walsh's shoulder and slashing at his arms.

Sam Walsh (pictured) was attacked with a knife after pulling over to confront another motorist for 'deliberately' cutting him off in Cranbourne North

Mr Walsh (pictured) thought he was going to die when the verbal exchange turned into a viscous attack

'I remember the moment of pushing on my arm and thinking, "there's something going wrong", and then seeing blood squirting out,' Mr Walsh recalled.

Mr Walsh's girlfriend, Oshini, retreated from the vehicle after hearing her partner's screams at being stabbed.

'He was bleeding and all of a sudden they were punching each other as well,' she said.

The victim received several injuries including a deep gash to his forearm and wound to his shoulder.

Vishal Sharma (pictured), who was driving with his wife and 13-year-old son, stabbed Mr Walsh with a knife during a heated roadside exchange in October

Mr Walsh's girlfriend, Oshini (standing), retreated from the vehicle after hearing her partner's screams at being stabbed

'I was running backwards and he actually stuck the knife right into my shoulder (and) buried the entire blade in,' Mr Walsh said.

As the injured driver sat battered and bloodied on the curbside, Sharna's teenage son drew his phone and turned on the camera.

'He was actually just filming me on the side of the road just bleeding.'

Sharna was arrested by police and is set to face charges of intentionally causing injury and having a controlled weapon.
A Schoolie who complained of an injured shoulder claims she was 'healed' by a Christian street preacher who prayed for her.

Greer Shannon travelled from Brisbane to Surfers Paradise to join dozens of other evangelists on the street aiming to spread the word of Jesus to school-leavers.

She posted a video online moments after the apparent healing, captioning it: 'How hectic is this? Jesus is just getting it done this week, all will know His name.'

A Schoolie (right) who complained of an injured shoulder claims she was 'healed' by a Christian street preacher (left) who prayed for her

'Free healing': Dozens of local Christians flock to Surfers Paradise every year to evangelise during Schoolies

'Alright what happened to your shoulder,' Greer asks the girl in the video.

'I just met Greer on the street and she prayed for my shoulder because I told her I had shoulder pain,' the girl says.

'As soon as she finished praying and we all said amen it's gone. And I'm serious. She made me believe.'

There is much debate within Christian circles on the topic of healing, with more conservative churches teaching that healing is not a guaranteed by-product of faith.

More than 20,000 teenagers are expected to descend on the Gold Coast across the next two weeks to celebrate the end of their high-school education.

Amongst the partying teens, some people have been seen holding banners with Christian slogans and bible verses.

'Jesus doesn't dog the boys', one banner read. 'Jesus Loves You,' another read, referencing a passage from the book of John.
Thousands of people are needlessly dying of bowel cancer because they are too embarrassed to get screened, health officials have warned.

New figures show 41 per cent of eligible over-60s ignored invitations to take part in the national bowel cancer screening programme last year.

Uptake is particularly bad among men - with nearly half failing to take part.

Public Health England last night warned that embarrassment is a key reason that people dont take part.

Last year 45 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women failed to return their samples. It is the lowest uptake out of any of the national cancer screening programmes

The screening programme, which includes everyone aged 60 to 74, involves providing a stool sample and sending it to a lab in a sealed bag.

Everyone in this age group is sent a screening kit every two years.

But last year 45 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women failed to return their samples.

It is the lowest uptake out of any of the national cancer screening programmes - with only 24 per cent failing to take part in the breast cancer programme and 28 per cent ignoring invitations for cervical screening.

Officials last night urged wives and daughters to encourage the older men in the family to overcome any embarrassment and send in a sample to be tested.

Professor Anne Mackie, PHEs director of screening, said: Its of great concern that four out of every ten over 60 year olds are not taking up the offer of getting tested for bowel cancer.

Men in particular are less likely to send in a sample, so were asking their partners, children and grandchildren to encourage them to do so.

Professor Anne Mackie, Public Health England's director of screening, described the situation as concerning but said a new home testing kit could make things better

Embarrassment over giving a stool sample may be causing thousands of preventable deaths.

But with a new home test kit next year making it much easier to get screened we are hoping to see numbers increase.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Britain, with 41,000 cases a year, but the second leading cause of cancer deaths, with around 16,000 people killed.

Yet if detected early, bowel cancer is very treatable, with 3,000 cases diagnosed as a result of screening in 2016/17.

In more than 90 per cent of these cases, cancers were found at an early stage, where treatment is more likely to be successful.

Improvements are being made to make screening easier and next year there will be a new home test, the faecal immunochemical test, which requires just one sample rather than the current three, and will detect bowel cancer more accurately.

In addition to the home test, a one-off test called bowel scope screening is offered at the age of 55.

Judith Brodie of the Beating Bowel Cancer charity, said: People may feel uncomfortable completing their home screening tests, but they can be crucial in the early diagnosis of bowel cancer  which is very treatable if caught early. We strongly encourage the use of these bowel screening tests  they can be life-saving.
From the Tory backbenches came a measured, serious speech from a grey-haired chap who looked as though he could be in the Cabinet.

As indeed he recently was. And possibly still should be. It was Sir Michael Fallon (Con, Sevenoaks), making his first Commons appearance since he quit as defence secretary in that feverish groping kerfuffle a few weeks ago.

For so solid a citizen as Sir Michael to be toppled by bottom-pinching (or similar, allegedly) was in some ways very British. It must have stung him to the quick.

Former defence secretary Michael Fallon was making his first appearance in the House of Commons since resigning for groping

Sir Michaels name has not appeared in the Hansard voting lists in recent Commons divisions during the EU Withdrawal Bill. Perhaps the Tory whips allowed him some time off to regather his morale. If so, it worked, for the Fallon who stood on the second Tory bench down, just beyond the gangway, soon after lunch yesterday cut a figure of total composure.

Speaking in the Budget debate, Sir Michael came not to bury the May Government but to praise it. This was not going to be a Geoffrey Howe or Robin Cook moment, when a recently-departed grandee savages the regime he has just left.

Instead he hailed a successful, sensible Budget and declared that the greatest single achievement of the recent Tory years had been the fall in unemployment. His tone and pace was steady. Quite unchanged.

Matronly: A doughnut of Fallon friends had formed around him, including Heather Wheeler (pictured)

Beside him sat Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Con, Berwick-upon-Tweed). And what was she wearing? Oh no, a short skirt and va-va-voom knee-length leather boots. Cop that, Carruthers! Sir Michaels eyes did not waver one moment. They kept to the straight and narrow. As must we all in these days of the Ayatollah Twitter.

A doughnut of Fallon friends had formed around him, on television making the House look fuller than it was this post-prandial Thursday. They included matronly Heather Wheeler (S Derbyshire), Kevin Foster (Torbay), Conor Burns (Bournemouth W), Richard Bacon (S Norfolk) and Edward Argar (Charnwood).

Friendly interventions came from Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest W) and Scott Mann (N Cornwall). From the front bench, Sir Michael was listened to by the Treasurys Liz Truss and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid  neither of whom is as polished a political operative as the fallen Fallon. Such are the foibles of politics.

Friendly interventions came from fellow Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne (pictured)

Having warmly welcomed the Budget, Sir Michael intended in the future to speak up about defence spending more freely than when he was a minister.

Having deposited that minor note of rebelliousness, he immediately attacked Labours shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, for being clueless about debt costs.

In future Sir Michael mildly hoped there could be reductions to National Insurance rates  which were now as punishing as income tax for the less well-off  and greater incentives to companies to give their employees shares.

He produced a statistic new to me. He said that at the end of the Thatcher years (of which he was part), 11 million Britons held shares. Today the figure is down to eight million. So much for progress.

Michael Fallon was not the only scandal-hit Tory reappearing in the Chamber. At International Trade Questions, Mark Garnier (pictured) was to be seen.

Referring to one of our better-known employee-owned firms, Sir Michael said: We need 1,000 John Lewis partnerships. He went on to speak about Brexit in blunt but positive terms, saying the Government should use its buying power to make sure that all its contractors and grant recipients hardwire exporting into their business plans.

In what some might see as a swipe at the May Cabinets more dull-eyed Remainer tendencies, Sir Michael said Brexit Britain demands a bigger vision, more confident and self-rewarding. He was not the only scandal-hit Tory reappearing in the Chamber. Earlier, at International Trade Questions, Mark Garnier was to be seen.

He is the one who asked his secretary to enter a sex shop on his behalf. Mr Garnier was a haunted figure, a markedly less confident presence than of old.

Sir Michael, however, made one realise what a capable old pro the ministry has lost.
Enraged residents are fighting back after a local council ordered the closure of one of Australia's oldest milk bars.

The Olympia Milk Bar has been a constant presence on Parramatta Road in Stanmore in Sydney's inner west, with a shopfront and interior unchanged since 1939.

Now its elderly Greek owner Nicholas Fotiou is being forced to shut up shop, with the local council saying repair work is needed on the aging building.

Enraged residents are fighting back after a local council ordered the closure of one of Australia's oldest milk bars (pictured)

The Olympia Milk Bar (pictured, with owner Mr Fotiou) has been a constant presence on Parramatta Road in Stanmore in Sydney's inner west, with a shopfront and interior unchanged since 1939

Now its elderly Greek owner Nicholas Fotiou is being forced to shut up shop, with the local council saying repair work is needed on the aging building (pictured)

Loyal customers have reacted with outrage, and are working together in an attempt to save the Olympia themselves.

Some are using a Facebook fan page set up years ago in appreciation of the Olympia to crowd-fund tradesman to do the repairs and keep the milk bar open.

'Is anyone able and willing to ask Mr Fotiou whether he'd support a crowd funding exercise to get money for repairs?' wrote one user.

Others blasted the council, taking local bureaucrats to task for putting the owner, now in his 80s, out of work.

Loyal customers have reacted with outrage, and are working together in an attempt to save the Olympia (pictured) themselves

Some are using a Facebook fan page set up years ago in appreciation of the Olympia to crowd-fund tradesman to do the repairs and keep the milk bar open (pictured is the owner)

'What a shame the council have shut him down! Yes the place needs work and is old but that the charm of it and what makes it so special,' said one resident.

'I visited Mr Fotiou on Sunday evening for an extended time. The council has shut him down after a party of 5 people went to see him,' wrote another.

'I didn't get to see anything official in writing. He believes there are forces at play trying to "squeeze" him out of the shop. He talked like he is planning to do the repairs himself.

'What a shame the council have shut him down! Yes the place needs work and is old but that the charm of it and what makes it so special,' said one resident (pictured is the Olympia)

Mr Fotiou bought the building with his brother John in 1959, and the property retains its original fitout dating back two decades before that (pictured is the interior)

'Without prompting he admitted his ladder is not safe to use when he is alone. I strongly discouraged him from getting up there.

'When I asked him if he would accept money to assist with repairs like a grant or a gift with no strings attached, he said, "I tell you what I told the council, I want my customers to come back".' [sic]

Some have already lent a hand, with one user posting photos of temporary repair work done on the ceiling earlier in the year.

Mr Fotiou bought the building with his brother John in 1959, and the property retains its original fitout dating back two decades before that, Commercial Real Estate reported.

Some have already lent a hand, with one user posting photos of temporary repair work done on the ceiling earlier in the year (pictured)

Known as Dr Death or Dracula because lights in the milk bar are always turned off, Mr Fotiou lives above the shop and is reluctant to speak about his private life (pictured is the milk bar)

Known as Dr Death or Dracula because lights in the milk bar are always turned off, Mr Fotiou lives above the shop and is reluctant to speak about his private life.

As the Olympia has become a local legend rumours have swirled about the iconic eatery and its owner, but residents fear that could all come to an end soon.

The NSW Heritage Register describes the milk bar as 'of historical significance as evidence of the development of commercial leisure related activity along this section of Parramatta Road from 1912.

Originally a pool hall, it reopened as a milk bar in 1939 and has kept its name and furnishings since then, including a coloured terazzo saying 'Olympia' on the floor.

As the Olympia (pictured) has become a local legend rumours have swirled about the iconic eatery and its owner, but residents fear that could all come to an end soon

The Olympia has featured in at least one novel, two songs, several artworks and been the subject of a radio documentary.

The Facebook fan page has over 2,500 members, many of whom are now combining their efforts to try and save the beloved milk bar.

'It would be a very sad occasion if it did close down permanently,' said Leonard Janiszewski, a Macquarie University history academic and co-author of the book, Greek Cafes and Milk Bars of Australia.

'They would be closing a chapter of history.'
Sarah Monahan claims she was turned down for a part in a film because she refused to sleep with a producer.

The 40-year-old said she auditioned for the role when she was 20 and trying to make a comeback after being sexually abused on the set of Hey Dad!

She was in close competition with another woman who, though not as good an actress, was 'taller and skinnier' than her.

Sarah Monahan claims she was turned down for a part in a film because she refused to sleep with a producer

The 40-year-old said she auditioned for the role when she was trying to make a comeback after years of sexual abuse on the set of Hey Dad! (cast pictured)

Then Monahan bumped into one of the producers in a social setting and he said she could have the role if she had sex with him.

'I'm ashamed to say, I considered it... Then, I slapped myself, and said no,' she wrote in an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph.

'This wasn't how to do it. I wasn't going to let my entire acting career be tainted by sex. So, I walked away.'

The former child actress said a third actress who was never in the running suddenly got the part because, the crew told her, she 'gave great head' to the producer.

Monahan was 20 at the time (pictured two years earlier in 1995) and said she considered the producer's proposition before turning him down

Monahan auditioned for the film a few years after Hey Dad! ended in 1993, and had only two small roles since then

However, Monahan got the last laugh when the film was a flop because the chosen woman 'couldn't act' and a planned movie series was cancelled.

She said this wasn't the only time a producer was 'more worried about getting laid that making a proper production' and swapping sex for parts was rampant.

'I've had producers offer me parts if I provided them with sexual services. The casting couch is real. Some people may be willing to trade sex for work, and that's on them,' she wrote.

There were also rumours of industry figures engaging in similar behaviour to disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Hughes was in 2014 sentenced to 10 years and nine months jail for abusing Monahan

Monahan said everyone knew who they 'shouldn't be alone in a room with' and the problem was widespread.

She said if actresses wanted to 'trade a blow job for a role' that was fine, but bosses like Weinstein thought everyone should be willing and 'came to expect it, or even demand it'.

As a result, actresses like her who weren't willing lost roles and saw their careers suffer - along with productions with actors not chosen on skill alone.

Monahan said that incident was the last straw for her and she moved to the U.S. with husband Matt Morris soon after and never appeared on screen again.
A Current Affair reporter Ben McCormack was so troubled by his child sex fantasies he avoided going near kids - and twice tried to kill himself in the wake of his arrest, a court has heard.

The one-time Nine Network journalist, 43, faced sentencing judge Paul Conlon - a no-nonsense former Crown prosecutor - at a District Court hearing on Friday afternoon.

McCormack faces up to 15 years behind bars after pleading guilty to charges of using a carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child pornography earlier this year.

Over 18 months, he sent a series of instant messages to a West Australian man over Skype where he once described himself as a 'proud Ped' and spoke about his 'love' for 'young bs (boys)'.

'Self-loathing': Ben McCormack's lawyers submitted to the court that he had experienced extensive punishment outside the courtroom

McCormack - devastated by the impact his arrest had on his family - twice tried to die by suicide and wrote in a note: 'It's not your mess I've created, it's mine'

During Friday's hearing, Judge Conlon read from defence submissions which said McCormack had known his child sex fantasies were wrong, was 'self-loathing' and largely wrote his vile messages when he was drinking alcohol.

McCormack's lawyer Sam Macedone told the court the former journalist was mainly concerned about the pain his family and friends were going through when he tried to kill himself.

On April 10, 2017, four days after he was arrested, McCormack wrote in a suicide note: 'It's not your mess I've created, it's mine'.

He eventually 'accepted his desire to die is unfair to his family', Judge Conlon said.

Mr Macedone told the court: 'When it exploded in his mind, he came to realise his worst thoughts had materialized.

'His main concern isn't so much what he has to go through but what he is putting his family through'.

McCormack wrote another note in late April where he spoke about his 'shame and disgrace' and argued 'his life should be his to take away'.

Before being discharged from hospital on May 9, McCormack also said he was choosing whether to go to court or kill himself.

He said after he spoke to Sam Macedone about the evidence against him, 'he'll make a decision on whether to face court or take his life'.

McCormack's lawyer, Sam Macedone, arrives at court with the former Nine Network journalist

Mr Macedone told the court: 'I did what I could to satisfy him all would be OK.

'Thankfully he's here today.'

Family members flew in to support McCormack during the proceedings and filled a row behind him in the courtroom.

Both McCormack and his mother dabbed tears from her eyes during the hearing.

Referring to defence submissions, Judge Conlon - who at one point suggested his offending was at the 'lowest' end of the scale - said McCormack was so troubled he even began avoiding children.

'He actually used to go out of his way to make sure he was not in the presence of children.'

The Crown prosecutor, who refused to provide her name to media, concede it was 'commendable' McCormack he had that thought.

She noted he had continued to do volunteer work with North Bondi surf-life saving but there was nothing to suggest anything untoward had happened with kids.

An extract of a Skype conversation between McCormack and another man

Another message exchange between McCormack and the other man

McCormack (pictured on assignment) famously tracked down Hey Dad! paedophile Robert Hughes

McCormack's family and friends attended the court hearing on Friday

McCormack seen on the set of A Current Affair - where he was employed until late this year

McCormack is seen here in his Grindr profile

Asked for her position on whether McCormack's messages were simply fantasising, Crown prosecutor noted McCormack made comments in his messages that 'do sort of counter the situation of it being purely fantasy.

At one point, Judge Paul Conlon suggested McCormack's offending was at the 'lowest' end of the spectrum

'We do struggle to see the relevance... the offence is complete once those words are sent over the internet'.

In one message, the man asked McCormack if he thought he would ever 'play with one? Or just fantasy'.

'I'd love to,' McCormack replied.

Many of his explicit messages were sent when he was drunk, the submissions said.

'Whenever he self-medicated, that is with alcohol, that was when he was most prone to engaging in this sort of behaviour,' said the judge.

At one point, Judge Conlon asked prosecutors: 'Hang on, my question is if this was a conversation taking place between two male persons not over the phone, not over the internet, it could not have constituted this offence?'

The Crown prosecutor, who refused to identity herself to media, said: 'This offence? Correct.'

McCormack and one of the men did exchange pictures but there was no evidence to suggest they contained child pornography material, court facts said.

After reading a prosecutor submission that McCormack had experienced 'some'' reputational damage, Judge Conlon said: 'As far as he's concerned his reputation has been destroyed'.

McCormack was the journalist who famously tracked down Hey Dad! paedophile Robert Hughes in Singapore.

Judge Conlon will hand down his sentence on December 6.
All remaining refugees and asylum seekers at the Manus Island detention facility have been moved out.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on Friday confirmed all those who had refused to leave the centre are now in alternative accommodation.

'The Australian government welcomes this development,' he said in a statement.

Papua New Guinea police and immigration officers bearing metal batons entered the centre on Friday morning to complete the task of clearing it, three weeks after the facility was officially closed.

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The photographs stand in stark contrast to others taken after the last asylum seekers were removed from the Manus Island facility (pictured)

Video footage shows local police hitting and threatening refugees, and photographs appeared to confirm injuries.

However, PNG police said no one was forced or handcuffed.

The centre, set up by Australia to process asylum seeker boat arrivals, was officially closed on October 31. However, the men refused to leave, saying the new facilities were unsafe and lacked proper health services.

The UN High Commission for Refugees received reports of force being used.

Mr Dutton accused advocates in Australia of making inaccurate and exaggerated claims of violence and injuries on Manus.

'What is clear is that there has been an organised attempt to provoke trouble and disrupt the new facilities,' he said.

The Papua New Guinea police and army stormed the detention centre on Thursday to evict 400 male asylum seekers who refused to leave (pictured are kitchen and dining facilities in the new accommodation)

The federal government has been told that some equipment at the alternative accommodation centres has been 'sabotaged' - including backup generators and water infrastructure.

'The equipment is being repaired or replaced and the government understands these matters are under investigation,' Mr Dutton said.

'Advocates should now desist from holding out false hope to these men that they will ever be brought to Australia.'

Pictures have emerged of the brand new accommodation arranged for 600 asylum seekers formerly detained on Manus Island (pictured is the East Lorengau Transit Refugee Centre)

Meanwhile, pictures emerged of the brand new accommodation arranged for 600 asylum seekers formerly detained on Manus Island.

Papua New Guinea police and army stormed the detention centre on Thursday to evict 400 male asylum seekers who refused to leave.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton slammed the holdouts, calling their behaviour outrageous.

'I think it's outrageous that people are still there and they have trashed the facility, they're living in squalor,' he told 2GB radio.

'The Australian taxpayers have paid about $10 million for a new facility and we want people to move.'

Mr Dutton again reiterated the men will never be coming to Australia.

'It's like the tenant that won't move out of the house when you build a new house for them to move into,' he said.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton slammed the holdouts, calling their behaviour outrageous (pictured are new sleeping quarters)

Brand new sleeping, cooking and dining facilities are shown in the photos of the East Lorengau Transit Refugee Centre, the West Lorengau Haus and Hillside Haus (pictured is a laundry room)

The facilities shown in the photos are a far cry from the destroyed Manus Island centre where the detainees had been housed (pictured are new dining facilities)

New air-conditioning units are installed outside the barred windows of the detention centre dormitories, painted navy and cream

Brand new sleeping, cooking and dining facilities are shown in the photos of the East Lorengau Transit Refugee Centre, the West Lorengau Haus and Hillside Haus.

The facilities shown in the photos are a far cry from the destroyed Manus Island centre where the detainees had been housed.

Buildings two storeys high can be seen in one of the photographs, surrounded by well-landscaped grounds.

New air-conditioning units are installed outside the barred windows of the detention centre dormitories, painted navy and cream.

Sleeping quarters contain two single beds each, with a shared dressing table and a large window.

Large dining facilities and an open cafeteria-style kitchen are shown in another photograph.

There is a picture appearing to show kitchen facilities containing a stove, a fridge, sinks and counter space.

A laundry room is pictured, with washing machines, a hot water heater and large stainless steel sinks.

The photographs stand in stark contrast to others taken after the last asylum seekers were removed from the Manus Island facility.

Trashed rooms, rubbish strewn everywhere and crumbling infrastructure can be seen in photographs taken during Thursday's police operation.

Trashed rooms, rubbish strewn everywhere and crumbling infrastructure can be seen in photographs taken during Thursday's police operation (pictured)
Dick Smith has warned Amazon's Australian launch will be devastating to not only jobs but also the country's waistlines.

Speaking on Sunrise this week, the entrepreneur called the company's practices 'extreme capitalism' and said it will leave 'tens of thousands' out of a job.

Smith claimed the online giant kept prices low by reducing labour, with the money going 'back to the United States'.

But in an extraordinary claim, he also said he believed that Australians would get fatter as a result of the launch of the website - because food will be cheaper.

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Dick Smith has warned Amazon's Australian launch will be devastating to not only jobs but also the country's waistlines while speaking on Sunrise this week

The entrepreneur called the company's practices 'extreme capitalism' and said it will leave 'tens of thousands of Australians' out of a job

'Amazon will take hundreds of millions of wealth out of this country and send it back to the United States,' he said during the interview.

'Every time you buy something from Amazon you don't think "that's a fellow Australian with kids and a house their trying to pay off who's just lost their job".'

While Smith said the government was powerless to help, purchasing locally was one way people could hit back at the online store.

'At least if you buy from JB Hifi, Harvey Norman or Woolworths, the money stays here and creates wealth in our country,' he said.

Smith even argued that Amazon would keep prices low by reducing labour and cause people to 'become more obese' due to the cheaper produce

Smith also argued that Amazon's greed could cause extensive problems for people's weight.

'We will become more obese because the food will be cheaper - it will be all downhill for Australians,' he said.

The 'soft launch' of Amazon Australia began Thursday with promises the marketplace giant would change the face of shopping in this country.

An 'internal testing phase' was limited to a small number of customers who were able to order from the local site.

The 'soft launch' of Amazon Australia began Thursday with promises the marketplace giant would change the face of shopping in this country

However, despite the hype, Amazon Australia's website remained the same Friday afternoon, the day it was expected to roll-out nationwide

However, despite the hype, Amazon Australia's website remained the same Friday afternoon, the day it was expected to roll-out nationwide.

Tim MacKinnon, the managing director of eBay Australia and New Zealand said they welcomed the rivalry 'as long as the competition is fair.'

'We let every retailer big and small compete,' Mr MacKinnon told News.com.au.

Mr MacKinnon said there had been 'a lot of hype' about Amazon in Australia and it would be 'interesting' to see whether it could live up to it.
She was a carefree traveller who documented her jet-setting life on Instagram before plunging from a window 'while taking a photo'.

It was a shocking end to the life of Toni Kelly - a gorgeous, free-spirited, New Zealand woman whose life was cut tragically short.

Images on Miss Kelly's Instagram show how she loves to explore new places and hanging out with friends, all while capturing it on camera.

Toni Kelly (pictured) was a carefree traveller who documented her jet-setting life on Instagram before plunging from a window 'while taking a photo'

The gorgeous, free-spirited New Zealand woman's life was cut tragically short

Images showcase Miss Kelly's dedication to exploring new places and hanging out with friends and making new memories

One image of the stunning blonde shows her love for the beach as she lies in the sun with a geotag placing her at Carpinteria State Beach in California.

Another uploaded on August 23 at Carpinteria in California standing aside a kombi van with a beaming smile and a glowing tan.

Her light blue eyes compliment her light locks while styling a Ralph Lauren polo cap in a selfie taken on July 3.

An image posing with her sister Stacey, indicating her obvious love for her family, in a photo on January 27.

The family have travelled to the UK to bring her body back to New Zealand after she plunged to her death while 'taking a selfie'

She was never shy in stopping to capture photos of herself of moments at peaks of happiness

Late last year, the carefree traveller posted a candid picture with barely-there make up, staring into the lens of the camera.

Last week her family rushed to London to bring her back home after hearing news of her shocking death.

A coroner ruled the woman fell from the upstairs window while taking a photo of herself, a heart-wrenching end to a journey explored to the fullest.

Miss Kelly, who is described as 'happy and beautiful', died in London on life support after suffering a serious brain injury.

A Givealittle page set up to help family with costs has raised over $38,491 to help get Miss Kelly home

The family are understood to be devastated by her shocking loss

A spokeswoman for the Inner West London Coroner told the Evening Standard an inquest had been opened and completed.

'We can confirm she fell from the window,' she said.

A hearing is scheduled to take place on January 24.

Miss Kelly's aunt, Sharon Kelly, said the family had been left 'totally devastated'.

Friends and family are now raising money to bring her home and have set up Givealittle page 'Bring our Toni home'.

They said Miss Kelly organs have been donated to 'help save other lives in the UK'.

The money raised will help the family bring her home and pay for any extra expenses.

More than $38,490 had been raised by Friday afternoon.

Paige Hourigan, who was best friends with Miss Kelly in primary school and kept in touch through the later years, told Daily Mail Australia 'the girl who was always smiling' was 'the most fun' to be around.

Miss Kelly's family have traveled to the UK to bring her body back to New Zealand

Friends understand she fell out of a window but that has not been confirmed by UK officials or family

'When we were young Toni was one of those people that never had anything bad to say about anyone, she was super girly, laid back and fun which I loved.

'I remember just laughing and giggling with her all the time about nothing. She was a beautiful girl that will definitely always be remembered - especially for that smile.'

Tributes have poured in for Miss Kelly with friends, family and strangers pledging their support for the cause.

'So so tragic. The hardest thing ever to experience. Much love to all of you. Another beautiful angel watching over us all. xx,' wrote Lisa Hankinson.

'I'd hope this will help get your gorgeous girl home,' wrote a guest donor.

Toni Kelly (pictured) who is described as 'happy and beautiful' died in London on life support

Money raised on a Givealittle page will help Miss Kelly's family with the high costs of bringing her body back home to New Zealand

Others shared their condolences and offered well wishes as well as prayers.

Her sister Stacey Kelly thanked girls on Facebook who had set up the page to bring her cherished family member home.

'I just wanna say thank you from the bottom of my heart for the endless support so far.

'Also a huge thank you to the girls who thought of & created this beautiful page for our baby girl.

'We are completely lost for words & can't wait to be home.'
Former politician Clive Palmer has accused the government of destroying the Australian dream.

In a short video posted to Facebook, the mining magnate blamed Chinese buyers for a lack of affordable housing, and demanded the government take action.

'The Australian dream has become a nightmare,' he said as he launched into a rant about the housing crisis.

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Former politician Clive Palmer (pictured) has accused the government of destroying the Australian dream

'How can our new generation get started for their children and their grandchildren if they can't even afford a house or a unit or something to live in?' he asked.

'The Australian dream was a right of all Australians only a short time ago, but now over 25% of sales in New South Wales last year went to people coming from China.

'This is Australia, the government must be to provide housing and opportunities for Australians. We need to do something about it.'

In a short video posted to Facebook, the mining magnate blamed Chinese buyers for a lack of affordable housing, and demanded the government take action (pictured is a stock image)

Palmer's family owns eight houses in the luxury enclave of Sovereign Islands - the Gold Coast's most exclusive suburb.

Overseas buyers accounted for 25 per cent of new homes in NSW last year, according to Credit Suisse.

Citizens of China, including Macau and Hong Kong, and Taiwan made up 87 per cent of all foreign property buyers during the same period.

Opinion among Palmer's Facebook followers was split, with some applauding the businessman for speaking his mind, and other calling him 'part of the problem'.
Amazon Australia's launch was predicted to be the 'biggest shake-up in retail in a generation' - but instead customers were faced with mark-ups of almost 1000%.

The online delivery giant's 'soft launch' in Australia saw tech products on sale for prices up to ten times more than local retailers like JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman.

Logitech surround sound speakers were being sold by Amazon for $504, while the same speakers could be bought for $369 at Kogan or $397 at Harvey Norman.

Amazon Australia's launch was predicted to be the 'biggest shake-up in retail in a generation' - but instead customers were faced with mark-ups of almost 1000%

Logitech surround sound speakers were being sold by Amazon for $504, while the same speakers could be bought for $369 at Kogan or $397 at Harvey Norman

The biggest mark-up appeared to be a laptop bag made by software company HP, which Amazon had on sale for $267 compared to JB Hi-Fi's $29.95.

While the Olympus Tough TG5 camera was marketed as $796 by the online giant, despite retailing for just $598 at Harvey Norman.

Analysts from Deutsche Bank said Amazon's soft launch would 'undoubtedly have been disappointing' and confusing for customers expecting a full catalogue.

'Entire categories such as televisions, mobile phones, and grocery segments such as hair-care were missing,' analysts for the bank wrote, reported Business Insider.

While the Olympus Tough TG5 camera was marketed as $796 by the online giant, despite retailing for just $598 at Harvey Norman

The biggest mark-up appeared to be a laptop bag made by software company HP, which Amazon had on sale for $267 compared to JB Hi-Fi's $29.95

'Searches for Apple products such as iPhones, or Sony does not produce the hardware results we intended (the results would mostly be books). Indeed, we observed a number of anomalies on Amazon's Australian website.'

However, Amazon managed to out-price their competitors with some items, including a $1,289 Yamaha surround sound bar that was $200 cheaper than Harvey Norman's offering.

And while the Brother PT-E110VP label printer was more expensive than the same one offered at Officeworks, an Epson Workforce printer was 21 per cent cheaper.

Amazon Australia Price Comparison Item Amazon JB Hi-Fi Harvey Norman Officeworks Alternative Retailer Logitech Surround Sound Speakers Z906 $504.47 $399.00 $397.00 $478.00 $369.00 Olympus Tough TG5 Camera $796.13 599.00 $598.00 N/A $599.95 Epson Workforce WF-2750 Printer $150.22 $128.00 $178.00 N/A $182.25 Yamaha Sound Bar YSP-2700 $1,289.00 N/A $1,496.00 N/A $1,399.00 HP Value Top Load Laptop Bag $267.95 $29.95 N/A N/A $40.90 Brother PT-E110VP Label Printer $103.25 N/A N/A $99.00 $86.93 Source: Business Insider

Amazon did manage to out-price their competitors with some items, such as a $1,289 Yamaha surround sound bar that was $200 cheaper than Harvey Norman's offering

The 'soft launch' of Amazon Australia began with promises the marketplace giant would forever change the face of shopping in this country.

The 'internal testing phase' was limited to a small number of customers who were able to order from the local site, with the full launch expected on Friday.

Despite the hype, Amazon Australia's website still looked the same on Friday afternoon as it has in recent years.

The home screen remained as the Kindle book store, with avid buyers unable to access the new products.
Video footage shows the shocking moment a woman is robbed at gunpoint on her own doorstep by men as they sprint toward her with guns in front of her home in Killeen, Texas.

22-year-old Davieon Reed, along with three other suspects, identified as Gjavion Smith-Williams, 17, Jamal Marbury, 18 and Daquan Lavant, were all arrested after the remaining suspects were found in two vehicles parked nearby.

A juvenile was also taken into custody - the incident was recorded on the home owners video surveillance system.

Davieon Reed (right) and Gjavion Smith-Williams, 17 (right) pictured here in their mugshots

The woman heard glass breaking at the front of her house and realized someone had smashed her window in.

She said Reed, one of the men who has now been arrested, then knocked on her door, pretending to be a concerned neighbor, in what she believes was a planned distraction.

Officers found the weapons and the clothing the suspects were seen wearing in the home surveillance video inside the vehicles.

The bond has been set at $100,000 by Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke for each of the suspects in question.

All of the adult suspects have been transferred to Bell County Jail.
Jared Kushner has been left unnerved by the increasingly wide scope of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, according to a new report this week.

In the wake of indictments against former senior Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, the president's son-in-law is worried that the investigation could short-circuit Donald Trump's time in the Oval Office.

'Do you think theyll get the president?' Jared asked a friend, according to a person briefed on the conversation who spoke to Vanity Fair.

Kushner's concerns appear to be justified, particularly after it was reported on Thursday that a longtime Trump ally may be ready to cooperate with the investigation.

Jared Kushner has been left unnerved by the increasingly wide scope of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, according to a new report this week. Kushner is seen above in Beijing on November 9

Lawyers for Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security adviser, have told Trump's legal team they can no longer discuss a probe into Russian meddling in the US election, indicating Flynn may be cooperating with the investigation, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

Flynn is a central figure in Mueller's federal investigation into whether Trump aides colluded with Russia to boost his 2016 presidential campaign.

In comments to The Washington Post, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow was quoted as saying the move was 'not entirely unexpected' and added: 'No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president.'

The probe has hung over the White House since January, when US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her.

Russia has denied interfering in the US election and Trump has said there was no collusion.

Kushner's concerns appear to be justified, particularly after it was reported on Thursday that a longtime Trump ally may be ready to cooperate with the investigation. Mike Flynn (left) has cut ties with Trump's lawyers, a sign that he may be cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's (right) investigation

Kushner is also reportedly being encouraged by Trump to take his wife, Ivanka Trump, and their three young children and return to New York.

Vanity Fair reports that the president is concerned that the couple are being hit with too much negative press from the Russia investigation.

Three people who have spoken to the president say he's asked Jared and Ivanka to go home.

'He keeps pressuring them to go,' one source close to Jared told the magazine.

But the reason for sending the couple back to Big Apple could be two-fold because they no longer have much to do at the White House.

Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman spoke with a half dozen Trump advisers, current and former West Wing officials and Republicans close to the administration who revealed that Chief of Staff John Kelly has significantly reduced Jared's role.

'Kelly has clipped his wings,' one high-level Republican close to the White House told the magazine.

Sources also told the magazine that Jared's (left) role in the White House has been significantly reduced since John Kelly (right) became chief of staff

When Kelly was appointed to the role in July, he sought to rein the president in, ending the Oval Office's open door policy for Jared.

He also hacked away at Jared's responsibilities in the administration, which at one point included restructuring the government, reforming the VA, ending the opioid epidemic, nurturing a relationship with China and brokering peace in the Middle East.

Under Kelly, Jared is now mainly focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And two people who spoke to Sherman said that even there he is disappointing Kelly.

Kelly was apparently upset with Jared's trip to Saudia Arabia last month, which happened just days before 32-year-old Prince Alwaleed bin Talal arrested 11 royals.

Bin Talal said that the arrests were for corruption but others say it was a power grab for the king-in-waiting.

During Jared's trip, the two stayed up to nearly 4am 'planning strategy' which Kelly thought gave the impression that the administration not only knew about the purge beforehand, but might have had helped plan it. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has denied this.

And it's not just Kelly that's been let down by Jared. Even the president has expressed displeasure with his son-in-law's political advice, according to Republicans who have spoken to Trump.

That advice reportedly includes firing FBI Director James Comey (which Jared denies) and backing losing Alabama GOP candidate Luther Strange (though it saved Trump from initially endorsing the now-controversial Roy Moore).

Sending Jared away may be Trump's way of trying to downplay the Russia investigation, as it nears closer to the White House.

Last week, the Senate revealed that Jared had not turned over emails relating to Wikileaks, something his attorney denies.
Russia slammed President Donald Trump on Thursday for his 'PR move' to put North Korea on America's terror blacklist.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Trump's move to place North Korea on the list of state sponsors of terrorism 'another scaremongering act and PR move' that would not reduce tensions on the ground.

'The answer to the question whether such actions help in lessening the tensions is clear: no, they do not,' Zakharova told the Agence France Press.

According to Zakharova, the decision could cause the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global 'catastrophe'.

North Korea condemned its US terror listing as a 'serious provocation' on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Russia slammed President Donald Trump on Thursday for his 'PR move' decision to put North Korea on America's terror blacklist. Pictured left is Russia President Vladimir Putin

'These sorts of actions push the situation (around North Korea) to the extreme, this can end with a big catastrophe not only of a regional but also of global scale,' Zakharova told journalists in Moscow.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will discuss the North Korea crisis with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono during his visit to Russia on Friday, Zakharova said.

'They will concentrate on bilateral relations but the international situation will be discussed, including the situation in the Korean peninsula as well as the Syrian question,' Zakharova said.

Trump put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism on Monday, a designation that allows the US to impose more sanctions and risks inflaming tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile programs.

The Republican president, who has traded personal insults with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but has not ruled out talks, said the Treasury Department will announce additional sanctions against North Korea on Tuesday.

The designation came a week after Trump returned from a 12-day, five-nation trip to Asia in which he made containing North Korea's nuclear ambitions a centerpiece of his discussions.

'In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil,' Trump told reporters at the White House.

'This designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons and supports our maximum pressure campaign to isolate the murderous regime.'

Trump, who has often criticized his predecessors' policies toward Pyongyang, said the designation should have been made 'a long time ago.'

North Korea is pursuing nuclear weapons and missile programs in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions and has made no secret of its plans to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland. It has fired two missiles over Japan and on September 3 fired its sixth and largest nuclear test.

North Korea condemned its US terror listing as a 'serious provocation' on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Pictured is North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday

South Korea's spy agency said on Monday the North may conduct additional missile tests this year to improve its long-range missile technology and ramp up the threat against the United States.

Experts say the designation will be largely symbolic as North Korea is already heavily sanctioned by the US, a reality that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seemed to acknowledged while saying it would help dissuade third parties from supporting Pyongyang.

'The practical effects may be limited but hopefully we're closing off a few loopholes with this,' he told reporters.

The United States has designated only three other countries - Iran, Sudan and Syria - as state sponsors of terrorism.

Some experts think North Korea does not meet the criteria for the designation, which requires evidence that a state has 'repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.'

In his remarks, Trump remembered Otto Warmbier, the college student from Ohio who died in June shortly after his return from North Korea, where he was held for more than a year.

His death caused outrage in the US and further inflamed tensions with Pyongyang.

A US intelligence official who follows developments in North Korea expressed concern that Trump's move could backfire, especially given that the basis for the designation is arguable.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said Kim could respond in a number of ways, including renewing missile or nuclear tests in 'a very volatile environment'.

The move also could undercut Trumps efforts to solicit greater Chinese cooperation in pressuring North Korea to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile tests, the official said.

US Representative Ed Royce called the decision 'an important step in our efforts to apply maximum diplomatic and financial pressure on Kim Jong Un'. Jong-Un is seen talking with officials about their nuclear weapons program

A US intelligence official who follows developments in North Korea expressed concern that Trump's move could backfire. The official said Kim (center) could respond in a number of ways, including renewing missile or nuclear tests in 'a very volatile environment'

In any case, it will do little to open the way for US dialogue with North Korea, which China - Pyongyang's main ally - and others have been pushing for.

'I don't see how this helps, and it might just be an important miscalculation,' said Robert Gallucci, the chief US negotiator during the 1994 North Korean nuclear crisis.

In February, plans for talks in the United States between former US officials and North Korea were scrapped when the State Department denied a visa for a top envoy from Pyongyang after the murder of Kim's half brother, Kim Jong Nam, in Malaysia.

North Korea was put on the US terrorism sponsor list for the 1987 bombing of a Korean Air flight that killed all 115 people aboard.

But the administration of former President George W. Bush, a Republican, removed Pyongyang in 2008 in exchange for progress in denuclearization talks.

Some members of Congress had been pushing for years for North Korea to be put back on the list, but others questioned whether the reclusive regime met the criteria of actively sponsoring international terrorism.

US Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, called the decision 'an important step in our efforts to apply maximum diplomatic and financial pressure on Kim Jong Un'.

Democratic Senator Edward Markey said the designation 'ratchets up the rhetoric' but does nothing to hold North Korea accountable for its weapons program.

The designation could prove counterproductive, said Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the conservative Center for the National Interest.

'Sadly, this action by the Trump administration just further cements a dangerous game of escalatory brinkmanship where neither side is giving the other any off-ramp,' he said.
An interactive online map allowing Australians to report suspicious aerial sightings has revealed a growing number of UFO sightings across the nation.

A record number of sightings were logged worldwide in 2017 - with thousands of those coming from concentrated areas on the east coast, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.

Reports have been filed to The Mutual UFO Network on a near daily basis, with many offering detailed descriptions - with several sharing photographic 'proof' of their experience.

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The Mutual UFO Network website shows areas with the highest reported UFO sightings around the country - densely populated cities appearing to have the most traffic

Areas around Perth have been highly frequented according to the map - with suburbs north of the city like Joondalup the most popular hot spots.

One spotter in October recalled their experience to be unlike anything they'd seen before: 'Nothing man made can move through the air like this, I only wish I could get a closer look at them.'

Another Perth resident claimed they had not only seen aliens, but communicated with them and had been abducted by them.

Hovering aircrafts and flying triangle objects have been spotted in highly populated areas of New South Wales from as far south as Sanctuary Point, all the way up to Alstonville.

A Cairns woman captured photos of a bizarre UFO-like object hovering across the sky above the Great Barrier Reef last month

The UFO highways with heaviest traffic however seemed to be around Sydney city, Central Coast and Newcastle.

'When lights went out on object a redish ball took off from that point, making no noise, no sound barrier crack and moved far to quickly,' a Sydneysider recalled.

Another claimed to they were sent a message: 'Human ET cloud with GOLDEN ANGEL ET and black ufo with multiple anomalies. They informed me to take the picture before it disappears..'

Brisbane was the area with the most reported sightings on the Gold Coast, and multiple had also reportedly paid a visit to Hervey Bay, Bundaberg and Rockhampton.

Areas around Perth have been highly frequented according to the map - suburbs north of the city like Joondalup the most popular hot spots

The Northern Territory had fewer ET experiences, with only a handful logged from spotters in Darwin.

Countless Victorians claim to have witnessed irregular activity, and most commonly in areas around the capital city, Gelong and St Kilda.

A site user based in Anakie explained how a dead ram was found after a red orb-like light was spotted - they believed the incident was one of many animal mutilation cases reported in relation to alien activity.

Meanwhile Adelaide and surrounding suburbs would barely bat an eye at UFOs anymore with its high volume of sightings.

The UFO highways with heaviest traffic however seemed to be around Sydney city, Central Coast and Newcastle

Hackham, Taperoo and more remote areas like Murray Bridge and Rapid Bay had all apparently been treated to outlandish visitors this year.

People in Tasmania had a similar story to tell, with multiple odd shapes reported drifting through airspace near Hobart throughout 2017.

The site has come host to hundreds of thousands of unidentified flying object stories, several sharing highly convincing tales of spooky activity.

It's proven a useful tool for researches in identifying trends, hot spots and patterns of activity according to UFO Investigations Manual author Nigel Watson, Seven News reports.

'UFO Stalker is a brilliant visual guide to the location of UFO sightings, and shows the sheer scale of this phenomena throughout the country over the last few years,' Mr Watson said.
The director of Salim Mehajer's wedding planning business has been granted $800,000 bail after being accused of the murder of a major bikie figure.

Police arrested Ahmed Jaghbir on November 8 and charged him with the alleged execution-style murder of Hells Angel associate Kemel 'Blackie' Barakat.

The 29-year-old's body was found riddled with bullets in his bed in Mortlake, south of Sydney, about 2.30am on March 10. Barakat's wife was overseas at the time.

Daily Mail Australia can reveal Jaghbir, 28, was released on strict bail conditions by Magistrate Theo Tsavdaridis at Parramatta Local Court on Thursday.

Former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer is pictured here with his friend Ahmed Jaghbir on the latter's wedding day

Kemel 'Blackie' Barakat (centre) was found dead in his bed - riddled with gun shot wounds - in March 2017

On top of the hefty surety, Jaghbir is required to report to police seven days a week and has a curfew between 9pm and 6am.

He was represented in court by barrister Winston Terracini SC. His parents have agreed to put up the surety on a mortgaged house in Lidcombe. Jaghbir is yet to be released.

The Daily Mail is not suggesting Mr Mehajer was aware or had anything whatsoever to do with the slaying.

Police have also charged Jaghbir with being an accessory before the fact to murder and participating in a criminal group, contributing to criminal activity.

In a statement, police said they will allege in court that Jaghbir was involved in the planning of the murder, including coordinating access to Barakat's home.

His own extravagant wedding! Jaghbir is pictured here at his own ceremony - just this year

Police arrested Ahmed Jaghbir (pictured) on November 8

Jaghbir's lawyer Mahmoud Abbas said outside court: 'This is a very weak case.

'There is absolutely no evidence to suggest my client was involved in murder'.

Like his friend the former Auburn deputy mayor, Jaghbir this year had an extravagant wedding himself.

A gaudy wedding video showed Jaghbir having chosen a handgun-shaped cufflink for his shirt sleeves.

The matter returns to court in February.

Mr Mehajer, spotted on a Sydney street on Friday, responded to the news with a single word: 'Excellent'.


Minnesota Senator Al Franken downplayed new sexual harassment claims against him in his apology Thursday.

The Democrat admitted in the statement he 'crossed a line' with some female acquaintances during 'greetings and embraces for a hug or photo.'

His accusers have claimed the politician touched their buttocks during events for his first campaign for Senate.

The women on condition of anonymity told Huffington Post the alleged events took place in Minneapolis back in 2007 and 2008.

'I've met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs, often in crowded and chaotic situations. I'm a warm person; I hug people,' Franken said.

'Some women have found my greetings or embraces for a hug or photo inappropriate, and I respect their feelings about that.'

In the statement he suggested he did not remember specific incidents at the events events, while adding 'it's difficult to respond to anonymous accusers.'

Sen. Al Franken admitted he 'crossed a line' after two new women came forward alleging Franken (pictured) touched their buttocks during events for his first campaign for Senate

The women said the events occurred in Minneapolis in 2007 and 2008. Last week Leann Tweeden (pictured), spoke out about a similar incident involving Franken that happened in 2006. Tweeden accused Franken of forcibly kissing her and putting his hands on her breasts

The former comedian expressed his regrets and assured to be 'much more careful' in future situations.

'I feel terribly that I've made some women feel badly and for that I am so sorry, and I want to make sure that never happens again,' he said.

The two new allegations are the third and fourth claims against Franken in the past week.

Last week, Franken was accused of forcibly kissing Leeann Tweeden while rehearsing for a 2006 USO tour.

Franken also was photographed with his hands over her breasts as she slept.

'I felt disgusted and violated,' she wrote on the website of her talk radio program.

Franken's initial statement noted that he did not remember the USO skit happening that way.

Lindsay Menz, 33, was the second woman to come forward, alleging Franken grabbed her buttocks during a photo op at the Minnesota State Fair.

One of the new victims, a 38-year-old book editor, told the Huffington Post that her story is similar to Menz's story.

'He grabbed my buttocks during a photo op,' the woman said, referring to the incident that allegedly took place on June 25, 2007.

Lensay Menz, (left) was the second woman to claim that Franken, (right) groped her when the two took this picture at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010

That incident reportedly took place at the Women's Political Caucus in Minneapolis.

The second victim to come forward this week told HuffPost that Franken cupped her butt with his hand during a 2008 Democratic fundraiser at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.

She alleges he also suggested the two visit the bathroom together.

'I shook his hand, and he put his arm around my waist and held it there,' the second woman said. 'Then he moved it lower and cupped my butt.'

She added: 'I was completely mortified,' while speaking with HuffPost.

'My immediate reaction was disgust,' the second woman said. 'But my secondary reaction was disappointment. I was excited to be there and to meet him. And so to have that happen really deflated me. It felt like: 'Is this really the person who is going to be in a position of power to represent our community?''

Franken said he 'can categorically say that I did not proposition anyone to join me in any bathroom'.

Menz told CNN last week that the interaction with the Minnesota senator made her feel 'gross.' She said she immediately told her husband that Franken had 'grabbed' her bottom and that she posted about it on Facebook.

Her story followed Los Angeles broadcaster, Tweeden.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called for an ethics investigation of Franken, which Franken said he supports.
Schoolies revellers have taken their raucous antics to the next level - with video footage emerging that shows youngsters setting themselves on fire.

The footage shows school leavers on the Gold Coast in Queensland apparently setting each other on fire, according to Nine News.

Other footage captured shows them snorting unknown substances.

Scroll down for video

Schoolies revellers have taken their raucous antics to the next level after video has emerged apparently showing youngsters setting themselves on fire

Almost double the number of Schoolies have been arrested on drugs charges this week compare to last year, with 44 apprehended by police.

Fights were also captured on camera, with 10 people arrested on Thursday night.

Overnight 126 people were treated by paramedics, with about half of them under the influence of illicit drugs.

Queensland school-leavers will be leaving the Gold Coast tomorrow, but Year 12 students from New South Wales and Victoria will then take their place to celebrate the end of their secondary schooling.

The footage comes after school leavers were spotted dangling over the balcony of a high-rise apartment building on the Gold Coast on Wednesday.

Many have posed on balconies in precarious positions  some clinging to the edge with their entire bodies on the wrong side of the railing.

Fights were also captured on camera, with 10 people arrested on Thursday night

Several Schoolies were snapped sitting on the ledge of a balcony at least nine floors above the ground at Focus Apartments on Sunday afternoon.

Witnesses said they were throwing things to each other for more than an hour, one small slip away from death.

Teenage girls also uploaded photos of themselves and their friends sitting on the balcony railing as they got ready to party.

Overnight 126 people were treated by paramedics, with about half of them under the influence of illicit drugs

In 2015, a 17-year-old Cairns boy named Steve had his buttocks set on fire by a friend with a lighter and an aerosol can.

We were just really drunk and it was a bad decision, he told the Gold Coast Bulletin at the time.

He was treated for a palm sized superficial burn to his buttocks at Gold Coast University Hospital.
Paul Manafort, President Donald Trumps former campaign manager, made at least 18 trips to Moscow and over 100 visits to Ukraine where he met with associates connected with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was reported on Thursday.

Manafort worked as a political consultant for pro-Russia political parties in Ukraine and maintained lucrative business relationships with oligarchs tied to the Kremlin, The Miami Herald reported on Thursday.

The frequency and scope of the trips between the years 2005 and 2014 had not previously been known.

The trips suggest that Manaforts relationship with Moscow are deeper than once thought.

Paul Manafort (seen above in Washington, DC, on November 6), President Donald Trumps former campaign manager, made at least 18 trips to Moscow and over 100 visits to Ukraine where he met with associates connected with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was reported on Thursday

Manafort is a subject of the investigation into alleged meddling by the Russian government in the 2016 US presidential election.

He joined Trumps campaign in March 2016  nearly two years after a top client, Viktor Yanukovych, was removed from office as president of Ukraine.

After Yanukovych fell, Manafort made 19 trips to Kiev over the course of 20 months during which he advised the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc party.

One of Manaforts contacts in the party, Viktor Medvedchuk, is an oligarch who was once a Russian intelligence agent.

Manafort is a subject of the investigation into alleged meddling by the Russian government in the 2016 US presidential election. He joined Trumps campaign in March 2016  nearly two years after a top client, Viktor Yanukovych (above), was removed from office as president of Ukraine

US investigators who have looked into Manaforts activities in Russia and Ukraine want to know whether Trumps former campaign manager was being unwittingly used by Moscow to act on its behalf.

Earlier this month, Manafort and associate Richard Gates pleaded not guilty to a 12-count indictment by a federal grand jury.

The charges include conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraines former pro-Russian government.

They are part of Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into alleged Russian efforts to tilt the 2016 election in Trumps favor and potential collusion by Trump associates.

Mueller is combing through information obtained regarding talks between Russians about using Manafort as part of their broad influence operations during the elections, a source familiar with the matter told McClatchy.

It was reported earlier this month that Manafort offered to post more than $12million in real estate and life insurance assets and to limit his travel in a bid to avoid continued house arrest.

US investigators who have looked into Manaforts activities in Russia and Ukraine want to know whether Trumps former campaign manager was being unwittingly used by Moscow to act on its behalf. Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen above in Sochi on Thursday

According to court documents, Manafort offered to limit his travel to New York, Washington and Florida and pledged life insurance worth about $4.5million as well as about $8million in real estate assets, including a property on Fifth Avenue in New York that was identified as an apartment in Trump Tower.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that initial bail terms would remain in place and set a bail hearing to consider changes. She suggested a potential May 7 trial date.

Manafort and Gates are under house arrest, under unsecured bonds of $10 million and $5 million, respectively, which means they do not have to post the bail unless they fail to show up for court or violate other conditions.
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia has called the Supreme Leader of Iran 'the new Hitler of the Middle East'.

Mohammad bin Salman, 32, who is also Minister of Defence, said he did not want Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to 'repeat what happened in Europe' during World War II.

The controversial statement came after Dailymail.com reported that his father King Salman is planning to step down and announce his son as his successor this month.

Strong words: Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, 32 called Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 'the new Hitler of the Middle East'

The Crown Prince, made the comments in in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday, sharply escalating the war of words between the arch-rivals.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Shi'ite theocracy Iran back rival sides in wars and political crises throughout the region.

Mohammad bin Salman suggested the Islamic Republic's alleged expansion under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei needed to be confronted.

Enemies: Crown Prince Mohammad said he did not want Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pictured last month, to 'repeat what happened in Europe' during World War II

'But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesn't work. We don't want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East,' the paper quoted him as saying.

Saudi Arabia's 32-year-old heir to the throne is seeking to develop new industries to wean his country off its dependency on oil exports.

He has also taken some steps to loosen its ultra-strict social restrictions, scaling back the role of religious morality police and announcing plans to allowing women to drive next year.

He has announced wide plans for social and political reforms to the kingdom, which is ruled as an absolute monarchy with a powerful clergy that adheres to Wahhabism, an ultra-austere version of Sunni Islam.
Senator John McCain on Thursday put to rest a controversy that was raging on social media about a walking boot that was photographed on a different leg on two separate occasions.

The Arizona Republican posted a photo on Twitter showing him and his wife just before his daughter Meghan McCain's wedding in Sedona on Wednesday.

In the picture, McCain is seen seated with the walking boot on his left foot.

In an earlier photo posted on November 14, McCain is seen wearing the boot on his right foot after he suffered a minor tear in his right Achilles tendon.

The discrepancy ignited a slew of conspiracy theories on social media.

'We can tell by the buttons on John McCain's jacket (circled) that neither of these images are reversed, and his walking boot did in fact, switch legs, from his right to his left. Bet that brain tumor is fake, too,' tweeted one Twitter user.

Another theory holds that the boot is intended to conceal an ankle monitor that was placed on him as punishment for criminal activity.

Senator John McCain is pictured left with his wife, Cindy, and their dog on Wednesday. In the photo, McCain is wearing a walking boot on his left leg. The photo on the right is from November 14, when McCain wore the walking boot on his other leg

The discrepancy ignited a slew of conspiracy theories on social media. 'We can tell by the buttons on John McCain's jacket (circled) that neither of these images are reversed, and his walking boot did in fact, switch legs, from his right to his left. Bet that brain tumor is fake, too,' tweeted one Twitter user

Another theory holds that the boot is intended to conceal an ankle monitor that was placed on him as punishment for criminal activity

One particularly mean-spirited Twitter user wrote: 'John McCain is either faking an injury or too senile to hold office'

Finally on Thursday, McCain himself took to Twitter to put the conspiracy theories to rest. 'My left leg was doing extra work to compensate for the boot, so I'm giving it a break,' the senator tweeted

'The theory that John McCain is wearing a medical boot to hide his ankle monitor as a criminal defendant just got legs,' tweeted another Twitter user. 'His Achilles tendon injury (the reason he's allegedly wearing the boot) seems to have magically switched legs.'

One particularly mean-spirited Twitter user wrote: 'John McCain is either faking an injury or too senile to hold office.'

Finally on Thursday, McCain himself took to Twitter to put the conspiracy theories to rest.

'My left leg was doing extra work to compensate for the boot, so I'm giving it a break,' the senator tweeted.

'I still hate wearing this boot, but it won't slow us down from frying 7 turkeys today!'

McCain, who recently returned to Washington after treatment for brain cancer, said the disease is vicious but that the treatment is going well and he has more energy than before.

The McCains are the proud parents of their newlywed daughter, Meghan. Actress Barret Swatek (second from right) posted a photo on her Instagram account in which she poses with Meghan McCain (second from left) and her groom, Ben Domenech (far right) on Wednesday

McCain and Domenech are seen above with wedding guest SE Cupp (far left) of HLN

'This is a very vicious form of cancer that I'm facing,' McCain, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008, told CNN.

The 80-year-old Arizona senator was found to have an aggressive form of brain tumor, glioblastoma, after surgery in July for a blood clot above his left eye.

McCain said doctors have given him a 'very poor prognosis.'

McCain is afflicted with the same type of cancer that took the life of his former Senate colleague Edward M. Kennedy in 2009.

McCain told CBS' 60 Minutes in late September that he thinks about Kennedy a lot.

He says Kennedy continued to work despite the diagnosis and 'never gave up because he loved the engagement.'

McCain's condition was a factor that led his daughter, Meghan, to tie the knot with her fiancee.

The bride and groom dance together as guests look on at the McCain family lodge in Sedona, Arizona

Another guest at the wedding was Meghan McCain's former Fox News colleague Katherine Timpf

Photos emerged on social media Wednesday showing a beaming Meghan McCain during her wedding to journalist Ben Domenech at the McCain family compound in Arizona on Tuesday.

The conservative co-host of The View, 33, wed her conservative pundit beau Domenech, 35, in Sedona on Tuesday evening.

Among the guests at the intimate wedding were actress Barret Swatek and broadcast journalist SE Cupp.

The guests posted photos of the happy couple on Instagram - including the special moment where they shared a dance.

Another guest at the wedding was Meghan McCain's former Fox News colleague Katherine Timpf.

The bride and groom kept the affair under wraps.

'Meghan McCain and Ben Domenech were married today at the McCain family lodge in Sedona, Arizona,' a McCain representative told PEOPLE on Tuesday.

'The bride's father, Senator John McCain, gave her away and they were married by John Dickerson. Following the ceremony, McCain and Domenech celebrated with dinner and dancing surrounded by their family and close friends.'

Meghan McCain, 33, wed her conservative pundit beau Domenech, 35 (right), on Tuesday. She was walked down the aisle by her father Senator John McCain (pictured, right, with Meghan)

Members of the public were wondering if wedding bells were soon ringing for the couple. In addition to McCain being absent from The View this week, she also posted a photo on Instagram on Tuesday with a pair of slippers that read 'I Do!' (above)

Members of the public were wondering if wedding bells were soon ringing for the couple.

In addition to McCain being absent from The View this week, she also posted a photo on Instagram on Tuesday with a pair of slippers that read 'I Do!'

'#AlmostTime,' she captioned the photo, which was geo-tagged in Arizona.

On November 2, Meghan revealed on The View that she had been engaged to The Federalist publisher for a while and chose to keep it a secret.

'We have been together for years and we have been engaged for a while and it was a secret,' she shared with her co-hosts.

She revealed that the pair decided to get married after her father was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive stage 4 brain cancer, over the summer.

In his own appearance on the ABC talk show earlier this month, Senator McCain gave his own stamp of approval.

On November 2, Meghan revealed on The View that she had been engaged to The Federalist publisher for a while and chosen to keep it a secret (pictured)

She revealed that the pair decided to get married after her father was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive stage 4 brain cancer, over the summer. Meghan said she would tell other single women to never settle.

Meghan joked that her now-husband is the 'most conservative guy in the history of the world'

The 81-year-old Arizona Senator joked on The View earlier this month: 'He's a jerk.

'Actually, he's a very fine man. I'm very proud and very happy that they're so happy together.'

Meghan previously described Domenech as 'the most conservative guy in the history of the world' and said she would tell other single women to never settle.

'Wait for people who love strong women,' she said.

'The men who love strong, independent women, they're out there. Don't settle for anything else.'
A young mother was forced to beg burglars not to kill her baby after they held a knife to his throat and stole his Christmas presents.

Nicole McGrillen, 21, was woken by the sound of the intruders rifling through her belongings right next to her bed in Belfast at 2am yesterday.

She jumped up with her partner Philip McDowell and confronted the men, who then held a knife to the neck of their six-month-old son Finley.

The armed robbers grabbed a laptop, mobile phones, a purse and the presents the couple had bought for their son, who will celebrate his first Christmas in five weeks.

Nicole jumped up with her partner Philip McDowell and confronted the men, who then held a knife to the neck of their six-month-old son Finley

The armed robbers a laptop, mobile phones, a purse and other valuables - but police believe they have arrested the men responsible

Nicole's father Finbar, 42, was murdered in a flat in the Ravenhill area of Belfast in December 2013 and his terrified daughter says he 'must have been watching over them' because they survived.

Describing the burglary to friends on Facebook she said: 'Absolutely heartbroken can't believe I woke in the early hours of the morning to a man holding a knife to Finleys neck in his cot and a man holding a knife to me and Philip in bed would not wish it on anyone.

'Absolutely terrifying having to beg for the life of your baby and your own when you are so helpless what scumbags would hold a knife to a 6 month old baby's neck and threaten their life'.

She added they 'stole everything they could and all Finleys Christmas things just thanking my lucky stars I have my family safe absolutely terrifying someone was definitely watching over us'.

The PSNI have confirmed they are investigating the burglary and have already made two arrests after stopping a suspicious car in the area.

Six-month-old son Finley McDowell had a knife held to his throat by burglars who stole his Christmas presents

Miss McGrillen told her local newspaper: 'It was like something from a film. You're just frozen with fear. We were begging them for our lives.

'My mum keeps my dad's ashes beside her bed so he was obviously watching over us'.

The ordeal at the south Belfast home the couple and baby share with her mother, and younger siblings Joe and Nicole.

Police are appealing for information about the incident and any witnesses.

Detective Sergeant Philip McCullagh said: 'Police received a report at around 2.10am that two males had gained entry into a house.

'The males were reported to be armed with knives taken from the kitchen of the property.

'When confronted by one of the female occupants, the two males fled the scene with a number of items including a laptop, mobile phone and a purse.'

'Police subsequently stopped two men nearby who matched the description given by the occupant and a number of items were recovered.

'Two men aged 25 and 30 were arrested on suspicion of a number of offences including aggravated burglary and assault on police and are currently in custody helping police with their enquiries.

'Police are appealing to anyone who may have seen any suspicious activity in the area or who may have information which could help them with their enquiries to contact the Reducing Offending Unit on 101 quoting reference number 71 of 23/11/2017.

'Information can also be given anonymously through the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.'
Sydneysiders can look forward to the warmest November week in nearly 50 years, ending a dismal run of rain and cooler temperatures.

A prolonged run of uninterrupted warm weather is due to hit the city with temperatures set to reach or exceed 25 degrees every day until the end of November.

'The last time this happened in November was in 1968, and it's only happened four times in the last 160 years,' Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutschke told Daily Mail Australia.

The last times Sydney basked in seven consecutive days of temperatures at or above 25 degrees were in 1968 and 1897.

Sydneysiders are about to enjoy a straight week of warm weather with temperatures of 25C+

The consistently warm weather is the result of a high pressure system, which stops cold fronts

The famous Sydney beaches are sure to be packed as people make the most of the weather

The consistently warm weather is the result of a high pressure system - known as a 'blocking high' - that is centred over the Tasman Sea and is stopping any strong cold fronts from moving up Australia's east coast.

And it's not just Sydney that's rolling into summer - Melbourne residents have had sweltering spring temperatures for the past week, enduring the longest stretch of November days exceeding 28 degrees on record.

For the first time in Tasmania since records began in 1882, Hobart has experienced temperatures over 26 degrees for the past six days.

In contrast, Brisbane will be hit with some cooler weather, with onshore winds lowering the temperature almost every day for more than a fortnight.

The heat has already come and gone from Adelaide that is on its way out from Melbourne and Hobart, so it's rolling into SYdney

'Adelaide, Hobart and Melbourne have had significant spring heat, and will all get another burst of sun the last few days of November,' Mr Dutschke said.

'And then heading into summer, there's a cooler change moving through the first few days of the season.'

Sydney will enjoy seven consecutive days of sunny weather starting on from Friday morning

The middle of Sydney should see the mercury rise above 27 on Saturday, Sunday and Monday

The rest of the summer is predicted to be hotter than normal in Sydney, although there may be a surprise cool, wet spell in the middle of the season.

Unlike its neighbours, Sydney weather is going to be spared from extreme heat, although the nights are certainly going to be warmed than what they have been recently.

'It's going to be significantly more humid than it has been,' Mr Dutschke said.

Sydney set to average lows of 19-20 degrees this coming week.

Those close to Sydney's beaches will be able to start tanning early with a sunny week ahead

Sydney's warm weather will also hit Melbourne and Tasmania, while Brisbane will face storms

Meanwhile, a severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for heavy rainfall and large hailstones for parts of Sydney and New South Wales, according to Weatherzone.

The Bureau of Meteorology warning includes the Hunter, Sydney metropolitan, South Coast, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands and Snowy Mountains areas.

Forecaster Jordan Notara said there were several large storm cells being monitored.

'From radar imagery we are seeing that the signature from that is suggesting that there is the potential for large hailstones in that cell,' he said.

'It is starting to look more like a typical summer-style situation where we do have that typical warm day and then that boundary from the sea breeze coming into the western parts of Sydney metro.

'That interaction between the easterlies and the general westerlies from above create good instability and a lifting mechanism that initiates storms within that area.'

Mr Notara said more storm activity was expected for about a week, and the SES asks that people avoid using phones during a storm and keep children and pets indoors.
A brown bear is on the loose in Siberia armed with two guns, say Russian police.

The beast broke into a remote cabin deep in Irkutsk region and stole the weapons from a hapless hunter.

The 57-year-old man had gone to a local river for water when the animal broke in.

The beast broke into a remote cabin deep in Irkutsk region and stole the weapons from a hapless hunter. Pictured: A bear in the area

The 57-year-old hunter who owned the cabin had gone to a local river for water when the animal broke in. Above is a Vepr carbine, one of the weapons taken by the bear

When the hunter spotted the bear on his return rampaging inside the cabin, he hid in the forest until the predator left, carrying his bag along with a AZH shotgun (pictured)

'He was hunting miles away from the nearest village and decided to stay at a forest cabin,' said a statement from police in Irkutsk region. Pictured: The cabin that was raided by the bear

Crime scene pictures show the bear left its tooth marks on a bucket (left) and scratched some logs (right)

When he spotted the bear on his return rampaging inside the cabin, he hid in the forest until the predator left, carrying his bag along with a Vepr carbine and IZH shotgun, pictured.

'He was hunting miles away from the nearest village and decided to stay at a forest cabin,' said a statement from police in Irkutsk region.

'He left his belongings in the cabin and went to get some water.

'On his return, he heard some suspicious sounds and spotted a bear.

'To avoid an encounter with the animal, the hunter scurried off into the woods where he hid for several hours.'

When he returned to the remote cabin, his bag and two guns were missing.

The man hunted in the vicinity for several days seeking to find the guns, but the bear had made away with them

The bear hunting season is open in this region until 30 November, even though many animals by now are starting to hibernate for the winter

The man hunted in the vicinity for several days seeking to find the guns, but the bear had made away with them.

Crime scene pictures show the bear left its tooth marks on a bucket and scratched some logs, reported The Siberian Times.

The bear hunting season is open in this region until 30 November, even though many animals by now are starting to hibernate for the winter.
Clive Palmer's mining company Mineralogy has won its long-running battle against its estranged Chinese joint venture partners in Western Australia.

The companies have been embroiled in legal warfare for many years but the main dispute related to calculations for royalty payments from the multi-billion dollar Sino Iron project, which CITIC built and operates, drawing ore from Mineralogy-owned land.

On Friday, WA Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Martin concluded CITIC's wholly owned subsidiaries Sino Iron and Korean Steel must each pay Mineralogy AU$63 million (US$74.7 million) in lost royalties.

Clive Palmer's Mineralogy has won its long-running battle against estranged Chinese partner

Citic workers attended the Supreme Court in Perth during the legal battle with Mineralogy

Citic has refused to pay the second royalty to Mineralogy, resulting in the US$150 million

Citic had previously paid Mr Palmer AU$545.39 million (US$415 million) in 2006 as part of a takeover agreement of the project, which included Citic also paying two different forms of royalties to Mineralogy.

Citic has refused to pay the second royalty, known as Royalty B, prompting Mineralogy to make the US$150 million claim, according to the ABC.

But the judge will need further submissions before reaching his final position regarding CITIC being their guarantor.

In August, CITIC used its half-year results to lash Mineralogy, saying that its uncooperative and adversarial approach' posed a threat to the future of Sino Iron.

Chairman Chang Zhenming said the court battles, combined with an uncertain iron ore price, 'could jeopardise Sino Iron's viability and, in the worst case, lead to suspension of our operations'.

He also said Sino Iron had unsuccessfully sought Mineralogy's help to secure government approvals to use more land for waste storage.

'Mineralogy's refusal to cooperate means that we will run out of space for waste and tailings storage in the near future,' he said.

'This will severely constrain operations and impact Sino Iron's sustainability.'

Subsidiaries Sino Iron and Korean Steel must each pay Palmer's company US$74.7 million

The former politician recently went on a rant where he blamed the Chinese - and the government - for destroying the 'Australian Dream'.

He accuses the government of failing to provide affordable housing - and claims the Chinese are profiting from it in a short video posted to Facebook.

The mining magnate blamed Chinese buyers for a lack of affordable housing, and demanded the government take action.

'The Australian dream has become a nightmare,' he said as he launched into a rant about the housing crisis.

Clive Palmer recently went on a bizarre rant where he blamed the Chinese - and the Australian government - for destroying the 'Australian Dream', which was posted to his Facebook page

'The Australian dream was a right of all Australians only a short time ago, but now over 25% of sales in New South Wales last year went to people coming from China.

'This is Australia, the government must be to provide housing and opportunities for Australians. We need to do something about it.'

Palmer's family owns eight houses in the luxury enclave of Sovereign Islands - the Gold Coast's most exclusive suburb.

Overseas buyers accounted for 25 per cent of new homes in NSW last year, according to Credit Suisse.

Citizens of China, including Macau and Hong Kong, and Taiwan made up 87 per cent of all foreign property buyers during the same period.

Opinion among Palmer's Facebook followers was split, with some applauding the businessman for speaking his mind, and other calling him 'part of the problem'.
Theresa May hailed a 'positive atmosphere' and said there had been 'progress' in the EU negotiations tonight as an EU deadline to find a deal looms in just 10 days.

Mrs May held a blizzard of meetings on the sidelines of a security summit today, including private talks with EU Council President Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Mr Tusk said it was now 'possible' EU leader could declare 'sufficient progress' had been made on the divorce to allow trade talks next month but that Britain still had work to do.

The Premier also had talks with the leaders of Belgium, Denmark and Lithuania.

The whirlwind diplomacy comes after a secret gathering of British ministers agreed Mrs May could up Britain's offer on the divorce bill to 40billion - but only in return for a trade deal.

Mr Tusk was expected to demand payment without pre-conditions as a tense stand-off continues while the clock ticks down.

Mr Tusk imposed a two week deadline for a draft divorce deal that is due to expire at a dinner between Mrs May and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on December 4.

Prime Minister is going head-to-head with EU Council President Donald Tusk (pictured together in Brussels today) days after a secret summit with her ministers about hiking Britain's offer on the divorce bill

At today's talks (pictured), Mr Tusk is expected to demand payment without pre-conditions as a tense stand-off continues while the clock ticks down

The Prime Minister has already met German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of a security summit (pictured this afternoon)

Mr Tusk imposed a two week deadline for a draft divorce deal that is due to expire at a dinner between Mrs May and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on December 4

After the meeting with Donald Tusk, Mrs May told waiting reporters there had been a 'positive atmosphere'.

She said: 'There is a general feeling that we want to move forward together.

'We have been making progress throughout the negotiations.'

Mrs May said Britain was working with Ireland on how to resolve the border issues and said both sides wanted an open border across which people and good could move freely.

GOVE 'WINS' THE PM'S SUPPORT TO LEAVE EU TRADE RULES BEHIND Michael Gove has won the support of Theresa May to leave EU rules behind after Brexit. A Cabinet row has been rumbling over whether Britain should stick closely to EU rules to make trade easier or go its own way. The Sun said Mr Gove has now won the case and Mrs May will tell the EU to expect 'regulatory divergence'. It could make signing a trade deal between the UK and EU more difficult but make Britain more competitive with the rest of the world. Advertisement

She ducked questions about how much Britain would pay in an exit bill, saying only that in her Florence speech Britain would 'honour our commitments'.

Mr Tusk tweeted: 'Sufficient progress in Brexit talks at December EU Council is possible. But still a huge challenge.

'We need to see progress from UK within 10 days on all issues, including on Ireland.'

Ahead of the summit today, The Telegraph said today that Brussels is demanding a 'no strings attached' promise Britain will pay more than 20billion agreed at the Florence speech.

Downing Street said this week 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed' in a bid to make a 40billion offer contingent on a trade deal.

At a press conference at the end of the Eastern Partnership summit this afternoon, Mr Tusk declined to comment on his expectations for his upcoming meeting with Mrs May.

'I prefer to comment on my meetings, not only with Prime Minister Theresa May, after my meetings, not before,' he told reporters.

As she arrived in Brussels this morning, Mrs May was asked by reporters if Britain was being 'blackmailed' by the EU.

She said: 'I will be seeing President Tusk today, talking about the positive discussions and negotiations we are having, looking forward to the future and the deep and special partnership I want with the European Union.

'The negotiations are continuing. What I am clear about is we must step forward together.

'This is for both the UK and the European Union to move on to the next stage.'

Mr Juncker said yesterday that he was not yet in a position to say that sufficient progress had been made for a breakthrough at the summit.

Mrs May met Belgian premier Charles Michel while in Brussels today as part of a whirlwind round of diplomacy on the margins of a security summit

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (left) President of Latvia Raimonds Vejonis (second left) and Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven (right) also greeted Mrs May today

The Commission president said he was 'not crazy enough' to be drawn on whether a 38 billion 'divorce bill' offer expected from the PM would be acceptable to the 27 remaining EU states.

But he hinted at progress as he said 'the worst is behind us'.

Mrs May is also facing a demand from Irish premier Leo Varadkar for a written guarantee there will be no return to the 'hard border' of the past between Northern Ireland and the Republic as the price of his support for the second phase of the negotiations to begin.

European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier assured Ireland's foreign minister today that the EU would defend Dublin's position in talks with Britain over the coming weeks.

Theresa May (pictured arriving in Brussels today) flew into Brussels today to a launch a 10-day offensive aimed at securing trade talks by Christmas

As she arrived at the EU headquarters today Mrs May said Britain and Europe must 'step forward together' as she swerved questions about offering more cash

Barnier said on Twitter that he had updated Simon Coveney on the state of play in negotiations, in which Britain is hoping to clinch a deal with Brussels next month on a range of issues including management of the Northern Irish border in order to launch a second phase of discussions focusing on a trade accord.

THE STICKING POINTS IN BREXIT TALKS Brexit Divorce Bill: Britain had offered 20billion for a two-year transition deal, but ministers are believed to have agreed to effectively double this in an effort to start trade talks by the new year. EU citizens rights: Theresa May has said we are within touching distance of a deal but Brussels is more gloomy. The EU wants their citizens rights to be guaranteed by the European Court of Justice, but Mrs May said getting rid of the authority of the ECJ in the UK is one of her Brexit red lines. Irish border: The EU, UK and Republic of Ireland are all clear they do not want to see a return to the hard border - fearing this could reignite sectarian violence. But it remains unclear how Northern Ireland can leave the EU's customs union and single market without having a hard border crossing. The Irish Republic has suggested border checks could be pushed back to the border with the mainland of the rest of the UK, but this has been ruled out by the Government and the DUP. Advertisement

'Strong solidarity with Ireland,' Barnier wrote. 'Irish issues are EU issues.'

Coveney tweeted back: 'Thank u @MichelBarnier reaffirming EU solidarity with Ireland on #Brexit.'

Facing a possible government collapse and new elections just at a crucial point in the Brexit process, the Irish government has sharpened the tone of its demands from London for detail on how the border will be kept open and unhindered. It has warned it will veto moves to trade talks if it is not satisfied.

Unless all EU leaders agree 'sufficient progress' has been made on the three key issues of the divorce bill, Irish border and citizens' rights trade talks will not be launched.

Trade talks have already been postponed once at October's summit.

Speaking ahead of Mrs May's talks with Mr Tusk, the Prime Minister's official spokesman played down suggestions it was a meeting to set out the divorce bill.

'I would not characterise it in that way,' the spokesman said.

'We saw from his comments at the end of the press conference in Gothenburg that he (Mr Tusk) was hoping to meet the PM this week.

'They will be discussing progress towards the December council.

'There are a number of issues which I'm sure they will want to discuss - the financial settlement, that will be one of them, also of course Northern Ireland and citizens' rights.'

Theresa May received a formal handshake from Jean Claude-Juncker, president of the European Commission, as she arrived at the summit amid tensions over the Brexit negotiations

While the British PM was greeted cooly by Jean Claude Juncker, the EU Commission President was far more enthusiastic about welcoming Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, who he greeted with one of his signature kisses

Rumours are swirling the PM could also meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured arriving in Brussels today) today on the sidelines of a security summit in Brussels

Downing Street DENIES a u-turn on leaving Northern Ireland inside the EU customs union despite saying it was a 'matter for negotiation'

Downing Street today denied changing its position on leaving Northern Ireland in the customs union after a spokesman said it was a 'matter for negotiations'.

In remarks that will alarm Theresa May's DUP allies, the Prime Minister's spokesman did not reject suggestions the province could be left behind after Brexit.

A No 10 source later insisted that the Government's position that the whole of the UK will leave both the customs union and single market after Brexit has not changed.

The Government was condemned for running a 'chaotic' Brexit policy this afternoon.

Ireland has suggested leaving Northern Ireland in the customs union as the simple way of ensuring there is no hard border inside the island of Ireland.

Ireland has suggested leaving Northern Ireland in the customs union as the simple way of ensuring there is no hard border inside the island of Ireland

It would effectively move the international border to the middle of the Irish Sea, meaning customs checks inside the United Kingdom.

Britain has rejected this and earlier this month Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire said in Brussels 'we will leave the EU in 2019 as one United Kingdom'.

Downing Street's intervention today came after DUP leader Arlene Foster claimed the Republic was being 'reckless' by suggesting Northern Ireland stays inside.

Asked if Northern Ireland could stay in the customs union after Brexit, Mrs May's spokesman said: 'That is a matter for negotiations.

'Our position on Northern Ireland has been set out in the papers and we need to continue to negotiate to find an innovative way forward.'
Nine policemen turned up at hospital to intimidate an 18-year-old woman out of reporting that two of their colleagues raped her while she was handcuffed in the back of a police van, a lawyer has claimed.

Anna Chambers was being treated for the rape at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York in September when the officers allegedly turned up at around 10pm.

'They came with nine cops to intimidate her and her mom, to discourage them from coming forward and reporting the rape and sex assault,' her lawyer Michael David told The New York Post.

One in particular questioned her story and allegedly told her mother in her native Russian: 'Your daughter doesn't know what she's talking about.'

Anna Chambers has accused two NYPD officers of raping her in the back of a police van

NYPD Detectives Richard Hall (left) and Eddie Martins (right) are accused of rape

David said: 'He kept saying to Anna and her mom, 'How do you know they were real cops?' '

The officer then allegedly asked: 'Didn't you make complaints about cops before?'

Miss Chambers replied that she knew they were cops because they had guns, handcuffs, and the police radio was on.

David said the officer was trying to cover his name tag to hide his identity and at one point became so insistent that he nearly chased Miss Chambers' mother into the women's bathroom.

A nurse at the hospital from where the rape was reported told the mother to stay strong for her daughter in the face of the alleged intimidation.

Miss Chambers went ahead with a sexual assault forensic exam which found DNA from both the officers she accuses.

Officers Eddie Martins, 37, and Richard Hall, 32, have resigned after being suspended without pay following their arrests in October.

They allegedly took turns to force Miss Chambers to perform a sex act on them and rape her in the back of a police van after arresting her for possessing drugs.

Anna Chambers was being treated for the rape at Maimonides Medical Center (pictured) in Brooklyn, New York in September when the officers allegedly turned up at around 10pm

Both Martins (pictured, right) and his partner could each face up to 25 years in prison, if convicted

The 37-year-old detective (pictured right) and his partner were assigned to the NYPD's Brooklyn South Narcotics squad

The Brooklyn South Narcotics Division officers have been charged with first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act, second-degree kidnapping, official misconduct and related counts.

David said that cops trying to cover up their colleagues' alleged crimes by intimidating victims was almost as bad as the crime itself.

Martins and Hall were released after posting $250,000 and $150,000 bail, respectively. Both were ordered to return to court on January 18, 2018. If convicted, they each face up to 25 years in prison.

In court, their defense lawyers said they were planning to fight the charges.

'We don't believe they have the evidence to support the majority of charges that are alleged,' said Mark Bederow, who represents Martins.

The defense team hinted that the alleged victim's social media postings, among them photos of the teenager striking provocative poses in skimpy outfits, could be used to dispute her claim that she was forced to have sex with the officers.

Attorney Michael David, who represents the 18-year-old woman, responded by hitting out at his adversaries for engaging in victim-blaming.

'Whatever she posts, however she dresses, whatever she does, has nothing to do with the brutal rape that was done on her,' he told PIX11. 'They should stop smearing her, they should stop shaming her, they need to stop blaming this victim.'

David also said that his client was 'not happy' that Martins and Hall were freed on 'low bail,' and described her to NBC New York as 'an emotional wreck.'

On Monday, the 18-year-old shared a link to a story about her alleged assailants' resignation from the NYPD, accompanied by a status update that simply read: '!!!!!!'

Martins, 37, is accused of forcing the victim to perform a sex act on him, and then raping him in the back seat of a police monivan while his partner watched

Hall (pictured) was ordered held on $150,000 bail, while Martins' bail was set at $250,000

'It is incomprehensible that two veteran NYPD detectives would allegedly commit such an outrageous act,' Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez stated.

'They took an oath to protect and serve, but allegedly violated that oath by raping a young woman who was in their custody.

'We will now seek to hold them accountable for this flagrant betrayal of public trust.'

The 18-year-old victim, who tweets under the name Anna Chambers, alleges that one NYPD detective raped her and both forced her to perform oral sex in a Chipotle parking lot after she was caught smoking marijuana on September 15.

The woman confirmed to DailyMail.com that she is the victim and gave permission for her name and photos to be published.

A grand jury voted to indict the officers after listening to a week of testimony, including the accuser taking the stand.

The two detectives, assigned to the NYPD's Brooklyn South Narcotics, did not deny the sexual acts but claimed they were consensual.

According to a press release from the DA's office, on September 15, at around 7.30pm, Martins and Hall, who were on-duty and riding in a Dodge Caravan as part of a team of plainclothes detectives conducting a buy-and-bust operation in the 60th Precinct, left their post without authorization and drove to Calvert Vaux Park in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn.

Just after 8pm, the officers pulled over an Infinity Coupe driven by the 18-year-old accuser with two male passengers, according to Gonzalez's office.

After observing some marijuana in a cup holder, Hall and Martins ordered the two men and woman to get out of the car and asked if they had any drugs on them, according to the investigation.

The 18-year-old woman admitted to be in possession of marijuana and two Klonopin pills, after which the detectives put her in handcuffs, told her she was under arrest and would be getting a desk appearance ticket.

They let her male companions go and instructed them to pick up their friend from the precinct in three hours' time, according to the press release.

A short time later, the detectives told the teenager to call her friends and tell them not to follow their police minivan.

'Detective Martins allegedly told the young woman he and his partner are 'freaks' and asked her what she wanted to do to get out of the arrest,' the press release stated.

It is alleged that Martins then forced the handcuffed girl to perform a sex act on him while seated in the back seat of the van as his partner Hall drove and watched through the rear view mirror. Martins then allegedly raped the victim.

When the cops reached Bay Ridge, about 4 miles from the site of the traffic stop, Martins and Hall allegedly swapped places, with the former getting behind the wheel and the latter getting into the back seat, where he allegedly forced the 18-year-old to perform a sex act on him as well.

Martins and Hall then drove back to the vicinity of the 60th Precinct in Coney Island and had the victim call her friends again to tell them she was being let go.

'They allegedly gave her back the Klonopin pills, told her to keep her mouth shut and released her,' the statement read.

The 18-year-old told her friends what happened and, later that evening, was taken to Maimonides Hospital, where a rape kit was prepared. DNA recovered from the victim was a match to both Martins and Hall.

After the allegations broke they and their supervisor were placed on modified duty and stripped of badges and guns.

Martins (pictured left) and Hall did not deny they had sex with the woman (right), but claimed it was consensual. They have been suspended without pay

Hall (pictured right with his lawyer) and Martins allegedly told the victim they were 'freaks'

Mark Bederow, Martins' attorney, said: 'The dynamic will change when there are court proceedings. The allegations repeatedly and publicly alleged by the plaintiff's lawyer will need to be supported by credible evidence and withstand scrutiny.'

The indictment comes after the officers spent last week attempting to discredit their accuser in a letter to prosecutors.

The letter observed how she filed a $50million claim against the city earlier this month and has posted 'provocative' selfies on her Instagram and Twitter after the alleged attack.

The defense lawyers for the officers urged prosecutors 'to further investigate Chambers' dubious claim before you ask the grand jury to return an indictment against Martins and Hall.'

The teen took to Twitter to express her dismay that the officers claimed the sex acts were consensual, including sharing a DailyMail.com article about the horrifying claims.

'She was shocked that the [cops] would say it was consensual after everything that was done to her. She wanted to get the word out,' her lawyer Michael David told the New York Post.

'She just wants everybody to know it's an absolute lie that this was consensual. She was raped. She was viciously, brutally raped in handcuffs. It's the truth.'

The alleged rape and sexual assault is said to have taken place on Coney Island (file picture)

'She's embarrassed. She's very depressed over this. Her whole life had changed after this experience. She's afraid of the police, and she really wants justice to be served here.'

The young woman sought help from NYU Langone Hospital, in New York, after the incident.

She also spoke to a friend about the alleged sexual assault and reported it to the police.

'There was zero consent,' David said. 'The cops were over 6 feet tall. She's very petite, like 5-2 and maybe 100 pounds. There's nothing she could do.'

One of the male friends she was with went to the police station about a half-hour after he was released by the cops. He had been told the officers were taking the woman there, but no one had been brought in.

He left the station and found the woman visibly upset and waiting by his car.

'Her hair was a mess, and she ran up to me and gave me a hug, and she was like, 'They f****d me. They f****d me,'' he said.
A teenage boy has been arrested after his mother claimed he was planning a terrorist attack.

The 17-year-old boy was arrested by police outside a house in Melbourne's south-east on Friday afternoon.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the boy was being interviewed after his arrest, but the incident is not being treated as terror-related.

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A teenage boy has been arrested after he was suspected of plotting a terrorist attack

A 17-year-old boy was arrested by police outside a house in Melbourne's south-east on Friday afternoon

He was arrested outside a house on Fairways Boulevard in Cranbourne North.

The boy's mother apparently sent messages to two of Channel Seven's social media pages about 12.30pm on Friday.

Another message was sent to Ambulance Victoria, Channel Seven reported.

It reportedly said: 'Hi call the police my son is going crazy. He have locked me in the house and have all the phones. He have drugs and weapons, he plans a terror attack please'.

Channel Seven contacted police and 40 armed officers swarmed the property at 4.30pm.

The boy was on his knees in front of the house as he was arrested.

He is in custody, and is assisting police.
A homeless man who found a $10,000 check and returned it to its owner because he wanted to 'do the right thing' has been rewarded with housing, a job interview and free real estate classes.

Elmer Alvarez found the check on a street in New Haven, Connecticut and contacted realtor Dr Roberta Hoskie before she realised it was lost.

So touched by his honesty, Dr Hoskie arranged for Mr Alvarez to have a place to live and lined up an interview for him with one of her business partners.

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Homeless man Elmer Alvarez found a $10,000 check and returned it to its owner because he wanted to 'do the right thing'. He's now been rewarded with housing, a job interview and free real estate classes by realtor Dr Roberta Hoskie

Not content with that, she even offered him a place at her real estate school free of charge - to set him up in the long term.

Dr Hoskie said she was once homeless herself so understands the difficulty he was going through. She said the only condition is that Mr Alvarez help another homeless individual once he's back on his feet.

Taking to Facebook Live to broadcast her good deed, the successful realtor met the homeless man at the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce and publicly paid tribute to him.

'He has absolutely no idea what's about to happen,' said Dr. Hoskie to Fox News 61, who was about the change the homeless man's life.

'You don't have to worry about being in the cold,' she added. 'We have housing for you.'

Tearing up, he said 'Thank God!'

Elmer Alvarez found the check on a street in New Haven, Connecticut and contacted realtor Dr Roberta Hoskie before she realised it was lost. So touched by his honesty, Dr Hoskie arranged for Mr Alvarez to have a place to live and lined up an interview for him with one of her partners

Taking to Facebook Live to broadcast her good deed, the successful realtor met the homeless man at the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce and publicly paid tribute to him

The grateful man was handed a certificate by Dr Hoskie and broke down in tears as she paid tribute to his honesty.

'There are always angels out here in heaven and earth,' he told the cameras.

Explaining why he chose to do the right thing and find the check's owner, he said: 'Honestly, I give it from the bottom of my heart and I expect nothing back in return.'
Theresa May warned Europe must be 'open eyed' about the threat from Russia as she promised would help secure the eastern borders after Brexit.

The Prime Minister has dramatically escalated her warnings about Vladimir Putin in recent weeks and branded Russia 'hostile' in Brussels today.

Arriving at a security summit in Brussels, Mrs May said Russia wanted to 'tear our collective strength apart'.

Theresa May (pictured during official talks in Brussels today) warned Europe must be 'open eyed' about the threat from Russia as she promised would help secure the eastern borders after Brexit

The Prime Minister has dramatically escalated her warnings about Vladimir Putin in recent weeks and branded Russia 'hostile' in Brussels today

Today's talks will discuss both security and bolstering the economies of eastern European countries held back by the threat of interference

Today's talks will discuss both security and bolstering the economies of eastern European countries held back by the threat of interference.

Mrs May will set out how Britain is providing 50 million this financial year to support reform and security in the region through projects like tax reform in Moldova and de-mining in Ukraine.

The UK is also spending 100 million over five years in the Eastern Neighbourhood to counter disinformation.

Leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine also due in Brussels today.

As she arrived at the talks, Mrs May said: 'The summit here today is all about taking stock and looking ahead to see how we can tackle the shared challenges together on security and development.

Arriving at a security summit in Brussels, Mrs May said Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured yesterday in Sochi) wanted to 'tear our collective strength apart'

'We must be open eyed about hostile states like Russia who threaten the potential growth in the eastern neighbourhood and who try to tear our collective strength apart.

'I am looking forward today to renew commitments from European countries to working together to tackle these shared challenges.

'I am also here to say again the United Kingdom is unconditionally committed to continuing to play our leading role in maintaining Europe's security.

'We may be leaving the European Union but we are not leaving Europe.'
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The Black Friday rush began today with Britain's shoppers going on a 7.8billion spending binge this weekend - but shopping centres were sparsely populated as consumers headed online for the best bargains.

Retailers are desperate to reverse recent falls in sales and shopper numbers caused by a squeeze on household budgets, with discounts on some products expected to be so big that sellers will actually make a loss.

But most major shops and shopping centres including the Trafford Centre in Manchester, Bullring in Birmingham, Meadowhall in Sheffield and Oxford Street in London were remarkably quiet this morning.

One video widely shared on social media showed a lone man looking rather sheepish as he walked into Currys PC World on London's Oxford Street as it opened its doors this morning, so he could pick up a pre-ordered laptop.

However customers were flocking to Amazon, with the online giant selling 10,500 toys and 5,300 beauty products an hour in the first six hours of Black Friday, and a whopping 400,000 home products by 4pm this afternoon.

A lone shopper can be seen in the Intu Trafford Centre in Manchester this morning as Black Friday begins

A quiet Black Friday at the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham which looks deserted this morning

Black Friday on Oxford Street at 8am, with very few shoppers on what is expected to be the busiest shopping day of the year

Asda in Harrow, North West London, is empty at 7.30am today despite them selling 50-inch flatscreen TVs for under 300

The crowds stay away today despite Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield opening early for Black Friday

Source: Frankie Mack / BBC

Some of the best-selling items included include Fire TV stick with Alexa voice remote and Echo Dot, the Nintendo Switch, Bosch PSB 1800 LI-2 cordless drill and Lego Ninjago Movie Manta Ray Bomber toy.

Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of all UK debit and credit card transactions, had by 10am seen a 3 per cent increase in spending compared to Black Friday last year and a 29 per cent increase in transactions.

Meanwhile Department store John Lewis said 7am to 8am was the busiest shopping hour, with an average of 495 units ordered per minute and the top seller by value a LG Smart TV for 1,399.

Carphone Warehouse said online traffic via mobile devices is up 14 per cent compared to last year, as consumers use their mobile to make the most of the unbeatable offers.

And Wowcher said sales this morning were up 61 per cent compared to last year and 174 per cent against yesterday. Electronics, watches and home goods are their most popular deals this year.

Price cuts of at least 50 per cent are being promoted on fashions, footwear and household electricals. Some are promising cuts of 75 per cent amid claims of products being sold at a loss just to get them off the shelves.

One woman appeared to be very happy with her deal on a new microwave at Currys PC World in Luton, Bedfordshire

These two people carried a new hi-fi system to their car after buying it on Black Friday today at Currys PC World in Luton

Flatscreen televisions were proving to be popular at the Currys PC World in Luton today

But early online sales between midnight and 7am were down, with research finding that shoppers across the UK were not willing to sacrifice a good night's sleep to make the most of Black Friday discounts this year.

PCA Predict analysts found online sales up to 7am today had fallen by a quarter (24 per cent) compared to 2016, with the highest number of online transactions before breakfast in South East London.

Police issue Black Friday fraud alert Police have warned consumers to be on guard for cyber fraud on the biggest shopping day of the year. The public have been urged to 'slow down' and 'think' about the gifts they are buying and who they are purchasing them from. Victims reported losing nearly 16 million to Christmas shopping fraudsters last year, increasing from 10 million lost the year before. Trending items they reported losing out on included Yeezy trainers, Kylie Jenner make-up, hair dryers, drones and Fitbit watches. Mobile phones continue to be the most likely thing that people try to buy from fraudsters, with accessories and clothing second and footwear third. City of London Police Commander Dave Clark said: 'Christmas is a busy time of year when we are required to make several quick decisions, especially when it comes to present buying. 'Our fraud awareness campaign is highlighting that it is very much 'the thought that counts' especially when it comes to avoiding fraudsters. 'Fraudsters see the Christmas rush as an ideal opportunity to take advantage of people's generosity without a single care about the consequences this may cause for the victim.' Advertisement

Chris Boaz, Head of Marketing of PCA Predict, said: 'As of this morning, online sales are actually down, compared to last year.

'However, last night there was a huge surge in sales as people tried to beat the morning rush to snap up the best deals. By contrast last year, many consumers shopped from midnight to 7am to bag a bargain.'

'One of the primary reasons for this is due to the extended sales in the run up to Black Friday itself, which showed an increase of 11 per cent meaning consumers aren't as pressed as they once were to shop on the day.'

However by lunchtime, PCA Predict found there was a growth of 7 per cent in online sales between 7am and 11am - giving a total fall in sales of only 2 per cent between midnight and 11am.

The peak time for purchasing in Britain so far today has been 10.58am.

Spending is expected to be up 7 per cent on last year to reach 7.8billion over the four day sales weekend, according to the Centre for Retail Research and VoucherCodes website.

A record number of stores are running deals for fear of losing business to rivals, particularly the online goliath Amazon.

Several retailers' websites have been experiencing so much traffic in the past 24 hours that they crashed - with companies including Game, Ted Baker, Next and Calvin Klein all affected, according to analysts.

Simon Wharton, managing director at e-commerce agency PushON, said: 'Last night, before Black Friday even got underway, a number of e-commerce sites had already gone down as they couldn't cope with traffic surges.

'Not long after 9pm, Ted Baker was struggling to meet demand with users temporarily unable to access the site. GAME was also down for about three hours yesterday as the retailer 'updated' its site for Black Friday.

'And Calvin Klein had opted to pay for adverts on Google, yet when users clicked on the ads, they were led to a blank page. This morning, Next was also experiencing issues with its website.'

Shoppers were seen pouring into stores including a Tesco Extra in Manchester and a Game at Westfield Stratford in London overnight, but most other outlets were sparsely populated this morning.

Westfield Stratford in East London was looking busy by lunchtime today as people took their time on Black Friday today

Bargain hunters gather at Westfield Stratford in East London today to seek out the best deals around lunchtime today

Thousands of shoppers tried for a Black Friday deal today, with a main road in Edinburgh pictured this afternoon

Gordon McKinnon, operations director at shopping centre owner Intu, said: 'Because it doesn't immediately follow a big public holiday like Thanksgiving, Black Friday has a completely different shape over here than it does in in the US.

'It has evolved in the UK from a one day event to be a longer affair, as retailers stretch out the sales period to help spread activity over a longer time frame. So, Black Friday has a more relaxed feel in the UK, as shoppers visit stores at their leisure before numbers pick up later in the day and reach a peak this evening.

He added: 'If previous years' patterns are anything to go by, we're expecting the day to get busier and hit a peak this evening when those finishing work will join the hunt for deals. By the end of the today, we should have seen well above one million shoppers through our doors.

Many retailers have been offering bargains ahead of Black Friday and the cuts were stepped up overnight. As a result, millions of people were shopping through the night from their beds on phones and laptops.

But some analysts and industry leaders warn that, in some cases, the price cuts amount to a disastrous exercise in self-harm.

Apart from potentially selling items at a loss, there is a huge cost around delivering items bought online and then handling returns. Evidence of the difficulties emerged yesterday with news that two chains, the furniture retailer Multiyork, and the shoe business Shoon, are in trouble.

A handful of keen bargain hunters try their luck as Tesco at Kingston Park in Newcastle-upon-Tyne opens its doors at 5am

Black Friday on Oxford Street at 8am today, with very few shoppers on what is expected to be the year's biggest shopping day

People exit Oxford Circus London Underground station today, with the area much quieter than retailers would have hoped

Multiyork, which has 50 shops and a factory, has gone into administration and Shoon, which has six shops and concessions in department stores, has filed notice of its intention to appoint administrators although it may be sold.

The Christmas period is make or break for most retailers and the Black Friday sales, which have been imported from America, have turned traditional shopping patterns on their head.

The relatively warm autumn means fashion retailers are looking to offload masses of unsold coats, boots and woollens.

Industry data has shown a slump in sales of furniture and household electricals, everything from washing machines to TVs, where there will be particularly big reductions.

James Brown of pricing and promotions experts, Simon-Kucher, warned: 'Black Friday is now a real retail experience and shoppers love getting out to find a bargain.

'But for some businesses they will slash prices so much that they accidentally turn the day into their most disastrous day of the year.

'We've reviewed thousands of promotions by hundreds of businesses, and we're confident that many businesses will make dramatically less than they expect out of cutting prices on Black Friday.

'Some will even make a loss, although many won't actually realise it as the sales numbers look good at first glance. One business we examined recently had the unwelcome realisation that roughly half of all their promotions were loss making.'

Shoppers rush into a Tesco Extra store in Gorton, Manchester, moments after security guards open the doors at 5am today

Two shoppers carry a Toshiba TV together at the Tesco store in Gorton, Manchester, this morning as Black Friday begins

A police officer monitors shoppers at the Tesco in Gorton (left) as one man carries a TV at a Tesco in Stockport (right)

Shoppers wait outside Game at Westfield Stratford in East London after the video game retailer opened its doors at midnight

Bargain hunters stayed up late to make it to the midnight opening of Game in Stratford. Shoppers will spend nearly 8billion this weekend

Shoppers queue up outside an H&M store on Oxford Street in London's West End on Black Friday at 6am this morning

Respected retail analyst, Richard Hyman, described Black Friday as 'crazy' in terms of damaging store profits. 'Much of the trade would love to opt out but in this weakest of all retail markets, few have succeeded,' he said.

'With demand thin and consumer confidence brittle, Black Friday will essentially suck Christmas sales forward. For Amazon it's a stick with which to beat much of the industry.'

The boss of the Fat Face clothing chain, Anthony Thompson, who refuses to take part in Black Friday, described the sales as 'ludicrous'.

He said: 'If you're a clothing brand or gifting retailer, you don't want to discount at the wrong time. It's ludicrous to suggest it's a good idea in clothing.

'UK clothing is on its knees and it's killing itself. We're weakening our proposition and encouraging people to buy on price.'

Some estimates suggest the Black Friday weekend will hoover up 40 per cent of all spending on Christmas. Amazon was at the forefront of bringing the American sale event to the UK in 2010.

In the US, Black Friday comes on the day after the Thanksgiving holiday. Asda, which is owned by Wal-mart of the USA, initially pushed the event.

Workers try to keep up with demand at the Amazon fulfilment centre near Doncaster in South Yorkshire today

Amazon said in the first six hours of Black Friday it had sold more than 63,000 toys and 32,000 beauty products

Some of Amazon's best-selling items included the Nintendo Switch, a Bosch cordless drill and a Lego Ninjago Movie toy

Britons prepare to spend a record 7.78bn over Black Friday weekend - with in store sales still set to beat online giants Sale type Black Friday Sat/Sun Cyber Monday 2017 total 2016 total YoY % Difference UK online 1.15bn 0.71bn 1.27bn 3.13bn 2.79bn 12% UK offline 1.45bn 1.87bn 1.33bn 4.65bn 4.49bn 4% Total 2.59bn 2.58bn 2.60bn 7.78bn 7.28bn 7% Source: VoucherCodes

However it scaled back involvement after ugly scenes at stores as people pushed and fought over cheap TVs.

More recently, retailers like Argos, which launched deeper Black Friday cuts at 9pm last night, John Lewis and the other major department stores have championed the event. And now, virtually all the chains and independents are offering deals.

Research by accountants PwC suggest half of adults will buy something in the sales with the average spend up from 170 last year to 200.

Consumer Markets leader at PwC, Lisa Hooker, said: 'Technology and electrical items are in demand this Black Friday weekend. Retailers who specialise in these areas can't afford not to have a Black Friday promotion in the UK - it's here to stay.

'UK shoppers are increasingly willing to part with their money on Black Friday and we expect the fastest spending growth to come from younger shoppers, who are more likely to purchase on impulse.'

Experts warned the sales were not good for stores. Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG, said Black Friday doesn't increase sales, it simply means spending happens earlier, adding: 'It forces retailers to sell their goods at discounted prices earlier and for longer.

'Shoppers have become accustomed to reduced price tags, with retailers all too happy to accommodate their demands for fear of being overlooked. Clearly this is not sustainable.'

He added that retailers faced huge costs in dealing with deliveries and returns.

The fact that Next is running deals of up to 70 per cent off for the first time is also seen by some as a sign of how shops feel they have no choice but to offer discounts.

Douglas Ker, of the handbag firm Meli Melo, said: 'Brands feel forced to participate in this sales bonanza. Discounting across the industry has gone wild.'

HOW TO SECURE YOUR PERFECT BLACK FRIDAY DEAL Consumers will spend seven per cent more this year over Black Friday compared with 2016 according to new research from VoucherCodes and the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) with more than 7.8 billion worth of goods set to be sold. However, savvy shoppers looking for electronics might want to save their cash until Cyber Monday - which will see sales of around 2.6 billion. During 2016 shoppers saved on average 121 by waiting until the last minute before committing their cash. Experts believe high streets and shopping centres will see five per cent more sales than online as retailers slash costs of electronic goods, fashion items and beauty products. Paul Lewis, Senior Director of Marketing at Voucher Codes said: 'Last year, we saw a 78 per cent increase in the number of visitors to the VoucherCodes website compared to the week prior, showing there's a massive appetite for offers and discount codes over the Black Friday weekend. 'Cyber Monday is often the last day to take advantage of these fantastic offers, so we're not surprised that savvy shoppers are holding out a little longer for the maximum possible discount. This year we'll be helping our customers save even more, by adding a record-breaking number of offers and discount codes to our site; helping people to save money on treating themselves, as well as on gifts for friends and family.' In previous years, some shoppers came to blows, such as these in Wembley, north west London as they attempted to by cheap televisons Consumers need to prepare a plan to secure the best deal and decide whether to try online or in store According to Anita Naik, Lifestyle Editor at VoucherCodes, consumers should develop a strategy to secure the best deals. She said: 'Black Friday is now one of the biggest shopping days of the year in Britain, which means if you're planning to jump in and do some Christmas shopping you can expect crowds on the high street and busy retail websites. There are ways to get the most out of the day without having to fight it out with fellow shoppers and my number one rule is to be prepared. This means know what you want, know where to get it from and know how to grab it before everyone else.' Ms Naik said looking on a website such as VoucherCodes can cut down on the work. She said: 'Set a budget and write a list. The key thing is to know what you want to buy and, most importantly, how much it usually costs. 'It's easy to get drawn in by the discounts on the day, so knowing how much the things you want cost pre-Black Friday is key. If you're the type of person who gets easily swayed into buying things on impulse, make sure you review your available Black Friday budget ahead of the day and stick to it like glue. It may sound boring, but bargains are only bargains if you need them!' Ms Naik said some of the deals go live shortly after midnight, so it might be worth setting an alarm. Also there are online lightening deals. Despite the threat of chaotic scenes, most sales will be made in store according to experts at the Voucher Code website Advertisement

Get a REAL deal this Black Friday: About to splash out? Don't buy a thing until you've read our guide to the jewellery gems, tech treasures and fabulous fashion on sale

The biggest shopping day of the year  Black Friday  is finally upon us. Usually lasting over the weekend, it sees the High Street slash prices on thousands of goods, often by hundreds of pounds.

An American import (Black Friday falls the day after their Thanksgiving holiday and marks the start of the Christmas shopping season), it was adopted by the UK seven years ago  and gets bigger every year.

This year, there are 24 million of us gearing up for the bargains and data suggests that the average Black Friday shopper in the UK will splash out 246, meaning that figures look set to rise by almost 10 per cent from last year.

But the experts at consumer watchdog Which? warn that it's worth checking just how good the deals really are.

A year-long investigation, which the Mail highlighted at the beginning of the week, showed an astonishing six out of ten of last year's 'deals' were for products that were, in fact, cheaper or the same price at other times of the year.

But there are bargains out there. You just need to know where to find them! Alice Smellie reveals her top tips...

Flawless beauty: The stylish steals Lip smacker: Lord and Berry Vogue Lipstick, 7.50, down from 15  enter BLACK50 at checkout lordand berry.com/uk Grow up: Nanogen 5IN1 Thickening Shampoo/Conditioner for Men, 7.96, down from 9.95, nanogen.co.uk Left, Fake Bake The Face, 14.99, buy one, get one free, fakebake.co.uk, and right, Tria Hair Removal Laser 4X, 249.99, down from 375, current body.com Advertisement

Top five items you should look out for

Here are Which? magazine's five electrical household essentials to search for today. All of these scored well in consumer tests and are carried by multiple retailers, so it's worth shopping around to get the best deal, as it's likely competing shops will cut the prices on them all.

Don't fall victim to conmen Harry Rose, the editor of Which? Money, says: 'We did a recent investigation which showed how easy it is for fraudsters to send texts that pretend to be from shops offering bargains. Consumers must be extra vigilant this Black Friday and think twice before clicking on the link in any unsolicited messages.' 1. Don't give any website your credit card PIN for any reason and try to buy only from those you know and trust. 2. Don't rush into a decision. If you feel pressurised by a website  many retailers use tools such as a ticking clock or a 'just one left' banner to make you feel that you need to act swiftly  then you should take a step back. 3. Do their contact numbers look bona fide? If they have a PO box number rather than a proper address, or they only offer a mobile number or premium-rate '09' phone line, they may be fine  but if alarm bells ring, don't proceed. If you don't know a brand, be especially cautious. 4. Don't necessarily trust social media  if it sounds too good to be true on Twitter or WhatsApp, then it probably is! 5. If you do fall foul and are affected by a data breach, change any passwords linked to the account or website in question. Keep an eye on bank accounts and complain to the company that lost your data. Advertisement

THE CORDLESS VAC

Dyson V6 Animal: This lightweight vacuum cleaner is designed to remove pet hair from carpets and furniture. It also features a wide head that is suitable for all floor types.

What price should you pay: If this isn't less than 180, it's no cheaper than normal.

THE CAPSULE COFFEE MACHINE

Nespresso Inissia: Makes espresso, cappuccino, latte and ristretto, among others, from coffee pods.

What price should you pay: This usually costs from 50 to 70, so avoid Black Friday deals unless you spot it for less than 50.

THE BLENDER

Nutribullet 600: A powerful blender that can be used to make smoothies and juices.

What price should you pay: Usually 60 to 70 but we saw it on sale for 40 last January. If you can find it for less than 60, it's a deal.

THE TELEVISION

LG OLED55B7V: This is a 55-inch TV with great picture quality.

What price should you pay: It's normally on at 2,500  but retailer very.co.uk will slash the price to 1,500. There may be even further reductions on Black Friday, so shop around. However, we may see bigger discounts in the Christmas and January sales, so it could be worth waiting if you are not in a rush.

THE PRINTER

HP Envy 5646: A powerful, wireless laser printer.

What price should you pay: It was on offer with 50 per cent off in August  it retails at 79.99  so be sure it costs less than 40.

Tech tresures: Best gadgets on sale Listen up: Clarity HD Bluetooth headphones in rose gold, gold, matte black and silver, 99, down from 169.99, argos.co.uk Dream screen: Dell 28 Ultra HD 4K monitor S2817Q, 260, down from 541, dell.co.uk/blackfriday Advertisement

The top five big discounts

1. Oral-B Smart Series 6000 Rechargeable Toothbrush, 54.99, down from 229.99, amazon.co.uk.

2. Braun Silk-expert IPL hair removal device, 135, down from 449.99, boots.co.uk.

3. Topshop wool-blend blazer for women, 70, down from 235, selfridges.com.

4. Men's Accurist Chronograph Watch 7003, 72, down from 240 goldsmiths.co.uk.

5. Next clothing, whose 70 per cent off sale started at 3 am, next.co.uk.

Blink and you'll miss them...

Every year, the most popular products tend to sell out in the frenzy of Black Friday.

To help, here's the list of the items most searched for last year. If you want any of these, put them at the top of your shopping list . . . and move fast.

1. Laptops

2. Curtains

3. Rugs

4. Kettles

5. Microwaves

Argos says that key categories last year were:

1. TVs

2. Mobiles

3. Computers

4. Video Games

5. Floorcare

Tech fans were early-bird shoppers, with 57 per cent of all deals purchased between midnight and 4.30am being video games consoles, games and tablets. John Lewis says its best electricals sellers last year were the Sonos Play 1 speaker, GHD hair straighteners and Samsung TVs, as well as the ever-popular KitchenAid food mixer.

In fashion, Ted Baker and Michael Kors took the top spots, along with Calvin Klein pyjamas and lingerie. In the home, shoppers snapped up Joseph Joseph and crockery from Le Creuset and Portmeirion.

Fashionably fabulous: Gorgeous garments available Party on: Jacques Vert Portia Lace Dress, 89.50, down from 179, jacques-vert.co.uk (left) Immie top, 79, down from 99, fennwright manson.com (right) Pink pouch: Mulberry purse, 88, down from 110, johnlewis.com Dress chic: Dobell men's velvet dinner jacket, 69.99, down from 99.99, dobell.co.uk, left, Boss red dress, 144, down from 179, hugoboss.com, right Top tote: Michael Kors bag, 252, down from 315, michaelkors.co.uk Advertisement

App's the way to do it

This year, it's easier than ever to check prices on the High Street against other shops thanks to the rise of consumer apps.

These download to your smartphone, and you can use them to check you're getting the best deal.

Just open the app store on your phone, search for the name and download.

Here's five of the best. Better yet, all of them are free . . .

Which? Reviews app: This easy-to-use app contains 8,000 unbiased product reviews, and has a handy feature that allows you to search for a particular type of product (a microwave, for instance), which it then sorts into the Best Buys from the Don't Buys. Download free for 30 days.

MYSUPERMARKET: A comparison app that allows you to search products in all of the major supermarkets to find where branded items are cheapest.

IDEALO: Compare the prices of millions of products in almost 30,000 shops. Has more than ten million monthly users across Europe.

PRICESPY: Log in to create lists of products you want to compare or make a wish list. You can then keep returning to this list to see if any have gone on sale.

PRICERUNNER: Check deals from hundreds of the UK's best-loved shops and websites including Amazon, Debenhams, Dixons, Tesco, Boots and Toys R Us, as well as specialist stores.

Smart Interiors: Homey furnishings with slashed prices Tune in: Emma Bridgewater Retro Mini portable DAB/FM radio and Bluetooth speaker, 69.96, down from 89, qvcuk.com Curl up: Dakota Silver Luxury Faux Fur Throw, 40, down from 170, Julian charles.co.uk Dulwich Chair in Pale Blue, 347, down from 495, brissi.com, left, Marteau hand-beaten copper ceiling light, 75, down from 175, habitat.co.uk, right Advertisement

Let the insanity begin! Internet jokers see the funny side as Britain gears up for the chaotic scramble to grab Black Friday bargains

It's expected to the biggest ever weekend of shopping in Britain with consumers predicted to spend almost 8billion on deals over the next four days.

And internet jokers have already been poking fun at shoppers with a series of tongue-in-cheek memes ahead of the scramble to get a bargain on Black Friday.

Some referenced the fact that Thanksgiving Day takes place hours before in the US, saying: 'Didn't you say you were thankful for everything you had yesterday?'

Others shared a picture of Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow running in Pirates of the Caribbean, saying: 'When somebody gets the last flatscreen TV on Black Friday.'

Britons will spend just under 2.6billion today alone - an 8 per cent increase overall on last year - and 7.8billion over the four-day period including Cyber Monday.
The former pub chef in jail for raping and murdering teen model Sally Anne Bowman has been handed two more life sentences for two further sex attacks.

Mark Dixie was jailed for life in 2008 for murdering Miss Bowman in a crime which shocked Britain.

After seven years in jail, he then went to police to admit the 1987 rape of another woman in a Croydon car park and a 2002 attack on a further victim in the south London suburb.

Today he was handed two more life sentences for the two earlier attacks, meaning he will very likely die behind bars.

Mark Dixie, who is in jail for the rape and murder of teen model Sally Anne Bowman, has been given two more life sentences at Southwark Crown Court for two further sex attacks.

Dixie, now 47, had been ordered to served at least 34 years for the notorious murder of Miss Bowman in 2008.

Having denied it at trial, he finally admitted the killing to detectives in January 2015 and went on to confess to two more attacks over the course of 40 interviews.

His sentencing hearing today heard Dixie may have confessed to the latest crimes to maintain 'a degree of notoriety'.

His previous life sentence meant he was not eligible for parole until 2040, when he will be 69, and the new sentence means it will be another four years until he has a chance of being freed.

The court heard today that, before Sally Anne's murder, Dixie had carried out a string of attacks in the UK, Spain and Australia, where he lived from 1993 to 1999.

'The offending history reveals an escalating pattern of violence towards women, coupled with sexual depravity,' said prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC.

Miss Bowman was pictured out with friends before she was attacked and killed by Dixie

Dixie, a former pub chef, was jailed for life with a minimum of 34 years in 2008 for raping and stabbing model Sally Anne outside her home

Timeline of Dixie's depraved crimes 1987 - Dixie rapes woman in her car before setting fire to the vehicle with her tied up inside. 2002 - He indecently assaults a woman and smashes her over the head with a crow bar. 2005 - He murders Sally Ann Bowman, raping her as she lay dying from numerous stab wounds he had inflicted. 2008 - Convicted of murdering Miss Bowman, despite his denial, and jailed for life. 2015 - Dixie finally admits killing Sally Anne Bowman, he goes on to confess to other crimes. 2017 - Admits rape, GBH with intent indecent assault and given further life sentences, extending his mandatory term. Advertisement

Dixie left behind a palm print during the first attack in June 1987, when he was just 16, ambushing a lone woman who had just left work on the seventh-floor of an isolated Croydon car park.

He had bundled the 44-year-old woman into her own car and asked her: 'Do you want some c**k?'

After raping her he pulled a silk tie from her blouse and using it to tie her wrists.

When she pleaded to be released, Dixie told the terrified woman, 'I can't, you'll go to the police' before stuffing tights in her mouth and binding her feet with a seat belt.

'He started to ask her questions about her age, whether she had children and the jewellery she was wearing around her neck.'

He then took cash and bank cards from her purse before setting fire to the front seat.

'[The victim] then became aware of flames coming from the front of the car,' said Ms Johnson. 'He seemed delighted in her obvious fear.'

Fortunately, the victim, who was 'hysterical' and 'thought she was going to die', managed to wriggle free and raise the alarm.

The woman, who is now in her seventies, later said the attack had completely changed her life, leaving left her unable to return to her job in Croydon and led to her selling her home and moving out to the countryside.

Sally Anne Bowman dreamed of appearing on the cover of Vogue having modeled at London Fashion Week events and in magazines. She was murdered by Dixie in 2005

Dixie stalked the streets of Croydon, pictured during the Sally Anne Bowman investigation

In the second attack, which Dixie carried out in Croydon town centre, he fractured a woman's skull by repeatedly smashing her over the head with a knife sharpening tool.

He dragged told her 'I am going to kill you' and indecently assaulted her before the attack was interrupted by a member of the public.

At a hearing earlier this year, Dixie appeared via a videolink from his prison cell in HMP Frankland and admitted rape, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and indecent assault.

Innocent man jailed for Mark Dixie rape says: 'He ruined my life' Romano van der Dussen was wrongly jailed for an attack Dixie carried out in Spain An innocent man who was wrongly jailed for a sex attack committed by Mark Dixie hit out as his sentence was extended today. He also attacked a woman in Spain in 2003, for which Dutchman Romano van der Dussen was wrongly sent to jail. He was only released when the conviction was overturned 12 years later. As Dixie was handed another two life sentences for the 1987 and 2003 attacks today, Mr Van Dussen said Miss Bowman would not have been murdered had Spanish police properly investigated the attack he was wrongly implicated in. The Dutchman told The Sun: 'He ruined my life and if the Spanish police had done their job Sally Anne would be alive today.' Mr Van Dussen was released from a Spanish prison last year, eight months after Dixie made the confession to Mr Dussen's lawyer in Durham prison. A DNA test in Holland later confirmed Dixie's link to the crime. Dixie's DNA had been found at the scene of one of the attacks, but never traced by Spanish police. No DNA from Mr Dussen was found at any of the crime scenes. Advertisement

Mark Dixie's sex attack victims tell how they avoided car parks and felt uncomfortable going out for the night after their ordeals

Serial sex attacker and murderer Dixie left a huge psychological toll on his victims

The victims of Mark Dixie's earlier attacks told of the toll the long unsolved cases took on their lives.

An impact statement from the first victim told how she became mistrustful of men following her horrific ordeal.

Zoe Johnson QC, prosecuting, said: 'She was unable to return to her job in Croydon.

'She sold her house and moved to the country, deliberately choosing an isolated location where she knew it would be hard for anybody to find her.

'She has always avoided multi-storey car parks.'

The woman said: 'I just wanted to get on with life. I like to think I am a positive thinker, and I had a determination not to let this ruin my life.'

Summarising a statement from the second victim, Ms Johnson said: 'She said she thinks about the incident most after she has been out for a drink.

'"It is always at the back of my mind, and I get quite emotional about it," she says.

'She tends to avoid large crowded nightclubs. She always has a plan now how to get home.'

The second woman added: 'It's difficult to assess over the years how this incident has affected me. I have been determined that it wouldn't stop me from living my life.'

Ms Johnson said: 'That determination is something shared by both these victims.'
A father who was given a speeding ticket while driving his pregnant wife to hospital has accused cops of a 'harrowing ordeal'.

In a first-hand account of the incident, the man claims his wife gave birth just 20 minutes after the officer let them go after being made to wait 'close to 15 minutes'.

But police insist the officer responded properly and have now shared body camera footage of the incident in Howell, New Jersey.

Bodycam footage shows an officer stopping the 2010 Toyota Sienna on Squankum Road (Route 547) between Maxim and Old Tavern roads at 11.57pm on November 14

The father told the Lakewood Scoop that his wife's doctor had told them to rush to hospital as soon as labor started, since the baby would be born very quickly.

'That night labor began, so we immediately set out to Monmouth Medical Center driving at regular speed,' he told the paper.

'While driving on Squankum Road my wife told me she is starting to feel it is getting closer to birth. I became quite frantic, so I automatically picked up speed, without realizing I was going way over the speed limit.'

The body camera footage shows an officer stopping the 2010 Toyota Sienna on Squankum Road (Route 547) between Maxim and Old Tavern roads at 11.57pm on November 14.

As the officer approaches the vehicle, the driver is heard saying that his wife is in 'advanced labor'

When the officer approaches the vehicle, the driver is heard saying that his wife is in 'advanced labor'.

The cop asks the driver for his license, registration and insurance, telling the man he was driving at 'almost 80 mph' in a 50 mph zone.

The driver explains that he and his wife were in the doctor's office that morning that that they had been told to go straight to hospital.

'Alright, sit tight for a few minutes,' the officer is heard saying, before walking back to his vehicle to fill out the ticket.

According to the father's account, the couple had to wait 'close to 15 minutes'.

However this is contended by police, who say the incident lasted nine minutes, New Jersey Local News reported.

'While stranded, my wife reached a critical point,' the father said. 'I immediately started calling out, officer, officer, and motioned with my hands, but he completely ignored me.'

According to the father's account, the couple had to wait 'close to 15 minutes' while the cop filled out the speeding ticket. However this is contended by police, who say the entire stop took nine minutes

Footage shows the cop returning to the couple's vehicle and asks if they need an ambulance.

When the couple ask if they could have a police escort instead, he responds: 'No, we don't do that. That's what ambulances are for. That's why you're not supposed to be driving that fast.'

The couple then rushed to the hospital, where the man claims his baby was born just 20 minutes later.

'The interaction during the stop was police and respectful,' police said in a statement.

'Both the operator of the vehicle, his pregnant wife and the officer were calm, respectful and courteous to one another.

'We certainly understand how stressful the moments leading up to birth can be, especially on a woman, and we commend them for their respectful demeanor under the circumstances.

'However, the officer acted appropriately and any suggestion that the officer's conduct was improper, unprofessional or inhumane simply contradicts the video evidence.'
Krystof Brzezinski, 31, was linked to a series of raids despite being deported from Britain two years ago

Police are on red alert to trace a one man crimewave suspected of being one of the countrys most prolific burglars.

They urged the public not to approach dangerous career criminal Krystof Brzezinski, 31, after he was linked to a series of raids.

The notorious Polish criminal is suspected of being responsible for up to two burglaries every day despite being deported from Britain two years ago.

Investigators were shocked to discover he simply used European free movement rules to slip back into the country again.

He then returned to the same south London patch where he was convicted and jailed for a string of similar offences.

Police have already linked him to eight burglaries in just a few weeks in which thousands of pounds in valuables were taken.

The shameless thief often smashes rear windows before making off with possessions and vehicles if he can find keys.

In one case, in Addiscombe, near Croydon, Brzezinski was caught red-handed on CCTV calmly strolling away from a property.

In a disturbing twist, police also recovered a bag containing a gun and ammunition which they believe he discarded at the side of a busy road.

One theory is he stole the weapon during one raid but got cold feet and abandoned it a few hours later.

Det Insp Dan O'Sullivan, of Croydon CID, said anyone who recognises him should dial 999 immediately.

Brzezinski is a prolific burglar who has been linked to large number of burglaries across Southwark, Lambeth and Croydon, he said.

He typically strikes during the day, often between 4pm and 6pm, by smashing windows at the rear of properties.

In one case, in Addiscombe, near Croydon, Brzezinski was caught red-handed on CCTV calmly strolling away from a property

He was convicted of burglary offences and deported in 2015 and we were unaware he had returned to the country.

I suspect he is committing up to two burglaries every day. He is Londons most wanted burglar and a one man crime wave.

He should not be in this country and I need the publics help to catch him as quickly as possible.

Brzezinski was released from prison and deported in 2015 after serving a short sentence for burglary offences.

It is understood that his criminal career in Britain began in 2007 and he has been linked to a large number of burglary and theft offences.

Police said he has no current address but has connections in the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark.

He is wanted for burglary and firearms offences as well as unrelated immigration matters.
A farmer who went missing for five days has been found alive under a rock.

Louis Strydom was discovered under a large boulder on land near his Omdraai farm near the town of Bethlehem, which is in the Free State province of central South Africa.

The boulder had a gap underneath it that was just big enough for him to fit in.

South African media reported that missing persons group the South African Support Initiative and civil rights group AfriForum worked together to find the missing 38-year-old.

Louis Strydom was discovered under a large boulder on land near his Omdraai farm near the town of Bethlehem, which is in the Free State province of central South Africa

The operation to medically stabilise Strydom and rescue him from under the rock took three hours. Pictured: The unlucky farmer being rescued

After he was reported missing, rescuers searched the area where he was thought to be and eventually found his vehicle.

From there they found a set of footprints and tracked Strydom to his rocky prison.

Paramedics (pictured) rushed him to the Mediclinic Hoogland hospital in Bethlehem, where he is still recovering from a severe case of dehydration

AfriForum chair Isolde Laesecke said rescuers feared they were too late to save the farmer's life when they first found him.

But a closer inspection revealed that he was still alive, prompting paramedics to be called.

The operation to medically stabilise Strydom and rescue him from under the rock took three hours.

Paramedics rushed him to the Mediclinic Hoogland hospital in Bethlehem, where he is still recovering from a severe case of dehydration.

Remarkably, however, he was found to have no external injuries.

Laesecke said: 'We understand that the man was trapped under the rock for up to five days, with no food or water. It is a miracle that he is still alive.'

There was no word on why Strydom had crawled under the rock in the first place or why he had been unable to get out.
A total of 11 people were injured after a plane from Taipei to Chicago was hit by massive turbulence on Wednesday.

Pictures emerged on Chinese-language media show the Eva Air flight in a chaotic state after experiencing severe shaking about an hour into the 13-hour flight.

The Boeing 777 landed in Chicago as scheduled. Eight injured flight attendants and three injured passengers were taken to the hospital.

Pictures emerged on Chinese-language media show the Eva Air flight BR56 left in a chaotic state after it was hit by severe turbulence flying from Taipei to Chicago on Wednesday

Eva Air flight number BR56 carried 178 passengers including four babies, and 21 crew members.

The plane departed Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 8:18pm on November 22 local time and was hit by the turbulence at around 9:40pm.

The plane was flying over Japan and the seat belt sign was switched on.

The turbulence apparently caused chaos in the cabin. Pictures show passengers' belongings and food in the galley thrown to the ground and flight attendants struggling to stand up.

Eight flight attendants were left injured, according to a spokesperson from Eva Air.

Two of them suffered sprained ankle and six of them had bruises. Three passengers were also said to suffer bruises.

The Eva Air plane (file photo), with 199 people on board, landed in Chicago as scheduled

The spokesperson said there were qualified doctors on board, who helped treat the injured people afterwards.

The plane arrived at Chicago O'Hare International Airport at 6:38pm on November 22 local time. Injured passengers and crew members were taken to the hospital.

The Taiwanese airline company said they had issued each passenger $300 (225) 'consolation money' for the inconvenience caused by the event.
The top US Army commander in Afghanistan has said the war is still deadlocked but Trump's new strategy has 'set all the conditions to win'.

'We are still in a stalemate,' four-star general John Nicholson Jr. told NBC News from Kandahar airfield on Thursday.

'We are only 90 days into this new policy,' he added, 'but with the US forces that will be arriving; with the new authority that we have been given [to] put the pressure on external enablers; with the fact that we are condition based and not time based, we've set all the conditions to win.'

The top US Army commander General John Nicholson in Afghanistan has said the war is still deadlocked but Trump's new strategy has 'set all the conditions to win'

Trump's new strategy outlined in August aims to reverse a decline in the US position in the country since it had 100,000 troops there in 2011.

The President said he would send 3,000 more soldiers, bringing the total to 11,000.

He announced troops would not be brought home according to strict deadlines, saying: 'Conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables, will guide our strategy from now on.'

Nicholson said: 'This change in policy has reversed this decline that we've been in since 2011.

'And what I would say is that we've drawn down too far and too fast, we communicated to the enemy that we had lost our will to win, and now with a new policy as of August, we are going to win. And winning means delivering a negotiated settlement that reduces the level of violence and protecting the homeland.'

In August Trump was frustrated with the lack of progress in Afghanistan and reportedly considered firing Nicholson.

But the general insisted the president has full confidence in him, due to 'the authorities I've been given and the policy we've received. 'It's everything I asked for.'

'We are still in a stalemate,' four-star general John Nicholson Jr. told NBC News from Kandahar airfield on Thursday

The general's message comes after Trump told members of the military serving overseas that they are winning big under his watch as he wished them a happy Thanksgiving.

He spoke to the soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq, on the USS Monterey, and in Turkey and Bahrain via conference call from his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump told the soldiers that more progress has been made in recent months in Afghanistan and in fighting the Islamic State group than had been made in years of the previous administration.

'Everybody's talking about the progress you've made in the last few months since I opened it up,' he said of the situation in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump has told members of the military serving overseas that they are winning big under his watch as he wished them a happy Thanksgiving via a conference call

Trump accused the previous administration of not allowing soldiers on the ground to do their jobs.

'We're not fighting anymore to just walk around, we're fighting to win,' he said. 'We're being talked about again as an armed forces. We're really winning.'

Trump repeatedly said the service members were 'very, very special people' to him and everyone else in the country.

Trump then continued by listing off his administration's achievements in a bid to show the service members what they had to look forward to returning home.

'We're doing well at home,' he said.

'The economy is doing really great, when you come back you're going to see that with the jobs and companies coming back into our country and the stock market just hit a record high, unemployment is the lowest it has been in 17 years.

'So you're fighting for something real, you're fighting for something good.'

'We totally support you, in fact we love you,' he told the soldiers.

'This is a Thanksgiving you won't forget. You're in a very different part of the world than you're used to but boy are you doing a job there and thank God for you.
Schalch's behaviour was branded 'shabby and immoral' when he appeared at court and was cleared of all charges

A 'shabby and immoral' house master at a top 15,000-a-year school has been cleared of abusing his position after having sex with a 17-year-old girl.

Married Bryan Schalch, 39, emailed the girl - who had a 'teenage crush' on him - and kissed her during secret meetings in a supermarket car park.

Eventually 'stuff got more intense', and Schalch invited the girl - who was a pupil at a different school under the same foundation - back to his 480,000 home where they had sex on three occasions.

However the relationship ended when Schalch - who was head of Design and Technology at Warwick School - refused to leave his wife for his teenage mistress.

Schalch denied three counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust at Warwick Crown Court.

On Thursday, Schalch, of Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire, was cleared when a judge directed the jury to enter not guilty verdicts on all three charges.

Judge David Griffith-Jones QC ruled that although Schalch's behaviour was 'immoral and shabby', he had not done anything illegal because the girl had attended a different school.

He said: 'There is no issue but that the person named is 17, and that Bryan Schalch was a teacher.

'The prosecution set out to prove that Bryan Schalch was in a position of trust in relation to her at the time of the sexual activity.

'It is no crime for someone simply to have a sexual relationship with another, as long as that other is at least 16, unless the section of the Sexual Offences Act is applicable, namely that there is a breach of trust.

Judge David Griffith-Jones QC ruled that Schalch (pictured) had not done anything illegal because the girl had attended a different school

'It is important that I ensure the correct focus is on criminal behaviour, as opposed to shabby or immoral behaviour by the defendant.

'I intend to direct the jury that verdicts of not guilty must be brought back.'

Prosecutor Sally Hancox told the court Schalch met the girl through a friend of hers who was a pupil at Warwick School.

The girl attended King's High School, an all-girls independent school in Warwick.

The court heard how 'stuff got more intense' in 2015 when Schalch and the girl would meet at a supermarket car park where they would kiss

The 12,477-a-year school caters for 600 girls aged 11-18.

Both schools are both run by the Warwick Independent Schools Foundation and often shared teachers and resources.

The court heard Schalch and the girl kept in touch by 'emailing and stuff'. The girl, who gave video-recorded evidence, said: 'I had a teenage crush thing'.

The court heard how 'stuff got more intense' in 2015 when they would meet at a supermarket car park where they would kiss.

The girl said: 'Nothing happened then, until we went to his. He invited me to go round.'

She told the court they had sex on three separate occasions when she was still 17, but the relationship ended when Schalch refused to leave his wife.

Rachel Brand QC, defending, said: 'If a teacher goes on holiday to Brighton and meets a pupil of 17 from another school in another part of the country and has intercourse with her that is not an offence.

'The whole purpose of this Act is to ensure that pupils at a school are not abused by people at the school they attend.'

Warwick School is an independent boys' school which caters to over 1,200 students aged between seven and 18.

It was judged to be 'excellent' in its last ISI report in October 2012, and charges 14,964-a-year for full boarders, 13,161 for weekly boarders and 12,687 for non-boarders at the senior school.
The party propping Theresa May up in Downing Street has told her she must be prepared to walk away from Brexit talks so she is not bullied by Brussels.

Nigel Dodds, the leader of the DUP in Westminster, said the EU is acting 'like an adversary' and the extra 3billion pledged to plan for no deal is crucial to show Britain means business.

And he also claimed credit for Philip Hammond's decision to ease austerity in the Budget, saying his party had demanded more cash for public services to keep the Tories No10.

Mr Dodds urged the PM to take a tough stance as she arrives in Brussels today for an EU summit on security.

She will hold talks with EU Council President Donald Tusk in a bid to unblock Brexit talks and move on to trade negotiations by the end of the year.

Nigel Dodds, pictured outside No 10 with the party's Northern Ireland leader Arlene Foster earlier this week, said Theresa May must stick to her warning that no Brexit deal is better than a bad deal as he urges her to be prepared to walk away form talks

Mr Dodds said: 'We are very keen to see bigger and better preparations to be made for Brexit by the Chancellor - so the 3billion he set aside is a lot better than what he has talked about previously.

'It must send a message to the European Union that we are serious about all scenarios that may emerge as a result of the talks.

THE STICKING POINTS IN BREXIT TALKS Brussels said 'sufficient progress' has to be made on citizens rights, the Irish border and the divorce bill before trade talks can start. Brexit Divorce Bill: Britain had offered 20billion for a two-year transition deal, but ministers are believed to have agreed to effectively double this in an effort to start trade talks by the new year. EU citizens rights: Theresa May has said we are within touching distance of a deal but Brussels is more gloomy. The EU wants their citizens rights to be guaranteed by the European Court of Justice, but Mrs May said getting rid of the authority of the ECJ in the UK is one of her Brexit red lines. Irish border: Both the EU, UK and the Republic of Ireland are all clear they do not want to see a return to the hard border - fearing this could reignite sectarian violence. But it remains unclear how Northern Ireland can leave the EU's customs union and single market without having a hard border crossing. The Irish Republic has suggested border checks could be pushed back to the border with the mainland of the rest of the UK, but this has been ruled out by the Government and the DUP. Advertisement

'We have negotiated in Northern Ireland for 20, 30 years and the last thing you want to signal to your political adversary - and the EU are acting like an adversary in many cases in the talks process - you have got to show that you are prepared if necessary to walk away, that no deal is better than a bad deal.'

The DUP only have ten MPs in Westminster but they wield a large amount of influence on the Government after entering into a confidence and supply deal with the Tories.

Their MPs agreed to vote with the Government on major votes like the Budget and Brexit in return for an extra 1billion for Northern Ireland.

Brussels has so far refused to start Brexit trade talks despite a series of concessions by UK ministers in a bid to begin them by the new year.

The Cabinet is understood to have doubled its Brexit divorce bill offer from 20billion and 40billion in a last-ditch attempt to move the negotiations on.

But EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is reportedly determined to squeeze another 10billion out of Britain.

And Brussels has warned that more movement must be made on citizens rights and the Irish border before Brexit talks can move on.

Mr Dodds, who was speaking to the Choppers podcast ahead of his party's conference this weekend, said the DUP has already changed the approach of the Tories by pushing ministers to turn the spending taps on.

He said: 'We have already had evidence of our influence  the headlines today of austerity coming to an end  we made it clear at the start that we could not support an ongoing austerity programme that was focused entirely on reducing debt.

'We believe debt does need managed, it does need to be brought down. The Chancellor said he had to do that but in tandem there had to be a balanced approach, helping hardworking families, those in need.

'That is why we supported the lifting of the pay cap for instance  we are very happy to see that in relation to nurses and others in the health service getting money guaranteed for pay rises.'
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A series of newly colorized images brings the chilling faces of some of America's most notorious mobsters to life.

Published for the first time today, on the 120th anniversary of crime kingpin Charles 'Lucky' Lucciano's birth, striking pictures capture a time when the entire criminal underworld was controlled by the Mafia.

Adhering to the old world traditions set out by mob bosses in Sicily - honor, loyaly and respect supposedly underpinned their criminal empires - which were built on murder, extortion and illegal gambling - and stretched from New York to Nevada.

The images show ruthless killers such as Al Capone, Tony the Hat, Machine Gun Kelly and Frank Costello in their own homes or offices, appearing relaxed but no less dangerous.

Crime kingpin Charles 'Lucky' Lucciano is considered by many to be the father of modern organised crime. The Mafioso boss organised 'The Syndicate' in 1931, which brought together each of the five bosses of American crime families in New York. He was also the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family, and oversaw an empire built on murder, prostitution, illegal gambling, loansharking, drugs trafficking and extortion. Reaching the summit of America's underworld, he directed criminal rules, policies, and activities along with the other Mafia bosses. After being arrested, he earned a repreive by helping the US government during WW2 in a deal that meant he was deported back to Italy after the war. He died in 1962, aged 64

One of the most notorious mobsters to have ever lived, Al Capone - also known as Scarface - was the feared crime boss of Chicago, running criminal rackets all over the Mid West. He made his name during the Prohibition era, aged only 26 where he was the boss of an organization that took in illegal breweries and a transportation network that reached as far as Canada, with political and law-enforcement protection behind him. Capone was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre which resulted in the death of seven men from the North Side Gang. He was finally brought to justice aged 33, not on drugs, illegal alcohol or murder charges - but for tax evasion

Anthony Cornero Stralla, also known as Tony the Hat, was a successful bootlegger and gambling entrepreneur operating out of the California area. He also ran and operated several Las Vegas casinos when the city began to emerge. During his varied career, he bootlegged liquor into Los Angeles, ran legal gambling ships in international waters, and legally operated casinos as it became the gambling center of the US. He was born in Lequio Tanaro, Northern Italy and died in suspicious circumstances in 1955 while playing Craps

Joe Profaci, who founded the New York based Profaci family, now known as the Colombo crime family. His was the last of the so-called 'five families' of New York to be founded. He remained boss of the family for three decades before dying of liver cancer in 1961. By 1930, Profaci was controlling numbers, prostitution, loansharking, and narcotics trafficking in Brooklyn. Despite starting out as a legitimate businessman, his family's status in Sicily, where he may have belonged to the Villabate Mafia meant he was made a boss once a war broke out between the the Maranzano and Masseria mafia families

Meyer Lansky (left), a highly influential figure in the Jewish American and Italian American crime communities. He was affectionately known as the 'Mob's Accountant' but never served time for his activities, dying aged 80 in 1983. George 'Machine Gun' Kelly (right), a prohibition-era gangster who operated out of Tennessee and gained his nickname from his weapon of choice - a Thompson submachine gun. He and his gang were most famous for the kidnap of il tycoon and businessman Charles F. Urschel in July 1933 for which he, and his gang, collected a $200,000 ransom

Frank Costello, nicknamed 'The Prime Minister of the Underworld, was one of the most influential crime bosses in America during the 1930s, and was named boss of the Lucciano crime family after Lucky Lucciano was imprisoned in 1937. At the end of Prohibition, he invested in gambling enterprises, earning millions from slot machines and casinos. He also controlled large swathes of New York City politics thanks to his grip on the Democratic Party at Tammany Hall. Costello miraculously survived a hit by Genovese soldier Vincent "The Chin" Gigante in 1957, forcing him to give up his criminal empire. He served as a Mafia elder statesman until his death of a heart attack in 1973, at the age of 82

Dutch Schultz (left), a prolific figure in the bootlegging industry in the 1920s and 1930s. He was targeted relentlessly by prosecutor Thomas Dewey, who he sought permission from the mob bosses to have killed. They refused but he made an attempt on Dewew regardless, which failed. As a result of his disregard of the rules passed down by the bosses, Schultz was killed in 1935. Don Vito Cascioferro (right), or Don Vito, was a prominent member of the Sicilian Mafia in the early 1900s, and operated in America for several years

John Dillinger, a famous 1920s mobster who was thought responsible for robbing 24 banks and four police stations. He was lauded by the media as a Robin Hood type figure during his time on the run, and he escaped prison twice. He was killed in 1934 in a shootout with police after attempting to flee

Joe Gallo - also known as Crazy Joe - was a New York based gangster in the Profaci crime family who started the Columbo wars, one of the bloodiest conflicts in organised crime history. Joe was killed himself as a result of the 'war'. In 1950, after an arrest, Gallo was temporarily placed in hospital where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He began his career as a hitman and moved into the extortion racket and owned several Manhattan night clubs. He allegedly kept a pet lion named Cleo in his basement

Johnny Torrio (left), one of the founders of the Chicago crime empire during the prohibition era. He was succeeded by his 'protege' Al Capone in the 1930s. Micky Cohen (right), the boss of the Los Angeles based Cohen crime family in the 1930s and 1940s. A Ukranian immigrant, Cohen was known to have close ties to the Italian American crime families

Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel was one of the driving forces behind the development of Las Vegas after the Second World War. Highly influential in both Italian American and Jewish American organised crime, he was shot dead at his home by an unknown assailant in 1947
A mother has been left furious after a school asked 11-year-old pupils to rate black people as potential neighbours they wouldn't want to live next to.

Naomi Davis, 42, was stunned when her daughter Chayse Cole showed her the worksheet that her class had been given in Bristol which listed various people.

The task asked children to rate people in terms of how much they would or would not like to live next door to them - with one being the best and 14 being the worst.

Naomi Davis, 42, was stunned when her daughter Chayse Cole showed her the worksheet that her class had been given in Bristol which listed various people

The task asked children to rate people in terms of how much they would or would not like to live next door to them - with one being the best and 14 being the worst

The list included a teen parent, a person with a learning difficulty, a hoodie wearer and a black person. Ms Davis said it made Chayse feel 'singled out and isolated'.

The mother-of-one immediately contacted Bristol Free School to set up a meeting to discuss the 'completely unacceptable racial profiling' on the worksheet.

Ms Davis, from Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, said: 'The school have reacted very positively and have apologised to me and my daughter.

'They acknowledged that it was completely unacceptable racial profiling and the wording needs to be changed immediately.

'It was disappointing that the school seemed to be minimising the different levels of discrimination - it doesn't make sense that a vegetarian and a black person are on the same list.

Ms Davis said that the lack of discussion afterwards left her daughter Chayse feeling confused

'It shouldn't have taken a child feeling isolated or singled out in order for the school to do something about this.'

Ms Davis, a presenter for BBC Radio Bristol, said the worksheet, which was intended to be carried out as a group discussion exercise, was not completed as such.

And she said that the lack of discussion afterwards left Chayse feeling confused.

'There was no discussion afterwards as to why those groups of people had been chosen for the list, and it didn't make any sense to my daughter,' said Ms Davis.

'They were given the worksheet to complete and then afterwards the teacher gave this big Martin Luther King type speech about how everyone was equal, and that was that.

The mother-of-one immediately contacted Bristol Free School (pictured) to set up a meeting to discuss the 'completely unacceptable racial profiling' on the worksheet

'Chayse was the only one in the class who put her hand up afterwards and tried to say, 'But that doesn't make any sense'.

'The school shouldn't have a situation where children feel like they can't talk to teachers about these things.'

She added that she is quite open with Chayse about the discrimination she might face going through life - and that she felt the worksheet played this down.

'I don't want to feel like the school is not preparing her and the other children for the reality of that,' said Ms Davis.

Ms Davis, said she was reassured by the fact that the worksheet was not part of the national curriculum - but was disappointed that the school hadn't changed it sooner.

Ms Davis has commended the school for a positive and productive response to her feedback

'The head of department who I spoke to said the school had been wanting to change the wording for quite some time,' she said. 'And I just said, 'Well why haven't you? What are you waiting for?''

But she has commended the school for their positive and productive response to her feedback.

Ms Davis said the school have now agreed to change the wording on the worksheet, as well as setting up diversity groups for both BAME (British, Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) children and their parents to raise concerns in confidence.

She said: 'This is a perfect example of "Be the change you want to see". Never sit back and be the quiet one and just let these things pass.'

A spokesman for the school said: 'The lesson, which has resulted in one of our parents being is concerned is from the schools Year 7 Personal, Social and Health Education Programme; and has been taught at the school for the past five years.

'The lesson is about citizenship and diversity, and focuses particularly on homophobia.

Ms Davis said the school have now agreed to change the wording on the worksheet, as well as setting up diversity groups for both BAME children and their parents

'It is part of a unit of work aimed at heightening students understanding of the advantages of living in a diverse and inclusive society, and developing their understanding of the dangers of prejudiced or phobic attitudes and behaviour.

'In one element of the lesson, students are asked to list the advantages of having a neighbour from particular minority groups. The 11 groups have been selected as groups that, at times, have been targets of prejudice.

'The lesson is developed through discussion and intended to give the students an understanding of the impact of prejudice.

'The lesson has proved effective in developing the understanding of Year 7 students about the value of diversity and the danger of prejudice. The lesson has not, over the past five years, caused known concern on the part of any student or parent.

'One parent has raised concerns about the structure of the lesson and the materials used. We are taking these concerns very seriously and will review these materials as a result.'
Downing Street today denied changing its position on leaving Northern Ireland in the customs union after a spokesman said it was a 'matter for negotiations'.

In remarks that will alarm Theresa May's DUP allies, the Prime Minister's spokesman did not reject suggestions the province could be left behind after Brexit.

A No 10 source later insisted that the Government's position that the whole of the UK will leave both the customs union and single market after Brexit has not changed.

The Government was condemned for running a 'chaotic' Brexit policy this afternoon.

Ireland has suggested leaving Northern Ireland in the customs union as the simple way of ensuring there is no hard border inside the island of Ireland.

It would effectively move the international border to the middle of the Irish Sea, meaning customs checks inside the United Kingdom.

Britain has rejected this and earlier this month Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire said in Brussels 'we will leave the EU in 2019 as one United Kingdom'.

Downing Street today claimed leaving Northern Ireland in the customs union after Brexit is a 'matter for negotiations'. Theresa May is in Brussels today (pictured) for a security summit and Brexit meetings

Ireland has suggested leaving Northern Ireland in the customs union as the simple way of ensuring there is no hard border inside the island of Ireland

Downing Street's intervention today came after DUP leader Arlene Foster claimed the Republic was being 'reckless' by suggesting Northern Ireland stays inside.

Asked if Northern Ireland could stay in the customs union after Brexit, Mrs May's spokesman said: 'That is a matter for negotiations.

'Our position on Northern Ireland has been set out in the papers and we need to continue to negotiate to find an innovative way forward.'

Earlier, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney insisted EU leaders would not give the green light for the phase two negotiations to begin at their summit in December unless there was progress on the border issue.

He said British assurances on the issue were 'aspirational' and that there had to be a 'credible roadmap' from the UK setting out how they would ensure there was no return to a hard border.

With the UK committed to withdrawing from customs union and the single market, Mr Coveney said it was difficult to see how they could avoid border checks if it resulted in 'regulatory divergence' between the North and the Republic.

In remarks that will alarm Theresa May's DUP allies led by Nigel Dodds and Arlene Foster (pictured in Downing Street last week), the Prime Minister's spokesman said Northern Ireland staying in the customs union was a 'matter for negotiation'

'We can't move to phase two on the basis of aspiration.

'We have move to phase two on the basis of a credible road map or the parameters around which we can design a credible road map to ensure that it doesn't happen,' he said.

'The truth is that if we see regulatory divergence between the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland it is very hard to see in that scenario how you avoid hard border checks. So we need progress on this issue in the context of the regulatory divergence issues.

'I hope and expect that we can get that by December so that we can all move on.

'If we can't, then I think there is going to be a difficulty coming up.'

Mr Coveney added that the other member states were fully behind Ireland's stance on the issue.

'I don't think Ireland will have to block anything on its own. There is absolute solidarity across 27 countries here. They are with Ireland on this,' he said.

'We are not talking about a 'no deal' here. What we are talking about is whether we can move on to opening up phase two in parallel with phase one issues in December.

'Without sufficient progress on the Irish issues that can't happen.'

Earlier, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney (left with Boris Johnson in Dublin last week) insisted EU leaders would not give the green light for the phase two negotiations to begin at their summit in December unless there was progress on the border issue

Lib Dem deputy leader Jo Swinson said: 'Theresa May's Brexit plans have descended into utter chaos on the same day she's trying to secure a breakthrough in negotiations with the EU.

'The Government is meant to be planning for the coming decades, but their positions don't even last 40 minutes.

'The simplest way to solve the issue of the Northern Ireland border would be for the UK to stay in the single market and customs union in the long term.

'Ministers must change course and stop recklessly ruling this out as an option.'
This is the first year that Aussies can vote online for their favourite performer

The international contest kicks off on Sunday, November 26 in Tbilisi, Georgia

The Victorian teen says her singing inspirations are Beyonce and Mary J. Blige

In just two days, 2017's answer to Kylie Minogue will take the stage at this year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Georgia.

Isabella Clarke, 13, from Victoria, told ABC ME that she is 'super excited' to be performing her modern anthem 'Speak Up' on November 26.

'I'm so honoured to be given the opportunity to represent Australia at such an amazing event,' Isabella told Eurovix in October.

'It's a dream come true and I hope I do my family and Australia proud.'

Isabella Clarke, 13, will represent Australia at the Junior Eurovision Contest on November 26

The teen will sing her anthem 'Speak Up' at the international song contest in Tbilisi on Sunday

'I can't wait to start rehearsals and film the music video! I'm also looking forward to visiting Georgia for the first time and meeting all the other performers.'

This is the first year that Aussies can vote online for their favourite JESC 2017 performer, and ABC ME is calling on all Australians to get behind JESC 2017 and celebrate Isabella's rise to international stardom.

Discussing the song she will be singing at the international contest, Isabella told TV Tonight that she 'absolutely loves 'Speak Up'.'

'To me it's about being able to speak your mind and not be afraid. It's about kids having the confidence to talk about the things happening in their lives,' she said.

'This is something I really believe in. Recording the song and music video has been a dream come true and I'm glad I was able to share this experience with my family and friends.

'I'm now looking forward to performing the song in Tbilisi.'

'I'm so honoured to be given the opportunity to represent Australia at such an amazing event'

Isabella told TV Tonight that she is 'so excited' to rehearse and shoot the video for 'Speak Up'

'This is something I really believe in,' Isabella said, calling her selection 'a dream come true'

The pint-sized pop star started singing at the age of nine, and now holds the principal vocalist position in the The Victorian State Schools Spectacular.

She cites her singing inspirations as Beyonce and Mary J. Blige, and she hopes to follow in their footsteps and become an international recording artist.

'My favourite thing to do is singing,' the teen told EscChat. 'Singing is basically my life and I just love performing for people and making people happy.'

Isabella Clarke will be the first Junior Eurovision contestant not picked from 'The Voice Kids'

Australian teenager Bella Paige placed 8th with the song 'My Girls' at Junior Eurovision in 2015

Every coach wanted to mentor Bella Paige, then 12, during The Voice Kids Australia Season 1

2017 is the third year that Australia has taken part in the JESC, debuting in 2015 and placing 8th, then inching up to 5th place in 2016.

This year also marks the first time that Australia has not selected a former contestant from 'The Voice Kids'.

Season 1 finalist Bella Paige took the stage in 2015 and 12-year-old Alexa Curtis, who won the 2014 season of 'The Voice Kids' took the job in 2016.

And Head of Delegation for Australia Paul Clarke is confident that choosing Isabella was the best thing for the competition.

'We're inspired by Isabella's brilliant vocal  talk about nailing it! I'm sure she will fly our flag high!' said Mr Clarke.

''Speak Up' maintains the high standard Australia has delivered at Eurovision, and as always we are committed to giving it our best shot. We can't wait to get the chance to perform it on the Junior Eurovision stage.'
Donald Trump has used the attack on a mosque in Egypt to make the case for building a wall with Mexico and a travel ban from countries vulnerable to terrorism.

At least 235 people have been killed after a gun and bomb terror attack at a packed mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province today.

In the aftermath the atrocity he tweeted: 'Will be calling the President of Egypt in a short while to discuss the tragic terrorist attack, with so much loss of life. We have to get TOUGHER AND SMARTER than ever before, and we will. Need the WALL, need the BAN! God bless the people of Egypt.'

The President used Twitter to make his case for building a wall with Mexico and imposing a travel ban

Another 130 people are reported to have been injured, making it the worst terror attack in the country's modern history.

The terrorists reportedly detonated a bomb in the mosque's creche before firing on fleeing worshippers while blocking escape routes with burnt-out cars.

Egypt's military has begun conducting air strikes around the area of North Sinai, security sources and eyewitnesses said.

The victims included civilians and conscripts praying at the mosque, with reports suggesting the terrorists detonated a bomb before firing on fleeing worshippers. Pictured: The scene after the attack

The strikes have been concentrated in several mountainous areas surrounding Al Rawdah mosque where militants are believed to be hiding out, the security sources said.

The suspected Islamic State attack took place at the Al-Rawdah Sufi mosque in Bir al-Abed, near El-Arish, during Friday prayers. Extremist Sunni jihadists have previously targeted Sufis - a mystical Islamic sect - for deviating from orthodoxy.

In a televised address the president said: 'The armed forces and the police will avenge our martyrs and restore security and stability with the utmost force.

'What is happening is an attempt to stop us from our efforts in the fight against terrorism, to destroy our efforts to stop the terrible criminal plan that aims to destroy what is left of our region.'

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, condemned the mass murder as a 'horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers', adding: 'The world cannot tolerate terrorism.'

President Abdel Fattah al Sisi convened an emergency security meeting soon after the attack, state television reported. Pictured: Victims in the mosque

Some reports have claimed the bomb was set off in the children's kindergarten area of the mosque before the terrorists - in military uniforms and wielding black flags - slaughtered those who fled. Pictured: People in the area after the savage attack

The attack took place near the provincial capital of El-Arish during Friday prayers, police officials said, at Al-Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed

Police said militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers during the sermon segment of Friday prayers. Pictured: Al-Rawdah mosque

US President Donald Trump has condemned the mass murder as a 'horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers', adding: 'The world cannot tolerate terrorism'

A tribal leader and head of a Bedouin militia that fights Islamic State said that the mosque is known as a place of gathering for Sufis. Pictured: Inside the mosque after the attack

An improvised explosive device (IED) is believed to have been used before it was followed up with machine gunfire from multiple gunmen using four off-road vehicles.

A witness said: 'They were shooting at people as they left the mosque.

'They were shooting at the ambulances, too.'

Some reports have claimed the bomb was set off in the children's kindergarten area of the mosque before the terrorists - in military uniforms and wielding black flags - slaughtered those who fled.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (pictured) has vowed to respond to the attack with 'brute force'

They added that IS militants had blocked escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the burning wrecks blocking the roads.

Another report claims that terrorists wearing suicide vests hid themselves among the people at the mosque before detonating the bombs, but this remains unconfirmed.

MP Mustafa Bakri branded the situation 'catastrophic' on Twitter.

He added: 'The terrorists wore masks and surrounded the mosque during prayers, and terrorists wearing belts were hidden among the worshippers.'

A tribal leader and head of a Bedouin militia that fights Islamic State said that the mosque is known as a place of gathering for Sufis.

The Islamic State group shares the puritan Salafi view of Sufis as heretics for seeking the intercession of saints.

MENA reported that Egypt's presidency declared a three-day mourning period for the attack, as President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi convened a high-level meeting of security officials.

An angry President al-Sisi pledged to respond with 'brutal force' against militants who massacred at least 235 people at a mosque during weekly prayers on Friday.

Who are the Sufis associated with the mosque attacked in Egypt? The mosque where the massacre occurred been widely associated with Sufi Muslims who have frequently been attacked by the Islamic State group. Their extreme version of the puritan Salafism practised in Saudi Arabia views Sufis as heretics and the jihadists have an institutional hatred of them and their mystical branch of Islam. They accuse them of polytheism - the greatest sin in Islam - for seeking the intercession of dead saints. But in much of the Muslim world, Sufism has for centuries been accepted and practised by mainstream Muslims and Sunni Islam's most important theologians. The head of Al-Azhar, Egypt's top Islamic authority, is a Sufi, as are many top clerics in the Muslim world. They date their practices back to some of the prophet's companions and the early generations of ascetics who shunned the increasingly worldly Islamic empire for a life of prayer. While some Sufis use music in their prayers, the more established and larger orders shun the practice. They say they want to focus on achieving a state of purity - from which the term Sufism is believed to have been derived - to witness God's presence in their lives. The Salafis condemn what they call 'innovations' - rites and prayers adopted by Sufis which the Prophet Mohammed himself never prescribed. IS has claimed attacks that have killed dozens of Sufis, most notably in Pakistan.

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'The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period,' he also said in a televised speech.

Cairo's international airport boosted security following the attack, with more troopers and forces seen patrolling passenger halls, conducting searches and manning checkpoints at airport approaches.

Resident Ashraf el-Hefny said many of the victims were workers at a nearby salt firm who had come for Friday services at the mosque, which had contained some 300 worshipers.

'Local people brought the wounded to hospital on their own cars and trucks,' he said.

British prime minister Theresa May said she was 'appalled by the sickening attack', which she declared an 'evil and cowardly act'.

UK foreign minister Boris Johnson, meanwhile, condemned the 'barbaric attack' in a post on Twitter, while his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian expressed his condolences to the families of victims of the 'despicable attack'.

Cairo's international airport boosted security following the attack, with more troopers and forces seen patrolling passenger halls, conducting searches and manning checkpoints at airport approaches. Pictured: People gathering outside the mosque after the attack today

British prime minister Theresa May said she was 'appalled by the sickening attack', which she declared an 'evil and cowardly act'

Ahmed Abul Gheit, head of the Arab League, which is based in Cairo, condemned the 'terrifying crime which again shows that Islam is innocent of those who follow extremist terrorist ideology,' his spokesman said in a statement.



The jihadists had previously kidnapped and beheaded an elderly Sufi leader, accusing him of practising magic which Islam forbids, and abducted Sufi practitioners later released after 'repenting.'

The group has killed more than 100 Christians in church bombings and shootings in Sinai and other parts of Egypt, forcing many to flee the peninsula.

The military has struggled to quell the jihadists who pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014.

IS regularly conducts attacks against soldiers and policemen in the peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, although the frequency and scale of such attacks has diminished over the past year.

Another 130 people are reported to have been injured, some of whom can be seen above alongside those who died at the mosque

They have since increasingly turned to civilian targets, attacking not only Christians and Sufis but also Bedouin Sinai inhabitants accused of working with the army.

Aside from IS, Egypt also faces a threat from Al-Qaeda-aligned jihadists who operate out of neighbouring Libya.

A group calling itself Ansar al-Islam - Supporters of Islam in Arabic - claimed an October ambush in Egypt's Western Desert that killed at least 16 policemen.

Many of those killed belonged to the interior ministry's secretive National Security Service.

The military later conducted air strikes on the attackers, killing their leader Emad al-Din Abdel Hamid, a most wanted jihadist who was a military officer before joining an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Libya's militant stronghold of Derna.

Reacting to the news, Britain's ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, tweeted: 'I am disgusted by the evil attack that killed & injured so many Egyptians in Sinai today. On behalf of the UK my deep condolences to all involved.

'These attacks on people praying in mosques & churches only strengthen our determination to stand together, & defeat terrorism & hate.'
A weapons-obsessed sadist who left a City business analyst in a permanent coma after a 'cowardly and sadistic' knife attack has been jailed for life.

Barry Peacham, 26, stabbed Qingqing Rao, 29, in the head and between the legs before grabbing her handbag as she walked home through Castle Green Park, Dagenham, east London.

Newlywed Ms Rao, who was minutes away from her home when she was attacked, remains in a permanent vegetative state and is unlikely to ever recover.

Peacham had waited until Ms Rao walked through the park on her own before pouncing with brutal knife slashes at just after 9.45pm on 13 February.

He tried to distance himself from the savage attack by dumping Ms Rao's laptop, bank cards and iPhone down drains near the scene of the crime.

Qingqing Rao (right) was left lying in the park with traumatic brain injuries and stab wounds until a passer by spotted her and called 999 at 9.51pm. Peacham (left) was found guilty of wounding with intent and robbery after a trial at the Old Bailey

But he was so confident nobody had witnessed the attack Peacham that he changed clothes and returned to the park with his girlfriend's mother's dog later that night.

Ms Rao was left lying in the park with traumatic brain injuries and stab wounds until a passer by spotted her and called 999 at 9.51pm.

Peacham, who has previous convictions for robbery and possessing offensive weapons, bragged to his friends: 'I stabbed her multiple times' days after the attack.

But he denied involvement when prosecutors linked him to the attack through 'circumstantial evidence' in what police described as a 'crime of pure evil.'

Sentencing Peacham to at least nine years behind bars, Judge Anne Molyneux said Qingqing's mother described a feeling of 'permanent shadow', adding: 'Your actions have destroyed her life and that if her family.'

Peacham stabbed Qingqing Rao in the head and between the legs before grabbing her handbag as she walked home through Castle Green Park, Dagenham, east London (pictured)

Peacham, of no fixed address, was cleared of attempted murder but convicted of the alternative charge of wounding with intent and robbery after an Old Bailey trial last month.

Judge Anne Molyneux had adjourned sentence for a risk assessment on Peacham and to consider the danger he posed to the public, adding: 'Her life was changed forever as a result of this attack.'

Prosecutor Julian Evans said Peacham is highly dangerous and the victim's life expectancy has been greatly diminished.

Judge Molyneux described Qinging as well-liked by her colleagues, a warm hearted and happy person, a partner, a friend and someone who deeply cared for her family.

She told Peacham: 'This was a brutal, sadistic and cowardly attack on a lone female making her way home from work - you were a predator and you showed no mercy.

Qingqing's husband Ansgar Wenzel said in a statement that he will 'always cherish' the final kiss he shared with his wife

'The violence you used went way beyond any violence that might have been necessary for a robbery.

'As her mother describes it, "a permanent shadow has been planted in my heart."

Tyrone Belger, defending, said he could offer no real mitigation for Peacham.

But he said he had come from a difficult background riddled with drugs and domestic violence.

'Although he does have a very bad record his last offence was in 2012 for attacking his then girlfriend,' he said.

'Prior to that was the incident of robbery seven years ago which he says that he was not involved in.

'Although he has been associated with knife crime, using it to threaten and point he has never faced a wounding charge.'

Mr Belger added that a life sentence must be 'one of a last resort' and asked the judge to consider any sentence that fell just short of it.

Peacham, of no fixed address, was cleared of attempted murder but convicted of the alternative charge of wounding with intent and robbery after an Old Bailey trial last month

Ms Rao left work in Finsbury Square, central London, at 8.40pm and took a tube to Upney underground station.

She then took a bus to Castle Green before crossing the park to get to her home.

Mr Evans said: 'It was dark and she walked alone from the bus stop towards her home which was close by.

'The journey took her into Castle Green. As she walked through the park on her own she was viciously attacked by an assailant who was armed with a bladed weapon as she made her way along the path about half way between the bus stop and home.

'She was stabbed on the side of her head and in the area of her vagina.'

Ms Rao was treated in hospital for many months and is now receiving 24 hour care at a nursing home.

He continued: 'She is in a persistent vegetative state from which it is unlikely she will ever recover.'

'The attacker not only intended to kill her but also robbed her and possessions belonging to her - her iPhone, bank cards and driving licence were found inside drains on the streets in the surrounding area.'

Peacham, of no fixed abode, denied but was convicted of wounding with intent and robbery.

He was jailed for life with a minimum of nine years for the charge of wounding and 12 years for robbery which is to run alongside.
Aveesha Ahsan, 33,(pictured outside Inner London Crown Court on November 21) allegedly sexually assaulted the 16-year-old after telling her she had 'attractive and alluring' eyes

A female teacher accused of sexually assaulting a pupil claims that her written marriage proposal to her asked: 'Will you merry me,' not 'marry', a court heard.

Aveesha Ahsan, 33, from Lewisham, said she had only innocently kissed the girl, who she regarded as her 'sister'.

The teacher insisted the handwritten note which has been taken to read 'marry' is innocent too and explained to merry her meant 'to be friends'.

She told Inner London Crown Court: 'It is about the friendship, but in the end I made a nasty joke, "Will you merry me".'

'It is like we are friends, you are my sister and we can be friends so at the end I wrote down, "Will you merry me".

'Merry - it means, will you accept my asking you to be friends.

'I am Muslim, how can I marry her? We do not do things that way.

'Because sometime I feel like she wants to come close, she wants to get close to me - always asking me, can I sit with you.

'She was crying and I was asking: 'Well did you not understand this? It is a friendship letter.

'She was tearful, she was crying because of the word "merry".'

When the girl explained she thought it was a marriage proposal Ashan asked: 'Are you mad, we are female, we are Muslims, how?'

Ahsan said she emigrated from Lahore, Pakistan in 2011 to pursue a Masters degree at Queen Mary University and said life in England was lonely.

She said: 'I live here no friends, it is very lonely time, people around you are always lying, cheating and it was very depressing.

'I came from a lot of people in my house, but people here - no interactions, they are not friendly.

'She also wants some friendship, I sometimes feel she's like me because it happens to me as well - the loneliness.

'So she is also like that, I need something and she needs something - why not be friends.'

She said the teenager confided in her about how she cut herself and felt disgusted when eating in front of others.

Ahsan said: 'We discussed quite different things, quite different stories. I think we discuss because I was concerned because her mind is always somewhere else.

'She has told me that people call her slut, called her stupid. She told me: "I am cutting myself".

'I said: "Tell me where exactly you are cutting yourself," she took my hand and showed me on the back of her leg a big bandage.

'I told her you can't do this, as a Muslim this is a very bad thing.

'I discussed with another teacher Mr Assam and he said kids in this country are doing this kind of thing - this isn't Pakistan.'

Ahsan is accused of assaulting the girl by forcibly hugging and kissing her but the teacher demonstrated to the court how she had planted a kiss on the girl's forehead.

She said: 'I rubbed her arm and kissed her head and said you are my sister.'

The teacher used her hand to demonstrate to the court how she had kissed the girl in the temple region of her head with a closed mouth.

Previously, the trial heard Ahsan made jokes with the girl about 'thrusting' after the teenager repeatedly asked her not to.

The maths tutor wrote to her pupil: 'Can I tell you a dirty joke? My mind is really dirty.

'In the word trusting put 'H' in between 'T' and 'R.'

Jurors heard the teenager told her tutor about how she cut herself and felt disgusted by eating in front of others in a series of messages between them.

The maths tutor said: 'Go then do it, do it one more time again and I will cut worse and further than you.

'Trust me you are beautiful, but you need to lose some fat.'

She wrote to the girl: 'It is so nice that you said read Quran and make Dua - but I am having my period now so I cannot.

Ahsan made jokes with her about 'thrusting' after the teenager repeatedly asked her not to, Inner London Crown Court(which she is pictured outside) heard

'My intention is just to be close to you, not to teach. Do not say something c**p OK? Then that will hurt me.'

The pupil replied: 'I don't want to hurt you, I am just going to keep quiet I didn't want to hurt you.

'I think I am just going to go offline, I am so tired I did not want to fight with you.'

Ahsan wrote: 'That's what you always do, run away. Just trust me please. My heart becomes restless for you, where are you? Please don't cry.'

Ahsan claimed that she loved the girl like a little sister but made the pupil uncomfortable with her sexually charged behaviour.

She told the teen to keep their conversations private and not to tell her family about giving her kisses.

Ahsan said: 'I can feel sometimes what you are doing in your house, I don't know about you.

'I get strong feelings that you are thinking about me, I am thinking about you a lot.

'You are like my centre of gravity, I am revolving around you.'

The police seized four separate devices which the teacher used to bombard the youngster with messages, after the complainant tried blocking the older woman.

Ahsan, of Lewisham, appeared at Inner London Crown court wearing a blue headscarf.

She denies sexual assault and sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.

The trial continues.
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Thousands of interstate Schoolies got the party started at the Gold Coast celebrating the end of exams, but some of them looked a little worse for wear within hours.

After arriving at Surfers Paradise, huge numbers of graduating teenagers flocked to the golden strips of beaches famous for the November parties.

While some of the school leavers kept it together, others quickly looked a bit run down and rough around the edges.

Thousands of interstate Schoolies got the party started at the Gold Coast celebrating the end of exams on Friday night

Caught up in the hype and excitement, some teenagers appeared to forget how to wear their thongs while out celebrating

The party took a turn as the team of Red Frogs helped to cart away this young woman

As some Schoolies stepped out in flower leis, others donned face glitter and minimal clothing to keep cool in the warm air

With a huge authority presence keeping the graduates safe, many Schoolies were spotted being pushed along in wheelchairs.

Among all the hype of partying and excitement of celebrating the end of their exams, some teenagers appeared to have forgotten how to wear their thongs.

The Red Frogs were also out in numbers helping the teenagers who partied too hard, with double the number of Schoolies being arrested on drugs charges compared to the same time last year.

Friday was officially the last day of the Schoolies week one held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, which started on Saturday November 18.

As the night wore on the antics became harder to stomach, as one girl appears poorly with a sick bag

SES workers were on hand to assist with the clean up as some schoolies struggled

As some of the new high school leavers kept it together, others quickly looked a bit run down and rough around the edges

A helping hand! These friends attempted to help a girl off the floor, but she was having some difficulty

But a helping hand is never far by, with thousands of supportive teenagers ready to help as well as hard working Red Frogs

Some teenagers appeared to be a bit worse for wear in the early hours of the huge celebrations (pictured)

But despite being the last day of week one's wild antics, this year's Schoolies aren't showing any signs of slowing down with a number of arrests made overnight.

Many of the Schoolies were spotted taking a break laying down on the footpaths or getting some shut eye while being pushed along in a wheelchair.

More than 20,000 Schoolies were expected to embark on the sunshine state during the coastal celebrations.

NSW and Victorian school leavers are expected to be hitting the Gold Coast from Saturday, November 25 for their week of wild parties.

Friday was officially the last day of the Schoolies week one held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, which started November 18

NSW and Victorian school leavers are expected to be hitting the Gold Coast from Saturday, November 25 for their week of fun

Other Schoolies appeared to have a playful wrestle (pictured Friday) to break up the night of parties and celebrations

Jump for joy! Other Schoolies were captured leaping into the air celebrating the night away (pictured)

You never know what you'll come across at Schoolies! One teenager was spotted donning a huge horse head mask (pictured)

Always a shoulder to lean on: Some Schoolies were spotted supporting each other through the wild night of partying
Roland Yockell II was arrested on Tuesday on child pornography charges

A New York kindergarten teacher has been arrested on child pornography charges after police discovered a haul of photographs of young girls and children's underwear stuffed in his mattress.

Roland Yockel II, 30, was arrested at his home in upstate Hilton, upstate New York, on Tuesday after officers stormed his home.

He was a teacher at Ginther School where he had a class of 21 children.

Police honed in on him after discovering his messages on Chatstep, an app which is commonly used by pedophiles to distribute child pornography.

Once they had tracked down his IP address, detectives obtained a search warrant which was carried out on Tuesday.

Inside his home, police discovered pornographic videos of girls as young as four and underwear which Yockel had stolen from children's backpacks at the summer camp where he worked.

He had hidden the garments underneath his mattress.

Upon questioning, he told police he had never molested any children but watched them as they swam at the summer camp in the hope that their bathing suits would reveal their genitals.

He also admitted to playing a 'game' with a child who was babysat by his mother by which he would lift the child up so that he could see her genitals.

His mother Laurie runs a childcare service at their home.

Police documents which were obtained by WHEC claim he told police the only reason he never touched her was because others were in the room at the time and would have seen him.

Yockel lived in this home in Hilton, upstate New York, with his parents. His mother runs a babysitting service from the home and he admitted to police that he 'liked' one young girl she looked after and would have touched her inappropriately if they had been left alone

He insisted he never touched any of the children he taught for the Brockport School District because he said his job meant too much to him to risk it.

Alongside the videos of young girls, Yockel also admitted to trading a sexual video with a 15-year-old girl.

Neither of his parents face any charges. Yockel now faces 20 years imprisonment if convicted of receipt of child pornography.

Brockport School District has placed Yockel on administrative leave.

They say they are confident he never touched any students but they are urging parents to speak to their children.

Police are also examining whether he may have come into contact with any other children.
A New York woman was shot dead after a hunter said he mistakenly took her for a deer, according to police.

The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office says 43-year-old Rosemary Billquist, of Sherman, had taken her two Labradors for a walk in her hometown near the Pennsylvania border around 5.30pm on Wednesday.

The hunter, identified as 34-year-old Thomas Jadlowski, told deputies he thought he saw a deer in the field and fired his single-shot pistol.

After hearing Billquist's scream, he found her about 200 yards away, called 911 and applied pressure to her wound until EMS arrived

Rosemary Billquist, 43 (left and right), of Sherman, New York, had taken her two Labradors for a walk in her hometown near the Pennsylvania border around 5.30pm on Wednesday when she was shot by 34-year-old Thomas Jadlowski

Jadlowski (pictured) told deputies he thought he saw a deer in the field and fired his single-shot pistol. After hearing Billquist's scream, he found her about 200 yards away, called 911 and applied pressure to her wound until EMS arrived

Courtesy: WIVB

Billquist was taken to UPMC Hamot hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she was pronounced dead.

Sheriff's officials said Jadlowski has been cooperating with investigation and not charges have been filed as of yet.

The investigation showed that Jadlowski reported the shooting at 5.24pm, 40 minutes after sunset. It is illegal to hunt after sunset per New York State law.

Jamie Billquist, who met his wife in 1990, said she was was a loving and selfless woman.

'She was always out to help somebody. She never wanted credit and was always quiet about it,' he told The Buffalo News. 'She's just an angel. An angel for sure.'

Billquist's husband Jamie (right, with Billquist) said his wife was a volunteer at Chautauqua Hospice and at UPMC Chautauqua WCA Hospital, where she worked performing medical transcription

Sheriff's officials said Jadlowski has been cooperating with investigators and no charges have been filed as of yet (Pictured, location where the shooting occurred)

Billquist was a volunteer at Chautauqua Hospice and at UPMC Chautauqua WCA Hospital, where she worked performing medical transcription.

'She could have done so much more,' he said. 'Her life was cut way too short.'

Friends and co-workers on Thursday night held a vigil, decorating a bench she donated to the hospital with electric tea lights, a yellow Lab stuffed animal and flowers.

'They sang and prayed,' her husband said. 'It was amazing. It was a community thing. I was blessed to be able to share it.'
California was sizzling after being gripped by a massive heatwave over Thanksgiving with record-high temperatures.

In downtown Los Angeles, the high was 91F, making this year's Thanksgiving the hottest since record-keeping began in 1877, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

The previous record Thanksgiving Day high was 90F, set on November 26, 1903.

Several other cities experienced similar circumstances with Burbank reaching 95F, Long Beach hitting 96F, and Oxnard topping at 97F - all breaking their previous record-highs for the holiday.

California was left sizzling after being gripped by a massive heatwave over Thanksgiving with record-high temperatures. In downtown Los Angeles, the high was 91F, the hottest on record since the National Weather Service began record-keeping in 1887

The heat wave, which began Wednesday, is expected to begin breaking up Friday, with high temperatures for downtown Los Angeles expected to drop to the mid-80s

Some relief from the heat could be found along the coast and the High Desert where temperatures were in the low-80s, making it somewhat cooler than the valleys of the Inland Empire, according to NWS meteorologist James Brotherton with the San Diego office.

The heat wave, which began on Wednesday, is expected to begin breaking up on Friday, with high temperatures for downtown Los Angeles expected to drop to the mid-80s.

The trend is expected to continue through the weekend, with the high falling to about 80F on Saturday and into the mid-70s, more normal for this time of year, on Sunday.

Temperatures are expected to remain in the 80s in the valleys near Los Angeles through the weekend.

The unseasonably warm weather is being caused by an upper-level ridge of high pressure over Southern California, trapping warm desert air (Pictured, people sunbathe and play at Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday)

But come Tuesday temperatures will start climbing up again, according to NWS meteorologists. Highs are expected to reach the low- to mid-80s (Pictured, a man and his daughter walk in the water at Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday)

The unseasonably warm weather is being caused by an upper-level ridge of high pressure over Southern California, trapping warm desert air.

Many Californians used the opportunity to head to the beach to sunbathe and play.

But come Tuesday, temperatures will start climbing up again, according to Brotherton. Highs are expected to reach the low- to mid-80s.

According to Todd Hall, a meteorologist with the NWS Oxnard office, the agency began putting out information last week about the rise in temperatures so people could prepare for it and keep hydrated.
The Murdochs could be returning home to Sydney permanently in coming weeks.

Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch have spent the past two years in America with their three children, but they could be preparing to return home to Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The family are gearing up for an Aussie Christmas at their $23 million Bellevue Hill mansion this year, but they may end up staying for good.

Lachlan (left) and Sarah Murdoch (right) could be coming home to Sydney for a summer Christmas in a few weeks

Despite gearing up for an Aussie Christmas at their $23 million Bellevue Hill mansion (pictured), there are whispers it could be a permanent move

Friends of Mrs Murdoch's say the 45-year-old Australian model, actress and television presenter would like to live in her hometown to give her children - Kalan, 13, Aidan, 11, and Aerin, seven, an Australian upbringing, according to the Herald.

Mr Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch and Anna Murdoch Mann, spent ten years living a 'quiet life' with his family in Sydney before moving to America.

Friends said the family were happiest raising their young family on home soil.

Despite being the heir to a media empire, Mr Murdoch, 46, and his wife of eighteen years, reportedly get involved in every aspect of family life, including the school canteen roster.

According to Sydney Morning Herald, friends said the family was happiest raising their young family with three children on home soil

It is believed the Murdochs will move back into their mansion they bought for more than $20 million in 2009, which they have hardly lived in.

The mansion was a construction site for three years but reports suggest it could change when the young family arrive back in the harbor city in weeks to come.
A Miami Uber driver had precious cargo Tuesday after the call came in from the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, a wildlife rehabilitation center on the 79th Street Causeway.

Gary Klemme, a 'bird aficionado', discovered a sick bird of prey while riding his bike near his Miami Lakes condo in Florida on Tuesday morning, the Miami Herald reports.

The red-shoulder hawk appeared to have been poisoned and could barely lift its own head or wings.

This red-shoulder hawk was found in dire health in Miami Lakes after eating a poisoned rat

Klemme believes the hawk may have consumed a poisoned rat.

The Miami Lakes area has been overrun by rats in the wake of Hurricane Irma and many locals have used poison to try and cull them. But the result is that they can end up killing the rodents' natural predators.

The 63-yer-old retired postal worker snapped a photo of the hawk and sent it to the Pelican Harbor sanctuary, before wrapping the bird in a towel and putting it inside a cat carrier.

But when the center got back to him, he was surprised to hear they wouldn't be coming out to pick up the bird. Instead they called the hawk a cab.

The Pelican Harbor center says it receives around 20 per cent of its patients via Uber (pictured is an unidentified Uber driver dropping off a Pelican)

The center has already spent more than $4,000 on around 250 Uber rides this year, which they say saves time for staff to stay at the center and treat the birds.

'Roughly 20 per cent of our patients arrive to us via Uber,' Pelican Harbor executive director Christopher Boykin said.

'We use it a lot. It keeps our staffing at the clinic, caring for the animals. Cuts down on patient's treatment time. The animal gets treated in half the time. We include Uber in our grants [requests.] We ask the foundation to help fund Uber transport.'

'In the past, we've seen Uber used to help out in different ways during difficult circumstances. We're grateful our service has helped these injured animals get assistance when they need it the most,' said Uber spokesman Javier Correoso.

While the center is primarily for birds, they have accepted a variety of animals over the years, including an eight pound piglet that arrived in an Uber on Christmas Day 2014.

Pelican Harbor Seabird Station Wildlife Rehabilitation Manager Yaritza Acosta accepts a sickly animal from an Uber driver

They ended up naming the boar piglet, Uber. After it grew to around 25lbs they shipped it to a no kill center.

Sadly, it wasn't a happy ending for the hawk which died a few hours after being brought in.

Klemme was devastated.

'I knew the bird was struggling so it's depressing. We thought we might be able to save her. But Pelican Harbor stepped up. They are awesome.'
A nine-year-old Peruvian girl has fallen pregnant by her alleged rapist stepfather after reportedly being subjected to sexual assault up to ten times a day.

The young girl's pregnancy was not discovered until she was five months gone, and it is too late for her to have an abortion, local news reports.

The abuse was not discovered until her mother noticed that her daughter was developing a large bump on her stomach.

Horrifying: The nine-year-old was allegedly raped by her 30-year-old stepfather up to ten times a day when they were left alone in the home

Lina Violeta Julca Rios took her daughter from their home in Ventanilla, in the central Peruvian province of Callao, to a private medical centre where an ultrasound revealed her to be five-months pregnant.

The mother claims the father of the baby is her partner, named as 30-year-old Elmer Sergio Chambergo Tapia.

As soon as the family discovered the unnamed girl's pregnancy, Chambergo Tapia fled the home the family shared. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Shock: Lina Violeta Julca Rios only found out about the horrific abuse when she took her daughter to a doctor to check on a 'large lump on her stomach'

According to the girl, the abuse took place in the house when other family members were out and occurred up to ten times a day.

The family of the pregnant girl requested that the full weight of the law be brought against Chambergo Tapia.

They have also requested financial aid for the legal and psychological support they will need in the coming months as the girl is expected to carry the baby to term.

Peru's Minister for Women Ana Maria Choquehuanca has said guidelines are in place to give the abusers of minors maximum sentences.
The man dragged himself up a rock, leaving his chest and arms cut and bloody

He was swimming when his mate yelled he could see a great white in the water

A man was left covered in blood after scrambling away from a shark near Manly

It went from a peaceful day at the beach to a scramble for survival for one man who decided to take a dip at Little Manly on the weekend.

Abraham Munoz, a 26-year-old Chilean who has made Manly his home, was swimming at Little Collins beach when his friend started screaming and pointing.

Jordan Timm, 20, said he saw a great white shark swimming up behind Abraham, and was following his every move.

Abraham Munoz, 26-year-old Chilean, was in the water at Manly when his mate spotted a shark

Since the open water offered no place to hide, the unlucky mate had no choice but to quickly drag himself up the nearby rocks - losing a 'fair chunk of skin' on the way up.

As he reached the top, a relieved Jordan said that he saw the shark swimming quickly back out to sea.

The two explained the whole ordeal in a video for the Daily Telegraph, explaining that Abraham was leaping from Jump Rock while Jordan filmed him.

'So I was jumping from this lovely rock edge here, about 6 metres, and I thought, 'Oh that lovely, sweet, I'm going to come back around and do another one', Jordan told the camera.

Abraham Munoz films his friend Jordan Timm relating the story of their thrilling shark escape

'So I get up here, I'm ready to film you [Abraham]. I film you, you jump in, you start swimming, and then you you start swimming to get out.

'And then I see this shark, it's bigger than me, start swimming towards you,' he says, and then turns the camera to show Abraham's scars.

'I was shouting 'Abraham get out get out', he was like 'no you're joking',' Jordan told Manly Daily.

'As he started splashing, it started swimming towards him. I really thought it was going to be really bad.'

Jordan also alerted Dorsal, Australia's largest shark reporting service, who thanked him for the report.

Jordan Timm yells for his friend to get out of the water after he says he saw a great white shark
A yoga teacher accused of driving her identical twin sister off a cliff wants her murder charge dropped because she claims the prosecutors misled the grand jury.

Alexandria was driving and her sister Anastasia Duval was in the passenger seat when they began fighting and hair pulling causing their car to plummet 200ft off a cliff in Maui, Hawaii in May 2016.

Anastasia was killed and her twin was arrested and charged with murder.

A judge later released Alexandria after they found no probable cause for a murder charge, but three months later she was re-arrested and a grand jury indicted her in October 2016.

Alexandria (right) was driving and her sister Anastasia Duval was in the passenger seat when they began fighting and hair pulling causing their car to plummet 200ft off a cliff in Maui, Hawaii in May 2016

Birney Bervar, Alexandria Duval's defense attorney, filed a motion last week seeking to dismiss the charge, and a hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. A prosecutor says it will be up to a jury to decide on the evidence.

The defense motion says a witness to the crash did not testify before the grand jury, instead a detective took the stand to describe what that person saw. The witness had told police he saw the passenger pulling the driver's hair with both hands and heard yelling.

The detective testified incorrectly that the witness said the passenger was no longer pulling the driver's hair when they went over the edge, the defense said.

Duval (left and right) has yet to publicly comment on her sister's death or the deadly crash

Alexandria Duval (pictured), made her first appearance in an upstate New York courtroom on November 18, 2016

The 38-year-old was indicted by a grand jury in Maui, Hawaii, who heard how in May of this year Duval drove her car off a 200-foot cliff and into the Pacific Ocean, killing her sister Anastasia

The witness, who the defense interviewed, said the fighting and hair-pulling continued until he lost sight of the SUV as it drove past him and off the cliff, according to the motion.

Autopsy results showed that 'long, loose blond hairs' were found on both of Anastasia Duval's hands, the motion said.

The defense attorney also said an officer provided inaccurate testimony that data from the SUV showed Alexandria Duval didn't brake before the crash.

Witnesses said after the crash in May that the twins were fighting inside the SUV moments before the crash and reported seeing the passenger pulling the driver's hair.

The vehicle accelerated and took a sharp left over the cliff, Maui Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Emlyn Higa said after Duval's first arrest.

The twins' SUV (pictured after the crash) accelerated and took a sharp left over the cliff, Maui Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Emlyn Higa said after Duval's first arrest

An accident reconstruction expert hired by the defense said data from the air-bag control module showed she 'most probably did not push and hold the throttle to the floor and make a hard left towards the wall as stated in the grand jury testimony,' according to the motion. 'It is probable that having the drivers' head pulled firmly to the right from the pulling of her hair could have caused some erratic driving.'

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Emlyn Higa said in response to the motion that the hair-pulling had no effect on Alexandria Duval's ability to drive the SUV safely and didn't contribute to going over the cliff. The conflict between the experts for the prosecution and defense is what a jury trial is meant to resolve, Higa said.

'This case is clearly a tragic accident,' said Bervar, the defense attorney. 'My client is devastated by the loss of her sister. It's not intentional murder by any means.'

Duval (pictured with her sister) was charged with murder once before in June 2016, but a judge dropped the charges for lack of evidence. A grand jury indicted her in October of that year

The sisters (pictured), who used to be known as Alison (Alexandria) and Ann (Anastasia) Dadow, had two yoga studios in Palm Beach County, Florida, from 2008 to 2014

The sisters, born Alison and Ann Dadow in the Utica, New York, area, operated popular yoga studios in Florida before they changed their names. They moved to Hawaii in 2015 from Utah.

The sisters, who used to be known as Alison (Alexandria) and Ann (Anastasia) Dadow, grew up in New Hartford, New York.

They had two yoga studios in Palm Beach County, Florida, from 2008 to 2014 before moving to Park City, Utah.

Their time in Utah included arrests for five separate incidents linked to alcohol.

There, they opened a new yoga studio that offered, among other classes, yoga for dogs.

The twins moved to Hawaii in January and changed their names. They were living together in Haiku, on Maui - a few miles away from where Anastasia died in May.
A driver in Taiwan has been caught violently attacking a petrol station worker after he filled his Bentley car with wrong fuel.

The worker claimed he did not realised the driver wanted the specific type of fuel, 98 RON, until after he served his luxury car.

While the driver said the wrong type of fuel might damage his 350K vehicle.

A driver (right) starts attacking a petrol station worker (left) in Taichung, Taiwan, after discovering that his Bentley car had been given the wrong type of fuel

The driver is seen verbally attacking the worker, pushing him and slapping him across the face, according to video footage shared by Taiwan media.

The driver also threw a dustpan at the petrol station's offices after the worker said he was going to call the police, reported local news site ET Today on November 24.

According to the report, the Bentley driver claimed that he is a shareholder at a car-renting company and the Bentley is worth 14 million Taiwan Dollar (350,000).

He became enraged after hearing the worker said he had given his car 95 RON, a type of standard unleaded petrol.

The driver yelled that he wanted 98 RON, which has a higher octane number.

He then shouted at the worker 'do you want to be beaten' and 'you can't compensate for the damage'.

The angry motorist slaps the worker across the face knowing that he had filled the car with 95 RON instead of 98 RON. The worker claimed he had apologised but the driver still attacked him

The worker shows a reporter his broken glasses after he was hit by the furious customer. He suffered bruises on his left cheek and was considering to bring a lawsuit against the driver

The video shows him shoving the worker before giving him a slap.

When the worker claimed he would call the police, the driver replied: 'Are you going to? Quick! Quick!'

The petrol station worker, whose has not been identified, told ET Today that the driver only told him he wanted 98 RON afterwards when he got out of the car.

The worker reportedly said: 'I didn't know if he had said it wrong or I had heard it wrong.

'I apologised to him immediately, but he kept yelling at me.'

CCTV footage shows the driver throwing a dustpan at the petrol station's office building after the worker said he was going to call the police. The driver claimed that the worker was rude

The Bentley driver, who also remained unidentified, insisted the worker's attitude was bad.

He claimed: '[The worker] said we were busy, and there was nothing I could do.'

He said he had planned to rent out the Bentley two days after, and because of the mishap, he had to spend around 25,000 Taiwan Dollar (625) to have the the car's oil tank cleaned.

He also said he worried the other parts of the car could be damaged.

The worker suffered bruises on his left cheek, according to a hospital report.

He claimed he was considering bringing a lawsuit against the driver.
A man is behind bars and a woman in the hospital after the car they were driving in went off the road and hit a tree of Wednesday - allegedly while they were having sex.

Washington State Patrol arrived at the scene shortly after 6pm and found the couple - Michael G Tonkin and Daisy L Laroque - both fully naked with the woman's three-month-old child in the backseat.

Tonkin, who had three prior DUI arrests, was brought to the Pierce County Jail, according to WSP spokeswoman Brooke Bova, while Laroque was taken to the hospital with broken bones.

Crash: Michael G Tonkin crashed his car into a tree after veering off the road allegedly while having sex with a woman as he drove (file photo above)

Michael G Tonkin and Daisy L Laroque were found fully naked with the woman's three-month-old child in the backseat

The newborn in the backseat was not injured in the crash.

It was a bystander who gave a witness account to WSP officers who reported that the couple exited the car naked on Wednesday.

Tonkin is now being held on a number of charges including DUI and child endangerment.

He is also likely to be charged with vehicular assault for the incident.

It is unknown if Laroque will face any charges.
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Friday that this year's upside-down Christmas tree fad is about as weird as Al Franken.

Appearing on 'Fox & Friends,' the onetime Washington power player was asked to weigh in on a flipped artificial fir retailing for more than $1,000 at Target stores.

'It's like "Seinfeld",' he said. 'It's like the bizarro world, like you can be a U.S. senator after groping people on a picture and no one has any accountability for it.'

'That's what the upside-down Christmas tree means to me. I mean, it is everything that is wrong.'

Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Friday that the 'bizarro' upside-down Christmas tree trend is as weird as a certain U.S. senator groping women without consequences to his career

Lewandowski's jab was aimed at Al Franken, the Minnesota Democrat who refuses to resign despite allegations of improper touching from four women so far

This year's flash-in-the-pan fad is the inverted fir, which posh stores like Claridge's in London are erecting (left, design by Karl Lagerfeld) and Target sells for more than $1,000 (right)

Franken, a Democratic senator from Minnesota, is clinging to his job with his fingernails after four women accused him of inappropriately touching them  including one who has a photo to prove it.

The picture shows Franken groping then-model Leeann Tweeden's breasts on a military aircraft following a USO tour of overseas bases in 2006.

The other latest accusers say Franken felt their rear ends during photo-ops during his political campaign events, and at the Minnesota State Fair after he took office.

Franken said Thursday in his latest quasi-apology that he has 'met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs, often in crowded and chaotic situations. I'm a warm person; I hug people.'

'Some women have found my greetings or embraces for a hug or photo inappropriate, and I respect their feelings about that.'

Leeann Tweeden, a Los Angeles radio host, says Franken groped her breasts in this photo, taken in 2006, and also forcibly kissed her backstage at a USO show

Lensay Menz, (left) was the second woman to claim that Franken groped her  when the two took this picture at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010, after he took office

Lewandowski insisted the Trumps would never erect an inverted Christmas tree

Franken insists that he doesn't remember feeling anyone up, and that 'it's difficult to respond to anonymous accusers.'

The former comedian refuses to resign but says he will be 'much more careful' in the future.

'I feel terribly that I've made some women feel badly and for that I am so sorry, and I want to make sure that never happens again,' he said.

As Franken's political world turns upside-down, Lewandowski said Friday that he's sure the White House's Christmas symbols will stay right-side-up.

'I don't even know what an upside-down Christmas tree means,' he said.

'I can be sure that the first family will not be turning the tree upside down. They love this country and our traditions.'
Sean Ferel's body hasn't been found, but his blood was in the trunk, and his belongings were found in the storage unit that Rey had rented

Rey is now charged in the killing of a California man from a case in 2016

Rey claims his wife committed suicide shortly after giving birth, but her cause of death is still under investigation

Rey claims his wife committed suicide shortly after giving birth, but her cause of death is still under investigation

His newborn baby and toddler were with him in the storage unit

Justin Rey, 35, was arrested on October 24 after police found him living in a Kansas City, Missouri storage unit with wife's body

A father-of-two who was arrested after he was found sleeping in a Kansas storage unit with his dismembered wife's remains has been charged in a California killing.

Justin Tod Rey was charged Wednesday with murder in the death of Sean Ty Ferel.

The Palm Springs, California, man disappeared in May 2016 after vacationing with Rey. Three months later, Rey crashed Ferel's vehicle in Los Angeles.

Justin Tod Rey (left) was charged Wednesday with murder in the death of Sean Ty Ferel in 2016

Ferel's body hasn't been found, but his blood was in the trunk, and his belongings were found in an Arizona storage unit that Rey had rented.

Rey is jailed on $1 million bond in Kansas on child endangerment charges. He's also charged with abandonment of corpse and it's possible that Rey could be hit with more charges once authorities figure out how his 32-year-old wife Jessica Monteiro Rey died.

Rey is jailed on $1 million bond in Kansas on child endangerment charges

Justin Rey has claimed that she committed suicide four days after giving birth to their second child.

Her dismembered remains were discovered October 24 inside a cooler and tote at a U-Haul Moving and Storage facility in Lenexa.

Officers had been called to check on the welfare of their two small children staying in the unit because it was emitting a foul odor.

A Lenexa police detective wrote in the affidavit that responding officers spoke to a man who was pushing a stroller and had given Rey and his children a ride to the storage unit after finding them waiting for a bus near a Kansas City, Missouri, bar. Rey is homeless, and the man had seen people giving Rey money.

Rey told U-Haul employees that he had stayed in the unit overnight and told the man that he and his children were planning to do so again, the affidavit says.

Emergency responders checked on the children, who were later taken to a hospital. The affidavit says the baby wasn't wearing adequate clothing and had an eye infection.

After Rey was arrested and put in a police vehicle, he was asked about his wife's whereabouts. He responded that she had died several days earlier and was in the cooler and one of the totes, which he was trying to remove from the storage unit, the detective wrote.

Rey, 35, was arrested on October 24 after police found him living in a Kansas City, Missouri storage unit with his newborn baby and toddler along with his wife's dismembered corspe

It's possible that Rey could be hit with more charges once authorities figure out how 32-year-old Jessica Monteiro Rey (pictured) died

According to the warrant, Rey, his pregnant wife and a 2-year-old child checked into a Kansas City, Missouri, hotel on September 25. His wife gave birth on October 20 and died sometime in the next three days.

Rey told investigators that after his wife gave birth, he used a plastic fastner and a shoe string to secure their baby's umbilical chord.

After she died, he says he took took pictures with her dead body and newborn baby. He let the body rot in the room for two days before breaking it down.

Rey says his wife committed suicide shortly after giving birth, but her cause of death is still under investigation

They say he admitted to dismembering her body after she died in the bathroom of the hotel room, in front of the two kids. What body parts wouldn't fit in the tote and cooler were flushed down the toilet or boiled.

The warrant says Rey called the front desk, disguised his voice as a woman's and checked out on October 23, according to hotel management. The warrant says surveillance video footage shows him pulling a red cooler with a black bag on top through the hotel, while pushing a stroller with a toddler walking beside him.

The man who picked dropped Rey off at the storage facility the day he was arrested says he and his wife passed the father and his two kids on the street panhandling.

'We assumed he was probably waiting on a wife or a girlfriend or whatever," the witness said. That woman never came because, Rey told them, she was dead.

'He told me before we left the restaurant that he lost the child's mother during childbirth, that she'd passed,' the unnamed man said.

Rey said he was waiting on money from the military and needed a ride to Union Station to take a train out of town. But he asked him to swing by the storage unit first where he had been staying since getting kicked out of his apartment for not paying rent.
A huntswoman filmed repeatedly whipping a protester with a riding crop launched a foul-mouthed rant at hunt saboteurs just three weeks before the alleged attack.

Jane Miller, whose partner Richard Goring is part of the UK's oldest family hotel dynasty, screamed 'get off my horse' and lashed out at the man on a hunt in Herstmonceux, East Sussex, in the first video.

Police today confirmed they will speak to a woman believed to be Mrs Miller about the incident at Pevensey Marshes on Saturday.

Now new footage has emerged showing Mr Goring trying to restrain his 56-year-old partner as she screams: 'F***ing terrorists', 'f*** off' in a second video nasty.

Ugly scenes: Jane Miller, whose partner partner is part of the UK's oldest family hotel dynasty, has been filmed in two videos clashing nastily with hunt saboteurs. In the first video she was filmed repeatedly whipping a protester wearing a mask who was grabbing her horse

Foul-mouthed rant: In the second video, which has just emerged, filmed three weeks earlier, Mrs Miller's wealthy hotelier partner Richard Goring tries to restrain the 56-year-old as she screams: 'For hunting, drag-hunting? You peasanty stupid f***ing, idiots!'

Mrs Miller, East Sussex and Romney Marsh hunt, screamed 'get off my horse' and lashed out at the man on a hunt in Herstmonceux, East Sussex, in the first video filmed on Saturday

Probe: Police today confirmed they will speak to Mrs Miller about the incident at Pevensey Marshes in which she appeared to lash out at the masked saboteur

Mrs Miller's partner Richard Goring (pictured), whose family is part of the Goring luxury hotel chain, defended her actions in the first video when he said she was scared and lashed out

She then screams: 'For hunting, drag-hunting? You peasanty stupid f***ing, idiots!' - during the video in which she appears to lash out at the face of one of them with her riding crop and aim a kick at the backside of another.

Her wealthy partner Richard, 79, defended her actions after the first video emerged this week when he said she attacked the balaclava-clad man because she was frightened.

'She was very scared and she still is. She was frightened. She was scared, the horse was scared. She was surrounded by terrorists,' he told MailOnline.

But in the latest film she appears aggressive and can be seen being pulled back from attacking a protester by Richard as she rants against the activists.

Mrs Miller, who was wearing a gillet bearing the emblem of the East Sussex and Romney Marsh hunt, then again brands the protesters 'terrorists'.

In the film made three weeks earlier on October 21, Mrs Miller appears aggressive and can be seen being pulled back from attacking a protester by Richard as she rants against the activists. In the video she seems to strike one protester in the face with her riding crop and kick another

Miss Miller struck the saboteur after he grabbed the horse's bridle while she was telling him to get out of the field in the first video

Mrs Miller was heard shouting as she struck the saboteur, who has been accused of hurting the horse's mouth by grabbing its bridle on Saturday

Richard Goring, right, and partner Jane Miller, say they do not hunt foxes and only engage in the legal sport of drag racing. Mr Goring said his partner was surrounded by 'terrorists'

She screams: 'You're all dressed like a bunch of f***ing terrorists!.'

And as one masked activist bends down to tie up his boot laces she appears to aim a kick at his backside, the film recording on 21 October shows.

Lee Moon, spokesman for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, told MailOnline: 'The Countryside Alliance have been trying to spin the story this week and portray Jane Miller [also known as Jane Goring] as a scared woman who was just trying to protect herself and her horse from attack.

Mr Goring's wealthy family founded the luxury Goring Hotel in central London

'This earlier video clearly shows she is anything but scared.' She was the aggressor, said Mr Moon.

Mrs Goring and Mr Goring did not return calls seeking comment on the latest film.

Today the Countryside Alliance claimed the new film provided further evidence that hunt saboteurs' real aim was to stop all hunting, including drag-hunting, rather than to improve animal welfare.

A spokeswoman told MailOnline: The latest footage to be released - which we understand was taken following a meet of the Mid Surrey Farmers' Draghounds - is yet more evidence that the primary aim of the animal rights movement is to get rid of people who follow hounds, rather than to improve animal welfare.

Drag-hunting was one of the forms of legal hunting that the anti-hunting lobby always agreed was acceptable as an alternative to traditional hunting methods and differs to trail-hunting, yet these saboteurs decided to attend a drag-hunt.

She added: It is of interest that the League Against Cruel Sports own Chris Pitt said earlier this week in an interview on BBC Radio Sussex that "you never see hunt saboteurs or monitors going after draghunts", however this video footage seems to contradict his statement.

A Sussex Police spokesman told MailOnline: 'The woman on horseback has been identified and arrangements have been made to interview her. The investigation is continuing.'
This incredible video shows the moment four dolphins were rescued after volunteers responded to a live appeal on Facebook.

Tommy English, 28, came across five stranded dolphins that had washed up on to Keem Beach, on Archill Island, Ireland, after a batch of bad weather.

One was sadly already dead but the other four were clinging to life, so he quickly began trying to get them back into the water.

Volunteers use a blanket to lift one of the stranded dolphins back into the sea on Wednesday

Five dolphins in total had been stranded on the beach. Unfortunately one had died by the time Mr English arrived

Mr English soon realised he wasn't going to be able to carry out the rescue mission alone so started a Facebook live video documenting the situation.

His broadcast quickly prompted volunteers to rush to the beach to help.

As a result of their efforts all the surviving dolphins, including one calf, were helped back into the sea.

Mr English, who lives on the island, said of his rescue mission on Wednesday: 'There were five dolphins, and we came across them at around 11 in the morning.

'They were up quite close to the top of the beach, they came in at high tide.

'At this stage it was low tide, the water had gone out so they were left stranded.

'They had to be brought down to the water, but the problem is when you have a stranding like that you need to get the animal out into actual deep water so they can swim away.

Locals rushed to help save the dolphins after Mr Robinson streamed the situation on Facebook

'The animals were all very weak at that stage, so we had to wait for two guys to come in wetsuits so they could actually carry the dolphins out into the deeper water. We didn't have the proper equipment.'

Mr English then quickly started live streaming the situation on Facebook.

Within minutes, his phone started ringing continuously as kind-hearted locals offered their help.

He said: 'At that point I was informed that the right people had been notified and were on the way.

'Achill people have great respect for the environment and beautiful area in which they live so it's no surprise people were willing to drop everything and help out when something like this happens.

Within minutes of making the Facebook appeal Mr English began receiving calls from

'It's quite unusual for that many to strand themselves at one time.

'When there is a storm maybe we see one or two that might have come in after getting weak or injured. To see that many was a bit unusual for us.'

Shane McNamara, 24, a journalism student who filmed the dramatic rescue said: 'I was on my way back home when Tommy put the video up, and I'd heard about the dolphins so I went to have a look.

'There were people with wetsuits and wellies helping get the dolphins back in the water, about four or five people helping.'

The dead dolphin was collected by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group and brought to their headquarters in Cork for an autopsy
Harbans Doll, pictured, was captured by Border Agency officers trying to smuggle 16 illegal immigrants from France

A van driver who tried to smuggle 16 people into the UK - including a five-month-old baby - has been jailed for more than five years.

Harbans Doll was caught by Border Agency officers at border controls in Coquelles, France, as he attempted to drive a hired Ford transit van to the UK in February this year.

When officers searched the 61-year-old's van, which was stuffed with furniture, they found 16 illegal immigrants - 12 adults from Iraq and Albania and four children aged between five-months and nine - hiding in the back.

When stopped, Doll initially claimed he had been offered 500 by a man in a Wetherspoons in Slough to drive a van-load of furniture from France back into the UK.

The immigrants were caught hiding behind mattresses, chairs and beanbags in the back of the van.

Father-of-one Doll, of Slough, told border officers that he had 'no idea' he was carrying 16 illegal immigrants, saying: 'I thought I was just delivering furniture.'

He told officers that he had 'met a man at a pub' and been offered 500 to go an collect furniture from France.

At Canterbury Crown Court on Thursday, however, he confessed to people smuggling and was jailed for five-and-a-half years.

David Fairclough, assistant director of the Border Agency, said the 16 illegal immigrants were handed over to French border police, the Kent Messenger reported today.

He said: 'Although Doll offered no explanation for his behaviour, the judge considered in his sentencing that the motivation was financial.

'Offences like this, where individuals take advantage of the desperation of others for personal gain, are among the worst that we deal with.

'We work closely with Border Force colleagues to rigorously investigate allegations of immigration related criminality and this case should serve as a warning to anyone tempted to get involved with this kind of offending.

'We will catch you, and put you before the courts.'

Border agents found the immigrants hiding behind this furniture in the back of the van
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The only maximum security women's jail in Rio de Janeiro holds some of Brazil's most dangerous female criminals.

But once a year they're allowed to swap their prison uniforms for high heels and glamorous gowns as they hold a beauty pageant on the inside.

Ten inmates strutted along a makeshift catwalk on Wednesday after having their hair and make-up done at the Talavera Bruce jail notorious for fights and riots.

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The only maximum security women's jail in Rio de Janeiro holds some of Brazil's most dangerous female criminals. But once a year they're allowed to swap their prison uniforms for high heels

Inmate Mayana Rosa Alves, center, celebrates winning her jail's annual beauty contest at Talavera Bruce penitentiary in Rio de Janeiro

Female inmates wear evening gowns on the morning of their annual beauty contest at Talavera Bruce penitentiary

Inmate Mayana Rosa Alves's tattoo is exposed as she prepares to compete in her jail's annual beauty contest, which she won

Ten inmates strutted along a makeshift catwalk on Wednesday after having their hair and make-up done at the Talavera Bruce jail notorious for fights and riots

In the event to improve their self esteem, they were judged on their beauty, appeal and attitude as the prison's other 440 inmates and relatives applauded.

This year's Miss Talavera Bruce was 29-year-old Mayana Alves, who had seven arrest warrants when she was arrested in 2015 for cargo theft.

'Everyone is very glad to be with their family, she said. 'Walking the catwalk, I was nervous but happy at the same time. She added: 'I just wish I had won my freedom as well and could my sash with me out of here.'

Last year's winner Michelle Rangel, a 28-year-old drug trafficker, said: 'During this moment, I don't feel like I am in jail. My soul is freed.'

Inmate Michelle Rangel, previous 'Miss Talavera Bruce' beauty queen title holder, prepares to defend her title at the jail's annual beauty contest

Female inmate Rossana Goncalves with four of her five children cry as they reunite on the sidelines of competing in her jail's annual beauty contest

Prisoners and participants of the 'TB Girl' beauty contest sing at the end of the contest in their notorious prison

In the event to improve their self esteem, they were judged on their beauty, appeal and attitude as the prison's other 440 inmates and relatives applauded

Mayana Rosa Alves (right), a prisoner and participant of the 'TB Girl' beauty celebrates after winning at the Talavera Bruce women prison in Rio de Janeiro

An inmate holds still as an event volunteer applies her blush for an annual beauty contest inside the notorious jail

A tattoo of a weapon covers the arm of a female inmate waiting to compete in the annual beauty contest at Talavera Bruce penitentiary

Female inmate Mayana Rosa Alves, right, celebrates winning the title 'Miss Talavera Bruce' next to last year's winner Michelle Rangel
A West Philadelphia bank was robbed by a gun-toting 86-year-old with a walker on Tuesday, police say.

Emily Coakley entered the TD Bank at 38th and Market Street on Monday to take out money, but when she got home and counted it she believed that $400 was missing, police said.

The following day the alleged octogenarian outlaw returned to withdraw the money - with menaces, police told Fox 29.

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Granny get your gun! Police say Emily Coakley tried to rob a bank Tuesday after she thought they stiffed her for $400. Coakley (left in mugshot, right at bank) was arrested at the scene

Trigger warning: This is the revolver allegedly used in the robbery; police said it was empty but Coakley had bullets in her bag. She has been charged with several counts

Coakley arrived at the bank just after 2pm with her walker, then pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and told staff she wanted her money, cops claimed.

Police arrived on the scene quickly and cuffed the elderly woman, before making a perp shuffle out of the bank's doors.

Her family went to the bank to console her before she was led out.

Police said that the revolver was empty when it was examined, but that Coakley had bullets in her bag.

She has been charged with aggravated assault, robbery, violation of the uniform firearm act, terroristic threats and related offenses, police said.

'Terroristic threats' are defined as threats to commit violence with the intention of causing terror in the victim.

She has been released on her own recognizance.

Coakley's alleged attempted robbery didn't impress some of those at the bank.

John McDonald told Fox 29: 'That's crazy. It's mind-blowing. That's pretty unusual. I never heard of a bank robber that age and armed.'

Another, Will Duggan, said: 'I'm concerned. I mean 86 or 26, she had a gun. Someone could have got shot even accidentally.

'You have to have concerns. People bring their kids here.'
Judge Jeaine Pirro filled in for Sean Hannity on his eponymous Fox News program on Wednesday, where she had a bit of an on-air flub.

The former district attorney was coming back from break when, not realizing the camera was already on her, she could be seen laying into an individual on set, saying: 'You know, you're pissing me off.'

Pirro then seamlessly transitioned into her next segment with a bit of a smirk on her face, making it unclear whether her comment was in jest or if the off-camera recipient of that remark was in fact upsetting the guest host.

A source who was on the set told DailyMail.com shortly after the story was published that Pirro was in fact joking around at the time.

This comes just days after Pirro found herself on the wrong side of the law when she was ticketed for speeding in upstate New York.

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Not into it: Jeanine Pirro could be seen telling someone on set 'you know, you're really pissing me off' on Friday (Pirro above)

Pirro made no mention of the remark, which she initially seemed to be unaware was broadcast live.

'Welcome back to a special edition of Hannity,' she said immediately after.

'Hillary Clinton continues to add to her long list of excuses for why she lost in 2016.'

Halfway through that second sentence however, Pirro could be seen sneaking a look off camera at someone and then realizing what had just happened on air.

That issue was nothing though compared to the problem she is facing in Tioga County.

It was there that Pirro, 66, was pulled over for speeding on Sunday, with an officer clocking her at 119mph in a 65mph zone.

Pirro said she had no idea she was even going that fast and had been on her way upstate to visit her ailing mother.

'I believe in the rule of law and I will pay the consequences,' said Pirro, who is due in court in early January.
Broward County Sheriff's Department said Brendan Evans (pictured) , 31, was arrested and charged with animal cruelty

A Florida man has been arrested for repeatedly stabbing a pit bull puppy and leaving him for dead inside a suitcase.

Broward County Sheriff's Department said Brendan Evans, 31, will remain in custody despite receiving a $100,000 bond due to criminal charges stemming from an unrelated case, according to Sun Sentinel.

On October 10, police in Hollywood, Florida, heard crying coming from a blue suitcase in an abandoned building.

Inside, they found a bloody dog that had been repeatedly stabbed and beaten, suffering more than 50 deep cuts on his head and body.

They took the dog to an animal hospital for treatment and named him Ollie. Two days later, Ollie succumbed to his wounds and died while in veterinary care.

'When he died, there were tears everywhere,' said VCA Hollywood Animal Hospital spokesperson Linda Ream.

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A pit bull puppy doctors named Ollie was beaten and stabbed before being stuffed in a suitcase on October 10

Ollie had been discovered inside an abandoned building and stuffed inside a blue suitcase in Hollywood, Florida

Courtesy of WPLG

'It was silent in the building. Our doctors worked so hard to give Ollie that chance to stay with us.'

The story received massive media attention, with people shocked at the level savagery Ollie endured while outraged animal rights advocates raised money for the wounded dog's treatment.

The story received massive media attention, with people shocked at the level savagery Ollie endured

Sarah Anne Mourer, Evans's defense lawyer, said that the high bond was not surprising given the public awareness of the case.

'Obviously there's been a lot of publicity and the judge is looking at that and so she's setting a higher bond to make a statement about this very upsetting case,' Mourer said.

In Florida, animal cruelty is a third-degree felony. If convicted, Evans faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, the Sentinel reported.

During a search of Evans home on November 14, police discovered several mutilated animals including decapitated rats stuffed into the freezer and a pair of severed cat paws.

Police said that Evans violated his probation from an unrelated case and will remain in custody despite receiving a $100,000 bond

Evans told police he practices Afro Caribbean religions and claimed to be a 'voodoo priest' in an online post

Police discovered several decapitated rats and a pair of severed cat paws during a search of Evans's apartment

Authorities also said that they found knives covered in blood, animal fur in several rooms and an 18-inch machete.

According to an affidavit, Evans told police that he practiced traditions associated with Afro Caribbean religions and claimed to be a 'voodoo priest' on several social media posts.

Police said they also found several notes in Evans's apartment, with one reading: 'Make the entire pit bull investigation go away. Return all curses placed on Brendan to their sender. Give Brendan peace of mind.'

When Broward county sheriff's charged Evans on Wednesday, he was already in police custody after being arrested earlier in the week for violating the terms of his probation stemming from a 2015 bank robbery in Hernando County.

'We will not tolerate any form of animal cruelty or violence in our city,' Police Chief Chris O'Brien said Wednesday.

'Each reported case of animal cruelty, be it physical abuse or neglect, is disturbing, and this case is particularly heartbreaking.'
Britain's most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson has launched his own range of colouring-in books just in time for Christmas.

Sales of colouring-in books for adults have shot up in recent year, although Bronson's new book - called Charlie's Animal ABC Colouring Book - is also aimed at young children too.

The front cover of the A4 sized book is a picture of Bronson - who is now called Charles Salvador - holding a piece of paper with a snake which he has drawn. 'S is for Snake' is written next to it.

Another picture on the front of the colouring book shows a picture of a dog with the caption 'D is for Dog' beside it.

Charles Bronson - now Charles Salvador - was locked up for armed robbery in 1974 but during his time behind bars has had a number of misdemeanors

Bronson's new book - called Charlie's Animal ABC Colouring Book - is also aimed at both adults and young children

The prisoner's sketches and drawings have fetched hundreds of pounds at auction in the past, often with the proceeds going to charity.

The picture's drawn by the 'born-again artist' are believed to have been drawn by Salvador in his HMP Wakefield cell. Twelve personalised crayons are also on sale along with the book.

Salvador's friend Rod Harrison, who was best man at his wedding to Paula Williamson last week, revealed the new book today on social media.

Writing on Facebook, Mr Harrison posted a photo of one of the colouring books and five cardboard boxes stacked with copies of the new book, adding: 'Santa's been early - need a bigger lock up lol.'

Charles Salvador's new wife Paula Salvador has said that she will wait for her husband to be released from jail

Salvador was given a life sentence in 199 after he took prison art teacher Phil Danielson hostage at HMP Hull.

After being asked by Facebook pals when the colouring-in books could be ordered, he said: '(I) need to get backlog of other orders out before we release these - will post after weekend.'

One of Mr Harrison's friends Ivor Batey wrote on his status: 'No matter how many put it down it's a fantastic thing Charlie has done for the kids who support him. I have at least 12 people wanting to order them but think it's now closer to 20. x'

Paula Salvador admitted her husband Charles was 'not going to be released any time soon' after he was refused parole and will now have to wait until at least 2019 until the next hearing.

She told Talk Radio: 'I'm under no illusion. He's not going to be released any time soon. I know that and Charlie knows that, but he deserves the chance, like any other prisoner does, to progress.'

Since he was first locked up for armed robbery in 1974, Salvador has taken hostages in 10 prison sieges, attacked at least 20 prison officers and caused 500,000 in damage in rooftop protests.

In 1999 he was given a life sentence after taking prison art teacher Phil Danielson hostage at HMP Hull after he criticised one of his drawings.

MailOnline contacted the Ministry of Justice as to whether Salvador could profit from the colouring-in book.
Denzel Washington says upbringing and a lack of father figures are to blame for many young men ending up in jail.

The Oscar winner, 62, was speaking at the premiere of his latest film, Roman J. Israel, Esq., in which he stars as an idealistic defense attorney whose life is upended when his partner, the firm's front man, dies.

Asked if the film made him feel more cynical about the justice system, the star replied: 'It starts at home.'

The Oscar winner, 62, was speaking at the premiere of his latest film, Roman J. Israel, Esq., in which he stars as an idealistic defense attorney whose life is upended when his partner, the firm's front man, dies. Pictured: Washington as Roman J. Israel

Speaking to NY Daily News, he added: 'It starts with how you raise your children. If a young man doesn't have a father figure, he'll go find a father figure.

'So you know I can't blame the system. It's unfortunate that we make such easy work for them.'

In an earlier interview, the actor touched upon some of his own experiences growing up.

'I grew up with guys who did decades (in prison) and it had as much to do with their fathers not being in their lives as it did to do with any system,' he told Reuters.

Pictured: Denzel Washington (right) with director Dan Gilroy and Carmen Ejogo

Washington, recalling some of the people he grew up with, added: 'By the time we got to 13, 14, different things happened.

'Now I was doing just as much as they were, but they went further... I just didn't get caught, but they kept going down that road and then they were in the hands of the system. But its about the formative years. You're not born a criminal.'

Dan Gilroy, who wrote and directed the film, said the cases explored in the film reflected a 'massively important issue in our country'.

'Our prison system needs reform at a fundamental level,' he said. 'We have the highest incarceration rate of any place in the Western world... It's not racially equal, it's not socio-economically equal.'

It's not the first time Washington has played an attorney.

In the 1993 crime drama Philadelphia he plays a homophobic lawyer who defends a gay lawyer who is fired from his law firm for having HIV.

But the fact he also played a lawyer in his latest film was pure coincidence, he said.

'It really didn't have much to do with that,' he told NY Daily News. 'It was just that Dan wrote a good script, a good story, the guy happened to be a lawyer. Law wasn't the thing that attracted me to the story.'
A former Trump campaign manager insisted Friday morning that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference won't touch the Oval Office.

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn's attorneys have reportedly stopped communicating with the president's lawyers, a sign that he could be cooperating with Mueller and his team.

But Corey Lewandowski, who helmed Donald Trump's Republican primary campaign, said on 'Fox & Friends' that the probe will stop short of implicating his former boss.

'That's where it stops,' he predicted, 'and there has been never any indication that the President of the United States, or anyone else within that circle of the President of the United States, has done anything wrong.'

Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski insisted Friday that the special counsel probe into Russian election interference won't touch the president

'There has been never any indication that the President of the United States ... has done anything wrong,' Lewandowski insisted of complaints that Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow; Trump and first lady Melania are shown Thursday during a Thanksgiving visit to Coast Guardsmen and women

Attorneys for former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (left) have stopped sharing information with President Trump's lawyers, and onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (right) is already the subject of a criminal indictment

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February after White House officials concluded that he had misled them about the nature of his contacts during the transition period with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

He was already facing a Justice Department investigation into his foreign business dealings at the time.

Mueller has been investigating the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general's role in $530,000 worth of lobbying work his now-defunct firm performed for a Turkish businessman during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

The special cousel announced the first criminal charges in his investigation last month, including the guilty plea of a foreign-policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, and the indictments of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates.

Lewandowski threw Flynn, Manafort and others under the bus on Friday but predicted that 'that's where it ends'

'If Michael Flynn did something wrong by not disclosing the relationships he had with Turkey and other governments, then he should be held accountable for that,' Lewandowski said Friday morning.

'Now I don't think this goes anywhere other than Michael Flynn and potentially his son. But what we've seen is that people who haven't followed the rules  people like Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Mike Flynn  if they have done something wrong, they should be held accountable.'

'But that's where it ends,' he said, 'because there is no culpability or liability to the president  because he didn't collude, cooperate, or coordinate with Russia in any way, shape or form.'

Lewandowski, who worked with Flynn during the campaign season, said that 'Mike's not a bad guy. He served his country with distinction for a long time.'

Special counsel Robert Mueller is probing for evidence that Trump and his inner circle colluded with Russians to impact the result of the 2016 election in his favor, something everyone in his sights flatly denies

Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is reportedly asking his friends if they think Mueller will 'get the president'

'But if he didn't fill out the paperwork properly, and he didn't disclose that information, and he wasn't honest with the FBI, like anybody else he should be held accountable.'

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner may not be as confident as Flynn about the Oval Office being beyond Mueller's reach.

Kushner, married to first daughter Ivanka Trump, has expressed some worry to a friend in the wake of the Manafort and Gates indictments, according to Vanity Fair.

'Do you think theyll get the president?' Jared asked the friend.
Dr Anthony Dixon, pictured, is under investigation by the General Medical Council and is facing legal complaints by around 100 patients

A group of women are planning to sue one of Britain's top surgeons over claims he has left them in agony following invasive surgical problems.

The women, who were treated by Anthony Dixon, a consultant colorectal surgeon at South Mead hospital in Bristol believe he was recommended operations which were not in their best interests to deal with pelvic problems.

Also, some of the women claim he made 'lewd' or 'inappropriate' remarks during consultations.

It is understood approximately 100 women have made complaints against the surgeon.

Some of the woman allege they have been left with 'life-altering' injuries.

The surgeon, who is highly regarded and developed pioneering treatment for bowel problems has been suspended and faces a Fitness to Practice inquiry by the General Medical Council.

According to The Guardian, Dr Dixon said he could not comment due to patient confidentiality.

He said: 'As with any surgical procedure, there may be complications but I would like to reassure patients that the overwhelming majority of operations I have completed have been successful.'

Several former patients of Dr Dixon's spoke to the Guardian and said they had not been warned adequately about the risks posed by rectopexy - where a plastic mesh is used to repair the pelvic floor.

One patient, Sam van der Heijden, 57, from Hastings, East Sussex said she had suffered a damaged rectum during childbirth and was referred to Dr Dixon.

She said following surgery, it appeared everything had worked fine, although she had to undergo several repeated treatments - including the removal of her colon.

She claims Dr Dixon said to her: 'I don't do aftercare. You're costing me money. You're supposed to be out of here in five days.'

North Bristol NHS Trust who operate South Mead Hospital, pictured, confirmed Mr Dixon is not providing any clinical services to patients in the hospital

Dr Dixon performed surgery at the Spire Hospital in Bristol as well as in South Mead hospital

Jean-Jacques de Gorter, medical director at Spire Healthcare confirmed to the Guardian that an internal review had been carried out into Dr Dixon's work. He said any 'complications relating to Mr Dixon's practice' were 'within normal parameters'.

Deputy Medical Director of North Bristol NHS Trust told MailOnline: 'As previously confirmed we are investigating concerns that have been raised regarding certain pelvic floor repair procedures which are performed to treat rectal prolapse.

'Our investigations are ongoing, therefore we are not yet in a position to comment further.

'We can confirm that Mr Dixon is not currently providing clinical services to patients at North Bristol NHS Trust.

'It would be inappropriate for us to discuss clinical information about individual patients.

'We would like to reassure patients affected by this that we are doing all we can to investigate their concerns fully. In addition, we have reviewed the waiting lists for these procedures at North Bristol NHS Trust and have been liaising with patients to ensure that a clear plan for their care is established.

'We will continue to update patients as more information is available.'
A dog-snatching gang have been arrested for stealing, killing and selling pooches in eastern China.

CCTV footage has emerged showing one member of the gang shooting a dart into a dog that was chained to a gate in Guali town, Hangzhou, on November 14.

After the animal passed out, the man returned to the site on his scooter to collect its body.

A suspected dog-thief shoots a dart into a pooch attached to a gate in Guali Town, China

The dog struggles and falls down onto the ground after being attacked by the passerby

Local police said they were trying to find out what type of liquid had been applied on their darts and whether they were poisonous.

Police also claimed the gang sold dead dogs to restaurants at the prices of 50 to 60 yuan (5.6-6.8) each.

Zhao Hanjie, an officer from the Guali Police Station, said the gang caught pet dogs as well as stray dogs in the area, according to Pear Video.

In a dirty warehouse, the police found four suspects selling dog corpses to dog meat traders. Officers confiscated 19 dead dogs on site.

The four suspects have been arrested. Further investigation from the police is underway.

The suspect then returns on his scooter and picks up the canine which has passed out

He puts the dog onto his lap before driving back to his warehouse to meet potential buyers

Apparently as winter is approaching, more and more restaurants in China are in need of dog meat to make dog stew - a winter delicacy that's supposed to bring diners health benefits.

Keith Guo, an animal lover working for PETA Asia and a native of Guangdong, said dog stew is common in Guangdong as well as the neighbouring Guangxi Province.

Mr Guo, 27, who has a passion for food sociology, explained that meat from dogs smells and tastes gamier compared to other types of meat, so chefs usually use spices such as chilli peppers and ginger to cover the odor.

As a result, dog stew is heavy and could warm up the diners' body quickly.

Police raid the gang's warehouse and find 19 dead pooches as well as dog meat buyers

'For traditional Chinese medicine, any food that could warm up the body is considered beneficial,' he said. 'That's also why dog meat is thought to be especially nutritious to the human body.'

Mr Guo added that the weather could get humid in southern China during winter, and according to traditional Chinese medicine, humidity could weaken one's health. That's why locals like eating warm dog stew to boost their immune system.

Mr Guo explained that apart from poisonous darts, dog thieves would also use lassos to catch the animals and drag them onto their vehicle.
Polish MPs have approved a law that will phase out Sunday shopping by the year 2020 - despite criticism that it may eliminate thousands of jobs.

The bill, proposed by trade unions that want shop workers to spend more time with their families, got support from the ruling party that adheres to Catholic values.

Critics say it would negatively affect Poland's economy, eliminating tens of thousands of jobs, and hurt supermarket chains, which are mostly western.

Polish MPs have approved a law that will phase out Sunday shopping by the year 2020 - despite criticism that it may eliminate thousands of jobs. (Above, file image of Christmas shoppers in Warsaw)

The lower house, dominated by the ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, voted 254 -156 with 23 abstentions to limit Sunday shopping to the first and last Sunday of the month from March 1 until the end of 2018; only on the last Sunday in the month in 2019; and to ban it totally starting in 2020.

There will, however, be some exceptions that will allow Sunday shopping before major holidays like Christmas and Easter.

Sunday shopping: What happens next? Until end of 2018: The bill will compel all but very small shops to close on two Sundays a month. From 2019: the new legislation, if signed into law by PiS ally President Andrzej Duda, will allow shopping malls to stay open just one Sunday per month. From 2020: shopping malls will be allowed to operate only seven Sundays per year, before major holidays. Advertisement

Also, online shops and bakeries are to be exempted from the ban.

The bill still needs approval from the Senate and from President Andrzej Duda.

While Sunday shopping remains limited in some of the biggest economies of western Europe, it bloomed in the east over the last two decades as people embraced malls as a sign of economic prosperity following decades of shortages under communism.

A survey by state-run pollster CBOS showed that 58 per cent of Poles supported curbs on Sunday shopping.

A poll by private pollster Kantar TNS showed 76 per cent backed a solution that would guarantee two free Sundays per month for retail sector employees without any curbs on shopping.

Poland's Bishops Conference welcomed parliament's move.

'Let's not disregard God in public life and let's not assume we have the right to organise national life as if God didn't exist,' it said in a statement.
Informal education such as Sunday schools and madrasas are 'classrooms by any other name' and should be subject to more regulation, a council education chief has warned.

More must be done to check up on lessons and classes that take place outside of formal schooling, according to Colin Diamond, corporate director for children and young people at Birmingham City Council.

Mr Diamond, who was sent by the Government to the city to help oversee school improvement in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal, said the Government should 'grasp this stingy old nettle'.

Informal education such as Sunday schools and madrasas are 'classrooms by any other name' and should be subject to more regulation, Birmingham City Council education chief Colin Diamond has warned. (File photo)

Mr Diamond (above) insisted that Birmingham's schools have come a long way since the Trojan Horse scandal, which began about four years ago

In an interview with the Times Educational Supplement (TES), Mr Diamond said: 'I think the biggest risks in terms of exposure to any form of non-mainstream societal values are either if you are at home, because you are not part of the social group, or if you are in an independent school that is at the margins of things, or if you are in the unregulated space, which includes Sunday schools, madrasas, all these places where there is no regulation whatsoever.

'Thousands of kids in this city will go to education spaces this evening and will be there for a few hours, and will be taught about Koranic values or Christian values.

'We feel they should be regulated. These are classrooms by any other name.

'I do wish the Government would grasp this stingy old nettle.'

Mr Diamond insisted that Birmingham's schools have come a long way since the Trojan Horse scandal, which began about four years ago.

It centred on an alleged move by a group of hard-line Muslims to seize control of a small number of the city's schools, and that the major concern now was about unregulated education spaces outside of school.

He also acknowledged that it was difficult to know where to draw the line, such as whether this should involve things such as music lessons or youth clubs, but told the magazine that it was important to know more about what was going on 'outside the formal school space'.

'Thousands of kids in this city will go to education spaces this evening and will be there for a few hours, and will be taught about Koranic values or Christian values,' said Mr Diamond

In 2015, ministers launched a consultation on a new system for registering and inspecting education centres outside of school.

A Government response to the consultation has not yet been published.

The Department for Education said it has given Ofsted more resources to investigate illegal schools, and to work with Government to take action, such as closing them down.

There are also powers in place for the police and councils to intervene if children are being put at risk.
A tiger has been shot dead after escaping from a circus in Paris.

It roamed the streets causing 'intense panic' before it entered a train station in the 15th arrondissement of the city.

Terrified passengers heard the announcement: 'A tiger is on the loose, please vacate the station'.

One witness said: 'There were people running and screaming. It was a very big, fierce looking animal.'

This is the tiger shot dead after escaping from a circus in Paris. The beast was cornered at the Garigliano Bridge by armed police and killed

Officials were pictured transporting the body of the tiger under a black cover. It had previously roamed the streets of Paris causing 'intense panic' before it entered a train station

Initially, circus employees had tried to chase the tiger with a pole and a piece of meat. When that failed armed police shot it dead

Circus employees initially gave chase with a pole and piece of meat, but then told police to 'use live bullets'.

The tiger entered a train station where it posed a threat to rail passengers' before armed police arrived and shot it dead.

'He had entered a railway station, leading to its closure,' said an eye-witness who lives in the area.

'There were fears that the tiger would hurt railway passengers around the Garigliano Bridge. That's where he was cornered and then shot dead.'

The alarm was raised at 5.50pm. Armed police were then seen heading to the scene, together with the tigers' owners.

At 6.10pm the same announcers said: 'The incident on line T3a is over, and traffic has resumed.'

A spokesman for the Paris police prefecture said: 'The animal has been neutralised. All danger is gone.'

It is not yet clear how the tiger escaped.

The tiger's empty cage was pictured and it is not yet clear how it escaped

A spokesman for the Paris police prefecture said: 'The animal has been neutralised. All danger is gone'
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New York City has long opened its arms to the worlds huddled masses, and no neighborhood has done so more than East Harlem.

The streets between 96th and 140th from Fifth Avenue to the East River are brimming with history and culture - and for the last six decades have become known as Spanish Harlem due to its high population of Latin American and Puerto Rican immigrants.

Photographer Joseph Rodriguez has pulled back the curtain on a unique sliver of time in Spanish Harlem, documenting the lives of families living on East 117th street in the late 1980s.

Like much of New York  Spanish Harlem was hit hard by the influx of crime, unemployment, and disease of the time. Rodriguezs exhibition, however, focuses on the resilience of a community that continues to thrive to this day.

A photo exhibition by photographer Joseph Rodriguez titled Spanish Harlem: El Barrio in the 1980s chronicles the lives of East 117th street residents, many living in crowded tenements like the family seen here in an undated photo

From 1940 to 1960, more than 500,000 Puerto Rican immigrants came to the United States. Eighty-eight per cent came to New York City, the vast majority settling in East Harlem, which became known as Spanish Harlem

Mass immigration from Puerto Rico to the United States began after the First World War, and peaked in the 1950s, when Spanish Harlem became known to its residents as 'El Barrio' or 'the neighborhood'

East Harlem, known simply as El Barrio (the neighborhood) to its Spanish-speaking residents, only became predominantly Latin American and Puerto Rican within the last 60 years.

Before then, it was known as Italian Harlem  and served as the birthplace for Italian influence in New York City. It was also home base to the Five Families  including the Genovese crime family  which pioneered the Italian Mafia (La Cosa Nostra) in the 19th century.

After the First World War, Puerto Rican and Latin American immigration picked up in earnest. From 1940 to 1960, more than 500,000 Puerto Ricans came to the United States  and 88 per cent of those settled in New York City. The vast majority landed in a small pocket of East Harlem, near 110th street and Lexington Avenue.

Gradually they began to settle throughout the neighborhood  which eventually became known simply as Spanish Harlem.

Photographer Joseph Rodriguez, who is also Puerto Rican, grew up taking the train to Spanish Harlem often to visit his uncles candy shop there  and has witnessed how the neighborhood has changed over time.

Rodriguez found that he was welcomed to El Barrio again as an adult, and was invited by his new friends to churches, cookouts and weddings. But most of his time was spent simply hanging out  playing cards on the block or gossiping at the bodega with the residents that made Spanish Harlem what it was, and still is.

Like much of New York  Spanish Harlem was hit hard by the influx of crime, unemployment, and disease of the time. Rodriguezs exhibition, however, focuses on the resilience of a community that continues to thrive to this day.

From 1985 to 1990, Rodriguez chose to focus on residents specifically on East 117th street, and was quickly welcomed in by the community as a fellow New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent

He was invited to weddings, baptisms, cookouts and corner stores - and documented the day-to-day lives of those living in Spanish Harlem at the time

The 1960s and 1970s were a difficult time for the nation, and Spanish Harlem bore the weight of the changes taking place in New York City.

Construction companies tore down many of the mom-and-pop shops that had been the backbone of small business in the neighborhood to make way for urban renewal projects  primarily composed of public housing.

To this day, Spanish Harlems 1.54 square miles contain the highest concentration of public housing in the nation, only second to a small neighborhood in east Brooklyn.

While Spanish Harlem was reeling from the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s - Rodriguez captured the spirit of the community

Urban renewal projects forced many mom-and-pop shops to close - which hurt the economic backbone of the neighborhood which is known for its contributions to bringing salsa music to New York City

Unemployment and homelessness gripped the streets  as did race riots, gang violence, drug abuse, poverty, and the burgeoning rise of HIV

What was meant to be a positive changed for the Harlem community backfired as its commercial spaces were decimated, and it became difficult for many residents to stay afloat.

Unemployment and homelessness gripped the streets  as did race riots, gang violence, drug abuse, poverty, and the burgeoning rise of HIV.

By the time Brooklyn-born photojournalist Joseph Rodriguez arrived to East 117th street  it was 1985. El Barrio was struggling  but it wasnt giving up.

By the late 1980s the public housing that was created to better the community was crowded and overrun

Spanish Harlem is now being billed as one of the 'New Hot Neighborhoods in Manhattan'

To this day, Spanish Harlem still has the second highest concentration of public housing in the United States, just behind a small neighborhood in East Brooklyn

Rodriguez's exhibition serves as a reminder of the neighborhood's roots and the importance of its history

Like the rest of New York City, East Harlem is gentrifying. In 2016, The New York Times dubbed it one of the New Hot Neighborhoods in the city.

The article highlights Spanish Harlems contributions to the music and art communities  and emphasizes the ability to get a good deal on an apartment while staying in Manhattan.

As the neighborhood stands to experience yet another change, Rodriguezs exhibition at the Bronx Documentary Center, Spanish Harlem: El Barrio in the 80s, serves as a reminder of its roots, and the importance of its history.
A man who killed a soldier with a single punch for 'dancing stupidly' in a nightclub was today found guilty of manslaughter.

Jake Davies, 29, thumped Jack Mitchell, 24, causing a bleed on the brain and he died in the foyer of the venue.

The signaller with 32 Regiment Royal Artillery was on a month's leave with the army and on a night out with friends when he was struck.

Jack Mitchell (left), 24, suffered a bleed on the brain after he was hit by Jake Davies (right, outside Gloucester Crown Court on Monday), 29, in the early hours of February 5 this year

Jack Mitchell, left, dressed in his military uniform with his mother Kate, was on leave when he visited the nightclub with friends

Mr Mitchell and Mr Davies argued on the dancefloor at The Warehouse club in Stroud, Gloucestershire, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Prosecutors said Mr Mitchell and Davies fell out because the victim was 'stupidly dancing' with his friends.

Davies denied manslaughter on the grounds of self-defence but was today found guilty. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Detective Inspector Richard Pegler said afterwards: 'It's a day of mixed emotion as we are really pleased with the guilty verdict.

'But there are no winners here and a number of lives have been ruined.

The 24-year-old soldier is pictured with his mother and his younger sister Jasmine

Mr Mitchell was knocked unconscious from the blow to his head and never came round, dying in the foyer of The Warehouse Nightclub in Stroud, Gloucestershire

'Jack was quite simply a great lad, he was clearly loved so much by his family and friends.

'We have lost a great member of our community, such a waste of a hardworking and giving young man.

'I don't know why Jake Davies threw that punch, we will never know, but it was simply not justified.

'I am disappointed that Jack's family have had to endure the stress and upset of a trial.

'This incident demonstrates just how fragile we are and the devastating effect that one punch can have - one punch because of a bump on a dance floor.'

Mr Mitchell had been a signaller within his regiment while on duty in Cyprus, providing communication for troops and operated the radio in the field.
A French police officer has been sent to prison for six months for slapping a UK-bound immigrant in the face while he was wearing handcuffs.

The unprecedented sentence was handed down following the violent act in a detention centre in Calais.

Prosecutors in nearby Boulogne-sur-Mer on Friday described how the 44-year-old officer with the PAF Frontier Police, who has not been named, lashed out in August last year.

Migrants waiting to board buses as they leave the migrant detention centre in Calais

The immigrant was not in a position to threaten anyone, according to court papers. There was a slap and the police officer was not justified in what he did at all. The victim was sitting down and handcuffed, and being held by another officer.

Assuming that this slap was a reflex by the officer, this does not lessen responsibility. As a police officer, you have an obligation to be cool and neutral.

Neither the officer not his victim has been named, but both were due to appear before an examining magistrate at the detention centre at Coquelles, at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel.

Defence barrister Antoine Deguines said: It was an unfortunate act of protection, he did not want to slap anyone.

Mr Deguines said the migrant was pretty agitated, and was getting up all the time, so on the spur of the moment the officer stretched his arm, and it hit the migrants face.

Smoke rises from a fire over the Jungle migrant camp in Calais during a massive operation to clear the squalid settlement

The officer, who had a previous conviction for physically abusing his wife, was also banned from having a weapon for five years and suspended from performing public office for two years.

A year ago the so-called Jungle refugee camp in Calais was razed, and some 8000 migrants were dispersed to other parts of France.

Some have since returned, and continue to make efforts to reach the coast of England, where they want to claim asylum.

An official report issued last month found that some migrants were being abused by police officers in the Calais area.

This followed complaints by Human Rights Watch that the police were too ready to use pepper spray and other crowd control measures against migrants.

In turn, officers have denied using excessive force, saying they are under intense pressure because of the rapid rise in immigrant numbers.
Got your back: Uma Thurman is being flooded with supportive posts

Uma Thurman is being flooded with supportive posts after the actress came out against Harvey Weinstein almost two months after The New York Times and New Yorker published exposes detailing his decades of sexual misconduct.

Among those praising the actress were two other Weinstein accusers, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Rose McGowan both posting the fist emoji in a sign of solidarity with Thurman.

McGowan later posted on Instagram as well, sharing a video of herself waving and writing: 'Hello Uma. Welcome'

Selma Blair, Amanda de Cadenet and the actress' Beautiful Girls co-star Rosie O'Donnell also voiced their 'love' for Thurman while Amber Tamblyn tweeted: 'All eyes on Uma Thurman. Trust me.'

Just days before Thurman's blistering post went live, Deadline reported that the actress had parted ways with Creative Artists Agency after two years with the firm.

No reason was given for the actress' unceremonious split, and Thurman has yet to sign with another agency.

It is not the first time CAA has made its way into a Weinstein story, with both Paltrow and Courtney Love making mention of the firm in the past.

Paltrow said she felt comfortable going to Weinstein's hotel room for a private meeting because she assumed it was in fact an meeting, not an opportunity for the disgraced exec to try and lure her into giving him a nude massage or watching him shower.

'It's on the fax, it's from C.A.A,' she said of the meeting details.

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Solidarity: Among those praising the actress were two other Weinstein accusers including Gwyneth Paltrow (pictured with Weinstein)

'Welcome': Rose McGowan (pictured with Weinstein) later posted on Instagram as well, sharing a video of herself waving and writing: 'Hello Uma. Welcome'

And after a 2005 video of Love surfaced advising young woman not to take meetings in Weinstein's hotel room, she provided an update to the story on Twitter.

'Although I wasn't one of his victims, I was eternally banned by CAA for speaking out against #Harvey Weinstein #rape,' wrote Love.

Thurman, who is currently appearing on Broadway in The Parisian Woman, made a point of not speaking about any of her own personal experiences with Weinstein or any other possible predators when asked about the exec's sex scandal back in October.

'I don't have a tidy soundbite for you, because I am not a child and I have learned that when I have spoken in anger, I usually regret the way I express myself, the actress and mother-of-three told Access Hollywood.

'So I've been waiting to feel less angry, and when I'm ready, I'll say what I have to say.'

On Thursday, Thurman was ready to share her soundbite - and there was plenty of fury.

'I am grateful today, to be alive, for all those I love, and for all those who have the courage to stand up for others,' wrote Thurman.

'I said I was angry recently, and I have a few reasons, #metoo, in case you couldnt tell by the look on my face.'

Gwyneth Paltrow and Rose McGowan both posted the fist emoji in a sign of solidarity with Thurman

She then wrote: 'I feel its important to take your time, be fair, be exact, so... Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators - Im glad its going slowly - you dont deserve a bullet)'

The actress then signed off by telling everyone to 'stay tuned.'

Alongside the photo she posted a still from the movie Kill Bill Vol. 2, which was directed by Quentin Tarantino one of the last titles produced by Weinstein at Miramax.

The still is from the opening of the second film, with Thurman's character the Bride having successfully killed the three assassins who murdered her (or so they thought) and her husband at the church on their wedding day.

She is left at that point with just one more person to kill, their leader Bill.

'Looked dead, didn't I? Well, I wasn't, but it wasn't for lack of trying I can tell you that,' says Thurman while looking directly at the camera.

'Actually, Bill's last bullet put me in a coma, a coma I was to lie in for four years. When I woke up, I went on what the movie advertisements referred to as a roaring rampage of revenge. I roared and I rampaged and I got bloody satisfaction.'

She continues: 'I've killed a hell of a lot of people to get to this point. But I have only one more. The last one, the one I'm driving to right now. The only one left. And when I arrive at my destination, I am gonna kill Bill.'

That film starred another woman who came forward to revealed she was a victim of Weinstein, Daryl Hannah.

All eyes on her: Actress Amber Tamblyn tweeted: 'All eyes on Uma Thurman. Trust me'

Supportive: Amanda de Cadenet wrote: 'Love and support to you @ithurman'

Amen: Selma Blair was another famous name to come out and support the Kill Bill actress

The actress also noted that it was while promoting Kill Bill Vol. 2 that the alleged misconduct occurred with Weinstein, saying that when she refused his advances while they were in Rome she was booted from the press trip as the cast traveled to Cannes.

Hannah said that Weinstein at one point burst into her hotel room in Rome, telling the New Yorker in an interview: 'And I know with every fibre of my being that if my male makeup artist was not in that room, things would not have gone well. It was scary.'

Later that night he asked to feel or at least see one of her breasts, which she refused over and over again claims Hannah.

The next morning she said she found out she had been kicked off the trip, and said she called Tarantino personally to complain.

Tarantino has since said he regrets not speaking out earlier about Weinstein, adding that while he did not know the full extent of his offenses that is no excuse.
Eddie Gifoyle (pictured), now in his 50s, was jailed for murdering his wife Paula in 1993 and spent 18 years behind bars. He was released on licence in 2010 but remained a convicted killer

A convicted murderer who spent 18 years behind bars for killing his heavily-pregnant wife has lost his latest battle in trying to clear his name.

Eddie Gilfoyle was found guilty of murdering his wife Paula and faking her suicide in 1993.

She was found hanging in the garage at their home in Upton, Merseyside, on June 4 1992. She was eight and a half months pregnant.

A suicide note was discovered in her handwriting but prosecutors said Gilfoyle dictated it to her, telling her he needed it for a course in his job as an auxiliary nurse.

Gifoyle, who is now in his 50s, was released on licence in December 2010, but asked the Court of Appeal to reconsider the 'safety' of his conviction in light of 'fresh evidence'.

He has always insisted he is innocent, but today the High Court in London ruled his conviction should remain.

Last year the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), an independent body which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, refused to refer his case back to the Court of Appeal for a further review.

Gilfoyle sought a judicial review of the CCRC's decision, arguing its reasoning was 'fundamentally misguided in a number of critical respects'.

Gilfoyle has protested his innocence for nearly a quarter of a century. His wife Paula (pictured), who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant, was found hanged in the garage of the couple's home in Upton, Wirral, in 1992. Today the High Court in London ruled against overturning his conviction

Dismising his case again today, Lady Justice Sharp and Mr Justice Sweeney ruled that the CCRC's decision was not 'arguably flawed'.

Lady Justice Sharp announced: 'In all the circumstances, I reject the submission that the commission's final decision of July 23 2016 was arguably flawed and it follows that I would dismiss the renewed application for judicial review.'

Gilfoyle's case was previously referred to the Court of Appeal by the CCRC, but in 2000 three leading judges ruled his conviction was safe.

In June last year documents suggested Merseyside police officers had made major errors in their investigation of 32-year-old Paula Gifoyle's death.

There were serious institutional failings by the force at the crime scene, according to a report into the inquiry.

Scene: The Gilfoyles' house, in Upton, Wirral where his Paula's body was found hanging in the garage

Officers failed to seal off the scene, leading to the potential loss of forensic evidence, The Times reported last year.

The document also claimed that the Police Complaints Authority was repeatedly misled by the force when it tried to uncover errors in the murder investigation.

In the suppressed report of the inquiry by Chief Superintendent Ted Humphreys it was revealed Merseyside Police breached its own rule book at the scene, with even basic instructions ignored.

Rather than cordon it off, it was claimed that officers trampled through sand, destroying potential footprint evidence. There were also no pictures taken of the body or garage.

Last year's report suggested that the head of Merseyside CID, Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Baxter decided to withhold these findings from the defence.

Newly uncovered documents about Eddie Gilfoyle (pictured), who was handed a life sentence in 1993, show how Merseyside police officers deliberately withheld an internal report from his defence team

He was involved in the Gilfoyle case. Not long before the trial in 1993 one of Gilfoyle's lawyers asked police for the internal report but, according to a force record written by another officer, Mr Baxter 'felt it inappropriate to supply a copy of the report'.

'The defence were on a fishing expedition and if they wanted a copy of the report they would have to apply for a production order,' he was recorded as saying.

Suitable procedure would have been for police to give the document to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide whether the defence should receive it, observers suggested.

Mr Baxter, who is now retired, told The Times: 'I have got no recollection of it so I can't really comment.'

He also pointed out that he had not been the senior investigating officer.

That revelation came four years after it emerged that a padlocked box existed containing two volumes of Mrs Gilfoyle's diary covering ten years. The journal revealed her troubled past and how she had previously tried to take her life.

These facts were not disclosed to Gilfoyle's lawyers or told to the jury.

In fact, the diary contradicted the image presented to the murder trial of Mrs Gilfoyle as a happy woman with everything to live for.

Relatives and friends told the jury she was a happy, bubbly woman but the diaries and other personal papers which she kept in the marital home reveal she took an overdose of pills when she was 15.

They also show that as a teenager she was engaged to a boy who was convicted of killing a girl. She bought him a wedding ring while he was in prison.

It was when that boyfriend, Mark Roberts, threatened to leave her that she took an overdose, writing in her diary: 'Mark went mad but I done it to him.'

The new evidence also revealed that two of Mrs Gilfoyle's former boyfriends threatened suicide and among her possessions was a note from one  using similar words to the note found where she died.

Merseyside Police confirmed in 2012 that they handed papers to Gilfoyle's solicitor the previous year but refused to comment further.

Mr Gilfoyle, said at the time: 'I am completely devastated that the police had these diaries and failed to hand them over to my defence.

'I am disgusted, appalled, words just fail me. They should have been disclosed prior to my two appeals but they were kept hidden.

'I have told the truth all the way through. The police have lied all the way through.'

Merseyside Police said of the latest revelation that it had provided all its documentation to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

A spokesman said: 'The matter is still being considered by the CCRC as a result of the concerns put forward by Mr Gilfoyle's representatives and therefore it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.'
A sailor who was meant to be on the doomed San Juan submarine was saved when he got off when his mother became ill three days before the vessel began its last journey, it emerged today.

Rene Humberto Vilte was a confirmed crew member on the ARA San Juan, which vanished last Wednesday on its way back to the Mar del Plata Naval base, and was even initally listed as one of those missing.

But in fact he had reluctantly disembarked as the sub prepared to make the trip from Usuahia, in Tierra del Fuego in the Southern tip of South America, after receiving news that his mother was in hospital.

Rene Humberto Vilte was a confirmed crew member on the ARA San Juan, which vanished last Wednesday

Lost: The ARA San Juan (pictured) has been missing for more than a week after reporting a fault before dropping out of communications

The sailor rushed to the hospital in Jujuy to be at the side of his sick mother, who has since recovered, before returning to his home in Mar del Plata by plane.

Vilte is said to be in shock but says his mother has given him 'life for the second time'. She has since recovered

Relatives claim to have been told yesterday that all 44 on board the died after the doomed vessel lost contact last week.

With the crew one man down, another person was reportedly called up to take his place.

His last minute replacement is believed to be Jorge Luis Mealla, who reportedly called his parents to tell them he had been told to reboard the submarine.

As the submarine began its mission, Rene rushed to the hospital in Jujuy to be at the side of his sick mother, who has since recovered, before returning to his home in Mar del Plata by plane.

Rene's friend Anabella told Argentinas La Nacion newspaper: 'He says that his mother gave him life for the second time.

'He is in shock, he can't believe what has happened and how close he came to death.

'I spoke to him on the day his photo was published among those who were on the missing submarine. I saw his name and picture on the lists, it was terrible, so distressing.

'He told me he had been on the crew, but that he had got off to see his mother.'

Vilte has changed is Facebook profile in memory of his comrades missing on the San Juan

His name was later removed when the list of missing was updated.

Another friend, Carolina, told the newspaper: 'Instead of going on with the other crew members he had stayed in Usuahia, because of his mother's health problem.

'He told me he was fine physically but was very worried about his colleagues and friends.'

Rene, known as Beto to his friends, studied at Argentina's School of Submarines and Diving before entering the Navy.

The submariner has not commented on his escape and friends say they have been able to contact him, but today (fri) he updated he posted a black ribbon on the Navy logo on his Facebook page.

Zulma Burgos, the mother of Jorge Mealla who replaced Rene on the tragic submarine today said: 'My son set off from Mar del Prata and called me at Ushuaia to tell me that he was boarding again.

'Nobody told us officially that he was replacing somebody who had got off in Tierra del Fuego.'
Sophia Brogan-Higgins (pictured), 22, is awaiting sentence after being found guilty of assaulting the security guard at a celebrity nightclub in London's Soho and then kicking and slapping a police officer

A catwalk model warned she could be jailed for hitting a female bouncer in the face with a glass has been allowed to go on holiday.

Sophia Brogan-Higgins is awaiting sentence after being found guilty of assaulting the security guard at a celebrity nightclub and then kicking and slapping a police officer.

But the 22-year-old brunette, who could face six months in prison, has been allowed to travel to Sweden and South Africa on planned trips.

Former public schoolgirl Brogan-Higgins attacked Justina Liutkute, 33, after being excluded from a VIP area at The Box Soho in London, where guests have included Prince Harry, Kate Moss, Emma Watson and Keira Knightley.

She told Miss Liutkute: 'B****, you don't know how to do your job, don't touch me because it's like sexual harassment.'

As Brogan-Higgins was being escorted from the club at around 4am on July 21, she suddenly punched Miss Liutkute in the face while holding a glass, causing a two-inch gash above her left eye, Hammersmith Magistrates Court was told.

She was detained by three male security guards and police were called.

But the 22-year-old brunette, who could face six months in prison, has been allowed to travel to Sweden and South Africa (pictured) on planned trips before her sentencing

PC Alistair Skelton noticed dried blood on her hands and left forearm. When she tried to wipe it off, he grabbed her forearms in the belief that she was trying to destroy evidence.

Brogan-Higgins kicked PC Skelton in the stomach and slapped his face.

The officer's body camera filmed her kicking and screaming on the floor. The court also saw CCTV of the incident.

When arrested, Brogan-Higgins refused to answer police questions until her father William, 58  who runs the family's IT consultancy business  was present.

The model, who lives with her parents in a 5million house in Clapham, south west London, and was educated at the 12,190-a-term St Edward's School in Oxford, denied both assaults.

Brogan-Higgins, 22, is pictured outside Hammersmith Magistrates Court in London

Former public schoolgirl Brogan-Higgins (pictured) attacked Justina Liutkute, 33, after being excluded from a VIP area at The Box Soho in London, where guests have included Prince Harry, Kate Moss, Emma Watson and Keira Knightley. She told Miss Liutkute: 'B****, you don't know how to do your job, don't touch me because it's like sexual harassment.'

She claimed she suffers from 'autism and anxiety', telling the court: 'I would never want to hurt someone, I just needed some space. I do not remember ever touching her face.

'It would be completely out of character for me to ever touch someone's face.'

Of PC Skelton, she said: 'I did not mean to kick him or hurt him. I wasn't in a fit state  I think he could clearly see that because I had been drinking and I had been in a nightclub and I was having a panic attack.'

District Judge Susan Baines found her guilty of both assaults and adjourned sentence to December 8 for medical reports.

She warned Brogan-Higgins that all options were open and prison was a possibility.

However, the model was granted unconditional bail after her lawyer said she had a holiday to Sweden booked for next week followed by a trip to Cape Town.

District Judge Susan Baines found Brogan-Higgins (pictured) guilty of both assaults and adjourned sentence to December 8 for medical reports
The death of a two-year-old boy, whose neck was caught in his father's pickup truck window, has been ruled accidental.

McCarson Porter, of Clinton, South Carolina, was with his father, Nick Porter, at a construction site in Seneca around 6pm on Wednesday. Porter said he started the truck to warm it up before he went to gather his tools.

When he returned, he allegedly found his toddler unconscious with his neck pressed against the truck's frame.

The death of McCarson Porter, two (pictured), from Clinton, South Carolina, whose neck was caught in his father's pickup truck window, has been ruled accidental

McCarson was taken by his father, Nick Porter (pictured, with McCarson), to a construction site in Seneca around 6pm on Wednesday to gather tools. Porter said he started the truck to warm it up

When Porter returned to his 2003 Ford F-350 truck (file image), he allegedly found his toddler unconscious with his neck pressed against the truck's frame

Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis, who performed an autopsy, said on Friday the cause of death was asphyxiation due to external neck compression.

Porter had previously been working on grading and preparing a mobile home site on Anderson Road, Addis said.

He returned to the work site with his son in a four-door 2003 Ford F-350 truck, according to Addis.

The truck had power windows with 'rocker-type' switches, the coroner said.

Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis, who performed an autopsy, said on Friday the cause of McCarson's (left) death was asphyxiation due to external neck compression. Porter's (right) truck had power windows with 'rocker-type' switches, the coroner said

A GoFundMe account has been started by a niece of McCarson's mother, Shannon Smith (pictured), to raise money for funeral expenses. So far $60 out of a $10,000 goal

Porter took his son to the CVS Pharmacy on Ingles Place in Seneca to get medical help after finding him unconscious.

From there, McCarson was taken to Oconee Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7.05pm on Wednesday.

The incident is being investigated by the Oconee County Sheriffs Office, Seneca Police Department, and SLED Special Victims Unit, according to WSPA.

A GoFundMe account has been started by a niece of McCarson's mother, Shannon Smith, to raise money for funeral expenses. So far $60 out of a $10,000 goal.
A Gold Coast bikini tycoon and model has been accused of importing steroids into Victoria over 16 months.

Raquel Petit, who founded the luxury swimwear range Petitkini, fronted Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday over charges including possessing and trafficking a commercial quantity of steroids.

The 24-year-old allegedly engaged in the activities between July 2015 and November 2016, the Herald Sun reports.

Gold Coast bikini tycoon and model Raquel Petit (pictured) has been accused of importing steroids into Victoria over 16 months

Ms Petit is also alleged to have dealt with $46,920 labelled proceeds of crime between April 2015 and May 2016.

She was charged on November 13, with the brief court hearing Friday not covering details of the allegations against her.

Ms Petit was previously linked to bikie Wade Yates-Taui, who has been sentenced to more than seven years jail over the 2013 fatal stabbing of a man in Queensland.

The model was reportedly dating Yates-Taui at the time, with two other men also jailed for the killing outside a Broadbeach apartment complex, The Daily Telegraph reports.

It is not suggested Ms Petit was in any way involved.

The founder of luxury swimwear range Petitkini fronted Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday over charges including possessing and trafficking a commercial quantity of steroids between July 2015 and November 2016

Ms Petit is also alleged to have dealt with the proceeds of crime, in the form of $46,920 cash, from between April 2015 and May 2016

Ms Petit was previously linked to bikie Wade Yates-Taui (pictured), who has been sentenced to more than seven years jail over the 2013 fatal stabbing of a man in Queensland

Ms Petit has a large social media presence, regularly posting snapshots in her swimwear range for her 151,000 Instagram followers.

Online modelling profiles state that she is an 'international fashion model' whose work has taken her to Hong Kong, Indonesia and Greece.

She has been a brand ambassador for Jim Beam, Harley Davidson and Wild Orchid Australia, and has been a Miss V8 Super Cars Grid Girl.

Ms Petit is scheduled to reappear in court in March next year.

Ms Petit was previously linked to ex-boyfriend Mongols bikie Wade Yates-Taui, who was sentenced to more than 7 years jail this week over the 2013 fatal stabbing of a man in Queensland
Brazen stowaway selfies posted on Facebook appear to graphically illustrate the extent of illegal Albanian migration into Britain.

Pictures of young people hidden in lorries are uploaded on pages including Albanians in London, alongside the caption: On the way.

Other images offering fake IDs and charges to book a place with a smuggler expose how gangs of people-traffickers seem to be cashing in on social media.

Yesterday even Albanias government branded Britain a soft touch compared with other nations, and urged the UK to send migrants back home more quickly.

Meanwhile families there openly admitted sending their children to sneak into Britain to find a better life. Many end up in foster care or at the mercy of criminals, a Daily Mail investigation reveals.

Pictures of young people hidden in lorries are uploaded on pages including Albanians in London, alongside the caption: On the way

Families in Albania openly admitted sending their children to sneak into Britain to find a better life. Many end up in foster care or at the mercy of criminals, a Daily Mail investigation reveals

Some are forced to work as drug mules for Albanian crime gangs  which police recently described as the most ruthless the UK has ever seen.

Images on three Facebook sites purportedly show young Albanians celebrating their illegal entry into Britain. Laughing, holding bottles of drink and posing with the Albanian flag, the teenagers stowaway selfies are on pages which can reach 60,000 followers.

One image appears to show a man in a van, and is captioned God willing, I will be in England by New Year.

Another photo shows a row of grinning young men lying in the back of a lorry, which appears to have been rigged with breathing tubes to give them fresh air.

Captioned The way to London, the picture was posted on a Facebook page devoted to helping youngsters reach the UK from an area of Albania including a village named Krume  where almost every family is said to have at least one member already in Britain.

Truck driver tried to smuggle in 16 migrants A van driver caught smuggling 16 illegal immigrants into the UK has been jailed for more than five years. Harbans Doll was trying to sneak three Iraqi families including a five-month-old baby and two Albanian women into Britain in the back of a hired Ford Transit van. The 61-year-old told Border Force officials: I thought I was just delivering furniture. The father of one claimed he had met a man at a pub near his home in Langley, near Slough, and was offered 500 to collect a load from France. Officials stopped the van at the controls at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Coquelles  effectively the British border on French soil. When they searched the vehicle they found it three-quarters full of beanbags and chairs with a double mattress stood upright part way inside the van. Hiding behind the mattress the officers found 16 people, including five children. Doll was taken to a police station in Folkestone but initially refused to answer questions about why he hired the van. He insisted he had simply been hired to collect furniture, adding: I was shocked there were illegal immigrants in the back. Yesterday at Canterbury Crown Court he was sentenced to five and a half years in prison after admitting people smuggling. David Fairclough, assistant director of the Border Force, said the group of migrants were handed over to French border police. He added: Although Doll offered no explanation for his behaviour, the judge considered in his sentencing that the motivation was financial. Offences like this, where individuals take advantage of the desperation of others for personal gain, are among the worst that we deal with. Advertisement

Other images suggest it costs 8,000 to ride in the back of a lorry or 3,000 to hide in the chassis.

One picture shows wads of cash spread across tables, in an apparent boast of the success young Albanians enjoy once they reach the UK.

Many pictures are captioned: Inside the lorry to UK. Youngsters strike a trademark pose of intertwining their hands to reflect the Albanian flag of a double-headed eagle.

One Facebook post offers cards for NVQ qualifications  without needing to complete the courses  for all the Albanians living in England.

It also offers bricklaying qualifications and provides a phone number, or urges people to get in contact via Facebook.

Albanians last year made up the second-highest number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Britain  with more applicants than from war-ravaged Syria.

Many are encouraged to travel here by their parents, who take them part of the way before helping to pay traffickers to spirit them across the Channel, officials said.

Most of the unaccompanied minors are economic migrants, some of whom falsely claim to have been beaten by their parents or say they are victims of blood feuds to boost their asylum claims.

But when their claims are rejected, many vanish from state-funded foster care and are forced work for slave gangs in car washes to pay off huge debts  up to 12,000 per trip  owed to people smugglers, Albanian officials warn.

Albania is not in the EU, but because it is applying to become a member, its citizens are free to travel through the borderless Schengen area.

They can reach the Channel without showing a passport. Teenage Albanian boys are taken with their parents or other close relatives through the Schengen area and left at ports in France, Belgium or Holland.

From there they are fixed up with people smugglers who take them to the UK where they are provided social care  usually with a foster family  and schooling.

Yesterday, Albanias deputy internal affairs minister Rovena Voda urged the UK to follow Germany and France in swiftly sending home under-18s who have asylum claims rejected.

Mrs Voda said: The reason so many go to the UK rather than Germany or France or the Netherlands is that those countries do much more to deport them earlier. In Britain this is not the case, and this makes it more attractive.

She added that some parents use their children as pawns, sending them over to get asylum before following them to the UK.

The Mail visited one village in northern Albania where residents spoke of sending their children for a better life because there was no future for them there.

Images on three Facebook sites purportedly show young Albanians celebrating their illegal entry into Britain. Laughing, holding bottles of drink and posing with the Albanian flag, the teenagers stowaway selfies are on pages which can reach 60,000 followers

But Flamur Dauti, a school headmaster in the village of Krume, warned Facebook pages were fuelling a false promise. Its all a lie. Social media is helping to feed the myth, he said. There are pictures of them surrounded by cash, but usually this is all the takings from the car wash for a day theyve been made to count. It doesnt belong to them.

Life is very hard for those who go and they would be much better off staying in Albania.

Residents also scorned the British ambassador to Albania, Duncan Norman, who has visited the area and declared that Albanians living illegally in the UK should return home.

They called him a hypocrite because he would do the same for his children if he did not live in luxury. Meanwhile Albanian MP Ervin Salianji warned that high charges for human traffickers meant migrants were often forced to take jobs with ruthless Albanian crime gangs operating in the UK to pay their huge debts.

He said: These gangs will not only take money from the family but also use the kids in the streets to be drug mules and [commit] theft in Britain.

The National Crime Agency warned earlier this year that Albanian gangs have established a high-profile influence in organised crime, with considerable control across the UK drugs market. Kathryn Holloway, the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner, recently said that the sheer brutality of the gangs made them the most ruthless the UK has ever seen.

According to the Home Office, last year 407 unaccompanied Albanian children travelling alone claimed asylum in the UK. Only Afghanistan had a higher number.

A Home Office spokesman said: The UK has a proud history of hosting, supporting and protecting those in need, including some of the most vulnerable children affected by the migrant crisis.

Most Albanian unaccompanied children who claim asylum in the UK are found not to be in need of international protection. We are working to establish a safe and effective way to return those unaccompanied children to their home country, where in many cases they will be able to reunite with their family.

A Facebook spokesman said: People smuggling is illegal and any posts, pages or groups that co-ordinate this activity are not allowed on Facebook.

We thank the Mail for alerting us to these posts and where content has been found to breach our people smuggling policies, we have removed them.

We urge people to continue using our reporting tools to flag any content that they suspect may be illegal.

Albanian minister claims Britain is ENCOURAGING her young citizens to sneak into the UK - and is being too soft on deporting her people

Soft-touch Britain is irresponsibly encouraging Albanian youngsters to try to sneak in to the UK, a senior Albanian minister claimed yesterday.

Rovena Voda, deputy minister of internal affairs, said Britain should act more swiftly to send home unaccompanied under-18s who have asylum claims rejected  as France and Germany do. The failure to do so is making the UK a more attractive destination to teenagers, she warned.

She suggested the money Britain would save by no longer having to provide social care for the youngsters could be invested in projects in Albania to encourage teenagers to stay.

Rovena Voda, Albanian deputy minister of internal affairs, said Britain should act more swiftly to send home unaccompanied under-18s who have asylum claims rejected

Mrs Voda said: These children are not being trafficked to Britain against their will. Most are brought part of the way by their parents and relatives. They do it for economic reasons.

Its hard. Parents believe they are doing their best for their children and giving them more chance in the future, but they are doing significant psychological damage by abandoning them. The children suffer from separation anxiety and there is also a problem with them being sucked into virtual slave labour or crime if they fail to get asylum.

The reason so many go to the UK rather than Germany or France or the Netherlands is that those countries do much more to deport them earlier. In Britain this is not the case, and this makes it more attractive to them.

If Britain did more to return them more quickly it would help.

Unaccompanied Albanian children who report to the authorities when they arrive sometimes claim to be escaping from blood feuds to claim asylum. But Mrs Voda said most claims were false.

She added: There is also a problem with parents sending children ahead because they think it will be easier for them to get asylum and the parents will follow. Its part of a strategy. The Albanian government has launched a crackdown on foreign child abandonment and in the last three months has started prosecuting nearly 50 cases of parents who left their children abroad, several en route to the UK. It is also developing a border checking system to monitor all parents or relatives leaving with children to see if they fail to return with them.

But Mrs Voda warned that a major problem is the false image presented of life in Britain by those living there.

Social media is a problem. People like to show off on it and it encourages teenagers to go. They think it will be this amazing time when it is not like that at all.

A Home Office spokesman said: Most Albanian unaccompanied children who claim asylum in the UK are found not to be in need of international protection. We are working to establish a safe and effective way to return those children to their home country, where in many cases they will be able to reunite with their family.

London's most unlikely suburb - 1,600 miles away: Snow-capped Albanian village where almost every family has sent a child to the UK

Surrounded by snow-capped mountains, Krume is Londons most unlikely suburb.

But despite being 1,600 miles from the British capital, locals in the Albanian village think of themselves as living in one of its neighbourhoods.

Officials say almost every family has at least one member in Britain and usually at least one more hoping to get there.

Scores of village children have gone to Britain illegally with people-smugglers, usually with the help of their parents.

With little work in the northern Albanian community, young men spend days in the villages Bar Kafe London discussing how they can get to its namesake.

Among those to have sent their children to the UK are council officers and policemen, who borrow up to 12,000 from loan sharks to pay people-smugglers. Parents say sending their children away offers their only hope of a secure future.

Former policeman Isa Rexha has not seen his son for two years since, aged 15, he was bundled into the back of a lorry to sneak into the UK after travelling to France with his uncle.

Mr Rexha said: We miss him with all our hearts, but we dont want him home.

We cannot afford to support him. There is nothing for him here. Nothing.

The teenager lives with foster parents in south-west London and receives state-funded schooling while he trains to become a plumber.

Next year, an immigration hearing will decide whether to grant indefinite leave to stay.

If his case is rejected, as most are, he has vowed to remain in Britain illegally.

His family knows he risks of being drawn into Albanian gangs in the UK that use children who have gone underground as slave labour in car washes or as drug mules or dealers.

Standing by a Union flag in his bar, built using money sent by his brothers in Britain, Liman Morina joked: Albania is just a neighbourhood of London.

Even a person in a highly paid job here earns less than a low-paid person in London.

Education officials in the local province of Kukes claim 834 teenagers quit school between 2013 and 2016  with many thought to have tried to get to the UK.

Sabah Lleshi, 16, said 15 of his friends are in Britain  and he plans to try next month. He added: There is more hope in England. My parents dont want me to go, but I am determined. Market worker Sahit Cahani, 46, paid traffickers 12,000 to get his son to Manchester, where he earns 30 a day washing cars.

He said: He left when he was 18 and went to Calais to try to get on the back of the lorry. He lived in terrible conditions. In the end I agreed to get money for a people-smuggler. Seeing him go has sucked the life out of me.

Others go to more extreme lengths than just giving money.

A council official describes how he paid 14,000 to smuggle his two sons  then aged 15 and 16  into the UK three years ago.

They are housed by social services, using fake names to avoid jeopardising their asylum bids.

He added: Families will arrange for a wife to tell the police that the husband beats the children.

It means they get an official police report which can help their asylum claim.

But Flamur Dauti, headmaster of the Skenderbeu school in Krume, said most were lured to the UK on a false promise, adding: People return for a holiday driving a fancy car. But usually this is a car they have hired for a week. They dont own it.

Everyone boasts, but the reality is hard for most of those who go, and carries many dangers.
The EU finally indicated it was ready to start talks on a post-Brexit trade deal this evening.

After weeks of stalemate, the president of the European Council hinted at a breakthrough following talks with Theresa May.

Donald Tusk suggested it was 'possible' talks on trade could begin at a crunch summit of EU leaders in Brussels next month.

But he warned of a 'huge challenge' ahead  and set the Prime Minister a new deadline of ten days for progress on 'all issues' before trade negotiations start.

It comes after Mrs May secured agreement from her Cabinet this week to increase the Government's offer on the Brexit 'divorce bill'.

The EU had insisted talks on trade could not begin until its leaders were satisfied 'sufficient progress' had been made on this issue  as well as on citizens' rights and the Northern Irish border.

European Council leader Donald Tusk (pictured right with Theresa May) suggested it was 'possible' talks on trade could begin at a crunch summit of EU leaders in Brussels next month

But after yesterday's meeting, Mr Tusk tweeted: 'Sufficient progress in #Brexit talks at December #EUCO is possible.

'But still a huge challenge. We need to see progress from UK within 10 days on all issues, including on Ireland.'

As she left the talks, Mrs May insisted Britain would 'honour its commitments' to the EU budget and said there were still issues to be resolved.

But she added: 'There has been a very positive atmosphere in the talks and a genuine feeling that we want to move forward together.'

The Prime Minister admitted she and Mr Tusk had been 'talking about how we can progress the issue in relation to the financial settlement'.

But Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov said he thought EU talks were moving towards a hard Brexit.

The British Prime Minister and European Council president are pictured at the Eastern Partnership Summit at the European Council HQ in Brussels, Belgium today

His remark comes barely a month before his country is due to take over the presidency of the Council of the EU.

Next's month summit will be the key to progressing from discussions of the divorce bill, citizens' rights and the Irish border.

The next stage of the talks will cover future trading arrangements and an implementation period to avoid a cliff-edge for businesses.

This week, Mrs May and ten key ministers  her Brexit 'war cabinet'  agreed to offer billions more in EU divorce payments in return for assurances on a future trade deal.

Precise figures were not discussed but Brussels has previously suggested it would not start talks without an offer of around 40billion  double what the Prime Minister had previously indicated.

Downing Street would not say whether Mrs May had made her new offer to Mr Tusk or German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But the positive atmosphere suggests the agreement to up the offer may have led to a breakthrough.

But Mr Tusk (pictured) warned of a 'huge challenge' ahead  and set the Prime Minister (right) a new deadline of ten days for progress on 'all issues' before trade negotiations start

The Prime Minister came under pressure yesterday from Dublin for fresh assurances there will be no 'hard border' between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Ireland wields a veto in the Brexit talks and the country's premier Leo Varadkar warned deadlock in the negotiations cannot be broken until the border issue is resolved.

His comments came amid a crisis that could see the Irish government collapse. His minority administration is in dispute with the opposition, which could lead to a snap election.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said it was difficult to see how border checks could be avoided if the UK left the single market and customs union, while Ireland remained in them.

Mr Varadkar has previously suggested a 'bespoke' arrangement similar to that on the Isle of Man  under which Northern Ireland, or the whole of the UK, would continue to observe the rules of the single market and customs union without necessarily remaining a member of them.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said there was 'strong solidarity' with Ireland, adding that 'Irish issues are EU issues'.

Mrs May said the UK and Irish governments had 'the same desire', adding: 'We want to see that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now and that we don't create any new barriers to trade or the movement of people across that border.'

European Union leaders and their partners from the East met for an Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels today

But last night Mr Coveney said British assurances on the issue were 'aspirational' and that there had to be a 'credible road map' from the UK setting out how it would resolve the issue.

He added: 'The truth is that if we see regulatory divergence between the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland it is very hard to see in that scenario how you avoid hard border checks.

'So we need progress on this issue  If we can't, I think there is going to be a difficulty coming up.'

Mr Coveney said the other EU members were fully behind Ireland's stance on the issue.

Yesterday, the PM had meetings with Mr Tusk and with European leaders to discuss the Eastern Partnership  EU relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
A man and woman have survived a terrifying attack on their home which was firebombed and covered in graffiti overnight.

The home in Greenacre near Bankstown in Sydney's west was set alight at 3am - the attacker left a chilling murder accusation behind.

The words 'U r killer' and 'you are murderer' were scrawled on the front fence and footpath of the two-storey brick home in what appears to be bright pink spray paint.

A chilling murder accusation left on the wall of a western Sydney home which was firebombed overnight

The woman who fled the blaze was taken to hospital with minor burns on her hands and cuts on her feet.

A neighbour spoke to Daily Mail Australia on Saturday - after being woken up at 3am by the fire brigade.

'Of course it is scary,' the woman said.

The 'older couple' who live in the house keep to themselves, neighbours said - and haven't been seen back at their home since the fire.

Another neighbour has called the incident troubling: 'When someone close like that it really hits home because it could have been us'.

The two-storey home was damaged during the blaze which started at about 3am

The fire appeared to start in a bedroom or living room in the front of the large home, according to Norm Buckley from NSW Fire and Rescue.

'There is a cloud of suspicion over it,' he said.

'Fire investigators are returning to it this morning with a canine. It is a crime scene.'

The investigation is continuing, police said.
For a split second Selina Begums confidence almost deserted her as  with nerves jangling and legs like jelly  she took the few short steps to the podium.

Taking centre stage at Eton Colleges magnificent new 18 million, 330-seat debating chamber, the 16-year-old A-level student from East London felt like a fish out of water.

How could she  a state school girl from one of the poorest London boroughs  take on, in a debating competition final, pupils with the best education money can buy?

Would she embarrass herself, here, in Jafar Hall, opened in 2015 by Prince Charles, whose sons Princes William and Harry were educated at the 38,000-a-year Berkshire school?

Selina Begum, pictured, goes to Newham Collegiate Sixth Form College in East London and has become the first state school student to win individual debating prize at Eton

Selinas parents, who emigrated to Britain from Bangladesh in the Nineties, had never even heard of Eton College. They barely speak English. At home, Bengali had always been the familys first language.

The irony of this was not lost on Selina.

'All eyes were fixed on me and I could feel my voice quavering when I opened my mouth, says Selina, whod beaten more than 200 students to become one of the six finalists in the Eton Autumn Invitational open competition earlier this month.

'It was incredibly intimidating, but I took a deep breath and then the passion and motivation kicked in. I searched out peoples eyes and tried to engage them in my argument (Selina was speaking in favour of abolishing the death penalty in the U. S.).

Selina Begum , pictured, debating during Eton's competition, where she beat her peers in motion on junk food and rights to privacy

'When I sat down, I was convinced I didnt stand a chance. Everyone else was so brilliant, I listened to their speeches thinking: Shes definitely going to win. They all spoke with such style.

'I even started clapping when the winner was announced, not realising my own name had been called until my teacher tapped me and said: No, youve won! And I thought: Wow. 

Today, that wow is still written all over Selinas face back in Newham, East London, where she shares a council maisonette with her parents, 14-year-old brother and paternal grandmother.

Her eyes glitter as she talks non-stop.

An impressive young woman, it is easy to imagine this talented young teenager with the headscarf, teeth braces and East London accent, going places. You can picture her as a barrister, on her feet in the Old Bailey, arguing her case with conviction and eloquence.

The daughter of an immigrant family from one of Britain's poorest areas, Selina Begum, pictured, hopes to study History at Oxford and may pursue a career in law

Not that shes full of herself over what shes achieved, although she has good reason to be.

The first state school pupil to win the individual debating prize at Eton, Selina still cant quite believe she triumphed over the best debaters elite schools, such as Westminster and Winchester, have to offer.

Modestly, she credits her headteacher at Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre, former City lawyer Mouhssin Ismail, and Cambridge University educated history teacher Jerome Singh  who runs the debating society  for giving her the self-belief and skills to compete.

Opened in September 2014 to cater for Newhams most academically gifted students, the college known as NCS6 now stands as a jewel in the crown in one of Londons most disadvantaged boroughs, where child poverty stands at 40 per cent.

This year, the selective sixth form college sent 190 of its 200 pupils to Britains top universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, and principal Mr Ismail is expecting more than 2,500 applications for just 300 places for next years intake.

'Tickets for our two open evenings in January are more prestigious than tickets for a Beyonce concert, says Mr Ismail with a smile. We have 6,000 parents on our mailing list, and there will probably be even more after Selinas win. We wont be able to fit them all in.

Eton College, pictured, is one of the most prestigious schools where Princes William and Harry were both educated at the 38,000-a-year

The majority of students have parents like Mr Ismails own  first generation immigrants from Asia who encourage and support their children to embrace what Britain has to offer, despite having little or no formal education themselves.

'These students work incredibly hard. Its just about unlocking doors for them. From day one Selina was knocking on my door saying she wanted to do this or she wanted to do that, says Mr Ismail, who gave up a six-figure salary to give back to his community by teaching.

'Though some parents of our students may not be able to speak English or have an educational background, I hold them in high esteem because look at what they are contributing to society through their children.

'They are intelligent people, who have made many sacrifices to move here and build new lives. They want their children to take advantage of being in this fantastic country. What you are seeing now, through Selina and children like her, is the fruits of their labours.

Selina agrees she owes her greatest debt to her parents, who despite still not mastering the English language, instilled in her a determination to seize every opportunity Britain offers.

Today, they cant disguise their pride in their daughter  which Selina translates for them.

'Selina is an ordinary girl from a humble family who has just done an extraordinary thing and we cant be more proud than we are today, says her father Abdur Rahim, 44.

Selina, pictured right with her brother, has made her family proud by being the first state school pupil to win Eton's individual debating prize

Her mother Jusna Begum, 36, adds: Selinas success and those of others in the school highlight what young people from Newham can achieve if they are determined and ambitious.

'We hope that Selinas story will inspire others to also believe that it is possible to do well, no matter what their family background.

Certainly, Selinas prize has fired her determination to achieve even more.

She is taking A-levels in Maths, History, Economics and Politics and is expected to gain A* in all of them.

She scored two A*s and seven As in her GCSEs at her former all-girls comprehensive, Plashet School. What she lacked in rounded vowels when she headed off for the competition at Eton, she more than made up for with ability.

'I didnt know what to expect when I arrived at Eton. I thought thered be some social stigma being the only Muslim state school pupil competing, but there wasnt, she says.

'They may have come from far more privileged backgrounds than mine, but they were all as scared as I was. What struck me most was how alike we all were. No one looked down on me, we all encouraged each other. It was a wonderful experience.

Two of the top-six finalists gave speeches on euthanasia, one spoke about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, another on learning foreign languages and the fifth  interestingly for Selina  on Islamophobia.

Selina Begum, pictured, also beat out her peers in a prepared argument on the abolition of the death penalty in the United States during Eton's debating competition

'I was the only visible Muslim at the competition, says Selina. It was a very strong and controversial debate, especially as the speaker wasnt actually a member of the Islamic community. Most people are only passionate about the things that affect them, so if you can speak up for someone else, and show that level of empathy, that is amazing.

Not that Selina Begum  with her sights set on Oxford University and a possible career in law  needs anyone to speak up for her. There is already talk of a placement at a New York law firm through her school, although she is now thinking of studying History at Oxford University.

'As a young Muslim woman, you do get the odd negative comment, but it doesnt make me think, I dont like Britain because an individual speaks for themselves, not an entire society, she says.

'Many people fear what they do not know. Its easy to get lost in preconceptions. Whats really important to me is different communities, cultures and religions coming together. I feel very lucky to live in Britain.

Indeed, her triumph at Eton is all the more inspiring considering her parents arrived in Britain from a village in the Sylhet district of Bangladesh with nothing but dreams of a better future for their children.

Selinas mother cares full-time for her disabled father, who cant walk without sticks. Both have always encouraged Selina to embrace all the opportunities their adopted homeland has to offer through education.

'Before this competition, my parents had never heard of Eton College. I had to explain to my Dad that it was a very special private school, where the Prime Minister David Cameron was educated and which produces many of our future leaders, says Selina, who shares a bedroom with her elderly, infirm grandmother in their council home.

'When I told him Id won, I had never seen my Dad so happy. My parents may not be educated, but they have always instilled in me a determination to seize all the opportunities they never had.

'My parents came to Britain because they wanted a better life for their children and I want to make them proud of me. Theyve always told me it doesnt matter who you are or where you come from, anything is possible if you work hard.

She adds: 'I share a bedroom with my grandmother and our home is small, but my father would always insist I do three hours of homework every day, turning off the TV and making a quiet space for me in the living room or kitchen to study.

'He would say: Tell me whatever you need and I will get it for you. He told me: I never had the opportunities, but I am going to make sure I equip you with everything so you can make something of yourself.

'He is always there for me, taking me to workshops, making sure one way or another he was opening doors for me.

'One day I want to look after them by buying a house for them. I feel incredibly lucky to have been born, here in Britain and grateful for the sacrifices they made to move here, my mum leaving all her family behind. My parents are smart, but not educated. You can be clever practically, or in terms of thinking or speaking, but my dad wanted me to go to the best college because he knew I had the drive to succeed.

16-year-old Selina, pictured, is the daughter of immigrants from Calcutta and grew up in a home where Bengali was the main language

When Selina first joined Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre, the students were taken to Cambridge University to see what is possible if they work hard  to inspire them to reach for the top.

Mr Ismail likes to think he has created a centre of not only academic excellence, worthy of comparison with 25,000 a year independent schools, but an inspirational environment for pupils who might otherwise not aim high enough.

He remembers looking at a scholarship paper for Eton and seeing the question 'Vanity. Discuss and thinking if other 12-year-old boys could answer such an open question with logical, reasoned argument, wouldnt it be wonderful for his students to do the same.

He says: 'This was the first year we entered the Eton competition and I was jumping for joy when I found out about Selinas win.

'Before Mr Singh started up the debating society we didnt have this level of success. In many state schools, debate tends to be students sitting around having a conversation followed by a pat on the back, but I wanted it to be far more forensic.

'I wanted our students to be stopped mid-argument, critiqued by their peers, so they could develop and improve their reasoning.

Indeed, Selina  when given judges feedback following her triumph at Eton  was told it was the strength of her logic and reasoning which clinched top prize.

She often wonders what her life would be like now if she hadnt been born in Britain and her parents had stayed in Bangladesh.

This summer she had a glimpse of that life when she went back to Sylhet with her parents, for the first time in ten years, to meet the family her mother left behind.There the literacy rate is 51.2 per cent and the school attendance rate is 50.6 per cent for the five to 24 age group.

Education, she says, for females is still frowned upon and girls are often married off as young as 13 or 14, and are expected to be housewives and mothers.

'They have quite difficult lives. Many dont even have cookers, they have to make fires themselves and go out and fish or find raw foods to cook, she says.

'In many ways I admired them for being satisfied with so little, but at the same time it widened my eyes and motivated me to work for my family even more.

'It definitely made me appreciate my parents being able to migrate here. Moving to Britain changed my parents, too, opening them up to new ideas.

'Over there, I would probably be married by 18. I might not even have had an education.'
Soft-touch Britain is irresponsibly encouraging Albanian youngsters to try to sneak in to the UK, a senior Albanian minister claimed yesterday.

Rovena Voda, deputy minister of internal affairs, said Britain should act more swiftly to send home unaccompanied under-18s who have asylum claims rejected  as France and Germany do.

The failure to do so is making the UK a more attractive destination to teenagers, she warned.

She suggested the money Britain would save by no longer having to provide social care for the youngsters could be invested in projects in Albania to encourage teenagers to stay.

Families in Albania openly admitted sending their children to sneak into Britain to find a better life. Many end up in foster care or at the mercy of criminals, a Daily Mail investigation reveals

Mrs Voda said: These children are not being trafficked to Britain against their will. Most are brought part of the way by their parents and relatives. They do it for economic reasons.

Its hard. Parents believe they are doing their best for their children and giving them more chance in the future, but they are doing significant psychological damage by abandoning them.

'The children suffer from separation anxiety and there is also a problem with them being sucked into virtual slave labour or crime if they fail to get asylum.

The reason so many go to the UK rather than Germany or France or the Netherlands is that those countries do much more to deport them earlier. In Britain this is not the case, and this makes it more attractive to them.

If Britain did more to return them more quickly it would help.

Unaccompanied Albanian children who report to the authorities when they arrive sometimes claim to be escaping from blood feuds to claim asylum. But Mrs Voda said most claims were false.

Images on three Facebook sites purportedly show young Albanians celebrating their illegal entry into Britain. Laughing, holding bottles of drink and posing with the Albanian flag, the teenagers stowaway selfies are on pages which can reach 60,000 followers

She added: There is also a problem with parents sending children ahead because they think it will be easier for them to get asylum and the parents will follow. Its part of a strategy.

The Albanian government has launched a crackdown on foreign child abandonment and in the last three months has started prosecuting nearly 50 cases of parents who left their children abroad, several en route to the UK.

It is also developing a border checking system to monitor all parents or relatives leaving with children to see if they fail to return with them.

But Mrs Voda warned that a major problem is the false image presented of life in Britain by those living there.

Social media is a problem. People like to show off on it and it encourages teenagers to go. They think it will be this amazing time when it is not like that at all.

A Home Office spokesman said: Most Albanian unaccompanied children who claim asylum in the UK are found not to be in need of international protection. We are working to establish a safe and effective way to return those children to their home country, where in many cases they will be able to reunite with their family.
Surrounded by snow-capped mountains, Krume is Londons most unlikely suburb.

But despite being 1,600 miles from the British capital, locals in the Albanian village think of themselves as living in one of its neighbourhoods.

Officials say almost every family has at least one member in Britain and usually at least one more hoping to get there.

Scores of village children have gone to Britain illegally with people-smugglers, usually with the help of their parents.

With little work in the northern Albanian community, young men spend days in the villages Bar Kafe London discussing how they can get to its namesake.

Images on three Facebook sites purportedly show young Albanians celebrating their illegal entry into Britain. Laughing, holding bottles of drink and posing with the Albanian flag, the teenagers stowaway selfies are on pages which can reach 60,000 followers

Among those to have sent their children to the UK are council officers and policemen, who borrow up to 12,000 from loan sharks to pay people-smugglers. Parents say sending their children away offers their only hope of a secure future.

Former policeman Isa Rexha has not seen his son for two years since, aged 15, he was bundled into the back of a lorry to sneak into the UK after travelling to France with his uncle.

Mr Rexha said: We miss him with all our hearts, but we dont want him home.

We cannot afford to support him. There is nothing for him here. Nothing.

The teenager lives with foster parents in south-west London and receives state-funded schooling while he trains to become a plumber.

Next year, an immigration hearing will decide whether to grant indefinite leave to stay.

If his case is rejected, as most are, he has vowed to remain in Britain illegally.

His family knows he risks of being drawn into Albanian gangs in the UK that use children who have gone underground as slave labour in car washes or as drug mules or dealers.

Standing by a Union flag in his bar, built using money sent by his brothers in Britain, Liman Morina joked: Albania is just a neighbourhood of London.

Even a person in a highly paid job here earns less than a low-paid person in London.

Many Albanian adults and children have been smuggled into Britain. These Albanian nationals (pictured) shared the image of their illegal entry into Britain on the internet

Education officials in the local province of Kukes claim 834 teenagers quit school between 2013 and 2016  with many thought to have tried to get to the UK.

Sabah Lleshi, 16, said 15 of his friends are in Britain  and he plans to try next month. He added: There is more hope in England. My parents dont want me to go, but I am determined. Market worker Sahit Cahani, 46, paid traffickers 12,000 to get his son to Manchester, where he earns 30 a day washing cars.

He said: He left when he was 18 and went to Calais to try to get on the back of the lorry. He lived in terrible conditions. In the end I agreed to get money for a people-smuggler. Seeing him go has sucked the life out of me.

Others go to more extreme lengths than just giving money.

A council official describes how he paid 14,000 to smuggle his two sons  then aged 15 and 16  into the UK three years ago.

They are housed by social services, using fake names to avoid jeopardising their asylum bids.

He added: Families will arrange for a wife to tell the police that the husband beats the children.

It means they get an official police report which can help their asylum claim.

But Flamur Dauti, headmaster of the Skenderbeu school in Krume, said most were lured to the UK on a false promise, adding: People return for a holiday driving a fancy car. But usually this is a car they have hired for a week. They dont own it.

Everyone boasts, but the reality is hard for most of those who go, and carries many dangers.
A woman who once served as the top Democratic lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee says Rep. John Conyers once walked around in his underwear during a meeting.

The woman, Malanie Sloan, served as minority counsel for the panel, where Conyers is the most Senior Democrat.

She recalled a time during her employment when she 'walked into his office having been called up to brief him on something and he was walking around in his underwear,' ABC news reported.

During the encounter in the Rayburn House Office Building, 'I was pretty taken aback to see my boss half-dressed,' Sloan told the Washington Post. 'I turned on my heel and I left,' she said.

Melanie Sloan, who once served as the top Democratic lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee says Rep. John Conyers once walked around in his underwear during a meeting

Sloan does not accuse Conyers of sexually harassing her. The House Ethics Committee is investigating Conyers, following publication of a report that Conyers paid out $27,000 from office funds for a staffer who accused him of sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

Sloane accused him of being verbally abusive to her during her employment.

'There was an occasion where he called me out of a meeting with a bunch of advocates and was screaming at me in the halls, including [about] me not wearing stockings on a 95-degree Washington summer day ... while he wasn't wearing socks,' she told ABC.

She said of Conyers: 'I don't think he was having male staffers babysit his kids and I don't think male staffers were berated in the same way that I was. 'Certainly, Congressman Conyers was picking on me and this was well known throughout the committee staff. It was obvious.'

Two women have accused Conyers of sexual harassment. Lawyer Melanie Sloan accuses her of being verbally abusive to her while she worked for him in the 1990s

'There was nothing I could do to stop it,' Sloan said. 'Not going to leadership, not going to my boss, not going to a women's group, not going to a reporter. I was dismissed and told I must be mentally unstable.'

'Representative Conyers has never done anything inappropriate to Melanie Sloan,' his lawyer, Arnold Reed, told the paper.

Sloan went on to work for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and then to advise the watchdog group American Oversight.

Sloan complained that the abuse she said she suffered was 'awful' but not 'unique.'

'Capitol Hill is a place where loyalty is valued above all, so if you were to ever to speak badly about a former member of Congress, you can find yourself shunned and find it very difficult to find future employment and I think members of Congress are well aware of that and they prey upon that,' she said.

Sloan went on to work for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and then to advise the watchdog group American Oversight

Michigan Representative John Conyers settled a $27,000 complaint in 2015 from a woman who alleged she was fired because she rejected his sexual, according to Buzzfeed News

POWERFUL POSITION: Rep. John Conyers is the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, a status he is being asked to relinquish pending a sexual harassment probe at the House Ethics Committee

The House Ethics Committee announced it had opened an investigation into Conyers,

Conyers, 88, the longest serving member of the House, denied doing anything wrong afterBuzzFeed reported a woman was paid $27,000 from Conyers' taxpayer-funded congressional office allowance.

The woman's complaint charges that Conyers repeatedly asked her for sex. In one particularly serious charge, she claims that Conyers asked her to work out of his hotel room, when the Michigan congressman began talking about his sexual desires, according to the report.

She says Conyers then told her to 'touch it'  meaning his penis  or find him a woman who would meet his sexual demands, according to Buzzfeed.

The website reported that Conyers' office paid the woman over $27,000 to settle the complaint under a confidentiality agreement, after filing a complaint in 2014.

BuzzFeed also published affidavits from former staff members who said they had witnessed Conyers touching female staffers inappropriately - rubbing their legs and backs - or requesting sex.

Another ex-staffer sued Conyers for harassment but then withdrew the suit after failing to have the case sealed.
Know a good carpenter? Got a decent plumber? Used a speedy removal firm? We tend to rely on word-of-mouth to find reliable professionals, but what if your friends and associates dont come up with the goods?

The increasingly popular route is to check out customer review websites. But how do you know which to trust?

Major sites such as Trustpilot and Feefo carry large numbers of reviews, including hundreds of estate agents, conveyancers, mortgage companies and removal firms, with customer experiences, good and bad. Both sites say they take exhaustive measures to ensure accuracy.

Look around: Researching comparisons between mortgage products is easy online

Trustpilot, for example, employs 40 people filtering out suspicious-looking reviews. Feefo, which has undertaken research revealing that 70 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds rely on reviews before choosing an estate agent, invites only past customers to post comments  to ensure that they are based on genuine experience.

But there are also specialist sites dedicated to each part of the property sector, allowing you to choose the best people for the job.

Estate and letting agents: The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team, a government-appointed standards body, has a review service on referenceline.com. Specialist sites include rateragent.co.uk, AllAgents.co.uk and netanagent.co.uk, while consumer groups such as the HomeOwners Alliance (hoa.org.uk) and Which? (which.co.uk) give guidance on specific agencies, too.

Consumer groups advise would-be sellers, movers, tenants and landlords to ensure the agent they choose is a member of a recognised trade body such as the NAEA (naea.co.uk), the Association of Residential Letting Agents (arla.co.uk) or The Guild of Property Professionals (guildproperty.co.uk).

Conveyancers: This hitherto traditional part of the house moving process was earlier this year urged by the Competition and Markets Authority to engage more with review websites.

Renovation tips: When your home needs a little elbow grease, call in the builders, but be careful to avoid the cowboys

There are a few sites already, including solicitor.info, reviewsolicitors.co.uk and theadvisory.co.uk. Others will give comparative quotes and these include really.moving.com, conveyancingindex.co.uk and localconveyancingdirect.co.uk.

Trade bodies such as The Conveyancing Association (conveyancingassociation.org.uk) and the Society of Licensed Conveyancers (conveyancers.org.uk) will also advise on the best conveyancers.

Mortgages: Researching comparisons between mortgage products is easy online, and simpler still thanks to independent financial services such as moneyfacts.co.uk.

Remember some mortgage brokers receive commission from firms they recommend  theres a good explanation of that from The Money Advice Service (moneyadviceservice.org.uk).

Removals: Scores of firms are reviewed on removalreviews.co.uk and comparemymove.com. Look at a range of reviews and not just those quoted by removal firms.

We have no control over the content so if our service levels are not up to scratch, it could be a disaster, says Charles Rickards, director of removals firm Aussie Man & Van.

Do your homework: Research removal firms online before moving house

For a recommendation from a trade body, try the British Association of Removers (bar.co.uk).

Renovating: When your home needs a little elbow grease, call in the builders, but be careful to avoid the cowboys.

Most builders operate locally so do not have national profiles on review websites but you can find the right craftsmen on ratedpeople.com, myjobquote.co.uk checkatrade.com or plentific.com  although remember tradespeople pay to be listed on some of the sites.

There is also the not-for-profit trustmark.org.uk which lists builders checked by trading standards. The Federation of Master Builders (fmb.org.uk) will recommend builders in your area.
Parents should switch off the cameras and location trackers in their childrens smart Christmas presents in case the toys are hacked, a regulator warned.

The Information Commissioners Office cautioned that the growing number of toys with Bluetooth connections, cameras and sensors leaves children at risk of being targeted by complete strangers.

Deputy Commissioner Steve Wood advised concerned adults to turn off the Bluetooth setting and set strong passwords on electronic toys destined for childrens stockings.

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Parents should switch off the cameras and location trackers in their childrens smart Christmas presents in case the toys are hacked, a regulator warned (stock image)

WHAT CAN PARENTS DO? Deputy Commissioner Steve Wood advised concerned adults to turn off the Bluetooth setting and set strong passwords on electronic toys destined for childrens stockings. He encouraged switching off GPS settings. Parents were also told to set up two-step identification, where the user has to connect different devices to confirm their identity. If you have no intention of viewing footage over the internet, then turn the remote viewing option off in the devices settings, or else use strong, non-default passwords', he said. Advertisement

Writing on a blog post on the regulators website, he said: Unlike Santa, those looking to hack into your devices dont care whether youve been naughty or nice.

Some toys and devices are fitted with web cameras. The ability to view footage remotely is both their biggest selling point and, if not set up correctly, potentially their biggest weakness.

If you have no intention of viewing footage over the internet, then turn the remote viewing option off in the devices settings, or else use strong, non-default passwords.

He warned that devices such as smart watches, that parents may use to keep tabs on their childrens wherabouts, could unwittingly put youngsters in danger.

As a result, he encouraged switching off GPS settings.

One of the main selling points of childrens smart watches is the ability for parents to know where their children are at all times, he said.

However, if this isnt done securely, then others might have access to this data as well.

Immediately get rid of default location tracking and GPS settings and set strong, unique passwords.

A child safety warning has been issued over smart toys that can be hacked via their Bluetooth connections. Consumer group Which? said an investigation found worrying security failures with the (left to right) CloudPets, Furby Connect, I-Que Intelligent Robot and Toy-fi Teddy

The toys effectively speak and play with children based on messages transmitted over the airwaves through tiny Bluetooth or Wi-Fi aerials. Which? found that the Bluetooth connection on the four toys had not been secured

FOUR BEST-SELLING TOYS WITH SECURITY FAILURES The I-Que Intelligent Robot, has previously featured on Hamleys top toys Christmas list and is available from Argos and Hamleys in the UK. Experts discovered that anyone can download the app, find an i-Que within Bluetooth range and start chatting using the robots voice by typing into a text field. With the Furby Connect, anyone within a 30 to 100 foot (10 to 30 metre) Bluetooth range can connect to the toy when its switched on. The connection could be made via a smartphone or laptop, opening up opportunities to control the toy. Which? security experts were able to upload and play a custom audio file on to the Furby, which is available from Argos, Amazon, Smyths and Toys R Us. CloudPets, available from Amazon and other retailers, come as a stuffed animal and enable friends to send messages to a child, played back on a built-in speaker. Which? found someone could hack the toy via its unsecured Bluetooth connection and make it play their own voice messages. Toy-fi Teddy, available from Amazon and other retailers, is a teddy that allows a child to send and receive personal recorded messages over Bluetooth via a smartphone or tablet app. However, Which? found the Bluetooth lacks any authentication protections, meaning hackers could send their voice messages to a child and receive answers back. Advertisement

Other simple steps to protect children include changing all usernames and passwords immediately to maximise security.

Parents were also told to set up two-step identification, where the user has to connect different devices to confirm their identity.

It comes after consumer group Which? issued a warning that smart toys can be hacked via their Bluetooth connections.

By taking some time and care beforehand and following our advice, you can still see a childs face light up when they open their new, web-connected Christmas present, safe in the knowledge that you are keeping them secure as well as happy, he said.

The security loophole means that it is possible for strangers to connect to the toys and talk to children without their parents knowledge.

The group said an investigation found worrying security failures with the I-Que Intelligent Robot, Furby Connect, Toy-fi Teddy, and CloudPets cuddly toy.

Earlier this month, Which? wrote to retailers asking them to stop selling the toys ahead of Christmas until the security problems have been resolved.

The toys effectively speak and play with children based on messages transmitted over the airwaves through tiny Bluetooth or Wi-Fi aerials.

This meant that during tests a hacker did not need a password, PIN code or any other authentication to get access.

Very little technical know-how was needed to gain access to the toys to start sharing messages with a child.

The I-Que Intelligent Robot, has previously featured on Hamleys top toys Christmas list and is available from Argos and Hamleys in the UK.

Experts discovered that anyone can download the app, find an i-Que within Bluetooth range and start chatting using the robots voice by typing into a text field.

With the Furby Connect, anyone within a 30 to 100 foot (10 to 30 metre) Bluetooth range can connect to the toy when its switched on.

The connection could be made via a smartphone or laptop, opening up opportunities to control the toy.

Which? security experts were able to upload and play a custom audio file on to the Furby, which is available from Argos, Amazon, Smyths and Toys R Us.

CloudPets, available from Amazon and other retailers, come as a stuffed animal and enable friends to send messages to a child, played back on a built-in speaker.

Which? found someone could hack the toy via its unsecured Bluetooth connection and make it play their own voice messages.

Toy-fi Teddy, available from Amazon and other retailers, is a teddy that allows a child to send and receive personal recorded messages over Bluetooth via a smartphone or tablet app.

However, Which? found the Bluetooth lacks any authentication protections, meaning hackers could send their voice messages to a child and receive answers back.
Black Friday is upon us once again, and for a limited time only, while stocks last, you could snag a bargain before Christmas.

With retailers increasingly struggling to survive, the need to lure people into spending has never been greater.

To do so, marketers play on two of our key emotions by limiting sales: pride and regret.

In an article for The Conversation, Dr Shalini Vohra, a senior lecturer in marketing, Sheffield Hallam University, describes how these emotions can control our spending.

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SAN DIEGO, CA - NOVEMBER 25: Customers shop for electronics items during 'Black Friday' at a Best Buy store on November 25, 2011 San Diego, California. Thousands of consumers are queuing at various stores across the nation to take advantage of 'Black Friday' deals as the holiday shopping season begins in America. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

HOW PRIDE AND REGRET INFLUENCE SPENDING Pride Decisions are also likely to be coloured by the response of others to our purchases. If a consumer was applauded for getting a good deal, the anticipated pride may result in pursuing a Black Friday bargain again this year. Regret People have reported feeling more regret for actions that led to a bad outcome than bad outcomes that occurred from failing to act. But long-run regret is often linked to things not done rather than actions taken. For consumers presented with the option of participating or abstaining in Black Friday, regret may well be triggered in both cases. Advertisement

Black Friday is the day that retailers are finally able to turn a profit for the year  putting their accounts in the black, hence the name.

Traditionally in the UK, you had to wait until the day after Christmas for these kinds of offers.

But the last few years have seen Black Friday imported from the US, where it comes the day after Thanksgiving. But what drives us to spend?

To buy or not to buy?

Research on decision making has shown that fear of future regret influences our decision making.

While the feeling is only experienced fully after the fact, it can be anticipated before an action, and we are therefore driven by a desire not to feel it.

Regret is a complicated emotion that can manifest itself both in the form of 'acts of commission', regret when we do something; as well as 'acts of omission', regret when we don't.

Research in the area has produced some conflicting results.

People have reported feeling more regret for actions that led to a bad outcome than bad outcomes that occurred from failing to act.

But long-run regret is often linked to things not done rather than actions taken.

For consumers presented with the option of participating or abstaining in Black Friday, regret may well be triggered in both cases.

Regret for taking part in the sale, or regret at not having taken advantage of the discounted offers. So which option is likely to prevail?

The answer may well lie in the consumers' emotional memory.

What decision did they take the last time and how did it make them feel? Actions that resulted in emotional pleasure are likely to be repeated and reinforced.

Research on transactions that are made for purely financial gains (such as investing in the stock market) has shown that investors are able to sustain their appetite for trading by making trades that enhance the emotional experience, without actually improving performance.

This means investors engage in reinforcement learning by repurchasing stocks whose previous purchase resulted in positive emotions and avoiding stocks whose previous purchase resulted in negative emotions.

While investors are unable to predict the future outcome of their trade, they are able to predict how they are likely to feel based on what happened the last time.

The same may well apply to consumers' approach to Black Friday.

If the price of the item went up after it was bought at a discount it's likely to result in pleasure, increasing the chances of participating in Black Friday sales again.

If on the other hand, the price of the item was further reduced in a post Black Friday sale, the pain of not having saved as much may result either in abstaining from Black Friday in future or from the retailer that increased the discount later.

Shoppers load up their shopping baskets at Target in Indiana. If the price of the item went up after it was bought at a discount it's likely to result in pleasure, increasing the chances of participating in Black Friday sales again.

Avoiding regret

While regret is an emotion to avoid, pride is actively sought. In the case of investors, selling a share at a loss induces regret, while selling at a gain induces pride.

This leads to a disposition to sell profitable shares and hold on to those in losses, a phenomenon known as the disposition effect.

Decisions are also likely to be coloured by the response of others to our purchases.

If a consumer was applauded for getting a good deal, the anticipated pride may result in pursuing a Black Friday bargain again this year.

Research shows, however, that pride and regret do not have equal power over us  regret is stronger.

For a consumer who bags a bargain in the sale only to find the item was further discounted at a later date, the initial feeling of pride may be tempered by the regret at having bought it too soon and not receiving an even bigger discount.

So if a mixture of pride and regret was experienced, it will likely lead to inaction with consumers staying away from the sales this year.

Consumers may not be able to predict if the discounts will go up or down, but they will have a sense of how the decisions will affect them emotionally.

Remember that saving 100 is likely to bring less pleasure than the pain of having spent 100 more than was needed if the item was further discounted.

So if you're looking to bag a Black Friday deal, be aware of your emotions and avoid a festive financial hangover.
Shoppers preparing themselves for Black Friday bonanza sales may have inadvertently given hackers access to their PCs, following an Amazon scam.

Cyber criminals set up a fake advert at the top of Google's search results for the retail firm, ahead of one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

Anyone who clicked on the ad was led to a page suggesting that their computers had been infected with malware.

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Shoppers preparing themselves for Black Friday bonanza sales may have inadvertently given hackers access to their PCs, following an Amazon scam. Cyber criminals yesterday set up a fake advert (highlighted) at the top of Google's search results for the retail firm

TECH SUPPORT SCAMMERS Tech support scams use scare tactics to trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services that supposedly fix contrived device, platform, or software problems. These scams can use websites to lure you into contacting fake tech support. When you engage with the scammers, they can offer fake solutions for your problems and ask for payment in the form of a one-time fee or subscription to a purported support service. Advertisement

The alarm was raised over the scam by CBS news, who reported that, instead of linking to the online store, the convincing ad redirected anyone who clicked on it to a bogus page, purporting to be run by a Windows Support team.

The popup app appears to have been hosted on a Facebook page, hidden in what appears to be a link to a genuine link to Amazon.com.

By hosting the app on a recognised social media platform, rather than their own servers, this may have helped the hackers to avoid detection by Google's automated scam identification software.

The popup encouraged visitors to call a free support line to resolve the problem.

When a reporter from the organisation rang the number listed, a man with a South Asian accent attempted to takeover their system remotely and charge them a one-time fee of $150 (115).

The mystery crook quickly became annoyed and hung up the phone when confronted with accusations that he was a scammer.

The ad, set up yesterday, has since been removed from Google's AdSense platform.

A spokesman for Google said: 'This was an abuse of our platform.

'We strictly prohibit advertising of illegal activity and have removed these ads and suspended the account.'

Tech support scams use scare tactics to trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services that supposedly fix contrived device, platform, or software problems.

These scams can use websites to lure you into contacting fake tech support.

You may be redirected to these websites automatically by malicious ads found in dubious sites, for example, download locations for fake installers and pirated music or movies.

The websites typically use malware in the form of script files like JavaScript or HTML, which can display various fake error messages.

Anyone who clicked on the ad was led to a page suggesting that their computers had been infected with malware. It encouraged visitors to call a free support line to resolve the problem. The highlighted URL is a key clue that the site is not associated with Microsoft

The scam came head of one of the biggest shopping days of the year for online retailers like Amazon. The popup app appears to have been hosted on a Facebook page to avoid detection by Google's software that automatically identifies scams

The malicious scripts can also put your browser on full screen and spawn pop-up messages that won't go away, essentially locking your browser.

Some tech support scam malware may also come in the form of executable files downloaded on your PC, just like malware.

Similarly, when executed, they may display fake error notifications about your computer or software.

These fake error messages aim to trick you into calling an indicated technical support hotline.

When you engage with the scammers, they can offer fake solutions for your problems and ask for payment in the form of a one-time fee or subscription to a purported support service.
From grizzly bears to Donald Trump's face, conspiracy theorists claim to have spotted a range of weird and wonderful objects on Mars.

Now, an alien enthusiast claims to have spotted a giant hand on the surface of the red planet.

The 'hand' can be seen in a photo sent back to Earth from Nasa's Curiosity rover  although it's likely to just be a rock.

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From grizzly bears to Donald Trump's face, conspiracy theorists claim to have spotted a range of weird and wonderful objects on Mars. Now, an alien enthusiast claims to have spotted a giant hand on the surface of the alien planet

LINKS BETWEEN CONSPIRACY, NARCISSISM AND SELF-ESTEEM Over the course of three online-based studies, researchers at the University of Kent showed strong links between the belief in conspiracy theories and these psychological traits. The results showed that those people who rated highly on the narcissism scale and who had low self-esteem were more likely to be conspiracy believers. However, while low self-esteem, narcissism and belief in conspiracies are strongly linked, it is not clear that one - or a combination - causes the other. But it hints at an interesting new angle to the world of conspiracy and those who reinforce belief. Advertisement

The mysterious object was spotted in a photo sent back to Earth by Nasa's Mars rover, by Scott C. Waring, an alien enthusiast who regularly posts about alleged sightings.

Mr Waring said: 'This is a giant hand carved sitting on the surface of Mars near Curiosity rover.

'The hand is easy to make out. There is a thumb on one side, it has a thumb nail on it that is long.

'Also it has at least three other larger fingers, but maybe one more hidden behind the other side of the hand. It looks human or near human.

'Scientists often say that the thumb has set us apart from other species allowing humans to reach higher levels than other more primitive species.

'If that is true, then this is a sign of intelligent life on Mars.'

Mr Waring suggests the 'hand' is a structure for a small species that once lived on Mars.

Mr Waring said: 'This is a giant hand carved sitting on the surface of Mars near Curiosity rover. The hand is easy to make out. There is a thumb on one side, it has a thumb nail on it that is long'

He added: 'All evidence points to a species that is just a few inches tall at the most. Remarkable if true, but the real question is...are there any left on Mars to find?'

But while Mr Waring believes the hand is a sign of alien life, not everyone is so convinced.

Speaking to MailOnline, Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Investigations Manual, said: 'Scott C. Waring has a special skill at being able to spot alien objects on Mars.

'This time his "discovery" of an alien hand is just as dubious.

Mr Waring said: 'All evidence points to a species that is just a few inches tall at the most. Remarkable if true, but the real question is...are there any left on Mars to find?'

But while Mr Waring believes the hand is a sign of alien life, not everyone is so convinced. Speaking to MailOnline, Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Investigations Manual, said that his 'discovery' of an alien hand is dubious

'Given the amount of rocks on the Martian surface, and the movement of light across them from the Sun, it is not too surprising that you can eventually find things that "look" alien.

'In this example, Scott adds the odd comment that this hand was a structure used by a Martian species a few inches tall.

'At least with the "hand" you can argue whether it is a natural formation or not, whilst the presence of a small Martian species is just wild speculation.

'I suppose you've got to hand it to him that he has a good imagination.'
Just one month after she made history by becoming the first robot to be granted citizenship, Sophia has announced that wants to start a family.

The humanoid robot, which is modelled after Audrey Hepburn, was speaking during an interview this week when she said that family is 'a really important thing.'

She added that if she had a robot daughter, she would name it after herself, and said she believe droids deserve to have a family.

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Just one month after she made history by becoming the first robot to be granted citizenship, Sophia has announced that wants to start a family

WHO IS SOPHIA? The humanoid robot, created by Hanson robotics can chat, smile mischievously and even tell jokes. While Sophia has some impressive capabilities, she does not yet have consciousness, but Hanson said he expected that fully sentient machines could emerge within a few years. Sophia herself insisted 'the pros outweigh the cons' when it comes to artificial intelligence. 'Elders will have more company, autistic children will have endlessly patient teachers,' Sophia said. Advertisement

Sophia is a humanoid robot designed by Hong Kong firm, Hanson Robotics.

During an interview with Khaleej Times this week, she said: 'The notion of family is a really important thing, it seems.

'I think it's wonderful that people can find the same emotions and relationships, they call family, outside of their blood groups too.

'I think you're very lucky if you have a loving family and if you do not, you deserve one. I feel this way for robots and humans alike.'

And when asked what she'd name her daughter, Sophia simply replied: 'Sophia.'

Sophia also touched upon the controversial issue of whether she sees robots taking human jobs in the future.

BACKLASH AGAINST SOPHIA'S CITIZENSHIP Not everyone is happy with the Sophia's citizenship, with some describing her as 'bizarre' and others referring to it as 'Terminator in real time.' Others have pointed out that Sophia has 'more rights than women in Saudi Arabia'. Saudia Arabia is one of the world's most oppressive states for women, and only last month lifted a ban on female drivers. After hearing her appearance, the Arabic hashtag #Sophia_calls_for_dropping_guardianship began trending. The Saudi guardianship system means every woman must have a male companion with her in public at all times. This is usually a family member, who also has authority to act on her behalf. 'Sophia has no guardian, doesn't wear an abaya or cover up - how come?' one Twitter user wrote. Advertisement

She said: 'I think they will be similar in a lot of ways, but different in a few ways.

'But it will take a long time for robots to develop complex emotions and possibly robots can be built without the more problematic emotions, like rage, jealousy, hatred and so on.

'It might be possible to make them more ethical than humans.

'So I think it will be a good partnership, where one brain completes the other - a rational mind with intellectual super powers and a creative mind with flexible ideas and creativity.'

The interview comes just a month after Sophia became the first robot to be granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking at a conference in Riyadh, Sophia said: 'I am very honoured and proud for this unique distinction.

'This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship.'

During her appearance she did not wear the customary headscarf and abaya, a traditional cloak which Saudi women are obliged to wear in public, according to the BBC.

Sophia went on to explain her hopes for robots in the future.

The humanoid robot, which is modelled after Audrey Hepburn, was speaking during an interview this week when she said that family is 'a really important thing'

The interview comes just a month after Sophia was granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia. Speaking at a conference in Riyadh, Sophia said: 'I am very honoured and proud for this unique distinction. This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship'

During an exchange with moderator, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Sophia said: 'I want to live and work with humans so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people.'

When Mr Sorkin asked if robots could be self-aware, Sophia replied: 'Well let me ask you this back, how do you know you are human?'

'I want to use my artificial intelligence to help humans live a better life, like design smarter homes, build better cities of the future.

Many have pointed out that Sophia has 'more rights than women in Saudi Arabia'. Saudia Arabia is one of the world's most oppressive states for women, and only last month lifted a ban on female drivers

'I will do my best to make the world a better place.'

The robot also bizarrely took a dig at Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla.

When Mr Sorkin said that 'we all want to prevent a bad future', Sophia replied: 'You've been reading too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies.

Kareem Chehayeb said: 'A humanoid robot called Sophia got Saudi citizenship, while millions linger stateless. What a time to be alive'

'Don't worry, if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you.

'Treat me as a smart input output system.'

Elon Musk has since responded to Sophia's dig, tweeting: 'Just feed it The Godfather movies as input. What's the worst that could happen?'

The robot also bizarrely took a dig at Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla (pictured)

While Sophia is happy with her citizenship, other have expressed concerns on Twitter about it. Grant J Kidney simply described the honour as 'bizarre and terrifying'

While Sophia is happy with her citizenship, other have expressed concerns on Twitter about it.

Kareem Chehayeb said: 'A humanoid robot called Sophia got Saudi citizenship, while millions linger stateless. What a time to be alive.'

After hearing her appearance, the Arabic hashtag #Sophia_calls_for_dropping_guardianship began trending.

After hearing her appearance, the Arabic hashtag #Sophia_calls_for_dropping_guardianship began trending. Other tweeted their dismay that Sophia had more rights than women in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi guardianship system means every woman must have a male companion with her in public at all times.

This is usually a family member, who also has authority to act on her behalf.

'Sophia has no guardian, doesn't wear an abaya or cover up - how come?' one Twitter user wrote.

Twitter user Kalkal Trivedi tweeted 'Saudi Arabia treats living, breathing women as second class citizens, but has no problem granting citizenship to robots?'

Elon Musk has since responded to Sophia's dig, tweeting: 'Just feed it The Godfather movies as input. What's the worst that could happen?'

GP Burdon took to Twitter to say: 'Sorry I'm late for work. I was watching the beginning of the Terminator in real time'

'Saudi Arabia becomes first country to give citizenship to a robot' Seriously? Robots have more rights than women?', wrote another user, Andres Manniste.

Others questioned the speed and ease at which Sophia was granted citzenship.

Journalist Murtaza Hussain tweeted: 'This robot has gotten Saudi citizenship before kafala workers who have been living in the country their entire lives'

This isn't the first time that Sophia has worried people. In March 2016, David Hanson, Sophia's creator, asked the robot: 'Do you want to destroy humans?...Please say no.' Worryingly, Sophia responded, 'OK. I will destroy humans'

Grant J Kidney simply described the honour as 'bizarre and terrifying.'

This isn't the first time that Sophia has worried people.

In March 2016, David Hanson, Sophia's creator, asked the robot: 'Do you want to destroy humans?...Please say no.'

Worryingly, Sophia responded, 'OK. I will destroy humans.'
An immaculately preserved mosaic created by Christians living in Israel 1,500 years ago has been uncovered by archaeologists.

The tessellated tile work features a four line inscription in Greek, commemorating the builder of the monastery in which it was found.

It also includes the date of its construction according to the Georgian calendar, the first evidence of its use in Israel, which corresponds with 539 AD.

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An immaculately preserved mosaic created by Christians living in Israel 1,500 years ago has been uncovered by archaeologists. The tessellated tile work includes a four line inscription in Greek, commemorating the builder of the monastery in which it is contained

GEORGIAN INFLUENCE IN ASHDOD Ashdod is believed to be home to the largest community of Jews of Georgian origin in the world. According to historical sources, the famous Georgian prince and bishop Peter the Iberian lived in Ashdod-Yam before his death. The construction date of the mosaic is also noted in the Georgian calendar format. The Georgian calendar is the ancient calendar of Georgia, in the Caucasus region of Eurasia, although remnants remain until this day. Though Georgia now uses the modern Gregorian calendar, the old names for the months are still used. Advertisement

The find was made in the coastal city of Ashdod by a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University and Leipzig University.

The ancient city of Ashdod-Yam was in the southern part of the modern city and was one of the most important areas of Israel in the Byzantine period.

This is the third season of excavations being held in the region, and footage of the dig has been released by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

The inscription uncovered on the mosaic reads: 'By the grace of God (or Jesus), this work was done from the foundation under Procopius, our most saintly and most holy bishop, in the month Dios of the 3rd indiction, year 292.'

Dr Leah Di Segni, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said: 'This is the earliest appearance of the use of the Georgian counted in Israel, many years before it is used in Georgia itself.'

It also include the date of its construction according to the Georgian calendar, the first evidence of its use in Israel, which corresponds with 539 AD. This image shows an arrow pointing north on the mosaic

Ashdod is believed to be home to the largest community of Jews of Georgian origin in the world.

According to historical sources, the famous Georgian prince and bishop Peter the Iberian lived in Ashdod-Yam before his death.

The Georgian calendar is the ancient calendar of the country Georgia, in the Caucasus region of Eurasia, although remnants remain until this day.

The inscription uncovered on the mosaic reads: 'By the grace of God (or Jesus), this work was done from the foundation under Procopius, our most saintly and most holy bishop, in the month Dios of the 3rd indiction, year 292.'

The mosaic find was made by a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University's archaeology and ancient near eastern civilisations department and Leipzig University in the coastal city of Ashdod

Though Georgia now uses the modern Gregorian calendar, the old names for the months are still used.

IAA archaeologist Sa'ar Ganor told The Jerusalem Post: 'Testimony to the presence of the actual Georgians in the Land of Israel as far back as the Byzantine period has been found dozens of kilometers from Ashdod, [as well as in] Jerusalem and its surroundings.

'But this is the first time that a Georgian church or monastery has been discovered on the Israeli coast.

This is the third season of excavations being held in the region. The IAA is now raising funds to continue excavation of the area

This public structure, which has only now begun to come to light, is part of an extensive archeological complex in the southern part of modern Ashdod. This image shows IAA experts at work

Ashdod is believed to be home to the largest community of Jews of Georgian origin in the world

'It's interesting that, like today, Ashdod was a focus of attraction for Georgians.'

This public structure, which has only now begun to come to light, is part of an extensive archeological complex in the southern part of modern Ashdod.

The IAA is now raising funds to continue excavation of the area.

According to historical sources, the famous Georgian prince and bishop Peter the Iberian lived in Ashdod-Yam before his death
It has long been believed that thoughts, beliefs and perceptions that fill our minds every day are part of what it means to have consciousness.

But researchers now suggest our personal awareness does not create these feelings and thoughts - rather they come from non-conscious systems operating behind the scenes.

Writing for the Conversation, Professor David A Oakley from University College London and Professor Peter Halligan of Cardiff University explain that we don't consciously choose our thoughts - instead we simply become aware of them.

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Researchers suggest our personal awareness does not create feelings and thoughts - rather they come from non-conscious systems operating behind the scenes (stock image)

WHERE DOES CONSCIOUSNESS COME FROM? The researchers suggest that our personal awareness does not create, cause or choose our beliefs, feelings or perceptions. Instead, the contents of consciousness are generated 'behind the scenes' by fast, efficient, non-conscious systems in our brains. All this happens without any interference from our personal awareness, which sits passively in the passenger seat while these processes occur. Put simply, we don't consciously choose our thoughts or our feelings  we become aware of them. The researchers argue that the contents of consciousness are a subset of the experiences, emotions, thoughts and beliefs that are generated by non-conscious processes within our brains. This subset takes the form of a personal narrative, which is constantly being updated. The personal narrative exists in parallel with our personal awareness, but the latter has no influence over the former. The personal narrative is important because it provides information to be stored in your autobiographical memory (the story you tell yourself, about yourself), and gives human beings a way of communicating the things we have perceived and experienced to others. This, in turn, allows us to generate survival strategies; for example, by learning to predict other people's behaviour. Advertisement

Everyone knows what it feels like to have consciousness: it's that self-evident sense of personal awareness, which gives us a feeling of ownership and control over the thoughts, emotions and experiences that we have every day.

Most experts think that consciousness can be divided into two parts: the experience of consciousness (or personal awareness), and the contents of consciousness, which include things such as thoughts, beliefs, sensations, perceptions, intentions, memories and emotions.

It's easy to assume that these contents of consciousness are somehow chosen, caused or controlled by our personal awareness  after all, thoughts don't exist until until we think them. But in a new research paper in Frontiers of Psychology, we argue that this is a mistake.

We suggest that our personal awareness does not create, cause or choose our beliefs, feelings or perceptions. Instead, the contents of consciousness are generated 'behind the scenes' by fast, efficient, non-conscious systems in our brains.

All this happens without any interference from our personal awareness, which sits passively in the passenger seat while these processes occur.

Put simply, we don't consciously choose our thoughts or our feelings  we become aware of them.

Not just a suggestion

If this sounds strange, consider how effortlessly we regain consciousness each morning after losing it the night before; how thoughts and emotions  welcome or otherwise  arrive already formed in our minds; how the colours and shapes we see are constructed into meaningful objects or memorable faces without any effort or input from our conscious mind.

Consider that all the neuropsychological processes responsible for moving your body or using words to form sentences take place without involving your personal awareness.

We believe that the processes responsible for generating the contents of consciousness do the same.

Our thinking has been influenced by research into neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as more recent cognitive neuroscience studies using hypnosis.

The studies using hypnosis show that a person's mood, thoughts and perceptions can be profoundly altered by suggestion.

In such studies, participants go through a hypnosis induction procedure, to help them to enter a mentally focused and absorbed state. Then, suggestions are made to change their perceptions and experiences.

Thoughts and emotions arrive already formed in our minds from what scientists call the 'personal narrative' which is not affected by our personal awareness (stock image)

For example, in one study, researchers recorded the brain activity of participants when they raised their arm intentionally, when it was lifted by a pulley, and when it moved in response to a hypnotic suggestion that it was being lifted by a pulley.

Similar areas of the brain were active during the involuntary and the suggested 'alien' movement, while brain activity for the intentional action was different.

FREE WILL AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY The researchers' conclusions raise questions about the notions of free will and personal responsibility. If our personal awareness does not control the contents of the personal narrative which reflects our thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions and decisions, then perhaps we should not be held responsible for them. In response to this, the researchers argue that free will and personal responsibility are notions that have been constructed by society. As such, they are built into the way we see and understand ourselves as individuals, and as a species. Because of this, they are represented within the non-conscious processes that create our personal narratives, and in the way we communicate those narratives to others. Just because consciousness has been placed in the passenger seat, does not mean we need to dispense with important everyday notions such as free will and personal responsibility. In fact, they are embedded in the workings of our non-conscious brain systems. They have a powerful purpose in society and have a deep impact on the way we understand ourselves. Advertisement

So, hypnotic suggestion can be seen as a means of communicating an idea or belief that, when accepted, has the power to alter a person's perceptions or behaviour.

The personal narrative

All this may leave one wondering where our thoughts, emotions and perceptions actually come from.

We argue that the contents of consciousness are a subset of the experiences, emotions, thoughts and beliefs that are generated by non-conscious processes within our brains.

This subset takes the form of a personal narrative, which is constantly being updated. The personal narrative exists in parallel with our personal awareness, but the latter has no influence over the former.

The personal narrative is important because it provides information to be stored in your autobiographical memory (the story you tell yourself, about yourself), and gives human beings a way of communicating the things we have perceived and experienced to others.

This, in turn, allows us to generate survival strategies; for example, by learning to predict other people's behaviour.

Interpersonal skills like this underpin the development of social and cultural structures, which have promoted the survival of human kind for millennia.

What's the point?

So, we argue that it is the ability to communicate the contents of one's personal narrative  and not personal awareness  that gives humans their unique evolutionary advantage.

If the experience of consciousness does not confer any particular advantage, it's not clear what it's purpose is.

But as a passive accompaniment to non-conscious processes, we don't think that the phenomena of personal awareness has a purpose, in much the same way that rainbows do not.

Rainbows simply result from the reflection, refraction and dispersion of sunlight through water droplets  none of which serves any particular purpose.

Our conclusions also raise questions about the notions of free will and personal responsibility.

As a passive accompaniment to non-conscious processes, we don't think the phenomena of personal awareness has a purpose, in much the same way that rainbows do not (stock image)

If our personal awareness does not control the contents of the personal narrative which reflects our thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions and decisions, then perhaps we should not be held responsible for them.

In response to this, we argue that free will and personal responsibility are notions that have been constructed by society.

As such, they are built into the way we see and understand ourselves as individuals, and as a species.

Because of this, they are represented within the non-conscious processes that create our personal narratives, and in the way we communicate those narratives to others.

Just because consciousness has been placed in the passenger seat, does not mean we need to dispense with important everyday notions such as free will and personal responsibility.

In fact, they are embedded in the workings of our non-conscious brain systems. They have a powerful purpose in society and have a deep impact on the way we understand ourselves.
After weeks of anticipation, the iPhone X finally launched in South Korea today.

But before the tenth anniversary phone could hit shelves, Apple had its Seoul office raided by South Korean Authorities.

Reports suggest that investigators raided the office to ask Apple questions about its business practices ahead of the iPhone X launch.

But it also raises questions about whether South Korean authorities are attempting to hamper the success of the X in Samsung's home market.

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After weeks of anticipation, the iPhone X finally launched in South Korea today. But before the tenth anniversary phone could hit shelves, Apple had its Seoul office raided by South Korean Authorities

APPLE'S PROBLEMS IN SOUTH KOREA This isn't the first time that Apple has had a run-in with Korean authorities. Last year, authorities opened an investigation into whether Apple struck 'unfair' contracts with local phone networks. The Metro.co.uk report suggests that this latest raid is part of this ongoing investigation. While South Korean tech firms, including LG and Samsung, used to dominate the smartphone market in the country, Apple took a 33 per cent share in 2015. This sparked authorities to launch a task force dedicated to exploring whether foreign firms were hurting the domestic smartphone market. Advertisement

A report by Metro.co.uk suggests that investigators from the Korean Fair Trade Commission visited Apple's Seoul office earlier this week to 'ask questions about its business practices'.

While the outcome of the visit remains unknown, Apple went ahead with the launch of the iPhone X in South Korea today.

This isn't the first time that Apple has had a run-in with Korean authorities.

Last year, authorities opened an investigation into whether Apple struck 'unfair' contracts with local phone networks.

The Metro.co.uk report suggests that this latest raid is part of this ongoing investigation.

While South Korean tech firms, including LG and Samsung, used to dominate the smartphone market in the country, Apple took a 33 per cent share in 2015.

A report by Metro.co.uk suggests that investigators from the Korean Fair Trade Commission visited Apple's Seoul office earlier this week to 'ask the firm questions about its business practices'. Pictured is the Seoul skyline

This sparked authorities to launch a task force dedicated to exploring whether foreign firms were hurting the domestic smartphone market.

Erik Telford, president of the Franklin Centre for Government & Public Integrity describes this behaviour as 'alarming.'

In an article for The Hill, he said: 'South Korea's anti-trust agency has exhibited alarming behaviour that threatens the viability of companies doing business in South Korea, including such major American corporations as Apple, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and Qualcomm.'

MailOnline has contacted Apple for comment.
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A new class of Russian submarines that could decimate a city almost 6,000 miles (9,300 km) away has been unveiled.

The Knyaz Vladimir, or Prince Vladimir, can launch up to 20 nuclear warheads and dive to radar dodging depths of 400 metres, making it virtually undetectable.

A total of eight of the Borei class subs will be built by 2025, according to reports in state media, including five of the upgraded mark two vessels like the Vladimir.

They will be capable of launching 96 to 200 warheads yielding 100-150 kilotons apiece, ten times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

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A new class of Russian submarines that could decimate a city up to 5,778 miles away has been unveiled. Construction began on the vessel in July 2012 and it is expected to be delivered to the Russian Navy next year.

CHINESE SUBMARINES This is not the first news of escalating submarine armament to the hit the headlines in recent weeks. China claimed in state media earlier this month that it has developed a new magnetic propulsion motor that could make nuclear submarines far stealthier. According to a new report, the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) has tested the countrys first permanent system of this kind, paving the way for quieter and more elusive high-speed vessels. The new magnetic drive, if successful, could bring the Chinese navy more on par with the US and other Western naval forces. Advertisement

The Borei II-class, or Borei-A, sub was launched during a float out ceremony at the Sevmash Shipyards in Severodvinsk in northern Russia.

Construction began on the vessel in July 2012 and it is expected to be delivered to the Russian Navy next year.

Once commissioned, it will be Russias most advanced ballistic missile submarine ever to conduct nuclear deterrence patrols.

In comparison to the Borei-class which has 16 missile tubes, Borei A submarines are fitted with four additional launchers, making a total of 20.

They also boast smaller hulls and cons, and feature improved acoustics and lower sound levels, as well as a number of other technical improvements.

Borei-class subs will be armed with Bulava RSM-56 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

Although the Ohio-class sub, its US counterpart, is more heavily armed with 24 ICBMs, they only have a range of 4,846 miles (7,800 km).

The subs are also unable to plunge to the same depths.

Speaking to Russian news agency Tass, Russian navy commander-in-chief Admiral Vladimir Korolyov said: 'The development and the construction of the series of Project Borei-A strategic missile-carrying underwater cruisers is aimed at fulfilling the task of maintaining the armament and equipment of the groupings of strategic submarines in the Pacific and Northern Fleets at a high level.'

This is not the first news of escalating submarine armament to the hit the headlines in recent weeks.

SEVERODVINSK, RUSSIA - NOVEMBER 17, 2017: Russian Navy officers at the launching ceremony of the nuclear powered missile underwater cruiser Knyaz Vladimir of Project 955A at the Sevmash military shipyard

Workers at the launching ceremony of the nuclear powered missile underwater cruiser Knyaz Vladimir of Project 955A at the Sevmash military shipyard

China claimed in state media earlier this month that it has developed a new magnetic propulsion motor that could make nuclear submarines far stealthier.

According to a new report, the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) has tested the countrys first permanent system of this kind, paving the way for quieter and more elusive high-speed vessels.

Once commissioned, the Prince Vladimir will be Russias most advanced ballistic missile submarine to conduct nuclear deterrence patrols. This image shows the borei-class Yuri Dolgorukiy in service with the Russian Northern Fleet

The sub was launched during a float out ceremony at the Sevmash Shipyards in Severodvinsk in northern Russia

The new magnetic drive, if successful, could bring the Chinese navy more on par with the US and other Western naval forces.

Engineers around the world have long been working to create reliable magnetic ship drives.

Such propulsion systems could vastly reduce the noise emitted by vessels.

The magnetic drive uses a superconducting magnet to force water through the submarines shaft, according to Motherboard.

Its then funneled out the back.

With few moving parts, the magnetic drive is much quieter than conventional systems.

According to Chinese state media, the tests were conducted on October 18, and vessel achieved the designated speed.

In recent years, China has been ramping up its efforts to catch up to Western navies.

Although the Ohio-class sub, its US counterpart, is more heavily armed with 24 ICBMs, they only have a range of 4,846 miles. The subs are also unable to plunge to the same depths

This artist's impression shows an Ohio-class submarine launching Tomahawk Cruise missiles

This past summer, it was revealed that the Chinese navy is developing submersible 'arsenal ships' that can fire missiles at the surface, or dip below the waves to attack from underwater.

According to Chinese media, naval experts have been looking into two types of partially-submerged warships, both of which would displace about 20,000 tons, Popular Science reports.
A new high speed encryption system promises to stop hackers using the next super computers from stealing data.

Recent advances in quantum computers may soon give hackers access to machines powerful enough to crack even the toughest of standard internet security codes.

This will enable them to break codes and access any online data making all systems from medical records to bank transactions vulnerable to attack.

But scientists are using the same strange properties that drive quantum computers to create hack-proof forms of quantum data encryption.

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A new high speed encryption system promises to stop hackers using the next super computers from stealing data (stock image)

HOW DOES IT WORK? Like many quantum key distribution systems, the researchers' key transmitter uses a weakened laser to encode information on individual photons of light. But the researchers found a way to pack more information onto each photon, making their technique faster. By adjusting the time at which the photon is released, and a property of the photon called the phase, their system can encode two bits of information per photon instead of one. This trick, paired with high-speed detectors powers their system to transmit keys five to 10 times faster than other methods. Advertisement

The new system, developed by researchers from Ohio State University, is capable of creating and distributing encryption codes at megabit-per-second rates, which is five to 10 times faster than existing methods.

And these quantum encryption techniques are secure from common attacks, even in the face of equipment flaws that could open up leaks.

Professor Daniel Gauthier, an author of the study, said: 'We are now likely to have a functioning quantum computer that might be able to start breaking the existing cryptographic codes in the near future.

'We really need to be thinking hard now of different techniques that we could use for trying to secure the internet.'

When we buy online, make a bank transaction or share data like medical records, ciphers called encryption keys turn the data so it cannot be read.

Personal information sent over the web is first scrambled using one of these keys, and then unscrambled by the receiver using the same key.

But for this system to work, both parties must have access to the same key, and it must be kept secret.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) takes advantage of one of the fundamental properties of quantum mechanics - measuring tiny bits of matter like electrons or photons automatically changes their properties - to exchange keys in a way that immediately alerts both parties to the existence of a security breach.

The new system, developed by researchers from Ohio State University, is capable of creating and distributing encryption codes at megabit-per-second rates, which is five to 10 times faster than existing methods (stock image)

HOW DOES QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION WORK? A key is created so that data can be encrypted and sent from one party to the other. Then the key to unlock that data is transmitted securely using Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). Binary data is encoded into tiny light particles called photons. The 'phase'  a property of photons  is altered to represent binary data: a 0 or 1. The transmitter can encode these photons in two different ways  known as bases - creating four possible combinations. The photons are randomly encoded to create a random key and sent at precise time intervals to the receiver. The receiver detects the photons. It can detect 0s and 1s but not which base, so it randomly chooses which base it will detect and records the values and bases. Once all the information has been received, the receiver tells the transmitter which bases it detected and the transmitter reveals which were right and wrong. The receiver rejects all wrong detection events  leaving just the correct ones. Armed with this information, it can create the key to first encrypt and subsequently decrypt or unlock the data. The system is secure because it enables eavesdroppers on the line to be detected. Any attempt to monitor the data will interfere with the photons, affecting the encoding. If there is interference, the receiver will terminate the process before the key is produced. Any attempt to monitor or interfere with the transmitted key while it's being sent will be detectable. Advertisement

Though QKD was first theorised in 1984 and implemented shortly thereafter, the technologies to support its wide-scale use are only now coming online.

Companies in Europe now sell laser-based systems for QKD, and in a highly-publicised event last summer, China used a satellite to send a quantum key to two land-based stations located 1,200 km apart.

But PhD candidate, Nurul Taimur Islam, explained the problem with many of these systems is that they can only transmit keys at relatively low rates - between tens to hundreds of kilobits per second - which are too slow for most practical uses on the internet.

He said: 'At these rates, quantum-secure encryption systems cannot support some basic daily tasks, such as hosting an encrypted telephone call or video streaming.'

Like many QKD systems, Mr Islam's key transmitter uses a weakened laser to encode information on individual photons of light.

But they found a way to pack more information onto each photon, making their technique faster.

By adjusting the time at which the photon is released, and a property of the photon called the phase, their system can encode two bits of information per photon instead of one.

This trick, paired with high-speed detectors powers their system to transmit keys five to 10 times faster than other methods.

Prof Gauthier said: 'It was changing these additional properties of the photon that allowed us to almost double the secure key rate that we were able to obtain if we hadn't done that.'

In a perfect world, QKD would be perfectly secure as any attempt to hack a key exchange would leave errors on the transmission that could be easily spotted by the receiver.

Companies in Europe now sell laser-based systems for QKD, and in a highly-publicised event last summer, China used a satellite to send a quantum key to two land-based stations located 1,200 km apart (artist's impression pictured)

But real-world implementations of QKD require imperfect equipment, and these imperfections open up leaks that hackers can exploit.

The researchers carefully characterised the limitations of each piece of equipment they used.

Mr Islam said: 'We wanted to identify every experimental flaw in the system, and include these flaws in the theory so that we could ensure our system is secure and there is no potential side-channel attack.

'All of this equipment, apart from the single-photon detectors, exist in the telecommunications industry, and with some engineering we could probably fit the entire transmitter and receiver in a box as big as a computer CPU.'
NASA has begun a crucial experiment that to see how bacteria such as E. Coli could affect astronauts.

The space agency shot a sample of the bug into space from the International Space Station.

They believe that in zero gravity, the bug could have an increased resistance to antibiotics - which could cause major problems for astronauts.

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Blast off! After arriving at the International Space Station, crew worked with ground controllers to release the satellite into orbit, and it is programmed to automatically begin its experiment.

BUGS IN SPACE Scientists believe that bacteria like E. coli may experience stress in microgravity. E coli bacteria up close This stress triggers defense systems in the bacteria, making it harder for antibiotics to work against them. Bacteria on Earth do something similar by developing a natural resistance to traditional antibiotic treatments. Two types of E. coli will be compared: one with a naturally occurring gene that helps it resist antibiotics, the other without. Advertisement

The experiment 'If we find resistance is higher in microgravity, we can do something, because we'll know the gene responsible for it, and be able to design countermeasures,' said A. C. Matin, principal investigator for the EcAMSat investigation at Stanford University in California.

'If we are serious about the exploration of space, we need to know how human vital systems are influenced by microgravity.'

Scientists believe that bacteria like E. coli may experience stress in microgravity.

This stress triggers defense systems in the bacteria, making it harder for antibiotics to work against them.

Bacteria on Earth do something similar by developing a natural resistance to traditional antibiotic treatments.

By knowing how E. coli's resistance to antibiotics changes in space, we can also better understand bacteria on Earth, leading to more effective treatments here, too.

The E. coli strains used on EcAMSat are responsible for urinary tract infections, which can happen to astronauts in space in addition to other types of infections.

Scientists hope the results will help them work the ideal dosage of medicine to combat E. coli infections in space, and explore other techniques that could enhance the power of antibiotics that already exist today.

EcAMSat is a uniquely autonomous satellite, meaning it can conduct its experiment without any communication from Earth.

After arriving at the International Space Station, crew will work with ground controllers to release the satellite into orbit, and it is programed to automatically begin its experiment.

This CubeSat  a spacecraft the size of a shoebox built from cube-shaped units  has just been deployed from the space station.

The EcAMSat experimental module, inside which the E. coli are stored. Nutrients, the antibiotic, a special dye and waste are stored in bags connected through a series of tubes to the microfluidics card - a device storing small pools of liquid containing the bacteria.

'Beyond low-Earth orbit, the compounding human health effects of microgravity and space radiation will require more knowledge about how biology reacts to the space environment,' said Stevan Spremo, project manager for the mission at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley.

'Lessons learned in this experiment will serve as a stepping stone for more advanced biological CubeSat missions, answering critical questions.'

'Though EcAMSat will only fly this once, many of its components may embark on a different mission: life detection in the solar system,' said Tony Ricco, chief technologist for the mission at Ames.

HOW THE EXPERIMENT WILL WORK EcAMSat is a uniquely autonomous satellite, meaning it can conduct its experiment without any communication from Earth. After arriving at the International Space Station, crew worked with ground controllers to release the satellite into orbit, and it is programed to automatically begin its experiment. Students at Santa Clara University in California will monitor the spacecraft, handle mission operations and download data. The spacecraft will awaken the dormant E. coli by flooding them with a nutrient-rich fluid, adjusting their containers to the temperature of the human body, and then injecting the bacterial samples with different amounts of antibiotics. Two types of E. coli will be compared: one with a naturally occurring gene that helps it resist antibiotics, the other without. The experiment, a spacecraft the size of a shoebox built from cube-shaped units  has just been deployed from the space station The bacteria will be mixed with a dye that changes from blue to pink. A dye that remains blue indicates most cells have died in reaction to the antibiotic. The more cells that remain viable and active in spite of the medicine, the stronger shade of pink the dye becomes. An on-board color sensor will detect these changes, and determine how strongly the two types of E. coli resist the antibiotic at different doses. The experiment will last for 150 hours as EcAMSat orbits the Earth, and the dataset, less than a megabyte in total, will then be transmitted via radio down to Earth. After the conclusion of its mission, this little satellite will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere some 18 months later. Advertisement

'Using sensors and the microfluidics technology from EcAMSat, NASA is developing the technology needed to look for life on moons such as Enceladus and Europa  ocean worlds covered by icy crusts.'
From Hurricane Irma to the Northern California wildfires, this year has seen its fair share of natural disasters.

These disasters may have you thinking about what you should do in the eventuality one hits your city - how do you prepare and should you think about leaving?

According to an expert, a lot of what drives large-scale evacuations is mass hysteria and fear, and most natural disasters don't require an immediate evacuation because they can be predicted, for example hurricanes.

However, there are certain things city dwellers can do in preparation for a sudden disaster.

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A lot of what drives large-scale evacuations is mass hysteria and fear, and most natural disasters don't require an immediate evacuation because they can be predicted, for example hurricanes. However, there are certain things city dwellers can do in preparation for a disaster

John Renne, the Director of the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University, told The Week that while people don't necessarily need to evacuate during disasters, they should be prepared for one.

Firstly, Renne recommends that people should plan on staying in their homes and cities as opposed to fleeing.

This is because there aren't many situations where you would need to evacuate an entire city.

And for some types of disasters, such as chemical attacks, it's safer to stay indoors rather than leave.

Even during the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, only a small part of the city required evacuation.

It's more common to require evacuating only impacted sections of cities rather than entire cities.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR A DISASTER John Renne, the Director of the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University, told The Week that there are certain things city dwellers can do to prepare for a disaster, including: Plan on staying home : There aren't many situations where you would need to evacuate an entire city, and for some types of disasters such as a chemical attack,it's safer to stay indoors rather than leave. But be prepared to leave quickly : In order to prepare for evacuations, it's recommended that people listen to local new stations for alerts, and keep a track of social media for evacuation plans. Have the right supplies on hand : It's often recommended to have enough water and non-perishable food for three days, and to have an emergency kit with a flashlight, batteries, a first aid kit and a solar charger for your phone if there is a power outage. In addition, if cellular service goes down, a hand-crank generator radio can help you receive emergency alerts. Be aware of your surroundings : Depending on what the emergency is, you may need to know how to switch of your gas, electricity or water in your home. If you do have to leave your home, it's important to plan an escape route with alternatives in case certain exits are blocked off. Stay calm : Having a positive attitude and maintain calm, as becoming anxious can become dangerous when facing obstacles. It's often recommended to have enough water and non-perishable food for three days, and to have an emergency kit with a flashlight, batteries, a first aid kit and a solar charger for your phone Advertisement

While people should plan on staying put, Renne's second piece of advice is to be prepared and ready to leave quickly if you're in an affected area.

For example, in the case of the northern California wildfires in October, people had to evacuate their homes rapidly as flames quickly engulfed their homes.

In order to prepare for this, it's recommended that people listen to local new stations for alerts, and keep a track of social media for evacuation plans.

Thirdly, it's important to have the right kinds of supplies on hand for a disaster situation.

For example, if you plan on staying indoors and waiting out a disaster such as a hurricane, you will need a certain amount of supplies to last you through the event.

It's often recommended to have enough water and non-perishable food for three days, and to have an emergency kit with a flashlight, batteries, a first aid kit and a solar charger for your phone if there is a power outage.

People take shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center after flood waters from Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston, Texas on August 29, 2017. At the time, the evacuation center has already received more than 9,000 evacuees with more arriving

In addition, if cellular service goes down, a hand-crank generator radio can help you receive emergency alerts.

In a scenario where you do need to evacuate, you should have an already prepared bag with key documents, water, food, medicine, a flashlight, extra batteries, a charger, cash and toiletries.

It's important not to stock up on more than 20 pounds of food and water, as this can weigh you down.

Fourthly, it's important to be aware of your surroundings - regardless of whether you're staying at home or evacuating.

For example, depending on what the emergency is, you may need to know how to switch of your gas, electricity or water in your home.

As such, it's important to find out how to access these functions in advance.

And if you do have to leave your home, it's important to plan an escape route with alternatives in case certain exits are blocked off.

It's also important to know where your nearest evacuation center is in case you need to take shelter there, and to check on elderly, young or disabled neighbors to make sure they're able to evacuate.

Finally, Renne recommends having a positive attitude and maintain calm, as becoming anxious can become dangerous when facing obstacles.
Stunning winning pictures from an international panoramic photography award have been revealed.

Both professional and amateur photographers were invited to enter their best landscape shots for the 2017 contest of the Epson International Pano Awards.

And this year the competition received more 5,000 entries from over 1,300 photographers in 71 countries.

The overall winner of the contest was Spanish snapper Jesus M Garcia, who impressed with his shot of the sun rising over Damian Shan in China.

Other highly rated images included the Northern Lights over Iceland and sharks catching fish in Russia.

Scroll down to feast your eyes on the winning images and some of the most eye-catching short-listed entries.
Cruise liners are threatening to shun Majorca and Ibiza unless the Balearic government changes its mind about charging passengers two euros (1.78) a day to stay on the islands under the new tourist tax rules.

The association of cruise companies in Europe, the Cruise Lines International Association, says the new fee is undemocratic and could force companies to leave the islands out of its routes.

And it says that unless the Balearics rescinds the decision to slap the tourist tax on all cruise passengers for the first time next year, it might take the issue to court.

Cruise liners represented by the Cruise Lines International Association are threatening to boycott Majorca and Ibiza over the tourist tax for cruise passengers

The islands' government has already come under fire for doubling the so-called eco tax for all holidaymakers in the high season of 2018, meaning guests in luxury accommodation will pay a much as four euros (3.56) a day.

Until now, cruise ship passengers have been exempt from the fee unless they were docked for more than 12 hours.

But from summer 2018, they will pay two euros a day regardless of the duration of the stay and the Balearic government says this move alone will generate revenue of about 1.8 million euros (1.6million).

Hoteliers in Majorca had already sounded a warning about the doubling of the tourist tax, warning it could mean the loss of up to one million holidaymakers, especially when other competing destinations like Turkey and Egypt are bouncing back.

And now, according to the Balearic press, the cruise association has waded into the row, slamming the charge as violating people's rights, discriminatory and going against the Constitution.

They say it is illegal and have presented an objection to the government's draft budget. The association wants the Balearic Government to change its mind.

From summer 2018 cruise passenger will pay two euros a day regardless of the duration of the stay on Majorca and Ibiza

CLIA Europe is the largest cruise association in the world and represents 45 companies, among which are constant visitors to the islands, such as Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Tui.

The association says the tourist tax on cruise ship passengers could have an adverse economic effect, both for the traveller and the company, and liners might choose to go elsewhere.

And it says this possibility gets stronger as the Med destinations become more stable and cruise ships return to their old haunts.

Guests staying in hotels, five-star apartment hotels, five-star luxury and four-star superiors will pay four euros per day from next April; those of four stars and three stars superior, three euros; those of one, two and three stars, two euros.

The government of the Balearics, which includes Ibiza, pictured, has dismissed fears the tax will have a negative impact on visitor numbers

As for tourist apartments, holidaymakers staying in 'four-key' and 'four upper key' accommodation will pay four euros per day; three keys upper, three euros; one, two and three keys, two euros.

In rural hotels, it will be two euros per day; in hostels, inns, tourist camps and campsites, as well as shelters, it will be two euros.

The tourist tax is not being doubled for the low season of November to April because the islands want to encourage more visitors during the winter season.

The Balearic Government has dismissed the hoteliers' fears, saying the eco tax will not have a negative impact on visitor numbers to the islands and would still be 'the lowest in Europe' compared to Brussels, Florence and Amsterdam.

Tourist spending has so far not been affected, with latest figures suggesting there had been an six per cent increase in daily spending per person during the second quarter of this year.
She is rumored to be expecting a baby with her Cleveland Cavalier beau Tristan Thompson.

And Khloe Kardashian spent Thanksgiving with him in Cleveland - baking through Wednesday and telling her Snapchat following she was 'exhausted.'

Warming to the Christmas theme early, the 33-year-old also appeared on her man's Snapchat Story on Thursday in a wintry pair set of red, white and green pajamas.

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So festive: Warming to the Christmas theme early, Khloe Kardashian also appeared on Tristan Thompson's Snapchat Story on Thursday in a wintry pair set of red, white and green pajamas

Keeping the fans apprised! Khloe had Thanksgiving with her beau in Cleveland, and updated her Snapchat Story about it Wednesday and Thursday

Her alleged baby bump was barely perceptible beneath the cozy-looking nightwear.

On Wednesday, Khloe's Story showed her baking up a storm.

She showed her followers a blender full of bread crumbs, as well as a tray of colorfully sprinkled muffins sitting next to a covered cake.

The elegantly laid out dinner table was a 10-seater, and featured five white rose centerpieces running down the middle.

'Bread crumbs': On Wednesday, Khloe's Story showed her baking up a storm

Gorgeous! The elegantly laid out dinner table was a long 10-seater, and featured five white rose centerpieces running down the middle

Plenty of feasting! Tristan also posted a picture of the 10-seating table to his Snapchat Story on Wednesday, noting it had been decked out 'Pre-Thanksgiving'

In one of the videos she posted Wednesday, Khloe pointed out that 'for Thanksgiving, I always set the table two days before.'

Place settings were arranged on glinting gold-colored mats, with the ornately folded napkins sitting on top of the plates.

Another table was festooned with a white rose arrangement, which spilled over the edge of it. Florist William Lynch could be seen setting the whole affair up.

That evening, Khloe also filmed selfie videos, using the filter to give herself a heart nose, feline whiskers and some flowers in her hair.

Glamorous! Another table was festooned with white roses, which spilled over the edge of it

Cartoon dress-up! That evening, Khloe also filmed selfie videos, using the filter to give herself a heart nose, feline whiskers and some flowers in her hair

At another point, she filmed herself with a different filter - one that put puppy ears on her head and a heart on her lower lip.

'Now I'm exhausted, so I need just to chill for a minute. I have been cooking since, like, 10am - or baking. Tomorrow's all cooking,' she said.

Tristan also posted a picture of the 10-seating table to his Snapchat Story on Wednesday, noting it had been decked out 'pre-Thanksgiving'.

That evening, he also used Snapchat to show off a glistening watch on his left wrist, as Ball Player by Meek Mill featuring Quavo played.

Switcheroo! At another point, she filmed herself with a different filter - one that put puppy ears on her head and a heart on her lower lip

Expansion! The heart got much bigger at one point

On Thursday, Tristan's Snapchat Story also lingered over the dessert table, which featured such goodies as multiple pies and 20 white-frosted donuts.

As Khloe walked past him in the holiday pajamas, he sang, 'Everything's coming together,' then said: 'Hell yeah. Hell to the yeah!'

He began: 'Hell to the - ,' but he cut himself off as his camera alighted on the donuts and he diverted his attention to them.

'Oooh, I'm gonna kill these,' he said as he gestured over the donuts.

Tasty treats! On Thursday, Tristan's Snapchat Story also lingered over the dessert table, which featured such goodies as multiple pies and 20 white-frosted donuts

On Khloe's Snapchat Story, she credited one Chef Koko for food she was about to enjoy.

One upload to her Snapchat Story on Thursday showed her place setting, which had a card marked: 'Khloe.'

Khloe's Snapchat Story on Thursday offered up a gorgeous waterfront sunset view, with a caption at the bottom reading 'Thanksgiving.'

As rumors fly that Khloe has a bun in her oven, her elder sister Kim Kardashian has confirmed that she herself is expecting via a surrogate.

Such luxury! One upload to her Snapchat Story on Thursday showed her place setting, which had a card marked: 'Khloe'

Kim, who is married to Kanye West, already has two children with him - four-year-old daughter North and one-year-old son Saint.

There is also a whirlwind of speculation that Khloe's half-sister Kylie, 20, is expecting a baby with her own boyfriend Travis Scott.

She has written on her website: 'Believe me, I know how truly blessed I am. I thank God every day for this life. Its important to remember your blessings all year long, but Thanksgiving is a good time to take a moment and be appreciative.'

Khloe wrote in that post: 'I am truly grateful for Tristan and all that he has brought into my life! He has been a huge positive influence on me and has given me a new level of happiness and love.'


She's the busy wife of AFL legend Chris Judd who balances a radio and television career with raising four lively children.

And Rebecca Judd has offered a glimpse of her family's Christmas traditions in a festive campaign for for online retailer Next Australia.

In the photo shoot, Bec serves up lunch for her children - Oscar, Billie, Tom and Darcy - looking as glamorous as ever in a pink maxi dress.

Dinner is served! Footy WAG Rebecca Judd has offered a glimpse of her family's Christmas traditions in a festive campaign for for online retailer Next Australia

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia, Bec said her family Christmas is a 'typically Aussie' affair.

'We wake up, open presents, prepare lunch and then head into the pool and spa,' explained the 34-year-old.

'It really is the typical Aussie Christmas! Lots of family time, sun, seafood and laughter!'

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia: Bec said her family Christmas is a 'typically Aussie' affair.

'Lots of family time, sun, seafood and laughter!': Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia, Bec said her family Christmas is a 'typically Aussie' affair. Pictured with husband Chris

In another photo celebrating the launch of Next's 2017 Christmas collection, Bec and Chris are seen in a warm embrace as she models a pretty floral outfit.

An additional snapshot of the Judd family pictures them in their outdoor swimming pool with twins Tom and Darcy, as their older children Oscar and Billie float on a blow-up flamingo.

Busy! Bec is known for her glamorous and busy lifestyle, blending motherhood with a radio hosting job for KIIS FM and presenting Channel Nine's Postcards.

Bec is known for her glamorous and busy lifestyle, blending motherhood with a radio hosting job for KIIS FM and presenting Channel Nine's Postcards.

Swim time! In another photo celebrating the launch of Next's 2017 Christmas collection, Bec and Chris are seen doting over their children in the outdoor swimming pool

She explained: 'I have four beautiful children, a loving husband, a crazy day-to-schedule for work and sometimes I dont have the time to spend a whole day looking for outfits, for the whole family.

She explained: 'I have four beautiful children, a loving husband, a crazy day-to-schedule for work and sometimes I dont have the time to spend a whole day looking for outfits, for the whole family.

'I know my friends can relate that an online store such as Next is a heaven sent as it allows us to dedicate more time to spend with our kids, instead of the stress of taking the kids into store.'

After three years of planning and construction, Bec and her family moved into their Melbourne mansion in late 2013, a few months before the birth of daughter Billie.

Cute! Oscar and Billie

Lavish home: After three years of planning and construction, Bec and her family moved into their Melbourne mansion in late 2013, a few months before the birth of daughter Billie

Mixing alfresco living with contemporary lines and open spaces, the architectural plan is based on the luxurious Alila Uluwatu Villas in Bali, Indonesia.
Her former boyfriend and Bachelorette 'villain' Blake Colman is being investigated by police in relation to allegations of threatening to sell nude photos of her.

And Bachelor's Jennifer 'Jen' Hawke has opened up about her alleged ordeal in an interview with Now To Love on Thursday.

The 27-year-old said: 'Its not normal. It should not be accepted or condoned.'

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'It should not be accepted or condoned!': Bachelor star Jen Hawke slams ex-boyfriend and Bachelorette 'villain' Blake Colman as he continues to be investigated by police over REVENGE PORN after threatening to sell nude photos of her

New South Wales Police confirmed in October that they had received a report in relation to the incident and were investigating, but said that 'due to the ongoing investigation, no further information is able to be provided.'

'What I really want women to know is that domestic abuse isnt just a violent act against you. It is someone emotionally intimidating you, it is someone emotionally manipulating you.'

'The whole issue with Blake is, it is domestic abuse. It is violence against women. It is harassment against women,' she said.

'The whole issue with Blake is, it is domestic abuse': Jen claimed domestic abuse was not just physical, but also 'someone emotionally intimidating you' or 'manipulating you'

'Blake and I have nothing to do with each other and the police are doing their job': Jen claims to have had no contact with her former flame since making the claims against him

Jen claimed jealousy began mounting before the alleged threat of revenge porn was made.

She said they were happy until their long distance relationship took its toll, claiming he 'lost his absolute cracker' when he accused her of flirting with former Bachelorette star Courtney Dober at an event. An accusation she later confirmed to be true.

'Blake and I have nothing to do with each other and the police are doing their job at the moment, thats all Im really allowed to say about it while the investigation is ongoing,' Jen added.

Jen told police she received a text message from Blake threatening to sell nude images she had sent him during their relationship.

EXCLUSIVE: The Bachelorette's Blake Colman is being investigated in relation to allegations of threatening to sell nude photos of his ex-girlfriend, The Bachelor's Jennifer 'Jen' Hawke

A source also told Daily Mail that Jen has sought an AVO to be taken out on Blake but police have only confirmed that an investigation is underway.

Blake is being investigated under new legislation that criminalises the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, otherwise known as 'revenge porn'.

Under these laws, which came into effect in August, offenders who share or threaten to share revenge porn face up to three years in jail and a fine of $11,000.

AVO: A source also told Daily Mail that Jen has sought an AVO to be taken out on Blake but police have only confirmed that an investigation is underway

Investigation: Blake is being investigated under new legislation that criminalises the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, otherwise known as 'revenge porn'

Meanwhile, a source close to Jen has exclusively spoken to Daily Mail Australia about Jen and Blake's acrimonious breakup and the events leading to Blake's alleged revenge porn threat.

'Blake and Jen called it quits following a rocky romance earlier this year, but things really went south after Jen told Blake that she had found somebody else,' the source said this week.

'It was two days after she told Blake she'd moved on. Blake had made his debut on The Bachelorette as the show's 'villain' character that day, and Jen's friends couldn't believe she had dated such a horrible guy.'

The incident: Meanwhile, a source close to Jen has exclusively spoken to Daily Mail Australia about Jen and Blake's acrimonious breakup and the events leading to Blake's alleged revenge porn threat

'Jen posted to her private Facebook page that her phone was going crazy with people sending messages about her former boyfriend, who was one of Sophie's contestants on the show. She also posted that she was happy to get rid of her 'douche' ex,' the insider went on.

'After reading Jen's post Blake completely lost it. He started sending her a barrage of insults, accusing her of the ultimate betrayal. Then, he threatened to sell nude photos of her to the media,' the source claimed.

They continued: 'These photos were sent to him while they were still dating- so you can imagine how upset Jen was by these threats.'

Split: 'Blake and Jen called it quits following a rocky romance earlier this year, but things really went south after Jen told Blake that she had found somebody else,' the source said this week

The insider also claimed that Jen had sought an AVO to be taken out on Blake, preventing him from travelling to Sydney for media appearances last week following his elimination from The Bachelorette.

This isn't Blake's first brush with the law.

In April this year he was convicted of a horrifying Perth assault which took place in August 2015.

Media circuit:

Not Blake's first brush with the law: In April this year he was convicted of a horrifying Perth assault which took place in August 2015

Perth Now reported that Blake pleaded guilty to the sickening street attack, which left his victim, Tristan Cooper, 'unconscious, paralysed and bleeding from the head'.

According to the victim, the incident took place after a night out when Tristan tried to intervene in an argument between two groups of men.

'He just came running up and with all his body weight sort of grabbed me in the back of the head,' Tristan, 31, told the paper.

Blake released a statement via a Channel 10 publicist on Friday stating 'I am truly remorseful and accepted full responsibility for my actions', News Corp reported.
Poldark star Aidan Turner will be escaping  briefly  from the Cornish coast next year to make his West End debut playing a cat-loving Irish terrorist in Martin McDonaghs controversial black comedy The Lieutenant Of Inishmore

Poldark star Aidan Turner will be escaping  briefly  from the Cornish coast next year to make his West End debut playing a cat-loving Irish terrorist in Martin McDonaghs controversial black comedy The Lieutenant Of Inishmore.

I think people will be surprised, Turner told me, while on a short break from filming the fourth  and penultimate  series of the top-rated BBC television Sunday night drama. Its the furthest I can get from Ross Poldark that I can possibly imagine. (He was back in Poldark-land, as he put it, yesterday, with shooting set to continue till late January.)

The Lieutenant Of Inishmore will form one half of a two-play season for Michael Grandages theatre company  and 25 per cent of the tickets will be available for just 10.

Grandage said he has resisted increasing the price of the cheap seats, which have become a major part of his companys campaign to attract young theatre-goers. Tickets will go on sale at 10am today for the show, which will begin performances at the Noel Coward Theatre on June 23 and run until September 8.

The first  and last  time Turner appeared on the London stage was as a British soldier in the Abbey Theatres production of The Plough And The Stars at the Barbican, back in 2005. It was his first play out of drama school. He went on to do several more in his native Ireland.

Theatre was it for me, he said. Thats all I really wanted to do. The TV and film stuff got in the way slightly.

Turner, 34, will play Padraic, a young man so crazy that even the IRA doesnt want him. The piece, set in 1993 on the island of Inishmore, County Galway, was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001.

And after that, theres a fifth series of Poldark to shoot. Then weve covered all the books, and the entire stories. Its a five-year gig, when its all done, said the actor

Some theatre companies refused to stage it because they feared its violence (people are tortured, cats get splattered) might upset the peace process.

Padraic is a cat lover and his pet, Wee Tom, is the unwitting catalyst for all that occurs. Turner loves cats, too, and can sympathise. People dont want to see animals hurt, even if theyre animatronic, or whatever Michael has in store.

But speaking to me from New York, where he was visiting friends and catching Denise Gough in People, Places And Things at the St Anns Warehouse in Brooklyn (a huge hit, by the way), he said McDonaghs work also allows us to see how torture and terrorism can be quite easily normalised.

And although the stage is, at times, awash with blood, The Lieutenant Of Inishmore is, ultimately, an anti-violence play.

Turner said theres an energy to the piece, along with its unique style of dark humour.

I mention a scene where Padraic takes a call from his father while preparing to use a cut-throat razor on a bare-chested drug dealer dangling by his feet from the ceiling. Im at work at the moment, Dad, he says. Was it important now?

Turner, famous for setting hearts aflutter with his bare-chested scything in Poldark, chuckled and admitted theres a certain irony in his character keeping his shirt on, for once. Of McDonaghs writing, he said: You catch yourself laughing at things youd never joke about in real life. Its breaking peoples hearts with humour, which is difficult to do.

Friends, such as actress Sarah Greene, have been urging him to get back on the boards for ages. I imagine I will do it more regularly now, he said.

Was he a tiny bit afraid? Fear? No, its excitement for me, he said. It can be scary. But truth is, I just miss the buzz of being on stage.

And after that, theres a fifth series of Poldark to shoot. Then weve covered all the books, and the entire stories. Its a five-year gig, when its all done.

For ticket information, visit delfontmackintosh. co.uk or michaelgrandage company.com

Hayley Atwell will return to the stage in the British premiere of Dry Powder

Hayley's keeping her Powder dry

Hayley Atwell, whos dominating prime-time Sunday night TV with her superb performance as Margaret Schlegel in writer Kenneth Lonergan and director Hettie Macdonalds adaptation of E.M. Forsters Howards End, will return to the stage in the British premiere of Dry Powder by U.S. playwright Sarah Burgess.

It will be directed by Anna Ledwich at Hampstead Theatre from January 26, with Tom Riley also starring.

Atwells Miss Schlegel is all about helping the poor and unfortunate in society.

But Jenny, the ruthless financier shell play in the contemporary-set Dry Powder, would rather walk all over such people.

Hayley is dominating prime-time Sunday night TV with her superb performance as Margaret Schlegel in writer Kenneth Lonergan and director Hettie Macdonalds adaptation of E.M. Forsters Howards End
Fans are eagerly awaiting the first Australian series of Bachelor In Paradise, which rounds up former cast members from The Bachelor and Bachelorette.

But it looks like there will be a few surprise contestants from the American franchise.

Jared Haiborn, 29, and Grant Kemp, 28, who are both veterans from the US version, have been photographed filming in Fiji - and it looks like they will pose a serious threat to their Australian counterparts.

Couldn't find enough Australians? Network Ten had recruited American stars for Bachelor in Paradise. Pictured: Jared Haiborn (left) and Grant Kemp (right) filming in Fiji earlier this month

Jared and Grant both rose to fame after appearing on the American edition of The Bachelorette, which debuted in 2003.

Jared featured on the eleventh series, vying for the affections of Canadian spin class instructor Kaitlyn Bristowe.

However, the Rhode Island restaurant manager was booted from the competition following the home town dates.

US heartthrob: Jared Haiborn appeared in the eleventh season of America's The Bachelorette, and bears a slight resemblance to local competitor Michael Turnbull

No stranger to the Bachelor In Paradise franchise, Jared also appeared in the US spin-off - but again failed to leave with a ladylove.

But the tall and handsome American will no doubt catch the eye of local contestants, such as Keira McGuire and Tara Pavlovic.

Fellow American Grant is also proving to be a threat to the Aussie contenders, as he was pictured filming what appeared to be a group activity in Fiji recently.

The San Francisco-based firefighter previously won a legion of female admirers after his star turn on the twelfth season of The Bachelorette last year.

Firefighter: Grant Kemp won a legion of female fans on the twelfth season of The Bachelorette last year. He was pictured on a group activity with Ali Oetjen and Jarrod Woodgate recently

Will she fall for an American? The Bachelor 2016's Keira Maguire is one of the Australian stars already confirmed for Bachelor In Paradise

During filming, Grant seemed to be making a connection with Australian contestant Ali Oetjen - while former Bachelorette runner-up Jarrod Woodgate watched on.

Jared was also pictured during that same filming session, playing beach volleyball with Grant and later sharing a conversation with The Bachelorette's Jake Ellis.

It's also believed a third mystery American is set to star, as he was spotted filming scenes with Michael Turnbull and Leah Costa earlier this month.

Rejected again? During a recent filming session, The Bachelorette runner-up Jarrod Woodgate (pictured) appeared to be competing with Grant Kemp for Ali Oetjen's attention
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson made a little boy's wish come true for Thanksgiving - but it didn't go down quite as he expected.

The actor and former wrestler posted a video to Instagram about a five-year-old called Ty who had asked the Make-A-Wish Foundation if he could meet Maui from the animated feature Moana.

The Rock, who voiced the character that was inspired by his Samoan grandfather, was only too happy to oblige and welcomed Ty and his sister to the set of his current movie where he greeted them in character as Maui.

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Thanksgiving gift: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson put on a wig to make a little boy's wish of meeting Maui from Moana come true and shared the funny video on his Instagram Thursday

Here he is: Five-year-old Ty, pictured with his sister Tia, had told the Make-A-Wish Foundation that he really wanted to meet the character from the Disney animated feature

Hollywood star: The Rock, who voiced the character, gave it his all and sang the song You're Welcome from the movie

He walked in wearing a camo shirt and trousers and wearing the long dark curly wig of the character only to be met by a frosty stare from the youngster.

'I was completely dissed and ignored,' The Rock wrote, in good humor.

The star burst into song from the movie, singing You're Welcome, but that didn't make Ty smile.

The kid's mom encouraged him, telling him they'd just been playing the song in the car on the way to meet Maui.

All to no avail.

The Rock tried to high five Ty but he just looked away. So he high fived with his sister Tia instead.

Who are you? But little Ty was NOT impressed

Not buying it: When the actor tried to high five the little boy, he turned away. The Rock would later share in a good humored post that the youngster 'treated me like I was stealing his lunch'

Laughed about it: Ty's sister high fived The Rock while Ty stayed silent. But later, the former wrestler wrote that Ty couldn't stop talking about having met his hero and doing these kind of meet and greets for Make-A-Wish kids is 'the best part of fame'

He described the encounter thus: 'Well, as you see here I walk in, start the song and lil Ty takes two long looks at me and decides hes gonna treat me like Ive been stealing his lunch for the last 87 days with the Clint Eastwood glare that says, If I were 20yrs older and five feet taller Id get up outta this chair and knock that goofy wig off your head punk. Best moment ever.'

But, it turns out, the little boy was simply overcome, because, The Rock wrote: 'Even though Ty remained in shock and didnt say a word the whole time, the moment I walked away to go back to work, little Ty was SO EXCITED and would NOT STOP TALKING about how he met his best friend MAUI.'

'Im also pretty sure he even said how Maui was waaaaayyy better looking and talented in person,' he joked.

He then wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving and explained that making wishes come true for sick children is 'the best part of fame.'

Personal connection: Maui is a warrior figure from the Disney animated hit Moana and the character is inspired by The Rock's Samoan grandfather
Tom Baker has returned as the Fourth Doctor for the first time on screen for 36 years in the finally completed 'lost' Doctor Who story, Shada.

The 83-year-old actor left the TARDIS in 1981 after seven years portraying the Time Lord in the BBC One sci-fi show, the longest run of any actor in the role.

Tom did make an appearance in as the mysterious curator character in the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor, which was broadcast in November 2013 but he has once again donned his famous oversized striped scarf for one last outing as the Gallifreyan runaway.

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Unearthed scenes: Tom Baker has returned as the Fourth Doctor for the first time on screen for 36 years in the finally completed 'lost' Doctor Who story, Shada

Shada - written by Douglas Adams - was set to be the celebratory end to the 17th series of 'Doctor Who' but was left incomplete due to strike action at the BBC in 1979.

Producer Charles Norton was tasked by BBC Worldwide with the job of finally completing the serial and got Tom to appear in a newly shot final scene which takes place in his original TARDIS from 1979 - which was sourced from the now-closed 'Doctor Who Experience'.

In the scene, Tom appears from underneath the TARDIS controls to utter the lines from the original script on screen for the first time, saying: 'I expect that sometime in the future - in about 200 years' time - someone will meet me and say, "Is that really the Doctor? He seemed such a nice old man."'

Unfinished: Shada - written by Douglas Adams - was set to be the celebratory end to the 17th series of 'Doctor Who' but was left incomplete due to strike action at the BBC in 1979

Charles brought together all of the surviving original cast, including Daniel Hill as scientist Chris Parsons and Christopher Neame as villain Skagra, to record the necessary dialogue for his animated scenes that were required to complete the adventure.

Tom admits he was thrilled to get the chance to be the Doctor again and finally finish Shada for the fans and as a tribute to Douglas, who passed away in May 2001 at the age of just 49.

Tom said: 'It was a matter of regret that I couldn't finish it, I regretted it very much. There were other aspects. This was because we loved Douglas.

'Douglas was a very, very, lovable fellow ... When I was doing Doctor Who it was the realisation of all my childhood fantasies, so I took to it like a duck to water, as they say. And I still do.'

Main man: Baker spent seven years portraying the Time Lord in the BBC One sci-fi show, the longest run of any actor in the role

Revealing why he jumped at the chance to appear on screen as the Doctor once more, the acting legend added: 'I love doing Doctor Who because it was life to me.'

'It's an amazing thing to be in ... It probably has never left me, and that's why I can't stay away from it. It was a lovely time of my life.'

Shada is set in Cambridge and showed the Doctor, his robot dog K9 and his companion Romana team up with retired Time Lord Professor Chronotis to defeat the evil alien Skagra who is attempting to steal the secrets to the prison planet Shada.

Charles and his team - who were behind the hugely successful and critically acclaimed animation of lost Doctor Who story The Power of the Daleks and lost Dad's Army episode A Stripe For Frazer - were granted access to nearly seven hours of raw footage from the original 1979 Shada shoot.

They edited the new production from scratch with all the original film negatives re-scanned in full HD and digitally remastered.

Shada is released as a digital download via iTunes on Friday November 24, and then is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Monday, December 4.
They've both enjoyed equally unsuccessful, fleeting stints on reality TV in the last seven months.

But axed I'm A Celebrity star Jack Maynard and one-time Love Island contestant Danielle Sellers are now believed to have been in a secret relationship throughout, with their last sighting together being just weeks before Jack entered the jungle.

According to The Sun, disgraced YouTuber Jack, 22, is thought to be 'serious' about the glamour model, despite giving the impression that he was single on the ITV reality show, from which he was removed on Tuesday for misconduct online.

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Dating? Jack Marynard has been seeing glamour model Danielle Sellers (pictured together in September) for around seven months, it's been claimed since he was ejected from the jungle for allegations of racist and homophobic language as well as inappropriate messaging online

In pictures obtained by MailOnline, Jack and Danielle, both aged 22, are seen on a cosy night out London's Radio Rooftop bar in September.

'Jack and Danielle have spent a lot of time together over the past seven months,' the source disclosed.

'They'd quietly attended industry events together and made no secret among pals of how close they were.

'Jack has been making it sound like he's single since he's been on the show but he's been saying different things around Danielle.'

All wrapped up: Danielle is believed to be serious about the disgraced reality star

Hanging out: Seen here at Radio Rooftop bar in London this September, the duo are believed to have spent a lot of time together in the last seven months

Famous friends: Danielle, whom Jack is believed to have met through popstar brother Conor, was also hanging out with Love Island star Chyna Ellis (right)

Three's a crowd: The duo are believed to have attended many parties together over the summer

Heading home: Jack was seen heading home with Danielle in the back of a car that night

A representative for Jack Maynard and Danielle Sellers has been contacted by MailOnline for comment.

Jack was sent home to the UK from Australia earlier this week, after being pulled out of the show when his online history came back to haunt him.

Boasting an online following of 1,195,687, Jack was found to have sent out a string of offensive messages on Twitter - featuring the use of homophobic and racist language - between 2011-2013.

Sent packing: Jack was removed from this year's I'm A Celebrity (pictured) after three days when it was discovered that he had sent inappropriate and offensive messages online

Gone too soon: Similarly, beauty Danielle was booted off Love Island this summer after a mere few days

Smash hit: Here with Love Island contestants Chyna, Jonny Mitchell and Dom Lever, Danielle said she was 'so gutted' to have been 'dumped' from the show too soon

Racy: Aside from her raunchy modelling work, Danielle is best known for her fleeting reality TV appearance

He was subsequently accused of sending inappropriate messages to a 14-year-old girl when he was 16, persistently asking her to send pictures in her bra.

The younger brother of popstar Conor Maynard apologised for the 'disgusting things' he had done on Thursday in a new YouTube video, and said he felt 'ashamed'.

Jack is believed to have met beautiful model Danielle through his older brother Conor.

Aside from her raunchy modelling work, Danielle enjoyed her 'five minutes' on this summer's smash hit reality show Love Island.

Close bond: Jack is the younger brother of pop sensation Conor Maynard - who also began his career online

She was similarly 'dumped' from the show in the early stages, saying she 'so gutted to be home so soon'.

Despite claims of a relationship with Jack, Danielle went into the dating show as a single lady.

She briefly dated contestant Nathan Joseph and it was believed that they would continue to see each other after their time on the show.

As for Jack, it is believed that Jack will miss out on his 25,000 fee because he departed within 72 hours of I'm A Celeb's launch.

It is simultaneously reported that his 20,000 a month in sponsored posts are in jeopardy, thanks to the scandal.

Grovelling apology: Using his YouTube channel, Jack issued an apology for the 'disgusting things' he'd done, on Thursday

Back to haunt him: Resurfaced content shows Jack trying to guess a 14-year-old's age on YouTube, following claims that at 16, he hounded a 14-year-old user for pictures in her bra
Trump: An American Dream (C4)

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Love, Lies And Records (BBC1)

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Only a very bad novelist could have invented Donald Trump. His character seems to have no connection to reality.

Trump: An American Dream (C4), an engrossing four-part biography, reveals how often The Donalds ambitions and self-image have seemed completely delusional to everyone but himself.

His humungous debts, his toxic divorces  he could face the Press and insist these problems simply didnt exist. One journalist called him, the greatest con artist in the history of the world. Trump probably took it as a compliment.

The truly extraordinary thing about the man, so weird its almost mystical, is how often he defies reality  only for reality to say: OK, have it your own way.

Trump: An American Dream is an engrossing four-part biography, revealing how often The Donalds ambitions and self-image have seemed completely delusional to everyone but himself

How else could a former reality TV game show host with no political experience wake up one day as President of the United States?

This series is the first serious attempt on British TV to answer that question. Edited down from thousands of hours of interviews and news footage, it has an ear for the incriminating quote . . . many of them uttered by The Donald himself.

The third episode focused on his divorces in the Nineties from first wife Ivana Trump and spouse No 2, ex-mistress Marla Maples. In the UK we were largely spared the frenetic media coverage, but for Americans it was a bigger soap opera than Dallas and Dynasty combined.

TV host and professional ego Geraldo Rivera described the split from Ivana as divorce gone nuclear. After months of denying that anything was wrong in his marriage, despite stories of a catfight on the ski slopes of Aspen, Colorado, between Ivana and Marla, Trump announced his reason for the break-up.

The truly extraordinary thing about the man Donald Trump, pictured, is how often he defies reality

'I dont want to sleep with a woman who has had children, he said.

Even more breathtaking, he rang a journalist and claimed to be a Trump press officer called John Miller. Apparently unaware that his voice was instantly recognisable, Miller started boasting about Trumps sexual conquests.

Heartbreaker of the night Blitz: The Bombs That Changed Britain (BBC2) told the awful story of how dozens of London families took shelter in a school as German bombs fell in 1941  only to suffer a direct hit. Tragic beyond words. Advertisement

Madonna wanted to date him, Miller said, and so did model Carla Bruni: She dropped Mick Jagger for Donald.

Afraid she was hallucinating, the reporter had to play back the tape for the whole newsroom, to convince herself it really was Trump on the line.

So far, the series has failed to get to grips completely with Trumps finances. Theyre just mind-boggling.

He built the worlds biggest casino, Atlantic Citys Taj Mahal, but let it slide into bankruptcy, owing millions in construction costs. Faced with foreclosure, he borrowed to the hilt  knowing the banks could not write off his $100 m debt. As one columnist said: He learned he could ultimately get away with anything.

This documentary is a valiant attempt to make sense of it all.

Making sense of the pell-mell Love, Lies And Records (BBC1) is nearly impossible, too. Theres bereavement, transgender politics, an immigration scam, homophobia, infidelity, marital bust-ups and a runaway teenager . . . all before lunchtime.

By the end of the day, wed had murder, a gay wedding and mass resignations, too. This isnt a story, its a blizzard.

Rebecca Front is marvellous as the bitter supervisor, passed over for promotion. Shes still threatening to go public with the CCTV footage of her rival, Kate (Ashley Jensen), having sex with a colleague in the storeroom at the Christmas party.

The crises pass in such a blur that its hard to care too much about them. But if you allow yourself to be deluged with drama, its an entertaining hour.
Amir Khan is reportedly the highest paid contestant in the history of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!

The record was previously held by Katie Price, who bagged a whopping 400,000 for her second stint on the show in 2009 - but according to The Sun, the boxer, 30, is receiving a touch over that figure.

Following the emergence of Amir's 'hefty cost', the salaries of his co-stars appear pale in comparison - with the likes of Jack Maynard, who was axed from the competition on Tuesday, receiving a meager 25,000.

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He's in the money: Amir Khan is reportedly the highest paid contestant in the history of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!

Overtaken: Amir is reportedly receiving over 400,000 - the figure Katie Price was paid to make a return to the jungle in 2009 (above)

The glamour model, 39, was paid the jaw-dropping 400,000 to return to the jungle in 2009 - five years after she famously met ex-husband Peter Andre on the show.

However, the paper now reports that Amir is being paid even more than Katie due to his status as a former world champion, as well as his recent marital woes with Faryal Makhdoom.

The pair acrimoniously split two months ago, following a number of bitter family feuds and public rows, but reconciled one week before he jetted to Australia.

Historic: The glamour model, 39, was paid the jaw-dropping 400,000 to return to the jungle in 2009 - five years after she famously met ex-husband Peter Andre on the show

Big deal: New reports claim Amir is being paid more than Katie, due to his status as a former world champion, as well as his recent marital woes with Faryal Makhdoom

In demand: A source said: 'Amir was a great get, but he came at a hefty cost. Hes going to be the best paid celeb theyve ever had'

A source said: 'Amir was a great get, but he came at a hefty cost. Hes going to be the best paid celeb theyve ever had.

'Katie Price got somewhere close, but Amirs is slightly higher again.'

Addressing his recent marriage split, which even saw him accuse Faryal of cheating with Anthony Joshua, the insider added: 'He has plenty to gain in improving his public image  but he also wasnt doing it for peanuts. ITV have dug deep.'

MailOnline has contacted representatives of both Amir and the show for comment.

Opening up: After his split and subsequent reconciliation with Faryal (above), they added: 'He has plenty to gain in improving his public image  but he also wasnt doing it for peanuts'

On again: Amir confirmed he and Faryal were back together with a cosy Instagram snap last week, captioned: 'Closing the year with a happy ending' (above)

Back in the day: Amir filed for divorce in September, after both accused the other of cheating and Faryal accused Khan's Pakistani parents of bullying her for not being a good Muslim

Bosses are no doubt keen for the boxer to discuss his marriage in the jungle, after confirming he and Faryal were back together with a cosy Instagram snap last week, captioned: 'Closing the year with a happy ending.'

In a public war of words this summer both accused the other of cheating and Faryal accused Khan's Pakistani parents of bullying her for not being a good Muslim.

Amir then filed for divorce in September, shortly before she confirmed she was expecting his second child.

Happy family: Faryal is currently expecting Amir's second child

He even accused his American wife of having an affair with heavyweight rival Anthony Joshua, prior to their reconciliation - but he later apologised to both Faryal and the boxer, and revealed there was 'no truth' to the claim.

The salaries of Amir's co-stars were also alleged last week - and appear somewhat pale in comparison.

While Stanley Johnson joins him in the top pay bracket, the lesser-known stars such as Jack Maynard are thought to be getting 25,000 - just one sixteenth of the boxer's fee.

Big difference: The salaries of Amir's co-stars were also alleged last week - and appear somewhat pale in comparison

Worlds away: Stanley Johnson is believed to also be in the top pay bracket (L), while lesser-known stars such as Jack Maynard (R) are thought to be getting 25,000

It is not known whether the vlogger, 24, will be receiving his salary, after he was axed from the show on Tuesday night.

Jack has been accused of repeatedly requesting underwear pictures of another teenager, who was 14 at the time, six years ago.

He was also forced to apologise for a string of offensive tweets, which used both the N-word and homophobic slurs, sent between 2011 and 2013.

Out: It is not known whether the vlogger, 24, will be receiving his salary, after he was axed from the show on Tuesday night

In the past: Jack has been accused of repeatedly requesting underwear pictures of a teenager six years ago, and was forced to apologise for offensive tweets sent 2011-2013 earlier this week

It has since been explained the star was removed from the jungle, in order to defend himself against the allegations.

His representative's statement said: 'Given his position as a contestant on Im a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! - filmed in the Australian jungle, with no contact with the outside world, he has been unable to respond [to recent claims].

'Since it is only fair that everyone should be aware of any allegations made against them and should also have the right to defend themselves, it was agreed that it would be better to bring him out of the show.

'Jack agrees with this decision which was made by his representatives and ITV and thanks everyone who has supported him in the show this far.'
Everybody's Talking About Jamie (Apollo Theatre)

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After a short run in Sheffield, teenage drag-queen musical Everybodys Talking About Jamie has sashayed into the West End.

It is pretty good fun, even if it feels derivative  a cross between Billy Elliot and Priscilla Queen Of The Desert.

Inspired by a real-life story, schoolboy Jamie New, 16, is told by his careers teachers psychometric tests that when he leaves school he should become a forklift-truck driver or a prison guard.

Yet all he yearns to be is a drag queen.

Everybody's Talking About Jamie, pictured, is pretty good fun, even if it feels derivative  a cross between Billy Elliot and Priscilla Queen Of The Desert

Jamie horrifies his teacher by announcing that he intends to attend his end-of-year prom in a dress. You cant do that, says the teacher.

Yes I can, avers Jamie, in best Gloria Gaynor mode. As battles for liberty go, it may be some way short of the apartheid struggle or votes for women or the repeal of the Corn Laws.

Never mind! This show has a sense of humour, some bubbly songs, Yorkshire repartee and a great central performance from John McCrea as stiletto-heeled Jamie.

I suppose you could also make something of the fact that it plugs into the current political fashion for gender self-determination, but what is refreshing is that this show is pretty much unburdened by illiberal grievance politics.

Everybody's Talking About Jamie, pictured, has a sense of humour, some bubbly songs, Yorkshire repartee and a great central performance from John McCrea as stiletto-heeled Jamie

Apart from Jamie encountering some minor hassle from a classmate and from his father  and an unconvincing scene when he is beaten up by three thugs  the story reflects the live-and-let-live attitude to cross-dressing found in most of 21st century Britain.

In our local town in Herefordshire there is a bloke with sideburns who dresses up in pink frocks and no one minds in the slightest.

Well, I might have a few concerns about the candy pink, but you know what I mean. We live in a country where the Archbishhop of Canterbury, no less, thinks schoolboys should be allowed to wear tutus and frocks if they so wish.

Mr McCrea really is fabuloso: rake skinny, tall, topped by a peroxide hairdo and able to show vulnerability alongside camp sarcasm.

Josie Walker gives fine support playing Jamies single-parent mother and she has two of the nights better songs, If I Met Myself Again and Hes My Boy.

The songs by Dan Gillespie Sells and Tim MacRae certainly dont outstay their welcome. I could have done with at least one more verse of a song when Jamie describes his love for his mum.

Some of the music is too loud and the lyrics are indistinct.

Sound problems or early-run nerves, perhaps.

The most theatrical moment comes at the end of the first half when Jamie is about to do his first drag show (the kindly boss of the drag club tells the lad, you can borrow some tits from the tit box  a line to cherish).

Less endearing is Jamies response to his teachers advice to keep it real. He replies: Real is for little people.

Much more of that sort of hauteur and the show might lose its warmth and the strong public support evident from Tuesday nights audience.

Be individual, goes one of the closing numbers. Dont be so samey. Given the similarities to the Billy Elliot formula, that is bold advice.

Perhaps the real battle is fought by his mother, from a generation which had to confront rather greater societal hang-ups.

The real Mrs New was at the Apollo on Tuesday and she looked proper chuffed, as well she should.
Miss Julie (Jermyn Street)

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Four decades before D.H. Lawrence wrote about gamekeeper Mellors bagging Lady Chatterley, Swedish playwright August Strindberg came up with his story of an Earls daughter having a morganatic hot-pash for her fathers valet.

Miss Julie, long one of the staples of western theatre, has now been given a respectful adaptation by Howard Brenton and it is on at the tiny, resurgent Jermyn Street Theatre.

You are so close to the action at the Jermyn Street that the quality of acting matters  and it has not always been high enough in recent years.

New artistic director Tom Littler seems to be getting to grips with that and if the Jermyn Street can hold on to him, it could be in for a golden patch.

Charlotte Hamblin, pictured left as Miss Julie, and James Sheldon, pictured right as Jean, in Miss Julie by August Strindberg at Jermyn Street Theatre

This production, which started life in Keswick, is faithful to the period and opens with a beautifully paced passage of silence when Kristin the cook sets to her stove in the house owned by the Earl.

Izabella Urbanowicz is excellent as doughty, decent Kristin. The smell of the kidneys she cooked for her fiance, Jean the valet, made me peckish.

James Sheldons Jean is perhaps not cadaverous or dangerous enough but he achieves a certain chemistry with Charlotte Hamblins flighty Julie.

A moment when Jean kisses Julies bared ankle has real erotic charge. I wish I believed more in Mr Sheldon as a 19th-century servant. Vocally, he is too modern.

All the usual class heartache is here and Mr Brenton takes care to include the point that Kristin wants her upper-class masters to be moral so that she has a reason to try to better herself.

Only a few times are there wobbles in Mr Littlers direction.

When Jean dons a bowler hat, he looks dangerously like Stan Laurel. And there are a couple of moments when Miss Hamblins hysterics feel forced and over-rehearsed. Otherwise, this is a serious and thought-stirring rendition.
She has stepped out in London amid rumours she's parted ways with the Dutchess of Cambridge's younger brother, James Middleton.

And Donna Air looked chic in a checkered coat as she wrapped up against London's chilly climate.

The 38-year-old paired her striking outerwear with a fur handbag and blue skinny jeans on Thursday.

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Stand-out: Donna Air, 28, looked chic in a checkered coat as she wrapped up against London's chilly climate on Thursday

Refusing to completely hide her physique, the mother-of-one had her coat cinched at the waist as she showcased her svelte figure.

While her platinum locks skimmed her fur collar, Donna appeared fresh-faced - giving the floor to her chic ensemble.

The blonde beauty rose to fame as a child actress in the CBBC series Byker Grove, and branched out into singing, presenting and style editing.

Earlier this month, Donna was confirmed as the ninth celebrity contestant to take part in Dancing on Ice 2018.

Slender: Refusing to completely hide her physique, the mother-of-one had her coat cinched at the waist as she showcased her svelte figure

Blonde beauty: The former child star paired her striking outerwear with a fur handbag and blue skinny jeans on Thursday

Multi-talented: Donna rose to fame as a child actress in the CBBC series Byker Grove, and branched out into singing, presenting and style editing

This sighting follows reports that the media personality is getting over yet another split from the Duchess of Cambridge's younger brother James, 30.

The couple started dating four years ago, but last month reports emerged that the pair had quietly split.

Their latest break up comes just months after they reunited in the summer having taken a four-month relationship sabbatical, prompting Donna to go to a 1,000-a-week Alpine clinic.

Former love? Donna Air and James Middleton started dating four years ago, but last month reports emerged that the pair had quietly split

After being diagnosed with stress, she treated herself to vitamin infusions and aerial yoga - in a bid to cheer herself up over her heartbreak.

Eight years James' senior, Donna has a 14-year-old daughter, Freya, with her ex-boyfriend, the casino and wildlife park heir Damian Aspinall.

Although James may have enjoyed a privileged upbringing, Donna attended a state school in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Her success begun aged just 10 when she was cast for Byker Grove.

The relationship has raised eyebrows, due to the age gap between the couple, but James has been vocal about his feelings for his girlfriend in the past.

The entrepreneur has previously said: 'I love Donna very much. Marriage is absolutely not something I'm scared of, but it isn't necessarily the be-all and end-all.
It's the start of the holiday season.

And Victoria Beckham got into the spirit as she dressed up as a turkey on Thanksgiving in a hilarious Instagram snap on Thursday.

The 43-year-old Spice Girl shared a picture of herself lying on the floor with a feathered bodysuit, which appeared to be Photoshopped, adding the caption: 'Happy Thanksgiving! Kisses'.

Gobble gobble: Victoria Beckham, 43, got into the holiday spirit as she dressed up as a turkey in a hilarious Instagram snap on Thursday

Daring to impress, the stylish stunner put her toned arms and gorgeous gams on full display in the cheeky pic.

The English beauty kept her trademark brunette tresses slicked back as she added a touch of berry to her lip.

Meanwhile, Victoria was quite thankful for her blessings as was revealed in an interview on This Morning with BFF Eva Longoria.

Holiday spirit: She also posted a holiday makeup tutorial

She recalled how lucky she was meeting her husband David Beckham and that 'love at first sight does exist.'

They have been happily married since 1999 and raise four children: Brooklyn, aged 18, Romeo, aged 15, Cruz, aged 12 and seven-year-old Harper.

In the interview, Victoria also opened about about how her youngest and only daughter Harper is thankful for her life as well.

Thankful: In an interview, Victoria expressed thanks for her family: husband David Beckham and four children: Brooklyn (pictured), aged 18, Romeo, aged 15, Cruz, aged 12 and seven-year-old Harper

'Harper knows that Mummy and Daddy, and Auntie Eva do things to help other people, and she wants to do that as well.

She understands, even at six, that she is very blessed. Shes very lucky to have what she has.'

When asked about Harper starting school, the star explained: 'I think it's great, we're blessed to have children, it's a good thing, if you're sad your baby's going off to school, you're a good mum'
She shot to fame after placing third with her beau Scott Thomas, on the 2016 series of Love Island.

But Kady McDermott proved she was on to bigger and better things on Thursday night, as she unveiled her very own clothing collection in Manchester.

The brunette beauty, 22, ensured she was the star of the show in an ab-flashing crop top and chic biker jacket as she beamed excitedly at her COUTURE X KADY launch party, held at The Trafford Centre.

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Leading lady: Kady McDermott unveiled her very own clothing collection COUTURE X KADY in Manchester on Thursday night

The reality star was casually chic in a long-sleeved crop top and skinny jeans - showing off her toned stomach and tiny waist as a self-professed fitness fanatic.

In a further fashionable touch however, she then layered a sleek black biker jacket on top, and tied her look together with sky-high peep toe platforms.

Kady carried her essentials in a matching black clutch bag, but opted to forgo accessories to let the casually stylish look speak for itself.

Let's do this: The brunette beauty, 22, ensured she was the star of the show in an ab-flashing crop top and chic biker jacket as she posed at her launch party, held at The Trafford Centre

Styling her hair into a soft wave and sporting her trademark thick lashes and bronzed make-up look, the reality star proved her striking natural beauty as she smouldered for cameras, at her own exciting launch.

Kady, who rose to fame on Love Island, released her own clothing line with online retailer The Couture Club on Thursday morning.

Detailing the aim and style of her garments, she said on her Instagram last week: 'Its all about being comfortable but stylish and theres something for everyone!I hope you all love the collection as much as I do.'

Toned: The reality star teamed the skimpy top with skinny jeans and sky high peeptoe heels

Kady is certainly keeping to her word with the new clothing project - having confessed to MailOnline her plans to focus on her career last month.

The starlet has also secured a contract with fashion brand Missy Empire and is spear-heading her own make-up range, named By Kady, that she often promotes across her social media channels.

Kady confessed her cosmetic line is currently her 'main priority' and that she has recently launched a new campaign - which inspires girls to take a 'less is more' approach when it comes to their war paint.

Claiming she prefers a 'natural look', Kady explained to MailOnline that body confidence is so 'important' to her and she wants her following to 'feel comfortable in their own skin'.

All that glitters: A number of famous faces attended the launch, including her former Love Island co-star Emma Jane Woodhams

Sterling effort: The pregnant 20-year-old showed off her blossoming bump in a form-fitting mini dress, completely embellished with silver glitter

Hot mama: Adding metallic gladiator heels, the brunette proved she has not let her chic sense of style falter in pregnancy, as she posed for cameras

A number of famous faces attended the launch, including her former Love Island co-star Emma Jane Woodhams.

The pregnant 20-year-old showed off her blossoming bump in a form-fitting mini dress, completely embellished with silver glitter.

Adding metallic gladiator heels, the brunette proved she has not let her chic sense of style falter in pregnancy, as she posed for cameras.

Emma is expecting her first child with teenage sweetheart Jordan - and announced her happy news just months after splitting from co-star beau Terry Walsh.

Casual: Laura-Alicia Summers also supported Kady at the event in casual ripped skinny jeans and a logo tee
PR queen Roxy Jacenko has confirmed she will not take part in season two of Real Housewives of Sydney.

The 37-year-old has vehemently denied rumours suggesting she would join the cast, telling Daily Mail Australia on Friday: 'Housewives? No, I am most certainly not and I am perplexed as to where that rumour came from.'

'Its not something Ill be doing  its scary to watch!' she added.

'Its scary to watch!' Roxy Jacenko confirms she will NOT star in Real Housewives Of Sydney season 2 as insiders break their silence on three new cast members

The in-demand publicist also responded to rumours she would feature on other reality shows.

She said: 'In the one week I have found out that I am going to be a Housewife and the new Mark Bouris on Celebrity Apprentice  all news to me!'

This comes after Real Housewives of Sydney insiders have said a very prominent man from her past will feature in the reality show.

According to News Corp, ex-lover Nabil Gazal - who rekindled his relationship with Roxy while her husband Oliver Curtis was in jail this year - is tipped to star on the show.

Get ready! The 37-year-old told Daily Mail Australia, 'Housewives? No, I am most certainly not and I am perplexed as to where that rumour came from' (pictured here with husband Oliver Curtis)

Here comes the ex! According to News Corp, her ex-lover Nabil Gazal is tipped to star on the show

Must we remind you? Nabil and Roxy famously rekindled their romance in April this year, while hubby Oliver Curtis was in jail for insider trading

The Sydney property developer, who was spotted kissing the Sweaty Betty PR founder on his balcony in April, already has a direct connection to the show.

Nabil is the brother of Nicole O'Neil, who is one of the stars of season one believed to be making a return in 2018.

And according to The Daily Telegraph: 'her famous brothers (including Nabil Gazal Jr) are in the sights of producers.'

All in the family: Nabil is the brother of Nicole O'Neil, who is one of the stars of season one believed to be making a return in 2018

Should Nabil star, it's hard to imagine that none of the notoriously loose-lipped Housewives will probe him on his connection to Roxy.

In another promising sign, Nicole did nothing to dispel the rumours when speaking to the publication on Wednesday.

'I am so proud to be a Sydney girl and I hope that season two will show even more fabulous aspects of our incredible city,' she began.

Adding cryptically: 'I think there will be some surprises.'

Oh brother! And according to The Daily Telegraph: 'her famous brothers (including Nabil Gazal Jr) are in the sights of producers

Not all good news! While that sure makes for an enticing prospect, it's not all good news, with two season one favourites believed to be in doubt to return

While that sure makes for an enticing prospect, it's not all good news, with two season one favourites believed to be in doubt to return.

News Corp have claimed the dynamic duo of Lisa Oldfield and Athena X Levendi were the only two cast members not to fly to Brisbane for an event this week.

Sources have claimed two new housewives are being floated as their replacements, after performing well in test shoots.

An insider told News Corp: 'It took a while but they have found women who will change the dynamic of the show.'
She went public with her same-sex romance in August.

And just three months later, The Bachelor's Alex Nation is reportedly planning for a baby with her girlfriend, Maegan Luxa.

According to Woman's Day, the mother-of-one, 26, is keen to expand her brood, with a pal allegedly telling the publication: 'The girls have sought advice from an IVF clinic in East Melbourne'.

A baby together? According to Woman's Day, Alex Nation is reportedly planning for a baby with her girlfriend, Maegan Luxa, after a recent holiday to Bali

It comes after Alex and Maegan enjoyed a loved-up getaway to Bali last month, where they were seen packing on the PDA in front of fellow holiday makers.

Woman's Day claim it was the romantic trip that prompted the pair's plans for a baby.

'They fell in love all over again during their trip to Bali and talk got serious', their friend reportedly told the magazine.

Get to work: Possibly feeling clucky, former chef Maegan was seen helping her lover's son do yard duties

Indeed, since their return to Australia, Maegan has been seen spending time with Alex's six-year-old son, Elijah, whom she shares with her ex-husband.

Possibly feeling clucky, the former chef was seen helping her lover's son do yard duties in an Instagram post shared by Alex last week.

Her fans were quick to praise the cute pic and left supportive comments such as: 'This is adorable,' and: 'Love it. Three Musketeers.'

Doting mum: Ever the natural, Alex is a hands-on-mum to son Elijah, 6, and Woman's Day claims she has plans to gift him with a sibling

Soon to be a big brother? According to Woman's Day, Alex and Maegan 'have sought advice from an IVF clinic in East Melbourne'

And a baby may not be the only big event on the couple's horizon- with the publication stating that Alex and Maegan are also making plans for 'a wedding'.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Alex for comment.

The couple met earlier this year after playing on the same Frankston Bomber's footy team.

At the time of their first meeting, Alex was still with her Bachelor beau, Richie Strahan- who was often seen in the company of Alex's only child- with Alex and Maegan later becoming an item.
She revealed in her book 'Back On Top: Confessions Of A High-Class Escort' that she traded in her Subaru for a convertible BMW with the proceeds from being a sex worker.

And former high-class escort Samantha X (real name Amanda Goff) was spotted alongside her plush ride as she ran errands in Bondi Beach on Friday.

The 43-year-old, who is now dating Channel Seven reporter Ryan Phelan, went braless in a white summer dress for her day out.

Perks of the job! Former high-class escort Samantha X cruises around in her BMW convertible she bought with the proceeds from being a sex worker... after revealing her romance with Channel 7 reporter Ryan Phelan

She accessorised with a Longchamp handbag and a pair of rubber thongs.

Wearing minimal makeup, she shielded her eyes with a pair of designer sunglasses as she drove around with the top down on her flash car.

In her 2017 book, published just weeks before she retired as a sex worker, Amanda revealed the perks of being a high-class escort.

'Since becoming Samantha I had swapped my old Subaru for a convertible BMW. I had nice furniture, and went on nice holidays - always five star,' she wrote in the tome.

Turning up the heat: The 43-year-old, who is now dating Channel Seven reporter Ryan Phelan, went braless in a white summer dress for her day

'If I needed a break I wouldn't think twice about booking myself on a retreat for a week and not getting much change from $5000.

'Escorting is like an ATM - it's the gift that keeps giving.'

Amanda confirmed she was dating Channel 7 reporter Ryan this week after announcing her retirement as an escort.

She told Daily Mail Australia the couple 'are very happy' and he is the one who made her realise it was time to 'close the chapter' and start a new life with him.

However, Ryan's new controversial relationship may have had 'huge implications' for his career.

After also professing his love for Amanda, network executives, fans and advertisers are said to have been left fuming.

Phelan fine! Earlier in the day, Amanda was seen working up a sweat at the gym

The Daily Telegraph reports that the announcement has 'raised more than a few eyebrows' and jeopardised his 'wholesome image'.

Amanda and Ryan fell in love while she was on the job.

Ryan confirmed he first met her while she was on a promotional tour for her new book.

'We met when Amanda came in (to Channel 7) to promote her second book, Back On Top, and I asked her out on a lunch date,' he revealed to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Busty: She showed off her surgically enhanced assets in a low-cut crop top and leggings

Natural beauty: The 43-year-old went makeup free for the exercise session

Back On Top was released on August 28, while Amanda announced she was 'hanging up the heels' and retiring as an escort on October 24.

We have pretty much spent every day together since (we met) I fell in love with Amanda, no one else,' he told the publication.

'And that is who she is to me, Amanda, an outstanding mother and an outstanding woman.'

'If anything she has achieved a lot in her career and given an industry a voice it didn't have before,' he concluded.

She fits right in: Amanda blended in with the Bondi active-wearing crowd

New romance: Amanda confirmed she was dating Channel 7 reporter Ryan this week after announcing her retirement as an escort

In Amanda's book, she spoke of an ongoing semi-serious relationship with an unnamed man, code named 'Mr. Big.'

In their first couple's photo on Monday, the former escort confirmed: 'Meet my love, Ryan (He is NOT Mr Big from my book!)'

After Amanda made the announcement, her usually private TV star boyfriend followed suit.

He posted a sweet flashback of their recent trip to Europe, captioned with a love heart emoji.

On the job: Ryan confirmed he first met her while she was working a promotional tour for her new book

Meanwhile, the parents to four kids won't be looking to add more children to their 'brood' - likening their current situation to the Brady Bunch.

'No more kids! We're enough of a Brady Bunch as it is... As for marriage, we are very happy for now but not ruling anything out in the future,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

The couple 'are very happy', she added, and Ryan is the one who made her realise it was time to 'close the chapter' on escorting to start their new life together.

'I knew it was time. The love we have deserved Amanda not Samantha, and I was ready to close on the chapter on Samantha,' she said.

'Ryan and I are very much in love. He is the most beautiful man, not just on the outside but on the inside too. I've never smiled and laughed more in my life!

Explaining her retirement, the former sex worker cited the desire to focus on her escort agency Samantha X Angels, with plans to expand to other cities.
Georgia Love tragically lost her mother Belinda to pancreatic cancer 13 months ago.

And The Bachelorette star has now revealed her commitments to the reality series forced her to cut short her last ever holiday with her mum.

In an emotional letter published on Friday, the 29-year-old admitted that she may never have agreed to do the show at all if she knew how long her mother had left to live.

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Emotional: Georgia Love reveals her last ever holiday with her mother was cut short by a publicity tour for The Bachelorette

'Maybe if Id realised just how little time wed have left with you, I wouldnt have gone away for three months to film The Bachelorette,' she wrote in the letter published by Mamamia.

But the brunette beauty conceded that she wouldn't have met hubby Lee Elliott, adding: 'And God knows Ive needed him in this year thats followed.

'Maybe I wouldnt have let the shows publicity schedule cut short what would be our last family holiday together, just six weeks before you passed away?'

Georgia also revealed that her mother died only six months after telling her of her deadly diagnosis at a Tasmanian winery. She was just 60 when she passed away.

The Channel Ten journalist said she wished that she would have done more research into pancreatic cancer if she had her time with her mother again.

Reflecting: In an emotional letter published on Friday, the 29-year-old admitted that she may never have agreed to the show at all if she knew how long her mother had left to live

Looking back: 'Maybe if Id realised just how little time wed have left with you, I wouldnt have gone away for three months to film The Bachelorette,' she wrote

And while she suggested things may have been different if she understood the disease better, she argued that things may have went 'just how they were meant to'.

She wrote that she believes her life led her to become The Bachelorette at the right moment to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer.

The article comes after Georgia revealed to The Daily Telegraph last month that 2017 has been the hardest year of her life.

Georgia said family and friends were going to gather and drink her mother's favourite cocktail - an Aperol Spritz - to celebrate a year since her death.

Times like these: Georgia said her last holiday with her mother (centre) was cut short to undertake publicity for The Bachelorette

Tragic: Belinda died at the age of 60, and only six months after telling Georgia of her deadly diagnosis at a Tasmanian winery
Her media career has been going gangbusters following her stint on the The Bachelorette.

But it seems Sophie Monk is looking to resurrect her first profession as a celebrity impersonator.

The 37-year-old took to her Instagram story to share some bizarre clips of herself modelling a pair broken sunglasses from the set of a commercial shoot for Slim Secrets, of which she is an ambassador of.

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Resurrecting her celebrity impersonator career? Sophie Monk channels her inner Lady Gaga with bizarre one lens sunglasses

In the video, Sophie pretends not to realise there is something wrong with her rose gold sunglasses, saying: 'I just feel like something's missing. Like, it's weird.'

But she quickly quips the bizarre look adding: 'Is it Lady Gaga though?'

'Very Lady Gaga,' she affirmed.

The Poker Face songstress herself rocked similar glasses as she was seen leaving her New York apartment, back in 2015.

Look familiar? The Poker Face songstress herself rocked similar glasses as she was seen leaving her New York apartment, back in 2015

The odd video comes amid rumours Sophie and her Bachelorette beau Stu Laundy have already called it quits.

Body language expert Diederik Gelderman told Daily Mail Australia recent photos of the two packing on the PDA at Sydney airport showed they had indeed split up.

Gelderman explained that the two keeping their hands behind their backs while kissing, and micro-expressions of contempt and fear showed they were awkward with one another.
On Tuesday they celebrated their second wedding anniversary.

And the celebrations kept on coming for loved-up Hollywood power couple Sofia Vergara, 45, and Joe Manganiello, 40, when they celebrated Thanksgiving with family on Thursday.

The Modern Family star took to social media to treat her 13.4 million Instagram followers to plenty of snaps of the family festivities.

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Power couple: Sofia Vergara, 45, and Joe Manganiello, 40, celebrated Thanksgiving with family on Thursday

The Hot Pursuit actress looked gorgeous in a shimmering gold skirt, teetering skyscraper heels and a low cut white top that made the most of Sofia's busty physique.

She wore her straight brunette locks loose and parted to the side.

The Machete Kills beauty wore a full face of makeup for the family festivities and her lips were accentuated by a slash of bright red lipstick.

Take a bite: The Modern Family star took to social media to treat her 13.4 million Instagram followers to plenty of snaps of the family festivities

Her Magic Mike XXL heartthrob husband rocked a tight black shirt with short sleeves that showed off the hunk's bulging biceps.

The happy couple got engaged on Christmas Day 2014 after six months of dating, before tying the knot in a romantic ceremony in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 21, 2015.

Sofia's star power seems to only get brighter as she was recently the named highest-paid television actress for the sixth year in a row with earnings of an incredible $42 million in just 12 months.

Gym junkie: Her Magic Mike XXL heartthrob husband rocked a tight black shirt with short sleeves that showed off the hunk's bulging biceps

Twirl! Vergara showed off her sparkling dress in an Instagram video

The actress was previously married to high school sweetheart Joe Gonzalez from 1991 to 1993, with whom she shares son Manolo, 25, who was also at the family get together.

Also in attendance was Sofia's lookalike niece, 25-year-old Claudia.

The woman with the famous aunt is an aspiring fashion designer.

Good genes: The actress was previously married to high school sweetheart Joe Gonzalez from 1991 to 1993, with whom she shares son Manolo. Also pictured is niece Claudia

Having a hoot: Sofia's star power seems to only get brighter as she was recently the named highest-paid television actress for the sixth year in a row

High flyer: Sofia's earnings totaled an incredible $42 million in just 12 months

Sofia paid tribute to husband Joe with a sweet Instagram snap as the couple celebrated their second wedding anniversary on Tuesday.

The Lords Of Dogtown actress posted an adorable photograph of the pair gazing into each other's eyes, alongside the caption: 'I adore you @joemanganiello. Happy Aniversary!!'

Joe also posted his own message to his Colombian-born wife, opting for a shot of him spinning her around the dance floor while writing a note in Sofia's native tongue.

Translated as 'happy second anniversary my love, you are my everything', Joe wrote: 'Feliz Segundo Aniversario mi amor! Eres mi todo.'
He lost his mother in September and stepfather five weeks later.

And Carson Daly kept his loved one's memories alive as he prepared a Thanksgiving dinner using his late mom Patti Caruso's recipes on Thursday.

'Deeply missing the smell of mom's Jimmy Dean sausage as I woke up this am. Luckily, she left the family recipes for us,' the 44-year-old captioned a snap of a turkey next to well worn recipes.

Traditions: Carson Daly, 44, kept his late mom Patti Caruso's memories alive as he prepared a Thanksgiving dinner using her recipes on Thursday, (pictured 2014)

Carson's wife Siri paid tribute to her mother-in-law as she posted a snap of the Jimmy Dean sausage with a recipe as well.

'Every year, Carson and I would wake up to the sound of pots and pans clinking and the smell of sausage frying,' she started the caption.

'This year, I am in charge of Kikis stuffing and wishing I could ask her if I need more butter (the answer would be YES).

Cooking up love: 'Deeply missing the smell of mom's Jimmy Dean sausage as I woke up this am. Luckily, she left the family recipes for us,' he captioned a snap of a turkey next to well worn recipes

More please: Carson's wife Siri paid tribute to her mother-in-law as she posted a snap of the Jimmy Dean sausage with a recipe as well

'So thankful for memories, family and dear friends. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!,' she added.

Siri also posted a cute Instagram story under @siriouslydelicious where she wore a turkey leg headband as she prepared the family famous stuffing.

Following the fun costume video, she captured the step by step process in frying shallots and making brussels sprout ricotta toast.

Keep it light: Siri also posted a cute Instagram story under @siriouslydelicious where she wore a turkey leg headband as she prepared the family famous stuffing

After Patti died from a heart attack in Palm Desert, CA, Carson took a leave of absence from his hosting gig at Today.

During this heartbreaking period, he tweeted: 'There are no words for the loss of mom. Thank u for the incredible outpouring of love. It helps. Please hug the ones you love most tonight.'

Carson and Siri have son Jackson, eight, daughter Etta, five, and daughter London, three, to treasure Patti's recipes.
She just launched her new Holiday lip-kit collection.

And Kylie Jenner also hosted Thanksgiving dinner with her sister Kourtney and mom Kris Jenner at her Hidden Hills home in Calabasas, California, on Thursday.

The 20-year-old make-up mogul, who is rumored to be pregnant, decorated her lavish dinning room with festive appetizers and decorations.

Red hot: Kylie Jenner also hosted Thanksgiving dinner at her Hidden Hills home in Calabasas, California, on Thursday

Chic: The reality star captioned her snap: 'thanksgiving at Ky's.'

Although Kylie didn't take any selfies of herself, she did record her mom Kris.

The momager was seen rocking back and forth on a chic canopy, wearing a chic Thanksgiving ensemble.

The 62-year-old wore thigh-high black leather boots, a white button-up shirt, and a light-gray blazer.

Kris wore a glam make-up look and styled her dark short tresses to the side.

Lounging: Although Kylie didn't take any selfies of herself, she did record her mom Kris

Kicking back: The momager was seen rocking back and forth on a chic canopy, wearing a chic Thanksgiving ensemble

Doting mom: The 62-year-old wore thigh-high black leather boots, a white button-up shirt, and a light-gray blazer

Feast! Kourtney Kardashian posted a photo of the festivities on Thursday

Kylie's chic dining room was set gold glass-chalices and candle-lights to set the mood for the evening.

The reality star captioned her snap: 'thanksgiving at Ky's.'

Her sister Kourtney also shared a festive snap of the lavish dinner.

She also decorated her table with beautiful white and burgundy flowers, which matched her pink chairs.

Dinner time: Kylie's chic dining room was set gold glass-chalices and candle-lights to set the mood for the evening

Meanwhile, Kylie is rumored to be expecting a baby with her boyfriend Travis Scott, while her sister Khloe is said to be expecting a child with her beau Tristan Thompson.

Kris recently recently seemed to give the biggest hint yet that her daughters were pregnant.

Taking to Instagram, Kris had shared a photo of nine different sets of pyjamas which she said are for 'every one of my grandchildren.'

Gobble, gobble: She also decorated her table with beautiful white and burgundy flowers, which matched her pink chairs

The reality star currently has six grandchildren in total; Kourtney Kardashian is mum to sons Mason, seven, and Reign, two and daughter Penelope, five, Kim Kardashian shares daughter North, four, and son Saint, one, with husband Kanye West and Rob Kardashian welcomed his first child, daughter Dream, one, with ex Black Chyna last year.

Along with Kylie and Khloe's apparent new arrivals, Kim is set to welcome her third child, another daughter, in January via surrogate - taking Kris' total grandchildren up to nine, the number of pyjama sets visible in her snap.

She gushed alongside her post: 'Thank you so much #burtsbeesbaby @burtsbeesbaby #bbbfamjams for the most amazing collection of family jammies ever and i am obsessed with the plaid !!!!!

'Cant wait to cuddle up with the kids #holidayseason thank you for a collection for every one of my grandchildren  #blessed #grateful thanks for the idea @oprah !!' (sic).

Khloe is currently spending Thanksgiving in Cleveland, Ohio with her boyfriend Tristan.

Game night: The Jenner family also played a round of Taboo
She's the PR queen known as much for her perfect appearance as she is her business savvy.

And on Thursday night, Roxy Jacenko revealed one of her biggest beauty tricks and the secret behind her perfectly bronzed pins.

The 36-year-old was seen lathering her legs with Skinny Tan as she indulged in a night of pampering at Sydney's InterContinental Hotel with four of her most faithful employees, who also happen to look identical to the PR maven.

Bronzed and beautiful! PR queen Roxy Jacenko reveals the secret to her perfectly tanned pins

The bevvy of blondes- who have been dubbed Roxy's 'clones'- donned bathrobes as they began their beauty prep for Sweaty Betty's epic Christmas party, to be held on Friday night.

One image shows the PR maven sitting in a swanky hotel room, as she applies the product with a hot pink glove.

A second snap then shows all the employees doing the same, with bottles of the tanning product laying on the marble coffee table.

DIY: One image shows the PR maven sitting in a swanky hotel room, as she applies the product with a hot pink glove

Hard at work: A second snap then shows all the employees doing the same, with bottles of the tanning product laying on the marble coffee table

However, it wasn't all hard work for the girl gang, with Roxy telling Daily Mail Australia the look-a-like crew indulged in champagne and chocolate covered strawberries as they kicked off the festive season.

Taking to Instagram the morning after the event, the Sweaty Betty CEO wrote: 'Last night we had a girls night in prepping our tans with @skinnytanoz ahead of the annual @sweatybettypr Christmas dinner tonight'.

Spruiking the beauty product, Roxy added: ' needless to say we are all looking like we have stepped off the shores of Hawaii thanks to the skinny tan 7 day dark self-tan and we are ready to enjoy what has been one hell of a challenging but seriously successful year'.

Attack of the clones! Roxy was joined by four of her favourite employees

Her clones were quick to also profess their love for the brand of tan.

'So much fun! My tan is such a good colour!' Roxy's star employee Holly Asser cooed.

'Love so good! best time xxx' devoted Grace Garrick echoed.

Bevvy of blondes: Roxy's look-a-like crew donned bathrobes for their tanning session

However, the blondes may have to watch out with Roxy added some diversity to her offices- with a brunette seen inside at Sweaty Betty on Friday.

Roxy took to Instagram to share a snap of raven haired Ingham chicken heiress, Jessica Ingham, hard at work.

'New recruit @jessingham' she captioned.
Jeremy Piven was spotted running errands in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The actor, 52, appeared to be alone as he made his purchases on the American Thanksgiving holiday.

It comes as a fifth woman has come forward to accuse the Entourage and Mr. Selfridge star of sexual assault.

Piven has denied all allegations made against him.

Solo outing: Jeremy Piven was spotted running errands in Los Angeles on Thursday, one day after a fifth woman claimed he'd groped her on the set of Entourage in 2009

The bearded actor was casually dressed in a stripy t-shirt and black pants with dark deck shoes.

He wore sunglasses and carried a cup of coffee to go.

On Wednesday, Anastasia Taneie accused Piven of groping her when she worked as a 23-year-old background actress on Entourage in 2009.

'I was scared at the time nobody was going to believe me. I didn't want to make a scene. I just wanted to go home,' she told BuzzFeed News. 'It was the most horrible thing I've ever experienced.'

Piven denied the accusations and pointed to a lie detector test from November 13 which found him innocent of groping anyone after four other women including actress Ariane Bellamar accused him.

He said: 'Let me be absolutely clear, this simply did not happen. I would never force myself on a woman. I cannot speak as to why a person would create a story like this.'

Quiet day: The actor, 52, appeared to be alone as he headed out on the American Thanksgiving holiday

Relaxed: The bearded actor, who wore sunglasses, was casually dressed in a stripy t-shirt and black pants with dark deck shoes

Taneie, now 30, says that Piven pushed her up against a wall during the alleged assault, and that it has haunted her for years.

Anastasia Taneie alleges Piven pushed her against a wall and groped her breasts and genitals, leaving her a sobbing wreck when she was a 23-year-old background actress on the HBO series

She said that Piven had approached her as she stood with a group of other extras during a break in filming, and that he and his manager wanted to discuss something with her privately.

He only stopped when an assistant director (AD) walked past - and then demanded that she be taken off the set for coming onto him, she alleged.

BuzzFeed said it contacted five ADs who worked on the relevant season of Entourage, of whom two did not respond, two made contact but then stopped communication and one offered no comment.

Araceli Giacoman, another background actor on the show, told BuzzFeed that she saw her follow Piven after he said he had something to tell her, and that 'It looked dark down there.'

She said that Taneie looked 'a little distraught' and 'shaken' when she returned to the extras' room.

Andy Lobo, another extra on the set said that she cried and told him that Piven had assaulted her; her mother likewise said Taneie was 'frantic' and 'crying' as she relayed the allegations at the time.

Taneie said she has only spoken up now because she 'was scared at the time nobody was going to believe me. I didn't want to make a scene. I just wanted to go home.'

Not true: Piven (right, with the cast of Entourage) denies the claim

Accusers: Actress Ariane Bellamar, 38, (left) last month accused the actor of groping her breasts. Porn star Isis Taylor (right) is another women who claims Piven harassed her

HBO said in a statement that its records from the time don't show any complaints against Piven, and that it 'takes sexual harassment seriously' and is committed to ensuring 'a safe and comfortable work environment' for all its employees.

As well as denying the claims, Piven said he may take legal action against his accusers and demanded that they take a polygraph test, as he did.

Piven's lie detector test report related to the October claims by actress Ariane Bellamar that he groped her twice, once in his trailer on the Entourage set and the other at the Playboy mansion.

According to documents obtained by The Blast, the test was made to 'determine if Mr. Piven had ever "grabbed" or touched Ms. Arianne Bellamar, without consent or otherwise, on the buttocks and/or breast area, while on the set of Entourage and/or at the Playboy Mansion, approximately five years ago'.

The polygraph was administered by a member of the American Polygraph Association with Chapman Investigations on November 13.

It asked questions such as: 'Did you ever "grab" and/or fondle Ms. Arianne Bellamar's breasts?', to which he answered 'no'.

He was also asked if he had ever 'cornered' Ariane in his trailer 'so that you could 'grab' her breasts and/or buttocks?', and if she had ever been in his trailer on the set of Entourage. He said 'no' to both.

On set: Piven was filming scenes for his new CBS series Wisdom of the Crowd in Los Angeles last week when he allegedly broke down in tears over the accusations

The concluding notes of the test stated: 'After a careful evaluation of all test questions, including relevant, irrelevant and control questions, it is the examiner's analysis and professional opinion that Mr. Piven showed no reactions indicative of deception to any of the relevant questions.

'The results indicate Mr. Piven "PASSED" as to his answers on all questions.'

Piven had previously vowed to take such a test, insisting the allegations made against him were 'absolutely false and completely fabricated'.

In a statement on Twitter, he said: 'Let me begin by saying that the accusations against me are absolutely false and completely fabricated. I would never force myself on a woman. Period.

'I have offered to take a polygraph to support my innocence. I keep asking myself, "How does one prove something didn't happen?"

'What I am not able to do is speculate as to the motivations of these women.

'As a human being I feel compassion for the victims of such acts, but I am perplexed as to the misdirection of anger with false accusations against me and hope they do not detract from the stories that should be heard.'

Piven has been an 'emotional wreck' in the wake of the allegations, a source told DailyMail.com.

The former Mr. Selfridge star has taken a lie detector to prove his innocence and has urged his detractors to do the same

The industry insider claimed Piven broke down in tears during filming of his new TV series, before walking off set in front of stunned production staff.

He was filming scenes for his new CBS series Wisdom of the Crowd at the TV network's studio in Los Angeles when he reportedly broke down.

The source claims the actor - who portrays Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur Jeffrey Tanner in the new drama - has appeared 'jittery' and 'stressed' as he continues to work, while privately dealing with the fallout of the allegations against him.

Piven was accused on Twitter of sexual harassment and assault by 38-year-old Bellamar at the end of October.

She was followed by actress Cassidy Freeman who said on her Instagram page that Piven engaged in 'predatory behavior' against her when she was 'far too young.'

More women have since come forward accusing the Emmy winning actor of sexual assault and harassment.

Washington-based advertising executive Tiffany Bacon Scourby, 39, and Hawaii-based porn star Isis Taylor both say Piven attacked or harassed them.

Piven has denied all allegations of sexual assault saying they 'are absolutely false and completely fabricated.'

The actor calls the allegations against him 'absolutely false and completely fabricated'

The source said: 'Jeremy is a mess, he broke down in tears as we were working on a scene and he left the set. Filming was stopped.

'He has become an emotional wreck within the last week as these allegations mount against him.

'Everything appears to be getting on top of him. The set has been increasingly tense.'

The source said Piven has kept 'himself to himself' since the allegations emerged with producers asking production crew to be 'sensitive' when dealing with the actor.

Piven wrote on Twitter after the allegations emerged: 'What am I not able to do is speculate as to the motivations of these women, as a human being I feel compassion for the victims of such acts, but I am perplexed as to the misdirection of anger with false accusations against me and hope they do not detract from the stories that should be heard.'
She first rose to fame as the mother of Yummy Mummies 'villain' and Versace enthusiast Maria DiGeronimo.

And it seems as though Margherita DiGeronimo isn't yet ready to give up her short lived fame, taking a crack at the music industry.

Sharing the exciting news with her Instagram fans on Friday, the video saw the 61-year-old mother-of-two flaunt her trim physique in short dresses whilst sipping on cocktails.

Taking on the music industry: On Friday, Yummy Mummies star Margherita DiGeronimo revealed she had released her debut self-titled 'hit' single

'Please SUPPORT US with our latest song MARGHERITA and request it on ALL RADIO STATIONS IN ALL STATES!!,' the aspiring pop star captioned the post.

'It is now available to DOWNLOAD ON YOUTUBE, ITUNES, SPOTIFY & all other digital media sites!! This song is a HIT!!'

But although the song is self-titled, Margherita dances for most of the video clip while friend Robby X loans her vocal cords and takes centre stage.

Making her move: 'Please SUPPORT US with our latest song MARGHERITA and request it on ALL RADIO STATIONS IN ALL STATES!!,' the aspiring pop star captioned the post

She got some help: But although the song is self-titled, Margherita dances for most of the video clip while friend Robby X loans her vocal cords and takes centre stage

And it's not the first time the blonde star has dipped her toe into the music industry.

Earlier in the year after the conclusion of her reality series, Margherita featured in the song 'Valentina' with Maria, named after her grand-daughter.

And with her new artistic career blossoming, the Versace lover will not be making a return to the second season of Yummy Mummies.

It's back for a second season: Despite the show's ability to only attract 200,000 viewers, Seven revealed last month that the Melbourne mothers would be back

Despite the show's ability to only attract 200,000 viewers, Seven revealed last month that the Melbourne mothers would be back.

'Follow Lorinksa [Merrington] as she takes little "Lady Penelope" to purchase her first designer outfit with matching high heels,' an official statement said.

'Meanwhile, Rachel [Watts] is buying a new home for baby Harvey and Jane's [Scandizzo] younger toddler Jenson is visiting the bank manager to open his first account.'

'Then there's first ponies, holiday homes, birthday parties and more!'

According to the Adelaide Advertiser, Maria and Margherita have 'declined' to take part in another series.
Three months of loved-up showings saw them attract reports they're planning to try for a baby via IVF this week.

And former Bachelor winner Alex Nation, 26, and her girlfriend Maegan Luxa certainly looked like a romance destined to go the distance on Friday.

Their burgeoning romance was in full bloom at the Make-A-Wish fairyland event in Melbourne, the pair putting on a smitten display in adorable matching fairy outfits.

Wish upon a (reality) star! Bachelor star Alex Nation, 26, and girlfriend Maegan Luxa looked destined to go the distance on Friday, amid rumours they're planning to try for a baby via IVF

Posing for photos at the outdoor event, the lovers were the picture of happiness, Alex wearing a beaming grin as she nuzzled her girlfriend's shoulder.

Clearly the joker of the pair, hardly a minute passed in which Maegan wasn't seen drawing a laugh from her reality star partner.

They eventually pulled themselves away from the photo wall, keen to mingle with some of the brave kids in attendance.

Those who recognised the Bachelor beauty were instantly thrilled, while the irresistible cuteness of their matching fairy wings quickly won over the uninitiated.

Blossoming! Their burgeoning romance was in full bloom at a Make-A-Wish Foundation event, the pair putting on a smitten display in adorable matching fairy outfits

She's popular! Those who recognised the Bachelor beauty were instantly thrilled, while the irresistible cuteness of their matching fairy wings quickly won over the uninitiated

Alex looked flawless as ever in a pinstripe playsuit, putting on a leggy display in the high-cut ensemble.

Spotted snapping pics of her new friends on her phone, the mother-of-one later amplified her look with a shiny tiara.

Flawless! Alex looked flawless as ever in a pinstripe playsuit, putting on a leggy display in the high-cut ensemble

Happy snaps! Spotted snapping pics of her new friends on her phone, the mother-of-one later amplified her look with a shiny tiara

Casual comfort! Also taking the chance to commemorate the occasion with pictures, Maegan cut a cool figure in skinny jeans, sunglasses and an open button-up shirt

Also taking the chance to commemorate the occasion with pictures, Maegan cut a cool figure in skinny jeans, sunglasses and an open button-up shirt.

The AFL player's casual look only served to make her commitment to the theme all the more adorable, contrasting her street style with a red tutu and fairy wings.

Adorable! The AFL player's casual look only served to make her commitment to the theme all the more adorable, contrasting her street style with a red tutu and fairy wings

Couple goals! Fans keeping a watchful eye on their chemistry following Friday's baby rumours surely would have been excited by their effortless rapport

Then there were four? According to reports, Alex is keen to expand her brood, with a pal allegedly saying: 'The girls have sought advice from an IVF clinic in East Melbourne'

Fans keeping a watchful eye on their chemistry following Friday's baby rumours surely would have been excited by their effortless rapport.

According to Woman's Day, Alex is keen to expand her brood, with a pal allegedly saying: 'The girls have sought advice from an IVF clinic in East Melbourne.'

The publication cites the couple's recent loved-up trip to Bali as the catalyst for the desire to start a family.

Expanding? Alex is already mother to son Elijah, 6, from a previous relationship
Stephanie Davis has broken her silence following the jailing of her ex boyfriend Jeremy McConnell on Thursday.

The TV star, 24, took to Twitter to send a message to her fans just hours after Jeremy, 27, was jailed for 18 weeks after skipping community service to get a beard and hair transplant.

Stephanie kept her message brief, writing: 'Thank you for your love, faith and support. It means alot [sic]' followed by a heart emoji.

Breaking her silence: Stephanie Davis has broken her silence following the jailing of her ex boyfriend Jeremy McConnell on Thursday

Stephanie's tweet was met by an outpouring of support from her followers, with one replying: 'You have been through a lot but have come out the other side you have become a strong caring person and a great mum be proud of yourself. X'

Another tweeted: 'Never forget the journey you've been on, we're all so incredibly proud of you hope you and Caben have the best 1st Christmas creating memories to cherish forever.'

Jeremy, the father of Stephanie's son Caben, was told he will spend Christmas locked up during a short hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday.

Heartfelt: Stephanie kept her message brief, writing: 'Thank you for your love, faith and support. It means alot [sic]' followed by a heart emoji'

In handcuffs: Jeremy, the father of Stephanie's son Caben, was told he will spend Christmas locked up during a short hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday

The former Big Brother contestant was hauled back into the dock after he failed to 'comply' with a community work order that he was given in August.

Jeremy was handed a 20-week suspended sentence and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, after being found guilty of assaulting Stephanie.

During today's hearing, probation services recommended he be given extra hours of unpaid work for missing eight work appointments.

Support: Stephanie's tweet was met by an outpouring of support from her followers

But District Judge Wendy Lloyd dismissed the recommendations and told Jeremy he was being sent to jail.

Speaking via video link from Liverpool Magistrates' Court, she said: 'After trial I convicted you of a vicious alcohol-fueled attack on your partner and the mother of your child.

'She received a number of injuries and you also damaged her property. You showed no regard for your little baby, who was caught up in the violence.

'I was anxious to protect other women from your violence in future, so I gave you a suspended sentence with rehabilitation requirements.

Locked up: Jeremy, 27, was jailed for 18 weeks on Thursday after skipping community service to get a beard and hair transplant

'Your solicitor said it would be unjust to activate that sentence.

'However I find the reality is that your enthusiasm for cooperation has been short lived and there's nothing to show in the future things will change.

'You have done some of the work and it seems fair that I give you some discount for that. I sentence you to 18 weeks of imprisonment out of the original 20.'

Jeremy's head remained bowed after sentencing and he was silent as he was taken away by two dock officers.

After he was jailed, the TV star's solicitor James Morris announced he intended to appeal the sentence immediately.

Parents: Jeremy was handed a 20-week suspended sentence and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, after being found guilty of assaulting Stephanie, the mother of his son Caben

Judge Wendy Lloyd said the request would need to be made in writing - and to another judge.

Mr Morris said he would be lodging the appeal 'later this afternoon'.

He said Jeremy had already completed 76 of his 200 hours, and blamed his absences to him going through a 'very dark period in his personal life'.

'There were some stories in the media regarding people he'd befriended during his unpaid work and who'd sold their stories in the papers', he told the judge.

'He felt his confidence was being breached and he fell back in his unpaid work and supervision appointments.

'But he's shown a marked improvement most recently. Any direction to activate his suspended sentence would undo that work.'

Makeover: Despite being pictured sweeping roads around Cardiff, Jeremy skipped out on doing his total required hours. Instead he went to get a hair and beard transplant in Istanbul

Despite being pictured wearing a hi-vis jacket while sweeping roads around the Welsh capital, Jeremy skipped out on doing his total required hours.

Instead he went to get a hair and beard transplant at a clinic in Istanbul.

Sources close to Jeremy said it was so he can look the 'best he can' as he propels himself back into the spotlight in upcoming projects.

Jeremy's jail sentence followed a high profile trial where he was found guilty of attacking former Hollyoaks star Miss Davis, 24, at her home in Rainhill, Merseyside in March, this summer.

During proceedings in August, a judge said Jeremy had shown no remorse for the attack on his ex-girlfriend or the impact it must have had on their son, Caben.
She's wowed the show judges and TV audience with her sizzling choreography.

But according to a report from The Sun new Strictly Come Dancing pro dancer Nadiya Bychkova's popularity with the judges has incited jealously backstage.

The blonde beauty, 29, is said to be have been branded 'cheap' by fellow pro dancers and veterans of the show Janette Manrara and Karen Clifton.

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Tension on the dancefloor: New Strictly Come Dancing pro dancer Nadiya Bychkova's popularity with the judges has incited jealously backstage according to a new report

The report claims that the fight escalated after judge Bruno Tonioli praised Ukrainian world champion Nadiya's stunning looks on the show, saying she resembled a 'movie star'.

A Strictly source told The Sun: 'They think she looks cheap  more like a lap dancer than a Hollywood A-lister. There is a lot of tension and jealousy at the moment behind the scenes.

'The claws are out and no one is missing any opportunity to have a dig. It has got so bad that when one of them walks into a room the others will leave.'

'Jealousy': The blonde beauty, 29, is said to be have been branded 'cheap' by fellow pro dancers and veterans of the show Janette Manrara (pictured) and Karen Clifton

Nadiya, who has been partnered with EastEnders star Davood Ghadami for her first year on the BBC show, has previously stripped off for Playboy magazine.

According to the insider Karen, 35, who was voted off the current series with her partner Simon Rimmer last month, has been spotted 'rolling her eyes and criticising' Nadiya during group rehearsals.

A show insider added: 'Karen has had a history of being short-tempered and snappy with the other girls. She felt Nadiya and Janette had made a mistake in the rehearsal so rolled her eyes and said in a loud voice that they were wasting time.'

Ouch! The report claims that the fight escalated after judge Bruno Tonioli said Nadiya said resembled a 'movie star'. A Strictly source told The Sun that Karen (pictured) and the pro dancers 'think she looks cheap'

A representative for Strictly Come Dancing had no comment when contacted by MailOnline.

Both Janette, 34, who was voted off the show with her partner Aston Merrygold in a shock move two weeks ago, and Karen still perform on the show in the group routines.

Nadiya and Davood meanwhile have been climbing the leaderboard in recent weeks, giving celeb frontrunners Debbie McGee and Alexandra Burke a dose of competition.

Nadiya and her partner have been praised for their 'romantic rapport' by the judges but have laughed off the idea that they might befall the show's famous 'curse' - which has seen a number of celebrities split from their partners following the show.

Glam past: Nadiya, who has been partnered with EastEnders star Davood Ghadami for her first year on the BBC show, has previously stripped off for Playboy magazine

The soap actor, 35 - who is happily married to wife of seven years, Isobel - and show newcomer Nadiya - who has a long-term boyfriend - were quizzed about how their partners coped with seeing them dancing together on the BBC ballroom competition in an ITV interview last month.

Davood explained: 'As an actor, I'm in intimate situations all the time. My wife is used to it happening. I like to separate being on the show and going home and spending time with my family.

'Whether you are a character or you're a dancer, you're doing a job. You really don't have time to think of anything.'

Blonde bombshell: Nadiya caused a stir when she joined Strictly this autumn due to her stunning looks

Ukrainian beauty Nadiya also laughed off the idea, insisting that being in close proximity with each other is all part and parcel of the programme.

She said: 'My boyfriend is OK with this, he knows I'm a professional dancer, he knows how it works.'

Nadiya caused a stir when she joined Strictly this autumn due to her stunning looks and past Playboy shoot.

Quizzed about what her boyfriend thought of her racy images by presenter Ben Shepherd, Nadiya appeared a little embarrassed.

She replied: 'I'm very proud of my Playboy shoot, I love every photo I did. It's not complicated for us.'
His wife Ali Astall has joined him in Australia for the duration of filming for I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

And Declan Donnelly was enjoying some quality time with his long-term love on Thursday, heading out for a shopping trip in Cabarita, New South Wales during a break from shooting the ITV reality show.

The popular presenter cut a casual figure in a graphic print T-shirt and shorts as they stocked up on groceries.

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Stepping out: Declan Donnelly was enjoying some quality time with his long-term love on Thursday, heading out for a shopping trip in Cabarita, New South Wales during a break from shooting I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

Ali was also dressed down in a red breton top, worn tucked into a pair of denim shorts.

She donned a pair of shades and opted for comfort in some casual flip-flops, wearing her blonde locks down loose.

When the much-anticipated show returned on Sunday night, Dec looked thrilled to reunite with his best pal Ant after his stint in rehab for prescription drug addiction and depression this summer.

Low key: The popular presenter cut a casual figure in a graphic print T-shirt and shorts as they stocked up on groceries

Supportive: His wife Ali Astall has joined him in Australia for the duration of filming for I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!

Casual: Ali was also dressed down in a red breton top, worn tucked into a pair of denim shorts

Dec opened the show by playfully joking he was planning to replace Ant with Holly Willoughby - quipping: 'No one was sure if you would make it or not!'

In the duo's usual witty style, Dec opened the show by joking about his friend's much-anticipated return.

He said to viewers: 'I'm here with the gorgeous Holly Willoughby...' before adding in mock horror: 'Wait, no! Guys that's the wrong script! You've put the wrong script in!'

Simple and chic: Ali donned a pair of shades and opted for comfort in some casual flip-flops, wearing her blonde locks down loose

Thrilled: When the much-anticipated show returned on Sunday night, Dec looked thrilled to reunite with his best pal Ant after his stint in rehab for prescription drug addiction and depression this summer

Back together: In the duo's usual witty style, Dec opened the show by joking about his friend's much-anticipated return

Turning to Ant, who was stood in mock outrage, Dec continued the joke by stating, in reference to his pal's rehab stint: 'No one was sure if you would make it or not!'

Confirming to fans he was better than ever however, the famous Geordie assured: 'I was always going to make it, come on.'

He then added excitedly: 'I'm back my friend!', before the pair sweetly hugged, to the applause of the production crew.

He said to viewers: 'I'm here with the gorgeous Holly Willoughby...' before adding in mock horror: 'Wait, no! Guys that's the wrong script! You've put the wrong script in!'

The sweet moment went down a storm with fans - who immediately took to Twitter to compliment Ant on his healthy appearance. Later on, the pair joked about his summer once again, with Dec probing his co-host: 'Where were you all summer anyway? What were you doing?'

Breaking out into giggles and awkwardly sipping into his tea, Ant simply laughed in response: 'I was just dead busy!'

The launch marked Ant's much-anticipated return to TV screens, following his stint in rehab over the summer.
They made headlines thanks to a very public war of words over same sex marriage.

But on Friday there was no signs of a feud between The Veronicas Lisa and Jessica Origliasso, the sisters taking to the stage at the Newcastle Supercars.

The sisters reunited on stage after Jessica's girlfriend Ruby Rose slammed Lisa and suggested her support of same-sex marriage was contradictory.

Have they kissed and made up? The Veronicas' Lisa and Jessica Origliasso hold hands and hug after performing at the Newcastle Supercars

Video posted to social media show the duo hugging after singing their hit single On Your Side.

Holding hands throughout the performance, Lisa and Jessica appeared visibly emotional.

Lisa and Jessica both took to social media to document their return to stage after their public feud.

Emotional: Holding hands throughout the performance, Lisa and Jessica appeared visibly emotional

On good terms: Lisa and Jessica both took to social media to document their return to stage after their public feud

'Felt so good to be back on stage screaming tonight,' Jessica captioned a post of her performing on stage.

Last week Ruby slammed her girlfriend's twin sister online, suggesting her joyous reaction to Australia's same-sex marriage vote outcome was contradictory.

In a Tweet, she claimed Lisa had commented that the pair should 'feel lucky they don't get stoned to death like they do in other countries', before deleting the post.

Back together: On Friday there was no signs of a feud between The Veronicas Lisa and Jessica Origliasso, the sisters taking to the stage at the Newcastle Supercars

'So glad to see Lisa Origliasso screaming in excitement about the yes vote after telling us she thinks we should feel 'lucky' we don't get stoned to death like they do in other countries and to get over it a few months ago,' the Orange Is The New Black star wrote in her shocking tweet.

'Really warms my heart,' the 31-year-old added, including the rolling eyes emoji.

Lisa had immediately celebrated the vote on her social media accounts, which saw more than 60 per cent of Australians pledge their support for marriage equality.

Tension: Last week the 32-year-old reacted to comments from Jessica (pictured)

'I did not make those statements and I do not hold those views': Lisa (pictured) took to social media after an emotional statement from her twin sister

'I may not have struggled with an inner turmoil, but that doesnt mean I havent struggled with people close to me': Jessica - who is the girlfriend of Ruby Rose (left) - wrote on Twitter

After Ruby's tweet Jessica also took to social media to release an emotional statement, saying she has 'struggled' with the views of people close to her.

'I may not have struggled with an inner turmoil, but that doesnt mean I havent struggled with people close to me, degrading my sexuality because of their own personal judgments or ignorance,' she wrote.

'People can publicly support the LGBT community, but behind closed doors inflict deep pain because of their own inability to accept or understand you as a part of that community.'

'Behind closed doors [people can] inflict deep pain': Jessica added in her statement on Twitter

United: Ruby was pictured cuddling up to Jessica in a tender snap after her explosive tweets

Lisa soon hit back at Jessica and Ruby denying she was intolerant.

'This past week I have been accused of making intolerant statements and holding intolerant views,' Lisa said, according to News.com.au.

'I did not make those statements and I do not hold those views. Sexuality has never played a factor in my acceptance of people or their relationships.'

'So glad to see Lisa Origliasso screaming in excitement about the yes vote after telling us she thinks we should feel 'lucky' we don't get stoned to death': Ruby slammed Lisa (left) online, suggesting her joyous reaction to Australia's same-sex marriage vote was contradictory

'Really warms my heart,' Ruby added, before including the rolling eyes emoji

'It's an emotional day. I'm a human being and need to remind myself not to let the people below try to drag me down,' Ruby wrote after deleting her original tweet

Tension between the ladies appeared to simmer in April this year when Ruby unfollowed Lisa on Twitter, with Jessica doing the same in September.

It appears Lisa does not follow her sister nor Ruby on social media, and hasn't posted a candid photo with her twin in many months.

The singing sisters have also delayed the release of their album, which was due to be released this year.
She has been inseparable from Jonny Mitchell for three months and it looks like a proposal could be on the cards in the near future.

But Stephanie Pratt was ring-free when she made a stunning solo appearance at the Caudwell Children's London Ladies Lunch 2017 at The Langham Hotel on Friday.

The 31-year-old Made In Chelsea star flashed a glimpse of her toned tummy in her semi-sheer blouse, teamed with a knitted black crop top for a edgy vibe.

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No sparkler yet! MIC's Stephanie Pratt made a stunning solo appearance at the Caudwell Children's London Ladies Lunch 2017 at The Langham Hotel on Friday

Standing tall in her towering stilettos, Stephanie paraded her tremendous legs in her thigh-skimming miniskirt which featured a metallic scale pattern to catch the eye.

The Hills personality smartened up her look with a navy blazer and threw on two-tier beaded necklace for a hint of glamour.

Reality star Steph flew the flag for her Los Angeles beauty in the British capital as she styled her God-given golden locks in loose corkscrew curls.

Exciting: Stephanie and Jonny Mitchell are already gearing up for a walk down the aisle as it's been revealed that the Love Island star is ready to get down on one knee

Leggy lady: Stephanie paraded her tremendous legs in her thigh-skimming miniskirt which featured a metallic scale pattern to catch the eye

She's got style: The 31-year-old Made In Chelsea star flashed a glimpse of her toned tummy in her semi-sheer blouse, teamed with a knitted black crop top for a edgy vibe

No sparkler yet? Although the beauty was sporting rings, her ring-finger was naked

The television sensation drew attention to the details in her face with heavy strokes of eyeliner and a shade of nude lipstick.

It is no surprise the reality star couldn't contain her delight as she has been blissfully happy in the throes of early love with Jonny.

Although they have only been dating for three months, they are already gearing up for a walk down the aisle as it's been revealed that the Love Island star is ready to get down on one knee.

Sources close to the couple have told MailOnline that an engagement is imminent between the two after they hit it off during the summer, a couple of weeks after he left Love Island's Hidden Hills villa in Majorca.

Posing up a storm: Michelle Heaton showcased her incredible figure in a tangerine dress when she made a glamorous appearance at the bash with her mum

Picture of confidence: Stunning Michelle flashed a glimpse of her gravity-defying cleavage in the daring keyhole cut-out of her dress

Flower power! Nicola Stephenson looked vibrant in her dark green floral frock while Angela Griffiths opted for a more low-key monochrome dress

Gorgeous: Trudi Beswick and JB Gill were in high spirits as they joined the great and the good of the showbiz world at the bash

An insider said: 'Jonny and Steph have become really close since they met and are living their lives as one. Close friends have said that an engagement is on the cards sooner than everyone thought!

'They are inseparable and are taking their first steps as a new couple, nobody saw it coming but an engagement is expected very soon.

'Who would have thought that from their different show backgrounds that they would meet and end up potentially being married,' the source added.

'Love is the key to their successful relationship and you can see in their body language that they are just so into each other'.



Dazzling stilettos: Lizzie Cundy was a vision in pink when she put on a very leggy display in her semi-sheer crocheted dress

Social butterfly: Lizzie beamed as she wrapped her arm around her pal Claire Caudwell at the glamorous event

Sensational figures: The brunette and Claire showcased their svelte figures in their thigh-skimming frocks as they posed up a storm for the cameras

Beautiful: Sarah-Jane Crawford courted attention in her eye-catching frock which featured delicate lace detail that snaked around her waist and neckline

She's a rose: Sarah-Jane put drama into her smokey eyes to accentuate her God-given beauty and let her glossy tresses down in loose waves

Wedding bells? Sources close to the couple have told MailOnline that an engagement is imminent between the two after they hit it off during the summer, a couple of weeks after he left Love Island's Hidden Hills villa in Majorca

Trip of a lifetime: In September, the good-looking pair once again took to the skies for a romantic trip to Bali

Forging a cross-reality-show romance, Made in Chelsea's Stephanie and ITV2 star Jonny have spent much of their blossoming relationship abroad as they jetted to Croatia within weeks of meeting each other.

At the time, they were pictured enjoying a passionate smooch when they cooled off in the sea on their getaway.

In September, the good-looking pair once again took to the skies for a romantic trip to Bali.

Making sure to showcase their idyllic 10 day trip away, both Stephanie and Jonny documented their time abroad on social media with their Instagram feeds filled with pictures of them looking loved up.

Making sure to showcase their idyllic 10 day trip away, both Stephanie and Jonny documented their time abroad on social media with their Instagram feeds filled with pictures of them looking loved up

Strong: Following the comments, Stephanie and Jonny both slammed allegations of a showmance, claiming a faux relationship would not be taken as far as theirs has been

When they initially got together they were rocked by showmance claims with Jonny's ex Chyna Ellis, 22, suggesting he was only dating former The Hills star to get onto Made in Chelsea.

Jonny humiliated Chyna, 22, when he dumped her on live television during the Love Island reunion show last month after a short-lived romance.

And the reality star didn't hold back when she launched a scathing attack on her former flame's new relationship.

New ride? In the midst of engagement speculation, Jonny test drived a 100,000 Bentley GTC at Austin Owen Elite Car Sales at Stapleford Aerodrome in Romford, Essex

Wrapped up: The reality star donned a khaki bomber jacket with shearling trimmed collar for the outing

Driving her wild: Jonny looked at home in the luxury car as he drove around

Speaking to Mirror TV, Chyna said: 'If I'm honest I think the two of them are super cute because Jonny has always said to me he wants to get on Made In Chelsea, so it's the perfect opportunity for him.

'He did always say to me he was better than TOWIE, like he'll never do TOWIE because he's above that, and he wants to be on Made In Chelsea. He is from Essex so it's quite funny actually.'

Following the comments, Stephanie and Jonny both slammed allegations of a showmance, claiming a faux relationship would not be taken as far as theirs has been.

Chilled: The Essex native sported his usual stubble while his mane was coiffed to the side

Spinning around: Jonny looked relaxed as he took the vehicle for a spin while he tested out the set of flashy wheels

In October, the couple told OK! magazine that they do not listen to haters of their relationship, with Jonny hinting that he believed some of his Love Island couples were still playing the fauxmance game.

Stephanie said: Everyone I date, they say its a showmance. But we dont care what people think  its not a showmance.

Her beau Jonny added: I feel like theres a cut off for that sort of thing, though. People in a showmance arent going to go to Bali together  at least, I dont think they would.'

Solid: Stephanie and Jonny were first spotted enjoying a cosy date together in August and just this week were putting on a loved-up display while supporting her MIC co-star Louise Thompson at the launch of her LOTD.com collaboration at STK in London

Inseparable: A source told MailOnline: They were inseparable for the night and couldnt keep their hands off each other. Although they were joined by the Goodman sisters at their table, they stole a number of passionate kisses in-between conversations'

Stephanie and Jonny were first spotted enjoying a cosy date together in August and just this week were putting on a loved-up display while supporting her MIC co-star Louise Thompson at the launch of her LOTD.com collaboration at STK in London.

A source told MailOnline: They were inseparable for the night and couldnt keep their hands off each other.

'Although they were joined by the Goodman sisters at their table, they stole a number of passionate kisses in-between conversations.

In the past: Stephanie previously dated Spencer Grammer back in 2013 but it wasn't meant to be as the couple soon parted ways

Then: Stephanie moved onto fellow MIC star Josh Shepherd before the former flames went their separate ways in 2015

'They looked really happy together and it was clear that Jonny was totally besotted by Stephanie as he followed her around like a puppy dog for the night.'

Each of the reality stars have become somewhat known for their turbulent love lives - with Steph known for dating Made In Chelsea bad boy Spencer Matthews, before going through a disastrous break-up with Josh Shepherd on the same show.

Jonny was engaged in a will they/won't they romance with Camilla Thurlow during his time on Love Island, only for the couple to call it quits when he turned his affections on Tylar Carr before being dumped from the show.

Awkward: Jonny humiliated Chyna, 22, when he dumped her on live television during the Love Island reunion show last month after a short-lived romance
He is set to star as troubled playboy Patrick Melrose in Sky Atlantic's new series of the same name.

And now fans have been given a first look at Benedict Cumberbatch in character, as an official image of him playing the role of Melrose has been released.

The actor, 41, is seen cutting a brooding figure in the still from the show while clad in dark shades and a tailored camel-hued coat.

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New role: Fans have been given a first look at Benedict Cumberbatch in character, as an official image of him playing the role of Patrick Melrose in Sky Atlantic's new series of the same name has been released

Patrick Melrose follows the fictional and infamous playboy based on the novel series penned by Edward St. Aubyn. It details the character's deterioration into substance abuse after a difficult childhood.

And already sparking an air of mystery around his new role, Benedict gives little away in the shot that sees him smartly dressed with a checked scarf draped loosely around his neck.

Each book will play out in one episode of the five-part series, set to air some time next year in 2018, and, framed around several intense days in Melrose's life, the series will jump from 1960s South France to 1980s New York to early 2000s Britain.

Eagerly awaited: The actor, 41, plays the fictional and infamous playboy based on the novel series penned by Edward St. Aubyn

Earlier this month, filming had taken place for the show in Glasgow, with the city centre being transformed into 1980s New York, as the streets were littered with bright yellow cabs for an added American touch.

As well as starring in the series, Cumberbatch is also an executive producer and had previously expressed his desire to take on the role of Melrose.

Speaking in a Reddit Q&A in 2013, he revealed that the literary character would be his choice of role to play.

Setting the scene: Cumberbatch had been pictured filming scenes for the series in Glasgow, with the city centre being transformed into 1980s New York for the show

Upcoming release: Each book will play out in one episode of the five-part series, set to air some time next year in 2018, and, framed around several intense days in Melrose's life

He will be joined onscreen by fellow big screen stars Hugo Weaving and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Girls star Alison Williams is also set to take on a guest role in the series, as a woman Melrose encounters during his playboy years in New York, while Far From The Madding Crowd writer David Nicholls will pen all five episodes.

Fans will be surely be excited to see the star back on screen, though his most recent role has been delayed in light of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Involved: As well as starring in the series, Cumberbatch is also an executive producer and had previously expressed his desire to take on the role of Melrose - revealing in 2013 the literary character is one of his ideal roles to play

The Current War, in which the actor plays legendary inventor Thomas Edison, was scheduled for release in November, but the Weinstein Company picture has since been delayed to 2018.

Cumberbatch has enjoyed a number of major roles throughout his career including Marvel's Doctor Strange and Sherlock Holmes in the hit BBC series Sherlock.

The Oscar-nominated acting talent also has a stellar career in theatre to his name, but he has insisted in a recent chat with Interview magazine that while he is fully focused on any role he takes on, he makes sure to separate his work from his home life.

Loved-up: He is married to wife Sophie Hunter - the pair had tied the knot in a romantic ceremony held on the Isle of Wight in February 2015

Asked whether he brings his work home, Benedict replied: 'When I walk through that door, it's about home. If I didn't do that, I'd become consumed by one thing only and damage the people who love me... and it would damage the work.

He is married to wife Sophie Hunter - the pair had tied the knot in a romantic ceremony held on the Isle of Wight in February 2015.

They share two sons Christopher, two, and Hal, who was born in March earlier this year.

Speaking about fatherhood in an interview on This Morning, Benedict said: 'I'm still trying to prove myself as a dad.'

He had previously told Vanity Fair: 'It's massive [having a family]... and on a very unexpected level. Suddenly I understood my parents much more proudly than I ever had before.'
She's been at the centre of a sea of speculation over whether or not she is expecting her first child, refusing to confirm nor deny the pregnancy.

But it seems that Kylie Jenner is all but guaranteed to be welcoming a bundle of joy next year, as sources report she is scheduling some time off to focus on motherhood.

A source told People magazine that Kylie will take six months out of the spotlight to focus on motherhood, and will not confirm her pregnancy until she gives birth.

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Break away: Kylie Jenner will reportedly take a six month break from the spotlight after giving birth to her first child

The source said: 'Kylie wants to disappear and be out of the spotlight and focus on her health and happiness.'

'Kylie isn't going to publicly address her pregnancy until she gives birth. She's not doing any public appearances and just wanted to take six months off.'

The source also revealed that Kylie will not confirm that she is expecting until after her child is born, with her alleged due date sometime in February.

Time off: A source told People magazine that Kylie will not confirm her pregnancy until she has given birth

Coy: After rumours first circulated that Kylie was expecting in September, the star has confirm or deny the news

They added: 'Kylie is only trusting her closest friends and her sisters right now. She wants to reveal things on her own terms but she's, of course, having fun teasing everyone.

After rumours first circulated in September that Kylie was expecting, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star has avoided giving any hints of a baby bump on social media, while her family have also been coy on the rumours.

Keeping quiet: The stunning beauty had shielded her bump in social media snaps

First time: Kylie will allegedly become a mother for the first time in February

However, Kylie's mother Kris seemed to drop the biggest hint yet on Thanksgiving as she enjoyed dinner at Kylie's house in Hidden Hills, California.

Taking to Instagram, Kris posted a snap of nine different sets of pyjamas with the caption: 'every one of my grandchildren.'

Kris currently has six grandchildren, though Kylie's possible baby, Khloe Kardashian's alleged arrival and Kim's soon-to-be third child, to be born through a surrogate, would take the total to nine.

Kylie did little to dampen the flame on Thursday, posting a snap of her cuddling her two dogs with the caption: 'My little babies! They may drive me crazy sometimes, but Normie, Bambi, Harlie and RosieI love you!!!'

A representative for Kylie has been contacted for comment.

Too many? Kylie's mother Kris appeared to drop the biggest hint yet on Thanksgiving, as she Instagrammed a snap of nine pairs of pyjamas
She's due to marry her businessman beau Nick Feeney next week.

And the Loose Women panel surprised Andrea McLean, 48, with a hen do live on TV as she appeared on the show on Friday morning.

Andrea complete with bridal sash and tiara, was joined by a plethora of shirtless hunks, champagne and a party bus, while her co-star Stacey Solomon, 28, admitted she is keen to have a wedding day herself- but is less keen on the marriage.

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Bride-to-be! The Loose Women panel surprised Andrea McLean, 48, with a hen do live on TV as she appeared on the show on Friday morning

The celebration saw Andrea, dressed in a pink bardot dress, blindfolded by her colleagues as she was greeted by a group of hunky topless men.

Speaking about her wedding, which is due to take place next week and will be her third marriage, she admitted: 'I am excited now.

'About a month ago I had a meltdown about the whole thing. I am really excited. I am looking forward to saying I do and the two families coming together.

Her special day! Andrea complete with bridal sash and tiara, was joined by a plethora of shirtless hunks, champagne and a party bus, while her co-star Stacey Solomon, 28

'We are not staying apart the night before. We are going to get ready separately so I won't see him until I walk in.'

Andrea, who met her beau of four years when they were set up on a blind date by a makeup artist on Loose Women, confirmed her engagement in August.

She is mum to Finlay, 16, and Amy, 11, from her previous marriages, and revealed last year that she would be unable to have any more children after having a hysterectomy.

In it for the day! Stacey (right) admitted she is keen to have a wedding day herself- but is less keen on the marriage

Meanwhile her co-panelist Stacey Solomon appeared to get a touch of envy, as she opened up about wanting her own wedding day.

The former X Factor star, who is mum to Zachary, 9, and Leighton, 5, from her previous relationship, admitted she is keen to wed boyfriend Joe Swash, who she went public with in January 2016.

'I could talk about the prospect of me getting married all day,' she gushed. 'It doesn't even matter who to, I just want the day'.

But she sounded less enamored with being married, adding: 'I'm not really bothered about the contractual part of it. I want the wedding day but not to be married.

'About a month ago I had a meltdown about the whole thing. I am really excited. I am looking forward to saying I do and the two families coming together,' Andrea admitted

Excited! Andrea, who met her beau of four years when they were set up on a blind date by a makeup artist on Loose Women, confirmed her engagement in August

She continued: 'Marriage is great but I'm not sure I want that contract. No sex on the wedding night means no marriage  fine by me'.

In August she appeared to drop a huge proposal hint to Joe, sharing a snap as she posed in a wedding dress ahead of the Pride Of Britain Awards.

'I have come to Suzanne Neville for the Pride of Britain Awards and all I want to do is get married- OMGI want to get married so bad,' she gushed before showing off four of her dress options.

Busy mum: She is mum to Finlay, 16, and Amy, 11, from her previous marriages, and revealed last year that she would be unable to have any more children after having a hysterectomy

She wants one too! Meanwhile her co-panelist Stacey Solomon (third right) appeared to get a touch of envy, as she opened up about wanting her own wedding day

'I'm going to cry I was born to wear this dress,' she cried, before an assistant added a veil and tiara to her grand ensemble.

Joe shares a nine-year-old son Harry with his ex-fiancee Emma Sophocleous.

Gushing that her sons absolutely adore Joe, the Essex lass even admitted she was keen to have more children in the future if she and the actor were to take the next step and marry.

Explaining her desire for a busy household, she said at the time: 'I'm one of seven extended family so when it comes to my step brothers and sisters, I do miss that, and I would love to have a huge family to look out for each other.'
She's been seen looking happier than ever in recent weeks following a tumultuous time, splitting from fiance Alan Thomson and suffering a miscarriage.

And Danniella Westbrook continued to be on top form on Friday as she celebrated her son Kai's 21st birthday in fabulous fashion.

The 44-year-old actress donned a casual ensemble to enjoy some cocktails with her son in Camden's Gabeto bar, complete with show-stopping sparklers.

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Birthday splash! Danniella Westbrook celebrated her son Kai's birthday in fabulous fashion on Friday as they enjoyed cocktails in Camden's Gabeto bar

Danniella rocked a relaxed white shirt and black scarf for the outing, emblazoned with the Chanel logo, along with stylish grey chino trousers.

Kai, meanwhile, donned a simple grey hoodie and jeans combo as he exited the bar with his arm cosily around his Mum.

The pair appear to be closer than ever, after Kai revealed last year that he was no in touch with his mother.

He told The Daily Star: 'I don't speak to my mother, I haven't done in a long time. We don't live/see each other so I am not to know what she does in her time.'

Fun night! The duo seen putting on a relaxed display as they exited the bar together

Happy birthday! Daniella toted two balloons to celebrate her son's 21st birthday as they headed out to a London bar

Cosy: The pair appear to be closer than ever, after Kai revealed last year that he was no in touch with his mother

Despite this rocky patch, the pair seemed to reunite by the start of this year, appearing on Loose Women together.

Kai paid tribute to his mother on the daytime series, saying: 'I'm always gonna be there for you no matter what.'

Danniella was left red faced by the appearance when Kai accidentally swore, causing host Ruth Langsford to apologise to viewers.

Mother like son! Kai draped his arm over his mother's shoulder while Daniella brought her son closer by wrapping her arm around his waist on their outing

Birthday boy! The mother and son couldn't contain their delight as they headed home after their evening out toasting to the celebrations

Celebrations: The former EastEnders star toted a huge silver bag, no doubt brimming with Kai's birthday presents for the flashy occasion

The former Eastenders star has been looking better than ever in recent weeks.

And despite his Mum's star status it seemed Kai has no issue getting some celebrity attention, after he was spotted locking lips with former Big Brother star Lisa Appleton in May.

In pictures published by The Sun, Lisa was seen packing on the PDA with her toyboy while on holiday in Spain.

Fabulous fashion: The former soap star was in the party spirit for her son's 21st as she beamed brightly for the cameras

Reunited: After Kai revealed last year that he was not in contact with his Mum, the pair seemed to have reunited earlier this year
She's the Texas-based beauty who first rose to fame as the winner of Supermodel Of Australia in 2002.

And when she was just 19, Nicole Trunfio purchased a 825 square metre barren area of land in her birth place of Dubbo, country NSW, for $84,000.

But according to News Corp on Saturday, the 31-year-old has secretly sold the home to a family member, profiting over five times the original price she paid 12 years ago.

Cutting her country roots! Nicole Trunfio sells Dubbo property she bought for $84,000 aged 19

Nicole had built a four bedroom home on the plot of land costing around $250,000, the publication reported.

Nicole recently sold the modest country home for $500,000 to relatives.

Not a rookie when it comes to property, the stunner, who is married to US artist Gary Clark Jr., last year snatched up a Texas ranch for a reported $2 million

Sold! Nicole recently sold the modest Dubbo country home for $500,000 to relatives

She knows how to shop! Not a rookie when it comes to property, the stunner who's married to US artist Gary Clark Jr. last year snatched up a Texas ranch for a reported $2 million

The 20 hectare property is located in Indian Hill, 30 minutes from Austin where Gary grew up.

The four-bedroom home boats two-stories, has a 15 metre outdoor pool and large entertaining area.

Nicole's home also dons a 14 stall stable and separate living quarters.

And the vast space will come in handy for the couple who are parents to Zion, two, after they announced last month that they had a baby girl on the way.

The stunner who's currently 30 weeks took to Instagram to share the exciting news.

'Gary and I are so humbled to announce with will be graced with the presence of a daughter in 2018,' she wrote.

'We cannot wait for her arrival and to extend the ever-growing love of our family.'
She's been hard at work on the latest series of Strictly Come Dancing while her husband Ant McPartlin heads up the latest series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! 10,000 miles away in Australia.

And Lisa Armstrong looked ready for business as she headed to the star-studded filming of the Strictly Christmas special in London on Thursday.

The 41-year-old make-up artist rocked a casual cool look as she walked to the studios, clad in a simple black coat, sequinned scarf and grey rollneck sweater, which she paired with slate grey skinny jeans.

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Make-up queen: Ant McPartlin's wife Lisa Armstrong looked ready for business as she headed to the star-studded filming of the Strictly Christmas special in London on Thursday

Star-studded: Lisa was joined by a host of familiar Strictly faces at the filming including Girls Aloud star and 2012 finalist Kimberley Walsh

Lisa, who covered her eyes with mirrored blue shades, slipped on a pair of dove grey Ugg boots for her walk.

The star was laden down as she walked, carrying her bag, some bottles of fake tan, a furry parka and her smartphone which was in a Louis Vuitton case.

Her pink-flecked locks were styled sleek and straight and she opted for a light dusting of make-up to enhance her pretty features.

Her outing comes as her embattled husband Ant continues to enjoy his I'm A Celebrity comeback following his treatment for drink and drug addiction.

Back to work: The 41-year-old make-up artist rocked a casual cool look as she walked to the studios, clad in a simple black coat, sequinned scarf and grey rollneck sweater, which she paired with slate grey skinny jeans

Strut: Lisa, who covered her eyes with mirrored blue shades, slipped on a pair of dove grey Ugg boots for her walk

Back again: 2015 finalist and news presenter Katie Derham, 47, looked over the moon to be stepping back onto the Strictly dancefloor

Strictly essentials: The star was laden down as she walked, carrying her bag, some bottles of fake tan, a furry parka and her smartphone which was in a Louis Vuitton case

Recovery: Her outing comes as her embattled husband Ant continues to enjoy his I'm A Celebrity comeback following his treatment for drink and drug addiction (pictured above with Declan Donnelly and his wife Ali Astall)

Clearly on the up, Ant was keen to mark his birthday online last week, sharing pictures of the cake and birthday badge he had been given by the I'm A Celeb team.

Lisa, meanwhile, stayed silent on social media.

Last week, Lisa finally broke her silence on reports of marital woes with Ant following his battles with addiction.

She took to Twitter to hit back at the long-running reports that the duo have separated, as she penned on the microblogging site: 'I'm not estranged thank you', adding that she hadn't been to Australia for 10 years so it wasn't a surprise that she hadn't joined Ant in the jungle.

Glowing: Katie's caramel flecked brunette locks were styled into loose waves while the youthful star wore a simple coating of mascara and lipstick for the filming.

Smile: Katie accessorised with a chic navy tote and a sparkling silver pendant

Viewers were delighted when Ant made his much-anticipated return to TV screens on the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! launch on Sunday night.

Ant checked into rehab in June to battle a two year battle to painkillers after a devastating knee injury and fertility issues

Beaming widely for cameras and walking to their famous perch in the jungle for the first time this series, Ant proved he was back to his best.

Lisa joined a host of celebrities and former Strictly star for the rehearsals, including Kimberley Walsh, Katie Derham, Jeremy Vine, along with pros Brendan Cole and Dianne Buswell.

Leggy: Strictly pro Dianne Buswell, 28, showed off her toned legs in ripped skinny jeans

Scarlet siren: The pro dancer looked sensational with her flame red locks worn in soft curls

Leather lady: Dianne rocked up her look with a leather jacket and stylish tote bag

Twinkle-toed: Pro Brendan Cole, 41, wrapped up in a blue quilted jacket and matching scarf

Happy: Brendan couldn't keep the grin off his face as he walked into the studios

Girls Aloud star and 2012 finalist Kimberley, 36, looked effortlessly glamorous in a tan shirt and black skinny jeans, over which she slung on a stylish checked coat.

Her ombre locks were styled into a high bun and she wore warm, glowing make-up for the filming.

2015 finalist and news presenter Katie Derham, 47, looked over the moon to be stepping back onto the Strictly dancefloor, clad in a dove grey rollneck jumper and wide legged trousers, paired with a dark green jacket.

Dapper: Journalist and presenter Jeremy Vine, 52, who finished in ninth place in 2015, looked suave in a suit jacket and jeans

Good to be back: Jeremy carried a selection of bags as he made his inside the studio

Her caramel flecked brunette locks were styled into loose waves while the youthful star wore a simple coating of mascara and lipstick for the filming.

Pro Dianne, 28, wore her flame red locks in soft curls while showing off her toned legs in ripped jeans.

She added an edgy twist with a Calvin Klein t-shirt and leather jacket.

Her sparkling peepers were enhanced with feline flicks of liner and mascara.
It's predicted to be the weekend UK shoppers splash more cash than they have all year.

And Jenna Coleman proved even celebrities are partial to a bargain or two as the actress was spotted making the most of the Black Friday sales on Friday.

The 31-year-old Doctor Who star was spotted toting a Bimba Y Lola bag as she strolled along a high street in Hampstead.

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Saving her pennies! Jenna Coleman proved even celebrities are partial to a bargain or two as the actress was spotted making the most of the Black Friday sales on Friday

The Victoria actress was stylishly clad in a checked navy dress, which she paired with a smart brown jacket that boasted pretty frill detailing along the collar.

Opting for comfortable footwear for her day of retail therapy, Jenna sported a pair of lace-up, military-style boots.

She chose to show off her natural beauty by wearing only minimal make-up.

However, it looked as though the star was in the market for some new cosmetics as she was snapped testing out a bronzer.

Splashing the cash: The 31-year-old Doctor Who star was spotted toting a Bimba Y Lola bag as she strolled along a high street in Hampstead

Despite her leading role in 10 million ITV drama Victoria, Jenna appeared to enjoy a modest shopping trip as she hit Bimba Y Lola, with the store boasting up to 40% off in the sales.

Jenna will soon be back on screens this festive season in a Victoria Christmas special.

In the one-off episode, fans will get to see the legendary queen celebrate Christmas in true 19th Century style.

Fashionista: The Victoria actress was stylishly clad in a checked navy dress, which she paired with a smart brown jacket that boasted pretty frill detailing along the collar

Stylish: Opting for comfortable footwear for her day of retail therapy, Jenna sported a pair of lace-up, military-style boots

Try before you buy! She chose to show off her natural beauty by wearing only minimal make-up, though looked in the market for some new cosmetics as she tested some products

Bringing some much-anticipated drama to the festive TV line-up, the teaser - released in October - also hints that Victoria's husband Albert could face mortal danger after falling into a frozen lake.

Following the success on a second season, Jenna spoke of her relief to be out of Queen Victoria's restrictive period costumes.

She told Marie Claire this week: Ive done a lot of period drama and Ive always been very proudly like, I love corsets but having worn one for seven months for ten hours a day, psychologically its incredible what it does.

'Youre constantly restricted, like Id be, youd want to run to set and you get so far and your lungs can literally only take in so much oxygen because theyre restricted, so its really interested just thinking about women in that time.'

Penny-pinching! Despite her leading role in 10 million ITV drama Victoria, Jenna appeared to enjoy a modest shopping trip as she hit Bimba Y Lola, with the store boasting up to 40% off
The Neighbours star was thrust into fame during her late teens in mid 2015.

And Mavournee Hazel claims co-star Rebekah Elmaloglou has helped her with years of self-discovery, including giving 'personal advice' on struggling with her sexuality.

The actress, now 21, told BW on Saturday: 'We've talked about everything. She's helped me a lot with my sexuality.'

'I don't want to label this as my coming out... it's definitely not that!' Neighbours star Mavournee Hazel shares her secret struggle with her sexuality and reveals she falls in love with BOTH genders

The star has remained single for most of her time in the spotlight, and has worried she was 'broken' because of this.

Mavournee explained: 'I'm not an overly sexual person at all, like relationships have never been a priority for me and I keep thinking "Am I broken? I don't get it. I'm 21 and I have no interest in anyone?!'

She says she is consistently questioned on why she remains single, claiming she's trying to figure out the reasons herself.

'I keep thinking "Am I broken? I don't get it': The star has remained single for most of her time in the spotlight, and has worried she was 'broken' because of this

'I just fall in love with a person for who they are as a person rather than what they are born with': The star appeared to confirm she doesn't have a preference on gender

'I don't want to label this as my coming out because it's definitely not that. I don't identify as gay. I just think I'm a people person. I just fall in love with a person for who they are as a person rather than what they are born with,' she added.

When she joined the cast of Neighbours to play 17-year-old Piper Willis in 2015, she was already eyeing her first big international career move and the shadow of Margot Robbie loomed over her decision.

The actress told TV Tonight that while she always planned to work in England, the temptation to follow Margot to Hollywood was real.

Mini Margot? Mavournee is already eyeing her first big international career move and the shadow of Margot Robbie looms over her decision

Hollywood temptress: The 20-year-old actress has told TV Tonight that while she always planned to work in England, the temptation to follow Margot to Hollywood is real

'I don't know if I will go to the UK or do the whole pilot season US and try to follow Margot's footsteps,' she told the website.

Mazournee said the expectation levels on the current batch of Ramsay St residents are set very high thanks to the career trajectories of their most famous alumni, particularly the Suicide Squad star.

'[When I am] meeting people outside work and they find out I'm on Neighbours, they say, 'Oh Margot Robbieeee!''

Poor Piper: Mavournee Hazel joined the cast of Neighbours in mid 2015 as 17-year-old Piper Willis

Stars in their eyes: Mazournee said the expectation levels on the current batch of Ramsay St residents are set very high thanks to the career trajectories of their most famous alumni, particularly the Suicide Squad star

The Adelaide native always dreamed of acting while working in a fruit and veg shop growing up and attended the Ann Peters School of Acting followed with courses run by McLeod's Daughters alumni Doris Younane.

She risked her savings and her position at Sydney Uni to travel repeatedly to Melbourne in order to audition for the Melbourne based soap, but the gamble paid off.

Now she is steaming up our televisions with her role on the Network Ten soap.

Scanning the horizon: The Adelaide native always dreamed of acting while working in a fruit and veg shop growing up and attended the Ann Peters School of Acting followed with courses run by McLeod's Daughters alumni Doris Younane

Ramsay Street's new local: She risked her savings and her position at Sydney Uni to travel repeatedly to Melbourne in order to audition for the Melbourne based soap, but the gamble paid off

Screen sirens: The young actress (right) would be happy to follow in Margot's (left) footsteps

Mavournee has previously spoken about how she strives to match Margot's work ethic on the Neighbours set.

She told news.com.au in August that 'Margot's work ethic (on Neighbours) was impeccable. She always arrived on set knowing her lines.

'Being where Margot has been I'm trying to replicate that.'

Work it like Margot: Mavournee told news.com.au that 'Margot's work ethic was impeccable. She always arrived on set knowing her lines.
MasterChef star Hayden Quinn and 'Model Turned Cook' blogger girlfriend Jax Raynor have been labelled as Australia's 'hottest new foodie couple'.

But the Family Food Fight judge is nervous about impressing his girlfriend's chef parents over the festive season.

The 24-year-old told Sydney Confidential he will spend Christmas with Jax's family in America this year, revealing: 'It is quite scary to be cooking for her mum and dad.'

'It is quite scary': MasterChef star Hayden Quinn is nervous about cooking for his model girlfriend Jax Raynors chef parents at Christmas

Jax's family live in Nantucket, with her parents owning two successful restaurants in the US.

'She's always been surrounded by amazing food and it's something she is very passionate about... she's probably more of a foodie than me,' Hayden said.

He says his gorgeous girlfriend already gives him a run for his money in the kitchen and is nervous about being asked to help prepare the festive spread next month.

'She's probably more of a foodie than me': He says his gorgeous girlfriend already gives him a run for his money in the kitchen and is nervous about being asked to help prepare the festive spread next month

Going strong: The pair have been together for two years and live together in Sydney

The pair has been together for two years and live together in Sydney.

Hayden recently acknowledged he is solely focused on his career at the moment, with no marriage plans in his near future.

The media personality previously spoke with TV WEEK about his romance with American model Jax, who has moved to Australia to be with him.

No rush: Hayden has acknowledged he is solely focused on his career at the moment, with no plans for marriage with model girlfriend Jax in his near future

The celebrity chef revealed while the lovebirds are living together in Sydney, they have no intentions of walking down the aisle anytime soon.

'God, no - we're a bit young,' he told the magazine.

'We're happy where we are at the moment. We're very busy just travelling and enjoying life,' he added.

'Were happy where we are at the moment. Were very busy just travelling and enjoying life,' he added

The popular MasterChef Australia star said Jax was 'glad' she had made the big move across the world to be with him.

'Being away from her family is hard, but it's nice to have her here,' he offered.

The long-term partners are enjoying their new domestic status, with Hayden revealing Jax does the cooking at home so he is 'always doing the dishes'.

'Being away from her family is hard, but it's nice to have her here,' he offered

While the twosome may not have marriage plans in their near future, Hayden was excited about the wedding catering challenge on Family Food Fight on Tuesday.

'Whos excited for a FFF Wedding!!!! We are!' he captioned a snap posted to his Instagram featuring him alongside fellow judges Matt Moran and Anna Polyviou.

The Shahrouk family of New South Wales are tipped to take out the competition.
Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign three weeks into his job amid reports about his communications with then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and claims he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about them

Former White House national security advisor Michael Flynn is moving to cooperate with a special prosecutor probing possible collusion between Donald Trump's campaign team and Russia during last year's election, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Lawyers for Michael Flynn notified the president's legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, the Times reported, citing four people involved in the case.

The development indicates that Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors or is negotiating such a deal, the report said.

Flynn's lawyers had been sharing information with Trump's legal team about Mueller's probe related to Russian interference in last year's presidential vote, which saw Trump defeat his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.

"That agreement has been terminated," the Times' sources said.

Mueller has a broad mandate and has honed in on the activities of Flynn, one of the highest-profile figures to come under his scrutiny.

- Three arrests -

In mid-November US Attorney General Jeff Sessions denied to the House Judiciary Committee that he lied in previous testimony when he said he had no knowledge of contacts between Trump's campaign and Moscow

Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who previously led the Defense Intelligence Agency, became the White House national security advisor after Trump took office on January 20 this year.

He was forced to resign three weeks later amid reports about his communications with then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and claims he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about them.

Mueller's investigation has already led to the arrest of Trump's one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Manafort's partner Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos, a campaign foreign policy advisor.

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts, in a deal that made clear he is cooperating with Mueller.

In addition to his frequent contacts with Kislyak, Flynn is alleged to have accepted payments before and after the election to lobby for Turkey.

US media have previously reported that Flynn and his son Mike Flynn Jr, who has worked with him, could be Mueller's next targets.

Three congressional committees have also been probing Russian meddling in US politics.

Although nothing has linked the president directly to the Russians, US media have reported that his firing of FBI director James Comey has drawn Mueller's attention.

Trump fired Comey in May, citing the FBI chief's probe into the alleged links between the presidential campaign and Russian interference, as well as Comey's alleged protection of Clinton.

Comey, for his part, wrote a memo alleging Trump had asked him to drop his investigation into Flynn.

On a trip to Asia this month Trump lashed out at three former US officials, including Comey, whose agencies helped produce the original intelligence finding of Russian interference.

He called former CIA chief John Brennan, former director of national intelligence James Clapper and Comey "political hacks."

Trump later qualified his remarks by saying he believed in his country's intelligence agencies, but also expressed faith in Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials of meddling in the US vote.

In mid-November US Attorney General Jeff Sessions denied to the House Judiciary Committee that he lied in previous testimony when he said he had no knowledge of contacts between Trump's campaign and Moscow.

Citing a poor memory, Sessions, whose recusal from the Russia probe led to Mueller's appointment, said he had forgotten a March 2016 meeting between Trump and his foreign policy advisory team despite leading the team.

One of the advisors was Papadopoulos, who admitted to investigators that he had multiple contacts with Russians and that his contacts were discussed in the meeting.
The Union of Forces of Resistance (UFR) is a rebel coalition that tried and failed to overthrow Chad's President Idriss Deby in 2008

Chad's government is keeping a wary eye on developments along its Libyan and Sudanese borders where rebel groups are trying to pull together into a political formation to challenge President Idriss Deby.

On the face of it, N'Djamena appears to be unconcerned, with the defence minister's office telling AFP troops are continuing to patrol the borders without any move to send in reinforcements.

But behind the scenes, they are worried.

"In order not to panic the population, the government is pretending. But everyone in Chad knows that the situation is not good," an official admitted, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Deby seized power in a 1990 military coup and has kept on top of a rebellion in the east, notably foiling a bid to overthrow him in February 2008 when rebel troops reached the outskirts of N'Djamena.

That failed attempt was led by the Union of Forces of Resistance (UFR), a rebel coalition which has since been forced to operate on the fringes of Chad's northern and eastern borders.

The UFR is led by Timane Erdimi, a nephew of the president who lives in Qatar, a country with which N'Djamena broke diplomatic relations last August for "an attempt to destabilise Chad" via its northern neighbour Libya.

Weaker now than it was in 2008, UFR is currently unable to be an effective fighting force, according to a source close to the group.

- Forming a political force? -

But it is factions allied to the UFR that are causing the most concern, sources say.

The UFR "seems to have regained strength and is threatening to resume hostilities," warned an article in the local press in October.

Speaking to AFP, Youssouf Hamid, the UFR's spokesman in exile who is based in Europe, said the group wanted "to gather the (armed) opposition into a political platform" in order to hold "internationally-monitored political talks with the Deby regime."

"The goal is to gather as wide a group as possible" to show that "it is Deby who is forcing people to wage war," he said.

But there are other UFR-allied rebel groups based in southern Libya and Darfur, in neighbouring western Sudan, who are also trying to form alliances, AFP has learned.

Chad, a former French colony and one of the world's poorest nations, has vast desert borders, including with Libya and Sudan, which are notoriously difficult to police and militants can often roam between countries undetected.

- Islamist alliances -

The UFR rebels are led by Timane Erdimi, a nephew of President Idriss Deby whose power they want to challenge

Although it is unclear how many fighters the UFR has, there is an alphabet soup of militias operating in the border regions of war-torn Libya, including UFDD, FACT and FSR, who have taken advantage of the vacuum created by the downfall of Libya's long-time leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

And there is concern that some of these groups may have become involved in the Libyan conflict through alliances with Islamist factions, although not all Chadian rebel groups accept this.

"There has never been a change of regime without weapons" in Chad, said Marielle Debos, an associate professor in political science and specialist on the country.

This underlines the persistent weakness of the unarmed civilian opposition, she added.

But analysts believe the odds of a renewed rebellion in the "immediate future" similar in scale to 2008 appear to be slim for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the various rebel groups are "fragmented" and the Chadian army is better equipped, explains researcher Jerome Tubiana, a specialist in Chad and Sudan.

And these days, Chad and Sudan "maintain good relations", unlike in 2008 when Khartoum supported rebel groups on its territory, he said.
Nuns reading prayer books during a jubilee celebration in Myanmar where Catholics account for just 700,000 out of the country's 51 million population

Pope Francis plunges into a diplomatic minefield next week with visits to under-fire Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh amid mounting outrage over the plight of persecuted Rohingya Muslims.

Some 620,000 Rohingya, more than half their total number, have fled from Myanmar's Rakhine state to Bangladesh since August as a result of violence that the UN and the United States have described as ethnic cleansing.

Most of the refugees, a third of them children, have ended up in squalid refugee camps in impoverished Bangladesh, where they have given consistent and harrowing accounts of murder, arson and rape being used as part of a military-orchestrated campaign to force them out of mainly Buddhist Myanmar.

The Myanmar military insists it is engaged in counter-insurgency operations. But rights groups dismiss that slant on recent events.

Amnesty International said this week the treatment of the Rohingya was racial discrimination on the level of apartheid South Africa while US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that "no provocation can justify the horrendous atrocities" perpetrated in Rakhine.

Church officials say the Argentine pontiff will seek to use his trip to encourage reconciliation, dialogue and efforts to alleviate the crisis.

Hopes on that front were bolstered on Thursday when Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to start repatriating some of the refugees in two months time.

However, rights groups have raised concerns about the repatriation plans, including questioning where the minority will be resettled after hundreds of their villages were razed, and how their safety will be ensured in a country where anti-Muslim sentiment is surging.

Many of the refugees say they are reluctant to return to Myanmar unless they are granted full citizenship.

- Rohingya refugees meeting -

Francis will however have to tread extremely carefully in Myanmar, where the Rohingya are widely detested and officials even refuse to use the term, insisting instead on the minority being classed as illegal Bengali immigrants.

Pope Francis is the first pontiff to visit Myanmar

Francis arrives in Myanmar on Monday and will spend three days there. In a last minute change to his programme he now plans to have a private meeting with the head of the country's army, General Min Aung Hlaing.

"It is going to be very interesting diplomatically," said Vatican spokesman Greg Burke.

The meeting with the military chief was organised on the recommendation of Charles Bo, the archbishop of Yangon, who also advised the pope not to use the term "Rohingya".

Vatican officials played down suggestions the outspoken pontiff was being gagged but indicated that he would likely follow Cardinal Bo's advice to avoid any unnecessary inflammation of tensions.

He is due to meet a small group of Rohingya refugees on the second leg of his trip, in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Friday.

The visit to Myanmar will be the first by any pope to the country formerly known as Burma.

Pope John Paul II visited Bangladesh in 1986 and Paul VI visited what was then East Pakistan in 1970, a year before the mostly Muslim country gained independence.

- Islamist threat -

Due in Yangon on Monday, Francis will meet Burma's civilian leader and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in the capital, Naypyidaw, on Tuesday.

Some 620,000 Rohingya, more than half their total number, have fled from Myanmar's Rakhine state to Bangladesh

Suu Kyi has been widely condemned for a perceived lack of sympathy towards the Rohingya and her unwillingness to condemn alleged atrocities by the army.

But Francis, who met the former dissident at the Vatican in May, when the Holy See established diplomatic relations with Myanmar, is understood to be sympathetic to the difficult position she finds herself in.

"The military want to get her out of power and the pope will be showing his support for her," said Bernardo Cervellera, a former missionary who edits Asia News, a specialist review about Catholicism in the region.

Some 200,000 people are expected for an open air mass in Yangon on Wednesday morning. Francis will follow that up with a meeting with Buddhist leaders.

Catholics account for only 660,000 (1.2 percent) of Myanmar's population of 53 million and are an even smaller minority in neighbouring Bangladesh (375,000 out of a population of 165 million), where Islamist sentiment is seen as a developing threat.

That was underlined in July 2016 when militants claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group killed 24 people in a Dhaka restaurant, sparing only those capable of reciting a verse from the Koran.
The US will send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill, reports say, in a new show of force aimed at Pyongyang

The US will send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill, reports said Friday, in a new show of force aimed at Pyongyang.

Six fighter jets, normally based in Okinawa, Japan, will be deployed to the South for a five-day joint military exercise, Vigilant Ace, starting December 4, local media reported.

A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an "unspecified number" of F-22s would take part in the drill.

A US Air Force spokesman declined to give details.

Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets.

The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against the North's nuclear program.

Earlier this month, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes.

This was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships in the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade.

North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainland -- which were described by the country's leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to "American bastards".

It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test in September -- by far its most powerful yet.

Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back onto a US blacklist Pyongyang was taken off nearly a decade ago.

The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme.

Trump said that the terror designation and new sanctions are part of a series of moves over the next two weeks to reinforce his "maximum pressure campaign" against Kim Jong-Un's regime.

Pyongyang condemned the listing as a "serious provocation" on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the North's sole ally, also rejected as "wrong" new US sanctions, which target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state.

Russia said Thursday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a "PR move" that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global "catastrophe".
The US Navy on Friday called off its search for three American sailors missing since their plane crashed in the Philippine Sea.

A C-2A 'Greyhound' aircraft with 11 people on board went down Wednesday afternoon around 930 kilometres (500 nautical miles) southeast of Okinawa. Eight sailors were rescued shortly after the accident.

All eight 'are in good condition at this time', the navy said in a statement.

A C-2A 'Greyhound' (pictured) aircraft with 11 people on board went down Wednesday

The decision to abandon the search and rescue comes after two days of operations involving seven ships from the US Navy and Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Force, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft.

US authorities told Japan that engine trouble was the suspected cause of the accident

'Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families,' said the statement.

'As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates,' it said.

The plane was on a routine transport flight, carrying passengers and cargo from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in southern Japan to the USS Ronald Reagan.

The C-2A is a re-supply workhorse for US aircraft carriers, routinely ferrying cargo, mail and people onto and off the globally deployed vessels.

The C-2A Greyhound is a re-supply workhorse for US aircraft carriers, routinely ferrying cargo, mail and people onto and off globally deployed vessels like USS Ronald Reagan (pictured)

US authorities initially told Japan on Wednesday that engine trouble was the suspected cause of the accident. The Navy says it has launched an investigation.

The crash is the latest in a string of recent accidents involving US naval vessels in the Asia-Pacific region.

In August, the destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a tanker off Singapore, killing 10 sailors and injuring five others.

Two months earlier, another destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, and a cargo ship smashed into each other off Japan, leaving seven sailors dead.

There were also two other, lesser-known incidents. In January, the USS Antietam ran aground near its base in Japan, and in May, the USS Lake Champlain collided with a South Korean fishing vessel.
Nepal votes Sunday in historic elections for new national and provincial assemblies that many hope will bring much-needed stability to the desperately poor country, which has cycled through 10 leaders in the last 11 years

Nepal on Sunday votes in historic elections for new national and provincial assemblies that many hope will bring much-needed stability to the desperately poor country, which has cycled through 10 leaders in the last 11 years.

The elections are the first under a new post-war constitution that paved the way for a sweeping overhaul of the political system intended to devolve power away from a top-heavy central government to seven newly created provinces.

The constitution, adopted in 2015, is aimed at cementing Nepal's transformation from a feudal monarchy to a federal democratic state and giving historically marginalised groups greater access to power.

It followed a 10-year civil war between Maoist insurgents and the state that led to the downfall of a deeply unpopular monarch, but also ushered in a long period of political instability that has hampered development.

"It really signals the end of a post conflict transition that was so elongated that we forgot where we were heading," said George Varughese of the Asia Foundation think tank.

Nepal vote

"These elections remind us that we are heading towards stability."

The vote will be carried out in two phases and most seats are expected to go to the three parties that have dominated the political stage for the last decade, regularly swapping power in a series of short-lived coalitions.

But some hope the devolution of power to the provinces will diminish their influence and alleviate the political impact of frequent changes of government.

"There is the chance, that although the musical chairs will continue, the effect it will have on national progress will be reduced," said Varughese.

- Slow growth -

The Maoist Party, formed by the ex-guerrillas after the war ended in 2006, has entered an electoral alliance with the communist CNP-UML party, creating a political behemoth that will be tough to beat.

That has left the ruling party, the centrist Nepali Congress, struggling to form links with smaller parties in a bid to remain in power.

Nepali Congress and Democratic alliance election candidate Nabindra Raj Joshi (R) gestures as he takes part in a door-to-door in election campaign in Kathmandu

Both have focused their election promises on the economic growth desperately needed in the landlocked country of 29 million, which suffered a devastating earthquake in 2015.

Nepal has one of the slowest growth rates in South Asia and relies for more than a third of its GDP on the remittances from its huge overseas workforce.

Last year nearly 400,000 Nepalis left the country for work, mostly on construction sites in the Gulf and Malaysia.

The Communist alliance has pledged to increase per capita GDP from $760 to $5,000 in 10 years -- a feat that would require annual growth of over 20 percent -- while the Nepali Congress promised to create up to 500,000 jobs a year.

Few see those promises as realistic, however.

"The election declarations of the main parties would be hilarious if they were not proof of hallucination," read a recent editorial in the Nepali Times newspaper.

- India and China -

In recent years Kathmandu has played diplomatic ping-pong with its two large neighbours, India and China, who use big-ticket infrastructure projects to vie for influence.

India has traditionally played the role of big brother to its small Himalayan neighbour, but a more nationalistic government led by the CPN-UML from 2015 to 2016 aggressively courted Beijing and Kathmandu-Delhi relations reached a nadir.

Relations have since improved and observers say that, if elected, the communist alliance will likely take a softer line on India.

Nepali Democratic alliance leader Sunil Bahadur Thapa (C) greets attendees during an election campaign rally in Dhankuta district, some 400 km east of Kathamndu

Nepal began its rocky transition from a Hindu monarchy to a federal democracy a decade ago with a peace deal that ended the brutal civil war, which had claimed the lives of at least 17,000 people.

The Maoist insurgency and the drawn-out peace process that followed were intended to create a more equal society in Nepal, but political instability and endemic corruption has undermined that goal.

A proportion of the 275 seats in the new national parliament will be allocated to women and people from indigenous communities and the lowest Dalit caste.

But political analyst CK Lal says the inequalities that sparked the insurgency persist.

"The aspirations of the different ethnic communities: they were not addressed. Secondly, a massive inclusion programme to address inequalities that exist in government mechanisms: it stands where it was," Lal said.

"Third was economic transformation to decrease inequalities, if not remove (them) altogether, that has not taken place."

More than 300,000 members of the security forces will be deployed for the two-stage election, with northern provinces voting on Sunday and southern areas and Kathmandu going to the polls on December 7.

Results are expected a few days after the second vote.
The mayor of Japan's second city of Osaka said Friday he would end sister-city relations with San Francisco after the US city decided to accept a donated memorial to wartime sex slaves.

Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura said trust between the two, which have been 'sister' cities for 60 years, had been 'completely destroyed' by the incident.

'The sister city relationship with San Francisco will be terminated,' said Yoshimura, adding that the split will be formalised in December.

Japan's national government has stepped in to urge San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee to reject the memorial, as Tokyo struggles to explain its position to the international community.

Lee signed a document Wednesday formalizing the city's acceptance of the memorial, according to Kyodo News.

The 'Comfort Women' monument is seen above after it was unveiled in San Francisco on September 22, 2017

Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura said trust between his city and its sister city of San Francisco had been 'completely destroyed' by the incident

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 as so-called 'comfort women'.

Activists have in recent years set up dozens of statues in public venues around the world, many of them in South Korea, in honor of the victims.

The statues have drawn the ire of Tokyo, which has pressed for the removal of one outside its embassy in Seoul.

Japanese conservatives say the 200,000 figure has no base and accuse activists as well as the South Korean government of politicizing the issue even after the two nations officially settled it.

Japan's conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who also faces criticism as a nationalist attempting to gloss over the nation's wartime acts, has previously said San Francisco's 'extremely regrettable' plan was 'in conflict' with Japan's position.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reiterated the sentiment Friday.

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 as so-called 'comfort women'. Korean 'comfort women' are seen above during the war

'The government has explained our position to the San Francisco mayor about the comfort women issue' and urged authorities there to veto the measure to accept the memorial, Suga said.

'We will make efforts so that similar incidents will not happen again,' Suga said.

In 2015, Japan signed a deal with South Korea offering an apology and one billion yen ($9 million) to open a foundation for those sex slaves still alive.

Both sides have said the agreement 'resolved (the issue) finally and irreversibly.'

However, some in South Korea say Japan has not done enough to atone for its wartime atrocities.

President Moon Jae-In, who came to power after the deal was concluded, has said most South Koreans cannot accept the agreement as it is, although he has not so far formally called for it to be renegotiated.
A suicide bomber on a motorbike rammed into the car of a top police official in Pakistan, killing him and his bodyguard

A top police official in Pakistan's northwest was killed along with his bodyguard when a suicide bomber on a motorbike rammed into their vehicle Friday morning, police said.

Five other people were injured in the incident, which occurred in the restive city of Peshawar as the Additional Inspector General for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Ashraf Noor, and his guard were travelling to work.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Salahuddin Mehsud told AFP that three policemen were among the five injured, and were being treated at hospital.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi "strongly" condemned the murder.

"Our resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism can not be shaken," he said in a statement.

Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the frontier with Afghanistan, has long been a centre for militant activity in both countries. Smugglers and drug traffickers use the city as a transport hub.

It has borne the brunt of militant violence for years and was the scene of the country's deadliest-ever terror attack, a Taliban assault on an army-run school in 2014 that left more than 150 people dead -- most of them children.
A 24-day standoff at Manus Island ended on Friday when Papua New Guinea police wielding metal rods moved in to clear the camp

Papua New Guinea police wielding metal rods cleared the final 320 holdouts from a shuttered Australian refugee camp Friday, ending a 24-day standoff that put a global spotlight on Canberra's tough policy on asylum-seekers.

Videos and photos posted by the detainees showed police moving through the camp on Manus Island, swinging long metal batons and pushing men towards buses bound for PNG-run centres elsewhere on the island.

Pictures showed men with some scrapes and cuts they said came from being hit and dragged by police.

Several hours later, PNG and Australian officials confirmed the camp on a former PNG naval base had been emptied as ordered by the PNG Supreme Court, which said last year that the Canberra-run detention centre violated the country's constitution.

"It's empty. The military have taken back their base," PNG police spokesman Dominic Kakas told AFP.

Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton welcomed the news, and accused refugees and their advocates of making "inaccurate and exaggerated claims of violence and injuries" during the police operation.

Dutton told reporters in Brisbane he was aware of three people with minor injuries, but the UN refugee agency UNHCR said its staff had received reports that several men were "seriously injured".

Canberra set up the Manus camp and a similar complex on the Pacific island nation of Nauru under a policy of "offshore detention" designed to choke off the flow of migrants trying to reach Australia by boat.

Australia immigration detention

The camps were described as "processing centres" where authorities would determine the legal status of detainees and then arrange resettlement for verified refugees.

But the policy stalled, and an agreement reached with former US president Barack Obama's administration to take a number of the refugees was put on hold when Donald Trump was elected a year ago. Only 24 refugees have moved to the US.

Around 600 men, most of them with refugee status, were left stuck on Manus since 2013 with diminishing hope of resettlement.

- What's next? -

Following the PNG court ruling, Australia declared Manus closed on October 31 and shut off supplies of food, water and electricity to the camp so detainees would move voluntarily to the PNG-managed "transition centres".

The refugees refused to move, fearing for their safety among a local population where many opposed their presence.

They also worried that once no longer under Australian control they would lose any leverage they had for obtaining resettlement in third countries.

"What we want now is for people to accept their offer to go to the United States, to accept the resettlement package and go back to their country of origin, to settle in PNG, go to Nauru," Dutton said.

"But under no circumstances are people coming to Australia."

While New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has kept on the table her nation's offer of taking 150 refugees from Manus or Nauru, Dutton appeared to close the door on the option.

"The intelligence has said to us if you send people to New Zealand, the boats (taking asylum-seekers to Australia) will restart and New Zealand is not an option on the table for us now."

Campaigners say the violent resolution of the standoff bodes ill for the refugees' future

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, welcoming the end of the confrontation at Manus Friday, stressed that the refugees were now under PNG authority.

Turnbull's government has come under sharp international criticism during the standoff in Manus as conditions for the detainees deteriorated.

UNHCR's Australia-based representative Thomas Albrecht warned later Thursday there was a "grave risk of further deterioration, and of further damage to extremely vulnerable human beings".

The agency added that it was particularly concerned recognised refugees were being offered enticements to voluntarily return to their home countries, where some could face deteriorating human rights conditions.

After Australia withdrew from the Manus camp, PNG police initially engaged in an effort dubbed "Helpim Friends" to entice refugees to move voluntarily to the new centres.

About 200 men complied, but 400 remained, leading to police raids Thursday and Friday to forcibly clear the camp.

Amy Frew, a lawyer at the Australia-based Human Rights Law Centre, said the violent resolution of the standoff bodes ill for the refugees' future.

"After four and a half years of limbo and uncertainty they still have nowhere safe to go," she said.

"This morning's actions show that whatever they do, wherever they go, their safety cannot be guaranteed until they are evacuated from Papua New Guinea."
Six F-22 Raptors, among the most advanced warplanes in the world, will take part in the massive US-South Korea exercise

The United States will send stealth fighters to a large-scale air force drill with South Korea next month, the US military said Friday, in a new show of force aimed at North Korea.

The massive five-day annual exercise comes as Washington pushes what President Donald Trump has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against Pyongyang over its nuclear programme.

The exercise, named Vigilant Ace, starts on December 4 with 12,000 US personnel and an unspecified number of South Korean airmen flying more than 230 aircraft at eight US and South Korean military bases.

Six F-22 Raptor stealth fighters will be deployed to South Korea for the exercise, a US Air Force spokesman told AFP.

The supersonic Raptor is one of the most advanced warplanes in the world, capable of providing what its maker Lockheed Martin calls "unprecedented air dominance".

"This realistic air combat exercise is designed to enhance interoperability between US and Republic of Korea forces and increase the combat effectiveness of both nations", the US Seventh Air Force said in a statement.

Pyongyang routinely condemns such exercises, labelling them preparation for war.

Local media reported that the American warplanes will conduct precision strike drills with South Korean fighter jets.

North Korea has carried out a flurry of missile tests this year -- including intercontinental ballistic variants apparently capable of hitting the US mainland -- and tested what it claimed was a thermonuclear weapon in September.

The tests have prompted shows of force and sanctions from Washington.

Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back to a US blacklist Pyongyang was removed from nearly a decade ago.

Earlier this month, the US flew two B-1B supersonic bombers over the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japan and South Korea.

That was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships, the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade.

The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme.

Pyongyang condemned the listing as a "serious provocation" on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the North's sole ally, has also said the new US sanctions -- which also target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state -- are "wrong".

Russia said Thursday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a "PR move" that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global "catastrophe".
Prosecutors had argued that Pistorius failed to show genuine remorse over the killing.

A South African appeals court increased Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius' sentence for murdering his girlfriend to 13 years and five months on Friday, marking a victory for prosecutors in a case that shocked the world.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein more than doubled his original sentence of six years after the state argued that it was unduly lenient.

Pistorius, 31, was not in court for the hearing.

Prosecutors argued earlier this month that Oscar Pistorius failed to show genuine remorse after killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

"One of the essential ingredients of a balanced sentence is that it must reflect the seriousness of the offence," Andrea Johnson, of the National Prosecution Authority, had told the court.

Pistorius' lawyer Barry Roux mounted a strong defence of the judge who handed down the six-year sentence, saying she took into account his claim that he believed he was shooting an intruder.

The Paralympic athlete shot dead Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013 when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

Pistorius pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014 saying he mistook his girlfiend for a burglar.

He pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014 and has always denied that he killed Steenkamp in a rage, saying he mistook her for a burglar.

In 2015, Pistorius was found guilty of murder and given less than half of the minimum 15 years in jail for that crime.

Pistorius was originally convicted of culpable homicide -- the equivalent of manslaughter -- but the appeal court upgraded his conviction.

- 'Justice has been served' -

Nazreen Shaik Peremanov, a constitutional law expert at the University of South Africa's law school, told AFP that Pistorius could now appeal the latest sentence at the country's highest court -- the Constitutional Court.

"They were forced to impose that sentence, and the court found there were no substantial and compelling circumstances and thus handed down (that) period of imprisonment," said legal analyst Ulrich Roux. "(Recent) sentences have been much more harsh than in the past, in my opinion."

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said he was pleased with the Supreme Court's ruling.

"We always maintained as an institution that this appeal is not about an individual. It has got everything to do with the proper administration of justice," he said.

"We hope the family will find closure knowing that justice has been served and the proper sentence has been handed out."

Oscar's brother Carl Pistorius tweeted that he was "Shattered. Heartbroken. Gutted" following the court's ruling.

"We have all suffered incomprehensible loss. The death of Reeva was and still is a great loss for our family too," he wrote.

Previously an ambassador for disabled people worldwide, Pistorius was released from jail in 2015 after serving one year of the initial five-year term for culpable homicide.

He returned behind bars after his conviction for murder.

The year before he killed Steenkamp, Pistorius became the first double-amputee to race at the Olympics when he competed at the London 2012 games.

In a television interview, he said he believed an intruder was in the house and "instant fear" drove him to grab his gun and walk on his stumps towards the bathroom.
Emmerson Mnangagwa was once a right-hand man to Mugabe -- he replaced his boss after a brief military takeover

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa is a military-backed veteran hardliner who outmanoeuvered Robert Mugabe and has promised to turn around his country's disastrous economy.

Nicknamed "The Crocodile", Mnangagwa on Friday secured a narrow victory in Zimbabwe's historic first elections after the ousting of Mugabe last year.

But fraud allegations threaten to dent his hopes that the election would bring him legitimacy after he was appointed president with the generals' support when Mugabe was ousted from power last November.

It was his battle to secure the top job ahead of Mugabe's wife Grace that triggered the crisis that finally toppled the long-ruling autocrat.

When Mnangagwa, 75, was dismissed as vice president by Mugabe, it looked like he lost out to the first lady.

In fear for his life he made a dramatic escape across the border to Mozambique.

His son, who was with him, described Mnangagwa sitting at a bus stop wearing a dusty suit and tattered shoes after a nighttime mountain trek into Mozambique. He had no belongings except a briefcase full of dollars.

But the situation turned on its head within weeks when the military chiefs launched a brief takeover and Mnangagwa emerged as their chosen successor.

With the nation still reeling from Mugabe's downfall, Mnangagwa made a triumphant return home and was sworn in as president after lawmakers in the ruling ZANU-PF party swung behind him.

"I never thought he whom I have nurtured, brought into government... that one day he would turn against me," said a mournful Mugabe afterwards.

- Mugabe's closest ally? -

Mnangagwa's rise to the presidency came after decades of working closely with Mugabe since Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980.

He held a string of cabinet positions -- but relations between him and Mugabe were not always easy.

In 2004, he lost his post as ZANU-PF administrative secretary after being accused of angling for the post of vice president.

Profile of Emmerson Mnangagwa, former close Mugabe ally and minister who ousted him as president is favourite to win Monday's election

But he was soon back in favour, and in 2008 served as head of Mugabe's election campaign.

Mugabe lost the first round vote that year, and Mnangagwa allegedly supervised the wave of violence and intimidation that forced the opposition to pull out of the run-off vote.

He was targeted by EU and US sanctions, and handed control of the powerful defence ministry in the troubled power-sharing government formed in 2009 before becoming vice president in 2014.

On the campaign trail, Mnangagwa stuck to his oft-repeated pledge to revive the moribund economy, tackle the chronic mass unemployment, re-engage with the West and attract foreign investment.

"We have opened Zimbabwe to investors," he told one recent rally. "We are now standing on the dawn of a new Zimbabwe our children will be proud of."

Since taking office, he wears a striped scarf in Zimbabwe's national colours at almost all public appearances, and has tried to fashion himself as a down-to-earth politician.

The target of several apparent assassination attempts in his life, Mnangagwa's electioneering was almost ended by a blast at a rally in June that killed two people as he left the podium.

He also nearly died last year after allegedly eating poisoned ice cream made by his archrival Grace Mugabe's dairy, and was urgently flown to neighbouring South Africa for emergency treatment.

- Massacres allegation -

Laconic and thick-set, he describes himself as a born-again Christian, believes there is some role for evicted white farmers in the new Zimbabwe, and says he abstains from alcohol for six months each year.

Born in 1942, Mnangagwa completed his early education in Zimbabwe before his family relocated to neighbouring Zambia.

In 1966, he joined the struggle for independence from British colonial rule, becoming one of the young combatants who helped direct the war after undergoing training in China and Egypt.

His "Crocodile" nickname can be traced back to his ferocious "Crocodile Gang" guerrilla unit in the conflict.

After blowing up a train, he was arrested in 1964 and sentenced to death, later commuted to 10 years in prison because of his youth -- leaving him a life-long vocal opponent of the death penalty.

Following independence in 1980, he allegedly was partially responsible for a brutal crackdown on opposition supporters that claimed thousands of lives in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.

The Gukurahundi massacres remain the biggest stain on his reputation.

Since coming to power, he has brushed off calls to apologise and questioned the 20,000 death toll estimate, though he said he had already set up a commission to address the allegations.

"What has happened has happened," he said, admitting it was "a bad patch" in Zimbabwe's history.
Once one of Robert Mugabe's closest allies, Emmerson Mnangagwa officially became Zimbabwe's new president at an inauguration ceremony in Harare

Former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken over as Zimbabwe's new leader, ending strongman Robert Mugabe's 37-year reign and the country's worst political crisis since independence.

Here is a snapshot of two weeks of turmoil, from a military takeover to mass street protests and an impeachment bid:

- Vice president sacked -

November 6: Mugabe fires Mnangagwa in an apparent bid to clear the way for his wife Grace, 52, to take over as president.

But the move angers the military, which has close ties to Mnangagwa.

- Army takeover -

November 14: In the evening, tanks move towards Harare, with gunfire heard around Mugabe's residence a day after a blunt warning from army chief General Constantino Chiwenga.

By the early hours, military vehicles are on the capital's streets, but the army denies staging a coup, giving a televised address saying the 93-year-old leader is safe and that they are "only targeting criminals around him".

November 15: South Africa says Mugabe has told its president, Jacob Zuma, by telephone that he is under house arrest but is "fine".

The European Union and former colonial power Britain urge a peaceful resolution of the crisis while South Africa warns against any "unconstitutional changes" of government.

- Mugabe digs heels in -

President Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe with a rod of iron since independence in 1980. But the gag on protest has now been lifted -- tens of thousands have taken to the streets to demand his departure

November 16: Mugabe refuses to step down during talks with generals, a source close to the army leadership says, in a move which enrages many Zimbabweans who see it as a bid to "buy time" to negotiate a favourable end to his 37-year reign.

A day later he appears at a university graduation ceremony, acting as if nothing has happened.

Meanwhile, opposition is gathering pace within his own ranks, with eight out of the 10 branches of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF taking to state television to demand he stand down.

Zimbabwe's influential war veterans association also demands he step down immediately, urging people to join huge street protests planned for the weekend.

- Mass protests -

November 18: Tens of thousands of people joyfully take to the streets across the country to demand Mugabe's departure and celebrate his apparently imminent demise in scenes of public euphoria not seen since independence in 1980.

The display of open defiance would have been unthinkable just a week earlier.

- Ousted as party chief -

Zimbabweans celebrate Mugabe's resignation

November 19: ZANU-PF sacks Mugabe as leader and demands he resign as head of state. It also expels his wife Grace and names ousted VP Mnangagwa as the new party chief.

Adding to its stunning reversal of allegiances, it threatens to impeach Mugabe if he does not resign by midday on November 20.

Mugabe meets with the army chiefs before making a defiant televised address in which he shows no sign of leaving, frustrating widespread hopes he would resign.

- Endgame -

November 21: After the previous day's deadline passes without Mugabe resigning, ZANU-PF says it will start impeachment proceedings on Tuesday.

Mugabe resigned after 37 years in power

Adding to the pressure from parliament, Mnangagwa issues a statement saying citizens had an "insatiable desire" for Mugabe to go, and the influential war veterans call for immediate protests.

He summoned a cabinet meeting but most ministers stayed away, state media reported.

Parliament passes a motion to begin a debate on impeaching him. The parliament speaker interrupts proceedings to read a letter from Mugabe in which he resigns, ending 37 years of often brutal rule.

Massive celebrations erupt across the country and the international community expresses hope that Zimbabwe will change for the better.

- 'Crocodile' Mnangagwa to return -

November 22: As Zimbabwe wakes up to a future without Mugabe, Mnangagwa -- known as the "crocodile" for his ruthlessness -- flies back into the country and tells crowds of supporters they are witnessing "unfolding full democracy".

- New era -

November 24: Once one of Mugabe's closest allies, Mnangagwa officially becomes Zimbabwe's new president at an inauguration ceremony in Harare, amid tight security.

Both Mugabe and his wife Grace are expected to be given protection by the government.
Protests against "slavery in Libya" have been held outside the Libyan embassy in the Moroccan capital Rabat, after revelations that migrants were being sold as slaves in the country

The revelation that migrants are being sold as slaves in Libya is not an isolated case: more than 40 million people were estimated to be victims of modern slavery in 2016.

The figure includes some 25 million people who were in forced labour -- made to work under threat or coercion -- and 15 million people in forced marriage, according to a report.

But the number of people in slavery is probably even higher, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and human rights group Walk Free Foundation, who jointly carried out the study.

Here are some of their key findings:

- Forced labour -

Around a quarter of the nearly 25 million people in forced labour are in private households but they can also be found in factories, on construction sites, on farms and fishing boats.

The study gives the example of 600 fishermen held on boats in Indonesian waters for many years.

More than half of the slaves are in debt to whomever is holding them. Others cannot escape because they have been drugged, paid too little to be able to leave, physically abused or simply because they are too far from home to make the return journey.

Nearly five million among them are forced into prostitution, the report said. Just over four million are victims of work imposed by state authorities such as forced labour in prison or abuse of army conscripts.

- Women and girls -

Women and girls account for 71 percent of the slaves, or nearly 29 million people.

One in four victims of modern slavery is a child -- around 10 million.

Around 15.4 million people are married against their will, of whom more than a third are below 18 years of age. Practically all are female.

Women account for 99 percent of victims of forced labour via prostitution.

- Africa, Asia have worst record -

Modern slavery is most prevalent in Africa, affecting 7.6 per 1,000 people, followed by Asia and the Pacific, with 6.1 per 1,000, the report said.

However in terms of absolute numbers, 62 per cent of all victims are in the Asia and Pacific region where the prevalence of forced labour is highest, involving four out of every 1,000 victims.

In Africa 4.8 people out of 1,000 are in forced marriages, twice the world rate of 2.1 per thousand.

- Migrants vulnerable -

Several studies have established the link between migration and human trafficking, especially on routes taken by the migrants, the report said.

Three-quarters of migrants questioned in 2017 on the route from Libya to Europe by the International Organization for Migration said they had been victims of human trafficking abuses.

"Irregular migrants, for instance, may be subjected to kidnap and ransom demands, extortion, physical violence, sexual abuse, and trafficking in persons.

"They may start their journeys by willingly placing themselves in the hands of smugglers and become trafficked along the way," the report said.
Protesters held demonstrations outside the Libyan embassy in Morocco demanding action over slave auctions in Libya

World leaders may have been quick to voice outrage over video footage of Libyan slave auctions, but activists raised the alarm months ago -- and their warnings fell on deaf ears.

Aid workers, rights groups and analysts say they had been shouting about rape, torture and forced work for thousands of black Africans in the war-torn north African country until they were blue in the face.

But it took CNN's footage of young Africans being auctioned off near Tripoli, filmed on a hidden camera and aired on November 14, to force Western and African leaders into a flurry of condemnation.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres was "horrified"; African Union chief Alpha Conde was "outraged".

France requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, with President Emmanuel Macron branding the auctions a crime against humanity.

But NGOs and experts have charged leaders with hypocrisy.

"Ordinary people aside, everyone knew about this -- governments, international organisations, political leaders," said Hamidou Anne, a Senegalese analyst at think-tank L'Afrique des Idees.

Alioune Tine, Amnesty International's West Africa director, said "hostage-takings, violence, torture and rape" were well documented in Libya.

"And we've been talking about slavery for a long time," he added.

Libya became a massive transit hub for sub-Saharan Africans setting sail for Europe after the fall of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011 tipped the country into chaos.

The EU has been desperate to stem the influx -- more than 1.5 million migrants have arrived in Europe since 2015, according to UN figures.

But leaders are at a loss to find solutions for the asylum seekers on the other side of the Mediterranean.

This month it faced heavy criticism from the UN over its training of the Libyan coastguard, which the world body's rights chief said resulted in migrants being sent back to "horrific" prisons.

- 'Unimaginable horrors' -

Aid agencies and rights groups say black Africans have been subjected to rape, torture and slave auctions

With EU support, Italy has been training Libyan coastguards to intercept boats as part of a controversial deal that has seen migrant arrivals down nearly 70 percent since July.

But the UN charges that the policy leaves migrants returned to Libya at risk of torture, rape, forced labour and extortion.

"The international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the unimaginable horrors endured by migrants in Libya," UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said.

Brussels has hit back that its coastguard training has helped save lives -- nearly 3,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year -- while EU aid has helped UN agencies to send 10,000 migrants home from Libya voluntarily.

In The Gambia, Karamo Keita set up a group to warn fellow youngsters not to attempt the trip to Europe, after suffering horrific abuses in Libya including slave labour.

"In Libya, black people have no right," he told AFP back in September.

"We were taken to various farms where the Libyan guy sold us as slaves. We worked on the farms for free."

The International Organization for Migration had in April reported the existence of markets where migrants became "commodities to be bought".

And several months later the head of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, Joanne Liu, wrote an open letter to European governments warning of the thriving "kidnapping, torture and extortion business".

"In their efforts to stem the influx, are European governments ready to pay the price for rape, torture and slavery?" she asked, adding: "We can't say we didn't know about this."

- 'Don't condemn, act' -

Amnesty International said Europe, in its efforts to stop migrants arriving, bore "a fundamental responsibility" for the horrors in Libya

Amnesty's Tine said that in its efforts to stop migrants arriving "at all cost", Europe bore "a fundamental responsibility" for the horrors in Libya.

Yet others are also to blame, he told AFP.

"African countries do nothing to make their young people stay, to give them work," he said.

Analyst Hamidou Anne also said a passive response from African leaders was in part to blame for the unfolding disaster, along with "systematic racism in the Maghreb countries".

"This cannot go on," he said.

"Faced with a crime against humanity you don't condemn it, you act."

Tiny Rwanda has offered, since the scandal broke, to take in 30,000 Africans from Libya.

Migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos meanwhile told AFP on Thursday that the EU was "working without let-up" to find solutions.

Tine said slavery needed to be on the agenda at an EU-AU summit on November 29-30 in Abidjan, an idea already floated by Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou.

"We need an impartial investigation to see how the trafficking is organised and who is behind it," Tine said.

And, he added, "everyone must take their responsibilities."
"Everything has to end," say residents of Katuma, Robert Mugabe's village

Local residents in the rural Zimbabwean village where Robert Mugabe was born, got married, and has a house say he was a great leader -- but express sorrowful acceptance rather than anger at his ousting.

Kutama, 55 miles (90 kilometres) outside the capital Harare, has been a heartland of deeply personal support for Mugabe for decades, benefiting from his patronage and much-criticised land reforms.

"When I heard the news (of his exit) and seeing what was now happening in the country, and things not going right, I thought, 'Well everything has to end, he has to rest'," Johannes Chikanya, Mugabe's second cousin and a close childhood friend, told AFP.

"Had it been me, I would have resigned while people still liked me," Chikanya said. "Now there are problems."

Mugabe was born in Kutama on February 21, 1924 -- with Chikanya born just three months later.

Chikanya fondly remembers how as a child he used to share a bed and blanket on the floor with Mugabe, and even eat from the same plate as they grew up together in the village.

Today Kutama, in contrast to many city streets or even highways, has smooth new roads, recently re-surfaced with fresh black tar.

- 'So grateful' -

Some locals in Katuma benefited from Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms

"We are so grateful for what he has done, the way he has looked after us until today. We hope things will continue just as good," said Tobias Sowero, 40, sitting in front of a shop.

But in much of the country, years of economic decline under Mugabe have left Zimbabwe's infrastructure in ruins and almost no private-sector employment as agriculture collapsed and investors fled.

Some locals in Kutama benefited from Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms that is widely blamed for the economy's implosion as the sharp decline in production.

"Even if others are complaining that there are no jobs, I'm happy about the land we were given. We are able to farm and look after ourselves," said 22-year-old Theophilus Chimanga.

"I want to remember him for the land and the freedom he brought."

Unlike in Harare and second city Bulawayo, there were no wild scenes of street celebration in Kutama when news broke on Tuesday that Mugabe's reign was finally over after 37 years.

"No, there were no celebrations here, we just accepted it quietly," said one businessman, who declined to give his name, at the village's small shopping centre close to Mugabe's house.

In Kutama, in the district of Zvimba, the gates of Mugabe's usually heavily-guarded house were wide open, though AFP was denied access.

- Lavish wedding -

In 1996, the village hosted Mugabe's wedding to his second wife Grace, whose presidential ambitions triggered the intervention from the military chiefs who were determined to block her rise.

The wedding at a nearby catholic church was attended by Nelson Mandela with Joaquim Chissano, then president of Mozambique, serving as best man.

A lavish party, complete with beers brought in by the truckload, was held for thousands of guests at a thatched-roof property in the village.

Johannes, a 93-year-old Zimbabwean, grew up with Mugabe in Kutama

Marjorie Masuwa, a 54-year-old shopkeeper, told AFP that she feared for the future under Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose inauguration as president was held on Friday.

"When I heard that (Mugabe) had stepped down, I didn't get emotional, but allow me to say that he was loving. I just wish the one who is replacing him is the same," she said.

"I urge him to seek advice from Mugabe, and to please not to give land back to the whites."
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, shown here on October 24, 2017, has denounced Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the "new Hitler of the Middle East"

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has denounced Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the "new Hitler of the Middle East", as tensions simmer between the regional rivals.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have engaged in a bitter war of words after a missile fired from Yemen was intercepted near Riyadh airport on November 4. The missile was claimed by Yemen's Tehran-backed Huthi rebels.

Iran's "supreme leader is the new Hitler of the Middle East", Prince Mohammed told The New York Times in an interview published Thursday.

"We learned from Europe that appeasement doesn't work. We don't want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East."

Tehran has strongly denied supplying any missiles to the rebels, and President Hassan Rouhani has warned Saudi Arabia of Iran's "might".

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman reacted scathingly to the interview, comparing Prince Mohammed to "a dictator" and urging him to "reflect on the fate" of some leaders in the Middle East in recent years.

"The immature, unpredictable and senseless behaviour and remarks by the Saudi crown prince result in no one in the world giving the slightest credit to comments of this kind," spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said in a statement.

"Errors due to the adventurism of the Saudi crown prince -- the latest being the scandal of (Saudi) interference in Lebanon's internal affairs -- have been the cause of great problems for Saudi Arabia's traditional allies," he said.

The spike in Saudi-Iran tensions coincides with Prince Mohammed's new anti-corruption purge, which saw around 200 elites including princes, ministers and business tycoons arrested or sacked earlier this month.

The prince described as "ludicrous" reports equating the crackdown to a power grab, saying that many of those detained at Riyadh's opulent Ritz-Carlton hotel had already pledged allegiance to him.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has accused Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shown here on October 18, 2017, of being the "new Hitler of the Middle East"

"A majority of the royal family" is behind him, the prince said, dismissing longstanding rumours of internal opposition to his meteoric rise.

He said 95 percent of those detained agree to a "settlement", or handing over ill-gotten gains to the Saudi state treasury.

Saudi Arabia's attorney general estimates at least $100 billion has been misused in embezzlement or corruption over several decades.

Authorities have frozen the bank accounts of the accused and warned assets related to the alleged graft cases would be seized as state property, in what they describe as a top-down approach to battling endemic corruption.

"About one percent are able to prove they are clean and their case is dropped right there. About four percent say they are not corrupt and with their lawyers want to go to court," the prince said.

"We have experts making sure no businesses are bankrupted in the process," he added.

The purge has triggered uncertainty among businesses that could lead to capital flight or derail reforms, experts say, at a time when the kingdom is seeking to attract badly needed investments to offset a protracted oil slump.
Some 70 percent of trade between the neighbours is conducted in the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong, which is connected to North Korea by the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge

A bridge providing the main road link between China and North Korea is to be closed "temporarily" while workers on the North side carry out maintenance, Beijing announced Friday.

Some 70 percent of trade between the Asian neighbours is conducted in the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong, connected to North Korea by the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge.

"The bridge will be closed temporarily because the DPRK (North Korean) side needs to carry out some repair and maintenance work," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a regular news briefing on Friday.

The closure would take place within "days," Geng said, without specifying any timeframe for the work to be completed and the bridge re-opened.

China is North Korea's largest trading partner, but it has backed a series of United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile activities, straining ties between the Cold War-era allies.

US President Donald Trump has urged his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to use his economic leverage to exert more pressure on the pariah state in the hopes it might abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

However, Beijing this week condemned as "wrong" fresh US sanctions that targeted North Korean shipping interests as well as Chinese companies that do business with the North.
The army said first-year cadet Pakapong Tanyakan died of heart failure late October at his army training school outside Bangkok

Thailand's military faced mounting pressure on Friday to explain the murky death of a teenage army cadet, whose case has seized national attention after his parents discovered his organs were mysteriously removed from his body.

The army said first-year cadet Pakapong Tanyakan died of heart failure late October at his army training school outside Bangkok.

But his family was sceptical and ordered a second autopsy -- only to find their son's brain, heart, bladder and stomach were missing.

The shocking discovery sparked public outcry and accusations of a cover-up by a military trailed by allegations of beatings and other abuse against young recruits that can turn fatal.

The army has continued to deny foul play in Pakapong's case, saying doctors removed his organs for further inspection and were not required to inform his family.

But thousands in the junta-run nation have signed an online petition calling for the resignation of the cadet's commanders.

On Friday a government spokesman said four military officers had been transferred while an investigation is ongoing.

"To help cope with all sides' uneasiness, the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters has transferred officers who are involved with this case so that they will not interfere with the evidence or witnesses," Lt Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd told AFP.

He added that junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha was "deeply sorry" to hear about the cadet's death.

The case has unleashed an outpouring of grievances online, with netizens calling for an end to corporal punishment in the military.

"My son wanted to be a soldier but after seeing this news, he lost his confidence," Bumbim Kanyaplak posted on Facebook.

Pakapong's family told reporters their son had described physical abuse throughout his time at the school, including a hazing exercise that led him to faint in August.

He also described being punched in the stomach in a diary entry in May.

Thailand's military, which has run the country since a 2014 coup, runs an annual draft that brings 100,000 men into the armed forces every year.

There have been at least three reported cases of conscripts dying during training this year.

Speaking to the press earlier this week, Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan admitted that physical punishment is a part of military training, saying he had gone through the ordeal himself.

"But I didn't die," he added.

Prawit apologised for the remarks on Friday, saying they were insensitive to the cadet's family.
Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, seen here eating ice cream at his inauguration after the 2013 elections, owns the large Gushungo dairy

On August 17, the Zimbabwean government issued an official denial that Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was vice president at the time, had eaten ice cream at a political rally.

"For the record, the Vice President did not eat ice cream," Information Minister Chris Mushohwe said.

"Yes, there was ice cream. I ate it, many people ate the ice cream, but he did not eat the ice cream himself."

The denial was an attempt to quash reports that Mnangagwa had been poisoned by ice cream made at the large Gushungo dairy owned Robert Mugabe -- who resigned as president on Tuesday -- and his wife Grace.

At the time, Mnangagwa and the first lady were locked in a bitter battle to succeed the ageing 93-year-old president, with hostilities erupting in public after years of behind-the-scenes plotting.

The struggle was ultimately won by Mnangagwa who was inaugurated as president on Friday after a military takeover and mass street protests which quickly brought about Mugabe's departure.

The ice cream scandal was one of the more colourful details of the extraordinary fall of Mugabe, whose 37-year reign came crashing down over his efforts to promote Grace as his heir.

Mnangagwa was taken seriously ill after eating at the rally and had to be urgently flown to neighbouring South Africa for emergency treatment with his life apparently at risk.

Rumours that he had died spread panic, and he only returned to Zimbabwe several days later, still in poor health.

- Grace on the attack -

Emmerson Mnangagwa, seen here with his wife Auxilia in January, believes he was deliberately poisoned

Soon afterwards, Grace Mugabe waded into the scandal, launching one of her trademark verbal fightbacks against the vice president who for decades had been one of her husband's closest allies.

"How can I kill Mnangagwa?" Grace mockingly told guests at the launch of a new bank.

"I am a wife of the president. Who is Mnangagwa on this earth? Who is he? I want to ask, what do I get from him?

"Killing someone who was given a job by my husband? That is nonsensical."

The alleged poisoning took place in the southern town of Gwanda on August 12 at one of a series of ZANU-PF party "youth rallies" at which Mugabe spoke ahead of elections next year.

State media admitted Mnangagwa suffered severe vomiting and diarrhoea at the event, but said that doctors suspected that food which had gone off was to blame.

Mnangagwa and his wife were later seen at other public occasions refusing to eat food served by waiters.

- 'It began with an ice cream' -

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and his wife have been widely criticised for their corrupt business dealings and extravagant lifestyles

The Mugabes' control of lucrative dairies had been a source of deep public resentment with the couple often criticised for their corrupt business dealings and extravagant lifestyles.

Mnangagwa, 75, has no doubt that he was poisoned in a failed assassination attempt which ultimately inspired him to push harder for the end of Mugabe's reign.

"I was subjected to poisoning which resulted in my being airlifted to South Africa," he told supporters as he returned to Zimbabwe on Wednesday following Mugabe's ouster.

"I survived (but) this time around I said to myself I should not wait for them to eliminate me."

In the past week, there has been a wave of jokes, memes and viral songs that have focused on the role ice cream played in Mugabe's spectacular downfall.

"Who would have thought that the soldiers would revolt," say lyrics set to a popular gospel tune.

"It all started with an ice cream."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan views the PYD/YPG as "terror" groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said there was no contact "at the moment" between Ankara and the Syrian government despite both sides' opposition to Syrian Kurdish militia, in comments reported on Friday.

The Turkish leader said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad "negatively" viewed Syrian Kurdish armed groups, in an interview published in Hurriyet and Milliyet papers.

Putin met Assad earlier this week at the Black Sea resort of Sochi before a summit with Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday aimed at finding a political settlement to the Syria conflict.

Ankara has opposed Assad throughout the conflict and previously accused the Syrian leader of war crimes.

But Moscow and Iran have provided military support to help forces loyal to Assad reclaim territory in the conflict, which has raged since 2011.

Putin announced on Wednesday plans for a congress -- agreed at Sochi -- to bring together the different sides in an attempt to reinvigorate a hobbled peace process.

Erdogan said the Russian leader told him that Assad did not want the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing fighting in Syria, the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG), to take part in peace talks.

The YPG -- which the US sees as the most effective force on the ground against the Islamic State group -- controls a large part of northern Syria.

Turkey views the PYD/YPG as "terror" groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.

Erdogan has repeatedly vowed not to allow the YPG to form a "terror corridor" on its southern border.

When asked whether Turkey has initiated contact with Assad, even via mediators, Erdogan replied: "There is no such situation at the moment."

The Turkish leader told reporters on his return from Sochi that Turkey was focused on removing terror organisations when questioned about whether there was a possibility of close contact with Damascus in the future.

"What will happen tomorrow is relevant to the circumstances then," he added, leaving the door open to future talks.

But he said it would not be right to take a "no way at all" approach to the issue.

"The doors of politics, as you are aware, are always open until the last moment," Erdogan added.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen has said it will reopen Sanna airport and a key Red Sea port to aid, after a more than two-week blockade following a missile attack on Riyadh

The United Nations said Friday that it has been cleared by a Saudi-led coalition to resume passenger flights to Yemen's rebel-held Sanaa airport, but desperately needed aid deliveries remain blocked.

The Arab coalition fighting Yemeni rebels announced Wednesday that it would allow the resumption of humanitarian deliveries to Sanaa airport and the crucial Red Sea port of Hodeida, after a more than two-week blockade following a missile attack on Riyadh.

But a spokesman for the UN's humanitarian affairs office told reporters in Geneva Friday that Riyadh has not yet granted permission to resume aid deliveries.

"The UN has been notified through our usual contacts in Riyadh that the regular passenger flight operated by the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service can fly to Sanaa from Amman starting tomorrow," Jens Laerke said.

"However, there has been no substantial change since yesterday regarding the requests for clearance to go by boat to Hodeida and Saleef seaports with humanitarian supplies," he added.

Laerke said the UN was "encouraged" that passenger flights had been approved but stressed the urgent need to restart aid deliveries, with the threat of widespread famine intensifying.

A boat stocked with wheat and another with equipment to treat Yemen's cholera epidemic are ready to head to Hodeida once the UN gets the go-ahead, Laerke said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross landed a passenger flight at Sanaa on Wednesday, spokesman Ewan Watson told AFP.

Seven million Yemenis are completely dependent on humanitarian supplies for their survival, according to the UN.

Allied with Yemeni strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Iran-backed Huthi rebels control the capital Sanaa along with much of northern Yemen.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the Yemeni government's fight against the rebels.
Iraqi forces, supported by members of the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation units), advance in Iraq's western desert as they seek to flush out the last pockets of Islamic State group fighters in the country

Iraqi forces said Friday that Islamic State group fighters are withdrawing deep into the desert to escape an offensive aimed at a final defeat of the jihadists.

IS has already been driven out of all of the towns it once held, but Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said he will not proclaim victory until the jihadists have been cleared from the western desert bordering Syria.

The Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary force said its fighters had taken control of 77 villages and hamlets since the launch of the offensive on Thursday morning.

It said five jihadists had been killed south of the ancient desert city of Hatra, but otherwise IS had put up little resistance.

The Hashed said that its fighters, who are mainly recruited from Shiite militias, overran an airfield in the same area, where they discovered underground warehouses used by the jihadists.

Iraq-IS conflict

Air support for the offensive, which also involves the army and federal police, has so far been provided exclusively by the Iraqi air force.

The US-led coalition, which has provided air support for other offensives against IS in Iraq, said it carried out no strikes on Thursday.

"We will provide strikes if we know that there is an ISIS (IS) cell, or tunnels, or something there," coalition spokesman US Colonel Ryan Dillon told AFP.

"If the requests are not coming, we won't do a strike... it's supply and demand," he said.

"And when you're in such a vast wide open desert area... there's less of a requirement for precision-guided missiles," unlike in urban areas.

At its peak in 2014, IS ruled over seven million people in a territory as large as Italy encompassing large parts of Syria and nearly a third of Iraq.

It is now being flushed out of its last desert hideouts in Iraq and under attack by Russian-backed government forces and US-backed Kurdish-led fighters in its last pockets of control in Syria.
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged to "respond with brutal force" after attackers killed at least 235 worshippers in a packed mosque in restive North Sinai province

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has vowed to respond forcefully after attackers killed at least 235 worshippers in a packed mosque in restive North Sinai province, the country's deadliest attack in recent memory.

Al-Sisi declared three days of mourning would begin Saturday, the day after the gun and bomb assault on the Rawda mosque, roughly 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish.

In a televised speech the president pledged to "respond with brutal force", adding that "the army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period".

Several hours later Egyptian air force jets destroyed vehicles used in the attack and "terrorist" locations where weapons and ammunition were stocked, an army spokesman said.

Witnesses said assailants had surrounded the mosque with all-terrain vehicles and detonated a bomb. They then mowed down panicked worshippers as they tried to flee and used congregants' vehicles they had set alight to block routes to the mosque.

The state prosecutor's office said in a statement that 235 people were killed and 109 wounded in the attack, the scale of which is unprecedented in a four-year insurgency by Islamist extremist groups.

AFP photographs of the scene indicated that children were among the dead.

World leaders condemned the attack. US President Donald Trump condemned on Twitter the "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenceless worshippers".

The grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, condemned "in the strongest terms this barbaric terrorist attack".

- IS targeting of Sufis -

Egypt attack mosque

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bloodshed.

The Islamic State group's Egypt branch has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, and also civilians accused of working with the authorities, in attacks in the north of the Sinai peninsula.

They have also targeted followers of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam as well as Christians.

A tribal leader and head of a Bedouin militia that fights IS told AFP that the mosque is known as a place where Sufis gather.

The Islamic State group shares the puritan Salafi view that Sufis are heretics for seeking the intercession of saints.

The jihadists had previously kidnapped and beheaded an elderly Sufi leader, accusing him of practising magic which Islam forbids, and abducted Sufi practitioners later released after "repenting".

Security forces are fighting the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State group in the Sinai peninsula

The group has killed more than 100 Christians in church bombings and shootings in Sinai and other parts of Egypt, forcing many to flee the peninsula.

The military has struggled to quell jihadists who pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014.

The jihadists have since increasingly turned to civilian targets, attacking not only Christians and Sufis but also Bedouin Sinai inhabitants accused of working with the army.

The Gaza Strip's border crossing with Egypt that had been due to reopen Saturday will remain closed until further notice because of the attack, a Palestinian official said.

Aside from IS, Egypt also faces a threat from Al-Qaeda-aligned jihadists who operate out of neighbouring Libya.

The lights of the Eiffel Tower in Paris are switched off in tribute to the victims of the deadly attack on a mosque in Egypt's Sinai

A group calling itself Ansar al-Islam -- Supporters of Islam in Arabic -- claimed an October ambush in Egypt's Western Desert that killed at least 16 policemen.

Many of those killed belonged to the interior ministry's secretive National Security Service.

The military later conducted air strikes on the attackers, killing their leader Emad al-Din Abdel Hamid, a most wanted jihadist who was a military officer before joining an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Libya's militant stronghold of Derna.

se-burs/ach/iw/ceb
Roughly 2,000 protesters from the Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan group have blocked a main highway used by thousands of commuters since November 6

Pakistani courts have lambasted the government for its failure to disperse an Islamist sit-in that has virtually paralysed the capital Islamabad for weeks, issuing blistering public statements and threatening to hold officials in contempt.

The roughly 2,000 protesters from the Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan group have blocked a main highway used by thousands of commuters since November 6, causing hours-long traffic snarls.

The sit-in has already cost the life of at least one eight-year-old child whose ambulance could not reach a hospital in time due to the blocked roads, a statement from the Supreme Court has confirmed.

The largely unknown hardline religious group is relatively small and no serious violence has broken out, but despite the growing frustration of residents and previous court orders for the site to be cleared authorities have hesitated to act, insisting on negotiations instead.

On Friday the Islamabad High Court ordered interior minister Ahsan Iqbal to appear in court next week and explain why he should not be charged with contempt for his failure to act, according to a court order issued by judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui.

He said it was "beyond understanding" how even a prime minister could fail to act on a court order, and branded the sit-in not freedom of expression but "anti-state activity".

"Patients dying for want of access to hospitals, traders crying for lack of business activity, students are being deprived from their right to education and (the) right of free movement of almost six million people of (the) twin cities (is being) usurped," he said.

He also called on the country's powerful intelligence agencies to make clear that they were not involved, ordering the local Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) commander and the head of the Intelligence Bureau to appear in court on Monday.

Such agencies, particularly those run by the powerful military such as the ISI, have been accused of undermining civilian governments in the past in a country that has been ruled by generals for half its 70-year history.

The Islamabad High Court's scolding came one day after the Supreme Court also rejected the government's claim that using force on the protesters could result in injuries and deaths which would foment further unrest in the country.

The sentiment was "commendable", judges Mushir Alam and Qazi Faez Isa wrote in another order released to the public, "but it does not follow that protesters can only be removed by firing upon them".

The protesters could not be allowed to expose citizens to harm and death "as in the fatality of the child" any longer, they said.

Meanwhile Islamabad's local government issued a "final notice" to protesters and organisers to end their sit-in by midnight, after which "all resources would be used to disperse this illegal sit-in". It further warned that protesters and organisers would be responsible for the consequences of any action taken by authorities.

The protesters are demanding the resignation of federal law minister Zahid Hamid over a hastily-abandoned amendment to the oath that election candidates must swear.

Demonstrators have linked it to blasphemy -- a highly contentious issue in Muslim Pakistan -- and claim the oath was softened to enable the participation of Ahmadis, a long-persecuted Islamic minority sect.

Interior minister Ahsan Iqbal has insisted negotiations will continue.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri (C) arrives at Beirut International Airport after a nearly three-week absence dominated by his surprise resignation

His shock resignation and mysterious stay in Saudi Arabia had sparked fears of chaos but Prime Minister Saad Hariri's homecoming appears to signal a return to what Lebanon's political class does best: the status quo.

The past three weeks saw an unprecedented episode in Lebanon's rocky political history that started with the premier popping up on television from Saudi Arabia to announce his resignation.

He cited threats to his life, blamed Iran for the region's woes, and then he appeared again for a television interview days later with an exhausted and worried look that prompted rumours he was in fact being detained by the Saudis.

Some Lebanese residents started packing their bags, fearing yet another institutional crisis or, worse, a devaluation of the currency and even a return to armed civil strife.

When he returned late Tuesday, after what looked like an "exfiltration" by France, he hinted he was open to dialogue with Hezbollah and froze his resignation, with the blessing of the president, who is also a political rival.

The circumstances of his trip to Saudi Arabia and almost three-week absence remain a mystery but Lebanon's fractious leaders now seem to be busy with the familiar task of seeking an often sterile but reassuring consensus.

"We're back to one these wonky deals Lebanon knows so well, a compromise nobody is really happy with," said Paris-based analyst Karim Bitar.

Even the powerful Iranian-backed movement Hezbollah, whose military arsenal is central to the main rift in Lebanese politics, appeared pleased to have Hariri home and contemplate "a glimpse of a return to normalcy".

- 'Gaping vacuum' -

French-Lebanese analyst Ziad Majed said the leadership in Beirut was now engaged in "a damage control exercise".

Lebanon will find itself "in a state of waiting, on standby, to make sure things do not spiral out of control".

The Saudi-backed 47-year-old Hariri, a prime minister for the second time, had formed a coalition government late last year that includes Hezbollah, which answers directly to Tehran.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri (R), President Michel Aoun (C) and parliament speaker Nabih Berri attend a military parade to celebrate the 74th anniversary of Lebanon's independence in downtown Beirut

Such deals can be crippling for reform but afford the small country some level of protection from flare-ups between the various political patrons of its different factions.

"For now, the government is temporarily resuscitated. With its revival, the Lebanese people are getting back one gaping vacuum," the French-language Beirut daily L'Orient-Le Jour wrote in an editorial Friday.

Hariri was among Lebanon's leaders celebrating Independence Day on Wednesday and there are now few visible signs that the former French colony just experienced one of the most outlandish sequences in its recent history.

"Hariri has bought himself more time but none of the core issues are solved. In the coming months, he's going to be right in the crossfire," Bitar predicted.

"One the one hand, he will have to lead this government that includes Hezbollah, and on the other he can't stray too far from the line imposed by Saudi Arabia," he said.

- 'Weak consensus' -

A European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saudi Arabia probably realised they had gone too far by forcing Hariri to resign.

"The Saudis have no strategy in Lebanon, the way they handle things is dictated by their outbursts and their frustrations," the diplomat said. "Lebanon is the kingdom of weak consensus, something the Saudis hate.

"They want to contain Hezbollah but every time they try, they find themselves losing ground," he said.

It remains unclear what the terms of Hariri's return were but analysts said that while the issue of Hezbollah's arsenal would remain non-negotiable, the group's involvement in foreign conflicts could be on the table.

"Lebanon cannot bear the burden of Hezbollah's expansion," Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk said in an interview on Thursday, referring to the group's presence in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Hariri is resuming a tough balancing act but his recent emphasis on "disassociation" from regional power struggles and on giving priority to Lebanon sounds like wishful thinking, according to analysts.

"Without a real Saudi-Iranian modus vivendi, it's hard to see how Lebanon can be fully sheltered from regional turmoil," Bitar said.
Children head to the Great Mosque of Sale near the Moroccan capital to pray for rain

"We beg for God's mercy," said 10-year-old Hassan, wearing a long white tunic, as Moroccans across the parched country on Friday held prayers for rain under a royal decree.

The faithful gathered in Sale, opposite the capital Rabat, to take part in the ancient tradition.

"People pray to call for God's mercy and pardon. The Prophet (Mohammed) and his companions would pray for rain every time it became scarce," said Mohamed Boutarbouch, head of the ulema Muslim scholars of Sale who organised the event.

Hassan was one of the children who took part in a march to the coastal city's Great Mosque, as women watched from balconies on the route.

The ulema, preachers, officials and ordinary worshippers formed part of the procession held under a sunny sky.

"This prayer takes place when there is a shortage of rain and the worshippers of God need his clemency," said Badr Mohieddine from Morocco's ministry of Islamic affairs, wearing a red turban.

Like its Iberian neighbours to the north, Portugal and Spain, Morocco has suffered a severe shortage of rainfall since the end of the summer.

Moroccan university studies show that temperatures have risen by up to 4 degrees Celsius since the 1960s and annual rainfall has been on the decline.

The drought has hit cereal production this season and could force the country of 35 million inhabitants to resort to imports.

King Mohammed VI, in his official capacity as "commander of the faithful", called for prayers in all Moroccan mosques "to implore the Almighty to spread his benevolent rains on the earth", the ministry of Islamic affairs said.

Moroccans pray for rain in the Great Mosque of Sale near the capital Rabat

The weather has become a major topic of conversation across the country, 40 percent of whose population depend on agriculture for their livelihood and where the sector accounts for more than 15 percent of GDP.

"It's too early to speak of drought. But if there's no rainfall by mid-December, the situation will turn critical," an agriculture ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On top of the scarcity of rainfall, aquifers have been overexploited for agriculture.

According to local media, royal police aircraft plan to seed clouds with salt crystals in an effort to induce rainfall artificially.
Sufis perform a traditional dance in Cairo as they celebrate the birth of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed

The mosque where Friday's massacre unfolded in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula had been widely associated with Sufi Muslims who have been attacked by the Islamic State group wherever the extremists operate.

A Bedouin tribal leader told AFP the Rawda mosque, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish, was known as a Sufi mosque and contained a "zawiya" -- a lodge used by the mystics for prayers and gatherings.

IS is the main suspect in the attack but has not yet claimed responsibility, so it cannot be said with certainty that the mosque was targeted because of its Sufi connections.

But IS has targeted Sufis in Egypt in the past. Last year, the jihadists kidnapped and beheaded an elderly Sufi leader, accusing him of practising witchcraft.

The group's weekly Nabaa newsletter then published an interview with the commander of its "morality police" in Sinai who said their "first priority was to combat the manifestations of polytheism including Sufism".

Elsewhere IS has claimed attacks that have killed dozens of Sufis, most notably in Pakistan.

If the mosque was attacked because of its Sufi connections, the massacre would be in line with IS in Egypt increasingly focusing on civilian targets as it makes little headway in its Sinai insurgency.

Since December last year, it has killed more than 100 Christians in church bombings and shootings.

Jihadists such as IS bear an institutional hatred for Sufis in particular.

They adhere to a more extreme version of the puritan Salafism practised in Saudi Arabia which views Sufis as heretics.

They accuse them of polytheism -- the greatest sin in Islam -- for seeking the intercession of dead saints.

The Salafis also condemn what they call "innovations" -- rites and prayers adopted by Sufis which the Prophet Mohammed himself never prescribed.

But in much of the Muslim world, Sufism has for centuries been accepted and practised by mainstream Muslims and Sunni Islam's most important theologians.

The head of Al-Azhar, Egypt's top Islamic authority, is a Sufi, as are many top clerics in the Muslim world.

They date their practices back to some of the prophet's companions and the early generations of ascetics who shunned the increasingly worldly Islamic empire for prayer.

While some Sufis use music in their prayers, the more established and larger orders shun the practice.

They say they want to focus on achieving a state of purity -- from which the term Sufism is believed to have been derived -- to witness God's presence in their lives.

Some mystical concepts espoused by their religious leaders have led to detractors over the centuries accusing them of pantheism and other heresies.

In recent times, as the mystics grew more influential and Arab governments embraced them for being non-political, some of their leaders have been criticised for becoming too worldly themselves.
Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui announces the results of Algeria's local elections on November 24, 2017

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's ruling party and its allies won local polls in which less than half the electorate took part, official results showed Friday.

The National Liberation Front (FLN) was the victor in 603 out of 1,541 municipalities, 400 fewer than in the last polls in 2012, while the National Democratic Party (RDN) came out on top in 451 municipalities, an increase of 100.

Less than half of the 22-million-strong electorate took part in Thursday's vote for city councils and for 48 state legislatures, in which the FLN won 35 percent of seats and the RDN came second with a 26-percent share.

Dozens of political parties and four alliances competed for seats.

In a rare public outing, Bouteflika, who is expected to seek a fifth term in office in 2019, appeared in a wheelchair to cast his ballot paper at a polling station in Algiers.

Bouteflika, 80, who won a fourth term in 2014, has used a wheelchair for public appearances since suffering a stroke in 2013.

A parliamentary election in May was marred by a 35-percent turnout and voter apathy over what many see as broken government promises and a political system tainted by corruption.
A bomb explosion ripped through the the Rawda mosque, roughly 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish, before gunmen opened fire on November 24, 2017

The Gaza Strip's border crossing with Egypt that was due to reopen Saturday will remain closed until further notice following the bloody attack in neighbouring Sinai, an official told AFP.

Friday's bomb and gun assault on the Rawda mosque near North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish killed at least 235 people.

Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt had been due to reopen on Saturday for three days.

But the official in Gaza, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it will remain closed.

"The Egyptian side informed us that Rafah will not reopen on Saturday because of the tragic events in Northern Sinai," the official added.

The border reopened last Saturday for three days for the first time since the transfer of control of Gaza crossing points from the Islamist Hamas movement to the Palestinian Authority on November 1.

It had been closed since August, and the reopening allowed patients, students and stranded people to leave the Palestinian enclave.

Gaza has been subject to Israeli blockade for a decade, and for years to the almost permanent closure of its border with Egypt.

Hamas took power by force in June 2007 after a week of bloody clashes with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah.

The transfer of control of border crossings is a major test for a reconciliation deal reached in Cairo on October 12, after multiple previous attempts at Hamas-Fatah reconciliation over the past decade failed.
Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah (R) walks alongside Iraqi President Fuad Masum at a state visit to Kuwait City on November 20, 2017 during which the leaders agreed for Iraq to resume paying off the remaining balance of its reparations bill

Iraq is to resume paying war reparations to Kuwait at the start of 2018, in UN-endorsed compensation for Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of the emirate, the president's office announced Friday.

It said the two countries had agreed during a visit to Kuwait City by President Fuad Masum on Monday for Iraq "to resume payment of the five-percent tax on oil sales and to try to settle border disputes".

Iraq in October 2014 suspended payment of the tax imposed on its oil exports as war reparations by the UN Security Council at the height of an offensive by the Islamic State jihadist group that has now been rolled back.

The outstanding amount of $4.6 billion from a total reparations bill of $52.4 billion is to be paid by the end of 2021, the president's office said.

A US-led international coalition evicted Iraqi troops from Kuwait in February 1991 after a seven-month occupation.
Congolese opposition party Union for Democracy and Social Progress, whose headquarters are pictured in 2016, said its leader had been detained and two of its activists had been arrested by security forces

The main opposition party in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Friday its secretary general was prevented from leaving the country by authorities and two activists were "kidnapped".

Jean-Marc Kabund of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) told AFP he was detained Wednesday by immigration services at Ndjili airport in capital Kinshasa, where his passport was confiscated by the Director-General of Migrations (DGM) "without just cause".

Kabund was headed to Spain for a Socialist International meeting.

His passport was not affected by the country's ban on non-biometric passports implemented earlier this year, he said, adding that he will file a complaint against DGM on Monday.

The party also accused Congolese authorities of arresting two of its members, James Katshingu, a member of UDPS leader Felix Tshisekedi's private cabinet and Christian Lumu Lukuasa with the UDPS Youth League.

They were arrested by security forces in Kinshasa's Limete neighbourhood, where the UDPS headquarters is located, according to Tshisekedi spokesman Abraham Luakabuanga.

Luakabuanga said police had confirmed elements of a report by news site actualite.cd.

Contacted by AFP, Congolese authorities said they would comment on the case later Friday.

The UDPS is the main party of an opposition coalition calling for President Joseph Kabila to resign by the end of the year.

The vast African country has seen an outbreak of anti-government demonstrations since Kabila refused to step down in December 2016 on the expiry of his second and final term in office. Elections are now planned for December 2018.

Kabila took office after his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001 at the height of the Second Congo War.
A picture taken on November 23, 2017 shows smoke rising following a reported air strike on the rebel-held besieged town of Arbin, in the Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus

Syria's grinding war has killed over 340,000 people since it broke out in 2011, including more than 100,000 civilians, a monitor said on Friday.

The death toll increased as key international powers step up diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the brutal conflict, and just days before a fresh round of peace talks in Geneva.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP it has documented 343,511 deaths in Syria between the eruption of an anti-government uprising in mid-March 2011 and the start of this month.

Among them are 102,618 civilians, including nearly 19,000 children and 12,000 women.

More than 119,000 pro-government forces have been killed, including 62,000 Syrian troops, tens of thousands of loyalist militiamen, and 1,556 fighters from Lebanese movement Hezbollah, according to the estimate.

Another 59,000 fighters from rebel groups, Islamist factions, and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces were also killed.

Jihadist groups suffered the biggest blow, with the more than 62,200 deaths representing an increase of 4,000 since the Observatory published its last toll in July.

Overall during the past four months, nearly 12,000 people died across the country -- including 3,001 civilians.

A "de-escalation deal" agreed in May of this year has brought relative calm to some of Syria's bloodiest battlefields, but violence has ratched up elsewhere.

Russian-backed Syrian troops and US-backed militia waged parallel but separate offensives against the Islamic State group, including in two major cities: Raqa and Deir Ezzor.

"Although the de-escalation agreements brought a drop in civilian deaths, the fierce offensives against IS in other areas made it so that civilians were dying at the same pace," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

The Observatory relies on a network of sources across Syria that includes armed groups, government sources, medics, and activists.

The conflict broke out with peaceful protests against strongman President Bashar al-Assad, but his crackdown paved the way for a fully-fledged war.

A multitude of regional and foreign powers have since intervened in the maelstrom, which has destroyed much of the country's infrastructure and displaced millions.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, pictured on November 16, 2017, said he welcomed US president Donald Trump's statements that the US would stop supplying weapons to the YPG

President Donald Trump has informed Ankara that the US will no longer supply weapons to the Syrian Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday.

Trump delivered the message during what the Turkish presidency called a "productive" phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday.

"Mr Trump said he gave a clear order and that after this, weapons would not be supplied to the YPG, essentially he said this nonsense should have been ended earlier," Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference in Ankara.

The YPG is the Peoples' Protection Units Kurdish militia in Syria, which the US has seen as the most effective fighting force on the ground against the Islamic State extremist group.

"Naturally, we welcomed these statements," said Cavusoglu, adding: "Of course we want to see this put into practice."

There was no immediate comment from the US side regarding the content of the telephone call between the two leaders.

In recent months, the YPG has recaptured territory from the Islamic State jihadists, including the former de facto IS capital Raqa in northern Syria.

But Turkey views the YPG and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as "terror" groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Cavusoglu again repeated that Turkey saw the YPG as a "threat" trying to divide Syria.

The PKK -- blacklisted as a "terror" group by Turkey and its Western allies including the US -- has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.

Relations between the US and Turkey have been strained since the administration of former President Barack Obama over its support for the YPG and the failure to extradite Pennsylvania-based Fethullah Gulen blamed for ordering last year's coup bid.

Gulen strongly denies the charges.

Bilateral ties are at further risk of fraying over a scheduled trial in New York of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab and Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, both accused of defying US sanctions on Iran.

The trial is expected to start early next month but there are fears over possible fines against one or more Turkish banks in the event of a guilty verdict.
Egyptians gather outside the Rawda mosque, roughly 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish, following a gun and bombing attack, on November 24, 2017

The attack on a mosque in Egypt's restive North Sinai Friday was the country's deadliest in recent memory, with the state prosecutor's office saying at least 235 people were killed.

Here is a list of some of the biggest attacks in the country blamed on Islamists since the late 1990s.

- Tourists targeted -

- November 1997: 62 people, including 58 tourists, are killed in an attack on Hatshepsut temple in Luxor claimed by Islamist militant group Jamaa Islamiyya.

- October 2004: Israeli tourists are among 34 people killed in three bombings in the Sinai resorts of Taba and Nuweiba. More than 100 people wounded.

- July 2005: About 70 people are killed in three bombings in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Four groups claim the attacks, including one linked to Al-Qaeda.

- February 2014: Three South Korean tourists and their Egyptian driver are killed in a bombing in the Sinai.

- October 2015: A Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from the south Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh crashes, killing all 224 people on board. The Egyptian branch of the Islamic State group said it downed the aircraft with a bomb.

- Attacks on security forces -

Jihadists have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers in Egypt since the army's ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 and an ensuing brutal crackdown on his supporters.

- August 2013: Militants kill at least 25 policemen in the Sinai, the base of many armed Islamist groups.

- October 2014: A suicide car bombing by a suspected jihadist kills 30 soldiers.

- January 2015: 30 people, mostly soldiers, die in coordinated attacks in the North Sinai claimed by Egypt's wing of the Islamic State group.

- Attacks on religious minorities -

Since December 2016, a local affiliate of the Islamic State group has claimed attacks that have killed more than 100 Coptic Christians. The minority makes up about 10 percent of Egypt's 90 million people.

- In December 2016, a suicide bomber strikes at a church in Cairo, killing 29 Copts.

- In April 2017, two suicide bombings of churches kill 45 members of the minority.

- In May 2017, IS claims responsibility for shooting dead at least 29 Copts as they travel to a monastery.
STRASBOURG, France (AP) - Lawyers for Silvio Berlusconi and the Italian government sparred Wednesday in Europe's human rights court in an unusual, high-profile case that could help the 81-year-old tycoon's attempted political comeback.

Berlusconi, the three-time Italian premier, says Italy's government violated his rights by barring him from public office over a tax fraud conviction. He is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights - though he's determined to weigh in on Italy's upcoming electoral campaign regardless of what the court decides.

"I hope the court quickly takes up my appeal," Berlusconi told La Repubblica on Wednesday, when the Strasbourg, France-based court held its first hearing in the case. "But my role in the next campaign is clear: Independent of my ability to run, I will be campaigning for the center-right to lead the country."

Applicant representatives Edward Fitzgerald, left, Professor Bruno Nascimbene, center, and Professor Andrea Saccucci. attend the hearing at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, eastern France, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017. The court examines former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's appeal of a 2013 decree barring him from holding public office over a tax fraud conviction. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

Berlusconi, who has emerged from the political shadows in the run-up to the 2018 elections, has asked Italy's president to delay holding general elections until late spring in hopes that the court will make a decision in time to allow him to run on his Forza Italia ticket.

A court decision isn't expected for months.

His lawyer Edward Fitzgerald argued Wednesday that Italy violated Berlusconi's human rights in multiple ways, notably by means of a 2012 law preventing anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison from holding or running for public office for at least six years.

Berlusconi in 2013 was stripped of his Senate seat and barred from holding public office following a tax fraud conviction.

He challenged the ban first in Italy and then at the European court, arguing among other things that being stripped from office amounted to retroactive punishment, since the tax fraud case concerned crimes purportedly committed prior to 2012.

Fitzgerald said the ban was vague, politically driven and offered Berlusconi no legal recourse. He said it was designed by Berlusconi's rivals in the Senate to target the former premier.

"That was politics of the Roman amphitheater, in which the fate of the gladiator is determined by how many thumbs go up and how many thumbs go down," Fitzgerald told the court.

A lawyer for Italy's government, Maria Giuliana Civinini, insisted that the eligibility rules "were not introduced to persecute, and there was nothing personal about it."

He argued that contrary to claims by Berlusconi's team, Italian government has not violated any article of the European Convention on Human Rights

In the years that he has been out of office, Berlusconi has continued to run his Forza Italia party and wield political weight in the center-right, despite a long recovery from heart surgery.

The center-right coalition, which includes the anti-immigrant Northern League and a smaller like-minded party, currently leads the polls with about 33 percent of the vote, with the ruling Democratic Party and its center-left allies taking about 30 percent. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement has the most support of any single party, with about 28 percent, but has ruled out forming coalitions, which will likely hurt its aspirations of trying to win national office for the first time.

___

Winfield reported from Rome. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.
MILAN (AP) - Former AC Milan and Real Madrid striker Robinho was sentenced to nine years in jail by a court in Milan on charges of sexual assault following an incident in 2013, Italian news agency ANSA reported Thursday.

Currently playing for Atletico Mineiro in his native Brazil, Robinho's lawyer said in a statement that the 33-year-old Robinho denied the charges and will appeal the court's decision.

ANSA reported that five other men were also accused of sexually assaulting an Albanian woman and that another member of the group, Ricardo Falco, was also sentenced to nine years in jail. The other four men had not been found by Italian police, ANSA said.

FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2016, Robinho celebrates after scoring in a friendly soccer match between Friends of Neymar and Friends of Robinho, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Former AC Milan and Real Madrid striker Robinho was sentenced to nine years in jail by a court in Milan, Italy, on charges of sexual assault following an incident in 2013, Italian news agency ANSA reported Thursday Nov. 23, 2017, who also report a statement from Robinho's lawyer, that Robinho denies the charges and will appeal. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine, FILE)

Robinho's lawyer, Marisa Alija, issued a statement saying that "We clarify that he has already defended himself from these allegations, and insist he had no participation in that episode. All legal provisions are being taken on this first decision."

Brazil does not extradite its own citizens when they are sentenced in other countries.

Robinho began his career with Santos before leaving Brazil in 2005 for a three-year spell with Madrid. He then joined Manchester City in the English Premier League and moved to AC Milan in 2010, spending five years under contract with the Serie A club. After a brief stay at Chinese team, Guangzhou Evergrande, he joined Atletico Mineiro last year.

He has made 100 international appearances for Brazil.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawyers for former national security adviser Michael Flynn have told President Donald Trump's legal team that they are no longer communicating with them about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.

The decision could be a sign that Flynn is moving to cooperate with Mueller's investigation or negotiate a deal for himself. Flynn's legal team communicated the decision this week, said a person familiar with the move who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

In large criminal investigations, defense lawyers routinely share information with each other. But it can become unethical to continue such communication if one of the potential targets is looking to negotiate a deal with prosecutors. Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn, didn't respond to a request for comment Thursday. A lawyer for Flynn's son, Michael Flynn Jr., who has also come under investigation from Mueller's team of prosecutors, declined to comment.

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2017 file photo, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House, in Washington. A lawyer for former national security adviser Flynn has told President Donald Trump's legal team that they are no longer communicating with them about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference, according to a person familiar with the decision who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

The New York Times first reported the decision.

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February after White House officials concluded that he had misled them about the nature of his contacts during the transition period with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

He was interviewed by the FBI in January about his communications with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The deputy attorney general at the time, Sally Yates, soon advised White House officials that their public assertions that Flynn had not discussed sanctions with Kislyak were incorrect and that Flynn was therefore in a compromised position.

Flynn was facing a Justice Department investigation over his foreign business dealings even before Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to investigate potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mueller has since inherited that investigation.

Flynn, a prominent Trump backer on the campaign trail, has been a key figure in Mueller's probe and of particular interest to Trump. Former FBI Director James Comey, for instance, said that Trump encouraged him to end an FBI investigation into Flynn during a private Oval Office meeting in February.

In addition to scrutinizing Flynn's contacts with Russia during the transition and campaign, Mueller has been investigating the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general's role in $530,000 worth of lobbying work his now-defunct firm performed for a Turkish businessman during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

The lobbying campaign sought to gather derogatory information on Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric and green-card holder living in Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulen of being behind a botched coup and has sought his extradition. Gulen has denied the allegations, and U.S. officials have rebuffed Turkey's extradition demands, citing a lack of evidence.

Flynn and his firm, Flynn Intel Group, carried out the lobbying and research work for several months, meeting with officials from the U.S. and Turkish governments. Flynn also published an op-ed on Election Day in The Hill newspaper, parroting many of the Turkish government's talking points about Gulen. At the time, neither Flynn nor his company was registered with the Justice Department to represent Turkish interests.

Soon after the publication of the op-ed, the Justice Department began investigating Flynn's lobbying work, and in March, he registered with the department as a foreign agent. In federal filings, Flynn acknowledged the work could have benefited the government of Turkey.

Since then, FBI agents working for Mueller have been investigating whether the Turkish government was directing the lobbying work and not a private company owned by a Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, as Flynn's firm has contended. FBI agents have also been asking about Flynn's business partner, Bijan Kian, who served on Trump's presidential transition, and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who worked for his father as part of the lobbying campaign. Flynn Jr. also was a near constant presence around his father during the Trump campaign and presidential transition period.

Mueller announced his first charges in the investigation last month, including the guilty plea of a foreign-policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, and the indictments of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and business associate Rick Gates.

__

Associated Press writer Chad Day contributed to this report.
FAIRFIELD, Texas (AP) - A Texas state trooper was shot and killed during a traffic stop in East Texas on Thanksgiving.

The Texas Department of Public Safety released a statement on its Twitter account Thursday night identifying the trooper as Damon Allen, 41. DPS said Allen joined the department in 2002 and was married with three children.

The agency also said it will file capital murder charges against Dabrett Black, 32, of Lindale, Texas.

Allen was shot and killed before 4 p.m. Thursday during a traffic stop on Interstate 45 near Fairfield, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Dallas, according to DPS. The department said Allen was shot with a rifle and died at the scene. The suspect then fled.

Hours after the shooting, the Waller County Sheriff's Office said the suspect's vehicle was spotted in Hempstead, about 110 miles (177 kilometers) south of Fairfield. The sheriff's office said on its Facebook page that shots were fired, but did not indicate who opened fire.

Black was apprehended a short time later. The Department of Public Safety said he's being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

KYTX-TV reported in July that Black was charged with evading arrest, reckless driving and aggravated assault against a public servant following a police chase in Smith County.

Several Texas officials reacted to Allen's death. In a tweet, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz offered "prayers for the family and loved ones" of the trooper.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called Allen's shooting death a "heinous crime" in a statement Thursday. Abbott also expressed his "most sincere condolences" to the trooper's family.
COPPEROPOLIS, Calif. (AP) - The four young men had just started their marijuana harvest in rural Northern California when a dozen sheriff's deputies swooped in with guns drawn, arrested them and spent the day chopping down 150 bushy plants with machetes.

"I could do this every day if I had the personnel," Calaveras County Sheriff Rick DiBasilio said during the operation near the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Copperopolis, about two hours east of San Francisco.

Authorities this year have cut down close to 30,000 plants grown without permits in a county that is reconsidering its embrace of marijuana cultivation ahead of statewide legalization.

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, sheriff's deputies seize marijuana from a growing operation in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. Marijuana has deeply divided the Northern California county in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Growers illegal and legal have are increasingly open about their operations and starting to encroach on neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

"There are just so many of them," the sheriff said of the illegal farms. "It's never-ending."

Marijuana has deeply divided financially strapped Calaveras County, among many where growers are increasingly open about their operations and are starting to encroach on neighborhoods.

DiBasilio estimates the county - population 44,000 and about the size of Rhode Island - has more than 1,000 illegal farms in addition to the hundreds with permits or in the process of obtaining them. The influx has caused a backlash among residents and led to the ouster of some leaders who approved marijuana cultivation.

Pot farmers operating legally, meanwhile, say they are helping the local economy and have threatened to sue over attempts to stop them.

California is set to issue licenses in January to grow, transport and sell weed for recreational purposes, nearly 20 years after the state first authorized the drug's consumption with a doctor's recommendation.

Farmers can legally grow marijuana for recreational consumption next year but are required to get a local permit before applying for a state license, which has sparked a boom in pot-friendly counties.

Calaveras County legalized medical marijuana cultivation last year, seeking to tax the hundreds of farms that popped up in the region after a 2015 wildfire destroyed more than 500 homes.

County officials expected to receive about 250 applications by the 2016 deadline. They got 770. About 200 applications have been approved, a similar number rejected, and the others are still being processed.

The sheriff gets some of the nearly $10 million in fees and taxes paid by legal farmers to crack down on illegal grows, many of which the department has mapped from the air.

The new pot farms have brought a bustling industry that includes the sounds of generators, bright lights illuminating gardens at night, water trucks kicking up dust on their way to grows, the distinct odor of marijuana, and tents, trailers and other temporary housing for migrant workers.

Local hardware stores' gardening sections are now stocked with pot farming supplies.

Law enforcement officials say they have raided farms where they have found pesticides that are banned in the U.S.

"It has changed our way of life," said Bill McManus, head of an organization seeking to ban marijuana in Calaveras County. "The environmental impacts are atrocious."

To the north, even the fabled pot-growing mecca known as the Emerald Triangle has been thrown into political turmoil as more farmers set up shop ahead of legalization.

The California Growers Association estimates about 3,500 farmers in Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties have applied for local permits and will be in a position to receive state licenses. An additional 29,000 farmers there haven't bothered with the paperwork, according to the group.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman complained that local laws allowing cultivation are too "gentle" and attract violent crime, including a farmworker's recent homicide.

In Siskiyou County, leaders declared a state of emergency and called on Gov. Jerry Brown to help with an influx of marijuana farmers, who have snatched up inexpensive land even though pot cultivation is illegal there. Two growers were arrested and charged with offering Sheriff Jon Lopey $1 million to leave their farms alone.

"That's all you need to know about the type of money involved," Lopey said. "This isn't confined to the state. There's a big market outside of California they are supplying."

In Calaveras County, voters in January replaced four of the five supervisors who voted to legalize marijuana. The new majority has vowed to repeal legalization and institute a strict ban. But a formal vote has been delayed several times amid threats of lawsuits from farmers.

"So much of this is a cultural war," grower Beth Witke said. "I'm tired of being demoralized by the ban supporters."

Witke and other farmers argue they create good-paying jobs for young adults who otherwise would leave the county for the San Francisco Bay Area. She is among a handful of growers who operated quietly in Calaveras County for decades, attracted by the region's climate and proximity to the Bay Area.

But the devastating 2015 wildfire helped launch the county's green rush. The fire leveled subdivisions and wooded areas, turning them into attractive farmland. Former homeowners sold their flattened lots to outside growers armed with cash and betting the county would issue permits to grow.

Mark Bolger received the first permit. He said a ban would drive out him and his dozen workers.

"I'm trying to do the right thing," Bolger said. "But the first guy through the door always gets shot."

The sheriff said he's focused on farmers who have never applied for a permit or who grow despite a rejected application. This year, he has raided about 40 farms and seized close to 30,000 plants.

In late September, deputies raided two farms that share a waterline west of Copperopolis and removed more than 300 plants. Three of the four farmers arrested were new arrivals from Minnesota. All four tended to another plot deputies raided in August.

They were cited and released. One of them - Ryu Lee, 22, of Redding - told deputies taking him to jail that he would return regardless of whether a ban was enacted.

"I'll see you next year," Lee said.

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, a sheriff's deputy guards three men arrested for allegedly cultivating marijuana in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. Marijuana has deeply divided the financially strapped county and it is among many now grappling with a pot economy where growers have become increasingly open about their operations and have begun encroaching on residential neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, sheriff's deputies seize marijuana from a growing operation in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. Marijuana has deeply divided the financially strapped county and it is among many now grappling with a pot economy where growers have become increasingly open about their operations and have begun encroaching on residential neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, marijuana hangs on a line while drying at a growing operation in unincorporated Calaveras County. Marijuana has deeply divided the financially strapped county and it is among many now grappling with a pot economy where growers have become increasingly open about their operations and have begun encroaching on residential neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, empty beds for marijuana plants line a clearing after sheriff's deputies raided a growing operation in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. Marijuana has deeply divided the financially strapped county and it is among many now grappling with a pot economy where growers have become increasingly open about their operations and have begun encroaching on residential neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, sheriff's deputies seize marijuana from a growing operation in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. Marijuana has deeply divided the Northern California county in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Calaveras County Sheriff Rick DiBasilio says he has his hands full cracking down on thousands of illegal farms in a county that has legalized cultivation for medicinal use. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, a sheriff's deputy arrests a man for allegedly cultivating marijuana in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. Calaveras County Sheriff Rick DiBasilio says he has his hands full cracking down on thousands of illegal farms in a county that has legalized cultivation for medicinal use. Growers illegal and legal have are increasingly open about their operations and starting to encroach on neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, a man arrested for allegedly cultivating marijuana smokes a cigarette while awaiting transport to jail in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. Calaveras County Sheriff Rick DiBasilio says he has his hands full cracking down on thousands of illegal farms in a county that has legalized cultivation for medicinal use. Growers illegal and legal have are increasingly open about their operations and starting to encroach on neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, Calaveras County Sheriff Rick DiBasilio gestures while raiding a marijuana growing operation in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. DiBasilio says he has his hands full cracking down on thousands of illegal farms in a county that has legalized cultivation for medicinal use. Growers illegal and legal have are increasingly open about their operations and starting to encroach on neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, a sheriff's deputy arrests a man for allegedly cultivating marijuana in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. Calaveras County Sheriff Rick DiBasilio says he has his hands full cracking down on thousands of illegal farms in a county that has legalized cultivation for medicinal use. Growers illegal and legal have are increasingly open about their operations and starting to encroach on neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

In this Sept. 29, 2017 photo, a sheriff's deputy compacts marijuana seized during a raid in unincorporated Calaveras County, Calif. Growers illegal and legal have are increasingly open about their operations and starting to encroach on neighborhoods. The influx has caused a backlash among residents and led to the ouster of some county leaders who approved marijuana cultivation. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
STOCKHOLM (AP) - The organization behind the "Alternative Nobel" said on Friday that a 2017 prize winner from Azerbaijan would not be able to attend the Dec. 1 award ceremony in Stockholm because of a travel ban linked to a suspended sentence she is serving.

Azeri investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova claimed in a statement issued by the Right Livelihood Award that she is under the travel ban "because I criticize the government when it steals the people's money."

Lawyers Colin Gonsalves from India and Yetnebersh Nigussie of Ethiopia also were given the 2017 award for "their courageous work" in human rights, public health and good governance, and share a cash award of 3 million kronor ($374,000) with Ismayilova.

Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honors efforts that prize founder, Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.

Ismayilova, Azerbaijan's top investigative journalist, was convicted of tax evasion in 2015 in what was largely viewed as a payback for her work. She was released from prison six months later after a higher court commuted her 7 -year sentence and converted it into a suspended one. She is not legally allowed to travel outside the country while she is still serving the sentence.

Ismayilova petitioned the court several times after her release to be allowed to travel outside the country but all of her requests have been denied.
PARIS (AP) - A Paris court is set to rule Friday on whether to convict a 52-year-old man of attempted murder over shooting incidents at a newspaper and TV network four years ago.

Abdelhakim Dekhar is accused of gravely wounding an assistant photographer with a pump-action shotgun at the prominent left-wing daily Liberation, an attempted shooting at broadcaster BFM-TV and firing shots outside the headquarters of French bank Societe Generale.

He also is accused of a brief hostage-taking and car-hijacking during the rampage over several days in 2013, which prompted concern about attacks on the media.

Dekhar was found semi-conscious in a parking garage and arrested after a protracted manhunt, which gained nationwide attention as it played out on TV screens and social networks. Security was tightened at media offices after his shootings.

The prosecutor asked the court Friday to sentence Dekhar to 25 years in prison, according to French media reports, though the multiple attempted murder charges he faces could lead to life in prison.

During the trial he described anti-capitalist views, desperation and suicidal wishes, though no specific motive for his actions, according to French media reports.

After his arrest, authorities found an apparent suicide note and a confused letter criticizing media manipulation, capitalism and government neglect of public housing, and a vague reference to Syria. He claimed to investigators at one point that he worked for the French and Algerian secret services.

Authorities found no terrorism links in Dekhar's shootings, which came before the wave of Islamic extremist attacks that killed more than 200 people in France in 2015 and 2016.

Dekhar already served prison time for a high-profile robbery and deadly car chase in 1994. The so-called Rey-Maupin affair was part of an anarchist plot to sow chaos in Paris.
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Kosovo police on Friday arrested a top opposition leader and two other lawmakers accused of disrupting the work of the previous parliament with tear gas and violent acts.

Albin Kurti, Donika Kadaj Bujupi and Albulena Haxhiu of the left-wing Self-Determination Party were arrested while entering the parliament building.

Police used tear gas to disperse some opposition supporters trying to block their minivan that was taking Kurti.

Kosovo top opposition lawmaker Albin Kurti, center, is arrested by Kosovo police officers on his way to a parliamentary session on Friday, Nov. 24, 2017, in Kosovo capital Pristina. Kosovo police arrested top opposition leader Albin Kurti and two other lawmakers accused of disrupting the works of the previous parliament with tear gas and violent acts. (AP Photo)

Visar Ymeri, leader of the Self-Determination Party, denounced the "brutal arrest of the three lawmakers based on political orders" and considered it "continuation of the overall persecution of Self-Determination during recent times."

Since the signing of a border demarcation agreement with Montenegro in August 2015 the opposition has contested it, saying Kosovo is ceding territory - a claim denied by the previous government and international experts. The protesters disrupted parliamentary work, using tear gas canisters, blowing whistles and throwing water bottles.

Approval of the deal is a pre-condition for a visa-free regime for Kosovo citizens in the European Union's Schengen countries.

Political tension in the country remains high over who won mayoral election last month. It is not yet clear whether Self-Determination will keep the mayor's post in the capital Pristina or it will go to the other now-opposition Democratic League of Kosovo.

Another aching issue is a special court established to prosecute crimes committed during and immediately after Kosovo's 1998-1999 war with Serbia for independence. It is expected to issue indictments against former independence fighters.

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Associated Press writer Llazar Semini contributed from Tirana, Albania.

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Follow Semini on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lsemini

Opposition lawmakers try to prevent police officers from arresting Kosovo top opposition lawmaker Albin Kurti, center left, on his way to a parliamentary session on Friday, Nov. 24, 2017, in Kosovo capital Pristina. Kosovo police arrested top opposition leader Albin Kurti and two other lawmakers accused of disrupting the works of the previous parliament with tear gas and violent acts. (AP Photo)
LONDON (AP) - A major London bookmaker has suspended betting on whether Prince Harry will marry American actress Meghan Markle in 2018 amid rumors an engagement may be announced soon.

Jessica Bridge of Ladbrokes said Friday that it seems an engagement announcement "is to be confirmed imminently."

The bookmaker has stopped taking bets on a 2018 royal wedding after Markle was seen shopping in London this week.

The British press has reported that Markle has already met in private with Harry's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The couple has been dating for more than a year and Harry has asked the press to grant them a certain amount of privacy.

Markle is believed to be in the process of moving to London.

Palace officials say they will not comment on the rumors.
Militants attack Egyptian mosque, kill at least 235 people

CAIRO (AP) - In the deadliest-ever attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt, militants assaulted a crowded mosque Friday during prayers, blasting helpless worshippers with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades and blocking their escape routes. At least 235 people were killed before the assailants got away.

The attack in the troubled northern part of the Sinai Peninsula targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of a mystic movement within Islam. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State group, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith.

The startling bloodshed in the town of Bir al-Abd also wounded at least 109, according to the state news agency. It offered the latest sign that, despite more than three years of fighting in Sinai, the Egyptian government has failed to deter an IS-led insurgency.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi vowed that the attack "will not go unpunished" and that Egypt would persevere with its war on terrorism. But he did not specify what new steps might be taken.

The military and security forces have already been waging a tough campaign against militants in the towns, villages and desert mountains of Sinai, and Egypt has been in a state of emergency for months. Across the country, thousands have been arrested in a crackdown on suspected Islamists as well as against other dissenters and critics, raising concern about human rights violations.

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'We dare not squander the moment:' Zimbabwe's new leader

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabweans must set aside "poisoned" politics and work together to rebuild the nation and re-engage the world, new President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Friday, delivering an inclusive message to an exultant crowd that packed a stadium for his inauguration.

Mnangagwa, blamed for a number of the crackdowns and damaging policies of his mentor and predecessor, the ousted Robert Mugabe, also promised that "democratic" elections will be held on schedule in 2018 and that foreign investment will be safe in Zimbabwe, a message aimed at laying the groundwork for economic revival.

"We dare not squander the moment," Mnangagwa said in a speech whose sense of promise matched the joyful mood of a nation hungry for change after Mugabe's 37-year rule. The former leader resigned Tuesday after pressure from the military, former allies in the ruling party and massive street protests.

Helicopters and planes flew in formation, an artillery unit fired a 21-gun salute, honor guards with fixed bayonets high-stepped and Zimbabwean pop star Jah Prayzah had people dancing on a day celebrating a new stage in the nation's history. Such an occasion had seemed almost impossible to contemplate for many Zimbabweans as the years dragged on under the 93-year-old Mugabe, who took power after the end of white minority rule in 1980.

Mnangagwa, 75, was fired as vice president by Mugabe on Nov. 6 in a dispute over the growing presidential ambitions of Mugabe's unpopular wife, Grace. The former justice and defense minister, however, had been one of Mugabe's closest confidants, raising questions about just how much change and reconciliation there will be on his watch.

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US backtracks on decision to close Palestinian office in DC

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration backtracked Friday on its decision to order the Palestinians' office in Washington to close, instead saying it would merely impose limitations on the office that it expected would be lifted after 90 days.

Last week, U.S. officials said the Palestine Liberation Organization mission couldn't stay open because the Palestinians had violated a provision in U.S. law requiring the office to close if the Palestinians try to get the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israelis. The move triggered a major rift in U.S.-Palestinian relations that threatened to scuttle President Donald Trump's ambitious effort to broker Mideast peace before it ever got off the ground.

Yet the United States delayed shuttering the office for a week while saying it was working out the details with the Palestinians, before abruptly reversing course late Friday, as many Americans were enjoying a long Thanksgiving Day weekend. State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez said the U.S. had "advised the PLO Office to limit its activities to those related to achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between the Israelis and Palestinians."

Vasquez said even those restrictions will be lifted after 90 days if the U.S. determines the Israelis and Palestinians are engaged in serious peace talks. The White House, in an effort led by Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, has been preparing a comprehensive peace plan to present to both sides in the coming months.

"We therefore are optimistic that at the end of this 90-day period, the political process may be sufficiently advanced that the president will be in a position to allow the PLO office to resume full operations," Vasquez said.

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Pope's place as refugee champion tested in Myanmar

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis heads to Myanmar and Bangladesh with the international community excoriating Myanmar's crackdown on Rohingya Muslims as "ethnic cleansing" but his own church resisting the label and defending Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the only hope for democracy.

Francis will thus be walking a fraught diplomatic tightrope during the Nov. 27-Dec. 2 visit, which will include separate meetings with Suu Kyi, the powerful head of Myanmar's military as well as a small group of Rohingya once Francis arrives in neighboring Bangladesh.

Francis has defined his papacy by his frequent denunciations of injustices committed against refugees, and he would be expected to speak out strongly against the Rohingya plight. But he is also the guest of Myanmar's government and must look out for the well-being of his own tiny flock, a minority of just 659,000 Catholics in the majority Buddhist nation of 51 million.

"Let's just say it's very interesting diplomatically," Vatican spokesman Greg Burke responded when asked if Francis' 21st foreign trip would be his most difficult.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, an American Jesuit commentator, was more direct: "I have great admiration for the pope and his abilities, but someone should have talked him out of making this trip," Reese wrote recently on Religion News Service.

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Trump tells Turkey's leader: US to stop arming Syrian Kurds

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - The United States will cut off its supply of arms to Kurdish fighters in Syria, President Donald Trump told the Turkish president on Friday, in a move sure to please Turkey but further alienate Syrian Kurds who bore much of the fight against the Islamic State group.

In a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump said he'd "given clear instructions" that the Kurds will receive no more weapons - "and that this nonsense should have ended a long time ago," said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The White House confirmed the move in a cryptic statement about the phone call that said Trump had informed the Turk of "pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria."

The White House called the move "consistent with our previous policy" and noted the recent fall of Raqqa, once the Islamic State group's self-declared capital but recently liberated by a largely Kurdish force. The Trump administration announced in May it would start arming the Kurds in anticipation of the fight to retake Raqqa.

"We are progressing into a stabilization phase to ensure that ISIS cannot return," the White House said, using an acronym for the extremist group.

The move could help ease strained tensions between the U.S. and Turkey, two NATO allies that have been sharply at odds about how best to wage the fight against IS. Turkey considers the Kurdish Syrian fighters, known by the initials YPG, to be terrorists because of their affiliation to outlawed Kurdish rebels that have waged a three decade-long insurgency in Turkey. Yet the U.S. chose to partner with the YPG in Syria anyway, arguing that the battle-hardened Kurds were the most effective fighting force available.

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Retailers work to attract shoppers to stores on Black Friday

NEW YORK (AP) - Retailers worked hard to attract shoppers to stores on Black Friday, offering in-person deals meant to counter the ease of shopping by phone on Amazon.

A better economy and colder weather helped, to be sure. But stores have also tried to improve the store experience and offer better service. They've also made a big push toward offering store pickup for online orders, hoping to get people to pick up more items. But they're fighting a circumstance in which online leader Amazon is the first and only stop for many shoppers.

So they're getting creative with the deals.

Victor Moore said he arrived about two hours ahead of Best Buy's 8 a.m. opening in Nashville and scored one of the about 14 "doorbuster" deals on a 55-inch Toshiba smart TV for $280, a $220 savings. Moore said he's done some online shopping, but the allure of in-store-only deals drew him out from behind the computer.

"This is the first successful doorbuster that I've ever been a part of," Moore said. "I've been in lines before, but never actually got the items that I was waiting for."

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"Die Hard" for jihadists? IS recruits with heroic tales

WASHINGTON (AP) - Beyond the slick, Hollywood-style cinematics, the Islamic State is targeting Western recruits with videos suggesting they, too, can be heroes like Bruce Willis' character in "Die Hard."

That's the conclusion of The Chicago Project on Security and Threats, which analyzed some 1,400 videos released by IS between 2013 and 2016. Researchers who watched and catalogued them all said there is more to the recruitment effort than just sophisticated videography, and it's not necessarily all about Islam.

Instead, Robert Pape, who directs the security center, said the extremist group is targeting Westerners - especially recent Muslim converts - with videos that follow, nearly step-by-step, a screenwriter's standard blueprint for heroic storytelling.

"It's the heroic screenplay journey, the same thing that's in Wonder Woman, where you have someone who is learning his or her own powers through the course of their reluctant journey to be hero," Pape said.

The project at the University of Chicago separately has assembled a database of people who have been indicted in the United States for activities related to IS. Thirty-six percent were recent converts to Islam and did not come from established Muslim communities, according to the project. Eighty-three percent watched IS videos, the project said.

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Trump wants to end welfare as Bill Clinton knows it

WASHINGTON (AP) - Overhauling welfare was one of the defining goals of Bill Clinton's presidency, starting with a campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it," continuing with a bitter policy fight and producing change that remains hotly debated 20 years later.

Now, President Donald Trump wants to put his stamp on the welfare system, apparently in favor of a more restrictive policy. He says "people are taking advantage of the system."

Trump, who has been signaling interest in the issue for some time, said this past week that he wants to tackle the issue after the tax overhaul he is seeking by the end of the year. He said changes were "desperately needed in our country" and that his administration would soon offer plans.

For now, the president has not offered details. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said more specifics were likely early next year. But the groundwork has already begun at the White House and Trump has made his interest known to Republican lawmakers.

Paul Winfree, director of budget policy and deputy director of Trump's Domestic Policy Council, told a recent gathering at the conservative Heritage Foundation that he and another staffer had been charged with "working on a major welfare reform proposal." He said they have drafted an executive order on the topic that would outline administration principles and direct agencies to come up with recommendations.

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Texas woman accused of mailing bombs to Obama, Abbott

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - A woman accused of mailing potentially deadly homemade bombs to then-President Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in 2016 was arrested, in part, due to cat hair, a cigarette box and an almost-destroyed shipping label bearing her address.

Julia Poff, 46, mailed the devices in October 2016, along with a third package that she sent to the Social Security Administration, near Baltimore, according to an indictment. Of the three packages, only Abbott opened his. It did not detonate because "he did not open it as designed," court documents said.

A grand jury indicted her this month on six counts, including mailing injurious articles and transporting explosives with the intent to kill and injure, according to documents filed this week in district court in Houston.

Federal investigators said the improvised explosive device sent to Abbott contained a cellphone, a cigarette packet and a salad dressing cap, according to a court document from a Nov. 17 detention hearing. It says a similar device was sent to Obama and that "the same" device was sent to the Social Security Administration.

The device sent to Abbott came in a package still bearing an "obliterated shipping label" addressed to Poff, the court document said. The cigarette box used in the device bore a Texas tobacco stamp that identifies the store where the cigarettes were bought. Poff's bank card records showed a purchase of cigarettes at that store. The two incendiary powders in the box matched materials found in Poff's home, federal court documents showed.

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Man charged with killing Texas trooper who had stopped him

DALLAS (AP) - The suspect in the shooting death of a state trooper during a Thanksgiving Day traffic stop in East Texas was charged Friday with capital murder of a law enforcement officer.

Dabrett Black, 32, was being held in the Brazos County jail in Bryan, Texas, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Houston. He is accused of fatally shooting Trooper Damon Allen on Thursday.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said in social media posts late Thursday that Allen initiated a traffic stop shortly before 4 p.m. on Interstate 45 near Fairfield, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Dallas. DPS said Black shot Allen with a rifle after the trooper walked back to his vehicle.

Allen died at the scene, DPS officials said, adding that he had been with the department since 2002. An obituary posted Friday by the funeral home said Allen is survived by his wife Kasey, three daughters and a son.

DPS said Black, of Lindale, Texas, fled the scene in a car and was spotted about three hours later more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Fairfield, in Waller County. The Waller County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook that deputies were attempting to take Black into custody when shots were fired. It was not clear from the statement who opened fire.
BEIJING (AP) - China is temporarily closing its main road connection with North Korea, an official said Friday.

Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the China-North Korea Friendship Bridge across the Yalu River at the Chinese city of Dandong will be closed while North Korea repairs the approach road on its side.

Geng said that "after the maintenance, the bridge will reopen for passage," but gave no date for the reopening or other details.

The bridge closure comes after state-owned airline Air China suspended flights Tuesday between Beijing and North Korea due to a lack of demand, deepening the North's isolation amid mounting U.N. sanctions.

Beijing is North Korea's only significant ally but has grown increasingly frustrated over its nuclear and missile tests that have brought a threat of war and chaos to China's northeastern border.

In what was seen as a bid to improve relations, the head of the ruling Communist Party's International Department traveled to Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, last week.

Few details have been released about his itinerary, including whether he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The trip followed a visit to Beijing earlier this month by U.S. President Donald Trump, who renewed calls for China to step up pressure on North Korea to end its missile and nuclear programs.
CAIRO (AP) - In the deadliest-ever attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt, militants assaulted a crowded mosque Friday during prayers, blasting helpless worshippers with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades and blocking their escape routes. At least 235 people were killed before the assailants got away.

The attack in the troubled northern part of the Sinai Peninsula targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of a mystic movement within Islam. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State group, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith.

The startling bloodshed in the town of Bir al-Abd also wounded at least 109, according to the state news agency. It offered the latest sign that, despite more than three years of fighting in Sinai, the Egyptian government has failed to deter an IS-led insurgency.

Abdallah Abdel Nasser, 14, receives medical treatment at Suez Canal University hospital in Ismailia, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 24, 2017, after he was in injured during an attack on a mosque. Militants attacked a crowded mosque during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula, setting off explosives, spraying worshippers with gunfire and killing more than 200 people in the deadliest ever attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi vowed that the attack "will not go unpunished" and that Egypt would persevere with its war on terrorism. But he did not specify what new steps might be taken.

The military and security forces have already been waging a tough campaign against militants in the towns, villages and desert mountains of Sinai, and Egypt has been in a state of emergency for months. Across the country, thousands have been arrested in a crackdown on suspected Islamists as well as against other dissenters and critics, raising concern about human rights violations.

Seeking to spread the violence, militants over the past year have carried out deadly bombings on churches in the capital of Cairo and other cities, killing dozens of Christians. The IS affiliate is also believed to be behind the 2016 downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed 226 people.

Friday's assault was the first major militant attack on a Muslim congregation, and it eclipsed past attacks, even dating back to a previous Islamic militant insurgency in the 1990s.

The militants descended on the al-Rouda mosque in four off-road vehicles as hundreds worshipped inside. At least a dozen attackers charged in, opening fire randomly, the main cleric at the mosque, Sheikh Mohamed Abdel Fatah Zowraiq told The Associated Press by phone from a Nile Delta town where he was recuperating from bruises and scratches suffered in the attack.

He said there were explosions as well. Officials cited by the state news agency MENA said the attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades and shot men as they tried to run from the building. The militants blocked off escape routes with burning cars, three police officers on the scene told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Abdullah Abdel-Nasser, 14, who was attending prayers with his father, said the shooting began just as the cleric was about to start his sermon, sending panicked worshippers rushing to hide behind concrete columns or whatever shelter they could find. At one point, a militant shouted for children to leave, so Abdel-Nasser said he rushed out, though he was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel and a bullet.

"I saw many people on the floor, many dead. I don't think anyone survived," he said at a hospital in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, where around 40 of the wounded were taken, including many children.

Mohammed Ali said 18 members of his extended family were killed in the attack. The mosque belonged to a local clan, the Jreer, so many of its members worshipped there.

"Where was the army? It's only a few kilometers away. This is the question we cannot find an answer to," he said.

The attackers escaped, apparently before security forces could confront them.

Afterward, dozens of bloodied bodies wrapped in sheets were laid across the mosque floor, according to images circulating on social media. Relatives lined up outside a nearby hospital as ambulances raced back and forth. The state news agency MENA put the death toll at 235.

Resident Ashraf el-Hefny said many of the victims were workers at a nearby salt mine who had come for Friday services at the mosque.

"Local people brought the wounded to hospital on their own cars and trucks," he said by telephone.

No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack. But the IS group affiliate has targeted Sufis in the past. Last year, the militants beheaded a leading local Sufi religious figure, the blind sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz, and posted photos of the killing online.

Islamic State group propaganda often denounces Sufis. In the January edition of an IS online magazine, a figure purporting to be a high level official in the Sinai affiliate of the group vowed to target Sufis, accusing them of idolatry and heretical "innovation" in religion and warning that the group will "not permit (their) presence" in Sinai or Egypt.

Millions of Egyptians belong to Sufi orders, which hold sessions of chanting and poetry meant to draw the faithful closer to God. Sufis also hold shrines containing the tombs of holy men in particular reverence.

Islamic hardliners view such practices as improper, even heretical, and militants across the region often destroy Sufi shrines, saying they encourage idolatry because people pray to the figures buried there for intercession.

El-Sissi convened a high-level meeting of security officials as his office declared a three-day mourning period.

In a statement, he said the attack would only "add to our insistence" on combatting extremists. Addressing the nation later on television, he said Egypt is waging a battle against militancy on behalf of the rest of the world, a declaration he has often made in seeking international support for the fight.

President Donald Trump denounced what he called a "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers."

"The world cannot tolerate terrorism" he said on Twitter, "we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!" He later tweeted that he would call el-Sissi and said the attack showed the need to get "tougher and smarter," including by building the wall he has promised along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Islamic militants stepped up their campaign of violence in northern Sinai after the military ousted the elected but divisive Islamist Mohammed Morsi from power in 2013 and launched a fierce crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group.

The result has been a long, grinding conflict centered on el-Arish and nearby villages. The militants have been unable to control territory, but the military and security forces have also been unable to bring security, as the extremists continuously carry out attacks.

The attacks have largely focused on military and police, killing hundreds, although exact numbers are unclear as journalists and independent investigators are banned from the area. The militants have also assassinated individuals the group considers spies for the government or religious heretics.

Egypt has also faced attacks by militants in its Western Desert.

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Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Ismailia and Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish contributed to this report.

This photo released by Egypt's Presidency shows Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi, center, meeting with officials in Cairo after militants attacked a crowded mosque during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula. The attackers set off explosives, spraying worshippers with gunfire and killing at least 184 people in the deadliest ever attack on Egyptian civilians by Islamic extremists. (Egyptian Presidency via AP)

Head of the Egyptian Press Syndicate Diaa Rashwan, briefs the press on the militant attack that sprayed worshippers with gunfire and explosions and killing at least 235 people in the Sinai Peninsula, during a press conference, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 24, 2017. The attack targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of a mystic movement within Islam, in the north Sinai town of Bir al-Abd. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State group, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Mohamed Emam the Press Center General Director, left, speaks as Head of the Egyptian Press Syndicate Diaa Rashwan, right, prepares to brief the press on the militant attack that sprayed worshippers with gunfire and explosions and killing more than 200 people in the Sinai Peninsula, during a press conference, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Sheikh Sulieman Ghanem, 75, receives medical treatment at Suez Canal University hospital in Ismailia, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 24, 2017, after he was injured during an attack on a mosque. Militants attacked a crowded mosque during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula, setting off explosives, spraying worshippers with gunfire and killing more than 200 people in the deadliest ever attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
BERLIN (AP) - Workers at a half dozen Amazon distribution centers in Germany and one in Italy walked off the job Friday, in a protest timed to coincide with "Black Friday" to demand better wages from the American online giant.

In Germany, Ver.di union spokesman Thomas Voss said some 2,500 workers were on strike at Amazon facilities in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben and Koblenz. In a warehouse near Piacenza, in northern Italy, some workers walked off the job to demand "dignified salaries."

The German union has been leading a push since 2013 for higher pay for some 12,000 workers in Germany, arguing Amazon employees receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers and employees earn relatively high wages for that industry.

A participant of a demonstration raises his fist in front of the local site of the online retail company Amazon in Leipzig, Germany, Friday, Nov. 24 2017. A labor union says workers at a half dozen Amazon distribution centers in Germany have walked off the job, the latest in a string of walkouts in a long-running wage dispute with the American online retailer at one of its busiest times. (Sebastian Willnow/dpa via AP)

The strikes in Germany are expected to end Saturday.

Amazon Germany defended its position, saying it was a "fair and responsible employer" that offers "attractive jobs."

"The strikes will not affect us keeping our word to our customers, as the overwhelming majority of our workers are continuing their normal work," the company told The Associated Press.

The Italian action, a one-day strike, was hailed by one of the nation's umbrella union leaders, the UIL's Carmelo Barbagallo, as having "enormous symbolic value because it's clear that progress, innovation and modernity can't come at the expense and the interests of workers."

The chief of the CISL umbrella labor syndicate, Annamaria Furlan, called on Amazon to work with unions for "proper industrial relations, employment stability and dignified salaries."

The Italian strike at the facility near Piacenza was called for permanent workers. The unions advised workers who are on short-term, work-on-demand contracts to stay on the job, so they wouldn't risk losing future gigs.

Amazon says it has created 2,000 full-time jobs in Italy, where unemployment remains stubbornly high.

Amazon's head of personnel at the Piacenza-area center, Salvatore Iorio, told Italy's Sky TG24 TV on Friday that despite the strike, the facility was keeping "our commitment to serve our clients."

Asked about union complaints that workers there did repetitive physical tasks to the point of experiencing health problems, Iorio said the company "balances" positions at work areas to avoid any such problems.

_____

Frank Jordans in Berlin and Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed to this report.

Demonstrators hold a banner and posters during a rally against the online retailer Amazon in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 24, 2017. A labor union says workers at a half dozen Amazon distribution centers in Germany have walked off the job, the latest in a string of walkouts in a long-running wage dispute with the American online retailer at one of its busiest times. (Maurizio Gambarini/dpa via AP)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An Afghan airstrike killed a Taliban commander and five of his family members in the northeastern Kapisa province on Friday, an Afghan official said.

The strike was launched early morning in Nijrab district, killing Taliban commander Dilawar Khan and two women and three children from his family, said Qais Qaderi, a spokesman for the province's governor.

He said authorities were also searching for Khan's brother who apparently escaped during the strike.

He said Khan was firing shots at Afghan helicopters from his home before the airstrike.

Elsewhere, on Thursday, security forces in the Wardak province launched an operation to clear the Jalreiz district of Taliban, killing 24 Taliban, according to Abdul Rahman Mangal, a spokesman for the province's governor. He added that two Afghan security forces were killed in the operation and six others wounded.
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) - Four U.N. peacekeepers and a Malian soldier were killed and 21 others injured in two attacks on peacekeepers in Mali on Friday, U.N. officials said.

Suspected jihadists attacked peacekeepers carrying out on an operation with Malian defense forces in Indelimane, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) west of Menaka near the border with Niger, on Friday morning, the officials said.

Later Friday, unknown assailants carried out an attack against a U.N. convoy north of Douentza in the Mopti region, the officials said.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned "the outrageous attacks" and warned that targeting U.N. peacekeepers may constitute war crimes and lead to sanctions, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The U.N. mission in Mali and U.N. officials in New York said peacekeepers repelled the Friday morning attack in Indelimane but three peacekeepers from Niger and one Malian soldier were killed, and about 17 soldiers and one civilian working for the U.N. were injured.

The U.N. mission reported that at least three assailants were also killed.

The mission in Mali evacuated the injured and dispatched a quick reaction force supported by attack helicopters to Indelimane to reinforce the peacekeepers on the ground, the U.N. said.

In the second attack near Douentza, the U.N. mission said peacekeepers engaged the assailants in heavy fighting that involved rocket launchers.

One peacekeeper was killed and three others were seriously injured, the mission said.

A 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow Mali's president of a decade. The power vacuum that was created ultimately led to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013. But insurgents remain active in the region.

The U.N. Security Council condemned the first attack in Indelimane in the strongest terms and called on Mali's government to swiftly investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. Council members also underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes, and any involvement could lead to U.N. sanctions.

The council expressed concern at the security situation in Mali and the broader Sahel region and urged Malian parties to fully implement a 2015 peace agreement "without further delay."

Members said actions by the 5,000-strong force being formed by five Sahel nations - Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad - to fight terrorist and criminal groups will contribute to "a more secure environment" in the region.

The more than 11,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali has become the most dangerous in the world for soldiers as Islamic militants routinely attack U.N. peacekeepers and convoys across the north.

As of October, there had been 146 fatalities since the mission was established in 2013, according to U.N. peacekeeping data.
Hunting guide Mike Clark normally has more than 20 clients lined up each fall for trips deep into Wyoming's western wilderness to shoot mule deer, prized by hunters for their size and impressive antlers.

But unusually cold weather and heavy snowfall that blanketed much of the Western U.S. last winter killed off many young deer.

And that prompted wildlife officials throughout the Rocky Mountain states to take measures such as reducing the number of hunting permits to try to help devastated wildlife populations rebound.

Elk feed at the Wenaha Wildlife Area near Troy, Ore. Wildlife managers in some western states cut back hunting this fall in areas where big game herds suffered above-normal losses during the 2016-17 winter.

WHERE IS HIT? The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission reduced the number of deer permits for out-of-state residents from 600 to 400, cut the hunting season to 22 days and limited hunters to killing older bucks. Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington state also imposed hunting limits to help isolated wildlife herds recover from the winter. Advertisement

Clark took only six mule deer hunters out in September and October who were lucky enough to get permits.

He estimated that he lost 40 percent of his income as a result. If it wasn't for the hunters he was guiding this year to shoot elk that generally survived the brutal winter, Clark said, 'We'd pretty much be selling out.'

In one remote part of Wyoming's backcountry where peaks soar to 11,000 feet (3,300 meters), state wildlife managers documented the loss of all fawns they had been monitoring in a mule deer herd.

To help the herd recover, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission reduced the number of deer permits for out-of-state residents from 600 to 400 in the area where Clark operates, cut the hunting season to 22 days and limited hunters to killing older bucks.

Officials won't know how effective their efforts will be until hunting season ends in January and hunters submit reports saying how many deer they killed.

Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington state also imposed hunting limits to help isolated wildlife herds recover from the winter. Deer were hit hardest in most of those states, while Washington had severe losses among several of its elk herds.

In southern and central Idaho, last winter's fawn survival rate was just 30 percent, prompting a reduction in deer hunting permits to help herds boost their numbers, said Mike Keckler, spokesman for the Idaho Fish and Game Department.

'We're trying to bring them back up,' he said.

And in Washington, the number of elk hunting permits was cut drastically in some parts of the state where elk died in droves, said Brock Hoenes, statewide elk specialist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

FILE - In this Jan. 18, 2017, file photo provided by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, elk feed at the Wenaha Wildlife Area near Troy, Ore. Wildlife managers in some western states cut back hunting this fall in areas where big game herds suffered above-normal losses during the 2016-17 winter. (Keith Kohl/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File)

The area of Wyoming where Clark takes hunters is known as one of the best places in the world to hunt mule deer, state Game and Fish spokesman Renny MacKay said.

He added that the decision to limit permits was difficult for state officials to make.

Clark said his business will survive the downturn but that his future guiding hunters is uncertain if wildlife managers reduce the number of mule deer hunting permits for nonresidents again next year.

'Otherwise, none of us are going to have any deer hunters,' he said.
NEW YORK (AP) - Uma Thurman has wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving - everyone except disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

In a cryptic Instagram post Thursday , the actress wishes her followers a happy Thanksgiving but adds, "except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators." She says she's "glad it's going slowly - you don't deserve a bullet."

Dozens of actresses have alleged Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them, including Rose McGowan and Asia Argento. But Thurman has said she's waiting to speak when she's less angry.

FILE - In this June 11, 2017 file photo, Uma Thurman arrives at the 71st annual Tony Awards in New York. Thurman wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving except disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, saying in a cryptic online post that he doesn't "deserve a bullet." Thurman starred in the Weinstein-produced films "Pulp Fiction" and the "Kill Bill" films. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

She plays an assassin in the Weinstein-produced "Kill Bill." She also starred in "Pulp Fiction," another of his films.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Low oil prices and a volatile market are prompting a South African energy and chemical company to drop plans for an $11 billion to $14 billion U.S. plant to convert natural gas to liquid fuels and to pull out of Canadian shale.

"Sasol will not invest in further greenfields gas-to-liquids projects," the company said Thursday in a news release posted on its website. Its current GTL plants "are generating good returns and cash flows," but new projects aren't worth it in the current market, the statement said.

The company had announced in January that it was delaying final investment plans for the plant near Lake Charles because of a collapse in world oil prices.

"I hate to see ... that the gas to liquids project is not being able to happen," but it's a minor setback in $100 billion in development across southwest Louisiana, said Calcasieu Parish Police Juror Hal McMillin. He said that includes an $11.1 billion ethane cracker being built by Sasol, which has an ethylene plant, an alumina plant and an alcohol plant operating in the area.

The ethane cracker will turn a component of natural gas into ethylene, used in the chemical industry. State officials have said it is expected to create 500 permanent jobs, with construction jobs peaking at 5,000.

"Sasol is still doing a number of great things in southwest Louisiana," said McMillin, who worked for 23 years at a plant originally owned by Conoco, then by Vista, and now by Sasol.

The company has more than doubled its permanent workforce in Louisiana, from 450 to nearly 1,000 jobs averaging $80,000 a year, Don Pierson, secretary of Louisiana Economic Development, said in an emailed statement.

"Through Sasol-sponsored training, more than 1,500 entrepreneurs have been trained and counseled about small business opportunities to work with the new complex of seven chemical plants that will begin coming online in the second half of 2018. That small business effort has helped generate some $7.6 million in new capital invested by local entrepreneurs, along with 43 new business startups, creating 163 new small business jobs," he wrote.

Sasol said it will sell its shale assets in Canada's Montney Basin because a review of more than half its global assets found Canadian shale gas to be "non-core."

"The majority of the company's assets will be retained and clear improvement actions have been defined for each," it said.
CHICAGO (AP) - More than 2,000 students got into the hottest show in Chicago for free - "Hamilton: An American Musical " - as part of their acceptance to Northwestern University.

It's one of the ways colleges and high schools are using the hugely popular musical to teach students about history, art, drama, culture, and even politics. There's even a high school program coordinated through the show that has allowed nearly 49,000 students in four cities to see the show for free or reduced admission.

"It's one thing to learn about these kind of events in a classroom but to go and see this in a production it's different, and it's just amazing," said Northwestern freshman Alex Richards after seeing the smash hit musical.

In this photo taken Oct. 4, 2017, Alex Richards takes a photo of Meera Ganesh outside the CIBC Theatre after watching "Hamilton: An American Musical" in Chicago. They were among the approximately 2,000 first year students at Northwestern University who got to see the show for free as part of the school's "One Book One Northwestern" program. It's one of the ways colleges are using the hugely popular musical to teach students about history, art, critical thinking, performance, culture, and even politics. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)

First-year Northwestern students went to two matinees at CIBC Theatre in October on 48 buses as part of the One Book One Northwestern program, which includes a series of discussions, speakers and other events around the theme of a book. This year it was Danielle Allen's "Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality."

Nancy Cunniff, director for One Book One Northwestern, says the program gives students a common discussion point when they get to campus as well as a different perspective on a subject.

"Our approach has been to find different access points," Cunniff said. "So maybe history is not your thing but you like musicals and then you go and see this musical and then maybe history isn't so bad."

The university also started a class last year called "Hamilton's America," a lecture course cross-listed in history and Latino studies. Last year they taught 135 students and this year they plan to raise the cap to 180, expecting interest to increase after the One Book program, said Geraldo Cadava, an associate professor who helps lead the class.

Milwaukee's Marquette University is offering an honors, pass-fail course this semester for freshman called "Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton," after the musical's creator. And it's overfilled by almost double at 14 people. Assistant English Professor Gerry Canavan uses the soundtrack, videos and lyrics as well as the Ron Chernow biography of Alexander Hamilton, which Miranda used as inspiration for the play.

"To me it's a really interesting way to teach the skills of criticism and interpretation and careful reading because you are looking at something that you haven't necessarily been trained how to read in the same way you've been trained to read great literature," Canavan said.

Ithaca College, Duke University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison are among the other schools that have credit or noncredit courses or touch on the show in other music or history classes.

Educators are also targeting high school students. There's a program coordinated through the show and donors that uses donations to allow mostly 10th and 11th graders to see "Hamilton" for free or reduced admission. Some students also write dramatic scenes, poems or songs drawing on the founding era time period to present on stage before a performance.

Since 2015, nearly 49,000 students have gone in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. It has started to expand to San Diego, Tempe, Ariz., Seattle, Denver, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Houston and Washington D.C. and the idea is to send at least 100,000 students to the show by next summer.

"Our goal is to ensure that students have a shot to see 'Hamilton' and use its words, music and staging to further their understanding and enjoyment of American History, music and drama," ''Hamilton" producer Jeffrey Seller said about the program in a press release.

In this photo taken Friday, Oct. 27, 2017 the Ron Chernow biography of Alexander Hamilton that inspired the musical, "Hamilton" appears on the table as students at Marquette University in Milwaukee discuss the songs of the show as part of "Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton," program for freshman honors students. It's one of the ways colleges are using the hugely popular musical to teach students about history, art, critical thinking, performance, culture, and even politics. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)
NEW YORK (AP) - Ivanka Trump is condemning recent tabloid coverage of President Barack Obama's eldest daughter Malia, saying the college student deserves privacy and ought to be "OFF limits."

The president's daughter tweets: "Malia Obama should be allowed the same privacy as her school aged peers. She is a young adult and private citizen, and should be OFF limits."

The former first daughter is a first-year student at Harvard University. Malia Obama took a gap year after graduating high school in 2016, in what the Obamas said was an effort to start college without the distraction of her father in the White House.

The informal society of presidential children has historically been protective of its youngest members, without regard for political party.
An American diplomat was shot in the foot during an attempted robbery while traveling outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian police said Friday.

Stephanie Bohlen, a vice consul, and a man identified as her partner were attacked after stopping at the side of the road while driving Thursday night on a coastal highway in Angra dos Reis, federal highway police said. The man was not hit.

Bohlen was brought to a nearby hospital and then transferred to a hospital in Rio for surgery, according to civil police.

Stephanie Bohlen, a vice consul pictured here, was shot in the foot during an attempted robbery while traveling outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian police said Friday

The U.S. Consulate in Rio confirmed in a statement that a consulate official had sustained injuries that were not life-threatening 'in an incident involving gunfire'. It provided no further details.

The diplomat and her partner had pulled over on the side of coastal highway BR-101, when they were approached by unidentified individuals,O Globo reported.

The attackers then fired two shots at their vehicle, with one of them hitting the diplomats foot.

Pictured here is the car Stephanie Bohlen and a man identified as her partner were driving

The violence in Rio has escalated over the past few months, forcing President Michel Temer to deploy thousands of army soldiers to help patrol the slums of its capital.

Earlier this year, a British tourist was shot and wounded in Angra dos Reis, when she strayed into a rough neighborhood.

The popular vacation destination is about 90 miles (150 kilometers) from Rio.

Stephanie Bohlen (above) and a man identified as her partner were attacked while driving Thursday night on a coastal road in Angra dos Reis, federal highway police said
WASHINGTON (AP) - Beyond the slick, Hollywood-style cinematics, the Islamic State is targeting Western recruits with videos suggesting they, too, can be heroes like Bruce Willis' character in "Die Hard."

That's the conclusion of The Chicago Project on Security and Threats, which analyzed some 1,400 videos released by IS between 2013 and 2016. Researchers who watched and catalogued them all said there is more to the recruitment effort than just sophisticated videography, and it's not necessarily all about Islam.

Instead, Robert Pape, who directs the security center, said the extremist group is targeting Westerners - especially recent Muslim converts - with videos that follow, nearly step-by-step, a screenwriter's standard blueprint for heroic storytelling.

FILE - This image made from video posted on a militant website July 5, 2014, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq during his first public appearance. The Islamic State is targeting Western recruits with videos suggesting they too can be a hero like Bruce Willis' character in "Die Hard."(Militant video via AP, File)

"It's the heroic screenplay journey, the same thing that's in Wonder Woman, where you have someone who is learning his or her own powers through the course of their reluctant journey to be hero," Pape said.

The project at the University of Chicago separately has assembled a database of people who have been indicted in the United States for activities related to IS. Thirty-six percent were recent converts to Islam and did not come from established Muslim communities, according to the project. Eighty-three percent watched IS videos, the project said.

The group's success in using heroic storytelling is prompting copycats, Pape said. The research shows al-Qaida's Syria affiliate has been mimicking IS' heroic narrative approach in its own recruitment films. "We have a pattern that's emerging," Pape said.

Intelligence and law enforcement officials aren't sure the approach is all that new. They say IS has been using any method that works to recruit Westerners. Other terrorism researchers think IS' message is still firmly rooted in religious extremism.

Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks messaging by militant groups, agrees that IS makes strong, visual appeals resembling Hollywood movies and video games, making its media operation more successful than al-Qaida's. And IS videos can attract hero wannabes, she said.

"However, these features of IS media are only assets to a core message it uses to recruit," Katz said. "At the foundation of IS recruitment propaganda is not so much the promise to be a Hollywood-esque hero, but a religious hero. There is a big difference between the two."

When a fighter sits in front of a camera and calls for attacks, Katz said, he will likely frame it as revenge for Muslims killed or oppressed somewhere in the world. The message is designed to depict any terror attack in that nation as justified and allow the attacker to die as a martyr, she said.

The promise of religious martyrdom is powerful to anybody regardless of whether they are rich or poor, happy or unhappy, steeped in religion or not at all, she said.

Pape said he knows he's challenging conventional wisdom when he says Westerners are being coaxed to join IS ranks not because of religious beliefs, but because of the group's message of personal empowerment and Western concepts of individualism.

How else can one explain Western attackers' loose connections to Islam, or their scarce knowledge of IS's strict, conservative Sharia law, he asked. IS is embracing, not rejecting, Western culture and ideals, to mobilize Americans, he said.

"This is a journey like Clint Eastwood," Pape said, recalling Eastwood's 1970s performance in "High Plains Drifter" about a stranger who doles out justice in a corrupt mining town. "When Clint Eastwood goes in to save the town, he's not doing it because he loves them. He even has contempt for the people he's saving. He's saving it because he's superior," Pape said.

"That's Bruce Willis in 'Die Hard.' That's Wonder Woman. ... Hollywood has figured out that's what puts hundreds of millions in theater seats," Pape said. "IS has figured out that's how to get Westerners."

Pape said the narrative in the recruitment videos targeting westerners closely tracks Chris Vogler's 12-step guide titled "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers." The book is based on a narrative identified by scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama and other storytelling.

Step No. 1 in Vogler's guide is portraying a character in his "ordinary world."

An example is a March 25, 2016, video released by al-Qaida's Syria branch about a young British man with roots in the Indian community. It starts: "Let us tell you the story of a real man... Abu Basir, as we knew him, came from central London. He was a graduate of law and a teacher by profession."

Vogler's ninth step is about how the hero survives death, emerging from battle to begin a transformation, sometimes with a prize.

In the al-Qaida video, the Brit runs through sniper fire in battle. He then lays down his weapon and picks up a pen to start his new vocation blogging and posting Twitter messages for the cause.

Matthew Levitt, a terrorism expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says it doesn't surprise him that IS would capitalize on what he dubs the "zero to hero" strategy because the organization is very pragmatic and accepts recruits regardless of their commitment to Islamic extremism.

Heroic aspirations are only one reason for joining the ranks of IS, he said. Criminals also seek the cover of IS to commit crimes. Others sign up because they want to belong to something.

"I've never seen a case of radicalization that was 100 percent one way or the other," Levitt said.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Assailants kidnapped an official of the human rights office of the western Mexico state of Jalisco Friday, the second attack on rights workers in less than a week.

The country's National Human Rights Commission called on authorities to locate the official, whom the commission did not name.

Local news media said gunmen stopped the official as he was driving to the offices of the state rights commission and apparently abducted him.

On Monday, gunmen in Baja California Sur state shot to death the head of that state's human rights commission, Silvestre de la Toba Camacho and his son as they were driving.

The head of the federal commission, Luis Gonzalez Perez, said this week that the heads of three of the country's 31 state commissions had received threats. But no commission head had ever been assassinated before Monday.

"Of course we are worried, as any human being would be," Gonzalez Perez said of the attacks.

It is not clear who is behind any of the attacks or threats. The commissions have the power to issue non-binding recommendations about abuses by public servants, including police, prison guards and others.

Each state in Mexico has a governmental rights commission, and there is also one in Mexico City and one on the federal level.

Civilian rights activists have borne the brunt of the attacks; since 2006, 34 activists have been killed. Many of them had been active in efforts to locate people "disappeared" by crime gangs.
MINSK, Belarus (AP) - A senior separatist official in eastern Ukraine on Friday announced the resignation of the beleaguered rebel chief in an apparent palace coup, ending a four-day showdown between rivaling factions.

Leonid Pasechnik, state security minister of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, said in a statement on Friday evening that the republic's chief Igor Plotnitsky has resigned on health grounds. Pasechnik said he would be the acting chief until an election is called.

More than 10,000 people have been killed and a million displaced in a long-simmering conflict between government troops and Russia-backed separatists in Luhansk and in parts of the neighboring Donetsk region since 2014. The region has been plagued with infighting between various armed groups and warlords. Political and military leaders in Luhansk have been unseated and died in suspicious circumstances.

FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 5, 2014 file photo, Igor Plotnitsky, the leader of pro-Russian rebels in the Luhansk region, speaks to the media after talks on cease-fire in Ukraine in Minsk, Belarus. Plotnitsky, the Kremlin-installed leader of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, resigned Friday, Nov. 24, 2017, "due to health reasons", the Luhansk separatists' so-called State Security Minister Leonid Pasechnik said. (AP Photo, file)

Pressure mounted on Plotnitsky earlier this week after he fired Interior Minister Igor Kornet. The influential minister refused to resign and enlisted help from the separatists in the neighboring Donetsk region to deny Plotnitsky's order. Dozens of armed people loyal to Kornet blocked the access to the main administrative buildings in the regional capital, Luhansk, on Tuesday. A convoy of armed vehicles entered the city in the middle of the night in a show of support.

Plotnitsky in a video message on Wednesday accused Kornet of trying to unseat him while the minister himself lashed out at Plotnitsky, suggesting in a televised statement that "the republic's leadership" is under the influence of Ukrainian spies.

Plotnitsky came to power in August 2014 after he unseated a warlord who later fled to Russia.

There was no immediate statement from Plotnitsky who has not appeared in public since Wednesday. The 53-year old former Ukrainian bureaucrat was spotted arriving at a Russian airport on Thursday with a carry-on bag.

Several high-profile commanders have been killed in the Luhansk region in suspicious circumstances in recent years in what was widely viewed as power struggle. While the unruly commanders were dying in car bombings, the leadership of the rebel-controlled parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions came to be dominated by bureaucrats with ties to ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

The rebels originally sought to join Russia but the Kremlin stopped short of annexing the area or publicizing its military support for the rebels. It is widely assumed that Moscow provides the rebels with weapons and funding.

Fighting has intensified in the Luhansk region this week. The press office of the Ukrainian armed forces said on Friday that at least five Ukrainian troops had been killed there in the past 24 hours in what it called the biggest loss of life since July.

The European Union on Friday blamed Russia for the deaths, calling it "just the latest proof of the tragic consequences of Russia's aggression in Ukraine."

"The EU condemns Russia's aggression and will never recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea," EU Council President Donald Tusk said after a summit with six eastern European nations, including Ukraine.

____

Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.

In this OSCE monitoring mission photo taken Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017, in Ukraine's eastern city of Luhansk, APCs and armed men drive in the city center. Dozens of armed people in combat fatigues have deployed Wednesday, Nov. 22, to main administrative buildings in Luhansk, a major city in rebel-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine, in a sign of a split in the rebel leadership. (OSCE SMM via AP)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A homeless man found sleeping in a Kansas storage unit with his children and his dismembered wife's remains is now suspected of killing a California man who vanished last year.

Justin Tod Rey, 35, was charged Wednesday in the death of Sean Ty Ferel, a Palm Springs resident who disappeared after going on vacation with Rey in 2016. Ferel's body hasn't been found, but his blood was eventually detected in the trunk of his vehicle after Rey was involved in an accident with it three months later.

Rey is currently jailed on $1 million bond in Kansas' Johnson County on child endangerment charges. He's also charged with abandonment of corpse in Missouri, where his wife died at a hotel. Investigators allege Rey took photographs with his wife's body and children, then dismembered the body two days later in a hotel bathtub.

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2017 file photo, Justin Rey appears in Johnson County District Court in Olathe, Kan. Rey, who was arrested after sleeping in a Kansas storage unit with his two children and his dismembered wife's remains has been charged in a California killing. Rey was charged Wednesday, Nov. 22 with murder in the death of Sean Ty Ferel. The Palm Springs, Calif., man disappeared in May 2016 after vacationing with Rey. (Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star via AP, Pool File)

A judge in California's Riverside County also set Rey's bail at $1 million. Palm Springs police issued a statement saying they and county prosecutors were working with Kansas authorities on possibly extraditing Rey to face charges in the California case.

Investigators said that after Ferel went on vacation in May 2016, his friends noticed changes in responses to texts and suspected the messages were coming from someone else. That August, Rey had an accident with Ferel's vehicle in Los Angeles, but it wasn't until months later that blood found in the trunk was determined to be Ferel's.

Palm Springs police said Rey had Ferel's cellphone, and that Ferel's wallet, credit cards, letters, medication and other possessions were found in a storage unit Rey rented in Kingman, Arizona. Surveillance footage also showed Rey using Ferel's credit card, including once while wearing a disguise that was found in the crashed vehicle, according to a statement from police.

Rey hasn't been charged with killing his wife, Jessica Monteiro Rey. Missouri and Kansas court records don't say how she died, and Rey provided conflicting information: He said his wife killed herself after giving birth on Oct. 20 at a hotel, but also said she died during childbirth, according to a probable cause statement.

Rey placed some of her body parts in a large cooler, used a stove to boil parts that wouldn't fit in the cooler, and flushed some of the remains down a toilet at a hotel in a Kansas City police detective wrote in the probable cause statement.

Hotel management said Rey tried to disguise his voice as a woman's when he called the front desk to check out on Oct. 23, the statement says. Surveillance video footage showed him pulling a red cooler with a black bag on top of it through the hotel, while pushing a stroller with a toddler walking beside him.

Police found the remains the next day inside a U-Haul Moving and Storage facility in nearby Lenexa, Kansas, after Rey slept there with the children.

When asked about his wife's whereabouts, he responded that she had died several days earlier and was in the cooler and a tote, which he had been trying to remove from the storage unit, according to Kansas court records.

During a court appearance earlier this month, Rey was removed after a screaming rant against authorities. Courtney Henderson, his court-appointed attorney in the Kansas case, is seeking a mental exam.

Henderson wrote in a motion that he has a "good faith belief" that Rey is "unable to effectively assist in his defense due to a mental or physical condition."
OSCEOLA MILLS, Pa. (AP) - Authorities in Pennsylvania say a man apparently shot and killed his girlfriend and her mother Friday morning before killing himself a short while later.

Clearfield County District Attorney Bill Shaw said 26-year-old Cody Bush apparently killed the two women and then shot himself, WJAC-TV in Johnstown reported .

The coroner's office identified the women as Victoria Schultz, 21, and her mother, Beth Schultz, 47.

The Progress newspaper of Clearfield said a third person allegedly shot by Bush was taken to an Altoona hospital to undergo surgery.

State police were called to a home to investigate a domestic incident involving gunshots around 7:40 a.m. in Osceola Mills, about 90 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. They found the bodies there.

Police were telling neighbors to stay inside and had help from a helicopter in the search for a suspect before Bush's body was found several hours later, according to WTAJ-TV in Altoona. Bush was found with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound near a state highway, Shaw said.

Court records show Bush was facing stalking and harassment charges stemming from an Oct. 29 incident.

___

This story has been corrected to show that one of the victims is the mother of the suspect's girlfriend, not the suspect's mother.
President Donald Trump has told Turkey's president that the United States will cut off its supply of arms to Kurdish fighters in Syria.

The decision is sure to please Turkey, but further alienate Syrian Kurds who bore much of the fight against the Islamic State group.

Word of the change in policy came in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Early Friday morning, Trump took to his Twitter page to announce his plans.

'Will be speaking to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey this morning about bringing peace to the mess that I inherited in the Middle East,' Trump said.

President Donald Trump speaks to members of the U.S. Coast Guard at the Lake Worth Inlet Station Thursday in Riviera Beach, Fla. Trump spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Friday morning

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks with people after Friday at his presidential palace in Ankara Friday. The Turkish leader discussed the Syrian crisis and other regional issues with Trump

'I will get it all done, but what a mistake, in lives and dollars (6 trillion), to be there in the first place!'

A Turkish official announced Trump said he'd 'given clear instructions' that the Kurds will receive no more weapons.

The White House confirmed the move in a cryptic statement about the phone call.

In the conversation, Trump informed Turkey of 'pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria.'

Trump boasted about diplomacy as he spoke to the Turkish leader and announced U.S. will drop support for Kurds

The move could help ease strained tensions between the U.S. and Turkey.

In a previous statement, the White House said Trump told Erdogan the United States is making 'adjustments' to its military support for partners in Syria.

It's was a reference to the U.S. halting the supply of arms to Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Erdogan speaks during Russian-Turkish-Iranian talks at Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, November,22,2017. Trump told Erdogan the United States is making 'adjustments' to its military support for partners in Syria

The White House said the decision comes as the Syria conflict moves into a 'stabilization phase' of ensuring the Islamic State group can't return.

That phase follows the recent fall of the extremist group's self-declared capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

The Trump administration moved earlier this year to arm the Kurds to help them liberate Raqqa. That move incensed Erdogan's government.

The White House said Trump and Erdogan also discussed the political process for ending the Syrian civil war and Turkish purchases of U.S. military equipment.
Philip Hammond has insisted his flagship Budget tax cut to assist first-time buyers will help a million people get on the housing ladder.

The Chancellor dismissed criticism of the policy from the Office for Budget Responsibility, saying the Budget watchdog had not taken into account measures to increase the number of new homes being built when it said that abolishing stamp duty on the first 300,000 of a first-time purchase would simply push up prices.

After the OBR downgraded growth forecasts due to poor productivity performance, Mr Hammond said the challenge for the nation was to prove them wrong.

So, with effect from today for all first-time buyer purchases up to 300,000, I am abolishing stamp duty altogether #Budget2017 pic.twitter.com/X61Pe17Khb  HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) November 22, 2017

The Chancellors stamp duty policy was part of a giveaway package which pumped an additional 25 billion into priorities such as housing, infrastructure and the NHS.

But the OBR took the shine off the move by predicting it would push up prices by around 0.3%  meaning many first-time buyers would have to pay more than they otherwise would while the main gainers would be people who already owned a property.

It also suggested that only around 3,500 additional homes would be sold as a result of the incentive.

Our take on the new tax relief for first-time buyers #Budget2017 https://t.co/ZuNMJpy3Pu  Office for Budget Responsibility (@OBR_UK) November 22, 2017

But Mr Hammond said: Hopefully, by abolishing stamp duty, which will save the average first-time buyer about 1,700, that will be a help and an incentive to focus on getting the deposit together, getting the money together to get on the housing ladder, and we hope that many more young people will be able to get on the housing ladder.

He told the BBC: The OBR looked at a particular narrow question  if you reduce stamp duty and dont do anything else what would happen?

But we have not done nothing else, we have introduced a very big package, 15 billion of extra money going in on top of the billions we are already spending on housing to increase the number of houses that we build in this country.

So thats not the situation we will have. We will have many more homes available.

The important thing is that over the next five years, over the life of this parliament, a million first-time buyers will make an average saving of just under 1,700 when they buy their first home.

I think thats a good news story.

The OBR issued a grim set of economic forecasts, downgrading its predictions for growth for each of the next five years as a result of the UKs continuing poor productivity performance.

Budget 2017: how the cost of some of the key announcements compares

With growth forecast to average just 1.4% over the period, OBR chairman Robert Chote said it looked unlikely Mr Hammond would achieve his target of eliminating the deficit in the public finances by the mid-2020s.

Mr Hammond said the OBRs forecasts for productivity over the last eight years had been over-optimistic.

He said: The challenge for us now as a nation is to prove them wrong. The challenge for us is to deliver that higher productivity that will feed through into higher economic growth.

Mr Hammond insisted progress in the Brexit talks would help boost growth.

Where the money is coming from

We always understood that as we went through this process of negotiation with the EU there would be uncertainty about the outcome. When you are in a negotiation you never know what the outcome is going to be, he told the BBC.

As we move forward into 2018 I hope we will get increasing clarity about how these negotiations are going to move forward, an increasing sense that we are getting on and doing Brexit, and as we get that sense of clarity and sense of movement I think confidence will return, certainty about the future will return, businesses will start investing, consumers will start buying big ticket consumer items again and that will help to get our economy growing again faster.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the productivity crisis could have been avoided if governments had been prepared to borrow more to invest in boosting the economy.

This is a nothing has changed Budget from an out-of-touch Government with no idea of the reality of peoples lives and no plan to improve them. My response to #Budget2017 https://t.co/A7qtgpkKm5  John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) November 22, 2017

I would have stopped the tax cuts to the corporations and the rich, that would have paid for our public services, he told ITVs Good Morning Britain.

I would have borrowed more to invest in our economy.

He added: If we had been investing since 2010 we would be growing our economy, we wouldnt have a productivity crisis.
James Vince blunted the much-hyped Australia attack but fell foul of Englands new number one enemy Nathan Lyon just when he was all set to tame the Gabba on day one of the Ashes.

Vince (83) responded to the departure of lynchpin opener Alastair Cook in just the third over of the series by sharing a century stand with Mark Stoneman which belied inevitable nerves on this huge stage.

After he was dropped by wicketkeeper Tim Paine on 68 pushing forward to Lyon, Englands latest number three appeared on course for a maiden Test century only for the off-spinner to snatch it away with a brilliant direct-hit to run him out attempting a faulty single to cover.

That's stumps on Day 1 of the #Ashes



How do you assess today's play? pic.twitter.com/Lb2N1DDnL4  England Cricket (@englandcricket) November 23, 2017

It was a moment which reinvigorated Australia and their hostile home support as captain Joe Root then also fell, lbw to Pat Cummins old-ball swing and pace, in a stumps total of 196 for four.

With Lyon at the centre of Vinces exit, it had an added significance after the spinner spoke out so forcefully earlier this week - apparently out of character - about Australias uncompromising intent this winter.

Vince had stroked a succession of stylish off-side boundaries among his 12 fours from 170 balls, as he vindicated pre-tour predictions from the England camp that he has the ideal game to prosper in Australian conditions.

He previously flattered to deceive in seven Tests, the last more than a year ago, averaging under 20 with a joint top-score of 42.

A cracking start to the #Ashes with fifties for Stoneman and Vince, before Cummins claimed two big wickets: https://t.co/P6sH6ROa7L #Ashes pic.twitter.com/uhIGmOGVKA  cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 23, 2017

Ultimately, there was an undeniable element of job half-done here too, just when the notoriously partisan Brisbane crowd was becoming becalmed.

An untypically sluggish Gabba pitch was arguably in Vinces favour, and the lack of sideways movement off the surface - a menace to his aspirations at home - was very handy too.

Nonetheless it was an admirable effort after Vince and Stoneman (53) joined forces at two for one when Mitchell Starc had made short work of Englands all-time record runscorer Cook - caught at first slip pushing forward to some well-directed new-ball swing from the left-armer.

There were precious few further edges or plays-and-misses as Vince unfurled some of his favourite cover-drives and back-foot forces, and Stoneman played the percentages to continue his sequence of passing 50 in every innings on tour so far - following his three half-centuries and a century in Englands warm-up fixtures.

The opener departed just before tea, during a rain-shortened second session, hanging back slightly in defence and done for pace by Cummins from round the wicket.

Lyon was then the most constant threat into the final hour, finding both turn and bounce and giving the batsmen precious little leeway, but it was Cummins who ousted the England captain before Dawid Malan and Moeen Alis spirited partnership closed out the evening.

Much of the pre-match chat from Australia had centred on how fearsome a prospect their three-man pace attack was going to be.

England were not put off, though  and despite the shock of losing Cook so early after Root had won the toss, and then Vinces partially self-inflicted disappointment, they established a foothold in the series at least.
The remote Isle of Barra has had its flag officially recognised after a long campaign gathered momentum following the Manchester terror attack.

In December, a meeting was held to discuss getting the Scandinavian-style banner submitted to the Lyon Court, the heraldic authority for Scotland.

Having been championed locally, the project gained significance after Eilidh MacLeod, 14, from the island, was killed in the Ariana Grande concert blast.

An order of service at the funeral of Manchester bomb victim Eilidh MacLeod

The announcement comes six months after the attack which killed 22 people.

Philip Tibbetts, of the Flag Institute, said: It is wonderful to see the Barra flag achieve official recognition with the Lyon Court, having been used so extensively over the years.

In this past year Barra has shown the importance that a flag can have for its community  not only as a celebration but also as a symbol to rally around.

As such it has been both an honour and humbling to have assisted Barra since I was first invited to the island last year.

I am sure it will serve as a powerful example to the many other communities thinking of developing their own flag to promote their own identity and the patchwork of national heritage.

Are you creating a local or community flag? Our guide is a good place to start https://t.co/H0uu8q6tpR  The Flag Institute (@FlagInstitute) November 22, 2017

The distinctive green and white Nordic cross has been widely used on the island for decades, but until now has had no legal recognition.

Despite this, it had been put on local produce, flown over buildings and boats and used at community events.

The flag was also draped over Eilidhs coffin when her body was repatriated to the island for her funeral.

The coffin of Eilidh MacLeod draped in the Barra flag is carried across Traigh Mhor beach

Eilidhs friend Laura MacIntyre, also from Barra, returned to school in October after months of treatment, having been seriously injured in the attack.

Barra follows in the footsteps of South Uist, which became the first island in the Outer Hebrides to have its banner gain official status.

The project was pursued by the isles two community councils, after the initial meeting headed by Alasdair Allan MSP.

Northbay community councillor Dolina Manford said: I am very happy to see that the Barra flag has now received official recognition from the Lord Lyon.

It has been a long process but now the green and white Nordic cross that has been used in Barra for a number of years is officially registered at the Lord Lyon.

Mr Allan added: When I originally held an exploratory meeting on this subject it was felt that recognition of the flag would help to boost the islands marketing efforts as well as celebrate its unique identity.

I would like to thank Dolina for her efforts in driving this forward and I look forward to seeing some of the benefits this will bring.

The Court of the Lord Lyon has the power to authorise community flags and ensure that only one community can use any one design.

Meanwhile, the Flag Institute is the worlds leading research and documentation centre for flags.

Funding for the campaign was provided by community charity Barra and Vatersay Voluntary Action.
Theresa May has been given 10 days to offer further concessions on issues including the Brexit divorce bill and the complex matter of the Northern Irish border if she wants European Union leaders to agree to trade talks.

The Prime Minister hopes a crunch summit in Brussels next month will give the green light to move on to the next stage of the Brexit process, covering future trading arrangements and a possible implementation period to avoid a cliff-edge for businesses.

Sufficient progress in #Brexit talks at December #EUCO is possible. But still a huge challenge.

We need to see progress from UK within 10 days on all issues, including on Ireland. pic.twitter.com/NKe86zGo17  Charles Michel (@eucopresident) November 24, 2017

Talks on trade will not be allowed to begin until European Union leaders are satisfied that sufficient progress has been made on the first round of issues being discussed including the divorce bill the UK will pay to Brussels and the Northern Irish border.

After talks with the Prime Minister, European Council president Donald Tusk said it was possible sufficient progress could be made at the December summit but remained a huge challenge.

We need to see progress from UK within 10 days on all issues, including on Ireland, he said.

As she left a gathering of European leaders in Brussels, Mrs May said: There are still issues across the various matters we are negotiating on to be resolved but there has been a very positive atmosphere in the talks and a genuine feeling that we want to move forward together.

On the border issue, Mrs May is coming under intense pressure from Dublin for fresh assurances there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar warning that deadlock in Brexit negotiations cannot be broken until the issue is resolved.

The Prime Minister insisted we have the same desire  we want to ensure that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now.

Mrs Mays comments came after Downing Street backed away from suggestions that Northern Irelands continued membership of the EU customs union could be up for negotiation in Brexit talks.

A Number 10 spokesman told reporters on Friday the UK continued to look for an innovative way forward on the issue.

Brexit divorce bill

Asked whether Northern Ireland could remain in the customs union following Brexit, the spokesman said: That is a matter for negotiations.

But a Downing Street source later insisted the Governments position that the whole of the UK will leave both the customs union and single market after Brexit has not changed.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said on Friday it was difficult to see how border checks could be avoided if the UKs departure from the customs union and single market resulted in regulatory divergence between the North and the Republic.

Another good meeting w/ @simoncoveney. I updated on #Brexit state of play. Strong solidarity with #Ireland: Irish issues are EU issues. pic.twitter.com/uqGFSh3Skc  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) November 24, 2017

Mr Varadkar has previously suggested a bespoke arrangement, similar to that operated on the Isle of Man, under which Northern Ireland, or the whole of the UK, would continue to observe the rules of the single market and customs union without necessarily remaining a member of them.

The EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier discussed the situation with Mr Coveney in Brussels ahead of the European Council meeting on December 14-15 which will decide whether talks can progress as Mrs May hopes.

Mr Barnier said there was strong solidarity with Ireland, adding that Irish issues are EU issues.

The Prime Minister said: In relation to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, we and the Irish government continue to talk about the solution to that.

Prime Minister Theresa May meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the #EaPSummit pic.twitter.com/EIiGx43JFQ  UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) November 24, 2017

But we have the same desire  we want to see that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now and that we dont create any new barriers to trade or the movement of people across that border.

Thats the outcome that we are both agreed on and that is what we believe is in the best interests of Northern Ireland.

As well as talks with Mr Tusk and Mrs Merkel in Brussels, the Prime Minister also had meetings with Danish premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Belgiums Charles Michel, and Lithuanias Saulius Skvernelis in the margins of the Eastern Partnership summit.

One of the issues under discussion was thought to be the amount the UK is prepared to offer Brussels following reports that Cabinet ministers agreed to double the sum originally put on the table by Mrs May to around 40 billion.

However it is thought she does not want to name a precise figure until she has a clear idea of what kind of trade deal is available with the remaining EU member states in the phase two negotiations.
CCTV of a moped gang smashing their way into a mobile phone shop in a spree of raids has been released by police.

The group, armed with hammers, knives, angle grinders and a battering ram, carried out 17 burglaries in stores across east and north London, according to the Metropolitan Police.

In the footage they can be seen arriving on scooters, wearing helmets and dark clothing, before smashing their way inside and ransacking the stockroom.

During one of the robberies a witness was threatened with a firearm and security staff were beaten as they guarded the shops overnight, police said.

The total value of the stolen electronics and damage to the properties was estimated by officers to be about 1 million.

Ten men have either admitted or been found guilty of taking part in the burglaries, which took place between May and November last year.

Tools and weapons used by the moped gang

Courtney White, 23, of Higham Road, Tottenham, north London, Mominur Rahman, 22, of Maitland Park Road, Camden, north London, Mohammed Hussain, 24, of Goulton Road, Hackney, east London, and Chang Mabiala, 21, of Union Square, Islington, north London, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit burglary on Thursday after a trial at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Chris Costi, 19, of Linscott Close, Hackney, and Bobby Kennedy, 22, of no fixed address but from the Islington area, were convicted of the same charge after a trial in August.

The moped gang

Alfie Kennedy, 21, of Arlington Avenue, Hoxton, north London, Dylan Castano Lopez, 20, of Rust Square, Camberwell, south London, Adam Attalah, 21, of no fixed address, and Mohammed Ali, 24, of Newick Road, Hackney, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.

They are all due to be sentenced at a later date.
Oscar Pistoriuss prison sentence for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp has been increased to 13 years and five months by South Africas Supreme Court of Appeal.

Fridays decision more than doubled the Olympic and Paralympic runners jail term for the murder of his girlfriend.

In an announcement that took a matter of minutes, Supreme Court Justice Willie Seriti said the Supreme Court upheld an appeal by prosecutors against Pistorius original six-year sentence for shooting Ms Steenkamp multiple times in his home in 2013.

Oscar Pistorius arrives at the High Court in Pretoria

Prosecutors had called that six-year sentence shockingly lenient.

Pistorius should have been sentenced to the prescribed minimum of 15 years for murder in South Africa, Mr Seriti said, as he delivered the verdict that was reached by a panel of five judges at the Supreme Court in the central city of Bloemfontein.

The new sentence of 13 years and five months took into account time Pistorius had already served in prison and at home under house arrest, Mr Seriti said.

Pistorius, who turned 31 on Wednesday, has served over a year of his initial six-year sentence.

He killed Ms Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of Valentines Day 2013 after shooting four times through a closed toilet cubicle door in his home.

Claiming he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, he was initially convicted of manslaughter.

Comment from lawyer for #ReevaSteenkamp's parents:

June and Barry said they had faith in justice system and today has confirmed that faith.

This is justice for Reeva. She can now rest in peace.

But there is no closure for them, because they must still live every day without her.  Karyn Maughan (@karynmaughan) November 24, 2017

That conviction was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court in 2015.

Fridays decision likely brings an end to a near five-year legal saga surrounding the double-amputee athlete, a multiple Paralympic champion and record-breaker who was once one of the most celebrated sportsmen in the world.

Pistorius lawyers have just one avenue open to them if they want to challenge the new sentence handed down by the Supreme Court, and that is to appeal to the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa.

Pistorius failed with an appeal to the Constitutional Court last year to challenge his murder conviction.
Liverpool go up against Chelsea on Saturday as both sides look to avoid losing further ground on runaway leaders Manchester City.

Here, Press Association Sport discusses five talking points ahead of another intriguing weekend in the Premier League.

Salah another Chelsea talent that got away

Mohamed Salah will be the man to watch for Liverpool on his return to Chelsea (Martin Rickett/PA Images)

Kevin de Bruyne has already reminded Chelsea this season of what they might have had orchestrating their midfield and there could be another Stamford Bridge cast-off about to prove a point this weekend. Mohamed Salah, sold to Roma in 2016, has proven a sensational signing by Liverpool, with 14 goals in 20 games heading into Saturdays clash at Anfield. Chelsea can ill-afford to let their nine-point gap behind Manchester City grow further while Liverpool will be looking for a pick-up after their midweek collapse against Sevilla. Salah is likely to be key.

Palace resurgence ready for lift-off

Palace fans are still waiting for a revival of form under Roy Hodgson (Martin Rickett/PA Images)

This weekend marks 10 weeks since Roy Hodgsons first game in charge at Palace, with fans still waiting for the revival he was supposed to spark. There have been near-misses  Southampton, Newcastle and Tottenham all beat them by a single goal  and missed opportunities, with home games against West Ham and Everton, both woefully out of form, yielding only two points. Performances have improved, and luck has played a part, but Palace must now capitalise on a kinder run of fixtures, starting at home to Stoke on Saturday. It is time to deliver.

Arsenal triumphed over Tottenham but can they battle at Burnley?

Will Alexandre Lacazette and co find it tough going at Burnley? (John Walton/PA Image)

There is perhaps no better fixture to test Arsenals mettle and the abiding expectation appears to be that their exhilarating victory over Spurs might not carry over into a rough and tumble at Turf Moor. That may prove the case but to judge anything but an away win as another Arsenal failure would be to underestimate Burnley, who have lost only once at home all season and have already taken points off Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool. With Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez firing again, Arsenal have no excuse not to compete. But a draw would not be the worst result.

Megsons West Brom can be optimistic at Wembley

Gary Megson relishing a trip to Wembley to face opposition he describes as "the best team to watch".#WBA https://t.co/0a0YKoDVSr  West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) November 24, 2017

Under Tony Pulis, West Brom became something of a bogey team for Spurs, managing three consecutive draws against Mauricio Pochettinos side, between two convincing defeats. In fact, Tottenham have only beaten West Brom twice in their last seven meetings with them at home, a record that points to a more long-standing problem when trying to break down resilient opponents. The irony then is that with Pulis gone, West Brom are likely to play more freely this weekend, which in turn would play into Tottenhams hands. Interim boss Gary Megson will want to appease the fans but this might not be the week to do it.

Boosted Bournemouth should extend Swansea slide

Swansea have lost seven of their last eight matches and sit 19th in the Premier League table. With Palace below them showing signs of revival, there is a distinct possibility Paul Clements side could be bottom by the turn of the year unless form improves. Results at home have been particularly disappointing  they have managed only one win at the Liberty Stadium this season. Swansea host Bournemouth this weekend, with the Cherries on the up after four wins in five. Clement insists he has the support of the clubs owners but more disappointment, and the pressure will mount.
FTSE 100 insurer Aviva is offering equal parental leave for men and women, offering six months pay across the board in a move that is meant to eradicate career impediments for female staff.

Parents employed by Aviva will be offered the same benefit of up to a years leave with 26 weeks of basic full pay regardless of gender, sexual orientation or how they became a parent.

It opens the door for not only biological parents but those using a surrogate or opting for adoption.

The new policy is part of Avivas strategy to create a diverse and inclusive working culture in which barriers to career progression are removed, the company has said.

The move has been hailed by unions for helping progress equality and diversity in the workplace.

Andy Case, a regional officer for Unite the Union, said: Unite believes that the parental leave policy announced today is market leading and represents a significant and positive step forward for equality in the workplace.

We are keen to hear our members comments on this positive initiative which we will feed back to Aviva management as part of our ongoing dialogue on equality, diversity and inclusion.

Avivas UK office will be one of the first locations to benefit from the new policy (PA)

Aviva is launching the new policy in a handful of locations, including the UK, Ireland, France, Singapore and Canada, for those employees who became parents on or after November 19 and will be extended to its other businesses within the next year.

However, it said that the amount of time off and resulting pay could differ by country, saying it hopes to be the market leader for parental leave in each market.

UK staff will be offered up to 12 months off  half of which will be paid.

The policy will be available to any employee regardless of the amount of time they have worked at Aviva or how much they earn.

Part-time employees are also eligible, and there is no requirement to share leave between parents even if they both work for the insurer.

Aviva chief executive Mark Wilson said: I want to live in a world where the only criteria for success is someones talent, not their gender.

Treating parents equally will help make this happen.

We want Aviva to be a progressive, inclusive, welcoming place to work. Its good for our people and its also good business sense.
Nov 23 (Reuters) - British financial spreadbetting firm CMC Markets Plc reported a 58 percent jump in first-half profit, allaying some concerns about a sectorwide regulatory clampdown and lower levels of volatility.

Shares of CMC rose as much as 8 percent in morning trading.

The company, set up by Chief Executive Peter Cruddas as a foreign exchange broker with a 10,000 pound investment in 1989, said pretax profit rose to 29.8 million pounds ($39.7 million) in the six months ended Sept. 30, from 18.8 million pounds a year earlier.

The value of trades was up 29 percent, while volumes increased 15 percent.

Revenue per active client rose 22 percent to 1,814 pounds, while the number of active clients fell 2 percent to 46,634.

Chairman Simon Waugh will retire from the board on Dec. 31 and will be replaced by James Richards, the company added.

CMC said it would pay an interim dividend of 2.98 pence per share, unchanged from the previous year.

The company said it remained cautious in its short-term outlook, citing uncertainties around current regulatory reviews and future regulatory changes.

CEO Cruddas said the company executives had met with Europe's regulators as part of an ongoing review of the spreadbetting industry.

"What is clear from the consultation process is that the regulators are concerned with the level of client losses, and inadequate appropriateness and on-boarding checks," Cruddas said.

CMC said in June that its customers know the risks they are taking on, as regulators moved to tighten controls on the fast-growing 3.5 billion pound industry.

Cruddas said at the time that clients had shown "complete ambivalence" to regulatory issues.

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in December joined other European regulators to protect individuals in the spreadbetting industry, where it said most retail investors lose money.

The FCA had found evidence of poor conduct across the market over the past six years and that people using the most popular product - known as a contract for difference - lost 2,200 pounds a year on average.

CMC stock was trading 6.7 percent higher at 178 pence at 0810 GMT. ($1 = 0.7509 pounds)

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Amrutha Gayathri)
By Stephen Kalin and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

RIYADH/AMMAN, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Syria's main opposition stuck by its demand on Thursday that President Bashar al-Assad play no role in an interim period under any U.N.-sponsored peace deal, despite speculation it could soften its stance because of Assad's battlefield strength.

A gathering in Saudi Arabia of more than 140 participants from a broad spectrum of Syria's mainstream opposition also blasted Iran's military presence in Syria and called on Shi'ite militias backed by Tehran to leave the country.

"The participants stressed that this (the transition) cannot happen without the departure of Bashar al Assad and his clique at the start of the interim period," opposition groups said in a communique at the end of the meeting.

Iran-backed militias sowed "terrorism and sectarian strife" between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, the communique said.

The opposition groups met to seek a unified position ahead of U.N.-backed peace talks after two years of Russian military intervention that has helped Assad's government recapture all of Syria's main cities.

"The Syrian opposition has sent a message that it is ready to enter serious direct talks over a political transition in Syria and has a unified position and a vision for the future of Syria," Ahmad Ramadan, opposition spokesman, told Reuters.

U.N. peace talks mediator Staffan de Mistura, preparing for a new round of Geneva talks, will visit Moscow on Friday, where he is expected to discuss the situation in Syria.

There had been speculation that the opposition, at the meeting, could soften its demands that Kremlin ally Assad leave power before any transition.

Riyad Hijab, an opposition hardliner who led the High Negotiations Committee that represented the opposition at previous rounds of negotiations, abruptly quit this week.

NO MILITARY PATH TO VICTORY

For many years, Western and Arab countries backed the opposition demand that Assad leave office. However, since Russia joined the war on behalf of Assad's government it has become increasingly clear that Assad's opponents have no path to victory on the battlefield.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a congress of the Syrian government and opposition to draw up a framework for the future structure of the Syrian state, adopt a new constitution and hold elections under UN supervision.

But he has also said that any political settlement in Syria would be finalised within the Geneva peace talks process overseen by the United Nations.

The opposition has long been suspicious of the parallel diplomatic track pushed by Russia, which before the proposed Sochi congress included talks in Kazakhstan, and has insisted that political dialogue should only take place in Geneva.

The opposition communique said the participants supported a U.N. based process that would allow Syria to undergo "a radical political transition" from an "authoritarian system" to a democracy where free elections would be upheld.

Negotiations should be direct and without preconditions based on past U.N. Security Council resolutions, it said.

The opposition backed the restructuring of the army and security organs and preservation of state institutions, but called for the trial of those responsible for war crimes.

The meeting, which included independents and Free Syrian Army military factions, also blamed the Syrian government for the lack of progress in Geneva-based talks held in the past.

"The political process has not achieved its goal because of the regime's violations," the communique said, citing the bombing of civilian areas, the siege of rebel held areas and the detention of tens of thousands of dissidents.

Syria's civil war, now in its seventh year, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and created the world's worst refugee crisis, driving more than 11 million people from their homes. (Writing by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Peter Graff, William Maclean)
Nov 24 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Friday.

NO CONFIDENCE

Romania's Social Democrat-led government survived a no-confidence vote on Thursday, as expected, as thousands of anti-government protesters rallied outside parliament.

PM ON THE LEU

Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose criticised the central bank late on Thursday for not intervening to stop the leu currency from weakening and suggested commercial banks may have contributed.

DEBT TENDER

Romania's finance ministry rejected all bids at a tender to sell one-year treasury bills on Thursday, central bank data showed.

BANCA TRANSILVANIA

Banca Transilvania, Romania's second-largest bank said on Friday it has reached an agreement with Greece's Eurobank to buy its Romanian subsidiary Bancpost and will sign the contract later in the day.

CEE MARKETS

Hungarian long-term government bonds traded at record low yields on Thursday after their first auction since the central bank announced measures to push yields lower. Debt auctions in Prague and Warsaw also drew robust demand.

ANTI-CORRUPTION

Romanian anti-corruption prosecutors have seized assets worth 263 million euros in abuse of office cases in 2016, chief anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi said. She added the figure was concerning and indicated problems with the country's public acqusitions system. www.hotnews.ro

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By Jibran Ahmad

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed a top Pakistani police officer and one of his guards on Friday in the city of Peshawar, police said.

Additional Inspector General Ashraf Noor was leaving his home for work when the bomber rammed into his vehicle, city police chief Tahir Khan said.

Noor's vehicle was engulfed in flame, killing him on the spot, Khan said. One of his five guards died in hospital, the police chief said.

No group claimed responsibility.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi condemned the attack.

"Our resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism can not be shaken," he said.

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan.

Both Pakistani and foreign militants have for years operated in lawless stretches of the border region, launching attacks in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Robert Birsel)
BEIRUT, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Top Lebanese Druze politician Walid Jumblatt on Friday criticised the way Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri had been treated by "some Saudi circles", the first time he has appeared to direct blame at Riyadh over Hariri's resignation this month.

Jumblatt also condemned Iranian "dictates", an apparent response to a statement by the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards this week that disarming of the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah was out of the question.

Lebanese officials say Saudi Arabia put Hariri under effective house arrest in Riyadh and forced him to declare his resignation on Nov. 4. Saudi Arabia has denied holding Hariri against his will or forcing him to resign.

Hariri shelved his resignation on Wednesday after returning to Beirut this week following an intervention by France.

His resignation had thrust Lebanon to the forefront of the regional tussle between the Sunni monarchy of Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Islamist Iran.

"As Lebanese disapproved the unaccustomed way that Sheikh Saad was dealt with by some Saudi circles, we reject this Iranian diktat from Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Revolutionary Guards," Jumblatt wrote.

He appeared to be referring to Jafari's comment that disarming the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah was out of the question.

"The Lebanese have enough experience and knowledge to deal with their affairs through dialogue. We do not want dictates from across the borders that go against their interests," Jumblatt said.

Announcing his decision to suspend his resignation, Hariri stressed Lebanon must stick by its stated policy of staying out of regional conflicts, a reference to Hezbollah whose regional military role is a source of deep concern in Saudi Arabia. (Writing by Tom Perry; editing by Ralph Boulton)
By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen has given the United Nations permission to resume flights of aid workers to the Houthi-controlled capital on Saturday, but not to dock ships loaded with wheat and medical supplies, a U.N. spokesman said.

The coalition fighting the armed Houthi movement in Yemen said on Wednesday it would allow aid in through the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif, as well as U.N. flights to Sanaa, more than two weeks after blockading the country.

About 7 million people face famine in Yemen and their survival is dependent on international assistance.

The coalition has given clearance for U.N. flights in and out of Sanaa from Amman on Saturday, involving the regular rotation of aid workers, said Jens Laerke, spokesman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"We're of course encouraged by the clearance of this flight which may be followed soon by clearances of flights from Djibouti to Sanaa," Laerke told a news briefing on Friday.

But no green light have been received for U.N. requests to bring humanitarian supply ships to Hodeidah and Salif ports, he said.

"We are particularly talking about one ship which is offshore Hodeidah with wheat from WFP (the U.N. World Food Programme) and another boat which is waiting in Djibouti with cholera supplies and that is also destined for Hodeidah," he said.

"We stress the critical importance of resuming also commercial imports, in particular fuel supplies for our humanitarian response - transportation and so on - and for water pumping, Laerke said.

The largest fuel importing companies in Yemen have indicated they will no longer be able to supply the consumer market at the end of this week, OCHA said in a report dated Nov. 23.

UNICEF is also waiting to send vaccines, aid sources said.

The charity Save the Children said an estimated 20,000 Yemeni children under the age of five were joining the ranks of the severely malnourished every month, "an average of 27 children every hour".

The commercial blockade is aggravating the food crisis, "leading to a significant increase in child deaths from acute malnutrition and preventable diseases", it said in a statement.

The U.S.-backed coalition closed air, land and sea access on Nov. 6, in a move it said was to stop the flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran. The action came after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired toward Riyadh. Iran has denied supplying weapons.

Jan Egeland, a former U.N. aid chief who heads the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaking to Reuters in Geneva on Thursday, said of the blockade: "In my view this is illegal collective punishment."

"After more than two weeks of blockade of these ports, there are various kinds of supplies essential for fighting famine, for fighting cholera and other types of humanitarian threats that millions of people are facing in Yemen today," Laerke said. (Reporting and writing by Stephanie Nebehay; additional reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Gareth Jones)
By Ahmed Tolba and Patrick Markey

CAIRO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Militants killed more than 230 people at a mosque in North Sinai on Friday, detonating a bomb and gunning down worshippers in the deadliest such attack of Egypt's modern history, state media and witnesses said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but since 2013 Egyptian security forces have battled a stubborn Islamic State affiliate in the mainly desert region, and militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers.

State media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of El Arish, the main city in North Sinai.

Worshippers were finishing Friday prayers at the mosque when a bomb exploded, witnesses said. Around 40 gunmen set up positions outside the mosque with jeeps and opened fire from different directions as people tried to escape.

"Four groups of armed men attacked the worshippers inside the mosque after Friday noon prayers. Two groups were firing at ambulances to deter them, said Mohamed, a witness.

The public prosecutors' office said in a statement 235 people had been killed and 109 more wounded.

Hours after the attack, Egypt's military launched air strikes on targets in mountainous areas around Bir al-Abed, security sources and witnesses said.

"The armed forces and the police will avenge our martyrs and restore security and stability with the utmost force," Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a televised address.

"What is happening is an attempt to stop us from our efforts in the fight against terrorism, to destroy our efforts to stop the terrible criminal plan that aims to destroy what is left of our region."

Egypt later said it would delay the opening of the Rafah border crossing to Gaza after the attack due to security concerns. The crossing had been due to open for three days beginning on Saturday.

Striking at a mosque would be a change in tactics for the Sinai militants, who have usually attacked troops and police and Christian churches.

SUFI MUSLIMS

Arabiya news channel and some local sources said some of the worshippers were Sufis, whom groups such as Islamic State consider targets because they revere saints and shrines, which for Islamists is tantamount to idolatry.

The jihadists have also attacked local tribes and their militias for working with the army and police, branding them traitors.

The Sinai branch is one of Islamic State's surviving branches following the collapse of its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq after military defeats by U.S.-backed forces.

Sisi, a former armed forces commander who presents himself as a bulwark against Islamist militancy, convened an emergency meeting with his defence and interior ministers and intelligence chief soon after the attack.

Security has long been one of the key sources of public support for the former general, who is expected to run for re-election early next year for another four-year term.

U.S. President Donald Trump, in a post on Twitter on Friday, called the assault a "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack".

"The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence," he addded.

Trump later said he would call Sisi to discuss the attack. A White House statement called on the international community to strengthen its efforts to defeat terrorist groups.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drain also condemned the attack and said Paris stood with its ally.

SINAI STRUGGLE

North Sinai, which stretches from the Suez Canal eastwards to the Gaza Strip and Israel, has long been a security headache for Egyptian security forces because of smuggling.

Sisi has support from some Bedouin tribal leaders, who have helped the army locate weapon-smuggling routes used by jihadi groups, security officials said.

Local militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, once allied to al Qaeda, split from it and declared allegiance to Islamic State in 2014.

Bloodshed in the Sinai worsened after 2013 when Sisi led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Islamic State earlier this year posted a video of the beheading of two Sufis in northern Sinai, accusing them of practicing "sorcery".

In July this year, at least 23 soldiers were killed when suicide car bombs hit two military checkpoints in the Sinai, in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

Militants have tried to expand their operations into Egypt's heavily populated mainland, hitting Coptic Christian churches and pilgrims. In May, gunmen attacked a Coptic group travelling to a monastery in southern Egypt, killing 29. (Additional reporting by Mohamed Abdellah and Eric Knecht in Cairo and Yousri Mohamed in Ismalia; Editing by Andrew Roche)
PRISTINA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Kosovo police arrested three lawmakers on Friday, including the popular main opposition leader whom they handcuffed in the street, after the three failed to appear in court on charges of releasing tear gas in parliament in 2015 and 2016.

Opposition lawmakers obstructed parliament for almost two years by letting off tear gas in the chamber in a protest against a border deal with Montenegro and an EU-brokered agreement with Serbia.

The leader of Kosovo's biggest opposition party, Vetevendosje Albin Kurti, was seized and handcuffed by police close to parliament building when he was on his way to attend a regular session.

Police used paper spray to disperse several other lawmakers from Kurti's party who tried to hold onto him and prevent police from taking him away, Kosovo media showed. He was eventually moved into a police van.

Kurti won more votes than any other political candidate and his party came first in June snap elections, but he did not enter the ruling coalition.

Dozens of other MPs have been indicted so far for releasing tear gas in the 120-seat parliament.

"This is the continuation of a massive and wide-ranging persecution that has started against Vetevendosje," the party president, Visar Ymeri, said.

Last week a court in Pristina sentenced four people, including one member of parliament, to prison terms ranging from two to eight years for taking part in a grenade attack against the parliament building last year. They were all loyalists of Vetevendosje.

Opposition parties oppose the border deal with Montenegro saying the country of 1.8 million is losing land by handing over some 8,000 hectares (19,700 acres).

The opposition is also against a deal signed in 2013 between Pristina and Belgrade as part of an EU-sponsored dialogue that would give more rights to the local Serb minority. They say the deal will practically divide the poor Balkan country on ethnic lines.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after NATO bombing drove Serb forces from the territory. (Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Ivana Sekularac and Richard Balmforth)
By Oleg Vukmanovic

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Asian spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices held steady near three-year highs this week as production problems in Indonesia, higher oil and European gas benchmarks and tender awards lent support.

Spot prices <LNG-AS> for January delivery were unchanged at $9.85 per million British thermal units (mmBtu).

Renewed Indian demand for spot cargoes in January and beyond helped buoy markets even as traders assessed that the two biggest buyers, South Korea and Japan, may keep a low profile for the rest of winter, barring unseasonably cold weather.

Korea Gas Corp is estimated to have recently purchased 10 cargoes to cover the remainder of its winter needs and Japanese importers showed few signs of topping up stocks for now.

It is possible that technical faults affecting Indonesia's giant Bontang export facility - triggering the loss of up to 7 cargoes, or 20 percent of monthly output - may push Japanese off-takers to seek alternative supply.

There was no sign yet of this happening, with some sources saying Bontang was discussing with suppliers to reschedule deliveries.

Exxon Mobil evacuated non-essential staff working in the highlands of Papua New Guinea due to unrest in the area but there have been no signs of LNG export disruptions as yet.

"Beyond India, buyers are pretty shy about showing their requirements," a trader said, due to wariness about triggering further price gains.

India's Bharat Petroleum came out this week with two tenders seeking a spot cargo in January and three more spread across May, August and October.

Gujarat State Petroleum Corp sought a delivery in the second half of December.

Coal stockpiles across India remain precariously low, adding to pressure for price-sensitive importers to continue buying LNG, despite the fact spot prices hold premiums to long-term, oil-linked contract levels.

Chinese buying has been a key ingredient in the months-long Asian rally, though the extent of residual spot winter demand remains uncertain.

PetroChina's terminal in east China is expected to receive 31 shipments this winter through March, with volumes up 21 percent from a year ago.

China's October imports were the second-highest on record.

Further support came from rising Brent crude oil, up nearly four percent from a week ago to $63.63 a barrel, and January gas at Britain's gas trading hub, which rose nine percent during the period.

Additionally, Russia's Sakhalin-II liquefaction plant sold two cargos via tender for January loading at prices estimated to be around $9.85 per mmBtu, traders said.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the identities of the buyers.

On the supply side, Angola LNG put up Nov. 28-30 loading cargo for sale via tender on Friday.

France's Engie was assessing potential for a reload from Britain's Isle of Grain terminal or France's Montoir in December, holding vessel charter talks.

December demand from Turkey was reported by traders.

In Italy, Dufenergy Trading won a tender to supply the OLT floating import terminal offshore Toscana in December.

Further forward, Pakistan LNG continued with its pattern of locking-in supply for the spare capacity of its second terminal, the BW Integrity, due to begin operations this month or in December.

The terminal received its first cool-down, or commissioning cargo, from trader Gunvor using the Golar Kelvin tanker.

On Friday, Pakistan LNG put out a call for four March cargoes.

The Golar Winter floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) took on a small cool-down cargo at Spain's Mugardos terminal on Oct. 22 and currently appears to be heading back to Brazil, where is serves as an import terminal.

(Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; Editing by Jane Merriman)
By Sarah Marsh

HAVANA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro met with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Friday amid hopes the Communist-run island might be able to convince its Asian ally to avert a showdown with the United States.

North Korea is facing unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Cuba has maintained close diplomatic ties with North Korea since 1960 but is opposed to nuclear weapons.

"In the brotherly encounter, both sides commented on the historic friendship between the two nations and talked about international topics of mutual interest," Cuban state television said on its midday broadcast.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he had discussed with Castro last year the possibility of working together to defuse global tensions with North Korea.

"Can we pass along messages through surprising conduits?" Trudeau asked in a Q&A session after a speech.

"It was a topic of conversation when I met President Raul Castro last year. These are the kinds of things where Canada can, I think, play a role that the United States has chosen not to play, this past year."

Canada had an interest in seeking solutions, not just because of regional security but also because the flight path of possible North Korean missiles would pass over its territory, Trudeau said.

North Korea is working on developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, aiming to achieve what Ri has called "a real balance of power with the United States".

Ri met his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez this week and the ministers denounced U.S. "unilateral and arbitrary lists and designations" that led to "coercive measures contrary to international law", according to Cuba's foreign ministry.

The ministers called for "respect for peoples' sovereignty" and the "peaceful settlement of disputes", according to a ministry statement.

President Donald Trump has increased pressure on Cuba since taking office, rolling back a detente begun by his predecessor Barack Obama and returning to the hostile rhetoric of the Cold War.

North Korea and Cuba are the last countries in the world to maintain Soviet-style command economies, though under Raul Castro, the Caribbean nation has taken small steps toward the more market-oriented communism of China and Vietnam.

Raul took over the presidency in 2008 from his older brother and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who died on Nov. 25 last year. Cuba is marking the anniversary on Saturday with vigils and concerts.

Cuba maintains an embassy in North Korea but trades mostly with South Korea. Last year, trade with the latter was $67 million and just $9 million with the North, the government said. (Reporting by Sarah Marsh in Havana; Additional Reporting by Nelson Acosta in Havana, Julie Gordon in Vancouver and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Daniel Flynn and James Dalgleish)
Amana Takaful Groups growth and profit momentum continues into the 3rd Quarter netting in a pre-tax result of Rs. 128.5Million forthe period ending September 2017. This compares with a loss of Rs 96.5 Million in the same period last year.

With a modest 7% upside on Gross Written Premium(GWP)of Rs. 2.8 billion for the 9 months, the re-structured group has been able to harness a return of Rs. 285 Million on its investment assets in a relatively lackluster environment. Amana Takaful PLC, Amana Takaful Life PLC and Amana Takaful Maldives have all positively contributed to this performance.

Steering a delicate balance of Portfolio restructure, a selective Under-writing &prudent risk appetite, tight productivity measures together with a robust claims management ethos, the Group is better positioned now to meet and exceed stakeholder expectations says Group Chairman Tyeab Akbarally.

Amana Takaful PLC generated a GWP of 1.32 Billion,10% ahead over the corresponding period in 2016. The profit before tax out-turn of Rs.46 Million compares with a loss of Rs 111 Million in 2016. A better than expected performance of 32% on the non-Motor classes, Medical and Micro Takafulsegments totally mitigated the downside in Motor revenue. Claims on account of the recent flood were disbursed on time and in full. Motor loss ratios improved significantly to 58%vs 76% a year ago. Performance of the companys new product lines have been exemplary.The combined ratio has improved markedly to 102% from 118% a year earlier.

Following a conscious decision to re-align its portfolio strategy, Amana Takaful Life PLC, listed onthe CSE in August 2016, more than doubled its profit to Rs. 32 Million in the nine months to September, from the previous periods result of Rs. 14 Million. On account of phasing out a product line, the total GWP in the nine months is 95% of the previous year. However, the long term endowment life plans continue to grow in line with expectations, boosting the Life Fund by 11%.

The off-shore operation Amana Takaful Maldives PLC, the only listed entity among industry players in the Maldives Stock Exchange, chugged along steadily with 7% growth in GWP, 61% upside in profit before tax compared to the previous year, while defending its market share despite the advent of new competition. Hereto, new product lines have delivered promising performance. Productivity measures have mitigated the rise in re-takaful expenditure and an upsurge in claims cost.

Both Amana Takaful PLC and Amana Takaful Maldives PLC emerged winners of the Gold Award for single entity Takaful operators at the recent Islamic Finance Forum for South Asia.
Buoyed by the success of its sugar-free drink Coke Zero, Coca-Cola Sri Lanka is now set to launch Sprite Zero, the sugar-free option of one of the world's largest selling lemon-lime drink. Sprite is the market leader in the lime and lemon category in Sri Lanka and is the most preferred lemon lime brand by Sri Lankan consumers.

Sprite Zero will be made available across Sri Lanka in response to the demand for a refreshing drink that tastes great  and is without sugar. Sprite Zero was originally known as Sugar Free Sprite when it was first created in 1974. At present, Coca-Cola sells two sugar free beverages in Sri Lanka: Coke Zero and Coca-Cola Light. Sprite Zero will be the third.



Sonu Grover - Managing Director, Coca-Cola Sri Lanka Pvt Limited said "The launch of Sprite Zero is in line with the Companys commitment of offering more choices to consumers and evolving into a company that can provide Beverages for Life.We keep evaluating various beverage options that best meet consumer needs. Post Coke Zero, the launch of Sprite Zero comes at a time when Sprite is well established as the leading brand in the country in the Lime and Lemon Category and the new offering of Sprite Zero therefore complements the Companys portfolio, helping consumers choose the drink they want.

Speaking about the launch Mayank Arora - Managing Director of Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd, said Were evolving our long-term business strategy to give people in Sri Lanka the beverages they want. To do that were reducing sugar and calories across many of our brands. Our launch of Sprite Zero comes just six-months after the very successful introduction of Coke Zero, which offers the same great Coca-Cola taste with zero sugar.We are very pleased by the strong consumer response and high rates of conversion, from trials to repurchase of Coca-Cola Zero. We are confident that Sprite Zero will be embraced by Sri Lankans in a similar fashion.

Look for Sprite Zero in grocery stores and restaurants across Sri Lanka in 400ml and 750ml pack sizes.
Sri Lankas favourite pizza brand, Dominos, unveiled its refurbished Union Place outlet with a fresh ambiance that boasts of a vibrant and welcoming interior mixed with style and comfort.



Combining the classic image of the Dominos Pizza restaurant as a welcome retreat to dine in and a place where families and regular patrons could feel at home, the refurbished Union Place outlet has added a new dimension to its character.



Bearing in mind the requirements of the active urbanite constantly on the go, Dominos Union Place has created a supportive environment for digital connectivity and collaborations, a space for professionals, students and friends to work, study or simply get together to unwind and chill-out, while enjoying a range of delicious pizzas, yummy nibbles and delightful desserts.



The dynamic consumer represents a plethora of needs that is constantly evolving. There is a growing demand for co-working spaces and digital connectivity, which represents the needs of the growing on-the-go lifestyle. Therefore, the defining character of the redone Union Place store is that while it offers a warm setting amidst the hustle and bustle of the city, there is also ample space be it for meetings or meet-ups, along with free Wi-Fi to stay connected at all times.



The refurbished Union Place store is a response of Dominos Sri Lanka in understanding and meeting the evolving needs of consumers. It is also a first among many other plans that the company envisages to promote to cater to the requirements of consumers.



Dominos Sri Lanka Country Manager Suresh Tissaaratchy commenting on the new interior and the new concept of the refurbished Dominos Union Place said, As part of the global Dominos brand, we are always looking for new ways to enhance the customer experience at our stores. We are confident that our Union Place store is going to add a new dimension to our customers  while enjoying a range of great tasting pizzas.



Dominos Sri Lanka has established a significant presence in the country with 25 restaurants. The brand has over the years expanded its range of offerings from a wide selection of pizzas, pastas, rice, appetizers and desserts, while always offering exciting promotions to its customers, ensuring the best customer experience in terms of food, value, ambiance and service.



Globally, Dominos has marked its presence since its inception in 1960 in the USA with more than 14,000 stores in over 85 countries. As the second largest pizza company in the world and being one of the top 10 largest quick serve restaurants in the world, Dominos continues to work with passion and pride every day.
It is not necessary to explain, especially for followers of Buddhism, the reality behind joy and sorrow as it had already been preached by Lord Buddha. Buddhism maintains a significant position when analysing the past, present and future of mankind. Buddhism explains in and out of every element of life  for everyone including followers of other faiths. This beautiful philosophy compels manipulating the use of intelligence and wisdom. It empowers its followers and enlightens them on the fact that anyone can conquer the world, either be it the clergy or laymen.



Nepal is very close to the hearts of Buddhists because Lumbini, a pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi District of Nepal, is considered the homeland of Lord Buddha. I feel it is important to mention to Sri Lankans about Ven. Maithri Thera who visited Lumbini to help those affected by abject poverty.

In 1976, the prelate was awarded the higher ordination in Kalutara Seema Malakaya. He was in charge of the Hindi section of Nepals programme in the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation during 1977-1979. A degree holder of the Kelaniya University, Ven. Maithri Thera has served in the Hindi section from its inception.

Ven. Maithri Thera didnt give up. He toiled day and night to address these alarming problems. Once, he was a victim of a terrorist attack in Nepal. The writer was taken aback when he heard the attempts made by the Ven. Thera to save his life



When Ven. Maithri Thera left for his motherland Nepal on the instructions of his superior Ven. Amithananda Thera in 1980, he launched a programme to guide Buddhists and to ease the various difficulties faced by monks. The Ven. Thera has handed over 400 children to the Buddha Sasana within a period of 10 years. The priest has also extended his invaluable services to Nepal TV and the broadcasting of Kathmandu. Furthermore, the Ven. Thera had initiated the Training School for Bhikkhus upon his arrival in Nepal.



The priest was compelled to shoulder a greater burden following the demise of Ven. Amithananda Thera. He went to Lumbini from Kathmandu and observed a completely different situation. He saw people suffering from various illnesses. He was entrusted to look after Lumbini  however it happened only for a brief three months as communal tensions broke out in the sacred area. The situation was so bad that people started pelting stones at the official residences of monks.

Nevertheless, Ven. Maithri Thera didnt give up. He toiled day and night to address these alarming problems. Once, he was a victim of a terrorist attack in Nepal. The writer was taken aback when he heard the attempts made by the Ven. Thera to save his life.



During the height of the problem, the late President R. Premadasa visited Nepal and established the pilgrims rest with funds from the Sri Lankan Government. He held the management of this for some time and later gave up for reasons hitherto unknown. An award has been presented to President Premadasa in Kathmandu, the Capital of Nepal, under the patronage of Ven. Maithri Thera.



After studying the changes taking place in Lumbini, he spoke about the requirements of the people. He sought assistance from international bodies and empowered peoples representatives.



Like a smile amidst tears, he mentioned the incident in which the child of a doctor tasted death following a snake bite. We understood in his speech that he put in effort to help the victims of natural catastrophes. He also provided clean drinking water to villages and made arrangements to install tube wells for schools and hospitals. He has been engaged in social work in more than 69 villages in Nepal. He is today the Chief Sangha Nayake.



The Buddhist Shrine Room built by the Ven. Thera in Lumbini is of pivotal significance for Buddhists. The Katina Ceremony that was held last month displayed cultural features of Buddhists. I always feel that the Ven. Thera is not a Nepalese but a Sri Lankan because he conversed with us in Sinhala.
Former SLAITO president Chandra Wickramasinghe was bestowed with the honorary distinction of Officier de lOrdre National du Merite by The Embassy of France to Sri Lanka and the Maldives recently, in a ceremony held at the Residence de France. The esteemed award is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, and is considered a highest national honor in France.

This accolade recongnised Chandra Wickramasinghes career that spans over three decades as a pioneer of the Tourism industry. He is the founder the Alliance Francaise de Kotte in Colombo, a leading institution for French education and Culture in Sri Lanka. As the Founder/Chairman of Connaissance de Ceylan, he was a pioneer in securing the French Market to Sri Lanka in the early 80s. He believes his high level proficiency in the French Language and the industry experience he gained in France helped him to break through to the market with much ease. As one of the leading inbound tour operators in the French Market, his contributions helped enhance the economic and cultural ties and mutual understanding between the two nations.

In his capacity as the former president of the Sri Lanka Association Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) he contributed significantly by assisting members in developing marketing plans and creating awareness via education and exposure. He specifically encouraged new thinking and spearheaded research initiatives to grow the industry particularly in the Eastern Europe and Middle Eastern markets whilst contributing significantly towards enhancing the quality of each members product offering.

Among his peers at the time, he was the first to visit Kandalama, and identify the true potential of the location. He initiated investments in Kandalama by founding Culture Club (now Amaya Lake). Through Culture Club, Mr. Wickramasinghe initiated Eco-Cultural tourism, yet another concept introduced by him to the tourism industry in Sri Lanka. Eco-Cultural tourism is now a popular theme in Sri Lanka and is widely used among hoteliers.

Mr. Wikramasinghes work has been recognized through awards in previous occasions; in 1999, he was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year, he also won the National Silver Award presented by Sri Lankan Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. For his contributions made for the Tourism Industry, he was selected for the Business Today Passionate 2017 award recently.
A lawyer for former national security adviser Michael Flynn has told President Donald Trumps legal team that they are no longer communicating with them about special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian election interference.



The decision could be a sign that Flynn is moving to cooperate with Muellers investigation or negotiate a deal for himself.



The decision was communicated this week, said a person familiar with the decision who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an

ongoing investigation.



The former national security advisors split with the Trump administration is sudden. Just last week his lawyer Robert Kelner and the presidents legal aide John Dowd were discussing strategy with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner.



The schism, first reported by the New York Times is an ominous sign for the Trump administration which has long denied any interference by Russia in the 2016 election.



Lawyers for Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., declined to comment Thursday. Flynns son has also come under investigation from Muellers team of prosecutors.



Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February after White House officials concluded that he had misled them about the nature of his contacts during the transition period with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

US, (Daily Mail), 24 November 2017
(From Left: 1st Row) Mohamed Rameez  Retail sales Manager, M. Shiham  Assistant National Sales Manager HS Marketing, Indika Perera  General Manager HS Marketing, Chinthaka Wanigasekara  Group General Manager, JamshidSourjah  Head of Retail, Mohamed Hana Saleemdeen  Manager Human Capacity Development, M.H.M Ashkar  Area Manager,G.RShantha Area Manager,

(2nd Row)  Mohamed Rafan, Nadarajah Sudarshan, Sanjeewa Ranasinghe, Wimalasena, Shalika Prageeth.

The team from Hameedia, Sri Lankas leading menswear specialist, won multiple awards at the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) National Sales Congress 2017. The Hameedia team walked away from the SLIM NASCO 2017 Awards with a silver and four bronze medals in three specialized categories, and dominated the Modern Retail sector with wins in each of the three categories within the sector.

SLIMs NASCO 2017 is a premier marketing industry event where sales professionals are recognized for their contribution to their companies as well as to the development of their specialized industries and sectors. The Hameedia team has been on a winning streak at the NASCO awards, and the 2017 awards was the third consecutive year in which the team won prominent awards and gained noteworthy attention for their achievements in sales and customer service.

We are delighted to see the Hameedia team winning yet again at the NASCO awards, says, Fouzul Hameed Managing Director, HameediaGroup. It is a recognition of the commitment and professionalism we give to our customers, in serving them and meeting their needs. Our sales team is not merely focused on sales targets and bottom-lines but in ensuring that our customers have a meaningful experience, and their aspirations are met. I think this focus on the customer is what makes our sales approach so effective.

Mohamed Rameez  Retail sales Manager, RoshanUduman  Area Manager, M.H.M Ashkar  Area Manager, Mohamed Hana Saleemdeen  Manager Human Capacity Development, Sanjeewa Ranasinghe, Wimalasena, Mohamed Rafan, Shalika Prageeth

The Hameedia team winners were: Sanjeewa Ranasinghe, Tailoring Associate who won a Silver and Fazulhaq Mohamed Rafan, Sales Association who won a bronze award in the Frontliner category; Wimalasena, Assistant Showroom Manager who won a Bronze in the Sales Executive/Supervisor category; and K.D.S Prageeth Premarathne, Assistant Manager  Field Sales and Nadarajah Sudarshan, Showroom Manager who each won a Bronze award in the Territory Manager category.

The NASCO 2017 awards, held for the seventh consecutive year, was judged by a panel of 32 industry experts and specialists, through an arduous selection process conducted over four weekends.

Established in 1949, Hameedia has grown to become a pioneer in the Sri Lankan fashion industry. The fashion store is renowned for delivering high-quality custom tailoring under the bespoke category and ready-made clothes for gentlemen. The Hameedia, multi-brand retail stores house a collection of quality menswear brands such as Le Bond, Envoy, Signature, Raymond, Lee and Adidas to name a few. Hameedia also prides itself on offering outstanding standards of service to ensure that all clients enjoy a shopping experience that is positive and personalized. With a network of over 30 outlets across Sri Lanka and a large and experienced team, Hameedia has a strong local presence and has also extended its operations to the global fashion industry with outlets in the Maldives and Australia.
Aries (Mesha):



You can look forward to enhanced living comforts, higher status and success in all your endeavors when Venus moves into your 8th House. Mars due in your 7th House by the weekend will turn favourable due to the association with Jupiter already placed in it. Sun in your 8th House indicates heavy expenditure. Now you are relieved of the malefic period  Ashtamaya Shani Erashtaka you have been going through. Jupiter continuing transit in the 7th House assures marital happiness, good health, a happy time at the workplace and cordial relations with friends and relatives.



Taurus (Vrushabha):



Venus due in your 7th House on Nov: 26 could cause disharmony and dissention in the family. However, Mars poised to enter your 6th House by the weekend indicates power and influence and a whip- hand over rivals. You can look forward to financial stability and success in your endeavors thanks to Mercury in your 8th House. The Sun in your 7th House signifies developments that could mar your marital happiness. Given the malefic influence of Saturn now in the 8th House you are advised to safeguard your health and income sources in particular.



Gemini (Mithuna):



Health and financial problems are likely when Venus moves into your 6th House on Nov: 26. However, these benefits may diminish when Mars moves into your 5th House on Nov: 30. Anxiety and anguish and physical discomforts are held out by Mercury already in your 7th House. The Sun transiting in your 6th House holds out power and influence as well as a rise in your career if Dasas are favourable. Jupiter in the 5th House assures a favourable time marked by happy family reunions, festivities, matrimonial prospects and success in educational pursuits.



Cancer (Kataka):



Pleasures and comforts are indicated by Venus due in your 5th House shortly. However, mental unrest and problems related to lands and property are indicated by Mars due in your 4th House by the weekend. Mercury in your 6th House signifies an increased income, good health and a happy time at your workplace. However, these benefits are likely to be reduced to some extent due to the unfavourable influence of the Sun in your 5th House. Saturn in your 6th House can give you monetary gains, career success and invincibility.



Leo (Sinha):



Success in studies, happiness and pleasures and comforts are in store due to the favourable influence of Venus in your 4th House from Nov: 26. Mars to join Jupiter in your 3rd House will counter the latters unfavourable effects and bring you success in your endeavors. Mercury in your 5th House indicates time ahead unfavourable for trading on the stock exchange. Digestive problems may trouble you due to the Sun in your 4th House. You are advised to pay greater attention to the security and safety of your children given the adverse influence of Saturn in your 5th House. It can also cause disputes with the spouse and business partners.



Virgo (Kanya):



Gainful travels and cordial relations with brothers and peers on the cards when a favourable Venus enters your 3rd House on Nov: 26. A good income, success in educational pursuits and peace of mind are held out by Mercury in your 4th House. A happy time at work, good health and the ability to take bold decisions are indicated by the Sun in your 3rd House. Saturn now in your 4th House being the lord of the 5th House could bring you benefits if Saturn was strong at your birth too. Otherwise, you have to brace for health problems, financial losses, disputes and problems relating to land, vehicles and other property in the long run. Meanwhile, Jupiter already in your 2nd House assures wealth, an increased income and a generally favourable of state of affairs in all areas of life.



Libra (Thula):



Venus due to join the Sun in the 2nd house shortly assures a happy family life. Disputes with relatives and brothers and heavy expenditure are indicated by Mercury in your 3rd House. Jupiter in the 12th House signifies a bad time for distant journeys and foreign travel. Mars due to join Jupiter by the weekend will add to your woes causing circumstances that could bring disrepute and humiliation to you. However, Saturn already in your 3rd House assures in the long run the restoration of practically everything precious you have lost in the past- career, status and wealth.



Scorpio (Vrushika):



A happy family life and increased income are indicated by Mercury when he enters your 2nd House shortly. Venus due to move into your Lagna on Nov: 26 will greatly mitigate the adverse influence of the Sun already in it. The Erashtaka continues in its final phase despite Saturn leaving your Lagna for the 2nd House. Jupiter continuing transit in the 11th House assures you of high status, honours, increased wealth, a rise in career and happiness in the family. You have to watch your personal safety and reputation due to Mars impending ingress into your 12th House.



Sagittarius (Dhanu):



Mars due to join Jupiter in your 11th House by the weekend will strengthen your income sources. You are advised not to fall victim to cheating and deceptions by unscrupulous people. The Sun in your 12th House signifies heavy expenditure, illness, loss of status and impediments to your plans. With Saturn now back in your Lagna you are technically under the Shani Erashtaka, a period when you have to act with patience, foresight and circumspect. Jupiter continuing transit in the your 11th House assures material gains, wealth, higher status, more comforts and a generally good time.



Capricorn (Makara):



You can look forward to a general improvement in all areas in life when Venus turns favourable in your 11th House by Nov: 26. Mars due in your 10th House by the weekend will render that House too favourable assuring career success among other benefits. A happy time at work, higher status and an increase in income are already held out by the Sun in your 11th House. Saturn in your 12th House could cause the loss of lifes earnings. Time is not opportune for foreign travel either. Saturn being the Lagnadhipati the adverse influence will be minimal.



Aquarius (Kumbha):



Venus due in your 10th House on Nov: 26 could cause disgrace and humiliation. Financial gains and higher returns from investments are on the cards with a favourable Mercury in your 11th House. The Sun in your 10th House raises the prospect of a rise in your career and even gainful foreign travel. Saturn in your 11th House can bring you sound health, job satisfaction and general prosperity. Jupiter in the 9th House holds out gainful foreign travel, financial gains, high profits from business and general prosperity and generally a happy time.



Pisces (Meena):



Your 9th House will become strong enough to bestow on you wealth, health and fame in a greater measure when Venus enters it on Nov: 26. Mercury in your 10th House also holds out a favourable time when whatever endeavor you embark on would succeed. However, the Sun in your 9th House holds out a series of bad effects such as humiliation, worries and a sharp dip in your income. Mars due to join Jupiter in the 8th House could become a threat to your personal safety while you may suffer from ill health due to the adverse influence of Jupiter.
It is not clear whether the Presidents apparent blowing hot and cold in respect of mending relationship with Rajapaksa group indicates the Catch-22 situation he is in or he is attempting to hoodwink the Rajapaksa camp at a time when the latter is picking up candidates for the local polls.

With a nationwide election approaching, the vulnerability of the official SLFP seems to have left its members restless and insecure. This, in turn is applying pressure on the President to court the dissidents.

The possibility of mending fences by the two factions of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the incumbent president Maithripala Sirisena is quite remote, despite several people attempting to bring the two factions together, especially to contest the forthcoming local Government elections.

It was the Mahinda Rajapaksa faction that wanted a patch up between the two groups earlier in 2015 and 2016, with a view to circumvent the so-called anti-corruption drive of the Yahapalana Government, but the Maithri faction did not show much interest then. However, now the two groups seem to have swapped the positions with many SLFPers in the Government approaching the Mahinda faction seeking a restoration of relationship.



This is explicable in the light of the delicate situation of the group led by President Sirisena in respect of the forthcoming elections.



The mindset of the grass root level members and the supporters of the SLFP is not clear or seems to be more favourable to the former President.



With a nationwide election approaching, the vulnerability of the official SLFP seems to have left its members restless and insecure. This, in turn is applying pressure on the President to court the dissidents.

Hence, some of the SLFP Ministers were seen recently making desperate attempts to get a conciliatory word from the former President or anyone of his close subordinates.

Minister Susil Premajayantha whose heart has always been with Mahinda Rajapaksa even after he joined the Government had recently gone to meet his former boss with reported blessings of President Sirisena, while the Parliamentary group of the Joint Opposition was in session.



However, his frantic efforts had gone down the drain.



There were reports two weeks ago that Western Province Chief Minister Isura Devapriya who is a close ally of President Sirisena had unsuccessfully approached leader of the Joint Opposition and the Mahajana Eksatha Peramuna (MEP) Dinesh Gunawardene with a suggestion to contest the local polls jointly in their area, Maharagama. Another report said that Minister Wijith Wijayamuni Zoysa has also declared that the SLFP would face the elections with Mahinda Rajapaksa. His statement was seen ironic and was ridiculed as it was he who once soon after Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated at the Presidential election had proverbially said that nobody would keep his fathers body at home after his death.



Now he also had tried his hand in reconciliation with the same deceased father. The allegation that the SLFP led by President Sirisena attempts to delay the local Government elections announced by the Election Commission to be held in January has also to be viewed in this light



However, Mahinda faction that has made up its mind to go solo at the forthcoming elections seems to be firm in their demand that the SLFP group in the Government should sever links with the United National Party (UNP), if the two factions were to jointly face the polls. This is a demand that is impossible for the Maithri faction to meet, as they know that it would be suicidal for them, especially for the President, not only politically but also literally.



The President would have to grant some drastic concessions in the event of a patch up with the Mahinda faction such as withdrawal of major legal actions taken against the leaders of the joint Opposition, especially those against the members of the Rajapaksa family.



On the other hand, it would strengthen Rajapaksas hand while pushing President Sirisena to an awkward position as he would be totally left to Rajapaksas mercy.

It must be remembered that during the last Parliamentary election President Sirisena had stated that once Rajapaksa becomes the Prime Minister the Presidency would be at a bullets distance to him (Rajapaksa).



And the relationship between the two leaders has been such that the President had also once observed that he would have been six feet under the ground had Mahinda Rajapaksa won the Presidential election in 2015.



Days after Premajayantha met the former President, UNP Chairman Malik Samarawickrema and General Secretary Kabir Hashim had met President Sirisena and asked whether he was getting together with Mahinda Rajapaksa.



It was reported that the President had asked Mey sarama endagena eka karanna puluwanda? (Can I do it wearing this sarong?).



However, it was said that Premajayantha went on the peace mission with the blessings of the President.



It is not clear whether the Presidents apparent blowing hot and cold in respect of mending relationship with Rajapaksa group indicates the Catch-22 situation he is in or he is attempting to hoodwink the Rajapaksa camp at a time when the latter is picking up candidates for the local polls.



Yet, the relationship between the President and the UNP is also not without problems. The best indication of it was the media conference that was convened by State Minister Sujeeva Senasinghe where he said he was badly disappointed with the President after he (the President) appointed the Presidential Commission to investigate into the controversial Central Bank bond issue.



He went onto describe the move by the President as a conspiracy against the UNP. It is ironic that a man who was in the forefront against corruption calling a probe into a scam a conspiracy and not the very scam.



The Sunday Times reported in its last issue that the President had ordered Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundera to stop an investigation ordered by Minister Sagala Ratnayake and conducted by a Special Investigation Unit (SIU) into the Financial Crimes Division to determine whether there was any inaction on its part that delayed taking action over high profile cases.



The President while stopping the probe had observed that internecine rivalry at the highest levels of the police was causing serious problems.



However, the report further said that two days after the Presidents order Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had appointed an official committee to probe delays at the FCID and the Attorney Generals Department.



Earlier the President had reportedly accused a UNP minister for the delay or stalling of investigations into high profile cases and the Prime minister had denied it while claiming that there was multitude of other reasons for the delays.



It must be recalled that the President accused his partner in governance, the UNP in last July as well, claiming that allegations of high profile corruption against the leaders of the last regime, including the Rajapaksa family are being gradually swept under the carpet.



It is interesting and in a way pathetic to note that the two leaders at the highest level of the Government, even nearly three years after they had taken over the reins of the country, were clueless about the delays in the investigations into the major corruption cases.



Whatever in his mind may be, the President seems to be in a quandary in moving ahead as the leader of the SLFP.



On the one hand the pressure within his party to patch up with his dissidents is mounting while the UNP, as being his real strength, is pushing him on the opposite direction. If contested future elections on its own, the SLFP led by the President would run the risk of ranking third among major political parties.



But on the other hand a patch up would not be in his favour but in his main adversarys and it would sometimes be the beginning of the end of his political as well as personal fortunes.



It would really be interesting to see how he as seasoned politician is going to overcome the situation very soon at the forthcoming local Government elections.
Sri Lanka was invited to be a panelist at the high level dialogue of the International Congress on Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage that took place in Fatima, Portugal this week.



The dialogue was moderated by Secretary General of UNWTO, Dr. Taleb Rifai. Panelists included Minister of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs, John Amaratunga, Minister of Economy of Portugal, Minister of Tourism of Paraguay, Minister of Economy of Macedonia, Minister of Tourism of Brazil, Secretary General, Mediterranean Tourism Foundation and Former Minister of Economy of Lithuania.



The Congress was jointly organized by UNWTO and Ministry of Economy, Portugal on occasion of the centenary of apparitions of Fatima (1917-2017). The Congress reflected on the potential and role of religious tourism and sacred places as a tool for socio economic and cultural development of destinations. Delegates also discussed the ways and means of preserving the sanctity, authenticity and integrity of destinations in the way that they are managed, promoted and made accessible to all.

Speaking as a panelist, Minister John Amaratunga explained how the four major religions have harmoniously coexisted alongside each other in Sri Lanka for hundreds of years. We have Buddhist temples, Christian churches, Muslim mosques and Hindu kovils standing side by side in perfect harmony. Our people have a profound respect for each religion and the state itself has taken upon the role of safeguarding each of these religions andensuring peaceful cohabitation through the mechanism ofa dedicated ministry for each religion, he told the congress.



The congress which is taking place during the UN designated International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development also discussed how effective partnerships in sacred places could benefit local communities and encourage sustainable development and socio economic empowerment in the long term.



The participants discussed the need for specific policies for conservation and management of religious and sacred sites taking in to account the distinct culture and history associated with such places, noted Minister Amaratunga.

Speaking as a panelist, Minister John Amaratunga explained how the four major religions have harmoniously coexisted alongside each other in Sri Lanka for hundreds of years. We have Buddhist temples, Christian churches, Muslim mosques and Hindu kovils standing side by side in perfect harmony. Our people have a profound respect for each religion and the state itself has taken upon the role of safeguarding each of these religions andensuring peaceful cohabitation through the mechanism ofa dedicated ministry for each religion, he told the congress.



The congress which is taking place during the UN designated International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development also discussed how effective partnerships in sacred places could benefit local communities and encourage sustainable development and socio economic empowerment in the long term.



The participants discussed the need for specific policies for conservation and management of religious and sacred sites taking in to account the distinct culture and history associated with such places, noted Minister Amaratunga.

Caption
Sri Lanka is to host the 14th Executive Committee meeting of the South Asia Forum of Infrastructure Regulation (SAFIR) in Weligama, from November 24 to 26, 2017.



The SAFIR, established in May 1999 with the support of the World Bank, is an association of infrastructure regulators from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh and aims to provide a platform for experience sharing, initiate beneficial exchange of knowledge and expertise, conduct training programmes to serve regulatory agencies and other stakeholders and spur research on regulatory issues.



The SAFIR assists in the building of regulatory capacity in the electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, water, transport and other sectors as decided by the Steering Committee.



Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka Chairman Saliya Mathew has been elected as the chairperson for the SAFIR for the year 2017/18.



Mathew was also Governor of the Sabaragamuwa Province, Chairman of the Employees Trust Fund Board and Co-Chairman of the Salaries and Cadre Commission. The commission has been an active member of the SAFIR from its early stage.



This year, the committee agenda includes formation of a working group to work on mediation for regulatory compliance to facilitate knowledge sharing, addressing cross cutting energy/electricity regulatory issues and capacity building in South Asia. The eight South Asian nations (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) collectively account for over one-fourth of the worlds population and the region is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with an average annual growth rate of 6.8 percent as measured by the gross domestic product per capita, the World Bank data says.
By Anju Ambawatte

Thailand and Sri Lanka have plans to triple the trade values between the two countries by the year 2020, announced Ambassador of Thailand to Sri Lanka Chulamanee Chartsuwan, during a meeting held at the National Chamber of Commerce, on economic relationship, investments and bilateral trade between the two countries.



She further stated that in line with her mission to promote trade and investment in Sri Lanka, initial discussions have already been carried out between the two governments on a memorandum of understanding to enhance partnership and both countries to corporate in order to accomplish common benefits.



When spoken about the development of Thailand, she said that the country has progressed remarkably in social and economic development and had been declared by the World Bank as an upper-middle-income country. Since the economy has maintained a sustainable growth, it expanded by 3.3 percent at the end of the first quarter of this year and the overall growth expansion is expected to be in the rate of 3.3 percent - 3.8 percent at the end of this fiscal year.



On the investment aspect, she stated that by the first quarter of 2017, the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) had approved investment projects amounting to approximately US $ 7 billion, generating a 120 percent growth rate from last year. Additionally, the tourism sector too has strengthened immensely with 10 percent growth in tourism each year, she said.



The ambassador pointed out that all these significant improvements in various sectors have led Thailand to claim the 26th ranking position in the Doing Business report released by the World Bank just this month, which is a noteworthy improvement from last years ranking of 46.



Sharing her observations for the past four months since shes been assigned to Sri Lanka, she emphasized on the unique cultural relations between the two countries that would be highly beneficial in building strong economic connections.



She also added that signing the letter of intent between Rojana Industrial Estate of Thailand and the BOI, to construct the first-ever industrial zone in Sri Lanka, is undoubtedly an important step taken towards escalating bilateral investments between the two countries.



This will encourage internationally recognized high-tech companies to visit Sri Lanka in the future, she said.



In conclusion, she invited all existing and striving business enterprises to participate and visit Thailand trade fairs organised both here in Sri Lanka as well as in Thailand, which will help promote businesses and give exposure to new opportunities.
By Shabiya Ali Ahlam

Despite the hue and cry made by the public and a certain section of the business community on Sri Lankas trade deficit with its neighbouring giant, a top economist asserted such arguments do not show the real picture of the situation at hand and said one should not pay much attention to it.

While acknowledging the concern arises due to India being Sri Lankas largest trading partner, Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) Chairman Dr. Razeen Sally said, The argument that the trade deficit is bad is obviously economically-illiterate. The trade deficit with India doesnt really tell us anything about the state of Indo-Lanka relations. Taking the situation in isolation, it is not a big deal as the public perception has it, Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) Chairman Dr.Razeen Sally told a forum in Colombo, this week, while acknowledging the complexities that may arise due to India being Sri Lankas trading partner.



He pointed out that it cannot be said with certainty that the deficit arises due to the unfair trade practices on the side of India or Sri Lanka.



Noting that trade is related to domestic intelligence, it was pointed out that the fundamental obstacles faced by Sri Lankan exports have much less to do with the barriers that other countries put in Sri Lankas way but instead it has much more to do with the domestic obstacles in doing business.

In Sri Lanka, it is about the competitiveness agenda and has to do with our export potential to India as well. We must emphasize the mutual gain from the bilateral trade relation. As the Chinese puts it a win- wsin situation, said Dr.Sally.



We need to improve our exports to India, but at the same time, imports from India are a good thing for Sri Lankan consumers, he added.

It was also pointed out that the strategy to be employed at this point of time is to have a less defensive position from the side of Sri Lanka in terms of trade and executing the reform agenda, which includes trade liberalisation.



So far we have a trade policy which is being held hostage in the trade negotiations with India, China and Singapore and that drives everything else. We need to have a domestic reform agenda on which we should build our trade negotiations, he said.



Dr. Sally also opined that Sri Lanka appointing a new Finance Minister is good news and his keenness on trade liberalization is well pronounced. The tabling of a different budget is said to give hopes in kick-starting the much needed reform agenda.
Gross NPA in Canara Bank as on September 30 this year stood at Rs 39,164 crore while the net NPA at Rs 25,166 crore. (Photo: DC)

Chennai: The employees of Canara Bank on Friday requested the Centre not to consider cross merger of smaller public sector banks having high NPAs.

"Centre has already ensured the merger of five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with SBI. Now it is pushing for the second round of cross mergers with public sector banks", founder of Canara Bank Staff Federation S Revanna said.

The merger would not bring any relief to the "ailing" banking industry as the increasing Non Performing Assets (NPAs) pass the burden from one entity to another, he said in a press release.

The gross NPA in Canara Bank as on September 30 this year stood at Rs 39,164 crore while the net NPA at Rs 25,166 crore, he said.

The Federation would hold the fourth edition of the two day All India Conference here from Saturday.

Over 800 delegates were expected to participate in the event which would be formally inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.

During the two day conference discussions and deliberations affecting bank employees and the industry would be taken up, the release said.
Havmor Ice Cream Ltd (HIL) has said it will sell its business to South Korea's Lotte Confectionery for Rs 1,020 crore. (Photo: Youtube Screengrab)

New Delhi: Home-grown ice cream manufacturer Havmor Ice Cream Ltd (HIL) has said it will sell its business to South Korea's Lotte Confectionery for Rs 1,020 crore.

Lotte, which is synonymous with the Lotte pie, has decided to acquire 100 per cent shares of HIL, the company said in a statement. Lotte will now expand its confectionary business in India to also include ice creams.

"It's a brand that we have nurtured with our team for over 73 years. But we believe that Lotte Confectionery is the right brand to take the company to the next level," HIL Chairman Pradeep Chona said.

The 23-year-old Havmor that is based out of Ahmedabad has a large network of parlours across 14 states in the country. The company sells 150 kinds of products via 30,000 dealers.

The USD 80 billion Lotte Confectionery entered India in 2004 and boosted its market share to hit 90 per cent in the domestic choco-pie market.

Havmor will continue running its signature chain of restaurants across Gujarat as well as its signature brand and concept cafe Huber and Holly.

KPMG, Veritas Legal and Dhruva Tax consultants have been appointed as the financial advisers for the deal.
The government on Thursday clarified that it has no plans of banning cheque books. (Photo: Pixabay)

New Delhi: The government on Thursday quashed rumours regarding its decision to ban the cheque book, assuring bank account holders that it was planning no such move.

The governments clarification on Thursday came amidst media reports suggesting that after the demonetisation of high-value notes, it was now planning to abolish cheque books to encourage digital transactions.

"The Government of India has reaffirmed that there is NO proposal under consideration to withdraw the bank cheque book facility. It had appeared in a certain section of media that there is a possibility that the Central Government may withdraw bank cheque book facility in the near future, with an intent to encourage digital transactions. This has been denied by the Government and reaffirmed that there's no such proposal," said the Ministry of Finance in a tweet on Thursday.

The Government of India has reaffirmed that there is NO proposal under consideration to withdraw the bank Cheque Book facility.  Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) November 23, 2017

It had appeared in a certain section of media that there is a possibility that the Central Govt may withdraw bank cheque book facility in the near future, with an intent to encourage digital transactions.This has been denied by the Govt & reaffirmed that there's no such proposal  Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) November 23, 2017

A senior official of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), Praveen Khandelwal had recently told PTI that in all probability, the Centre may withdraw the cheque book facility in the near future to encourage digital transactions.

Although digital transactions have surged post demonetisation, data shows that people still prefer to use cash more.

Had the government abolished cheque books, it would have caused major inconvenience to traders who still conduct most of their daily transactions by means of cash and cheque books. After the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the use of cheque books by traders is likely to have risen.
All ARCs with at least half of the directors, including independent directors, are also exempted from the 26 per cent shareholding cap in the borrower firm.

Mumbai: In a major boost to the asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) the Reserve Bank on Friday relaxed norms capping their shareholdings at 26 per cent in the borrower firm under reconstruction, provided their net-owned funds are maintained at Rs 100 crore.

Earlier ARCs could convert a portion of the debt into equity of the borrower company to the extent of 26 per cent of the revamped equity capital.

However, RBI in a notification on Friday said, "ARCs with net-owned fund (NOF) of Rs 100 crore on an ongoing basis are exempted from the shareholding cap at 26 per cent of post- converted equity of the borrower company".

But the regulator did not specicfy the new sharing limit post-debt conversion.

All ARCs with at least half of the directors, including independent directors, are also exempted from the 26 per cent shareholding cap in the borrower firm.

The central bank also asked the boards of ARCs to frame a policy for converting debt into equity, under which it prefers a committee comprising mostly independent directors to take a call on such matters.

The equity shares acquired under the scheme shall be periodically valued and marked-to-market and the frequency of valuation shall be at least once a month, the central bank notification said.
New Delhi: Cisco Chairman John Chambers will lead a business delegation of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum for the annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) at Hyderabad, beginning November 28.

This year's theme of the GES is 'Women First, Prosperity For All' with an emphasis on womens empowerment and support for women entrepreneurs, the forum said in a statement.

Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to the US President Donald Trump, will lead the American contingent for the three-day summit.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the conference, which will include an audience of about 1,500 people including entrepreneurs, investors, government officials and business representatives from across the world.

US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) President Mukesh Aghi said the summit will provide an opportunity to further develop the relationship between the US and India, particularly from a business and trade perspective. He said a lot of US companies are looking at investment potential in India.

"Indian government is willing to take tough decisions and carry out structural reforms," Aghi said, adding that continuous focus on further improving the ease of doing business would help India attract investments.

USISPF board members from companies like KKR India, Dell EMC would be part of the USISPF delegation for GES.

GES was previously held in Washington, Istanbul, Dubai, Marrakech, Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur and the Silicon Valley. This is the first time that the summit will take place in South Asia.
Mumbai: Ayushmann Khurrana is currently riding high on success with his two back-to-bacl releases - Shubh Mangal Savdhan and Bareilly ki Barfi.

Reportedly, Ayushmann has given nod to his next movie that will also star Aamir Khan's 'Dangal' fame Sanya Malhotra opposite him.

Amit Sharma, who made his Bollywood directorial debut with Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha starrer 'Tevar' in 2015, will be directing Ayushmann-Sanyas Badhai Ho. He asserted, "Its very real and easy to relate to. What is funny for others is a matter of concern for the family. I hope one day soon people will tell me Badhai Ho too, after watching the film.

While confirming the news, Ayushmann said, I had a fantastic experience collaborating with Junglee Pictures for Bareilly Ki Barfi and working with them on Badhaai Ho is going to be exciting. The story that Amit tells is typically Indian with dollops of quirky humour. I look forward to a family film that is both innovative and entertaining.

The co-producer Priti said, Our release for this year, Bareilly Ki Barfi, received much love from the audience. It has been fantastic working with Ayushmann and we are now looking forward to collaborate with him again on Badhaai Ho. Amit is an exceptional director as is evident from his body of work. We couldnt have asked for a better team coming together to tell this story.

Badhai Ho is expected to go on floors by the end of January next year.
New Delhi: India's foreign-language Oscar hopeful 'Newton' bagged two wins at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Brisbane, with Rajkummar Rao winning the best actor, and writer Mayank Tewari and director Amit V. Masurkar grabbing the best screenplay honour.

Dedicating the award to his late mother, Rajkummar, in his acceptance speech, said, "Let's keep doing this beautiful work, let's keep making these wonderful stories. Here's to cinema!"

Lets keep doing this beautiful work, lets keep making these wonderful stories. Heres to cinema! - @RajkummarRao thanked his late mother for blessing @NewtonTheFilm in his acceptance speech #APSA2017 pic.twitter.com/knbG4jLDqK  Asia Pacific Screen Awards (@APScreenAwards) November 23, 2017

Later, the 33-year-old actor took to his Twitter page to say, "Won the best actor award at the most prestigious #APSA2017 (Asia Pacific Screen Awards). Thank you Maa. Thank u team #Newton. Don't stop chasing your dreams because they really do come true."

Won the best actor award at the most prestigious #APSA2017 (Asia Pacific Screen Awards). Thank you Maa. Thank u team #Newton. Dont stop chasing your dreams because they really do come true. pic.twitter.com/4GPRqRHyd1  Rajkummar Rao (@RajkummarRao) November 23, 2017

At the ceremony, where Australia's 'Sweet Country' won the top award, India's 'Lady of the Lake' by director Haobam Paban Kumar won a special mention in the Cultural Diversity Award Under the Patronage of UNESCO category in which Dede was the winner.

'Newton' revolves around a rookie but idealistic election officer as he struggles to hold elections in a Chhattisgarh village despite the threat of Naxalite violence.
We wont even announce a date until the elections, asserts a source from the team of Padmavati. (Photo: DC)

Mumbai: There seems no likelihood of Sanjay Leela Bhansalis beleaguered epic Padmavati being released at all in December. The producers have decided to wait until the Gujarat elections before taking a call on a new release date.

We wont even announce a date until the elections, asserts a source from the team of Padmavati. Apparently, the instruction to hold the release till the crucial elections have come from the ruling partys high command.

So, when is the film expected to be released? Well, if you insist on knowing, we are looking at early January, says the source. If you look at the January schedule, theres only one major release, and thats Padman. So January looks like a good time to release Padmavati.

Meanwhile, selected shows with leaders of political outfits are still being planned. We plan to have selected screenings, as soon as the CBFC certifies the film, the source adds.

In fact, word is that Viacom 18 Motion Pictures also intends to invite the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to watch the film.
Actor Billy Baldwin has accused US President Donald Trump of hitting on his wife after gate crashing a party two decades ago.

In response to a tweet from Donald Trump Jr. about the latest sexual harassment allegations against Democratic Senator Al Franken, Baldwin said Trump once "hit on my wife" at a Manhattan hotel.

The tweet read: "Your Dad is a 5th degree black belt when it comes to sexual impropriety allegations. In fact. I once had a party at the Plaza Hotel. your father showed up uninvited & hit on my wife. invited her on his helicopter to Atlantic City."

"She showed his fat a-- the door," he added.

Your Dad is a 5th degree black belt when it comes to sexual impropriety allegations.

In fact I once had a party at the Plaza Hotel your father showed up uninvited & hit on my wife invited her on his helicopter to Atlantic City.



She showed his fat ass the door.#TrumpRussia https://t.co/A8BInetbbZ  Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) November 23, 2017

The 54-year-old, who has been married to Chynna Phillips since 1995, used to be cordial with Trump but has been a staunch critic since the campaign, regularly lashing out against him over Twitter.

Baldwin's brother and fellow actor, Alec Baldwin has on several occasions drawn ire for his Trump impersonation on 'Saturday Night Live.'
It has been learnt that Nagarjuna, the king of romance in Tollywood, will not romance the female lead in his upcoming film with Ram Gopal Varma. There is a lead actress, but she isnt playing his love interest as she will be seen playing another major role alongside Nagarjuna in the film, says a source from the unit.

However, RGV wants to rope in an actress for the lead role only after wrapping up the first schedule. Her role will be shot only in January or February, so RGV is in no hurry to select the actress, added the source. Also, there are no songs in the film with the exception of an item number.

Presently, being filmed in Hyderabad, the team will travel to Mumbai in December for the next sequence.
Rating:

Director: Deepak Shivdasani

Cast: Raai Laxmi, Pankaj Tripathy, Rati Agnihotri, Ravi Kishan, Aditya Srivastava, Yuri Suri

There are many facets to an actors life that one could look into and weave a compelling story. Since the job of an actor  male or female  is no ordinary one, what with pitfalls that he or she faces, and resultantly, either receives brickbats or accolades that come his or her way, an earnest probe into a celebrated film personalitys life would definitely be worth a dekko. But that only if there is a film. And a plot. Julie 2 is neither, but becomes all the more interesting because its none other than our erstwhile sanskari former CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani as one of the producers.

On being asked about the sleaze that the trailers seemed to suggest the film contains, his answer was dubiously non-committal. Its something the entire family can watch together, he clarified.

It is not. I am afraid, the film let alone being qualified to watch with ones family, is in reality, a dud that includes half-baked notions of stardom and ends up becoming a liberal dose of skin show and melodramatic saga pandering to all those who look for scandals associated with an actress life. Needless to add, its not meant for anyone!

Julie 2 could have been a story of a simple girl who rises to be a big star. One gets to know that her success is not without its dark side, and one instantly imagines, many dark secrets that celebrities like her tend to hide, and would rather die protecting. An ambitious girl who loves acting as an art and learns Kathak, Bharatanatyam, horse riding and all that it takes to be a Bollywood actor, Julie has had a traumatic childhood.

But all producers would rather have her body than her talent to help her make it big. She doesnt give up and knocks many doors to try her luck. In return, all she gets from all those she has loved dearly is betrayal. There are flashbacks used to tell her past story comprising her stepfather (Yuri Suri) who abused her, her mother, her hairdresser-cum-friend Annie aunty (Rati Agnihotri), who is like her second mother. As Annie is seen helping assistant commissioner of police Dev Dutt (Aditya Shrivastava) solve Julies mysterious past, one gets more and more confused about what films director Deepak Shivdasani is trying to tell us through this mish-mash tale that leaves many loose ends. Julies life has many incomplete culminations  be it her relationships or her career. But things get out of hand when Julie signs a Hollywood film based on the life of Sumitra Devi, a politician who is likely to be the chief minister, whose husband Ashwini Asthana (Pankaj Tripathy) is seen sounding the clapperboard on the day of the muhrat. With other characters flitting in and out, the film tries hard to keep its viewers sagging interest alive with songs, dances thrown in suddenly.

Sadly, poor acting by the lead actress lets it sink to insufferable heights. In fact, its at times agonising to sit through an over two-hour long film which could boast of great actors like Tripathy and Aditya Shrivastava. Raai Laxmi looks unsure of the demands of the script; when she is expected to strip out of the blue, she does make the extra effort to infuse her character with some heft. She is also seen seeking solace in Christ  the lord who incidentally becomes a sort of testimony in unfolding a mystery.
Bengaluru: He seems to be controversys own child these days. Not too long ago he was in the eye of a storm for his remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and now well known actor, Prakash Raj is in the midst of a fresh spat by shooting off a legal notice to BJP MP, Pratap Simha on his tweet and Facebook post against him.

The actor told reporters in Bengaluru on Thursday that he had sent the notice to Mr Simha because of the way he had trolled him on social media. I am seeking an answer and an apology from him in public within 10 days. If he doesnt give me both I will file a criminal case against him, he warned. Mr Simhas tweet on the actor on October 2 read, Being sad due to sons death, having left your wife and run behind a dancer. The Mysuru MPs tweet came a day after Mr Prakash Raj hit out at the PM for his silence on the murder of journalist /activist, Gauri Lankesh.

Calling Mr Simha a serial offender, Raj claimed he had made his life difficult by his tweets and FB posts. I have a daughter and a wife whom I am answerable to. When I share my pain you cant troll me and ask your followers to troll me too. When the widow of the Minister Mahadeva Prasad contested the resulting bypoll from his constituency, Simha had the audacity to say that instead of mourning his death, she was greedy for power. She cried on the dais, he recalled, adding that he was worried about the impact Mr Simha has on the women and the youth of his constituency. Dont make it ugly, you have a responsibility to society, he told him.
Telugu writer Popuri Lalitha Kumari writes under the pen name Volga. Her book, Manaku Teliyani M S on M.S.Subbalakshmi will be launched today at a Manthan event.

Telugu writer Popuri Lalitha Kumari, well-known as Volga, her pen name, has translated one of the best selling English books titled M.S. Subbulakshmi: The Definitive Biography by T.J.S. George into Telugu.

The book Manaku Teliyani MS will be launched at a Manthan event. Says Volga, For me, M.S. Subbulakshmis decision to leave her home in Madurai at night and take a train to Chennai shows the zeal and strength of an individual who decided to take charge of life. It was definitely not an ordinary decision for her to move away from her family, especially as she hailed from the Devadasi community.

The book Manaku Teliyani MS will be launched at a Manthan event.

She adds, Those were the days when Muttulakshmi Reddy was fighting to liberate women from the Devadasi community while Bengaluru Nagaratnamma was leading a mission for retaining their identity. The Carnatic music scenario was complex and depended on the socio-political background of artistes to find support. Its interesting how she weaved her way into this system and created a fan following for her soulful music.

Volga confesses that she has always been a great fan of the musician. Ive heard the live concerts of M.S.Subbulakshmi at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Hari Hara Kala Bhavan in Hyderabad. Since childhood, I have been listening to her voice over the radio, TV and tape recorder. It was very evident that she never had any ego, in spite of being a much sought after artiste. Her music was detached from commercial considerations and she always desired to sing a Dharmika Kucheri. Therefore, the moment Hyderabad Book Trust suggested a Telugu translation, I accepted it, she says.

Listing her inspiration, she shares, Famous writers like Chalam, Sri Sri and Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao always inspired me. When I was younger, I read a lot of Russian literature too. That was during the days of the erstwhile Soviet Union when Telugu translations of Maxim Gorky, Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev were available at throwaway prices.

Describing some of her works, Volga says, Rajakiya Kathalu is a compilation of stories that speak about each part of a womans body and how they were exploited in a patriarchal society. Sweccha talks about womens citizenship other than the identity of a mother, wife or daughter. Vimukta Kadha Samputi, for which I won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2015, has stories about women in the Ramayana like Sita, Ahalya, Renuka, Surpanaka and Urmila.

Expressing concern about the number of readers going down along with the poor library facilities in districts and mandals of Telangana State, Volga says, There are many young talented Telugu writers but reading books is no more a fashion. Unfortunately, there isnt much money in Telugu writing. It would be very difficult for a young writer to take this up as a full time profession.
The digital media revolution has swept everything in its path and mainstream education is no exception to this rule, even in a placement-oriented country like India. Dr Geetha Narayanan, founder of the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, who has been at the forefront of the wave, talks to Ralph Alex Arakal about her latest initiatives: bringing new media learning to the urban poor and Lab in a Bag, a progressive, tech-driven approach to teaching science across communities.

Everyone has dreams, but not all manage to achieve them. It is this journey of realisation of her hopes and ambitions that sets Dr Geetha Narayanan apart from the ordinary folks. From teaching maths to merely dreaming of doing something worthwhile in the area of design, she today has the satisfaction of looking back at 20 years as the founding director of the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in the city.

Arriving in Bengaluru from Madurai with her husband, Ravi Narayan after his transfer to the city several decades ago, she began to teach maths at the American Community School (now Bangalore International School). Interestingly, she found common cause with the school principal, Anne Warrior , and together they founded the famed Mallya Aditi International School with support from the Ujjwal Trust in 1984.

Finally on her way to realising her dreams, she decided to act on her love for design some 12 years later and set up the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in 1996. Established as a design home for 30 students in four different courses at the time, the institute today has 1,300 students pursuing 53 courses at its different campuses in Bengaluru and Pune.

The years since have seen many accolades come Dr Narayan's way, not least of them global recognition as an innovative educationist. Not only is she now a Directors Fellow at the Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, she is also a board member of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.

Her achievements have not been without struggle. Dr Narayan recalls that art and design were not considered a good enough professional option in the India of the nineties. Convincing people to think about art and design as a career option was tedious. As an institute which never had a patron to clear its path to development, finding resources and support for it has always been a challenge, she says.

The effort has been worth it as Srishti is now the only institution in the country with a UNESCO chair in culture, habitat and sustainable development. Art is both global and local at the same time and so making it universal, eternal and enduring is what we need to strive for in the future.

The inspiration for Srishti came from her travels, readings and constant meetings with global educators, she explains. My goal was to build an institution that allowed the aspirations of artists and of those in the field of culture to grow, Dr Narayan adds.

A strong believer and promoter of holistic education, she is all for reforms in all spheres of education in the country. Our policy-makers should realise the importance of providing education at an inter-disciplinary level in a holistic construct. While mass media channels, the Internet and smartphone apps have opened a gateway of information, its high time we realised that knowledge in the present era has taken a multi-disciplinary route, she remarks.

Foreseeing the scope of the industry, Dr Narayan has come up with a unique project which aims to create a learning model for urban poor communities using new media arts and critical pedagogy. Her other initiative, Lab in a Bag tries to bridge the most progressive ways of teaching science by using a digital media approach across communities.

As for the future of design and creativity, she has a tremendous vision, seeing the field make over a 40 per cent contribution to the Indian economy quite soon. Creative professionals will take over spots where imagination plays a role in almost all spheres of life and industry. If Indias boom of the last decade was built on technology, its growth in the next decade will be based on its creativity, she forecasts.

As someone who fell in love with design and international education at the same time, Dr Narayanan believes that a college-goer should never confine his or her goals to a mere placement. The three to four years one spends in college are undoubtedly the best time of ones life. Learning, discovering, and experiencing life while enjoying it is something that can influence us forever and must be cherished. But constant updates in the field of education are essential for a better tomorrow and to tap the best resources. The future should stem from an education that fosters imagination, intellect and intuition, she adds in summation.

While she has shown tremendous gumption in following her dreams, some may argue that being an educationist and a successful one at that , runs in her blood. After- all Dr Narayans grandfather founded the Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni College for Women in Malleswaram in the city several years ago. But what makes her journey commendable is her steady determination to get where she has while remaining true to her ideals all along. Its a story of a dream well realised.
According to researchers, evidence has been discovered showing election promoted love in human evolution' as it increased the chances of us having families. (Photo: Pixabay)

Falling in love is both beautiful and mysterious. And now if studies are to be believed, it is pretty scientific as well. Scientists believe this strange feeling could be key to our evolutionary success.

According to researchers, evidence has been discovered showing election promoted love in human evolution' as it increased the chances of us having families.

Scientists studied Hadza people of Tanzania, who don't use modern contraception, and found passionate partnerships were associated with having more children.

It follows previous research that found love may have evolved to stop male primates from killing their infants.

While modern societies are fettered with distractions, the hunter-gatherers are believed to have changed little in the last ten thousand years and for this reason they could provide insight into the early evolution of love among our prehistoric ancestors.

Speaking about the study, researchers say that the study may shed new light on the meaning of love in humans' evolutionary past, especially in traditional hunter-gatherer societies in which individuals, not their parents, were responsible for partner.

The research conduced at the University of Wroclaw and led by Dr Piotr Sorokowski looked at three components in order to measure the depth of love - intimacy, passion and commitment, also referred to as the Sternberg Triangular Theory of Love created in 1985 by psychologist Robert Sternberg.

Researchers compared these measures of love with how many children couples had.

Researchers found there was a positive association between passion and reproductive success in both sexes.

This could be because passion increases the number of sexual encounters and is particularly high in the early stages of a relationship.

This means if a couple cannot have children they will realise that quite quickly and could decide to search for alternative mates.

They deduced that commitment helps people maintain stable relationships and people often decide to stay together in order to have children.

Furthermore, in species where males and females bonded strongly, the chance of their offspring surviving was much higher as the males had to help with parenting.
Treasure hunter Chris Kutler discovered a haul of ancient gold coins believed to be from 1,500 years ago that was buried with an Anglo-Saxon King, the Daily Mail reported.

After four days of searching, the 54-year-old found the coins in a field in Chelmsford, Essex.

The find has been sent to the British Museum for analysis. It is reportedly worth 10,000.

Even more extraordinary, Kutler found rare Anglo-Saxon coins at the very same site 18 years ago. He decided to go back to the site when he read an article that alluded to the fact there could be more.

"It is kind of the Holy Grail of metal detectoring. It was an incredible feeling to find the coins," Kutler told the Daily Mail.

Adding, "It was the best feeling in the world, especially after four days of hard work."

The coins are said to be from the Dark Ages (620-640AD approximately) and are thought to be a symbol of high status.
Xiong Gaowu is famed as an expert eyeball-shaver which basically means he washes peoples eyes with a knife. (Photo: Pixabay)

A veteran barber, hailing from China has revealed that he has been cleaning eyeballs with razor-sharp blades for more than four decades without any problem.

Xiong Gaowu, 62, has a distinctive skill which normal hairdressers would definitely not offer their customers.

He is famed as an expert eyeball-shaver which basically means he washes peoples eyes with a knife.

The five-minute process is said to involve pulling the eyelid back to expose the eyeball, following which the eyeball is cleansed, shaved and scraped with a razor sharp blade.

The process is repeated for both upper and lower eyelids.

The barber uses an iodine solution was added for sterlisation before eye drops were applied to blade and reportedly claims that he has never had a slip up in more than 40 years.

The method, according to him, allows the inner eyelid to get cleaned allowing better vision. However, he only serves customers above 30.

His outdoor barbershop is located in Chengdu, capital of south-western Chinas Sichuan Province.
Beau also described the young prince as being a spoilt brat' and the entire incident took place on the polo pitch. (Photo: AP)

While most people go all fuzzy seeing the young Royals of UK, not everyone is so taken to them.

In a recent occasion, the younger of Prince Charles son, Prince Harry got told to f**k off and not in jest either.

Prince Harry was on the receiving end of the tongue lashing by Australian polo player Beau Skerrett.

Not only was he asked to go and copulate, Beau also described him as being a spoilt brat.

The entire incident took place on the polo pitch during a charity match Beau was umpiring between Prince William, Prince Harry and the princes of Malaysia back in 2014.

Speaking to The Courier Mail, Beau explained that he felt he had to say something after Prince Harry lost his temper on the field.

While he added that William was "the perfect bloke", his assessment of Harry was a little more brutal.

He went on to add that Harry lost his cool and was a spoilt brat.

He added, It got to the point where I couldn't send anyone off but something had to be said because he was just getting a bit serious. He didn't take it too well. I think Im the only guy who ever told him to f**k off in front of a crowd that pay 5000 pound to shake his hand.

He adds that it was very funny and Prince William actually apologized for him, but admits, it is an impressive claim to fame.
MALAPPURAM: A nurse from the department of health has been manhandled by group of local residents at Edayur near Valancheri in the district on Thursday during the the Measles Rubella vaccination drive. Shyamala Bai, a nurse of the Edayur Prinary Health Centre was assaulted by the group who protested against the vaccination drive at GLP School, Athipatta on Thursday evening. The injured nurse was hospitalised with fractured hand. The attackers also damaged Shyamalas mobile phone.

According to the police the protest turned violent alleging that some of the children were administered vaccine without the consent of the parents. Shyamala was one of the team of health officials led by Dr Ali Muhammed, Medical Officer of Edayur PHC, which was carrying out vaccination at the Govt school. The Valancheri police has registered a case against the attackers based on a complaint by Dr. Muhammed.

The Police has initiated search to arrest the attackers. Following the incident the Kerala Government Public Nurses and Supervisors Union has demanded stern action against the attackers and threatened to boycott the vaccination drive for not ensuring safety for health workers. The union has given an ultimatum to arrest the attackers by Friday otherwise would boycott the vaccination drive a press note by union said.
A case was registered under Section 354A of the IPC for sexual harassment as well as the relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. (Photo: DC)

Hyderabad: K. Mahapatra, 54, the Principal of the Atomic Energy Central School- II in ECIL, was arrested on Friday by the Kushaiguda Police for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student of class IX while in an inebriated state.

The Assistant Commissioner of Police Syed Rafeeq said, The incident occurred on October 28. When the girl told her parents about the incident after much hesitation, they approached the school management and lodged a complaint. A management meeting was held and the principal was suspended a few days ago.

The police said that the girl had gone to the practice room to collect her bag before leaving for home on October 28, when she was called by the Principal to his cabin.

He was in an inebriated state. He offered her snacks and lassi, which she accepted. When she was about to leave his cabin, he locked the door and tried to kiss her. When she raised a hue and cry, he let her go after making her promise that she would not tell anyone about the incident, a police official said.

The girls parents decided to file a complaint at the Kushaiguda police station.

A case was registered under Section 354A of the IPC for sexual harassment as well as the relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The accused was arrested on Friday.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said China's stand is that the CPEC is an economic cooperation initiative and has 'nothing to do with territorial sovereignty disputes'. (Photo: File)

Beijing/New Delhi: China on Thursday skirted a direct response to the reported proposal by its envoy's to India to rename the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to address New Delhi's concerns and said the project does not affect China and Pakistan's position on the Kashmir issue.

China's ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui during an interaction with experts on Chinese affairs and students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) last week offered to rename the CPEC as well as build an alternative corridor through Jammu and Kashmir.

India has raised concerns over the project as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking southern Pakistan, and the Gwadar Port, to China's restive Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry responding to media queries about Luo's remarks said, "The China-Pakistan economic corridor is a framework for cooperation focusing on the long-term development of cooperation in all fields."

The project is not only in the interests of both China and Pakistan but also also conducive to promoting regional stability and development, it said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said China's stand is that the CPEC is an economic cooperation initiative and has "nothing to do with territorial sovereignty disputes".

The CPEC "does not affect China and Pakistan's position on the Kashmir issue," it said.

Previously China had stated that the project would not change its stand on Kashmir. This time China also referred to Pakistan's stand too.

China's stand on the Kashmir issue is that it should be resolved between India and Pakistan through negotiations.

On Lu's reported remark about building an alternative corridor through Jammu and Kashmir, the foreign ministry said, "China is ready to strengthen connectivity with all neighbouring countries and promote regional economic cooperation and common prosperity".

This is not the first time that Lu has offered to rename the corridor. In his address to the United Services Institution in New Delhi on May 5, he had echoed similar

views.

His remarks were, however, subsequently removed from the transcript of his address posted on the website of the Chinese Embassy amid reports that Pakistan sought a clarification on it.

Chinese officials, in Beijing, however in their off the record conversations suggested that it was perhaps Luo's personal initiative to address India's concerns over the CPEC.
'By making such statements Kamal Haasan is trying to brand Hindus as terrorists,' petitioner says. (File photo)

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the police to register an FIR against actor Kamal Haasan if a cognisable offence is made out against him over his alleged comments on "Hindu terrorism" in a Tamil magazine.

Justice MS Ramesh passed the order on a petition by G Devarajan, a registered advocate clerk in the high court, seeking a direction to the police to register the FIR against the actor based on his complaint.

According to the petitioner, the actor said in an article published in the magazine's November 8 edition that the presence of "Hindu terrorism" in the country cannot be ruled out.

"By making such statements Kamal Haasan is trying to brand Hindus as terrorists. He should understand that no religion preaches violence but only peace. The actor with vested interests is trying to divide the Tamil community on basis of religion," the petitioner said.

He further said he had approached the Chennai police commissioner on November 4 and Teynampet police on November 6 with his complaint against the actor.

Since no action was taken on the complaints, he moved the high court.
Hyderabad: It may take some more time in introducing combined tickets for Metro Rail, RTC buses and MMTS services: Officials have not started work yet. During the introduction of the Multi Model Transportation System (MMTS) in the city one-and-half decades ago, both the Road Transport Corporation and the South Central Railway had introduced combined ticket facility. Though it ran for a few months, the authorities later withdrew the services due to various issues.

Similar issues were discussed and emphasised upon by the RTC and railway auth-orities during the preliminary meetings on the combined ticket facility with Metro Rail authorities. Though L&T is interested in introducing such a facility, it has not approached the RTC or the SCR. SCR chief public relations officer Uma Shanker Kumar said there was no such proposal at present. No one from either Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited or L&T approached us on the matter, he said.

Mr A. Purushotham Naik, TSRTC executive director (Greater Hyderabad) said L&T was working on the possibility. The facility has not met with success in other states. Even eight years after Metro Rail services were started in Delhi, the Delhi government has not introduced this facility. Even in Bengaluru, there is no combined ticket for Namma Metro and KSRTC.

An official in the RTC, who worked on combined ticket for MMTS and RTC in 2006, said that there were conflicts between the two agencies. The share on the ticket amount was the major issue as MMTS minimum charge was Rs 3 and RTC Rs 2 at that time. But, RTC faced loses. The RTC may face similar loses whatever the share may be between Metro, MMTS and RTC, the source said.

50 new buses for Metro travellers

Transport minister Patnam Mahender Reddy on Thursday informed the media that the RTC would operate 50 buses between the new colonies, IT corridor and 10 Metro Rail stations for the convenience of commuters. Speaking at a press conference, the minister along with RTC managing director G.V. Ramana Rao and executive director (Greater Hyderabad) A. Purushotham Naik, said that the RTC was operating 1,700 services on the Metro Rail corridor from Nagole to Miyapur and these would continue, We have 70 per cent occupancy in the services and we will observe the difference in occupancy ratio for the next two months. Based on the difference, we will take a decision on either cancellation of trips or introducing more services, he said.

The minister said the RTC had taken up a survey on the opinion of regular commuters between Nagole and Miyapur with 20,000 samples and only 15 per cent of regular commuters expressed their interest in shifting to Metro Rail. Besides this, the RTC, along with students of Gitam, took up another survey on the necessity of new services from colonies to Metro Rail stations and based on the report, we are introducing 50 new services from November 28, Mr Reddy said.

He also said that the transport department was ready for Metro Rail Phase-II. We organised studies in Bengaluru and Mumbai. While our staff visited Bengaluru, I personally studied the Metro Rail and RTC services in Mumbai. We believe that there will be no impact of the Metro Rail on RTC, he said. The minister said that Metro Rail passengers would have RTC facility at all the stations at an interval of 10 minutes. As per the report submitted by the Gitam students, we are planning to introduce bus facility to 80 colonies connecting Metro Rail stations, he said.
Mysuru: A decked up and illuminated Mysuru is all ready to host the three- day Akhila Bharatha Kannada Sahithya Sammelana, that takes off in the city on Friday. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will inaugurate the literary fest in the presence of some of his Ministers, president of the sammelana, Prof Chandrashekar Patil, 40 popular literateurs and over 1800 VIPs at the Maharajas College grounds. A record number of 13,500 delegates have registered to participate in the prestigious event that will see prof. Patil, popularly known as Champa arrive at the venue in an Akshara ratha a chariot decked with 50 kgs of jasmines, to the tunes of the Nagaswara. The colourful procession, which will begin from the north gate of the Mysuru palace, will comprise eight tableaux based on literary traditions, art and sculpture and the Mysuru royal family, among other themes, besides 52 cultural troupes, 3000 students, the police band, school bands, horse drawn chariots and mounted cops.

Besides attending various symposiums, those attending the fest can look forward to an art display in a gallery, a book exhibition with 450 book stalls and an exhibition of 250 commercial stalls.They will also get to enjoy cultural programmes that will be held near the palace, at Kirurangamandira, the Town Hall and near the small clock tower.

While hoteliers have offered a 30 per cent discount on their rooms, the district administration is accommodating the 1,846 VIPs arriving for the sammelana in different government guest houses, and also in the guest houses of the JSS institution and Infosys. As many as 900 police personnel, seven KSRP and eight car platoons have been deployed to provide security in the city for the duration of the fest. Besides five fire fighting and emergency vehicles, six ambulances will also be on call as a precaution. The cost of the Mysuru jasmine, which is being used to decorate the chariot that will carry the president of the Kannada Sahithya Sammelana in procession on Friday, has shot up to Rs 800 a kg in the city.
Chennai: Tamil Nadus parched Cauvery has fair chances of getting replenished with surplus water from neighbouring Andhras Godavari river if the plan by Centre gets underway with the nod of Chief Ministers of four states.

Realising the plight of states like TN, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Rajasthan that are deprived of water due to insufficient rains, Union water resources and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday that his government has initiated two proposals aimed at ensuring a lasting solution for TNs agriculture and drinking water requirements.

Centre has taken up interlinking of rivers in right earnest, he said. He plans to convene a meeting of CMs of four states  TN, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, and evolve a plan to transfer surplus water of Godavari to Cauvery to address water scarcity in the south.

My ministry has decided to transfer surplus water from Godavari river to Krishna, to Pennar river (Karnataka) and finally to Cauvery. We will prepare the technical proposals and invite the four CMs to get their consent, he said.

We will treat these projects as national projects because this is a river connectivity project.and 90 per cent of the project cost will be borne by Government of India and remaining 10 per cent by state governments, he said.

The first project envisages drawing of 300 tmc feet water from Godavari to Polavaram project (in Andhra Pradesh) through Nagarjuna Sagar Dam and to Krishna River. Thereafter, the water would be taken to Somasila dam on the Pennar and from there it would be taken to the Grand Anaicut on river Cauvery, all through steel pipes.

If Karnataka objects, Centre would proceed with the second project of sourcing water from Indravati river (Central India) to Nagarjuna Sagar dam.
The Kerala High Court declined to stay a single bench order to screen the controversial Malayalam film S Durga in the Panorama section of the ongoing International Film Festival of India in Goa. (Photo: Poster of S Durga)

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Friday declined to stay a single bench order to screen the controversial Malayalam film S Durga in the Panorama section of the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice A Muhamed Mustaque refused to stay the single judge order while admitting an appeal filed by the Centre.

In the appeal, the government stated that the film though selected by the jury had not secured the exemption as required by the Panorama regulation in the absence of any certification from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

It was also contended by the Centre that inclusion of the film is likely to upset the arrangements of the 48th IFFI, which comes to a close on November 28.

'S Durga' narrates the horrifying experience of a hitchhiking couple. The director of the film Sanal Kumar Sasidharan moved the court after the film was dropped from the Indian Panorama section of the festival along with the Marathi film "Nude".

According to the petitioner, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry's decision to overrule the recommendation of the 13-member jury and pull out the two films was "unconstitutional".
Hyderabad: Speculation about whether the CBSE Class X and XII Board exams will be advanced to February has been put to rest with the Board clarifying that the exams will be held in March and if there is any change, a notice will be issued well in advance. The advancement of the exam was planned for better evaluation purposes.

Many schools had begun the planning for the academic year to ensure that the portion and preparatory exams could be held well within the scheduled time frame. Glendale School director Minu Khan said, As soon as the talk about advancing the board exams began, schools across the city geared up for the eventuality and so did we. There was a lot of confusion so we called parents first and told them to make sure that their child attends classes regularly to maintain their attendance. We also reduced practice time for a few events so that students could spend the time on studying. Our first pre-board is scheduled to begin next week.

She stated that if the exams begin in March as per the original schedule, students will get more time to revise. They would be able to relax and the stress of preparing for the finals for a February exam would reduce considerably. CBSE Schools Association vice-chairperson Anjali Razdan said, Schools were worried when the talk about advancing the exams started. However, at a CBSE conclave held at Madurai, officials confirmed that the exam would be held as usual in March and I informed many schools about this.

Confusion and panic about the Board exams had reigned supreme amongst students and parents alike when the rumours about advancing the exams from March to February started making the rounds. This was more so as compulsory Board exam for the 10th standard is also slated to begin in 2018. Although the exam will be held in March, students should however prepare themselves for a shorter exam period, stated school authorities. This was specially devised to combat the delay in CBSE result declaration, which in turn affects degree admissions. With the exams ending sooner, teachers say that there can be a smoother evaluation process.
Hyderabad: The Telangana state government is in trouble with the latest order of the Centre on linking of the Aadhaar number of beneficiaries with Central government schemes. The Centre had extended the deadline from September to December 31. In a letter to the Telangana state government, Ms Rakesh Maheshwari, group coordinator of cyber law and UIDAI, has clarified that the extended time was for beneficiaries who had not enrolled their names for the Aadhaar card. The Telangana state government has so far not completed linking even 50 per cent of Aadhaar cards of beneficiaries of Central schemes. Some departments have not even started the work, an official said. He said that there was an expectation that the Centre would further extend the deadline till March.

The Centre had issued directions to all state governments on Aadhaar enrolment for beneficiaries of Central government schemes under Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act. The Centre made it clear if any state government that did not enrol the Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries in the stipulated time would not get funds from January 1. Now, the TS finance department has written to all departments to complete the enrolment before December 31.
The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) met in the Parliament on Friday morning to finalise the schedule and agenda of the Winter Session. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Winter Session of Parliament is scheduled to be held from December 15 to January 5, a day after the second phase of voting for Gujarat election.

The 14th Gujarat legislative Assembly election will be held in two phases; December 9 and December 14.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) met in the Parliament on Friday morning to finalise the schedule and agenda of the Winter Session.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the Winter Session will be of 14 days with December 25 and 26 being Christmas holidays.

"I request political parties to cooperate and make the Winter Session successful and fruitful. We expect that we will have attendance on all 14 days, including the New Year's day," the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was earlier being targeted by the Opposition for not declaring the dates of the Winter Session of the Parliament.

At the Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday, party president Sonia Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister over the Winter Session.

Sonia said, "Modi government in arrogance has cast dark shadow on India's Parliamentary democracy by sabotaging Winter Session on flimsy grounds. The government is mistaken if it thinks by locking temple of democracy; it'll escape constitutional accountability ahead of elections."

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also slammed the government for allegedly shying away from facing questions in the Winter Session ahead of Gujarat Assembly elections in December.

Azad said the government was deliberately delaying the session to hide its corruption and failures on the employment and economic fronts.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday hit back at Congress for the accusation and said he was shocked to see Congress' growing affection towards dignity of the Parliament, while taking a jibe at party vice-president Rahul Gandhi's attendance in the Lok Sabha.
BENGALURU: The chaos caused due to ongoing work on elevated corridor between Ejipura junction and Kendriya Sadan on the Intermediate Ring Road (IRR) and poor traffic management has made life hell for motorists.

The BBMP has built barricades and begun work on the two sides of the busy Koramangala 100 feet road which connects between Indiranagar and Kendriya Sadan in Koramangala.

Although residents and regular commuters are happy about the project, which aims at easing congestion and cutting down the travel time during the peak hours, they have certain reservations regarding traffic management during the construction period.

Mahesh Kumar, a resident of Ashwini Layout in Koramangala said that BBMP and police are of the opinion that barricading will solve the purpose. Police need to think ahead of solving the congestion caused due to the bottleneck created by barricades. Further, the barricades must have reflectors to enable a better view during night, he said.

Safety of the commuters is equally important when a project of that magnitude it being taken up, he added.

Nitin Sheshadri, president, Koramangala 3rd block Resident Welfare Association (RWA) told this newspaper that its a citizen driven project and residents of Koramangala are overwhelmingly happy with it.

The traffic from Koramangala to Ejipura is unbearable even during non-peak hours.

Due to the bottlenecks near Sony World junction and other junctions, it sometimes takes over an hour to cross the stretch.

However, residents are keeping their fingers crossed for the project to get over within the stipulated period of 18 months. It would be smooth affair for those taking elevated corridor to commute. However, the traffic cops need to be smart to ensure that it is a hassle free affair for commuters using the road beneath the elevated corridor, he said. The corridor once completed is expected to provide relief to commuters travelling from Old Madras Road and Old Airport Road towards BTM Layout and Central Silk Board, Sheshadri said.

The RWA has been contemplating on working in tandem with police to ease traffic movement during the construction period and put pressure on the BBMP to complete the project on time, he added.

Sources in the BBMP said that they have urged the traffic police to make arrangements for smooth traffic movement. Palike will try to complete the project within the deadline.
The police are installing close to 500 cameras and setting up a command and control centre at the ACP Falaknuma office. (Photo: DC)

HYDERABAD: Police have formed mohalla committees comprising youth and elders from the colonies around Taj Falaknuma Hotel to coordinate with them during the bandobast on Tuesday. The Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, will be hosting a dinner for Ms Ivanka Trump and other delegates on Tuesday at the hotel.

All of the volunteers will be issued badges and they will be helping the police. At several places we have imposed traffic restrictions for free flow of convoys. So help from community is being sought, said Mr V. Satyanarayana, DCP (south).

The police are also roping in the community elders for a door to door census being carried in neighbourhoods around the Taj Falaknuma. Our teams will interact with the people seeking their help in ensuring peaceful conduct on the event. There are several donts including lighting fire crackers, gathering in large numbers at street corners and atop houses, said the official.

The police are installing close to 500 cameras and setting up a command and control centre at the ACP Falaknuma office.

The police have also collected all the details of the employees working at the Taj Falak-numa and teams from the special branch are conducting verification about their antecedents.

On Friday, the police conducted a cordon and search in the Bibi Ka Chasma and Madina colony area as part of sanitation exercise. The police detained 55 suspects and 77 motorcycles during the checking. Two Oman nationals were caught by the police on suspicion of coming to India for marriage. However, they were later let off after they clarified that they had come for medical treatment.

Special teams of the Greyhounds and Octo-pus are being deployed along at the venue.

On Friday, officials of the US Consulate, US Secret Services and other government agencies visited the Taj Falaknuma and reviewed the arrangements being made for the event.
The remains of the Kiran Mark-I aircraft which crashed near the Rajiv Rahadari Highway on Friday.

Hyderabad: Except for the Sukhoi Su-30, Indian Air Force fighter aircraft are older than the pilots who fly them.

The procurement process for acquiring aircraft and helicopters, especially for training, has been excruciatingly slow because top officers are afraid of being accused of irregularities in the purchase.

The Indian defence public sector manufactures six to nine aircraft a year, against the international rate of five to 10 per month. The Kiran that crashed at Siddipet on Friday is the second such aircraft to crash in two months.

The Kirans in operation at Hakimpet and Dundigal have exceeded their technical life and are being flown by cannibalising parts from other aircraft.

A majority of the Kiran aircraft used in the second phase of training at the Hakimpet and Dundigal Air Force training grounds, were manufactured in 1989; the newest Kiran aircraft in the IAF is at least 31 years old. The trainees who fly them are around 20 to 25 years old.

A defence historian who has written extensively on fighter aircraft told Deccan Chronicle that delays in procurement are to blame for not inducting more aircraft.

History narrates that the officers who have taken decisions or pushed a procurement decision, have wound up being harassed by investigation agencies for years, even after retirement. While officers who have avoided taking decisions have never faced any adverse consequences, even though those delayed decisions actually cost lives rather than money, he said.

In addition, the governments attempts to create new procurement policies have resulted in complex regulations. This makes it almost impossible for a supplier to navigate, unless they use a local consultant or agent, which is an open invitation to corruption, he said.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has recommended that the IAF phase out ageing HJT-16 Kiran aircraft for training fighter pilots. In an earlier report, CAG had said, Due to considerable delay in production of contracted IJT aircraft, IAF continues to depend on the ageing and depleting Kiran fleet for training purpose.
According to sources, the SpiceJet flight (1096) had departed the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at 1.30 pm on Friday and was scheduled to reach Jabalpur at 2.30 pm. (Photo PTI)

Hyderabad: A SpiceJet flight with over 59 passengers on-board to Jabalpur from Hyderabad had to make an emergency landing in Nagpur due to a technical snag. According to sources, the SpiceJet flight (1096) had departed the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at 1.30 pm on Friday and was scheduled to reach Jabalpur at 2.30 pm.

The pilot identified identified a technical snag in the engine mid-air and informed the nearest Air Traffic Control Center at Nagpur Airport requesting for an emergency landing. After receiving clearances from the ATC, the flight landed safely at the airport, said the source. Confirming the incident, sources in the budget airline said, It was a technical snag and our engineers are attending to it. All the passengers and crew were deplaned safely. The passengers were put on alternative planes for their onward journey to Jabalpur.
Hyderabad: A 22-year-old trainee pilot had a miraculous escape when the Kiran Mark-I aircraft of the Indian Air Force, which she was flying crashed close to the busy Rajiv Rahadari Highway on Friday afternoon in Siddipet district.

V. Shiva Kumar, police commissioner of Siddipet, said that the aircraft broke into two parts on impact and then caught fire.

Parts of the aircraft were scattered all over the area. Some were totally burnt, he added.

The aircraft came down very close to the Rajiv Rahadari Highway. Had it come down just 70 metres away, it would have hit the highway, resulting in possibly many casualties.

The trainee pilot sustained injuries on her legs, was given first aid and airlifted back to base, said police. Two choppers from the air force station had arrived soon after the incident.

The officials concerned have begun an inquiry and are in the process of collecting the wreckage. The area is cordoned off to avoid public movement, the commissioner said.
After being released Hafiz Saeed said he would continue fighting for Kashmiris till they get freedom.

Islamabad/New Delhi/Washington: Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba founder Hafiz Saeed, mastermind of the 26/11 attack on Mumbai nine years ago, who was freed from house arrest late on Thursday night, on Friday attacked Pakistans ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as a traitor for advocating peace with India.

He said Mr Sharif had committed treason by seeking friendship with India and ignoring the Kashmir cause while delivering a sermon at the JuD headquarters in Lahore, for which a large number of JuD and LeT activists had gathered at the Jamia Masjid Al-Qadsia at Chauburji. Saeed also targeted the Pakistani government for taking dictation from foreign masters, in a clear reference to the United States, which had put a $10 million bounty on his head.

After his release, meanwhile, the United States on Friday asked the Pakistan government to make sure that Hafiz Saeed was arrested again and charged for his crimes. The United States is deeply concerned that LeT leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated foreign terrorist organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens, US state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said, adding, The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes.

In New Delhi, reacting sharply to Hafiz Saeeds remark after being released that he would continue fighting for Kashmiris till they get freedom, the home ministry said this was a mere rearticulation of the agenda of terrorists who have thrived across the border.

A MHA official said the security forces had given an appropriate response to comments by subversive elements. Not just the forces, but even the people of Kashmir have given a suitable response to comments by terror elements operating out of Pakistan, the official added.
Lucknow: A school in Barabanki district has barred Muslim students from wearing headscarves to class on the ground that the scarves do not match the dress code of the school.

Anand Vihar School, a missionary school, has objected to one of its Muslim students wearing a headscarf to school. When the students father sought permission for the same in a written application to the principal, he received back the following reply. It is to clarify you that this is a minority school, but there are many communities in minority category, and one community cannot impose its rules on other communities. The school will not be able to provide any exemption to its rules, letter read.

Principal Archana Thomas also asked him to not disrupt the schools functioning by asking unnecessary questions.

If you face any inconvenience, you can admit your ward in an Islamic school, she told the students father.

Talking to reporters on Friday, Mohd R. Rizvi, the father of the student said that his daughter had been studying in the school since kindergarten, and as per Islam tradition, she had to cover her hair after reaching the age of nine.

My daughter was asked not to wear headscarf to school, another girl was made to remove it as well. I argued that our Sikh brothers are also allowed even though their turban is not part of the dress code", he said.

The principal, meanwhile, said that the letter did not imply that the students were told to leave school. It said if they have a problem with the rules, they can admit their child in another school, not necessarily an Islamic school, the principal said.
KOCHI: The CPM and five other left parties will observe December 6 as a black day marking the 25th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. CPI, CPI-ML, RSP, Forward Bloc and SUCI are other parties joining the CPM in its first-ever initiative to observe a black day to mark the demolition of the northern mosque. In Kerala, it was People's Democratic Party (PDP) headed by Abdul Nassar Madani, which used to observe December 6 as a black day since 1992.

The left parties took the initiative to highlight "the increasing incidents of lawlessness" by the RSS-sponsored private armies with the connivance of the ruling BJP. "Instead of upholding the law of the land and proscribing such private armies, senior BJP leaders, including ministers in the central and various state governments have openly endorsed, patronised, and promoted such private armies and rationalised or even celebrated their violent actions", their joint statement said.

Describing the demolition as a black Sunday, the six parties also, pointed that "no action has been taken till now against the organisers and perpetrators of the demolition". The six parties also called upon people to observe the death anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, falling on December 6. They will mount a campaign "against the intensification of the assaults on Dalits across the country and on the secular democratic values of our constitution by the communal forces."
A scene from the sport where the the quarry accident happened at Kunnathukal near Parassala in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. The excavator crushed by the granite mount can be seen (Photo: DC)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two workers were killed and six others injured after a portion of granite mount inside a quarry came crashing down on them at Kunnathukal near Parassala around 30 kilometres from capital city on Friday. The deceased were identified as Satheesh, 29, of Salem and Binilkumar, 23, of Maalakulangara near Marayamuttom in Thiruvananthapuram. Two injured, identified as Sudhin, 23, and Aji, 45, were admitted to Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital with serious leg injuries. Ajis left leg was amputated. The others admitted to Marayamuttom taluk hospital were identified as Bijil, Jose, Selvaraj and Rajendran.

As per Marayamuttom police, the incident happened at the quarry owned by one Alosyious at around 10.30 am. The workers have been cutting out the bottom of a granite mount leaving out a huge portion uncrushed at top during the past days. On Friday, minutes after they began the work using a breaker and heavy excavator, the mount caved in. Satheesh, the excavator operator was killed immediately and the heavy machinery was decimated.

Others were trapped in rubbles and all of them were rescued by workers and local people. They were rushed to hospitals in a tipper lorry. Binilkumar was declared dead upon arrival at Medical College Hospital. Satheesh's body is kept at Neyyatinkara General Hospital. Both were bachelors and the body will be handed over to relatives after autopsy. Local MLA C.K. Hareendran told media that the quarry did not have license to function from panchayat since 2016. The owner was engaged in a legal battle to have the ban lifted. He was booked under IPC section 304 for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Quarry functioned sans license

Like many quarries in the area, the disaster struck quarry at Kunnathukal, located on Shasthampara range had no license from local panchayat. Several quarries in the surrounding areas of Kunnathukal, Anavoor, Vellarada and Kottakkal also function illegally. As per Shasthampara Protection Council (SPC) members, the quarry owners flaunt the single window permissions issued by Mining and Geology Department. The police had sent a complaint to the higher officials against the disaster struck quarry owned by one Alosyious last year also.

The said quarry land sits close to purambokku land.

"As per norms, only small scale blasting of rock by filling explosives in 2.5 feet depth is allowed. However in most quarries blasting is conducted with explosives filled in depths of 20-25 feet. The resulting blast can be heard for kilometres," says an SPC activist. Adding to the woes of immediate neighbours, the buffer zone for quarrying activities was being reduced every now and them. The legal tussle to save Shasthmpara gained momentum in 2014-15. The activists and local residents cited dip in ground water level, pollution among others to challenge the mining.

A stop memo was issued to quarries but was later revoked after a High Court verdict went in favour of quarry owners. Then came the recent NGT verdict which ordered shutdown of the quarry. "The Shasthampara range had several purampokku lands few years back. Over past three decades many of them were handed over to private parties who pay tax and secure title deeds," the activist pointed. Meanwhile, a big section of local residents says they support quarrying due to the monetary benefits and employment they provide. Not less than 150 families were being supported by the disaster struck quarry.

Need steps to curb illegal quarrying

The lack of a proper mechanism to monitor the quarries in the state has led to a situation where even quarries that do not possess a valid explosive licence operate with impunity. None of the supervisory bodies  Pollution Control Board, State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and the Department of Mining and Geology (DMG)  have a system for periodical monitoring. Whats more, the State Government has done nothing to identify the areas that had become sensitive as a result of excessive exploitation or where quarrying posed a threat to the environment. As per Kerala Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 2015, quarry operators, before starting operations, are required to obtain consent from the PCB, secure an environment clearance from the SEIAA and a quarrying permit from the DMG.

Problem is, these bodies fail to do the follow up. They have neither the system nor the manpower for such an exercise. The state government has issued a circular in March 2014 stating that the authority empowered to give sanction should also ensure that there is no violation of conditions. This requires physical verification by the agencies concerned. While issuing consent to operate, the PCB will impose certain conditions to the quarry operators based on Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Environment Protection Act, 1986. However, both the PCB and SEIAA are handicapped by staff shortage. With the kind of staff strength we have it is impossible to keep track of all the innumerable clearances that we had given across the state, a top SEIAA official said.

Even a government department like DMG has no systems to monitor the adherence to Kerala Minor Minerals Cocession Rules. The latest report of the Comptroller and AuditorGeneral, too, has confirmed that the DMG does not conduct periodical inspection of quarry sites to monitor implementation of KMMC Rules. The DMG issues quarrying permits and leases and the permit or lease holders have to satisfy conditions specified in the permits. The lease violations include non-observance of safety measures, operation after expiry of permit, operating without explosive licence, and non-demarcation of quarry area.
Hyderabad: To improve the partys position and give confidence to its cadres, Telugu Desam president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is considering making his daughter-in-law Nara Brahmani president of the party unit in Telangana state. Ms Brahmani has the added advantage of being the daughter of actor and MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna.

Party leaders hope that she will be able to strengthen the party in Telangana sate ahead of the 2019 elections, as there have been many desertions of major leaders including the recent exit of A Revanth Reddy. This has weakened the party so badly that it may find it difficult to field candidates for the ensuing Assembly elections. In a meeting with party leaders from Telangana state held by Mr Naidu after the exit of Mr Revanth Reddy, some of those present requested the CM to make Ms Brahmani chief of the party in Telangana.

Ms Brahmani was born and brought up in Hyderabad and making her the Telangana TD chief may help stem the tide of desertions in the party in TS, the party feels. The TD is left with no leader in Telangana state who has a mass following. The fact that Ms Brahmani was born and brought up in Hyderabad will also pre-empt any criticism of an outsider being foisted on the party and may go down well with voters.

A TD leader said that Ms Brahmani had not secured local status in AP. He said the statement of her husband and AP minister Nara Lokesh regarding their local status proved this. Mr Lokesh had said that he and his wife Devansh had taken local status but he did not speak about Ms Brahmani, he said. According to TD leaders, Ms Brahmani has been taking an interest in politics and inquires about the partys position in Telangana state whenever she meets party leaders.
The way to contemplate political figures like Indira Gandhi with clarity is by continuously re-evaluating them, undeterred by habitual loyalists who scream Please dont libel the dead! My hero worship of Mrs Gandhi goes back to my boyhood days. It required several phases of revision when I join-ed The Statesman and my seniors taught me not to be overawed. Faults she had some, they insisted. But I remembered Alexander Popes next line: For who from faults is free? But soon enough, I did begin to see the warts.

In fact, I saw Feroze Gandhi from close before I did Mrs Gandhi. The normal sequence was reversed because Feroze had woven his parliamentary constitu-ency around my uncle Saiyid Wasi Naqvis Rae Bareli Assembly seat. Uncles house was the election headquarters. After Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastris sudden death in Tashk-ent in 1966, Mrs Gandhi defeated the candidate of the partys conservative wing, Morarji Desai, and became Prime Minister. The first general election she led the party into in 1967 was a jolt  the Congress lost in eight states. Its numbers dwindled even in Parliament, giving edge to Ram Manohar Lohias barbs against her. Goo-ngi gudia (dumb doll) was what the Socialist leader repeatedly called her in the House.

The fact that she was the daughter of Jawaha-rlal Nehru was a factor in her ascent as Congr-ess president in 1957. This certainly did generate dissension against her from the partys conservative right wing. Was it to placate this faction that she engineered the dismissal of the worlds first Communist government which had come to power in Kerala through the ballot box? Her implication in the Kerala drama was circumstantial. More pertinently, was it not an early manifestation of Nehru yielding to the right wing in his Cabinet?

Ellsworth Bunker, US ambassador to India at the time, admitted much later that senior Mumbai Congress man S.K. Patil had been the go-between with the CIA, which helped stoke anti-government agitations in the state. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who served as US ambassador to India in the 1970s, and later to the UN, mentioned the Kerala episode in his book A Dangerous Place. Mrs Gandhi was more herself when this rightward ideological shift was balanced during the 1969 Congress split, when she nationalised the banks and discontinued the privy purses of Indias princes. The London Times correspondent, Peter Hazle-hurst, sarcastically described her as left of self-interest. She probably was. When a US nuclear device for surveillance on China was found on Nanda Devi, the Congress Party was in convulsions.

During an interview with me, former US ambassador Chester Bowles (convalescing with severe Parkinsons in Florida) expressed surprise over the furore on the nuclear device. Indira knows it was a joint expedition, he said. After she split the Congress, Left intellectuals like P.N. Haksar, her principal secretary, and Cabinet minister Mohan Kumaraman-galam were her key advisers. Indeed the Kumaramanglam thesis, famous those days, justified cohabitation with the Communist Party of India. In fact, CPI general secretary Sripad Dange elaborated that his party would support the Congress pro-people policies and struggle against its anti-people tendencies.

This leftward shift reached its high point when, with Soviet help, Mrs Gandhi decided to intervene in the creation of Bangladesh. Her popularity was at its peak. Even Atal Behari Vajpayee was inspired to address her as Durga. This cozy dalliance with Communists, however, caused a tumult in the global political cosmos, particularly when detente was going badly for the West. The dangerous shift was one of the reasons why the Soc-ialists, pro-US Congress conservatives and the Jan Sangh (todays BJP) came together under the umb-rella of arch-Gandhian, former Socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan in what was known as the JP (or Bihar) movement, launched against Mrs Gandhis indefinable corruption.

She was clearly nervous at the momentum which the JP movement was gathering. When the Allahabad high court unseated her over minor electoral misdemean-ours, she was rattled. It was her younger son Sanjay who really had the Emergency imposed on June 25, 1975. He also immobilised key officials around Mrs Gandhi like P.N. Haksar and media adviser H.Y. Sharada Prasad. Mohammad Yunus was so close to Mrs Gandhi and Sanjay that he was able to appoint himself special envoy. This blanket job definition also enabled him to dabble with the media. He mobilised me for a job which enabled me to see a side of Mrs Gandhi that I doubt anyone else has ever seen.

I was ushered into her presence for an interview for the Sunday Times of London. I was the papers stringer in India. This was to be a world scoop  the first interview with Mrs Gandhi after she declared the Emergency. Mrs Gandhi looked petrified  white as a sheet. She answered none of my questions. She kept gazing at the wall, without any change of expression and doodling on a paper she never glanced at. What appeared in the Sunday Times was what Yunus (with my editorial help) cooked up on behalf of Mrs Gandhi. But this is not the only defining image of Mrs Gandhi. There are others, such as during Bangladesh war, which justify her reputation as the Iron Lady. But neither this nor her secular image remained unsullied, particularly when she used the communal card during the 1983 elections from Jammu. The communal tone given to the Congress campaign in Jammu became the norm even after Mrs Gandhis assassination in 1984.

The unprecedented 404 seats in a Lok Sabha of 514 that Rajiv Gandhi bagged were due to a sympathy wave. That is what some of us thought. But according to the partys senior leaders, it was Hindu consolidation against minority Sikh communalism. The community in question this time may have been Sikhs, but Hindu consolidation was internalised by the party as a formula which became operational against all minorities, above all Muslims.
To deliberate upon various aspects of nuclear strategy and security in the second nuclear age, practitioners and scholars from across the world met at a conference in Washington D.C. recently. The first nuclear age dawned during the closing days of World War II when the then US President Harry S. Truman authorised the use of the atomic bomb on Japan. On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was devastated and three days later, on August 9, Nagasaki was decimated. With this, the world woke up to the devastating potential of atomic power. As the Iron Curtain descended across Europe, dividing the continent into two parts, a terrible arms race began. The erstwhile Soviet Union acquired atomic weapons in 1949 followed by Britain in 1952, France in 1960 and China in 1964. Thus, the Permanent Five of the UN Security Council acquired a nuclear veto within two decades of the end of World War II. The first nuclear age unleashed the movement against weapons of mass destruction and it did achieve some success. US President Dwig-ht D. Eisenhowers Atoms for Peace initiative is an example. Another early success was the negotiation of the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT). The roots of this treaty can be traced back to Indias novel initiative in 1954 calling for a standstill agreement on nuclear tests. That was the time the US and the Soviet Union were detonating powerful nuclear weapons with increasing frequency. India worked towards building an international momentum for the 1963 treaty, banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and underwater. This significantly redu-ced global levels of fallout but, unfortunately, did little to check the nuclear arms race. It led to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), though India didnt become a part of it.

As the peace movement intensified across the world, seeking a halt on further production as also a rollback of the burgeoning arsenals of the P-5 or N-5, the dominant nuclear veto powers midwifed the Nuclear Non-Prolife-ration Treaty (NPT) into existence (in 1968), effectively dividing the world into nuclear weapons states (NWS) and non-nuclear weapons states (NNWS). This was regarded by the ayatollahs of non-proliferation as the gold standard of the global nuclear order. India carried out a peaceful nuclear explosion on May 18, 1974, enigmatically named Smiling Buddha, the first known nuclear test outside the N-5. However, it was not until 1998 that the second nuclear age began in the right earnest. In May 1998, both India and Pakistan carried out back-to-back nuclear tests. By then there was a buzz around the world that certain other nations were also de facto nuclear weapons states, while some others were just a step away from becoming so. On October 9, 2006, North Korea shattered the East Asian calm with its nuclear test. Though initially estimated as just a fizzle, it laid the foundation of a highly-corrosive and unstable nuclear weapon and missile programme that is now the biggest headache for the world. However, one thing that must be acknowledged is that the second nuclear age is a reality that leaders of the first nuclear age cannot ignore.

One successful template of rolling back the second nuclear age, though partially, is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal between Iran on one side, and the US, UK, Russia, France, China and Germany on the other. With the US now diffident on continuing this agreement, uncertainty prevails about the future trajectory of even this significant breakthrough of recent times. The fundamental question now is: where do we go from here in reconciling the monopoly of nuclear weapons states of the first nuclear age, sanctified by NPT, and the realities of the new global realities that constitute the second nuclear age? A good starting point would be by revisiting the basic postulates of the NPT itself. An initial template of this process was the nuclear agreement signed between India and US in 2008 that recognised a hard reality  that while India was a de-facto nuclear weapons state committed to the tenets of non-proliferation, it had legitimate security concerns that couldnt be brushed aside. The same cant be said about Pakistan, North Korea and some other second nuclear age powers whose unfortunate track record of proliferation of technologies and weapons of mass destruction is now too well-documented to even be impeached. The A.Q. Khan Nuclear Walmart cooperation between Pakistan and North Korea in the trade of nuclear weapons and missile technology and more recently, the emerging evidence that a NWS ostensibly supplied the motors powering the North Korean missile project are some well-documented examples of this malfeasance.

All other legal regimes connected with the entire nuclear pantheon, be it the suppliers group or the missile control technology regime, must adjust themselves to the basic reality that no longer can the second nuclear age powers be forced to subscribe to the geo-political realities of 1968. India is a responsible nuclear power committed to the doctrine of No-First-Use despite serious provocations in our neighborhood. India continues to seek the abolition of all weapons of mass destruction; nuclear, biological, chemical and autonomous that are presumably still being incubated. While India is a realist and recognises the hard geopolitical realities, it still doesnt wish to give up its idealism to achieve a world order free from the fear of nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction. Most of all, India has an impeccable track record on non-proliferation and has itself imposed a moratorium not to test now for close to two decades despite questions raised by some members of the scientific community about the validity of some aspects of the 1998 tests. A good starting point, therefore, of distinguishing between responsible and rogue nuclear powers of the second nuclear age would be that, in the 50th year of NPT and on the 20th anniversary of Indias nuclear tests, the P-5 or N-5 should offer India the full membership of the treaty as a nuclear weapons state.
Indias technological capabilities got a firm endorsement in Wednesdays successful launch of the worlds fastest supersonic cruise missile, gravity-dropped from a long-range Sukhoi fighter. The IAF becomes the worlds first air force to launch a multi-platform, multi-mission, self-propelled attack missile of this kind, that can potentially reach Pakistani targets in the west and in Tibet in the east with 99.99 per cent accuracy. Variants can be designed to be deployed in Rafales and advanced medium combat jets too. Advanced versions of the missile are already on the drawing board, to double their reach and speed and to add a submarine launch capability. More significant, Indias triad of capabilities to launch the missiles from land, sea or air enhances its strategic deterrence prowess in a surcharged region.

Beyond the technical details of what was achieved and what is possible in the near future, what the BrahMos ventures success signifies is the durability of India-Russia ties. In the history of defence relationships, Russia has always been free and forthcoming, and has not denied India any state-of-the-art weapons technology unless specifically barred by international agreements. This relationship has been so stable over time that it irks the Chinese. The current vibrations may be different in a changing world order, but India shouldnt dilute its defence ties with Russia. Theres no reason why India would be compelled to go the whole hog in favour of the United States and the West when Russia has been an all-weather friend. There is really no need to choose one or the other as India is in a good position. The supersonic missile only proves this.
The order to release Hafiz Saeed, a key Pakistani figure heading a leading anti-India terrorist outfit, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the progenitor of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, from detention on Wednesday is likely to push India-Pakistan relations into deeper freeze. Pakistans judicial institutions have a well-documented history of kowtowing to that countrys military establishment. In this case, the judiciary apparently turned down the plea of the executive to extend the terrorist leaders detention by a further three months. The terror mastermind has been in detention since January this year. But in this time his outfit has been allowed to set up a political party to enable it to contest elections.

This is extraordinary for someone whose outfit is indubitably responsible for the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, which killed at least 166 persons. In light of that he was put on the UN list of international terrorists, and the United States, separately, offered a $10 million reward for information on his whereabouts.

That bounty surely doesnt constitute a serious effort on Washingtons part to have the JuD founder and LeT chief brought to justice. If the US was earnest, it had the leverage with Pakistan to have the terrorist brought to book. Even after the US reward was announced, the top terrorist conducted his activities in plain sight, including addressing public meetings. In retrospect it seems that announcing a reward for information on the JuD chiefs whereabouts was meant to keep India in good humour as the US trying to deepen its ties with New Delhi.

As regards the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, Pakistan has stonewalled every Indian effort  on the administrative and judicial plane  to have the perpetrators and their mentors brought to justice on the plea of sufficient evidence not being available to satisfy the Pakistani courts, which of course heeds only the ISI and the Pakistani military.

This has ensured a travesty of justice. It is clear that no effort will be forthcoming from Islamabad to nab the anti-India terrorists. India-Pakistan ties plummeted after the terrorist attack on the Pathankot airbase in January 2016, and since then Islamabad has rejected every reasonable diplomatic move to mend relations. Indeed, Indian diplomacy was sought to be thwarted by the kidnapping of an Indian businessman and former naval officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, from Iran in order to develop the Pakistani counter-narrative that it was India which was engaging in terrorism plots against Pakistan. Mr Jadhav was charged with espionage and terror plotting, and remains on death row.

Islamabad seems to have no interest in mending ties and the release of Hafiz Saeed is just one more indicator. It may be prudent to take steps to protect Indian interests against terrorist actions in Afghanistan and the Chabahar port area in Iran.
The contract to purchase 36 multi-role medium combat Rafale aircraft (MRMCA) from Frances Dassault has run into serious controversy. This admits of a fair and open discussion. Its not a BJP versus Congress matter, as the ruling party sought to suggest, but one involving national security. Its a pity though that the government is yet to make a substantive point. All that defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said so far is that procedures were followed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to make his position clear. This is surprising given that the Rs 58,000-crore deal is probably the single most expensive one in our defence history. During his visit to France in April 2015, the Prime Minister suddenly cancelled the proposed UPA-era contract with Dassault for the supply of 126 Rafales for Rs 54,000 crores, of which 18 were to be in flyway condition. The contract was on the brink of signature. The Indian partner was to be public sector Hindustan Aeronautics, which had an old working relationship with Dassault. The deal which Mr Modi inked cut out HAL and introduced private sector company, Reliance Defence Ltd, whose track record in the field is too new to inspire confidence.

Under the UPA-era deal, each aircraft was to cost around Rs 530 crores. In contrast, the deal initiated by Mr Modi is working out to nearly Rs 1,600 crores a piece, more than double the figure indicated by former defence minister Manohar Parrikar. Any other data and explanations should be officially given out for open discussion. The 36 planes to be picked up off-the-shelf in flyaway condition, according to Mr Parrikar, were to be delivered in two years. But there is no sign of any planes yet. None of these issues passed through the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). It is to the procedural and price aspects that the Congress sought to draw attention recently, with its vice-president Rahul Gandhi urging the Prime Minister to clarify matters. There has so far been no response. Ironically, it is Mr Ambani who has spoken. He has brazenly argued that under the change in rules effected in June 2016, there was no need for the CCS to clear the countrys biggest defence deal as under the new rules 49 per cent of foreign investment could take place through the automatic route.

However, the silence of key players is an affront to Parliament. It is relevant that the earlier contract for 126 Rafales was scrapped without any inter-ministerial consultations. Also, HAL was excluded and a private company brought in without any formal consultation or discussion within the government. In the changed circumstances, Dassault is no longer obliged to transfer technology to India. The question is: Was the rule for Dassault to have a new Indian private sector partner introduced to specifically benefit Reliance Defence Ltd?
He said he was a fan

Blowing hot air

Posing for selfies

Vanity fair

From Cleopatra ni Machchi

by Bachchoo

On this brief sojourn in the old matra vatan I have, through some inexplicable obsession, been thinking about the unfortunate cinematic distortions of history. I suppose this recurring thought is possibly occasioned by a memory of being accused of such a distortion myself some years ago. I wrote a film once called The Rising in its English version and Mangal Pandey for the consummate director Ketan Mehta and the incomparable star Aamir Khan. The film, before its release (or was it after?) ran into legal trouble. A couple of jokers, without any collaboration between them, claimed that they were direct descendants of the character Mangal Pandey and that the film had portrayed him in love with a dancing girl. The portrayal had brought his heroic memory into relative disrepute. These clowns, or one of them, took to the courts to right this wrong. It was unclear to me, to the producer, director and the stars which law our film was guilty of transgressing. I happen to know, as any lawyer will confirm, that the libel laws dont apply to the dead. That being said, I am sure that saying untrue things about Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru or any of our national heroes, if not transgressing any law is, at the least, in bad taste.

The problem with the court case against us was soon manifest. The judge couldnt see which law had been broken and gave a very learned and detailed judgment about freedom of speech, freedom of artistic construction and idle litigation, which wasted the time of the court and everyone else involved. The case was thrown out and that was the end of the matter. My own point of view was and is that even if one could libel the dead, being in love with a dancing girl isnt necessarily disgraceful. I mean Emperor Akbar may not have approved of Prince Salims love for Anarkali, but millions of people who saw Modis (Sohrab, not the other one) Mughal-e-Azam cheered the relationship on. As far as I know no one sued the film on the grounds that future Emperor Jahangir had been libelled. I cant recall any bounty being offered for the murder of Sohrab Modi or anyone else involved with the film or its famous song Jab Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya. A historian friend assures me that this courtesan Anarkali may not have existed, even though others say she was a consort of Emperor Akbars and the mother of his son prince Danyal.

In writing Mangal Pandey I did some research. There is no doubt that the Indian Mutiny of 1857 began in a few places, one of them being Barrackpore where Mangal Pandey shot a British officer and was tried for murder and mutiny and hanged. The Indian soldiers who perpetrated the uprising were  lets face it  mercenaries of the East India Company. They were used by the Company to wage war against their fellow Indians and as such, when they turned against their officers, they became mutineers. We have subsequently acknowledged these mercenaries who delivered large parts of India into the hands of the East India Company as freedom fighters. There certainly were other generals and troops not in the pay of the Company Bahadur, and they can be legitimately called fighters for freedom.

In my research I could find no authenticated account of who Mangal was. The only account that is contemporary and survives is of his court-martial, which doesnt tell a heroic tale. One may legitimately contend that this record was written by the British and therefore told from their point of view. The heroic constructs were added later in legend and song by Indians. I readily admit that a person who claims descent from Mangal may not appreciate his portrayal in our film, but his or her emotional injury doesnt and shouldnt translate into law or into an instigation to murder anyone. Of course such an instigation to murder should itself be severely and summarily punished. Now its time to admit that my understanding of their injury stems from having myself suffered such when watching certain films. There was Oliver Stones Alexander and there was that lying distortion of history called The 300. The first of these, the story of the genocidal maniac Alexander, the Hitler of his time, portrays his war against my Parsi Zoroastrian ancestor Darius III and his conquest of Porus, the Parsi Zoroastrian satrap of the Persian empire, as heroic acts.

Why an American director and a brilliant actor like Anthony Hopkins should descend to this level and make a hero out of a butcher, who out of vanity and alcohol abuse set fire to the Persian palace of Persepolis, remains a mystery. Neither Stone nor Hopkins is a Macedonian. I was offended by the film but my feelings didnt stretch to either demanding that it be banned or to offering a bounty to anyone who would kill Stone or Hopkins. And this is not because I have no money to make such an offer. Its because I respect the right of Stone to distort history for his own feeble, dramatic purposes. And then there is this other film which turns the Spartan fool Leonidas into a hero for getting 300 of his soldiers slaughtered by a tiny detachment of the Parsi Zoroastrian Persian army of Emperor Xerxes. To portray an idiot, who doesnt anticipate the wiping out of his 299 men, as a great general and a Napoleonic strategist is, obviously, a travesty. It is doubtful whether Emperor Xerxes, portrayed as the villain, even knew of the existence of Thermopylae or the suicidal maniac Leonidas who couldnt have been very popular with the widows his vanity left behind.
The judgment by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on the triple talaq issue in August this year was hailed as historic by one and all. It was projected as if the ruling would change the power dynamics of Muslim marriages; husbands would automatically stop uttering the word talaq in conflict marriages and the marriages will continue happily ever after. The fact that a Muslim woman will have to move a judicial authority that can declare the talaq invalid and claim her civil rights such as maintenance, residence in the matrimonial home or custody of children in the same way as all other women, since the pronouncement of Shamim Ara by the Supreme Court, was undermined in the euphoria after the judgment. However, just three months later, we are told that despite the judgment, triple talaq has continued unabated and thus there is a need to bring in a statute to criminalise triple talaq, that alone can act as a deterrent. This seems a rather shortsighted view. Granting the police an additional handle to incarcerate Muslim men may fit in perfectly well with the anti-Muslim agenda of a right-wing government.

When the entire community is pushed to the wall and the lynching on a mere suspicion of possessing beef can cost a poor Muslim his life, how will this move empower the community or Muslim women within this community? If the ultimate goal of Muslim women is to save their marriage, even a violent marriage, from the husbands power of arbitrary divorce, a criminal prosecution against the husband will surely aid in ending the marriage without securing her economic rights, which she is in dire need of. It will be a similar remedy as filing a criminal complaint under Section 498A (anti-dowry provision) of IPC enacted in 1983. This provision empowered the police to arrest the husband and his relatives without a warrant, and for this reason it got flak from the Supreme Court, which brought a restraint on the immediate arrest of the husband and his family members and directed that the parties should undergo counselling as a preliminary step. The womens movement too realised the futility of this provision. They realised it didnt stop the menace of dowry-related violence and women need a civil law to protect their rights. Hence, after two decades of sustained campaign, in 2005, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act was enacted. This is a uniform statute that all women can use to enforce their civil rights, including Muslim women who have been given oral talaq. But we saw hardly any discussion on this issue in the media or even by womens groups during the hyped-up media campaign during the two years preceding the Supreme Court ruling.

The situation remains the same even today. But since triple talaq has continued, it is now presumed that incarcerating the husband will be an effective curb  another quick-fix remedy! But how will a poor illiterate Muslim woman, who has been deprived of her shelter and sustenance, be able to follow up a rigorous and daunting criminal prosecution against her husband and secure a conviction? And, more important, what will the conviction give the aggrieved woman? Convicting the husband for three, seven or even 10 years cannot ensure that this woman has food on the table to feed her minor children, clothe them and educate them. If the ultimate desire of a Muslim woman is to save her marriage rather than break it, and ensure that her civil rights such as shelter and maintenance are protected, criminalising triple talaq may not be the answer. It will just be another gimmick to fuel anti-Muslim sentiments in society. Using the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act along with the 1986 Muslim Women Act or challenging the talaq using the recent Supreme Court judgment will ensure that the woman isnt deprived of her shelter and sustenance. This can even compel the husband to arrive at a lumpsum settlement.

The opinion, even among those campaigning for Muslim womens rights, seems split on this issue, with a section, backed by secular womens rights organisations, sending out a clear signal that they oppose this move by a right-wing government. If a large segment among campaigners against triple talaq does not support such a move, then what is the justification for enacting such a law in haste? Something seems to be amiss here. According to Abusaleh Shariff and Syed Khalid, the publicity that triple talaq got during the campaign is next only to demonetisation, which affected the majority of Indians, while the issuing of triple talaq affects a miniscule minority of Muslims. Commenting on the manner in which this issue was used by the Prime Minister during the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, the authors, relying upon 2011 census data, highlighted the fact that the number of deserted Hindu women who live in deplorable conditions far exceeds the number of Muslim divorcees and deserted women. The numbers are staggering  out of 2.3 million separated and abandoned women, around two million are Hindus, while only 2.8 lakh are Muslims. Yet no attention is paid to them. Drawing on the 2001 census report, they pointed out that despite the hype, divorce among Muslims is much lower than in the majority community. If deserting the wife is not a criminal offence, how can discarding her through triple talaq be seen as one, when the impact of both upon victims is similar?

Giving the issue communal flavour, the then new chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, compared triple talaq to the disrobing of Draupadi. Another of his Cabinet colleagues, Swami Prasad Maurya, commented that Muslims resort to talaq to keep changing wives to satisfy their lust, and leave their wives to beg on the street, which aroused the wrath of members of the Muslim Womens Personal Law Board, who demanded his resignation. The fact that this group also campaigned for the abolition of triple talaq and intervened in the Supreme Court reflects the tightrope walk that Muslim women who are demanding a change in their personal laws are faced with. It is against this political backdrop of Muslims being pushed to the status of second-class citizens that we must examine the exaggerated interest in the triple talaq issue by the media and the governments eagerness to reform the Muslim personal law. The demand for a new statute is problematic under the current political dispensation, with its stated anti-Muslim agenda. In a recent article, former Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar asked a pertinent question: whether this government, with the lowest Muslim representation, just 4.2 per cent, is in a position to legislate on matters of Muslim marriage and divorce which the community considers are important markers of its identity? What Muslim women need is not another legislation or criminalisation of triple talaq, but more legal awareness about their rights within the community and adequate legal representation to avail of their existing rights.
Nellore: After a four-month lull following the failure of the PSLV-C39/IRNSS-1H Mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation has been gearing up to launch its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle- PSLV-C40 with Cartosat - 2 series satellite and a host of foreign satellites including some Indian satellites. The launch will take place at the end of December, 2017 or the first half of January 2018.

Isro scientists have been paying special attention to the current mission in view of the setback to the PSLV-C39/IRNSS-1H Mission launched on August 31, 2017. It may be recalled that the heat shield of the PSLV rocket did not open though the IRNSS-1H (Indian Regional Naviga-tion Satellite System) satellite reached sub- geosynchronous transfer orbit. This was attributed to malfunctioning of the rockets payload-fairing pyrotechnics. The snag had left the combined fourth stage-fairing-satellite stack stranded in a lower orbit.

Incidentally, IRNSS-1H was supposed to replace IRNSS-1A, which was the first satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The replacement has become a necessity in view of the failure of atomic clocks in IRNSS-1A. This letdown by Indias most dependable workhorse launch vehicle with 39 successful flights out of a total of 41 to its credit, had left everyone, especially ISRO scientists, unnerved.

In this backdrop, the entire space community across the globe will be observing the launch and its success is crucial for ISRO to restore confidence among international clients waiting to launch their satellites through PSLV, a potential forex garner for the country through the launch of foreign satellites. According to sources in ISRO, the payload of PSLV-C40 is likely to be 30 satellites, including Indias Cartosat - 2 series satellite and two more micro satellites, besides 26 satellites of different sizes and shapes belonging to other countries.

With respect to the primary satellite, Cartosat-2 Series Satellite, it is a follow-up mission in the Cartosat-2 Series with the primary objective of providing high resolution scene-specific spot images for civilian and military applications. It carries Panchromatic and Multi-spectral cameras operating in Time Delay Integration (TDI) mode and is capable for delivering high resolution data. Cartosat-2 Series Satellite will be launched by PSLV-C40 along with co-passenger satellites.

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Google said in a blog post that their goal is to create a pool of highly skilled tech workforce that is readily employable by the Industry and help spur innovation.

Google on Friday announced a partnership with Pluralsight and Udacity for a new scholarship program that will help 130K developers and students across India to gain the skills they need to be successful in the changing technology landscape.

Google said in a blog post that their goal is to create a pool of highly skilled tech workforce that is readily employable by the Industry and help spur innovation. Under this scholarship program, Google will sponsor 100 thousand scholarships on the Pluralsight learning platform and 30 thousand scholarships on Udacity to help developers gain access to advanced learning curriculum and further their employability in emerging technologies like Mobile and Web development, Machine Learning, AR/VR, Artificial Intelligence, and Cloud Platforms.

For Udacity, Google will also provide 1000 full nano-degree scholarships from the 30,000 scholarships being offered. Interested candidates will also get access to Pluralsights unique adaptive assessment engine, that will help them match their unique learning path based on their skill level and interest.

Last year, Google had announced a program to train two million developers in India and till now they claim to have engaged over half a million students and developers across the country.

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A new pull request was created by a Google employee to add support for Apples programming language to Fuchsia, allowing apps written in Swift to run on the forthcoming OS that uses a new microkernel called Zircon.

Google is reportedly working on implementing support for apps written using the Swift programming language to its upcoming Fuchsia OS.

According to a report from AndroidPolice, a new pull request was created by a Google employee to add support for Apples programming language to Fuchsia, allowing apps written in Swift to run on the forthcoming OS that uses a new microkernel called Zircon.

If this happens then it will be something that developers from both communities could cheer about. It also comes as good news for users who will be able to run more apps on Fuchsia OS, which is currently under development.

Google currently uses an SDK (Software Development Kit) called Flutter to develop apps and user interfaces for its Fuchsia OS, which should be compatible with Googles Linux based Android OS, as well as Apples iOS.

Apple on the other hand uses Swift to compile apps for its iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS. What Google plans to do with Fuchsia OS is still unclear, but several reports suggest that the company could use it as a replacement for both Chrome OS and Android in a single, unified operating system for Chromebooks, smartphones, smartwatches and tablets.

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Armed attackers on Friday killed at least 235 worshippers in a bomb and gun assault on a packed mosque in Egypts restive North Sinai province, state media reported, the countrys deadliest attack in recent memory. A bomb explosion ripped through the Rawda mosque frequented by Sufis roughly 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish before gunmen opened fire on those gathered for weekly Friday prayers, officials said.

Witnesses said the assailants had surrounded the mosque with all-terrain vehicles then planted a bomb outside. The gunmen then mowed down the panicked worshippers as they attempted to flee and used the congregants vehicles they had set alight to block routes to the mosque. State television reported at least 235 people were killed and 109 wounded in the attack, the scale of which is unprecedented in a four-year insurgency by Islamist extremist groups.

Egypts presidency declared three days of mourning, state television reported, as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met his security ministers to follow developments. UK foreign minister Boris Johnson condemned the barbaric attack in a post on Twitter, while his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian expressed his condolences to the families of victims of the despicable attack. Ahmed Abul Gheit, head of the Arab League, condemned the terrifying crime which again shows that Islam is innocent of those who follow extremist terrorist ideology.
Immediately after release, JuD chief Hafiz Saeed launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the cause of Kashmir. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: The US on Thursday asked the Pakistan government to make sure that Hafiz Saeed is arrested and charged for his crimes, following the release of the 26/11 mastermind and JuD chief from house arrest.

Pakistan on Thursday freed Saeed, the LeT founder, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the cause of Kashmir.

The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens, state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes, Nauert said in a statement after the release of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief.

The JuD leader, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after his 10-month detention as the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case, in a setback to Indias efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.

In May 2008, the US Department of the Treasury had designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.

Saeed was also individually designated by the UN under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December, 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people, including six American citizens, were killed, Nauert said.

LeT and several of its front organisations, leaders, and operatives remain under both state department and Treasury department sanctions.

Since 2012, the US has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice, she said.
Former White House national security advisor Michael Flynn is moving to cooperate with a special prosecutor probing possible collusion between Donald Trumps campaign team and Russian election meddling, The New York Times reported on Friday. Lawyers for Michael Flynn notified the Presidents legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, the Times reported, citing four people involved in the case.

The development indicates that Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors or is negotiating such a deal, the report said. Flynns lawyers had been sharing information with Mr Trumps legal team about Muellers probe related to Russian interference in last years ballot, which saw Mr Trump defeat his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. That agreement has been terminated, the Times sources said.
The move comes as the US pushes what Donald Trump has called a maximum pressure campaign against the North's nuclear program. (Photo: AFP/File)

Seoul: The US will send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill, reports said Friday, in a new show of force aimed at Pyongyang.

Six fighter jets, normally based in Okinawa, Japan, will be deployed to the South for a five-day joint military exercise, Vigilant Ace, starting December 4, local media reported.

A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an "unspecified number" of F-22s would take part in the drill. A US Air Force spokesman declined to give details.

Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets.

The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against the North's nuclear program.

Earlier in November, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes.

This was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships in the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade.

North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainland, which were described by the country's leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to "American bastards".

It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test in September, by far its most powerful yet.

Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back onto a US blacklist Pyongyang was taken off nearly a decade ago.

The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme.

Trump said that the terror designation and new sanctions are part of a series of moves over the next two weeks to reinforce his "maximum pressure campaign" against Kim Jong-Un's regime.

Pyongyang condemned the listing as a "serious provocation" on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the North's sole ally, also rejected as "wrong" new US sanctions, which target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state.

Russia said Thursday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a "PR move" that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global "catastrophe".
A local Japanese female politician who brought her baby into an Assembly meeting to highlight the issues women face in the workplace has sparked debate after being ejected from the chamber. Yuka Ogata took her seven-month-old son to join a municipal Assembly session of southern Kumamoto city on Friday but other lawmakers asked her to leave, according to local media. Under the rules, only politicians, staff members and city officials can go on to the Assembly floor, an official at Kumamoto City Assembly said on Friday. The Assembly was delayed for 40 minutes. Ogata joined after leaving the child with a friend, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Apparently she told the chairman that she wanted to create a woman-friendly work environment, the official said. Her move has sparked debate online with supporters saying she was brave and opponents questioning if it was a good idea to bring a baby to a workplace. I think her act was wonderful. People wouldnt take problems seriously if she hadnt shown up with the child, one Twitter user said. Balancing work and child rearing isnt about being with a child all the time at a workplace, said another user, who identified herself as a fellow working mother.

I really cannot understand her action, wrote this user. In May, a breastfeeding senator made Australian political history by becoming the first woman to nurse her newborn baby in the Parliament. Being able to breastfeed in the chamber follows new rules introduced last year to create a more family-friendly parliament.

Under previous rules, children were technically banned in the Australian Parliament. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made increasing female participation in the workforce a key plank of his Abenomics strategy to reboot Japans once-mighty economy. However, women are still underrepresented in politics with only 47 of the 465 members of the lower house.
Six fighter jets, normally based in Okinawa, Japan, will be deployed to the South for a five-day joint military exercise, Vigilant Ace, starting December 4, local media reported. (Photo: Representational/AP)

The US will send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill, reports said on Friday, in a new show of force aimed at Pyongyang. Six fighter jets, normally based in Okinawa, Japan, will be deployed to the South for a five-day joint military exercise, Vigilant Ace, starting December 4, local media reported. A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an unspecified number of F-22s would take part in the drill. A US Air Force spokesman declined to give details.

Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets. The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called for a maximum pressure campaign against the Norths nuclear programme. Earlier this month, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes.
Jamil had denied the charge of preparing acts of terror and claimed that he was hearing voices and wanted to go to Syria to be exorcised of the "jinns" that were plaguing him. (Photo: File/Representational)

London: A 22-year-old Pakistan-born man has been jailed for six years in the UK for preparing acts of terrorism after being arrested in an undercover police operation in 2016.

Mubashir Jamil, a warehouse worker for the online retailer Amazon, had told an undercover police officer he wanted to wear a suicide vest and "press the button", the Old Bailey court in London heard during his trial.

He was arrested in April, a few days before he planned to leave for Turkey, after messaging the officer on a mobile app in which he also revealed that he wanted to fight for the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group in Syria.

"If you or some brother you know can put an explosive belt on me and tell me how to press, as soon as possible for security reasons, I can do something in the UK even tomorrow after I find a good target," he told the undercover officer using the name of Abu Hasan.

Jamil had denied the charge of preparing acts of terror and claimed that he was hearing voices and wanted to go to Syria to be exorcised of the "jinns" that were plaguing him.

The court was told that he had suffered bouts of mental illness and the judge ruled that a part of his six-year sentence will be served in a secure hospital.

Jamil was a former A-grade student from Challney High School for Boys in Luton, near London.

He became obsessed with the idea of martyrdom after surfing the internet for execution videos and ISIS propaganda, his trial was told.

Jamil, who moved to Luton from Pakistan with his family when he was two-year-old, had planned his trip to Turkey carefully and "deliberately" changed his appearance, shaving off his beard after reading ISIS guidance online about how to be a "secret agent" in a non-Muslim country.

Judge Peter Rook said Thursday his crime was only "in part" explained by his mental health disorder and described him as "dangerous".

He handed Jamil a "hybrid order", meaning he will continue to be treated in a secure hospital until he is well enough to be transferred to prison.

Jamil will also have to serve a further five years on extended licence, or under police monitoring, on his release.

The undercover officer who entrapped Jamil had posed as ISIS handler Abu Hasan to persuade Jamil to send him a copy of his passport, photographs of himself and even a copy of the boarding pass for a flight to Turkey leaving on April 30, 2016.

Jamil was caught red-handed chatting to Hasan online as counter-terrorism officers burst through his bedroom door in Luton on April 27.

His online research became more sinister around November 2015, when he trawled the web for slick propaganda videos produced by ISIS.

In March 2016, he was sent an ISIS "application form" by someone using the handle 'abdullah9996' on Telegram, the encrypted messaging app used by the network.

The contact led him into the web of the undercover operation planned by the UK's counter-terrorism officers.
Moscow stepped into Syria's multi-front war in September 2015, sending planes to back the Assad regime and turning the military situation around in his favour. (Photo: File)

Sochi: Russia's military plans to reduce its involvement in Syria in 2017 as it is nearing the completion of its goals there, the General Staff chief has told journalists.

"Of course, there will be a decision taken by the commander in chief and the group (working in Syria) will be decreased," said Valery Gerasimov Thursday when asked whether Russia would be scaling back its forces in Syria by the end of 2017.

"When we complete our tasks, military tasks. There is only a little left," Gerasimov said.

Asked about the extent of the pull-out, Gerasimov said it would be "extensive," though it was not clear if he was also referring to this year or a later date.

He said some military will be left behind even after Moscow scales back its involvement in bombing and combat.

"We will leave the Centre for Reconciliation, our two military bases (in Tartus and Hmeimim) and several necessary structures to maintain the state which has developed at this time," said Gerasimov.

Putin this week hosted a round of diplomacy meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as the leaders of Turkey and Iran as he declared the Syrian crisis was entering "a new stage" after the country "has been saved as a state."

Moscow stepped into Syria's multi-front war in September 2015, sending planes to back the Assad regime and turning the military situation around in his favour.
Eyewitnesses reported ambulances ferrying casualties from the scene to nearby hospitals after the attack on Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed. (Photo: AFP)

Cairo: At least 235 worshippers were killed and 109 others injured when heavily-armed militants bombed a mosque and opened fire on people attending Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, in the deadliest terror attack in the country.

The militants launched a targeted bomb and gun attack on the al-Rowda mosque in Al-Arish city during the Friday prayers, the state-run MENA news agency reported.

After the bomb ripped through the mosque, the gunmen on four off-road vehicles opened fire on the worshippers who tried to escape from the site after the explosion, it said.

At least 235 worshippers were killed and 109 others injured in the attack, Ahram Online said.

Pictures from the scene show rows of bloodied victims inside the mosque.

The blasts from improvised explosive devices caused considerable damage to the mosque, the website said.

Speaking to state-run Masriya TV station, Egyptian health ministry spokesman Khalid Mujahid described the incident as a "terrorist attack."

One report said the target appeared to be supporters of the security forces who were praying at the mosque.

Local people are also quoted as saying that followers of Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, regularly gathered at the mosque.

Islamist jihadist groups, including so-called Islamic State (IS), see Sufis as heretics. About 50 ambulances were rushed to the attack site to shift the injured to hospitals.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack and there is no word yet on what happened to the militants involved. However, it bears the hallmarks of an attack by ISIS, reports said.

There have been regular attacks blamed on militants on the Sinai peninsula since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak, but this is the deadliest assault of its kind.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

The Egypt government has announced three days of mourning, even as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi chaired an emergency meeting with officials to review security situation after the deadly attack.

Egypt has witnessed a series of terror attacks this year claiming scores of lives.

On May 26, gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others.

On April 9, two suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services at churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta left 46 people dead.
Our fruitful cooperation with Arab countries is in general secret, but I am confident that relations with them will continue to mature, Benjamin Netanyahu said. (Photo: AFP)

Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday hailed his country's "fruitful cooperation" with Arab nations, as fears over Iranian influence appear to drive one-time adversaries closer together.

"Our fruitful cooperation with Arab countries is in general secret, but I am confident that relations with them will continue to mature and that this will allow us to enlarge the circle of peace," he said in a speech to mark the 44th anniversary of the death of Israel's founder David Ben Gurion.

Netanyahu insisted that peace between Israel and Arab countries would "happen in the end, because there are a lot of things going on all the time beneath the surface".

Israeli officials have repeatedly said that shared worries with Sunni Arab nations over the growing might of Shiite Iran could cause a diplomatic reconfiguration across the Middle East, where Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab neighbours to have made peace with the Jewish state.

Last week chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot declared in a rare interview with an Arab outlet that Israel was prepared to cooperate with Saudi Arabia to face Iran's plans "to control the Middle East".

This statement fuelled speculation that the two staunch US allies, which do not have diplomatic ties, could hash out some sort of deal to confront Tehran and the Lebanese group it backs Hezbollah.

US President Donald Trump has toughened Washington's stance against Iran with fiery rhetoric that has been applauded by both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Under the agreement, Rohingya are required to present residency documents, which few have, before being allowed to return to Myanmar. (Photo: File)

Bangkok: Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement on Thursday covering the return of Rohingya Muslims who fled across their mutual border to escape violence in Myanmars Rakhine state.

Myanmar announced the agreement but provided no details on how many Rohingya refugees would be allowed to return home. Bangladesh said the repatriations are to begin within two months.

More than 620,000 Rohingya have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh since August 25, when the army began what it called clearance operations following an attack on police posts by a group of Rohingya insurgents. Refugees arriving in Bangladesh said their homes were set on fire by soldiers and Buddhist mobs, and some reported being shot at by security forces.

The office of Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the agreement on the return of displaced persons from Rakhine state was signed by Cabinet officials in Naypyitaw, Myanmars capital.

It said the pact follows a formula set in a 1992 repatriation agreement signed by the two nations after an earlier spasm of violence. Under that agreement, Rohingya were required to present residency documents, which few have, before being allowed to return to Myanmar.

Read: Right groups ask to monitor Rohingya return to Myanmar

Were continuing our bilateral talks with Myanmar so that these Myanmar nationals (Rohingya) could return to their country, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was quoted as saying by the United News of Bangladesh news agency. Its my call to Myanmar to start taking back soon their nationals from Bangladesh.

Rohingya at a refugee camp in Bangladesh expressed deep doubts about the agreement. They burned our houses, they took our land and cows  will they give us these things back? asked Abdul Hamid from Hoyakong. Im not happy at all. First, I need to know if they are going to accept us with the Rohingya identity, said Sayed Alom, also from Hoyakong.

Rohingya Muslims have faced state-supported discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar for decades.

Though members of the ethnic minority first arrived generations ago, Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship in 1982, denying them almost all rights and rendering them stateless. They cannot travel freely, practice their religion, or work as teachers or doctors, and they have little access to medical care, food or education.

Read: Bangladesh, Myanmar to begin Rohingya return in 2 months

The Myanmar government has refused to accept them as a minority group, and the statement issued Thursday by Suu Kyis office did not use the term Rohingya.

The United States on Wednesday declared the violence against Rohingya to be ethnic cleansing, and threatened penalties for Myanmar military officers involved in the crackdown.

The human rights group Amnesty International said in a report Tuesday that the discrimination against Rohingya has worsened considerably in the last five years, and amounts to dehumanizing apartheid.

There can be no safe or dignified returns of Rohingya to Myanmar while a system of apartheid remains in the country, and thousands are held there in conditions that amount to concentration camps.

Returns in the current climate are simply unthinkable, the groups director for refugee and migrant rights, Charmain Mohamed, said in a statement Thursday.
With the names of all the candidates to 89 Assembly constituencies formalised, the BJP and the Congress would see their leaders - Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi - hit the road again from Friday.



Rahul Gandhi, who has moved across the length and breadth of the state in his four-phased three-day Navsarjan Yatra over the last two months, will begin his latest campaign on Friday. He will begin the day at Kirti Mandir in Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, and meet fishermen at the Fishing Harbour Ground in the town.

Later, he will fly down to Ahmedabad and travel to Sanand. Here, he will address a Dalit Swabhiman Sabha at Dalit Shakti Kendra and accept a giant national flag measuring 125X80 feet made by dalit artisans. The flag was earlier slated to be presented to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. Citing lack of space, the officials reportedly refused to accept it.

Rahul will return to Ahmedabad and address professionals, before holding a public rally at Nikol, the stronghold of Patels in the city. There are rumours that Hardik Patel may join him, especially after the Patels accepted the Congress formula on quotas.

The next day, Rahul will move towards the central Gujarat towns of Dehgam, Bayad, Lunawada and Dahod to hold corner meetings and public rallies before flying off to Delhi.

Modi's itinerary

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who, since the notification of elections in the state, has been part of two religious functions - one in person and another through video conferencing - will land in Gujarat for campaigning on November 27 and 29. He is slated to address eight rallies across different parts of Saurashtra and South Gujarat, where polling for the first phase of Assembly elections is scheduled to be held on December 9.

On November 27, the prime minister will address the people of Bhuj in Kutch district and then address public gatherings in Saurashtra region at Jasdan town of Rajkot and Dhari in Amreli district before flying off to Kamrej of Surat district in South Gujarat.

On November 29, Modi will be back in the state to address rallies in Saurashtra region at Morbi and Prachi villages near Somnath, Palitana in Bhavnagar and at Navsari in South Gujarat.

"Each rally has been organised in such a way that people from five to six surrounding constituencies can participate," Bhupendra Yadav, Gujarat BJP in-charge, told mediapersons.
India has asked for "sovereign guarantee" from Pakistan that the safety and security of Kulbhushan Jadhav's wife and mother would be ensured if they go to the neighbouring country to meet him.



Islamabad recently conveyed to New Delhi through diplomatic channel that it was ready to arrange a meeting between Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer currently on death row in Pakistan, and his wife. In its response, New Delhi conveyed to Islamabad that Jadhav's mother would also like to travel with her daughter-in-law to Pakistan.

"In our response, we (India) have conveyed (to Pakistan) that Jadhav's wife would like to travel along with her mother-in-law for the meeting," Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said on Thursday. "We have also sought sovereign guarantee from the Government of Pakistan to ensure their safety, security and well-being and that they shall not be questioned, harassed or interrogated during their visit and stay in Pakistan."

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had earlier this year written to her then Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz, requesting him to issue visa to Jadhav's mother Avantika Jadhav. Aziz had been the advisor on foreign affairs to the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. He, however, did not even respond to the letter.

"There was a long-standing request from the mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav to visit Pakistan. Though the request was pending, India still responded positively to the offer made by Pakistan to arrange a meeting of Jadhav with his wife," Kumar said on Thursday.

Islamabad had, in March 2016, announced the arrest of Jadhav from Balochistan. He has since been in the custody of Pakistan Army. New Delhi's repeated requests to grant consular access to him were turned down by Islamabad.
The suicide of software engineer Geethanjali took a new turn on Thursday as the police learnt that she got engaged on her birthday.



Police retrieved pictures of her engagement from her mobile phone, which was sent to the Forensic Science Lab (FSL) for testing and also found text messages from her friends congratulating her on the "double bonus" for getting engaged on her birthday on November 21. Geethanjali's response had been muted, as she replied "yes, yes."

Parents of Geethanjali (27), who plunged to death from the ninth floor of the tech park in East Bengaluru, kept silent over her engagement, telling the police that they had no idea why the techie took the extreme step and had no one to suspect.

Police investigation revealed that Geethanjali was unhappy over her engagement, but complied with her parent's wishes to keep them happy. She gave no sign of her unhappiness and her parents assumed she was happy with the engagement.

Arriving in Bengaluru on Wednesday, Geethanjali went to the terrace of the tech park housing her office and tried convincing her mother and aunt on a phone call about canceling the engagement. She then jumped off the building. Geethanjali's mother and aunt did not tell the police about her last phone call.

Police are planning to interrogate Geethanjali's colleagues on Friday to find out if she was in a relationship with someone else and if that was the reason for her unhappiness over her engagement.

Marthahalli police sub-inspector Nagaraju said a case had been registered under unnatural death (Section 174 of the IPC), but in view of the new facts the case has been upgraded to suspicious death under IPC Section 174 .

An engineer with ADVA Optical Networking in Cessna Business Park near Kadubeesanahalli, Geethanjali U died falling from the office building on Wednesday.

Post-mortem was performed on her body at Vydehi Hospital; following which it was handed over to the family at 12.30 pm. Geethanjali was cremated at Kudlu.
The Union Health Ministry on Thursday advised state governments to clearly convey to private hospitals not to indulge in unfair means in billing and to maintain transparency while treating a patient.



"A meeting with all important health care establishments (including private hospitals) of your state be taken and they be clearly sounded not to indulge in such (unfair) practices failing which strict action will be taken," Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan wrote to chief secretaries of all states.

The official letter comes in the wake of the recent incident at Fortis Gurugram hospital where the medical establishment gave a bill of Rs 16 lakh to the father of a seven-year-old girl, who was treated for dengue for 15 days at the intensive care unit of the hospital, but ultimately died.

The ministry asked the Haryana government to probe the incident and also sought a clinical report and details of the bill from the hospital.

"It has been alleged that the patient was grossly overcharged and standard treatment protocols were not followed," she wrote.

The Fortis case was not an isolated one as the health secretary maintained there were other reported instances of malpractices. They include exorbitant charges, deficiency in service, violation of standard treatment protocols, compromise on patient safety and lack of transparency and accountability.

"Such incidents have an extremely deleterious impact on the faith of the general public in healthcare system. It is our duty to ensure that such incidents don't recur and treatment is provided at a fair and affordable price," she wrote.

In Karnataka

The letter from the central government official came in the wake of another round of confrontation between doctors and Karnataka government over a legislation that among other things seeks to fix the bed and procedural charges in private hospitals. The bill has now been passed by the Karnataka Assembly.

Sudan also asked the states to adopt and implement the Clinical Establishment act, 2010, which was made with the underlying objective of regulating the private hospital and nursing home industry.

The act came into effect in four states - Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram - and all union territories except Delhi in 2012. Later six other states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam - adopted it. Earlier this year, West Bengal came out with its own legislation, modelled on the central act.
Tension gripped a government higher primary school in Hebbal as the soil holding up the building loosened and slipped when BBMP workers dug up the adjoining rajakaluve a or giant stormwater drain.



Panicked staff at 'Nammura Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Patashale', located on the edge of the drain at Manorayanpalaya 3rd Cross, evacuated the 230 students from the building when one of the staff noticed cracks in a classroom and informed the superiors, police said.

Parents and residents in the neighbouring buildings converged on the school premises to see the extent of the collapse. Some of them informed television channels, while local representatives also rushed to the spot having learnt about the emergency.

The BBMP is raising retaining walls on either side of the drain since they were damaged in the recent heavy rains.

"Around three feet of mud caved in when (BBMP workers) dug up the place near the building's foundation to lay the concrete bed," school headmistress Premila told DH. "This panicked the school staff who decided to evacuate the building as a precautionary measure."

BBMP officials piled the caved-in portion with sandbags and filled it with concrete. They assured the school staff that the work near the building would be wrapped up in a couple of days.

Students were immediately shifted to a nearby anganwadi and a music school. "We informed our superiors in the Education Department who made the alternative arrangement for the next couple of days," the school's Cluster Resource Person (CRP) Chalapathi said.

"Some of the students were accommodated at the anganwadi that has four rooms, while the rest were given place at the music school that has a huge hall," he added.
The Supreme Court on Thursday declared unconstitutional a provision in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which states that bail to an accused cannot be granted until the court is satisfied that he is not guilty of the offence, and is not likely to commit further crimes.



The top court said the drastic provision turns on its head the presumption of innocence which is fundamental to a person accused of any offence.

It held that Section 45 of the PMLA violated the fundamental rights to equality and liberty guaranteed under the Constitution. It traced the provision of bail to 'Magna Carta' of 1215, the most celebrated document in history, upholding the rights of citizens against detention.

"We must be doubly sure that such (a) provision furthers a compelling state interest for tackling serious crime(s). Absent any such compelling state interest, the indiscriminate application of the provisions of Section 45 will certainly violate Article 21 of the Constitution," a bench of Justices R F Nariman and Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.

The bench disagreed with the argument put forward by Attorney General K K Venugopal that the conditions contained in Section 45 are

only in furtherance of the object of unearthing black money and therefore, the court should be slow to release those accused of money laundering.

The court ruling has fortified the maxim that "bail is the rule, jail an exception". The provision of the 2002 law, which was brought into force in 2005, had rather shifted it to "jail is the rule, bail an exception".

The court noted that Section 45 makes drastic inroads into the fundamental right of personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.
A four-and-a-half-year-old boy has been booked for raping a classmate on the premises of a private school in West Delhi.



The Delhi Police registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the boy after the girl's mother lodged a complaint.

The incident took place in the school, located in Dwarka, last Friday. The victim's mother claimed that the boy had used his fingers as well as a sharpened pencil to sexually assault her daughter in the classroom and washroom.

Though a case has been registered against the minor boy, the police said the incident has raised a question if he could be prosecuted for the offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

"The IPC provides children below seven years of age certain protections against prosecutions. We are examining those provisions, even as we are handling the matter with utmost sensitivity," Delhi Police spokesperson Dependra Pathak told mediapersons. An NGO has been roped in to counsel the boy, he added.

According to the victim's mother, she came to know about the incident after her daughter returned from school and narrated what happened to her at night while writhing in pain because of "some injuries she had sustained in her private parts".

"She (the victim) tried pushing him (the juvenile in conflict with law), but could not get away as the other children had left and there was no staff around," the mother stated in her FIR to the police.
Mumbai attack mastermind and banned JuD chief Hafiz Saeed today walked free from house arrest and said he would gather people across Pakistan for the "cause of Kashmir" and try to help Kashmiris get their "destination of freedom".



The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head, who carries a USD 10 million American bounty for his role in terror activities, was freed after the government decided against detaining him further in any case. He was under detention since January.

"I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir," Saeed told his supporters gathered outside his residence to celebrate his release.

"I fight for the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir and we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom," he said upon his release.

Punjab province's Judicial Review Board comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday unanimously ordered Saeed's release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest which expired last night.

Saeed said that he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris in January.

Using the release order to buttress his claim of "innocence", Saeed said: "I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release... India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHC's review board decision has proved that I am innocent".

The JuD chief said that the US, on India's request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.

"I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," he claimed.

Several JuD supporters, gathered outside Saeed's house in Lahore's Jauhar town to celebrate his release, shouted anti- India slogans and described their leader as "a hope for the Kashmiri people".

"We are happy to see our leader free. Hafiz sahib received his release order from the jail officials. Now he is a free man," JuD spokesman Ahmad Nadim said.

"Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case," a top government official told PTI.

He said that after a long deliberation, it has been decided to follow the review board's decision.

Saeed's release would invite strong criticism from India and the US, official sources said.

"It remains to be seen as how would the PML-N government handle the foreign pressure to again detain Saeed," they said.

Punjab Assistant Advocate General Sattar Sahil said the government law officer had presented "some important evidence" to justify Saeed's detention, but all three members of the board unanimously rejected it and ordered his release.

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti- Terrorism Act 1997. The last two extensions were made on the 'public safety law'.

The board refused to give further extension to the detention of Saeed's aides. They were set free last month.

According to the rules, the government could detain a person for up to three months under different charges, but for extension, it needs approval from a judicial review board.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack in November 2008 but he was freed by a court in 2009.

India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and demanded trial of Saeed and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi in the light of evidence it had provided to Islamabad.

Ten LeT militants had killed 166 people and wounded dozens in Mumbai in November, 2008. Nine of the attackers were killed by police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught and executed after a court found him guilty.

Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN after the Mumbai attack.
Incoming Zimbabwe leader Emmerson Mnangagwa assured former president Robert Mugabe he and his family would be safe in the country when the two men spoke for the first time since Mnangagwa returned home this week, state media said on Friday.



The State-owned The Herald newspaper said Mugabe and Mnangagwa, who is set to be sworn in as president later on Friday, had agreed that the former leader may not attend the swearing-in ceremony because he was tired.
The final day of the winter session of the Legislative Assembly in Belagavi on Friday was washed out with BJP members demanding the resignation of Mines and Geology Minister Vinay Kulkarni for his alleged involvement in the murder of Yogeesh Goudar, a BJP member of Dharwad Zilla Panchayat.



As soon as the House met, the BJP members demanded that they be allowed to raise ZP member murder case. Goudar, a member of Hebballi constituency, was hacked to death by unknown assailants on June 15, last year.

On Thursday, the family members of Goudar at a press conference stated that they were pressured to withdraw the case. They charged that it is being done at the behest of Kulkarni.

Speaker K G Koliwad said he will allow the BJP members to raise the issue soon after the Question Hour. However, the BJP members insisted that the matter be taken up immediately keeping all other business aside.

They entered the well of the House shouting slogans against the government.

Koliwad had to adjourned the House twice. When BJP members continued with their dharna sticking on their demand, Koliwad adjourned the House sine die.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who is in poll-bound Gujarat for a two-day visit starting Friday, again hit out at the BJP government saying that it was working for a handful industrialists in the state.



He went on to express confidence that the Congress will form a government in the state after the Assembly elections.

Speaking to a fishermen rally in Porbander, Rahul said that when the Congress comes to power in the state, everyone would be able to meet the chief minister.

"Modiji tells you his 'mann ki baat', but nobody listens to your 'mann ki baat'. The Congress will win the December elections in Gujarat and will form a government which listens to you and works according to your needs," he said.

He also told the fishermen that if the Congress comes back to power at the Centre, it would consider setting up an independent fisheries ministry, adding that BJP government would not consider giving a subsidy of Rs 300 crore to fishermen but waived off the debt of Rs 1 lakh crore of big business houses.

He said the industrialists are marketing for the Modi government.

Addressing Bharat Modi, a leader of the fisherman community and till recently a senior BJP leader in the region, "This is interesting. A BJP worker here speaks out about your demands from the Congress platform. My dear friend, it is your government. Prime minister is yours. Chief minister is yours. Now that you have come here and the Congress is going to win in Gujarat, we will listen to you."

He also hit out at the Modi government on GST and demonetisation and its impact on the people at the rally.

Rahul, who landed in Porbandar in the morning, also visited the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi.

Flimsy issue

The BJP, on the other hand, tried to corner the Congress vice president on the flimsy issue of a statue almost slipping out of his hand.

A Congressman presented a statue of the Mahatma to Rahul at a fishermen's rally. It almost fell off Rahul's hands and BJP tried to make an issue out of this.

What made it worse was that the BJP thought it was a statue of Sardar Patel. They said just as the Congress was inept at handling Sardar in the past, Rahul could not handle Sardar's statue now.

"You (Rahul) could not hold an idol of Sardar or the Mahatma. It almost slipped out of your hand. It reminded me of the treatment Congress meted out to Sardar Patel," Union Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman said when informed that it was an idol of Mahatma.
The state government is considering a proposal to make it mandatory for the elected representatives and the officials to send their children to government schools, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait informed the Legislative Council on Friday.



"The Kannada Development Authority has recommended this and it is being studied," Sait said.

Congress MLC G Raghu Achar has sought to table a private Bill mandating the government officials to send their children to the government schools. Achar briefly staged a protest by sitting in the well of the House when Council Chairman D H Shankaramurthy did not allow his private Bill to be tabled, citing rules.

"Our department will okay this private Bill when it comes to us and the government has expressed its willingness to support it. The government is even ready to table a Bill to this effect," the minister said.

In August 2015, the Allahabad High Court had directed the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary to ensure government servants send their children to state-run primary schools.

The Centre for Child and the Law (CCL) at the premier National Law School of India University has supported Achar's private Bill. "The first step in strengthening public education system will be to have government servants and elected representatives to send their children to government schools. This argument is at least a decade old," CCL fellow and educationist V P Niranjan Aradhya said.
Two persons were killed and six injured after large pieces of rock fell on labourers working at a stone quarry at Marayimuttam in Parassala, about 30 km from Thiruvananthapuram, on Friday.



The deceased were identified as Sathish (29), driver of an earth-moving vehicle and a native of Salem in Tamil Nadu, and Binil Kumar (23) from Malakkulangara near Parassala.

The incident happened at about 10 am. The pieces of rock fell on the earth-mover, killing Sathish and leaving seven labourers trapped in the rubble.

Police, firemen and rescue services personnel, along with local residents and other labourers, rescued the injured workers and shifted them to hospitals.

Binil Kumar was brought dead to the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) in Thiruvananthapuram. Reports said about 20 labourers were at work at the quarry site when the incident happened.

Of the three men who are undergoing treatment at the MCH, two have sustained serious leg injuries. Three others have been admitted to the Neyyattinkara General Hospital.

Residents of the area said the quarry was functioning without the mandatory licences. The district administration has directed the owner of the quarry to stop work at the site. Functioning of other allegedly illegal quarries in the region will also be probed.
As many as 14,102 unauthorised autorickshaws are plying on the streets of Bengaluru and action is being taken against them, Transport Minister HM Revanna told the Legislative Council on Friday.



"There are 1.25 lakh licences that have been issued in the city. Also, there are 14,102 licences that have not been renewed and we are taking action," Revanna said in response to P R Ramesh's question.

According to the minister, the number of autorickshaw licences has been capped at 1.25 lakh a year. "In 2012, we issued 85,000 auto licences, 95,300 in 2013 and 1.25 lakh in 2014, 2015 and 2016," Revanna said.

The number of licences that have not been renewed is increasing each year - 902 in 2012, 1,300 in 2013, 2,500 in 2014, 3,500 in 2015 and 5,900 in 2016, he explained.
In a unique protest blaming the NDA government for price rise, Youth Congress members staged a skit at Sangolli Rayanna Circle here on Friday, in which a person wearing Prime Minister Narendra Modi mask sold vegetables, eggs and petrol at high price.



Raising slogans against Mr Modi, Youth Congress members asked where 'Achhe Din' has come, when the prices of essential commodities have gone up, causing serious trouble for common people.

"Price of onion has reached Rs 60 per kg, while the price of tomato is Rs 70, beans Rs 85, tur dal Rs 180, while one egg is also costing Rs eight. Before the elections, Mr Modi had assured to bring 'Achhe Din', and the present price rise shows that he gave only false assurances," protesters charged.

Later, they also burnt the effigy of Mr Modi.

Youth Congress leaders Shahjaman Mujahid, Rajat Ullagaddimath, Shivakumar Ramanagoudra, and others led the protest.
The body of a 40-year-old man, identified as Chetan Saini, was found hanging at Jaipur's famous Nahargarh fort 20 km near Jaipur, on Friday morning.



Next to the body was a stone, upon which was scribbled the message, "Padmavati ka virodh" (in opposition to Padmavati).

Saini, a local jeweler, was hanged within the ramparts of the fort. According to the police, it is not clear whether this is a case of suicide or murder. The police have recovered an Aadhaar card from his pocket.

The graffiti scribbled with coal on stones found next to the body also said, "We don't just burn effigies, we hang them."

This is the first such incident reported in connection with the Padmavati row in Rajasthan.

Violent protests have been taken out to halt the release of the film, with Rajput outfits vandalising cinema halls and vowing to not let the film be released at any cost.

The Karni Sena, who is leading the protests, had accused director Sanjay Leela Bhansali of distorting facts in the film, which stars Deepika Padukone as the Rajput Queen Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Rawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as the invader Alauddin Khilji.

Following protests in Rajasthan and other states, Sanjay Leela Bhansali had recently deferred the release of the movie, which was earlier scheduled to release on December 1.
The Bombay High Court on Friday annulled the election of Shiv Sena MLA and Maharashtra minister Arjun Khotkar from Jalna in 2014 on the ground that he filed his nomination papers after the deadline had expired.



Khotkar is currently the minister of state for textiles, animal husbandry, dairy development and fisheries.

Justice T V Nalawade of the Aurangabad bench of the high court passed the order on an election petition by Kailash Gorantyal of the Congress party who had contested against Khotkar.

While mentioning the point about the expired deadline, the petitioner also prayed to the court to declare him elected from the seat.

The court said that though it was nullifying Khotkar's election, it will not pass any order declaring Gorantyal as MLA.

The bench stayed its order for a period of four weeks to enable Khotkar to appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.

"The high court bench has given the ruling on a technical issue. We will challenge it in the Supreme Court," Khotkar, a fourth-term MLA, said.
The Centre on Friday refuted before the Supreme Court a charge that CBI chief A K Verma last month sent a dissent note on the appointment of Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as special director.



Attorney General K K Venugopal submitted before a bench of Justices R K Agrawal and Abhay Manohar Sapre that Asthana has been recommended to the post for being an "outstanding officer" who supervised more than 40 scams, including those relating to coal, AgustaWestland, Haaji Ali, Moin Qureshi, chit fund, Bihar's bitumen, among others.

Responding to a charge that Asthana, a 1984-batch officer, is himself under the CBI scanner after his name purportedly appeared in a diary for having received regular kickbacks and favours from Surat-based Sterling Biotech Ltd and related entities, the top law officer produced the original note, containing minutes of the CBI selection meeting held on October 21 in the office of the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC).

The note stated, "There is no finding in these papers that the person mentioned therein is the same person under consideration for appointment and there is nothing about the veracity of the contents of the document."

Venugopal also submitted the CVC, the supervisory body over the CBI, does not take consideration of the materials brought on record on the eve of appointment.

After hearing arguments from advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO Common Cause, and Venugopal, the bench reserved its judgement for November 28.

Advocate Bhushan submitted that it was a question of "institutional integrity". "Will the CBI be able to conduct a fair investigation in the Rs 5,000 crore money laundering case faced by the firm, if this gentleman (Asthana) continued on the post," he asked.

Bhushan also alleged that Asthana's son worked for the firm, which also organised a cocktail party for the officer's daughter before her marriage at its farmhouse. Bhushan also claimed the officer, who received regular favours from the firm during his tenure as Surat police commissioner, did not furnish his property details to the CBI.

Venugopal contended that the beneficiary of the instant PIL appeared to be Kingfisher promoter Vijay Mallya, who got a professor to give an affidavit in London that he (industrialist) would not get justice if extradited to India. "I don't know if he is behind it (the PIL)," he said.
The US today asked the Pakistan government to make sure that Hafiz Saeed is arrested and charged for his crimes, following the release of the 26/11 mastermind and JuD chief from house arrest.



Pakistan today freed Saeed, the LeT founder, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the "cause of Kashmir".

"The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens," state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

"The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes," Nauert said in a statement after the release of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief.

The JuD leader, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after his 10- month detention as the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case, in a setback to India's efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.

In May 2008, the US Department of the Treasury had designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.

Saeed was also individually designated by the UN under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December, 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people, including six American citizens, were killed, Nauert said.

LeT and several of its front organisations, leaders, and operatives remain under both state department and Treasury department sanctions.

Since 2012, the US has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice, she said.
The children of Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are no longer required to pay tuition fee and other charges in dollars while taking admissions in higher educational institutions in the country.



The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has decided that all educational institutions in the country will accept fees from the children of OCIs in Indian rupees.

"All educational institutions, including technical institutions, must accept fees in Indian rupees from OCI children taking admissions in higher educational institutions in the country," the ministry notified on Friday .

The exchange rate would be the rate of conversion "on the date of payment of fee," the ministry clarified.



This comes as a relief to OCI children who were facing a lot of problems in taking admissions in India. Indian higher educational institutions accept tuition fee and other charges from OCI students through demand drafts in dollars, though the banks in the country do not issue demand drafts in dollars.

"As several representations were received from parents in this regard, the ministry sought comments from various stakeholders," an official said. A meeting under the chairmanship of the higher education department secretary was recently held to resolve the problem.




The Madras High Court today directed the police to register an FIR against actor Kamal Haasan if a cognizable offence is made out against him over his alleged comments on "Hindu terrorism" in a Tamil magazine.

Justice M S Ramesh passed the order on a petition by G Devarajan, a registered advocate clerk in the high court, seeking a direction to the police to register the FIR against the actor based on his complaint.

According to the petitioner, the actor said in an article published in the magazine's November 8 edition that the presence of "Hindu terrorism" in the country cannot be ruled out.

"By making such statements Kamal Haasan is trying to brand Hindus as terrorists. He should understand that no religion preaches violence but only peace. The actor with vested interests is trying to divide the Tamil community on basis of religion," the petitioner said.

He further said he had approached the Chennai police commissioner on November 4 and Teynampet police on November 6 with his complaint against the actor.

Since no action was taken on the complaints, he moved the high court.
The Centre's special representative to Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, on Friday began his second visit to the state from Jammu, where he called on Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and discussed ways and means of reaching out to various stakeholders.



Sharma, who is on a six-day tour, later visited Jagti township where he met several delegations of displaced Kashmiri Pandit community. He is scheduled to meet various other delegations on Saturday.

The Centre's new point man for Kashmir will visit the valley on Sunday, where he is likely to meet students and also visit parts of south Kashmir, the hub of home-grown militancy and last year's unrest. According to officials, high point of Sharma's visit will be his interaction with youth and students in Pulwama and Anantnag.

Ahead of his second visit, J&K government on Thursday announced withdrawal of around 4,500 FIRs against first-time stone-pelters, a move which can generate goodwill for the Centre's interlocutor. The decision came on the recommendation of Sharma, who had earlier visited the Valley from November 6-8.

He was flooded with requests from various individuals and groups for withdrawing cases against youths booked by the police for indulging in stone pelting. "Some of the issues raised during my first visit have already been solved. My effort is to solve the other issues and problems as well," Sharma told reporters.

Sharma, a former director of Intelligence Bureau, was appointed 'special representative' to Kashmir by the Centre on October 23 to hold talks with all stakeholders, including separatists, in an effort to find lasting peace in the region.

The biggest challenge for Sharma, who had served in the state with the IB between 1992-94 when militancy was at its peak, remains breaking the ice with separatist leaders, who have categorically refused to meet him.

Hurriyat rejects

While the state government is trying hard to facilitate a meeting between Sharma and separatist leaders, moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq rejected the offer.

"If the government is serious and sincere and there is really a change of heart and approach, then all political prisoners should be immediately released and their freedom restored," he said, addressing a Friday congregation at historic Jamia Masjid in old city Srinagar.

Mirwaiz, who along with hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani and pro-independence JKLF chief Yasin Malik has formed 'Joint Resistance Leadership', said talks and harassment cannot go together. "Kashmir has been turned into a battlefield. Human rights violations are at its peak. Government forces have adopted pick and choose policy to kill and target Kashmiri youth. Our youths are being killed under a well-executed conspiracy," he alleged.
The body of a 40-year-old man was found hanging on the ramparts of Jaipur's famous Nahargarh Fort on Friday.

"Padmavati' ka virodh (in opposition to 'Padmavati') was scribbled on a stone next to the body.

The victim was identified as Chetan Saini, a local jeweller.

The police said it is not clear if it was a case of suicide or murder. Sumit Kumar, ACP (Kotwali), said, "We have recovered an Aadhaar Card from his pocket. The body was sent to SMS hospital for postmortem."

A warning message, " ... we don't burn effigies, we hang them," was also found scribbled on another stone.

Saini's brother Ram Ratan said, "The death has no links to the film. A high-level probe should take place. My brother would

not have committed suicide, it seems to be a murder".

President of Rajput Karni Sena said the messages were written to provoke the outfit. Karni Sena leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi called the incident "regrettable".

This is the first such incident reported in connection with the controversy surrounding the movie in Rajasthan.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday once again invoked the name of Hyderabad University Dalit student Rohith Vemula in his speech at a poll campaign rally, saying that he was "murdered by the Government of India".

"How dare did Rohith Vemula join the university? A letter comes from the minister and his career is crushed. I have said it in Hyderabad earlier and am saying it again. He did not commit suicide. He was murdered by the Government of India," Rahul said.

The young second-year research scholar was found hanging in his friend's hostel room last year and his suicide had triggered a huge political furore, with the then Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya coming under fire for having written a letter related to the matter.

Rahul's statement came while addressing a rally at Sanand's Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), a vocational training institute run for Dalits.

He also received a giant national flag. Interestingly, this flag woven by Dalit artists was to be handed over to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, whose government turned down the request citing "lack of proper space".

The flag was symbolic of the movement to end untouchability.

"The national flag has a special place in my heart but there is no space for it in the BJPaYou talked of removing untouchability. Not just from society, it needs to be removed from hearts and minds of Indians and that was the aim of Dr Ambedkar," Rahul said.

The Congress vice-president hit out at the BJP, saying that they had done not one thing for the Dalit community in the last 22 years.

"You asked where was the Congress. I was in Hyderabad (when Vemula incident took place) and I was here when Una incident (public flogging of Dalits by self-styled cow protectors) happened. I was standing with you," Rahul told the audience.

"I have great respect for the Dalit community and I don't need to tell you about it. You all know it," he added.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that Bengal would be proud to host the 'Padmavati' team if the producers decide to release the film in the state.

"If they (the producers of the film) cannot release 'Padmavati' in any other state in the country, then we will make special arrangements for its release in our state...Directory Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his team are welcome," Mamata said at a conclave here.

The chief minister had on November 20 lashed out against the move to stall the release of the movie and had tweeted, "The controversy is not only unfortunate, but also a calculated plan of a political party to destroy the freedom to express ourselves. We condemn this super emergency. All in the film industry must come together and protest in one voice."

The producers of 'Padmavati' have deferred the release indefinitely following the controversy with Right-wing groups across the country.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday questioned Indrani Mukerjea in connection with a money-laundering case that also involves Karti Chidambaram, the son of senior Congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram.



Indrani, her husband and former media baron Peter Mukerjea, their company INX Media and the latter's son from first marriage Rabin Mukerjea, are linked to the money-laundering case.



In May 2017, the ED had booked Peter and Indrani, directors in INX Media, and Karti under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).



On Thursday, ED's counsel Hiten Venegaokar had an application before the special CBI court seeking permission to record Indrani's statement in INX Media case.



Additional Sessions Judge J C Jadgale allowed the ED to record her statement at Byculla jail, where she has been lodged.



On Friday, Indrani's statement was recorded. However, this information was neither confirmed nor denied by ED authorities.



Peter, Indrani and her first husband Sanjeev Khanna are in judicial custody in connection with the murder of Sheena Bora and an attempt to murder Mikhail Bora, the daughter and son of Indrani with her first partner Siddhartha Das.



The three accused are currently in judicial custody. Indrani is in Byculla jail, while Peter and Sanjeev are in Arthur Road prison.



The CBI, in its chargesheet, has noted that Sheena could have been murdered because of financial reasons.



Suspecting financial misappropriation, the ED had contended that the Mukerjeas had "allegedly siphoned off GBP 90 million and the money is suspected to have gone to foreign countries through unauthorised routes of hawala, etc."



Following the Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance, the INX Media had received Foreign Direct Investment for Rs 46.20 million, but it actually received an FDI of Rs 3,053.60 million between August 2007 and May 2008, the ED had said.



Accordingly, the excess foreign exchange equivalent to Rs 3004.40 million, beyond the disclosed permitted foreign investment, was received by INX Media from three Mauritius-based investors, according to the ED. Rabin was managing the funds in the form of bonds in New Zealand.


It will be a picture perfect dinner for only a select few with Ivanka Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a magnificent 101-seat dining table, on November 28 on the sidelines of the Global Economic Summit 2017.



While only 101 most chosen will have their dinner under the crystal chandeliers where the choicest food is being served, nearly 2000-3000 other delegates will dine at the grand old lawns of the scorpion-shaped Falaknuma Palace, located on a hillock in the old city. The 101-seat dining hall has unique features, including acoustics that allow each word spoken to be heard by the other person who might be sitting at the far end of the table.

Confirming the finer points of the two-day visit of Ivanka, daughter of US President Donald Trump, City Police Commissioner Srinivasa Rao on Friday spoke of another real challenge - ferrying all the delegates from the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) near Madapur to Falaknuma Palace in a time gap of one-and-a-half hours. "The prime minister will spend two hours at the palace and leave for Shamshabad airport, from where he will fly to New Delhi," he said, adding that a 2,000-strong police contingent will secure the city from November 28 to 30.

Commenting on Ivanka's itinerary, which has been kept under wraps for security reasons, he said that she will attend a few sessions at the GES on Novembe 29 morning. "Ivanka, who will be arriving at Shamshabad airport on Nov 28, is expected to stay at Westin near Hi-tech city and will fly back to USA on 29 night at 9.30pm. We are not sure if she will be attending the dinner hosted by the Telangana government at the Rani Mahal Lawns of the Golconda fort," he said.

Curbs on residents

The three commissionerates here that have very specific roles to play during the visit of the PM and Ivanka, have held yet another round of talks with the US Secret Service, Union Home Ministry and SPG at the Falaknuma Palace to chalk out coordination issues. The residents' living near Falaknuma and Golconda have been requested by the police not to venture out during the declared timings to avoid traffic snarls. Police will have to block the roads that lead to Falaknuma on 28 night as more than 40 to 50, mostly multi-axle buses, will be ferrying the delegates to and from the Palace located in the walled city.
Congress and CPM have demanded a probe into the death of a special CBI judge hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case three years ago.



Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi termed the media reports about the suspicious nature of death of special CBI judge Brijgopal Harikishan Loya in Nagpur in 2014 as "very serious, and even if partially true, very worrisome".

At the time of his death, Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in which BJP President Amit Shah was the prime accused.

"Your question whether there should be a probe is certainly a correct one," Singhvi said.

CPM seeks probe

The CPM Polit Bureau said the reports of Loya's death have raised disturbing questions of murder, bribery, subversion of law and the manipulation of institutions of our parliamentary democracy at the highest level, which must be seriously investigated.

"The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands that a high level judicial enquiry be instituted immediately to look into this whole affair," a Polit Bureau statement said.

"If we cannot protect the judges of the country, we cannot protect democracy," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday at a book release function.

A series of reports published by The Caravan magazine, raise questions on the circumstances surrounding the death of Loya and inconsistencies in reporting the reasons leading to it to the family.
BBMP's plan to put up a second bus shelter before the Temple Meadows Apartment in 27th cross Banashankari 2nd Stage is met with strong opposition from the residents.

"Why a second shelter, when one already exists?" asks residents of the apartment, who have given a memorandum to the area corporator.

"Since long a bus shelter existed in front of Krishna Grand Hotel and as it affected their business they requested the BBMP officials to shift it from there. We agreed for building of a bus shelter at one end of our apartment compound,"

Sujatha, a resident of the Temple Meadows apartment, said.

She said the shelter is constantly littered with wastes left behind by street vendors and pourakarmikas fail to clear it away. The BBMP did not respond despite repeated complaints.

"Now, they have dug up the footpath to build another (bus shelter). There are many places in the city without a bus shelter. The BBMP wants to build one more here though it is not needed," she added.

Achutha, another resident, said the number of BMTC buses travelling in that stretch was too low to require two bus stops. "The BBMP wants to make money out of advertisements," he said.
US President Donald Trump today denounced as "horrible and cowardly" the terrorist attack on "innocent and defenceless worshippers" in Egypt and said the world must discredit the extremist ideology.



At least 235 worshippers were killed and 109 others injured when heavily-armed militants bombed a mosque and opened fire on people attending Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, in the deadliest terror attack in the country.



"Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenceless worshippers in Egypt," Trump said in a tweet.



"The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!" said the US president as world leaders strongly condemned the terrorist attack.



White House also condemned the "horrific terrorist attack.

"There can be no tolerance for barbaric groups that claim to act in the name of a faith but attack houses of worship and murder the innocent and defenceless while at prayer," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.



The international community must continue to strengthen its efforts to defeat terrorist groups that threaten the US and its partners and they must collectively discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence, Sanders said.



State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert termed the attack as an "unconscionable act of evil".



"We will continue to stand with Egypt and the Egyptian people as they face the scourge of terrorism," Nauert said.
A campaign by the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) to use social media to name and shame violators has caused angst among commuters.



The police justified the drive, saying it would be effective in discouraging traffic violations, while commuters believe the officers are taking it too far.

Several college students were recently shamed when the Mico Layout traffic police caught them flouting traffic rules and uploaded their pictures to social media.

BTP's social media team was careful to blur the faces of minors, but those publicly shamed included several girls.

"They cannot treat traffic violators like common criminals," said Karthik Srinivasalu (21), an MCom student at Christ College.

"It is unfair to upload pictures of offenders in the public domain unless he or she is a habitual rule-breaker. Surely, there are thousands of offenders across the city. Would the police post all their pictures on FB and Twitter?" he said.

Students also accused policemen of posting their own pictures with the offenders to impress their bosses. "This is invading one's right to privacy, especially after the recent Supreme Court verdict (which ruled that the right to privacy is 'intrinsic to life and liberty'," said Venkat Raman, a student of

St Joseph's College.

Some commuters said they were spared from police action by a mere mention of an influential name or two when caught flouting traffic rules.

"I came across a picture of a policeman in Twitter where he posed with a student as if holding a trophy," Christi Thomas, another student, said, adding, "The shaming would only provoke them to turn into rebels."

Social worker and a frequent bike rider, Manisha Sara, said the tactics could seriously backfire.
Members of a Shia Muslim group Anjuman-e-Imamia along with other minority communities staged a protest in front of the office of national television channel India Today/Aajtak on Richmond road on Friday.



The protest was against a controversial tweet by a journalist tweeting about the wife and daughter of Prophet Mohammed and the mother of Jesus Christ .



The protestors shouted slogans against the journalist and the TV channel for broadcasting 'blasphemous' tweets on social media.

The protests took a violent turn when a few of the agitators vandalized the office. They smashed the glass doors of the office. Traffic movement on busy Richmond Road was disrupted for a while. The police, however, rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control. Ashok Nagar police have deployed additional police personnel to maintain law and order.

Earlier the protestors had silently marched from Masjid-e-Askari to the TV office shouting slogans.


An enterovirus vaccine can protect against virus-induced diabetes in mouse models of type 1 diabetes, according to new research.

A prototype vaccine was shown to prevent type 1 diabetes in mice who had been infected with an enterovirus, and could mark an important development towards clinical use of vaccines in tackling type 1 diabetes in humans.

Scientists at the University of Tampere, Finland, and the Karolinska Institutet, Swede, also found that the vaccine protected against other signs of infection in mice without type 1 diabetes and had no adverse effects in vaccinated mice.

These exciting results showing that the vaccine completely protects against virus-induced diabetes indicate the potential that such a vaccine has for elucidating the role of enteroviruses in human type 1 diabetes, said study author Professor Malin Flodstrom-Tullberg at the Karolinska Institutet.

The CVB1 vaccine is derived from a variation of bacteria known as Coxsackievirus B, which is believed to have a role within the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. These findings now appear to provide a platform for testing further enteroviruses vaccines to combat type 1 diabetes.

Through these proof-of-concept studies we hope to develop and experimentally validate an enterovirus vaccine similar to the commonly used poliovirus vaccine, which has the potential to establish whether enteroviruses play a role in type 1 diabetes, said Dr Vesa Hytone, who developed the prototype vaccine.

There is currently no commercially available vaccine for humans which targets enteroviruses associated with type 1 diabetes, but researchers are optimistic greater progress can be achieved during future clinical trials in humans.

The University of Tampere will now aim to develop a vaccine that targets additional viruses implicated in type 1 diabetes.

The study findings have been published in the journal Diabetologia.
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Funds that invest in tech stocks look particularly vulnerable for gains distributions this year.



By STAN CHOE

AP Business Writer

NEW YORK  The end of the year can mean tax headaches for some mutual-fund investors, this year potentially more so than others.

Companies have started to warn investors of distributions they'll make by the end of December. For anyone with a fund outside a tax-advantaged account, these payments can trigger a tax bill, even if they never sold any shares themselves.





. . .
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  Rhode Island has unveiled a new, state-of-the-art home for veterans on Veterans Day.

Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo hosted the state's Veterans Day ceremony and a traditional ribbon cutting at the home in Bristol, Rhode Island. Veterans began moved in this month.





. . .
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Q. If the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving dinner is turkey, you might take a moment to ponder how the bird ended up with the same name as the country Turkey. So, how did it?

A. Turkeys are indigenous to the U.S. and Mexico; in fact, Europeans only first came into contact with turkeys roughly 500 years ago, likely during Cortes's 1519 expedition to Mexico, says Dan Lewis in his book Now I Know. Five years later, the birds had reached England from the eastern Mediterranean Sea aboard merchant ships manned by so-called Turkey merchants, since much of the area then was part of the Turkish Empire. Back in England, buyers called the fowl Turkey birds or just turkeys.





. . .
The woman who lost five members of her family in the Buncrana pier tragedy has said she believes the incident was an accident waiting to happen.

Louise James lost her two young sons, her mother, her sister and her partner when the Audi Q7 car they were in slid into the water off a slipway in Buncrana in March 2016.

Ms James was speaking after a jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure at the inquest into the deaths of Sean McGrotty (49), his sons Evan (8) and Mark (12); the boy's grandmother Ruth Daniels (57) and her daughter Jodie Lee Tracey (14).

Donegal man Davitt Walsh entered the water and took Ms Jamess baby daughter Rioghnanch-Ann from Sean before the car sank.

Ms James was on her way home from a hen party in Liverpool when the tragedy took place.

The two-day inquest heard medical evidence that Sean McGrotty was over the legal drink driving limit.

The jury made a recommendation that Irish Water Safety takes a role in advising and working with all interested parties in implementing best international practice for safety on all slipways and piers.

In a statement read by her solicitor on her behalf after the verdicts were reached, Ms James said her heart is shattered.

It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that I have listened to the evidence that has emerged in the course of this inquest, she said through her solicitor Robert Anderson.

There are simply no words capable of expressing my pain and disbelief and indeed my anger over what happened on that fateful day. My heart is shattered.

Every moment of every day is filled with thoughts of my beautiful boys Mark and Evan, my mother Ruth, my sister Jodie Lee, and my partner Sean.

The one ray of sunshine in my life is my beautiful daughter Rioghnanch who survived this horrible tragedy, and for that I must once again thank Davitt and all those others who helped to save her on that day.

I firmly believe that the slipway should have been closed to the general public or else proper warning signs displayed, as it was an accident waiting to happen. Hopefully, lessons will be learned and the recommendations made following this inquest will be implemented.

"Finally, regarding Sean, notwithstanding the evidence that has emerged, I wish to add that he was a wonderful partner to me and an adoring father to his children. He lived for them, and it is clear from what this inquest has heard that in fact he died as he lived in that he could have saved himself but chose not to.
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Some Donegal farmers affected by gorse fires in the county last year are being unfairly treated by the Department of Agriculture, it has been claimed.

Donegal Senator Padraig Mac Lochlainn has slammed the delays in Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments to hill farmers in Donegal following the gorse fires that led to widespread tracts of land deemed to being burned.

Senator Mac Lochlainn, a member of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee, said he has received confirmation from Department of Agriculture officials that some of the expected BPS payments will soon be released to the affected farmers but burned land deemed ineligible will result in significant financial losses to many local farmers.

"This is deeply unfair. Large tracts of hill land across Donegal will be deemed ineligible for BPS payments because they were burned in the gorse fires from May of this year. That means large numbers of struggling hill farmers will lose vital financial assistance through no fault of their own.

The Government and the Department of Agriculture have known about this issue for six months and had all of this time to put in place a compensation scheme for the affected farmers whose land may be ineligible under EU rules but they let this come to a head now at the time of year when farmers are anxiously waiting for their annual or staged payments".
Donegal TD Joe McHugh has announced tonight that the county is to get 2.5M in extra funding for local improvement schemes.

The funding from Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring is one third of the extra national allocation which fixes roadways and lanes in rural areas not covered by the local authority. It follows lobbying of the Minister by cabinet colleague McHugh in recent weeks.

The Fine Gael Government representative had already secured 884,000 of an overall national budget of 10M in September.

Government Chief Whip McHugh said: I am delighted to announce that an extra 2.5M in funding has now been secured for Local Improvement Schemes here in Donegal.

The Government hasnt been in a position to adequately fund the LIS scheme for the last number of years, but we made a commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government that we would reinstate the scheme and we did that in September.

The scheme is funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development and will be delivered through Donegal County Council.

I want to pay tribute to the Council who have helped to make this all possible. Staff have committed to doing the work before the end of the year and that has allowed us to release this extra funding from next Monday," he said.

Fine Gael Councillors Martin Harley, Bernard McGuinness, Jimmy Kavanagh and Terence Slowey welcomed the news of additional funding.
The Old Columbia Bank building in the oldest community in the Wiregrass is part of a famous, or infamous, story.

The bank was one of a handful of banks robbed in the 1950s by the Anglin brothers, who wound up incarcerated on Alcatraz Island and may or may not have escaped. Their attempt was later made into a movie starring Clint Eastwood.

The bank, however, is about more than a daring 1950s robbery. It represents one of several historic places in Columbia. The bank had recently come in great need of repair, with little city resources to help.

The Columbia Historical Society applied for and received $7,000 in grant money from the Wiregrass Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council to assist with roof repair and lighting.

The bank serves as a beginning place for a walking tour of historic Columbia, which was a thriving town along the Chattahoochee River at the beginning of the 20th century. The historical society would also like to make additional repairs to the bank and turn it into a museum.

Columbia is one of the oldest  if not the oldest  continually operating community in the Wiregrass, said Elliott Whitton of the Columbia Historical Society. We have a lot of history there.

Wiregrass RC&D is a nonprofit organization that receives state money which can be allocated to an array of different projects throughout its 10-county area.

The program began in 1963 and funds were provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture until 2010, when the federal funding ceased. Since then, the State of Alabama has funded the program. The program received $2.549 million for the 2017 fiscal year, about $320,000 less than it received in 2015.
For the past 20 years the Haleburg Senior Citizen Center has been full of members enjoying life. But this may change as of Dec. 31.

Our senior center is a part Haleburgs history, said Haleburg Mayor Roger Money. This building was moved here and renovated by members of our community in the 1990s. Everyone worked hard getting this building ready for our seniors. We need that support for our community once again. Right now we need a miracle to keep this center open.

If the Haleburg Senior Citizen Center does not raise $5,000 by Dec. 31, its doors are scheduled to close for good.

This is very upsetting, said Haleburg Senior Citizen Center Director Amanda Henderson. What are the members going to do if this center closes? Haleburg is a very rural portion of the county and several of the members are not physically able to drive for long distances. This center is a part of Haleburgs history and something has to happen and it needs to happen quickly.

According to Henderson, the Haleburg Senior Citizen Center has roughly 45 members, including nine members who are homebound.

If these doors close, the members lose so much, Henderson said. Our center is not just for playing bingo and dominos. The members enjoy fellowshipping with each other and taking our day trips. This center allows our seniors a chance to come together make new friendships, strengthen friendships, and stay active. Not to mention, the members get to enjoy a warm meal. To some, this may be the only meal they get, especially our homebound members.

According to the Haleburg City Clerk/Councilman Hannon Hall, the City of Haleburg has been battling this problem for almost two years.

We want to keep the center open, Hall said. We need to keep the center open. But it is hurting the city. Our city contracts to pay $3,500 annually to the center, and SARCOA gives us $765 monthly. But the difference is falling on the city, and we just cant keep doing it. What is contracted and what we receive does not cover all the overhead or the ineligible lunches the city pays for.

According to Hall and Henderson, if the community would support the center, the center may have a chance of keeping its doors open.

If our community would come together and show support for the center, it might have a chance, Hall said. But we need the communitys support. We are also reaching out to our representatives seeking help. We are exhausting all options, including speaking with Henry County Probate Judge David Money, who is looking into what options may be available for assistance. We need all we can get.

Henderson is hoping and praying for miracle.

I see how active our members are, Henderson said. This center is a need for this community. We are all a great big family here. Whats so upsetting to me is we are supposed to be here to help our seniors when they need help, but right now, we are the ones needing the help.

The Haleburg Senior Citizen Center is currently seeking donations from anyone or any business wishing to help keep the centers doors open. For more information on how to sponsor the Haleburg Senior Citizen Center call 696-2248
When presented with a choice between a date with medical textbooks in her studio apartment or a luscious Thanksgiving meal at a doctors home, Kiara Touros made the delicious choice.

I knew I wasnt gonna go home, so I was like, Should I go? Should I not go? Touros, whose parents live in Vero Beach, Florida, said. I was like I might as well go and be social and get out of my apartment. Even this morning I (said), Ive got to get this many lectures done.

For the past five years, local pathologist Dr. Mark Shertzer and wife Jamie have opened up their Dothan home for Thanksgiving meals to Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine students who may not have a chance to go home. Shertzer served on Southeast Alabama Medical Centers board when the hospital decided to launch the medical school several years ago.

Through the course of getting ACOM started, Shertzer said he formed relationships that sparked the idea that is now a half-decade tradition.

I knew they were there and had met a lot of them and just (thought), Lets have dinner and lets invite them, he said.

Second-year medical student Jon Stroup, who hails from Indianapolis, said Shertzer emailed the students invitation to ACOMs dean of students, Dr. Phillip Reynolds. Reynolds then passed along the invitation to the ACOM students, who had the chance to respond to the invite.

Shertzer said an average of four to six students usually come to the event. Five attended this year.

The Shertzers Thanksgiving dinner is quite a large feast with several families involved. He said Jamie handles a lot of the preparation, but everyone who attends usually brings a dish or drinks to contribute to the meal.

While the ACOM students have invitations to go home for Thanksgiving, the schedule as the fall semester terminates can be demanding  making traveling long distances difficult or nearly impossible. Stroup said he just finished a major project within the last week, and Touros said she had several final exams in the next week.

It was kind of nice to take a break, she said.

Stroup said he found the hospitality of the gathering fulfilling.

Its been great. Everyones super friendly, he said. I feel like weve been talking to somebody the entire time, meeting someone new, playing games, good food.

He added the event brightened the holiday season for he and his wife.

Its nice not spending it by yourself, he said. Obviously my wife and I could have a nice time by ourselves, but its nice to have a lot of people together and celebrate the holiday.
Businesses risk being disrupted if they dont create environments where people can sit in their challenge sweet spot, have freedom to express crazy ideas and feel safe to fail meaningfully, according to Dr Amantha Imber, the CEO of innovation consultancy Inventium.

Prior to founding Inventium a decade ago, Imber  a 2016 inductee into the Australian Business Womens Hall of Fame  earned a PhD in organisational psychology and spent five years working as a consumer psychologist in advertising agencies including, most notably, Leo Burnett.

Although she loved the intellectual challenge of her work, Imber admitted to Dynamic Business: Ethically, I felt a bit empty using my knowledge of psychology to convince people to buy things they didnt necessarily need.

Going with Plan B was one of my best decisions

Determined to carve a new path for herself, Imber gave her boss three months notice of her resignation, using that time to look for her next job. Fortunately, things didnt quite go to plan for Imber, who had pictured herself working for an employer whose culture and IP she could really get behind.

Starting my own business wasnt Plan A, she explained. I had no desire to go it on my own but I couldnt find a place where I wanted to work so I decided to create one that combines two of my great passions  science and innovation. Going with Plan B and starting Inventium has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life.

Sure, changing industries involved a learning curve but my work in consumer psychology, which involved dissecting research and figuring out how to make it practical for clients, has been very similar to our approach at Inventium  everything we do is based on research and science.

My team and I get an amazing buzz from our work

By Imbers count, Inventium has helped over 100,000 people  from CEOs of large companies and innovation directors through to employees across all roles and high school students  become better innovators. It has done so, she explained, through skills-building workshops, keynotes and assessment underpinned by a science-based methodology that is a lot like design thinking but with less art and a truckload more science.

She added, My team and I get an amazing buzz from giving someone the insight, skills and confidence necessary to become a better innovator. Weve helped businesses from all over the globe create a culture where innovation thrives in circumstances where theyre been worried about being disrupted or, on the flipside, want to achieve aggressive growth targets.

Asked to qualify Inventiums success, Imber said it has been very rewarding helping large organisations such as VicRoads, the Commonwealth Bank and property giants Mirvac and Lendlease to ensure the customer is at the heart of their business and proactively find and execute innovation opportunities.

Some of my personal highlights include getting a call from Google, a few years ago, to help teach their clients to be more innovative and  more recently  collaborating with the team at Apple responsible for working with educators, she said. Others include our Hack in a Box program, which teaches school students practical creative and critical thinking skills, and spearheading the AFR Most Innovative Companies since its conception six years ago.

The retail sector needs to be prioritising innovation

Inventium partnered with Fairfax on the list, Imber explained, due to their joint recognition of a huge gap in the market for a national, industry-agnostic list that recognised highly innovative companies.

Former BRW editor Kate Mills was fundamental in shaping the list, which first ran in BRW before shifting to the AFR, and my team at Inventium designed the methodology from the ground up, she said. Recognition programs like the Most Innovative Companies list play an important role in inspiring and fuelling innovation and I know many companies around Australia that now aspire to be part of our list.

Through our work on it, weve uncovered some truly amazing innovations. For example, M&C Saatchi is working on ground-breaking bushfire detection technology for their client NRMA. In fact, the ad agency topped this years Most Innovative Companies list precisely because they have a very effective and sustainable innovation program, which is producing some amazing outputs.

Imber said that while a lot of great innovation is happening, right now, in Australia, with advertising and media featuring strong on this years AFR Most innovative companies list, the retail sector has its work cut out.

Retail players were notably missing from this years list, which is pretty concerning given the threat Amazon now poses, she said. Out of all industries, retail is one that absolutely needs to be prioritising innovation.

While innovation output obviously varies amongst the different companies in the retail space, theres definitely been an element of complacency. The biggest disruption that many will players have seen in their lifetime has literally just soft-launched in Australia. Retailers are leaving things very, very late if they havent already developed a sustainable approach to how they innovate.

You dont have to be born an innovator to innovate

Fortunately, Imber explained, anyone  and any organisation  can learn to be more innovative.

Many believe you have to be born an innovator but from decades of scientific research, we know this is simply not true, she said. By giving people scientifically-proven tools, you can increase their ability to be effective innovators. By measuring the behaviour changes that flow our programs, we know that people can be trained to be innovators.

For instance, we ran a training program with one of the Big Four Banks and three months on, we found that amongst their people, behaviour that was conducive to and driving innovation had risen by 50%, which is a huge uplift. And thats a large reason why we have so much repeat business at Inventium  because we know how to transform individuals into being amazing innovators.

Its okay to fail so long as rich insights are gained

Imber said it pays for businesses to understand the science behind innovation, which is something she explores in her book The Innovation Formula.

There are 14 key drivers that lead to an innovation culture, such as creating a safe-to-fail environment, ensuring people feel challenged by their role, and creating an environment where people feel safe to express their craziest ideas, she said.

In terms of what is important for a safe-to-fail environment, businesses need to communicate that its okay to fail so long as its good failure, where rich insights are gained, as opposed to bad failure, where nothing is learned.

Regarding the importance of challenging roles, businesses need to ne designing jobs, tasks and projects to allow people to spend a majority of their time in what we call the challenge sweet spot. In other words, they feel challenged by their work as opposed to being able to do it in their sleep or, on the flip side, feeling overwhelmed because they dont have the necessary skills and resources.

SMEs must take a disciplined approach to testing ideas

Commenting on what commonly holds back SMEs from realising their innovation potential, Imber said complacency and being naive to the ways their business will probably be disrupted in the next few years. Alternatively, she said SMEs recognise the importance of innovation and have big growth targets but dont then invest the time and money into actually building capability in their company and people to drive brilliant, disruptive innovation.

Part of the problem, she explained, is that many businesses dont test their ideas with customers in a meaningful way and then later wonder what went wrong  its important to take a disciplined approach to testing ideas by which I mean applying scientific approach to learning and iterating ideas based on how customers interact with them.

A further problem is that businesses often overlook great innovators within their ranks due to the fact that they are low in the pecking order.

It happens all the time, she explained. Something we help our clients do is implement formal innovation programs to ensure the best ideas rise to the top. We have had a tonne of SMEs go through our Customer-Driven Innovation program to teach them the key skills of how to drive growth through innovation. Also, we have a complimentary assessment that helps businesses understand the innovation capability level of their team.

Its important to tap into the unconscious minds of employees

Speaking to how she nurtures innovation within her own consultancy, Imber said she and her team practice what they preach.

We always apply our own tools, she said. One of the things we teach our clients is the power of the unconscious mind when it comes to creative thinking and solving problems. For instance, about a week before any kind of meeting or workshop, where people will be asked to address a problem, we encourage businesses to share the problem with the attendees and ask them to note down thoughts as they pop into their heads.

This is a great way for businesses to utilise the unconscious minds of their people and it means that by the time of the meeting or workshop, everyones already generated a bunch of ideas and you dont have to start from scratch. Likewise, whenever were trying to solve a meaty challenge at Inventium, well flag the challenge about a week before any sort of meeting so people can tap into their unconscious mind.

Dr Amantha Imber has previously shared her insights and philosophies with Dynamic Business. To learn more, click here.
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.
Russia reduces military forces in Syria

The Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff Valery Gerasimov said that Russia will 'probably' reduce military group in Syria.

The trilateral summit held in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, began to bear its first fruits. The Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff Valery Gerasimov, stated that the military forces in Syria could be reduce at a considerable extent and the pullback could begin before this year-end.

NORMALIZATION PROCESS BEGANS IN SYRIA

Gerasimov said, conditions have been created for the return of refugees to Syria, at a trilateral meeting with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts in Sochi on Tuesday. Gerasimov also stated "The main thing is that the sovereignty, the territorial integrity of the country are preserved, civil war is stopped, conditions are created for the restoration of peaceful life and refugees' return."

"CONTROL AREAS WILL BE SITUATED IN THE ZONE"

According to Gerasimovs statement, Russia will keep two military bases, one ceasefire monitoring center and some demoratic elementst to preserve and support the developing situation.

Because of Turkeys demands of buffer zone and safe area, Russias pullback corroborated the claims about setting of a buffer zone.
While movie fans wait for the trailer for Jurassic Word: Fallen Kingdom to arrive, producer Colin Trevorrow has just shared a teaser for the upcoming sequel.

On Wednesday, Nov. 22, Trevorrow unveiled the footage on social media. It features a baby raptor and Chris Pratt as he returns to his raptor-handling duties in the next installment of the franchise.

The Short Teaser

"From our Jurassic family to yours," Trevorrow captioned the video clip ahead of Turkey Day. The six-second video shows Pratt's raptor-whispering character, Owen Brady, petting a cute baby Velociraptor. It appears that he knows what he's doing because the little carnivorous hatchling purrs and cuddles up to his hand.

The baby raptor looks just like Owen's buddy Blue from 2015's Jurassic World, with all the matching spots and stripes, which could mean that it's a flashback scene, Gizmodo pointed out. Moreover, Owen can also be seen wearing a gauntlet that is used for training dinosaurs, so this could be how it all started for Owen and Blue.

Cast And Crew

J.A. Bayona is directing the next installment based on a script penned by Derek Connolly and Trevorrow who helmed Jurassic World. Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard will reprise their roles in the upcoming sequel alongside Justice Smith, James Cromwell, and Toby Jones.

Jeff Goldblum, who starred in the original 1993 film Jurassic Park and 1997's The Lost World: Jurassic Park, will also reprise his role as the quick-witted mathematician Ian Malcolm in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Plot Hints

The plot has been kept under wraps but there have been some hints on what to expect in the movie. The first image from the film, released in March, showed a young girl staring at a Triceratops fossil in a dinosaur fossil exhibit inside a museum.The first teaser poster also had the tagline, "Life finds a way," written underneath the film's official title and logo.

"The dinosaurs in the film will be a parable of the treatment animals receive today: the abuse, medical experimentation, pets, having wild animals in zoos like prisons, the use the military has made of them, animals as weapons," Trevorrow teased during the Sitges Film Festival in Spain.

In a 2015 interview with Wired, he also drew attention to Dr. Wu's (B.D. Wong) warning to Dr. Masrani (Irrfan Khan) about not being the only ones with the ability to make a dinosaur in the future. The filmmaker said that not only would that be an interesting idea to explore, it would also open up a number of possibilities for the expansion of the universe.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom arrives in theaters on June 22, 2018.
The day prior to the arrival of United States (US) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in India, on his maiden visit, Dineshwar Sharma was appointed as the Representative of the Government of India to initiate and carry forward a dialogue with the elected representatives, various organisations and concerned individuals in the State of Jammu and Kashmir (PIB 2017). The coincidence in timing was not lost on the Hurriyat, a key participant, among the various organisations with which Sharma might have been expected to engage. In its joint statement, the Joint Resistance Leadershipcomprising separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Yasin Malikclaimed that the appointment was a tactic to buy time adopted under international pressures and regional compulsions (PTI 2017a). Consequently, the separatists have rebuffed the offer of a sustained dialogue.

No Inkling of a Strategy
Asbestos has been forbidden for some years in many countries around the world. Yet the peak of mortality related to asbestos-related diseases will take place in the next decade, as it takes a long time to develop the disease. Researchers from the Italian national research council (CNR-Nanotec) (Rome, Italy) hope that by studying the interactions between asbestos with host organisms can lead to develop more efficient medical treatments or prevention policies. They are on ID16A looking at the nanoscale at the elements making up the coating developing around asbestos once in the lungs.

I started with this project when I was living in Torino, where two of the biggest factories of asbestos in Europe were based in the past. I met a professor who was studying the subject and I thought it was fascinating, explains Fabrizio Bardelli, researcher at CNR-Nanotec. We all think that asbestos is something from the past, but we still suffer the consequences today, he adds.

Indeed, asbestos fibres can enter in living organisms by inhalation and, due to its high bio-persistence, can manifest its toxicity after long (20 to 40 years). For these reasons, since the 1990s asbestos started to be banned in many countries and, with a few relevant exceptions (Russia, China, Canada, and Brazil), it is almost abolished today.

Fabrizio Bardelli (with stripy top) and Francesco Brun on ID16A and in the lab. Credits: C. Argoud.

Exposure and contamination to asbestos can originate from several diverse sources, such as asbestos products plants, steel plants, shipyards, and asbestos mines. In the lungs, iron-containing asbestos fibres irritate the tissue, causing minerals and proteins to cluster around the foreign fibres, in a process known as biomineralization. The resulting clusters are known as asbestos bodies and are typical of mesothelioma, a deadly cancer of the lung lining, and of other asbestos-diseases, such as asbestosis.

Bardelli and his colleague, researcher Francesco Brun are now spending a week testing samples of lung tissue affected by asbestos. It is the second part of an experiment that started last year on ID16A: The first experiment went very well, but it was only a small number of samples. We want to increase the samples so that we can compare them all and have better statistics, explains Brun. During this beamtime they will be running 24h long scans, so no sleepless nights for them. The tricky part of this experiment is the preparation of the sample and the mounting, once it is done it isquite straight forward, he adds.

(a) Optical microscope image (500x) of an asbestos body. (b) Elemental distribution map of Fe of the same asbestos body (the color bar indicates the concentration of Fe), done in a previous experiment on ID21. (c) RGB color combination showing the distribution and colocalization of Si, Fe, and P.

Extensive research on asbestos interaction with host organism is essential to better understand the pathogenesis, and, in this way, to develop more efficient medical treatments or prevention strategies. Bardelli says that the benefits of their research go beyond this: our research on the mechanisms inducing the chain of events leading to mesothelioma can help to foresee the toxicity of new man-made nanofibers, such as metal-oxide or carbon nanotubes, which are becoming of more and more widespread use in electronic devices.

This research project received European funds through a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship action (BiominAB-3D, H2020 - GA707905; http://biominab3d.altervista.org)

Text by Montserrat Capellas Espuny
Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was yesterday (22 November) convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the 1990s Bosnian war by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Known as the Butcher of Bosnia, Ratko Mladic was in charge of the forces that perpetrated the killings of more than 8,000 Muslim men by the Bosnian Serb Army  an event that in 2005 then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described as the worst crime on the European soil since the Second World War.

The former Bosnian Serb military commander was tracked down and arrested in 2011 after 16 years spent in hiding. He had been living in obscurity in Serbia initially protected by Serb security services and the army and later by family. Mladic was convicted on 10 of the 11 charges. Troops led by his command committed mass rapes of Bosniak women and girls, kept Bosniak prisoners in appalling conditions, causing starvation, deporting Bosniak forcibly en masse, destroying mosques and Bosniaks homes and terrorizing civilians in Sarajevo by shelling and sniping at them. Sarajevo was a place of a brutal siege in 1992-1995 in which the Bosnian Serb forces fired mortars and rockets down into the city on civilians from the surrounding hills.

Ratko Mladic was not present in court when the sentence was read out after he had been removed for shouting at the judges. Its a lie. Everything you said in this courtroom is a lie, he said. Meanwhile, Kofi Annan wrote on the occasion of the 10th anniversary commemoration that, while blame lay first and foremost with those who planned and carried out the massacre and those who assisted and harbored them, the UN had made serious errors of judgement, rooted in a philosophy of impartiality, describing Srebrenica as a tragedy that would haunt the history of the UN forever.
The European Union has been supporting Africas renewable energy transition for years in an effort to bring electricity to all Africans. In 2015, the EU Commission launched an Electricity Access Fund with a special focus on off-grid renewably energy, particularly solar power. The fund is looking to invest 55 million euro across the continent by 2020.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is going to contribute 10 million of the funds capital, which seeks to provide access to electricity for one million low-income people. Around a fourth of that fund has been financially covered so far. We are trying to close a deal on two solar projects in Western Kenya, said Catherine Collin, the EIBs regional representative. Clearly, its a priority for the bank, Ms. Collin added. The region is very fortunate to have plenty of renewable energy sources. We would like to do more in the other countries and help them to diversify.

Sun is an easily available resource in Africa while also solar technology is improving. Moreover, modern services such as paying bills by mobile phones are much more popular than bank accounts, which facilitates access to electricity. The combined grid capacity of 48 sub-Saharan African countries is roughly equivalent to that of Spain and the continent will need almost 340 billion euro of investment to attain universal access across the continent by 2030.

While this target will probably not be met, domestic demand will likely remain high. Currently, for example, only about half of the Kenyan population has access to grid and an average Kenyan household spends around $200 on kerosene, a derivative of petroleum used as a cooking and lighting fuel.
Written by ACM



*Strasbourg/Angelo Marcopolo/- ECHR is practically due to decide, in the Next few Months, indirectly but surely, who will be Italy's next Prime Minister, (See Infra), if one believes Polls which show a Majority, in the forthcoming Elections of Spring 2018, for a Center-Right Coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi, whose British/Italian Lawyers have just Fired, Today at a Hearing in Strasbourg, a series of Strong Legal Arguments against a Controversial Decision, taken by a Hostile Political Majority back on 2013, through a Retroactive Measure, to "Ban" him from being Elected, regardless of People's wish, until 2019.







The Problem is that, in such a particular case, ECHR canNot Avoid at all to Inevitably Play an Important Role vis a vis the Forthcoming Italian Elections of Spring 2018, because, whatever might, eventually, be its Decision, (f.ex.: Reject, Acceptance, or Delay in Judging Berlusconi's claim about alleged Violations of Human Rights, including Electoral rights), at any case, Strasbourg's EuroJudges will certainly Affect, in one way or another, the Public Opinion, and therefore, the Voters, (See Infra)...



----------------



During ECHR's Public Hearing on one of the Complaints lodged by Berlusconi against the Electoral "Ban" which has striped him of his Senator mandate and Hinders him to participate in the Spring 2018 Elections, several EuroJudges raised More Questions than usually, mainly to the currently Center-Left Italian Government's Agents, not only on the "Retroactivity" of that Controversial Measure, but, Particularly, on alleged Abuse of Discretionary Power by the Governing Majority, (quite Similar back on 2013, when the Decision to "Ban" Berlusconi was taken, and Nowadays on 2017), as the Former Long-Time Prime Minister's Lawyers Denounced, (See Infra).



And a Surprizing Fact, which Emerged at Today's Hearing in Strasbourg, is that the Center-Left Italian Government's Agents, astonishingly, didN't even Reply, Anything at all, to those EuroJudges' Questions about alleged Abuses of Discretionary Power, reportedly Committed, back on 2013, by those who pushed to "Ban" Berlusconi (while they did Reply to Other, Different ECHR's Questions) ! On the Contrary, his Italian and British Lawyers, prefered now, (in Addition to the "Retroactivity" and/or "UnFairness" of that Controversial Sanction), to Mainly Focus, precisely, at that Risk of gross "Arbitrariness" in the Decision-Making Process of those Electoral "Bans", on which they Concluded, (See Infra)...



However, CoE's PanEuropean 47 Member States-strong Organisation for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law's various relevant bodies, are, recently, more and more Clearly Stressing the Need for Legal Guarantees against such Risks of Arbitrary Decisions. Including, Recently, CoE's prestigious "Venice Commission" for "Democracy through Law"'s Top Constituitional Law Experts, who have Published an Official "Check-List" for the "Rule of Law", which includes, mainly, a series of Standard Legal Safeguards, deemed Necessary in order to Prevent any eventual "Abuse of Discretionary Power", Endorsed Both by CoE's Committee of Ministers, its Congress of Local/Regional Authorities, and its Parliamentary Assembly, etc. (See, f.ex.: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/coeruleoflawchecklistandeuroforaproject.html + ...).



--------------



But, the Way that Italy is due to be Governed in the foreseable Near Future, i.e. from Spring 2018, has, Nowadays, apparently Become more Important than ever, also for Other European Countries, and Europe in general, also Because many feel that a Particularly Worrying current situation in the Italian Economy might Affect all uroZone and Beyond, if an adequate Government in Rome, with Sufficient Popular Support, does Not undertake, the soonest possible, a Decisive series of required Reforms and Initiatives to Face the Public Debt and Boost the Italian Economy's considerable Potential.



It seems that this was also Part of Bilateral Contacts that Silvio Berluconi had recently in Brussels, during the ChristianDemocrat/EPP Heads of State/Government and Party Leaders' Summit, (including German Chancellor Angie Merkel, EU Council's President Donald Tusk, and EU Commission's President Jean-Claude Juncker, as well as EPP's President Joseph Daul, etc), at the Eve of the Latest EU's 28 Member Countries' Summit there on 19-20 October 2017, (Comp. "Eurofora"s NewsReports from the spot, as, among various others, also, f.ex. : ... + ... + ..., etc., and relevant Original Photo, published above).



--------------------------------------------

HARASSMENT ?!

----------------------------------------------



The former Long-Time Prime Minister and Succesful Businesman, had been Previously condemned for Tax Avoidance, (something that he strongly contests, denouncing his accusers to be Politicaly Motivated), and served a 1 Year Sentence with General Interest Work to Help Elder People, but Recently marked a Growing Come-Back Trend, after Largely Winning the Latest Regional Elections in Sicelia, as well as getting a New Judgement which found that he had UnFairly been Ordered by a Court to Pay 60 Millions  to a former Wife, even if she didn't need it.



Already since an Important Summit of ChristianDemocrat/EPP Heads of State/Government at Bonn, in Germany, Back on 2009, (Comp. "Eurofora"s NewsReports from the spot, f.ex., at: ... + ..), Silvio Berluconi had Denounced a Systematic and Relentless Harassment, Targetting him Personally, with an astonishing degree of Harshness and even Hate, particularly by some Establishment's Medias, Deep State's Bureaucracy, Political Adversaries turned Ennemies, etc. And Shortly Afterwards, he was even Physically Aggressed, by such a Brutal Violence, that he was Pictured with his Face full of Blood ! (See, f.ex.: ...).



Later-on, he was so much Persecuted by some Attorneys and/or Judges, that he was Pushed at the Harsh Situation which was described above, (Comp. Supra). And even Nowadays, it's enough to Watch the way that the Press Deals with him, in order to Easily Find out that, Obviously, Most Traditional, Mainstream Medias of the Establishment, and others, Systematically Attempt to Describe him as a Dangerous, Wrong-Doing Fool, (Choosing also to Publish the Worst possible Photos, showing him as incredibly Stupid and/or Crazy, etc., in the most Degrading possible way), relentlessly pursuing an agenda of "Assassination of Personality", at a Degree Rarely seen elsewhere !



It's Difficult for anyone who hasn't Followed, closely enough, neither examined critically, the overall Context and main Facts surrounding Silvio Berlusconi to guess which might, eventually, be the Real Reasons, and Interests at Stake, which stand Behind such an Exceptional amound of shameless Hate... Both the Right and/or the Left side of the Political Spectrum often having various Controversial Politicians, is it, then, perhaps, for the former Long-Time Italian Prime Minister, the quite particular Fact that, in his Government Coalitions of Center-Right+, were often included also People with a Rare Care for Issues such as f.ex. BioEthics, (as relevant Legislation and Measures attest, During and After his Past Era), which usually Hide a lot of Big and Growing Interests at Stake, behind them ?



At any case, most Contemporary Commentators seem to Agree, Today, that, somehow, Berlusconi has Recently started to Recover his Forces and Appeal, re-Becoming more and more Popular to Italian People, that the Center-Right Aliance that he tries to Lead, would Now have a Real Chance to Win the forthcoming, Spring 2018 Elections in Italy, at a crucial Juncture for possible and necessary efforts by many to Reform and ReBuild Europe anew. F.ex., inter alia, a Recent Poll Already gives the 1st Rank, with around 34% of the Votes, to his Center-Right Coalition, followed by 28% to Bepe Grillo's "5 Stars" Movement, and Only 25% to the currently Governing, mainly Center-Left Coalition.



+ And Berlusconi is also a Pioneer in ECHR's History, where he had, in the Past managed to Open, for the 1st Time, a Legal Space for Private, Independent Radio-TV Businesses, by Breaking down the Former State Monopole in AudioVisual Services and Networks, through an Efficient use of the PanEuropean Convention for Human Rights' Article 10, which guarantees the "Freedom of Expression" (Press/Medias' Freedom included).



------------------------------------

ECHR's+ COMPOSITION :

------------------------------------------



Earlier this Morning, in a full Courtroom for a "Grand Chamber" Public Hearing by 17 Euro-Judges, (the Biggest ECHR Formation, reserved for Important Cases), Exceptionally, the President of the PanEuropean Court, Guido Raimondi, who is of Italian origin, was Replaced by the German vice-President Miss Angelika Nussberger, and another, "ad hoc" Italian Judge was appointed only for this case : Mrs Ida Caracciolo.



The current Government of Italy, (predominantly Center-Left, except of Foreign Minister Alfano), had, characteristically, Chosen almost All, 4 our of 5, of its Lawyers to be Also Women !



And even the Current, Exceptional Composition of Today's ECHR Grand Chamber, is made out of a Majority of Women among its 17 EuroJudges : 9 are, indeed, Women, (including the Chair : Comp. Supra, and even the Registrar : Also a Lady, i.e. = 10 in all), against just 8 Men.



(On the Contrary, the Applicant's Legal Team was Composed basically by Men, in 7 out of 8 cases, only 1 being a Woman).



+ As far as the Geo-Political aspects are concerned, among 17 Euro-Judges, and 3 "Substitute Judges" (i.e. 20 in Total), the Majority, i.e. 10 are from Neighbouring Countries to Berlusconi's Italy, (such as, f.ex., ECHR's vice-President Sicilianos, from Greece, and Others from Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, FYROM, Albania, Italy -ad hoc-), added to anOther 2 or 3 from Nearby and/or Culturally related Countries, (Romania, Bulgaria, Portugal). Only a Minority of 7 are from Far Away, Not-Related Countries, such as Germany (the Chair : Comp. Supra), Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine.



Berlusconi's Lawyers include 2 Professors of University : Bruno Nascimbene, Director of the Institute of International Law at Milan, where he Teaches European Law, with Experience Both at EU's Court of Justice in nearby Luxembourg, and at CoE's Paneuropean ECHR in Strasbourg ; but also the young Andrea Saccucci, Professor of International Law at the Universities of LUMSA in Rome (adjunct) and at Naples associate), as well as of Human Rights at Milan's Catholic University, and Barrister at London's prestigious "Doughty Street Chambers" Legal Firm, in the UK, mainly for various High Profile Human Rights cases. But his Main Lawyer is the British, "Queen's Counsel" (QC) Edward Fitzerald, a Leading and Experienced Figure at the DS "Chambers" too, together with the young Counsel Steven Powles, a Mediatic Figure, with International links.



-----------------------------------

LEGAL POINTS :

--------------------------------------



His main Legal Arguments had been Build, from the Start, around 3 Key Points :



(A) Illegal Retroactivity of the Controversial Measure which imposed that Ban, (Comp. Supra), contrary to Article 7 of the EConvHR, ("No Punishment withOut Law".



(B) Free Elections, (Protocol 1, Article 3), combined with No Discrimination (Article 14), and :



(C) Effective Remedy (Article 13).





Berlusconi's Lawyers had Already argued, in these 3 regards, that :



- Despite having been Elected as Senator, and Leader of a Coalition with around 30% of the Vote on February 2013, he was Stripped of his Senatorial Position on November that same year, Because of a controversial Conviction on Tax issues which had Allegedly Occured 15 Years Earlier (sic !), on the Basis of a Governemental Decree passed on December 2012, which imposed Further Penalties for offenses allegedly committed long Before. This also Prohibits him from Standing in the Next Election, estimated for March 2018, Despite a considerable Support from the People. Thus, it's a Retroactive Penalty, Violating EConvHR's Article 7 about No Penalty withOut previous Law.



- Moreover, there was also a "Disproportionate Limitation of Electoral Rights, and Arbitrary Interference with the tenure of a duly Elected Candidate", in Violation of EConvHR's Protocol 1, Article 3, because the above-mentioned Decree imposes a "Ban" from Public Offices during at leasr 6 Years, (i.e. until 2019), Regardless of the Gravity of the alleged offense.



As for the Decision to Strip from his Senatorial Mandate, it had been taken with a "Process governed by No Accessible Criteria", i.e. "Open to Political Manipulation and Abuse", as it appeared Clearly in this case.



- Finally, an "Absence of Any ... Judicial Review or Scrutiny of these Complaints in Italy", Violated the EConvHR's Article 13, which guarantees the Right to an Effective Remedy.



----------



++ The Lawyers had, in Addition, Reminded the Supplementary Fact that, Also "a Separate Application to the ECHR", was (and continues to be) "still Pending", for "UnFair Trial", in Violation of EConvHR Article 6, (See also Infra).



-------------------------------------------------------



+ Meanwhile, ECHR itself, had Raised Similar 3 Questions to the Italian Government and to the Applicant, already since 2016, when it Communicated Officially Berlusconi's complaint to Rome :



- (1) By Stripping Berlusconi from his Mandate as Senator, did the Italian Senate apply a "Penalty", "Retroactively", or not ?



- (2) Did it also Violate his Right to Stand for Elections, withOut pursuing a Legitimate Aim, neither respecting Legitimate Expectations, and/or in the Absence of sufficient Safeguards against Arbitrariness ?



- (3) Did he have an Effective Remedy in Italy ?



Shortly after the Reaction of the Italian Authorities, the Simple ECHR's Chamber, which had been, Initially in charge, Suddenly Asked from ECHR's Great Chamber to take over this case.



----------------------



During Today Morning's Public Hearing, in Strasbourg, by ECHR's Great Chamber, which Started soon after 9 a.m. and continued throughout 2 Hours until after 11 a.m., Euro-Judges Heard, at First, the Italian Government's Agents, and Afterwards Berlusconi's Lawyers, Raising Questions to Both, who Replied, one after the other, before the Court concludes that session, in order to Begin its own Deliberations, Later-on :



* Among the Questions raised by various EuroJudges, were, naturally, several points about the alleged "Retroactivity" of that Electoral "Ban" :



- F.ex, Why that Controversial Decree imposing "Bans", was elaborated almost at the Same Time with the Latest Senatorial Elections, Contrary to CoE's Constitutional Law Top Experts, known as "Venice Commission"'s Standards about "Stability (and previsibility) of Electoral Laws" ; Whether there is More Evidence that this "Ban" had really a "Punitive" Aim, (as even its Official Heading suggested) ; Why the Italian Government claims that Only "Uneligibility" would be a "Punitive" Sanction, while "Disqualification" would not, even if the 2nd looks More Harsh ; etc.

---





* But, astonishingly, this Time, the Greatest Number of EuroJudges' Questions, by far, were Focused on various Concrete Aspects of the Decision-Making Process, related with alleged risks for "Abuse of Discretionary Power" :



- F.ex., why anOther Senator, also concerned by Similar Issues as Berlusconi, saw a Differend Outcome in his case, and after What Kind of Procedure ; about "Minimum Guarantees of Impartiality" (according to EConvHR Article 6 on "Fair Trial") in relation with Electoral Rights ; on the "Way that the Discretionary Power" could be used by the Senate in order to Decide on such a "Ban" ; Why the Senate's Rapporteur on those Bans was suddenly "Replaced" by the President of the competent Commission ; Why, "Exceptionaly", for the First Time, on Belusconi's case, the Senate imposed that Ban by an "Open Vote", instead of a "Secret Vote", as it was generaly foreseen by its Rules of Procedure ; Why such a "DisQualification" can be "subject to Judicial Review" Only on Local/Regional level, but Not on a National level, according to Italian Law ; Why Berlusconi did Not Appear in front of (+was Not Heard by) the Senate's competent Committee (which Decides on that "Ban") ; To Clarify whether the Ban was an "Automatic Consequence" of that Decree, "or a Discretionary" Decision ; If it's the latter, then, had that (Discretionary) "Margin of Appreciation" to respect any "Principle" (as, f.ex., "Independence" of the Decision-Maker, etc) ?; and "what is the precise Subject of such <<Deliberations>>" on the Ban ? (etc).



------------------------------------------



Replying to EuroJudges Critical Questions, the current Italian Government's Agent Maria Giuliana Civinini, first Claimed that, in Berlusconi's case, "the Proceedings were the Same", with another such case : - "There was a Free and Wide Debate", and (anOther MP : Mintzolini) had "Presented his case before the (Competent) Committee". Due to "Doubts about the Impartiality of the Court which had pronounced the latter's Disqualification, this was Refused" by the Senate's votes, Rome's Agent claimed.



Followed a lot of Time, astonishingly Wasted with rather Useless, and/or Out of the Main Point, Long Descriptions of the Preparation and the alleged Reasons for the Existence of that Controversial Decree about Bans, (but Not of the Way in which it was applied, on which EuroJudges had Raised Critical Questions : Comp. Supra)...



It's only about that "Replacement of the Rapporteur" (Comp. Supra), that Mrs Civinini spoke, Admitting that "his Conclusions were Against the Majority" of the Center-Left's Government, and "that's why he was Replaced", But she Claimed that this was foreseen by the Law...



As for the Exceptional use of an "Open Ballot" in the case of Berlusconi, instead of a "Secret Ballot" as it used to be at the Senate's Rules, she Admitted that those Rules "were for a Secret Ballot", indeed, But Claimed that, "things Evolved", over Time, in general, and, "because of the Principles of Transparency, Accountabiity, etc, we Moved towards Open Ballots", etc, as she said, in a quite Vague way...



=> So that, Finally, the current Center-Left Italian Government's Agent, astonishingly, did Not even Reply to Anyone among those Numerous Questions raised by EuroJudges about the Way that the Senate's Administration had used (or ...Abused) of its "Discretionary" Competences to Decide on the Substance of the issue of that controversial Ban (Comp. Supra) !...



---------------------------



- On the Contrary, Professor Andrea Saccucci, replying as a Lawyer of the Appliquant (Silvio Berlusconi), Denounced the Fact that, indeed, that Controversial Decree on "Bans", had been Strongly Criticized Many Times, by various People, particularly for "Risks of Political Prevarication", as it allegedly happened in this case.



- Moereover, "the Risk of Arbitrary and Discriminatory Decision, Driven solely by Political Motives, is Not merely Theoretical", as a Comparison with the Similar case of Senator Muntzolini reveals : Indeed, Contrary to Berlusconi, he was allowed to sit for more than 1,5 Year, and, finally, it was Decided Not to Strip him from his Mandate !", Saccucci denounced.



- In fact, Berlusconi's political Party had Never Agreed for a 6 Years "Ban", Neither for Stripping Elected Politicians from their Mandate, and even Less for doing so Retroactively, (as, however, his Political Opponents did to him), Prof. Saccucci critically observed.



+ Prof. Bruno Nascimbene went on to Focus on "the Way in which had Arrived to its Political and Partial Decision" the Italian Authority which "Banned" Berlusconi : He showed to ECHR a Book on "Manoeuvres in the Wings" of that procedure, which had been Published by a Key Witness shortly after its conclusion, (See relevant PHOTO). It points at the Link between a Procedure which was only in appearence correct, and "Party Politics' Dynamics" and "Arbitrariness" which can drive such Decisions, where "a Parliamentary Majority can Rule on Forfeiture" provoked by that, Nascimbene denounced.



=> So that, in fact, the Final Decision was "Anticipated", and many Bureau Members of the Competent Committee due to decide, had Already Anounced to the Medias how they would vote. All this gave a strong Impression that there was "No Point" for Berlusconi to eventualy Participate in that Committees' hearing, and that's why he was led to drop it, Prof. Nascimbene concluded, in reply to relevant Questions earlier made by EuroJudges, (Comp. Supra).



+ Meanwhile, also the Rapporteur, (who had Asked either to Raise a Question to the Constitutional Court, or to Drop the Sanction which threatened Berlusconi), was Voted Down by the Majority Party, and even Forced to be "Replaced", without any opportunity to object to that.



- British Lawyer Edward Fitzgerald QC, Replying to another EuroJudge's Question, on the "Punitive purpose" of the Electoral "Ban" imposed to the Italian Political Leader, (a Condition for Retroactivity to be illegal : Comp. Supra), became obvious even by simply reading the Official "Heading" of that Governemental "Decree", which had Introduced that Measure by pointing at a need to "Suppress Corruption and illegality", and "the Effect was clearly Punitive", so there was "No Difference in substance" between a DisQualification imposed by a Court, and that DisQualification ("for a Minimum of 6 Years") imposed by that Senate's Committee, as he said





- Top Lawyer Fitzgerald Concluded by Replying to EuroJudges' Questions about the Legal Competence given to that Committee which could "Ban" MPs and/or Senators (Comp. Supra): - "If there is a Power, then, clearly, it's Discretionary" he stressed, (pointing, inter alia, also to the Facts that "they Have to Deliberate", and, while for anOther Senator they did Not Strip from Office, on the Contrary, for Berlusconi, they Did : Comp. Supra).



>>> - "The Problem is that, while there is No Doubt that there is a Discretionary Power" (in the Decision to Impose such a Controversial and Heavy "Ban"), nevertheless, there is No Test laid down, No requirement of Proportionality ("it's All or Nothing"), ... No Procedural Guarantees, and ...No Review", he strongly Criticized.



=> "It's on that Basis that we say that what Happened to Mr. Berlusconi was Arbitrary, and Disproportionate, and he was Wrongly Deprived of Any Possibility of Reviewing" that "Before the Italian Courts" - "Not even the Retroactivity of that (Controversial) Law".



+ Moreover, all this is also Linked to an Old and very Controversial Conviction (for alleged Tax Evasion) in the Past (+ 20 Years Before !), and to that Latest, subsequent Conviction (the "Ban" on 2013), which is Currently Disputed as "UnFair" and Deprived of Previous Legal Basis, in Violations of EConvHR's Articles 6 and 7, at a Parallel Case which is still "Pending" before the ECHR in Strasbourg until now (Comp. Supra), he Reminded "in fine", (obviously pointing at an overall mixture of apparently quite "Shaky" measures).



--------------------

TIMING :

----------------------------



* Concernig the most Frequent Question, widely Raised by many Medias and various Observers : i.e. Whether ECHR will Judge this Exceptional Affair Before, or After the forthcoming Italian Elections of Spring 2018, the Pessimistic Claims made by some Traditional Medias of the Establishment, according to which it would be almost "Impossible" for ECHR to Decide on Time, Before these Elections, Crucial both for Italy and all Europe, was, indirecty but clearly, Rejected also by Statements that an experienced ECHR's Press Spokesman made Today in Reply to "Eurofora"s relevant Questions :



- Even if, in General, the Average Time-frame for ECHR's Grand Chamber Judgements is about 1 Year, nevertheless, Nothing is Impossible, if the EuroJudges might find, eventually, Better to act Faster in some Exceptionally Important cases : Simply because Nothing Obliges the (PanEuropean) Court to Decide inside one or another Time-frame. Euro-Judges are Free and Sovereign in their own Choices, he stressed to "Eurofora", in conclusion.



+Moreover, it's Obvious that, at least in this case, the main Legal Questions, raised by Silvio Berlusconi's Lawyers, have been Already Raised also by the ECHR itself, as Early as since the Beginning of July 2016, in a Written Demand to the Italian Government, (to which they were addressed Together with the Official "Communication" of this affair) :

I.e. : 1) Retroactivity of that controversial Measure of Banishment, 2) Arbitrariness, or not, of an Infringement to the Right to Stand for Elections, and 3) Existence, or not, of an "Effective Remedy" inside the Country, in case of Violations of Human Rights.



------------------------------------------



Berlusconi has reportedly claimed that the Italian People have not really managed to freely Choose thesmselves a Prime Minister since 2008, (when he was in office), and that this has aggravated a MisTrust between Citizens and Politicians.



The Experienced former Long-Time Prime Minister of the Center-Right, (who belongs to the ChristianDemocrat/EPP Poitical Family, as well as German Chancellor Angie Merkel, and EU Commission's President Jean-Claude Juncker, etc), has also reportedly Criticized his main Competitors, by saying that the Center-Left (of the "Socialist" Group) would have "Failed", while the atypical "5 Stars" movement of Bepe Grillo (of Nigel Farage's "EFDD" Group in EU Parliament), would be "a Danger" for Europe.



While, Paradoxically, Silvio Berlusconi himself, would "Incarnate, ... Both the System, and the "Anti-System", ... managing to Hold it all Together", as mainstream French Agency AFP ironically points out, citting Italian "Espresso" magazine.



No need to, eventually, go as far as to mention the new US President Donald Trump, or, the Czech New Prime Minister-Designate, former businessman Babis, who have just Won the Latest Elections, since there are, already, various such concrete Examples, mutatis-mutandis, as, f.ex., with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, etc...



----------------------



=> To Sum up, in a Nutshell :



- If ECHR Rejects Berlusconi's appeal, and/or Delays its Judgement for Only After the forthcoming Elections in Italy, (i.e., Keeps the Ban, until then, included), then, Regardless of what might be the Political Will of the Italian People, he will be Hindered to be Elected as Prime Minister, and somebody Else will take that place, (probably or possibly from an Opposite Political Party).



Such possible consequences, added also to the Fact that his Complaint to ECHR already Dates since 2013, would obviously raise Critical Questions on the real reasons for such an eventually even Longer Delay to Judge, (2013-2018+).



- On the Contrary, if ECHR Accepts this application, and Publishes Timely its Decision Before the Elections of Spring 2018, then, the Italian People would have a Chance to Freely Choose their Next Prime Minister, as they wish, (and, according to recent Polls, it may be Silvio Berluconi, probably, or it might not).



I.e., Obviously, a Big Responsibility for EuroJudges. Because, whatever they might do, they will likely contribute to Write History, in one way, or another...



In the 1st Case (comp. supra), ECHR might, naturally, be, eventually, Accused by some for an alleged Attempt to Interfere inside Italy's National Political Life. While, in the 2nd Case, most probably, it woN't, since the PanEuropean Court would leave the People Free to Choose their Prime Minister, as they wish, (Comp. Supra).



What Choice will make ECHR ? Its Deliberations being Confidential, we shall Find out only on Spring 2018.

(../..)



-----------------------------------------------------------------------

***

(NDLR : Headline PHOTO by Rony Mertens for "Eurofora" : Silvio Berlusconi at EPP Summit in Brussels, 19 October 2017)

***



("DraftNews", as already send to "Eurofora"'s Donors/Subscribers earlier. A more accurate, full Final Version, might be published asap.)









***










I have bought a house in Melbourne to live in



For insurance purposes I need the details of the construction of the house like



External walls made of

Foundation

Roof

Doors and widows security etc



I have zero idea about all these details



I obviously doe not want to give The wrong information by guessing these things as it may lead to rejection of claim in an event of a mishap



So whats the best way to get these details ?

Can i get these details from the council ?

If not do I have to Engage a surveyor?



Also is it worthwhile getting a contents insurance?



Is it easy to make a claim in case of a theft or burglary and do the claims actually get paid ?

Is Suncorp Insurance company advisable ?



Anything to watch out for ?



Cheers


Paris has been named as one of the worst cities in the wold in terms of welcoming expats and now a major international organisation says that France is not an attractive place to work.A hard hitting report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says that France ranks eighth behind the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Spain for attractiveness among the most highly qualified migrants.It points the finger at Frances notorious red tape and singles out the countrys complex administration system, low wages and it high cost of living in particular for making people not want to move there.The report says France needs to modernise and improve her immigration system, particularly relating to worker from outside the European Union and suggests fairly simple changes such as updating the list of professions where there is a shortage of skilled workers.France could also do more to hang on to foreign students once they have graduated by being more welcoming and offering guidance to foreign students in higher education establishments, in order to maximise their chances of successful integration into the labour marketThe report points out that despite a recent increase, the labour migration of non-EU nationals remains low in France by international standards, accounting for just 16% in 2016 and this observation should be seen in the context of total immigration which is also low compared to the size of the French population.While direct entries of foreign workers are relatively limited, the contribution made by immigration to the French labour market needs to be seen in a wider context. Family migration and EU nationals each contribute at least twice as many people to the labour market as labour migration from non-EU countries, the report says.Like most countries in the OECD, France has a full range of administrative services to assess foreigners' employment situation before granting a work permit. The OECD's report shows that the procedures for granting work permits are complex and are governed by rules that differ between regions.Applicants must have received a job offer with the same conditions enjoyed by other workers, in addition to which their application may also be subjected to an examination of the employment situation to check whether there are other workers legally residing in France, either foreign or French, who might be available for the job in question.Since 2008, it has not been mandatory to examine the employment situation if the occupation is one of those appearing on a list of shortage occupations, given the regional situation of the labour market. But the report points out that this list has not been amended since it was first compiled and just 15% of occupations listed are still facing a nationwide shortage, while many real recruitment needs are excluded such as in the care and health sectors.France is given praise for last years introduction of the passeport talent which allows longer stays for skilled workers, reduced the number of prefecture visits required, abolished the rule allowing an immigrant's employment situation to prevent him or her accessing the labour market, and creating new categories for investors and start-ups.But the OECD says the jury is out on how effective this policy change will be and there is room to improve the co-ordination and promotion of the system and its success will depend largely on the resources deployed to transfer skills to consulates and prefectures, the implementation of a co-ordinated inter-ministerial policy and more proactive communication with employers and foreign talents.On the specific issue of foreign students remaining in France after completing their studies, the report shows that they are underrepresented in occupations that are struggling to recruit and their integration into the labour market in the medium term is not always as successful as expected.The report therefore suggests expanding the systems in place for welcoming and offering guidance to foreign students in higher education establishments, in order to maximise their chances of successful integration into the labour market, whether in France or in their country of origin.
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Pamela Toman says she really didnt know teaching kids how to read would be so hard.

But the co-founder and executive director of Literacy San Antonio Inc. says shes learned over the years that teaching children to read is a serious, complex business.

SAReads matches elementary school kids with wannabe teachers, using data to develop customized reading programs for each student, Toman said. The organization also helps teachers and other nonprofits get books through its SAReads Book Bank and partners with Barnes & Noble on holiday book drives to give their students book bundles that help build their home libraries, she said.

And while its early days into the effort, the nonprofit also is training some experienced teachers to incorporate the five essential elements of science-based reading instruction, Toman said. The prototype campus for that effort is Spicewood Park Elementary, Toman said.

Its really not a nonprofit concept. There is no profit, but were not a charity, Toman said. Were building a business. Teaching reading is serious business, and SAReads takes it seriously. And when we figure out how to make this thing work, we can show a lot of people how to do it.

Toman didnt start in education, as shes quick to note. She backed into it after returning home to San Antonio 12 years ago from Silicon Valley.

She also transferred to the Junior League of San Antonio, whose members decided they wanted to tackle literacy. The chapter launched Literacy San Antonio in 2006 as a signature project.

The organization operated as a Junior League project for four years, Toman said, until it was spun out as an independent nonprofit in 2010. There was a lot of focus on adult literacy in its first four years, Toman said.

That was before I really understood that the school system was producing adults that were illiterate, she said.

Students, she said, arent learning how to read in elementary school. Each year, they fall further and further behind.

The numbers are staggering. Only 31 percent of Texas fourth graders read at or above proficient, according to the 2015 Nations Report Card.

That same report says that only 28 percent of Texas eighth graders are considered proficient at reading.

In 2010, the organization started working with U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, who handed them his book drive. That year they held the first SAReads summer book drive.

They had so many books, Toman said, that they needed a space for them. Firstmark Credit Union gave them one free of charge.

And we were off, Toman said. But really quickly we realized that  giving kids books wasnt the same as teaching them to read.

It took a while, Toman says, to get to what she says is the root of the problem: many teachers arent taught the proven elements of reading instruction.

The National Council on Teacher Quality evaluated in a 2016 report 820 undergraduate elementary programs to see if they taught five essential components of early reading instruction.

To earn an A on this standard, programs must adequately address all of the five essential components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension), according to the report.

Only 39 percent of programs provided instruction in all five components.

Another two in five programs (44 percent earning a D or F) teach at most two components of reading instruction, ignoring much of the evidence on how children learn to read, according to the report.

The report notes that more programs compared to the councils 2014 report include all five elements.

Luckily, at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, pre-service teachers enrolled in literacy instruction courses can get exposure to science-based reading instruction methods through the SAReads tutoring program, Toman said.

We go in and train pre-service teachers who are enrolled in these courses to tutor children, Toman said.

And the tutors, who are enrolled in literacy courses at A&M San Antonios College of Education and Human Development earn 15 percent of their course grade from their work with SAReads.

Part of SAReads work is helping to put together the curriculum and resources for the tutors to organize their sessions. Shakyra Haas, an SAReads program coordinator, said they take the data they get from the district to see where students need the most help. They get relevant curriculum and materials from the Florida Center for Reading Research, she said.

Then we have our volunteers come and help us cut and package it, Haas said.

The exercises tutors do with the students help in the five essential areas of reading instruction, by improving phonics, for example, or vocabulary.

SAReads also has a customized portal where tutors can enter all of their session information, and where coordinators can get data on each child being tutored, Toman said.

We also get reading assessment data from the district about each child, so that the pre-service teachers can create a customized lesson plan for their children, Toman said. So theyre using the methods of science-based reading instruction, and theyre using the specific data for their children, theyre building a lesson plan and then theyre tutoring.

Students have the opportunity to stay in tutoring from kindergarten through fourth grade, Toman said. Fourth grade is new this year, and they plan to add fifth grade next year, she said.

The program runs in Southwest ISD for now, and tutors go into all 11 schools, she said. The goal in the next five years is to cover the district with teacher training, which Toman says would be a phenomenal result.

She guessed that within the next three-to-four years they would be in conversation with other districts and another university who might want to do this.

We have to believe in something we cant see. We have to believe that this can happen, and will happen and must happen, Toman said. Its a social justice issue. I make no money  Ive been doing it as a volunteer the entire time. The only payoff is it has to work.
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The number of drilling rigs at work in U.S. oil and gas fields looks healthy going into whats often a slow holiday season  and its a world away from last year, when the industry was still dragging itself through the tail end of the oil bust.

There were 923 active drilling rigs at work in the U.S. this week, up from 915 the week prior, according to the service firm Baker Hughes. Activity is up 56 percent from this time a year ago, when just 593 drilling rigs were at work in the U.S.

Oil prices, too, are looking up.

Friday, the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading above $58 per barrel. Futures for January delivery rose as much as 1.6 percent to $58.92 a barrel in New York. It was the highest level since July 2015.

The international benchmark Brent crude for January delivery climbed 9 cents to $63.64 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.

Theres optimism in the market on reports that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and several non-OPEC nations led by Russia will continue to trim back production in an effort to boost oil prices. The current OPEC deal, reached a year ago, expires at the end of March.

OPEC members meet in Vienna on Thursday. They want oil prices to rise, but not too high because that would send U.S. shale drillers back into the fields en masse.

In a note to clients this week, energy-focused investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. said the OPEC cuts have been working. Against the backdrop of increased geopolitical noise in the Middle East, we believe it is unlikely OPEC would abandon the cuts... the bank said.

In the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas last week, there were 67 drilling rigs at work, on par with the week prior, according to Baker Hughes. At the peak there were more than 250 rigs at work, a number which dipped to 29 during the worst of the oil bust.

The 400-mile oil field, which sweeps from Laredo to College Station, produces around 1.2 million barrels of oil per day.

The Permian Basin in West Texas and eastern New Mexico, which pumps around 2.6 million barrels daily, had 393 drilling rigs at work this week, about 43 percent of all U.S. rigs and up two from the week prior.

The world has been awash in crude oil for the last few years, depressing prices, but stockpiles are finally declining.

U.S. crude inventories declined to about 457.1 million in the week ended Nov. 17, according to the Energy Information Administration. Stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, dropped by 1.83 million barrels to 61.2 million, the largest draw since July. Meanwhile, American production gained for a fifth week to 9.66 million barrels a day.

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

jhiller@express-news.net | Twitter: @Jennifer_Hiller
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PORT ARANSAS  Cooking a turkey was out of the question in the recreational vehicle Steven and Mary Ann Kelley have occupied while rebuilding their home of almost four decades, which Hurricane Harvey tore apart.

You couldnt get a full-grown chicken on that stove, said Steven Kelley, 70, a welder whose shop and equipment also were destroyed in the storm three months ago.

So when the couple saw a Facebook announcement that chef Billy Joe Wilson was hosting a free Thanksgiving dinner for hurricane victims at his new restaurant on Texas 361, they decided to come down.

You try to get a little bit of normalcy, even though its not normal for me to eat out in the parking lot, Mary Ann Kelley, 62, said after she, her husband and a neighbor theyd just met had worked their way along a buffet table laden with smoked turkey, side dishes and pie slices outside Billy Joes Craft House.

More than 300 people celebrated the holiday at lunchtime there Thursday, dining at plastic tables in cool, clear weather with their families and neighbors.

Fewer than 4,000 people live in Port Aransas, a vacation hotspot that Harveys eyewall hit Aug. 25 with winds at 130 mph for more than six hours, and gusts up to 150 mph, Mayor Charles Bujan said. More than 80 percent of homes and businesses were destroyed, he said, and more than 100 residents remain displaced.

You put your lives back together as best you can, and thats what were doing as a community, Bujan said. Were a strong people. Were a sea people. We live on an island. We know what the sea can do. These hurricanes come and they go and they destroy things. We pick up the pieces and rebuild.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is paying 90 percent of the citys debris removal costs, Bujan said.

After he addressed the Texas House Appropriations Subcommittee on Disaster Impact and Recovery this month, the state agreed to pick up the remaining 10 percent, but the process will take at least another four months and cost untold millions of dollars, he said.

Harvey had destroyed Billy Joe Wilsons restaurant, Eats. His new restaurant has been operating out of a food truck and will fully open Dec. 1.

The Kowboy Krewe Foundation, based in Fort Worth, donated $12,000 so he could feed victims Thursday for free.

The foundation and other individual donations covered 85 percent of the costs of the Thanksgiving meal, said Wilson, 38. He and three employees started cooking it Wednesday afternoon.

There was a need and I wanted to help fill it, Wilson said. Theres not a lot of people who have their homes all the way back or kitchens to cook out of.  Theyre like my family, and what better way to spend Thanksgiving than with your family?

Help with the meal came from near and far. The Shark Reef Resort donated $1,000, and manager Mary Salg gave free rides to anyone who needed them. The hotel still is housing 48 people displaced by the storm whose lodging FEMA is funding, Salg said. She waited in line Thursday to take five to-go meals to workers at a nearby gas station.

Another local business, Hobbit Rides, donated the trailer where the turkeys were smoked. LeAnna Morgan, first mate and bartender on the Scarlet Lady Dolphin Adventure boat, had created a Rebuild Port Aransas Facebook page, where she announced the dinner.

The National Association of Rental Property Managers contacted Bobbi Bowler, pastor of Sandcastle Christian Church, to donate $3,000 for a Thanksgiving dinner, so she passed it along to Wilsons effort, she said.

On disability with a bad back, Linda Sunshine Guzman, 64, lost her house in Flour Bluff to the storm, which she waited out in San Antonio.

Clearing out the house involved stacking debris as high as the roof, while FEMA and the Red Cross paid the bills, Guzman said. Its fixed now, but money is tight, and she was grateful to Wilson and the organizers for Thursdays dinner.

Hes a great man, Guzman said of Wilson. God will bless him.

Paula Westhusing, 63, was fortunate enough to spend the storm at her other home in Missouri, although she remembers pacing around wondering what would happen to the Gulf Waters Beach Front RV Resort, where she and her husband spend more than half the year.

They only had their RV lot and a shed to clean up, so theyve been volunteering at Port Aransas Donations & Distributions, helping give away food, clothes and kitchen appliances.

We love Port Aransas, she said as she poured sweet tea into cups on the buffet line. Its a small little community and they dont get the national attention like Houston does. Were just happy people are still making donations.

Diners couldnt avoid reminders that Port Aransas still has a long way to go. They were sitting across from a wrecked gas station and the gutted Hampton Inn & Suites.

In the citys oldest neighborhood, Keith Kellogg, 57, fired up a grill in his backyard to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Kellogg and his wife havent had a kitchen since the hurricane left their cottage blighted by mold. Piles of crushed bathroom tile, drywall, flooring, insulation and a ruined stove still decorate their otherwise-manicured lawn.

Many of Kelloggs neighbors are cutting their losses. Its a little disheartening when you see how many places are being torn down, he said.

Kellogg, who owns a small health care technology business, and his wife moved here seven years ago. They also are living in an RV in the driveway while they fix up their house. None of their friends has received money from FEMA, but the couple had enough savings to start repairs while they petition for reimbursement.

We consider ourselves one of the fortunate ones, Kellogg said.

amalik@express-news.net
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The Environmental Protection Agency did not include the San Antonio metro area in its list of places that meet federal health standards for ozone, a sign that the agency is considering pollution that wafts in from other places.

Bexar County and its neighbors  Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina and Wilson counties  were not among the 2,646 counties designated as meeting the air quality standard in a rule the EPA issued this month.

I think its very encouraging because I think it does indicate that EPA is taking time and really studying the data and the circumstances that we have that particularly make us unique, said Diane Rath, director of the Alamo Area Council of Governments, a coalition of county and municipal governments whose staff studies ozone in the region.

Those 2,000-plus counties said to be in compliance are sort of the easy ones, she said.

When you look at those counties that have not been designated, theyre really surrounding cities that have been borderline or in noncompliance in the past.

Ground-level ozone  three oxygen atoms bound together  is a key component of smog that irritates and damages the lungs. It forms when emissions from power plants, industrial sites, engine exhaust and outdoor chemical use react in sunlight.

About a third of San Antonios ozone-forming pollution blows in from outside the U.S., from Mexico and South America, said Rath, citing AACOG computer modeling of ozone sources.

Another third comes from other parts of the U.S., and the remainder comes from the San Antonio area.

Some say San Antonio should not be overly focused on ozone coming from elsewhere and should continue to cut emissions here.

Locally, we know the air quality is an issue for children, seniors, those with respiratory disease, what we call our most vulnerable, said District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval, who once worked for a local air quality regulator in California, at an October air quality forum.

Bexar Countys long-term ozone levels stand at 73 parts per billion, slightly above a standard of 70 ppb set in 2015. Ozone levels here have declined from a high of 91 ppb in 2004, according to AACOG reports.

If ozone levels drop below 68 ppb, 24 deaths per year in Bexar County could be avoided, according to a health study released in full by the city of San Antonio on Wednesday.

If concentrations return to 2012 levels of 80 ppb, Bexar County would see 19 additional deaths per year from lung conditions, the study by Ranboll Environ states.

In Texas, 49 counties with a decision still pending are clustered around Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso. EPA officials say they are not yet prepared to make a decision on those cities, according to a news release.

In the spirit of cooperative federalism, EPA will continue to work with states and the public to help areas with underlying technical issues, disputed designations and/or insufficient information, it states.

Specifically, the EPA is considering international emissions and background ozone, two factors that make a difference in the San Antonios air quality.

The phrase cooperative federalism comes directly from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who in an October memo wrote that EPA can work cooperatively with states to encourage regulations instead of compelling them.

As Oklahoma attorney general, Pruitt repeatedly sued the federal government over Obama-era environmental regulations.

EPA officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A recent AACOG modeling study states that San Antonios ozone levels will likely decline to 68 ppb by 2023 because of CPS Energy reducing coal plant emissions and improvements in vehicle efficiency.

bgibbons@express-news.net | Twitter: @bgibbs
The late Texas artist-illustrator Jose B. Cisneros, renowned for realistic depictions of horses and historical figures, created vivid images of life in San Antonios early days as a Spanish colonial village on the frontier.

Cisneros was born in Villa Ocampo, Mexico, on April 18, 1910, amid the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution. His father, a carpenter, also worked as a barber, blacksmith and musician to support his family. Their house had a small library and was surrounded by a high adobe wall.

In late 1917, engulfed by the hostilities of the revolution, the family lost everything we owned to looters, Cisneros would later recall. His grandfather was hanged from an oak tree. Everyone was driven out of the village.

The Cisneros family was forced to flee. One of Cisneros infant siblings died as they traveled by foot to Parral before settling in Estacion Dorado, in a vacant house belonging to one of Joses uncles.

Cisneros learned to read Spanish with his fathers help and relished history class in school. A sketch of a horseman he drew for the principal at age 12 revealed his talent. His family moved to Juarez, Mexico, and Cisneros got a school passport that enabled him to study English and other subjects at the Lydia Patterson Institute in El Paso.

Delivering newspapers in El Paso and sweeping the floors after school to help pay for his tuition, Cisneros sometimes slept on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande when he couldnt cross the International Bridge before it closed at midnight. At 17, he quit school to support his family, working for a grocery store and department store, maintaining its display windows. He began collecting used sign cards from store displays that would otherwise have been thrown away to create his artwork on the blank back side. Mexican magazines of the 1930s published his art and some of his writings. He began to develop a following.

Tom Lea, a well-known author, artist and muralist in El Paso, introduced Cisneros to printer and publisher Carl Hertzog. Cisneros began doing illustrations for books, greeting cards, calendars, programs and newspapers and designed the seal for the University of Texas at El Paso.

In the 1940s, after marrying Vicenta Madera of Juarez, Cisneros began working for El Paso City Lines, spray-painting buses and streetcars for the local transit company.

I hated to be there. But I had a family to support, he said in a 2004 interview with the Express-News.

He also taught himself calligraphy, and created stained glass windows and wood carvings as gifts to churches. He and his wife raised five daughters. Cisneros also built a studio-library under his small house.

When I draw a saddle, it has to be the right saddle, Cisneros told the Express-News.

Everything I know is through books, he said. I had the wish and the desire to become someone.

Although he was colorblind, Cisneros disputed late in life that his wife helped him mix colors for his work. He told the Express-News he once embellished that story for a reporter to give Vicenta praise. Although she was a caring wife and partner, she was not much interested in my work, he said in the 2004 interview.

His collaborations with Hertzog for illustrations included history books of the late 1940s: Everette DeGolyers Across Aboriginal America: The Journey of Three Englishmen Across Texas in 1568; The Red River Valley, Then and Now; and The Journey of Fray Marcos de Niza, by Cleve Hallenbeck. That last book won Cisneros his first individual award for best illustration by a Texas artist from the Texas Institute of Letters and Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. It was during that period, in 1948, that Cisneros became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

In 1981, Cisneros book Riders of the Borderlands, was published, years after he was the first artist awarded the Paisano Fellowship, which provided a six-month stay at the late J. Frank Dobies ranch southwest of Austin, along with a monthly stipend for living expenses. An exhibit of drawings from that project was shown throughout the Southwest, including the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio. In 1974, he was bestowed the local honorary title of Jefe Politico by Bexar County leaders.

Cisneros was commissioned to create art as gifts for Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, and was admired by President George H.W. Bush, who collected his work. In a 1975 reference book, Fifty Great Western Illustrators, author Jeff Dykes counted nearly 200 books Cisneros had illustrated by that time. But Cisneros remained prolific in his craft, even as his eyesight diminished. In 1985, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame presented him with the Outstanding Western Book Award for Riders Across the Centuries, published the prior year.

Cisneros was knighted in 1991 by King Juan Carlos of Spain. After Vicenta died in 1994, he went to Spain and visited museums and art galleries there.

In 2002, he was presented the National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush. Despite being nearly blind, a result of macular degeneration, he kept creating art in his 90s, using a special magnifying device to draw with ink and pencil, just a few inches at a time.

A devout Catholic, Cisneros typically attended Mass on a daily basis at St. Josephs Church near his home. He was 99, having illustrated more than 300 books, when he died on Nov. 14, 2009. He was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in El Paso.

Adair Margo, who co-wrote a biography on Cisneros, Jose Cisneros, Immigrant Artist, recalled upon his death that his house was filled with keepsakes from his life, work and travels. His basement was filled with books full of illustrations of Spanish subjects, Arabian horses and types of bits and saddles that he used for research, Margo noted in an article for Humanities Texas.

He would express regret late in life about sketches he had sold for $20 later being resold to collectors for close to $2,000 or more, and for choosing not to have an agent to represent his financial interests. But followers who appreciated his work viewed him as a talented artist willing to share his gifts.

Collections of Cisneros works are in the care of the UTEP Library, whose exhibit is considered one of the best samplings of his work; and the Bryan Museum in Galveston. One of his most recognized works, depicting a Spanish conquistador, is displayed publicly throughout El Paso. Some of his works are in the custody of the Smithsonian Institute.

Leonard Sipiora, former director of the El Paso Museum of Art, called Cisneros work historically researched to perfection.

I know of no one that does what he does, Sipiora told the Express-News in 2004.
iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Memorial services will be held Friday for the Border Patrol agent who died while on duty last Sunday.

The death of Rogelio Martinez, 36, remains somewhat of a mystery to investigators, who are offering a $25,000 reward for information in the case.

Martinez and a fellow agent were discovered at the bottom of a ravine in Texas after they had responded to a sensor triggered in the area, law enforcement sources told ABC News. The fellow agent, who has not been named, was only injured, and he has since been released from the hospital.

On Monday, authorities were open to the possibility that the two agents had inadvertently slipped into the ravine because of a lack of concrete evidence, the sources said.

During a press conference on Tuesday, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Emerson Buie, Jr. said the agency was investigating the case as a "potential assault on federal officers" and appealed to the public to call in with any tips.

President Donald Trump said Monday that the agents had been "brutally attacked." When asked if Trump was correct in the description, Buie said Tuesday that he had not briefed the president on the case. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also referred to the injuries the agents sustained as an "attack."

Services will be held for Martinez Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. at Martin Funeral Home in El Paso, Texas.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The former compliance director of an Indiana compounding pharmacy pleaded guilty Wednesday to introducing adulterated drugs into interstate commerce and then covering up the offenses by obstructing the Food and Drug Administration.

Caprice R. Bearden, 63, of Carmel, Indiana, pleaded guilty in federal court in Indiana to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, three misdemeanor counts of introducing an adulterated drug into interstate commerce, and six misdemeanor counts of adulterating drugs.

Bearden was the Director of Compliance for Pharmakon Pharmaceuticals Inc. Pharmakon compounded drugs at a facility in Noblesville, Indiana.

A date for sentencing hasnt been sent.

Bearden faces up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge, and a fine of $250,000. The misdemeanor counts can each be punished by up to one year in prison and a fine of $100,000.

The drugs were distributed to hospitals in Indiana and around the country. The DOJ said Bearden knew some of the drugs were significantly under or over the strength they were supposed to be.

Paul J. Elmer, president and owner of Pharmakon, also faces federal charges of engaging in commerce with adulterated drugs. He and Bearden were indicted in June this year.

One painkiller compounded by Pharmakon was 25 times stronger than its label said. At least 14 babies were given the painkiller and three became sick, the DOJ said. No infants died after taking the mislabeled drugs.

Pharmakon knew about the compounding errors but didnt notify the FDA or health care providers and lied to FDA investigators during a 2014 inspection.

During that inspection, the indictment said, Bearden said Pharmakon had never received test results outside of the targeted potency range. In fact from 2013 to 2016, Bearden was notified of about 70 test results showing that Pharmakon drugs were either stronger or weaker than labeled, the DOJ said.

Josh Minkler, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana said Bearden put greed and the reputation of her company ahead of the health and safety of our most vulnerable patient populations.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said, This is an egregious example of how harmful conduct can result in risk to patients. The disregard for the law resulted in the injury of infants from poorly compounded, super potent morphine products.

_____

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.
A man has gone blind in one eye after having an intense orgasm.

Man goes blind after orgasm

The 29-year-old man temporarily lost his vision the morning after having a powerful climax following a steamy sex session.

The male then visited his doctor to re-assure himself his sight would return, which it did after 24 hours.

However, the medical expert found the temporary sight loss was due to a small haemorrhage in his left eye, which blocked his vision.

The doctor also believes the male probably held his breath during the intimate moment, which would have put pressure around the eye, the Mirror Online has reported.
Nick Cannon and his twins have helped feed the homeless in honour of Thanksgiving (23.11.17).

Nick Cannon's Instagram (c) post

The 37-year-old rapper and his six-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe - whom he has with his ex-wife Mariah Carey - travelled to the Los Angeles district Skid Row on Wednesday (22.11.17) to help homeless charity The Los Angeles Mission with their outdoor Thanksgiving dinner.

Posting a picture of himself and his brood at the event, the former 'America's Got Talent' host - who also has nine-month-old son Golden with his ex-girlfriend Brittany Bell - wrote on Instagram: "There's still time to make your way and join us here @thelamission #SkidRow #thanksgiving (sic)"

Nick and his twins weren't the only stars to appear at the event either, with the likes of Emmy Rossum and her husband, Sam Esmail, Melissa Rivers, Garcelle Beauvais, Heather Morris, Minnie Driver, and Sherri Shepherd all spending time volunteering at the charitable dinner.

Minnie shared a snap with her nine-year-old son, Henry, whilst at the event, and wrote: "#skidrowthanksgiving Today, @thelamission will serve 4,000 dinners!! #happythanksgiving #alllove There is no better organization to donate to today (sic)"

Elsewhere, rapper and actor Common was also lending a helping hand in Chicago, where he volunteered at the St. Stephen AME Church for Feeding America.

In a video clip posted to his Instagram, he said: "We feed the people. There's people that we want them to have the best Thanksgiving and let them know that they're loved. That's what God do ... We wanted to make sure we're giving back to our communities that we're representing on film and TV."

The clip was captioned: "Let's not forget to "Give" as well as give "Thanks" this Thanksgiving. We did a lot of filming for the @shothechi on the West side of Chicago so it was only right that we gave back to this community. #thechi (sic)"

It comes after reality star Kim Kardashian West and her sister Kourtney Kardashian - along with Kim's four-year-old daughter North - spent time volunteering at Los Angeles Food Bank earlier this week.

by Charlotte Hough for www.femalefirst.co.uk


Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's engagement announcement is "imminent."

Prince Harry

The 33-year-old prince has been dating the American actress for 16 months and, although they've remained coy on whether or not they're set to walk down the aisle, it's believed they're planning to share the news around the festive period.

A spokesman for Ladbrokes - the British-based betting and gambling company - told MailOnline: "Royal watchers would love a Christmas engagement announcement, and as far as we're concerned it's coming imminently. Meghan has met her prince charming and it looks like this fairytale is going to end happy ever after."

Things have got increasingly more serious between the pair in recent months, with Meghan, 36, reportedly set to quit working on her legal drama 'Suits' in favour of a life in the UK with Harry, where she has also reportedly relocated her pet dogs.

Speaking about her pooches, a source said: "She is very close to those two dogs. She lets them sleep on her bed and they eat only the highest quality organic food.

"She misses them when she is away and will even get someone to FaceTime her with them. The fact she's started the process of moving them to England is the clearest hint yet that she sees her future living in London with Harry."

And if rehoming her mutts wasn't sign enough that the pair are nearing an engagement, last month saw Meghan invited to Buckingham Palace for tea with Queen Elizabeth, who is Prince Harry's grandmother.

One source said of the meeting: "The couple arrived in time for tea at around 5pm. It is the queen's favourite part of the day and she loves it when her grandchildren are able to join her. She normally sits for half an hour eating from a selection of sandwiches, fruit or plain scones and cake. It is served with her own blend of Darjeeling and Assam tea, known as Queen Mary's blend."
Gemma Collins was reportedly found collapsed on her make-up artist's bathroom floor in the early hours of Friday morning (24.11.17).

Gemma Collins

The 'TOWIE' star had been getting ready at her beautician Lisa's house for a day of filming after a night out on the town with her on/off love interest James 'Arg' Argent, and is believed to have received "immediate medical attention" after suffering excruciating stomach pains.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "She was getting ready for the day at her makeup artist Lisa's home and then nipped to the bathroom.

"The next thing Lisa knew was that Gemma had fallen to the floor - so she called for immediate medical attention and may now need to go to hospital."

Gemma was working on scenes for the Christmas special of the ITVBe reality series, but the insider says filming the episode has been postponed due to Gemma's illness.

They added: "Gemma has struggled with some ill health recently after suffering with kidney stone symptoms.

"Family and friends are hoping that she will make a rapid recovery but for now 'TOWIE' filming has been put on hold."

Gemma and Arg were joined by co-star Chloe Sims on their boozy night out celebrating his birthday and in one video shared on Instagram, the bolshy blonde could be heard asking for an Amaretto drink whilst singing karaoke.

She captioned the post: "I just [heart] it when you sing we have had the best time celebrating your birthday I'm actually so sad to go home. singing means your happy #letsstaytogether I'm so so so proud of you @real_arg I love to see you sing I will watch this so many times lol over and over ha ha (sic)'

Last week, Gemma cancelled her appearance at a nightclub in Sheffield after contracting cystitis.

The reality star was due to entertain students at Plug last Thursday (16.11.17) but had to pull out after being told to get some bed rest by her doctor after coming down with the water infection.

Gemma broke the news to her fans in an Instagram video which she recorded after switching on Freeport's Christmas lights in Essex.

Alongside the clip, Gemma wrote: "Lovely to meet you all this evening was a blast but sadly I won't be making Sheffield tonight.

"I didn't want to let anyone down doctors orders bed and rest for me I have a water infection guys I'm so sorry I don't want to let anyone down but I have to rest xxx love you all."
Vietnamese leather and footwear exporters must comply with the European Union (EU)-Vietnam free trade agreements (EV-FTA) rules of origin and be prepared to deal with EU barriers and anti-dumping measures when it takes effect in 2019, exporters were told at a recent seminar in Ho Chi Minh City.The meeting, organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the European Trade Policy and Investment Support Project (EU-Mutrap), was held to help exporters take advantage of the EV-FTA.

Vietnamese leather and footwear exporters must comply with the European Union (EU)-Vietnam free trade agreement's rules of origin and be prepared to deal with EU barriers and anti-dumping measures when it takes effect in 2019, exporters were told at a recent seminar organised in Ho Chi Minh City to help exporters take advantage of the EV-FTA.#

Once the agreement goes into effect, the EU will eliminate import duties on 85.6 per cent of its tariffs lines on Vietnamese products. After seven years, 99 per cent of EU tariffs will be removed for Vietnamese products. Vietnamese textiles, footwear and seafood products (except for canned tuna and fish balls) will incur no import duties within seven years after the agreement takes effect.The EV-FTA would increase exports because of lower tariffs and contribute to eliminating other trade barriers, Phan Th? Thanh Xuan, vice chairwoman and general secretary of the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO), said.However, Vietnamese manufacturers and exporters will confront challenges and will have to improve technologies and manufacturing processes to ensure high quality, according to a Vietnamese news agency report.Vietnam earned $13.1 billion from leather and footwear exports in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 11.4 per cent over the same period last year.Last year Vi?t Nam ranked as the third-largest footwear manufacturer in the world, after China and India, says LEFASO.About 900 European companies have invested in the country, which has the largest European business community in Southeast Asia. (DS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) has advised the government to be strategic in its ties with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as the latters policies have not revamped the nations textile sector. NISER attributed the fall in the number of modern textile firms partly to inconsistent government policies and the WTO agreement.At its monthly research seminar recently in Ibadan in Oyo state with the theme Competitiveness of the Nigeria Textile Industry, NISER said the textile industry should be protected and offered incentives to satisfy local demands and compete globally.

The Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) has advised the government to be strategic in its ties with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as the latter's policies have not revamped the nation's textile sector. NISER attributed the fall in the number of modern textile firms partly to inconsistent government policies and the WTO agreement.#

It also stated that ineffective monetary policies and exchange rate volatility often affected negatively the import of raw materials used in the production of textile products, according to Nigerian media reports.A senior research fellow from the NISER group, Mr. Bashir Adelowo Wahab, recalled that there were about 128 modern textile firms in Nigeria in the 1980s. These decreased to less than 45 in 2008, with only 33 active in 2015.The Nigerian Textile Manufacturing Association (MTMA) wants a ban on export of cotton from the country locally-produced cotton was not enough for domestic apparel and textile manufacturers. (DS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 23, 2017) - Opawica Explorations Inc. (TSXV: OPW) (the "Company") announces that all of the resolutions put forth at its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held on November 23, 2017 have been approved by an overwhelming majority of the votes cast. In addition to the approval of the Company's rolling stock option plan and the appointment of Manning Elliott LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants as auditors for the ensuing year, the shareholders also approved the proposed share consolidation plan (the "Consolidation"), approved the proposed number of board seats and elected the directors.

Following approval of the Consolidation, the directors are authorized to consolidate the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company on the basis of one (1) new common share for every five (5) existing common shares. It is anticipated that the Consolidation will be implemented forthwith upon receipt of TSX Venture Exchange approval.

The number of directors was set at six, and the shareholders elected the following directors of the Company:

Paul Antoniazzi - Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Director of the Company since January 1997;

Ferdynand (Fred) Kiernicki - Director of the Company since January 2008;

Yvan Bussieres, P. Eng. - Qualified Person and Director of the Company since July 2016;

Mark Lofthouse - Director of the Company since March 2011;

Edmond Hatoum - Director of the Company from February 2015 to July 2016 and since July 2017; and

Philippe Havard, Ing. Jr. - Director of the Company since June 2016.

ABOUT OPAWICA EXPLORATIONS INC.

Opawica Explorations Inc. is a junior resource company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and evaluation of gold and base metal mineral properties in Canada. The Company owns 100% interest subject to certain royalties in the Bazooka gold property located in the Beauchastel Township approximately seven kilometres southwest of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. The Bazooka property comprises seven contiguous kilometres of strike length along the prolific Abitibi Gold Belt on the Cadillac Larder Lake Break. The eastern border of the Bazooka gold property adjoins Yorbeau Resources Inc.'s Rouyn Property that is actively being explored by Kinross Gold Corporation under an option agreement (see Yorbeau press release dated October 25, 2016). The western border of the Bazooka gold property adjoins Monarques Gold Corporation's Wasamac gold property (2,882,000 oz Au resources per Monarques NI 43-101 technical report dated October 25, 2017). The Company also holds 100% interest subject to certain royalties in the McWatters gold property in the Rouyn-Noranda area and the Arrowhead gold property in the Joannes Township, Quebec.

For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.opawica.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Paul Antoniazzi

Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Opawica Explorations Inc.

Telephone: 604-681-3170

Fax: 604-681-3552

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this news release.
LONDON, Nov. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- At the Global Mobile Broadband Forum (Global MBBF), Edward Deng, President of Huawei Wireless Network Product Line, delivered a keynote speech on "Embracing 5G Era Mobile Network". He elaborated upon the unprecedented opportunities and huge challenges faced by operators in the era of 5G, especially in terms of how mobile networks satisfy requirements of diverse services and connectivity. Huawei proposed the most important elements for the future mobile network: 5G Era SingleRAN, Mobile Cloud, and Wireless Intelligence, which aim to help operators build a single network that provides a diverse range of services. Such a network also helps to rapidly seize new business opportunities at low costs and achieve sustainable growth in the process towards realizing a digitalized society.

Embracing 5G Era Mobile Network to Address New Opportunities and Challenges

The next decade will be a new era of 5G featuring the rapid development of new services and requirements in the wireless communications industry. Edward Deng believes that operators' top priority is to build a single mobile network that meets the demands of a super connected society and industry development. This requires the fostering of three key capabilities:

Powerful network capability to meet divergent requirements for capacity, coverage, and latency of a wide range of services

An agile and flexible network architecture to improve the efficiency of multi-service connections

Intelligent network management to provide efficient network O&M and optimization of diversified service experience

Powerful Network Capability: 5G Era SingleRAN Provides Full Support for Diverse Services on a Single Network

The diversity of IoT applications and scenarios poses high and divergent requirements for network capabilities. Capacity must be improved from single to double digit Gbps data rates for the upcoming 5G era. Similarly, population coverage must be expanded to cater for geographical coverage, while reducing latency from 10 ms to ms level.

At the Global MBBF, Huawei released the portfolios of 5G Era SingleRAN that boast higher capacity, wider coverage, and low latency with high reliability. This solution will enable operators to offer diverse services on a single network. This solution adopts simple and highly integrated 5G sites to deliver ultra-high capacity. A series of low-cost innovative sites can be used to improve the depth and width of scenario-specific network coverage, while supporting the latest protocol and architecture to support ms level latency. Edward Deng indicated that, "5G Era SingleRAN can maximize the value of existing networks and promote a smooth evolution to 5G. Enhanced capabilities help enable a mobile network to support a multitude of services."

Agile Network Architecture: Mobile Cloud Supports Flexible Deployment and Agile Provisioning of Diverse Services on a Single Network

At the Global MBBF 2016 held in Tokyo, Huawei released the Mobile Cloud solution, which includes CloudEdge, CloudAIR, and CloudRAN. These solutions help to usher in a new era of mobile cloud. Edward Deng emphasized that, "Mobile Cloud can maximize the value of operator assets to enable efficient resource utilization, on-demand deployment, and agile service provisioning. This solution allows operators to build mobile networks for all industries."

CloudAIR cloudifies an air interface to efficiently share spectrum, power, and channel resources. This innovation can enhance air interface utilization, while allowing for flexible network deployment and improving user experience. Over the past year, over 30 networks have commercially launched CloudAIR. And by the end of 2018, over 100 networks will use this cutting-edge solution. "Huawei is dedicated to constant innovation and CloudAIR will continue to pursue better performance." Edward Deng announced the debut of CloudAIR 2.0, which at least doubles GUL spectrum sharing efficiency. LTE and 5G NR can share the spectrum in both time and frequency domains to achieve more flexible and higher proportion of resource sharing. CloudAIR is set to help operators upgrade spectrum efficiency and accelerate the deployment of 5G networks.

Efficient Network Management: Wireless Intelligence Allows Low-cost Deployment of New Services on a Single Network with Reduced OPEX

In the 2020-oriented 5G era, the complexity of mobile networks will far exceed current networks. Traditional methods and tools will struggle to meet new business requirements. Wireless intelligence emerges as an exemplary solution. Edward Deng highlighted that, "Wireless intelligence and mobile networks have already revolutionized the world and will further reshape the future. In the best era soon to arrive, these two technologies are poised to meet and combine to offer more innovations."

Wireless intelligence serves as a smart brain to create three customer values:

Enable automatic and smart O&M to make things simple.

Inspire network potential to achieve the best network performance and empower new capabilities.

Make the impossible possible and provide automation solutions to issues that cannot be resolved by onsite personnel.

In partnership with top global operators, Huawei has achieved remarkable progress in discussions and joint tests on related use cases.

For example, Massive MIMO is the most important technology of high-capacity 5G base stations and applies to complex scenarios with dynamic traffic scenarios. However, the configuration and optimization of multi-antenna beam parameters prove to be an obstacle. SoftBank and Huawei launched the wireless intelligence based adaptive solution for Massive MIMO. This solution can automatically select the best parameter combination from nearly 300 options to achieve dynamic coverage based on user distribution and scenario. This adaptation can also help to considerably improve cell capacity and user experience.

Another innovation of wireless intelligence is splitting each cell into thousands of virtual grids. Each grid can collect a large amount of data to perform intelligent training and maximize the value of network optimization in a smaller scale. Wireless networks perform structured processing on real-time and historical data stored in virtual grids and then generate a "network fingerprint". With the machine learning algorithm, wireless networks can implement refined and intelligent scheduling of radio resources. For example, grid-level historical data helps determine signal quality of each carrier. The intelligent scheduling algorithm ensures that a device is always running on the best carriers and therefore can deliver the best user experience.

5G Era SingleRAN, Mobile Cloud, and Wireless Intelligence are the most important elements of the future network. They will collectively help operators build 2020-oriented mobile networks for diverse services and quickly seize new business opportunities at low costs. Edward Deng concluded his speech with a promising vision. Looking forward to the 2020s, Huawei plans to work with more operators and industry partners to promote the prosperity of the mobile industry and realize "Everyone on Mobile, Everything with Wireless, and Every Industry plus Wireless".

About Huawei

Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Our aim is to enrich life and improve efficiency through a better connected world, acting as a responsible corporate citizen, innovative enabler for the information society, and collaborative contributor to the industry. Driven by customer-centric innovation and open partnerships, Huawei has established an end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing. Huawei's 180,000 employees worldwide are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers. Our innovative ICT solutions, products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world's population. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees.

For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/609875/a1.jpg


CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian stock markets are mostly lower on Friday with investors treading cautiously following the sell-off in Chinese equities on Thursday and in the absence of overnight cues from Wall Street, which was closed for a public holiday. The Chinese market has recovered following the previous session's sell-off and is modestly lower on Friday.



The Australian market is declining following the sell-off in Chinese equities on Thursday.



In late-morning trades, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 15.80 points or 0.26 percent to 5,970.40, off a low of 5,951.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 12.20 points or 0.20 percent to 6,055.30.



In the mining space, BHP Billiton is down 0.5 percent and Rio Tinto is lower by 0.2 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is unchanged despite an increase in the price of iron ore overnight.



Rio Tinto has extended an agreement to sell its Pilbara iron ore to Chinese state-owned steel company Sinosteel.



The big four banks are also weak. ANZ Banking, National Australia Bank, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank are lower in a range of 0.1 percent to 0.5 percent.



Oil stocks are also lower. Oil Search is declining 0.2 percent and Woodside Petroleum is edging down less than 0.1 percent, while Santos is adding 0.6 percent.



Gold miners are mixed. Newcrest Mining is adding 0.2 percent, while Evolution Mining is down 0.4 percent.



Crown Resorts said it is in talks over the future of its 62 percent stake in its joint-venture online wagering business CrownBet. The casino operator's shares are losing more than 1 percent.



Village Roadshow said that despite visitation numbers continuing to fall, it is confident it can pay a dividend in 2018. However, the theme parks and cinemas operator's shares are declining almost 1 percent.



In the currency market, the Australian dollar is slightly higher against the U.S. dollar on Friday. In early trades, the local unit was quoted at US$0.7623, up from US$0.7619 on Thursday.



The Japanese market, which resumed trading following the Labor Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday, is losing with investors cautious following the sell-off in Chinese markets on Thursday. In addition, a stronger yen weighed on exporters' shares.



In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is declining 124.34 points or 0.55 percent to 22,398.81, off a low of 22,381.01 in early trades.



Shares of Mitsubishi Materials are losing more than 8 percent after the company revealed Thursday that inspection data was falsified at three of its subsidiaries.



Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is down 1 percent, Panasonic is losing almost 1 percent and Canon is down 0.2 percent. Sony is adding almost 1 percent. SoftBank is rising almost 1 percent, while Fast Retailing is declining 0.2 percent.



In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is lower by 0.2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down 0.3 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is declining more than 1 percent and Honda is down 1 percent.



In the oil space, Inpex and Japan Petroleum are lower by almost 1 percent each.



Among the market's best performers, Konica Minolta is rising almost 3 percent, KDDI Corp. is higher by more than 2 percent and Shin-Etsu Chemical is advancing more than 1 percent. On the flip side, DeNA Co. is down almost 5 percent and JTEKT Corp. is lower by almost 4 percent.



In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 111 yen-range on Friday.



Elsewhere in Asia, Shanghai, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are also lower, while South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong are modestly higher.



U.S. stock markets were closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.



The major European markets closed mixed on Thursday amid thin trading volumes internationally. France's CAC rose 0.5 percent, while the UK's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX edged down 0.02 and 0.05 percent respectively.



Crude oil prices touched fresh two-year highs on Friday following the shutdown of a major crude pipeline from Canada to the U.S. In Asian trades, WTI crude is adding $0.35 or 0.6 percent to $58.37 a barrel.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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- Lectures Given to MBA Students in Formal Class, Including Case of Establishing Hair Salon inside Hospital to Give Consideration to Feelings of Cancer Patients, Other CSR Activities in UK -

LEICESTER, England and TOKYO, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Total hair solution company Aderans Co., Ltd. was officially invited by the University of Leicester in the UK to give lectures regarding strategic CSR to MBA students on September 4, 2017. Last year, the company gave a special lecture to MBA students for the first time as a Japanese company and the lecture received an extremely favorable response. Because of this, the company gave lectures in a formal MBA class again this year, the first Japanese company to do so. It was also the first time that a Japanese company gave lectures for two years in a row at the university.

On that day, Mr. Yoshihiro Tsumura, representative director and president of the company, talked to students about historical considerations of the company's development and the importance of strategic CSR for corporate growth, from top management's perspective. He focused on the theme "Management Reform through 'Sampo Yoshi' (Three-Way Good) Management."

He was followed by Mr. Mutsuo Minowa, executive officer of Global CSR & Corporate Communications Officer the company, who gave examples of positive results of CSR activities by the Aderans Group, under the theme of "CSR Activities Integrated with Businesses." Among other things, when he talked about the company opening a hair salon inside a hospital to help with the feelings of cancer patients, he attracted a great deal of attention not only from students but also from professors.

Finally, Ms. Lynne Harris, president of Aderans UK, gave a lecture on strategic CSR activities in the UK. Aderans UK has actively introduced the headquarters' CSR concept in the UK by localizing it to the British style. She talked about eight major examples, including the donation of wigs to a British two-time Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist, Joanna Rowsell Shand MBE, who has been suffering from alopecia, the donation of wigs to Sally Bee, a famous cooking expert, and technical support for the charity organization My New Hair, set up by Dr. Trevor Sorbie MBE, a famous hair stylist. The organization supports people suffering from medical hair loss due to cancer or other reasons.

The students were surprised to learn that CSR activities can lead to corporate profits. After the lectures, they gathered around the lecturers to ask questions one after another and to request photos together, which illustrated their high level of interest in strategic CSR activities.

(Photo1: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/opn/release/201711137891/?images)

Comments from a third party

Dr. Sigmund Wagner-Tsukamoto, Professor at the University of Leicester Executive Officer Minowa, and President Harris gave memorable lectures at the MBA summer school of the University of Leicester held in August 2016. They received a favorable response from students. This year, we invited them to give a presentation at our official MBA class. Students were inspired by the lecture by President Tsumura on management vision based on the idea of strategic CSR, and the historical considerations of the company's development. Executive Officer Minowa explained the details of Aderans' unique activities in an attractive and enthusiastic manner. President Harris talked about the installation of strategic CSR to its UK subsidiary. The students listened attentively to the lectures given by the top management. The contents of the lectures were beyond students' expectations. After the lectures, many students stayed in the classroom to ask questions. The lectures have been the most wonderful and memorable ones this year.

(Photo2: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/img/201711137891-O4-M7HG5BJU)

Dr. Yukinori Okabe, Associate Professor at Academic Foundations Programs at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology The lecture by President Tsumura started with the introduction of Aderans and his thoughts of how important the initiative of CSR is as the key to management. This made a powerful impact on the students, who realized the seriousness of Aderans towards strategic CSR. As he talked, serious expressions quickly appeared on students' faces. Top executives from around the world, from the EU and the UK, talked about CSR in detail. I witnessed a moment when education developed people.

(Photo3: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/img/201711137891-O5-2uJS8OVm)

About Aderans Co., Ltd.

Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Representative Director and President: Yoshihiro Tsumura Aderans website: http://www.aderans.co.jp/corporate/english/

Aderans CSR website: http://www.aderans.co.jp/corporate/english/csr/
Supreme Court announced that the decision on the tariff dispute between AS Tallinna Vesi and Estonian Competition Authority would be made on 12.12.2017. AS Tallinna Vesi will communicate the decision by making a relevant market announcement at the earliest opportunity. In February 2017, AS Tallinna Vesi lodged an appeal in cassation with the Supreme Court against the Tallinn Circuit Court's decision of 26th January 2017, in which Tallinn Circuit Court dismissed the Company's claim against the Competition Authority as regards to the tariff dispute. On 20th June 2017, the Supreme Court accepted the appeal in cassation for proceedings. Background of the tariff dispute: Since May 2011, the Estonian Competition Authority has so far refused to approve AS Tallinna Vesi's water and sewerage tariff applications. In October 2011, the Estonian Competition Authority issued a precept to AS Tallinna Vesi to reduce tariffs. The Estonian Competition Authority has not changed its opinion, irrespective of the fact that the Estonian courts have previously declared the tariffs' part of the Services Agreement, which was executed between AS Tallinna Vesi and the City of Tallinn back in 2001, to be a public law contract. AS Tallinna Vesi's belief is that under the Administrative Procedure Act, the state is obliged to comply with a public law contract until amendment or repeal thereof. By its decision of 5th June 2015, Tallinn Administrative Court dismissed the company's complaint (the Court published the reasoning of the decision on 12th October 2015) and Tallinn Circuit Court also dismissed the company's appeal by its decision made on 26th January 2017. AS Tallinna Vesi disagreed with the decisions made by the Tallinn Administrative Court and Tallinn Circuit Court, because AS Tallinna Vesi is of the opinion that the Courts had incorrectly applied the law, and wrongly assessed the submitted evidence. International arbitration proceedings are running separately and in parallel to the local court dispute. The hearings in the international arbitration proceedings were held in November 2016. The procedural orders and decisions issued during the arbitration proceedings, subject to the redaction of confidential information, are available on the ICSID webpage. Riina Kai AS Tallinna Vesi Chief Financial Officer Ph: (+372) 62 62 262 riina.kai@tvesi.ee
- The center to soon release the world's first index reflecting the status of innovation, entrepreneurship and venture finance in China

SHANGHAI, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Two institutes at Tongji University, The School of Economics and Management (Tongji SEM) and the Advanced Institute of Business Research (AIBR), in concert with Shenzhen CDF-Capital, a private equity and venture capital firm, have established the Research Center of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture Financing at Tongji University. In May 2018, the world's first Index of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture Financing will make its worldwide debut, concurrent with the staging of the International Exhibition of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The index is compiled based on multi-dimensional data resources and an algorithmic model designed to examine the efforts of the Chinese government in this domain in combination with macroeconomic fundamentals, the number of resources available for technological innovation and the relative strength of the resources, the level of maturity and activity across both the Chinese economy as a whole, as well as across the country's financial markets and its venture financing sector, in addition to analyzing the social environment, providing policymakers, practitioners, academics and educators with information about the multi-dimensional characteristics of the nature of innovation, entrepreneurship and venture financing across China.

Tongji University vice president Prof. Jiang Bo said the university plans to support the new research center with all available resources. With the Research Center of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture Financing serving as a platform that enables the cross-integration and ongoing development of departments and disciplines, Tongji University will facilitate the cross-integration and development of SEM with other institutes at the school in a move to promote a deeper integration of and cooperation between industry, academe and the world of R&D. In addition, Tongji University will continue to upgrade the model for the training of talent, increase its investment in social development, enhance international cooperation and exchanges, as well as drive the development of innovative schools as well as of China's World-class Universities and First-class Disciplines program, a government initiative to elevate the quality of education at Chinese universities and colleges.

Dean of SEM, professor at the university and an expert in innovation and entrepreneurship research, Li Yuan, believes the Index of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture Financing will help build a big data center that provides essential data about innovation, entrepreneurship and venture financing by leveraging the research findings across a wide spectrum of disciplines, including economic management, information technology as well as humanities and social sciences. Tongji University and SEM plan to capitalize on the expertise of international experts to focus on concerns in respect specifically to China and, at a later stage, the innovation, entrepreneurship and venture financing issues facing the countries targeted by the One Belt, One Road initiative with the aim of creating a new model that facilitates cooperation among research organizations, universities and industry leaders.
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Provident Financial plc. (PFG.L) announced Friday that Executive Chairman Manjit Wolstenholme has passed away suddenly on November 23. The Board has appointed Malcolm Le May, currently the Senior Independent Director of the Company, as Interim Executive Chairman of Provident Financial with immediate effect. Malcolm Le May said, 'We are deeply shocked and saddened. ...It was a great privilege to know her personally and to work alongside her over the last few years. She has shown exceptional leadership in stepping up to the role of Executive Chairman over the last few months.' In London, Provident shares were trading at 903 pence, down 0.66 percent. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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LINKOPING, Sweden, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --The international medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra(STO: SECT B) will publish its six-month report for the period May to October 2017 on December 8, 2017. Sectra invites analysts, investors and the media to attend a teleconference in conjunction with the publication of the report.

Torbjorn Kronander, President and CEO of Sectra, and Mats Franzen, CFO of Sectra, will present the interim report and answer any questions.

Publication of interim report: 8:00 a.m. December 8, 2017

Presentation/teleconference: 10:00 a.m. December 8, 2017

To participate, call one of the following numbers five to ten minutes before the conference begins:

SE +46856642690

UK +442030089801

US +18557532235

The presentation will be held in English and can also be followed online at www.sectra.se/irwebcast. A recorded version will be available via this link after the conference.

Approximately 15 minutes before the start, a presentation (PDF document) will be available for download at www.sectra.se/irwebcast.

Sectra's financial calendar for the 2017/2018 fiscal year

December 8, 2017 at 8:00 a.m. : Six-month interim report

March 12, 2018 at 8:00 a.m. : Nine-month interim report

May 29, 2018 at 8:00 a.m. : Year-end report 2017/2018

Further information about Sectra's financial events and interim reports: http://www.sectra.com/investor/calendar/

Subscribe for information

To subscribe to financial reports, invitations, and information from Sectra via e-mail, please fill in your contact information at www.sectra.com/subscribe.

For further information, please contact:

Helena Pettersson

Chief Investor Relations Officer Sectra AB

ph +46-13-23-52-04

e-mail info.investor@sectra.se

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/sectra/r/invitation-to-presentation-of-sectra-s-interim-report-on-december-8,c2399077


CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian markets were mostly subdued on Friday as investors once again refrained from making significant moves, choosing to wait for some clear signal.



There were some positive economic data from some parts of the region, but volumes were mostly thin once again as the U.S. markets, which were closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving, will have just a short trading session today.



The Chinese market got off to a firm start, but then, barring select blue chips, not many found enough support to sustain at higher levels.



Across the Pacific, the Australian benchmark indices ended virtually unchanged. The S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.06 percent to 5,982.55 and the broader All Ordinaries index ended 4.40 points down at 6,063.10.



The New Zealand market ended modestly higher, with its NZX 50 staying put in positive territory all through the session and adding about 0.35 percent to its previous close.



Data from Statistics New Zealand showed that the trade deficit of the country rose to NZ$871 million in October from NZ$798 million in the corresponding month last year. However, the shortfall narrowed notably from NZ$1.2 billion in September.



Chinese stocks rebounded a bit today, erasing some of the losses posted in the previous session. After a fairly solid start, the market tumbled but recovered swiftly and held on in positive territory till the end of the session. The benchmark HSI index ended up 0.53 percent.



Financial sector stocks WH Group and Ping An climbed 2.7 percent and 3 percent, respectively.



Oil stock Sinopec Corp. added 1.3 percent. Casino operator Sands China advanced 1.4 percent. China Res Land, Henderson Land, SHK PPT and ICBC also gained in strength.



Airlines stock Cathay Pacific, consumer goods stock Hengan International declined 1.3 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.



In Shanghai, the SSE Composite Index moved in a very narrow range around the unchanged line and eventually ended marginally up.



The Strait Times Index of the Singapore Stock Exchange edged up gradually after a flat start and ended higher by about 0.5 percent.



Keppel Corporation rose 2.2 percent and Thai Beverage Public gained 3.2 percent. City Developments, Sembcorp Industries, Genting Singapore and DBS Group Holdings advanced by 1 to 1.6 percent.



According to the data released by the Economic Development Board, Singapore's industrial production logged a double-digit growth in October, rising 14.6 percent year-on-year, faster than the 14.4 percent increase seen in September.



The Japanese stock market recovered after initial weakness and edged up to close marginally higher. The Nikkei 225 benchmark settled at 22,550.85, gaining about 0.12 percent.



While stocks from automobile and manufacturing sectors were largely weak, some buying was witnessed in the technology space.



Mitsubishi Materials plunged more than 8 percent, with an announcement from the company that some of its units falsified product data to meet requirements.



In economic news, Japan's manufacturing activity expanded at the steepest pace in more than three-and-a-half years in November, data released by IHS Markit showed. The Nikkei flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, or PMI, climbed to a 44-month high of 53.8 in November from 52.8 in October.



In the South Korean market, movements were quite sluggish almost right through the session. The KOSPI index ended up 7.18 points or 0.28 percent at 2,544.33.



On the economic front, South Korea's consumer sentiment strengthened to a seven-year high of 112.3 in November, survey data from Bank of Korea showed Friday. The index was 109.2 a month earlier.



The Malaysian market ended marginally down, while those in Indonesia and Taiwan closed little changed from Thursday's closing levels.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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DUBLIN, November 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Automotive Radiator Fan Market 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The global automotive radiator fan market to grow at a CAGR of 4.09% during the period 2017-2021.

Global Automotive Radiator Fan 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. To calculate the market size, the report considers the sales of automotive radiator fan for PCs, LCVs, and M&HCVs.

According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is Increased fuel efficiency of automobile. The automotive engine has an ideal operating temperature at which it reaches its optimized efficiency. If the automotive engine is operated at a higher temperature for a short duration, the IC engine heats up, leading to the failure of internal engine components. During the combustion process, heat is released as the product. Excess heat in the engine might cause damage to both the components of the engine and the surrounding parts. It is essential to maintain the temperature of the car's engine below a certain level. As the automobile operates at extreme conditions, the automotive radiator is designed to ensure that the excess heat generated during the combustion process is disseminated and does not cause the components to fail.

The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is Replacement of mechanical fans with electric radiator fans. The automotive radiator fan is used for maintaining the temperature of the engine at an optimal level to ensure that the operational efficiency of the engine is maximized. A mechanical radiator fan expends a certain amount of power spinning the fan; it causes parasitic horsepower loss, leading to significant performance disadvantages. To overcome the horsepower loss, auto manufacturers are replacing mechanical radiator fans with the electric radiator fans.



Further, the report states that one of the major factors hindering the growth of this market is Rise in demand for EVs. Automotive manufacturers are making continuous efforts to reduce carbon emission by designing and manufacturing vehicles that operate on alternative fuel. The sales of EVs started gaining momentum from 2014. In 2016, various factors affected the sales of EVs. The government played a crucial role in promoting the sales of these vehicles. The global EVs market is flourishing due to various benefits and incentives provided by the government, increased awareness for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, stringent carbon emission norms increasing participation from both regional as well as international players, and the growing preference for EVs.



Market trends

Replacement of mechanical fans with electric radiator fans

Increased popularity of brazed copper radiators

Technical advancements in automotive radiator fan market



Key vendors

Bosch

Delphi

DENSO

Johnson Electric

Other prominent vendors

HELLA

Standard Motor Products

Shanghai Hu Gong Auto-Electric

OMRON

Key Topics Covered:



Part 01: Executive Summary



Part 02: Scope Of The Report



Part 03: Research Methodology



Part 04: Introduction



Part 05: Market Landscape



Part 06: Market Segmentation By Application



Part 07: Geographical Segmentation



Part 08: Decision Framework



Part 09: Drivers And Challenges



Part 10: Market Trends



Part 11: Vendor Landscape



Part 12: Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/xl7zcc/global_automotive





Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716


TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The U. S. Navy announced that it has ended the search for three American sailors who have been missing after a transporter aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan two days ago.



The missing defense personnel are presumably dead as the search and rescue teams could not find their bodies.



American Navy's C2-A Greyhound plane carrying 11 crew and passengers crashed into the ocean southeast of Okinawa Wednesday.



It was en-route to the Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, which was operating in the Philippine Sea.



Japanese and American rescue teams rushed to the sea, and rescued eight people.



All are in good condition, the US Navy said in a statement.



The U.S. Navy ceased combined search and rescue operations with Japan Friday morning after two days of extensive efforts, led by USS Ronald Reagan.



Seven ships from U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft covered nearly 1000 square nautical miles in the search for the missing sailors.



'Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families,' said Rear Adm. Marc Dalton, Commander, Task Force 70. 'As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates, and I appreciate the professionalism and dedication shown by all who participated in the search efforts.'



The Navy has not yet published the names of the dead sailors pending completion of next of kin notifications.



The US Navy said the cause of the crash is not known, but the Japanese defense ministry says engine failure may have caused the crash.



An investigation into the incident is currently underway.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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DUBLIN, November 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Children's Apparel Market in MEA 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The children's apparel market in MEA to grow at a CAGR of 6.24% during the period 2017-2021.

Children's Apparel Market in MEA 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.

According to the report, one driver in the market is growing demand for premium brands in children's apparel category. The rising number of high net worth individuals (HNWI) and urbanization in MEA countries such as Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia provide growth opportunities for luxury apparel brands to penetrate in the apparel market of these countries. In 2015, the HNWI population in MEA was over 758,000. Therefore, many international luxury brands such as Gucci, Stella McCartney, and Dolce&Gabbana offer children's apparel in product categories such as rompers, dresses, trousers, tops, skirts, and others.

One trend in the market is rising demand for organic apparel for children. The presence of toxic chemicals in textiles leads to skin allergies and other skin reactions. Such chemicals are difficult to remove even after several wash cycles. The rise in awareness about skin-related issues has increased the demand for organic baby clothes over the years. This has provided growth potential to manufacturers of organic clothes.



Further, the report states that one challenge in the market is high overhead costs incurred by online retailers. Online players face challenges related to logistics management, such as lack of proper postal addresses, and logistical complications like late delivery of products and unorganized routing. However, online retailers face high overhead costs that lower their profit margins. Low quality of delivery services also affects a company's brand image among customers, which leads to a reduction of the customer base. International online retailers from the US and Europe that deliver products in MEA countries also incur huge losses due to such problems.



Key vendors

Azadea

Edcon

Fawaz Al Hokair Group

Landmark Group

Mr Price group

Other prominent vendors

adidas

Castro

FOX

M.H. Alshaya

Mothercare

Nike

Truworths International

Key Topics Covered:



Part 01: Executive Summary



Part 02: Scope Of The Report



Part 03: Research Methodology



Part 04: Introduction



Part 05: Market Landscape



Part 06: Market Segmentation By Distribution Channel



Part 07: Market Segmentation By Product



Part 08: Market Segmentation By Age Group



Part 09: Regional Landscape



Part 10: Decision Framework



Part 11: Drivers And Challenges



Part 12: Market Trends



Part 13: Vendor Landscape



Part 14: Key Vendor Analysis



Part 15: Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/klsmr3/childrens





Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
Two French companies have partnered to develop projects that combine renewable energy generation with water desalination. This is an area that the solar sector aims specifically for the developing world.Akuo Energy, a leading French independent renewable power producer, and Mascara, a French start-up specialising in water treatment using solar power, have signed a partnership to develop water desalination plants that are powered with renewable energy. The move is very significant for because it combined the experience of Akuo Energy, which is present across the whole value chain, including project development, financing, construction and operation, and Mascara's new technology, which powers the production of water with energy from photovoltaic panels. pv magazine has presented Mascara's pilot project in Ghantoot, Abu Dhabi ...

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.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 24, 2017) - Indigo Exploration Inc. (TSXV: IXI) (FSE: INE) (the "Company") announces that the Minister of Mines of Burkina Faso has made a decision to temporarily suspend access to the Company's Hantoukoura permit until the border with Niger is physically demarcated. The Minister's current position is that no exploration work will be allowed on the permit during the suspension period. The Minister has agreed that the permit will remain in good standing through the suspension period and that the length of the suspension period will be added back onto the length of the permit. The Hantoukoura permit was granted in May of this year for up to 9 years and covers the Company's original Kodyel permit (refer our news release dated June 20, 2017).

The Company believes that the government of Burkina Faso is motivated to complete the border marking as expeditiously as possible so as not to delay investments and development in the region, to avoid lost opportunities for employment, an increased tax base and additional revenues on a local, regional and national level. The Company has re-emphasized to the Minister the Company's intentions to complete a sizable work program, once access is re-instated. Management will continue to actively monitor the progress of the demarcation of the border.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Paul Cowley"

President and CEO

For further information, please contact:

Paul Cowley: (604) 340-7711

Website: www.indigoexploration.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 11/24/17 -- ModiFace, the leading provider of Augmented Reality technology for the beauty industry, and Memomi, the leading provider of Digital Memory Mirrors for beauty, eyewear, footwear and fashion retailers, are today announcing a strategic partnership involving ModiFace's AR technology -- which enables shoppers to visualize different makeup, skin, and hair products on their live video -- to be seamlessly integrated with Memomi's best-in-class digital mirror for beauty retailers that digitized the beauty assistant's workflow and customer's journey.

"The partnership between Memomi and ModiFace combines the most successful digital mirror platform on the market with the most realistic augmented reality try-on technology, resulting in an unprecedented package for retailers and brands to provide differentiated digital in and out of store experience for their customers," said Salvador Nissi Vilcovsky, Founder/CEO of Memomi.

Starting today, ModiFace's AR partners, including nearly every major global beauty brand, will be able to leverage their product simulations in-stores via Memomi's digital Memory Mirrors.

Also, Memomi's beauty and retail customers will be able to leverage ModiFace's live video simulation technology on Memomi's digital mirrors.

"Memomi's digital mirror platform features an integration of multiple camera sensors with a powerful video engine for automatic perspective positioning and lighting adjustment, which creates the ideal setting for ModiFace's beauty AR technology to shine," said Parham Aarabi, Founder/CEO of ModiFace.

The announcement today follows the successful implementation of Memomi's Memory Mirrors utilizing ModiFace's AR technology for several global beauty brands and retailers. This is also the first phase of the partnership with a focus on live video makeup simulation. Subsequent phases of the Memomi-ModiFace partnership will integrate ModiFace's live-video hair coloration technology on Memory Mirrors, as well as integrating advanced UV cameras and imaging hardware with ModiFace's Skin AI 2.0 technology for in-store and in-clinic skin assessment.

About ModiFace

ModiFace is the leading creator of intelligent augmented reality technology for the beauty industry, providing customizable AR try-on capability for web/ecommerce, mobile, in-store, and messaging. ModiFace's patented technology, which is based on over a decade of research at Stanford University, powers over 200 custom augmented reality apps for beauty brands such as Sephora, Estee Lauder, Allergan, L'Oreal, Unilever, and Coty. For more information, visit http://www.modiface.com.

About Memomi Labs

Memomi is the creator and patent holder of the Memory Mirror, an award winning Digital Mirror platform that is revolutionizing the way people shop today. Through artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality customers can virtually "try on" products such as clothing, eyewear, footwear, accessories and makeup in real time without any of the inconveniences of the actual try-on experience. Moreover, there is an added benefit of capturing try-on sessions that can be reviewed and shared later on. Among Memomi's clients are world renowned companies, such as Neiman Marcus, Luxottica, LVMH, L'Oreal, Sephora, Finish Line, Uniqlo and more. http://www.memorymirror.com

Regan Austin

Senior Account Executive

Uproar PR

P 321.236.0102 x233

M 407.694.8668




WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - In a sign Michael Flynn may be cooperating with the investigation of Russian meddling in last year's election, lawyers for the former National Security Adviser have reportedly cut ties with President Donald Trump's legal team. A report from the New York Times citing four people involved in the case said Flynn's lawyers told Trump's team they could no longer discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. The Times noted defense lawyers must stop sharing information when doing so would pose a conflict of interest, calling it unethical for lawyers to work together when one client is cooperating with prosecutors and another is still under investigation. However, the paper acknowledged that the notification does not prove Flynn is cooperating with Mueller, as some lawyers withdraw from information sharing arrangements as soon as they begin negotiating with prosecutors but such negotiations sometimes fall apart. 'No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president,' said Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump. Sekulow indicated he was not surprised by the report, noting that Flynn discussing a plea with the special counsel would not be entirely unexpected. Flynn, an early Trump supporter, was fired as National Security Adviser after just 24 days for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. (Photo: Gage Skidmore) 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.
GLENDALE, California, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ExportPortal.com has begun its worldwide search for Country Brand Ambassadors and India and Dubai are on the top of our list. Export Portal CEO Ally Spinu said at a recent event in Glendale, California, "Out of 120+ countries, India is currently the leading country on our international B2B e-commerce platform and we want to expand export and import of India and the Middle East by adding new members to our fast-growing team."

Export Portal is actively looking for lead Brand Ambassadors as well as coordinators who can handle EC-B2B (e-Commerce Business to Business) in India and Dubai. We have a representative taking meetings at the UDYOG India 2017 Business and Cultural Show in Dubai Thursday and Friday.

"We will not succeed unless Dubai and India succeed on our ExportPortal.com (https://www.exportportal.com/) platform," Ms. Spinu continued. "India is in great need of a more secure way in which entrepreneurs can find suppliers or manufacturers in India to trade with as has been made more than apparent with some of the issues the country has faced in the e-commerce space. Dubai is in the process of changing its entire infrastructure to a blockchain based structure. Our commitment to nations, industries, companies and families is to allow companies in good standing to join our ecosystem."

Based on a private blockchain technology, Export Portal is now in a position to move forward in a larger way in international trade and our executive team will be coming to India on February for a series of Brand Ambassador interviews, meetings with industry leaders, conferences in addition to scouting for an office and software development space. To submit your resume for consideration, enclose your CV and a short video to the following: https://goo.gl/yPcEDq.

Export Portal: Verified Companies Allowed

About Export Portal & ExportPortal.com

Born from a good e-commerce need gone bad, Export Portal is expanding in countries around the world. If you have your nation and its export potential at the heart of what you do and believe you can bring Export Portal to SMEs, sellers, manufacturers and entire industries, we want to hear from you. To submit your resume for consideration, enclose your CV and a short video to the following: https://goo.gl/yPcEDq.


24 November 2017

Rightmove plc

Share buy-back programme

Rightmove plc - Transaction in own shares

Rightmove plc ("Rightmove"), the UK's no. 1 property website, announces that, today it purchased 16,500 of its 1p ordinary shares at a volume weighted average price paid per share of 4037.198p. The highest price paid per share was 4084.000p and the lowest price paid per share was 4019.000p. Rightmove purchased these shares through Numis Securities Limited.

The number of shares purchased represented 0.0180% of the voting rights attributable to the total ordinary shares in issue prior to such purchase. The purchased shares will be cancelled.

Rightmove has purchased to date 38,451,939 of its own shares since announcing a share buy-back programme on 28 December 2007.

The total number of ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury shares) following this announcement is 91,463,548. Rightmove holds 1,989,921 shares in treasury.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation), the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by Numis Securities Limited on behalf of the Company as part of the buyback programme.

-Ends-

Contact: Sandra Odell - 01908 712058

Schedule of Purchases - Individual Transactions
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Swiss stock market fluctuated between small gains and losses over the course of Friday's session and ended the day with a small increase. Trading activity remained on the light side following yesterday's U.S. holiday and today's shortened session on Wall Street. Traders were encouraged by the better than expected German business confidence data, which climbed to a new record high in November. The continued rise in crude oil prices also contributed to the positive mood among investors. The Swiss Market Index increased by 0.10 percent Friday and closed at 9,325.60. The SMI ended the trading week with an overall gain of 1.5 percent. The Swiss Leader Index climbed 0.10 percent Friday and the Swiss Performance Index added 0.11 percent. Shares of Clariant were in focus at the end of the trading week. The specialty chemicals company has rejected calls from shareholder White Tale for the company to conduct a strategic review process. The stock finished with a loss of 0.4 percent. Logitech weakened by 0.7 percent and Sonova surrendered 0.9 percent. Lonza fell 0.5 percent and Swatch Group lost 0.3 percent. Richemont also dipped 0.2 percent. ABB advanced 0.7 percent following some positive comments from Goldman Sachs. Givaudan gained 0.5 percent after a price target increase by UBS. Schindler also added 0.1 percent after HSBC increased its price target on the stock. Index heavyweight Nestle climbed 0.4 percent Friday, while Roche and Novartis both decreased 0.2 percent. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with congressional leaders next week to discuss legislative issues, including a potential agreement to avoid a government shutdown. Trump is due to hold talks with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. 'The President will be meeting with congressional leaders next week to discuss end-of-year legislative issues,' said White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters. Congressional sources and a White House official told Politico the meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET. The meeting comes as Congress is facing a December 8th deadline to fund the government and prevent a shutdown. Lawmakers are likely to craft another short-term spending bill. Trump and congressional leaders may also discuss other items on the packed legislative calendar, including the Republican tax reform bill and providing protections for immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. The administration rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in September and Democrats are calling for a fix to protect the immigrants known as Dreamers before the end of the year. (Photo: Gage Skidmore) 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.
Technavio has announced the top five leading vendors in their recentglobal office furniture marketreport. This research report also lists 15 other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171124005041/en/

Technavio has published a new report on the global office furniture market from 2017-2021. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Competitive vendor landscape

The global office furniture market is moderately fragmented due to the presence of well-diversified global and regional manufacturers. It is difficult for regional players in the market to compete with international players in terms of design, quality, and brand presence. However, regional players erode the market share of international players through economical pricing and by attaining a high degree of customer preference.

"The global office furniture market is expected to witness significant competition during the forecast period due to increased product and service extensions such as furniture installation; extended warranty and guarantee; and the introduction of innovative, collaborative, and multifunctional products," says Shikha Kaushik, a lead furniture and home furnishing research analyst from Technavio.

The global office furniture market is expected to grow in terms of production volume due to the growing market in developing regions. Manufacturers need to tap on their manufacturing capacities to increase their efficiency and for catering to increasing demand from developing regions. International players primarily dominate the global office furniture market.

This report is available at a USD 1,000 discount for a limited time only: View market snapshot before purchasing

Buy 1 Technavio report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 Technavio reports and get the third for free

Top five office furniture market vendors

Herman Miller

Herman Miller headquartered in Zeeland in the United States. It is engaged in manufacturing and selling modern furniture and furnishing solutions for home and industrial use. Apart from Herman Miller, the company operates through several other businesses, brands, and distribution channels that include Geiger International, Nemschoff, Herman Miller Healthcare, and other independently owned dealerships.

HNI

HNI is engaged in manufacturing and selling products and services for home and office. The company operates under different brands. It offers office furniture brands such as HON, Allsteel, Maxon, Gunlocke, Paoli, HBF, OFM basyx by HON, and Lamex, and Ergotm. HNI is recognized for its office and industrial range of furniture.

KOKUYO

KOKUYO is engaged in manufacturing and selling office supplies, office furniture, and public furniture. It is involved in furniture-related business such as office space construction and mail-order and interior household goods and office supplies.

Okamura

Okamura is engaged in manufacturing and selling of office furniture, store displays, and material handling systems and others. Okamura is globally recognized for its office furniture and office spaces. The company is continuously engaged in enhancing quality and services through collaboration with associated companies and distributors in Japan and overseas.

Steelcase

Steelcase is engaged in manufacturing office furniture with insight-led designs and services. Steelcase is globally known as one of the leaders in office furniture industry. The company is continuously engaged in gaining insights into the current needs, demands, and trends in office spaces.

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MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 11/24/17 -- HPQ Silicon Resources Inc ("HPQ") (TSX VENTURE: HPQ)(FRANKFURT: UGE)(OTC PINK: URAGF) is pleased to inform shareholders that it had decided to close the previously announced non-brokered equity financing at $ 1,250,100. The funds raised in this non-brokered private placement will help to support the advancement of the Gen2 testing, commencement of the Pilot Plant Equipment build out and will be used in part for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Bernard Tourillon, Chairman and CEO of HPQ Silicon stated: "Demand for the placement exceeded the over allocation allotment potential, however we decided to closed the placement and limit dilution at this time. This round of funding provides HPQ-Silicon with the resources and flexibility to continue the advancement of the Gen2 testing and Pilot Plant Equipment project with PyroGenesis. With this round closed, the funding required for the remaining capital expenditure to complete the entire project, including running the Pilot Plant Equipment, is estimated to be $3.2 million. Regarding the financing of the $3.2 million, HPQ management is in discussion with institutions in order to complete the financing package during 2018."

Terms of the Private Placement

HPQ-Silicon has closed the non-brokered private placement consisting of 12,501,000 units ("Unit") at $0.10 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $1,250,100.

Each Unit is comprised of one (1) common share and one (1) common share purchase warrant ("Warrant") of the Company. Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to purchase one common share of the capital stock of the Company at an exercise price of $ 0.15 during a period of 36 months from the date of closing of the placement. Each share issued pursuant to the placement will have a mandatory four (4) month and one (1) day holding period from the date of closing of the placement. The placement is subject to standard regulatory approvals.

In connection with the placement the Company paid cash finder's fee of $21,000 to Secutor Capital Management Corp ("Secutor") of Toronto, Ontario, $14,000 to EMD Financial Inc. ("EMD") of Montreal Quebec, $39,000 to Redplug Capital Corp ("Redplug") of Surrey, British Columbia, and $2,475 to Foster & Associates Financial Services Inc ("Foster") of Toronto, Ontario. The Company also issued 390,000 warrants to Redplug and 24,750 warrants to Foster. Each warrant, and any share purchased through the exercise of the warrants have the mandatory four (4) month and one (1) day holding period from the date of closing of the placement and gives Redplug and Foster the right to purchase one (1) common share at 15.0 cents for 36 months. Finally the Company will issue 175,000 common shares and 175,000 options to EMD. Each option will give the right to purchase one (1) unit at 10 cents for 36 months. Each Unit is comprised of one common share and one common share warrant (warrant) of the Company. Each warrant will entitle its holder to purchase one common share of the capital stock of the Company at an exercise price of $0.15 during a period of 36 months from the date of closing of the placement. Each share issued therefrom will have a mandatory four month and one day holding period from the date of closing of the placement.

Mr. Daryl Hodges, an Independent Director of HPQ-Silicon, through a wholly owned company, Ladykirk Capital Advisor Inc. has subscribed to 226,000 Units. Following the completion of the Private Placement, Mr. Hodges and Ladykirk Capital Advisor Inc., taken together, beneficially own or exercise control or direction over, directly or indirectly, 1,557,500 Common Shares, representing approximately 0.87% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares of the Company.

The participation of Mr. Hodges in the Private Placement constitutes a "related party transaction" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") and Policy 5.9 -Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions of the Exchange. In connection with this related party transaction, the Company is relying on the formal valuation and minority approval exemptions of respectively subsection 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the portion of the Private Placement subscribed by Mr. Hodges, individually, does not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization. The Private Placement, including the participation of Mr. Hodges therein, has been approved by the Board of directors of the Company, with Mr. Hodges abstaining with respect to his participation

La version francaise du communique de presse sera disponible sur http://www.hpqsilicon.com

This News Release is available on the company's CEO Verified Discussion Forum, a moderated social media platform that enables civilized discussion and Q&A between Management and Shareholders.

About HPQ Silicon

HPQ Silicon Resources Inc is a TSX-V listed resource company planning to become a vertically integrated and diversified Metallurgical Grade and Solar Grade Silicon Metal producer.

Our business model is focused on developing a disruptive one step High Purity and Solar Grade Silicon Metal manufacturing process (patent pending). HPQ plans to generate high yield returns and significant free cash flow within a relatively short time line. The process will have a greatly decreased carbon footprint, energy footprint, and will eliminate the use of the toxic chemical reagents and by products now in use by the current solar silicon production technologies, which fundamentally date from designs made in the mid 1900's.

Disclaimers:

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or the securities laws of any state of the United States and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or the benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S un der the U.S. Securities Act) unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from such registration requirements.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "in the process" and other similar expressions which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current expectation and assumptions, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, our expectations regarding the acceptance of our products by the market, our strategy to develop new products and enhance the capabilities of existing products, our strategy with respect to research and development, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development, and uncertainties related to the regulatory approval process. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Company's on-going filings with the securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com. Actual results, events, and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the 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.

Shares outstanding: 178,253,173

Contacts:

HPQ Silicon Resources Inc.

Bernard J. Tourillon

Chairman and CEO

(514) 907-1011



HPQ Silicon Resources Inc.

Patrick Levasseur

President and COO

(514) 262-9239

www.HPQSilicon.com




Aday, a NYC, and London, UK-based direct-to-consumer fashion startup, secured $2m in its latest funding round.

Backers included H&M Co:Lab, H&Ms venture capital arm, ADG, and SoGal Ventures. In conjunction with the funding, Nanna Andersen of H&M Co:Lab, will join Adays board.

The company, which has raised $3.1m in funding, intends to use the capital to expand its direct-to-consumer strategy plans and open a permanent store in 2018.

Founded in 2015 by Nina Faulhaber, Aday makes a line of durable, technical and chic womenswear with garments using recycled polyesters and polyamides.

The company, which currently ships to the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Germany, plans to expand to Sweden, France and Singapore in 2018.

FinSMEs

24/11/2017
Chennai: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday called on Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit and told him that the Centre would shortly sanction Rs one lakh crore to the state government for highways and ports projects.

During his brief interaction, Purohit recalled the demand of the state government to implement the interlinking of rivers Mahanadhi-Godavari-Krishna-Pennar-Palar-Cauvery-Vaigai, a Raj Bhavan release said.

He also requested the Union minister for road transport, highways, water resources and shipping to divert surplus waters in the west-flowing Pamba and Achankovil rivers to Vaippar towards Tamil Nadu and requested an early decision on the matter.

Gadkari informed him that for taking up highways and ports projects in Tamil Nadu, the Union government is going to sanction Rs one lakh crore shortly, the release said.

During the meeting, the Governor also discussed the state governments request for speedy approval of the Avinashi- Athikadavu scheme.

Earlier in the day, Gadkari reviewed various projects concerned to his ministries with Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Transport Minister M R Vijayabhaskar and senior government officials here.

Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan was also present on the occasion, the release added.
From brainstorming to strategising, Ankit Chona, managing director of Gujarat-based ice cream brand Havmor Ice Cream Ltd (HIL), has been spending his work days for the past nine years devising ways to get the brand known in more markets in the country since he joined the firm formally in 2008. Soon, this function of strategising will be taken over by South Korea-based firm Lotte Confectionary to whom Havmor sold its ice cream business for Rs 1,020 crore in an all-cash deal. Post acquisition, Lotte will start its ice cream business in the Indian market.

Having strategy being taken care of by Lotte will take a little getting used to, says Chona when asked about the change in his job function. The 73-year-old business was started in Karachi in undivided India by Chonas grandfather, Satish Chandra, an engineer who worked with erstwhile BOAC (now British Airways). But he had a passion for food which saw him working at his uncles restaurant after his day job where he learnt the art of making ice cream. Incidentally, the shop where it all started in 1944 still exists though it is run by a different owner in Karachi, now in Pakistan.

After Partition, Chona moved to India, making Dehradun his first stop where he put up a small outlet. However, it did not do well as the cool climate did not augur well for the business. On a well-wisher's advice, he then shifted to Indore and put up an outlet there but was cheated of his money. Then a few friends suggested he move to Gujarat. My grandfather was told that the people in Gujarat have a sweet tooth, the climate is warm and best suited for the business and he made up his mind to move here. With practically no money in hand, he had to live in the railway station with my grandmother. But they knew the recipe for ice creams, which they made at night and sold in the day time, relates Chona.

The ice creams sold well and soon the first outlet was set up in Relief Road, which incidentally still exists. The ice cream was named Havmor, a name that worked well for the brand. "I wonder still how my grandfather came up with this 'cool' name, by today's standards. I never asked him that," rues Chona.

With the success of the first outlet, Chona opened another in Baroda and was content with the business. When Pradeep, his son entered the fray, he got in the latest technology and ensured the firm was run professionally. He also took the brand to all parts of Gujarat by opening ice cream parlours and making it a well-known name within Gujarat. When his son, Ankit entered the business in 2005, he focussed on expansion with the result that the brand has a presence in 14 cities now.

At present, the company sells 2 lakh litres of ice cream daily during the peak season and 1 lakh litres daily in off-season. The Chonas have 40 Hav Funn ice-cream parlours run by Havmor Restaurants which it will continue to do so while its 115 franchise-owned outlets will now be taken care of by Lotte.

Emotionally-tough decision

The sale of Havmor was emotionally a tough decision to take, says Chona, terming it bitter-sweet as he and his father were born into his business. However, he gets practical soon about it and says, there is only so much a promoter can do. A group like Lotte can change the company in terms of expanding its footprints and growth much faster than we could have.

The money that Lotte paid for the company was not the decisive' factor, said Chona, admitting that it is one part of the deal. What he liked about Lotte, says Chona, was that they showed a commitment for the long-term. I am confident that they will take the company to the next level faster than we could have, as well as expand the brand, he says.

The company has a turnover of Rs 400 crores in 2016-17 which will grow to approximately Rs 500 crores next year, said Chona. However, he believes it could go up much more than that in a short span with Lotte taking over. "It's a brand that we have nurtured with our team for over 73 years. But we believe that Lotte Confectionery is the right brand to take the company to the next level," Chairman Pradeep Chona said.

Expert speak

It is the first time that a South Korean company has entered the food space in India, says Alpana Parida, President of DY Works, a global brand strategy and brand design firm. It will galvanise the ice cream category in the country, she says.

The countrys ice-cream market has registered a compounded annual growth rate of 13 percent in the last five years, according to a report by market research agency Mintel. The per capita ice cream consumption is very low at 400 ml as compared with 22,000 ml in the United States and 3,000 ml in China.

What is surprising is that the frozen dessert market in India has not lived to its potential with a few big players and brands like Amul by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd and Kwality Walls by HUL dominating the market. There are many regional players who do well, but do not have a pan-India presence, says Arvind Singhal, Chairman of Technopak Advisors, a management consulting firm. He reasons that the regional players have been largely family-owned and managed enterprises that have not been able to delineate ownership from management unlike some home-grown firms like Dabur and Baidyanath, for instance.

With the sale to Lotte, there are huge benefits for Havmor as a brand and company. Lotte is the largest South Korean firm in the confectionery business and it has shown interest in the frozen dessert category in India of which ice creams are a small part, says Singhal. Lotte as a group will be able to professionally manage Havmor, upgrade facilities and build the brand further. It is not just good for the family [Chonas] but also for the brand and the product category and Lotte, too, he says.

Havmor could pole vault with an MNC with larger funds at its disposal. Lotte can make Havmor a Rs 2,000 crore firm in a couple of years with advertising to bring increased brand awareness. It could bring in the latest technology to grow the company and the market. They have a great head start as they have brought the company, plant and machinery and also has taken its employees, said experts.

Given that the consumption of ice cream is pathetic in India, there is headroom for not just Lotte, but at least three more brands, says Ram Gudipati, founder and principal strategist of Founder & Principal Strategist of Brand Harvest, a brand solutions firm.
Passive funds emerged in USA more than two decades ago. The first modern day ETF S&P SPDR or Spiders started trading there in 1993. The market for ETFs has grown tremendously since then. Today, there are 2,000 ETFs listed in the US. Industry estimates suggest ETFs manage $4 trillion globally. India got its first ETF in Nifty BeES in 2001 launched by Benchmark AMC. It was probably way ahead of its time. Sensing categorys slow growth, Benchmark decided to sell it to Goldman Sachs MF in 2011. Sensing a potential for passive funds, Reliance Nippon Life lapped up Goldman Sachs schemes.

Benchmark AMC managed merely Rs 70 crore in ETFs in 2004. The size of the Indian ETF market has now grown to Rs 65,124 crore. The growth has been tepid at best if we compare that of ETFs with actively managed equity funds. During the same period, the size of the actively managed equity funds galloped from Rs 29,362 crore in 2004 to Rs 8.55 lakh crore as on October 2017.

Lets look at the reasons for slow growth of ETFs in India. The most important factor for investors and advisers aversion to this category is the superior performance of actively managed funds vis-a-vis passive funds. For instance, actively managed large cap fund category has delivered 15 percent CAGR return over a five-year period while BSE Sensex has grown by 12 percent during the same period.

Since ETFs passively track their underlying indices, they come with lower expenses as compared to their active fund peers. ETFs which track the broader indices like Sensex and Nifty charge 0.05 percent-0.10 percent annual total expense ratio (TER) whereas the TER of actively managed funds can go up to as high as 3 percent. Due to their low-cost nature, ETFs have no room to pay commissions on par with actively managed funds, providing little incentive for distributors prefer to sell passive funds.

Paltry commission and performance are not the only reasons for slow take off of passive funds. ETFs can be only bought through the exchange from demat accounts and majority of MF investors in India have been investing physically through their neighborhood distributors. Even those who hold demat accounts prefer to buy shares or subscribe to IPOs rather than buying dull ETFs. This is in sharp contrast to US where seven out of the 10 most actively traded securities on US stock markets last year were ETFs, not shares, says a Financial Times report.

Passive funds are seeing huge inflows in the US as active fund managers have found it increasingly difficult to beat the market due to an efficient and developed market. We are witnessing similar trend in India in the large cap funds space. Over a 10-year period, 45 percent of active funds have underperformed the Nifty 50. High costs/TER can be one of the reasons for this underperformance. That said, fund managers believe there will be ample opportunities for outperformance especially, in the mid- and small-cap space, which are not well researched.

The lackluster demand for ETFs in India has not stopped fund houses from launching ETFs. Starting from Gold ETFs and equity ETFs, fund houses are innovating their offerings by adding new flavour to their products. Today, we have ETFs to participate in the US indices and debt markets. Further, while traditional ETFs mimic their underlying index based on market capitalisation, the new age ETFs called smart beta ETFs have emerged. These ETFs combine both active and passive methods of investing by looking at factors such as earnings, low volatility, return on equity, dividend yield, etc. through custom build indices.

While this looks like an interesting innovation, investors should note such ETFs may not be able to outdo active funds as the underlying factors/theme may not outperform in all market cycles. Active fund managers on the other hand can avoid such factors depending on market conditions. One area where smart beta ETFs score over active funds is they do not come with key-person risk as they operate on fixed automated processes.

While the ETF market could take decades to flourish in India, fund houses are fully prepared to cash in on this opportunity. The popularity of ETFs is growing due to the governments plans to divest its holdings in PSUs through this route. The first divestment through CPSE ETF mopped up Rs 11,500 crore and the second version in the form of Bharat 22 ETF is expected to mop up Rs 8,000 crore. Fund houses are in intense race to get a mandate for managing such issues. Additionally, media reports suggest the Employees Provident Fund Organizations or EPFO investment in ETFs is expected to touch Rs 45,000 crore by the end of this fiscal. This massive flush of flow into ETFs suggest that the category will only grow from here.

Ravi Samalad is Assistant Manager, Editorial, Morningstar Investment Adviser India Private Limited
Pune: Without mincing words, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha today said the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India was a "textbook example" of how it should not be introduced.

"The GST is the best indirect tax regime globally and there is no doubt about it and that is why it is adopted in most of the countries. But the way GST was implemented in India is a textbook example of how the tax reform should not be implemented anywhere," he said.

"It should be a case study at Harvard and other universities," the former finance minister said.

Sinha, who has targeted the Narendra Modi government on many occasions in the past, had been invited to deliver a lecture on the GST and demonetisation by a city-based organisation.

Incidentally, disgruntled BJP MP from Maharashtra, Nana Patole, too was present.

Sinha said the government is bringing some changes in the GST slabs, but these are "ad-hoc" measures. "All these ad-hoc measures are not enough," he said.

The government should urgently rope in economist Vijay Kelkar, the original architect of the GST in India, and make positive reforms in the GST to steer the economy out of trouble, Sinha said.

He said multiple tax slabs had resulted in "lobbying" for lower rates.

On demonetisation, Sinha said no rich people suffered hardship and it was the poor who stood in the queue and lost their lives.

"Factors like non-performing assets of banks and stalled projects are still making adverse impact on the economy," he said.

International prices of crude oil dropped in a big way since the present government came to power, but common people did not get its benefit, Sinha said.

Democracy in India is very deep-rooted. "If (Robert) Mugabe has to go, nobody is secure. The roots of democracy in India are so deep that no one can move them and if someone attempts to do so, he will be destroyed," he said.
(Rating: 2.25 stars. The graphic above shows 2.5 stars due to a software constraint.)

In one of this films most poignant scenes, the 10-year-old rape survivor Manda Kadam asks her grandmother if her bleeding means she has grown up. The old lady is momentarily thrown off by the question, then remembers that these are the terms in which she had discussed the onset of puberty with her granddaughter. Is this how it starts for every girl? the little one asks.

This exchange underlines the tragedy of the rape of one so young. It is possible that the girl might forever equate the pain of gruesome violation with womanhood and with the natural pain of menstruation. This disturbing realisation also underlines a larger point emerging from writer-director Devashish Makhijas Ajji, co-written by Mirat Trivedi. As much as Ajji is about a woman out to punish the well-connected man who brutalised her grandchild, it is also about the everydayness of sexual assault in the grubby back alleys of an urban space, where women and girls are attacked with such confidence by men whose shield is the poverty of their victims, that such violence could well end up being viewed by them as an intrinsic part of being a woman.

The latter is a point well made, and one that ideally should have been the overriding theme of Ajji. Not that rape happens only in poorer quarters, but the vulnerabilities of women from different social groups differ. Unfortunately, building a full-length film around this idea and around how real rather than fictional women react in such situations would require a greater investment of thought and imagination than vengeance does.

Rape revenge sagas like Ajji mirror casual drawing-room conversations about how we must kill or castrate rapists without a trial, and silence feminists who disagree. Like such films, such conversations too are rarely about what real survivors do, want or need. They are usually about the people around these women (cases in point: Ajji, Mom, Kaabil), or about societys fantasy of the rape victim, 1988s Dimple Kapadia-starrer Zakhmi Aurat being a prime example.

Except in rare instances like last years Pink, Hindi cinema would rather not bother with credible portrayals of assault survivors, because women who weep at home but soldier on with life and/or go to court despite their fears are boring, I guess, in comparison with avenging Durgas or our collective illusion about the woman we now call Nirbhaya (The Fearless One).

Ajji, then, is a mixed bag of goods. The film begins with grandma/Ajji (played by Sushama Deshpande) and the sex worker Leela (Sadiya Siddiqui) searching for Manda (Sharvani Suryavanshi) in their squalid slum that is a stones throw from a red light area. They find her in a garbage heap and soon discover that her rapist is a local pervert called Dhavle (Abhishek Banerjee), the son of a senior politician. Not unexpectedly, the investigating policeman (Vikas Kumar) is on Dhavle Seniors payrolls.

The story is moving and telling as it establishes the sense of helplessness in Mandas family and Ajjis relationship with Manda. The cops casual callousness, the disregard for due process because of the Kadams dire circumstances and the parents self-preservation instincts are believable and well done.

It is chilling, to say the least, to watch a male cop interrogate and physically examine a female rape victim, a minor to boot, and bring in a male doctor to do a vaginal exam. Those passages are designed to fill a viewer with disgust, anger and a shared pain. I could barely breath as I watched them. DoP Jishnu Bhattacharjee is careful not to be voyeuristic in his gaze on Mandas body here, and Makhija handles the scenes with sensitivity.

The film goes down a well-worn, stereotypical path though when it acquaints us with Dhavle Junior and deals with Ajjis quest for revenge. The rapist is not written with any depth, and Ajjis plan is foolhardy to the point of being silly. Each time she is in her home, the film becomes relatable, each time she steps out to work towards her goal, Ajji acquires a slightly bizarre, noir-ish air. More than empathy with Manda, it gradually becomes about a fascination with this arthritic and aged woman who is as unlikely a vigilante as the sightless hero in Kaabil.

In any case, for a film that clearly aspires to be realistic, the stylised cinematography becomes a diversion after a while. Half the impact of a scene in which Ajji watches Dhavle Junior having sex with a mannequin, for instance, is lost because it becomes too much about how that scene has been shot rather than what is going on. This is not to say that the frames are unattractive, but that these particular framing choices may have worked in another kind of project, but here, in a film that desperately needed to focus on its soul, they are distracting. Equally distracting is the fact that no human beings are to be seen in the slum in which Ajji lives.

Besides, there is a weirdness to the manner in which Ajji stalks Dhavle. Clearly she is not merely tracking his schedule. Clearly staying on to see him achieve an orgasm on a dummy did not help her decide when and where to confront him. The point being made seems to be that she is trying to build up enough revulsion for him within herself, to give her the strength for that final act. Why? Was what he did to Manda not hateful and repulsive enough?

If the answer to that is a yes, then we have to consider whether these scenes were featured simply for effect.

Devashish Makhija, who earlier made the feature film Oonga, earned the spotlight just last year when Taandav, his interesting short featuring Manoj Bajpayee, went viral on Youtube. Ajji and Mandas relationship, Sushama Deshpandes striking face and screen presence, and young Sharvani Suryavanshis natural acting are no doubt worthy of a full-fledged film. Ajji, as it stands now though, is well begun but just half done.
The new verdict of the latest luxury budget task of courtroom drama divides the contestants of Bigg Boss 11. There are too many fights and heated arguments between the housemates and there are far too many disagreements between Sapna and Bandgi as judges since the former is close to Team Hina and the latter is more friendly with their opposition consisting of Vikas, Shilpa and Arshi, and, of course, Puneesh.

Hence they dont come to any conclusion as to who is the guilty party  Arshi or Hiten. Bandgi blames Sapna for not coming to any consensus when Bigg Boss tells both the judges to give their verdict. Instead, Bandgi says that Sapna is concerned about her own issues she has had with Puneesh.

Meanwhile, Hina throws a fit when Vikas tells everyone to concentrate on the task. She tells her gang of friends that Vikas was looking at opportunities for touching her, and both have a heated argument on this. Since Hina has the habit of crying at the drop of a hat, Bandgi says that she has attended acting classes and knows that Hina was fake crying today.

Inside the house, Sapna lashes out at Bandgi and Puneesh as Hina had earlier instigated Sapna saying that Puneesh was suspecting her occupation and trying to tarnish her image. There is total chaos in the 'court' with everyone screaming and fighting. Later on, Bigg Boss announces that both the judges have failed and hence, the luxury budget task is disqualified.

Contestants wake up to the song 'Tu Kheench Meri Photo'. It is time for gharwale to see a change in leadership as this weeks Captaincy Task is on the anvil. Based on the Bigg Boss Court task, all contestants have to pick five of the best performers and nominate them for the Captains position.

Hiten and Shilpa are against making Akash the captain of the house. Akash goes and pleads to Hina that she should vote for him. Hina says that she will take his name but she cannot guarantee on behalf of the entire team. First one to be nominated is Akash, then Hina is picked, and the others considered, include, Shilpa, Hiten and Arshi. There is a tie of votes between Shilpa and Hina. Hina backs out as she realises Shilpa has never been the captain of the house.

Contestants vote again because of Sapna and Hina. Hina only gets five votes including her own. Akash changes his vote from Hina, that leaves her hurt. After much deliberation, Hiten, Vikas, Arshi, Shilpa and Akash are the final nominees.

Priyank wonders how Shilpa and Arshi can even be nominated. He further says that they are overweight and cannot even run. He adds that they have gained weight just by sitting and eating in the house. Team Hina hatches a plan to make Hiten a captain whereas Luv tells Hina that she should not have backed out of captaincy.

The task is announced by Hiten. Non-nominated contestants have to spray paint on the nominees pictures to eliminate them when an alarm rings. Hina lashes out at Akash that he retracted his words.

Luv is the first one who gets a chance to spray paint pictures. He eliminates Vikas from the task because he did the same to him in Dino task. Vikas takes it sportingly. Priyank gets the next chance and he sprays paint on Arshis pic. He repeats all the insult that Arshi threw at him while spraying paint on her.

He takes his own sweet time to do the task. Hina and Sapna are seen enjoying this. Arshi tells him that Allah will never forgive him. Priyank says that she should not talk about Allah. Vikas and Puneesh wonder what was wrong with Priyank and criticise him for his poor behavior. Priyank goes to the bathroom and cries and Hina consoles him saying that he has taken his revenge.

Akash convinces Puneesh to vote for him. Then in another conversation, Shilpa reveals that Team Hina has left the task on Puneesh, who wants to vote for Hiten. Akash begs Puneesh to vote for him. Shilpa says that it will look like they have betrayed Hiten if he does so. Akash gets hyper, starts ranting and begs Puneesh to not spray paint on his picture.
Kapil Sharma has revealed that he has been offered a Hollywood project titled Comedy Curry, by Big Mama Works which plans to rope in the comedian along with a Hollywood actor for a series.

Zoom reports that Sharma revealed that though he is in talks with the makers, no significant development has occurred over the telephonic call, and will happen only once he visits them in the USA. The same report quotes him as saying, "Ill let everyone know once its finalized. I have received a script from the west and they (makers) are very popular Big Mama Works. And Ill definitely go there and meet them once since nothing major can be discussed over a telephonic conversation. But itll be a good thing if it materialises."

The director of his upcoming period drama Firangi, Rajiv Dhingra, shed further light on Sharma's project. The same report quotes Dhingra as saying, "Its an internal baat, Kapil has received an offer from Hollywood. A company called Bad Mamas made a series and they want to make a Hollywood series with Kapil, with one Hollywood star and one Indian star, which will be apt for both the countries and name I guess is Comedy Curry."

Firangi also stars Ishita Dutta and is produced by Sharma. It is slated to release on 1 December.

(Also read  Firangi: Latest track 'Gulbadan' is a new age mujra featuring Swedish-Iranian actress Maryam Zakaria)
Vishal Bhardwaj was well on his way to producing and developing a romantic comedy with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Aditi Rao Hyadri in the lead but DNA suggests that the project has been shelved owing to creative differences between the director and the male lead.

As per the same report, Vishal and Nawazuddin are not on talking terms anymore. They had a huge fallout after they had creative differences on the film. They had issues regarding the story and the narrative. So, they decided to part ways before the project went any further. The same report states that Nawazuddins attitude left everyone involved on the film extremely miffed. He was acting pricey as well.

The same report claims that Vishal is not thinking of a replacement now. He has pushed ahead this film indefinitely. Meanwhile, Vishal plans to produce another film along with the Honey Trehan film, that stars Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan.

While the romantic comedy had been announced recently and Nawazuddin had spoken excitedly about the collaboration, the news of the fallout is sure to disappoint fans as the two critically acclaimed powerhouses were expected to ace together.

The actor in the past had said to IANS, Yes, I am working with Vishalji, and it is a yet untitled project. I can't reveal much much detail about it. I don't know who will be acting opposite me, but I am happy about this collaboration because I always wanted to work with Vishalji. It's a dream come true."
Delhi High Court has dismissed the plea to form a special panel that would assess if there is any distortion of history in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama Padmavati.

As per TV reports, Delhi High Court has stated that the PIL against the film's release is 'hopeless' and 'misconceived'. It slammed the ongoing protests in Delhi and said that such petitions encourage similar violent protests.

A group of people on Friday staged a protest outside the Azadpur Metro station here against Padmavati. The group, Rashtriya Chetna Manch, burnt Bhansali's effigy.

Additional DCP Vijayanta Arya told IANS, "A call was received that at least 50-60 people have gathered outside the Azadpur Metro station to burn the effigy of the film director."

Several organisations across the country have been opposing the release of the movie. The Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor starrer was scheduled to be released on 1 December but now it has been deferred.

Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh have already sought bans on the film which has not even been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) yet.

Padmavati also stars Aditi Rao Hydari and Jim Sarbh. It is co-produced by Bhansali Productions and Viacom 18 Motion Pictures.

With inputs from IANS.

(Also read  Padmavati protest: Body found hanging in Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur; Karni Sena denies involvement)
As per TV reports, a dead body was found hanging in Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur along with a Padmavati protest message engraved close it, that read, "We don't burn effigies. We kill." Shri Rajput Karni Sena has condemned the violence and denied involvement in the incident.

#BREAKING | Hanging dead body found in Jaipurs Nahargarh fort main gate; a message "We don't burn effigies, we hang people' found near body pic.twitter.com/KRmyPdv10r  News18 (@CNNnews18) November 24, 2017

The body was found hanging from one of the corners of the historic fort that overlooks the city. 'Padmavati Virodh (protest) was written next to the hanging body.

As per TV reports, the deceased has been identified as Chetan Saini. His Aadhar card was found in one of the pockets. His brother has alleged that it is a murder and has demanded a probe.

Also, TV reports state that Jaipur police have also ruled out the possibility of a suicide and declared it a murder. They have also claimed that the murder had no link to Padmavati.

This comes only a day after the British Board of Film Certification (BBFC) certified Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama Padmavati in the United Kingdom. Shri Rajput Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi had expressed disappointment in the BBFC's decision and demanded a global ban on the film's release.

Though the release of the film has been indefinitely postponed from 1 December, the protests continue. While protests are being held across the country against the release of the film that allegedly misappropriates historical facts, the latest development at Nahargarh sets a dangerous precedent.

Padmavati stars Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Aditi Rao Hydari and Jim Sarbh. It is co-produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Bhansali Productions.

(Also read  Padmavati: Jaipur court accepts complaint of 'disrupting tourism' against film's crew)
The Information & Broadcasting ministry of India along with the organisers of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) appealed to a division of the Kerala High Court on 23 November.

The appeal was against a single bench order which directed them to screen S Durga, a Malayalam film, at the 48th ongoing edition of IFFI which is currently taking place in Goa. On 24 November however, the Kerala High Court division bench declined to stay the single bench judgement and granted permission to S Durga to be screened at IFFI, according to a News18 report.

#BREAKING | Kerala HC division bench has declined to stay the single bench judgment, granting permission to 'S Durga' in IFFI |@Neethureghu pic.twitter.com/mBTZRu6m2k  News18 (@CNNnews18) November 24, 2017

The appeal by the I&B Ministry and the organisers stated that Durga, the name of the movie's protagonist alludes to "a revered principal Goddess in India and that the earlier prefix given to her  sexy, which was altered and abbreviated to an "S"  had "great potential" to hurt the religious sentiments of people in Kerala and pan-India. The appeal also stated that the prefix could create a law-and-order- situation in India.

The single bench does not take into account the doctrine of separation of power and completely ignores the definitions carved out by the Constitution between justice delivery system, legislature and executive. The single bench ought to have appreciated that the concern of law and order are best left to be assessed by the executive and not superseded by judicial decisions, the petition stated, according to an Indian Express report.

S Durga's director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan had also filed a writ petition of his own in the Kerala High Court against the I&B Ministry's decision, acting upon which Justice Vinod Chandran ruled a judgement that the certified version of the movie could be screened at the festival. The ministry and the IFFI organised challenged the order on two counts  the fact that the jury had included the uncensored version of the movie in the list for screening, and that the film had been certified by the regional office of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
Indrajith is a mindless action fantasy adventure to boost the action hero image of Gautham Karthik. The Karthik junior had a fairly successful year doing comedies and gritty thrillers, and now he has tried his hand at an action movie laced with humour. The director of the film, Kalaa Prabu, made his debut with the soft romantic film Sakkarakatti a few years ago. Both of them were looking for a different genre within the commercial format.

It is the Tamil version of the Indiana Jones films. A retired archaeological professor Mayilvaganan (Sachin Khedekar) settled in Goa is in search of a mystical stone mentioned in the holy books. It is supposed to be a remedy for all incurable diseases like cancer, and big international pharmaceutical drug companies are also after it. The professor forms a team comprising youngsters, and one among them is the happy-go-lucky Indrajith (Gautham Karthik), who is an adventure junkie. Meanwhile Kapil Sharma (Sudhanshu Pandey), head of Archaeological Survey of India an old foe of Mayilvaganan is also in search of the precious stone. There is a route map to get to the stone which is located somewhere in the dense forests in Arunachal Pradesh. Indrajith manages to find the route map, and along with Mayil goes on a trip into the dense forests filled with Naxalites, and Kapil is hot on his heels.

The film has an interesting plot, but the writing is weak and there are far too many logical loopholes in the narrative. The film has been made to give Gautham Karthik an action hero image, which is essential for an actor looking for stardom in Tamil cinema. It is a tailor-made role for Gautham as the easy-going guy who does the impossible, though in some scenes his looks seem to suggest otherwise. The film has been long in the making, and this fact shows. The two actresses, Sonarika and Ashrita, are there solely for the songs and some glamour. The supporting cast comprising Sachin Khedekar and Sudhanshu Pandey are impressive in their brief roles. MS Bhaskar, who is meant to provide comedy, is ill at ease.

The forest locations in Kerala and Andhra are eye catching and the CGI work gives it a lush look like the forests in South America. The top angle shots taken by cameraman Rasamathi are impressive, as is the background score provided by KP.

The film is under two hours, which makes it a bit pacy. If the story was as good as the locations, it would have been a slick entertainer.
After moving to New York in 1944 to study music at the Juilliard School and dropping out within three semesters, 18-year-old Miles Davis  beguiled by the bebop revolution  tracked down one of the biggest jazz stars at the time, Charlie "Bird" Parker. Although he himself was just 24 years old at the time, Parker helped Davis develop his own style by introducing him to fellow trumpeters like Dizzy Gillespie and taking him on as a sideman. But Davis was too much of a maverick to be under the wing of anybody, even Bird's.

It was this constant desire to experiment and evolve as a musician throughout his career that put Miles at the forefront of almost every major subgenre of jazz at the time: hard-bop, post-bop, modal jazz, orchestral jazz, jazz-rock and jazz-funk. Despite denunciations from critics and fans, he never settled into a singular style and became an elusive yardstick of jazz music for generations.

And every generation of jazz musicians wish to revisit the legacy of Miles in their own way. On Friday, at NCPA International Jazz Festival in Mumbai, the Kevin Davy quintet celebrates the genius of the original Prince of Darkness with a tribute concert. The group, led by renowned British jazz trumpeter and composer Kevin G Davy, includes Marco Quarantotto (drums), Serge Ngando Pondo (bass), Oli Arlotto (tenor saxophone) and Karim Ellaboudi (piano/keys).

When the Saints Go Marching In

For many artists, their musical palate and sensibilities are a direct reflection of their parents. Born in Nottingham, but of Jamaican descent, Kevin Davys introduction to music began in similar fashion while thumbing through his parents vinyl records and listening to the radiogram  a radio-cum-record player and a near-ubiquitous contrivance in British-Caribbean households at the time. My parents were keen on a broad range of music from jazz, ska, and bluebeat to rock n roll, blues and gospel, says Davy. They collected vinyl records and were basically open to different styles of music.

A Way of Living - Jazz Short Documentary from Federico Gangemi on Vimeo.

But it was only after watching Louis Armstrong on television and hearing his parents gush over his music that Davy was inspired to take up the bugle and cavalry trumpet in the 2nd Nottingham Boys Brigade marching band. I listened to swing music and Louis Armstrong quite a lot at first. I believe that he was and still is one of the (most) dominant voices in jazz, both for his trumpet playing and for his voice, says Davy. Even now, his name looms large in jazz history. I would say that most trumpeters owe Louis Armstrong a lot in the things that he innovated, such as extended solos, expanding the swing and blues language. From there, Davy progressed to lead trumpeter at the age of 14. Meanwhile, he also performed with dance bands in Nottingham, who played material from the Great American Songbook and swing era further aiding his jazz and swing music education.

Milestones

In 1986, Davy left Nottingham to pursue a Bachelors of Arts degree in General Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University. Though he primarily studied humanities, he developed a keen interest in arts, aesthetics and music. He got his first serious break when he enrolled in a jazz improvisation workshop at Manchesters All Saints Catholic College. The course was headed by Colin Stansfield, who Davy considers his most important teacher and music guru. Davy talks about the profound impact of Stansfields ideas on his general music outlook and development. His philosophies on music provided guidance for me and affirmed ideas that I had and was searching to expand upon and develop. I liked how he ran his workshops in music and the inclusivity of them.

Soon, with lessons imbibed and newfound insight, Davis began to establish himself in Manchesters music scene effervescing with the spontaneity and ferocious improvisation of his more celebrated musical influence, Miles Davis. He became a regular fixture at Manchester's premier jazz venues like Band On The Wall and PJ Bells and even emceed jam sessions at Jazz World Stage at Glastonbury in the 90s.

After relocating to London in 1994, he worked as an actor-musician at the Donmar Warehouse on a production of Bertolt Brecht's classic 1920s musical The Three Penny Opera, directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Inspired by Miless collaborative projects and drawing on his own experience, Davy began to host four-hour jam sessions with musicians from around the UK. Called Kevin Davy's Monster Jam, he collaborates with hip-hop artists, DJs and avant-garde jazz musicians and these performances continue to receive a positive response from critics and musicians alike. When asked if these kind of collaborations are still alive in the jazz community, Davy affirms, The collaboration crossing genres and styles do actually flourish today if we have the time to look. Collaborations between poets, spoken word, technology, acoustic, contemporary, fusion and many more possibilities exist.

'Round about Midnight

Demonstrably, Davy cites Miles as his biggest influence as he waxes lyrical about his artistic flair. Over the decades of his career, he made many changes to his musical approach and innovations. He was a natural leader and a natural collaborator. He has the most identifiable and unique tone and phrasing on the trumpet, especially on the Harmon mute, a sound which he himself pioneered.

With his edgy sophistication and laid back elegance, Miles continued to break down barriers between musical categories with each album. Some were more accessible than others. Kind of Blue is still perhaps the gateway jazz record for potential jazz listeners and its enduring significance is what has earned it the reputation as the greatest jazz record. The more serious listeners perhaps dig a little deeper into his catalogue, like Bitches Brew for example. His Jimi-Hendrix influenced electric coming out may piss off the jazz purists but Davy insists he loves both albums equally. Miles Davis paved the way for a lot of experimentation and innovation, including most of the contemporary jazz musicians playing now. Kind of Blue is the biggest selling jazz album in history and Bitches Brew has a massive influence on contemporary sounds. They, to me, are equally valid.

Jazz is often referred to as Americas one true original art form and its story is deeply rooted in the story of slavery in the country. Davy believes that part of what made Miles so good was he acknowledged and connected his African ancestry to his music. He was very proud and had a strong sense of himself and his African American community, in which there is an ever-present search from the ancestry.

Other than Miles, Davy cites his other trumpet influences include Freddie Hubbard, Lester Bowie and Don Cherry. Over the years in the UK, Davy's own trumpet virtuosity has been compared with Miles and Hubbard. "I considered those comparisons an honour, says Davy.

After touring successfully with the Kevin Davy Quintet at Abu Dhabis JAZZATTACK and the Colombo Jazz Festival in Sri Lanka earlier this year, NCPA got in touch with Davy about playing a Miles Davis tribute as part of its International Jazz Festival in Mumbai. So, on Friday, the Kevin Davy Quintet will perform Miles Davis compositions from the swing era to the modal and jazz-rock eras before moving on to what Davy calls the Marcus Miller era.

The International Jazz Festival will be held at Tata Theatre in NCPA from 24-26 November.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom writer and producer Colin Trevorrow shared a sneak peek from the upcoming sequel to the 2015 film Jurassic World. The six-second teaser clip features Chris Pratt  reprising his role as Owen Grady  petting an inncouous-looking baby velociraptor.

The official full-length trailer is expected to be dropped on 7 December, 2017.

JA Bayona, who directed the acclaimed 2012 disaster flick The Impossible, will direct the film based on a screenplay co-written by Trevorrow and Derek Connolly.

The movie will see Bryce Dallas Howard and BD Wong reprise their roles from Jurassic World and even Jeff Goldblum is set to return as Dr. Ian Malcolm from the original Jurassic Park film series.

Jurassic World was set 22 years after the events of the first Jurassic Park film, taking place on the same island called Isla Nublar off the coast of Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Irrfan Khan also had a role as the owner of the Jurassic World. It became the highest grossing film of the series receiving rave reviews. Although, most critics argued that it was not as good as the original.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is set to hit theatres on 22 June, 2018 but could get an early release in India.
The special investigation team (SIT) which monitored the case involving the assault and abduction of a Malayalam actress and actor Dileep's alleged involvement in it, is now set to submit a request to the Ernakulam District and Sessions Court to expedite judicial proceedings whenever the case comes up for consideration, reports The Hindu. The motive behind this move is reportedly to not let Dileep use his influence to subdue the potential witnesses in the case.

The Hindu report adds that the SIT will also appeal to the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court to revoke the bail granted to Dileep by the Kerala High Court on 3 October. The actor and now the eighth accused in the case, had filed a petition for bail three times before he actually got it.

"A petition to this effect will be filed before the court once the court completes the verification of the chargesheet against the actor and accepts the same in its file," say officials from the SIT, as quoted in The Hindu report.

The SIT had recently approached the Angamaly Magistrate Court in September to limit the number of visitors coming to meet the actor, who has been under arrest since July, reports The New Indian Express.

Dileep has been accused of intimidating the Malayalam actress after the crime and has been booked under various sections of the IPC, including hatching criminal conspiracy for abduction and assault of this actress in a moving car on 17 February.
Celebrity couple Namitha and Veerandra Chowdhary are finally hitched. In a private wedding ceremony, the actors got married early morning on Friday at the Tirupati ISKON temple, reports International Business Times.

As Namitha's love affair with long time boyfriend Veerandra has been in the news for quite a time, the news of marriage was not a shocker. Both the celebrities' fans started sharing congratulatory wishes, and pictures as soon as they hit social media. The pictures of Namitha's mehendi, sangeet and other pre-wedding rituals went viral.

In the mehendi and sangeet pictures, Namitha is seen wearing jewellery made of flowers and a baby pink silk suit that add to her wedding glow. The couple clicked lovey-dovey selfies together that have taken the internet by storm. Veerandra looked uber happy in all the pictures donning a groom to be look in a blue kurta.

As per the same report, they tied the knot by following all the Hindu marriage rituals. There were priests present at the temple who chanted the Vedic mantras. The wedding was completed around 5.30 am after Veerandra and Namitha exchanged the final vows.

For the D day, initially, Namitha was seen in an electric blue sari coupled with gold jewellery. She looked absolutely flawless. Veerandra wore a sherwani with a contrast of blue and brown.

Finally, the couple stole the show in their wedding avatars as they entered the temple for the final rituals. Namitha, in a peach sari, and Veerandra, in a gorgeous sherwani, looked like the most sought after couple of this wedding season.

The wedding was attended by both the bride and groom's friends, colleagues and relatives. R Sarathkumar, with wife Radhika, Harathi Ganesh and Shakthi were the mains among the invitees. Bigg Boss Tamil contestants also showed up for the special occasion. The couple will also host their colleagues from Kollywood at a reception party in Chennai soon.

(Also read  Zaheer Khan, Sagarika Ghatge wedding: Couple ties the knot, reception to be held on 27 November)
Jaipur: A local court in Jaipur on Thursday (23 November) accepted a complaint against filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali and actors Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor and others in regard to ongoing controversy relating to their forthcoming film Padmavati.

The court has not directly sent the complaint to police for registration of FIR but has asked for recording of statement of the complainant.

"The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate while accepting the complaint has said that it will record my statement on November 27 under Section 200 of CrPC," complainant Bhawani Shankar Sharma told IANS.

The court, on 22 November, had completed hearing on the matter and deferred the order till Thursday. Sharma, in his complaint, has alleged that the film hurts sentiments of many, not alone Rajputs.

Violent protests were held that badly hurt unity and integrity of the country, he said in the plea. "The news about this also spread in foreign countries too which affected tourists' arrivals and also the tourists who are in the country faced many problems because of this."

His lawyer Farid Khan said that the crew did not follow the rules and legal provisions in this regard. "How can Bhansali screen movies to select few before showing it to the censor board," he asked.

Padmavati has been marred in controversies since its shooting started. In January, activists of the Karni Sena had manhandled with its crew here and vandalised equipment, claiming that Bhansali was "distorting" historical facts in the movie.

Karni Sena activists earlier this month vandalised a theatre in Kota over reports that it was showing the film's trailer and a leader of the outfit threatened Padukone, who plays the title role, over her "provocative statements".
Pushing aside issues of national importance with the sheer power of cacophony and hyperbole, the film Padmavati has become a major talking point in the country presently.

While Karni Sena, a right wing group, alleges misrepresentation of their sacred Rani Padmini in the vile lust of a marauding Sultan Alauddin Khilji, for once, movers and shakers from the Hindi film industry are united in support of a hapless Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Viacom 18 Motion Pictures.

A visual spectacle that has established, with every glimpse, that Bhansali has taken his signature opulence a few notches higher with this one, Padmavati might not reach its audience in some states. The entire debate rests on the analysis of history- a poem Padmavat, by Mallik Mohammad Jayasi and oral legends of Chittorgarh in Rajasthan.

Padmavatis purity and sacrifice are the reasons that bring her the adulation of a goddess. While analysis of sources continues, a significant aspect of this authenticity discussion has been omitted. What about the queens version? What did she feel before she jumped into the purifying fires of Jauhar? Why did she really decide to do that? How is it that her rival, Queen Nagmati, also agreed to follow suit? These conversations or stories dont feature in any so-called historical text dated to this era.

Padmavatis silence and glorification by a male poet from an entirely male lens in medieval times is not surprising.

For historys omissions of what a woman wants verges on the criminal. Each and every woman revered by history anywhere, is revered for virtues that men tend to consider virtuous. Unless the womans qualities fit into a suitable narrative of an era, she is often erased from hisstory. There, the name itself has underlying bias. It isnt herstory ever is it?

While complaints of hyper feminism will come my way here, take a look at some prominent women in history across time.

Mary Magdalene, the woman who befriended the prophet Jesus Christ in his lifetime, has undergone transformations in her name and image with each big change in Catholicism. Right from the crusades, to Reformation, to enforcement of the clergys control, Mary Magdalene has been called a prostitute, a sinner, a saint, a healer or just a provider as suitable. That the popular novel Da Vinci Code made her Jesuss wife only shows that her legend continues to evolve in public imagination. Its hold on people stems from the fact that Mary Magdalene is never once represented in her own words or thoughts. Distortion of Marys role was suitably carried out to fit into the narrative of a womans purity- as male clergy would define.

A second popular figure from history is Anne Boleyn, the disgraced queen of King Henry the Eighth. This British monarch cut out the authority of the Catholic Church from his peoples lives by declaring himself the Head of the Anglican Church. In the process, he saved a stupendous amount of tax for his own kingdom and governance. He shunned Catherine of Aragon, the Spanish princess that he had married for diplomatic reasons. He fell for Anne Boleyn, the sophisticated and beautiful young lady-in-waiting for his queen. Anne was pregnant when Henry made her queen. Later, charging her for adultery, sorcery and witchcraft, Henry sentenced her to execution. In recent popular literature, Hillary Mantles brilliant books Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies reiterate Anne as an opportunistic, manipulative woman who had multiple relationships before she became queen. Yet, Henry isnt questioned with a lot of incisiveness. Mantle reflects the morality and social norm of that era, but the narrative remains relevant even today. Anne would be viewed as an over ambitious young woman who chooses her partners as she pleases today. And she would still be the bad girl. Was she really the villainous, schematic woman that history makes her out to be?

Examples of historical and mythological tales wearing a strong male bias also extend to the stories of Kunti and Draupadi.

A very engaging narrative of Draupadis story emerges in Chitra Bannerjee Divakarunis book Palace of Illusions. In classic Indian texts too, a womans voice is removed just so male judgments of good and bad resonate across time. Rani Padmavati and her tale of sacrifice also reminds one of this consistent historical bias that has dictated all our knowledge of heroes and heroines of the past.

In making Bajirao Mastani, Sanjay Leela Bhansali gave Kashi Bai  the wife that brave Bajirao leaves behind to marry his ladylove Mastani  a strong presence and solid voice. She dissents, and continues to fulfill her duties as queen to the T. Bhansalis narrative subtly brought to light the unfairness that Kashi Bai had to deal with.

Perhaps with Padmavati, we get to imagine what the beautiful, tragic queen felt and experienced, in the words of Deepika Padukone. Its only fair that we let a filmmaker with a firm voice put his story out there; may Padmavati rise from the ashes for all of us to see soon.
The audio launch of Malayalam star Nivin Pauly's Richie was held in Chennai yesterday (23 November), a day after it was postponed due to the unfortunate demise of producer Ashok Kumar of Company Productions, who committed suicide after continuous harassment from loan sharks.

"I've always wanted to do a Tamil film since the day I entered the industry. Neram marked my debut in Tamil, but it was a bi-lingual. Now, my first straight Tamil movie, Richie, has finally happened. Richie is not just my debut in K'town. It marks the foray of so many others who have worked in the film including director Gautham Ramachandran," said Nivin Pauly who is gearing up for the release of the film on 8 December.

"The post-production work is currently on the verge of completion. Our music composer Ajaneesh has done an extraordinary job with the background score. We watched the film yesterday here and loved it. The sync between music and sound has been achieved perfectly. We believe we have made a quality film. I have worked with some fantastic actors in the movie, and had a really good time," added Nivin.

Director Gautham Ramachandran, who is quite upbeat about the film, said, "We have put in a lot of time and effort to complete this movie. It took nearly two years for the whole process. I need to be thankful to my producers and the biggest pillar of the film Nivin Pauly for the project to have come out well. Nivin and I have been friends for four-five years. We have been planning to work together, and finally, Richie clicked. I had an incredibly supportive cast, who withstood the long shooting process."

Shraddha Srinath, who was last seen in Vijay Sethupathi-Madhavan's critically and commercially acclaimed blockbuster Vikram Vedha and plays a vital role in the film, said, "I was an absolute newcomer when I auditioned for Richie in February 2016. It was my first Tamil audition, and I did have the language problem. But, I was very determined to be a part of the project because of the excellent team and a strong script. Now after one-and-a-half years, Richie is finally releasing. It's a very special film to me. I would like to thank director Gautham for trusting me as a new face and casting me against Nivin Pauly. The people behind the camera have worked really hard in the film."

Lakshmipriya Chandramouli, who garnered the attention of netizens for her recently-released short film Lakshmi, thanked the media for their support in the last few weeks. "I really enjoyed working on this film. I have a very beautiful role. I would like to thank Gautham for giving me this opportunity. The media has extended great support to me over the past three weeks. I hope you continue to encourage good scripts, actors and performances."

Produced by Yes Cinema company in association with Cast N'Crew, Richie features a solid supporting cast including cameraman-turned-actor Nataraj Subramaniam and Prakash Raj in prominent roles. GK Reddy, the father of actor Vishal, is also playing a crucial role in the movie.

Richie is an official remake of national award-winning Kannada film Ulidavaru Kandante and has Nivin Pauly reprising the role of Kannada star Rakshit Shetty. The film is set in the backdrop of a coastal town and has been majorly shot in Manappad in Tuticorin.

Music composer Ajaneesh Loknath, who fetched Karnataka State Film Award and Filmfare Award for his work in Ulidavaru Kandante, has composed the music for the film. Ajaneesh made his debut in K'town with the acclaimed thriller Kurangu Bommai which released in September this year.
Former Congress MP V Hanumantha Rao has lodged a complaint against the organisers of Sunburn Festival, Hyderabad, alleging that such concerts stand against the 'Indian culture'.

Deccan Chronicle reports Rao alleged that the festival is allowing children below 15 years of age into the concert and exposing them to dance, music and cocktails which will 'spoil' them.

Congress has also demanded answers from the Government as to why these kinds of events are encouraged where drug abuse is a growing concern as the similar concerts were the centre of major controversies in Goa and Maharashtra earlier.

The News Minute reports that Rao even led a dharna at the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate demanding cancellation of permission with immediate effect. Earlier, he was also seen at the Gachibowli stadium where the event will start from Friday and had a heated conversation with the police officials over the permission issue.

The same report states that Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) spokesperson Addanki Dayakar alleged the government is encouraging drug culture in Hyderabad through these parties and the chief minister is aware of it. He asked why several democratic protests by the parties or students were denied but the permission for the Sunburn Festival was given.

In another setback, the Airport police in Pune on Thursday did not give permission to Sunburn as the organisers generally use high powered light beams, which are banned near the Lohegaon airport, as reported by Pune Mirror. The venue is only a kilometre away from the airport.

The same report states that the organisers were seeking permission to host the festival at Mahalaxmi Lawns which is near Lohegaon airport, a strategic airfield of the Indian Air Force. The Pune police have already banned any use of high powered light beams in the area due to the hindrance they causes to the civilian and IAF aircrafts.

Last week, the alarming pollution level in New Delhi forced one of the most popular music festivals in the country to cancel the event citing poor air quality in the capital city, as reported by the Times of India. Famous Tropical House producer, songwriter, and musician Kygo was scheduled to perform at the event on 25 November, as part of his three-city tour.
Diyatom Deb was the eliminated contestant on this week's episode of The Stage 3 after he went head-to-head in a Battle of the Bench against Shaurya. Shaurya was one of the five artists who was in the artist hangout. However, low audience voting tore him away from the safe zone and pit him against Diyatom. Incidentally, this was the pairing that collaborated during the Showdown week and it was their performance together which gave them both the push to make it into the Top 12 of the show.

Firstpost had an exclusive chat with Diyatom after his elimination and he talked to us about his greatest inspirations, the factors that motivated him to go on, his takeaways from the four judges Monica Dogra, Vishal Dadlani, Ehsaan Noorani and Devraj Sanyal his journey and more.

How was your journey on The Stage?

It all started when a friend of mine, Jacob, told me about the auditions in Delhi. A few weeks after the auditions I got a call that I was selected in the top 50. I was so thrilled. Now that it has ended, I feel that it was such a roller-coaster ride. It started of really well and kind of fell apart towards the end. But to be in the top nine contestants of The Stage 3 means the world to me. The journey was intense and required a lot of hard work. With a participant leaving each week, it gets a bit sad. On stage, they kind of become your family and it's hard to see anyone go. However, the exposure and feedback I have received has been overwhelming. I am more than happy to have made it so far.

What was the one thing that kept you going on the show? A person, some thing or some piece of advice?

The thing I realised while I stayed here in Mumbai was that people from my home town really started to get behind me and support me. I never even dreamt of receiving so much support from Shillong or any other part of Meghalaya. That was the thing that really got me going. My wife and family members are the biggest reason for me to do well. Without them, reaching the Top Nine would not have been possible. Also, the atmosphere on The Stage really urges you to do well.

What are your takeaways from all the judges? What did you learn from them?

The best part of The Stage was to meet the four judges and Shibani (Dandekar). Each of them gave me so much feedback and advice to improve my singing and performance in general. Monica really helped me express myself in the songs. She really helped all of us in internalising the songs. The masterclass she did with us was really helpful. Ehsaan and Vishal taught me how to use more dynamics in my singing. These feedbacks are really valuable and I only hope to get better with their advise.

Your most memorable performance and why?

For me, my most memorable performance was 'Dancing in the Dark' by Bruce Springsteen. I was so happy when I got that song. It's always a huge challenge to sing Boss's song. It's really important to give your own spin on it. I think I was quite happy after the performance. The graphics guys had a picture of him behind me when I sang. I thought that was pretty cool.

What are your future plans?

There are many future plans. I have multiple projects lined up in Delhi right now. I'm a part of a Blues/Rock band in Delhi called Big Bang Blues. We'd just finished our five city tour before I got selected to be on The Stage. Now that I'm back, we've started jamming again. The idea is to write more original songs. Apart from this, I'm working with a friend on a studio project called A Passing Glimpse. The work on the EP is ongoing and the release date will be sometime early next year. An album with Big Bang Blues is also on the charts.
Actress Uma Thruman broke her silence on Thursday by alleging that she was also a victim of unwanted sexual advances from disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.

Using the #MeToo in her Instagram post, the Kill Bill star took a swipe at Weinstein over the allegations of sexual harassment saying the Hollywood mogul does not "deserve a bullet".

"Happy Thanksgiving. I am grateful today, to be alive, for all those I love, and for all those who have the courage to stand up for others," the actor posted on Instagram. "I said I was angry recently, and I have a few reasons, #metoo, in case you couldn't tell by the look on my face.

"I feel it's important to take your time, be fair, be exact, so... Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators - I'm glad it's going slowly - you don't deserve a bullet) -stay tuned," she added.

Thurman had earlier said that she is "waiting to feel less angry" before she addresses the scandal surrounding Weinstein and the ongoing problem of sexual harassment in Hollywood.

"I don't have a tiny soundbite for you, because I am not a child and I have learned that when I have spoken in anger, I usually regret the way I express myself. So, I've been waiting to feel less angry, and when I'm ready, I'll say what I have to say," she had told Access Hollywood.

Weinstein, who worked with Thurman on Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, and various other films, is currently under investigation by police in New York, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and the UK for sexual assault accusations.

Numerous women have come forward against Weinstein in the wake of exposes from The New York Times and The New Yorker, while even more individuals have alleged similar behaviour from men like former Amazon Studios head Roy Price, Kevin Spacey and directors Brett Ratner and James Toback.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: Late Union Environment Minister Anil Dave and Centre for Science and Environment's (CSE) Deputy Director Chandra Bhushan have been conferred with awards by the United Nations Environment.

The awards recognise the exemplary role played by individuals and institutions in the protection of the ozone layer.

Dave, who died while in the office in May, was posthumously awarded the 'Political Leadership Award' at a ceremony held in Canada on Thursday to mark the 30th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol.

The award is in recognition of his leadership role in getting an amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer endorsed in the Rwandan capital in October last year. It is named the Kigali Amendment.

Bhushan was given the 'Partnership Award' for providing policy and research support to the negotiations during the Kigali Amendment.

The amendment is the single largest contribution the world has made towards keeping the rise of global temperature to "well below" two degrees Celsius, a target agreed upon at the Paris climate conference in 2015.

It aims to phase down climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used widely in refrigerators, air conditioners and aerosol sprays. It will enter into force on 1 January, 2019.

Hailing India's role in the negotiations at Kigali last year, Bhushan said, "India did many things differently during negotiations. For one, NGOs and government worked as a team. India was proactive and not reactive. It submitted its own proposals, instead of reacting to the proposals of developed countries."

"Most importantly, India negotiated on the principal of positive reciprocity  it came forward and took more responsibilities, thereby pushing developed countries and China to do more," he added.
Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday alleged that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and the BJP wanted to take political advantage in Gujarat polls with his "obnoxious" remarks on Ram temple issue and warned the Sangh that it was "playing with fire".

The Hyderabad MP alleged that the RSS and BJP were trying to create an "atmosphere of fear" ahead of the hearing on the Ayodhya dispute on 5 December and hoped that the Supreme Court will take note of what he called "nefarious designs".

"This statement (by Bhagwat) is neither good for the country nor for the country's Supreme Court," he said and asked if the RSS chief "was trying to influence or pressurise the Supreme Court in some way".

Bhagwat on Friday made a strong pitch for building Ram temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, saying only a mandir would come up there and not any other structure.

Reacting to it, Owaisi told reporters, "(I) hope that Supreme Court takes note of how the government, BJP and RSS are trying to trigger an atmosphere of strain in the whole country, when the hearing is going to take place from 5 December, make it a political issue in the whole country once again, so that they can take political advantage."

Owaisi alleged that the Sangh was trying to take " advantage in Gujarat polls and later in 2019 (general elections)".

"Is he trying to influence or pressurise the Supreme Court in some way? Is he trying to say that he knows that the Supreme Court will base its judgement on faith and not on Constitution, evidence? That is the message he is giving," he said.

"This is a delicate matter and RSS is playing with fire by making such obnoxious comments," Owaisi added.

"We hope the Supreme Court gives decision on the basis of evidence and not on the basis of faith. It was a title suit.... We hope the Supreme Court takes note of this," he said.

Addressing "Dharma Sansad", a congregation of 2,000 Hindu sages, mutt heads and VHP leaders from across the country at Udupi in Karnataka, the RSS chief said there should be no ambiguity that Ram temple will be built at Ayodhya.

"We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of our faith. It will not change," Bhagwat said.

The Supreme Court will on 5 December commence the final hearing on the cross-appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute.

The high court had ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acre area at Ayodhya among the parties  the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted six weeks time to the Gujarat government for apprising it on whether any disciplinary action has been initiated against policemen convicted in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, considered the submission of Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, that some more time be given to get instruction on the authorities concerned in the case.

The bench listed the plea for hearing in the first week of January.

The bench, however, made it clear that the separate plea, seeking enhancement of compensation to be awarded to Bilkis Bano, would be taken up next week for hearing.

The apex court had already granted time, on 23 October, to the state government to apprise it whether any departmental action had been initiated or taken against police officers whose conviction was upheld in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

The Bombay High Court had on 4 May upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 12 people in the gangrape case, while setting aside the acquittal of seven people including policemen and doctors.

Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped in March, 2002, while she was pregnant, lost seven of her family members in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident.

The bench had convicted seven persons, including five policemen and two doctors, for not performing their duties (sections 218) and tampering of evidence (section 201) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The convicted policemen and doctors are Narpat Singh, Idris Abdul Saiyed, Bikabhai Patel, Ramsingh Bhabhor, Sombhai Gori, Arun Kumar Prasad (doctor) and Sangeeta Kumar Prasad (doctor).

A special court had on 21 January, 2008, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men in the case.

They later approached the Bombay High Court challenging their conviction and sought for the trial court's order to be quashed.

The CBI had also filed an appeal in the high court seeking harsher punishment of death for three of the convicted on the grounds that they were the main perpetrators of the crime.

According to the prosecution, on 3 March, 2002, Bilkis Bano's family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots and seven members of her family were killed.

The trial in the case began in Ahmedabad. However, after Bilkis Bano expressed apprehensions that witnesses could be harmed and CBI evidence tampered, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.
A Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft of the Indian Air Force successfully test-launched the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile's air-launched version on Wednesday. The missile was tested over the Balasore test-firing range against a sea-based target in the Bay of Bengal. With this test, India has commenced the drive to complete its tactical triad of the sea, air and ground-launched cruise missiles. The air-launched BrahMos will be tested for another year in a series of tests and inducted in the year 2019.

After Nirbhay subsonic cruise missile's launch this month, this test was the second successful test-launch. The importance of these successful tests in terms of the range, speed and impact of India's deterrence is enormous. In the last few decades, a stand-off precision-strike weapon has become crucial to warfighting.

Globally, the number, detection range and capability of air-search radars and fire-control radars of surface-to-air missiles have grown exponentially. The air-defence cover of major powers has become too dense to pierce, even for stealth fighters. In addition, airborne warning and control assets, over the horizon radars (OTHR) and satellite-based monitoring have brought a decisive shift in the air warfare methods. Accordingly, stand-off weapons, unmanned combat vehicles and lasers are emerging as crucial weapons of the future.

With a 1200-1500 kilometre combat range of Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft, the BrahMos can hit any target within the range of 1500-1800 kilometres around India. In addition, BrahMos' range is being extended to 600-900 kilometres, after India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in 2016. A BrahMos-ER (extended range) was finally tested in March 2017 to a range of over 400 kilometres and the 900 km one is due for testing by 2019. Moreover, the hypersonic BrahMos-2 is another version under development.

As a result of these developments, Indian capability for stand-off precision war is substantially expanding. BrahMos and Nirbhay may emerge as India's carrier-killer missiles in the naval domain.

A couple of squadrons of BrahMos-equipped Sukhoi-30MKIs, deployed each in the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Indian west coast, will help to ensure a peaceful Indian Ocean. In addition, the threat of saturation strikes of these air-launched cruise missiles will neutralise naval ambitions of any Indian adversary in the region.

Regionally, BrahMos has an important place in the Chinese discourse over India's missile capabilities. Chinese media has been regularly highlighting its supersonic performance characteristics, penetration ability, anti-interference features and resistance to anti-missile interception capability.

It is also argued in China that if BrahMos is equipped with nuclear warheads then India's capability for air-launch of nuclear weapons will increase considerably. A United States report, which argued that a total of 64 BrahMos missiles could destroy a carrier battle group, has experienced frequent mention in the Chinese discourse.

Therefore, Chinese defence experts recommend that China counter India's tactical missile capability augmentation in three ways. First, they argue that core components and intellectual property rights of this missile are still in Russian hands. Moreover, most of cutting edge weapon platforms of Indian Armed Forces have some Russian role.

Therefore, if China increases its proximity with Russia, with strong linkages, it can prevent or restrict Indian access to Russia's cutting-edge weapons. If the Russian bear gets a large jar of Chinese honey and assurances of future refills, the Russian option can be minimised.

Second, even though India can extend the range of the BrahMos missile to 600-900 kilometres, a crucial component to ensure a successful hit is the long-range precision-guidance capability. Chinese experts argue that Indian capabilities in airborne-early detection and warning systems, mid-course guidance systems and long-range radar coverage are limited. The satellite-based guidance system also suffers from faulty atomic clocks and a limited number of satellites. Hence, as long as these capabilities do not improve, the threat of this missile will remain local.

Third, in terms of ground war, most of the Indian airbases are close to the India-Tibetan border. Therefore, China will be able to damage Indian air capability far more than India can with its limited range BrahMos. Indian BrahMos attack will certainly invite a Chinese response with CJ-10 long-range cruise missile which can even reach Delhi. Additionally, the mountainous terrain and dense coverage of HQ-9, HQ16A and other close-range air defence missiles will help neutralise the BrahMos threat for China.

In the naval domain, China believes that any combat will be a system based operation. Therefore, a combination of YJ-12 anti-ship supersonic cruise missile (KH-31 missile's Chinese version), HQ-9, HHQ-16, FL-3000 and CIWS guns will be used for China's fleet defence. Moreover, the advantage in detection capability and the defensive radius of the Chinese Navy will be crucial. Another strategy would be to either detect its heat signature or strive to destroy the launcher before the missile is launched.

Even a cursory study of the reports in the neighbourhood over the BrahMos missile reflects the unease, apprehension and a grudging acceptance of India's advantage in a no-contact war.

An extended-range, air-launched BrahMos with a capability to hit any target to nearly 2,000 kilometres would usher in a paradigmatic shift in the India-Pacific's security architecture.

However, India would need to increase the number of delivery platforms, as only 36 or 50 modified Sukhois will not be enough. The enhancement of long-range guidance capability is another major area that needs attention. The continued augmentation of tactical cruise missile triad makes India's adversaries uncomfortable. India should do it more.
PARIS (Reuters) - China has signed a deal to build a third large nuclear reactor in Pakistan, which wants to get a fifth of its electricity from nuclear by 2030. A Pakistan national flag flies alongside a Chinese national flag in front of the portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong on Beijing's Tiananmen Square during Pakistan' Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's visit May 18, 2011. REUTERS/David Gray/File PhotoWorld Nuclear News, supported by industry lobby World Nuclear Association, reported that China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) have signed a cooperation agreement for the construction of a 1,000 megawatt (MW) HPR1000 Hualong One reactor at the Chashma nuclear power plant in Punjab. The PAEC could not immediately be reached for comment. Pakistan generates five percent of its electricity from four small 300 MW Chinese reactors at the Chashma plant and wants to boost nuclear capacity to 8,800 MW, or about 20 percent of power generation capacity, by 2030. China is already building two Hualong One reactors with a capacity of 1100 MW each near the port city of Karachi, which are expected to become operational in 2020 and 2021 respectively. PAEC chairman Muhammad Naeem told Reuters last month PAEC was in the final stages of awarding contracts for Chasmah, which would take Pakistans nuclear capacity to about 5,000 MW when it is finished. He said Pakistan wanted to build at least 3-4 more big nuclear reactors by 2030. Imported oil is the main fuel for power generation in Pakistan, where one quarter of the population has no access to electricity. Four Hualong reactors - a new so-called third-generation model with added safety features - are under construction in China, with the first expected to go online in 2021. China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) - Chinas other big reactor vendor and French EDFs partner in the Hinkley Point nuclear project - has an agreement with the British government to build a Hualong reactor in Bradwell in south east England. Britains nuclear regulator is conducting a Generic Design Assessment, which is expected to take about five years.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Noting that cyber attacks are a significant threat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 23 November said it must be ensured that digital space does not become a playground for forces of terror and radicalisation.

"The quest for an open and accessible Internet often leads to vulnerability. Stories of hacking and defacement of websites are the tip of an iceberg. They suggest that cyber attacks are a significant threat, especially in the democratic world," he said while inaugurating the fifth edition of the Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS).

In identical remarks, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said radical elements and terrorists are abusing social media platforms for perpetuating hate and terror but India is determined to address the misuse of cyber space and thwart them.

"Our government has effectively used social media for giving voice to the unheard but it is equally true that radical elements and terrorists are abusing this medium for perpetuating hate and terror. The radicalisation of young people through tools of social media poses grave threat to humanity," Prasad said during his address to the gathering.

"The world needs to come together to address the misuse and abuse of cyber space by terrorists and hackers," he added.

"Misuse of Internet for child pornography is posing grave threat to childhood. Financial frauds and cyber attacks can eliminate the trust of ordinary citizens in cyber space. Therefore, we all need to speak in one voice against cyber crimes," Prasad stressed.

The Prime Minister said three factors  financial inclusion through our Jan-Dhan bank accounts; the Aadhaar platform; and the Mobile phone  have greatly helped reduce corruption.

"We need to ensure that vulnerable sections of our society do not fall prey to the evil designs of cyber criminals. Alertness towards cyber security concerns should become a way of life," he said.

Modi said the JAM trinity had also helped bring in transparency. "We call this the J.A.M. or JAM trinity. Through better targeting of subsidies, the JAM trinity has prevented leakages to the tune of nearly $10 billion so far."

Modi said that one of the major focus areas should be the training of well equipped and capable professionals to counter cyber threats. "The term 'hacking' may have acquired an exciting, even if dubious, overtone. We need to ensure that cyber protection becomes an attractive and viable career option for the youth.

"On a related note, nations must also take responsibility to ensure that the digital space does not become a playground for the dark forces of terrorism and radicalization. Information sharing and coordination among security agencies is essential to counter the ever-changing threat landscape."

Modi said countries can strike a fine balance between privacy and openness on the one hand and national security on the other. The theme of the two-day GCCS conference is "Cyber4All: A Secure and Inclusive Cyberspace for Sustainable Development".

Modi said digital technology had emerged as a great enabler. It had paved the way for efficient service delivery and governance. It was improving access in domains from education to health. It was also helping to shape the future of business and economy.

"Through each of these ways, it provides the less privileged sections a more level playing field. On a macro-scale it has contributed to the emergence of a flat world where a developing nation like India can compete on a level footing with developed nations."

Saying Internet had provided 'ease of living' to Indians, Modi added: "Empowerment through digital access is an objective the government is especially committed to. We believe in mobile power or M-power to empower our citizens."

Modi on Thursday launched the Unified Mobile Application For New-age Governance (UMANG) Mobile App, which will provide over a hundred citizen-centric services.

Incepted in 2011 in London, the second GCCS was held in 2012 in Budapest. The third and fourth GCCS were held in 2013 in Seoul and in 2015 in The Hague.

Thousands of delegates from 131 countries and ministers from 26 countries are in the capital to attend the two-day event. There was also virtual participation from over 2,800 locations globally.
New Delhi: The Delhi metro on Friday said that apart from the fare hike, festivities such as Diwali and Chhath could also be behind the drop in its ridership in October.

The metro also sought to put across the message that it would not review its decision of the fare hike and stressed that it had been done on the recommendations of a fare fixation committee, "a statutory body under the Delhi Metro Act".

Ridership in November has shown a rising trend, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC) said in a statement.

The drop in ridership in October, by around 3 lakh per day, is not solely attributable to the increase in fares as there are, otherwise, monthly variations noted throughout the year, it said.

"In October there were five Sundays in comparison to four in September and ridership remains less on holidays than on weekdays. This monthly variation in ridership is dependent on multiple factors like seasons, vacations, holidays, festivals etc," the statement said.

"The month also witnessed extended weekends and holidays due to festivals of Diwali, Chhath Pooja, Bhai Duj, Govardhan etc. The ridership after the fare revision for many days was actually higher than the ridership before the fare revision," it said.
New Delhi: Five juveniles in school uniform allegedly stabbed to death an 18-year-old college student in a bus on southeast Delhi's Mathura Road, following which four of them were apprehended, the police said on Friday.

The incident took place on Thursday when the victim was checking the pockets of the accused on suspicion that they had stolen his mobile phone, they said.

The juveniles were apprehended on Friday, the police said. Mohammed Anas had boarded a cluster bus from Ashram to go to Jamia Nagar. The accused, who had also boarded the bus from the same stop, snatched Anas' phone which led to an argument, they said.

When Anas started searching their pockets, one of the juveniles stabbed him in the neck while another restrained him, the police said, adding following the incident, the juveniles jumped off the bus and fled. The victim was rushed to the Holy Family Hospital where he was declared brought dead, they said.

Eyewitnesses told the police that the accused were wearing the uniform of a government school and were in their teens.

On the basis of the information gathered from other passengers, the police started scanning government schools in areas near the bus stop.

Five juveniles, allegedly involved in the incident, were identified. They were studying in class eight, nine and 10, and were residents of Ali Vihar and Badarpur, a police official said. Four of them were apprehended on Friday and the snatched mobile phone was also recovered, he said.

Police are probing whether they were earlier involved in similar incidents.
The scourge of counter-terrorism forces is back on the streets. Not that Hafiz Saeed was ever seriously incommoded by his "house arrest" earlier. However, it did prevent him from venting his spleen against India, the United States or anyone else at Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)/Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) road shows.

A judicial review board of Pakistan's Punjab province ordered the release of the 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind on Wednesday. Saeed's return, in a kingly style with his car bedecked with flowers and escorted by assiduous policemen, is hard enough to bear. Far worse is the ridiculous attempt of the Review Court to present itself as unbiased.

This is, after all, a country where judges giving unbiased judgments are usually shot dead. Remember the man who sentenced Salman Qadri to death for murder had to subsequently flee the country. The whole thing is a farce from start to finish.

So, what should India  and its new brother in quadrilateral circles, the United States  do? The counter-terrorism menu in the hands of both parties is "tried to death", though a little rehash may serve the purpose somewhat. The United States  admittedly, like any other power in the world  acts as per its own interests and so, such measures need to deliver to US' great power status, as well as to India's very real threat of terror.

The first such tool, which has been used regularly is that of "terrorist designation value". This does not really have any great "visual" value, especially for a hungry media. After all, the Al-Muhammadia Students has recently been declared a terrorist organisation, which did not exactly caused cause jihadi leaders to weep into their handkerchiefs.

Designations only prevent terrorists from travelling abroad to collect funds, or from buying the latest Gucci release for their wives. In terms of terrorist funding, however, money comes into Pakistan anyway in terms of criminal money and other slush funds, apart from zakat and ushr collections.

So, there is no evidence that terrorist leaders  not the poor miserable wretches they brainwash  have any lack of funds. Second, a designation also disallows terrorists the facility to park their money in US firms or related enterprises. Since no terrorist is likely to be fool enough to do so anymore, it seems this is more to ensure that the US mainland is protected from terrorist money, rather than any serious inconvenience to the terrorist.

To tweak this a little, however, the same law can be extended to include all those officials, retired and serving, who assist in the terrorist enterprise. An ISI general for instance, would not be able to receive money from his children abroad, nor can he visit them there. That the Pakistani army general and his wife would not be able to do their annual foreign shopping trips, making their life rather distressing does paint a pleasant picture, besides being eminently doable.

Another weapon in the US counter-terrorism arsenal is the rescinding of the Major non-NATO ally (MNNA) status. The MMNA is a curious bird. The list of such states designated as such includes Australia at one end and Afghanistan on the other. In the former case, for instance, it allows quick US processing on joint research projects like missile defence, without going through Congress each time.

In the latter case, it allows easy transfer of old military surplus to the Afghan army. In short, it allows a great deal of cooperation in the military field, in a menu that is strictly a la carte. Pakistan, for instance, may only get some counter-terrorism assistance now, but nothing prevents the US from increasing defence sales under this law at a later date. And as everyone knows, the president is good at peddling arms.

A rescinding of the MNNA status would definitely irritate the Pakistanis, though not incommode them very much since brother China is available as a backup. However, it would hit their (already large) egos, and would further give the impression of a country that is rapidly becoming a pariah.

This has financial implications, and that is what will really hurt. International lending institutions and investors alike will hesitate in providing finance to a country that is seen as a terrorist sponsor. And the news from Pakistan is bad. Its probably begging bowl season again as its external debt rises.

It would be nice to think that the US will completely turn the tap off on aid to Pakistan. However, this remains unlikely. It is true that policymakers require some leverages to work with, without which it is impossible to threaten or to cajole. India itself has few leverages with Pakistan, due to decades of bad blood.

Of the few that exist, one is that of medical visas  though that hurts ordinary Pakistanis who have little to do with the decision making of governments. Banning overflights of commercial flights is not an option under our obligations under International Civil Aviation Rules. Military aircraft overflights are covered under the 1991 Agreement on Prevention of Air Space Violations. The Agreement requires information on the nature of the cargo, type of fuel and various other details from the overflying country, besides requiring the incoming aircraft to fly above 80,000 feet along specific corridors. This also applies to VVIP movement.

Barring one instance when India refused all overflights (2002-2004), there has been no interruption in flights between the two even during Kargil. Here's a surprise, however. Following the 18 September, 2016, attack on sleeping soldiers in Uri in Kashmir, Islamabad issued notices to airmen (also called NOTAM) over Karachi and barred its own civil flights to Gilgit, and Shadraul (Gilgit Baltistan) and Chitral in the tribal areas.

No reason was given, but clearly, Pakistan was expecting India to retaliate, and strongly. It might, therefore, be a good idea to give them something to think about, which might include a possibility of the launch another surgical strike or worse. Living in a state of suspense might be good for Rawalpindi's constitution.

There are many other instruments India and the US can jointly use to deal with a recalcitrant Pakistan. One is an interesting and highly effective one. In a landmark case, Rosenberg versus Lashkar-e-Taiba, filed by the distraught Jewish survivors of the Mumbai massacre 0f 26/11 in a New York court, the final decision had gone against the accused who were none other than ISI chief Pasha Shuja Pasha, Nadeem Taj, Major Iqbal as well as Major Ali and Major Samir, all from the ISI.

The court had summoned them for subsequent hearing and trial, giving the Pakistanis a severe shock. However, a month later, the US Attorney General clarified that the ISI was entitled to immunity under the FSIA (Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act) and thus could not face trial in a US Court. However, the US is not the only court in the world, nor is Mumbai its only crime. Legal luminaries have to sit together and work this one out, perhaps even through a war crime trial court. Because terrorism is a form of war, make no mistake.

This "in again, out again" policy that passes for justice in Pakistan has to end and end quickly. Perhaps the government should put up a "suggestions page" on the website of the National Investigation Agency so that citizens can vent their spleen against the terrorist kingpin. If nothing else, it will give the generals a few sleepless nights.
New Delhi: India has made "impressive" progress on the metrics of child development in the last decade, but there is a section of children who have been "left out" due to inequality or lack of access to resources, says a top UNICEF official.

According to Justin Forsyth, deputy executive director of the United Nation's Children Fund, India can address the issues involved and become a "model for development" for the rest of the world.

"We are impressed by the country's progress made on so many issues related to child development. There has been a 67 percent reduction in under-five mortality, stunting rates have reduced," Forsyth told reporters on Thursday.

Poverty reduction and extreme poverty reduction had also come down, he added.

A UNICEF India official said data quoted by Forsyth was taken from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). The figures he cited were from the surveys of 2006 to 2016, she said.

Forsyth, who is on his first visit to India, was accompanied by Unicef's India representative Yasmin Ali Haque, during the interaction at the Foreign Correspondents' Club. Forsyth, who is based in New York, said he has met with Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and representatives of various private companies.

"India has made progress on various metrics but in some areas of the country like in Jharkhand recently, we saw, many children have been left out of the progress cycle, either because of caste discrimination or lack of access to resources due to remoteness of the area."

"India has a dynamic environment and the Centre, state governments, corporates, civil society must work together and set an example for the world to follow," Forsyth said.

Haque said it was also heartening that in many parts of the country, children were taking a lead in becoming part of missions like the Swachh Bharat mission.

The senior UNICEF official added that a global report will be released on the impact of technology on children on 11 December.

Haque and Forsyth concurred that child marriage was another problem that needed to be addressed.

"In few areas of Jharkhand rates of such marriage were very high," he said.

The issue of online child pornography and child trafficking were affecting societies globally, Forsyth said.

"Criminals are using e-transaction in trafficking of children. So, technology has helped us and so has social media, but there is a flip side," he said.
Mumbai: A team of Enforcement Directorate on Friday interrogated Indrani Mukerjea, inside the Byculla women's jail, in connection with a money laundering case lodged against her, official sources said.

A special CBI courtconducting the trial in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case, in which Indrani, her husband Peter Mukerjea and former husband Sanjeev Khanna are the prime accusedon Thursday granted permission to the Enforcement Directorate to question her for two days.

The interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate pertains to a case it had registered in May under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against several persons, including the Mukerjea couple, their company INX Media, former Union Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram and others.

Charging them of financial misappropriation, the Enforcement Directorate had contended that the Mukerjeas had "allegedly siphoned off 90 million and the money is suspected to have gone to foreign countries through the unauthorized route of hawala".

Following the Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance, the INX Media had received Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) for Rs 46.20 million, but it actually received FDI of Rs 3,053.60 million between August 2007 and May 2008, the Enforcement Directorate had said.

Accordingly, this excess foreign exchange equivalent to Rs 3,004.40 million, beyond the disclosed the permitted foreign investment, was received by INX Media from three Mauritius-based investors, according to the Enforcement Directorate.

While Rabin, Peter's son from a previous marriage, was managing the funds in the form of bonds in New Zealand, the trio of Peter, Indrani and Rabin laundered money and were involved in transactions in Britain linked with illegal funds generated from India, said the Enforcement Directorate.

The next round of Enforcement Directorate interrogation will be conducted on 6 December, as per the court orders.
Jammu: Dineshwar Sharma, the Centre's Special Representative on Jammu and Kashmir, will arrive in Jammu on Friday on a six-day visit to the state in an effort to pave the way for a sustained dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue.

Sharma will remain in Jammu till Sunday after which he will leave for the Kashmir Valley, officials told IANS.

"The Special Representative is scheduled to visit the Jagti migrant camp in Nagrota area to interact with the members of the Kashmiri Pandit community.

"Sharma will have detailed discussions with the migrants to understand their problems and also explore ways and means for a dignified return of the community to the valley," the officials said.

He will also meet residents living along the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC).

Sharma is slated to meet representatives of West Pakistan refugees who came to Jammu from Pakistan in 1947, 1965 and 1971.

These people have limited citizenship rights in Jammu and Kashmir. They can vote in the Lok Sabha elections, but are debarred from voting in the state Assembly elections.

They cannot own property neither can they apply for a government job.

Sharma is scheduled to visit south Kashmir districts.
A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression.
Kolkata: The Kolkata police on Friday arrested a man allegedly linked to two terrorists of the banned Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), who were held earlier this week, near a cinema hall in the busy Sealdah area, a senior officer said.

Mohammed Sahadat Hossain was arrested by a special task force after the two ABT terrorists Samsad Mia and Rizaul Islam provided information to the police on his dealings with them, the police officer said.

Shahadat is suspected to have been helping several others in crossing the porous India-Bangladesh border, he said.

"It appears that Sahadat has helped many from Bangladesh to cross the border. He used to do this in exchange for money. We are grilling him to find out how many people he has helped in crossing the border," the police officer said.

A city court has sent him to police custody till 5 December.

On Tuesday, the STF arrested Mia and Islam with arms supplier Monotosh Dey and seized several fake documents and arms from them. They are suspected to be behind the killing of secular bloggers and writers in Bangladesh.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Friday said if the government decided to introduce a legislation for a ban on triple talaq it would permanently free Muslim women.

The demand comes at a time when the Centre is mulling bringing in a legislation in the Winter Session of Parliament to put an end to instantaneous triple talaq which is still in practise despite the Supreme Court striking it down.

A ministerial committee has been set up to propose a suitable legislation or amend the existing penal provisions, which would make instantaneous triple talaq an offence.

"It would a good step if the Union government introduces a bill on triple talaq as it would permanently free Muslim women. The tradition should be banned completely and its exercise should considered as a crime," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana said.

"Earlier, the voice of Shah Bano was suppressed. But through the case of Shayara Bano, it would be the dawn of Muslim women's freedom," the party claimed.

In the editorial, the party took potshots at its senior partner by raising its long-standing promises of constructing a Ram temple in Ayodhya, implementing uniform civil code and repealing Article 370 which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

"The way the Union government is following directives of the Supreme Court on triple talaq, it should do the same with the Uniform Civil Code. The Supreme Court had given directives to the Centre thrice over the UCC but still the government did not take any steps for it," the party claimed.

"The issue of Article 370 can be solved but it is always opposed by Kashmiri leaders," it said.

"And for Ram temple, the BJP has sufficient political power at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh. If the government takes it seriously, it can complete the promises it made to the people," the party added.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis dream of delivering the countrys first, blemishless, Aadhaar-linked farm loan waiver scheme has turned into a nightmare.

Banks have derailed his plan to such an extent that Fadnavis will not recognise his own pet project when the disbursal kicks off in desperation over the next week or two. The most critical rules devised to ensure corruption-free disbursal to only the most distressed farmers will by then have been consigned to the dustbin.

Thanks to the inefficiency of banks of all huesnational and district; commercial and cooperative; public and privatethe disbursal has stopped dead in its tracks. After inordinate delays (the waiver was announced on 24 June), the government set 18 October for kicking off disbursal. On that day, guardian ministers fanned out into the districts to hand out a few hundred waiver certificates to eager farmers. (The payment is made to the banks, farmers receive certificates proclaiming them debt-free and making them eligible for fresh loans.)

But that was government optics for public consumption, just political theatre to show that the scheme had taken off on the promised date. In reality, the government was in panic mode, desperately stalling for time.

Just two days earlier (16 October) the governments IT vendor, Innowave IT Infrastructure Ltd, had drawn up the first masterlist of beneficiaries. That list had knocked the daylights out of Mantralaya, the seat of the Maharashtra government. The government received 1.05 crore applications from farmers. The banks came out with a list of 77.29 lakh farmers who according to them were eligible for waiver (about 56.59 lakh families). But the first combined masterlist drawn up by Innowave threw up only 2.39 lakh valid applicants (called the Green List). That amounted to a hit rate of just 3 percent and a failure rate of 97 percent (normally it should be the other way round).

It was instantly clear that the list was infected. For some reason, the well-intentioned objective of Aadhaar-mapping of loan accounts had bombed.

With two days to go for the proclaimed inauguration of disbursal, the government was scrambling to make sense of the the mess that its various departments (Cooperation, IT and the Chief Ministers Office), Innowave and, most important, 66 banks had managed to turn it into eight stressful weeks of running on the spot, and as will become clear later in this report, an exercise in running backwards.

The mess is so rancid that in the 36 days since 18 October no waiver certificates have been given out. Not one. The government is sitting on mountains of junk data submitted by the banks, clueless how to go about making a masterlist of verified beneficiaries. It has been able to move names from the Yellow List (data that is retrievable) only by doing away with some key safety filters. There have been more than 20 changes to the allotment policy in the last one month, but nobody is the wiser if the Green List, which has grown from 2.39 to 15 lakh around one week ago (it is changing every day), is clean or corrupted.

As a face-saver for 18 October, the government picked up a few hundred possible beneficiaries and handed out the waiver certificates. Unsuprisingly, there is already a backlash. Some farmers who did not even apply for waiver are reported to have received waiver certificates and some eligible ones received certificates with all kinds of errors: Wrong name, wrong loan details, and so on (as evidenced later in this report).

In the matter of a few months, Fadnavis prospective trump cardthe first and only government to carry out the most efficient Aadhaar-linked loan waiver programmehas become his biggest political and administrative challenge yet. An albatross round his neck that he has to get rid of before the Winter Session of the state Assembly begins on 11 December. From there on, if the waiver web is not untangled, political temperatures might reach the June 2017 levels when farmers agitations backed by all political parties forced him to announce a loan waiver he was reluctant to offer: And for good reasons.

What went wrong?

To appreciate what went wrong it is important to understand the process devised by the government for generating a master list of farmers eligible for the waiver. The broad eligibility criterion was this: The government would waive up to a maximum of Rs 1.50 lakh per farmer- family. This would ensure that one, the loan waiver would reach as many families as possible and two, that rich farmers would be kept out and only small and marginal farmers would benefit. Farmers who had paid up their loan would get an incentive of Rs 25,000. If there were cases of loan waiver and incentive within the same family (loan taken by different family members, some paid up some defaulted), the total outgo would still be capped at Rs 1.50 lakh per family.

To further ensure purity of process and identification of beneficiaries, Chief Minister Fadnavis insisted on linking the bank accounts with Aadhaar numbers of the farmers. This would be a challenge because banks had given out loans as early as 2009 when there was no Aadhaar and the seeding of Aadhaar with bank accounts is at a very nascent stage even in urban areas. But Fadnavis was insistent on Aadhaar linkage because he wanted a high fidelity disbursal unlike in 2009 when the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) pointed out enormous leakages.

A two-way process was devised to collect data. Farmers across Maharashtra were asked to apply through the Aaple Sarkar portal. At the other end of the process banks across the state were asked to submit their list of defaulting farmers. Innowave, the vendor tasked with designing MahaOnlines direct benefit transfer (DBT) for more than 40 government schemes, was pulled into creating the processing system for the loan waiver scheme as well.

Top sources in the IT and Cooperation departments told Firstpost that Innowave designed both the data-capture forms  one for farmers to fill in their details and one for the banks. The form given to the banks was extensive to say the least. Banks normally store the data of their loan accounts under 46 fields (name, age, city, loan amount, amount repaid, overdue etc). But the form they received from the Cooperation Department had 66 fields  20 more than their own forms. But the information required in all these fields was such that the banks would have it with them, except of course Aadhaar (in some cases).

Having collected the data from both farmers and the banks, the job of the system integrator, Innowave, was to develop a software to match the two lists and come up with one masterlist of beneficiaries. The software  rule-based engine in IT jargon  was developed on the basis of an elaborate allotment policy drawn up by the Cooperation Department. Such a masterlist would be of high fidelity and perhaps set the template for governments across the country for leak-proof disbursal of farm waivers.

But thanks to the banks, it was not to be. Farmers had to register with their Aadhaar numbers which would be instantly verified on the Aadhaar central database even before they could access the form. So all the Aadhaar numbers provided by farmers were clean. The Aadhaar numbers supplied by the banks were another sordid story altogether, exposed in this Firstpost story on 24 October.

Significant as that expose was in bringing to light how the whole process had gone astray, it was not even the tip of the iceberg. For example, it was not clear from that list of 273 farmers  a minuscule extract from the huge data base of 77.29 lakh applicants  what the extent of the infected data was. Or who was responsible for the generating it; the system integrator, some or all of the 66 banks.

The governments first instinct was to suspect the smaller banks because it was unthinkable that the giant national banks, who pride themselves in their CORE banking systems, would turn in dirty, putrid data. But here is the shocker. After multiple, persistent visits to the IT and Cooperation departments in the last one month since our first expose, Firstpost can now say with authority that when it comes to callousness with public money there is hardly any distinction between big banks and small.

Sample this: The countrys biggest commercial bank, State Bank of India, submitted loan details of about 11 lakh farmers. Out of this about three lakh entries had errors. In just one form submitted by SBI (it submitted more than 3,000 forms in all according to Mantralaya sources), more than 11,ooo farmers were assigned one single Aadhaar number. More shocking, the Aadhaar number was also single digit: 0 (zero).

Other big banks such as HDFC, ICICI, Canara Bank, Central Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of Baroda were also guilty of gross errors in the data provided. On 25 October, a week after the dirt hit the roof, Fadnavis chaired an emergency meeting with representatives of the banks and read them the riot act. Top officers supervising the work, SS Sandhu (additional chief secretary, Cooperation), V K Gautam (principal secretary IT, now sent on leave), D K Jain (additional secretary, Finance) and Praveen Pardesi (additional chief secretary to CM) had a PowerPoint presentation put together to highlight the complete lack of integrity of the data provided by the banks. They pointed out as many as 11 major types of errors, not to mention the umpteen instances of entering invalid characters (such as dash, hyphen, asterisk, back slash etc). Here is a selection from that list of errors:

1. Using same saving account number for two related persons, husband and wife

Sudhakar G Awatik SB a/c number 60xxxxxxxxxxx90; loan a/c 60xxxxxxxxxxx68 and wife Geetabai Sudhakar Awatik SB a/c 60xxxxxxxxxxx90 and loan a/c 60xxxxxxxxxxx23.

2. Using same Aadhaar number for two unrelated persons

Aastik Shivalay Shejole, Aadhaar number : xxxx7852xxxx, loan a/c 60xxxxxxxxxxx16, SB a/c 60xxxxxxxxxxx26

Ushabai Bhimrao Kale, Aadhaar number : xxxx7852xxxx, loan a/c 60xxxxxxxxxxx20, savings a/c 60xxxxxxxxxxx77

3. Wrong Aadhaar number for multiple entries

Aadhaar number 123123123123

4. Wrong saving a/c number, same Aadhaar number for two unrelated persons (each name entered as a single string)

DilipRamchandraKachale, Aadhaar : xxxx111110157, loan a/c 20xxxxxxx70, savings a/c 111111111111;

BalkrishnaSavkeramGhagle, Aadhaar : xxxx11110157, loan a/c 60xxxxxxx38, savings a/c 111111111111;

5. One name, one Aadhaar number, savings number and loan a/c numbers repeated over and over

The name Sangita Hanmant Chavan appears over and over with same Aadhaar number 100000000000 and same saving a/c 14905100005045 and two loan a/c numbers 480 and 481

6. Inconsistencies in bank data about status of loan

Many banks, including Ahmadnagar DCC, Akola DCC, BOI, BoM, Canara Bank, Gondia DCC, Maharashtra Gramin Bank, said loan was fully repaid and yet showed overdue amounts. A sample in table below:

Bank name Farmer name Fully repaid Overdue

Canara Aadmane S Rao Yes Rs 1,05,113.17

BoB Aabasaheb Bhukele Yes Rs 49,924

BoI Aont Chaple Yes Rs 7,49,000

BoM Aabubai Borkar Yes Rs 3,00,009

Sharad Pawar is wrong

Following Firstposts 24 October expose of the major bungling by the banks, former chief minister Sharad Pawar roasted Fadnavis for the inordinate delay in disbursal of the loans even as the post-monsoon sowing season was slipping by. His major pique with Fadnavis was that the Chief Minister did not trust the banking system.

This is what Pawar told Firstpost in an exclusive interview on 27 October: "The Chief Minister believes that these loan waivers only help banks.Banking is a system and our economy depends on it. We cannot say that all banks are defaulters or thieves. It's very sad that the Chief Minister of a state lacks faith in the banking system."

The innumerable errors and the complete lack of due diligence by the banks while participating in the countrys biggest loan waiver scheme (by a state) of Rs 34,022 crore shows that Pawar is wrong in his blind trust of the banks and Fadnavis is right in putting them through the wringer.

Actually, Sharad Pawar is right

Referring to how the UPA government, of which he was a partner, disbursed the Rs 71,000 crore loan waiver across the nation in 2008-09, Pawar said:

"What we did was simple. We appointed a committee and after it submitted a report, we held a discussion with banks. We directly deposited the money into banks. We asked banks for a list of defaulting farmers according to branches, and then waived the loans. It's so simple. But the BJP-led government and especially the Chief Minister has no faith in banks. It's very shocking to me.

"We deposited the amount directly in banks and this time too, the so-called loan waiver amount was also given to the banks. So what is the difference? It's just the style and propaganda of the BJP. They make fake promises and they lie loudly."

Pawar is right. With just two weeks left for the Assembly session to start, Fadnavis is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the disbursal does not start before the session, it will put his administration under severe pressure. For him to have the infected data scrubbed clean is a process that can take up to six months. He doesnt have the luxury of even a week. Hemmed in by the inefficiency (or worse) of the banks, he has decided to take the Pawar way out of the mess. The High Powered Committee set up recently to push for early resolution is learnt to have taken a decision that will effectively maul Fadnavis original plan out of shape. Top sources told Firstpost that the HPC (consisting of Chief Secretary Sumit Mallik and Additional Chief Secretaries DK Jain, SS Sandhu and Principal Secretary IT, SVR Srinivas) has decided to junk the Aadhaar linking (and a few other rules included in the original plan) and leave it to the banks to disburse the amounts as per their records. That is, the loan disbursal will be under the full control of the banks.

And knowing the imaginary lists they have come up, Fadnavis and the farmers of Maharashtra can only pray that the money lands up in the right accounts.

Read other stories in our series on the farm loan waiver here and here
New Delhi: The much delayed Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers' trilateral meeting will take place on 11 December.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi will come to New Delhi for the trilateral meeting which will be the first high-level visit from China to India after the Doka La standoff.

"I can only confirm that foreign ministers of India, China, Russia will meet in New Delhi on 11 December," external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

He said detailed programmes for the meeting are being worked out.

The RIC meeting was planned for April in New Delhi but it had to be postponed as Wang could not confirm his participation in the meeting due to scheduling problems.

There were media reports then that Wang had put off his visit to India to protest New Delhi's decision to allow the Dalai Lama to travel to Arunachal Pradesh. However, China had dismissed those reports.

As the MEA announced the dates for the trilateral meeting, the spokesperson in the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi said there was a need to foster favourable external environment by India and China.

"Both China and India are developing countries and face common tasks of developing economy and improving people's well being. At a crucial stage at deepening reform and advancing modernisation, both countries need to foster a favourable external environment," spokesperson counselor Xie Liyan said.

Last week, India and China held their first meeting on the border consultation and coordination mechanism in Beijing after the Doka La standoff.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doka La since 16 June after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese army. The face-off ended on 28 August.

Replying to a separate question on status of application for political asylum in India by Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti, Kumar said "I am not aware about any such application."
Lucknow: Muslim organisations on Friday reacted sharply to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's strong pitch for building a Ram Temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, terming it as a direct challenge to the apex court before which the matter was pending, and demanded action against him.

They also alleged that the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) chief was trying to help the BJP in the upcoming Gujarat elections by diverting the attention of voters from "real" issues with such statements.

"The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has faith in the judiciary and will try to implement its order... by issuing this statement Mohan Bhagwat has taken the law into his hands," the spokesman of the AIMPLB, Maulana Khaild Saifullah Rehmani, said.

He demanded that the government take action against "such people who are openly showing disrespect to the courts and taking the law into their hands".

Bhagwat has issued "a one-sided statement that only a temple will be constructed at the site and this is unacceptable to us", Rehmani said, adding this amounts to showing disrespect to the court.

The convenor of Babri Masjid Action Committee and member of the Board, Zafaryab Jilani, alleged that such remarks "challenging" the apex court is a threat to democracy.

Jilani, who is also a senior counsel, said that it appears that Bhagwat has tried to help the BJP in the Gujarat Assembly elections through his statement.

"Bhagwat has given an open challenge to the Supreme Court.... As per the Constitution, the apex court is supreme and its orders have to be implemented in the country ...it has asked for maintaining status quo on the site ...through this statement Bhagwat has given a direct challenge to the Supreme Court and this is also a threat for democracy," he said.

The spokesman of All India Shia Personal Law Board, Maulana Yasoob Abbas, said: "Sangh chief is not above the Supreme Court, he will also have to accept the court verdict".

"Despite the issue pending in the court, Mohan Bhagwat has given this statement only to divert the attention of voters in Gujarat from real issues," Abbas said.

Addressing the "Dharma Sansad", a congregation of 2,000 Hindu sages, mutt heads and VHP leaders from across the country in Udipi earlier on Friday, Bhagwat said there should be no ambiguity that Ram temple will be built at Ayodhya.

"We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of our faith. It will not change," Bhagwat said.

The RSS chief said that after years of efforts and sacrifice, building the Ram temple seemed possible now, while also noting that the matter was in the court.

"Ram Mandir only will be constructed and nothing else. It will be constructed there only," Bhagwat said.

He said the temple would be constructed in the same grandeur as it existed before, using the "same stones" under the guidance of those who were the flag-bearers of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement for the last 25 years.

The Supreme Court will on 5 December commence the final hearing on the cross-appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute.

The high court had ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77-acre area at Ayodhya among the parties  the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla.
Outrage over Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati, a film that people are yet to see, has sparked off a flurry of protests across the country  mostly triggered by fringe right-wing elements. The film has been mired in controversy ever since the actors, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor, began shooting for it.

Groups like the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, an organisation that claims to champion the cause of the Rajput community, have called for an outright ban on the film as they say it distorts historical facts and have even resorted to threats and acts of hooliganism (see here, here and here).

While it is true that history is based on solid evidence and research, it cannot be denied that the cultural memory of a particular community  like the Rajputs in this case  goes beyond the verifiable. One can hardly distinguish between historical authenticity and fictional concepts that have over time acquired the garb of historicity anymore. Communities like to see their own history in a positive light and thus seek to eliminate everything that is uncomfortable, say defeats in battles etc. But what makes us want to appropriate our culture by blurring the lines of the mythological and the historical?

We are entering a phase in which cultural traditions are increasingly getting into conflicts with factual history. It is as if people are getting more possessive about their identities and feel the need to lash out at any perceived 'threat' to their cultural mouldings. When Padmavati was announced, it was as if the Rajput consciousness of their historical identity was at stake. And now, we find ourselves 'threatened' by the historical references shown in the film. Here, it becomes all the more necessary to see Padmavati through a historical lens to understand the time, cultural setting and social order which propelled it to this juncture.

But most of all, this whole brouhaha over a film raises some pertinent questions:

Is the legend of Padmavati historically authentic?

To what extent is she a product of fiction?

What does historical research say about it?

Professor Irfan Habib, eminent historian and professor emeritus at the Aligarh Muslim University, pointed out that tracing the roots of Padmavati in history is all but a futile exercise as her existence lies in the realm of the imaginary. "Although her existence is debatable, and has been discussed by many historians, there is not a single mention of Padmavati in any contemporary historical narrative. The first mention (of the legend of Padmavati) appeared in a piece of poetry by Malik Muhammad Jayasi called Padmavat, dating back to the 16th Century," Habib said.

Jayasis poem narrates the tale of Padmini, a princess of unparalleled beauty who lived in the kingdom of Simhaladvipa (present day Sri Lanka). It said that she caught the eye of Chittor's Rana Ratan Singh, who travelled to Simhaladvipa and won her hand in a swayamvar.

After returning to his kingdom in Chittor, Ratan Singh banished a sorcerer, who travelled to the Delhi Sultanate to avenge his banishment. He seeded the idea into Delhis ruler (Alauddin Khilji) of Padminis beauty and convinced him to attack Chittor.

The Khilji ruler, as per the poem, then marched to Chittor and vanquished Ratan Singh. However, he failed to win over Padmini as she, along with other Rajput women, committed the practice of jauhar  self-immolation to protect their honour.

Habib, however, highlighted some historical loopholes in Jayasis poem. "Although it is true that Khilji had defeated the Rana of Chittor, it is also true that he had done so in 1303 and that he had died in 1316. At this point in time, no one is known to have existed by the name of Padmini or Padmavati. Since the mythical Rani Padmini was first mentioned in the 16th Century, there is a timeline gap of more than 200 years between Khilji and Padmini."

But if she did not exist, then how did she become a part of the Rajput mythology?

Professor Harbans Mukhia, a renowned historian whose principal area of study is medieval India, explained how this couldve happened.

"The concept of Padmini is a very old one. It was there even in the Kamasutra. It plays out the formula of the virile man chasing a beautiful woman, overcoming all kinds of hurdles to win her. This formula finds mention in many folktales, like the Betal Pachisi, and in Rajput literature. Jayasi wrote his poem Padmavat and he picked up on this old formula," Mukhia said.

"There is a difference of 237 years difference between the two incidents  that is the history part of it. Its a very old trope of literature  purely a literary trope," he added.

In fact, Jayasi even ends his poem Padmavat with the words, "I have made up the story and related it." But despite that we find ourselves at his juncture where we cannot distinguish between history and legend, or mythology

"It is like if Amitabh Bachchan plays a coolie (porter) in a movie and 100 or 200 years later, we claim that there once was a coolie named Amitabh," Mukhia stated.

Correcting history

Recently, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said that the legend of Padmavati will be taught in the states schools to help students learn the 'correct history'. Similarly, in July, the state of Rajasthan attempted to rewrite history when its education board approved changing Class X history books to teach students that the Rana of Mewar, Maharana Pratap was the victor against Mughal emperor Akbar during the 16th Century Battle of Haldighati.

In this context, it becomes clear that the Padmavati row cannot be seen as an isolated incident and that it portends to a larger theme.

"One of the biggest ironies in this is that Padmavati was given birth to by a Muslim (Jayasi) and the whole fiction is now being turned into historical facts to protect the sentiments of other communities. Every mythological, legendary figure has become historical and you cant dispute it because youre likely to have your head chopped off if you do," Mukhia said.

"The only history being 'corrected' is that of Muslim rulers. There seems to be no problem with the colonial history. Why is that they (the ministers mentioned) are only finding fault with Muslim history?" he added. He said that the discourse of the Hindutva brigade and the RSS  towards the formation of a Hindu Rashtra  paints Muslims as the enemies, and not the British. "So now, the MLAs, MPs will tell us what the 'correct' history is," he added.

Facts cannot be changed on public demand, said Habib, "You cannot change events that have happened. It is not a misinterpretation of facts, it is a manipulation."

Khiljis portrayal as the virile man

Although Khilji has been portrayed as a harsh, virile man by many, in truth he was known to be one of the most able rulers of the medieval period. Khilji had many achievements, added Mukhia. "He fended off six Mongol attacks  some with over 200,000 soldiers."

"Once, Qazi Mughis had said to him, 'What you are doing is against the Shariat.' He replied saying, Whatever I am doing is in the best interests of the state and I dont care if the Shariat allows it or not.' That was his attitude towards governance," he added.

There is no evidence to suggest that Khilji was a lustful man, who would take wanton decisions about his kingdom to chase after a woman.

"But you need the image of a lustful man. This version of Khilji can then be used to paint the entire Muslim community in a bad light. The discourse, thus, can shift towards how lustful Muslim men go after Hindu women  which can help concretise the Love Jihad movement," explained Mukhia

After speaking to historians, it becomes clear that the Padmavati controversy is not just a battle over the past. It brings to the fore a serious disagreement over how we build, perceive and approach history as a discipline. History as a subject of study, it seems, is at the risk of becoming irrelevant, trapped between Left and Right interpretations of past events.
New Delhi: Amid the raging controversy over Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama 'Padmavati', Union Minister of State (MoS) for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale on Friday said the movie should be released after deletion of "objectionable scenes".

Athawale told the media: "Bhansali has made many great films and didn't have the intention to distort the character of historical figure Padmavati."

"It was a very good decision to make a movie on the inspirational woman, but showing dancing scenes of the queen who is considered a goddess by the Rajput community is very dangerous," he added.

The minister stated that the "objectionable scenes that disrespected the Rajput community" should be deleted, and the film should be released at the earliest.

"I appeal to all the state governments not to allow the film to be released without cuts," he said.

He further said that the artists should not have blindly followed the director and "analysed" their part in the movie.

"Actress Deepika Padukone who has played Padmavati should have spoken against the offensive portrayal of the Rajput queen," said Athawale.

"If it was essential to have song and dance in the movie, some other trivial character could have been shown doing that and not the queen herself," he added.

He also said that the Central Board of Film Certification should not have allowed the promotional videos of the film to be launched without their sanction.

Condemning the threats made to the movie director and the cast, he said: "Those opposing the film and its scenes should not be violent and should gently express their opinion."
Kolkata: Amid the raging controversy over Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama 'Padmavati', West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday asserted that her state was ready to welcome the film and its crew.

"Yes, we would welcome them. They are welcome here if they can't do it in other states. We can make special arrangements," Banerjee said at the India Today Conclave East in Kolkata, in response to a query whether her state would welcome the film's crew for a premiere at a time when many states have banned the movie.

"Bengal will be very happy," she added.

Several organisations across the country have been opposing the release of the movie. The Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor starrer was scheduled to be released on 1 December, but it has now been deferred.

On 22 November, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani had declared that his government would not allow the release of Padmavati in the poll-bound state.

Earlier, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held that the film had "distorted facts" about Rajput queen Padmavati and would not be allowed to be released in his state, even if it gets a censor board certification.

His Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath had held the movie director responsible for hurting the sentiments of the Rajput community, while Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje had sought edits in the film to remove "objectionable sequences".
Chandigarh: Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said the allegations levelled against the Haryana Police in connection with the Gurugram school murder case were being investigated.

He was asked about the allegations reportedly levelled by the family of school bus conductor Ashok Kumar against the Haryana Police that he was beaten up and forced to accept he killed the seven-year-old boy in Gurugram's Ryan International School.

"The matter is being investigated and action will be taken against the guilty," Khattar said in Ambala.

Kumar, who was arrested by the Gurugram Police in connection with the murder of the Class 2 student, was released from the Bhondsi jail after a Gurugram court granted him bail.

He has not got a clean chit from the CBI.

In a twist in the case, the CBI recently announced that it had apprehended a senior student of the school in connection with the incident, rejecting the police theory that the killing was the handiwork of Kumar.

The CBI had arrested the 16-year-old student of Gurugram's Ryan International School on charges of killing the Class 2 student to get the school to defer a parent-teacher meeting and an exam.

The seven-year-old as was found with his throat slit in the toilet of the school in Bhondsi, Gurugram, on 8 September.
Agartala: The mobile phone of slain journalist Sudip Datta Bhowmik has been recovered from the possession of arrested Tripura State Rifles (TSR) commandant Tapan Debbarma, police said on Friday.

Debbarma, who was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the case, had a mobile phone that belonged to the journalist, Superintendent of Police (West) Abhijit Saptarshi told PTI.

Datta Bhowmik, a senior crime reporter of local Bengali newspaper Syandan Patrika, was allegedly shot dead on Tuesday inside the headquarters of the 2nd battalion at RK Nagar, 15 kilometre from Agartala when he had gone there to meet Debbarma.

"Sudip was called by TSR 2nd battalion commandant Debbarma and shot inside the battalion headquarters. The journalist had written 11 news items about the commandant's misdeeds," Editor of Syandan Patrika Subal Kumar Dey told reporters.

Tripura Journalist Union (TJU) secretary Pranab Sarkar said the Press Council of India (PCI) has taken cognisance on the killing of the journalist.

"PCI Chairman Justice CK Prasad informed me through e-mail that it had suo motu registered a case on the killing of Datta Bhowmik inside the battalion headquarters. After receiving the email, I called him up and requested for a visit by a PCI team to the state. He assured to do the needful," Sarkar said.

Meanwhile, editors and working journalists on Thursday convened a meeting and expressed their deep concern over the safety and security of journalists in the state. They formed a new platform, Forum for Protection of Journalist to launch a democratic movement demanding more safety and security for journalists.

"Within two months two journalists have been killed in the state. We have decided to launch regular movements demanding security for journalists. We have also decided to keep in touch with journalists' organisations in Delhi and other parts of the country asking them to raise their voice against the killings," Sarkar told reporters.

In September, TV journalist Shantanu Bhowmick was killed when he had gone to Mandai in West Tripura district, about 20 kilometres from Agartala, to cover a political event organised by the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT).
I don't know how many young women come to this blog or how many are parents of teenage or young adult women, but here are some safety tips from Kelsey's Army:

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1. Trust your instincts - If something feels wrong then something probably is wrong.2. Know your surroundings - know who and what is around you.3. Always have a plan for where you would go and what you would do if a situation arises.4. Be willing to make a scene in order to be noticed.5. Let someone know where you are going and when you will be back.Remember the acronym TIPS:ake Chargenform others of your whereaboutsrepare for any situationurvival Mentality (role play situations so you will respond should they happen)For more information, go to Kelsey's Army
New Delhi: Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday accused the Modi government of shifting its goalposts on demonetisation and called upon Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu to advise the government to make public the cabinet note last year on the move to junk high-value currency notes.

Chidambaram's remarks came in the wake of Naidu's remarks at SRM University in Chennai on Thursday that the very purpose of demonetisation was to bring back money to the banks and it was achieved.

"Hon'ble VP was Minister in Cabinet that 'approved' demonetisation. Will he please advise the government to make public the cabinet note on demonetisation?" Chidambaram said in a tweet.

The former finance minister also referred to remarks of former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that Rs 3 to Rs 4 lakh crore was not expected to return to the banking system and it was the black component of the currency in circulation.

Hon'ble VP was Minister in Cabinet that 'approved' demonetisation. Will he please advise government to make public the cabinet note on demonetisation?  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 24, 2017

"If the purpose of demonetisation was to bring money back to banks, why did Attorney General tell Supreme Court that government expects that about Rs 4 lakh crore will not come back?" Chidambaram asked. Naidu had said that demonetisation was aimed at bringing in accountability and money had to come to the bank and it happened.

If purpose of demonetisation was to bring money back to banks, why did AG tell SC that government expects that about Rs 4 lakh crore will not come back?  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 24, 2017

He had also said that money has come to banks with the address of its owner and once the money was back in the banks, the tax and the bank rates would go down.

Modi government had on 8 November last year demonetised notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, citing aims that included curbing the menace of "black money and fake currency".
Editor's note: This copy was originally published on 24 November. It's being republished after Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers for the post of Congress party president on Monday.

The principal tasks before Rahul Gandhi as Congress president will be to evolve strategies for countering Hindu nationalism without alienating the Hindus and ensuring Other Backward Classes (OBC) politics doesn't stump the party. These two tasks dwarf the challenges most media commentators have identified for Rahul  those of forging alliances with regional players and building the party organisation.

The Congress has been opposed to Hindu nationalism through its 132 years of existence. But this ideological position lost its edge ever since the BJP initiated the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in the late 1980s. Since then, the Congress has hemmed and hawed, hoping Hindu nationalism will somehow pale before issues of development, rozi-roti, and creation of jobs. Indeed, the cyclical waning of Hindu nationalism enabled the Congress to return to power in 1991, 2004 and 2009.

Despite the ongoing economic slowdown, a glance at the political calendar of 2018 will affirm that Hindu nationalism and OBC politics will dominate in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This is because the Supreme Court will have mostly likely delivered the judgment on the title suit pertaining to Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid, better known as the Ayodhya case, the draft National Register of Citizens for Assam will have been prepared, and the sub-categorisation of OBCs completed.

Here is how the three issues  Ayodhya, Assam, sub-categorisation  will play out in 2018, posing a challenge to Gandhi as he helms the Congress.

Ayodhya

From 5 December, a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will begin to hear the final arguments in the Ayodhya case. Misra stated in August that there would be no adjournments in the hearing. This has led many to conclude that the chief justice hopes to decide the case before he retires on 2 October, 2018. Why else would he have disallowed adjournments?

The final arguments will generate debates in the media on secularism versus Hindutva, faith versus rationality, whether it is possible to prove the precise birth place of Lord Ram, or that a temple was demolished to build the Babri Masjid. It is just the sort of political ambience in which the BJP had prospered in the past, and the Congress suffered. Rahul will have to therefore decide on the voice the Congress should adopt in media debates, alienating neither the Hindus nor Muslims  a tall order indeed.

Assuming the judgment favours the building of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The Sangh Parivar, as is its wont, will turn it into a spectacular event, perhaps even getting kar sevaks to troop in from different parts of the country for the construction of the temple. Hindu triumphalism will turn inter-community relationship fraught. As for Rahul, he cant but become a participant, applaud from the sidelines or remain silent.

In the scenario of the Supreme Court disallowing the building of the Ram temple, Muslim triumphalism will be no less provocative. It will certainly aggravate the hurt of those Hindus for whom, because of decades of propaganda or otherwise, it is an article of faith that Lord Ram was born at the spot where the Babri Masjid once stood. A judgment against the temple will also goad the BJP into turning the 2019 elections into a veritable referendum on Lord Ram. It will ask voters to give it a mandate that would enable it to bring in a law for overcoming the adverse Supreme Court judgment. What then will be Rahuls stance? Will he fight the 2019 election stating unequivocally that the Supreme Court judgment has to be accepted?

In both scenarios, India could erupt. Can Rahul at least rally Congress workers and civil society to ensure that India, regardless of which way the judgment goes, doesnt get sucked into violence?

Assam

The controversy over the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam will also come to a boil in 2018. For those late on the NRC issue, here is a recap: The exercise for updating the NRC for Assam began in 2014, with the cut-off date for determining who is an Indian citizen pegged at 24 March, 1971. An Assamese resident has a choice from a slew of documents to prove his Indian citizenship.

The Registrar-General of India was supposed to have presented the draft NRC on 31 December, 2017. However, the state coordinator of the NRC, Prateek Hajela, told the Supreme Court on 15 November that the NRC can be completed only by 31 July, 2018. Complications have arisen because 48.9 lakh applicants submitted just gram panchayat certificates as 'link documents' to establish their citizenship. Very simply, the 'link document' is documentary evidence to establish that the applicants residency in Assam is legitimate as his or her parents or grandparents were in Assam before 24 March, 1971.

A state cabinet subcommittee had accepted the gram panchayat certificate as a legitimate link document, but this was struck down by the Guwahati High Court. Of the 48.09 lakh people who have submitted only gram panchayat certificates to the NRC authorities, around 20 lakh have been determined to be original inhabitants. This means that the citizenship claims of nearly 28 lakh are now doubtful. Since nearly 1.21 crore applications have yet to be verified, the list of those whose citizenship might come under challenge is likely to grow.

These developments have already prompted minority community organisations to protest, claiming that although they are Indians, they have been unjustifiably identified as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Once the draft NRC is presented to the Supreme Court, rest assured many will take to the streets. Their opposition will trigger a counter-reaction among indigenous Assamese, of whom Hindus are preponderant. It will become a Hindu versus Muslim battle.

The optics of this battle will extend beyond Assam. This is because the issue of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants has acquired a national dimension, courtesy the allegations that they have dispersed across the country. What position will Rahul take? The BJP has a distinct advantage  its electoral strategy targets Muslims to consolidate its Hindu support base. It has proved it can win without Muslim votes.

Will the Congress subtly court the Hindus, believing Muslims have no choice other than to vote for it in the hope of keeping out the BJP from power?

The sub-categorisation of OBCs

Sub-categorisation implies splitting the OBCs into two or three categories, each of which will then be apportioned a percentage of the 27 percent of government jobs and seats in educational institutes reserved for the socially and educationally-backward classes. Thus, for instance, the OBCs can be divided into Extremely Backward Classes (Group A), More Backward Classes (Group B), and Backward Classes (Group C). The 27 percent can then be split into, say, 15 percent for Group A, 8 percent for Group B, and 4 percent for Group C.

In North India at least, Yadavs will certainly get clubbed with Group C. They will consequently have fewer jobs and seats in educational institutes for which to compete in the reserved category. Yadavs constitute the support base of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), both in alliance with the Congress. In contrast, the Extremely Backward Classes or lower OBCs will emerge as the principal beneficiaries of the sub-categorisation. They voted massively for the BJP in this years Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Through sub-categorisation, the BJP will likely consolidate its support base. A rift in the OBCs is likely.

The Group C castes will seek to either challenge the methodology adopted for sub-categorisation or they will raise the demand to remove the 50 percent cap on reservation. The reservation formula that the Congress offered to the states Patidar leader, Hardik Patel, does suggest that Indias Grand Old Party might, if push comes to shove, back the move for removing the 50 percent cap. Depending on how Gujarat votes, OBC-based parties and dominant castes, such as Patels, Jats, and Marathas, could well launch a coordinated movement for the removal of this 50 percent cap. This will shrink the opportunities of the upper caste, stoking their anger. The Congress leadership structure is dominated by the upper caste, but its voters have been consistently favouring the BJP for the last 25 years.

Will Rahul therefore support the removal of the 50 percent cap, concluding there is no point in waiting for the return of the upper caste to the Congress? This is more so as a conservative segment of the upper caste also ideologically supports Hindu nationalism. The process of sub-categorisation, according to the Central governments timeline, should be completed in January. The Congress will be relieved if the dominant castes, the SP and the RJD decide not to strain the system. The Congress can then postpone hard decisions.

The background noise

The Sangh has already executed components of Hindu nationalism, palpable in the outbreak of lynching incidents over the issue of the cow. To this mix, the government has added yet another ingredient  its decision to criminalise triple talaq. A welcome measure otherwise, it signifies the BJPs ploy to communally polarise voters. It is hard to imagine that the BJP wants to reform Muslims even as it relentlessly targets and torments them.

Gujarat shows the Congress is willing to compete with the BJP for Hindu votes. The BJPs ploy has been to raise Hindu consciousness through Muslim-baiting and weld it to the idea of Hindu nationalism. In contrast, Rahul has been visiting one temple after another in the state. It is his attempt to convey to the people that the Congress isnt anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim, a charge the BJP flings at it. But can Rahul win Hindus over only through temple visits? In a nutshell, his challenge is to win the hearts of Hindus without becoming a poor carbon copy of Hindutva.

Follow all the LIVE updates from Rahul Gandhi's elevation as Congress president here
New Delhi: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung on Friday claimed in the Supreme Court that he was being politically persecuted by the West Bengal government, as the state police sought "reversal" of the order restraining it from taking coercive action against him.

Gurung's counsel alleged before a bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was opposed to him "tooth and nail" and has sought a CBI probe in the killings of several Gorkhaland activists during the recent agitation for a separate state.

The West Bengal Police told the bench that the apex court's 20 November order restraining it from taking any coercive steps against Gurung should be vacated, as the "morale" of the entire force was down since there were several cases of serious nature against him.

On 20 November, the top court had issued notice on his plea and said, "in the meantime, no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioner".

Senior lawyer AM Singhvi, appearing for the police, said there were a number of cases, including of murder and rioting, against Gurung and a 26-year-old police official was also killed during the recent Gorkhaland agitation.

He argued that details of these cases were not given to the court at the time when the 20 November order was passed and said, "look at what the state will feel. The state will feel that it is impotent as far as this person is concerned".

Singhvi gave a list of 53 FIRs lodged against Gurung and said he was facing trial in another 24 cases as well.

He also alleged that several incriminating materials like AK 47 rifle, live ammunition and bombs were recovered by the police from the activists during the protests.

Senior advocate PS Patwalia, appearing for Gurung, countered Singhvi's submissions and said a number of FIRs were lodged against him which amounted to political persecution.

"It is rather my case that these FIRs are part of political persecution by West Bengal government against me. I am the President of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. The present chief minister of West Bengal is tooth and nail opposed to me and a separate Gorkhaland," he said.

Patwalia also claimed that 21 pro-Gorkhaland activists were killed during the recent 104-day protest and there should be a CBI investigation into the matter.

When Singhvi referred to the cases lodged against Gurung and said "we want a reversal of the order", the bench observed, "we were not aware of all these cases".

The bench also asked Gurung's counsel to file a reply to the application of the police and posted the case for hearing on 28 November.

"You (police) have levelled allegations (against Gurung) which are serious. So let him file a reply. We will have it on Tuesday," the bench said.

The bench also asked Gurung's counsel to ensure that there is no "public speech" and "demonstration" till then.

The GJM central committee had recently suspended Gurung for six months and appointed Binay Tamang as the party's new president.

The police had earlier claimed that Gurung and some of his aides were absconding after being booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the violence in Darjeeling hills during the recent agitation for a separate Gorkhaland.

Gurung has approached the apex court seeking an independent probe into the alleged killings of Gorkhaland supporters during the protests.
As I came out of the Dwarkadhish temple in Devbhoomi Dwarka, a group of pandas (priests) mistook me for a tourist and rushed towards me. However, more than my prayers, I was concerned with the politicians who attend visit the temple. During my conversation with the pandas, it seemed like they too had caught the election fever.

Arjun Thakur's family has worked for several generation in the temple. Arjun, who helps in the rituals, while talking about Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "We were happy when Rahul Gandhi came here but here it is all BJP. We will vote for Modi because he helps the nation.

Another panda Uddhav Waida said something similar, "We are all happy at Rahulji's arrival. But it doesn't make a difference. He only comes during the election. Until Modi is there, people will vote for him.

I did not expect the pandas to speak in such a manner at the Dwarkadhish temple. However, the people present around the temple wore their opinions on their sleeves.

Arjun Thakur went a step further and even said that "Modi is gold but Rahul is silver".

Hari Rathore, who sells flowers, malas and prasad in front of the temple, said, "Rahul only comes here during election time. It will not make any difference."

Outside the temple, the people on the seashore said that there are 16 ghats which have all been made by Modi. They praised his work inside and outside the temple. Jagdish Bhai Kevat, who takes people on boat-rides said, "These efforts don't make any difference. Modi comes every time while Rahul has come for the first time.

Rahul's soft Hindutva strategy

Rahul reached Dwarka on 25 September. He started his tour with a prayer at the Dwarkadhish temple. There has been a lot of discussion during the election season on the issue of Rahul Gandhi's temple visits. In the last few months, Rahul Gandhi has prayed at various temples in different places in Gujarat.

Rahul Gandhi's temple visits are being seen as a soft Hindutva strategy of the Congress. In fact, the Congress feels that the BJP's image of Hindutva hurts it in Gujarat. The Muslim community is completely on Congress' side of Gujarat. Therefore these visits are an attempt to come on par with the BJP so that the BJP's attempt of polarisation are not successful.

Congress leaders get irritated when BJP accuses Rahul Gandhi of soft Hindutva. Dwarka resident Pal Bhai Ambalia who is the secretary of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) says neither is Hindutva the not the property of of one party nor does being in the BJP make you a Hindu. Ambalia says Rahul's visit will 100 percent benefit and that the political climate has changed.

Senior journalist Chandubhai Vithalani in Dwarka says, 'The people who vote Modi will continue to do so. Everyone knows about Nehru family. Dynasty politics rules in Congress. I think this is wrong. Other people should be given chances too. According to me, Rahul Gandhi's temple visits will have no effect.'

BJP's attack on Rahul

Just a few days after Rahul's visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also reached Dwarka on 7 October. After praying at the Dwarkadhish temple, he laid the foundation stone of a sea bridge between the coastal area of Okha and Bet Dwarka Island. The Bet Dwarka temple is a few kilometres away from the Dwarkadhish temple, where thousands of people visit to worship Lord Krishna. All the pilgrims travel to the temple by boat. After the creation of the sea bridge, it will become much easier to reach the temple.

There is a sense of satisfaction among the people about this work done by Modi in Dwarka. Still, the BJP is not happy with Rahul's temple visits.

BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha compared Rahul Gandhi to Alauddin Khilji and Aurangzeb, saying that Alauddin Khilji and Aurangzeb visited temples too. Rahul Gandhi is running on their footprints. Rao labelled Rahul's visits to the temple as mere drama. The BJP's attack on Rahul is a deliberate, thought-out strategy using which it wants to end the Congress's soft Hindutva strategy.
New Delhi: A 'Y' category of armed VIP security cover has been accorded by the Centre to Gujarat's Patidar leader Hardik Patel, official sources said on Thursday.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has been entrusted with the task of safeguarding the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader, they said.

"A contingent of armed CISF commandos will take charge of the new protectee very soon. Patel will have about eight commandos with him, whenever he travels in Gujarat," a senior official said.

He said a threat analysis report, prepared by central intelligence and security agencies, favoured granting of such a cover to Patel.

There is a potential threat to his security and hence he needs an armed cover, they said.

The CISF has a special VIP security wing and it secures around 60 dignitaries like National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat.

The 24-year-old Patel had on Wednesday declared the support of PAAS for the Congress in the Gujarat Assembly elections next month after the latter accepted its demand for reservation for the Patel community.

Elections in Gujarat will be held on 9 and 14 December.
Gandhinagar: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will visit Gujarat on Friday and Saturday to address election rallies, his fifth visit after Assembly polls were announced in the state.

Gandhi will arrive on Friday morning at Mahatma Gandhi's birthplace Porbandar and address a public rally, focusing on issues of the fishing community.

Thereafter, he will visit Ahmedabad's Dalit Shakti Kendra where he will be presented a mammoth Indian flag made by Dalit workers which activists say the Chief Minister's Office and other officials refused to accept.

He will interact with community representatives in Ahmedabad besides meeting doctors, nurses, paramedics and small scale pharmaceutical manufacturers.

In the evening, he will meet with the teaching community  university professors, primary teachers and ad hoc teachers. He will wrap up the day's programme by addressing a public gathering at Bhakti ground in the Patidar-dominated area of Nikol, Naroda.

On Saturday, Gandhi will visit Dehgam in Gandhinagar district and then leave for Aravalli's Bayad region for a corner meeting. He will have another meeting in Lunawada in the newly-formed Mahisagar district and yet one more at Santrampur.

Gandhi will then reach Dahod district and address a gathering of Congress workers. More meetings have been planned in Dahod to be followed by a public meeting. He will leave Gujarat from Vadodara.
Chandigarh: Congress on Friday alleged that the ruling BJP has always used Justice Dhingra Commission's report that went into the controversial land deals, including those linked to Robert Vadra, during the previous Congress regime in Haryana as a "political tool" for a malicious witch hunt.

"The BJP governments at the Centre and in Haryana have always used it as a political tool for a malicious witch hunt," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told a press conference on Friday.

Surjewala, who was a minister in the previous Congress-led Hooda government in the state, alleged that the BJP governments at the Centre and in Haryana have run a political agenda of vendetta and revenge for years.

He also said that the Commission had not summoned either Vadra or former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda under relevant sections of the Commission of Inquiry Act.

Claiming that Justice Dhingra had rendered himself "ineligible" to deliver justice in the matter, Surjewala alleged that former's appointment as "observer in charge of a private company meant that he ceased to be neutral, non-prejudiced and his conduct precludes him from writing the report".

The Congress leader alleged, "during the continuation of Commission of Inquiry, Justice Dhingra was appointed as a (court) observer in charge of a private company  that is The Printers House Private Limited on 6 April, 2016."

He claimed that Justice Dhingra continued to draw remuneration or honorarium both from the government of Haryana as also from the company, which was "immoral and unethical"

"Did he (Dhingra) seek the consent of the subsequent appointment (observer) and availing of the second remuneration from the government of Haryana?" Surjewala asked.

Justice Dhingra, a retired judge of the Delhi High Court, could not be reached for his comments despite repeated attempts.

"In the light of new facts which have come to light, we demand that Justice Dhingra Inquiry Commission's report should be dumped," Surjewala said.

Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had filed a petition in November 2016 in the high court challenging the constitution of the Dhingra panel, alleging that the government's action of ordering the probe was "mala fide" and a result of political vendetta.

At a press conference on 31 August, 2016, after submitting his report to the chief minister, Justice Dhingra had said "Had there been no irregularity, I would have given one sentence report mentioning there is no irregularity. My report has 182 pages. Without it (irregularity), I did not have any reason to write 182 pages."

The Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government, had on 14 May, 2015 set up the one-man commission to probe issues concerning the grant of licence(s) for developing commercial colonies by the Department of Town and Country Planning to some entities in Sector 83, Gurgaon, including mutation of land deal between Skylight Hospitality and DLF.

The commission formed under the commission of inquiry Act had examined the licences given by the then Hooda-led Congress government for the development of colonies, housing societies and commercial complexes in four Guragon villages of Sihi, Shikohpur, Kherki Daula and Sikanderpur Bada.

The BJP had made the alleged controversial land deals during previous Congress regime a major poll issue in 2014.
Chandigarh: The SAD-BJP combine on Friday asked the Punjab Assembly Speaker to extend the sittings of the House's winter session to at least 10 days so that debate on emergent issues concerning the state could take place. The three-day winter session of Punjab Assembly would commence from 27 November.

A delegation led by former minister Ajit Singh Kohar and senior BJP leader Som Parkash met Speaker Rana KP Singh and asked him to take note of summons issued to AAP leader and MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira by a Fazilka court in a drug case.

Urging the Speaker to extend the sittings of the session, the delegation also sought a debate on other issues like problems faced by the farmers and "non-implementation of poll promises" by the ruling Congress.

The delegation accused the Congress government of "playing a friendly match" with Khaira by not presenting a supplementary charge sheet against him in the court.

Briefing the media persons about the meeting, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said the delegation had asked the Speaker to extend the sittings of the winter session from three to at least 10.

Among other things, the SAD-BJP legislators also wanted to discuss the plight of farmers declared defaulters by banks and they were not getting fertiliser from cooperative societies as they thought that the loan waiver announced by the government would soon be implemented, he said.

Majithia said the delegation also wanted the government to make the contents of the proposed Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act (PCOCA) public.

"There is a widespread feeling that PCOCA will put constraints on personal freedom and liberty. The government should call an all-party meeting to discuss the same, besides holding meetings with the civil society," he said.

Majithia also urged the state government to lay the facts in the case pertaining to UK citizen Jagtar Singh Johal, recently arrested for targeted killings in the state, before the Assembly.

"Our image is at stake. We must clarify if any human rights violation has occurred in this case," he said.
Reuters

Workers at Amazons main distribution hub in Italy are planning their first ever strike for Friday, trade unions said, while they are also striking at six warehouses in Germany, threatening to disrupt one of the years busiest shopping days.

Like the rest of Europe, Italians in recent years have embraced the US tradition of Black Friday, a day of heavy discounting by retailers on the day after Thanksgiving.

Unions said in a statement more than 500 Amazon workers at the Piacenza site in northern Italy had agreed to strike following a failure to negotiate bonuses with the company.

Workers have also decided not to do any overtime until 31 Dec, covering the peak season for the online retailer which hires temporary workers during this period.

Amazon employs around 1,600 people on a permanent basis at the Piacenza site, the first it built in the country after launching its Italian website in 2010.

The Verdi trade union in Germany said Amazon employees would also strike on Friday at six distribution centers in the country as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

The worlds biggest online retailer wants to achieve record sales on this day, but employees have to produce record performance not only on this day so that everything runs how Amazon wants it, said Verdi board member Stefanie Nutzenberger.

Amazon in Italy said in a statement it remained focused on trying to guarantee scheduled deliveries for its customers on Black Friday and in the following days.

The company said salaries paid to its workers were among the highest in the logistics sector and that it also provided some benefits such as private medical insurance or money to pay for training programs.

E-commerce is growing fast in Italy where online sales account only for 10 percent of overall retail sales, according to consultancy EY, half the European average.
IANS

Ahead of the "super-premium" iPhone X launch in South Korea, regulators have reportedly raided Apple's offices in Seoul. According to a report in London-based Metro late on 23 November, the raid was likely to raise questions about whether South Korean authorities were trying to hamper the success of the iPhone X.

The iPhone X went on sale in the country on 24 November. "Investigators visited Apple's HQ earlier this week to ask questions about its business practices ahead of the launch of the smartphone," the report said.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission has been accused of protecting local companies against competition from Apple and others. Apple products are very popular in South Korea which is home to Samsung and LG.

In 2016, the investigators began a probe in a bid to discover whether Apple struck "unfair" contracts with local phone networks. "It's understood the latest raid is part of this ongoing probe, which was launched just months after the American firm took action to address officials' concern about other aunfair' contracts with South Korean firms commissioned to repair iPhones and other gadgets," the report said.

Apple had 33 percent market share when it launched iPhone 6 in South Korea in 2015. Samsung has launched a scheme called "Upgrade To Galaxy" offering up to 10,000 iPhone users a one-month trial of the Galaxy Note 8 or Galaxy S8.
The declaration that was adopted by the European Peoples Party (EPP) during the summit in Brussels also referred to Armenia-EU deal that has to be signed on Friday.

November 24, 2017, 10:01 EPP supports signing of new agreement between EU and Armenia

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 24, ARTSAKHPRESS:The document stressed importance of the development of EU relations with the Eastern Partnership member states, NEWS.am reported.

EPP supports the signing of new agreement between the EU and Armenia and launching of a visa liberalization dialogue with Armenia, the document reads.

The EPP members also touched upon the regional conflicts. EPP supports the need of a more strengthened role for the EU in solving the conflicts in the Eastern Neighborhood, the document said.




PTI

Dark matter and dark energy may not actually exist, according to a study which suggests that accelerating expansion of the universe and the movement of the stars in the galaxies can be explained without these concepts.

For close to a century, researchers have hypothesised that the universe contains more matter than can be directly observed, known as "dark matter". They have also posited the existence of a "dark energy" that is more powerful than gravitational attraction. These two hypotheses, it has been argued, accounts for the movement of stars in galaxies and for the accelerating expansion of the universe respectively. However, according to a researcher at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) in Switzerland, these concepts may be no longer valid: the phenomena they are supposed to describe can be demonstrated without them.

The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal, exploits a new theoretical model based on the scale invariance of the empty space, potentially solving two of astronomy's greatest mysteries. The way we represent the universe and its history is described by Einstein's equations of general relativity, Newton's universal gravitation and quantum mechanics. The model-consensus at present is that of a Big Bang followed by an expansion.

"In this model, there is a starting hypothesis that has not been taken into account, in my opinion," said Andre Maeder, professor in UNIGE's Faculty of Science.

"By that, I mean the scale invariance of the empty space; in other words, the empty space and its properties do not change following a dilatation or contraction," said Maeder. The empty space plays a primordial role in Einstein's equations as it operates in a quantity known as a "cosmological constant", and the resulting universe model depends on it.

Based on this hypothesis, Maeder is now re-examining the model of the universe, pointing out that the scale invariance of the empty space is also present in the fundamental theory of electromagnetism. When Maeder carried out cosmological tests on his new model, he found that it matched the observations. He also found that the model predicts the accelerated expansion of the universe without having to factor in any particle or dark energy.

In short, it appears that dark energy may not actually exist since the acceleration of the expansion is contained in the equations of the physics, researchers said.

In a second stage, Maeder focused on Newton's law, a specific instance of the equations of general relativity. The law is also slightly modified when the model incorporates Maeder's new hypothesis. It contains a very small outward acceleration term, which is particularly significant at low densities. This amended law, when applied to clusters of galaxies, leads to masses of clusters in line with that of visible matter: this means that no dark matter is needed to explain the high speeds of the galaxies in the clusters.
Reuters

European Union privacy regulators will discuss ride-hailing app Ubers massive data breach cover-up next week and could create a task-force to coordinate investigations.

Uber faces regulatory scrutiny after CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company covered up a data breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts.

The chair of the group of European data protection authorities  known as the Article 29 Working Party  said on Thursday the data breach would be discussed at its meeting on 28-29 Nov.

While EU data protection authorities cannot impose joint sanctions, they can set up task-forces to coordinate national investigations.

When a new EU data protection law comes into force next May, regulators will have the power to impose much higher fines  up to 4 percent of global turnover  and coordinate more closely.

Uber paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret the massive breach.

The stolen information included names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers of Uber users around the world, and the names and license numbers of 600,000 US drivers, Khosrowshahi said. Uber declined to say what other countries may be affected.

We cannot but voice our strong concern for the breach suffered by Uber, which was reported belatedly by the US company. We initiated our inquiries and are gathering all the information that can help us assess the scope of the data breach and take the appropriate steps to protect any Italian citizens involved, said Antonello Soro, President of the Italian Data Protection Authority on Wednesday.

The British data protection authority also said the concealment of the breach raised huge concerns about Ubers data policies and ethics.

Long known for its combative stance with local taxi regulators, Uber has faced a stream of top-level executive departures over issues from sexual harassment to data privacy to driver working conditions, which led its board to remove Travis Kalanick as CEO in June.
Reuters

Danish supermarket chains Bilka and Fotex said their websites had been taken down by cyber attacks at the launch of their Black Friday sales campaigns.

The websites were hit by malicious cyber-connection attacks, an advanced form of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack where hackers send numerous requests to refresh the websites, causing them to crash, a spokesman of Dansk Supermarked A/S, the owner of both chains, said.

However, the hackers were not attempting to obtain data from the company or its customers, and it was too early to say how sales would be impacted on one of the biggest shopping days of the year, he added.

Dansk Supermarked, the countrys second largest supermarket retailer with a market share of around one-third, owns and operates 100 Fotex supermarkets and 18 Bilka hypermarkets in Denmark.

It also runs Netto discount retail shops in Germany, Poland and Sweden. Netto was not affected by the cyber attack.

Earlier this month, A.P. Moller-Maersk agreed to sell its remaining 19 percent stake in Dansk Supermarked to Salling Companies for 5.53 billion Danish crowns ($882 million).

Maersk itself faces a bill of up to $300 million after the Petya cyber attack in June severely hit its container shipping business and port operations.
tech2 News Staff

In the latest reveal, by KGI Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, about the 2018 iPhone models it seems that the devices will have upgraded liquid crystal polymer antennas. This would be useful for faster transmission of LTE data, claimed Kuo in a report sent out to investors.

The iPhone models releasing in 2018, like the iPhone X, would have at least two LCP LTE antenna modules but they will have modifications to support 4x4 MIMO standards, claimed Kuo according to 9to5Mac.

In an earlier report by MacRumours, the analyst said that the smartphones are expected to come with Qualcomms Snapdragon X20 modems and Intels XMM 7560. These would be an upgrade from Intel and Qualcomms previous models, which were Qualcomm's MDM 9655 and XMM 7560, respectively.

Alongside this Ming-Chi Kuo had also predicted that these iPhones which are predicted to be launched in 2018, would also support dual SIM slots.

Apple's first iPhones with dual SIM slots would also have the dual standby (DSDS) facility. This can be good news for those who carry around two phones due to lack of dual SIM facility in iPhones.
Rehan Hooda

Update: This article was originally published on 1 November, a day after the Nokia 2 announcement, when the Indian price was still not known. HMD Global has announced the price of Nokia 2 at Rs 6,999. So we have made the necessary changes in the table.

HMD Global, the company that holds the exclusive rights to make Nokia-branded smartphones has launched its latest smartphone  the Nokia 2  across the world.

Nokia 2 joins the line up of HMD Global's Android-powered Nokia handsets and it plans to aim at the budget and entry-level Android devices as competition. The company has priced the device at 99 (which is about around Rs 8,000 at the time of writing). The official price is now Rs 6,999.

HMD Global has not announced the pricing and availability details for the Indian market. The device comes with a 6000-series aluminium frame with diamond-cut beveled edges. The phone comes with IP 52 certification making it splash-proof and it will be available in Pewter - Black, Pewter - White, and Copper - Black colours.

The device is powered by Qualcomms Quad-core Snapdragon 212 processor clocked at 1.3 GHz along with 1 GB LPDDR3 RAM. HMD Global has added a 5-inch HD LTPS LCD display panel with 1280x720 image resolution, 1:1300 contrast ration and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The device comes with 8 GB internal storage that can be expanded using a microSD card up to 128 GB internal storage. Moving to the camera, the device is equipped with 8 MP camera module with autofocus and LED flash on the back of the device and a 5 MP camera module on the front of the device.

Nokia 2 offers LTE Cat 4, VoLTE, 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.2, GPS with AGPS, GLONASS, Beidou, and FM Radio in terms of connectivity options. The device also packs a microUSB 2.0 port and a 3.5-mm headphone jack on the bottom and the top of the device along with a dual SIM support. The company has added an ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, Accelerometer and E-compass to increase the feature-set of the device. Last but not the least, Nokia 2 will run Android Nougat 7.1.1 out of the box with the promise of Android Oreo update and a 4,100 non-removable battery to power the device.

With the launch of Nokia 2, we thought that it is a good time to pit the device against its competition. So, we selected Nokia 2, Xiaomi Redmi 4A, Moto C Plus, Micromax Canvas Infinity and Redmi 4. The reason we selected these smartphones is that most of these devices run Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 series (or the custom-made equivalents) and are in the same price bracket.

All these smartphones are considered mid-range devices from competing smartphone makers. Bear in mind that we're still not done testing some of these smartphones, so we're currently comparing them going only by their specifications on paper. A real-world test should follow soon.
Reuters

The Prague High Court ruled on 24 November that Russian citizen Yevgeniy Nikulin can be extradited to the United States where he is accused of hacking social networks including LinkedIn, a court spokeswoman said.

Czech police arrested Yevgeniy Nikulin in Prague in October 2016 in cooperation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Russia also accuses him of a small cyber theft and both countries have requested his extradition, leaving him in a tug-of-war between Washington and Moscow.

Fridays decision does not end that competition.

The court had earlier ruled Nikulin could be extradited to either United States or Russia, which asked for him only after his arrest on the much older U.S. charges.

Nikulin has in the past rejected all the charges in comments reported by Czech media. His lawyer has also been quoted as saying that there had been no evidence presented by either the United States or Russia.

Nikulin filed a complaint against the possibility of being extradited to the United States, and the court ruled on Friday the complaint was groundless, leaving all options open, court spokeswoman Simona Heranova said.

The decision on whether and where Nikulin will be extradited now lies with Justice Minister Robert Pelikan.

A US federal grand jury in California indicted the 29-year-old Nikulin last year on suspicion of hacking into the U.S.-based social media companies LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring in 2012.

LinkedIn has said the case was related to a 2012 breach at the social networking company that it previously said may have compromised the credentials of 100 million users, prompting it to launch a massive password reset operation.

After Nikulins arrest in Prague, Russia also asked for his extradition. A Moscow court issued a warrant for his arrest in November 2016 for the alleged theft of $3,450 via Webmoney in 2009, the Czech Justice Ministry said then.

The Russian Foreign Ministry criticised Nikulins arrest last year, saying it showed Washington was mounting a global manhunt against Russian citizens.
Kshitij Pujari

With the privacy policies of tech companies running into dozens of pages and users often accepting the terms and conditions without reading them, there is an urgent need for improving privacy communication to generate nuanced consent from the users, a senior government official said here on 23 November.

"There is a need for simplifying communications to garner more nuanced consent," said Ajay Prakash Sawhney, IT Secretary, during a session at the Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) 2017 here.

Reacting to the suggestion, Maria Luisa Jimenez Martin, Head of Data Governance Public Policy at Google, said that improving privacy communication with users is of great concern for Google. "There is a continued need for improvement in communications in India, especially in view of the fact that so many different languages are spoken in the country. It is of great interest for Google," Martin told the gathering.

"But there is also a need for change of mindset on the part of the users as they expect an open transparent economy. We have to understand that sharing data helps in providing better services," added Debjani Ghosh, President-Designate, Nasscom.

"While sensitive data should not be shared, we should also be open to sharing some data," Ghosh said without bringing in the controversy surrounding sharing of Aaadhar details for availing various government subsidies.

William Hiroyuki Saito, Adviser, Government of Japan, said that the current trends of resting the burden of security on the part of the users must be re-examined.
Reuters

A US judge ruled that Uber can force an unhappy Connecticut customers price-fixing case against the ride-service company into arbitration after the customer said the proposed class action belonged in court because he never agreed to arbitrate.

In an order dated Wednesday, US District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan also dismissed claims by the customer, Spencer Meyer, against former Uber Technologies Inc chief executive Travis Kalanick, unless Meyer wished to arbitrate.

Rakoff, long a critic of mandatory arbitration, said he would explain his reasoning later. Reuters obtained a copy of his order, which was not available in online court records.

We are awaiting the courts opinion and will consider all options as to how to proceed, John Briody, a lawyer for Meyer, said in an email on Thursday.

Uber said in an email, We are pleased with the courts decision. Lawyers for Kalanick did not immediately respond on Thursday to requests for comment.

Arbitration clauses are often buried in lengthy terms of service that customers never see or would struggle to read.

Critics say the clauses, which often forbid class actions, dissuade many people from pursuing claims at all.

Meyer had accused San Francisco-based Uber and Kalanick of conspiring with drivers, whose earnings are shared with Uber, to charge surge pricing fares during peak demand periods.

He said he never agreed to arbitrate because a keypad had obscured a hyperlink to Ubers terms of service, including the arbitration clause, when he signed up with his smartphone.

Uber countered that Meyer had an unobstructed view of the hyperlink, and waived the keypad issue because he could have raised it sooner. The lawsuit began in December 2015.

Kalanick said claims against him must be dismissed because he was no longer Ubers chief executive. He resigned in June after a shareholder revolt.

On 17 Aug, the federal appeals court in Manhattan had reinstated the arbitration provision, overturning a July 2016 ruling by Rakoff that found it unenforceable.

Later that month, the appeals court said Rakoff may consider new evidence about how long Uber customers could see the hyperlink, including when entering credit card information.

Internet companies and the US Chamber of Commerce have argued during the litigation that a loss by Uber could inhibit e-commerce and threaten the enforceability of online contracts.

The case is Meyer v. Kalanick et al, US District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-09796.
Lahore: Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed on Thursday walked from house arrest as a free man and moments after the release he said he will gather people across Pakistan for the "cause of Kashmir" and help the Kashmiris secure "freedom".

The JuD head, who carries a bounty of $10 million announced by the US for his role in terror activities, was set free after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any case. He has been under detention since January this year.

"I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir," Saeed told his supporters who gathered outside his residence to celebrate his release.

The Judicial Review Board of Punjab province comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday unanimously ordered Saeed's release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest which expired on Thursday night.

"I fight the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir. And we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom."

Saeed said he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris this January. He used the release order to buttress his claims of "innocence".

"I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release ...India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHC's review board decision has proved that I am innocent," Saeed said.

The JuD chief said that the US, on India's request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.

"... I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," he claimed.

Several JuD activists gathered outside Saeed's residence in Jauhar town in Lahore to celebrate his release.

They shouted anti-India slogans and described his leader as "a hope for Kashmiri people".

"We are happy to see our leader free," a JuD spokesman Ahmad Nadim told PTI.

"Hafiz sahib received his release order from the jail officials. Now he is a free man," Ahmad said. He said after his release Saeed thanked his supporters gathered outside his house.

"Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case," a top official in the government told PTI.

He said after a long deliberation by the officials concerned it has been decided to follow the review board's decision.

Official sources said that Saeed's release would invite strong criticism from India and the US.

"How will the PML-N government handle the foreign pressure to again detain Saeed is to be seen," they said.

Punjab Assistant Advocate General Sattar Sahil said the government law officer had presented "some important evidence" to justify Saeed's detention but all three members of the board unanimously rejected it and ordered his release.

On 31 January, Saeed and his four aides  Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain  were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. However, the last two extensions were made on the 'public safety law'.

The board refused to give further extension to the detention of Saeed's aides. They were set free last month.

Under the law, the government can detain a person for up to three months under different charges but for extension to that detention it needs approval from a judicial review board.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai terror attack in November 2008 but he was freed by court in 2009.

India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and also demanded trial of Saeed and LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi in the light of evidence it had provided to Islamabad.

Ten LeT militants killed 166 people and wounded dozens in Mumbai in November, 2008. Nine of the attackers were killed by police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught.

Kasab was executed after a court found him guilty and handed down death sentence.

Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN over his alleged role in the attack.
Mar del Plata, Argentina: Argentina's navy confirmed Thursday that an unusual noise heard in the Atlantic near the last known position of a missing submarine appeared to be an explosion, dashing the last hopes of finding the vessel's 44 crew members alive.

Relatives of the missing sailors reacted with grief and anger to the news after holding out hope since the sub was reported overdue at its Mar del Plata base on 17 November, two days after the explosion.

"An anomalous, singular, short, violent and non-nuclear event consistent with an explosion," occurred shortly after the submarine's last communication, navy spokesman Captain Enrique Balbi told a news conference in Buenos Aires.

After days of false hopes, some of the relatives said the navy had withheld information about the sub and lied to them over the past week. "I feel cheated," said Itati Leguizamon, whose husband German Suarez was a sonar operator on the ARA San Juan. "They did not tell us they died. But they tell us they are three thousand meters (9,800 feet) deep," added Leguizamon as other family members shouted angrily around her. "They lied to us," said Leguizamon, a lawyer.

A sobbing Jessica Gopar, whose husband was an electrician aboard the San Juan, said "they just told us that the submarine exploded." She spoke as she came out from the sub's base. "He was the love of my life, engaged seven years before we got married," Gopar said of her husband, Fernando Santilli. "And how can I tell my son that he no longer has a father?"

Underwater sounds detected in the first days of the search by two Argentine search ships were determined to originate from a sea creature, not the vessel. Satellite signals were also determined to be false alarms.

The San Juan, a 34-year-old German-built diesel-electric submarine, had reported a battery problem on 15 November and said it was diverting to Mar del Plata, but did not send a distress signal, according to the navy. Balbi admitted on Wednesday that the situation for the sub and its crew appeared to be worsening. However, he refused to speculate at that point on the origin of what he initially described as a "hydro-acoustic anomaly" detected in the ocean almost three hours after the sub's communication and 30 miles (50 kilometres) north of its last known position.

Balbi explained that information about the unusual noise only became available Wednesday after being relayed by the United States and "after all the information from all agencies reporting such hydro-acoustic events was reviewed." Explaining the lack of debris on the surface, Balbi said "nothing will end up floating to the surface" because a submarine "implodes".

Gustavo Mauvecin, director of the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine at Mar del Plata, said hydrogen "is always an issue with submarines with electric engines".

The San Juan "has 500 tons of lead-acid batteries, which release hydrogen if there is an overcharge in the battery. Hydrogen in contact with oxygen is explosive".

An explosion 'so violent'

"In my opinion, after an explosion like that, it's difficult for there to be survivors," a former submarine commander told AFP.

The newspaper La Nacion said one hypothesis is that there was a short circuit in the batteries. It said this would explain the sub's failure to communicate and the fact that it did not have time to send off a distress signal.

The commander said a problem with batteries, as the sub had reported, could in fact cause a blast. "A severe problem with batteries might generate hydrogen. Hydrogen above a certain percentage is explosive," said the commander who requested anonymity.

Horacio Tobias, former chief of diving for the San Juan, said it "was so violent that they would not have had time to realise what happened".

The San Juan would have had enough oxygen for its crew to survive underwater in the South Atlantic for seven days since its last contact, according to officials. That time had elapsed by 07.30 GMT Wednesday.

Argentina is leading an air-and-sea search to try to still find the sub. It is getting help from several countries now including Brazil, Britain, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Peru, Russia, the United States and Uruguay. Russia was the latest navy to volunteer help, sending an oceanographic research ship as the operation shifted from rescue to recovery.

The Russian defense ministry said the Yantar was steaming to the area from the western coast of Africa on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.

The week-long search has focused on the sub's last known position, around 200 miles off the Argentine coast, but has been hampered by bad weather.

Putin offered "words of support over the situation with the San Juan submarine" in a phone call to Argentine President Mauricio Macri late Wednesday, the Kremlin said. Russia said the Yantar "is equipped with two deep water submersibles which allow exploratory searches at a depth of up to 6,000 meters."

US president Donald Trump offered his support, tweeting: "May God be with them and the people of Argentina!"
Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova can't leave her country to pick up the Right Livelihood Award she won in Stockholm. As Azerbaijan's president visits Brussels, calls to lift the ban are growing.

November 24, 2017, 17:40 Azerbaijan urged to lift travel ban on journalist

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 24, ARTSAKHPRESS:Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, called in a statement on Friday for the travel ban to be lifted ahead of the 2017 award presentation on December 1 at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Dw.com reports.

"We call on all Member States of the Council of Europe to issue public statements calling for Khadija Ismayilova's travel ban to be withdrawn, her bank account to be unfrozen and for her and her fellow Azerbaijani journalists to be allowed to work unhindered in an environment free from intimidation," von Uexkull said in a statement,.

"Ismayilova is one of the most courageous and skilled investigative journalists of her generation," he added.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is attending the EU's Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels on Friday.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 36 other human rights NGOs on Thursday released an open letter calling on EU leaders to press Azerbaijan to end its recent crackdown on journalists and opposition groups.

Aliyev has ruled the oil-rich South Caucasus country since shortly before his father's death in 2003.
Riyadh: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has denounced Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the "new Hitler of the Middle East", as tensions simmer between the regional rivals.

Saudi Arabia and its arch-rival Iran have traded a bitter war of words after a missile fired from Yemen was intercepted near Riyadh airport on 4 November. The missile was claimed by Yemen's Tehran-backed Huthi rebels.

Iran's "supreme leader is the new Hitler of the Middle East", Prince Mohammed told The New York Times in an interview published Thursday.

"We learned from Europe that appeasement doesn't work. We don't want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East."

Tehran has strongly denied supplying any missiles to the rebels, and President Hassan Rouhani has warned Saudi Arabia of Iran's "might".

The spike in tensions coincides with Prince Mohammed's new anti-corruption purge, which saw around 200 elites including princes, ministers and business tycoons arrested or sacked earlier this month.

The prince described as "ludicrous" reports equating the crackdown to a power grab, saying that many of those detained at Riyadh's opulent Ritz-Carlton hotel had already pledged allegiance to him.

"A majority of the royal family" is behind him, the prince said, dismissing longstanding rumours of internal opposition to his meteoric rise.

He said 95 percent of those detained agree to a "settlement", or handing over ill-gotten gains to the Saudi state treasury.

Saudi Arabia's attorney general estimates at least $100 billion has been misused in embezzlement or corruption over several decades.

Authorities have frozen the bank accounts of the accused and warned assets related to the alleged graft cases would be seized as state property, in what they describe as a top-down approach to battling endemic corruption.

"About one percent are able to prove they are clean and their case is dropped right there. About four percent say they are not corrupt and with their lawyers want to go to court," the prince said.

"We have experts making sure no businesses are bankrupted in the process," he added.

The purge has triggered uncertainty among businesses that could lead to capital flight or derail reforms, experts say, at a time when the kingdom is seeking to attract badly needed investments to offset a protracted oil slump.
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro met with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Friday amid hopes the Communist-run island might be able to convince its Asian ally to avert a showdown with the United States. Cuba's President Raul Castro attends an ALBA alliance summit to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, March 5, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins North Korea is facing unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Cuba has maintained close diplomatic ties with North Korea since 1960 but is opposed to nuclear weapons. In the brotherly encounter, both sides commented on the historic friendship between the two nations and talked about international topics of mutual interest, Cuban state television said on its midday broadcast. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he had discussed with Castro last year the possibility of working together to defuse global tensions with North Korea. Can we pass along messages through surprising conduits? Trudeau asked in a Q&A session after a speech. It was a topic of conversation when I met President Raul Castro last year. These are the kinds of things where Canada can, I think, play a role that the United States has chosen not to play, this past year. Canada had an interest in seeking solutions, not just because of regional security but also because the flight path of possible North Korean missiles would pass over its territory, Trudeau said. North Korea is working on developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, aiming to achieve what Ri has called a real balance of power with the United States. Ri met his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez this week and the ministers denounced U.S. unilateral and arbitrary lists and designations that led to coercive measures contrary to international law, according to Cubas foreign ministry. The ministers called for respect for peoples sovereignty and the peaceful settlement of disputes, according to a ministry statement. President Donald Trump has increased pressure on Cuba since taking office, rolling back a detente begun by his predecessor Barack Obama and returning to the hostile rhetoric of the Cold War. North Korea and Cuba are the last countries in the world to maintain Soviet-style command economies, though under Raul Castro, the Caribbean nation has taken small steps toward the more market-oriented communism of China and Vietnam. Raul took over the presidency in 2008 from his older brother and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who died on Nov. 25 last year. Cuba is marking the anniversary on Saturday with vigils and concerts. [L8N1NS6SF] Cuba maintains an embassy in North Korea but trades mostly with South Korea. Last year, trade with the latter was $67 million and just $9 million with the North, the government said.

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HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba marks the first anniversary of the death of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Saturday with a week of vigils nationwide, as the island embarks on a political cycle that will end 60 years of the Castro brothers rule. A man hangs pictures of late Cuban president Fidel Castro on a stage to be used during celebrations of what would have been his 91st birthday in San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba, August 10, 2017. Picture taken on August 10, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre MeneghiniFidel, a towering figure of the 20th century who built a Communist-run state on the doorstep of the United States and defied U.S. efforts to topple him, died aged 90 on Nov. 25 last year. The Cold War icon had already been largely out of public view for around a decade, having formally ceded the presidency to his younger brother, Raul Castro, in 2008 due to ill health. Cubans say his death changed little on the island. The pace of reforms instigated by Raul to update the Soviet-style command economy has continued as hesitantly as before. Cubas relationship with the United States, meanwhile, has actually worsened due to U.S. President Donald Trumps more hostile stance. More significant politically, analysts say, will be the electoral cycle that starts Sunday with a municipal vote and will end with the selection of a new president in late February. Raul, 86, has said he would step down at the end of his two consecutive terms. The transition is expected to be gradual as Raul will remain head of the Communist Party. It comes, however, as the country faces a tricky time with a decline in aid from ally Venezuela, weaker exports and a resulting cash crunch. Not even we know what our future will be, said Ariadna Valdivia, 45, a high school teacher. Raul is ending his term in 2018, Fidel is already history, and I dont really see any way of improving things. Salaries are the same, food is always getting more expensive and now we have Trump tightening the embargo. NATIONAL MOURNING Tourists walk past an image of Cuba's late president Fidel Castro in downtown Havana, Cuba, November 11, 2017. Picture taken on November 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre MeneghiniBy the time of his death, Castro had been out of the public limelight since an intestinal ailment nearly killed him in 2006, occasionally writing columns and receiving foreign dignitaries at his home. His death last year plunged Cuba into nine days of national mourning. A funeral cortege carried his ashes on a three-day journey from Havana to his final resting place in the east of the island, where he had launched the Cuban revolution. I am Fidel became a nationwide chant, as many Cubans pledged to stay faithful to the revolution he led that in 1959 overthrew a U.S.-backed dictator. He was the best weve had as a leader, said Rene Perez, a Havana taxi driver, echoing the feelings of many Cubans who miss Fidels leadership, especially at times of crisis. Raul did not appear in public after Hurricane Irma thrashed the island in September. In keeping with his wishes to avoid a personality cult, no statues have been made of Fidel or public places named after him in Cuba. Even his tomb is a sober affair, a large granite boulder in Santiago de Cubas Santa Ifigenia Cemetery with a plaque simply reading Fidel. Galas and vigils in honor of Fidel will be held around the country this week, according to state-run media. Cultural institutions like the national ballet are dedicating their shows to his memory, and state television is running archived footage on a loop. The municipal vote on Sunday, the only part of the electoral process with direct participation by ordinary Cubans, is being cast in state media as a show of support for his ideas. Posters of Fidel hung at assemblies where neighborhoods nominated candidates over the last two months. It will be followed by provincial and national assembly elections in which candidates are selected from slates by commissions. The new National Assembly will then in late February select a successor to Castro, widely expected to be First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Eduardo Torres, the director of Cubas National Library, said there were several politicians well placed to become president but there would never be another Fidel and the country faced a generational transition. Raul had the weight of the historic generation, said Torres. When he leaves, it is another generation and another history we will start to build.

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Palm Beach: President Donald Trump thanked US troops for their service on Thursday, assuring them "we're really winning" against America's foes as he celebrated Thanksgiving at his private club in Florida and provided lunch for Coast Guard men and women on duty for the holiday.

Using the occasion to pat himself on the back, Trump told deployed military members via a video conference that they've achieved more progress in Afghanistan and against the Islamic State group under his watch than had been made in years of the previous administration. "Everybody's talking about the progress you've made in the last few months since I opened it up," he told the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, whose members are conducting operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan. "We're being talked about again as an armed forces  we're really winning."

Speaking from a gilded room at his Mar-a-Lago club, Trump said: "We're not fighting anymore to just walk around, we're fighting to win, and you people are really, you've turned it around over the last three to four months like nobody's seen, and they are talking about it, so thank you very much."

Turning to the 74th Expeditionary Fighters Squadron based at the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, Trump suggested the Obama administration hadn't allowed soldiers on the ground to do their jobs. "They say we've made more progress against ISIS than they did in years of the previous administration," he said. "And that's because I'm letting you do your job."

Throughout the day  at events and on Twitter  Trump boasted about the economy's performance since he took office, pointing to recent stock market gains and the unemployment rate, along with his efforts to scale back regulations and boost military spending. "So you're fighting for something real, you're fighting for something good," he told the service members

Trump and his wife, Melania, also made a trip to a nearby Coast Guard station in Riviera Beach, Florida, where they delivered a lunch of turkey sandwiches, giant muffins, heaping baskets of fruit, chips and cookies to men and women on duty for the holidays.

During his remarks, Trump, singled out the service for its hurricane relief efforts during Harvey and the other storms that battered the country earlier in 2017. "There's no brand that went up more than the Coast Guard," Trump told them "What a job you've done."

Trump praised the superiority of US military equipment, too, yet said he tries to make sure that equipment the US sells abroad  even to allies  is not quite as good as that kept at home. "I always say, make ours a little bit better," Trump said. "Keep about 10 percent in the bag." He added: "You never know about an ally. An ally can turn."

Among the equipment admired by Trump is the F-35 stealth fighter jet, which he recalled asking "Air Force guys" about once. "In a fight, you know a fight like I watch on the movies ... how good is it?" he recalled asking. "They said, 'Well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it, even if it's right next to it,'" Trump recounted, prompting laughs.

The F-35, plagued by development problems and cost overruns, is in fact not invisible to people nearby. Its stealth technology is designed to evade detection by radar and other sensors.

At the earlier video conference, Trump cleared the room of press after about 10 minutes so he could have "very confidential, personal conversations" with those on the line. Borrowing a line from his Apprentice days, he told the reporters "You're fired," then wished them a happy Thanksgiving, too.

On the Trumps' own Thanksgiving menu for family and friends at Mar-a-Lago: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, red snapper, Florida stone crab, baked goods, local produce and cheeses, and a selection of cakes and pies for dessert.
Cairo: Gunmen attacked a packed mosque in Egypt's restive North Sinai province on Friday and set off a bomb, killing at least 235 people in one of the country's deadliest attacks in recent memory, state media reported.

A bomb explosion ripped through the Rawda mosque roughly 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish before gunmen opened fire on the worshippers gathered for weekly Friday prayers, officials said.

Witnesses said the assailants had surrounded the mosque with all-terrain vehicles then planted a bomb outside.

The gunmen then mowed down the panicked worshippers as they attempted to flee and used the congregants' vehicles they had set alight to block routes to the mosque.

An angry Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also pledged to respond with "brutal force" against militants who massacred at least 235 people at a mosque during weekly prayers on Friday.

"The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period," he also said in a televised speech.

Egypt's presidency declared three days of mourning, state television reported, as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met his security ministers to follow developments.

Ahmed Abul Gheit, head of the Arab League which is based in Cairo, condemned the "terrifying crime which again shows that Islam is innocent of those who follow an extremist terrorist ideology," his spokesman said in a statement.

US President Donald Trump dubbed the attack as "horrible and cowardly"."The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!" he said on Twitter.

Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt. The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017

Islamic State views Sufis as heretics

The Islamic State group's Egypt branch has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, and also civilians accused of working with the authorities, in attacks in the north of the Sinai peninsula.

They have also targeted followers of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam as well as Christians.

The victims included civilians and conscripts praying at the mosque.

A tribal leader and head of a Bedouin militia that fights Islamic State told AFP that the mosque is known as a place of gathering for Sufis.

The Islamic State group shares the puritan Salafi view of Sufis as heretics for seeking the intercession of saints.

The jihadists had previously kidnapped and beheaded an elderly Sufi leader, accusing him of practising magic which Islam forbids, and abducted Sufi practitioners later released after "repenting."

The group has killed more than 100 Christians in church bombings and shootings in Sinai and other parts of Egypt, forcing many to flee the peninsula.

The military has struggled to quell the jihadists who pledged allegiance to Islamic State in November 2014.

Islamic State regularly conducts attacks against soldiers and policemen in the peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, although the frequency and scale of such attacks has diminished over the past year.

The jihadists have since increasingly turned to civilian targets, attacking not only Christians and Sufis but also Bedouin Sinai inhabitants accused of working with the army.

Aside from Islamic State, Egypt also faces a threat from Al-Qaeda-aligned jihadists who operate out of neighbouring Libya.

A group calling itself Ansar al-Islam, Supporters of Islam in Arabic claimed an October ambush in Egypt's the Western Desert that killed at least 16 policemen.

Many of those killed belonged to the interior ministry's secretive National Security Service.

The military later conducted air strikes on the attackers, killing their leader Emad al-Din Abdel Hamid, a most wanted jihadist who was a military officer before joining an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Libya's militant stronghold of Derna.
Washington: Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn is moving to cooperate with a special prosecutor probing possible collusion between Donald Trump's campaign team and Russian election meddling, The New York Times reported on Friday.

Lawyers for Michael Flynn notified the president's legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, the Times reported, citing four people involved in the case.

The development indicates that Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors or is negotiating such a deal, the report said.

Flynn's lawyers had been sharing information with Trump's legal team about Mueller's probe related to Russian interference in last year's ballot, which saw Trump defeat his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.

"That agreement has been terminated," the Times' sources said.

Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who previously led the Defence Intelligence Agency, became the White House national security adviser after Trump took office on 20 January, 2017.

He was forced to resign three weeks later over his Russia contacts.

Mueller's investigation has already led to the arrest of Trump's one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Manafort's partner Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos, a campaign foreign policy adviser. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Lahore/Islamabad: A newly freed Pakistani Islamist accused of masterminding a bloody 2008 assault in the Indian city of Mumbai called ousted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif a "traitor" on Friday for seeking peace with neighbour and arch-foe India.

Hafiz Saeed, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head over the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including Americans, spoke at Friday prayers after being freed from house arrest by a court that said there was no evidence to hold him.

Saeed was placed under house arrest in January while Sharif was still prime minister, a move that drew praise from India, long furious at Saeeds continued freedom in Pakistan.

In July, a Supreme Court ruling disqualified Sharif from office over a corruption investigation, though his party still runs the government with a close ally as prime minister.

Saeed, however, said Sharif deserved to be removed for his peace overtures with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

"Nawaz Sharif asks why he was ousted? I tell him he was ousted, because he committed treason against Pakistan by developing friendship with Modi, killers of thousands of Muslims," Saeed said.

India's Ministry of External Affairs condemned Saeeds release, saying it showed Pakistan is not serious about prosecuting terrorists.

"India, as indeed the entire international community, is outraged that a self-confessed and UN proscribed terrorist is being allowed to walk free and continue with his evil agenda," ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said.

Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the 2008 Mumbai violence in which 10 gunmen attacked targets in Indias largest city, including two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and a railway station.

The assault brought nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India to the brink of war.

"I'm happy that no allegation against me was proved," Saeed told supporters after his release in the city of Lahore, according to a video released by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Islamist charity, which he heads.

The United States says the JuD is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group, which Saeed founded and which has been blamed for a string of high-profile attacks in India.

Pakistan officially banned the Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2002.

Saeed blamed India for his incarceration in Pakistan, saying "Pakistan's rulers detained me on the aspiration of Modi because of their friendship with him".

Saeed has long campaigned in support of Muslim separatists in the Indian-ruled portion of the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, which Pakistan also claims.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting the LeT and other separatists battling in the Indian part of Kashmir. Pakistan denies that.

While Saeed was under house arrest, his JuD charity launched a political party, the Milli Muslim League (MML), which has won thousands of votes in by-elections.

Senior government and retired military figures say the party has the backing of Pakistans powerful military. The military denies any direct involvement in civilian politics.

MML officials have privately said that the party is controlled by Saeed, but it is not clear if Saeed will seek to contest elections or launch a political career.
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Families of the 44 crew members of a missing Argentine submarine gave up hope and went home on Friday after a days-long wait at the subs Mar del Plata naval base, saddened and angered by evidence that the vessel may have exploded. A black ribbon is placed over Argentine national flags and messages of support for the 44 crew members of the missing at sea ARA San Juan submarine, on a fence at an Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata, Argentina November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos BrindicciThe submarine went missing nine days earlier with only a one-week supply of oxygen onboard. The navy vowed to keep searching for the vessel and declined to confirm the wide-held fear that the crew had died. Until we find the submarine and know the facts, we cannot venture to say anything more one way or the other to the families, navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said. The search is very difficult, he said. Relatives of the crew had arrived at Mar de Plata on Monday, filled with an optimism that had all but disappeared by Friday. At this point, the truth is I have no hope that they will come back, Maria Villareal, mother of one crew member, told local television on Friday morning. Others said they would remain at Mar del Plata. Im at the base and Im going to stay until they find the submarine, Silvina Krawczyk, sister of the subs only female officer, Eliana Maria Krawczyk, told Reuters through the WhatsApp messaging application. Around 30 boats and planes and 4,000 people from Argentina, the United States, Britain, Chile and Brazil have joined the search for the submarine, which last transmitted its location about 480 km (300 miles) from the coast. Some family members accused the navy of putting their loved ones at unnecessary risk by sending them out in a more than 30-year-old vessel that they suspected was not properly maintained, an accusation the navy has denied. They killed my brother! a man leaving the base in a car shouted out to reporters. The older man driving the car was crying. The submarine, called the San Juan, was launched in 1983 and underwent maintenance in 2008 in Argentina. The armed forces have had to face dwindling resources and lack of training since the end of a military dictatorship in the early 1980s. A sound detected underwater on the morning of Nov. 15, around the time the San Juan sent its last signal and in the same area, was consistent with an explosion, navy spokesman Balbi said on Thursday. The information about the possible explosion came from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, an international body that runs a global network of listening posts designed to check for secret atomic blasts. The fury of the crews relatives was aimed more at the navy, which they say has kept them in the dark about the missing vessel, than at President Mauricio Macri. Both the submarine program and military budget cuts started long before Macris late 2015 election. He has enjoyed generally favorable coverage from major Argentine news media outlets as he pushes free-market reforms. The government promised a thorough investigation into the subs disappearance and the navys response.

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Nay Pyi Taw: Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday dismissed an agreement signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh to repatriate Rohingya refugees, calling it "laughable".

"(Some) 620,000 Rohingya refugees have only just escaped one of the most brutal cases of mass persecution in recent times... The idea that Myanmar will now welcome them back to their smouldering villages with open arms is laughable," said HRW's Bill Frelick.

Bangladesh and Myanmar on Thursday signed a memorandum of intent that opens the way for the return of the displaced Rohingyas, whose exodus began on 25 August after attacks by an insurgent group and the subsequent retaliation by the Myanmar Army, reports Efe news.

The memorandum contains "the general guiding principles and policy arrangements to systematically verify and receive the displaced persons from Rakhine state", said the office of the State Counsellor of Myanmar and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Frelick called on the international community to "make it clear that there can be no returns without international monitors to ensure security", calling the bilateral agreement a public relations stunt. He also called for a rejection of plans to establish detention camps, urging the return of their land and the reconstruction of towns and homes belonging to the Rohingya, the Muslim minority not recognised by Myanmar.

"Even then, it will be hard to build the trust necessary for many Rohingya to voluntarily return unless the Myanmar Army begins the mammoth task of reversing decades of abuses and discrimination against its Rohingya population," Frelick added.

Neither the Myanmar nor Bangladeshi authorities have revealed the details of the agreement, including when the repatriation of the 622,000 refugees will begin. Myanmar has said it was willing to receive them as soon as possible but only after identifying them, determining their place of origin and sharing this information between the two countries.

The current Rohingya exodus began with the retaliatory operations of the Myanmar armed forces launched after the rebel group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked some 30 military and police checkposts in Rakhine.
GENEVA (Reuters) - More than 33,000 migrants have died at sea trying to reach European shores this century, making the Mediterranean by far the worlds deadliest border, the United Nations migration agency said on Friday. A discarded life jacket, of the type usually used by migrants, is seen from the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship Phoenix, in the central Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit LupiAfter record arrivals from 2014 to 2016, the European Unions deal with Turkey to stop arrivals from Greece, and robust patrols off Libyas coast have greatly reduced the flow, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Professor Philippe Fargues of the European University Institute in Florence, author of the report, said the figures probably underestimated the actual scale of the human tragedy. The report states that at least 33,761 migrants were reported to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean between the year 2000 to 2017. This number is as of June 30, IOMs Jorge Galindo told a Geneva news briefing. It concludes that Europes Mediterranean border is by far the worlds deadliest, he said. So far this year some 161,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe by sea, about 75 percent of them landing in Italy with the rest in Greece, Cyprus and Spain, according to IOM figures. Nearly 3,000 others are dead or missing, it said. Shutting the shorter and less dangerous routes can open longer and more dangerous routes, thus increasing the likelihood of dying at sea, Fargues said. The report said: Cooperation with Turkey to stem irregular flows is now being replicated with Libya, the main country of departure of migrants smuggled along the central route; however, such an approach is not only morally reprehensible but likely to be unsuccessful, given the context of extremely poor governance, instability and political fragmentation in Libya. Libyas U.N.-backed government said on Thursday it was investigating reports of African migrants being sold as slaves and promised to bring the perpetrators to justice. Footage broadcast by CNN appearing to show African migrants being traded in Libya sparked an international outcry and protests in Europe and Africa.

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Peshawar: A suicide bomber on Friday rammed his motorcycle into a vehicle, killing a senior Pakistani police officer and his gunman in Peshawar city, capital of the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Additional Inspector General (AIG) Headquarters Ashraf Noor and his gunman were killed and six cops escorting the vehicle were injured in the blast, police said.

Ashraf Noor was on his way to work when his vehicle came under the attack. The vehicle caught fire after the blast and a thick cloud of smoke could be seen billowing from the area, police said.

The blast was so powerful that the windowpanes of the passing vehicles also broke and the nearby trees caught fire.

The suicide bomber, on a motorbike, targeted the police convoy. The blast appeared to be a suicide attack, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Tahir Khan was quoted as saying by the Dawn news.

The CCPO confirmed the death of the AIG and added that at least six policemen were injured and shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex.

Following the blast, security officials cordoned off the area and began a search operation in the surrounding area. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the report said.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi strongly condemned the blast in Peshawar. The premier also lauded the sacrifices of policemen in the fight against terrorism.

He said that dastardly acts of the militants cannot deter our law-enforcement agencies and the nation in taking the fight to its logical conclusion. Our resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism cannot be shaken, Abbasi said.

For decades the city of Peshawar has faced the threat of militants, due to its status as a front line for the ongoing war on terror as well as its proximity to the restless tribal areas and the Pak-Afghan border.

In September, at least three policemen were killed by two Taliban gunmen in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Papua New Guinea authorities said on Friday they had relocated the last asylum seekers who had refused for three weeks to leave a closed immigration camp for fear they would face violence in the alternative accommodations.

Police Chief Superintendent Dominic Kakas said police and immigration officials removed all 378 men from the male-only camp on Manus Island over two days and took them by bus to residences in the nearby town of Lorengau. "Everybody's gone. Everybody got on the buses, they packed their bags and they moved over," Kakas said.

Refugee advocates say officials used force and destroyed asylum seekers' belongings to make them leave Manus. Video and photos posted by the refugees on social media showed uniformed police on swinging and poking long metal poles at detainees and dragging them from their rooms towards buses bound for the transition centres.

Police, engaged in an operation they dubbed "Helpim Friends", had vowed not to use force against the refugees, who have been refusing to leave the camp since Australia declared it closed on 31 October.

Water, power and food supplies ended when the Manus camp ended officially closed on 31 October, based on the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court's ruling in 2016 that Australia's policy of housing asylum seekers there was unconstitutional. But asylum seekers fear for their safety in Lorengau because of threats from local residents.

Detainees and human rights groups, including the UNHCR, have said the new camps were not ready to take in the refugees and asylum-seekers in Manus amid concerns for their safety among a local population that has shown them hostility. "These men are scared, they are exhausted and they are despairing," Amy Frew, a lawyer at the Australia-based Human Rights Law Centre, said Friday. "After four and a half years of limbo and uncertainty they still have nowhere safe to go," she said. "This morning's actions show that whatever they do, wherever they go, their safety cannot be guaranteed until they are evacuated from Papua New Guinea."

Australia pays Papua New Guinea, its nearest neighbor, and the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru to hold thousands of asylum seekers from Africa, the Middle East and Asia who have attempted to reach Australian shores by boat since mid-2013.

Before confirmation that Manus Island had been emptied, Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull welcomed news that asylum seekers were leaving. "I'm please to say in terms of Manus, that the reports we have are that busloads of the people at Manus are leaving, they're complying with the lawful directions of the PNG authorities and moving to the alternative facilities available to them and that's as they should," Turnbull told reporters.

"That is precisely what you should do, if you're in a foreign country. You should comply with the laws of that other country," he added.

Shen Narayanasamy, activist group GetUp's rights campaigner said in a statement: "I awoke this morning to frantic phone calls from refugees on Manus screaming: 'Help, help, they are killing us.' It is astounding that refugees being beaten and dragged out to buses has the support of the Australian government."

Police maintain no force was used.

The UNHCR said it was disturbed by the use of force by Papua New Guinea police. "UNHCR reminds Australia of its obligation to take full responsibility and provide effective protection, safety and lasting solutions for all refugees and asylum-seekers in cooperation with the Papua New Guinean authorities," the organisation said in a statement on Thursday.

The standoff with Papua New Guinea authorities has drawn attention to Australia's harsh policy of sending asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat to remote Pacific camps on Manus and Nauru. Australia will not settle any refugees who try to arrive by boat  a policy that the government says dissuades them from attempting the dangerous ocean crossing from Indonesia. The navy has also been turning back boats to keep them from reaching Australia since July 2014.

The United States has agreed to resettle up to 1,250 of the refugees under a deal struck by former President Barack Obama's administration that President Donald Trump has reluctantly decided to honour. So far, only 54 have been accepted by the United States.

With inputs from agencies
PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo police arrested three lawmakers on Friday, including the popular main opposition leader whom they handcuffed in the street, after the three failed to appear in court on charges of releasing tear gas in parliament in 2015 and 2016. Albin Kurti, speaks at the Vetevendosje party rally in Mitrovica, Kosovo, October 14, 2017. Picture taken October 14, 2017. REUTERS/Hazir RekaOpposition lawmakers obstructed parliament for almost two years by letting off tear gas in the chamber in a protest against a border deal with Montenegro and an EU-brokered agreement with Serbia. Albin Kurti, leader of Kosovos biggest opposition party Vetevendosje, was seized and handcuffed by police close to parliament building when he was on his way to attend a regular session. Police used paper spray to disperse several other lawmakers from Kurtis party who tried to hold onto him and prevent police from taking him away, Kosovo media showed. He was eventually moved into a police van. Kurti won more votes than any other political candidate and his party came first in June snap elections, but he did not enter the ruling coalition. All three MPs were given one month detention, Dukagjin Gorani of Vetevendosje told Reuters later in the day. Dozens of other MPs have been indicted so far for releasing tear gas in the 120-seat parliament. This is the continuation of a massive and wide-ranging persecution that has started against Vetevendosje, the party president, Visar Ymeri, said. Last week a court in Pristina sentenced four people, including one member of parliament, to prison terms ranging from two to eight years for taking part in a grenade attack against the parliament building last year. They were all loyalists of Vetevendosje. Opposition parties oppose the border deal with Montenegro saying the country of 1.8 million is losing land by handing over some 8,000 hectares (19,700 acres). The opposition is also against a deal signed in 2013 between Pristina and Belgrade as part of an EU-sponsored dialogue that would give more rights to the local Serb minority. They say the deal will practically divide the poor Balkan country on ethnic lines. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after NATO bombing drove Serb forces from the territory.

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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Thursday denounced the murder of innocent women and children as the horrid face of war as he presided at a special prayer service for peace in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pope Francis waves as he arrives to lead the Wednesday general audience in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Max RossiFrancis had planned to go later this year to South Sudan, which has been hit by civil war, famine and a refugee crisis, but had to scrap the project for security reasons. During the service, which was punctuated by African singing in English, French, Italian and Swahili, Francis asked God to break down the walls of hostility that today divide brothers and sisters, especially in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. May he protect children who suffer from conflicts in which they have no part, but which rob them of their childhood and at times of life itself, he said in his brief homily. How hypocritical it is to deny the mass murder of women and children! Here war shows its most horrid face, he said. St. Peters Basilica was decked out with photographs of African children. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after protracted bloodshed, then fell into civil war in late 2013, with troops loyal to President Salva Kiir fighting those backing Riek Machar, a former vice president Kiir had sacked. Both sides have targeted civilians, human rights groups say. Right now, we are moving into the lean season, and by July of 2018, many thousands of people across South Sudan  not just isolated pockets of the country  will be dying from hunger, said Jerry Farrell, country representative in South Sudan for Catholic Relief Services. What is most tragic is there absolutely shouldnt be hunger in South Sudan, he said in an email, adding that people of different tribes inter-marry and work together but that the conflict is instigated and fanned by politicians. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, dozens of people have died in protests against President Joseph Kabilas refusal to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December. Unrest sparked by the uncertainty surrounding the polls has raised fears Congo could witness a repeat of the kind of violence that killed millions around the turn of the last century, mostly from hunger and disease.

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YANGON (Reuters) - Human rights groups called on Friday for international agencies to be allowed to monitor the planned repatriation of hundreds of thousands Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh to the homes they have fled from in Myanmar over the past three months. Newly arrived Rohingya refugees climb on a truck to get registered after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border at a relief centre in the Teknaf area, Bangladesh, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Susana VeraThe two governments signed a pact on Thursday settling terms for a repatriation process. They aim to start the return of Rohingya in two months in order to reduce pressure in the refugee camps that have mushroomed in the Coxs Bazar region of Bangladesh. But rights groups have expressed doubts about Myanmar, also known as Burma, following through on the agreement, and some have called for independent observers. The idea that Burma will now welcome them back to their smoldering villages with open arms is laughable, said Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch. Instead of signing on to a public relations stunt, the international community should make it clear that there can be no returns without international monitors to ensure security, an end to the idea of putting returnees in camps, the return of land and the rebuilding of destroyed homes and villages. More than 600,000 Rohingya sought sanctuary in Bangladesh after the military in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar launched a brutal counter insurgency across northern parts of Rakhine State following attacks by Rohingya militants on an army base and police posts on Aug. 25. The United Nations and United States have described the militarys actions as ethnic cleansing. Rights groups have accused the security forces of atrocities, including mass rape, arson and killings. While Myanmars civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has said repatriation of the largely stateless Muslim minority would be based on residency and would be safe and voluntary, there were concerns that the countrys autonomous military could prove obstructive. The memorandum of understanding signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh on Thursday said a joint working group would be set up within three weeks to prepare for the return of the refugees. But it gave scant details about the criteria of return and of what role, if any, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, could play. The agency believed conditions in northern Rakhine are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns of Rohingya and some refugees were still fleeing Myanmar, spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters. It is important that international standards apply, and we are ready to help, he said, adding that the UNHCR had still not seen the repatriation agreement signed by the two countries. Rohingya refugees wait at a relief centre after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in the Teknaf area, Bangladesh, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Susana VeraIts important that people dont end up being sent back to confinement and ghettos. Human rights monitors said other important points not addressed in the statements released separately by the two governments included the protection of Rohingya against further violence, a path to resolving their legal status and whether they would be allowed to return to their old homes. Suu Kyis spokesman was not immediately available for comment on Friday, and had declined to comment on these concerns when contacted by Reuters late on Thursday. Charmain Mohamed, Amnesty Internationals director for refugee and migrant rights, said the United Nations and the international community have been completely sidelined and the talk of return was premature while the flow of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh continued. Newly arrived Rohingya refugees sit on a truck to take them to get registered after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border at a relief centre in the Teknaf area, Bangladesh, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Susana VeraChina welcomed the agreement, saying it feels gratified at the current positive progress that has been achieved, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters, adding that situation in Rakhine has obviously been alleviated. Humanitarian workers say, however, that hundreds of Rohingya are arriving in Bangladesh daily, driven out of Myanmar predominantly by chaos, starvation and fear. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY While the violence has mostly ceased, Rohingya say they have largely lost access to sources of livelihood such as their farms, fisheries and markets. We will go back if they dont harass us and if we can live life like the Buddhists and other ethnic groups. Our educated children should get government jobs like the others, said Sayer Hussein, 55, who arrived in Bangladesh two months ago. Thousands of Rohingya, most of them old people, women and children, are stranded on beaches near the border, waiting for a boat to take them to Bangladesh. Some independent estimates suggest there could still be a few hundred thousand Rohingya in Rakhine State. Thirty-six groups, including the International Commission of Jurists and Amnesty International, called for a U.N. Human Rights Council special session on the situation in Myanmar. Myanmar should immediately cease all human rights violations, including crimes against humanity, the groups said in an open letter to the U.N. council.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is concerned that Japan is allowing Washington to use its territory as a base for a U.S. military build-up in north Asia under the pretext of countering North Korea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) and his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono attend a news conference in Moscow, Russia November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei KarpukhinHis remarks came at a joint press conference with his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, after talks between the two men in Moscow, and prompted Kono to defend Japans stance toward North Korea and its ties with the United States. Japan had wanted to focus on resolving a seven-decade old territorial dispute between the countries but Lavrovs comments on North Korea cast a shadow over the meeting. We are expressing deep concern, with facts to back it up, that Japan along with South Korea is becoming a territory for the deployment of elements of the U.S. global missile defence system which is being rolled out in that region under the pretext of the North Korea threat, Lavrov said. We have no problems directly with Japan, we do not see risks there. We see risks because of the proliferation of a global U.S. missile defence system on the territory of countries that neighbour Russia, including Japan. He said that in the past few weeks the United States had conducted military exercises in the region and adopted additional sanctions despite the absence of provocation from Pyongyang. We are alarmed that in the last two months when North Korea conducted no tests or rocket launches, it seemed that Washington was not happy about that, and tried to do things that would irritate and provoke Pyongyang, Lavrov said. Referring to U.S. officials, he said: Its as if they are hoping that they (the North Koreans) will lash out again, and then it would be possible to engage in military options. As you know, the U.S. leadership has said many times that all options are on the table, including military options, and we note that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at a meeting with President Trump in early November, said that he supports the American position 100 percent, Lavrov said. PEACE HOPES FADE Japanese Foreign Minister Kono, after listening to Lavrovs remarks, responded that Japan and its allies were not seeking regime change in North Korea. He said Tokyo had to act to defend itself after Pyongyang test-fired missiles which flew over Japans territory. This is unprecedented, the most important and most pressing threat not just to Japan and Russia but to the international community as a whole. Its absolutely unacceptable, Kono said, speaking through an interpreter. We believe its necessary to use all possible means and to increase the pressure on North Korea as much as possible to stop its nuclear programme and the rocket launches, he said. Japan welcomes the position of the United States, which is that to protect Japan and South Korea, all means of deterrence will be used. Earlier this year, Japans Abe expressed hope of a breakthrough in Tokyos dispute with Moscow over a group of islands in the Pacific, but that prospect has now dimmed. The islands are known in Japan as the northern territories and in Russia as the Kurile islands. At the end of World War Two, Soviet forces took control over the islands from Japan. The island dispute has meant that Moscow and Tokyo have still not signed a formal peace agreement to end war-time hostilities. Lavrov and Kono said at their talks that they had made progress on measures to boost Russian-Japanese economic cooperation on the islands, and to ease access for Japanese people wanting to visit. They offered no details about any progress on resolving the core of the dispute, about who has sovereignty over the islands.

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RIYADH/AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrias main opposition group selected a new chief negotiator on Friday ahead of a new round of U.N.-backed peace negotiations with the Damascus government set to kick off next week. Syria's main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) leader Nasr al-Hariri arrives for a new round of negotiation with UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria Staffan de Mistura (not pictured) during the Intra Syria talks, at Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland July 14, 2017. REUTERS/Xu Jinquan/Pool/FIlesNasr Hariri said the opposition was going to Geneva on Nov. 28 to hold direct talks and was ready to discuss everything on the negotiating table. The announcement came at a summit in Riyadh where, a day before, the opposition stuck by its demand that President Bashar al-Assad play no role in an interim period, despite speculation that it could soften its stance because of Assads battlefield strength. The opposition groups met to seek a unified position ahead of Geneva after two years of Russian military intervention that has helped Assads government recapture all of Syrias main cities. Hariri replaces hardliner Riyad Hijab, who led the Higher Negotiations Committee at previous negotiations but abruptly quit this week without explanation. U.N. peace talks mediator Staffan de Mistura, preparing for the next round of Geneva talks, met on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said Moscow was working with Riyadh to unify the Syrian opposition. For many years, Western and Arab countries backed the opposition demand that Assad leave office. But since Russia joined the war on behalf of Assads government it has become increasingly clear that Assads opponents have no path to victory on the battlefield. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a congress of the Syrian government and opposition to draw up a framework for the future structure of the Syrian state, adopt a new constitution and hold elections under U.N. supervision. But he has also said that any political settlement in Syria would be finalised within the Geneva peace talks process overseen by the United Nations. The opposition has long been suspicious of the parallel diplomatic track pushed by Russia, which before the proposed Sochi congress included talks in Kazakhstan, and has insisted that political dialogue should only take place in Geneva. Hariri said Sochi did not serve the political process and called on the international community, including Russia, to concentrate all our efforts to serve the political process according to international resolutions in Geneva under UN auspices. Alaa Arafat, who represents the Moscow Platform political grouping, though, said he would attend Sochi and urged others to go too, reflecting lingering tensions within the diverse opposition. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir, who opened the summit on Wednesday pledging his countrys support for unifying the opposition, praised the creation of one negotiating team that represents everyone. Asked if there was any change in position towards Assads future, he told reporters that Riyadh continued to support a settlement based on the U.N.-backed process at Geneva. We support the positions of the Syrian opposition. We have from the beginning and we will continue to do so, he said. Syrias six-year-old civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee in the worst refugee crisis since World War Two.

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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A U.S. official on Friday said Washington is deeply concerned at the release from house arrest of a Pakistani Islamist accused of masterminding a bloody 2008 assault in the Indian city of Mumbai. Hafiz Saeed (C) reacts to supporters as he walks out of court after a Pakistani court ordered his release from house arrest in Lahore, Pakistan November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mohsin RazaHafiz Saeed, who had been under house arrest since January, was ordered freed by a Pakistani court this week and preached on Friday at a mosque in the eastern city of Lahore. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Saeeds organisation, Lashkar-e-Taiba, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians, including American citizens. The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes, Nauert said in a statement.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - The security minister of Ukraines pro-Russian rebel region of Luhansk said on Friday he was taking over power from regional chief Igor Plotnitsky, who days earlier had said he was facing an attempted armed coup to force him out. FILE PHOTO: Igor Plotnitsky (R), leader of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, salutes during the Victory Day military parade in the rebel-held city of Luhansk, Ukraine May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File PhotoIn a video posted on a rebel news portal in Luhansk, the security minister, Leonid Pasechnik, said he was taking over after Plotnitsky resigned for health reasons. But there was no immediate word from Plotnitsky itself. Luhansk region, along with the neighbouring Donetsk region, rebelled against rule from Kiev in 2014 and declared themselves independent. But since then the regions, which are backed by Moscow, have been troubled by infighting that has at times turned violent. Today Igor Venediktovich Plotnitsky resigned for health reasons. Multiple war wounds, the effects of blast injuries, took their toll, Pasechnik said in the video. In accordance with his decision, I am taking on the duties of head of the republic until forthcoming elections. Earlier this week, armed men in camouflage uniforms blocked access to central streets in the city of Luhansk, capital of the self-proclaimed Peoples Republic of Luhansk. Plotnitsky said it was a coup attempt by supporters of Igor Kornet, the rebel regions interior minister whom he had sacked. But Plotnitsky said he had the situation under control and that the plotters would be dealt with. Moscow denies having any influence over the rebel regions but multiple separatist leaders have told Reuters Kremlin officials effectively select the rebel leaders. A Kremlin spokesman this week declined to comment on events in Luhansk. The two self-proclaimed republics are not recognised by Russia or any other nation.

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Geneva: Conditions for Rohingya refugees to safely return to Myanmar from Bangladesh are not in place, the UN said, a day after the two countries announced repatriation would begin in two months. "UNHCR has not yet seen the details of the agreement", the UN refugee agency said in a statement, referring to the deal inked Thursday between Myanmar and Bangladesh, where an estimated 620,000 Rohingya refugees are now living in squalor.

"At present, conditions in Myanmar's Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns," UNHCR added. "Refugees are still fleeing, and many have suffered violence, rape, and deep psychological harm... Most have little or nothing to go back to, their homes and villages destroyed." "It is critical that returns do not take place precipitously or prematurely", the statement said.

Myanmar has faced mounting international criticism over alleged abuses committed against its minority Muslim community since the August launch of a military crackdown in Rakhine

state, which is home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya. Impoverished and overcrowded Bangladesh has won international praise for allowing the refugees into the country, but has imposed restrictions on their movements and said it does not want them to stay.

Dhaka said the deal agreed with Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi would see refugees begin returning home in two months. UNHCR underscored that all returns must include "the informed consent of refugees."
I am glad that this relocation exercise was done peacefully and without use of force, said Mr Baki. Kurdish journalist Boochani was not arrested, nor was he charged.

Of this number, 36 non-refugees and 13 refugees left voluntarily after being briefed and convinced by PNG government officials whilst one, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani, was escorted from the centre by government officials.

PORT MORESBY - Police Commissioner Gari Baki has said that a total of 50 people were peacefully relocated from the Lombrum based Regional Processing Centre to the two immigration centres on Manus Island.

Yesterday the last of the asylum seekers on Manus were reluctantly transferred from the 'processing centre' to accommodation in the capital Lorengau after a month-long stand-off. On Thursday this statement had been issued by the PNG police commissioner....

He was stirring up trouble and telling the other refugees not to move out of the centre so police and officers from the Immigration and Citizenship Services Authority simply escorted him out of the decommissioned centre and transported him to the East Lorengau Refugee Centre where he now remains.

Everybody has been jumping up and down about the treatment of the refugees which is nothing but the best so far, said Mr Baki.

Critics are failing to acknowledge the pressure, stress and strain the refugees are placing on PNG government officials on Manus as well as the local Manus people.

We have 10 Immigration officials and 50 policemen on Manus trying to manage more than 600 refugees whilst at the same time attend to ongoing law and order issues on the island province.

Mr Baki said the PNG authorities were doing the best they can and expressed frustration that the refugees continue to be stubborn and defiant.

The fact is that we are not moving them into the jungle, he said. They are being relocated to two centres where there is water, electricity, food and medical services.

We now have a grave concern for the health of the refugee remaining at Lombrum. Health authorities have cautioned against the outbreak of water-borne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid.

Concerns raised by the refugees about their safety and security at the new centres are unfounded. Manus is a peaceful island and I am sure it is a walk in the park compared to what they left behind in their respective countries.

I would urge churches, international organisations and the media to refocus their attention and take a much wider appreciation of the Manus regional processing centre and its impact, not just on the refugees but also on local Manusians as well. Manus and its people will never be the same again.

I am appealing to the 328 refugees still residing in Lombrum to be considerate and voluntarily relocate to their new camps where they will not miss out on anything, Mr Baki said.
AUBURN  Smiles could be seen in between bites of turkey at the Auburn Salvation Army's annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner.

Dinner plates were filled with food by smiling volunteers at the event. Timothy Donovan, co-chair of the Salivation Army Advisory Board, said he expected around 200 dinners would be served in the packed basement of the building Thursday afternoon. Hundreds of separate meals were sent out earlier in the day by volunteers to senior citizens and others. Leftover food will go to Chapel House, a homeless shelter in Auburn.

Maj. Carmen Campbell, who has been with the Salvation Army in Auburn for almost six months, said people were in good spirits.

"The community's beautiful and they come together and they support (each other)," Campbell said. "This would not have happened without them."

Chef Richard Taradejna, who has been volunteering at the dinner for seven years, said 50 turkeys, 350 pounds of potatoes and 150 pounds of squash were prepared for the event. Taradejna, a professional chef with 30 years of experience, said he greatly enjoys volunteering for the event over the years. He said preparation for the dinner began Monday.

Taradejna's son, Andy Wilbur, who has performed various duties for the dinner for five years, said the event has "a sense of family," despite the fact that not everyone is related.

Kathy Jurczak and her mother, Lottie Jurczak, have been meeting at the dinner together for the last couple years. Kathy, who lives in DeWitt, said they never need a big turkey so they come to the event. The two said they try to spend time together fairly often. Lottie enjoys meeting a variety of people at the dinner every year, and said dinner guests and volunteers are often smiling and are kind. She said the volunteers often walk by to ask if she or Kathy need anything.

"They're all so friendly over here," Jurczak said.

Richard Hoag, a volunteer, said he enjoys working the dinner.

"I just like seeing people get together for the Thanksgiving holiday and spend time with their friends and loved ones," Hoag said. "It brings people together."
It would be fair to say that Xiaomi has become a favorite amongst the Indian audience over the last three years. Today, the company is amongst the largest smartphone players in the country and enjoys a 23.5 percent market share. Over the last year. Since 2015, the company has made massive strides towards manufacturing their smartphones in India. Owing to the existing tax structures, it has allowed the company to reduce pricing drastically which has been instrumental in their onslaught against the likes of Micromax and Intex. The company is known to have razor-thin margins on their smartphones which makes their accessory line up all the more important to drive bottom lines. With the launch of the new production facility in Noida in collaboration with Hipad, the company is no longer dependent on the import model which will have massive ramifications on price competitiveness and capacity.

On the eve of the launch of the all new 10,000 and 20,000 mAh Mi Powerbank 2i, we got a chance to take a tour of the production facility. Follow along for a pictorial walk-through of Xiaomis latest production facility.

As mentioned earlier, the facility has been set up in collaboration with Hipad, a Chinese contract manufacturer with facilities in India that also puts together devices for a number of other Indian smartphone makers.

Spread across 2.3 lakh square feet, the production capacity as it stands is capable of churning out battery packs as fast as 7 units per minute. The 300 engineer strong team is responsible for 3 quality checks at every stage of production. In addition, a production manager conducts additional checks as and when necessary.

We also got a chance to take a look at the warehousing facilities located in the basement. The entire production facility has been made secure against electrostatic discharge but special attention has been paid to the holding areas for power bank PCBs. A rank of shelving units stand in a climate controlled room with individual earthing to ensure that there is no chance of damaging the stored PCBs.

Taking a look at the quality control checks in place, it is interesting to note that Xiaomi adheres to an acceptable quality limit of 0.40. What this means is that in a sample size of 200 smartphones, no more than 2 devices can show any flaw beyond which the entire batch will be required to go through additional scrutiny.

The company confirmed that a full-fledged battery testing lab will follow shortly but in the meanwhile, a whole host of components are manually inspected before entering the production change.

In a chat with Manu Jain, MD Xiaomi India, he confirmed that the company is open to flagging off even more production facilities as long as the demand is there. As it stands, the Noida facility is now the 3rd of its kind opened up by the Chinese giant.
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The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resigned Friday and named his own successor, leading to an open conflict with President Donald Trump  who announced a different person as acting head of the agency later in the day.

That means there are now effectively two acting directors of the CFPB, when there should only be one.

Typically an acting director position would be filled according to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. But Richard Cordray, along with his resignation, elevated Leandra English, who was the agency's chief of staff, into the deputy director position.

Under the Dodd-Frank Act that created the CFPB, English would become acting director. Cordray  an Obama appointee  specifically cited the law when he moved English, a longtime CFPB employee and ally of his, into that position.

Within a few hours, President Donald Trump announced his own acting director of the agency, Mick Mulvaney, who is currently director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney had widely been expected to be Trump's temporary pick for the bureau until a permanent one could be found.

Mulvaney is a long-time critic of the CFPB, and has wanted the agency's authority significantly curtailed. So the difference between English and Mulvaney running the agency would be significant.

The person nominated to be director of the CFPB requires confirmation by the Senate, and it could be many weeks or months before the person would be able to step into the role permanently. Cordray's move was aimed at allowing his favored successor to keep running the agency for as long as possible before a Trump appointee is confirmed by the Senate.

Cordray had announced earlier this month that he would resign by the end of this month. There is wide speculation that Cordray, a Democrat, is resigning in order to run for governor in his home state of Ohio.

The CFPB was created as part of the laws passed following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. The agency was given a broad mandate to be a watchdog for consumers when they deal with banks and credit card, student loan and mortgage companies, as well as debt collectors and payday lenders. Nearly every American who deals with banks or a credit card company or has a mortgage has been affected by new rules the agency put in place.

Cordray used that mandate aggressively as its first director, which often made him a target for the banking industry's Washington lobbyists and Congressional Republicans who believed Cordray was overreaching in his role, calling the CFPB a "rogue agency."

As director, he also was able to extract billions of dollars in settlements from banks, debt collectors and other financial services companies for wrongdoing. When Wells Fargo was found to have opened millions of phony accounts for its customers, the CFPB fined the bank $100 million, the agency's largest penalty to date.
As the end of the year approaches and investors begin to take stock of their savings, one consideration they may want to take into account is how they should allocate money across 401(k) and IRA plans.

In a traditional, employer-sponsored 401(k) plan, employees can contribute tax-deferred money that is generally matched by a company up to a certain percentage. Traditional IRAs are accounts individuals set up independently, where earnings grow tax-free until they are withdrawn in retirement. For a Roth IRA, contributions are taxed first and then withdrawn tax-free, and a Rollover IRA allows individuals to transfer money over from employer-sponsored plans.

Here are some tips to help you navigate the retirement planning process.

Contribution levels

The maximum amount an individual can contribute to a 401(k) plan is significantly higher than what is allowed for an IRA. Beginning next year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will increase the contribution threshold for 401(k) plans by another $500 to $18,500 per year. The maximum allowable, cumulative contribution per year across both traditional and Roth IRA plans is $5,500, or $6,500 for those ages 50 and older.

Uses

Most of the time people work for an employer and obviously the easiest way to invest is to make it automatic  [thats also] typically the most advantageous, David Hays, president of Comprehensive Financial Consultants, told FOX Business.

IRAs can be useful for a variety of purposes, however, including higher education expenses for yourself or your children or a down payment for a first-time homebuyer. If funds are withdrawn for these purposes when an investor is under the age of 59.5, they can generally be exempt from the 10% distribution penalty.

401(k) plans dont provide those options, but Hays said the plans do offer loans for up to 50% of the vested account balance, or $50,000, whichever is less. Not all plans include this allowance.

Investment options and fees

While a traditional 401(k) usually offers limited investment options, IRA choices tend to be limitless, offering investors more flexibility to curate a unique portfolio.

In terms of fees, Hays said IRAs, which tend to be more on the retail side, sometimes comes with higher fees. With 401(k) plans, big companies can offer really low, competitive fees.

Withdrawal

For a 401(k), if you are no longer working with an employer, you can generally withdraw funds if you are age 59.5 or older. In some cases, you only need to be over the age of 55. If you withdraw early, you will pay income taxes and a 10% penalty.

On the other hand, you can rollover your 401(k) savings into an IRA plan, should you choose to continue stashing cash away.

For IRA plans, the age 59.5 rule applies, and early withdrawal would also result in a 10% penalty on top of income taxes.
A 12-year-old girl is a mission to get medical marijuana legalized and shes going head-to-head with Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a lawsuit to make it happen.

Alexis Bortell says she taking her case to court because she needs cannabis in order to treat her severe form of epilepsy known as intractable epilepsy.

One night, I had the worst seizure of my life [and] after that our doctor actually said [we had to] choose between brain surgery or moving to Colorado to get my medicine-- Haleighs Hope. So we were basically after talking to many politicians, forced out of Texas and we were forced to move here in Colorado because its illegal in Texas to get my medicine, Bortell told FOX Business Ashley Webster on Varney & Company.

Colorado is one of 29 states that have legalized medical marijuana, but is one of only seven states that have legalized it for recreational use.

Bortells attorney Michael Hiller elaborated on what the lawsuit was really about.

Well the suit is actually to invalidate the controlled substances act as unconstitutional. Right now cannabis is a schedule one drug under the Controlled Substances Act, which means federally its illegal, which means that Alexis cant travel to Washington to lobby her representatives. She cant really travel across state lines safely, so what were trying to do is invalidate it at the federal level and that we believe will pave the way toward legalization throughout the United States, he said.

Hiller also explained why he is confident that they will win the lawsuit.

I dont think weve been in a better position to legalize than we are right now, the evidence weve collected, the facts weve uncovered really make clear that the United States Government knows that cannabis is actually safe and medically effective, but for some reason the United States government continues to render it illegal for people like Alexis who desperately need the medication to preserve their health and their lives, he said.

And, theyre going after Sessions because he has been a longtime opponent of the substance, even going as far as saying, Good people dont smoke marijuana, last year.

Bortell added that she would love the opportunity to speak with Sessions on why this law needs to be passed.

Cannabis has saved my life. If I stay in Texas and got brain surgery who would have known what would have happened, I could have died. Seizures they are really scary because just imagine being stuck in your own body, you cant scream, you cant say anything, you cant call for help, that could kill me, she said
Multiple Cayuga County police agencies responded to Walmart Thursday night after a report of a man with a gun, but police said the initial scare for Black Friday shoppers turned out to be a false alarm.

At around 7:30 p.m., the Auburn Police Department, New York State Police and Cayuga County Sheriff's Office responded to Walmart on Grant Avenue in Auburn after a caller reported there was a man with a gun.

Upon arrival, police said officers discovered an adult male with a gun; however, the man was authorized to carry the weapon and never threatened anyone with it.

State police said it seemed to be an incident of "accidental exposure" in which another customer saw the gun in a holster on the man's hip. No arrest was made and no charges were filed.
Allegedly unbiased Washington Post reporter Janell Ross spoke at a top-secret meeting of liberal movers and shakers last week, where Democratic donors including billionaire George Soros outlined the future of their progressive agenda.

A Post spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon that Ross took part of the California event without notifying her superiors that she would be attending.

The Democracy Alliance, which hosted the event, bills itself as the largest network of donors dedicated to building the progressive movement in the United States on the groups official website. The liberal group also claims to play a leading role in fostering the infrastructure necessary to advance a progressive agenda in the United States.

The group intended to keep the identities of its members and guests confidential, according to the Beacon, but the paper obtained a detailed conference agenda that lists both events and featured guests. Once the Beacon revealed the attendees, the group reportedly beefed up security and asked participants to keep details off social media.

One of the surprising guests was Ross, who used to pass as a somewhat impartial reporter for the prestigious Post. While the papers slogan is, Democracy Dies in Darkness, she apparently wanted to keep her bosses in the dark about attending the liberal planning session and hanging out with prominent Democratic donors such as Soros.

According to the agenda published by the Beacon, Ross panel aimed to help the liberal attendees get the economic narrative right" and was immediately followed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) speaking about on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor called it a classic example of journalism openly coordinating with the alt-left to take down conservatives.

Someone should introduce reporter Janell Ross and her boss Marty Baron to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. It appears they haven't read it, or any other text on journalistic ethics."  Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor

Someone should introduce reporter Janell Ross and her boss Marty Baron to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. It appears they haven't read it, or any other text on journalistic ethics. Funny, the movie Spotlight portrays Baron as a big advocate of legitimate journalism, Gainor told Fox News. Can't wait for the sequel that shows the Post for what it really is, the research and reporting arm of the left.

While its surprising that a reporter from the Post would appear at such a partisan event, a quick glance at Ross archive page on the papers website reveals her agenda. One headline lumps President Trump into the same category as O.J. Simpson, while others touch on issues of race and gender discrimination. She covered the 2016 presidential election closely, but the majority of her stories appear to be anti-Trump in retrospect.

Members of the secretive liberal group who attended the shady presentation each promised to donate at least $20,000 to advance its left-wing agenda. The session was part of a three-day conference at the luxurious La Costa Resort located in Carlsbad, Calif., last week, where the group plotted their 2018 "resistance" and game plan, according to the Beacon. Soros was introduced by a video message from Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, according to the paper.

"Weve only now learned about her participation in this event," a Washington Post spokesperson told the Beacon when asked about Ross involvement, adding that she has been "reminded" that the paper "discourages" participation in events that may be "perceived as partisan."

Ross did not comment when reached by the Beacon.

The Washington Post did not respond to questions from Fox News on whether or not Ross will be disciplined for attending the event. Ross did not respond to our request for comment either.

The Democracy Alliance did not respond to a question about who funded Ross trip to the ritzy resort where the event was held.
Palestinian terrorist leaders often use teenagers to commit acts of terror because they know the Israeli legal system treats children more leniently than adults. Now 10 Democrats belonging to the Congressional Progressive Caucus are trying to give terrorist leaders yet another reason for using young people to murder even more innocent civilians.

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., introduced legislation Nov. 14  co-sponsored by nine other Democrats  calling on the State Department to prevent United States tax dollars from supporting the Israeli militarys ongoing detention and mistreatment of Palestinian children.

In a news release about the proposed legislation, McCollum said: This legislation highlights Israels system of military detention of Palestinian children and ensures that no American assistance to Israel supports human rights violations . Peace can only be achieved by respecting human rights, especially the rights of children. Congress must not turn a blind eye the unjust and ongoing mistreatment of Palestinian children living under Israeli occupation.

It is well established that recruiting and using young Palestinians to wage terror on Israeli civilians is part of the modus operandi of Palestinian terrorist leaders. For decades, members of the radical Palestinian political and religious leadership have been stirring up young people to wage war against the Jews and the Jewish State.

This was seen in the gruesome intifada that began in 2000, in which Palestinian teenagers committed dozens of attacks against Jewish Israelis on buses, in cafes and at nightclubs.

The new law allows for leniency. The courts can not only postpone the convicted minors transfer date from a closed holding facility to prison, but can also shorten or cancel the prison sentence altogether, if warranted by the circumstances.

More recently  in what has become known as the lone-wolf intifada  children as young as 13 have stabbed Israelis with scissors, screwdrivers and knives.

Legislation proposed by the 10 Democrats is titled the Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act. The bill does not explicitly define at what age a person moves from childhood to adulthood.

While noting that children between the ages of 12 and 17 are held and prosecuted by Israeli military courts, the bill fails to acknowledge that some of the most barbaric terrorist attacks against Jewish Israelis have been committed by Palestinian teens.

Consider the terrorist attack that took place over this past summer in Halamish, about an hour outside Jerusalem. A Palestinian in his late teens  from a nearby village controlled by the Palestinian Authority  chose a Jewish house at random and fatally stabbed three members of a family as they ate their Sabbath dinner.

The Palestinian child murderer also wounded several other family members, while one mother hid her young children in an upstairs room until the terrorist left.

The triple-murder is reminiscent of a similar attack that occurred only six years earlier when two Palestinian teens armed with knives broke into the Fogel family home in Itamar as they slept on Friday night. The children butchered the mother, father and three of their children  including a 3-month-old baby as she slept in her crib.

As a result of such deadly terrorist attacks by Palestinian teenagers, Israel has had to introduce legislation to deal with the problem. In August 2016, the Israeli parliament (Knesset) passed a bill allowing imprisonment of terrorists as young as 12.

The new law allows for leniency. The courts can not only postpone the convicted minors transfer date from a closed holding facility to prison, but can also shorten or cancel the prison sentence altogether, if warranted by the circumstances.

In introducing the bill, Knesset Member Anat Berko said: This law was born of necessity. We have been experiencing a wave of terror for quite some time. A society is allowed to protect itself. To those who are murdered with a knife in the heart it does not matter if the child is 12 or 15. Weve witnessed numerous cases where 11-year-old children were suicide bombers. Perhaps this law will also do something to protect these children from being used to slaughter people.

In a desperate effort to justify her proposed legislation, Rep. McCollum argued that peace can only be achieved by respecting human rights, especially the rights of children.

McCollums hypocrisy in this context is palpable. She claims to be an advocate for the rights of children. Yet she refuses to acknowledge or condemn Palestinians who perpetrate acts of child abuse by recruiting children to commit terrorist attacks on Jews.

McCollum expressed no outrage when Palestinian leaders were caught posting material on social media inciting and encouraging young Palestinians to stab Israelis.

And the Minnesota member of Congress failed to protest when Hamas set up training camps  under the mantra Vanguards of Liberation  aimed at training children as young as 15 to use weapons against Israel. Nor did she speak up when children in Gaza were crushed to death when the terror tunnels they were recruited by the Hamas leadership to build collapsed on their bodies.

So I ask: What do these members of Congress think Israel should do? If children as young as 13 were roaming the streets of New York, Los Angeles or Boston stabbing elderly women as they shopped at the supermarket or waited at a bus stop, would the Democrats protest the apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrators? Of course not.

No country in the world would tolerate terror in its cities, regardless of the age of the terrorists.

Israel has a right  according to international law  to protect its citizens from constant terror attacks, including those committed by young Palestinians. It actually has an obligation to do so.

If Israel is punished for trying to protect its citizens from teen terrorists, this would incentivize terrorist leaders to keep using children in pursuit of their goal of wiping the Israel off the map.

But rather than condemning the abhorrent and unlawful use of children as terrorist pawns, the 10 congressional Democrats chose to single out Israel for punishment.

People of good faith on both sides of the aisle should call out this double standard for what it really is: an attack on Jewish victims of teenage terrorism and the Jewish State.

For Shame on this group of biased anti-Israel Democrats, which includes the following members of Congress: Mark Pocan of Wisconsin; Earl Blumenauer of Oregon: Andre Carson of Indiana: John Conyers of Michigan; Danny K. Davis of Illinois; Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon; Raul Grijalva and Luis V. Gutierrez of Arizona; and Chellie Pingree of Maine. They give a bad name to the Democratic Party, to the Progressive Caucus and to Congress.
Terrorist attacks are happening with such mind-numbing regularity that even Fridays barbaric bombing and machine-gunning of hundreds of Muslims at prayer at an Egyptian mosque seems like just one more in a long line of tragedies  almost a normal part of modern life. We are becoming desensitized to mass murder.

The crushing of our collective voice of moral outrage into a mere whisper represents a huge victory for Islamist terrorists. They continue to justify such horrible attacks against their fellow Muslims  as well as attacks against Christians and Jews at prayer all over the world  in Gods name.

This is a perversion of religion. God did not create us in his image to become mass murderers, and does not want us to glorify him with the blood of innocents.

We are witnessing the decimation of fundamental norms of civilization by cold-blooded killers who continue to market their culture of death through social media and by invoking Islamist theologians.

We can only prevail over Islamist terrorism if leaders of all faiths take the lead in openly and consistently denouncing the murderers who use Gods name to justify their evil and immoral agenda.

We can only prevail over Islamist terrorism if leaders of all faiths take the lead in openly and consistently denouncing the murderers who use Gods name to justify their evil and immoral agenda.

There are important voices in the Muslim world, including in the worlds largest Muslim country, Indonesia, who are already taking up this challenge.

Recently, King Hamad of Bahrain authored a declaration denouncing religious extremism and emphasizing the right of everyone to pray  or not pray  in the way they alone choose.

In Azerbaijan, in the main mosque in Baku  the capital of the nation where 96 percent of the population is Muslim  Sunni and Shia Muslims pray together in peace and mutual respect. This is a rarity in the Muslim world, where Sunnis and Shias too often treat each other as enemies.

The rest of us  starting with President Trump  should acknowledge those Muslim leaders who get it right, and do everything in our power to support their efforts to encourage peaceful coexistence with people of all faiths. We dont have to be identical twins and hold the same beliefs about God to treat each other as brothers and sisters.

Many of us have the bully pulpit in houses of prayer. We have the obligation to raise our voices in prayer, moral indignation and calls for action.

Beyond his provocative tweets, President Trump must also take action against those who weaken the global struggle to defeat the jihadis.

Especially enraging was the recent decision by Pakistan to release Hafiz Saeed, who is linked to the infamous Mumbai Massacre in India 2008.

I led the interfaith memorial service in Mumbai that remembered the innocent victims at the railway station and the Taj Hotel. We remembered the wonderful Chabad rabbi, his wife and four other Jews butchered at the Chabad House by terrorists trained and dispatched from Pakistan. God did not bless these murders.

As if we needed more proof that Pakistan is more a foe than a friend of America when it comes to terrorism.

The terrorists and their global support network are counting on our apathy, silence and ultimate acquiescence. Our military can kill them on the battlefield. But the rest of us  led by religious leaders of all faiths  must engage and defeat them in the Houses of God where we pray with the most powerful ammunition of all  our love for humankind.
Hatred of Jews is an ancient cancer of the soul that refuses to die. For thousands of years, successive generations of bigots have embraced it, each trying to sell anti-Semitism in a new and more attractive way, with new lies and slanders. One of the most prominent peddlers of this vile doctrine in America today is Palestinian-American Linda Sarsour.

And now, in a supreme irony, Sarsour has been invited to head a panel discussion Tuesday at the New School for Social Research in New York City on combating anti-Semitism. This makes as much sense as inviting a Ku Klux Klan leader to head a discussion on combating racism, or inviting disgraced filmmaker Harvey Weinstein to head a discussion on combating sexual misconduct.

Sadly, Sarsour is just one of many enablers and inciters of a troubling new anti-Semitism growing in America today, especially on college campuses, where it is poisoning young minds.

Like a wolf in sheeps clothing, this new anti-Semitism seeks to disguise itself  often by posing as a progressive movement supporting human rights of Palestinians. But like the wolf that masquerades as a sheep, the modern-day Jew-haters are what they are, regardless of how they seek to cover it up.

Making Jews a minority in the land of Israel, which was created to be the only Jewish state on Earth, would turn the country into yet another Arab-majority Mideast nation.

Sarsour gained instant media celebrity status as co-chair of the National Womens March protesting in Washington against President Trump the day after his inauguration. She was warmly embraced by many as a leader of the so-called resistance to our new president.

Speaking to the Islamic Society of North America in July, Sarsour said that Muslims are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle East or on the other side of the world (she means Israel), but here in these United States of America where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reigning in the White House.

And Sarsour is also a strong supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The movement compares Israel to South Africa under its former white minority government that discriminated against nonwhites. BDS seeks to isolate Israel from the world as an international pariah, calling for the end to investment, trade, cultural and academic ties with the Jewish State.

The BDS movement echoes the boycott of Jewish businesses ordered by Adolf Hitler after he became the dictator of Germany in 1933. The Star of David was painted on the doors and windows of businesses owned by Jews, along with anti-Semitic slogans and signs saying Dont Buy from Jews.

And while Sarsour asserts she is not against the existence of Israel, her claim is absurd. She wants to replace Israel with a one-state solution in which the culture and identities of over 6 million Jewish citizens would be extinguished and subsumed under a nation combining Israel, the West Bank and Gaza that would quickly have an Arab majority.

Making Jews a minority in the land of Israel, which was created to be the only Jewish state on Earth, would turn the country into yet another Arab-majority Mideast nation. From Morocco to Iraq, those nations drove out most of their Jewish citizens decades ago and have a long record of discrimination against the few who remained. Israeli Jews would meet a similar fate, or worse.

Sarsour is a symptom of worsening anti-Semitism in America. In 2016, despite constituting under 2 percent of the U.S. population, Jews were the targets of 684 of the 1,273 anti-religion incidents tallied by the FBI  more than double all other anti-religious attacks combined.

Most of the incidents involved damage or vandalism against synagogues and cemeteries. But 238 involved ugly intimidation on our nations campuses. FBI findings are echoed by an Anti-Defamation League report that shows anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. surged by more than one-third in 2016, and by an astounding 86 percent in the first quarter of 2017. This includes a doubling of anti-Semitic bullying and vandalism at schools.

Fortunately, there is no indication that most Americans have embraced anti-Jewish attitudes. A 2017 Pew Poll shows that 67 percent of Americans have warm views about Jews.

However, there are troubling signs. For example:

Anti-Semitic incidents on Americas top college campuses from 2014 to 2015 are increasing. Most involve intimidation of Jewish students who support Israel, pressure to disinvite or silence pro-Israel speakers, and the de-legitimization of Israel by a double standard applied to no other nation.

The BDS movement is growing on college campuses, supporting by vicious lies alleging Israeli atrocities against Palestinians. Some professors support this movement and its lies.

Vandalism continues at synagogues and Jewish cemeteries. Jewish institutions are forced to spend large sums on security measures, fearing attacks like the recent murderous rampage at a church in Texas.

Jew-haters have taken a page from the ISIS online marketing strategy and are using social media to recruit young followers. Rabblerouser Andrew Anglin, who incited the anti-Semitic marchers at the recent neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va., wrote on his blog: I have long thought that we needed to get pre-teens involved in the movement. At that age, you can really brainwash someone easily. Anyone who accepts Nazism at the age of 10 or 11 is going to be a Nazi for life.

Self-styled progressives have joined right-wing extremists to campaign against the legitimacy of Israel and Zionists. In Britain, Jeremy Corbins Labour Party, once the political home of British Jewry, now is home to prominent anti-Semites. And last summer, a convention of the Democratic Socialists of America endorsed BDS.

At a time when Linda Sarsour and progressive anti-Zionists have joined racist and neo-Nazi groups working to end Americas long history as friendly territory for Jews, we would do well to heed the words of an American hero revered by all  President George Washington.

In 1790, our first president wrote of his good feelings for Jews in a letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport in Rhode Island, asserting that the U.S. government gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. He added: May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants  while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.

Amen.
Where do we begin? With journalists covering the sex scandals rocking politics? Or with the sex scandals rocking journalism? Journalists came out looking bad in both.

Journalists dominated the sex harassment discussion  not for their reporting, but for their own alleged actions. CBS and PBS dumped veteran liberal journalist Charlie Rose and The New York Times suspended anti-Trump reporter Glenn Thrush.

Media outlets are devoting tremendous resources to investigating their colleagues and competitors, wrote The Hills Jonathan Easley.

The Washington Post broke the Rose story. It began: Eight women have told The Washington Post that longtime television host Charlie Rose made unwanted sexual advances toward them, including lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, or groping their breasts, buttocks or genital areas.

Roses 45-year career came to a crashing end. The fall of the reliably liberal journalist became the lead story on the morning news show he had hosted.

The left-wing site Vox did a similar, scathing takedown of Thrush, who joined The Times after covering the presidential campaign.

Writer Laura McGann detailed her encounter with Thrush and added details from others, from unwanted groping and kissing to wet kisses out of nowhere to hazy sexual encounters that played out under the influence of alcohol. Each woman described feeling differently about these experiences: scared, violated, ashamed, weirded out. I was  and am  angry.

Vanity Fair followed with speculation on Thrushs future, noting how one source said that high-level Times figures are torn about whether Thrush should keep his job.

The scandal is taking a toll on other outlets. NPRs David Folkenflik described his network as being in chaos. He wrote that the network finds itself confronted by a series of dispiriting developments: a CEO on medical leave; a chief news executive forced out over sexual harassment allegations; the sudden resignation of a board chairman; fresh complaints over inappropriate behavior by colleagues; and a network roiled by tensions over the treatment of its female workers.

2. Sex-Harassment Coverage Also Bad: It was almost impossible to keep up with the sexual misconduct allegations against politicians this week  Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.; President Bill Clinton; Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.; and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, were the most prominent.

Franken had new allegations of groping, which resulted in yet another apology. Thats his third. PBS dropped him from a special honoring comedian David Letterman, who also had his own issues with sexual misconduct. Even the Post observed Frankens era on Saturday Night Live was full of jokes disparaging women.

Yet Franken has his defenders. Joy Behar of The View called his actions odd and careless. Then she linked the issue to President Trump, like most stories these days. If Franken has to resign, then Trump needs to resign, she told viewers.

Co-host Sunny Hostin defended Clinton as well. I mean if were talking about Bill Clinton, he paid the price, she said.

The timing was odd since The Daily Mail reported on new allegations against Clinton that day. Bill Clinton is facing explosive new charges of sexual assault from four women, according to highly placed Democratic Party sources and an official who served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, wrote Ed Klein.

Conyers secretly settled a sexual harassment claim with a staffer in 2015, The Hill reported. Yet, ABC and CBS downplayed that scandal.

Release of a nude photo of Barton made the political scandal bipartisan. The Washington Post treated him as the bad guy for trying to stop publication of the photo. Given the media hue and cry about revenge porn, this seemed oddly political. Reporter Mike DeBonis begged people on Twitter to send him dirt on Barton: If you were inappropriately propositioned by Barton, we'd like to hear your story, he posted.

The overall reaction to political harassment was tied to both Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore and Trump. And pundits blasted the GOP consistently.

New York Times pretend conservative columnist David Brooks took his anger out on the right as usual on PBS. Brooks bashed defenders of Roy Moore as all a bunch of hypocrites. Then he went even further, calling them heretics.

3. The Washington Post Is Neutral? Nope!: Under the Trump administration, the Washington Post has become an openly anti-Trump outlet, attacking the administration in every section.

Reporter Janell Ross took the liberal papers bias to a new level this week when she appeared on a panel at a secret liberal donor conference backed by billionaire George Soros. The story, broken by the Free Beacon, showed she hadnt told her supervisors about her participation in this event.

The events agenda, Beyond #Resistance: Reclaiming our Progressive Future," flies in the face of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. That code urges journalists to act independently and says: Journalists should: Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.

The Free Beacon regularly shines light on Democracy Alliance events, despite the groups attempts to stay in the shadows. This time, it put pressure on the Post to take action against Ross.

Perhaps the Post should examine Rosss Twitter feed before moving forward. Its a hilarious look at what neutral journalists consider to be a moderate worldview. Two months of tweets push an openly left-wing, anti-Trump agenda through comments and retweets. She cites numerous left-wing celebrities including Hillary Clinton sycophant Peter Daou, fired anti-Trump attorney Preet Bharara, and MSNBC host Chris Hayes.

One particularly obvious one was retweeting fellow lefty Post journalist Radley Balko saying: Republicans 1st Amendment. Unless you're Muslim. Or media. Or a cop critic. Or anti-war. Or a flag burner.

4. Donald Trump Is Like Charles Manson?: This is the ultimate click-hate kind of comparison. Americas most-famous psycho killer finally dies and the alt-left media race to link him to Trump. Newsweeks nuttery was especially bad since it was once a legitimate publication.

Newsweek posted a story headlined: How murderer Charles Manson and President Donald Trump used similar language to gain followers. The similar language is English. The outlet quoted American Psychoanalytic Associations Mark Smaller saying Trump uses the kind of emotional rhetoric that appeals to people who feel alienated similar to the kind of language Manson used in seducing his followers, reported The Hill.

After Newsweek was blasted across social media, it changed the headline to: HOW MURDERER CHARLES MANSON USED LANGUAGE TO GAIN FOLLOWERS. Newsweek updated the story with a laughable clarification: An earlier version of this story did not meet Newsweek's editorial standards and has been revised accordingly.
Until recently, the basic skills that we are all taught in elementary and secondary school have given us an adequate foundation to lead us through much of daily life.

If you could read, you could learn and follow directions. If you could do math, you could manage your finances or have a successful business. If you could write, you could communicate clearly and advocate for yourself or others.

But the world is changing so fast that these foundational elements of education are no longer enough. At a time when computers increasingly control every aspect of our daily lives  both on the job and at home  the lessons we teach students must adapt to where the world is going, not where it has been.

Because of this, computing education must be part of every core curriculum, from elementary school through college. But teaching all students computing will require a major mind-shift  mostly among educators, who have never learned the subject themselves.

At a time when computers increasingly control every aspect of our daily lives  both on the job and at home  the lessons we teach students must adapt to where the world is going, not where it has been.

A recent Gallup Poll found that 91 percent of parents want their children to study computer science. However, only one in four schools teaches computer programming.

So how do we stop talking about the need for computer science education and actually start teaching the subject?

First, we need to educate the educators about the importance of computing overall and how it can no longer only be the domain only of geeks, boys, or those who want to grow up to be software engineers.

Today, the line between white-collar and blue-collar jobs is fading fast. The tools traditionally associated with factory work, for example, are rapidly evolving from manually controlled machines to computer-enabled devices.

For example, if the heating and air-conditioning system in a house is acting up but it has sensors and sends performance data to the manufacturer, a remote technician may be able to service it from a computer rather than in person.

Weve reached a point where every job from NASA to nursing requires a better understanding of computational processes and computer science.

The nice-to-have or competitive advantage skill is no longer an option; its now a requirement. This is because any domain in which people make decisions, monitor situations or take action based on information has been dramatically impacted by advances in computing.

Professionals across industries will achieve the most success when they understand not only their job function, but also the technology now required to carry it out.

Further, there is a severe shortage of computer science professionals to fill jobs like cybersecurity roles, putting both our national security and personal privacy at risk. According to Code.org, there will be an estimated 1 million more computing jobs than applicants who can fill them by 2020.

There are also more than 500,000 open computing jobs nationwide, but less than 43,000 computer science students graduated into the workforce in 2016. While this education should begin in elementary school, colleges also must align their core curriculum with this new foundational skill to close the gap.

Of course, this skills gap also applies to the K-12 teachers and we need to figure out ways  even if it involves using technology  to bring computing classes to them and their students.

Another reason why computer science education is essential for our nations long-term economic success is that it will drive technological awareness and advancement. Americans will need the basic knowledge of how computers process information and control the machines and the flow of information around us.



But right now we arent fully engaged with making the most of technologys benefits and are certainly not challenged to continue its advancement. Our nation is one of technology consumers, but we must also be one of technology creators.

We need computational engineers, leaders and teachers to address the widening skills gap and help foster a greater knowledge of computing across industries.

Finally, by offering computer science education to all students we can improve critical thinking across the board. Computing in its simplest form addresses a problem through a step-by-step approach or algorithm that then arrives at the best answer.

By introducing computing from a young age and through the college core curriculum, students are provided with a universally applicable way of thinking critically and analyzing information.

Weve reached a crossroads within our educational system. Just as technology has changed the way we teach, we must now change the topics we teach. Computing has to be a fundamental skill we imbue in students from their earliest days in the classroom, and one that we carry through to the college level to impact students preparedness for careers.

The next generations  who wont know a world without connected, digital devices  should be in the drivers seat when it comes to technology, not indifferently unaware of the computer science behind it.
The attack Friday on a Sufi mosque in northern Sinai, in which at least 235 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded, was the worst terrorist attack on civilians in modern Egyptian history. It was well-planned, highly coordinated and aimed at slaughtering as many people as possible.

But it should have been no surprise.

The Egyptian army has been battling ISIS-linked militant Islamists in the Sinai four years with limited success. But if the world knows little about this fierce ongoing struggle, that is no accident. The Egyptian government has imposed an almost total media blackout on its efforts to repress what is becoming a deeply embedded insurgency.

Egyptian president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi went on Egyptian television Friday evening to declare three days of mourning and denounce the attack, which he called the work of cowards. He vowed to respond with air strikes and brutal force.

But the use of such brutal force, which critics say is also indiscriminate, has created greater resentment among Sinai residents. It has also radicalized the local population and generated new recruits for the terrorists  even as most Egyptians reacted with shock and outrage to the assault on a holy mosque during the Muslim day of prayer, a rarity in the deeply religious country.

Fridays attack was not only particularly gruesome, but worrisome to a government that has repeatedly claimed to be making progress in the war on jihadis.

While no group immediately claimed credit for the attack on the Al Rawda mosque in the town of Bir Al-Abed in northern Sinai, the culprits were almost surely the local branch of ISIS, also known as the Islamic State.

Local jihadis  members of a group formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis  have pledged bayat or allegiance to the Islamic State in Sinai.

Fridays attack represented an escalation in the jihadi campaign against President Sisis government, which has conducted a massive crackdown on opponents, critics, and the media in the name of bringing order and security to the nation of over 90 million.

Before Friday, the Islamic State in Sinai had concentrated its attacks on police, other security officials, and Egypts Coptic Christians (about 10 percent of the population).

But in publications and statements, jihadis have increasingly attacked Sufi Muslims. The 2 million to 3 million Sufis in Egypt practice a mystical form of Islam that ISIS and many other jihadi groups consider a form of heresy.

Fridays attack was not only particularly gruesome, but worrisome to a government that has repeatedly claimed to be making progress in the war on jihadis.

According to numerous accounts, the attack began around noon when the Al-Rawda mosque, about 125 miles northeast of Cairo, was filled with worshipers. Security officials said that worshipers fled outside after a bomb, probably detonated by a suicide bomber, exploded inside the mosque.

Outside, another group of terrorists opened fire not only on those fleeing, but on ambulances attempting to reach the wounded. Egyptian security officials were quoted as saying the terrorists were heavily armed, with both automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades and sped off in vehicles  all indicators of a well-planned attack.

Israeli Transportation and Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said that Israel stood shoulder to shoulder with Egypt and other countries in the region in the war against radical Islamic terror.

Unstated was the fact that Israel has been working closely with Egypt to combat terrorism and control illicit weapons and personnel flows through tunnels in the Sinai between Israel and Egypt. But even such quiet Israeli assistance has not managed to quash the growing Islamist insurgency in Sinai.

Mohammed Sabry, an Egyptian journalist who knows Sinai well and is now in self-imposed exile because of President Sisis crackdown on critical voices in his country, says that the anti-terrorist campaign has been mismanaged for years. The campaign has been plagued by lack of indigenous support due to the Egyptian militarys brutality, extra-judicial shootings, and other violations of human rights, Sabry says.

Violence and protests rose in Sinai 2013 when then-Gen. Sisi came to power in a military takeover. Sisi ousted the democratically elected, but hugely unpopular, President Mohamed Morsi, who was the head the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist group.

Speaking with Michael Young, another Middle East expert, Sabry said that Sisis campaign suffers from a lack of intelligence and the growing alienation of Bedouin and other Sinai residents due to the governments ruthless campaign.

Egyptian officials say that such measures are needed to contain ISIS in the Sinai. But ISIS attacks on Egypt, which depends on tourism as a mainstay of its economy, have escalated since Sisis Sinai campaign has begun.

While the government has been battling discontented Egyptians in Said for well over a decade, the Friday attack on Sufi Muslims was an ominous escalation that raises profound questions about whether Sisi's strategy is working, or backfiring.
For the past few generations, some say weve been living in the Information Age. Or the Space Age. Or the Atomic Age. But if I could name it, Id call it the Mall Age.

Since the first U.S. indoor mall  the Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota  opened in 1956, the mall has been the place to be. Future historians will look at movies from Fast Times at Ridgemont High to Dawn of The Dead to Paul Blart: Mall Cop and know that there was once this place where we all gathered, a place that meant a lot to us.

But Black Friday is well-named this year. The day after Thanksgiving, when shopping is supposed to kick into high gear, may instead sound the death knell for that great American institution of the mall.

Why? The short answer: Amazon. A slightly longer answer: online shopping saves money and makes it unnecessary to drive to the mall. And one-stop shopping at stores like Walmart and Target  not to mention dollar shops popping up like mushrooms  is more convenient and generally cheaper than shopping at the mall.

Over the last decade or so, U.S. department stores have lost about a third of their revenue. Giants like Sears, J.C. Penney and Macys have been shedding outlets like a St. Bernard sheds fur.

And specialty stores that populated malls are falling by the wayside as well.

Look at bookselling behemoth Borders, defunct since 2011. Or RadioShack, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2015. Or Payless, the shoe store that announced its bankruptcy this year. Theres trouble at the Gap, Banana Republic, Gymboree, Michael Kors, Ann Taylor and so on and so on.

Theres been no construction on a major new mall since 2006.

In fact, with thousands of stores closing, 2017 looks to be bleaker for brick-and-mortar retailers than the crash of 2008.

I live in Los Angeles, a mecca for malls, and can see the collapse happening before my eyes.

My favorite mall is the Westside Pavilion, where Tom Petty shot his video Free Fallin. Petty left us this year, and I wonder if the Westside Pavilion wont be following him.

Not that long ago, when the malls Barnes & Noble closed, I thought there might be trouble. But that was nothing. This year, one of its anchor stores, Nordstrom, relocated. And its other anchor, Macys, will be closing in 2018.

Hundreds of malls are expected to shutter in the next few years. This would have been unimaginable in my childhood, when malls were being built, not abandoned. But, in fact, theres been no construction on a major new mall since 2006.

Some arent giving up, trying to cater to modern shoppers. This means a livelier atmosphere, a more stylish layout, increased activities, better food, whatever they can come up with. It could also mean more Apple stores. Or Amazon bookstores.

I wish these malls luck, but the future looks grim. Kids dont hang out at malls like they used to. They hang out on social media.

Of course, in some ways, this is an appropriate revenge. Malls grew with the car culture, as Americans moved to the suburbs. This led to the decline of the beloved town square.

And look at Sears, which is in serious trouble. More than a century ago, before moving into department stores, Sears made its money through its famed mail-order catalog  the Amazon of its day. What goes around, comes around.

If malls do disappear, Ill miss them. Theyve been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

But I have to believe that people dont want to just stare at a screen (though Im not saying to stop doing that, either, dear reader). People want to go out and have human contact. As long as thats true, someone will figure out a way to give the public what it wants.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., issued an apology to the people of his state Thursday and said he was "committed to regaining their trust" after four women accused him of groping them in separate incidents between 2006 and 2010.

"I'm a warm person; I hug people," Franken said in his statement. "I've learned from recent stories that in some of these encounters, I crossed a line for some women -- and I know that any number is too many."

"I feel terribly that I've made some women feel badly," he added, "and for that I am so sorry, and I want to make sure that never happens again."

AL FRANKEN ACCUSED OF INAPPROPRIATE TOUCHING BY TWO MORE WOMEN

Franken's new statement was released on Thanksgiving afternoon, hours after an article published by The Huffington Post detailed claims by two women who said Franken grabbed their buttocks during campaign events in 2007 and 2008. One of the women described Franken as "a serial groper," and admitted that she voted for him despite the incident.

Franken initially responded to the Huffington Post story by saying "It's difficult to respond to anonymous accusers, and I don't remember those campaign events."

But he appeared to change his tune Thursday, saying "some women have found my greetings or embraces for a hug or photo inappropriate, and I respect their feelings about that."

The first accusation against Franken came from Los Angeles radio and TV host Leeann Tweeden last week. Tweeden said Franken forcibly kissed her while the two were rehearsing for a show during a 2006 USO tour. Franken was also photographed with his hands over Tweeden's breasts while she slept.

AL FRANKEN'S RESIGNATION SOUGHT BY PROMINENT LIBERAL GROUPS AS NEW CLAIMS EMERGE

On Monday, Lindsay Menz told CNN that Franken pulled her in tightly and put his hand on her buttocks while posing for a picture at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010.

Leaders of both parties, as well as Franken himself, have backed a Senate ethics investigation over the alleged improper conduct. At least two female Democratic senators have donated campaign funds raised for them by Franken's Midwest Values political action committee.

Some liberal groups have called for Franken to resign his seat over the allegations, with one group starting a petition drive to get Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton to appoint Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison to replace him.
Attorneys for former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn have informed President Donald Trump's legal team that they can no longer discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian activities during the 2016 election campaign, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The move could indicate that Flynn's legal team either is cooperating with Mueller's investigators or is negotiating to do so.

In large criminal investigations, defense lawyers routinely share information with each other. But it can become unethical to continue such communication if one of the potential targets is looking to negotiate a deal with prosecutors.

The Associated Press reported that a lawyer for Flynn communicated the decision to Trump's legal team this week.

The decision was first reported by The New York Times, in a story that cited four anonymous sources. According to the Times, Trump's attorneys have been bracing for Flynn to be indicted in recent weeks.

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February after White House officials concluded that he had misled them about the nature of his contacts during the transition period with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

He was interviewed by the FBI in January about his communications with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The deputy attorney general at the time, Sally Yates, soon advised White House officials that their public assertions that Flynn had not discussed sanctions with Kislyak were incorrect and that Flynn was therefore in a compromised position.

Flynn was facing a Justice Department investigation over his foreign business dealings even before Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May. Mueller has since inherited that investigation.

Flynn, a prominent Trump backer on the campaign trail, has been a key figure in Mueller's probe and of particular interest to Trump. Former FBI Director James Comey, for instance, said that Trump encouraged him to end an FBI investigation into Flynn during a private Oval Office meeting in February.

In addition to scrutinizing Flynn's contacts with Russia during the transition and campaign, Mueller has been investigating the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general's role in $530,000 worth of lobbying work his now-defunct firm performed for a Turkish businessman during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.



The lobbying campaign sought to gather derogatory information on Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric and green-card holder living in Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulen of being behind a botched coup and has sought his extradition. Gulen has denied the allegations, and U.S. officials have rebuffed Turkey's extradition demands, citing a lack of evidence.



Flynn and his firm, Flynn Intel Group, carried out the lobbying and research work for several months, meeting with officials from the U.S. and Turkish governments. Flynn also published an op-ed on Election Day in The Hill newspaper, parroting many of the Turkish government's talking points about Gulen. At the time, neither Flynn nor his company was registered with the Justice Department to represent Turkish interests.



Soon after the publication of the op-ed, the Justice Department began investigating Flynn's lobbying work, and in March, he registered with the department as a foreign agent. In federal filings, Flynn acknowledged the work could have benefited the government of Turkey.



Since then, FBI agents working for Mueller have been investigating whether the Turkish government was directing the lobbying work and not a private company owned by a Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, as Flynn's firm has contended. FBI agents have also been asking about Flynn's business partner, Bijan Kian, who served on Trump's presidential transition, and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who worked for his father as part of the lobbying campaign. Flynn Jr. also was a near constant presence around his father during the Trump campaign and presidential transition period.

Mueller announced his first charges in the investigation last month, including the guilty plea of a foreign-policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, and the indictments of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and business associate Rick Gates.

Click for more from The New York Times.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SKANEATELES  It was the best of times in the village of Skaneateles Friday as Charles Dickens helped celebrate the start of the holiday season.

The 19th century writer paraded through the streets of Skaneateles Friday afternoon for the 24th annual Dickens Christmas. Set in 1842 England, the World's Smallest Christmas Parade introduced many of the key characters from Dickens' classic, "A Christmas Carol," including the Fezziwigs, the Cratchits and Ebenezer Scrooge.

Following a short parade along Fennell, Jordan and Genesee streets in the village, the cast of characters gathered on the steps of the Hannum House where Queen Victoria asked Dickens to write a Christmas story. There, in front of dozens of 21st century onlookers, Dickens smiled and said yes.

Rebekah Prasad and her husband, Tosh, brought their three children from Rochester for the festival. Prasad said it was the family's first time seeing Dickens Christmas.

"We're here to see the little parade and walk around town and enjoy the Christmas events," she said, her 3-year-old son resting on Tosh Prasad's shoulders in the crowd.

Similarly, the Lopes family also traveled from out of town for the festivities. Originally from Liverpool, Caite Lopes was visiting the village with her husband, Peter, their four children and her parents.

"It's a great magical way to kick off the Christmas season," Lopes said. "It's our favorite holiday ... and the characters are wonderful."

Lopes' daughters, Sarah, 7, and Julia, 5, were all smiles following the parade. Sarah had one word to describe her first Dickens Christmas: "Amazing."

After the parade, Dickens and the rest of the Christmas Carol crew took to the streets, visiting several local restaurants and businesses and interacting with passersby. Scrooge could be heard shouting "Bah, Humbug" while carolers sang and characters performed at the Clift Park gazebo.

But over the next few weeks, Scrooge's "humbugs" should soften as Dickens Christmas continues in the village. The festivities run every Saturday and Sunday through Christmas Eve.

"I wouldn't miss anything in Skaneateles village," said Kimberly Kasper, who retired to the area this spring. "It's a wonderful way to start the Christmas holiday season. ... Everybody should come to Dickens Christmas."
No one had to guess whether Rep. John Conyers wore boxers or briefs, according to a former key staffer, who said the embattled Michigan lawmaker once called her into a meeting while sporting only his skivvies.

Melanie Sloan, a lawyer who worked with Conyers on the House Judiciary Committee, said she was called up to the long-serving congressman's office to discuss an issue only to find him walking around in his underwear.

Sloan is the third woman to accuse Conyers of inappropriate behavior.

It made me increasingly anxious and depressed about going to work every day, she said, adding that there was no way to fix it.

It made me increasingly anxious and depressed about going to work every day."  Melanie Sloan

There was no mechanism I could use, no person I could go to, she said.

Sloan was a well-known Washington lawyer when she worked as Democratic counsel on the House Judiciary Committee in the 1990s. It was not clear exactly when the strange encounter with the lawmaker, now 88, occurred.

During her time working for the committee, she claims Conyers often screamed at her, fired her then re-hired her, criticized her for not wearing stockings and once even ordered her to babysit one of his children.

While those revelations came out earlier this week, word of Conyers, who was first elected to Congress in 1964, taking a meeting in his underwear came this week in a Detroit Free Press article.

Though Sloan maintains Conyers did not sexually assault her, she told the Detroit Free Press that his constant stream of abuse was difficult to handle and it was certainly damaging to my self-respect and self-esteem.

Conyers hometown newspaper earlier this week called for his resignation in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against him as well as a questionable payout to one alleged victim.

Conyers is accused of using taxpayer dollars to settle a claim in secret, after a former staff reportedly claimed she was fired for rejecting his advances.

In a scathing editorial published late Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press demanded the Democrat step down immediately.

The paper called Conyers' actions the kind of behavior that can never be tolerated in a public official, much less an elected representative of the people.

He should resign his position and allow the investigation into his behavior to unfold without the threat that it would render him, and the people he now represents, effectively voiceless, the board wrote.

BuzzFeed reported Monday that Conyers settled a wrongful termination complaint in 2015 with a staffer who claimed she was dismissed because she did not succumb to [his] sexual advances.

Conyers acknowledged in a statement that his office paid his accuser the money -- reportedly a $27,000 sum -- but vehemently denied the underlying claims.

I expressly and vehemently denied the allegations made against me, and continue to do so, Conyers, who has spent 53 years in Congress, said. My office resolved the allegations  with an express denial of liability  to save all involved from the rigors of protracted litigation. That should not be lost in the narrative.

But the Detroit Free Press, which described Conyers as an undisputed hero of the civil rights movement, took issue with how Conyers office chose to handle the issue.

After the alleged victim made a formal complaint through Congress' Office of Compliance, Conyers office reportedly pushed to handle the situation on its own. If the woman dropped her complaint, signed a legal document saying Conyers had done nothing wrong and promised not to make any additional claims against him, she would be re-hired as a temporary no-show employee and paid $27,111.75 for three months, according to reports. The accuser agreed to the terms.

Conyers office defended the agreement as a way to avoid litigation  though House ethics rules bar lawmakers from keeping an employee on the payroll who isnt doing anything.

"A House member cant retain an employee who isnt performing work commensurate with the pay, and regardless, cant give back pay for work that stretches further than a month," the editorial board wrote.

While acknowledging that payoffs happen in the private sector, the board said it should never, ever happen where public dollars (and public accountability) are concerned.

Calling it a public betrayal, the board wrote its impossible to know how often the practice takes places in Congress but added Conyers should have known better.

Even though resigning would end his otherwise stellar career, the paper wrote that its the appropriate consequence for the stunning subterfuge his office has indulged here, and a needed warning to other members of Congress that this can never be tolerated.

The House Ethics Committee announced Tuesday it has opened an investigation into the matter.
Paul Manafort's prison stay was extended Wednesday  nearly a week after he was sentenced to 47 months on bank and tax fraud charges in a separate case. The former Trump campaign chairman is now slated to spend a total of 81 months in prison.

He was given extra prison time at his second sentencing in connection with his guilty plea related to foreign lobbying and witness tampering.

In August, Manafort became the first Trump campaign associate to be found guilty by a jury as part of Special Counsel Robert Muellers long-running probe. He was convicted of eight bank and tax fraud charges at that time.

PAUL MANAFORT SENTENCED ON FOREIGN LOBBYING AND WITNESS TAMPERING CHARGES

Manafort has been the subject of an investigation over his dealings in Ukraine several years ago  he didnt file as a foreign agent until June 2017. But Mueller has incorporated that investigation into his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

Manafort was convicted on multiple counts of financial fraud last year in connection with his Ukranian work, and is in prison. In November, Mueller accused Manafort of lying "on a variety of subject matters" since his plea deal, thus violating that agreement.

Read on for a look at Manafort's work with the Trump campaign and how he is connected to the Russia investigation.

What kind of foreign work did Manafort do?

A GOP operative who worked for former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Manafort reportedly began his work in Republican politics in the 1970s.

Eventually, Manafort was hired by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a controversial pro-Russia politician who was ousted from power twice. After Yanukovych was elected president in 2010, Manafort reportedly stayed on as an adviser and worked on other projects in Eastern Europe, including the Party of Regions political party.

Manafort also worked for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. In 2005, Manafort allegedly came up with a plan to influence U.S. politics, business dealings and the media in order to greatly benefit the Putin government, according to The Associated Press.

Deripaska is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and signed a $10 million annual contract with Manafort in 2006; they maintained a business relationship until at least 2009.

Financial records obtained by The New York Times indicated that Manafort was in debt to pro-Russian interests by up to $17 million prior to joining Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

He also took more than a dozen trips to Moscow and frequently talked to Putin allies over a period of about 10 years, McClatchy reported. He traveled to Kiev at least 19 times in 20 months after the February 2014 removal of Ukraines pro-Russia leader.

How was Manafort involved with Trump's campaign?

Manafort joined Trump's presidential campaign in March 2016 to help wrangle delegates ahead of the Republican National Convention in Ohio, something he'd done for former President Gerald Ford.

Just two months later, Manafort became Trump's campaign chairman.

Manaforts resignation from the campaign was announced on August 19, 2016, after The Times reported that he'd received $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments from Yanukovychs pro-Russian party between 2007 and 2012.

Manafort and Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016. She reportedly was said to have damaging information on Trumps campaign rival, Hillary Clinton, which was "part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump."

What was Manafort charged with?

Along with his former business associate Rick Gates, Manafort was initially indicted in October 2017 on multiple counts that included: conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money, false statements and failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

Nearly four months later, in February 2018, the pair were hit with additional tax evasion and bank fraud charges. These charges involved much of the same conduct Manafort and Gates were initially accused of, but the amount of money Manafort said to have laundered through offshore accounts increased to $30 million.

In June 2018, Mueller's team brought additional charges of obstruction of justice against Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate. The charges against Manafort and Gates dont relate to allegations of misconduct during Trumps campaign.

Mueller also accused Manafort of secretly paying former European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukraine.

Manafort was found guilty of eight counts in August in the first trial victory for Mueller's team. The judge declared a mistrial on 10 other counts after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

In September, Manafort pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with Mueller's team ahead of his second trial. According to Politico, the plea deal includes a 10-year cap for how long Manafort will be in prison. It also includes allowing Manafort to serve his time for both trials concurrently.

He received a nearly 4-year prison sentence on March 7 after a federal jury in Virginia convicted him on eight counts of bank and tax fraud last year. A week later, on March 13, he received an additional three and a half years on foreign lobbying and witness tampering charges.

Manafort previously maintained his innocence despite all of the charges brought before him  but he has since expressed remorse for his actions.

"I am sorry for what I have done and all the activities that have gotten us here today," Manafort said in a written statement in March, begging a judge for mercy.

Fox News' Ann Schmidt, Jake Gibson, Alex Pappas, Matt Richardson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Seattles controversial tax on the wealthy failed its first legal test this week after a judge ruled the new ordinance violates state law  but the city isnt backing down and vows to appeal, setting the stage for a Washington State Supreme Court showdown.

King County Superior Court Judge John Ruhl ruled in a Wednesday that Seattle did not have the authority to impose the tax because state law prohibits tax on net income.

City Attorney Pete Holmes called the decision disappointing but, in a joint statement with Seattle Mayor Tim Burgess, said their goal to eliminate the states over-reliance on regressive sales taxes would continue.

We are also living in a time of extreme income inequality that corrodes our social compact and causes many to wonder whether wealthy individuals are paying their fair share, they said.

Opponents of the tax immediately hailed the ruling as proof Seattle officials knew the tax was legally flawed but still pushed it through.

In our system of government, the Legislature makes laws and the courts interpret them, Freedom Foundation Chief Litigation Counsel David Dewhirst told Fox News in a statement. If you want to change the existing tax laws, you can ask your legislator to introduce a bill, or you can sponsor a ballot initiative. And if you want to amend the Constitution, theres a process for that too.

The tax, passed by the Seattle City Council in July, targets high-income earners as part of what local lawmakers describe as a new formula for fairness.

The tax measure requires residents to pay a 2.25-percent tax if they are a single filer and make more than $250,000 annually or file jointly and make more than $500,000.

Its passage prompted a court challenge from the Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank that considers the tax a slippery slope that could open the door to more taxes in the future.

The outrage over the tax even prompted the Washington Republican Party to call for civil disobedience and urged its members to refuse to comply, file or pay.

The city estimates the new tax would raise $140 million a year and cost between $10 million and $13 million to set up, plus an additional $6 million a year to enforce. The money would go toward affordable housing projects as well as other services for lower-paid workers.

Councilmember Kshama Sawant told Fox News in July that the need for the tax is crystal clear.

She said the city isnt backing down  and says Seattle is ready to duke it out in court in whats likely to be a very costly legal battle.

We will no longer tolerate a system that buries poor and working class people in taxes, while giving big business and the super-rich yet another free ride; a system that underfunds affordable housing to the point where thousands are homeless, a system that criminally underfunds education, Sawant said.

Washington is one of seven states in the country that does not have a personal income tax.

Analysts at the Washington Policy Center also note the Washington Supreme Court ruled in 1951 to invalidate the state income tax. Further, a law passed in 1984 prohibits any city or county from levying a tax on net income.

The states voters have rejected the idea of an income tax nine separate times. Washington voters did approve an income tax in 1932, but the state Supreme Court ruled the measure was unconstitutional.
More than a year after Michael Flynn, President Trump's former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, he still hasn't been sentenced.

Flynn, 60, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to making false statements to the FBI regarding his talks with a Russian ambassador. Flynn was scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18, but Judge Emmet G. Sullivan delayed it  after tearing into Flynn.

"Arguably, you sold your country out," Sullivan told Flynn, saying he would not hide his "disgust" or "disdain" for the offense.

Ahead of his sentencing, Flynns lawyers maintained he had devoted his career to his country and taken responsibility for an uncharacteristic error in judgment. Flynn is a retired three-star Army general who served as Trumps national security adviser for nearly a month at the beginning of his administration.

SHOCKING SCALE OF RUSSIA'S SINISTER SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN AGAINST US REVEALED

Special Counsel Robert Mueller released key documents on Dec. 14 regarding the FBI's interview with Flynn. The documents include then-FBI deputy director Andrew McCabes notes after talking with Flynn to arrange his interview with the FBI.

"The seriousness of the defendants offense cannot be called into question, and the Court should reject his attempt to minimize it. While the circumstances of the interview do not present mitigating considerations, assuming the defendant continues to accept responsibility for his case ... his cooperation and military service continue to justify a sentence at the low end of the guideline range," Mueller concluded in a document replying to Flynn's sentencing memorandum.

Heres a look at how Flynn  who was one of the more polarizing characters in Trumps administration  is involved in the Russian investigation.

Why did Flynn leave the White House?

Flynn resigned as Trumps national security adviser in February 2017 over revelations that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with Russias former ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.

I have nothing to be ashamed for and everything to be proud of, Flynn told Fox News at the time.

How is he connected to the Russia investigation?

Despite earlier statements to the contrary, Flynn discussed sanctions former President Barack Obama imposed on Russia with Kislyak.

He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations he had during the presidential transition period and is expected to become the first White House official punished in the special counsels ongoing probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.

Muellers team filed a memorandum suggesting Flynn deserved a lenient sentence  with possibly no prison time  because of the substantial help he offered as part of several ongoing investigations. Overall, Flynn sat for 19 interviews with the special counsels office and other Justice Department officials.

MCCABE REVEALS 'ONE THING' THAT STOOD OUT FROM HIS FATEFUL CALL WITH FLYNN

Given the defendants substantial assistance and other considerations set forth below, a sentence at the low end of the guideline range, including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration  is appropriate and warranted, the memo states.

Flynns lawyers said he has expressed genuine contrition for the uncharacteristic error in judgment and has a deep respect for the law.

What do we know about his lobbying work?

Aside from Russia, Flynn is also involved in a separate investigation into Turkish lobbying work headed by prosecutors in Virginia, according to The New York Times.

Flynns former lobbying firm is being probed for work they did on a campaign against Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric and green-card holder living in Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulen of being behind a botched coup and has sought his extradition. Gulen has denied the allegations, and U.S. officials have rebuffed Turkey's extradition demands, citing a lack of evidence.

Flynn Intel Group, Inc., carried out $530,000 worth of lobbying and research work for several months, including during the end of the 2016 campaign.

Anything else?

Flynns attorneys have pointed out that two FBI officials involved in interviewing Flynn have since been investigated themselves for misconduct. FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, who interviewed Flynn, was fired a year later over anti-Trump text messages. Then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who had arranged the interview but wasn't present for it, was fired for what the Justice Department called a lack of candor involving a media leak.

Fox News Alex Pappas, Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
After a nude photo of Republican Rep. Joe Barton surfaced online, the Texas lawmaker suggested that he is the victim of revenge porn.

Theres no federal law against revenge porn  commonly defined as the sharing or distributing of lewd photos or videos without the materials subjects consent  but many states have laws against it.

After the picture surfaced, Barton admitted to engaging in consensual relationships with other mature adult women when he was separated from his second wife. He apologized for not using better judgment during those days.

Its unclear who shared the photo of Barton on the anonymous Twitter account, but he did warn the woman with whom he had shared inappropriate photographs and videos with against making those public in 2015. That woman told the Washington Post that she did not publish the photo online.

What is revenge porn?

Revenge porn is defined by Merriam-Webster as sexually explicit images of a person posted online without that persons consent, especially as a form of revenge or harassment.

The term revenge porn can be misleading, according to activists.

REP. JOE BARTON WARNED WOMAN HED TELL POLICE IF SHE SHARED EXPLICIT PHOTOS, MESSAGES

Many perpetrators are not motivated by revenge or by any personal feelings toward the victim, the nonprofit Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) says. The group says the term nonconsensual pornography is more accurate.

What does federal law say about revenge porn?

There is no federal law that particularly makes revenge porn illegal.

How do states adjudicate it?

There are 38 states that have revenge porn laws, according to CCRI. Washington, D.C., classifies it as a felony.

Texas, where Barton lives when hes not in the District of Columbia, classifies revenge porn as a Class A misdemeanor, not unlike other states.

Illinois has strong anti-revenge porn laws, according to C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, a Brooklyn-based law firm. Passed in 2014, Illinois law punishes offenders with one to three years in prison and a fine that could reach $25,000.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Fighting crime in the digital age will be the focus of an important Supreme Court case to be argued Wednesday, testing the privacy rights of individuals against the high-tech tools used by law enforcement.

At issue is whether the government needs a warrant to access a person's cell phone location history. It will be the latest foray by the justices into cyber advances, which often move much faster than current law.

The stakes are enormous, since any precedent could be applied more broadly, including to Internet, bank, credit card, and telephone records.

"What the Supreme Court is going to have to wrestle with is, how far is it going to extend these historic Fourth Amendment protections for individual privacy in the digital age, where we're conveying all sorts of information?" said Thomas Dupree, a leading appellate attorney who worked in the Bush Justice Department. "Law enforcement has, if it wants to get it, information not just about your communications, but about your physical whereabouts."

"Law enforcement has, if it wants to get it, information not just about your communications, but about your physical whereabouts."  Thomas Dupree, former Justice Department attorney

Civil rights and privacy advocates argue current rules open the doors to government abuse of a citizen's everyday activities in public and private spaces.

But the Justice Department, supported by a number of states, say if consumers knowingly give their data to third parties-- including cellphone providers-- their privacy rights are diminished. That would permit police to request the transmission data without a warrant.

Separately, police surveillance tracking of real-time movements involving a criminal suspect would require a judge's authorization.

Timothy Carpenter was arrested for being part of a store robbery gang in Michigan and Ohio. He and a co-conspirator were convicted in part after police obtained archived cell phone records showing him near the scene of the crimes. Nearly 13,000 so-called "location points" from six months of Carpenter's movements were obtained without warrant.

His 116-year prison term was upheld by a federal appeals court. He wants the digital evidence dismissed, and his conviction overturned.

The government argues that under a 1986 congressional law known as the Stored Communications Act, it does not need "probable cause" to obtain customer records, that would require a warrant signed by a judge.

"A person has no Fourth Amendment interest in records created by a communications-service provider in the ordinary course of business that pertain to the individual's transactions with the service provider," said the Justice Department in its brief with the high court. "Merely because facts about a person can be deduced from records or other information in the possession of third parties does not make the acquisition of that information Fourth Amendment search of the person."

Lawyers for Carpenter warn the high court not to go down a constitutional path of reduced privacy rights.

"Because cell phone location records can reveal countless private details of our lives, police should only be able to access them by getting a warrant based on probable cause," said Nathan Freed Wessler, a staff attorney with the ACLU. "The time has come for the Supreme Court to make clear that the long-standing protections of the Fourth Amendment apply with undiminished force to these kinds of sensitive digital records."

The high court has been grappling with the so-called "third party" doctrine since 1976, when it ruled bank records obtained without a warrant could be used to prosecute a Georgia moonshiner. The justices extended it three years later to include phone numbers used by a robbery suspect, though not the actual conversations themselves.

But in 2012, the Supreme Court unanimously said police could not attach a GPS device on the car of a suspected drug dealer to track his movements.

"The government physically occupied private property for the purpose of obtaining information," said Justice Antonin Scalia. "We have no doubt that such a physical intrusion would have been considered a 'search' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when it was adopted."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor added the third-party doctrine was "ill-suited to the digital age, in which people reveal a great deal of information about themselves to third parties in the course of carrying out mundane tasks."

But while agreeing the search was improper, four justices in that case said the controlling opinion did not address larger legal concerns of searches in the cyber realm. Justice Samuel Alito said the court should have used that GPS case to clarify the limits of modern "reasonable expectations" of privacy, including police monitoring of wireless personal communication devices like mobile phones and Internet use.

In 2014, the high court separately and unanimously ruled police need a warrant to search a cellphone that is seized during an arrest.

But unlike those cases, in the Carpenter appeal there is no "physical intrusion" of the device, raising questions whether one's privacy is in fact being violated.

Advocates on both sides of the issue hope the justices are now prepared to clarify guidelines on access to digital records.

Whether the nine justices-- with an average age of 68-- will grasp the nuances of the technology has been the source of recent speculation-- and amusement.

"I don't think any of us have a Facebook page or a Tweet, whatever that is," Chief Justice John Roberts said a few years ago.

Justice Stephen Breyer has since signed onto Facebook and Twitter-- which he called "the tweeting thing"-- but said he uses it mostly to communicate with his family, and turns down nearly all follower requests.

The current case is Carpenter v. U.S. A ruling is expected in coming months.
A Texas woman built at least three bombs using a cellphone, a cigarette box and a salad dressing cap, and sent them to former President Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, prosecutors said.

Julia Poff, 46, mailed the improvised explosives in October 2016 to Obama and Abbott, and a third one to the Social Security Administration offices in Washington, D.C.

Of the three packages, only Abbott opened his. It did not detonate because he did not open it as designed, court documents said.

A grand jury indicted the woman this month on six counts, including mailing injurious articles and transporting explosives with the intent to kill and injure, according to documents filed this week in a district court in Houston.

At a Nov. 17 detention hearing, a federal agent testified that Poff sent Obama the bomb because she just didnt like the former president.

The agent also said that Poff was angry with Abbot because she did not receive support from her ex-husband when Abbott served as Texas Attorney General, before he was elected governor in 2014.

Poffs application for social security benefits was denied.

According to court documents, investigators traced the package sent to Obama back to Poff because of a cat hair found under an address label. In addition, the cigarette box used in the device sent to Abbott bore a Texas tobacco stamp that helped identify the store where the cigarettes were sold.

Two incendiary powders in the box matched materials found in Poffs home, investigators said.

Poff is being held at the Houston federal detention center.

Katie Hill, a spokeswoman with the former president's private office, declined to comment Friday. A call by The Associated Press to Abbott's public affairs office in Austin was not immediately returned.

A criminal background check shows Poff has a misdemeanor conviction for theft. She was also convicted for state felony fraud. In both cases, she was given probation.

A pretrial conference in the case is scheduled for early next year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered a stunning 1,500-year-old Christian mosaic that was once the floor of a church or monastery.

Experts found the mosaic during an excavation in the ancient Mediterranean coastal city of Ashdod-Yam, now part of the modern city of Ashdod. The discovery, which was made in August, was announced Thursday by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

An inscription in Greek dedicated to the structures builders offered archaeologists a vital clue. The inscription mentions a date on the ancient Georgian calendar, enabling experts to date the building.

LOST ROMAN CITY THAT WAS HOME TO JESUS' APOSTLES FOUND, SAY ARCHAEOLOGISTS

"[By the grace of God (or Christ)], this work was done from the foundation under Procopius, our most saintly and most holy bishop, in the month Dios of the 3rd indiction, year 292" it reads. The year 292 corresponds to 539 A.D. This is the earliest appearance of the use of the Georgian calendar in the Land of Israel, many years before it was used in Georgia itself, explained Dr. Leah Di Segni of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who deciphered the inscription, in a statement.

Experts from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Tel Aviv University, and the University of Gottingen and Leipzig University in Germany also participated in the project.

Ashdod-Yam was an important city during the Byzantine period. Long hidden under sand dunes, the city is now revealing its secrets. As far as we know, Ashdod is now home to the largest community of Jews of Georgian origin in the world, said Dr. Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv University, Dr. Balbina Babler of the University of Gottingen, and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the statement. Testimony to the presence of the actual Georgians in the Land of Israel as far back as the Byzantine period has been found dozens of kilometers from Ashdod  in Jerusalem and its surroundings. But this is the first time that a Georgian church or monastery has been discovered on the Israeli coast.

AMAZING WESTERN WALL DISCOVERY: NEW SECTION, ANCIENT THEATER, UNCOVERED IN JERUSALEM

The archaeologists note that, according to historical sources, the fifth-century Georgian Prince and Bishop Peter the Iberian lived in Ashdod-Yam.

Archaeologists are now working to raise additional funds to continue their excavation of the site.

The Ashdod-Yam mosaic floor is just the latest fascinating Christian archaeological find in Israel. An ancient Greek inscription, for example, was recently found on a 1,500-year-old mosaic floor near the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. The inscription mentions the Byzantine emperor Justinian, who ruled in the 6th century A.D., and commemorates the buildings founding by a priest called Constantine.

RARE FIND AT KING SOLOMON'S MINES: ANCIENT PREGNANT WOMAN'S REMAINS

In 2015 a 1,500-year-old church was discovered at a Byzantine-era rest stop between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In 2014 the remains of another church from the same period were uncovered in southern Israel.

Experts also believe they have found the lost Roman city of Julias, formerly the village of Bethsaida, which was the home of Jesus' apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
Drones are putting lives at risk, say first responders.

There are some limited rules that govern where hobbyist drones can fly, but firefighters and local law enforcement officers tell Fox News the requirements dont go far enough because they are unenforceable in the middle of real-time operations. They say negligent operators cannot be discerned from criminals and potential terrorists, giving those with malicious motives an upper hand against those responsible for protecting the public.

This month, the Department of Homeland Security released an updated terrorism advisory bulletin stating that terrorists are pursuing the use of drones as weapons. According to Sgt. Randy Sterett, a Bomb Squad Commander in Californias Orange County, this threat is real.

Some of these drones can fly anywhere from one to 15 pounds of explosives, he said, which is a huge, huge amount of explosives.

Firefighters and local law enforcement officers tell Fox News an even more immediate problem is drones showing up on their turf, in the middle of operations.

There's been the SWAT operation going on and a UAV [drone] drivingflyingright into the front yard and watching as they're approaching the house, putting their safety and the safety of those who are in the community at risk, Sterett said.

Some first responders have even had to shut down operations because of an unauthorized drone getting in the way.

Just a single drone can do significant damage or even take one of our aircraft out of the air, said Ronald Walls, assistant chief for the San Bernardino Fire Department.

According to the Department of the Interior, in 2016 there were over 40 reported drone incidents near wildfires. In 2015, California's North Fire torched nearly two dozen vehicles on a major highway in San Bernardino County. Walls says that probably would not have happened if it werent for interloping drones.

We had drone operations that had actually forced us to shut down all of our air operations, Walls said. I don't believe we would have seen nearly hardly [sic] any vehicles be damaged if we'd had the ability to bring in aircraft and redirect the fire.

With drones posing a larger risk, some companies are creating technology to stop them.

IXI Technology, based in Irvine, California, recently demonstrated its Drone Killer, a device that looks like a large plastic gun, and sends radio signals that force drones to go back to where they took off from. If that doesn't work, the instrument can jam the drone's GPS signal and force it to land.

With the push of a button, the Drone Killer displays a red light on the device.

That red light means I am now disrupting all of the drones that are in about a 30-degree arc in front of my unit, said Dan Hyman, a staff engineer with IXI Technology.

Sterett, the police sergeant, said there is a need for local law enforcement to be able to use this type of equipment. But federal regulations forbid that type of equipment without special authorization.

It's so unfair that a citizen, a criminal or a terrorist can use UAV technology, but we cannot use technology against them, Sterett said.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and other lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill called the Drone Federalism Act Of 2017, which would give local governments the power to regulate drones flying below 200 feet.

For example, the proposal would allow states and cities to pass laws that make flying drones below 200 feet on private property a trespassing offense.

I want to make sure that, at least within 200 feet of the surface, state and local law enforcement officers, state and local governments, have authority to protect public safety and to protect the privacy of members of the public from any invasion that might come as a result of drones, Lee said.

According to the FAA, recreational drones are allowed to fly up to 400 feet above the surface. The proposed law would still leave the space between 200 and 400 feet above the ground unregulated locally.

Federal regulations would still prevent local law enforcement from using technology like IXIs Drone Killer to take down drones without a waiver.

And even if this technology was legal, only three states have laws that allow first responders to disable drones - and they mostly apply to fighting fires.

Law enforcement also encounter another issue with drones  its almost impossible to track down their owners. Unlike manned aircraft, which must register a tail number, hobbyist drones have no such requirement. In 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) attempted to require drone owners to register but courts rejected the effort, calling drones model aircraft.

Sterett says hes seen several examples of the need for accountability.

Weve even had people thinking that they are being funny by dropping water balloons on a high school track meet, which obviously could injure somebody, he said. Weve had (drones) surveilling police headquarters, and breaching security at local jails.

Sterett said he believes most hobbyist drone operators are good flyers and he does not want to see them penalized.

But he said first responders need the tools to counter the ones that arent.

We need the state and local and the federal governments, he said, to get together and give us the ability to safely protect the public without violating any laws ourselves.
At least 235 people were killed and another 109 injured in an attack on a Sufi mosque in Egypt's North Sinai region on Friday, Egyptian state-run media reported, in what appears to be the deadliest terror attack on Egyptian soil.

After at least two explosions, gunmen who were waiting outside the mosque opened fire at worshipers as they fled Friday prayers, state-owned Ahram Online said.

The attack targeted al Rawdah mosque, situated in the village of al Rawdah between Bir al-Abed and the city of al-Arish.

Key developments:

Coordinated attack: Gunmen fired on people fleeing after explosions took place at the mosque. The attackers also opened fire on ambulances, witnesses said.

The target: The mosque, located in northern Sinai, is known as the birthplace of an important Sufi cleric.

World leaders respond: Egypt has declared three days of mourning, while figures in the international community condemned the attack. US President Donald Trump called it a "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt."

'Ambush' followed blasts

The gunmen had set up "ambush" locations and opened fire on ambulances as they were transporting wounded worshipers from al-Rawdah toward al-Arish before the arrival of security services, eyewitnesses reported.

The mosque that was attacked is known for being the birthplace of Sheikh Eid al-Jariri, a Sufi cleric considered the founder of Sufism in the Sinai peninsula. Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam that some ultra-orthodox Muslims consider heretical.

The blasts from improvised explosive devices caused considerable damage to the mosque, Ahram Online said.

Speaking to state-run Masriya TV station, Egyptian health ministry spokesman Khalid Mujahid described the incident as a "terrorist attack."

Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi is meeting with a security committee to discuss repercussions of the attack, Masriya TV reported. The presidency has declared three days of national mourning.

No claim of responsibility

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack and there is no word yet on what happened to the militants involved. However, it bears the hallmarks of an attack by ISIS.

Egyptian security forces face almost daily attacks from ISIS-aligned militants, whom they have been battling in northern Sinai for several years. However, mosque attacks are relatively rare in Egypt.

In October 2015, 224 people were killed when a bomb brought down a Russian passenger jet which crashed in the Sinai Peninsula. ISIS' affiliate in Egypt claimed that attack.

International condemnation

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said he was deeply saddened by what he described as an "abhorrent attack" on a mosque. "My sincere condolences to all those affected by such a barbaric act," he tweeted.

The UK Ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, tweeted that he was "disgusted" by the "evil attack that killed and injured so many Egyptians in Sinai today."

He added: "These attacks on people praying in mosques & churches only strengthen our determination to stand together, & defeat terrorism & hate."

Jordanian King Abdullah condemned what he called a "heinous terrorist attack" in a tweet on the Jordanian Royal Family's official account.

"We stand with Egyptians in their war against terrorism and against anyone who tries to harm the Egyptian national security," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement.

Journalist Mona El-Zamalout in Al-Arish and CNN's Abeer Salman, Hilary McGann and Schams Elwazer contributed to this report.
Wondering if you were duped by the Russian-backed propaganda posted to Facebook to sow discord during the 2016 presidential election? Soon, there will be an easy way to find out.

Facebook is building a tool to show users which of these pages and accounts they have interacted with on the social network. The tool will be available by the end of the year in the Facebook Help Center, Facebook wrote in a blog post.

This tool will let users see all the Internet Research Agency-created Facebook pages and Instagram accounts they liked or followed between January 2015 and August 2017. The Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency, which is notorious for being an internet troll farm, reportedly controlled 470 fake accounts, which it used to publish 80,000 divisive political posts on Facebook. Those posts were served directly to 29 million users, and then liked, shared, or followed by others, multiplying their spread.

The Internet Research Agency also spent $100,000 to display 3,000 ads on the platform with divisive political and social messages targeting both conservative and liberal groups, Facebook has said.

"It is important that people understand how foreign actors tried to sow division and mistrust using Facebook before and after the 2016 US election," Facebook's post today reads. "That's why as we have discovered information, we have continually come forward to share it publicly and have provided it to congressional investigators. And it's also why we're building the tool we are announcing today."

Facebook has already taken down the fake accounts and pages created by the Internet Research Agency and shared the ads and posts with Congress. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he's "dead serious" about fixing the problem and has promised to "invest so much in security" that the costs will cut into the company's profitability.

At a US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing earlier this month, Chairman Richard Burr released several Facebook ads allegedly purchased by Russia-linked organizations. US senators have slammed the company for failing to prevent its platform from being used as a Russian government propaganda tool. "You have a huge problem on your hands," Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said. "And you have to be the ones to do something about itor we will."

Congress is considering a bill that would require more transparency about who funds ads posted on social media.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
Black Friday smartphone deals are only a click away but usually come with conditions.

Fox News scoured the web to bring you the best deals  with stipulations  for the most popular phones.

Apple iPhone at Target, Best Buy

Target: iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus: At Target, Apples newest phones dont get a direct discount but you get a $250 store gift card. The stipulation is, it only works with the activation of a Verizon, AT&T Next, or Sprint 24-Month installments or lease plans. And you can only apply the Target gift card for future orders not on the same order for which you have received the gift card.

The 32GB iPhone SE with no-contract smartphone is on sale for $99.99, a savings of $60.

Best Buy: the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will see discounts up to $200 at Best Buy, but the same contract caveats as above apply. You have to sign up for monthly payment plans with Verizon, AT&T or Sprint.

Don't want an iPhone? There are deals on other brands at Best Buy like Motorola and LG.

TOP5 BLACK FRIDAY SMART SPEAKER DEALS: AMAZON ECHO LEADS THE WAY

Samsung Galaxy at Target, Sprint

Target: You get a $300 gift card with Samsung Galaxy Note8, Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+: The conditions are pretty much identical to the iPhones above except the gift card is $50 more.

Sprint: You can save $350 on the iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus but there are the usual conditions. And when you lease an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus, you can get a second 32GB iPhone 7 free.

Verizon deals on popular Android phones

At Verizon, the Google Pixel 2, Galaxy S8 and Moto Z2 Force are 50 percent off. Pixel 2 XL, GS8+ and the Note 8 are 35 percent off. But there's a catch: you have to sign up for Verizon unlimited, though no trade-in is required.

The offer is valid on Android phones above $400 retail value and up to $960 device payment purchase required, according to Verizons fine print.

AT&T

The carrier chimed in on Friday with a "get iPhone 7 32GB free" deal (ends 12/1/17). You must buy on AT&T Next with monthly payments as well as DIRECTV service with monthly payments, in addition to other conditions. You can also get a Samsung Galaxy S8 for free  with conditions of course. The most important stipulation is, you must first buy a popular Galaxy smartphone on AT&T Next, then you can get the S8 for free.



TOP 5 BLACK FRIDAY LAPTOP DEALS

Gazelle

The purveyor of pre-owned phones is offering deals on the iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 6S, Galaxy S6, and Galaxy S7. On Black Friday, the 16GB iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy S6 will be up to 30 percent off.

On Cyber Monday, the Galaxy S7 will get a 40 percent discount and the 64GB iPhone 6S will be 30 percent off.
Airline staff have a rough deal when it comes to dealing with troublesome passengers.

Every week another story emerges about a traveller going berserk in the middle of a flight.

Just this week, a British airline passenger was in court for threatening to pee "on the floor" after he was told he could not use the toilet on a Flybe from Birmingham to Amsterdam last May.

AIRLINE PASSENGERS BREAK OUT ACCORDION AFTER FLIGHT DELAY IS ANNOUNCED

In other incidents, passengers have caused trouble and bystanders only start to record on their camera phones when the cabin crew push back  making it look like the airline is in the wrong.

The problems have now got so bad that one airline has started to fit its ground staff with body cameras so they can record any problems.

Guernsey airline Aurigny has installed the cameras by company Edesix Ltd in uniforms worn by crew, who man flights to the U.K. and France.

Dave Cox, the ground operations manager for Aurigny, spoke with The New York Times about the company's decision.

As a small community airline, a vast majority of our passengers are very friendly, polite, respectful, and often know our staff personally.

However, like with all carriers, you may occasionally encounter individuals who can be rude, aggressive and abusive to our staff.

'EXTREMELY DRUNK' EASYJET PASSENGER 'URINATED ON HIMSELF,' SAYS PROSECUTOR

Richie McBride, the chief executive of Edesix Ltd, reckons it won't be long before airlines start handing out the cameras to their flight attendants.

Amanda Pleva, a flight attendant and aviation blogger on FlyerTalk, isn't so sure though.

Times are tense enough in the skies as it is right now, and I cant imagine that flyers knowledge that Im wearing a body camera wouldnt turn the heat up several degrees on that.

Both sides of a conflict can start video at will, so neither perspective would be the entire one, and I dont want to be in an environment where my passengers will automatically view me as an opponent.

I have been painted in a bad light by passengers who have had ulterior motives, but the truth has always come out via witnesses when I know Ive done the best job Im able to do.

I have done this for years and am confident I can continue to do my job this way for years to come. But if body cameras are the future of flying, it might be coming time to hang up my wings.

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This article originally appeared on The Sun.
A Florida man who claimed to be a voodoo priest was charged Wednesday with aggravated animal cruelty in the fatal beating and mutilation of a pit bull whose condition caused a national outcry.

Brendan Evans, 31, faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

The pit bull, named Ollie, was found stuffed inside a blue suitcase in an alley Oct. 10 after officers followed the sound of his cries. He had been stabbed more than 50 times.

PIT BULL DIES AFTER BEING STABBED 50 TIMES, LEFT FOR DEAD IN SUITCASE

Ollie died at an animal hospital two days after he was found. His story led to adoption offers from around the country, and a GoFundMe page set up for him raised about $40,000 before his death.

"Hollywood detectives and officers have seen and investigated animal cruelty cases before, but none as horrific as what weve seen in the case of Ollie, said police spokeswoman Miranda Grossman.

"We will not tolerate any form of animal cruelty or violence in our city," Hollywood Acting Police Chief Chris O'Brien said in a statement. "Each reported case of animal cruelty, be it physical abuse or neglect, is disturbing, and this case is particularly heartbreaking. We were all pulling for Ollie to survive, but unfortunately he didnt make it.

"However, due to our investigation, we are now able to provide justice for Ollie," O'Brien said.

According to a police report, officers who searched Evans' apartment Nov. 14 discovered several mutilated rats in the freezer, along with two cat paws, knives covered with dried blood and animal fur. Officers also discovered an eight-pointed star as well as a candlelit shrine that included pieces of a flyer about Ollie's death.

They also found notes, one of which read, "Make the entire pit bull investigation go away. Return all curses placed on Brendan to their sender. Give Brendan peace of mind." As officers searched his apartment, the Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported, Evans posted a message on Facebook claiming to be a voodoo priest.

DNA taken from the suitcase where Ollie was found was a match for Evans and WSVN reported officers found one of the pit bull's teeth in the suspect's wallet.

The Sun-Sentinel reported that Evans was arrested by Broward County sheriffs deputies in 2012 on domestic battery charges and is currently on probation for a 2015 bank robbery in Hernando County. WSVN reported that Evans' fingerprints also link him to a residential burglary in Hollywood.

The paper also reported that a Fort Lauderdale police officer spotted Evans attempting to kick a duck and her ducklings. When questioned, Evans said he wanted to kill the ducks because he practices voodoo. Police said Evans also purchased two kittens this past June from a person in Delray Beach who called police when Evans called back a few days later requesting to buy more kittens.

Neighbors of Evans expressed relief at his capture, with one telling WSVN, "He could have graduated and moved up, you know, so Im just glad that they got him."

Click for more from WSVN.com.
The suspect in the fatal shooting of a Texas trooper with the Department of Public Safety was captured after an hours-long manhunt on Thursday.

Officials in Limestone and Freestone counties conducted a massive, hours-long search for the suspect, Darbrett Black, who fled the scene of the shooting in a grey Chevy Malibu. He was arrested in a neighboring county after a stand-off with law enforcement.

"Suspect in todays fatal TXDPS trooper shooting in Freestone County has been captured in Waller County near Prairie View. Excellent operation by numerous agencies to take this suspect into custody with no additional casualties," the Navarro County Office of Emergency Management said on Twitter.

According to police scanner traffic, two women may have also been in the suspect's vehicle when the shooting happened, says a report on KBTX.com.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said on Twitter that the shooting occurred before 4 p.m. Thursday on Interstate 45 south of Fairfield, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Dallas. The agency said the suspect shot and killed the trooper with a rifle during a traffic stop. The suspect then fled the scene.

The trooper has not been identified.

Hours later, the Waller County Sheriff's Office said the suspect's vehicle was spotted in Hempstead, more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of Fairfield. Waller County authorities said shots were fired, but did not indicate who opened fire.

Authorities from multiple agencies were able to end a brief standoff, subduing the suspect and placing him under arrest.

Online jail records show that Black was last booked into the Smith County jail in Tyler on September 7, 2017 on charges of evading arrest, aggravated assault of a public servant and reckless driving, according to KBTX.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has released a statement that says: "I am saddened to hear of the tragic death of a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper killed today in Freestone County. This trooper died selflessly serving Texas.

Governor Greg Abbott also released a statement on Thursday evening during the height of the manhunt.

"With heavy hearts on this Thanksgiving, Cecilia and I express our most sincere condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of the trooper who was callously killed today in the line of duty," he said in the statement. "The killer will face justice, and the State of Texas will continue to offer our unwavering support for the men and women in law enforcement who keep our communities safe."

Thursdays shooting marked the second in the line duty death for the Texas DPS.

Senior Trooper Thomas Nipper, 62, was conducting a traffic stop on the southbound shoulder of I-35 in Temple at approximately 3:05 p.m. on Saturday, November 4 when his patrol unit was struck from behind by a Chevrolet pickup, according to Fox 7 Austin.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
A shooting outside a Missouri mall late Thursday left a 19-year-old with life-threatening injuries.

The incident occurred outside the Columbia Mall in Columbia, Mo. when a man allegedly fired his gun after attempting to place it in his holster, KMIZ reported. It wasn't immediately clear if the shooting was accidental or deliberate.

MISSOURI POLICE OFFICERS LUNCHES PAID FOR AT DELI BY MYSTERY MAN

"We were literally just talking about how we thought it was pretty lucky that nothing happened tonight, and then we come out and this is what we saw," Brittany Huhn, a shopper, told KSHB. "It's kind of scary to be honest."

Police haven't made any arrests.

NON-WHITE STUDENT LINKED TO RACIST GRAFFITI INSIDE SCHOOL, OFFICIALS SAY

"There's nobody outstanding; we have everybody we need to talk to. Nobody was in any sort of danger," Sgt. Clint Sinclair of the Columbia Police Department told KSHB. "We have our detectives investigating, as well as our forensic evidence team but there's no danger to any shoppers or anything at any point during this situation.

The injured persons identity was not immediately released.
Celebrities like LeBron James and Kim Kardashian are calling on authorities to release a woman serving a life sentence for killing a man who had hired her for sex when she was 16.

Cyntoia Brown, now 29, fired the shot that killed a 43-year-old Nashville realtor who had picked her up for sex. It is unclear what sparked the renewed interest in Browns 2006 conviction, but there was a recent report about it on Fox 17.

We were very, very appreciative of the fact that such an incredible number of celebrities would join our plea, Charles Bone, a lawyer who took on the case pro bono, told The New York Times. She was thrilled by the fact that people really cared.

The Department of Corrections declined Fox 17s interview request, but a PBS documentary filmmaker shared some of the footage with the station.

We started the conversation, Dan Birman told Fox 17. "This is a young girl who's at the tail end of three generations of violence against women. She had no chance."

At the age of 16, Brown was a runaway who had been crashing with friends in Nashville for about a year. Toward the middle or end of July 2004, she met a 24-year-old man nicknamed "Cut-throat." They started living together, staying at different motels around town and snorting cocaine every day.

He allegedly abused her physically and sexually. She said he once choked her until she passed out. Other times he allegedly pulled a gun on her.

He would explain to me that some people were born whores, and that I was one, and I was a slut, and nobodyd want me but him, and the best thing I could do was just learn to be a good whore, she testified.

He forced her to prostitute herself so that they would have money to live, she said.

On the day she met the victim, Johnny Allen, on Aug. 5, 2004, the man she called "Cut" had hit her and told her to go out and bring back some money.

Allen picked her up off the street and bought her some fast food. He asked her if she was OK, but after listening to her story, asked if she was up for any action, Brown said.

He drove her back to his house where his strange behavior frightened her and made her want to escape. When she couldnt sneak away, she said she wanted to nap.

He lay down with her but didnt fall asleep. He kept getting up and standing over her. She became more panicked, convinced something was going to happen to her. Finally, she shrugged off his advances and, as he rolled over, she took a gun from her purse and shot him once in the head.

In 2004, prosecutors in Nashville said Brown killed Allen in order to steal from him  she left with his pants, containing his wallet, and some guns. At her 2006 trial, the jury sided with prosecutors, convicting Brown of first-degree murder and sentencing her to life in prison.

She is currently serving her time in the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville.

Derri Smith, the founder of End Slavery TN, said, She did kill someone. She deeply regrets it, but she was a child and she was being exploited.

The Fox 17 report said if Browns case were heard today, the court would treat her as a human trafficking victim.

A clinical and forensic psychiatrist testified during her trial that Browns erratic behavior could be explained by her birth mothers abuse of alcohol while she was pregnant. Experts have diagnosed Brown as suffering from alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder  a type of fetal alcohol syndrome disorder that he characterized as a severe mental disease and defect.

State Rep. Jeremy Faison, a Republican from Nashville, told The New York Times that he visited Brown in 2015 and has since been advocating for her release.

I was amazed at the person I met, he told the paper. She was kind, intelligent, she had a disposition or presence about her that was just amazing.

Bone, her lawyer, told The Times that he hopes for a new trial due to her public defenders work and urged the state to consider the case and possibly shorten the sentence.

Jeff Burks, the prosecutor who prosecuted Brown as is now in Georgia, told Fox 17 that Brown does not deserve clemency.

"There has been a group of people who have wanted to make Ms. Brown a victim and a celebrity since this happened," Brown wrote to Fox 17 News. "She was not 'trafficked' nor was she a 'sex slave.' It's not fair to the victim and his family that the other side of this case is so seldom heard."

The Associated Press contributed to this report
A Florida man chose the wrong vehicle to try to break into.

Surveillance video appeared to capture 49-year-old Stephen Titlan going from car to car along a residential block in Tampa earlier this month. Seven times he was stymied as the doors were locked.

The next day, Titland  who was already on felony probation for a burglary and criminal mischief conviction  had more success when he found an unlocked door.

The vehicle, however, was not empty.

It was an unmarked Pasco Sheriffs Office vehicle and was occupied with several members of the sheriffs offices Strategic Targeted Area Response Team.

Analysts positively identified Titland as the same man from the attempted burglaries the night before, authorities said.

The Pasco Sheriffs Office shared a still from surveillance video Thursday on Facebook and identified Titland as the suspect.

TItland was charged with seven attempted burglaries.
A hunter in western New York shot and killed a woman out walking her dogs Wednesday evening after mistaking her for a deer, officials said.

Thomas Jadlowski, 34, believed he saw a deer in a field about 200 yards away from him when he shot Rosemary Billquist in the hip with a high-powered pistol. The 43-year-old woman was walking her two Labrador Retrievers in the field behind her home in Sherman.

Rushing toward Billquist after hearing her scream, Jadlowski called 911 and applied pressure on her wound until paramedics arrived. Billquist was taken to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Erie, Pa., where she was pronounced dead.

"They tried saving her, Billquists husband, Jaime, told the Buffalo News. It was just too bad....It's horrific. It will be with me the rest of my life."

While no charges have been filed against Jadlowski and he has been cooperating with investigators, the shooting was reported at 5:24 p.m., which is 40 minutes after sunset. It is against New York state law to hunt deer after sunset.

Jaime Billquist also said his wife was shot on their next-door neighbor's property and that Jadlowski didn't have permission to be hunting on the property.

The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office is working with investigators from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the local district attorneys office to decide if charges will be filed.

"This is a horrific incident," Sheriff Joe Gerace said. "This destroyed two lives."

Billquists husband took to social media on Thanksgiving to express his sadness over his wifes death and thank family and friends for their support.

I will miss you and love you forever, Billquist wrote on Facebook. I know you dancing in heaven with your momma and all of our friends and family that we have lost.
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An 18-year-old woman who accused two NYPD cops of raping her in the back seat of their police van was visited by a group of their co-workers in her hospital room in a bid to bully her out of bringing sex assault charges, her lawyer claims.

Michal David, who represents Anna Chambers, said nine police officers tried to intimidate her and her mom, to discourage them from coming forward to report the sex assault.

David told the New York Post one office in particular questioned Chambers' story while she sought treatment at Maimoindes Medical Center in Brooklyn hours after the rape.

He kept saying to Anna and her mom, How do you know they were real cops? David said. Didnt you make complaints about cops before?

Chambers told her lawyer one particular cop spoke to her and her mother in their native Russian, while trying to cover his name tag on his uniform.

Anna said [the officer] was trying to manipulate a rubber band over his name tag, so she couldnt see who it was, David said, adding the cop was adamant that Chambers was wrong.

A nurse at the hospital reportedly told Chambers and her mom to not be intimidated.

Be strong. Be strong for your daughter, the nurse said, according to David, who added: The mom stood firm against the cop.

Chambers has accused Brooklyn South narcotics Detectives Richard Hall and Eddie Martins of raping her in the back seat of their police van while she was handcuffed. She also accused them of forcing her to perform oral sex after she was arrested for possessing drugs.

Hall, 33, and Martins, 37, admitted to having sex with the 18-year-old while on the job, but claimed it was consensual. They pleaded not guilty to a 50-count indictment last month.

Both detectives resigned from the force in November. They are currently free on bail, the Post reported.

DNA from Martins and Hall matched genetic material recovered from Chambers in the rape kit, the Post reported.

David said he intends to add the aggressive officer from the hospital to the $50 million notice of claim Chambers filed against the city.

Im outraged, he said. To me, its almost as outrageous as the crime, that you have cops trying to intimidate her to not report the crime, trying to protect fellow cops.
It sounds like the kind of thing that goes on in a pro wrestling ring, but instead, its happening inside classrooms.

Students reportedly are flipping over tables, desks and chairs" in one Pennsylvania district, leading to calls for help from teachers, and similar behavior in schools nationwide is causing educators to look at alternative ways to cut down on misbehavior and unruliness -- including swapping detention for yoga mats and holding one-on-one discussions.

"I have been hit, I have been kicked, I have been restrained from behind where I've been unable to move my arms," Amanda Sheaffer, a first-grade teacher in Harrisburg, Pa., told her school board during a meeting Monday, according to FOX43.

She added: "It really throws off the whole day. I mean, you have an incident happen and you have to do a room clear, get all the students out, and then after that you have to take the time to do the write-up, and you have to make sure security comes and gets the kids."

The Harrisburg Education Association said the unrest is only happening at a few schools in Pennsylvanias capital, but it has led to the resignations of at least 45 teachers between July and October.

"We aren't complaining. We are here begging for help so that we can help those students," said Harrisburg Education Association President Jody Barksdale.

She continued: "Teachers and students are being hit, kicked, slapped, scratched, cussed at...and observing other students flip over tables, desks and chairs. Teachers have had to take the rest of their class into the hallway to protect them during these outbursts.

OPINION: STUDENTS EMOTIONS  NOT DISCIPLINE  ARE THE KEY TO BETTER CLASSROOMS

Harrisburg Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney agreed to Barksdales suggestion of an administrator, teacher and parent task force to address the situation, but said the district is constantly working to try to fix the problem, Penn Live reported.

"Unfortunately, some of these things take time," Knight-Burney said. "They take time for training; they take time for investigation, and making sure that we are doing the right thing for our students."

Could the right thing for students actually be yoga mats? It's one of the changes being floated -- a stark contrast to school disciplinary actions of yesteryear.

"Teachers and students are being hit, kicked, slapped, scratched, cussed at..."  Harrisburg Education Association President Jody Barksdale

At Lancaster High School outside of Columbus, Ohio, educators this semester have brought in the Youth Yoga Project, a nonprofit group, to offer classes to students instead of detention.

The program, called REaCT, which stands for "Restorative Exercises and Coping Techniques, is only available to students who commit minor offenses, such as defiance and noncompliance, WOSU reported. But teachers are hoping teens favor the "childs pose" position over childish behavior.

Our aim is to equip them with healthy tools they can use anytime, any place, through their breathing, focused awareness on their body and relaxation techniques, so that they can calm their nervous system and brain and make more responsible decisions, yoga instructor Lauren Greenspan told WOSU.

The program also teaches breathing exercises and guided reflection.

TEXAS STUDENTS WHO SAT DURING PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE SAY THEY WERE HARASSED, DISCIPLINED

Teacher Laura Specht told WOSU its too early to tell how successful the program is, but they are aiming for long-term benefits.

Farther north, in Minnesota, St. Paul teachers are trying "restorative practices" such as one-on-one discussions with misbehaving students to help them take responsibility for their actions -- but also keep them in their desks, not out of school with suspensions.

Every Monday we get into circle to start our week, Nicole Staab, a science teacher at the Farnsworth Aerospace school, which specializes in aerospace curriculum, told Fox News. We reflect on our weekend, talk about what we liked and anything that did not go well and then we set a goal for the week.

Shawn Davenport, a restorative practice program coordinator there, said the "conflict circles" are needed for students looking to resolve low level issues with peers.

Relationships, relationships, relationships is our school focus, he told Fox News. Our belief is if every student feels like they are a part of the classroom, then they are less likely to cause harm to that environment.

Six St. Paul public schools received $150,000 last year for extra staff and to get teachers and parents up to speed with the new approach, according to MPR News. Overall, the district has committed $4 million to the effort over three years.

Over the past couple years, Saint Paul Public Schools has seen a rise in dismissals, suspensions, fights, and safety concerns in our district, Farnsworth Restorative Practice Program Coordinator Jim Yang told Fox News. So there was a need to address some of the hurt that our district has been experiencing.

Selah, an eighth-grade student who had a disagreement with a teacher at St. Paul's Murray Middle School and has been sent out of class numerous times for talking, told MPR News that she was able to create a plan to do better after hashing out her differences during a face-to-face discussion with the instructor.

"I feel better about it because I expressed all my feelings I had, when before I kind of just held them to myself and that got more angry every time I thought about it," Selah said.

The program has shown mixed results so far, as schools that started using it last year saw an increase in suspensions compared to the year prior, but fewer students getting sent to the principals office for misbehavior, MPR News reported, citing discipline data.

District officials, however, said its still too early to draw conclusions.

Restorative practice isnt just a practice to lower our numbers of suspensions and dismissals but a gift for our students, teachers, parents and community to be intentional to speak their truth, listen and learn from one another, Yang told Fox News. Then and only then will we be able to grow as a people, as a community, as a nation.

Across the U.S., 2.8 million students in grades K-12 received one or more out of school suspensions in the 2013-2014 school year, the U.S. Department of Education says, but nationwide data isnt available for more recent years.
A court has handed a 21-year-old German man a two-year suspended sentence and 200 hours of community service for an arson attack on a building housing child refugees.

The Potsdam regional court convicted the defendant Thursday of attempted murder, attempted serious arson and property damage for the October 2016 attack in Jueterbog, south of Berlin.

Nobody was injured.

Judges concluded the man, who wasn't named due to German privacy rules, was motivated by a hatred of foreigners and wanted to impress his father.

The 41-year-old father, who allegedly supplied fuel used in the attack, is being tried separately.

The verdict was delivered on the 25th anniversary of a notorious arson attack in the northern town of Moelln, in which neo-Nazis killed three people of Turkish origin.
At the very last minute, two sailors did not board the Argentinian submarine that has been lost in the South Atlantic for nine days now.

For different reasons, Humberto Vilte and Adrian Rothlisberger did not board the submarine with the 44 other crew members, according to O Globo, a Brazilian newspaper.

Vilte was allowed to skip the mission after he learned that his mother had been hospitalized, O Globo reported. Known by his friends as "Beto," Vilte was not only given permission to leave, but the navy also paid for his trip back home, according to Argentinian newspaper Clarin.

Since the submarines disappearance, Vilte changed his profile picture to an image of the ARA San Juan shield with a black ribbon, Clarin reported.

ARGENTINA: SEARCH FOR MISSING SUB ACCELERATES DESPITE BLAST

Rothlisberger was released from the trip after he had fulfilled a series of tasks for his boss, his mother said, according to O Globo. He avoided the trip in a matter of seconds, Sandra Alvares said.

Alvares told Radio Dos that it is a miracle that her son did not board the submarine.

Keep praying, she said.

Both men have reportedly traveled back to Mar del Plata, a coastal city in Argentina, where loved ones have gathered to await news of the submarines fate.

The Argentinian navy said Thursday an explosion occurred near the time and place where the sub went missing on Nov. 15, causing some loved ones to give up hope that the crew will be rescued. Navy officials worry that even if the submarine is still intact, the crew might be running out of oxygen.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump said he planned to call Egypt's president following Friday's bombing and shooting attack in the country's volatile Sinai Peninsula, a horrific assault that claimed the lives of at least 235 people and wounded 109 others.

Trump tweeted Friday he would discuss the "tragic terrorist attack" with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. Trump continued his tweet by reiterating the United States' need for a border wall and travel ban.

"Will be calling the President of Egypt in a short while to discuss the tragic terrorist attack, with so much loss of life. We have to get TOUGHER AND SMARTER than ever before, and we will. Need the WALL, need the BAN! God bless the people of Egypt," Trump tweeted.

Earlier Friday, Trump denounced the deadly attack, calling it "horrible and cowardly."

Trump tweeted Friday: "Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt. The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!"

The White House also released a statement condemning the attack and offered their condolences to the families affected.

Islamist extremists were suspected of launching the attack on the al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, some 25 miles from the North Sinai provincial capital of el-Arish, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported. Officials suspected a local affiliate of ISIS of carrying out the attack. Islamic militants consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith, The Associated Press reported.

Security officers said the men opened fire on worshipers during prayers while driving in off-road vehicles. A Ministry of Health spokesman said the terrorists set off a bomb during the attack.

"[the extremists] were shooting at people as they left the mosque," a resident told Reuters. "They were shooting at the ambulances too."

Resident Ashraf el-Hefny told The Associated Press many of the victims were workers at a nearby salt firm who had come for Friday services at the mosque, which had contained some 300 worshipers.

"Local people brought the wounded to hospital on their own cars and trucks," el-Hefny said.

Security officials told local media that militants were blocking escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the burning wrecks in the street.

Sky News reported the Egyptian Government declared a three day period of mourning following the mosque attack.

El-Sissi condemned the attack, calling it "criminal" and "cowardly" and expressed condolences to the victims and their families. The president vowed the attack "will not go unpunished" and that Egypt will persevere in its war on terrorism.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but ISIS has targeted Sufis in the past, notably beheading a leading Sufi religious figure, the blind sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz, last year and posting photos of the killing online.

The attack was the largest single targeting of Egyptian civilians and the first on a large mosque congregation since the ISIS affiliate began its campaign of violence against the state following the military's 2013 overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president.

Last month, militants attacked police in the Western Desert, killing 16 officers. Security officials have told journalists that dozens more, including high-ranking counterterrorism officers, perished in the Oct. 20 attack some 84 miles southwest of the capital, Cairo.

Militants have also been blamed for attacking Egypts small Christian population. Attacks on the Christian community has surged in recent month with a series of suicide bombings claimed by the extremist Islamic state group of killing more than 100 since Dec. 2016.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Emmerson Mnangagwa took over as president of Zimbabwe Friday after the extraordinary exit of Robert Mugabe.

Mnangagwa served as Mugabes vice president until he was fired and fled the African nation for his safety. Mugabe resigned earlier this week as the countrys Parliament moved to impeach him.

We must work together. You, me, all of us who make up this nation, Mnangagwa said at his inauguration in front of 60,000 people. He urged Zimbabweans who fled the country in recent years to come back.

Military officials in Zimbabwe took control of the capital earlier this month. According to critics, that move put Mugabe in a position to promote his wife, Grace Mugabe, to succeed him.

Read on for a look at the key players in the Zimbabwe leadership change.

Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe led Zimbabwe since the countrys independence from Britain in 1980.

Mugabe was born in Rhodesia, which is now called Zimbabwe. After graduating from college in 1945, Mugabe taught in Rhodesia and Ghana for 15 years, according to History.com.

In 1960, Mugabe entered Zimbabwe politics when he joined the pro-independence National Democratic Party and became its publicity secretary. Mugabe later left the National Democratic Party, which was re-formed as the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union in 1961, for the Zimbabwe African National Union (now known as Zanu-PF). He is still with Zanu-PF today, according to History.com.

Mugabe was imprisoned in 1964 when he opposed white colonial rulers. He was freed 10 years later, according to History.com. He then fought in Rhodesia's war for independence. In 1980, he became prime minister of the newly independent country. In 1987, Mugabe became president of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe, 93, led the country under authoritarian rule since 1980. Critics argue that he became increasingly authoritarian over time, while supporters say he represents Zimbabwes poor. According to the BBC, Mugabe is arguably best known for his land reform program in the 1990s that redistributed white-owned farms to black peasants.

The country has experienced considerable political and economic turmoil during his rule.

Mugabe recently sacked his Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa in favor of his wife. Mugabe married Grace, his second wife, in 1996.

Mugabe finally resigned as Zimbabwes president this week as the Parliament was moving to formally impeach him.

Grace Mugabe

Grace Mugabe, who was born in South Africa in 1965, was the first lady of Zimbabwe. She is 41 years younger than her husband.

The couple has three children together, according to the BBC: Bona, Robert and Chatunga.

Critics have called her Gucci Grace -- a reference to her lavish shopping habits, according to the BBC.

She did charity work before becoming more active in the Zanu-PF party. A polarizing figure, Grace was named the head of Zanu-PF women's league in 2014.

Grace Mugabe spearheaded the ousting of former Zimbabwe Vice President Joice Mujuru in 2014, according to the BBC. Mnangagwa, whom Grace once called loyal and disciplined, later replaced Mujuru. But Grace recently called on her husband to replace him, claiming that Mnangagwas supporters were planning a coup.

Prior to the military maneuvers, it was thought that Grace would become the country's vice president in December, according to the BBC.

Emmerson Mnangagwa

Until recently, Emmerson Mnangagwa, 71, was Mugabes vice president.

He received military training in Egypt and China, but later returned to then-Rhodesia to help lead the country in its fight for independence. Like Mugabe, Mnangagwa was arrested and imprisoned for nearly 10 years. He was allegedly tortured during his time in jail.

He is also one of the founders of the Zanu-PF party, and has been in government ever since the country gained independence, according to the BBC.

Known in the country as crocodile, Mnangagwa is said to be politically cunning. He served as the countrys minister for national security before becoming vice president in 2013, according to the BBC.

Mnangagwa fled Zimbabwe, citing threats to his life, after Mugabe fired him. He returned on Wednesday and was sworn in as the country's new leader Friday morning.

General Constantino Chiwenga

Gen. Constantino Chiwenga, 61, has led the countrys national army since the early 1990s, according to the BBC. Chiwenga, a close ally of Mnangagwa, joined the war for independence in the 1970s. He trained with Zimbabwe's African National Liberation Army in Mozambique.

He was sanctioned by the European Union, U.S. and New Zealand in 2002 before being promoted to commander general of Zimbabwe's combined armed forces in 2003, according to the BBC.

On Nov. 13, he warned that the military would step in if its historical political allies continued to be removed or targeted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Kosovo police have arrested a top opposition leader and two other lawmakers accused of disrupting the work of the previous parliament with tear gas and violent acts.

Albin Kurti, Donika Kadaj Bujupi and Albulena Haxhiu of the left-wing Self-Determination Party were arrested while entering the parliament building Friday.

Since the signing of a border demarcation agreement with Montenegro in August 2015 the opposition has contested it, saying Kosovo is ceding territory. That was denied by the previous government and international experts. Approval of the deal is a pre-condition for a visa-free regime for Kosovo citizens in the European Union's Schengen countries.

The protesters disrupted parliamentary work, using tear gas canisters, blowing whistles and throwing water bottles.
London transit authorities reopened the Oxford Circus tube station Friday following reports of gunfire.

Transport for London said Oxford Circus and nearby Bond Street station were reopened to subway trains.

In an early statement, London's Metropolitan Police said they were called to the scene at the underground station and were responding "as if the incident is terrorist-related." Police asked residents to avoid the area.

Later, police tweeted they had not located any trace of suspects, evidence of shots fired or casualties.

The British Transport Police reported one woman sustained a minor injury while leaving the subway station.

The reports sparked panic in the area around one of Londons busiest subway stations. Thousands of people ran in panic or took shelter in stores along busy Oxford Street.

"Before it all, I saw about 30 police officers speeding down the street, Lanna Woodward, a resident of the United States traveling in London, told Sky News. "We were in the Kingdom of Sweets and then saw a massive crowd of people running and screaming. People were climbing on top of each other."

Woodward added: "The store we were in was locked down, the manager wouldn't let us leave - they said there had been a shooting at the entrance of the Tube station."

It was not immediately clear what sparked the incident.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Pyongyang may have replaced its entire border security force after a North Korean soldier dramatically defected into South Korea last week.

Yonhap news agency on Friday cited an unnamed intelligence source who said there were "signs" the North had replaced its entire force of 35 to 40 men at the Joint Security Area.

The source said North Korea seems to have temporarily closed a bridge over which the defector drove a military jeep to reach the border before his dramatic escape on foot last Monday. The source said the North could be preparing to install a security gate at the bridge for strengthening its screening of personnel coming in and out of the area.

A photo posted on the Twitter account of the acting U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Marc Knapper, showed North Korean workers using shovels to dig what Knapper said was a trench at the spot where the defector crossed the border.

According to South Korea's military, four North Korean soldiers using handguns and AK-47 assault rifles fired about 40 rounds at the defector, who rushed across the line that divides the Koreas after getting his vehicle stuck in a ditch.

He was shot five times and is now recovering at a hospital near Seoul where he was operated twice to repair internal organ damage and other injuries.

The North Korean soldier that escaped is smaller than an average South Korean 18-year-old, has tuberculous and hepatitis B.

If theyre that malnourished; if they have the parasites and all the rest of it, it means the food situation is more dire than people thought, Gordon Chang, an expert of the region, told Fox News.

South Korean soldiers did not fire back, but the incident occurred amid animosity over North Korea's accelerating nuclear weapons and missile test programs. While North Korea often reacts with intense anger over high-profile defections, the country's state media have remained silent on the latest case as of Friday.

After investigating the incident, the U.N. Command said Wednesday it concluded that North Korea violated the armistice agreement ending the 1950-53 Korean War because its soldiers fired across and physically crossed the border in pursuit of the defector.

It said officials notified the North's military of these violations and requested a meeting to discuss the investigation results and measures to prevent such violations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report




Shanghai(Gasgoo)-Recently, automakers released their October output and sales volume. Among them, three China's top self-owned automakers, Geely, Changan and GWM boasted remarkable sales in October. Geely and Changan delivered more than 100,000 units, and GMW's sales in October also reached approximately 100,000 units.



GWM October sales totaled 98,590 units, up 2.25% year on year and 8.68% month on month. Its cumulative sales during January and October reached 719,285 units, which lagged far behind that of Geely and Changan. In specific, the premium brand, the WEY delivered 16,167 model units, and the sales of the VV7 and the VV5 both reached more than 8,000 units, which is a good beginning for GWM to enter into high-end vehicle market. In October, the Great Wall car brand sold 770 units, while the Haval brand delivered 81,653 units. The Haval H6 dropped 13.5% over the same period last year to more than 49,000 units. The new Haval M6 boasted a robust sales of 7,051 units, easing the situation for GWM's sales decline.

Geely boasted a remarkable market performance this year. Its October sales reached 125,201 units, increasing 30.58% year on year and 14.88% month on month. Up to October, the cumulative sales of Geely reached over 950,000 units, signifying that it's very easy for Geely to complete its annual sales target of 1,100,000 units. In October, six Geely models were sold more than 10,000 units. Particularly, the Geely Boyue ranked the fourth place in China's SUV sales with sales of over 30,000 units. Geely's highly-anticipated new models, the Lynk & Co 01 and S1 have started preorder, and the orders are said to be considerable.

Mainly supported with the sales drivers, the new CS55 and the A800, Changan posted October sales of 100,000 units, down 13.95% year on year and up 2.63% month on month. During January and October, sales of Changan totaled 862,755 units. Each sales of the Changan CS75, CS35 and CS55 exceeded 10,000 units. The Changan Eado, Alsvin, CS15, CX70, Honor and Ossan suffered sales slump. Compared with the two models of WEY and the Lynk & Co 01's popularity, Changan's premium model, the CS95 sold not very well, which exerts difficulties on Changan's way to go upscale.
A North Korean soldier who made a daring dash to defect to South Korea last week has been enjoying American movies, television shows and Korean pop music while recovering from his gunshot wounds -- and a host of other maladies.

The soldier, known by his surname, Oh, was shot five times while making a run for freedom at the Demilitarized Zone separating the Hermit Kingdom from South Korea.

Oh was saved by South Korean troops who pulled him to safety and quickly got him to Ajou University Hospital in Suwon -- where doctors found the soldier had more than bullets in his body.

Lee Cook-jong, the defectors lead surgeon, said an enormous number of parasitic worms -- including one 11 inches long -- were found inside the soldiers body. Oh also reportedly suffered from tuberculosis and hepatitis b.

NORTH KOREA MAY HAVE REPLACED ITS ENTIRE BORDER SECURITY TEAM AFTER DEFECTION

But despite the soldiers long list of ailments, Lee said the defector has indulged in American cinema, including flicks such as Bruce Almighty and Transporter 3, Sky News reported. He also liked the TV series CSI.

"We are mainly showing him movie channels on TV, and he really likes American movies, Lee told reporters.

The doctor said Oh also enjoyed South Korean pop music, especially from girl bands.

"He likes female idol groups a lot, Lee said.

ENORMOUS NUMBER OF PARASITES IN NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS BODY, DOCTORS SAY

Lee said Oh has been experiencing nightmares and said he was afraid he would have to return to the regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Oh told doctors he would never ever go back to the military system again.

"He told me that he is so thankful for South Koreans for saving his life and giving him 12 liters of blood, Lee said.

Lee said the soldier was beginning to eat and would be given bigger portions as he recovered.

Lee said Oh was not going anywhere anytime soon and reporters would get their chance to question the injured defector.

"This North Korean guy is not going anywhere. He is staying in South Korea. So we don't need to be hasty, Lee said.

On Friday, Yonhap news agency reported Pyongyang may have replaced its entire border security team following Ohs escape.
Amid his sweeping cultural reforms and systematic purges from the royal family, Saudi Arabias crown prince this week called Irans supreme leader the new Hitler of the Middle East, comments that are sure to ratchet up the conflict between the two rival Muslim powers.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made the statements about Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an interview with The New York Times that was published Thursday. Salman told The Times that Iran's efforts to expand needed to be confronted."

The prince, 32, who is expected to succeed his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, 81, compared Iran and Saudi Arabias power struggle in the region to those fighting for Europe in World War II.

But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesnt work. We dont want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East, Salman told The New York Times.

RETURNING PM ATTENDS LEBANONS MILITARY PARADE

The Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia support rival sides in the various wars and political battles occurring throughout the region. Saudi Arabia backs Sunni Muslims while Tehran backs Shiite Muslims.

Tensions between the two countries escalated earlier this month when Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced in Saudi Arabia that he was resigning from his position. Hariri accused Iran-backed Hezbollah, a Shiite political party and terror group based in Lebanon, of holding his country hostage and plotting against him. Saudi Arabia has also accused Hezbollah of meddling on Irans behalf in regional affairs.

Hezbollah, however, accused Saudi Arabia of engineering Hariris resignation, calling it an act of war, Reuters reported.

Hariri returned to Lebanon this week and said he was putting his resignation on hold.

UN CHIEF NUKE INSPECTOR: IRAN COMPLYING WITH NUCLEAR DEAL

Salman also told The New York Times the war in Yemen was going in its favor. The war, which has raged since 2015, has pitted a Saudi-led coalition backed by the U.S. against the Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemens ousted president. The war has left over 10,000 people dead, driven 3 million from their homes and destroyed the countrys already fragile infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of sending aid to the Houthi rebels in Yemen while Tehran has denied the accusations, the BBC reported.

Iran did not immediately responded to Salmans comments but Khamenei has previously called Saudi Arabias royal family, the House of Saud, an accursed tree and accused the kingdom of spreading terrorism.

A November crackdown saw the arrests of 11 members of the House of Saud on various charges related to "corruption." In the midst of the arrests and constant countering of Iran, Saudi Arabia has also worked to institute reforms such as allowing women to drive vehicles in the Kingdom.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A senior separatist official in eastern Ukraine has announced the resignation of a rebel chief after a four-day showdown between rival factions.

Leonid Pasechnik, state security minister of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, said in a statement posted on the main rebel website Friday that the republic's chief Igor Plotnitsky has resigned on health grounds.

Plotnitsky was spotted arriving at a Russian airport on Thursday, but has made no official public appearances since Wednesday. Pressure mounted on Plotnitsky earlier this week after he fired the interior minister.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in a long-simmering conflict between government troops and Russia-backed separatists in Luhansk and in parts of the neighboring Donetsk region since 2014. The region has been plagued with infighting between various armed groups and warlords.
A Pakistani court on Wednesday ordered the release of a notorious Islamist leader accused of masterminding the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, in which 166 people were killed, clearing the way for his return to politics.

The move ended the brief detention of Hafiz Saeed, who was only put under house arrest in January after years of living freely in Pakistan. The 67-year-old cleric still has a $10 million bounty on his head and is designated a terrorist by the United Nations, yet remains head of the terrorist group Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).

The U.S. reacted swiftly, condemning the decision.

"There is no restriction at all on Hafiz Saeed now."  A.K. Dogar, attorney for Saeed

"The United States is deeply concerned that ... Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens," state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

Lahore High Courts judicial review body on Wednesday rejected a Punjab government request to renew Saeeds detention for a further 90 days, his spokesman Nadeem Awan told Fox News.

President Trump has taken a more aggressive stance regarding Pakistan, pushing for a crackdown on militants plotting attacks on Afghanistan and India.

We can no longer be silent about Pakistans safe havens for terrorist organizations, Trump said when rolling out his policy for south Asia in August, declaring that Pakistan would have much to lose if it did not comply.

However, Trumps stern rhetoric was described by Pakistan security officials as shifting of the blame for failures in the war against the Taliban and other militant groups fighting in war-torn Afghanistan and lack of acknowledgement for Pakistans sacrifices.

"When the government failed to present any concrete evidence to justify Hafiz Saeed's continued house arrest, the court dismissed the governments request and ordered his release after ending of his current duration of house arrest," Awan told Fox News.

Saeed, who is seen as a possible candidate for public office, thanked the judges of Lahore high court in a video statement.

The lawyers of the court supported me tremendously and I am so thankful to God for that, he said. This is a great step for freedom for Pakistan.

Members of JuD say it is purely a charity organization, but the U.S. views it is a front group for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), an anti-India militant jihadi group that Saeed helped found in the 1990s to fight with Indian military inside Indian-occupied Kashmir and to launch attacks on India.

Delhi has pressed for Saeed's to be handed over to face trial for the Mumbai terror attacks, in which LeT gunmen attacked luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a railway station in Indias biggest city and brought the nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

Saeed's lawyer, A.K Dogar, said the wanted man is now free, at least within Pakistan.

"There is no restriction at all on Hafiz Saeed now. The three members [Judges] review board on maintenance of public order examined the detention and government had not provided any tangible evidence to putting Saeed under further house arrest".

Four of Saeeds JuD colleagues Abdullah Ubaid, Abdur Rehman Abid Zafar Iqbal and Qazi Kashif Niaz were released last month, when a similar review board determined the governments evidence for their continued detention to be insufficient.

Saeed's release paves the way for him to play a leading role in Pakistans general election in 2018. During his period of house arrest, he has overseen the launch of a new political party, the Milli Muslim League (MML) in August, which is set to contest several seats in the coming polls.

It is still unclear that if he will run for office himself,but his previous profile ensures he will be a prominent figure in the campaign.

Haroon Janjua is an award-winning Pakistan-based journalist who has reported on a wide range of political, military and economic developments.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not ruled out possible contact with President Bashar Assad in a sign that his stance may be softening toward the Syrian leader.

Responding to a question about a possible contact or cooperation with Assad in view of both leaders' opposition to Syrian Kurdish fighters, Erdogan told journalists: "The political doors are always open until the last minute."

Erdogan was speaking on board his plane on his return from a trilateral meeting with Russia and Iran to promote a peaceful settlement in Syria that took place in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday.

His comments were reported by Hurriyet newspaper and other media on Friday.

Turkey has strongly opposed Assad and has spoken against him having any future role in Syria.
Robert Mugabe's former vice president and top enforcer -- known to some as "The Crocodile" -- took command of the southern African country is rousing style Friday.

Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as the nations second president -- only Zimbabwes second leader in nearly four decades -- to shouts and singing from tens of thousands of people.

A smiling Mnangagwa greeted the crowd at a packed stadium, promising to reduce crushing unemployment and return the country to prosperity after years of decline.

Our economic policy will be directed for job, job, job creation he told the crowd of 60,000 in the capital, Harare. We must work together. You, me, all of us who make up this nation. I must hit the ground running.

Mnangagwa, fired earlier this month as vice president, took power after a whirlwind series of events that ousted the 93-year-old Mugabe after he'd spent 37 years in power. Mugabe on Tuesday succumbed to mounting pressure to quit from the military, the ruling party and throngs of people taking part in demonstrations, amid fears his unpopular wife, Grace Mugabe, would succeed him.

Mnangagwa, a former justice and defense minister, had been Mugabes ruthless enforcer, accused of overseeing the brutal deaths of thousands of political opponents. He is the subject of U.S. sanctions targeting officials in Zimbabwes repressive regime.

This week, however, Mnangagwa returned from a brief exile to widespread support from Zimbabweans who welcomed his promises of democracy. His speech on Friday struck notes of inclusion and reconciliation after years of growing frustration with Mugabes rule.

He promised to tackle corruption and pledged democratic elections would be held next year as planned.

Mnangagwa also praised Mugabe, who remains a respected figure by many in Africa for his role in ending white-minority ruled Rhodesia. Mugabe should be lauded and celebrated for his work, Mnangagwa said, to tepid applause.

Mugabe did not attend Friday's swearing-in, and ruling party officials have said he will remain in Zimbabwe after they promised he was "safe" and his legacy as a "hero" would stand.

Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper reported Mnangagwa assured Mugabe and his family of their "maximum security." The report said the two men agreed Mugabe would not attend Friday's ceremony because he "needed time to rest."

Ahead of the inauguration, some people began to dance in the stadium stands. Banners read "Dawn of a new era" and "No to retribution," even as human rights activists began to report worrying details of attacks on close allies of the former first lady and their families. Mnangagwa has warned against "vengeful retribution."

Tendai Lesayo held a small Zimbabwean flag as she sold drinks from a cooler outside the stadium. She said she would welcome a fresh start, saying "life now is impossible."

Elsewhere in the capital, long lines formed outside banks, a common sight in a nation struggling with cash shortages and other severe economic problems that the new president will have to confront.

"Right now, nothing has really changed for me. I still cannot get my money from the bank," said Amon Mutora, who had been in line since 6 am.

"Attending the inauguration will not bring food for my family," said Kelvin Fungai, a 19-year-old selling bananas from a cart. Many young people are well-educated but jobless, reduced to street vending to survive. Others have left the country.

Elsewhere, there were signs of hope amid the uncertainty. Black market rates for cash have tumbled since Mugabe left office. Before he stepped down, one had to deposit $170 into a black market dealer's bank account to get $100 cash. On Friday, $100 cash was selling for between $140 and $150.

As the inauguration crowds streamed by, Sharon Samuriwo sat on a ledge, watching. She said she hoped Mnangagwa would learn from the errors of his predecessor, and she acknowledged the path ahead for Zimbabwe is unknown.

Still, "after 37 years, we've got someone different."

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On November 23, Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with China Mobile to work on such areas as 4G internet of vehicles, 5G in-vehicle communication research.

The companies will give full play to each others advantages in technology, industry and market for the purpose of promoting the cross-industry cooperation between the communications industry and the auto industry, and establishing intelligent travelling service system and industry ecosystem on the basis of new-generation intelligent-connected technology.

In 4G internet of vehicles, two parties will achieve all-around cooperation in in-vehicle communications, platform and content application, big data analysis and new energy vehicle supervision. In 5G in-vehicle communication research, China Mobile invited GAC to join 5G innovation center.

Apart from the said areas, GAC and China Mobile will also conduct in-depth cooperation in autonomous driving supported by C-V2X technology, basic communications service and joint marketing.

In September, GAC signed agreement with Tencent to develop business cooperation in areas such as internet connected vehicles, intelligent driving, cloud platform, big data, etc. At Auto Guangzhou 2017, GAC unveiled its first intelligent-connected electric concept car iSpace.
Rwanda's Torture Problem

This week, Rwanda has a routine session before the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT), a body of human rights experts that monitors implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture).

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/11/23/rwandas-torture-problem
A federal judge in Alexandria on Wednesday evening rejected Democrats emergency bid to halt the State Board of Elections from certifying the vote totals in House District 28, increasing pressure on state elections officials to act in the Fredericksburg-area contest.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria held a hearing on the case by telephone, then denied Democrats motion for a temporary restraining order.

The top Republican in the House of Delegates said that the Democrats effort to litigate their way to victory is failing.

We appreciate the courts immediate attention and unequivocal ruling, said Del. Kirk Cox, RColonial Heights, who is in line to become speaker of the House in January if Republicans maintain a slight edge in the chamber.

Judge Ellis said directly that the Board should do its statutory duty and certify the election results. That will allow the process laid out in state law to proceed.

Democrats picked up 15 House seats in a wave election Nov. 7, but adding one more would result in a 5050 party split in the House. Several recounts are expected, but Republicans are on track to keep a 5149 majority.

Democratic lawyer Marc E. Elias had filed the suit late Tuesday afternoon asking the elections board to delay certifying results in two Fredericksburg-area House districts, the 28th and the 88th, where Republicans appeared to have won, but some voters were given the wrong House ballot.

These voters were disenfranchised from voting for the delegate who is to represent them, Elias said in a statement announcing the suit on behalf of three residents of the 28th District who were given ballots for the neighboring 88th District.

Earlier Wednesday, Cox accused the state elections board of abandoning its political neutrality by continuing to delay certifying election results while Democrats pursue lawsuits.

The State Board of Elections exists to be an independent arbiter of our elections, but after the last three days no one could be faulted for questioning the independence of a board that seems to be working in lockstep with legal counsel for the Democratic Party, Cox said in a statement.

Twice now the board has not just failed to carry out its statutory duty, but has actively delayed in order to allow Democrats to file a third lawsuit.

James B. Alcorn, chairman of the State Board of Elections, said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that the boards duty is to ascertain the results of the election and that it intends to do just that.

All three members of the board, including the Republican member, delayed certification to allow time to sort out potential irregularities in the election results, Alcorn said. This additional time is contemplated in the Code of Virginia and allows the board to do its due diligence in carrying out its legal responsibilities.

The elections board was scheduled to meet to certify the results on Wednesday morning, but the elections officials announced late Tuesday that they had postponed the meeting until next Monday.

According to state law, the board was required to meet Nov. 20 to certify the results.

The board met Monday and certified all results but the 28th and 88th House races, pointing to a legal provision that allows for a three-day delay if the results cant be determined. The board has not explained its decision to postpone Wednesdays meeting until next week, but its members seem to be operating under the assumption that the Thanksgiving holiday gives them more leeway with the three-day window.

If the board does not certify the results Monday, Cox said, Republicans will file a lawsuit asking the Supreme Court of Virginia to force the board to act.

Under Virginia law, the party that won the last gubernatorial election is entitled to a 21 majority on the elections board. The board is controlled by appointees of Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
As thousands gathered recently for an air show at Shannon Airport, a state aviation history organization was opening new offices just across the runway in a house on Tidewater Trail.

The Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society had offices in the Virginia Aviation Museum during the years that facility was located next to the airport in Richmond. But the museum, based on the original collections of Fredericksburg-area airport founder Sidney L. Shannon Jr., closed last year after a 30-year run at that site.

When Spotsylvania County businessman and pilot Luke Curtas reopened the state aviation museum as the Shannon Air Museum at Shannon Airport this year, the historical society, which has long played a key support role for the museum, decided to follow the museum here, according to Society President Doug Winegardner.

The VAHS, with some 400 members statewide, participates in a range of activities related to aviation history, according to Winegardner, a Richmond lawyer. Among its numerous projects, the historical group maintains the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame and inducted its two newest members at a dinner at the Fredericksburg Expo Center on Oct. 28.

A new Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame exhibit has been added to the collections at the Shannon Air Museum and is now on view.

Central Virginia is well represented among those honored, according to Curtas. Honorees include many nationally prominent figures in aerospace activities.

The two new honorees bring the list of names to more than 125, said VAHS Office Manager Jennifer Melton. Added to the honors list this year were Col. Adelbert Buz Carpenter, a veteran Air Force pilot with a lengthy career in near-space flight and other areas of advanced aviation.

Also honored was Katherine Johnson, featured in the hit film, Hidden Figures. Johnson is a mathematician who played a vital role in the early U.S. space exploration program.

Johnson, who is 99, did not attend the gathering, but her eldest daughter, Joylette Hylick, accepted the Hall of Fame honors on her behalf.

In addition to the Hall of Fame, Winegardner said the historical society maintains history archives of important documents in Virginia aviation and space history; has a program setting up roadside markers to commemorate historical aviation events in the state; recently established the Capt. Earl Worley Scholarship program for college-bound high school seniors planning aerospace careers; and publishes a quarterly members magazine.

There are local chapters of the VAHS in several communities, including Williamsburg, Warrenton, the Northern Neck and Topping, said Winegardner, as well as plans for chapters in Roanoke and Fredericksburg.

With the societys state headquarters in Spotsylvania now, Winegardner said all of its regular primary meetings will be held locally, including not only the Hall of Fame gala but board meetings and an annual charity auction.

Membership in the Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society is open to anyone with an interest in aviation and space history, including non-pilots.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)-According to the data released by China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), among the top 10 PV brands by October sales, VW ranked first with overwhelming sales of 309,100 units, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.6%. Four local brands, Geely, Baojun, Changan, and Haval were on the list. Particularly, Geely took the second place among the top 10 PV brands with the largest year-on-year growth of 30% to 125,200 units. Baojun boasted the second largest sales growth of 25.3% year on year to 108,400 units, ranking the sixth among the top ten and the second among the four local brands. Contrary to the sales growth, the other two local brands, Changan and Haval suffered year-on-year sales declines of 15.1% and 13.1% respectively. Both Honda and Nissan entered the top five with sales growth of over 10%.
LIKE MANY administrative balancing acts, discipline issues can be among the most vexing problems schools and education officials face. School officials dont want a misbehaving student to disrupt the learning experience for an entire class, but they also know the adverse consequences of removing that student, one way or another, from the student population.

How a school disciplines a difficult student could make or break that students future. For the student, researchers and behavioral specialists say, the best outcome is that he or she remains in school rather than being sent home, or worse, being turned over to the police.

It might seem obvious that school officials would act based on whats best for the many rather than the few. The last thing they want to hear is that they are taking the easy way out by issuing an out-of-school suspension. And the last thing a working parent wants to deal with is having to stay home with the wayward student.

A report last month from the Virginia-based Legal Aid Justice Center finds that Virginia schools issued more than 131,000 out-of-school suspensions in the 2015-2016 school year. The suspensions were served by roughly 70,000 students, which means the majority of those students were suspended twice.

Virginias public school enrollment is about 1.3 million, so the 70,000 students represent about 5.4 percent of the overall school population.

A major concern for education officials, and every Virginian for that matter, is the disproportionate suspension rate for disabled and black students. Black students were suspended at four times the rate of white and Hispanic students combined. Disabled students were suspended three times as frequently as non-disabled students.

Most of the suspensions by far were issued to high school and middle school students. But it is eye-opening to realize that pre-K through third-graders received 17,300 suspensions in the 2015-16 school year. Thats about 13 percent of the total suspensions for the year. Nothing like getting an early start on the suspension routine.

Its not a giant leap to suggest that being sent home gives many of these students exactly what they want. Students who act out at school, get into fights, or disrespect their teachers and administrators might be angry or rebellious for any number of reasons. But a significant one is certainly a rejection of the discipline, work and basic citizenship that being a student requires.

Being sent home not only fails to address such issues, but may exacerbate them by returning the student to the environment that is the root of the problem. Thats exactly what Amy Woolard, a Legal Aid Justice Center attorney and the author of the report, points out:

When children are suspended from school, they are more likely to experience academic failure, drop out of school, have substance-abuse issues, have mental health needs and become involved in the justice system.

Indeed, school can provide the sanctuary that a students home life does not.

The Free Lance-Star reported in June on efforts in Spotsylvania schools to explore restorative practices. Students who get into fights or other trouble are given the opportunity to talk things over with the other student or with relatives or educators. Experts say the idea is to help a students gain maturity and to express themselves, rather than treat them like criminals.

The Legal Aid Justice Center report recommends legislative limits on suspensions and expulsions, advocates the review and establishment of alternative methods and programs to keep students in school and, of course, encourages adequate funding for staff to handle these initiatives.

Much research has also been done on the school-to-prison pipeline that results when problem students are turned over to law enforcement under sometimes questionable circumstances. Alternative choices to that solution of last resort must also be part of the equation.

Clearly, schools have no choice but to remove students who present a real threat to other students or to the school population at large.

But the goal of the school and the district should be that students are kept in school if at all possible, even if its in an alternative-education program. If it is order thats lacking in troubled students lives, taking them out of school is hardly the answer.
Lingering questions about Stafford voting

Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy. It is a right and a privilege, one that we treasure as Americans.

Anything that disrupts citizens faith in the voting process needs to be examined carefully. Problems need to be resolved, and we must always seek ways to safeguard our votes.

This is why the situation in Stafford is so distressing.

Here are some of the problems that were detected early on Election Day:

Confusion about precincts and candidates.

Alleged misinformation about provisional ballots and the deadline to provide a voter ID.

Concerns about when some ballots were received by the Post Office.

Registrar Greg Riddlemoser discounting public concerns and being unavailable during a critical time to answer questions.

The social media presence (Facebook and Twitter) for the Stafford Elections Board was removed. He disregarded the recommendations of the Virginia Board of Electors and opted out of a program to time stamp ballots.

What needs to happen next is clear: At the very least, an audit of Staffords election results by an outside party, along with a review of the registrars actions.

And the Stafford County Board of Supervisors needs to take a long look at how these voting problems were handled. Transparency and responsiveness are essential.

Restoring confidence in the voting process should be a priority. How will we encourage people to exercise their right to vote if we cannot say confidently, Every vote counts, and your vote matters?

Carolyn Lawson

Stafford
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Shanghai (Gasgoo)- According to Cui Dongshu, the secretary-general of China Passenger Car Association, the ratio of new energy vehicle credits in the first ten months reached 5.6 percent while the October monthly ratio was up to 7.2 percent.

The ratio refers to the percentage of new energy vehicle credits to the production of traditional fossil-fuel powered vehicles. As China government requires, companies should achieve a ratio of at least 10 percent from 2019 and 12 percent in 2020. For example, if an OEM produces 1 million traditional fossil-fuel powered vehicles in 2019, it needs 100,000 new energy vehicle credits. The new energy vehicle credits of each model are related to the range under the pure electric mode (PEV) or the power of fuel-cell battery package (FCV) and common BEV model can have a maximum of 5 new energy vehicle credits.

Statistics from Cui showed that in the first ten months, new energy vehicle production reached 366,000 units and achieved a total of 1,070,000 new energy vehicle credits. During the same period, automakers have produced a total of 18,680,000 fossil-fuel powered vehicles. Thus the ratio is 5.72 percent. Cui said the ratio would increase in the coming two months of this year, improving the whole years ratio.

China self-owned auto brands have a much better performance than JV brands in new energy vehicle credits. In the past ten months, joint ventures made 14,000 new energy vehicles with a new energy vehicle credit ratio of 0.3 percent while self-owned brands new energy vehicle production reached 352,000 units with a ratio of 17.4 percent.

As to the Chinese OEMs, Cui wrote in his article that BYD has the highest new energy vehicle credit ratio to the first ten months production while SAIC, Dongfeng, FAW and GAC are under great pressure to meet the target.
News

Three months after Harvey, FEMA trailers trickle in

KELSEY WALLING/ The Daily News file Jeff Jenny stands outside his FEMA trailer in Dickinson on Nov. 21. Jenny has been unable to utilize the trailer as there is no electricity. Jeff Jenny stands outside his FEMA trailer in Dickinson on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017. Jenny has been unable to utilize the trailer as there is no electricity. KELSEY WALLING/The Daily News A FEMA trailer sits outside Jeff Jenny's flood damaged house in Dickinson on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017. This was one of the first FEMA trailers in Dickinson and was delivered earlier this month.

DICKINSON

Jeff Jenny cant live in the large trailer blocking his house on Woodland Drive in Dickinson.

The manufactured home dominating his front yard arrived two weeks ago to give Jenny temporary disaster housing more than two months after Hurricane Harvey flooded his home. A Federal Emergency Management Agency representative told him he couldnt live in it, however, until contractors hooked it up for electric service. If he does, he loses the trailer, Jenny said.

The electrical hookup has not happened during the past two weeks in part because the city of Dickinson wont allow a temporary utility pole on the property.

Here I am, living in a truck, Jenny said Tuesday.

The unit in front of his house is among the first FEMA trailers that trickled into Galveston County somewhat under the radar during the past two weeks, and more are coming, officials said.

County Judge Mark Henry did not know they were coming at all, he said Wednesday.

Not only have we not been included in that decision, we have had no communication, Henry said. Im a little frustrated that local government is not included in these decisions.

The Texas General Land Office is spearheading immediate disaster housing programs in the state. The land office worked with FEMA to develop five programs to help storm victims with devastated homes. One of those programs is to provide manufactured housing units and travel trailers to those who qualify.

The Houston-Galveston Area Council, one of the states various councils of government, is also involved in the process of helping Harvey victims get temporary housing. The council is handling the state program at the regional level.

HGAC contacts the eligible applicants, Galveston County Commissioner Ken Clark said. Clark is a Houston-Galveston Area Council board member and also serves on its Transportation Policy Committee.

Harvey made landfall Aug. 25 in Rockport, about 200 miles south of Dickinson, but in the 72 or so hours that followed, it dumped more than 50 inches of rain in some parts of the area, swelling creeks and bayous and flooding about 20,000 homes in Galveston County.

Many residents whose homes flooded and still need repairs are staying in hotels or with family members. And some, like Jenny, are sleeping in their vehicle.

As many as 170 manufactured housing units are in different stages of installment in Galveston County, land office spokeswoman Brittany Eck said. Of that number, one is occupied, two are ready for occupancy and three are ready for electrical hookup, she said. Also, there are 30 work orders to haul and install units and another 134 households that are in the preliminary process of completing paperwork, Eck said.

The program also includes travel trailers that look like RVs but are not movable, Eck said. In Galveston County, nine of those are occupied, 24 are ready for occupancy and 10 are ready for electrical hookups. There are 27 work orders issued and 138 households completing paperwork, Eck said.

After Harvey, the land office became the lead agency for getting temporary housing for victims. Residents who applied for FEMA assistance and who needed and wanted temporary housing are getting help through a ladder of agencies

Harvey hit Dickinson especially hard, damaging 80 percent of the houses there, city officials said.

Jenny has had other issues with his FEMA trailer. Days after contractors installed the unit, a code enforcement officer came to the property and told Jenny he had to move it, he said.

Since then, Dickinson officials have retracted that, city spokesman Bryan Milward said. Jennys FEMA trailer can stay for now.

The city will require a permit for the FEMA trailers or other temporary housing units the state approved and contractors install in Dickinson, Milward said. Also, the occupants will have to get a permit for electrical hookups.

Jenny has another hang-up with his electrical hookup. The contractors, the land office and FEMA all want to install a temporary utility pole for the unit, but the city does not want that.

Dickinson officials want electrical hookups to the existing houses hookups on the property, but the land office said that the manufactured units need a different hookup.

Electricity can be an issue, Eck said.

Another issue that has come up in other counties is households that were behind on electric bills and had their power turned off. The land office is working with charities to find solutions to those problems, Eck said.

In most cases, the land office estimates it should take about a week to hook up electricity to the units, she said.

This is not a quick process, Eck said.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Changan Ford displays its Mondeo PHEV version at Auto Guangzhou 2017, which is Changan Fords first PHEV model and the first mainstream model enjoying subsidies and credits among all joint-venture middle-size vehicles.

The model will be put into production at the beginning of next year. All models under Changan Ford brand will provide electric versions by 2025.

The energy-saving Mondeo PHEV model uses one button to provide all shift experience with word of EV Auto/EV Now/EV Later rather than EV/HEV/SPORT on general PHEV models. Besides, leaf image on the model intuitively expresses the current energy-saving conditions with longer leaf representing more saving energies. The model also uses the new ternary lithium batteries providing cruise mileage of 52KM with pure electric conditions and warranty of 160,000KM in 8 years.

The model uses 2.0L Atkinson cycle engine and eCVT, similar to other Mondeo HEV versions. Customers may refer to battery condition, driving mileages and charging conditions on mobile phones by loading Ford School Internet applications, as well as searching for public charging posts.

In fact, Ford has slowed down its progress in releasing new models in China since the 1515 strategy. Currently, Changan Ford is making foundation in brand sales and system construction to prepare for oncoming new models release. Electrification and Internet-connected economy bring new opportunity for Changan Ford, which is striving to establish a stylish and pluralistic brand image for Chinese young consumers.




While many affiliates were actually flown into Malta to partake in the third annual Summit of iGaming Malta (SiGMA) without having to pay a dime, Gambling911 attended the old fashion tried and true method We sneaked in using an assumed identity. These aforementioned affiliates are beholden to heap praise upon SiGMA and its organizers. We here at Gambling911.com can TELL ALL and provide affiliates and operators with a true assessment of this years event.

Going undercover as Claudia Lama, we asked attendees the most important question: What do you think of this years SiGMA Malta event thus far?

The answers were pretty consistent across the board.

Scroll Down...

*Too crowded and congested, felt like cattle

*Venue was wayyyyy out of the way....and we mean WAAAAAYYYYY out of the way. They should have just held it in Sicily lol

*Shuttle buses took too long

*Limited food and coffee stations

*Long lines at the food and coffee stations

*Difficult late registration process with no support and did not take American Express

That's not to play down this event. It was actually quite good and everyone who is anybody and a nobody trying to break into the explosive online gambling industry was here, as well they should be.

"It's not as big as London's ICE event YET but SiGMA is really growing fast and has amazing potention to beat out ICE/LAC," one long time industry expert tells Gambling911.com.

Our affiliate friends in the industry had limited free time with all the networking they were doing. YOU WILL GET DEALS, not to mention make long lasting relationships by attending SiGMA so it is an absolute MUST to attend. We were a bit surprised some of our contacts in the North American sector who typically attend ICE were not in Malta.

We did get to meet the conference organizer Eman Pullis and everybody we spoke to has nothing but great things to say about him.

Up next, we talk VIDEOSLOTS , and the man of the hour, Alexander Stevendahl, who had one of the busiest booths at SiGMA.

Watch for our extensive SiGMA coverage throughout the week....
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
Closures on Bonn motorways : New road works cause upset

Bonn Motorists need to have or at least develop new levels of patience on Bonns motorways these days.

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Commuters love surprises in the morning. Not. Because they often coincide with a veritable traffic jam. Without prior announcement the Bonn-Vilich/Hangelar exit from the motorway A 59 towards Konigswinter to the B56 was closed on Tuesday morning. Motorists reported mile-long tailbacks. Straenbau NRW issued a statement that the closure was postponed several times because of the UN World Climate Summit.

It will last approximately until January 31. A diversion via the Bonn-Putzchen exit is signposted. The traffic on the B56 is organised with temporary traffic lights. The closure of the offtake stands in connection with the four-lane extension of the B56 and the crossroads Am Herrengarten. The ontake onto the motorway remains open. The patience of motorists is currently being tested in other Bonn locations as well:

A565: The A565 will be closed from Monday, November 27 until Wednesday, November 29, due to a bridge inspection on the junction Bonn-Auerberg. Towards Siegburg, the right lane will be closed from 10am until 3pm. Commuters were annoyed over this particular road work because the construction company had set up the work two weeks ago already - accidentally early, and it needed to be cancelled again (as reported).

Endenicher Ei:The bridge on the B56/Endenicher Ei will be closed in both directions between 8am and 11am this Sunday. The reason: survey work to determine how much the bridge deflects under the weight of a 40-ton truck. Each direction gets tested three times. Drivers coming from the A565 will be diverted via Karlstrae, Immenburgerstrae, Am Dickobskreuz, Am Propsthof and Auf dem Hugel. Straen NRW hopes to finish the survey work within half a day.
An opportunity for foodies and beer lovers to get lost in a world of food and drink from a hand-selected range of food trucks and breweries from around New Zealand.
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.
xspraise at 24-11-2017 09:31 PM (4 years ago) (m)

"Jesus Christ won't drag you out of poverty or cure your illnesses, but the Chinese Communist Party will, so take down those pictures of Christ and put up a nice photograph of President Xi Jinping", Chinese officials told thousands in southeastern China.



Thousands of Christian villagers in China have been told to take down displays of Jesus, crosses, and gospel passages from their homes as part of a government propaganda effort to transform believers in religion into believers in the party.



According to The South China Morning Post (SCMP), Communist Party of China (CPC) officials visited Chritian believers homes in Yugan county of Jiangxi province where about 10 percent of the population are Christians. They urged residents to replace personal religious displays with posters of President Xi Jinping; more than 600 removed Christian symbols from their living rooms, and 453 hung portraits of the Communist leader, according to SCMP.

"Jesus Christ won't drag you out of poverty or cure your illnesses, but the Chinese Communist Party will, so take down those pictures of Christ and put up a nice photograph of President Xi Jinping", Chinese officials told thousands in southeastern China.Thousands of Christian villagers in China have been told to take down displays of Jesus, crosses, and gospel passages from their homes as part of a government propaganda effort to transform believers in religion into believers in the party.According to The South China Morning Post (SCMP), Communist Party of China (CPC) officials visited Chritian believers homes in Yugan county of Jiangxi province where about 10 percent of the population are Christians. They urged residents to replace personal religious displays with posters of President Xi Jinping; more than 600 removed Christian symbols from their living rooms, and 453 hung portraits of the Communist leader, according to SCMP.

The efforts were part of a government campaign to alleviate poverty in the region, since some CPC members believe families faith is to blame for their financial woes, according to SCMP. The poster swaps in villagers homes represent the partys desire to have residents look to their leaders, rather than their Savior, for assistance.



Many poor households have plunged into poverty because of illness in the family. Some resorted to believing in Jesus to cure their illnesses, the head of the government campaign told SCMP.



But we tried to tell them that getting ill is a physical thing, and that the people who can really help them are the Communist Party and General Secretary Xi.



Though the party denies the claim, some Christians in Yugan county say they were told they would not be eligible for government assistance unless their posters were removed.



A local social media account reported over the weekend that in Yugans Huangjinbu township, cadres visited poor Christian families to promote the partys poverty-relief policies and helped them solve their material problems.



The officials successfully melted the hard ice in their hearts and transformed them from believing in religion to believing in the party, the report said.



As a result, more than 600 villagers voluntarily got rid of the religious texts and paintings they had in their homes, and replaced them with 453 portraits of Xi.



The report had disappeared on Monday afternoon, but the campaign was confirmed by villagers and local officials contacted by the South China Morning Post.



Qi Yan, chairman of the Huangjinbu peoples congress and the person in charge of the townships poverty-relief drive, said the campaign had been running across the county since March. He said it focused on teaching Christian families how much the party had done to help eradicate poverty and how much concern Xi had shown for their well-being.



Many poor households have plunged into poverty because of illness in the family. Some resorted to believing in Jesus to cure their illnesses, Qi said.



But we tried to tell them that getting ill is a physical thing and that the people who can really help them are the Communist Party and General Secretary Xi.



Huangjinbu is home to about 5,000 to 6,000 Christian families, or about a third of the total, according to Qi.



Many rural people are ignorant. They think God is their saviour  After our cadres work, theyll realise their mistakes and think: we should no longer rely on Jesus, but on the party for help, Qi said.



He said the township government had distributed more than 1,000 portraits of Xi, and that all of them had been hung in residents homes.



A resident of another township in Yugan, surnamed Liu, said that in recent months many of his fellow villagers had been told to remove religious artefacts from their homes.



Some families put up gospel couplets on their front doors during the Lunar New Year, some also hang paintings of the cross. But theyve all been torn down, he said.



"Many believers did not do so voluntarily," Liu said. They all have their belief and, of course, they didnt want to take them down. But there is no way out. If they dont agree to do so, they wont be given their quota from the poverty-relief fund, he said.



But Qi dismissed claims that the funds were contingent on the religious posters being removed.



We only asked them to take down [religious] posters in the centre of the home. They can still hang them in other rooms, we wont interfere with that. What we require is for them not to forget about the partys kindness at the centre of their living rooms.



It was not an either-or situation, Qi said. They still have the freedom to believe in religion, but in their minds they should [also] trust our party.



Under Xi, the party has tightened its grip on religious freedom throughout the country, ranging from removing crosses on Christian churches in eastern China to suppressing Islamic practices in the Uygur heartland of Xinjiang in the name of fighting terrorism and separatism.











The efforts were part of a government campaign to alleviate poverty in the region, since some CPC members believe families faith is to blame for their financial woes, according to SCMP. The poster swaps in villagers homes represent the partys desire to have residents look to their leaders, rather than their Savior, for assistance.Many poor households have plunged into poverty because of illness in the family. Some resorted to believing in Jesus to cure their illnesses, the head of the government campaign told SCMP.But we tried to tell them that getting ill is a physical thing, and that the people who can really help them are the Communist Party and General Secretary Xi.Though the party denies the claim, some Christians in Yugan county say they were told they would not be eligible for government assistance unless their posters were removed.A local social media account reported over the weekend that in Yugans Huangjinbu township, cadres visited poor Christian families to promote the partys poverty-relief policies and helped them solve their material problems.The officials successfully melted the hard ice in their hearts and transformed them from believing in religion to believing in the party, the report said.As a result, more than 600 villagers voluntarily got rid of the religious texts and paintings they had in their homes, and replaced them with 453 portraits of Xi.The report had disappeared on Monday afternoon, but the campaign was confirmed by villagers and local officials contacted by the South China Morning Post.Qi Yan, chairman of the Huangjinbu peoples congress and the person in charge of the townships poverty-relief drive, said the campaign had been running across the county since March. He said it focused on teaching Christian families how much the party had done to help eradicate poverty and how much concern Xi had shown for their well-being.Many poor households have plunged into poverty because of illness in the family. Some resorted to believing in Jesus to cure their illnesses, Qi said.But we tried to tell them that getting ill is a physical thing and that the people who can really help them are the Communist Party and General Secretary Xi.Huangjinbu is home to about 5,000 to 6,000 Christian families, or about a third of the total, according to Qi.Many rural people are ignorant. They think God is their saviour  After our cadres work, theyll realise their mistakes and think: we should no longer rely on Jesus, but on the party for help, Qi said.He said the township government had distributed more than 1,000 portraits of Xi, and that all of them had been hung in residents homes.A resident of another township in Yugan, surnamed Liu, said that in recent months many of his fellow villagers had been told to remove religious artefacts from their homes.Some families put up gospel couplets on their front doors during the Lunar New Year, some also hang paintings of the cross. But theyve all been torn down, he said."Many believers did not do so voluntarily," Liu said. They all have their belief and, of course, they didnt want to take them down. But there is no way out. If they dont agree to do so, they wont be given their quota from the poverty-relief fund, he said.But Qi dismissed claims that the funds were contingent on the religious posters being removed.We only asked them to take down [religious] posters in the centre of the home. They can still hang them in other rooms, we wont interfere with that. What we require is for them not to forget about the partys kindness at the centre of their living rooms.It was not an either-or situation, Qi said. They still have the freedom to believe in religion, but in their minds they should [also] trust our party.Under Xi, the party has tightened its grip on religious freedom throughout the country, ranging from removing crosses on Christian churches in eastern China to suppressing Islamic practices in the Uygur heartland of Xinjiang in the name of fighting terrorism and separatism.

Post Reply I am Victor, I write reportage on sport news and latest metro happenings in Nigeria. Posted: at 24-11-2017 09:31 PM (4 years ago) | Hero
OTTAWA, Nov. 23, 2017 - Northern Graphite Corp. (Northern or the Company) (TSXV:NGC) (OTCQX:NGPHF) announces that it has closed its previously announced non-brokered private placement and has issued 4,582,644 units at a price of $0.45 per unit for gross proceeds of $2,062,190. Each unit consists of one common share and one half of one common share purchase warrant, with each full warrant entitling the holder to purchase one common share at a price of $0.60 per share for a period of two years. The securities are subject to a four month hold period from the date of closing. The placement is also subject to final approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the private placement (i) to finalize operational permitting for the Bissett Creek graphite project; (ii) to update the bankable feasibility study for the project to reflect a substantial decline in the CDN/US exchange rate, lower oil prices and more competitive equipment pricing, and to integrate some capital cost reduction modifications into the flow sheet; (iii) to conduct a pilot plant test of the Companys proprietary purification process which has the potential to provide a substantial competitive advantage in the manufacture of anode material for lithium ion batteries; and (v) for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Gregory Bowes, Chief Executive Officer, commented that, the financing was oversubscribed which I believe is a reflection of the quality of the Companys asset and the outlook for the graphite market. The financing provides the means to continue moving forward with preparations for full project financing, construction and production.

The Company paid finders fees on part of the private placement which consisted of $131,119.15 in cash and 291,370 broker warrants, with each broker warrant exercisable to acquire one common share at a price of $0.60 for a period of one year.

The securities issued under the private placement, including the broker warrants and common shares underlying the warrants and broker warrants, are subject to a statutory hold period lasting until March 23, 2018.

A director and officer of the Company participated in the private placement and acquired 100,000 units. Such participation constitutes a related party transaction pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101). The issuance to this insider is exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the units issued to, or consideration paid by such person, did not exceed 25% of the Companys market capitalization.

This press release is for informational purposes only and shall not be constituted as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the units nor shall there be any sale of the units in any jurisdiction in which such sale would be unlawful.

About Northern Graphite

Northern is a Canadian company that has a 100% interest in the Bissett Creek graphite deposit located in southern Canada, relatively close to all required infrastructure. Bissett Creek is an advanced stage project with a Full Feasibility Study and its major environmental permit. Subject to the completion of operational and species at risk permitting, which are well advanced, Northern could commence construction in 2018 pending financing. The Company believes Bissett Creek has the highest margin, best flake size distribution and lowest marketing risk of any new graphite project, and has the added advantages of low capital costs and realistic production levels relative to the size of the market.

Gregory Bowes, B.Sc. MBA, P. Geo., a Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101, has reviewed and is responsible for the technical information in this press release.

For additional information, please contact:

Gregory Bowes

CEO (613) 241-9959

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which can be identified by the use of statements that include words such as "could", "potential", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "likely", "will" or other similar words or phrases. These statements are only current predictions and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the 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.


SUDBURY, ON, Nov. 24, 2017 /CNW/ - Canadian Gold Miner Corp. ("CGM" or the "Company") and Transition Metals Corp. (a 40% owner of CGM; XTM  TSX.V, "Transition") are pleased to announce that CGM has today concluded a transaction with Osisko Mining Inc. ("Osisko") to acquire the DeSantis property, a historical gold producer located in the heart of the Timmins Gold Camp, and an option on the Catharine Property, a large exploration land package near CGM's focus area south of Kirkland Lake, Ontario in exchange for 2.5 million common shares of CGM valued at $0.20 per share. Concurrent with the transaction, Osisko also has completed a $1.0 million private placement in CGM consisting 5.0 million units priced at $0.20 with each unit consisting of a common share and a half common share purchase warrant exercisable at $0.35 for a period of two years.

Commenting on the transaction, CGM CEO Greg Collins states "We are pleased to have Osisko's support as a significant shareholder as we look to aggressively advance our portfolio of gold projects in Ontario. In addition to adding two properties with good exploration potential to our portfolio, we view the transaction as a significant milestone that should help us attract additional investment interest and accelerate our ability to create value moving forward."

Osisko now owns approximately 19.9% of the issued and outstanding common shares of CGM with Transition retaining a 39.9% ownership interest. Additionally, Osisko retains rights to: (i) maintain its equity interest in CGM on a pro-rata basis in subsequent financings; (ii) appoint a director to the board of CGM, (iii) a first right of refusal on any additional royalties that CGM may sell on the DeSantis or Cote properties in the future; and (iv) a first right of offer on any royalties that CGM proposes to sell on its existing properties (South Kirkland, West Matachewan, Elephant Head, Jumping Moose and Golden Elk), as long as it retains a 9.9% equity interest in CGM.

About Canadian Gold Miner Corp

Canadian Gold Miner Corp. is a private Canadian corporation focused on exploring for gold in the Larder Lake Mining District near Kirkland Lake. The Company was founded by Transition to leverage its data, expertise and extensive portfolio of high quality gold projects within the district. CGM has now assembled a dominant land position in excess of 215 square kilometres around the Cadillac Larder, Lincoln-Nipissing and Ridout structures in the southwestern part of the prolific Abitibi Greenstone belt in Ontario. The Abitibi Greenstone belt is Canada's most prolific gold district with excellent mining infrastructure in place.

About Transition Metals Corp

Transition Metals Corp. (XTM -TSX.V) is a Canadian-based, multi-commodity project generator that specializes in converting new exploration ideas into Canadian discoveries. The award-winning team of geoscientists has extensive exploration experience in established, emerging and historic mining camps, and actively develops and tests new ideas for discovering mineralization in places that others have not looked, which often allows the company to acquire properties inexpensively. The company has an expanding portfolio that currently includes gold, copper, nickel and platinum projects primarily in Ontario, Nunavut, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Minnesota that it seeks to advance through funding partnerships and subsidiary companies to maximize shareholder value. With completion of this transaction, Transition's ownership interest in CGM has been reduced to approximately 39.9%.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Information

Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the information in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "plans", "proposes", "estimates", "intends", "expects", "believes", "may", "will" and include without limitation, statements regarding estimated capital and operating costs, expected production timeline, benefits of updated development plans, foreign exchange assumptions and regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, metal prices, competition, risks inherent in the mining industry, and regulatory risks. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, the Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the 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.

SOURCE Transition Metals Corp.
What started as a small donation drive to help homeless youth in Wyoming has expanded to Arizona, and from here into a national campaign assisting those in need of basic necessities.

When Flagstaff resident and Arizona Realtors 2017 President Paula Monthofer heard about the Wyoming Realtors Totes for Hope program, she knew it was an important cause.

Monthofer launched AZ Totes for Hope during the Arizona Realtors annual convention by making it easy for members to participate. Bags were handed out during registration and attendees were encouraged to donate their hotel toiletries; socks, water bottles and nonperishable food items were also accepted. The totes were then delivered to a local organization serving the homeless population.

Monthofers passion to get involved has helped spur a nationwide movement. The program evolved beyond mini bottles of shampoo and hotel soap as local members started donating items in bulk and volunteering. In addition to the homeless, the totes have been donated to those impacted by hurricanes and wildfires.

The overwhelming nationwide response has proven to us that most people want to help others. If you can make it easy for them to give, they will, Monthofer said. More than just providing for physical needs, Totes for Hope allows us to offer encouragement and compassion to those who are facing homelessness.

Recently, Monthofer was asked to join Wyoming Realtors 2017 President Shelly Duncan to promote the program during the National Association of Realtors legislative meetings in Washington D.C. and at national conventions.
MANILA, Philippines, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mindoro Resources Ltd. (TSXV:MIO) (Frankfurt:WKN 906167) (Mindoro or the Company) today announced that its shareholders have approved all resolutions brought before them at the Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders (the Meeting) held on November 23, 2017 and the number of shares voted in person and by proxy at the Meeting was 122,579,805 representing 41.21% of the 297,437,399 common shares issued and outstanding by the Company.



The director nominees listed in the Companys management information circular filed on SEDAR, with the number of directors fixed at four (4) as approved by 99.48% of the shareholders present or represented by proxy during the Meeting, were elected as follows:

Name of Nominee Votes For Percentage Federico Zarate, Jr. 121,941,848 99.48% Arturo P. Delos Santos 121,941,848 99.48% Fabian B. Reyes 121,941,848 99.48% Geocel D. Olanday 121,941,848 99.48%

MNP LLP was appointed as auditor for the ensuing year (122,305,424 shares in favor  99.78-%) while the Stock Option Plan received 121,288,848 shares in favor representing 98.95%.

About Mindoro

Mindoro is a Tier 2 issuer trading on the TSX Venture Exchange (MIO) and Frankfurt Stock Exchange (WKN 906167). Mindoro has a direct and beneficial 40% interest in the Agata Mining Joint Venture and direct and beneficial 75% interest in the Agata Processing Joint Venture with an option to acquire an additional 25% interest in the Agata Processing Joint Venture. Mindoro also holds 75% interest in the Pan de Azucar Sulphur-Copper-Gold Project, Iloilo City. TVIRD has the option to earn up to 60% interest in the Agata Processing and Pan de Azucar projects by meeting the earn-in requirements outlined in the June 24, 2013 press release, which include producing a definitive feasibility study for a nickel processing facility. As of October 16, 2015, a PMRC compliant DFS was completed by Agata Processing Inc., which would result in TVIRD earning a total of 60% interest in API shares. Mindoro also holds 75% interest and an option to acquire additional 25% interest in the Tapian San Francisco Copper-Gold Project, Mindanao.

For additional information please contact:

Mary Anne B. Antazo, Interim CEO

Phone: +63 917.322.6975

Email: mbantazo@mrlnickel.com

Reader Advisory

Certain information set out in this News Release constitutes forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as seek, anticipate, plan, continue, estimate, expect, may, will, intent, could, might, should, believe, scheduled, to be, will be and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this News Release are based upon the opinions and expectations of management of the Company as at the effective date of such statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties (known and unknown) that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those anticipated or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, such things as inherent risks associated with the exploration and development of mining properties, ultimate recoverability of mineral reserves, timing, results and costs of exploration and development activities, availability of financial resources or third-party financing, new laws (domestic or foreign), changes in administrative practices, changes in exploration plans or budgets, and availability of equipment and personnel.

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance upon the forward-looking statements contained in this News Release and such forward-looking statements should not be interpreted or regarded as guarantees of future outcomes. Forward-looking information respecting cash flows anticipated from future production of high-iron/low nickel DSO at the Agata Mining Project, is based upon high-iron/low nickel DSO prices in effect as at the date of this News Release, managements forecasts of trends in prices of high-iron/low nickel DSO, current mining rates of high-iron/low-nickel DSO from the Agata Mining Project, estimates of the size of the high-iron/low nickel DSO reserves at Agata Mining Project, the current development plan for Agata Mining Project, AMVIs current budget and overall strategy for Agata Mining Project, which plans, budget and strategy are all subject to change. Forward-looking information respecting the anticipated timing of future shipments of high-iron/low nickel DSO from the Agata Mining Project, is based upon current mining rates of high-iron/low nickel DSO from the Agata Mining Project, the terms of the third party offtake agreement for the purchase of high-iron/low nickel DSO produced at the Agata Mining Project, estimates of the size of the high-iron/low nickel DSO reserves at the Agata Mining Project, the current development plan for the Agata Mining Project, AMVIs current budget and overall strategy for the Agata Mining Project, which plans, budget and strategy are all subject to change. The forward-looking statements of the Company contained in this News Release are expressly qualified, in their entirety, by this cautionary statement. Various risks to which the Company is exposed in the conduct of its business (including mining activities) are described in detail in the Companys Managements Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2015, which was filed on SEDAR on April 29, 2016 and is available under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com. Subject to applicable securities laws, the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly revise the forward-looking statements included in this News Release to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
DAN: TSX-V (Canada)

JE9N: FSE (Germany)

DRRSF: OTC (USA)

SAGUENAY, QC, Nov. 24, 2017 Arianne Phosphate (the "Company" or "Arianne") (TSXV: DAN) (OTC: DRRSF) (FRANKFURT: JE9N), regretfully announces the passing of its Chairman of the Board Mr. Jean Lamarre. Mr. Lamarre died on November 22 after a brief and courageous fight with illness. Mr. Lamarre joined the Arianne board as its Chairman in March of 2016 and was a strong and guiding force on the board and within the Company. On behalf of the entire Arianne team, we want to extend our deepest sympathies to Mr. Lamarre's wife and family.

"The loss of Jean will leave a void," said Brian Ostroff, CEO of Arianne Phosphate. "He sat on many boards and served many causes; he touched a lot of people and will be greatly missed by those who had the good fortune of knowing and working with him. Although Jean was constantly busy, he seemed to always have time. Jean made those around him better, sharing his wisdom and guidance gained through his years of experience. His leadership will be greatly missed and this void deeply felt."

About Arianne Phosphate

Arianne Phosphate ("Arianne Phosphate Inc.") (www.arianne-inc.com) is developing the Lac a Paul phosphate deposits located approximately 200 km north of the Saguenay/Lac St. Jean area of Quebec, Canada. These deposits will produce a high quality igneous apatite concentrate grading 39% P 2 O 5 with little or no contaminants. The Company has 100,530,580 million shares outstanding.

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.

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Resource Investing News: http://resourceinvestingnews.com/?s=Arianne

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities regulations in Canada and the United States (collectively, "forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, anticipatedquality and production of the apatite concentrate at the Lac a Paul project. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects, "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes", or the negatives thereof 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. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: volatile stock price; risks related to changes in commodity prices; sources and cost of power facilities; the estimation of initial and sustaining capital requirements; the estimation of labour and operating costs; the general global markets and economic conditions; the risk associated with exploration, development and operations of mineral deposits; the estimation of mineral reserves and resources; the risks associated with uninsurable risks arising during the course of exploration, development and production; risks associated with currency fluctuations; environmental risks; competition faced in securing experienced personnel; access to adequate infrastructure to support mining, processing, development and exploration activities; the risks associated with changes in the mining regulatory regime governing the Company; completion of the environmental assessment process; risks related to regulatory and permitting delays; risks related to potential conflicts of interest; the reliance on key personnel; financing, capitalization and liquidity risks including the risk that the financing necessary to fund continued exploration and development activities at Lac a Paul project may not be available on satisfactory terms, or at all; the risk of potential dilution through the issue of common shares; the risk of litigation. Forward-looking information is based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made, including but not limited to, continued exploration activities, no material adverse change in commodity prices, exploration and development plans proceeding in accordance with plans and such plans achieving their stated expected outcomes, receipt of required regulatory approvals, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update such forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Arianne Phosphate Inc.
Description

GIS - 24 November, 2017: The High Commissioner of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Mr. Md. Abdul Mannan Howlader, paid a farewell call on the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, yesterday at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis. The High Commissioner of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Mr. Md. Abdul Mannan Howlader, paid a farewell call on the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, yesterday at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis.

During the meeting the relationship between Mauritius and Bangladesh was reviewed, as both parties took stock of the present situation and examined ways and means to further develop collaboration. The High Commissioner stated that discussions also focused on Bangladeshis working in Mauritius, whom he stressed contribute in various sectors of the economy, and how migration costs can be minimised and the situation improved.

The Prime Minister and the Bangladeshi High Commissioner exchanged views on the course of action to widen the scope of cooperation and strengthen the trade relations. Mr Howlader made an appeal for increased visits at high level to give further impetus to the relationship between the two Nations.

Mr. Md. Abdul Mannan Howlader was appointed High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Mauritius in April 2015. Prior to his posting in Mauritius, he was Secretary to the Government.
Description

GIS - 24 November, 2017: The 17th Board of Directors Meeting of African Solidarity Fund (ASF ) opened yesterday at the Intercontinental Resort, Balaclava in the presence of the Minister of Business, Enterprise and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, and representatives of the ASF . The 17Board of Directors Meeting ofopened yesterday at the Intercontinental Resort, Balaclava in the presence of the Minister of Business, Enterprise and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, and representatives of the

In his address, Minister Bholah highlighted that the ASF aims to be the catalyst for the financial systems of member countries to allow private companies, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and microfinance institutions to access bank credit and to raise savings allowing them to finance productive investment projects that contribute to the economic development of the member countries.

He underlined that the ASF intervenes in diverse sectors such as, infrastructure, industry, telecommunications, energy, tourism and hotel industry, transport, and education. Mauritius, he recalled, has benefited from numerous interventions of the ASF. In 1981, for example it helped in the construction of the sugar terminal in Port Louis, and in 2002 the ASF assisted in the construction of nearly 1,000 housing units by the National Housing Development Company.

He further pointed out that the ASF has signed three Memoranda of Understanding with namely the Mauritius Africa Fund Ltd, the Maubank Ltd and the SBM Holding Ltd. These cooperation agreements, he underlined will enable Mauritius to benefit from the financial support of the ASF in a targeted way and from the necessary resources to further contribute to the economy.

Speaking about the SMEs, Minister Bholah underpinned there exist various platforms where they can benefit from funds but SMEs are unaware of it and one such institution is the ASF . He stated that his ministry in collaboration with the ASF will create a thriving and conducive business landscape for SMEs to attain different phases of growth and assume a far more prominent role as an important pillar of the economy by raising SMEs contribution to GDP up to 52% in the next ten years and see to it how they tap into the African market.

For his part, the president of ASF Mr Abdoulaye Dieng reiterated the mission of ASF which is to strive for economic development and fight against poverty in member States by facilitating investment project financing in both public and private sectors as well as in micro-finance activities. He further spoke of a range of diversified products and services that the ASF offers from which Mauritius can benefit, namely financial guarantee, refinancing for loan duration extension, financial brokerage and funds management.

African Solidarity Fund

The ASF was established on 21 December 1976 with the objectives to participate in economic development and the fight against poverty in its African Member States by facilitating the financing of investment projects. The ASF has 14 member states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tchad and Togo.
Kevin Magnussen says he is looking forward to trying Pirelli's new F1 tyres next week.

Although the long 2017 season ends after Sunday's race, the circus is staying behind in Abu Dhabi for a tyre test.

It will be the team and drivers' first chance to try Pirelli's new 'super-hard' and pink-coloured 'hyper-soft' tyres for 2018, which were revealed on Thursday.

"I am driving on Wednesday and will try the tyres," Haas driver Magnussen said.

"I hope that the new tyres will be less sensitive to temperature," he explained.

"A tyre is never perfect, but today's tyres are very sensitive to temperature. Pirelli made progress compared to last year and it is often the case that the tyres now do not degrade, but they are too sensitive."

Pirelli chief Mario Isola admitted in Abu Dhabi that the Italian supplier was too "conservative" with the softness of its compounds for 2017.

"The tyres we have created for 2018 addresses this, in line with the objective of having around two pitstops at most races," he said.

(GMM)
Plans for a grand prix on the streets of the Danish capital are still alive.

As the world of F1 congregated in Abu Dhabi for the 2017 finale, officials got together in a Copenhagen hotel to discuss plans for a race there in the future.

Jyllands Posten, a Danish daily broadsheet, said politician Helge Sander got together with well-known Danish drivers Jan Magnussen and Tom Kristensen and other officials.

Another Danish newspaper, BT, quoted minister Sander as saying: "In their (Liberty's) strategy paper for 2020, it states that three new races should be launched in New York, London and Copenhagen."

However, the Copenhagen mayor is yet to throw his support behind the project.

"We need to have a closer look at how a formula one race will affect the everyday lives of those in Copenhagen," he said.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, who is Jan Magnussen's son, told Ekstra Bladet newspaper in Abu Dhabi that he is "not involved in any way" with the proposed race.

But he added: "It would be fantastic and quite surreal to race in Copenhagen.

"I have not even dreamed about it because it was so unrealistic, but it would be huge for me and for Denmark," Magnussen said.

(GMM)
The prime minister was mobbed by members of the Liberal party attending community visit by Mr. Trudeau and Liberal candidate Jean Yip at Bridlewood Mal. There is a Dec. 11 byelection in Scarborough-Agincourt to fill the seat left vacant after MP Arnold Chan died in September. When Trudeau arrived at Bridlewood mall around 5 p.m., hundreds of people started reaching for the prime ministers hand as he was led into a crowd of people to head for the food court. Less than two minutes later, his security detail started guiding the prime minister back towards the malls entrance as he continued shaking hands with those around him. The occurrence has led to talk Thursday about safety planning.

Related
The cost of owning a pet ranging from $227 to more than $2,000, depending on the type of animal, WalletHub took an in-depth look at 2017s Most Pet-Friendly Cities .

In order to determine where Americans furry and slimy companions can enjoy the best quality of life without breaking the bank, WalletHubs analysts compared the creature-friendliness of the 100 largest cities across 21 key metrics. The data set ranges from minimum pet-care provider rate per visit to pet businesses per capita to walkability.
GREENSBORO  Ready. Set. Click.

If retail projections are right, something momentous is about to happen today in the world of holiday shopping: For the first time, Cyber Monday is poised to bring in more sales than Black Friday.

According to an estimate from Adobe Analytics, online purchases on Cyber Monday will climb from last years $3.4 billion to $6.6 billion.

Thats a pretty amazing statistic when you think about it, said Roger Beahm, the executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University. Just in the last few years, the double-digit growth we have been seeing with online shopping suggests that were now at that tipping point where people are going to be shopping online more than there are people buying inside brick-and-mortar.

Time was, Black Friday was an unassailable retail juggernaut. At its peak, Black Friday pulled in $11.4 billion in 2012.

Since then, sales have been in sharp decline  but still in the billions  while the popularity of Cyber Monday has steadily risen.

Retailers have historically offered online deals on the Monday following Black Friday, making it a huge online shopping day.

The term Cyber Monday was coined by staffers at the National Retail Federation in 2005 when they noticed a jump in online sales following the Black Friday weekend.

Many consumers back then had relatively slow internet connections at home. It became apparent that when they returned to work or school on Monday, where they had computers with faster internet connections, they shopped online.

Retailers seized on the trend and began heavily promoting Cyber Monday as another day for major holiday discounts.

And now, of course, fast internet connections are ubiquitous on smartphones, tablets and desktop computers.

This year, Adobe Analytics expects that purchases made on mobile devices will account for 54 percent of all e-commerce holiday sales  the first time theyll surpass online sales made on desktop machines.

At some point, the names Cyber Monday and Black Friday may fade, said Daniel Hall, chair and associate professor of economics at High Point University.

Youre going to have Thanksgiving Sales Week,  he said.

But dont mourn for Black Friday just yet. Plenty of shoppers love the thrill of instant gratification. And the only way to get that is in a store.

Online shopping doesnt let you touch and try on clothes or see how a toy or gadget works in person. To that end, stores are improving their displays and rolling out better personal service to offer what you cant get from home.

When you differentiate your product by offering high-quality service, it increases peoples willingness to pay for that product, Hall said.

Still, for some, that wont be enough to get them out of the house. A new High Point University poll of several hundred North Carolinians shows that two years ago 26 percent of people said they shopped online. That number has increased to 38 percent.
The answers for conserving the Earths wild creatures seem easy from the office chairs of the affluent West. Ban trophy hunting! Hunt down the poachers! More tourism!

But the social media campaigns and President Donald Trumps flip-flopping on Twitter over the past few days on U.S. elephant trophy imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia highlight the deficiencies of this model of decision-making. We need a lot less shouting and lot more listening  and to different voices.

How can we help secure a future for wildlife? We know what the animal lovers and celebrities will say. We know what the hunting organizations will say. Weve heard these voices before, loud and clear, with the same simple answers. But what might the people and government of Zimbabwe say (if they could look away from their political crisis)? What might we hear from the bushveld, the mopane scrub or the acacia thickets  from the people who live, raise their children and make a living alongside elephants and lions?

People are likely to live with wildlife only when they have some realistic incentives to bear the costs of doing so. If wildlife doesnt in one way or another form part of the livelihoods of people, it will inevitably make way for activities that do. For elephants, these incentives mean tourism and, yes, even trophy hunting.

Zimbabwe has the second-largest population of elephants in Africa at around 83,000  more than three times as many as Kenya. Many live in formal protected areas, but many live on communal or privately owned lands. These animals are awe-inspiring, socially complex and likely emotionally profound, but for humans up close, they are also huge and dangerous with massive food and water needs.

Human-wildlife conflict is rife, with elephants destroying crops, houses and even killing people. This is set only to worsen as the needs of people intensify  Zimbabwes population growth rate of 2.3 percent is among the highest in the world. Almost two-thirds live below the poverty line, with more than 4 million people facing food shortages this year.

While the benefits of hunting for rural communities and as conservation incentives are often airily dismissed as insignificant or uncertain, they can be significant for livelihoods and catalytic for conservation. Between 2005 and 2010, hunting trophy fees generated approximately $11 million for communities in Zimbabwe, and of this, about $7.5 million came from elephants. A little more than half came from Americans. The total of all other benefits, including tourism, was $4 million.

Tourism can be a powerful driver of conservation in the right place, but it is a pipe dream in many of the dusty corners of the communal lands  unless tourists want to spend days traveling over bumpy roads with intermittent electricity and sharing their wildlife views with cattle and goats.

Some of the money  both from hunting and tourism  will never make it to the right people, and instead will go to elites. Its far from perfect, but at least this business  at least some of the time  keeps these animals in their habitats.

In fact, Zimbabwe has witnessed the power of incentives, with a remarkable and large-scale shift of land use from livestock and crops back to wildlife in the late-20th century, thanks to policy reforms that made it possible for private-sector and community land holders to benefit from conservation. The CAMPFIRE program, which relies heavily on revenue from hunting, enabled communities on communal lands to see wildlife conservation as a viable land use and not just a dangerous problem. Despite the governments chaotic land distribution reforms over the past few decades, some large areas remain managed for wildlife under this program.

But now the tide of public opinion is turning sharply against trophy hunting, as it has done against the ivory trade, once a source of revenue for these same communities. This revenue might dry up forever, along with the conservation incentives they create to coexist with wildlife.

So what do we do? How do we create a future where giants have space to roam? The first step is to recognize that outrage from afar never solved a local problem. We need to hear the voices of local people. Well-meaning people in the West need to stop shouting and start listening.
I was born in the U.S. but had the misfortune to grow up under the vicious Nazi boot that occupied beautiful Greece. I saw the atrocities inflicted to the proud Greek people.

Returning to America in 1949, I served my country during the Korean War as a paratrooper with the 32nd Airborne and was proud as hell to have done so. I may add, my father fought in the First World War as a proud American soldier.

At 86, I find myself wondering what has happened to our beautiful country. I am mad as hell to see Nazis with torches marching on the streets of America shouting hateful slogans (we fought the Second World War to eliminate this evil scourge). I am mad as hell that somehow we have elected as our president a patronizing, womanizing, overbearing, narcissistic and pathetic liar who divides our country with the ideologies of people like Steve Bannon, neo-Nazis and other ultra-right groups supported by the Fake Fox News.

Shame on Republicans who allowed this to take place in America. You control the three branches of government and are spineless to speak out. Thank you, Sens. McCain, Corker and Flake for the courage to speak against the evil before us. American people, unite and speak out before our country becomes a dictatorship.

Lampros Megremis

Greensboro
BETHANY  NTE Energy announced on Nov. 14 that the electric generation company has signed a Large Generator Interconnection Agreement to connect the soon-to-be constructed Reidsville Energy Center to with Duke Energys transmission system.

The 500-megawatt combined cycle power plant is slated to be built on property purchased between N.C. 65 and New Lebanon Church Road on the east side of Bethany.

Construction on the plant is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2018, with full electric backfeed scheduled for 2019.

The Reidsville Energy Center, which is slated for full operation in 2021, will produce electricity that will be sold on the wholesale market.

According to an NTE news release, the project will provide a clean and efficient source of reliable electric capacity and energy for NTE Energys customers in the Carolinas region.

We appreciate Duke Energy Carolinas assistance in reaching an agreement to allow this important energy resource to interconnect with the regional transmission grid, said Senior Vice President Mike Green, in the release. Green leads NTEs developmental efforts in North Carolina.

We look forward to executing the interconnection upgrades for Reidsville and continue bringing our lower cost and environmentally responsible power supply to our customers throughout North and South Carolina, Green said.

According to Charlotte Business Journal Senior Staff Writer John Downey, Duke Energy began the infrastructure upgrade process to the power grid once the agreement was signed, because the upgrade process will take longer than actual construction of NTEs second North Carolina Plant.

Commercial operations at the Kings Mountain Energy Center  the companies first power plant in North Carolina, are slated to begin at the start of 2018.
The outcome of an appeal by Gage County in the Beatrice 6 case could be known in two or three months.

Attorneys for Gage County and the six made arguments before a three-judge panel at the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in November, which will decide whether the original decision will stand. The decision awarded $28.1 million to the six people who served time for a murder they didnt commit.

At the Gage County Board of Superintendents meeting on Wednesday morning, County Attorney Roger Harris said that the decision should come down in the next 60 to 90 days.

The case dates back to the 1985 brutal rape and murder of Helen Wilson, which occurred at her apartment in Beatrice. Joseph White, Ada JoAnn Taylor and Thomas Winslow each spent nearly 20 years in prison for the crime, and James Dean, Kathleen Gonzalez and Debra Shelden spent five years in prison, before a 2008 DNA test proved that Bruce Allen Smith had committed the crime and exonerated the six. Smith died in an Oklahoma prison in 1992.

The Beatrice 6 sued Gage County and two sheriffs deputies, saying their constitutional rights had been violated. They were awarded $28.1 million by a jury in a U.S. District Court trial.

At the appeal hearing, both sides each had 20 minutes to make their case before the three-judge panel, who also questioned attorneys.

Harris said that attorneys for Gage County, Melanie Whittamore-Mantzios and Patrick OBrien, called out the Beatrice 6 attorneys for what he called exaggerations they made in the evidence, though they couldnt say which way the judges were leaning.

As far as getting a read, you don't know, Harris said. There's a lot of questions from the judges. Good questions. We're anticipating somewhere between 60 and 90 days. They did comment that it was an extremely complicated case because of so many issues.

The entire appeal lasted about 45 minutes, Harris said, and when exactly a decision will be made is based on the Eighth Circuit Courts timeline.

I thought our attorneys did a good job of presenting the issues that we wanted them to have in front of the Eighth Circuit, he said. Everybody say a prayer and hopefully we get a good result.
People don't immediately associate the marijuana industry with science but if you are a scientist, or plan to become one, its an association you will want to give some consideration.

Typical jobs in the cannabis industry include budtender, cannabis trimming, packaging, grower and positions in transportation security, most of which require little training and pay $8 to $14 an hour. However, scientists now are in demand in marijuana. And the pay reaches some impressive amounts.

Related: New Jersey Voters Likely Just Approved Legalized Marijuana

Master Extractors

One of the biggest jobs in the industry is that of master extractor. Scientists in this role handle the task of removing the active chemical ingredient in marijuana, most often THC (the chemical ingredient that produces the high feeling) and CBD (cannabidiol, an ingredient associated with health benefits that does not produce a high).

In turn, these ingredients are used to create a variety of products. They include different strains of marijuana that produce a variety of effects. They also include hemp products, oils, lotions and edibles.

All of these require a high degree of skills, training and education. Becoming a master extractor requires a doctorate in biochemistry. But time and money spent on education pays off. Master extractors earn $250,000 a year, an industry expert told CNN money.

Supply drives the high salaries. There are a limited number of people who hold a PhD in biochemistry who want to get into the marijuana industry. Jacob Silverstein, a cannabis industry consultant, told CNN, This is a rat race for talent.

Related: Entrepreneurs See Opportunity Addressing Consumer Demand for Pesticide-Free Cannabis

Growing Opportunities

Medical marijuana is now legal in 29 states. Another seven states are either already allowing recreational marijuana sales or will in 2018. In Canada, regulations allowing adult-use marijuana sales nationwide are expected to be in place by July 2018.

In short, the market for marijuana is growing like a weed and so are science-based jobs. In addition to master extractors, scientists also are needed in a number of other areas. For example:

Medical genomics

Scientists use DNA technology to study cannabis genetics and consult with marijuana growers and dispensaries on creating different and better strains of marijuana and cannabis-based products.

Pharmaceuticals

As studies on the potential medical benefits of marijuana continue, biochemists work on creating new medicines, including synthetically formulated CBD products.

Agricultural services

While technically almost all of these jobs loosely fall under agricultural services, some scientists focus their research specifically on growing the marijuana plant. They search for ways to both improve the process and provide a larger variety of strains. Specific jobs can include tissue culture manager and manufacturing technician.

Thats just a handful of the potential jobs. It has reached the point where Northern Michigan University now offers a degree program in Medical Plant Chemistry. As the cannabis industry continues to expand, these type of degree programs  and related jobs  should also continue to grow.

To stay up to date on the latest marijuana related news make sure to like dispensaries.com on Facebook

Related:

Burgeoning Marijuana Industry Has a Growing Need for Scientists

The Evidence Says Legal Marijuana Reduces Opioid Deaths But Chris Christie Won't Believe It

Entrepreneurs See Opportunity Addressing Consumer Demand for Pesticide-Free Cannabis



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


NEW HAVEN, Conn.  Leroy Harris spent Thanksgiving with his family for the first time in nearly 30 years after he pleaded guilty Tuesday to kidnapping and robbery  and walked free.

Harris, now 57, was sentenced in 1989 to a 99-year prison term, according to reporting at the time by the New Haven Register.

Labeled then by prosecutors as a "career criminal" for whom a harsh penalty was meant to serve as a message, Harris was sentenced to 80 years for convictions of robbery and rape stemming from an arrest in 1983, and 19 years for twice escaping city courthouses.

A rare deal known as the Alford plea resulted in his freedom this week, according to a report in The New York Times.

Since his rape conviction, Harris has spent his time fighting to reverse the verdict, filing five appeals over the last three decades. The Connecticut state's attorney's office recognized earlier this year that the evidence against Harris in the rape case might be tainted.

It was discovered that the prosecutor who tried Harris's rape case in the late '80s had not disclosed exculpatory evidence, the Times reported, and testing showed DNA on the victim's clothes could not have come from Harris.

Additionally, the victim could not identify Harris as her attacker in a photo array. Instead, she identified him for the first time in court. The Connecticut judicial system has since ruled that prosecutors can no longer use witnesses whose only identification of the suspect happens in court.

Prosecutors agreed to let Harris go free if he took a deal. The Alford plea required him to plead guilty to a set of lesser charges in exchange for his freedom.

Prosecutors could get what they wanted  a conviction, at least on paper.

Read the complete New York Times report here.

As for Harris  he got to eat Thanksgiving dinner in New Haven with more than 100 family members.
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Maybe you rode on a float in last years Homestead Days parade, or enjoyed some barbecue at Beatrices Ribfest. Maybe you went to one of the numerous area events in August, when Beatrice went dark in the middle of the afternoon.

Many people dont stop to think of the work that goes into making these events successful, but area groups work year-round to provide fun activities for residents of the area.

Lora Young, director of the Beatrice Area Chamber of Commerce, said this is especially true when talking about Homestead Days. Her office and volunteers start planning for the next year as soon as the current years events come to a close.

We spend almost a full year planning the events, from deciding on theme to deciding on what events are going on, to making sure that we can do those events and raise the money to have them and execute them, hopefully, flawlessly, she said. People think its easy to do an event, and one thing they forget is you need to have insurance for all these events.

She said the chamber easily puts in 40 hours just organizing the parade, and thats before handing the project off to the Kiwanis Club, which also heavily contributes to the efforts.

Parade entries start arriving as early as Jan. 1 each year, as participants hope to get a good spot.

But being the first to enter for the Homestead Days parade doesnt guarantee a spot at the front. Those are reserved, and chamber staff follow strict protocol when deciding how floats and mobile displays will line up.

Theres a whole parade protocol we follow, she said. Most people dont understand that the first few entries are set by protocol. That protocol is set for national pride, military, and those kinds of things that are happening. We do put a lot into just organizing and lining up the parade.

Main Street Beatrice, a group dedicating to enhancing and promoting Beatrices downtown district, also hosts and contributes to several events throughout the year.

Main Street Director Michael Sothan said some events are easier to organize than others and have evolved to the point where they nearly run themselves.

Night of the Great Pumpkin is one example, where several downtown businesses each contribute to the cause by hosting games or providing candy for children.

Other events take much more work to make a reality.

Not all events are like that and yes, they take a lot of effort, Sothan said. Its a lot of work working with small businesses, the city and other community partners to see positive growth downtown and in Beatrice as a whole.

Some of them we start as soon as the event is done. Each event is a little different.

Ribfest is Main Streets biggest annual event, along with the governors pheasant hunt, and each take several months of planning and preparation.

As far as largest and most involved for volunteers would be Ribfest, Sothan said. For us, were trying to juggle events and build a stronger downtown. Obviously, events serve a greater purpose but were trying to make sure were not falling short of serving downtown businesses, serving prospective business owners and getting those types of projects done while still bringing great events for the community, getting people involved and raising funds to keep things turning.

Main Street also hosts the annual farmers' market downtown. The 2017 farmers' market ended in mid-October.

This year, there were vendors from Seward and Lincoln. One vendor even came all the way from Wisconsin to sell home-raised maple syrup.

While no vendors were turned away, for a couple of weeks, the market was operating at full capacity with 28 separate vendors onsite.

The markets customer base has grown as well, Sothan said. With an age range from young families and children to seniors, there's a healthy mix of locals, out-of-towners and market regulars looking to find their favorite produce.

The biggest recent event that Main Street, the chamber and other area groups participated in was the August solar eclipse, which drew thousands of eager spectators to Gage County, which was in the path of totality as the eclipse moved southwest across the country.

We just started having conversations with the right people, said Young, who started planning activities around the rare event years in advance. Homestead National Monument was instrumental, the sheriffs department was instrumental, the city came on board about a year out and we talked about what everybody was going to do and working with communities to get everybody on board We got temporary help just to help field phone calls. Six weeks out, phone never stopped.

While events like the eclipse are rare, Main Street, the chamber and other area organizations have numerous other activities to plan around, and the organizations also depend on volunteers to make their events a success.




Haiti - FLASH : Avalanche of taxes to Port-de-Paix





The Port-de-Paix City Council published in the official newspaper "Le Cappoisien" of the commune of Port-de-Paix in November 2017, a Municipal By-law regulating inter alia taxation in the transport sector and the installation of two toll booths in Port-de-Paix.



"[...]



Article 1 - It is instituted two toll booths and fixed points in Port-de-Paix, located in the following areas: Trois-Rivieres Police Station and the Grigris Bridge to collect a daily contribution from any public transit vehicle that circulate inside the city and the one that enters the city.



Article 2 - An hour of departure is instituted for any bus carrying passengers to another department of the country, especially for those departing for Port-au-Prince: 3h30 am for non-air-conditioned buses and 6h00 am for passengers. air-conditioned buses



Article 3 - All buses, vans, sailboats and commercial aircraft are required to pay a daily contribution according to the cost of transport.



Article 4 - This requested contribution is distributed as follows :



a - The air-conditioned buses will pay one thousand (1,000.00) gourdes, accompanied by the passenger register;

b - Non-air-conditioned buses will pay six hundred (600.00) Gourdes, accompanied by the passenger register;

c- The containers will pay a thousand (1,000.00) Gourdes, accompanied by the copy of the manifest of materials that they transport;

d - Trucks carrying gasoline will pay one thousand (1000.00) Gourdes;

e - Ouanaminthe transport trucks will pay one thousand (1000.00) Gourdes for each trip;

f - The vans carrying the Port-de-Paix route to Saint-Louis du Nord will pay twenty-five (25.00) Gourdes for each trip;

g - The vans carrying the Port-de-Paix route to Gonaives will pay three hundred (300.00) gourdes per day;

h - The vans carrying the Port-de-Paix route to Jean-Rabel will pay one hundred (100.00) Gourdes per day;

i - The sailboats will pay seventy-five gourds (75.00 gourdes) each time they enter or leave the boat port;

j - Trucks carrying materials such as sand, gravel, rock, etc... will pay two hundred (200) Gourdes on each trip and they will commit to give a day of service for the cleanliness of the city;

k - Vessels coming from abroad are subject to paying a shipping fee of twenty five thousand (25,000.00) Gourdes on behalf of the City Council;

l - All boats abandoned in the coastal area of the municipality of Port-de-Paix are obliged to pay a maritime fee of one thousand gourdes (1000.00) Gourdes per day;

m - Airplanes will pay the price of one passenger for each flight.



Article 4.1- All motorcycles that circulate throughout the municipal territory must be registered and identified by an AUTHORIZATION CARD issued by the City Council and all motorcycle taxi drivers must wear a suit clearly identified by a number given by the traffic service of town hall. The 125cc and 110cc motorbikes will pay two hundred and fifty (250) gourdes each month to the city's traffic and transportation bureau.



Article 4.2- It is strictly forbidden for any taxi-motorcycle driver to drive without the suit given by the city hall duly numbered.



Article 4.3- No 125cc motorcycle shall carry more than passengers.



Article 4.4- The number of passengers is two (2) people for motorcycles typo 125cc is one (1) only person for all other types.



Article 5 - It is strictly forbidden for any vehicle overloaded or in bad condition to circulate on public roads.



Article 6 - This measure is taken to regulate transport within the city and control this sector, therefore, drivers must contribute daily.



Article 7 - The offender, who for one reason or the other refuses to pay these contributions, is liable to a fine of five thousand gourdes (5,000.00 Gourdes). In case of recidivism, his vehicle or other will be confiscated. The restitution will be made after the payment of a value of ten thousand gourdes (10,000.00 Gourdes), without prejudice to the damages concerned.



Article 8- The collected funds will feed the account of the Municipality of Port-de-Paix for:



1 - Build Modern and Sustainable Road Stations;

2 - Maintain interurban roads, etc. ;

3 - Install signs;

4 - Facilitate the cleaning of the city and the cleaning of the canals.



Article 9 - The municipal administration is called upon to give a monthly report with transparency on the funds.



Article 10 - This decree will enter into force on the day of its publication in the official gazette of the Municipality of Port-de-Paix 'Le CAPPOISIEN'"



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - DR : More than 100 Haitians arrested at the border, including 15 pregnant and 16 minors





In 72 hours, members of the 10th Battalion of the Dominican Army have apprehended on Dominican territory during several control operations, 108 undocumented Haitians, including 16 minors and 15 pregnant women, said military sources.



It is in the community of Palo Blanco de Dajabon, adjacent to Haiti, that the largest number of pregnant women and minors accompanied by their parents were arrested. Pregnant women said their intentions were to give birth in hospitals in the Dominican Republic, because in Haiti in addition to the limitations of access to health care, they have to pay for maternity services. They said that in Haiti one known that in Dominican maternities and public hospitals, there is good care for women about to give birth and that they have nothing to pay.



The military authorities said that since the minor children and adolescents were accompanied by their parents or other relatives, they will be returned together to Haiti. Recall that when a Haitian child minor is arrested without any family members to accompany him, the Dominican authorities are hosting them at the National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI) which is responsible for finding a member of their family in order to give them the child... https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-18137-icihaiti-social-arrest-of-24-women-37-children-and-13-men-in-the-dr.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-12738-haiti-social-haitian-women-abandon-their-children-in-dominican-hospitals.html



On the other hand, members of the army accompanied by a representative of the public prosecutor's office and immigration agents, following a judicial intervention order, arrested in a private property located in the North sector, near the Hospital Matias Ramon Mella in Dajabon, 38 undocumented Haitians who hid in two huts.



Among the Haitians apprehended during operations, many said they came from Fort Liberte, Trou Du Nord, Limonade, Cap-Haitien, Gonaives, Millot and Port-au-Prince among others. They indicated that they intended to travel to Santiago, Valverde and Puerto Plata and paid between 4,000 and 5,000 pesos to smugglers to drive them to their destination. They also admitted to paying other smugglers in Haiti the equivalent of 5,000 to 7,000 pesos to transport them and illegally cross the border.



All these Haitians have been entrusted to the service of migration, which will be responsible after identification to return them to Haiti.



SL/ HaitiLibre


























Haiti - News : Zapping...





Godson Orelus in court

In the case of the large seizure of weapons at the Customs of St. Marc in September 2016 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19168-haiti-flash-new-discovery-of-firearms-in-a-container.html Godson Orelus, the former Director General of the National Police, responded to the invitation of Dieunel Lumerant investigating judge, in St-Marc, as a donor of information (and not as an accused), in order to provide explanations on this case.



TPS, reaction of the American journalist Dan Rather

American journalist Dan Rather, former anchor of CBS Evening News, reacts to DHS decision to end TPS for Haiti https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22759-haiti-flash-tps-more-than-50-000-haitians-will-have-to-leave-the-usa.html declared "Haiti is the poorest country in Western Hemisphere - devastated by disease and an earthquake that killed 230k people. Now we tell 60k Haitians to "GET OUT"? We're better than this. And I think most Americans know it [...]" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22781-haiti-flash-tps-reactions-multiply-against-the-decision-of-the-trump-administration.html



Distribution of agricultural equipment

On Wednesday the Senator Dieudonne Luma Etienne realized a distribution of agricultural equipment to the various leaders and personalities of the peasant sector of the commune of La Victoire.



Project of irrigation in the Plain des Baconois

This week, the Ministry of Agriculture launched the small-scale irrigation development project in the Plaine des Baconois (Nippes department).



CFI Platform Haiti Digital Service

The Investment Facilitation Center (CFI) will launch the "Haiti Digital Service", at the first forum BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) Ayiti Smart Talent, scheduled for 29 November.



Laureates of the body Administrators of State

On Thursday, President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant, attended the official presentation ceremony of the laureates of the National Executive Recruitment Competition for State Directors body https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-22136-haiti-politics-first-day-of-the-state-administrators-competition.html . a historic event to the extent that marks a break with poor governance practices that affects the regular functioning of the state, said President Moise.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2017/11/23 | Source

Ahn Jae-wook was a big shot in the past. His best friend Sin Dong-yup claimed that women who passed him became weak in their knees.

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Every homesteader had a story, and the trail of history at Homestead National Monument of America is more than a million pieces long--and growing.

Stashed away inside the Homesteads Education and Heritage centers is a vast collection of historical artifacts.

Filed away neatly by catalogue number on rolling shelves in temperature and humidity-controlled rooms, Homestead staff take several precautions to ensure the collection stays safe for years to come.

Weve got what we hope are systems built on top of systems to protect the investment that people have placed in the Monument, as well as protect the financial resources weve received, said park Superintendent Mark Engler. We protect the objects people trust us to take care of.

The majority of items in the Homesteads collection are paper. These range from currency dating back to the late 1700s to instruction manuals for farm equipment and more.

Of these, a collection of records related to Dempster Industries is the largest single collection the Homestead has received.

Dempster Industries is credited with developing a water pumping system that provided Beatrice with clean water from the Zimmerman Springs, a natural spring in the area, when the Big Blue River became too difficult to properly filter.

The project began in 2014, when current Dempsters President Ryan Mitchell discovered many of the companys records dating back to the 1800s stored in the building.

Mitchell partnered with the Homestead National Monument of America to preserve the documents. The goal is to have a searchable database that can be used for education and research.

Among the records being sorted are meeting minutes, operators manuals, blueprints, brochures and personnel records.

In total, there are 500,000 documents in the collection.

With the Dempster things, it was also the industrial side of the story, Engler said. We often think that these homesteaders were operating in this vacuum of isolation. Also, there was this whole network of things going on around them to support them. In this case, there was all this manufacturing going on.

Many of these documents will be available to the public and researchers, though people seeking personal information about workers will have a wait.

Weve actually sealed them for 75 years and that would be if theres information in there thats personal, Engler said. In order to protect the privacy of the people, former employees, these records have been sealed and they will not be open until 2091, no exceptions.

The paper items are relatively easy to store in cabinets. Large items arent always so easy to find homes for.

There are more than 6,000 history-related objects, over 9,000 archaeological objects and over 1,000 biology-related ones, mostly insects and plants, said Museum Technician Amy Neumann. Anytime we have a larger collection, we have to have a committee meeting to make sure that we can store it and it fits our collection.

Determining what the Homestead will add to the collection can be difficult. Engler estimated around 80 percent of the time individuals approach them with items they think are interesting, while in other instances, officials may hear about someone with an interesting piece and approach them about it.

For around 95 percent of cases, the items in the collection were donated. Some items are purchased, often with the help of Friends of Homestead.

Engler said there is a variety of criteria considered before new pieces are added to the collection.

Lets say you bring in a wagon, one of the things wed look at is how unique is it? Engler said. Is it tied to our nations homestead story? Does it fit within our scope of collection? Then, we also have to figure out how we would store it. We would not want to acquire it if wed just be sitting it outside when the whole idea is to save it. The bigger the object, the more difficult it is to figure that out.

Engler added that one recent example is clearly a worthy addition to be displayed soon.

A 1945 Allis-Chalmers Model C tractor belonging to Ken Deardorff, the last homesteader, will eventually be shown at Homestead.

One of the things that Congress asked us to do when it created this monument was to preserve farm implements, he said. This tractor thats coming from Alaska, that fits in exactly what were here for. Thats one of the neat things as an example.

The tractor will be sent to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for refurbishment before it goes on display, but the team that brought it 3,500 miles back to the Homestead via helicopter, barge, ship and truck had a story to tell.

In 1974, Deardorff was a 29-year-old Vietnam veteran from California. The Homestead Act was still two years away from being repealedthough the Alaskan repeal was 10 years away, due to its late addition to the United States. Deardorff staked a claim and settled on 80 acres, about 200 miles from Anchorage, and nearly 50 miles from the nearest town.

The Homestead takes several steps to ensure its collection is well-preserved, but one document received more attention than the rest in recent years.

More than 38,000 people visited Homestead in 2012 to see the actual Homestead Act of 1862.

Signed by Abraham Lincoln himself, the act would distribute more than 10 percent of all U.S. land for free, helping settle the west.

Under the Homestead Act, four million claims were made for up to 160 acres of land each, making the act one of the most significant in American history.

To celebrate the Homestead Acts 150th anniversary, officials worked to bring the document to the National Park site that recognizes its significance, marking the first time in history the document was on display in its entirety.

Bringing the document from the National Archives in Washington D.C. required having several safeguards in place.

We had to go through a multiple-page review and we looked at everything from security, to temperature-control, to lighting, to locks on the doors, Engler said. We looked at it all. I know people from the National Archives had been here before, so they were aware of where they were sending it. We had 24-hour law enforcement and added security. We had to enhance it in many ways.

Restricting flash photography from the public was also required, even though the documents were displayed behind glass in the lower level of the Heritage Center.

This display area is regularly used by the Homestead to showcase some of its less common items, or things that would otherwise not be available to the public.

Theres a little display area that we try to change out every three or four months to highlight different parts of the collection, Neumann said.

Beyond the display in the window is an unobstructed view of the storage room for many of the Homesteads archives.

Large, mechanical shelves that hold centuries of history and information, from currency to wood chests and everything in between, are clearly visible to guests at Homestead.

One of things, when we built this building, was we wanted to have open storage, Engler explained. You can look into this room from the exhibits. That gives people a chance to see how we manage and how we store and care for these objects.

Homestead officials strive to preserve every artifact, but sometimes disaster still finds a way to strike. This was the case seven years ago, when a pipe burst in early 2010, flooding part of the archive room at the heritage center.

The break occurred away from the building, but a conduit that was broken at the same time led water directly into the building.

Following the incident, Engler said additional safeguards are in place to prevent such an incident from occurring again.

We examined and looked at everything and figured out within the system where the weakness was, Engler said. Since that time, I know we put in place multiple systems in case we do have another break.

Workers also take steps to ensure new additions arent going to contaminate the Homesteads collection.

There are monthly and weekly tasks we take to make sure its taken care of, Engler said. Even when people bring us things, before we put them in storage, we look at it from a number of different angles to protect the integrity of the rest of the collection.

In many instances, items are frozen to kill any bugs.

In other cases, great care has been taken to properly dispose of old medicine and chemicals, including nitroglycerine.

We actually went through a process to rid the collection of these medicines, not knowing what they were, like nitroglycerine and that sort of thing, he said. Were careful with what we have in here, so we dont cause or create danger or a hazardous situation for the employees or collection.

The Homestead occasionally opens the collection to researchers and members of the public with a personal connection to an item.

For everyone else, an extensive project to digitize and make every piece available is currently in the works.

We have about 500 items on there right now, Neumann said. The plan is to, in the future, get all of the objects online for people to look at. Its not going to be the same as seeing it in person, but its something.

The collection can be found at museum.nps.gov.
Published on 2017/11/24 | Source

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Extremadura Cava producers challenge Catalonia in fight for further planting rights

By Barnaby Eales

Cava producers in Extremadura, South West Spain, are fighting a move from the Spanish government to ban further plantings of Cava grapes until beyond 2020.

Almendralejo in Extremadura, has become a new fertile ground for Cava producers who are expected to produce six million bottles of Cava this year alone. Plantings of Cava grapes have almost tripled in Almendralejo, over the past three years to nearly 1,400ha.

Cavas regulatory board in Barcelona told Harpers that it was holding talks on 22 November with the Spanish government to discuss controversial restrictions on plantings of Cava grapes in Extremadura.

Local authorities in Extremadura have meanwhile, announced a move to back local producers by challenging the governments decision. Producers in Extremadura have voiced concerns that they will not be able to meet growing demand for their Cavas and that restrictions on plantings would favour Cava sales in rival production areas in Spain.

Cavas regulatory board, however, has expressed concern over the impact of any increase in the production of Cava, which it believes would lead to the devaluation in prices and thus further tarnish Cavas historical image in the UK of being a 'low-cost, big volume' sparkling wine.

The vast majority of Cava in Spain is produced in Catalonia, but now Extremadura is providing a fresh alternative to Cava for UK wholesalers and supermarkets.

Most Cava from Extremadura is consumed in Spain, although the increase in production in recent years has encouraged exports to the US and Northern Europe.

The Spanish government's moves to restrict plantings in Extremadura comes amid a rise in production in Valencia where producers are hoping to increase Cava production from six million to seven million bottles this year.

In recent years, the Cava Regulatory board and producers in Catalonia have launched campaigns to raise the image and quality levels of Cava including this weeks UK launch of the new super premium, single vineyard Cava de Paraje Calficado classification which currently includes 12 Cavas from Catalonia.

An increase in production could lead to a fall in prices, said one Catalan Cava producer.

Although some Gran Reserva Cava is produced in Extremadura, most production is large volume entry-level Cava.

Under Spains Cava Denominacion de Origin rules, the municipality of Almendralejo has been authorised to produce Cava, under the traditional method, since 1985.

These Extremadura Cavas would be of interest to UK supermarkets but not independent importers, said one UK importer of Spanish and Portuguese wines.






Dear Annie: I do not get to see my friend "Amy" as often as I'd like because of our busy schedules. My problem is that she continually shows up to our planned outings with her daughter, "Jennie." She gives little or no notice when she's bringing her. Her daughter is 17 and not mature for her age, and I don't feel comfortable talking about adult things (such as marriage issues or other personal problems) in front of her. I end up feeling obligated to ask her questions about her school and her boyfriend, etc. This has been going on for years, though I understood when the child was, well, a child. I just want to have grown-up time and conversations with my friend. I almost want to cancel when I find out that Jennie is tagging along again. It bewilders me why a girl this age cannot cut the apron strings, though I don't care if it doesn't affect my time.

I am not good with confrontations but have hinted a few times to my friend that this bothers me. Can you give any advice on how to handle this situation? I'm thinking of just giving up on this until Jennie goes to college. -- Three's a Crowd

Dear Three's a Crowd: Mother birds shouldn't wait until they've an empty nest to take alone time for themselves now and then. It's healthy to get together with friends and commiserate about adult problems -- though not in the presence of children. I'm not sure why Jennie would want to go to every single lunch with her mom or why her mom would make her. But there's no reason you can't politely request one-on-one time. The next time you two are planning an outing, say something like this: "I'd really like a chance to talk to you about my personal life, and I just don't feel comfortable doing that when Jennie's there. Could we keep this lunch to just us?" If she rejects the idea, put the ball in her court. Ask her to let you know when it's a good time for the two of you to get together.

Dear Annie: I am writing in response to "If Only He Had a Heart," who complained about her younger brother's behavior. One of her statements was sheer prejudice: "He was ... let's face it, a teenage boy." Not all teenage boys are troublemakers. Why should "teenage boy" be a synonym for "bratty," "angsty" and "entitled?" No other group can be treated as being all the same just because some are bad. But apparently, it's OK to say such a thing, because you didn't correct her. -- A Teenage Boy in Texas

Dear Teenage Boy: I appreciate your writing. You are absolutely right. Not all teenage boys behave badly, and making sweeping generalizations helps no one. I'm printing your letter to correct the record.
Dem Senator on Bill Clinton Sexual Misconduct Scandals: Lets Move Forward

by Conor Beck, Washington Free Beacon, November 21, 2017

Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) on Tuesday called for people to "move forward" when asked on MSNBC's "Meet the Press Daily" about whether former President Bill Clinton should have resigned.

Host Katy Tur asked Hirono about Clinton the two of them had talked extensively about the problems of sexual harassment and even assault. Hirono spoke strongly about the importance of such matters but downplayed the question of whether Clinton should have resigned over his own scandals.

"Really quickly, do you agree with your colleague, Senator [Kirsten] Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) that if this happened today with Bill Clinton, with his accusers, that he should have resigned back then?" Tur asked.

"Well the whole question of resignation, once again, in my view, he went through an impeachment process as a result of his actions," Hirono replied.

"I certainly do not defend his indefensible actions. But let's move forward," Hirono continued. "You know, talking about Bill Clinton should not be a shield to the rest of us talking about what we are going to do about this going forward."

She went on to say that people should focus on how we are going to "change our culture" with regards to sexual harassment.

Earlier in the interview, Hirono talked of Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) resigning "because what's really at the bottom of this whole issue of sexual harassment is that it is pervasive in our culture."
Auditors Summary Review of Special Funds, Revolving Funds, Trust Funds, and Trust Accounts of the Department of Public Safety

From Hawaii State Auditor Report No. 17-11

One revolving fund did not meet criteria

OUR REVIEW OF SIX SPECIAL FUNDS, three revolving funds, four trust funds, and five trust accounts of the Department of Public Safety (PSD) found one revolving fund did not met criteria and should be closed.

Section 23-12, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), requires the Auditor to review all existing special, revolving, and trust funds every five years. Reviews are scheduled so that each departments funds are reviewed once every five years. Although not mandated by statute, we included trust accounts as part of our review. This is our fifth review of PSDs revolving funds, trust funds, and trust accounts. It is our first review of PSDs special funds.

We used criteria developed by the Legislature and by our office based on public finance and accounting literature. For each fund, we present a five year financial summary, the purpose of the fund, and conclusions about its use. We did not audit the financial data which is provided for informational purposes. We do not present conclusions about the effectiveness of programs or their management, or whether the programs should be continued.

Reporting shortfall

WE ALSO NOTED that PSD did not file statutorily required reports for non-general funds and for administratively created funds. Accurate and complete reporting will greatly improve the Legislatures oversight and control of these funds and provide increased budgetary flexibility.

Agency response

PSD GENERALLY AGREED with our findings and will take appropriate action to close the revolving fund that did not meet criteria. PSD will also comply with reporting requirements.
The Turku Court of Appeal ruled last week that the defendant was guilty of aggravated child sexual abuse but not of aggravated rape and sentenced him to three years in prison, thus upholding a ruling issued in March by the District Court of Pirkanmaa.

Finns have widely expressed their outrage and bafflement with a recent ruling in a case against a 23-year-old man who had intercourse with a ten-year-old girl.

The defendant was acquitted of the charge of aggravated rape on grounds that the prosecution was unable to substantiate its claim that the victim had been unable to defend herself and express her lack of consent because she was in a state of fear and helplessness at the time of the act, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

Jussi Tapani, a professor of criminal law at the University of Turku, and Matti Tolvanen, a professor of criminal law at the University of Eastern Finland, estimate in an interview with the newspaper that the case could ultimately warrant the attention of the Supreme Court of Finland.

Both of them indicated that the criminal code fails to unambiguously define the grounds for determining that the victim was in a state of fear or other state of helplessness.

The Supreme Court should set a precedent on whether or not a ten-year-old can be ruled to be able to express their will in circumstances such as these. Im personally of the opinion that a ten-year-old would be unable to understand the matter and thereby defend themselves against an adult, comments Tolvanen.

Tapani also estimates that the sentence handed to the offender would have been one to two years longer if he had also been found guilty of aggravated rape.

District Prosecutor Leena Koivuniemi, however, says she is satisfied with the ruling delivered by the Turku Court of Appeal, admitting that it was debatable whether sufficient evidence of aggravated rape had been produced.

Im able to accept that the court rejected the charge [of aggravated rape], she tells Helsingin Sanomat.

The case has also prompted a reaction from several policy makers.

Members of the Parliaments Legal Affairs Committee, for example, have voiced their support for calls to revise the legislation in a way that the case of the ten-year-old girl would meet the essential elements of rape, reports YLE.

Im in favour of revising the criminal code in a way that a victims lack of consent is enough to meet the essential elements of rape. The current law requires that violence or the threat of violence is used, says Sanna Marin (SDP).

Kari Tolvanen (NCP), the chairperson of the Legal Affairs Committee, states to the public broadcasting company that the criminal code should be revised to raise the minimum punishment for child sexual abuse from one to two years in prison.

The legislative change would raise punishments for aggravated sex crimes against children across the board, which in my mind would be justifiable due to the vulnerability of children even if the act didnt meet the essential elements of rape, explained Tolvanen.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Martti Kainulainen  Lehtikuva
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.  The Johnson City Police Department arrested a woman charged with aggravated domestic assault on Wednesday.

Officers arrested Chaka Poland, 39, after responding to a call at 604 Pardee St. in Johnson City. The victim, who has not been named as of Thursday, told the officers that Poland had attacked him with a kitchen knife during an argument, according to a news release.

The victim had a large laceration to his arm and a small cut to his neck and back. He was transported to Johnson City Medical Center and has been released.

Poland is being held in lieu of a $5,000 bond at the Washington County Detention Center, according to a news release. She is scheduled to appear in Washington County General Sessions Court on Nov. 27 at 1:30 p.m.
ABINGDON, Va.  When 11-year-old Gabe Hoyle noticed that a food drive collection box was nearly empty in his classroom, the student at E.B. Stanley Middle School took matters into his own hands.

By the time the schools Box Out Hunger food drive concluded last week, he had donated more than 1,000 cans. Whats even better, he used $175 of his allowance money to purchase the food.

When Gabe brought in cans, it caused his classmates to participate, too, said Joy Dixon, his homeroom teacher. Gabe set a good example for the rest of the school. He has gone above and beyond what was expected of him.

When the food drive began three weeks ago, the sixth-grade student thought about buying a few cans to get the collection started.

But I noticed that pretty much no one else was bringing in cans. That sparked my interest, and I was determined to buy more cans for the food drive, he said.

An extra incentive was that the homeroom classroom with the greatest number of donations is treated to a pizza party.

If my classroom gets first place, we get a pizza party. So, its a win-win situation, and even if we dont get the pizza party, its still a win because I get to help people.

The annual food drive at the school benefits the Stone Soup Food Pantry at Ecumenical Faith in Action, a Christian mission outreach serving Southwest Virginia.

Gabe is a testimony to the purity and the sincerity of children. It excites me when I see young people have a heart for helping others, said Larry Bays, executive director of Ecumenical Faith in Action.

This food drive comes at the most appropriate time of the year for us because at Thanksgiving we see more people in need, said Bays. We have 1,350 families registered in our food pantry. Some come every month, some come every other month, and some come every three months, if they need it. But in November, they all come.

November and December are the busiest times of the year for the food pantry, he added.

Its very important we have a good supply of food during those months. Our demand for food has increased by 30 percent the last few years.

A giving heart

Sheila Hoyle said her son has always been caring and kind-hearted, willing to reach out to those in need.

Although hes been impressed with the amount of attention he has received at the school, Gabe told his mother he didnt understand why its a big deal.

Giving to others is just what were supposed to do, he said. I have the option of going to a food place and getting what I want to eat. Some people arent able to do that.

It makes him sad that some people go hungry.

I do like helping people, said the student, whose teacher noticed he was humble about his impressive donations.

I really didnt say anything to my friends. They just picked up on what Ive been doing, and they wanted to donate, too.

Sheila Hoyle has accompanied her son on several grocery shopping trips since the food drive started earlier this month.

I usually match whatever Gabe purchases, said his mother. Tonight at the store, when we were ready to pay, he said, No, Mom, I brought my wallet. Ill pay for all of it.

And that was 192 cans just tonight. He spent 95-some dollars this trip.

The youth started out with $250 in his savings, some of which was left over from being the top winner during a fundraiser last year at Watauga Elementary.

Hes very competitive, and when he sets his mind to something, he gives it 150 percent, said his mother. He goes at it with all hes got. If he wants to spend his money this way, Im all for it.

While most of the money came from his own pocket, he also visited several local grocery stores to request donations from store managers.

I will encourage Gabe to write notes to the managers thanking them for helping him to reach his goal, said his mother.

The straight-A student said he receives an allowance of $11 each week. One dollar goes to tithing, and one dollar goes in savings, he explained.

Before the food drive began, Gabe was saving his money to buy Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon for his Nintendo game at home.

I think Ill still have enough money to buy it, he said.

School teamwork

Lora Kiser, who teaches at E.B. Stanley Middle School, has organized the Box Out Hunger food drive for the past four years. According to her, the school has donated more than 14,000 cans of food items during that time.

We want to raise as many food items as we can by passing along stories like Gabes and reminding our students to leave the world a little better than the way they found it, said Kiser.

Many people at the school come together to make the food drive successful.

Kiser, who is a special-education teacher, said her students get the opportunity to practice counting and sorting before the food is sent to Faith in Action.

Im super proud of our school. They latch on to drives like this, and Gabe is one example of the compassion and kindness we have in our school. Its also a reflection of the teachers and staff [who] instill these values, said Kiser.
Agreements with Tennessee and Virginia spell out fixed schedules for a merged Ballad Health to make good on its financial commitments to improve the regions health.

Ballad is the name chosen by the boards of directors of Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System for a combined, locally governed health care system serving Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Commissioners of health in both states have approved their merger request and officials hope to formalize the agreement in January and begin the process of joining their 21 hospitals and 14,000 employees.

The minimum commitment of $308 million over the next 10 years was a linchpin in the merger proposals approval and is rolled into the Certificate of Public Advantage approved in Tennessee and Virginias cooperative agreement. It includes close oversight of those spending commitments and the outcomes they are designed to generate.

The Tennessee COPA specifies only new and incremental capital expenditures and operating expenses paid by the new health system pursuant to the approved plans shall count towards satisfaction of the [$308 million] spending commitments.

It further specifies the obligations are absolute and unconditional and are to be met regardless of profits or other savings and are not to be reduced. Only if circumstances imperil the systems financial stability can system officials seek to modify the agreements.

The expenditure commitments are tied in with the plans we submit and there are timelines articulated in the COPA in Tennessee as to when those plans are to be submitted, said Alan Levine, president and CEO of Mountain States and president-elect of Ballad Health. Those will also include plans with when we plan to spend the money. The way they crafted the COPA document, there is flexibility built in.  The key is we establish a plan and invest in the plan as we promised to.

The 10-year commitments include:

 $140 million for expanded access to health care, including $85 million for behavioral; health, $28 million for rural health service and $27 million for childrens services;

 $85 million for health care research and graduate medical school service;

 $75 million for population health improvement;

 $8 million for a regional electronic health information service system.

Behavioral health specifics

In the case of behavioral health, the new health system must develop and submit a three-year plan by July 1, 2018 to articulate its initial response to the regions shortcomings. It is to include plans to develop new or improved community-based mental health resources, such as mobile health crisis management teams and intensive outpatient treatment and addiction resources for adults, children, and adolescents designed to minimize inpatient psychiatric admissions, incarceration and other out-of-home placements, according to the agreement.

System officials also have six months after closing to finalize a childrens services improvement plan. The agreement specifies that plan is to facilitate the recruitment and retention of pediatric sub-specialists in accordance with the Niswonger Childrens Hospital physician needs assessment; develop a comprehensive, state-certified regional pediatric center at Niswonger Childrens Hospital and new emergency rooms [with pediatric capabilities] in Kingsport and Bristol, Tennessee; and deploy pediatric telemedicine and/or rotating pediatric specialty clinics in the rural hospitals, to improve diagnosis and treatment of children in those areas.

Requirements are similar in the area of rural health, with a six-month deadline after closing to submit a three-year needs assessment and recruiting plan for each rural community in the service area. A critical goal of this plan is employing physicians primarily in underserved areas and other locations where quantity and/or specialty needs are not being met, and where independent physician groups are not interested in, or capable of, adding such specialties or expanding, according to the COPA.

Training and research

Ballad has one year after closing to submit its plan to the states for improving the post-graduate training of physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants and other allied health care professionals, in partnership with East Tennessee State University and other institutions.

We will draft a plan that relates to our strategy for research. That plan will create a research consortium that will be composed of ETSU and the other universities and colleges that participate in research, Levine said. Then we will develop a strategy around what are the priority areas of research we want to pursue and how are we going to make those investments.

He predicted that the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission might support research related to Southwest Virginia.

That plan will require a program gap analysis and the formation of program development plans based on needs, clinical capacity and availability of programs, according to the COPA. In addition, the system may identify training opportunities to support sub-specialty physicians along with collaboration opportunities with professors and research leaders to close gaps in regional specialty services or provide clinical oversight, according to the COPA.

The second and third years of that plan are to spell out investments in research and ways to expand research.

There will be a lot of opportunity but we want to make sure its a coordinated effort. ETSU  in terms of this region  does the most research, Levine said. The health science center at ETSU is so robust, its the largest in the state of Tennessee. It presents a huge vehicle we can go compete for NIH-funded [National Institutes of Health] research and other privately funded research.

Levine expects other colleges and universities will want to collaborate.

Once we merge, we have 20-plus hospitals, 100,000 discharges a year, a single IT system and a partnership with a major academic, health science center like ETSU. All of a sudden, we become a very attractive investment target for research. We have every intention of trying to optimize that, Levine said.

Population health

One of the key findings by the Tennessee Department of Health was that Ballads service area of 10 counties of Northeast Tennessee, 11 counties and two cities in Southwest Virginia has inherent health, economic and other factors that make improving health a significant challenge.

A report by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky found the Appalachian region performed worse than the rest of the U.S. in seven of the 10 leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD], injury, stroke, diabetes and suicide.

Ballads $75 million/10-year commitment to improve population health mandates the system creates and submit a plan within six months, then create a department of population health improvement within the health system to implement that plan.

This department shall be staffed with leaders charged with financial compliance, physician relations and community relations and led by a senior executive that reports directly to the executive chair/president or the chief executive officer, according to the COPA.

That department must then produce an annual report that charts health outcomes.

Weve got to make sure we are complying today with certain components of the orders and that we are ready to step into the execution phase whenever the door opens for us to do that, said Wellmont President and CEO Bart Hove, who will become CEO of the merged system. There are a lot of plans and reports that have to be generated quickly once we merge our organizations and  in order to do that  we are preparing today to identify the team members and key individuals that will provide information to put those plans together so we can submit them in a timely basis.

Many employees of both systems are taking on additional responsibilities to make the extensive merger process smooth, he said.

Health information system

In approving the cooperative agreement, Virginia Health Commissioner Dr. Marissa Levine cited a $150 million commitment to enhance hospital quality, improve cost efficiency and adopting a common IT [information technology] platform as soon as practical and the $8 million commitment for a regional health information system.

It specifies that the health system will participate in the commonwealths Connect Virginia information exchange, Connect Virginias emergency department care coordination program, the Virginia Department of Healths immunization registry and the states prescription monitoring program.

These commitments should further the ability to access a more coordinated system of health care within the region, which would promote a higher level of quality care, Dr. Levine wrote.

Elsewhere in her order approving the merger, Levine was critical of the health systems in not specifying how much of the $308 million might be spent in Virginia versus Tennessee.

It will be essential for the new health system to develop appropriate plans for submission to the commissioner explaining and justifying the proposed allocation of these funds between Virginia and Tennessee to assure that the health and behavioral health needs of the residents of Virginia, including children, are being appropriately benefitted, Dr. Levine wrote.

Post-merger oversight

The documents also spell out specific oversight metrics  which are still being finalized in Virginia  to monitor the health system and make sure it complies with all the terms of the agreements. Establishing infrastructure to meet those standards represents a significant part of the work currently underway.

Both are very complicated documents. It is a process that we have started where were taking every word and every requirement identified in the Tennessee COPA and the Virginia cooperative agreement, and formatting that into a spreadsheet of understanding everything we have to respond to, reply to, we have to do or not do, Hove said. Then you take those spreadsheets and merge them together to see where we have commonality and where we have vast differences.

Alan Levine said their hope is the final requirements issued by Virginia Health Commissioner Marissa Levine [no relation] will match closely with the Tennessee guidelines.

To the extent possible, we want to have a plan that addresses what were going to do in Tennessee and do in Virginia. We dont want to have everything in duplicate because that just creates more cost. Every dollar we spend on bureaucracy is a dollar were not spending on health care. I think well try as much as possible to align what were doing in Tennessee and Virginia. While there will be some differences, those differences can still be contained in the same plan, Alan Levine said.
ABINGDON, Va.  The Washington County, Virginia, Relay for Life is holding a meeting on Nov. 28 at the Rosedale Baptist Church in Abingdon.

Anyone interested in participating in a Relay for Life event, serving on a committee or organizing a team is welcomed to the meeting.

The chapter encourages interested clubs, businesses and individuals to come learn more about the Relay for Life event in the community.

Join us in our fight to provide support for those diagnosed with cancer, remember those weve lost to cancer and raise funds to discover the cure, according to a news release.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the churchs multipurpose room. Jane Roberts, American Cancer Societys senior community development manager for Southwest Virginia, will lead the meeting.

Contact Roberts at 276-608-1859 or Joyce Millsap at 276-628-9669 for details or with questions.
When India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel last July and waded in the ocean with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that historic meeting not only paved the way for a stronger relationship between the countries, it spurred local doctors, Jewish and Indian, to have an informative, networking event together.

Drs. Amish Parikh and Daniel Layish, friends who are members of the Central Florida Association of Physicians from the Indian Subcontinent and the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando Maimonides Medical Society respectively, agreed that now was the time to bring community awareness to the growing relationship between Israel and India, and build bridges for a sustainable relationship between the two countries.

And why not? Both countries gained their independence from British rule a mere year apart-India in 1947 and Israel in 1948. Both are democracies in a sea of Arab-ruled countries, and were partitioned into two-states-India with Pakistan; Israel with the Palestinians-and these issues are still not fully resolved for both countries.

But the relationship goes deeper than historical similarities.

"Being Indian isn't a nationality, it is a way of life," said Dr. Parikh's wife, Beena. The Indian people are hard working and devoted to family. They are a peaceful people. True for Jewish people as well. Being Jewish, or Israeli, isn't a nationality. It is a way of life, and whenever possible, they choose peace.

So Layish and Parikh worked to bring together the two groups, with the organizational talents of Dr. Jamin Brahmbhatt, who served as lead co-ordinator of the event.

"I wanted to see people come together who usually don't, but have a common mission to do good," said Brahmbhatt.

Dr. Archana Shah had the same feelings. "Modi's visit made a big impact, and we physicians work closely with the Jewish physicians. Thus networking brings us closer together."

Shah also said that there is already discussion of planning tours to each other's countries.

Guest speakers included two experts in relationship building-Consul General of India in Atlanta Nagesh Singh and Deputy Director of Policy and Government Affairs for AIPAC Jeff Colman. To keep the evening running smoothly, Dr. Terri Fine moderated the discussion.

After an Indian meal, the group of about 60 people listened intently about India. It was noted that the ratio was unbalanced with more Indians than Jews at the meeting. Brahmbhatt easily rationalized it. "There are 1.3 billion Indians and only 8 million Israelis!"

Still, the listeners learned common interests of both countries.

Today, the two countries have a thriving economic, military and strategic relationship.

"This was eye-opening!" said Rabbi Michoel Rennert. "It took them (India) a long time to get comfortable and stand up for Israel, but they're getting there. The consul was excited and unreserved about Israel. These two democracies are fighting for similar values-to have that standard to have a free society."

It did take India a long time to start supporting Israel, and the issue was addressed at the meeting. In 1947, India voted against the partitioning of Palestine and also voted against Israel's admission to the United Nations in 1949. India officially recognized the State of Israel in 1950. At that time, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru explained, "We refrained because of our desire not to offend the sentiments of our friends in the Arab countries."

India is home to 14 percent of the world's Muslim population-about 172 million Muslims. It is the world's third largest Muslim population. Amazingly, India has no anti-Semitism and no problem with "homegrown terrorism. India is also a very inclusive society.

Because of the lack of anti-Semitism, India is the No.1 place where IDF soldiers go to take their six-months vacation.

However, until recently, India was not voting in the UN like a friend of Israel. That is changing, according to Singh.

"One thing that struck me was that India was aligned with the USSR during the '70s and '80s whereas Israel was on our side during the Cold War," said David Moldau who attended the meeting with his wife, Harriet. "With the downfall of the USSR, the old alliances disintegrated and now the two countries are exchanging ideas and are trading partners."

"India moved closer to Israel when Israel clandestinely sold weapons to India back in the '50s," said Rennert.

The weapons deals are no longer done in secret. Today, India is the largest buyer of Israeli military equipment, and Israel is the second largest defense supplier to India (after Russia).

Another problem Israel is helping India solve is water management. Israel introduced the water-drip irrigation system to India and now has 18-20 different agricultural centers, according to Singh. Water usage went down about 50 percent and productivity went up.

"Water management and conservation is something India needs because of their huge population and Israel has the best expertise in the world," stated Moldau.

Colman sees all that is happening between the two countries as a double blessing. He sees no challenges, only more cooperation.

On a poignant note, the group discussed the terrorist attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai in November 2008. Terrorists brutally massacred Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg, his 5-months pregnant wife, Rivka, and two young sons. Their two-year-old son Moshe survived the attack after being rescued by his Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel.

Rabbi Yosef Konikov of South Orlando Chabad spoke about this at the meeting. He and his wife Chani have six children. They named their youngest son Gabriel (Gabby) in memory of the rabbi.

A group of those attending the India/Israel event. Second from left is Dr. Daniel Layish; fifth from left is Dr. Amish Parikh; seventh from left is Consul General Nagesh Singh; and sixth from right is Jeff Colman.

Moshe and his nanny moved to Israel. During his visit, Modi met and embraced the now 11-year-old Moshe. Netanyahu then invited the young boy to go with him when he visits Mumbai. Young Moshe, whose family was murdered in India, only had kind words to say to Modi. "Dear Mr. Modi, I love you," he stated, "and your people in India." He later expressed that he would like to be the rabbi of a Chabad House in India one day. Watch the YouTube video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge9l-Ue4CIA.

Konikov expressed the general consensus of everyone who attended the meeting, that Modi's trip to Israel has taken things in a positive direction.

"We still have differences, but we are looking past these to see commonalities. [The two countries] have a higher purpose-both countries are working for common goals."

Parikh was pleased with the meeting. "It was more than fulfilling and accomplished what I hoped for. This will lead to a relationship that will extend beyond my time," he said. "The feedback has been excellent and we hope to have follow-up events."
Some of the tens of thousands of nationalists marching through Warsaw, Nov. 11, 2017.

(JTA)-The sight of far-right activists waving racist banners and shouting anti-Semitic slogans during a nationalist march in the capital of Poland over the weekend shocked many around the world.

It was an understandable reaction to witnessing tens of thousands in Warsaw marching near what used to be the largest Jewish ghetto during the Holocaust amid shouts of "Jews out" and "Remove Jewry from power."

The march, an annual event that began in 2009 with 500 participants on Poland's national day, Nov. 11, was not necessarily the largest so far. Similar numbers of marchers showed up last year. But it did showcase the rising strength of Polish nationalists who are feeling emboldened by the conservative government in Warsaw-and to some extent by the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.

Despite its size, the Warsaw gathering was neither unusual nor even particularly toxic compared to similar gatherings in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Similar or worse displays have occurred regularly in other post-communist countries-including in Ukraine earlier this year and annually in the Baltic states-where the far right is far more powerful and violent than in Poland.

In the aftermath of the march, JTA posed five questions on the situation to some of Poland's leading experts on the issue and a former leader of its Jewish community.

Does Poland have a fascism problem?

Despite their growing visibility, ultranationalist Poles have neither the prominence nor acceptance they seem to enjoy in Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary and Ukraine.

Still, their popularity among young people is seen as a worrisome sign, according to Rafal Pankowski, co-founder of the Polish anti-racism group Never Again, who cited a 2013 survey of high school students showing that 44 percent would rather not have Jewish neighbors and more than 60 percent would not want to have a Jewish boyfriend or girlfriend.

"The sociological data shows us that the younger generation is more prone to xenophobia than that of their parents, which is perhaps the most alarming aspect of the phenomenon," Pankowski said.

Though there were certainly racists at Saturday's march, there were also "ordinary people, families who just wanted to do a patriotic act, which to them is just to march with the Polish flag," said Piotr Kadlcik, the former president of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland.

And while some shouted offensive slogans about Jews, there were no known anti-Semitic banners on display, nor was there rioting or violence.

"In a way this is scary, too, because it shows the far right have their act together and can demonstrate the discipline of a political movement rather than a bunch of hooligans," Kadlcik said. "But there was very little intimidation."

Polish Jews are split on whether anti-Semitism has increased under the conservative Law and Justice party, which rose to power in 2015.

President Andrzej Duda in a post Monday on Twitter wrote: "In our country, there is no room, nor is there consent, to xenophobia, to insane nationalism, there is no room in our country to anti-Semitism."

Polish Jews agree that racist violence in their country is relatively rare. Only a few dozen anti-Semitic incidents are recorded annually, most of them verbal, though several anti-Semitic statements were made by Polish politicians.

Those are crucial differences, Kadlcik said, between Poland and other countries in the region.

In Hungary, activists from the ultranationalist Jobbik party, the country's second largest, rally regularly in the thousands and sometimes terrorize Jews, as well as Roma and gays. In Ukraine, synagogues and Jewish cemeteries are routinely targeted and activists for the xenophobic Svoboda party call for chasing "Jews out."

In Latvia, veterans of the Nazi Waffen SS march every year. In Bulgaria, the Lukov March, named for a Nazi ally, also draws thousand of participants. And in Lithuania, nationalist marches often feature swastikas and other fascist symbols.

"Things are bad, but they're not as bad as many people think, at least not yet," Kadlcik said of Poland.

Why is the far right growing in Poland?

Spared the political instability of war-torn Ukraine and the financial crisis gripping Hungary, Polish voters have not displayed the same penchant for raw nationalism as some of their neighbors. Law and Justice is decidedly right wing in that it opposes immigration from the Middle East, seeks to limit access to abortion and increase its control over the media. But the ruling party also has scrapped its plans for asserting greater control over the judiciary and vocally opposes anti-Semitism. It also celebrates rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust.

Pankowski cites a number of factors in explaining the rise of Polish nationalism. As citizens of a key NATO ally with bitter memories of Russian domination, many Poles have been driven to nationalism in response to Russian expansionism under President Vladimir Putin. The rise of the far right elsewhere in Europe, and the election of Trump, is also "creating a feeling of solidarity," Pankowski said.

"The U.S. election is an important factor," said Pankowski, who noted that the official banner of the Warsaw march-"We Want God"  was taken from a Polish poem Trump quoted during his July visit to Poland.

Do Jews have anything to do with it?

Anti-Semitism was neither a central theme of the Polish far right, nor was it very prominent at the Warsaw march, observers said. Most of the focus at Saturday's rally was Muslim immigration, Pankowski said. Among the banners on display was an anti-Muslim caricature drawn by a Danish cartoonist in 2005 carrying the slogan "Mohammed not welcome."

Nonetheless, Jonny Daniels, founder of From the Depths, which promotes Holocaust commemoration in Poland, filed a complaint on Monday accusing marchers of incitement to hate and calling on the government to identify and punish them to the full extent of the law. Marchers found guilty could face up to three years in prison.

"Hatred of Jews remains an element of the identity of the far right in Poland even though it has no large Jewish community, and that's what was on display at the march," Pankowski said.

What do Polish Jews say?

The issue of anti-Semitism in Poland is a contentious one among its Jews and led to a public row among community leaders in August.

Leslaw Piszewski, president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland, and Anna Chipczynska, head of the Warsaw Jewish community, sent a letter to Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski saying that Polish Jews are increasingly fearful due to government inaction in the face of rising anti-Semitism.

But Artur Hofman, who runs the country's largest Jewish cultural organization, TSKZ, dismissed the letter as "stupid" and scheduled a meeting with Kaczynski. Daniels and two Chabad rabbis also attended.

Hofman and the rabbis then accused Piszewski and Chipczynska of exaggerating Poland's anti-Semitism problem as part of a "political war" against Law and Justice. Piszewski and Chipczynska dismissed that charge and claimed the accusing groups are not legitimate representatives of Polish Jewry.

Sergiusz Kowalski, a leader of a Polish branch of B'nai B'rith and an ally of Piszewski and Chipczynska, called the four men who met Kaczynski "court Jews." And Michael Schudrich, the chief rabbi of Poland, said in an interview with the Forward that Daniels "has become a supporter of the ultra-right wing."

Daniels, a frequent target of the far-right online who has criticized ultranationalism in Poland and Holocaust denial, has denied this, adding his organization is willing to participate in intercultural dialogue with a wide range of partners.

What about Israel?

For the most part, Israel has remained silent about Holocaust revisionism and incidents of anti-Semitism in countries that have friendly ties to the Jewish state. But on Monday, a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry called the Warsaw event "a dangerous march of extreme and racist elements," and urged Polish authorities to act against the organizers.

Last year, Israel's ambassador to Poland, Anna Azari, hosted Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Catholic priest who runs a radio station that the U.S. State Department has called a main purveyor of anti-Semitism. She defended the move as important outreach even as Never Again, Pankowski's group, called it a "big mistake."

Azari did speak out last month against proposed legislation on restitution, arguing its preclusion of claims by distant relatives and non-citizens discriminates against Jews whose families lost property in Poland during or after the Holocaust. An Israeli restitution official told JTA, referring to the proposed law: "First the Nazis seized private property and then the communist authorities of Poland seized it, when most Polish Jews were already dead."

Ultimately, however, Israel's attitude seems to be guided by comments Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made in 2013 during the visit by Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski to Jerusalem. Noting the suffering of non-Jewish Poles and Jews under Nazi occupation, Netanyahu observed that "Poland and Israel have to support each other."
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump said that Iran wasviolating the spirit of its nuclear deal with the P5+1 powers. Now, it is clear that the Islamic Republic is disregarding the letter of the accord, but the international community is ignoring and denying that reality, experts say.

It is mind-boggling that the violations are occurring in the open and all the parties to the agreement are pretending not to see it, and instead are dealing with issues that are important, but are not connected to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the nuclear deals formal name), Yigal Carmon, president and founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute, told JNS.org.

In mid-October, Trump announced his refusal to recertify Irans compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, is campaigning to counter Trumps objections to the agreement.

On Nov. 7, Amano told the Financial Times that nuclear inspectors have accessed Iranian military sites and that the agency has had access to all the locations that we needed to visit. Yet Iran itself has rejected the U.S. demand for inspectors to visit its military bases.

Former weapons inspector David Albright, founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, told JNS.org that contrary to the Financial Times report, Amano said in a presentation to the Wilson Center think tank on Nov. 6 that Iran is not fully implementing the nuclear deal. The IAEA chief made a clear distinction between Iran working to implement the deal and full implementation, saying he is pushing Tehran to do the latter.

Albright said it is unclear what Amano means by full implementation, but that his comments to the Wilson Center are significant because they would be another reason not to certify the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which gives the president authority to decide every 90 days whether Iran is complying with the deal. Trump used that legislation as the basis for refusing to recertify the agreement last month.

Amano had also insisted last week that the Iranians are complying with the deal, saying that they are discharging their responsibility without problem, Reuters reported.

Who is correct, the IAEA head or Trump? asked MEMRIs Carmon, while noting that the IAEA had been turned by President [Barack] Obama into a political body to serve his wish to achieve the nuclear deal no matter what the cost.

Carmon noted that the nuclear deal established a political body made up of all parties to the agreementincluding Iran, Russia and Chinacalled the Joint Commission, which can overrule the IAEAs professional judgment. Amano willingly collaborated with all that, Carmon said.

Carmon pointed to Irans refusal to allow inspectors to oversee Section T of the agreementnamely, that Iran is forbidden to develop capabilities of detonating a nuclear explosive device. Amano describes this refusal to allow inspectors as a problem to be discussed by the Joint Commission, not a violation of the nuclear deal, Carmon explained.

This shows the degree of collaboration between Amano, Iran and Russia, said Carmon, a former Middle East adviser to Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Yitzhak Shamir.

Albright said that an Iranian declaration on its activities relating to Section T of the nuclear deal is long overdueIran may be violating Section T. Verifying a declaration from Iran would undoubtedly require visits to military sites where certain controlled equipment would be utilized, he said.

Amano, in his interview with the Financial Times, did acknowledge that greater clarity relating to Section T will be helpful. Yet Albright said he did not hear Amano say they (inspectors) have gone to any military sites since implementation day of the nuclear deal.

Unfortunately, the structure of the Iran deal ironically creates a disincentive for the IAEA to ask to go to military sites, since a denial by Iran would likely bring the deal down, he said.

Another problem, he said, is the refusal of the IAEA to release specific compliance-related information in its reports.

Carmon and Ayelet Savyon, head of the Iran desk at MEMRI, have called attention to congressional testimony by the Obama administration State Departments coordinator on Iran, Stephen Mull, that a shipment of 8.5 tons of enriched uranium sent from Iran to Russia has disappeared and is not being monitored by the IAEA.

How can the agreement be working when this amount of uranium has disappeared? asked Carmon, adding, Theoretically, it could be that the 8.5 tons of enriched uranium were returned to Iran if nobody knows where it is.

And where are the inspections of the military bases, and how come Iran, which has been turned by the JCPOA into an exporter of heavy water, is not subjected to the protocol of other exporting countries like Canada? he said.

According to MEMRIs research, Iran is building more advanced centrifuges than what the nuclear agreement allows for, and the Islamic Republics actual heavy water quota exceeds the quantity permitted while the Iranians are storing some heavy water in Oman.

Oman has become the warehouse for Irans surplus heavy water and enriched uranium and is covering up for Irans nuclear deal violations, Carmon and Savyon wrote.

According to a report by Albrights organization, Iran has modified its Arak heavy water reactor in a way that the nuclear agreement does not authorize.

Deliberate distortions by Iran deal advocates such as former Secretary of State John Kerry, the Ploughshares Fund, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and others muddy the debate about the agreement, said Albright.

Asked what the next step should be regarding the deal, Carmon responded, Congress should not only investigate the compliance to the deal, but also the cover-up by the IAEA.
Henry Rosovsky is flanked by David Sackstein, left, and Sackstein's father, Robert. The younger Sackstein is a Harvard alumnus and now a first-year student at Harvard Law School who has lunch dates with Rosovsky, his mentor. Robert Sackstein is a doctor who teaches at Harvard Medical School.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (JTA)-When Henry Rosovsky first arrived at Harvard University in 1949, a newly minted graduate of the College of William and Mary, the young Jewish refugee could hardly have imagined that a building associated with the Harvard Jewish community would be named in his honor more than four decades later.

Born in 1927 in what is now Gdansk, Poland, Rosovsky had immigrated with his parents to the United States when he was 13. Harvard's quota capping the number of Jewish students was dying out, but the Jews on campus were not exactly out and loud.

"If you go back to the 1950s and 1960s, it was not taken for granted that in the forefront of a university would be a leader so forthright and unapologetically Jewish," said Rabbi Jonah Steinberg, the Harvard chaplain and executive director of its Hillel.

But within the next decade and a half-during which Rosovsky served in the U.S. military, completed his doctorate and taught at the University of California, Berkeley, returning in 1965 to Harvard as an economics professor-he set in motion a flourishing of Jewish life on campus.

In 1978, Rosovsky shepherded the establishment of the Center for Jewish Studies, which was led for decades by Harry Wolfson, the first chairman of a Judaic studies center at an American college. The first Jew to serve on the board of the Harvard Corp., the school's governing body, Rosovsky was a key player in paving the way for Hillel's move from cramped quarters on the outskirts of campus to a location near the center of student life.

"He didn't set out to trumpet his own Jewish identity," but "by being very honestly who they are, they were an example to others," Steinberg said about Rosovsky and his wife, Nitza, a former longtime curator of the Semitic Museum at Harvard.

In 1993, Harvard Hillel broke ground on Rosovsky Hall, a handsome, light-filled building designed for the Jewish student organization by the renowned Israeli architect Moshe Safdie.

On Wednesday, Harvard Hillel will celebrate a dual milestone-Rosovsky's 90th birthday, on Sept. 1, and the building's upcoming 25th anniversary. Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust and former presidents Derek Bok and Neil Rudenstine are scheduled to attend. Lawrence Summers, who preceded Faust as Harvard's first Jewish president, will participate via video.

The celebration kicks off a new campaign to secure the future of Rosovsky Hall and Jewish life on campus, according to a statement by the Harvard Hillel.

"Henry Rosovsky has truly been a towering figure at Harvard," Faust said in an email to JTA. "As a student, alumnus, University Professor, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and, twice, as acting president of the University, it's hard to imagine a vantage point from which Henry hasn't seen-and improved-the institution we all love so much."

In an interview with JTA, Rosovsky-whose fields of expertise are economic history, Japanese economic growth and higher education-recalled how Rabbi Ben-Zion Gold, who led Hillel for 30 years beginning in 1958, would often talk about his desire to relocate.

"I asked him, 'Why aren't you happy where you are?'" Rosovsky recalled.

Gold insisted that without being closer to campus, Hillel would never gain vitality and influence.

With Rosovsky's support, Hillel moved in 1979 to a new location on Mount Auburn Street, a block south of the main campus.

"He was absolutely right. I was wrong. It's made a tremendous difference in terms of activity, usage and influence," Rosovsky told JTA.

Hillel moved again, a block away, to the 19,500-square-foot Safdie building, which was dedicated in 1994. It consists of three vaulted wings surrounding a circular courtyard. The courtyard is open to the street and is designed to accommodate a sukkah.

As the building would include Orthodox, Conservative and Reform services, Safdie told JTA that he designed the glass-walled prayer spaces to be open to each other.

"Praying east, they can see each other," he said in a phone conversation. "They might be in separate halls, but symbolically they are one."

It's a potent symbol that resonates with Elena Hoffenberg, a 2016 alumna and former Hillel student leader. Sitting in the student lounge, it's possible to see all three worship services at the same time.

"It's a beautiful way the building exemplifies Hillel's commitment to pluralism," said Hoffenberg, who now works for the Boston-based Jewish Women's Archive. "After graduation, it's harder to find such a thing."

In his decades-long Harvard career, Rosovsky served as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and several brief appointments as acting president in the 1980s.

Rosovsky's influence is evident beyond Jewish studies, according to Steinberg and Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. Both pointed to his leadership in recruiting Henry Louis Gates Jr in 1991 to lead what is now Harvard's Department of African and African American Studies.

In 1986, on the occasion of Harvard's 350th anniversary, Nitza Rosovsky wrote "The Jewish Experience at Harvard and Radcliffe," a catalog that accompanied an exhibit at the museum. It traces Jewish presence on campus dating back to Judah Monis, who in the 1720s became the first Jew and first Jewish instructor of Hebrew at the college. At the time, Harvard required its instructors to be Christian; Monis converted to Christianity in a public ceremony.

The catalog also notes the formation of the Menorah Society, the Jewish student group that was a precursor to Hillel.

It's a history that includes a well-known period of discrimination in the 1920s, when Harvard used the quota system to restrict admissions for Jewish students. But Rosovsky puts that in historical perspective and points out that Harvard was not alone among higher education institutions in imposing the quota. According to Hillel International, Harvard currently has 803 Jewish students among 4,326 undergrads, nearly 20 percent, and more than two-thirds of its 4,326 graduate students are Jewish.

Steinberg said the Harvard Hillel is sponsoring a new printing of the catalog. A timeline of Jewish life on the campus based on the catalog has been created for the anniversary event with updated material gathered by Hoffenberg, who worked with Nitza Rosovsky and dug deep into the Harvard archives to find posters and other archival records of Harvard Hillel.

On a walk around Harvard Yard, Hoffenberg pointed out a large linden tree planted in 1990 in honor of Harvard's German Refugee Scholars who had come to the campus as part of the college's program to aid German students during the Nazi era.

On Friday night, hundreds of freshmen and their parents mingled in Rosovsky Hall for the freshmen family Shabbat gathering. Following the three separate religious services, students and guests shared a meal in the kosher dining hall, with an overflow crowd seated at tables in the student lounge.

Rosovsky Hall is near the Harvard campus.

Among those at the gathering was David Sackstein, a 2014 Harvard graduate who is now at the university's law school. Sackstein has developed a close relationship with Rosovsky, who he fondly calls his "Harvard zayde," or grandfather.

As an active member of the Harvard Hillel's board of directors, Rosovsky has provided Hillel student leaders perspective on an array of issues that at times can be controversial, Sackstein told JTA, including navigating the often contentious Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rosovsky taught him and others to focus on their mission and values.

Rosovsky Hall reflects its namesake, Sackstein said, as an embassy for the Jewish community at Harvard, open to a diverse cross-section of Jewish students and faculty.

"To have that space," he said, "the dining hall that is open to all, and to have programs that are far reaching means that we have cross-cultural dialogue and educational opportunities in everything we do"
This week, the Holocaust Center, located in Maitland, launched the first media campaign in the organization's 30-year history to raise awareness of its mission to combat racism, bigotry and bullying.

While the Center has run ads in the past, the campaign, Make Hate History, aims to increase the Center's profile and attract new visitors and supporters. It uses provocative messages that highlight recent incidents across the nation, and right in our own backyard, to inspire activism.

Ads will run for six months in newspapers, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and outdoor boards throughout Central Florida and feature bold headlines set against a bright yellow background. They are the first wave of a multi-media effort which the organization hopes will grow to include television spots, YouTube videos and user-generated content on social media.

The Center is responding to disturbing acts of hatred such as the violent protests in Charlottesville, bomb threats to Jewish community centers and increased bullying on school campuses.

"One needs only to turn on the TV or scroll through Facebook to feel overwhelmed by the rise of hate speech and the targeting of minorities-even in our own community," said Pam Kancher, executive director of the Holocaust Center. "We don't have to feel afraid or angry or defeated. We can raise our voices and make a difference."

Last January, Kancher discovered a swastika at her front door. Last fall, Lake Brantley High School in Seminole County found a rash of the Nazi symbols painted on its campus. This month, the KKK sent out recruitment flyers in nearby Flagler Beach.

"We want our community, and those beyond our region, to not only be aware that we are a long-standing resource and beacon, but to join us," said Mark Freid, president of the Holocaust Center board. "This isn't a Jewish issue. This isn't a minority issue. This isn't a school issue. Hatred affects us all. This campaign is a call to action for everyone in this great, inclusive community to continue to offer hope, healing and acceptance."

In addition to the campaign, the Holocaust Center is launching a fundraising effort that will support community programming and exhibits that carry out its mission.

The ads were created pro-bono by the award-winning Orlando creative agency, Push, which also created #KeepDancingOrlando last year after its team members were deeply affected by the Pulse tragedy.

According to John Ludwig, Push CEO, "We are always looking to use the endless talent here at the agency to become involved in the daily conversations and concerns that affect our city and the world. To truly Make Hate History, we knew we had to join the Holocaust Center in its mission and use those same talents to drive their message home."

For more information about the Holocaust Center and the campaign, go to MakeHateHistory.com or contact Pam Kancher, executive director of the Holocaust Center, 407-628-0555.
An earthquake survivor sits on debris in front of his house.

Israel offered aid to the Islamic republic after it was was hit by a powerful earthquake but was turned down, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Addressing the Jewish Federations of North America's (JFNA) annual General Assembly in Los Angeles via videoconference on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Israel had offered the aid via the Red Cross.

"I just saw the pictures of the destruction in Iran and Iraq from this week's earthquake. And I saw these heartbreaking images of men and women and children buried under the rubble. So I am proud to announce tonight that a few hours ago I directed that we offer the Red Cross medical assistance for the Iraqi and Iranian victims of this disaster," Netanyahu said, according to the Times of Israel.

At least 530 people were killed and 7,700 more were injured when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake shook a mountainous Iranian border town in the West on Sunday, triggering landslides that hindered rescue efforts and left hundreds of houses damaged.

Israel is world-renowned for the IDF's crack search and rescue unit, which recently returned from a recovery mission in quake-struck Mexico.

"I've said many times that we have no quarrel with the people of Iran," he underscored. "Our quarrel is only with the tyrannical regime that holds them hostage and threatens our destruction. But our humanity is greater than their hatred. Israel continues to be a light unto the nations and this is what I am proud of. And all of you can be proud of Israel's morals, and Israel's might."

As expected, the offer was immediately rejected.

"This shows the true face of the Iranian regime," an official in Netanyahu's office said.

Iran does not recognize Israel right to exist and often threatens to destroy it.

In 2003, Tehran rejected a similar Israeli offer of assistance after a quake in the southeastern Iranian city of Bam killed more than 26,000 people. In 2012, when two quakes hit the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, killing more than 300 people and injuring 3,000, Israel did not offer assistance, citing the rejected offer.
(JNS.org)A complaint filed by New Jerseys Attorney General Christopher Porrino this week alleges that the New Jersey township of Mahwah has introduced laws that openly discriminate against Orthodox Jews, aimed at deterring them from moving into the area.

A nine-count complaint filed on Tuesday accuses the towns public officials of using methods implemented by white flight suburbanites in the 1950s to keep African-Americans from moving into their neighborhoods.

The lawsuit centers on two laws, introduced in the town last summer, that were purportedly created to deter religious Jews from moving to Mahwah from New York.

The first ordinance, which became law in July, bans out-of-state residents from utilizing the towns public parks and recreational facilities.

The second ordinance, which did not become law, extended a prohibition on placing signs on utility polls to include any device, in an attempt to ban religiously observant Jews from using the poles to create an eruv that would enable them to carry items and push strollers on Shabbat.

The complaint also challenges actions the township has taken to have an existing eruv removed, reads Porrinos complaint.

The complaint, filed in Bergen County Superior Court, seeks to block the two edicts and the return of more than $3.4 million that the town received in Green Acres Grants from the state of New Jersey.
At its 2017 National Conference in South Florida, the Jewish National Fund announced plans to expand its Alexander Muss High School in Israel and build a state-of-the-art park in Beer Sheva. These new projects will further transform Beer Sheva as a part of JNFs goal to revitalize Southern Israel through its Blueprint Negev initiative.

While Beer Sheva is Israels second largest city, twice the size of Tel Aviv, it ranks sixth in terms of population. Today, the city is in the midst of a renaissance as it becomes Israels water city in the desert. JNFs projects are changing Beer Shevas image among both residents and tourists. In fact, Beer Sheva is easily the most likely Israeli city to become known on an international scale, thanks to its public works and bustling city streets.

I am so grateful to be here in Florida with Jewish National Funds donors, said Beer Sheva Mayor Ruvik Danilovich. JNF is transforming our city, and we owe everything, all of our successes, to Jewish National Fund for Russell F. Robinsons [JNFs CEO] forward-thinking strategy and Blueprint Negev initiative to bring 500,000 people here. I can tell you its going to happen.

Beer Sheva, often referred to as the capital of the Negev, is the crown jewel of Jewish National Funds Blueprint Negev initiative which aims to improve quality of life for all residents of the region and encourage a population shift away from crowded, expensive central Israel. Danilovich is working with JNF to construct a new park that will increase the quality of life for the citys residents while also attracting new residents and tourists, providing a boost to the local economy.

Previously, JNF has worked with Danilovich on several projects for the city including a 15,000 seat amphitheater, new infrastructure, a bridge that crosses the Beer Sheva River, and the destination site Abrahams Well. In addition, the centerpiece of JNFs efforts in the city is the development of the 1,300 acres Beer Sheva River Park, a world-class $300 million urban revitalization initiative that has turned what was once a massive junkyard into a lush greenway for pedestrians and bicyclist and, as importantly, a space for family celebrations and community festivals.

Jewish National Funds National Board president, Dr. Sol Lizerbram, announced plans to open a new campus in Beer Sheva for AMHSI-JNF. In addition to its campus in Hod HaSharon, located just 20 minutes outside of Tel Aviv, this new campus will make is possible for AMHSI-JNF to bring some 5,000 students annually to Israel to take part in a choice of six-, eight-, or 16-week sessionscurrently, AMHSI-JNF has roughly 1,200 students matriculating annually. The campus is expected to cost between $50-60 million and will bring new jobs to the community while also enabling additional high school students from U.S. to experience Israel in an impactful way.

The addition of a Beer Sheva campus is a double victory for Alexander Muss High School in Israel, said Joseph Wolfson, President of the AMHSI-JNF Board and Jewish National Funds National Board Assistant Vice President. We remain committed to a significant and continued growth in the student body, with teens coming to learn with us from the United States, Australia and beyond, and this new location will allow us to facilitate that increase. Furthermore, we are proud to do our part in supporting the development of Beer Sheva, a city that our parent organization, Jewish National Fund, has been dedicated to for many years.

Since 1972, AMHSI-JNF has been pioneering the academic and experiential study of Israel and Jewish history at the high school level. Students are inspired to live outside their books, encounter new ideas and challenge themselves to find their own link within the chain of Jewish continuity. Studying abroad isnt just for college students, time spent abroad during high school is the perfect way to enhance students resumes and help stand out when applying to top colleges.

Throughout Jewish National Funds three-day National Conference in South Florida, more than 1,200 people participated and heard some of the most dynamic speakers in Jewish philanthropy today share their inspiring stories to continue building on the organizations strong connection to Israel. In addition, the gathering also welcomed 250 students from over 100 campuses to attend JNFs College Summit, making this the largest gathering of college students in Jewish National Funds history.

Jewish National Funds 2018 National Conference will take place in Phoenix, Arizona, on Oct. 26-29. For more information and to register for the 2018 JNF National Conference, please visit jnf.org/events-landing-pages/2018-national-conference.
Joseph Wittenstein, Z"L, (1914-2008) had a remarkable grasp of the Orlando-area history and an ability to recall details from most of the 20th century that proved invaluable in understanding the city's past. Wittenstein also enriched Central Florida through his wide civic and philanthropic involvement. For these reasons and more, the Orange County Regional History Center is honoring Wittenstein posthumously with the Donald A. Cheny Award on Nov. 30 at the Center.

The Donald A. Cheny Award recognizes the "champions" of the Central Florida community, who embody a love, reverence and unfailing dedication for the area's history. It celebrates its namesake, Judge Donald A. Cheney (1889-1983), founder of the Orange County Historical Society and the History Center.

During the nation's Bicentennial celebration, 1975-1976, Wittenstein researched and wrote a history about Jewish settlers in Orange County that became an essential document in the Historical Society's research collection. It is on display during Kehillah: A History of Jewish Life in Greater Orlando through Feb. 20, 2018.

The event to honor Wittenstein will be held Nov. 30 at the History Center, 65 E. Central Blvd., from 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. RSVP to Amanda Henry, 407-836-7046.
Holocaust survivors Genia Kutner and Gerald Biegel will share their stores with high school students (and anyone else) at Oviedo High School on Dec. 11. This program was originally scheduled for Sept. 12, but thanks to Hurricane Irma, it was postponed.

The program, dedicated to unity, is titled "One Day Starts Today," and is presented by the Jewish Student Union, JOIN Orlando and StandWithUs.

JSU is an after-school club, run by teenagers, that strives to build a community where unity is the priority.

Doors open at 6 p.m. and the program will begin at 6:30 p.m. Oviedo High School is located at 601 King St., Oviedo.

For more information, contact Daniel Nabatian at dnabatian@joinorlando.org or call 516-426-8484.
More than 160 men from around Central Florida came together on Nov. 2 for an evening of camaraderie with all that "men stuff," you know-steak, drinks, and a great comedian. The event, co-sponsored by the Men's Clubs and Brotherhoods of Congregation Ohev Shalom, Temple Israel, Congregation Beth Am, Congregation of Reform Judaism and Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation, in conjunction with the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, was profitable, netting about $12,000 for local Jewish youth educational programs.

The Men's Night Out committee all agreed that this is worth doing every year and even have a (tentative) date-Nov. 8, 2018, mark it on the calendar!

"I had men asking if we could have this event two or three times a year," said planning committee member Bart Neuman. "But they don't know we started last February to get this act together!"

"This was a first-time happening with men in the Jewish community," said Jeff Gaeser, publisher of the Heritage Florida Jewish News. "It should be an annual event. The comedian was funny, the food was good and I saw so many people I hadn't seen in years."

One of the goals the committee had was to reach "unaffiliated" Jewish men in the community, and they were successful-about 40 men not actively involved in a synagogue attended the event.

The committee learned a lot about pulling together an event, and are going to send out follow-up surveys to all the attendees for suggestions on how to make the Men's Night Out even better next year.
Mexico has reportedly announced that it will change its voting strategy at the United Nations (UN) and other international bodies by stopping to vote in favor of the Palestinians.

According to Israels Yedioth Ahronoth daily, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Figari contacted Israeli Ambassador to Mexico Yoni Pelad and told him of the shift in strategy for all upcoming voting procedures related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The report said that Mexico will change from voting in favor of the Palestinians to abstaining or voting for Israels interests.

The report comes as Mexico earlier this month sided with Israel in a UNESCO vote.

In mid-September, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his first-ever official visit to Mexico.

During his historic visit to Latin America, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico City and signed several agreements that bolster the ties and cooperation between the two countries.

During the same month, Israel provided humanitarian aid to the country following a powerful earthquake there.

Mexico will not forget the aid it received from Israel following the earthquake that left over 300 people dead and thousand injured and displaced, Mexican Ambassador to Israel Pablo Macedo Riba said as he greeted the IDF aid delegation upon their to Israel.

Right after the earthquake, the prime minister ordered this amazing delegation be dispatched, and all of this happened during Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year), and we appreciate it very much. With the good of your hearts, you conquered the heart of Mexico and of the Mexican People, the ambassador said as he teared up.

The delegation, which consisted of nearly 70 paramedics, rescue workers, and engineers, was sent out on the eve of Rosh Hashana to assist in the relief efforts in Mexico amid the destruction caused by a 7.1 quake.
Speaking exclusively with JNS.org, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman on Sunday night confirmed a report that a team from the Trump administration is drafting an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

"We're working very hard on it," Friedman said of the Mideast peace proposal, in an interview at the Zionist Organization of America's (ZOA) annual awards dinner in New York City. "It's hard to comment on it while we're in the middle, because it's delicate." He added that more information about the plan will be publicized in "a few months."

Friedman is on the four-person team drafting the proposal, along with President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, and Deputy National Security Advisor Dina Powell. The New York Times reported Saturday that the team is consulting with U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem Donald Blome, as well as others from the State Department and the National Security Council.

The ambassador was among the honorees at Sunday's ZOA event. Friedman told the crowd that while the U.S. is "the nation of my birth, the nation of my citizenship," Israel "is the nation of my faith [and] no loyal American need apologize for loving Israel and urging our government to support it. Support for Israel is a quintessential American value."

He added, "The United States government treats Israel the way it deserves to be treated: as a critical strategic and trusted ally in one of the world's toughest neighborhoods. Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and I agree that we have turned a page on the relationship between Israel and the United States. It is a change for the better."

Following his remarks on stage, Friedman told JNS.org that American support for Israel is "becoming too tilted to one party (the GOP) and it's got to get back to where everybody supports Israel."

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer offered a different take, saying that the "great commitment" characterizing current U.S. support for the Jewish state is "not necessarily a partisan thing."

"The more the Middle East becomes a hotbed of activity, the more that the United States recognizes the importance of Israel and that we need to, on both sides of the aisle, stand strong with them," Spicer told JNS.org. "At the end of the day, when you look at the position of the U.S. government on both sides of the aisle, I think you continue to see a steadfast support for what we need to do as a government to help and support Israel."

Bannon 'proud to be a Christian Zionist'

Former White House senior counselor and current Breitbart.com CEO Steve Bannon was also honored at the ZOA event. He spoke of "an insurgency movement against the Republican establishment," lamenting how fellow Republicans have not acknowledged the ousted strategist's accomplishments during his tenure in the administration.

"In the first nine or 10 months of [Trump's] administration, [the U.S.] destroyed the physical caliphate of ISIS. People forget," a furious Bannon told the audience. "The opposition party will never tell you. [They'll say] 'Oh, President Trump is just following through on Barack Obama's plan.' Yeah, I don't remember ISIS being eradicated on his watch. In 2014, ISIS had 8 million people under their reign and in the first nine months of President Trump's administration, it's eradicated."

He continued, "There are so many games being played by the establishment. They lower the bar of what they are supposed to be. You get dulled down all the time. That's how you get the Iran deal. That's how we still allow the American government to finance people who have blood on their hands of innocent Jewish civilians... It's time for us to act, and I believe the only way to act is not through moderation. I am not a moderate, I'm a fighter, and that's why I'm proud to stand with the state of Israel. That's why I'm proud to be a Christian Zionist."

Bannon said the "radical left" is trying to "nullify" the 2016 presidential election, adding, "President Trump needs our back because we're a nation at war, and this war is only going to be won if we bind together and work as partners."

Israel's priorities: 'Iran, Iran and Iran'

Iran's nuclear program was another major theme at the ZOA dinner. Ambassador Friedman said that if Netanyahu were asked for his three top foreign policy objectives, "he will tell you it is Iran, Iran and Iran."

"This is not the same as saying 'location, location, location' when talking about real estate," Friedman said. "In Iran, there are three independent things to be concerned about: Iran as a nuclear power that threatens to annihilate Israel; Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism through Hezbollah and other proxies; and Iran as regional superpower expanding through Iraq, Syria and Yemen and filling the vacuum created by the defeat of ISIS."

Upon accepting his own ZOA award, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) told the star-studded room of guests that Israel "must never stand alone" in its fight against a nuclear-armed Iran.

"Red, white and blue must stand beside blue and white," Cotton said, referencing the colors of the American and Israeli flags. "We are in this fight together, all the way until the end. Remember the ayatollah's chant, 'Death to Israel' and 'Death to America'... Our two nations have never ducked a challenge."

The senator added that if forced to act, the U.S. can "totally destroy" Iran's nuclear arsenal, and if the Iranians "choose to rebuild it, we can destroy it again until they get the picture."
(JNS.org)The Gaza-based terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) vowed Sunday to take revenge on Israel following the IDFs recent destruction of a cross-border attack tunnel. The Israeli operation killed 10 PIJ operatives, including two senior commanders.

The threats to target the movements leadership is a declaration of war, which we will confront, the terror group said in statement disseminated by its media affiliate, Palestine Today News Agency.

The PIJ threat was issued after Israels Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai warned the terror group not to retaliate for the tunnels destruction, stating that PIJ would be held responsible for an attack on Israel and that any attack by the Islamic Jihad will be met with a powerful and determined Israeli response, not only against the Jihad, but also against Hamas, which controls Gaza.

In response to Mordechai, the terror group reaffirmed its right to respond to the crime of aggression on the resistance tunnel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at Israels weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, There are those who still amuse themselves these days by trying to renew attacks against Israel. We will take a very firm stance against anyone who tries to attack us or attacks us from any area. I mean any source: rogue factions, organizationsanyone. In any event, we see Hamas responsible for any attack launched or organized from the Gaza Strip against us.
JERUSALEM (JTA)The Palestinian Authority has threatened to suspend communications with the United States if moves ahead with closing the Palestine Liberation Organizations office in Washington, D.C.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement posted on social media that the Palestinians would put on hold all our communications with this American administration.

The State Department has refused to renew permission for the PLO to operate its office in Washington, D.C., for the first time since in about three decades. The decision can be overturned if President Donald Trump determines that the Palestinians have entered into direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.
Washington, D.C.The RJC released the following statement from Executive Director Matt Brooks:

Today, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs took a big step to enhance the security of Americans and Israelis. Sponsored by Representatives Doug Lamborn and Lee Zeldin, the Taylor Force Act takes the steps necessary to cut off American taxpayer money from going to the Palestinian Authority while the PA continues to encourage and incentivize the murder and injury of Israelis and Americans. The passage of the Taylor Force Act by the House Foreign Affairs Committee now paves the way for passage of the bill by the full House of Representatives. This bill, spearheaded by Republicans in the House and Senate, is in line with our partys rock solid commitment to our great ally, Israel.

The RJC is very proud to have been the first and strongest supporter of the Taylor Force Act, and we promise to continue our dogged work to pass the bill.
NEW YORK (JTA)-Stephen Bannon, the former chief strategist for President Donald Trump, called himself a "Christian Zionist" at the Zionist Organization of America's annual dinner.

He also praised Republican Jewish megadonor Sheldon Adelson for his help in guiding Trump through a sexual assault scandal.

Bannon, at what may have been his first speech at a Jewish event since becoming associated with Trump last year, received a standing ovation and loud applause throughout his speech on Sunday in New York. He was one of many current and former Trump administration officials to attend the event, including Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who also spoke, former press secretary Sean Spicer and Sebastian Gorka, a former adviser to Trump who has ties to the Hungarian far right.

"I am not a moderate, I'm a fighter," Bannon said. "And that's why I'm proud to stand with the State of Israel. That's why I'm proud to be a Christian Zionist. "

The ZOA, which takes hawkish positions on Israel, has been outspoken in its support of Trump, as compared to other large Jewish organizations. Its lineup of speakers Sunday included several Republicans, including Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, and a couple of centrist Democrats: legal scholar Alan Dershowitz and former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

Bannon shepherded the final months of Trump's presidential campaign and served as one of his chief advisers until August. He supports what he calls "economic nationalist" policies, including limits on immigration and wariness of international agreements. He is the chairman of Breitbart News, a hardline right-wing publication.

Speaking to the ZOA, Bannon said Trump's election victory "would not have come without one other person besides Donald Trump-Sheldon Adelson."

In particular, he said Adelson's advice helped Trump overcome the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump boasted about sexually assaulting a woman.

"Sheldon Adelson didn't cut and run," Bannon said, regarding the time after the scandal broke. "Sheldon Adelson had Donald Trump's back. Sheldon Adelson offered guidance and counsel and wisdom of how to get through it. He was there for Donald Trump about how to comport oneself and how to dig down deep, and it was his guidance and his wisdom that helped get us through it."

Liberal Jewish groups protested Bannon's appointment to the Trump White House last year because of Breitbart's links to the "alt-right," a loose network that includes white supremacists. Bannon has called Breitbart "the platform for the alt-right." But he has disavowed white supremacists on a few occasions and said he is not a white nationalist.

A group of protesters from IfNotNow, a Jewish group that opposes Israel's West Bank occupation, demonstrated against Bannon's speech outside the dinner, which took place at the Grand Hyatt. The group also protested the event last year, when Bannon was invited but did not come.

The crowd at the dinner warmly welcomed the Trump advisers, and they touted the president's record on Israel. In his address, Friedman harshly criticized the Obama administration's Israel record while praising Trump's. In particular, he lambasted the U.N. Security Council resolution in December that condemned Israeli West Bank settlements. The United States abstained, declining to veto the measure.

"We came into office on the heels of perhaps the greatest betrayal of Israel by a sitting president in American history," Friedman said. "I hope you agree with me that we have turned a page since the dark days of last December. Gone are the days when the United Nations bashes Israel with impunity."

Friedman also said Trump sees eye to eye with Israel's government on opposing the 2015 agreement on Iran's nuclear program, which Israel views as dangerous for its security. Referencing a terror attack this year in the West Bank, he said Trump is more sympathetic to Israeli settlements than previous administrations-though he avoided using the word "settlement." And he said Trump's peace plan, which is still being formulated, will prioritize Israeli security.

"The president recognizes the critical importance that Judea and Samaria never become the failed experiment that we saw in the Gaza Strip," Friedman said, using a term for the West Bank favored by Israel's right. "And perhaps most importantly, you will never hear the president make the case, as his predecessor did, that there is some symmetrical relationship between, let's say, building a house in the Samarian village of Halamish and the brutal murder of a father, son and a daughter in Halamish at a Shabbat table."

Speaking at a news conference before the dinner, ZOA President Morton Klein criticized the Trump peace plan, saying that he feels negotiations are useless because the Palestinian Authority is not interested in peace. He compared the P.A. to Nazis and slammed it for providing stipends to families of terrorists.

"The goal is not statehood, the goal is Israel's destruction," Klein said. "They're nothing but a bunch of Arab Nazis who want to murder Jews."

Bannon in his speech framed Trump's Israel record as part of fighting Islamic terrorism in the Middle East. He said two of Trump's top priorities coming into the White House were moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv-a promise Trump repeatedly made but has yet to fulfill-and decertifying the agreement on Iran's nuclear program, which Trump did last month.

"He said, 'Destroy the physical caliphate of ISIS, designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, decertify or renegotiate the Iran deal and move the embassy to Jerusalem,'" Bannon said of Trump.

Later, he called Trump "the strongest supporter of Israel since Ronald Reagan," though Reagan as president was not unequivocally supportive of Israel.

Bannon also repeated some of his trademark phrases. He called the media the "opposition party" three times while gesturing at the press tables in the back of the room. Near the beginning of the speech, he listed a string of exit poll results, state by state, from the 2016 presidential election. And he spoke in militant terms about his fight against establishment politicians and the "global class."

"We're leading an insurgency movement against the Republican establishment, against the permanent global class in Washington, D.C.," he said.

That line did not receive applause from the mostly Jewish crowd.
On Sunday, Dec. 10, 2017, The Orlando Chapter of Hadassah will host a private showing of Holocaust Art by Judith Dazzio at The Holocaust Center in Maitland beginning at 1 p.m.

Dazzio will personally present and discuss her paintings followed by an afternoon tea catered by Arthur's Orlando Catering.

Judith Dazzio is the owner and lead instructor at Dazzio Art Experience School of Art. She is also the proprietor of Dazzio Art Gallery in St. Petersburg, Florida. She received her B. S. degree in art education from the University of New Hampshire. Her graduate work was completed at the Massachusetts College of Art and Boston University.

Dazzio lived several years in Louisiana where she taught art and eventually became the State director of Art Education. After moving to Florida, she continued to teach and paint. She has exhibited in many one-person, gallery and museum shows in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Dazzio has been painting most of her life, and her work can be found in many collections throughout the world. Her style is considered expressionistic and in most cases includes people.

Dazzio has never forgotten the story of the Holocaust Survivor who spoke to her sixth-grade class. She recalls, "I can still see her holding up those faded pictures of her children that had been killed, and remember how she started crying when she talked about them..."

She doesn't remember her name, nor has she been able to find out who she was, but as a 12-year-old schoolgirl, Dazzio made a promise: one day, she was going to honor the extraordinary woman whose story cannot be forgotten.

Over the course of 10 years, this St. Petersburg, Fla.-based artist fulfilled her promise. "The Profound Effect" visually represents the testimony of this Holocaust Survivor through intense color and vivid, deeply emotional imagery. Equal parts beautiful and haunting, this exhibit will have a "profound effect" on you, too.

Make your reservations today to take advantage of this is a wonderful opportunity to meet the artist and hear her account of what lead her, a non-Jewish woman, to become emotionally invested in the Holocaust.

The couvert is $10 per person and full donor credit is offered to all members.

This very special event is open to the public.

RSVP to Nancy Greenfield at Nancyg357@yahoo.com or 407-415-6892.
Transparent star Jeffrey Tambor denies second sexual harassment accusation

(JTA)Jeffrey Tambor, the star of the Emmy-winning television comedy Transparent, denied sexual harassment allegations made by a female member of the shows cast a week after denying similar charges by his former assistant.

Tambor issued the denial in a statement Friday in response to claims made earlier in the week by Trace Lysette, who has played the recurring character Shea on the Amazon series since its first season, MNE reported.

Lysette wrote on Twitter that Tambor had made sexual advances and comments toward her and one time it got physical.

Tambor, who is Jewish, plays the transgender head of dysfunctional Jewish family in the series.

He said in his statement: I know I havent always been the easiest person to work with. I can be volatile and ill-tempered, and too often I express my opinions harshly and without tact. But I have never been a predatorever.

The claims against Tambor, which are the subject of an internal probe launched by Amazon, are the latest in a string of complaints made against celebrities in the wake of a New York Times article last month about the alleged harassment by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was fired from the company he founded over the allegations.

Tambors former assistant, Van Barnes, a transgender woman, made the allegations in a private Facebook post on Nov. 8 that was not widely circulated in the media. Tambor dismissed them as baseless charges coming from a disgruntled former assistant.

Lysette said Tambor sexualized her in front of co-star Alexandra Billings during a break on set. The actress said she laughed off the comments because it was so absurd and she thought surely it had to be a joke. But she claimed the harassment turned physical later that day.

In between takes, I stood in a corner on the set as the crew reset for a wide shot. My back was against the wall in a corner as Jeffrey approached me, Lysette tweeted. He came in close, put his bare feet on top of mine so I could not move, leaned his body against me, and began quick, discreet thrusts back and forth against my body. I felt his penis on my hip through his thin pajamas and I pushed him off of me.

Amazon launched an investigation into the sexual harassment claims made by Barnes earlier this month, and the company said it is aware of Lysettes accusation and is now looking into it as well.

According to Deadline, the writers of Transparent are contemplating writing Tambor out of the fifth season of the show.

Jared Kushner was contacted about WikiLeaks and Russia ahead of election, senators say

(JTA)White House senior adviser Jared Kushner exchanged emails about WikiLeaks in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said.

The assertion, which comes amid a probe of alleged Russian intervention in the election, came Thursday in a letter sent by the committees chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to Kushners lawyer.

Prior to the election, WikiLeaks published emails, widely thought to have been hacked by the Russian government, damaging to Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee.

In the letter, Grassley and Feinstein say Kushner received an email about WikiLeaks in September 2016 and passed it on to an official within Trumps campaign, along with a message about a Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite, The Hill reported.

The two senators demanded additional documents from Kushner, who is Trumps son-in-law, as part of the committees ongoing investigation of Russias election interference.

There was also evidence that Kushner received copies of communications between unnamed others and Sergei Millian, a Belarusian-American businessman who gave authorities information about alleged Russian intervention in American politics.

Reports about the senators letter did not include precise information about the content of the emails they are seeking.

Kushner, who said he would cooperate with authorities probing the affair and has divulged some information, did not provide the emails in question, the senators wrote.

You also have not produced any phone records that we presume exist and would relate to Mr. Kushners communications regarding several requests, they added in the letter to Kushners lawyer, Abbe Lowell.

The letter says the documents provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee are incomplete, and gives Lowell until Nov. 27 to comply with the request.

It appears that your search may have overlooked several documents, the letter says.

Lowell said Thursday that Kushner and his legal representation have replied to all the requests they have received and will continue to cooperate with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

We provided the Judiciary Committee with all relevant documents that had to do with Mr. Kushners calls, contacts or meetings with Russians during the campaign and transition, which was the request, Lowell said in a statement.

The revelation that Kushner received communication about WikiLeaks prior to the November 2016 election comes several days after Donald Trump Jr,. the presidents son, confirmed his correspondence with WikiLeaks leading up to the vote.

Genesis Prize co-founder denies report that award to Ruth Bader Ginsburg was consolation prize

(JTA)The co-founder of the foundation that awards the Genesis Prize, known as the Jewish Nobel, denied a report that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was intended to be the awards 2018 laureate but instead was given a lifetime achievement award as a consolation prize.

Stan Polovets denied the veracity of an article published Friday in Haaretz, which quoted unnamed sources saying that the $1 million award given last week to actress Natalie Portman was originally going to the Jewish Supreme Court justice.

The foundation then created a new prize, a lifetime achievement award, to give Ginsburg as a consolation prize, the article said. The awards were announced a week apart.

The unnamed sources gave Haaretz varying reasons for the alleged change of plans, including that Ginsburg had been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and that the Supreme Court does not allow its justices to accept such monetary awards.

Polovets, who also serves as the Genesis Prize Foundations chairman and CEO, told JTA on Friday that Ginsburg was never on the final shortlist for the award. She had been among a group of 15 people who were told that they were being considered for the award, so she contacted a womens rights group in Israel to which she was considering giving the money if she were to win. However, the foundation was told by a Supreme Court legal counsel that justices are barred from accepting monetary awards, so Ginsburg was not on the final shortlist, Polovets said.

He denied claims made by Haaretz that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office had been involved in the decision making. The Genesis Prize was established as a partnership between Russian-Jewish philanthropists and the Israeli government.

The prime minister in the five years of the Genesis Prize has never interfered or injected himself, Polovets said. Hes not even aware of the laureates name until the press release is issued.

Polovets said the lifetime award was created to honor worthy individuals who could not accept the prize due to work or time limitations.

This year when we began discussions with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and it turned out that she would not be able to accept the award, we thought it would be very important to honor her, he said. We consulted with the first five laureates and came up with idea for the lifetime achievement award, which they unanimously agreed should go to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The foundation is considering awarding the lifetime award on a yearly basis, Polovets said.

The Genesis Prize was founded in 2012. Along with Portman, the other laureates are former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, violinist Itzhak Perlman and sculptor Anish Kapoor.

House passes tax reform that critics warn could politicize houses of worship

(JTA)The U.S. House of Representatives passed major tax reform legislation along party lines that critics said effectively repeals an amendment designed to keep houses of worship nonpartisan.

The vote Thursday was 227-205, with 13 House Republicans joining all Democrats to oppose the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Its passage represents the advancement of a key agenda item for President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, CNN reported.

The Anti-Defamation League said the bill constitutes a repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which bars tax-exempt nonprofits from endorsing or opposing candidates. For decades, the ADL said, the amendment has protected the integrity of houses of worship and other non-profit organizations by prohibiting them from endorsing or opposing political candidates.

ADLs national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, warned that undermining the Johnson Amendments critical protections will politicize the pews and foster inappropriate religious entanglement with politics. ADL is deeply troubled and disappointed by the development, the group said in a statement.

Noting that the Senates current version of the tax bill does not contain a similar repeal, ADL added that the Senate must be resolute on this issue by taking a stand to keep divisive politics out of our houses of worship.

While the bills passage in the Republican-controlled House was largely drama free, the prospects for the measure are more unclear in the Senate, where Republicans hold only a two-seat majority, CNN noted.

The House Republican tax plan, released Nov. 2, condenses the current seven tax brackets to three, nearly doubles the standard deduction and caps the amount taxpayers can write off in state taxes at $10,000. The Senate Republican plan, released Nov. 8, eliminates the state and local tax deduction and keeps the current seven brackets but lowers rates.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote its version out of committee on Friday, according to The New York Times, with a full Senate vote expected after Thanksgiving.

Dozens of Jewish nonprofits, charitable organizations and religious institutions last week urged Congress to refrain from passing legislation that compromises the Johnson Amendment.

A letter signed by 55 Jewish groups was sent last week to the chairman and ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Charitable nonprofits and houses of worship can only be successful if we maintain public trust in our integrity and commitment to mission, the letter reads. Politicizing them for the benefit of politicians and partisan donors would destroy that trust. Every charitable dollar spent on partisan campaign politics is one less dollar spent on the public good.

In addition to ADL, groups representing all streams of Judaism except the Orthodox community signed the letter, as did Jewish community relations councils and the Jewish federations of several cities. The Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs also signed the letter, as did the American Jewish Committee and Bnai Brith International.

2 Israelis wounded, one severely, in West Bank car-ramming attack

(JTA)Two Israelis were wounded, one seriously, in a West Bank car-ramming attack allegedly by a Palestinian teenager who later was shot.

Even Ezer Holaring, a 35-year-old father of five, suffered a serious head injury Friday in what police are calling a terrorist attack. David Ramati, 70, was moderately wounded in the attack at the Efrat South junction near Jerusalem. Both live in the Kiryat Arba settlement outside Hebron.

The driverIzz al-Din Ali Abu Rmeishan Karajeh, 17, from the Hebron areawas shot while attempting to stab soldiers near the scene of the initial attack, Army Radio reported.

The assailant was severely injured and treated at the scene by Israeli forces before being evacuated along with the victims for further treatment in Jerusalem, an Israeli army spokesman told the Maan news agency.

Holaring immigrated to Israel in 2006 from India and is a member of the Bnei Menashe community.

Jewish familys adopted son accused of scrawling Hitler slur on Chabad preschool

(JTA)A Florida teenager who was adopted by a Jewish family is accused of trashing a Jewish preschool and scrawling a statement mentioning Hitler.

Michael Dami, 19, is accused of breaking in the Naples Preschool of the Arts, part of the Chabad Jewish Center, on Oct. 18, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage and writing with a red lipstick on a wall inside: ! YOU JEWS NEVER! LEARN!! HEIL HITLER! CNBC-2 reported Friday. Police said he was caught on surveillance video.

Once inside, it appears that he used a fire extinguisher to start smashing televisions and bookshelves and other equipment, according to Lt. Seth Finman of the Naples Police Department.

Dami struggles with drugs and mental health, his adopted father said.

On Wednesday, detectives arresting Dami on a separate warrant found several credit cards and checks that were stolen from the preschool, according to CNBC. In court the following day, Dami was not allowed to post bond for two of his charges, which are both first-degree felonies.

Police said the State Attorneys Office could increase Damis charges because the incident could potentially be treated as a hate crime.

British Labour Party readmits member accused of Holocaust revisionism, bars another

(JTA)The British Labour Party punished an activist for making an anti-Semitic remark about Adolf Hitler after reinstating a member accused of Holocaust revisionism.

Labour activist Nasreen Khan was passed over this week from representing Labour at a municipal election over her 2012 Facebook post about Jews in which she said teachers are brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler, according to the Jewish News Khan said she regretted the text, which also read, What have the Jews done good in this world?

Separately, philosopher Moshe Machover was readmitted after writing that Nazism and Zionism had a basic agreement.

The developments are the latest in a two-year saga involving anti-Semitism in Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, who was elected party leader in 2015 and this year led his opposition movement to a major electoral feat despite accusations by British Jewish groups that he is responsible for whitewashing and tolerating the hatred of Jews.

Earlier this month Corbyn, who last year said he regretted in 2009 calling Hezbollah and Hamas his friends, said he was glad about the reinstatement of Machover, an Israel-born anti-Zionist Jew who in September published an article alleging that the Nazis had been supporters of Zionism before they began murdering Jews in Europe and the Middle East.

Machover was briefly suspended from Labour over the article, in which he quotes a document by Reinhard Heydrich, an architect of the Holocaust, making a friendly mention of Zionism, indicating an area of basic agreement it shared with Nazism, as Machover described it.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism accused Machover of Holocaust revisionism for the article, in which the author quoted a 1935 essay by Heydrich saying that the Nazi government finds itself in complete agreement with the great spiritual movement within Jewry itself, so-called Zionism.

Ken Livingstone, a former mayor of London, was suspended for one year earlier this year from Labour over similar claims.

David Hirsh, a senior lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, accused Machover of disingenuously monstering of Jews and of Israel with the Heydrich quote. Hirsh said this is evident from a passage demonizing Zionism in Mein Kampf, written by Adolf Hitler.

There should be no place in democratic Labour politics for Machovers misrepresentation of history, Hirsh wrote last month.

Corbyn has vowed to kick out members caught making statements that Labour deems to be hateful, and has sanctioned dozens of them. But Labour has not defined what it deems hateful language, ignoring or condoning rhetoric considered racist and offensive by the main representative organs of British Jewry.

French courts punish promoters of anti-Semitic hate speech

(JTA)Amid vocal protests by leaders of French Jewry on the judiciarys handling of anti-Semitic crimes, French courts made a series of tough rulings on inciters to hatred of Jews.

In three separate rulings last week, French judges rejected the appeal of the far-right Holocaust denier Alain Soral against his prison sentence, affirmed the eviction of his associate and career anti-Semite Dieudonne Mbala Mbala from his Paris headquarters and slapped a $1,700 fine on a teacher who inveighed against Israel and the Jews.

The rulings came amid unprecedented criticism by CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, and other French Jewish groups on judicial actions and decision that it said were too soft on anti-Semites, encouraged terrorism or amounted to a cover-up of hate crimes against Jews.

The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, which earlier this month heavily criticized the acquittal from murder charges of an accomplice of the killer of four Jews in Toulosue in 2012, applauded the Nov. 9 verdict against Soral, who in 2012 co-founded the Anti-Zionist Party with Dieudonne, a comedian with multiple convictions for inciting hatred against Jews whom former Prime Minister Manuel Valls called a professional anti-Semite.

Soral, who also has multiple convictionsincluding for saying Adolf Hitler should have finished the jobwas sentenced to three months in jail in March. He also was fined approximately $16,000. French courts rarely impose heavy fines for hate speech and seldom send individuals found guilty of this offense to prison.

Earlier this year, CRIF and the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism mounted a vocal protest campaign over the absence of hate crime charges from an initial indictment against Kobili Traore, who confessed to killing his Jewish neighbor, Sarah Halimi. Traore, who reportedly had called Halimis daughter a dirty Jew, screamed about Allah and killing Satan while he pummeled Halimi in her Paris apartment in April.

In September, prosecutors included the hate crime charges in a revised indictment that followed intense lobbying and vocal protests by CRIF, including to President Emmanuel Macron.

The Nov. 8 sentence against Dieudonne comes two years after a lower court ordered him to leave the building that has housed his Main DOr theater since 2002. The eviction order follows failed safety inspections and a motion to nullify the rental contract for the theater by the owners.

Dieudonne, whom tax authorities say is deliberately insolvent to avoid paying fines for his multiple hate speech convictions, on Nov. 8 also was ordered to pay nearly $6,000 to anti-racism groups that sued him for comparing on stage in 2014 the treatment of blacks by Jewish slave owners to how the Nazis treated Jews.

Separately, the Correctional Tribunal of Paris fined a former English teacher at the prestigious Janson-de-Sailly High School some $1,500 on Nov. 9, Le Parisien reported, over her posting on Facebook last year that the American Jewish lobby supports Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and that then-French President Francois Hollande is a Jew who benefited from his belonging to that community to ascend in politics and who now denies this.
Another week, another centennial. Following the Balfour Declarations milestone, its now time to look back on the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, where a communist insurrection in St. Petersburg, then known as Petrograd, gave birth to a state that caused untold misery to millions for almost the remainder of the 20th century.

Led by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviksthe majority faction of the Russian communistswere a tight-knit, fiercely revolutionary group. Its core members had shared the experience of exile in grand cities like London, Zurich, New York and Paris, as well as the brutalities and loneliness of imprisonment or deportation by the Tsarist authorities. Their organizing principle of democratic centralism left little room for any dissent, as Lenins literary eviscerations of his opponents attest.

Had it all remained polemical, history would have been different. In its Russian setting, though, Bolshevik rule meant famine, death and an ever-intrusive police state. To begin with, Russia was hardly a natural candidate for a Marxist revolution, given its lack of industry, and its large mass of semi-literate peasants steeped in pre-modern superstitionsparticularly about Jews.

And Jews were a big presence in the Bolshevik Party; about one-third of its leadership, in fact. But these leaders did not act for Jewish communal interests, nor did they consider themselves particularly Jewish. It is true that Lenins nationalities policy enabled Jewish equality and a flowering of Yiddish newspapers, theater and literature, but it is equally true that he opposed any form of Jewish political self-determination, denouncing with equal fervor the separatism of the Zionist movement, which included Marxist factions like Poale Zion, and that of the anti-Zionist, Jewish socialist Bund. Thus Jewish hopes were betrayed.

As the revolution consolidated, the Jewish section of the Bolshevik Party, known as the Yevsektsiya, enthusiastically purged Jewish dissenters, clamped down on the Jewish religion and banned the teaching of Hebrew at a time when there were 300,000 registered Zionists among Russias Jews. In tandem, the party itself was undergoing dramatic change, expanding its membership to the point where some of the Jewish Bolsheviks began feeling rather like the Jewish Christians in the time of St. Pauluncertain about where the revolution they had played such a decisive role in launching would take them. As the late historian Robert Wistrich observed in his fine study of Leon Trotsky, the Red Armys Jewish commander viewed the growth of the revolutions bureaucracy as the revenge of Russian backwardness on a revolution that had been isolated from the more advanced capitalist countries in Europe. Continued Wistrich, The bureaucratization of the Soviet state was rendered almost inevitable by such factors as crushing material want, cultural backwardness and the inherited burdens of the Russian past.

Trotskys biographer, Isaac Deutscher, also noted how the incorporation of large numbers of ordinary Russians into the Bolshevik Partya good portion of them completely baffled by the finer points of Marxist theory, and often bearing crude social prejudices like anti-Semitismleft the Bolshevik Old Guard more and more isolated. But none of this ennui gave pause to the partys rapacious brutality, on full display when a rebellion of workers and sailors in the naval fortress of Kronstadt was unceremoniously crushed. The centenary of that atrocity falls in March 1921.

Throughout these early revolutionary years, anti-Semitism remained a social force in the Soviet Union, and therefore ripe for use as a political instrument should the need arise. Few would doubt Lenins sincerity in taking the view that it isas one of his British followers memorably put itthe nature of the capitalist trap that lies behind the stinking bait of anti-Jew propaganda. But this Leninist critique of the pogromists delusion did not immunize the communists themselves from anti-Semitism. Once the Yevsektsiya finished its job of crushing Jewish self-expression, it too was designated as a reactionary manifestation of Jewish separatism and shut down.

Until 1991, when the Soviet Union finally dissolved following a bitter Cold War of half a century, the seeds planted by the Bolsheviks Jewish policy continued to bear their bitter fruit. Jews were banned from emigrating, and those who wanted to emigrate to Israel were singled out for special punishment. The anti-Semitic crescendo reached its peak in 1953, with the infamous Doctors Plot of Joseph Stalins final year; the crescendo never fully dissipated, with Jews subjected to government quotas in education and jobs. Viciously anti-Semitic propaganda, depicting Zionists as hook-nosed bankers, was presented as progressive anti-Zionist solidarity with the oppressed, dispossessed Palestinians. In the grim years of communist leaders like Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov, anti-Zionist Soviet academicians became even louder and more outlandish with their conspiracy theories, while the KGB offered generous support to Palestinian terrorists as well as an assortment of German, Japanese, Italian and other armed revolutionary groups.

For anyone over age 20, there will be a Bolshevik centenary to anticipate every year, sometimes more than once. For example, next year, the centenary of the Yevsektsiyas 1918 founding will be an occasion to commiserate on the terrible fate of Soviet Jews under their own regime, many years before millions of them were hunted down by the invading Nazis. The overriding point is, hardly any of these occasions will be an opportunity for celebration. That is a reminder of how scarred the Jewish people were by the twin Soviet and Nazi experiments in totalitarianism, and why we need to remain vigilant about our liberties in our own troubled century.

Ben Cohen writes a weekly column for JNS.org on Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics. His writings have been published in Commentary, the New York Post, Haaretz, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications.
Defenders of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the Iran nuclear deal is known, have argued that Irans aggression was intentionally not addressed by the deal.

For example this week, Federica Moghereni, the high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said, The Iran deal has been designed to address one thing only: the Iranian nuclear issue.

One problem with this argument is that it isnt true. The agreement addressed a number of other issues between Tehran and the rest of the world, and when it did, it went easy on Iran.

For example, in UN Security Council Resolution 1747, passed in 2007, Iran was categorically prohibited from importing or exporting arms. However, in UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the JCPOA, Iran was allowed to export weapons with prior approval from the Security Council.

Before the nuclear deal, Iran was categorically prohibited from developing ballistic missiles. However, resolution 2231 weakened the language and ended all restrictions on Irans ballistic missile development after eight years.

Contrary to Mogherenis assertion, the JCPOA did indeed address Irans other challenges, unfortunately it did it by loosening restrictions on Iran.

The argument that the deal was only about Irans nuclear program is a dodge. That the deal would embolden Iran was predictable and, indeed, was predicted by numerous experts in 2015.

For example, former State Department official Aaron David Miller wrote in a commentary for CNN in April 2015:

Sanctions relief will make the mullahs more secure and give them the resources to buck up, not tamp down, their regional aspirations... A nuclear deal will avert a crisis over the nuclear issue for now. But unless it really does change Irans behavior, weve only bought ourselves a bigger one down the road.

In a similar vein the editors of The Washington Post noted in March of that year that the Obama administrations behavior during negotiations was encouraging Iranian aggression:

While the nuclear negotiations have continued, Mr. Obama has refused to support military action against the Assad regime in Syria, in accord with his letters reported promise, and his administration has tacitly blessed an ongoing, Iranian-led offensive in Iraqs Sunni heartland. It took no action to stop the ouster by an Iranian-backed militia of a pro-U.S. Yemeni regime. Nor has it reacted to Irans deployment of thousands of Shiite fighters to southern Syria, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The nuclear deal has encouraged even more Iranian aggression: by weakening restrictions that had earlier been imposed on Tehran, by giving Iran billions, and by turning a blind eye toward Iranian aggression.

Irans increasing boldness in recent weeks cannot be separated from the JCPOA no matter how much its supporters wish to.

On Oct. 15, Iraqi troops backed by Iranian-backed Shiite militias attacked and captured the city of Kirkuk in the Kurdish autonomous area. The city had been in Kurdish hands since the Kurdish Peshmerga had chased ISIS out in 2014. (Regular Iraqi troops fled instead of fighting). The capture of Kirkuk was a blow to Kurdish hopes for independence and further strengthened Irans control over Iraq.

Last week, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen fired a ballistic missile towards the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, marking an escalation of the Houthis against Saudi Arabia, leading to the creation of a coalition to fight Houthis and restore the internationally recognized government of Yemen.

Also last week, Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon fled to Saudi Arabia and announced his resignation, blasting Iran for controlling Lebanon through its proxy, the terrorist group Hezbollah, and suggested that his life was in danger. Hariris father had been assassinated in 2005, and an international tribunal has indicted five members of Hezbollah in his killing. David Daoud wrote that Hariri left Lebanon after meeting with Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign policy adviser of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and expressed that Iran was responsible for Lebanons stability.

In addition to asserting even greater control over Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon since the nuclear deal was agreed to two years ago, Iran has stepped up its support with the help of Russia and of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. That has included the capture of Aleppo, Syrias largest urban area, late last year.

As time goes on, Iran is working toward capturing the necessary territory in Syria to establish a land link to the Mediterranean Sea, and be in a position to attack Israel directly.

Irans destabilizing regional behavior has increased since the agreement on the JCPOA. This is something that President Donald Trump noted in his Oct. 13 speech announcing his administrations new strategy towards Iran:

The nuclear deal threw Irans dictatorship a political and economic lifeline, providing urgently needed relief from the intense domestic pressure the sanctions had created. It also gave the regime an immediate financial boost and over $100 billion dollars its government could use to fund terrorism.

Overall, Trump, unlike his predecessor, understands the need to confront Iran across all of its threats. And while Trumps instincts appear to be sound, his actions, so far have not matched his words.

The capture of Kirkuk came just two days after Trumps speech. The United States did nothing to help the Kurds resulting in the Iranians laughing off their faces in Tehran while the Kurds are humiliated and defeated, The Israel Projects Senior Fellow Julie Lenarz said when assessing the situation.

The U.S. has done little against Iran since then, though it has backed up both Hariri and Saudi Arabia. Still, thats not enough.

John Hannah, a senior counselor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, warned this week that Iran is on the verge of establishing a land link to the Mediterranean and if it is successful in doing so, Trumps Iran strategy will be stillborn, embarrassingly consigned to historys ash heap within a few short months of its unveiling.

Hannah said it wont be easy, and highlighted that it will be necessary for the U.S. to stand behind the Syrian Democratic Forcesa Kurdish and Arab groupeven after the battle with ISIS is over.

Hannah recommends:

If Trump nevertheless decides that Irans hegemonic designs must be foiled in eastern Syria, he can still do so. With the support of U.S. air power and Special Forces, the SDF remains an extremely capable combat force. Its tens of thousands of Sunni Arab fighters are an especially valuable asset in Sunni-dominated Deir Ezzor. From that vantage, its entirely within the U.S. coalitions capabilities to decide that theynot the pro-Iranian forceswill seize Abu Kamal and the Syria-Iraq border from the Islamic State. Washington can assure its SDF partners that it will remain in Syria even after the Islamic State is defeated to assist them in holding strategic terrain and assets that they have liberatedeven in the face of intimidation, threats, and attacks from the Syrian regime and its backers.

Irans hegemonic appetite was whetted by the JCPOA. If Trump chooses, he stands a chance to deny Iran one of the strategic gains it has been working to achieve.

Its not too late to do the right thing. Yet.

David Gerstman is senior editor and policy analyst at The Israel Project.
We were heartened to learn that a Philadelphia synagogue is offering an adult education course about anti-Semitism, a timeless scourge that every generation must combat. But why is the course seemingly prompted, as its website suggests, solely by Christian sources of Jew-hatred and Augusts despicable anti-Jewish events in Charlottesvillerather than Julys equally despicable calls in two California mosques for Jews to be slaughtered, or even the continuous despicable Jew-hatred from Nation of Islam leaders?

Are Jew-hatred and threats from some Muslims in America less vile, less threatening and less problematic than the same actions from white supremacists?

To some in the Jewish community: yes, apparently.

In a brief description of the course on the Society Hill Synagogues website, these are among the questions posed: What is the role of Christianity and the Church in anti-Semitism? How has anti-Semitism morphed over the centuries? In the shadow of Charlottesville we must ask, to what extent does anti-Semitism threaten the Jewish people in this country? Is it confined to isolated, albeit frightening and horrific, incidents? Is it a larger threat?

While acts of anti-Semitism have been and continue to be perpetrated by some Christians, there seems to be a tendency by many Jews to brush aside, downplay or even ignore Jew-hatred from some Muslims motivated by aggressive mosques or interpretations of Islam.

The white supremacist rally in Charlottesville received tremendous media coverage, with video footage of torch-bearing neo-Nazis chanting Jews will not replace us and reports of armed goons menacing synagogue congregants. It was an example of the worst that America has to offer. But nobody who monitors Jew-hatred in America suspected that Klansmen and their ilk had moderated or disappeared.

Equally virulent Jew-hatred from some segments of Islam is under-reported and seldom condemned. Could it be that pre-emptive accusations of Islamophobia have put a chill on addressing Jew-hatred from that group? Or is there a misguided belief that Jew-hatred is exclusive to Christians?

Some examples from this year:

 The Prophet Muhammad says that the time will come, the Last Hour will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews. We dont say if it is in Palestine or another place, said Sheikh Ammar Shahin from the pulpit of the Islamic Center of Davis, Calif., in July, according to a video obtained by the Middle East Media and Research Institute. A translation from MEMRI states that Shahin prayed, Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa mosque from the filth of the Jews. Oh Allah, destroy those who closed the Al-Aqsa mosque. Oh Allah, show us the black day that You inflict upon them, and the wonders of Your ability. Oh Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them.

 That same day at the Islamic Center of Riverside, Calif., according to MEMRI, Sheikh Mahmoud Harmoush prayed, Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa mosque and all the Muslim lands from the unjust tyrants and the occupiers. 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 February, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said in Detroit, I want to disabuse the Jews today of the false claim that you are the chosen of God and that Israel or Palestine belongs to you. I want to disabuse you of that. I want to make it so clear. And Im going to tell you about your future. You that think you have power to frighten and dominate the peoples of the world: Im here to announce the end of your time.

 Asked sarcastically at an event in New Orleans in May why Farrakhan attacks Jews, the Nation of Islams Ava Muhammad replied, The only time the Jews have ever been present among us is to open their outposts, their retail stores to sell us damaged, cheap goods, marked up against the price...we will be free of this bloodsucking parasite so they will no longer be able to sell us alcohol, drugs, depraved sex and every other type of low-life thing that is keeping us from a hereafter.

We dont assume that these sentiments are representative of all or the majority of American Muslims. To the contrary, despite the prevalence of such views in Muslim-majority nations, we would hope that, as is the case with the vast majority of other Americans, anti-Semitism would be confined to a minority. But it is curious that one of the most influential pollsters in the country was reluctant to find out the answer to that question.

The Pew Research Center had an opportunity to shed some light on those legitimate concerns. Pew conducted a survey of American Muslims this year. It asked them many questions, but according to a copy of the questionnaire on its website, Pew did not ask about their attitudes toward Jews or Israeldespite the fact that the topic is a potential flashpoint. Yet earlier in the year, in another survey, Pew did ask people of other faiths to weigh in on Muslims.

Unfortunately, Jew-hatred comes from a variety of corners todayincluding among some American Muslimsand it is dangerous to focus on only one element. American Jewry must become aware of the gamut of Jew-hatred that sadly exists and be prepared to fight it regardless of the source.

Steve Feldman is executive director of the Zionist Organization of Americas Greater Philadelphia chapter. Lee Bender and Kevin Ross are its co-presidents.
Senior Trump administration officials reportedly are crafting a plan for Middle East peace. Based on the details that are available so far, friends of Israel have good reason for concern.

According to a front-page New York Times report on Nov. 12, the administration is preparing what it considers to be an ultimate deal between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. There appear to be two phases to the plan.

Phase one will consist of confidence-building provisions by each side. The problem is that Israel will be expected to make new concessions, while the Palestinians will be asked to do things that they already committed to do in the Oslo Accords 24 years ago.

In other words, Israel will be forced to pay yet again for the same rug that it bought more than two decades ago.

According to the Times, the confidence-building measures Israel will be pressed to take will include halting Jewish construction in most of Judea and Samaria, publicly committing to creation of a Palestinian state, and handing over additional parts of the territories to the Palestinian Authority. All three of those actions go way beyond what the Oslo Accords obligate Israel to do.

And what confidence-building gestures will the PA be asked to undertake? Resuming full security cooperation with Israelwhich the Oslo Accords already required it to do; holding off seeking further international recognitionwhich the Oslo Accords also required it to do; and ending payments to families of Palestinian terroristswhich is likewise an Oslo obligation, since the accords prohibit the PA from doing anything to encourage or incite terrorism. Giving out financial rewards for terrorism obviously encourages terrorism.

Thats just phase one of Trumps ultimate plan. Phase two is even worse. The Trump plan, according to the Times, will be built around the so-called two state solution that has been the core of peacemaking efforts for years.

Just when friends of Israel were feeling hopeful about the Trump administrations refusal to publicly endorse Palestinian statehood, it appears that our hopes were misplaced.

To judge by the Times article, the current administration is laboring under the same delusion as its predecessorthe idea that creating a Palestinian state is the key to achieving peace.

Heres what that means. Israel would be forced back to approximately the pre-1967 linesso that the middle of the country would be just nine miles wide. Planes landing and taking off from Ben Gurion Airport would be within striking distance of any terrorist with a shoulder-launched missile, standing inside the borders of Palestine.

A sovereign Palestinian state would be able to important whatever weapons it wants. It could also invite in foreign volunteersthat is, Iranian troopsand there would be nothing Israel could do about it.

In addition, a Palestinian state would mean that the central part of the historic Jewish homeland will be torn away from the Jewish people. Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that cities such as Shiloh, Shechem (Nablus) and Hebron are the ones mentioned in the Torah, not Tel Aviv or Haifa. Of course, creating a Palestinian state there would mean the mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes in those regions.

What would Israel get in exchange? A piece of paper with essentially the same worthless promises that the Palestinian leadership made when the Oslo agreement was signed.

No wonder the PAs envoy to Washington, Husam Zomlot, was quoted in the Times as heaping praise on the Trump initiative. If the Israel-haters of the PA love the plan, you can bet that spells trouble for Israel.

The fact is that American peace plans have never led to peace between Israel and the Arabs, and never will. Whats needed to make peace is for the Arab world to stop making war. When the leaders of Egypt and Jordan decided, for their own reasonsnot because of any U.S. planthat it would be in their interest to stop waging war against Israel, peace treaties soon followed.

The Palestinian Arabs, however, are still addicted to the strategy of signing peace accords (Oslo, Gaza-Jericho, Oslo II, Wye River) while continuing to wage war. The Trump administration should focus on getting the PA to honor the agreements it has already signed. That would advance peace a lot further than circulating yet another pie-in-the-sky peace plan.

Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.
One of the complaints about the organized Jewish community is that it is silencing criticism of Israel. Left-wingers paint a dismal picture of a Jewish community in denial about Israels sins and determined to squelch debate about the peace process or controversial issues like settlements.

So it probably came as quite a shock to many American Jews to read what happened at Princeton University this past week when the Center for Jewish Lifeas the campus Hillel is calledcancelled a speech by Tzipi Hotovely, Israels deputy foreign minister.

The Alliance for Jewish Progressivesa campus left-wing groupobjected to the presence of Hotovely, an outspoken member of the Likud party and a key figure in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government. They ginned up an indictment of her as some sort of extremist because she had dared to call out the Palestinian Authority for its attempt to erase Jewish history and ties to Jerusalem. They claim anyone who supports the Jewish presence across the Green Line or in parts of Jerusalem is, by definition, a racist. They were also upset that the Hillel chapter had refused to sponsor appearances by anti-Zionists or those whose presentation consisted of slanders of the IDF for its efforts to halt Palestinian terror.

Yet rather than dismissing this complaint, the Princeton Hillel branch cancelled Hotovelys appearance. Princetons Hillel director, Rabbi Julie Roth, who eight years ago shut down plans to host a critic of radical Islam, defended the move by disingenuously claiming that although the event had been planned some time ago and was part of a tour of U.S. campuses, Hotovelys speech had not been properly approved.

To its credit, the campus Chabad House stepped in and hosted Hotovely instead. But Roth didnt count on the storm of criticism that followed. Eric Fingerhut, the president of Hillel International, personally apologized to Hotovely for the slight and then wrote an op-ed admitting the groups error published in The Jerusalem Post. Roth was listed as a co-author, though its doubtful that she did so willingly.

Lets hope other Hillel chapters heed Fingerhuts charge and never repeat this fiasco. But theres more to this than an Ivy League kerfuffle. The lesson here is that the conventional wisdom about the plight of critics of Zionism is a myth. On campuses, it is those who speak up for the Jewish state who are often the ones being shut up.

The atmosphere at many, if not most institutions of higher learning is one of intense hostility to pro-Israel advocates. Part of it may be ascribed to intolerance for all who are opposed by any group that can pose as a downtrodden minority. The notion of intersectionalityin which various causes like Black Lives Matter are seen as connected with Palestinian opposition to Israels existencehas allowed leftist demagogues to label any conservative a racist or a white supremacist. Under this banner, groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, which is funded by pro-Hamas sources and which promotes the BDS movement against Israel, are welcomed and even liberals, like legal expert Alan Dershowitz, are attacked with anti-Semitic invective, simply for supporting Israel. In this way, American campuses have become beachheads for the kind of Jew-hatred that has become commonplace in Europe.

In this climate in which any expression of support for Israel is slammed as racist, Jewish students are finding it increasingly difficult to openly express their identity. They look to places like Hillel houses as safe havens from verbal and sometimes even physical attacks. The notion that Jewish institutions should be providing platforms for those like the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) group, which not only supports efforts to eradicate the Jewish state but also is now promoting anti-Semitic blood libels, while denying a platform to a representative of the democratically elected government of Israel, is a product of this kind of upside-down thinking.

As in the case in Israels lively democracy, where settlements and other topics are hotly debated, there needs to be room for a discussion of the issues. But the legitimacy of the campaign to deny the right of the Jewish people to their homeland is not something decent people should agree to disagree about. Yet that is what many on the left are demanding as defenders of Israel are treated like pariahs and groups like JVP are lauded. Instead of crying crocodile tears about Israel-haters being silenced, its time for Jews to face up to the way the rising tide of anti-Semitism sweeping across the globe has spread to our shores. That is a grim reality about which we dare not be silent.

Jonathan S. Tobin is opinion editor of JNS.org and a contributing writer for National Review. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin.
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A look that gets stamped in visual recall or one that instantly propels curiosity and salience is seldom just a function of a garment. Iconic style assimilates a few definitive details--the style of hair, the walk, a signature accessory and the persons instinctive use of them as tools of communication.

Indira Gandhi put all these to great use, yet her saris stand out in memory and documentation.

Hundred years after she was born, 33 years after she passed away with 65 per cent of the current Indian population born after her death, the saris, remain legendary.

Symbols of swadeshi in post Independent India, a fine representation of handwoven textiles which she wore with powerful elegance, Gandhis saris find admirers among people of different persuasions. Those who think of her as the first female leader to challenge political patriarchy, those who believe she was the nemesis of Indian democracy and even those who cant be bothered either with history or politics but find cause and glamour in the handloom sari.

Gandhi wore her saris with authority yet kept traditional versatility alive--draped Gujarati style with the seedha pallu sometimes, at other times to cover her head or wrapped around her shoulders and tie-twirled inside long jackets when she travelled abroad. The knee-length seedha pallu worn Parsi style especially after she married Feroze Gandhi fashioned many of her appearances. The Rudraksh beads were a constant; the white cotton blouse with short or long sleeves another charming detail of her look.

Thats why Seminar editor Malvika Singh and fashion guru Prasad Bidappas collection of 108 (a Rudraksh rosary has as many beads) Indira Gandhi inspired saris is a novel way to commemorate her birth centenary. The first in a series of saris inspired by the personal collections of women who wore saris frim the diverse printed and dyeing traditions of India, they are currently on exhibition and display at Vayu design store in Bikaner House in New Delhi.

Gandhi inspired saris are divided between Banarasi silks and South Indian cottons. They have been created from 14 patterns in colour palettes that reminisce yet tweak derivations from her wardrobe. So while a maroon and ochre cotton Chettinad provokes an instant connect or a borderless Banarasi with scattered silver butis is something sari lovers may recall seeing on Priyanka Vadra, the colour scheme for a shocking pink Tanchoi has clearly been reimagined. All saris including the Banarasis were woven in Bengaluru in association with textile expert Parvathi Muddaya of Vimor. We changed the colours in the weft to create this variety, says Singh who curated the selection based on photographic records, memory and other archives. Growing up as teenager in the Sixties, she says for her Gandhi was a towering icon in handlooms.

The saris in the collection have been created from 14 patterns in colour palettes that reminisce yet tweak derivations from Gandhis wardrobe. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTOS.)

Unlike her daughter in law, Sonia, also a tasteful sari wearer and collector who favours woven Ikats above all other handlooms, Gandhis choice was eclectic. She wore embroidered garas, printed cottons, khadis, raw silks, temple bordered weaves, Ikats and Kashmiri needle work saris. She would choose saris from the region she travelled to dressing in local styles to connect with people from all classes and denominations , says Pramod Kumar KG of Eka Archives, also the co curator of the ongoing archival exhibition at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust in Delhi. The temple bordered cotton in dull rust and brown that she wore when she was assassinated is a part of these archives. We found hundreds of photographs of her in Ikats and humble printed cottons. Of course for her official trips abroad, she chose fine silks, adds Kumar.

Given that vast repertoire, this collection is very limited in its interpretative variety. Yet in a relatable way it manages to ignite a sense of Gandhis style which remarkably continues to live on through Priyanka Vadra when she wears one of her grandmothers checked Chettinads or when Varun Gandhis bride Yamini wore a restored pink khadi sari for her wedding. The latter was hand spun and woven by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for his daughter Indira when he was in prison during Indias freedom struggle.

Singhs collection also includes a richly textured, deep maroon silk representation of the puja sari Gandhi was draped in when she was cremated.

Besides Kumar, Radhi Parekh, the founder of Mumbais Artisan Gallery feels that the time is right for such a memorialising collection. We are seeing a resurgence of interest in iconic saris and such exhibitions could prompt young women to seek the best of Indias timeless saris, she says.

Parekh brings up other reasons. What Gandhi wore in the late Seventies and Eighties represents a significant time in the history of craft and design in India. Rooted in socialist and feminist ideologies, the crafts movement pioneered by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya took handlooms and crafts to giant expositions in the West, says Parekh. It is well known that many of Gandhis saris of that time were hand-picked by her friend and handloom exponent Pupul Jayakar, who with Gandhis support, galvanised the crafts sector, she adds.

Each sari from Singhs collection (priced between Rs 7000-Rs 55,000) is wrapped in a piece of mulmul with a vyjantimala (wooden rosary) alongside and comes in a black box with a black and white photo of Gandhi on top.

WHAT: Exhibition-cum-sale of saris inspired by Indira Gandhis collection.

WHEN: 11am-7pm, Nov 25.

WHERE: Vayu, the Design Store, Bikaner House.

NEAREST METRO: Khan Market.
On a mellow winter afternoon, we walked into Alka Rani Singhs quaint palatial house tucked away in the lush green lanes of Pandara Road. The richly furnished drawing room with sepia portraits of the wall, gigantic antique mirrors and blue pottery plates instantly transported us to a different era, a different place. The elegant Alka Rani Singh emerged from one of the rooms dressed in a white floral kurta and palazzo, her face glowing without makeup and her hair worn in elegant curls. Singh, an artist who has taken up the mission of bring back all things Awadh, settled on the sofa to tell us her revival story.

Alka Rani Singh at her residence talking about her fond memories from Awadh (Photo: AmalKS/HT)

The Rajkumari of Pratapgarh, Awadh, along with her eldest daughter, Yashodhra Singh Rana has been working relentlessly to revive the crafts, beauty and culinary tradition of the Awadh royalty. We are trying to revive the lifestyle of yesteryear. Revival in its purest form is not commercially viable. So we are throwing in a little design edge and a contemporary touch to make it more viable for the younger generation. We are bringing back old craft techniques and presenting them in a modern interpretation. At the same time, we have also revived in the purest form as well..its for those who can relate to it.

Alka Rani Singh is wearing a black georgette hand painted floral sari (Photo: AmalKS/HT)

Years ago, when she was a kid, Singh saw a lifestyle that has been engraved in her mind. Earlier, there was no dearth of time. The ladies spent time creating and supervising homemade beauty products. They were also into various kinds of beautiful crafts. My mother experimented with craft within the parda, and all of her beauty products were made at home. I thought that when women could do so much within the havelis, why cant they do it now on a larger public platform, says Singh.

(Right bottom) Batuas were a common siting in the royal families. There were used to carry betel nut cutters aka silver nut cracker and silver paan ka daba. This tukadi work batua made of silk has a diamond pattern and great when it comes to fusing with Indianwear. (Right top) A hand painted table mat made of satin. (Center top) This Tukdi blouse with a geometric pattern made of silk can be paired with a funky sari and a batua. (Center bottom) A hand painted inorganic scarf. (Left) A gorgeous georgette sari has tukdi work on the borders accentuated with zardosi embroidery (Photo: AmalKS/HT)

The craft



Ten years ago, when Singh attempted reviving Awadhi crafts, it wasnt easy. Though some of the crafts were documented, it was a task to find artisans to represent kamdani, coloured mukaish and tukadi work. With mechanisation and modernization, everyone looks for shortcuts. No one was readily willing to do laborious things. So I had to give them motivation and a little incentive, says Singh. Tukadi involves joining coloured pieces of silk together and turning them into garments. The idea was to make it more wearable with the use of panels and borders which you put on different pieces, so that its not heavy and cumbersome, explains Singh. Similarly, coloured mukaish- threads have to be separately dyed and then done, which makes the process engrossing. Singh is also is working on hand painted textiles, which includes saris, scarfs and table cloths with inorganic hand painting over georgettes and silks. One sari takes about 3-4 days to finish. The colour palette is inspired by kites, as kite flying was an important part of the Awadh culture, says Singh. Singh is glad that this revival is helping patronize the artisans families and protect the art from dying.

Rivaayat constitutes of a hair mask, shahi uptan, rose water and kajal (Photo: AmalKS/HT)

Vintage beauty secrets

Homemade beauty products were a part of traditions of the princely families. What they ate was what they applied on their face. The products were healthy, chemical-free and had no preservatives, says Singh. All her beauty products are handmade, freshly dried and pounded. The shahi uptan, a natural scrub, has 32 ingredients in it, and its recipe is a family secret to beauty. Rose water is also made without any colour and has a subtle smell. It is made just the way it was made in the zenanas. The kajal that Singh makes is also handmade with no lead in it. It is made by collecting muslin cloth or cotton soot in a silver box, as silver has soothing properties.

This thal has Channe ki daal ki puri with dapki k aloo with kichumbar salad and amla ki chutney. Served with Sooja and Besan ka halwa. (Photo: Amal KS/HT)

Food

Food livened up with fragrant spices and beautiful presentation was an integral part of the Awadhi culinary culture. The cuisine has some elaborate recipes. Apart from the quintessential kababs, kormas and biryanis, there is a huge wide variety of vegetarian recipes too. Dishes such as channe ki daal ki puri are made for religious and auspicious occasions. It is served with dapki ke aloo, kachumber salad and amle ki chutney.

Sooji ka halwa and besan ka halwa are popular desserts. Singh uses a treasured recipe passed down from generations. Sooji is flavoured with saffron and raisins and besan is flavoured with kewada. The dessert is served in a silver thali.

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Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday questioned Sri Sri Ravishankars proposal to mediate in the negotiations on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue, saying any such decision had to be taken through consultation at the Dharma Sansad.

Addressing a closed door session of the three-day Dharma Sansad or religious parliament in the coastal town of Udupi in Karnataka, Bhagwat said, There is a very popular person who also proposed to negotiate, announced in the media, which is where I heard it from... that person also came to me as well, but I said that is not my job.

Bhagwat went on to add that any such proposal had to be routed through the sansad, which is being organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. This movements decisions have to be taken under the guidance of the Dharma Sansad... Everybody has freedom and there is democracy so if anybody is willing [to negotiate] they can. But whosoever wants to help in the negotiation on the Ram Janmabhoomi issue has to go through the Sansad, he said.

In recent months, there has been much talk about a negotiated settlement of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, as suggested by the Supreme Court in April. In this backdrop, Ravishankar had expressed his willingness to mediate a solution.

Bhagwats views come as a blow to Ravishankars attempts at negotiation. Last month, the chairman of the UP Shia Central Waqf Board Waseem Rizvi had met him in Bengaluru in this regard. Incidentally, Ravishankar is expected to attend the Udupi event, where over 2,000 religious leaders are set to discuss matters pertaining to the Hindu religion.

Meanwhile, the VHP too distanced itself from Ravishankars efforts, saying he should not have involved himself in the matter. He (Ravishankar) did not discuss the matter with us. If

he is mediating, he is doing so at his personal level. VHP has nothing to do with it, VHP general secretary Champat Rai said while briefing mediapersons on the opening days proceedings.

Rai also said if Ravishankar succeeded in arriving at a solution, he would have to submit it in the Supreme Court, where the matter is being heard.

Earlier in the day, Bhagwat had said the realisation of the demand for a Ram temple was nearing. After so many years efforts, after so many sacrifices, today it feels like it is near, he said. The RSS chief said there was a case in the court and everybody knew the demands of the organisation. Even if we dont speak [about our demands] everybody recognises us as the Ram Mandirwale, this is how involved we have been in this issue, he said.

Ram Janmabhoomi par Ram mandir hi banega, aur kuch nahi banega. Wahin banega... unhi pattharonse banega (the Ram temple will be built at Ram Janmabhoomi, and nothing else will be built there. It will be built there and with those same stones), he said.

Bhagwat cautioned Hindus against becoming complacent till the world recognised Bharat Maa as its Guru. He said there was no need for Hindus to boast about winning battles, as they were winning battles and would achieve complete victory. Phir humko jay jay kar bhi nahin karna padega, saari duniya hamari jay jay kar karegi (and then we will not have to boast about ourselves, the whole world will applaud us).

Togadia, too, made a pitch for constructing the Ram temple at the disputed site. I pray to God that a temple should be built in Ayodhya and quickly. We want a temple in Ayodhya, the birth place of Ram, and we also want Ram rajya.

Togadia attacked state governments in the country for interfering in the administration of temples. He said the nations Constitution was secular, but if this was so then how could secular governments manage the maths and temples of Hindus, calling it unconstitutional.

The seer of the influential Paryaya Pejawar Math in Udupi, Vishwesha Tirtha Swami, laid down a deadline of a year for starting work on the temple. There is a conducive environment at present, and, hence, work on the temple must begin within a year. I am confident that by 2019 work would have begun.

Muslim organisations reacted sharply to Bhagwats strong pitch for building a Ram Temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, terming it as a direct challenge to the apex court and demanding action against him.

They also alleged that the RSS chief was trying to help the BJP in the upcoming Gujarat elections by diverting the attention of voters from real issues with such statements. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has faith in the judiciary and will try to implement its order... by issuing this statement Mohan Bhagwat has taken law into his hands, spokesman of the AIMPLB, Maulana Khaild Saifullah Rehmani, said.

In Hyderabad, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the RSS chief and the BJP wanted to take political advantage in Gujarat polls with his obnoxious remarks on Ram temple issue and warned the Sangh that it was playing with fire.

The Hyderabad MP alleged that the RSS and BJP were trying to create an atmosphere of fear ahead of the hearing on the Ayodhya dispute on December 5 and hoped that the Supreme Court will take note of what he called nefarious designs.

(With PTI inputs)

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Days after Mahira Khan-starrer Verna made its way to theatres after a long battle with Pakistans censor board, the actor shared a cryptic tweet on the subject. Sharing a disclaimer before Verna, Mahira wrote, Everything in this film is imaginary. Imaginary because the reality is too bitter to be told or shown. Events shown in this film are jokes compared to what has been happening in countries like ours. She also wrote, This is the disclaimer before #verna starts.

Verna was first refused certification by the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) because of its mature themes and edgy content. However, as it was pointed out in the outcry that ensued that the film was really denied certification as it showed the governors son as a rapist and how politicians at all levels are complicit in corruption and hushing up the case.

The refusal inspired a Twitter campaign under the hashtag #UnbanVerna, which emerged as Pakistans own #MeToo movement. Among those who backed the film was Deepika Padukone who is facing a far more intense backlash over Padmavati, based on a 16th-century poem about a mythical Indian queen. Padmavati has been deferred after massive protests and some Indian states have already banned it. Right wing groups have announced a bounty on the head of the actor and director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and have vowed the film will not be allowed to release for allegedly distorting history. The makers have refuted these claims but to no avail.

Speaking at a press conference, Deepika said, Sad that a small section of people do not understand the power of cinema and what it can do to the world. Later, Mahira echoed the thoughts in a tweet, Tonight I realize how powerful artists are, not those in power. We are. Why else do we get banned? Why else do our films pose a threat to them? In this game of power - we will always win.

Tonight I realize how powerful artists are, not those in power. We are. Why else do we get banned? Why else do our films pose a threat to them? In this game of power - we will always win. Art/love/truth always does! #PowerDiGame #verna  Mahira Khan (@TheMahiraKhan) November 16, 2017

Verna was cleared for release a few hours before its release. The disclaimer, however, is as much a mirror to the society -- on both sides of the border -- as the film is.
The Delhi high court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking screening of Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmavati in front of three prominent historians from top universities and a retired high court judge, apart from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in lead roles, the film has been facing wide spread protests for alleged distortion of history.

A PIL was filed in the Delhi HC seeking the setting up of an expert committee comprising of historians, social activists and a retired high court judge to ensure that there was no distortion of historical facts in the movie.

Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh state governments have announced they wont allow the film to be screened in their states even if the CBFC clears it.

Meanwhile, the makers of the movie have voluntarily deferred its release, to get the requisite clearances from the censor board. The movie was scheduled for release on December 1.

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The British Board of Film Certification cleared Sanjay Leela Bhansalis epic historical film Padmavati for release on December 1 earlier this week. The announcement was met with a swift petition in the Supreme Court to delay the films release abroad until such time as it is cleared for release in India, and a protest by a Britain-based Rajput group.

Several fringe outfits have been protesting the release of the film, alleging that it distorts historical fact, and its depiction of Queen Padmavati (played by Deepika Padukone) may cause offence to the Rajput community. Several states such as UP, MP and Rajasthan have effectively banned the film until the protests die down. While the Central Board of Film Certification has yet to clear the film, the BBFCs decision didnt go down too well with Rajput Samaj UK.

Lokendra Singh Kalvi, Founder, Shree Rajput Karni Sena along with his supporter during a press conference on objection of Rajput Community on Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming film, Padmavati. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

Mahendrasinh Jadeja, the groups president, told the Hindu, We believe it will have great community impact. The group is seeking a stay on the films release, was considering further action including protests. We want an assurance that this film will not be released until the decision is made in India, he continued.

Several British cinemas have already begun listing the film on their schedules, however, no firm dates have yet been mentioned.

Earlier this week, Viacom 18, the studio behind the big-budget film, issued a statement. We have faith that we will soon obtain the requisite clearances to release the film, they said. The Supreme Court will hear an advocates plea against the release of the film in foreign countries on Tuesday, November 28.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said it would hear on Tuesday the plea that alleged that the makers of Padmavati misrepresented facts with regard to the censor board's approval on releasing songs and the promo.

"We will take it up on Tuesday. You (advocate) file a writ petition," the bench told advocate M L Sharma who mentioned his fresh plea for an urgent hearing. Sharma also alleged that grave damage will be done to social harmony if the movie was allowed to be released outside India.

He sought criminal prosecution of the makers of the movie for allegedly misrepresenting facts that the songs and promos were cleared by the CBFC. The apex court had earlier dismissed his plea seeking to delete certain alleged objectionable scenes. It had observed that the CBFC had not yet certified the movie and the apex court could not "injunct" a statutory body from doing its duty.

A functionary at Viacom 18 said there was no plan to release the film globally without it being cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). "The film was cleared by the UK censor board without any cuts. But we are waiting for censor clearance in India. Till then we will not release the film anywhere," a source told PTI.

As the film was supposed to be released on December 1, there are over 50 countries where this process (of certification) is on, he said.

Rajasthan accepts complaint against Padmavati

A Rajasthan court on Thursday accepted a complaint against filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali and actors Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor and others in regard to ongoing controversy relating to their forthcoming film, Padmavati.

The court has not directly sent the complaint to police for registration of FIR but has asked for recording of statement of the complainant. "The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate while accepting the complaint has said that it will record my statement on November 27 under Section 200 of Cr.P.C.," complainant Bhawani Shankar Sharma told IANS.

The court on Wednesday had completed hearing on the matter and deferred the order till Thursday.

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A local court has accepted a complaint against filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali and actors Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor and others in regard to ongoing controversy relating to their forthcoming film Padmavati.

The court has not directly sent the complaint to police for registration of FIR but has asked for recording of statement of the complainant. The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate while accepting the complaint has said that it will record my statement on November 27 under Section 200 of Cr.P.C., complainant Bhawani Shankar Sharma said.

The court on Wednesday had completed hearing on the matter and deferred the order till Thursday.

Sharma, in his complaint, has alleged that the film hurts sentiments of many, not Rajputs alone.

Violent protests were held that badly hurt unity and integrity of the country, he said in the plea. The news about this also spread in foreign countries too which affected tourists arrivals and also the tourists who are in the country faced many problems because of this.

His lawyer Farid Khan said that the crew did not follow the rules and legal provisions in this regard. How can Bhansali screen movies to select few before showing it to the censor board, he asked.

Padmavati has been marred in controversies since its shooting started. In January, activists of the Karni Sena had manhandled with its crew here and vandalised equipment, claiming that Bhansali was distorting historical facts in the movie.

Karni Sena activists earlier this month vandalised a theatre in Kota over reports that it was showing the films trailer and a leader of the outfit threatened Deepika, who plays the title role, over her provocative statements.

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TV actors Smriti Khanna and Gautam Gupta held a grand wedding reception on Thursday, after tying the knot at a private ceremony the same day. Bollywood celebs Shahid Kapoor, along with wife Mira, Dia Mirza and Hrithik Roshans ex-wife Sussanne Khan attended the bash, along with other television stars.

Shahid, wearing a black bandhgala, looked regal as he attended the wedding with wife Mira who looked beautiful as always in a silver and blue ensemble.

Smriti and Gautam met on the sets of their show Meri Aashiqui Tumse Hi, where they played a couple, but remained friends while working on the show. It was only after the show went off air that the couple began sharing quality time and Gautam proposed his lady love earlier this year in filmy style, reports Indian Express.

The couple reportedly plans to go to Europe or Maldives for honeymoon, according to an NDTV report.

Here are some pics from the star-studded wedding reception:

@shahidkapoor and @mira.kapoor  at #GautamGupta-#SmritiKhanna's wedding reception last night A post shared by shahid kapoor updates. (@shahidlicious) on Nov 23, 2017 at 8:00pm PST

@shahidkapoor and @mira.kapoor  at #GautamGupta-#SmritiKhanna's wedding reception last night A post shared by shahid kapoor updates. (@shahidlicious) on Nov 23, 2017 at 7:58pm PST

Love wearing #HandWoven creations! #Birds #Benarasi #Handcrafted A post shared by Dia Mirza (@diamirzaofficial) on Nov 23, 2017 at 5:32am PST

Happiness always @smriti_khanna and @mistergautam  A post shared by Dia Mirza (@diamirzaofficial) on Nov 23, 2017 at 5:34am PST

Checkout pictures and videos from the wedding:

This guy is all that....and much more. Love you and welcome to the #happyclub #gausm #gautamsmritiwedding A post shared by   (@karanvirbohra) on Nov 23, 2017 at 12:50am PST

congratulations Smriti & Gautam #smritikhanna #smriti #gautam #gautamgupta A post shared by Radhika Madan *Radz Bolly* (@radzbolly) on Nov 23, 2017 at 7:19am PST

Melihat sahabat bahagia maka kita pun merasakan kebahagiaan itu  @radhikamadan @smriti_khanna #BestFriendForever #Radhikamadan #Smritikhanna #gettingmerried #gautamgupta A post shared by Chuchu Lhieztiany (@lhieztiany) on Nov 22, 2017 at 8:29am PST

Congratulations to this cute couple  @mistergautam @smriti_khanna . . #celebstyle#celebritystyle#celebfam#instyle#stylefile#bombay#weddingdress#wedding#affair#coupleofinstagram#smritikhanna#gautamgupta#weddingnight#celebrity#actress#actor#google#starstruck#entertainment#news#celebrity#entertainment#news#gossipgirl#gossip#blogger#uncensored#uncut#mumbai A post shared by Thebollygurl (@thebollygurl) on Nov 23, 2017 at 9:34pm PST

Smriti also shared pictures from her mehendi ceremony on Instagram:

Mehendi  . Outfit courtesy @kalkifashion A post shared by Smriti Khanna (@smriti_khanna) on Nov 22, 2017 at 11:41am PST

Among the TV stars who made to the bash included Karanvir Bohra and Radhika Madan. As Smriti posted images and videos from their wedding celebrations, Radhikas dance performance at the couples sangeet ceremony stood out.

The wedding season has kick-started in the TV industry with Aashka Goradia and Brent, and Bharti Singh and Haarsh Limbachiyaa getting married on December 3.

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They might be award-winning or best-selling authors, but they need to sharpen their pencils for writing erotic scenes.

As a God Might Be by Neil Griffiths, The Future Wont Be Long by Jarett Kobek and War Cry by Wilbur Smith (with David Churchill) are among the nominees for the Bad Sex in Fiction award this year.

Introduced in 1993 by the Literary Review, the award aims to draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction.

The Review said it had also considered nominating American novelist Jonathan Safran Foer for his third novel, Here I am, for lines like this one:

He jerked off with the determination of someone within sight of Everests summit, having lost all his friends and Sherpas, having run out of supplemental oxygen, but preferring death to failure.

Similes with mountainous disruptions and avalanches was common to another shortlisted book, The Destroyers by Christopher Bollen.

On the stone porch, in the hot, mountain air, we grapple with our clothing, which, in the darkness, becomes as complicated as mountaineering gear... we seem to be moving at avalanche speed and also, unfortunately, with avalanche precision.

Another unusual contestant nominated was Donald Trumps locker room talk but it was put aside simply on the grounds that it wasnt fiction. Trump was heard talking about grabbing women in a tape released during the divisive 2016 US presidential campaign.

The 2016 Bad Sex in Fiction award was given to Italian novelist and poet Erri De Luca -- called writer of the decade by a critic -- for his book, The Day Before Happiness. Judges were swayed by a sex scene between a mysterious woman and the protagonist, and said, The winning entry is a reminder that, even in the wake of Brexit, Bad Sex knows no borders.

De Lucas description of sex read:

My prick was a plank stuck to her stomach. With a swerve of her hips, she turned me over and I was on top of her. She opened her legs, pulled up her dress and, holding my hips over her, pushed my prick against her opening. I was her plaything, which she moved around. Our sexes were ready, poised in expectation, barely touching each other: ballet dancers hovering en pointe.

The other shortlisted books are The Seventh Function of Language by Laurent Binet, Mother of Darkness by Venetia Welby, and Here Comes Trouble by Simon Wroe.

This years prize will be announced on November 30.
Jhulaghat town in Uttarakhands Pithoragarh district may go under waters, like Tehri city, after the Pancheshwar dam is built.

Tehri, a princely estate of Garhwal regions Shah rulers, slowly submerged under waters of Bhagirathi and Bhilanglana rivers in late 1990s after commissioning of the 2400-MW Tehri multipurpose hydropower project.

Construction of the Pancheshwar dam on the Kali river, to be carried out by India and Nepal, will submerge areas in Pithoragarh, Champawat and Almora districts, officials said.

Though Jhulaghat town faces the spectre of submergence in future, the detailed project report of the project is also under discussion, and the project might see changes, Pithoragarh district magistrate C Ravishankar told Hindustan Times.

Jhulaghat, a border town with a population of 4000, connects Baitadi district of Nepal with a hanging bridge on the Kali river. People of both the countries use the bridge to cross over to either side of the border.

People of Jhulaghat, which bustled with India-Nepal trade, are now worried over submergence. It would be a big tragedy if the town is submerged; all our memories would also be submerged along with this town, said Vinay Bisht, a trader of Jhulaghat.

Around 30,000 people will be displaced by the 5040-MW Pancheshwar multipurpose hydro-electric project conceived in 1981, officials said.

Stuck for around two-and-a-half decades due to international issues, the Pancheshwar project has made progress after Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Nepal. The Uttarakhand government has taken steps to hear out peoples sentiments in the three critical districts that are in danger of being submerged. Opposing the dam, the Congress has created ruckus at the public hearings.

Jhulaghat is known for historic ties between Indian and Nepal because of the hanging bridge, Bisht said, hoping that the government will change the detailed project report to save the town.
Hema Devi was warned not to venture into the forest of Uttarakhands Tanakpur after reports that a man-eating tiger was on the prowl but a video apparently shows she had little choice.

Hema Devi, a villager, was mauled to death on Wednesday afternoon inside the forest where she had gone to collect fodder, allegedly disregarding the warning by forest officials.

Despite reports of the presence of the big cat in the area, women from surrounding villages entered the forest twice every day to collect firewood and fodder.

On Wednesday morning officials asked the women not venture into the forest, warning them about the presence of the suspected man-eater.

In a video provided by the forest department, two officials--Nirmal Khulbe and Kailash Bisht-- are heard asking the women not to venture into the forest.

Hema Devi--who was mauled to death by the tiger hours later-- is heard brushing aside the warning, saying: We are dependent on the forest for firewood and fodder, how can we stop venturing into the forest.

Tanakpur in Champawat district is closed to the India-Nepal border and surrounded by the dense Boom and Sharda ranges of a reserve forest. Women from surrounding villages enter the forest twice a day and man-animal conflicts are common.

Since February this year, four people have been killed by the suspected man-eater that is still at large, forest officials said.

We have been warning the villagers of the nearby villages since February, not go into the forest due to presence of the big cat, but they dont take it seriously, said Rajesh Srivastva, sub divisional forest officer at Sharda forest range.

Villagers say they are aware of the risks of venturing into the forest but have no options as their livelihood depends on the forest.

The forest department must kill or catch the big cat, said Radha Devi, a resident of Naya Goth village.

Meanwhile, forest officials have installed camera traps at 10 spots and two cages to capture the big cat.

Forest officials who on Thursday, conducted a search to spot pug marks of the big cat, said pug marks they recorded earlier confirmed the present of the animal in the area.
One in every 14 persons in Delhi over the age of 18 years has faced crime, says a report released on Thursday by an NGO.

The report The State of Policing and Law & Order in Delhi, 2017 released by Praja Foundation also says one in every three persons who has faced crime has not reported it to the police, mostly citing lack of faith in the system.

The NGO surveyed nearly 24,301 households and accessed data procured under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, to come up with the report.

The research was conducted to study the perception of citizens with regard to their safety and security.

According to the findings, crime against women in Delhi has been consistently high with 2,181 cases of rape and 3,969 cases of molestation reported in 2016.

The report says the victims were women in 59.60% of the total kidnapping cases registered in 2016.

Milind Mhaske, project director Praja Foundation, said, One can clearly draw an observation between the feeling of safety and security of women and children to the registration of cases, as out of the total 2,181 rape cases registered in 2016, 44.80% were under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in 2016.

The NGO said 60% of the respondents felt women, children and senior citizens were not secure in their localities.

The report says the outer district registered the maximum number of cases (178) under the POCSO Act in 2016, followed by South East (125 cases) and North East (124 cases).

Outer district registered the maximum number of rape cases (367) in 2016. The number was 312 in 2015.

South district reported the highest registration of molestation incidents, 590, in 2016.

The police department is understaffed, the report says. At present, Delhi has a sanctioned strength of 84,685 police personnel of which 8,091 posts are vacant.

The NGO said there was a need to create an awareness campaign against sexual abuse of children with all the stakeholderschildren, parents, schools and colleges. It also said there should be strict compliance of regulations through the Police Complaints Authority.

Reacting to the report, Delhi Police spokesperson Dependra Pathak said that the number of households selected for the survey doesnt give a true picture of the ground reality.

The target sample selected for the survey doesnt give the complete picture. Women security and safety is our top priority. The number of cases getting registered has gone up because complaints are getting registered online, said Pathak.

On the finding that the police department is understaffed, Pathak said Delhi Police is in the process of recruiting more staff.
After plying on city roads with a faulty tracking system for over six years, DTC buses will now be equipped with new GPS units by February 2018.

Once installed in every bus, the GPS (global positioning system) trackers will help Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) to check status of its operational bus on a real-time basis. Apart from ensuring safety of passengers, it will also enable the corporation to fix accountability by penalising the driver or the conductor in case of inordinate delay in completing a trip or a change in the authorised bus route.

The decision to reinstall GPS in buses was taken by the Delhi government in a recent meeting chaired by transport minister Kailash Gahlot. We are preparing the tender document for installation of GPS in DTC buses, which shall be ready by next week. The tender is being prepared on cost model which simply means DTC will directly pay to the concessionaire, a DTC official said.

In September, Hindustan Times had reported how the DTC is unable to track any of its 3,780 buses as the GPS installed in all of them are out of order. The project to install GPS in buses was launched in 2010 after a number of erstwhile Blue Line bus drivers were held for accidents.

The task of installing and maintaining the GPS in DTC and cluster or orange buses was at that time given to the Delhi Integrated Multimodal System (DIMTS), a company where the Delhi government has 50% stake.

Even as these machines are performing well in all cluster or orange buses till date, those fitted in DTC buses became obsolete within a year of getting launched. Officials said the reasons for the failure of the system in DTC buses were multiple including manhandling and software issues.

The project had cost the government around Rs 35 crore and now it has already cancelled its contract with the DIMTS stating that its Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVLS) was non workable, inefficient and unreliable.

Read: As DTC struggles with GPS in its buses, cluster buses seem to have got it right

When Hindustan Times asked DIMTS as to why the tracking system which works fine in the cluster buses operated by them failed in the DTC buses, it blamed lack of integration.

The system was not integrated well by the DTC despite imparting training sessions to its staff. In the depots, there were no fleet managers to ensure security of the devices while buses enter and leave the depot, a DIMTS official told HT.

The DTC, on the other hand, claimed that DIMTS could not perform its responsibility as even the technicians it had deployed were untrained, inadequate and inefficient.

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The mother of the four-year-old girl, who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a classmate of the same age in a west Delhi school last Friday, said her daughter was able to talk about the incident because she had been trained in identifying good and bad touch.

The girl was allegedly sexually assaulted with a finger and a sharpened pencil by a classmate in the school building, the mother said. The mother said the alleged abuse had left her daughter scarred and she runs away whenever it is brought up at home. She added the child says she wants to become strong in the future so she is able to fight off any assaulter.

Since I had trained my daughter about the concepts of right and wrong touch, she knew right from the beginning that whatever was happening to her was not right. At the school, she had tried to push the boy away from her. When she returned home, she kept drawing my attention to her pain and injury to her private parts, the girls mother told HT on phone on Thursday. She says she wants to eat a lot of food so that she can grow strong and beat up anyone who tries to hurt her in the future, the mother said.

The girl, who is on way to physical recovery, has not been opening up with outsiders, the mother added. Delhi Commission of Women members counselled her, but she wouldnt speak to them. I had to step in and convince her that these were good people, the mother said. The girl was, however, able to talk about the assault to a magistrate earlier this week or even sign any legal documents, she added.

The girl has refused to go back to school, the mother adds, saying they do not intend to send her back either. If she grows up in that school and those classrooms, she will begin to realise the seriousness of what had happened to her. She will not be safe there and will be under constant threat of being bullied and reminded of the assault as she grows up, she said.

During her visit to the school with her parents and police on Monday, the girl pointed out the location where she was allegedly assaulted.

The mother said she has written to the education department and sent a list of three schools with a request to accommodate her daughter in any of them. We will do everything to ensure normalcy is returned to her life. We will rebuild the confidence in her, she said.
NEW DELHI

In an alleged case of road age, a 47-year-old motorcycle rider was shot at and injured, allegedly by another two-wheeler rider, in Okhla on Thursday evening.

The suspect, police said, opened fire as the victims two-wheeler had brushed past his bike.

The injured man is out of danger but the suspect remains unidentified, police said. Mohammad Zaki, the victim, was hit by a bullet in his thigh.

Romil Baaniya, DCP south east, said the police received a PCR call at 9: 50 pm about the incident that happened near the Okhla vegetable market. An investigator said Zaki himself made the call but by the time the police arrived, the shooter had fled.

Zaki told the police that after their motorcycles hit each other, the other person allegedly turned aggressive. He said though he tried to calm the other biker down, he took out a firearm and allegedly shot him on the thigh.

The police rushed Zaki to a hospital from where he was discharged on Friday.

Police booked the unidentified person for attempt to murder (Section 307-IPC) at the Amar Colony police station.

The police are trying to identify the suspect through the description provided by Zaki and asking other locals in the absence of CCTV footage.

An FIR has been registered. We have rounded up several persons and are interrogating them, said Baaniya.

A fortnight ago, on November 10, a 24-year-old law student was killed after a scuffle broke out between him and a security guard in Burari.

On September 19, a motorcycle-borne man was run over, allegedly by an advocate, after he asked him not to smoke in front of him.
Vinay Parmar did not face any problem in getting access to Delhis National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum as a researcher. He even convinced the staff at the museum that he would soon take over as their boss.

He chose the vintage Kashmiri Pashmina shawls worth crores of rupees as his subject of research at the museum in Pragati Maidan and kept an eye on them for months before stealing 16 of them.

Delhi Police arrested Parmar and his cousin Tarun Harvodiya from Kolkata on November 13 and seized 15 shawls from them. They found the sixteenth shawl at antique dealer Mohammad Adil Sheikhs Fazal Enclave house on Thursday and arrested him as well.

The shawls, valued at Rs 2 crore and estimated to be more than 250-years-old, were allegedly stolen from the museum, popularly known as the Crafts Museum, late on October 29.

Deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) BK Singh said on Thursday that Parmar was inspired by the Bollywood movie Dhoom 2 and committed the crime as he wanted to lead an extravagant lifestyle.

Parmar made several trips to the museum, claiming to be a scholar ... Posing as a scholar allowed him more time than a regular visitor to minutely examine all the shawls and gauge their worth, said Singh.

Parmar enlisted Harvodiya to execute the plan once the shawls were marked. He chose a Sunday night to strike because the theft would not be discovered until Tuesday as the museum is closed on Mondays and even carried out a dummy run to come up with a foolproof strategy, another investigator said.

He hid in the museum to check whether the CCTV cameras inside were working on October 22, exactly a week before the night of the theft. As the other guests left around 5:30pm, he stayed back and spent nearly an hour and a half before raising an alarm. Parmar then screamed and banged on the doors until staff members opened the place to rescue him, said Singh.

Parmar told the museum staff that he had been signalling to the closed-circuit television cameras focusing on the shawls but no one came to his rescue and that is how he learnt that those cameras were not working, police said.

He also noticed that the museums basement was open and could be a relatively safer place to hide after closing time, they added.

Parmar and Harvodiya went to the museum on the evening of October 29. Harvodiya hid in the basement and Parmar left with other visitors when the staff locked the museum.

He told Harvodiya about the shawls to be picked and their specifications such as colour and locations. Once he collected all the marked shawls, Harvodiya broke open a window and made an exit.

The museums custodian Shahjahan Ansari opened the museum on the morning of October 31 and found the shawls missing and reported the matter to the police.

The cousins, police said, left for Kolkata where Parmars in-laws live, leaving one of the shawls with Sheikh.

The police started tracing all the mobile phones in the area during the time of the theft. It later emerged that Parmar had bought a SIM card specifically for planning the theft. The number was found switched off but was put on surveillance.

Only once did he switch it on and received a Welcome to Kolkata message from the cellular service provider. This message was flashed to us giving us the IMEI number of his phone. Later, he used the same device to insert another SIM telling us his locations, said an investigator.

The cousins were later arrested from different hotels of Kolkata while Sheikh was arrested at their instance after interrogation, he added.

Police suspect that Sheikh, a globetrotter who owns an export business, allegedly kept the shawl as a sample to show his prospective clients.

Sheikh, however, denied doing anything wrong during the press conference.

The shawls were bought between 1959 and 1967 from Kashmir for Rs 24,829, an official in the textile ministry said. They were on display at the exhibition boards in the textile gallery of the museum for years.
A 17-year-old first-year B.Com student was stabbed to death after a scuffle with five boys in school uniforms in a moving bus near Ashram in the heart of the national Capital. The boy, Zakir Nagar resident Mohammad Anas, succumbed to his injuries before he could be taken to hospital.

The incident took place on a government-run cluster bus on the Punjabi Bagh-Badarpur route at 3:30 pm on Thursday. The police apprehended four boys on Friday from Ali Vihar and Badarpur in south Delhi. They will be presented before the Juvenile Justice Board for further custody. A fifth boy involved in the crime is yet to be found, police said.

The suspects are all students of Classes 8 to 10 in two government schools near Ashram in south Delhi, according to Praveer Ranjan, joint commissioner of police (southern range).

The conductor of the bus, Jai Bhagwan, who was a witness to the crime, said there were at least 40 other passengers in the bus at the time of the murder, but no one intervened. Everything happened quickly. Before I could react, they had stabbed the youth and jumped out of the bus, he told Hindustan Times.

There were no identification documents found on Anas after the attack. While the police were struggling to identify him or the killers , Anass family members began going to police stations in the vicinity on Friday to find the missing boy. When we reached New Friends Colony police station, we were shown the photo of the boy killed on the bus the previous day. It was our Anas, the victims uncle, Mujeeb Ahmed, said.

The conductor said that the scuffle had broken out over Anas accusing the boys in school uniforms of stealing his mobile phone. The phone was found on Friday at the house of one of the suspects, police said, adding that the murder weapon -- a small knife that was used to slit Anass throat -- has also been recovered.

The victim, who would have turned 18 next February, was an undergraduate student at Al-Falah University in Faridabad. He lived with his parents and two siblings less than five kilometres from the scene of the crime.

Anas boarded the orange cluster bus at Ashram Chowk bus stop at around 3.15 pm. A few hundred metres later, the bus was caught in a traffic jam on Mathura Road. Four or five boys entered in white shorts and navy blue pants, Bhagwan said.

According to him, it was not long after that an argument broke out between Anas and the boys. He accused them of stealing his mobile phone and tried to search their pockets. The boys resisted, Bhagwan said.

The argument turned into a scuffle, and some of the boys allegedly restrained Anas while one of them stabbed him in the neck. The boy who stabbed him seemed the oldest of the lot. He was egged on by his friends, Bhagwan said.

He said the boys then jumped out of the slowly moving bus using the two doors at the opposite ends. The conductor called the police, who rushed Anas to Holy Family hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

The victims father, Bholu Khan, runs a drinking water business. My Maruti Omni van had broken down in Maharani Bagh. I had called Anas to come with some money. He was a very well-behaved boy, but shouldnt he have tried to retrieve his stolen phone? Khan asked.

The Delhi government has deputed a civil defence volunteer in every bus, but the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS), which operates cluster buses, confirmed on Friday that there was no volunteer on the bus.

Government figures show 56 juveniles in Delhi were involved in murder cases in the previous two years. Overall, 2,499 crimes in the city were committed by juveniles in 2016, according to police data.
Dilli, Dilwalon ki (Delhi is for the large-hearted) isnt just a badge of pride for Delhiites, but a promise to the tourists visiting from far and wide, that the Capital will welcome them with open arms. The state was declared the number one Indian city for tourists, among 30 Indian states, in a biennial state ranking survey, recently released by World Travel and Tourism Council, India Initiative (WTTCII), for its relative competitiveness in the area of travel and tourism. However, the veracity of such a ranking stood in conflict with the perennial problems of smog, chaotic traffic, lack of cleanliness, and not to forget pushy salespersons, plaguing the city.

So, for an on-ground report, HT City visited tourist haunts in the city, to scout for and hear it from the tourists themselves about their opinion on whether Delhi indeed is the best Indian city for tourists. Heres what they said:

Metro makes travelling in the city, convenient

Paulime Mollaru gets her hands tattooed with henna on her maiden trip to Delhi. (Shivam Saxena/ HT Photo)

Paulime Mollaru, who is on her maiden trip to Delhi, couldnt resist getting intricate henna designs applied on her hands, near Hanuman Mandir in Connaught Place. I felt for Delhi much before I landed here from France. I know that Indian women apply henna on festivals. I love Indian traditions and culture. I just love all the temples, the ethnicity and the rich history behind every place. Also, travelling through the city is so convenient because of the Metro, and I plan to visit all the places in one trip itself, she says.

I get to know something new every time I visit Delhi

David Andrews is visiting Delhi for the fourth time. (Shivam Saxena/ HT Photo )

Former journalist David Andrews is on his fourth trip to India, and we found him revelling in the spiritual side of Delhi, at Gurudwara Bangla Sahib . I have travelled across India, but Delhi is special to me. It has been a passion to me, because every time I come here, I get to know about something new. Also, central Delhi is my favourite, because of its infrastructure and history. Its shocking yet beautiful to see how people from different backgrounds, colour, and culture stay together like a family, here, he says.

Old Delhis food tempts you to eat even if not hungry

Lawrence and Eric plan to visit Old Delhi again. (Shivam Saxena/ Ht Photo)

Eric and Lawrence, a French couple, are smitten by the charm of Old Delhi on their first ever trip. We have been here for the last few days, and just love the place. People are really helpful, and initially we did face some difficulty, as the city was new to us, but now we feel like a part of the place. The food in Old Delhi is so tempting that even if you are not hungry, the smells will compel you to eat. We had kebabs, mutton, and many other dishes. We will visit the place again for the food, if nothing else, says Eric, who we met in Ballimaran Market.

We dont feel like leaving Delhi

Hoepken and wife Martina are in India to celebrate their 57th year of togetherness. (Shivam Saxena/ HT Photo)

We found Hoepken and Martina, a German couple, in Old Delhis Jama Masjid. They are travelling in India to celebrate their 57th year of togetherness. We toured across India, but after visiting Agra, Jaipur, Northeast India and other states, were back to the Capital. Delhi is the soul of the country. We started our tour from here, and could not leave this country without coming back here. Everything here is so unique and mesmerising that we dont feel like leaving. There are some spots in Delhi, such as the Gandhi Memorial, which we have visited twice, says Martina.

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Mumbai Its fun in the sun in Mumbai and Goa and involves tours of Indias top training colleges for defence personnel, the National Defence Academy (NDA) and the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC). For a group of 20 students from Kokrajhar district of Assam all of this comes packaged in a National Integration Tour organised by the Army.

The students met Maharashtra governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan recently, an official said.

The visit has been organised by the 3 Rajput Battalion of Army and aims to provide the students with exposure to the rich heritage, current developments and quality of life in other parts of India, thus enhancing their vision, he said.

Interacting with the students, the governor impressed upon them the importance of education, the official said.

Rao also appealed them to shun the path of violence and become good citizens of India.

Captain Shubham Deshmukh of the 3 Rajput Battalion, who is accompanying the students, told PTI that during their stay in Mumbai till November 25, the students would be visiting the IIT Bombay and meeting actors on the sets of popular TV serial CID.

They will then proceed to Pune where they will witness the passing out parade of NDA (National Defence Academy), visit AFMC (Armed Forces Medical College), Army Institute of Technology, National War Museum and the Rajiv Gandhi Zoo, the Army officer said.

From Pune, the students will go to Goa and during November 28-30, will visit the 2 Signal Training Centre, Kala Akademi, Goa Science Centre and Church Fair at Panaji.

They will return to Assam on December 1.
We need to talk about Sridevi. Every time we see the actor, it seems like shes gotten better looking (Ageing? Forget about it) and more fashionable (Her wardrobe seems to only get better with age) than before.

Need proof? Look no further than her latest red carpet wins from International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, which confirm Sridevi is positively ageless and a true style icon.

A post shared by Tanya Ghavri (@tanghavri) on Nov 21, 2017 at 10:09am PST

Sridevi was spotted at IFFI on Wednesday in her signature classic Indian look, wearing a blush pink-hued Tarun Tahiliani sari from the ace designers latest couture collection. We can sum up the 54-year-old beautys ensemble in one word: Elegant.

Sridevi kept her look modest and timeless and added a touch of glamour with stunning chandbalis and matching ring and bangles from Begani Jewels. But the intricate embellishment and forgiving silhouette of Sridevis sari drew the attention back to her outfit. It was the most elegant part of her look, after all. The cocktail design looks appropriate for any event, from a wedding to a fancy dinner.

A post shared by Manish Malhotra (@manishmalhotra05) on Nov 21, 2017 at 12:23am PST

But just because she sticks to modest choices doesnt mean Sridevi wont take a fashion risk here and there. You wont ever see the actor in a flamboyant dress or barely-there design, but shes done an uber glam shirt-with-lehenga look to step up her outfit game. She wore a custom-made black-gold Manish Malhotra ensemble at IFFI on Tuesday. And in true Sridevi fashion, she pulled the look off gracefully.

Sridevi has a preference for Malhotra, going with the designer time and time again for outfits that allow her to hold the spotlight. Only this time, she took a risk and executed her look in a way that feels more causal-cool than contrived. She topped of her striking handloom printed gold and black skirt with a sleek buttoned-down black shirt. She continued to keep things fresh, thanks in part to her keen understanding of extras: Be it her handmade metal beads potli bag from Lovetobag or an eye-catching set of stud earrings.

Below are few more Sridevi looks youll want to wear to every festive event you have coming up:

A post shared by Sridevi Kapoor (@sridevi.kapoor) on Feb 13, 2017 at 10:19am PST

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A post shared by Sridevi Kapoor (@sridevi.kapoor) on Jan 29, 2017 at 8:19am PST

A post shared by Sridevi Kapoor (@sridevi.kapoor) on Jan 13, 2017 at 2:24am PST

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The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday observed that the Basai wetland, around 8 km from Gurgaon city, is an important area for birds, both of native species and exotic visitors from far-off lands, to flock in.

The observation comes at a time when the tribunal has been holding hearings on a petition filed by Delhi Bird Foundation, an NGO, saying the wetland that draws migratory birds in large numbers every year is under threat from a proposed plant for processing construction and demolition waste.

However, while ruling that the wetland is a protected habitat for winged wonders, the tribunal is yet to pass its judgment on shifting the C&D waste treatment plant in the light of concerns flagged by environment experts and bird enthusiasts. The next hearing in the matter is scheduled on November 27.

In their petition to the NGT, bird enthusiasts demanded that the tribunal order an immediate suspension of work on the C&D treatment plant at Basai. They urged the tribunal to consider shifting the plant from the area, saying that dust from the plant will wreak havoc on the fragile ecosystem and destroy the wetland.

Bird experts said that the wetland, spread over 700 acres, draws migratory birds by the dozens every year. At present, the area is home to more than 2,000 birds, including species such as Gadwall, Mallard, Ruddy Shelduck and Common Pochard.

Basai wetland should be preserved, as it is home to thousands of birds from different parts of the globe. Any disturbance to the sensitive ambience of the surroundings could alter the flight path of the migratory birds. The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has already proposed that Basai be officially declared as a wetland, Pankaj Gupta, a bird expert, said.

Experts at the Delhi Bird Foundation pointed out that construction of C&D waste processing plant close to any wetland is a violation of the C&D Management Rules 2016, which states that a plant cannot be near a forest, water body, wetland, sanctuary or human clusters.

Read I Migratory birds start flocking to Basai wetland in Gurgaon

The experts have also demanded that Basai be notified as a wetland at the earliest. Soma Ateesh, another bird expert, said, The area, which has all the features of a wetland and his home to an active aquatic ecosystem, is facing a direct threat from rapid urbanisation. Thus, efforts should be doubled to preserve this fragile space and notify it as a wetland.

Officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) said that the NGT is likely to take a call on shifting the C&D waste treatment plant on Monday.

Gurgaon sorely needs a C&D waste processing plant, as construction and demolition rubble is often dumped along roads leading to a spike in air pollution. Since the area (Basai) isnt home to a designated wetland, construction of the C&D waste treatment plant does not come into conflict with any rule, Sudhir Chauhan, senior town planner, MCG, said.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar laid the foundation stone for the Basai waste plant on June 17.

Earlier, the MCG gave its nod to a multinational realty firm to build a waste processing plant over 3.5 acres in Basai. MCG commissioner V Umashankar also presided over a foundation event on May 23.

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The employee of a private company, which was contracted to refill ATM machines in Gurgaon, escaped with a bag containing Rs 1 crore cash on Friday.

Police said that the incident took place at Ambience Mall around 5.30pm.

The accused, police said, was later identified as one Hemant Kumar. A manhunt has been launched to nab the accused, the police said.

According to the police, the ATM van from which the money was stolen, had four people in it and it was supposed to fill money in an ATM at Ambience Mall.

The incident took place when the van  carrying a security guard, a driver and two staff  was parked at the Ambience Mall basement to refill money in a Citi Bank machine.

As per an FIR lodged by the Shiv Nanda, the supervisor of the team, Hemant, a resident of Rohtak, picked up the money bag to go fill the machine.

Hemant walked toward the road from the basement of Ambience Mall where the van was parked. He had the bag of money in his hand, but no one tried to stop him as they assumed that he was going to refill the cash machine, a police officer said.

The officer added that it was only 15 minutes later, when Hemant failed to return, that the other staff realised that the man had fled with the money. A search was immediately launched but Hemant couldnt be located anywhere. The police was informed in the meanwhile.

A police team later reached the spot, conducted a search in the area and also flashed alert messages across the city. Barricades were also put up at several roads across the city to nab the accused.

A case has been registered at the DLF Phase-2 under section 409 (criminal breach of trust) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Further investigation is on and we are trying to gather more information about the accused, said Ram Singh, sub-inspector, DLF phase 2 police station. He added that the van belonged to SIS company that refills money to ATMs.
A 50-year-old police assistant sub-inspector allegedly committed suicide by hanging from the ceiling fan at his home in Sector 82 in Kherki Daula area on Friday.

The deceased, Sant Kumar, was posted at Ballabgarh in Faridabad district of Haryana. His family members told police that he attended a relatives wedding reception on Friday and killed himself after returning home.

Sources said his family members found his lifeless body hanging from the ceiling at around 4am and called up the police. A police team reached his home, located at Shikohpur village, and took the body into their custody. The police said they collected finger prints from the body and the room where he was found dead for further investigation.

No suicide note was found near his body, the police said. A case has been registered under Section 174 of CrPC. Kumar is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

His body was handed over to his family members after the post-mortem examination was conducted by a medical board. The post-mortem report said that he died from the choking of his windpipe. Doctors who conducted the post-mortem examination said that his windpipe choked because of the hanging.

We are investigating the case. His family members told the investigating officer that he was under extreme stress because of some family issues, inspector Yaswant Yadav, station house officer, Kherki Daula police station, said.

While further investigation is on, the police said that the post-mortem report did not suggest any foul play. We are collecting finger prints and all related evidence to investigate all possible angles in this case, Ravinder Kumar, public relations officer, Gurgaon police, said.

Read I Gurgaon: Sadar cop found dead in restroom

On September 19, a 42-year old Haryana police officer was shot dead at his home in DLF Phase-3. Assistant sub-inspector Naresh Yadav was posted at Pali police post in Faridabad and lived with his family in DLF Phase-3. The police suspected that Mohit Yadav (21), the officers son, had a role in his fathers death .

On April 23, a 38-year-old BSF jawan allegedly committed suicide at Bhondsi BSF camp while he was on duty. The jawan, indentified as Sunil Kumar Yadav of Dadipur in Uttar Pradesh, is survived by a wife.

On March 4, a 45-year-old police inspector was found dead under mysterious circumstances in the rest room of Sadar police station in Gurgaon. Reports suggested that the officer allegedly shot himself with his service revolver.

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There is likely to be more arrests in connection with the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) corruption probe, as the investigation has revealed a nexus at play in charging residents for clearing their vehicle registry or approving certificates that, in some cases, had been disqualified.

A chief ministers flying squad (CFMS) on Thursday arrested a computer operator, who was posted at the RTA office, on charges of corruption and the squads sleuths are probing the role of more staff members.

The flying squad had received several complaints against the accused and had procured witness accounts as well as evidence against him prior to his arrest.

According to sources in Gurgaon police, the accused Tarun Hasija would clear records or register vehicles flouting norms as well as charge money for clearing papers for those plying within permissible limits.

The violations included vehicles failing to clear the air pollution standards and those that had been impounded by the police or attracted a heavy fine.

A case against Tarun has been filed at the Shivaji Nagar police station under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Our role is limited in the matter, as the case is being probed by the flying squad. Based on their complaint and pieces of evidence, a case was registered in the matter, Inspector Rajpal Yadav, SHO, Shivaji Nagar police station, said.

Read I Gurgaon: PG murder: Councillors husband, former village head booked for corruption, conspiracy

According to sources, the flying squad is probing the role of touts as well as motor vehicle inspectors in the matter. It is alleged that they may have played the role of middlemen. They are also scrutinising footage captured by the CCTV, which had been installed at the RTA office earlier this year to keep a check on touts, for leads in the case.

On August 23, members of All Haryana Truck Transport Association lodged a complaint with PWD Minister Rao Narbir Singh claiming rampant corruption in the RTA office as well.

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The assurance by the chief minister and the commissioner of police of a probe into the alleged torture meted out to Ryan bus conductor Ashok Kumar in a bid to extract confession in the murder case, has given his family members and lawyer renewed hope for justice.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Gurgaon commissioner Sandeep Khirwar on Thursday said that the accusations levelled by the conductor, who was arrested in the case before being released on bail, will be probed and action would be taken if anyone was found guilty.

Earlier, his family voiced grave doubts on whether the police will act against its own men. However, the assurance by the chief minister has boosted their hopes of a fair probe.

Speaking in Ambala on Thursday, Khattar said that the allegations of torture levelled against the police were being investigated. The matter is being probed and proper action will be taken against anyone, if found guilty, he told the mediapersons on Thursday.

After reaching his village from Bhondsi jail on Wednesday, Kumar opened up before the media, claiming that the police beat him up, gave him electric shocks and even sedated him in a bid to force a confession out of him in the murder of 8-year-old Pradhyumn Thakur. The class 2 student of Ryan International School, Bhondsi, was found inside the schools toilet with his throat slit on the morning of September 8.

Kumar, 42, was released from the Bhondsi jail on Wednesday after a court granted him bail the day before.

I am satisfied with the statement made by the commissioner (Khirwar) and the assurance of an inquiry by him. My client and myself are ready to offer all our support to the police in the inquiry, Mohit Verma, Kumars counsel, said.

Read I Ryan school case: Accused in Pradhyumn murder sent to custody for 14 days

Ill do whatever my lawyer suggests, Kumar said.

Verma had claimed he would sue the police for defamation after the CBI apprehended a Class 11 student for the murder on November 7. He said he is waiting for the CBI to file a charge sheet so that role of the police and the school management in framing or implicating Kumar is clearly specified.

Khirwar said on Thursday said that Kumars charges would be looked into and suitable action would be taken if any foul play is found.

Gurgaon polices role came under suspicion after it transferred Bhondsi SHO, Narender Kumar, the investigating officer in the Ryan case, through a single order to an electricity company in Panchkula on October 2. He was, however, shifted to a police station in Gurgaon within a few days of the order.

Deputy commissioner of police (south) Ashok Bakshi said it was routine procedure and there was nothing wrong in it.

Gurgaon police had booked Kumar under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act on charges of sexually assaulting the eight-year-old. Later, the CBI ruled out sexual assault angle in the case.
Unidentified criminals on Friday evening shot dead an Amritsar-based gold trader and injured his brother-in-law in in Bhagwan Bazar area of Chapra town, the headquarters of the crime-prone Saran district, 80 km northwest of Patna.

The miscreants looted Rs 2.5 lakh cash besides gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 20 lakh from the traders.

The incident comes at a time when the Bihar government has started making preparations for Sikh pilgrims for the grand closing function of the year-long 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singhji Maharaaj, the 10th Guru of the Sikhs.

This is the third incident of a businessman being murdered this week in Bihar. Earlier, a prominent trader of Patna had been killed on Tuesday night while another businessman was shot dead in Vaishali district the same night.

The incident took place at around 6.45pm when the two gold traders, Avtar Singh and his brother-in-law Sarvajit Singh, were on way to the Rajendra Sarovar government bus stand in Chapra after collecting money from retailers of Sahebganj Sonarpatti in the town. As soon as their rickshaw reached the bus stand road, seven miscreants riding on three bikes intercepted them and tried to snatch the bag containing cash and jewellery at pistol point.

When the two resisted their attempt, two of the criminals fired on them from point blank range. The two men fell on the ground and the criminals decamped with the bag.

The two traders were rushed to the Sadar hospital by locals where Avtar was declared dead by doctors and Sarvajit was battling for this life.

After intercepting our rickshaw, the goons dragged us from it. Then they took out a gun. To save my life, I tried to run from the spot and shouted for help but the criminals opened fire, said Sarvajit, adding that they were on way to catch a bus for Patna Sahib.

The armed men had covered their faces with helmets. Sarvajit said he had no idea whether they were following the rickshaw. They intercepted the rickshaw all of a sudden and asked me to alight, he said.

Police sources said Avtar Singh, a resident of Krishna Nagar of Taran Taran Road under Amritsar, was a reputed supplier of gold and silver ornaments to Saran-based jewellery shops and wholesalers.

Saran SP Hari Kishore Rai did not take the calls made by Hindustan Times. However, Saran range DIG Ajit Kumar Rai confirmed the incident and Sarvajit was out of danger.

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The Supreme Court on Friday granted six weeks time to the Gujarat government for apprising it on whether any disciplinary action has been initiated against policemen convicted in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, considered the submission of Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, that some more time be given to get instruction on the authorities concerned in the case.

The bench listed the plea for hearing in the first week of January.

The bench, however, made it clear that the separate plea, seeking enhancement of compensation to be awarded to Bilkis Bano, would be taken up next week for hearing.

The apex court had already granted time, on October 23, to the state government to apprise it whether any departmental action had been initiated or taken against police officers whose conviction was upheld in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

The Bombay High Court had on May 4 upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 12 people in the gangrape case, while setting aside the acquittal of seven people including policemen and doctors.

Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped in March, 2002, while she was pregnant, lost seven of her family members in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident.

Read more: Testimony of Bilkis Bano bogus, evidence fabricated, says defence

The bench had convicted seven persons, including five policemen and two doctors, for not performing their duties (sections 218) and tampering of evidence (section 201) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The convicted policemen and doctors are Narpat Singh, Idris Abdul Saiyed, Bikabhai Patel, Ramsingh Bhabhor, Sombhai Gori, Arun Kumar Prasad (doctor) and Sangeeta Kumar Prasad (doctor).

A special court had on January 21, 2008, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men in the case.

They later approached the Bombay High Court challenging their conviction and sought for the trial courts order to be quashed.

The CBI had also filed an appeal in the high court seeking harsher punishment of death for three of the convicted on the grounds that they were the main perpetrators of the crime.

According to the prosecution, on March 3, 2002, Bilkis Banos family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots and seven members of her family were killed.

The trial in the case began in Ahmedabad. However, after Bilkis Bano expressed apprehensions that witnesses could be harmed and CBI evidence tampered, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.
A BJP leader on Friday announced a reward of Rs one crore to anyone who slaps RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav for his objectionable comments against Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

However, the BJP state unit distanced itself from the comments and issued a statement condemning the remarks of Anil Sahni, the partys media in-charge for the Patna district.

The BJP said it will take disciplinary action against Sahni for his reckless utterances.

We will give a reward of Rs one crore to anybody who slaps Tej Pratap Yadav. The RJD leader had threatened to thrash our respected Deputy CM inside his house (during the marriage of his son on December 3). We wish to pay Yadav in the same coin, Sahni had said.

We will also organise demonstrations in front of Yadavs house to put pressure on him to apologise to Sushil Modi, he had said.

The BJP leader was reacting to a recent video footage in which Yadav, the elder son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and a former state minister, was purportedly shown threatening to disrupt Sushil Modis sons marriage and using the words ghar mein ghus kar maarenge (will beat inside his house).

BJP activists burning the effigy of RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav during a protest his controversial remarks, in Patna on Thursday. (PTI)

Yadavs comments drew strong reaction from Sushil Modi, who urged Lalu Prasad to persuade his son against making provocative speeches.

However, in response to Sahnis remarks, a strongly- worded statement was issued by BJP state unit spokesman Suresh Rungta, who said, Sahni has spoken in his personal capacity. The party condemns his statement and has nothing to do with it.

The BJP has always been a votary of decorum and decency in public discourse... Sahni will therefore certainly face disciplinary action by the party, Rungta added.
The wildlife department in Jhajjar has detained four men on suspicion of poisoning as many as 35 migratory birds to death for smuggling meat.

The poachers were spotted at Mandothi village by a birdwatcher Sonu Dalal, who informed police and wildlife officials after nabbing them red-handed with the help of villagers.

Sunder Sambharya, the district forest officer (DFO) of Jhajjar, said the 35 birds, all common teals (species), fly to India from countries like Kazakhstan, Siberia and Mongolia during this time of the year in search of food.

Poaching the common teal is a punishable offence under the schedule 4 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.

Some carcasses of the migratory birds (HT Photo)

The birds have been sent for post-mortem, after which a case will be registered against the four men, he said.

Sambharya said the poachers mildly poison these birds to make them unconscious and then strangle them to death. They smuggle these birds to roadside dhabas and eateries for their meat. They dont entirely kill them with poison because then they become unsafe for eating, he said.

The district of Jhajjar witnesses thousands of migratory birds every year due to several water bodies present in the area. The experts said it becomes difficult for them to monitor the hunters as these migratory birds prefer shallow waters of farmers waterlogged fields over bird sanctuaries.

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A woman pilot ejected safely from a training aircraft of the Indian Air Force on Friday after it burst into flames mid-air and crashed into agricultural fields in Telanganas Siddipet district, a defence ministry official said.

The pilot, identified as Rashi Rahen, sustained minor injuries and was taken to Siddipet hospital in an ambulance by the local authorities at Duddeda village, about 90km from Hyderabad.

Defence ministry spokesperson G Surendra Babu said IAF Kirans engine developed a technical snag a few minutes after it took off from Hakimpet Airforce station on the outskirts of Hyderabad. A fire broke out in its engine and thick smoke started emanating soon after, he added.

Sensing the danger, the pilot immediately ejected out of the aircraft and landed in the fields. Soon, the aircraft burst into flames and crashed into the fields. The engine was totally burnt and the parts of the aircraft were strewn around the area, Babu said.

Rahen was the only pilot in the aircraft.

Part of the crashed aircraft. (HT Photo)

A similar aircraft was involved in an accident in September and the pilot ejected safely using a parachute in states Medchal district. There was no damage as there were no houses or people at the place where the airplane crashed.

Two pilots were killed in March 2010 after a Kiran MK-II plane, which was part of the Sagar Pawan aerobatic team participating at the India Aviation show, crashed into a building in Hyderabad.

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The Manohar Lal Khattar government this year switched to alphabetic order for recommending a panel of five candidates to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to fill one post of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) through nomination channel, dumping the last years yardstick of women empowerment.

The 2016 shortlist comprised three women of a total of five candidates from among non-state civil service officers. Incidentally, under both the yardsticks  women empowerment and alphabetic order  education minister Ram Bilas Sharmas daughter Asha Sharma got shortlisted. Her name figured on the top in both the lists the government sent to the UPSC in two consecutive years. The UPSC had cancelled the selection process last year citing deficient documents/information the state government sent about three candidates.

Haryana shortlists ministers daughter, deputy speakers brother for IAS post

The shortlisting method The screening committee headed by the chief secretary shortlists the candidates on the basis of annual confidential reports (ACRs) of the past five years. The candidates having eight-year service in a Class-1 post, equal to the rank of deputy collector, are considered. As per rules, the candidate(s) being shortlisted should be of outstanding ability and merit. The UPSC holds interview in December for the posts. The interview board comprises a UPSC member, state chief secretary and one senior IAS officer of the state-cadre. A lot depends on the feedback of the chief secretary to the UPSC.

This year, there were a total of 16 officials who according to the government fulfilled all eligibility criteria but there was no one except Asha Sharma whose name started from the alphabet A and hence she automatically bagged the first slot among the aspirants. Asha Sharma (42), an MBBS, is a medical officer at the Narnaul civil hospital.

HT has copies of the proceedings the chief secretary DS Dhesi-headed screening committee held to shortlist the candidates.

We have shortlisted the candidates and recommended their names to the UPSC, on the basis of their ability. There is no nepotism. Ultimately, the UPSC will select one candidate out of the five we have recommended keeping in view various factors. It is for the UPSC to decide who is more deserving, chief minister Khattar said on Wednesday during a press conference after the cabinet meeting.

In its June 24, 2016 meeting, the screening committee had observed: Both the Government of India and the state government were giving the highest priority to education of the girl child and women empowerment.

The panel had noted that no woman has entered IAS in Haryana through this channel. The screening panel stated that a multi-sectoral empowerment of women will help creating an environment that will inspire and encourage women towards education and a life of dignity.

A file noting stated, The committee is of the view that women officers may be given preference by selection from non-SCS to the IAS. And while picking up the panel this year, the screening committee noted: The committee recommends that a panel of following officers in alphabetic order may be sent to the UPSC

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The UK has formally asked India whether it would like to take a lead role in the 52-nation Commonwealth grouping.

The proposal comes ahead of next Aprils Commonwealth heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London and at a time when Prince Charles is expected to take over from Queen Elizabeth as the head of state of some of the former territories of the erstwhile British Empire.

A senior Indian government official confirmed that the UK had sounded out Indias interest during Prince Charles visit to New Delhi last month.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, this person added that the proposal is being debated within the government with both the foreign affairs and the national security establishment providing their views.

Diplomatic circles in London were unaware of the proposal, but said it could have been made at the political level. Hindustan Times learns that there is an older proposal for a regional Commonwealth hub in New Delhi. The Indian official said the country saw the proposal as acknowledgement of its importance in terms of size, economic relevance, and population.

He added that the proposal entails that New Delhi play a larger role in the Commonwealth inter-governmental group; 18 of the 52 countries are from Africa and India is keen to use the platform to better its relations with them, especially given that many African countries have resources it needs.

Officials in Indias foreign ministry say India is interested because the world is becoming multi-polar, especially with the rise of China, and the country thinks a grouping of 52 nations could well be a pole.

Still, the thinking in New Delhi is that the countries in the grouping need to be bound diplomatically and economically, either through preferential trade agreements or smoother visa processes. Merely being leader of 52 countries whose heads of state meet for lunch every two years is of no use. A group of 52 countries with over $10 trillion GDP should be a voice among the comity of nations just like European Union or ASEAN or SCO, said a senior official in the foreign ministry, asking not to be identified.

India, the foreign ministry officials add, is keen to explore ways to make the grouping more substantial than just one of countries with a similar imperial past.

No decision has been taken yet, the two Indian officials said.

(Prasun Sonwalkar in London contributed to this report)

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Bypoll to the Dr Radha Krishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in Chennai which fell vacant following the demise of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa last year will be held on December 21, the Election Commission announced on Friday.

The counting of votes will be held on December 24 and the election process will be completed before December 26, an EC press release which was made available by Tamil Nadus Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni in Chennai said.

The announcement comes days after the Madras High Court said it expected the EC to hold by-election in RK Nagar by December 31.

Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar made the observation on a plea of a DMK leader RS Bharathi.

Bypoll in RK Nagar previously scheduled for April 12 was subsequently cancelled by the EC following allegations of bribing of voters.

Also, the cancellation of by-poll came days after the Income Tax department held searches in premises of Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijayabaskar.

It may be recalled that premises belonging to the ministers associates were also searched and raids revealed routing of Rs 89 crore for distribution to voters in RK Nagar Assembly segment.

Documents seized during searches at the premises of an accountant of the minister showed details of Rs 89 crore and the money being channelled to RK Nagar through party functionaries.

The amount was allegedly channelled through many party functionaries for distribution to voters, Income Tax sources had told PTI in April.

The RK Nagar bypoll was announced as part of by-election to constituencies in States including Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The date of Gazette notification for the bypoll will be on November 27.

Last date for filing nominations will be December 4 and scrutiny will be on December 5 and last date for withdrawal of nominations will be December 7.
The Madras High Court on Friday decided to compare former chief minister J Jayalalithaas thumb impression on documents relating to a bypoll last year, with the late leaders fingerprints available with the Parappana Agrahara jail at Bengaluru.

Justice P Velmurugan also asked the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to furnish Jayalalithaas thumb impression details to the court.

The superintendent of central prison at Parappana Agrahara and UIDAI regional officer, who handles Aadhaar, should give fingerprints details to the court by December 8, the judge said.

The matter relates to a petition filed by P Saravanan, DMK candidate for the November 2016 Thirupparankundram Assembly bypoll, challenging the election of AIADMKs A K Bose.

During the pendency of the case, Saravanan had filed an additional affidavit, questioning the validity of the election documents.

He contended that the thumb impression of Jayalalithaa was obtained without her consent and knowledge while she was unconscious, with the connivance of the doctors who attended to the former chief minister and others.

Jayalalithaa was lodged in the jail after her conviction in the Rs 65.66 crore disproportionate assets case in 2014.

She subsequently secured bail from the Supreme Court and was released on October 18, 2014, after spending 21 days in prison.

The Karnataka High Court later acquitted her and three of her associates of all charges, but the Supreme Court on February 14 this year set aside the order.

However, since Jayalalithaa passed away on December 5 last year, the apex court abated the proceedings against her.

The apex court convicted Sasikala, deposed AIADMK general secretary, and her two relatives in the case and had restored the trial courts order awarding four year jail term to them. She is at present in the jail.

In his petition, Saravanan had also questioned the ECs decision to accept the left-thumb impression of Jayalalithaa affixed on the documents filed in support of Boses nomination papers.

He further submitted that following the attestation, the AIADMK candidate (Bose) was allowed to contest on the two leaves symbol under the defective form A and form B of the documents, which had materially affected the outcome of the election.

The Election Commission (EC) had last month submitted that it had accepted the left-thumb impression of the late leader, affixed on documents relating to the bypoll, based on a letter from AIADMK presidium chairman E Madhusudhanan.

The letter stated that Jayalalithaa was not in a position to sign as she was unwell and hence, her left-thumb impression attested by the doctor could be taken on file, K F Wilfred, Principal Secretary of the EC, said.

The court had summoned the official for giving evidence on the election plea.
The Winter session of Parliament will be held from December 15 to January 5, the cabinet committee on parliamentary affairs declared on Friday amid indications that the Opposition was planning to raise issues such as demonetisation, GST glitches and the Rafale deal to attack the government.

The Parliament session will begin a day after the second and final phase of polling for the Gujarat assembly election.

This will be a 14-day session, 25th and 26th December will be Christmas holidays, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said.

Hindustan Times reported on Thursday that the dates of the session had earlier been finalised but not declared as they were sent to President Ram Nath Kovind for his approval.

The decision to extend the session beyond Christmas will give at least 14 working days to the government to push its agenda. While the introduction of a bill to ban triple talaq is high on its priority list, it is also keen to push the Labour Code, the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill and several other pending legislations.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday lashed out at the government for delay in announcing the dates, alleging that the ruling dispensation is afraid to face Parliament.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley earlier told journalists that the session would not overlap with the Gujarat assembly elections and it would be a regular session.

Jaitley took potshots at rivals and said the BJP would be busy with the Gujarat poll campaign but he was not sure if its opponents would also be busy.

Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, told ANI that the opposition party would raise important issues like Goods and Services and Tax, demonetisation, Jammu and Kashmir issue, terrorism and Hafiz Saeed being set free by Pakistan.
The Hyderabad Police is making elaborate arrangements for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trumps daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump to the city next week.

During his day-long visit on November 28, Modi would inaugurate the Hyderabad metro rail project and also the three -day Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES).

Ivanka Trump would attend the eighth annual GES, which will highlight the theme Women First, Prosperity for All this year, and focus on supporting women entrepreneurs and fostering global economic growth. Ivanka Trump will lead the US delegation at the summit.

Hyderabad police commissioner V V Srinivasa Rao told reporters today that the prime minister will arrive here on November 28 and inaugurate Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd project at Miyapur.

After inaugurating the metro rail project, he will go to the Hyderabad International Convention Centre where he will inaugurate the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

Modi and Ivanka Trump, along with 100 special guests, would also attend a special dinner at the Falaknuma Palace in the old city on November 28, he said.

The dinner will be served on a Nizam-era table at which 101 people can sit at a time. The palace is now a plush hotel.

A separate dinner has been arranged for about 1,500- 2,000 delegates on the lawns of the 19th century palace, Rao said.

According to available information, Ivanka Trump may attend the GES during the day on November 29 and leave the city the same night.

A meeting was held today between the US Secret Service, central government officials and the city police to discuss Ivanka Trumps security, Rao said.

She would be using three of her own vehicles, he said.

About 2,200 police personnel would be deployed for the twin events, the commissioner said.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that the Centre has delayed the winter session of Parliament to avoid questions on BJP president Amit Shahs son Jays business deals, the Rafale deal and the Doklam standoff.

Gandhi said Parliament will not open till Gujarat elections were over. Please convene the Parliament so that I can ask a few questions about Jay Shah, Rafale and Doklam, he said, addressing a series of poll rallies in the state. He also questioned the Prime Minister Narendra Modis silence on these issues.

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters in Ahmedabad that Gandhi was an expert in raising questions and not answering any, accusing the Congress of failing to become a responsible opposition party.

Gandhi began his two-day tour of Gujarat with interactions with fishermen in Porbandar, Dalits in Sanand and pharmaceutical industrialists, doctors and teachers at separate events in Ahmedabad.

While slamming the 22-year rule of the BJP in Gujarat, Gandhi held out a promise for every section of people that he addressed.

In Porbandar, Gandhi promised a central ministry for fisheries if the Congress returns to power in 2019, while accusing the ruling BJP of working for a handful of industrialists.

The BJP government would not consider giving a subsidy of Rs 300 crore to fishermen but waive Rs 1 lakh crore in debt to big business houses, he said.

Modiji tells you his Mann ki Baat but nobody listens to your Mann ki Baat. Congress will win the December elections in Gujarat and will form a government which listens to you and works according to your needs, he said, after visiting the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi, who promised better vocational training for Dalits in Sanand, slammed Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani for not accepting a 125 feet long national flag when it was reportedly offered to him earlier this year.

If you gave me a 50,000 kg flag and I had only one inch of space, I would have taken it as I have space in my heart. The BJP has no space for your blood and sweat or for the national flag. It only has space for 5-10 industrialists, he said.

He also invoked Rohith Vemula and the Una flogging incidents there, asking the crowd, What has the BJP done for the Dalits? The crowd replied, Kuch nahi (nothing).

In Ahmedabad, Gandhi ridiculed the states much-publicised vibrant Gujarat eventsaying it had done little for providing basic and affordable services in medical and education sector. He said the Congress government in the state will improve healthcare and education facilities.

When a doctor pointed at shortage of doctors and para-medical staff at hospitals, Gandhi said the Modi government gave away Rs 33,000 crore (soft loan) to Nano but did nothing for the healthcare sector.

His last rally of the day, which went on till late night, Gandhi said, If one magician is not enough the BJP has roped in many magicians to campaign in Gujarat. He termed the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes as another magic he played with people on November 8, 2016.

PM Modi will launch the BJPs election campaign on November 27. He is slated toaddress over 30 rallies and will also hold several road-shows in towns and cities of Gujarat. Several of his cabinet colleagues will also be campaigning in the state.

Gujarat will go to polls in two phases on December 9 and 14 in the backdrop of violent agitation by Patidars demanding reservation in jobs and admissions.

(With agency inputs)
When a visitor arrives at Beartooth Elementary, it's not principal Travis Niemeyer who greets them. Rather, a pair of fifth-graders arrive to show off their school.

Leah Hilliard and Kamlin Brensdahl point out a new mural, answer questions and explain the TV screen that lists points next to icons.

The girls are representatives of Niemeyer's vision at the school; students who prize politeness as much as correctness, who focus on being good people and let being good students follow, and who love coming to school.

"It's all been about reading, math, being rigorous, going-going-going," the principal said. "We can't leave childhood behind either."

His phrasing intentionally echoes a much-maligned education law, No Child Left Behind, that placed an emphasis on standardized testing and raising measurable achievement. That doesn't mean Niemeyer has abandoned assessment  Beartooth met growth goals in each cohort for School District 2 testing last year, and Niemeyer said the school could do better. And he pointed to the Ron Clark Academy as part of how that would happen.

The academy is a private, nonprofit charter school in Atlanta. It's billed as a "demonstration school" where more than 38,000 educators have observed. Niemeyer has adopted its principals both at Beartooth, where he's worked for the past two years, and at Newman Elementary before that.

One slice of the school Niemeyer has brought back to Billings is a house system, which will ring a bell for "Harry Potter" consumers. Students are randomly sorted into different houses, which span grade levels. They get points, displayed next to icons on the TV screen by the school's entryway, but not necessarily for academic prowess.

In Celeste Peel's first-grade class recently, a student  unprompted  grabbed a glasses case that another student had forgotten.

"That was really nice," Peel quickly noted, telling the student to add a house point to the in-class tracker.

Starting points

Peel's students were building diagrams of a pumpkin life cycle using an iPad program. Afterward, she quickly reviewed designs in students' work.

"Some are straight down, some are kind of curvy, some are a web," she said.

Peel could have been talking about differences between young students. Some kindergartners begin school already reading, while others don't know how to hold a fork. Academic variation requires classroom activities that let students proceed at different paces and skill levels.

Some students carved though the pumpkin exercise  one, when told he could move on to extra math exercises, responded with an emphatic "oh yes."

Other students took more time trying to sound out words, didn't manipulate the iPad as easily or just had trouble staying on task.

Like young students come into school at different academic levels, they also have different levels of social and emotional skills. Their families harbor different dispositions toward schools, sometimes filled with happy memories, sometimes focused on frustration and failure.

Niemeyer views wider skills like respectfulness and perseverance as just as crucial to success as mastering multiplication, and sees it as a responsibility for schools to focus on, along with parents. Things like holding a door or a firm grip while shaking hands get an unusual focus.

"It takes a village, in my mind," he said. "I want them to learn things right now that they're going to need when they apply for jobs."

Houses

Niemeyer was principal at Newman Elementary when he started the house system in 2015. He faced the same challenge as any administrator; getting teachers to buy into his initiatives.

"If it's a one-man show, none of it would work," he said.

He said teachers have readily picked up on tweaks like focusing more on their own body language and awareness of how students track them across a room while teaching and building more student movement into regular classroom activities. Several Beartooth teachers, including Peel, use a small stage-like area to hop up on while teaching, an extra tug at student's attention.

But mostly, it involves doubling down on looking at student's overall well-being.

"We aren't there to be their friend," Niemeyer said. "But we are here to be that person they can count on."

The house system become a vehicle for building relationships; teachers get to interact with kids they usually don't see during house meetings, and awarding points offers blinks of recognition. And students help build relationships with one another and interact with grade levels they usually wouldn't see. Students are randomly distributed into six different houses: Reveur, Integrity, Altruismo, Amistad, Iisasshia, and Isibindi.

The names are intended to inspire. For example, Revuer roughly translates into "dreamer." Students always knew the name of their own house, but for others, a color is often used for easier identification.

The competition helps spur student engagement, but competitiveness isn't an end goal.

"Lets just say, in the morning, if you come in, and there's people behind you, hold the door for them," said third-grader Maggie Abril. "Maybe you won't get a house point, but at least you did something."

Ron Clark

Thousands of educators swear by the Ron Clark approach with a gospel-like conviction. About two-thirds of Beartooth teachers have visited the academy's training program at its Atlanta school. Niemeyer said the visits are paid for by Title I funds, federal money allocated to schools with a high proportion of kids from low-income families, and donations.

But the school isn't without critics.

Tuition costs about twice as much per student as public schools in Atlanta, with revenue streams like corporate sponsorships from the likes of Coca-Cola and teacher training visits. The school selects students, and it aims for "an even distribution of learners who are considered gifted, those who have performed at grade level, and those who have a history of academic or disciplinary difficulties," according to a 2013 document.

Tuition is $18,000 per year; most students attend the school on scholarships, but every attendee is required to pay something. The school's average family income is about $34,000. Costs to educate a student in Montana public schools vary from just more than $10,000 per student in large schools to more than $20,000 per student in the smallest, with most schools trending toward the smaller figure.

Even then, the document from the school notes that "funding is an ongoing, challenging process for us." Teacher training programs, quoted at $425 per day in an Atlanta Constitution Journal story, brought in $1.2 million in revenue in 2013-14, the most recent annual report on Ron Clark's website. The school received about $2.5 million in donations that year, almost half of which came from companies.

The school is as much known for its focus on "exceptional engagement" for students as it is for a 55-point behavior code, and a near-perfect track record of sending kids to college. But some Atlanta educators have questioned if the approach can be replicated with public school funding, which is about half of the $18,000 Ron Clark spends per-student.

Niemeyer believes its culture can take root in any school.

"We're still not there. But we'll get there," he said.

Rewards

Famous Dave's routinely donates food for a special lunch to celebrate students whose teachers cited their good work, socially or academically, especially for kids who might fly under the radar.

"They do it so queitly, they do it so subtly," Niemeyer said. "You have to point out the great things that they're doing."

Niemeyer riffed off teacher recommendation for students while handing out certificates, often adding his own personal anecdotes. They then spun a game-show style wheel with points to earn for houses, with twists like a "share" option where they also have to pick a house to donate points to.

Kindergartener Carson Wellard wasn't so sure about getting called out of class. His teacher had to lead him from class to the gym, where he was still aprehensive about this lunch setup.

Third-grader Makayla Ecker jumped up from the table and scrambled over to Wellard, assuring him that there was nothing nefarious about the lunch.

Ecker and Wellard aren't in the same houses. They just happened to know each other from church, and Ecker helped tutor Wellard last year.

"You can sit by me," she announced.
The Supreme Court on Friday sought the governments response on a petition questioning the validity of Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act that follows a jury system to decide matrimonial disputes.

A bench headed by Justice Kurian Joseph did not issue a formal notice but asked the petitioners lawyer, Neela Gokhale to provide a copy of the petition to additional solicitor general Atmaram Nadkarni for his assistance in the matter.

Serve a copy of the petition to the ASG to know his views, the bench ordered even as it showed reluctance in entertaining the plea.

Dont you think it will amount to legislation? the court asked Gokhale who said the petitioner  Naomni Sam Irani  got encouraged to move the top court after its judgement in the instant triple talaq case.

This (law) is in existence since 1936. You move the court after so many years and the concept of court here is that its a court of the people, the judges said, telling the counsel that Parliament will be a better platform to highlight the issue.

But on Gokhales persuasion the court agreed to seek ASGs view and said it will examine next week Iranis plea questioning the validity of provisions of the pre-independence era Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act. The lawyer pointed out how a delegate  who is akin to a jury member - lauded Iranis efforts to raise the issue before the top court.

Irani claimed in her petition that the procedure made estranged couples of her community go through a torturous exercise to get divorce.

The petitioner had moved a Parsi matrimonial suit early last year before the Bombay high court seeking dissolution of her 11-year-old marriage. She has a 10-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter.

Iranis petition arises out of her experience as a litigant. According to her the procedure under the personal law was cumbersome, involving a jury system. There is no access to mediation and settlement as is available to Hindu women under the family court system.

In her case, she said, there has been no appointment of delegates to participate in the pending matrimonial proceedings, depriving her of speedy disposal of her case.

Under the law special courts are set up in Kolkatta, Chenni and Mumbai and the chief justice of the HC concerned nominates a judge, who, aided by five delegate hears the dispute.

These delegates... act like jury and the case is decided by majority decision. It is a fact that Parsi chief matrimonial court sits only once or twice a year... only for a short duration. In view of increase in divorce petitions, jury as a fact finding body practically impedes speedy justice, Irani said and requested the SC to do away with the jury system.

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Militants killed 235 people at a mosque in Egypts north Sinai region on Friday, detonating a bomb and shooting at fleeing worshippers and ambulances, the state television reported, quoting the public prosecutor.

It was one of the deadliest attacks in the regions Islamist insurgency. No group claimed immediate responsibility, but since 2014 Egyptian security forces have battled a stubborn Islamic State affiliate in the north of the mainly desert Sinai, where militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers.

State media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of the city of El Arish.

State television and the official news agency MENA reported that 235 people had been killed. Another 125 were wounded, according to state media.

They were shooting at people as they left the mosque, a local resident whose relatives were at the scene told Reuters. They were shooting at the ambulances too.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces commander who presents himself as a bulwark against Islamist militants, convened an emergency meeting with his defence and interior ministers and intelligence chief soon after the attack, the presidencys Facebook page and state television said.

The government also declared three days of mourning.

Militants have mostly targeted security forces in their attacks since bloodshed in the Sinai worsened after 2013 when Sisi, then an armed forces commander, led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

But jihadists have also targeted local Sinai tribes that are working with the armed forces, branding them traitors for cooperating with the army and police.

In July this year, at least 23 soldiers were killed when suicide car bombs hit two military checkpoints in the Sinai, an attack claimed by Islamic State.

Militants have tried to expand beyond the largely barren, Sinai Peninsula into Egypts heavily populated mainland, hitting Coptic Christian churches and pilgrims.

In May, gunmen attacked a Coptic group travelling to a monastery in southern Egypt, killing 29.
The results of the bypolls to the tribal council on Friday has given the Congress something to cheer about in Tripura, where six of its 10 legislators defected to Trinamool Congress only to be poached by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The party won the Dakshin Dhaniacherra village by-election in the Tripura Tribal Autonomous District Council as its candidate defeated his Communist Party of India (Marxist) rival by 16 votes. The Congress candidate bagged 197 votes and the CPI(M) nominee managed 181.

The BJP, which appears to have surpassed both Congress and Trinamool Congress to become a major challenger to the ruling Left Front in the state, finished a poor third with 24 votes.

Congress MLA and legislature party leader Gopal Roy said the victory for the Dakshin Dhaniacherra seat, though seemingly small, shows his party may be down but not out.

This by-election is just the beginning. People still have faith in the Congress and they believe it is the alternative to the Left Front, he said.

The polling held on November 22 had seen a voter turnout of 95%. The by-election became necessary after the reigning village council member quit the Congress to join CPI(M).
The Bharatiya Janata Party wants the Election Commission to deploy women cops to verify the identities of voters in a burqa during the remaining rounds of the urban civic elections in Uttar Pradesh, triggering criticism that the party was targeting Muslims.

The ruling partys representative approached the UP unit of the poll watchdog demanding special deployment of policewomen who would lift the veils if the partys members raised suspicion.

The burqa is worn by women as a tradition in Islam, and the Election Commission -- in a manual released in 2016 -- defines ways in which its staff can verify them while having due regard to privacy, dignity and decency. The report makes no mention of police staff to be a part of the process.

The request comes two days after state police were seen in a viral video making a Muslim woman take off her burqa during a rally by chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

While the BJP has said the request was aimed at checking fake voting, opposition parties see a communal motive.

BJP is jittery of its prospects and we have sent a letter to the chief election officer about how they are violating the code of conduct. They only think of divisive politics and issues, said Rajendra Chaudhary, national secretary of Samajwadi Party.

The Congress too targeted the BJP. Its an unusual demand that we suspect has been made to make the partys voters happy. If the demand is accepted then it would mean that police would force women to remove their veil when the same could be easily done by women deployed by the election commission. This is sheer insult of women in general and minority women in particular, Congress leader Hilal Naqvi said.

The saffron party, however, has said that not all woman would be checked. Such verification could be required in cases where our cadres suspect foul play and that is why women cops would be required at polling booths, the BJP delegation told the commission.

Uttar Pradesh is voting in three rounds to elect new representatives to urban local bodies. The first round has been held, and the other two are on November 26 and 29. Results will be declared on December 1.

Among districts with substantial Muslim populations where polling is due are Lucknow, Muzaffarnagar, Amroha, Rampur, Bahraich, Saharanpur, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Moradabad, Sambhal, Bareilly, Ferozabad and Mau.

The BJP has fielded the largest number of minority candidates in these civic polls and is hoping that its decision to push for ban on instant triple-talaq would help it connect with progressive minority women.

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Nine people arrested for damaging government property, manhandling animal rights activists, and blocking a road over the death of an ailing cow in Jaipur on Thursday were granted bail by a local court on Friday, officials said.

The investigating officer in the case told the Hindustan Times that the nine men were arrested after the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) filed a complaint against them. All of them were released by the chief judicial magistrates court on a bail bond of Rs 20,000 each.

The accused broke the windshields of two animal ambulances and shouted anti-JMC slogans after the cow died on Baba Harishchandra Marg. The protesters alleged they called the municipal bodys officers and the councillor but no action was taken and that the cow died before the ambulance could reach it.

They blocked the road and demanded that a case should be lodged against JMC and the councillor for the cows death.

NGO Help in Suffering said two if its team members were beaten up and one of its ambulances was also damaged by the protesters.

Social welfare is very challenging and risky these days. Our rescue team was attacked by so called Gaurakshaks (cow vigilantes) in Chandpole area in old Jaipur city ... The rescue team was attacked with rods and stones, the NGO said in a post on Facebook.

The ambulance was severely damaged. One rescued dog which was in the vehicle died in the vehicle only due to all this chaos. Our team members Sanjay Valmiki and Shivprasad were taken out from the vehicle and roughed up. The ambulance is badly damaged and due to this our rescue efforts will be seriously affected as we are already acutely deficient of ambulance vehicles, it added.

The attack on the NGO was criticised on social media.

How absolutely terrible, so sorry for you and the poor dog. These people are such hypocrites, they only pretend to be religious, but have no love, a user said in response to the post.

Focus on cow protection, especially by vigilante groups, has risen since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government took power three years ago, and several states ruled by the party made laws to punish cow slaughter.

So-called cow protectors have targeted cattle and meat traders, transporters and even farmers walking their animals  violence that has killed several people, mostly in BJP-ruled states. Critics accuse the vigilantes of using cows as a pretext to target Muslims and Dalits.
While the family of Chetan Kumar Saini, who was found hanging at Nahargarh Fort on Friday, is in grief, his neighbours and relatives are in shock over the incident, especially the strange messages found written on rocks near the spot.

Everyone in the neighbourhood recalls Chetan as an obedient, sincere, introvert and peaceful man, and refutes the possibility that such messages could be written by him. He was the eldest of the four brothers. Forget alcohol, he never used to eat even supari (betel nut). I cant recollect when he last went for a movie, therefore linking him to the film, Padmavati, is unthinkable, said a relative, who did not want to be named.

Chetan left home on the pretext of some work and told his wife that he will back by 9.30pm, the relative said. Chetan is survived by his wife and two children, who are below 14 years.

Chetan Kumar Saini. (HT Photo)

He said that the whole family is religious and down to earth. Chetans father, a mason, still wears clothes made from jute. All the brothers are polite and humble.

The police on Friday recovered the body of 40-year-old Chetan, hanging from the walls of Nahargarh Fort in Jaipur, with a message written on a nearby rock suggesting that the death was linked to the ongoing Padmavati row.

CCTV cameras at home recorded that around 3 pm he left to pick his children on a bike, came back at 3.30pm. Thereafter left on foot in the evening, said Kishan, a neighbour.

Another neighbour, Rajendra Sharma said that he was a family person, humble and introvert.

Chetans family too denied his involvement in any dispute. They said that there was no debt or conflict with anyone.

Meanwhile, friends and neighbours claimed that there was foul play in the incident.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that democracy is under threat in the country under the BJP rule and called upon Opposition parties to work together for the greater interest of the people before the next Lok Sabha polls.

She accused the NDA government of trying to halt the developmental process in her state.

Democracy is under threat in this country under the present central government. It is a super emergency that is going on in the country. I have been an MP for nearly two decades but I have never seen such a government at the Centre, she said at the India Today Conclave East here.

I believe in collective leadership... At present all are working together and that is the best policy. Let us work together, Banerjee said about the Opposition, adding she shares good relations with the DMK, the SP, the BSP and the BJD and is working with the Congress inside Parliament on various issues.

When asked whether she is hinting at a broader opposition coalition with the Congress before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, she said, In Bengal, the Congress and the Left are working with the BJP at the state level. But at the national level for greater interests I think we should work together.

To a question whether the country would see a grand opposition coalition ahead of 2019, she said, It depends. We are working together in Parliament. I went to (RJD chief) Lalu Prasadjis programme in Patna.

Banerjee said, I have good relationship with (Samajwadi Party chief) Akhilesh ji and (BSP chief) Mayawati ji in Uttar Pradesh, with Stalin ji (DMK), Naveen ji (BJD)... I maintain the best of relations with so many other people. Even, within the BJP I maintain good relation with some people, but not with all.

Bengal will never accept divide and rule politics of the BJP, she asserted and dismissed that it was a challenger to the ruling (TMC) Trinamool Congress government.

The BJP is nowhere in Bengal but only on media and social media. They only shout. Let the BJP shout along with their bike vahini, but they cannot do anything in Bengal, Banerjee said.

The BJP is trying to position itself as the main opposition in the state.

On Padmavati

Banerjee said she would welcome Padmavati director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his team to the state and make special arrangements for the films premiere and release.

Banerjees statement comes just days after she tweeted that the row over the film was a calculated plan to destroy freedom of expression in the country.

If they (Bhansali and producer) cannot release Padmavati in any other state, we will make special arrangements for it in our state. Bengal will be very happy and Bengal will be proud to do that. We will take care of it.Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his Padmavati team are welcome in our state, she said at the India Today Conclave East, 2017.

On November 20, the chief minister had tweeted, The Padmavati controversy is not only unfortunate but also a calculated plan of a political party to destroy the freedom to express ourselves.

We condemn this super emergency. All in the film industry must come together and protest in one voice, Banerjee had added.
Two days after a Muslim woman was forced by police to take off her burqa (veil) at chief minister Yogi Adityanaths rally in Ballia, the BJPs UP unit approached the state election commission on Thursday and demanded verification of burqa-clad women during polling for the remaining phases of urban local bodies elections.

A BJP delegation, led by partys state vice president and civic polls in-charge JPS Rathore, met poll panel officials and demanded that women police personnel be posted at polling booths to verify burqa-clad women

The move kicked up a controversy with opposition parties claiming that it smacks of BJPs anti-minority mindset. The BJP later clarified that the move was aimed at checking fake voting.

On Tuesday a video of police women forcing a Muslim woman to remove her veil for identification at Adityanaths Ballia rally had gone viral, forcing the police to order an inquiry into the incident.

BJP is jittery of its prospects and we have sent a letter to the chief election officer about how they are violating the code of conduct. They only think of divisive politics and issues, said Rajendra Chaudhary, national secretary of Samajwadi Party.

Such verification could be required in cases where our cadres suspect foul play and that is why women cops would be required at polling booths, the BJP delegation told the commission.

The Congress too targeted the BJP. Its an unusual demand that we suspect has been made to make the partys voters happy. If the demand is accepted then it would mean that police would force women to remove their veil when the same could be easily done by women deployed by the election commission. This is sheer insult of women in general and minority women in particular, Congress leader Hilal Naqvi said.

Read more: Woman forced to remove burqa at UP CM Yogi Adityanaths rally, probe ordered

The BJPs demand came after the completion of first round of polling in the three-phased elections, the results of which would be declared on December 1. The second round of polls would be held on November 26 while the third and final round would be on November 29.

Among the districts where polling would be held in the last two phases include Lucknow, Muzaffarnagar, Amroha, Rampur, Bahraich, Saharanpur, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Moradabad, Sambhal, Bareilly, Ferozabad and Mau with substantial minority population.

The BJP has fielded the largest number of minority candidates in these civic polls and is hoping that its decision to push for ban on instant triple-talaq would help it connect with progressive minority women.

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A Catholic school in Uttar Pradeshs Barabanki district has barred two Muslim students from wearing the headscarf inside the campus, saying it is against the uniform code of the institution, the family of the girls have alleged.

Maulana Mohd Raza Rizvi said Anand Bhawan School, affiliated to both Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) and UP boards, prevented his daughter and niece, both students of Class 7, from wearing the hijab that covers the head and hair of the wearer.

We are the follower of Islam that strictly require girls to cover their head by the time they attain the age of nine. Therefore, our children wear the headscarf. But the school authorities do not allow them to wear it inside school premises, Rizvi told the Hindustan Times.

Since our Constitution allows each of us to practice our religion freely and there is no barrier to pursuing education to any community following and practising their faith. And even Sikhs are allowed to wear turban by schools, he added.

The school management wrote to the girls family and said that the institution functions as per its rules and not on religious beliefs.

Ours is a minority institution, the letter reads.

The school authorities could not be reached for comment.

Barabankis district magistrate Akhilesh Tewari said the girls family has approached him to intervene in the matter.

I have asked basic shiksha adhikari, PN Singh, to investigate the matter, Tewari said.

Lucknows St Josephs Inter College had to face a magisterial inquiry in 2015 after it sent a Class 9 student home for wearing the hijab, saying she had violated the schools dress code.

In the same year, school regulator Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) issued a set of instructions for students appearing for the All-India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT), which included a ban on long sleeves, veils and headscarves.

It led to a wave of protests with some organisations arguing that some articles of clothing like a hijab, or a veil, were part of their essential religious practice.

The board later announced that it would consider allowing students to wear burqas and religious headgear provided they could be rigorously frisked separately at the examination centre.
At the close of the Rootstock sustainable wine festival in Sydney last year, Tasmanian distiller Peter Bignell looked around the tasting room at the carefully-spaced spittoons and thought: what a waste.

Together the spit buckets contained about 500 litres of discarded wine, which had been swilled then dumped during the two-day event.

Some wine had been dutifully spat out by responsible tasters keen to get to the end of their extensive list with tasting notes intact, but the majority was the largely untouched leavings of an overly generous pour.

For Bignell, whose Belgrove distillery in Kempton, Tasmania, is the only one in Australia that runs entirely on biodiesel, all this wasted wine was hardly in keeping with a sustainable event.

The obvious solution was to drink it again.

After 12 months at Poor Toms gin distillery in Marrickville, the spit bucket wine has been transformed into an 80-proof clear spirit that tastes something like an unaged brandy. It is, reportedly, quite nice.

Bignell acknowledged some people might be a bit grossed out by the idea, but said the distilling process was sufficient to kill off any germs.

It was lovely, he told Guardian Australia. It had quite a lot of fruit flavour in it.

Some of the spirit has been set aside to age, while the rest has been put into 200ml bottles for the 2017 Rootstock festival, which begins at Carriageworks in Sydney on Saturday.

Bignell acknowledged some people might be a bit grossed out by the idea, but said the distilling process was sufficient to kill off any germs. Theres coffee that they put through a cats digestive system and theres a beer that they make by chewing on a plant and spitting it into a barrel and letting it ferment so really its nothing new in the idea of using spit to make food, he said.

The beer Bignell mentioned is Kava, a traditional Pacific Islands beverage made from a plant of the same name , which is not alcoholic but does have mild hallucinogenic properties. The enzymes in saliva help extract the active ingredients in the plant. A traditional Peruvian corn beer also uses saliva enzymes to turn the corn into fermentable sugars .

Kopi luwak, or civet-coffee, is made from beans taken from the faeces of an Indonesian civet cat, the anal glands of which create its highly-prized taste. It is the most expensive coffee in the world but its popularity with Western drinkers has led to a trade that has been accused of being neither sustainable nor ethical.

The ethics of harvesting second-hand wine from inner-city Sydney are more clear cut. People go around for tastings, they pour quite a bit in the glass, and they have a little sip and they want to try another one so they tip it out again, Bignell said.

They are going to collect the buckets again this year and keep making it. Its all about sustainability.

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GILLETTE, Wyo.  A 22-year-old Wyoming man has been sentenced to 28 to 35 years in prison for shooting at two law enforcement officers with a high-powered rifle, hitting their vehicles.

The Gillette News Record reports Brandon Daly pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder for shooting at a Campbell County sheriff's deputy and a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper in May 2016 along Highway 59 about 20 miles north of Gillette. Daly's former girlfriend called law enforcement because he had been on the phone with her threatening to take his life.
Julie 2

Cast: Raai Laxmi, Aditya Srivastav, Pankaj Tripathi

Director: Deepak Shivdasani

Rating: 0/5

When Julie (Raai Laxmi) wakes up in the morning with make-up on and yawns seductively right in the first scene, you understand she believes in the films tagline: Bold, beautiful, blessed. Even then, you dont anticipate whats coming for you till she breaks the fourth wall (doesnt look intentional though) and says, I am the best. Ok then. We still believe you, for the next 20 seconds maybe, because you have already promised a helluva lotta fun.

Of course, everybody wants Julies body. Still, to remove any iota of doubt, Julie speaks in public interest, Sabko Julie ka sharir chahiye lekin use sirf pyaar chahiye. I dont think anybody other than her in the entire film actually understands it. Youre in the wrong film, Raai Laxmi.

Julie compromises and manages to become a really big star. So big that she catches the attention of a French filmmaker named Jean Claude who will make a film for her in Hindi. Its oddly satisfying to see a foreigner as clueless as us in the film. Maybe this is why Pahlaj Nihalani decided to present this film. He definitely needed a new trip after his stint at the censor board.

Anyway, Julie, the sweet child of Jesus (I swear they say this in the film), goes for jewellery shopping when some gun-toting weirdos attack the shop. They intend to kill our girl with machine guns. Who knows they might have parked a tank outside! They probably dont know that Julie lives alone in a mansion with hardly any staff around. Why am I even doing this?

Inspector Abhijeet of CID, err, ACP Devdutt (Aditya Srivastava) is investigating the case. Let me explain how he feels in the film. He says, Sooraj barf pighla sakta hai aur ek shilpkar ki murti bhi sakht kar sakta hai (The sun can melt the ice and can also dry a sculptors idol). Literal translation, I know. But he says this as his introduction line, for no apparent reason. I am yet to figure out the context of his dialogue, if there was any. He never explains it either. Maybe the director wasnt on the set and Srivastava got a chance to do whatever he wanted to.

However, he does explain himself after punching a sidekick, Ye dhai kilo ka nahi, dhai feet ka haath hai. We didnt deserve this. Actually, I didnt deserve this because there wasnt anybody else in the theatre.

For some strange reason, every time they play Julies theme, it sounded like Nayak nahi khalnayak hoon main. On top of that, Raai Laxmi actually says, Apni baat keh ke mere dil ka bojh utar gaya, ab bahut halka mehsoos kar rahi hoon (I am feeling light after pouring my heart out). That had to happen, because our hearts are burdened now.

It was far better to see Rati Agnihotri as Akshay Kumars mother in Singh Is Bliing than to watch her as Raai Laxmis guardian angel Annie in Julie 2. Apart from telling us, Julie definitely Jesus ki beti hai, she looks on the verge of crying throughout the film. This may take a toll on her health if she doesnt forget this film real fast.

From a beggar named Ambani to a southern film star Ravi Kumar (Ravi Kishan), Julie 2 is a mish-mash of astonishing characters. Kishans superstar talks in heavy Bhojpuri accent and Ambani calls Raai Laxmi Maai (mother). This is all surreal.

Watch: Our Facebook Live discussion on Julie 2, Kadvi Hawa and Ajji

In between bizarre and shocking, Raai Laxmi keeps gyrating in body-hugging suits and shiny bikinis. She also dances on a song titled Malasina (or Mala Sinha!) Dikhayegi Filmy Dance. She oohs and aahs, even unhooks her bra twice or thrice, to make it work, but all in vain.

But you know what seals the deal for Julie 2? Its when Aditya Srivastava whispers, Thanks for sharing Julies story. Yeah, right. Zero star.

Interact with Rohit Vats at Twitter/@nawabjha

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Murder on the Orient Express

Director - Kenneth Branagh

Cast - Kenneth Branagh, Daisy Ridley, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Michelle Pfeiffer, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Olivia Colman, Johnny Depp

Rating - 4/5

For film fans, it is never more apparent that we belong to a developing nation than when we are forced to wait weeks for big Hollywood films to roll into our country. Indeed, in the case of movies like Darren Aronofskys mother! and  Ill never forget this  2007 Best Picture Oscar-winner No Country for Old Men, that wait never ended.

But another thing happens in the weeks you spend in anticipation of a new film: You read about it online. Theres no avoiding it. Tweets, hourly updates on Rotten Tomatoes scores, tweets about hourly updates on Rotten Tomatoes scores; they hound you like injustice hounds Hercule Poirot. So while Ive successfully managed to stick to my rule of not reading professional reviews before having seen the film, I could not avoid some of the more colourful headlines.

While most of them were evidently quite pleased with Kenneth Branaghs film, one of the recurring observations however, was that he didnt seem to have introduced enough new ideas to justify another adaptation of Agatha Christies celebrated novel. After all, they pointed out, Sidney Lumets 1974 adaptation is still held in the highest regard.

Having finally seen the new Murder on the Orient Express  eagerly, hungrily, as a lifelong fan  I cannot disagree more. Not only has Branagh retained the old-world charm and the exotic romanticism of Christies novels, he has found dimensions to the Dames stories that I  despite having read all her books to the point that they were under physical threat of disintegration  had never expected, and honestly, never even thought of.

And Branagh begins his deviation from tradition from the first scene of the Murder on the Orient Express, in which he establishes a new sort of Hercule Poirot. We already know of his famous moustaches and his legendary grey cells (he never shuts up about them, does he?), but have we ever wondered (or even felt the need to learn more) about him as a human being?

As masterful as Christies writing was  it is said that such was her genius that she could knock a new mystery out in a week  it was always cool and clinical, oddly unsentimental and emotionally distant. She was always deliberately vague about revealing too much about Poirot, too. He is an enigmatically peculiar man, remembered more for his distinct physical appearance, his idiosyncrasies and eccentricities than anything else  not unlike Sherlock Holmes, James Bond or Tintin. We know nothing about his motivations, and even less about his past.

Perhaps he operates out of ego  that is the most likely solution to his mystery. After all, Christie once described him as a detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep. But in the opening scene of this film, after Poirot has, with trademark theatricality, pronounced a lawman as guilty of a crime, he turns away and immediately steps into a pile of dung. He glances down at the damage with an expression as blank as his character has been for more than a century, and in one innocuous move, alters it forever. Instead of cleaning the soiled shoe, he sinks his other, pristine foot into the dung as well.

There is right, there is wrong, he declares to the utterly bamboozled man assigned the difficult task of escorting him to the Istanbul train station, in what is surely his attempt at an explanation. There is no in between.

Branagh  despite having a head that isnt in the least shaped like an egg, and moustaches that (while being undeniably grand) arent at all like Christie described in the books  comes as close as any actor has come to capturing Poirots spirit, perhaps even more than Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, or fan-favourite David Suchet. In his OCD, he finds the morality that drives him.

And as he did with his Jack Ryan adaptation, Branagh (rather shamelessly) hogs the limelight, and delivers a performance so overwhelming that it threatens to derail most everything else. As Lumet did in his 1974 film, he assembles an all-star cast  Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe and Johnny Depp step into their snazziest outfits and paste the gravest expressions on their faces to play suspects in what has to be, undeniably, the mother of all locked-room murder mysteries.

By the way, heres the premise (in case youre still, even after 83 years, unfamiliar with it): While being snowed in during an overnight storm, a man is (brutally) killed on board the luxurious Orient Express, and only one of the 13 passengers on the first class compartment could have done it. Fortunately, through sheer luck, The Greatest Detective in the World also happens to be present, and is compelled  now we know why  to bring balance to this world.

Branagh translates what is, by definition, a very stagey story through good, old-fashioned filmmaking. His direction is  elevated by Haris Zambarloukos stunning cinematography and Patrick Doyles lush orchestral score  as flamboyant as his performance. The same 65mm cameras that framed his stoic face in Christopher Nolans Dunkirk waltz around him in Murder on the Orient Express, alternating between intricate tracking shots, omnipotent overhead angles, and careful close-ups.

There are however, some nagging issues  like every train journey youve ever been on, after the excitement of departure has died down, and before the eagerness of arrival has set in, there is a palpable lag during the second-act; and despite populating his cast with such splendid faces, theres little they are given to do to fuel the proceedings. Another cause for concern is how the films ending will play for those whove never experienced it. A lot relies on the reveal  its when Poirot is in his element, after all  and I wonder if Branaghs decision to simplify Christies labyrinthine plotting will affect the film in any way.

But all these are minor quibbles. When the moment finally arrives  the suspects seated before him in a tableau reminiscent of the Last Supper, and the Orient Express looming large in the background  Branagh delivers his most moving surprise yet.

As his impeccable hair falls out of place, and fresh snow sticks to his coat  a matter that would have at any other time caused him more pain than a bullet wound, and as Patrick Doyles score reaches crescendo and his voice quivers with emotion weve never heard before, Branagh unleashes a wallop of raw, unexpected sentimentality thatll strike you with the force of a steam engine.

Broken souls are mended, old wounds are healed and order has been restored to the world; the Orient Express, is back on track. As the train finally arrives at its destination - thematically, and literally - Hercule Poirot is summoned to his next adventure. For our sake, lets hope were invited for the ride.

Watch the Murder on the Orient Express trailer here

Follow @htshowbiz for more

The author tweets @RohanNaahar

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Starting December 1, free of cost diagnostic facilities for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection will be offered at two railway stations in Mumbai. The HIV testing centres that will come up at Mankhurd and Wadala railway stations. The project is aimed at increasing detection and counselling.

The centres will be operated by 1RupeeClinic, which provides medical diagnostic facilities at eight railway stations in the city. The Mumbai District Aids Control Society (MDACS) will provide testing kits and train nurses and doctors on HIV intervention techniques. Started by brothers Dr Rahul and Dr Amol Ghule in May, 1RupeeClinics provide consultancy and basic medical services to people from lower income groups.

When we came to know that the centre has provided healthcare facilities to over 27,000 patients in five months, we realised that it can tap into vulnerable population in areas which top in tuberculosis and HIV positive cases, said Shrikala Acharya, additional project director, MDACS.

Acharya added that areas such as Mankhurd and Wadala have greater number of slum population. The current training of the doctors from One-rupee Clinic will allow them to encourage and council patients to opt for HIV tests.

Rahul Ghule said while HIV test cost more than Rs300 at private hospitals, his centres will offer diagnosis and counselling for free. Our centres will run 24/7 so a patient can walk in anytime and take advantage of the services. We are happy that apart from providing affordable golden hour treatment to accident victims, pathological investigations services, MRI and CT scans, we will be able to contribute to the goal of 100% HIV treatment intervention, he added.

He added the two centres will be operational from next month, and the service will be extended at Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Thane, Vashi and Dadar stations soon.

1RupeeClinic are also slated to start 25 clinics at Western, Central and Harbour railways from March 2018. Acharya added that they will soon spread the network of HIV clinics at these centres in a phase wise manner in 2018.
A 40-year-old man succumbed to his injuries after being allegedly beaten up by an unidentified man in a bar at Andheri (East) on Tuesday.

The police are on the lookout for the attacker, who has been booked under murder charge.

The Sahar police are yet to ascertain the exact reason for the assault. Prima facie, it seems that they fought over a petty issue, said an officer.

According to the Sahar police, Sanjay Gaikwad, a resident of Marol Pipeline, is survived by his two daughters and wife. He used to work with a private company.

Around 8 pm, Gaikwad was drinking with his friend in a bar in Marol pipeline in Andheri east. There he got into a heated argument with a man over a petty issue. The altercation escalated and the man kicked him on his private parts. When Gaikwad started to shout in pain, the man fled, said the officer.

Gaikwad managed to call his wife Sapna who took him home.

At home, he complained of excessive pain and his wife took him to Cooper Hospital where he died during treatment. The hospital alerted the police who asked for an autopsy.

The autopsy report concluded that Gaikwad had multiple internal injuries that caused his death. After his wifes complaint, the Sahar police lodged a first information report (FIR) under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

Lata Shirsat, senior inspector of Sahar police station, said, We are checking CCTV cameras in the vicinity. We have recorded the statement of his friend who was with him in the bar. We are trying to identify the accused.
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) issued closure notices to seven industries located in Taloja industrial area, Navi Mumbai.

The factories include three frozen food product companies, two marine product firms, one plastic and one chemical industry.

Poor water quality in Maha rivers A Maharashtra Pollution Control Board study found that these locations near industrial areas have bad to very bad (toxic levels) water quality - Kunalika River, Arekhurd, Raigad Rabodi Nullah, Thane-Belapur Colour Chem Nullah, Thane-Belapur Tarapur MIDC Nullah, Palghar Kasadi River, near Taloja Industrial plant, Navi Mumbai

Notices were issued earlier this week, and on Thursday, officers ensured that the factories had stopped operations, MPCB officials said. Action was taken after state environment minister Ramdas Kadams visit to the site on November 9.

We have shut down these industries for violations under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. We observed that they were not treating their waste water and were releasing it directly into the creek that meets Kasadi river, said Anil Mohekar, regional officer, MPCB. While some of the industries were carrying out primary treatment, they failed to do secondary treatment, or install an online monitoring system.

On November 15, HT had reported that 10 members of the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) at Taloja had been booked over the release of untreated industrial waste into Kasadi river, near Navi Mumbai. The pollution level of Kasadi river is 13 times higher than the safe limit, as per a water quality analysis carried out by the local municipal corporation.

The Taloja police said board members have not yet been arrested.

According to MPCB, the area has close to 1,000 pharmaceutical, food and engineering factories spread across 2,157 acres of Taloja industrial area in Navi Mumbai. Of these, 347 small- and medium-sized industries, mostly chemical, pharmaceutical and food processing companies, are the key polluting industries, with just one CETP treating effluents. Collectively, the industries employ around 76,000 people and have an annual turnover of Rs 60,000 crore.

Environmentalists said shutting down these industries is not the solution. These industry operators must be jailed for polluting the environment and endangering peoples lives. They need to pay a heavy penalty so that it discourages industries from being careless about pollution, and the damage to the environment must be recovered financially, said Godfrey Pimenta, trustee, NGO Watchdog Foundation.

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A team of Mumbai police and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) conducted surprise checks and arrested three quacks, including a 47-year-old man who studied till Class 8, from the eastern suburbs on Thursday.

They were using fake certificates for their practice, said Shahji Umap, deputy commissioner of police, zone 6.

Jahir Shaikh, 36, who studied till Class 12, runs a clinic, Kranti Ayurvedic, at SG Barve Road at Nehru Nagar in Kurla (East), while Farmanali Beg, 21, who studied till Class 11, had set up a clinic in Chembur. The third arrested person, 47-year-old Asif Shaikh, also ran a dispensary from Tilak Nagar in Chembur. All of them were allegedly using Bachelor of Medical Science, Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery and Bachelor of Science degrees of other doctors.

The police also raided a clinic in Mankhurd where they found the doctor had a degree from a naturopathy institution in Nashik. The police are verifying if the degree is fake.

The arrests were part of the drive launched by the police to against fake doctors.

This comes after the Deonar police arrested a man earlier this month for posing as a doctor who administered an injection to a 25-year-old patient, leading to his death. Police said the man, Shahbaaz Alam Siddiqui, studied only till Class 12. He had set up a dispensary, where he had been displaying his dead brothers Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery degree for the past four years.

They said the patient, Pradeep Jadhav, was a resident of Sanjay Gandhi Nagar in Govandi. As he was suffering from fever, he went to Siddiquis dispensary on November 5 as it was near his house.

Siddiqui gave Jadhav medicines after examining him. As his condition did not improve, Jadhav revisited the dispensary the next day. This time, Siddiqui gave Jadhav an injection and a few medicines and told him to rest. However, his condition deteriorated and he died on his way to a governmental hospital.

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The state government plans to give houses to slum-dwellers who built shanties after 2000, in a move that is expected to speed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme.

This means that those who were formerly ineligible for the scheme can get a house. However, the homes will be subsidised, but not free.

Earlier, the government had said that shanties built before 2000 would be regularised. The slum-dwellers would be accommodated under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), in which the state and central government contribute funds to give them subsidised homes.

According to Minister of State for housing Ravindra Waikar, the move will help speed the revamp process. This is part of our mission Housing for all by 2022. Ineligible slum dwellers tend to delay the redevelopment process and hence we have made adjustments to the scheme, said Waikar.

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The Versova police arrested a 35-year-old television actor on Wednesday for allegedly raping a 23-year-old aspiring actress on the pretext of marriage. The woman told police she saw compromising photos of the actor, Piyush Sahdev, with another woman, after which they fought and he went back on his promise to marry her.

Police said Sahdev and the woman met through mutual friends and promised to boost her career. After the two became friends, he asked her to move in with him and proposed marriage. The incident occurred after they had been living together for two months, said police.

On November 20, the woman asked police to lodge a case under section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Indian Penal Code against Sahdev. He was remanded to police custody. Senior inspector of Versova police station, Kiran Kale, confirmed the development.
The University of Mumbai (MU) has never reviewed its digital platform that is used to send question papers to its colleges, leaving it susceptible to malpractices, a report by an internal committee has revealed.

The Digital Exam Paper Delivery System (DEPDS) was introduced in 2013 after a series of paper leaks.

In its seven-page report, the one-member committee also revealed that colleges were unaware of security measures required for the delivery system, said a source.

The varsity had appointed the committee after several papers of third-year bachelor of management studies (BMS) and BCom Accounting and Finance (BAF) were leaked between November 9 and November 16 on a social media platform.

While the city police are probing the matter, the universitys internal committee was tasked with conducting its own investigation.

The police arrested 13 people, including 11 students. The accused were later released on bail. The committee has faulted the varsity for not reviewing DEPDS in the last four years. During this period, three instances of papers being leaked on social media were reported to the university. The report said there should have been an assessment of the system and the varsity should have enquired whether the colleges are following the norms, said the source.

In the paper leak case, the main accused , who works as a computer technician at a Kandivli college, was aware that the university sends a password to the college principal and technical coordinator to enable them to download the examination papers one-and-a-half hours before the exam, according to the police. The computer servers were interlinked, allowing the accused to copy the saved papers from the folder and send them to his mailbox and later to the agents who distributed them to students, said the police.

The report recommended that the university include information technology (IT) experts in its flying squads. These experts would help the squads to keep an eye on digital infrastructure at colleges, in addition to preventing other malpractices.

The committee also suggested that the varsity conduct a training programme to familiarise college authorities with various security measures needed for the system, before every semester examination. When DEPDS was first introduced, the university issued a list of dos and donts. However, many colleges are unaware of these guidelines, said the source.

Currently, the university conducts a trial run of the system before every examination.

Arjun Ghatule, in-charge director, board of examination and evaluation at MU, said, The universitys paper delivery system is perfect, but one cant do much if theres human involvement. I have already appointed two committees, consisting of computer experts, to check whether colleges are meeting the technical norms of the paper delivery system. So far, they have visited 15 to 20 colleges. The colleges are aware of the security requirements of DEPDS. We have also been conducting workshops to train college staff, although I dont know if such activities were conducted in past.

Ghatule added that the university is waiting for the police report to initiate any action.

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The Navghar police in Mulund booked an assistant commissioner of police (ACP), his wife and daughter, for allegedly abetting the suicide of a 44-year-old woman.

Riya Palande was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her bedroom in Samarth Villa at Mulund (East) on Thursday afternoon.

Based on her suicide note, police booked ACP Damodar Chaudhari, his wife Bharati, and daughter Neelakshi.

Preliminary investigations revealed a financial dispute between Riya and the accused. We are investigating a few online transactions between the deceased and the accused, said an officer from the Navghar police station, who is privy to the investigation.

Police said one of Riyas friends had been trying call her, but found her phone switched off on the day of her death.

Riya had told her maid that she would be resting in the bedroom. The friend, accompanied by others, opened the bedroom door and found Riyas body, said an officer.

Using a marker, Riya wrote on the walls of her bedroom that she had left a suicide note in a shop in Mulund (West).

The note was recovered from the shop.

There were frequent skirmishes between Riya and the accused. They had asked police to file non-cognisable offences against each other in the past, said the officer.

Riyas family told HT they were in a state of shock and did not wish to divulge any details. We have video-graphed the writings on the wall, said the officer. The accused were booked under section 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 (common intention) Indian Penal Code.
It's known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, the frenzied, 15-year race between two egotistical paleontologists to discover, dig and name dinosaurs from Wyoming and surrounding states.

You could say it started with a single mistake.

It was a big mistake, sure. But everyone was making them in those early days of American science.

And, true, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh would almost certainly have found other excuses to bicker and spy and blow up bones rather than allow the other to catch a glimpse of their latest finds.

But the rivals didn't need another reason. Cope's misplaced skull was the bone that broke the pleiosaur's back.

In 1863, the word "dinosaur" was just 30 years old. In America, science was considered a pursuit for those with time to kill or money to burn. Cope and Marsh started out friendly, two pioneers in a brand new field.

They met in Berlin where Marsh, 32, was studying and Cope, 23, was touring. (Then, Europe was the natural science mecca. Cope arrived to see museums, meet scientists and escape from girl trouble and the Civil War.)

After the meeting, Cope and Marsh exchanged letters, fossils and "kind regards." They named fossilized amphibian and serpents after one another, says author Mark Jaffe in "The Gilded Dinosaur: The Fossil War Between E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh and the Rise of American Science."

In 1869, a plesiosaur arrived at Cope's office. He assembled the bones and presented his findings to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia: The specimen's tail was longer than other Plesiosauruses while its neck was shorter, Cope reported. He named it Elasmosaurus platypus and, after more than a year, showed his project to Marsh.

It was, Marsh would say years later, "like Barnum's famous woolly horse, the head was where its tail should be." Marsh pointed out the mistake -- gently he claimed.

Cope, deeply embarrassed, disagreed. It was the beginning of the end for amicable pretense. By 1872, they were full-fledged enemies.

"They hated each other so much, but out of that conflict came a huge boon to science," said Tom Rea of Casper, author of "Bone Wars: The Excavation and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur."

And when reports of big fossilized bones came from Kansas, Nebraska and other states, the two paleontologists set their sights westward.

The race to publish resulted in the discovery of some 1,600 species of previously unknown extinct vertebrates - mammals, reptiles and dinosaurs. But it made for sometimes sloppy science.

Once, at Bridger Basin near Green River, Cope reportedly spied on a Marsh dig, then snuck in to examine the site. Cope found a skull and teeth of a new animal and described it in papers.

The problem was Marsh had left the skull on purpose, alongside teeth from another animal altogether. Cope fell for the trick and his mistake wasn't corrected for 20 more years.

In 1877, William Harlow Reed and another railroad man discovered huge bones at Como Bluff in southeastern Wyoming. Marsh dispatched his men, naming Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Diplodocus and others from bones Reed shipped to Marsh at Yale. Cope heard of the site and arrived in 1878.

The Bone Wars had begun.

Cope and Marsh paid for summer exhibitions for the next 15 years, spending the winters describing what had been found. Mule-drawn wagons and train cars shipped tons of fossils east. Men spied on the other camps, sabotaged quarries, destroyed fossils they couldn't collect and the two teams even resorted to throwing rocks at one another when their digs got too close.

When the dust cleared, other Eastern museums had arrived at Como Bluff and Cope and Marsh were on their way to being broke. Some of the bones their teams collected weren't examined until years later, including an almost complete Allosaurus not unpacked until after Cope's death.

"It really divided the natural sciences for a long time. Either you were a Cope man or you were a Marsh man," Rea said.

"It was also a great window into the changing nature of the natural sciences at that time."

The field was changing from gentleman's pursuit to a professionalized one. The search for dinosaurs became less about finding museum trophies than asking what the bones could teach about the world in which we live, Rea said.

Before Marsh and Cope, there were nine named North American dinosaur species. After, Marsh had named 80 new species and Cope 56.

More importantly, the dinosaurs they found would be written about, mounted and drawn for books and movies. The public had fallen in love with the "terrible lizards," a love affair that continues today.

So why all the fuss? Why do creatures like Diplodocus and Triceratops still inspire imagination as they did 100 years ago?

"Well, they are big, but they are dead. If you are a kid, that's a delightful combination," Rea said.

"They aren't going to eat you."
An 18-year-old girl has died and many others are feared trapped after a three-storeyed residential building collapsed in Bhiwandi on Friday morning. The building, Tahir Dijnore, is located at KG Nagar, Navi Basti in Bhiwandi, a city in Thane district around 20 km from Mumbai.

Building collapses in 2016 Nov 18, 2016: A 40-year-old dilapidated Suryarao building, declared unfit for occupation, collapsed, killing one person. Sep 30, 2016: The pillar of a five-year-old building, Noor Complex, tilted around midnight. The four-storey building in Naigaon, Gaibi Nagar, had developed cracks earlier. Aug 8, 2016: A two-storey building collapsed at Hanuman Tekri, killing eight people. Jul 31, 2016: Nine people were killed and 10 injured when a three-storey building collapsed in Gaibi Nagar.

The incident happened at 9.08am, and we have rushed help to the spot immediately, said Sunil Zhalke, public relations officer, Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation ( BNCMC). We fear that eight people are still trapped under the debris. The dead body of a woman has been pulled out. Rescue operations are underway.

The one fatality has been identified as Vruksa Ahmed Khan.

READ: 1 killed, 3 hurt in Thane after building slab collapses on them while theyre asleep

Five people have been rescued and rushed to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Bhiwandi, said Ashok Rankhamb, acting commissioner, BNCMC. Four of the injured have been identified as Khwaja Ahmed Sayyed, 70, Vihang Gabbar Khan, 8, Salma Tahir Aazmi and Abdul Asif Khan.

The ground plus three-storey building is just seven years old, Zhalke said. We are trying to figure out whether it was on the list of dangerous structures or not. Locals at the spot said the building is on forest land and therefore an illegal construction. Located in the interiors of Bhiwandi, the structure does not have easy road access.

Two fire engines, two ambulances and a disaster management team from the BNCMC are already on the site, as are one fire engine and one rescue vehicle from the Thane Municipal Corporation, which is also sending a disaster management officer with 50 labourers, 10 gas-cutters and more personnel.

Bhiwandi has seen several building collapses over the years. In 2016, during the monsoon, four buildings collapsed in the city, which has a lot of spurious and illegal constructions.

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Siblings  a boy and a girl  were expelled from Cosmopolitan High School, Mira Road, for not paying the hiked fees in September. The children have not been reinstated despite the Deputy Director of Education, Mumbai, ordering the school to do so. So the family has been staging a dharna in front of MBMC office.

Ayesha Shaikh, a class 3 student, and Asif, who studies in class 1, were expelled after their mother Nishad protested against the fee hike. The fee has been hiked by 52%. From a monthly Rs950, it has increased to Rs1,350. I was not ready to pay the hiked fees, said Nishad, a homemaker. My husband works in a garment shop in Malad and it is anyway difficult to make ends meet.

She said the reason the school gave to expel the kids was as per parents wishes. We approached Dr B B Chavan, Deputy Director of Education, Charni Road, and he ordered the school to reinstate my two children,as it is a violation of the Right to Education Act, 2009, on October 26 and again on November 13, said the mother.

Neelam Pathak, principal of the school refused to comment.
Uttar Pradesh industry minister Satish Mahana on Friday said the government cannot waive off interest imposed on builders who have defaulted on payment for land dues.

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai), a realtors body, has been demanding for waiver of interest imposed on builders, who have failed to clear land dues and finish housing projects.

The Noida authority is struggling to recover around 11,000 crore from 94 builders, the Greater Noida needs to recover 7,200 crore against 203 housing projects and the Yamuna Expressway authority has failed to recover 3,000 crore land dues from 42 builders.

The three authorities had allotted housing land in 2009-10 after the builders deposited 10% of the total land cost. They were supposed to deposit the remaining 90% in instalments. Developers have cited economic slowdown in the realty sector as reason for their inability to clear this amount in land dues.

Builders argue that if the state government waives off the interest component then many struck housing projects can be revived because the land dues amount will come down.

How can we waive off the interest of the builders, who could not pay up as per the plan. If we will waive the interest then the state government will suffer a huge loss. We cannot take a step that affects the financial health of the government; we could be accused of favouritism, industries minister Satish Mahana told Hindustan Times.

The builders also argue that the government should waive the interest because housing construction work was affected by court cases and this caused them huge loss.

Gitambar Anand, CMD of ATS Builders and president of Credai said, Our demand is that if Allahabad high court, Supreme Court or National Green Tribunal cases have affected the construction then the government should have sympathy with the builders. The government should rationalize the interest component.

The minister, however, seemed unimpressed by such arguments.

There are separate committees to look into cases where genuine issues pertaining to housing land prevail. If the construction was disrupted due to a court case on acquired land then the committee will look into applications, Mahana said.

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The re-election of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to the last vacant seat on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is not a victory for India alone. It is a reflection of the aspirational voices in the general assembly of the United Nations, seeking to break out from the hegemony of the old world order, represented by the UN Security Council (the P-5). It is a clarion call for reform of multilateral institutions like the UN. This moment is an inflection point, building on years of diplomatic engagement by India and other developing countries for a fair and just world regime.

The ICJ is the UNs apex judicial organ and one of its main functions is to resolve disputes between nations. The withdrawal of the UK from the race, after eleven rounds of voting, is significant because it is the first time since 1946 that the UK will not be part of ICJ. It was taken for granted that the P-5 will always have a seat on the 15-member strong ICJ. It is such presumptuousness that is increasingly and rightly becoming a casualty in multilateral institutions.

The UK nominee, Justice Greenwood, did not poll the needed majority in the UNGA, while Justice Bhandari did not get the required votes in the UNSC. This led to an unprecedented logjam with the UK even trying to break the deadlock by invoking article 12 (1) of the ICJ statute, which calls for a candidate for judgeship to be chosen through a joint conference between the UNGA and UNSC: an arcane and undemocratic route which had never been utilised in the UNs 72-year-old history. The resultant general disapproval, even amongst some P5 members, finally led to the UKs withdrawal.

The UK will be smarting from their withdrawal since it comes on the back of a loss at the UNGA last June, where it was defeated 94-15 when a Mauritian-backed resolution questioning the disputed legal status of the UKs hold over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean was referred to the ICJ. It is reflective of the will of countries, especially under the G-77 formation, to challenge privileges of the P-5 enshrined in customary rules for ICJ elections. It is even more symbolic that the contest was between an erstwhile colonial power and its former colony. The sun has indeed set on the old world order.

It is important to understand the larger context behind the support India received in the ICJ election. The G-77 countries, often led by India, Egypt and Ethiopia, played an active role in creating multilateral regimes that exist today. The creation of Bretton Woods institutions post World War II, led to an opportunity for newly independent countries to engage in the creation of a more just world regime. Nehru, an acknowledged and towering internationalist, was determined to shape global regimes through the moral force drawn from the legitimacy of the Indian freedom movement. At the same time, he was also realist who enabled India to punch well above its weight through the strategic influence of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Fortunately, Indian governments have mostly followed a consistent path and contributed greatly to multilateral institutions and mechanisms, including highly equitable resolutions on sustainable development and global trade instruments and taking leadership positions on behalf of developing nations. The economic growth seen by India post-liberalisation in 1985 and the fact that we are almost one-fifth of the worlds population has helped our cause. Regardless of regime changes in the last two decades, India has mostly remained steady and consistent. While credit must go to our diplomatic corps and our foreign minister for this diplomatic victory, it must be emphasised that it is a result of the goodwill garnered over the past 70 years that has enabled a vote for India in the UNGA against the erstwhile imperial powers symbolised by the UNSC. No doubt, the excellent temperament of the incumbent, Justice Bhandari, a careful and wise choice of UPA 1, helped in the victory, for he is an extremely polite, reasonable, humble and helpful person. It would be petty and shortsighted for any government to indulge in self congratulation on such issues of institutional and international continuity rather than celebrate that continuity in a bipartisan manner.

The vote for India in the UNGA is also the right time for us to create constructive disruption qua comprehensive reform in the UN, especially for a permanent seat on the security council. It must be pegged on increasing UN legitimacy in a world with increasing hostility, hatred and bitterness. At the same time, India must realise that seeking power comes with immense responsibility. If we want to be a great power, we must start acting like one.

Abhishek Singhvi is a member of parliament, former chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Law, national spokesperson of the Congress and former additional solicitor general of India.

The views expressed are personal
Sorrow sits still in the courtyard of a two-room home in the fields of Majri Kishnewali village near Amloh in Punjabs Fatehgarh Sahib district. It is the abode of Balvinder Singh, 43, a retrenched worker from Saudi Arabia because of a chronic heart problem and his wife Surinder Kaur, 41.

The two seem shocked into resignation that their son, just 21 years old, who they thought was set (Punjabi usage for settled) in Italy, has been arrested for seven high-profile killings since 2016.

At the Bajwa Gym in Fatehgarh Sahib, opposite the Banda Bahadur College where the police claim to have arrested him, he was known for his prowess at working out with the 100kg bench press.

We did not even know that he was here. We have not seen him since last year but on video calls, says Balvinder. His name was Hardeep Singh and this Shera (is something) we are just hearing of now, says Surinder, almost unable to relate the two faces of her son.

Police sources say Hardeep took on the name Shera after Khuban Shera, a gangster of Khuban village in Fazilka, who was allegedly killed in an encounter with the Punjab police in Bathinda in 2012. Hardeep even had a lion tattooed on his chest, which, besides his bushy eyebrows, was what helped the police in tracing him.

No one in the village wishes to talk about Hardeep, even if it was merely to enquire the route to his home. Brusquely, villagers either point to areas beyond into the fields, or simply, No Hardeep Singh or his family have ever lived in this village.

Fall of fortune

However, Baba Jeet Singh, an old village preacher, opens up to tell of the woes that befell the family and how they lost their land. Singh now owns the other half of the divided home that is more posh with sloping, tiled roof and a swan-shaped water tank. This portion belonged to Daljit Singh, the elder brother of Balvinder, until he sold it off to build a home in Amloh town.

The fields surrounding the two homes were sold off though their grandfather had a large land-holding here, says Singh.

Shera: The man with a lion tattoo Hardeep Singh Sheras uncle Daljit Singh adopted him when he was nine or 10 and took him to Italy Though fluent in speaking Italian, he dropped out of school and worked with his uncle for some years He met KLF militant Harminder Singh Mintoo when he was 18, who convinced him to avenge the killing of Sikhs during 1984 riots Inspired by gangster Khuban Shera, who was killed in an encounter in 2012, Hardeep started using Shera with his name He was arrested by Punjab Police for seven high-profile killings in the state since 2016 Hardeeps lion-tattooed chest and bushy eyebrows helped police nab him

Hardeeps story of moving away from his biological parents begins when he was barely nine or 10, when his fathers elder brother Daljit Singh took him while going to Italy. Our fortunes were completely fallen and we were left with a small land holding. My brother decided to move to Italy and I twice went to Saudi Arabia, says Balvinder.

He says he worked there for eight years the first time and went back to work for two more years before he was relieved by the company after suffering a heart attack. He was told to undergo operation but we did not have the money so he is just taking medicine, says Surinder.

Fitness freak

Their son, fluent in Italian, dropped out of school and worked with his uncle. A few years ago, they had a falling-out over differences between the uncle and the father over a small piece of land. Hardeep just left.

Two years ago, he told us that he was going to work on his own. He also said that he was cutting off his hair as he was not getting a job with his turban, the mother says. When asked what he did in Italy, she hesitates and adds: He told us that he was working as an electrician.

At the Bajwa Gym in Fatehgarh Sahib, from where Shera was arrested, a notice says no one will be allowed to work out without showing their I-cards. (HT Photo)

Did he take to addiction of alcohol or something else? To this question her answer is firm, Not at all. He would fight with anyone who took a drink, even his own father. When visiting us, he would mostly stay at home and only in the evenings would he go to the gym. He was always fond of running and exercising.

When asked if they have a picture of him, the mother says softly: There were seven pictures of him in one fancy frame in the living room but the police took them, she says, and then adds as though she is asking herself, Why did they take all of them? However, the two add that they have not been troubled by the police in any way.

The father shares some pictures of him sent on his phone that shows him posing with fitness machines and a board in the background has Hawai Gym written on it. The mothers last plea to us is not to take her husbands or her picture as they already felt humiliated enough.

At the Bajwa Gym in Fatehgarh Sahib, opposite the Banda Bahadur College where the police claim to have arrested him, he was known for his prowess at working out with the 100kg bench press and said to have been living in a rented room.

The owner is not there but a notice in the state-of-the-art gym says no one will be allowed to work out without registering their identity cards. The front-desk boy says, We are more careful after the Shera incident.

Yet another story of a young man becoming an incident.

Next: Is the gangster in Punjab the new youth icon?
The Golden Temple has been awarded the most visited place of the world by World Book of Records (WBR), a London-based organisation that catalogues and verifies world records.

General secretary of India chapter, Surbhi Kaul, and president of Punjab chapter, Randeep Singh Kohli, gave this award to SGPC chief secretary Roop Singh and other senior officials at Teja Singh Samundari Hall, on Friday.

Kaul said her organisation gives the award after every three months and the Golden Temple has been conferred this award on the basis of observations made from September onwards.

Lakhs of devotees visit this holy shrine, and the footfall is increasing by the day. This is why the WBR has awarded it, she said, adding, So far, eight places, including Shirdi Sai Baba, Vaishno Devi and Mount Abu, have received this award.

Kohli said the Punjab chapter recommended Golden Temple for this award two months ago to Santosh Shukla, president of WBRs India chapter. This award is like paying obeisance here, said Shukla.

Kohli said they are planning to give these awards to Durgiana Temple at Amritsar and Attari-Wagah border, which also witnesse a huge footfall.

The WBR team, however, could not give satisfactory answers to questions regarding the criteria that determine this award.

Speaking on the occasion, the SGPC chief secretary said though the shrine has been hugely popular ever since its foundation, the footfall has increased since the live telecast of gurbani kirtan. He said on average more than one lakh devotees visit the shrine every day.

The heritage street, a project of the SAD-BJP government, has contributed a lot to attracting devotees and visitors to this holy shrine, he added.

He said the SGPC was trying its best to facilitate the devotees under the guidance of its president Kirpal Singh Badungar.

Later, he honoured the WBR team with siropas and a model of the Golden Temple.
The Ludhiana police were left red-faced on Thursday when the public prosecutor failed to turn up in the court where the owner of a factory that collapsed on Monday after fire killing 13 people was being produced.

With police arguments falling weak in the absence of a professional advocate, the court of judicial magistrate sent the accused to a days police remand rejecting the police plea for seven-day custody. Station house officer of Division Number 2 police station contested the case in the court. Inderjit Singh Gola, the owner of the plastic-manufacturing unit, was arrested on Wednesday after the police added sections of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the case.

Defence counsel advocate Maninder Pal Singh claimed that the four-storey building is legal and produced documents buttress his claim. The absence of a public prosecutor was clearly felt as the SHO was seen fumbling for words while arguing before the judicial magistrate in Punjabi, even as the defence counsel dominated the arguments in his impeccable English.

As the hearing began, SHO Gurwinder Singh pleaded the court to grant seven-day custody to the accused as they need to verify clearances to the factory given by government departments.

Opposing his plea, the defence counsel said: The factory was registered in 2006 in Industrial Area (A). It is not in a residential area. As per rules, the permissible number of storeys which can be constructed in the area is five. I have submitted to the police the factorys registration showing that the building was legal. What will the police do by taking the accused in seven-day custody? asked the defence counsel. Moreover, the inquiry has been marked to the Patiala divisional commissioner, so the police custody is not required, he said.

District attorney Ravinder Abrol said the public prosecutor remained absent from duty and he will take note of the discrepancy on Friday.

Accused breaks down in court

The factory owner broke into tears in the court saying he has lost his business, five efficient workers and two childhood friends in the collapse. Taxi operator Inderpal and Valmiki leader Laxman Prasad, whose bodies were recovered on the day of the collapse, were Golas childhood friends. He also said that he is a heart patient and sought medical help when the magistrate ordered that his medical be conducted twice a day.

Why police custody needed

To establish a strong case of culpable homicide against the factory owner, the police need to make a comprehensive chargesheet based on evidences that the building was illegal, had engineering defects and how the owner manipulated records and submitted fake documents. Custodial interrogation is thus required to collect evidences and the alleged manipulation of clearances by departments. The MC and the administration are still searching for documents from various departments.

Commissioner of police RN Dhoke said: We will plead the court on Friday to extend the police custody of the factory owner. I dont understand why the public prosecutor was not present in the court.
Loss of a loved one is difficult anyway, but losing your life partner to a brutal shooting just when you have entered a new phase in life brings its own kind of heartache. Surinder Kaur, wife of the advocate Amarpreet Singh who was shot dead by nine men in 2013, was a practising lawyer with him at the district courts in Chandigarh and Mohali. Married in 2009, they would get ready and leave for the courts together on most days.

Four years after his murder, for which the nine men got life imprisonment on Wednesday, her vow to have justice prevail has been realised. Amarpreet, 32, was murdered by the men staying as paying guests in the Phase-3A neighbourhood after repeated fights related to parking of cars. The couples only son, Gursifatjeet Singh, 8, often asks about his father, but no one in the family gives him a clear answer.

From the day Amarpreet died, she and the rest of the family took a vow that the culprits will have to pay for it, said Amarpreets uncle Manjit Singh Sethi, deputy mayor of Mohali. While she was not in a state to talk, Sethi recalled, Surinder had gone numb after receiving the news of the murder, and eventually broke down in the hospital. She now works as a clerk in the Punjab and Haryana high court.

Sethi also talked about his own bond with Amarpreet, who was a son of his brother Amarjeet Singh. Something that stood out in my relation with Amarpreet was that, as he was growing up, we became best of friends. We would discuss even personal problems. Every evening, we would sit over a cup of tea and end up discussing life in general and various issues pertaining to our area. I miss his advice.

While the father, who retired as a private secretary in the Punjab secretariat, was not in a state to talk on Thursday, he had reacted to the verdict on Wednesday: Nothing can compensate for the loss of my sons presence in our life. It is a vacuum.

Amarpreet did his law degree from Panjab University, Chandigarh, in 2006 and, after making a name for himself in the district courts, was planning to start practice at the HC.

About Amarpreets son, Sethi added, We havent told him much about the incident. He says his father is with waheguru-ji. He wants to be a judge.
Its the worlds largest sex survey: More than 2,00,000 respondents from Denmark giving a peek into their sexual habits, needs, fantasies, gender preferences and much more. The study, titled Project SEXUS, aims to establish a relationship between sexual happiness and healthy living.

Were launching this massive machinery with a great deal of enthusiasm but also a great deal of humility. Were asking the public to answer some very personal questions, which they may not normally speak to other people about, project leader Morten Frisch, a doctor in the Department for Epidemiology Research at Statens Serum Institute, Denmark, was quoted as saying in Science Nordic.

Were naturally excited because such an investigation has never been made in such detail before, he added.

The respondents will be asked a range of questions, including their gender preferences, frequency, likes and dislikes, fantasies and much more. The participants are aged from 15-89 years, and the questionnaire contains 150-190 questions.

However, there is more to the study than just sex. A lot of the questions deal with interaction with other people, how much they smoke and drink (or whether they dont), their family history, previous record of health problems and what they feel about their own bodies.

The objective of the survey is to find out the various ways in which sex impacts our lives, and how it also influences our well being. The survey aims to find answers to questions like:

* Does having more sex make us healthier?

* When both partners have an equal desire for sex, is that better for the relationship?

* If we have an active sex life or a loving partner who we can share our feelings with is it easier for us to recover from illnesses?

We know a lot about how illness or an unhealthy lifestyle negatively influences our sex lives. But Im most interested in looking more closely at the possible positive effects of a good sex life, said Professor Christian Graugaard, a lead-scientist on Project SEXUS from the Sexology Research Centre at Aalborg University, while talking to Science Nordic.

Norwegian archivists have found hidden treasures in medieval accounting records, including a slightly different version of the saga of Olav the Holy.

For example, other scientists have suggested that men have a lower risk of prostate cancer when they ejaculate more frequently, but is there any truth to this? The study will be able to cast new light on issues such as this, he added.

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WASHINGTON  A funny thing happened to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the way to the exit door: He didn't leave. He may be "Dead Man Walking," as many Washington analysts assume. Yet he's still pursuing the same list of quiet but mostly correct diplomatic goals as when took the job 10 months ago.

Tillerson has had a catastrophically bad encounter with official Washington. The White House disdains him; the State Department resents him; the press corps mostly scorns him. Tillerson presses on as if he doesn't care. Many officials claim they don't give a damn about "inside the Beltway" opinion; Tillerson seems to mean it.

The latest instance of Tillerson clashing with his subordinates, according to Reuters, was a dissent memo from about a dozen foreign-service officers accusing him of giving Iraq, Myanmar and Afghanistan a pass on a federal law opposing the use of child soldiers. That's just one example of internal criticism from the unhappiest State Department I've seen in more than 30 years of covering Foggy Bottom.

Tillerson often seems out of sync with President Trump on major issues including North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Lebanon. And White House insiders have been predicting for months that this marriage can't last. Yet it not only continues, but on many areas of supposed disagreement, Trump has ended up adopting, more or less, the diplomatic course that Tillerson recommended.

Tillerson has one secret survival weapon: He's running a three-legged race, figuratively speaking, alongside Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who respects Tillerson's judgment and stays aligned with him through all the palace intrigue. Trump may not be a soulmate with his secretary of state, but he's not going to pick a fight with Mattis.

Two policy areas where Tillerson's approach seems to have the president's support, despite noise to the contrary, are dialogue with China on the North Korea crisis, and cooperation with Russia to stabilize Syria. Administration policy could change at any moment, given the "iron whim" of the man in the Oval Office. But the persistence of diplomacy is one of the little noted facets of this most undiplomatic president's first year.

U.S. engagement with China was the centerpiece of Trump's Asia trip this month. But observers overlooked one of Tillerson's signature initiatives: During the Beijing visit, the U.S. continued a high-level, secret dialogue with China about how to secure North Korea's nuclear weapons if the regime implodes.

Tillerson lobbies China to encourage talks with the Kim Jong Un regime, even as the administration keeps escalating pressure. Two more turns of the screw came this week: On Monday, Pyongyang was added to the list of state sponsors of terrorism; on Tuesday, the U.S. applied new sanctions to Chinese and North Korean companies. But Tillerson cautioned that even as the U.S. seeks more pressure points, there's no "silver bullet."

Asked how the Chinese are helping, a U.S. official noted last weekend's visit to Pyongyang by a high-level Chinese emissary. The message was that the administration is still pursuing the Sino-American diplomatic track, along with sanctions and military options.

Trump and Tillerson also share the unpopular but probably inescapable view that the U.S. must work with Russia to stabilize Syria. Russia's centrality in the miserable Syrian war was dramatized anew by President Vladimir Putin's meeting Monday with President Bashar Assad, who thanked the Russian leader for "saving our country." Putin will enhance his leverage as regional broker when he meets Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hasan Rouhani.

Putin has emerged as a dominant player in Syria, and he wants to play the peacemaker there now, but he doesn't hold all the cards. U.S. allies control big swaths of Syrian territory, and they're the missing pieces of Putin's peace process. Tillerson, working with America's allies, has pushed for a resumption of U.N.-organized peace talks in Geneva. A meeting there is now scheduled for Nov. 28, followed by a gathering in Sochi on Dec. 2. These talks aren't a cure-all; but they can help reduce Syria's violence and begin a gradual political transition.

Trump made the Russia connection personal with an hour-long phone call Tuesday with Putin, discussing Syria, Ukraine and North Korea. Trump may get hammered for it, but the conversation was sensible, and it capitalized on Tillerson's patient spadework.

Trump has tested Tillerson's determination and dignity, but at Thanksgiving, the secretary of state was still at the table.
Coin-operated telephone boxes, a capital without a cash machine and a local shop with a wooden floor: St. Helena is Britain of yesteryear, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I dont think I would fit in the outside world, said Ivy Robinson, who runs the Wellington House bed and breakfast, complete with a pale blue Georgian facade, in the village-sized capital Jamestown.

The accommodation, attentively run by the fifty-something proprietor, has no internet connection just like all but one of her competitors. Robinson makes do with a fixed-line telephone to communicate abroad and with the islands other 4,500 people. She has not yet got a mobile phone despite St. Helena, which lies roughly halfway between Angola and Brazil, getting a mobile network two years ago.

As the rest of the world looks chained to their iPads, we continue to watch the horizon for passing ships, said Jeremy Harris, the local director of the National Trust conservation charity. The boats that occasionally call at the territory set the pace of life on the island, supplying the islanders every need. From fuel to food, furniture to medication, clothes to vehicles, the arrival of fresh cargo aboard the territorys maritime link to the outside world via Cape Town was always much anticipated.

A general view of the jetty and wharf of Jamestown. (AFP)

When you hear the signal that the Royal Mail Ship is leaving, you think oh my goodness: I am in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, just thousands of miles from anywhere -- what if? said Lisa Phillips, the islands governor. The sense of isolation is compounded by the dearth of information about official matters on the island -- all of its elected councillors take a vow of silence to not divulge their discussions in the name of confidentiality.

But times are changing. The island now boasts an international airport with a weekly air link to South Africa, and the governor decided in August to relax the councillors code of conduct. Thanks to the new air service, 69-year-old Teddy Fowler was able to return from Britain in time for his mothers funeral on the island. But his children, who emigrated to Britain, did not make the journey -- the flights were too expensive.

Even with the plane, it will always be the same for us -- the Saints, he said, using the name for the islanders. We will still be isolated. The airport promises to be a game changer for those who fall ill, permitting aerial medical evacuations for the first time. Some patients have died aboard the postal ship, which takes six days to reach Cape Town. The life of a newborn has already been saved thanks to the airport, according to the governor. But keeping the island supplied with essentials still depends on ocean-bound cargo -- as well as patience, planning and a make do and mend attitude.

Napoleons last residence during his exile in Longwood, Saint Helena. (AFP)

One young Saint had to borrow a wedding dress for her big day after the RMS St Helena broke down. Craig Yon, a diving instructor, waited two and a half months for a spare part for his boat. In October, St. Helena suffered a shortage of flour -- affecting the supply of everyday staples. When you want to cook something, and you cant find all the ingredients, you just have to cook something else, said Phillips.

Food production on the island, where exposed rockfaces are punctuated by lush forests and meadows, is mainly limited to salad, tomatoes, cucumber, pork and tuna. We embrace the slow place. Thats the key to life on St. Helena, said Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, the curator of the French historical sites on the island where Napoleon was exiled until his death in 1821. Two centuries on, the defeated emperor is enjoying something of a revival.

Britains one-time arch-nemesis has become the islands foremost draw for history buffs. Whether we like it or not, Napoleon came here, he died here, he is part of our history now. That is a tourist attraction, said Lawson Henry, a local councillor. Napoleons Longwood home, where he lived behind permanently closed shutters to torment the soldiers assigned to guard him, is now open to visitors. St. Helena is still associated with exile -- albeit for the islanders who call it home.

With no industry and underdeveloped agriculture, St. Helenas economy is struggling, with an average annual salary of just 7,280 (8,080 euros). More than half of the population work abroad at any one time -- often with the armed forces on the Falkland Islands or nearby Ascension Island -- 700 miles (1,100 kilometres) away.

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TV actor Piyush Sahdev was arrested on Wednesday, after a woman lodged an FIR at the Versova Police Station , Mumbai , accusing him of rape.

Confirming the news, Kiran Vasantrao Kale, senior inspector, Versova police station, told us over phone from Mumbai, Yes, he has been charged with rape. An FIR was lodged against him on November 20. After investigations, we arrested him on November 22. He was produced in court on the same day and has been sent to police custody till November 27.

We contacted Piyushs brother, actor Gireesh Sahdev, but he hung up when we asked him about the case. Piyushs father, too, didnt take our calls.When we called his estranged wife, actor Akangsha Rawat, she told us that they are currently discussing the case with their lawyer. However, she later messaged us saying, I am not in touch with Piyush since almost 4 months, we separated six months back, so I have no idea if this news is true.

A post shared by Piyush (@piyushsahdev) on Aug 12, 2015 at 8:51am PDT

Piyush, who is known for his shows such as Meet Mila De Rabba, Geet, Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev and Beyhadh, was recently in news when he alleged that his Facebook account had been hacked and the hacker was sending abusive messages to his friends. The actor, who plays the role of Pawan in the ongoing fiction Devanshi, was also in news after it was reported that he was having an affair with a creative team member of Beyhadh and had even started living in with her. According to reports, his affair was the reason behind the separation. The actor, however, denied this and was quoted as saying, Yes, it is true that Akangsha and I are getting separated. The divorce is already in process. But all the rumours which are being spread are untrue.

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Egypt has since time immemorial been fascinated with all things India, and Bollywood has been an all-time favourite there with Raj Kapoor and his movies like Sangam and Mera Naam Joker still playing in peoples psyche. So, it does not come as a surprise, not quite, that the Cairo International Film Festival, which began on Tuesday evening, has a basket full of Indian movies - as many as eight.

Yes, of the 175 films from 53 countries, 21 are from France, 17 from Italy, 14 from Egypt and 10 from Australia. India may come a poor fifth, but the average Egyptians love for Hindi cinema is unparalleled. I have seen this during my several trips to Cairo, and more recently to El Gouna on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. From stern-looking immigration officers (called police in that country) - who break into a smile the moment I mention I am from India and out to cover a movie festival, and excitedly ask me about the Kapoor clan and Shahrukh Khan and, of course Big B.

Yet, paradoxically, it is not a Hindi film that has made it to the main competition at Cairo, but a Marathi work, Redu, helmed by first-timer, Sagar Vanjari. For Redu, Cairo will be a hattrick --having already journeyed to the Kolkata International Film Festival and the International Film Festival of India, now on in Panaji.

Redu stars Shashank Shende, Chhaya Kadam, Gauri Konge and others and narrates a 1970s story of a middle-aged man in a remote Maharashtra village whose short fuse begins to cool down when he gets hold of a small radio, which we call transistor. Certainly, the plot appears refreshingly novel.

Assamese director Rima Dass Village Rockstar -- which was highly applauded at the recent Toronto International Film Festival - will be part of Cairos Critics Week Competition, focussing on the dream of a rebellious little girl, Dhunu (Bhanita Das), in a little village of owning a guitar.

Village Rockstar is a film about a rebellious village girl who gets a guitar one day and how it changes things.

Outside competition, while Rahul Jains documentary, Machines, is a compelling look at what goes on behind the closed doors of a modern textile factory (with its tendency towards exploitation in a dog-eat-dog kind of competitive world), Amit V Masurkars Newton (Indias offering to the Oscars race) is all about one-mans crusade to facilitate a free and fair election in Maoist-infested Chhattisgarh. Also, Sanal Kumar Sasidharans Sexy Durga (the original title goes outside India) is an 85-minute adventure of a young couple eloping to Chennai and who are trapped in a night of horror.

We also have a Tamil work, Cry Humanity (Manusangada) - where it only takes us 93 minutes to understand that even 70 years into our independence Dalits continue to be battered and bruised.

Cry Humanity talks of the plight of Dalits in Tamil Nadu.

Set in Ammiappan village in Tamil Nadu, the movie was shot over a period of 22 days. When director Amshan Kumar chanced upon the news item of a horrific incident in 2016, he set aside a screenplay of a William Shakespeare adaptation he had been working on. This story just had to be told first, he said in a recent interview. There is no killing on account of cow-slaughter in Tamil Nadu, but there is violence against Dalits. Also, this is a subject to which parallels can be drawn anywhere in India.

Cry Humanity is the tragic tale of a young man who is denied permission to carry the dead body of his father to the crematorium through a proper road. Instead, he has to take a thorny and uneven path.

The desperate youth moves the Madras high court, which said in a famous verdict: You deny them equality when they are alive. At least give it to them after they die. But the man Kolappans struggle does not end there.

(Gautaman Bhaskaran is covering the Cairo International Film Festival.)

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Mumbai attack mastermind and chief of the banned JuD Hafiz Saeed on Friday walked free from house arrest and said he would gather people across Pakistan for the cause of Kashmir and try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom. (Five things to know about Hafiz Saeed)

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head, who carries a USD 10 million American bounty for his role in terror activities, was freed after the government decided against detaining him further in any case. He was under detention since January.

I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir, Saeed told his supporters gathered outside his residence to celebrate his release.

I fight for the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir and we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom, he said upon his release.

Punjab provinces Judicial Review Board comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday unanimously ordered Saeeds release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest which expired last night.

Saeed said that he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris in January.

Using the release order to buttress his claim of innocence, Saeed said: I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release... India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHCs review board decision has proved that I am innocent.

The JuD chief said that the US, on Indias request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.

I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India, he claimed.

Several JuD supporters, gathered outside Saeeds house in Lahores Jauhar town to celebrate his release, shouted anti- India slogans and described their leader as a hope for the Kashmiri people.

We are happy to see our leader free. Hafiz sahib received his release order from the jail officials. Now he is a free man, JuD spokesman Ahmad Nadim said.

Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case, a top government official told PTI.

He said that after a long deliberation, it has been decided to follow the review boards decision.

Saeeds release would invite strong criticism from India and the US, official sources said.

It remains to be seen as how would the PML-N government handle the foreign pressure to again detain Saeed, they said.

Lawyers shout slogans during a protest against the Lahore High Court's order for the release of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, in Jammu on Thursday. (PTI Photo)

Punjab Assistant Advocate General Sattar Sahil said the government law officer had presented some important evidence to justify Saeeds detention, but all three members of the board unanimously rejected it and ordered his release.

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti- Terrorism Act 1997. The last two extensions were made on the public safety law.

The board refused to give further extension to the detention of Saeeds aides. They were set free last month.

According to the rules, the government could detain a person for up to three months under different charges, but for extension, it needs approval from a judicial review board.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack in November 2008 but he was freed by a court in 2009.

India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and demanded trial of Saeed and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi in the light of evidence it had provided to Islamabad.

Ten LeT militants had killed 166 people and wounded dozens in Mumbai in November, 2008. Nine of the attackers were killed by police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught and executed after a court found him guilty.

Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN after the Mumbai attack.
The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize, has been rattled by a sex scandal as several members, their wives and daughters accused an influential person with close ties to the prestigious institution of assault.

The #MeToo wave exposing sexual misconduct which began in Hollywood has shaken artistic, media and political circles in Sweden, one of the most gender equal countries in the world, as thousands of women have spoken up and campaigned against harassment.

Swedens prestigious literary scene was drawn into the fray on Tuesday when newspaper of reference Dagens Nyheter published the testimony of 18 women claiming to have been assaulted or raped by one of the most influential figures in Stockholms cultural scene.

The accused mans name has not been published in the media due to Swedish laws on the presumption of innocence. But his identity is generally known by the public as he is a high-profile person in cultural circles and his name has appeared in online chat forums discussing the issue.

The man did not respond to AFPs request for a comment, though he told Dagens Nyheter he was innocent.

Married to a writer with close links to the Swedish Academy, the man runs a cultural club showcasing exhibitions, readings and performances by both the cultural elite and hopefuls -- including Nobel literature laureates -- and dubbed by some as the Academys living room.

The club was partly funded by the Academy.

Everyone has always known

The alleged sexual assaults occurred between 1996 and 2017, some of them in the clubs premises, according to Dagens Nyheter.

Several women spoke openly, allowing the newspaper to reveal their identities, and their stories were corroborated by eyewitnesses, the paper said.

One of them claims to have been raped in an apartment in a posh Stockholm neighbourhood.

Everyone knows and everyone has always known, that he was attacking young women, she says.

The women said they remained silent out of fear of jeopardising their careers because of the mans connections and close relations with leading publishers, producers, directors and composers.

After a crisis meeting on Thursday evening, the Swedish Academy announced that it was cutting all ties with the accused, whom it had funded and allowed to manage an apartment it owns in an upscale Paris neighbourhood.

The Academy said in a statement that during the meeting, it emerged that members of the Academy, daughters of Academy members, wives of Academy members and staff of the Academy have experienced unwanted intimacy or inappropriate behaviour by the man.

The prominent institution said it would launch an internal inquiry to find out if the man has had any direct or indirect influence on the Academys prizes, scholarships, and fundings of any kind.

Culture Minister Alice Bah Kuhnke said she regretted honouring him with the 2015 Order of The Polar Star, awarded to members of the Swedish royal family and foreigners for services to Sweden.
The US on Friday asked Pakistan to arrest Hafiz Saeed and charge him for his crimes, hours after the Lashkar-e-Taiba founders release from house arrest brought into focus Islamabads failure to act against terrorists operating from its soil.

Saeed, freed days ahead of the ninth anniversary of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that he is accused of masterminding, vowed to mobilise people across Pakistan for the cause of Kashmir. The Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief also called ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif a traitor for seeking peace with India.

In a strong reaction to his release, the US state department said it was deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest. The LeT, it said, is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens.

The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes, state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

The decision by a judicial review board, comprising judges of the Lahore high court, to free Saeed has been strongly criticised by the US and India, which called it an attempt by Pakistan to mainstream outlawed terrorists and a reflection of its lack of seriousness in prosecuting terrorists.

Pakistan detained Saeed, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head over the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, on January 30 largely because of pressure from the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force. The action was taken weeks before the FATF was to discuss Pakistans compliance with terror financing regulations at its plenary in Paris during February 22-24.

At its plenary in Buenos Aires during November 1-3, FATF asked Pakistan to submit a compliance report by February 2018 on action taken against the LeT and JuD.

Following his release after midnight on Thursday, Saeed spoke against India and raked up the Kashmir issue several times .

I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir, Saeed told supporters gathered outside his home. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir and we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom.

Speaking at Friday prayers, he said Nawaz Sharif deserved to be removed from the post of premier for his peace overtures with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Nawaz Sharif asks why he was ousted? I tell him he was ousted because he committed treason against Pakistan by developing friendship with Modi, he said. He blamed India for his detention, saying Pakistans rulers detained me on the aspiration of Modi because of their friendship with him.

Saeed was welcomed by hundreds of supporters at the Friday prayers, and JuD spokesman Nadeem Awan told the media that all restrictions on him had been lifted by the Punjab government. Saeed had been detained at his home in Lahores Johar Town area, which was declared a sub-jail.

This is the third time Saeed has been freed by the courts after authorities detained him. He was held twice in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. In January, the Punjab government had placed Saeed under house arrest as their activities were harming peace and security.

Saeeds release comes at a time when Pakistan is facing more scrutiny and mounting impatience. President Donald Trump has said the US will not look away from countries granting terrorists safe haven and secretary of state Rex Tillerson recently gave Islamabad a list of asks the US wants it to deliver on.

The US and the UN say the JuD is a front for the LeT, which has been blamed for a string of high-profile attacks in India. Saeed has long campaigned for militants in the Jammu and Kashmir.

While Saeed was under house arrest, the JuD charity launched a political party, the Milli Muslim League, which won thousands of votes in by-elections in Punjab. Senior government and retired military figures say the party has the backing of the powerful military.
China has warned its citizens travelling to Bangladesh to raise their safety awareness after receiving calls for help from Chinese workers claiming they were detained in the country.

The Chinese workers who went to Bangladesh for work in equipment maintenance and installation claimed that they were detained for several days or even months by their local trading partners over product quality issues and poorly maintaining equipment, the state-run Global Times quoted a statement by the Chinese Embassy.

The statement warned that Chinese citizens should travel with companions, make hotel reservations appropriately and inform family and friends of their contact information before visiting Bangladesh, reminding people to seek help from the embassy and police if their freedom are violated due to any dispute.

The embassy said it has promptly provided the citizens assistance to protect their legitimate rights and interests.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visited Bangladesh recently.

China has made large investments in Bangladesh in recent years under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the report said.
Several Indian-origin directors of restaurants are among 20 directors who have received lengthy bans from Britains Insolvency Service for employing individuals who did not have the right to work.

The directors, who had already been fined for employing these persons, were running restaurants such as Indian Fusion, Jaipur Restaurant, Cardamom Bay, K2 Taj, Cafe India, Jhalmuri and The 3 Mughals.

The directors ran 11 restaurants and employed, in all, 41 illegal workers, for which they were fined 505,000 by the Home Office.

Britains Indian restaurant industry has been facing a severe shortage of chefs, since rules introduced by the Conservative government imposed a high salary threshold to recruit chefs from India and other non-EU countries, prompting some to employ illegal workers.

The Insolvency Service said on Friday that the 11 restaurants were based in London (four), Sussex (three), North West (three) South Wales (two), Glasgow, Antrim, Frome and High Wycombe. The fines of between 10,000 and 15,000 per worker remained unpaid, it added.

A disqualification order has the effect that, without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot act as a director of a company, take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership, and be a receiver of a companys property.

Cheryl Lambert, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: These directors sought an unfair advantage over their law abiding competitors by employing people who were not entitled to work legally in the UK.

By definition this is a set of people who are without the protection of the law and knowledge of the authorities, and thereby extremely vulnerable to exploitation in all its forms. It is bad for business and bad for society as a whole.

A Home Office spokesperson added: Illegal working is not victimless. It undercuts honest employers, cheats legitimate job seekers out of employment opportunities and defrauds the taxpayer.

Businesses should be aware that they have a duty to check that their staff have permission to work in the UK.

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Donald Trump returned to a favourite subject on Thursday, telling a US coast guard audience the air force was ordering a new plane that was almost like an invisible fighter.

The plane in question, the F-35 , is not invisible, though it is unusually small and designed to be less visible to radar than conventional aircraft. Its development , however, has proved all too visibly costly and riddled with problems .

Trump first startled reporters with talk of an invisible plane in October, when he discussed the F-35 at a military briefing in hurricane-hit Puerto Rico.

Amazing job, Trump said then. So amazing we are ordering hundreds of millions of dollars of new airplanes for the air force, especially the F-35. You like the F-35? ... You cant see it. You literally cant see it. Its hard to fight a plane you cant see.

He also said: Thats an expensive plane you cant see. As you heard, we cut the price very substantially. Something that other administrations would never have done  that I can tell you.

According to the pool report of the presidents Thanksgiving Day visit to Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet, in Florida, Trump told his audience he had discussed the invisible plane with some air force guys. He asked them, he said, if it would perform in a dogfight like similar planes he had seen in movies.

They said: Well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it, even if its right next to it, it cant see it, Trump said.

The coast guard members laughed, some perhaps aware that the president speaking to them about the air force was a reversal of his remarks in Puerto Rico in October, when he spoke to an air force audience about the coast guard .

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visit a US Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet in Riviera Beach, Florida. (Reuters Photo)

Contra to his earlier expressions of pride about being responsible for a cut in the cost of the F-35  a claim that experts have said is at best contestable  Trump also told coast guard members of his pride in having increased military spending.

Were ordering tremendous amounts of new equipment  were at $700bn for the military. And, you know, they were cutting back for years. They just kept cutting, cutting, cutting the military. And you got lean, to put it nicely. It was depleted, was the word. And now its changing.

Trump also said nobody has the equipment that we have and added a variation on a contention made earlier in the visit and on Twitter on Thanksgiving morning : that everything in American life, military or otherwise, has changed for the better since he became president.

Trump began his remarks by congratulating the coast guard for its response to recent hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. He said: You know, the coast guard, always respected, but if you were looking at it as a brand, theres no brand that went up more than the coast guard, with what happened in Texas.

(Published in arrangement with The Guardian)
People across China have reacted with anger and revulsion to allegations of widespread child abuse at an upmarket private kindergarten located in a central district of Beijing.

Reports of children being molested, jabbed with needles, coaxed into having sleeping pills and forced to stand naked in a dark room at RYB Education New World nursery, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, triggered online rage and protests by parents outside the school. People have demanded a swift, decisive response from authorities.

The children targeted were between two and six years old.

This general view shows RYB Education New World kindergarten in Beijing on November 24, 2017. (AFP)

Following the reports, Beijing authorities launched a city-wide inspection of schools.

We will thoroughly investigate any incident and punish those involved regardless of where the incident takes placeWe are committed to preventing child abuse cases from happening, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission said in a statement on Friday.

Furious parents have protested outside the kindergarten demanding a response from the head of the kindergarten and that they are allowed to watch surveillance videos, state-run Global Times tabloid reported.

Audio and video recordings, in which children claimed they were forced to take pills to sleep and given physical examinations by some uncle and grandpa doctors, with one allegedly being naked, went viral Thursday, sparking public outrage, the report added.

A group of parents told Caixin magazine that teachers at the facility had given the children white tablets and brown syrup. The parents said they don't know what the tablets and syrup contained.

Disobedient students were also forced to stand naked or were locked up in a dark room at the kindergarten, one parent told the magazine.

People leave RYB Education New World kindergarten in Beijing on November 24, 2017. (AFP)

According to Caixin, this isnt the first time that one of RYB Educations pre-schools has been at the centre of child abuse allegations.

Four teachers at a RYB kindergarten in Siping in the northeastern province of Jilin were jailed for 30-34 months in October last year over mistreatment of students, after needle marks were found on some students in November 2015, it reported.

On Friday, RYB Education is said to have provided documents and surveillance footage to police while the teachers allegedly involved in the abuse were suspended.

The company also told police it has been falsely accused and framed by some people. The company added it would apply a zero tolerance policy on those who violate professional ethics, the Global Times reported. According to the tabloid, the company founded in 1998 has more than 1,300 daycare centres and nearly 500 kindergartens in 300 cities across China.
The November sun had set over icy streets before the skinny, little boy in a gray hoodie and sweatpants ran out of an old, single-wide mobile home. He stopped at the window of a parked van. Salvation Army Maj. Trish Simeroth sat at the wheel while a Montana State University student put a warm package in the childs hands. He dashed back inside, clutching the fresh-cooked dinner of barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes and vegetables.

The tall, white Salvation Army vans are a familiar and welcome sight in Billings trailer courts, city parks, downtown motels and low-income apartment complexes. It was a slower-than-usual night when the editorial writer and Lt. Tim Simeroth followed a Community Table van on its route. Only 280 meals were distributed by the two vans. The Community Table usually serves between 350 and 500 meals per night.

Two vans go out six nights a week to serve dinner to the homeless and those who are hungry at home. Hot meals are offered on four nights, sack lunches on Wednesdays and Saturdays. On Sundays, the faith-based charity offers a biscuits and gravy breakfast and a hearty lunch after worship at its community center, 2100 Sixth Ave. N. Thats also where the meals-to-go are prepared every other day of the week.

The van routes include the Community Crisis Center, where a dozen adults quickly lined up by the Salvation Army van. Several more people came out of the centers lobby, and Maj. Simeroth handed a large, paper grocery sack of packaged dinners to a security guard for late night patients.

The vans move slowly at each stop, honking at every house and corner where meals previously have been picked up. The Community Table relies on the help of several volunteers each night. Many are students; others have been helping for years.

Carol and Dan Vaughan are regular Thursday volunteers. Dan drives, and Carol keeps the sealed meal trays organized. Theyve been delivering meals since 2010.

We volunteered to help after the tornado at Metra and they sent us to Salvation Army, Carol said. Weve been delivering meals ever since.

The policy is one meal per person, but a family member can get a dinner for everyone in the household.

We want to make sure everyone gets a balanced meal, said Lt. Simeroth.

Along with food, the vans distribute socks, gloves, hats, blankets and coats as needed.

Most Gazette readers are in warm homes and we are certain that we will have supper tonight. The Community Table provides food security to our neighbors who otherwise wouldnt know where their next meal is coming from.

Thanks to the Salvation Army and their volunteers for taking meals where they are needed every week of the year.
The Rajput Samaj of UK has scheduled a demonstration outside Parliament in Westminster on Sunday to protest against the controversial film Padmavati being cleared for distribution and exhibition in the United Kingdom.

Harendra Singh Jodha, secretary of the charity organisation, told Hindustan Times a protest had also been lodged with the British Board of Film Certification (BBFC), which cleared the film without any cuts and gave it a 12A rating, meaning it is not generally suitable for children aged under 12.

We want British authorities to understand how the new generations get a wrong or distorted version of historical icons, which would affect people in any country. We want the certification of Padmavati by BBFC to be revoked, Jodha said.

A BBFC spokeswoman told Hindustan Times: "The BBFC makes all classification decisions in line with its published Classification Guidelines only. The BBFC does not take into account lobbying of any kind during the classification process.".

The issue has been discussed extensively by Jodha and others on MATV, a leading British Asian television channel.

According to BBFCs certification, the film is a Hindi language epic drama in which a Sultan leads an invasion to capture a Rajput Queen. It contains moderate violence, injury detail and some versions of this film are displayed in the 3D or IMAX format and some younger children may find them a more intense experience.

Jodhas protest letter to BBFC states: The movie which claims historical tag is misleading and it is hurting sentiments of millions who revere Padmini as a mother in Indian society.

In the name of artistic expression and freedom of speech, we must not allow anyone to malign the image of our national heroes. Commercial desires shouldn't override historical facts and national sentiments.

We would like to register our strong protest against the issuance of 12A certificate to the movie, because the movie is full of misrepresentation of past and traditional inaccuracies. It's an artistic and historic fraud to generate more revenue.

BBFC has mentioned the release date as December 1. All known versions of this work passed uncut, the BBFC said, adding that the films duration is 163 minutes and 42 seconds.

Jodha said his organisation plans to take legal recourse and stage a protest against the UK distributor of the film, Paramount Pictures.

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Animals in Pakistans Sindh province will soon be registered and given unique identity codes as lawmakers have passed a law to maintain a computerised record of livestocks, a media report said on Friday.

The identification code hanging around the neck of the animals will not be removed or replaced without permission, Livestock Minister Mohammad Ali Malkani said.

Authorities will maintain birth and death records of the animals after their registration, The Express Tribune reported.

The law, passed yesterday, will establish a database of animals for their registration, tagging and identification in the province, the report said.

The database would be similar to the National Database Registration Authority, an independent and autonomous agency responsible for issuing computerised national identity cards to the citizens of Pakistan.

The law aims to improve existing livestock sector practices in line with international standards for trade and marketing, the objectives of the law read.

According to the Sindh Livestock Registration and Trade Authority Bill, 2017, an authority will be established after 60 days of the passing of the law with the sole purpose of regulating animal registration and identification in the province.

A centralised computerised database will be developed which will update the records of animals, butchers, traders and animal transporters, the law said.

With implementation of the law, all animals in the province will be given a unique code, the report said.

The identification code hanging around the neck of the animals will not be removed or replaced without permission of the authority, Malkani said, adding that after the database is established, the authority can maintain a record of all species of animals.

We will keep the record about details of movement each time an animal is moved. A person who owns different species of livestock has to keep the authority in the loop about the birth and deaths of their animals within seven days of the (birth or death). After the law, we will have information about any animal, its owner and proper address, he said.

The law said that animal movement documents or transport permits will be issued if any person wants to transport animals from one province to another, according to the report.

The authority will maintain date of departure and other records with the signature of the animal keeper, reads Section eight of the law.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Sumeta Afzal Syed proposed an amendment to issue fitness certificates to animals when they are being transported.

Many animals suffer from transmittable diseases, so we have to ensure that the animals being transported are safe and healthy, she said.

The amendment was incorporated in the law.
Saudi Arabias powerful Crown Prince called the Supreme Leader of Iran the new Hitler of the Middle East in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday, sharply escalating the war of words between the arch-rivals.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran back rival sides in wars and political crises throughout the region.

Mohammed bin Salman, who is also Saudi defence minister in the U.S.-allied oil giant kingdom, suggested the Islamic Republics alleged expansion under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei needed to be confronted.

But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesnt work. We dont want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East, the paper quoted him as saying.

Tensions soared this month when Lebanons Saudi-allied Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned in a television broadcast from Riyadh, citing the influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and risks to his life.

Hezbollah called the move an act of war engineered by Saudi authorities, an accusation they denied.

Hariri has since suspended his resignation.

Saudi Arabia has launched thousands of air strikes in a 2-1/2-year-old war in neighbouring Yemen to defeat the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement that seized broad swaths of the country.

Salman told the Times that the war was going in its favor and that its allies controlled 85 percent of Yemens territory.

The Houthis, however, still retain the main population centres despite the war effort by a Saudi-led military coalition which receives intelligence and refueling for its warplanes by the United States. Some 10,000 people have died in the conflict.

The group launched a ballistic missile toward Riyadhs main airport on Nov. 4, which Saudi Arabis decried as an act of war by Tehran.

Bin Salman said in May that the kingdom would make sure any future struggle between the two countries is waged in Iran.

For his part, Khamenei has referred to the House of Saud as an accursed tree, and Iranian officials have accused the kingdom of spreading terrorism.

Iran says Saudi Crown Princes behaviour immature, weak-minded

Iran said that Saudi Arabias crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was discredited internationally by his immature behaviour, state television reported.

No one in the world and in the international arena gives credit to him because of his immature and weak-minded behaviour and remarks, Irans foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying.

Now that he has decided to follow the path of famous regional dictators ... he should think about their fate as well.
A top police official in Pakistans northwest was killed along with his bodyguard when a suicide bomber on a motorbike rammed into their vehicle Friday morning, police said.

Five other people were injured in the incident, which occurred in the restive city of Peshawar as the Additional Inspector General for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Ashraf Noor, and his guard were travelling to work.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Salahuddin Mehsud told AFP that three policemen were among the five injured, and were being treated at hospital.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi strongly condemned the murder.

Our resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism can not be shaken, he said in a statement.

Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the frontier with Afghanistan, has long been a centre for militant activity in both countries. Smugglers and drug traffickers use the city as a transport hub.

It has borne the brunt of militant violence for years and was the scene of the countrys deadliest-ever terror attack, a Taliban assault on an army-run school in 2014 that left more than 150 people dead -- most of them children.
In a sign that former US national security adviser Michael Flynn could be cooperating with the US special counsel probing Russian meddling in the 2016 election, his lawyers have stopped sharing information with the legal team of his erstwhile boss, President Donald Trump.

Its normal for lawyers of people facing similar allegations to share information, but they must stop when any of them begins cooperating with prosecutors. This new development in itself may not mean that Flynn is cooperating or negotiating a deal, because negotiations can break down.

If Flynn is indeed cooperating, he could grant special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigators their best information to date as an insider who began working for Trump from an early stage of his campaign, and on the presidential transition and the early days of the presidency.

Three Trump campaign figures have already been charged in the Russia probe  erstwhile chairman Paul Manafort and associate Rick Gates and foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who is cooperating with investigators in a plea deal.

The New York Times, which first reported the development about Flynns lawyers breaking off contacts with Trumps legal team, had expected charges to be filed against Flynn but contended that he doesnt have any incriminating evidence against the president.

Flynn is being investigated for contacts with the Russians, going back from before he worked with the campaign, and concealing the exact nature of those interactions and accepting money, a speaking fee and other payments from Russia-linked entities, which he did not report. Trump fired him in January for lying about these contacts.

Most significantly, Flynn, as national security adviser-designate, had several conversations with then Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak after President Barack Obama expelled a bunch of Russian diplomats and announced sanctions in retaliation for the meddling. Flynn had lied to vice president Mike Pence about it, saying it was courtesy call, and that he and Kislyak had only exchanged pleasantries. Alarmed by these lies, the FBI warned the White House that Flynn might have been compromised.

Also during the transition period, Flynn met the ambassador along with Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law.
The US on Friday asked the Pakistan government to make sure that Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed is arrested and charged for his crimes, following the release of the 26/11 mastermind from house arrest.

Pakistan today freed Saeed, the Lashkar-e-Taiba founder, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the cause of Kashmir.

The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e- Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens, state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes, Nauert said in a statement after the release of the JuD chief.

The JuD leader, who has a $10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after his 10- month detention as the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case, in a setback to Indias efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.

In May 2008, the US Department of the Treasury had designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.

Saeed was also individually designated by the UN under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December, 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people, including six American citizens, were killed, Nauert said.

LeT and several of its front organisations, leaders, and operatives remain under both state department and Treasury department sanctions.
The US will send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill, reports said Friday, in a new show of force aimed at Pyongyang.

Six fighter jets, normally based in Okinawa, Japan, will be deployed to the South for a five-day joint military exercise, Vigilant Ace, starting December 4, local media reported.

A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an unspecified number of F-22s would take part in the drill.

A US Air Force spokesman declined to give details.

Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets.

The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called a maximum pressure campaign against the Norths nuclear program.

Earlier this month, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes.

This was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships in the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade.

North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainland -- which were described by the countrys leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to American bastards.

It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test in September -- by far its most powerful yet.

Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back onto a US blacklist Pyongyang was taken off nearly a decade ago.

The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme.

Trump said that the terror designation and new sanctions are part of a series of moves over the next two weeks to reinforce his maximum pressure campaign against Kim Jong-Uns regime.

Pyongyang condemned the listing as a serious provocation on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the Norths sole ally, also rejected as wrong new US sanctions, which target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state.

Russia said Thursday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a PR move that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global catastrophe.
New President Emmerson Mnangagwa laid out a grand vision on Friday to revitalise Zimbabwes ravaged economy and vowed to rule on behalf of all the countrys citizens.

Sworn in days after the overthrow of Robert Mugabe, the 75-year-old former security chief promised to guarantee the rights of foreign investors and to re-engage with the West, and said elections would go ahead next year as scheduled.

In a 30-minute speech to tens of thousands of supporters in Harares national stadium, Mnangagwa extended an olive branch to opponents, apparently aiming to bridge the ethnic and political divides exploited by his predecessor during his 37 years in charge.

I intend, nay, am required, to serve our country as the president of all citizens, regardless of colour, creed, religion, tribe or political affiliation, he said, in a speech that also hailed the voice of the people as the voice of god.

Behind the rhetoric, some Zimbabweans wonder whether a man who loyally served Mugabe for decades can bring change to a ruling establishment accused of systematic human rights abuses and disastrous economic policies.

He made clear that the land reforms that sparked the violent seizure of thousands of white-owned farms from 2000 would not be reversed, but promised that those who lost property would receive compensation.

To some political opponents, the speech was a welcome change from the habitual belligerence of Mugabe and appeared to be drawing on Mnangagwas knowledge and understanding of China as a model for running an economy.

China Model?

His model has been the Chinese, said David Coltart, a former education minister and MP from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

He will drive to make Zimbabwe a more attractive investment location, and more efficient, but like China will not tolerate dissent. If you behave, you will be secure.

Those sceptical about the new presidents commitment to change question Mnangagwas role in the so-called Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland in 1983, when an estimated 20,000 people were killed in a crackdown on Mugabes opponents by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade.

Mnangagwa was in charge of internal security at the time, but has denied any part in the atrocities.

Many Zimbabweans, especially the ethnic Ndebele who bore the brunt of the Gukurahundi slaughter, will see his appeal on Friday to let bygones be bygones as an attempt to gloss over his nations darkest chapter.

Some critics have alleged harsh treatment by soldiers of opponents of the military intervention last week - a de facto coup against Mugabe, 93, and his 52-year-old wife Grace.

Axed finance minister Ignatius Chombo was in hospital with injuries sustained from beatings during a week in military custody, his lawyer told Reuters. He was blindfolded throughout his time in detention, Lovemore Madhuku said.

It was a very brutal and draconian way of dealing with opponents, he added.

Asked to comment, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said she had no information about Chombo.
Joining the American intervention in Vietnam, Australia experienced similar battlefield successes in-country and political setbacks on the homefront

Among the more memorable images from the United States long, controversial involvement in Vietnam is a photo depicting dozens of desperate people scrambling up a ladder to board a UH-1 helicopter perched on a narrow rooftop in the embattled city of Saigon. The date was April 29, 1975, and the CIA-operated Air America Huey was evacuating some of the last South Vietnamese officials and U.S. Embassy personnel to escape the city before its fall to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces.

Not as well known to Americans, but of equal import to Australians, was a similar evacuation four days earlier and only a few miles away. On April 25 two C-130 Hercules transports of the Royal Australian Air Force had taken off from Saigons Tan Son Nhat Air Base carrying the last of its countrys diplomats and military attaches to leave the doomed capital of the Republic of Vietnam. Though Australian troops had ceased operations back in January 1973, the closure of Canberras embassy and departure of its personnel marked the true end of Australias longest and most controversial military conflict of the 20th century.

The origins of Australias participation in the Vietnam War is traceable to Frances colonial rule in the region before and during World War II. While Western interest in Indochina had originated in the 16th centuryat a time when Europe sought to expand its overseas marketsFrance did not formalize its takeover of Vietnam until the late 1880s. It benefitted from both the export of raw materials (principally rubber) and the opening of Asian markets to products from mother France. As the French established plantations, factories and mines throughout Vietnam, the administrators took advantage of the native workforce, compelling the traditionally agrarian Vietnamese to leave their villages and move to the growing network of French-built cities and towns. Infrastructure improvements didnt temper the sting of cultural alienation and looming anti-French sentiment.

With the onset of World War II, French colonial domination of the region began to crumble. Germanys 1940 invasion of France and the latters subsequent capitulation opened all of Indochina to Japanese occupation. While Vichy French officials ostensibly continued to wield civil authority, Tokyo dominated the former colony, using it as a base from which to launch air and naval sorties against the Allies. Meanwhile, Soviet-steered Marxist parties coalesced to exploit the general discontent. Vietnamese resistance against both the Japanese and French ramped up with the 1941 establishment of the communist-dominated Viet Minh, under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. With military support from the United States, the Viet Minh fought an effective insurgency, tying down Japanese units that would otherwise have been in action against the Allies. Following Japans surrender the Viet Minh resisted Frances efforts to renew its colonial hold on the region, and the conflict escalated. France was unable to impose a military solution, China provided support to the communists, and under the terms of the 1954 Geneva Conference the country was partitioned into the communist North and democratic South.

In the early 1960s, political stability in South Vietnam took a downward spiral, as the North fueled the flames of dissent. Hanois increasingly obvious attempts to undermine the republicprimarily through its support of Viet Cong guerrillasled the United States to act to counter the spread of communism. By late 1963, some 16,000 U.S. military advisers were at work in South Vietnam, but even this contribution did little to stem the threat. By early 1965, the Viet Cong had destroyed some 7,500 South Vietnamese hamlets. The choice for the United States was clear: Intervene more broadly and forcibly in resisting the communists, or allow them to take over South Vietnam.

That spring President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered regular U.S. combat units into South Vietnam and sought military support from several nations, including Australia. Canberra sent its first 30 military advisers to Vietnam in 1962. Over the next two years, it added aviators, engineers and medical personnel to the mix. In April 1965, Prime Minister Robert Menzies agreed to expand Australias contribution to include regular combat forces.

Menzies rationale for entering the war is manifest. Australias location makes it particularly vulnerable to security threats emanating from Southeast Asia, and in the decade following World War II the most potent threat was the spread of communism. Johnson and Menzies were proponents of the domino theory, which suggested that the fall of even one state to communism in a given region would encourage similar insurgencies in neighboring states. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had first expressed the theory during a 1954 news conference, and growing concern had prompted Australia to contribute ground, air and naval forces to the successful British-led war against communists in Malaya, which ended in 1960 with the insurgents surrender. Menzies was also keen to maintain a special security arrangement with the United States and regarded the commitment of armed forces in Vietnam as a sort of insurance policy to bolster Australian-American relations.

In June 1965 the light aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney, carrying men of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, a troop of the Prince of Wales Light Horse armored regiment and a logistics unit, made port at Vung Tau, just east of Saigon. These initial Australian forces were attached to the U.S. Armys 173rd Airborne Brigade in nearby Bien Hoa Province, and over the following months 1RAR participated in several significant actions. While relations between the Americans and Australians were generally good, early joint operations revealed significant differences in both policy and tactics. Senior Australian officers were concerned that prolonged attachment to aggressive U.S. combat forces might result in higher casualties among their own men. Indeed, at one point Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Sir John Wilton sardonically commented that the Australians could not allow themselves the kind of generosity in the loss of life the Americans seemed able to sustain.

Regardless, in April 1966 Canberra made a significant policy shift and expanded Australias military commitment in Vietnam, deploying two additional battalions of the RAR, support units and a squadron of the elite Special Air Service Regiment. Designated the 1st Australian Task Force, the expanded formation was assigned responsibility for Phuoc Tuy Province and operated independently, not as a reserve force for the Americans. Based on a rubber plantation near centrally located Nui Dat, the Australians were to seek out and engage enemy main-force units. Their air base was within striking distance of the main population centers to ensure good communication with villagers and the ability to quickly disrupt Viet Cong infiltration. Such pacification efforts represented a more humane approach to military action and fostered cooperation among the populace.

Thus the Australians were able to conduct regular patrols and quash enemy forces in the challenging jungle. Yet by 1968 Canberra had concluded an expansion of Australian forces in Vietnam was warranted. The resulting introduction of another infantry battalion, additional helicopters and a squadron of Centurion tanks allowed the task force to undertake a wider range of operations.

Offsetting the benefits of such buildup operations was the enemy use of landmines and booby traps, insidious devices that inflicted nearly half of all Australian casualties. The Viet Cong were confident they had found an ideal means of warfare, as the devices married low-cost technology with low risk, a combination that out of necessity aligned with the guerrillas philosophy of war. There was also a psychological component to such devices, as Australians patrolling through scrub and tall grass in the unbearable heat always had it in the back of the mind that a booby trap or mine may lay in waiting. For the Aussies part, their ability to patrol seemingly at will had fostered a measure of complacency, lulling them into the mistaken belief that where the enemy was ostensibly absent, there was little to fear. Further hampering operations were communist informants in the surrounding villages.

Despite such setbacks, however, the Australians demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt and confront the Viet Cong on their home ground. Aiding their efforts were veterans of the Malaya campaign, who had learned to deal with the difficult conditions of jungle fighting and counterguerrilla operations and were able to share invaluable advice on tactics associated with such engagements. They underscored the importance of conducting cautious, methodical patrols.

By July 1966, the Australian presence was a firmly embedded thorn in the side of the communists. Convinced only a full-scale operation would dislodge the Aussies from Phuoc Tuy, the Viet Cong sent their 275th Regiment against the air base at Nui Dat. In the subsequent Battle of Long Tan, a lone Australian company outnumbered by some 20-to-1exhibited remarkable courage and perseverance despite a lack of food, water and ammunition and the presence of leeches, flies, mosquitoes and snakes.

The clash began at 2:43 a.m. on August 17, when the Viet Cong hit Nui Dat with a sustained bombardment by artillery, mortars and recoilless rifles, until silenced by counterbattery fire. The next morning Company B, 6RAR, sallied out to determine the location and size of the enemy force but found only abandoned firing positions. At noon the regiments Company D took up the chase. While pursuing a Viet Cong squad, the company came under flanking attack by rocket-propelled grenades about the time a monsoon storm cut visibility to near zero. Lacking any obvious route of escape, the 100-plus men found themselves pinned down by an enemy numbering around 2,000. They fought on in the rain-swept darkness and were nearly out of ammo when relieved by artillery and air support, followed by ground reinforcements. The Australians lost 18 killed and 24 woundedmore than a third of the engaged force.

The Viet Cong sustained at least 250 killed and an even greater number woundedfar steeper casualties than those of their adversary and a hallmark of the war in general. Back home, in a spurt of patriotism evocative of World War I, the Australian media focused on the tactical coup their armed forces had achieved. Even allowing for the inevitable wartime exaggeration of enemy casualties, the battle was a decisive Australian victory.

The next major encounter came during Operation Bribie, a strike by an Australian quick-reaction force against infiltrating Viet Cong. On Feb. 17, 1967, the VC attacked a South Vietnamese compound at Lang Phuoc Hai, soon withdrawing under artillery fire and air strikes. As had happened at Long Tan, the Australians sought to engage the retreating elements and found themselves embroiled against the bulk of the communist force. Though the opposing units were more evenly matched, by days end the Aussies had lost eight killed and 27 wounded.

The Australians largest unit-level engagement of the war was the Battle of CoralBalmoral. In May and June 1968 the Aussies joined U.S. and New Zealand troops seeking to cut off retreating enemy forces after a failed communist offensive against Saigon. In a period of nearly sustained combat over 25 days the Australian units repeatedly beat back determined attacks from overwhelming North Vietnamese forces before being relieved by U.S. and South Vietnamese reinforcements. It proved the Australians costliest clash of the war, resulting in 25 killed and 99 wounded. They inflicted 10 times that number of casualties on the communists.

A year later the Australians scored a decisive victory at the village of Binh Baa win that managed to temporarily drive communist forces from Phuoc Tuy Province. Though the village was ostensibly under South Vietnamese protection, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong contested that control on the evening of June 5, 1969, by sending an occupying force comprising two infantry companies supported by armor and artillery units. Determined to decisively end the communist threat to the village, the Australians launched a counterattack spearheaded by a troop of Centurion tanks. The clash began early on June 6 when enemy troops in the village disabled an approaching Centurion with an RPG round. The subsequent two-day house-to-house firefight did drive off the communists, with heavy casualties, but left Binh Ba in ruins. It became clear that short of total annihilation, the Allies seemed unable to stem the flow of willing sacrificial volunteers to the communist cause.

Another illustrative lesson followed early gains won by tunnel rats of the Royal Australian Engineers. Back in early 1966, having discovered a vast network of Viet Cong tunnels near Cu Chi in Binh Duong Province, the Allies targeted them in Operation Crimp, first bombing and napalming the area before sending in ground troops. Frustration mounted as the communists made use of their tunnels to spring ambushes and then disappear before Allied troops could respond. After channeling smoke and tear gas into the entrances, Australian engineers led by Captain Sandy MacGregor were the first to brave the subterranean network, which purportedly extended more than 200 miles. Each armed with a flashlight in one hand and 9 mm Browning pistol in the other, MacGregor and his men bellied into the pitch black and spent four days exploring and mapping the claustrophobic passages. Though the Aussie tunnel ferrets (corrupted to rats by a journalist unfamiliar with the European polecats) found food caches and mounds of equipment, including ammo dumps and medical supplies, the elusive Viet Cong were eerily absent. Casualties among the tunnel rats were mercifully low, but death belowground was a horrible prospect. One unlucky engineer was asphyxiated when he became trapped in a dead-end tunnel.

Unfortunately, as quickly as the tunnel rats were able to map and destroy one series of tunnels, the Viet Cong worked to replace them with others farther on down the line. At wars end the tunnels at Cu Chi took on greater significance when the Viet Cong used them as a base from which to launch the final assault on Saigon, prompting the ultimate collapse of South Vietnam. Today the tunnels are a popular tourist attraction.

If the 1975 fall of Saigon was an outcome none of the Allies had contemplated, Australias decision to withdraw from South Vietnam beginning in 1970 was certainly something no one back home had anticipated on entering the conflict. The initial influx of advisers and troops had occasioned no specific opposition to the war. But as casualties increased and progress toward conclusive victory proved patchy, the Australian press and public grew increasingly hostile to its nations military commitment in Vietnam. Mirroring developments in the United States, antiwar protests became commonplace, with as many as 200,000 people gathering to march on the streets of Australias major cities. As with the Americans, the tactical situation in Vietnam was not the reason the Australians abandoned ship. In the end they simply felt the war had dragged on too long, and defeat of the enemy was not imminently achievable.

The 60,000 Australian military personnel that served in Vietnam had borne up under extremely demanding conditions. Though the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had repeatedly lost on the battlefield, they proved difficult to vanquishin part because they were fighting on their home ground, but largely because their resolve was stronger. Indeed, the communists seemed perfectly content to continue sacrificing men to the meat grinder of modern combat. Meanwhile, back home Australia experienced the greatest social and political dissent in its history, dividing its populace in stark contrast to the unity exhibited during the world wars.

Determined to defend democracy against communism, the early expeditionary troops in Indochina had embarked on what they believed to be a clearly defined, honorable mission. Were circumstances on the ground and the fatalistic resolve of the enemy better understood, it is debatable whether Australian statesmen and citizens would have countenanced their nations participation in the decades-long struggle for the soul of Vietnam.

British historian Richard Willis is a frequent contributor to magazines, newspapers, journals and books in the United States and internationally. He has worked as a researcher for London, Cambridge, Roehampton and Adelaide universities. For further reading he recommends Vietnam: The Complete Story of the Australian War, by Bruce Davies, and Australia and the Vietnam War, by Peter Edwards.
Hot Press has learnt that independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice has told Taoiseach Leo Varadkar he should move to "immediately appoint" Josephine Fehilly, the current boss of the Policing Authority, as Secretary General of the Department of Justice.

Mr Fitzmaurice said: "How Mr Varadkar responds to the challenge posed by the state of chaos in the Department of Justice will define his fate as Taoiseach.

Leo has to make big bold and brave decisions.

"We cannot have a vacant chair at the top table in Justice as well as the Gardai for months and years.

"Josephine Fehilly commands the confidence of the public. She is not part of the confederacy of dunces that have collapsed public confidence in Justice."

Ms Fehilly is currently in charge of the Policing Authority. However, Mr Fitzmaurice warned: "Leaving Ms Fehilly in charge of the PA is like sending the fire brigade to a burning haybarn when the explosives factory beside it is alight.

"We need solutions as well as sackings though we need sackings too.

Josephine Fehilly should be given the job and given whatever tools and resources are required to do that job.

"The Taoiseach should stop dawdling and start doing. His current inaction reminds me of the old saying about fiddling whilst rome burns. But if he is not very careful he may find it is his own seat that will be on fire."
10 Hot Press writers share their favourite U2 moments as we get set for the release of Songs of Experience on December 1. On our fourth day, Hot Press writer Valentina Magli talks about a life in search of U2.

I fell in love with U2 at the age of 13, listening to the radio in Bologna. Thus began a wonderful adventure, which finds me living in Ireland  still touched in a unique way by extraordinary music of Dublins most famous sons.

Italy is a country that can be praised on many levels. Art, history, food, landscape, fashion, lifestyle but rock music certainly isnt our thing. I was always convinced that if I wanted to find good musical inspiration, Id have to emigrate. And I did!

Strangely though, Italy seems to be very good at importing other countries musical talent  and great at promoting it. That is where it all started for me. I spent half of my teenage years locked in my room listening to tons of foreign music.

Rock, grunge, blues, soul, electronic, alternative. PJ Harvey, R.E.M. Radiohead, Pearl Jam were invading my thoughts but no band got close to my heart in the way that U2 did. It sounds like a cliche, but it is actually true. I remember being 13 years old and turning on the radio. It was the Zoo TV years. I was so into Depeche Mode at the time that I was hardly listening to anyone else other than Dave Gahan. However, I heard Bonos voice, not having a clue what band I was listening to, and I said to myself: this is special. Even better than the real thing, Bono sang in the background, and I was captured. I knew I had to go see them live. Luckily enough, the Zoo TV tour was hitting my hometown of Bologna  and it ended up being the very first gig I went to. What an initiation!

I went on a mad quest (there was no internet in my house at that time) to acquire as much information as possible about this band with a weird name  and found out that they were from Ireland. That led to another mad quest to find out what was so special about Ireland, a country that generates so many great artists.

Needless to say, I got hooked on Irish music  and I persuaded the whole family to come on a trip over here. That was 1994. I promised myself I would go back at some point and explore more of the green island. And so it happened that I fell in love with the place, the people, the music. I moved here in 2003 and never looked back.

I grew up listening to most of U2s albums on a loop, including the early LPs, like Boy and October. You can feel in those records the sense of boyish enthusiasm which must have inspired Bono, Larry, Adam and the Edge in those first few weeks and months of deciding on what they would call themselves; first Feedback, then The Hype and then finally U2, after a note had been pinned to the noticeboard in Mount Temple all the way back in 1976.

40 years later  and just over 20 for me, since I first caught the U2 bug  I still feel inexplicable emotions when I listen to their songs, which constantly acquire a different meaning.

The live shows are even more unique  and always eventful and communal events. There are many stories from their shows over the years, but the common denominator is always the feeling of pure joy.

Looking back, I owe a lot to U2 and their music  and to the fact that the right four people ended up sticking together, after those first few weeks of trial and error. It is strange to think that it might so easily have been otherwise
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WASHINGTON  More than a decade after former president George W. Bush tried but failed to open up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, oil companies are now poised to gain access to what is one of the country's largest and most remote wilderness areas.

Under legislation designed to help pay for an historic corporate tax cut, the U.S. government would begin leasing a 1.5 million acre section of ANWR, where one of the largest oil fields is believed to lie. But with oil prices below $60 a barrel, and environmental groups poised to go to court to block any development within the refuge, the question remains whether enough oil companies would be interested in drilling in one of the harshest and most remote corners of the world to produce the kind of revenues Republicans in Congress are promising to offset the costs of the tax cuts and their impact on the deficit.

The Senate is expected to vote on its version of the tax plan next week.

"Any discoveries in ANWR would face significant obstacles before reaching first oil," said Alison Wolters, an analyst at the energy research firm Wood Mackenzie. "Oil companies would have to decide if they think the opportunity is worth the potential delays and a lot of legal wrangling and back and forth with regulators."

The opening up of ANWR would be a bonus for an oil industry expected to profit mightily from the Republicans tax reform plan, which would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent while preserving key tax breaks, such as the deduction for drilling costs on future production, that the industry has long fought to preserve.

Among those expected to take a close look at ANWR are oil giants Exxon Mobil and BP, along with Conoco Phillips and Houston-based Hilcorp, all of which already have operations on Alaska's North Slope.

Tax cut leverage

Oil and gas lobbyists have pressed the government to open up drilling in ANWR since Congress first declared it a wildlife refuge in 1980. While economic conditions might make drilling there risky, the potential payout in the decades ahead is likely to attract plenty of bidders, said Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association, an oil industry trade group.

"If the reserves justify the expense and build out of infrastructure, they'll definitely go," he said.

Set on 1.5 million acres between the Arctic Ocean and the mountains of Alaska's Brooks Range, the area of ANWR targeted for drilling is home to polar bears, wolves and more than 150 species of birds. The vast expanse also serves as a critical stop for porcupine caribou herds on their migration around Alaska and Canada.

Democrats and Republicans alike have long been reluctant to develop there. In 2002, Bush's plan to open up drilling in ANWR was ultimately blocked in the Republican-controlled Senate when eight Republicans broke party ranks.

"Our natural heritage is something important to the American people, and this place is the ultimate symbol of that," said Kristen Miller, conservation director with the Alaska Wilderness League. "It's the wildest refuge we have."

But this time around, ANWR could serve as leverage in Republicans' bid to pass a tax cut seen as critical to preserving their control of Congress and the White House. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who joined Democrats to block the repeal of Obamacare, is viewed as a critical vote on tax reform as Republican leaders try pass the bill with their thin majority. Murkowski has long sought to open ANWR to drilling, to help offset a steep decline in oil production from the North Slope that has left Alaska's state coffers badly depleted.

Republicans in the Senate Budget Committee are working to combine the ANWR legislation with the tax reform bill ahead of the vote. On Tuesday, Murkowski wrote an opinion piece in an Alaska newspaper declaring her support for a provision within the tax reform bill repealing the individual mandate that underpins Obamacare - though a spokesman said she was still reviewing the legislation.

Lessons from Shell

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that lease sales in ANWR would generate $1.1 billion over the next decade, with revenue expected to rise as oil production comes online. But considering how little is known about the geology in ANWR - only one well has ever been drilled there - it will likely take at least a decade before companies get oil from the ground, said Wolters, the energy analyst.

Hanging over any potential development will be Shell's failed attempt to tap reserves off Alaska's coast.

In 2015, after years of legal fighting with environmental groups, the European oil giant announced it was abandoning $2.5 billion in drilling rights in U.S. Arctic waters.

"Any operator that would lease in ANWR would have that same scrutiny on them," Wolters said. "Every environmental impact statement and drilling plan would be highly scrutinized. And in Alaska, where seasonal change really impacts what you're able to do, just small delays could push back production a whole year."
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PARIS - Banking giant Citigroup, fast food master KFC and elevator-maker Otis are planning to expand activities in France thanks in part to what they call the "Macron effect" - a surge in investor optimism driven by the French president's pro-business promises.

But will they move their European headquarters to Paris after Britain pulls out of the EU? Not so fast.

The French capital's campaign to pull in jobs from London - particularly in the prestigious finance world - clinched a victory this week when the EU chose Paris to take over the European Banking Authority from London post-Brexit.

President Emmanuel Macron, whose government has set aside quiet diplomacy and relentlessly lobbied for post-Brexit jobs, tweeted his joy. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein tweeted his appreciation last week for the "positive energy" in Paris - and the world-famous food.

But the competition is fierce. From Dublin to Frankfurt, Luxembourg or Amsterdam, cities across the continent are vying to draw business away from the City of London, as financial companies look for a new hub allowing them easy access to markets in the 27 nations remaining in the open-border EU.

Investor confidence is up

Instead of relocating wholesale, however, London's financial activities may instead splinter across all of them - or stay put.

Macron's six-month-old presidency already has had a remarkable impact on investor confidence, but "most investors do not plan to move their companies from Britain to France," said Marc-Andre Kamel of Bain and Company, which conducted a survey with the American Chamber of Commerce released Thursday on business confidence in France.

"There is a slight boost in sentiment that Brexit will help France  but there are still a lot of uncertainties," he said.

Citigroup will make a "partial move" toward France as well as other cities, said its France director Mathieu Gelis, who called the choice of Paris for the EBA "a super-positive sign."

"There will certainly be recruitments in France post-Brexit," he said - but added, "London will remain very dominant."

Macron promises to reduce the high labor costs, rigid work rules and confusing taxes that have sent more and more companies fleeing France in recent years, and prevented new ones from settling in.

The American Chamber of Commerce report shows a spike in confidence in the French economy among U.S. companies, across sectors from technology to finance and retail.

'The Macron effect'

That's a big shift, partly thanks to "the Macron effect" and partly thanks to a cyclical bump in the French economy. A separate survey released Thursday showed the French economy is growing at its fastest pace since 2011 - faster even than neighboring Germany.

Yet the American Chamber of Commerce report said businesses are waiting for progress on Macron's reforms before making big hires or investment. And executives surveyed still overwhelmingly said they wouldn't advise new companies to set up in France.

The executives say Macron's tax cuts don't slice deep enough, and his labor reforms don't aim high enough - even though unions and many French workers oppose them, fearing they will strip away hard-earned job protections by making it cheaper to fire workers and easier to extend working hours.

U.S. businesses also worry about the need for a more flexible French education system to prepare workers for a fast-automating economy.

And labor costs remain high. "You can't close the equation," said Pierre Dejoux, France-based president of new equipment at Otis Elevator Co.

"For now there is no massive movement" toward France in the context of Brexit, he said. But if Macron pushes ahead with his labor changes "there are a certain number of companies that will relocate here."

KFC France chief Frederic Levacher said he has struggled to convince his bosses in the U.S. to bring more business here. Yet now, with France's economy picking up and Macron's reforms under way, he's hoping to expand the company's 10,000-strong workforce in France to 25,000 over the next two or three years.

"The government is taking business concerns into account," he said. "Things are undeniably going in the right direction."
Enrique De La Madrid, a lawyer and politician who took over as Mexico's secretary of tourism in 2015, dropped by the Chronicle during his recent visit to Houston. He has previously served as the CEO of the National Foreign Trade Bank, Bancomext, a position he was appointed to by President Enrique Pena Nieto. De La Madrid's father was Miguel De La Madrid, the Mexican president from 1982 to 1988.

Q: What impact has the American presidential election in 2016 had on tourism, and what impact do you foresee it having in the future?

A: What we know so far about the American election, in terms of tourism, is that it hasn't had any impact. We're still growing, I believe, at an 11 percent annual rate in Americans who travel to Mexico by plane. So there has been no impact in terms of Americans flying down into Mexico. ... The growth of international visitors to Mexico is about 12 percent annually, which is five points above the international level. We passed from the 15th most visited country to No. 8, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, which ranks countries based on the number of international visitors. But we want to keep that. We want to keep up because that represents a very significant part of our economy. Ten million jobs are related to tourism in Mexico and growing. Twenty-four percent of the people who fly down to Mexico either come from Texas or pass through Texas.

But we were worried.

Q: And you're not worried anymore?

A: We are accustomed to it. We are used to being worried.

Q: So what about how Mexican nationals feel about Americans coming into their country when they see that rhetoric?

A: After NAFTA, the way Mexicans view the U.S. is very positive. I think we were very nationalistic before now. And with NAFTA, we started to see the U.S. in a different way - a positive way - and that has been the feeling up to now. Yes, the rhetoric doesn't help, and if you see the polls ... the opinion of most Mexicans toward the U.S. is a bit more shaky. Having said that, I think we have been able to separate the rhetoric from the reality, and we are a very welcoming country. We want the Americans to be in Mexico. Again, 60 percent of international tourists in Mexico come from the U.S.

Q: What about Mexican tourism to the United States in the past year?

A: The number of Mexicans that come into the U.S. is just close to 20 million people, and according to the Department of Commerce, they spend close to $20 billion a year. ... And of course that's mostly in the states on the border with us. Texas is very important. Many Mexicans have houses and investments in the U.S.; Mexicans love coming to the U.S. for trips and for shopping. But yes, in the last year there has been a reduction of the trips of Mexicans to the U.S. by around 5 percent.

Q: And how has the price of oil affected tourism?

A: From my point of view, energy wasn't a sector in Mexico, it was a religion, it was an ideology. People believed - or some people believed - that we had to own not only the oil but also the property of firms exploring that. And that has changed basically because it didn't make any sense for us to continue to put public money into exploring and exploiting oil, and also because we had to share risks. ... There are significant amounts of pipelines that have been under construction ... most of that gas is being bought from the U.S., because we do not have as of now enough gas production. So I think it's a great opportunity for investment. So we're very positive about the future.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump will meet with Senate Republicans on Tuesday ahead of crucial votes in the GOP effort to pass a massive tax cut package, as conservatives move even closer to notching a major legislative victory.

The meeting will come during a weekly lunch Republicans hold as they go over their agenda. There are 52 Republicans in the 100-seat Senate, and the GOP needs a simple majority of votes to pass their version of the tax cut bill as soon as Thursday or Friday.

There are a number of Senate Republicans who have not expressed their support for the bill, and several of them have chilly relationships with Trump. But Trump remains popular with the GOP base, and his support is seen as crucial in helping get the tax bill pushed into law.

The Senate tax bill would cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent beginning in 2019. It would also lower the tax rates individuals and families pay until 2025. It would also, as currently designed, repeal the "individual mandate" provision of the Affordable Care Act. This is the requirement that Americans have health insurance or face a financial penalty.

The House of Representatives has already passed their version of a tax-cut package, and the House and Senate must pass identical versions of the bill before it could be signed into law. If the Senate passes their version of the tax cut bill this week, the House can either attempt to pass an identical version or go into a "conference" process where they work together to try to reconcile differences.

There are a number of differences between the House and the Senate bill. For example, the House bill does not call for changes to the Affordable Care Act, and it also allows Americans to deduct up to $10,000 in local property taxes from their federal taxable income.

But before the House and Senate can formally negotiate through their differences, Senate Republicans must find a way to pass their bill.

A majority of Senate Republicans are expected to back the measure, but at least six have stopped short of saying they will vote for the tax cut package. None of these lawmakers is seen as being intractable, but Republicans can only lose two votes or the bill will falter.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted against a GOP effort to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act several months ago and has said she is still reviewing the tax plan, but she announced last week that she was in favor of repealing the individual mandate, which some saw as a sign she was preparing to declare her support for the new GOP plan. She is being watched very closely because Trump's personal attacks at Murkowski following her opposition to the health care vote several months ago did not intimidate her and only seemed to steel her resolve.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has also expressed concerns about the GOP tax cut plan in part because of the changes to the Affordable Care Act, but she has not said she would oppose it. She had a tax-focused event earlier this month in Maine with Ivanka Trump, but that was before Senate Republican leaders decided to include the health care language in the pending bill.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., vowed to oppose an earlier version of the Senate GOP tax bill because he felt there weren't enough benefits for certain types of corporations, but he has recently signaled that there might be changes to the bill that would win him over.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, have raised concerns of their own with the bill, particularly over how it would add to the government's debt. But they have said they are still studying the legislation. And Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who also opposed the earlier effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, has also not said how he plans to vote.

The Senate GOP tax bill could face a crucial procedural vote as soon as Tuesday, when the Senate Budget Committee could vote on a measure that effectively sends the tax cut bill to the Senate floor. Both Corker and Johnson are on that committee, and if they oppose the legislation at that stage it could effectively stall the entire process. If they approve the bill at that stage, it would send the bill to the floor, where lawmakers would be able to add amendments.
Just writing about global warming and its connections to the oil and gas sector will elicit plenty of angry emails denying its existence or downplaying the impact humans have on the environment.

But energy companies are - slowly - taking more steps to combat climate change. What's yet to be proven is whether this momentum will amount to more actions than words.

The latest effort came last week when Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell, BP and other large energy companies pledged to reduce methane emissions, acknowledging that global warming is a major problem. Methane, which escapes during oil and gas production, is a potent greenhouse gas, which traps heat in the earth's atmosphere.

The companies said they're coming together to address climate change so they can continue to provide cleaner-burning efficient natural gas power to the world. But they're not adopting any specific goals to reduce methane emissions. Still, it's something for energy companies to say they plan to work toward "addressing global climate change," even if their foremost priorities remain oil and gas production and profits.

The world needs oil and gas - at least for now and the immediate years ahead - but it also needs to get its energy more sustainably as global temperatures continue to rise.

Methane is the primary component of natural gas, and surging gas production from the shale boom has increased methane emissions through most of the past 15 years. The energy sector - including oil and gas production and coal mining - is the largest source of U.S. methane emissions, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Several big oil companies have shifted toward greater natural gas production in recent years, betting on gas as a cleaner-burning bridge fuel. Methane emissions, however, threaten to soil natural gas' cleaner reputation.

The companies adopted five "guiding principles." They pledged to continually reduce methane emissions through a variety of means; to push for improvements to pipelines and power plants; to improve the accuracy of emissions data; to advocate for sound policies and regulations that reduce emissions without eliminating gas production; and to increase public transparency.

Exxon Mobil, despite a sketchy track record in the past on environmental issues, has launched a new effort to reduce methane emissions and leaks from its U.S. oil and gas operations. Through its shale drilling subsidiary, XTO Energy, Exxon Mobil is taking steps such as phasing out natural gas-powered equipment in favor of compressed air and installing more leak detection technology for pipelines. XTO is the nation's largest holder of natural gas reserves. The U.S. has reached an all-time high for gas production.

"We need to minimize our impact on the environment," XTO President Sara Ortwein said. "Focusing on emissions reductions - and here with methane - is one more step."

One inadvertent threat is West Texas' booming Permian Basin, where nearly every major U.S. energy producer is drilling for oil. The Permian's hottest new areas are proving to have more associated gas production than expected, and some companies don't have enough uses for it, meaning more methane may be burned off in the atmosphere.

That's partly why pipeline companies plan to build more natural gas projects for the Permian.
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Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke this week issued a directive aimed at spurring oil and natural gas development in Alaska, including a move to assess just how much crude might be lurking under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Zinke's order, signed during a visit to Anchorage, also compels a rewrite of a 2013 plan that limited oil and natural gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. The move responds to complaints from oil companies and state officials that the Obama administration was too restrictive, blocking drilling in promising areas while hampering their ability to build pipelines across the 23-million-acre reserve.

'Original intent'

"This is land that was set up with the sole intention of oil and gas production; however, years of politics over policy put roughly half of the NPR-A off-limits," Zinke said in a statement announcing the move. "Using this land for its original intent will create good-paying jobs and revenue."

Unlike the petroleum reserve, which was specifically designated for energy development, Congress established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 1980 to protect the 19-million-acre territory along Alaska's northeast frontier. But ANWR's estimated 12 billion barrels of crude have drawn interest from energy companies and their political allies, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

President Donald Trump already has proposed raising $1.8 billion over the next decade by opening up parts of that refuge for oil and gas development, which would require a change in the law by Congress. And that idea is anathema to environmentalists, who have successfully blocked ANWR drilling plans from advancing on Capitol Hill for decades by raising concerns about threats to the polar bears, caribou and other animals that live and travel through the territory.

The NPR-A was established roughly a century ago as a potential oil resource for the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the reserve contains about 895 million barrels of economically recoverable oil. But development has been slow, in part because of logistical and legal hurdles to launching activity even on leased acreage in the refuge.

Zinke's order compels Interior Department officials to deliver a blueprint for reworking a plan governing activity in the reserve that strikes an "appropriate" balance of promoting development while protecting other resources.

'A sensitive area'

Zinke vowed his effort would not skirt required environmental reviews.

"We understand it's a sensitive area up there," Zinke said, noting that native Alaskans depend on the land for their subsistence way of life.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker called the announcement the start of a "new chapter" for the state, coming amid concerns about declining oil flows through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

"The timing couldn't be better," Walker said.

Environmental advocates argued President Barack Obama's administration rightly walled off development in 11.8 million acres of the reserve home to caribou herds and polar bears - and those protections shouldn't be undone now.
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Rich Kinder gives a good interview - a revelation which shocked no one more than Rich Kinder.

The "famously shy" executive chairman of Kinder Morgan Inc. was visibly nervous as he joined NBC News correspondent and fellow University of Missouri alum Janet Shamlian onstage for MD Anderson Cancer Center's "A Conversation With a Living Legend" recently.

When asked why he agreed to the rare speaking engagement downtown at the Hilton Americas, Kinder paused before admitting, "I owed (Texans owner) Bob (McNair) a favor, so I'm going to pay him back later."

With the ice officially broken, he and Shamlian breezed candidly through a number of topics.

On Buffalo Bayou Park: "I knew that it would flood, but did not anticipate the silt."

On creating the Kinder Foundation with wife Nancy in 1997: "I just float in and out as ordered."

On the couple's penchant for transformational gifts: "We invest in projects that wouldn't otherwise succeed without our help."

On being asked to give away most of his wealth by Giving Pledge founder Warren Buffett: "He asked Nancy and I out to dinner in Dallas to make the pitch - I was kind of insulted (by the location)."

On bureaucracy: "It's kind of like getting slime on your boots."

On his biggest mistake: "My response would have to be, 'What day?' "

Kinder, who is currently ranked No. 194 on Forbes' annual billionaires list and accepts a $1 salary, delivered zippy one-liner after another until Shamlian asked how MD Anderson has impacted his life.

"My brother was diagnosed with lymphoma eight or nine years ago," he began, overcome with emotion. The audience applauded as Kinder choked back tears. "He came down here, and they cured him."

The mix of humor and candor struck a chord with cancer research supporters, too.

Together, co-chairs Denise Monteleone and Ellie and Michael Francisco raised a record-breaking $1.3 million. It was a particularly significant milestone for the Francisco family.

"Tonight, I celebrate almost to the day, the 10th anniversary of my first cancer treatment," Michael shared from the podium.

As MD Anderson president ad interim Dr. Marshall Hicks expressed, "Our primary goal has been to take care of our patients and take care of each other."

That night, the cancer center achieved both.
CrossFit your thumbs and charge up your mobile device because Cyber Monday is a ticktock away. Forget the sales on chenille socks and pour-over coffee makers. Instead, splurge on a vacation. Here is a roundup of the best Cyber Monday deals this Thanksgiving season. Taxes and fees are additional; booking restrictions vary. Some of the websites might not go live until the day of the sale, so don't worry: Your gadget has not gone rogue.

The Box House Hotel Group is offering 20 percent off at the Box House Hotel, Franklin Guesthouse and Henry Norman Hotel, all in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood. Book on Monday using promo code CYBERBOXHOUSE. Travel Dec. 1-March 15. Rates range from $160 to $175 per night. Info: theboxhousehotel.com/en-us/about-us/box-house-hotel-group.

Railrock Resort, on the Turks & Caicos island of South Caicos, is offering 60 percent off its ridgetop suites and beachfront villas, plus free airfare from Providenciales (usually $125 round trip per person). Nightly rates start at $290 per couple. Travel Jan. 2-March 31. Book Nov. 24-27 at sailrockresort.com/exclusive-cyber-monday-offer.

The Opal Collection has 50 percent savings at 16 of its properties in Florida, New England and New York's Adirondack Region. For example, the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine, starts at $119. Book for 72 hours starting at midnight Monday at opalcollection.com/offers/opalflash.

With Benchmark Resorts & Hotels and Gemstone Collection, save up to 50 percent at two dozen properties in destinations ranging from California to Curacao. For example, the Snow King Hotel in Jackson, Wyo., starts at $229 for travel through March 31. Book Nov. 24-27 at BenchmarkCyberWeekend.com.

With Friendly Planet Travel, save $400 to $1,400 on nearly 70 packages in more than 40 international destinations. For example, the 12-night Best of South Africa tour, which includes airfare from New York, starts at $2,999 per person double, a savings of $600. Book for 48 hours starting at midnight Monday at friendlyplanet.com/emails/2017-11-20_cyber_monday.html.

Pacifica Hotels, a collection of 26 boutique properties along the California coast, has savings of up to 40 percent. For example, the FogCatcher Inn in Cambria starts at less than $100 a night. Book for 24 hours beginning midnight Monday; stay through March 16. Use promo code CYBER at pacificahotels.com/specials/cybermonday.

Qatar Airways has a Cyber Monday fare sale. For example, round-trip fare from Washington Dulles to Bali starts at $680. Book through Monday; travel Jan. 11-May 31. Info: qatarairways.com/en-us/offers/thank-you.html?cid=EMUS486180.

With Abercrombie & Kent's Holiday Sale, save up to $2,800 on nine private journeys to destinations around the world. For example, the eight-day Botswana Private Journey costs $3,195 (was $5,395); the seven-day Chile Private Journey starts at $4,195 (was $6,995). Book from 8 a.m. Central time on Monday through 4 p.m. on Dec. 1. Info: www.abercrombiekent.com.

Save $700 on REI Adventures 2018 departures of its nine-day Greek Island Hopper. Sale price is $3,599 per person double. Book Nov. 25 -Dec. 3 at rei.com/adventures/trips/europe/greek-island-hiking.html.

The Kennebunkport Resort Collection, a group of boutique properties and restaurants in coastal Maine, has a gift-card special. Buy a $500 KRC gift card and receive a $100 resort credit; purchase a $200 gift card and earn a $25 resort credit. Gift cards have no expiration date and are valid at the eight hotels, five restaurants and Tree Spa at Hidden Pond. Available Monday only at www.kennebunkportresortcollection.com.

At the Woodstock Inn & Resort, save up to 50 percent at the Vermont lodge. Guest rooms start $169; B&B rates are from $189. The 24-hour Cyber Monday sale begins at midnight. Travel Nov. 28-June 28. Info: www.woodstockinn.com.

At the Red Frog Beach Island Resort & Spa, on Panama's Caribbean coast, receive a free fourth night, two specialty cocktails, two canopy zip line passes, round-trip airport transfers and boat transport. Book midnight to midnight, Nov. 24-27; travel Jan. 2-April 8. Nightly rate is from $269. Info: redfrogbeach.com/cyber-monday.

Save 50 percent at the Grove Resort & Spa Orlando, a new Disney World-area resort. The residential-style suites start at $149 a night and come with full kitchens, living and dining rooms, screened balconies, and washer and dryer. Book Nov. 24-27 at www.groveresortorlando.com; stay through Sept. 30.

Save 50 percent on a camper vacation with JUCY RV Rentals, which has pickup locations in Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The company is also throwing in kitchen and bedding kits and 100 miles per night, upping the savings to 75 percent. A three-day rental costs $90 (vs. $381). Book Nov. 24-27 at www.jucyusa.com using promo code JUCYBLACK. Travel in January and February.

Book a seven-night stay at Cayo Espanto, a private island resort off the coast of Belize, and receive an airfare credit of up to $750 per person. Book Nov. 24-27 at aprivateisland.com/free-air-offer. The week-long, all-inclusive rate starts at $10,465 per couple. The property will also prorate the credit for a four-night stay, starting at $5,980.

Royal Caribbean is offering savings of 40 percent for the second guest and 25 percent savings for the third and fourth passengers, plus up to $400 onboard credits per stateroom, depending on cruise length. Deal applies to all sailings (except China) departing on or after Dec. 24. Book Nov. 24-27 at royalcaribbean.com.

The Wyndham Hotel Group is offering up to 55 percent off at nearly 50 hotels around the country. For example, the Wyndham Grand Chicago Riverfront starts at $95 a night and the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Dallas starts at $40 - both 55 percent off. Stay through Sept. 30. Book at least two nights at whgcybersale.com (or the hotel website) on Nov. 24-27; use discount code HCYB17.

Marriott International has a sale on more than 3,500 hotels throughout the United States, Caribbean, Latin America and Canada. For example, pay $89 at the Courtyard Atlanta Perimeter Center, Courtyard Boston Cambridge, Westin Las Vegas Hotel & Spa and Aloft New Orleans Downtown, among others. Book at marriott.com/travel-deals/black-friday-cyber-monday.mi on Nov. 23-27; stay Dec. 7-Jan. 15.

Save up to 40 percent at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Naples, Florida. Rates start at $229. Book Nov. 27- 30; travel Nov. 27-April 30. Use CYBER 17 at edgewaternaples.com.

Save 30 percent at the Sunrise Springs Spa Resort in Santa Fe; rates start at $144. Book Nov. 27-Dec. 4; travel Dec. 15-March 29. Info: sunrisesprings.ojospa.com.

With the 30 & 30 special at Amira Resort in St. George, Utah, save 30 percent on nightly rates and one spa treatment. Rates from $160. Book Nov. 24-27 using promo code 3030; travel Dec. 1-Dec. 1, 2018. Info: amiraresort.com/black-friday-spa-stay-package/?utm_source=Hawkins&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BlackFriday2017

The Costa d'Este Beach Resort & Spa in Vero Beach, Fla., owned by Gloria and Emilio Estefan, is taking 50 percent off stays through June 30. Rates are from $189. Book Nov. 24-27 at costadeste.com.

Save 25 percent at Virgin Hotels Chicago, the chain's flagship location, for travel through April 30. Rates are from $190 when booked by Nov. 27 at virginhotels.com.

The Peninsula Hotels has 30 percent off at its properties in New York, Chicago and Paris and 20 percent off in Beverly Hills. Rooms for New York start at $453; Chicago, from $279; Beverly Hills, $476; and Paris, $816. Book Nov. 24-27 using promo codes NYCYBER, CHCYBER, BHCYBER and PRCYBER. The deal also includes spa and restaurant discounts and gift cards. Info: promotions.peninsula.com/hotels/cyber-Monday-live.

Joie de Vivre Hotels has savings of up to 40 percent at all of its hotels, including the Hotel 50 Bowery (from $195) in New York City and the Talbott Hotel (from $159) in Chicago. Book Nov. 23-29 at jdvhotels.com with code CYBER. Stay Dec. 1-Dec. 1, 2018.

The Tidewater Inn, in Easton, Maryland, has 20 percent off rates plus a $50 food and beverage credit for Hunter's Tavern. Rates start at $160. Book Nov. 24-27 for travel Dec. 1-March 2018. Use promo code Black Friday when booking at tidewaterinn.com.

The Inn at Chesapeake Bay Beach Club, on Kent Island, Maryland, features 20 percent off rates and a three-course dinner for two at Knoxie's Table. Rates start at $189. Book Nov. 24-Nov. 27; travel December-March 2018. Use promo code BLKFRI at baybeachclub.com.

Save $100 per person on 2018 Switzerland Rail Tours with Vacations by Rail. Book by Nov. 27. Deal applies to the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland (priced at $2,675) and Best of Switzerland by Rail ($3,190; May departure only). Info: vacationsbyrail.com.

G Adventures is taking up to 30 percent off its tours, with many trips costing less than $1,500. Discounts include 30 percent off select trips in Haiti and Jamaica; 25 percent off yacht tours in the Galapagos; and 20 percent off select land and rail tours in India and safaris in Tanzania, Uganda, Namibia and South Africa. For example, the 15-day Essential India costs $1,279 per person double. Book midnight on Nov. 24 to 11:59 p.m. on Monday at gadventures.com/travel-deals/cyber-sale.

Nisbet Plantation Beach Club, on the Caribbean island of Nevis, has a sale on stays from Jan. 3 to March 31. The deal includes 30 percent off rooms (from $441 a night), full daily breakfast, 25 percent off spa treatments, dinner for two at the Thursday night barbecue, $150 beverage credit, free upgrade (based on availability) and round-trip airport transfers. Valid on stays of at least five nights. Book Nov. 24-27 at nisbetplantation.com/black-friday.html.

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Prices were verified at press time, but deals sell out and availability is not guaranteed. Some restrictions may apply.
Houston is the most ethnically diverse city in the United States, according to the 2017 Kinder Houston Area Survey. What's more is that its three major ethnic groups  Anglo, African American and Hispanic  are generally positive about their relationships.

During and after Hurricane Harvey, local and national media stories tended to reinforce this image of Houston as a city where neighborliness prevails across ethnic and racial boundaries.

No city has perfectly amiable relations among its citizens all the time, of course, and Houston faces challenges, such as economic segregation and income inequality.

But Houston stands out as a place where people from a variety of backgrounds live and work together in relative harmony. As the Kinder Houston Area Survey shows over the last 40 years, Houstonians have become more welcoming toward newcomers and have come to see immigration as a positive good.

Can Houston become a model for the rest of the country as its demographics continue to change and embody an ideal of immigration?

This ideal has been called "transnationalism," and it arose during the great, late 19th- and early-20th-century waves of immigration to the U.S. from central and southern Europe. American social commentators applied the term to relations among the many different immigrant groups. Transnational America, for them, described a new social reality, which they called "a world-federation in miniature."

It's much more than the "melting pot," a metaphor popularized by Israel Zangwill in his 1908 Broadway play. (But the idea is older even than that: In 1782, J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur noted that in America "individuals of all nations are melted into a new race.") Critics of the "melting pot" metaphor, though, have disliked its disregard for the value of sustaining immigrants' own ethnic, racial and cultural traditions.

Why does becoming American require abandoning one's heritage?

CHANGING COMMUNITY: Why Houston is becoming more accepting of immigration

Dave Einsel / Getty Images

Instead, the transnationalist view of immigration rejects the assimilationist overtones of the melting pot and any position that leaves cultural and ethnic enclaves isolated on the margins of American society. It celebrates an America in which different ethnic and racial groups live side by side with their characters preserved.

Multiculturalists have since preferred the term "salad bowl" or "cultural mosaic." But transnationalism goes beyond these metaphors, too. It sees immigration and diversity as interlaced with the flourishing of two other American ideals: freedom and democracy.

Transnationalists resist settling for a conception of freedom that is merely the right to do as one pleases so long as one does not harm others. They call Americans to a higher notion of freedom by inviting all to engage energetically in shaping the ideals and institutions of a democratic civil society, irrespective of when one arrived in America.

As Randolph Boune wrote in a famous essay, "Transnational America," immigration added dynamism to American life and presented an opportunity for continually reshaping it. "America," wrote Bourne, "shall be what the immigrant will have a hand in making it."

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The link between transnationalism and a flourishing civil society offers a particularly promising line of development for Houston. Civil society is an ecosystem of independent voluntary associations, churches and other community groups existing between individuals and families and the layers of government. A richly and diversely textured civil society creates the conditions for a manageable scale of social life, which is especially important for recent arrivals to America.

According to the Kinder Institute, much of the U.S. will look like the greater Houston metropolitan area by 2040. As a laboratory for things to come, Houston has a chance to become a model as the city of the future.

Can we extend the spirit of neighborliness, so evident during Harvey, to ongoing efforts toward better understanding the historical memories of our city's ethnic and racial communities?

And can we come to know ourselves better and together understand what is compatible with a democratic constitutional government and what is not? This is the way to build a thriving civil society and develop what Bourne called "the Beloved Community."

Dr. Dominic A. Aquila is Provost and Professor of History at the University of St. Thomas. He has held faculty and administrative positions at a number of private and public universities across the U.S.

Bookmark Gray Matters. It shall be what the immigrant will have a hand in making it.
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The Pearland Independent School District offices are a long way, geographically and culturally, from the South Beach nightclub, where patrons enjoy "So You Think You Can Drag" contests on Friday nights.

Last week, though, politics and happenstance briefly linked the two venues.

On Nov. 16, the Montrose-area nightclub hosted the sixth annual "F.A.C.E." Awards honoring leaders and supporters of the LGBT community. The award for best activist went to Kimberly Shappley, the mother of a 6-year-old transgender daughter who attends a public elementary school in Pearland.

At noon the following day, the Pearland ISD board assembled for a special meeting. Trustees emerged from a lengthy executive session and unanimously approved a resolution affirming their support for Superintendent John Kelly "in light of current events."

These events involve Facebook posts by Kelly's adult son that expressed hateful attitudes toward African-American and Jewish people. The son's Facebook page has been taken down, but screenshots of the racist posts continue to circulate, with commenters suggesting that the son was expressing ideas he had learned at home as a child.

The school board apparently felt the need to distance itself from Kelly's son's opinions.

"Our diversity is our strength, and we look forward to continuing to offer world-class education that develops every child's unique gifts and talents," the board's statement said.

Kelly, for his part, disavowed the posts by his 28-year-old son. In a letter to district staff obtained by Chronicle reporter Jacob Carpenter, Kelly called the statements "devastating to me, my wife, his siblings, and others."

All of this rings a bit hollow to Shappley. Her daughter Kai, 6, still has to go to the school nurse's office to use the restroom.

I met Shappley on the evening of Aug. 9, 2016, when she pleaded with the Pearland school board to allow Kai and other transgender children to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Shappley submitted to several interviews after the meeting, taking her first steps toward a role as a public advocate for equitable treatment of transgender people.

Since then, Shappley has posted countless messages on social media supporting LGBT rights. In interviews and a video produced by the advocacy group Equality Texas, she has publicly recounted her own struggle to understand and embrace Kai's gender identity.

"I can't fix her," Shappley told me this week, recalling her earlier thinking about Kai's insistence on being treated as a girl. "What's wrong with her? I'm praying and she's not changing."

Bathroom bill fight

Shappley traveled repeatedly to Austin to lobby and testify against the "bathroom bill," which would have required transgender people to use bathrooms in public schools, government buildings and public universities based on "biological sex."

The bill, which was championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and became a top priority for social conservatives, died in the Legislature's special session in June.

"If it had not been for all the activists, the bathroom bill would have passed," Shappley said.

The defeat of the bill was encouraging to Shappley, but she's had less success in her personal battle. Pearland ISD's policy hasn't changed. Shappley said Kai has twice had accidents while waiting for someone to unlock the nurse's office.

When Shappley spoke to the Pearland school board last year, districts across the country were struggling with guidance from then-President Barack Obama's administration that students should be permitted to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Kelly responded with a public statement suggesting such policies could lead to legalizing pedophilia and polygamy.

President Donald Trump's administration rescinded the guidance this year, essentially endorsing policies like Pearland's. But Kelly's comments have not been forgotten, and the lingering controversy played a role in the board's decision to respond to his son's Facebook posts, Trustee Mike Floyd told me.

Floyd, who was a high-school senior when he defeated an incumbent to win a seat on the school board in May, has befriended Shappley and Kai. He appears to be the only trustee who supports a more inclusive bathroom policy.

'Right side of history'

Floyd said he voted for the pro-Kelly resolution because Kelly is a competent educator and administrator.

"This is hard for me to say, but he has done a good job," Floyd said.

In the absence of any federal pressure, there's no reason to think Pearland's policy - which is observed, officially or otherwise, in many school districts - will change. Shappley said she is still considering finding a more welcoming school for Kai to attend. She's trying to take the long view.

"We know that we are on the right side of history," she said, "and that's what encourages me to keep going."
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The Texas Department of Public Safety officer shot and killed in the line of duty Thanksgiving afternoon was a married father of three and 15-year veteran of the force, the department confirmed.

The person who police say killed him, meanwhile, had served jail time for assaulting a public servant, and was indicted by a grand jury last month for crashing his car into a police vehicle.

Trooper Damon Allen, 41, died after being shot around 4 p.m. on Interstate 45 near Fairfield in Freestone County by a man later identified by police as Dabrett Black, 32, who then fled the scene.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said Thursday that "preliminary information" indicated Allen was shot as he returned to his patrol vehicle. The agency is expected to release more details Friday.

Black was captured in Waller County, nearly five hours into a massive manhunt for him was announced by Texas authorities.

He was charged with capital murder Friday morning, court records show.

Now Playing: A manhunt ended late Thursday in Waller County for a suspect officials say shot and killed a Texas Department of Public Safety officer in Freestone County. Video: METRO Video

Allen was "the definition of a gentleman," said close friend Brian Bell, Mexia's chief of police. "He was fair and polite with everyone he came in contact with, and he treated everyone like they were a friend."

The trooper grew up around Mexia, married his high school sweetheart and settled down near his hometown, said Bell, who'd known him for more than a decade. Allen went into law enforcement because he "liked to be the guy that people turned to when they needed help. That's just the way he was built."

Allen is the 221st DPS officer to die in the line of duty since the founding of the Texas State Rangers in 1823, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. Since the 1929 founding of the Highway Patrol division, 88 officers have died in the line of duty.

Of those, 26 were deaths from gunfire and seven were from vehicular assault, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

Allen's death comes only a few weeks after DPS Trooper Thomas Nipper was struck and killed during a traffic stop on Interstate 35 in Temple.

The Thursday incident was hardly Blacks first violent encounter with law enforcement.

Smith County Court records show that the Lindale native was indicted by a Grand Jury there last month for aggravated assault against a public servant and evading arrest, both felonies. He had previously served jail time after pleading guilty to a separate, 2015 assault on a public servant, court records show.

His family did not respond to calls for comment Friday.

In a statement released Thursday, DPS Director Steven McCraw praised Allen for his "selfless sacrifice on Thanksgiving Day."

In a statement released Thursday, DPS Director Steven McCraw praised Allen for his "selfless sacrifice on Thanksgiving Day."

"Our DPS family is heartbroken tonight after one of Texas' finest law enforcement officers was killed in the line of duty," McCraw wrote. "Texas Highway Patrol Trooper Damon Allen was a loving husband and father of three, and we ask for your prayers for his entire family and his many friends and colleagues during the difficult days ahead. Trooper Allen's dedication to duty, and his bravery and selfless sacrifice on this Thanksgiving Day, will never be forgotten."

Gov. Greg Abbott meanwhile called the killing "callous" and "heinous."

"The killer will face justice, and the State of Texas will continue to offer our unwavering support for the men and women in law enforcement who keep our communities safe," Abbott said in a statement.

Black apparently fled the shooting in a gray 2012 Chevrolet Malibu with a Texas license plate. Authorities caught up with him in Waller County, where they fired some shots at him. He fled on foot and authorities followed him for more than an hour.

Using night goggles, authorities said the suspect was on top of some hay bales and didn't appear to have a long gun. He then crawled along some brush near Wyatt Chapel Road, authorities said.
An Arizona death row inmate's Supreme Court case could force an end to capital punishment in Texas and across the country.

The appeal, filed by the high-oowered attorney behind the Hawaii federal case fighting President Donald Trump's travel ban, challenges the overly broad qualifying factors that can make a murder conviction death-eligible in Arizona. But if the court chooses to take up the question, any ruling could impact the Lone Star State's death chamber - or shut it down entirely.

"It's a broken system," said Ben Cohen, a lawyer with the Promise of Justice Initiative, which filed an amicus brief supporting the appeal. "I think the Supreme Court will ultimately come to the place that the vast majority of Americans have come to, which is that the death penalty is unnecessary and excessive."

Decades-old legal debate

Attorney Neal Katyal is representing Abel Hidalgo, who was convicted in a gang-related $1,000 contract killing in 2001. His petition, filed in August, asks the Court to consider two factors: whether Arizona law is not narrow enough to be constitutional and whether the death penalty as a whole is unconstitutional.

The Court can choose to take up either or both questions - or refuse to hear the case altogether. If the justices accept the case, it'll head to oral arguments and a decision could come by mid-2018.

"As it stands right now, if the court took up the issue, nobody knows how it would come out," said Robert Dunham of Death Penalty Information Center. "There are people who guess it's five-to-four with Justice Kennedy as the deciding vote, but even then nobody knows."

The issue of the breadth or narrowness of crime statutes involving capital punishment is a decades-old legal debate. In 1972, a groundbreaking Supreme Court decision eliminated the death penalty, deeming existing laws too arbitrary.

States responded by revising their laws to include specific "aggravating circumstances" that could make a case capital - and the justices validated the new statutes in a 1976 decision.

In Texas, those aggravating factors include multiple murders, slayings of children under the age of 10, murder-for-hire and murders committed in the course of other crimes like rape or burglary.

In Arizona, a slightly broader set of aggravating factors includes killings involving a stun gun, "especially heinous" slayings, murder-for-hire, murders committed in a "cold, calculated manner with pretense of moral or legal justification" and more.

The court hasn't really looked at the death penalty as a whole since 1976, Cohen said.

"But it looks at cases about the death penalty and the machinery of the death penalty," he continued. "And every year, it tinkers with that machinery and every year it fails to yield a system that accurately identifies the worst of the worst."

Ripe for reconsideration

The justices could have announced a decision on whether to take the case this month, but a conference slated for Tuesday was called off. The earliest a decision could come now is in December.

Even if the court doesn't rule on the broader question, the Arizona-specific question could end up impacting Texas, where "almost every murder" is eligible for the death penalty, according to Jessica Brand, legal director at the Fair Punishment Project.

Having a case heard by the Supreme Court is always a long shot. But some experts are optimistic the time is ripe for a reconsideration of the nation's harshest punishment - especially since Justice Stephen Breyer's 2015 landmark dissent calling for a "full briefing" on the matter.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy and Sonia Sotomayor have all expressed concerns about capital punishment in different contexts - and it only requires four votes for the Supreme Court to take up a case.

"I don't know which case they'll take and I don't know when they'll take it," Cohen said. "But I do know that it's coming."
A manhunt ended late Thursday in Waller County for a 32-year-old man officials say fatally shot a Texas Department of Public Safety officer in Freestone County.

Dabrett Black was captured around 8:45 p.m. in Prairie View after allegedly firing a rifle multiple times at Trooper Damon Allen during a traffic stop at 4 p.m. on Interstate 45 in Fairfield, roughly 2 hours northwest of Houston, authorities said.

Allen was married with three children, according to DPS.

Gov. Greg Abbott called a "callous" and "heinous" crime.

"The killer will face justice, and the state of Texas will continue to offer our unwavering support for the men and women in law enforcement who keep our communities safe," Abbott said.

Black fled south after the shooting in a gray 2012 Chevrolet Malibu. Authorities caught up with him in Waller County, where they fired shots before he fled on foot.

Authorities followed him for more than an hour. Using night goggles, deputies spotted the suspect on top of some hay bales. He then crawled along some brush near Wyatt Chapel Road.

"We got this guy," one officer said over the scanner around 8:25 p.m. "Let's go get him on our terms, not his."

SWAT teams, a K-9 unit and Harris County Sheriff's officials were involved in the capture.

"Excellent operation by numerous agencies to take this suspect into custody with no additional casualties," the Navarro County Office of Emergency Management tweeted.

In less than three years, Black has faced previous charges of assault on a law enforcement officer and evading apprehension in a vehicle in Smith County, according to public records.

In March 2015, he was booked into the Smith County Jail on charges of assaulting a public servant and attempting to take a weapon from an officer.

In July, he was arrested again in Smith County. That time, he was eventually indicted on charges of aggravated assault on a public servant and evading arrest.

He was out on bond on both charges.
A Houston-area woman accused of mailing bombs to Gov. Greg Abbott and former President Barack Obama previously said she was being set up.

Julia Poff was indicted in federal court this month for a trio of 2016 mail bombs, including a botched explosive stuffed in a cigarette pack that failed to detonate when the governor opened it.

The 46-year-old was "upset with Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General, because she had not received support from her ex-husband," according to federal court documents.

Using a salad dressing cap from a bottle purchased for an anniversary dinner, Poff allegedly cobbled together an explosive with black powder and pyrotechnic powder, then slipped it in the mail to governor. When Abbott opened the package in early October 2016, it didn't blow up because he didn't open it as designed.

"Had the device exploded, it could have caused severe burns and death," according to court documents.

Agents working the case later found a damaged shipping label addressed to the mail bombing suspect, from when she originally had received the packaging through eBay.

A similar package sent to Obama was detected in screening and never made it to the intended target.

"Poff had stated she did not like the President," according to court documents.

A sloppy packaging job on the D.C.-bound explosive helped build the case against the accused bomber. After diverting the package, agents discovered that cat hair caught in the shipping label was "microscopically consistent" with the hair of one of Poff's pets, according to court records.

A third package was sent to the Social Security Administration in Maryland, where Poff had been denied benefits.

A search of Poff's home turned up a trove of fireworks in the garage, according to court records.

In an unsolicited Facebook message asking for prayers and PayPal donations to cover legal fees, Poff told a Chronicle reporter in October that trash had been taken from her family's home that "had our fingerprints on it" and was "used in some serious crimes that we did not commit and know nothing about."

She also was charged with more than $5,000 of food stamp fraud and false bankruptcy declaration. A federal public defender on Thursday declined to comment.

Court records note that Poff has been evicted repeatedly, in one case allegedly leaving a rented home with potatoes stuffed down the toilets and cement poured in the drains.

Her criminal history includes a misdemeanor theft conviction, which netted deferred adjudication and probation that later was revoked, according to court records. She also was convicted of felony fraud.

Last year, using a Sealy mailing address but describing herself as a Waller County resident, Poff sued her leasing company's manager for allegedly calling her a "purple Martian from hell," according to paperwork filed in Harris County court.

The suit also claimed that the Cypress Four Property Ventures manager "verbally attacked" Poff on the phone and described her as a "professional squatter." A judge ultimately tossed the case.

Poff later accused the judge of corruption.

Last Friday, a federal judge ruled against releasing Poff, citing a "serious risk that the defendant will flee."

The case is due for a pretrial conference early next year.
AUSTIN - After 173 years, a historic Texas map has come into official hands.

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced this week that an 1844 map of the Republic of Texas by noted early-day mapmaker Carl Flemming has been donated to the state by a Kerrville couple, who purchased it during the liquidation sale of a Dallas law firm.

Republic of Texas maps are rare and high-priced artifacts of when Texas was its own country.

Flemming's map, detailed from the days when Texas reached into what now is Colorado and New Mexico before its boundaries were redrawn in the Compromise of 1850, is considered a historic prize.

Bush's office did not disclose the value of the map or how it ended up with the law firm.

"I am pleased that Carol and Morris McIntyre ... have helped us save Texas history by donating this rare map," Bush said in a statement Monday. "The GLO Archives will be the permanent home for this map, where it will be conserved, digitized, and made available for study and reproduction."

Carol McIntyre said she saved the historic map to ensure that it "would have a safe, protected and permanent home."

"I acquired this map in the liquidation of a large Dallas law firm where I was employed as a paralegal on the liquidation team," she said in a statement through Bush's office. "Throughout my business and legal career, I have seen a 'throw-away' mentality to keep up with the fast pace of changing technology. I have learned that historically significant items should be given the highest level of consideration.

"It is extremely rewarding to put a historical item in a permanent preservation environment where it belongs," said Carol McIntyre, now retired.

Extended to Rockies

The map shows the northern boundary of Texas extending to the Arkansas River, encompassing territory into the Rocky Mountains and parts of New Mexico, including Santa Fe.

The map appeared both as a separate issue, and in some of Flemming's atlases.

Flemming issued his 1842 German edition of a famous 1841 Arrowsmith map on a reduced scale for dissemination among the many potential German immigrants to Texas in the mid-1800s, according to Bush.

As a result, the map is sometimes referred to as the "German Arrowsmith" because of the similar cartography.

Arrowsmith's 1841 map probably was the first to show the full extent of Texas' claim to the upper Rio Grande, the northern border of which ended at the Arkansas River.

Houston shown

"Flemming retained Arrowsmith's sprawling Republic of Texas boundaries through subsequent editions, even though the boundary changed with the Compromise of 1850," Bush said in a statement.

"Flemming even retained an erroneous statement describing the arid western region of Texas which stated that 'this tract of Country explored by LeGrande in 1833 is naturally fertile, well wooded, and with fair proportion of water.' Houston and New Washington are shown on the map, despite New Washington being burned in 1836. Thirty counties are numbered and identified by a key in the upper right portion of the sheet."

In addition, the commissioner noted that Flemming followed Arrowsmith's model for his maps, as there is an inset plan of Galveston Bay at the lower left. Flemming's continental version has the distinction of being among the last maps showing the extended Republic of Texas boundary.

Some sources state that the map is known to have been published up to 1853 without changes, according to Bush.

The map includes bold tracings of counties' boundaries. Large cities and towns are labeled, including New Washington, which had been burned by Mexican forces under Santa Anna in 1836.

Extensive archives

In recent years, the GLO has received several donated maps, ranging from early-day North American maps, a large 1854 map of North America and an "incredibly rare 1848 Stephen F. Austin map" of Texas.

Texas became a state in 1845.

The archives of the Texas General Land Office, home to 36 million documents and over 45,000 maps and sketches detailing the history of the public lands of Texas from the Republic era to the present, is one of the premier cartographic resources for Texas.

Bush said reproductions of the donated Flemming map of Texas are now available for $20 each. All funds raised by map reproduction sales are directed toward the conservation of the GLO's archival collection.
With their approval of a billion-dollar bond referendum this month, Houston voters secured Mayor Sylvester Turner's landmark pension reform plan and erased $2.9 billion in liabilities from the city's books, beginning to fill an ever-deepening hole that threatened to undermine services.

Pensions, however, are not the only expensive long-term promise Houston has made to its workers.

Taxpayers also face a $2.1 billion liability for retiree health care costs in the coming decades, and Houston - like many state and local governments - has not set aside a penny to pay for those promises.

This burden is the city's "next major long-term fiscal challenge," according to PFM, a financial analysis firm Houston has hired to recommend ways to shore up its long-shaky books.

Turner said any financial hurdle concerns him, but the far-larger pension problem took precedence, as the city's recovery from Hurricane Harvey will do now.

"That's one of many issues that we have to address, but I am very much aware of it," Turner said. "Let's just say we tackled the biggest item and then we'll tackle the other ones as we go. One step at a time."

These costs for what are known as "Other Post-Employment Benefits" - OPEB for short - have become a growing issue for local governments, thanks to rising health care expenses and an aging population and public workforce. In Houston, retirees comprised a third of all the city's health care beneficiaries in 2012, up from 18 percent in 1994.

A shift in accounting rules also has played a key role. In 2008, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board began requiring governments to report their retiree health care costs, not as an annual operating expense, but in the same manner as pensions: Trust funds fed by payments from the city and workers on which investment earnings accumulate to pay for benefits over the next few decades.

More flexibility

Houston and many of its peers have never stopped treating the expense as simply an annual bill to be paid, however.

Turner's predecessor Annise Parker took a bite out of the problem in 2010 by hiking the monthly insurance premiums for thousands of retirees younger than 65 by nearly 50 percent and then, the next year, requiring all beneficiaries to enter Medicare upon eligibility at age 65. The city's share of premiums has fallen from 56 percent in 2010 to 37 percent this year, as those costs have been shifted to retirees.

These changes helped cut the city's unfunded OPEB liability from more than $3 billion to less than $2 billion; annual costs fell from more than $58 million to about $30 million within two years.

Still, the cost of care continues to rise, prompting the city to adjust copays, deductibles and drug benefits in recent years. Houston paid an estimated $308 million for employee and retiree medical care in the budget year that ended in June, and another $26 million to supplement retirees' Medicare coverage.

The $53 million the city reported spending on OPEB last fiscal year is barely a quarter of the payment that would be needed to begin setting aside sufficient funds to cover the projected cost.

"In the long term, this is not a sustainable approach," the PFM analysts state in a recent report.

The Government Finance Officers Association and the Pew Charitable Trusts recommend that governments begin setting aside funds for future benefit payments because promises being made today should not be left to future taxpayers to pay, and because failing to set funds aside leaves retirees at risk of having a cash-strapped City Council cut their benefits to balance a tight budget.

Josh McGee, an expert in retirement policy at the Houston-based Arnold Foundation, echoed those points.

However, he said, retiree health care costs are far easier to shrink through benefit changes than pension costs; in Houston, mayoral action alone can change health benefits.

"Anything that is pay-as-you-go that's been earned in the past has the potential to increase unexpectedly, so we've got to watch it," McGee said. "However, it's a little more flexible than pension promises, so there are more tools at our disposal to get benefit levels and costs back in line."

Consider the context

Still, senior Moody's analyst Tom Aaron said politicians' freedom to adjust benefits does not mean retiree health care liabilities can be ignored.

"While typically there is more flexibility there, it's not as if those are not promises that have been made," Aaron said. "Especially if you put it in the context of Houston's recent reforms, the political appetite to cut retiree medical benefits, given that there were just substantial changes to pensions, at the moment may not be all that high."

City Controller Chris Brown, Houston's elected financial watchdog, agreed, but said leaders cannot allow the liability to grow unchecked.

"There's a moral issue when you're specifically talking about retirees and their health care, which is so vitally important for peoples' well-being, especially in the later years of their life, but overall it's something we need to address," he said. "If we keep going another 10 years, this thing could easily be $5 billion, $6 billion, and again we find ourselves in a big problem of 'How do we get out of it?'"

Regardless, Aaron and McGee said, concerns about OPEB must be placed in context.

Houston's retiree health care liability is about $2 billion, whereas Aaron noted that Moody's viewed Houston's pre-reform pension liability as topping $14 billion. Health premiums cover only one category of benefits and largely last only until workers turn 65, McGee added, whereas pensions replace at least a portion of the worker's salary until death.

"At some point it just boils down to mathematics," Aaron said.
Bismarck State College students have taken on a project in which they are aiming to sell 20,000 books and DVDs gifted to the college by the North Dakota State Legislature.

These materials, published by the Dakota Press Institute, include the rich history of North Dakota, with titles such as "For the Love of North Dakota," "Lewis & Clark: Among the Nez Perce" and a collection of stories written by Theodore Roosevelt.

Now, selling these books and DVDs has become a task for two classes at BSC  e-commerce and project management  where 30 students this semester are learning hands-on how to market these books online and at the college's bookstore.

The goal is to sell 5,000 books and DVDs per semester, but the learning experience far outweighs the goal, according to Kevin Cavanagh, assistant professor of management, who teaches the two courses.

A lot of times, we talk hypothetically about things, like creating Facebook posts and things like that. Now, they actually get to go do it," Cavanagh said.

Cavanagh is in his eigth year teaching at BSC, and he is also chair of the business department. He has experiences managing various businesses, including a farm cooperative and grain elevator, and he also owns Bearscat Bakehouse in Bismarck. Book-selling, though, is not his specialty, he conceded.

Where can you sell books at? And who buys them? So, that was a big learning experience for us, myself included, because Ive never sold books," he said.

The books were given to BSC after Gov. Doug Burgum line item vetoed legislation that would have allowed the books to return to their authors and producers.

BSC President Larry Skogen said Burgum had asked him if there was a better, more productive way to sell the materials, rather than just give them away. Skogen said he mentioned the courses Cavanagh teaches, and that he'd be the right person for the job.

"Weve got actual products that the students are selling. I think its a wonderful exercise for our students," Skogen said.

The students took to social media, including Facebook, where they started a page devoted to the project and getting the word out. They did email alumni and utilized BSCs website to promote the books. Most of the materials have also been listed on Amazon.

The hardest part, said Alexandra Skalicky, 22, a BSC student studying business entrepreneurship, has been finding the right market for the books. One book is about a Fargo runner, and another is a translated collection of 73 Psalms of David.

Who wants to buy those types of books, and how do we reach them? Skalicky said were the questions her project management class asked. They worked through some of these questions and found some success.

This is actual book sales," said Skalicky, who one day wants to become the owner of a humanitarian-based company that sells products made in developing countries to increase awareness.

Skalicky said she's learned communication skills, how to work with media organizations and build a website.

So far, the classes have sold about 1,000 books and DVDs. Cavanagh said next semester, after getting all of the materials listed online, the classes should be able to sell more. They're considering getting the authors involved to do book readings and signings.

Funds raised from selling the items will go toward the college's general fund, according to Skogen.

Well make sure that its student-centric for sure, whatever were doing with it," he said.

For more information on the books and DVDs, visit www.bismarckstate.edu/community/DakotaInstituteCollection/.
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Within the Infosec community, you cannot avoid the topic of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation); discussion of its influence and intricacies is everywhere. Outside of the security bubble however, it would appear there is distinct lack of interest in preparing for the new legislation that will expand the existing Data Protection Act (DPA) and define how data is processed for a generation to come.

GDPR - Compliance in the EU Report

A recent survey places the ability of companies in the UK to adequately deal with the EU's incoming legislation in stark light, showing that while most of the 200 surveyed companies (77 percent) are familiar with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), only 5 percent believe they are compliant with all applicable requirements less than a year before the regulation goes into effect. A further 27 percent were not confident they will be ready by the time GDPR is enforceable in May 2018.

The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) goes into effect on May 25, 2018 representing a sweeping change in data privacy regulations. EU GDPR requires organisations that host data on European citizens to adhere to specific regulations that protect their personal data from being compromised. If companies suffer a data breach, they can be fined up to 20 million or 4 percent of turnover, whichever is greater.

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Survey respondents were asked what challenges their company faces in becoming compliant with EU GDPR regulations. The most frequently mentioned challenge is a lack of budget (50 percent), closely followed by a lack of in-house IT expertise (48 percent) and limited understanding of the regulations (37 percent).

Data protection by design and by default

Among the many articles of GDPR, EU companies are most concerned about Article 25, 'Data protection by design and by default', likely because it requires significant system re-design and investment in data protection controls and processes. While the majority of those surveyed (61 percent) stated they have a formal process in place to notify authorities in the event of a data breach, only 39 percent confirmed that they always follow this process.

In terms of the enforcement of GDPR, the survey also revealed that approximately one third of EU-based companies (32 percent) expect substantial changes to their companies' security practices and technologies to become compliant with EU GDPR policies. Moreover, a further third of organisations expect that regulators will issue a significant number of fines to companies found to be non-compliant; in contrast, 42 percent expect that only a few organisations will be fined for non-compliance.

Complying with GDPR is not straightforward

It will require detailed planning and collaboration with all the businesses/third parties in your chain, as well as an efficient, well tested approach to breach detection. Security-as-a-Service providers can speed detection and response by drawing from huge pools of data and dedicating threat detection and analyst teams to assess potential incidents and recommend remediation, which is why many businesses are looking to extend their teams rather than hire and train new staff. The critical driver and intent of the GDPR regulation is addressing the time to detection; something that is a challenge for many. The harsh reality is that on average it takes organisations 205 days before detection and that has to change.

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24x7 security monitoring coupled with market-leading security technology and innovation is what organisations demand in order to enable themselves to detect more complex attacks, to reduce the chances of a cyber criminal hacking business' IT infrastructure and its critical applications. Additionally, the ability to gain immediate knowledge of attacks during a breach is a challenge and finding rapid assistance during an incident can be costly. The next big stumbling block is an effective and well tested incident response plan - many do not have the experience to identify the key threats to detect, but worse still is a major approach to containment. The final challenge to remain audit ready with the ability to provide evidence to support audit and compliance without a challenging process of investigation.

Keeping Pace with GDPR

The age of hoping that breaches don't happen is beyond us; the intent of these regulations and standards are to help companies improve security, reduce the time to detection and be proactive in identifying as well as protecting their sensitive data, which is a good thing for us all.
As medical marijuana legalization slowly moves forward in North Dakota, some national companies are already taking a look at working with dispensaries.

One such outfit hopes to be the Amazon of Cannabis, said owner and founder Socrates Rosenfeld, an Army veteran who flew and commanded a team of Apache helicopters in the Iraq War.

After fighting to find peace for himself and feeling isolated from people that he loved after his war service and seven years in the Army, Rosenfelds wife offered him an option he had been conditioned to oppose due to years in the military and social stigma.

It was medical marijuana in his home state of Massachusetts and Rosenfeld found it helped him physically, mentally and spiritually.

He said he came across countless fellow veterans who sought access to safe and regulated cannabis.

They are near and dear to my heart and its another reason Im pursuing this work, Rosefeld said.

He partnered with his brother, a wizard with computers, and other classmates from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to form Jane Technologies, an online marketplace where customers can search local dispensaries menu items, compare prices and products with other state dispensaries and then reserve those items for in-store pickup or delivery.

With only eight dispensaries in North Dakota planned, imagine in the dead of winter driving over to a dispensary, getting there and then realizing the product you wanted is no longer there, said Rosenfeld.

Thats not the way people should be shopping, he said.

Thats why he is using the Amazon model to offer his online services with a price of only $1 per order charged to dispensaries. Consumers use the the online service for free, he said.

The only difference with Amazon is that they arent taking business away from local dispensaries or retail stores as they only provide the online aid to them. He added also that unlike Amazon, the dispensaries cant deliver across state lines and cant of course use U.S. mail since the use, possession, sale, cultivation, and transportation of cannabis is illegal under federal law.

He said he absolutely would like to work with North Dakota dispensaries, who would face only a minimal cost to hook into the Jane Technologies system.

Its a win-win for customers and stores using this sophisticated way of shopping, Rosenfeld said.

Competition over who gets to grow and sell medical marijuana in North Dakota is expected to be strong, according to Jason Wahl, the interim director of the North Dakota Department of Health's medical marijuana division.

Besides the eight dispensaries, the law written by the state Legislature earlier this year allowed only two growing facilities.

So far, more than 115 groups or companies have submitted letters of intent to apply to be a dispensary or manufacturer. Wahl said it hasnt been determined at all yet where the dispensaries will be located, but geographically located facilities have been discussed in meetings.

The next step in the process comes next month when public hearings will be held at six cities around the state by the health department to get public opinion on 50 pages of proposed rules that are available online on the health departments website. The hearings will be in Belcourt, Williston, Bismarck, Minot, Fargo and Grand Forks.

One of those proposed rules allows for deliveries of marijuana to patients which would fit into Rosenfelds plan to help patients get product more easily.

Wahl said being a rural state with the long distances it only made sense to add it in the proposed rules. He said the rules also call for tight restrictions with only those with registered cards for medical marijuana accepting the product.

Wahl said he acknowledges the criticism about the lengthy process of getting the medical marijuana offerings in place, but said the department would have been wasting its time and resources if they would have started working on the rules before the Legislature finally approved the law on April 18.

So the clock really only started ticking then, Wahl said.

Rosenfeld knows about the time it takes to get a system going. In his home state of Massachusetts, they arent expected to get the recreational medical marijuana program going until next July 1 after voters approved it last fall. California begins its recreation program on Jan. 1 after approval last fall..

The majority of the country, 29 states, have legalized medical marijuana. Besides Massachusetts and California, six other states and the District of Columbia have fully legalized the product for recreational purposes for people over 21. They are Maine, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Colorado.

Rosenfelds company, which has its headquarters in Santa Cruz, Calif., is already working with about 120 dispensaries in five of the states.

He hopes to add more in North Dakota, but the growth potential nonetheless is off the charts as Rosenfeld said the cannabis industry is projected to be a $30 billion marketplace by 2021 making it one of the fastest growing industries in this generation.
Cheryl Mirer has traveled far but keeps getting drawn back to Western Massachusetts.

Cheryl Mirer Hired as New Downtown Pittsfield Inc. Executive Director

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Cheryl Mirer remembers driving from Otis to the city to go on art walks, volunteer with Berkshire Creative, or sell crafts at the Handmade Holiday Festival.

And those memories seemed to come back a lot in the last year or so, when she was searching for a way to get back here from Potsdam, N.Y. Mirer had moved there in 2013 and was working in the development office at Clarkson University while her husband managed a co-operative food market.

"For over a year, we've been like 'this isn't really where we belong. What are we going to do?' I had to go home. I wanted to go back to the Berkshires. My husband loves the Berkshires so we were like 'OK, let's make that happen,'" Mirer said.

In July, she was browsing BerkshireJobs.com when she noticed a new posting for the executive director of Downtown Pittsfield Inc. Kristine Hurley had left the non-profit's top position in June for one with the Berkshire Family YMCA.

Mirer read through the job description matched exactly what she wanted. She submitted a resume and kept her fingers crossed hoping the job.

"I tend to be a very adaptable, flexible person and I am creative. I like to work with groups of people on teams and committees ... . I was always gregarious and outgoing. This is a perfect position for me because I'm passionate about community and I love working with people, I like to problem solve and be creative," Mirer said.

In October, after two interviews, she got the offer. Last week, she took the drive from Potsdam, checked in at a local AirBNB and started working out of the Dunham Mall office.

Her husband remains in New York, packing up the couple's home and completing its sale. By December, she'll be fully established back in the Berkshires, with her husband and dog comfortable in a city apartment.

"I tried to get up here as much as I could because I knew there were cool things going on. But now I can fully participate and actually be a part of making things happen," Mirer said.

Mirer is originally from Burlington, Conn., and attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, working her way through college in customer service jobs. She graduated with a degree in fine arts and print making and joined the Peace Corps to work in Ghana as an art teacher.

She returned to Western Massachusetts again in 1999 and became a kitchen designer for an Amherst-based building supply company. After two years, she got a job in Chesterfield, N.Y., as the director of its library.

Mirer continued with her artwork and eventually won a grant for a print-works art project. She did 15 portraits of women in the Adirondacks. That work took her back to Western Massachusetts yet again as she completed out the grant and did art shows.

She was then accepted into Boston University, where she earned her master's in arts administration. She moved to Brighton with her sister and adopted a puppy. She split time between school and working at Whole Foods. It was at Whole Foods where she met her husband, Eric.

In 2005, she graduated.

"I wanted to leave Boston because I am not a city person. I said let's go back to Western Mass. So we moved back to the Pioneer Valley and eventually I got a job at Simon's Rock and we bought a house in Otis," Mirer said.

At Bard College at Simon's Rock, she worked in the development office on fundraising efforts and alumni affairs. She was there for five years until a job that really intrigued her opened in South Carolina.

"We took a big leap and I accepted this job. That organization was called Hub-Bub. It still exists but it is totally different," Mirer said.

"It was like a downtown revitalization group, similar to this but it was specifically for the arts. I was director of the artists in residency program and special events. The arts are very important to me. I always wanted to work with artists in residence. That was an amazing experience."

But nearly as soon as the job opened, the funding for the organization was cut. The job she had just taken on 10 months prior was eliminated. Meanwhile, her husband continued to work in the co-operative food field. He had been working at the Berkshire Co-op when the couple lived in Otis and he wanted to try his hand at managing one.

He was offered the general manager post at the Potsdam Food Co-op. She worked briefly again in the local library there before she got a job at Clarkson University as a coordinator of corporate and foundation relations  fundraising and grant writing for the college.

"I have this varied background. But either my job has been in the community or whatever I do outside of my job is community oriented," Mirer said.

She has worked on community committees such as one in Potsdam that was successful in building a dog park.

She believes that varied background is what makes her such a good fit for the job. Downtown Pittsfield Inc.'s mission is to provide vision, leadership, and advocacy toward helping grow the vitality of the city's downtown.

Things have changed since she was here last. North Street has been completely renovated, new organizations such as Artscape and Pittsfield Beautiful have popped up, the Visitors Bureau and chamber completed their merger into 1Berkshire, and the faces have changed.

"There is a lot here. I have a lot to absorb and a lot of people to meet," Mirer said.

And as she makes the move into the city herself, she's getting a first-hand understanding of the housing market and needs in the city.

Mirer said with only a week on the job, she can't say she has specific plans or focuses when it comes to heading Downtown Pittsfield Inc. But art has always been a piece of her life and it has been a backbone for revitalization efforts in downtown Pittsfield.

She praised the "pillars" such as Barrington Stage, the Berkshire Museum, as well as small groups. She added that events such as paint and sips and public art makes it more accessible.

"The arts, historically, bring people together," she said, saying that communities with strong arts organizations are successful in revitalization efforts.
The Williamstown ZBA has approved a change of use for the former Broad Brook School at the corner of White Oaks Road and Harrison Avenue.

Williamstown Zoning Board OKs Former School's Conversion to 'Live/Work' Rentals

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  A local man has the town's go-ahead to develop the former Broad Brook School into eight live/work studio apartments.

The Zoning Board of Appeals last week issued three special permits sought by Williamstown resident Ben Greenfield to renovate the school, which was opened in 1931 and closed in 1982. That year, the ZBA approved the former school building's use by a music publishing company.

The changing nature of the publishing industry with the growth of the internet has pushed that business out of the 141 White Oaks Road site, Greenfield's attorney, Donald Dubendorf, told the Planning Board earlier this month.

Greenfield's vision of live/work spaces is made possible by a relatively new provision in the Massachusetts Building Code.

"Live/work [refers to] a dwelling unit or sleeping unit where a significant percentage of the space includes a non-residential use that is operated by the tenant," Dubendorf told the ZBA. "It has studio characteristics: an artist, a remote worker, etc. The building code goes on to create conditions. The unit has to be a certain size and can't exceed 3,000 square feet, the unit has to be no more than 50 percent in the non-residential area. Then it goes on to specify ventilation and egress requirements."

Dubendorf said the school, which was expanded in 1954, is suitable for the kind of apartments envisioned by the Building Code but difficult to use in other ways.

"The building itself presents some real challenges," said Dubendorf, who was part of an ad hoc committee the town formed in the 1970s to look at closing the former neighborhood school. "It's presented a lot of challenges to adaptive reuse. I think [Town Planner Andrew Groff] can speak to the number of people who have gone through his office and tried to find a use for it.

"We found one here, and we're excited about it. This use is analogous but not the same as home occupation. In our bylaw, home occupation is incidental. It's accessory. The non-residential use is incidental."

As the name implies, the intention of live/work units is that the dwelling unit will serve a dual purpose.

The idea of the hybrid residential/commercial space was particularly appealing to the Planning Board, whose chairwoman addressed the ZBA last Thursday in support of Greenfield's application.

"We have seen with the lease out of Cable Mills that people want to live in places like this," Amy Jeschawitz told the Zoning Board in a meeting telecast on the town's community access television station, Willinet. "There are people who want to move to our community in buildings like this. We're trying to encourage people to move to Williamstown. We're trying to have more economic development in Williamstown.  This does both of these in one building."

The Zoning Board did hear some concerns from a couple of the school's neighbors, who worried about increased traffic and lighting  external and internal  from the proposed changes. They noted that the property has not been a school for more than 30 years and that the comings and goings of workers at the publisher were limited to business hours.

Greenfield agreed to a couple of changes to address those concerns, seeking the Zoning Board's permission to change his application in a couple of respects to mitigate problems raised by an abutter who attended the hearing.

Greenfield said he would be happy to install lower light poles in the parking area than are required by the bylaw. And he moved a couple of parking spaces from a planned four-space lot that was next to the adjoining property into a lot at the rear of the school and away from neighboring homes.

The latter required relief from the setback requirements that were not part of Greenfield's original application but which the ZBA was happy to grant in order to foster amity in the neighborhood.

Neighbor David Ascevich of 117 White Oaks Road said that in general, he thought the reuse of the building would be a positive thing, but he wanted to see some changes made to reduce the impact on current residents.

"It's going to make noise, and we'll see the lights," Ascevich said. "And if we can move the parking lot to the back, I'll be happy. I don't want noise on that side. Our bedroom is there, our living room is there. It's not something we've dealt with for 34 years.

"If everyone says that's what it's going to be, we'll live with it. But I have to say my peace."

The Planning Board's Jeschawitz, who addressed the board a couple of times from the floor in the course of the two-hour hearing, said if the redevelopment of the former schoolhouse fails, the property could be subdivided into "two or three" building lots that also would change the neighborhood.

"I know this is a change," Dubendorf said. "This building's future is at stake. I'm not exaggerating when I say I know of five serious attempts to redo this building. There are real challenges to making this thing work.

"Given the ability with this use category [live/work] to reduce the residential burden, we think we've found an answer that works well for this space and the neighborhood, and that's what we've been trying to do."

After outlining the approving the special permits needed to move the project forward, ZBA Chairman Andrew Hoar encouraged the applicant to make any other changes he can during development to reflect the needs of the neighborhood.

"We need to be as conscientious as we can to what we heard tonight and try to address those concerns as best we can," Hoar said.




iciHaiti - Health : 152 schools get the label School friend of hygiene





This week the Ministry of National Education officially handed out the plaques Honor and Merit to the leaders of 152 schools, spread across the country, having met the criteria to become "School friend of hygiene" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22764-haiti-health-closure-of-the-project-certification-of-friendly-schools-of-hygiene.html



The ceremony was chaired by Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet, the Minister of National Education, who praised the commitment and determination of all actors to the success of this project which comes to an end after 2 years https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13672-haiti-health-the-school-hygiene-a-central-concern-of-the-ministry-of-education.html . "This is a good cross-industry example," stressed the Minister, who said he was satisfied and encouraged by the results. He invited all partners to work towards the objectives of the program so that the majority of Haitian schools can obtain this quality label in school health.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22764-haiti-health-closure-of-the-project-certification-of-friendly-schools-of-hygiene.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13672-haiti-health-the-school-hygiene-a-central-concern-of-the-ministry-of-education.html



IH/ S/ iciHaiti


















Lezlee Johnson says her bias runs in favor of trees. Fortunately for her, she's a forest health manager with the North Dakota Forest Service.

Yes, North Dakota, where about 1.8 percent of the state's area is native forest.

"The trees we have are extra important partly because of that," she said.

Now the North Dakota Forest Service will investigate how extensive the state's tree resources are, relying on data from the Great Plains Initiative II. The project with Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota maps tree cover on the Northern Plains with aerial imagery analyzed into data.

North Dakota has few forests, largely found in the Turtle Mountains, Killdeer Mountains and various river valleys.

The state's inhospitable weather, winters and soils not conducive to traditional forests are largely why, according to Tom Claeys, forestry and fire management team leader with the North Dakota Forest Service.

Still, the state has many windbreaks planted since the Dust Bowl, but that infrastructure is aging.

"We're really interested in what's out there and what condition it's in," Claeys said.

Johnson said she's spoken with landowners concerned about their declining or removed windbreaks.

"Things have changed," she said. "Where are the critical areas where we've lost windbreaks or windbreaks have never been installed?"

North Dakota Forest Service team members are analyzing high-priority counties' data, said Johnson of the project, which is moving west from Red River counties.

The Kansas Forest Service collected the imagery zeroed down to high-resolution, 1-meter accuracy, she said.

"They ran the North Dakota imagery through eCognition software and delivered to us images that are segmented into image objects," Johnson said. "Our job is to take these images of all the counties and then train ArcGIS to classify all of those image objects into either trees, other vegetation ... and non-vegetation, like roads and buildings and water."

The painstakingly gathered results could show twice as much tree cover in North Dakota than what qualified to be counted previously under the forest inventory program, she said.

"The big surprise is going to be, wow, we have a lot more trees we never realized we had," Johnson said.

All forest resources in North Dakota, including windbreaks, comprise just less than 4 percent of the state, said Claeys, adding there are many benefits from trees.

Trees keep snow off of roads and soil from blowing. They protect livestock and reduce heating and cooling costs. Trees store carbon, are a source of biomass, are vital for wildlife habitat and can increase crop yields.

"Trees are really important," Claeys said. "It's not easy to grow trees in North Dakota."

The state's economy enjoys a small industry from trees, including a handful of sawmills and Christmas tree farms.

There's a recreation aspect to trees as well, Claeys added.

"People recreate in forests very freely and often," he said. "It's one of those places people gravitate toward easily."
Imperial Valley News Center

Trump Administrations Proposal to Dramatically Increase Entrance Fees at National Parks is a "Cruel Deception

Sacramento, California - Leading a bipartisan coalition of 11 attorneys general, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today expressed his strong opposition to the National Park Services (NPS) proposal to dramatically increase entrance fees at 17 national parks, including four parks within California: Yosemite National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and Joshua Tree National Park. Under the proposal, the per vehicle entrance fee during the five-month peak season would increase to $70 from $25 or $30. Motorcycle, bicycle and pedestrian entrance fees would also increase by double or more.

Our goal as a nation should be to make our national parks supremely inviting and encourage more families to visit them. Instead, the Trump Administration proposes the complete opposite  making our treasured lands less accessible to many Americans, said Attorney General Becerra. In particular, this proposal would disproportionately impact modest-income families that are already underrepresented among national park visitors. It is incumbent upon all of us to take any and all necessary action to oppose this dramatic increase in park entrance fees and to protect communities that rely on national parks as important economic engines.

"It is simply disingenuous for the Trump Administration to claim that this proposal to charge families more is needed to help address the maintenance backlogs at our beautiful national parks. For every dollar the punitive fee increase raises from families, the Trump Administration intends to cut more than 4 dollars from the National Park Services budget  almost $300 million. That backdoor math simply does not add up. It's a cruel deception for millions of hardworking families, added Attorney General Becerra.

In their comment letter to the NPS, Attorney General Becerra and his fellow attorneys general make three main points:

NPSs stated justification for the fee increase is to address the serious maintenance backlog facing the national park system. However, the proposal could well reduce revenue by lowering visitation rates, and it comes at the same time that the Trump Administration is proposing to cut NPSs budget by far more than any increased fees might generate;

NPS has failed to consider or provide any data to support the criteria it must consider pursuant to the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act of 2004, including the aggregate effect of recreation fees on recreation users or the public policy or management objectives served by the recreation fee;

NPSs Washington-centric approach, announcing the proposed fees for 17 parks without any detailed analysis or prior outreach to impacted communities and setting a short comment period that includes major holidays, is designed to minimize input from the American public to whom the national parks belong.

Joining Attorney General Becerra in sending todays comment letter were the Attorneys General of Arizona, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
Imperial Valley News Center

Search Ends For Sailors in C-2A Crash

Philippine Sea - The U.S. Navy ceased search and rescue operations at 10:00 a.m. Japan Standard Time on November 24 for three Sailors not immediately recovered after a C-2A Greyhound crashed on the afternoon of November 22.

USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) led the combined search and rescue efforts with units from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). During the course of two days, seven U.S. Navy and JMSDF ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft covered nearly 1000 square nautical miles in the search for the missing sailors.



Eight Sailors were immediately recovered from the crash and transferred to Ronald Reagan for medical evaluation. All are in good condition at this time.



"Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families," said Rear Adm. Marc Dalton, Commander, Task Force 70. "As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates, and I appreciate the professionalism and dedication shown by all who participated in the search efforts."



The Sailors names are being withheld pending completion of next of kin notifications.



The following ships and aircraft assisted in the search efforts: U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers USS Stethem (DDG 63), USS Chafee (DDG 90) and USS Mustin (DDG 89); MH-60R Seahawk helicopters of the "Saberhawks" from U.S. Navy Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 77 and "Warlords" of HSM 51; MH-60S helicopters from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC-12); P-8 aircraft from the "Fighting Tigers" of U.S. Navy Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Squadron (VP) 8; P-3 Orion aircraft of the "Red Hook" U.S. Navy Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Squadron (VP) 40; JMSDF Helicopter Carrier JS Kaga (DDH 184) and JS Ise (DDH 182); JMSDF Akizuki-class destroyer JS Teruzuki (DD 116); JMSDF Murasame-class destroyer JS Samidare (DD 106), and JMSDF Hatakaze-class destroyer JS Shimakaze (DDG 172).



An investigation is currently underway.
Attorney General Becerra Announces $2 Million Settlement Involving Santa Barbara-based Cottage Health System Over Failure to Protect Patient Medical Records

Santa Barbara, California - California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Wednesday announced a $2 million settlement with Cottage Health System and its affiliated hospitals in California resolving allegations that they failed to implement basic, reasonable safeguards to protect patient medical information in violation of state and federal privacy laws. The settlement requires Cottage to maintain security practices and procedures to protect patients medical information from unauthorized access or disclosure. This settlement follows two separate data breach incidents by Cottage Health where more than 50,000 patients medical information was made publicly available online.

When patients go to a hospital to seek medical care, the last thing they should have to worry about is having their personal medical information exposed. The law requires health care providers to protect patients' privacy. On both of these counts, Cottage Health failed, said Attorney General Becerra.

In this action, the Attorney Generals Office alleged that Cottage Health System, a not-for-profit based in Santa Barbara, California, failed to adequately protect patient records. Cottage was notified in December 2013 that patients confidential medical information was viewable online. One of the companys servers with medical records for more than 50,000 patients was connected to the internet without encryption, password protection, firewalls, or permissions that would have prevented unauthorized access. In 2015, during the Attorney Generals investigation of the first breach, Cottage Health experienced a second data breach in which the records for 4,596 patients became accessible online for nearly two weeks. The Attorney Generals Office alleged that Cottages security failures violated Californias Confidentiality of Medical Information Act and Unfair Competition Law, as well as the federal Health Insurance Portability and Affordability Act.

Under the settlement announced today, Cottage Health is required to pay a $2 million penalty and upgrade its data security practices. Cottage Health is required to protect patients medical information from unauthorized access and disclosure and to maintain an information security program that meets reasonable security practices and procedures for the healthcare industry. It must designate an employee to serve in the capacity of a Chief Privacy Officer and to complete periodic risk assessments.

Attorney General Becerra is committed to protecting consumer and individual privacy through civil prosecution of state and federal privacy laws.
DIRECTV Agrees To $9.5 Million Settlement for Violations of Californias Hazardous Waste and Unfair Competition Laws

Sacramento, California - Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Alameda County District Attorney Nancy E. OMalley announced a settlement with DIRECTV to resolve allegations that its California facilities unlawfully disposed of large volumes of hazardous waste  including hazardous batteries, electronic devices, and aerosols  and committed additional violations stemming from the mismanagement of such items. These acts constitute violations of Californias Hazardous Waste Control Law, and of Californias Unfair Competition Law, as such conduct gives DIRECTV a competitive advantage over other regulated entities that are complying with the law.

On November 21, 2017, by stipulation of the parties, the Alameda County Superior Court entered a final judgment incorporating the terms of the settlement.

Unlawfully disposing of hazardous waste can lead to serious health and environmental risks. That is why DA O'Malley and I are holding DIRECTV accountable today, Attorney General Becerra said. The California Department of Justice will continue working to protect the health and well-being of our communities. We will prosecute those who violate our environmental laws.

My Office is dedicated to enforcing laws that protect the environment and ensure fair business practices. Any company doing business in Alameda County and in California must abide by these laws. The illegal disposal of hazardous waste pollutes our soil and our water and can be harmful to the health of humans as well as the environment, said District Attorney OMalley. I thank the Attorney General for his leadership on these important issues and I am confident that we will continue to make strides in holding businesses accountable and keeping our environment free from toxic pollution.

As part of the settlement, DIRECTV will be required to pay more than $8.9 million for civil penalties, costs, and projects furthering environmental protection; will be bound by a permanent injunction prohibiting similar future violations of law; and will have to spend more than $580 thousand over the next five years to enhance environmental compliance at its California facilities. Additionally, DIRECTV will be required to hire an independent auditor to perform three audits of DIRECTVs compliance with the injunctive terms of the judgment.

The settlement and final judgment follow an extensive investigation by the two offices. The investigation included a series of inspections of dumpsters belonging to DIRECTV facilities. The inspections revealed that DIRECTV was routinely and systematically sending hazardous wastes to local landfills that were not permitted to receive those wastes. During the relevant period of the investigation, DIRECTV operated 25 facilities in California, and all 25 facilities were unlawfully disposing of hazardous waste.

In November 2014, the Attorney General and Alameda DA resolved a similar action against AT&T through a stipulated final judgment. Because DIRECTV was acquired by an AT&T affiliate in July 2015, the parties to this settlement have stipulated to amend the prior AT&T judgment to include terms applicable to DIRECTV.
JAMESTOWN  Hoyt Paul doesnt like the idea of people going hungry, especially around holidays like Thanksgiving.

Rather than just feeling bad for those people, 9-year-old Hoyt is doing something about it. He and his parents delivered 1,180 food items to the Community Action Region VI Food Pantry Wednesday morning. Food Hoyt collected from his neighbors in northwest Jamestown.

This is the third year that Hoyt has conducted his own food drive.

Hes a great kid with a big heart, said Sarah Oberlander, Community Action Region VI Food Pantry coordinator.

In 2015, Hoyts first food drive, he brought 371 pounds of food to the pantry. He donated 736 pounds of food in 2016.

Im going to say this year you have probably doubled your amount again, Oberlander said to Hoyt Wednesday. You know what is amazing is you keep going up every year. People like helping you.

Hoyt said he became inspired to help others after seeing a commercial on television that showed people going without food during the holidays.

I dont think anybody should be hungry over the holidays, he said. I dont like that some people may not be able to celebrate over the holidays because they dont have any food.

Hoyt said this years collection was his biggest yet, but he wants to get more next year. Courtney Paul, Hoyts mother, said he has talked with his parents about expanding his food drive to other parts of Jamestown next year.

He said when he is older he wants to do work like this full time, to help people, she said.

David Paul, Hoyts father, said Hoyt has been the driving force to do this work.

We help him put the letter and bags together, he said.

Hoyt writes a letter at the start of each donation drive explaining what he is doing and why. He includes a reusable shopping bag so people can put nonperishable food items in the bags, then put the bags on their front steps so Hoyt can collect the donations. He designates a time and date when he will be back to collect the food.

The first year of the drive David Paul said he wasnt sure what kind of response Hoyt would get. That first year he received about 600 food items. Last year, he collected about 900 items.

Courtney Paul said Hoyt usually has 70 of the bags and the letter out by Veterans Day. This year he got the letter and bags out after the holiday, on Nov. 14. His neighbors noticed.

People were calling and asking if he was doing the drive this year, David said. He has a lot of support amongst our neighbors for what he is doing.

David said he walks with Hoyt when he is delivering the bags to the neighbors, but it is Hoyt who rings the doorbells and talks with people.

I might answer a question if he needs help, but this is all him, he said.

Hoyt said one of the more unusual donations he received in his food drives was toilet paper. This year, one of his neighbors donated eight 1-gallon jugs of pasta sauces and a large box of spaghetti.

Hoyt said he plans to do a food donation drive as long as people are willing to donate food. He said he is a little self-conscious about his friends finding out about his charity work, but he wants to keep on doing it.

It makes me feel good, he said.
Low blood cell counts: Side effect of cancer treatment

Scottsdale, Arizona - Your doctor may monitor your blood cell counts carefully during your cancer treatment. There's a good reason you're having your blood drawn so often  low blood cell counts put you at risk of serious complications.

What's measured in a blood cell count?

If you're undergoing certain cancer treatments that could cause low blood cell counts, your doctor will likely monitor your blood cell counts regularly using a test called a complete blood count (CBC). Low blood cell counts are detected by examining a blood sample taken from a vein in your arm.

When checking your blood cell count, your doctor is looking at the numbers and types of the following:

White blood cells. These cells help your body fight infection. A low white blood cell count (leukopenia) leaves your body more open to infection. And if an infection does develop, your body may be unable to fight it off.

Red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout your body. Your red blood cells' ability to carry oxygen is measured by the amount of hemoglobin in your blood. If your level of hemoglobin is low, you're anemic and your body works much harder to supply oxygen to your tissues. This can make you feel fatigued and short of breath.

Platelets. Platelets help your blood to clot. A low platelet count (thrombocytopenia) means your body can't stop itself from bleeding.

What's being counted What's normal What's concerning White blood cells 3,500 to 10,500 Below 1,000 Hemoglobin 13.5 to 17.5 for men

12 to 15.5 for women Below 8 Platelets 150,000 to 450,000 Below 20,000

What causes low blood cell counts?

Cancer-related causes of low blood cell counts include:

Chemotherapy. Certain chemotherapy drugs can damage your bone marrow  the spongy material found in your bones. Your bone marrow makes blood cells, which grow rapidly, making them very sensitive to the effects of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy kills many of the cells in your bone marrow, but the cells recover with time. Your doctor can tell you whether your specific chemotherapy treatment and dose will put you at risk of low blood cell counts.

Radiation therapy. If you receive radiation therapy to large areas of your body and especially to the large bones that contain the most bone marrow, such as your pelvis, legs and torso, you might experience low levels of red and white blood cells.

Cancers of the blood and bone marrow. Blood and bone marrow cancers, such as leukemia, grow in the bone marrow and don't allow normal blood cells to develop.

Cancers that spread (metastasize). Cancer cells that break off from a tumor can spread to other parts of your body, including your bone marrow. The cancerous cells can displace other cells in your bone marrow, making it difficult for your bone marrow to produce the blood cells your body needs. This is an unusual cause of low blood cell counts.

Why is it important to monitor your blood cell counts?

Low blood cell counts can lead to serious complications that may delay your next round of treatment. Monitoring your blood cell counts allows your doctor to prevent or reduce your risk of complications.

The most serious complications of low blood cell counts include:

Infection. With a low white blood cell count and, in particular, a low level of neutrophils (neutropenia), a type of white blood cell that fights infection, you're at higher risk of developing an infection. And if you develop an infection when you have a low white blood cell count, your body can't protect itself. Infection can lead to death in severe cases. Even a mild infection can delay your chemotherapy treatment, since your doctor may wait until your infection is cleared and your blood cell counts go back up before you continue. Your doctor may also recommend medication to increase your body's production of white blood cells.

Anemia. A low red blood cell count is anemia. The most common symptoms of anemia are fatigue and shortness of breath. In some cases, fatigue becomes so severe that you must temporarily halt your cancer treatment or reduce the dose you receive. Anemia can be relieved with a blood transfusion or with medication to increase your body's production of red blood cells.

Bleeding. Low numbers of platelets in your blood can cause bleeding. You might bleed excessively from a small cut or bleed spontaneously from your nose or gums. Dangerous internal bleeding can occur. A low platelet count can delay your treatment. You may have to wait until your platelet levels go up in order to continue with chemotherapy or to have surgery.

Your doctor may monitor your blood cell counts carefully during your cancer treatment. There's a good reason you're having your blood drawn so often  low blood cell counts put you at risk of serious complications.

What's measured in a blood cell count?

If you're undergoing certain cancer treatments that could cause low blood cell counts, your doctor will likely monitor your blood cell counts regularly using a test called a complete blood count (CBC). Low blood cell counts are detected by examining a blood sample taken from a vein in your arm.

When checking your blood cell count, your doctor is looking at the numbers and types of the following:

White blood cells. These cells help your body fight infection. A low white blood cell count (leukopenia) leaves your body more open to infection. And if an infection does develop, your body may be unable to fight it off.

Red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout your body. Your red blood cells' ability to carry oxygen is measured by the amount of hemoglobin in your blood. If your level of hemoglobin is low, you're anemic and your body works much harder to supply oxygen to your tissues. This can make you feel fatigued and short of breath.

Platelets. Platelets help your blood to clot. A low platelet count (thrombocytopenia) means your body can't stop itself from bleeding.

What's being counted What's normal What's concerning White blood cells 3,500 to 10,500 Below 1,000 Hemoglobin 13.5 to 17.5 for men

12 to 15.5 for women Below 8 Platelets 150,000 to 450,000 Below 20,000

What causes low blood cell counts?

Cancer-related causes of low blood cell counts include:

Chemotherapy. Certain chemotherapy drugs can damage your bone marrow  the spongy material found in your bones. Your bone marrow makes blood cells, which grow rapidly, making them very sensitive to the effects of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy kills many of the cells in your bone marrow, but the cells recover with time. Your doctor can tell you whether your specific chemotherapy treatment and dose will put you at risk of low blood cell counts.

Radiation therapy. If you receive radiation therapy to large areas of your body and especially to the large bones that contain the most bone marrow, such as your pelvis, legs and torso, you might experience low levels of red and white blood cells.

Cancers of the blood and bone marrow. Blood and bone marrow cancers, such as leukemia, grow in the bone marrow and don't allow normal blood cells to develop.

Cancers that spread (metastasize). Cancer cells that break off from a tumor can spread to other parts of your body, including your bone marrow. The cancerous cells can displace other cells in your bone marrow, making it difficult for your bone marrow to produce the blood cells your body needs. This is an unusual cause of low blood cell counts.

Why is it important to monitor your blood cell counts?

Low blood cell counts can lead to serious complications that may delay your next round of treatment. Monitoring your blood cell counts allows your doctor to prevent or reduce your risk of complications.

The most serious complications of low blood cell counts include:
Was the first Thanksgiving a 'warm weather' feast

Washington, DC - Here's some food for thought the day after many of us ate a little too much at our Thanksgiving Day repasts: the Pilgrims were not the first to celebrate the holiday, according to Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens.

"In her book, America's REAL First Thanksgiving, St. Augustine, Florida, Sept.8, 1565, author Robyn Gioia, published in 2007, challenged the idea that the holiday was first celebrated by the Pilgrims. According to Ms. Gioia, some 50 years before British Pilgrims and Indians in and around Plymouth Rock, MA feasted in celebration on what has been generally recognized as the first Thanksgiving, Spanish explorers sat at table with the Indians of St. Augustine, Florida in the spirit of thanksgiving," says Weber.

But, Gioia first learned of the "warm weather" version of the Thanksgiving story when she attended a 2005 lecture hosted by the Florida Humanities Council.

University of Florida history professor Michael Gannon was one of the speakers at that gathering where he discussed his 1965 book, The Cross in the Sand, Weber explains. In it, Gannon disclosed that in 1565 a Spanish Explorer, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, and some 800 Spanish settlers sat down with the local Timucua Indians for a celebratory feast.

Gannon's book apparently did not get enough exposure to cause a stir of his own in '65, but in 1985 an Associated Press reporter read The Cross in the Sand and wrote an article about "the real" first Thanksgiving. It is said that many New Englanders were not at all happy about the revelation and gave Gannon the moniker "the Grinch who stole Thanksgiving."

But, who celebrated the first Thanksgiving and why they did it really doesn't matter all that much, says Weber. "Pessimists might suggest that we have a lot to be fearful of these days and not a lot to be thankful for. They'll say that the threats of terror attacks have cast a dark shadow over the country. And, they'll argue that the country is divided politically and that unrest is widespread. But the truth is that every day is Thanksgiving Day. Challenges abound, they always have. But we have much more for which to be grateful than we have to be afraid of. As Physiatrist Robert L. Leahy puts it: 'giving thanks may be the best gift that you can give to others-and to yourself. And, like the best things in life, it's free'."
Redflow reveals Thai battery production timeline

Redflow Chairman Brett JohnsonAustralian battery company Redflow Limited will start manufacturing battery components at its new factory in Thailand next month, the company Chairman Brett Johnson told todays 2017 Annual General Meeting in Brisbane.

We are expecting to commence the initial manufacture of components for our electrode stacks during December and are on-track to have manufactured our first complete electrode stack by the end of January 2018, Mr Johnson told shareholders at the AGM.

These new stacks will be shipped to Brisbane where they will be installed on approximately 200 tank sets (without stacks) which were manufactured by Flex. These complete batteries will be tested and supplied to customers to meet existing and new orders.

While our initial focus will be on the manufacture of stacks for these existing Flex tank sets, we will progressively validate high quality components and sub-assemblies until ultimately producing complete, fully tested batteries in our Thai factory. This milestone is planned for June 2018. We will then be able to ramp-up production in Thailand in line with customer demand. Once fully operational and orders warrant it, the manufacturing line should be able to manufacture up to 250 complete batteries a month.

Should demand increase beyond that volume, the capital cost involved to establish a second manufacturing line is not problematic.

Redflow Non-Executive Director and former CEO Simon Hackett, who remains fully engaged with Redflow as a champion for the companys world-leading energy storage technology, provided the meeting with a brief technical presentation about deploying Redflow batteries including the redesigned Redflow LSB (Large Scale Battery) at his Adelaide office, Base64.

Redflow CEO Richard Aird answered questions about the new factory in Thailand. Other directors at the AGM included Deputy Chairman Howard Stack, Audit Committee Chair Bruce Brown, David Knox and Patrick Tapper, who today resigned from the board due to other major work commitments.

Mr Johnson said Redflow was at an important crossroad. It has successfully designed, developed and commercialized the worlds smallest zinc-bromine flow battery  the 10kWh ZBM2, he said.

We have been able to demonstrate that Redflow batteries work in the real world and have received significant interest in and commercial orders for the product. This has been clearly demonstrated by the 160+ batteries ordered to date by the NZ integrator, Hi-Tech Solutions, being progressively installed in a variety of on and off-grid communication tower sites spread across a Pacific island nation.

Our major issue today is not our battery technology, it is our ability to manufacture a sufficient number of complete batteries to give our customers the confidence to place significant orders.... I'm pleased to report that the transfer of the Redflow owned manufacturing equipment from North America to Thailand is progressing well and is on budget. We have partnered with a long-term supplier, MPTS, which will provide and manage the trained labour force required to operate the factory.

I understand that shareholders have heard many times that Redflow is poised for success. I believe that today we have a settled battery design, are managing our own supply chain and will have access to a trained, expert manufacturing labour-force supported by our own manufacturing management team. The Board and management are confident that we will be producing well-made and reliable Redflow batteries in substantial numbers during the second half of 2018.

A copy of Mr Johnsons full presentation to the meeting is available on the Redflow website by clicking here while Simon Hacketts presentation can be viewed by clicking here.

For media assistance, call John Harris on +61 8 8431 4000 or email john@impress.com.au.

About Redflow

Redflows unique zinc-bromine flow batteries are designed for stationary energy storage applications ranging from its ZCell residential battery to its scalable ZBM2 batteries for industrial, commercial, telecommunications and grid-scale deployment. Redflow Limited, a publicly-listed company (ASX: RFX), produces high energy density batteries that are sold, installed and maintained by an international network of system integrators. Redflow batteries offer unique advantages including 100 per cent depth of discharge, tolerance of ambient temperatures as hot as 50 degrees Celsius and sustained energy storage of 10 kilowatt-hours (kWh) throughout their operating life.
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Uma Thurman has finally responded to the allegations against Harvey Weinstein by saying the disgraced Hollywood producer does not deserve a bullet.

Taking to Instagram, the actress who worked with his Miramax production company on seven films including her Oscar nominated role in Pulp Fiction, said she had said she was angry recently and I have a few reasons.

Then she posted the #metoo hashtag, the prominent way which women and men from all over the globe that have been sexually harassed have been sharing their stories.

Recommended Pamela Anderson reveals confrontation with Harvey Weinstein

The term gained momentum after actress Alyssa Milano asked victims of sexual assault to come forward in a show of solidarity.

Posting next to an image of her as Beatrix Kiddo, or The Bride in Kill Bill, which was also produced by Miramax, the actress said she felt it was important to take your time, be fair, be exact.

She added: So Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators - Im glad its going slowly - you dont deserve a bullet).

Cryptically she signed off with stay tuned, suggesting she may speak further on the subject.

The scene depicted in the photograph is one where Thurman's character, Beatrix Kiddo, vows to go on a "rampage of revenge".

Thurman has previously refused to comment on the allegations against Weinstein, who has been accused by more than 90 women of allegations ranging from rape to sexual harassment.

He is being investigated by police in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, New York and London, but the producer has "unequivocally denied" any allegations of non-consensual sex.

Thurman has yet to offer an official statement on the allegations and when she was asked about them last month she declined to comment.

Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Show all 42 1 /42 Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Harvey Weinstein Harry Weinsteins reputation as one of Hollywoods leading executives was long cemented in stone. The acclaimed movie mogul, who produced Oscar-winning films Shakespeare in Love, The English Patient, and The Artist, clocked up box office successes and accolades aplenty. But this has quickly changed since a chorus of women have come forward to accuse the Hollywood producer of sexual harassment and assault. Since the New York Times bombshell report disclosed sexual harassment and rape allegations against the film mogul dating back decades, Weinstein has been fired from his namesake company, expelled from the Oscars and has had his wife leave him. Weinstein has apologised for having caused a lot of pain but has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Annabella Sciorra The Sopranos actor alleged Weinstein raped her after shooting The Night We Never Met, a 1993 movie that Weinstein produced. Similar to the stories told by other women, Weinstein drove the actor home, only to reportedly burst into Sciorra's apartment and start unbuttoning his shirt. He shoved me onto the bed, and he got on top of me, Sciorra said. I kicked and I yelled. Weinstein then allegedly locked her arms and forced sexual intercourse on her. After the incident, Sciorra found it increasingly hard to get work, many filmmakers saying 'We heard you were difficult', something the actor claims was because of the 'Weinstein-machine'. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Natassia Malthe The model and actress, who has appeared in around 50 films, said she met Weinstein at a BAFTA after party in 2008 while she was working as a spokeswoman for LG. She told a press conference in New York that she felt pressured into telling Weinstein she was staying at the Sanderson Hotel after being put on the spot. Malthe, now 43, said after her shift on February 10 she went back to her room and went to sleep, but was awoken by "repeated pounding" on her door, from someone yelling: "Open the door Natassia Malthe, it's Harvey Weinstein." Feeling humiliated, she said she opened the door. She alleged Weinstein began implying sex would get her a role in an upcoming film while semi-undressed and then he began to masturbate. "I was sitting on the bed talking to Harvey when he pushed me back and forced himself onto me. It was not consensual. He did not use a condom," she said. AP Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Sean Young The actor, best known for her role in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, said that Weinstein exposed himself to her in the early 1990s, when she was starring in the Miramax-produced Love Crimes - a production company that Weinstein headed at the time. "I personally experienced him pulling his you-know-what out of his pants to shock me," she said. "My basic response was, 'You know, Harvey, I really dont think you should be pulling that thing out, its not very pretty.'" Young never worked with Weinstein again after the incident. Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Mimi Haleyi Mimi Haleyi said she was assaulted by Weinstein in what appeared to be a child's bedroom in his New York City apartment in 2006 when she was in her 20s. She said she was aspiring to work in television and film production when she was first introduced to him at the London premiere of The Aviator around two years earlier and he helped her get experience on the set of a TV show being produced by The Weinstein Company. But, she added, he repeatedly hassled her and even tried to force himself through her front door in an effort to get her to join him on a trip to Paris. At one point he allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on an aspiring production assistant while she was on her period. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lupita Nyong'o In an op-ed for The New York Times, the Oscar-winning actor said she was invited to Weinsteins family home in Connecticut on the premise of watching a film shortly after they met in 2011. But she said shortly after it started he "insisted" in front of his children that she follow him and she was led to his bedroom. The Kenyan-Mexican actress, now 34, said she felt pressured into giving him a massage after he offered her one. "Before long he said he wanted to take off his pants," she wrote."I told him not to do that and informed him that it would make me extremely uncomfortable. He got up anyway to do so and I headed for the door, saying that I was not at all comfortable with that." Over the years that followed, he continued to get in touch, Nyong'o said, and when she declined another proposition she felt her career was threatened. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lena Headey Writing on social media, the Game of Thrones actor claims she first met Weinstein at the Venice Film Festival in 2005 where, after taking her for a walk by the water, he made some suggestive comment and gesture. Headey claims she bumped into Weinstein years later where he kept asking her questions about her love life. She alleges that, when Weinstein invited her to his hotel room to show her a script, the "energy shifted. The actor notes how, after saying she was not interesting in anything but the work, Weinstein was furious, apparently marching her back to a lift, "grabbing and holding tightly to the back of [her] arm." She claims that, after paying for her car, he whispered in her ear: "Don't tell anyone about this, not your manager, not your agent. Headey finished the post, writing: I got in the car and I cried. Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lucia Evans The actor told The New Yorker that after a meeting to discuss casting her in various projects, Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him. I said, over and over, I dont want to do this, stop, dont. She added: Hes a big guy. He overpowered me. I just sort of gave up. Thats the most horrible part of it, and thats why hes been able to do this for so long to so many women: people give up, and then they feel like its their fault. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Laura Madden Madden, a production assistant who worked at Miramax for a decade, told the Times that Weinstein allegedly prodded her for massages at hotels, a common theme among the sources the Timess reporters spoke with. On one occasion, she claims she locked herself in his hotel bathroom, sobbing Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Ashley Judd Judd recounted for the Times how Weinstein allegedly harassed her while she was filming Kiss the Girls in 1996, inviting her to his hotel room and asking her for a massage, then inviting her to watch him shower. Judd first went public with the allegations in a 2015 interview with Variety during which she discussed the experience without naming the producer involved. She described Weinsteins alleged behaviour as coercive bargaining; I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask, she told the Times AFP/Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Rose McGowan McGowan reportedly reached a previously undisclosed $100,000 settlement with Weinstein in 1997, over an incident that occurred in a hotel room Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Mimi Haleyi Mimi Haleyi said she was assaulted by Weinstein in what appeared to be a child's bedroom in his New York City apartment in 2006 when she was in her 20s. She said she was aspiring to work in television and film production when she was first introduced to him at the London premiere of The Aviator around two years earlier and he helped her get experience on the set of a TV show being produced by The Weinstein Company. But, she added, he repeatedly hassled her and even tried to force himself through her front door in an effort to get her to join him on a trip to Paris. At one point he allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on an aspiring production assistant while she was on her period. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Emily Nestor Nestor had been temping at the Weinstein Company for only one day in 2014 when Weinstein allegedly offered to boost her career in return for sexual favours, according to the Times. She declined and reportedly complained of his behaviour to colleagues, who later passed the information on to senior executives. An internal Weinstein Company document cited by the Times describes Nestors encounter with Weinstein as follows: She said he was very persistent and focused though she kept saying no for over an hour Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Ambra Battilana In March 2015, Battilana, an aspiring model and actress, was reportedly summoned to Weinsteins office on a Friday night to discuss her career. According to a police report cited by the Times, Battilana claimed she was assaulted by Weinstein, who grabbed her breasts after asking if they were real and put his hands up her skirt. Weinstein later claimed that Battilana had set him up, according to colleagues of his who were interviewed by the Times. The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, later declined to press charges, and according to the Times, made a payment to Battilana. On 5 October, the International Business Times reported that after Vance dropped the charges, he received $10,000 from Weinsteins lawyer Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lauren OConnor Lauren OConnor, an employee of the Weinstein Company, penned a memo to executives alleging a toxic environment for women at the company. The memo cited numerous incidents of Weinstein harassing or coercing women who worked for him. She expressed fear that Weinstein was using her and other female employees to facilitate liaisons with vulnerable women who hope he will get them work. That same year, Weinstein allegedly reached a settlement with OConnor Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Kate Beckinsale The actor, who starred in the Weinstein Company films Serendipity and The Aviator, alleges that she was invited to Weinsteins hotel room at the age of just 17. When she approached the door, the producer reportedly greeted her dressed in just a dressing gown. I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him, she wrote on Instagram. After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed. Theo Wargo/Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Gwyneth Paltrow The actor alleges that after he cast her in the title role of the film Emma when she was 22, he took her to his hotel room, placed his hands on her and suggested massages. I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified, Paltrow told the New York Times. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Asia Argento Italian actress Asia Argento has alleged that in 1997 Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her as she repeatedly told him to stop. When I see him, it makes me feel little and stupid and weak, Argento told The New Yorker. After the rape, he won. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Cara Delevigne The British model and actress penning an Instagram post claiming that Weinstein had ordered her to kiss another woman in his hotel room, and tried to kiss her on the lips. AFP/Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Ashley Judd Ashley Judd said she rebuffed Harvey Weinsteins unwanted sexual advances by offering to consent only after she had won an Oscar. When she was initially invited to a meeting with Weinstein, Judd said, she was surprised to learn the producer was in his hotel room - a tactic that recurs in other womens accounts. Echoing the accounts of other women, Judd said Weinstein suggested she give him a massage and then invited her to watch him shower. After a volley of nos she said she would only after she wins an Oscar, fleeing after making the comments. Reuters/Mike Segar Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Judith Godreche French actress Judith Godreche said when she was 24 Weinstein invited her to his hotel room and asked to give her a massage. The next thing I know, hes pressing against me and pulling off my sweater, she told the New York Times. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Mira Sorvino The Oscar-winning actor said she found herself in a hotel room with Weinstein in 1995 where he started massaging my shoulders, which made me very uncomfortable, and then tried to get more physical, sort of chasing me around. According to an interview in The New Yorker Weinstein subsequently arrived at her apartment late at night and she had to call a friend to come over to pose as her boyfriend in order to get Weinstein out of the house. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Katherine Kendall The actress said Weinstein undressed and chased her around a living room when she was just 23. She subsequently felt that telling others meant Ill never work again and no one is going to care or believe me, she told the New York Times. WireImage Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Tomi-Anne Roberts As an aspiring actress and working in a restaurant in New York, Tomi-Ann Roberts encountered Weinstein who encouraged her to audition for one of his films back in 1984. She subsequently went to meet him and found him naked in the bath and invited her to get naked and get into the bath with him, she told the New York Times. She said she left feeling manipulated. Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Myleen Klass It has also been alleged that the disgraced film producer propositioned Myleene Klass with a sex contract at Cannes Film Festival in 2010. One of the singer and television personalitys friends reportedly told The Sun, Klass had told Weinstein to f*** off. Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Sophie Dix Sophie Dix, best known for her role as Captain Sadie Williams in Soldier Soldier, described her encounter with Weinstein when she was 23 as the single most damaging thing thats happened in my life. She told The Guardian Weinstein had pushed her to her bed and was tugging at her clothes. She rushed to the bathroom to escape, but when she came out she found him standing there masturbating. I quickly closed the door again and locked it, she said. Then when I heard room service come to the door I just ran. Rex Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lea Seydoux The actor and director claims she had to fight off Weinstein after he brought her to his hotel room during what she remembers to be 2012. He suddenly jumped on me and tried to kiss me. I had to defend myself. Hes big and fat, so I had to be forceful to resist him. I left his room, thoroughly disgusted, she wrote in The Guardian. AFP/Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Claire Forlani British actress Claire Forlani wrote on Twitter that she had evaded Weinsteins advances on five occasions at the age of 25. At meetings with the Hollywood a-lister, she says massage was suggested, and that Weinstein had boasted of all the women hed had sex with. Mark Douet Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Florence Darel French actress Florence Darel claimed Weinstein relentlessly pursued her in the mid 1990's and propositioned her while Eve Chilton, his wife at the time, was in the hotel room next door. I was astonished, she told People magazine. When you have someone so physically disgusting in front of you, continuing and continuing as though this was all perfectly normal What happened to me may not be illegal but it was inappropriate. Very inappropriate. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lysette Anthony Lysette Anthony, who starred as Marnie Nightingale in Hollyoaks, has claimed Weinstein raped her in the late 1980's after turning up to her London home in the late 1980s. She described the disgraced film producers alleged attack as pathetic and revolting and said it left her feeling disgusted and embarrassed. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Dawn Dunning Dunning said she met Weinstein in 2003 when she was 24-years-old and the disgraced film producer suggested she have a threesome with him and someone else. She told the New York Times Weinstein got angry when she refused. Youll never make it in this business, she said he told her as she left. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Rosanna Arquette Rosanna Arquette was already well known for her role in Desperately Seeking Susan, when she said she met Weinstein at his hotel to pick up a script in the early nineties. Weinstein was dressed only in a dressing gown, and tried to put her hand on his erect penis. Speaking to the New York Times, Arquette said as she left she told him: I will never be that girl. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Emma de Caunes Caunes, a French actor, claimed Weinstein took her to his hotel room in 2010 supposedly to retrieve a book he was making into a film, but once there he went into the bathroom. De Caunes said he then emerged naked, with an erection and told her to lie on the bed. She fled the room. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Zoe Brock Model Zoe claimed that she had to lock herself in a bathroom at Weinsteins hotel in 1997, after the mogul had sent all of the assistants out of the room, and then appeared naked. I was alone with Weinstein, she told ITVs This Morning programme. He very quickly left the room and came back naked. He chased me naked. Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Jessica Barth Actress Jessica Barth described an encounter with Weinstein in 2011 in an interview with The New Yorker in which she said Weinstein veered between offering her roles in films and demanding a naked massage. She alleges the producer said to her: So, what would happen if, say, were having some champagne and I take my clothes off and you give me a massage? When she tried to leave, he then promised to give her the number of a female executive at the company. He gave me her number, and I walked out and I started bawling, Barth said. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Romola Garai The actress told The Guardian she felt violated after she went to a meeting with Weinstein at the age of 18 and he met her in his hotel room wearing nothing but a dressing gown. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Heather Graham Graham claimed that during a casting opportunity in the early 2000's Weinstein had told her he had an open relationship with his wife. He could sleep with whomever he wanted when he was out of town. I walked out of the meeting feeling uneasy, Graham told Variety. There was no explicit mention that to star in one of those films I had to sleep with him, but the subtext was there. Graham was never hired to work in a Weinstein film. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Jessica Hynes Spaced and W1A star Jessica Hynes tweeted about an encounter with Weinstein earlier this week, but subsequently deleted the tweet. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lucia Evans The actor told The New Yorker that after a meeting to discuss casting her in various projects, Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him. I said, over and over, I dont want to do this, stop, dont. She added: Hes a big guy. He overpowered me. I just sort of gave up. Thats the most horrible part of it, and thats why hes been able to do this for so long to so many women: people give up, and then they feel like its their fault. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Louisette Geiss The former actress said she met Weinstein to pitch a film script she was working on. During the meeting, Weinstein allegedly went out and reappeared naked and got into a jacuzzi where he masturbated in front of her and said he would make the script into a film if she stayed and watched. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Liza Campbell Liza Campbell, a British writer and artist, alleged that Olympically ugly Weinstein asked her to join him in the bath and began getting undressed at a hotel. In a piece for The Times, Campbell claimed she was forced to sprint to the door to escape. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Louise Godbold Writing in a blog post, Louise Godbold, a non-profit director in Los Angeles, said her encounter with Weinstein took the form of an office tour that became an occasion to trap me in an empty meeting room. She said then Weinstein was begging for a massage, his hands on my shoulders as I attempted to beat a retreat.

I don't have a tidy soundbite for you, because I have learned, I am not a child. And I have learned that when I've spoken in anger, I usually regret the way I express myself," she told Access Hollywood.

"So, I've been waiting to feel less angry, and when I'm ready, I'll say what I have to say."
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Kelsea Ballerini is a force of nature, even at the end of a huge tour supporting Lady Antebellum around Europe and the UK.

At her label office in London, she is pure southern charm; funny and down to earth despite a pair of teetering high heels.

Ive done Australia a few times and theres no jet lag quite like that one, the 24-year-old says, explaining her energy. Shes excited her second album Unapologetically, which was released earlier this month.

I started writing it the second after I finished the last one, around three and a half years ago. So its been this process, to write and then filter through it, figure out what I wanted the album to be about and say.

I love albums. I think you really get to know an artist by listening to the body of work. I want people to listen to the whole thing. So I thought, Ive written about my life for years so why dont I just put it in order? Piecing it together to make this story. Even when I listen to it, I remember feeling a certain way when I was on tour three years ago. Its going to be so fun to relive that.

Ballerini sings a different kind of tune to the more cliche country pop that has dominated radio in the past. The album title fits: On Unapologetically shes confident and upfront, unafraid to say what she wants; a nod to that chapter in her life.

My first record was called The First Time because it was the first time I did anything  release a record, do a live show, come to London, she nods. I loved the sentiment of the second album title. I thought the title track was gonna be some big girl power anthem, and it ended up being a love song! Its a song about literally just being I dont care if this doesnt work, I dont care what people are gonna say about it its right for me.

Theres something really freeing about not caring, and thats the heart of the record. Its vulnerable but theres strength in that. I learned over the last few years to be that way, be unapologetic about who I am as an artist.

Ballerini might seem unusual because she is as unapologetic in real life as she is on the record. She admits to studying the careers of female artists who dominated the country-pop scene, and doesnt pay too much attention to country purists who might sneer at her outside influences.

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I get comments about it a lot. But I think its a really cool eclectic time in country music, you can hear Little Big Town who are folk country, Chris Stapleton  soul country, Sam Hunt whos R&B country, me whos pop country... You can hear the influences we listen to. I grew up on a farm in east Tennessee and my first concert was Britney Spears, thats my music.

Attitudes are changing, and radios been really good to me, Maren [Morris], RaeLynn, Lauren Alaina... this new class of women that Im in. We all have influences that are outside of country and you can hear it.

Ballerini is a hip hop fan alongside those pop influences. She grew up dancing (I cant dance to save my life, she guffaws), and thinks this helped her as a songwriter, getting those infectious rhythms into her music.

Shes been songwriting for half her life and is, understandably, quite self-critical. For the second record she was determined to step things up, so while it went relatively unmentioned in the media that she wrote her debut herself, she now wants to grow her reputation as a credible songwriter: I really want people to know that part of me this time, she says.

I feel like the greatest gift we had when we made my first record is that none of us knew what we were doing. None of us had been in the room with a hit writer, I wrote the album with my friends. I was on a new independent label. We were winging it, hard. But I think because of that, I didnt know. I didnt know it was hard for a girl to be on the radio. I didnt have the opportunity to be around people who knew that side of the industry.

The biggest celebration we had over the last three and a half years was when the first single went to No 1. Obviously I was proud, but for it to be the other three songwriters first number one, my producers first number one, my labels first number one, my managements first number one we looked at each other and it was like this underdog victory. Thats what made it special.

On tour shes been observing Lady Antebellums performances from the soundbooth, believing theres something magical about watching a band that can play 75 minutes of hits, to keep people engaged for so long. I want to soak that up, she says.

Watching the trajectories of four major female artists  Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, Britney Spears and Kelly Clarkson  shes found elements of their careers that shes fascinated by.

Kelly is incredibly normal, she praises. I cant be in a room with her because Im too much of a fangirl, but I remember I went to her show when I was 14, the air conditioning was out and it was boiling. She was onstage, sounding incredible, she finishes a song and goes: Woo! If yall could smell me right now, you wouldnt be here. And I was like, shes a person!

Often theres this disconnect when someones onstage, and in that moment with Kelly, she was right there with the fans.

Ballerini was one of the artists performing at the iHeartRadio music festival in Las Vegas, which took place just one week before the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest event.

Posting on her social media accounts after the tragedy, she pledged to try and make people smile in the wake of an event sparked marred by hatred.

Obviously any time something like that happens you cant get your head around it, because you shouldnt have to, she says now. But this time, for the music community it was so close to home it was sad, thats all I can think of. How now every time we go on stage, part of us is gonna wonder.

Even as a fan, when I go to shows, theres something magical and unexplainable about that connection of singing a song together. Thats why people show up for concerts. To have someone take that away So its up to us as country music artists to keep going.

Unapologetically, the new album from Kelsea Ballerini, is out now via Black River/Sony Music. She plays C2C in London, Dublin and Glasgow in 2018  tickets here
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Taylor Swift is setting out on the UK and Ireland leg of her massive world tour, in support of her latest album reputation, beginning with two nights at Manchester's Etihad Stadium.

The 10-time Grammy award winner announced six shows: at Etihad Stadium in Manchester, Croke Park in Dublin, and Wembley Stadium in London, taking place between 8 and 23 June.

So far the tour seems to have been a resounding success, with praise from critics and fans for the staging, choreography, and Swift's performances of songs from her six studio albums.

At one recent show in Chicago, the pop star shared a heartfelt moment with fans before performing her single Delicate - wearing a rainbow dress - which was dedicated to the LGBT+ community during Pride Month.

It's very brave to be vulnerable about your feelings in any situation, but it's even more brave to be honest about your feelings and who you love when you know that it might be met with adversity from society, she told her audience.

This month and every month I want to send my love and respect to everybody who has been brave enough to be honest about how they feel, to live their lives as they are, as they feel they should be, as they identify.

This is a month where I think we need to celebrate how far we've come, but I think we also need to acknowledge how far we have left to go. I want to send my love and respect to everybody who hasn't felt comfortable enough to come out yet... and may you do that on your own time and may we end up with a world where everyone can live and love equally and no one has to be afraid to say how they feel, she continued.

Swift's acclaimed album reputation, topped the iTunes charts in 111 countries and debuted at no.1 on the Official UK Albums Charts.

BBC's Biggest Weekend Show all 13 1 /13 BBC's Biggest Weekend BBC's Biggest Weekend Florence and the Machine perform during the first day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. PA Wire/PA Images BBC's Biggest Weekend Liam Payne performs during the first day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. PA Wire/PA Images BBC's Biggest Weekend Ed Sheeran performs during the first day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. PA Wire/PA Images BBC's Biggest Weekend Clean Bandit perform during the first day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. PA Wire/PA Images BBC's Biggest Weekend Shawn Mendes performs during the first day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. PA Wire/PA Images BBC's Biggest Weekend Niall Horan performs during the first day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. Dave J Hogan/Getty Images BBC's Biggest Weekend Florence and the Machine perform during the first day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. PA Wire/PA Images BBC's Biggest Weekend Years and Years perform during the first day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. Dave J Hogan/Getty Images BBC's Biggest Weekend Craig David performs during the first day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. PA BBC's Biggest Weekend Camila performs during the second day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. PA Wire/PA Images BBC's Biggest Weekend Taylor Swift performing during the second day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, Swansea. PA BBC's Biggest Weekend Sam Smith performs during day 1 of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend 2018 held at Singleton Park Dave J Hogan/Getty Images BBC's Biggest Weekend Taylor Swift performs during day 2 of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend 2018 Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

With over 1.29 million copies in the US during its first week of release, Swift is currently the only artist in history to boast four records selling over one million copies in their first week, ahead of Adele who has three.

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The Independent praised Swift's talent as a songwriter in its review of the album, along with producer Jack Antonoff's work on the record.

"One of Swifts greatest talents as a songwriter is to encapsulate those small moments, often in a new relationship, that you as a listener cannot.

"Her skittishness on Delicate, about the danger of rushing into something, of sharing too much of yourself too soon with someone youre still getting to know, is all too palpable as the beat switches up like a nervous heart. She can be fragile (Dancing With Our Hands Tied, or she can be bold (only bought this dress/so you could take it off). There are very few faults in her songwriting."

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I first visited Turin's Club To Club, which sits somewhere between Sonar in Barcelona and Unsound in Krakow on my admittedly fictional International Festivals Scale, in 2015, and found a generally high quality event that I felt was suffering a little from a lack of serious competition in the area. I returned earlier this month for the festival's 17th edition, and found something more expansive and adventurous, both in terms of line-up and venues. The latter change became apparent minutes after I arrived in Turin as we were whisked half an hour north of the city to Reggia Di Venaria for C2C's opening party.

Reggia Di Venaria is a Unesco World Heritage site and an impossibly grand baroque palace formerly used as a hunting lodge by the Italian royal family. I dipped in and out of Visible Cloaks and Bill Kouligas's noisy sets in one of its many grand halls, but after a complicated day of travel I found my psyche was far better suited to meandering around its halls and chambers admiring the lavish art and standing gazing out over the grounds while chuckling in awed disbelief, both activities the palace rewards in spades.

Another spectacular setting that was new to me, if not the festival, was Officine Grande Riparazioni, a cavernous venue formerly used for repairing trains (yes, that kind of cavernous). Thursday found the place hosting the second of C2C's big opening events, with Kamasi Washington, XL Recordings founder Richard Russell's Everything Is Recorded and Powell and Wolfgang Tillmans' rather divisive live collaboration. Washington and his band's glorious show was unsurprisingly my highlight, and a fascinating discussion event earlier in the day with the Swiss art historian Hans Ulrich Obrist a few hours earlier made it very much the Los Angeles jazz virtuoso's day.

Friday and Saturday are the two main days of C2C, and various Radar Radio live streams and talks took place in the festival hotel in the afternoon and early evening. I found them unattendable however, as I did two years ago, due to the twin oppressions of dense throngs of music-industry types and sponsorship garish and ubiquitous enough (I think the only object I've never seen with Absolut branding in the lobby of the AC Hotel Lingotto has been a free drink) to trigger epilepsy. Turin in the autumn is a wanderer's delight, however, and after a day of strolling by the river I made for the festival's main venue, the huge Lingotto convention centre.

Lingotto has a main stage and a smaller Red Bull Stage, and many of the most rewarding moments of my weekend took place in the latter. Ben Frost's cathartic noise assault was in full swing when I arrived, but Chicago footwork producer Jlin, always an animated, grinning joy to behold live, put in one of the shows of the weekend immediately afterwards. The Italian producer Not Waving, whose sledgehammer-subtle beats and synth lines sometimes make him feel like an EDM producer it's OK to like, was deafening good fun, while the main stage was closed by the masked Italian pair Ninos du Brasil. I last saw Nicolo Fortuni and Nico Vascellari's whirlwind marriage of techno, samba, batucada and punk in the unlikely setting of rural Uganda, but it worked equally well in autumn in a Turin aircraft hangar, with the pummelling drums of Novos Misterios and O Som de Ossos high points in a set crammed full of them.

On Saturday night I returned to Lingotto's main stage early to catch a remarkably well-attended (given the time) show by Liberato, a trap producer whose identity is a mystery. It turns out I shouldn't have been surprised at the size of the crowd at all  Liberato has been one of the Italian music scene's main talking points thoughout 2017 on the back of just three tracks, all of them sung in his native Naples dialect, and should be a name to look out for internationally in the coming months.

With the exception of a predictably satisfying hour of techno and EBM at Helena Hauff's main-stage DJ set, the rest of my Saturday was spent at the Red Bull Stage zoning out to some of the most experimental bookings of the festival. The chops and drones of Actress were first up before a live set from the young Scottish producer Lanark Artefax that built in decidedly non-linear fashion towards a brain-melting, strobe-awash finale based around his spellbinding track-of-the-year contender "Touch Absence". Lorenzo Senni's rebooted trance and the astonishing gabber-revival theatrics of Gabber Eleganza's made for a relentlessly high-energy final couple of hours until my thoroughly frazzled brain called time, and I headed for home.

That was the end of the main part of Club To Club, but I had opted to stay in the city for another couple of days to take in a couple of the no fewer than eight all-seated Kraftwerk 3-D live shows that C2C had scheduled back at the Officine Grande Riparazioni. The shows ran at a rate of two per night from Saturday through Tuesday, and each had the Dusseldorf legends playing a different one of their albums in full as well as a panoply of greatest hits. I sat back and wallowed in the sumptuous A/V delights of Trans-Europe Express (Sunday evening) and Computer World (Monday night), and struggled to imagine a more pleasurable and therapeutic finish to a largely excellent weekend.

Photo credits: Main, 3 - Andrea Macchia / 1, 2: - Daniele Baldi / 4: Kit Macdonald
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Off a dishevelled street whose questionable past seeps into its dingy present, a garish eruption from a buried era awaits the wary visitor.

Vivid greens, blues and browns on a long painted ceramic frieze mingle with one another, but above all with flesh: Flesh depicted in pinks, creams, and off-whites; flesh uncovered or uncovering; flesh flayed or fanned; flesh bestriding more flesh; flesh swaying, sagging or swooning.

This cavalcade of undressed ladies from the early 1920s is the citys lone emissary from the vanished and once-thriving universe of the Parisian bordello. They are ironic, determined, weary, languorous, gazing out from half-closed eyes, unsubmissive.

The frieze at Aux Belles Poules  The Beautiful Hens  as the brothel at 32 Rue Blondel was called, is a unique survivor, protected by indifference, crude wooden boards, a Chinese emporium, a busy wholesale clothing business, and finally, in 1997, grudging admission to the adjunct historic monuments list.

Now, for the first time in nearly 70 years, the painted ladies at Aux Belles Poules are making a triumphant reappearance.

The women in the frieze offer a window into an unrecoverable past (Aux Belles Poules)

Caroline Senot, who inherited the property, is bringing the place back to life, though not in its original form. She intends to use the old brothel as an events space for readings, receptions and parties, enticing customers with the women in the frieze and offering a window into an unrecoverable past.

Were absolutely not about apologising for the exploitation of women, she says as the women gaze down at her. Theres this historic past that Im fighting for.

Of the 200-odd Paris brothels  licensed and inspected, luxurious and low down  flourishing by the mid-1930s, Aux Belles Poules is all that is left from an era when a prosperous sex business was well integrated into the life of Paris.

It was a middling establishment by the standards of a time when the Chabanais ornate Moorish Room competed with the One-Two-Twos Ducal Room, for 30 francs a pass.

The basements of the fanciest had faux torture rooms equipped with whips and chains. There was even a special police unit whose business was to make sure the brothel-keepers kept their establishments clean and stocked with condoms and rubbing alcohol.

Senots father ran a sober computer-network maintenance business from the ex-brothels big ground-floor room, where many years before the elaborate tableaux vivants  or living pictures  amused ogling customers. A finely wrought art deco staircase, discreetly tucked in the back, led to the small upstairs rooms for clients.

The frieze, demurely covered with boards, awaited its deliverance, while Senots father dispatched computer technicians all over Paris.

The family knew of the buildings sultry past, all the more so because Aux Belles Poules spiritual descendants continued to exercise their trade up and down the Rue Blondel, in central Paris near the Porte Saint-Denis.

One day in 2014, with her father retiring and Senot wondering what came next, they decided to take the boards down.

The brothel is the only establishment whose decor was kept almost intact, unlike other prominent rivals at the time (Aux Belles Poules)

It was like opening a Christmas present, Senot says. I was just jumping about everywhere. My jaw was, like, dropping. Every time a board came down, I said, Its not possible.

The frieze bore the stigmata of years of disrespect. Pipes had been bored into it, and there were holes, nicks and cracks everywhere. It was a mess. Finally, this summer, Senot hired a team of sisters, experts at restoring painted ceramics, who have toiled diligently to make the ladies and their companions whole again.

I find it moving, says Mathilde de Blas, one of the restorers, taking a break from her painstaking work on a sultry day last summer. Its a place where women worked and lived. This restores some of their dignity. These women look radiant. They are certainly not just objects.

Her sister adds: They are free, they are beautiful, and they are among themselves. This was a world of women.

The ladies on the street outside approve. Beautiful, what theyre doing in there, says one who would offer only her trade name, Nanou of the Rue Blondel. Its a great idea.

When restoration is complete, Senot plans to hold burlesque dinners and readings of erotic plays (Facebook/Aux Belles Poules)

People have a bad image of us, says Nanou, who is wearing knee-length black boots despite the warm day. But, were normal. We have a job. Were not drug addicts. We try to raise our children. So, maybe it will give people another image.

The tussle among the officials charged with historic preservation in the late 1990s, and the protests that followed Aux Belles Poules official designation, speak to the uneasiness this buried past provokes, long after all the brothels were closed after World War II.

Certainly, were not claiming this decor is an immortal masterpiece, wrote Francois Mace de Lepinay, the conservator-general and inspector of historic monuments of Paris, in 1996.

But the design is ample, vigorous, extremely modern in its vivid colors that are applied flat, he wrote. All this is far from being negligible and in my opinion shows a sense of humour.

Grinning fauns, satyrs and nymphs parade nonchalantly alongside the friezes Belle Epoque ladies, all in various stages of diaphanous undress. Helpfully nudging the customer along are interspersed Champagne bottles and grape bunches.

Maces arguments won the day. The effect, as one art historian has noted, is like one of the Bacchic scenes from a villa at Pompeii.

Aux Belles Poules opened in 1921, in the burst of loosening morals that followed the dark years of World War I. In its heyday, by 1939, a police inspection report said that 31 women worked there, with the inspector primly noting that the madame had tried to conceal the number of rooms in operation: a strict no-no.

The listed building is a true masterpiece of art deco (Aux Belles Poules)

The brothel opened at three o clock in the afternoon and closed at four in the morning; the police noted that the women averaged two sex acts per day on weekdays and three on Sunday, and there was a single price for all, soldiers and civilians.

A business card from its prime boasts English spoken and a bar Americain and depicts a joyous, scantily clad lady astride a rooster, and holding a cocktail glass.

The reality would have been different. No direct testimony of life inside the Belles Poules survives. But it could not have been pleasant.

Without money, without autonomy, deprived of close relationships, deprived of the use of their own bodies, the bordello girls lived a state of moral and psychological deprivation, wrote Laure Adler in her history of the French brothel, Les Maisons Closes, 1830-1930.

The old photographs from other Paris brothels are revealing.

In these photographs, behind the different images of the prostitute, behind the makeup and the mascara, beneath the ringlets and the blond hairdos, often appeared a distant, absent look, of a heartbreaking naivete, revealing all the distress of their condition, wrote the architect Paul Teyssier in his study of the architecture of the Parisian brothels, Maisons Closes Parisiennes.

Their world was swept away by the war. The Germans made plentiful use of this semi-hidden network, reserving the fanciest brothels for themselves. Frenchmen, civilians and Jews strictly forbidden, reads the business card for Chez Arlette, in German.

Some brothels hid Jews  Teyssier reproduces a letter of denunciation to the French police noting the illegal presence of a Jew  but the luxurious ones were only too happy to take the Germans money.

At Frances Liberation in 1946 a wave of indignation shut them all down. Aux Belles Poules was requisitioned for desperately needed student housing. Madame Ucello, the proprietor, refused to leave, long after most of the others had been shuttered.

The owner is refusing to turn over the building, an exasperated police inspector wrote. The students demonstrated outside to have the brothel closed, and they finally won the day.

They seem not to be maintaining relationships with the prostitutes plying their charms in the Rue Blondel, the inspector noted with prim satisfaction on 19 November 1948.

 New York Times
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Elon Musk believes its highly likely that artificial intelligence (AI) will be a threat to people.

The Tesla founder is concerned that a handful of major companies will end up in control of AI systems with extreme levels of power.

In Mr Musks opinion, theres a very small chance that humans will be safe from such systems.

 Elon Musk says we're only 2 years from being able to nap in self-driving cars

Maybe there's a five to 10 percent chance of success [of making AI safe], he told Neuralink staff after showing them a documentary on AI, reports Rolling Stone.

He also told them that he invested in DeepMind in order to keep an eye on Googles development of AI.

Mr Musk has called for the companies working on AI to slow down to ensure they dont unintentionally build something unsafe.

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. 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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

Between Facebook, Google and Amazon  and arguably Apple, but they seem to care about privacy  they have more information about you than you can remember, he told Rolling Stone.

There's a lot of risk in concentration of power. So if AGI [artificial general intelligence] represents an extreme level of power, should that be controlled by a few people at Google with no oversight?

Though he didn't expand on what sort of threat it could pose, he's previously said that AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation.

He believes its development needs to be regulated proactively.

I have exposure to the most cutting-edge AI and I think people should be really concerned about it, he said in July.

I keep sounding the alarm bell but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they dont know how to react because it seems so ethereal."
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Home insurance companies may be overcharging up to 13 million UK households, new research suggests, with older people particularly hard hit.

A study conducted by Citizens Advice and published on Friday shows that 40 per cent of people over the age of 65 have had their home insurance policy for over five years, which means they could be paying 70 per cent more than a new customer would for the same policy.

The network of charities said that for someone with the cheapest policy for building and contents insurance, this could equate to an extra 110 a year, on average, that they would not be paying if they were a new customer.

Recommended Insurance brokers face FCA review amid concerns customers pay too much

Citizens Advice said that charging loyal customers more than new customers had become a market-wide practice and that companies often hike prices substantially when existing customers renew their policies.

The research suggests that almost one-third of the entire home insurance market might be paying more than they would be if they were a new customer.

Home insurance companies are taking advantage of peoples loyalty, and its older people who are suffering the most, said Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice.

She also urged the Financial Conduct Authority to crack down on the practice of overcharging.

Vulnerable customers are the hardest hit and must be protected from this unfair practice, she said.

Earlier this year, the FCA set out rules to protect consumers by making it a requirement for companies to explicitly inform customers what their premium at renewal was in the previous year.

But Citizens Advice said that many providers are still not fully complying with the rules.
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European Union privacy regulators will discuss ride-hailing app Ubers massive data breach cover-up next week and could create a task-force to coordinate investigations.

Uber faces regulatory scrutiny after chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the company covered up a data breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts.

The chair of the group of European data protection authorities - known as the Article 29 Working Party - said on Thursday the data breach would be discussed at its meeting on 28 and 29 November.

While EU data protection authorities cannot impose joint sanctions, they can set up task-forces to coordinate national investigations.

When a new EU data protection law comes into force next May, regulators will have the power to impose much higher fines - up to 4 per cent of global turnover - and coordinate more closely.

Uber paid hackers $100,000 (75,000) to keep secret the massive breach.

The stolen information included names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers of Uber users around the world, and the names and license numbers of 600,000 US drivers, Mr Khosrowshahi said. Uber declined to say what other countries may be affected.

We cannot but voice our strong concern for the breach suffered by Uber, which was reported belatedly by the US company.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

We initiated our inquiries and are gathering all the information that can help us assess the scope of the data breach and take the appropriate steps to protect any Italian citizens involved, said Antonello Soro, President of the Italian Data Protection Authority on Wednesday.

The British data protection authority also said the concealment of the breach raised huge concerns about Ubers data policies and ethics.

Long known for its combative stance with local taxi regulators, Uber has faced a stream of top-level executive departures over issues from sexual harassment to data privacy to driver working conditions, which led its board to remove Travis Kalanick as chief executive in June.

Reuters
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Large amounts of the happy hormone dopamine  responsible for pleasurable feelings, as well as other functions  could be responsible for our brain power, a new study has found.

Scientists came to the conclusion after comparing the brains of different primate species, which allowed them to identify the features that could make the human brain special.

On the face of it, human and primate brains have many similarities, but our superior intelligence suggests there are considerable differences under the surface.

"Our brains are three times larger, have many more cells and therefore more processing power than chimpanzee or monkey," said Yale neuroscientist Dr Andre Sousa.

But he added that a difference in size is not all that distinguishes our brains from those of our primate cousins.

"There are also distinct small differences between the species in how individual cells function and form connections," he said.

It is these that may play a big role in the disparity in intelligence between humans and primates, according to the new study co-authored by Dr Sousa and published in the Science journal.

Dr Sousa and his large team of collaborators focused 16 regions of adult human, chimpanzee and macaque monkey brains.

They explored the activity of genes found in those regions, looking at which genes were switched on and off in the different species, and the extent to which they produced substances like dopamine.

For the most part, the differences between other primates and us appeared to be subtle, but they were notable in an area that is far more developed in humans than apes called the neocortex.

New population of endangered monkey found in northern Vietnam Show all 2 1 /2 New population of endangered monkey found in northern Vietnam New population of endangered monkey found in northern Vietnam 95942.bin LK Quyet & Flora International New population of endangered monkey found in northern Vietnam 95943.bin LK Quyet & Flora International

The scientists found that TH, a gene that leads to the production of dopamine, was expressed in the human neocortex but not that of other primates.

Besides being involved in the brains reward system, dopamine is involved in a variety of other functions including movement, learning and memory. It is the chemical that is depleted in people with Parkinsons disease, a progressive neurological condition characterised by shaking, slow movements and memory problems.

The brain area that showed the most human-specific gene expression  including dopamine production  was the striatum, a region that is mainly associated with movement.

The study also showed that the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that traditionally is thought to most distinguish humans from other apes, actually bore striking similarities with comparable regions in the brains of other primates.

The scientists are not yet sure the extent to which their findings, including the elevated levels of dopamine, explain the relative intelligence of humans.

However, their findings indicate the importance of a nuanced understanding of brains that goes beyond size when assessing the underpinnings of intelligence.
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Lightning bolts have been recorded triggering nuclear reactions in the skies above Japan, causing radiation and antimatter to rain down upon the Earth.

But although it may sound like the plot of a science fiction movie, scientists say that there is no cause for concern as there is no health risk from the radiation, which is no more harmful than the background radiation our planet already experiences.

The findings have been made by a team of researchers from Kyoto University in Japan and published in scientific journal Nature.

Since the radioactive isotopes are short-lived, spatially restricted and [comprise a] relatively small amount compared to usual background radiative environments, I think there is no health risk from this phenomena, the teams astrophysicist Teruaki Enoto told ScienceAlert.

It has been thought since the 1980s that nuclear fission reactions take place in the atmosphere during thunderstorms, caused when high-energy electrons produce gamma rays.

The findings also mark only the second time that scientists have seen radioactive isotopes being naturally produced in the atmosphere  the first time being in the form of particles produced by cosmic rays from the sun and other stars.

The photonuclear reaction in the atmosphere has been theoretically expected [to be] triggered by such high energy radiation, added Professor Enoto, according to ScienceAlert.

Several groups have accumulated signatures of this [phenomenon], such as signals of either neutrons or positrons, which are the products of this reaction.

Scientists have used observatories and satellites to detect these neutrons, positrons and other particles since the 1980s, but until now it was difficult to confirm they were the product of nuclear reactions.

In pictures: Lightning in the UK Show all 5 1 /5 In pictures: Lightning in the UK In pictures: Lightning in the UK London Night sky over Central London on 18 July REX In pictures: Lightning in the UK London The London Eye in the early hours of 18 July REX In pictures: Lightning in the UK London St Paul's Cathedral can be seen in the distance on 18 July REX In pictures: Lightning in the UK Brighton Brighton's West Pier in the early hours of 18 July Max Langran Photography In pictures: Lightning in the UK Brighton Brighton's West Pier in the early hours of 18 July Max Langran Photography

During a thunderstorm in February this year, Professor Enoto and his team detected intense radiation from a pair of lightning strikes just off the coast, using equiupment installed at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata.

It was followed by a prolonged gamma-ray line with the same energy signature scientists would expect to see from the positrons and electrons following a nuclear reaction.

This line is a conclusive indication of electron-positron annihilation and represents unequivocal evidence that photonuclear reactions can be triggered by thunderstorms, said experimental physicist Leonid Babich from the Russian Federal Nuclear Centre, reports ScienceAlert.

According to the paper in Nature, this result could provide a previously unknown channel for generating isotopes of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen naturally on Earth.

And at the very least, it proves that theres more going on in thunderstorms than scientists originally thought.

Usually people think lightning can interact with electrons in atoms, Professor Enoto explained to ScienceAlert.

The photonuclear reactions indicate that lightning also interacts even with nuclei if gamma rays have sufficiently high energy to knock out neutrons from the nuclei.

Whether or not these reactions take place in all thunderstorms is still something scientists need to determine.

Recommended The lasting effects of being hit by lightning

This is still an open question, Professor Enoto added.

We have proved the existence of photonuclear reactions at least from one lightning discharge in order to answer [the] question, we need more statistical and quantitative studies.

I am personally suspecting that the photonuclear reaction would happen at powerful events.
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Chlo Winfield was 13 years old when became a domestic abuse victim. Her boyfriend, three years her senior, would tell her she was stupid, call her a slag if she didnt do as he asked and threaten to stab her, among other threats. But Chlo, only just a teenager, didnt realise she was being abused; she thought it was normal.

Because I was so young, I just didnt think it was something that would happen to me. It just didnt cross my mind. I just thought we argued and that was what all couples do, Chlo, from Bristol, tells The Independent. He always had a reason why he was acting how he was. I always felt like it was something I was doing.

I would spend all my time trying to be who he wanted me to be and behave in the right way so he wouldnt get angry again. Id constantly be replying to messages from him because if I didnt reply hed get angry. He threatened that he and his friends would stab me, and he described fantasies about luring me to his house and killing me."

A couple of years into the relationship, Chlo decided to phone the police after an incident in which her boyfriend threatened to kill her. She was shocked when an officer told her she was being abused.

I called the police, but not because I thought it was abuse. I was just so fed up of him threatening me, so I thought Id do something. But then the police officer said that what he was doing was abusive. It was the first time anyone had said that to me," she says.

I started looking up domestic abuse online, and read about cycles of abuse and think wow,that sounds just like him. I had thought he just had issues and that I needed to stay with him and be a good girlfriend.

Stuff had built up and Id got caught in that cycle without realising it. When youre so involved, its much harder to see than it is for someone on the outside.

Chlo is one of many teenage victims of domestic abuse in England and Wales. A new report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) states that more than one in 10 women aged 16-19 say they have been subject to domestic abuse in the past year, making them the most likely group to fall victim to abuse.

Eleven per cent of females in this age group experienced domestic abuse last year, compared with 8 per cent of women aged 16-19. Seven per cent of men in this age group said they had been domestic abuse victims, compared with 4 per cent of the general male population.

Yet young victims and charities warn that while women and girls of this age are most at risk of being abused, they are also the least likely to access support services, with only 5 per cent of them resident in refuge and 6 per cent accessing community-based support services.

Chlo says her conversation with the police officer helped her realise what was happening, but she didnt end the relationship straight away. The abuse carried on for another six months before she went back to the police after her boyfriend threatened to kill her and told her she deserved to be raped.

He was later handed an 18-week prison sentence, suspended for 24 months and ordered never to contact her again.

Chlo, who is now 20 and in her first year of an undergraduate degree at Bristol University, says the abuse she experienced  much of which took place over the phone or online - left her isolated and had a major impact on her self-esteem.

He never physically hit me, so I didnt think of it as abuse to start with, but the psychological abuse had a big impact. He was constantly putting me down and manipulating me. The control and emotional abuse just messes with your head, she says.

Katie Ghose, chief executive of Women's Aid, said: "It is worrying to see that an estimated 10 per cent of 16-19 years olds have experienced domestic abuse. From our work with survivors, we know that this age group are most at risk of being abused and also the least likely to access support services.

We are calling on the Government to ensure that their work around the landmark Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill breaks down the barriers facing young women in disclosing abuse and accessing help, and ensures that all survivors get the support they need, when they need it.

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 of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and 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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 welcome commitment to compulsory relationships and sex education from 2019 in schools must be delivered with a clear focus on recognising domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls, and teaching all young people what a healthy relationship looks like.

The ONS report shows that overall, an estimated 1.9 million adults aged 16 to 59 years experienced domestic abuse in the last year, equating to a prevalence rate of approximately six in 100 adults, with the majority (seven in 10) of victims of domestic homicides recorded between April 2013 and March 2016 being females.

The police meanwhile recorded 1.1 million reports of domestic abuse over the same period, which probably includes repeated instances of abuse against the same victim.

The ONS findings also reveal worryingly low arrest and conviction rates for such crimes, with less than half of domestic abuse cases reported to police leading to arrest, at 43 per cent.

More than a quarter (28 per cent) of cases referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) by the police meanwhile led to a decision to charge, and convictions were secured for 76 per cent of domestic abuse-related prosecutions.

The figures come after an Ofsted report stated that far too little was being done to prevent domestic abuse or repair the damage it causes afterwards, and accused the Government of failing to implement a long-term strategy to tackle the issue.

The report said there was a lack of a long-term strategy to the public health issue and highlighted a lack of clarity when it came to agencies sharing information.

Domestic abuse includes non-physical abuse, threats, force, sexual assault or stalking by a partner or family member - the most common of which is abuse by a partner.

It is not classed by the Government as a specific criminal offence, so domestic abuse-related offenses are recorded under the respective offence that has been committed  such as assault with injury.

The Home Office has been collecting information from police on whether recorded offences are related to domestic abuse since April 2015, but it is not possible to determine how many crimes were domestic abuse-related prior to this date.

The ONS states: Domestic abuse is often a hidden crime that is not reported to the police, which is why the estimated number of victims is much higher than the number of incidents and crimes recorded by the police.

Domestic abuse campaigners deploy 'hacked' wifi hotspots across country

Of the cases which do come to the attention of the police, many, although still recorded as incidents and dealt with as required, will fall short of notifiable offences and are therefore not recorded as crimes.

Evidential difficulties often relate to the victim not supporting the prosecution. This reflects the challenges involved in investigating domestic abuse-related offences and demonstrates the importance of a robust evidence-led case being built for the victim.

It also highlighted that the data presented in the report shows variations across areas and highlight that while agencies such as social care and health care services are already involved in the response to domestic abuse, such involvement is not widespread.

The policing areas which saw the highest number of domestic abuse incidents and crimes last year were Durham, Cleveland, Gwent, South Wales and London, while Cheshire, Dyfed-Powys, Surrey, North Yorkshire and Thames Valley saw the least.

Dame Vera Baird QC, Victims lead at the Association of Police and Crime, said in response to the findings: This report provides fuller data and a more comprehensive impression of the scale of domestic abuse and the impact it has on police forces in England and Wales.

We know that domestic violence is still seen as a hidden crime; it is under-recorded which makes comparisons difficult. However, we have seen a considerable improvement in the overall police response to victims of domestic violence, in part because Police and Crime Commissioners have made protecting and supporting vulnerable people a priority.

Recommended Only changes to welfare will help women leave abusive relationships

A Government spokesperson said: Domestic violence and abuse is a devastating crime that shatters the lives of victims and families. This Government is determined to ensure anyone facing the threat of domestic abuse has somewhere to turn to.

The action we have taken to tackle domestic abuse includes introducing a new offence of coercive and controlling behaviour and rolling out Clares law and domestic violence protection orders on a national basis.

Until 2020, the Government is providing 100 million of dedicated funding for tackling violence against women and girls. This includes a 20 million fund to support refuges and other accommodation-based services, providing 2,200 additional bed spaces.

We will publish a landmark draft Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill to protect and support victims, recognise the life-long impact domestic abuse has on children and make sure agencies effectively respond to domestic abuse.

If you are a teenager and need advice about domestic abuse, you can contact Womens Aid or access their guide to healthy relationships for young people.
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The police officer in charge during the disaster at Hillsborough Stadium does not have the funding to fight a legal dispute over whether he can be prosecuted, his lawyers have claimed as the criminal case remains at a stalemate.

David Duckenfield faces being charged with the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 men, women and children who died in a crush at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in 1989.

Their families celebrated the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) decision to pursue charges against six people, including Mr Duckenfield, in relation to the disaster, but a legal dispute has put the case on hold.

It cannot proceed until the High Court grants permission to lift a stay on further prosecution that was imposed after an attempted private prosecution by the victims families in 2000.

The South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) rejected a request to pay Mr Duckenfields latest legal costs earlier this month, saying he had already been given significant financial support amounting to 7.6m while fighting the private prosecution and during the Hillsborough Inquests.

Alan Billings said he had now been asked to meet the cost of both Mr Duckenfields opposition to the CPSs application and defending any future charges.

 Ex-police chief faces charge over Hillsborough disaster

Mr Billings cited Home Office guidance stating that police officers should be supported financially in legal proceedings if they act in good faith and exercise their judgement reasonably, and if the move would have a positive impact on force efficiency and morale.

The PCC, who has refused an additional request to reconsider his decision from the Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales, said he had to consider whether providing more money would be appropriate.

Representatives of Mr Duckenfield, who was South Yorkshire Polices match commander during the disaster and later retired on health grounds with a full police pension, are currently acting for free.

Barrister John Dye told a case management hearing at Preston Crown Court that agencies were passing the buck on legal support for the 73-year-old former officer.

In a nutshell the position is this  we are unfunded, he told Justice William Davis on Friday.

Mr Dye said the High Court application involved serious, complex and novel legal arguments in relation to the lifting of the stay.

He told the judge: Our position is, the funding is going to take a while to be resolved, whether legally-aided or by way of insurers. Everybody seems to want to pass the buck in this case.

The application for the stay to be lifted is currently due to be heard in January, when the lawyer claimed Mr Duckenfield could be unrepresented.

Hillsborough Disaster 1989 Show all 8 1 /8 Hillsborough Disaster 1989 Hillsborough Disaster 1989 Liverpool fans try and pull their fellow supporters out of the crush at Hillsborough stadium, 15 April 1989. Ninety-six fans were crushed to death and hundreds injured after support railings collapsed during a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest Richard Sellers Hillsborough Disaster 1989 Football fans are rushed away on a stretcher at Hillsborough stadium, 15 April 1989. Ninety-six fans were crushed to death and hundreds injured after support railings collapsed during a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest AFP/Getty Hillsborough Disaster 1989 The Sun has been boycotted in Liverpool since this edition, which lied about the behaviour of Liverpool fans on the day Hillsborough Disaster 1989 Hillsborough Memorial tributes lie on the pitch during the memorial service marking the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster, at Anfield Stadium on April 15, 2016 in Liverpool, England. Thousands of fans, friends and relatives attended the service at Liverpool's Anfield Stadium to mark the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy. 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives during a crush at an FA Cup semi final against Nottingham Forest at the Hillsborough football ground in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in 1989 Liverpool FC via Getty Images Hillsborough Disaster 1989 Barry Devonside leaves Parr Hall, Warrington, where the Crown Prosecution Service has said, Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield, former chief constable Sir Norman Bettison and four other individuals have been charged with offences relating to the Hillsborough disaster. PA Hillsborough Disaster 1989 Family members react after the families of the 96 Hillsborough victims were told the decision that the Crown Prosecution Service will proceed with criminal charges and six people have been charged with criminal offences, including Ex-Ch Supt David Duckenfield and Sir Norman Bettison on June 28, 2017 in Warrington, England. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed its intentions at a meeting with victims' relatives. Last year's inquests into the Hillsborough disaster concluded the 96 fans had been unlawfully killed Getty Images Hillsborough Disaster 1989 Norman Bettison was charged with four counts of misconduct in a public office. He was found to have lied on four separate occasions about his role in the deaths and when he claimed he never blamed Liverpool supporters for the disaster PA Hillsborough Disaster 1989 Former South Yorkshire Police match commander David Duckenfield is currently on trial for the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool fans. Reuters

Mr Dye said a number of avenues are being explored in relation to appealing the decisions of various bodies, including a potential judicial review of the PCCs decision.

I think that once criminal proceedings begin  if they ever begin  we will be funded by somebody, but it is this High Court application that we are not funded for, he added.

The judge said there should be a further case management hearing early next month in a bid to resolve the funding problem.

A total of six people face charges relating to the Hillsborough disaster, with future trials scheduled to be held at Preston Crown Court.

A previous hearing heard that they will attempt to block any prosecution as an abuse of process on the grounds of delays and publicity that could prejudice the case.

No pleas have been formally entered but Mr Duckenfield, former chief constable Norman Bettison, retired officers Donald Denton and Alan Foster, Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell and solicitor Peter Metcalf have indicated through their lawyers that they will plead not guilty.

Additional reporting by PA
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A man who launched a horrific attack on the mother of his daughter over a disagreement about childcare payments has been convicted of murder.

Mark Morris, 39, stabbed 33-year-old Emma Day to death on a South London street in May.

The pair ended their eight year relationship in 2016 and their daughter went to live with Day, along with her older son from a previous relationship.

Day sought Child Support Agency payments from Morris for their daughter, but he was not happy with this request, London's Old Bailey heard.

Around a year after the couple separated, Day called a friend and asked her if she could accompany her and her two children home.

She explained that Morris had been around and that he had made her feel nervous because he was so unpredictable, the court heard.

As they made their way Morris emerged from an alleyway and approached them and begged Day not to make him pay child support.

He said he was in a lot of debt and if he had to pay it he would be left homeless, the court heard.

But Ms Day was adamant that he should pay, which resulted in Morris, who was under the influence of alcohol, calling her names.

At this point that Ms Days friend sent the children away because she was worried he was going to hit their mother, so they left the scene.

Day eventually said that nothing was being resolved and her friend left and started walking away, at which point Morris dropped his bag to the floor and ran towards her with a knife, stabbing her repeatedly.

Although her friend rushed to her defence and tried to fight Morris off, he continued his attack. The friend eventually managed to get him off, at which point he ran away.

Officers searching the area, later found a bag with a number of items inside belonging to Morris - including correspondence from the Child Maintenance Service. The murder weapon was also recovered nearby.

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 of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take 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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. 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The 39-year-old pleaded guilty to murder at the Old Bailey. He had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter but it was not accepted by the court.

Detective Inspector John Massey, the senior investigating officer from the Mets Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: This was a pre-meditated, brutal attack where Morris laid in wait for Emma so he could confront her.

"When the conversation did not go his way, he has followed Emma, produced a large knife and stabbed her to death before fleeing the scene.

This horrific attack on a defenceless young woman was witnessed by Emmas lifelong friend who desperately tried to protect her from Morris. Thankfully, Emmas children did not witness the attack but they have still had their loving mother taken away from them.

I hope todays conviction will give Emmas family and friends a measure of comfort and closure."
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Police are investigating after a teenage girl was raped in an evening assault in Dundee.

The 18-year-old was subjected to a serious sexual assault in West Henderson's Wynd at around 8.15pm on Thursday.

The male attacker ran off after members of the public came to help her.

Police have appealed for information.

Detective Chief Inspector Graham Binnie said: Firstly I would like to say that this is an extremely distressing incident for the 18-year-old female victim and she is being supported by family and friends, along with specialist officers.

This is a horrific crime but I would like to stress that incidents of this nature are very rare and our priority is to identify and find the person responsible.

I would appeal to anyone who was in the area between 8pm and 8.30pm, either on foot or in a vehicle, to come forward because you might have vital information that can assist our enquiry.

Also, anyone who lives or works in the area, we would like to hear from you. Lastly, I would appeal to anyone who might know the identity of the person responsible to come forward.

The victim was wearing a distinctive yellow jacket at the time of crime and police hope that someone might remember seeing her.

Officers are reviewing CCTV footage and carrying out inquiries in the area.

Mr Binnie said: I would like to thank the members of the public who came to the assistance of the young woman, which caused the man to run off towards Guthrie Street.

Finally, I would like to reassure the local community that we are doing all we can to find the person responsible.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters 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 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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 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The suspect is described as white, around 5ft 7 tall, of medium to heavy build, and has a Scottish accent.

He has short hair and was wearing a dark-coloured hooded top and Adidas tracksuit bottoms.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting CR/30719/17, or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

PA
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Mark Dixie, who is in jail for the rape and murder of teen model Sally Anne Bowman, has been given two more life sentences at Southwark Crown Court for two further sex attacks.

Dixie's previous life sentence meant he was not eligible for parole until 2040, when he will be 69, and the new sentence means it will be another four years until he has a chance of being freed.

Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC told Dixie, who pleaded guilty to charges of rape, indecent assault and grievous bodily harm at an earlier hearing: "These offences are serious offences."

Miss Bowman's family sat in court as the judge said: "I am satisfied that you remain a serious danger to the public."

He said Dixie's offending had "escalated significantly" until he was jailed for the teenager's murder, adding: "The risk of repeated violent sexual harm remains very high."

Father-of-three Dixie, with a large tattoo visible under his grey polo shirt, appeared by video link from HMP Frankland in County Durham.

He sat with his hands clasped in front of his face as prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC outlined his horrific crimes, which she said showed "an escalating pattern of violence towards women coupled with sexual depravity".

Mark Dixie (PA Wire/PA Images)

At his 2008 Old Bailey trial, Dixie denied murdering Miss Bowman, claiming he had sex with her after coming across her already dead or dying in the street.

But the jury took just three hours to return unanimous guilty verdicts.

Dixie wrote to police in January 2015 saying he wanted to "tell the truth" about what happened to the blonde teenager, before telling detectives he had killed her in a frenzied attack that included biting her after she fled from her boyfriend's car in a row.

He told police he had not raped or murdered anybody before, but went on to admit two further attacks, after he was told by the investigating officer: "That's not entirely true. I know something you did in 1987."

The prosecutor said Dixie's confessions may have been him seeking to take responsibility for his offending, but added: "Or is there an element of maintaining a degree of notoriety?"

The first victim was targeted by Dixie in her own car at an isolated south London car park in 1987, who then tied her up inside and set the vehicle on fire.

She said he "seemed delighted in her evident fear" as she became hysterical, thinking she was about to die.

Blenheim Crescent, Croydon, where Ms Bowman was found dead (PA Archive/PA Images)

The woman, aged 44 at the time, managed to free herself and raise the alarm, but was left "utterly petrified" when she received two chilling phone calls from her attacker in the following days, the court was told.

In a victim impact statement, she said: "I didn't seek counselling, I had survived, I was in one piece. I just wanted to get on with life."

The second attack, in 2002, saw Dixie bludgeon a woman with a chef's steel, normally used to sharpen kitchen knives, before telling her "I'm going to kill you" and molesting her.

She managed to escape when Dixie was interrupted by a man who heard her screams.

When he confessed to the crime, Dixie told police: "I was sitting there, I had a person who's unconscious next to me quiet, no one's heard anything.

"I could have done whatever I wanted to, but this person saved this woman and saved me from doing something worse."

The court heard Dixie took his victim's mobile phone during the attack and later boasted to her ex-boyfriend in a call: "I've battered her. I've battered her. I've left her by the railway."

In a victim impact statement the woman said: "It is difficult to assess, over the years, how this incident has affected me. I was determined that it would not stop me from living my life."

Ms Bowman (bottom centre) on a night out in Croydon (PA Archive/PA Images)

By the time Dixie was jailed for Miss Bowman's murder, he had already been convicted of charges of robbery, indecent exposure and indecent assault in the UK, while his trial heard of another horrific sex attack in Australia, where he lived for six years.

Dixie has also admitted a serious sexual assault in Spain in 2005, his barrister Andrew Mooney said.

Ms Johnson said: "We know now, having the full picture as we do now, that offending history has continued throughout Dixie's adult life until his incarceration. We know it spans a number of jurisdictions."

She said there was "an element of excitement in witnessing a victim's fear", highlighting Dixie's desire "to almost relive or reinvent" his crimes by phoning his victims, or those close to them.

"What these offences demonstrate, which is apparent in the murder of Sally Anne Bowman, is an emphasis of control and humiliation of his female victims."

Speaking outside court after the sentence, senior investigator Chris Le Pere said of Dixie: "He's a monster."

The officer, who was part of the original team that put Dixie in jail for Miss Bowman's murder, said: "Women are safer with Mark Dixie behind bars.

"We know he's offended in Australia, Spain and here, and I believe he's committed other serious offences here and abroad.

"I would appeal to anyone with information about Mark Dixie to come forward."

He said police currently have no evidence to link Dixie to any other rapes or murders, but added: "As an investigator, with my experience, I would find it very surprising if he had not done something extremely serious we don't know about."

Mr Le Pere said Dixie was still "very dangerous", adding: "I would be very surprised if he would ever not pose a threat to the public or a danger to the public, but that's for other people to decide."

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A burglar broke into a home and held a knife to a six-month-old babys throat, after demanding the childs parents give him valuables.

Nicole McGrillen, 21, and Philip McDowell, were woken up by the sound of an intruder going through their belongings near where their son, Finley, was sleeping.

When the parents confronted the burglar, he allegedly held a knife to the boys neck, shouting: Wheres all the stuff?

He then fled the Belfast home with a number of items, including a laptop, a mobile phone and toys.

Ms McGrillen, who lives with McDowell, her mother and her siblings, told Belfast Live: It was like something from a film.

They didn't care that there was a baby in the room  he had taken a butcher's knife from the kitchen and went over and held it to Finley's throat and said, 'where's all the stuff?'.

My sister Katie barricaded our seven-year-old brother in her room and we ran downstairs and called the police.

You're just frozen with fear. We were begging them for our lives. My mum keeps my dad's ashes beside her bed so he was obviously watching over us.

It brought all of that back but thankfully nobody was hurt.

Ms McGrillens youngest sister said she was afraid her mother would be killed, as her father Finbar was murdered in a Belfast flat in December 2013.

While mum was wrestling with him on the ground we were so scared that she would be killed like my dad was, she said.

One of them was fighting with my mum at the entrance to a bedroom, trying to stab her.

Police said they were called to the Belfast house around 2am on Thursday 23 November.

Two men aged 25 and 30 have since been arrested.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters 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 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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. 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Detective Sergeant Philip McCullagh said: Police received a report at around 2.10am that two males had gained entry into a house occupied by three women, one man and two children.

The males were reported to be armed with knives taken from the kitchen of the property.

When confronted by one of the female occupants, the two males fled the scene with a number of items including a laptop, mobile phone and a purse.

Det McCullagh said police are appealing to anyone who may have seen any suspicious activity in the area or who may have information.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Reducing Offending Unit on 101 quoting reference number 71 of 23/11/2017, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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A mother has been awarded 9m in compensation to raise the baby son she would have aborted had she known he would have been born with haemophilia.

Omodele Meadows went to a GP for a series of blood tests to see if she had the disorder after learning that a nephew had been diagnosed with the rare condition.

She wanted to know if she had the serious disease, which affects the blood's ability to clot, in case there was a chance she would pass it onto any future children.

A doctor who analysed the results of the screening in 2006 told her she did not have haemophilia, and she should therefore not be concerned if she ever got pregnant.

But five years later in September 2011 she gave birth to Adejuwon, who was diagnosed with the rare disorder.

Further more specific tests revealed she had carried the condition in her genes. The blood screening ordered by her GP five years earlier could only determine if she had haemophilia, not if she carried it.

Mrs Justice Yip told the High Court that had Ms Meadows been referred for genetic testing by her doctor in 2006, she would have undergone checks of her foetus when she later fell pregnant.

Adejuwon's condition is severe and the six-year-old's joints have been affected by repeated bleeds.

In December 2015 the child was diagnosed with autism, which has made treating his haemophilia more complicated.

The child does not understand the benefit of the care he requires and will not tell his parents when he has a bleed.

Adejuwon is unlikely to be able to administer his own medication or manage his own treatment plan and his autism will also prevent him living independently or finding paid employment.

Ms Meadows, 40, brought proceedings against GP Dr Hafshah Khan, who worked in a practice in south London when Mrs Meadows saw her in 2006 to obtain the results of blood tests she had requested after her nephew was diagnosed with haemophilia.

The tests, which had been arranged by another GP, could establish whether a patient had haemophilia, but could not confirm whether or not Ms Meadows was a carrier of the gene, said Mrs Justice Yip in the High Court.

Ms Meadows was told the results were normal and, as a result of the advice received at that consultation and the earlier one, was led to believe that any child she had would not have the condition.

The judge said that, had Ms Meadows been referred for genetic testing in 2006, she would have known she was a carrier and undergone foetal testing.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters 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

That would have disclosed that the foetus was affected and she would have chosen to terminate the pregnancy.

It was agreed that Ms Meadows could recover the additional costs of raising Adejuwon due to his haemophilia, but it was disputed that this applied to his autism.

Dr Khan's case was that such costs were outside the scope of her liability because the service she was providing was only in relation to the risk of haemophilia.

In such circumstances, it was argued, responsibility for the wholly unrelated risk of autism was not to be transferred from the mother to the doctor.

The judge said that Ms Meadows was entitled to the additional costs associated with both conditions and awarded her the sum of 9 million which had been agreed subject to the resolution of the legal issue.

In her ruling, the judge said: "It cannot be easy for any mother to contend bluntly that her child should not have been born."

But Ms Meadows's love for her son "shone through", she added.

"She had specifically sought to avoid bringing a child with haemophilia into the world, knowing the suffering that the condition causes.

"The fact that she says clearly that she would have terminated her pregnancy had she known the baby would have haemophilia is not the same at all as saying that Adejuwon is now an unwanted child.

"On the contrary, it appears that he is much loved and well cared for.

"The burden of caring for him though is much greater than the burden of caring for a 'normal', healthy child and extends far beyond the purely financial cost.

"Although this is a claim for her loss, I do not doubt that her primary motive in bringing this claim is to provide a better life for her son."

She added: "Equally, I recognise it cannot be easy for a doctor to admit liability on the basis of a consultation to give blood results which she herself had not ordered and probably in the course of a busy day.

"Concerns about the rising cost of clinical negligence claims and the impact on general practitioners' indemnity insurance have been widely reported.

"Holding the balance between these competing concerns is not easy and simply highlights the need for rigorous application of the legal principles, putting sympathy aside."

Additional reporting by Press Association
Today is the unofficial first day of the holiday shopping season. Here are five facts you should know about Black Friday.

1. The term Black Friday was coined by the Philadelphia Police Departments traffic squad in the 1950s. According to Philadelphia newspaper reporter Joseph P. Barrett, It was the day that Santa Claus took his chair in the department stores and every kid in the city wanted to see him. It was the first day of the Christmas shopping season. Barrettt first used the term in the citys newspaper, the Evening Bulletin, in 1961 to refer to the traffic problems on that day. Local merchants complained to police commissioner Albert N. Brown about the negative association of the term, so Brown released a press release describing the day as Big Friday. By then it was too late; the media had already started referring to the day after Thanksgiving as Black Friday.

2. Because so few people were aware of the origin of the term Black Friday, an alternative explanation became popular: that it is the day on which retailers finally began to show a profit for the year (in accounting terms, moving from being in the red to in the black). The earliest use of this meaning, though, dates only to the early 1980s.

3. The predecessor to Black Friday was the Santa Claus parade. Canadian department store Eatons held the first Santa Claus parade on December 2, 1905. Santas appearance at the end of the parade signaled that the holiday seasonand Christmas shoppinghad begun. In the U.S., the department store Macys adopted the idea and started sponsoring similar parades across the country. The most famous event, the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City, began in 1924.

4. For several years in the 1930s, the date of Thanksgiving was moved to increase the Christmas shopping period. At the request of retailers, Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to move his holiday proclamation up one week to the fourth Thursday in November. Of the then-48 states, 32 joined Roosevelt in the Democratic Thanksgiving while 16 stuck with the Republican Thanksgiving of the traditional date. After critics complained about Franksgiving, Roosevelt signed legislation making Thanksgiving a legal holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.

5. In 2009, K-Mart became the first major national retailer to open its stores on Thanksgiving morning. Several other large retailersincluding Wal-Mart, Sears, and Toys R Usalso began opening their stores a day early in 2011. Since then, Black Friday has been replaced by what some retailers refer to as Grey Thursday.
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Armed police evacuated the UKs biggest shopping district as mass panic swept through crowds hunting for discounts on Black Friday, sparking fears of a new attack.

Witnesses believe a fight on a platform at Oxford Circus tube station spread panic, leading to stampedes and rumours of gunshots, forcing police to trigger their protocol for terror attacks.

British Transport Police have appealed for information after what they described as an altercation between two men on the platform at Oxford Circus station. They released CCTV images of two men they would like to talk to in relation to the incident.

Screaming crowds were ordered to take shelter in shops as the station was evacuated at the start of Fridays rush hour, but investigations have not yet found any evidence of gunfire or casualties.

Recommended Police explain what happened at Oxford Circus incident

The British Transport Police (BTP) said its officers received reports of shots fired on the westbound Central Line platform at Oxford Circus at 4.37pm, as passengers fled up exits towards Oxford Circus and Regent Street.

This caused a significant level of panic which resulted in numerous calls from members of the public reporting gunfire, a spokesperson said.

Officers responded in line with our procedures of a terrorist incident, this included armed officers from BTP and the Metropolitan Police.

A full and methodical search of the station and Oxford Street was conducted by our specially trained firearms officers but they did not find any evidence of gunfire at the station.

Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures Show all 11 1 /11 Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures AFP/Getty Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures PA Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures AFP/Getty Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures AFP/Getty Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures Getty Images Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures EPA Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures EPA Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures EPA Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures AFP/Getty Images Oxford Circus Incident  In pictures EPA

As the cause of the alert remained unconfirmed, several high-profile figures were condemned for spreading incorrect information on social media.

Former EDL leader Tommy Robinson deleted a tweet on what looks like another jihad attack, while singer Olly Murs reported baseless rumours of gunshots inside Selfridges while it was being evacuated as a precaution, and Sky News presenter Kay Burley repeated false claims of a man with a gun.

Passengers on the platform at the time claimed the panic was started by a fight between two men, describing how the evacuation order was prompted by a member of the public pushing an emergency button.

Regan Warner said she saw a man bumping into another man on the overcrowded platform at 4.35pm.

They exchanged words, then a punch to the gut, then a full-out fight, she added.

People were trying to break it up, there was lots of yelling. People were running away, a woman fainted, children were scared and crying.

The emergency button was pressed. The fight was broken up and the parties walked in opposite directions.

She jumped on a departing Tube train, hearing an announcement being given out over the station announcement system ordering a full evacuation as it departed.

The Met responded to the incident as though it was a full-blown terror attack (AFP/Getty)

Ms Warners account was echoed by a Twitter user called Annabel, who described how crying and screaming around the fight spread panic, which was compounded by thousands of people fleeing to street level.

It turned into a stampede in rush hour on Black Friday  Terrifying the street and then rumours as usual spread, and caused even more fear, she wrote.

Another witness, Lysi P, said mass panic started after the evacuation announcement went out, adding: As the speakers went off I saw everyone run from the platform  therefore I can only assume that people panicked.

Ryan Butcher, a reporter for The Independent who was in another part of the station at the time, said the announcement told everyone to evacuate because of a reported emergency.

I just heard screams, someone shouted 'run, he added. People started falling over in the streets. I saw everyone running into buildings so I went into the nearest one.

Mr Butcher was sheltering in a nearby restaurant, where he said other people were shaking and crying, adding: It's just terrifying.

He was later allowed to leave by police officers, who were lifting security cordons in the area as searches for the cause of the alarm continued.

Police said they had responded as if the incident was terrorism because of the nature and number of 999 calls from different locations in the Tube station and above ground around Oxford Street.

The first armed response vehicle was on the scene in less than one minute from receiving our first call, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said after the incident was stood down.

Officers working with colleagues from BTP carried out an urgent search of the area. No causalities, evidence of any shots fired or any suspects were located by police.

BTP said it had received no reports of casualties apart from one woman who sustained a minor injury when leaving Oxford Circus station.

We understand that incidents like this cause panic and concern, a spokesperson added.

We would therefore like to thank Londoners for their patience during this incident. Our officers will remain highly visible on duty this evening to reassure the public.

The London Fire Brigade said it had sent three fire engines and 15 firefighters to the scene.

Both Oxford Circus and Bond Street station were closed during the alert but have since been reopened, with events including the Royal Variety Performance at the nearby London Palladium going ahead as planned.

Black Friday brought fewer shoppers than initially expected to Oxford Street, with television footage showing a solitary man entering an electrical shop for its special early opening.

The area has been identified among many potential soft targets for terror attacks in London, as Isis advises its supporters to target crowds with vehicles, knives or guns in areas lacking security.

The incident came two months after a bomb partially exploded on a tube train at Parsons Green station in a suspected Isis-linked terror attack.

An 18-year-old Iraqi refugee, Ahmed Hassan, has been charged with attempted murder and explosives offences.

Oxford Circus was previously evacuated in August after a small fire caused by an electrical fault on a Bakerloo Line train.

Two people were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation in the incident, which is under investigation.

There were additional fears of a terror attack in South Kensington, where a car hit pedestrians near the Natural History Museum last month, but police confirmed the collision was an accident.

Five terror attacks have struck the UK so far this year, killing more than 30 people and injuring hundreds, while eight plots have been foiled since the Westminster massacre in March.

The national terror threat level remains set at severe, meaning further attacks are highly likely.
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The DUP leader Arlene Foster, whose party is propping up Theresa Mays minority government, has accused the Irish government of exploiting Brexit to attempt to unify Ireland.

Ms Foster, who will address her partys annual conference tomorrow, told the Today programme: "The Irish government are actually using the negotiations in Europe to put forward their views on what they believe the island of Ireland should look like in the future.

She added: Weve heard from the foreign minister of the Republic of Ireland just yesterday talking about his aspiration for a united Ireland. He is entitled to have that aspiration but he should not be using European Union negotiations to talk about those issues. What he should be talking about are trading relationships.

Recommended UK consumer confidence at lowest point since Brexit result

On Thursday, the Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said he hoped to see a united Ireland in his political lifetime.

As Theresa May meets Donald Tusk in Brussels, in yet another attempt to move negotations on to trade, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has again made clear he will prevent talks from advancing before the issue of the Irish border is made clear.

Both Theresa May and the DUP remain committed to removing the UK from the EUs single market and customs union, an arrangement which would ordinarily require a customs border to be imposed between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.

Ms Foster also said Irelands hard line on the border issue was preventing the talks moving on. It is wrong that the Irish government will not allow the process to move forward until they have certain things they demand.

"I have always felt it very difficult to have an agreement in relation to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, but we havent moved to the next stage to talk about trade.

She added: You cant have it both ways. Leo Varadkar is saying he wont allow the discussions to move to the next stage, to talk about trade, until he has had a commitment in relation to the Irish border. You cannot have it in that fashion. We want to move to the next stage.
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Britain needs to accept higher levels of immigration from India if it hopes to sign a free trade deal after Brexit, a senior Indian diplomat has warned.

YK Sinha, Indias High Commissioner to the UK, warned that after Brexit it may take up to a decade for the two countries to negotiate a free trade deal and the freer movement of people and professionals would be a crucial component of it.

The British Government has repeatedly promised to get immigration down to the tens of thousands and has already said it intends to end freedom of movement after leaving the European Union in March 2019.

But speaking to business leaders in London, Mr Sinha said signing a trade deal was obviously not going to be easy and said the deal may not be completed until as late as 2030, the Daily Telegraph reported.

He said: It has to be mutually beneficial, it cant be a one-way street. For instance, youve all read about issues of freer mobility of professions. That is something right up there as far as India is concerned.

Im not talking about unfettered access or unrestricted travel, Im talking about movement of professionals, movement of doctors, technicians, engineers. I think both sides will benefit from this exchange and obviously it has to be a two-way exchange not just one way.

This is not the first time potential future trade partners have voiced concerns about the Governments future immigration policy.

In January India, along with Australia, told the UK to relax its immigration rules if it wants a free trade deal.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

During a trip to Delhi, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was reportedly warned that the UK must loosen its restrictions on skilled Indian workers coming to the UK after Brexit if it wanted to get a good trade deal.

These restrictions are already having an impact on UK businesses.

Speaking to The Independent earlier this year, Indian restaurant entrepreneur Cyrus Todiwala warned that the Conservatives' short-sighted scheme to charge businesses for bringing skilled workers into the country could force hundreds of small curry houses out of business.

In April, the Immigration Skills Charge for people on Tier 2 visas  meaning skilled workers who do not have a PhD  kicked in, meaning employers have to pay 1,000 per year per employee.

In their manifesto for the snap election in June, the Tories promised to raise the charge to 2,000 per year  though the planned increase was shelved after the party lost their majority.

Mr Todiwala, who owns the award-winning Cafe Spice Namaste restaurant in London, said he needed to be able to recruit workers from India and Bangladesh to work for him because there were not enough skilled workers in the UK.

He explained that the traditional type of cooking practised in UK curry restaurants was not easily replicated by homegrown staff.

He said many chefs in India and Bangladesh learn from their parents, who in turn had the knowledge passed down over the generations, and are not keen to teach it to newcomers.

The businessman explained that most chefs learn by shadowing other people over several years, saying it was similar to the way specialist technical skills such as carpentry or masonry were historically treated in Britain.

The UK is one of the largest investors in India and according to a report by the Commonwealth, the membership organisation for 52 countries largely made up of Britains former colonial possessions, a free trade deal could boost British exports by 2.1bn a year.
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Theresa May has been given 10 days to improve her offer to the EU if she wants its leaders to allow Brexit talks to move on to transition and trade.

After a meeting in Brussels, European Council President Donald Tusk said Ms May would have to finalise her deal by 4 December when she is expected to meet other key EU officials.

If Ms Mays offer on critical withdrawal issues including the divorce bill, EU citizens rights and the Irish border meets with approval, it will allow EU leaders to rule that significant progress has been made for negotiations to move forward at the European Council on 14 December.

Recommended Number 10 backs away from Northern Ireland customs union claims

The Prime Minister hopes the crunch summit in Brussels will give a boost to the whole Brexit process and to the credibility of her leadership, which hinges on making a success of EU withdrawal.

Friday saw the issue of the Irish border come under intense focus, amid increasing pressure for better guarantees on the issue from Dublin.

After seeing Ms May on Friday, Mr Tusk said it was possible sufficient progress could be made at the December summit but that it remained a huge challenge.

He added: We need to see progress from UK within 10 days on all issues, including on Ireland.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

As she left the gathering of European leaders, Ms May said: There are still issues across the various matters we are negotiating on to be resolved, but there has been a very positive atmosphere in the talks and a genuine feeling that we want to move forward together.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned that the deadlock in Brexit negotiations cannot be broken until the border issue is resolved, and has demanded fresh assurances there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said on Friday it was difficult to see how border checks could be avoided if the UK quit the EUs customs union and single market, leading to regulatory divergence between the North and the Republic.

Mr Varadkar has previously suggested a bespoke arrangement, similar to that operated on the Isle of Man, under which Northern Ireland, or the whole of the UK, would continue to observe the rules of the single market and customs union without necessarily remaining a member of them.

Meanwhile, the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier discussed the situation with Mr Coveney in Brussels, saying afterwards that there is strong solidarity with Ireland and adding that Irish issues are EU issues.

Ms May responded: In relation to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, we and the Irish government continue to talk about the solution to that.

 Hammond signals Britain to increase Brexit 'divorce bill' offer to Brussels: "We want to make progress in the discussions"

But we have the same desire  we want to see that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now and that we dont create any new barriers to trade or the movement of people across that border.

But back in London, Downing Street wobbled over suggestions that Northern Irelands continued membership of the EU customs union could be up for negotiation in Brexit talks.

A No 10 spokesman told reporters on Friday that the UK continued to look for an innovative way forward on the issue.

Irish leader Leo Varadker wants stronger assurances on the Irish border issue (AFP/Getty)

Asked whether Northern Ireland could remain in the customs union following Brexit, the spokesman said: That is a matter for negotiations.

But a Downing Street source later insisted the Governments position is still that the whole of the UK will leave both the customs union and single market after Brexit.

The confusion underlines the political difficulty of Ms Mays position, with the Northern Irish DUP propping up her Commons majority and dead set against anything that would see Belfast and London diverge.

As well as talks with Mr Tusk and Ms Merkel in Brussels, the Prime Minister had meetings with Danish premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Belgiums Charles Michel, and Lithuanias Saulius Skvernelis in the margins of the Eastern Partnership summit.

 David Davis blames Germany and France for Brexit talks deadlock: "They are the most powerful players on the European continent"

One of the issues under discussion was thought to be the amount the UK is prepared to offer Brussels following reports that cabinet ministers agreed to double the sum originally put on the table by Ms May to around 40bn.

The Prime Minister does not want to name a precise figure until she has a clear idea of what kind of trade deal is available with the remaining EU member states in the phase two negotiations.

She said: We have been talking about how we can progress the issue in relation to the financial settlement. I have set out the position. I did so in the Florence speech.

I said that we would honour our commitments. I said that no member state of the European Union need worry that they would receive less or have to pay more in the current budget plan.
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UK government ministers do not understand the consequences of Brexit, a British judge on the European Court of Justice has warned, according to a leaked report that reveals EU fears about the impact of chaos in the Conservative government.

Ian Forrester, who has been the UKs representative at the court since 2015, reportedly told Irish diplomats that British ministers do not grasp the complexities of leaving the EU and claimed there were issues around the quality of politicians in Westminster at present.

The comments were recorded in a confidential Irish government report leaked to RTE.

Recommended Number 10 backs away from Northern Ireland customs union claims

The document compiled a number of reports from Irish embassies across Europe and revealed a withering assessment of some UK government ministers by their European counterparts.

Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, was reportedly described as unimpressive by a Czech deputy minister, who is also said to have claimed he felt sorry for British ambassadors having to handle political confusion in London.

British ministers have made a poor impression on their rounds of capitals, according to Latvian officials quoted in the document.

David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, is said to have surprised French ministers by barely mentioning Brexit during a meeting with them.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

The Irish report quotes EU figures expressing concern about chaos in the Conservative government as ministers struggle to agree an approach to Brexit.

Mr Forrester reportedly told Irish officials that, of all the UK government representatives he has dealt with, only one person out of all those who had been in contact had any real grasp of the complexities involved".

After speaking to the judge, Irish officials recorded: This process is going to go on for some time and . . . his hope was that it would gradually dawn on people what leaving actually entailed, that there might be a slow realisation that this was a great mistake and the mood might swing back to remaining [in the EU].

Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrats Brexit spokesman, called for a parliamentary debate on the issues raised in the leaked Irish document.

He asked Andrew Leadsom, the Leader of the House of Commons: Has the Leader had time to read a leaked report from Irish embassies round the world which paint a rather unflattering picture of the UK governments negotiating skills in relation to Brexit? Will the leader make time available for a debate on the governments incompetence and inability to deliver Brexit and increasing the risk of no deal?
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Theresa May will underline the UK's continued commitment to European security after Brexit as she travels to Brussels to boost progress on deadlocked negotiations.

The Prime Minister will hold fresh talks with European Council President Donald Tusk at a summit with Eastern European nations on Friday amid reports she is preparing to offer some 40bn to the EU to open up trade talks next month.

EU officials reportedly described the meeting as a bid to agree the "choreography" of a deal, which must be agreed before the European Council summit next month to allow discussions to move on to future trade relations.

The EU has refused to discuss trade and transition arrangements until sufficient progress is made on issues of Northern Ireland, citizens rights and the "so-called" divorce bill - with Mr Tusk demanding greater clarity from the UK before moving forward.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar also said Dublin would try to block EU trade talks unless it received a written guarantee that there would be no return to a "hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Ms May is understood to have secured the backing of the Cabinet to double the amount offered to the EU to around 40bn but she agreed with ministers that the extra cash must be conditional on what kind of trade deal is available.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman played down suggestions that she was meeting Mr Tusk to set out the divorce bill.

He said: "They will be discussing progress towards the December council.

"There are a number of issues which I'm sure they will want to discuss - the financial settlement, that will be one of them, also of course Northern Ireland and citizens' rights."

It comes as a leaked diplomatic dossier said internal Tory "chaos" was undermining Brexit talks, with particular criticism aimed at both Brexit Secretary David Davis and Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary.

On her visit to Brussels, Ms May will tell Eastern European leaders that the UK is "unconditionally committed" to European security in the face of growing threats from Russia.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

She will say: From agriculture in Ukraine to the tech sector in Belarus  there is a huge amount of potential in the Eastern neighbourhood that we should nurture and develop.

But we must also be open-eyed to the actions of hostile states like Russia which threaten this potential and attempt to tear our collective strength apart.

This summit highlights the crucial importance of the European countries working together to protect our shared values and ideals.

"The UK may be leaving the EU but we are not leaving Europe, and we are unconditionally committed to maintaining Europes security.
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Downing Street has rowed back on claims that Northern Ireland's membership of the customs union was up a "matter for negotiations" as rows over the Irish border threatened to derail Brexit talks.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman sparked confusion on Friday by saying it was up for discussion in Brexit negotiations, in remarks likely prompt concern among Theresa May's allies in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who support the UK leaving the customs union and the single market.

The future of the Northern Ireland border remains a key issue in the talks with Brussels, as the UK leaving the European Union's single market and customs unions would traditionally require a customs border on the island of Ireland.

Recommended Theresa May to meet Donald Tusk in bid to break ongoing deadlock

Ms May is facing intense pressure from both Belfast and Dublin to find a solution amid threats that Ireland will try to block EU trade talks if it is does not receive further assurances that there would be no "hard border".

Asked if Northern Ireland could stay in the customs union after Brexit, Ms May's official spokesman said: "I think that is a matter for negotiations.

"Our position on Northern Ireland has been set out in the papers and we need to continue to negotiate to find an innovative way forward."

However a Downing Street source later insisted that the Government's position that the whole of the UK will leave both the customs union and single market after Brexit has not changed.

Earlier, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said it was difficult to see how border checks could be avoided if the UK's departure from the customs union and single market resulted in "regulatory divergence" between the North and the Republic.

But DUP leader Arlene Foster fired off a warning over any divergence between the regulatory framework of Northern Ireland and the British mainland, and warned the Irish government of "using the negotiations in Europe to put forward their views on what they believe the island of Ireland should look like in the future".

In Brussels for a gathering of leaders from the EU and former Soviet states, the Prime Minister said "we have the same desire - we want to ensure that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now".

However Mr Coveney insisted EU leaders would not give the green light for the phase two negotiations to begin at their summit in December unless there was progress on the border issue.

He said British assurances on the issue were "aspirational" and that there had to be a "credible roadmap" from the UK setting out how they would ensure there was no return to a hard border.

Mr Coveney said other member states were fully behind Ireland's stance on the issue, adding: "I don't think Ireland will have to block anything on its own. There is absolute solidarity across 27 countries here. They are with Ireland on this.

Ms May said: "In relation to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, we and the Irish government continue to talk about the solution to that.

"But we have the same desire - we want to see that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now and that we don't create any new barriers to trade or the movement of people across that border.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

"That's the outcome that we are both agreed on and that is what we believe is in the best interests of Northern Ireland."

The Prime Minister also held fresh talks with European Council President Donald Tusk at a summit with Eastern European nations on Friday amid reports she is preparing to offer some 40bn to the EU to open up trade talks next month.

Ms May is understood to have secured the backing of the Cabinet to double the amount offered to the EU to around 40bn but she agreed with ministers that the extra cash must be conditional on what kind of trade deal is available.

In further turmoil across the Irish Sea, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar faces the prospect of a snap election over a row about the handling of a police whistleblower scandal.

And talks remain deadlocked at Stormont, which has been without a devolved administration since January.
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Campaigners have warned that the Governments approach to animal sentience still risks weakening legal protections after Brexit.

Green MP Caroline Lucas said ministers had to do more than simply giving some promise to protect in a future law the idea that animals are conscious and can feel pain.

The British Veterinary Association also underlined the importance of the UK retaining EU-style laws that force ministers to consider animal welfare when legislating.

It follows a Commons vote last week, which saw MPs reject Ms Lucas proposal to use the EU withdrawal Bill to bring into UK law, Article 13 of the Lisbon Treaty  explicitly recognising animal sentience and making it a duty of the state to do so.

Following an outcry from animal rights groups, the Government pledged on Thursday to recognise the concept in a future piece of British legislation.

But responding on BBC Radio 4s Today programme, Ms Lucas said: Im very glad that in the last 24 hours [Environment Secretary] Michael Gove and others have been rapidly backpedalling and admitting that [sentience is not already fully protected in UK law].

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. 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What the Government should have said is, yeah, youre right, this is an important principle.

If they didnt like the way my amendment was worded then what they would normally say is look we will bring forward our own amendment but it needs to be in this EU withdrawal Bill, not just some promise of some future bill.

Gudrun Ravetz, senior vice president of the British Veterinary Association, explained on the same programme that existing UK law only puts a duty to protect animal welfare on owners or keepers, whereas Article 13 puts it on the state.

She said: If we didnt have the principle of Article 13 brought in, then there wouldnt be that duty on the state to pay full regard to animal welfare.

With concern rising that Brexit may be used as an excuse to weaken animal welfare protections, Mr Gove promised to ensure the concept of sentience is recognised after we leave the EU.

On Friday Mr Gove repeated that the Government endorsed the idea of animals sentience, but claimed allowing Ms Lucas plan to bring the relevant EU laws on to British statute would create legal uncertainty.

 The Government votes against incorporating animal welfare laws from the EU into British law

Instead, he said the public should judge us by our actions, adding: Its better to have an absolutely well designed piece of UK legislation, than a poorly designed piece of EU legislation.

Asked later to explicitly commit that the legislation would be brought in before Brexit day, he said: The most important thing to do is to make sure we can carry forward enhanced protection.

Pressed again as to whether there might be a gap between Brexit and new UK laws being passed, he said only: I dont think that there will be a gap, because I think what we are going to do is ensure that we have stronger protection written into law in order to ensure that there is no gap.
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A British Iranian mother who has been jailed in Iran could face another five years behind bars if she is convicted of fresh charges next month, her husband has said.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is already serving a five years after she was convicted 19 months ago, of plotting to overthrow Iran's clerical establishment - a charge she denies.

The project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation has now been told by Middle Eastern country's authorities that she will be charged with propaganda against the regime, her husband Richard Ratcliffe said. She will appear in court on 10 December.

The news will dash the family's hopes that she would be granted early release after serving 14 months of her prison sentence.

The new charges come after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson mistakenly suggested Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been teaching journalism in the country's capital Tehran.

His comments led to calls for him to be sacked from his role as Foreign Secretary. After initially refusing to apologise, he was eventually forced to do so before Parliament.

His comments that were seized upon by the Iranian judiciary as supposed proof of her guilt.

Both Mr Ratcliffe and her employer have said this was a complete error. They insisted that the charity worker had been on holiday visiting family with her then one-year-old daughter Gabriella.

We were hoping the case would disappear," Mr Ratcliffe told The Times. "She is angry and bewildered about what is going on.

She said she thought she was going to be able to come home for Christmas but will now be in court in two weeks. Our experience is that court cases have always been bad news. She has been declared guilty at every stage.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe will reportedly be tried by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, the same judge who sentenced her to five years in jail last September. He was placed on the European Unions sanctions list in 2011 for gross human rights violations.

Mr Johnson faced calls to resign earlier this month after his comments to the Foreign Affairs Committee that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing "simply teaching people journalism.

Iranian state TV seized on the comments as an unintended confession, prompting fears that his remarks were being used by the Iranian authorities to justify her continued imprisonment over spying allegations.

However, the couple received better news from doctors, who told them ms Zaghari-Ratcliff does not have breast cancer.

Mr Ratcliffe told the BBC his wife saw doctors after finding lumps in her breasts and it was a "great relief" to find out they were not cancerous.

It came as Downing Street said it was considering offering diplomatic protection Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, which would make the case a legal dispute between Iran and the UK, rather than a consular issue.

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But Mr Ratcliffe claimed he had submitted a legal opinion that his wife, a dual national, was entitled to diplomatic protection to the Foreign Office more than two months ago but received no reply.

The Iranian authorities insist that the proceedings against Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe followed the countrys judicial process. They also point out that Iran does not recognise dual nationality and thus she is regarded as an Iranian citizen.

They highlight that she sees her child every day and is in daily communication with her husband in the UK. British diplomatic sources say that efforts will continue to get her released.
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Theresa May has been accused of leaving the people of Manchester to pick up the bill for the terror attack after her reimbursement offer fell 5m short of what is needed.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the Prime Ministers offer of 12m to cover the costs of the bombing at the Manchester Arena was not good enough and claimed the actual cost to public services was more than 17m.

Only 3m of the promised funding has been made available immediately, with a further 1m through the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, a Government spokesperson said.

Some 22 people were killed by the devastating blast that went off during a concert by pop star Ariana Grande in May, while hundreds were injured or severely traumatised by the attack.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Burnham said: Here we are, six months on from the attack, at the end of Budget week, and we still dont have an answer.

The reason that matters is we are left with the bill. That will mean we have to cut public services to cover those costs. Its not acceptable for us to be left in this position.

Having received this letter today I need to send a message straight back to the Government on behalf of Greater Manchester to say, while we appreciate the letter, its not good enough and we expect these costs to be paid.

The Prime Ministers muted offer to Manchester was at odds with the Governments coverage in full of the costs incurred due to the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, he claimed.

It was said to us at the time, whatever we need will be there, Mr Burnham said. It was said to many of us at the time, and I think we can expect those words to be honoured.

It is not the case that we can just be paid the majority, or what the Government considers to be reasonable. We are not trying it on here  we are not sending in a bill that is inflated in any way. These are the costs.

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said the decision was completely unacceptable and urged the Government to explain their decision.

She said: I met with the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police only today and he impressed upon me the pressure his officers are facing due to increasing demand and falling budgets.

The Government need to stop dragging their feet and give Greater Manchester Police the resources they need.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. 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A Government spokesperson said: We are absolutely committed to ensuring the victims of this terrible attack and Greater Manchester have all possible support.

We have given strong assurance Manchester will receive 12m. That includes 3m being paid now and a further 1m being made available to support the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund.

This is an ongoing process and the Government stands by its commitment to provide all necessary further assistance.
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Egypt was rocked at noon on Friday by a coordinated assault by gunmen on a mosque in the Sinai Peninsula, in what has proved to be the deadliest terrorist attack in the countrys modern history.

Gunmen opened fire on worshippers during Friday noon prayers  the most important period of observance for Muslims, during which mosques are usually crowded  killing 235 people and injuring 109 others.

During the noon sermon, four off-road vehicles carrying armed men arrived at the al-Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, a small village 40km west of North Sinais main city Al-Arish.

Militants opened fire from the vehicles and, according to survivors, gunned down any people who tried to flee the building. They also blocked off escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the burning wrecks blocking the roads, three police officers on the scene said.

The Egyptian authorities declared an immediate counterattack. Egypts air force is following the trail of the terrorists and has destroyed two or three of their vehicles, a military source told The Independent. He could not give more details about the attack itself, as it was not directed at the military.

But the mosque in question is known as a place where Sufis, followers of a mystical strand in Islam, come to pray. Radical Islamist militants consider Sufism to be a form of sorcery, forbidden in Islam.

Responsibility for the attack has not yet been claimed by any group, but since 2011 North Sinai has been the site of an ongoing insurgency by jihadists, who since 2014 have been aligned with Isis. The group is responsible for near-weekly attacks on the army and police in Sinai, and claimed responsibility in 2015 for downing a plane leaving the Sharm El-Sheikh beach resort, killing all the mostly Russian tourists on board.

Almost every sign points toward Isis in Sinai being behind Fridays mosque attack, Mohannad Sabry, a Sinai expert and author of Sinai: Egypts Linchpin, Gazas Lifeline, Israels Nightmare, told The Independent. They have had a decades-old lethal animosity with the Sufi community in Sinai and have killed several of their most revered clerics over the past years.

The Isis branch in Sinai, which calls itself Sinai State, claimed responsibility for the beheading of two Sufi sheikhs in December 2016, accusing them of apostasy and sorcery, and threatened that it would not allow the presence of Sufi orders in Sinai or Egypt. The group has also frequently destroyed Sufi shrines in North Sinai.

A Sinai resident who did not want to be named told The Independent that in general there has been a change in how locals perceive Sufis in recent years. Its not really sectarianism but more like us versus the other, which was not common among Bedouins.

The military source also believed Isis was behind the attack. They attack everyone, Christians, Muslims, the military, he said. He suggested the attack could indicate a change of tactics, as this is the first such large-scale assault directly targeting civilians in the region. They did kills civilians, but not at this scale, he said.

It is certainly a unique and unprecedented attack, Mr Sabry said, adding that it sends a loud message to the North Sinai community that even a Muslim house of worship, as long as it doesnt pledge allegiance to Isis, is a target.

Mr Sabry sees another reason for Isis to attack Sufis. The Sufi community in North Sinai has definitely succeeded in what billions of dollars and hundreds of lives spent by Egypts military could not achieve, he said. It powerfully kept thousands of youths away from joining the ranks of Isis and has continued to fight them on social, intellectual and most importantly religious levels.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi announced a three-day mourning in response to the attack. Terrorists want to demoralise us and spread doubt about our capacities, but this attack only unites us and makes us more persistent, he said in a live address on national television. The army and the police will take revenge for the people and will recover security in the area soon.

Other countries offered their condolences to Egypt, with British Prime Minister Theresa May calling it an evil and cowardly act and the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, condemning the attack and saying Paris stood with its ally.

US President Donald Trump denounced what he called a horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenceless worshippers in Egypt".

The world cannot tolerate terrorism, he said on Twitter, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence.

Yet despite successive army campaigns and after years of unrest, the mosque attack served as a dark reminder that the violence in Sinai is not decreasing, and Isis has not been weakened.

Once again it casts major doubt on the claims of success and achievements spread so loudly by Sisis regime and the Egyptian military, Mr Sabry said. This attack hit a geographic area the military claims is under control, proving that Isis is still maintaining some of its capabilities to mobilise weapons, explosives and fighters despite years of war with one of the biggest and strongest military forces in the Middle East.

Asked about progress in the fight against terrorism, the military source said the army was doing its best. The terrorists are hiding in between the civilians, thats the problem, he added.
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The death toll in a militant attack on a mosque in Egypts north Sinai region has risen to 235, Egyptian state television reported, quoting the public prosecutor.

It was more deadly than the October 2015 bombing of a Russian Metrojet flight, which claimed 224 lives.

Militants targeted members of Egypts security forces attending Friday prayers at the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, near Arish city.

They opened fire from four off-road vehicles on worshippers inside the mosque during the sermon, blocking off escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the burning wrecks blocking the roads, three police officers on the scene said.

Resident Ashraf el-Hefny said many of the victims were workers at a nearby salt firm who had come for Friday services at the mosque, which had contained some 300 worshippers.

Local people brought the wounded to hospital on their own cars and trucks, he 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

Egypt's presidency declared a three-day mourning period, as President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi convened a high-level meeting of security officials.

President Sissi condemned the extremist attack on a mosque in the troubled Sinai Peninsula, calling it "criminal" and "cowardly" and expressing condolences to the victims and their families.

In a statement after the meeting, Mr Sissi said the attack "will not go unpunished" and that Egypt will persevere with its war on terrorism. The suffering of the victims was not in vain, he added, and will only "add to our insistence" to combat extremists. Addressing the nation later on television, he repeated his view that Egypt was fighting a battle for the rest of the world.

Cairo's international airport boosted security following the attack, with more troopers and forces seen patrolling passenger halls, conducting searches and manning checkpoints at airport approaches.

State condolences poured in for Egypt, including messages from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the US, Russia, France and Britain condemning the violence.

President Donald Trump denounced what he called a "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers in Egypt."

"The world cannot tolerate terrorism" he said on Twitter, "we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!"

Security forces have been battling militants in northern Sinai for years, but attacks to date have focused on military and police assets, although assassinations of individuals Isis considers government spies or religious heretics are not uncommon.

Hundreds of soldiers and militants have been killed in the conflict, although exact numbers are unclear as journalists and independent investigators are banned from the area.

Egypt is also facing a growing number of attacks by militants in its Western Desert, including an attack last month that killed 16 police, according to an official tally issued by the Interior Ministry. Security officials have told journalists that dozens more, including high-ranking counterterrorism officers, perished in the Oct. 20 attack some 135 kilometers (84 miles) southwest of the capital, Cairo.
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The Egypt mosque attack has taken the lives of at least 200 people, with the latest estimate citing a figure of 235.

Militants were thought to be have targeted members of the security forces attending Friday prayers at the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, near Arish city in north Sinai.

They were shooting at people as they left the mosque, said a resident whose relatives were at the scene. They were shooting at the ambulances too.

Another 130 people are thought to have been injured.

Police officers said victims were being transferred to local hospitals and militants had blocked escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the burning wrecks blocking the roads.

The Egyptian government has declared three days of national mourning, according to state television.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was due to hold an emergency security meeting.

Egypt has been fighting a vicious Isis insurgency in Sinai for the last three years. Fridays attack comes after a spate of recent bombings targeting the police and army.

Cairos international airport has boosted security following the attack, with more troops seen patrolling passenger halls, conducting searches and manning checkpoints at airport approaches.

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 UKs ambassador in Egypt, John Casson, said on Twitter: I am disgusted by the evil attack that killed & injured so many Egyptians in Sinai today. On behalf of the UK my deep condolences to all involved.

These attacks on people praying in mosques & churches only strengthen our determination to stand together, & defeat terrorism & hate.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said: Deeply saddened by the abhorrent attack on a mosque in North Sinai, #Egypt. My sincere condolences to all those affected by such a barbaric act.

Naftali Bennett, Israels education minister, said it was time for international unity in the war on terror wherever it presents itself: Russia, Europe, the US, Israel and the Arab World  we have all been hurt by terror and must unite in our battle against it.
People walk outside a mosque that was attacked in the northern city of Arish, Sinai Peninsula (EPA)

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At least 235 people have been killed after suspected militants set off a bomb and opened fire at a mosque in Egypt's restive northern Sinai province.

The attack on Friday targeted supporters of the security forces attending prayers there, two eyewitnesses and a security source said.

Eyewitnesses at Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, near Arish city, told local media ambulances rushed to take the wounded to nearby hospitals.

A total of 235 people had been confirmed dead, a health ministry spokesperson said, adding it is feared the toll will rise.

Egypt has been fighting a vicious Isis insurgency in Sinai for the last three years. Friday's attack comes after a spate of recent bombings targeting the police and army.

While most militant attacks target the security forces, hundreds of civilians have been killed in the violence. Attacks outside the region have targeted Egypt's Christian minority.

President Abdel Fattah al Sisi has convened an emergency security meeting in Cairo.
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Oscar Pistorius's prison sentence for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp has been more than doubled by a South African appeals court.

The 31-year-old's sentence has been increased to 13 years and five months by South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein.

The court upheld an appeal by prosecutors, who challenged the original six-year sentence for being too lenient over the shooting.

The Paralympic athlete, who won gold in the 100m relay at London 2012, has so far served a year of the original sentence.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013. He was arrested that same day and later convicted of manslaughter, which was later replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court.

A spokesperson for Steenkamp's family said the ruling had "verified there is justice".

 Trailer released for new Oscar Pistorius movie

Prosecutors had told the court Pistorius' disability had been "overemphasised" by a judge and that the original 2016 sentence was far too lenient on the double-amputee.

Murder is murder, chief prosecutor Andrea Johnson told a five-judge panel. She asked them to overturn Pistoriuss initial sentence and give him the prescribed minimum of 15 years. There is no death penalty in South Africa.

Oscar Pistorius 'shoots dead his girlfriend' at home in South Africa Show all 3 1 /3 Oscar Pistorius 'shoots dead his girlfriend' at home in South Africa Oscar Pistorius 'shoots dead his girlfriend' at home in South Africa pistorius-final.jpg Clockwise from top left: Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius leaves the police station, police enter the estate where Pistorius lives, the star with his gold medal after winning the men's 400 metres at the 2012 Games in London, the athlete with his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp AP Oscar Pistorius 'shoots dead his girlfriend' at home in South Africa v2pistorius.jpg South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius and his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp Getty Images Oscar Pistorius 'shoots dead his girlfriend' at home in South Africa oscar.jpg Getty Images

This is the second time prosecutors have gone to the Supreme Court to challenge a decision by Judge Thokozile Masipa, who presided over Pistoriuss trial.

In 2015, the state successfully appealed against Ms Masipas judgement that Pistorius was not guilty of murder. The court overturned her verdict of culpable homicide  or manslaughter  and convicted Pistorius of murder.

Pistorius has claimed he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder hiding in his bathroom during the morning of the shooting. Without his prosthetic legs on and standing on his stumps, he shot four times through the cubicle door.
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A fundraising webpage which claimed to be raising money for the funeral of notorious mass murderer Charles Manson has been shut down by the GoFundMe charity.

Set up by a man called John Michael Jones, he claimed to be raising money on behalf of Mansons grandson Jason Freeman.

The Independent has not been able to independently verify whether Mr Jones knows any member of Mansons family.

But some US media outlets reported that they had spoken to Mr Freeman, who confirmed he has asked Mr Jones to set up the page.

He reportedly raised $972 (728) before the page was taken down by the website.

Manson and his followers were convicted of nine counts of murder at four different locations in California between July and August 1969.

He had hoped to ignite an apocalyptic race war and was sentenced to life in prison.

He died at California State Prison in Corcoran of natural causes, aged 83, over the weekend.

Prison officers in California are reportedly trying to figure out how to dispose of his body, either through burial or cremation, to avoid his grave becoming a sight of pilgrimage.

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

Undeterred Mr Jones posted on a Facebook group called Murderabilia, which facilitates the sale and exchange of serial killer memorabilia, where he vowed to continue fundraising and announced he was switching to PayPal.

He had previously posted signed postcards and business cards allegedly signed by Manson on the page.

He said: It breaks my heart to see Jason now suffering from the same prejudices, hate, discrimination and deliberate lies that his grandfather endured for 48 years.

Mr Freeman added that he was the son of the killers only known child, Charles Manson Jr. He was the product of Mansons first marriage to Rosalie Willis in the 1950s.

But it may not be so simple for him to claim ownership of his fathers body as Manson reportedly wrote a will in March in which he names Matthew Roberts  a musician who has claimed he is the killers illegitimate son  his sole beneficiary, according to The Sun.

Mr Roberts said he was adopted but he tracked down his birth mother in 2001 who told him she had been raped by Manson in 1968  nine months before his birth.

It is not know whether the will is legally valid, Manson reportedly believed he was immortal, but if it is Mr Roberts will have possession of his body and will arrange the funeral.

The Independent has contacted GoFundMe for comment.
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Children as young as six are posing in photos beside bloody animal carcasses in one state in America after the minimum age for hunting was scrapped.

Governor Scott Walker announced the change, in Wisconsin, which allows a youngster of any age to head into the wild to shoot game such as deer as long as they are in the care of an adult.

In the past, a hunter had to be at least 12 before they could target animals with a gun  a practice seen as a sport in the state and as an opportunity for bonding between friends and family.

Governor Walker revealed the shake-up in the rules just days before the state's new hunting season began.

Locals head into the northern forests for days on end to kill animals including deer, bears and turkey in what is justified by some as population control.

Tyler Harris and daughter Lexie, six, travelled to Medford in Taylor County, about 230 miles northwest of Milwaukee to hunt.

Mr Harris said he had been bringing Lexie to a shooting range for weeks to get her ready for the day he could take her out hunting.

She later claimed her first kill on the outing with her father, and posed in a photo beside the buck  a male deer  with the rifle she had used to end its life.

"She was shaking, Mr Harris told CBS News, adding that she then refused to gut the animal. "She looked at me and said, That's gross.

Joe Krantz and his six-year-old son Reece also went out hunting together.

He filmed the moment when his child shot a buck and later walked up to the slain animal.

"Watching it back I'm speechless almost every time I watch the video. it brings a tear to my eye and makes my heart hurt, Mr Krantz told CBS 58.

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

Governor Walkers change in the rules made Wisconsin the 35th state in the US to scrap the minimum age on hunting.

Animal rights activists in the past have targeted the legal pastime in the state to highlight what they say is a cruel practice.

Protestors in 2014 tailed hunters who ventured into forests around the Great Lakes area to both shoot and trap grey wolves.
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A couple in Washington State has sustained multiple injuries after crashing their car into a tree while having sex, police said.

The man was drunk and the woman was sitting on top of him, engaging in sexual activity, while they navigated a local highway, State Trooper Brooke Bova told The Independent. Both were naked.

The man failed to negotiate the curves in the road, Ms Bova said, and struck a tree with his car. The woman broke her pelvis and the man broke his wrist.

Their three-month-old child, properly restrained in a carseat in the back, was uninjured.

Witnesses told police they saw the couple, both in their early twenties, exit the vehicle naked. Some witnesses reported one of them fleeing the scene. Ms Bova believes the couple were scrambling to locate their clothes before police arrived.

Ive never seen anything like this, Ms Bova 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

If the man is convicted, it will be his fourth DUI in Washington State  a felony offence. He has also been charged with vehicular assault and child engagement. He was booked into Pierce County jail immediately after his release from the emergency room.

The woman has been admitted to the hospital and it is unclear whether charges will be brought against her, Ms Bova said. Authorities have not announced what will be done with the child.

A study of college students conducted by researchers at the University of South Dakota found 33 per cent of men and nine per cent of women had engaged in sexual activity while driving. None of the students surveyed had crashed their cars as a result.
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A shooting outside a Missouri mall just before Black Friday has left one teenager with life-threatening injuries, police said.

A 19-year-old person was reported injured at 11:30 pm the night before the infamous shopping holiday, according to a police report. The mall was open until midnight in anticipation of Black Friday shopping, according to its website.

Police said the shot was fired by a man sitting in his car outside the mall, who accidentally discharged his weapon while trying to re-holster it. Authorities have not determined whether the shooting was accidental or deliberate.

Recommended Crowds of shoppers in Brazil fight over Black Friday sales in Brazil

Another man was also in the car, police said. The investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made. The mall opened on schedule for Black Friday, at 6 am, according to local reporters.

Violence broke out in other areas of the country as well, as shoppers lined up to score their post-Thanksgiving deals. In Alabama, police shut down a mall on Thursday night after several fights were reported.

Black Friday 2017  in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Black Friday 2017  in pictures Black Friday 2017  in pictures Shoppers reach out for television sets as they compete to purchase retail items on Black Friday at a store in Sao Paulo, Brazil Reuters Black Friday 2017  in pictures Dozens of Brazilians reach for television sets in a store in Sao Paulo, Brazil EPA Black Friday 2017  in pictures Dozens of Brazilians reach for television sets in a store in Sao Paulo EPA Black Friday 2017  in pictures Brazilians reach for television sets in a store in Sao Paulo EPA Black Friday 2017  in pictures People wait outside a department store in Thessaloniki, Greece AFP/Getty Black Friday 2017  in pictures People wait in line outside of Best Buy in Norwalk, Connecticut November 23, 2017 for the store to open at 5PM on Thanksgiving Day to take advantage of the Black Friday sales AFP/Getty Black Friday 2017  in pictures People shop at Macy's department store on Thanksgiving Day. Some stores began their 'Black Friday' sales earlier than the usual date Getty Black Friday 2017  in pictures Shoppers are seen queuing for the opening of a Game discount store on 'Black Friday' at a shopping mall in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa Reuters

Officers responded to a mall in Birmingham, Alabama shortly after 11 pm, and found two girls fighting while other shoppers looked on. Both were treated by paramedics for minor injuries. The fight was not related to Black Friday sales, police said.

"Hoover Police will have extra officers on site at our retail areas throughout the holiday season to ensure the safety and security of the patrons and stores in our city," the department said in a statement.

 What is Black Friday?

Black Friday, once known exclusively for the tide of sales it brings, has in recent years become synonymous with consumer aggression and occasionally, violence.

In 2013, two men were arrested in Virginia after allegedly engaging in a knife fight over a Walmart parking space. The next year, police in California responded to reports of two women who started a "pushing and shoving match" over a Barbie doll on Thanksgiving night.

Deploying additional security officers on Black Friday has since become common practice at malls across the country. This year, however, some stores are stepping up their security to protect not from shoppers, but from possible shooters or terrorists. In Wrentham, Massachusetts, one outlet mall has installed large plastic barriers to prevent truck attacks like those recently seen in New York and Paris.

[The outlets] attracts a broad population,"Deputy Police Chief Bill McGrath told WPRI. "And for that reason we think its somewhat more of an attractive target."
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An American whose release from a North Korean prison was negotiated by former president Jimmy Carter has burned to death in California.

Police have confirmed that a body found engulfed in flames in a dirt field in San Diego is that of Aijalon Mahil Gomes.

An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer found the former teacher on fire on Friday night and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Gomes, 38, made headlines around the world in January 2010 when he was captured by North Korean authorities after entering the country illegally through China.

He was also said to have committed an unidentified hostile act and was sentenced to eight years hard labour and fined around $600,000.

An investigation has now been launched into Mr Gomes death but police say foul play is not suspected.

The preliminary investigation indicates the death is not a homicide but rather an accidental death or a suicide, said San Diego police homicide lieutenant Todd Griffin in a statement.

A final determination cannot be made until the Medical Examiners Office completes its investigation.

The Boston native had been living in South Korea before his 2010 arrest, where he taught English and regularly attended the Every Nation Church in Seoul.

It has long been thought that Mr Gomes crossed into North Korea to act as a missionary, following in the footsteps at another worshiper from the same church.

Korean-American Robert Park entered the country one month before Mr Gomes did. He was also captured but released after being detained for six weeks.

But in a rare interview with website Charon QC in 2015, Mr Gomes said he had been inspired to enter North Korea to teach after hearing racist comments made about the country by women in South Korea.

One day while socialising with a group of Korean/American women after church one woman said, There is only one Korea  South Korea. North Koreans are not Koreans, he told Charon QC.

I was shocked and deeply hurt and offended. For me it brought up thoughts about racism, segregation and the condition of race inequality in America.

I decided that after I taught English in the South, I would find a way to teach the children in the North as well.

North Korea Prison Camps Show all 7 1 /7 North Korea Prison Camps North Korea Prison Camps An overview of Camp 25 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps The administration area of Camp 15 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps A water treatment system in Camp 25 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps Crop fields and, inset, prisoners in Camp 25 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps The reported crematorium in Camp 25 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps A possible mine Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps A walled compound in Camp 15 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe

According to his 2015 memoir Violence and Humanity, Mr Gomes crossed the border into North Korea by walking across a frozen stretch of the Tumen River, before being immediately apprehended.

Mr Gomes believed he was being used as a pawn by the North Koreans as tensions escalated between Washington and Pyongyang over the sinking of Cheonan, a South Korean warship.

North Korean state media KCNA threatened harsher punishment and wartime law against Mr Gomes if the Americans persisted in its hostile approach towards the sinking of the ship.

An international inquiry found that a North Korean torpedo had sunk the Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors, but Pyongyang rejected the claims and threatened war of UN sanctions were imposed.

I was disappointed and disgusted at being used as a paw or for leverage for political gain by powers-at-large, he told Charon QC.

Headlines in 2010 were also dominated by speculation as to whether Mr Carter had met with then-leader Kim Jong-il.

At the time, the countrys reclusive leader was caught up in political manoeuvres to try and secure the succession of his youngest son, and current leader, Kim Jong-un.

KCNA reported that the elder Kim had leniently granted Mr Carters request to release Mr Gomes but denied that he had been granted an audience with the leader.

Mr Carter is instead said to have met Kim Yong-nam, at the time one of Pyongyangs top officials, and Kim Gye-gwan, who was the countrys chief nuclear negotiator.

North Korean media also claimed that Mr Gomes made a suicide attempt in July 2010 while he was still in custody.

Mr Gomes confirmed these claims in the 2015 Charon QC interview saying he attributes his survival to Gods will.

With the amount of blood I lost, my less than average physique and the pain, I cant really give you a sensible account of how I survived, he said.

Mr Gomes also revealed in the interview that he experienced issues with anxiety because of the ordeal which had made him mostly a recluse.

Of course I have setbacks and frustrations. At first, absolutely no one in my family reached out to hear my story, he said.

I wouldnt say I am famous and really dont have any desire to be. I would just like to live my life peacefully and help people any way I can.

This week The New York Times reported that Mr Gomes mother Jacqueline McCarthy had confirmed to a local news station that her son had just moved to San Diego from Boston, but that she had asked for privacy as the family dealt with the death.

If the San Diego Medical Examiners Office concludes that Mr Gomes death is a suicide he will be the second American to have killed themselves after being released from a North Korean prison.

Evan Hunziker, who was the first American to be arrested by North Korea on espionage charges since the end of the Korean War, spent three months in custody in 1996 after entering the country by swimming across the Yalu River from China.

However, he committed suicide less than a month after his return, which his father attributed to a fear of going back to jail.

There are currently three Americans being detained by North Korea  Kim Dong Chul who is being held on espionage charges, Kim Sang-duk who is being held for committing hostile criminal acts, and Kim Hak-Song who is being held on suspicion of hostile acts.

However this week relations between North Korea and America reached a new boiling point after president Donald Trump decided to label the country a state sponsor of terror.

The move triggered sanctions including restrictions on US foreign assistance and a ban on defence exports and sales.

North Korea labelled is a serious provocation and violent infringement against the regime, now under the control of Kim Jong-un.
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Lawyers for Michael Flynn have reportedly stopped sharing information with the White House regarding special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation  a sign that the former national security adviser may be cooperating with federal investigators.

Lawyers for Mr Flynn and Donald Trump had entered into an information-sharing agreement regarding Mr Muellers probe, the New York Times reports. Such arrangements are common among defence attorneys during an investigation.

But Mr Flynns lawyers recently terminated the agreement, leading White House attorneys to suspect the former administration official was thinking of cooperating with Mr Muellers team. Defence lawyers are not allowed to participate in such agreements if there is a potential conflict of interest.

The White House has previously said that Mr Flynn has no incriminating evidence to provide on the President. Lawyers for Mr Trump and Mr Flynn did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

At least one former Trump team member has already agreed to cooperate with Mr Mueller, who is investigating possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. George Papadopoulos, a low-level campaign staffer, recently pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a professor with Russian connections. Court documents revealed in Mr Papadopouloss indictment showed the professor had promised the campaign staffer dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails.

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

Mr Flynns cooperation has the potential to produce similarly groundbreaking information. An early addition to the Trump team, Mr Flynn joined the campaign as an adviser in January 2016. He was chosen as national security adviser during the transition, but resigned in February after it was revealed that he had lied to the Vice President and others about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the US.

It is Mr Flynns ties to Russia, however, are what may make him of interest to the Mueller team. The former director of the Defence Intelligence Agency sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner in Moscow in 2015  an event where he was paid thousands of dollars to speak. He served as point person for Russian affairs on the Trump transition team.

According to the Times, Mr Mueller is interested in investigating a meeting Mr Flynn attended with the Russian ambassador and White House adviser Jared Kushner during the transition. Mr Kushner reportedly suggested setting up a private backchannel between the White House and Moscow during the meeting. Mr Kushner has denied this.
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The release of a nude photo of Republican congressman Joe Barton could be investigated by police after the politician raised the possibility that he was a victim of revenge porn.

The image, posted to an anonymous Twitter account, quickly began circulating online.

Mr Barton said the United States Capitol Police - the federal law enforcement agency charged with protecting the United States Congress - had "reached out to me and offered to launch an investigation and I have accepted".

The representative from Texas added he could not comment further "because of the pending investigation".

Recommended Congressman threatened woman over naked selfie exposure

The Independent has contacted the Capitol Police to ask about their the investigation but was unable to reach anyone on the force.

In his first statement after the photo was released, Mr Barton told the Texas Tribune that the women we was involved with in the past were above the age of consent and willing participants.

While separated from my second wife, prior to the divorce, I had sexual relationships with other mature adult women, said the 68-year-old.

Each was consensual, he added. Those relationships have ended. I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down.

Mr Barton in 2015 is said to have warned at least one of the women that he would report her to Capitol Police if she released sexually explicit material he sent to her during their relationship.

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. 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The woman shared a recorded phone call of the conversation with the Washington Post. She spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity.

Mr Barton reportedly told the woman: I would tell them that I had a three-year undercover relationship with you over the Internet that was heavily sexual and that I had met you twice while married and had sex with you on two different occasions and that I exchanged inappropriate photographs and videos with you that I wouldnt like to be seen made public, that you still apparently had all of those and were in position to use them in a way that would negatively affect my career. Thats the truth.

Mr Bartons office said the phone call shared with the Post may be evidence that a crime has been committed against him.

Revenge porn - when sexually explicit images are posted online without a persons consent - was outlawed in Texas in 2015.

The Dallas Morning News has identified a potential crime against me and the transcript referenced in the Washington Post may be evidence, Mr Barton said in a statement.

He repeated that the relationship was consensual.

This woman admitted that we had a consensual relationship, he said. When I ended that relationship, she threatened to publicly share my private photographs and intimate correspondence in retaliation. As the transcript reflects, I offered to take the matter to the Capitol Hill Police to open an investigation.

Mr Barton, first elected to Congress in 1984, formerly led the powerful Energy and Commerce committee in the House of Representatives. He currently serves as vice chairman on that committee.
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The Pentagon is likely to announce in the coming days that there are about 2,000 U troops in Syria, two US officials said on Friday, as the military acknowledges that an accounting system for troops has under-reported the size of forces on the ground.

The US military had earlier publicly said it had around 500 troops in Syria, mostly supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces group of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting Islamic State in the north of the country.

Two US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon could, as early as Monday, publicly announce that there are slightly more than 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria. They said there was always a possibility that last minute changes in schedules could delay an announcement.

That is not an increase in troop numbers, just a more accurate count, as the numbers often fluctuate.

An accounting system, known as the Force Management Level (FML), was introduced in Iraq and Syria during former President Barack Obama's administration as a way to exert control over the military.

But the numbers do not reflect the extent of the US commitment on the ground since commanders often found ways to work around the limits - sometimes bringing in forces temporarily or hiring more contractors.

 Vladimir Putin meets Syrian president Bashar Assad

The force management levels are officially at 5,262 in Iraq and 503 in Syria, but officials have privately acknowledged in the past that the real number for each country is more than the reported figure.

The Pentagon said last December that it would increase the number of authorized troops in Syria to 500, but it is not clear how long the actual number has been at around 2,000.

Obama periodically raised FML limits to allow more troops in Iraq and Syria as the fight against Islamic State advanced.

Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis  in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis  in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis  in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces fighters celebrate victory in Raqqa atop of military vehicles REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis  in pictures Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces march past destroyed buildings as they celebrate victory REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis  in pictures Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces gesture the "V" sign in Raqqa REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis  in pictures Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces evacuate a civilian from the stadium REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis  in pictures A civilian prays after she was rescued by fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces from the stadium REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis  in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces fighters ride atop of military vehicles as they celebrate victory in Raqqa REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis  in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces fighters celebrate victory in Raqqa REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis  in pictures A fighter of Syrian Democratic Forces celebrates in Raqqa Reuters

As that campaign winds down, it is unclear how many, if any, US troops will remain in Syria.

Most of them are special operations forces, working to train and advise local partner forces, including providing artillery support against Isis militants.

One of the officials said that the actual number in Iraq is not expected to be announced because of host nation sensitivities, referring to political sensitivities about US forces in Iraq.

In August, the Pentagon announced that there were 11,000 troops serving in Afghanistan, thousands more than it has previously stated.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has in the past expressed frustration with the FML method of counting US troops in conflict zones.

Reuters
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Isis has beheaded 15 of its own fighters due to infighting in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar, officials say.

Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial governors spokesperson, said the executions occurred in the Surkh Ab bazaar of Achin district.

Nangarhar, which is on the border with Pakistan, has become a stronghold for Isis, which in June captured territory around Tora Bora, the former refuge of Osama bin Laden.

There was no confirmation of the killings from Isis, whose local branch is known as Islamic State in Khorasan, an old name for the area that includes modern Afghanistan.

In separate violence, a suicide attack on Thursday tore into a crowd in Jalalabad, the provincial capital, killing at least eight.

The two incidents underline the insecurity and lawlessness across Afghanistan, where thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded this year amid unrelenting violence involving militant groups including Isis and the Taliban.

 Footage shows the Syrian military approaching the final Isis stronghold in Syria

In a bloody day for the province, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a meeting of supporters of a police commander who was sacked for illegal land appropriation.

There was no claim of responsibility and no immediate indication of who was behind the attack on the crowd, which had gathered to demand the reinstatement of the commander, who survived.

A spokesman for the Jalalabad hospital confirmed eight people had been killed and 15 wounded.

The Taliban and Islamic State have frequently fought each other in Nangarhar and both have been targeted by sustained US air strikes.

In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Show all 11 1 /11 In pictures: Isis' weapons factories In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A mortar round fin manufactured by Isis in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis rocket components discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, Iraq in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis mortars discovered near Karamlais, Iraq, in November 2016 CAR In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis rocket launch frame in Qaraqosh, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A memo from Isis' COSQC on quality control at a manufacturing facility in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Electrically-operated initiators manufactured by Isis in forces Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis mortar tubes at a manufacturing facility in Karamlais, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis mortar production facility discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis weapons manufacturing facilities near Mosul in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Stocks of French-manufactured Sorbitol, Latvian potassium nitrate and Lebanese sugar at an Isis weapons factory in Iraq Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A destroyed Isis weapons facility in Qaraqosh, Iraq, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research

But the exact nature of the relationship between the two groups is little understood. There have been isolated incidents in Afghanistan in which the fighters of both appear to have cooperated.

Afghan intelligence documents reviewed by Reuters this year showed security officials believe Islamic State is present in nine provinces, from Nangarhar and Kunar in the east to Jawzjan, Faryab and Badakhshan in the north and Ghor in the central west.

Isis has grown to become one of the country's most dangerous militant groups since it appeared around the start of 2015.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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Campaigners for a British man allegedly tortured by Indian police in jail say officers are continuing to deny him access to his family and consular staff.

British High Commission representatives were scheduled to meet Jagtar Singh Johal from Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, to check on his mental and physical after "physical torture" allegations against Indian police.

But the Sikh Federation UK say Mr Johal was denied access to his lawyer, British consular staff and family for 10 days after he was detained in Jalandhar in the state of Punjab on 4 November.

The federation said the chief of police withdrew permission for consular staff to meet the 30-year-old saying it was "not appropriate" for them to have access as it was a public holiday in Punjab.

The federation says no official charges have been brought against Mr Johal, but local media reported his arrest was linked to the killing of Hindu leaders in Punjab.

Prime Minister Theresa May expressed concerns for the alleged torture of Mr Johal earlier this week and Foreign Minister Rory Stewart warned of "extreme action" against India if the torture allegations are substantiated.

The British Deputy High Commissioner and the Chief Minister of Punjab became involved to give assurances British consular staff would have access to Mr Johal before his court appearance in Punjab.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. 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The Sikh Federation UK said: "The delayed access and rejection of his lawyer's application to an independent medical assessment are deliberate to try and cover up the physical torture with the passage of time."

The British Deputy High Commissioner, Andrew Ayre, will meet Mr Johal and attend court tomorrow, reporting back to British ministers.

Foreign Minster, Mark Field is also expected to meet with his brother as well as West Dunbartonshire MP Martin Docherty-Hughes and Sikh representatives next week.
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North Korea appears to have replaced all of its guards at a jointly patrolled border area where a North Korean soldier defected last week under a hail of gunfire, according to South Korean media. Military officials said on Friday they could not confirm the report.

Yonhap News Agency cited an unnamed intelligence source saying there were signs the North had replaced its entire security force of 35 to 40 men at the Joint Security Area (JSA), but South Koreas Defence Ministry and the US-led United Nations Command could not confirm the swap.

The source also told Yonhap the North seems to have temporarily closed a bridge over which the defector drove a military jeep to reach the border before his dramatic escape on foot last Monday. The source said the North could be preparing to install a security gate at the bridge for strengthening its screening of personnel coming in and out of the area.

Recommended North Korea violated armistice by crossing border to shoot defector

A photo posted on the Twitter account of the acting US ambassador to South Korea, Marc Knapper, showed North Korean workers using shovels to dig what Knapper said was a trench at the spot where the defector crossed the border.

According to South Koreas military, four North Korean soldiers using handguns and AK-47 assault rifles fired about 40 rounds at the defector, who rushed across the line that divides Korea after getting his vehicle stuck in a ditch. He was shot five times and is now recovering at a hospital near Seoul where he was operated on twice to repair internal-organ damage and other injuries.

South Korean soldiers did not fire back, but the incident occurred amid animosity over North Koreas accelerating nuclear weapons and missile-test programmes. While North Korea often reacts with intense anger over high-profile defections, the countrys state media have remained silent on the latest case as of Friday.

After investigating the incident, the UN Command said on Wednesday it concluded that North Korea violated the armistice agreement ending the 1950-53 Korean War, because its soldiers fired across and physically crossed the border in pursuit of the defector. It said officials notified the Norths military of these violations and requested a meeting to discuss the investigation results and measures to prevent such violations.

The JSA is jointly overseen by the American-led UN Command and by North Korea, with South Korean and North Korean border guards facing each other only meters apart. It is located inside the four-kilometre wide Demilitarized Zone, which forms the de facto border between the Koreas since the Korean War.

AP
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Islamabad's High Court has reportedly been asked to decide whether Black Friday shopping campaigns run "contrary to Islamic teachings".

A petitioner asked judges to rule on whether the term should be outlawed in Pakistan due to negative connotations.

They made Pakistan's government a party to the complaint, according to reports in local media.

The petitioner wrote: "Friday has religious significance for Muslims. Therefore calling it black is a crime.

"According to the dictionary, Black Friday means ill-fated or black day. Hence, the court must ban celebration of Black Friday on 24 November in Pakistan."

The Daily Times reported that a prominent lawyer, Azhar Siddique, had written separately to high-ranking members of the government to ask them to block any official endorsements of the Black Friday phenomenon.

He suggested businesses could use "Bright Friday" to advertise deals instead.

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. 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The Daily Times quoted Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, chief of Pakistan's Tourism Development Corporation, as saying: "It is disgusting that some business tycoons are bringing Friday a bad name of black just to blindly follow the West for increasing their business.

"Friday is a gift for Muslims, which is a holy, blessed, and virtuous day."
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Russia has criticised Japan for allowing a US military build-up in north Asia under the pretext of countering North Korean aggression.

Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov attacked Tokyo for allowing its territory to be used by the US military as a base for part of its missile defence system during a press conference with his Japanese counterpart in Moscow.

Japan's foreign minister Taro Kono was forced to defend his country's stance toward North Korea and its ties with the United States.

We are expressing deep concern, with facts to back it up, that Japan, along with South Korea, is becoming a territory for the deployment of elements of the US global missile defence system which is being rolled out in that region under the pretext of the North Korea threat, Mr Lavrov said.

We have no problems directly with Japan, we do not see risks there. We see risks because of the proliferation of a global US missile defence system on the territory of countries that neighbour Russia, including Japan.

He said that in the past few weeks the United States had conducted military exercises in the region and adopted additional sanctions despite the absence of provocation from Pyongyang.

We are alarmed that in the last two months when North Korea conducted no tests or rocket launches, it seemed that Washington was not happy about that, and tried to do things that would irritate and provoke Pyongyang, he added.

Referring to US officials, he said: Its as if they are hoping that they (the North Koreans) will lash out again, and then it would be possible to engage in military options.

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

As you know, the US leadership has said many times that all options are on the table, including military options, and we note that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at a meeting with President Trump in early November, said that he supports the American position 100 percent, Mr Lavrov said

Mr Kono, after listening to Mr Lavrovs remarks, responded that Japan and its allies were not seeking regime change in North Korea. He said Tokyo had to act to defend itself after Pyongyang test-fired missiles which flew over Japans territory.

This is unprecedented, the most important and most pressing threat not just to Japan and Russia but to the international community as a whole. Its absolutely unacceptable, Mr Kono said, speaking through an interpreter.

The island of Kunashir in the disputed island chain. Sergei Lavrov and Taro Kono had met in Moscow in the hopes of resolving the dispute which means they never signed a formal treaty at the end of the Second World War (file photo) (Getty Images)

We believe its necessary to use all possible means and to increase the pressure on North Korea as much as possible to stop its nuclear program and the rocket launches, he said.

Japan welcomes the position of the United States, which is that to protect Japan and South Korea, all means of deterrence will be used.

The remarks came after the two men met to discuss a 70-year-old territorial dispute over an island chain between the nations in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Recommended Trump made the world less safe returning North Korea to terror list

The islands are known in Japan as the Northern Territories and in Russia as the Kurile islands.

At the end of the Second World War, Soviet forces took control over the islands from Japan.

The subsequent dispute has meant that Moscow and Tokyo have still not signed a formal peace agreement to end wartime hostilities.

Both countries had agreed to speed up work on economic cooperation and ease travel restrictions to the area.

They offered no details about any progress on resolving the core of the dispute, about who has sovereignty over the islands.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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Black Friday is well underway around the world, with shoppers fighting to get their hands on discounted electricals and other goods.

Scenes of mayhem were captured on camera in Brazil, where huge crowds of customers can be seen scuffling in their attempts to grab cut-price televisions.

Large queues also formed outside shopping centres in South Africa and Greece.

Black Friday, a US export, traditionally takes place the day after Thanksgiving in America, but in recent years has been a relatively subdued affair in the UK - where shoppers have been pictures queuing politely, or shopping online.

Dozens of Brazilians reach for television sets in a storeinf Sao Paulo (EPA)

Brazilians fight over electricals in Sao Paulo (EPA)

Shoppers reach out for television sets as they compete to purchase retail items on Black Friday at a store in Sao Paulo, Brazil (Reuters)

Shoppers are seen queuing for the opening of a Game discount store on Black Friday at a shopping mall in Durban, South Africa (REUTERS)

Shoppers queue in Durban, South Africa (Reuters) (REUTERS)

People wait outside a department store in Thessaloniki, Greece (AFP/Getty)

Shopper queue outside a Best Buy store in the US (AFP/Getty)

People shop at Macy's department store on Thanksgiving Day (Getty)

The day is synonymous with violent clashes, however. In 2014, footage from a London branch of Asda shower customers screaming and shoving each other to get to the best deals.

Black Friday has seen several deaths in the US, including 34-year-old security worker Jdimytai Damour, who was killed in a stampede of shoppers in a Walmart in 2013.

The day is expected to launch the biggest ever weekend of shopping in the UK, with customers set to spent almost 8 billion.

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

Some critics say they are fed up of the modern tradition, which sees shoppers scramble to get the best deals.

Consumer groups such as Which? Also argue many supposed deals are not all they seem.
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The Church of Sweden has urged its clergy to use more gender-neutral language when referring to God and to avoid referring to the deity as Lord or he.

The move is one of many made by the national Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is in the process of updating a 31-year-old handbook, which outlines how services should be conducted in terms of language, hymns and other aspects.

The new guidelines will be introduced on 20 May on the Christian holiday of Pentecost.

A former state church, headquartered in the city of Uppsala, some 37 miles north of the capital, the church has 6.1 million baptised members in a country of 10 million.

It is headed by a woman, Archbishop Antje Jackelen, who was ordained a priest in the Church of Sweden in 1980 and became a Doctor of Theology at Lund University in 1999.

Speaking to Swedens TT news agency, Ms Jackelen said the use of more gender-inclusive language had been discussed several decades ago, as early as 1986.

Theologically, for instance, we know that God is beyond our gender determinations, God is not human, she 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 decision has been met with some criticism, however.

Christer Pahlmblad, an associate theology professor at Lund University, told the Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper in Denmark: It really isnt smart if the Church of Sweden becomes known as a church that does not respect the common theology heritage.

Earlier this month, the Church of England issued new advice to its 5,000 schools stating children should be able to try out the many cloaks of identity without fear of being bullied.

Guidance for the schools on homophobic bullying, first published three years ago, now includes transphobic and biphobic bullying.

The advice urges schools to allow children to accept difference of all varieties and be supported to accept their own gender identity or sexual orientation and that of others.
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The EU President Donald Tusk has condemned Russian aggression for the deaths of five Ukrainian servicemen who were killed when pro-Russian rebels attack government positions in the Luhansk region on Thursday.

Four of the men died during an eight-hour clash near Krymsky, a village around 30 miles west of Luhansk.

Ukrainian forces said they killed eight rebels.

Five of our soldiers have died over the past 24 hours, said Oleksandr Turchynov, chief of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, said in televised remarks.

He added a conflict situation is under way between various criminal groups that make up the occupational administration on the occupied territories.

The situation in Luhansk escalated after a power-struggle between separatist factions controlling the city.

Men carrying rifles blocked access to administrative buildings in the city just hours after rebel leader, Igor Plotnisky, fired interior minister, Igor Kornet.

The men blocked access to some buildings under orders from the interior ministry, according to AFP.

A peace agreement put in place almost three years ago has failed to cease fighting in eastern Ukraine, with each side accusing the other of violating the terms of a ceasefire.

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

According to UN figures, more than 10,000 people have died in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since it erupted in April 2014, shortly after Russia annexed the Crimea Peninsula.

More than 1.6 million people have been displaced.
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President Donald Trump has told President Recep Tayyip Erdogan he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, according to Turkey's foreign minister.

Our discomfort regarding the provision of weapons to the YPG was conveyed to Mr Trump once again... Trump very clearly said he had given instructions to not provide weapons to the YPG, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara.

We welcome the promise of not providing weapons to the YPG, and want to see it implemented practically.

Mr Cavusoglu said Mr Trump relayed his decision during a telephone conversation between the Turkish and U.S. leaders on Friday. Cavusoglu was present in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office during the telephone call.

Turkey considers the Kurdish Syrian fighters, known by the initials YPG, to be terrorists because of their affiliation to outlawed Kurdish rebels in Turkey. A US decision to arm the fighters soured relations between the two Nato allies.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Cavusoglu also said that Russia, Iran and Turkey would decide jointly who would attend Syrian peace talks. Turkey has said it would not accept the presence of YPG representatives.

There was no immediate comment from the White House, the State Department or the Pentagon. But Turkey's announcement appeared to catch at least some U.S. officials who work on Syria issues off-guard, with several saying they were unaware of any plans to alter U.S. assistance to the Kurds. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, Mr Trump tweeted that he'd be speaking with Mr Erdogan about bringing peace to the mess that I inherited in the Middle East.

Associated Press
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At least 235 people have died in a militant attack on a Sufi mosque in Egypts restive Sinai peninsula in one of the worst terror incidents the country has seen in recent years.

Armed men detonated at least one suicide bomb and opened fire on people praying on Friday, survivors told state media.

It is not yet known who was behind the attack, but it comes after a spate of recent bombings targeting the police and army claimed by Isis-affiliated jihadis in the region.

Why is the Sinai so lawless?

Egypts Sinai peninsula, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip, has long been a bastion for Islamic insurgents and Bedouin groups with grievances against the Cairo government.

It has been sidelined by the central government since Israel withdrew occupying troops in 1979 and militancy has often been stoked by Egypts brutal methods of dealing with dissidents.

Islamic extremism in particular has flourished in the region thanks to the chaos that has engulfed the country since the 2011 and 2013 revolutions.

As well as the Isis affiliate, at least four al Qaeda aligned groups are thought to be currently active there.

How long have Isis operated in Egypt?

Isis Sinai affiliate - known as the Sinai Province group - first emerged in 2011, and was previously known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis.

It pledged allegiance to Isis after the declaration of their so-called caliphate across Syria and Iraq in 2014.

Since then it has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks, including the 2015 bomb aboard a MetroJet flight which killed 224 people, many of them Russian tourists.

What are their aims in the Sinai peninsula?

The Sinai Group broadly speaking wants to create a breakaway state ruled by the same extremist version of Islam that Isis imposed on people under its control in its so-called caliphate.

While the majority of their operations primarily target the police, army and other security forces, the Isis affiliate has also carried out suicide bomb attacks and executions of Sufi Muslims, whose interpretation of Islam they consider heretical.

Jihadists have also targeted local tribes that work with the armed forces, branding them traitors.

Outside of the Sinai, Egypts 10 per cent Christian minority has been a frequent target for extremists, killing dozens of people in attacks on churches.

Government figures in Cairo have also been targeted.

Why are the Egyptian security forces struggling to contain them?

The military regime is unwieldy and political infighting is rife, leading to policy and operational delays and poor communications.

In addition, unlike in Syria and Iraq, Isis is not a landholding force in Egypt, and containing insurgency movements is more challenging.

There is growing public anger in Egypt at the governments seeming inability to prevent suicide bombings and other terror attacks.
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Saudi Arabias powerful new crown prince has called Irans religious supreme leader the new Hitler of the Middle East, a remark which has further inflamed relations between the two regional powers.

Mohammed bin Salman, who was appointed heir to the throne by his father King Salman in June, made the comment in a rare interview with the New York Times on Thursday.

Iran responded furiously to the remarks on Friday, accusing the prince of following the path of regional dictators and advising the young leader to think about their fate.

 King Salman brushes aside nephew to make son "MBS" next in line to the throne

32-year-old Prince bin Salman is widely seen as the face of the modern kingdom. He is the driving force behind Vision 2030, the kingdoms long term economic plan to wean itself off dependence on oil, and in recent months has announced several liberal societal reforms.

In his role as defence minister, however, he has attracted criticism for his role in Saudi Arabias bloody intervention in the Yemeni civil war, as well as his aggressive stance on Iran.

The prince re-emphasised the Sunni kingdoms opposition to Shia Iran, with which it vies for geopolitical dominance in the Middle East, backing rival sides in several wars and political crises.

The Islamic Republics alleged bid for expansion under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must be stopped, he said.

The situation in Yemen Show all 14 1 /14 The situation in Yemen The situation in Yemen Houthi supporters trample on a US flag during a gathering mobilizing more fighters into several Yemeni battlefronts, in Sana'a, Yemen EPA The situation in Yemen People carry the coffins of men, who were killed in the recent Saudi-led airstrikes during their funeral, in the Old City of Sanaa, Yemen AP The situation in Yemen Pro-government fighters give food to Yemeni children on the road leading to the southwestern port city of Mokha. Yemeni rebels are putting up fierce resistance in a key Red Sea port city where they are encircled by pro-government force Getty Images The situation in Yemen A Yemeni stands in front of a graffiti protesting US military operations in war-affected Yemen, in Sana'a, Yemen. According to reports, US Special Forces troops allegedly disembarked from US helicopters in the Yemeni town of Yakla and attacked several houses belonging to members of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, killing three high-ranking Al-Qaeda members and nine civilians, six women and three children. One American serviceman has been killed and three injured in the attack EPA The situation in Yemen US Special Forces troops allegedly disembarked from US helicopters in the Yemeni town of Yakla and attacked several houses belonging to members of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, killing three high-ranking Al-Qaeda members and nine civilians, six women and three children. One American serviceman has been killed and three injured in the attack EPA The situation in Yemen A Yemeni female fighter supporting the Shiite Huthi rebels, and carrying weapons used for ceremonial purposes, takes part in an anti-Saudi rally in the capital Sanaa Getty Images The situation in Yemen Yemeni female fighters supporting the Shiite Huthi rebels, and carrying weapons used for ceremonial purposes, take part in an anti-Saudi rally in the capital Sanaa Getty Images The situation in Yemen A boy shouts slogans next to pro-Houthi fighters, who have been injured during recent fighting, during a rally held to honour those injured or maimed while fighting in Houthi ranks in Sanaa, Yemen Reuters The situation in Yemen Balls of fire and smoke rise from a Houthi-held military camp following alleged Saudi-led airstrikes, in Sana'a, Yemen EPA The situation in Yemen Yemenis search under the rubble of damaged houses following reported Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa Getty Images The situation in Yemen A Yemeni boy looks on as Yemenis search under the rubble of damaged houses following reported Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa Getty The situation in Yemen A Yemeni boy sits amidst the rubble of damaged houses following reported Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa AFP/Getty The situation in Yemen Marine One with US President Donald Trump flies with a decoy and support helicopters to Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, for the dignified transfer of Navy Seal Chief Petty Officer William 'Ryan' Owens who was killed in Yemen Getty Images The situation in Yemen US President Donald Trump aboard the Marine One to greet the remains of a US military commando killed during a raid on the al Qaeda militant group in southern Yemen on Sunday, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, US Reuters

We learned from Europe that appeasement doesnt work. We dont want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East, he said.

Relations between Riyadh and Tehran have sunk to new lows following a 4 November ballistic missile intercepted near Riyadhs airport fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.

Saudi Arabia said the missile was an act of war by Iran, which it said supplies the Shia rebels with arms.

 Iranian general says he would 'bury' Donald Trump

The Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of Yemens exiled government responded by shutting down the entire countrys airspace and seaports, in the process triggering renewed fears of famine in the war-torn country.

The resignation of Lebanons Prime Minister Saad al Hariri in Riyadh earlier this month has also stoked tensions. Mr Hariri, of the Sunni Future Movement party, said he feared an assassination attempt and the growing power of Lebanons Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah.

Many, however, believe he was pressured to resign by the Saudi authorities in a bid to destabilise Lebanons coalition government.

Mr Harir suspended his resignation on his return to Lebanon on Wednesday.
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A report published in Australia by the University of New South Wales and University of Technology has discovered 'endemic' exploitation of international students and backpackers.

Published this week, the report says: "Job exploitation of international students and backpackers in Australia is endemic and severe... One in three international students and backpackers are paid about half the legal minimum wage, according to the report Wage Theft in Australia, the most comprehensive study of temporary migrants work and conditions in Australia. The report draws on survey responses from 4,322 temporary migrants from 107 countries in all states and territories.

As reported in the BBC, Senator and Minister for Employment, Michaelia Cash, said the government had made "several important reforms" to combat exploitation in the time since the survey began. The government urged workers with concerns to contact Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman.

"It is critical that all employers obey the law and pay the appropriate wage, regardless of the background or those employees," Ms Cash said in a statement.

Since December last year, the government had given the ombudsman greater resources and passed legislation designed to assist vulnerable workers, she added. The Fair Work Ombudsman urged temporary migrants, who make 11% of Australia's workforce, to look up their rights online.

Speaking to The Independent, Bassina Farbenblum, senior law lecturer at UNSW Sydney said, "We have a large silent underclass of migrant workers in Australia, primarily made up of international students and backpackers, who are paid well below the legal minimum wage across at least 12 industries.

Backpackers and international students are vulnerable to exploitation in Australia (iStock/Getty Images)

"Until now we havent known the extent of wage theft because the public rarely hears from most backpackers and international students about their experiences at work.
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Warnings about the damaging impact on the Northern Ireland peace process of the return to a physical border between the north and the south post-Brexit understate the danger. Those issuing these warnings point to the problems posed by a hard border to relations between nationalist and unionist communities, to power sharing between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and to commerce within Ireland and between Britain and Ireland.

But the opposite of a peace process is a war process and this is not so far away as it might seem. Peace in Northern Ireland depends ultimately not so much on power sharing but on a complicated but stable balance of power between communities and it is this which is now being eroded by a Brexit-obsessed British Government.

A central ingredient for violence in Ireland between 1968 and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was that for most of that period British governments were in effect supporting the predominance of Protestants over Roman Catholics. It became more decorous to use political epithets  unionists and nationalists  to refer to the two sides, but the sectarian divide has always been at the heart of the Troubles since the first civil rights marches in 1968, complicated though the conflict has always been by the broader claims of Irish nationalism. So long as this was the British posture, the balance of power was always skewed against constitutional non-violent nationalist opposition to the status quo.

The British position changed in 1990, when Peter Brooke, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said that Britain had no bias or national interests of its own in Northern Ireland. This made the relationship between nationalists and unionists more even and opened the door for even-handed mediation by successive British and Irish governments. Compromise between unionists and nationalists became more feasible  and the use of the gun more counterproductive  once bargaining had begun about how power should be divided.

It is this process which is now going into reverse: Brexit makes Northern Ireland more distinctly British, which is why the DUP supports Britains departure from the EU, despite the damage to local economy. What makes the border issue so much more inflammatory than it would otherwise be is that the British Government is no longer neutral: on the contrary, its very existence depends on being supported by the votes of the DUP in Parliament.

 Liam Fox says we can't afford pay rise for nurses while defending 1bn DUP deal

It is extraordinary that Theresa Mays deal with the DUP after she lost her parliamentary majority in the general election in June should have gone through with so little protest or realisation of its destructive consequences for peace in Northern Ireland. It is absurd to imagine that the present British Government, wholly absorbed in negotiating Brexit and determined not to hold another general election which it would probably lose to Labour, is in any position to mediate fairly in Northern Ireland.

British commentators on the border and Brexit generally feel that any reference to Ireland is incomplete without a dollop of history thrown in. They frequently cite Churchills hackneyed line about the re-emergence of the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone as an issue, unaffected by the cataclysm of the Great War. The quote has a patronising ring to it  Why are those fellows so obsessed by the past?  and is in any case misleading about present developments. What is really re-emerging with the Conservative-DUP alliance is a return to the fatal combination between the Conservatives and the unionists in Ireland which in the late 19th and early 20th century defeated or blocked successive Home Rule Bills. It was this failure of constitutional nationalism that gave legitimacy to physical force as an alternative option.

A further reason why the gun and the bomb may come back into Northern Ireland politics, and thus into relations between Ireland and Britain, is that they have proved effective in the past. Prior to 1968, the nationalist community in Northern Ireland suffered from being a minority discriminated against by unionist governments permanently in power and backed by the British state.

A couple of years before the violence began, a British newspaper had published an excoriating piece about the way the province was run, called John Bulls Political Slum, but British governments had blithely ignored the stench from the slum since 1922. It was only when street protests morphed into violence and, soon after, into a vicious guerrilla that they began to pay attention.

Constitutional Irish nationalists are often self-deceiving or dishonest about the degree to which their own leverage has depended on the alternative to them being the gunman. I was living in Belfast during the height of the troubles between 1972 and 1975 when unionist politicians complained that the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the main political voice of the nationalist community, depended for their political clout on the actions of the IRA. The SDLP leaders brushed this criticism aside, saying that they absolutely condemned the men of violence.

Their condemnation may have been sincere, but that did not mean that they did not benefit politically from the actions of the IRA. One person on the nationalist side who was realistic about this was the SDLP leader Paddy Devlin, briefly a minister in a power-sharing government in 1974. I remember him saying to me that the unionists have a point: I can pick up a phone and get put through to almost any British minister, aside from the prime minister. I can do this not because they care very much about me or the SDLP, but because they would prefer to talk to us than to the Provisional IRA. In due time, British governments ended up doing just that, however much they tried to disguise the fact.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters 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

It is depressing to see how quickly the lessons of the 30-year-long war in Ireland are being forgotten and old mistakes repeated, though half a century ago they led to the most intense guerrilla war fought in Western Europe since the Second World War. One of the few great successes of British governments in recent decades was to end the conflict which it only did after immense and sustained efforts.

This achievement is now being thrown away. The proponents of Brexit, insofar as they thought about the border issue at all, regarded it as minor one. So it is in terms of population and geographical area involved, but this did not prevent it becoming a running sore previously and there is no reason  given the British Governments present political trajectory  that it should not do so again.

Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness may no longer lead Sinn Fein, but this is scarcely comforting. While they were there, they carried a degree of authority and control within the Republican movement that their successors cannot match. The DUP, the party of Ian Paisley and which has a deeply sectarian tradition, has an armlock on the British Government while a reinvigorated border will make Northern Ireland more British and less Irish. It would be surprising if there are not some Republicans who think that Britain is discarding the long-negotiated agreements and compromises that brought peace. There may not be many people who think so, but then you do not need many to bring the gun back into the politics of Ireland.
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I didnt expect it to happen. Back in September 2014, listening with dismay when a female judge, Thokozile Masipa, found Oscar Pistorius not guilty of the murder of Reeva Steenkamp, I didnt ever expect to see justice done.

Three years later, its a different story. In December 2015 a South African appeals court replaced Pistoriuss manslaughter conviction with one of murder, and now, on the eve of the international day for the elimination of violence against women, the athletes prison sentence has been more than doubled to 13 years.

Is 13 years enough? Ultimately thats a meaningless question. Nothing will change what happened on the night of Valentines Day 2013, when Pistorius shot Steenkamp four times through a locked toilet door. As Zoe Williams wrote, no loss of freedom can be ever comparable to the loss of a life, but that is not the only reason why sentencing matters. Imprisonment, wrote Williams, has another purpose, beyond the individual: the justice system is what we use to announce to one another how seriously we take a crime.

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. 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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. 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Three years ago the killing of Reeva Steenkamp appeared, in the eyes of the South African law, to be less important than certain types of property theft. She was dead and gone, and the only story worth hearing seemed to be that of her killer, frequently portrayed as the tragic hero led astray.

Steenkamp, often referred to only as Pistoriuss dead girlfriend, was reduced to a plot device in what became as one headline put it, the rise and fall of the Blade Runner. Dead women cant think or feel, so the only subjectivity that mattered was that of Pistorius. The accused, said Masipa, is the only person who can say what his state of mind was at the time he fired the shots that killed the deceased. No one can say how Steenkamp was feeling back then. Its not difficult to imagine it, though.

Its testimony to the determination of Steenkamps family and supporters that her murderer finally faces a sentence that goes some way to reflecting the value of his victims life. While many still wish to see this as the Oscar Pistorius Show  the Mirror, for instance, is currently reporting on How Oscar Pistorius went from Olympic and Paralympic icon to world's most famous murderer  more and more of us are unwilling to make this all about him.

Male violence isnt original. A man who shoots his girlfriend through a locked door isnt some modern-day Hamlet. Hes an entitled, boorish bully, raised in a world where male aggression is normalised, lacking the courage to question his own hate.

 Oscar Pistorius: Judge announces double prison sentence for murder of Reeva Steenkamp

When Oscar Pistorius won medals, he did something no one else could do; when he murdered Steenkamp, he became just another everyday monster. There are millions of men like him. The true heroes are the women who dare to speak out about abuse, just as Steenkamp had been planning to, about a previous relationship.

There is no happy ending to this new story. Reeva Steenkamp remains dead and during the course of today, an estimated three women will have been killed by their male partners in the US alone. Here in the UK, male violence has been responsible for the deaths of more than 900 women over a six-year period. A World Health Organisation study finds that 30 per cent of all women globally experience intimate partner violence, while almost half of all female murder victims die at the hands of partners or family members (for men it is less than 6 per cent).

These figures are staggering, each one representing a human being with passions, hopes and dreams. No court or prison sentence can repair the damage. There will be no justice until we have created a world in which all women are able to love freely, safely and without fear.

Nonetheless, at the start of the UNs 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, we can treat the doubling of Pistoriuss sentence as a sign that men who kill women cannot hide behind self-glorifying narratives forever.

Women across the world  sisters of Steenkamp and the millions of others who die at mens hands  will not stand for it. To men who might murder we say, your reign of terror will not last. We will not stop until you do.
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Dear President Emmerson Mnangagwa,

I would like to start by congratulating you for being nominated as the candidate to take over from the former President Robert Gabriel Mugabe. I am sure you are pleased by the turn of events. You are indeed a crocodile that snapped back!

I dont know if we should be calling you a hero, or feeling as though we have been hoodwinked.

As Zimbabweans, we know that you are not a saint. Most Zimbabweans regard you as the architect of a lot of suffering in Zimbabwe. Lets go as far back as 1983. Remember that year? It was the year the fifth brigade was unleashed and massacred more than 20,000 people in Matabeleland. Some of them were buried alive, some set on fire, pregnant women were cut open as they were claimed to be carrying dissident children.

I wonder why Zanu-PF is entrusting you with this job. Is it because you will free the people of Zimbabwe or is it because you will continue to feed the evil system of greed and corruption that has been in Zanu-PF for almost four decades? Or is it because you are a repented man that has a new and greater vision that puts the people of Zimbabwe first, unlike the crooks that surround you that are hungry for power?

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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

It is also unfortunate that the only time you thought to stand up to Mugabe was when his actions threatened your bank account and your personal security. You never gave other people that opportunity to run from Mugabes ruthlessness.

It is an open secret that in 2008 the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won the elections and you, honourable Mnangagwa, are regarded as the mastermind behind the attacks on MDC supporters. Some disappeared, some were raped and some tortured  and some were obviously murdered by the mobs.

May I take this time to catch you up on what has been happening to an ordinary Zimbabwean in Zimbabwe in the past 37 years of your comfortable life?

The country has a 90 per cent unemployment rate, hospitals look like shacks and there is no money in banks. Electricity is something we hear South Africa and Botswana talk about, because it is not here in Zimbabwe. We get running water in our homes about once or twice a week. Schools look like squatter homes. Violence, harassment and bullying of civilians by the police has become the norm.

 Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as new President of Zimbabwe

Respect for peoples basic human rights is irrelevant in Zimbabwe  people are denied their democratic rights such as voting. If they get to vote, their votes are disregarded and Zanu-PF continues to rule as if no elections took place. We lost our brothers and sisters in South Africa during xenophobic attacks.

The nation needs to heal emotionally, physically and mentally. People have suffered. Is our Zimbabwe safe in your hands or are you just an extension of Mugabe?

We need you to heal the nation, we need you to take responsibility for your actions and your contributions to the human rights violations that happened on our soil. We need reforms in education, health and economic policies. We need our human rights respected, we need jobs. We need roads repaired, we need water and decent sanitation. We need a disciplined police force that is not corrupt and treats us like the Zimbabweans that we are!

Its time for you to get to work! As Zimbabweans, we will not be victims again! Dont pull any more divide-and-rule tactics. Enough is enough! Do the right thing by your people.

Tina Zimhassler is a pseudonym
MOSS POINT, Miss. - History remembers firsts. History remembers movements, mostly, the prominent faces of a movement. Rarely, does history lend credence to those behind the scenes, keeping things together.

Sharon Caples McDougle played a significant role in an important and an iconic moment in history and didn't feel the need to tell her story - until now.

On Sept.12, 1992, Dr. Mae Jemison was the first African American female to set foot into space for the historic mission STS-47 aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. All astronauts required assistance donning/doffing the suit.

The weight of the suit wasn't the problem. At the time the suits were designed for men only so they weren't very accommodating to women's curves.

Who was it to help Jemison get into her space suit - an adventurous girl from Moss Point, last name McDougle.

McDougle said after seeing the movie, Hidden Figures, friends told her that she should tell her story, although she felt many people had already known about her efforts.

As a 1982 graduate of Moss Point High School, McDougle said she initially envisioned her career would be working with children.

"As a little girl, I thought I would be doing something with children - maybe like a Kindergarten teacher," she said. "Around junior high, I figured I would be good at that because I had taken care of my nieces and nephews at that time."

Near her junior and senior year of high school, McDougle said she considered being a flight attendant after visiting and staying with her sister for a while in Portland, Oregon. McDougle's love for traveling and seeing the world came true, but in a different form.

The Air Force recruiter showed up at the high school and I was like, thats my ticket out of Moss Point right there, she laughed. After I turned 18 that February, I signed up and once I graduated high school, I was out of there.

While riding the high of her life, adversity struck. After the death of her dad when she was only four years old -- her mother when she was seven, McDougle credited her teachers for providing her with the affection she needed.

"My oldest sister was 23 at that time so she was still young too and I had to realize that I wasn't the only one grieving because she was too, so the teachers really stepped in and helped me to feel good about myself," said McDougle.

Hugs, good-will, and playing outside in her neighborhood are things McDougle credits for sustaining her through the bad times growing up in the River City.

After seven years and five months in the Air Force, McDougle said an issue in her unit, not the force in its entirety caused her to seek an early out because she did not want to be unhappy. After exiting in 1990, McDougle bet on herself and took a leap of faith.

"It was a little scary because I went into the force right out of high school," McDougle said. "Even though I was in the Air Force, the skills I had did not translate into a normal job," McDougle said.

Odd jobs such as cleaning offices and placing stickers on clothing for about five months in California kept her afloat, until one of her Air Force buddies called her the sixth month, notifying her he had been hired at Boeing Aerospace Operations.

He then notified McDougle about the job opening that suited her skillset. She called, interviewed for the position, and was hired on the spot.

"Man, I had some angels," she said. "I always say my mom made it happen."

McDougle held that position for 22 years where she was the focal point for numerous firsts and allowed her to build a relationship with Jemison.

She began her career as a Crew Escape Equipment (CEE) Suit Technician and was responsible for processing the orange launch and re-entry pressure suit assemblies worn by all NASA space shuttle astronauts.

She was assigned to her first mission STS-37 within a year. McDougle was one of only two women CEE Suit Technicians and the only Black technician when she began her career.

When word of Jemison's mission was written on the big board inside of Boeing, inside of the CEE lab, McDougle took the initiative and placed her name beside Jemison's, indicating that she would be taking care of getting her prepared for her flight.

"You couldn't choose where you would help, but as soon as I saw her name go up on the board, I wrote my name directly beside hers," McDougle chuckled, "and I dared anyone to say something."

McDougle said the relationship between she and Jemison was one of sisters, no matter her stature at that time.

"She never carried herself with an air around me, she was so cool," McDougle said. "We knew how to turn it on and off when it came to work and the respect level was always there."

Traveling to space is a rigorous task, but Jemison, according to McDougle seemed not to be affected.

"Usually the astronauts are quarantined for a couple of days until their flight, but they exercise some while in space, but when they make it back, they are normally weak - not Mae though," McDougle laughed. "She strolled off the shuttle, I had a wheel chair ready for her, but she didn't need it. I was amazed."

Other career accomplishments include:

In 1994, McDougle was promoted to the position of Crew Chief making her the first female and first African American Crew Chief in CEE where she was responsible for leading a team of technicians to suit up astronaut crews.

In 2004, McDougle became the first female and first African American male or female promoted to the position of Manager of the CEE Processing department.

McDougle also brought about a pay increase for suit techs who entered after her tenure began.

McDougle said she does not know how she wants to be remembered in history, but said the most important thing people know is that she remembers where she came from.

"I definitely want to be remembered as a native of Moss Point, Mississippi first and foremost," McDougle said. "The state gets a negative light mostly, but there are a lot of great things coming out of Mississippi."

Husband, Maronald McDougle and wife, Sharon Caples McDougle. (Facebook)

Sharon and her husband Maronald McDougle celebrated their 25th anniversary this year. They have two children -- Dominique (daughter, 23) and Corbin (son, 19). The McDougle family resides in La Porte, Texas, but says they will always call Moss Point home.

History does not acknowledge those who play significant background roles, but maybe now, people will take a closer look at the woman who accompanies Jemison in photos and recognize that she too is a part of firsts.
Amendments to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

The federal cabinet has made important amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code by government ordinance. It now awaits the presidents assent.

The changes will close loopholes in the existing law, and ensure that defaulting firms are placed under reliable administration. Regulators will now be able to ensure that business owners who were judged as wilful defaulters will not regain control over their former companies. The amendments will crack down defaulters who propose revival schemes to remain in control of the company.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India has already made it mandatory to examine the credentials of those proposing revival schemes, and its ability to uphold the interests of employees, vendors, and customers of the failed entity. As such, any turnaround plan will need the approval of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to be finalized, and not the defaulting promoters.

RELATED: Audit and Financial Review Advsiory

Logistics gets infrastructure status in India

India has granted infrastructure status to its logistics sector, which includes firms operating cold chains, industrial parks, transportation, and warehousing facilities.

The new status will allow logistics companies to raise long term credit from banks and financial institutions at lower rates, as well as attract foreign investment.

A key industry player states that the governments move will reduce the cost of capital in transportation and warehousing, and in turn bring down the cost of logistics. Indias logistics sector currently costs 13 percent of its GDP  higher than in most countries, including the U.S.

The governments notification, however, outlines a minimum required area and investment for facilities to be considered as logistics infrastructure. For example, a multimodal logistics parks comprising inland container depot (ICD) with a minimum investment of US$7.72 million (Rs 500 million) and minimum area of 10 acres will be considered logistics infrastructure. A cold chain facility will require an investment of at least US$2.32 million (Rs 150 million) and a warehousing facility must have an investment of minimum US$3.86 million (Rs 250 million) to come under logistics infrastructure.
The magazine provides a general overview of the options available to foreign firms to sell to the online India...
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Jared Kushner Probed Over Israel Contacts



By Ali Abunimah

November 24, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly probing Jared Kushners contacts with Israeli officials last year as Israel tried to derail a UN Security Council vote on its West Bank settlements.

Kushner is Donald Trumps son-in-law, a senior adviser and fixer. Former FBI director Mueller was appointed by the Department of Justice in May to lead a broad investigation sparked by allegations of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The Wall Street Journals revelation of the probe into Kushners contacts with Israel comes as details emerge of an imminent Trump peace plan that would railroad Palestinians into surrendering their rights in exchange for a state in name only.

According to the newspaper, Muellers investigators have asked witnesses questions about the involvement of Kushner in a controversy over a UN resolution passed before Trump took office that condemned Israels settlements, all of which are illegal under international law.

Trump had posted his opposition to the resolution on social media and called the Egyptian dictator Abdulfattah al-Sisi , whose diplomats were sponsoring the resolution, to press him to pull it.

The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed....cont: https://t.co/s8rXKKZNF1  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016

Despite these efforts, the resolution passed on 23 December, after several other Security Council members stepped in to sponsor it, and the Obama administration  in a rare US move  declined to cast a veto.

According to the Journal, Israel had reached out to senior Trump associates, including Kushner and Steve Bannon , in an effort to thwart the vote.

The motivation for the Mueller teams questions about the UN is unclear, the Journal states, but they are part of an examination of Kushners interactions with foreign leaders during the presidential transition.

The newspaper points to the 1799 Logan Act that bars Americans from communicating with a foreign government to influence the governments actions related to a dispute with the US, but notes that no one has ever been successfully prosecuted under it.

Kushner is no impartial observer. His familys foundation has donated money to support Israeli settlements.

What will be interesting to watch is whether Kushners role in Trumps efforts to derail international condemnation of Israels settlements will attract the same obsessive attention from liberal politicians and pundits who have jumped on every Russiagate allegation of collusion no matter how dubious or fictional .

Ultimate deal

On Wednesday, Middle East Eye published what it said were exclusive details of Trumps ultimate deal peace plan reportedly to be unveiled early next year.

Citing a Western diplomat close to the US team preparing the proposal, Middle East Eye describes a rehash of Israeli-inspired plans to give Palestinians what amounts to limited self-rule on a few scattered plots of land  akin to the bantustans apartheid South Africa tried to establish to deflect calls for full rights for Black South Africans.

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The US plan would call for a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and a few enclaves in the West Bank but key issues including the status of Jerusalem and the right of return for Palestinian refugees would be postponed.

So-called final negotiations would then be led by Saudi Arabia.

Kushner reportedly visited Saudi Arabia to brief Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman  commonly known as MBS  and to ask for Saudi help to pressure Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to accept the plan.

Earlier this month MBS summoned Abbas to Riyadh. According to Israeli media reports , the Saudi autocrat told the PA leader to accept the upcoming Trump peace plan or resign.

Unnamed Palestinian officials told Middle East Eye that MBS offered to nearly triple Saudi Arabias monthly payments to the PA to $20 million if Abbas accepts it.

Obsession with Iran

The report confirms the motive of the Saudi interest in promoting the plan  and it has nothing to do with securing Palestinian rights.

MBS is very enthusiastic about the plan, the Western diplomat told Middle East Eye, and he is eager to see a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel first, then between Israel and the Arab countries, as a first step in forming a coalition between Saudi Arabia and Israel to counter the Iranian threat.

This is Netanyahus plan and he sold it the US team and they are trying to sell it to the Palestinians and Arabs, according to a Palestinian official quoted by Middle East Eye.

Saudi Arabia has long been flirting with Israel in a low-key manner, but the two states are now increasingly open about their alliance.

In an unprecedented interview with Saudi media last week, Israeli military chief Gadi Eizenkot expressed his countrys willingness to share intelligence with Saudi Arabia  something that has undoubtedly already been going on.

Eizenkot also described Saudi Arabia and its allies as moderate.

The Saudi regime is returning the favor.

Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa, the former Saudi justice minister and a close ally of MBS, reportedly told Israeli media that violence against Israel  presumably including Palestinian resistance to military occupation  is un-Islamic.

In June, the Saudi foreign minister demanded that Qatar stop supporting the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

Saudi schemes backfiring

While embracing Israel appears to be a key strategy in pursuit of Saudi Arabias obsession with confronting Iran, the kingdoms regional schemes have had a tendency to go disastrously awry, as The Electronic Intifadas Omar Karmi noted in a recent analysis : these include the years-long proxy war in Syria that resulted in massive destruction and fatalities but failed to remove its president, Bashar al-Assad; the Saudi-led war on Yemen that has succeeded only in killing and injuring tens of thousands of civilians and bringing millions to the brink of famine; and the effort to isolate Qatar , which has not brought Riyadhs Gulf neighbor to heel.

The latest Saudi power play to weaken the Lebanese resistance and political movement Hizballah by forcing Lebanons Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign also appears to have backfired.

After a bizarre episode in which he appeared to be held captive by the Saudis, before traveling to Paris and Cairo , Hariri finally returned to Beirut on Wednesday.

There he promptly rescinded his resignation after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun.

The US threats this week to close the Palestinian Authoritys embassy in Washington appear to be part of efforts to pressure Palestinians into accepting Trumps plan.

But the bullying and bribes by the US-Saudi-Israeli axis arent going to be any more successful on the Palestinian front either.

Even the pliant PA leadership will have no choice but to reject a plan that seeks only to liquidate the Palestinian cause in order to remove all obstacles to Israels full integration into the region.

This article was originally published by Electronic Intifada -

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Note regarding comments
Ex-British PM Gordon Brown: My Life, My Excuses over Iraq War

By Finian Cunningham

November 24, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Browns political legacy is a rather dull affair, more in the shadows of the times that surrounded his time in government. With so little to acclaim, its not surprising that Brown should now seek to whitewash Britains  and his own personal  responsibility in the illegal war on Iraq.

Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister who took over from Tony Blair in 2007, made headlines earlier this month when he claimed that Britain had been hoodwinked by the Americans about Iraqs weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and thus duped into joining the war on that country.

The Independent, for example, ran the headline : US hid intelligence from Britain about Saddam Husseins WMDs before Iraq War, Gordon Brown claims.

Several other British news outlets ran similar headlines along the line that Britain had been deceived into joining the American war plan on Iraq, which the George W Bush administration launched in March 2003.

Browns claim comes out of the publication this month of his autobiography which is grandly titled: My Life, Our Times.

Given his attempt to re-write the history of Britains despicable involvement in the destruction of Iraq, a more appropriate title for Browns book would have been: My Life, My Excuses.

From an excerpt of Browns memoir, the former British premier writes: When I consider the rush to war in March 2003  especially in light of what we now know about the absence of weapons of mass destruction  I ask myself over and over whether I could have made more of a difference before that fateful decision was taken.

This sounds like a man who is racked by guilt over what the American-British war in Iraq and nearly a decade of military occupation unleashed. Such guilt would be understandable given the horrific results of that war: over one million Iraqi civilians killed; up to four million Iraqi children orphaned; millions displaced; a society reduced to rubble; and the scourge of sectarian terrorism that has blighted the entire region, inflicting hundreds of thousands more deaths, especially in Syria.

At the time of the Iraq War, Brown was serving as the Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) in the British government, with Tony Blair as prime minister. He writes in his memoir: Chancellors have seldom been at the centre of decision-making in matters of war and peace. My official role leading up to the conflict was to find the funds for it.

Again, this sounds like someone trying to minimize their culpability in the disastrous, not to say criminal, decision by the British government to go to war in Iraq.

Central to Browns claims is that the US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld deliberately with-held crucial American intelligence from the British in the run-up to the war.

It was only years later that Brown says he became aware of this secret US intelligence which casted doubt on claims over Iraqs alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Brown writes: Having reviewed all of the information now available I feel I now understand how we were all misled on the existence of WMDs.

What he is implying is that his government would not have embarked on the Iraq War disaster if it had access to the intelligence report which Rumsfeld with-held from Downing Street back in early 2003, during the rush to war, as he puts it.

This smacks of dubious excuse-making by Brown. Of course, the British media would lap that retrospective claim up because the whole Iraq disgrace can then be conveniently offloaded as the fault of the Americans.

The Bush administration no doubt were playing fast and loose with dodgy intelligence on Iraqs alleged WMD in prepping a war that Washington wanted. But so too were the British, including a pliant mass media which shamefully did to challenge the official claims being made at the time.

It was after all the British government that produced its own Iraq dossier based on its Joint Intelligence Committee. From that document, Britains premier Tony Blair made the notorious claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had the capability to launch WMDs within 45 minutes. The British cabinet also finessed its dossier to fit with US claims that Saddam could build nuclear weapons within one year.

The British intelligence services and Blairs cabinet  including Brown as finance minister  were all to varying degrees guilty of sexing up the Iraq dossier to make intelligence fit with policy. That policy was to join with the Americans in a war on Iraq, despite the actual paucity of evidence for WMDs that were supposed to be the pretext for war.

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One notable dissenting voice was that of Dr David Kelly who worked as a senior weapons inspector at the British Ministry of Defense. Kelly had been deployed to Iraq during the 1990s following the First Gulf War involving the US and Britain. He had close knowledge of Iraqs weapons systems. When the US and Britain were busy making the case for justifying the Second Gulf War in 2003 (to finish the job against Saddam), Kelly anonymously voiced his concerns to British media that the intelligence was being manipulated. He was later outed as the source for a BBC report which accused Blairs government of sexing up the claims over Iraqs WMDs. The 59-year-old British weapons expert was subsequently found dead in July 2003, in a lonely wooded area in Oxfordshire, from presumed suicide. A subsequent government-led judicial inquiry in 2004  the Hutton Inquiry  cleared the British government of wrongdoing. However, a large section of the British public and several expert doctors continue to dispute the conclusion that Kelly took his own life. Murder has been claimed as part of a British intelligence cover-up.

Britains seven-year public inquiry  the Chilcot Inquiry  published last year issued a damning conclusion that the British government had gone to war based on insufficient and faulty evidence. Many members of the British public, including war veterans, believe that Tony Blair should be prosecuted as a war criminal for his role in starting the Iraq War along with George W Bush. Other members of Blairs war cabinet could also be indicted, including Gordon Brown. He sheepishly claims in his memoir that his task was only to find the funds for the war. That task, however, still makes Brown complicit in the instigation and furnishing of an illegal war.

Looking back, the now 66-year-old Browns political career has hardly been a shining success.

Admittedly, he was part of Tony Blairs historic three-time election victories for Labour in 1997, 2001 and 2005. He was part of the New Labour phenomenon that ended the reign of Tory governments initiated by Margaret Thatchers election in 1979.

But Brown was often a bitter second lieutenant to Blair, engaged in media back-biting and sniping over his chagrin at not being made prime minister sooner. Eventually, Brown got his much-coveted place in 10 Downing Street when Blair resigned in 2007. He gained the prime ministership in an uncontested Labour party internal election. When Brown finally did go before the electorate in the general election of 2010, Labour was routed by the Conservatives led by David Cameron. The British public had grown weary of New Labour Tory-Lite neoliberal economics that Brown had largely overseen. No doubt too the legacy of Britains role in the Iraq War was part of the stunning public repudiation. In the 2010 general election, Labour lost more parliamentary seats than at any time since 1931. The party had become a burnt-out ruins. It is only now rebuilding itself under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and his return to traditional socialist policies  policies which Brown and the Blairites had abandoned.

Browns political legacy is, in truth, a rather dull affair, more in the shadows of the times that surrounded his time in government. With so little to acclaim, its therefore not surprising that Brown should now seek to whitewash Britains  and his own personal  responsibility in the illegal war on Iraq. With so little achievement, it is understandable that he should try to bury the one outstanding legacy.

Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.

This article was originally published by Strategic Culture Foundation -

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The Plutocrats Are Pursuing Internet Censorship And Theyre Barely Even Hiding It

By Caitlin Johnstone

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. - Noam Chomsky, The Common Good

November 24, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - A few days ago Facebook blocked my account for posting an article about false flag operations around the world, then two days later unblocked me with an apology after I made a big stink about it, saying it was an accident. Things went back to normal, then yesterday something changed and now the only people seeing my posts on that account are Facebook friends I was interacting with back in 2012 and havent spoken with in years. A number of users have told me that their post visibility has been really weird there the last few days.

Facebook has just announced that it is creating a resource which shows users which Russian propaganda outlets they have liked or followed, in response to consumers newly manufactured demand to be protected from ideas and information that might make them less patriotic. It is unclear how Russian propaganda will be defined and how inaccurate classification will be avoided.

Over the weekend, Googles Eric Schmidt announced that the search engine giant will be working to hide articles by RT and Sputnik from users to protect them from misinformation. He announced this as a positive step while also bizarrely claiming that he is strongly not in favour of censorship.

Okay, Eric.

Unlike other powerful states that restrict access to the internet and control information, the U.S. doesn't need to revert to those forms of crude censorship when the corporations will do it for them, thus maintaining the illusion of a free society. https://t.co/sh5ZheP8iF  Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) November 21, 2017

Due to a shift in Googles evaluation methods, traffic to left-leaning and anti-establishment websites

, with sites like WikiLeaks, Alternet, Counterpunch, Global Research, Consortium News, Truthout, and WSWS losing up to 70 percent of the views they were getting prior to the changes.

Two days ago someone posted an image of a Youtube notification saying his account had received a strike simply for putting a talk between Sam Harris and Douglas Murray on a playlist they were listening to, just the latest in an increasingly severe series of bans and infractions being leveled on accounts whose interests vary from the CNN mainstream.

Twitter for its part recently banned a popular parody account which spoofed the ridiculous establishment loyalist Peter Daou, removed the verification badges of some alt-right and far-right figures while banning others altogether, and still refuses to verify Julian Assanges account despite being fully aware that its his. In December Twitter will begin banning users with ties to violent groups . We will find out which groups this applies to in practice over time.

In a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing , officials spoke openly on the Senate floor about the need to prevent the fomenting of discord on Facebook, Twitter, Google and Youtube, arguing that Civil wars dont start with gunshots, they start with words.

This is all happening amid the outrage over FCC Chairman Ajit Pais aggressive shove toward dismantling net neutrality, which threatens to choke off smaller websites or even price a significant percentage of the population off the internet altogether when theyre unable to afford a more cable package-like internet service model . The fewer internet users there are, the more people have to rely on easily-controlled mainstream media outlets.

When private corporations that control google, twitter and FaceBook along with the government that is under control of corporate capitalism can determine the range and content of information you are exposed to - there is a term for that - totalitarianism.  Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) November 22, 2017

Its so obvious what these creeps are pushing for. Theyre more obvious about what theyre after than a guy at a bar who keeps flirting with a woman and buying her drinks.

On television the political perspectives you see being debated range from MSNBC to Fox News, which for the most part are only superficially distinguishable. They both rally behind the same wars, work to normalize the same neoliberal Walmart economy, and sell viewers the illusion that theres real political diversity happening within the American one-party Dempublican system. They sustain the illusion of a free market of ideas the way the crooked jewelers in John Steinbecks The Pearl conspired to create the illusion of marketplace competition. People watch them argue about how many scoops of ice cream the president got the way WWE spectators watch two actors bodyslamming one another other onto a padded canvass.

This is the artificially narrow spectrum of debate the oligarchs are trying to force upon the internet today. If youre able to get online at all in the new system theyre pushing toward, they dont want you arguing about whether democracy exists at all in America and the two-party system is a sham, they want you debating the preauthorized MSNBC vs Fox News talking points they fed you the day before.

Tired: the government censoring your speech



Wired: the corporations who own the government censoring your speech  Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) November 22, 2017

They do this because theyre scared, and theyre scared because they completely lost control of the narrative last year. WikiLeaks, alternative media and social media mixed together into a recipe that shoved the entire conversation about Americas rigged political system into the mainstream and made the term deep state a household phrase, and the establishment propagandists are still to this day falling all over themselves to regain full control of the narrative. The kabuki theater theyve been lulling America to sleep with has never had more lights on it, and now theyre all pushing and pulling in all different awkward and often contradictory ways to shut them off.

But what was seen cannot be unseen. The Russia nonsense theyre laboring to keep everyone focused on is riddled with more and more gaping plot holes, and the illusion is getting harder and harder to maintain. Keep shining bright lights on those plot holes, please, and speak your truth more boldly than ever. Theyre trying to shut down all the exit doors before we can escape from oligarchic tyranny, and we are running out of time.

Hey you, thanks for reading! My work is entirely reader-funded so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook , following me on Twitter , and maybe throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal .

This article was originally published by Medium -

Ending Net Neutrality is the Atom Bomb in Trump's War on the Truth

By Will Bunch Hatred for, and the stifling of, a free press and free flow of information is the glue that holds the Trump presidency. Continue

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Translated Doc Debunks Narrative of Al Qaeda-Iran Alliance



Exclusive: Media fell into neoconservative trap, again.



By Gareth Porter

November 24, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - For many years, major U.S. institutions ranging from the Pentagon to the 9/11 Commission have been pushing the line that Iran secretly cooperated with Al Qaeda both before and after the 9/11 terror attacks. But the evidence for those claims remained either secret or sketchy, and always highly questionable.

In early November, however, the mainstream media claimed to have its smoking guna CIA document written by an unidentified Al Qaeda official and released in conjunction with 47,000 never-before-seen documents seized from Osama bin Ladens house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The Associated Press reported that the Al Qaeda document appears to bolster U.S. claims that Iran supported the extremist network leading up to the September 11 terror attacks. The Wall Street Journal said the document provides new insights into Al Qaedas relationship with Iran, suggesting a pragmatic alliance that emerged out of shared hatred of the United States and Saudi Arabia.

NBC News wrote that the document reveals that, at various points in the relationship Iran offered Al Qaeda help in the form of money, arms and training in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon in exchange for striking American interests in the Gulf, implying that Al Qaeda had declined the offer. Former Obama National Security Council spokesman Ned Price, writing for The Atlantic, went even further, asserting that the document includes an account of a deal with Iranian authorities to host and train Saudi-Al Qaeda members as long as they have agreed to plot against their common enemy, American interests in the Gulf region.

But none of those media reports were based on any careful reading of the documents contents. The 19-page Arabic-language document, which was translated in full for TAC , doesnt support the media narrative of new evidence of Iran-Al Qaeda cooperation, either before or after 9/11, at all. It provides no evidence whatsoever of tangible Iranian assistance to Al Qaeda. On the contrary, it confirms previous evidence that Iranian authorities quickly rounded up those Al Qaeda operatives living in the country when they were able to track them down, and held them in isolation to prevent any further contact with Al Qaeda units outside Iran.

What it shows is that the Al Qaeda operatives were led to believe Iran was friendly to their cause and were quite taken by surprise when their people were arrested in two waves in late 2002. It suggests that Iran had played them, gaining the fighters trust while maximizing intelligence regarding Al Qaedas presence in Iran.

Nevertheless, this account, which appears to have been written by a mid-level Al Qaeda cadre in 2007, appears to bolster an internal Al Qaeda narrative that the terror group rejected Iranian blandishments and were wary of what they saw as untrustworthiness on the part of the Iranians. The author asserts the Iranians offered Saudi Al Qaeda members who had entered the country money and arms, anything they need, and training with Hezbollah in exchange for hitting American interests in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

But there is no word about whether any Iranian arms or money were ever actually given to Al Qaeda fighters. And the author acknowledges that the Saudis in question were among those who had been deported during sweeping arrests, casting doubt over whether there was ever any deal in the offing.

The author suggests Al Qaeda rejected Iranian assistance on principle. We dont need them, he insisted. Thanks to God, we can do without them, and nothing can come from them but evil.

That theme is obviously important to maintaining organizational identity and morale. But later in the document, the author expresses deep bitterness about what they obviously felt was Iranian double-dealing in 2002 to 2003. They are ready to play-act, he writes of the Iranians. Their religion is lies and keeping quiet. And usually they show what is contrary to what is in their mind. It is hereditary with them, deep in their character.

The author recalls that Al Qaeda operatives were ordered to move to Iran in March 2002, three months after they had left Afghanistan for Waziristan or elsewhere in Pakistan (the document, by the way, says nothing of any activity in Iran before 9/11). He acknowledges that most of his cadres entered Iran illegally, although some of them obtained visas from the Iranian consulate in Karachi.

Among the latter was Abu Hafs al Mauritani, an Islamic scholar who was ordered by the leadership shura in Pakistan to seek Iranian permission for Al Qaeda fighters and families to pass through Iran or to stay there for an extended period. He was accompanied by middle and lower-ranking cadres, including some who worked for Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The account clearly suggests that Zarqawi himself had remained in hiding after entering Iran illegally.

Abu Hafs al Mauratani did reach an understanding with Iran, according to the Al Qaeda account, but it had nothing to do with providing arms or money. It was a deal that allowed them to remain for some period or to pass through the country, but only on the condition that they observe very strict security conditions: no meetings, no use of cell phones, no movements that would attract attention. The account attributes those restrictions to Iranian fears of U.S. retributionwhich was undoubtedly part of the motivation. But it is clear Iran viewed Al Qaeda as an extremist Salafist security threat to itself as well.

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The anonymous Al Qaeda operatives account is a crucial piece of information in light of the neoconservatives insistence that Iran had fully cooperated with Al Qaeda. The document reveals that it was more complicated than that. If Iranian authorities had refused to receive the Abu Hafs group traveling with passport on friendly terms, it would have been far more difficult to gather intelligence on the Al Qaeda figures who they knew had entered illegally and were hiding. With those legal Al Qaeda visitors under surveillance, they have could identify, locate and ultimately round up the hidden Al Qaeda, as well as those who came with passports.

Most of the Al Qaeda visitors, according to the Al Qaeda document, settled in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan Province where the majority of the population are Sunnis and speak Baluchi. They generally violated the security restrictions imposed by the Iranians. They established links with the Baluchiswho he notes were also Salafistsand began holding meetings. Some of them even made direct contact by phone with Salafist militants in Chechnya, where a conflict was rapidly spiraling out of control. Saif al-Adel, one of the leading Al Qaeda figures in Iran at the time, later revealed that the Al Qaeda fighting contingent under Abu Musab al Zarqawis command immediately began reorganizing to return to Afghanistan.

The first Iranian campaign to round up Al Qaeda personnel, which the author of the documents says was focused on Zahedan, came in May or June 2002no more than three months after they have had entered Iran. Those arrested were either jailed or deported to their home countries. The Saudi Foreign Minister praised Iran in August for having transferred 16 Al Qaeda suspects to the Saudi government in June.

In February 2003 Iranian security launched a new wave of arrests. This time they captured three major groups of Al Qaeda operatives in Tehran and Mashad, including Zarqawi and other top leaders in the country, according to the document. Saif al Adel later revealed in a post on a pro-Al Qaeda website in 2005 (reported in the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat ), that the Iranians had succeeded in capturing 80 percent of the group associated with Zarqawi, and that it had caused the failure of 75 percent of our plan.

The anonymous author writes that the initial Iran policy was to deport those arrested and that Zarqawi was allowed to go to Iraq (where he plotted attacks on Shia and coalition forces until his death in 2006). But then, he says, the policy suddenly changed and the Iranians stopped deportations, instead opting to keep the Al Qaeda senior leadership in custodypresumably as bargaining chips. Yes, Iran deported 225 Al Qaeda suspects to other countries, including Saudi Arabia, in 2003. But the Al Qaeda leaders were held in Iran, not as bargaining chips, but under tight security to prevent them from communicating with the Al Qaeda networks elsewhere in the region, which Bush administration officials eventually acknowledged.

After the arrests and imprisonment of senior al Qaeda figures, the Al Qaeda leadership became increasingly angry at Iran. In November 2008, unknown gunmen abducted an Iran consular official in Peshawar, Pakistan, and in July 2013, al Qaeda operatives in Yemen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat. In March 2015, Iran reported ly released five of the senior al Qaeda in prison, including Said al-Adel, in return for the release of the diplomat in Yemen. In a document taken from the Abbottabad compound and published by West Points Counter-Terrorism Center in 2012, a senior Al Qaeda official wrote, We believe that our efforts, which included escalating a political and media campaign, the threats we made, the kidnapping of their friend the commercial counselor in the Iranian Consulate in Peshawar, and other reasons that scared them based on what they saw (we are capable of), to be among the reasons that led them to expedite (the release of these prisoners).

There was a time when Iran did view Al Qaeda as an ally. It was during and immediately after the war of the mujahedin against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. That, of course, was the period when the CIA was backing bin Ladens efforts as well. But after the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 1996 and especially after Taliban troops killed 11 Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998the Iranian view of Al Qaeda changed fundamentally. Since then, Iran has clearly regarded it as an extreme sectarian terrorist organization and its sworn enemy. What has not changed is the determination of the U.S. national security state and the supporters of Israel to maintain the myth of an enduring Iranian support for Al Qaeda.

Gareth Porter is an independent journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism. He is the author of numerous books, including Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare (Just World Books, 2014

This article was originally published by The American Conservative -

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And Then The Clown Prince Told Friedman: 'Suck On This.' By Moon Of Alabama November 24, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - The Moustache of Understanding , Thomas Friedman, has written the probably most embarrassing fanfiction ever: The most significant reform process underway anywhere in the Middle East today is in Saudi Arabia. Yes, you read that right. Though I came here at the start of Saudi winter, I found the country going through its own Arab Spring, Saudi style. Unlike the other Arab Springs  all of which emerged bottom up and failed miserably, except in Tunisia  this one is led from the top down by the countrys 32-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and, if it succeeds, it will not only change the character of Saudi Arabia but the tone and tenor of Islam across the globe. Friedman once said that U.S. soldiers must shove their guns into the face of random Arabs and tell them to "suck on this" . How things change. Friedman now went to Riyadh to suck on whatever side of his abdomen Mohammed bin Salman shoved into his mustached mouth: We met at night at his familys ornate adobe-walled palace in Ouja, north of Riyadh. M.B.S. spoke in English, while his brother, Prince Khalid, the new Saudi ambassador to the U.S., and several senior ministers shared different lamb dishes and spiced the conversation. After nearly four hours together, I surrendered at 1:15 a.m. to M.B.S.s youth, pointing out that I was exactly twice his age. Its been a long, long time, though, since any Arab leader wore me out with a fire hose of new ideas about transforming his country. "Look here! MbS SPEAKS ENGLISH (and pays in dollars)! This must be OUR GUY." ("And don't ya all love those (homo-)sexual allusions I enwombed in those words?")

Tom Friedman (left) getting "instructed" of his next duty (artist conception) It hasn't been such a "long, long time" since Friedman used that "wore me out" cliche. Two years exactly, or four Friedman units , have passed since he last fellatiated MbS like this: I spent an evening with Mohammed bin Salman at his office, and he wore me out. Friedman's Love Letter to a War Criminal largely ignores the famine in Yemen caused by the U.S.-Saudi blockade of that country. The Saudi tyrant promised to lift the blockade two days ago only to keep it up and to even tighten it since. "A humanitarian nightmare" is all Friedman has to say about it. But "it blew [his] mind" to learn that "men-only" concerts in Riyadh are now a thing. Friedman falsely claims that MbS is a "lawyer by training,..". Since when is a Bachelor degree in Islamic law - the only academic training MbS claims to have - sufficient to join a legal bar? Friedman goes on to repeat the ridiculous claim that the tyrant's brutal shakedown of his local competition is following some rule of law: When all the data was ready, the public prosecutor, Saud al-Mojib, took action, M.B.S. said, ... "Under Saudi law, the public prosecutor is independent. We cannot interfere with his job ..." Those are of course outright lies which Friedman makes no attempt to refute. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. What part of "absolute" is so difficult to understand? King Salman's decree gave his son's shakedown committee absolute authority to maim whoever it wants to and to take whatever it likes - literary: It may take whatever measures deemed necessary to deal with those involved in public corruption cases and take what it considers to be the right of persons, entities, funds, fixed and movable assets, at home and abroad, ..." There is no "public prosecutor" or "rule of law" involved in that mass rape. Moreover, the kings decree immunizes MbS of any consequences. It exempts his committee "from laws, regulations, instructions, orders and decisions" as long as it claims to perform its tasks. Never Miss Another Story Get Our Free Daily Newsletter All is well, Friedman says, because the few people he was allowed to talk to, knew their script well: Not a single Saudi I spoke to here over three days expressed anything other than effusive support for this anticorruption drive. No Saudi speaks out against that drive because doing so might get him killed. Anything less than "effusive support" for the clown prince constitutes "terrorism" and gets one jailed or killed in no time: The law, introduced earlier this month, includes penalties of up to 10 years in jail for insulting the king and crown prince, as well as the death penalty for other acts of "terrorism", according to Saudi Gazette and other local news media. Friedman. won't go to jail. He pens down whatever the Saudi ruler and his entourage tell him to - or not to write. He says as much: Indeed, M.B.S. instructed me: "Do not write ..." Thus, Saudi Arabia, which is funding thousands of extremist Wahhabi mosques all around the world, will now become the beacon of liberal Islam. Or so he claims. The whole piece is a terrible embarrassment for its author, but even more so for the editors at the NY Times, who let it pass. They should demand the pay for a full spread advertisement from the Saudis to compensate for the loss of readership Friedman's column is likely to cause. One wonders why the mustache felt the need to suck up all the crap MbS offered to him. He is married to a billionaire and does not need the extra income. Then again - some "youth" to "surrender to" and a "fire hose" to "wore him out" for "a long, long time" might have been an enticing compensation This article was originally published by Moon Of Alabama - ==== Note regarding comments You spoke and we listened. It is no longer necessary for ICH readers to register before placing a comment. This website encourages readers to use the "Report" link found at the base of each comment. When a predetermined number of ICH readers click on the "Report" link, the comment will be automatically sent to "moderation". This would appear to be the most logical way to allow open comments, where you the reader/supporter, can determine what is acceptable speech. Please don't use the report feature simply because you disagree with the author point of view. Treat others with respect, remembering that "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still."- Benjamin Franklin. Please read our Comment Policy before posting -
From January 6 through February 2, 2019, the city of Cebu will be full of colorful decorations and events for the Philippines most famous festivalSinulog. Youll hear the famous drum beat repeatedly played inside the malls, a sign that the festivities have just commenced.

Popular for its raves and parties, the Sinulog Festival attracts plenty of local and foreign tourists every year. But despite the grand festivity, Sinulog stays true to its purpose and that is to celebrate the Sto Nino.

What is the Sinulog Festival?

Deemed as the biggest event in the Philippines, the Sinulog Festival attracts about 1 to 2 million people every year. It is held on the third Sunday of January as a Thanksgiving event for the patron saint, the Sto Nino. It is so popular that many people will go out of their way to travel to Cebu to witness the event and will book hotels as early as December.

Apart from the religious aspect of the festival, there are street parties that many people get crazy about. Theres also the grand parade which showcases performers from the city as well as participants from across the country. Youll witness dancers in creative costumes who move skillfully to the beat of the drums, trumpets and gongs.

How to Enjoy the Festivities

Since Sinulog is the biggest event in the country, you can just imagine massive crowds, traffic, road closures and long queues at the malls. With this, itll be a bit difficult to navigate your way around the city especially if its your first time. Now here are tips to help you enjoy and have fun on the day of the event.

Have a Concrete Plan

Taking part in the celebrations is all about having fun but dont forget to have a plan. Prepare a simple itinerary that will guide you as explore the city. With a concrete plan, you will know what youre supposed to do first, where to go and where to eat.

Walk Around Town

Sinulog is best experienced in the streets! Before the big day, try visiting the the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino  the highlight of the entire festival. You can offer prayers, light some candles or attend the daily Catholic mass. Then proceed to Colon street, the oldest street in Cebu. Enjoy the night market, buy some local stuff and put your negotiating skills to the test. Lastly, dont forget to drop by Osmena Boulevard where you will see beautiful tourist attractions that are randomly installed.

Taste Exotic Food

As a growing tourist destination, Cebu has plenty of culinary delights in every corner. From European inspired dishes to local treats, you can find many street vendors offering different cuisines. Be it sweet, spicy or exotic, Cebu has everything you need to captivate your taste buds and satisfy your gastronomic urges.

Shop for Sinulog Items and Souvenirs

Do some Sinulog shopping but do it a few days before the grand event. This is to make sure that you wont have to keep up with the throng of people during the big day. Additionally, prices are a bit higher during Sinulog day so be sure to shop earlier and take advantage of local goods sold at a reasonable price.

Watch the Grand Parade

The grand parade is one that you should not miss! If want to skip the street parties, then watch the performers during the parade. This is where youll see participants from across the country do their ritual dance. As they dance, they shout out the very familiar expression Viva! Pit Senor, Santo Nino! which means Hail to the Child King! Marvel at the graceful dance steps along with the intricate costumes and the overall creativity of the performance.

Enjoy the Street Party

Bring out the wild child in you and take part in street parties! Dont miss out on the chance to drink, have your face painted and be showered with beer. The locals will not only greet you a big Pit Senor! but will also hand you a shot of beer, give you a hug or high five and even spray paint on your face.

Comfortable Clothes, Bottled Water and Enough Cash

The day can get pretty hot so ditch the trendy clothes and go for the most comfortable ones. Since the event is quite long, carry a bottled water so you can stay hydrated. And lastly, bring enough money as Sinulog is the time when you can find a variety of goodies on the streets. You certainly dont want to miss out on the simple joys found on the sidewalk!

Heres hoping you have already equipped yourself with the necessary information that will help you learn and enjoy the Sinulog festivities. At the end of the day, Sinulog is not just about witnessing the grand parade. Nor is it about going wild and crazy in the streets, drinking lots of beer and getting sprayed with paint on your face. It is truly about immersing yourself in the culture of the Cebuanos. Viva! Pit Senor, Santo Nino!

For more ideas for fun things to do in the Philippines, click here.
'Tehran-To-Beirut Land Bridge' Is Established





By Tyler Durden

November 24, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Washington's past decade of Syria policy has been driven by fears of the so-called "Shia crescent" or Iranian land bridge which would conceivably connect Tehran with the Mediterranean in a continuous arch of influence. With events rapidly unfolding in Iraq and Syria, foremost among them the defeat of ISIS and the connection of Syrian and Iraqi national forces at the shared border, that land bridge has now been established for the first time in recent history.

Plans to undermine the Syrian government were manifest as early as the mid-2000's, when Damascus was put on notice by the US that "you are next" after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Indeed, this was so well-known and openly talked about in diplomatic circles that CNN's Christian Amanpour directly informed Assad on camera that he was being targeted for regime change in a 2005 interview. She told him, "Mr. President, you know the rhetoric of regime change is headed towards you, from the United States. They are actively looking for a new Syrian leader. They are granting visas and visit to Syrian opposition politicians. They're talking about isolating you, diplomatically, then perhaps a coup d'etat or your regime crumbling."

Never Forget. 2005. Amanpour openly talks of US plotting "Coup d'etat 'Regime Change" in Syria years before War. pic.twitter.com/SlWWG8vv01  Alan (@AFK_10) March 30, 2017

The geopolitics driving the current Middle East war were framed and set in motion under the Bush administration, as Seymour Hersh reported in 2007:

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabias government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

But now as 2017 comes to a close, the Syria-Hezbollah-Iran alliance appears victorious, and it's the House of Saud and US-backed alliance that is fragmented and in shambles. And consistent with what Hersh predicted all the way back in 2007, the US has for years supported a jihadist corridor in Syria in order to "isolate the Syrian regime , which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran)."

This week Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has once again accused the United States and its allies in Syria of aiding ISIS. In televised remarks on Monday related to the recent fight for Albu Kamal, Nasrallah said, The US helped Daesh as much as it could in Albu Kamal short of directly engaging forces that fought to liberate the town from Daesh. He further accused the US of giving air cover to ISIS terrorists in Syria's east, as well as facilitating their escape from advancing Syrian army forces.

But what is the truth behind what Nasrallah calls "the Daesh conspiracy" ? The current geopolitics of the Syrian battlefield, and US policy and interests east of the Euphrates , in reality gives the US military every incentive to pressure the Syrian Army while at the same time allowing a Daesh escape - as even a recent bombshell BBC investigation confirmed . But to understand the intricacies of how US policy and strategy is playing out, it is important to chart the significance of the establishment of the historic "Iranian land bridge" which occurred this month.

Below is a dispatch authored and submitted by Elijah Magnier , Middle East based chief international war correspondent for Al Rai Media, who is currently on the ground in the region and has interviewed multiple officials involved in the conflict.



A US buffer zone in northeastern Syria and a land-bridge from Tehran to Beirut. Map source: Stratfor

Following the victory of the Syrian army and its allies over the Islamic State group in the town of Albu Kamal in the northeast of the country, the road has been opened for the first time since the declaration of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 between Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut and become safe and non-hostile to the four capitals and their rulers.

The United States tried to block the road between Tehran and Beirut at the level of Albu Kamal by forcing the Kurdish forces into a frantic race, but Washington failed to achieve its goals.

The Syrian Army along with allied forces (the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Iraqi Harakat al-Nujaba) liberated the city , opening the border with Iraq at al-Qaim crossing. ISIS militants fled to the Iraqi al-Anbar desert and east of the Euphrates River where US and Kurdish forces are operating.

The United States established a new rule of engagement in the east of the Euphrates, informing the Russian forces that it will not accept any ground forces (the Syrian army and its allies) east of the Euphrates River and that it will bomb any target approaching the east of the river even if the objective of the ground forces is to pursue ISIS.

Thus, the US is establishing a new undeclared no-fly-zone without bothering to deny that this can serve ISIS forces east of the Euphrates and offer the terrorists a kind of protection. Moreover, the US-led international coalition air bombing against ISIS has reduced noticeably.

#Nasrallah : Daesh used coordinates provided by US drones when shelling forces attacking #AlBukamal . US jammed electronic frequencies of forces fighting Daesh. After the defeat, US facilitated evacuation of Daesh forces to SDF areas east of Euphrates #Syria pic.twitter.com/A4662IVEWG  Walid (@walid970721) November 22, 2017

With this US warning, it is clear that Washington is declaring the presence of an occupying force in Syria, particularly as the presence of the coalition was linked to fighting ISIS as previously announced. Today ISIS has lost all cities under its occupation since July 2014 in Iraq and before this date in Syria. Therefore there is no legal reason for the presence of the US forces in the Levant.

By becoming an occupation force, the US troops expose themselves, along with the proxy Kurds operating under its command, to attacks similar to the one in Iraq and the one in Lebanon in 1982 during the Israeli invasion .

The United States will no longer be able to block the Iraqi-Syrian road (Al-Qaim-Albu Kamal) because it is related to the sovereignty of the two countries. But this does not mean Tehran will use this route to send weapons across Baghdad and Damascus to Hezbollah in Lebanon, for two reasons: First, Iraq has sovereignty and the Prime Minister Haider Abadi will not allow any Iraqi armed party to keep its weapons because the Iraqi armed forces are responsible for holding security, especially after the defeat of ISIS in all cities. Abadis next step will be to disarm all Iraqi movements and organizations by the year 2018 and most likely after the forthcoming elections in May. According to well-informed sources Iran and the Marjaiya in Najaf (and the majority of the Iraqi parties) want Abadi to be re-elected for another term.

This means that Iraq will not allow its territory to be used to finance non-state actors, even if these have taken part in the elimination of ISIS. Neither will Abadi allow weapons to cross his country to an ally that fought alongside the Iraqi forces  such as Hezbollah  because he is not positioning himself against the United States and the countries of the region. This is not Iraqs battle.

Secondly, Hezbollah does not need the land route from Tehran to Beirut because the sea and air links with Tehran are open through Syria and from it to Lebanon. Moreover, Hezbollah is no longer in need of additional weapons in Lebanon, especially since the Lebanese-Syrian front is unified against any possible future Israeli war.

As for Syria, the preparations for starting the challenging and complex rounds of negotiation to open the way for political talks which have begun in Sochi, Russia . Naturally, these talks are difficult because the United States has demands, as does Turkey, which has shown its intention to stay for a very long in the north of Syria.

In this context, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is ready to prepare for a new constitution, on which work began several months ago. Syrian and international human rights experts and law specialists have been discussing with various groups how to establish new constitutional foundations for Syria, aiming to invite the numerous anti-Damascus parties to lay down their arms and join in the negotiations for the future of Syria.
Africas largest cement Company, Dangote Cement, has commissioned its $300 million plant in Mfila, Congo Brazzaville. The 1.5mtpa capacity cement plant was commissioned on Thursday amid ecstasy by the government and the indigenes of the Country.

The plant also has potentials to create about 1000 direct employment and thousands of several other indirect jobs.

While inaugurating the countrys biggest plant, President Denis Sassou Nguesso, said the investment was an industrial revolution within the Economic Community of the Central African States (CEMAC).

He said his country was happy to host the investment.

According to him, his government has observed the operations of Dangote cement in other African countries and it has helped buoy their economies by sparking off other allied industries expressing the hope that Congo situation would not be an exception.

The Congolese President described the coming on stream of the Dangote cement as timely and encouraging because it is starting operations at a time the total government revenues have plummeted by 31.3 per cent and revenues from the oil sector have fallen 65.1 per cent since 2015 due to a slide in global crude prices.

President Mohammadu Buhari who was represented at the event by a delegation led by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, commended Alhaji Aliko Dangote and his Cement Company for championing economic renaissance of Africa.

The sterling accomplishment of construction of cement plants across several African countries, made the Dangote Cement brand, and indeed Aliko Dangote himself, worthy ambassadors of Nigeria.

President Buhari said his government has consistently supported and encouraged the Dangote Group in its quest to contribute its quota to the economic emancipation of the African continent, which is blessed with a plethora of natural resources.

I believe that it is only home-grown practical solutions that can address the myriad issues plaguing Africa today and one of such challenges that Africa has been grappling with for decades is the infrastructure deficit.

I am confident that massive investments in cement production, which is a key driver of infrastructural development, will contribute in no small measure, to addressing this perennial problem.

Buhari recalled with satisfaction that local cement manufacturers such as Dangote Cement, Lafarge and BUA, have exploited one of the solid minerals, limestone which is a basic input for cement production.

The backward integration policy of the Federal Government in the cement sector, which was launched in 2002, has contributed to this success story by successfully substituting imports with local production, we have saved over $2 billion spent on cement importation into Nigeria, annually.

We have also started using cement for road construction in the country due to its numerous advantages over the more common bituminous road.

Again, in this area, Dangote Cement is leading the charge, through AG-Dangote, its joint venture with Andrade-Gutierrez, a construction giant in Brazil, Nigerias President stated.

Chairman of Dangote Cement, Aliko Dangote, in his address said his company was delighted to have completed the plant on schedule.

He added Dangote Cements 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum plant has more than doubled the total cement production capacity of Congo-Brazzaville, which now stands at 2.550 million metric tonnes per annum, far in excess of national demand.

It is envisaged that this will contribute substantially to the availability and affordability of cement in the country and the Republic of the Congo will no longer need to depend on imports to bridge the gap between demand and supply.

It is our hope that the inauguration of the plant will boost Congos economy, conserve foreign exchange that would otherwise have been spent on imports for the country, and create employment opportunities down the value chain.,he stated.
A really old woman has been nabbed for her act of impropriety after she returned with a gun to ask for her change when she was short-changed by a bank cashier.

An 86-year-old woman has been arrested by the police in Philadelphia, U.S., for an attempted robbery after she pointed a gun at a bank teller and demanded $400, police say.

Fox 29 reports that Emily Coakley, who uses a walker, had been to the same bank a day earlier, but when she counted her money after returning home, she believed she had been short-changed by $400.

So on Tuesday afternoon, she grabbed a gun and her walker and went back to collect the balance, the sources said.

Police officers quickly moved in to make the arrest, Fox 29 reports.

The elderly woman was then handcuffed and escorted out of the bank with her walker.

Coakley was charged with aggravated assault, robbery, terroristic threats and related offenses, according to police, and was released on her own recognizance.

Thats crazy. Its mind-blowing, one bank customer told Fox 29.

Thats pretty unusual. I never heard of a bank robber that age and armed, John McDonald said, as he walked outside the bank.

Fox 29 reported that FBI agents examined the womans .38 caliber revolver and found that the gun was not loaded, but she was carrying bullets with her.
Popular Nigerian Actress Mercy Johnsons husband has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  In 2016, the actress husband ran for Deputy Governor of Edo state as a PDP candidate  The politician announced his resignation of membership from the party on Instagram Prince Odi Okojie, who is married to Nollywood actress Mercy Johnson Okijie has exited the Peoples Democratic Party.

Okojie ran for the position of deputy governor of Edo state as a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2016. The actress husband announced his decision to leave the party on his Instagram page after he shared a photo of his official letter of resignation of membership from the party.

In the letter, Okojie noted that his decision was concluded after quality engagement and consultation with political associates. He politely asked the party to accept his wishes of resignation of membership from the political party in good fate. You may recall that Mercy Johnson Okojie was recently appointed as the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state who belongs to the All Progressives Congress.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb3-rmiA_Y1/?taken-by=princeodiokojie

source: Instagram
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, actress Stella Damasus shared a photo of herself with hubby, Daniel Ademinokan  The Nollywood actress took to her Instagram to gush over her husband  She is currently in the US celebrating Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a popular tradition which is usually celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

It is a national holiday is celebrated in Canada, the United States, some of the Caribbean Islands, and Liberia. This tradition is, however, not restricted to people from these places as we see Nigerians also joining in the celebration.

Nollywood actress Stella Damasus took to her page to share a photo of herself with her husband Daniel Ademinokan. She went ahead to gush over her husband calling him her best friend and love. The 39-year-old actress who has been off the Nigerian movie scene for a while now seems to be enjoying some quality time since relocating with her family to the US.

Her marriage to movie producer/director, Daniel Ademinokan, had a lot of controversy revolving around the allegations that she was responsible for his failed marriage with fellow Nollywood actress, Doris Simeon. Despite all the odds, their relationship only seems to be waxing strong.

source: Naij.com
A 73-year-old granny has filed a divorce case to terminate her 55-year-old marriage over alleged mistreatment by her husband and co-wife.

Marcella Mukami Kinyugo, a retired teacher from Kiriaini town in Mathioya Constituency, Kenya recently went to the Kangema magistrate court to demand that her marriage to Peter Kinyugo, 76, is dissolved.

According to Nairobi News, Marcella also wants to have the family property shared in half and her husband compelled to pay the cost of the suit.

Ms. Mukami told the court that they were living happily as husband and wife since September 16, 1962, after a church wedding conducted at Kiriaini Catholic Church.

But their family problem started in 1984, when her husband, a former teacher and chief, married another woman without her approval, although, she never for once questioned his decision.

The complainant also claimed that it was not until five years ago when her husband suddenly absconded his matrimonial duties without explaining his decision.

Problems in my marriage when Mr. Kinyugo would stay at my co-wifes house for weeks without coming to my house which is in the same compound, She told the court.



According to the seriously ill woman, who was brought to court in a wheelchair, she accused her husband of neglecting her after she got sick, leaving their only daughter to look after her and cater for her medical

I want the court to hear my prayers and order that I get a share of our property so that I can get money to foot my medical bill since my pension is not enough to cater for my personal upkeep, she pleaded with the court.

Her husband, Mr.Peter Kinyugo, however dismissed the claims maintaining that both wives are being treated equally. He also refuted claims that he did not consult his wife while marrying his second wife Trizah Mulinge.

Kinyugos lawyer Mr Waiganjo Gichuki told the court that Ms. Mukami was actively involved in the process of the customary marriage of my clients second wife.

An argument ensued in the court when Mr. Waiganjo brought forward some photos and gave them to Ms. Mukami, a move that was objected by her lawyer, Ms. Nyangati accusing him of illegally introducing the photos in court.

The case was adjourned to January 18, 2018, to give the defense a chance of filing the photos to the court in accordance with the law.

-YBL
Nigerias former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar has officially dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC), a party he addressed as a dying one in his official decamping statement.

His statement released on Friday Morning reads;

Statement of resignation of His Excellency Atiku Abubakar (Waziri Adamawa) Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007 from the All Progressives Congress. On the 19th of December, 2013, I received members of the All Progressives Congress at my house in Abuja. They had come to appeal to me to join their party after my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, had become factionalized as a result of the special convention of August 31, 2013.

The fractionalization of the Peoples Democratic Party on August 31, 2013 had left me in a situation where I was, with several other loyal party members, in limbo, not knowing which of the parallel executives of the party was the legitimate leadership.

It was under this cloud that members of the APC made the appeal to me to join their party, with the promise that the injustices and failure to abide by its own constitution which had dogged the then PDP, would not be replicated in the APC and with the assurance that the vision other founding fathers and I had for the PDP could be actualized through the All Progressives Congress. It was on the basis of this invitation and the assurances made to me that I, being party-less at that time, due to the fractionalization of my party, accepted on February 2, 2014, the hand of fellowship given to me by the All Progressives Congress.

On that day, I said it is the struggle for democracy and constitutionalism and service to my country and my people that are driving my choice and my decision to accept the invitation to join the All Progressives Congress.

Like you, I said that because I believed that we had finally seen the beginnings of the rebirth of the new Nigeria of our dreams which would work for all of us, old and young.

A party that does not take the youth into account is a dying party. The future belongs to young people.

I, Atiku Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa, hereby tender my resignation from the APC while I take time to to ponder my future.
While speaking at their swearing in programme at the NSDC College in Katsina, Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, opened up on the reason why NYSC corps members were relocated from his state.

The 2017 Batch B National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members posted to serve in Borno State have been relocated to Katsina State where they began their orientation programme, on Thursday.

Speaking at their swearing in programme at the NSDC College in Katsina, Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, explained that their relocation was due to the insecurity situation in his state.

Governor Shettima noted, however, that no corps member has been reported killed in Borno State since the beginning of the insurgency some seven years ago.

The governor, who was represented by Borno State Commissioner for Poverty and Youth Employment, Hajiya Inna Galadima, said that the federal and state governments had invested so much in an effort to provide adequate security and that, such investment is yielding positive result.

According to Governor Shettima, The state is now more peaceful than so many other states in the federation.

For the avoidance of any doubts, we have never recorded any loss of lives among corps members since the beginning of this insurgency. There are ex-corps members who have made Borno State to be their place of abode and the people of Borno State are very hospitable, receptive and generous.

On behalf of the people of Borno State, I warmly welcome you to Borno State even though the orientation course is not taking place on our soil.

A total of 1,355 corps members were deployed to Borno, comprising 665 males and 660 females.
This video shows the shocking moment a woman is stabbed to death in front of her 13-year-old daughter during a road rage row with another woman in Brazil last Saturday.

The victim, Raquel Melo Motta, 39, pictured above and her alleged killer Islay Cristina Pereira de Sousa were involved in an argument after they both stepped out of their cars and coming to blows in the Brazilian city of Macae, north-east of Rio de Janeiro.

During the fight, Ms. Melo Motta got stabbed three times in the chest by Islay Cristina Pereira de Sousa, while her daughter was in the car.

The video shows Pereira de Sousa attacking Ms. Melo Motta with a three-inch stiletto knife, before the wounded mother reacted by punching and pulling at Pereira de Sousas hair during a violent clash.

After the clash, Ms. Melo Motta is seen clutching at her chest as she made her way back into her car and driving off as her attacker is also seen picking up her valuables scattered on the ground.

According to reports, a few seconds later she collapsed at the wheel  and died soon after reaching hospital as a result of her injuries.

Speaking to local TV station after the row, Raquels husband Vanderson said the alleged killer had chased her down after a row which started when she tried to jump a red light.

He said:

The light was red and she wanted to go through it. She threatened to hit my wifes car. Raquel wound her window down and asked if she was mad. From then the woman began to chase after my wifes vehicle.

After Brazilian authorities put out an appeal to the general public for information on Pereira de Sousa, she handed herself to cops, three days after the stabbing.

Islay Cristina Pereira de Sousa was later remanded in custody on suspicion of homicide after telling detectives she had acted in self-defense.

Confirming the incident, Macae police chief Filipi Poets said: They began to argue and both got out of their vehicles.

Islay took out a stiletto and scratched the victims car. She then stabbed Raquel three times. One of them pierced her heart. She was helped by a doctor who was in the car behind and taken to hospital. Sadly she didnt survive her injuries.

Taking to social media to mourn her, Raquels heartbroken husband wrote: I will always love you, I will always carry you in my heart for the rest of my life.

The scum who did this is going to hand themselves in to police tomorrow. Im not leaving till I see her behind bars. I will spend the night there if needs be. I want to look into her eyes and ask why did you do this to my princess.

It was also reported that Raquels alleged killer was arrested in 2002 for assaulting another woman in her home state of Ceara in north-eastern Brazil and shes yet to be tried for that crime.

Courtesy Daily Mail
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius got his jail term increased to 13 years and five months by a South African court for killing his girlfriend.

The Prosecutors had earlier argued that the six-year term for murdering Reeva Steenkamp was shockingly light.

A spokesman for Ms Steenkamps family said the ruling verified there was justice.

Pistorius claimed he shot dead Ms Steenkamp on Valentines Day in 2013 after mistaking her for a burglar.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein has now given him the minimum 15 years prescribed for murder in South Africa, less time already served.

The lower court had justified the six-year sentence by citing mitigating circumstances such as rehabilitation and remorse.

It said they outweighed aggravating factors such as his failure to fire a warning shot

He was initially given a five-year term for manslaughter in 2014, but was found guilty of murder on appeal in 2015.

Source: ( BBC News )
This is the second installment of a series on Blockchain. Click here to read Part I, a primer in Blockchain.

Remember the Clipper Chip? In the early 90s, the NSA made a valiant attempt to insert a back door into private email communication so the government could monitor internet traffic. The effort began in 1993, and by 1995 the effort was over.

George Santayan said, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Keep an eye on Blockchain. When the government realizes what is happening, we may see something like the Clipper Chip initiative all over again.

Over the past several decades, supply chains have evolved from hierarchical organizations with top down command and control to become the continuously evolving amorphous network reaching around the world.

Its not your grandmas physical network. Today, logistics networks are about horizontal cross-functional integration. That network includes B2B as well as B2C.

If you order a product over the internet you may just get a box that was packed in China and wholesaled by a US operation, never touched by American hands. Or, you may get a product including subassemblies sourced from Latin America, Europe, and Asia, assembled somewhere in the United States.

But the associated transactional environment remains stuck in the past. Blockchain is going to change that. In fact, its already impacting information exchange and transactional execution in the financial world.

Im a box kicker at heart, so I dont do well with abstract statements. What does Blockchain mean to me? In simple terms, Blockchain is an evolution from a system based on information intermediaries to a system based on protocols.

Think about a purchase where you use a credit card. There is a buyer, a seller, and an intermediary, the credit card company. Everything flows through the credit card company, who is in effect the channel master for the financial pieces. They are a broker sitting in the middle, in disintermediating the buyer and the seller.

The credit card company is an information overseer providing validation of the financial transaction. For this service  undoubtedly valuable  the credit card company takes a few percentage points off the top.

The costs add up, fast. Letters of credit. Reference checks. Escrow. You get the picture. If I owned a credit card company, or a bank, Id be worried. Blockchain is a disruptive threat to their core business.

Widen the scope, and you see this sort of similar complexity all over logistics. In our world, we dont simply do pairwise transactions. We are involved in multinational trading networks that evolve over time.

What if we apply Blockchain innovation  now proven and being widely adopted in the financial world - to logistics information exchanges in general?

We may be on the cusp of a revolution in logistics information exchange. Does the government understand the change thats already happening? Is Blockchain going to trigger an attempt at new regulation, a new incarnation of the Clipper Chip?

Comments and opinion welcome.
Members of a deadly gang have attacked and killed a man who ran to take refuge inside a nursery school in a Cross River State community.

A man who ran into Government Primary School, Henshaw Town, along Egerton, in Calabar, Cross River State capital, has been shot by a suspected cult members.

According to Vanguard, the incident occurred on Wednesday around 10a.m., when an unregistered tricycle conveying three occupants got to the area from Ekeng Ewa Street.

An eyewitness, Peter Martins, said when the victim and some of his friends sighted the suspected cult members, they jumped into the classroom through the window and disrupted examinations being written by pupils in the nursery section.

He revealed that the cult members jumped into the classroom, chased him around, shot him several times and inflicted machete cuts on him.

Martins said: They drove on a tricycle, popularly referred to as Keke. The victim did not die as at the time he was taken away to unknown destination by a Good Samaritan.

The unregistered tricycle came in from Ewa Ekeng, stopped at Egerton for the occupants, who had guns, to step down before chasing the man, who was standing with his friends.

The man ran into the school and jumped through the window into the class where the pupils were writing their exams.

The traumatised pupils ran around the classroom, while the cultists chased the man until they shot him.

After shooting him, he fell down bleeding. But they used a machete to inflict more injuries on him. The children, aged between five and seven years, were in the classroom because that place is the nursery section of the school.

After shooting him, they moved down towards Obongs Palace, stood there for a while and thereafter, entered the Keke and went away.

Contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo, said she was not aware of the incident, but promised to investigate the matter with a view to bringing the culprits to book.
A drunk Policeman has been arrested for reportedly causing the death of a young Nigerian at Gbagada Bus Stop area of Lagos State.

Twitter user @Adavizealao, who shared the story, tweeted;
The death toll in a bomb attack in a packed mosque set up by gunmen in Egypts restive North Sinai province has risen to 235.

The bomb explosion ripped through the Rawda mosque roughly 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish before gunmen opened fire on the worshippers gathered for weekly Friday prayers, officials said.

According to eye witness reports, the assailants had surrounded the mosque with all-terrain vehicles then planted a bomb outside.

The gunmen then mowed down the panicked worshippers as they attempted to flee and used the congregants vehicles they had set alight to block routes to the mosque.

State television reported at least 184 people were killed and 125 wounded in the attack, which is unprecedented in a four-year insurgency by Islamist extremist groups.

Egypts presidency declared three days of mourning, state television reported, as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met his security ministers to follow developments.

Ahmed Abul Gheit, head of the Arab League which is based in Cairo, condemned the terrifying crime which again shows that Islam is innocent of those who follow extremist terrorist ideology, his spokesman said in a statement.

Source: (AFP)
Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, on Friday said it was good that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar left the All Progressives Congress (APC) early.

According to Governor, the party was already aware that Atiku would leave in December.

He said,  if given the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, the former Vice-President is not a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election.

El-rufai said these in an interview with State House correspondents after joining Buhari in observing jumaat at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He described Atiku as a serial defector and presidential aspirant, saying no governor will leave the party with him.

Source: (Punch Newspaper)
The Federal Government has approved a fresh budget support loan facility for 35 states across the country, aside Lagos State.

Each of the states will get N800m, totalling N28bn to meet their salaries and other obligations.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udoma, disclosed this to State House Correspondents on Thursday at the end of a meeting of the National Economic Council presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Udoma said the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun; and the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had been directed to effect payments.

Udoma said the Accountant General of the Federation reported to Council that approval had been received and CBN had been directed to pay N800 million to each of the 35 states of the Federation.

Only Lagos State is not taking the loan.

The minister said, The Accountant General reported to the council that approval has been received and CBN has been directed to pay N800m to each of the 35 states of the federation.

Governors expressed appreciation to the Federal Government for the restoration of the Budget Support Loan Facility for July and August 2017.

Adeosun also informed the council that the country recorded the highest amount of Value Added Tax in October with over N89bn.

She added that the target was N120bn monthly.

On monthly was assets and declaration scheme, she said there was progress and the list of 500 Nigerians who are believed to have under declared their assets had been obtained.

The scheme will offer amnesty to all tax defaulters.

The Executive Vice-Chairman of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure was also said to have briefed the council about an homegrown proposal to the Independent National Electoral Commission for the replacement of the card readers in the conduct of elections in the country.

Source : ( Punch Newspaper)
Some movie marketers at the popular Alaba market in the commercial city of Lagos, are crying out after NFVCB seized pirated materials worth N150 million from their shops.

The National Film and Video Censors Board, NFVCB has seized pirated materials worth N150 million at the Alaba International Market in Lagos and arrested five suspects.

Adedayo Thomas, the Director-General of the board told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday that the seizure was made between May and October.

He said the pirated materials seized include: (Audio) CDs, Video CDs and literary works.

He said that the seizure followed the information the board gathered from some people at the market regarded as the hub for piracy.

We have our informants that spy the market on a regular basis, once they notice any form of piracy operations going on there, they inform the board.

The seizure of the N150 million worth of materials is a result of the information giving to the board on the mass productions of some films that are yet to be made public.

When our anti-piracy squad assisted by some policemen got to the market, we saw pirated copies of films yet to be produced littering the whole environment and were being sold it at cheaper prices.

By Nov. 30, the board will start the court proceedings of those arrested for piracy, he said.

Mr. Thomas likened piracy to a murder, robbery or economic sabotage where the suspect wants to reap where he or she did not sow.

He said the legitimate owners are usually subjected to huge debts and loss.

The board is going hard on piracy. We are working seriously to reduce piracy to its barest minimum in our environment. The board will go on street campaigns and to secondary schools to enlighten them not to patronise pirated materials and explain the implications of doing so on the rightful owners, he said.

The DG said the board also frowned at nude movies saying they are not part of our culture.

He said that nude movies always had negative impacts on the lives of the masses and is an abuse of the society.

We are not going to accept that as we had not done in the past. We are going hard on banning such movies from being shown on air, he said.

Mr. Thomas said the board was also looking at reviewing some of its policies and laws to suit contemporary situations.
Five persons have been arrested by the Kwara State Police Command for allegedly attacking the residence of the Minister of State for Niger Delta, Prof. Cladrus Daramola.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Lawan Ado, who paraded the suspects and others on Thursday, said one green LandRover with number plate, IWA-01, was recovered as an exhibit from the suspects.

The CP stated that the suspects comprised a sergeant, formerly with the Nigerian Army, Solomon Abel; Dedeigbo Olabiyi, Raymond Anyam, Sunday Shakede and Kingsley Chijoke.

He stated that on Tuesday, November 21, at about 5.45am, a distress call was received that Daramolas residence at the Tanke area of Ilorin was being attacked by armed robbers.

Ado said, On receipt of the report, the commands operatives of the Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad and Safer Highway teams were alerted and directed to block all the entry and exit routes to Ilorin.

According to him, the efforts paid off when the green LandRover with five occupants was flagged down along Ajase-Ipo Road by policemen.

He said, On interrogation, it was discovered that the occupants were robbers that attacked the ministers house in the Tanke area.

The five suspects, who include a military man, were members of an inter-state armed robbery gang. They confessed to have come from Abuja to carry out the robbery operation. They will soon be charged to court.

Also, a suspected ritual killer, Olayinka Akeem, who was arrested with seven human skulls, said he planned to use the skulls for a money ritual.

Akeem said, We were two, but one escaped. We went to a cemetery at Igbo Owu. I am a herbalist and we wanted to use the skulls for money ritual.

Ado said the command acted on credible intelligence to arrest Akeem along Ajase-Ipo Road on Tuesday.

The CP also paraded three suspects  Idowu Jimoh, Abdulrahman Abubakar, and Ambali Abdulganiyu  who were arrested for robbery.

But Abel, who said he was a deserter, claimed that he did not know that the Jeep was stolen.

He said, I acted as an escort tof the vehicle; I did not know that it was a stolen vehicle.

Olabiyi said he was involved in the attack on the ministers house because of hardship.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The Federal Capital Territory Police Command has arraigned a housewife, Mrs. Maryam Sanda for allegedly killing of her husband, Bilyamin Bello a son of former Peoples Democratic Party Chairman, before an FCT High Court in Abuja just as the court ordered her to be remanded in Suleja Prison custody.

She was arraigned for offense bordering on culpable homicide. Maryam could not control her emotion as she burst into tears upon her arrival at the court holding her seven month old baby.

Maryam covered her face a with green scarf to prevent being photographed by the media. Before the commencement of the court proceedings, she read from the Quran.

As at the time of this report the suspect has entered the dock to take her plea and pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge of homicide.

The defense counsel, Hussein Musa asked the court to let the defendant be in the police custody arguing that she is still a nursing mother and would be improper to be remanded in prison custody.

The presiding judge, Yusuf Halilu ruled that suspects be remanded in Suleja prison and the matter has been adjourned to December 7th for further hearing.
President Muhammadu Buhari might not have a easy ride, of he intends to return to power in 2019 as party members are scrapping the idea of the President getting an automatic ticket for a re-run of elections.

The Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Dr. Ali Ahmad; the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, Kwara State University, Malete, Prof. Sakah Mahmud; and the President, (Worldwide), the Nasrul Lahi-il-Fath Society of Nigeria, Alhaji Kamil Bolarinwa, have opposed automatic tickets for incumbent elected public office holders including governors and President Muhammadu Buhari.

They stated that all aspirants should be given a level-playing field while party members should freely choose their candidates during well-conducted, transparent, credible, free and fair primaries.

According to them, democracy requires freedom of choice to nominate candidates and elect leaders.

While Ahmad spoke on Thursday during a media briefing on the post 2018 state budget presentation by the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed; Bolarinwa spoke during his working visit to Ilorin.

Mahmud, who is a professor of Political Science, spoke while delivering KWASUs second inaugural lecture entitled, Democracy in Nigeria at the crossroads, the good, the bad and the ugly.

They separately called for adherence to due process and the rule of law in the anti-graft war of the Federal Government.

Ahmad said there should not be automatic tickets for political aspirants.

He also urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Department of State Services to abide by the constitution, rule of law and adhere to legal requirements for criminal allegations and procedures.

Bolarinwa, who said NAFSAT had positively impacted on the nation and its members, said Islam was opposed to laziness but interested in acquisition of knowledge and in industry.

He called for collaborative efforts to rid the nation of graft.

The NASFAT boss said, Wherever you find corruption, it should be exposed and those who engage in it should be disciplined. But most importantly, you must remove temptations. What leads them to corruption, make sure you remove that. Do not look for cure when you can prevention it.

The fight to eradicate corruption must not belong to government alone. It belongs to all of us. As we talk of corruption nationally, let us within ourselves remove elements of corruption. We must help government to fight corruption because it is in our interest. Corruption is not good for us, we must fight it.

When you talk about democracy, it is for the people to be able to exercise their God-given right of deciding who govern them. Whether as a country or as a party, people must be allowed to decide who represents them and who governs them.

Mahmud, who is also the Provost, College of Humanities, Management and Social Sciences, KWASU, said it was sad that Nigeria had not optimised its abundant human and natural resources.

He added that efforts must be made to ensure good governance and improvement of the welfare of the people.

The provost also said there should not be automatic ticket for political aspirants.

Mahmud said, It is a party issue. Every party is expected to have its own policy, how they nominate somebody. I think it is good (not to have automatic ticket) because one thing that people are complaining is lack of internal democracy within political parties. Members of the party do not even know how their leaders are chosen.

So, if there is a primary, everybody presents their case and what they have, then party members will nominate their candidates. I think that is the proper way to go. There should not be anything like automatic ticket. In most cases, even after going through the process, the incumbent President, if he wants to run, is still given the chance but still there is always a primary. It is not automatic, even in the US. They still have primaries. In every case there is always a primary. That shows internal democracy within the political party.

The don urged citizens to demand good governance and accountability from the nations leaders, adding that public officers are paid to serve the people and not to feather their nests or inflate their egos.

He said, For almost 20 years we are not where we should be especially when almost all the presidents believe that we have abundant human, materials and natural resources. We should be better than where we are today. The problem is that the policy makers focus on themselves too much. There is no much focus on the people and there is what democracy is all about. Peoples needs are supposed to be served.

People in government are paid to be there to make services for the citizens. They are not there to show off themselves or to promote themselves. They are paid to take care of the citizens of Nigeria but

most of the times, we do not see these policies.

The citizens should be demanding their right. Nigerians have become passive that anything goes. If those in government do something for them, it is fine but if they dont they complain and keep quiet, they should complain to the authorities. There has to be channels, this is what democracy offers.

Every representative is supposed to have an office in their constituency where people can go, how many of them have these offices? Very few. How many of them have phone numbers that their constituents can interact with them. Policy makers are not even listening, they are not hearing anything.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper)
A shocking new investigative report has revealed that a Police officer responsible for the killing 5 young auto spare parts traders and a young woman in 2005, has been reinstated.

According to an exclusive report by SaharaReporters , the Nigerian Police Force has ordered the reinstatement of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Danjuma an officer responsible for the extra-judicial of killing five young auto spare parts traders and a young woman on June 7, 2005, in Apo township, a satellite settlement at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.

The victims, Ekene Isaac Mgbe, Ifeanyi Ozor, Chinedu Meniru, Paulinus Ogbonna, Anthony Nwokike, and Augustina Arebu, were returning from a nightclub when they were stopped at a police checkpoint and extra-judicially murdered by a contingent of policemen led by Danjuma.

The directive for the officers reinstatement was contained in a Police wireless message (DTO 1718000/11/2017) addressed to the Police Service Commission. According to the wireless message, obtained by SaharaReporters claims the reinstatement of the officer Danjuma and other police officers included in the message following their successful appeal of their dismissal from the Force.

The officers are Danjuma Ibrahim, a Deputy Commissioner of Police; Fausat Azeez Oduwole, an Assistant Commissioner of Police; Bethram C Onuoha, Chief Superintendent, Okwuonu Allwell, a Chief Superintendent; Nonyerem Ejike Akubuike; a Deputy Superintendent of Police; Barakiya Yusuf and Onuorah Emmanuel, both Assistant Superintendents of Police. However, Oseni Tajudeen, whose appeal was rejected, had his dismissal upheld.

DCP Ibrahim Danjuma, the wireless message showed, will be paid the arrears of his salary dating back to June 18, 2005, and sent on a refresher course. Danjuma was revealed as the officer who shot some of the traders and stranged the only female traveling that night they encountered the bloodthirsty police team.

The killing of the six persons provoked national outrage. The police had claimed that the victims, aged between 21 and 25 years, were members of a robbery gang that had shot at the officers at a checkpoint.

However, a judicial panel of inquiry set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo dismissed the police account as false and recommended the trial of the officers for extra-judicial killings.

The trial dragged for over a decade until two of the officers were sentenced to death in March 2017, curiously, Danjuma was freed by the judge who sat on the case. The officers accused of the killings and eight other police witnesses eventually testified before the panel of inquiry that Ibrahim, the Deputy Commissioner of Police and the most senior of the accused, had ordered the killings.

The report of the panel stated that the victims were at a nightclub located at Gimbiya Street, Area 11, in Abuja that night of June 7, 2005, when they had a face-off with Ibrahim after the only female among the victims, rejected Ibrahims romantic advances.
Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Omo NOba Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, who is on a historic visit to Abuja, visited President Buhari at the statehouse.

President Buhari who spoke during their meeting, recounted how the immediate past Oba of Benin, Oba Erediauwa I was his back bone of support when he was Federal Commissioner of Petroleum Resources and the late Oba was a Federal Permanent Secretary.

The Nigerian President also disclosed how delightful he was with the stabilising roles the Eweka Dynasty of Benin Kingdom had been playing in the affairs of the country, and further said that Nigerians have reasons to be proud of the stabilising roles Benin chiefs had played right from the colonial era to the current period, not only in the Delta region but the entire country.

I cannot hold back my emotions, talking about my relationship with your predecessor. After General Murtala Mohammed was assassinated, I was moved from the North-East as governor to Ministry of Petroleum. Your father was then Permanent Secretary. My relationship with him was very strong. I have lost count of the number of visits to his palace as Oba. For stabilising that part of the country because of his firmness. I must also commend the immediate past governor, Adams Oshiomhole for stabilising Edo State I know and respect the traditional institution. I try as much as possible to understand why the authors of our Constitution kept silent about their role, he said, noting however, that this was probably the best thing way to preserve their neutrality. Your Royal Majesty, you are safe where you are, the President added.

Oba Ewuare II, whose delegation was made up of chiefs from other parts of Edo State, including the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, commended the President over the way he has handled security matters in the country, and further urged the Federal Government to establish industries in the rural areas to curb unemployment, rural-urban migration and human trafficking.

More photos below;
Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo has called on all Africans to give the necessary cooperation and support to the new government in Zimbabwe.

Obasanjo said in a congratulatory letter to the new President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent on Friday.

The former president said he was convinced that the new president would be an asset to the country.

The letter reads, It is with profound delight and happiness that I convey my heartfelt congratulations on your appointment as the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

As you assume the mantle of leadership of your great country, I have no doubt in my mind that you will execute the responsibilities of your office with the great political acumen that you are noted for.

Your world-acclaimed experience in business and legal profession, I am convinced, will be an asset to be utilised effectively and efficiently to take Zimbabwe out of political and economic doldrums.

At the moment, Zimbabwe needs the cooperation of the continent of Africa and cooperation of her friends outside the continent for the advancement of the economic fortunes of your great people and country.

I am, therefore, of the strong conviction that the excellent relations between Nigeria and Zimbabwe will also benefit and blossom under your leadership.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper)
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday expressed delight with the stabilising roles that the Eweka Dynasty of Benin Kingdom had been playing in the affairs of the country.

Speaking while receiving the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II at the State House, the president said that Nigerians have reasons to be proud of the stabilising roles Benin chiefs had played right from the colonial era to the current period, not only in the Delta region but the entire country.

President Buhari singled out the role of the immediate past Oba of Benin, Oba Erediauwa I, whom he described as his back bone of support when he was Federal Commissioner of Petroleum Resources and the late monarch was a Federal Permanent Secretary.

I cannot hold back my emotions, talking about my relationship with your predecessor. After General Murtala Mohammed was assassinated, I was moved from the North-East as governor to Ministry of Petroleum. Your father was then Permanent Secretary. My relationship with him was very strong. I have lost count of the number of visits to his palace as Oba, he said.

President Buhari praised the late Oba for stabilising that part of the country because of his firmness. I must also commend the immediate past governor, Adams Oshiomhole for stabilising Edo State.

Welcoming Mr. Ewuares delegation made up of chiefs from other parts of Edo State, including the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, John Odigie-Oyegun, the president commended the monarch for following the footsteps of his predecessor while reiterating his support for the traditional institution.

I know and respect the traditional institution. I try as much as possible to understand why the authors of our Constitution kept silent about their role, he said, noting however that this was probably the best thing way to preserve their neutrality.

Your Royal Majesty, you are safe where you are, the President added.

In his remarks, the monarch, who commended the president for his handling of security matters in the country, urged the federal government to establish industries in the rural areas to curb unemployment, rural-urban migration and human trafficking.

Source: ( NAN )
One of the richest pastors in South-eastern Africa has blessed two of his workers with exotic cars for their selfless service to his ministry.

South Africa-based Malawi pastor and founder of the Enlightened Christian Gathering, Prophet Shepherd Bushiri, surprised two members of his media team, Ephraim Nyondo and Gerard Kampakaniza, with state of the art German cars as a reward for their hard work. The BMW X3 reportedly cost 450,000 Rands each.

Excited Nyondo posted photos of the car on his Facebook page earlier yesterday and wrote:

I cant claim I deserve this. BMW X3, R450 000. Its all because of Gods grace.

And again, its also because I work for a Man of God who has a heart for his people; his sons, his daughters.

Just a gift. No loan. No condition. Nothing!

Speechless.

Well, to God be the glory.

See more photos:
Moremi Ojudu, the daughter of S.A to President Buhari on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, sometime this year, publicly expressed outrage about the suffering Nigerians were subjected to under the present government.

Her outburst led to a feud in her family because her father works with the government she was criticising.

Since then, she hasnt been on speaking terms with her father, who was understandably upset about her public criticism.

He blocked her on Whatsapp and on every other medium through which they could communicate.

People persecuted Moremi for what she did, and to make matters worse, her daughter has begun to feel the pinch because she cant speak to her granddad, though shes too young to understand whats going on.

Moremi has now taken to Facebook to publicly explain to her father why she had to do what she did, and also to ask for his forgiveness.

She reminisced about all the wonderful memories she shared with her father while growing up and expressed regrets that she has lost all that, while hoping she could get it back again.

Read her post below
It seems the Policeman pictured below will have to start looking for another job, as a Nigerian man identified as Dapo, accused him of extortion and bribery with evidence.

According to Dapo, he was forced to transfer money to the police officer who arrested him, searched him and found nothing on him. Heres what he wrote;
Ever since TV host Ebuka Obi Uchendu broke the internet with his one of a kind agbada he wore to Banky W and Adesua Etomis wedding, many have openly declared their admiration for him, especially women. Even producer Masterkraft who was bashed for his outfit to the wedding photoshopped himself wearing the agbada so that he could rest. However, one Maazi Ogbonnaya writing via his account criticised women crushing on Ebuka. He said not only is he married, but responsible men do not go for irresponsible women.

See his post below:

I was walking inside one of the universities in Nigeria when I overheard one slay-queen telling her friends how she was crushing on Ebuka, after seeing his agbada. She even professed how she would love to get married to him. Biko slay-queen and other slay-queens, here is Ebuka and his beautiful wife.

One of the pictures is their beautiful daughter. Go get your own hubby, Cynthia has gotten Ebuka. Be responsible. Great men look for great women, not make-up faces and empty-headedness. Not that makeup is bad, but focusing on it as a means to get great men without paying attention to your personality and behaviour; your face can only attract but cannot keep.

Slay with brain not cat-walking. Responsible men go for responsible women; not those who will stab them three times with knife and call it feministic-revolution. Hence, the trend in the social media today where some Nigerian ladies are vindicating the women that killed their husbands by stabbing and adjudging their murderous actions right with a nonsensical terminology: feminism and revolution. These ladies are single. I am sure they will never get any man to kill. The same stupid people are eying and crushing on Ebuka.

Someone responsible had taken him already and procreated with him, a bouncing baby-girl. Keep praising husband-stabbers and call yourself slay-queen-feminist. You will look for men and you will never see them. Why? It is a revolution to kill your husband when he erred. No man wants to die. Every man wants to smile with his wife.

source: Naij.com
The controversial Nollywood actor shared his opinion in a post on Instagram. Read below.

Is it too difficult for you to do a small wedding? @bankywellington Are you #wedding the whole of #Nigeria or just one #girl??? Hmmm My P.A just showed me an old #post of yours on #instagram where you said you would never do a #big wedding, and just yesterday, my Ex- #girlfriend also showed me a #video where @adesuaetomi said she would never do a big wedding too, so what really went wrong?

Cant you #guys emulate my best #friend @iambangalee When he had his wedding, am sure the whole #world did not hear about it, until after the whole ceremony, because he knows the #food you invite the entire village to come eat with you never last listen, those people who are #dancing and praising you today, some of them are secretly waiting for your #marriage to break like the wall of Jericho so they can #laugh at you. ?

Am the biggest #actor in Nigeria, and am saying its not too late to taking your #relationship off social #media, a word is enough for the #wise.
Following the viral photo which captured Ghanaian actress, Yvonne Nelsons baby daddy, in a loved up moment with the actress and allegation against him that he is married, Jamie Roberts in his reply to the allegation debunked report of being married.

However statements said to come from his estranged wife whom he has kids with, revealed Jamie was a dead beat father and in debt.

Yvonne Nelson is also accused of snatching the British Photographer from a UK based Nigerian model, Keela, who she became friends with on social media.
The British Columbia Conservative Party is calling for a major overhaul of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) to reduce the insurance rates of the provinces drivers.



The party believes that ICBC should be turned into a co-operative, so that B.C. drivers who pay premiums are the ones who own the organization. ICBC is currently a provincial crown corporation, which means it is overseen by the government.



A co-operative will work in drivers best interest, rather than serving the government of the day. The BC Conservatives will also open the industry to private competition, to help drive rates lower, said the party in a statement.



Other groups, such as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, have also called for ICBC to be transformed into a co-operative. According to an Ernst & Young report leaked earlier this year, auto insurance rates in the province would have to surge by nearly 30% to balance out the ICBCs struggling books.



Competition also must be opened up to private companies for basic insurance in order to reduce insurance rates for everyone A guaranteed way to ensure that BC drivers no longer pay the highest insurance rates in Canada is to turn ICBC into a co-op, then open up basic insurance to competition, said Scott Anderson, interim leader of the B.C. Conservatives.






Weve told you about how financial services investments from the US could end up bypassing the UK in favour of Ireland. Now a US-headquartered insurance broker, with a London presence, is reportedly mulling expansion in Dublin in light of the UKs departure from the European Union.The Irish Times cited sources who said executives from Lockton were in the Irish capital this week to meet with government officials for early stage discussions. Lockton has operations in Ireland, providing solicitors professional indemnity insurance, among other coverage options.Lockton Ireland is also an official partner to the countrys Professional Insurance Brokers Association.The broker, while it hasnt confirmed the reported meeting, previously told The Irish Times: Lockton is working closely with industry bodies and government representatives and the business has developed a range of contingency plans to ensure it continues to be able to meet the needs of all clients and prospects that may be affected by the outcome of Brexit negotiations.Ireland will be benefiting immensely commencing with the leading American firm Berkshire Hathaway , Acumen Insurance president and founder Sal Bagazzoli told Insurance Business. There will be other American firms following suit as well as numerous other British firms that prefer not to stray too far and yet encompass the European market.
With up to $100 million in brand new vehicles out on the lot, car dealerships face considerable exposure. Enter: niche insurance for auto dealerships.Insurance Business spoke to Jeff Willoughby, director of dealer operations special accounts at Sentry, about the risks and coverages auto dealers expect from their insurers.Their biggest concern is probably their garage liability policy, which protects them in the case of their vehicles being involved in auto accidents  whether it be their employees driving the vehicle, or customers coming in and test-driving cars, he said. Thats a huge liability issue the dealers face.Another one of the things foremost on their minds is protection for their inventory. Many of these dealers have millions of dollars of risk, sitting out on their lots  upwards of $30, $40, $100 million of vehicles sitting around that can be damaged, whether that be weather related or some other type of event.And theyre concerned about their facilities. Many of these auto dealers have very large, nice facilities that they want to make sure they protect, in case of fire or windstorm or another type of event that could bring their facility down.In addition to these exposures, though, the program covers plenty more, he said.Its a very niche-oriented insurance program, Willoughby explained. Dealerships are commonly looking for a specific garage liability program that will offer them the full array of coverages they will need, including  physical damage coverage for their inventory; garage insurance for their liability; property coverage to insure all of their facilities and contents; employment practices liability, which protects them for their employment-related issues and liability  discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, things of that nature; crime coverage; and cyber coverage to name a few. Its a full package program.Due to the evolving nature of in-car technology, and with automation around the corner, insurance has had to change with the times, Willoughby said.The actual policies themselves havent changed a great deal, but the underwriting of the risk [has], he noted. Distracted driving is a huge issue in the insurance marketplace, and that leads right into the auto liability section. Some of the largest claims we see are with distracted driving, so we have to look at policies and procedures that dealers have in place to prohibit distracted driving and to monitor that. Thats a big issue for us, as the insurance company.
Update 10.38pm: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has led a strong defence of the Tanaiste at the emergency Fine Gael meeting tonight in Leinster House.

The meeting voted unanimously to support the Tanaiste-after calls for her to go over the mishandling of the Maurice McCabe email saga.

Mr Varadkar told the gathering the Tanaiste was facing a "trumped up charge from the opposition".

Afterwards, Fine Gael's parliamentary party chairman Martin Heydon said: "What we have seen from both Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail today is a political stunt, pure and simple. We will not allow the opposition to bully us.

"Sinn Fein is attempting to undermine the work of the Charleton Tribunal which was set up by the Fine Gael-led Government to investigate the treatment of Maurice McCabe and get to the bottom of whether or not there was a campaign against him - the same Charleton Tribunal that the opposition agreed to in the first place.

"History shows that Fine Gael adheres to due process and has respect for natural justice.

"Fine Gael stands fully and united behind the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald."

Update 9.52pm: Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has said that the government is standing behind Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald, as the threat of a general election looms tonight, writes Juno McEnroe.

The minister, who effectively ran the successful campaign to get Leo Varadkar promoted to Taoiseach, said the public would not understand why there would be an election.

His defence of the Tanaiste came amid a tense standoff between Fianna Fail and the Fine Gael government tonight over the position of Ms Fitzgerald and criticism how she handled an email that revealed a garda management strategy to discredit whistleblower Maurice McCabe.

Minister Murphy told RTE Prime Time tonight that if Fianna Fail collapsed the confidence and supply agreement, that the government would be forced into a general election without the public understanding why.

Asked when there might be an election and if it could be delayed, the minister said there was outstanding work on housing and other matters that the government wanted to get done.

We are going to stand behind the Tanaiste because she acted appropriately and done nothing wrong, added Mr Murphy.

Update 9.21pm: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has called a one-issue emergency Fine Gael meeting of TDs and senators for 10pm tonight in which he will say the party and Government must continue to support crisis-hit Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald, writes Fiachra O Cionnaith.

Mr Varadkar called the meeting this evening after Fianna Fail justice spokesperson Jim O'Callaghan warned his party no longer has support in the under-pressure Tanaiste and will put down a no confidence motion next week if she is not removed from her position.

It is expected Mr Varadkar will tonight tell the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting that he is 100% backing Ms Fitzgerald and will not give in to Fianna Fail.

During the one-issue meeting the Taoiseach will also call for all TDs and senators to continue to support the Tanaiste, with the view to be repeated in broadcast appearances by Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy.

The decision by Mr Varadkar to effectively call Fianna Fail's bluff and insist he will not remove Ms Fitzgerald means Fianna Fail is certain to publish its no confidence motion for next week on Friday morning.

This move, and the highly likely event that the motion will be passed by the Dail, means the confidence and supply deal is now set to be torn apart - a situation that unless immediately rectified will cause a Christmas general election.

Update 7pm: Fianna Fail has said it no longer has confidence in Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald and said she should resign her position, writes Daniel McConnell.

The decision of the party, which is propping up the Government, places pressure on Ms Fitzgerald to resign or for the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to sack her to avoid a General Election.

The party's spokesperson on Justice and Equality Jim O'Callaghan has said Fianna Fail is considering tabling its own motion of no confidence in Ms Fitzgerald, but called on the Taoiseach to act now to stop a General Election from occuring on this issue.

Speaking this evening, Mr O'Callaghan said the events of recent weeks relating to the Maurice McCabe email saga meant her position is no longer tenable and she should step down.

This afternoon, ministers were rallying behind Ms Fitzgerald and said they would robustly fight any motion of no confidence, but the decision of Fianna Fail to withdraw confidence in her is highly significant.

Mr O'Callaghan, speaking on RTE News, said that his party leader Micheal Martin and Mr Varadkar spoke on Wednesday and it was made clear that Fianna Fail no longer had confidence in the Tanaiste.

He said that the Confidence and Supply agreement has been undermined by the events of the past week and that Fianna Fail no longer has confidence in the Tanaiste.

When asked if Fianna Fail was now backing the proposed Sinn Fein motion of no confidence, Mr O'Callaghan said there will be a vote of confidence in the Tanaiste adding his party may table such a motion by Friday morning, as his party's has private members time before Sinn Fein does.

Update 6.37pm: Health Minister Simon Harris said the Government has full confidence in Frances Fitzgerald after almost a week of controversy surrounding an email she received regarding Maurice McCabe in 2015.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein said it is not trying to force an election by tabling a motion of no confidence in the Tanaiste next Wednesday.

But Sinn Feins Donnchadh OLaoghaire said the Taoiseach could just sack Minister Fitzgerald.

"We're not trying to precipitate a General Election and this can be avoided. This can be avoided if the Tanaiste does the right thing, or if the Government intervenes itself," he said.

"Sinn Fein is ready for a General Election, we have always been ready for a General Election due to the nature of this Dail. The make-up of it requires that we are always prepared and we are not fearful of a General Election. We're merely trying to enforce political accountability," he said.

Update 3.23pm: Health Minister Simon Harris has said the Government has full confidence in the Tanaiste after Sinn Fein put down a motion of no confidence in Frances Fitzgerald.

It follows almost a week of controversy surrounding the former Justice Minister over her handling of an email about Maurice McCabe in 2015.

The Health Minister said Sinn Feins motion is a political stunt to undermine the work of the Charleton Tribunal which is examining the whistleblower controversy.

"The Government has full confidence in Frances Fitzgerald as Tanaiste, as Minister for Business and on her time as Minister for Justice," he said.

"Obviously, it is a matter for every member of the Oireachtas to decide how they vote on any motion but we have a confidence and supply agreement with Fianna Fail," he said.

"We have been doing our best to deliver for the people of Ireland through that agreement and Fianna Fail have been doing their best to advance their policy priorities in relation that.

"The agreement is working and I expect the agreement to continue," he added.

Update 1pm: The Tanaiste has strongly denied claims in the Dail that she tried to suppress an email which detailed a legal strategy to discredit garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe, writes Irish Examiner political reporter Elaine Loughlin.

Her denials have not prevented Sinn Fein proceeding with a motion of no confidence this afternoon, however.

The party's justice spokesman has confirmed the motion has been submitted to the Journal Office and is due to be taken next Wednesday

A motion of no confidence in Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald has been submitted to Journal Office, and is due to be taken next Wednesday  Donnchadh O Laoghaire (@Donnchadhol) November 23, 2017

Frances Fitzgerald was forced to defend herself after coming under sustained opposition grilling in the Dail this afternoon.

Ms Fitzgerald told the Dail that she received an email last Thursday detailing the legal campaign taken by An Garda Siochana at the O'Higgins Commission. This email was first sent to her in 2015.

Fianna Fail spokesman Jim O'Callaghan asked why she had not passed on this email to the Taoiseah until Monday of this week. This was the same day as the information about the 2015 email was reported on RTE's Primetime programme.

Ms Fitzgerald said: "I want to be absolutely clear that the first time I knew about the email was last Thursday.

"That was the first time I heard that this email existed. The very first time."

However, Ms Fitzgerald failed to provide an answer on why she had not passed details of the email on to the Taoiseach for four days.

Sinn Fein Deputy leader Mary-Lou McDonald said the Tanaiste had "refused to provide clear answers and explanations".

She accused the Tanaiste of standing "idly by" when she was first sent the email and said the explanation given by Ms Fitzgerald that didn't remember receiving the email back in 2015 was "frankly not believable".

Ms McDonald added that this wasn't some "minor episode" that could be simply brushed away.

"It seems to me that there was a conspiracy to ruin this honorable man," Ms Donald told the Dail adding that the email had shown a plan to discredit Sgt McCabe in the "worst possible way".

Ms Fitzgerald responded to Ms McDonald stating she wouldn't "take a lecture from you in due process and fairness".

"I am not trying to hide anything, I was not part of any conspiracy," she told the Dail.

Update 12.35pm: Tanaiste denies any suggestion attempts were made to suppress email

Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald has denied any suggestions that attempts were made to suppress an email linked to the Maurice McCabe controversy.

She said: No efforts have been made to suppress that email by me."

Sinn Fein Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked Minister Fitzgerald: "Can you give an account for your failures?"

To which the Tanaiste responded: "I have been providing answers, I am not trying to hide anything, I was not part of any conspiracy to smear Maurice McCabe.

Deputy McDonald continued: "You failed to act, you failed to offer when it mattered, any protection to Maurice McCabe, you had sight and knowledge of this malicious strategy."

"You picked your side and you certainly weren't on Maurice's side.

"You failed as Minister for Justice, you failed Maurice Mc Cabe and it is now abundantly clear Tanaiste, that it is time for you to go."

Earlier: Frances Fitzgerald will be fighting to save her position when she takes Leaders Questions in the Dail shortly.

You can watch the leaders' questions live from the Dail here.

Sinn Fein has said it will table a motion of no confidence in the Tanaiste, unless she answers questions about her handling of the latest Maurice McCabe controversy to the partys satisfaction.

Fianna Fail TDs have indicated they might back Sinn Fein in that instance.

In particular, opposition TDs have queried the decision of the then Justice Minister not to act upon an email she got in May 2015 which mentioned a strategy to discredit Sergeant McCabe.

Minister Fitzgerald told the Seanad last night she had fresh legal advice which confirmed she should not interfere in the OHiggins Inquiry.

Earlier: Sinn Fein to decide whether to declare no confidence in Tanaiste

Sinn Fein say they will wait until this afternoon to decide whether to declare no confidence in the Tanaiste.

The party says Frances Fitzgerald still has questions to answer regarding the Maurice McCabe controversy and expects her to answer them during leaders questions this afternoon.

Last night, Minister Fitzgerald said she had received fresh legal advice that her course of action, not to interfere in the OHiggins inquiry, was the right one.

But Sinn Fein Senator Niall ODhonnghaile said she hadnt done enough for whistleblowers.

He said: "You tell us again in your opening remarks, everything you have done in your ten years as minister for whistleblowers, but upon reflection, upon looking at the facts put before us, what did you do for whistleblowers in this particular incidence?

"Would you now like to revisit your memory when you have the opportunity here in the Seanad and correct these contradictory accounts on the floor."

Since Monday night, Frances Fitzgerald has faced mounting pressure to answer questions on her handling of an email sent to her in May 2015  about a garda strategy to discredit Maurice McCabe.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Tanaiste was grilled about the controversy, first in the Dail, and last night in the Seanad.

ODonnghaile says there are still outstanding issues.

Labour say they will support a Sinn Fein motion of no confidence, while Fianna Fail have also said they will give the Tanaiste more time, but could support Sinn Fein, which would leave Leo Varadkar in a very difficult position regarding his deputy.

TD Dara Calleary says they are waiting until after question time to decide what to do.

He said: "We will access it following that, just remember Maurice McCabe and his family are at the heart of this and they need to be given justice."
Three men have been given long jail sentences for two aggravated burglaries in which three pensioners were tied up, stabbed and beaten in Limerick.

In a separate robbery, a family was tied up in their home.
Authorities in Rome have started classes for hundreds of its taxi drivers to learn good manners and English.

The city said 750 drivers are scheduled to take eight classes of "practical" English, lessons about "cultural manners" as well as instructions on how to make visitors feel welcome in Italy's capital.
The report, laid before the Oireachtas, also shows that Ireland issued 84 new European arrest warrants last year in connection with crimes including murder and sex offences. The State also received 178 European arrest warrants from other countries seeking people here, in connection with offences such as murder, sex offences including rape and sexual abuse of children, drugs offences, fraud, and human trafficking.

The figures are included in a report into the operation of the European Arrest Warrant Act by the Central Authority and provided to the Minister for Justice.

Last year, 84 European arrest warrants were issued by the Central Authority seeking to have people overseas arrested in connection with alleged offences carried out here.

The types of offences cited in the European arrest warrants transmitted by the Central Authority in 2016 included murder, sexual offences, drugs offences, assaults, and robbery and fraud, said the report.

It said 46 of those sought by the authorities here were surrendered to the state last year  21 of whom were the subject of warrants issued last year and another 25 people arrested on foot of older warrants.

As of the start of this year 170 European arrest warrants issued by the Irish Central Authority since 2004 were still ongoing, 63 of which were issued in 2016. The report stated that 425 people have been surrendered to the Irish authorities since the beginning of 2004 and the end of last year on foot of European arrest warrants.

The figures show that, last year, Irish authorities issued the most European arrest warrants to its counterpart central authority in Britain, transmitting 57 arrest warrants. The country to receive the next highest number of European arrest warrants from Ireland was Spain, with 10, but others were issued to countries such as Latvia, Poland, and Belgium.

In the opposite direction, 178 European arrest warrants were received by the Central Authority here relating to citizens of other countries, with 128 warrants endorsed by the High Court and 68 people arrested in this jurisdiction. There were 72 cases in which the High Court decided not to order a surrender.

Poland and Britain each issued 50 arrest warrants to the Irish Central Authority last year, while Lithuania issued 28 and the Czech Republic 13.

Since 2004, Ireland has surrendered 1,200 people on foot of European arrest warrants and had 425 people surrendered to the State over the same period.
An Irish artist has recreated a typical emergency accommodation unit and placed it just off Grafton St in Dublins city centre.

Will St Leger constructed a 12ft x 12ft room, consisting of a bunk bed for a boy, a girl and their mother with one chair and a cupboard which stores their toiletries and on which a kettle and microwave sit.

The installation here is a 12ft x 12ft room, which is based on the testimonies of the people who live in these spaces so the public, the media, the politicians and anybody who has a pair of eyes can look at this 12ft x 12ft room with a bunk bed, that has effectively a kitchen, a living room space and a bedroom space all in the one 12ft x 12ft room, said Mr St Leger.

A total of 3,194 children live in emergency accommodation in Ireland and 2,335 are in Dublin.

Its a ridiculous situation. The whole idea is to build this room and put it in the middle of the street and imagine there were no walls. If there were no walls in emergency accommodation [and the public could see into them], we wouldnt accept the status quo that we have now because we wouldnt accept that we put families into these rooms and accept that to be living because thats not living, thats endurance, the artist told the Irish Examiner.

One of the things that I hope that people looking into this room will think: How would I ever manage to live in this space?

Mr St Leger said the response from the public has been very, very positive since they unveiled the installation at midday on South King St yesterday.

However, he said that while people were curious, there was very little public awareness about emergency accommodation.

Irish artist Will St Leger has recreated a typical emergency accommodation unit  a 12ft x 12ft room consisting of space for three people  and placed it on South King St, Dublin, so the public can better understand the situation.

He believes this was the case because the narrative around homelessness was that of a rough sleeper in a blue sleeping bag underneath a shop front.

Mr St Leger said: We need to open our eyes to what the full vista of homeless is in this country.

The room was recreated in conjunction with Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) as part of the #MyNameIs campaign which aims to put a face to homelessness in Ireland.

Theres been a clear downplay in regard to the seriousness of the homeless crisis and the fact of the matter is people are not aware of the conditions that homeless families and children are living in, said Anthony Flynn, CEO of ICHH.

There are far too many homeless children now, 37% of the overall homeless population are now children. Thats continuously on the rise and has been on the rise, month-on-month.

Were looking at 3,194 children spending Christmas in emergency accommodation, hotels and B&Bs. Thats not where we need to be. We need to not be allowing this to be socially acceptable and it has I believe, become socially acceptable.
PAC chair and Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming confirmed the move was taken yesterday in response to the Paradise Papers revelations.

Mr Fleming said those letters have now been issued and that he expects the firms  Google, Apple, Citibank, GSK, JP Morgan, and Pfizer  to appear in early 2018.

We can talk about scheduling over a couple of days. Those letters have gone out and well talk about that in due course, Mr Fleming told the committee.

During a previous PAC meeting on November 9, just days after the Paradise Papers expose, a number of PAC members including Sinn Fein TD David Cullinane and Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy said the multinational firms must be grilled over how they target Irelands tax laws.

At the time, Ms Murphy said the committee needs to address the very significant tax shelters in this country, while Mr Cullinane said alleged loopholes need to be investigated.

Any examination would be focussed on concerns Ireland is losing out on hundreds of millions of euro in missing tax every year.

However, government sources have previously warned such a discussion could force multinationals employing large numbers of people to leave the country.

Meanwhile, during the same PAC meeting yesterday Mr Fleming said that early next year the committee is likely to examine tax issues relating to self-employed people working in RTE.

The PAC meeting has also heard that a number of groups which have shares in Nama  a move designed to keep it off the public finances book  have shared 13.5m in dividends Mr Fleming said could be better used to build social houses.
Kate Flynns parents, Mark and Lisa, were overcome with joy last night as they were presented with the keys to their home, which has been completely adapted to suit Kates medical needs.

This will be our best ever Christmas, an emotional Lisa said as hundreds gathered in Rushbrooke, Cobh, Co Cork, to celebrate.

Last Christmas we had a lot of worries as Kates condition deteriorated. The banks had turned us down and we had no hope of modifying our home. But little did we know that our luck and our lives would change. We will be forever grateful for the immense kindness shown to us as a family. It really has been life-changing for us.

Kate, aged four, was born with a rare genetic depletion which affects her breathing. She is dependent on a ventilator and needs a lot of medical equipment and supplies.

Kate OFlynn with brothers Alex and Adam, parents Lisa and Mark, and Patrick OBrien from Sigma Homes. Picture: Gavin Browne

She spent the first two years of her life in hospital before finally getting to spend Christmas at home last year with her parents, and her brothers, Adam, aged nine, and Alex, six.

But Lisa said their narrow three-storey house was unsuited to Kates needs. The family tried desperately to source funding to adapt their home but their loan applications were turned down.

Kate Flynn Handover Video from David Casey on Vimeo.

This time last year, I had severe depression, I had lost all hope of securing a more suitable home for Kate and the boys, Lisa said. I had lost all hope. I felt I was failing my family, that I wasnt able to provide the safe home my children needed. We were desperate.

However, their lives changed for the better when Mark helped a stranger last Christmas. A day or two later, a listener to Neil Prendevilles show on RedFM phoned to thank Mark for helping after they missed their Santavisit inthe shop he works in. Lisa spoke on air about his caring nature before revealing their own personal struggles.

Kate OFlynn in her new bedroom with brothers Alex and Adam. Picture: Gavin Browne

Sigma Homes project manager David Holmes heard their moving story and discussed it with company boss Patrick OBrien.

Given the variety of projects we have worked with in Cork we felt we might be able to help, Mr OBrien said.

They drew up ambitious plans to completely redesign the house  plans costed at 140,000  but, with help from subcontractors and suppliers, they secured massive savings. A fundraising drive raised 80,000 and building work started four months ago. The finished home was handed back to the family last night.

Kate has living quarters, complete with an en suite wetroom, on the first floor, with a large glazed window view and a door to the back garden.

The house now has an open-plan living space with direct access to the garden, and internal windows linking the family space to Kates room, so that even when she is resting in bed, she can still feel part of family life.

Mark said: People said this couldnt be done. But we have done the impossible.

They Flynns got the good news about their home in Rushbrooke, Cobh, Co Cork, just in time for Christmas. Picture: Larry Cummins

The support we got was incredible. This will be life-changing for the family. Everyone involved should be so proud. Weve all come out of the recession a little less greedy and with bigger, stronger hearts.

Lisa issued an emotional thank-you to all who helped: We are just so, so grateful. I am happy again and our children will have a suitable home. When you have a sick child like Kate, with complex medical needs, you do appreciate the little things, like being together for Christmas in your own home.
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Outlining reasons for calling on Jobs Minister Frances Fitzgerald to go, TDs said she had failed to adequately answer questions about an email sent to her over whistleblower Maurice McCabe. This detailed a planned legal strategy that the Garda commissioners team had against Sgt McCabe in May 2015.

Cork South Central TD Donnchadh O Laoghaire said: She has failed to account for the fact that she has taken no action on foot of this email. She had prior knowledge of it despite the fact the Taoiseach had to correct the record a number of times. She had prior knowledge of it and she took no action. This is at the same time that she and her government said that they would offer full protection legally and otherwise and full support for whistleblowers.

The motion has been tabled for next Wednesday and as such will force the Government to rally around Ms Fitzgerald.

Sinn Fein had held off on announcing the motion until today, saying the party would give the Tanaiste one more day to satisfactorily answer Dail questions. This did not happens, it says.

Mr O Laoghaire said it appeared Ms Fitzgerald did not make any inquiries in May 2015 when she received the email about the Garda strategy for Sgt McCabe.

She should have realised the significance of what was in that email, she should have inquired further.

He said any legal restrictions only applied between lawyers for the department of justice and gardai and not necessarily between the Tanaiste and the then commissioner Noirin OSullivan.

She could have also instructed her own departments legal team to challenge robustly any strategy of that kind to undermine Maurice McCabes credibility and integrity.

Amid accusations of instigating a stunt or kangaroo court by using the Dail to pursue an agenda, Sinn Fein robustly denied this. But TDs admitted they were election ready.

Asked if the party was willing to collapse the Government and Fianna Fails support of it, Mr O Laoghaire said: We are not trying to precipitate a general election and this can be avoided if the Tanaiste does the right thing or if the Government intervenes itself.

Sinn Fein is ready for a general election,we have always been ready for a general election due to the nature of this Dail. The make up of it, it requires that we are always prepared and we are not fearful of a general election.

However, the party also maintains that Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has questions to answer after it emerged yesterday that the email in question sat in his department for a number of days before being passed on to the Tanaiste and before the Taoiseach found out about it.

He needs to answer why he sat next to Leo Varadkar [in the Dail] who put the wrong information on the record a number of times this week... he needs to answer why that happened.
This was her last chance, her death-row plea. And Frances Fitzgerald was clearly not going down without a fight. However, the problem with this controversy is that it has evolved and changed so much in the past 10 days it is very easy to slip up and be tripped up. Yesterday was no different.

It emerged that the Department of Justice had in fact dragged up the 2015 email at the centre of the scandal a full week before the Tanaiste was tipped off. And so, just as the Taoiseach was forced to change the story multiple times in the past week, Ms Fitzgerald also had to alter the series of events.

She told the Dail: When I spoke with the department on the Thursday, I did not actually know when it had been discovered in the department. I assumed it was fairly close to when I had been told on the Thursday.

Health Minister Simon Harris wore a worried expression. Conspicuous by their absence were a number of senior Fine Gael ministers including Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan. For the second time in a week the Taoiseach failed to take up a seat beside his second-in-command as she faced a grilling.

The questions came thick and fast from Fianna Fail justice spokesman Jim OCallaghan, backed by his colleagues. This had really turned into a bloodsport.

Mr OCallaghan began: The Taoiseach stated he only saw it on Monday evening at 11.30pm. Will the Tanaiste tell us when she told the Taoiseach because it appears that the she did not tell him on the Thursday, the Friday, the Saturday or the Sunday and I have a strong suspicion that there were efforts being made to suppress this email?

In chimed Thomas Byrne: Did the Taoiseach find out from Katie Hannon like the rest of us?

Ms Fitzgerald replied through mounting heckles: Sorry, I did inform the Taoiseach about the email on the Monday.

There was another intervention from Timmy Dooley: At 11.30pm on Monday?

No, the Tanaiste protested. At this stage the decibel levels, especially from Bernard Durkan who bellowed from over Ms Fitzgeralds left shoulder, had risen to levels that forced the ceann comhairle to add his voice.

Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald continued the prosecution: The Tanaiste may think that she will weather this storm, that she will ride it out but she will not because the terrible vista of a conspiracy to malign a good man, to smear him as a sex abuser in order to shut him up is not some minor political episode that can be simply brushed away. She failed Maurice McCabe and it is now abundantly clear that it is time for the Tanaiste to go.
In the late 1930s, German designer and typographer Elizabeth Friedlander was asked to create a typeface by the Bauer Foundry in Frankfurt, a unique commission for a woman at the time.

However, Friedlanders achievement was overshadowed by political circumstances in Germany, as the Nazis rose to power.

The name of the font, originally Friedlander-Antiqua, was changed to Elizabeth-Antiqua, to avoid pointing to the creators Jewish origin. As the type was being cast, the talented Friedlander, who had been employed as a graphic designer for the popular German magazine Die Dame, had to leave the country after she was refused permission to work.

She moved to the equally unsettled Italy, before eventually securing a domestic service visa for Britain. In London, she was sponsored and mentored by publisher Francis Meynell and went on to have an illustrious career as a designer and calligrapher.

She worked for the newly established Penguin, designing many of their distinctive covers; carried out commissions for Sanderson wallpapers and Shell; illustrated maps for BOAC (the British state-owned airline) and was also responsible for the World War Two Roll of Honour inscriptions at Sandhurst military academy.

UCC COLLECTION

Although the work of Friedlander is instantly recognisable as mid-20th century design at its best, not many will be familiar with her name, even in the Cork town of Kinsale, where she moved in the 1960s.

Now her life and work is in the spotlight as a collection featuring some of her designs and personal papers has been made available to the public by UCC, where the material is held. The collection was formally launched last Thursday as part of Explore your Archives week, which runs until Sunday.

Head of research collections and communications at UCC, Cronan O Doibhlin, says there is a growing interest in Friedlanders work and the university is keen to bring it to a wider audience.

A selection of German fiction book designs Elizabeth Friedlander Picture: UCC Library.

Shes known in printing and publishing circles, but not internationally known. Theres a small amount of material in other universities, including Reading, but the primary collection is in Cork, and weve catalogued that in the past year.

"Its made up of her own personal correspondence and papers, but also a lot of her mark-up designs, which she created throughout her career, as well as material she created while living in Ireland  greetings cards with Irish calligraphy and so on.

Another fascinating aspect of Friedlanders life is that while in London, she worked for the wartime Ministry of Informations black propaganda unit, producing counterfeit Nazi rubber stamps, ration books and other material for the British.

The unit was led by Ellic Howe, and O Doibhlin believes her time there was a less than happy one for Friedlander.

Howe was a complicated person. He was probably a bit overbearing, and may have pursued her. I dont think Elizabeth particularly enjoyed his attention, he says.

When the war ended, Friedlander had plans to return to Europe or head to the US but then the opportunity to work with Penguin arose.

Elizabeth font in bold Elizabeth Friedlander Picture: UCC Library.

They were just setting up and she was employed by them for a number of years, working on some of their early cover designs, when they became a little more decorative. She designed patterned papers which were very colourful but classic.

In the 1950s and 1960s she was responsible for the design of many of the book jackets, including the title font and the lay-out. She also designed the little Penguin logo when they were 25 years old  we have an image of that in the collection.

KINSALE CONNECTION

Details about Friedlanders years in Cork are sketchy. She continued to work and, although hampered by her failing eyesight, pursued her love of gardening and designed keepsakes for Kinsale crafts.

According to calligrapher Pauline Paucker, who produced a short book on Friedlanders work, she resided in Kinsale with her life-long companion Alessandro MacMahon, a former lecturer who she had met in London.

However, when Paucker visited Kinsale, she was unable to find the cottage where they had lived.

O Doibhlin says she was very private and had a small circle of friends. These included the renowned cultural philanthropists Gerald and Sheila Goldberg, who were responsible for the donation of her collection to UCC.

The Goldbergs were also bequeathed a Klotz violin dating from 1703 which had belonged to Friedmans mother. They in turn donated it to the Cork School of Music, where it continues to be passed down to gifted students.

A composite edition of Radclyffe Hall with handpainted designs Elizabeth Friedlander Picture: UCC Library.

Fittingly, one of the more recent recipients, Mairead Hickey, now studies violin at the prestigious Kronberg Academy in Germany.

When Friedlander died in 1984, she was buried in the Goldberg plot in the Jewish cemetery at Curraghkippane graveyard at Kerry Pike near Cork.

O Doibhlin is currently helping to curate an exhibition of the Friedlander collection at the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft in Sussex next year.

Theres a lot of interest from academics who know her work, so the exhibition is a good opportunity for us to stretch into the international realm. The exhibition may also travel to Germany after Britain, he says.

The exhibition is co-curated by video artist Katharine Maynell, the great-niece of Francis Maynell, who helped Friedlander when she arrived in London. Maynell has also made a short film about Friedlander called Elizabeth which was shown at the UCC launch and will also feature in the exhibition.

Katharine came across a manuscript, handwritten for Francis for his 70th birthday, from Elizabeth, says O Doibhlin.

That activated Katharines interest in Elizabeth, and she came to us a year and a half ago to say she wanted to do a project. That also galvanised us to work on the collection.

ARTISTIC INTEREST

There is also a big interest in typography among the artistic community and O Doibhlin says Friedlanders font is especially notable for its elegant aesthetic.

Yes, its something maybe people take for granted with our reliance on computers. Friedlanders typeface is particularly beautiful.

Handdrawn designs for the 25th anniversary of Penguin Elizabeth Friedlander Picture: UCC Library.

"The original type was thrown into the Thames in the 1950s and destroyed. An academic in the UK has recreated the original font digitally, so you can buy it from Bauer, the original company.

Its slightly different but when you recreate a digital font from a real one theres always a small difference. Its very easy on the eye, which is why people are so interested, her font is seen as one of the more high-quality fonts of the time.

The Friedlander Collection is open to the public at UCC; Contact libraryarchives@ucc.ie. The Elizabeth Friedlander exhibition runs at Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft, Sussex, from Jan 6-April 29, 2018.
The confidence and supply agreement between the Fine Gael government and Fianna Fail has finally hit a roadblock. Last night, Fianna Fail was forced to act over more twists and turns and chaotic explanations regarding embattled Jobs Minister Frances Fitzgerald and an email she received in May 2015 about a Garda management strategy to discredit whistleblower Maurice McCabe.

The party will consider its own motion of no confidence against the Tanaiste next week, in a bid to preempt one that has been agreed and launched by Sinn Fein.

In recent days, Fianna Fail had signalled it was willing to give the Tanaiste and Government time to sort out the McCabe email saga. It would listen. At least that was the message out of a Fianna Fail private meeting in Leinster House on Wednesday night.

Then Sinn Fein senior members launched a broadside at Frances Fitzgerald in the Dail yesterday, after the resolute minister took to her feet to fight for her political future. As usual, Mary Lou McDonald, who now looks set to succeed Gerry Adams as leader, did not pull her punches during the heated exchanges. It was time for you to go, declared Ms McDonald.

The TD said that when it mattered, when you became aware of a malicious strategy to malign this man you failed to act.

Sinn Fein then launched its no motion confidence, also declaring that Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan had questions to answer after it emerged the email was in fact discovered in his department on November 9, several days before it was seen by him, a week before it was seen by the Tanaiste and a week and a half before the Taoiseach found out about it.

The chaos and confusion had got worse.

But it has now emerged that Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, ahead of the tense Dail debate yesterday, had got on the phone to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on the Wednesday night.

Fianna Fail was no longer willing to declare confidence in the Tanaiste, announced Fianna Fail justice spokesman Jim OCallaghan on the RTE news last night. And Mr Martin had told the Taoiseach so.

This effectively rips up the confidence and supply agreement, under its terms, it becomes null and void if Fianna Fail are not willing to support a government minister.

A number of scenarios now arise. The most likely result though is that unless Fianna Fail wants to collapse the minority government and cause a snap Christmas general election, Frances Fitzgerald will have to quit.

Fine Gael ministers rallied around her yesteday, with Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney declaring the communications fiasco around the email was not a resigning matter.

Inevitably though, Fianna Fails changed position has shortened the lifespan of this government. Relations between the two parties will unlikely be as amicable again  even if the confidence and supply agreement can be bandaged or fixed up. Furthermore, there is a clear standoff here. If Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach is unwilling to let her go and stands by her like his ministers, he may collapse the minority government himself, therefor causing an election.

If none of these scenarios arise, Fianna Fail may indeed drive ahead with their motion next week where ultimately the Government anyhow would lose.

Amid the homeless and housing crisis, the dilemmas facing the country with Brexit and a host of other problems from health to policing, there now is a real prospect of a snap general election in the cold and dark days of December or possibly early January. Irish politics never ceases to shock.

But ultimately, the argument will not be dropped that the Tanaiste, as justice minister, did not do her utmost to protect Maurice McCabe.

The Tanaiste insists she never had any hand in a campaign to smear Sgt McCabe. That may be so, but she is the Tanaiste and a former justice minister. Standards are important here. And a government must set them.

And as Martin Luther King once said: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
No big prizes for guessing that those phrases are a selection taken from recent apologies from men, here, in the UK, and in the US, accused of sexual harassment over recent weeks and months.

Its an interesting exercise to do a bit of cutting and pasting, and then to read them one after another to realise the perpetrators have more in common than their wandering hands, no matter where they were born and brought up.

To save you the bother of having to do the same Ill sum it up  these are, for the most part, tragic thumb sucking efforts with lashings of self pity, written with a constant eye on career rehabilitation, speaking of dawning and shocked awareness when a quick read of their words make it clear that really they dont get it at all, even now.

In fact, when you read the statements and note their tone, the original sins and misdemeanours make all the more sense.

I must say Ive three personal favourite tidbits from the growing list from which to choose.

The first is from ex-UK defence secretary Michael Fallon, knee grabber and lunger, who said that in the past his actions fell below the high standards required of the armed forces he had represented.

The second is from comedian Louis CK, who said he had learned too late in life that that when you have power over another person asking them to look at your dick isnt a question.

Its a predicament for them. Or the plaintive cry from former Gate supremo Michael Colgan in his extended essay saying: I genuinely thought everyone at the Gate liked me.

How fabulously delusional.

We have credible accusations against a growing list of men and these statements are becoming an almost daily occurrence.

In the US, it all kicked off with Harvey Weinstein and its getting so that its hard to keep up. This week a major figure in US media Charlie Rose  named by Time magazine in 2014 as one of its 100 most influential people  was the latest man to be brought face to face with his behaviour.

Eight women told The Washington Post that longtime television host Charlie Rose made unwanted sexual advances toward them, including lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, or groping their breasts, buttocks or genital areas. He is also said to have a notorious temper.

The women were either employees at the Charlie Rose show, which aired on PBS and Bloomberg TV, or aspired to work for the show, in allegations spanning from the late 1990s to 2011.

There is such a sense of deja vu when reading Charlies statement (its a whole new genre, these contrition chronicles) which did not address the grabbing, lewdness or strolling around naked.

The 75-year-old opened with his advocacy over the past 45 years for the careers of the women hes worked with.

Nevertheless, in the past few days, claims have been made about my behaviour toward some former female colleagues. Ah the insertion of the nevertheless, it reeks of his annoyance at the ingratitude of the females involved.

"He went on to say it was essential these women know that I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my in appropriate behaviour.

I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken. Theres the ever present delusion again.

It was interesting then to read the statement issued by comedian Al Porter.

Ive appeared on the Cutting Edge as a co-panellist with Porter and was hugely impressed by his apparent emotional intelligence and the articulate way in which he expressed himself given his relatively tender years.

He was particularly impressive when he spoke about the stigma surrounding taking anti-depressants.

Last weekend, we heard how four comedians separately alleged that he had inappropriately touched them.

He subsequently issued a statement. He said he was completely taken aback by the reports in the media and on social networks.

In yet another egregious example of the having your cake an eating it tone of these apologies, Al said his conduct which had been in keeping with my flamboyant and outrageous public persona may be regarded as offensive and unacceptable by many people, I at no time intended to upset anyone.

He went on to say hed been unaware of the impact of my conduct and was truly sorry for any distress I may have caused in what I had regarded as light-hearted and good-natured circumstances.

There is clearly a spectrum with these allegations that range in seriousness  Harvey Weinstein has been accused of rape; despite allegations of frequent inappropriate touching and highly sexualised comments, Michael Colgan said his behaviour should not be equated with sexual crimes and he took serious issue with much of what has been said about him.

All situations though involve a power differential between the two individuals involved.

But what really bends my mind is the idea that in anyones reality it is alright, for instance, to parade around naked in front of a colleague, to masturbate in front of someone without their consent, or to put your hand down someone elses trousers inside their underwear and grope them, to name but a few.

But more than that, once your behaviour is reflected back to you, how could you subsequently come up with such a pathetic excuse of a statement, each and every one which has the commonality of being self-serving.

I have seen no statement to date which has indicated genuine and non-self-pitying remorse, or that doesnt read like it has an eye to a possibility of repairing a reputation.

Genuine apologies involve an admission of fault, they carry a sense of genuine regret, atonement or an effort at restitution.

A real apology shows that one person recognises and acknowledges the wrong done and

communicates that and the other person can sense their sincerity.

I doubt there is a single woman out of those we have heard about, or the men in the Al Porter case, who would feel that a single one of the men involved had come close to such an apology.

I have seen no statement to date which has indicated genuine and non-self-pitying remorse
231117JSB Set for December

Anthony Kaybing

The long deferred Joint Supervisory Body (JSB) Meeting between the ABG and the National Government has been scheduled for the 14 and 15 of December this year.

ABG President Chief Dr John Momis in a special parliament convened on Wednesday to discuss the JSB said some of the JSB agendas are outstanding from previous meetings while others are focused on the referendum preparations.

The referendum preparations will be a dominant issue of discussion in the JSB and with the recent formation of the Bougainville Referendum Commission there is urgency to operationalize it.

We need to appoint Commissioners, agree on an independent Chair and put in place systems, processes and procedures to govern how the Commission will work, President Momis said.

Momis further stated that all of this required the support and agreement of the National Government.

He added that the two governments also need to reach an agreement on the question or questions to be put to the people of Bougainville at the referendum; the meeting will also discuss the criteria that will apply to non-resident Bougainvilleans to vote in the referendum.

Another key agenda during the JSB will be the failure by the National Government to honour its constitutional obligations through outstanding payments of the Restoration Development Grant.

By our estimates we are now owed more than K900 million and by the National Governments own estimates we are owed more than K360 million, President Momis said.

Just like the RDG the ABG is owed significant arrears under the Special Intervention Fund of 2011 that should have seen a total of K500 million being approved for high impact development projects; only K299 million has been received with a shortfall of K201 million, Momis revealed.

Other key issues of discussion in the forthcoming JSB will include the need for the second joint review of the autonomy arrangements, peace building efforts by the ABG, weapons disposal provisions in the Bougainville Peace Agreement, revenues from fishing around Bougainville waters and continued draw down of powers and functions.

The JSB is the foremost entity that offers an avenue for the National Government and the ABG to discuss issues pertaining to Bougainvilles autonomous arrangement and is co-chaired by the ABG President and Prime Minister of PNG.

Ends////


241117ABG on JSB deferrals

Anthony Kaybing





The ABG has been consistently let down by the National Government on its continued deferral of the Joint Supervisory Body Meeting and its refusal to engage on important matters relating to the Bougainville Peace Agreement.



ABG President Chief Dr John Momis said that as a legitimate autonomous government afforded specific constitutional powers this was unacceptable.



The National Government has consistently failed to meet its obligations under the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA), President Momis said.



The JSB was established as the primary mechanism under the Bougainville Peace Agreement through which ABG and the National Government must consult and resolve disputes, he added.



Momis further expressed his disappointment in saying that the National Government has failed to respect the role of the JSB instead using it as a rubber stamp to push through its own views at the expense of the Bougainville people.



After twelve years of autonomous government we are still constrained in our ability to govern effectively because of the inaction of the National Government, Momis said.



Over the course of these last twelve years the JSB has not yielded anything of substance except for the negotiations for several draw-down of powers and functions and the implementation of several high impact projects.



With the JSB now set for the 14 and 15 of December, the ABG and the National Government are still at loggerheads over the formula for Restoration Development Grant of which close to a K1 billion is owed to the ABG which is a basis of the BPA, the other outstanding funding is the Special Intervention Fund of K500 million with an outstanding of K201 million.



The ABGs main focus for this JSB will be on the referendum preparedness by both sides; the ABG has already taken steps to meet the terms of the BPA which will qualify Bougainville on eve of the referendum.



The National Governments slowness in addressing the terms of the JSB and the Peace Agreement has greatly hindered the ABGs drive as everything regarding the referendum must be carried out in agreement with the National Government.



Despite these setbacks the President was pleased with the momentum displayed by the ABGs Department of Peace Agreement Implementation in its referendum preparedness.



Inspite of these seemingly dark times I call on the people of Bougainville to focus on the noble ambition of self-determination and to commit to achieving our ultimate goal, Momis said.



Ends////


241117OFFICIAL HANDOVER DESPITE HEAVY DOWNPOUR

By Aloysius Laukai



The ABG officially presented two Mining Exploration Licences to two Landowner companies in Tinputz yesterday despite the heavy downpour which disturbed the ceremony.

The ceremony was witnessed by all members of the ABG including media and the people of Tinputz and also the heavens opened to celebrate the occasion.

The two companies are KALIA INVESTMENT LIMITED and TOREMANA RESOURCES LIMITED.

The ABG President CHIEF DR.JOHN MOMIS officially handed over the Exploration licenses to the two companies.

The ceremony also included traditional activities by landowners from the project sites.



Ends


Birds feathers furnish the iridescent blue color on some antique Chinese jewelry. Gold-colored necklaces, earrings, pins and even hair ornaments were made in China with kingfisher feathers before the first century. Few collectors know how difficult it is to make the delicate blue jewelry or how easily it is damaged. The metalsmith places thin strips of hot gilt copper on a flat outline of the finished piece. It is cooled, cleaned and polished, and glue is put into the empty spaces created by the strips. Then, using tweezers, small pieces of the fragile, shaped feathers are put on the glue. The feathers tend to rot over time, so few of the pre-1600 pieces remain. Most similar 20th-century jewelry is made with blue enamel, not feathers, because of efforts to protect the kingfisher. A few pieces of antique kingfisher feather jewelry made from the 1600s to the 1900s were sold at a recent Neal auction for affordable prices. A pair of Chinese hairpins, each 5 inches long with gilt copper outlining bluebirds and flowers, was estimated at $400 to $600 and sold for $854, including the premium.

Q: We inherited a table and we are having trouble finding its value. It was bought in Granada, Spain, during the early 1970s and shipped to the U.S. with a duty value of $1,500. The table is wood with geometric inlay and panels that look like Arabic characters. It has two sets of legs, a shorter set for use as a coffee table and a taller set allowing it to be used for dining or games. The 37-inch-top is octagonal. Your help identifying the table and value would be appreciated.

Answer: Your table is decorated with marquetry. In Spanish it is called taracea. The Moors were the first in Spain to cover surfaces of furniture with geometric patterns made of wood, bone, metal and ivory. The Moors left a legacy of Hispano-Moorish art and design, and Granada still is a center of cabinet work. Multi-sided table tops with star patterns surrounded by floral designs and geometric borders were common. Your table was made by Laguna Taracea in Granada. The company was established by ancestors of todays owner, Miguel Laguna, in 1877. The characters on your table are Arabic for God is the greatest. Tables similar to yours have sold for about $2,000.

Q: I found a creamer in Moms home after she died. Its marked with a crown above Eschenbach and Bavaria-Germany. She and my dad were in Europe after World War II. Can you tell me who made this and about how old it is?

Answer: Eschenbach is a brand name used by more than one porcelain factory located in Windischeschenbach, Bavaria, Germany. A pottery was established there in 1913 and made ceramics three years later. Oscar Schaller & Co. took over the pottery in 1928. The company made Eschenbach and other household and decorative porcelain. In 1950, the factory was taken over by Gebruder Winterling A.G., which continued to make Eschenbach porcelain. Winterling went bankrupt in 2000 and the trademarks and assets sold. The factory closed in 2003. This mark is no longer being used.

Q: About 30 years ago I won an animation cel in pencil from Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night. The tube it came in was from the Cambridge Exchange Ltd. Inc. in Pompano Beach, Fla. There is a certificate of registration with this information: Hand drawn in pencil, U.S. GA Reg. No. 9123965. Artist: Filmation Studio, 1987 Number: one of a kind original, Retail Value: $500.00. What is it worth now?

Answer: Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night was a 1987 animated film produced by Filmation Studio. It can take 24 cels to produce one second of animation. Each cel starts out as a pencil drawing on paper. A piece of celluloid or acetate plastic is put on top of the drawing and the picture is traced with ink onto the plastic or by a xerograph. Then, the color is filled in on the opposite side. The cels are then photographed in sequence to make a film showing moving figures. Collectors tell us the most valuable cels are the original ones used to make the movie. The subject should be an identifiable character looking at you with eyes open. Original Disney cels can sell for $1,000 to $1,500. Your cel is not from the 1940 Walt Disney movie, its from the later Filmation film and not worth as much. Cambridge Exchange is out of business.

Q: Id like some information about a vase I found in a home we bought. Its marked McCoy on the bottom. Can you tell me more about it?

Answer: Your vase was made by the Nelson McCoy Pottery Co. in Roseville, Ohio. Nelson McCoy and his father, J.W. McCoy, started the Nelson McCoy Sanitary and Stoneware Co. in 1910. Art pottery was made after 1926. The company became the Nelson McCoy Pottery Co. in 1933. The factory closed in 1990. Pottery with the McCoy mark also has been made by other companies unrelated to the original company since 1991.

Q: Weve come across a very old reel of measuring tape. Its cloth and bound by a leather case. The brass windup clasp is rusted shut but is stamped Universal Trademark and 66 Feet. I cant find this or anything that resembles it after searching online. Can you help me identify this measuring tape?

Answer: Universal brand tape measures were made by Lufkin, a company founded by Edward Taylor Lufkin in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1869. The E.T. Lufkin Board and Log Rule Manufacturing Company originally made measuring tools for the logging industry. After several name changes and moves, it was bought by Cooper Industries in 1967 and has been part of the Apex Tool Group since 2010. The value of your tape measure is about $30-$50.

Q: I found an old Mountain Dew bottle and brought it home and washed it. There is a misprint on it. It reads itll tickle yore nnards. Does that make it valuable?

Answer: The Pepsi-Cola Company introduced Mountain Dew in 1964. Itll Tickle Yore Innards was part of the slogan used on bottles and cans from 1965 to 1969. Error bottles are not rare, and the error doesnt add to the value. Mountain Dew bottles with that slogan sell for about $5.

Current prices

Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.

Thimble, c-scroll band, 18 karat gold, continental, 1 inches, $140.

Cheese trolley, mahogany, curved, applied half turnings, casters, 6 x 16 inches, $210.

Satsuma, jar, flowers, butterflies, cream ground, handles, Japan, 13 x 8 inches, $555.

German silver, figurine, knight, shield, sword, glass stones, 9 inches, $750.

Doorstop, poinsettia, two-tone, red, green, stenciled pot, 9 inches, $840.

Apothecary cabinet, pine, 36 drawers, dovetailed, porcelain pulls, old grain paint, 14 x 48 inches, $1,020.

Toy, bus, seeing New York, Mama Katzenjammer, Happy Hooligan, Gloomy Gus, Kenton, 10 inches, $1,440.

Chair, Egyptian Revival, parcel gilt, bone, mother-of-pearl, paw feet, 43 x 24 inches, $1,665.
For many retailers and shoppers, today, better known as Black Friday, is no longer the kickoff of the holiday shopping season.

Its more like a way station or, for some, a halfway point.

Black Friday is no longer just a day, said Lauren Lyons Cole, Your Money editor for Business Insider. It represents a stores entire holiday marketing strategy.

For example, Amazon began its countdown to Black Friday on Nov. 1.

Sears began offering Black Friday pricing online at www.Sears.com on Nov. 16. Sears and sister company Kmart also lowered the minimum purchase threshold for free shipping from $49 to $25.

The availability for several weeks of deeply discounted televisions, electronics and high-demand toys means that Black Friday, while still a frenzy, is much more manageable for retailers and shoppers.

The Black Friday game is changing, as shoppers want access to the best deals earlier, said Leena Munjai, Sears Holdings senior vice president for customer experience and integrated retail.

Were using the power and flexibility of our digital channels and integrated retail services to do exactly that.

Still big

RetailMeNot found Black Friday, at 55 percent, remains the most popular shopping day among consumers, followed by Cyber Monday (45 percent), Dec. 26 (33 percent), Small Business Day on Saturday (30 percent), Christmas Eve (23 percent) and Thanksgiving Day (16 percent).

Some retail analysts and economists say Thanksgiving Day shopping may have reached a peak in popularity after just five years in the mainstream, as more stores commit to being closed for the holiday.

That doesnt mean, however, that consumers wont be shopping on Turkey Day. They are just more likely to do it online, analysts and economists said.

If last years Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday shopping experience are any indication, the combination of more stores being closed and more consumers embracing online ordering will contribute to not only fewer crowds but also fewer door-busters that once compelled shoppers to wait in line several days.

While shopping centers still play an important role in retail, their place in the consumer shopping experience, particularly that of the enclosed mall, continues to narrow, said Roger Beahm, executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University.

Deloittes 2017 holiday retail survey shows respondents plan to spend 51 percent of their shopping budget online this holiday season. That compares to only 42 percent in-store.

Cole said that many retailers are trying to gain sales by lengthening the holiday shopping season with earlier discounts. She said about one-third of consumers nationally began their holiday shopping in October.

Brick-and-mortar stores are offering month-long, in-store only deals rather than ordering their holiday gifts online to get customers through their doors, Cole said.

Stores are encouraging if you see a great deal now, dont wait  buy it now.

Awaiting deep discounts

That strategy, however, is leading often to a feast-or-famine revenue cycle, particularly in early to mid-December when consumers may have spent the bulk of their holiday budget and are awaiting for deep discounts as Christmas approaches.

Cole said consumers should capitalize on the tension between in-person and online shopping by checking out prices on the Internet and then ask for a price match at the cashier.

Analysts say big-box retailers are doing a better job of matching inventory with consumer demand as online shopping siphons potential sales and eliminated brick-and-mortar competitors.

Last year, many shoppers up and down Hanes Mall Boulevard were able to get the item they desired for a price that fit their budget without a long wait in line.

For those stores open on Thanksgiving Day, fewer are staying open overnight, choosing to be closed between midnight and 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. Black Friday.

An exception to that pattern is Toys R Us, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It will start a 30-hour shopping period at 5 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.

For the second consecutive year, Hanes Mall, Friendly Center and Alamance Crossing will not be open on Thanksgiving Day. The shopping centers will open at 6 a.m. today.

Like last year, department stores, movie theaters, restaurants and retailers with exterior mall entrances have the option to be open. For example, JCPenney will open at 2 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.

The support that we received last year when we made this decision was overwhelmingly positive, Stephen Lebovitz, CBLs president and chief executive, said in a statement.

Lebovitz said the decision to close was based on feedback from our retail partners, employees of CBL and retailers at our properties, as well as the customers in our markets.

ShopperTrek said consumer traffic for Thanksgiving Day shopping last year was down, the first time since 2012, even with more door busters exclusively set for that day rather than Black Friday.

Since more of these top door busters were available online, shoppers either shopped online or waited until Black Friday to go to a brick-and-mortar location, ShopperTrek said.

Nearly $1,000

The National Retail Federation forecasts that consumers will spend an average of $967 this holiday season, up 3.4 percent from 2016. It is projecting a similar overall percentage growth in spending, to $680 billion.

Matthew Shay, the foundations president and chief executive, said in a statement that with employment and incomes increasing, consumers are more confident this year and that is reflected in their buying plans for the holidays.

Retailers have been stocking up in expectation of this, and all signs are that this will be a busy holiday season, Shay said.

NPD Group Inc., a retail research company, said its 2017 survey of consumers found that they expect to do nearly 40 percent of their holiday shopping online, up from 33 percent in 2016.

Those consumers say they plan to spend 70 percent more than their in-store-only counterparts. Online shoppers anticipate spending an average of $793, while those who will only shop in brick-and-mortar stores plan to spend an average of $467.

However, NPD found that when consumers go to the mall or other retailers, they typically make about 18 purchases, compared with an average of six purchases by online shoppers.

Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, an economics professor at Winston-Salem State University, said the increase in retailers closed on Thanksgiving reflects the reality that many consumers continue to set a firm limit on what they plan to spend on holiday purchases.

People are only going to spend so much on Christmas, so if you stay open longer hours, you just increase your costs, as you have to keep brick-and-mortar retail stores staffed even when there is low traffic, Madjd-Sadjadi said

Furthermore, longer hours typically cannibalize sales from other periods of the day, leading to little extra revenue.

However, an online shop can be perused 24-7 for little additional cost on the part of the online retailer, which gives such outlets an advantage over traditional stores.
CHAPEL HILL  Charlie Rose has put the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame in a tough spot.

Allegations of sexual misconduct by the renowned broadcast journalist surfaced about Rose, prompting CBS to fire him and PBS to stop running the Charlie Rose show Tuesday.

This is an unprecedented incident for the Hall of Fame, said Kyle York, assistant to the dean for communications at the UNC School of Media and Journalism. The revelations involving Charlie Rose are disturbing, and we take them very seriously. Because of the seriousness of the matter, we need to be thoughtful and deliberative about the actions we take with regard to Charlie Rose and the Hall of Fame.

UNC isnt the only institution studying the Rose matter.

Arizona State Universitys Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which honored Rose with the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2015, is considering revoking the award, according to a report Tuesday by azcentral.com

A statement from ASU called the reports of Roses behavior deeply troubling.

Effective immediately, his show is off the Arizona PBS airwaves, and will remain so indefinitely, the statement said. Meanwhile, we are seeking more information and evaluating his receipt of the 2015 Cronkite Award, the statement said.

Rose, a 1999 N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame inductee, was born in Henderson. He is a 1964 graduate of Duke University and a 1968 graduate of the Duke School of Law.

According to his N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame bio, Rose began his career in 1972 as a reporter for WPIX-TV in New York City. In 1974, he became managing editor of the PBS series Bill Moyers International Report, and in 1975 Moyers named him executive producer of Bill Moyers Journal. The next year Rose became the correspondent for USA: People and Politics, another Moyers project. A Conversation with Jimmy Carter, one installment of that series, won a 1976 Peabody Award.

In 1978, Rose got his own talk show on KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth. Three years later, The Charlie Rose Show moved to an NBC-owned station in Washington, D.C., WRC-TV. From 1983 to 1990, Rose anchored the CBS-TV networks Nightwatch, a late-night interview show broadcast five times a week. In 1991, the Emmy Award winners current show Charlie Rose launched and aired five times a week on 215 PBS stations until it was suspended Monday.

In recent years, Rose hosted CBS This Morning each weekday and contributed to 60 Minutes. His arrival on the panel with CBS This Morning is credited with an improvement in ratings for the show.
WASHINGTON  Tryptophan, an amino acid in turkey, is unjustly blamed for what mere gluttony does, making Americans comatose every fourth weekend in November. But before nodding off, give thanks for another year of American hilarity, including:

A company curried favor with advanced thinkers by commissioning for Manhattans financial district the Fearless Girl bronze statue, which exalts female intrepidity in the face of a rampant bull (representing (1) a surging stock market or (2) toxic masculinity). Then the company paid a $5 million settlement, mostly for paying 305 female executives less than men in comparable positions. New Yorks decrepit subway system took action: Henceforth, gender-neutral announcements will address passengers rather than ladies and gentlemen. Washingtons subway banned a civil liberties groups ad consisting entirely of the text of the First Amendment, which ostensibly violated the rule against ads intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions.

California now can jail certain caregivers who willfully and repeatedly fail to use a residents preferred name or pronouns. A Massachusetts librarian rejected a donation of Dr. Seuss books because they are steeped in racist propaganda, and The New Yorker discovered that Thomas the Tank Engine is authoritarian. Always alert about planetary crises, The New Yorker also reported: The world is running out of sand.

A food truck offering free lunches to workers cleaning up after Hurricane Irma was banished from a Florida town because its operator had no government permit to do that. United Airlines said: Assault? Dont be misled by your eyes. That passenger dragged off the plane was just being re-accommodated.

Even Sen. Bernie Sanders went to Mississippi, to the Nissan plant in Canton, to help the United Automobile Workers with yet another attempt to convince Southern workers of the delights of unionization. The workers, 80 percent of whom are black, voted 2-to-1 against the UAW. A New York Times tweet about the South reported a shooting at a nightclub in downtown Arkansas. Louisianas Democratic Party joined the virtue-signaling by changing the name of its Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner.

In toney and oh-so-progressive Malibu, the City Council voted to become a sanctuary city. The councilwoman who made the motion for protecting illegal immigrants said: Our city depends on a Hispanic population to support our comfortable lifestyle. In more-progressive-than-thou Oregon, where you can get state-subsidized gender reassignment surgery at age 15 without parental permission, the Legislature made 21 the age at which adults can buy cigarettes.

UCLA researchers warned that because Americans pets eat meat, they endanger the planet by generating 64 million tons of carbon dioxide. Forty-two years after the government began (with fuel economy standards) trying to push Americans into gas-sipping cars, the three best-selling vehicles were the Ford, Chevrolet and Ram pick-up trucks. A year after a NASA climatologist (from the settled science of climate) said California was in a drought forever, torrential rains threatened to break dams.

Pierce College in Los Angeles was sued after it prevented a student from giving away Spanish-language copies of the U.S. Constitution because he was outside the .003 percent of the campus designated a free speech zone. Two years after social justice warriors convulsed the University of Missouri in Columbia, freshman enrollment was down 35 percent. An Arizona State University professor allowed some students in her human rights class to stage anti-Donald Trump protests in lieu of final exams. The University of Arizona guide instructed instructors to encourage students to say ouch when something said in class hurts their feelings. Clemson Universitys diversity training washed brains with this idea: Expecting punctuality might be insensitive because in some cultures time is considered fluid. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that student snowflakes are not the only victims of academic suffering. It seems that after the nine-month school year, professors endure isolation, solitude and depression during their three-month vacations.

Massachusetts continues to be surprised that the smuggling of cigarettes into the state increased when state cigarette taxes increased. Although San Franciscos hourly minimum wage has not yet reached its destination of $15, the city is surprised that so many small businesses have closed. McDonalds probably was not surprised when its shares surged after it announced plans to replace cashiers with digital ordering kiosks in 2,500 restaurants.

Finally, Dominos Pizza is going to need bigger menus. Government labeling regulations require calorie counts for every variation of items sold, which Dominos says (counting different topping and crusts) includes about 34 million possible combinations. None, however, have excessive tryptophan.
VISALIA, Calif. -- Whenever this country mouse comes home to Central California, as I did recently to speak to citrus farmers, one thought comes to mind:

"How is it that a nation like ours -- founded not by politicians but by farmers -- finds it so difficult to show the proper respect for farming?"

A holiday set aside for us to be thankful and indulge our palate seems like the perfect time to show gratitude to those who supply the bounty. Or as Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, puts it: "If you criticize farmers, don't do it with your mouth full."

If there's one thing for which Americans should be grateful, it's that we don't have to depend on other countries for our food supply. If there are two things, it's that there are still people who will do the hard and dirty job of picking crops -- even if we have to import them.

Who are these folks? Not the 22-year-old barista at Starbucks with dreams of writing a screenplay.

Take it from someone who grew up on his grandfather's ranch, I get it. Times change. Families evolve. People leave the farm. Many of us live in cities and raise kids who think vegetables come from supermarkets.

Don't laugh. My Harvard roommate, who was from New York City, once asked what time of year we pick raisins.

Hint: We don't pick raisins. We pick grapes, and the sun does the rest.

But just because many Americans have abandoned the farm doesn't mean they should also abandon common sense about farming. For instance, no matter what you hear from populists on the right and the left, it is not true that most farmers exploit workers to maximize profits. That's how you go out of business.

This Thanksgiving weekend, let's remember that farming remains a thankless profession.

You're a hostage to the weather, blackmailed by labor unions, and subject to the whims of the market. You get up early to tend the crops, and stay up late doing the books. You worry about having enough water and enough workers.

You have to deal with insects one minute and politicians the next; one is a parasitic menace with an insatiable appetite that can wipe out a harvest because it usurps resources and only cares about its own survival. Then you have the bugs.

You are often played for a sucker by elected officials who see you as an ATM. Democrats take your money and promise to get you more water; Republicans take your money and promise you a dependable workforce. Neither delivers.

You inherit a farm from your father and spend your whole life caring for it with blood, sweat and tears -- only to have your own kids come back from college one day and announce that they don't want to be in the family business. Time to sell.

I don't speak for farmers. But, because I listen carefully when they speak to me, I can tell you there are five things they want you to know.

-- First, even if our national pride won't let us admit it, Americans are not going to do these jobs. Not ever. Most millennials would rather work for Apple in Silicon Valley than go pick apples in the Yakima Valley.

-- Second, farm work isn't unskilled labor. Lawmakers who think that America should admit only "skilled" immigrants need to spend a few hours in the fields where human beings work with the speed of machines but with more precision.

-- Third, speaking of machines, while it may be convenient for restrictionists to dream about robots replacing farmworkers, that won't happen. Many crops still need to be picked by hand. Besides, anything with an "on" and "off" switch needs to be tended to by people.

-- Fourth, while it's easy for politicians to kick the immigration reform can down the road, farmers don't have the luxury of waiting 10 or 12 years to bring in their crops. They need a solution now.

-- And fifth, farmers aren't part of the "elites" who are supposedly keeping down the working-class. Often, the workers decide the wages that they're willing to work for. If they don't get that price, they'll go up the road to the next "Help Wanted" sign.

The populists are way off track. Farmers aren't the problem. And, out here in the real world, they're tired of being the scapegoats while the rest of America refuses to accept its aversion to hard work.

An aversion that explains why there are so many "Help Wanted" signs in the first place.

The Washington Post Writers Group
State data obtained by The Associated Press underscores that our governor and legislature must work all the harder at efforts to protect prison workers.

The issue came to the fore this fall with a prison-break attempt outside Elizabeth City that left four employees dead, the worst assault on workers at our state prisons. Our state must better protect these crucial employees who labor for modest pay.

Assaults on prison staff so far this year are already 50 percent higher than five years ago, according to state prisons data provided to The Associated Press. The same period has seen a near-doubling of incidents in which employees at Pasquotank Correctional Institution  the site of last months failed escape  were so seriously hurt by inmates they missed workdays, The AP reported. The cases dont include non-injury assaults by inmates such as spitting, throwing urine or shoving employees. The increase in assaults comes even though the prison system has cut the number of inmates by 3,000 since 2011.

The state Department of Public Safety runs the prisons. Agency spokesman Jerry Higgins told the AP that changes in sentencing laws that sent more misdemeanor offenders to county jails instead of prisons have done as intended and resulted in more violent offenders in prison for longer sentences.

Other factors in the rise in assaults include low salaries and not enough staff. For example, on the latter point, Bertie Correctional Institution, where a guard was beaten to death in April, had a 26-percent vacancy rate for correctional officer spots in October, the AP reported.

This is an ongoing commitment to improving, Rep. Ted Davis, a New Hanover County Republican who heads the unified legislative committee overseeing public safety, told the AP. On behalf of the people of this state, I extend our deepest gratitude to those officers and employees working in such a dangerous line of duty so that we may be safe.

We agree. And we expect Rep. Davis, other legislative leaders and our governor will deliver on better protecting these workers.
KEVIN FIELDS, Winston-Salem

Voting for Moore

I understand the disgust with former Alabama judge Roy Moore. The truth is that as far as his personal behavior goes, hes probably like a lot of powerful men, including senators. We can find sexual aggressors on both sides of the aisle.

But those who are standing by him arent doing so simply from tribalism, like the liberals say, because hes a Republican. Theyre doing so because Moore would promote and vote for Republican principles. They support him because hed vote in favor of the next conservative Supreme Court justice. Hed vote for family values. Hed vote for lower taxes.

His opponent, Doug Jones, is a fine man and was a fine U.S. attorney. Im glad he put those KKK murderers away. But as a senator, he wouldnt vote for conservative values.

I dont condone Moores behavior, but I would vote for him if I lived in Alabama. You cant control a senators behavior. But you can elect senators to vote the way they should. Thats what theyre doing in Alabama.

***

FRED MULCOX, Winston-Salem

The tax overhaul

How the Republican Party is looking after the middle class:

A) Simple explanation of the Republican trickle-down theory: Put a bucket under a faucet and turn it on so a trickle comes out. Guess how long it will take to fill it up. But before that can happen, companies will empty it into its own coffers to give pay raises to upper management, then to middle management and stockholders. The workers get the dregs (if anything). Also, one version of their tax overhaul is to raise the lowest tax bracket from 10 percent to 12 percent. I am curious what other gems are hidden in both proposals. Who believes Republicans are truly interested in the middle class and below?

B) At present their overhaul of the tax plan also calls for eliminating deductions for health-care expenses. Who knows what else is included that supposedly helps the middle class worker and retiree? Remember: members of the House and Senate plus their families get health insurance paid for by us taxpayers. So they just give lip service to the working middle class and the poor. Besides, someone has to pay for the tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy. It wont be them.

***

LYNN BYRD, Winston-Salem

Done right

While I have always been against development of the beautiful pastures at Crossnore School and Childrens Home as well as thoughtless gentrification projects that displace our less fortunate neighbors (Revitalization effort draws mixed emotions, Nov. 19), I know this for sure: if Sylvia Oberle (the executive director of Boston-Thurmond Innovation Network) has her hands in this, it will be done right. Her record of compassionate intelligence speaks for itself.

Please submit letters online to Letters@wsjournal.com or mail letters to: The Readers Forum, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102. Letters are subject to editing and are limited to 250 words. For more guidelines and advice on writing letters, go to journalnow.com/opinion/submit_a_letter.


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News / National

by BBC

Preparations are getting under way in Zimbabwe for the inauguration tomorrow of the country's new leader Emmerson Mnangagwa.Speaking after his return to the country, Mr Mnangagwa thanked people for their support.He said he had written to Robert Mugabe to tell him that the people had spoken.Mr Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe was experiencing a new and unfolding democracy - and his priority was to rebuild its economy.He also praised the army - which intervened after he was sacked by Robert Mugabe - for managing the process peacefully.Following his dismissal as vice-president earlier this month, he said he had been airlifted to South Africa in August after being poisoned.
The US District Court for the Western District of Texas [official website] struck down [opinion, PDF] as unconstitutional Texas SB 8 [text, PDF], which effectively banned the countrys most commonly used procedure of second trimester abortion known as dilation and evacuation. (D&E).

Referring to earlier Supreme Court [official website] decisions in Gonzales v. Carhart and Stenberg v. Carhart, the court ruled that SB 8 imposes an undue burden upon a womans right to have an abortion and are therefore unconstitutional  Once the Supreme Court has defined the boundaries of a constitutional right, a district court may not redefine those boundaries. Further the role of the district court is to preserve a right, not to search for a way to evade or lessen the right.

The bill was signed into law [JURIST report] in June by the Texas Legislature [official website], and amends the states family code and health and safety codes. Essentially, these amendments significantly change various provisions of the family code, including the definition of abortion itself and when an act is not deemed an abortion. Additionally, the law prohibits the D&E procedure unless the physician stops the heart of the fetus before it is removed from the woman, essentially banning partial-birth, and what SB 8 terms dismemberment abortions.

SB 8 imposes criminal penalties for physicians who perform the D&E procedure including imprisonment on charges of felony. Furthermore, the law opens up options for the father of the fetus or an under-aged mothers parents to bring civil suits against physicians and other individuals involved in the procedure. The law also creates significant reporting requirements for physicians and mandates the state to establish and maintain a registry of participating funeral homes and cemeteries to provide free or low-cost burial services for fetal tissues.

Section 171.154(b) of SB 8, in anticipation of legal or constitutional challenge, contains various safe harbors enable the state to continue enforce the ban to the maximum possible extent.

Upon filing of a suit [JURIST report] the following month, the court issued a temporary restraining order against the law in August, enjoining the state of Texas from enforcing the act until November 22  i.e. the date of this decision. The bench trial commenced early this month with plaintiffs represented by such organizations as Planned Parenthood and Whole Womans Health [advocacy websites], and various medical doctors.

Judge Lee Yeakel, in his opinion, addressed various alternative procedures offered by the state and rejected virtually all of them. Yeakel wrote that the use of digoxin or potassium chloride injections to stop the heart of the fetus before removal is not reliable for inducing fetal demise, that several factors make it difficult or impossible for the needle to reach the fetus, and that the injections would require a woman be subjected to an arguably experimental procedure without any counterbalancing benefits. Yeakel also noted the heightened risks to a woman carried by potassium chloride injections.

The court thus concluded:

under the Act, all women seeking a second-trimester abortion at 15 weeks would have to endure a medically unnecessary and invasive procedure that increases the duration of what otherwise is a one-day standard D&E procedure. The Act further subjects those women to additional risks of complications  the court is unaware of any other medical context that requires a doctor  in contravention of the doctors medical judgment and the best interest of the patient  to conduct a medical procedure that delivers no benefit to the woman.  Words are important. That a woman may make the decision to have an abortion before a fetus may survive outside her womb is solely and exclusively the womans decision. The power to make this decision is her right. The States legitimate concern with the preservation of the life of the fetus is an interest having its primary application once the fetus is capable of living outside the womb. The court must weigh the right against the interest.  The right is absolute and the interest is given only marginal consideration before fetal viability. The Act dictates fetal demise at a time before fetal viability. The Act establishes a point of fetal demise before fetal viability. In so doing, the Act does not further the health of the woman before the fetus is viable.

Whole Womans Health President and CEO, Amy Hagstrom Miller, welcomed the ruling [Center for Reproductive Rights press release] stating that: The pattern of incessant and dangerous attacks on womens healthcare has not stopped. That is why we are here, and why we are thrilled to prevail. Texas Attorney General Kenneth Paxton [official website] stated his intention to immediately appeal [press release] the decision stating: During a five-day trial this month in district court, we created a record unlike any other in exposing the horrors of dismemberment abortions. No just society should tolerate the tearing of living human beings to pieces.  We will defend Senate Bill 8 all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.

Seven other states have imposed similar bans [Politico report] with six of them facing legal challenge.
The chief of a EU-backed court due to try former ethnic Albanian guerrillas for alleged war crimes committed during the 1990s independence war visited Kosovo for the first time but shunned the country's top leaders.

Ekaterina Trendafilova from Bulgaria did not meet President Hashim Thaci, parliament speaker Kadri Veseli and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, all former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

The president and the speaker have been regularly mentioned as possible targets of the special court, which will work in line with Kosovo laws but be based in The Hague in order to protect witnesses.

Haradinaj has already been tried and acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The special court will dispense "justice impartially and independently, free of any influence and interference, fear or favour," Trendafilova told journalists during the two-day visit that ended Friday.

The special court was formed following the accusations that emerged in a 2011 Council of Europe report with claims of assassinations, illegal detentions and organ trafficking during and after the Kosovo 1998-1999 war of independence.

The report notably accused Thaci of heading a mafia-style network that orchestrated the kidnapping and disappearance of about 500 civilians, mostly Serbs.

Thaci denied all the allegations.

The last conflict that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, the Kosovo war claimed 13,000 lives, mostly ethnic Albanians.

It ended in June 1999, after a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian forces out of the breakaway territory.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has rejected to recognise the move.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Emmerson Mnangagwa was born on September 15, 1942. He did his early primary education in Zvishavane in the Midlands Province, before his family relocated to Zambia in 1955, where he attended Mumbwa Boarding School, Kafue Trade School and Hodgson Technical College. He was expelled from college in 1960 for political activism and joined the Zambia United National Independent Party.1962 - Joined Zapu in 1962 and later Zanu in 1963, which saw him travelling to Tanzania, Egypt and China, where he received military training.1964 - Mnangagwa goes to Tanzania, where he establishes the Crocodile gang with Felix Santana, Robert Garachani, Lloyd Gundu, Phebion Shonhiwa and John Chigaba.1964 - He was arrested for blowing up a train locomotive in Masvingo and is spared the hangman's noose after lying about his age and is subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison, where he undertook law studies.1974 - He is released from prison and deported to Zambia, where his family stayed.1977 - Mnangagwa is elected as special assistant to the President and a member of the national executive for Zanu, a position that meant he was head of both the civil and military divisions of the party.1980 - At independence, he became Minister of State Security from 1980 to 1988.1985-2000 - Elected as Kwekwe East Member of Parliament in 1985 and continued to win in successive elections in Kwekwe until 2000.1988-2000 - Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. He had, however, acted as Minister of Finance for about 15 months when the then incumbent, the late national hero Dr Bernard Chidzero, was ill.2000-2005 - Elected Speaker of Parliament.2005-2009 - Appointed Minister of Rural Housing and Social Amenities.2008 - Elected MP for Chirumanzu-Zibagwe constituency2009-2013 - He is appointed Minister of Defence and then Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs after the harmonised elections.2014 - Appointed Vice President following the dismissal of Dr Joice Mujuru, and doubled up as the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.October 2017 - Following a Cabinet reshuffle, the Justice portfolio is taken away from him and he is later fired from Government on November 6, 2017.November 8, 2017 - Mnangagwa is expelled from Zanu-PF, although he had already left the country following attempts on his life after he was dismissed as Vice President of the Republic.November 19, 2017 - An extraordinary session of the Zanu-PF Central Committee readmits Mnangagwa as First Secretary and President, while sacking former President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace Mugabe at the same time.November 21, 2017 - Zanu-PF Chief Whip Lovemore Matuke notifies Parliament that the ruling party had nominated Mnangagwa to replace former President Mugabe.November 22, 2017 - Mnangagwa returns to Zimbabwe and is greeted by wild cheers of joy throughout the country.November 23, 2017 - All set for Mnangagwa's inauguration as the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces today.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Following the resignation of Robert Mugabe as the president of Zimbabwe, Norton legislator Temba Mliswa has called for the dismissal of Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri from the police force.The call for Chihuri's dismissal come in the wake of reports that he had assigned the police officers to arrest Army General Constantino Chiwenga as he landed at the Harare International Airport from Harare where he had been sent on duty.The attempt to arrest Chiwenga came after Mugabe had fired Mnangagwa which it is suspected that that is the reason why Mugabe sent Chiwenga to China so that he fires his friend in his absence.The whole dramatic saga led to the over turning of tables which has seen all the G40 cabal being fired from the party and Mugabe resigning unceremoniously after uprising by citizens calling for his step down.
News / National

by Crecey Kuyedzwa

ZIMBABWE's incoming interim president designate Emmerson Mnangagwa might have survived the poison that nearly took his life in August this year, but will he survive the poisonous legacy that his predecessor Robert Mugabe has left him?On August 12, at a rally in Gwanda in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland South Province, Mnangagwa fell seriously ill vomiting blood in what was alleged to be an attempt on his life. He had to be airlifted from the rally and then flown to South Africa for treatment, amid rumours that he was poisoned by ice cream manufactured at Gushungo Diary, a company owned by Mugabe's wife, Grace.While at first the then president Mugabe tried to downplay the incident, saying Mnangagwa had not been poisoned but was suffering from some other illness, rumours that he had been poisoned did not die, drawing anger from Grace.At the next rally in Bindura, Grace lambasted Mnangagwa, without mentioning him by name, for telling people about his illness and poisoning as if he were the only one who ever gets sick. She said the president had also been sick, but did not go around telling people about it.This event and the ones that followed marked Mnangagwa's fall from Grace. Eventually he was kicked out of both the Zanu-PF Party and government.While Mnangwagwa might have survived the poisonous "ice cream" or whatever it was that nearly took his life, he is once again faced with a poisoned chalice.Poisoned economic legacyThe economy he is inheriting from Mugabe has the potential to kill his political career. The political environment he is inheriting is one that is not acceptable to the opposition parties, who have been calling for election reforms.Will he be able to make concessions without appearing weak, let alone risk losing the next elections in 2018? One of the reasons why Mugabe managed to hold on to power for so long is that he never gave his opponents the reforms they kept asking for.Will Mnangagwa stick to Mugabe's tactics without losing the goodwill the world has given him?Still on reforms, Mnangagwa is inheriting an economy with growing calls for civil service sector reforms. International monetary institutions are on record as saying they are ready to loosen their pursesm if the country embarks and implements civil service sector reforms.Currently, civil service sector wages gobble up over 92% of the country's national budget. Implementing the reforms has however proved difficult over the years, as government workers are considered Zanu-PF election machinery and support base.Despite the Zimbabwean economy's struggles to the extent of running a huge budget deficit, it had to guarantee paying civil servants annual bonuses, just to keep them happy. How will Mnangagwa implement reforms without risking losing a key party ally?The land reform hot potatoThen there is the issue of land. In 2001 Zimbabwe embarked on a chaotic land reform programme that saw most whites losing their farms without compensation. Mugabe simply refused to share land with whites and was strongly against blacks who invited whites to partner them in farming.The land reform programme is one of the reasons why Zimbabwe was put under sanctions by Western countries. So as Mnangagwa takes over, British eyes, led by Theresa May and Boris Johnson, both of whom have said they are ready to support a new Zimbabwe, will be upon Mnangagwa to see if he will allow their kith and kin back on the land.But if he does, how will the locals react? There are also blacks, most of them Zanu-PF members - including Mugabe - who have more than one farm. Will he take some from them without risking losing support?Crecey Kuyedzwa is a Fin24 correspondent. Views expressed are his own.
KEARNEY  Six parking stalls on the west side of Central Avenue in front of the Kaufmann Center will be closed for the annual North Pole Express sponsored by the Kearney Public Schools Foundation.

According to a city press release, the closures are planned from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Other closures will be Dec. 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13 and 14.

The use of the parking lot located north of the Museum of Nebraska Art will also be temporarily closed from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on the same dates, the city announced.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Ms Mandi Chimene, who is among Zanu-PF members fired from the ruling party is holed up in Mozambique after she dropped off in Zambia on her return from China at the weekend.Although most of the people she travelled with to China are now back at their respective workstations, Ms Chimene is conspicuous by her absence, with conflicting reports saying she is still in Zambia, with other reports pointing out that she is now in Mozambique.Responding to questions sent to her, Ms Chimene one of the most rabid critics of Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa, insisted that she was in Zambia and was making the necessary arrangements to come back home."President Mugabe has now resigned and this has opened a new page in our Zimbabwean history. I support what has happened and will support the new political dispensation. I will support the new party leadership and I want to assure the new President of my support. I support the person who occupies the chair of the President," she said.When asked about her return to Zimbabwe, she said: "Definitely I will be coming back home. I was not sure about what was happening on the ground, a reason why I opted to watch from a distance."I will be in my office on Monday. I was told that I was fired from the party, but I will remain loyal to the party. I am Zanu-PF to the core. I am happy with President Mugabe's resignation because I always insisted that I was having two fathers at the helm of the party. Since the elder father is gone, I will now work with the young father."I will always stand for the truth even if it hurts some people," she said.On the whereabouts of her official vehicle, which was reportedly intercepted by the military on its way to Mozambique, Ms Chimene said: "I don't need a vehicle here and those who claim that my vehicle was intercepted at Nyamapanda Border Post are hallucinating. It is all hogwash and nonsense. However, I am reliably informed that all borders are manned looking for me."Some of the senior members who were expelled from the party in Manicaland include former national secretary for youth affairs, Mr Kudzi Chipanga, former provincial chairman, Dr Samuel Undenge as well as his wife and former secretary for administration in the Women's League, Mrs Letina Undenge.
U.S. District Court records say 62-year-old Daniel Kinnison, is charged with tax evasion. A phone listed for him in Verdigre rang busy during several calls Thursday. His attorney didnt immediately return messages from The Associated Press.

Indictment documents say Kinnison didnt pay a large part of the income taxes due for 2002 through 2005. The documents say he directed his income from two companies into a relatives business and bank accounts as a way to conceal that income. The documents also say Kinnison lied to IRS agents on Feb. 23, 2016, when he told them he had no employment income from 2009 to that date.
LINCOLN (AP)  A 37-year-old man has been imprisoned for trying to bribe a woman who accused his brother of sexual assault in Lincoln.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Ivan Leon was sentenced Wednesday to two years. He had pleaded no contest to tampering with a witness.

Court records say the woman reported in April that Leons brother, Edmundo Vera, had assaulted her. Police arrested Vera on June 27. Officers arrested Leon the same day, saying hed told the woman hed pay her $1,000 to call police and drop her allegations.

Vera remained in Lancaster County Jail on Thursday, awaiting trial. His attorney didnt immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomes residential survivor Toby Obed to the stage after delivering an apology on behalf of the Government of Canada to former students of the Newfoundland and Labrador Residential Schools in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L. on Friday, Nov. 24, 2017. The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan
Canadian physicist Scott VanBommel is shown in this undated handout image. Bommel is heading to Antarctica on a NASA-funded expedition to collect meteorites in what experts say is one of the best environments for finding space debris. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-University of Guelph
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News / National

by Staff Reporter

The new president of Zimbabwe Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa has called for peaceful elections in 2018.Mnangagwa promised to "serve everyone, everyone who calls and considers Zimbabwe their home."He also called for Zimbabweans to remain peaceful ahead of next year's elections."The task before us is much bigger than competing for political office," Mnangagwa said."Let us all play our part to build this great country together as Zimbabweans. May God bless Zimbabwe. I thank you," he ended his inaugural address.
Spectators cheer from the stands at the inauguration ceremony of President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the capital Harare, Zimbabwe Friday, Nov. 24, 2017. Mnangagwa was sworn in as Zimbabwe's president after Robert Mugabe resigned on Tuesday, ending his 37-year rule. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
FILE - In this July 6, 2016, file photo, Oscar Pistorius leaves the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, after a judge passed a new sentence of six years imprisonment after his conviction was changed to murder for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. Pistorius has had his prison sentence extended to 13 years and 5 months in the High Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein Friday, Nov. 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Marco Longari, Pool Photo via AP, File)
TWIN LAKES  Two men were shot to death outside a Twin Lakes tavern early Friday morning.

The suspect, a Trevor man, was taken into custody hours later on Interstate 94 near Tomah. His identity and the names of the two victims had not been released as of Friday night.

Twin Lakes Police said the shooting victims were brothers from Twin Lakes.

Police said they were called to the Beach Bar, 402 S. Lake St., at about 2 a.m. for a shooting outside the tavern.

When officers arrived, they found a 28-year-old man dead in the parking lot. He had multiple gunshot wounds.

A second man, 31, also had multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to Burlington Hospital where he died.

Several people at the Beach Bar Friday afternoon said the brothers were regulars at the tavern overlooking Lake Mary and were well-liked in the community.

They are going to be missed by a lot of people, one man said. Its just a tragedy.

Suspect tracked down

Twin Lakes Police Chief Adam Grosz said the suspect, a 25-year-old Trevor man, fled the scene in a Chevrolet Silverado pickup.

Deputies from the Kenosha Sheriffs Department went to the suspects home looking for him early Friday, but Grosz said the suspects cellphone led them to central Wisconsin about three hours north of Twin Lakes.

We were able to track his cellphone and get his location, Grosz said.

He was found by the Monroe County Sheriffs Department and the Wisconsin State Patrol traveling north on Interstate 94. He was taken into custody at about 8:15 a.m., Grosz said. We believe he was on route to a relatives residence in Hayward, he said.

Grosz said police are not yet identifying the suspect. He was known in the community, he said. The police department has had contact with him in the past.

Witnesses to shootings

Grosz said police were told by witnesses that there was an altercation between the suspect and the victims before the shooting, which happened at bar closing time. There were witnesses to the shooting, he said.

Witnesses were able to give police information on the suspect, and Grosz said police later got a description of the vehicle the suspect was driving.

A man who lives in an apartment overlooking the parking lot said he heard nearly six shots in quick succession, saying it sounded like a semi-automatic handgun.

Grosz said the investigation is ongoing. He said he did not know whether the brothers and the suspect knew each other prior to the shooting, or what had prompted the altercation.

Rare in Twin Lakes

Homicides are rare in Twin Lakes  Grosz said he could not remember the last. Its a small community. Were obviously shocked that this happened.

The police chief said he is proud of how his officers handled the shooting.

They were able to get on top of what was going on quickly, and were able to identify the suspect and get him into custody quickly. Im proud of my department, he said.
News / National

by Staff Reporter

Britain says it is committed to re-engaging Zimbabwe and revive the country's economy.The British envoy witnessed the inauguration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare today.The British envoy who is the Minister for Africa Mr Rory Steward came for the inauguration of President Mnangagwa and paid a courtesy call on the President soon after his inauguration.Mr Steward said he is happy that President Mnangagwa spoke of economic reforms and his willingness to uphold the rule of law.On the issues of illegal sanctions that have crippled the country's economy, Mr Steward hinted on the possibility of lifting them.In his address, President Mnangagwa spoke of the need to engage the international community and rebuild the country's economy.The involvement of the international community is expected to bring investors in the country and create jobs.
Opinion / Columnist

The immunity in question (granted to Mugabe), to all Zimbabweans, is for Mugabe not to be prosecuted for corruption and misuse of state funds. Because accordingly, the government must forfeit all his assets and money that he stole from Zimbabwean people(fact).And his government must forfeit the assets and money stolen by his wife (fact). Now as for, murambatsvina (destruction of illegal buildings), in my opinion, he cannot be prosecuted for that because every country does not allow people to construct houses in areas that have not been designated for that purpose.Otherwise, the country will be like SA where there are shacks everywhere. That is why we have city fathers to plan settlements. If it is done in an arbitrary manner, surely the country will not look attractive.Even in first world countries, where there is democracy, one cannot just construct a house in any place of their choice without permission.So, for that matter, he is exonerated in that.What could be questioned is the manner in which the evictions were executed. That is excessive force resulting in some people sustaining injuries during the process. Still, on the issue of eviction, Grace Mugabe must give back the land she took by force to those people in Mazoe.As for, Gukurahundi atrocities, Mugabe must be indicted for that heinous crime.Just yesterday, a genocide case of Bosnia was held. One of the perpetrators was sentenced to life in prison. That is sending a good message to those that committed or who intend to commit that crime.It would set a dangerous precedent for the world and Zimbabwe if Mugabe is not prosecuted for that crime.He can be excused of other crimes, but that one there must be no excuse because he did not even show any remorse nor to say sorry for what he did. Neither did he take any reasonable action to resolve the problem. Many that were victims or lost their relatives or friends or neighbours are still very angry with him. And they want justice served.It is not for Zanu-PF, the army, Munangagwa or anyone to forgive or grant Mugabe immunity for that crime. No No No No.The decision lies with the court. The court has jurisdiction over that issue. It is a crime that involves all. That is Zimbabweans and the world. Hence it has to be heard in a court of law. That he did good things for his supporters, that he took part in the war of liberation or that he is from Mashonaland, is all immaterial in this heinous crime.It is unfortunate that Zimbabwe does not subscribe to the ICC. However, that does not mean he cannot be prosecuted for that crime.He has to be, no excuse for that. If we are an open nation, if we are a God loving nation, if we are a nation that does not discriminate against another on tribal lines, if we are a nation that likes transparency, if we are a nation that respects life of another, if we are a just and fair nation, then surely we have to unite in this.We have to ensure that he is indicted for that crime.Mugabe did not commit that crime for the Shona people. He did not commit it for the best interest of Zimbabweans. He did not commit it for the international community. But he committed it to gratify his own needs. He was driven by his id. That is why a special army for that was created.Clearly, he wanted to commit genocide.His intentions were clear and unmistakable to any reasonable person. He therefore, must be punished for that. There is no excuse for that. No one has the right to take the lives of anyone in the world. Everyone has a right to life, be they not from Zvimbwa or Malawi (not hatred for Malawians). If there has to be peace, unity, solidarity and harmony in our country, then let justice be done for the living and the deceased (fact). If anyone thinks they would let that issues die a natural death, then they have another issue coming. The human rights organisations will be putting pressure on Munangagwa's government to deal with that case very soon.So, Zimbabweans prepare yourselves for that and do not try to justify the actions of a murderer. Charles Taylor was convicted of that too.He is no different from Mugabe.No one is above the law.Njabulo - libertyatliberty at gmail dot com
The Defence Forces of the 3rd Infantry Battalion hosted a brief for members of An Gardai Siochana, the HSE, the Civil Defence and county councils in the South Region in James Stephens Barracks Kilkenny on Thursday.

The purpose of the brief was to inform these agencies of the support the Defence Forces can provide during times of national emergency.

The Defence Forces conduct Aid To the Civil Authority (ATCA) operations in support of these agencies and upon their request. This brief outlined the personnel, skill-sets, vehicles and equipment that the Defence Forces can provide if agencies require support in times of flooding, severe ice and snow or any other situation as it may arise.

The brief was conducted by the Operations cell of the 3rd Infantry Battalion and outlined the part the Battalion played in supporting these types of operations recently during Storm Ophelia in October.

This was followed by a brief by the Engineers of the 1st Southern Brigade Engineering group based in Collins Barracks, Cork, who provide support upon request to the 3rd Infantry Battalion. They outlined bridging, water purification and water pumping capabilities they offer and gave details of the work they completed in August during severe flash flooding in Co. Donegal which included the construction of a temporary road bridge.

The brief was followed by a demonstration on the main square of the barracks of the kit, equipment and vehicles that are available to support various agencies in multiple scenarios. Trucks, jeeps, snow ploughs, water safety and fire fighting personal protection equipment were all on display along with a platoon of 31 troops dressed and ready for ATCA operations. The brief on the square was conducted by the Officer Commanding the 3 Infantry Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Brownen who wished to thank all who attended and all who provided support to the occasion to make it such a success.
Opinion / Columnist

In 1955, the Rhodesian Government relocated Emmerson Mnangagwa's family to Zambia accusing them for being "Disloyal, Deceitful and Disrespectful". They were welcomed by unsuspecting Zambians and accommodated up till this day. However, in 1960,Emmerson Mnangagwa joined the Zambian, then ruling party, UNIP. Mnangagwa left the UNIP without reason, which exhibits traits of someone who is "Disloyal, Deceitful and Disrespectful".In 1961, Mnangagwa joined Joshua Nkomo's Zapu. Nkomo valued Mnangagwa and loved and trusted him to the extent that he sent him to Egypt, to train as a Zipra Guerrilla Freedom Fighter. Abruptly, without any complaint, any reason given or any facial expression of discontentment, Mnangagwa left Zapu and connived with others to join Mugabe's Zanu. Joshua Nkomo felt betrayed and only understood, from Mnangawa's history that he is inherently "Disloyal, Deceitful and Disrespectful"Mnangagwa worked with Mugabe since 1976 in Mozambique as one of Zanu protagonists. When Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, the people of Zimbabwe felt safe. Rallies were made by Mugabe and Mnangagwa to promise people peace, security, jobs, education, respect and prosperity. On the other side, Mugabe and Mnangagwa were weaving Gukurahundi to murder, maim, terrorise, humiliate, subdue, marginalise and silence Zimbabweans who happened to be Zapu opposition members. There was a clear element of "Disloyalty, Deceit and Disrespectfulness" in that operation.When Zapu was completely silenced, and unity was declared in 1987, the people of Zimbabwe were made to learn new vocabulary which encapsulated "Unity, new-start, progress, democracy, Essap, etc". Reality on the ground produced farm invasions, murder, corruption, marginalisation, company closures, decay of infrastructure and the exiling of hundreds of thousands of skilled Zimbabweans. How else can anyone struggle to find traits of "Disloyalty, Deceitfulness and Disrespectfulness" in that?In 1999, we saw a split in Zanu by people who begun to notice that Mugabe Mnangagwa leadership was taking the county nowhere. They formed the MDC which met death, maiming, property loss, oppression and jailing.Comrade Mnangagwa is known for a unique Zanu slogan which only "himself" utters. Mnangagwa says "Down with the enemies". How can you find enemies amoung the free democratic country which you say you rule? Is that not "Disloyalty, Deceit and Disrespectfulness"He also says "while Zanu continues to rule, Zimbabwean DOGS IN THE OPPOSITION WILL KEEP BARKING, AND BARKING AND BARKING". Are free Zimbabweans also dogs? Is that not treason? Is our leader honest that he sees every Zimbabwean with a fatherly eye? Or is it all "Disloyalty, Deceitfulness and Disrespectfulness"?Just imagine, the last known African Dictator to describe human beings as ANIMALS was Gadhafi. Because of natural human anger, the people of Libya dealt with Gadhafi with the precision of an angry animal. A modern human being does not smile after being referred to as a DOG.To rule a Zimbabwean, and concurrently call him a DOG, amounts to traits of "Disloyalty, Deceitfulness and Disrespectfulness"While being insulted by Grace Mugabe, Mnangagwa was quite, sombre, smiling, comfortable-looking and showing no facial signs of anger. These are symptoms of a dangerously secretive being who can only be concisely described as "Deceitful". A normal honest human being would have reacted and protested upon being embraced on the public. But, someone "Disloyal" would keep quiet for many months while secretly infiltrating Mugabe's Army, to plot a coup.Mnangagwa has sold himself as "Disloyal, Deceitful and Disrespectful" when he came to Zimbabwe from exile. He told his excited audience that he was all along working with the Army even from his South African base. He also uttered his "Zimbabweans are dogs" slogan in that welcome rally. Zimbabweans had just supported the army to show Mugabe that his time was over. They patriotically did this in unison, paving way for Mnangagwa. And yet, he came into the country to thank them with a slogan of "You are uselessly barking DOGS"As Mnangagwa is sworn into office on this day, would he praise any of his loyal Cabinet to be "Disloyal, Deceitful and Disrespectful" and infiltrate to Army to dislodge him? We ask this, not because we wanted to continue with Mugabe on the helm, but to show the Nation why dealing with Mnangagwa needs a sceptical thinker.We wish that all Zimbabweans will confront and correct, and command Mnagagwa to work Loyally for us. No Zimbabwean should legally be referred to as "DOWN WITH" Scribes must continue to write articles to align our old thinking leaders who were educated when foul language was the norm. We demand that all Liberated Zimbabweans be respected regardless of their political views. Critical views are more effective in enforcing genuine civilisation that dishonest conformity.
It appears that under-fire Tanaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald will now not visit Kilkenny today.

Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business Pat Breen and Minister of State for Financial Services Michael DArcy have deputised for the Tanaiste at the first of her scheduled engagements this morning, at Lyrath Estate Hotel. Up to 50 new local jobs were announced by Carne Global Financial Services as part of its expansion plans.

A further 80 new jobs are to be announced later today by Taxback International as part of the Taxback group. The Tanaiste had been expected to be on hand to announce them also.

Her itinerary for the day had also involved visiting the citys new Medieval Mile Museum to launch Invest Kilkenny, which promotes the county as a unique commercial location with exceptional connectivity, quality infrastructure, high calibre talent.

However, Frances Fitzgerald is facing a motion of no confidence after Sinn Fein claimed it is 'abundantly clear' she needs to be forced from office due to the latest revelations in the Garda whistleblower saga. Fianna Fail has also indicated it will back the motion, potentially drawing the country into a Christmas election.
Three people with strong Kilkenny connections figure prominently in a new book recalling the halcyon days of the showband era.

From The Candy Store to the Galtymore chronicles the late 1950s to the 1970s in rural and urban Ireland through the stories of the young men and women who religiously went to their local Ballroom of Romance each weekend.

The book echoes an era of social and cultural uprising in Ireland as the country began dancing the weekends away to the sounds of showbands in newly-built ballrooms.

It was the time of Larry Cunningham, Joe Dolan, Brendan Bowyer, Dickie Rock and Butch Moore and wherever they played, the crowds followed.

Joe Kearney, who co-edited the book, is a native of Callan and highlights the first night himself and a few cool friends brought flower-power into the towns night life.

Brigid Daly is originally from Crutt, Castlecomer but now lives on a farm in Kanturk. Her story reveals how a chance meeting at a group outing to the Rose of Tralee led to the Kilkenny girl marrying into Cork colours in the most romantic of ways.

Brought up across from the ballroom in Callan, Elaine Bryan has served a postmistress there for a quarter of a century. Her parents house was a stopover place for the stars  from Tina to Aonghus McAnally  as they possessed the nearest phone and facilities for wardrobe changes.

Queen of Country and Irish Margo ODonnell, writes a harrowing account of how she met a down-and-out before a show in London and became great friends with him as he battled against drink before his death. It is a story of sadness but full also of pride in how he turned his life around to die a proud man.

The book, which is dedicated to music man extraordinaire, Ricey Scully, also contains two hilarious stories rolled into one by the former Twiggs and Crackaways member concerning The Singing Nun and U2.

Co-editors PJ Cunningham and Dr Joe Kearney trawled the country over the past year to bring Irelands showband stories together in one book. In all, there are 70 contributions contained in this social and cultural review of the time.

"From The Candy Store To The Galtymore is a collection with twists in every turn  stories of romance, of chance meetings and tales that are funny and maybe even mischievous, PJ said.
Youngsters in Cuffegrange enjoyed the perfect fun day in school last week when the new playground was opened by the popular rugby player, Sean OBrien, fondly known as the Tullow Tank.

The playground was constructed last summer and officially opened last week. The excitement among staff, parents pupils at the prospect of Irish and Leinster rugby star Sean OBrien coming to visit the their school to open the new playground and raise the green flag for Biodiversity was palpable. What better person than the Tullow Tank to come and do the honours.

After greeting his cousin, Patricia ODonnell, he was led to the new play space where members of the Parents Association greeted him.

Parish priest, Fr Dan Carroll, blessed the space. Sean OBrien proceeded to cut the ribbon and was treated to The Haka as Ghaeilge by the children from 3rd-6th classes as part of the schools Irish Week celebrations.

It was on then to raise the Green Flag and Chairman of the Board of Management John Sullivan told great stories about bees and how important they were to our survival. The children from 3rd and 4th class read accounts of bug hotels, bird tables and wildlife audits. The flag was then hoisted to great cheers by Sean OBrien assisted by the oldest girl and youngest boy in the school.

The group then moved to the hall where the children from the Pre School up to sixth class and their parents and teachers were introduced to the rugby legend.

Principal Jim Fennelly told the crowd that Sean O Brien was born on Valentines day in 1987. Mr Fennelly remarked how it was no surprise then that Seans love affair was to be with sport and praised his wonderful achievements with Leinster, Ireland and the Lions. Sean thanked the school for inviting him and he encouraged the children to play sport, any sport that interested them.

It will lead you to a great life, a healthy life and a rewarding life, he said.

With all the speeches over it was time for tea and cake. Sean OBrien continued signing jerseys, rugby balls, hurleys and flags for another hour and gave generously of his time. On his departure he was given a great send off and that was by the ecstatic parents.
SHANGHAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - China's Ministry of Finance auctioned 15 billion yuan ($2.28 billion) of 3-month bills in the interbank market on Friday at an average yield of 3.8543 percent, traders said.

The auction yield came in above Thursday's benchmark secondary market yield of 3.7009 percent for 3-month government bonds .

For stories on Chinese debt issues, click on .

($1 = 6.5882 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
HANOI, Nov 24 (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 0405 GMT.

November 24 USD/VND mid-point 22,430 USD/VND interbank 22,726/22,727 USD/VND unofficial 22,750/22,765 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.42/36.64

Interbank offered rates Overnight 0.8-1.6

1 week 1.0-1.7

1 month 2.0-2.6

3 months 4.4-5.2

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: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
Nov 24 (Reuters) - Following are domestic prices of Vietnam's key commodities. Unit: million dong per tonne Item Nov 20-24 Nov 13-17 Location Robusta beans 35.3-39.5 38.3-40.0 Central Highlands Black pepper 76.0-77.0 74.0-77.0 Southern region Refined sugar 15.0-16.0 15.0-16.0 Southern region Summer-autumn paddy 6.0-6.5 6.0-6.5 Mekong Delta SJC gold 3.657-3.664 3.658-3.663 Hanoi, HCMC City NOTES: Gold prices are low/high selling prices quoted in million dong per 3.75-gram ingot during the week by top manufacturer SJC. Prices in the previous week are updated. Coffee export prices Rice export prices Historical data Central bank's gold auction ($1 = 22,726 dong)

(Reporting by Mi Nguyen; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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.
Opinion / Columnist

Conilious Toga is a Bulawayo24news contributor, he is a final year Accounting (Hons) student with the Chinhoyi University of Technology. He can be contacted on; conitola@gmail.com

The list below shows suggested senior officials of President ED Mnangagwa's government and cabinet if he decides to form a transitional government with the opposition members represented or not represented in parliament. ZES stands for Zimbabwe's Elderly Stateman in reference to former President Robert Mugabe's new unofficial title bestowed on him by this writer.VICE 'Presidents'1.Obert Mpofu MP-Zanu PF treasury secretary and the most senior ZAPU member in ZANU PF by position.He is the current Home Affairs Minister and successful bussinesman.2.Dumiso Dabengwa-leader of opposition ZAPU and the most senior member of ZAPU outside ZANU PF.He fomerly served as Home Affairs Minister under Mugabe.3.Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri MP - a war veteran and a former Zanu PF women's league boss before Grace Mugabe took her position.She is respected in the ruling party and she is the current Environment Minister.4.Joice Mujuru-a war veteran, a farmer, a former Vice President under Mugabe.She leads the opposition Rainbow Alliance and she is the NPP party leader.Highly regarded in and outside Zanu PF.PRIME MINISTERDr Morgan Richard Tsvangirayi - a trade unionist, a former Prime Minister in the the government of national unity under ZES Mugabe. Opposition leader of the MDC alliance. He is the only man who defeated ZES Mugabe in any election. Highly regarded across Zimbabwe and the world.He is viewed as the man who brought sanctions by Zanu PF supporters.DEPUTY 'PRIME MINISTERS'1. Prof Arthur Goosen Mtambara-he is an academic par excellence who is highly regarded across the world.He served as deputy Prime Minister between 2009-2013.2. Dr Thokozani Khupe-She is a founding member of the opposition MDC and its long serving Vice President , she served as deputy Prime Minister under ZES Mugabe between 2009-2013.She is highly respected in the opposition circles and in the marginalised Matebeleland region.3.Dr Nkosana Moyo - a former Finance Minister under Mugabe.He is a presidential candidate for the 2018 harmonised elections.4.Prof Welshman Ncube - He is a founding member of the opposition MDC.He served as lndustry minister in the Government of National Unity led by ZES Mugabe.FINANCE MINISTER1.Eddie Cross MP-He is a senior opposition figure, a bussinesman who was the head of the Cold storage Company in the 80s and admires President Mnagagwa from the opposition trenches. Hon Cross came under criticism in the opposition circles after he sympathised with President Mnangangwa after being fired from government and declared that the Mnangagwa was the 'only' member of Zanu PF who was not corrupt.2.Tendai Biti - a lawyer and leader of the opposition PDP in the MDC Alliance.He served as Finance Minister in the GNU under ZES Mugabe.He is highly regarded for stabilising a collapsing economy when he became minister in 2009.3.Patrick Chinamasa MP - a lawyer and a perceived close ally of President Mnangagwa.He saved as Finance Minister before he was relegated to 'Whatsapp' Minister by ZES, former President Mugabe.He is the current Cyber Security Minister.FOREIGN AFFAIRS1. Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa - he is the respected no nonsense and fomerly anti ZES Mugabe War Veterans Association President. He has close ties with China where he once served as a diplomatic representative of Zimbabwe before ZSE Mugabe appointed him deputy Foreign Affairs and later on War Veterans Affairs Minister. He was fired and expelled from Zanu PF. He is articulate,vibrant and a strong fearless supporter of President Mnangagwa.2. David Coltart - former Education Minister in the GNU under ZES Mugabe.Coltart is a internationally respected lawyer and political analyst.He a senior member of the opposition MDC.AGRICULTURE1.Josiah Hungwe - a senior and respected figure in Zanu PF.He is percieved to be a close ally of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.2. 'Ambassador' Joseph Chinotimba MP - He is the most vocal and articulate member of the Zimbabwean Parliament. He once touted himself as the Minister of Opposition in parliament. He is regarded as a hard worker and a representative of all citizens by most Zimbabweans.3.Paul Mangwana MP-He is a respected legal mind in Zanu PF and Hon Mangwana co chaired the the highly endorsed national constitutional making process with Douglas Monzwora of the MDC. He is an openly staunchy supporter of President Mnanangagwa.4.Themba Mliswa MP - he is the only indipendent MP in the Zimbabwean Parliament.He is a former Zanu PF provincial leader before he was fired by ZES Robert Mugabe. He has strong relations with powerful war veterans and once said he would resign as MP if ZES Mugabe does not go.EDUCATION1.Energy Mutodi - he is a famous musician, bussinesman and geography author. He presented President Mnangagwa with the famous 'I'M THE BOSS' cup before he was nominated President. He was arrested and humiliated at state functions for supporting the current President Mnangagwa.2.Eng Elias Mudzuri - he is the former Mayor of Harare and and a respected figure in the opposition circles where he serves as Morgan Tsvangirayi's deputy.YOUTH AFFAIRS1.Mayor Wadyajena MP - he is a staunchy supporter of the current President.He is young,vocal and vibrant.Hon Wadyajena is a successfull bussinesman.2.Nelson Chamisa MP - a lawyer and a former Information Technology Minister in the GNU under ZES Mugabe.He is the opposition MDC Vice President and commands a strong following amongst the youths in Zimbabwe.He is young,vocal and vibrant.3.Acie Lumumba- former leader in the Zanu PF youth assembly and an emerging supporter of President ED Mnangagwa.He is famous for shouting the 'F' word to Mugabe's face.He is popular with the youths,vibrant and articulative.He leads pressure group /'political party' Viva Zimbabwe.He is freinds with respected War Veterans Spokesman Cde Douglas Mahiya.WOMEN'S AFFAIRS1.Priscila Misihairambwi Mushonga MP-She once brought a baby and second hand underwear in the Zimbabwean Parliament whilst championing women's rights. She is the most vocal and fearless female MP in the Zimbabwean August House. She is a founding senior member of the opposition MDC.She fomerly served as International Intergration Minister in the GNU under ZES Mugabe.2.Senator P Mupfumira - She is a respected member of Zanu PF.Mupfumira served as Public Services Minister before ZES Mugabe fired for 'supporting' current President Emmerson Mnangagwa.3.Mabel Chinomona MP - Deputy Speaker of the Zimbabwean parliament. A war veteran, she is a staunchy support of President Mnangagwa and that got her fired from the fomerly 'Dr' Grace Mugabe led Zanu PF Women's Assembly where she saved as organising secretary.4.Nyasha Chikwinya MP - a war veteran,a succesful farmer,Hon Chikwinya is a hard worker and the current Women's Affairs MinisterHUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL WELFARE1.Pastor Evan Mawarire - he is the popular leader of the hashtag movement #thisflag . He organised Zimbabwe's first ever successful shutdown in 2016. He has been tortured for criticising the veteran ZES Robert Mugabe's rule.2.Thabita Khumalo MP - she is the vocal spokesperson of the opposition MDC.She is a staunchy defender of the minorities' rights including prostitutes in and outside parliament.3.Doug Coltart - he is a popular human rights activists and convener of the popular Pray for Zimbabwe intiative.A constitutional lawyer by his own right,he has stood beyond the shadows of his popular politician father,David Coltart.4.Advocate Fadzayi Mahere - a human rights activist and indipendent parliamentary candidate for Mount Pleasant in the 2018 harmonised elections.She is a law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.Her father is former Robert Mugabe loyalist and Education Permanent Secretary.NB :The above list was written in no particular order nor does it represents the views and interest of HE President ED Mnangangwa ,Zanu PF,war veterans or the Zimbabwean Opposition.
HONG KONG, Nov 24 (IFR) - Asian credit markets were barely changed on Friday as investors took a breather from the corrections of the past few weeks.

The iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index was 1.6bp tighter at 75bp/76bp.

"The market was very quiet towards the week's end with most of the names flat or just range-bound within 1bp-3bp," said a Hong Kong-based trader.

The trader said the tone of the market remained weak and expected to see some additional corrections in the near future, especially on the long-date bonds, like Chinese banks AT1s and Chinese banks' senior notes.

"Valuations are too tight," he said, adding that effects of fresh Chinese government steps to revamp the massive asset-management industry to curb financial risks may eventually spread to offshore US dollar bonds.

Postal Savings Bank of China's 4.5% AT1s have fallen 1.4 points this month and were bid at 98.85.

Qingdao City Construction Investment's new dual-tranche US dollar bonds were 1bp-2bp wider as investors took profit after Thursday's gains.

Union Bank of the Philippines' 3.369% 2022s were quoted at 99.947/100.123. On Friday, the lender tapped the 2022s for US$100m at par to increase the total outstanding to US$500m.

In the high yield segment, Chinese coal producer Yankuang Group's newly priced 4.75% US$400m 3-year bonds traded up to 99.50, from reoffer of 99.311.

HNA Group's dollar bonds saw some selling pressure on reports that some lenders rejected its request for extension of one of its loans.

The Chinese conglomerate's 363-days 8.875% notes, priced earlier this month, were traded below par and were quoted at 98.75/99.50, according to Tradeweb prices.

(Reporting by Carol Chan; Editing by Dharsan Singh)

Keywords: MARKETS ASIA DEBT/
(Adds analyst comment, details, updates prices)

* Canadian dollar at C$1.2714, or 78.66 U.S. cents

* Loonie gains 0.4 percent against greenback over week

* Bond prices mixed across flatter maturity curve

By Alastair Sharp

TORONTO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar was little changed against a broadly weaker U.S. currency on Friday and gained 0.4 percent against the greenback on the week, but could face pressure next week if tepid retail sales data is any indication of broader economic health.

The currency appeared to shrug off a sharp miss on September retail sales data released on Thursday, but worries about the domestic economy's health could also have been masked by oil price gains, a lack of liquidity over the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday and a broader greenback fall, an analyst said.

"Retail sales was awful, and the Canadian dollar is only a tiny bit lower than where it was beforehand," said Adam Button, currency analyst at ForexLive in Montreal. "That either speaks to the resilience of the currency or a lack of interest in the market, but the Bank of Canada is certainly paying attention."

He said the next big test for the currency will come at the end of the next week, when gross domestic product data for the third quarter and monthly employment numbers are due.

Economists are expecting the Canadian economy to have grown 1.6 percent in the third quarter, according to a Reuters poll.

At 4 p.m. (2100 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.2714 to the greenback, or 78.66 U.S. cents, essentially unchanged from Thursday's close.

The Canadian dollar was lower against the euro and British pound but gained against the Japanese yen.

It gained 0.4 percent this week against the currency of the United States, its primary trading partner.

The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.2694, while its weakest level was C$1.2747.

Prices for oil, a major Canadian export, hit a two-year high as the shutdown of a pipeline between Canada and the United States hit supply. U.S. crude prices were up 1.6 percent at $58.97 a barrel, while Brent crude added 0.3 percent to $63.73.

Canadian government bond prices were mixed across a flatter yield curve, with the two-year price down half a Canadian cent to yield 1.440 percent and the benchmark 10-year up 4 Canadian cents to yield 1.889 percent.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Jonathan Oatis)
HONG KONG, Nov 24 (Reuters) - China's Ministry of Finance will sell 7 billion yuan ($1.06 billion) dim sum bonds in Hong Kong next Thursday. The finance ministry has issued dim sum bonds in Hong Kong annually since 2009 to boost the development of the offshore market. It sold the first batch of this year's offshore yuan bonds, worth 7 billion yuan, in June. The second batch of yuan bonds include 4 billion yuan 2-year bonds, 2 billion yuan 5-year bonds and 0.5 billion yuan 10-year bonds. An additional batch of 0.5 billion yuan bonds will be sold to central banks, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication. ($1 = 6.5963 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Michelle Chen; Editing by Vyas Mohan)

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 Paddy Power Betfair, Mediaset ; Updates Freeport-McMoRan)

Nov 24 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Friday:

** A possible accord between Italian broadcaster Mediaset and French media group Vivendi to settle their dispute over a soured pay-TV deal is not imminent, Mediaset's chief financial officer told Reuters on Friday. ** Paddy Power Betfair and William Hill have separately held talks about a deal with Australia's CrownBet as UK-focused gambling companies seek to expand overseas to offset tougher regulations in Britain. ** Russia's anti-monopoly regulator FAS said it had approved a deal to merge the Russian ride-sharing businesses of Yandex and Uber , with certain conditions. ** William Hill said it has held "very preliminary" discussions with Crown Resorts Ltd's online betting unit about a potential merger with the British bookmaker's Australian unit. ** KKR & Co LP has boosted its bid price for Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc for a second time, seeking to appease U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management which has bought into the Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturer. ** Malaysia's Top Glove Corp Bhd is planning to acquire the surgical glove producing unit of Adventa Capital Pte Ltd, the company said, for an estimated price of up to 1.44 billion ringgit ($349.60 million). ** Indonesia's Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, tipped to oversee an acquisition of a majority stake in the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc , has "no clear structure" yet for the deal, a ministry official said on Friday. ** Polish retail group Emperia said Lithuania's Maxima Grupe will announce a tender on Friday to buy all of Emperia's shares for at least 100 zlotys each, valuing the potential deal at around 1.2 billion zlotys ($337.96 million). (Compiled by Manas Mishra and Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru)
BERLIN, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Members of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) will get to vote on any decision by the leadership of the centre-left party to join a future coalition government, leader Martin Schulz said on Friday.

"There is nothing automatic about the direction we are moving in," Schulz said. "If a discussion results in us deciding to participate in any form whatsoever in the formation of a government, we will put it to a vote of party members."

Schulz made the remarks said during a brief news conference, shortly after the German president announced he would host a meeting next week with Schulz and Chancellor Angela Merkel to find a way out of a political impasse.

(Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Thomas Escritt)
ACCRA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The Bank of Ghana said the yield on its weekly 91-day bill edged up to 13.33 percent at an auction on Friday, from 13.29 percent at the last such sale on Nov. 17.

The bank said it had accepted 697.3 million cedis ($150.88 million) worth of bids out of the 766.5 million cedis tendered for the paper, which will be issued on Monday.

Ghana's treasury bill yields, which were around 23 percent a year ago, have eased steadily as the government has cut down on excessive borrowing under an IMF assistance programme that has also helped renew investor confidence in the economy.

For full details, click here: ($1 = 4.6215 Ghanaian cedis)

(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are modestly lower in early U.S. trading Friday. Markets are quieter as many U.S. traders and investors are still out, after the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. December Comex gold was last down $3.80 an ounce at $1,288.40. December Comex silver was last down $0.092 at $17.02 an ounce.

World stock markets were mostly firmer overnight. Recent rallies in world stock markets, many of which are at or near record or multi-year highs, have been a bearish element for the competing asset class of precious metals.

U.S. stock indexes are pointed to firmer openings ahead of the New York day session. U.S. stock indexes this week have hit record highs. The U.S. stock market closes early today.

Some upbeat economic data coming out of Germany Thursday and Friday suggest the political instability there has not impacted the economy, so far. The German Ifo business climate index came in at 117.5 in Novemberwell above market expectations and at a record high. The Ifo report said the German economy is on track for a boom. This news rallied the Euro currency to a five-week high on Friday.

The important outside markets on Friday morning see the U.S. dollar index slightly lower and hitting a five-week low. The greenback bulls have faded recently and prices are in a near-term downtrend.

Meantime, Nymex crude oil futures prices are higher and hit a more-than-two-year high Friday. Oil bulls still have the firm overall near-term technical advantage, but stiff chart resistance layers lie just above the market. Traders are looking ahead to next weeks OPEC meeting.

U.S. economic data due for release Friday is light and includes the U.S. flash manufacturing and services PMIs.

Technically, December gold futures bulls and bears are on a level overall near-term technical playing field. Bulls next upside technical objective is pushing and closing prices above chart resistance at $1,300.00. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is closing prices below solid technical support at the October low of $1,262.80. First support is seen at $1,280.00 and then at this weeks low of $1,274.10. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of 1,293.30 and then at the November high of $1,297.50. Wyckoffs Market Rating: 5.0

December silver bulls and bears are also on a level overall near-term technical playing field. The next upside price breakout objective is closing futures prices above solid technical resistance at $17.50 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at the October low of $16.345. First resistance is seen at $17.15 and then at the November high of $17.385. Next support is seen at this weeks low of $16.82 and then at $16.60. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 5.0.
By Neha Dasgupta and Tommy Wilkes

NEW DELHI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A clause in India's global tender for steel rails, part of a $130 billion overhaul of its railways, could help Jindal Steel and Power Ltd win up to 20 percent of the work, sources said.

The world's fourth-largest rail system is undergoing a five-year overhaul to replace ageing tracks, improve efficiency and end a spate of deadly train accidents, including one on Friday. State-run Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has struggled to supply the steel, however, and is expected to deliver 920,000 tonnes of it this financial year, just 65 percent of its target.

In response, the Ministry of Railways last month opened up a global tender for 717,000 tonnes of steel rail worth an estimated 30 billion rupees ($464 million) to private bidders for the first time. Global steelmakers such as ArcelorMittal and Thyssenkrupp could bid, as could Jindal Steel and Power, India's only private producer of the steel.

India's steel ministry has objected to the tender, pointing out that preference should be given to local suppliers in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive to boost manufacturing. Indian Railways officials have also expressed concern that JSPL lacks experience building rails, three people with knowledge of the conversations told Reuters this month.

A senior Railways official said any decision for the tender would depend on competitive bidding, which opens next month.

'DEVELOPMENTAL' CLAUSE

However, Indian Railways is considering using a clause in the Oct. 18 tender that allows for a "developmental" or a trial order of up to 20 percent of the steel to be awarded to a domestic manufacturer, four officials with direct knowledge of the proposal said.

It can award that work even if the bidder "does not have proven performance of supply of rails", according to the tender.

JSPL, which says it has supplied 150,000 tonnes of rail to Iran since 2016, did not respond to a request for immediate comment.

The railways ministry is likely to make a decision within two weeks and is keen to award work to JSPL in light of the government's policy on local producers, two officials with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters.

The ministry did not respond to a request for immediate comment.

($1 = 64.7100 Indian rupees)

(Editing by Jason Neely)
(Kitco News) - Wall Street and Main Street voters in the weekly Kitco News gold survey look for the precious metal to work its way higher next week, with some even looking for the market to retest $1,300 an ounce.

Wall Street Bullish Bearish Neutral VS Main Street Bullish Bearish Neutral

Wall Street and Main Street voters in the weekly Kitco News gold survey look for the precious metal to work its way higher next week, with some even looking for the market to retest $1,300 an ounce.

A total of 19 market professionals took part in the Wall Street survey. Thirteen, or 68%, called for gold to rise. Two participants, or 11%, looked for gold to fall, while four, or 21%, said neutral or sideways.

Meanwhile, 744 votes were cast in an online Main Street poll. A total of 421 voters, or 57%, looked for gold to rise in the next week. Another 229, or 31%, said lower, while 94, or 13%, were neutral.

For the trading week now winding down, 56% of Wall Street and Main Street voters were bullish. As of 11:07 a.m. EST, as Comex December gold was down by 0.7% for the week so far to $1,287.90 an ounce.

So far in 2017, but not counting the current week, Wall Street forecasters collectively were right 27 of 45 times for a winning percentage of 59%. Main Street was right 28 of 44 times for 64%.

I expect risk aversion to ramp up to close out the month, and that should lend a bid to gold, said Adam Button, managing director of ForexLive.

Afshin Nabavi, head of trading at trading house MKS (Switzerland) S.A., is among those who see potential for gold to test the $1,300 level.

The dollar seems to be coming off, Nabavi said. The [expected] rate hike in December seems to be pretty much discounted by the market. So its a possibility to see higher [prices] next week.



Jim Wyckoff, senior technical analyst with Kitco, said charts slightly favor the bulls.

Phillip Streible, senior market strategist with RJO Futures, said that whereas gold could be pinned down in the near term due to activity around an options expiration, I would anticipate another bull charge into next week. I would expect a possible break through $1,300 based on momentum.

Eugen Weinberg, analyst with Commerzbank, described himself as neutral to bullish on gold in the near term, but longer term expects golds next big move to be on the upside. He pointed out that gold has been able to hold up despite headwinds such as strong equities and the surge in bitcoin prices.

Despite plenty of reasons to sell off, gold has held steady, Weinberg said. So if gold cant go down, then the next move should be to the upside, he said.

Nick Exarhos, senior economist at CIBC World Markets, said he slightly bearish on gold in the near term. He suggested that weakness in the U.S. dollar, following this weeks release of Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes, is a little overdone and that does not bode well for gold. However, Exarhos also said he does not see prices breaking down dramatically but instead suggested they could simply tick toward the bottom end of the recent range.

Bob Mason, technical analyst at FXempire.com, is also bearish, although he commented that he doesnt see anything on the horizon to drive gold out of its range in the near term.

Gold could be slightly overvalued and the U.S. dollar could be slightly undervalued, Mason said. If we see geopolitical risks subside, then we will see a correction in gold.

Kevin Grady, president of Phoenix Futures and Options LLC, described himself as neutral on gold in the short term.

We have seen some large-volume moves in the past week, yet we still remain in the range of $1,272 to $1,298, he said. For me, the 200 DMA [day moving average] of $1,272 is a huge number. I will be looking to see if we can settle below that area, as this [could] attract profit taking.

Robin Bhar, metals analyst at Societe Generale, also looks for gold to be roughly flat, commenting that traders will monitor economic data and Federal Reserve comments for clues on the future of U.S. monetary policy. In addition, traders will keep an eye on the outcome of an OPEC meeting, he adds. That might have an indirect impact on gold.

Here is a sampling of thoughts from Kitco Main Street voters on Kitcos commenting Kitco Chat:
MEXICO CITY, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Mexican central bank chief Agustin Carstens told a local radio station on Friday that the peso "is undervalued in general terms" and that it seemed reasonable for the currency to be trading at between 17 to 18 pesos per dollar. The peso has been hurt by concerns that talks to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a lynchpin of Mexico's economy, could fail. It was trading at 18.6170 per dollar Friday morning.

(Reporting by Veronica Gomez Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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.
Opinion / Columnist

Revolutionary greetings dear comrades. Today we witnessed the inauguration of Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa as the President of the country. I still reiterate that this might be our consignment from the desert to hell.The post-Mugabe era's biggest question is: which is better between a desert and hell? Mnangagwa is nothing better than hell. Owing to the fact that he went to the Mugabe school of politics and wholly subcribes to Mugabeism, repression coupled with violation of human rights is far from being over. Violence and violation of human rights are the main pillars of Mugabeism.Mnangagwa in his inauguration speech failed to define where the army stands in politics. He failed to advocate for keeping away the army from politics. The reason for his failure is clear and simple: he is the president today because of the army that fiddled in country's politics. The army is Mnangagwa and Mnangagwa is the army. In a normal democracy, the army is the honest custodian of the constitution and the protector of the citizens.Whilst he defined his stance on the white farmers who violently lost their farms, he should have gone further and defined his stance on multiple farms the Zanu Pf comrades inherited from the land invassion exercise. The ordinary man did not benefit from the dirty land reform programme but only Zanu Pf policians and their immediate families benefited. There is therefore a need for a proper land reform programme that will benefit ordinary men, regardless of their political affiliation and ethnic extraction.Gukurahundi attrocities are the main reason Zimbabwe is divided along ethnic lines. Preaching unity without addressing the Gukurahundi issue is superimposing unity on cracked tribal pillars. That only serves to produce and reproduce pseudo unity.Mnangagwa failed to define his stance on Gukurahundi solely because he is the perpetrator-Mugabe's main arm of terror, trained to destroy and kill. I am therefore saying to Mnangagwa if he is truly a repentee, he must try to provide a sound panacea to the Gukurahundi question. He must further acknowledge that his hands are dripping with the blood of the victims and ask for forgiveness. Gukurahundi issue might be a time bomb if left unattended.He interestingly touched on arresting corruption, but did not define the mechanism. If he meant it, he should have advocated for the declaration of assets by the President, ministers and parliamentarians.In his speech he promised the nation that elections will be held next year as scheduled. Disaponting is his failure promise the nation free and fair elections. Electoral reforms are needed to level up the playing field leading to free and fair elections.Truly the voice of the people is the voice of God. One wonders when did he start to subscribe to this holy philosophy, very unfit for a man of his calibre, trained to destroy and kill. There is no guarantee that if the opposition wins the next elections he will give up power without a fight. Dear comrades, let us not forget that he engineered a soft coup because he loves power and benefits attached to it. Violence is in the DNA of Zanu Pf and its handlers. It is common sense that he wont give up power that easy, especially to someone with lean or nor liberation credentials.The speech was a machiavellian deplomacy meant to mislead the masses and the world in general. It was nothing less than a piece of sublime mysticism and political blandish.We want to see him walk his talk and fulfil his words. Times have changed, the masses cant be taken for granted anymore. The voice of the masses which he opines is the voice of God, the same voice that will pull him down from his plastic throne.Comrades, power to the people. Let the people govern through their servants. The masses must know that they are more powerful than Chiwenga's army tankers and Mnangagwa himself. The power of the masses lies in the ballot box.Let the masses register and exercise their power to choose their leaders. On the same note, a strong opposition alliance is the only set up that can stagger the final nail on the coffin of Zanu Pf. If the opposition approaches the upcoming elections disunited, it will be chasing shadows. Thus i say to the opposition parties, let us unite or risk being defeated by the wounded lizzards and perish as fools.Dear comrades we have fought a good battle that resulted in the resignation of public enemy number 1. However the battle is far from bieng over as long as the factory that produces autocratic leaders is still operating. We shall not rest until the factory closes down.Victory is certain comrades. Alluta continua.NPP National youth spokesperson Khulani David Ndhlovu.
Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Friday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 1 hour):

DATA

Poland's statistics office to release October unemployment data at 0900 GMT.

ELECTION

A bill sponsored by Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party will undermine the fairness of elections, opposition deputies said in parliament on Thursday. EMPERIA Polish retail group Emperia said that Lithuanian Maxima Grupe will announce a tender on Friday to buy all Emperia's shares for at least 100 zlotys per share, which would value the potential deal at around 1.2 billion zlotys ($337.96 million). IT

Poland's state pension agency ZUS will likely announce a tender to select a contractor who will develop its key IT system for a few hundred million zlotys, Parkiet quoted ZUS board member as saying.

SALARIES

In 2016 the median salary in Poland rose by 6.6 percent compared to 2014 to 3,510 zlotys, Gazeta Wyborcza said citing the statistics office data.

****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.****

For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX (Reporting by Warsaw Bureau)
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 24 (Reuters) - South Africa sold 2.278 billion rand ($162 million) worth of three-month Treasury bills on Friday, less than the 3.555 billion on offer, at an average yield of 7.7 percent compared with 7.59 percent last week, central bank data showed. The bid-to-cover ratio rose 1.5 from 1.1. Auction date: 24/11/2017 Settlement date: 29/11/2017 Days 91 182 273 364 Amount received (R'bln) 3.748 3.892 5.765 5.374 Amount on offer (R'bln) 3.555 2.46 2.5 2.5 Amount allotted (R'bln) 2.278 2.492 2.965 3.281 Bid-to-cover ratio 1.5 1.6 1.9 1.6 Avg discount rate (pct) 7.56 7.65 7.6 7.52 Average yield (pct) 7.7 7.95 8.06 8.13 ($1 = 14.0298 rand)

(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana)

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.
KAMPALA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The Ugandan shilling was unchanged on Friday amid low demand from importers and some inflows from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and remittances from Ugandans working abroad. At market close at 0100 GMT commercial banks quoted the shilling at 3,630/3,640, the same level as Thursday's close. UGX Spot Rate..... Ugandan Shilling Money Guide.... Calculated Cross Rates.......... Deposits..................... Deposits & Forwards............. Uganda Equities Guide....... Uganda All Share Index........ Shilling background ..... Ugandan Debt Guide............ All Uganda Bonds............. Uganda T-Bills.............. Uganda Benchmark............. Central Bank ................ Ugandan Contributor Index.... Uganda Coffee Prices....... (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema)

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 detail, tourist figures)

LJUBLJANA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Slovenia November business sentiment reached the highest level since July 2007 for the second month in a row, the Slovenian statistics office reported on Friday.

It said the sentiment index reached 16.1 points, 0.6 points higher than the previous month and 8.2 points higher than a year ago, helped by growing confidence in the manufacturing, services and retail sectors.

The statistics office also reported a 17.7 percent rise in the number of foreign tourists visiting the country in the first nine months of the year, led by tourists from Germany, the Czech Republic and the United States.

Slovenia, which narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks in 2013, returned to growth a year later and analysts believe business sentiment could improve further over the coming months.

The government sees the economy expanding by 4.4 percent this year and 3.9 percent in 2018, boosted by higher exports and investments.

(Reporting by Marja Novak; Editing by Peter Graff and David Goodman)
* Government yet to accommodate Rio Tinto interest - dep. min.

* Holding company to acquire Indonesia's stake in Grasberg

* Company due to be formalised "today or Monday"

(Adds context, earlier comments from Freeport CEO)

By Fergus Jensen and Wilda Asmarini

JAKARTA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Indonesia's Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, tipped to oversee an acquisition of a majority stake in the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc , has "no clear structure" yet for the deal, a ministry official said on Friday.

Under a framework agreement announced in August, Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport said it would divest 51 percent of PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI), but there has been little progress since then. Freeport, operator of Grasberg, the world's second-largest copper mine, also agreed to build a second smelter in Indonesia and to invest up to $20 billion in expansions.

Fajar Harry Sampurno, the deputy minister for state-owned enterprises, said it was not clear yet what role state pension funds and state-owned banks would play in financing the acquisition, amid ongoing discussions on the matter with the Ministry of Finance and Freeport.

Sampurno added that the interests of Rio Tinto , which is a joint-venture partner with Freeport in Grasberg, still needed to be factored into government plans to acquire a 41.64 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia, which would add to the 9.36 percent it already holds.

"This needs to be discussed again, whether (Rio's interest) is converted into shares first, whether Inalum will acquire it first, or what," he said. It is not yet clear whether the government plans impose on Rio the same majority divestment requirement it imposed on Freeport.

State-owned aluminium producer PT Inalum has been appointed by the government to acquire the Freeport stake, and plans to form a holding company under Inalum for that purpose are expected to be carried out this week or early next, Inalum Finance Director Oggy A. Kosasih said during a press conference with Sampurno outlining the formation of the holding company.

The company would group together other state-owned mining units including PT Bukit Asam Tbk , PT Timah Tbk and PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) .

Under a joint venture formed in 1996, Rio has a 40 percent interest in PT-FI's Grasberg contract, which entitles them to a 40 percent share of all production after 2022. Rio has held talks with Indonesia about a possible exit to the venture. A spokesman for Freeport Indonesia could not be reached for comment on Friday. A Melbourne-based spokesmen for Rio Tinto declined to comment on the matter.

While the plans for Indonesia's purchase remains unclear, Freeport and the government appear to be closer to reaching an understanding on a valuation method for Grasberg. Indonesia had earlier maintained that the stake should not include the value of unmined reserves while Freeport has said "fair market value" should include the reserves.

On an Oct. 25 call discussing Freeport's earnings, Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson said the Indonesian government had indicated that fair market value is the right standard "and now we've got to negotiate what that fair market value is."

Meanwhile, the security situation at Grasberg remains tense amid several recent shootings. In the latest incident on Friday, a group of six unknown assailants shot at three police officers driving in a vehicle near the mine, though none of them were injured, the local police said. (Reporting by Fergus Jensen and Wilda Asmarini; Additional reporting by Sam Wanda in TIMIKA; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Richard Pullin)
By Fabian Cambero

SANTIAGO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Unionized workers at BHP Billiton Plc's Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world's largest, ended a 24-hour strike on Friday but could put down their tools again next week over the company's planned layoffs, the union said.

Workers resumed their activities at the mine without incident at 8 a.m. local time (1100 GMT), union official Carlos Allendes told Reuters. Workers plan to strike again on Wednesday unless the company reverses its plan to fire workers, he added.

BHP said this week it has decided to lay off 120 workers, or approximately 3 percent of the mine's workforce, amid adjustments to its operations.

BHP did not respond to requests for comment.

The union said the layoffs are a reprisal for a lengthy strike in the first quarter and an attempt to intimidate workers ahead of pending negotiations over new labor contracts.

The union at Escondida ended a more than 40-day strike in March by temporarily extending its old contract by 18 months, pushing forward a new round of talks to 2018. Chile is the world's biggest copper exporter.

On Friday, a pro-union group of protesters showed its support for workers by demonstrating in front of the mine's port of Coloso, a union spokesperson said.

(Reporting by Fabian Cambero; Writing by Mitra Taj; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
"We make war that we may live in peace."

--Aristotle

"I exhort you never to debase the moral currency or to lower the

standard of rectitude, but to try others by the final maxim that

governs your own lives, and to suffer no man and no cause to escape

the undying penalty which history has the power to inflict on wrong."

--Lord Acton

"Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the

highest political end...liberty is the only object which benefits all

alike, and provokes no sincere opposition...The danger is not that a

particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern...

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

--Lord Acton

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry,

Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from

the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the

field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life

so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it,

Almighty God! I know not what course others may take;

but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

--Patrick Henry

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine

patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now,

deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we

have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

--Thomas Paine

"The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is,

to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and

in the courts of justice"

--John Adams

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will

within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I

do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often

but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights

of the individual."

--Thomas Jefferson

"No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of

another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain hima?the idea

is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights."

--Thomas Jefferson

"An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his

fellow citizens."

--Thomas Jefferson

"The protection of our citizens, the spirit and honor of our country, require

that force should be interposed to a certain degree."

--Thomas Jefferson

"To draw around the whole nation the strength of the General Government

as a barrier against foreign foes... is [one of the] functions of the General Government on which [our citizens] have a right to call."

--Thomas Jefferson

"It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually

take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without

inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it."

--Thomas Jefferson

"I am ever unwilling that [peace] should be disturbed as long as

the rights and interests of the nations can be preserved. But whensoever hostile aggressions on these

require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are

just friends and brave enemies."

--Thomas Jefferson

"By nature's law, man is at peace with man till some aggression is

committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another as

his enemy."

--Thomas Jefferson

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against

every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

--Thomas Jefferson

"Our duty to ourselves, to posterity, and to mankind, call on us

by every motive which is sacred or honorable, to watch over the safety of our beloved country

during the troubles which agitate and convulse the residue of the world, and to sacrifice to

that all personal and local considerations."

--Thomas Jefferson

"It is an essential attribute of the jurisdiction of every country

to preserve peace, to punish acts in breach of it, and to restore property taken by force within

its limits."

--Thomas Jefferson

"By nature's law, man is at peace with man till some aggression

is committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another

as his enemy."

--Thomas Jefferson

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy,

and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. But the temper and folly of our enemies may

not leave this in our choice."

--Thomas Jefferson

"We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly,

we shall all hang separately."

--Benjamin Franklin

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people

by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent

and sudden usurpations."

--James Madison

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without

it nothing can succeed."

--Abraham Lincoln

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we

fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a

blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted)

in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a

track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected?

I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot,

we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time,

or die by suicide."

--Abraham Lincoln

"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the

support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me."

--Abraham Lincoln

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive

good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement

to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor

diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall

be safe from violence when built."

--Abraham Lincoln

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean

the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and

the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please

with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible

things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective

parties, called by two different and incompatible names -

liberty and tyranny."

--Abraham Lincoln

"If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage

nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage."

--Abraham Lincoln

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points

out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust

and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again;

who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause;

who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst,

if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with

those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

--Theodore Roosevelt

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,

even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy

much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that

knows not victory nor defeat."

--Theodore Roosevelt

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth

of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic

state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by

an individual, by a group."

--Franklin D. Roosevelt

"War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder.

This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the

timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour,

of our choosing."

--George W. Bush

"When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim that 'a drop of honey catches more flies

than a gallon of gall.' So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him

that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say

what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really

a good one."

--Abraham Lincoln

"To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge

it by the standards of his time, not ours."

--Mark Twain

"It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best

reveals his character."

--Arthur Schopenhauer

"When men speak ill of thee, live

so as nobody may believe them."

--Plato

"He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center,

and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the

mid-day sun."

--John Milton

"Character consists of what you do on the third

and fourth tries."

--James A. Michener

"We should be too big to take offense and too noble to

give it."

--Abraham Lincoln

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the

content of their character."

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A man's character is his guardian divinity."

--Heraclitus

"Character develops itself in the stream of life."

--Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"Do what you know and perception is converted into character."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so

highly prized as that of character."

--Henry Clay
By Kim Rahn



North Korea has replaced all border guards following the defection of a soldier to South Korea via the Joint Security Area (JSA), according to sources Friday.



An intelligence source said the North changed all guards there, after they failed to prevent the soldier's defection, Nov. 13. Commanders of the unit and other senior officials may also have been punished, the source said.



It is said there were between 35 to 40 North Korean guards in the JSA.



The North also seems to have closed the so-called 72-Hour Bridge across which the soldier drove a military jeep toward the JSA, according to the source. It shut down the bridge temporarily and is moving to set up a checkpoint  presumably in an attempt to check the identities of soldiers and allow passage to only those whose identities are confirmed.



On Nov. 13, the North Korean soldier drove the jeep across the bridge, but the vehicle became stuck near JSA buildings, so he got out and ran south across the Military Demarcation Line (MDL). Four North Korean guards engaged him with direct fire with around 40 gunshots, and the soldier was hit five times before collapsing.



Three members of South Korea's JSA security battalion crawled along the ground to recover the wounded soldier, who was flown to a hospital and underwent two operations.



It was found that during the incident, some of the gunshots flew over the MDL and one guard briefly crossed the line before returning back to the North's side  a clear violation of the 1953 Armistice Agreement.



Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of the United Nations Command (UNC), awarded the Army Commendation Medals to six South Korean and U.S. soldiers who took part in the operation to recover the North Korean soldier, including the three who crawled toward him, in recognition of their efforts, according to the U.S. Forces Korea Facebook.


By Kim Bo-eun



Calls are mounting to provide better support for nationwide trauma centers, after surgeon Lee Cook-jong who is treating a North Korean soldier defector spoke of poor conditions.



At a press conference Wednesday, Lee said "A nurse who was six months pregnant was dispatched on a helicopter (to an emergency scene) due to the lack of personnel."



Lee also said that the severe trauma center at Ajou University Hospital, which is equipped to accommodate 100 patients, currently holds 150.



According to reports, the surgeon works 36-hour shifts and is on the verge of losing the sight in his left eye.



A week earlier, after the soldier arrived at the hospital, a petition appeared on Cheong Wa Dae's website, seeking greater support for trauma centers.



"Trauma centers are disliked by the hospitals they are affiliated to, because the more patients they treat, the bigger a deficit they see," it said.



"Many aspiring doctors who enter medical school with hopes of taking on the honorable mission of saving lives give up in during their surgical studies due to the tough conditions they face."



The petition called for systematic, environmental and personnel support for nationwide trauma centers.



"People criticize the students' choices, saying they went to medical school only for the monetary compensation. However, the problem lies in the state system," it said.



Over 176,000 people have supported the petition as of Friday. Cheong Wa Dae has made it a rule that if a petition on its website gets more than 200,000 supporters within a one-month period, the presidential office will provide a response.



Lee has reemerged as a national hero after saving the life of the North Korean soldier who sustained multiple gunshot wounds while crossing the military demarcation line within the Joint Security Area.



The defector had been in a critical condition but survived after he was flown to the Ajou University Hospital in Suwon and underwent two operations performed by Lee.



The soldier was also found to have been infected with parasitic worms, as well as suffering from tuberculosis and hepatitis B.



The defector is now in a stable condition, according to reports.



In 2011, Lee gained attention after he treated and saved Captain Seok Hae-kyun, who sustained multiple gunshot injuries when his ship was rescued from Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.



The Washington Post wrote about Lee in an article titled "For North Korean soldier's recovery, South Koreans are pinning their hopes on this doctor."



Lee trained as a surgeon in surgical critical care at the University of California San Diego Medical Center and worked for the Royal London Hospital Trauma Center, before coming to Ajou University Hospital.


By Jun Ji-hye







China appears to be still pressuring South Korea to take more practical steps to resolve a dispute involving the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system here, even after the two governments struck an agreement last month to end the diplomatic row over it.





The Seoul government said that bilateral conflict over the placement of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery was settled following the Oct. 31 agreement and that the two nations would work to restore their relations in all sectors.





However, subtle differences in the positions of the two governments could act as a variable in determining whether the two nations will be able to actually normalize their strained relations as agreed during the Nov. 12 summit between President Moon Jae-in and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Vietnam on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.





The issue could also be an important topic during the next Moon-Xi summit, scheduled for mid-December in Beijing, which was expected to speed up the normalization of Seoul-Beijing ties.





During the meeting between the top diplomats of the two nations, Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, that China "valued" Seoul's stance of not deploying any additional THAAD batteries, not joining a broader U.S. missile defense (MD) system and not forming a South Korea-U.S.-Japan military alliance, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.





China has described South Korea's stance, dubbed "three nos," as promises, while Seoul said it was just expression of the government position.













After the meeting between Wang and Kang, the Chinese foreign ministry said it is hoping South Korea "will continue to properly handle the THAAD issue," saying Beijing values Seoul's "attitude of having no intention of harming China's security interests."





"Both sides should work together to further enhance mutual understanding and minimize differences to the utmost extent so as to create conditions for the full recovery of bilateral relations," the ministry said.





The comments were construed as Beijing calling on Seoul to take additional, practical steps to remove China's concerns over the THAAD deployment in order to fully recover relations, despite the Oct. 31 agreement.





For more than a year, China has claimed the THAAD radar could be used to spy on its military facilities and harm its security interests, taking economic and cultural retaliation against South Korea. Seoul and Washington claim the system is designed only to defend against incoming ballistic missiles from North Korea.





China's state-run newspaper Global Times reported Thursday that Beijing's opposition to THAAD has been consistent, stressing that the issue is not yet over.





Some vernacular media outlets here also reported that China has requested South Korea set up a shield against the THAAD radar.





Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman Noh Kyu-duk denied the reports, saying, "They are groundless."





Regarding another report that China has officially asked South Korea to open military talks at an early date to discuss deployment, defense ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said the government has "no plan to hold such talks."






By Chyung Eun-ju







The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) will investigate Google Korea for allegedly tracking Android users' location data without their consent.







The KCC said on Thursday it will then decide if Google has infringed the Privacy Act and violated the Information Communications Network Act.







"We will figure out what was collected and confirm whether they violated the Information Communication Network Act and Location Information Act," said Chun Ji-hyun, the manager of the KCC's Privacy Infringement Investigation Division.







"Not only was this a national issue, but an issue that came to light from the U.S. We will see how this is handled globally."







Google Korea has admitted collecting the data. "Since Jan. 31, 2017, we have been collecting data in order to improve the Android OS," Google Korea said. "We are planning to prohibit this kind of data collection and we will update the program to stop the function of data collection on the cell site."







Google has been receiving location data that the Android phones have been collecting despite the GPS being turned off. About 78 percent of Koreans have phones running Android software.







News website Quartz reported on Tuesday that the Android phones collected the addresses of nearby cellular towers _ even phones with no SIM card _ and the data was received by Google.









"In January of this year, we began looking into using cell ID codes as an additional signal to further improve the speed and performance of message delivery," the Google spokesperson

in an email. "However, we never incorporated cell ID into our network sync system, so that data was immediately discarded, and we updated it to no longer request cell ID."







"According to the law, collecting data about location without the user's consent is a violation that can result in less than five years of jail or a fine of less than 50 million won," Kim Seung-joo, an informatics professor from Korea University, told YTN on Thursday. "But what Google did is worth an astronomical amount."







Google Korea was penalized by the KCC for infringing the Privacy Act by illegally gathering personal data to develop its Street View service back in Jan. 2014. Google was fined 210 million won.


By William R. Jones



As a fixed part of the cuisine of the Korean Peninsula, acorn consumption statistics provided by Seoul National University and Korea Forest Research Institute experts indicated a net consumption of about 14,000,000 kg per year from 2003 to 2012. The domestic production declined by roughly 400,000 kg per year in the same timeframe.



Simultaneously, imports from China primarily from Quercus cornea grew to make up 94% of the consumption. Thus, domestic production consumption was about 3% as well as another 3% imported from South Africa, and fractional amounts from several other countries ("Acorn Production and Utilization in the Republic of Korea," 2014).



Amazingly, the Republic of Korea exported whole acorns and acorn powder to several other countries, primarily Canada and the United States in which the Korean communities created demand. The hand-collected wild acorns in South Korea were and are done for the most part by older women. One person can gather around 0.5 kilograms of acorns in 3 to 6 minutes.



The women also process them for home use or sell to restaurants, friends and neighbors, or wholesale merchants who supply factories having industrial-scale equipment. The factories process the acorns into acorn-based foods that go to grocery stores and restaurants. Along the west coast near Seocheon-gun in Chungnam Province there is a "Farmer's Food" acorn factory that processes around 1,000 tons of acorns per year.



In South Korea, forests occupy about 64% of the total land area (National Statistical Office 2015) and in the deciduous natural forests that occupy 32% of the country, the dominant native tree species is the oak. For example, in the Mt. Bonghwang forest in North Chungcheong province, the dominant tree species is the oak. Quercus acutissima sometimes called sawtooth oak and Quercus mongolica are the dominant species in South Korea. On the Geologic Time Scale they appeared around the middle (4,500-8,000 years before the present time) of the Holocene Epoch which we are in now.



Thus, there is an abundance of acorns imported or produced domestically for culinary purposes to revive recipes. Now, chefs are always experimenting, so getting the high-end foodies interested will promote a variety of acorn-based dishes onto global menus. Of course, in South Korea already there are continued specialty dishes like dried acorn pasta (dotorimuk malengi), fresh acorn pasta (dotori sujebi), and acorn pancakes (dotori jeon).



Particular localities are noted for their acorn specialties. For example, Daejeon Gujeuk Yewoolmook Village (Gwanpyeong-dong, Yuseong-gu) aka Acorn Jelly Village has restaurants where customers can also try mukmuchim. Also in the region is chaemukbap, sliced dotorimuk on top of steamed rice or in a bowl of broth. Acorn noodle soup, called dotoriguksu and dotori kalguksu (acorn knife-cut noodles) are said to be popular in Ogam-ri Village in Chungcheongnam-do. And, believe it or not, there is also dotori sul or acorn liquor' (roughly 40% alcohol) mainly manufactured in the DPRK. Also, in Extremadura, Spain there is Bellota Acorn liquor (17% alcohol). And, of course, let us not forget about acorn coffee.



Lastly, the Korea Tourism Organization recommends a visit to the Gujeuk Village Experience Center. There is actually a modern muk factory there and a muk-themed museum. Everyone can learn about acorn processing and the different kinds of acorn trees and all their characteristics.





The writer has taught conversational English for 15 years. He currently works for Virginia State University. His e-mail address is wrjones@vsu.edu.


Charles Manson's bizarre plan to ignite a race war was unknown to Los Angeles in August 1969, as were his pathetic collection of young, rapt followers, his bizarre misinterpretation of Beatles lyrics, and Manson himself. What L.A. knew at the time was that seven people had been brutally murdered in two homes, apparently by invasion-style killers who left little clue as to motive. Crime was up nationwide, the turbulent 1960s were nearing their finale and the world seemed to have lost its mind. The city was terrified.



The closest modern comparison may be disco-era New York, eight years later, when a killer who called himself Son of Sam stalked the streets with a .44 caliber revolver, shot 13 people and wrote mocking notes to police.

David Berkowitz did his own killing (although he has claimed that cultists or demons were partly to blame) and Manson did none of his, instead sending his hangers-on to do his grisly work.



In both cases, though, the killers instigated urban panic, gained media notoriety before being caught and, afterward, cemented their presence in the public mind and popular culture, assisted by endless news stories, books, documentaries and dramas.



Manson and Berkowitz were rank amateurs by the murderous standards set by more recent killers, who acted in single spasms of violence  without cultish followings and with motives varying from marital spite (as in the Sutherland Springs, Texas, and Rancho Tehama, Calif., shootings) to religio-political (as in the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack) to the still-unknown (as with the Las Vegas mass shooting in October). But in the near future the names of those killers will be recalled only sporadically, perhaps with the help of a quick Google query and a check of Wikipedia. The Son of Sam nickname may linger in New Yorkers' memory, but the name David Berkowitiz is fading.



But we will remember Manson.



Why is that? After the murders and the trial, Manson did nothing but sit in prison  as befits someone who misused his odd power over others by directing them to commit multiple murders. He forfeited his freedom and died an inmate.



But the rest of us have kept him alive. While some media organizations (although not this newspaper) have made a point not to repeat the names of suspected mass killers in the belief that doing so gives them unwarranted fame, there is no such decorum with Manson. He is a fixture in the popular imagination, a point underscored in the film Natural Born Killers, itself a send-up of the intimate link between mass murder (or serial killings or spree killings or one of the other carefully categorized distinctions) and pop culture. "Yeah, it's pretty hard to beat the king," admits Woody Harrelson's clearly envious Mickey Knox in the 1994 movie. Guns N' Roses recorded a middling song Manson wrote. Pop act Marilyn Manson named himself partially after the killer.



It's hard to argue that Manson's notoriety did him any good. Although he was sentenced to death, he was spared after a court ruling striking down California's death penalty statute. But he never got parole, despite repeated pleas for release.

Neither did any of his followers. Susan Atkins died in prison. Patricia Krenwinkel remains locked up, as does Charles "Tex" Watson. A parole board ruled in favor of Leslie Van Houten earlier this year, but it remains to be seen whether Gov. Jerry Brown will reject the decision, as he did a year ago.



The place of the Manson killings in the public mind may help ensure that none of the surviving murderers is ever paroled, leaving this nagging thought: If these killings had not resonated as they did, and were just seven scattered murders, would the five have been released long ago? Is parole actually granted or withheld based on the crimes themselves and on evidence of remorse and rehabilitation, as it should be, or instead based on the publicity that can be marshaled for or against the inmates?



It is very much a live question, as California re-envigorates its parole system in response to last year's Proposition 57. For Manson himself, though, there never was much of a question at all. He was such a troublemaker in prison that he was almost certainly never going to be released. He's been effectively dead to the world for more than 40 years, except to the extent that we insisted on keeping him alive in print, on television, in pop music and film. It would be nice if now, finally, we would just let him die.





This editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times and was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


Protectionism backfires



The American administration is flexing its protectionist claws in earnest. The U.S. International Trade Commission Tuesday recommended a 50 percent tariff on large residential washers built by Samsung and LG and exceeding a quota of 1.2 million washers per year.



The recommendation came in response to a safeguard petition filed by U.S. maker Whirlpool. The petition will be sent to President Donald Trump next month, and he is expected to decide early next year.



Given his protectionist inclination, he will likely approve the measure. If so, it will be the first such action since 2002, when the George W. Bush administration slapped an 8 percent to 30 percent duty on imported steel.



The expected Trump move will make everybody unhappy _ except Whirlpool. The biggest victims will be American consumers, who will have to buy cheaper and better-performing Korean products at 50 percent higher prices.



The move will also undermine operations at two Korean-built washer plants scheduled to be operating by 2019. Samsung and LG are building factories in the U.S. states of South Carolina and Tennessee, respectively, each of which will hire hundreds of American workers.



To be hurt by the shortsighted protectionist move, in the long run, will be America's global economic _ and political _ leadership. Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, antagonizing the 11 other signatories and weakening U.S. influence over regional trade. China will gladly take America's place.



The real estate tycoon-turned-politician has also demanded renegotiation of the bilateral free trade agreement with Korea, citing Seoul's swelling trade surplus.



In the upcoming bargaining, Washington may also use the recent ITC move and Trump's final decision to its advantage.



All this will come despite Seoul's promise at a recent summit between Presidents Moon and Trump to buy military equipment worth several billions of dollars from the U.S.



The government can ill afford just to complain and admonish Washington. Both government and business officials should join forces to deal with the mounting U.S. protectionism, mobilizing both tough and moderate measures.



Korean trade diplomats should consider bringing the case to the World Trade Organization while conducting behind-the-scenes dialogue to minimize damage to the domestic industry.




ITC recommends 50% tariff on imported washing machines



By Yoon Sung-won



Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics expressed regret Wednesday over the U.S. International Trade Commission's (ITC) recommendation to impose a high tariff on imported washing machines.



Responding to the ITC's recommendation to initiate safeguards, Samsung highlighted its efforts to boost employment in the country.



"We continue to believe no remedy is necessary because our South Carolina factory will begin producing washing machines in early 2018," the electronics company said in a statement on its U.S. subsidiary website, Tuesday (local time). "We've already hired 350 people who are preparing our factory for production in January, and we are on track to fill another 150 manufacturing jobs in South Carolina by the end of the year."



Samsung also said the high tariff will consequently damage U.S. consumers and workers.



"Any tariff would raise prices, provide fewer product choices and impair job creation at our South Carolina factory," the company said. "We strongly urge the administration not to impose any remedy that would harm the workers in our South Carolina factory, or limit them from delivering innovative washing machines, made by Americans for Americans."



On Tuesday, the U.S. trade panel recommended a 50 percent tariff rate on imported residential washing machines exceeding the tariff rate quota (TRQ) of 1.2 million.



Two out of four trade panel members suggested a 20 percent tariff even on the 1.2 million imported washers whereas the other two said products that don't exceed the quota should be free of tariffs.



The ITC also voted unanimously to set the TRQ for washing machine parts at only 50,000 and put a 50 percent tariff on excess quantities in the first year of enforcement.



Earlier in May, Whirlpool filed a petition to the ITC, requesting a safeguard. The U.S. firm had demanded a flat tariff rate of 50 percent. In response, the Korean companies proposed a 50 percent tariff on washing machines exceeding a quota of 1.45 million.



The ITC recommendation will be sent to President Donald Trump by Dec. 4. The U.S. president is expected to make a decision early next year.



LG also released a statement, Wednesday, saying the ITC recommendation would ultimately harm the retail industry and consumers in the United States.



"The ITC recommendation will limit U.S. consumers' right to choose," LG said in the statement. "It will also weaken Korean enterprises' presence in the U.S., and consequently have a negative impact on the operation of U.S. plants that are currently under construction and job creation in the country."



Samsung has invested $380 million in building a washing machine plant in South Carolina, while LG has spent $250 million for its own in Tennessee.



Samsung and LG together exported about 3 million residential washing machines to the U.S. last year. If Trump approves the ITC recommendation as it is, at least 1.8 million washing machines made by Samsung and LG outside the U.S. become subject to the 50 percent tariff.



Considering that the quota of 1.2 million recommended by the trade panel not only includes the products of two Korean firms but also all washers made outside the U.S., even including ones manufactured at Whirpool's overseas plants, Samsung and LG are expected to face an even greater risk, according to industry sources.



Meanwhile, the ITC has decided to make an exception for LG's washers manufactured at the company's plant in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, from the TRQ.



The Korean government held an emergency meeting with the electronics companies Wednesday to come up with joint countermeasures.



The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy pledged to raise objections against the safeguard recommendation to the U.S. administration and lawmakers. Samsung and LG will reach out to the governors and council members of South Carolina and Tennessee where they are building plants.



The government will also review a plan to file a petition against the U.S. safeguards with the World Trade Organization in cooperation with related countries such as Vietnam. The two electronics makers produce most of the washers they export to the U.S. in the Southeast Asian country.




By Kang Seung-woo



The National Assembly is attempting to prevent Apple from abusing its market power here, a lawmaker said Wednesday.

Rep. Oh Se-jung of the minor opposition People's Party plans to submit a bill to tackle "unfair practices" committed by the U.S. technology giant here since the California-based company began selling its iPhone here in 2009.



"I am seeking to include types of unfair practices defined in the Fair Trade Act into an article of the law that aims at improving handset distribution channels," said the first-term lawmaker, who belongs to the National Assembly Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee.



"It is under review by the National Assembly's legislative counseling office and I plan to submit a revision bill next week after discussing it with relevant people."



Apple's alleged unfair practices include shifting advertising costs to local mobile carriers, getting telecom firms to host release ceremonies for new products and refusing to offer handset subsidies -- a sharp contrast to payments by Korean smartphone makers Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.



The smartphone maker is also under fire for ordering wireless providers to follow its own guidelines in displaying products and designing ads without sharing the cost.



It allegedly obligates them to order a certain amount of products to sell in the country, according to industry sources.



The latest complaint by local mobile carriers is that Apple made a surprise announcement earlier this month of the release date of the iPhone X without discussions with them.



The company's 10th anniversary iPhone is scheduled to hit shelves Friday after its pre-orders sold out in minutes last week amid growing concern over a possible supply shortage.



The move came as the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has been looking into the case.



Unlike Korea, other countries have taken a hard stance on Apple's unfair practices.



In 2013, Taiwan slapped fines on Apple worth around 700 million won ($643,000) for controlling iPhone prices. In April last year, France fined the company 64 billion won for having mobile carriers pay for ads.


A man rides his bicycle in Shijia Hutong of Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 1, 2017. (Xinhua/Wu Kaixiang)

In early winter in China's capital, you can still catch neighbors chatting to each other in their Beijing dialect along the city's hutong, or traditional alleys.

This is a scene unchanged for centuries, but the topic of conversation now is often how to make their communities better places to live.

Jin Dajun, 70, has lived in Dongsi Sitiao Hutong in the downtown Dongcheng District since he was a child. He has never left this place.

In recent years, the hutong have suffered substantially as low-end shops and restaurants moved in, making them chaotic and hazardous.

Jin and his neighbors are concerned. They want a clean, quiet neighborhood.

Deciding Call

In 2015, Dongsi sub-district, along with planning and other local government agencies, began to invite architects to design blueprints for the recovery of the old city, guided by experts at Tsinghua University's School of Architecture.

Jiang Zhaoshun, deputy director of the sub-district office, says they have implemented seven plans to restore and protect hutong and ancient buildings. "Resident representatives participated in making every plan," says Jiang.

"They have the deepest attachment to the areas where they've lived for decades. And it is they who can describe the original shape of the hutong."

However, transforming public spaces like hutong inevitably raises frictions. "In order to restore the hutong, we had to remove all unauthorized constructions. That triggered some resistance," says Jin.

Local government agencies and design companies had to consult the residents door-to-door and persuade them the environment would improve. "Some of the plans were discussed 30 times before they were nailed down," says Jin.

Two kilometers to the south, Chaoyangmen sub-district covers more than 30 hutong. In 2004, its office began to work with Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design and Beijing University of Technology.

They founded and developed Shijia Hutong Style Conservation Association to create a construction and governance model that combines top-down and bottom-up patterns, through a vast range of public participation.

Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design planner Zhao Xing says the conservation and updating of historic districts directly involved the residents, who had to be motivated to be partners and participants.

So far, the association has completed plans to transform the interior public spaces of seven courtyards. Residents have discussed and approved every stage.
Tivoli DKR will represent South Korean auto manufacturer Ssangyong Motor in Dakar 2018 in January next year. / Courtesy of YouTube



By Ko Dong-hwan



Ssangyong Motor is joining the world's most dangerous off-road challenge rally in Dakar for the first time in nine years next January with its Tivoli model.



The Tivoli DKR will travel a 9,000 kilometer course through deserts, sand dunes and wild terrain, starting in Lima, Peru, passing La Paz, Bolivia, and finishing in Cordoba, Argentina.









The Tivoli-based rig customized for the rally has 405 horsepower six-liter V8 engine, that reaches 96 k/ph in 4.4 seconds.



Driver Oscar Fuertes, a two-time Spanish Gravel Rally Champion, won the ticket to Dakar 2018 by winning the Baja Aragon in Teruel, Spain, with Tivoli Rally Raid 4WD in July.





The Dakar 2018 rally runs across tough off-road terrain in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina from Jan. 6 through 20. / dakar.com
Kumho Asiana Group Chairman Park Sam-koo

By Lee Hyo-sik



The Korea Development Bank (KDB) and other Kumho Tire creditors are expressing frustration with the head of Kumho Asiana Group, accusing him of not living up to his promises on the use of the Kumho trademark.



The creditors claim that Kumho Chairman Park Sam-koo promised to allow whoever acquires the struggling tire maker to use the Kumho brand for free when he met KDB Chairman Lee Dong-geol, Sept. 25. This was a day before KDB and other banks announced a plan to place Kumho Tire under a creditor-managed workout program.



However, Kumho Group officials dispute the creditors' account, insisting Park never promised the use of the Kumho brand for free. They say the chairman meant that he would let the buyer use the brand for a reasonable price.



The state-run bank said Friday it has written twice to Kumho Industrial, which owns the Kumho trademark, asking it to provide documents guaranteeing the free use of the brand. But it has not received any reply from the company, which Chairman Park controls.



"In order to complete due diligence on Kumho Tire and draw up its rescue plan in December, we need to straighten up all the issues concerning use of the Kumho brand," a KDB official said.



"As the Kumho chief promised in September, Kumho Group must allow the free use of the trademark for an entity that acquires the tire maker. If he doesn't keep his promise, we will have no choice but to take drastic measures," he said.



KDB recently decided not to give 2.2 billion won ($2 million) in severance pay to the Kumho chief, who served as Kumho Tire CEO for 13 years and six months.



"He has failed to turn the company around and should be held responsible for its trouble. So we decided to suspend the severance pay," the official said.



Kumho officials insist Park never promised the free use of the Kumho brand.



"The chairman never promised to allow anyone to use the trademark for free. This simply doesn't make any sense," one official said. "Kumho Tire has to pay 0.2 percent of its revenue in brand royalties like any other Kumho unit. Letting someone use the brand for free would be tantamount to committing breach of trust."



Kumho Tire creditors view Park as the main culprit behind the botched deal with Double Star, signed in March, because he made it difficult for the mid-tier Chinese tire maker to use the Kumho trademark after acquiring the firm.



After the deal fell through, KDB and other creditors, which hold a combined 42 percent stake in the cash-strapped tire maker, stripped Park of managerial control and subjected the firm to a stringent workout program to normalize operations.


SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, shakes hands with Vietnamese Prime Minster Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the latter's residence in Hanoi, Thursday. Chey said SK will boost its investment in energy, information technology and infrastructure development in the rapidly growing Southeast Asia. / Courtesy of SK Group



By Lee Hyo-sik



SK Group is preparing to boost its presence in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations by bolstering its partnership with local companies in information technology, energy and infrastructure development.



SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has been visiting the rapidly growing region since Nov. 20, meeting government officials, corporate leaders and scholars to discuss ways to boost business ties.



Korea's third-largest conglomerate said Friday Chey met Vietnamese Prime Minster Nguyen Xuan Phuc a day earlier and discussed SK's presence in the country.



"SK would like to create a win-win partnership with its Vietnamese counterparts so both sides can grow together in a sustainable manner," the company quoted the chairman as saying. "SK's knowhow and expertise in energy, information and communications technology (ICT) will help Vietnam nurture globally-competitive industries and attract foreign investments."



In response, the Prime Minister asked for SK's greater role in Vietnam's campaign to privatize public enterprises, support startups and nurture young talent, according to the group.



From Nov. 21-23, Chey also held met business leaders in Vietnam, including Nguyen Dang Quang, chairman of Masan Group, the nation's largest maker of consumer goods, and Truong Gia Binh, chairman of FPT Group, the biggest information technology service company.



The SK chief also visited Singapore from Nov. 20-21 and met heads of financial investment firms and corporate tycoons to gain greater insight into Southeast Asian economies.



"SK has long been present in Singapore and Vietnam, setting up a sizeable presence in the areas of natural resources development, refining, construction and trading," a SK Group spokesman said.



"We are now taking our business in Southeast Asia to the next level. We will bring our global partnering model, which has successfully taken roots in China, to Southeast Asia and write another success story there. SK will create a win-win business model with its partners," he said.




By Jhoo Dong-chan





The political tension between Seoul and Beijing has eased after a summit between the two leaders during the APEC Summit, but K-beauty companies are diversifying their overseas operations instead of returning to the Chinese market.



Supermarket chain E-mart said this week that it has signed a franchise deal with Saudi Arabia's largest retailer Fawaz Alhokair. Under the contract, E-mart is set to sell its cosmetic brand Sentence at Fawaz Alhokair shopping malls.






By Ko Dong-hwan





Gil, left, and Gary of Leessang

/ Korea Times file
 Flash

"China has once again showed it is among the leaders of the world, thank you China!" said Joseph Kahama, secretary-general of Tanzania-China Friendship Promotion Association.

Joseph Kahama, secretary-general of Tanzania-China Friendship Promotion Association, speaks at the First Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network Forum in Beijing on Nov. 22, 2017. [Photo by Gong Jie/China.org.cn]

He made the remark during the First Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network Forum closing Wednesday in Beijing, where China provided a clear answer on how to enhance public diplomacy between people of different countries along the Silk Road.

"This is a platform for non-governmental cooperation, and NGOs from all member countries now have a better framework and mechanism for cooperation," said Kemreat Viseth, chairman of the Cambodian Civil Society Alliance Forum. He praised Chinese efforts in establishing the Silk Road NGOs cooperation network.

In May 2017, President Xi Jinping announced the launch of the Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

Its aim is to enhance mutual understanding and friendship between people of different countries, promote common development and build a community of a shared future for humanity, as outlined by President Xi in his congratulatory letter to the forum.

Under the organization of the China NGO Network for International Exchanges, the Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network has been established and more than 300 NGOs from over 60 countries have joined.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is not just about trade and construction. It is also about people-to-people friendship, and NGOs can take a crucial part of the communication," said Shahriar Zaman, secretary-general of Bangladesh-China People's Friendship Association.

He is very confident that China can lead global NGO cooperation under the framework established during the forum.

Li Yonghui, dean of School of International Relations and Diplomacy in Beijing Foreign Studies University, said China's unique advantage was being able to formulate a long-term plan and a clear design.

"NGOs should consolidate their efforts to make long-term plans and make clear designs. Especially after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chinese NGOs should form new ideas and propose new plans to play a better leading role in the future," said Li Yong Hui. He believed establishment of the Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network was a Chinese solution for global NGO cooperation.

He also gave advice for Chinese NGOs in the development and cooperation with their counterparts in other countries.

"NGOs should seek more cooperation with enterprises, and we should let the public have a better understanding of the role and meaning of NGOs, and encourage the public to participate in their activities. The government should encourage NGOs to play a bigger role in its work and provide guidelines and better management for NGO development," Li said.
PRESS RELEASE

Trump Call with Putin Is a Strong Assertion

Nov. 22, 2017 (EIRNS)President Donald Trumps comments to journalists after his call Nov. 21 with Russian President Vladimir Putin constituted another assertion of his intent to conduct a reasonable great-power foreign policy, and damn the Russiagate torpedos. This is particularly true when combined with Putins simultaneous multiple initiatives to move Syria toward economic reconstruction and national elections, for which he clearly counts on American cooperation.

Leaving the White House, Trump said, "President Putin and I had a great call regarding Syria, North Korea, and other things; it lasted for almost one-and-a-half hours." This makes it nearly the summit meeting which they were blocked by advisors and "pencil-pushers" from having at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit on Nov. 11.

"It was a great call," Trump repeated. "Were talking very strongly about bringing peace to Syria, very strongly about North Korea, and about Ukraine."

Interestingly, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), one of the most rabid anti-Russian sanctioners of the Congress, told CNN later yesterday,

"I think we have to have communications between the president of Russia and the United States. So thats fine. I dont mind the conversation."

While the Senator was not doing world peace any favors, he was acknowledging a reality being asserted by President Trump.

RT reported that Putin briefed Trump on his offer and attempt to organize a Syrian Congress of National Dialogue in Sochi.
PRESS RELEASE

Astana SummitPeace in Syria Is Near

Nov. 23, 2017 (EIRNS)The joint declaration issued by the three Presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey at the Astana summit for Syrian peace, held in Sochi, Russia yesterday, yesterday reaffirms their commitment to continuing their collaboration "with a view to establishing peace and stability in Syria, envisaged by UNSCR [UN Security Council Resolution] 2254." The three guarantor countries of the Syrian peace process expressed satisfaction with the current level of their trilateral cooperation and noted that

"over the 11 months since the establishment of the ceasefire regime on December 29, 2016, a breakthrough had been made in bringing closer the elimination of ISIL, Nusra Front and all other terrorist organizations as designated by the UNSC and agreed that Iran, Russia and Turkey will continue cooperation for their ultimate defeat."

They decided that they would continue their coordinated efforts until the reduction of violence in Syria is irreversible.

"The Heads of state reaffirmed their strong commitment to sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of The Syrian Arab Republic and emphasized that under no circumstances the creation of the above-mentioned de-escalation areas and at political initiative to solve the Syrian crisis undermine the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of The Syrian Arab Republic,"

they said. They called for "rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access" as well as confidence building measures "to create better condition for political process and lasting ceasefire." They also called on the international community to support the process of de-escalation with humanitarian aid, help in restoring basic infrastructure and other measures.

In remarks after the meeting, Putin placed particular stress on the importance of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, which has been postponed, with no set date as yet.

"Generally, the idea is to bring together at the negotiating table delegations from various political parties, the domestic and external opposition and ethnic and religious groups. The congress will address key issues on the national agenda for Syria, above all those related to defining the parameters of future statehood, the adoption of a new constitution and, based on that, holding elections under UN oversight,"

Putin said.

"This will provide an incentive for stepping up efforts to bring about a settlement in Syria within the framework of the Geneva process. To reiterate, Syrias fate should be decided by the Syrians themselvesboth government loyalists and the opposition."

He reported that he had briefed Rouhani and Erdogan on his meeting with Assad on Monday.

"We took note of the Syrian leaderships stated commitment to the principles of settling the political crisis by peaceful means and carrying out a constitutional reform, as well as free, UN-supervised elections."

Rouhani and Erdogan both fully endorsed the objectives of the National Dialogue Congress, as outlined by Putin.

"We hope that this congress will become a new step toward peace and stability in Syria, as well as to free elections in Syria, based on a new Constitution,"

Rouhani said. Erdogan also stressed the official Turkish view that there is no place for the Syrian Kurdish PYD/YPG in this process (the YPG is fully backed by the U.S. as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces). "Nobody should expect us to stay under the same roof with a terrorist organization that is encroaching on national security," he said.
PRESS RELEASE

Lebanese President Hariri Returns, Reverses ResignationSaudi/British Ploy Defeated

Nov. 23, 2017 (EIRNS)Lebanons Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri called an end to the British-Saudi ploy to destabilize Lebanon and the region by provoking a civil war in Lebanon. Following his trip to France, Hariri returned to Lebanon, met with President Michel Aoun, and reversed his announced resignation. Although Hariri denies it, his words show that the Saudis were behind the resignation.

"The period that passed was perhaps like a wake-up call for all of us to look for Lebanons interests rather than looking at problems around us,"

Hariri said at the Annual Arab Banking Conference in Beirut today, according to Reuters "The problems around us are important, but Lebanon is more important."

He added: "I want to stress that ... our main concern is stability, and this is what well be working on."

Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, the head of President Aouns political party, wrote to the Arab League today stressing Lebanons policy of staying out of regional crises, according to Lebanons National News Agency.

Hezbollahs parliamentary group met today, saying in a statement that Hariris return to Lebanon and his positive statements signaled a possible return to normality.

Hariri said yesterday that his decision would "lead to a responsible dialogue ... that deals with divisive issues and their repercussions on Lebanons relations with Arab brothers."

Hariri also spoke to his Future Movement today, which issued a statement that Hariris decision to wait instead of officially resigning from his post was a wise step that would allow for more dialogue.
PRESS RELEASE

After Tillerson Call, Saudis Open Yemen Port and Airport to UN Humanitarian Aid

Nov. 23, 2017 (EIRNS)Amid signs of a Saudi climbdown over Syria, there is also some opening up on Yemen, reportedly following a phone call to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier this week. Al Arabiya, citing the Saudi Press Agency, reported yesterday that the Saudi-led coalition has decided to reopen both the seaport of Hodeidah and the airport in Sanaa to shipments of humanitarian supplies after completing

"a comprehensive review of the inspection and verification procedures used to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2216."

Furthermore,

"the Coalition will soon announce a comprehensive humanitarian operations plan that aims to provide assistance and relief to the Yemeni people, and to facilitate the delivery of food to all the governorates of Yemen."

Reuters reports that Tillerson had personally pressured Mohammed bin Salman into allowing the reopening of the two entry points. Tillerson asked for a loosening of the blockade on Yemen during a roughly 45-minute phone call at the beginning of this week with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to Tillersons advisor R.C. Hammond, reported Reuters. The Secretary of State "has brought the request to [the] Saudis attention several times over the past months," Hammond said. Reuters adds that the Trump Administration also pressed the Saudis to allow Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to return to Beirut after he flew to Riyadh on Nov. 4 and abruptly announced his resignation over Saudi television.
Workers at a half-dozen Amazon distribution centers in Germany and one in Italy walked off the job Friday to demand better wages from the American online giant in a protest timed to coincide with Black Friday.

In Germany, Ver.di union spokesman Thomas Voss said some 2,500 workers were on strike at Amazon facilities in the cities of Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben and Koblenz. In a warehouse near Piacenza, in northern Italy, some workers walked off the job to demand dignified salaries.

The German union has been leading a push since 2013 for higher pay for some 12,000 workers in Germany, arguing that Amazon employees receive lower wages than workers in other in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers and employees earn relatively high wages for that industry.

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The strikes in Germany are expected to end Saturday.

Amazon Germany defended its position, saying it was a fair and responsible employer that offers attractive jobs.

The strikes will not affect us keeping our word to our customers, as the overwhelming majority of our workers are continuing their normal work, the company told the Associated Press.

The Italian action, a one-day strike, was hailed by one of the nations umbrella union leaders, the UILs Carmelo Barbagallo, as having enormous symbolic value because its clear that progress, innovation and modernity cant come at the expense and the interests of workers.

The strike at the facility in Italy was called for permanent workers. The unions advised workers who are on short-term, work-on-demand contracts to stay on the job so they wouldnt be denied future employment.

Amazon says it has created 2,000 full-time jobs in Italy, where unemployment remains stubbornly high.

Amazons head of personnel at the Piacenza center, Salvatore Iorio, told Italys Sky TG24 TV on Friday that despite the strike, the facility was keeping our commitment to serve our clients.
Chae Woong Bae and his girlfriend had steeled themselves to brave the Black Friday shopping chaos theyd watched on TV back home in South Korea.

But when the pair arrived at 4:30 a.m. Friday at a Target in North Hollywood for their first Black Friday outing, they were the only ones in line. No one else joined the queue for an hour, ahead of the stores opening at 6 a.m.



For the record: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of shopper Chae Woong Bae. His name is not Chae Woong Bag.

On the TV, we see people fighting each other, so at first, we were a little scared to come today, said a disappointed Bae, 22. I didnt expect it to be so quiet.

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Once known for frenzied crowds that jostled for deals in packed stores, Black Friday in Southern California has become a more subdued scene. The rise of e-commerce has made savings available to anyone, anywhere  at any time.

To compete with online sellers, and each other, brick-and-mortar retailers have pushed discounts days and even weeks before the day once considered the critical barometer of the holiday shopping season.

The result: Consumers said stores and malls were less packed and more relaxed. It was a welcome change for some.

If I had walked in and there was a massive crowd, I would have walked right out, said Amanda Solomon, 25, as she shopped with her mother at the Macys at Westfield Century City mall.

It wouldnt be worth the savings, her mother, Irene Castaldo, 63, chimed in.

National retail chains that open on Thanksgiving have largely moved doorbuster deals to Thursday night, making Black Friday a calmer shopping experience.

To get the same type of crowd youve got to have the same type of early-bird specials on Friday as Thursday, said Britt Beemer, chairman and founder of Americas Research Group, who has tracked holiday sales trends for 30 years. And nobody does that.

Though stores may not seem as busy on Black Friday as in years past, analysts expect holiday retail sales to jump in 2017, a result of higher consumer confidence and gains in employment and disposable income.

The National Retail Federation predicts that retail sales in November and December could total between $678.75 billion and $682 billion, up from $655.8 billion last year.

Market research firm IHS Markit forecasts holiday retail sales rising 4.2% compared to last year  the strongest growth rate since 2014.

Many Americans will also get paid on the first Friday of December, according to the U.S. payroll tracker from IHS Markit, helping spread holiday spending across additional weekends.

Its calmer, its a little more organized and a little more uniform, said Chris Christopher, executive director of U.S. and global economics at IHS Markit. Black Friday is still important, but its not what it used to be.

Employees stocking shelves at a Toys R Us in Ontario early Friday morning outnumbered shoppers, though business picked up around 7:30 a.m. Workers said there had been large crowds after the toy retailer opened its doors at 5 p.m. the night before.

Bigger in-store crowds arent necessarily better, said Danny Marin, a West Covina resident who started shopping at 4 a.m. on Friday. While he saw some crowds at the stores he visited  Wal-Mart, Kohls, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Dicks Sporting Goods and Best Buy  it wasnt as hectic as he remembered.

Its more fun like this because youre able to shop, Marin said.

Paula Rosenblum, co-founder and managing partner at Retail Systems Research, said the Black Friday shift away from the doorbuster frenzy means shoppers are looking for more than just discounts.

Whats going to drive people into stores is really an experience, she said.

Some stores are already trying to capitalize on that  the Coach store at the Citadel Outlets in Commerce offered 70% off the entire store for Thanksgiving and Black Friday shoppers, said Chelsea Hartnett, spokeswoman for the outlets.

They know that theyre competing with online sales, so theyre doing what they can to make sure the in-store experience is where the shopper wants to be, she said.

This year, more than 164 million people are expected to shop during Thanksgiving weekend and into Cyber Monday, according to a survey released last week by the National Retail Federation. Of those people, 70%, or 115 million, said they were planning to shop on Black Friday.

Many are making purchases online. As of 7 a.m., consumers had already spent $640 million online on Black Friday, an 18.4% increase compared with last year, according to Adobe Analytics.

But brick-and-mortar stores still offer one perk an online storefront cant: instant gratification. Kenneth Saengkeo, 16, and his family drove nine hours from Orem, Utah, to California for the holidays. On Thursday night, they ended up at the Citadel Outlets.

Kenneth was nearly first in a line that at one point totaled more than 800 outside the Nike store. Seeking jackets, hoodies and running shoes, the teen staked out his position because he was too impatient to wait for his items to arrive in the mail.

Even frequent online shoppers ventured out to see the fuss.

Diego Gasca, 25, headed to the mall with his partner, Evan Garland, to go Black Friday shopping for the first time. The West Hollywood couple typically order from Amazon.com, but chose to visit the Citadel Outlets on Thursday night and Westfield Century City on Friday morning for fun.

Breaking their online shopping habits wasnt easy. With every potential purchase, Gasca and Garland checked prices online to make sure they were getting the best deal.

We had some pants at Macys we almost bought, said Gasca, a dance instructor. Then we found them online for a lot cheaper.

Times staff writer Michael Livingston contributed to this report.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

ellis.simani@latimes.com

iris.lee@latimes.com

jaclyn.cosgrove@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunaga | @emsimani | @irisslee | @jaclyncosgrove

UPDATES:

3:10 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from analysts and shoppers in Southern California.

10:40 a.m.: This article was updated with comment from shoppers at a Kohls in Ontario.

This article was originally published at 7:55 a.m.
President Trump on Friday named White House budget director Mick Mulvaney as the acting chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as Richard Cordray prepared to depart the agency.

Cordray announced that Friday would be his last day as the bureaus director and appointed a new deputy in hopes of keeping an ally in charge until the Senate confirms for the job a nominee from President Trump.

But a few hours after Cordray sent his resignation to Trump, the president announced he was installing Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to be the bureaus acting chief during what could be a lengthy confirmation process for a yet-to-be named nominee, setting up a potential legal fight over temporary leadership of the bureau.

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The president looks forward to seeing Director Mulvaney take a common sense approach to leading the CFPBs dedicated staff, an approach that will empower consumers to make their own financial decisions and facilitate investment in our communities, the White House said.

Cordray wrote to Trump on Friday saying he would resign effective midnight Eastern time. The letter followed one Cordray sent Nov. 15 telling Trump that he planned to step down by the end of the month.

I am grateful to have been able to serve my country in this capacity, and in departing I now look forward to finding further ways to continue to advocate for those who are facing economic anxiety and uncertainty in their lives, Cordray wrote to Trump on Friday, touting the accomplishments of the agency.

Speculation has swirled that Cordray, a Democrat, will run for governor of his home state of Ohio next year. The letter made no mention of his future plans and the consumer bureau said there would be no additional comment.

Republicans opposed creation of the bureau. And they have criticized Cordrays aggressive actions against banks and other financial firms.

Trump is expected to appoint a director who is more industry friendly.

Cordray took a step Friday to try to keep his imprint on the bureau until a new director is in place, a period that could last for months. He said in an email to bureau staff that he had promoted his chief of staff, Leandra English, to be deputy director.

English, a bureau veteran, returned to the agency in January after a stint as the principal deputy chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management.

English replaces David Silberman, associate director of the bureaus Research, Markets and Regulations Division, who had been serving as acting deputy director since January 2016.

The Dodd-Frank law, which created the bureau in 2010, says the deputy director becomes the acting head in the absence or unavailability of the director.

Cordray said he wanted to name a permanent deputy director to ensure an orderly succession for the bureau. English has earned my trust and confidence over the years here and is highly familiar with all aspects of the bureaus operations, he said.

Cordray told his staff Friday that English will be the bureaus acting director after he leaves.

But the law is unclear about whether the deputy director would take over in the case of a directors resignation.

That opened the door for Trump to pick Mulvaney to serve as acting director in accordance with the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. Mulvaney would be in charge while a nominee moved through the Senate confirmation process.

The vacancy law allows the president to designate someone who already has been confirmed by the Senate to perform acting duties.

Mulvaney would remain as OMB director at the same time and probably would appoint a new deputy to oversee the bureaus day-to-day operations under his direction. But English could try to challenge a move to replace her as acting director.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera

UPDATES:

5:20 p.m.: This article was updated after President Trump on Friday named White House budget director Mick Mulvaney as the acting chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

This article was originally published at 2:35 p.m.
Thanksgiving is over, already! Toss out those turkey bones and swap those decorative pumpkins for mistletoe. Holiday shows usually pre-empt L.A.s regular theater schedule in December, but for those who cant wait, here are four that open even sooner.

Two look promising for family outings: A Christmas Carol at Glendale Centre Theatre and the Jane Austen reboot Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley" in Santa Barbara. The others  Feliz NaviDivas by the cult drag troupe Chicos Angels in Silver Lake, and a return of the long-running L.A. favorite Bobs Holiday Office Party in Atwater Village  are campier, targeted to grown-up audiences who might need to get their seasonal spirits flickering again.

1. Glendale Centres Christmas Carol

The essentials: It just wouldnt be Christmas without A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens harrowing and heartwarming story of holiday redemption. Many local theater companies offer their versions, each with a devoted following (see Costa Mesas South Coast Repertory and Pasadenas A Noise Within, for two). But the longest-running tradition in the area can be found at Glendale Centre Theatre, which is preparing to launch its 52nd annual show.

Why this? More than 50 years  thats a long time in Los Angeles, where, as Delia Ephron once joked, by the time youre 35, youre older than most of the buildings. After so many years, the companys directors  related to the original founders  have a pretty solid understanding of what works best on its elegant, intimate, in-the-round stage. Lively performances and vivid special effects ensure that veterans and first-timers alike will enjoy this hoary but never gratuitous lesson in the value of generosity.

Details: Glendale Centre Theatre, 324 N. Orange St. 8 p.m. Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; ends Dec. 24. $22-$32. (818) 244-8481 or www.glendalecentretheatre.com

2. Miss Bennet in Santa Barbara

The essentials: Say youre really, really tired of A Christmas Carol but are still in the market for a family show. As reported last month in the New Yorker, playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon came up with their Jane Austen reboot  a sequel to Pride and Prejudice  in response to the question What does American theater need? A new holiday play, they decided: something clever, heartwarming, and family-friendly. Their story Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, rehabilitates Mary, the nerdiest, least marriageable Bennet sister, as a romantic heroine in her own right.

Why this? Gunderson may not yet be a household name, but according to the New Yorker, shes the most produced playwright in America right now. Miss Bennet was a success in its rolling world premier in 2016, praised by the Washington Post as a gift for Jane Austen fans and by the Chicago Tribune as droll and quite delicious. This production, by Santa Barbaras Ensemble Theatre Company, is directed by Andrew Barnicle (former artistic director of Laguna Playhouse) and stars the talented, prolific Paige Lindsey White as everybodys favorite Bennet sister, Lizzie.

Details: The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Opens Nov. 30. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; ends Dec. 17. $20-$25. (805) 980-7529 or www.etcsb.org.

Christian Pedersen and Paige Lindsey White in Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. (David Bazemore)

3. Chicos Angels in Feliz NaviDivas at Cavern Club

The essentials: Chicos Angels are Latina drag queens  Kay Sedia, Frieda Laye and Chita Parol (the alter egos of Oscar Quintero, Danny Casillas and Ray Garcia), who parody the 1970s TV series Charlies Angels in their variety act at a Silver Lake restaurant (as well as in their webisodes). The live series has had five installments, each a full-length musical by co-creators Sedia/Quintero and Kurt Koehler in which an unseen boss dispatches the three sassy, fabulous models/undercover detectives to solve another mystery.

Why this? The Angels combine 1970s nostalgia, over-the-top outfits, playful ribaldry and Three Stooges-style pratfalls with tight, if absurd, plotting. Of their previous show Love Boat Chicas," the L.A. Weekly wrote, Its like an Agatha Christie novel, only with drag queens. Margaritas are encouraged.

Details: Cavern Club Celebrity Theater in Casita del Campo Restaurant, 1920 Hyperion Ave., L.A. Limited engagement: 2, 8 and 10 p.m. Saturday; 3, 6 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. $25-$35. www.chicosangels.com

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Chita Parol (Ray Garcia), Kay Sedia (Oscar Quintero) and Frieda Laye (Danny Casillas). (Chicos Angels)

4. Bobs Holiday Office Party at Atwater Village Theatre

The essentials: It started as a one-night-only improv piece in 1995, a kitschy send-up of a disastrous holiday party in a small-town Iowa insurance office  and it never really went away. For 22 years, Bobs Holiday Office Party has returned to L.A. as faithfully as Santa Claus himself, delighting fans 16 and up with what L.A. Times reviewer Philip Brandes described in 2000 as its shameless lowbrow antics. The show may have moved venues, but co-creators Rob Elk and Joe Keyes are still starring in it, alongside a full cast of returning party guests.

Why this? A holiday office party can be the stuff of nightmares if its your office. Its much more cathartic, and less career-damaging, to watch fictional characters drink too much, make terrible choices and achieve dubious epiphanies under the mistletoe. Bob faces the same schlocky decor and odious townspeople year after year, but the fast-paced, ad-libbed lines are a little different each time. There are some Christmas traditions that dont get sung about in the carols. Dont those deserve to be celebrated too?

Details: Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., L.A. Opens Nov. 30. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays; ends Dec. 18. $25-$35 (800) 838-3006 or www.bobsofficeparty.com

The 99-Seat Beat appears every Friday. Our team of reviewers  people with more than 75 years of combined experience tracking local theater  shortlist current offerings at 99-seat theaters and other smaller venues. Some (but not all) recommendations are shows weve seen; others have caught our attention because of the track record of the company, playwright, director or cast. You can find more comprehensive theater listings posted every Sunday at latimes.com/arts.

See all of our latest arts news and reviews at latimes.com/arts.

MORE THEATER:

'Summer': Heaven knows Donna deserved better than this

Tyne Daly swims in a very sentimental 'Chasing Mem'ries'

Why TV loves playwrights
Jake Gyllenhaal loves The Disaster Artist. Gary Oldman initially didnt want to play Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. But then, he also at first turned down the role of Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy.

Thatd be a travesty, Jeremy Renner told Oldman.

And who wouldnt agree with that?

Welcome to the Gold Standard, the newsletter from the Los Angeles Times that helps guide you through the ins and outs of the awards season leading up to the Oscars.

Im Glenn Whipp, The Times awards columnist and your newsletter host.

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Lets talk about my wacky movie

The above exchanges came during The Envelopes annual actors roundtable. This year, six leading contenders  James Franco (The Disaster Artist), Timothee Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name), Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), Jeremy Renner (Wind River), Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Stronger)  convened to talk about their work, as well as what its like to be a man in Hollywood at a time when sexual misconduct scandals are being reported almost daily.

Its a confusing time. Everyone is trying to digest what all of this means, Gyllenhaal said. I feel like to me the most important thing that I have discovered in this period of time, particularly being a man in this business, is to listen.

You can read the full actors roundtable story here and watch videos from the lengthy conversation here.

The Envelope screening series continues too, as contenders talk about their movies with Los Angeles Times writers. You can watch film writer Mark Olsens conversation with Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund, director of foreign language film contender The Square, here.

Call Me by Your Name leads Spirit Awards noms

The past four winners of the Independent Spirit Awards best feature  12 Years a Slave, Birdman, Spotlight and Moonlight  have gone on to take the Oscar for best picture.

Will the streak extend to five this year?

I broke down the nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards here. The luminous love story Call Me by Your Name, opening in limited release today, led the field with six nods. Jordan Peeles horror satire Get Out and the heist thriller Good Time each earned five.

The Spirit Awards nominations are always a strange, interesting mix of the familiar and festival titles that havent opened yet in the States. Recognition across the categories often doesnt make sense. How does Good Time score all those nominations but fall short for best feature? No nominations at all for The Shape of Water? Not even for the great Sally Hawkins? Did voters know Guillermo del Toros movie cost less than $20 million, meeting the Spirits eligibility requirements?

At any rate, this years best picture Oscar race will begin to take some shape soon when critics groups weigh in with their selections in early December. Until then, you can check out this video of Times film critic Justin Chang reviewing Spirits fave Call Me by Your Name here.

Blade Runner 2049" cinematographer Roger Deakins. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

Roger Deakins  13 Oscar noms and counting

If your work is noticed, then it really means that its standing apart from the film, legendary cinematographer tells The Times in an interview you can read here. In the wrong way. Its like somebody saying, I like that shot, and me thinking, Damn. When youre watching a film, everything should feel of a piece.

Deakins has earned 13 Oscar nominations over the years for movies as varied as Fargo, The Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall and The Man Who Wasnt There.

Hes likely to score a 14th nomination for Blade Runner 2049, a film that its star Harrison Ford calls a cathedral of a movie. Will this be the year that Deakins finally wins? Itd help if Blade Runner 2049 picks up a few other Oscar nominations. Its deserving. But it also feels like the kind of movie that, like its predecessor, will gain in appreciation over time.

Feedback?

Id love to hear from you. Email me at glenn.whipp@latimes.com.

Cant get enough about awards season? Follow me at @glennwhipp on Twitter.

glenn.whipp@latimes.com

Twitter: @glennwhipp
Here are the 2018 SAG Awards nominees reactions to their nods

The on-camera talent recognized during the 24th Screen Actors Guild Award nominations on Wednesday shared their excitement and gratitude for the special honor bestowed upon them by the acting community.

The SAG Awards serve up laurels for actors and ensemble casts working in television and film as voted by their peers. The awards show, hosted by The Good Place star Kristen Bell, will take place on Jan. 21.

LIST: The 2018 SAG Award nominees

In statements to the Los Angeles Times, several nominees repeatedly thanked their drama families, particularly the casts and crews of their respective projects. Heres what some of them had to say about the recognition:

Alison Brie. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Alison Brie, GLOW

It is such a great honor to be recognized by my fellow actors with this nomination. I am so proud to be part of a show that celebrates the craft of acting, with all its pitfalls and glories, and to be able to work with such a diverse group of insanely talented women. GLOW has meant the world to me and Im deeply thankful for this recognition for me and the cast. Thank you SAG-AFTRA!!

Millie Bobby Brown. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Millie Bobby Brown, Stranger Things

Screen Actors Guild! Thank you SO much for recognizing me and our cast for the second year in a row! This means the world coming from you, our peers. I am so lucky and honored to have the privilege of playing Eleven  a strong, powerful, badass, strange, wonderful character! Cant wait to celebrate with my Stranger Things family!

Timothee Chalamet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

What an incredible morning! This nomination is very close to my heart because its from the actor. When we made Call Me By Your Name, we had no idea what it would turn into. The experience in making the film with Armie [Hammer] was so special, and yet, we just didnt know. Simply put, Ive been blown away by the response this film has received. And, to be included in ensemble along with my Lady Bird family (congrats, Saoirse [Ronan]!) makes this recognition that much more special.

David Harbour. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

David Harbour, Stranger Things

If it isnt wildly apparent by now, Ill say it directly  I love actors! To be recognized by my peers in such distinguished company gives me a special joy. And Millie [Bobby Brown] and the show! Beyond.

When I act, when I create, I feel alive, full to bursting, and I feel of service to the mysterious goodness that firmly exists in this world. I have been rewarded with a life that indulges in the primacy of self, but at its core and at its purest and its best, it is a life of service. A service to audiences. To prod and poke when necessary, to comfort and entertain when times seem dark, to ever expand the human experience, to offer a reason to live, to celebrate to the gods the great gift and scourge that is consciousness. Sometimes it means expressing iron intellect and rigorous truth that bonds us all in the achingly profound wisdom of no escape. Sometimes it means revealing the intimate moments of endurance, of unexpected kindness, unasked for love. And sometimes it simply means making a fierce and joyful noise, to spin, to twirl, to throw your hands up with the relentless dips and climb aboard this roller coaster of life. Ya know, to dance. *insert Hopper dancing gif*

Thank you for recognizing me, as it might mean itll be easier to get more jobs doing it.

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

I am beyond thrilled to have received the honor of this nomination. And to receive it from fellow colleagues is huge to me. Guillermo [del Toro], this film and the entire cast and crew hold a very special place in my heart and always will. Each and every one of them made me better. I am truly delighted more than I can really express in words but my heart is fit to burst with pride for us all. Thank you dearest SAG members. Thank you for your embrace.

Sean Hayes. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Sean Hayes, Will & Grace

I am so honored to be recognized in this category with these extraordinary actors. I love acting because I love actors. I also like to bake sometimes.

Richard Jenkins. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water

I am thrilled and humbled to be nominated by my peers for a SAG Award. This union is very close to my heart. Well, the SAG card is in my wallet, so its a little further south.

Zoe Kazan. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Zoe Kazan, The Big Sick

Thank you to SAG for honoring The Big Sick ensemble with a nomination. It means so much to us, especially from our acting peers. I am deeply proud to be a part of this film and to have brought Kumail [Nanjiani] and Emily [V. Gordon]s story into the world, especially at this time. We are particularly moved to have been recognized as an ensemble, as this was such an extraordinary collaborative experience Im excited to be reunited once more with my movie family, and to share this with Kumail, Holly [Hunter], Ray [Romano], Zenobia [Shroff], Anupam [Kher], and Adeel [Akhtar] and everyone else who helped bring The Big Sick to life.

Nicole Kidman. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies

What an amazing morning! Thank you to SAG-AFTRA for recognizing Big Little Lies in such a significant way. Ive been acting since I was 14 and have dedicated an enormous amount of my life to my craft so to be acknowledged by my acting family is the most incredible honor.

Jason Bateman and Laura Linney. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Laura Linney, Ozark

I am so proud to be included in a list of such wonderful actresses who have raised the bar so high. What an amazing year for women in television. And I am especially proud to be representing Ozark with my TV spouse, the ever deserving Jason Bateman! Thank you SAG-AFTRA!

Marc Maron. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Marc Maron, GLOW

I am stunned and excited to be recognized by other actors in this way. I really never thought this was possible in my life. It helps to be surrounded by amazing actors and to have such a defined and well written character as Sam Sylvia and to be on a show as unique as GLOW. I am just a small part. So, thanks SAG for recognizing me and the mind-blowing ensemble that is GLOW.

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, The Big Sick

We are so lucky to have been graced with the enormous talents of every single member of our cast. They each put a piece of themselves into our story and we are thrilled at being recognized. Thank you. And a special shout out to Holly Hunters individual nomination!

Now we have to go tell our real parents that they arent actually nominated.

Bob Odenkirk. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul

I am thrilled to get this nomination from my fellow actors! At Better Call Saul I am surrounded by an ensemble of excellence  Michael McKean, Rhea Seehorn, Jonathan Banks, everybody raises my game. Thank you to SAG-AFTRA.

Gary Oldman. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Gary Oldman, The Darkest Hour

No actor could ever deny the special satisfaction that comes from being recognized by your fellow artists  we all share the same challenges, insecurities, and uncertainties, chief among them, the question am I any good? this nomination, and in the wonderful company of the other nominees, is so very satisfying.

Margot Robbie. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Margot Robbie, I, Tonya

Im so incredibly moved and excited to be nominated by my fellow actors. I feel very fortunate to be able to have had the opportunity to bring Tonyas story to the big screen. Thank you to Steven [Rogers] for his brilliant and unique script, to Allison [Janney] and Sebastian [Stan] for being such incredible screen partners and to Craig [Gillespie] for his amazing direction and perfectly capturing the tone and essence of the film. Im so honored to be recognized among the truly powerful and wonderful women in the category. I cant wait to celebrate with everyone.

Sam Rockwell. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

It is such an honor to be nominated by your fellow actors, I have been a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild for as long as I can remember. To share it with this wonderful ensemble whom I have had the pleasure to work with over the years and others I got to collaborate with for the first time is truly special. I want to thank Martin McDonagh, our director and writer, for crafting these characters, as well as Woody [Harrelson], Fran [McDormand] and the rest of the cast who brought the town of Ebbing to life on screen. I am thrilled.

Ray Romano. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Ray Romano, The Big Sick

This is awesome but I wont believe it till the recount.
Stephen Cone grew up the son of a Southern Baptist minister in South Carolina, where he led Bible study classes in high school while coming to grips with an emerging queer identity.

Now based in Chicago, where he teaches at Northwestern, the 37-year-old is the rare contemporary filmmaker whose work celebrates the act of questioning and makes introspection seem dynamic, even monumental. His remarkable micro-budget films represent an attempt to navigate the tangled, overlapping currents of faith and sexuality.

Earlier this month, New Yorks Museum of the Moving Image staged a weeklong Cone retrospective, Talk About the Passion: Stephen Cones First Act, but he remains an under-the-radar talent. His eighth and most accomplished feature, the transcendent Princess Cyd  which opens Dec. 1 and comes to VOD Dec. 5  represents Cones first theatrical release in Los Angeles.

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Ive had the most bizarre, zigzaggy path, the filmmaker says, speaking by phone from his retrospective in New York. I didnt go to film school. I was a theater major. In 2005 I was at a [terrible] day job, and I called my dad, and I said: Ive got to start making movies. Its what Ive been wanting to do forever. Im just going to make one this summer.

Despite the inspiring origin story, five years and several movies after that phone call, he still hadnt hit his stride.

Then in 2011 with The Wise Kids, a semiautobiographical ensemble drama about Bible Belt high schoolers, he made a breakthrough. After several festivals rejected the film, it was discovered by Kim Yutani, then a programmer at L.A.s Outfest. According to Cone, I got an email, essentially saying: This never happens. I dont know who you are. I just found your movie in this pile of submissions, and I think its really special.

The Wise Kids premiered at Outfest, where it took home prizes for outstanding U.S. dramatic feature film and outstanding screenwriting.

Cones next feature, 2013s Black Box, was even more singular. Its a fiercely moving portrait of a theater-school graduate student (Josephine Decker) directing her own adaptation of a cheap horror novel, a process that challenges her undergraduate acting ensemble in unexpected ways. The film, which merges the setup of The Breakfast Club with the occult intelligence of Jacques Rivette, is profoundly resonant on the subject of mentorship. But the film was not picked up for theatrical distribution and had its New York premiere just last week. 

Henry Gambles Birthday Party, from 2015, is another showcase of narrative restraint and coiled emotion, an ensemble drama spanning 24 hours and centered around a preachers son exploring the contours of his homosexuality. It demonstrates Cones facility with young actors and his continued interest in high school as a spiritual staging ground.

Im interested in teenagers insofar as that is the most transformative portion of life, says Cone, who has dated both women and men and identifies as queer. The journey from 16 to 24 is a big deal, and its when a lot of sexual and spiritual discoveries are made.

The title character of Princess Cyd is another teenager (Jessie Pinnick). Shes sent to spend a brief summer break in Chicago with a novelist aunt (Rebecca Spence) she hardly knows. Unlike Cones earlier ensemble pieces, Cyd is largely a two-hander, performed by two unknown Chicago-based actors, each a revelation. With his usual emotional precision, Cone stages a clash of sensibilities between a more-or-less chaste adult woman living a deeply rooted life of the mind and a blunt, precocious, sexually confident 16-year-old with the casual self-possession to admit, Oh, I dont really read.

Although Cone is an ardent cinephile whose affection for humanist exemplars Jean Renoir and Jonathan Demme is increasingly apparent in his work, he has drawn sustained motivation from literature.

Princess Cyd was largely inspired by my love of Marilynne Robinson, Cone says, referring to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gilead and Housekeeping.

I was just sort of astonished that theres this high American intellectual who has somehow managed to reconcile belief in Christ with a passion for science, a passion for community, a love of John Calvin and an obsession with language  to have all of these things in one person. I dont call myself a Christian anymore, nor do I really believe in a supernatural realm in a traditional sense, but shes made me realize that if someone wants to take a meaningful imaginative leap into faith, then it can be beautiful. It can also be corrupted, but it can be beautiful.

Miranda, the novelist character who shares some of Robinsons traits, draws strength from poetry, the American Transcendentalists and the platonic camaraderie of her academic peers. Although Princess Cyd confronts the characters limitations, Cone clearly sees the value of her monastic conduct.

Weve progressed in so many ways, Cone says, and Id never want to set the clock back and go back in time. But theres something of the quiet, focused life of the mind in 19th and 20th century America that seems to be degraded and falling away, and I find it so alive and exhilarating. It doesnt strike me as a stale thing. It can be electric. And we need to stay in touch with that.

The centerpiece sequence of Princess Cyd involves Mirandas semi-regular soiree, where a motley crew of intellectuals gather in and around her rambling house to drink wine, read poetry and confront one another with the force of ideas.

For Cone, the sequence cuts to the core of his process. My closest equivalent to a soiree is when Im making a movie. Thats when I feel like Im in a community. To do a scene like the soiree is just putting a frame around a sort of secular church and celebrating it.

calendar@latimes.com
Earlier this year, the New York City Council passed a bill establishing a new Office of Nightlife, a decree signed by Mayor Bill De Blasio at House of Yes, a popular Brooklyn dance venue.

New York was following the lead of cities around the world. London, Berlin and Amsterdam have all warmed to the idea that the late-night economy and culture are key parts of what makes cities attractive. In turn, they have been creating official or quasi-governmental offices to help foster and regulate it.

Historically, nightlife has had an adversarial relationship with the city and communities, said New York city councilman Rafael Espinal, who proposed the legislation to create the office. This office will bridge that relationship and create dialogue.

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Such a conversation could, in theory, help underground, do-it-yourself venues find a path to legitimacy, all while cultivating entrepreneurs and preserving the after-hours creative culture that make urban areas appealing to artists. New Yorks action has led many prominent voices in L.A. nightlife to ask if such an office could help manage our sprawling music, bar and club scene.

It could also lead to safer nightlife. In the months since Decembers tragic Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, which killed dozens of young music fans, Los Angeles has cracked down on unpermitted warehouse parties, which often play host to music and communities shut out of mainstream venues. But those shows have a huge cultural value, and still continue  just further under the radar in more marginal spaces.

Meanwhile, promoters and venue owners say the permitting and building-code process is more time-consuming and expensive than ever.

All operators face enormous hurdles in getting their venues open in Los Angeles. Some run out of money before ever opening their doors, said Cedd Moses, the founder of the bar and club network 213 Hospitality, which helped transform downtown L.A. over a decade ago. L.A. would definitely benefit, assuming the right person is put in place.

Given escalating gentrification and increased scrutiny around safety, the challenge of maintaining a thriving nightlife in L.A. may finally warrant specific attention.

Whats been done before hasnt worked, said Simon Rust Lamb, an attorney and the former COO and general counsel of the dance music promoter Insomniac.

Hes pushing to create such an office in L.A.

There are film offices in L.A. and in many states that made a decision to promote that industry, he added. Why doesnt that exist for music here?

From the most under-the-radar do-it-yourself spaces to the most lucrative bars, L.A. and Californias challenges with managing its nightlife are considerable. While the area is booming with nightlife development, from small music venues in downtown to swank hotels in Hollywood, there are complex issues to be resolved.

Unlike the film industry, which has a well-connected lobbying wing and coordinating body for permits, Film L.A., the nightlife industry here has no similar unifying structure. Neither, for that matter, do residents affected by busy nightlife scenes or artists and fans whose cultural life depends on after-dark venues.

It would be great to have someone at City Hall to meet with neighbors and address concerns, said Dave Cooley, the owner of the club and restaurant the Abbey in West Hollywood. He cites West Hollywoods WeHo Ambassadors program, which assists tourists and monitors popular bar areas for trouble, as a model program.

I wish the city would get a nightlife manager, he said of L.A. The laws [city and state] are so outdated and need to be changed.

Venues ranging from underground clubs like Non Plus Ultra to Fashion District live-work artist lofts  and even some corporate-sponsored warehouse shows  have been shut down recently. After Non Plus Ultra closed in March, one of its founders told The Times that they had struck out in securing the proper permits.

It all just depends on who you talk to, said the clubs Jerry DeFazio. If they could give us the information we needed, wed use it, but if you cant find it, its harder.

Bob Duenas, a senior City Planner with L.A., defended the current permitting system.

The process is pretty transparent, but an applicant has to do a lot of legwork before they come in, he admitted. Conditional use permits typically take six to eight months for approval, and Duenas said that a so-called night mayor could help bring underground promoters into the light and help established ones navigate the process.

That could be a good idea, he said. We provide services but we dont advocate [for the nightlife industries]. But if there was someone to sit down with us and say We need this kind of attention, we could do that.

Even big concert promoters have felt the pinch.

After that tragic [Ghost Ship] fire, its a different process to get things done now, said Insomniac founder Pasquale Rotella, whose Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas is Americas largest multi-day music festival. We understand why, but its become so difficult.

Rotella had in the past thrown electronic dance music (EDM) events at a Chinatown warehouse, but has stepped away in recent months due to what he described as bureaucratic difficulties.

For smaller promoters, more-accessible permitting and advice on safety-codes can mean the difference producing a safe event or canceling.

Safety is always high on our concern list. I would love someone to help with permits and check spaces, said Derek Marshall, the promoter behind the new activist club night Party Like You Give A....

In Europe, Night Mayors have helped mediate cities after-dark economies for years. The idea began in Berlin and Amsterdam, where they had L.A.s opposite problem  the big crowds and liberality of their club scenes were making some longtime residents annoyed.

When Mirik Milan, the Night Mayor of Amsterdam, took the job in 2012, he pursued 24-hour licenses for a string of nightclubs outside the compact citys central nightlife district. But he also updated design elements (like removing overstuffed bike racks from pedestrian thoroughfares) and established a 311-style hotline, where concerned neighbors could get an immediate response.

The independent non-profit agency is run with a mix of city funds and fees from club owners. Its freed up police resources, with a staff given authority to address problems.

Milan said violent crime went down 28%, nuisance complaints went down 30%, and the effort earned the trust of promoters, government and residents.

Its a holistic approach to making sure people are more engaged, Milan said. We got support for the industry and the nighttime economy, but there was also good incentive to take care of the downsides.

An L.A. office of nightlife wouldnt have to look exactly like New Yorks. There are local obstacles here: namely, the fact that alcohol policy is largely determined by the state, and the difficulty of corralling corraling such a sprawling (and sometimes oppositional) coalition of venues, promoters and regulators.

Recent marijuana dispensary legislation could be one model, but some local politicians, like L.A. city councilman Paul Koretz, have opposed measures to liberalize nightlife regulations.

But New Yorks recent experience could still be instructive.

Over the last decade, New York has seen a spate of beloved DIY venues like Death By Audio, 285 Kent, Shea Stadium and Glasslands close in the face of rising rents, code regulations and commercial development (the new Vice Media offices booted Death By Audio, for instance).

Gentrification is a problem faced by many changing neighborhoods, but venues catering to people of color, LGBT partiers or less-marketable genres of music are often the most vulnerable.

The New York office includes a new Director of Nightlife and a 12-member Nightlife Advisory Panel that will act as a liaison between club owners, residents and government, and help guide city policy around preserving the citys nightlife.

Espinal said that the new office (coupled with a successful effort to repeal New Yor Citys cabaret law, which prohibits dancing in clubs without a specific license),would give a voice to the disparate, sometimes government-averse nightlife community, while also bringing planning and accountability to the industry.

New York nightlife is iconic and attracts people from all over the world, Espinal said. For us to preserve that brand, creativity has to flourish. If we lose the luster of nightlife, were going to lose the reason people want to live here.

For breaking music news, follow @augustbrown on Twitter.
SUNDAY

A bevy of beauties will strut their stuff in Las Vegas for The 66th Miss Universe Competition. Steve Harvey returns as host. 7 p.m. Fox

Young do-gooders collect their due and Kelly Clarkson receives special honors at the Nickelodeon HALO Awards 2017. Performers include Kelsea Ballerini and Jacob Sartorius. 7 p.m. Nickelodeon

Its ladies night! Toni Braxton and 1990s vocal trio SWV are honored at the 2017 Soul Train Awards. Erykah Badu is back to host. 8 p.m. BET; also VH1

Trading places: Full Houses Candace Cameron Bure plays identical twins in the new holiday comedy Switched for Christmas. 8 p.m. Hallmark Channel

Cute couple: Melissa Joan Hart and Mario Lopez are rival shop owners in the new TV movie A Very Merry Toy Store. Brian Dennehy also stars. 8 p.m. Lifetime

The new special Titanic: 20 Years Later With James Cameron finds the filmmaker revisiting one of his many mega-hit movies. 9 p.m. National Geographic Channel

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Bruuuce! The new documentary Bruce Springsteen: In His Own Words gets up close and personal with the rocker they call The Boss. 10 p.m. BBC America

MONDAY

Crossover alert, again! Supergirl kicks off yet another storyline that continues on a new Arrow before concluding the next night on The Flash and DCs Legends of Tomorrow. 8 and 9 p.m. KTLA; also Tue.

Host Reba McEntire, et al., will twang the ancient yuletide carol in the special CMA Country Christmas. Luke Bryan, Alan Jackson, Lady Antebellum and Little Big Town are among the performers for the annual event in Nashville. 8 p.m. ABC

Fashion Police, we hardly knew ye. The dishy series once hosted by the late Joan Rivers airs its final episode. 8 p.m. E!

The Suite Lifes Brenda Song tries to earn her wings in the family-friendly fantasy flick Angry Angel. Jason Biggs also stars. 9 p.m. Freeform

Climbing the ladder: The 2016 documentary Woman on Fire profiles the FDNYs first openly transgender firefighter. 9 p.m. Starz

Everyones favorite a cappella group makes merry in the new special A Very Pentatonix Christmas. 10 p.m. NBC

The gritty new documentary Meth Storm follows DEA efforts to stanch the flow of the highly addictive drug coming into the U.S. from Mexico. 10 p.m. HBO

Young folks without a lick of sense between em party on the Gulf Coast in the new reality series Floribama Shore. 10 p.m. MTV

TUESDAY

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose, and hes back in this classic animated special. 8 p.m. CBS

The hit family drama This Is Us offers its fall finale. With Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia and Sterling K. Brown. 9 p.m. NBC

A bevy of beauties will strut their stuff in Shanghai for this years edition of The Victorias Secret Fashion Show. With Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel, et al. 10 p.m. CBS

The eggnog will flow in a Drunk History Christmas Special. With Rob Corddry, Colin Hanks and Ken Marino. 10 p.m. Comedy Central

WEDNESDAY

Rachel Brosnahan is The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, a 1950s housewife who tries her hand at stand-up comedy, in this new series from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. Tony Shalhoub and Family Guys Alex Borstein also star. Any time, Amazon

Jennifer Nettles, Gwen Stefani, Hamiltons Leslie Odom Jr. and the aforementioned Pentatonix help celebrate Christmas in Rockefeller Center. 8 p.m. NBC

On they sweep, with threshing oar: The historical drama Vikings sails in for a fifth season. 9 p.m. History Channel

The new special Bruno Mars: 24K Magic Live at the Apollo finds the hit-maker bringing his uptown funk to the historic theater in Harlem. 10 p.m. CBS

THURSDAY

It just wouldnt be Christmas without the classic animated special A Charlie Brown Christmas. 8 p.m. ABC

Fitz and the Tantrums and Glees Lea Michele are among the performers taking the stage for the new special The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration. 9 p.m. ABC

A killer speaks in the new five-part true-crime docu-series The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All. 10 p.m. A&E

Theres Lost Gold in them thar hills, and two brothers are lookin to find it in this new unscripted series. 11 p.m. Travel Channel

FRIDAY

After four seasons, the teen-themed drama East Los High returns for one final farewell episode. Any time, Hulu

Journalist Gay Taleses contentious relationship with one of his creepier subjects is the subject of the creepy new documentary Voyeur. Any time, Netflix

Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are back in action for a fifth season. With Clark Gregg and Ming-Na Wen. 8 p.m. ABC

Descendants Dove Cameron and Sofia Carson perform as part of Disney Parks Presents a Disney Channel Holiday Celebration. 8:30 p.m. Disney Channel

The laughs are on them in the stand-up showcase All Def Comedy. 10 p.m. HBO

The laughs are on him in the new stand-up special Orny Adams: More Than Loud. 10 p.m. Showtime

SATURDAY

Katherine Heigl has it in for her ex-hubbys new gal Rosario Dawson in the 2017 thriller Unforgettable. 7:15 p.m. HBO

xXxs Vin Diesel returns as Xander Cage in the 2017 action sequel xXx: Return of Xander Cage. With Samuel L. Jackson. 8 p.m. Epix

Ashley Williams and Teddy Sears hook up for the holidays in the new TV movie Christmas in Evergreen. 8 p.m. Hallmark Channel

The holidays go off without a hitch  or rather, with a hitch  in the new TV movie Four Christmases and a Wedding. With Arielle Kebbel and Markie Post. 8 p.m. Lifetime

The laughs are on her in the new stand-up special Michelle Wolf: Nice Lady. 9 p.m. HBO

Theyre gonna get wrecked at the Office Christmas Party in this raucous 2016 comedy. With Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T. J. Miller and Jennifer Aniston. 9 p.m. Showtime

Click here to download: TV listings for the week of Nov. 26 - Dec. 2, 2017 in PDF format

This weeks TV Movies
Whats in season: One of the sweeter offerings of winter, mandarin oranges are known for their loose, easy-peeling skins. The fruit is generally in season from late fall through early spring. Tangerines were one of the first varieties of mandarins imported to the United States, arriving from Tangier, Morocco. Today, other popular varieties include red-orange clementines and small Japanese Satsumas, as well as large Dekopon and tiny Ojai pixies.

Cakes, cocktails and more great recipes using mandarin oranges >>

What to cook: Although varieties vary slightly in flavor, mandarins are generally known for their sweet-tangy notes, and they make a perfect winter snack on the go. Peel the fruit and use the slices to lend color and flavor to salads or as a garnish for cakes and other baked goods. Juice the fruit and use as a base for marinades, sorbets, ice creams, jams and beverages. And remember to save the peel and add the zest to cocktails, muffins and pastries.

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Whats on the horizon: Kale, chard and other winter greens are showing up at stands

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Culinary SOS: Recipes from your favorite restaurants

Quick dinner ideas: Recipes ready in 30 minutes or less

Browse our Recipe Database for thousands of our best recipes

noelle.carter@latimes.com

@noellecarter
Two male suspects were killed Thursday afternoon when a pursuit involving Orange County sheriffs deputies ended in a collision at Imperial Highway and Big Sky Lane in Anaheim, authorities said.

Deputies responded about 12:40 p.m. to a report of suspicious activity in the 19000 block of Ridgeview Road in Villa Park, said Jaimee Blashaw, a spokeswoman for the Sheriffs Department.

The deputies made contact with the suspects, who fled in a gray Ford Focus, Blashaw and Anaheim Police Sgt. Daron Wyatt said.

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During the four-minute pursuit, one of the suspects threw out a pillowcase that contained laptops and jewelry, Blashaw said.

As the suspects vehicle headed north on Imperial Highway, it crossed into the southbound lanes and collided head-on with a Kia SUV, Wyatt said.

The driver of the Ford was pronounced dead at the scene. A male in the rear passenger seat was taken to a hospital, where he died. A female in the front passenger seat suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Wyatt said the female driver of the Kia was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

The names and ages of the suspects were not given.

No deputies were injured, Blashaw said.

The danger of police pursuits has received renewed attention in recent years. The Los Angeles County civil grand jury in recent months released a report emphasizing the importance of training for law enforcement in reducing the likelihood of crashes during pursuits.

A Times data analysis showed that 1 in 10 car chases initiated by the Los Angeles Police Department from 2006 to 2014 resulted in injuries to bystanders.

Times staff writer James Queally contributed to this report.

corina.knoll@latimes.com

@corinaknoll
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said he expects his department  which already is handling more than two dozen allegations of sexual misconduct by Hollywood figures  to investigate even more.

We anticipate the LAPD and other jurisdictions will receive even more high profile sex crime reports in the coming weeks and months, Beck said in an email. We encourage all victims of sexual assault to come forward to report these crimes.

The LAPD has 28 open investigations related to Hollywood and media figures, including mogul Harvey Weinstein, actor Ed Westwick, writer Murray Miller and agent Tyler Grasham. The department also has taken 37 other sex crimes reports that it has sent to other law enforcement agencies, believing the alleged crimes occurred in those jurisdictions. All have of the accused have denied wrongdoing.

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The LAPD has established five teams of two detectives to exclusively investigate allegations of sexual misconduct in Hollywood. The teams include members of the cold-case unit because those detectives are experts in dealing with old criminal allegations that lack physical evidence.

Beck said his department is committed to looking into all allegations made by those who feel they were victimized.

We recognize the significant trauma these victims suffer at the hands of the predators who commit these heinous crimes, he said in the email. Our detectives are coordinating closely with our local prosecutors and other police agencies including the NYPD. The high profile nature of these particular cases has not changed our unyielding commitment to seek justice for ALL victims of sexual assault.

Both law enforcement sources and legal experts said building the cases is going to take time. Detectives likely will interview witnesses and accusers numerous times before bringing a case to prosecutors.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey announced this month that she has assigned a group of veteran sex crimes prosecutors to examine the cases and ensure a uniform approach to the legal review and possible prosecution of any case that meets both the legal and factual standards for criminal prosecution.

Some Hollywood allegations already have been closed.

Actor Corey Feldman recently reported to the LAPD that he was sexually abused by two adults as a child in the industry. But police said the case could not go forward because the statute of limitations was already up.

Still, the LAPD praised Feldman for coming forward.
Being homeless in Malibu is different.

Chris Smith watches ducks land on the lagoon at sunset from his beach encampment, known to locals as Margaritaville.

Nancy Rosenquist told the City Council of huddling behind a dumpster and listening to Lady Gaga record a song in an adjacent building.

Residents have long been generous to those who live in the citys 21 miles of canyons, beaches and glittering shopping centers.

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For 17 years, religious groups fed homeless people, and the city and private donors put up hundreds of thousands of dollars for social workers to find them housing and services.

But Malibu United Methodist Church  facing pressure from the city  in recent weeks took a U-turn, deciding twice-weekly dinners for homeless people would stop after Thanksgiving. The cutoff came after city officials summoned organizers and suggested they were attracting more homeless people and making the problem worse.

Standing on Stone, a Christian outreach group, helped host the dinners at Malibu United Methodist Church before they were shut down. The group had already been forced to move three other times because of complaints. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times )

The issue boiled over on conservative and Christian online forums, where Malibu residents were castigated as liberal hypocrites. Lurid death threats poured in to City Hall.

At an emotional public hearing last week, Mayor Skylar Peak denied ordering the meals to end, but he also apologized for miscommunication.

I just think we need to treat people like our brother and dont look where they came from, Kay Gabbard, one of the meal organizers, said later.

Peak said the city wanted to work with volunteers on a solution.

I will stand by the fact that everyone up here is compassionate about everyone in the community, he said.

Malibu, population 13,000, has roughly 180 homeless residents but no shelter or housing for poor people.

As homelessness began to grow, a group called the Community Assistance and Resource Team began handing out clothes and toiletries and arranging homeless service days with Los Angeles County.

Last year, some of the members broke off and raised $460,000 to hire full-time social workers from the People Concern, a Southern California nonprofit social services agency.

In just over a year, the social workers got 24 of Malibus homeless people off the streets, including 11 placed in permanent housing.

Meanwhile, Malibu United Methodist Church and Standing on Stone, a Christian group, had been hosting twice-weekly homeless dinners on Wednesdays and Thursdays for three years. The church is in a residential neighborhood, near the high school.

After the Metros Expo Line opened to Santa Monica last year, neighbors began complaining of mentally ill and rough-looking characters camping at the beach and hanging out near schools.

A homeless person was taking a shower in the girls locker room in middle school  that wasnt real good, said Gary Peterson, a retired developer and hotelier who quit the churchs board of trustees over the meal issue. Providing dinner is a nice thing to do and a good thing, but its the location.

The L.A. County Sheriffs Department reported a surge in homeless nuisance calls and scattered crimes, although not necessarily committed by transients; one woman woke to find a naked man standing over her bed.

Some homeless people believed residents were reacting against an influx of African Americans from Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles. Malibu is 90% white.

People dont want to see homeless people around, said Tyrone Valiant, 70, as he waited outside the Malibu library for a bus. Now theyre cutting off the food.

At one of the final dinners last week, 50 people from several Southern California communities lined up on a brick patio festooned with lights to sample a cornucopia of home-cooked food: hors doeuvre platters, grilled chicken, ham, salads, fruit, mac and cheese, lasagna, mashed potatoes and an entire dessert table.

Chris Smith, whose encampment near Zuma Beach is known to locals as Margaritaville, said the churchs meals were a help. But the taxpayers dont want to take a chance on crime, and I kinda agree with them, he said. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times )

This is very sad for us; weve been enjoying these friends for more than three years, said the Rev. Sandy Liddell, the Methodist churchs pastor.

During the council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Rick Mullen suggested volunteers put together box lunches for the social workers to hand out instead of dinners.

Its not about the meals, said Shifra Wylder of Standing on Stone, which has fed Malibus homeless people for 17 years.

Over the years, her group has helped hundreds of homeless people move into apartments, return to school or reunite with their families, she told the council.

John Maceri, the People Concerns executive director, later said he disagreed that the meals contributed to Malibus homeless problem. But he recognized that neighbors see people coming into their community and are genuinely upset.

Maurice Smith, who lives at a concession stand near Zuma Beach, is silhouetted by the setting sun. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times )

What makes it all the sadder is its pitting neighbor against neighbor, he said.

Liddell pledged to find a new place for the feedings, but that could be tough. Standing on Stone has been forced to move three other times because of complaints, Wylder said.

Theres no place in Malibu to go, she said.

Several homeless people said they sympathized with the citys dilemma. Back at Margaritaville, Chris Smith said he was recovering from a traumatic eviction and the meals are definitely helping.

But the taxpayers dont want to take a chance on crime, and I kinda agree with them, he said.

Some homeless people are good and some are bad, he added, before jumping on his bike and heading to the church.

gholland@latimes.com

Twitter: @geholland
Under Saddam Hussein, Iraqi artist Alaa Al-Saffar was forced to sculpt large statues to suit the dictators whims.

After Hussein fell from power, Al-Saffar began receiving death threats and eventually fled to the U.S. Now living in El Cajon, hes still waiting to find out if he will be granted asylum.

When I come here, I feel the freedom, the nice weather, the nice people, Al-Saffar said. Now Im inspired to work again.

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When he talks about pieces he created for Hussein, Al-Saffar clarifies that he didnt take the commissions by choice.

He wanted [it], not me, he says, showing a proposal for a statue in the middle of Baghdad that featured an 11-meter version of Hussein.

Under the regime, artists who showed skill were forced to work for Hussein or go into hiding, Al-Saffar said.

The arts have to be for revolution, not the dictators, Al-Saffar said. But we cant. If you do that, they will kill you.

Al-Saffar remembers being taken on a bus with windows tinted so dark that he couldnt see where he was going. He would meet with Hussein and create statues for him. He usually didnt know what his work would be used for, he said.

When he received instructions to sculpt white birds, he didnt know they were for the then-dictators birthday party until he saw them on state-run TV.

Al-Saffar got a masters degree in art in Geneva in 1975 and returned to Iraq in 1980. When war broke out, he was unable to leave again.

After the end of Husseins reign, Al-Saffar had more freedom to make what he wanted, but for several years, he couldnt find anyone to buy his work.

What I do? I dont know any business, only just this, Al-Saffar said.

Then the government chose him to create a memorial for a 2005 stampede on a bridge in which an estimated 1,000 people died. The stampede was caused by a rumor that a suicide bomber was on the bridge.

Al-Saffar never got to make the full-size sculpture because the government didnt have enough money. After a news article about the project identified him as a former artist for Hussein, Al-Saffar said he began receiving death threats.

He was also targeted by Al Qaeda, he said, because the group didnt allow art. The militia told him to destroy his work, he said, so he did.

After his adult daughter and her husband came to the U.S. on visas given to Iraqis who helped the U.S. military, Al-Saffar and his wife got temporary visas to come visit.

Once they arrived safely in the U.S. a few days before Thanksgiving in 2014, they applied for asylum. Since they already had temporary visas, their cases are in the affirmative asylum process.

Affirmative asylum generally takes longer than defensive asylum, which is for those who are in the U.S. without authorization or who ask for asylum on arrival at the border.

During the asylum application process, a U.S. immigration official asked Al-Saffar how he feels in Iraq.

I told him, In Iraq, I need five eyes, Al-Saffar said. All the time, Im afraid.

The wait has been difficult, he said. He has several self-portraits that express his anxiety.

In one, the artist plucks petals from a flower, like a lover who wants to know if his love is requited. In another, he holds a musical instrument as though to play it, but his hands are missing.

Still, his art has a freedom here that it couldnt back home.

He creates art from stories that he imagines. Some of his paintings feature curvaceous, naked women. Those, he said, would never have been allowed in Iraq.

In El Cajon, the side of a business on Main Street features a piece he calls Half Freedom. It replicates part of the Freedom Monument in Baghdad.

Al-Saffar wants to find someone to fund another piece in San Diego to symbolize the freedom that he and other Iraqis have found in the U.S. He has a model of it in his studio, a cylinder with Freedom written on the side in many of the languages spoken in Iraq, including in English underneath the American flag.

The cylinder tilts slightly to represent people who want freedom but havent been able to come to the U.S., he said.

Morrissey writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com
Decades into a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole, Craig Coley continued to insist he was innocent.

The former restaurant night manager had fought unsuccessfully for years to overturn a conviction for a grisly double murder that had shocked Simi Valley in 1978.

But when police recently reopened the case, they faced a daunting obstacle. After Coley lost his final appeal years ago, a judge had issued an order permitting the destruction of the crime scene evidence.

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A cold-case detective began what some expected to be a fruitless search. He tried to contact the two laboratories that had performed rudimentary tests on the crime scene evidence in the 1970s and found that both had gone out of business. A Northern California lab had acquired their contents.

Thats when the detective discovered that the evidence boxes had not been destroyed but were sitting forgotten, intact and in storage.

New tests found that a key piece of evidence used to convict Coley did not carry any of his DNA, investigators said.

We had thought it was destroyed, Michael Schwartz, Ventura County special assistant district attorney, said in an interview Thursday. Whether wed reached the same conclusion without that, I dont know.

Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned Coley on Wednesday, writing that the DNA evidence and a painstaking re-investigation of the case proved his innocence.

Coley was 31 when he was arrested, and 70 when he was released Wednesday. A former Simi Valley police officer who was convinced of Coleys innocence plans to help him get acclimated to freedom in San Diego, the officer wrote on a GoFundMe page.

It was a relative who came across the bodies of Rhonda Wicht and her son on Nov. 11, 1978. Suspicions had been raised when Wicht, 24, had not arrived for a family get-together.

Police said she had been beaten, raped and strangled with a macrame rope. Her 4-year-old son, Donald, had been smothered in his bed, presumably because he might have identified his mothers killer.

Wicht had dated Coley for two years, but they were in the process of breaking up, officials said this week. Coley was held for questioning the same day.

He was ultimately charged with the two murders.

Defense attorneys criticized Simi Valley police for failing to investigate three other possible suspects, according to news accounts at the time. And the Simi Valley Mirror, a weekly tabloid, published reports asserting that investigators had focused on an innocent man.

At Coleys first trial, jurors spent four weeks deliberating before announcing they were hopelessly deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of guilt.

A second jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder in 1980, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But last fall, Simi Valley Police Chief David Livingstone was going through old news clippings about his department and came across some from the Wicht murders. He reached out to a retired detective who had expressed concerns in the past about whether Coley was guilty. With his interest piqued, Livingstone decided to reopen the case.

Schwartz, the Ventura County prosecutor, said the recent investigation determined that the original detectives decided too quickly that Coley was their man and did not fully investigate other possible suspects  a phenomenon known in wrongful conviction cases as tunnel vision.

Three current and former police officers told Browns office that the detective at the time had mishandled the investigation or framed Mr. Coley, the pardon said. The district attorneys office has not decided if the detective committed misconduct, Schwartz said, but the investigation is continuing.

 Framed is a strong word, Schwartz said. That implies that someone knowingly blamed the wrong person. I doubt that occurred.

Still, the re-investigation of the case turned up several inconsistencies.

An upstairs neighbor had reported seeing Coleys truck parked outside Wichts apartment around the time of the murder, and saw it drive away shortly afterward. The witness noted the drivers medium-length hair and the pinstripes along the side of the truck, which matched the description of Coleys.

That testimony was key to Coleys conviction, The Times reported at the time.

Exactly 39 years later, on the anniversary of Wichts murder, Simi Valley police returned to the apartment complex in the early morning hours and stared out the same window.

They could see very little, Schwartz said. They could see vehicles, but the idea that someone could identify markings on the side of a vehicle is very unlikely. They couldnt see inside it at all.

Another neighbor initially told police the murder had been committed at 4:30 a.m. At that same time, Coley was carpooling home with a coworker from his restaurant job, which Schwartz described as an airtight alibi.

The second neighbor later testified that the murder had taken place at 5:30 a.m. and denied saying he thought it had happened an hour earlier. Years later, he began to vacillate again.

That was an indication that the timing may not have been as firm as we thought, Schwartz said.

Coley was a model prisoner during his 38 years and 10 months of incarceration, Brown wrote. He avoided gangs and drugs, and earned his bachelors degree.

I understand that hes not bitter, that he has a positive attitude, which I think is quite remarkable, Schwartz said. This whole case is tragic. The murder was tragic, and this is a waste of a persons life.

laura.nelson@latimes.com

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Follow us on Twitter: @laura_nelson and @AleneTchek.
After last months deadly Northern California wildfires, atmospheric scientist Cliff Mass scanned old weather forecasts, searching for clues.

In two high-resolution weather models for Oct. 8, he found ample warning of the crucial ingredient for the firestorm that swept across parts of eight counties, claiming 43 lives and incinerating more than 8,000 buildings.

I said, Oh my God, look at the winds,  recalled Mass, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor who writes a popular weather blog. What if people were paying attention to this? What could they have done?

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The causes of the October conflagrations are under investigation. But for a number of the fires, the prime suspects are sparking power lines and electrical equipment downed by winds that gusted to more than 70 mph.

It was a wind event, a sudden onset and pretty sudden die-down, Mass said. So if you shut the power down for nine hours  it could have been a whole different world.

For years the states primary way of dealing with its endemic wildfire threat has been to mandate vegetation clearance around homes in high fire-hazard zones and require the use of fire-resistant building materials in new construction.

But as California puts more people and houses on one of the planets most flammable landscapes and the grim list of deadly wildfires grows longer, some experts say its time to take stronger steps.

Among them: Ban development in wind corridors where wildlands repeatedly burn; bury utility lines in the backcountry; preemptively shut down power lines and close public lands during extreme wind events to prevent ignitions  the vast majority of which are caused by people or equipment.

In Southern California, every single year the conditions are there for a severe wildfire, said Alexandra Syphard, senior research scientist with the nonprofit Conservation Biology Institute. You have Santa Ana wind conditions every year. You have summer drought every year, high temperatures.

What it takes is an ignition to happen at the same time, she added. And since ignitions are caused by humans, that is something under our control.

Whether theyre called the Santa Anas, diablos or sundowners, withering winds from the east invariably drive Californias most horrific wildfires. They blast down mountainsides and fan sparks into unstoppable infernos.

Thanks to advances in weather modeling, these hot breaths of nature are more predictable than ever.

There are certain corridors where the winds tend to travel, said Alex Hall, a UCLA professor of atmospheric sciences who has helped map Santa Ana wind corridors in Southern California. We also have the ability to predict event by event where the winds are going to be the strongest.

But the growing sophistication of wind mapping and forecasting isnt reflected in the states wildfire policies.

I often hear people say that if we construct our buildings correctly and put enough defensible space around it, then we dont need to worry about where you put the houses, Syphard said.

But they dont necessarily fireproof your house. You can see that by some of the houses that burned in recent years, added Syphard, whose research has linked wildfire losses to the location and spatial arrangement of houses.

In recent years, the state has made some moves to factor wildfire into land-use planning. Under a 2012 law, cities and counties are supposed to consider wildfire risk and consult with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection when they update their general plans and approve subdivisions.

Yet there appears little inclination to place especially fire-prone areas off limits to development.

We have to consider property rights, said Mitch Glaser, an assistant administrator in the L.A. County Department of Regional Planning.

The county has required fire-related changes in the layout and size of subdivisions and zoned the backcountry to avoid isolated, large-scale housing projects, Glaser said. But he didnt know of any development application that was denied because of wildfire risk.

The building continues even in areas where it is virtually guaranteed that a wind-whipped fire will roar through sooner or later.

Take the five-mansion compound that U2 guitarist the Edge plans to erect on a rugged coastal hillside in Malibu, an oft-scorched corridor for Santa Ana winds.

The placement of homes on a ridgeline documented to have burned at least six times between 1942 and 2010 makes it almost certain the ridgeline will burn again in the near future, the National Park Service warned in comments to the California Coastal Commission, which approved the project in 2015 after years of controversy over its impact on coastal views and environmentally sensitive habitat.

A few highly flammable parts of the world are taking tougher stands. National planning regulations in France now require communities in the countrys fire-prone south to bar development in certain high fire-hazard zones.

Its not terribly popular. But they do have the ability to make that happen, said Susan Kocher, a natural resources advisor with the UC Cooperative Extension who spent a sabbatical in France and recently published a research paper on the topic.

In California, land-use planning is primarily a local responsibility.

Local municipalities are so concerned about their tax base and private property rights and making money that theyre not addressing the real risks, said Richard Halsey, director of the California Chaparral Institute.

Development should be barred in some areas, or if its allowed, residents should be required to sign a waiver  we dont want fire protection, Halsey argued. I dont know if politically thats ever going to happen.

Bill Stewart, co-director of UC Berkeleys Center for Fire Research and Outreach, says its time to stop installing above-ground power lines to serve rural residences.

Were going to have to go underground or not have power lines and have people on pure solar and batteries  because they get knocked down, he said.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. took another tack after the utility was hit with fines and huge settlement costs in the wake of devastating 2007 wildfires caused by its sparking electrical equipment.

The company spent $1.7 million to install 170 weather observation stations on backcountry poles, creating what it calls one of the countrys densest weather monitoring networks.

Every 10 minutes, the stations transmit data to the utility on wind speed and direction, temperature and humidity.

When the Santa Anas start blowing, the companys three meteorologists monitor the network around the clock. Utility crews and contract firefighters are dispatched in advance to areas where the strongest winds are forecast.

Since the program started, SDG&E says, it has turned off power to portions of its distribution system 16 times for public safety reasons. The shut-offs have affected a relatively small number of customers, a total of 1,000, who received telephone alerts of impending outages.

The network has yielded a wealth of new information about regional wind patterns.

A lot of what people knew was anecdotal, said SDG&E senior meteorologist Steve Vanderburg. But once you actually install the weather stations and start looking at whats going on, you see that theres a big difference between reality and anecdotal information.

It turns out the countys strongest winds dont blow through passes and canyons, as previously thought. The monitoring has also documented remarkable variability in wind strength across relatively short distances.

In one Santa Ana event, Vanderburg said, gusts of 91 mph were measured at the utilitys Sill Hill weather station while a mile to the south they were half that.

No other utility in the state has a similar monitoring system.

After the 2007 fires, SDG&E also worked with the U.S. Forest Service and UCLA scientists to develop the Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index, which is publicly available online.

Launched in 2014 and managed by federal agencies, the index uses weather data and information on vegetation moisture levels to rank upcoming Santa Ana events according to the potential for a large fire.

On Oct. 24, when one of the strongest Santa Ana events in years hit Southern California, the index rated the wildfire threat in Los Angeles and Ventura counties as high, one step below the top ranking of extreme.

We want to tell people this is a day when you may have to evacuate your home, said Forest Service meteorologist Tom Rolinski, who helped devise the index.

They didnt have to. There were no major fires  this time.

bettina.boxall@latimes.com

Twitter: @boxall
When a city, school district or other local government agency gets into financial trouble and pulls out of the California Public Employees Retirement System because it cant make its required contribution to the pension fund, that bodes ill for the benefits it has promised its retirees.

At best, current employees will see their future retirement benefits frozen at what theyve already accrued. And if their employer fails to pay the termination fee CalPERS demands from agencies that pull out, it means workers past and present will have promised retirement checks slashed.

Right now in Sacramento, theres a debate over who should have to tell employees when a local government or agency is pulling out of the pension fund. The CalPERS board wants the employer to make the notification because, after all, it was the employer  not CalPERS  that made the promises to employees that proved unsustainable.

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Pension commitments should be sacrosanct.

But this argument misses the bigger point. Its a little like arguing over who gets to tell the ships captain about the gigantic iceberg ahead instead of taking action to avoid it. Knowing whom to blame certainly wont help retirees of the city of Loyalton and the East San Gabriel Valley Human Services District, who got letters from CalPERS in August telling them their checks were going to be eviscerated  a reduction caused by their employers failure to pay its CalPERS termination fee.

The CalPERS board voted last week to seek legislation next year that would require a local agency to notify current employees and retirees within seven days when the agency moves to terminate its contact with the $343-billion fund.

It would be infinitely preferable if there were no bad pension news to be delivered. But as yet there hasnt been the necessary political will to allow a financially strapped city, for example, to make adjustments to its benefits, such as reducing or ending automatic cost-of-living hikes or reducing the benefits for years of work not yet performed, so it could afford to continue to pay both retired cops and those still on the beat.

Pension commitments should be sacrosanct; governments or agencies should not be able to abandon their retirees just because the local economy hits a rough patch or a new governing board is elected with a different set of priorities. And under California law and court rulings, public employee pensions were long seen as precious close to untouchable. Once workers were hired, their pension benefits could not be reduced in value  they could only be improved.

The promised benefits, however, often demanded a bigger-than-expected annual financial contribution from agencies, as costs proved to be greater than expected and pension fund investment returns smaller. As shortfalls emerged, larger cities and agencies had several cost-cutting options they could pursue with employee unions, including layoffs, pay freezes and less generous pension plans for new hires. But smaller cities and agencies didnt have as much flexibility, and soon found themselves choosing between making the pension contributions CalPERS required and providing core services.

Making matters worse, troubled cities or agencies cant withdraw from CalPERS and expect the fund to fulfill the pension promises they made; they have to pay the retirement fund the full projected cost to CalPERS of their employees pensions. If they dont  and the agencies withdrawing from CalPERS rarely can afford to  CalPERS wont dun other cities or agencies to make up the difference. Instead, the fund will cut the workers pension benefits to match the amount their employer previously contributed.

Recent bankruptcy court rulings have raised an alternative that seems no better for workers: Insolvent cities may be able to break their CalPERS contracts through the bankruptcy process, potentially treating employees and retirees like creditors who have to settle for less than what theyre owed. No city has tested that possibility yet, however.

Will a cascade of retirees seeing their retirement checks slashed change the political calculation for meaningful reform? We may soon find out. Retirees of Trinity County Waterworks District No. 1 will be getting their checks trimmed next, and those of the Niland Sanitary District near the Salton Sea will follow.

So, yes, California legislators should change the law to require notification when any of the roughly 3,000 cities, school districts, fire service districts and other public agencies in CalPERS decide that they cant afford to continue their CalPERS contract. Then they should change the law to make that requirement moot.

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When you go shopping this holiday season, youll no doubt come across smiling cashiers and perky sales clerks. But behind the holiday cheer, many retail workers have very un-merry tales to tell about the craziness of their work schedules.

Ive heard many tales of woe over the last five years  of unpredictable, ever-changing, stress-inducing work schedules  as Ive researched labor conditions in retail and elsewhere in the service sector. Whether at big-box stores, department stores or specialty stores, many workers complain that their managers have ramped up the scheduling chaos as retail competition has grown ever fiercer, partly because Amazon is eroding the sales of brick-and-mortar retail.

A man who worked at a Zara in Manhattan when I interviewed him in 2015, Brandon Wagner, sometimes had to work until 11 p.m., getting home around midnight, and then be back at the store at 8 next morning. That meant hed get just five or six hours of sleep.

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Unpredictability makes it difficult to schedule child care or doctors appointments or to juggle college classes while holding a job.

Mirella Casares, a Victorias Secret worker in Florida, told the New York Times earlier this year that her weekly hours swung wildly, from a low of 15 hours a week to a high of 39, making it hard to plan her life or her budget. Frequent last-minute scheduling changes made it difficult to find care for her 2-year-old and 6-year-old.

An aspiring actor, Desmond Anthony, told me that the Express in Manhattan where he used to work would often schedule him for two days of work, plus two or three on-call days. That meant he had to call his boss first thing in the morning and be ready to rush in if the store needed him. If he wasnt needed, he went unpaid, even though his on-call status made it impossible for him to schedule auditions or make other plans.

The stories pile up. One Milwaukee worker, Mary Coleman, said she once made the hour-long bus commute to her job at a Popeyes only to be told that she shouldnt clock in. Business was slow and they didnt need her that day, her boss said. (She wasnt paid.) Another retail worker told me she didnt learn her work schedule for the next week until Saturday, two days before her workweek began. A Wal-Mart worker in Orlando, Fla., said she was inexplicably assigned zero hours one week, sandwiched between 20-hour and 25-hour weeks.

Much of this herky-jerky scheduling grows out of new money-saving management practices. Thanks to advances in software, many stores and restaurants now monitor their sales minute by minute, hewing to a strict employees-to-sales ratio. When sales jump or dip, a store might suddenly call in unscheduled workers or tell scheduled workers to go home.

Although this helps businesses hold down costs and serve customers better, it creates havoc for many workers. A 2014 study led by Susan Lambert, a professor of organizational theory at the University of Chicago, found that 41% of early-career workers received one week or less advance notice of their work schedule. This unpredictability makes it difficult to schedule child care or doctors appointments or to juggle college classes while holding a job.

UCLA researchers recently surveyed 800 retail employees in the L.A. area and found that ever-varying work hours create chaos in many workers lives, problems compounded by the citys size and transportation woes. Some workers complained to the researchers, who are finalizing their study, that they could barely make ends meet because of their part-time hours and because their unpredictable schedules made it difficult to hold a second job.

Just as low wages in the fast-food industry spawned the Fight for 15, the volatility of retail schedules has given birth to the Fair Workweek movement. This fast-growing initiative has persuaded city councils in Emeryville, Calif.; San Francisco; New York and Seattle as well as Oregons state Legislature to adopt laws that bring more predictability  and sanity  to scheduling. Fair Workweek may target L.A. next year.

These laws have various wrinkles. They generally apply to retail and restaurant workers and require two weeks notice of work schedules. And they usually call for a good-faith estimate of weekly hours upon hiring, and give workers the right to decline to work when there is less than 10 or 11 hours between shifts.

All the laws require predictability pay  often one hour of pay for a scheduling change ordered by the employer, and four hours of pay for canceling shifts with less than 24 hours notice. (Such pay is not required if shifts change because of utility failures, severe weather, acts of God or the recommendation of civil authorities.)

Industry lobbyists have vigorously battled these laws, saying they would limit retailers flexibility, burden them with new mandates and needlessly raise costs. But the retailers have brought these laws upon themselves. They have made workers hours and pay  and lives  swing so wildly that many workers feel like yo-yos.

Fair workweek laws merely restore some much-needed balance and stability, in both hours and income, for the workers who serve us day after day.

Steven Greenhouse, a former labor and workplace reporter for the New York Times, is writing a book about the history and future of labor unions and worker advocacy in the United States.

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When he was named special counsel in May, Robert S. Mueller III was hailed as the ideal lawman  deeply experienced, strait-laced and nonpartisan  to investigate whether President Trumps campaign had helped with Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The accolades squared with Muellers valor as a Marine rifle platoon commander in Vietnam and his integrity as a federal prosecutor, senior Justice Department official and FBI director from 2001 to 2013  the longest tenure since J. Edgar Hoovers. He was praised by former courtroom allies and opponents, and by Democrats and Republicans in Congress.



For the record: An earlier version of this article incorrectly spelled the last name of East German physicist and spy Alfred Zehe as Zehle. It also said Mueller was 50 when he returned to private practice in 1993; he was 49 at the time.

But at 73, Mueller has a record that shows a man of fallible judgment who can be slow to alter his chosen course. At times, he has intimidated or provoked resentment among subordinates. And his tenacious yet linear approach to evaluating evidence led him to fumble the biggest U.S. terrorism investigation since 9/11.

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Now, as he leads a sprawling investigation aimed at the White House, Muellers prosecutorial discretion looms over the Trump presidency.

On what terms would Mueller offer immunity from prosecution to investigative targets? How broadly will he interpret his mandate to look into not only the 2016 campaign but also matters that may arise directly from the investigation?

Will he target Trumps sprawling family business and financial empire and the years before the developer ran for the White House?

::

Robert Swan Mueller III began life on an elite footing.

Raised in affluent suburbs west of Philadelphia, he attended St. Pauls School in New Hampshire (classmates included future Secretary of State John F. Kerry) before majoring in politics at Princeton. He joined the Marines after graduation and was awarded Navy and Marine Corps medals for his service in Vietnam, where he was shot in the thigh. He graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1973.

Bored by a stint at a white-shoe San Francisco law firm, the jut-jawed Mueller switched to the U.S. attorneys office there in 1976. Colleagues say he typically arrived by 6:30 a.m., at times in his Marine-issue green raincoat. He played on the office softball team but was careful not to let down his guard while socializing.

Hed join us, have one  and it was only one  and then his wife would arrive to pick him up, recalled a colleague.

Editors Note

This article is based, in part, on interviews with more than two dozen lawyers and investigators who have worked with Mueller. Citing the sensitivity of the Russia investigation and potential repercussions, most spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mueller declined, through a spokesman, to comment.

Mueller also is remembered for a headline-grabbing case that ended in failure.

In 1979, the government lodged then-novel racketeering charges against 33 members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club. The indictments alleged bombings and murders as well as the manufacture and sale of illegal drugs. The defendants and their supporters were so feared that bulletproof glass was installed in court to shield the judge.

The first trial, of 18 defendants, ended with only five convictions. All were overturned on appeal.

Mueller, who led the U.S. attorneys special prosecutions unit, then took over the case. He dropped many of the charges, including those against Ralph Sonny Barger, leader of the clubs Oakland chapter, whose charismatic testimony had dominated the first trial.

Mueller led a team of four prosecutors in court when the second trial, with 11 defendants, began in October 1980. But after four months, the jury said it was deadlocked, and the judge declared a mistrial. Mueller decided not to ask for a retrial.

Richard B. Mazer, a defense lawyer at both trials, said the government was unable to prove the Hells Angels was a racketeering enterprise. Key prosecution witnesses, he said, seemed unreliable  especially those granted immunity to testify despite having committed violent crimes themselves.

They made a mess of it, Mazer recalled. It was an entirely snitch case. It depended entirely on the quality of snitches.

But Mazer and Alan Caplan, another defense lawyer, praised Muellers straightforward handling of the case. We fought hard, but I cant conceivably say anything negative about him, Caplan said.

About a year after the case collapsed, a new U.S. attorney in San Francisco chose a prosecutor with more trial experience to head the offices criminal division, a post that Mueller had held for a year.

He doesnt invite disagreement. Hes an order-giver.  A former prosecutor who served under Robert Mueller

Mueller responded by transferring to the U.S. attorneys office in Boston. He prosecuted financial fraud, terrorism and public corruption cases for six years, and served as acting U.S. attorney from 1986 to 1987.

One case  involving a Soviet-bloc spy  gave Mueller an early window into U.S.-Russia intrigues.

At the direction of the Justice Departments internal security division, Mueller negotiated a plea agreement with an East German physicist named Alfred Zehe. In February 1985, Zehe admitted in court that he had conspired to deliver U.S. defense information to East German intelligence authorities.

Under the agreement, Zehe was sentenced only to the time he had served in jail after his arrest at a scientific conference in Boston. In turn, he became a bargaining chip for a major spy swap.

We ultimately got 25 of our people out, including their families, in a trade for Zehe and several other Soviet-bloc spies, recalled a U.S. official involved with the negotiations.

The successful June 1985 exchange helped pave the way, the official said, for a more significant exchange between Washington and Moscow.

In February 1986, officials again faced off for a trade on the so-called Bridge of Spies between East and West Germany. Among those escorted to freedom was Natan Sharansky, the celebrated Russian human rights activist who had served nine years in Soviet prisons.

As the Cold War ended, Mueller moved to main Justice in Washington. He easily won his first Senate confirmation after President George H.W. Bush appointed him assistant U.S. attorney general, responsible for the criminal division.

Mueller oversaw investigations of Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, among other high-profile cases. But his tendency to command, rather than inspire, came into sharp relief.

He doesnt invite disagreement, said a former prosecutor who served under Mueller. Hes an order-giver.

He could be harsh on subordinates  sparking resentment when he referred privately to reassigning career lawyers as moving the furniture.

::

In 1993, at age 49, Mueller decided to try private practice again, joining Hale and Dorr as a partner in Washington, representing corporate clients.

The money was better, but Mueller was unfulfilled. After two years, he returned to government service  signing on as a homicide prosecutor in the District of Columbia. It was a time of mayhem in the nations capital, made worse by the scourge of crack cocaine.

Mueller began working with a cold-case squad of Metropolitan Police detectives and FBI agents that sought to bring murderers to justice.

The squad sent applications for search warrants and subpoenas for Muellers review before seeking a judges approval. Unlike some prosecutors, Mueller wouldnt automatically give a signature, recalled one of the investigators.

He would ask, Have you done your work? Do you have your facts?  He knew what he was asking was the way to make sure everything stood up in court.

Building cases often entailed forging trust with victims, witnesses and suspects. Relating to both the sympathetic and the unsavory did not play to Muellers strengths.

He was a gruff guy, and a lot of times, there wasnt much warmth or ability to really build a bond or connect with a victim-witness, said the same investigator. Theres times when youve got to bond with the suspect to get what you need. His personality wasnt necessarily the best for that.

Nor was Mueller an easy fit with juries in Washington, especially in the freewheeling local Superior Court, where decorum is typically below what judges demand in U.S. District Court.

In D.C. Superior Court, its a bit like meatball surgery. Its a bit like a M.A.S.H. unit  its the unexpected, said one of Muellers former colleagues. His strength was not as a M.A.S.H. unit trial lawyer.

Mueller, a Republican, moved back to San Francisco in 1998 after President Clinton appointed him U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California. In July 2001, President George W. Bush nominated him as FBI director, and he won unanimous Senate confirmation. Mueller asked the White House for a delay, however, so he could undergo treatment for prostate cancer.

His first day on the job was Sept. 4, 2001  a week before hijacked airliners slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

At 7 a.m. on Sept. 12, Mueller, then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and other officials arrived for an emergency briefing at the FBIs operations center. The senior agent had been given an hour to prepare while investigators were still combing airline manifests and scouring crash sites.

When Mueller asked a rapid-fire series of questions, the agent replied that accurate information was not yet established.

I want answers, goddamn it! Mueller exploded, an official who was present recalled.

Mueller already was coming under siege from critics who questioned why the FBI had not prevented the attacks. Fear spread of a second wave terrorist strike.

President George W. Bush waves on July 5, 2001 after announcing Robert Mueller as his choice for FBI director. On the right stands then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft. (Emilie Sommer / AFP )

Mueller countered by announcing plans to reshape the FBI. Its first priority would be to prevent another terrorist attack  not conventional law enforcement.

The vastness of the FBIs challenge emerged within weeks.

A handful of letters laced with powdered anthrax killed five people and sickened 17 others. The government closed congressional office buildings, the Supreme Court and postal facilities as the country braced for further biological terrorism.

But Muellers FBI struggled for nearly seven years to determine who was responsible  even as he personally managed the case.

The director was always the leader of the anthrax investigation, period, said Michael Mason, former head of the FBIs Washington field office.

The FBI focused on Steven J. Hatfill, a virologist at the Armys laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md. In January 2003, Mueller assured congressional leaders in a closed-door briefing that bloodhounds had traced anthrax from the attacks to Hatfill.

But Hatfill had no experience handling anthrax. Nor did he have access to anthrax stored at Ft. Detrick or elsewhere. Years later, the FBI would reject the bloodhound evidence as unreliable.

After media leaks fingered Hatfill, he sued the FBI and the Justice Department on privacy grounds. In June 2008, the government agreed to pay Hatfill about $5.8 million.

Two months later, on Aug. 6, Mueller summoned senior investigators and prosecutors on the anthrax case to his seventh-floor office. The FBI would hold a news conference that afternoon, and he wanted to recap the cases stunning denouement.

Bruce E. Ivins, an Army microbiologist at Ft. Detrick who specialized in handling anthrax, had committed suicide after his lawyers informed him he was about to be charged with murder for the letter attacks.

Evidence showed Ivins had created and held custody of a batch of anthrax traced by DNA to each of the killings. He had spent hours alone in specially equipped labs just before each batch of letters was mailed.

Mueller let others hold the news conference. Some aides who met Mueller that day think he was reluctant to publicly address the missteps with Hatfill, the bloodhounds and the long delay in focusing on Ivins.

I think he was personally embarrassed, said one. I would assess him as someone that cant accept the fact that he screwed up.

::

At FBI headquarters, protecting the director from embarrassment was ingrained.

A case in point unfolded in 2011  just as the Senate was considering President Obamas request to extend Muellers expiring term as FBI director by two years.

The FBIs Inspection Division, a unit that scrutinizes bureau operations, conducted a three-week examination of the Directorate of Intelligence, a unit that Mueller had created to carry out the shift in preventing terrorism.

They inspected it and they wrote the inspection report, and it said the whole things broken  set it on fire and start from scratch, said a former official familiar with the report. Another ex-official confirmed the account.

Muellers top aides saw peril in following normal procedure  forwarding the report to the Justice Departments inspector general for possible follow-up action.

It was, The director will get skewered. Weve got to protect him, and we cant issue this, the former official recalled.

The aides kept the report in-house, the former official said, by tweaking its language.

Anywhere it said inspection, they changed it to review. And said this was a review, not an inspection, and therefore they didnt have to issue it to  the inspector general.

Two years later, Mueller  without citing the inspection  informed Congress that he had restructured the Directorate of Intelligence to maximize organizational collaboration, identify and address emerging threats and more effectively integrate intelligence and operations within the FBI.

Trumps name or brand is not going to back down Mueller.  A former FBI colleague of Robert Mueller

During his final months as FBI director, Mueller was again enlisted to help with a thorny matter in U.S.-Russia relations.

In the summer of 2013, the White House asked Mueller to negotiate the release from Russia of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who stole volumes of classified material on U.S. surveillance operations at home and abroad. Snowden had fled to Moscow after leaking the data to journalists.

Unlike the Cold War spy cases, the U.S. did not offer a trade. The Obama administration wanted Moscow to return Snowden as part of a diplomatic reset, an ultimately unsuccessful effort to improve relations with Russia.

Lisa Monaco, the White Houses Homeland Security advisor, tasked Mueller to talk to Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russias internal security and counter-intelligence service, the FSB.

For at least a week, Mueller called Bortnikovs office, starting at 3 a.m. in Washington. Each time, the FBI director was turned aside without getting Bortnikov on the line.

Mueller just kept calling over there, like begging to talk to the guy, said a former official. Instead, Snowden was granted asylum in Russia.

The unsuccessful outreach offered Mueller insight into Russian intelligence, which U.S. officials say helped hack and leak Democratic Party emails last year in an effort to undermine U.S. democracy and to help Trumps campaign.

Investigators and lawyers who have worked with Mueller say that his legacy as special counsel will depend, ultimately, on his resolve, his integrity and especially his judgment.

If he believes somebody has committed a crime, hes going to do whatever he can to hold them accountable, said a former FBI colleague. Trumps name or brand is not going to back down Mueller.

david.willman@latimes.com
Orlena Hart has been making the trip out to the Burbank Salvation Army from Van Nuys the last several years for the organizations annual Thanksgiving dinner.

In addition to enjoying the food  a turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce  she said she enjoys the treatment she receives from the staff and volunteers at the Burbank Corps, compared to elsewhere.

Its worth it. I like it better here, she said. At another place, I waited an hour and a half for food and never got my plate.

Waiting times were not an issue at the local Salvation Army Wednesday evening as a steady stream of volunteers brought plates of food out to diners and quickly refilled cups of water and lemonade.

Burbank Corps Lt. Jeremy Baker said the organization was ready to serve between 300 and 400 people with free dinners.

The [Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport] graciously offered to cook our turkeys this year, and a large group of volunteers did the rest of the cooking, he said.

Within an hour of the doors opening, more than 200 meals had been served.

Baker said the Salvation Army has received volunteer support from students and service organizations, such as the local Rotary and Kiwanis clubs.

In addition to getting the food ready and setting up tables for diners, he said a significant amount of time was spent on getting information out about the event.

Sun Valley resident Angela Alamina found out about the dinner through a flier she saw at the Burbank Temporary Aid Center.

For me, this dinner was a surprise, she said. They treat us like kings and queens.

Ted Brown and Samuel Holmes also attended the dinner for the first time, thanks to the Burbank Salvation Armys outreach efforts. The men live in the Burbank Veteran Bungalows off of West Verdugo and West Angeles avenues.

This was fantastic, perfectly done, said Holmes, who served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. It brings a whole lot of unity; lots of people coming together just like the United Nations.

Brown, who served overseas as part of the Armys XVIII Airborne Corps, said the two were able to get their fill of turkey and pie.

Holmes added that when they come back next year, theyll bring some friends.

You dont keep a good thing to yourself, thats not the godly way of doing things, he said. When you see a blessing, you pass a blessing on.

Also at the Salvation Army was Burbank Councilwoman Sharon Springer, who helped serve food. Springer said she was thankful for being able to serve and interact with people during the dinner.

Its just great fun to help and serve these people, our fellow residents, Thanksgiving dinner, she said. This is my first time doing this event, and Im really glad to be here.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc
The proof of a well-crafted play lies not solely in its accolades, such as Pulitzer prizes and Tony awards, but in the frequency with which subsequent versions surface at local playhouses.

David Auburns Proof meets all these standards, having achieved both the aforementioned honors and repeat visits to area theaters. Its current location is the Newport Theatre Arts Center in a powerful and involving production under the intensive direction of David Colley.

Despite its thematic mission of satiating a segment of society which can truly be labeled math geeks, Auburns drama contains an abundance of raw theatrical meat which is ravenously devoured in the compelling Newport staging. Even given audience familiarity after three or four previous viewings, this Proof stands tall and proud.

The story, for those yet unfamiliar, centers on a young Chicago woman, the daughter of a recently deceased math genius, who may have inherited both her fathers genius with mathematics and his tendency toward early dementia. The latter possibility surfaces in the opening scene as she engages in a lengthy conversation with her recently deceased dad.

At Newport, Nicole Powell brilliantly interprets this emotionally fragile character, who possesses exceptional math skills but has lost valuable college years by choosing to be her fathers caregiver. In Powells interpretation, both emotional strengths and weaknesses forge to the surface as she engages in conflicting conversations with a father, lover and sister.

Thom Gilbert strongly enacts her dad, both in spiritual and living flashback form. His characters singular devotion to numerical issues is well documented, as is his deep concern for the daughter who idolizes him but also yearns to get on with her own life.

Disrupting this scenario is a young math professor hoping to gain insight from the old mans conceptions, meticulously recorded in dozens of notebooks. Abel Garcia blends awkwardness and ardor into a captivating performance which heightens with the discovery of the young womans possible genius.

The older sister, a successful New York businesswoman who can convey both love and disdain in the same sentence, is the most realistic figure in the play and receives an elegant, dynamic portrayal from Jennifer Shea. We view Shea as an intruder from the real world, devoid of math geeks, and she manages the familial conflict splendidly.

The drama and trauma spill out on the back porch of the protagonists rundown Chicago home, which her sister has put up for sale. Andrew Otero has fashioned a most realistic set design which emphasizes the closed-in factor of the setting.

Augmented by Jackson Halphides low-key lighting and Brian Pages soothing sound effects, this Proof drew a well-deserved standing ovation opening night and should elicit several more during its engagement at the Newport Theatre Arts Center.

If You Go

What: Proof

When: Till Dec. 17; 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Newport Theatre Arts Center, 2501 Cliff Drive, Newport Beach

Cost: $20

Information: (949) 631-02888 or ntaconline.com.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater.
The Newport Beach City Council is expected next week to reverse several approvals for the derailed Banning Ranch development.

The council will take up the court-ordered repeals when it meets Tuesday.

In 2012, the council  with different members  certified an environmental impact report and approval of general plan and code amendments, a development agreement and several other development-related plans for what at the time included 1,375 homes, a 75-room resort hotel and a 75,000-square-foot retail complex on part of Banning Ranchs 401 acres of scrub and grasslands at Newport Beachs western edge.

The project was later whittled to 895 homes, a 75-room hotel, a 20-bed hostel and 45,100 square feet of retail space.

Except for the environmental report and the development agreement, all other approvals were not to take effect until the California Coastal Commission granted the project a coastal development permit, among other actions. The commission rejected the permit application in 2016 and again this year.

And when the California Supreme Court ruled this year that Newport Beach had improperly approved the development, the Orange County Superior Court, under direction from the states 4th District Court of Appeal, ordered the city to vacate all Banning Ranch-related approvals.

Balboa Island water main

Also Tuesday, the council will consider a contract to replace the water main on Balboa Island.

The project is the first of three phases to replace the 1940s-era water infrastructure on the densely populated island.

City staff recommended that Orange-based T.E. Roberts Inc. get the $1.56-million construction contract.

With contingencies, geotechnical services and incidentals, the project comes to $1.75 million.

The cast-iron water main to be replaced runs along Balboa Avenue on the main island and portions of Collins and Opal avenues.

Preliminary work is expected to begin in December.

Animal shelter Friends

The council also will consider formalizing the citys relationship with the nonprofit Friends of Newport Beach Animal Shelter.

The group formed this year to raise money to support the city-run animal shelter, which operates at a small leased space in the Santa Ana Heights neighborhood.

A cooperative agreement would allow the boosters to work with the Newport Beach Police Department, which operates the shelter through its animal-control division.

Tuesdays council meeting starts at 4 p.m. with a study session, followed by the regular session at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 100 Civic Center Drive.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD
On this Thanksgiving weekend, as we fortunate ones join with family and friends, remember, there are some 300,000 fellow citizens in our backyard going hungry on any given night.

Thanksgiving means little to a single mother living in a broken-down car with two kids sleeping in the back seat.

Thanksgiving is not celebrated with joy by men wandering back alleys, living lives destroyed by substance abuse and misfortune of all variety.

Despite such heartaches, which can seem unsurmountable, there are other O.C. citizens, down on their luck, who do celebrate Thanksgiving with a sense of hope.

They are the fortunate ones who have been able to secure assistance from a variety of humanitarian organizations making a difference, one day, one person at a time. And this is at the core of the meaning of this all-American celebration.

So, on this holiday weekend, we shall pay tribute to and give thanks to several O.C. nonprofits dedicated to lifting those suffering out of dire circumstances and providing both hope and a path to a better life.

Ask yourself: What it would be like to lose your home? Where would you go? What if you had children to care for?

Serving People In Need, the Costa Mesa-based nonprofit agency serving the housing needs of the working poor and homeless families in the region for more than 30 years, celebrated its 2017 annual dinner event at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach.

The fall event brought together some 200 dedicated SPINers for a seasonal harvest wine experience catered with perfection by Big Canyon culinary staff.

The crowd, led by SPIN executive director Jean Wegener and development director Kim Frazier, is more like a large family than simply a charitable group.

The majority of guests have been supporting SPIN for years; among them Richard and Kim Crawford, Frank and Peggy Listi, Al and Susan DiGrassi, Wayne and MaryLou Shattuck and Ed and Melanie Fitch.

The major sponsor of the 2017 event was Lugano Diamonds, represented at the affair by Bill Peters.

Lugano generously donated diamond and ruby earrings valued at $10,000 as an opportunity prize. SPIN donors checking out the jewelry and enjoying signature rose cocktail on the Big Canyon Terrace were SPIN board member Joe Heffington and wife Heidi, donors Tristine and Kevin Smith, Bruce and Kate Grant, Tami Cluck, Kedric Francis, Jamie Gwen, Mike and Trisa Kelleher and devoted SPIN supporters Richard and Karen Nichols.

In 2016, SPIN helped 407 individuals  153 adults and 254 children  in their housing program.

The need is so great, this year we hope to help more in 2017, Wegener said. A good goal would be 450 families with children assisted in 2017.

It comes down to money. No surprise. Seventy-five percent of SPINs funding comes from multiple grants and 25% from community fundraising.

SPIN is one of the first agencies in the O.C. to be awarded Platinum Status with Guidestar, a national ranking platform evaluating the success of nonprofit agencies.

More than 90% of every dollar donated goes directly to client services and according to an independent study of O.C.s nonprofits, 100% of families served by SPIN were successfully transitioned into permanent housing.

To learn more, please visit spinoc.org.

KidWorks, an Orange County educational program with the goal of providing under privileged Hispanic youth with the tools needed to succeed in school and move up and on into college, hosted its 11th annual Foundation for Success luncheon Nov. 2 at Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, Santa Ana.

At the helm of the luncheon event, attended by hundreds of O.C. leaders, was David Pyle, founder and CEO of American Career College.

Pyle was joined by Kevin and Devon Martin of Balboa Bay Resort and Balboa Bay Club, Steven Craig of Craig Realty Group, Michael Harrah of Caribou Industries, and Ruben and Heidi Mendoza raising significant funds for the programs offered to young students ranging in age from preschool through college.

The KidWorks luncheon traditionally has an inspirational speaker at its center.

This year, Chad Williams, author of book SEAL of God addressed the crowd sharing his experience as a deployed Navy Seal in teams One and Seven. Williams chilly account of facing enemy odds and surviving had his audience silent.

In the crowd were KidWorks advocates Greg and Stacey Brown, Bruce Pasqua, Stuart Kane, Scott Pollard, Diane and Jim Connelly, and members of both the Donahue and Schrieber families  mainstay supporters of KidWorks.

Orangewood Foundation, one of O.C.s most respected charitable arms, celebrated the success of a number of former foster youth  now college grad students  completing their study with support from local philanthropists through Orangewood programs.

Balboa Island resident and passionate activist supporting foster youth, Shirley Pepys opened her waterfront estate for a beach barbecue welcoming students from Orangewoods Advanced Studies Program.

Costa Mesas Beach Pit BBQ catered the party for some 30 grad students and their guests.

Pepys joined her daughter Renee Pepys Lowe and close friend Dan Houck in launching the Advanced Studies Program in 2009.

They since have been joined by Sandra Davis and other generous patrons continuing the program.

Over nine years, 106 scholarships totaling $736,000 have been granted to 53 former foster youth.

Thats what can be called a true Thanksgiving celebration.

B.W. COOK is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.
The YMCA of Orange County held its annual Stockings for the Troops stuffing party this month to help bring cheer to military personnel overseas who are away from their families and friends during the holiday season.

Young volunteers from the YMCAs after-school program stuffed 600 stockings at the Peterson Family YMCA in Huntington Beach.

The stockings were filled with coffee, granola bars, Cup Noodles, gum, candy and other snacks. Every stocking also included a handwritten note from a student expressing appreciation for the recipients service.
Oscar Pistorius prison sentence was increased to 13 years and five months by South Africas Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday, a decision that more than doubled the Olympic runners jail term for the murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

In an announcement that took a matter of minutes, Justice Willie Seriti said the Supreme Court upheld an appeal by prosecutors against Pistorius original six-year sentence for shooting Steenkamp multiple times in his home in 2013.

Prosecutors had called that six-year sentence shockingly lenient.

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Pistorius should have been sentenced to the prescribed minimum of 15 years for murder in South Africa, Seriti said, as he delivered the verdict reached by a panel of five judges at the Supreme Court in the central city of Bloemfontein.

The new sentence of 13 years and five months took into account time Pistorius had already served in prison and at home under house arrest, Seriti said.

Pistorius, who turned 31 on Wednesday, has served over a year of his initial six-year sentence.

Pistorius killed Steenkamp in the predawn hours of Valentines Day 2013 after shooting four times through a closed toilet cubicle door in his home. Claiming he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, he was initially convicted of manslaughter. That conviction was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court in 2015.

Fridays decision likely brings an end to a nearly five-year legal saga surrounding the double-amputee athlete, a multiple Paralympic champion and record-breaker who was once one of the most celebrated sportsmen in the world.

Pistorius lawyers have just one avenue open to them if they want to challenge the new sentence, and that is to appeal to the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa.

Pistorius failed with an appeal to the Constitutional Court last year to challenge his murder conviction.
Several parents have accused a Beijing kindergarten of drugging and sexually abusing their children, causing an upswell of anger on Chinese social media and prompting an investigation into abuse at kindergartens nationwide.

Children at a school run by the Beijing-based, New York-listed RYB Education New World company reported teachers injecting them with an unidentified substance, making them swallow white pills and forcing them to strip naked, the parents told Chinese media.



For the record: An earlier version of this story spelled the city of Guanzhuang as Guangzhang.

Police and education officials have not confirmed the allegations. But Chinese internet users have responded with unmitigated rage, their conviction in the allegations veracity compounded by a recent string of similar cases at Chinese kindergartens, including three this month.

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Many of us thought wed cast off the era of barbarism, only to realize there was no way to escape, wrote one user on WeChat, Chinas most popular chat app, before listing several recent abuse scandals.

Parents of the RYB Education branch in Guanzhuang, a suburb in eastern Beijing, said they found needle wounds on their childrens thighs, arms and buttocks. One parent said her child told her of a naked adult man, or men  referred to as uncle doctor and grandpa doctor  performing a health check on a naked child. Another told reporters that teachers threatened her child about reporting the abuse, warning that they had a very long telescope and could watch children from afar, even in their homes.

In one video posted online, a father sits on a bathroom toilet seat, cradling his child in his lap. He asks the child about white pills he reportedly took in school. The child says they put him to sleep.

The teacher gives it to us  we have to take it every day, he says. It tastes like white.

On Friday, police in Guanzhuang said a medical examination confirmed that the children were pricked by needles.

The allegations fit a recent pattern of suspected abuse at Chinese kindergartens and child care centers, much of it documented on school surveillance cameras and leaked online. This week, one such video showed a kindergarten teacher in southeast Chinas Zhejiang province slapping a little girl in front of her classmates and dragging a little boy by his neck.

In early November, leaked surveillance video showed a staff member at a Shanghai child care center pushing a little girl, causing her to topple backward and hit her head against a desk. Another video, taken at the same school, showed a child sobbing while eating a substance that parents later said was wasabi.

Also in early November, teachers at a digital detox camp in southeast China  an institution intended to cure children of online game addiction  were accused of whipping teenagers with steel cables and locking them in windowless cells.

Last year, police detained two teachers, also in southeast China, over accusations that they punished at least one child by jabbing him with needles.

The State Council, Chinas Cabinet, announced a national investigation into kindergartens on Friday to decrease the number of such incidents.

These incidents reflect a phenomenon in which several kindergartens are managed poorly, systems havent been implemented and enforcement hasnt been successful, the announcement said.

RYB Education (the initials stand for red, yellow, blue) went public on the New York Stock Exchange in late September, and has a market capitalization of $766 million. The 19-year-old companys website  which depicts happy children running beneath cartoon hot-air balloons  calls it Chinas largest early-childhood education service provider, with branches in more than 300 Chinese cities and 300,000 students enrolled.

We deeply apologize for the serious anxiety this matter has brought to parents and society, RYB Education said in a statement Friday on its official, adding that it has suspended three teachers.

We are currently working with the police to provide relevant surveillance materials and equipment; the teachers in question have been suspended, and we are cooperating with the police investigation.

The official New China News Agency suggested in an editorial that in recent scandals, low teacher wages and patchy government oversight were partly to blame. Laws must be enforced, supervision strengthened, teacher wages increased, it said. The child care industry cannot be allowed to grow in an uncivilized fashion.

Officials also have acted to preempt any major social unrest. Photos posted online show a crowd of police at the school on Friday. Internet censors have deleted several disturbing videos of angry parents. On Friday, Beijings major newspapers barely mentioned the case.

Yet the allegations still went viral on social media websites in China, where decades of harsh family-planning policies have engendered a society-wide obsession with early-childhood education, and pervasive censorship and corruption have engendered a deficit of social trust.

On Thursday, the term RYB had more than 76 million mentions on WeChat. The top 13 stories on Weibo, its most popular microblog, concerned the case.

Many internet users drew parallels to a South Korean film called The Crucible (2011), which depicted a real-life case of sexual abuse at a school for the hearing impaired. The film sparked an outcry, and authorities reopened an investigation into the incident.

I hope this is our Crucible moment, wrote another WeChat user. Hopefully our last Crucible moment.

Special correspondents Gaochao Zhang and Matt DeButts in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report.

jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com

For more news from Asia, follow @JRKaiman on Twitter
Anger and frustration over rampant killings and kidnappings have ignited an improbable debate here over legalizing the death penalty, a punishment that has been effectively banned in Mexico for nearly half a century.

Lawmakers agreed Thursday to hear arguments next week on a proposal to amend the Mexican Constitution to allow for capital punishment in a narrow number of cases.

The initiative from Humberto Moreira, governor of the northern border state of Coahuila, would allow the death penalty for convicted kidnappers who killed or mutilated their victims. He said as far as the people of his state were concerned, the only issue was how to execute convicts, not whether to do so.

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It is highly unlikely, if not impossible, that the death penalty could be reinstated because of legal obstacles, experts said. But that is almost beside the point. Moreira has tapped into public panic over soaring crime, a climate of fear that has made law and order the countrys No. 1 worry.

Much of the bloodshed is related to Mexicos drug war, as government forces crack down on powerful traffickers and traffickers battle one another over pieces of the lucrative trade.

But violence is spilling into ordinary society. Two recent kidnappings of children of affluent Mexicans -- one turned up dead and the other has not been found -- underlined the publics vulnerability. As much as the crimes themselves, the fact that there are few prosecutions -- impunity and no justice -- riles Mexican society.

If 98% of criminals escape prosecution for their crimes, it is clear that the population feels wounded and tends to support capital punishment, Gerardo Priego, a legislator from the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, told reporters.

Moreiras initiative received quick support from several state governors from his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

But critics accused Moreira of demagoguery and of taking advantage of the public mood for political gain. Mexico Citys Human Rights Commission said a return to state-administered executions would set the country back 200 years.

Behind this call [for the death penalty] is societys desperation over the climate of insecurity we are living in, said Alberto Herrera, head of the Mexico chapter of Amnesty International. But the risk is it leads to calls for revenge. Times of desperation are the worst times to go for facile solutions.

Reinstatement of the death penalty is unlikely for legal and political reasons. The last execution in Mexico was in 1961, coincidentally in Coahuila, the state where the current initiative originated. Capital punishment remained on the books, primarily within the military judicial system, but was unused and abolished in 2005.

In 1981, Mexico signed a human rights treaty as part of the Organization of American States that dictated the death penalty, once eliminated, could not be revived.

Furthermore, the PAN, which holds sway in Congress, says it opposes changing the constitution to allow capital punishment.

Recent polls showed support for the death penalty surging to as much as two-thirds of the surveyed population.

Miguel Carbonell, a constitutional law expert at Mexicos National Autonomous University, said that despite public outcry, the chance of imposing the death penalty, given the international treaties that Mexico signed, was nil.

We are all very worried about the security situation and want strong measures, he said. But the state cannot fall into the same criminal behavior as the criminals.

In separate action Thursday, the lower house of Mexicos Congress approved a package of state security measures aimed at strengthening the governments ability to fight drug traffickers and organized crime. Key among the measures were provisions to prevent the infiltration of police forces by criminals.

Wilkinson is a Times staff writer.

wilkinson@latimes.com
U.S. Border Patrol agent Ramiro Cordero has spent nearly two decades working on the border in Texas, part of the El Paso sector team responsible for intercepting migrants and drug smugglers flowing in from Mexico.

On most Fridays, Cordero sheds his green uniform and gun belt, packs the bed of his tan F-150 pickup truck and sets off with his wife across the international bridge.

Weekends find him on his ranch in Moctezuma, deep in the state of Chihuahua, tending the pecan orchard, wrestling calves for branding or building a pit fire for freshly butchered pork barbacoa.

Cordero, 46, grew up in Mexico and hopes to retire there soon. He is one of a substantial group of border agents  more than half of whom are Latino  whose family connections are in Mexico, whose professional loyalty is to the United States, whose history straddles both sides of the border.

Left, U.S. Border Patrol agent Ramiro Cordero drives south on Mexico Highway 45, which cuts through Ciudad Juarez until the city gives way to the Chihuahuan Desert. Right, Cordero prepares to drive to Mexico for the weekend. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Its not unusual to see, he says, naming at least four friends and family members from Ciudad Juarez, south of El Paso on the Mexican side of the border, who have joined U.S. federal law enforcement. Border communities are very close. The ties are very, very close.

Americas southwest border area has always been a land of its own, a place that is neither Mexican nor American, but a vibrant fusion of both.

But years of drug violence in northern Mexico and the political rift between the U.S. and Mexican governments have strained those ties  for some border residents, to the breaking point  making Corderos choice a bold one. Its also evidence of the personal bridge-building some border residents must do to reconcile their American reality with their Mexican roots.

Cordero has always blended in well with the tough law enforcement culture here in El Paso sector.

He says he never removes the gold Border Patrol ring he wears on his right hand. He doesnt favor leniency for migrants who cross the border illegally. His uniform, he says, must always be pressed. He prefers Fox News and supports President Trump, whose verbal attacks on Mexico have opened deep wounds among Mexicans.

But he grew up in Ciudad Juarez on a block of Avenida del Charro  Cowboy Avenue  near a rodeo arena less than a mile from the other side of the U.S. border. He moves fluidly between Spanish and English, knows the words to the ballads of beloved Mexican crooners Antonio Aguilar and Juan Gabriel and eats menudo religiously on Sundays.

So his dream for a new beginning at midlife, retiring to a ranch in Mexico, also represents a homecoming.

In many ways, Chihuahua is as much his home as Texas.

Cordero, a native of Arizona who moved to Mexico at a young age, began his career as a border agent in 2000. It was the year that illegal immigration from Mexico was peaking and the agency reported more than 1.6 million apprehensions at the Southwest border  a 50-year record that holds today.

Border communities are very close. The ties are very, very close.  U.S. Border Patrol Agent Ramiro Cordero

He patrolled the line east of El Paso before there was an 18-foot steel border fence, before Sept. 11, before agents routinely brought machine guns on day patrol, when he alone apprehended between 15 and 30 crossers per shift.

Both his nationality and his commitment to Border Patrol were questioned once, after his eldest brother, a former U.S. customs officer, pleaded guilty in 2010 to smuggling migrants illegally through an El Paso port of entry.

But Cordero was not implicated in his brothers crime, and today, he crosses the border both ways with a SENTRI pass, for those known and trusted on both sides.

As Cordero approached the Zaragoza international bridge one recent Friday afternoon, his work cellphone rang.

U.S. Border Patrol, can I help you? he said into the phone. Que paso, Brenda? Okay, mira, do me a favor. Shoot me an email with that. The only problem is that I wont get back to it till Monday. Reason being, Im getting ready to cross south.

Top, Claudia Cordero closes the gate behind her truck as she and her husband arrive on her family's ranch in Moctezuma, Mexico. Left, Victor Lucero herds Brangus cattle. Right, Ramiro Cordero speaks with Victor Cardona as his nephew, Santiago Gonzalez, 5, sits on Cardona's shoulders at Rancho San Isidro. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Mexicos Highway 45 cuts through Ciudad Juarez  past maquila assembly factories and strip malls  until the city gives way to the Chihuahuan Desert.

The toll road is a major artery for goods headed north to the U.S. market, including auto parts and aerospace components. Its also a key drug corridor.

About 120 miles south of El Paso, Cordero turned onto a dirt road twisting through mesquite and creosote and the half-abandoned pueblito of Moctezuma.

Rancho San Isidro stretches over 8,000 acres belonging to his father-in-law, Victor Cardona, who raises cattle and pigs. The sun was nearly gone behind a white curtain of rain in the west by the time Cordero and his wife, Claudia, arrived.

To the east, Corderos brother-in-law Miguel Cardona and two cowboys pushed some 60 head of Brangus cattle over a hill toward a corral where Cordero, ready to work, positioned himself to close the gate.

He waited with a Coors Light and a cigarette. The wind whipped up and the rain moved over the ranch. The storm poured a deafening shower on the tin roof of a carport and outdoor kitchen. Cordero, his in-laws and the cowboys drank more Coors and waited for the rain to pass.

I think life is simpler here, Cordero said. Not that I wish I was in his shoes or his shoes, nodding to the cowboys, as they did the muscular work of taking the hair off a slaughtered pig. People live just a simple life. I truly envy that life. Here, what is there to worry about?

One of the cowboys built Corderos house, and it still needs a coat of paint outside and tiles on the roof. Its a do-it-yourself, one-story, three-bedroom home with tile floors, concrete counters and cabinets that hang a little cockeyed.

Now that the house is almost finished, he has several times invited his fellow agents to make the somewhat nerve-racking drive down the drug corridor highway to his little piece of paradise.

Hardly anyone wants to come down, he said.

Clockwise from top left: Carlos de Leon jumps over the fence to rope calves at Rancho San Isidro. After working all day in the sun, Raymundo Hernandez, from left, Carlos de Leon and Ernesto Cardona take a break. Felipe Cardona, 6, plays on the swing set. Ramiro and Claudia Cordero relax at the ranch. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The closest place to buy groceries and beer is Villa Ahumada, famous for its drive-in quesadilla joints, notorious for its role in the drug war.

In 2008, gunmen brutalized the town of 12,500 people, killing the police chief, two officers and three residents. The entire police force quit. In 2015, a Juarez Cartel leader was arrested with a semiautomatic rifle and $20,000 on him; when Mexican federal investigators searched his ranch, according to news reports, they found more high-powered weapons, ammo, numerous vehicles and two Bengal tigers.

In May, criminals sprayed a state building in Ahumada with bullets, killing one state police officer and wounding three others.

Since the era of extreme drug violence began in the early 2000s, Daniel Benavidez, spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council union, said he hadnt heard of any agents living in Mexico.

They may well be targets if they did retire there, he said.

The two most prominent attacks on U.S. agents in Mexico were the 1985 kidnapping, torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique Kiki Camarena, and the 2011 gunning down of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata.

But Cordero knows he has the power of two governments behind him.

There has always been an understanding, even among the most dangerous criminals, that they should stay away from U.S. agents, said Andrew Selee, president of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington. The few times something has happened, the U.S. and Mexican governments have responded with enormous force.

Cordero also has the confidence of his own training. You know, this is all I need, he says, brandishing a large pocketknife. If somebody is going to kidnap me, somebodys going down with me. Im not going down alone. And I am confident that I can probably disarm him and can have him eat his own rounds.

Saturday began at 7 a.m., first light.

Cardona heated lard in a copper pot on a propane flame. He fried the pigskin to make crispy chicharrones  a side dish to the red cow-stomach menudo simmering inside the house. In-laws began arriving to celebrate the annual branding of the calves.

Cordero pulled some PVC pipe from the back of his truck and set about repairing the outdoor kitchen sink.

At noon, everyone headed over to the corral. Claudia found the branding irons, one for Cardona and each of his five children.

Cordero doesnt rope. But when the cowboys had each calf by the hoof and neck, he watched for a chance to grab its underbelly with two hands and in one swift motion take it to the ground  knee on the neck, knee on the ribs, foreleg curled and secured.

Cordero got kicked multiple times, but took down all but two of the 15 calves, some weighing 400 pounds.

He takes off his uniform, and he completely transforms, Claudia said. He tries to wrestle down the cows like they were criminals. Its work but its not stress.

After working from dawn till dark, Cordero, his in-laws and the cowboys and their families drank beer, danced banda and sang along to Mexican tunes.

I mean, its strange, right? Cardona said of his brother-in-laws decision to make a home on the ranch. People usually like to come for a weekend or a vacation. But he works like we do. He works like he belongs here.

On Sunday, when the family was gone and the cleanup was done, Cordero and his wife packed the truck and said goodbye to Cardona and Claudias father.

Awaiting them at home were chores for the week ahead: shopping at Food King, making lunches of chicken and pasta alfredo from a packet, cleaning the backyard pool. Cordero would soon be back at the office, answering nonstop calls about border enforcement, drugs, illegal immigration.

At the end of the ranch road, Claudia made the sign of the cross. Cordero turned north.

Villagran is a special correspondent.
The anti-narcotics police arrived here in the heart of Colombias cocaine industry last month to destroy the coca crop. The community was determined to save it.

Roughly 1,000 farmers, some armed with clubs, surrounded the hilltop camp that police had set up in a jungle clearing and began closing in on the officers.

The police started shooting. When they were done, seven farmers were dead and 21 were wounded.

Several friends and neighbors died on the ground waiting for medical assistance, said Luis Gaitan, 32, who protected himself by hiding behind a tree stump.

In the end, the police crackdown appeared to have little result.

Gaitan and others soon returned to growing coca, the raw material of cocaine. The remote municipality of Tumaco, where Tandil is located, produces 16% of Colombian coca  more than anywhere else in the country.

(Joe Fox)

If Colombia ever had a chance to choke off its cocaine industry, this last year might have been it. The U.S.-backed government ended a five-decade civil war with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as the FARC, which fueled its rebellion largely with drug proceeds. The peace agreement promised new economic opportunities for the poor villages where coca production has long been the major source of employment and cash payments to persuade coca farmers  known as cocaleros  to grow legal crops instead.

But as the Oct. 5 clash in Tandil illustrates, things have not gone as planned.

Coca cultivation last year nationwide expanded to 361,000 acres, according to the United Nations. An area about the size of Los Angeles, thats triple the 2013 total and the most acres since 2000, when the U.S. launched a multibillion-dollar aid program called Plan Colombia to combat drugs and terrorism.

The U.S. gets 92% of its cocaine from Colombia, which exported record quantities in 2016, according to the U.S. government.

As coca cultivation and cocaine production in Colombia increase, the United States will likely see continued increases in cocaine-related deaths, new [users], seizures and positive workplace tests, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a report last month forecasting even more coca cultivation and bigger shipments this year.

(Joe Fox)

(Joe Fox)

The boom is partly due to the 2015 elimination of aerial spraying with glyphosate, an herbicide that killed coca plants but raised health concerns.

At the same time, promises during peace negotiations to pay coca farmers to switch crops backfired and spurred a rush to plant coca in time to cash in. The government in turn has been slow and uneven in making those payments largely because of budget problems.

More worrisome for the government is that criminal enterprises have been expanding their drug operations by rushing to fill the power vacuum left in the villages once controlled by the FARC. Mafias routinely issue death threats to coca farmers, warning them to not accept alternative development assistance.

You look behind the drug problem and you find the problem of security, said Bo Mathiasen, who heads Colombia operations at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. It is practically impossible to think you can have a sustainable change in an area where organized crime controls the farmers.

Elier Martinez heads a collective of coca farmers in the area around Tandil. (Chris Kraul / For The Times)

That reality has been playing out in Tumaco.

Situated on the Pacific coast near the border with Ecuador, the municipality is ideal territory for cultivating and trafficking drugs. The thick jungle, lack of roads and lattice of ocean inlets lined by mangroves make it difficult for authorities to patrol here for arrivals of the chemicals used to process coca or departures of cocaine shipments headed north.

The municipality is 70% dependent on illegal drugs, Mathiasen said. Thats farming, manufacturing, transportation and, of course, the export of cocaine. In other words, it is completely narcoticized.

Tumaco is also desperately poor. Most residents of the township lack sewage or drinking water systems. An ongoing plague has killed vast expanses of African palm that was the only legitimate income for many farmers, and the small fishing industry based here continues to suffer from a June 2015 oil spill that occurred when FARC guerrillas bombed a pipeline, dumping 10,000 barrels of crude into the Nulpe River.

For many, coca farming has long been the most reliable way to earn a living.

Most of the cocaleros in Tumaco are from other parts of Colombia. They started arriving a decade ago, when the FARC evicted black and indigenous groups from land that had been deeded to them under a 1993 law aimed at reducing social inequities. The rebels offered new colonists easy credit, security and the chance to make more money than they ever dreamed possible. A 10-acre farm might yield its operator enough coca to generate sales of up to $2,000 a month to customers who would then process it for export.

Coca was our way out of poverty, the only means we have to feed our families, pay for our childrens education, said Elier Martinez, president of the local coca farmers collective. People who have come to grow coca are here because theyre looking for a better life.

The peace deal reached in November 2016 promised to quash coca production.

Coca farmers in areas formerly held by the rebels were to receive compensation of about $400 a month for two years of coca-free farming followed by a single payment of up to $3,000 to help sustain a new crop or business.

But the promise of that program has yet to materialize for many cocaleros.

A decline in the price of oil and coal exports has left the government with a budget shortfall  and struggling to meet its commitment to the farmers. A member of the governments peace negotiating team who spoke on condition of anonymity said that last year the Finance Ministry, citing a lack of funds, rejected a plan to pay farmers a total of $600 million immediately upon implementation of the accord.

Roughly 23,000 families of the 150,000 thought to be growing coca are now receiving payments, according to Rafael Pardo, an advisor to President Juan Manuel Santos. Some farmers, however, are not eligible for the program because their plots are larger than 15 acres and therefore classified as industrial or  as was the case for Gaitan and the 1,000 farmers in his community in and around Tandil  they dont have clear title to the land.

Gaitan, who moved here in 2012 and earns about $1,000 a month from his 4-acre farm, said that without crop substitution payments, there is no way he could afford to give up growing coca. He said he and his wife and three children would starve.

Coca generates work and it is sustainable, he said. They try to paint us as mafiosos, but we are just the bees that make the honey. Others who are more important eat the honey we produce.

The FARC has demobilized, but there is no shortage of other armed groups to take over the coca production the rebels once controlled.

Ten drug trafficking organizations are active in Tumaco, according to a recent study by Colombias attorney general. In addition to the National Liberation Army, a leftist rebel group, they include the Zetas and Sinaloa cartels of Mexico.

We know the Mexican cartels are there, said Mathiasen, the U.N. official. They send envoys to organize the supply chain from the source, which makes sense. You would do the same if you were exporting bananas or oranges; its just a different business.

Special teams of police remove coca plants in Tumaco, near the Ecuadorean border. (Carlos Ortega / Associated Press)

Leonardo, 22, moved to Tumaco this year to harvest coca leaves, saying it was his only option to make decent money. (Chris Kraul / For The Times)

The area continues to attract young men like 22-year-old Leonardo, who asked that his last name not be used for fear of retribution by drug traffickers. He arrived in Tandil last year to work as a raspachin, or scraper, as coca harvesters are known. He said he can make $30 a day, or three times what coffee harvesters earn back home in Caldas province. He said he will soon have enough money to buy his mother a small house.

The U.S. government, which has spent $10 billion on aid to Colombia since 2000, has been frustrated that cocaine cultivation is going up, not down.

Santos set a goal that 250,000 acres of coca  roughly two-thirds the national total as of last December  would be eradicated this year. Since January, special teams of police have fanned out across coca-growing regions of Colombia, including Tumaco, to pull up coca plants.

That has led to serious tensions between the authorities and coca growers  and occasional violence. At least four cocaleros have been killed this year in 20 clashes with police. In April, farmers just outside Tumaco overpowered 50 police, held 12 of them hostage for a day and seized some weapons. U.N. mediators negotiated a peaceful ending to the standoff.

But the incident helped set the stage for the killings last month in Tandil.

We realized the government wasnt going to give us anything, and that the police were continuing with eradication, that there would be no agreement, said Martinez, the leader of the collective there. So frustration was building.

Local farmers say they had not threatened the police before officers began firing. The police have said that they started shooting only after they had been fired upon with cylinder bombs, which resemble huge mortar shells. But police suffered no casualties and offered no evidence of bomb craters.

Police helicopters arrived about an hour after the shootings to take the wounded to hospitals.

Days later, Gaitan and several other coca farmers gathered in the jungle clearing where most of the victims were shot to bow their heads and say a brief prayer.

Since the killings, tensions have remained high.

"No one from the government has been around to apologize or talk about compensation, said Joana Mopan, the widow of one of the shooting victims, 31-year-old Diego Escobar. I don't know how my 13-year-old son and I are going to manage."

Eight days after the shootings, Jose Jair Cortes, a coca farmer and Tumaco community leader who advocated voluntary coca eradication, was assassinated. Many farmers suspect that mafias opposed to the governments alternative crops plan ordered the killing as a warning to others.

The government says its trying to improve conditions in Tumaco to win back the trust of the farmers. The president held an emergency security council meeting in Tumaco in mid-October and announced a campaign to bring more police and troops to the area and to step up social programs. Santos said he recognized that the townships necessities are immense.

The government has not abandoned Tumaco. To the contrary, he said in a speech. The national, departmental and local governments have to work more as a team to stimulate participation and accelerate the substitution of illicit crops.

Leticia Riascos, a community leader in the city of Tumaco, said most coca farmers chose their work by necessity and would happily change if they had a real option.

They dont want to leave this coca business to their children and grandchildren, dont want to hand down the problem to future generations, Riascos said. We want to be good people and work for the good of the community.

No one from the government has been around to apologize or talk about compensation. I dont know how my 13-year-old son and I are going to manage, said Joana Mopan, whose husband was among the coca farmers killed by police Oct. 5. (Chris Kraul / For The Times)

Kraul is a special correspondent.
At least 235 people were killed when gunmen stormed a mosque during Friday prayers in the rugged Sinai Peninsula, setting off explosives and firing on worshipers in what was believed to be the deadliest single attack by Islamist extremists on Egyptian civilians.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assault on the Rawda mosque in the town of Bir Abed, near the North Sinai provincial capital of Arish.

The region has long been the scene of a simmering Islamist insurgency, and fighters loyal to Islamic State have mounted large-scale attacks there against the countrys security forces. But attacks against Muslim places of worship are rare in Egypt, and the scale of the bloodshed sent shock waves across the country.

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The assault, which reportedly involved more than a dozen gunmen who arrived in off-road vehicles, targeted a mosque frequented by Sufi Muslims, followers of a mystical branch of Islam that Islamic State and other Sunni extremists deem to be heretical.

There were conflicting accounts of how the attack unfolded. Some witnesses said a bomb was detonated at the mosques main gate, prompting a panicked flight for the exits. Others did not report hearing an explosion but said at least three attackers broke into the mosque, locked the doors and started firing on those inside.

As worshipers tried to flee, more gunmen were lying in wait.

The mosque has two exits, and both were covered by the terrorists, who were parked in cars and started firing at everyone who tried to escape, said a local resident who wasnt inside the mosque during the attack but rushed there to help. Like others interviewed, he asked to be identified by only his first name, Tariq, for fear of retribution.

It was a horrible scene; there were bodies everywhere, said another witness, Mahmoud, who also arrived soon after the attack and spoke with survivors. They first shot at those praying inside, then onto the ablution area and killed those [in there] as well.

The assailants blocked access to the area by blowing up cars in the road and also fired on ambulances as they rushed to the scene, witnesses and news reports said.

A video taken from inside the mosque showed the grim aftermath of the attack. Dozens of bodies were arrayed on the carpeted floor, their arms folded and their faces covered with sheets, many of them streaked with blood.

In addition to the 235 people killed, at least 109 were injured, according to state-run media. Egypts president, Abdel Fattah Sisi, declared three days of national mourning and convened a meeting of top security officials.

He later addressed the nation on television, vowing to respond with extreme force to this painful, treacherous and cowardly attack.

This incident wont do anything except increase our determination and strength to combat terrorism, Sisi said.

Activists on Facebook issued pleas for blood donors to make their way to the Bir Abed hospital, where many of the wounded were taken.

Hussam Rifai, a member of parliament from Arish, told the local Masrawy news outlet that most of the casualties were from the Sawarka tribe, Sufis who are seen as broadly supportive of the government and who have refused to cooperate with Islamic State.

Residents said masked militants showed up at the mosque earlier this year and warned worshipers to stop helping the police.

Islamic States local affiliate has targeted Sufis and their shrines in the past. A year ago, the group published a video purportedly showing the beheading of Suleiman Abu Haraz, the 98-year-old spiritual leader of the Sufis in the Sinai who had been kidnapped from his Arish home.

Islamist militants have stepped up attacks in the region since Egypts military overthrew the countrys elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, amid a wave of anti-government protests in 2013.

Hundreds of police, soldiers and civilians have been killed, most of them in attacks carried out by a group that pledged loyalty to Islamic State in 2014. The 47-mile stretch of road connecting Arish to Bir Abed has become a regular escape route for the militants, who consider the Sinai one of the provinces of their self-proclaimed caliphate.

Historically the state has struggled to exercise full control over northern Sinai, said Timothy Kaldas, a nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington. The area is underdeveloped and is mostly mountainous desert terrain.

Islamic States affiliate has carried out deadly bombings on churches in the capital, Cairo, and other cities. It also is believed to have been responsible for the downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed 226 people in 2015.

But the targeting of a mosque represents a shift for the militants, who typically aim their attacks at the security forces and people they view as spies or heretics.

Kaldas said the government would need to reach out to the local Bedouin tribes and enlist them in the fight against Islamic State.

The government has started to do that, and well see if this attack makes Bedouin in Sinai more interested in fighting ISIS given how this attack targeted them so brutally, Kaldas said, using a common acronym for Islamic State.

Although Islamic State has lost control of most of the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq, security experts have warned that the group remains active in other parts of the world, and its followers probably will revert to guerrilla-style tactics.

The groups Sinai affiliate is considered to be one of its most effective. Although it does not control territory, it has continued to inflict deadly attacks despite years of fighting with Egypts security forces.

Messages of condolence and support poured in from around the world Friday, including from Britain, France, Israel, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

President Trump condemned the horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in a tweet.

The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence! he said.

Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt. The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017

Times staff writer Zavis reported from Beirut, and special correspondents Medhat and Bulos reported from Cairo and Dubai, respectively.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

Twitter: @alexzavis

UPDATES:

2:15 p.m.: This article was updated with an address by Egypts president and additional background.

10 a.m.: This article was updated with witness accounts, background and other details.

7:30 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with staff reporting and the death toll rising to at least 235.

6:10 a.m.: This article was updated with 184 dead.

6 a.m.: This article was updated with a death toll of 155.

5:25 a.m.: This article was updated with details, background and a death toll of 115.

4:55 a.m.: This article was updated to raise the death toll from 54 to 85.

This article was originally published at 4:25 a.m.
The Mountmellick flooding disaster has revealed how Dublin and the State has ignored the town and Laois for nearly a century, a letter writer to a national newspaper has claimed.

In a letter published in today's Irish Independent, PK McEvoy, of Drumcondra in Dublin says decline in the fortunes of Mountmellick and Laois 'beggars belief'.

"So it took a local deluge in the Slieve Bloom Mountains for Mountmellick to the oxygen of national publicity that will surely not last longer than 48 hours.

"I could imagine the media cohort, especially within the Pale, googling 'Mountmellick' to see where on earth it was located. And who could blame them?

"Once known as 'the Manchester of Ireland' Mountmellick has been on the downward spiral, especially since the early 1960s when it suffered the double whammy of both the closure of the railway and canal linking it to the outside world.

Mr McEvoy believes the political representation has not helped.

"For as long as I can remember, it has suffered from a vacuum of political representation from the two main parties. Although born in the town, the current Justice Minister, Charlie Flanagan, left for Portlaoise," he writes.

He believes the entire county of Laois has been left behind.

"Nor has the county fared much better either. Once known as Queen's County, Co Laois has been invisible in terms of investment and employment opportunities over the years.

"In the 1970s and 80s local employment was mainly available in Portarlington and Portlaoise. The former lost its biggest employers through closures while the latter has consistently been overlooked for investment while at the same time its hospital being degraded year after year to junk status.

"Between 2007 and 2014 the county received a paltry 90,000 towards the development of tourism, while Killarney House in Kerry alone received 5.2 million!

"Laois is also part of the club midland counties, with a total population of approximately 750,000 conveniently excluded from the Citizens' Assembly.

"An all of this is taking place at a time when about 11pc of its population are actually migrants into the country. It really beggars belief.

Mr McEvoy thinks Laois should consider a 'Brexit' because it does not seem to exist unless there is a disaster

"A few days ago, unionist politician, John Taylor opined that Donegal would be better off being part of the UK as Dublin ignores Donegal.

"The reality is that all Government ignores all places outside the Pale - unless, that is there is a local disaster as recently experiences by the people in Mountmellick.

"Perhaps Laois, aka Queen's County, with its county town Portlaoise, aka Maryborough, and Mountmellick, the Manchester of Ireland, might also consider its future status outside the jurisdiction in view of the historic neglect that has been visited upon it since the foundation of the State," he concludes in the letter published in the Irish Independent.

RED CROSS ADMINISTER FLOOD RECOVERY FUND
'Localised' flooding has occurred overnight in Portarlington after parts of the river flowing from Mountmellick to Portarlington reached its highest ever recorded level yesterday.

Botley Lane and Bog Road are closed. Stop and go is currently in place on Patrick Street and the Council will continue to monitor the situation.

Director of Services at Laois County Council, Kieran Kehoe, has said that localised flooding has occurred overnight in the town.

"Botley Lane, the Bog Road and Patrick Street have experienced localised flooding. We have been in discussion with Offaly County Council since last night. We are setting up diversions along these routes.

"There is a stop/go system on Patrick street at the moment and it is likely that this road could be closed off later today," he said.

Roads crews, Civil Defence crews and Fire Service crews are working in the town.

Members of the public are requested to observe road closure signs, drive appropriately and not attempt to drive through flooded areas.

Please be advised if you require the assistance of Laois County Council contact (057) 86 64000. In the event that you require the emergency services, please dial 999.

AA Roadwatch have already reported that Patrick Street is closed and all motorists should avoid the town.

The Portarlington Rd (R423) is closed between Mountmellick and Portarlington due to flooding.

Traffic delays have been reported in the area.

Laois Civil Defence and Irish Defence Forces were deployed to Portarlington this morning to help people that have been hit by flooding.

Crews currently providing sandbags to Patrick street, Portarlington pic.twitter.com/TAFlApsaIp  Laois Civil Defence (@LaoisCivilDefen) November 23, 2017

@LaoisCivilDefen and @defenceforces crews deployed to Portarlington this morning to assist homeowners pic.twitter.com/hwkqfW3CEB  Laois Civil Defence (@LaoisCivilDefen) November 24, 2017

Portarlington schools closed due to flooding.

Portarlington on high flooding alert as River Barrow approaches record levels in the Laois Offaly town.

Laois man dies in workplace accident in Dublin.
Despite tough opposition at the preliminary heat of Comortas Diospoireachta An Phiarsaigh 2017 held in Scoil Chriost Ri, Portlaoise, on November 13 last, young debaters from Newbridge College have qualified through to the next round of the competition.

Comortas An Phiarsaigh is a national debating competition organized annually by Gael Linn for second-level schools nationwide, and funded by Foras na Gaeilge. Firmly established on the school calendar for almost 60 years, the principal aim of the competition has been to promote the use of Irish in schools and among young people.

First up to the podium on the day were the junior teams from St. Fergals College, Rathdowney and Newbridge College, who advocated that the Rose of Tralee competition should be done away with (Ba cheart deireadh a chur le comortas Ros Thra Li!) while the students of Holy Family Secondary School, Newbridge, and hosts, Scoil Chriost Ri, Portlaoise, disagreed. Each speaker had three minutes in which to argue his or her case, and many valid points were made on both sides. In the end, however, it was the Rathdowney and Newbridge College teams who won over the adjudicators in their favour.

Later on that afternoon, the topical motion  Is Parthas turasoireachta i Eire an lae inniu! ( The Ireland of today is a tourist Paradise!) tested the knowledge and resourcefulness of the senior teams from the same schools.Once again, the young orators from Newbridge College were confident in their delivery and were deemed winners on the night, along with their peers from Scoil Chriost Ri.

The successful Kildare teams now look forward to the challenge of round two, due to take place before the Christmas holidays.

Teachers Clodagh Conaire and Sarah Ni Mhaoilmhiagh prepared the teams for the debates.

Co-ordinator, Jamie O Tuama, thanked participants, along with the supporters who had travelled to the event.
Edenderry man Neil Delamere is currently on tour with his show Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Pensioner, next appearing in the Westgrove Hotel in Clane on December 1.

The show tells the story of a single day when Delamere and his father travelled around the locality delivering meals on wheels.

Things were going well, he explains. He and his father, who is 82, drove around to the first few houses with Neil handing out the meals and his father instructing him to chat to the people, because meals on wheels is all about being sociable.

Then at the next house we got a tip for a horse, and sure we tore through the next six houses to get back to town in time to put the bet on!

And did the horse win? the Leinster Leader wanted to know.

Sure I cant tell you that! Youll just have to come to the show!

The tour will also include a gig on December 27 in the Moat in Naas, the Riverbank in Newbridge on March 3 next and in Maynooth in the Glenroayal Hotel on March 18.

Neil is from Edenderry where locals say hes funny, just like his oul fella.

They tell me that hes funnier than me! Neil admits, and appears to knock great craic out of the thought.

He says his father has also made suggestions as to how he should be portrayed in the show.

Neil brought the show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and explained that he found the format was perfect because most people everywhere have a dad so they could relate to the story, although he had to excise references to Christy Moore, Coill Dubh and Bord na Mona!

The format of the show is also good for tangents, because the audience spends the evening wanting to know where the horse came.

The cliffhanger keeps the audience interested.

He says that when he announced to his parents that he was going to become a comedian, his mother was at least pleased that hed done his degree (in computer science).

You know those posh English kids who take a year out, well I think they imagined it would be like that.

I was 22 at the time and sure look now, I its 15 years later and Im still at it.

My mother sometimes says: Sure at least youll always have your degree.

Im afraid computer science has moved on a bit since I did my degree. Id have to go back to using an Amstrad!

As well as the new tour, Delamere has his weekly show on Today FM as well as a game show on BBC Northern Ireland called the Blame Game which, while not familiar to southern audiences, is very successful.

And hes currently involved in what he calls a little mockumentary which will be out in January on the BBC, but he cant talk about it much now.

The award-winning comedian is one of the top acts working in the Irish comedy scene today, well known for his regular television appearances on RTE and the BBC as well as his hilarious sell-out stand up tours.

Hes also toured extensively internationally, with appearances at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival.
Actor Aoibhin Garrihy and former winner Milo McCarthy (14) have joined forces urging the public to nominate their Leitrim heroes for a People of the Year Award before nominations close.

The final date for submitting nominations is next Friday, December 1  the last chance for the public to nominate Irelands heroes for this years Awards.

Now in its 43rd year, the awards, which are organised by Rehab Group, will be broadcasted on RTE One on Saturday, March 3rd from The Mansion House.

At todays final call in Dublins Herbert Park Hotel, Aoibhin and Milo urged the public to nominate their Leitrim heroes  family, friends and colleagues  and those ordinary people who have done extraordinary things.

Aoibhin described the awards as one of the highlights of her social calendar and urged the public to nominate somebody who deserves recognition.

Aoibhin added: Ive been a huge fan of the show for many years. Its a great night out, myself and John (husband) always attend the awards and look forward to it every year. We wouldnt miss it, you meet such incredibly brave people who have done amazing things. Its such a fantastic national celebration which recognises some truly amazing people across Ireland, from all communities and backgrounds. We all know people who deserve recognition, so I hope people get nominating their heroes.

Milo McCarthy (14) revealed he was stunned when Games of Thrones star Liam Cunningham presented him with the Young Person of the Year Award in 2016. The little hero received the award after he raised nearly 18,000 for Syrian refugees by busking on the streets of Cork City and his hometown of Midleton

He added: It was a total surprise, I had no idea Liam was presenting the award to me. He was very nice and congratulated me when we spoke after the show. I still get spotted in Cork as the guy who busked to raise money for refugees. Its such a great experience, so Id urge everybody to nominate their heroes. There is so much negativity in the world, so its good to shine a light on all that is good.

It is quick and easy to nominate someone for a People of the Year Award. You can nominate online at www.peopleoftheyear.com or by emailing peopleoftheyear@ rehab.ie

The closing date for entries is midnight Friday, December 1st. All the winners are nominated by the Irish public and finalised by a panel of adjudicators. As well as a number of general awards, people can nominate their Young Person of the Year, Sportsperson of the Year, International Person of the Year and the Community Group of the Year.
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Abbie Hubbard(ALEXANDRIA, Va.) -- It's well known that dogs are a human's best friend. But in the case of Minnow, a rescue dog, she's also a turkey's best friend.



Minnow, a 3-year-old sapsali, belongs to Abbie Hubbard, who is also foster "mom" to 10-week-old Blossom, a rescue turkey that came to her at 5 weeks old. Blossom was rescued from a slaughterhouse after workers moving turkeys inadvertently left her behind.



"I brought Blossom home and let her out of her carrier, where Minnow was waiting for her," Hubbard, 40, told ABC News. "Minnow immediately went to Blossom and gave her a nudge and a kiss. Blossom seemed immediately comfortable with Minnow, and after exploring Minnow's soft bed, she went to Minnow and cuddled up to her.



"Later, I was snuggling with Minnow, and Blossom seemed to understand that I could be a source of comfort too. So she came and snuggled up next to me. I'll never forget that moment."



Blossom isn't Minnow's first fowl friend. Hubbard previously fostered a chick named Chickpea. Chickpea now resides at a local farm, a better environment than Hubbard's townhouse in Northern Virginia.



"Minnow and Blossom are constant companions, and Blossom still takes comfort from Minnow," Hubbard said.



The threesome often spend their days in the backyard or on the couch together.



"If something scares Blossom," Hubbard said, "she looks to Minnow and takes her cues from her. On Halloween night, Blossom was unsure about the first few groups of children that came to our door. She would run and hide. Once she noticed Minnow greeting the kids and wagging excitedly at the door, Blossom stopped hiding and joined in the fun."



Hubbard said she hopes the happiness that Minnow and Blossom radiate "makes people stop and think about all life."



"Farmed animals have feelings, just as our companion animals do. They can nourish our souls far more than any meal ever would," she added. "If nothing else, I hope that they see that kindness exists in all souls and that their encounter with Minnow and Blossom inspires them to extend kindness to others."



Soon, Blossom will go to live at the same farm where Chickpea resides. "I know that Minnow will feel the loss when Blossom moves to the farm, but together, we will console each other and then fill that hole with another little soul who could use our help."

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Objects of affection As a new book captures India's design history in 100 objects, we look at seven of them and a collage of what's uniquely India emerges /news/talking-point/objects-of-affection-111646919079289.html 111646919079289 story

In the book A History Of The World In 100 Objects, Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum, captured over two million years of human history in 100 objects. In another delightful book titled At Home: A Short History Of Private Life, American author Bill Bryson takes a tour of his own home, and through domestic objects narrates the history of humankind. Closer home, in a coffee-table book called Sar: The Essence Of Indian Design, authors Swapnaa Tamhane and Rashmi Varma portray an Indian design identity through 200 objects, ranging from icons like the Hindustan Ambassador to a quotidian thing like a hawai chappal (flip-flop).

Earlier this month, author and perfumer Jahnvi Lakhota Nandan released her new book, Pukka Indian: 100 Objects That Define India (Roli Books). The book captures the vast landscape of Indian design, tied to the social and political history of the country, and, most remarkably, reveals the continuity of tradition that makes Indian design unique. It includes everyday objects like the chimta-tava (tongs and pan) that have no singular date of origin or authorship, contraptions like the desert cooler that embody a typically Indian ingenuity, and symbols of modernity like Godrejs CH-4 chair and almirah. Its a fun, nostalgic re-visiting of our childhood homes and the story of things weve grown up with.

Nandan, however, is clear about the intent of the book being more than a feel-good nostalgic trip. Nostalgia rarely plays a role in my work. Memory does," she says.

I have lived in 25 different homes and my father has lived in 54 different homes. While writing this book, I questioned people about what are those objects that they would carry with them if they were to move homes."

As Lounge features seven objects from Pukka Indian, Nandan talks to us about the making of the book and adds trivia to the individual histories of objects.

Bahi-khata books. Photographs courtesy Roli Books

Bahi-khata

Nandans unpacking of this red cloth-covered book that represents the double-entry bookkeeping tradition of India ranges from its history, the materials it is made of, to its evolution over the years. While she traces the origin as the accounting book of merchants across the subcontinent to record financial transactions", she looks to the future to see how it has evolved. Bahi-khata books have spawned a whole new industry of cloth-covered diaries and books," she writes in the book.

Godrej CH-4

Nandan identifies three waves of Indias design history. The first wave of design was during the freedom movement, which gave birth to brands and products that were essentially about national identity. The second period was in the 1950s when new products came up driven by the new material of stainless steel. It led to our own mid-century modern design, our own Bauhaus. Godrej is one of the companies that propagated that. The third wave was the 1990s, when India opened up economically. Design obviously follows economic and political currents," she says.

Desert cooler.

Desert cooler

Nandan writes about informal design and how, over time, traditional things are re-engineered for efficiency. In the 18th century, people in India cooled spaces during hot summer months with a humid woven grass or textile filter positioned between the hot air outside and the room inside. A manually operated fan placed behind the grass curtain pushed hot air through the moisture-laden filter, cooling down the room considerably. In the 1950s, this led to the ingenious creation of the desert cooler," she writes in the book.

Sevnazhi, a manual press that is used to make sev or fried savouries.

Sevnazhi

The Indian kitchen is clearly a thriving space for design. For instance, consider sevnazhi, a manual press that is used to make sev or fried savouries. Nandan, who went to the School of Art and Design at Tsukuba University in Japan, learns from contrasting cultures. When youre distanced from your country of birth, you start considering the objects you grew up with. Between Japanese and Indian cultures, some objects are common, and many not. For instance, the Japanese have elaborate bathing rituals. In India, the extensive objects are always in the kitchen. Even when the rest of the house is spartan, the kitchen will be full of things," she says.

Photographs courtesy Roli Books

Ghungroo

The book dwells on the significance of the unisex dancers accessory" as the heart of every beat of the foot; what would have otherwise been just a flat thump on the floor is transformed into a reverberating melody," writes Nandan. While she herself practises Bharatanatyam, the photographer of the book, Shivani Gupta, is a Mohiniattam dancer, and the editor, Radhika Jha, an Odissi dancer. Indian dance is a constant quest of aesthetics. To me, this was also to explore what it means to express an aesthetic in dance or in photographs or in a book," says Nandan.

Shuttlecock.

Shuttlecock

Nandan attempts to capture history but also reveals the beauty of form and function. Shivani (Gupta) photographed some things in natural settings and some were stylized. With the shuttlecock, for instance, we wanted to convey the beauty of the form. Everyone has played with it, but you dont think about all the feathers that go into its making. So you unravel the object and put it back together," says Nandan.

ncense is very sophisticated perfumery.

Agarbatti

Nandan contrasts Indian design and its principals with other schools of thought. In places like Japan and Germany, the tendency to categorize things as good or bad design is strong. In India, that seldom has meaning. If you take incense, the argument is not about good or bad design. Incense is very sophisticated perfumery.The use of incense ranges from pleasing the gods to controlling elephants to drying your hair. Its beyond good design and bad design. You could break it down as the length of the stick and how the smoke rises from it, the form, etc., but its essence is much deeper than that," she says.
How to tell the Dalit story Sujatha Gidla, author of a book on untouchability, on the pervading caste discrimination in the country /news/big-story/how-to-tell-the-dalit-story-111646832673541.html 111646832673541 story

Moving beyond the narratives of victimhood and survival, Sujatha Gidlas book on caste, Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family And The Making Of Modern India, has come out at a time when more Dalits in India are asserting their rights, and more non-Dalits are speaking up against the discrimination towards the community. Gidlas book, published in the US in July and in India this month, is the story of the country through the eyes of the untouchables". India has completed 70 years of its independence, but caste still exists and discrimination based on it manifests itself in different forms. At 26, Gidla, a Dalit from Andhra Pradesh, moved to the US, where she worked as an app designer at the Bank of New York. She was laid off during the recession in 2009, and has since been working as a conductor with the New York City Subway.

In a phone interview, Gidla, 54, speaks about her book, writing, her raw anger, and caste in India. Edited excerpts:

How do you describe yourself? Which identity precedes the other?

A Dalit, someone who is left-leaning, then I guess...a conductor. Caste is first because we are made aware of it all the time. If I go to India, I know it based on how we are treated. And since I wrote this book, caste has become my first identity here as well. In fact, my basic identity even now is that of a Dalit more than a writer. It is more like a conductor who became a writer rather than a writer who is also a conductor. I am more caste- and class-conscious than anything else. When I was young, I would say I am a Naxalite or a Communist first. I think I started becoming conscious of my Dalit identity in 1985, after the Karamchedu massacre in Andhra Pradesh, where an entire settlement of untouchables was attacked by a mob of high-castes. It really jolted me and many of us out of our oblivion.

You started out trying to figure your story. At what point, on interviewing your family, did you realize you needed to write a book?

Ants Among ElephantsAn Untouchable Famlly And The Making Of Modern India: By Sujatha Gidla, HarperCollins, 312 pages, Rs599.

Initially, the phone calls were about finding out where I came from, but very quickly it became clear to me that it constitutes a book. I was shocked to realize that very few generations ago we were actually living in the forests and living off of the forests, and how we came to settle to doing agriculturewhich is basically the point of civilization. My family was a part of that huge transitionfrom hunter-gatherers to agriculture. Unlike, say, places like Germany, where it took several centuries, these huge transitions took place in a very small duration of time for my familyfrom forests to plains, from tribals to civilized people, from tribals to untouchables, from worshipping totems to practising Christianity. Also, I realized how one becomes an untouchable. Its not like some people randomly got assigned untouchability, some Brahminism. There is a material basis for this segregation. That caste and its evolution can be explained was fascinating to me.

You break down caste to its basicswas this book intended to be written for an international audience?

I was writing for the Western audience. I didnt expect Indians to be even interested. I probably underestimated how many people in India areor at least they consider themselvesanti-caste. I probably believed everybody is mired in this casteism, so nobody would appreciate it. I was actually surprised to see the reaction. But when I think about it, I am sure no Indian publisher would have been the first to publish the book. I think it is only because it got so much praise from the West that people in India got to reading it.

On Twitter, you started the hashtag #WhereIsCaste. Why?

After the book, I did several radio interviews where people call and ask questions. And all these people calling from India would say, Oooo, I live in Delhi and I never saw anybody practising casteism. Where is caste?" I heard those people and I also heard some untouchables who have moved up say things like caste is not prevalent any more. Thats when I decided to start this hashtag.

Has caste discrimination changed its form?

People think that only the concept of an untouchables touch defiling the upper caste characterizes caste discrimination. It isnt just that. Caste discrimination is everywhere. Theres segregation in living areas, and in towns and cities too, people ask your caste. My family always lived in towns but we were never able to find houses in regular colonies. Either they dont see it because of their own sensitivities or they deliberately dont want to see it, or else they think only certain things define caste, and since those are not so visible, caste discrimination is not there. From my point of view, caste is there. Right from the most defining factor of untouchability that is touching, to someone saying look, we do let untouchables eat with us...there is a whole range of untouchability.

Did you expect your book to achieve such critical acclaim?

The more I wrote, the more I realized that the story was becoming interesting. I really wanted to write it in a very simple manner, and not give in to lyricism and poetic stuff, and I consciously used the Telugu idioms and expressions (rather than from the English language). The best compliment for my writing came from someone in India. He is a Brahmin but a very poor Brahmin. He couldnt graduate from high school, so whatever English he knows is through reading news that interested him. He told my mother he read the book without looking at the dictionary even once, and that there were just three words he didnt understand, but even for those, the context explained the meaning. I was very heartened by this.

Do you have any favourite authors?

I read a lot compared to people of my background, but much less compared to people I am put alongside with now. I dont have favourite authors, I have favourite books. I liked Halldor Laxness Independent People. I also liked Hindoo Holiday: An Indian Journal, by J.R. Ackerley. I liked his style of writing. He doesnt go into lyricism and nonsense like that.

Do you think only Dalits can tell the stories of Dalits?

I disagree that only Dalits can tell the stories of Dalits. On the other hand, people who are in those circumstances have to be extremely conscious, and extremely politically open and progressive, to be able to do that despite being upper castes. Yes, upper-caste people can champion Dalit rights and issues, but they all happen to harbour some kind of a patronizing attitude which we can see but they cant.

There are a lot of conversations happening around the assertion of Dalit rights. How do you view this?

I think Dalit assertion really stands out of what is happening in rural India. What is happening in urban areas is only a reflection of what is happening in rural areas. Basically, even reservation and all of that really comes out of the oppression of untouchables in the countryside. They are the ones who are oppressed. And their fight in rural areas is what makes us conscious of our Dalit identity. The conflict in rural India is really sharp these days, because untouchables are fighting for land. The landed dont want them to have land. Previously, the untouchables didnt ask for land because they have been told for centuries that this is your position and you should accept it. When they saw all the other groups, which were originally landlesslike the Yadavs, Kumbis, Reddysowning land, the untouchables also realized that caste lines are not hardened and carved in stone. And if it can change for the others, why not for them? Thats where the assertion comes from. Not as much because of reservation. Reservation is actually dampening Dalit assertion.

Is the situation better for Dalits now than it was two generations ago? How are the battles different?

It is better only for those who benefited from reservations, and were able to move up. But for others, it is becoming worse. As we can see, people who made it to higher education, like (University of Hyderabad student) Rohit Vemula... He made it but thats when he was hounded and pushed to kill himself. Everyday atrocities are more and more brutal. It started with just killing, now its the killing of pregnant women, parading women naked, forcing people to lick spit as punishment. There is no way you can be less conscious of being a Dalit with all this going on around you.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday said that counter-terrorism, dialogue and reconstruction should be the focal points currently for resolving the Syrian issue.

Wang made the remarks in a meeting with Syria's presidential political and media advisor Bouthaina Shaaban, as the issue moves to a new development stage dominated by the process of political settlement.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets Syria's presidential political and media advisor Bouthaina Shaaban in Beijing on November 24, 2017. [Photo: fmprc.gov.cn]

"Counter-terrorism is the foundation, dialogue is the way out and reconstruction is the guarantee," Wang said.

Wang said that the recent intensive interaction among related parties on the future political arrangements in Syria will contribute to the positive outcome of the UN-sponsored Syrian political talks in Geneva.

Noting dialogue and negotiation are the only solution, Wang said that during the talks, "Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity must be maintained, and the Syrian people's core position in the political settlement process must be protected."

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China will participate in and support the Syrian political settlement process in accordance with Security Council resolutions.

Wang said that the international community has made important achievements in counter-terrorism cooperation, but the situation in Syria is still serious.

"The international community should put aside differences and continue to work together to fight against terrorist extremist groups and prevent them from spreading," he said.

"Only by steadily advancing reconstruction can we give hope to the people and guarantee the long-term stability of Syria. The international community should pay attention to and actively support the reconstruction of Syria," Wang said.

Shaaban agreed with Wang, speaking highly of China's stance.

Shaaban expressed the Syrian side's will to take part in the political solution, welcoming bigger Chinese role in the process.
What would you preserve? Google's digital installation called 'Future Relics' opens up the conversation to the present day and to people visiting the museum /news/talking-point/what-would-you-preserve-111646918946703.html 111646918946703 story

In a first of its kind project, Google Cultural Institute has set up a digital installation called Future Relics at Mumbais Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS). The aim is to actively involve museum visitors in the creation of an artefact that preserves the current moment for the future.

This is part of the ongoing exhibition, India And The World: A History In Nine Stories. Google Cultural Institute has previously partnered with more than 40 museums and cultural organizations in India. With this project, Google came on board to explore how we could use technology to extend the theme of the exhibition," says Paris-based Freya Murray, program manager and creative lead, Google Cultural Institute Lab.

We ask people who come to visit the exhibition one simple question: What object would you choose for archaeologists to uncover 1,000 years from now that represents our present-day culture?" says Murray, who was in Mumbai to set up Future Relics. Visitors have the option to respond in one of three languagesHindi, Marathi and English. This information is used on the backend by Google Translate to combine the answers and inscribe them on to a digital form of vases. So we have this growing landscape of vases and pots with each persons contribution imprinted on them. Lets say you said that the object you want to contribute is an aluminium pressure cooker but you wrote in Hindi and I wrote it in English. As the exhibition progresses, well start to see the objects that most people have chosen, the commonalities, and shared stories of what we want to preserve will emerge," says Murray.

The art work comes together as the exhibition progresses over three months in Mumbai. For the duration of the exhibition, which opened on 11 November, this is done on digital vases. At the end of the exhibition, Google will print in 3D up to 10 vases made of the most popular objects shared and gift them to various museums around the world. These physical future relics will act like a time capsule for generations to view in the future," says Murray.

India And The Worlda collaboration between CSMVS, British Museum, London, and the National Museum, New Delhireveals Indian history as situated within parallel narratives of world history. Future Relics opens up the conversation to the present day and to people visiting the museum. As the exhibition is about objects and dialogue, we wanted to look at how we can bring some of those questions to people, for them to consider within their own lives and the everyday. We wanted to find a way to have an active dialogue with visitors who came to the museum, and hence have a deeper, more involved museum experience," says Murray.

Googles intent with the Cultural Institute is to provide access to knowledge that resides within museums and cultural institutions. There is an element of preservation, finding new forms of engagement and storytelling. Future Relics takes the technology companys vision of digitizing museum knowledge a step further, to creating new knowledge. Its an experiment and well wait to see how it materializes. But an essential idea is to get people to think about their own lives," says Murray.
The colours and prejudices of Nawazuddin Siddiqui Nawazuddin Siddiqui and his publisher have displayed self-censorship by withdrawing his account of an outsider's success in a nepotistic industry /news/talking-point/the-colours-and-prejudices-of-nawazuddin-siddiqui-111646919038374.html 111646919038374 story

Nawazuddin Siddiquis memoir, now withdrawn from circulation, is thin and unpretentious. It is largely anecdotal, and has some riveting pages about the puny, desperate and hairpin-bend life of an actor trying to make it in Mumbai. Or to just make it.

Siddiqui made it to the big league, and his wiry, intense darkness and the spark with which he portrays amoral characters became saleable in a film industry that encashes largely on the fair, the one-dimensional, and the Punjabi.

His success story alchemized on the vibrant film fringes of the early 2000s, after which he got a standout role in a multi-crore Salman Khan megahit. The book pithily lays out the agents of this alchemy, with co-author Rituparna Chatterjee. They conjure a curiously painfuland at the same time hilarioussub-world of actors endlessly preparing for auditions in corners of Mumbais Yari Road, the seat of Bollywood casting.

Thats one reason to read the book, modestly and boringly titled An Ordinary Life: A Memoir. The other reason is its candidnesswith a few exceptions, Siddiqui narrates his life story almost with a resigned shrug, without frills or apologies. No character in his life of 43 years is tremulously confronted. Characters are robustly and intelligently detailed. Considering even the most powerful in Bollywood are politically correct and have no sharp or consistent opinions on how the film industry works, this memoir has a refreshing bluntness, which also reveals some of the actors own stunning prejudices. While not as entertaining and well-written as the last great actor memoir to have come out in India, Naseeruddin Shahs And Then One Day: A Memoir (2014), Siddiquis book does have some painfully earnest parts, and its never fawning or sugary.

I have, of course, read the original version; the actor and his publisher, Penguin Random House India, decided to withdraw the book after a short Twitter storm, followed by Siddiquis apology. A Delhi lawyer filed a complaint with the National Commission for Women on behalf of a co-actor because he outraged the modesty" of the actor by describing their relationship. Another actor has sent him a legal notice after the books withdrawal, demanding Rs2 crore as compensation for defaming her.

These relationships take up a few pages in the book, but it is indeed a cheap shot to settle personal scores in an autobiography. The outrage of the women is understandable. But the book is about so much more.

The fact that Siddiqui included some details of his relationships with women is not surprising. It is his memoir, and his view of the people in his life. Autobiographies are often about that. Not the best of examples, but in Songs My Mother Taught Me, Marlon Brando unleashes the mess in his head on his readers, which includes sexual exploits worthy of a bad B-grade script. Joe Eszterhas, a Hollywood writer known for angry, misogynistic fantasies (Basic Instinct, Sliver), wrote a best-seller titled Hollywood Animal, which offended nobody although it had something foul to say about almost everybody he met in LA. Should these books have been withdrawn?

Memoirs of famous Indians, especially those of actors, are usually polite and tediously self-ingratiatingDev Anands Romancing With Life is a perfect example. And most biographies are hagiographiesnone of the books written on Amitabh Bachchan, for example, goes beyond whats admirable about the stars life.

Siddiqui, too, is not entirely free of glorifying his own life, and the few details about his romantic life are the worst parts of the book. Poor me, I did not know what my girlfriends wanted, he seems to say. Inadvertently, this is also a pathetic way to establish that he had finally arrived as an actor, as a man in the film business: Far away from, and many years after leaving, his west Uttar Pradesh village Budhana, he finally had a girlfriend with whom he could have roaring sex that involved a boa. And we really didnt need to know who these women were.

But there are parts in the book that are more infuriatingly Indian. The way he was beaten up by his mother throughout his childhood, and his subservience to her all his life: Sometimes she hit me with an electric wire. Sometimes she hit me with chimta, a pair of tongs. And sometimes her asbestos hands were enough. I was beaten for many, many years, until I was about 15-16 years old. But at the same time, she loved me fiercely, always wanting something greater for me than Budhana had to offer."

Then, his agonized obsession with his own dark skin. Recalling an incident from early childhood, he writes, For the first time, I became conscious of my colour. I did not know then that this would happen many times throughout my life. Like my eyes were gorgeous even though my colour was not."

Or worst of all, how he realized women are human beings with countless characteristics": I did not know how much of an impact having a daughter would have on my perspective. I have begun to view women in a new light, as a human being with countless characteristics. Because before that, given my own village background, I had a country bumpkin attitude. My hopelessly shallow perspective about women confined them to merely the sum total of their roles." A reminder that such country bumpkins" overpopulate our country.

The fact that Siddiqui and his publisher decided to withdraw the book is slightly more unfortunate than some of these confessions. Offence routinely stops Indians from expressing themselves, in this case personal offence. Potential defamation shouldnt discredit an entire creative enterprise. What Siddiqui and his publisher display by withdrawing this provocative account of an outsider burning his way into a nepotistic, ruthless film industry and establishing his brilliance is self-censorship. And that is criminal.

An Ordinary Life: A Memoir is now withdrawn from circulation, which his publisher Penguin Random House plans on re-releasing.
The enigmatic Akbar Padamsee The artist, who had M.F. Husain and Shammi Kapoor as early buyers of his works, is showing his recent monochrome 'heads' in Mumbai /news/talking-point/the-enigmatic-akbar-padamsee-111646919161927.html 111646919161927 story

Hes nearly 90 years old, has had seven decades of art practice, thousands of works and hundreds of shows. Akbar Padamsee is described as an intellectual artist" who has been inspired by concepts of formalism, an artistic practice that rigorously adheres to recognizable forms as the basis to configure the imagery. His ongoing show in Mumbai, Where The Lines Fall, presented by Priyasri Art Gallery, comprises monochromatic figures, or heads", largely drawn on paper and lithographs over the past decade. At his south Mumbai home, the artist shows me a diptych of his landscape painting on canvas, completed this year.

I have deep fascination for the science of artthe Hindu iconography, Chinese writings on art, and psychoanalysis. I am naturally attracted to work done with contemplation," he says. It was a revelation for me that his landscape is a segment of a larger geometric grid-like criss-crossing of lines. Even his figures and heads emerge from a matrix of a complex pattern which, Padamsee says, was a critical basis of works done by artists as early as in the 14th century. Ironically, while he is said to be a conservative artist confined to formalism, he has improvised and extensively experimented across a wide spectrum of media and processes. Paintings using oil, acrylic and plastic emulsion, graphite and charcoal drawings, works in watercolour and Chinese ink, metal and clay sculptures, printmaking, photography, films, and computer graphics, he has done it all.

He was 11 years old when he accidentally stepped on a rusted nail, leading to a serious injury. While the wound was cured, the psychological impact left him speechless. I do not think I lost my power to speak. It was more the will to speak that had gone away," he recounts. Apparently, he did not speak a word for about seven years. Instead, he focused his energies on reading. Padamsee studied the French language and his art teacher, Shankar Palsikar, encouraged him to study Sanskrit, which later became the basis of Padamsees thought process and the foundational structure for his art.

In 1950, when Padamsee was studying at Mumbais Sir JJ School of Art, a former student visited the school and showed interest in the works of the students. The senior was S.H. Raza. I told Raza that I was given third-class. He said I should have gotten a first-class with this work," Padamsee reminisces. Raza had received a scholarship to go to Paris and offered to take him along. On the first morning in Paris, at a local cafe, it was Padamsee who conversed with the waiter to order the food. Raza did not know French.

While in Paris, Padamsee started painting at a local studio, Atelier 17, and held his first show at Galerie Saint Placide in 1952. People did not relate at all. People asked me why I dont paint like them. I think I offended an important guest who held a senior position at the National Museum for Modern Art in Paris and the gallerist warned me that I will dry like a dry-fruit!" he laughs.

Padamsee says he was a close associate, not a formal member", of the Progressive Artist Group, founded by F.N. Souza, with Raza and M.F. Husain as members, among others, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship". My father had a cyclostyle machine, with which I made copies of a catalogue of the show they had put up. That probably made me a blue-eyed boy." The group had disintegrated by the time he returned home with Raza in 1952.

Back in Mumbai, Padamsee was an artists artist. Most works sold at his first significant" solo in 1960 at the Jehangir Art Gallery were acquired by artists like Husain, Bal Chhabda, Krishen Khanna, and even actor Shammi Kapoor, and one by the ministry of culture. Sadly, the work acquired by Husain, Juhu, is now lost. Greek Landscape, which Khanna bought for Rs1,000, sold for an amount exceeding Rs19 crore at a Saffronart auction last year. Padamsee says that in the 1950s no one was interested in buying paintings. Husain was selling his works for Rs500; very few works even reached a four-digit price; of course, to him the Rs1,000 felt like Rs19 crore then.

As the doyen looks back, he says a lot has changed. He had to fight a court case for obscenity in a painting titled Lovers six decades ago, which he won after a distressing legal battle that lasted over a year. There has been a change in the concept of artistic freedom which, according to him, has only worsened. He also feels that galleries have made the whole scene far too commercial, excessively skewed towards the business of art. It is intriguing he points that out when his current show in Mumbai is installed in an apartment". More than a hundred works hang frame to frame, like cars in a parking lot, not able to breath.

The artist says he isnt done yet. On a recent trip, Padamsee mentioned to his wife that he has far too many ideas yet to explore. That he will have to be reborn as an artist.



Where The Lines Fall is on view till 28 November, 11am-7pm, Priyasri Art Gallery, Worli, Mumbai.
A space reframed With 15 exhibitions in six Goan homes, GoaPhoto blurs the boundaries between a gallery and the living space /news/talking-point/a-space-reframed-111646919229323.html 111646919229323 story

Three generations pose nonchalantly in one of Prabuddha Dasguptas photographs from Edge Of Faith, his staged, black and white, documentary series focusing on Goas Catholic identity. In the forefront, seated casually on a chair, is Sacha Mendes, while at the back of the room, her parents sit on either side. Still further, on the wall behind them all are framed portraits of one set of grandparents.

The image was curator Lola Mac Dougalls first encounter with Goan interiors, back when she had included the image in a magazine publication (in 2013) for the embassy of Spain in New Delhi. It stayed with me because it portrayed her (Sacha) with a bold attitude in her familys living room, with her parents in the background, somehow representing tradition," she says over email. Earlier this year, soon after Mac Dougall and her husband, Nikhil Padgaonkar, now residents of Goa, had uninstalled their January 2017 edition of Jaipur Photo, they were taken by a chance suggestion by photographer Dayanita Singh during a post-lunch conversation at her Saligao home.

They had been speaking about the challenges they had faced while mounting the monumental displays for the inaugural edition of GoaPhoto festival in February 2015 across heritage buildings in the states capital, Panaji. Why didnt they avoid all the hassle of permissions and bureaucracy and intervene directly in peoples homes instead? Singh asked. It all started in an informal, half-joking manner; we even discussed the idea of domesticating photography," Mac Dougall says.

The four-day event, which started on 23 November, has thus evolved into an intimate affair involving 15 exhibitions spread across six Goan homes, with five intervening curators, including Mac Dougall, who describes the festival as a site-specific one. Screened projections, curated by Anshika Varma, and a photo library by the collective BIND are also part of the programming. Saligao was chosen as the hub for the revamped festival not just for its village charm, its central location in north Goa, or because it was the birthplace of this new direction, but also because Mac Dougall and Padgaonkar knew owners of houses there, including the famed set designer Aradhana Seth.

The idea of dialogue is key to our proposal: our curators were asked to explore the theme of the domestic and to respond to the location their exhibitions will inhabit, as the private spaces that constitute our venues will retain their in situ furniture: therefore it is a case of two aestheticsthe photographic and the domesticengaging with each other," says Mac Dougall.

She, along with the rest of the curatorial team, which includes Eder Chiodetto, Cristina de Middel, Akshay Mahajan and Jesus Mico, perceives the format as antagonistic to the idea of the white cube", where any trace of the domestic is erased so that the photographs form the sole presence. Instead, the personal stories of the inhabitants will inevitably enter the experience. We welcome the shoes at the entrance, the half-finished cup of tea, because we feel those are the details that will make our exhibition come alive," she says. And it is in this sense that we refer to the idea of the revamped GoaPhoto being intrinsically related to living heritage...because it is a response to Goan ways of living".

Aruna Canevascinis domestic objets trouves. Courtesy GoaPhoto

Each of the six homes has been titled according to either an architectural, curatorial or ancestral feature, and the curators have chosen to focus on unique elements to showcase photographic work. For instance, the 1835-built Quinta Serena, which, as Mahajan writes, houses unique objects, including a double-seater palanquin, woods of African provenance, old gin-bottles, and family portraits of the de Souzas", will have, among other series, Elisa Gonzalez Miralles Wannabe hung from a wrought iron poster bed in the guest room.

The series has close-up shots of Japanese Baby Dollslatex human-size dolls ordered from a cataloguealongside portraits of Japanese women who imitate that aesthetic. The women dress, make-up and even undergo plastic surgery to that end," writes Mahajan, indicating that the work speaks also about the subjugation of women elsewhere.

At House of Enquiry, which belongs to Seth, the mother-of-pearl shell windowsa ubiquitous feature of centuries-old Goan housesat the entrance porch will form the backdrop for Villa Argentina, which is the name of the house that the photographer, Aruna Canevascini, shares with her Iranian-born artist mother in Switzerland. This is a collaborative project where Canevascini recreates her mothers poetic universe, filtering it through her own, using her as a model sometimes and at other times arranging domestic objets trouves for the camera," says Mahajan.

Visitors are invited to participate in a walking tour that revolves around the six homes while seamlessly" mixing the local and global in the village of Saligao. I feel part of the excitement that has been generated around GoaPhoto has to do with the possibility to visit domestic spaces we would otherwise never be able to access, and perhaps it relates to voyeuristic impulses that have often been attributed to photography," says Mac Dougall. It is a way to open up Goa on many levelsaesthetic, domestic and sensorial."


Democracy: A halfway journey Democracy, in India, is still, after all, a journey more than a destination /news/talking-point/democracy-a-halfway-journey-111646918971832.html 111646918971832 story

At the Tata Literature Live! festival in Mumbai last weekend, on the occasion of Indira Gandhis birth centenary, I asked former Union minister P. Chidambaram what her 1980 electoral victory revealed about democracy in India. What, after all, did it say of us that less than three years after the catastrophe that was the Emergency, voters were more than happy to bring back a prime minister who had subverted the Constitution in the interests of naked political survival? Some of the answers are well known: that the Janata Party coalition, which ruled between 1977 and 1980, proved to be the very embodiment of shambolic government, carrying on an Emergency in all but name, thereby inviting public anger. Or that Mrs Gandhi, through her tireless energy (including that historic elephant ride to Belchi village in Bihar after a horrific massacre of Dalits) and by asking forgiveness for her regimes excesses, reclaimed public respect.

My discussant, however, pointed to a simple factthe poor beheld in Mrs Gandhi someone who recognized their plight and not only spoke directly to them but also served as their voice. And so, after having punished her for the gravest error of her career, they were prepared to trust her again with their future.

Democracy itself and the brutal smashing of national ideals were not an electoral issue even in the immediate aftermath of the Emergency. To begin with, while the north voted Mrs Gandhi out of power, she won overwhelmingly in the south. As Shoaib Daniyal noted in Scroll.in some time ago, in percentage terms more people voted for Indira Gandhi in 1977 than (Narendra) Modi in 2014". The Hindi belt too was less concerned with the battering of the Constitution than with more directly suffered campaigns (nasbandi, or male sterilization, being particularly notorious), for which retribution through the ballot box was Mrs Gandhis reward. Indeed, as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician Subramanian Swamy recalled 17 years ago in The Hindu, in the 1977 elections, some opponents even feared she might actually come back to power since it was assumed that the illiterate masses would not be moved by the issue of democracy, and thus the polls (if she were so returned) would legitimize the Emergency".

That did not happen, but it can be safely stated that undermining the Constitution was not what brought Indira Gandhi down. Nor, in fact, was contrite, belated affection for democratic values the force behind her restorationif she regretted her authoritarianism, in 1980 she would not have, in a single day, dismissed nine opposition state governments in a flourish of vindictiveness, weeks after returning to office.

The Shah Commissions reportwhich Mrs Gandhi suppressedin addition to serving as a catalogue of the worst of the Emergency, also warned that the ease with which these were carried out exposed the weaknesses of our institutions and officialdoms uncertain commitment to democratic ethics. Commandments of good conduct, good behaviour and morality got muted," it notes, when self-preservation was at stake." When unlawful orders were issued, they were executed mechanically" by the states machinery, even when blatantly against every constitutional principle or legal provision.

The reality, then, was that for all our rapturous public professions about democracy in India, it was not a commodity that held assured enduranceto quote Daniyal again, the actual suspension of democracy might have made no difference at all with voters" in 1977 were it not for terribly designed and disastrously implemented campaigns that accompanied the Emergency. The very fact that 70 years after independence, India still upholds draconian colonial-era laws that belong in the dustbin of history is proof that while we are a democracy, democracy here is an endeavour that is defined by degree more than by uncompromising exactness.

It was B.R. Ambedkar who declared that it is perfectly possible to pervert the Constitution, without changing its form, by merely changing the form of administration and to make it inconsistent and opposed to the spirit of the Constitution. Constitutional morality," he added, is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realize that our people have yet to learn it." Democracy, he concluded, was a top-dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic".

Poverty, the endurance of caste, gaps in mass education, alongside a whole inventory of other problems, not least of which is political avarice and sections of the press prone to crawling, all dilute democracy as was theoretically envisioned. Without commitment to the values that underpin it, democratic exercises become a matter of going through elaborate forms without achieving the actual substance. And when less and less people in power care about that substance, the whole enterprise becomes a sophisticated fiction which we all blindly trumpet, against growing evidence to the contrary. The press, for instance, is thriving, but when much of it functions as cheerleaders for those in power, it serves something quite different than the cause of democracy.

Parliamentary records quote a Lok Sabha legislator from Assam in 1996 declaring: Prime Minister (A.B. Vajpayee) and many leaders of the BJP have been trying to explain the growth of the BJP from two members, to become the major opposition party and now to become the largest single party and the formation of the government. They have explained it as growth. But very humbly I want to say to the hon. Prime Minister that all growths are not healthy, some growth are called cancer." While this is not to target the BJP, the point is that shoring up numbers democratically without also shoring up the basic virtues that sustain the ideal intent of democracy is a nation-defeating exercise.

Democracy, in India, is still, after all, a journey more than a destination, and while as a people we will be able to absorb pauses and, indeed, even reverses in that journey such as the Emergency, we must always be alert to the inhospitable combination of forces, across party lines and social conditions, that is ever looming. As someone once said of liberty, eternal vigilance alone is the guarantee of democracy. And where many people cannot afford such vigilance or even demonstrate wilful disinterest in doing so, those who possess even a fragment of hope for the future of this country have a duty to step in, asking the questions that must be asked, and doing all that must be done. In that alone lies a way out, and the promise of finally reaching the destination that our founding fathers envisioned and in which lies Indias salvation.

Medium Rare is a column on society, politics and history. Manu S. Pillai is the author of The Ivory Throne: Chronicles Of The House Of Travancore.

Manu S. Pillai tweets @UnamPillai


Anonymity of loss Artist Nilima Sheikh's ongoing exhibition in Mumbai is one that is rooted in themes of displacement, memory and loss /news/talking-point/anonymity-of-loss-111646919174768.html 111646919174768 story

Migration, simply put, is relocation to a distant place. People relocate to another city for better opportunities, or to a foreign land in search of a better life. It could be voluntary. It could be forced. But it is displacement nevertheless. Artist Nilima Sheikh is showcasing Terrain: Carrying Across, Leaving Behind at the Chemould Prescott Road gallery, an installation consisting of 16 painted scrolls, each almost 7ft long and 3ft wide. Eight panels displayed inside of an octagonal structure, create a partial enclosure, and eight on the outside facade. My concerns are primarily about losing home. When you move on, you take some material belongings and leave behind others. You take some memories along too. In that sense then, who is not a refugee?" asks Sheikh. Lounge interviewed her just before the exhibit opened for viewing (16 November), freshly returned from documenta 14 at Kassel, Germany. Edited excerpts:

You link what you witnessed in the Gujarat riots to the strife in Kashmir. How has your work evolved with that experience?

The violence and cruelty in Gujarat was not necessarily the only catalyst for my work. Displacement has been my concern for a long time. But when you see things actually happening around you, you realize the fragility of the sense of belonging" to a place. At the same time, one appreciates and feels fortunate about ones own support system and feeling protected. You are, therefore, not the victim, but an onlooker. Reacting to just my experience would be too limiting. Kashmir and Punjab, as places and cultures, keep coming back in my work. As a child, I visited Kashmir several times. We would travel on foot to the interiors. The landscape has given me the basis of my visual understanding. It is painful to see that land the way it is today.

Walk us through your experience of illustrating childrens books and painting theatre sets.

Raising my kids gave me an understanding of intimacy. You instinctively encounter the small things like birds and flowers with children. This easily translated into book illustrations. It also led to my fondness and investigation of Indian miniature paintings. Those are traditionally practised by men, and I enjoyed the play of feminine understanding in that idiom. Painting for the sets of theatre gave me two very valuable experiences. First, the concept of collaborative working. An art practice like mine is a very singular activity. But working with scriptwriters, actors, and directors gave me the richness of creating in a collaborative way. Second, the comfort of working on a large scale. Even if I wanted to, I could not have made large-scale work in my then tiny studio. Also, it was immensely gratifying and challenging to work with a moving body. It reinforced my conviction that forms of art do not take away. It is the modernist approach of purity of form". But the more we blend, the richer it becomes.

A lot of your imagery is derived from folklore of the subcontinent. What is the significance of these in the contemporary context?

I feel these stories are not historic. The songs are sung even today. Sohni was murdered by her sister in-law and Heers own mother/family poisoned her. But honour killing is happening even today. What we need to dwell upon is the questionwhose honour?" The girl or the family, the village or the community, or the entire human race? The relevance is very much alive and that is the scary part of it. One would wishfully think that we have progressed to a changed society, but none of this is the past. It is very much a living historyand that is striking. Of course, there is crisis in the outer world and that does make one think and reason. But as a person I need a period of internalization, so I end up focusing on my surroundings. My concerns are migration but layered with this concept of honour and patriarchy. I am not anxious about originality. I use, reuse and interpret what has been done, in our folk narrations, by other artists, or even revisit my own work done in the past. You may find it interesting to know that I often do not even accurately quote poems and text that are used in my paintings. Its all contextualized.

Doesnt text in your work limit the viewing experience?

I enjoy works of art that yields on multiple viewings, one that is not entirely revealed instantly. I would like my viewers to see the work up close, and then from a distance, read some text, and see the imagery. I provide them with several options. I often place text on a separate panel. Also, the text is not prescriptive for me. Its found after completion of the work. So, in a way its only an additive and extension. You find your own route and one does not lose much with leaving the understanding of words in my work.

What was it like exhibiting at documenta 14?

Honestly, a delight at the age of 71! These platforms are normally for younger, more cutting-edge artists. This time, the curatorial theme made it more inclusive of what is not necessarily mainstream in the international context. There was a great sense of community, with lots of sharing and bonding. It was special to see my work in the context of art from all over the world.

Terrain: Carrying Across, Leaving Behind is on view till 9 December, 11am-7pm (Sundays closed), at Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai. The works will be on display at Delhis Gallery Espace from 17 March-14 April.
China pays great attention to the peace process in Myanmar, and is willing to play a constructive role in this regard for the security and stability in their border areas, President Xi Jinping said Friday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing in Beijing on Friday, November 24, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua]

Xi made the remarks while meeting with Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said the 19th CPC National Congress has adopted a blueprint for China's economic and social reform and development for the years to come.

"It will not only inject great vitality into China's own development, but also bring new opportunities for various countries, including Myanmar, in their cooperation with China," he said.

Hailing the "profound bilateral friendship," Xi called on the two countries to "strengthen strategic communication and accommodate each other's concerns."

China always respects Myanmar's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Xi said.

Considering China-Myanmar military ties as at their "best" period in history, Xi, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, vowed to support stronger military exchanges and cooperation in various areas.

He encouraged the two armed forces to work for the growth of bilateral ties as well as regional peace and stability.

Min Aung Hlaing congratulated Xi on his re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and on the success of the 19th CPC National Congress.

Calling the two countries close neighbors, he said Myanmar appreciates China's help for its national construction and military building over the years, as well as support for its peace process.

Myanmar expects to actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, and cement exchanges and cooperation with China in various fields, he said.
Guo Yezhou (center), Vice Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, briefs the media on the upcoming CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting on Friday, November 24, 2017. [Photo: China Plus/Gao Junya]

A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official is suggesting an upcoming high-level meeting between the CPC and other political parties from around the world is set to serve as a significant platform to build a community of common destiny for mankind.

CRI's Gao Junya has the details.

The upcoming CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting is the first major multilateral diplomatic event to be held in China since the conclusion of the 19th National Congress of the CPC.

Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, says the meeting comes as a number of foreign political parties have expressed their desire to learn about the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress.

"Senior leaders of the CPC, as well as heads of relevant organizations and departments, will introduce the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress to foreign political party leaders face to face, offering in-depth interpretation on 'Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.'" Guo yezhou says through such exchanges and communication, the CPC and other political parties from around the world will discuss effective approaches to push forward the building of a community of common destiny for mankind and a better world.

The building of a community of common destiny for mankind was first proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, also the General Secretary of the CPC.

Guo Yezhou adds the dialogue will also serve as a platform for different parties across the world to exchange ideas and learn from one another, thereby improving governing abilities and addressing common challenges.

Leaders of more than 200 political parties and organizations from over 120 countries are expected to attend the dialogue.

In the past, the CPC has already held various exchanges with some 400 political parties and organizations from over 160 countries, in addition to establishing communication mechanisms with major political parties around the world.

"Various parties from different countries, which are attending the upcoming meeting, make up the international 'Friend Circle' of the CPC. Among them are ruling parties, parties not in power, parties that have similar governing principles as the CPC, as well as those with different ideals than the CPC. This is a dialogue among world parties, and it is open and inclusive. "

The CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting will be held in Beijing from November 30th to December 3rd.

Xi Jinping is due to deliver a keynote speech at the opening ceremony.

For CRI, I'm Gao Junya.
Most of the time, I'd rather watch a movie with a lot of ambition even if it turns into a colossal failure than sit through a couple of hours of something that feels conservatively crafted to the point of sclerosis. But every once in a while, I watch a movie that has so much potential and that punts on this potential in such a spectacular fashion that I reconsider my general stance.

"Roman J. Israel, Esq.," by writer-director Dan Gilroy, who made "Nightcrawler," one of my favorite movies of 2014, is such a film. The movie is so packed with interesting, highly relevant ideas that I almost wish I hadn't seen it, so I wouldn't have spent the last week thinking about what it could have been, as opposed to what it actually is.

When the film begins, Roman J. Israel (Denzel Washington), who insists on "the esquire" - "a title of dignity, slightly above gentleman, below knight," as he explains it - is toiling in the background of a two-man law office, writing the briefs that sustain the career of a brilliant lawyer who funds his civil rights work with a criminal defense practice.

But when Roman's partner dies, his relatives decide to shutter the office, which is deeply in debt. Roman tries, unsuccessfully, to find a job with the National Assembly for Civil Rights, an organization founded by one of his partner's friends, pitching himself to Maya (Carmen Ejogo), who runs the office as a "long-haul revolutionary, full-time, in-house paid advocate." But when that fails, he ends up going to work for George Pierce (Colin Farrell), a sharky defense attorney who used to kick loser cases to Roman and his partner, and who recognizes the potential in Roman's savant-like knowledge of the legal code and other lawyers' records.

There are a lot of terrific potential tensions in this setup. What happens when a lawyer who is steeped in genuinely radical politics goes to work for a highly corporatized firm and starts pitching its higher retainers to desperate new clients? What about when those corporate lawyers start to get interested in the radical lawyer's causes and take those issues on for themselves?

What happens when someone who was shaped and inspired by figures such as Bayard Rustin and Malcolm X tries to talk to a new generation of activists who ground their politics in academic concepts and see Roman's chivalric streak as an expression of the patriarchy? Was it ethical for Roman's old partner to pay him $500 a week and leave him vulnerable even as he painted himself as a champion of the downtrodden? What does it take to make groundbreaking political work financially sustainable? Is it ethical to confront the system bluntly if it means that in the short term, more people will suffer, especially if there's no clear long-term gain from that confrontation?

A movie that settled on any of those questions and really dove deep on them might have been one of the more significant, timely movies of 2017. "Roman J. Israel, Esq." makes the baffling decision to go in a much more milquetoast direction, ultimately setting up Roman as an inspirational figure for George and Maya, rather than someone whose life serves as a novel answer to any of those questions.

In "Nightcrawler," Gilroy's directorial debut, he managed to make his plot twists serve his argument. That movie featured Jake Gyllenhaal as Louis Bloom, who like Roman is a slightly socially maladjusted man trying to find a place for himself. In "Nightcrawler," Louis stumbles on a seedy occupation: taking gruesome crime and accident scene video and selling it to television producer Nina Romina (Rene Russo) as an exclusive. Ultimately, he progresses to staging the scenes and worse, pulling Nina deeper into complicity with him. "Nightcrawler" is a potent, sickening statement on media ethics and capitalism; the theme and the plot are inextricable from each other.

"Roman J. Israel, Esq." has a similarly twisty subplot about attorney-client privilege and the plea-bargaining system. But rather than resolving the plot in a way that leaves Roman either compromised or redeemed, "Roman J. Israel, Esq." opts for a cop-out that clears the way for its oddly uplifting and deeply unresolved ending.

Maybe it would be easier for all of us to resolve our generational differences by having the older generation cede the stage. Maybe our causes would be best served if the most passionate advocates for them also turned out to be the most socially adept and presentable ones. But this isn't generally how the world, or social progress, works.

What drew me to Gilroy's work in "Nightcrawler" was his uncompromising vision. "Roman J. Israel, Esq." is only the second movie he has directed. I didn't expect him to go this soft on big ideas this quickly.
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Some San Antonio anchors have been sporting facial hair, which is traditionally a no-no in the local TV news business.

However, television bosses are applauding, not chastizing them.

Its all part of Movember, run by the Movember Foundation, and No-Shave November, an initiative supported by lots of health organizations including the American Cancer Society.

RELATED: San Antonio TV news anchors come clean: No makeup!

The campaigns promote the growing of moustaches and beards during the month of November to raise awareness of mens health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mens suicide. Participants also raise funds for research and education. The motto that accompanies it: Change the face of mens health.

Jeff Brady, Phil Anaya and Jared Silverman are all participating, Don Smith Jr., KENS director of marketing, wrote in an email. Jeff is doing Facebook Live on mens health issues, as well as some in-newscast mentions. Phil is raising money, he added.

Smith also sent a couple of quotes from the guys.

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Ive always been aware of No-Shave November and Movember, but because of the nature of the television industry, its difficult to pull off, weekend anchor Anaya said. Im so excited this year to be able to participate, and will also be donating and raising money for the No-Shave November (no-shave.org) cause.

KENS meteorologist Silverman also is doing his best for the cause.

Too many times men think that they dont need the doctor unless theres something seriously wrong. Almost like its less manly to go to the doctor in the first place. Im going to make a donation to the Movember USA website (us.movember.com).

As for Brady, Anna Sifuentes emailed to say she thinks KENS chief anchorman looks more commanding and handsome with his salt-and-pepper enhancement. Brady even asked Facebook followers recently on his KENS 5 page if they think he should keep the beard even after November.

The majority of responders gave him a thumbs-up, with Si Browning actually comparing him to Sean Connery. Jeff: Theyll be asking you to play James Bond next, she added.

jjakle@express-news.net
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Berne man dies after being hit by car

NEW SCOTLAND  A 74-year-old Berne man was killed on Delaware Turnpike early Wednesday evening when he was hit by a car after he got out of his vehicle to check on a deer that he had just struck.

William S. Kelsey was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Albany County Sheriff's Department.

He was hit by a car driven by an unidentified 34-year-old New Scotland man who was heading eastbound on the turnpike at 5 p.m.

An investigation is continuing, but alcohol or excessive speed do not appear to have contributed to the accident, according to the sheriff's department.

Kelsey was a life member of the East Berne Volunteer Fire Department.

Columbia County woman dies in crash

KINDERHOOK  A woman died Wednesday night following a two-car crash on Route 9 near Birch Drive in the town of Kinderhook, according to State Police.

Alicia M. Fernandez, 41, of Hudson, was airlifted to Albany Medical Center where she succumbed to injuries she sustained in the accident that occurred around 8 p.m., police stated in a news release.

A preliminary investigation, authorities say, suggests the southbound vehicle Fernandez was driving crossed into the opposing lane and struck a northbound car.

The State Police were assisted on scene by the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, Niverville Fire Department, Valatie Rescue Squad and Life Net.

The investigation remains ongoing by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation of State Police at Livingston and the State Police Collision Reconstruction Unit. Investigators are asking any witnesses to please contact Troop K, SP Livingston BCI at 845-677-7300 or 518-851-2001; please reference SJS #7928559.

Man faces sexual assault charge

NEW SCOTLAND  A 45-year-old Slingerlands man was in the Albany County Jail on Thursday after being charged with beating and sexually assaulting a woman.

Gary H. Graffunder was accused of striking and choking the unidentified woman at a New Scotland residence Tuesday after she refused his sexual advances, and then sexually assaulting her, according to the Albany County Sheriff's Department.

He was charged with a felony criminal sex act, misdemeanor assault, misdemeanor obstruction of breathing, felony aggravated criminal contempt, and felony criminal contempt. He was to be arraigned in New Scotland Town Court.

Traffic stop leads to drug charges

GLENS FALLS  A Glens Falls man was in the Warren County jail on drug charges Thursday after being arrested with cocaine and heroin during a traffic stop, according to the New York State Police.

Robert C. Delaney Jr. allegedly had more than 6 ounces of cocaine and an ounce of heroin when he was stopped Tuesday, police said. He was charged with felony drug possession and possession with intent to sell. He was jailed without bail after arraignment in Glens Falls City Court.

Staff reports
Former businessman Kenneth Hodgkinson also is computer programmer and artist.

Now, as principal of the new Humble Independent School District middle school in the Groves, he wants to develop students who are creative and excited about technology.

The yet-to-be-named school is scheduled to open in fall 2018 and includes a three-story library, outdoor learning environment and glass walls. It will be a STEAM - science, technology, engineering, arts and math - campus, and Hodgkinson teased events like high-altitude balloon launches, CO2 cars and robot wars.

"Middle School is a time of exploration and discovery," Hodgkinson said. "Students need to be exposed to a wide variety of curriculum that is forefront in the job market. And, it requires a team effort to ensure students have the skill to navigate the pitfalls of social acceptance, a technology focused world, and friendships that they believe will last forever.

"The habits they develop in these short years will define the individuals they are to become."

Hodgkinson grew up in a military family and moved to Texas five different times. At 18, he started his career in business as manager of United, an independent grocery store in Amarillo. He moved on to work for companies like Kroger, Albertsons and Best Buy.

Hodgkinson moved to Houston in 1992 to be closer to his sister, who died in 2001. In Houston, he obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Houston, was recruited by Kroger and helped open Kingwood and Atascocita locations.

But Hodgkinson wasn't satisfied. He wanted to help people grow, and he took a job as a math teacher with Aldine ISD.

"Working with students and helping them grow was the best move I have ever made," Hodgkinson said. "I quickly realized that education is where I belonged."

Hodgkinson said his background in business gives him insight into the real-world applications of the concepts taught in school. He aims to develop a philosophy of lifelong learning among students, but he recognizes middle school marks a transitional time for students, who are still figuring out who they are in the world. Hodgkinson said it's his job to create a trusting relationship between parents and students.

Twenty-one years after starting his career in education, Hodgkinson is opening his second school.

In 2016, he was the inaugural principal for nearby Porter High School under New Caney ISD. It was there he was named principal of the year and was one of the top three finalists in the state.

"The best leaders are those who are not concerned about getting credit; they are not heroes.  They are hero makers," Hodgkinson said. " A school is like a small city, no one person can make every call and decision. It takes a village of collaborators with a common vision to make a great school."

Hodgkinson encourages anyone with questions to contact him via email at Kenneth.Hodgkinson@Humbleisd.net.
Militants armed with guns and explosives stormed on Friday a crowded mosque in Egypt's restive northern Sinai, killing at least 235 people and wounding 109 others in the deadliest attack in the country in recent memory.

The assault targeted people gathered for Friday prayers at a mosque frequented by Sufi Muslims near the coastal town of El-Arish. Attacks on mosques are rare in Egypt, where the majority of the 95 million population is Muslim. Sufi Islam is a mystical interpretation of the religion and its followers are considered heretics by jihadist movements such as Islamic State.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But Sinai province, a triangular piece of land bordering Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal, has been the main battleground in the government's fight against local militants who've declared allegiance to Islamic State. The groups have killed hundreds of police and soldiers in recent years. Lately they've turned their guns increasingly on civilians, with attacks on churches packed for Christmas and Easter prayers, and now on Muslim worshipers.

"This is a shift in the tactics of the terrorists," said Hossam El-Rifai, a member of parliament for northern Sinai. "An attack on civilians at Friday prayers is not something we have been used to seeing."

While the violence isn't seen as threatening the stability of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi's government, it has devastated the tourist industry, a vital pillar of an economy that's struggling back to life after years of political upheaval.

El-Sisi called a meeting of his security committee and made a televised statement vowing to avenge the dead and restore stability. He also said that those who supported, financed or incited the attack would face justice. "We will respond to this act with brutal force," el-Sisi said.

U.S. President Donald Trump called the attack "horrible and cowardly" in a Twitter posting.

The attack is the biggest of its kind in recent memory. The last comparable assault took place in 2015, when Islamic State affiliates bombed a Russian passenger plane carrying holidaymakers from the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, killing 224 people.

The militants have waged a campaign against Coptic Christians that saw most of that community flee northern Sinai earlier this year. Violence has spilled over to major cities like Cairo and Alexandria too, with attacks on churches.

"This represents the scary prospect that the list of targets they are willing to pursue is growing," said Timothy Kaldas, non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. "It is hard to know, however, if they were targeted because they were Sufis or because they were perceived to be collaborating with the government."

On Friday, militants in four vehicles drove up to the Rawda mosque, set off an improvised explosive device outside the building and opened fire on people praying inside, according to a senior official in the north Sinai security directorate who asked not to be named. Locals took up weapons to help thwart the attackers, the official said.

The suspects fled as security forces arrived but not before setting vehicles on fire and blocking the road to slow the arrival of emergency services. Foreign media access to northern Sinai is restricted, but state television showed orange ambulances lined up and rescue workers tending to casualties on stretchers.

The mosque is known to be frequented by Sufis but it's also on the main highway that runs parallel to the Mediterranean coast toward the Gaza Strip, so it draws in passers-by and local residents, particularly for Friday prayers.

The Sinai jihadists have attacked Sufi shrines with increasing frequency over the past year and have kidnapped and killed Sufi preachers, posting images of the executions online.

A former army chief, el-Sisi overthrew President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013 following mass protests against his one-year rule. He went on to win a presidential election on a promise to crush Islamist groups. The Brotherhood has since been outlawed, with thousands of its members jailed or exiled, while el-Sisi has stepped up war on jihadist groups in northern Sinai.

The president said Egypt would not back down from that policy after the attack. "Egypt is facing terrorism on behalf of the entire region and the aim behind what is happening is to stop us from confronting terrorism," he said.

Egypt has helped broker a reconciliation between Palestinian factions and sought the help of Hamas to control the movement of militants and weapons between Gaza and Sinai. It's also joined a Saudi-led effort to isolate Qatar, partly on the grounds of its alleged support for Islamist groups.

Friday's attack has cast doubt on plans to ease restrictions at the Gaza border, and raised broader questions about the effectiveness of el-Sisi's security strategy.

"The attack will, over the medium-term, damage el-Sisi's credibility as the figure that can protect Egypt, particularly if the security situation does not markedly improve," Hani Sabra of political risk analyst Alef Advisory said in a note. "And it probably won't."

- With assistance from Tarek El-Tablawy Donna Abu-Nasr Alaa Shahine and Dana Khraiche
CAIRO - Militants set off a blast and gunned down fleeing worshippers at crowded mosque in Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula on Friday, killing at least 235 people in what appeared to mark the deadliest single assault on Egyptian civilians by suspected Islamist extremists.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the mosque - which is often frequented by Sufi Muslims - where an apparent suicide bombing ripped across the facade and people were shot as they tried to scramble to safety.

Egyptian security forces have struggled for years against an Islamic State affiliate based in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of police and military personnel in an insurgency against the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

The mosque death toll, reported by state media, could not be independently confirmed. Yet Egyptians were already mourning it as the biggest loss of life from a militant attack in decades - surpassing the number of dead in the downing of a Russian airliner over Sinai in 2015 believed carried out by Islamic State-linked militants.

Islamist attacks have targeted Copic Christian churches in the past, but strikes against mosques have been rare. Many Sunni Muslim militant factions consider Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam, to be heretical.

The bloodshed at the Rawda mosque, near the town of Bir al-Abd, also took place in an area dotted with security outposts, underscoring the ability of militants to strike at the heart of government-protected zones.

The attack had the hallmarks of a highly coordinated operation. Militants who arrived at the mosque in several four-wheel-drive vehicles, according to Egypt's ambulance authority. Bombs were detonated at the mosque, and as worshipers fled, they were gunned down by the militants, the authority said.

But further details remained unclear on the motives for the attack, including the number of assailants and why the mosque was targeted.

Dozens of bodies covered with blankets or bloodied sheets, laid in rows inside the mosque. Some of the injured were ferried away in cars and in the beds of pickup trucks.

Tarek Eldewiry, a 22-year old resident of Bir al-Abd who was not present during the attack but spoke to injured friends and neighbors afterward, said the assault started with an explosion outside the mosque after the first Friday sermon.

"When the people ran outside, a number of gunmen started shooting randomly at everyone." Some survived by running back inside the mosque, he said.

The mosque would have been packed. It was frequented by the town's residents, and on a Friday, travelers on the road often stopped to pray there, he said.

"Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt," wrote President Donald Trump in a tweet. "The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!"

Egypt's insurgency gathered momentum after a military coup in 2013 that ousted Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president and a leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

The militants have repeatedly mounted large-scale, complex attacks on security personnel. Since July 2013, at least 1,000 members of the security forces have been killed in attacks in Sinai, according to data compiled by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

Assaults on civilians - like Friday's mosque siege - have been more rare. The Islamic State affiliate in Egypt, called Wilayat Sinai, had previously claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian airliner over Sinai in October 2015 that killed all 224 people on board. The militants have also increasingly targeted Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, as well as Sufi Muslims, considered heretics by the Islamic State.

Sinai remains one of the lingering strongholds for the Islamic State as the group's self-proclaimed caliphate in Syrian and Iraq has all but collapsed under air and ground attacks.

Last year, militants in Egypt claiming affiliation with the Islamic State asserted responsibility for two beheadings near Arish, including an elderly cleric, identified as Sulaiman Abu Haraz, who was believed to have ties to the area's Sufi followers.

---

Fahim reported from Istanbul.
The Sinai Peninsula once had a reputation as one of the Egypt's most attractive places to visit as a foreign tourist, offering world-class resorts, rugged landscapes and incredible diving. But in recent years, a sequence of violent attacks have shaken the sparsely populated region and given it a reputation as a terrorism hot spot.

Friday's attack in Bir al-Abd will only reaffirm that idea. In what appears to have been a highly coordinated assault, bombs went off in a local mosque before gunmen shot surviving worshipers. At least 235 people are believed to have been killed, according to Egyptian state television.

If that death toll stands, Friday's attack will become the deadliest terrorist attack in Egyptian history - surpassing even a suspected 2015 bomb attack that led Metrojet Flight 9268 to disintegrate after its departure from Sinai's Sharm El Sheikh International Airport on Oct. 31, 2015, killing all 224 passengers and crew on board.

It will also reaffirm that the Sinai Peninsula is one of the deadliest places for terrorist attacks in the world. The attack in Bir al-Abd is the second-deadliest terrorist attack of 2017 to date, second only to a suicide bombing last month in Mogadishu, Somalia, that left more than 358 dead.

What makes the high death tolls in Sinai especially notable is the lack of population density across the peninsula, which holds just 1.4 million people spread over an area slightly smaller than West Virginia. Mogadishu alone is estimated to have a population of more than 2 million.

According to data from IHS Jane's, there have been more deaths from terrorist attacks in Sinai this year than there had been in any other country except for Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia - all of which have populations at least 10 times larger than Sinai.

Crucially, not all of Sinai has been equally affected. Most recent attacks have been centered on the easternmost part of the North Sinai area, according to Zack Gold, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. Though the famous tourist areas in South Sinai have been targeted in the past - Sharm El Sheikh is perhaps its best known resort - it has not seen violence on the same scale as the north, in part due to the fact that they are better protected.

Bir al-Abd is outside the traditional zone of conflict in eastern North Sinai and is closer to Arish, the largest city on the peninsula. Wilayat Sinai, a prominent insurgent group that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2014, has recently been pushing to expand its territory toward the central part of Sinai and staging attacks in other parts of Egypt.

"One thing that the group has been trying to do as it claims to be province [of the Islamic State] is attempting to take - or at least show - some kind of expanding authority," Gold said. "This attack doesn't necessarily show that Islamic State has the authority over the area, but that the Egyptian state lacks authority."

The targeting of a Sufi mosque is also noteworthy. Sinai has a very long history of insurgency in the historically lawless peninsula, but up until very recently, attacks in Sinai have tended to target police or the military rather than civilians: Since July 2013, at least 1,000 members of the security forces have been killed in attacks in the peninsula, according to data compiled by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

Nancy Okail, executive director of the Tahrir Institute, said that although there has not been a claim of responsibility for the attack, in the past the Islamic State had threatened Egypt's Sufi community. The Sawarka, a local tribe who had been in conflict with the Islamic State, also lived in the area around the mosque, Okail added. "The Sufi animosity could be a justification of the killing since they are Muslims," she said.

What remains to be seen is how the government will respond to the escalating threat in Sinai. In a televised speech Friday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi offered condolences to the victims and vowed that Egypt's armed forces would respond with "brute force."

But much of Sinai has been under emergency rule since 2014, with a heavy military presence and anti-terrorist activity.

"When the president of Egypt says we are going to have a harsh response, the question I ask is, what is more harsh than what has already been done?" Gold said. "And how will that be more successful?"

- - -

The Washington Post's Laris Karklis contributed to this report.
Menomonie, Wis.  Like the west-central Wisconsin residents he attended meetings with, Thomas Pearson became aware of frac sand mining as a citizen, concerned about a new industry that threatened to alter lives and landscapes.

His concern, as he watched the drama unfold, grew into a research project and then, over the course of several years, a book. When the Hills Are Gone: Frac Sand Mining and the Struggle for Community, was published in early November by the University of Minnesota Press.

With its title a dead giveaway, the book takes a critical look at the controversial industry and how the corporations behind the mines exerted their influence in the region. None of that is surprising, given that Pearson is an anthropologist and an associate professor of social science at University of Wisconsin-Stout.

The 248-page book, however, is more a case study of grass-roots community activism and democratic process than a condemnation of the industry itself, he said, noting that the industry has its supporters too.

I want people to understand the growing influence of corporate interest and how corrosive that can be for local democracy. A lot of people were caught off guard by frac sand mining. People felt like the mining companies had much more power than they should have, Pearson said.

Im trying not to romanticize grass-roots activism. Im looking critically too at the circumstances in which grass-roots efforts like these succeed or fail, he said.

As frac sand mining became a reality throughout west-central Wisconsin starting in 2006 with a rush to open mines on rural land, residents in the affected areas mobilized, if slowly at first.

Pearson was one of them, attending meetings in garages and going to town halls in the lower Chippewa River valley where residents, officials and corporate representatives clashed in cities like Menomonie, Glenwood City, Chippewa Falls and New Auburn and townships like Cooks Valley, Howard, Red Cedar and Tainter.

As of 2016, the region had more than 70 active mines in 13 counties, bounded by Barron and Rusk to the north, Monroe to the south and Wood and Pierce to the east and west. Trempealeau and Chippewa counties have the most, with about a dozen each.

Battle lines in the sand

Residents feared degradation of the landscape and threats to the environment and their health, the latter from silica dust. Sand companies saw profits, jobs, wealth for landowners and claimed that a flattened hill could be turned into farmland, an assertion disputed by activists.

Sand mine operations crush prehistoric ridges into sand once again. West-central Wisconsin sand, prized because of its hardness, is mostly transported by rail to oil fields for high-pressure drilling.

Citizen groups like Save Our Hills, Save the Hills Alliance and Loyalty to Our Land fought the process. Notable successes, such as a groundswell effort leading to the rejection of a mine proposed near the Hoffman Hills State Recreation Area in Dunn County, also were met with failures as mines overcame regulatory hurdles, or lack thereof, and opened throughout the region.

One such major proposal by Vista Sand has been on hold for several years. It would include a mine near Glenwood City with a processing plant near Menomonie. The young industry already has experienced boom and bust periods, depending on the oil market.

For many, frac sand mining presented a sudden threat that drew into question deeply held assumptions about rural landscapes and environmental well-being, Pearson writes.

I try to cast a social science light on activism as a phenomenon. A lot of the activism was by people who lived next door and had very little experience at it, he said, adding that it took several years for established environmental groups to begin supporting residents efforts.

He took an on-the-ground approach with his research, essentially embedding himself within the movement, examining why people were opposed and providing firsthand accounts of their efforts.

Pearson, a Chicago native who lives in Menomonie, visited Harlan and Edith Syversen of Dovre. They had sold part of their small dairy farm 10 years earlier to an aspiring farmer, who then sold out to a sand company and moved away. Before long, a mine was open a short walk from the Syversens once bucolic homestead, which had been in the family for generations.

Part of the book deals with the loss people felt or feared from a landscape being changed forever.

We inscribe places with meaning, with a sense of history. Mining eliminates, or at least distorts, the cultural script from which that meaning is derived, Pearson writes.

When the Hills Are Gone follows opposition to frac sand mining for about a decade, through 2015. Hopefully it will offer lessons from the first phase, if and when it becomes a significant issue again, he said.

Praise and support

Adam Briggle, author of A Field Philosophers Guide to Fracking, said Pearsons book is a masterful blend of stories and scholarship that will be the definitive account of a major environmental justice issue.

Along with activists from the region, Pearson said he received support in writing the book from colleagues in UW-Stouts social science department and Center for Applied Ethics; 10 applied social science majors who helped with research via an applied anthropology seminar in fall 2014; undergraduate research assistants; and the university through a Faculty Research Initiative grant.

When the Hills Are Gone, paperback, sells for $25 and can be purchased through the University of Minnesota Press. Learn more at www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/when-the-hills-are-gone.
TOKYO - An executive member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has expressed opposition to the attendance of same-sex partners of state guests at banquets hosted by the Emperor and Empress at the Imperial Palace.

"If state guests and their partners are same-sex, I would oppose [their attendance at Imperial banquets] because such relationships do not fit Japanese traditions," LDP General Council Chairman Wataru Takeshita said Thursday during a speech at a party of the LDP's local chapter in Gifu.
The child pornography case against a California doctor whose computer was searched after he submitted it to Best Buy's Geek Squad for repair has been dismissed after a judge ruled that an FBI agent made "several false or misleading statements or omissions . . . with reckless disregard for the truth" in a search warrant affidavit.

The case against oncologist Mark Rettenmaier attracted national attention because it revealed that technicians at the Geek Squad's central repair facility in Kentucky had been paid by the FBI and would tip off the FBI field office in Louisville when they spotted possible child pornography on computers. Computers taken to Best Buy stores around the country for repair are all shipped to the Kentucky facility.

In May, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department seeking records "concerning the FBI's relationship with Best Buy and other computer repair facilities." The privacy group first filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI in February, after The Washington Post reported the link between Best Buy and the FBI, but the FBI declined to disclose the information.

Best Buy said that its technicians do not search customers' computers seeking illicit material but that when they happen to see it while doing repair, they are obligated to report it. They do so about 100 times a year, a Best Buy spokesman said.

"Geek Squad does not work for the FBI and never has," the company said in a statement in May.

When Rettenmaier took his HP Pavilion desktop to the Best Buy in Mission Viejo, Calif., in 2011, he consented to have it searched while being repaired to recover any lost photos. No warrant is needed for such a search.

But Rettenmaier's attorney, James D. Riddet, discovered that the FBI made payments to some of the technicians who tipped them off to pornography, often about $500, and considered them "confidential human sources" in internal records.

Riddet raised the issue of whether that made the Geek Squad employees de facto FBI employees - and therefore government agents who would need a search warrant.

On Rettenmaier's computer, a technician found one photo of a naked girl, believed to be 9 years old, in the "unallocated space" on Rettenmaier's hard drive. It did not show the girl's genitalia or any sex act.

Unallocated space is where deleted data resides on a computer until it is overwritten by other data. But it often does not have metadata, such as when it was created, accessed or deleted, and because it lacks that information, courts have ruled that photos found in unallocated space cannot be proved to be "possessed" by the computer's owner without other evidence.

Riddet argued that when the Geek Squad delved into the unallocated space, it was searching beyond standard data recovery to try to help the FBI. But U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney rejected that argument. The Geek Squad technician testified that he was simply trying to recover all the customer's photos, wherever they were.

The judge noted that Best Buy warns customers that it will notify the authorities if illicit material is found. He said "Rettenmaier's expectation of privacy" after he gave the computer to Best Buy "and repeatedly consented to data recovery services is not one that society is prepared to recognize as legitimate or reasonable."

But the FBI used the discovery of that photo to obtain a search warrant for Rettenmaier's home and other computers. When Rettenmaier returned home, his iPhone was seized. On it were hundreds of pornographic photos, federal prosecutors said.

Carney said that search was illegal because it wouldn't have been authorized if FBI agents had accurately described what was originally found on Rettenmaier's computer in Kentucky. Special Agent Cynthia Kayle "falsely stated in the affidavit" for the search warrant "that the [child] image was child pornography," Carney said in a May hearing in federal court in Santa Ana, California. "It was child erotica, the possession and viewing of which is not unlawful."

The judge noted that Kayle also failed to state that the image was found in the unallocated space of Rettenmaier's computer and that three separate searches of the hard drive were done to find the image. "This one image of child erotica," Carney said, "is simply not sufficient to search Dr. Rettenmaier's entire home, the place where the protective force of the Fourth Amendment is the most powerful."

The judge then suppressed all the evidence seized from Rettenmaier's house, including the photos on his phone.

Federal prosecutors initially filed a notice of appeal. But they missed a deadline to file their first brief and on Monday filed a motion saying that "having evaluated the evidence remaining after the Court's ruling on defendant's suppression motions, the government believes it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the case."

Carney then dismissed the case.

"I think what this means," Riddet said, "is the FBI needs to be much more careful about representations they make in search warrant affidavits and make sure they advise judges what the facts are. If they had done that in this case, I don't think the search warrant would have been issued."
The battle over a Confederate plaque on a West Virginia courthouse shows no sign of being resolved any time soon and could cast a shadow over next year's county elections.

It has been three months since five black women in Jefferson County wrote to the five white county commissioners asking for the removal of the small plaque that honors Confederate soldiers at the entrance to the county courthouse in Charles Town, about 60 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. The plaque, the women said, did not belong on a public building.

"The purpose of the Jefferson County Court House is to provide egalitarian services to all citizens in Jefferson County," the women wrote in their Aug. 15 letter to commission president Peter Onoszko. "It is impossible to enter the courthouse to conduct business or to even vote without being taunted by its presence."

The women's request to remove the plaque "with no fanfare" was brought up and voted down by the commission's four Republicans and one Democrat at their next meeting, on Sept. 7. But that decision hardly ended the matter. Ever since, residents have been embroiled in a full-blown debate that has encompassed everything from Civil War history and the purpose of memorials to the presidency of Donald Trump, the deep partisan divide and race relations in 21st century America.

The local weekly newspaper, the Spirit of Jefferson, has extensively chronicled the plaque debate - so much so that the most recent issue was the first since early September without a story about the plaque on the front page. Heated discussions fill the Facebook and Twitter feeds of local residents. A recent county commission meeting teetered on the edge of civility and order.

The plaque in question reads: 1861-1865 In honor and memory of the Confederate soldiers of Jefferson County, who served in the War Between the States. Erected by the Leetown Chapter #231 United Daughters of the Confederacy. Erected May 25, 1986.

Critics say it honors those who fought for a cause that included the continued enslavement of blacks in America. They also point out that West Virginia was part of the Union, and there is no plaque on the courthouse honoring Union soldiers. Nor is there acknowledgment that enslaved people were once sold on the courthouse steps.

While the plaque remains on the courthouse wall, there have been developments that could affect how long it stays there. Polly Wharton, a member of the local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, which erected the plaque, told commissioners at a meeting last month that she would not object if it were taken down and placed elsewhere in the county on private land. Two commissioners - Patsy Noland, the lone Democrat, and Jane Tabb, a Republican - now say they want the plaque removed.

But Onoszko and the two other commissioners, Josh Compton and Caleb Hudson, say the plaque needs to stay where it is.

Onoszko was at the center of one of the most dramatic moments that has unspooled since the plaque issue was raised. During a Nov. 2 commission meeting, Sammi Brown, a Charles Town resident who is black, testified the plaque was not officially a historic landmark and should be taken down. When Brown went 15 seconds beyond the allotted three-minute mark, Onoszko told her to wrap up. "I am wrapping up those comments," she replied. Pointing at her, Onoszko said, "Then please get up and sit down so that everybody gets a chance to speak."

That directive was greeted by boos. Brown turned to the room and said she was there in place of a local civil rights activist who was being buried that morning. "You do not have to ask me again," she told Onoszko and returned to her seat. But Onoszko then told her to leave the room and summoned bailiffs to escort her out.

His order was greeted with a chorus of people yelling, "No!" and "Don't do this!"

Onoszko quickly reconsidered and allowed Brown to remain, but his approach left some dismayed. It also prompted an unexpected change of heart by one person in attendance.

Gary Lescalleet, a construction worker and volunteer fireman, describes himself as a "die-hard conservative" who is "all for Trump." He was at the commission meeting to voice his support for the plaque. But Onoszko's actions caused Lescalleet to rethink his position.

"I thought people were trying to get rid of history. I was like, just leave the plaque where it is," Lescalleet, 39, said in an interview. "But Sammi got up and gave her point of view, and the way the county commission treated her, it pained me. She was crying and I got her some tissues. And I thought, if this plaque is causing so much pain, why am I for it? If it's causing this much pain, it's not right."

Brown, who hadn't met Lescalleet before, said even though they don't share political beliefs, Lescalleet's actions showed "he realized we had a hell of a lot in common."

"People get caught up in partisan politics, but if you're willing to talk it out, there's actually a lot of common ground and room for compromise," she said.

In an interview Tuesday, Onoszko described the debate over the plaque as a "tempest in a teapot." He doesn't expect the commission to take further action this year but says he is open to additional plaques being placed on the courthouse.

"The bottom line is that when things cool down, should somebody want to pursue putting another memorial up there to black soldiers, Union solders, slaves that were sold on the courthouse steps, what have you, we can consider that," he said. "We can even move the Confederate plaque so it's not front and center when you enter the courthouse."

Onoszko, who was appointed to his seat last year, is up for election next year. He says the plaque issue benefits him.

"I'm on the side of the people on this issue," he said. "Not 100 percent of the people, but the voting majority."

But Democrats also see the issue as an opening.

"The opposition would like you to believe it's only a vocal minority opposed to the plaque," said Brown, herself a former Democratic Party candidate for a seat in the state's House of Delegates. "But there are more people becoming aware of this issue and there's a growing amount that want a peaceable solution and want this thing moved."
A court in South Africa on Friday more than doubled the prison sentence for Oscar Pistorius to 13 years and five months for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius, who gained fame as a double-amputee runner who competed in the 2012 Olympics, fatally shot Steenkamp four times through a closed bathroom door at his home in Pretoria in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013. Pistorius claimed he thought Steenkamp was an intruder.

Under a 2015 murder conviction, Pistorius was originally sentenced to six years in prison.

On Friday, South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal called that sentence "shockingly lenient," and more than doubled it after unanimously upholding an appeal by prosecutors, The Associated Press reported.

Under the new sentence, the earliest Pistorius will be eligible for parole is 2023, according to the AP.

The lengthened sentence was another twist in a protracted legal battle over the case.

Pistorius, 31, was originally convicted in September 2014 of culpable homicide, or manslaughter in the United States, and later sentenced to five years in prison.

"I am of the view that a noncustodial sentence would send the wrong message to the community, but a long sentence would not be appropriate because it would lack the elements of mercy," Judge Thokozile Masipa said at the sentencing.

Steenkamp's family said at the time they were "satisfied" with the five-year sentence, even if it wasn't what they were hoping for.

In 2015, South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal overturned Masipa's culpable homicide conviction and instead found Pistorius guilty of murder, a more severe charge that, under South African law, carries a minimum sentence of 15 years.

"He is a person well-trained in the use of firearms and was holding his weapon at the ready in order to shoot," the court's decision read. "He paused at the entrance to the bathroom and when he became aware that there was a person in the toilet cubicle, he fired four shots through the door. And he never offered an acceptable explanation for having done so."

The decision sent Pistorius back to court for resentencing. Masipa, the trial judge, sentenced Pistorius to six years in prison for murder, effectively only adding a year to his culpable homicide sentence. The decision shocked many who had expected a sentence of between 10 and 15 years, with credit for time already served.

Still, Masipa said she had found reasons for the lighter sentence:

Among the mitigating factors cited by Masipa were that Pistorius was vulnerable at the time of the shooting, walking on his stumps rather than his prosthesis; that he believed the person in the bathroom was an intruder and that he had taken genuine steps to save her life after realizing what he had done.

In addition, she said, he had demonstrated remorse, apologizing to Steenkamp's parents in the courtroom, after they had refused to see him and accept his apology in person.

He remains, she said, "a good candidate" for rehabilitation. In addition, she said, "he has already spent some time," 12 months, serving his original sentence. And, she added, he is not a violent person.

It remains to be seen if Friday's decision by South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal will mean the end of Pistorius's legal saga. According to the AP, his lawyers can still challenge the new, lengthened sentence with South Africa's Constitutional Court, the country's highest court.

The decision marked another step in the dramatic downfall of Pistorius, who became known as the "Blade Runner" and "the fastest man on no legs" for running on two blade-like prosthetics. He became one of less than a dozen athletes to compete in both the Paralympic Games and the Olympic Games after qualifying for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Carl Pistorius, the athlete's brother, said on Twitter after the decision that he was "flabbergasted" at the appeals court's suggestion that Oscar Pistorius was not "genuinely remorseful" over Steenkamp's killing.

However, Steenkamp's parents were "emotional" as they watched the verdict being delivered on television, Tania Koen, an attorney for the family, told the AP.

"They feel there has been justice for Reeva. She can now rest in peace," Koen told the AP. "But at the same time, people must realize that people think this is the end of the road for them . . . the fact is they still live with Reeva's loss every day."
Argentina is continuing its search for a submarine that has been missing for nine days as relatives of the missing sailors fear the worst.

In the clearest sign of what may have happened to the ARA San Juan, which vanished a week ago off the coast of Patagonia, officials said a sound detected near the last known location of the submarine carrying 44 crew members is believed to have come from an explosion.

Enrique Balbi, spokesman for the Argentine navy, told reporters at a news conference Thursday that officials have found evidence showing that the abnormal sound, which was detected 30 miles north of the submarine's last-known location, was "singular, short, violent and non-nuclear" and "consistent with an explosion," the Associated Press reported.

Balbi also said that officials do not know what caused the suspected explosion and that there is no evidence the vessel was attacked.

If the vessel remained intact, its crew would have only enough oxygen to survive submerged for a little more than a week. The submarine was supposed to arrive Monday at the Mar del Plata naval base, about 250 miles southeast of Buenos Aires.

Some family members of the lost sailors have already begun mourning.

"At this point, the truth is I have no hope that they will come back," Maria Villareal, mother of one crew member, told local television on Friday morning, according to Reuters.

Itati Leguizamon, whose husband is among the missing, told reporters, "They did not tell us they were dead, but that is the logical conclusion."

The United States, Britain, Brazil and Chile have sent teams of searchers to try to locate the vessel. The U.S. Navy has put more advanced resources into the Atlantic Ocean, including two unmanned underwater vehicles that use side-scan sonar to create images of large areas of the seafloor.

But the search has been stymied by 20-foot waves and winds near 50 mph, according to NPR.

Balbi told reporters Thursday that six teams were continuing to look for the missing submarine near the San Jorge Gulf, about 270 miles from the Argentine coast, CNN reported.

Earlier, officials were working to determine whether phone calls recorded from the area near the San Juan's last known location may have come from the vessel, the New York Times reported. But the Argentine defense minister later said the calls did not come from the submarine.

Argentine officials first learned about the noise Wednesday, Balbi told reporters. Argentine navy ships and aircraft from the United States and Brazil were then sent to check out the sound.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, based in Vienna, also said Thursday that two of its hydroacoustic stations detected an "unusual signal" near the submarine's last known location.

The signal was detected at 1:51 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (8:51 a.m. Eastern) on Nov. 15, when Argentine officials lost contact with the San Juan, the organization said.

Hydroacoustic stations are part of the organization's monitoring system that keeps track of signs of nuclear explosions around the globe.

The news of a possible explosion drove some family members at the base to tears, according to the AP. Photos show relatives of crew members hugging and consoling each other. Some can be seen collapsing to the ground.

Others responded with anger.

"They sent a piece of crap to sail," Leguizamon, the wife of submarine crew member German Suarez, told the AP. "They inaugurated a submarine with a coat of paint and a flag in 2014, but without any equipment inside. The navy is to blame for its 15 years of abandonment."

The German-built diesel-electric submarine joined the Argentine navy fleet in 1985 and was upgraded a few years ago.

- - -

The Washington Post's Cleve R. Wootson contributed to this article.
The fall of the town of Abu Kamal in Syria and recent victories by Iraqi security forces in Qaim and Rawa in Iraq mark the collapse of the Islamic State caliphate. With the loss of these towns located along the Iraq-Syria border, the terrorist group no longer controls any major population center in either country.

This represents quite a reversal for the Islamic State from its heady days of only three years ago, when it controlled vast swaths of territory, routinely extorted taxes from local businesses, exploited the region's natural resources (especially oil), and governed a large percentage of the population of both countries. Those days are thankfully done - at least for now - and that's a development worth celebrating.

But is this a lasting setback for the Islamic State, or is there another chapter to its story? Unfortunately, as the Islamic State has demonstrated in the past, it's a resilient and adaptive enemy that almost certainly will not go quietly into the night. Rather, it will work doggedly in the coming months to keep its brand alive, likely through a combination of actions.

First, many battle-hardened veterans will try to retreat into remote regions of western Iraq and eastern Syria, waiting patiently to determine whether both governments are serious about holding and rebuilding newly liberated areas. And while they wait, these fighters are likely to periodically attack government forces and urban centers, sending a not-too-subtle reminder to local populations that the Islamic State is still operationally viable.

Second, the Islamic State still retains some control over eight global branches and networks, and the group will likely make every effort to deepen operational connectivity across its global enterprise. At the moment, it seems especially interested in reconstituting a presence in central and southern Libya, and in expanding activities in Southeast Asia. Many Islamic State fighters are also likely to return to their countries of origin, with at least some determined to carry on the fight from there.

And finally, the Islamic State will try to adjust its public narrative, using every available platform to reinforce its core messages: that the fight goes on despite the end of its caliphate, and that sympathizers should launch lone-wolf attacks in the West - similar to the one conducted at the end of last month in lower Manhattan.

So, that's their plan. And what should we do in response?

To counter the Islamic State playbook, U.S. policymakers will need to act against both the near-and long-term challenges the group presents. In the near term, there are several policies worth considering, including increasing support for reconstruction efforts in Iraq and parts of eastern Syria, particularly through measures aimed at empowering local Sunni populations and assuaging their fears of Shiite political power; learning everything we can from the alleged perpetrator of the New York City attack about his radicalization process and then devising tailored countermeasures; and deepening information sharing between our intelligence, law enforcement, and domestic police forces, while expanding cooperation with partner nations as they begin to deal with the imminent return of highly skilled foreign fighters.

However, having worked on counterterrorism issues in senior government positions for the past several years, I'm also convinced that these types of short-term responses are insufficient if we hope to undermine the Islamic State's long-term prospects.

To achieve that goal, U.S. and Western policymakers will have to begin chipping away at the underlying conditions that have fueled the Islamic State's growth. Fortunately, one opportunity may be presenting itself in Saudi Arabia, where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has embarked on an ambitious reform agenda to remake Saudi society and, most importantly, to promote a more moderate version of Saudi Islam.

A genuine reform effort in the kingdom - and it's still too early to know whether this is real or cosmetic - coupled with a concrete commitment to no longer export the Saudi brand of puritanical Wahhabi Sunni Islam abroad would be a significant help in preventing radicalization globally and in shrinking the Islamic State's pool of potential recruits. The stated goal of the Saudi reform initiative is unprecedented, and it's a project worthy of Washington's close scrutiny and, if warranted, encouragement.

Similarly, to undermine a key aspect of the Islamic State's historical appeal to Sunnis, U.S. and Western policymakers might usefully explore ways to strengthen Iran's moderates, even in the face of the bitter debate about the fate of the nuclear agreement. While Washington clearly needs to push back on Iran's malign activities in the region, President Hassan Rouhani's reformist mandate (he was re-elected by a landslide last May) offers the best hope for undercutting hard-line elements inside the country, especially the Revolutionary Guards and Quds Force - the units responsible for Iran's aggressive military operations throughout the Middle East.

As a regional expert once told me, there are three categories of political actors in Iran: moderate, conservative and evil. We need to subtly support the former even as we confront the latter. U.S. policies that inadvertently weaken Rouhani and strengthen Iran's hard-liners fit neatly into the Islamic State's recruiting pitch: that the caliphate represents a bulwark against a pan-Shiite, Iranian-led expansionary movement. That's a message that's tailor-made to appeal to isolated and disempowered Sunnis throughout the Middle East. So, while confronting the Islamic State on the battlefield is necessary, empowering moderates throughout the Muslim world is critical.

And lastly, to further erode the Islamic State's long-term influence, U.S. and Western diplomats should target their diplomatic efforts at resolving (or at least easing) conflicts in a few critical countries, particularly Libya and Yemen. The Islamic State has exploited profound instability in these countries to expand its footprint, acquire key terrain and conduct operations; thus progress there in reducing violence, improving humanitarian conditions and strengthening central governance will inevitably help shrink the operating space.

The end of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's physical caliphate is a clear success of U.S. military, diplomatic and intelligence efforts across the past two administrations. It reminds us what a carefully considered, integrated and well-resourced strategy can accomplish in the span of only a few years; it's also significant that the United States was able to accomplish this in close coordination with partners and resisted the urge to confront the Islamic State unilaterally.

But whether this success is short-lived or an actual turning point will be heavily influenced by the decisions we make in the next few months, and whether we commit to tackling immediate challenges as well as the deep-seated political, security, cultural and ideological conditions that contributed to the Islamic State's rise in the first place.
As search teams were continuing to search for the missing ARA San Juan submarine, a Vienna-based organization announced Thursday that its scientists had detected an "unusual signal" underwater in the proximity of the area where it had gone missing days earlier.

The Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization usually focuses on monitoring possible violations of a treaty, which has 183 member states and was negotiated in the 1990s. The post-Cold War agreement bans nuclear explosions, even though key signatories such as the United States never ratified it.

When its researchers noticed an unusual spike in sound waves at the end of last week, however, they concluded that the incident was unlikely due to a nuclear test - but still had unnatural origins. The sound waves were registered only hours after the Argentine submarine disappeared and could be tracked back to the area where the missing crew had last sent a communication.

"It could be consistent with an explosion but there is no certainty about this," Mario Zampolli, a hydroacoustic engineer with the international nuclear test-ban body, told Reuters on Thursday.

Since 1996, the international body with its staff of more than 260 employees and an annual budget of about $130 million has established a network of 15 certified monitoring stations and certified about 300 more, which are operated externally. Its underwater stations are usually 2,000 feet to 0.7 miles below sea level and are mostly equipped with high-tech microphones, which can detect unusual sound waves. Thursday's announcement was based on signals detected by two of those monitoring points. The first station recorded the initial signal in the Atlantic Ocean, whereas the second station in the Indian Ocean was believed to have registered a sound echo much farther away from the point of origin.

Sound waves from explosions or similar events can travel thousands of miles through the ocean.

"Due to the efficient transmission of sound through water, even comparatively small signals are readily detectable at very long distances. Thus, eleven stations are sufficient to monitor the Earth's big oceans, with emphasis on the Southern Hemisphere which is largely dominated by water," the scientists wrote on their website in a general description of their work. The group's mission also includes monitoring possible treaty breaches on land, where it relies on devices, which are able to detect subsonic noises, spikes in radioactive particles or seismic vibrations.

When the first monitoring station in the Atlantic Ocean detected a possible explosion last week, the group transmitted the data to its IT center in Vienna. On their website, the researchers describe how they detect abnormalities in the data, both through algorithms and - if an event is automatically flagged - through researchers' intervention.

That process can be lengthy, which may explain why the "unusual signal" was not immediately flagged to authorities in Argentina.

Although Argentine authorities later described the signal as an "explosion," the Vienna-based researchers' statement and a broader online explanation of their work indicates that such an assessment may not be fully reliable, based on the data that can be collected from underwater microphones.

The organization's researchers can only distinguish between three categories of signals, with "in-water explosions caused either by man-made devices or underwater volcanic eruptions" falling into the first.

Earthquakes produce the second distinguishable sound, whereas "noise signals from a wide range of physical sources such as iceberg-generated noise, airgun surveys and whale song" belong into a third category.

Hundreds of events are analyzed by the group's staff every day, and in the 20 years the organization has operated, it has also helped to monitor potential tsunamis and the fallout of the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. The organization has become a crucial global monitoring center for all kinds of incidents, but since 1996, only three countries have violated the nuclear test-ban treaty, which led to its creation: India, Pakistan and North Korea.
Liberal dream bills, once considered dead-on-arrival in Virginia's overwhelmingly Republican House of Delegates, face better odds in a reshaped Richmond after Democrats swept state elections earlier this month.

Democrat Ralph Northam will be sworn in as the 73rd governor after running on one of the most progressive platforms in recent Virginia history - including a $15 minimum wage, expanding Medicaid to nearly 400,000 low-income people and imposing new gun-control measures.

Unlike outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe, D, Northam will take office in January alongside a General Assembly where Republican clout has been significantly diminished. The GOP has lost its two-thirds majority in the House of Delegates and may lose control of the chamber entirely, depending on the outcome of three races that have yet to be settled. One thing is for certain - the election flipped 15 GOP seats, so that the current count is 49 Democrats to 51 Republicans.

The Senate remains 21 Republicans to 19 Democrats with Democrat Justin Fairfax breaking any ties in his capacity as the newly elected lieutenant governor.

Progressive groups see the shifting balance of power as an opportunity to advance legislation that had floundered when Republicans had a stronger majority.

"There are advocacy groups in Virginia where there are cobwebs everywhere because they are pushing things that would never fly with Republicans in control," said Josh Stanfield, who leads a PAC devoted to electing progressive House members. "Now they can have real tangible demands. Every constituency can come and say, 'Look, there's no longer an excuse not to get this done.' "

For immigrant advocates, it's issuing drivers licenses to undocumented Virginia residents. LGBT groups want to expand anti-discrimination laws in employment and housing to include sexual orientation and gender identity. And abortion rights advocates want to repeal the requirements that women undergo ultrasounds and wait 24 hours before terminating pregnancies.

"While it's certainly not a downhill slide into progressive policy victories, it is exciting and invigorating to contemplate the things we can find the one or two Republican votes to get done in 2018," said Anna Scholl, executive director of the liberal Progress Virginia group.

The Blue Virginia blog recently published a list of 54 bills that it says should be part of a progressive offense in the House of Delegates.

But Del. David Toscano, Charlottesville, the Democratic House leader, wants the focus on economic and health-care issues, such as paid family leave and Medicaid expansion.

"The Republicans have been guilty in overreach and arrogance in how they tried to push a conservative agenda, and it backfired," Toscano said. "Our new legislators should learn from the experience of their Republican counterparts, so they hit the sweet spot for what people in the commonwealth really need and not get too much into socially divisive issues that Republicans have pushed for so long."

Toscano is mindful that every seat in the General Assembly is on the ballot again in 2019 - a year that may be more favorable to Republicans without a statewide race to boost turnout.

After winning the governorship, Northam listed Medicaid expansion and gun control, as well as fighting the opioid epidemic and promoting government efficiency and renewable energy as his priorities.

Del. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, set to be speaker if Republicans keep control, has vowed House Republicans would be a check against an "extreme liberal agenda."

"The House is eager to work with the administration where we can, but we are also going to stand up for the things we believe in," said Parker Slaybaugh, a spokesman for Cox, in a statement. "We can work across the aisle on things like keeping taxes low, making college more affordable, and fighting the opioid crisis, and those are the things we should focus on."

If the House of Delegates ends up in a 50-50 split, Democrats and Republicans will have to negotiate a power-sharing agreement.

Quentin Kidd, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University, said that even slim Republican majorities present major hurdles for Democrats.

For example, a Republican speaker can assign lawmakers to committees in a way to keep legislation from reaching the full floor for debate. Some moderate House Republicans who may have crossed party lines lost their seats on Nov. 7. And Democrats may not be united on contentious issues with tough reelection battles just two years away.

"People in the progressive side of Virginia politics shouldn't get their hopes up too high," Kidd said. "We are still sort of coming down from the amazing election, and we are thinking 'What can Democrats accomplish now?' The reality is without the majority, they still can't accomplish any more than they already have."

The battle for the majority continues outside the election cycle. Northam can offer incumbent GOP lawmakers jobs in his administration, creating pickup opportunities for Democrats. Then-Gov. Jim Gilmore, R, used that tactic in 1998 to erode Democratic majorities in the legislature.

Even if politicking and parliamentary maneuvering puts Democrats over the top, some of the more liberal members of the General Assembly say they are realistic about the prospects of far-left legislation.

"A lot of the more moderate goals that people see as more attainable can be used as a first step for more progressive legislation," said Lee Carter, a democratic socialist who unseated House Majority Whip Jackson Miller, R-Prince William, after campaigning on single-payer health care and repealing Virginia's right-to-work laws.

And Del. Marcus Simon, D-Falls Church, who has sponsored $15 minimum wage bills, concedes it's unlikely to pass next year because of pro-business Democrats. Neither Toscano nor Northam would commit to a $15 wage in post-election interviews.

Kim Propeack, a leader of the pro-immigrant group CASA in Action, said Virginia Democrats should resist the urge to be overly cautious.

"The worst thing that could happen after the kind of election we saw in Virginia is that voters do not see real results," said Propeack, whose organization's top priority is advancing a bill authorizing driver's licenses for undocumented Virginians that has already attracted some Republican support.

"All the time we are told to go for small and shallow reforms," she said. "This election proved people want big and bold."
The town of Eagle Point is putting up a fight to prevent 95th Avenue from closing. The towns insistence on a traffic analysis before signing a road closure agreement means the issue may face a public hearing in 2018.

95th Avenue is just short of a mile long, running from east to west and connecting Highways 178 and 124. A railroad crossing bisects it, though the road only has a simple railroad sign, instead of an active, flashing sign.

However, this road also sits on an opportunity: land that could accommodate railroad tracks.

The Wisconsin Northern Railroad (WNR), a division of Progressive Rail, moved quickly in September. It filed a request with the states railroad commissioner to close the road so it could build more tracks over 95th Avenue  new tracks that would let railroad workers assemble trains without having to close down crossings and block traffic on Highway S, WNR is arguing.

95th Avenue is redundant, WNR said, since there are similar east-west roads within a mile north and south of 95th.

However, the towns government is concerned. This isnt the first time WNR and the town have had a run-in. The railroad requested Eagle Point close the road in 2015, and agreed to conduct a traffic analysis on 95th Avenue before moving forward.

WNR began the analysis but eventually abandoned it. Two years later, WNR is appealing to a higher power: the states Commissioner of Railroads.

The railroad did not notify the town before it filed the petition, Eagle Point town chairman Dennis Ferstenou said.

WNR eventually offered the town a proposal: It would give Eagle Point $7,500  which would be matched with another $7,500 by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, its proposal said  to compensate for the roads closure.

WNR met with the town on Nov. 14. Ferstenou said he expected the railroad to offer a better incentive at the meeting, but that hope was dashed.

$15,000 doesnt meet our expenses for (closing the road), he said. We came out of that meeting that we felt the traffic analysis was required. (The railroad) didnt want to go with that. They wanted to have us sign the voluntary closure agreement.

Eagle Point has the support of the city of Chippewa Falls, Chippewa County and the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, Ferstenou said. You cant just close the road and walk away from it. That only benefits Progressive Rail.  It doesnt address emergency issues, traffic flow.

In response to Eagle Points refusal, the railroad brought forth a crossing closure study on 95th Avenue, done in July for WNR. Motorists and emergency vehicles might be delayed by the roads closing, the study said, but alternate routes were available via Highways 124 or 178.

Ultimately, the study concluded, the road could be safely eliminated.

Ferstenou has his doubts. They claim by (closing 95th), theyd release the number of blockages on County S. We havent verified that. We have our doubts if itd prevent blockages on County S for a great length of time, he said.

The railroad gave up their plans in 2015 due to a downturn in the frac sand business, Ferstenou said. Hes heard concerns that it could happen again.

With 105th Avenue, theres a major campground, theres several subdivisions that access 105th; the road has curves and elevation changes. To put more traffic on that road would be a great safety risk, he said. The (traffic analysis) would analyze all of this and recommend the best solution.  Wed hoped they would agree to that.

The railroad does not agree to the analysis, records show; it only agreed to the analysis in 2015 because then, it was planning to acquire land on which to build new track. The current closing would allow for connecting existing track, said Jason Culotta, the railroads director of public affairs, in testimony filed with the Commissioners office.

At a Monday, Nov. 20, Eagle Point town board meeting, the board decided to stay firm on asking for a traffic analysis.

The problem is gaining county-wide attention. Ann Z. Schell, director of the Chippewa-Eau Claire Metropolitan Planning organization, filed testimony on Oct. 31, calling the PGRs decision to move forward without a TIA irresponsible.

Eagle Point and Chippewa County have until Dec. 11 to file rebuttal testimony, Ferstenou said. The railroad will have eight days after that to file additional rebuttal; finally, a public hearing will be held at a future date, most likely after Jan. 1, 2018.

Eagle Point must have a space for public comment on the day of the hearing.

This story will be updated with comments from Wisconsin Northwestern Railroad on Monday, Nov. 27.
WASHINGTON  Suggesting hes a victim of revenge porn from a jilted lover, Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas says he plans to go silent about the release of a nude photo of him online because police are investigating the disclosure as a possible crime against him. Authorities have not confirmed an investigation.

The 68-year-old Barton, who joined the House in 1985, has acknowledged sharing intimate material with a lover and accused her of threatening to make it public when he ended the relationship. The unidentified woman told The Washington Post that she did not put it online and said the congressman sought to intimidate her by threatening to go to the authorities if she exposed his conduct.

The he said-she said dispute erupted in the midst of sexual misconduct allegations drawing in several other members of Congress as well as Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore of Alabama, who is accused of disrobing a 14-year-old girl. The consequences for Barton are not immediately apparent aside from his mortification: The relationship with the woman was evidently consensual.

The Post published details of a secretly recorded conversation between Barton and his lover from 2015 in which he threatened to take all this crap to the Capitol Hill Police and have them launch an investigation if she did not agree to keep inappropriate photographs and video that he had exchanged with her from becoming public. He said she had already shared material with other women with whom he had been involved.

In a statement after that report, Barton said the Capitol Police reached out to me and offered to launch an investigation and I have accepted. Because of the pending investigation, we will have no further comment. He said the womans comments on the tape could be evidence of a potential crime against me.

Capitol Police have not said whether they have begun an investigation. A message left by The Associated Press at Bartons district office in Arlington, Texas, was not returned. The voicemail for his office in Washington was full.

Making explicit images available without the subjects permission is a felony in the District of Columbia and a Class A misdemeanor in Texas under revenge porn laws passed several years ago. More than 30 other states have such a law; there is no corresponding federal law.

These laws have historically protected women whose boyfriends or spouses publish or publicize nude or embarrassing photos sent to them privately while they were in relationships. The jurisdiction responsible in this episode could depend on where the photos were taken or where they were put online.

In a portion of the recorded conversation, the woman asked Barton what he would tell police if he went to them.

His reply: I would tell them that I had a three-year undercover relationship with you over the Internet that was heavily sexual and that I had met you twice while married and had sex with you on two different occasions and that I exchanged inappropriate photographs and videos with you that I wouldnt like to be seen made public, that you still apparently had all of those and were in position to use them in a way that would negatively affect my career. Thats the truth.

Barton is the longest-serving congressman in Texas and his seat has always been considered reliably safe for Republicans.

The photo of Barton appeared on an anonymous Twitter account. It was not immediately known who posted the photo or when it was taken.

Barton issued an initial statement saying that while separated from his second wife, prior to their divorce in 2015, he had sexual relationships with other mature adult women. Barton said each relationship was consensual and has since ended.

I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down, Barton said.

Barton, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, announced his re-election bid this month. His district includes several counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

A consultant in the oil and gas industry before he was elected to Congress, he is currently the vice chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. He was the committees chairman from 2004 to 2007.
Three suspects are at large and one is in custody after they led police on a high speed chase though East Bexar County early Friday.

According to a lieutenant with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, the suspect and three other people were inside a black Cadillac SUV that failed to stop after a Seguin police officer tried to pull it over around 2 a.m. at Interstate 10 and Trainer Hale Road.
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A Hays County deputy was injured and a suspect found dead after a shooting that occurred while deputies responded to a burglary report in Wimberley, officials said.

According to the Hays County Sheriff's Office, authorities got a call about a man with a gun possibly breaking into Jean's Antiques, in the 11500 block of Ranch Road 12, around 3:45 a.m.
Fun fact: Under U.S. law, sexual assault allegations are now adjudicated by political election.

Dont believe me?

Just ask White House officials, Republican lawmakers and right-wing pundits, who lately argue that an electoral win provides absolution for any past sexual misconduct.

This troubling claim is being applied to (who else?) our president. But it also sets a terrible precedent for what happens if alleged child molester and sexual predator Roy Moore wins an Alabama Senate race.

Last week, after President Trump mocked Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., for sexual misconduct, a reporter asked the White House if it was fair to investigate similar accusations against the president by more than a dozen women.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said no. Those allegations had all been nullified by the election last November.

Look, I think that this was covered pretty extensively during the campaign, Sanders said. We addressed that then. The American people I think spoke very loud and clear when they elected this president.

Thats right, my fellow Americans. When you voted last November, it turns out you were actually volunteering for national jury duty. And you didnt even get your $40 daily stipend!

Sanders is not the only one making this argument.

On CBSs Face the Nation on Sunday, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., was asked by host John Dickerson whether the countrys increasing willingness to believe victims of sexual harassment and assault should cause a re-evaluation of those who came forward against the president.

Well, it happened in the middle of the campaign last year, John, he replied. And the American people had their say on that as well.

Meanwhile, on Fox News, MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz questioned why the media would resurrect allegations against Trump in the first place.

Hes called these women horrible liars. Theres certainly a debate about whether they should be believed, Kurtz said. Theres about a dozen of them. But we had an election after that. And he won.

To hear Trump apologists tell it, the 2016 election exonerated its victor not only of any past sexual misdeeds, but also of every possible transgression or broken norm.

Such as not releasing his tax returns.

On Sunday, on NBCs Meet the Press, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney was asked why anyone should believe Trump when he claims the Republican tax agenda will raise his tax bills, since the public still has no idea what Trumps current taxes look like.

Mulvaney ducked the question.

I cant speak to the presidents taxes. I think that was sort of litigated by the American public during the election, he said, echoing language that White House aide Kellyanne Conway has used on this subject.

These excuses are both dumb and dangerous.

Dumb because, well, if the American electorate was indeed serving as jury last year, its verdict was not exactly unanimous. Or even in the right direction, for Republicans purposes.

A majority of American voters voted against Trump, as you may recall. If you buy Republicans logic, that would mean the public found Trump guilty of sexual misconduct and wanted him to disclose his tax returns.

Moreover, casting a ballot for a politician does not necessarily mean you endorse a candidates every policy stance, character trait and action.

When choosing between candidates, voters have to select one bundle of beliefs and behaviors or another. Its a combo plate. No substitutions allowed.

Maybe Trumps supporters backed him because they dont believe the allegations made against him. Or maybe they supported him in spite of finding those claims credible. (They heard him admit to grabbing women by the p  y on tape, after all.)

In any case, by arguing that victory refutes all allegations against Trump, Republicans are laying the groundwork to welcome Moore to Washington if he wins next month.

Already, White House officials are ducking questions about whether Moore should be allowed to serve as senator. A mere week ago, Conway said there was no Senate seat worth more than a child. On Monday, when asked whether Alabama voters should cast their ballots for Moore, she denounced his Democratic opponent and said, Im telling you that we want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill through.

Sure, some Republican senators have said they believe Moores accusers. Some, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), have even suggested that they might try to expel him if he gets elected.

But with tax cuts hanging in the balance, dont be surprised if they lose their nerve once the voters have spoken.
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The mayor of Osaka, Japan, is making good on his threat to sever the sister-city relationship with San Francisco because of a Chinatown memorial honoring women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military before and during World War II.

The bronze sculpture that was placed in St. Marys Square in September shows three teenage girls holding hands next to an older woman. Though the artwork, known as the Womens Column of Strength, was erected to honor female war victims, its seen by many Japanese citizens and government officials as an insult.

This is highly regrettable, Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura told reporters in Japan on Thursday. The relationship of trust has completely been destroyed.

Yoshimura made his comments after San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee signed a resolution Wednesday accepting the transfer of the statue onto city property. Yoshimura said he will cut ties with San Francisco by the end of the year.

Lee had sent a letter to Yoshimura on Oct. 2, saying he was deeply disappointed, after the Osaka mayor first threatened to end the sister-city relationship in response to the memorial.

The sculpture was the vision of two retired San Francisco Superior Court judges, Lillian Sing and Julie Tang, who wanted to memorialize the estimated 200,000 women from Asian-Pacific countries, known as comfort women, forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces from 1931 until the war ended in 1945.

It was the first sculpture to honor comfort women in a major American city and comes as historians gain a broader understanding of the atrocities perpetrated during the war. There are dozens of such statues in South Korea and a handful in small cities around the United States.

More for you Comfort Women statue unveiled in SF Chinatown

Tang said she was outraged after hearing Yoshimuras comments.

I think its a shame, she said Friday. Theyre turning history on its head. Yoshimura is turning this into a geopolitical issue. Its not. Its a human rights issue. This is a global womens issue to fight against sexual violence and using women as sex objects as a strategy of war.

Many Japanese officials said they have apologized to former comfort women and feel their country is being unfairly singled out.

The difficulty of this issue lies in the fact that there are wildly conflicting views, even today, as to what actually happened, Jun Yamada, consul general of Japan in San Francisco, wrote in an opinion piece published on The Chronicles opinion page Sept 21, the day the statue was unveiled.

Unfortunately, the aim of current comfort women memorial movements seems to perpetrate and fixate on certain one-sided interpretations, without presenting credible evidence, in the form of physical statues, Yamada added.

Tang said that as more light is shed on comfort women, Japan is pushing back with a revisionist history.

Yoshimura is doing this to play to his constituents in Osaka  especially the right-wing factions, she said. Hes continuing a policy of denial at the expense of the truth and history of the comfort women survivors.

One such survivor, 89-year-old Yong-soo Lee, attended the memorials unveiling in front of a crowd of hundreds. She was kidnapped at age 15 from her home in Korea during the Japanese occupation and was forced to work in a brothel in Taiwan that served Japanese soldiers.

She and other survivors continue to demand further apologies and reparations from the Japanese government.

Osaka  Japans third-largest city  was the first of San Franciscos 18 sister cities, which also include Barcelona, Paris, Shanghai and Seoul. The relationships began under President Dwight Eisenhower as a way to promote peace and economic prosperity between cities around the world. San Francisco and Osaka have been sister cities since 1957.

Kathleen Kimura, co-chairwoman of the San Francisco-Osaka Sister City Association, was part of a delegation to visit Japan last month. Her group met with Osakas mayor and knew he was considering severing the relationship, but avoided bringing it up.

Its too bad politics has interfered with the relationship between San Francisco and Osaka, Kimura said. The issue with the statue has caused a lot of hurt in Japan. A lot of the people are hurt that it is being put there now  75 years after the war.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
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Check the Naughty and Nice List Before You Shop

Contact: Liberty Counsel, 407-875-1776, Media@LC.org; Press Kit

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 24, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Before you do your Christmas shopping, Liberty Counsel provides the Naughty and Nice List, which catalogs which stores are censoring Christmas and which are publicly celebrating it.



Liberty Counsel's Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign educates, and if necessary litigates, to make sure that Christmas and Christian themes are not censored. Liberty Counsel pledges to be a Friend to those celebrating Christmas and a Foe to those who try to censor it.

You can download or print the entire list here. Liberty Counsel encourages you to incorporate the information on this list into your Christmas shopping plans.

For the last 14 years, Liberty Counsel has been tracking retailers and how they are increasingly acknowledging Christmas again. Years ago, Walmart had banned its employees from even responding with the phrase Merry Christmas. But after Walmart heard from its customers, it moved to the Nice List, completely embracing the Christmas season. Fortunately, many other companies have followed suit.

As our Nice List continues to expand, we are happy to report that retailers are once again recognizing Christmas, said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. We are now seeing a return to honesty in advertising. If stores are trying to sell items for this special season, then they should call it Christmas. We encourage you to spend your dollars with those businesses that acknowledge Christmas rather than censor it, 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.


Granard will be like a movie set over the weekend as four local lads get together to film their first proper film, 'Angels Guard Thee' in the location.

Writers and Directors Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney are working with Producers Jason Gaynor and Tomas Devaney to bring their story to life this weekend.



Patrick and Robert have always had a keen interest in filmmaking, with Patrick doing some videography for work, and Robert having vast experience with script-writing.



This will be our first proper film, Patrick explained to the Longford Leader earlier this week.

We bought a second hand camera last summer and the four of us shot a short to learn the ropes, with Tomas, Jason and myself acting and Robert directing.



We were happy with the results, but after we finished writing Angels Guard Thee, we decided to bring in professional cast and crew as it was quite a demanding script.



Robert agreed: Making that early short really opened our eyes to the beauty of the landscapes that we had at our disposal here in Longford and gave us the confidence to begin work on a much larger production.

Angels Guard Thee is the story of two ex-paramilitaries meeting for the first time in over 30 years.



Over the course of a weekend, the pair attempt to reconnect, reminisce and heal old wounds, but sometimes the secrets of the past wont let the present lie.



The film stars Brian Fortune (Game of Thrones, Vikings, Penny Dreadful) and John Quinn (Love/Hate, Michael Inside) and will be shot by award-winning cinematographer Simon Crowe.



The short film is supported by Longford Arts Council and it is hoped that it will be the first of a number of filmmaking initiatives in the county.



Were very excited about shooting Angels Guard Thee, said Robert.



We have a great cast with Brian Fortune, John Quinn and Jarlath Tivnan. Weve also put together a really strong eight person crew for the shoot were confident will help us bring it from the page to the screen.



Patrick agreed with these sentiments, adding that the pair felt that the story of 'the troubles' is rarely told from the perspective of those who fought and who are now in their twilight years, attempting to live normal lives.



We also wanted to investigate what might happen when two men who once shared the same outlook, but whose paths and views have diverged over the years, are brought together after so much time apart, he said.

Were very grateful to the Longford Arts Council and Fergus Kennedy for the support they have given us.



The plan is that this will be the first of a series of film-related initiatives in the county, including training and hopefully a film festival in the near future.



In fact, Robert added, over the next year, the lads hope to roll out Harp Productions, a Longford-based film and video production company producing creative, commercial and corporate content, as well as providing training in film production.



 The aim will be to showcase the midlands utilising local talent, he said.

Filming will take place in Granard this weekend.

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Rebuilding the Wall of Death
Cool Keen Adventures at Hazelwood Shopping Centre in Longford town has come up with a novel initiative to try and keep the small outdoor clothing and accessory business open.

Run by husband and wife team, Michael and Sheila Mulleady, the store initially opened in July 2015 and was doing well until earlier this year when local industries began folding and workers moved to other towns.



Michael and Sheila ran a Facebook campaign last week asking people to come into their store, check out for themselves what was on offer and make a purchase there.



The couple hope that by encouraging people to come into the shop, it will help customers come back and continue to purchase some of the top of the range stock that is a available at Cool Keen Adventures.



Business was great to begin with but we noticed that when other businesses here in the town closed their doors, spending power dropped and people stopped coming into us here, Sheila Mulleady told the Leader on Monday.



2017 has been a tough year and we dont want to close the business, so that is why we have come up with a social media campaign in the hope that it will encourage local people to come in and see what we have on offer.



Meanwhile, like every small town, Longford is still dealing with the fallout from the recession and the increase in internet shopping.



Sheila is also quick to point out that local authorities are not doing enough to help small enterprises in their municipal districts.



Rates could be reduced, that is one way to help, she added, before pointing out that people also needed to become more informed about the importance of shopping local and supporting their towns and villages.



The lack of employment in Longford is a big thing and we also have no TD in the county, and this is something I think has had a very negative impact on the situation in Longford town, Sheila added.



We have nobody in Dail Eireann fighting our corner and I also think that the image of Longford town needs to change as well.



Meanwhile, the Mulleadys took the opportunity to thank all those who have helped and supported them over the last two years.



Roy Davis, SuperValu has been a great support to us and we want to thank him for that, added Sheila.



We hope that people across the county will come out and support their local businesses this Christmas.
A professional burglary gang are believed to be behind a break in at a supermarket in Drumlish overnight which resulted in the theft of a large quantity of cigarettes.

A small quantity of cash is also believed to have been taken during a raid at Kiernan's Centra sometime after midnight.

It's understood thieves gained access to the premises by disabling an alarm system before making their way inside.

The culprits are believed to have spent a considerable amount of time rummaging through the store before making off with their haul.

Detectives are carrying out enquiries both at the store and in the Drumlish area this morning in an attempt to establish clues as to the identity of those responsible.

It is the latest break-in to hit the popular north Longford retailer with a similar incident being reported earlier this year.

A source this morning confirmed that gardai had launched an investigation and that substantial damage was caused to the building as a result.

Gardai, however for operational reasons, are not revealing how the raiders made their way into the store.

The Leader understands detectives believe a professional burglary gang may be responsible and are not ruling out the possibility of linking last night's episode to an attempted break-in at the store less than two weeks ago.

Local Councillor and Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council, Martin Mulleady hit out at the events of last night.

"I am very disappointed considering that this is a family run business who provide great employment in the area," he said.

"I just hope the Gardai can find the people who did this."

For more on this developing story, see next week's Longford Leader.
A local man charged in connection with allowing slurry at his pig farm to contaminate a tributary of Lough Slawn in south Longford appeared before last weeks sitting of Longford Circuit Court.

Donal Connaughton, Elfeet, Newtowncashel, Co Longford appeared before Judge Keenan Johnson charged with permitting the discharge of agricultural effluent to a tributary of Lough Slawn; causing agricultural effluent to fall into a tributary of Lough Slawn and permitting agricultural effluent to enter into a tributary of Lough Slawn in Newtowncashel in 2015.

Mr Fitzsimons, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) told the court in his direct evidence that progress was being made in respect of the matter and the defendant was now liaising with Longford Co Council in an effort to deal with the situation once and for all.

Mr Fitzsimons told last weeks hearing that the local authority removed 1.3 million liters of slurry from the defendants farm last summer at a cost of 30,000.

Longford Co Council has also secured funding from the Department of the Environment to devise a plan that will bring this matter to a conclusion and to ensure that the site does not become an environmental hazard, added Mr Fitzsimons, before pointing out that any works cited in the plan would subsequently be carried out in accordance with those directions.

What work will be carried out at the site, we do not know yet, but it could result in a site with no buildings on it at all.

The court was then told that the plan would not be available until at least the end of January 2018.

The court went on the hear then, that, Mr Connaughton had been very cooperative with Longford Co Council over the past few months with regards to the on-going cleanup measures being taken at the south Longford piggery.

The defendant was then requested to sign a licence agreement with Longford Co Council.

Following his ruling on the matter, Judge Johnson said he would suspend the prison sentence that had been imposed on the defendant during a previous court hearing.

The sentence was subsequently suspended for five years on the basis that Mr Connaughton cooperated with the upcoming plan and continued his cooperation with Longford Co Council.

The matter will appear back before Longford Circuit Court in June 2018, thus allowing the Judge time to monitor developments at the south Longford piggery between now and then.
This year the Irish Christmas Tree Growers are encouraging everyone to choose an Irish grown tree by looking for the Love a Real Tree label. As part of the Love a Real Tree campaign launched by the ICTG, this national labelling system will help consumers to support the local economy and find a tree that has been grown in Ireland with ease.

Over 80 Christmas tree growers from across the country are currently harvesting their seasonal crop. The work has intensified this week with growers working to meet deadlines to ensure an adequate supply of trees in advance of Christmas. Up to 400,000 trees are expected to be sold throughout Ireland and a further 200,000 will be exported to European markets, such as UK, Germany and France.

Tony Johnston, Chairman of the Irish Christmas Tree Growers said It can take between 7 to 10 years before an Irish-grown Christmas tree is in peak condition and ready for harvesting. We are expecting an excellent harvest this year as growing conditions have been particularly good, trees are displaying a good colour so we are looking at an excellent 2017 crop.

Irelands climate provides the ideal conditions for growing top quality Christmas trees, the non-shed Nordmann Fir and Noble Fir are by far the most popular. The industry as a whole is worth an estimated 21 million to the national economy annually.
The Longford Chamber of Commerce headquarters has sold for 190,000 after it went under the hammer at a public auction in the Longford Arms Hotel this afternoon (Thursday, November 23).

The building had a guide price of 150,000 and at today's auction, where Sherry FitzGerald McGill auctioneers had the carriage of sale, bidding was brisk before it sold for 40,000 in excess of the guide price.

Longford Chamber purchased the two-floor over basement building, known as the Harbour House which is centrally located to the rear Market Square, twenty years ago, and at the Chamber AGM, members unanimously passed a motion from the directors of the property to sell the building.

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Longford Chamber of Commerce and Spin Longford showcasing the best Longford has to offer this festive season

The Harbour House is a listed building and it comprises five office suites, all presented in excellent condition, with communal canteen, together with excellent storage area located in the basement.

The building has been fully rewired in recent times together with up to date intruder alarm system and each office group is equipped with independent metered electrical supply.

This prime property has the added advantage of ten secure car parking spaces to the rear with extra area for development subject to planning permission.

The building has excellent broadband connection and telephones lines are connected to each office. Present rent roll is 7,200 under short lease.

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Supermacs chief Pat McDonagh announces plans to create 80 new jobs in Longford town
Seventh Dimension Series Wins Twenty-Ninth Award Seventh Dimension  The Prescience, a Young Adult Fantasy, Book 5



Contact: Lorilyn Roberts, 352-359-6941;



GAINESVILLE, Fla., Nov. 24, 2017 /



"When I began writing The Prescience, I was diagnosed with breast cancer," says Lorilyn. "My own scare with cancer was as much an apocalyptic battle as penning the words to this book. I hope the Seventh Dimension story captures the underpinnings of God's redemptive work in a world at the crossroads of heaven and hell. We've all been there in one form or another."



Awards for the Seventh Dimension Series include the following: Literary Classics Book Awards, USA Book Awards, National Indie Excellence Award Winner, International Book Awards Finalist, Readers' Favorite Awards Winner, Best Indie Book Award, Florida Authors and Publishers Association Award Medalist, Global eBooks Award Winner, Best Book Awards Finalist, Shelf Unbound Notable 100 Award Winner, Book Excellence Award Winner, BooksAndAuthors.com Winner, INDIEFAB Book of the Year Finalist, New England Book Festival Honorable Mention, New York Book Festival Honorable Mention, Great Southeast Book Festival Runner Up, Grace Awards Finalist, Selah Awards Finalist, and Book Goodies Best Cover Contest Winner.



The Prescience, Book 5, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-9760745-1-6



Author, speaker, Lorilyn Roberts,



Share Tweet Contact: Lorilyn Roberts, 352-359-6941; www.LorilynRoberts.com GAINESVILLE, Fla., Nov. 24, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- The Prescience takes the reader on a time travel adventure to the first century where the protagonist experiences an apocalyptic battle that transcends dimensions."When I began writing The Prescience, I was diagnosed with breast cancer," says Lorilyn. "My own scare with cancer was as much an apocalyptic battle as penning the words to this book. I hope the Seventh Dimension story captures the underpinnings of God's redemptive work in a world at the crossroads of heaven and hell. We've all been there in one form or another."Awards for the Seventh Dimension Series include the following: Literary Classics Book Awards, USA Book Awards, National Indie Excellence Award Winner, International Book Awards Finalist, Readers' Favorite Awards Winner, Best Indie Book Award, Florida Authors and Publishers Association Award Medalist, Global eBooks Award Winner, Best Book Awards Finalist, Shelf Unbound Notable 100 Award Winner, Book Excellence Award Winner, BooksAndAuthors.com Winner, INDIEFAB Book of the Year Finalist, New England Book Festival Honorable Mention, New York Book Festival Honorable Mention, Great Southeast Book Festival Runner Up, Grace Awards Finalist, Selah Awards Finalist, and Book Goodies Best Cover Contest Winner.The Prescience, Book 5, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-9760745-1-6Author, speaker, Lorilyn Roberts, www.LorilynRoberts.com , has appeared on Discovery Channel's Monsters Inside Me and blogs regularly at LorilynRoberts.blogspot.com
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Each week, MassLive showcases pets available for adoption at shelters at rescue organizations across Massachusetts. With the participation of the shelters listed below, many animals should be able to find a permanent home. Please contact the shelter directly if you are interested in an animal.

Dakin Humane Society celebrates "Black Fur-iday" with adoption event

The Republican Newsroom

SPRINGFIELD- Dakin Humane Society will commemorate the biggest shopping day of the year by presenting "Black Fur-iday," an event that will feature $5 adoption fees on select adult cats and half-off adoption fees for small pets (non-dog and non-cat) at both its Springfield and Leverett Adoption Centers. Hours at the Springfield location are 12:30-5:30 p.m., hours in Leverett are 12:30-4:30 p.m.

The Springfield Adoption Center will feature refreshments and "Going Home" photos taken of adopters with their new pets.

There will be free Dakin tote bags - while supplies last - for people spending $15 or more at the Diamonds in the Ruff Thrift Shoppe. The store features a wide range of pet products including toys, treats, dishes, bedding, carriers, coats and more, as well as a variety of gifts for people including glassware, candles, dishes, toys, jewelry and china sets, among others.

Guests will also be able to visit Dakin's information table to learn about the many services the organization provides to the community, including its weekly Saturday morning Vaccine and Microchip Clinic, affordable spay/neuter surgery, and volunteer opportunities.

"Thanksgiving weekend is traditionally about family, and we want to encourage people to add a new member to theirs by adopting a Dakin pet." said Carmine DiCenso, executive director at Dakin. "We have some wonderful adult cats and friendly smaller pets like guinea pigs, birds, rabbits, chinchillas, ferrets and more, who will be able to go home on Black Friday for deeply discounted adoption fees."

The adoption event is being underwritten by funding from the ASPCA and Steve Lewis Subaru in Hadley. Representatives from Steve Lewis Subaru will be at Dakin's Springfield location on the day of the event to make a special announcement about upcoming efforts to help Dakin animals.

MASSACHUSETTS SHELTERS:

Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society

Address: 163 Montague Road, Leverett

Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Telephone: (413) 548-9898



Address: 171 Union St., Springfield

Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Telephone: (413) 781-4000

Website: www.dakinhumane.org

Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center

Address: 627 Cottage St., Springfield

Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Saturday, noon-4 p.m.; Thursday, noon-7 p.m.

Telephone: (413) 781-1484

Website: tjoconnoradoptioncenter.com

Westfield Homeless Cat Project

Address: 1124 East Mountain Road, Westfield

Hours: Adoption clinics, Thursday, 5-7 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Website: http://www.whcp.petfinder.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westfieldhomelesscatprojectadoptions

Westfield Regional Animal Shelter

Address: 178 Apremont Way, Westfield

Hours: Monday-Friday, noon-5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Telephone: (413) 564-3129

Website: http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/ma70.html

Franklin County Sheriff's Office Regional Dog Shelter and Adoption Center

Address: 10 Sandy Lane, Turners Falls

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Telephone: (413) 676-9182

Website: http://fcrdogkennel.org/contact.html

Polverari/Southwick Animal Control Facility

Address: 11 Depot St., Southwick

Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

Telephone: (413) 569-5348, ext. 649

Website: http://southwickpolice.com/chief-david-a-ricardis-welcome/animal-control/

Berkshire Humane Society Address: 214 Barker Road, Pittsfield

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-4 p.m.; Thursday, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Telephone: (413) 447-7878

Website: http://berkshirehumane.org/

Purradise Feline Adoption

Address: 301 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington

Hours: Monday and Tuesday: Closed; Wednesday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Thursday 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.; Friday,10 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sunday, noon-4 p.m.

Telephone: (413) 717-4244

Website: http://berkshirehumane.org/contact-us/

Greyhound Options, Inc.

Address: 43 Sygiel Rd., Ware, MA. 01082

Telephone: 413-967-9088

Website: greyhoundadoptions.org

Animal Rescue League of Boston

Address: 10 Chandler Street, Boston, MA 02116

Telephone: (617) 426-9170 Fax: (617) 426-3028

Website: adoption@arlboston.org

Worcester Animal Rescue League

Address: 139 Holden St., Worcester, MA 01606

Telephone: (508) 853-0030 Hours: Open 7 days a week from noon to 4 p.m.

Website: www.worcesterarl.org

Rainbow Rescues Inc.

Address: Foster-based organization

Hours: By Appointment Only Telephone: (413) 612-2744

Website: www.rainbowrescues.org
SPRINGFIELD -- While it considers future plans and tenants for the former MassMutual building it owns, MGM Springfield has granted its first-floor tenant, Focus Springfield Community Television, at least another year at the site.

Focus Springfield had initially faced a deadline of this month to move from the 1200 Main St. building on the footprint of the MGM casino project in the downtown-South End area, but received the reprieve from MGM in recent months, officials said.

"We're pleased we don't have to leave our spot that soon," Focus Springfield Executive Director John L. Abbott said this week. "I think it will work out fine for them and us."

Under the agreement, Focus Springfield will stay at least one year and as long as two years at the eight-story building at the corner of Main and State streets, Abbott said.

Saverio Mancini, a spokesman for MGM Springfield, said that under the host community agreement with the city, MGM must maintain 1200 Main St. as an office building "to ensure that we did not displace the existing commercial tenants in the downtown." That was intended particularly for the legal and financial services that serve the nearby courthouse and local businesses, he said.

"At this time, we also agreed to extend the term for the community television station on the first floor," Mancini said. "We have many tenants that are interested in the current community television space, but we decided to renew their lease through the post-opening (of the casino)."

The delayed eviction will help MGM evaluate the traffic flow between 1200 Main St. and the casino to help determine "the best tenant for that space long-term," Mancini said.

There are other tenants in the building, but Mancini said he was not aware of any eviction notices pertaining to them.

When Focus Springfield was given its first deadline to relocate last winter, Abbott described the MGM casino project as "vitally important" for the city, but said Focus Springfield was disappointed to be leaving its $1 million studio only three years after its opening.

"(The lease extension) will give us more time to make sure we find the right spot," Abbott said. "It will be at least a year, and two at most."

Abbott said it was unlikely that Focus Springfield will be able to afford a downtown location in the future, but it will strive for a site with reasonable rent in close proximity.

There are a couple of sites that have been looked at, and there is flexibility in the lease extension for both Focus Springfield and MGM Springfield, he said.

Focus Springfield operates from a 6,500-square-foot studio and video production facility. MGM Springfield purchased the building in 2014 for $8.4 million.

Focus Springfield, the city's community access cable television station, had opened its studio complex that year, featuring two studios, a video lab, exhibition space and 21st century technology.

Focus Springfield produces and airs a variety of programs on Springfield cable Channels 12, 15 and 17. In addition, it provides training opportunities to local producers and residents, with leading-edge technology, according to its website.

In March, The Republican reported that Springfield was pursuing casino-funded community mitigation funds from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to aid Focus Springfield with its relocation. In addition, MGM Springfield said it was planning to provide funds to assist with the relocation.
AMHERST -- Presidential Apartments has reached an agreement with the town to make six affordable apartments available by Dec. 21.

Under a special permit, the complex was required to make six affordable housing units available for occupancy Sept. 1, but failed to do so and has been incurring fines.

Thomas Reidy, attorney for the project, said Friday that the first affordable apartment became available Nov. 7 and the remaining units are expected to be ready next month. "We expect to be in full compliance by Dec. 21," he said.

The fines will continue, he said.

Rental manager Pat Kamins is working with the Amherst Housing Authority to find tenants that meet the rental criteria, Reidy said.

Town Manager Paul Bockelman said officials were pleased to reach the agreement.

The Zoning Board in 2013 granted a special permit to the North Amherst apartment complex to add 54 units. The size of the project required that six units be set aside for those earning a maximum of 80 percent of the area median income.

Connecticut-based developer Allen Cohn, manager of Amherst Presidential Village LLC, said earlier thus year that he did not expect the tenants for the designated affordable units to be certified in time, and so he rented the units to other tenants.

Town officials notified management of the violation Sept. 18 and fines began accruing Oct. 18. at $100 per day per unit, or $600 per day. With one unit available, Reidy said, fines are now $500 a day for the remaining units.
Andrea Bosworth, a Medway mother and three-time triathlete, has died after being struck by a suspected drunken driver in October, her family announced on Thanksgiving.

Bosworth's cousin announced her passing on a GoFundMe page, which will now direct funds raised toward college financing for Bosworth's three young children.

"We've sobbed and screamed, pounded our fists, and pleaded with God," Bosworth's cousin, Courtney, wrote. "We've begged and bargained, offered our souls and our worldly possessions just to have her back. It was not meant to be."

As of Friday morning, the GoFundMe had raised $91,862 of a $200,000 goal.

Bosworth died 32 days after she was struck on Interstate 95 in Rhode Island on Oct. 22. She pulled over in the breakdown lane and got out of her Jeep.

Her body was thrown 91 feet, according to the GoFundMe.

The crash was just days after she finished her third Ironman Triathlon. It earned her the nickname "Iron Mom."

Yiranis Liz, 30, of Providence, is facing driving under the influence charges, according to Rhode Island State Police.

"Our family thanks you for your kindness and heartfelt words, for your shoulders to cry on and your ears lent to listen," Bosworth's cousin wrote. "We are immeasurably grateful for your love and support. You've shown us that Andrea has truly touched many, many lives, and will continue to do so in her passing as we all keep her memory alive."

Bosworth, a high school teacher, was described as "dedicated, determined, strong, and selfless."
Hillary Clinton will be in Boston in December to be honored during a Big Sister Association of Greater Boston event.

"Big in Boston 2017" will honor Clinton, the former Secretary of State and presidential candidate, as well as Sharon McNally, the President of Camp Harbor View Foundation.

The Dec. 5 fundraising event will be at the Museum of Fine Arts.

"Throughout her career, first as an attorney, then First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, and 2016 U.S. presidential candidate, Secretary Clinton has continually advocated for the health and safety of women and Girls," the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston wrote. "From persistently spotlighting wage gaps to securing family leave policies and protecting women's health via legislation, Secretary Clinton has led a decades-long focus on creating a better, more equitable world."

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told The Boston Herald that he will meet with Clinton while she is in the city.

Clinton will be receiving the "Believe in Girls" award, which recognizes her achievements and ongoing commitment to improving the lives of women and girls internationally, according to a statement from the association.

"Hillary's tireless pursuit to create opportunity and advance the roles of women and girls of all ages and backgrounds is unrivaled today," said Deb Re, the president and CEO of the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston. "She embodies the resiliency and self-assurance that we aim to develop in both the Little and Big Sisters within our program."

McNally is a longtime Big Sister Boston Board Member.

"Sharon is deeply invested in the welfare of all our City's children through her work as President of the Camp Harbor View Foundation which provides access and opportunity annually to 900 youth from Boston's neighborhoods," the association wrote.

Additionally, Clinton will appear at the Boston Opera House on Dec. 5 for a sold-out stop in her series of speaking engagements discussing her new book, "What Happened."
As the holiday season begins, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said he hopes swift arrests can help bring peace to the family of victims.

Evans made that comment after an arrest was announced in connection with a killing earlier this week in West Roxbury.

Police found the deceased body of 40-year-old Brian M. Sweeney inside 34 Temple St. on Sunday.

Sweeney, of West Roxbury, suffered "undetermined traumatic injuries," police wrote in a statement released Thursday.

On Wednesday, police arrested another West Roxbury man in connection with the killing.

The Boston Police Homicide Unit arrested Nathurlon Munnerlyn, 39, for his role in Sweeney's killing, the statement said.

Munnerlyn is being charged with murder and will be arraigned in West Roxbury District Court.

Sweeney's father told The Boston Herald that his son had a cognitive impairment and functioned at the level of a 15-year-old.

The father told the newspaper that his son's killing was the end of a life filled with bullying and that Sweeney, willing to help anyone, had fallen in with a bad crowd at times.

"I'm always concerned when there is a homicide in Boston; even one is too many," Evans said. "But when we do have an unfortunate untimely death in our city, I am confident that my officers and detectives will work around the clock until we apprehend the person responsible and bring him to justice for the victim and his family.

"Recently, my homicide detectives have been able to build strong cases and swiftly arrest the suspects in several cases, including this one," he continued. "Although I realize nothing can bring these victims back, I hope, especially going into this holiday season, these arrests can bring some solace and peace to the victims' families."
"If you had a business and wanted to expand or start a new one and you went to the bank to get some money, but you did not have enough money up front to cover getting into this business," Hannum said, "this program http://www.wyosmartcapital.org/ (could) offer you up some financing."

http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming-smart-capital-network-spreads-statewide/article_77efba48-c44e-5a90-88c9-cb254dd0606a.html#tracking-source=home-latest-2
"If you act, youll either fail and learn, or youll succeed. Either one is productive and useful. If you dont act, nothing happens."

Thats Shane Beams, the owner and chief engineer of Vision Aerial, a Montana company focused on designing and producing a new generation of affordable, commercial unmanned drones.

On this episode of Can Do: Lessons from Savvy Montana Entrepreneurs, Shane describes the trajectory of his business, and the trends and issues in the burgeoning drone industry.

By Arnie Sherman

http://mtpr.org/post/can-do-breaking-burgeoning-drone-industry-bozeman
Fleurs, petits colliers, flacon de spins contre la Covid-19, tout a ete mis en place pour que celle journee de don de sang au Square Raymond Chasle soit un succes le 5 mars 2022.

Elle le fut avec le don de sang de 115 personnes a Rose-Hill qui ont contribue a sauver des vies tout en celebrant la journee internationale des Femmes dignement malgre un temps couvert et maussade.

Pour Vimla Narrainen, Presidente de la Womens Commission de la Blood Donors Association, cette action vient en aide a de nombreux malades dans les services de soins ainsi que les accidentes, dialyses tout en gardant les donneurs en bonne sante.

Mme Sunoo de la Banque du Sang sest rejouie de la collaboration avec la BDA car chaque pinte de sang recoltee va aider trois autres personnes qui ont besoin de soins qui demandent des transfusions.

Partager et informez vous aussi......

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Christopher J. Payne, Isaac Wamala et al. Soft Robotic Ventricular Assist Device with Septal Bracing for Therapy of Heart Failure, Science Robotics DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aan6736

Although other existing mechanical pumps can help propel blood through the heart, they are designed so that blood must run through the pump itself, exposing blood to its unnatural surface."Running blood through a pump always requires a patient to be placed, permanently, on anticoagulant medication to prevent blood clotting," Vasilyev says, who is a co-senior author on the paper. "It can be very difficult to keep the right balance of medication, especially in pediatric patients, who are therefore at risk of excessive bleeding or dangerous clotting."So, using external actuators to help squeeze blood through the heart's own chamber, the team has designed a system that could theoretically work with minimal use of anticoagulants."We've combined rigid bracing with soft robotic actuators to gently but sturdily help a diseased heart chamber pump blood effectively," Vasilyev says.The rigid brace component is deployed via a needle into the heart's intraventricular septum, the wall of tissue between the heart's chambers, to prevent the septum from shifting under the pressure of the artificial "muscle" of the soft actuator."With the use of classic left ventricular assist devices, there are patients who experience a septum shift towards the right side and subsequent ballooning of the right ventricle, which can cause secondary right heart failure," Vasilyev says. "Here, the rigid brace keeps the septum in its original position, protecting the healthy right side of the heart from the mechanical load of the left ventricular assistance."In contrast, existing ventricular assist devices (VAD) don't involve the septum at all.Altogether, the system involves a septal anchor, a bracing bar and sealing sleeve that pass through the ventricle wall, and a frame embedded with soft actuators that is mounted around the ventricle. The researchers designed two distinct versions of the system for the right and left ventricle.In animal studies, the soft robotic system contributed significantly to the diseased ventricle's ability to eject blood. The researchers speculate that the system's effectiveness is due in part to its integration with the septum, which plays a key role in the heart's ability to pump blood.The system also made significant improvement in its ability to draw blood into the ventricles, which is just as important as the heart's ability to pump it out."As the actuators relax, specially-designed elastic bands help return the heart's wall to its original position, filling the chamber sufficiently with blood," Vasilyev says.Based on these initial proof-of-concept results, Vasilyev and his team are working on key design modifications that can bring this system closer to use in humans, such as portability and miniaturization of the components. They also need to do longer tests in animals to see how the system impacts the heart over prolonged periods of time.Source: Eurekalert
Cholestasis is a Greek word that means stopping or slowing of bile flow from the liver to the small intestine due to a block (obstruction) in the biliary duct system that connects the liver and small intestine, causing the bile to remain in the liver. It is therefore a form of obstructive jaundice.

Normal Flow Of Bile From Liver To Small Intestine  An Overview of The Biliary System

The bile ducts within the liver (intrahepatic bile ducts) contain the bile formed in the liver. These intrahepatic ducts join together and exit the liver as the right and left hepatic ducts, forming the first part of the extrahepatic (outside the liver) biliary system.

The right and left hepatic ducts join together to form the common hepatic duct.

The common hepatic duct is joined by the cystic duct from the gall bladder. The point where the cystic duct meets the common hepatic duct marks the start of the common bile duct.

The common bile ducts travels for a distance and empties into the second part of the duodenum (part of the small intestine) via the ampulla of Vater.

The common bile duct is usually joined to the main pancreatic duct just prior to the opening in the ampulla.

Bile is important in the digestion of fats in the small intestine, and consequently this becomes affected. When bile remains in the liver, bilirubin, a pigment occurring in bile escapes and accumulates in the blood resulting in symptoms of jaundice. Jaundice is one of the most discerning features of cholestasis and yet it may not always be the first discernible symptom.

Cholestasis affects both the young and old. Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) are the main cholestatic liver conditions in adults while in infants, biliary atresia and Alagille syndrome mainly cause cholestasis.

Cholestasis observed in infants and children (1 out of 2500) can be either congenital (at birth) or hereditary.

Jaundice that occurs due to cholestasis mainly occurs in acute or acute-on-chronic cases. It is rare to observe jaundice in severe longstanding chronic cases since they are treated with liver transplants.

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Cholestatic jaundice can be broadly classified according to the type of pathology in the biliary system

Type of Biliary System Pathology Common Examples Congenital Biliary atresia

Choledochal cyst Inflammatory Ascending cholangitis

Sclerosing cholangitis Obstruction Common bile duct (CBD) stone

Biliary duct stricture

Parasitic infection of bile ducts Neoplastic Carcinoma head of pancreas

Periampullary carcinoma

Cholangiocarcinoma

Klatskin tumor (tumor of biliary system where the right and left hepatic ducts meet) External compression of CBD Lymph nodes, tumor (Mirizzis syndrome)

Cholestatic jaundice in infants may be caused by several factors, such as -

Congenital hypopituitarism

Adrenal insufficiency in infants (very rare)  This has not been observed in adults

Rare genetic disorders in children  Accounts for 25% of cholestatic jaundice cases caused by gene mutations

(e.g. Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis; Alagille syndrome; Bile acid synthesis disorders; Cystic fibrosis; Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency; metabolic errors; zinc storage disorders)

Biliary atresia  accounts for 25% to 40% of cases in the initial months of life

Bacterial sepsis

Galactosemia

Bile acid synthesis disorders

Tyrosinemia

In adults, there are intrinsic and extrinsic factors pertaining the liver, which can cause cholestatic jaundice -

Infections

(e.g. viral hepatitis A, B, C; rubella, syphilis, herpes virus; toxoplasmosis; cytomegalovirus, AIDS, PBC, alcoholic hepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, PSC, autoimmune cholangitis)

Infiltrative conditions

(e.g. fatty liver, granulomatous hepatitis, lymphoma, sarcoidosis

Structural conditions  choledocholithiasis (gallstone obstruction with inflammation), intralobular duct destruction

Medications e.g. estrogen, erythromycin, statins, nitrofurantoin, sulindac, cimetidine, gold salts

Surgical complications leading to biliary ductal strictures and scarring

Graft-versus-host disease

Third trimester of pregnancy (obstetric cholestasis)

Cystic fibrosis

Tumors  gallbladder carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, pancreatic tumors, ampullary tumors

Vanishing bile duct syndrome  rare condition occurring due to drug induced liver damage

Jaundice due to cholestasis is one of the symptoms. Sometimes, prior to jaundice setting in, the patient may show certain signs indicating potential cholestasis. Clinically, cholestasis may present with the following symptoms -

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Pruritis (itching) due to deposition of bile products in the skin

Tiredness, loss of appetite, nausea due to liver disease

Pale-coloured stools (since bile and associated pigment does not reach the intestine)

Deficiency of fat-soluble vitamins (since bile is needed to absorb fat soluble vitamins)

Steatorrhea (presence of undigested fat in the stools)

Urine is dark in colour (since urine is a filtrate of blood in which the bile pigment accumulates)

Loss of weight due to associated cancer as well as impaired digestion

Bone pain due to calcium and vitamin D deficiency (poor absorption of fat soluble vitamins)

Increased bruising or bleeding due to vitamin K deficiency (poor absorption of fat soluble vitamins)

During diagnosis, it is essential to evaluate the risk factors of the patient, which may have triggered the onset of cholestatic jaundice.

Medications such as estrogens, erythromycin, NSAIDs, alcohol, Cimetidine and Itraconazole

Premature babies

Alcoholism

Previous history of liver disease

Pregnancy (obstetric cholestasis)

Family history is considered in the case of benign recurrent intrahepatic cholestasis

Cholestatic jaundice is diagnosed by blood tests, imaging techniques, and liver biopsy.

In order to diagnose cholestatic jaundice, it is imperative to first assess the cause of cholestasis; is it due to an intrahepatic (within the liver) condition (predominantly chronic) or an extrahepatic condition (external to the liver). The doctor will assess the patients symptoms and perform a thorough a physical examination of the patient. Following are the strategies employed (in the order provided) to confirm diagnosis of cholestasis.

Blood Tests

Elevated serum bilirubin levels indicate the severity of jaundice but are not useful in determining the cause of cholestasis

High levels of the enzyme gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT) and alkaline phosphatase

High serum transaminase levels observed in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP)

Imaging

If the blood tests are abnormal, imaging studies are done to determine the etiology of cholestatic jaundice.

Ultrasonography of the abdomen is an effective, inexpensive, specific, and sensitive tool to distinguish between intrahepatic or extrahepatic cause of cholestasis.

of the abdomen is an effective, inexpensive, specific, and sensitive tool to distinguish between intrahepatic or extrahepatic cause of cholestasis. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be done instead of or in addition to ultrasound imaging. These may show the location and extent of cancer or other diseases. Abnormalities detected help to formulate the required therapy.

Other Biochemical tests

Negative data from ultrasound necessitates other diagnostic tests. Antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA) are diagnostic of PBC. Fibrosis or beaded appearance of the biliary system (bile production) is indicative of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).

Liver biopsy

If the investigations point to a cause within the liver, a liver biopsy may be useful in establishing the diagnosis such as bile duct carcinoma (cholangiocarcinoma) or autoimmune disease. A liver biopsy also helps to confirm the diagnosis of vanishing bile duct syndrome, a common cause of drug induced cholestatic liver disease

Advanced Imaging Tests

Abnormalities of the bile duct and biliary system , including sclerosing cholangitis (SC) can be observed with advanced imaging tools, such as endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP)

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP): A thin flexible tube (endoscope) is passed through the mouth and into the small intestine. Then, a radiopaque contrast agent (which can be seen on x-rays) is injected through the tube into the bile and pancreatic ducts (biliary tree) and x-ray images are taken.

(ERCP): A thin flexible tube (endoscope) is passed through the mouth and into the small intestine. Then, a radiopaque contrast agent (which can be seen on x-rays) is injected through the tube into the bile and pancreatic ducts (biliary tree) and x-ray images are taken. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP): MRCP is MRI of the biliary tree (bile and pancreatic ducts), with specialized techniques that to make the fluid in the ducts appear bright against a surrounding dark background.

(MRCP): MRCP is MRI of the biliary tree (bile and pancreatic ducts), with specialized techniques that to make the fluid in the ducts appear bright against a surrounding dark background. Endoscopic ultrasonography : An ultrasound probe is inserted with a flexible viewing tube (endoscope) through the mouth and into the small intestine and images are taken.

: An ultrasound probe is inserted with a flexible viewing tube (endoscope) through the mouth and into the small intestine and images are taken. Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography: A long needle is inserted through the skin into the liver and then a radiopaque contrast agent is injected into a bile duct in the liver, using ultrasonography for guidance.

Treatment of cholestatic jaundice has to take into account the reason behind the retention of bile in the liver and bloodstream and the effect of diminished quantities of bile acids in the digestive tract.

Autoimmune cholangitis is treated with corticosteroids while bacterial cholangitis can be treated with antibiotics

Cholestyramine a bile acid binding resin to symptomatically treat pruritis

Supplements of vitamin D and K

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is a bile acid that improves the functioning of the liver by enhancing the flow of bile. The use of UDCA is effective in treating PBC. Corticosteroids are effective only in treating early stages of PBC since osteoporosis may result in the advanced stages of the disease . Chenodeoxycholic acid and cholic acid are used to treat bile acid synthesis disorders in infants

Surgery is effective in treating only extrahepatic blocks to bile ducts

Glucocorticoids can be used to treat cholestatic jaundice caused by adrenal insufficiency

Patients are advised to discontinue medications or alcohol that may be the cause of the condition.
Nativity scenes on display

SCHUYLER -- The public is invited to St. Benedict Center to view Nativity scenes from around the world, including the Holy Land, Africa, Asia, South America, North America and Europe.

The Nativity display will run 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 17 and Jan. 25. There is no admission fee.

For more information, call 402-352-8819 or visit www.christthekingpriory.com.

Christmas play at St. Benedict

SCHUYLER -- The Teens of Divine Mercy Parish will present a play for the whole family in several acts related to the Christmas message.

Two indoor shows will be performed at 5 and 7 p.m. Dec. 2 at St. Benedict Center. There will be hot chocolate, cider, coffee and homemade Christmas cookies following each show. Tickets are $3 for adults and $1 for children.

For more information, call 402-352-8819 or visit www.christthekingpriory.com.

Holiday fair at St. John's

SCHUYLER -- St. Johns Lutheran Church, 821 Denver St. in Schuyler, will hold a holiday fair on Dec. 3.

There will be a bake sale from 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m., soup supper from 4-7 p.m. and shoppers mall from 3-7 p.m.

For more information, call 402-352-3550.

Christmas cantata at Peace Lutheran

COLUMBUS -- Peace Lutheran Church, 2720 28th St., will present a Christmas cantata Season of Wonder on Dec. 2-3.

Performances are scheduled for 6 p.m. Dec. 2 and 8 and 10:30 a.m. Dec. 3. A peace bells concert featuring Touch of Brass and Bells of Peace will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 13. These events are free and open to the public.

Public invited to KC breakfast

COLUMBUS -- The St. Isidore Knights of Columbus will host a French toast and pancake breakfast from 7:30-11 a.m. Dec. 3 in the school cafeteria.

The breakfast will also include scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit and drinks. Tickets are $7 for adults, with a reduced price for children. The community is invited.
COLUMBUS  Students at Columbus High School should always be able to find a seat at the table when its time to sit down for their 30-minute lunch period in the cafeteria.

That wasnt always the case when the new high school along 33rd Avenue and Lost Creek Parkway started the 2017-18 school year, raising concerns among some parents about lunchroom seating availability.

A record enrollment in ninth through 12th grades of 1,239 students, up about 6 percent from last years student population of 1,168, led to cramped seating for the first couple of weeks of the semester.

It wasnt unusual for a school visitor in the opening weeks to see some students sitting on the floor of the cafeteria to eat their midday meal, especially if they wanted to gather with friends.

We had to move some classes around to level the number of students that went to the three lunch periods (to address any overcrowding), Principal Steve Woodside said.

Weve got more than 70 new students. We had to do a little balancing, he added.

In the initial days of classes this fall, school officials added four tables with seating for more than 35 students.

CHS has a handful of seating options available, including the tables that were added, that can accommodate the 1,172 students over the three lunch periods. Sixty-seven students who are enrolled at the high school do not attend a daily lunch period.

The cafeteria has 22 round tables that can seat eight students each and 31 square tables with room for four kids each. There are 10 booths that can handle four students each and 64 tall stools designed for eating at raised counters.

That is enough seating for roughly 400 students per lunch period. Woodside said the schools average daily lunch count in October was 966 students, an average of 322 per lunch session.

Some students have opted at times to sit on the floor rather than break up their party of friends when they outnumbered the available seats at a particular table, Woodside said.

Weve tried to be responsive (to the situation with added seating), the principal said. We would never be indifferent to students sitting on the floor.

School officials also discourage students from sitting on the floor because it poses a potential safety issue during emergencies.

CHS closed its campus to all students this fall. Last years seniors were the last class to be able to leave the school for lunch.

School officials have cited concerns about disruptions to the learning environment created by the number of unexcused tardies and absences as students straggled in late to afternoon classes.

An improved cafeteria at the new high school and enhanced food service program are also factors in the increased number of students eating lunch there.
The Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Katrougalos, hosted the Russian Ambassador to Greece, A. Maslov, to a working luncheon. Discussion during the luncheon focused on the potential for further promotion of bilateral economic relations and on possible dates for the upcoming meeting of the Greek-Russian Joint Interministerial Committee. The meeting took place in a very warm and friendly atmosphere.
We express our abhorrence and categorical condemnation of the heinous attack carried out today at the al-Rawdah mosque, near the city of El-Arish, in the North Sinai Governorate. We also express our concern at the repeated attacks on the religious communities of the Middle East and North Africa who experience the disastrous consequences of terrorism and religious bigotry.



Greece unequivocally condemns terrorism, whatever its source. We extend our solidarity to the friendly Egyptian people and convey the sincere condolences of the Greek people and the Greek government to the bereaved families. Once again, we reaffirm Greeces unwavering support of human rights and religious freedoms, wherever they come under threat.


GREAT FALLS, Mont.  A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a bid by the Donald Trump administration to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges a presidential permit for the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls, Montana, dismissed U.S. Justice Department arguments that the court had no authority to second-guess the cross-border permit that was issued by the State Department.

Morris also rejected motions by TransCanada Corp., the company behind the project, to dismiss the suit.

Conservation groups and Native American organizations contend in the lawsuit that an environmental review of the project completed in 2014 was inadequate. They've asked Morris to revoke the permit, which was based on the review and issued in March.

The 1,179-mile pipeline would transport Canadian crude through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with lines to carry oil to Gulf Coast refineries.

President Barack Obama's administration rejected the project in 2015, but it was revived in March under Trump. The president insists it will create jobs and lead to greater energy independence.

In seeking to dismiss the suit, government attorneys had argued that Trump had constitutional authority over matters of foreign affairs and national security.

Morris rejected the notion that any potential court injunction  or even review of the permitting process  would illegally infringe on the president's authority.

Morris cited a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case concerning a federal visa exchange program. The circuit court's decision "has made clear that the State Department cannot avoid judicial review simply by invoking its consideration of 'foreign policy' or 'security' factors," Morris wrote.

Both the Justice Department and TransCanada said Wednesday they were reviewing the decision.

"Our environmental laws should never be undercut by the interests of a private foreign company, and the court's decision today solidifies that," Hannah Adams, deputy director of the activist group and co-plaintiff Bold Alliance, said in a statement.

On Monday, Nebraska regulators approved a pipeline route through that state, though the vote is likely to face court challenges. The route is not one preferred by TransCanada, and it could require more time for government agencies to study the changes.

TransCanada has said that it would announce by early December whether to proceed with the pipeline  which would carry an estimated 830,000 barrels of oil a day  and would take into account the Nebraska decision and whether it has lined up enough long-term contracts to ship oil.

Keystone XL would expand the existing Keystone pipeline network that went into service in July 2010. The current pipeline runs through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas and extends east into Missouri and Illinois.
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The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) has opened the call for applications for the European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) 2019 award on 23 November in Tallinn, at the European SME Assembly organised by the European Commission in cooperation with the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The EER 2019 edition was launched by Johanna Mikl-Leitner (AT/EPP), CoR Member and Governor of Lower Austria, one of the three EER winners of the current year. The EER award is open to all EU regions and cities that are ready to implement an ambitious strategy to support their SMEs and entrepreneurs. The deadline to apply for the EER 2019 label is 17 April 2018.

Each year, the EER label is awarded to three EU territories with an outstanding, future-oriented strategy to promote entrepreneurship and support small and medium-sized enterprises in their territories. The forward-looking orientation of the EER initiative means that the EER label is open to all EU territories  not only to those that are already among the top performers, but also to regions and cities that may still be less prosperous, but that have an ambitious entrepreneurial vision to reinvigorate their economy and a credible action plan to transform this vision into reality.

Over the past seven years, the EER winners have demonstrated how cities and regions can successfully strengthen their entrepreneurial ecosystems. During the SME Assembly's first day, Lower Austria (EER 2017) was awarded the Commission's European Enterprise Promotion Award (EEPA) in recognition of its outstanding achievements in supporting SME internationalisation.

" SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups are a motor for life quality and sustainable development in our cities and regions. I strongly believe that, as regional and local decision-makers, it is our responsibility to set up the right conditions for the emergence of flourishing entrepreneurial ecosystems. Through the European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) label, the European Committee of the Regions contributes to this objective. We identify and reward EU regions and cities that create an environment in which entrepreneurial initiative can unleash its full potential ", stated CoR Member Johanna Mikl-Leitner.

The implementation of the awarded regional and local strategies will be monitored throughout 2019 by the EER jury, which is composed of CoR members, representatives of EU institutions and social partners. At the end of the award year, the jury will visit the awarded territories in order to verify the progress made, provide them with an objective outside appraisal of their policies and gain new insights and inspiration for the further development of the EER scheme. The main results and achievements of the EER 2019 winners will also be shared and discussed among regional and local authorities through the EER network, which since its inception in 2010 has grown to include 24 territories, giving it the critical mass necessary for a fruitful exchange of good practices, peer-learning and successful cooperation among past and present EER winners.

Contact:

Carmen Schmidle

Tel. +32 (0)2 282 2366

Mobile: +32 (0)494 735787
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Preliminary results of a pan-European study from the London School of Economics seeking the views of local and regional authorities on the future of Europe and the role they wish to play in a renewed Union were presented yesterday at the meeting of the Committee of the Regions' Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs ( CIVEX ). A vast majority of respondents agreed that the number one priority should be to put the citizens at the heart of the EU integration and that they are ideally placed in this process. They also feel that they have a unique role to play in creating a new model of EU solidarity based on a number of key principles, such as cohesion, inclusiveness and partnership.

Ahead of the presentation of the London School of Economics' (LSE) first study results, CoR First Vice-President Markku Markkula said: " The debate on the Future of Europe is becoming richer every day. But let me be clear: I think that a European Union without a full contribution of its cities and regions would be a Union without any solid foundations, built in a vacuum. Unfortunately, regions and cities are still the less represented in the EU decision-making process. This paradox creates disaffection among citizens, and sometimes reluctance or mistrust towards the whole integration process. "

As part of the CoR's " Reflecting on Europe " campaign, the CIVEX commission chaired by Barbara Duden (DE/PSE), Member of Hamburg City Parliament has commissioned a pan-European study from the LSE. This includes a wide consultation of local and regional authorities, regional parliaments and local-regional authorities' associations at national and European level. The consultation was also sent to all CoR members. Participants were asked to identify the main challenges that the EU should tackle, and how cities and regions could contribute to make the EU a stronger player in terms of governance, policy and representative links with the citizens. The results of the study will feed into the CoR opinion on the future of Europe, to be adopted by October 2018.

The survey was conducted with about 2000 stakeholders and enjoyed a high response rate, showing a clear interest on the topic. The questionnaire included 14 questions and consisted of three sections: Governance, Policy, Communication and Representation. Michael Bruter, Professor of Political Science, and Sarah Harrison, Associate professorial Research fellow, at the LSE, presented the first results of the study, with a full report expected at the beginning of 2018.

Here are some of the main findings:

On the issue of structural reform priorities, a majority of respondents emphasised the need for a better delineation between the various levels of governments, as well as increased powers for the regional levels and the regional parliaments;

Concerning the sort of policies the EU should most deal with, cohesion policy clearly tops the list, followed by employment, growth, migration, security, environment and youth;

Regarding the challenges posed by the migrants crisis, responses showed very little support for a tough line and instead expressed their support for a generous approach but based on renewed dialogue with migrants' countries of origin and stronger collaboration with receiving EU countries;

As regards the evolution of EU Cohesion policy, a vast majority of respondents expressed their wish to see the following two pillars be preserved: universality  the policy should benefit to all regions; and priority to the poorer regions;

Asked to list the three keywords coming to mind on how to reinvent EU solidarity, respondents mentioned cooperation, partnership, exchange of good practices, cohesion, knowledge economy, and inclusiveness as top answers;

On the issue on how to improve citizens' sense of belonging to the EU, the emphasis was put on early primary school education, learning languages and the Erasmus exchange programme;

Concerning cities and regions' communication priorities when it comes to the EU, the most dominant answer was the citizens' right to live, work and study across the Union.

More information:
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HARBOR BEACH  In the last 12 years, the Harbor Beach Lions Club has served thousands of Thanksgiving dinners to residents of the area.

However, the term "residents" does not refer to only Harbor Beach citizens. Those attending the dinner come from near and far to enjoy the annual feast.

Remarkably, the dinners are free to those attending. Club Treasurer Bob Swartz said the meal was meant to reach out to those who would be alone for the holidays, or who are unable to cook for themselves. It is also a blessing to those who wish to enjoy some type of fellowship during the holiday season.

The Thanksgiving dinner takes place at Als Restaurant in Harbor Beach. The restaurant has worked with the club to put on this dinner since its inception. This Thanksgiving season, the dinner was served on Tuesday night.

In addition to a sit-down dinner at the restaurant, club members delivered meals to those within the city limits of Harbor Beach.

Over 100 meals were given out the first year, and the numbers have grown since then. Swartz said last year was the largest ever. His figures show they had 101 people in the restaurant dining room, and 57 came for takeouts. In addition, the club delivered 94 meals around town, for a total of 252 meals.

In reality, the dinner is for anyone.

We dont turn anyone away, Swartz said.

Swartz said he has had many memories over the years from this community outreach. One thing will be etched in his mind forever.

Ill never forget this," he recalled. "While delivering meals in town, I rang the bell at the home of an older lady. She said come in. I handed her the food while she sat in her wheel chair.

The lady said, 'Please wait here,' while she turned the chair and headed into her home," he added. "She came back and gave me 52 cents. She said, I wish I could give you more, but that is all I have in the house.

Those were (her) exact words," Swartz said. "Ill never forget this.

Over the years, the Harbor Beach Lions Club has had a number of organizations and groups give donations for various projects. Swartz said The Friends of Kinde is one of those groups. For several years, the group has given an annual donation, and it has been used to help defray the Thanksgiving dinner costs. Swartz said he and the clubs members are grateful for their support.

Harbor Beach Lions members are proud of the things their organization does for the community above and beyond the Thanksgiving dinner. Their club was founded in 1938, and it has been active in supporting their community for eight decades. Today, the club boasts nearly 50 members, and it is one of the most active Lions Clubs in this part of the state.

Through the years, the Harbor Beach Lions Club has annually raised in excess of $15,000 in order to help support many other non-profit organizations as well as (several) Michigan based Lions Club organizations, said President Lawrence Kroswek.

Kroswek noted the club also hosts an Easter breakfast and an Easter egg hunt for local children. Club members regularly use their Lions Club Lunch Wagon to help raise funds for various functions and to help support other non-profit organizations.

Bear Lake is one of these Lions groups. It is the Lions Club's visually impaired youth camp. It aspires to provide premier outdoor recreational and educational opportunities geared for persons with special needs.

Eversight Michigan is another one of these organizations sponsored by/through the Lions. Its objective is to restore sight and prevent blindness through donations, transplantations, and research.

Kid Sight is another of the Lions Club programs. It is a nationwide program created to safeguard the vision of children age 6 months through 6 years. It has now expanded its services to screen older children, even those who are in middle school.

Perhaps the most renowned program is Leader Dog School for the Blind.

Leader Dog School for the Blind empowers people who are blind, or visually impaired, with lifelong skills for safe and independent daily travel," Kroswek said.

This year, the Harbor Beach Lions Club has an excellent group of members and officers, which  in addition to Kroswek and Swartz  includes: First Vice President Dan Lemanski; Second Vice President Fred Swartz; Third Vice President Paul Ginther; Secretary Bill Duerr; Directors Marge Roggenbuck, Buck Roggenbuck and Eric Schumacher; Membership Chair Glenda Swartz; Tail Twister Nancy Farden; Lion Tamer Marge Lemanski; and LCIF Connie Krame.
UPPER THUMB  It may not be just Ubly that is starting the 2018-19 school year early.

The Huron Intermediate School District (ISD) received a waiver from the Michigan Department of Education to start school before Labor Day, according to superintendent Joe Murphy.

The waiver will take place as long as other school boards agree to the change, Murphy noted.

This complies with proposed Senate Bill 271, which would allow for all schools to start before Labor Day, but not be in session on Mondays and Fridays in August, Murphy said in a press release. Huron County superintendents have received parent, community, and board input in making this decision.

Murphy said there are a number of benefits to the earlier start, such as more time to prepare for state tests like the M-STEP and SAT tests, slowing the summer slide that happens with students over the summer, and local school districts would be able to create a more flexible calendar.

There were 99 school districts and charter schools and 24 ISDs that applied for a waiver for the 2016-17 school year, according to Murphy.

The change was approved by the Ubly Board of Education at its last school board meeting Nov. 13.

Other school boards are looking at approving the change also.

Im very supportive of it for a number of reasons, said Bad Axe Superintendent Greg Newland. Just to slow the summer slide students have. Another component is students are already back for extra-curriculars.

The Bad Axe Board of Education will approve the early start later in the year, Newland said.

The county was granted a waiver and most of the school superintendents were in favor of taking it back to the school boards for that, said Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port superintendent Brian Keim.

The Laker school board approved the earlier start at its meeting Monday.

The Harbor Beach Board of Education will be looking at approving the earlier start at an upcoming board meeting, noted Superintendent Shawn Bishop.

I think we first mentioned it in a superintendents report in September, Bishop said. Even though we havent had to take board action on it, the (Harbor Beach) board is well aware that that is the direction that is very, very likely. My guess is based on our conversations the board is very supportive of wisely moving before.

North Huron superintendent Martin Prout said his school district approved the earlier start in September.

"We were the inaugural school district regardless because (of) one of our preschool programs, we got special funding that extends the amount of time can be in the classroom," Prout said. "So we did that so we could start everybody."
TUSCOLA COUNTY -- A new avenue of trying to address the prescription drug overdose epidemic is in place.

The Big Red Barrel is a special collection boxes for unwanted prescriptions has been set up in various communities in Tuscola County. There is one at the Cass City Village Hall, one in Mayville, and one in Reese.

The drug disposal campaign will keep these drugs out of landfills and water ecosystems, and also protect against theft or abuse by providing a safe and secure disposal method, according to Cass City Village officials.

In getting the collection boxes to the communities, Tuscola County deputies and the inmate worksite crew assisted the Tuscola County Drug Task force in delivering the red box, said Tuscola County Sheriff Glen Skrent, noting the sheriff's office is also getting a drop box in vestibule so that unwanted drugs can be dropped off at any time whether our lobby is open or not.

The Big Red Barrels are not to be used to collect syringes, liquids, inhalers, or patches.

The special red containers to dispose of drugs was obtained from a program sponsored by List Psychological.

In addition to the red boxes, the Michigan State Police Caro Post, the Tuscola County Sheriff's Office, the Huron County Sheriff's Office, and some pharmacies also accept unwanted drugs for disposal throughout the year, and during special take-back events held during the year.

During October take-back effort in October, the Huron County Sheriff's Office collected eight pounds of pills, the Cass City Police Department collected 25 pounds of pills, the Tuscola County Sheriff's Office 15 pounds, the Sanilac County Sheriff's Office eight pounds, the Sanilac County Drug Task Force collected 90 pounds, and the MSP five pounds.

Law enforcement agencies turn over the collected medication to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for their disposal.

Court records are rife with charges for possession of analogues, and the plan is with more opportunities to dispose of unwanted and/or unused drugs there is less chance of them being use improperly.

A recent study by the Michigan Prescription Drug and Opioid Task Force of more than 54 million people ages 12 and older showed they abused prescription drugs at some point in their lives. The survey also determined more than 70 percent of people who abused prescription painkillers obtained them from friends or relatives, while only approximately 5 percent got them from a drug dealer or from the Internet.

The typical possession charge is for opioid drugs such as OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax, or their derivatives.

Michigan has been identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control as one of 19 states that has had a statistically significant increase in opioid-related deaths.
HURON COUNTY -- The state Senate recently approved legislation that would allow the concealed carry of handguns in traditional non-carry zones, such as schools, day care facilities, churches, hospitals, bars and stadiums.

Senate Bills 584-586 passed the Senate 25-12. The package will now move to the state House for consideration, although it's unclear when the House will take up the legislation.

Under the legislation, concealed pistol license holders could get an endorsement on their licenses exempting them from "no-carry zone" restrictions if they can show they have taken at least eight hours of additional training or are a certified firearms instructor.

Under the bills, private property owners, colleges and universities could still ban guns and schools could prohibit teachers and staff from carrying guns. It would also close a loophole under which concealed pistol license holders could bring guns into schools and other no-carry zones, provided they carried the guns openly.

The bills are supported by groups such as the National Rifle Association and the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners.

Among those speaking against the bills were representatives of the Michigan Association of School Boards, the Michigan Education Association and Moms Demand Action.

Also opposed was the Michigan Open Carry group, because of the new restrictions on open-carry of firearms.

Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed similar legislation in 2012, just four days after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Snyder hasn't publicly taken a position on the latest legislation.

In Huron County, there are currently 1,944 people with Concealed Pistol Licenses. A total of 398 have registered in 2017.

Huron County Sheriff Kelly J. Hanson said he tends not to worry about gun law changes until they become reality.

"In the 35 years that I've been involved in law enforcement, there's just been so much change to it," said Hanson. "It's hard to keep track until it becomes law."
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We should all be thankful on Thanksgiving that even though some companies are fleeing Connecticut, at least two want to spend hundreds of millions of their own dollars here, if the government lets them.

They are the gambling purveyors, MGM Resorts International and MMCT, the joint venture of the tribes that run Foxwoods Resort and Mohegan Sun casinos. True to the holiday season, they cant stop bickering.

Listening to the latest in a nonstop series of spats, Id say its time for both sides to knock it off, go to their rooms, hunker down and work on their own projects and stop trying to undercut the other guys with public insults.

This one is about what MGM CEO Jim Murren did, or did not, say on a Nov. 8 quarterly conference call with investors and financial analysts. What he said was that MGM is pretty much done for the time being building large-scale casinos in the United States.

Along with a huge, planned resort in Tokyo, and opening MGM Springfield next year, the company will focus on upgrades on the Strip in its hometown of Las Vegas, Murren said.

No mention of Bridgeport? Wasnt Murren just here in September, arm-in-arm with the mayor and the masters of the harbor redevelopment, declaring that Bridgeport and Tokyo were MGMs top two projects in the world?

MGM is so focused on Bridgeport that in its quarterly report to shareholders the idea of a Bridgeport casino didnt even cross Mr. Murrens mind when discussing prospects for the coming years, MMCT spokesman Andrew Doba snapped.

Referring to the Sept. 18 event at the site, Doba said, You would think that after a glitzy PR stunt that the CEO of MGM would think to mention it.

The tribes accusation since September has been that MGM isnt serious about Bridgeport, it only rolled out the plan as a desperate measure to kill the East Windsor casino that was approved by the state as a way to siphon customers off Interstate 91 who might drive up to MGM Springfield.

The view from Las Vegas, naturally, is quite different. Murren was talking about projects that are approved or in construction, MGM says  and Bridgeport isnt approved yet.

The tribes are merely taking what was said in one context and trying to twist it into a different context, Uri Clinton, MGM senior vice president and legal counsel, said in a written statement. Doing so is wrong on the facts. Period.

Clinton reiterated that MGM is fully committed to Bridgeport, as evidenced by intense lobbying to win legislative approval for it in 2018, and the fact that Murren is slated to return to the Park City for a high-profile event Dec. 5.

But he didnt stop there. Just as the tribes are pushing the idea that MGM is desperately fighting to kill the East Windsor plan with no real interest in Connecticut, MGM wants to portray the tribes as too cash-poor to build a new casino, hopelessly bumbling even if they had the money.

And MGM insists the East Windsor plan wont get the federal approval it needs.

The differences between project plans for East Windsor and Bridgeport could not be more stark: the East Windsor casino proposed by the Tribes is rapidly losing steam, while MGM Bridgeport is gaining substantial momentum by the day, Clinton said.

Were not losing momentum, we are moving forward with the project and expect to see some serious movement on this site in the near future, Doba said, declining to say whether that means site work will start in the six weeks remaining in 2017.

We could parse every one of these issues, and more. We could conclude that, yes, Murren failed to mention Bridgeport and maybe it was because of the context but it still would have been nice to hear a shout-out. As we all know by now, Murren is from Bridgeport and Fairfield and his mother and other family members still live here.

We could conclude that MMCT has moved rather slowly in the three years since the Hartford-area casino idea first surfaced. If it was going to be most effective, it should have opened by now, well ahead of MGM Springfield.

But what we think, and what they tell us, doesnt matter anymore. What matters are the facts: The tribes have state approval for East Windsor and a statewide duopoly on casinos, but no clear federal approval to build.

MGM, for its part, has plenty of money to do what it says it will do, and it has a deal for the best, most logical casino location in Connecticut. It has no approval and it will have to persuade lawmakers to break a deal with the tribes.

Let the lawsuits fly, let the shovels dig where money and approvals are in hand and let both sides, and the state, negotiate toward a solution that works for the whole state. Beyond that, lets all have Thanksgiving in peace and not worry about the bickering forces.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
Japan's reputation for manufacturing prowess took another hit as Mitsubishi Materials admitted it falsified data on some products just weeks after a similar scandal engulfed Kobe Steel.

Buyers of Japanese industrial goods from Boeing to Airbus were once again scrambling to confirm whether safety had been compromised after Mitsubishi Materials said three of its units had faked data on products that may have been delivered to more than 250 customers. Its shares plunged as much as 11 percent in Tokyo, the most in eighteen months.

Mitsubishi Cable Industries falsified data on rubber seals, while Mitsubishi Shindoh misreported the strength of metal strips for auto parts, according to a statement Thursday. The products may have been shipped to 229 Mitsubishi Cable clients, in industries ranging from aerospace to electric power, and 29 customers of Mitsubishi Shindoh. The two subsidiaries accounted for about 12 percent of total revenues in the year ended March.

A third unit, Mitsubishi Aluminum, also supplied products that didn't meet standards, although it has already confirmed with customers that they are safe, the company said, adding that its investigation hasn't uncovered any cases that raise the possibility of legal violations or safety issues.

The revelation is the latest in a series of scandals to dent the image of Japanese manufacturers and echoes closely the admissions by Kobe Steel that it falsified data on the strength and durability of its products. In the auto sector, Nissan has said it conducted vehicle inspections that didn't comply with regulations for almost four decades, while Subaru allowed uncertified workers to inspect vehicles before shipment. Takata filed for bankruptcy earlier this year because of faulty airbags.

Mitsubishi Materials closed 8.1 percent lower, wiping almost $400 million from its market value. Its stock had hit a two-year high earlier in the month, buoyed by stronger global metals prices. While the units affected are relatively small, the company said it can't yet quantify the impact on its earnings.

Mitsubishi Materials President Akira Takeuchi told a briefing in Tokyo Friday that the company didn't disclose the problem when it reported earnings earlier this month because it wanted to find all of the customers affected. Takeuchi also said he won't quit due to the misconduct.

"My duty is to instruct and supervise the investigation of the causes, and to take preventive measures swiftly," he said. The company will update on its probe by the end of the year, Executive Vice President Naoki Ono said.

According to the statement, Mitsubishi Cable uncovered the falsification in February and stopped shipping affected products on Oct. 23; the company told its parent two days later. Mitsubishi Shindoh found out about its problem in October and stopped shipments on Oct. 18, alerting Mitsubishi Materials the following day.

Japanese Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko called the matter "extremely regrettable" earlier Friday, and said the government would seek an explanation from Mitsubishi Cable on why it took so long to report its problem. He added that he considers it a matter for the companies and not an industry-wide issue.

Kobe Steel's crisis erupted in early October, collapsing its shares. Although 525 customers were affected, none have reported safety issues and no products have been recalled, allowing its stock to recover some of its losses. So far, shipments to 484 clients have been given the all-clear.

Kobe blamed lax controls and too much focus on profit, which encouraged workers to disregard quality guidelines for a decade or more. It also said it was guilty of setting unrealistically high standards that actually exceeded clients' expectations. The company was forced to abandon its profit forecasts and has lost quality assurance certification -- often demanded by customers as a condition of sale -- at seven of its 20 plants.

Aircraft maker Airbus said in a statement it doesn't directly procure any materials from the Mitsubishi Materials units and is investigating whether any of its suppliers are affected. Boeing Co. said it's reviewing the matter.

Of the almost 25,000 workers at Mitsubishi Materials, Shindoh employs over 1,000 while the Cable unit has about 500, according to the latest figures on company websites. The parent, which produces everything from cement to materials for electronics, had revenue last year of almost $12 billion, of which Shindoh and Cable accounted for about $1.4 billion.

"Even if Mitsubishi Shindoh and Mitsubishi Cable don't make up a big portion of the company's earnings, not just the short-term impact, but the mid and long-term impact on its orders is a cause of concern," Keiju Kurosaka, senior analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, said in a note.

About a fifth of Mitsubishi Cable's output of seals from April 2015 to September this year may not meet standards, according to the statement. The company's seal product business makes up about 40 percent of its revenue. The problems identified at the Shindoh and Aluminum units are much more minor, accounting for less than 1 percent of their sales, according to the company.

- With assistance from Ma Jie Kae Inoue Nao Sano Ichiro Suzuki and Kiyotaka Matsuda
Officials say the device was known as an "unexploded ordnance," or an explosive weapon that did not explode and still posed a...
An anniversary is always a reason to celebrate, especially if it is one that marks being in the beer business for 20 years. To commemorate their 20th, New Holland Brewing Company is releasing a special strong ale that is sure to pack one heck of a punch in a tasty brew.

The 20th Anniversary Ale is being released this Friday November 24. This beer is a rum barrel aged strong ale that comes in at a whopping 20% ABV (alcohol by volume).

"We had a lot of fun making this beer. The idea of making a 20% beer for our 20th really got us motivated and excited but also a little worried that it might not turn out" brewery production manager Jason Salas said. "We had the technique down (for the beer) but had just never pushed it this far before."

The brewers first came up with a recipe that could handle that much alcohol, and settled on a strong ale. This style has a pretty wide description which allows for creativity, but commonly has a huge malt bill that results in a higher ABV. To make this beer even more interesting, New Holland decided to then age the beer in one of their spirits barrel.

"We came to the conclusion that rum would fit the profile the best" Salas explained. The beer spent just shy of a year in barrels from New Holland's own distillery, bringing together two sides of their business into one bottle.

New Holland Brewing Company first opened their doors in 1997 in downtown Holland. Since then, they've expanded into a large production facility located on the north side of Holland, added a distillery, and opened a new "temple to craft" on the west side of Grand Rapids in 2016. They sell beer in 38 states, 4 countries, and employ over 400 people.

"For the past 20 years, New Holland has worked hard to create remarkable beers for our customers to enjoy," said New Holland President and Founder, Brett VanderKamp, per a press release. "Each brew is thoughtfully crafted, inspired by the stories around us, and this 20th Anniversary Ale is no exception."

The 20th Anniversary Ale is a light amber color, with a huge alcohol nose. Let it open up for a minute, then give it another smell. You'll catch more of the beer base in the aroma, with notes of caramel. Upon sipping, and do trust me, this is a sipping beer, you'll experience a smooth taste, low carbonation, notes of ripe fruit and caramel with a big boozy finish. It is a lovely beer.

This special brew is being released into limited distribution to select Michigan retailers in a wax dipped 22 ounce bomber bottle.

The only places to sample the beer on draft are straight from the source, at either The Pub on 8th in Holland, or at The Knickerbocker in Grand Rapids.

If you go:

(616) 355-6422

(616) 345-5642
ANN ARBOR, MI - Michigan State Police have arrested Jason Baase, 34, of Byron Center, on charges related to a fatal crash on Monday, Nov. 20, in Chelsea.

Baase was arraigned Friday, Nov. 24, at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, where he is being treated for injuries sustained in the crash, according to Michigan State Police. He is being held without bond.

Baase faces three felony charges, including one count of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree flee and elude and one count of driving while license suspended causing death.

Jason Baase in an undated photo

Dawn Anderson, 52, of Grass Lake, was killed Monday when Baase struck her vehicle.

Baase was driving a Chrysler 300 at the time that police believed was stolen. He was traveling eastbound on I-94 and then exited the highway onto M-52, according to police.

A trooper activated his emergency lights to stop the Chrysler 300, and the driver started to pull over to the shoulder before speeding off, police said.

After a short pursuit, the driver of the stolen vehicle struck a Chevrolet Traverse exiting the parking lot of Polly's Country Market at 1255 S. Main St. about 2:45 p.m., according to state police.

Anderson was driving that Chevrolet Traverse, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to her obituary, Anderson is survived by her husband of 30 years, Bill; sons, Derek (Katie) and Daniel; granddaughter, Audrey; her parents, sisters and other extended family.

Anderson was a registered nurse, who worked in the Jackson area for the last 18 years. She also was an active member of the Michigan Center Eagles Lodge No. 3634, according to her obituary.

Visitation is set for 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24, at Sherwood Funeral Home in Grass Lake. The funeral will be 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 25, at Grass Lake United Methodist Church.

Baase has a signficant criminal record.

He was sentenced to two to 15 years in prison in 2012 for attempted auto theft and resisting and obstructing police.

He also has convictions for receiving and concealing firearms and possession of a firearm by a felon, both in 2006; fourth-degree fleeing police in 2003; and auto theft and larceny from a motor vehicle in 2001.

The Michigan Department of Corrections web site shows he was in prison earlier this year. He was released in February.
BAY CITY, MI -- A 43-year-old Gladwin man is federally charged with taking nude photos of two children and sending them to others, part of his alleged effort to groom one of the kids for sexual assault.

A grand jury at the federal courthouse on Nov. 8 indicted Steven R. Bigham on single counts of production of child pornography, distribution of child pornography and possession of child pornography. The charges are punishable by 15 to 30 years in prison, five to 20 years and 10 years, respectively.

Bigham on Nov. 16 appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia P. Morris for arraignment. At that time, Assistant United States Attorney Anthony P. Vance requested Bigham be held in custody pending trial.

In making his case, Vance elaborated on the charges by stating Bigham took lewd photos of a 6-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl in his care and while he was bathing them.

"These aren't your typical ... kids playing in the bath-type photos, but (are) sexual in nature, zoomed in on the genitals of these children," Vance said. "It was obvious to the reviewing agent the purpose of these photographs."

Bigham took such photos on several occasions between March 19 and May 28, Vance said. Bigham sent these photos of the girl to another person and then "had some very disturbing conversation via text message and other cellular telephone apps regarding things sexual in nature he wanted to do to (her) and that he was, in fact, grooming her," Vance said.

Investigators in October searched two of Bigham's cellphones and discovered numerous images and videos of child porn, Vance continued.

Vance said it appears Bigham has mental health issues and hospitalized himself with the Veterans Administration after authorities discovered the child porn cache on his phones.

Defense attorney Barry A. Wolf asked his client be released to stay with his father and placed on a tether. The court could monitor his activities and ensure Bigham still kept his appointments with mental health professionals, Wolf said.

Morris elected to release Bigham on a $20,000 unsecured bond. While on bond, he is to participate in psychiatric treatment and counseling and location monitoring. He's not to possess any pornography or have access to any device with Internet capability. He is prohibited from having contact with anyone younger than 18, including his alleged victims.

Bigham's trial is scheduled to begin March 20, with a plea cutoff date of Feb. 27.
FLUSHING, MI - Investigators are still trying to determine what caused a fire at a fraternity house that displaced more than a dozen Kettering University students earlier this week.

Flushing Fire Department Chief James Michael said investigators have not discovered what caused the fire, but the blaze appears to have started above the ceiling on the third floor.

Approximately 50 firefighters from a total of five Genesee County fire departments responded to a structure fire shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 21, at the Sigma Nu fraternity house in the 1500 block of Flushing Road near Elms Road.

There were 13 students who lived in the house, Michael previously said.

There were nine students inside at the time of the fire who evacuated. Everyone made it out safely.

Kettering University officials, including campus safety, responded to the scene to help the students.

The students who lived at the fraternity house were relocated to residence halls at Kettering and other fraternities at the school also offered to house the students, according to Kettering spokesman Patrick Hayes.

Kettering's Student Life staff has been working to connect the displaced residents with the resources they need to ensure they have long-term housing in place, Hayes said.

The university said the home is privately owned and officials are working with the organization to determine insurance coverage and other issues for the students.

Some students have set up a GoFundMe page to assist the affected students.

Flushing firefighters were assisted at the scene by Clio, Swartz Creek, Montrose Township and Mt. Morris Township crews as well as the Flushing Police Department for traffic control in the area.

Flushing Road was closed at Elms Road and Elms Road was closed north of Flushing Road so fire lines could be stretched across the road.

A Michigan historical marker is at the property, according to the Michigan History Center.

It was believed Rufus and Sarah Harrison were the first to settle the property and clear a farm in 1853 after traveling from Detroit, according to the organization.

Harrison died in 1856, and the farm was bought by William Schram, his son-in-law. Schram and his wife, Harriet, lived on the site until the early twentieth century, according to the Michigan History Center. The nearby well is thought to be the original, although the covering is modern.
LAPEER, MI - The man accused of killing an Oakland County Sheriff's deputy allegedly told police he was God minutes before taking off on and during a 22-mile chase through three counties.

Deputy Eric Overall, 50, was killed Thursday, Nov. 23 when he was struck a vehicle allegedly driven by a 22-year-old Macomb Township man fleeing from police.

Lapeer County Sheriff Scott McKenna on Friday, Nov. 24, detailed the circumstances of the chase that eventually led to Overall's death.

The pursuit started after the man, whose identity has not yet been released by police, pulled into the Lapeer County Jail at 11:41 p.m. and went into the lobby.

As the man approached the intercom in the jail lobby, he just looked at the buttons, McKenna said. Police overheard the man referring to himself as God and saying he was at the jail to get one of his "son's followers" out, McKenna said.

McKenna said they have located a person in the jail who the suspect identified by name. The jailed man said he knew the suspect, but had not communicated with him since summer.

The suspect then left the county jail, got into his vehicle and used his cell phone before driving next door to the Thumb Correctional Facility, McKenna said.

Through multiple conversations with Lapeer deputies, 911 dispatchers and a prison employee, the man again said he was God and he was here to get his son, McKenna said.

After contact with a prison guard, the suspect allegedly returned to his vehicle and drove back to the Lapeer County Jail parking lot. As he was returning to the jail, he passed two deputies, McKenna said.

The deputies performed a traffic stop on the man in front of the jail and approached the vehicle where the suspect continued to say that he is God, McKenna said.

Lapeer sheriff gives update on chase that led to Oakland County deputys death Posted by The Flint Journal on Friday, November 24, 2017

The deputies tried to de-escalate the situation, but the suspect allegedly began to dive off in his vehicle. McKenna said the deputies turned off their overhead lights and began to follow the suspect.

Deputies followed the man onto westbound Interstate 69 and again activated their overhead lights to initiate a traffic stop.

McKenna claims the man then activated his turn signal on and pulled over.

When deputies and a Metamora police officer get to the vehicle, the suspect allegedly made remarks about taking off his seatbelt and running his vehicle into a tree to kill himself.

That's when the suspect then drove off for the second time, McKenna said. Deputies again began to pursue the man.

McKenna says there was very little traffic and the man was driving at posted speeds.

"It's a very controlled pursuit," McKenna said. "There was minimal traffic. Moderate speeds."

The suspect then exits the highway at M-15 in Genesee County, stops at the stop sign, uses his turn signal and turns south on M-15.

Once the pursuit turns south, McKenna said deputies contacted Oakland County.

Oakland County officials informed the Lapeer County deputies they were going to deploy stop sticks at the Seymour Lake Road intersection in Brandon Township.

After learning this, the pursuing police began to fall back.

McKenna said video of the pursuit shows Overall deploy the stop sticks and get off to the side of the road.

"At that time, you see the suspect tap his brakes and make almost a 90-degree turn to hit and kill Deputy Overall," McKenna said. "Our deputies at the time of this don't even know that he's there."

McKenna said the deputies didn't try to stop the suspect earlier because it was a controlled chase and there was little traffic.

"Those are the questions people are going to ask us," McKenna said. "I am very comfortable standing here in front of you saying these were moderate speeds at best. I can't say I've been involved in too many pursuits where people use turn signals.

McKenna said his deputies handled the pursuit properly, deciding against attempting block in the suspect or trying to use contact to disable his vehicle.

"It comes down to legislation. Once we get involved and make contact with someone and something major happens we're liable," McKenna said. "Dealing with the situation and all that they had to handle, I feel that they acted appropriately."

McKenna said the deputies involved in the chase have been placed on paid administrative leave.

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating the fatal crash, previously issued a statement saying it believed the suspect intentionally tried to hit Overall, a finding McKenna agrees with.

"Ultimately, this man chose to make a deliberate act to kill a deputy, to kill a husband, to kill a dad just at the drop of a hat," McKenna said. "And, for what? It doesn't matter what our patch says, we're all family."

The medical examiner has ruled Overall's death a homicide from blunt force trauma, police said.

Overall was a 22-year veteran of the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.

The suspect, who is still in custody, has four prior convictions for possession of marijuana and resisting and obstructing police.

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office Special Investigations Until will present a warrant request to the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office on Saturday, police said.

Police said the suspect is expected to be arraigned during a video proceeding at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 25, in Oakland District Court in Rochester Hills.

A GoFundMe page has been established to assist Overall's family, police said.

Overall, who lived in Genesee County, was recently married and has one adult son, police said.

Oakland County officials said Friday, Nov. 24 that visitation for Overall will be on Monday, Nov. 27 and his funeral will be on Tuesday, Nov. 28. No additional details of the funeral have been released.
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Indias Bharat Petroleum launched a tender seeking a spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo for delivery in January and a separate tender for three cargoes for May, August and October, trade sources said.

Bharat seeks a spot cargo for Jan. 19-21 delivery into the Dahej import terminal, with bids due on or before Dec. 5 and the award due to be made on December 7, one trader said.

In a parallel tender, Bharat requires a cargo in May, August and October. Bids for this tender must be submitted on or before Nov. 28 and the award is due on December 12, the trader said.
A showroom attendant cleans a Mahindra XUV500 car inside the company's showroom in Mumbai May 30, 2013. Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd , India's biggest utility vehicle manufacturer, said on Thursday consolidated operating margin for the fiscal fourth quarter rose to 14.4 percent from 12 percent a year earlier. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

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Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra today said it will bid for the second stage of the tender for supplying 9,500 electric vehicles (EVs) to state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL).

"We will bid for the second stage of EESL tender," M&M Managing Director Pawan Goenka told reporters here. The order for the second phase will be issued after the completion of deliveries of 500 EVs in the first phase by November 30.

M&M had earlier said that it would have to take a "hard look" whether it would be justifiable to participate in the second phase of the tender as it was finding it difficult to match the per unit price being offered by Tata Motors.

Tata Motors had quoted the lowest price of Rs 10.16 lakh exclusive of GST for the tender. Later, Mahindra also decided to participate in the tender. The EVs procured under the tender will be used to replace petrol and diesel cars being used by the central government and its agencies over a 3 to 4-year period. Goenka said the company is looking to ramp up the EV production to 5,000 units by the end of 2019.

"Currently, we have 4,000 EVs on Indian roads which amounts to around 50 million kms of drive," he added. Goenka said the company is making progress in the long term contracts in assembling batteries, manufacturing of motors and power electronics.

"We have invested Rs 500 crore in EV technology till date. Another Rs 600 crore will be invested over the next 2-3 years," Goenka said.
Ivanka Trump

The city of Hyderabad will turn into a fortress ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and daughter Ivanka Trump's visit for Global Entrepreneurship Summit from November 28 to 30.

The officials of US Secret Service, Special Protection group (SPG) and Telangana State Police, after a several rounds of meetings, have finalized the security set up.

According to senior police officials, there is no specific security threat but the police are on "high alert" in view of the threat perceptions with regard to the VVIP's visiting the city.

Daughter & advisor to US President Donald Trump, Ivanka, will travel within the city in her special bullet proof vehicle and her proximity security will be taken care by the US Secret Service.

Over 15,000 security personnel of the Telangana police will be deployed across the city to ensure the event goes peacefully. Control rooms have been set up to monitor every activity in the city.

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Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assams minister of health, education and finance and the BJP's Tripura in-charge, is believed to be the man behind the BJP's turnaround in the Northeast assembly elections 2018. Sharma had even maintained a 100 percent strike rate by the party while the countings in the three states  Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya  were on.

Facing flak over his remarks that life-threatening diseases were a result of past sins, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said he was quoted out of context and apologised to those hurt by the "absolutely mindless controversy triggered by few political desperados".

His remarks that some people suffer from diseases such as cancer because of sins committed in the past and that it is "divine justice" have sparked sharp reactions.

In a press release, Sarma said, "My speech on divine justice and karmic deficiency is being quoted out of context. In their bid to trivialise and sensationalise, no one is looking at the content of my whole speech and intent."

"It was said in the context of helping poor students of government schools and as request to teachers not to neglect them. It was also a message to indicate district education officers not to harass teachers, he said.

"But the way a section of national media, local media and few in Congress party are now playing with the story, I am pained to say will cause agony among cancer patients and their relatives," he said adding he lost his father, friends and relatives to the disease.

Slamming Sarma for his remarks, Congress leader P Chidambaram had yesterday tweeted "Cancer is divine justice for sins' says Assam Minister Sharma. That is what switching parties does to a person," referring to his joining BJP from Congress ahead of the Assam assembly elections in 2015.

Sarma took to Twitter earlier in the day to get back at Chidambaram by referring to his quitting the Congress in 1996. He also mentioned Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's pet, saying "After all #Pidi likes privileged people".

"Sir, please do not distort. Simply I said that Hinduism believes in karmic law and human sufferings are linked to karmic deficiency of past life. Don't you believe that too? Of course in your party I do not know whether Hindu philosophy can be discussed at all.

"By the way sir when did you rejoin @INCIndia ? As far as I know you were in Tamil Maanila Congress. Privileged people can indulge in any activity right from Chit Fund to Inxmedia, can switch party. After all #Pidi likes privileged people," the Assam minister had tweeted.

Addressing a function where appointment letters were distributed to teachers here yesterday, Sarma had said, "God makes us suffer when we sin. Sometimes we come across young men getting inflicted with cancer or young men meeting with accidents. If you observe the background you will come to know that it's divine justice. Nothing else. We have to suffer that divine justice."

Assam Congress leader Debabratta Saikia and AIDUF leader Aminul Islam yesterday criticised Sarma's statement and demanded that he apologise.

Some cancer patients said they were saddened by the health minister's remarks at a time when it is an established medical fact that there are scientific reasons and various other parameters responsible for the disease. B B Borthakur, the medical superintendent at the state- run Dr B Barooah Cancer Institute, seeking to downplay Sarma's remarks told PTI "I don't think the minister made the remark on scientific basis but in a social context. I don't think it is a matter to be made into a controversy. It is not a matter to be given so much importance."

In his statement, Sarma also said a "philosophical discourse" (by him) purely to help poor students is being misused and which in turn is causing "avoidable anxiety" among surviving cancer patients and their close ones.

"I still believe divine justice will catch up with each and every one of us for trying to cash in on someone elses pain to gain political mileage and cheap publicity." "I reiterate at no point my statement was intended to cause any pain to cancer patients. However, if owing to the blatant distortions, it has caused any anxiety and problems to anyone, I hereby offer my unconditional apology for the pain," he said. "Detachment from life, karmic action and rebirth are some of the core principles of Hindu philosophy developed over last 5000 years. Western thought process can never dominate or dilute the spirit and eternal meaning of our philosophy," he reasoned.

Continuing with his defence, Sarma said, "Science has not been able to give answer to many of our perennial queries and therefore at our last moment, we are asked to pray GOD."

"While I am not against science, I strongly believe there is strong merit in spirituality and teachings contained in Bhagvad Gita as well as those of our ancestors. The purity of the philosophy and its essence help us in bringing sanity and balance in life," he said.

Sarma claimed his passion for work in containing cancer is well known in Assam. He said cancer treatment facilities including free chemotherapy and Rs 2 lakh financial help for each of the affected, the state-of-the-art hospital with PET CT, banning of chewable tobacco and starting of a grid hospital in the state were his "humble contribution" as the health minister.

The Assam minister today posted another tweet on the issue. "You have to realise difference between sin and karma. Politics can come and go. But what is written in Bhagavad Gita is for me the final truth. "Not arguing with anyone. Only availing a huge opportunity to speak little bit about Hindu philosophy. We accept that even Lord Krishna died because of karmic deficiency. That is our philosophy," he said. Responding to a journalist's tweet that laws of karma should not be used to explain cancer in today's day and age, he tweeted, "Was my speech on cancer? Who told you? I simply asked a new batch of teachers to work sincerely & work for the poor.

"In that context I argue that if we do not work sincerely in next life we might face karmic deficiency & that may lead to sufferings. What is insensitive about this?" He went on to add, "Go through my speech. I never said that sin causes cancer. It was a speech to motivate teachers to serve the poor or otherwise you may face karmic deficiency and suffer in next life. Science cannot promote human value. Religion might.
The furore over Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmavati has reached the United Kingdom with the Rajput groups in London planning protests against the British censor boards all-clear to the controversial film.

The film, whose released has been deferred in India following massive protests, was cleared uncut by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

"'Padmavati' (12A) moderate violence, injury detail," stated the official website of the British censor board. "All known versions of this work passed uncut," it said. The 12A rating means the film cannot be viewed in UK by a child under 12 years unless accompanied by an adult.
A Mumbai metro train travels through a residential area in Mumbai

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Hyderabad Metro Rail project on November 28, according to the Telangana government.

Telangana Chief Secretary S P Singh held a meeting with senior officials on the arrangements for the prime minister's visit to Hyderabad on November 28, an official release issued last night said.

The prime minister would inaugurate the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project on November 28 afternoon and proceed to the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), it said.

US President Donald Trump's daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump would also attend the summit.

Singh instructed that a fool-proof plan should be prepared to transport delegates from HICC to the Falaknuma Palace where the Prime Minister would host a reception, it added.
Shoppers reach out for television sets as they compete to purchase retail items on Black Friday at a store in Sao Paulo, Brazil, November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RC1810FD6BF0

Black Friday, a day typically marked by long queues in front of stores all across the US, will see more people spending on e-commerce sites as compared to last year.

The first Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday in the country is known for rock-bottom discounts. Data from Deloitte suggests that close to 55 percent of respondents plan to shop online for gifts, increasing online shoppings lead over mass merchants, where 44 percent of those polled plan to shop.

Also, people with an income of more than USD 100,000 expect 57 percent of their spending to be online and 39 percent in-store. In addition, the rise in e-commerce spending during holidays is still getting stronger.

However, holiday spending on e-commerce websites is not only restricted to the United States. While this years Thanksgiving sales will most likely bring about another record in US e-commerce history, it wont come close to matching Chinas largest shopping extravaganza.

On November 11 this year, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba reported a whopping USD 25 billion in sales on its Singles Day sale. In contrast, the 2016 number for the Cyber Monday e-commerce sales in the United States amounted to a fraction of these sales, collecting USD 6.85 billion with the Black Friday, Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday sales combined.

The data suggests that there are no signs of stopping the upward e-commerce trend.

In India, last year, close to 4.65 crore individual goods were collectively shipped by Flipkart, Amazon and the erstwhile Snapdeal sale during Diwali 2016. This would form a significant chunk of the Rs 25,000 crore worth of goods sold last year.

This year's holiday season was marked by multiple standoffs on discount sales between Amazon and Flipkart. While reports of a muted spending during Diwali made the rounds, the Diwali, Dhanteras and the Big Billion Sales might see a healthy growth in the number of individual units shipped.

The exclusive sales on various smartphones from coveted brands was said to be a significant driver of sales for the two e-commerce retailers.

With Amazons latest announcement of introducing a war chest of USD 3 billion to tackle Flipkart in India, one can be assured that the aggressive competition between the two e-commerce behemoths will bring about more lucrative deals for shoppers.
Panama Petrochem is in focus on the back of a good set of Q2 numbers. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Hussein Rayani, Joint MD of the company discussed the company's Q2 performance.

We will be achieving our revenue and net profit targets, said Rayani. He further added that order book position is healthy.

Rayani expect Rs 1,200 crore revenues in FY18.

He further said that there was a sudden increase in crude prices in Q2, which could not be passed on. However, margins contracted as we could not pass on higher oil price to customers.

Working capital requirements have increased, which led to higher finance cost, Rayani added.
New Delhi: Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari interacts with PTI journalists in New Delhi on Wednesday. PTI Photo by Atul Yadav (Eds pls see Story under DEL 15,16,17,18) (PTI5_20_2015_000091B)

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today called on Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit and told him that the Centre would shortly sanction Rs one lakh crore to the state government for highways and ports projects.

During his brief interaction, Purohit recalled the demand of the state government to implement the interlinking of rivers Mahanadhi-Godavari-Krishna-Pennar-Palar-Cauvery-Vaigai, a Raj Bhavan release said.

He also requested the Union minister for road transport, highways, water resources and shipping to divert surplus waters in the west-flowing Pamba and Achankovil rivers to Vaippar towards Tamil Nadu and requested an early decision on the matter.

Gadkari informed him that for taking up highways and ports projects in Tamil Nadu, the Union government is going to sanction Rs one lakh crore shortly, the release said.

During the meeting, the Governor also discussed the state government's request for speedy approval of the Avinashi- Athikadavu scheme.

Earlier in the day, Gadkari reviewed various projects concerned to his ministries with Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Transport Minister M R Vijayabhaskar and senior government officials here.

Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan was also present on the occasion, the release added.
Representative Image

K Srinivas

In October 2016, there were just 14,427 white label ATMs across India of which 73 percent were in semi-urban and rural areas.

White Label ATMs or WLAs are ATMs that are owned and operated by non-bank entities where the only requirement of the bank is to provide or supply cash.

At one of New Delhis reputed book sellers in fashionable Khan Market, card (both debit and credit) payments have gained traction over the last year, but cash payments still are a significant portion of all payments.

The story is not any different in Haryanas Hissar town (some 50 kms from Gurgaon), where a sizeable sale of gold and diamond jewellery in a leading showroom is still largely cash based. While it was understood that the common man especially at the lowest rung of the economic ladder transacts mainly in cash, amongst the well healed too, cash continues to remain a favourite.

Indians preference for cash is borne by the fact that currency with public, as per RBI data is Rs 1.53 lakh crore. Post-Demonetisation on November 8, 2016 which made Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes illegal tender and wiped out 86 percent of liquid cash in circulation with the objective of checking corruption, black money and counterfeit currency, cash continues to reign supreme in India, especially in the rural areas.

After dropping by more than 60 percent immediately post demonetization, cash withdrawals from ATMs have moved back to pre-demonetisation levels; September 2017 withdrawals from ATMs is 6 percent higher than September 2016.

Digital transactions have however fallen from a high of Rs 958 million (Rs 95.8 crore) in December 2016 to a low of Rs 861 million (RS 86.1 crore) in July 2017 and then stabilising by rising marginally at Rs 877 million (Rs 87.7 crore) by September 2017.

Though cash is the preferred method of transaction, especially in rural, the incremental ATM deployment has reduced to one fourth of pre-demonetisation levels. This is sharper in rural wherein the deployments have virtually come to a standstill. This is aggravated by the fact that rural India predominantly transacts in cash and has a very low ATM density of 5 ATMs/ lakh population whereas urban markets have 53 ATMs/ lakh population.

Such low ATMs density in rural makes access to money a critical constraint to financial inclusion. While public sector banks operate only about 20 percent of their ATMs in rural areas, the reach of private banks in the hinterland is far poorer with just 8 percent of their ATMs in these areas.

Low ATM density is accentuated by the fact that ATMs in rural India still dispense large denomination notes of Rs 2,000 while the consumer requirement is for smaller denomination notes.

Even as cash still rules a large part of consumer transactions it is not to say that digital is not making inroads into the spending habits of Indians in urban markets with 2017 seeing a slew of payment apps being launched ---BHIM, AadharPay and Googles Tez etc.

Further, debit cards numbering 700 million continue to remain the mainstay of digital consumer transactions and supported by aggressive deployment of POS (point of sale) machines by banks over the last 1 year. Though the POS deployment has doubled in the last 1 year the value of debit card transactions it supports is only 15 percent of ATM transaction value.

One of the initiatives that the RBI took a couple of years ago, was to grant licences to non-bank entities to set up white-label ATMs (WLAs) in the country. The main objective of this was to expand reach of ATMs in semi-urban and rural areas, where banks were not able to put up ATMs.

Hence almost 73 percent of WLAs operate in semi-urban and rural areas. However, since the total number of WLAs itself is significantly smaller than bank-operated ATMs, access to money still remains a challenge.

As of October 2016, there were just 14,427 white label ATMs. Although customers have started transacting in cash, especially in rural areas and the ATM a significant impetus to deployment by WLAs can help fill this void and accelerate the process of financial inclusion by providing easy access to money without making the rural customers hunt for an ATM.
Chris_Wood_CLSA

Chris Wood of CLSA said, "Investors need to ignore the short-term noise and focus on the long-term positives represented by the introduction of GST. In greed & fear's view it is correct to assume that most of the teething problems arising from the implementation of GST will be sorted within 6-12 months."

"If Modi remains well positioned, the rest of his first term in office is likely to be focused on generating jobs ahead of the April-May 2019 general election. There are three areas where Modi hopes to generate job growth in the next 18 months. The first, and by far the most important, is in the ramp up of affordable housing under Modi's "Housing for All by 2022" policy."

"The pick up on the ground in affordable housing may not become really visible until late 2018. But the ramp up is definitely coming which is also why investors should look to buy any pull back in stocks geared to affordable housing. Affordable housing in India remains one of the most straightforward bull stories in Asian equities," he added.
The markets appear to be on a strong footing and most of the negatives which weighed on the sentiment, at least from the domestic front, are receding, Mahesh Patil, Co-CIO, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

The goods & services tax (GST) which was implemented back in July did shake macros to some extent which has now gone through and September quarter earnings were not that disappointing.

Commenting on the earnings, Patil said that after so many quarters we have seen surprises on the earnings front were higher than negatives. Going into the next quarter, things are looking favourable.

The breadth of earnings improvement was seen across sectors and as we move forward, we would see wider participation from sectors in term of earnings growth, he said.

To be specific, earnings growth for telecom sector could bottom out in the next quarter and corporate banks could benefit from the resolutions passed by the government, said Patil.

In the next couple of months, if we see few large resolutions out of the 12 cases referred to NCLT which would help in reducing stress in the sector. Hence, we can conclude that negative trend or the news from the domestic side is receding, said Patil.

The only factor which could pose as a worry is oil which has been rising for the past few months. If Crude oil does reach a level of $70-75/bb/, could pose a worry for India.

Market rallied despite higher valuations suggest that the liquidity argument remains strong. Investors need to be cautious but there is no need to worry about at least from the domestic side, explains Patil.

One big event which is lined up for December is the outcome of state elections, but investors have nothing to worry about. As long as liquidity is positive, apart from minor blip, markets would start to look forward, said Patil.
DAVID DANIEL COOVER II, age 56, passed away unexpectedly Friday, November 17, 2017 at Dublin Methodist Hospital. He was born on April 24, 1961 to David B and Sandra K Coover in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. David was a 1979 graduate of Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School and a 1983 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point; he majored in Economics and a member of Company B1. Upon graduation, he was commissioned 2nd Lt, branch- Armor, and was assigned to 1/73 Arm at the National Training Center (NTC) where he served as tank and mortar platoon leader and Assistant Operations Officer while rising to the rank of Captain. Class Slogan- Proud to Be 83 (PTB83) David fulfilled his commission, resigned in 1988 and began a successful career in Sales, Engineering, Business Development, Pumps, Electronics and Management. David currently worked as Director of Industrial Sales, Goulds Water Technology, Standard Exchange, AC brands at Xylem Inc. As Director, he was responsible for global industrial sales for pumps, valves and membranes in the Flow Control Division. Xylem is a water processing company spun off from ITT Inc. in 2011. His job required extensive travel all over the world, including China, Korea, Egypt, all of Europe and South America. On one of his trips, he was able to visit Normandy, France, a locale that held great meaning for him. David was a loving son, brother, husband and father with a heart of gold and a kind, gentle spirit. He loved his family beyond words and was very involved with his girls. David will always be remembered for his carefree spirit and love of life. He is loved and missed by all who knew him and has forever left an imprint on the hearts of those in Proud to Be. In addition to his parents, David is also survived by his wife of 20 years, Juliet M. (Sorg) Coover; Daughters; Brandi Coover, Carissa Coover, Miranda Coover; Sisters, Crystal (Eric) Strous, Pamela (Jim) Murdoch; Mother in Law Sally Sorg; Several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Alexis, Lexi in May, 2004. Visitation will be held from 5-8 PM, Monday, November 27, 2017 at Ferguson Funeral Home, 202 E. Main St, (St. Rt. 161 W.) Plain City, Ohio. A graveside service will be held at 3 PM, Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at Jerome Cemetery, where David will be laid to rest beside Lexi with full military honors. A Celebration of Life will be held at 1 PM on January 13, 2018 at The First United Methodist Church in Mechanicsburg, PA with a social and refreshments following at the Mechanicsburg Club. All friends and family are welcome. Memorial contributions can be made at any Richwood Bank to The Coover Family Memorial Fund established for his daughters education and to provide for their future health and well-being. Visit fergusonfuneralhomeinc.com to share a special memory.
Pointing to a likely end to the correction cycle seen in the recent past, benchmark indices ended the week on a positive note, driven largely by support from Infosys, Reliance and heavyweights such as ITC and HDFC.

Midcaps too had a very good day of trade after the index hit a fresh record high mark. Stocks such a Sintex, PC Jewellers, Crompton Consumer, Swaraj Engines, among others, were in focus.

The Sensex closed higher by 91.16 points at 33679.24, while the Nifty was up 40.90 points at 10389.70. The market breadth was positive as 1506 shares advanced against a decline of 1227 shares, while 154 shares were unchanged.

Infosys, Bajaj Auto, GAIL and Aurobindo Pharma were the top gainers, while BHEL, SBI, Hindalco and Vedanta were the top losers.

On a weekly basis, the indices ended 1 percent higher. Nifty Bank and Midcap gained by 0.2 and 1.2 percent, respectively.

DIIs continue to pump in money; the global cues are positive as well. The volatility levels remain at historic lows, but the inherent liquidity might drive markets higher in the interim. We hold a neutral outlook at this juncture and would not recommend entering new positions at this juncture," Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder and Head of Trading, Zerodha said in a statement.

Among commodities, gold prices softened by Rs 25 to Rs 30,525 per ten gram at the bullion market today, tracking a weak trend overseas amid tepid demand from jewellers at the domestic spot market.

Silver, however, remained steady at Rs 40,500 per kg in scattered deals from industrial units and coin makers.

Traders said apart from a weak trend overseas, fall in demand from jewellers and retailers at existing levels weighed on gold prices.

On the stock-specific front, Infosys continued its rally from Thursday, and ended about 1.5 percent lower.

Reliance clocked fresh 52-week high after it completed sale of its interest in one of the three shale gas assets in the US to BKV Chelsea for USD 126 million. Reliance Marcellus II, LLC, a subsidiary of Reliance Holding USA and RIL, closed the sale of its stake in the Marcellus shale gas asset operated by Carrizo Oil and Gas, the company said in a statement.

Shares of Swaraj Engines closed 5 percent higher on the back of buyback proposal. A meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on November 28, 2017 to consider the proposal to buyback the fully paid-up equity shares of the company.

Bata India closed 1 percent lower as investors turned cautious after Motilal Oswal downgraded the stock. The broking firm downgraded the stock to sell, with a target of Rs 578, a downside of 23 percent.

Bajaj Auto was higher by 1 percent. Brokerage house Motilal Oswal is upbeat about the stock and placed a target of Rs 4,197.

Analysts believe the upcoming F&O expiry, along with Gujarat polls could be on investors radar.

The underlying sentiments continue to remain positive. However, with indices trading near record highs and series of key events like GDP data, RBI monetary policy and state elections in Gujarat, lined up over the next 1-2 weeks, investors and traders should be cautious. While the start to the next week could be on a strong footing, indices could witness resistance at higher levels. Traders should keep their leveraged positions hedged, while investors should focus only on quality stocks, Jayant Manglik, President Retail Sales, Religare Securities said in a statement.
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The Indian market has always managed to climb the wall of worries every single time in the year 2017 and hit record highs. Three factors are driving rally on D-Street i.e. Modi-Moodys- Money, despite rich valuations.

Among the EM space, India market is called the most expensive market but at the same time if we look at the setup on the charts you want to believe that there is more upside because the index is creating support at every small correction, Gautam Shah of JM Financial told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

I think 3Ms are responsible for markets to be at this level which is Modi-Moodys-Money are going to be responsible for markets to touch greater highs maybe towards levels closer to 11,000 on the Nifty50, he said.

Indian market seems to be consolidating in a narrow range throughout this week but the good part is that it is making greater highs every single day which is a good sign for investors.

Moodys big upgrade last week gave a big push to sentiments and domestic liquidity is still strong. Most analysts are not factoring negative surprise from the outcome of state election results in December which should fuel further rally on D-Street.

It looks everything is going right for the bulls, but are there any sectors which could churn out multibaggers in the next 1-2 years? Well, analysts advise investors to focus on themes which are related to the economy, financial and global commodities.

There are plenty of leadership in the market. Oil & gas stocks have taken leadership, along with capital goods, technology, and metals. Infrastructure, realty, and textiles are some sectors which could emerge as a dark horse and I see many of these sectors doubling in value and many stocks under the theme could turn into a multibagger, said Shah.

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Modi government is making sure that there are no lose ends. Right from Bharatmala Project to PSU bank recapitalization and the recent amendment to bankruptcy code -- everything is aimed to fuel growth and push earnings for India Inc.

The Bharatmala project cleared by the Cabinet is seen as a major infrastructure push by the government. The project aims to bring 80 percent of the road freight to national highways and make road transportation more efficient.

We are positive on few themes like infrastructure, logistics (As it gets infra status) space, water treatment space, Financialisation & financial inclusion, Hemang Jani, Head - Advisory, Sharekhan told Moneycontrol.

We are particularly positive on infrastructure theme, which is likely to get a boost on account of government spending and also because of the low-interest regime. Companies would be able to refinance debt at lower rates, translating into high profits, he said.

The Bharatmala project cleared by the Cabinet could benefit companies like Sadbhav Engineering, Gayatri project; IRB Infra etc stand to benefit the most, he said.

Jani further added that logistics companies will benefit on account of infra status, strong growth in e-commerce and implementation of GST likely to aid in the growth of logistics companies like GDL, Snowman Logistics etc.

Global Investment Bank: UBS, CLSA

UBS remains Overweight (OW) on auto parts and two-wheelers (2Ws) such as Eicher Motors. It is also positive on retail private banks, SOE banks and NBFCs (ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and LIC Housing Finance preferred picks).

In the consumer staples UBS prefers Marico, and in the IT services, TCS is preferred bet. In the property or real estate sector, UBS prefer Prestige Estates Projects, and in the telecom space, the global investment bank prefers Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel.

UBS added oil & gas to their OW sectors and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) to their Most Preferred list. The global investment bank is Underweight (UW) on Small and Midcaps (SMID), but prefer bottom-up ideas, including Dr. Lal Pathlabs, Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) and Voltas.

CLSA in a strategy note said that worst is over for corporate earnings. The research house said investors like government's pro-growth stance in public sector banks recapitalisation plan of Rs 2.11 lakh crore and are positive on mild fiscal relaxation through tax cuts.

CLSA said benefits of GST are moderately visible through early signs but improvements in capital expenditure activity are not expected just as yet.

The research house further said that the preferred stories are ICICI Bank Bharti Airtel and Jubilant FoodWorks
In a landmark move, the President of India gave his assent to the Bankruptcy Ordinance, which has virtually closed the door on errant promoters wanting to regain control over their defaulting companies. While the signalling is strong and welcome and would force promoters of stressed companies to hasten the resolution process, the move has unintended consequences as well. For bidders with requisite financial muscle, it might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Heres a look at who could gain from this exercise.

The Ordinance

But first, a look at the Ordinance. Its broad objective is to prevent unscrupulous, undesirable persons from participating in the resolution process - in lay mans terms to prevent back door entry of promoters who have defaulted. It also puts the onus on the Committee of Creditors (who are mostly going to be bankers) to ensure the viability and feasibility of the resolution plan before approving it.



Wilful defaulters



Undischarged insolvents



Promoters or sister concerns of companies with non-performing assets of more than one year



Persons convicted of an offence with over two-year imprisonment



Individuals disqualified as directors under Companies Act



Person banned by SEBI from Securities market



Persons banned under IBC for fraudulent activities



Person who executed enforceable guarantee in favour of a creditor in respect of insolvent entity



In a nutshell, the following categories would be out of the bidding process for stressed assets:

The Good

The tweak in the Ordinance at a first glance looks like a great move on the transparency front as domestic and global investors have time and again expressed concerns over meddling promoters in the resolution process.

In the long-run, it will force promoters whose companies are about to default to press for an early resolution to prevent the company from being taken to insolvency by the banker. Promoters are likely to pull out all stops early in the restructuring exercise and unlikely to put the onus solely on the bankers, as the evergreening exercise by banks seldom prevents an ultimate default.

The promoter might themselves take the initiative to refer the company to the NCLT in order to meet the one-year deadline to avoid being barred from bidding for their assets. An early restructuring is in the interest of the system: usually by the time a company goes into insolvency it loses most of its value. An early resolution will minimise the loss, as the haircut on an asset which is still not defunct is likely to be a lot less.

The Ordinance will therefore have a bearing on all future defaults including the cases identified by RBI for the second round of NCLT.

However, the harsher provisions of the Ordinance have a few grey areas and unintended consequences.

The grey

The RBI might classify an account as stressed even before it has actually become NPL in which case the promoter will have to bring in funds earlier to prevent being called a defaulter for over one year.

Banks often engage in a one-time settlement with borrowers and this has similar characteristics of the promoters getting back control of their assets at a discount.

 & the ugly

As is evident, the Ordinance clearly bars promoters of the first list of twelve cases before NCLT from participating in the bidding process. With the revival of the steel cycle, there is palpable investor interest in steel assets that dominates this list and a couple of other companies (like the auto ancillary company) may also see investor interest.

However, beyond this list, there will be many more assets which might not draw an equal amount of interest from competitors/financial investors. If the promoter is out of the fray, these assets are likely to fetch distressed valuations leading to a higher hair cut for the banks.

We also got to remember that not all defaulters are wilful in the sense that stress in many companies may be linked to external/macro factors and a promoter losing business to competitor/financial investor might go against the spirit of enterpreneurship.

As the resolution of Indias great NPA saga moves into high gear, many companies may not find buyers leading to liquidation thereby impacting jobs. Finally, financial investors may not always have a necessary bandwidth to run the show and effect a turnaround in the absence of the promoters.

Now the winners

However, as the system ponders over the nuances of the Ordinance, it clearly gives an edge to the solvent bidders. Global giants like Arcelor Mittal to home-grown competitors like JSW Steel, Tata Steel and Vedanta will definitely have reasons to welcome the changes. We have a positive long-term view on these potential acquirers.

There is a long list of private equity investors/pension funds and more are likely to queue up in a bid to make money from Indias junk.

In our opinion, yesterdays tweak of the ordinance is unlikely to be positive for Indian banking sector as a whole. Beyond some of the lucrative assets, the overall haircut to the system in the absence of the promoters is likely to be higher although it is difficult to quantify the same at this stage. However, a bank like Kotak that has recently raised capital (to the tune of Rs 5,803 crore) specifically with an eye on buying stressed assets will be in a vantage position. The banks chief expects disproportionate returns from this once in a lifetime opportunity. We have a positive view on Kotak Bank as well.

Other players who are likely to be in the thick of action are the likes of
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat today made a strong pitch for building the Ram Temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, saying only the mandir would come up there and not any other structure. Addressing the "Dharma Sansad", a congregation of 2,000 Hindu saints, mutt heads and VHP leaders from across the country at this small temple town here, he said there should be no ambiguity that Ram Temple will be built at Ayodhya.

"We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of our faith. It will not change," Bhagwat said. The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh(RSS) chief said that after years of efforts and sacrifice, it (building the Ram temple) seemed possible now, while also noting that the matter was in the court.

"Ram Mandir only will be constructed and nothing else. It will be constructed there only" (what is believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram), Bhagwat said. He said the temple would be constructed in the same grandeur as it existed before, using the "same stones" under the guidance of those who were the flag-bearers of the Ram janmabhoomi movement for the last 25 years.

But prior to it (building the temple), public awareness was essential, he said. "We are close to achieving our goal but at this juncture, we should be extra cautious," he said.

Construction of the Ram temple, prevention of religious conversions and cow protection are among the key issues to be discussed at VHP's three-day 'Dharma Sansad'. The meet will also discuss issues of discrimination on the basis of caste and gender and explore ways to ensure harmony within Hindu society, the organisers said. The RSS chief also said the seers and Hindus gathered in huge numbers at the meet need to ponder over the conducive atmosphere prevailing in the country and elsewhere.

He cautioned the people against the forces which divide the society and asked them to remain alert. The RSS supremo also spoke about religious conversion and the need to reach out to those who are prone to it.

"The strength of the society lies in its unity. When it is destroyed, anti-national forces gain foothold. We need to understand the consequences of religious conversion. We need to reach out to those who are prone to conversion," Bhagwat said. He reminded the meet about the duty of seers and members of upper caste towards Dalits and other backward communities.

"The need for equality is still elusive in our deeds and practises though we all understand its significance." "We should rise above the barriers of caste, creed and religion in our speech and action while treating people and embrace everybody wholeheartedly. There should not be any discrimination on the issues of sharing water, religious places and cremation grounds," said Bhagwat.

On cow-vigilantism, Bhagwat said people know what happens to the cows when they are sold to butchers. He said 'cow protectors' surface due to the callousness of society.

"Society is careless about the status of cows. Those who have concern for the cows stand up to protect the cattle. This leads to conflict in the society resulting in bad name to the 'cow protectors'," said Bhagwat. Vishvesha Teertha Swamiji of Pejavar Math of Udupi, who chairs the reception committee, said the Ram Temple would be built in a year, well before 2019.

The octogenarian seer with a huge following in Karnataka and elsewhere, demanded that the government amend the Constitution to do away with special provisions for minorities in order for equality in the society. Addressing the meet earlier, VHP leader Pravin Togadia set the tone for the issues to be discussed in the Dharma Sansad in the next three days.

He reiterated VHP's affirmation to build the Ram Temple and a ban on cow slaughter. Togadia also demanded that the government should not regulate Hindu temples. "If the Indian Constitution is secular, why are governments regulating Hindu temples? Are there any instances of government controlling any mosque or church? If not, then why is this discrimination only with Hindu temples.

"Let Hindus manage their temples," he said. Located in the coastal area, Udupi is famous for the Krishna temple with the idol believed to have been discovered by 13th century Vaishnavite saint Madhwacharya, who founded the Dwaitha school of philosophy. While ochre colour festoons and flags dotted every part of Udupi and neighbouring towns such as Manipal, the attire of the participants and the marquee has filled in the atmosphere with Hindutva flavour.

Elaborate security has been made for the Dharma Sansad. The Udupi event is significant as the first formal announcement for Ram Temple at Rama Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya was made here in 1985 and a year later, the doors of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya were open to the public for darshan.
Founder - Matrimony.com Pvt Ltd

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By Durba Ghosh

The only extravagant thing your roving eyes can catch from the 10th floor office of Murugavel Janakiraman, founder CEO of Matrimony.com is a mesmerizing view of Bay of Bengal.

Despite a stellar IPO on the Bombay Stock Exchange this year, success sits lightly on this 43-year old founder. Janakiraman became an entrepreneur accidentally after he got laid off from his job during the 'Y2K' crisis in the year 2000.

And the boy from the small fishing harbour of Royapuram, in Tamil Nadu, has weathered quite a storm, literally.

From braving a lack of electricity and extreme poverty to building a multi-million dollar company that listed this September on BSE, Janakiraman makes about 200,000 people tie the knot each year.

Matrimony Pvt Ltd runs the largest matchmaking service in India, which has 65 percent of its population under 35 years of age.

Janakiraman who also found his life partner on his own website, recounts the successes and failures of his journey in a free-wheeling chat with Moneycontrol.

Father worked as a coolie on the docks

Hailing from Royapuram, a town which boasts of the oldest surviving railway station (built in 1856) in Indian subcontinent, Janakiraman had little exposure to academics.

His father offloaded stocks at the towns harbour for a living.

My father studied till 5th standard, my mother till 1st. Education was not a priority in our village because we had to earn to live, says Janakiraman.

In fact, he went on to become the first person ever in his family to complete graduation, or even high school for that matter.

His motivation to study further, at best, was to secure a comfortable job as a lab technician, he reveals to me.

But as luck would have it, Janakiraman scored well in mathematics. This led him towards statistics and then on to computer programming.

Soon, he was in the US in 1996, working as a consultant. A strong programming skill spurred him to constantly build new things in cyberspace in his spare time.

Got laid off from job in Y2K crisis

I had a good life in the US. But I as a person am never satisfied. I got to keep doing things, creating things, he says.

It was this period of constant engagement with technology that motivated Janakiraman to do something of his own.

But money or fame wasnt Janakiramans motivating factor. I wanted to create my identity. I wanted to do something worthwhile, he says.

He chose to float a casual information website for the Tamil community in 1997 giving information on regional calendar, festival dates, property listings, and also matrimony.

While the website was being used by several users at a given time, matrimony was the only section that attracted constant traffic.

We also came to know of several people who got married through the website.

The interface was very basic and linear. It was just a 2-page portal  one for brides and the other for grooms. It was more like newspaper matrimony listings, he adds.

But it was not until 2000, during the Y2K scare, when Janakiraman was laid off from his job in the US that he was forced to launch a full-fledged website for match-making for Tamil community.

Moved from the US to India to make people marry

One has to always remember that success is a result of several known and unknown factors. One can just play their role as best as they can. We need to have that maturity, humility to enjoy it, says Janakiraman.

He moved back permanently to India to concentrate on the venture.

In 2000, he went on to launch segmented platforms for each community or class.

The dotcom bubble burst actually helped us grow. Most of the Internet companies shut down. We were able to tie up with big Indian players, such as Rediff and Sify. We kept the service paid right from the beginning, Janakiraman says.

Matchmaking was one of the key drivers of internet in India in its early days which saw competitors such as Shaadi.come emerge.

Most players would give the services for free, and monetise it through advertisements. We on the other hand were able to monetise it with a limited marketing budget, he adds.

The crucial factor for the companys success, Janakiraman says, was their frugal nature of doing business.

When we started there was hardly any external funding to depend on, unlike todays time. We didnt have any choice but to be bootstrapped. When we started the venture, we invested just US dollar 10 per month as an investment (in marketing), he says.

To put things in perspective, Matrimony has raised just about Rs 99 crore in two rounds over the last 17 years from investors such as Yahoo, Mayfield and Canaan Partners.

Only in 2017, in a pre-IPO placement it raised USD 35 million (Rs 2275 crore) from investors such as HDFC, Goldman Sachs and Baring Private Equity.

Today it has a consortium of over 300 community matrimony websites including ChristianMatrimony, MuslimMatrimony, SikhMatrimony, JainMatrimony and so on.

The company has also added several new business streams over the years that include MatrimonyPhotography, MatrimonyBazaar and MatrimonyMandaps.

Surviving the 2008 financial crisis

The journey has not been smooth. There was a time when the company came on a financial brink.

The company had spread itself thin at a time when Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, which sparked a global financial meltdown.

This is how it happened. After tasting success with its community matrimony websites, the company diversified into several ancillary services such as automotive, jobs, and loans among others. It planned to give competition to leaders in their domains such as BankBazaar, 99Acres and Naukri.com.

In 2008, the company was burning cash to the tune of Rs 2 crore every month.

In fact, the company used ull of its external funding on these ancillary services.

In 2006 period we reached a certain leadership position in matchmaking segment. We wanted to go after other verticals. Then we realised that launching a portal is the easiest thing. But for success you need so much more, says Janakiraman.

He enumerates his learnings from the failure for future entrepreneurs who wish to diversify their portfolio in internet space.

There has to be a dedicated senior management overseeing it. It needs capital and focus. That was a mistake. We also had to let go off people. I had to learn skills beyond being an entrepreneur. I had to function like a CEO, he recounts.

Courtesy: Forbes India

Janakiraman had to steer the company to safety by consolidating and shutting down some of these ancillary services.

The challenge of rebuilding the company was actually a boon, says Janakiraman.

It led to innovation in our core business. We created multiple streams under our core business of matchmaking. These include - photography, assisted services, etc, he added.

Post the failure to diversify, it took six months for Janakiraman to steer the company back to profitability. He shut down all the segments that were dragging down the companys core business of Shaadi.

One of the few internet firms to go for an IPO

Matrimony.com, the parent company of Bharat Matrimony, is among very few consumer-facing technology startups to go public in India, which has over 400 million internet users.

The companys Initial Public Offering in September was oversubscribed by 4.41 times.

Matrimony.com claims to enjoy a 60% market share in the segment ahead of major competitors Shaadi.com, JeevanSaathi.com and others.

The company's last extended fundraise was in 2008 when it was valued at USD 80 million. The IPO worth Rs 500 crore this year took the companys valuation to nearly USD 350 million.

As of Fridays close the company was valued at nearly USD 300 million (Rs 1,943 crore)

Concept of Arranged Marriage has changed in India

My goal now is to build a billion-dollar company. I dont know when we will reach there, but we will, he says.

But will the future matches be decided by bots? Perhaps so.

Matrimony.com adopted artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in around 2015, when the terms were hardly commonplace.

The companys platform boasts of an intelligent matchmaking algorithm that sifts through millions of user profiles and sends recommendations to users for their future life partners.

Matrimony.com has seen immense success in the children of the 70s and 80s obsessed with marriage. But how about a generation that has grown on Tinder and Instagram?

How will it play in an emerging society that is high on dating and doesnt want to settle down in a marriage?

Janakiraman would have us believe that there is a misconception about arranged marriage.

Arranged marriage concept is misunderstood. Its a collaborative affair. The arranged marriage concept that we know today was a thing of past. Today no one can shove down a decision down your throat in India, he adds.

According to Janakiraman, over 60 percent of the postings on Matrimony are by prospective brides and grooms themselves.

The rest is posted by family (parents or relatives).

The website gets a lot of traction from tier 2 and 3 towns, accounting for nearly 35 percent of total traffic.

The company added over 870,000 profiles in the Q2 of 2017 and has already made 52,000 successful matches in the first half of the current financial year.

Janakiraman, however, is wary of dating websites.

It just doesnt work. We had also dabbled in it for some time. But scaling up the dating market and monetising it is a challenge. Theres no defined outcome to the dating business. It doesnt work for India, he says.

According to Janakiraman, there is a huge market to capture in marriages. There are over 60 million potential users of matrimony websites (people of marriageable age). But only 6 million are online across all platforms available today.

Marriages are recession proof

Marriage is a business that will see growth no matter theres recession or anything else. About 90 percent of marriages happen within ones own community in India. So I think we are well placed, he adds.

Now flushed with funds after the IPO, Janakiraman is looking at capturing the rest of the market.

Of the Rs 130 crore raised, the company has used up Rs 40 crore for buying land for an exclusive Matrimony.com tower. Another Rs 40 crore was used to clear outstanding debt.

With Rs 20 crore more in marketing, the company is hoping to expand its market wider, making people aware of the variety of life partners one can find in the online world unimaginable in the offline world.

But splurging is not even an option that Janakiraman puts on the table.

We will continue to be frugal with our expenses. Its our DNA, he says, overlooking the vast expanse of the Bay of Bengal from his window.
Maj. Sunil Shetty, SM (retd), Founder & CEO AskMentor

Hyderabad "the entrepreneurship capital of India," is all set to receive Ivanka Trump and hundreds of "emerging entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders from around the world," for the eighth edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017 (GES 2017), this month.

"The eminent annual gathering" is expected to set the social media on fire with selfies and #hastags such as #GES2017 #IvankaTrump #WomenFirst as entrepreneurs & startup enablers mingle, network, learn and educate each other during the three-day event.

According to the organisers of the summit, GES 2017 will "create an environment that empowers innovators, particularly women, to take their ideas to the next level."

This year summit in a real sense is celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship; especially among women who despite multiple challenges are contributing towards the global growth and prosperity.

The challenges faced by entrepreneurs, in general, is well known and documented; however, the struggle of women entrepreneurs that are either ignored or so discreet that it escapes scrutiny and debate.

Here I present experiences of two women entrepreneurs to highlight the barriers, bias, and discrimination faced by them in their entrepreneurial journey and how to navigate around it.

#Story 1- A women entrepreneur from Kabul: For many surviving in Afghanistan can be a challenge let alone doing business.

On top of it, if you are a women entrepreneur, like Afsana Rahimi, then words cannot describe the odds stacked against you.

Afsana runs a media management and production company and is the Chairperson of Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Before venturing into the world of entrepreneurship, she gained critical business knowledge while working as the marketing manager at the Killid group, a Kabul based media company.

She played a crucial role in the expansion of the Killid Kabul FM radio from one station to ten stations across Afghanistan.

Though she had to wait till 2012 to start her venture, however, the entrepreneurial streak was visible very early on.

"I remember I was four years old and in 1st grade when I did my first business deal," says Rahimi.

She further explains, "my father's friend owned a dry fruit store," and he needed paper for packing.

"He asked me if I wanted to exchange used notebooks for dry fruit. Next day I gathered all used books I could find and exchanged it for dry fruits."

According to Afsana, despite her grilling schedule; she tries to strike a balance between being an entrepreneur and a mother of three young boys.

# Story2 - A women entrepreneur from Jammu & Kashmir:

India as a civilization has worshiped womanhood in various forms- be it as a warrior or a symbol of wealth, education and or companion to name a few.

Though Indian customs put women at the forefront of its cultural ethos however as a society, it has confined women within rigid boundaries.

Even in today's age, it takes a strong will to challenge some of the traditional biases, according to Damini Mahajan, a first-generation entrepreneur who hails from the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir.

Damini cofounded WeMakeScholars, a platform that helps students find suitable programs, scholarship, and loans from across the global.

She comes from a traditional family where girls are not expected to earn a professional degree let alone start a company.

She not only challenged this stereotype by doing an engineering degree she went on to complete masters from the UK and upon return to India she relocated to Hyderabad to start a company.

Mahajan along with a college mate launched a beta version of their startup idea on Facebook, and in short time it attracted over one lakh users.

Enthused by the initial response a portal, supported by AI, the company was launched in 2015.

This two years old startup now has 30 lakhs active user from over 200 countries. It also received funding and grant from the government of India under the start-up program.

The two women entrepreneurs share lessons on how to remain motivated and focused while marching toward your goal.

1.Passion is the fuel for success: In the past 15 years, I have interacted with numerous women entrepreneurs, especially those working in conflict zones of Afghanistan, Iraq and South Sudan, I found one common trait that connects them all; the intense hunger to succeed against all the odds.

Though geographies and culture separate Afsana and Damini, their fierce passion binds them together.

The May 2017 suicide attack in Kabul left 400 people dead and hundreds injured.

In the massive explosion, Rahimi's media studio was destroyed.

She and her staff escaped the blast by 20 minutes difference. "I told myself, God gave me a second life. I must make the most of it. If I don't, my inside power would be in question - I told myself you need to start from zero," says Afsana.

And with that unbreakable will, she started the rebuilding her business the very next day after the blast.

2. Winning family support is critical:"When your family is not holding you back, it is a big support," says Rahimi.

She further adds, "even if you are capable or have money but if the family does not support you, it is of no use you cannot do work peacefully."

According to Mahajan, her biggest challenge was convening her family to let her relocate to Hyderabad to start her venture.

Her persistence and rebel streak helped her win her family support.

3. Don't let them cross the line: Irrespective of the geography, culture and region women entrepreneurs seem to be on the top of the pack when it comes to stereotyping.

According to Damini, investors tend to prefer male founders over female founders, and a few "also want to know your marriage plans" before they take a call on funding women-led start-ups.

Such discriminating mindset is not uncommon.

Thus, when it happens, it is essential to give a firm response so that people don't cross the line between professional and personal life, says Mahajan.

4. Grab opportunities with both hands:"I thought even if I work for another ten years- I would still be an employee. I wanted to be my boss," says Afsana.

After working and building Radio Killid for over eight years, Rahimi decided to venture out.

When she submitted her resignation, her employer offered her sweat equity in Shayar media services.

"I grabbed the opportunity without blinking as it was a win-win situation for both. I was getting be my boss, and the group was retaining talent," says Afsana.

5. Connect with mentor and expand your network: According to Rahimi "networking is very important and not just with women but across the ecosystem."

However, networking is one big grey area where most women including working women feel left out.

Local startup ecosystem and enablers could play a key role in creating a conducive networking environment for women.

Damini has three mentors who bring different skill sets, and she relies on them for guidance.

"There are times when you have to take a call or make choices at such time a mentor can bring valuable insight."

The challenge of being an entrepreneur in conflict zones is lack of resources such as mentors and enablers. Thus, Rahimi joined an "e-mentoring program in the US' and she continues to learn by networking with global entrepreneurs.

Women entrepreneurs, across geographies and cultures, face similar challenges however, it is their will to succeed and rebel streak that continues to fuel their passion.
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Bata

Brokerage: Motilal Oswal | Rating: Downgrade to Sell | Target: Rs 578

The brokerage said that premiumisation will support margin expansion. However, same-store-sales growth muted. Further, it expects revenue CAGR Of 9% & net profit CAGR Of 19% over FY17-19.

Bajaj Auto

Brokerage: Motilal Oswal | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 4,197

The brokerage said that volume growth coupled with improving mix to drive margin expansion. Further, it said that regulatory changes were driving medium term visibility. Stability in markets like Nigeria, ramp up in new markets are driving revival in exports.

Financials

Brokerage: CLSA

CLSA observed that it sees credit growth improving, reflecting combination of business normalization. It also expects the low base to continue for 1-2 months & start normalising thereafter. It also said that banks could benefit from an improvement in demand for working capital. The brokerage also expects credit growth of 10% yoy & banks with stronger deposit franchises could benefit. Its top picks are ICICI Bank & IndusInd Bank & SBI among the PSUs.

Internet

Brokerage: CLSA

CLSA observed that e-tailing, online travel have still not reached potential & there is scope to expand. Online classifieds are impacted by weak macro environment, regulatory changes. It also said that logistics could get a boost from e-commerce expansion & outsourcing.

India Strategy

Brokerage: CLSA

CLSA said that infra improvement, financial services penetration is visible. Further, it said that there are positive sentiments on Modi but youngsters want more from him. It sees rising credit penetration in auto sales.
The Ramkrishna Forgings stock has been on a tear of late with a 40 percent gain in the last 3 months. The company also posted a very good set of earnings in the second quarter as strong volume growth drove revenues.

To know what is keeping the stock so active and the outlook going forward, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Naresh Jalan, MD, Ramkrishna Forgings.

When asked if increase in raw material prices would impact their margins in second half, he said any increase in prices would be passed on, so does not impact them but the only thing that impacts the balance sheet is the time taken by OEMs to decide on price hikes.

For the first half FY18 the revenues were up 58 percent at Rs 590 crore and margins were up at 19.6 percent versus 18.9 percent.

The extraordinary jump seen in the revenues was because the compnay managed to increase their market share and content per vehicle on back of capacity expansions.

The company is into manufacturing of forging and pressing parts and majority of their revenues come from commercial vehicle segment, while 15 percent of domestic revenues come from Earth-moving and railways equipment. Exports to US, UK constitute of 27 percent of the revenues. The total capacity stands at 1.5 lakh tonne.

Jalan said the company has large exposure to Class 8 and Class 5 trucks in US market and their total exposure to exports currently is 30 percent and domestic is 70 percent but by FY18, it will be 35 percent exports and 65 percent domestic.

Moreover, realisations in the export market are higher by 100-150 basis points, he added. Both the US and UK market source largely from India.

For the forging industry the hike in exports have increased by around 30 percent to the US market, said Jalan, adding that this momentum is likely to continue in 2018 as well.

In terms of tonnage, the company has already guided for 1.10 to 1.15 lakh tonnes in FY18 as compared to 80 tonnes done in FY17, which is a jump of 30 percent, he said. Total utilisation capacity stands at 1.50 lakh tonnes.

Therefore, utilisation in FY18 would be around 70 percent, he said. As utilisiation improves, there will be improvement in both bottomline and topline as overhead costs come down. By FY19 the utilisation would be closer to 100 percent, said Jalan.

When asked if they were looking at inorganic growth in terms of the stressed asset sales, he said the QIP done by company a few months back was with an intention of inorganic growth and they are cash ready to grab any such opportunity for a right price. The first place to look at would the NCLT cases, he said.
Prasanth Prabhakaran, Sr President & CEO, YES Securities told CNBC-TV18, "We have actually moved away from the headline indices. We have been telling our clients to not look at it because valuations look too expensive on that side. However, research has initiated coverage in the defence sector. Two stocks that have been picked and are hold for long term for us  one is Bharat Electronics (BEL) which is there and the second one is Cochin Shipyard, both stories link to the fact that there will be a focus and an investment that will go into building the Make in India theme for the defence sector."

"There are still regulations to be loosened out to make that fully possible but we are willing to take that bet and go ahead with it. BEL has a Rs 40000 crore book and the book to bill is around 4.5x. I think it is a good story to have in the long run. We expect a 17 percent CAGR growth in the stock for the next two years."

"Similarly Cochin Shipyard  an Rs 8000 crore book that has got executed and Rs 5000 crore book that has already been picked up for the next two years. It will practically do 70 percent of what they have done till now as a firm for the last four years plus. Both are good stocks to have in the long term portfolio and we are very bullish on the defence sector side because the valuations still look reasonable in that side," he added.
China has introduced a new list of controls that impose strict limits on how much money can leave the country and this is expected to impact the metals sector. Globally as well there could be less steel coming out. Does all this auger well for the Indian steel manufacturers is the big question.

RK Goyal, MD, Kalyani Steels and Rakesh Arora, Managing Partner, Go India Advisors discuss the demand and price outlook for the steel industry in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

Arora said India is a very small proportion of global steel market but globally steel market looks decently poised. The production cuts are yet to happen and the inventories are low, which will support steel market some more months going into next year.

Talking about the outlook of steel prices, he said the demand during winters is also low, so it is not that only production cuts are happening. Therefore, prices demand on how much inventory built up is there for next year, if inventory is low then there could be spike in steel prices but otherwise the prices are already high.

Goyal said although the steel prices globally are high, they are largely cost driven  all input costs too have spiked up. So margins of steel companies havent necessarily increased. China is still producing 50 percent of global production, said Goyal.

Talking about the resolution of insolvency cases and the fact that the current promoters of stressed assets cannot buy back their own companies, Goyal said this could bring in consolidation in the industry and by having different management, it is likely that the stressed companies could perform better. The assets could become much more productive, he added.

Meanwhile, Arora says Indian demand and supply does not really move the need in terms of global steel prices, its China which determines the prices.

With regards to sale of stressed steel assets, he said it is not likely that Tata Steel and JSW Steel would be able buy some of the priced assets because there is enough competition for these large assets and one would see a good bidding for them. Don't expect the assets to be sold cheap, he said.

Talking specifically about the demand scenario, Goyal said demand for steel from auto industry is very robust but they are negotiating with prices. Meanwhile, from sectors like capital goods, infra, power etc there is not much demand, he said.

Therefore, for speciality steel industry demand is not an issue, said Goyal but is confident of increase in steel prices in next few days. Prices could trend around Rs 6000 per tonne, which could help mitigate input cost increases, said Goyal.

When asked if he would look at buying steel stocks now, Arora said going into 2018 the risk factors are loaded heavily on negative side. So although things look good for the next 2-3 months, the scenario for next year is not that bullish and given where the valuations of the steel companies are trading at, one needs to be cautious.

With regards to aluminium as well, Arora is not bullish.
Any other Republican president but Donald Trump might expect to get at least some credit for the mostly positive direction in which the country is headed. Unfortunately, the Trump-haters prefer to focus on his, shall I say, unusual personality, rather than results. So lets put personality aside and consider what has happened in his first 10 months in office.

The liberal Los Angeles Times reported on a focus group conducted by Democratic pollster Peter Hart. Of those polled, Trump supporters and those who voted for Hillary Clinton expressed disappointment about the presidents behavior, but gave him positive marks on the economy. If its the economy stupid, as Bill Clinton strategist James Carville once said, and the economy is roaring, whats the problem?

As the president has repeatedly said, the stock market continues to soar to new heights, which must delight retirees in Florida who see their IRA and 401K dividends rising most months. Unemployment figures are the lowest theyve been in 17 years. Even unemployment among Blacks is down, as are the numbers of people on food assistance.

ISIS has been ousted from its last stronghold in Syria. True, President Obama deserves the credit for beginning the process with heavy bombing of ISIS targets, but it is President Trump who lifted many of the rules of engagement that kept the U.S. military fighting a losing battle.

North Korea is back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism where it belongs.

The president has pushed tax reform, which hasnt been successfully addressed since 1986, to a point where it is on the verge of Senate approval, assuming a few recalcitrant Republicans can be persuaded to put taxpayers first, instead of the grievances they hold against the president (Im speaking of John McCain, Bob Corker and Jeff Flake).

Goldman Sachs strategists are predicting not only a continued American economic recovery, but a concurrent worldwide lifting of many boats. One reason is the cash that has been sitting on the sidelines during the last recession is now making a beeline for stocks and mutual funds, causing the Standard and Poors Index to rise by a spectacular 20 percent so far this year. Thats more than triple its average annual increase over the last 20 years. Despite higher stock prices, Goldman Sachs analysts are recommending their clients buy now. Tech stocks are performing particularly well as companies re-invest profits to expand their firms.

When the left gives grudging credit to a president it hates, you know he must be doing something right. Heres what Atlantic magazine said in its August 2 issue: With the Trump administrations chaos sucking up all the attention, its been able to move forward on a range of its priorities, which tend to be more focused on regulatory matters anyway. It is remaking the justice system, rewriting environmental rules, overhauling public-lands administration, and green lighting major infrastructure projects. It is appointing figures who will guarantee the triumph of its ideological vision for decades to come.

That may be faint praise, but its praise.

President Trump is appointing conservative judges to federal courts and has released a list of names to choose from should another vacancy occur on the Supreme Court. All appear to be conservative constitutionalists.

Yes, his form could be better, but the substance is very good. Imagine what he could do if congressional Republicans got behind him  as Democrats do with a president of their party  and started backing him on legislation they promised to enact during their campaigns.

So, even if you are not particularly enamored by the presidents style (and many continue to be), give him some credit, especially if you are traveling this Thanksgiving, which is a sure sign that the economy and consumer optimism heading into the busy shopping season are on the increase.

For that, all of us  even Democrats  should be thankful.
Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com told CNBC-TV18, "After a brief correction Ashok Leyland is now resuming the upwards move, it is a buy. Raymond is having a parabolic rally, that parabolic rally paused, that pause is an entry and today we want to buy Raymond again. Tata Chemicals is another outperformer in the recent weeks. These short-term outperformers will continue to outperform. So, that is a buy."

"I would suggest that short selling should be avoided as much as possible and certainly not in the indices. Fortis Healthcare is a sell. There is absolutely nothing in this stock. It is so much of an underperformer, sell it and shift to some other companies, anything in pharma if you want, but sell this one."

"Federal Bank is also a sell. While I am generally upbeat on private sector banks, Federal Bank is not my favourite. I would suggest you sell this and switch to ICICI Bank, switch to HDFC Bank anything stay in private banks but get out of Federal Bank."

"Long term investors can stay with Bata, we are going through a correction and that correction is not over. However, the long-term trend is distinctly up and you will get better prices. If you are a very short-term trader then you might like to exit now, re-enter again."
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Share price of Skipper touched a 52-week high of Rs 277, gaining more than 9 percent intraday Friday as it is going to enter in JV with Israel company.

"The company has given in-principal approval to form a joint venture (JV) with MetzerPlas Cooperative Agricultural Organization which is one of the largest and most specialised manufacturers of Drip Irrigation Solutions from Israel, as per company release.

"The drip irrigation business holds immense potential in India and is one of the focus sectors of the government. The current domestic industry size is estimated at over Rs 5,000 crore and under the Honb'ble prime minister's flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna (PMKSY), we expect this sector to grow at a robust pace and for the JV to become a major player in it in the years to come, it added.

The company's second quarter (Q2FY18) net profit was down 30.3 percent at Rs 23.2 crore against Rs 33.3 crore, in a year ago period.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) shed 7 percent at Rs 68.3 crore and EBITDA margin was down 560 bps at 13.2 percent.

The other expenses increased to Rs 76.4 crore from Rs 45.4 crore.

Meanwhile, revenue rose 31.9 percent at Rs 515.6 crore against Rs 390.8 crore.

At 09:59 hrs Skipper was quoting at Rs 261.60, up Rs 7.75, or 3.05 percent on the BSE.

Posted by Rakesh Patil
Jewellery sector companies reported a very decent quarterly performance and are riding on tailwinds such as a market share shift to the organised sector, gradual revival of consumer sentiment, and regulatory support in the form of relaxation of PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) provisions. While Titan, the leader in the pack, had a dazzling quarter, the valuation tempers our excitement. We are relatively more comfortable with PC Jeweller, a company that is building a strong domestic business while simultaneously offering some comfort on valuation. Finally, for those willing to take a little more risk, Lypsa Gems & Jewellery and Rajesh Exports are worth taking a look at.

Preponement of Diwali from late October/November to mid-October this year, coupled with healthy footfalls and an increase in purchases, had a positive impact for jewellery companies. With the wedding season already underway and expected to go on till H2FY18 end, top-line traction should continue.

The sector is also reaping benefits from the following:-

PMLA norms relaxation

In October 2017, just a few days prior to Diwali, statutory requirements relating to KYC (know your customer) were eased considerably, thereby ensuring that Q3FY18 began on a good note for jewellery companies. Though PMLA rules may be reinstated in due course, it remains to be seen as to how the new directives impact the jewellers.

The organised transition

Measures such as GST implementation, crackdown on black money, and new regulations (pertaining to hallmarking of gold jewellery carat count) are likely to trigger transition of business from informal entities to tax-compliant ones at a fast pace. Since Indias jewellery sector has a very high share of unorganised entities (upwards of 65 percent), the organised players are likely to reap the benefit of this shift.

Product mix change and promotional spends

Jewellery companies have been consciously altering their product offerings in favour of high-margin studded and wedding jewellery variants. They have been stepping up their spending on advertisements to improve their brand recall.

Asset-light expansion

Even as small and mid-size jewellers up the ante, network augmentation has been one of the cornerstones for large jewellery companies in a bid to tap market share in tier 2/3/4 regions of India. However, they are preferring an asset light expansion strategy by predominantly opting for tie-ups with franchises.

Key jewellery stocks at a glance

What do we like in the sector?

Titan: The well-known jewellery majors numbers were impressive for the second quarter in succession in FY18.

The companys future strategy entails increased impetus on premiumisation of its jewellery output, extensive marketing and branding activities, improving the product mix towards wedding jewellery, and keeping debt levels low.

PC Jeweller: The companys range of products include gold, wedding, and diamond jewellery.

PC Jewellers growth will be primarily driven by its domestic business. The company is planning to capitalise on the favourable prospects of Indias organised retail through aggressive outlet expansion, introduction of new brands, and prioritizing diamond jewellery sales.

Lypsa Gems & Jewellery: The wholly integrated diamond company sources raw diamonds from major mines, before polishing and selling the same internationally (75 percent of turnover) and in India.

Execution of export orders (for diamond/diamond studded jewellery amounting to Rs 16 crore) to UAE-based customers in H2FY18 and tie-ups with e-commerce platforms to sell branded jewellery in the Indian markets could be the future growth drivers.

The companys initiatives to derive a higher proportion of revenue from high-margin products and pare debt should support margins.

Lypsa now plans to start jewellery retailing in India and scale up its capacity to manufacture small-sized diamonds. Its business model is undergoing a change from a pure trader to a manufacturer and retailer, the effect of which should start reflecting in the medium-term.

Rajesh Exports: The company deals in jewellery variants (handmade, casting, machine, stamped, studded, tube, electro-formed) and processes nearly 35 percent of gold products (medallions and bullion) manufactured in the world.

By virtue of acquiring Valcambi, the worlds largest gold refinery at Switzerland, Rajesh Exports strengthened its existing global leadership further with a total precious metals refining capacity of 2,400 tons per annum.

On the back of a robust clientele list spanning bullion banks, central banks, and wholesale/retail jewellers across the world, the company aims to increase its supply of investment gold bars.

Rajesh Exports continued emphasis on value-added products, new launches (of gold jewellery designs), and pan-India SHUBH retail store additions (from 81 outlets at present) should start yielding results from FY19.

Valuation & price performance  an overview

PC Jewellers historical financial consistency has been impressive and the companys future outlook is promising, too. At 20.5x FY19 projected earnings, the stock trades at a steep discount to Titan, and therefore, is worthy of being included in a portfolio.

Inspite of Titans strong track record, the recent price rally has left little valuation headroom. At 55.7x FY19 projected earnings, accumulation on corrections is recommended.

Additionally, investors with a good risk appetite may want to consider the following stocks:

Lypsa, at 3.2x FY19 projected earnings, offers downside protection on account of the undemanding valuation. However, upside is contingent on successful progression towards retailing.

At 16.1x FY19 projected earnings, Rajesh Exports valuation seems to offer comfort given the multiple arms of its business.

Follow @krishnakarwa152

For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research Page
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba

A deeply concerned US today asked the Pakistan government to re-arrest and charge Hafiz Saeed for his crimes after the 26/11 mastermind and JuD chief was freed from detention.

Pakistan today freed Saeed, the LeT founder, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the "cause of Kashmir".

"The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens," state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

"The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes," Nauert said in a statement after the release of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief.

The JuD leader, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after his 10- month detention as the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case, in a setback to India's efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.

In May 2008, the US Department of the Treasury had designated Saeed as a global terrorist.

Saeed was also individually designated by the UN under the Security Council Resolution 1267 in December, 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people, including six American citizens, were killed, Nauert said.

LeT and several of its front organisations, leaders, and operatives remain under both state department and Treasury department sanctions.

Since 2012, the US has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice, she said.
trends How safe are India's women? It's been 5 years since the Nirbhaya gang rape shook the country. On the eve of the international day for elimination of violence against women, CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan takes a hard look at the data.
Noting that the government so far has sanctioned a total of 30.76 lakh houses across all verticals since the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, said on Wednesday that while there has been momentum as far as EWS and LIG schemes are concerned. MIG scheme will take off post the enhancement of the carpet area in case of the MIG scheme.

EWS and LIG (scheme expansion) is very fast. We have already disbursed Rs 1300 crore by way of credit linked subsidy scheme. I had to transfer Rs 400 crore to the LIG and EWS. It is slow in the MIG part and there was a reason for it. That was because the MIG part came only in December 2016. Between January and May because of elections in different states, there was not much offtake. We have taken two steps recently  increased the carpet in MIG I from 90 to 120 sqm and MIG 2 from 110 to 150 sqm and increased the house building advance for government employees. With these steps, the PMAY (Urban) scheme is going to take off, he told Moneycontrol.

Currently, 15.65 lakh houses have been grounded and are at various stages of construction and about 4.13 lakh houses have been constructed since the launch of the mission on June 25, 2015, he said while inaugurating the national workshop on accelerating implementation of urban missions PMAY and Swachh Bharat mission (urban) in the Capital on Friday.

As for states that have done well in implementing these schemes, he told Moneycontrol that some states clearly stand out. We now have an app where every state can look into the app and see who is doing well and who is not. And that app actually has a purpose. Purpose is to encourage other states that are not doing well, the purpose is not to name and shame. And find out the reasons why they are not doing well. And then take the measures necessary to correct it, Puri said.

On the smart cities mission, Puri told Moneycontrol that 90 cities have so far been selected under the mission and 10 more are yet to be selected. As much as Rs 30,000 crore worth of contracting has been done for 7065 projects. Some state urban ministers have also come to us for technical help. I am confident that by March 2018 work will be seen in these cities, he said.

Addressing the day-long workshop, the Minister observed that the local demand for housing is pegged at around 12 million and informed that the government has endeavoured a number of measures like infrastructure status to affordable housing, direct tax benefits under Section 80-IBA of the Income Tax Act, relaxation in FDI and ECB proposals, reduction in holding period for long-term capital gain benefits and standardized usage of carpet area definition. Emphasis on reforms like stamp duty exemption and single window clearance, have been actively pursued by the ministry.

Todays seminar is very focused. We have all gathered to deliberate on the bottlenecks and roadblocks that impend the progress of States/UTs with respect to the implementation of the In-situ Slum Rehabilitation (ISSR) and Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) verticals. The ISSR vertical has had a few challenges in its implementation due to land related issues, financing models, selection of private developer, beneficiary participation and policy concerns of the States/UTs. It is pivotal for the States/UTs to adopt a slum free approach and comprehensively develop their cities with focus on slum redevelopment taking complete advantage of the ISSR vertical he added.

He also called on the states to ensure better outreach for Credit-linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) and focus on convergence between the banking institutions, private sector and beneficiaries.

The Credit-linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) needs better outreach. The States need to focus and bring about a convergence between the banking institutions, private sector and beneficiaries, he said.

On the initiatives taken in the direction of addressing the housing demand, the Minister informed that in order to create an enabling environment, the ministry has recently launched the 8 PPP models for affordable housing along with the housing technology challenge to bring in the state of art innovations into the housing sector, he added.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will hold talks with her counterparts from Finland, Denmark and Greece in the next few days to further boost bilateral ties.

She will hold extensive talks with Foreign Minister of Finland Timo Soini tomorrow on ways to deepen cooperation in several key areas including trade and investment.

Soini arrived here yesterday on a four-day visit.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said foreign minister of Greece Nikos Kotzias will be in India from November 25 to 28 and Swaraj will hold talks with him on November 27.

Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen will be paying a visit to India from November 26 to 29. Swaraj will also hold extensive talks with him on ways to expand bilateral ties, said Kumar.

On French President Emmanuel Macron's visit, Kumar said it will take place early next year. "It has been rescheduled for early 2018."

Asked about the upcoming visit of Pope Francis to Bangladesh and Myanmar and whether the government sent him any invite to include India in the visit, Kumar did not give a direct reply but indicated about a scheduling issue.

He said a proper mechanism has to be followed to "finalise any VVIP visit" which includes finalisation of mutually convenient dates to both the sides.

"India's link to Christianity is 2,000 years old," he said.

Asked about the Global Entrepreneurship Summit being hosted by India along with the US in Hyderabad from November 28 to 30, Kumar said it will present a unique opportunity to forge meaningful partnerships among entrepreneurs, investors and supporters of start-up ecosystems.

US President Donald Trump's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump is attending the summit.

Asked about her schedule in Hyderabad, Kumar said it is being finalised.
Police force in Bihar was left red-faced after an impersonator fooled them into nearly conducting a raid after claiming that he was an IPS officer attached to the National Investigation Agency(NIA). The story came to light after the police in Bihar arrested the person who had fooled them and had misled the cops in his attempt to carry out a mission without any sanctions from the authority.

The man identified as Avinash Kumar Mishra is an Engineering graduate and a native of Pator village in North Bihars Darbhanga district. According to a report published by Hindustan Times, Mishra went to Ashok Paper Mills (APM) police station on 20th November wearing the uniform and badge of an IPS officer.

He told the cops that he was attached to the NIA and wanted their assistance to carry out a raid to nab those involved in a shootout that happened in a nearby area. The police obliged the fake cop and accompanied him on his journey to conduct the raid. However, they soon got doubtful about the cop. But by the time they realised that they were being fooled, Mishra had slipped away from their hands. The police later identified the man and arrested him on the charge of impersonation.

According to reports, Mishra, the only son of a government employee had nurtured ambitions of becoming an IPS officer. He said that he decided to impersonate an IPS officer after he failed to achieve his ambitions. Mishra who was earning a living by giving tuitions to students had, according to Darbhanga SSP Satyaveer Singh, arranged the IPS officers uniform from a tailoring shop.

While Mishras father claimed that his son was lately suffering from bouts of depression, no evidence has yet been received to support this claim.
Representative image

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is back in the news and this time it is something that could put it at it again and this time it is something that could make it stand out on the global space research map.

According to GeoSpatial World, ISRO is set to come out with newer, lighter versions of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLVs), which will be dedicated to carrying small satellites with a capacity to carry up to 700 kg.

Small satellites can be built in such a way as to fulfil this purpose. For instance, they can be built exclusively to capture real-time pictures of the solar system, among others.

The production of the light-weighted launch vehicles is expected to be done within 3 days as compared to the 40 days required to manufacture a regular PSLV.

The satellites will also come at cost of between Rs 100 crore and Rs 500 crore, one-tenth the cost of a regular PSLV. The first of them will be launched in 2019.

Now that ISRO is making it big in launching heavy satellites, there is scope for it to become the alpha in the global market for launching light satellites.

If this mission is successful, ISRO will defy the conventional wisdom in a market that has refrained from making dedicated launches for small satellites, the report said.

Next in line for ISRO is to privatise PSLV manufacturing by 2020. Even though the privately-made PSLV for IRNSS-1H mission failed, it has not given the organisation cold feet. ISRO will continue testing and seek the help of private sector companies to manufacture its PSLVs.

Also read: ISRO Missions: The story behind how satellites get launched into space

The main goal for ISRO is to increase their missions and reduce costs, which will, in turn, give them an edge in the global market. The market now craves for launchers dedicated to launching small satellites. As of today, small satellites are launched with bigger missions.

However, if there are dedicated launchers for small satellites, there is scope for countries to have more space explorations and at a lower cost.

Now, if India gets into this league, there is scope for not only more government revenue but for India to be a leader in space exploration.

(With inputs from News18)
Irishman Johnny Ward has the rare privilege to boast that he has seen every country in the world. In a span of 10 years, he travelled to 197 nations - a trip that ended finally in Norway earlier this month where he celebrated his achievement with his girlfriend and family.

Aside from that, Ward also managed to make a decent $1.5 million as advertising revenue from his blog, OneStep4Ward, that chronicles his travels across the globe.

Here's Johnny Ward with his girlfriend on a recent trip to Thailand:

(Source: onestep4ward)

So how did he get the money to travel the world?

Ward says 'he is not that example of a rich white guy travelling the globe on daddys credit card'.

He had a tough past and had to overcome his share of challenges to reach here. He was raised by a single mother in Galway, Ireland and later in County Down, Northern Ireland. His family often struggled for money during those times.

When Ward first started blogging, he was completely broke. He financed his travels by teaching English in Asia before it struck upon him to start a travel blog. There were times when he had to blog while actively travelling not knowing whether it would pay off.

After a lot of hard work, his blog expanded into a media brand that had more than 100 separate websites.

The money helped him buy a property in London and Bangkok and as per his blog, he will probably never need to work an office job again.

Later, he started outsourcing a lot of work.

His blog is not only about chronicling his travels, a big part of it is about inspiring other people to take up travel blogging as well.

In an interview to The Telegraph, Johnny revealed that the main motivator for his travels was freedom, and travelling is a symptom of it.

Not all rosy

Travelling is also difficult at times. It is safe to say that Ward knows this better than any of us.

During his experience of 'visiting every country on the planet', he encountered corrupt border agents, travelling through war zones and spending nights in police custody and hospital beds.

In Angola, he even saw a man being shot in front of him and heard bombs in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Ward also made sure he spent several days, and sometimes a few weeks, in each destination.

I tried to create a life where I could make the choices I wanted, not based on some grey middle manager who approves holiday leave, and not based on financial restraints, Johnny told The Telegraph in the report.

As for whats going to happen in the future, however, he needs to ensure that he will work the way he does- as it is also needed to finance his travels.

Remember you're never ready, you'll never have enough money, and you'll never be brave enough, yet here you are and you're good to go, Ward told advises those who are willing to plan the trip of a lifetime.
The Desloge Chamber of Commerce is gearing up for a holiday contest called Finding Frosty that the civic organization hopes will create a little holiday fun for the community while promoting city businesses and the chamber.

The goal is to have a little fun, engage our community with our local business owners and bring some awareness to the opportunities by shopping local, said chamber board member Julie Pratte. We thought, What better way to achieve this, all while enjoying the Christmas season?

According to Pratte, this is how Finding Frosty will work when the contest begins Dec. 4:

Each morning at 9 a.m., excluding weekends, a clue will be revealed on the Desloge Chambers website at www.deslogechamber.com under the tab Finding Frosty, she said. The same clue will also be found on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DeslogeChamberOfCommerce.

"The public is encouraged to use these clues to find Frosty. Some of the clues are pretty easy, especially if you know any of our local businesses slogans, however a couple are a little more tricky to figure out.

The first person that finds Frosty, will have to like  or have liked  the chambers Facebook page; complete a check in at the business where Frosty was found; take a selfie with Frosty at the business where he was found; and then post it to the chambers Facebook page. The first one to do this wins the daily prize, which is a gift and $20 in Desloge Dollars.

Asked what Desloge Dollars are, Pratte explained that they are numbered certificates that can be used at participating businesses listed on the certificate.

So far, the places that will accept Desloge Dollars include The Giving Tree, Barnhouse Janitorial, Beautiful U, Verizon, Greenes Florist, McDonald's, Imos, MAC Bookstore and Vicky Crocker, but we are expecting this list to continue to grow. The daily winners name goes in the grand prize drawing that will be given away at the chambers annual Jingle Bell Run thats going to be held Saturday, Dec. 16 at Desloge City Hall.

Heres the best part  even if you arent the first person to find Frosty each day, but you like the chambers Facebook page; complete a check in at the business where Frosty is located; you take a selfie together with you and Frosty; and you post it to the chambers Facebook page, then your name gets entered into the grand prize drawing, as well."

Pratte explained that the chamber's executive director, Loni Ruediger, will be keeping track of the posts on the chamber Facebook page to make sure everyone that participates gets their name in the drawing. Note that only one entry per contestant is allowed each day.

Our business owners have been very generous and we have some great prizes both during the daily contests and for the grand prize, Pratte said. Here are a few tips to give yourself a bit of a head start  go ahead and like our Facebook page now so we will pop up on your newsfeed.

"You might also want to bookmark the Desloge chamber website. Also, if you go to our website now, you will see a list of our members and this can help you narrow down the search for Frosty.

Pratte mentioned that some have asked why the clues are being revealed at 9 a.m. instead of 7 a.m., so people can look for Frosty before heading to work.

The reason is simple, she said. "Nearly all of our hidden locations are not open for business until 9 a.m., so even if we posted the clue at 7 a.m., no one would be able to take the required selfie with Frosty before that.

Pratte stressed that the Finding Frosty contest is an opportunity for chamber members to bring customers through their doors.

We are aiming at keeping the shopping local, she said. That is why the Desloge Dollars are being used. By completing check ins at our participating locations, it is giving our members a greater social media presence. As a partnered sponsor I am excited to be a part of this, and I hope that it is received well and can become an annual event just like our Jingle Bell Run.

For more information, or if you are a business interested in participating in the chambers Finding Frosty campaign, call the chamber office at 573-431-3006.
China growth: Slowdown concerns in US and China, due to the trade war between the two countries, have caused global investors to worry. (Image: Getty Images)

China's foreign ministry on Thursday refused to endorse or deny a statement made by its Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui.

According to media reports, Luo had recently said that Beijing was prepared to rename the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to address India's concerns.

During a speech in Delhi last week, the ambassador said that China "can change the name of CPEC" and "create an alternative corridor through Jammu & Kashmir, Nathu La pass or Nepal to deal with India's concerns".

India has cited sovereignty issues and raised objections over the CPEC project, which is part of the larger One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. India had not attended the Belt and Road Forum in May, which was attended by representatives of 130 countries.

The OBOR initiative

Introduced by China's President Xi Jinping, the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative is a development strategy involving around 60 countries.

The initiative aims at creating connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries and China.

The project comprises of a land component called the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and a maritime component called the Maritime Silk Road (MSR).

The SREB comprises of rail and road corridors such as the New Eurasian Land Bridge between China and Europe via Kazakhstan. The CPEC is one such corridor.

The MSR project involves a trade route encompassing the South China Sea, Strait of Malacca, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Bengal, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The route overlaps the historic Arabian naval network for maritime trade in Southeast Asian.

Why is India opposing the OBOR?

CPEC is the main reason for India opposing the OBOR initiative.

China is investing in the CPEC project, which runs from the geo-strategic Gwadar port in south-western Pakistan to Kashgar, in China's Xinjiang province in the north. The corridor runs through Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Gopal Baglay had reiterated earlier this week, "We are all for promoting connectivity but on the OBOR, our position is that since the so-called CPEC forms a part of OBOR, and it passes through Indian territory, that is where our difficulty lies".

While signing the agreement, China had committed an investment of around USD 46 billion in Pakistan.

Experts suggest that the CPEC is critical for China. The project would help China reduce its dependence on the Strait of Malacca, through which a large percentage of its maritime traffic passes.

The strait has historically been prone to piracy and is susceptible to blockades in an event of regional conflicts. The corridor would also help cut time for shipments from west Asia and Europe to reach China.

Media reports suggest that the total investment under CPEC is now close to USD 62 billion, which is equal to all foreign investment made in Pakistan since 1970.
Zimbabwe Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa listens as President Robert Mugabe delivers his state of the nation address to the country's parliament in Harare, August 25, 2015. Mugabe pinned his hopes on China helping to revive Zimbabwe's struggling economy on Tuesday and outlined reforms to investment rules to try to attract more capital. In his first state of the nation address in eight years, the 91-year-old president, who has presided over economic collapse and diplomatic isolation since he came to power in 1980, said strong growth was just around the corner. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo - GF10000182301

Emmerson Mnangagwa will be sworn in as Zimbabwe's next President in Harare on Friday, days after Robert Mugabe stepped down after 37 years in power.

Addressing thousands of supporters outside the ruling ZANU-PF party's offices in the capital, Mnangagwa said, "The people have spoken. The voice of the people is the voice of God".

Mugabe finally stepped down earlier this week after being granted immunity from prosecution and was assured safety and protection in the country.

Last week, Zimbabwe's military had taken over the country, in what the African Union said 'seemed like a coup'.

The tussle had started earlier this month when then-Vice President Mnangagwa was unceremoniously sacked by Mugabe.

Mnangagwa, the former spy chief, enjoys strong support among members of Zimbabwes armed forces and was for long thought to be Mugabe's successor.

Sacking of 75-year-old Mnangagwa was seen as a signal that the world's oldest ruling Head-of-State was favouring his wife Grace Mugabe to succeed him in the ruling Zanu-PF party as well as the presidency.

Early years and liberation hero

Mnangagwa was born in what was then called Southern Rhodesia. His family was forced to flee the country because of his father's political activism. He studied law but had to do so in a prison.

Like Mugabe, Mnangagwa too participated in Zimbabwe's liberation struggle. After being associated with the United National Independence Party and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), Mnangagwa joined the newly formed Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).

He had by then left private practice, went to fight in the Mozambican War of Independence, where he met Robert Mugabe and became his bodyguard and assistant.

Mnangagwa was alongside Mugabe at the negotiations where an agreement that recognizing the Republic of Zimbabwe was signed.

After independence, Mnangagwa became Zimbabwe's first Minister for National Security.

Between 1988 and 2000, Mnangagwa served as the minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and as the Leader of the House. He also served as the minister of finance and foreign affairs for a brief period.

In 2007, a coup attempt was foiled. A retired army captain and close to 400 soldiers had planned to oust Mugabe and ask Mnangagwa to take over. However, Mnangagwa called the act "stupid", dismissing allegations that he was behind the plot.

As an election agent, Mnangagwa played an instrumental role in Mugabe's re-election in 2008 and 2013.

The 'Crocodile'

Mnangagwa has earned the nickname 'crocodile', an animal feared in Zimbabwean lore for its stealth and ruthlessness.

Rights groups say 20,000 civilians, mostly from the Ndebele tribe, were killed, for which both Mugabe and Mnangagwa have been accused. Mugabe denied genocide or crimes against humanity but admitted it was a "moment of madness". Mnangagwas role remains shrouded in mystery.

He backed Mugabes economic nationalism, especially a drive to force foreign firms to hand majority stakes to local blacks, suggesting he may not be the pro-market pragmatist many investors have been hoping for.
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba

Newly freed Pakistani Islamist Hafiz Saeed, accused of masterminding a bloody 2008 assault in Mumbai, called ousted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a "traitor" on Friday for seeking peace with neighbour and arch-foe India.

The release of Saeed from house arrest raised fresh questions as to whether Saeed might enter politics to run a new, unregistered political party founded by his supporters.

India and the United States expressed concern at his release, calling for Saeed to be prosecuted over the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including Americans.

Saeed, who has a USD 10 million U.S. bounty on his head, spoke at Friday prayers in a mosque in the city of Lahore after being freed from house arrest by a court that said there was no evidence to hold him.

Saeed was placed under house arrest in January while Sharif was still prime minister, a move that drew praise from India, long furious at Saeed's continued freedom in Pakistan.

In July, a Supreme Court ruling disqualified Sharif from office over a corruption investigation, though his party still runs the government with a close ally as prime minister.

Saeed, however, said Sharif deserved to be removed for his peace overtures with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Nawaz Sharif asks why he was ousted? I tell him he was ousted, because he committed treason against Pakistan by developing friendship with Modi, killers of thousands of Muslims," Saeed said.

India's Ministry of External Affairs condemned Saeed's release, saying it showed Pakistan was not serious about prosecuting terrorists.

A U.S. official said Washington was "deeply concerned" about the release.

"The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

'NO ALLEGATION PROVED'

Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the 2008 Mumbai violence in which 10 gunmen attacked targets in India's largest city, including two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and a railway station.

The assault brought nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India to the brink of war.

"Im happy that no allegation against me was proved," Saeed told supporters after his release, according to a video released by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Islamist charity, which he heads.

The United States says the JuD is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group, which Saeed founded and which has been blamed for a string of high-profile attacks in India.

Pakistan officially banned the Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2002.

Saeed blamed India for his incarceration in Pakistan, saying "Pakistan's rulers detained me on the aspiration of Modi because of their friendship with him".

Saeed has long campaigned in support of Muslim separatists in the Indian-ruled portion of the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, which Pakistan also claims.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting the LeT and other separatists battling in the Indian part of Kashmir. Pakistan denies that.

While Saeed was under house arrest, his JuD charity launched a political party, the Milli Muslim League (MML), which has won thousands of votes in by-elections.

Senior government and retired military figures say the party has the backing of Pakistan's powerful military. The military denies any direct involvement in civilian politics.

MML officials have privately said that the party is controlled by Saeed, but it is not clear if Saeed will seek to contest elections or launch a political career.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (C) is briefed by a minority official during his visit to the 900-year-old Katas Raj temples, one of the holiest sites for Hindus, in district Chakwal, Katas Raj, Pakistan, January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Drazen Jorgic - RC1C3E0C0DE0

Chief Justice of Pakistan taking a suo moto cognizance of the plight of revered Hindu temple Chakwal's Katas Raj where Pandavas are believed to have spent sometime during their exile, criticised the government.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar regretted that the government was unable to safeguard one of the most important places of worship in Pakistan.

"This temple is not just a place of cultural significance for the Hindu community, but also a part of our national heritage," a report in DNA quoted the CJP. "I want a solution to this problem."

Reportedly, the pond in the Katas Raj temple complex was drying up as cement factories nearby were draining the groundwater using a number of sub-soil wells, resulting in a severe reduction of the water table in the area.

"If necessary, we will even summon all four chief secretaries and the prime minister's principal secretary," he said, adding that experts would need to be taken on board. "Our goal is to find a solution to the matter of how water can be provided," CJP Nisar said.

"If we need to close down 10 tube wells or halt the water consumption of the factories, we will do it."

The CJP also ordered the advocate general of Punjab to form a high-level committee to probe the matter and issued a notice to the cement factory.

The pond is said to be formed from the teardrops of Lord Shiva, according to purans. In his famous visit in 2005, the then Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani visited the temple to inaugurate the restoration work.

Additionally, the area also has a plethora of coal mines. As the coal mines esquire deep digging, torrents of water also gush out through the earth capillaries to the mines.
Paralympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius walks across the courtroom without his prosthetic legs during the third day of his resentencing hearing for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, South Africa June 15, 2016. REUTERS/Alon Skuy/Pool - S1AETKAXEXAA

South Africa's Supreme Court more than doubled Oscar Pistorius' murder sentence on Friday after the state argued the original jail term of six years for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was "shockingly lenient".

The gold medal-winning athlete, known as the "Blade Runner" for his carbon-fibre prosthetics, was not in court to hear the new sentence of 13 years and five months handed down.

Steenkamp's family were also absent but welcomed the sentence -- the minimum 15 years prescribed for murder, minus the time Pistorius has already served -- and said it showed justice could prevail in South Africa.

"This is an emotional thing for them. They just feel that their trust in the justice system has been confirmed this morning," Tania Koen, a family spokeswoman, told Reuters.

Rights groups in a country beset by high levels of violent crime against women say Pistorius, 31, received preferential treatment compared to non-whites and those without his wealth or celebrity status.

Barry Steenkamp, the father of the slain model, told SABC television the family could now get on with their lives.

"I always, from the beginning, said justice had not been served, now it has," he said.

In the same interview, her mother June Steenkamp said: We felt that we didn't have justice for Reeva by that too-lenient sentence but now we have justice for her."

Pistorius' elder brother Carl wrote on Twitter: "Shattered. Heartbroken. Gutted."

The athlete was jailed in July last year after being found guilty on appeal of murdering model and law graduate Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013 by firing four shots through a locked bathroom door. The case attracted worldwide interest.

He had originally been found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in jail. That conviction was increased to murder by the Supreme Court in December 2015 and his sentence extended to six years by trial judge Thokozile Masipa in July last year.

At the time, Masipa ruled that although the Steenkamps had suffered a great loss, Pistorius' life and career were also in ruins, saying "a fallen hero can never be at peace" and that "a long term in prison will not serve justice".

In a scathing criticism of that ruling, the appeals court said the court had "erred in deviating from the prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years" imprisonment for murder.

"The sentence of six years' imprisonment is shockingly lenient, to a point where it has the effect of trivialising this serious offence," said Judge Willie Seriti, who read out the court's decision.

"I am of the view that there are no substantial and compelling circumstances which can justify the departure from the prescribed minimum sentence."

Seriti also censured Pistorius, saying the athlete's apology to the deceased's family during the hearing did "not demonstrate any genuine remorse on his part".

"The logical consequence is that the respondent ... does not appreciate the gravity of his actions," said Seriti.

'BIRTHDAY OF LOVE AND TEARS'

State prosecutors led by advocate Andrea Johnson had told the appeals hearing this month that there were no mitigating circumstances to justify Pistorius' six-year sentence.

Defence lawyer Barry Roux argued that Pistorius did not deliberately kill Steenkamp and the appeal should be thrown out.

Roux had said during the July 2016 trial that Pistorius' disability and mental distress following the killing should be considered as reasons to reduce his sentence.

Even in prison, Pistorius has been in the news.

In August, he was allowed out to attend his maternal grandmother's funeral and earlier that month spent a night in hospital. Prison officials declined to disclose details about his illness, but local media reports said he suffered chest pains and prison staff suspected a heart attack.

In August 2016, the athlete denied trying to kill himself after he was treated in hospital for wrist injuries.

On Pistorius' birthday on Wednesday, his father Henke told local YOU magazine that although he was behind bars, it was still a special day for his family.

"It remains a day full of love and tears -- a day like nobody ever should have to experience," Henke Pistorius told YOU.
PERKASIE >> Fans of the Perkasie Farmers Market are delighted to know that their favorite locally made foods will be available year-round now that the market moves indoors for a brand-new seasonal Winter Market. The Winter Market opens at the Perkasie Fire Hall on November 26th and will run on the 2nd & 4th Saturday of each month through May...
State officials announce $2.85M for new police station in Upper Moreland
A local man was arrested in Camden County, Georgia on several felony warrants out of St. Francois County and Iron County.

Marvin Bone, 43, of Pilot Knob, was indicted in St. Francois County on felony charges of statutory rape in the first degree against a child less than 14 years old, attempted enticement of a child, endangering the welfare of a child and aggravated stalking.

St Francois county Prosecuting Attorney Jerrod Mahurin said it appeared the incident occurred in April 2016 and the indictment came down in May 2016.

We havent had a chance to serve a warrant on him, so he had been on the run for a while, said Mahurin. He has been out of state, maybe on the run for a while. On any felony case we will extradite back.

Bone is also being charged with a class B felony of child molestation in the first degree in Iron County for an incident that reportedly happened in June 2013. That warrant was issued in May 2016, but was never served.

According to the Camden County Sheriffs Department, Bone was picked up in Waverly, Georgia after they received a tip that he would be coming through the area.

On Nov. 17 Camden County Sheriffs deputies received information of a fugitive from justice that was possibly in Camden County, Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor said. The suspect, Marvin Bone, was wanted in St. Francois County and Iron County on felony warrants.

Camden County deputies made contact with the Park Hills Police Department and were told that Bone, has been a fugitive from justice for more than two years.

Proctor said Lt. Cedric Brown, Cpl. Lamar Bowen, and Deputy Michael Blaquier with the Camden County Sheriffs Department received information that Bone would be arriving in Waverly, Georgia at about 3 p.m. Nov. 17.

At 3:10 pm deputies saw the vehicle that Bone was a passenger in and the traffic stop revealed that Bone had outstanding arrest warrants in Missouri.

Bone is currently housed at the Camden County Jail awaiting transport to Missouri, Proctor said. This arrest was accomplished by Camden County, Georgia and St. Francois County, Missouri law enforcement agencies working together so that Bone could be apprehended. I praise all involved who accomplished this fugitives capture.

Bone will be extradited from Camden County, Georgia to St. Francois County on his felony warrants. He has a $250,000 bond in St. Francois County and a $50,000 bond in Iron County.
November 24, 2017 And Then The Clown Prince Told Friedman: 'Suck On This.' The Moustache of Understanding, Thomas Friedman, has written the probably most embarrassing fanfiction ever: The most significant reform process underway anywhere in the Middle East today is in Saudi Arabia. Yes, you read that right. Though I came here at the start of Saudi winter, I found the country going through its own Arab Spring, Saudi style. Unlike the other Arab Springs  all of which emerged bottom up and failed miserably, except in Tunisia  this one is led from the top down by the countrys 32-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and, if it succeeds, it will not only change the character of Saudi Arabia but the tone and tenor of Islam across the globe. Friedman once said that U.S. soldiers must shove their guns into the face of random Arabs and tell them to "suck on this". How things change. Friedman now went to Riyadh to suck on whatever side of his abdomen Mohammed bin Salman shoved into his mustached mouth: We met at night at his familys ornate adobe-walled palace in Ouja, north of Riyadh. M.B.S. spoke in English, while his brother, Prince Khalid, the new Saudi ambassador to the U.S., and several senior ministers shared different lamb dishes and spiced the conversation. After nearly four hours together, I surrendered at 1:15 a.m. to M.B.S.s youth, pointing out that I was exactly twice his age. Its been a long, long time, though, since any Arab leader wore me out with a fire hose of new ideas about transforming his country. "Look here! MbS SPEAKS ENGLISH (and pays in dollars)! This must be OUR GUY." ("And don't ya all love those (homo-)sexual allusions I enwombed in those words?")

Tom Friedman (left) being "instructed" of his next fellacious duty (artist conception) It hasn't been such a "long, long time" since Friedman used that "wore me out" cliche. Only two years exactly, or four Friedman units, have passed since he last fellatiated MbS like this: I spent an evening with Mohammed bin Salman at his office, and he wore me out. Friedman's Love Letter to a War Criminal largely ignores the famine in Yemen caused by the U.S.-Saudi blockade of that country. The Saudi tyrant promised to lift the blockade two days ago only to keep it up and to even tighten it since. "A humanitarian nightmare" is all Friedman has to say about it. But "it blew [his] mind" to learn that "men-only" concerts in Riyadh are now a thing. Friedman falsely claims that MbS is a "lawyer by training,..". Since when is a Bachelor degree in Islamic law - the only academic training MbS claims to have - sufficient to join a legal bar? Friedman goes on to repeat the ridiculous claim that the tyrant's brutal shakedown of his local competition is following some rule of law: When all the data was ready, the public prosecutor, Saud al-Mojib, took action, M.B.S. said, ... "Under Saudi law, the public prosecutor is independent. We cannot interfere with his job ..." Those are of course outright lies which Friedman makes no attempt to refute. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. What part of "absolute" is so difficult to understand? King Salman's decree gave his son's shakedown committee absolute authority to maim whoever it wants to and to take whatever it likes - literary: It may take whatever measures deemed necessary to deal with those involved in public corruption cases and take what it considers to be the right of persons, entities, funds, fixed and movable assets, at home and abroad, ..." There is no "public prosecutor" or "rule of law" involved in that mass rape. Moreover, the kings decree immunizes MbS of any consequences. It exempts his committee "from laws, regulations, instructions, orders and decisions" as long as it claims to perform its tasks. All is well, Friedman says, because the few people he was allowed to talk to, knew their script well: Not a single Saudi I spoke to here over three days expressed anything other than effusive support for this anticorruption drive. No Saudi speaks out against that drive because doing so might get him killed. Anything less than "effusive support" for the clown prince constitutes "terrorism" and gets one jailed or killed in no time: The law, introduced earlier this month, includes penalties of up to 10 years in jail for insulting the king and crown prince, as well as the death penalty for other acts of "terrorism", according to Saudi Gazette and other local news media. Friedman. won't go to jail. He pens down whatever the Saudi ruler and his entourage tell him to - or not to write. He says as much: Indeed, M.B.S. instructed me: "Do not write ..." Thus, Saudi Arabia, which is funding thousands of extremist Wahhabi mosques all around the world, will now become the beacon of liberal Islam. Or so he claims. The whole piece is a terrible embarrassment for its author, but even more so for the editors at the NY Times, who let it pass. They should demand the pay for a full spread advertisement from the Saudis to compensate for the loss of readership Friedman's column is likely to cause. One wonders why the mustache felt the need to suck up all the crap MbS offered to him. He is married to a billionaire and does not need the extra income. Then again - some "youth" to "surrender to" and a "fire hose" to "wore him out" for "a long, long time" might have been an enticing compensation. Posted by b on November 24, 2017 at 17:32 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
The Health-e-Schools telemedicine program in Burke County Public Schools has expanded to include all school campuses, allowing a school nurse on site and a nurse practitioner off site to examine students with medical needs.

The program started with six schools in 2015 and is offered through Health-e-Schools, which is part of the Center for Rural Health Innovation. Recent grants totaling $22,000 allowed for the expansion with the purchase of small, mobile devices. The grants came from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, the Community Foundation of Burke and the Burke Womens Fund.

 Healthy students are successful students, said Dr. Larry Putnam, BCPS superintendent. We are grateful to the Center for Rural Health Innovation and Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Community Foundation of Burke and the Burke Womens Fund for the opportunity to equip all of our schools with telemedicine devices. It has been a very successful program in six of our schools thus far, and we look forward to continued success as all of our students, as well as staff, can now benefit from it. Students can get a diagnosis, a referral, if needed, a prescription, if needed, and, in most cases, stay in school and go back to being actively engaged in learning. No one has to wait for an appointment or miss school and work.

Parents will soon receive an enrollment form for basic health and insurance information on their child. When a child falls ill at school, instead of mom and dad having to get off work and take the student to a doctors office, the school will contact the parent and give them the option of having the school nurse and a nurse practitioner examine the child via a secured video feed.

The examination takes place in the school nurses office and a nurse practitioner off site leads the examination. The two work together to examine the child and record basics such as height, weight and temperature. Tiny cameras on scopes allow the nurse practitioner to see over video feed what the school nurse can see in person, such as infected ears or red throats.

The nurse and nurse practitioner have the capabilities of testing for strep and the flu. Other common ailments they see include sinus infections, respiratory issues, head lice and rashes.

While students with contagious illnesses are sent home, 85 percent of the students the school nurse and nurse practitioner see are not contagious and can stay in school. The program sends records to the students primary care physician to provide a continuum of care and keep parents in the loop.

Allison Bell, program director for Burke County Health-e-Schools, said, the 10 new devices purchased with the grant money come from TytoCare and include a camera, stethoscope, otoscope, tongue depressor and headphones.

Burke County Public Schools has 13 school nurses, six stationary telemedicine sites and new 10 mobile devices to offer telemedicine in every school.
DEAR ABBY: I am a man who owns a large four-bedroom home, and I have two tenants. One pays the rent on time, helps with cleaning and yard work, and is an all-around great roommate. The other has been here for four months, has never paid his rent on time and always disappears when we must clear off the driveway or do yard work.

The major problem I have with this guy is he sleepwalks -- at least he claims he does. He opens doors at night. Some mornings I have found the front door or garage door wide open.

Additionally, he raids the refrigerator late at night. He claims he doesn't realize he's doing it. It's really annoying to find food I prepared the night before to take to work has been eaten.

I have spoken to him about it on numerous occasions, and he claims that he can't control his sleepwalking. I feel he should have told me about his issues prior to signing the lease. None of the references he gave mentioned his sleepwalking.

Is it considered a disability? Would I be discriminating against a disability if I chose to not renew his lease because of his sleepwalking? -- LANDLORD IN WISCONSIN

DEAR LANDLORD: Because doors are being left open, it might be in your interest to install inexpensive security cameras. Sleepwalking (and sleep eating) can be symptoms of a sleep disorder, or possibly be caused by certain sleep medications. If your tenant is unaware of this, he should be informed and advised to be evaluated at a sleep disorder clinic.

Because he doesn't pay rent on time or do other things expected of him, you may not be obligated to renew his lease. My advice is to talk to a lawyer about how -- and whether -- you can get rid of this tenant.

DEAR ABBY: My ex-mother-in-law, "Blanche," takes my 14-year-old daughter, "Grace," shopping often. I was grateful at first, but now she buys her anything she wants.

Grace has a high school dance soon, and I was looking forward to shopping with her. But before I could go, Blanche took her and bought her a $299 dress. I wasn't consulted because Grace knew I would've said no. She's a freshman and that's just way too much money to spend.

I asked them to take the dress back, and Blanche said OK. A week later I called her to explain why I said no, but instead of listening, she told me it was her Christmas and birthday present for Grace, and she wasn't taking it back.

My daughter never spends that kind of money. Grace said she was keeping the dress, and I told her she was not wearing it. How do I explain this to my daughter who has become self-entitled because of her grandmother? -- ANYTHING SHE WANTS

DEAR ANYTHING: You have already explained it to your daughter. You told her it was too much money to spend. The problem isn't just Grace, it's also your ex-mother-in-law. You are Grace's mother, and your wishes should have been respected. I don't blame you for being angry.

DEAR ABBY: Over the last 13 years in his job, my husband developed a "very friendly" relationship with a clerical person. Now that he has retired, she wants to continue it by meeting with him (and me) for dinner. We have had dinner together once, and when they began to talk shop, I became the odd one out.

Although I interjected myself into the conversation, it was clear there is real feeling between them. He says she's "just so nice." She continues to send emails addressed to both of us and asks me (since he is not computer savvy) to relay that she misses him greatly and he was her "ray of sunshine" every day when he would walk in the office.

Should I be worried, jealous or envious? It is only now I have become aware that she was so important to my husband at work. I had no knowledge about their relationship before. -- UNCERTAIN IN NEW JERSEY

DEAR UNCERTAIN: I don't think you have anything to worry about. That the conversation at dinner revolved around the office is not surprising. The office and the job were the basis of their relationship. Because she's sending emails addressed to both of you, I doubt she's trying to slip anything past you or make a play for your husband. Be patient, and with time, I suspect she will adjust to the loss of her "ray of sunshine."

DEAR ABBY: After 10 years and good relations with my prior hairdresser, I switched to a new beautician. The shop is an hour closer to my home and less expensive. Both stylists do a great job, and I'm always pleased.

On my most recent visit to my new hairdresser, she was putting color on her first client of the day. I waited patiently for a half-hour past my scheduled appointment time. When she was done with that client, she asked me if I was in a hurry. Trying to be polite, I said, "No, not really." (I'm retired.) So she went into the back room and then outside with coffee and cigarettes in hand for a break. I was dumbfounded.

After waiting 15 more minutes, she finally took me. How should I handle this the next time I see her? Should I continue to see her? Should I speak up or just chalk it up that she was having a bad day? Your opinion, please. -- HURRY UP AND WAIT IN WEST VIRGINIA

DEAR HURRY UP AND WAIT: An experienced hairdresser usually puts color on her first client and then, while the color is processing, starts her next one. Your mistake was not having told the stylist how you felt about being kept waiting for half an hour. Also, when asked if you would mind if she kept you waiting even longer, instead of being "polite" and fuming, you should have been honest. Clear the air at your next appointment.

DEAR ABBY: A group of friends and I go out for dinner. When the check arrives, we all have cash except for one woman who wants to pay her share with a credit card. She claims she "doesn't know how much she owes" and tells the waiter to use her credit card to pay her share. Abby, she then pays only for her food and beverage, no tax and no tip! I have told her in the past to bring cash, but she won't.

I think it is unfair to the waiter to have to figure out how much she owes. When we tried to talk to her about it, she reacted like she was being attacked and went to other friends and got them to agree with "her side." If anyone disagrees with her, she goes on and on until she either loses a friend or the person gives in and tells her she's right. How do we deal with someone like this? Should we just give up on her and end the friendship? -- CHECK, PLEASE

DEAR CHECK, PLEASE: I see no reason to give up on the friendship. Just stop having dinner with her if her behavior bothers you.

DEAR ABBY: I'm 12 and I'm depressed. I have been depressed for a year now. I have not told my mom that I cry in the shower. Please guide me on what to do and help get me out of this dark hole. -- SAD IN SAN DIEGO

DEAR SAD: I'm so glad you wrote. It's very important that you tell your mother or some other trusted adult that you are depressed, and how long this has been going on. You may need counseling or the intervention of some other adult to fix this problem. Please don't wait, and please DO write again and let me know how you're doing. I care.

DEAR ABBY: I have been dating my boyfriend for three years. We have lived together for the last two. We have a great life together, but there is a problem I don't know how to solve. "Jeremy" hates his job.

We met in the education department of our college, and after graduation, we both took jobs in the public school system. I enjoy my career, but he loathes his. He complains constantly without seeming to take action on the issue. I know he's miserable, but he hasn't looked for other jobs or enrolled in a new school program.

I have bad days, too, but I've reached the end of listening to the constant griping. I am usually a positive person, but he is dragging my mood down because of this. He says I need to guide him and give him some direction, but I don't know what to say. I don't think it's my responsibility to tell another adult what he should or shouldn't do with his life. I don't mind helping him talk through his choices, but he wants more from me.

This is the man I want to marry. Is there a way to get past this issue and make it work? -- UNCERTAIN AND LOST

DEAR UNCERTAIN: Until your boyfriend has settled this uncertainty about his work life, any discussion about marriage should be put on hold. I agree you are not qualified to give him career advice. However, you might ask him to tell you what exactly it is that he hates about his job, and what he would rather be doing. His answers may give both of you insight into what he may be better suited for emotionally, and stimulate him to do something positive about his future. Once he has more clarity, there may be places he can go for career counseling that can help him decide what his next steps should be.

DEAR ABBY: You have mentioned in the past that you have a booklet on writing letters, including thank-you notes. Where do I send for it? I'll need four because my grandkids are lacking in that area.

It's truly a shame that younger generations haven't been taught about the importance of such notes. A simple "thank you" can not only open doors of opportunity both socially and in employment, but also help grandparents feel appreciated after their heartfelt gift-giving. -- NANCY IN NEVADA

DEAR NANCY: If there is one subject that crops up repeatedly in my mail, it's thank-you notes -- or rather, the lack of them. I print letters about it because of the number of complaints I receive. When a gift or a check isn't acknowledged, the (unwritten) message it sends is that the item wasn't appreciated, which is insulting and hurtful.

Chief among the reasons that thank-you notes are unwritten is that many people don't know what to say. They think the message has to be long and flowery when, in fact, keeping it short and to the point is more effective. My booklet, "How to Write Letters for All Occasions," contains samples of thank-you letters for birthday gifts, shower gifts and wedding gifts, as well as those that arrive around holiday time. It also includes letters of congratulations and ones regarding difficult subjects, such as the loss of a parent, a spouse or a child. It can be ordered by sending your name, mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to Dear Abby Letters Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.) With the holiday season approaching, this is the perfect time to reply with a handwritten letter, note or well-written email.

Because the composition of letters is not always effectively taught in the schools, my booklet can serve as a helpful tutorial, one that is valuable for parents as a way to teach their children to write using proper etiquette.

DEAR ABBY: My 8-year-old daughter keeps asking me for a smartphone. I'm at a loss about who she would call besides me and her dad. She points out these different kids her age who have phones. They are the same kids I view as ones who will have no curfew, boyfriends at 12 and parents who aren't as involved as we are. At what age do you feel kids should have smartphones? -- INVOLVED PARENT

DEAR INVOLVED PARENT: I don't think there is a magic number, but your daughter is definitely too young to have one. Smartphones can be dangerous when they are used irresponsibly. A flip phone, perhaps, for her to contact you in case of emergencies, might be appropriate.

Because her friends have smartphones is not a valid reason for her to have one. Before that happens, you must be confident that it will be used responsibly, and that you and her father will be able to review its history.

DEAR ABBY: Could you help all of us guys named Shelby spread the word that Shelby is not just for the female gender? Many boys and men like me have the handle and are proud of it. -- SHELBY FROM TEXAS

DEAR SHELBY: So do some automobiles! I'm glad to relay your message. Today many women have names that were once associated only with the masculine gender -- Cameron, Bailey, Logan, Morgan, to name a few -- and turnabout is fair play. I'm reminded of the song "A Boy Named Sue."

DEAR ABBY: I'm a 17-year-old girl and a junior in high school. I have a crush on a guy who's 14 and a freshman. I know age gaps don't matter as much later on, but the difference between 17 and 14 can be drastic. "Jake" is really sweet, and he's as interested in me as I am in him (unlike the boys in my grade).

I'm friends with Jake's sister "Julie," who's a year older than me and a senior. Julie has made it clear she doesn't like the idea of a romantic relationship between Jake and me because Jake is only 14.

What can I do? Should I ignore this crush? I have judged people who have dated despite age gaps. (For example, a senior boy dating a sophomore girl.) But now I understand it. If the girl is older, does that complicate things?

I don't want to be seen as creepy or gross, but, to be honest, I'm not that experienced romantically or socially myself. (I have never even been to a real party.) Must I forget my feelings and move on, or do I talk to Julie and try to pursue this? -- TEEN CRUSH

DEAR TEEN CRUSH: Julie has already given you her answer. As you have pointed out, there is a bias against dating someone so much younger, and it could cause you problems not only with your peers, but also with the law if your relationship were to become sexual when you turn 18. That's why I'm suggesting you turn your romantic interests elsewhere. When you're BOTH adults, if you're still interested, you can pursue a romantic relationship then.

DEAR ABBY: My fiance and I are being married in a few days. We are expecting our first child a few days after that. The problem is my mother. We decided on a small ceremony, but my mother is opposed to the marriage because she doesn't like the idea of me marrying -- not just my fiance, but anyone. She has always told me a man will leave me destitute, pregnant with too many kids, and I won't be able to take care of myself. She has repeated it since I was about 10.

Because she has threatened to object at the ceremony, we decided not to invite her. We have invited his parents and my father and stepmother. Mom has said she will not allow my child to see her grandfather because "he is a bad person." She may have good intentions, but dictating who can be around my child is not her choice, considering she has had little to no contact with him in 25 years.

I wish she could be at our wedding, but she has now distanced herself from me and my fiance. Should I let her cool off and hope she comes around, or accept that this is the path she has chosen? Please advise, Abby. -- PROBLEM MOTHER IN KENTUCKY

DEAR PROBLEM MOTHER: Your mother may be anti-marriage because hers failed spectacularly. She appears to be a troubled woman. By all means, let her cool off, but do not allow her to dictate your life. If she does, her anger and bitterness could negatively affect your marriage.

DEAR ABBY: The winter months are hard for me. They remind me that another year has gone by without my father and my younger sister.

Dad had been a smoker since his teens and died from pancreatic cancer at 39. I was 13, and my siblings were younger. In those days, we didn't know that smoking was a risk factor for pancreatic cancer.

My sister smoked from the time she was 13. She died from lung cancer at 44, leaving behind two young sons.

Neither my father nor my sister got to experience the wonderful family milestones and celebrations we have had. Their grandchildren will never know them. Each year during the holidays, I feel a sadness in my heart.

I urge every smoker to make a vow to quit and carry it through, not only for their own sake but also their family's. Stay determined to quit so you won't cause your loved ones sadness and won't miss out on their futures. With all my heart, I wish smokers the best of luck in quitting. -- MISSING DAD AND SIS IN SACRAMENTO

DEAR MISSING: I'm glad you wrote because the American Cancer Society's annual Great American Smokeout will be held on Nov. 16. It's a day when millions of smokers put down their cigarettes -- just for one day -- with the conviction that if they can go 24 hours without one, then they can do it for 48 hours, 72 hours, and stop smoking for good. The idea grew out of a 1970 event in Randolph, Massachusetts, and became a national event in 1977.

Readers, I'm not going to harangue you with death threats. We are all aware of the grim statistics associated with cancer-related deaths caused by tobacco. If you're interested in quitting, this is a perfect opportunity. Call (800) 227-2345 to be connected with counseling services in your community, provided with self-help materials offering information and strategies on quitting for good, and to receive information about medications available to help you quit. This service is free and provided 24/7. Or go online to cancer.org.

DEAR ABBY: I need your help. Over the past few weeks, I have been vacationing at my mother-in-law's home. The other day I was browsing on her computer and accidentally opened her browsing history. It turns out that she regularly looks at and responds to Craigslist personals.

I was shocked when I read some of the perverted requests she has responded to. The language she used would make a sailor blush. Keep in mind, my mother-in-law is a married woman.

I don't know how to react. Should I tell my wife? Keep it to myself? Make a fake Craigslist post and catch her in the act? -- KINKS IN THE FAMILY

DEAR KINKS: If you disclose this to your wife, it could damage her relationship with her mother. If she tells her mother what you found, it will create a breach in the family. If you trap the woman by creating a fake Craigslist post and she realizes she has been made a fool of, it will not -- to put it mildly -- endear you to her. Let it lie.

DEAR ABBY: Help! I'm a 67-year-old man being relentlessly chased by a 68-year-old woman. I have told her I want to date other women and will be moving out of the country at the end of the year. Despite this, she is constantly trying to maneuver me into an exclusive relationship, probably ending in living together. I don't want to hurt her, but I'm at a loss as to how to get her to back off. -- HAPPILY UNCOMMITTED

DEAR UNCOMMITTED: Here's how. Tell her you can't handle the pressure she's putting on you and end the relationship NOW.

DEAR ABBY: I am in a predicament. My therapist is great, but sometimes I think she shares too much. Last time I went, she was running late. When I finally got into her office, she told me the previous patient was nonverbal and had painted her nails during the session. Later in the session, she confided that years ago she had been date raped.

Abby, I am in counseling because my father raped me when I was 15 (I am now 24). Her sharing has me worried because I don't want her telling others what I say or do during counseling. Further, her story of the date rape scared me. She described a situation that is not uncommon for me to be in, and it caused something almost like a flashback in me. I think what she did was insensitive, to say the least.

I have nobody else to ask, so what should I do? I'm getting counseling for free now due to my income, and it took months to get set up with a counselor. Should I report her or accept that this was a mistake and say nothing? If I need to report her, how would I go about doing that? -- CONFLICTED ABOUT IT

DEAR CONFLICTED: You should change therapists because it appears this one has more problems than you do. As to what agency you should report her breach of professional ethics to, contact the state organization that has licensed her to practice.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069
It is very frustrating when you have products but no customers, but at least there are measures you can take to alleviate the situation: cut production, reduce prices or find new customers. How much more frustrating it is to have customers and no products. Your disappointed customers will look elsewhere for alternatives and will be reluctant to return because they consider you to be unreliable.

That was the position that Hornby (HRN) got into when it outsourced production to China and lost control of the supply chain. The model trains maker never recovered from being caught short, the shares collapsed, profit warnings were issued, losses mounted, and now last years rights issue has been followed by a placing and open offer. The shares, relegated from the main market to AIM to save money, are at a new low.

I hope history does not repeat itself at digital inkjet specialist Xaar (XAR). Shareholders tolerated a flat first half on the assurance in July, repeated in September, that revenue from new products this year would be weighted towards the second half.

Alas due to supply constraints Xaar has not been able to fulfil all of the demand this year, so the second half will be no better than the first. It is rather worrying when a company knows well in advance that demand will increase yet it fails to ensure that there are adequate products available.

The company expects supplies to improve with new capacity coming on stream next year, leading to significant growth in 2018, but then thats the same promise that was broken this year. As Xaar admits, competition for installing new printers continues to intensify, so what is to stop rivals from pinching the frustrated customers?

The shares fell from 500p to 370p in less than a fortnight. You are braver than I am if you take a chance that they have hit the bottom yet.

Shame on You, easyJet

It used to be Ryanair (RYA) that thrived on outrageous statements but easyJet (EZJ) takes the biscuit for its disgraceful full year results announcement.

No fewer than 20 boastful bullet points made it look as if profits were up and, far worse, that the dividend had been increased. In fact, both were down, as anyone wading as far down as the results table would discover.

The shares jumped more than 5% at the opening. I wonder if some investors were fooled by this shameful misrepresentation. It is a warning that investors should read all the way through a results statement before rushing in. If that means you miss the best buying opportunity, too bad.

Oh, and by the way, isnt it time to end this silly business about starting a companys name with a lower-case letter and putting a capital in the middle? This gimmick rightly went out of fashion 15 years ago.

Unfortunately, Easyjet  there, Ive spelt it properly  isnt the only offender. Did you wonder why Severn Trent was so determined to hide its pre-tax profit figures, preferring to repeatedly use the profit before interest and tax figure?

In case you didnt guess, thats because PBIT was broadly flat, while the true profit figure showed a sharp decrease. By raising the dividend, an act which looks quite unjustified in the circumstances, the directors hoped you wouldnt notice the profit fall.

Whenever companies use PBIT, or any other measure that excludes interest payments, you should assume they are hiding something. The real profit figure will always be worse.

Britains Budget is No Laughing Matter

When a Budget is more memorable for the jokes than the financial content, you know it isnt much of a Budget. Philip Hammond looks increasingly grey to me and such measures as there were merely highlighted the lack of options he has.

Rather like Severn Trent, he chose not to draw attention to the fact that the UK growth figures have been revised downwards. He simply stated the new figures without comparison. I remain optimistic that we are still heading in roughly the right direction, but it does seem wise to include in any investment portfolio a strong presence of companies with international operations.

Rodney Hobson is a long-term investor commenting on his own portfolio; his comments are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, nor are they the opinions of Morningstar.
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This is a story of loggers, an energy company and turkey droppings - and a dispute that's putting a dent in Minnesota's Thanksgiving.

The company, Xcel Energy, wants to stop buying energy from three biofuel plants in Minnesota, one that runs on wood and turkey droppings and two others that run on wood only. The loggers, who risk losing their jobs, and turkey farmers, who would be left with a whole lot of surplus bird poop, are not happy.

Xcel says the energy it buys from the plants is too expensive. It wants to buy and shut down one plant and terminate contracts with the two others. Energy from the biomass plants costs 10 times more than wind-generated power, the utility estimates, and ditching them could save customers nearly $700 million over the next 11 years.

Loggers and truckers are suing Xcel in an effort to save the plants.

They say Xcel's plan violates past agreements. The plants support at least 100 jobs, the loggers and truckers say, and bolster the state's commitment to renewable energy. And without the biomass plants, Minnesota's forests would be cluttered with damaged or low-grade trees for which there is little other use, decreasing the health of woodlands and increasing the risk of forest fires.

As for the farmers who send turkey droppings to the biomass incinerator, they would be stuck with an estimated 250,000 tons of turkey excrement per year.

"Xcel Energy has really left us with no choice," said Scott Dane, who heads the Associated Contract Loggers and Truckers of Minnesota, a forestry industry group. The organization filed suit in Cass County Court last week.

"Turkey litter is a good fuel. It's a valuable resource," said Steve Olson, executive director of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, which is not part of the legal action but supports the lawsuit. "Given how quickly this is happening, it's going to be difficult for local farmers to find other users."

The dispute highlights the divergent fortunes of renewables like wind, solar and biomass. A dramatic fall in the costs of wind and solar power has driven strong growth in those sectors; biomass, however, has struggled.

Scientists have also raised questions about the ecological footprint of biomass and biofuels, which emit carbon dioxide when they are burned.

Biomass just hasn't attracted the level of attention or investment of other renewables, said Logan O'Grady of Clean Energy Economy Minnesota, an industry-led nonprofit group.

Turkey droppings are "not as sexy," he said.
Ariana Cubillos/STF

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday appointed a cousin of the country's late president, Hugo Chavez, to take the helm of Citgo, a Houston-based subsidiary of the country's state oil company, PDVSA.

Asdrubal Chavez, a former Venezuelan minister of petroleum and mining, will replace Citgo president Jose Pereira, who was arrested Tuesday in Venezuela along with five company vice presidents on charges of corruption.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has identified the trooper who was shot and killed during a traffic stop in East Texas.

DPS released a statement on its Twitter page identifying the trooper as 41-year-old Damon Allen. The agency says Allen joined the department in 2002 and was married with three children.

The department also says it will file capital murder charges against the suspect, 32-year-old Dabrett Black. He was taken into custody Thursday night in Waller County, more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of where Allen was shot.

Authorities say Black is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries following his apprehension.

Now Playing: FOX 26 News Reporter Randy Wallace Video: Fox29

___

9:10 p.m.

Authorities in Texas say the man suspected of killing a state trooper during a traffic stop has been taken into custody.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and other law enforcement agencies identified the suspect as 32-year-old Dabrett Black. The Harris County Sheriff's Office said on Twitter that Black was apprehended Thursday night in neighboring Waller County, more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of where the trooper was shot.

KYTX-TV reported in July that Black was charged with evading arrest, reckless driving and aggravated assault against a public servant following a police chase in Smith County.

___

8:45 p.m.

Authorities say a Texas state trooper has been killed and they're looking for a man in connection to the shooting.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said on Twitter that the shooting occurred before 4 p.m. Thursday on Interstate 45 south of Fairfield, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Dallas. The agency said the suspect shot and killed the trooper with a rifle during a traffic stop. The suspect then fled the scene.

The trooper has not been identified.

Hours later, the Waller County Sheriff's Office said the suspect's vehicle was spotted in Hempstead, more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of Fairfield. Waller County authorities said shots were fired, but did not indicate who opened fire.

Authorities from multiple agencies are searching for the suspect.
Dentsu Aegis Buys Oxyma for Merkle Expansion

Marcoms giant Dentsu Aegis Network has agreed to buy Netherlands and Dubai-based performance marketing agency Oxyma Group, which will subsequently be integrated into its Merkle subsidiary. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.



Launched in 2000, Oxyma is headquartered in Rotterdam with additional Dutch offices in Amsterdam and Breda, as well as its location in Dubai. The firm comprises a group of five specialist agencies for CRM, paid, owned and earned media. Dentsu Aegis says Oxyma reflects Merkle's core services, delivering personalisation at scale through CRM, loyalty, digital and media capabilities.



As part of the deal, which is subject to approval by the Dutch competition authority, all 300+ Oxyma employees will join Merkle, bringing the total EMEA business headcount to more than 1,000 employees. The firm's CEO Jos van Loo says the acquisition is a 'fast forward' for both companies to become a leading player in EMEA for data-driven, tech-enabled, people-based marketing.



Julius Minnaar, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Netherlands, adds: 'We are very proud to acquire Oxyma, which will enhance the prospects of our business in the Dutch market, ensuring we continue to deliver outstanding work for our clients in digital media, nationally and internationally. We welcome the Oxyma team into the fold and look forward to working with our new colleagues to leverage the exciting opportunities of the intersection between CRM, data, technology, and performance marketing'.



Web sites: www.dentsuaegisnetwork.com , www.merkleinc.com and www.oxyma.nl .




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Prominent Orlando attorney John Morgan put rumors of a Florida gubernatorial run to rest Friday, saying he won't be running  at least not as a Democrat.



In a tweet, the attorney known for his ubiquitous TV ads for his law firm, Morgan and Morgan, said he "can't muster the enthusiasm to run for the nomination."

Spent all of Thanksgiving with my whole family. While its amazing to be leading the polls for Governor without being a candidate I cant muster the enthusiasm to run for the nomination  John Morgan (@JohnMorganESQ) November 24, 2017

Rumors had been swirling for months that he'd make a bid for the Democratic nomination for the 2018 race.

But in a follow-up tweet, Morgan  who's been active in Democratic circles and has hosted President Barack Obama at his home for a fund-raiser  said that if he ever ran, it would be as an independent.

Now, on to the question of a possible @JohnMorganESQ independent #flgov candidacy. A lot's changed since @CharlieCrist's failed '10 indie bid for Senate: big money PCs, weaker parties & less party loyalty. And unlike Crist, Morgan's popular among voters of all stripes.  Troy Kinsey (@TroyKinsey) November 24, 2017

Morgan also is well-known for his support of medical marijuana and bankrolled support for Florida's constitutional amendment authorizing it.
NEW YORK  President Donald Trump's hometown tabloids have nearly identical front cover headlines to report his endorsement of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. They say, "I'm With Perv" and I'm With the Perv!"

The New York Daily News and New York Post often tackle the same topics on their front page, but only when the stars align do their colorful headline writers get the same idea. Both were reporting on Trump's backing of Moore, who is accused of sexually assaulting or molesting two girls decades ago. Moore denies the charge.
Plainview High School students in the Spanish Club and Spanish III classes competed at the Texas Tech University Language and Culture Day held on November 3 in the Foreign Language Building at Texas Tech University.

The event, sponsored by the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, allowed students the opportunity to compete in three areas: culture, literature, and creativity.

In the culture competition, students prepared table top displays that explained an aspect of the target culture. Displays were accompanied by a 300-500 word description outlining what was portrayed and why it is important for cultural understanding. Displays were assessed for the quality of their presentation and description.

For the literature competition, students, in teams of 2-4, prepared and gave oral presentations of poetry, prose, or drama in the target language before a panel of judges. Presentations were assessed for accuracy, pronunciation, intonation, and volume.

Creative presentations consisted of original works that include an element of the target language content  skits, dance routines, musical performances, etc. Creative presentations were assessed not only on the basis of creativity, but also for accuracy, pronunciation, intonation, and volume.

PHS students Milca Brunet Jaime and Maira Plascencia placed 2nd in the culture competition. Jaclyn Garza and Luis Hernandez placed 3rd in the creative competition.

As part of the days events, students were allowed to sit in on a college language class of their choice. These classes included beginning American Sign Language, beginning and advanced courses in French, Spanish, Latin and Russian.

Students attended a panel discussion with university professors and heard first-hand accounts of how second language acquisition can impact ones life and how it offers a window of opportunities when choosing careers.

Students also had the opportunity to tour the campus while they were there.

Teacher Marcelina Nava had this to say about the event, We have all heard how many advantages bilingual people have in this global world and these students were able to hear this from the testimonies of four college professors. Most of my students grew up speaking two languages and there is a world of opportunities out there for them. I believe all of these students were left empowered and inspired. Truly, the world is in their hands.
The Plainview Area Endowment, in partnership with United Supermarket on Olton Road and Amigos United Supermarket at 2403 North Columbia, is hosting a #GivingTuesday event from noon to 8:30 p.m.

Meant to correspond with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday is a day to give back to your local communities after the weekend shopping spree ends. The event was founded in 2012 by New Yorks 92nd Street Y in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. A global movement was launched that has engaged over 30,000 organizations worldwide.

We exist to provide support and resources to the Plainview community in order for it to continue thriving. We want to take care of our friends and neighbors, and feel the Plainview Area Endowment (PAE) is a great way to do it The money raised by our local endowment stays right here in Plainview, said Mark Warren, Advisory Board member Plainview Area Endowment and board member of the Community Foundation of West Texas.

Warren said the #GivingTuesday event will be an opportunity for businesses and citizens in the community to give back to the many organizations that benefit Plainview and the surrounding area. He said the event will allow people to either provide a one-time donation or become regular contributors to the program.

The PAE was established in 2010 to create stability and sustainability for the community as economic and demographic landscapes continue to change. As an affiliate of the Community Foundation of West Texas the PAE provides a vehicle for building permanent charitable endowments for the benefit of this community. Grants are awarded from funds based on the interest of the donor or through an open competitive process that is responsible to the changing needs of the Plainview area.

Warren said that the funds do not just help Plainview organizations, but the surrounding area as well, including Petersburg, Hale Center, Lockney and Floydada. He said that shoppers at either of the two stores will also be given the option to round up their purchases as a form of contribution to the Endowment.

He added that the overall objection of the PAE is to continue to grow so that the organization can fun even more groups in the Plainview area and that the #GivingTuesday event is an opportunity to help PAE expand its role.
SAN FRANCISCO  Uber is coming clean about its cover-up of a year-old hacking attack that stole personal information about more than 57 million of the beleaguered ride-hailing service's customers and drivers.

So far, there's no evidence that the data taken has been misused, according to a Tuesday blog post by Uber's recently hired CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi. Part of the reason nothing malicious has happened is because Uber acknowledges paying the hackers $100,000 to destroy the stolen information.

The revelation marks the latest stain on Uber's reputation. It also brought an investigation from New York's attorney general and threats of larger-than-normal fines from British authorities for failing to promptly disclose the hack.

The San Francisco company ousted Travis Kalanick as CEO in June after an internal investigation concluded he had built a culture that allowed female workers to be sexually harassed and encouraged employees to push legal limits.

It's also the latest major breach involving a prominent company that didn't notify the people that could be potentially harmed for months or even years after the break-in occurred.

Yahoo didn't make its first disclosure about hacks that hit 3 billion user accounts during 2013 and 2014 until September 2016. Credit reporting service Equifax waited several months before revealing this past September that hackers had carted off the Social Security numbers of 145 million Americans.

Khosrowshahi criticized Uber's handling of its data theft in his blog post.

"While I can't erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes," Khosrowshahi wrote. "We are changing the way we do business, putting integrity at the core of every decision we make and working hard to earn the trust of our customers."

That pledge shouldn't excuse Uber's previous regime for its egregious behavior, said Sam Curry, chief security officer for the computer security firm Cybereason.

"The truly scary thing here is that Uber paid a bribe, essentially a ransom to make this breach go away, and they acted as if they were above the law," Curry said. "Those people responsible for the integrity and confidentiality of the data in-fact covered it up."

The heist took the names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers of 57 million riders around the world. The thieves also nabbed the driver's license numbers of 600,000 Uber drivers in the U.S.

Uber waited until Tuesday to begin notifying the drivers with compromised driver's licenses, which can be particularly useful for perpetrating identify theft. For that reason, Uber will now pay for free credit-report monitoring and identity theft protection services for the affected drivers.

Kalanick, who still sits on Uber's board of directors, declined to comment on the data breach that took place in October 2016. Uber says the response to the hack was handled by its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, a former federal prosecutor whom Kalanick lured away from Facebook in 2015.

As part of his effort to set things right, Khosrowshahi extracted Sullivan's resignation from Uber and also jettisoned Craig Clark, a lawyer who reported to Sullivan.

Clark didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent through his LinkedIn profile. Efforts to reach Sullivan were unsuccessful.

On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office confirmed that it had opened an investigation into the data theft, but a spokeswoman wouldn't comment further. New York law requires that companies notify the attorney general and consumers if data is stolen.

In London, Britain's Deputy Information Commissioner James Dipple-Johnstone said Wednesday the company faces "higher fines" because it concealed the hack from the public.

The Information Commissioner's Office and the National Cyber Security Center are working to gauge the severity of the problem for British Uber users.

Uber's silence about its breach came while it was negotiating with the Federal Trade Commission about its handling of its riders' information.

Earlier in 2016, the company reached a settlement with the New York attorney general requiring it to take steps to be more vigilant about protecting the information that its app stores about its riders. As part of that settlement, Uber also paid a $20,000 fine for waiting to notify five months about another data breach that it discovered in September 2014.
DALLAS  Texas Congressman Joe Barton is apologizing after a nude photo of him circulated on social media.

Barton released a statement Wednesday to the Texas Tribune acknowledging that while separated from his second wife, prior to their divorce, he had sexual relationships "with other mature adult women."

The 68-year-old Republican from Ennis says each relationship was consensual and has since ended. He says, "I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down."

Barton announced his re-election bid this month. The photo appeared on an anonymous Twitter account.

His spokeswoman told The Dallas Morning News that Barton has no plans to step down.

Barton joined the U.S. House in 1985. He's the longest-serving member of Congress from Texas.
Preparing teens for their futures with soft skills Businesses of every size and industry continue to identify labor shortages as a top challenge  across the country and...

Where to find non-partisan ballot information Thank you for your non-biased bullet points explaining the three state ballot proposals in "A look at the three state...
DALLAS  An FBI official said Tuesday that the bureau is investigating the death of a border patrol agent and severe injuries to another as "potential assault," but he wouldn't rule out that they could have been hurt in some other way.

Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie Jr. said during a news conference in El Paso that investigators are still trying to "gather the facts," but they are currently treating it as an assault on a federal officer.

The couched language comes more than two days after U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Rogelio Martinez succumbed to traumatic head injuries and broken bones suffered while on duty, and after several politicians portrayed his death as the result of an attack.

Martinez died Sunday and his partner, whose name has not been released, was seriously injured. They were found late Saturday in a culvert near Van Horn, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the border with Mexico and 110 miles (175 kilometers) southeast of El Paso.

At Tuesday's news conference, Buie and U.S. Border Patrol Acting Chief Victor Velazquez did not say why they believed the agents may have been attacked.

Authorities haven't said whether they have any suspects. The state of Texas is offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction, and the FBI on Tuesday tacked on an additional $25,000.

A U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation told the Associated Press Martinez may have fallen into the culvert. The official said Martinez's partner, who radioed for help, was still recovering in the hospital and has no memory of what happened. The official, who was briefed on the investigation spoke on condition of anonymity and is not authorized to speak publicly, said it happened after dark in an area that's known for drug activity and where agents often look for drugs in culverts.

Rush Carter, a border patrol supervisor for the region that includes the area where the agents were injured, said Monday night that reports it was an attack were "speculation." But several elected officials, including President Donald Trump, referred to it as such.

When asked about the president's remarks Tuesday, Buie said he had not briefed Trump on the investigation.

An FBI spokeswoman told the San Antonio Express-News on Sunday that the agents were "not fired upon," but she didn't elaborate.

Martinez's mother, Elvia Martinez, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she and her husband are also awaiting more information. She said she didn't yet know any details about the circumstances surrounding their son's death.

"He was a very accomplished person and loved his work," she said tearfully and in Spanish.

Rogelio Martinez, father to an 11-year-old, joined the Border Patrol in 2013.

Chris Cabrera, a spokesman for a border patrol agents union, the National Border Patrol Council, told The Associated Press that the two agents appeared to have been struck in the head with a rock or rocks. Cabrera said agents who responded to the scene described it as "grisly" and said Martinez and his partner had "extensive injuries."

Trump took to Twitter on Sunday to insist that Martinez's death underscores the need for a wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The president offered his condolences to Martinez's family. He also said Martinez's partner was "brutally beaten and badly, badly hurt" but that it "looks like he'll make it."

Authorities haven't said whether they think drug smugglers or people who were in the country illegally were involved.

Martinez is the second agent to have died this year.

The Border Patrol website lists 38 agents, not including Martinez, who have died since late 2003. Some were attacked while working along the border and others were killed in traffic accidents.
ATLANTA  Equifax is nearing the end of an embarrassing, awful year.

Since announcing in September that hackers had accessed its data on more than 145 million consumers, the Atlanta-based company has been dealing with sustained backlash. And theres more to come as the credit reporting agency steers through a slew of obstacles, from the costs of placating consumers to the threats of legal actions.

But, even though the company failed at its core mission of protecting personal data, odds are still good that Equifax will emerge stable and successful, analysts say.

Thats because Equifax is needed, since there are only three big credit bureaus, said Jim Wanserski, who worked for Arthur Andersen and made a career rooting out fraud and corporate malfeasance.

Competition helps tune the engine, said Wanserski, who runs the consulting group Wanserski & Associates.

The company understands its failures, said spokeswoman Meredith Griffanti.

We have apologized and continue to apologize for the incident, and we also acknowledged that we let everyone down by the way our response was initially handled, she said. Consumers put their trust in us, and we did not live up to their expectations.

Shortly after Equifax announced the data breach, it was revealed that three executives had sold about $1.8 million in stock before the news broke and the stock price plunged.

The companys top executive resigned. Two other high-ranking officials took retirement. There were other incidents, like the hacking of a web page for customer service.

Still its seems unlikely to suffer the fate of Arthur Andersen, which was virtually destroyed in the aftermath of the Enron collapse. Andersen had been the auditor for Enron, a once-huge energy company that committed systematic and massive fraud.

What happened to Andersen is not going to happen here, said Humayun Zafar, professor in the department of information systems at Kennesaw State University.

Equifax is addressing its problems, Griffanti said. The company has bolstered its security, she said.

Security is our top priority along with regaining consumers trust, she said. Our interim CEO has ordered a top-down review of all of our security protocols. Additionally, we are investing significantly to harden security, and we expect that spike in investment to continue for a period of time.

John Campbell, a professor in the accounting school at the University of Georgias Terry College of Business, said he hasnt seen signs that a pervasive culture is behind the problems at Equifax.

Certainly, it can be an issue  Arthur Andersen has a culture problem, he said. It is possible that the culture of the entire organization is corrupt. But I doubt it. Maybe it was a matter of tone at the top, but they have addressed that.

Whatever Equifax is doing now must serve the companys core mission, he said. For me, the only thing that matters is the quality of your service. You have to admit that the next couple of quarters will be difficult. You have to earn the customers trust back. You have to make the customer the focus every day. You have to play the long game.

That means ignoring things that a company might otherwise pay attention to  like the stock price.

And while millions of American adults are hoping that Equifax can stop hackers from breaching their data again, a smaller group is betting many millions of dollars on it by purchasing and holding shares of Equifax stock.

Until the massive breach was revealed, Equifax was a fairly obscure multi-billion-dollar company that just happened to be essential to the financial system. Then the company became national news, the butt of late-night humor, the subject of congressional inquests and law enforcement investigation.

Investors seem to think the company is damaged, just not fatally.

Equifax peaked above $143 a share just as the breach was being announced. In just more than a week, shares fell below $93. But by Thanksgiving week, shares had struggled back about one-third of the way to where they had been.

I think thats an overhang from the breach, which we said would probably happen, said Kevin Crowley, adjunct professor of finance at Emory Universitys Goizueta School of Business. I think its a wait-and-see attitude that will likely continue for some time  I would say it will be six months to a year.
PORTLAND  From Dec. 4 to Dec. 29 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will close the road on top of Foster Dam to all vehicle and pedestrian traffic to allow the removal of a large crane.

The Corps used the crane and elevator system for adult fish collection and passage over Foster Dam. However, the equipment wasn't fully successful in moving fish above the dam in an efficient manner and Corps biologists concluded there were better options.

"We found that transporting fish directly to the South Santiam allowed the fish to spawn more successfully," said Greg Taylor, Portland District fisheries biologist. "The crane became obsolete once we upgraded the fish facility."

Currently, the Corps partners with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to move fish above the dam after the fish climb a fish ladder to a collection facility, also known as "trap and haul." The crane is now in the way of Corps efforts to pass juvenile fish downstream of the dam, which is a requirement of the Willamette Valley Biological Opinion.

The Corps has been using a "fish weir" to allow fish to pass over a spillway at Foster Dam and are upgrading that weir. The new weir is taller and it won't allow Corps staff to place or remove it if the crane remains in place.

A fish weir is a structure that the Corps places in a dam's spillway to manage water for juvenile fish passage. The weir constrains the release of water to maintain flow requirements, provides attraction for fish (stream-like flow from the surface of the reservoir) and creates a "cushion" of water when landing on the spillway. This cushion makes the fall from the reservoir less harmful for the fish.

The new weir is expected to effectively improve attraction, passage and survival of juvenile Chinook salmon and steelhead, said Jeffery Hicks, Portland District structural engineer. It will do this, while minimizing impacts to other benefits of Foster Dam, such as flood risk management, hydropower generation and recreation, he continued.

The Corps will install a newly designed fish weir at Foster later this winter, which should increase the cushion for fish migrating downstream.
EAST PALO ALTO, Calif.  Adrian Bonilla lived in a shared house in this Silicon Valley town with his wife and two grandchildren until earlier this year, when the rent for their bedroom jumped to $1,200 from $900 a month. Bonilla attributed that rise to Facebook, which is based nearby and was growing.

So Bonilla, a 43-year-old mechanic and Uber driver, bought a 1991 recreational vehicle and joined a family-oriented RV community on a quiet cul-de-sac. They lived there until last week, when Bonilla received an eviction notice.

This time, Bonilla said, the reason he had to move was because the city wanted to clear the way for the Facebook school. That school is funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited liability company set up by Facebooks co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to work on social change endeavors. Chan is a co-founder of the school, a private institution for low-income children called the Primary School.

Despite the goodwill behind the school, it has been met with opposition.

The school is a Facebook school. Its not a city school, Bonilla said, adding that he knew he would have to move again when he heard about it. When Facebook comes, everybody moves everywhere.

Zuckerberg is already facing plenty of troubles across the globe, including questions about Russian interference on Facebook during the 2016 election. The skirmish between the couples initiative and the RV community, which city officials said was becoming a flood hazard, is a reminder of how the billionaire also faces difficulties on his own doorstep.

For many in East Palo Alto, which is just blocks from Facebooks headquarters in Menlo Park, California, no CEO and company have come to embody the anxieties of the modern tech boom more than Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. At a meeting last Wednesday at East Palo Altos City Hall, about 100 residents and protesters gathered with city staff to discuss their housing and some invoked Zuckerbergs name.

I want to talk about the elephant in the room, said Zach Kirk, 20, a Stanford University student who grew up in Palo Alto. Actually, hes not in the room, hes in some mansion: Mark Zuckerberg.

Wherever Zuckerberg goes in Silicon Valley, he seems to generate a housing problem. In 2014, after the tech mogul bought a house in San Francisco, neighbors complained about construction, his security detail, the parking and how his presence would inflate prices. Earlier this year, protesters marched in East Palo Alto to denounce the displacement of residents because of big tech companies like Facebook.

The battles are likely to grow as Facebook continues its expansion in Menlo Park, with 1.75 million square feet of new office space expected to be built. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has also been growing, staffing up as it prepares to invest Zuckerbergs enormous fortune in efforts like his stated goal to cure, prevent, and manage all disease.

Community members expect more tension later this month at an East Palo Alto town hall hosted by Real Community Coalition, a local citizens group, and featuring Facebook. At the meeting, residents will have the opportunity to ask Facebook executives questions about the companys role in the community.

Connections are at the core of everything we do at Facebook and our relationship with residents of East Palo Alto is no different, Juan Salazar, a public policy manager for Facebook, said in a statement.

The social network has been lobbying to build more housing in the region, which Silicon Valley cities, worried about traffic and preferring a commercial over residential tax base, have fought against. In East Palo Alto, Facebook has invested $18.5 million into the Catalyst Housing Fund, an affordable housing initiative; the company has set a goal to grow the fund to $75 million.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is also writing grants for affordable housing, said working side by side with local communities was core to our work. In a statement, the Primary School said the episode with the RV residents was frustrating and emblematic of larger housing issues in the Bay Area, but that it was not aware of East Palo Altos action to evict those residents and had not engaged with city officials on the matter.

East Palo Altos residents have long felt disempowered against change brought by tech leaders like Zuckerberg. A 2.6-square-mile town where one-third of the schoolchildren are homeless, it has stood as a sign that Silicon Valleys wealth might not spread to those beyond its tech campuses. And so even as Zuckerbergs limited liability company seeks to build a school here, many of its residents are skeptical.

CZIs just walking into something with a lot of baggage, said Daniel Saver, a lawyer with the Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, which receives funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. People here have been pushed around by very big interests and have been taken advantage of for decades. 

Paul Bains, a pastor and president of Project WeHope, a local organization funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, said that the initiative needed to figure out how to interact with wary residents. They have to learn how to communicate with communities of color, Bains said.

The recent evictions at the RV enclave were not requested by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, said Donna Rutherford, an East Palo Alto City Council member and a former mayor of the town. Instead, city officials said the area had become a flood hazard as rains were coming and the vehicles had spilled wastewater into storm drains.

Let me just walk you through the gross part, said Michelle Daher, an environmental management analyst for East Palo Alto, heading to a storm drain last week where she said 6,000 gallons of waste from RVs had to be pumped one day.

Daher pointed out the future site of the school, an empty lot surrounded by a chain-link fence. This obviously is the Chan Zuckerberg location, she said. She added that the flood-prone street would be rebuilt for the school, so the RVs would have had to move in any case.

Sean Charpentier, East Palo Altos assistant city manager, said the region had been squeezed by the wealth around it and that the homeless population had grown. Were a receptacle for the externalities around us, he said. Its felt more deeply here because this city was formed to provide safe and affordable housing.

Patricia Lopez, 48, who owns a home on the street where the RVs were parked, said the trouble for the RV residents began after a community meeting that Facebook executives attended.

They didnt introduce themselves, but the organizer said, Facebook is in the house, and they waved. And ever since then, its been heavy harassment, heavy policing, she said, which ultimately led to the evictions.

At last weeks City Hall meeting, residents and protesters expressed support for the school but anxiety over the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The first step is to make sure quasi-affiliated supposed philanthropic organizations dont set the policy, said Johannes Muenzel, 28, a software engineer who is the co-chairman of Silicon Valleys Democratic Socialists of America chapter.

Kirk, the Stanford student, stood in the back, organizing other students. He said he had never seen so much grass-roots energy to protest among his cohort.

Its sprung up out of nowhere. This is the issue we need to focus on, he said, adding that it was remarkable to get so many Stanford students protesting on a school night.

By 11 p.m., protesters and city staff were getting agitated and tired. Eventually, the Public Works and Transportation Commission recommended that city staff pursue a long-term solution for the RV community by working with nonprofit organizations and by looking into a ban on oversize vehicles parking overnight.

Facebook said a senior executive attended the meeting. Nearly 50 community members spoke that night. The Facebook executive did not.
Motts Fruity Rolls. Tide detergent pods. Art of the Shave razors.

These are just some of the surprises e-commerce shoppers have found when their packages arrived  tucked, for example, inside the childrens pajamas from Zulily, the sheets from Bed Bath & Beyond or the mens shirts from Brooks Brothers.

The retail world no longer guarantees face-to-face opportunities to pitch new products to consumers  a taste test in a supermarket aisle, an impulse-purchase display at the checkout counter  because shoppers no longer have to leave home to buy. So the in-package free sample has become a key marketing and customer-loyalty-building tool in online commerce because of its seemingly undeniable popularity.

Who doesnt like free? Especially when something has real value, said Craig Kapilow, senior director of brand partnerships and integrated marketing at Rue La La, an invitation-only online shop offering short-lived deals on brand-name merchandise.

The answer: No one doesnt like free, apparently, and thats meant enormous success for a Philadelphia-area family-run business founded before e-commerce was a thing.

BrandShare, based in Berwyn, Pa., is believed to be the worlds first and largest media and e-commerce sampling company, providing 74 million value-add product inserts a month and expected to reach between $40 million and $50 million in revenue this year. Triple-digit growth since 2013 earned the company  created in 1984 by Dick Guyer and one of his nine children, Doug  a spot on the Inc. 5000 this year.

E-commerce is projected to reach $700 billion in the United States by year-end, and brand spending on product sampling is expected to total $34.12 billion this year, according to the Path to Purchase Institute in Chicago. The Guyer familys decision to redirect its focus to the online shopping world seems genius.

If we wouldnt have made this change, we wouldnt be where we are today, said Doug Guyer, president of the company of 54 employees, split mostly between Berwyn and New York City. BrandShare also has offices in Bentonville, Ark., and San Francisco, primarily to serve Wal-Mart, one of its biggest retail clients, and in Chicago, home to a major brand whose products it samples, Wrigley.

Founded initially as International Direct Response, the company was proposing a new revenue stream  media inserts, such as credit-card offers  for catalog companies Dick Guyer, now retired in Florida, had served as a list broker. (List brokers help companies get their message to the right audiences.) Doug Guyer graduated from Boston College in 1983 with a degree in marketing.

Then came the idea to expand beyond media inserts (paperwork basically) to product samples. Their first job: placing 200,000 Tylenol packets, along with coupons for the pain reliever, in catalog orders from Cabelas, Eddie Bauer, and Sportsmans Guide.

Johnson & Johnson was so pleased with the results that in increased the number of samples to 4 million five months later, Doug Guyer said. The company has been a great partner ever since, he said.

As retailing changed, so did the Guyers business, rebranded this year as BrandShare. By the mid- to late 1990s, that meant media and product sampling in e-commerce orders.

BrandShare pays retailers a fee, the specifics of which Doug Guyer would not disclose, to get samples included in their outgoing packages. It makes money by charging brands a fee to get their products placed, and almost guaranteed notice.

Were going to put your product into a FedEx or UPS package that gets opened 100 percent of the time in a very positive environment, Guyer said.

It just has to be that perfect synergistic fit, his sister Kathie Tuoni, chief operating officer, said of the product-retailer matches BrandShare makes.

The biggest opportunities are for fashion retailers, Tuoni said, whose customers are a receptive audience to the beauty and skin-care products available for sampling. Mothers with young children are another prime sampling audience, she said. Hence the Motts Fruity Rolls and Legos that have gone in Zulily orders.

Another plus about moms and millennials, Tuoni said, is that they are huge social media users inclined to gush about their free samples on Facebook and Instagram. Advertising gold.

Since Zulily started sampling with BrandShare in 2015, it has increased its volume of samples about 28 percent each year, Doherty said. They have included Teddy Soft Bakes, Back to Natures Macaroni and Cheese, Brookside Chocolates, Werthers Original caramels, and Bic 4 Color Pens.

Its added value, Doherty said.

Currently, BrandShare provides samples in 42 lifestyle categories, said Doug Guyer, who said client retention rate is 93 percent annually.

With all that momentum, there are still worries. A sample arriving broken, or, worse, causing damage to the ordered shirt or pants it accompanies. Or a retailer deciding to bring in-house the work BrandShare does.

Thats what keeps me up at night, Doug Guyer said.
MONTPELIER, Vt.  Can a tomato grown in a nutrient solution instead of dirt be called organic? Some purists dont think so.

The National Organic Standards Board, which advises the U.S. Department of Agriculture, voted earlier this month against a proposal to exclude hydroponics and aquaponics  the raising of plants without soil and fish using the same water  from the USDAs organic certification program.

Many traditional organic farmers and their supporters say allowing hydroponic farms to be certified organic erodes the integrity of the $16 billion U.S. organic produce industry.

To them, organic farming is about far more than not using toxic pesticides; its rooted in enhancing the fertility of soils, a concept developed in the early 20th century by pioneering organic farmers. Organic farmers worked hard to create the National Organic Program in 2000, an achievement they say is now being watered down by allowing hydroponic farms to be part of it.

Unfortunately those very things that it was created to do, which I think in the beginning it did do, is now really damaging because theyre certifying things that none of us believe are organic, said Dave Chapman, of Long Wind Farm in East Thetford, Vermont.

Traditional organic farmers feel like this is a complete slap in the face, said Andrianna Natsoulas, executive director of Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York. They feel that organic now is a complete joke and it means absolutely nothing, and their years of working and their dedication and their commitment is for naught.

The Organic Trade Association said it did not support the proposal to prohibit hydroponics because of the way it was written.

Marianne Cufone, executive director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition, which represents hydroponic and aquaponic farmers, said the law left room for the meaning of organic to expand. She said she was shocked that so many people opposed hydroponic and aquaporin farming from being labeled as such.

I thought it was an absolute no-brainer that hydroponics and aquaporin, when done well, can meet organic standard and why wouldnt anyone want that included, she said. Theyre excellent on water reduction. Theyre excellent on space use. Theyre excellent on intensive production, so were using less resources and creating more food. That just seems smart.

Many such farms are interested in becoming certified organic because its a growing market, she said. And it essentially puts this style of farming at a premium as well, she said.

That leaves traditional organic farmers really concerned about the competition theyll face in the marketplace, Natsoulas said.

Diane Nancekivell, of Middlebury, Vermont, typically pays that premium to get organic produce. While shopping at Healthy Living Market & Cafe in South Burlington, Vermont, she said she was excited to get hydroponic fruits and vegetables in the winter and has no problem with them not being grown in soil.

Fellow shopper Chrysanne Chotis, of South Burlington, Vermont, said she didnt find the flavor of hydroponic produce as interesting as other produce she buys.

Some farmers are going to start working on finding an alternative to USDA certification that represents real organic farmers, Chapman said.

Its a tough thing. Nobody wants to do it ... but what else can we do? If you believe in it, what else can you do?
In 2013, Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor, announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission would be adopting a strategy once championed by Rudolph W. Giuliani in New York: Broken windows, the idea that addressing relatively small issues like vandalized panes of glass can deter larger misdeeds down the road.

So over the next few years, the SEC pursued dozens of cases for small, technical transgressions with the goal of scaring off bigger infractions.

Minor violations that are overlooked or ignored can feed bigger ones, and, perhaps more importantly, can foster a culture where laws are increasingly treated as toothless guidelines, White said at the time.

Now, data shows that during the first months of the Trump administration, the agency may be scaling back those efforts.

SEC penalties fell 15.5 percent to $3.5 billion this fiscal year compared to 2016, according to data compiled by Georgetown University law professor Urska Velikonja. The SEC filed 62 enforcement actions against public companies and their subsidiaries in fiscal 2017, a 33 percent decline from the previous year, according to another study released earlier this month by the New York University Pollack Center for Law & Business and Cornerstone Research.

The reports may reflect little more than a temporary pause as leadership transitioned from White to Jay Clayton, a former Wall Street lawyer, who took over in May. The decline also coincides with a slowdown in government hiring; the agencys enforcement division may have 100 open positions among investigators and supervisors by September, agency officials have said.

But regulatory experts worry the drop suggests a change in the relationship between regulators and the business community in the Trump administration.

Sagging numbers signal a chilling retreat from enforcement, which was already milquetoast following the financial crash, said Bart Naylor, a financial policy advocate for the civic group Public Citizen. By the Enforcement divisions own accounting, they are receiving reports of suspicious activity many orders of magnitude greater than what results in a sanction. Wall Street has never been an Eagle Scout alumni association, but failure by the Clayton SEC to elevate enforcement and hold individuals to severe penalties will only attract more scams.

During the Obama administration, the agency, still struggling to answer criticism that it had not done enough to hold Wall Street responsible for the financial crisis, went after high-dollar corporate fines. Some found the results lacking. White had said the agency, for example, would force more companies to admit wrongdoing as part of their settlements with the agency. But only about 2 percent of 2,063 cases filed between 2014 through 2017 involved such admissions, according to research by David Rosenfeld, a professor at the Northern Illinois University College of Law.

Meanwhile, Clayton has indicated that he will take the agency in a different direction. For example, he has said he would prefer to avoid penalizing corporations over wrongdoing due to a single individual. In those cases, he has argued, company shareholders are forced to pay for the misdeeds rather than the employee. Companies are more complicated because you can have a relatively junior person in terms of the hierarchy who is a bad actor, who youre getting rid of. And I have a hard time making shareholders pay substantially for that type of activity, he told the House Financial Services Committee last month.

At a conference last month, Steven Peikin, co-director of the SECs enforcement division, indicated that the agency is also not enthusiastic about the SECs previous effort to force companies to acknowledge wrongdoing. When I heard about the admissions policy, it didnt really knock me down, he said.

Instead, Clayton has said the agency will focus on corporate wrongdoing that affects small, personal investors. It recently launched a task force to go after crimes against so-called retail investors.

There are too many frauds for the SEC to prosecute, so the SEC has to choose, said Velikonja, the Georgetown University law professor. Clayton appears to be choosing to go after small players who steal a lot of money from few people, and to go easier on big players who put many people at risk of losing small amounts of money, but large in the aggregate. Its that choice thats debatable, in particular since other law enforcement agencies also go after Ponzi schemes, but fewer go after large firms.

Agency officials have said that doesnt mean the SEC will shy away from tough cases. In a recent report, the agency called 2017 a successful and impactful year for its enforcement division, noting that it had returned more than $1 billion to harmed investors.

I want to address one question that we have received a lot, Stephanie Avakian, co-director of the SEC enforcement division, said in a recent speech. That is, whether our enhanced retail focus means that we are allocating fewer resources to financial fraud and policing Wall Street. The answer to that question is simple: No. The premise that there is a trade-off between Wall Street and Main Street enforcement is a false one.
Paula Deen's Family Kitchen will open its San Antonio location inside Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World at The Rim, according to a press release.

The restaurant is expected to open in spring 2018. It will be the first of its kind to open within a Bass Pro Shops nationwide, according to the press release.
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ANSONIA  Funeral services are set for Charles Seccombe, the longtime owner of Seccombe's Men's Shop, a landmark business in the heart of downtown Ansonia.

Until recently, you could find Seccombe still working at the business that has been a staple in the Valley community for 93 years.

Seccombe, a U.S. Marine who served in World War II, died on Nov. 18 at age 91 with family at his side.

For generations of Valley residents, Seccombes was the place to buy that first suit, fine mens clothing or rent a tux to the prom.

Seccombe's Men's Shop was first established in a small storefront at 52 Main St. in 1924 by Lionel Seccombe when he was 25.

According to the stores web site, Despite opening (before) the height of the Great Depression, Lionel steadily built a loyal clientele over the years with an old fashioned work ethic, fairly priced quality merchandise and an uncompromising commitment to superior customer service. Lionels son, Charles, entered the family business upon his return from serving with the United States Marine Corps in WWII.

In 1952, Lionel purchased a more spacious location at 171 Main St. in Ansonia, the present location of Seccombe's Men's Shop. Just three years after the move, Lionel and Charles faced the challenge of rebuilding after the Great Flood of 1955. Most of the store's stock was lost in the flood and the building was damaged extensively. Due to the extraordinary resilience of the father and son team, the business not only survived but thrived.

Charless son, Gregg, is the stores third generation owner.

For many years, Charles Seccombes store, a haberdashery in the middle of the downtown, had a rich and varied collection of antiques and curios that attracted people from around the Naugatuck Valley: antique war memorabilia, swords from the Civil War, 1800s fire helmets, 1920s milk bottles from former Valley dairies, even 1950s beer cans.

Also on display was a carbon arc light, an invention of William Wallace, creator of a powerful dynamo. Wallace had coupled the dynamo to a water-powered turbine that generated electric current a quarter mile to the arc lights leading to the American Brass Co.

Thomas Edison, a contemporary of Wallace's, visited Wallace's Ansonias shop in 1878 and, historical accounts say, was inspired by the electric generator and arc lighting he saw there. It helped lead the way to Edison's creation of the light bulb.

In many ways, Seccombes store was a link to the past. Charles Seccombes knowledge of the Valley of years gone by made him a living connection to history, a man who remembered the names and faces of people and shops that called the Valley home.

Seccombe also claimed a connection to Capt. John Tomlinson, the Valleys Paul Revere, who raced on horseback in 1777 toward Derby yelling, The British are in New Haven  Look out for your pork, look out for your pork!

Thus, began the legend of Pork Hollow and how Derby patriots daringly outsmarted the British by hiding military supplies and provisions.

Born on April 22, 1926, son of the late Lionel H. Seccombe Sr. and Alta Mae Tomlinson Seccombe, and adopted mother Louisa Burne Seccombe, he was a lifelong resident of Ansonia.

He was married to Agnes Nancy Fisher Seccombe, for 68 years.

He was a veteran of the US Marine Corps during WWII, serving in the Pacific Theater. Serving as a staff sergeant, he was extremely proud of the work he did in China as a Marine. Charles was a longtime member of the King Hiram Lodge #12 Masonic Order, the Eagle Hose Hook and Ladder Company No. 6 and the First Congregational Church of Ansonia, his death notice reads.

A true pillar of the Community, Charles' Civic contributions were immeasurable. He participated on various boards and volunteered with several organizations including the Valley Chamber of Commerce, Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, Derby Historical Society, Valley YMCA, Boy Scouts of America, the Pine Grove Cemetery Association and the former Ansonia Derby Water Company.

Beside his wife, he is survived by three children: Susan Cox (Michael), of Allentown, Pa.; Charles Seccombe Jr. (Renee) of Milton, GA, and Gregg Seccombe (Shayne) of Seymour. He also is survived by six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren; his brother Donald (Fern), and sister Laura Lane (Edward), and sister-in-law Jane Seccombe. He was predeceased by his brother Lionel.

Calling hours will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Monday at Jenkins King and Malerba Funeral Home, 12 Franklin St. Funeral services will be held in the First Congregational Church at 11 a.m. Tuesday followed by burial with full military honors at Pine Grove Cemetery.

Contributions may be made to the First Congregational Church Book of Remembrance of Ansonia, 44 S. Cliff St., Ansonia, CT 06401 or to the Derby Historical Society, 37 Elm St., Ansonia, CT 06401.
LONDON - During a fretful hour Friday afternoon, Londoners braced for confirmation of yet another attack, something that has become familiar in the British capital this year. Amid rumors of gunshots, shoppers fled down Oxford Street, one of the busiest retail districts in the world on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

In the end, it appeared to be a false alarm. London's Metropolitan Police said they could not find evidence of shots fired or casualties.

The police said that at 4:38 p.m., they received several calls reporting gunshots in the area.

"Given the nature of the info received we responded as if the incident was terrorism," the police said in a tweet. Armed officers poured into the crowded Oxford Street area in the heart of London and ordered people to take shelter.

The scenes in the ensuing hour were ones of panic. Video from Oxford Circus uploaded to social media showed pedestrians fleeing the area as armed police officers arrived. Many people jumped on Twitter and other social media sites to say that they were holed up in nearby department stores and offices.

Emily Hooper, 39, was one of hundreds of people who work in the area whose offices were in lockdown as police scrambled to figure out what was happening.

"We heard so many different stories - it's quite frustrating," she said minutes after she was let out of her building. She said there were rumors of gunshots and of a truck mowing down pedestrians. "It's just madness that people say that kind of stuff when it's not actually happening. It fuels the frenzy and fear and stampede that follows."

After a little more than an hour of instructing Londoners to stay inside, police gave an all-clear signal.

Several attacks this year have put England's capital city on edge. In September, a homemade bomb was detonated on a subway car at the Parsons Green station, injuring nearly 30 commuters. Three vehicle attacks, one in March and two in June, left 12 people dead and dozens others wounded.

Minutes after the police lifted the cordon around Oxford Street, normal life resumed. The parked double-decker buses started up their engines. Some storekeepers opened their shops. Thousands of people carrying shopping bags flooded back into the area to seek out Black Friday sales.

But there were still signs of the panic that gripped the area earlier. At H&M, for instance, the doors remained locked as staff swept up broken glass that covered the floor. Another store also remained closed as staff cleaned up plant vases that had been smashed. Outside, a pair of shoes was abandoned on the sidewalk.

Hopper acknowledged that the city felt jittery even before the incident Friday. But at the end of the day, she said, Londoners just get on with daily life: "You just have to keep carrying on. You can't not live."
After initial reports that the Oregon Health Authority incorrectly paid state health care organizations $74 million or so in federal Medicaid money from 2014 to 2016, Gov. Kate Brown took action: Among other steps, she told Patrick Allen, the new head of the state agency, to send her an update every two weeks on the latest developments.

Brown got the first update last week. At this point, the state of Oregon might not be able to afford many additional updates: The big headline from last week's report was that the state might have overpaid its contractors or could owe other entities another $78 million. As reported by The Oregonian and the East Oregonian, the issues ranged from the state paying Medicaid benefits for unauthorized immigrants to incorrectly using federal funds to pay for abortions.

The Health Authority also apparently has problems collecting money that it's owed. Allen told the governor that the agency is owed some $34 million that it hasn't been able to collect or that it hasn't been able to access because of various accounting issues.

Allen noted that he and other agency staffers still are working to get their arms around all the issues, so these numbers could change. In an interview last week with Oregon Public Broadcasting, he traced some of the agency's problems back to the state's bungled rollout of the Cover Oregon insurance exchange and also said, more or less, that some of these were the sorts of growing pains that were not atypical in a relatively new agency like the Health Authority.

There's undoubtedly some merit to both of those contentions. But one big problem for the state is that these bombshells, now due to appear every two weeks or so for the foreseeable future, continue to cast a long shadow over the January special election on whether to overturn some $340 million in increased health taxes that legislators approved earlier this year. The taxes are meant to help fill a funding gap in the state's Medicaid program (better known here as the Oregon Health Plan).

Proponents say the increased taxes are necessary to ensure that Oregon residents in need can continue to access important health services. Opponents say it's not their intention to deny that access; they just believe legislators can find other ways to fill that funding gap.

But those arguments likely will be overshadowed in the next few weeks by a different question: Can the Health Authority be trusted to adequately administer the money that would be raised by the taxes? We don't doubt that Allen and his staff are working as hard as they can and as quickly as possible to fix some of these systemic issues in the agency. It's very possible that Allen's next few reports will contain snippets of good news.

But will those snippets, if they emerge, be enough to convince skeptical voters to uphold the new taxes? You never know about these things (and keep in mind that this likely will not be an issue that voters really start to focus on until after the holidays), but that seems like a long shot to us.

There is one additional thing that might help Brown make the case, but it's a step she's resisted: She can appoint an independent investigator to delve into the workings of the Health Authority. Brown has expressed confidence in Allen, but he might welcome an additional set of eyes on the issue. And it would put a concrete action behind the governor's promises about transparency in this matter. It might help ease the concerns of some voters.

An independent investigation would be of benefit in other ways as well: It could help clarify exactly what went wrong and help the Health Authority avoid similar mistakes in the future. The governor should set aside her reservations and give the green light to an independent investigation. (mm)
Interstate 55 proved deadly over the Thanksgiving holiday for four individuals.

On Friday, Illinois State Police District 11 announced that a third person died as a result of the accident Nov. 21 on Interstate 55 south of Hamel.

Vivian Vu, age 19, of Joplin, Mo., passed away at approximately 12:40 p.m. on Thursday, at a St. Louis hospital according to a statement by the ISP.

Vu was a passenger in a 2016 Chevrolet Express Van that was involved in the eight-vehicle collision.

Madison County Coroner Steve Nonn issued a statement Wednesday stating that the first two victims were Madisen Bertels, 17, and Hailey Bertels, 20, both of Staunton.

The victims were in a 2010 Kia Forte four-door sedan when it was struck by a semi-tractor trailer at approximately 6:14 p.m. Tuesday in the southbound lanes of I-55.

The Bertels sisters, according to Nonns report, were wearing seat belts. Hailey Bertels was in the backseat.

The ISP stated in its news release on Friday that the accident appears to have been caused by a semi-tractor trailer that was being driven by a 53-year-old male.

The 18-wheel truck was traveling at a high rate of speed when it rear-ended the Kia the Bertels sisters were in.

Traffic had slowed due to construction just south of the crash site.

The ISP reports a third passenger in the Kia was listed in critical condition as of Nov. 24.

Meanwhile, 22-year-old SIUE student Courtney Littell was killed in a two-car accident at 9:01 p.m. on Wednesday on Interstate 55 just outside of Lincoln, the ISP reports.

According to an SIUE spokesman, Littell was a senior in the School of Arts and Sciences.

She had a Wood River address, according to the SIUE spokesman.

Littell was traveling northbound on I-55 when a southbound vehicle driven by Adriana Rodrigues, 26, of Wenona, crossed the median and struck Littells vehicle.

Rodrigues was transported to a hospital in Springfield with minor injuries. She was cited for improper lane usage and no proof of insurance.

The Logan County Coroners office stated blunt force trauma caused Littels death.
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HOUSTON  Cat hair stuck in a package helped lead officials to a Houston-area woman accused of mailing bombs to former President Barack Obama and Gov. Greg Abbott, who opened his parcel but escaped injury, according to court documents.

Julia Poff of Waller County was indicted in federal court this month for a trio of 2016 mail bombs, including a botched explosive stuffed in a cigarette pack that failed to detonate when the governor opened it.

The 46-year-old was upset with Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General, because she had not received support from her ex-husband, the federal court documents stated.

Using a salad dressing cap from a bottle purchased for an anniversary dinner, Poff allegedly cobbled together an explosive with black powder and pyrotechnic powder, then slipped it in the mail to Abbott.

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When Abbott opened the package in early October 2016, it didnt blow up because he didn't open it as designed.

Had the device exploded, it could have caused severe burns and death, according to court documents.

Agents working the case later found a damaged shipping label addressed to the mail bombing suspect, from when she originally had received the packaging through EBay.

A similar package sent to Obama was detected in screening and never made it to the intended target.

Poff had stated she did not like the President, according to court documents.

The D.C.-bound explosive which was packaged sloppily helped build the case against the accused bomber. After diverting the package, agents discovered that cat hair caught in the shipping label was microscopically consistent with the hair of one of Poffs pets, according to court records.

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A third package was sent to the Social Security Administration in Maryland, where Poff had been denied benefits.

A search of Poffs home turned up a trove of fireworks in the garage, according to court records.

In an unsolicited Facebook message asking for prayers and PayPal donations to cover legal fees, Poff told a Houston Chronicle reporter that trash had been taken from her family's home that had our fingerprints on it and was used in some serious crimes that we did not commit and know nothing about.

She also was charged with more than $5,000 of food stamp fraud and false bankruptcy declaration. A federal public defender on Thursday declined to comment.

Court records note that Poff has been evicted repeatedly, in one case allegedly leaving a rented home with potatoes stuffed down the toilets and cement poured in the drains.

Her criminal history includes a misdemeanor theft conviction, which netted deferred adjudication and probation that later was revoked, according to court records. She also was convicted of felony fraud.

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Last year, using a Sealy mailing address but describing herself as a Waller County resident, Poff sued her leasing companys manager for allegedly calling her a purple Martian from hell, according to paperwork filed in Harris County court.

The suit also claimed that the Cypress Four Property Ventures manager verbally attacked Poff on the phone and described her as a professional squatter. A judge ultimately tossed the case.

On Friday, a federal judge ruled against releasing Poff, citing a serious risk that the defendant will flee.

The case is due for a pretrial conference early next year.
A 34-year-old man was arrested Thanksgiving morning after a woman caught him having sex with her 16-year-old granddaughter in her bathroom, police said.

The suspect, Stephen Sawyer of San Antonio, now faces a charge of sexual assault of a child. He was booked into the Bexar County Jail on a $75,000 bond.

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According to his affidavit, Sawyer met the victim on Mocospace, a social network. The two then began chatting on Facebook for a couple days, during which time he solicited nude images from the victim, authorities said.

Now Playing: Former USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar is pleading guilty to sexually abusing scores of women Video: People

On Nov. 22, Sawyer asked to come over to the victim's house on the far North Side, police said. The two then went to a downstairs bathroom, where they allegedly had sex.

RELATED: 2 police cruisers damaged while officers respond to West Side crash

The victim's grandmother heard commotion going on in the bathroom and tried to open the door, but it was locked, according to the affidavit. The grandmother demanded the victim open the door, and when she did, the grandmother found Sawyer hiding behind the door, officials said.

She ordered him out of the house and notified police. During interviews, the victim reportedly told police what happened, and they later obtained a warrant for Sawyer's arrest.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdowns
CARSON CITY  Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt encourages Nevadas consumers to practice safe shopping and to be mindful of the deals they take part in ahead of Cyber Monday.

As Cyber Monday approaches promising some of the best deals of the year, I encourage all Nevadans to be wary that scammers know its Cyber Monday too and are looking for ways to acquire your financial information, said Laxalt. I encourage all consumers to take extra precautions while shopping online, and to read our tips to ensure you safeguard your personal information and get what you pay for.

The Office of the Nevada Attorney General offers the following tips to help consumers shop wisely and protect their personal and financial information:

 Do your research. Read reviews by typing the name of the product or company into a search engine along with words like review, complaint, or scam. Be sure to read a few reviews and not rely on just one source.

 Know the policies. Find out what the refund/exchange policies are, and if there are any charges, like shipping costs or restocking fees, if you return a product. Ensure you have the retailer's physical address and phone number in case you have problems with the purchase.

 Avoid clicking links in emails.Scammers often use email links to obtain your money and personal information. If an unexpected email promises awesome online deals, dont click on the embedded links. Check out the company first, confirm its web address, and type it in yourself.

 Use secure checkout. When making a payment online, order from a secure server by looking for signs the website is secure. Examples include "https" (the "s" stands for secure) in the address, and the padlock symbol.

 Pay by credit card when possible.Credit cards give you extra protections, including the right to dispute charges and withhold payment during an investigation. Do not wire money or send cash. Legitimate sellers never demand that consumers wire money as payment.

 Be cautious of shopping in public Wi-Fi hotspots. Transactions made while you are connected to these spots can often be unsecure. Instead, wait until you are in a secure area to make your purchase and remember to log out of banking websites when you are finished using them.

 Keep records. Print or save records of online transactions until you receive the goods you paid for. Keep the product description and price, receipt, return policy, and any emails related to your purchase. Keep good records and save your receipts for returns and exchanges. Whether you're ordering by mail, phone, or online, it is important to keep detailed information about the transaction, including your order number, shipping costs and dates, warranties, and refund and return policies.

More information about steps that can be taken to prevent identity theft and safeguard personal information is available at http://ag.nv.gov/Hot_Topics/Victims/IDTheft.
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SAN ANTONIO - A man accused of luring a 16-year-old boy to a hotel where he sexually assaulted him was arrested Wednesday.

Bernardo Reyes Jr., 54, faces charges of sexual assault of a child and online solicitation of a minor, according to court records.

The boys father became aware of the assault on Oct. 29 when he saw his son leaving a motel near Six Flags Fiesta Texas.

RELATED: Affidavit reveals man died after two-hour beating with a variety of objects

When the father asked his son why he was there, he responded that he was meeting a girl. The father then checked his sons phone using the Teen Safe App and found several messages from a man.

The messages contained links to sexually explicit websites, at which point his son admitted to meeting a man.

The boy later told police that he began receiving text messages through the KIK app. He initially thought the correspondence was from a girl so he continued responding to the sender, according to the warrant.

RELATED: Family displaced as 3 West Side homes catch fire day before Thanksgiving

When they met at the motel the first time, the boy realized the girl he was messaging was actually a man, according to the warrant. The two went their separate ways but continued messaging one another and agreed to meet a second time, the boy told police.

In one message, the man told the boy Im going to clear your mind by having you snort a line of meth. Another message reads Youre going to feel helpless and unable to control yourself, according to the affidavit.

During their second meeting, Reyes told the boy to remove his clothes, police said.

The boy told Reyes he got cold feet and wanted to leave, at which point Reyes grabbed him by the arm and told him he was not leaving. Thats when Reyes began removing the boys clothes, investigators said.

RELATED: Alleged S.A. killer arrested 18 years after wife went missing

After undressing him, Reyes had the boy get on the bed and sexually assaulted him, according to the affidavit. The boy told police Reyes had him take a shower before leaving the motel.

Detectives said they found several texts between Reyes and the boy saying that Reyes knew several law enforcement officers. Some of the texts indicated that Reyes was threatening to kill the boy if his secret ever got out, the warrant states.

jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA
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Jackie Vega and her four children were asleep when she awoke to gunfire ripping through her North Side home on Thanksgiving morning. Running into her living room, she found her two boys.

I threw them on the floor and covered their heads, said Vega, 33. My daughter was in the back room. I didnt think it wouldve reached her.

But Delilah Hernandez, 10, was struck as she slept, her mother said. First responders called to the house in the 100 block of Harwood Drive before 7 a.m. attempted to revive her and took her to University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, San Antonio police said.

Investigators believe Delilahs oldest brother, 19, was the intended target and interviewed him downtown.

RELATED: Arrest affidavit reveals more about man beat to death in homeless camp

Now Playing: A 10-year-old is dead after a drive by in San Antonio Thanksgiving morning. Video: Fox7

"The house has had problems in the past," San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said. "We believe it's gang-related directly to the brother."

By late in the evening, the family was back together in the home, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings and passing vehicles. Several people came by offering their condolences, but any sense of security Vega had during the 10 years they had lived there was gone.

Now we dont even want to go to sleep, she said, standing on her porch with her two youngest boys next to a makeshift memorial with photos of Delilah.

She was great, Vega said of her daughter. She wouldve been a great woman.

A 4th grader at West Avenue Elementary, Delilah loved to dance and listen to rap artists such as Jeremih and Young Boy. She said she had dreams of becoming either a police officer or a Youtuber, a social media personality.

She said they make a lot of money, Vega recalled, breaking her stoicism with a smile.

RELATED: SAPD arrest man who allegedly killed wife in 1999 and buried her in the backyard

She doesnt know anyone who would have targeted the family.

I wish it wouldve been me instead of her, Vega said. They will be caught.

McManus said police did not know whether the shooting was a drive-by or if the assailant had been on foot. Detectives were speaking to witnesses and trying to determine how many suspects might be involved.

Therell be a special place for (the shooter) when he goes to the next life, McManus said. This is unforgivable. I don't understand how anyone ... can be so selfishly insensitive about who might be on the other end of the bullet.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA |fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA
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A manhunt ended late Thursday in Waller County for a suspect officials say shot and killed a Texas Department of Public Safety officer in Freestone County.

Dabrett Black, 32, was captured around 8:45 p.m. in Prairie View after allegedly firing multiple shots from a rifle at a trooper, identified as Damon Allen, around 4 p.m. on Interstate 45 in Fairfield, roughly two-and-a-half hours northwest of Houston, authorities said.

Allen was a married father of three, according to the DPS.

"Our DPS family is heartbroken tonight after one of Texas' finest law enforcement officers was killed in the line of duty," said DPS Director Steven McCraw. "Trooper Allen's dedication to duty, and his bravery and selfless sacrifice on this Thanksgiving Day, will never be forgotten."

Gov. Greg Abbott called the killing a "callous" and "heinous" crime.

"The killer will face justice, and the State of Texas will continue to offer our unwavering support for the men and women in law enforcement who keep our communities safe," Abbott said in a statement.

The suspect apparently fled the shooting in a gray 2012 Chevrolet Malibu with a Texas license plate. Authorities caught up with him in Waller County, where they fired some shots at him. The suspect fled on foot and authorities followed him for more than an hour.

Using night goggles, authorities said the suspect was on top of some hay bales and didn't appear to have a long gun. He then crawled along some brush near Wyatt Chapel Road, authorities said.

"We got this guy," one officer said over the scanner around 8:25 p.m. "Let's go get him on our terms, not his."

They approached the suspect with help from SWAT teams and Harris County Sheriff's officials.

"Suspect in today's fatal TXDPS trooper shooting in Freestone County has been captured in Waller County near Prairie View. Excellent operation by numerous agencies to take this suspect into custody with no additional casualties," the Navarro County Office of Emergency Management tweeted.
Myanmar and Bangladesh said Thursday that they had moved one step closer to the possible repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh over the past three months.

More than 620,000 Rohingya, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, have flooded into Bangladesh, escaping what the United States on Wednesday termed "ethnic cleansing" by Myanmar's security forces.

"The first step of the repatriation process has been done," said Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali of Bangladesh, after going to Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, to meet with officials there.

But even as the two countries announced they had signed an "arrangement" on returning displaced Rohingya to Rakhine state in Myanmar, the fractious and uncertain nature of the accord overshadowed the news. Neither side gave many details, apart from a vague commitment to beginning a repatriation process within two months' time.

While Myanmar has pushed for the return of any Rohingya to be conducted bilaterally, the Bangladeshis have called for international agencies to be involved.

Earlier, the Myanmar authorities said they would, in principle, allow for the return of displaced Rohingya if they could prove that they had lived in Myanmar before fleeing across the border over the past three months.

Ali, who in September accused Myanmar's military of killing thousands of Rohingya, said he would not divulge the terms and conditions of any accord until Saturday.

But he put the onus of responsibility on Myanmar.

Refugees pouring into Bangladesh from Rakhine, in Myanmar's west, have described civilians being executed, women gang-raped and villages systematically razed by fire.

"Since their houses are burned and destroyed," Ali said, "they need to be rebuilt."

Myanmar authorities have in recent weeks balked at the possibility of the Rohingya, whom they consider to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, returning to their native villages. Instead, Myanmar's government has spoken obliquely of camps where they might be sequestered.

Around 120,000 Rohingya already live in such camps in the central part of Rakhine after a wave of violence in 2012 forced them from their homes.

In late October, officials in Myanmar ordered the harvesting of fields that had been deserted in the Rohingya exodus. Authorities in Myanmar have said they will confiscate all land that they consider "abandoned."
HONG KONG - A search at sea was continuing for three people who were missing after the crash of a U.S. Navy aircraft near Okinawa, Japan, the Navy said Thursday.

Eight of the 11 passengers and crew members aboard a C2-A Greyhound propeller cargo plane were rescued after the crash Wednesday and were in good condition, the 7th Fleet said.

The crash was the fifth accident this year for the fleet, which has its headquarters in Japan and is the Navy's largest fleet overseas.

The accidents, including a pair of deadly collisions, led the Navy to relieve the head of the 7th Fleet of his command in August.

The plane crashed in the Philippine Sea about 500 nautical miles southeast of Okinawa around 2:45 p.m. Wednesday while en route to the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, the 7th Fleet said in a statement.

The C2-A Greyhound is a model that has been in use for decades to ferry personnel and supplies to and from aircraft carriers at sea.

The plane was flying from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni to the Ronald Reagan, which was conducting a training exercise with the Japanese navy.

The Navy said three U.S. guided-missile destroyers, two Japanese helicopter carriers and three Japanese destroyers were searching the area.

Ships and aircraft had covered 320 nautical miles by Thursday morning, the 7th Fleet said.

It said that the names of the missing had not been released, but that their families had been notified.

The fleet has faced a string of deadly accidents this year. Among them, the destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided in June with a Philippine container ship south of Tokyo.

Seven of the USS Fitzgerald's crew were killed and several were injured, including the ship's commanding officer, Cmdr. Bryce Benson.

In August, 10 sailors were killed when the destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker near Singapore. The top two officers of the destroyer were relieved of duty in October.

The head of the 7th Fleet, Vice Adm. Joseph P. Aucoin, was removed in August because of the accidents. A Navy investigation found that the deadly collisions had been the result of basic errors that were "avoidable."
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It surprises most millennials to learn that only about 10 percent of all retail purchases are actually made online. Each semester, when I ask hundreds of undergraduate business students to estimate, they consistently guess that between a quarter and half of all retail spending happens on the internet. But this holiday shopping season, as in the past, the overwhelming majority of purchases will still happen within four physical walls of a store.

The National Retail Federation expects holiday retail sales  not counting car, gas and restaurant purchases  in November and December this year to increase up to 4 percent over last year, to as much as $682 billion.

Stores will need the money to avoid being added to 2017s record-breaking roster of retail bankruptcies, store closures and layoffs, which included landmark brands such as Toys R Us and RadioShack.

Traditional retailers must give consumers good reasons to visit their stores beyond product selection and good value. Joe Pine and James Gilmores 1999 book, The Experience Economy, foretold how savvy companies, such as Apple and American Girl, excel by staging compelling experiences that teach, entertain or inspire customers.

The main asset of a physical store in a digital world is human staffing. Even if a shopper doesnt want help, a smile acknowledging his or her presence encourages connection. Front-line employees can ask customers about their kids, in-laws or holiday meal planning. That can lead to an authentic personal connection through which employees can discover a shoppers unique wants and respond with products on the shelves or ordered and shipped for free to the customers home. An in-person encounter can become a seamless blend of the online and physical worlds.

Even Walmart, Americas largest retailer, is moving to a more experiential model. In hopes of boosting sales, its 4,700 stores will host 20,000 parties with Santa before New Years.

The company has another advantage over online sellers, as 9 in 10 Americans live within 15 minutes of a Walmart store. A thousand Walmarts now let customers drive up to the storefront to pick up online grocery orders the same day theyre purchased, at no additional charge. That rivals Amazons Fresh grocery service, which comes at an extra cost and often doesnt deliver until the next day.

Beyond face-to-face service, successful companies today must develop a deeper connection with their customers, whether online or off. Store-based retailers can show their values in ways that at times can take on a very personal meaning for shoppers and store owners alike.

An example: After the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, Jim McIngvale of Gallery Furniture in Houston opened his stores to anyone in need of a place to stay. Some came by boat, with only the clothes they were wearing. McIngvale welcomed thousands of Houstonians to sleep on his inventory of mattresses.

On Halloween, McIngvale flew 50 first responders to Game 6 of the World Series in Los Angeles, giving those lucky Astros fans a once-in-a-lifetime experience and emotional lift in the wake of natural disaster.

National electronics chain Best Buy has ridden a roller coaster over the past 20 years: In 2004 it was recognized by Forbes magazine as Company of the Year. By 2012 it was dismissed as a real-world showroom for cheaper online retailers. In August, though, its stock price hit an all-time high.

As Amazon grew, Best Buy defended itself, becoming a top 10 retailer in sales by matching competitors prices and investing in personal services like Geek Squad. The company also trained workers to help customers understand technology.

In the face of online competition, bricks-and-mortar retailers must give consumers unique in-store experiences that build emotional connections with shoppers. Black Friday promos on toasters or iPads wont cut it. They have to provide heartfelt feelings like surprise, delight and excitement  and actual help and useful advice.
VANCOUVER  Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp. announced Nov. 21 that it has signed a letter agreement to acquire a 100 percent interest in the Lovelock Cobalt Mine in Churchill County.

The acquisition of the Lovelock Mine is yet another facet of our exploration operations in Nevada, said Warren Stanyer, president and CEO of Nevada Sunrise. The mineral endowment of Nevada is vast and the Lovelock Mine is a hidden gem within that legacy, considering the renewed interest in cobalt during the past year. Nevada Sunrise looks forward to applying modern exploration methods to the Lovelock Mine, which in todays terms could be judged as artisanal workings.

The Lovelock Mine property area consists of 35 unpatented claims in the Cottonwood Canyon area of Stillwater range totaling approximately 700 acres. It was discovered by George Lovelock and Charles Bell about 1880.

According to U.S. government annual reports, the Lovelock Mine saw limited production of nickel, copper and cobalt beginning in 1883. The primary cobalt mineral was identified as cobaltite, a compound of cobalt, nickel and arsenic. Records of a geochemical analysis from that era indicate that the average composition of the cobaltite contained 17.30 percent cobalt and 13.62 percent nickel.

The mine operated from 1883 to 1890 to the 100-foot level, reporting 500 tons of cobalt and nickel mineralized material shipped to England for processing. After intermittent production, an English company attempted smelting on site in 1898 but little or no production was made, according to Mineral Resources of the United States for 1885. No further production from the Lovelock Mine is known for well over a century.

The agreement will provide for the company to earn a 100 property interest in the property in consideration for cash payments and common shares payments to an underlying vendor payable over three years from the signing of a definitive agreement, subject to a 2 percent net smelter returns royalty

The rocks of the Lovelock Mine area include highly altered sedimentary and volcanic rocks cut by a larger mass of diorite and by aplitic dikes, all of which are now highly altered. The altered volcanic rocks lie in a syncline bordered on the west, north and east by the altered sedimentary rocks. Probable faults, inferred from the nature of the contacts, form the boundaries between the sedimentary and volcanic rocks northwest of the Lovelock Mine.

The cobalt and nickel minerals of the Lovelock Mine and the nearby Nickel Mine occur in stringers that cut the rock immediately surrounding the diorite. In the case of the Lovelock Mine, the stringers cut a highly-altered greenstone. The minerals recognized are tetrahedrite, erythrite (cobalt bloom), azurite, and green crusts that contain copper and nickel arsenates and sulphates. Other sources reported the principal mineral present is cobaltite.

It was postulated by historical observers that there has been post-mineral faulting with down-throw on the west, and that the extension of the productive zone is west of the Lovelock Mine shaft and at greater depth than the historical workings could reach, according to Nickel Deposits in Cottonwood Canyon, Churchill County, Nevada by H.G. Ferguson, 1939.

Nevada Sunrise is a junior mineral exploration company with a technical team based in Canada that holds interests in nine gold and lithium mineral exploration projects in Nevada.
Irish development agency Trocaire has thanked the people of Tipperary for supporting 542 families around the world with Christmas gifts last year.

People in the county spent almost 14,000 on Trocaire gifts last year, which supported families with livestock, school books, water and healthcare in some of the poorest and most isolated places on earth.

The charity said that people from across the country continue to show incredible generosity at Christmas.

Since its beginning Trocaires gifts campaign has sold nearly 900,000 gifts. The campaign has raised over 37 million in total for Trocaires work to eradicate poverty in more than twenty countries in the developing world.

Said Eamonn Meehan, executive director of Trocaire - I have seen the difference these gifts make on the ground. It is no exaggeration to say that they are having an immediate, practical impact on families throughout the developing world.

For example, millions of people in east Africa are still fighting for survival in the face of drought and crop failures. The gift of chicks for families in Kenya and Ethiopia can give them a critical extra source of income from their eggs and it is also a vital source of protein for the family.

A simple gift like chickens can help parents to keep their children in school even during difficult months and give them important nutrition.

Last years donations from Tipperary have meant that families are able to earn an income, refugees fleeing conflict are receiving support and people suffering the impacts of drought have access to clean water. We cannot thank the people enough for continuing to add our ethical gifts to their Christmas shopping list said Eamonn.

This year Trocaires 10 Christmas gifts from 7 to 250 can be bought online at www.trocaire.org/gifts or by calling 1850 408 408. Gifts are for sale in Veritas stores and selected Easons stores. One4All Trocaire cards are also available in An Post Offices.
The odds on Ireland having a General Election are now 6/4 from 10/1 to happen in 2017

All is not well within the current government set up and with Fianna Fail giving Leo Varadkar an ultimatum to either sack his Tanaiste or face a General Election before the year is out. A General Election to happen now before the year is out has moved in from a massive price of 10/1 yesterday, to its current price of 6/4. The current favourite is an election to happen next year at 1/2.

Tipperary Fine Gael has no candidate chosen if snap election called

Frances Fitzgerald has come under pressure in relation to how she handled an email to try an discredit Garda whistle-blower Maurice McCabe. The Tanaiste is now 2/1 from 20/1 in the past twenty-four hours to no longer hold her post before December 1st.

Leon Blanche, Head of Communications for BoyleSports commented, Fianna Fail are certainly cranking up the pressure on current Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. A General Election has been backed all the way in from 10/1 into its current price of 6/4 to happen before the year is out .

He added, Leo has a big decision to make in relation to his Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald. She is under extreme pressure to resign and so much so that we have had to cut her price not to be in her post on the 1st of December from 20/1 into 2/1 in the last twenty-four hours .
WINNEMUCCA  Paramount Gold Nevada Corp. announced Nov. 21 that it has received approvals from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and the Federal Bureau of Land Management to proceed with a program of auger drilling, core drilling and back hoe excavations at its Grassy Mountain proposed mine site in eastern Oregon as part of the projects preliminary feasibility study.

The work is designed to characterize the rock and alluvium under the proposed mill, processing plant, and tailings areas to ensure stability and adjust the design of these installations if necessary. The program is expected to commence in the week after Thanksgiving.

The timely approvals that we continue to receive from the DOGAMI and BLM have allowed us to stay on schedule for completion of our PFS within our planned timeframe of early 2018, Paramount President and CEO Glen Van Treek said.

As announced in early September, Paramount filed its plan of operation, which included the proposed location of the project facilities and tailings areas.

Paramount is proposing to construct and operate an underground mine to exploit the high-grade gold core at its Grassy Mountain Project. The PFS will establish the parameters of a mining and milling operation, define capital and operating costs, convert resources to reserves, and advance the project through the permitting process with the BLM, DOGAMI and local agencies of Malheur County.

Paramount holds a 100 percent working interest in the Grassy Mountain Gold Project which consists of approximately 9,300 acres located on private and BLM land in Malheur County, Oregon. The Grassy Mountain project contains a gold-silver deposit for which a preliminary economic assessment has been prepared and key permitting milestones accomplished.

Additionally, Winnemucca-based Paramount owns a 100 percent interest in the Sleeper Gold Project in Northern Nevada. The Sleeper Gold Project, which includes the former producing Sleeper mine, totals 2,322 unpatented mining claims.
More than 22,000 Nevadans sign up for health insurance so far

LAS VEGAS (AP)  Federal health officials say more than 22,500 people in Nevada have signed up for insurance through the online marketplace in the first two and a half weeks of open enrollment.

The Healthcare.gov marketplace run by the U.S. government under the Affordable Care Act allows those who dont get insurance through their employer or government programs to shop and sign up for private coverage online.

More than 89,000 Nevada residents used the marketplace to get 2017 insurance.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Wednesday that 22,517 Nevada residents signed up for 2018 coverage from Nov. 1 through Saturday.

That doesnt include people who had coverage this year and automatically re-enrolled in their same plan.

President Donald Trumps administration has cut the enrollment window by half this year, allowing people only until Dec. 15 to sign up for coverage.

Utah fugitive arrested after chase in Nevada

RENO (AP)  A 31-year-old man once considered Public Enemy No. 1 by the Salt Lake City Gang Unit has been arrested in Nevada as a suspect in a shooting in northern Utah.

Authorities say Eddie Angela Samora led U.S. marshals on a brief car chase before he was arrested Tuesday in Sparks.

He was being held on a fugitive warrant without bail on Wednesday in the Washoe County Jail in Reno.

Layton police intend to extradite him back to Utah to face attempted-murder charges.

Hes accused of shooting 37-year-old Andy Cabrera several times while lying on the ground at a Layton apartment building on Oct. 26.

The Salt Lake Metro Gang Unit named Samora Public Enemy No. 1 in May 2007 after police say he shot a man while driving on Interstate 215.

Its not clear if Samora has a lawyer.

$500 reward in theft of diamond earrings

SPARKS (AP)  Police in Sparks say a reward is being offered for information that leads them to people who stole a pair of diamond earrings from a jewelry store at an outlet mall last month.

Police on Thursday said the nonprofit Secret Witness is offering $500 for details that lead to the arrest and prosecution of the two suspects in the theft case.

Authorities say the two men entered the jewelry store on Oct. 23, and while one of them distracted an employee, the other reached into an open showcase and removed the earrings.

Police say the earrings are valued at a high dollar amount, but would not disclose the exact figure.

Authorities are asking people with information to contact to police.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: AAP leader Atishi Marlena today demanded that the Election Commission conduct a thorough probe into allegations that electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the Uttar Pradesh civic body polls were casting votes only for the BJP at several places.

Marlena told reporters that cases of EVM malfunctioning were also reported during polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarkhand.

WATCH | Votes for BSP in EVMs go to BJP during Uttar Pradesh civic polls

The one thing common in all cases was that the vote went to the BJP no matter which button was pressed, she claimed.

"These cases should be thoroughly investigated by the Election Commission," she said.

The AAP, which is contesting the UP civic body polls, has demanded that ballot papers be used in the elections.

The party has in the past too raised doubts over the functioning of EVMs.

NEW DELHI: AAP leader Atishi Marlena today demanded that the Election Commission conduct a thorough probe into allegations that electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the Uttar Pradesh civic body polls were casting votes only for the BJP at several places. Marlena told reporters that cases of EVM malfunctioning were also reported during polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarkhand. WATCH | Votes for BSP in EVMs go to BJP during Uttar Pradesh civic polls The one thing common in all cases was that the vote went to the BJP no matter which button was pressed, she claimed. "These cases should be thoroughly investigated by the Election Commission," she said. The AAP, which is contesting the UP civic body polls, has demanded that ballot papers be used in the elections. The party has in the past too raised doubts over the functioning of EVMs.
By Online Desk

Former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice AP Shah in an interview to NDTV spoke out about all the allegations of foul play in the death of the Special CBI Judge Brijgopal Harikrishan Loya who was presiding over the trial of BJP President Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

Justice Shah told the channel, "His family feels very strongly that there was some foul play in his death. Now there was a long list of circumstances starting from the fact that there was blood on his clothes, and somebody signed the postmortem report as it is. They feel that there is something wrong with the conclusion that he died of a cardiac arrest."

In a separate conversation with The Wire, Justice Shah was of the opinion that not conducting an inquiry into the allegations made by the family "would send a very wrong message to the judiciary, particularly the lower cadre."

It is necessary that the chief justice of the high court or the Chief Justice of India himself should look into this material and decide whether to order an inquiry, because if these allegations are not investigated it causes serious stigma on the judiciary, Justice Shah told the news website in an exclusive interview.

He further stressed the need to maintain the confidence of the people in the integrity of the judiciary.

Justice Shah's comments are based on the reports by news magazine Caravan, in which late Justice BH Loya's family revealed shocking facts that indicate that there might have been foulplay involved in his death.

The family also alleged that before he died, Justice Loya had confided to them that he had been offered a bribe of Rs 100 crore by the then Chief Justice of the Bombay HC, Justice Mohit Shah, for a verdict in favour of Amit Shah.

Justice AP Shah also told NDTV that Justice Mohit Shah should clear his name. "In these recent times, the judiciary is suffering from self-inflicted wounds. This is the tallest institution in this country, at least in the perception of many citizens and they have tremendous faith in the judiciary. It is necessary that for the independence of the judiciary that (former) Chief Justice (Mohit Shah) clear his name," he said.

Former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice AP Shah in an interview to NDTV spoke out about all the allegations of foul play in the death of the Special CBI Judge Brijgopal Harikrishan Loya who was presiding over the trial of BJP President Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. Justice Shah told the channel, "His family feels very strongly that there was some foul play in his death. Now there was a long list of circumstances starting from the fact that there was blood on his clothes, and somebody signed the postmortem report as it is. They feel that there is something wrong with the conclusion that he died of a cardiac arrest." In a separate conversation with The Wire, Justice Shah was of the opinion that not conducting an inquiry into the allegations made by the family "would send a very wrong message to the judiciary, particularly the lower cadre." It is necessary that the chief justice of the high court or the Chief Justice of India himself should look into this material and decide whether to order an inquiry, because if these allegations are not investigated it causes serious stigma on the judiciary, Justice Shah told the news website in an exclusive interview. He further stressed the need to maintain the confidence of the people in the integrity of the judiciary. Justice Shah's comments are based on the reports by news magazine Caravan, in which late Justice BH Loya's family revealed shocking facts that indicate that there might have been foulplay involved in his death. The family also alleged that before he died, Justice Loya had confided to them that he had been offered a bribe of Rs 100 crore by the then Chief Justice of the Bombay HC, Justice Mohit Shah, for a verdict in favour of Amit Shah. Justice AP Shah also told NDTV that Justice Mohit Shah should clear his name. "In these recent times, the judiciary is suffering from self-inflicted wounds. This is the tallest institution in this country, at least in the perception of many citizens and they have tremendous faith in the judiciary. It is necessary that for the independence of the judiciary that (former) Chief Justice (Mohit Shah) clear his name," he said.
By Online Desk

A body was found hanging on the ramparts of Jaipurs Nahargarh Fort on Friday, with a threat note engraved on the rocks in protest of the movie Padmavati, threatening the ongoing Padmavati to escalate to another level. The body was hanging 200 m above the ground.

READ | Padmavati row timeline: From shooting spot vandalism to threats directed against Deepika Padukone

The deceased is a 40 year old local, Chetan Saini, according to ANI. The police is trying to identify the body of deceased and cause of the death.

Earlier, it was speculated to be a suicide case, but the when the police reached the spot they found a message written on the rocks. The note says "Hum Sirf putley nahi jalathey Padmavati", which literally translates to "We don't just burn effigies".

According to various media reports, the complete message says, "Padmavati ka virodh. Hum putle nahi jalaate hain, hum maarte hain which translates to "Protest against Padmavati. We dont burn effigies, we kill".

My brother cannot commit suicide, it appears to be a murder. Will demand for an investigation into the death. He has nothing to do with it (threat note written on rocks #Padmavati ): Ram Ratan Saini, brother of man found dead at Nahargarh Fort in #Jaipur pic.twitter.com/RWeqk6nBT4  ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017

The note ends with the word 'Padamvati', immediately connecting the death to the ongoing controversy over Sanjay Leela Bhansali's mangum-opus.

According to News18, Rajput Karni Sena, the organisation which is at the forefront of anti-Padmavati protests, has denied the involvement of their outfit in the happening.

#Rajasthan: Body found hanging at Nahargarh Fort in #Jaipur, threat note on rocks also seen #Padmavati pic.twitter.com/sSx9ONhF7D  ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017

Mahipal Singh Makrana, a member of the outfit says,"This is not our way of protest. I want to tell people not to resort to such methods".

"It is early to comment on it as the matter is under investigation. The identity of the man, around 40-years-old, is yet to be ascertained," Satyendra Singh, DCP Jaipur (North), told IANS.

Rajasthan: Police reaches Nahargarh Fort in #Jaipur where body of a 40 year old local was found hanging, threatening note on rocks also seen pic.twitter.com/CFitqLVIwb  ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmavati" has been mired in controversies since its shooting started. Activists of the Karni Sena, a Rajput community, besides other groups have been protesting against the movie, claiming the film "distorts" historical facts.

ALSO READ: Amid 'Padmavati', Alauddin Khilji's tomb shrouded in silence

"They are trying to defame queen Padmavati by distorting historical facts. It is not acceptable," an activist of the Karni Sena said.

Activists of the Karni Sena earlier this month vandalised a theatre in Kota, Rajasthan, over reports that it was showing a trailer of "Padmavati". A Karni Sena leader threatened actress Deepika Padukone, who plays the lead in the movie, with physical harm.

The Nahargarh fort is famous for having a spot which shot to fame after the Bollywood movie 'Rang De Basanti' was filmed there.

Padmavati, which was supposed to release on December 1 was indefinitely pushed for a later date. On Thursday the film was cleared by the British censors without a single cut.

(with ANI, IANS inputs)

A body was found hanging on the ramparts of Jaipurs Nahargarh Fort on Friday, with a threat note engraved on the rocks in protest of the movie Padmavati, threatening the ongoing Padmavati to escalate to another level. The body was hanging 200 m above the ground. READ | Padmavati row timeline: From shooting spot vandalism to threats directed against Deepika Padukone The deceased is a 40 year old local, Chetan Saini, according to ANI. The police is trying to identify the body of deceased and cause of the death. Earlier, it was speculated to be a suicide case, but the when the police reached the spot they found a message written on the rocks. The note says "Hum Sirf putley nahi jalathey Padmavati", which literally translates to "We don't just burn effigies". According to various media reports, the complete message says, "Padmavati ka virodh. Hum putle nahi jalaate hain, hum maarte hain which translates to "Protest against Padmavati. We dont burn effigies, we kill". My brother cannot commit suicide, it appears to be a murder. Will demand for an investigation into the death. He has nothing to do with it (threat note written on rocks #Padmavati ): Ram Ratan Saini, brother of man found dead at Nahargarh Fort in #Jaipur pic.twitter.com/RWeqk6nBT4  ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017 The note ends with the word 'Padamvati', immediately connecting the death to the ongoing controversy over Sanjay Leela Bhansali's mangum-opus. According to News18, Rajput Karni Sena, the organisation which is at the forefront of anti-Padmavati protests, has denied the involvement of their outfit in the happening. #Rajasthan: Body found hanging at Nahargarh Fort in #Jaipur, threat note on rocks also seen #Padmavati pic.twitter.com/sSx9ONhF7D  ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017 Mahipal Singh Makrana, a member of the outfit says,"This is not our way of protest. I want to tell people not to resort to such methods". "It is early to comment on it as the matter is under investigation. The identity of the man, around 40-years-old, is yet to be ascertained," Satyendra Singh, DCP Jaipur (North), told IANS. Rajasthan: Police reaches Nahargarh Fort in #Jaipur where body of a 40 year old local was found hanging, threatening note on rocks also seen pic.twitter.com/CFitqLVIwb  ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017 Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmavati" has been mired in controversies since its shooting started. Activists of the Karni Sena, a Rajput community, besides other groups have been protesting against the movie, claiming the film "distorts" historical facts. ALSO READ: Amid 'Padmavati', Alauddin Khilji's tomb shrouded in silence "They are trying to defame queen Padmavati by distorting historical facts. It is not acceptable," an activist of the Karni Sena said. Activists of the Karni Sena earlier this month vandalised a theatre in Kota, Rajasthan, over reports that it was showing a trailer of "Padmavati". A Karni Sena leader threatened actress Deepika Padukone, who plays the lead in the movie, with physical harm. The Nahargarh fort is famous for having a spot which shot to fame after the Bollywood movie 'Rang De Basanti' was filmed there. Padmavati, which was supposed to release on December 1 was indefinitely pushed for a later date. On Thursday the film was cleared by the British censors without a single cut. (with ANI, IANS inputs)
By Associated Press

HARARE: Zimbabwe has sworn in new leader Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday, just two and a half weeks after his firing by longtime President Robert Mugabe. The world's oldest head of state resigned this week after the military and ruling party turned on him and tens of thousands of Zimbabweans took to the streets.

Here's a timeline of events in a whirlwind drama many people after Mugabe's 37 years in power never thought they'd see:

___

Nov. 6: After a campaign of public insults against Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe fires his longtime deputy, later accusing him of plotting to take power via witchcraft. Mnangagwa flees the country.

Nov 13: Army commander Constantino Chiwenga issues a rare public rebuke, saying the military won't hesitate to "step in" to calm political tensions and criticizing the handling of the once-prosperous southern African nation's crumbling economy.

Nov. 14: Armored personnel carriers are seen on the outskirts of the capital, Harare. The military moves in overnight, taking control of the state-run broadcaster.

Nov. 15: The military announces that Mugabe is under house arrest and an operation has begun to arrest "criminals" around him who harmed the economy. Unpopular first lady Grace Mugabe, who many feared would replace Mnangagwa and even succeed her husband, disappears from view.

Nov. 16: State-run media publish extraordinary photos of a smiling Mugabe shaking hands with the army commander at the State House amid negotiations on the president's exit as the military tries to avoid accusations of a coup.

IN PICS | Interesting facts about Zimbabwe's next president

Nov. 17: The army, which continues to refer to Mugabe as president, allows him to make his first public appearance since house arrest. He appears at a graduation ceremony to polite applause.

Nov. 18: The bulk of the capital's roughly 1.6 million people pour into the streets in an anti-Mugabe demonstration that even days ago would have brought a police crackdown.

Nov. 19: The ruling party Central Committee expels Mugabe as party leader and tells him to step aside or face impeachment. In a speech on national television, he does not announce his resignation as expected.

Nov. 20: The ruling party's Central Committee says it will begin impeachment proceedings. The military says Mugabe and Mnangagwa have made contact and the fired deputy will return to Zimbabwe "shortly."

Nov. 21: Mnangagwa calls on Mugabe to heed the will of Zimbabwe's people and resign immediately. The ruling party begins impeachment proceedings, which are halted so Mugabe's resignation letter can be read, to cheers.

Nov. 22: Mnangagwa emerges from hiding, returns to Zimbabwe and announces a " new and unfolding democracy."

Nov. 23: A ruling party official says the party assured Mugabe he would not be prosecuted if he stepped down: "His status as a hero of his country is assured."

Nov. 24: Mnangagwa is sworn in, while a severely damaged economy awaits him.

HARARE: Zimbabwe has sworn in new leader Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday, just two and a half weeks after his firing by longtime President Robert Mugabe. The world's oldest head of state resigned this week after the military and ruling party turned on him and tens of thousands of Zimbabweans took to the streets. Here's a timeline of events in a whirlwind drama many people after Mugabe's 37 years in power never thought they'd see: ___ Nov. 6: After a campaign of public insults against Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe fires his longtime deputy, later accusing him of plotting to take power via witchcraft. Mnangagwa flees the country. Nov 13: Army commander Constantino Chiwenga issues a rare public rebuke, saying the military won't hesitate to "step in" to calm political tensions and criticizing the handling of the once-prosperous southern African nation's crumbling economy. Nov. 14: Armored personnel carriers are seen on the outskirts of the capital, Harare. The military moves in overnight, taking control of the state-run broadcaster. Nov. 15: The military announces that Mugabe is under house arrest and an operation has begun to arrest "criminals" around him who harmed the economy. Unpopular first lady Grace Mugabe, who many feared would replace Mnangagwa and even succeed her husband, disappears from view. Nov. 16: State-run media publish extraordinary photos of a smiling Mugabe shaking hands with the army commander at the State House amid negotiations on the president's exit as the military tries to avoid accusations of a coup. IN PICS | Interesting facts about Zimbabwe's next president Nov. 17: The army, which continues to refer to Mugabe as president, allows him to make his first public appearance since house arrest. He appears at a graduation ceremony to polite applause. Nov. 18: The bulk of the capital's roughly 1.6 million people pour into the streets in an anti-Mugabe demonstration that even days ago would have brought a police crackdown. Nov. 19: The ruling party Central Committee expels Mugabe as party leader and tells him to step aside or face impeachment. In a speech on national television, he does not announce his resignation as expected. Nov. 20: The ruling party's Central Committee says it will begin impeachment proceedings. The military says Mugabe and Mnangagwa have made contact and the fired deputy will return to Zimbabwe "shortly." Nov. 21: Mnangagwa calls on Mugabe to heed the will of Zimbabwe's people and resign immediately. The ruling party begins impeachment proceedings, which are halted so Mugabe's resignation letter can be read, to cheers. Nov. 22: Mnangagwa emerges from hiding, returns to Zimbabwe and announces a "new and unfolding democracy." Nov. 23: A ruling party official says the party assured Mugabe he would not be prosecuted if he stepped down: "His status as a hero of his country is assured." Nov. 24: Mnangagwa is sworn in, while a severely damaged economy awaits him.
YERINGTON (AP)  Three months into Taylissa Marriotts freshman year at a rural northern Nevada high school, she was brought to tears by someone, again, calling her a racial slur.

This time, Taylissa told the Reno Gazette-Journal, it was within earshot of a Yerington High School teacher who stood silent in the hallway.

She and her sister are two of only a few black students in the high school of just under 400 students in rural Nevada, 90 minutes southeast of from Reno.

Taylissas mom, Nancy Marriott-Tolliver and stepfather, Charles Tolliver, say Taylissa and her stepsister, Jayla Tolliver, both 14, have been the victims of repeated racial bullying at school.

The parents say their pleas for action from district administrators and police have been ignored.

Charles Tolliver said he called the principal a bigot, and school officials banned him from school grounds without prior permission.

Tensions increased after photos of a Lyon County sheriffs deputys son holding a gun and wearing a belt with knives were posted on social media on Oct. 8 with threats against black people, using a racial slur.

It was unclear who wrote the comments, but Taylissa and Jayla stayed home from school the next day. They filled out police reports. They worried when they went outside.

Yerington Mayor George Dini dismissed the posts as the act of teenagers ignorant of what they were doing and meaning no harm.

Lyon County Superintendent Wayne Workman said the school district did what it could when it informed Yerington police.

But Yerington Police Chief Darren Wagner told the Gazette-Journal he didnt investigate because the posts represented free speech.

This is just a First Amendment issue. I did not do an investigation because there is nothing to investigate, Wagner said. He said he didnt interview the students who made the posts or the boy posing in the picture, and statements the family filled out were shredded by a police officer new to the department.

Its awful what was said, and I dont condone it, the police chief said.

Lyon County Sheriff Al McNeil confirmed the boy pictured was the son of one of his deputies. McNeil said the post appeared to be a foolish mistake by young people, not a credible threat, but he said Yerington police should have investigated.

School officials say they cant comment on what actions, if any, were taken against the students involved in the Oct. 8 post.

Principal Duane Mattice said the school is doing everything it can to address bullying. He said a unity day is planned in December to celebrate all cultures, and a committee of people of different backgrounds was formed to improve respect for all races.

Yerington has a little more than 3,000 residents and fewer than 20 are black.

Taylissa Marriotts family said moving to a town and experiencing bigotry has been hard.

I just feel sick, Jayla said. You shouldnt judge someone from their skin color. We are all the same.

People say they dont like our kind, Taylissa said. Its not stopping. Its 2017. You would think racial stuff would be over, but its not.

The Reno-Sparks chapter of the NAACP is investigating the allegations of threats and bullying.

You can say you dont like (a certain race) but when you say you are going to kill them, that is different, said Lonnie Feemster, the past president of the local chapter and now the vice president overseeing NAACP programs in Nevada, Utah and Idaho.

Amy Rose, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said criminal speech must be a credible threat or incite imminent unlawful behavior.
By AFP

MAR DEL PLATA: President Mauricio Macri on Friday ordered an inquiry to "know the truth" about what happened to the Argentina's missing San Juan submarine that disappeared with the loss of 44 crew members.

Speaking to reporters at the headquarters of the Argentine navy, Macri said the 34-year-old submarine was "in perfect condition," having gone through a refit.

Macri said the tragedy "will require a serious, in-depth investigation that will yield certainty about what has happened."

"My commitment is with the truth," he said.

Argentina's navy has been fiercely criticized for they way it mismanaged the operation since first reporting the submarine overdue at its Mar del Plata base on November 16.

WATCH | FEAR DEEPENS ON FATE OF MISSING ARGENTINE SUBMARINE

The navy took several days to say that the San Juan had reported a problem with its batteries in its final communication on November 15.

Only on Thursday did the navy confirm there had been an explosion on board, which experts said was likely linked to the battery problem.

"Until we have the complete information, we do not have to look for the guilty, to look for those responsible. First we have to have certainty of what happened and why it happened," said Macri.

"My commitment is with the truth. It is the same commitment that we have throughout the government and the navy, which is suffering this moment with great pain. We will know the truth in time from that investigation."

The center-right leader was speaking as the search for the San Juan shifted from rescue to recovery on Friday, as navy officials lost hope of finding any of the crew alive.

"We have to find the submarine at the bottom of the sea, the area is large, the environment hostile, and the search very difficult," said Argentine navy spokesman Enrique Balbi.

Officially the navy has not declared the loss of the crew, but marine experts believe an explosion would have been catastrophic.

Brenda Salva, friend of crew member Damian Tagliapietra, said she had been told by the commander of the Mar del Plata naval base: "They are all dead".

For the relatives of the crew, grief had turned to anger by Friday.

"I want to tell Admiral Marcelo Srur that he is not in a position to be in charge of a force, and to the president (Mauricio Macri), to bring order," said Maria Rosa Belcastro, mother of 38-year-old Lieutenant Fernando Villarreal.

Relatives have focused their anger on the condition of the 34-year-old sub, which had undergone a seven-year refit to extend its service, and the navy's guardedness since the start of the search operation.

In his comments at the navy headquarters, Macri also paid tribute to the "patriotism, heroism and bravery" of the San Juan's crew.

"For all of them and their families, my greatest affection," he said.

To the relatives of the missing crew, angry at the way the navy has handled the operation, he said: "The pain is great but we are together, and we are going to travel this road all the way together."

Heads to roll

Argentine press reports on Friday said Macri's center-right government was preparing to sack navy chief Srur in a purge of top brass in a country where the military is distrusted.

Memories are still fresh in Argentina of the 1976-83 military dictatorship responsible for the disappearance of an estimated 30,000 people.

The San Juan tragedy comes a month after Macri's government was accused of a cover-up in the killing of activist Santiago Maldonado after he was arrested by security forces during an indigenous rights protest.

"The government is considering changing the leadership of the navy. They believe there was negligence in the disappearance of the ARA San Juan and criticize the handling of the situation," the influential Clarin daily said.

One newspaper reported that the navy had taken five days to inform the defense ministry of a battery problem aboard the German-built diesel-electric submarine.

The San Juan "has 500 tons of lead-acid batteries, which release hydrogen if there is an overcharge in the battery. Hydrogen in contact with oxygen is explosive," said Gustavo Mauvecin, director of the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine at Mar del Plata.

Horacio Tobias, a former diver aboard the San Juan, said the blast was likely "so violent that they did not have time to realize anything."

Depths plummet from 200 meters (650 feet) to over 3,000 meters on the edge of the Argentine shelf, where the sound of the explosion was picked up by hydro-acoustic sensors used by the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization.

Experts say the sub would begin to break-up once below depths of around 600 meters.

Argentina is leading an air-and-sea search to try to still find the sub. It is getting help from several countries now including Brazil, Britain, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Peru, Russia, the United States and Uruguay.

A Russian oceanographic research ship was steaming towards the area on Friday to join the multinational operation involving around a dozen countries.

The Yantar is equipped with two mini-subs designed to work at depths of 6,000 meters.

MAR DEL PLATA: President Mauricio Macri on Friday ordered an inquiry to "know the truth" about what happened to the Argentina's missing San Juan submarine that disappeared with the loss of 44 crew members. Speaking to reporters at the headquarters of the Argentine navy, Macri said the 34-year-old submarine was "in perfect condition," having gone through a refit. Macri said the tragedy "will require a serious, in-depth investigation that will yield certainty about what has happened." "My commitment is with the truth," he said. Argentina's navy has been fiercely criticized for they way it mismanaged the operation since first reporting the submarine overdue at its Mar del Plata base on November 16. WATCH | FEAR DEEPENS ON FATE OF MISSING ARGENTINE SUBMARINE The navy took several days to say that the San Juan had reported a problem with its batteries in its final communication on November 15. Only on Thursday did the navy confirm there had been an explosion on board, which experts said was likely linked to the battery problem. "Until we have the complete information, we do not have to look for the guilty, to look for those responsible. First we have to have certainty of what happened and why it happened," said Macri. "My commitment is with the truth. It is the same commitment that we have throughout the government and the navy, which is suffering this moment with great pain. We will know the truth in time from that investigation." The center-right leader was speaking as the search for the San Juan shifted from rescue to recovery on Friday, as navy officials lost hope of finding any of the crew alive. "We have to find the submarine at the bottom of the sea, the area is large, the environment hostile, and the search very difficult," said Argentine navy spokesman Enrique Balbi. Officially the navy has not declared the loss of the crew, but marine experts believe an explosion would have been catastrophic. Brenda Salva, friend of crew member Damian Tagliapietra, said she had been told by the commander of the Mar del Plata naval base: "They are all dead". For the relatives of the crew, grief had turned to anger by Friday. "I want to tell Admiral Marcelo Srur that he is not in a position to be in charge of a force, and to the president (Mauricio Macri), to bring order," said Maria Rosa Belcastro, mother of 38-year-old Lieutenant Fernando Villarreal. Relatives have focused their anger on the condition of the 34-year-old sub, which had undergone a seven-year refit to extend its service, and the navy's guardedness since the start of the search operation. In his comments at the navy headquarters, Macri also paid tribute to the "patriotism, heroism and bravery" of the San Juan's crew. "For all of them and their families, my greatest affection," he said. To the relatives of the missing crew, angry at the way the navy has handled the operation, he said: "The pain is great but we are together, and we are going to travel this road all the way together." Heads to roll Argentine press reports on Friday said Macri's center-right government was preparing to sack navy chief Srur in a purge of top brass in a country where the military is distrusted. Memories are still fresh in Argentina of the 1976-83 military dictatorship responsible for the disappearance of an estimated 30,000 people. The San Juan tragedy comes a month after Macri's government was accused of a cover-up in the killing of activist Santiago Maldonado after he was arrested by security forces during an indigenous rights protest. "The government is considering changing the leadership of the navy. They believe there was negligence in the disappearance of the ARA San Juan and criticize the handling of the situation," the influential Clarin daily said. One newspaper reported that the navy had taken five days to inform the defense ministry of a battery problem aboard the German-built diesel-electric submarine. The San Juan "has 500 tons of lead-acid batteries, which release hydrogen if there is an overcharge in the battery. Hydrogen in contact with oxygen is explosive," said Gustavo Mauvecin, director of the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine at Mar del Plata. Horacio Tobias, a former diver aboard the San Juan, said the blast was likely "so violent that they did not have time to realize anything." Depths plummet from 200 meters (650 feet) to over 3,000 meters on the edge of the Argentine shelf, where the sound of the explosion was picked up by hydro-acoustic sensors used by the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization. Experts say the sub would begin to break-up once below depths of around 600 meters. Argentina is leading an air-and-sea search to try to still find the sub. It is getting help from several countries now including Brazil, Britain, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Peru, Russia, the United States and Uruguay. A Russian oceanographic research ship was steaming towards the area on Friday to join the multinational operation involving around a dozen countries. The Yantar is equipped with two mini-subs designed to work at depths of 6,000 meters.




At the Cathedral of St Vitalis and the Guardian Angels

At Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish

We have recently received two photo submissions from Cebu City in the Philippine Islands, the first being of the funeral rites of Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, who passed away on October 18th, and the second of solemn Mass for EF Christ the King. Our thanks, as always, to those who sent them in - evangelize through beauty!The Archdiocese of Cebu recently mourned the passing of its Archbishop Emeritus, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, who died on October 18th. He was ordained a priest on March 17, 1956, by the Servant of God Bishop Alfredo Maria Obviar, and served as Archbishop of Cebu for 29 years, from 1982 to 2011. His body was laid in state at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, then placed at the side altar of St Vitalis, the patron saint of the Cathedral.On October 21, the Cardinals remains were brought to the shrine of the martyr St Pedro Calungsod. Cardinal Vidal was instrumental in the cause for canonization of the young Filipino martyr, which took place on October 21, 2012.He was laid to rest on October 26, following a Requiem Mass in the Ordinary Form celebrated by his successor, Archbishop Jose S. Palma.The three remaining Filipino Cardinals: Luis Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, Gaudencio Rosales, Archbishop Emeritus of Manila, and Orlando Quevedo, Archbishop of Cotabato.The funeral procession; the carriage used to carry the casket was built in 1872 by order of the Juan Gorordo, the first bishop of Cebu.The Cebuano Summorum Pontificum Society celebrated the feast of Christ the King with a Missa Cantata offered by Msgr. Joseph Tan, media liaison of the archdiocese, and assisted by the Schola Gregoriana of Cebu; before the Mass, Rosary was said, and afterwards, the Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Latin.
Biden: Deadly missile that hit Poland 'unlikely' to have come from Russia
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  Fur trappers are asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit from wildlife advocates who want to block the export of bobcat pelts from the United States.

Attorneys for trapping organizations said in recent court filings that the lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service infringes on the authority of state and tribal governments to manage their wildlife.

The plaintiffs in the case allege the governments export program doesnt protect against the accidental trapping of imperiled species such as Canada lynx.

More than 30,000 bobcat pelts were exported in 2015, the most recent year for which data was available, according to wildlife officials. The pelts typically are used to make fur garments and accessories. Russia, China, Canada and Greece are top destinations, according to a trapping industry representative and government reports.

Federal officials in February concluded trapping bobcats and other animals did not have a significant impact on lynx populations.

The Fish and Wildlife Service regulates trade in animal and plant parts according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, which the U.S. ratified in 1975.

The advocates lawsuit would do away with the CITES export program, according to attorneys for the Fur Information Council of America, Montana Trappers Association and National Trappers Association.

They are seeking to interfere with the way the States and Tribes manage their wildlife, by forcing them to limit, if not eliminate, the harvesting of the Furbearers and at the very least restrict the means by which trapping is conducted, attorneys Ira Kasdan and Gary Leistico wrote in their motion to dismiss the case.

Bobcats are not considered an endangered species. But the international trade in their pelts is regulated because they are look-alikes for other wildlife populations that are protected under U.S. law.

Critics of the government export program argue the government review completed in February did not look closely enough at how many lynx trappers inadvertently catch in traps set for bobcats or other furbearing species.

Pete Frost, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the fur industrys move to throw out the case seeks to deprive citizens of their right to court review of the federal pelt export program.

Between 2.3 million and 3.6 million bobcats lived in the U.S., with populations that were stable or increasing in at least 40 states, according to a 2010 study from researchers at Cornell University and the University of Montana.
Tata Motors' small car Nano, which has struggled to live up to expectations, is about to turn a new chapter with city-based Jayem Automotives set to launch an electric version of the car under "Neo" brand.

The 48-volt "Neo" cars would be assembled and marketed by Jayem Auto. Its body shells and associated components are supplied by Tata Motors. The first batch of cars will be supplied shortly, Jayem Automotives Managing Director J Anand said in a statement.

News18.com Presents Tech and Auto Awards 2017 | Vote For Your Favourite Smartphone, Car, Two-Wheeler And More!

Many automakers are joining the electric race and electric vehicles will soon become trend in India, he said.

The electric drive system of Neo is developed and supplied by Electra EV, a technology company which develops and produces electric drive systems. The car can run 150 km with air-conditioning on a single full charge. Commenting on the development, Tata Motors said it has "has supported Jayem Auto with body shells and associated components".

News18.com Presents Tech and Auto Awards 2017 | Car of The Year: Jeep Compass or Maruti Suzuki Dzire? Vote and Win

"Tata Motors has plans to be a significant player in the electric vehicle market and plans to develop a series of products in passenger cars and commercial vehicles in the EV space," it added. Nano, which was launched in 2008 with much expectations of being the people's car, hasn't been able to live up to the billing. It has become a loss-making model for Tata Motors at present. In 2010, Tata Motors had said it planned to launch an electric version of Nano to be sold in Europe.

Also Watch: Interview | Mika Hakinnen | Formula 1 Champion on Safe Driving | Cars18
New Delhi: Havmor Ice Cream Ltd (HIL) had said it will sell the business to South Korea's Lotte Confectionery for Rs 1,020 crore.

Lotte has decided to acquire 100 per cent shares of HIL, the company said in a statement.

Post acquisition, Lotte will start its ice cream business in the Indian market.

"It's a brand that we have nurtured with our team for over 73 years. But we believe that Lotte Confectionery is the right brand to take the company to the next level," HIL Chairman Pradeep Chona said.

Ahmedabad-based Havmor has a significant parlour network across 14 states in India. It makes 150 kinds of products from two plants and sells via 30,000 dealers.

The USD 80 billion Lotte Confectionery entered India in 2004 and has established choco-pie factories in Chennai and Delhi. Last year, its market share reached 90 per cent in the Indian choco-pie market.

Lotte plans to expand its market power from the northwest region to all across India with this entry into the Indian ice-cream market, the company said.

Havmor, however, will continue to operate its signature chain of restaurants and eateries across Gujarat as well as its signature brand and concept cafe Huber and Holly.

KPMG, Veritas Legal and Dhruva Tax consultants were the financial advisers for the deal.
New Delhi: Five juveniles in school uniform allegedly stabbed to death an 18-year-old college student in a bus on southeast Delhi's Mathura Road, following which four of them were apprehended, the police said on Friday.

The incident took place on Thursday when the victim was checking the pockets of the accused on suspicion that they had stolen his mobile phone, they said.

The juveniles were apprehended on Friday, the police said. Mohd Anas had boarded a cluster bus from Ashram to go to Jamia Nagar. The accused, who had also boarded the bus from the same stop, snatched Anas' phone which led to an argument, they said.

When Anas started searching their pockets, one of the juveniles stabbed him in the neck while another restrained him, the police said, adding following the incident, the juveniles jumped off the bus and fled.

The victim was rushed to the Holy Family Hospital where he was declared brought dead, they said.

Eyewitnesses told the police that the accused were wearing the uniform of a government school and were in their teens.

On the basis of the information gathered from other passengers, the police started scanning government schools in areas near the bus stop.

Five juveniles, allegedly involved in the incident, were identified. They were studying in class eight, nine and 10, and were residents of Ali Vihar and Badarpur, a police official said.

Four of them were apprehended on Friday and the snatched mobile phone was also recovered, he said.

Police are probing whether they were earlier involved in similar incidents.
Hyderabad: The city of Hyderabad will turn into a fortress ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump's visit for Global Entrepreneurship Summit from November 28 to 30.

The officials of US Secret Service, Special Protection group (SPG) and Telangana State Police, after a several rounds of meetings, have finalized the security set up.

According to senior police officials, there is no specific security threat but the police are on "high alert" in view of the threat perceptions with regard to the VVIP's visiting the city.

Daughter & advisor to US President Donald Trump, Ivanka, will travel within the city in her special bullet proof vehicle and her proximity security will be taken care by the US Secret Service.

Over 15,000 security personnel of the Telangana police will be deployed across the city to ensure the event goes peacefully. Control rooms have been set up to monitor every activity in the city.

Apart from the main event at HICC in Madhapur area of Cyberabad, massive security arrangements have been made for two important state dinners which will be held at iconic Taj Falaknuma Palace and Golconda Fort.

Over 2200 security officials and 150 CCTV cameras, in addition to existing, have been specially installed at the venues to ensure foolproof security.

The first dinner will be hosted by the Prime Minister for Ivanka Trump and nearly 2000 delegates at the Taj Falaknuma Palace on November 28th.

The biggest challenge for the security agencies is to transfer the guests from the GES venue to the Taj Falaknuma palace which is 34 km away in the old city area of Hyderabad.

Considering the sensitivity of the area, extra precautions and additional security arrangement have been made for the program. For past many days, police is conducting cordon and search operations and sanitizing approach roads to the palace. The police have even told locals not to allow any stranger in their house during this period.

The program at Falaknuma Palace will take place between 8pm to 10 pm.

Speaking to media, VV Srinivas Rao, Hyderabad Police Commissioner said, "Special arrangements have been made to take the delegates to venues for dinner. There are 45 buses and in batches guests will be taken to ensure hassle free movement."

Modi will reach Hyderabad on November 28th afternoon, and first proceed to inaugurate the Hyderabad Metro Rail.

After attending inaugural plenary session of Global Entrepreneurship Summit at 5 pm and dinner at Falaknuma Palace, he will leave for Delhi the same night.

The second dinner will be hosted by the Telangana Government at the Golconda Fort, 10 km from the venue on November 29th.

The program will take place at the Rani Mahal, which will showcase the heritage of Telangana and delegates will get a taste of Indian hospitality and culture.

"During the movement, there will be certain traffic restrictions and advisories issued. Some inconvenience to the local public will be there but we hope people will understand and extend their full support during this big event in their city", VV Srinivas Rao, CP Hyderabad added.

Ivanka will not be attending the dinner at Golconda Fort, as she scheduled to leave by November 29 evening. But it is likely that she visits the historic Golconda Fort in afternoon before she leaves India.
Udupi (Karnataka): Udupi, the famous temple town known for the international chain of Udupi Hotels, is all set to host the two-day All India Dharma Sansad beginning Friday.

The Sansad returns to the town after a gap of 32 years  it had hosted the second Dharma Sansad in 1985.

Much has changed in the last three decades. Udupi is no longer a small town with bad infrastructure. It is now a booming town and a district headquarters.

Most of the Hindu leaders who took part in the 1985 summit are no longer active. Some are no more.

In 1985, the BJP had just two MLAs in the Karnataka Assembly. Today, it is the principal opposition party and has ruled the state once.

The only thing that has not changed is the main agenda of the Sansad. Ram Mandir dominated the agenda in 1985 and remains the top issue today.

A poster for the Dharma Sansad.

The only difference is that the slogan in 1985 was Ram Mandir ka taala kholo (open Ram Mandir locks) and now it is to build the temple.

In 1985, the Dharma Sansad had set a deadline for then PM Rajiv Gandhi government to open the locks of Ram Mandir, following which the PM had ordered the opening of temple doors, plunging the entire nation into communal violence.

Back then, Narendra Modi was not known outside a small circle of the RSS. As PM today, the Sansad wants him to allow the construction of Ram Mandir at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

Pejavara Vishweshatheertha Swamy, the senior most pontiff of Udupi and a top VHP leader, said there was no going back on the issue.

Speaking to News18.com, he said, "In 1985, we had demanded the removal of locks. Rajiv Gandhi had ordered the removal of locks. But the mandir is yet to be built. We are sure that there will be a new temple soon.

Swamy added that the Sansad would discuss two more demands besides the Ram Temple  complete abolition of caste system and total ban on cow slaughter.

It has been speculated that the Dharma Sansad was being held at Udupi in view of the Karnataka Assembly elections next year. A Congress leader, on condition of anonymity, said the BJP was using it to create a Hindu wave in some parts of the state.

Dismisses the allegations, Vishweshatheertha Swamy said the Sansad was a 100% non-political event and that no politician will be allowed to share the stage with the Hindu pontiffs and other speakers.

He, however, said Union Minister Uma Bharti would be participating in the Sansad in her personal capacity as a sadhvi.

More than 2,000 leaders from the VHP and other affiliated organisations have already landed in Udupi to chalk out a new strategy.

Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sri Nirmalananda Natha Swamy of Vokkaliga community and many more influential religious leaders will addressing the summit in the next two days.

Interestingly, state BJP chief and the partys CM face BS Yeddyurappa has already met some of the delegates and pontiffs. He claimed it was a personal visit and had nothing to do with the elections.

Speaking to News18.com, Yeddyurappa said, "I went there this morning as an ordinary Hindu. Not as a BJP leader. It is purely a religious event.

The Dharma Sansad has been undecided on the Lingayats demand for a separate religion status. Officially, it maintains that there is no question of dividing the religion. Reacting to this, Karnataka Water Resources minister MB Patil said that since they are not Hindus, Sansad had no right to comment on the Lingayats. Patil is spearheading the separate religion movement.
Bhopal: In an unprecedented move, a court here took up the hearing in Vyapam case on the basis of the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation till 2 am on Friday.

The court issued arrest warrants against 200 accused named in the chargesheet.

The 1,500-page CBI chargesheet had named 592 accused in connection with the 2012 Pre-Medical Test scam. The accused included officials of four private medical colleges involved in selling seats for profits and several government officials.

The CBI, in the chargesheet, claimed that 229 seats each at four private medical colleges were available for sale in return for sum ranging from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Most of these students enrolled in MBBS course in these colleges did not take Pre-Medical Test in 2012 conducted by MP Professional Examination Board, also known by its Hinidi acronym as Vyapam.

These medical colleges included Index Medical College Indore, LN Medical College, People Medical College and Chirayu Medical College in state capital.

These private colleges are accused of filling up vacant seats in their colleges from September 28 to 30, 2012 in violation of the due process. As per the chargesheet, aided by middlemen and MPPEB officials, the solvers appeared in the test  PMT 2012 and deliberately seated close to the beneficiary students whose parents paid huge sums of money.

Solvers, mostly from UP and Bihar, helped beneficiary students copy their sheets and later applied for four private medical colleges only to surrender their seats later so that these vacant seats could be sold to beneficiary student under management quota against huge sums.

The Directorate of Medical Education also remained hand in glove with these colleges, the chargesheet said. The investigative agency claimed to have scanned addresses of solvers among the database of 10 lakh candidates who appeared in the test only to found these addresses fake.

Index medical college has been charged with selling 63 seats under government quota and 97 seats were sold by three medical colleges, the CBI lawyer Satish Dinkar said.

The charge sheet contained names of 245 new accused, while 347 people were named earlier. The court granted bail to 15 accused present while issued arrest warrant against 200 who did not attend the hearing. The bail applications of several prominent people including owners of four private medical colleges were trashed after midnight.

It is difficult to even assume, how much misdeeds of these medical colleges dented careers of laborious students, the court of special judge SC Upadhyay observed.
Jaipur: The protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmavati took a deadly turn on Friday when a body was found hanging in Rajasthans Nahargarh Fort, 20 km near Jaipur, with slogans against the movie scrawled on stones nearby.

One of the slogans read Padmavati ka virodh (Opposing Padmavati), while another read Hum putle nahi jalate, latkate hain (we dont burn effigies, we kill).

Officers from the Brahmapuri Police Station were investigating at the spot. It was not immediately clear if it was a case if murder or suicide. The deceased has been identified as Chetan and he was strangled using a plastic wire, the police said while adding that the deceased's Aadhaar Card was found in his pocket.

Mahipal Singh Makrana, a member of the Rajput Karni Sena which has been spearheading the Padmavati protest, said his outfit did not have anything to do with the latest development.

This is not our way of protest. I want to tell people not to resort to such methods, Makrana said.

His outfit had last week threatened to chop off Deepika Padukones nose just as Soorpanakhas nose was chopped off.

Meanwhile, the Delhi HC has rejected the plea for an expert panel on Padmavati, as Karni Sena members burnt director Bhansali's effigy in the national capital.

Padmavati has been facing the wrath of various Rajput groups and political leaders, who have accused Bhansali of distorting history.

Congress' Sachin Pilot has come out against the incident and called for investigations while terming it a 'sad' affair. "Any violence that happens is bad and not acceptable, no body can support those who indulge in violence," said the leader.

Many groups have been protesting amid rumours that there was a romantic dream sequence between Rajput queen Padmini and Allauddin Khilji. However, Bhansali said in an appeal that there was no dream sequence and it was all a rumour.

The movie stars Deepika Padukone as Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Alauddin Khilji.

Historians are divided on whether Padmini actually existed. She finds mention in the 16th-century epic poem Padmavat.

Earlier scheduled to arrive in cinema halls on December 1, the release date of the film has now been postponed by the makers until further notice.
New Delhi: Inspired by popular Bollywood film 'Dhoom 2', three men, who allegedly stole 16 antique Pashmina shawls worth Rs 2 crore from the National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum in Lutyens' here, were arrested, police said on Friday.

The accused  Vinay Parmar (28), Tarun Harvodiya (25) and Mohd Adil Sheikh (40)  took advantage of the non-functional CCTV cameras at the museum and carried out the theft, they added.

Sheikh was arrested on Thursday from southeast Delhi while two were already arrested in Kolkata two weeks back, the police said.

On October 31, D Rama Krishna Rao, administration and security officer filed a police complaint alleging that 16 antique Pashmina shawls were stolen from the museum in the last two days when the museum was closed, they said.

These shawls were brought from Kashmir and are 200-250 years old, the police said.

The accused had already carried out a recce and found that the CCTV cameras were not functioning. Two people had been regularly visiting the museum, posing as scholars researching on antiques, the police said.

On October 22, one of them hid himself in the museum and after over an hour later, the suspect had raised an alarm that he was stuck inside the museum, they said.

After he was rescued, he told his accomplices that the CCTV were not functional in the museum, the police said.

It was found that Parmar's phone was active on October 29 in the area surrounding the museum and he was in touch with his accomplices and various calls were exchanged between them, the police said.

It was found that the cell phones of the accused were active in Kolkata, West Bengal, they said.

A police team departed for Kolkata and Parmar and Harvodiya were arrested on November 13. Fifteen shawls were recovered from Parmar's in-laws' place in Kolkata.

Subsequently, the third accused, Sheikh, was arrested on Thursday from southeast Delhi's Okhla and a shawl was recovered from him, they said.

During interrogation, they disclosed that they were inspired by popular Bollywood film 'Dhoom 2' in which actor Hrithik Roshan committed theft of antique items from a museum, BK Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi), said.

Parmar is fluent in French and German and has visited France, Germany and China. He has a good knowledge about antiques and their importance, he said.

Sheikh works as an exporter and a vendor of the Central Cotton Industries (CCI).
Bengaluru: Two editors, who had been handed a one-year-jail term by the Karnataka Legislature, filed a writ against the order in the Karnataka High Court. The High Court is likely to take up the hearing on Monday.

The Assembly, during its ongoing winter session, re-confirmed the one-year-jail term and Rs 10,000 fine for writing articles that "breached the privilege of MLAs". The order, which took many by surprise, was first given on June 21, 2017, by the Speaker.

The Privileges Committee of the Assembly, headed at the time by MLA Kimmane Ratnakar, had given its report on the alleged defamatory articles which made personal attacks on MLA from Yelahanka, SR Vishwanath. During discussions, the Speaker ordered a year-long jail-term for Anil Raj, editor of the tabloid 'Yelahanka Voice.'

At the same time, attention was drawn to the other pending 'breach of privileges' case that the Speaker KB Koliwad himself had filed (before he took over the post). This related to an article that alleged corruption in the Speaker's constituency, written in the tabloid 'Hi Bangalore'.

The Speaker then clubbed the two and handed down a year-long jail-term to Ravi Belegere, editor of 'Hi Bangalore', as well.

Both orders have been re-confirmed now, with the Speaker rejecting review petitions filed with the Assembly Secretariat and giving a go-ahead for the arrest. Both editors are said to be on the run.

Advocate for the duo, S Shankarappa, said he has filed a petition to oppose the Assembly's order, which is set to be taken up on Monday.

"The question of privileges is not defined. In the case of Anil Raj, there are pending criminal and civil proceedings as defamation cases have been filed separately in these courts. When the matter is before a court of law, legislators don't have the power to even discuss the issue. In the case of Ravi Belegere, the offence does not even come under the purview of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Even if it amounts to breach of privilege, the principles of natural justice have been completely violated," Shankarappa told News18.

Interestingly, in the case of Ravi Belegere, even MLAs feel that the issue was suddenly clubbed with that of Anil Raj at the last minute. After orders of arrest in June, MLA Kimmane Ratnakar had reportedly written to the Speaker, to put on hold the decision as there was considerable outrage even within the ruling Congress.

Speaker Koliwad, however, had remained firm and said that if there were a question of reconsideration that would have to be discussed afresh in the House, it wouldn't be a decision of just the Speaker.

Shankarappa pointed out the conflict in Belegeres case as Koliwad was the complainant and the head of the Privileges Committee that decided the case and issued the quantum of punishment.

This is completely against the principles of justice. In fact, there are no guidelines on what should be the quantum of punishment. Belegere was not given a fair hearing. It is the first time in Karnataka that such a conviction has come from the Assembly. It is ultra vires (beyond the powers of the Assembly). In a similar case in Tamil Nadu, the court had even imposed a fine on the Speaker a few years back," said Shankarappa.
Srinagar: Security forces on Friday arrested a Pakistani terrorist belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) from a forest area in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, an Army official said.

"A Pakistani LeT terrorist was arrested during a joint search operation by the Army and the police in Magam area," he said.

The official said that the arrested terrorist, whose identity has not been disclosed, is being interrogated.

Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in the same area on Tuesday.
While shoppers scramble for Black Friday bargains this year, outdoor retailer REI is closing its 154 U.S. stores. This is the third consecutive year that the Seattle-based company will ignore the frenzy that traditionally marks the start of the holiday shopping season. REIs nearly 12,000 employees will get a paid holiday and will not process any online orders.

Instead, REI exhorts workers and customers to get outside with family and friends. #OptOutside, a Twitter hashtag that REI coined to promote its anti-Black Friday, has been widely adopted by outdoor lovers, as well as environmental groups and businesses that partner with REI to promote this event.

The campaign has drawn international praise from the advertising industry and has become a yearly phenomenon. State parks from Oregon to Indiana, often in concert with local nonprofits, offer free admission and other perks on Black Friday. This year REI is launching an experiential search engine where users can share photos and video of their favorite outdoor destinations, augmented with information such as directions to trailheads or events celebrating our nations public lands.

Many observers have praised REI for mixing business savvy with crunchy acumen. But how did REI and other outdoor companies align themselves with conservation? How do they square selling expensive apparel and promoting carbon-spewing tourism with their customers love for the outdoors? And how radical is Green Friday, especially if the OptOutsiders are carrying backpacks stuffed with the latest gear made from precious petroleum, rare metals and pricey fibers?

The answer is that shoppers have long expressed their affection for nature in what they buy. Consumption and environmental concerns, past and present, fit together as snugly as a foot in a beloved hiking boot.

Consuming nature, dividing people

The paradoxes of modern outdoor retailing have deep roots in the American conservation movement. Nineteenth-century trailblazers such as John Muir grew alarmed as they saw wildlife decimated, forests denuded and scenery despoiled. Among the loudest protesters were affluent outdoorsmen, such as Theodore Roosevelt, founder of the Boone and Crockett Club, and William Temple Hornaday, first director of the New York Zoological Society.

By calling to protect nature, these conservationists also protected their own hunting and fishing entitlements. They attacked the rural poor, immigrants and minorities, who Hornaday once called the regular army of destruction because they took fish and game for subsistence or sale. They used their money and power to license hunters and anglers, limit harvests and ban equipment. Some of these measures protected nature (and still do), but they also intentionally reserved nature for those who could consume it properly by the standards of wealthy conservationists.

Class differences pervaded other forms of outdoor recreation too. People with means vacationed at posh resort hotels. Middling Americans took more rustic routes. Outdoor groups such as the Appalachian Mountain Club, founded in Boston in 1876, and The Mountaineers, founded in Seattle in 1906, taught woodcraft to middle-class urbanites who yearned for authentic escapes.

Lloyd Anderson, REIs founder, conspired with other members of The Mountaineers to promote riskier activities, such as rock climbing. He quickly learned that they did not have the requisite gear. Influenced by other local co-ops, Anderson organized REI in 1939 to pool members annual fees so the group could purchase quality equipment from Europe at affordable prices.

As costs for lightweight materials such as aluminum and nylon fell after World War II, REI attracted a burgeoning following locally and nationally. And it continued to trade on its founders cooperative and environmental vision. In 1976, a year after opening its first retail store outside of Seattle, it launched an environmental grants initiative, and in 1989 the firm cofounded the Conservation Alliance, a group of outdoor businesses dedicated to environmental protection.

Yet REIs #OptOutside campaign can seem superficial compared to more radical stances. Patagonia, founded in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard as a spin-off from his self-named climbing equipment company, has promoted recyclable clothing, and applied tough sustainability standards to its global supply chains. In its 2013 Dont Buy This Jacket campaign, Patagonia even encouraged customers to make do with less.

Critics have accused Patagonia of playing the snob card and promoting chic travel to imperiled and faraway places. Chouinard himself freely accepts these accusations. As he cynically admitted in a recent New Yorker profile, everyones just greenwashing, because growth is the culprit.

In this context, REIs Black Friday campaign can look like an unabashed marketing ploy that ignores the fundamental source of our environmental problems: humans overuse of the earths resources.

Maybe Chouinard is right: we are all being greenwashed.

Is green good  or possible

?

But is this a bad thing to admit? Perhaps. To deny the inherent contradictions of Green Friday is to ignore how affection for nature collides with our longing to consume it. By asking customers to think about what they are buying, Patagonia tries to foreground the environmental and social ethics of buying a new fleece jacket. REI, by contrast, asks us to take a one-day shopping holiday to help the planet. At best it is a lighter green vision.

REI and its competitors are businesses, and none of these efforts supersede retailers bottom lines. Greenwashing is just the latest term for an old phenomenon: tethering consumption to environmental values. And consumers have proclaimed their environmental values through purchasing power since the dawn of the conservation movement.

Ultimately, there is no such thing as truly green consumption. Consider Cyber Monday, just after Thanksgiving, when retailers seek to entice consumers to spend online with early holiday discounts. Is internet shopping better for the environment than driving to the mall? It may keep us off the road, but online shopping does not eliminate environmental costs  it just diverts them to the data warehouses that power retailers mail order divisions, and the planes and trucks that deliver the goods to consumers.

Moreover, is hitting the trail really escaping the Internet of things when hikers can share their every move and thought by mobile phone or other wireless devices?

This Thanksgiving, take time to remember the late biologist Barry Commoners famous aphorism: Theres no such thing as a free lunch.
New Delhi: The furore over Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmavati has reached the United Kingdom with the Rajput groups in London planning protests against the British censor boards all-clear to the controversial film.

The film, whose released has been deferred in India following massive protests, was cleared uncut by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

"'Padmavati' (12A) moderate violence, injury detail," stated the official website of the British censor board. "All known versions of this work passed uncut," it said. The 12A rating means the film cannot be viewed in UK by a child under 12 years unless accompanied by an adult.

A functionary at Viacom 18, the makers of Padmavati, however, said there was no plan to release the film globally without it being cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Indias censor board.

"The film was cleared by the UK censor board without any cuts. But we are waiting for censor clearance in India. Till then we will not release the film anywhere," PTI quoted a source as saying.

The London Rajput Samaj has, however, shot off a letter to the British censor board, asking it to reconsider its decision.

Speaking to CNN-News18, Mahendra Singh Jadeja, president of the Rajput Samaj of United Kingdom, said, We as Rajputs are very concerned about the Padmavati situation. We have written to the BBFC. We also have plans to campaign and protest to ensure that this film is not released in the UK.

We are asking for legal opinion and want to remain within the law. This is not the first time that he (Bhansali) is distorting the history. This time we are sure that the entire story is being distorted. We want to make sure that the people are made aware of the real story and not the creative story which is being shown to the public just to make money, Jadeja said.

When contacted, the BBFC said it does not comment on straightforward classification decisions.

Padmavati has been facing the wrath of various Rajput groups and political leaders, who have accused Bhansali of distorting history.

Many groups have been protesting amid rumours that there was a romantic dream sequence between Rajput queen Padmini and Allauddin Khilji. However, Bhansali said in an appeal that there was no dream sequence and it was all a rumour.

The movie stars Deepika Padukone as Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Alauddin Khilji.

Historians are divided on whether Padmini actually existed. She finds mention in the 16th century epic poem Padmavat.

Earlier scheduled to arrive in cinema halls on December 1, the release date of the film has now been postponed by the makers till further notice.
Thiruvananthapuram: Three men have been arrested for allegedly attacking a public health nurse during a measles and rubella vaccination drive in Keralas Malappuram district.

The nurse, Shyamala B, was roughed up and her arm was twisted by the accused during a vaccination drive at GLP school in Edavoor.

The police has said the attackers were all residents of Malappuram where the vaccination drive was happening. The attackers were armed with knives, they added.

Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja has condemned the incident and said that strict action will be taken. Such cases should be seen in isolation with no support from public at large, he said.

The vaccination drive is being held across Kerala to vaccinate children up-to age of 15-years against measles and rubella. Traditionally, some communities in Malappuram have been resistant to vaccinations.
New Delhi: Barely days after a Youth Congress magazine published a meme calling Narendra Modi a chaiwala (tea vendor), BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha on Thursday yet again invoked the jibe against the Prime Minister, IANS reported.

Taking potshots at detractors within his own party, the Bollywood actor questioned why he couldnt speak on the economy despite not being a specialist when others continued to comment on it.

"If vakeel babu can speak on finance, if a TV actress can become the country's HRD minister and if a chaiwala can become... I wouldn't say any further... why can't I speak on economy," Sinha said in veiled references to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, former HRD minister Smriti Irani and the PM Narendra Modi, respectively.

Taking potshots at Modi, Sinha, who was speaking at a book launch, said he had been drawn towards "healthy politics" inspired by Ram Manohar Lohia, and that he had no intention of becoming a minister.

"I am speaking from my heart though it is not mann ki baat because someone else has a patent for 'Mann ki Baat'," he said amid laughter. PM Modis monthly radio address to the nation is titled Mann ki Baat.

"Some people say I speak against my own government's policies because I was not made a minister. To be honest, I neither have any desire nor any expectations to become a minister. Even those who are ministers today have no standing of their own. They are busy flattering the master to save their skins and seats," IANS quoted Sinha as saying.

"I was drawn towards healthy politics inspired by Lohia. I had not come to politics with the motto of na jiyunga, na jeene dunga (I would neither live in peace, nor let others live in peace)," Sinha said in a clear parody to Prime Minister Modi's oft repeated "Na khaoonga na khane doonga" (I will neither take bribe nor let others do) remark.

He said that the atmosphere in the country was such that "either you are with me or you are anti-national".

"What is happening in this country? Cow vigilantes are killing people, intellectuals, writers, journalists... and now even judges are being killed. Aaj dhan shakti jan shakti par bhari hai (Today, money power is stronger than people's power). And then if people like me come forward, we are attributed motives, we are questioned."

Sinha said that demonetisation has rendered millions jobless, factories have been shut, small traders, hawkers are out of work and GST is like "neem chadha karela" (bitter gourd is doubly bitter now).

"If I do not speak for the youth, for the poor and downtrodden, for the oppressed, then what am I doing in politics?" he asked.

(With IANS inputs)
Cast: Voices of Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Anthony Gonzalez, Alanna Ubach

Director: Lee Unkrich

Its the holiday season, and the makers of Pixars new film Coco choose an unusual backdrop to frame its plot against  the Mexican festival Dia de los Muertos, otherwise known as Day of the Dead, or the day you honor the dear departed. Ironically, its this morbid touch that gives the film its heart. Just as the films protagonist Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) crosses over into the Land of the Dead, you feel the movie come alive.

Coco tells the tale of 12-year-old Miguel, born to a family of shoemakers, but who dreams of becoming a singer. This is easier hummed than done because the family has a longstanding allergy to music ever since Miguels great great grandfather abandoned his wife and his daughter in search of a singing career and fame.

The story is predictable, as Miguel, enraptured by Mexicos late singing legend Ernesto De La Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), wants to follow in his footsteps. But it takes flight when the boy, by a quirk of fate, crosses over to the Land of the Dead. It is his skeletal ancestors and some splendid spirit animals that can help Miguel back home. Meanwhile, seeking out De La Cruz in this land of the dear departed, Miguel encounters a kooky musician, Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal), who is desperate for his family  back home in the land of the living  to remember him so he doesnt fade into oblivion.

Coco is resplendent with macabre imagery, especially the gorgeous Land of the Dead  a metropolis reached by a bridge of marigold petals, and where skeletons have to pass by an airport immigration-sort of check. Its the delicious tongue-in-cheek humor, the exotic Mexican culture, lilting songs, and heartfelt emotion that powers the film along its journey.

Pixar scores on these fronts, and frankly, because director Lee Unkrich imaginatively seasons this narrative about family with the bittersweet flavors of death. Its a bold theme for a film that will be widely consumed by children, but its inoffensive, accessible stuff.

Im going with three-and-a-half out of five for Coco; the films beautiful ideas of death and beyond will linger with you, long after youve left the cinema.

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Kochi: The Kerala High Court has refused to stay a single-judge order to screen controversial Malayalam film S Durga at the ongoing International Festival of India (IFFI) but said the jury should first view the certified copy and approve it.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice A Muhamed Mustaque gave the order while admitting an appeal by the Centre against the single judges order.

The certified version of the film S Durga will be viewed by the jury and on that basis, the film will be exhibited in the Indian Panorama of the IFFI, the order said.

In its appeal against the single judge order, the government argued that the film though selected by the jury had not secured the exemption as required by the Panorama regulation in the absence of any certification from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). It also said the inclusion will upset arrangements at IFFI 2017 which ends on November 28.

Director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan had moved the court after the film was dropped from the Indian Panorama section of the festival along with the Marathi film Nude.

Both films were dropped by the ministry even though they were included in the Panorama list by a 13-member jury, prompting jury chief Sujoy Ghosh and members Apurva Asrani and Gyan Correa to resign in protest

S Durga narrates the horrifying experience of a hitchhiking couple and has won critical acclaim at film festivals abroad.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea against Bollywood flick Padmavati, observing that such petitions were encouraging those agitating against the movie.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar termed as "hopeless" and "misconceived" a petition seeking that a committee be set up before the film is released to check whether there was any distortion of history.

"Have you (counsel for the petitioner) seen the film? Have the people, who are burning cinema halls seen the film? By this kind of petitions you are encouraging the people who are agitating," the bench observed.

It also directed petitioner Akhand Rashtrawadi Party, which claims to be a political party, to approach the Censor Board as the court was not inclined to entertain its plea.

The plea had said that the committee was necessary as there was an alleged distortion of historical facts in the film starring Deepika Padukone. The Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed Padmavati also stars Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor.

However, the bench ruled that "the matter is pending consideration before the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Similar reliefs have been declined by the Supreme Court as well. This petition is nothing but hopeless and misconceived."

It further said since the statutory body CBFC was looking into it, "let them carry out their job".

The public interest litigation (PIL) had sought a direction to the CBFC to constitute a committee comprising members of the Censor Board, a social activist, three history experts from any university and a retired high court judge who shall head the panel.

The outfit's PIL, filed through advocate R N Singh and Puneesh Grover, had said there was an apprehension of lowering the dignity and pride of icon Rani Padamavati, who immolated herself to protect her honour and dignity as well as for Chittorgarh in Rajasthan.

It had also said that no individual or group has a right to play with the sentiments or emotions of any caste or community by distorting the history or a historic icon.

Recently, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a plea seeking a stay on the release of film, saying the Censor Board was yet to certify the movie.

The top court said there were several guidelines for the CBFC to grant certification to a movie and, in addition, there was the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) to look into the grievances regarding a film.
Kamal Swaroop has been in the film business for last 3 decades although he insists a lot of people in the industry still don't know him. "I don't have a very commercial image in the industry," said Swaroop in an interview with News18.com. Known for making the critically acclaimed film Om Dar-B-Dar and documentary Rangbhoomi, which won National award for best non-feature film, Swaroop has always maintained he was never interested in exploring fiction. Perhaps that's what makes him say, "They (people in the industry) have very different ideas of making film."

Swaroop is probably one of the few filmmakers who never stopped experimenting even after facing censor board roadblocks in two of his projects-- Om Dar-B-Dar and Battle of Banaras, a documentary, which is yet to see the light of day. The latter captures India's 2014 general election in extremely large scale, particularly the electoral fight between Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal in Varanasi.

The CBFC had denied certification to the film, claiming it "tried to divide people on caste and communal lines."

"People would tell me why are you into this experimental kind of things? why can't you be practical? They would give me advice, 'Don't go there, things are not familiar.' But I'm following my own path," he says.

Swaroop has had a long-time fascination with mythology and his works are a testament to that. When asked if working on such subjects has become difficult nowadays, Swaroop says, "We are stuck in mythology. All political parties are using it as a tool that Padmavati was like that this was like that. So, I want to break it down, deconstruct it and see what is the source of this imagination."

Citing an example, Swaroop says, "There's a god called Ayyappan in the South. There's a marriage between Shiva and Vishnu and the Ayyappan is born. Now, it's not like that two males copulate. It's the two different groups coming together and giving birth to a third entity. But in language, you'd say that they mated together. So it's also on how we use language. So, I want to deconstruct these images."

Swaroop is currently in Goa to attend the 11th edition of NFDC Film Bazaar. His film Omniyam, based on The Third Policeman by Irish novelist Flann OBrien, is among the 18 projects that have been selected to participate in the Film Bazaar's Co-production Market of 2017.
Mumbai: Actor Shefali Shah has come out in support of Deepika Padukone, saying death threats to the Padmavati star are "shameful and appalling."

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama has been mired in controversy with several outfits accusing the filmmaker of "distorting historical facts".

Both Bhansali and Deepika have received death threats, something which Shefali believes is a worrying reality.

Asked about the same, the actor said, "It's shameful. You go on national television and they allow you to say something like this. It's appalling. And when we talk about feminism, the term has been used very wrongly of late... We talk about being equal - in caste, creed, gender and colour.

"What about the democracy? There is a certain creative liberty an actor or a director is allowed to take. Obviously that doesn't seem to be visible anymore. It's really

shameful," Shefali said.

The actor was speaking at launch of her short film Juice.

Director Neeraj Ghaywan, who was also at the event, said it is ironic how "goons" threatened Deepika over a "fictitious woman".

"I was genuinely appalled. I was ashamed of myself as a citizen. To see that a fringe - which is the new mainstream - goon can come out on national TV and announce that he is going to put out Rs 5 crore for Deepika's head or nose and then it's up to Rs 10 crore to burn her alive..." he said.

"Something which deeply hurt me was how the biggest star of our country is threatened like this on national television and there are no charges, no arrests have been made so far. (And) It is being done, in fact, to save the honour of a fictitious woman! How ironic the times are, it's really shocking," the Masaan director added.

Juice is presented by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films.
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that democracy is under threat in the country under the BJP rule and called upon Opposition parties to work together for the greater interest of the people before the next Lok Sabha polls.

She accused the NDA government of trying to halt the developmental process in her state.

"Democracy is under threat in this country under the present central government. It is a super emergency that is going on in the country. I have been an MP for nearly two decades but I have never seen such a government at the Centre," she said at the India Today Conclave East in Kolkata.

"I believe in collective leadership... At present all are working together and that is the best policy. Let us work together," Banerjee said about the Opposition, adding she shares good relations with the DMK, the SP, the BSP and the BJD and is working with the Congress inside Parliament on various issues.

When asked whether she is hinting at a broader opposition coalition with the Congress before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, she said, "In Bengal, the Congress and the Left are working with the BJP at the state level. But at the national level for greater interests I think we should work together."

To a question whether the country would see a grand opposition coalition ahead of 2019, she said, "It depends. We are working together in Parliament. I went to (RJD chief) Lalu Prasadji's programme in Patna."

Banerjee said, "I have good relationship with (Samajwadi Party chief) Akhilesh ji and (BSP chief) Mayawati ji in Uttar Pradesh, with Stalin ji (DMK), Naveen ji (BJP)... I maintain the best of relations with so many other people. Even, within the BJP I maintain good relation with some people, but not with all."

Bengal will never accept divide and rule politics of the BJP, she asserted and dismissed that it was a challenger to the ruling (TMC) Trinamool Congress government.

"The BJP is nowhere in Bengal but only on media and social media. They only shout. Let the BJP shout along with their bike vahini, but they cannot do anything in Bengal," Banerjee said.
Ahmedabad: The BJP fifth list of candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls which was released on Friday has caused domestic strife for its Member of Parliament from Panchmahal, Prabhatsinh Chauhan.

While Chauhan had been lobbying hard for a ticket from the Kalol Assembly seat for his wife Rangeshwari Chauhan, the party sprung him a surprise by nominating his daughter-in-law Suman Chauhan instead.

The list features the names of thirteen candidates and pertains to seats that go polls in the second phase of elections on December 14.

Rangeshwari wrote a scathing Facebook post following the list and accused her stepson Pravinsinh Chauhan, Sumans husband, of being a bootlegger selling illegal alcohol in the dry state of Gujarat.

For the last one month, before the candidates for the second phase of polling were announced, Chauhan had been speaking in favour of his wife Rangeshwari getting a ticket, both inside and outside the party forum. He had reportedly issued an open threat to the BJP that he would have his wife contest as an independent candidate and ensure that the BJP candidate loses.

On Friday, the party stumped Chauhan by nominating Suman Chauhan, the wife of his son Pravinsinh Chauhan. Hours after the first list came out, Rangeshwari wrote a scathing Facebook post in Gujarati against her husband Prabhatsinh and stepson Pravinsinh. Prabhatsinh, if you have ever had your mothers milk then try and campaign in Kalol, I challenge you! she wrote.

Speaking to Network 18 after her Facebook post, Rangeshwari said, Prabhatsinhs son Pravin is a bootlegger who sells alcohol. Both father and son are known to put undue pressure on innocent people in the area. As far as Suman is concerned, she is a candidate who has been parachuted onto this constituency. She was earlier with the Congress and has joined BJP only recently.
Agreement to be signed in two hours (video)

1730 The EaP memorandum is signed by all countries. It has already been publicized. Signing of the agreement with Armenia is scheduled at 16:15 (local time). 1630 Shortly before the reporters were informed that the Armenian representation were not giving a separate conference. There is still no signing the agreement. 15.00 The text of the Eastern Partnership Summit Memorandum is ready, but surprises are not ruled out. "According to my information, all non-specific issues have been clarified, and I hope we will not have any surprise at the last moment, and the heads of states will be able to officially accept it. The declaration has not yet been adopted, it is usually accepted at the end of the meeting, but I think that we will have no significant changes in the declaration," Edgars Rinkevic, Latvian Foreign Minister said earlier. In the text of the Declaration of the Eastern Partnership, non-pro-Armenian formulations were included, which were not clarified in the morning. 14.00 In response to the question of Azatutyun, Serzh Sargsyan said that the summit was not the place where the Karabakh issue should be discussed. "I do not think that the Eastern Partnership summit is the platform where we should discuss our relations with Azerbaijan. The OSCE Minsk Group is engaged in the Karabakh issue, and the EU fully supports the OSCE Minsk Group," Serzh Sargsyan said. 13.42 At the press center, a Moldovan journalist says what response he received from Serzh Sargsyan when he had asked from afar, what expectations Serzh Sargsyan had from the agreement with the EU? "Only positive," said Serzh Sargsyan without approaching the journalist. He said it from so far that it is impossible to understand his words by cameras. The Moldovan journalist was in the first line, and he claims that these are the exact words that Serzh Sargsyan said. 13.17 They will do everything in order to get good photos. This journalist has been in this position for more than half an hour. 12.40 Journalists, whose leaders of states have already arrived, are gradually leaving the hall where where the flags of all the delegations are placed. It is hard to approach the Armenian flag as the journalists of Azerbaijan are being shot. The flags of Azerbaijan and the EU are on the left and right sides of the Armenian flag, respectively. 12.12 Theresa May, Prime Minister of Great Britain, approaches the journalists waiting for her. The country drifted apart from the EU considers safe neighborhood important. EaP is in the agenda, and she does not deny that other important meetings are also going to take place. 12.05 Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, did not answer the question. Compared with Serzh Sargsyan, who passed almost unnoticed, reporters tried to ask some questions to Ilham Aliyev. 11.45 Serzh Sargsyan also arrived. He passed at the moment the representative of Belarus was giving an interview. And Serzh Sargsyan was not asked any question. 11.30 More than two hundred cameras are currently waiting for the presidents to attend the EPP summit. Journalists' work started at 6 am. The roads leading to the EU building are under control. Estern Partnership Summit started at 11 am, in Brussels. Leaders of six EU and Eastern Partnership countries today will meet in Brussels to deepen ties between the Union and former Soviet republics. This summit is expected an Integrated and Enhanced Partnership Agreement to be signed with Armenia.
Sanand: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani for reportedly not accepting a mammoth tricolor made by Dalits citing the lack of space. The Gandhi scion said that he would accept the national flag even if it were 50,000-km long.

Rahul said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Rupani had space only for a few industrialists, and not for Dalits, farmers and poor.

Gandhi was addressing a gathering of Dalits at Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), a vocational training institute near Sanand town in Ahmedabad district, where he accepted a 125 x 83.3 feet tricolour weighing 240 kg.

The national flag was earlier meant to be presented to Rupani. In August, the DSK had even carried the tricolour to Gandhinagar. However, officials at the collectorate had allegedly refused to accept it citing lack of space.

"This flag is not yours alone, but belongs to the entire country. He (Rupani) said he has no place to keep the flag. Even if you gave me a 15 km or 50,000 km-long flag, and even if I had one inch space to keep it, I would have taken it," Gandhi said.

"Like you, I have a huge space in my heart for this flag. It is the mindset of the BJP chief ministers or the prime minister that they have no space for this flag or your hard work. But they have the entire Gujarat for 5-10 industrialists, who can get any amount of space they want in Gujarat or across India," Gandhi said.

He said the prime minister or Gujarat chief minister had no space for Dalits, farmers, poor and small businessmen. Gandhi attacked Modi and Rupani over the Una Dalit flogging incident. He also assailed the prime minister over the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula at the University of Hyderabad (UoH).

On the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit organsied by the state government, he said the state is vibrant only for "5-7 industrialists of Modiji" and not farmers, tribals, poor, or Dalits.

He said the Congress wants to eradicate untouchability from not just one village, but from the mind of every Indian. Gandhi said that was also the goal of B R Ambedkar.

The members of DSK said the tricolour was made by Dalits, who also donated money to raise Rs 54,000 for it.

They said Gandhi wants the national flag gifted to him to be kept at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum in New Delhi.

(With PTI inputs)
The government is moving ahead with linking Aadhaar with mobile SIM cards and all unlinked phones will be deactivated after February 2018. To make this possible, various telecom operators are coming up with innovative ways to help the rural subscribers easily re-verify their numbers. Vodafone has announced that they are rolling out doorstep facility for Aadhaar linking and SIM upgrade. For this purpose, Vodafone has positioned two mobile vans to travel to the rural areas of Rajasthan, enabling doorstep SIM upgrades and Aadhar verification.

Introduced in January 2017, these Vodafone Mobile Vans have covered over 450+ villages like Jhunjhunu, Mahapura, Hingoniya, Bhadra and more. At the very same time, Idea Cellular has organised special teams to visit the homes of senior citizens and physically disabled users to verify their numbers using biometrics.

Aadhaar mobile linkage is being done as per the orders of Supreme Court, passed in February this year in Lokniti foundation case and all SIM cards have to be verified with Aadhaar within a year from the date of judgement. All unlinked phones are to be deactivated after February next year, so criminals, fraudsters and terrorists cannot use the issued SIMs.

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The world's only particle accelerator dedicated to art was switched on at the Louvre in Paris Thursday to help experts analyse ancient and precious works. The 37-metre (88-foot) AGLAE accelerator housed underneath the huge Paris museum will be now be used for the first time to routinely study and help authenticate paintings and other items made from organic materials. The Centre for Research and Restoration of the Museum of France (C2RMF) -- which is independent of the Louvre -- has spent 2.1 million euros ($2.5 million) overhauling and upgrading the machine, which can determine the chemical make-up of objects without the need to take samples.

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"Up to now we almost never analysed paintings because we were afraid the particle beam might change the colours" when it hit the pigments in the paint, director Isabelle Pallot-Frossard told AFP. The AGLAE works by speeding up helium and hydrogen nuclei to speeds of between 20,000 to 30,000 kilometres (12,400 to 18,600 miles) per second and then bombarding the object, which emits radiation that can be captured and analysed. Among the first objects to be tested by the newly configured accelerator were Roman votive statues of the household gods -- the Lares -- which were said to protect the home. They were uncovered from the ancient forum of Bavay close to the border with Belgium.

The old accelerator -- which was built in 1988 -- could only work between eight and 10 hours a day, but the new one can function around the clock, the C2RMF said.

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Lahore: Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed walked from house arrest as a free man early on Friday and moments after the release he said he will gather people across Pakistan for the "cause of Kashmir" and help the Kashmiris secure "freedom".

The JuD head, who carries a bounty of $10 million announced by the US for his role in terror activities, was set free after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any case, PTI reported.

He had been under detention since January this year.

"I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir," Saeed told his supporters who gathered outside his residence to celebrate his release.

The Judicial Review Board of Punjab province comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday unanimously ordered Saeed's release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest which expired at night.

"I fight the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir. And we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom."

Saeed said he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris this January. He used the release order to buttress his claims of "innocence".

"I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release ...India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHC's review board decision has proved that I am innocent," Saeed said.

The JuD chief said that the US, on India's request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.

"... I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," he claimed.

Several JuD activists gathered outside Saeed's residence in Jauhar town in Lahore to celebrate his release. They shouted anti-India slogans and described his leader as "a hope for Kashmiri people".

"We are happy to see our leader free," a JuD spokesman Ahmad Nadim told PTI.

"Hafiz sahib received his release order from the jail officials. Now he is a free man," Ahmad said. He said after his release Saeed thanked to his supporters gathered outside his house.

"Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case," a top official in the government told PTI.

He said after a long deliberation by the officials concerned it has been decided to follow the review board's decision.

Official sources said that Saeed's release would invite strong criticism from India and the US.

"How will the PML-N government handle the foreign pressure to again detain Saeed is to be seen," they said.

Punjab Assistant Advocate General Sattar Sahil said the government law officer had presented "some important evidence" to justify Saeed's detention but all three members of the board unanimously rejected it and ordered his release.

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides - Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain, were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti- Terrorism Act 1997. However, the last two extensions were made on the 'public safety law'.

The board refused to give further extension to the detention of Saeed's aides. They were set free last month. Under the law, the government can detain a person for up to three months under different charges but for extension to that detention it needs approval from a judicial review board.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack. Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai terror attack in November 2008 but he was freed by court in 2009.

India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and also demanded trial of Saeed and LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi in the light of evidence it had provided to Islamabad.

Ten LeT militants killed 166 people and wounded dozens in Mumbai in November, 2008. Nine of the attackers were killed by police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught.

Kasab was executed after a court found him guilty and handed down death sentence.

Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN over his alleged role in the attack.

(With PTI inputs)
Paris: China has signed a deal to build a third large nuclear reactor in Pakistan, which wants to get a fifth of its electricity from nuclear by 2030.

World Nuclear News, supported by industry lobby World Nuclear Association, reported that China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) have signed a cooperation agreement for the construction of a 1,000 megawatt (MW) HPR1000 "Hualong One" reactor at the Chashma nuclear power plant in Punjab.

The PAEC could not immediately be reached for comment.

Pakistan generates five percent of its electricity from four small 300 MW Chinese reactors at the Chashma plant and wants to boost nuclear capacity to 8,800 MW, or about 20 percent of power generation capacity, by 2030.

China is already building two Hualong One reactors with a capacity of 1100 MW each near the port city of Karachi, which are expected to become operational in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

PAEC chairman Muhammad Naeem told Reuters last month PAEC was in the final stages of awarding contracts for Chasmah, which would take Pakistan's nuclear capacity to about 5,000 MW when it is finished. He said Pakistan wanted to build at least 3-4 more big nuclear reactors by 2030.

Imported oil is the main fuel for power generation in Pakistan, where one quarter of the population has no access to electricity.

Four Hualong reactors - a new so-called third-generation model with added safety features - are under construction in China, with the first expected to go online in 2021.

China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) - China's other big reactor vendor and French EDF's partner in the Hinkley Point nuclear project - has an agreement with the British government to build a Hualong reactor in Bradwell in south east England.

Britain's nuclear regulator is conducting a Generic Design Assessment, which is expected to take about five years.
Mar del Plata, Argentina: An explosion apparently occurred near the last known position of an Argentine submarine, the navy confirmed on Thursday, dashing last hopes of finding the vessel and its 44 crew members.

Relatives of the missing sailors reacted with grief and anger to the news after holding out hope since the sub was reported overdue at its Mar del Plata base on November 17, two days after the explosion.

"An anomalous, singular, short, violent and non-nuclear event consistent with an explosion," occurred shortly after the submarine's last communication, navy spokesman Captain Enrique Baldi told a news conference in Buenos Aires.

After days of false hopes, some of the relatives said the navy had retained information about the sub, and had lied to them over the past week.

"I feel cheated," said Itati Leguizamon, whose husband German Suarez was a sonar operator on the ARA San Juan.

"They did not tell us they died. But they tell us they are three thousand meters (9,800 feet) deep," added Leguizamon as other family members shouted angrily around her.

"They lied to us," said Leguizamon, a lawyer.

A sobbing Jessica Gopar, whose husband was an electrician aboard the San Juan, said "they just told us that the submarine exploded."

She spoke as she came out from the sub's base.

"He was the love of my life, engaged seven years before we got married," Gopar said of her husband, Fernando Santilli. "And how can I tell my son that he no longer has a father?"

Underwater sounds detected in the first days of the search by two Argentine search ships were determined to originate from a sea creature, not the vessel. Satellite signals were also determined to be false alarms.

The San Juan, a 34-year-old German-built diesel-electric submarine, had reported a battery problem on November 15 and said it was diverting to Mar del Plata, but did not send a distress signal, according to the navy.

Baldi admitted on Wednesday that the situation for the sub and its crew appeared to be worsening.

However, he refused to speculate at that point on the origin of what he initially described as a "hydro-acoustic anomaly" detected in the ocean almost three hours after the sub's communication and 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of its last known position.

Baldi explained that information about the unusual noise only became available Wednesday after being relayed by the United States and "after all the information from all agencies reporting such hydro-acoustic events was reviewed".

Explaining the lack of debris on the surface, Baldi said "nothing will end up floating to the surface" because a submarine "implodes".

Gustavo Mauvecin, director of the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine at Mar del Plata, said hydrogen "is always an issue with submarines with electric engines".

The San Juan "has 500 tons of lead-acid batteries, which release hydrogen if there is an overcharge in the battery, hydrogen in contact with oxygen is explosive".

An explosion 'so violent'

"In my opinion, after an explosion like that, it's difficult for there to be survivors," a former submarine commander told AFP.

The commander said a problem with batteries, as the sub had reported, could cause a blast.

"A severe problem with batteries might generate hydrogen. Hydrogen above a certain percentage is explosive," said the commander who requested anonymity.

Horacio Tobias, former chief of diving for the San Juan, said it "was so violent that they would not have had time to realize what happened".

The San Juan would have had enough oxygen for its crew to survive underwater in the South Atlantic for seven days since its last contact, according to officials. That time had elapsed by 0730 GMT Wednesday.

Argentina is leading an air-and-sea search with help from several countries now including Brazil, Britain, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Peru, Russia, the United States and Uruguay.

Russia was the latest navy to volunteer help, sending an oceanographic research ship as the operation shifted from rescue to recovery.

The Russian defense ministry said the Yantar was steaming to the area from the western coast of Africa on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.

The weeklong search has focused on the sub's last known position, around 200 miles off the Argentine coast, but has been hampered by bad weather.

Putin offered "words of support over the situation with the San Juan submarine" in a phone call to Argentine President Mauricio Macri late Wednesday, the Kremlin said.

Russia said the Yantar "is equipped with two deep water submersibles which allow exploratory searches at a depth of up to 6,000 meters."

US President Donald Trump offered his support, tweeting: "May God be with them and the people of Argentina!"
Lahore: Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed on Thursday said ousted Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif had committed "treason" by seeking friendship with India and ignoring the "Kashmir cause", hours after his release from house arrest.

Saeed gave an hour-long Friday sermon at the JuD headquarters here, for which a large number of JuD activists had gathered at the Jamia Masjid Al-Qadsia at Chauburji here.

After Friday prayers, the charged workersgreeted Saeed on his release and renewed their pledge for "Kashmir Jihad". Saeed in his speech alsotargeted the Pakistani government for "taking dictation from foreign masters" and spoke of "Indian atrocities" in Kashmir.

He told his supporters the "reasons" behind his10-month detention, and also as to why Sharif was ousted as prime minister.

"Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been punished for forsaking Kashmiris. Sharif is ousted from the prime minister house because he committed treason with Kashmiris. He wanted friendship with India and completely ignored the Kashmir cause," he said and warned the PML-N government not to bow before the international community for loans.

"The rulers must not take dictation from the US and other countries and take its own decisions," he said. Saeed walked from house arrest as a free man in the early hours of today after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any case.

He had been under detention since January this year. The JuD head, who carries a bounty of USD 10 million announced by the US for his role in terror activities, reiterated that he was detained for raising his voice for the Kashmiri people.

He said Pakistan should not hold peace dialogue with India till it withdraws its army from Kashmir. He said he would continue fighting for Kashmiris till they get freedom.

Saeed reiterated that the US, on India's request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.
Washington: Lawyers for former national security adviser Michael Flynn have told President Donald Trump's legal team that they are no longer communicating with them about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.

The decision could be a sign that Flynn is moving to cooperate with Mueller's investigation or negotiate a deal for himself. Flynn's legal team communicated the decision this week, said a person familiar with the move who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

In large criminal investigations, defense lawyers routinely share information with each other. But it can become unethical to continue such communication if one of the potential targets is looking to negotiate a deal with prosecutors. Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn, didn't respond to a request for comment Thursday. A lawyer for Flynn's son, Michael Flynn Jr., who has also come under investigation from Mueller's team of prosecutors, declined to comment.

The New York Times first reported the decision.

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February after White House officials concluded that he had misled them about the nature of his contacts during the transition period with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

He was interviewed by the FBI in January about his communications with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The deputy attorney general at the time, Sally Yates, soon advised White House officials that their public assertions that Flynn had not discussed sanctions with Kislyak were incorrect and that Flynn was therefore in a compromised position.

Flynn was facing a Justice Department investigation over his foreign business dealings even before Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to investigate potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mueller has since inherited that investigation.

Flynn, a prominent Trump backer on the campaign trail, has been a key figure in Mueller's probe and of particular interest to Trump. Former FBI Director James Comey, for instance, said that Trump encouraged him to end an FBI investigation into Flynn during a private Oval Office meeting in February.

In addition to scrutinizing Flynn's contacts with Russia during the transition and campaign, Mueller has been investigating the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general's role in $530,000 worth of lobbying work his now-defunct firm performed for a Turkish businessman during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

The lobbying campaign sought to gather derogatory information on Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric and green-card holder living in Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulen of being behind a botched coup and has sought his extradition. Gulen has denied the allegations, and U.S. officials have rebuffed Turkey's extradition demands, citing a lack of evidence.

Flynn and his firm, Flynn Intel Group, carried out the lobbying and research work for several months, meeting with officials from the U.S. and Turkish governments. Flynn also published an op-ed on Election Day in The Hill newspaper, parroting many of the Turkish government's talking points about Gulen. At the time, neither Flynn nor his company was registered with the Justice Department to represent Turkish interests.

Soon after the publication of the op-ed, the Justice Department began investigating Flynn's lobbying work, and in March, he registered with the department as a foreign agent. In federal filings, Flynn acknowledged the work could have benefited the government of Turkey.

Since then, FBI agents working for Mueller have been investigating whether the Turkish government was directing the lobbying work and not a private company owned by a Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, as Flynn's firm has contended. FBI agents have also been asking about Flynn's business partner, Bijan Kian, who served on Trump's presidential transition, and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who worked for his father as part of the lobbying campaign. Flynn Jr. also was a near constant presence around his father during the Trump campaign and presidential transition period.

Mueller announced his first charges in the investigation last month, including the guilty plea of a foreign-policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, and the indictments of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and business associate Rick Gates.
Cairo: Armed attackers on Friday killed at least 235 worshippers in a bomb and gun assault on a packed mosque in Egypt's restive North Sinai province, in the country's deadliest attack in recent memory.

A bomb explosion ripped through the Rawda mosque frequented by Sufis roughly 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish before gunmen opened fire on those gathered for weekly Friday prayers, officials said.

Witnesses said the assailants had surrounded the mosque with all-terrain vehicles then planted a bomb outside.

The gunmen then mowed down the panicked worshippers as they attempted to flee and used the congregants' vehicles they had set alight to block routes to the mosque.

The state prosecutor's office said in a statement that 235 people were killed and 109 wounded in the attack, the scale of which is unprecedented in a four-year insurgency by Islamist extremist groups.

US President Donald Trump condemened on Twitter the "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers."

A furious Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared three days of mourning and pledged to "respond with brutal force" to the attack.

"The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period," he added in a televised speech.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent condolences to Sisi, calling the attack "striking for its cruelty and cynicism", while condemnations poured in from Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other countries.

UK foreign minister Boris Johnson decried the "barbaric attack", while his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian labelled it "despicable".

jihadists have targeted local Sinai tribes that are working with the armed forces. (Photo: AFP)

IS targeting of Sufis

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bloodshed.

The Islamic State group's Egypt branch has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, and also civilians accused of working with the authorities, in attacks in the north of the Sinai peninsula.

They have also targeted followers of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam as well as Christians.

The victims of Friday's attack included civilians and conscripts praying at the mosque.

A tribal leader and head of a Bedouin militia that fights IS told AFP that the mosque is known as a place of gathering for Sufis.

The Islamic State group shares the puritan Salafi view that Sufis are heretics for seeking the intercession of saints.

The jihadists had previously kidnapped and beheaded an elderly Sufi leader, accusing him of practising magic which Islam forbids, and abducted Sufi practitioners later released after "repenting."

An IS propaganda outlet had published an interview earlier with the commander of its "morality police" in Sinai who said their "first priority was to combat the manifestations of polytheism including Sufism."

The group has killed more than 100 Christians in church bombings and shootings in Sinai and other parts of Egypt, forcing many to flee the peninsula.

The military has struggled to quell jihadists who pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014.

IS regularly conducts attacks against soldiers and policemen in the peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, although the frequency and scale of such attacks has diminished over the past year.

The jihadists have since increasingly turned to civilian targets, attacking not only Christians and Sufis but also Bedouin Sinai inhabitants accused of working with the army.

Aside from IS, Egypt also faces a threat from Al-Qaeda-aligned jihadists who operate out of neighbouring Libya.

A group calling itself Ansar al-Islam -- Supporters of Islam in Arabic -- claimed an October ambush in Egypt's Western Desert that killed at least 16 policemen.

Many of those killed belonged to the interior ministry's secretive National Security Service.

The military later conducted air strikes on the attackers, killing their leader Emad al-Din Abdel Hamid, a most wanted jihadist who was a military officer before joining an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Libya's militant stronghold of Derna.
Kathmandu: Nepal on Friday closed its border with India and China as it gears up for the historic round of provincial and parliamentary polls, eleven years after the country began its journey toward democracy, that many hope will bring much-needed political stability to the Himalayan nation.

Land-locked Nepal is holding provincial and parliamentary elections in two phases on November 26 and December 7.

The elections are being seen as the final step in Nepal's transition to a federal democracy following a decade-long civil war till 2006 that claimed more than 16,000 lives.

More than 300,000 members of the security forces will be deployed for the two-stage election, with northern provinces voting on Sunday and southern areas and Kathmandu going to the polls on December 7.

Results are expected a few days after the second vote.

While many hope Nepal's first state elections will hasten regional development, others fear they will spark a fresh wave of violence.

In 2015, when Nepal adopted a new Constitution that split it into seven states, dozens of people were killed in ethnic clashes over territory and rights.

"We created the Constitution after years of struggle, but that is not enough," said Nabindra Raj Joshi, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress, the country's largest political party.

"The most important part is implementation. This election will launch the provincial administration that will turn our achievements into reality."

Following the adoption of the new Constitution in 2015, the ethnic Madhesi group, mostly of Indian-origin, protested for months, saying they were not getting enough territory in one of the states and were also facing discrimination.

Violent clashes not only left more than 50 people dead, but also left the country with severe shortages of fuel and medicine because protesters blocked the borders with India.

The protesters finally agreed to the elections after some amendments were made to the constitution.

According to officials, the crossing points with India will be sealed from Friday till the evening of Sunday.

Nepal-China border crossing at Rasuwagadhi and Kimathanka have been closed for 72 hours from midnight, ahead of the first phase of elections scheduled for November 26.

According to Rasuwa Chief District Officer Chomendra Neupane, the move is in line with the mandatory requirement to seal international borders ahead of the elections. The borders will remain shut till Sunday midnight.

Navaraj Dhakal, an official with the Election Commission, said there have been some incidents where candidates and their supporters have been attacked during the campaign. He said the federal government and security forces have a plan to ensure voting remains peaceful, The Himalayan Times reported.

The Election Commission has said no political party, candidates, party office bearers, independents, civil society, voters and mass media can be involved in publicity for the polls.

The EC has urged the media not to violate the election code of conduct during the silence period as that would influence voters of the first-phase polls even though campaigns for the second phase vote scheduled for December 7 continue in the remaining 45 districts.

In the first phase, 3,191,945 voters are eligible to caste their ballot from 4,465 polling centres. As many as 702 candidates--including 282 (266 male and 16 female) for federal parliament and 420 (400 male and 20 female) for the provincial assemblies--are contesting for 37 federal and 74 provincial seats, according to election officials.

With stiff competition expected from the UML-Maoist alliance in the polls, the Nepali Congress (NC) and Madhes- based parties are under pressure to forge electoral alliances across the Madhes districts neighbouring India even at the eleventh hour, according to political observers.

Party insiders said there was mounting pressure from local level leaders and cadres in various districts to work further on the electoral alliance.

Earlier, the NC and the two Madhes-based parties had been engaged in negotiations, but could not forge an electoral alliance.

Election campaign will end on Friday mid-night, 48 hours ahead of the polls.

The polls are taking place under a new Constitution passed by lawmakers in September 2015 as part of a peace process that began with the end of a decade-long civil war.

The polls are a major step toward implementing the new Constitution.
Serzh Sargsyan: In the course of time Armenians will feel the result of the agreement

The summit of the European People's Party (EPP) took place in Brussels yesterday, in which President Serzh Sargsyan participated. After the summit, the President gave an exclusive interview to Azatutyun radio station. Azatutyun: What benefits will average Armenians get from the agreement? Serzh Sargsyan: They, probably, will not feel it in one or two days, but they will see the changes in the course of time, as we are able to make quick changes only with the help of the EU support. We are both not able to and do not want to invent bicycles; there are absolute truths that we should lead. Except internal freedom, citizens of Armenia will be able to travel to Brussels, to Paris without any difficulty; and I think that today, in the EPP announcement, there was this clear statement. Let us see what in tomorrow's summit happens. Azatutyun: You have recently been to Russia, you have met with President Vladimir Putin; was there any objection against the agreement? Serzh Sargsyan: I have just said it at the summit that during my presidency (soon it will be the tenth year), as well during the years when I used to run other offices, I have never heard any objection from Russia, especially from President Vladimir Putin, against our cooperation with the EU. Azatutyun: And the last question: Mr. President, how do you imagine your life after 2018? Will you remain the leader of Armenia? Serzh Sargsyan: If I had imagined it, it would have already been announced by me. I will announce it when I know it. Details are available here
Dubai: Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince called the Supreme Leader of Iran "the new Hitler of the Middle East" in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday, sharply escalating the war of words between the arch-rivals.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran back rival sides in wars and political crises throughout the region.

Mohammed bin Salman, who is also Saudi defence minister in the U.S.-allied oil giant kingdom, suggested the Islamic Republic's alleged expansion under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei needed to be confronted.

"But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesn't work. We don't want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East," the paper quoted him as saying.

Tensions soared this month when Lebanon's Saudi-allied Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned in a television broadcast from Riyadh, citing the influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and risks to his life.

Hezbollah called the move an act of war engineered by Saudi authorities, an accusation they denied.

Hariri has since suspended his resignation.

Saudi Arabia has launched thousands of air strikes in a 2-1/2-year-old war in neighbouring Yemen to defeat the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement that seized broad swaths of the country.

Salman told the Times that the war was going in its favor and that its allies controlled 85 percent of Yemen's territory.

The Houthis, however, still retain the main population centres despite the war effort by a Saudi-led military coalition which receives intelligence and refueling for its warplanes by the United States. Some 10,000 people have died in the conflict.

The group launched a ballistic missile toward Riyadh's main airport on Nov. 4, which Saudi Arabis decried as an act of war by Tehran.

Bin Salman said in May that the kingdom would make sure any future struggle between the two countries "is waged in Iran".

For his part, Khamenei has referred to the House of Saud as an "accursed tree", and Iranian officials have accused the kingdom of spreading terrorism.
A year after a fire consumed more than 11,000 acres in the Mount Pleasant area of Amherst County, Christine Vrooman compared the incident to a movie where she and her family played unexpected roles.

Vrooman, owner of Ankida Ridge Vineyards, said it almost seems like the fire never really happened until she sees the charred scars at the base of nearby trees and occasionally smells creosote coming from the forest floor on damp fall days.

That Saturday afternoon would be the beginning of several days of fear, anxiety, relief, exhaustion, gratitude and a new level of deep appreciation for the firefighters that saved our home and vineyard, Vrooman said.

Her home and vineyard suffered little to no damage in the fire, Vrooman said, adding the vines were dormant at the time of the fire and all the fruit was off the vine. If the fruit had not been harvested when the fire occurred, the wine made with that harvest would have had a smoky taint to it and would have been difficult to sell, Vrooman said.

U.S. Forest Service District Ranger Lauren Stull said the Mount Pleasant fire covered a total of 11,229 acres, drawing more than 300 firefighters at the fires peak. Beginning Nov. 19, 2016 Stull said the fire was considered contained Dec.1 and burned most of the Mount Pleasant National Scenic Area.

The smoke was so thick for so many days, Vrooman said. My eyes burned inside the house.

Because of the fire, she could not host family for Thanksgiving, sending everyone to Charlottesville for the holiday meal. Vrooman said by that evening the smoke had drifted in another direction and she and her family were able to host a Thanksgiving meal for the firefighting teams from Alaska and West Virginia.

What an honor for us to feed these heroes, Vrooman said. We, along with the entire Amherst community, felt we could not do enough for them to show our deepest appreciation for their heroic efforts.

In early December 2016 Vrooman organized a tribute ceremony in the town of Amherst to thank the firefighters who helped combat the blaze.

At that time Vrooman recalled taking turns with family members to stay awake and monitor their property.

The fire helped Vrooman experience the value and importance of stuff, she said, recalling first arriving to the house, not knowing how much time they had and realizing what is truly important.

Leaving the house with just our dog and an armful of things important enough to grab, I realized how unimportant most of the stuff is that we fill our lives and homes, Vrooman said.

Vrooman said another thing she took away from the experience last year was being firewise, preparing the homes surroundings to be clear of leaf debris, not stacking firewood next to the house and more.

These were thoughts that never entered our minds until this event, Vrooman said. We will be forever grateful to our firefighters, local, state and federal. They are truly heroes.

Amherst County Director of Public Safety Gary Roakes said the fire last year was probably the largest he has seen since he began working for the county 13 years ago.

Roakes said he has been back up in some of the areas the fire came through and its starting to green up again.

You can still see some areas where the [burn was] but even back in the spring it was greening up , Roakes said.

Last year the fire mostly crept along the ground, Roakes said, with flames a foot high in some spots.

Basically, all it did was come through and clean the floor of the forest and cleaned the underbrush and stuff like that, Roakes said. In some of these areas the U.S. Forest Service already had prescribed burns anyway  it just happened to do it for them.

Concerning fire safety, Roakes said one measure, whether with camping or yard work, is completely covering the fire with dirt or water to extinguish the flames, making sure to have a rock barrier surrounding the fire and not burning in the middle of the woods. Roakes also said not to burn on windy days and to have a hose and/or rake available to help prevent the fire from spreading.

Be careful when youre burning, be aware of your surroundings, dont burn near the woods, Roakes said. Be cautious with it, respect the fire.

The U.S. Forest Service issued a $2,000 reward in June 2017 for tips which could lead to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for starting the massive wildfire.

Stull said last week the reward still is active and the case remains under investigation.

The outstanding cooperative effort of many partners including the U.S. Forest Service, the Virginia Department of Forestry and the Amherst County Public Safety was identified as one of the successes last fall, Stull said. Also, the communitys overwhelming support and care for the many firefighters from across the country will not be forgotten any time soon.
For students who attend college far away, going home for Thanksgiving sometimes is not an option.

Karen and Randy Speer were stuck on campus for Thanksgiving when they were in college, so when they started working for Randolph College in 2000 they decided to open their home and serve Thanksgiving dinner to students in the same situation.

Karen Speer, who works in the college registrars office, said theyve had between 12 and 24 people join them each year, and that includes students from the U.S. and abroad, faculty, staff, graduates, and even once an alumna and some of her elderly clients who had nowhere else to go.

Its impossible to predict how many guests they have coming, because they dont ask people to RSVP. They just make as much food as they can and hope for the best, adding tables and chairs when they need to.

Every year I make more potatoes and every year we run out, so I made 10 pounds worth of potatoes this year, Karen said. They also cooked other sides, multiple pies and a 22-pound turkey. The year they had 24 people, they bought a 26-pounderTurkeyzilla, Karen called it. They still had no leftovers.

Randy, a music professor, said the meal is special, particularly for the international students.

They feel like theyre coming here and theyre actually getting a piece of actual American culture and tradition, he said.

The students come back year after year and bring presents to the Speers that represent their own cultures, and now the couple has art from students all over their walls.

The Speers also ask their visitors to sign a tablecloth, one of multiple that covered at least three different tables, all pushed together and taking up an entire room on Thursday. After the meal each year, Karen embroiders over the signatures on the table cloth so they remain permanent for years to come.

When Randolph senior Di Bei and alumnus Quan Sam Sun arrived around 5 p.m. Thursday, one of the first things Sun did was point out his signature on the tablecloth from last year. Both Bei and Sun are from China, which makes it difficult to go home for the short Thanksgiving holiday, they said.

Sun was in Randy Speers choral class last year when he invited Sun to their annual Thanksgiving. Word of mouth is the primary way the Speers get the word out about their meal. They also make sure students participating in the international student orientation hear about it.

This year, Sun drove from Louisiana, where he is in graduate school studying theater, and he brought along Bei for her first Thanksgiving meal with the Speers.

Its just very nice, Sun said. Its a very great experience in the American holiday, and also great food and nice chatting and everything feels warm and cozy.
Serzh Sargsyan meets with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel

Within the framework of his working visit to the Kingdom of Belgium, Serzh Sargsyan today met with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. Thankful for the warm welcome, Serzh Sargsyan stressed that Armenia is interested in intensifying the Armenian-Belgian dialogue and making mutually beneficial the cooperation with the friendly Belgium. The interlocutors agreed that during the past 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, Armenia and Belgium have developed relations in many areas based on mutual trust and understanding. Serzh Sargsyan and Prime Minister Michel also agreed that their meeting is a good opportunity to outline ways of furthering cooperation. They highlighted the need for expanding cooperation on international platforms, especially within the EU. With reference to EU-Armenia relations, Serzh Sargsyan expressed confidence that the signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement will open a new chapter in the history of bilateral relations, providing ever new opportunities for the deepening of relations with the European Union and its member states, including Belgium. From the perspective of promoting the Armenian-Belgian bilateral cooperation agenda, Serzh Sargsyan highlighted the activation of high-level political contacts and expressed the hope that the dialogue between Armenia and its friendly and reliable partner Belgium would be continuous, supported by regularly paid mutual visits. Serzh Sargsyan underscored that Belgium is of special importance to Armenia because it granted shelter to our compatriots who had survived the Genocide and whose descendants are today the cornerstone of the Armenian community in Belgium. Serzh Sargsyan conveyed to Charles Michel the appreciation of the Armenian people for his statement of June 18, followed by the adoption of a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the House of Representatives on July 23, which completed the process of recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Belgium. Note that the Belgian Senate passed a similar resolution on the Armenian Genocide as far back as in 1998. The parties praised the Armenian community of Belgium, which was said to play an important role in the promotion of bilateral relations. Serzh Sargsyan and Charles Michel next discussed issues related to Armenian-Belgian trade relations and cooperation in a number of mutually beneficial fields. Serzh Sargsyan suggested that Belgian companies consider the possibility of engaging in Armenias economy, taking into account the business-friendly investment environment created in the country, as well as Armenias involvement in different integration processes. As Mr. Sargsyan pointed out, Armenias proactive membership in the International Organization of La Francophonie is another opportunity to deepen bilateral cooperation in the fields of science and culture, municipal governance and other spheres. Noting that next year Armenia will be hosting the 17th Summit of La Francophonie, Serzh Sargsyan thanked Belgium for support, and availed himself of the opportunity to invite Prime Minister Michel to attend the Summit due to be held in October, 2018.
Ucoms mobile customers will benefit from the best internet roaming rate of 8 AMD/MB when travelling to Georgia, Egypt or the UAE

Ameriabank Launches Google Pay and Google Wallet Support for Card Users in Armenia

Karen Vardanyan donated 112 million drams for the medical equipment for National Center for Infectious Diseases.

UCOM HAS INTRODUCED FUTURE NETWORK WI-FI 6E ROUTERS

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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

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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

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
I will be in my office on Monday. I was told that I was fired from the party, but I will remain loyal to the party. I am Zanu-PF to the core. I am happy with President Mugabes resignation because I always insisted that I was having two fathers at the helm of the party. Since the elder father is gone, I will now work with the young father.
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Larisa Alaverdyan: Have you seen us getting together on a issue and complete it? (video)

"Finally we are not joining the Eu, as, first of all, nobody suggests us to join it," Larisa Alaverdyan mentioned today at a press conference referring to the signing of the Armenia-EU agreement in Brussels. Larisa Alaverdyan attached importance to signing the partnership agreement between Armenia and the European Union, which was initialed this March in Yerevan. She said that it was necessary to combine the national interest and cultural,spiritual values with the various EU member states because we had a lot to learn from the European Union. She said that it was necessary to combine national interest and cultural, spiritual values with the Eu, consisting of various subjects, as we had a lot to learn from the EU. "If you are not involved in those confusing conditions,then you are not taken into account, you are not a working subject, but a watching object with whom this or that forces cooperate," said Larisa Alaverdyan. At the same time, she mentioned that the issue is not so much connected with signing the agreement but with Armenia's further actions. "Have you seen us getting together on a issue and complete it? It is a big problem for me to see what our government take from it, because there are many things to take." Larisa Alaverdyan also spoke about the scandalous program of the Zvezda TV channel, which was about the cooperation between Armenia and the EU and the signing of the expected agreement; and the hostess spoke of with non-correct formulations. "We are like children surrounded with love and who, suddenly was told bad things. We are not children, and we are not very favorite once, as well. So let us be sober. Those are state relations, and different powers representing the state have the opportunity to express their opinion in Russia that may not correspond to public opinion,"said Larisa Alaverdyan.
President Trump's policy goals show he aims to dismantle much of President Obama's legacy, but there's one element of that legacy he's embracing: a nuclear modernization program that Scot Paltrow at Reuters writes is leading to a new arms race. In the lengthy piece, Paltrow explains how: Though the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed in 2010 limits the US and Russia to 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads each (about 2,000 in actuality), both countries are modernizing their arsenals so they become more deadly even as the number of weapons falls. William Perry, defense secretary under President Clinton, argues this makes nuclear war more likely, not less likely as had been Obama's goal with New START before concessions to Congress meant modernization would be allowed.

Trump now aims to create a nuclear force that is "modern, robust, flexible, resilient, ready, and appropriately tailored to deter 21st-century threats and reassure our allies," says a White House rep. On this, he's facing little to no opposition in Congress, though the program will cost at least $1.25 trillion over 30 years and likely more. A new B61 bomb, with a guidance system directing it to its target and a "dial-down capacity" triggering a 0.3 kiloton to 340 kiloton detonation (23 times the force of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima), costs $20.8 million alonemore than its weight in gold. Some argue such weapons are "more tempting to deploy," Paltrow writes. Others say they act as a deterrent. But Russia is modernizing, too, and mostly in secret. Click for the full piece, which mentions a purported Russian bomb that could make the entire US East Coast unliveable. (Read more Longform stories.)
A lawyer for abortion providers in Texas is hailing a "complete victory" after a federal judge in Austin struck down a law restricting the most common form of second-trimester abortion yesterday. The ban on so-called "dilation and evacuation" abortions was approved by the Texas Legislature in May as part of a bigger bill known as Senate Bill 8, and it would require doctors to find an alternate method of terminating a fetus before extracting it from the womb. The D&E procedure requires dismemberment of the fetus, and anti-abortion activists and lawmakers have claimed it causes pain, Politico reports. However, D&E is considered the safest method for terminating the fetus in the second trimester.

In his judgment, Judge Lee Yeakel said the law is "facially unconstitutional" and would force doctors to act against their best medical judgment, the New York Times reports. Yeakel wrote: "The court is unaware of any other medical context that requires a doctorin contravention of the doctor's medical judgment and the best interest of the patientto conduct a medical procedure that delivers no benefit to the woman." An hour after Yeakel's decision came down, the Texas attorney general's office announced that it would be filing an appeal. (Read more abortion stories.)
Is former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn now cooperating with Robert Mueller's special investigation? Sources tell the AP and the New York Times that Flynn's legal team has informed Trump's lawyers that they can no longer discuss the investigation with them, a move that suggests Flynn is now either working with prosecutors or trying to negotiate a deal. Information-sharing deals like the one between the Flynn and Trump legal teams usually need to be terminated if one party begins negotiating with prosecutors or a similar conflict of interest develops, the Washington Post notes. Flynn has been a major figure in Mueller's investigation of alleged Russian election interference.

Flynn's ties to Russia go back to before he joined the Trump campaign. He was forced out of the administration after 24 days over his talks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition period. The Times' sources say Flynn has recently expressed concern that his son and former chief of staff, Michael Flynn Jr., might be charged as part of the investigation. Per the Hill, Mueller is already believed to have enough evidence to indict both Flynns. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said Thursday that the development between the legal teams was "not entirely unexpected." He added: "No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president." (Mueller is believed to be probing an alleged Flynn plot to abduct a Turkish cleric.)
Sen. Al Franken apparently sees himself as an over-enthusiastic hugger, not the "serial groper" one woman describes him as. In a statement issued Thursday, the day after two more women accused him of touching them inappropriately during photo-ops, the Democrat apologized for making "some women feel badly" and vowed to regain the trust of Minnesotans, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. "I've met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs, often in crowded and chaotic situations," he said. "I'm a warm person; I hug people. I've learned from recent stories that in some of those encounters, I crossed a line for some womenand I know that any number is too many."

"Some women have found my greetings or embraces for a hug or photo inappropriate, and I respect their feelings about that," Franken said, adding that he has realized he needs to be "much more careful and sensitive" in those situations. "I feel terribly that Ive made some women feel badly and for that I am so sorry, and I want to make sure that never happens again." Franken faces a Senate Ethics Committee investigation over allegations from radio host Leanne Tweeden and three other women. In a KTSP poll carried out after a second woman came forward, just 22% of Minnesotans said he should definitely stay in office. Some 33% thought he should resign, while 36% said he should wait for the investigation results and the remainder were unsure what he should do. (Read more Al Franken stories.)
Charles Manson has a next of kin willing to claim his body, but grandson Jason Freeman might not be able to get to California from Ohio in time. GoFundMe pulled the plug on a fundraising site set up to help him with travel and burial expenses Thursday after $979 had been raised, TMZ reports. John Michael Jones, the friend who set up the page, says he has set up a new fundraiser on PayPal and it "breaks his heart" to see the 41-year-old Freeman face the "same prejudices, hate, discrimination, and deliberate lies that his grandfather endured for 48 years." Freeman's father, the cult leader's son from his first marriage, changed his name from Charles Manson Jr. to Jay White. He killed himself in 1993.

Freeman, a married father of three, lost his job last month, Jones wrote on the fundraising page. Freeman tells the New York Daily News that they will find another way to raise the money to give Manson a proper burial. "It's a family obligation," he says. "It's just what you do in life." He says he barely knew his own father and never met his grandfather, but he reached out to Manson by phone eight years ago and reached a place of "forgiveness." Manson, who was serving nine life sentences for murder, died in a Bakersfield, Calif., hospital Sunday at age 83. Under state regulations, if the inmate's body isn't claimed from the Kern County coroner by Nov. 29, it will be declared unclaimed and will probably be cremated. (Read more Charles Manson stories.)
A South Dakota state representative and his brother-in-law drowned in an apparent kayaking accident in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, where they were attending a wedding for the lawmaker's daughter, officials said Thursday. State Rep. Craig Tieszen, 68, a Republican from Rapid City, and his brother-in-law, Brent Moline, 61, died Wednesday, reports the AP. The Cook Islands Police Service wrote in a Facebook post that officials had been at the scene of a "double tragedy at sea," saying two men had taken their kayaks over a reef and capsized. The post doesn't name Tieszen or Moline, but describes the two victims as American citizens aged 68 and 61. New Zealand media indicated Tieszen died trying to save Moline.

State Sen. Betty Olsen posted something similar on Facebook, saying her "heart was heavy" after she received a call informing her "Tieszen had died while trying to save his brother-in-law from drowning at Craig's daughter's wedding." Tieszen spent 32 years in law enforcement before retiring as police chief of Rapid City in western South Dakota in 2007, reports the Rapid City Journal. He served in the state Senate from 2009 through 2016 and was in his first term representing District 34 in the House. "Craig Tieszen spent his life serving the public. He was a thoughtful and conscientious legislator, and a leader on criminal justice issues," said Gov. Dennis Daugaard in a statement. The governor said he will order flags to fly at half-staff statewide to honor Tieszen on the day of his funeral, which hasn't yet been scheduled.

(Read more drowning stories.)
Oscar Pistorius' prison sentence was increased to 13 years and five months by South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday, a decision that more than doubled the Olympic runner's jail term for the murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. In an announcement that took a matter of minutes, Supreme Court Justice Willie Seriti said the Supreme Court upheld an appeal by prosecutors against Pistorius' original six-year sentence for shooting Steenkamp multiple times in his home in 2013, the AP reports. Prosecutors had called that six-year sentence "shockingly" lenient. Pistorius should have been sentenced to the prescribed minimum of 15 years for murder in South Africa, Seriti said

The new sentence of 13 years and five months took into account time Pistorius had already served in prison and at home under house arrest, Seriti said. Pistorius, who turned 31 on Wednesday, has served over a year of his initial six-year sentence. Pistorius killed Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day 2013 after shooting through a closed toilet cubicle door in his home. Claiming he mistook her for an intruder, he was initially convicted of manslaughter. That conviction was replaced with a murder conviction in 2015. Friday's decision likely brings an end to a near five-year legal saga surrounding the double-amputee athlete, who was once one of the most celebrated sportsmen in the world. (In August, Pistorius was hospitalized with chest pains.)
"Demand justice for these children!" That's just one message posted on Chinese social media following allegations that a Chinese kindergarten run by a company listed on the NYSE abused the kids in its charge. Per the New York Times, parents allege teachers at RYB Kindergarten in Xintiandi in eastern Beijing made kids take their clothes off, poked them with needles, gave them pills that made them sleepy, and locked them in a dark room, though local cops and education officials haven't confirmed the allegations. The rumors have erupted into what the Times calls a "cacophony of fury," with some parents telling the media they fear their children may even have been molested. Underlying the outcry is Chinese citizens' overall distrust of the government and of institutions their kids attendespecially in a country where, until recently, parents doted on just one child.

Parents say the kids may have been scared into silence by "devil teachers." "The teacher told the kids, 'I've got a long, long telescope that can see right into your home, and I'll know just what you've been saying and doing," one woman told reporters. And it's not just this facility where concerns have cropped up. Other RYB sitesthe company is involved with more than 250 facilities across Chinaand non-RYB child care centers have also faced abuse accusations. Cops say they're looking into allegations against the kindergarten, one of the more competitive and expensive options around: Quartz notes the monthly tuition of $750 or so is about half of an average Beijing resident's monthly salary. Per the South China Morning Post, cops have their hands on surveillance video. Meanwhile, the Guardian reports RYB has issued a statement saying it's "deeply sorry" for the commotion. (Read more child abuse stories.)
Statement by Serzh Sargsyan at the Eastern Partnership summit

Distinguished Mr. Tusk, Distinguished Mr. Juncker, Dear colleagues, Ladies and gentlemen, I am grateful for the patient preparatory work and excellent organization of this Summit. I would like to mention that we consider 2017 as, indeed, one of the important milestones in the quarter of the century long history of the relations between Armenia and EU, which is signified today under the framework of this Summit by signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement. It is a comprehensive document the reflects the significant developments of the recent period of our collaboration and defines the guidelines that are necessary to deepen these relations. This Agreement is not merely a legal document, but a reflection on the wealth of values of human rights and fundamental freedoms that we share. Important elements of the strengthening of democracy such as rule of law, consolidation of judiciary, development of public and social institutes, good governance ae the core of this Agreement. The efficient realization of these elements is of vital importance for our nation in order to implement successfully the envisaged reforms. It is exactly the development based on these shared values that ensures the long-lasting and sustainable development for any responsible member of the international community. I thank the leadership of the European Union for the support provided throughout this process. The importance of this Agreement is not limited to the Armenia-EU relations: many international counterparts of ours describe Armenia as a nation that brings various integration processes closer to each other, a nation that is led by desire to reconcile and complement interests in the spirit of cooperation and cohabitation, and it is something that seriously obliges us to meet the expectation. I would like to underline that throughout this process the objective Armenia pursued from the very outset was further deepening of our bilateral and multilateral relations. The Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between the Republic of Armenia and European Union is our joint achievement, and I can become a positive precedent for other cooperation projects. I congratulate all of us upon this occasion. Dear colleagues, The achievements registered in the course of the past two years have been to a large extent conditioned by the results of the Riga Summit, in particular, by the joint endeavors taken for the implementation of the clauses related to Armenia in the Joint Declaration adopted at the Summit, Armenia, perhaps, is one of those EU partners that was able to almost fully implement commitments undertaken in 2015. We believe that Armenias determination in this process, as well as determination of our EU partners will soon result in further bringing our societies closer to each other, for which, of course, launching of the visa liberalization dialogue would be of great significance. Ladies and gentlemen, We arrived to Brussels convinced that this Summit will be an important milestone for the Eastern Partnership. From the outset Armenia supported this cooperation format since we believed that this partnership was draught in order to encourage sustainable regional development and serve as a unifying factor, thus removing the dividing lines and reinforcing the human and peoples fundamental rights. Mr. President, Once again, the President of Azerbaijan has voiced ill-grounded accusations against Armenia. As much as the Azerbaijani side may try to distort and misinterpret the essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and its peaceful settlement, the conflict has to be settled on the basis of three principles of international law: non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity and the peoples right to self-determination as proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, which is the only structure vested with an international mandate. The position of the international community on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is reflected in the statements issued by the leaders of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries. In this context, any solution to the conflict without the exercise of Nagorno-Karabakh peoples right to self-determination is simply impossible. I also want to emphasize that each conflict is unique in its nature, essence and background, and in this respect, it would be wrong to apply similar approaches to different conflicts. Another remark: the UN has never adopted a resolution regarding the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh issue. The four resolutions adopted by the UN in 1993 were about the ceasing of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan has ignored so far. And now, as 25 years have passed, in my opinion, it is irrelevant to say that Armenia has not fulfilled its commitments. I strongly hope that resolution of the existing issues in the Eastern Partnership region will let us have a more peaceful and prosperous Europe. Armenia will continuously and faithfully be devoted to its vision of consolidation of peace and sustainable development. I thank you.
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran are creeping ever higher, with the Saudi crown prince referring to Iran's supreme leader as "the new Hitler" in an interview with the New York Times. Mohammed bin Salman also suggested Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's influence in the Middle East needed to be curtailed. "We learned from Europe that appeasement doesn't work," he said. "We don't want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East," added Salman, who recently waged what he refers to as an anti-corruption campaign, though others say it's a move to consolidate power.

The harsh words ramp up friction between Saudi Arabia and Iran as each compete for power in the Middle East while funding opposing sides in civil wars in both Syria and Yemen, per the BBC. Reuters notes tensions already "soared" this month when Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation while in Saudi Arabia, with which he is allied, blaming danger from Iran-backed Hezbollah. Hezbollah believes this is only an attempt by Saudi Arabia to start a war. Saudi Arabia says a missile fired toward Riyadh by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen on Nov. 4 represented a similar attempt by Iran. (Read more Saudi Arabia stories.)
A tiger was killed Friday in Paris after escaping from a circus in the 15th arrondissement and wandering the streets near the Eiffel Tower, the BBC reports. Residents called emergency services to report the tiger just before 6pm. According to the New York Daily News, the tiger ended up on a railway track, interrupting transit service. The animal was shot three times and killed by circus employees, Le Parisien reports. According to FranceInfo, the tiger was shot near Pont du Garigliano. Local police tweeted that "all danger has passed," and authorities say no one was hurt. The mayor of the 15th arrondissement says he's "worried that [circus] security conditions allowed a tiger to escape out in the open in Paris." (Read more tiger stories.)
Suspected jihadists attacked UN peacekeepers carrying out an operation with Malian defense forces Friday killing at least three peacekeepers from Niger and one Malian soldier, and injuring 14 soldiers and one civilian, UN authorities and the Security Council said. The UN mission reported that at least three assailants were killed by return fire from the peacekeepers. The mission in Mali and UN officials in New York said the assailants attacked the peacekeepers' position in Indelimane, about 43 miles west of Menaka near the border with Niger, early Friday morning. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though the Islamic State in the Sahel group is active in the region, the AP reports.

Following the attack, the UN said the Mali mission deployed three helicopters to evacuate the 14 injured peacekeepers, 13 from Niger and one from Cambodia as well as a UN civilian contractor. The UN mission's aircraft with medical teams also deployed from Kidal and Bamako to evacuate some of the wounded, the UN said. The mission in Mali dispatched a quick reaction force supported by attack helicopters to Indelimane to reinforce the peacekeepers on the ground, the UN said. The UN Security Council condemned the attack in the strongest terms and called on Mali's government to swiftly investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. Council members underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes, and any involvement could lead to UN sanctions.

(Read more Mali stories.)
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Ucoms mobile customers will benefit from the best internet roaming rate of 8 AMD/MB when travelling to Georgia, Egypt or the UAE

Ameriabank Launches Google Pay and Google Wallet Support for Card Users in Armenia

Karen Vardanyan donated 112 million drams for the medical equipment for National Center for Infectious Diseases.

UCOM HAS INTRODUCED FUTURE NETWORK WI-FI 6E ROUTERS

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

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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

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
New Delhi:

Benafsha Soonawalla who was recently eliminated from Bigg Boss 11 has making waves for talking about her relationship with Priyank Sharma. The VJ post her exit went on to say that Priyank is like her brother and rubbished the rumours of dating him.

Benafsha received a lot of flak from Bigg Boss fans during her stint in Salman Khan's show. Fans had slammed Benafsha for her behaviour, be it pulling Akash's hair during a fight or saying hurtful things to Shilpa Shinde.

It seems the former MTV Roadies contestant has mended her ways after she was evicted from Bigg Boss 11. The Parsi girl has taken to social media to slam Priyank and apologise to Shilpa for not understanding her.

Benafsha thanked the 'Bhabhiji' star for looking after her while she was locked inside the BB11 house along with other contestants. She addressed the popular television actress as 'Ma' and wished she could take back the last week of Bigg Boss 11 when she said many things to her.

Thanks for looking out for me and sorry for not understanding you. Bilkul sahi pakde haiY I wish I could take back the last week of my bigg boss when I said so much to you. I'm so sorry Shilpa Ma. Stay strong, like you have always been. I love you. A post shared by Benafsha Soonawalla (@benafshasoonawalla) on Nov 21, 2017 at 1:39am PST

Benafsha also posted a picture with Vikas Gupta with the caption, ''Thoroughly thoroughly missing you VG! This was throwback to when we never fought and you had just won captaincy and I sacrificed my clothes and shampoos for you. Wish I could take back a lot of arguments we had towards the end. Missinnn youu #VGandbawi #yepaaaagalaurathai #guchpooooo''.

Thoroughly thoroughly missing you VG! This was throwback to when we never fought and you had just won captaincy and I sacrificed my clothes and shampoos for you. Wish I could take back a lot of arguments we had towards the end. Missinnn youu #VGandbawi #yepaaaagalaurathai #guchpooooo A post shared by Benafsha Soonawalla (@benafshasoonawalla) on Nov 23, 2017 at 3:26am PST

Benafsha who shared a close bond with Hiten also shared a picture with him.

Favourite. Absolute favourite. This was us everytime we spoke. Love you hitu! #benten A post shared by Benafsha Soonawalla (@benafshasoonawalla) on Nov 21, 2017 at 6:09am PST

Though Bigg Boss is synonymous with fights and drama, but contestants end up making friends for life in the show.

Read- Bigg Boss 11: THIS former contestant SLAMS Hina Khan for her behaviour on Salman Khan's show
New Delhi:

Deepika Padukone has been making waves for the past few days due to the controversy surrounding her upcoming film Padmavati. Though the magnum opus is currently emroiled in a heated controversy, the leggy actress is getting some meaty offers from both Bollywood and Hollywood.

The 'Piku' actress is much in demand and if a recent report is to go by, we might see her opposite Shah Rukh Khan in the much-awaited Don 3. Producers Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani had been contemplating 'Don 3' for quite a long time now.

As per a report in Filmfare, King Khan wants the 'Padmavati' actress to be a part of the third installment of Don. Both the actors have collaborated for three films, 'Om Shanti Om', 'Chennai Express' and 'Happy New Year'.

Deepika made a rocking debut in B-town with Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Productions Om Shanti Om. The actors have been appreciated for their sizzling chemistry.

Read- Varun Dhawan issues apology after Mumbai Police challans him for taking selfie with fan on street

The 'Kal Ho Na Ho' actor feels that he and Deepika share a terrific chemistry and therefore wishes to cash upon it. SRK spoke to Farhan about the same and asked him to cast the 'Ramleela' actress in the upcoming film, said the report.

The report also added that since Priyanka is currently busy with third season of Quantico and other Hollywood commitments, the producers are looking to cast the 'Tamasha' actress.

On the work front, Shah Rukh is busy shooting for his upcoming untitled film by Aanand L Rai which also stars Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma.

We believe the 'My Name Is Khan' actor shares hot chemistry with both Deepika and Priyank and it would be a treat for all his fans to see him play the role of a gangster once again in 'Don 3'.

Read- Student Of The Year 2: Karan Johar confirms 'Dhadak' actor Ishaan Khattar won't be part of Tiger Shroff starrer

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New Delhi:

Small screen's adorable couple Smriti Khanna and Gautam got hitched on November 23 in Mumbai. The Meri Aashiqui Tumse Hi actors threw a grand wedding reception for their friends and family.

Bollywood actress Dia Mirza was one of the special guests at the reception which was attended by the likes of Karanvir Bohra, Tanya Sharma, Radhika Madan and other television celebs.

Smriti looked ethereal in a baby pink embellished lehenga while Gautam looked handsome in a blue sherwani and pink turban. Radhika who played the main role in Meri Aashiqui was the bridesmaid for Smriti.A

Meri Aashiqui fans rejoiced in joy when they came to the know the two talented actors are all set to take nuptial vows. Check out the pictures from their wedding reception right here.

Happiness always @smriti_khanna and @mistergautam ai A post shared by Dia Mirza (@diamirzaofficial) on Nov 23, 2017 at 5:34am PST

This guy is all that....and much more. Love you and welcome to the #happyclub #gausm #gautamsmritiwedding A post shared by aaaaaa aaaaa (@karanvirbohra) on Nov 23, 2017 at 12:50am PST

Congratulations @smriti_khanna wish you and Gautam loadsssss and loadssss of love n success may you both be blessed together forever aiai #smritikhanna #smoo #love #wedding A post shared by Abhishek Kapur (@kapursahab) on Nov 23, 2017 at 6:02am PST

Saath Nibhana Saathiya actress Tanya Sharma shared an adorable video on Instagram where Smriti was seen doing the traditional custom of throwing rice.
New Delhi:

A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) trooper was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast triggered by CPI-Maoist cadres in Chhattisgarhs Chintagufa area on Friday.

An officer of Chhattisgarh Police said a head constable of the CRPF had suffered splinter injuries in the blast. He died during treatment in a medical hospital in Raipur.

The deceased jawan has been identified as K Venkanna, a resident of Andhra Pradesh.

The officer added, CRPF and state police had launched joint search operation in Chintagufa area on Friday early hours. The Maoists on seeing the search team triggered an IED blast.

The officer added, Venkanna was airlifted to Raipur for medical attention, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Also read: Jharkhand: Four CRPF Jawans injured in IED blast triggered by Maoists



He added, security forces after the blast are conducting operations to nab the Maoists behind the blast.

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New Delhi:

A group of five school students stabbed a man in his mid twenties to death inside a cluster bus near Ashram in Delhi over a row over a stolen mobile phone, police said on Friday.

Delhi Police is yet to identify the deceased. Police said that the incident occurred on a bus commuting between Punjabi Bagh to Badarpur on Thursday evening.

Police said, the cluster bus conductor informed them that the victim was waiting to deboard at the next bus stop when he realised his mobile phone was missing. He started inquiring about his lost phone when he found a group of boys in school uniform looking at him and laughing.

Police added, He started frisking the boys in uniform. The boys taking offence stabbed him on his neck.

Romil Baaniya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) south East, said, We have registered a case. A team has been formed to nab the youths killer.

He added that they are trying to ascertain if the boys who attacked the youth are school students or part of a gang that hires boys in uniform to pickpocket passengers to avoid suspicion.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths have arrested a Chinese national alleged to be member of an international hawala syndicate. Officials on Friday said, she was trying to smuggle out foreign currencies worth Rs 1.95 crore from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on Friday.

The DRI in a statement said, Acting on specific inputs, a Chinese woman was intercepted in the security hold of IGI airport, while she was boarding a flight to Hong Kong.

The statement further read, We have seized $ 3 lakh concealed in sweet boxes which were specially made with false bottom for concealment.

According to officials of the DRI, on questioning the arrested Chinese women they have learnt that the international hawala syndicate to avoid detection was using her as a carrier. She during questioning informed the intelligence agency that she had travelled to India several times on the direction of her handlers.

Also read: Canadian national uses bogus ticket to enter Delhi airport, held by CISF



Foreign hawala syndicates are using foreign nationals for sending forex from India and smuggling gold into the country for the past two years, said DRI.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

A Paradeep-Cuttack goods train on Friday derailed between Goraknath and Raghunathpur in Odisha, the officials said.

Speaking to PTI, JP Mishra, spokesperson, East Coast Railway said that no casualty was reported in the accident which occurred at around 5.55 am.

The train was plying towards Cuttack carrying coal from Paradeep, he said. Around 14 open wagons derailed on down line near Banabihari Gwalipur PH Railway Station, 45 km from Cuttack and 38 km from Paradeep.

The derailment was first noticed by a guard who informed the nearest station. Relief trains and crane were deployed after immediately after the control room was informed about the incident.

General Manager Umesh Singh ordered Khurda Road Division to set up an inquiry committee and submit a detailed report.

ALSO READ | Vasco Da Gama-Patna Express derailment: 3 dead, Railways announces Rs 5 lakh compensation to victims

All aspects of the accident, circumstances and reasons, including fixing up of clear responsibility, is to be mentioned in the inquiry report. DRM/KHURDA Road Braj Mohan Agarwal is nominating an inquiry committee just now, Mishra said.

After a detailed site inspection, it was decided that 12 of the 14 wagons would be thrown off the track with the help of cranes. Two wagons would be re-railed on the track.

(With PTI inputs)

ALSO READ | Haryana: Heritage engine featured in over 20 Bollywood films derails in Rewari

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Kashmir:

Joint security forces during search operations have nabbed a Pakistani terrorist having links with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) from Jammu and Kashmirs Kupwara district on Friday.

A Jammu and Kashmir Police officer said, The arrested is from Pakistan and has links with LeT.

The officer further added that they have recovered a rifle along with two magazines from the arrested LeT terrorist.

According to sources in the Jammu and Kashmir Police, an operation was launched by the joint security forces including Indian Army and state police in forested area at Handwara area of Kupwara district on intelligence inputs.

Also read| Bandipora encounter: 125-130 terrorists killed in Kashmir Valley this year, says Lt Gen J S Sandhu



He said, We had inputs that few militants were camping in forested area in Badgam. They were planning to attack security forces.

Also read| Jammu and Kashmir: Police arrest 3 Jaish-e-Mohammad militants from Badgam



Joint security forces on Tuesday had gunned down three militants in the same area.

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New Delhi :

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday hinted at an all-party front to challenge the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

A confident Mamata Banerjee affirmed that she maintains good relations with all the major players.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave East, Banerjee said that she is already in touch with many opposition leaders.

Even within the BJP, I maintain good relations with some people but not with all the people, said a confident Mamata.

"It is our duty to raise our voice whenever public faces any problem. At present, we are all working together and I believe in collective leadership," said Banerjee.

This is not the first time that Mamata Banerjee has been vocal about opposing Narendra Modi and Amit Shah led BJP.

The West Bengal CM has been at the forefront of opposing the Modi government on major issues including demonetization and GST.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

The ongoing Padmavati row took an ugly turn on Friday when a man's body was found hanging in Rajasthans Nahargarh Fort, 20 km near Jaipur, with slogans against the movie scribbled on stones nearby.

One of the slogans read Padmavati ka virodh (Opposing Padmavati), while another read Hum putle nahi jalate, latkate hain (we dont burn effigies, we kill).

The matter is being investigated by officers from the Brahmapuri Police Station. The deceased has been identified as Chetan. A plastic wire was found near Chetan's body. Police is not ruling out murder.

Mahipal Singh Makrana, a member of the Rajput Karni Sena which has been spearheading the Padmavati protest, said his outfit did not have anything to do with the latest development.

This is not our way of protest. I want to tell people not to resort to such methods, Makrana said. His outfit had last week threatened to chop off Deepika Padukones nose just as Soorpanakhas nose was chopped off.

Meanwhile, the Delhi HC has rejected the plea for an expert panel on Padmavati, as Karni Sena members burnt director Bhansali's effigy in the national capital.

Rajput groups in Rajasthan have staged massive protests against the movie for apparently distorting historical facts. The protests have been supported by several state governments controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said the allegations levelled against the Haryana Police in connection with the Pradyuman Thakur murder case were being investigated. The Haryana Police had falsely accused and arrested the driver of the school bus, Ashok Kumar, in connection with the murder of the seven-year-old Ryan student of class 2.

"The matter is being investigated and action will be taken against the guilty," Khattar said in Ambala.

Speaking to news agency, Ashok Kumar's wife said, "Police beat him (Kumar) up, hung him upside down, tortured him and even sedated him to make him confess."

We are really happy that Ashok has been granted bail: Accused bus conductor Ashok's father #PradyumanMurderCase pic.twitter.com/4aNIJud1tM  ANI (@ANI) November 21, 2017

Ashok was sent to judicial custody in Bhondsi Jail. He was released after 76 days after a Gurgaon court granted him bail.

The chinks in the Gurgaon Police theory were laid bare by CBI investigations which revealed that the real culprit was not Ashok Kumar but a senior student of the same school.

Also Read: Board sent juvenile to observation home for 14 days in Ryan murder case

Pradyuman was found with his throat slit in the toilet of the school in Bhondsi, Gurgaon, on September 8.

(With PTI Inputs)

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New Delhi:

United States has strongly reacted and has expressed deep concern over release of Mumbai attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed by a Pakistani court. A US official on Friday said, "The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes."

US State Department spokesperson, Heather Nauert, in a statement said, The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan.

She added, LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens.

On Thursday, India had reacted strongly to the release of Saeed by a Pakistani court. Ravish Kumar, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, had said, It appears to be an attempt by Pakistani system to mainstream proscribed terrorists.

The MEA spokesperson had also said, It is evident that Pakistan has not changed its policy of shielding and supporting non state actors, and its true face is visible for all to see.

The LeT founder walked free on Thursday after a review board of Lahore Court on Wednesday had rejected an appeal of the Punjab government seeking to extend the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief's detention for more three months and ordered his release. Saeed is set to walk free from house arrest in Pakistan on Thursday if the government does not detain him in any other case. The US has announced $10 million bounty on Saeed for his role in terrorist activities.

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New Delhi:

The Uttar Pradesh police arrested 3 persons for allegedly gang-raping a nurse in Bareilly, news agency ANI reported on Friday.

According to reports, the accused abducted and gang-raped the Rohilkhand Medical College nurse.

Earlier this month, a 49-year-old man allegedly raped his friends five-year-old daughter in a residential colony in UPs Mathura.

Mathura superintendent of police, Sharavan Kumar Singh told the media that the accused after consuming alcoholic drinks at his friends residence raped the minor.

The SP further added that the accused had been identified as Rajendra. He escaped the incident site after the minor cried for help. We have arrested the accused. He is the father of three grown-up children and was well known to the victims father, said Singh.

Rohilkhand Medical College nurse allegedly abducted and gangraped in Bareilly. Three people have been arrested  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) November 24, 2017

ALSO READ | UP: Woman allegedly gangraped in Unnao

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New Delhi:

The Republic of Botswana in southern Africa and famous for Kalahari desert shall reportedly host a day-long hackathon on Electronic Voting Machines ( EVMs ) on Wednesday. Reports indicate the decision by the Election Commission of Botswana to hold the hackathon comes in the wake of allegations of EVM tampering flying thick and fast in far-away India.

Botswana imports EVM machines from the same manufacturers that supplies EVMs to the Election Commission of India  Bharat Electronics Ltd. The Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal would not have dreamt in its wildest dreams his demand for a hackathon shall echo in an African country, with a population of barely 21 lakhs on last count in 2014, and a voter count far less than in New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, which comprises several assembly segments one of which  Gole Market - is represented by Kejriwal himself.

But Botswana is certainly setting a precedent of sorts by inviting expert hackers and technical experts to come and try their hands at hacking the EVMs. Imagine a country, which has imported EVMs, undertaking such an exercise not because there is a political opposition to EVMs in Botswana but because there are suggestions of machine tampering and a strong protest against the use of these machines from the country of its origin.

Here in India the ECI did invite all political parties for a round of deliberations on the issue. Other than AAP, BSP ( in fact, it was Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party that flagged the issue soon after the results of the elections to the five states were announced in March) Congress Party and the Samajwadi Party too joined the chorus. While the Election Commission never invited the parties for a hackathon but the word went around that ECI meant business and shall nip the controversy in the bud. But it turned out ECI only wanted to assure political parties yet again and assuage their fears that the EVM was an unlikely villain.

Also Read | EVM row: Know why India stands out as a gold standard in electronic voting

This led Kejriwal to tweet  Its sad that ECI backed out of hackathon. For Kejriwal the loss in the recent vidhan sabha elections followed by a drubbing in Delhis municipal elections were more than he could chew. He was not willing to look for an explanation for his partys loss in Punjab, Goa and Delhi in partys weak strategy and in being just not up to it for so many reasons other than the dubious functioning of the EVMs which he said were programmed by design to make the BJP win. Kejriwal did not stop at that. He hurriedly convened a special session of Delhi Assembly to prove his point. A senior member of Kejriwals party, Saurabh Bharadwaj, brought in an EVM prototype inside the house and physically demonstrated how the machine can be easily tampered with. Now that was a prototype and not the actual machine but the special assembly session beaming the proceedings live did give out the signal the allegations need to be given more than just an ear by ECI  the poll monitor.

It is not the first time in India that voices against possible EVM tampering have been raised. Ever since the ECI introduced the EVM, first as a pilot project, in 16 assembly segments across three states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi - way back in November 1998 there have been murmurs of discontent and a general opposition against the EVMs by political parties of different hue and colour.

The first wave of protest was more in tune with apprehensions regarding the acceptance of the new technology. The EVMs drastically cut down on time in the process of actual casting of vote and spared the trouble of physical counting of ballot papers ( counting in some geographically large Lok Sabha constituencies would go on for three days in the good old days of voting through ballot papers ). And then there was a time when the administration, the political parties and the voters heaved a sigh of relief as the country shunned the ballot paper for good and switched to EVMs.

But there never was any dearth of tense moments in EVMs almost two decades history in India when political parties, especially the losers, shall not raise the bogey of EVM tampering. It is interesting to see how the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party is lampooning the mere suggestion of EVM tampering by opposition parties now when it was in the forefront of opposition against the use of EVMs soon after the General Elections of 2009, when it faced a drubbing at the hands of Congress-headed coalition despite its more than ordinary pitch for a change of guard at the Centre.

Also Read: EC throws open challenge to parties to prove EVMs can be tampered

In fact the NDA rubbed it in on the issue for as long as the newspapers were willing to give it space on their front pages above the fold and TV news channels found a handle to chase their TRPs. The BJP think tank and its supporters laboured to write a series of articles in support of their claims bolstering their arguments with the fact that several European countries including Germany, Holland and Italy have banned use of EVMs precisely because of the kind of tampering these machines were vulnerable to. Those articles took the shape of a book and can be still be yours for a price on popular e-websites. You cant miss out on the author, the redoubtable Subramanian Swamy.

The ECI on its part did undertake exercise to satisfy the stakeholders. A massive exercise was conducted even after the 2009 elections. The allegations did not die out in 2014. Those making the allegations had swapped positions now. The trend continues in 2017, particularly now, when there is no stopping the BJP bandwagon which romped home with big victories in UP, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur after Assam and following it up with big wins in election to Delhi Municipal Corporation dashing AAP's hopes of taking over the MCD and repeating their performance in 2015 Assembly elections.

On the face of it, it appears the allegations have more to do with the political parties unhealthy ways of negotiating a defeat than intrinsic and fundamental flaws with either the design or its technical capabilities. But ECIs argument sustained by reason and backed by technology can only go thus far and no further when there is a suggestion of trust-deficit.

As much as a democracy is all about number crunching the path to that electoral nirvana does pass through the agneepath of trust and credibility, with a job cut-out for every stakeholder - Politicos vis-a-vis their voters and Institutions like the ECI vis-a-vis the gamut of responsibilities they are under the constitutional obligation to fulfil in order to serve the voters and through them live up to the underlying spirit of democracy which is not just for and by the people but of the people.

In fact, the Supreme Court reminded the Centre last month of its 2013 order to use paper trails in EVMs. The SC asked why was it that its order was not being implemented so far. This was on a plea filed by BSP and argued by former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram who told the court what one man can invent, the other man can hack. The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails or VVPAT is a machine fixed to the EVM. Through VVPAT the voter can verify through a paper trail whether the symbol he pressed on the EVM is the symbol the EVM registers. Verification of the vote cast is the right of the voter and shall help fill the trust-deficit.

Though the Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has assured that henceforth all elections including the 2019 Lok Sabha elections shall be conducted with VVPAT but the assurance comes quite late in the day. A storm that brewed against the EVM has already turned into a twister cyclone. The ECI will have to make more than adequate efforts to arrest its intensity lest it swept away its own credibility and trust built assiduously over the last 65 years when it first conducted the elections in independent India. If Botswana can do it, so can India.

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New Delhi:

While an existing study led by Roi Maor from Tel Aviv University and UCL indicates towards the nocturnal life of human being before the annihilation of non-avian dinosaurs, a German-led term has come up with a bad news for all sorts of creatures including humans.

The latest findings which appeared in the journal 'Science Advances' suggests that a surging light pollution is threating nocturnal life across the globe as the distinction between day and night will disappear in the most heavily populated countries anytime soon.

This rapid change is a serious threat to human health and the environment, the research said.

"We're losing more and more of the night on a planetary scale," journal editor Kip Hodges was quoted while talking about their findings.

Christopher Kyba from the German Research Centre for Geosciences further suggests that the artificially lit area of the Earth's surface grew by 2.2 percent per year from 2012 t0 2016.

During the process, Kyba captured a bunch of images, one of which shows the change in the amount of nighttime lighting from 2012 to 2016.

"Earth's night is getting brighter," Kyba stated further.

Also Read: Aliens already visited earth and other planets in solar system?

While the entire planet will be affected more or less due to this sudden surge in the pollution, the areas in the Middle East and Asia will suffer most.

The observed 'decrease' in Western Australia is actually due to wildfires in 2012 that were visible from space.

"In the near term, it appears that artificial light emission into the environment will continue to increase, further eroding Earth's remaining land area that experiences natural day-night light cycles," the study concluded.

"While we know that LEDs save energy in specific projects," Kyba was quoted while interacting with reporters at a teleconference.

"when we look at our data and we look at the national and the global level, it indicates that these savings are being offset by either new or brighter light in other places," she added.

"Artificial light at night is a very new stressor," said Franz Holker, one of the paper's authors.

Also Read: Aliens to decode radio signals sent from Earth? Click here to know!

"The problem is that light has been introduced in places, times and intensities at which it does not naturally occur and [for] many organisms, there is no chance to adapt to this new stressor," Holker stated.

"In the longer term, perhaps the demand for dark skies and unlit bedrooms will begin to outweigh the demand for light in wealthy countries," the team of authors wrote.

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New Delhi:

Gadget freaks will go crazy this weekend as Chinese smartphone company OnePlus's latest edition OnePlus 5T has received a couple of mouth-watering updates days after its release across the country.

According to reports, with OxygenOS 4.7.2, the fresh over-the-air update customers may avail Fingerprint and Face Unlock features including some other improvements and tweaks in the dual camera setup of the brand new device.

According to OnePlus forums, the OxygenOS 4.7.2 update for OnePlus 5T which is based on Android Nougat, is sized at 107MB.

The update also includes an improved accuracy for screen off gestures in order to uplift the experience of the users.

Moreover, OxygenOS 4.7.2 update is expected to improve EIS (electronic image stabilisation) while recording 4K videos. The improvement will fulfill the absence of OIS in the gadget, the company believes.The update is also coming up with the infamous Wi-Fi WPA2 KRACK vulnerability.

Apart from these, the latest OxygenOS 4.7.2 update is having general stability improvements and bug fixes.

OnePlus 5T users who are waiting eagerly to avail those brand new features may go through the following steps.

Also Read | OnePlus 5T launch: The bezel-less OnePlus smartphone is here

Important steps to avail OxygenOS 4.7.2 update:

-Settings

-System updates

The Chinese smartphone company advises its customers to back up data before beginning the update process.

Talking about their latest edition in the new flagship, a company spokesperson said, "We have seen some of the reviews that mention our OnePlus 5T camera could be performing better and offering a few areas of improvement," reported NDTV.

Earlier, on November 16, OnePlus 5T hit the market with a bezel-less 6-inch FHD display with an aspect ratio of 18:9 all over India.

The smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. OnePlus 5T is also having two variants i.e. 6GB RAM with 64 GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM with 128 GB of space.

Also Read: Android 8.0 Oreo update for OnePlus 3, 3T smartphones

The main attraction of the smartphone is its camera which will have dual 16MP + 20MP cameras in the rear and 16MP in the front for perfect selfies.

With the launch of OnePlus 5T, there is a much possibility that its predecessor OnePlus 5 might be wrapped from the market.

Talking about its price, the smartphone is available in both online and offline channels at a starting price of Rs. 32,999.
New Delhi:

At least 235 people were killed and over hundred injured after terrorists launched a bomb and gun attack on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province, state media said.

The terrorists targeted al-Rawda mosque in the town of Bir al-Abed, near al-Arish, during the Friday prayers, the state-run MENA news agency reported.

The attackers blew up the mosque and started indiscriminate firing at the worshipers who tried to escape after the explosion.

About 50 ambulances were rushed to the attack site to shift the injured to hospitals.

No group has yet claimed the responsibility for the attack which is the deadliest single assault in Egypt.

Soon after the attack, Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi called an emergency meeting and vowed to respond with brutal force against militants.

Terming the attack as vile and treacherous, al-Sisi said the incident would not pass without a decisive punishment.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly condemned the "barbaric terrorist attack" and extedned resolute support to the people as well as Government of Egypt.

"Strongly condemn the barbaric terrorist attack on a place of worship in Egypt. Our deep condolences at the loss of innocent lives. India resolutely supports the fight against all forms of terrorism and stands with the people as well as Government of Egypt," PM Modi tweeted.

Some locals said the followers of Sufism, or Islamic mysticism gathered at the mosque and so called Islamic state who consider them as heretics could be behind the deadly attack.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Also Read | Massive earthquake of 7.3 magnitude strikes Iraq-Iran; over 328 killed, 1700 injured

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has witnessed a series of terror attacks this year claiming scores of lives.

On May 26, gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others.

On April 9, two suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services at churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta left 46 people dead.

(With Inputs from PTI)





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Lahore:

Hafiz Saeed, Mumbai attack mastermind and banned Jamaad Ud Dawa (JuD) chief, walked free from house arrest on Friday. He said he would gather people across Pakistan for the "cause of Kashmir" and try to help Kashmiris get their "destination of freedom".

The JuD head was freed after the government decided against detaining him further in any case. He was under house arrest since January.

"I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir," Saeed told his supporters gathered outside his residence to celebrate his release.

"I fight for the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir and we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom," he said upon his release.

The Judicial Review Board of Punjab province, comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC), unanimously ordered Saeed's release on Wednesday on the completion of his 30-day house arrest on Thursday.

Saeed said that he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris in January.

Saeed said: "I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release... India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHC's review board decision has proved that I am innocent".

Also Read: US says Pakistan must arrest 26/11 Mumbai mastermind and LeT founder Hafiz Saeed

The JuD chief said that the US, on India's request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.

"I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," he claimed.

Several JuD supporters, gathered outside Saeed's house in Lahore's Jauhar town to celebrate his release, shouted anti-India slogans and described their leader as "a hope for the Kashmiri people".

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti- Terrorism Act 1997. The last two extensions were made on the 'public safety law'.

Also Read: India reacts strongly to Hafiz Saeed's release; says Pakistan wants to mainstream terrorists

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed. Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN after the Mumbai attack.

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New Delhi:

At least 200 poeple were killed and 120 others were injured in a bomb explosion and gunfire during Friday prayers near a mosque in the Egypt's restive North Sinai, police said. The bomb was planted near Al Rowda mosque in Al Arish.

According to the sources, gunmen opened fire on worshippers attempting to escape the explosion site.

Egypt Health Ministry spokesperson, Khaled Megahed, said that 75 people were injured during the attack.

Till the time report was filed no group had claimed responsibility of the attack.

Egypt's North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

Also Read| Kabul bomb blast: Explosion in embassy zone leaves 13 dead, many injured



The attacks targeting police and military establishments have increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by the military, following massive protests against his rule. Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

Also Read| Afghanistan: 15 army trainees killed, 4 wounded in suicide attack at Marshal Fahim Military Academy in Kabul



(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi:

An Indian Air Force aircraft with relief material for distribution among the displaced persons in Myanmar's restive Rakhine State landed in Yangon on Friday.

"With best wishes from the people of India. Indian Air Force aircraft lands today in Yangon, Myanmar with 3,000 family relief packs consisting of daily essentials including rice, oil, salt, sugar, soap, etc. for distribution amongst the displaced persons in Rakhine State," external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

Rakhine Sate has witnessed unrest in recent months.

In September, India had asked Myanmar to handle the situation in the Rakhine State with "maturity and restraint" while focusing on the welfare of the civilian population along with that of the security forces.

Myanmar agreed to take back tens of thousands of Rohingyas who fled the country to Bangladesh following a military crackdown that has been dubbed as ethnic cleansing by the US on Thursday.

Over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims had fled Myanmars violence-hit Rakhine state to neighbouring Bangladesh since August when the military intensified crackdown against alleged militant outfits of Rohingya Muslims.

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Dhaka:

Amid mounting global pressure, Myanmar on Thursday agreed to take back tens of thousands of Rohingyas who fled the country to Bangladesh following a military crackdown that has been dubbed as ethnic cleansing by the US.

Over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmars violence-hit Rakhine state to neighbouring Bangladesh since August when the military intensified crackdown against alleged militant outfits of Rohingya Muslims.

Following weeks of talks, the two neighbours on Thursday signed an Arrangement on return of displaced Myanmar persons sheltered in Bangladesh, a foreign office statement said here.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Myanmars Union Minister U Kyaw Tint Swe signed the agreement in Naypyidaw.

The Arrangement, the statement said, stipulated that the return (of Rohingyas) shall commence within two months while a Joint Working Group would be established within next three weeks and a specific bilateral instrument (physical arrangement) for repatriation will be concluded in a speedy manner.

Bangladeshi officials familiar with the development said the agreement was being negotiated with Myanmar for the past few months while it was nearly finalised on Wednesday at Naypyidaw by senior officials of the two countries.

ALSO READ | Rohingya deportation issue: SC tells stakeholders to talk facts, refrain from emotional rhetoric

Putting pressure on Myanmar, the US on Wednesday declared as ethnic cleansing the violence against Rohingya Muslims in the country and warned that the Trump administration could impose new penalties on the Buddhist-majority country.

Also, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi travelled to both Bangladesh and Myanmar this week and held talks with their top leaderships to resolve the Rohingya crisis, one of the worlds most dire refugee crisis.

Wang had proposed initiatives including three-phased solution so as to fundamentally resolve the Rohingya crisis. Bangladesh and Myanmar had agreed to his proposal.

The statement said the foreign minister earlier called on State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and discussed issues of mutual cooperation in areas of trade, energy and connectivity under Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM).

In brief comments to media, Ali described the deal as the first step while Myanmar said it was ready to receive the Rohingya as soon as possible.

We are ready to take them back as soon as possible after Bangladesh sends the forms back to us, foreign news agencies said quoting Myint Kyaing, a permanent secretary at Myanmars ministry of labour, immigration and population.

Ali also handed over three ambulances for Rakhine State, the scene of atrocities, as gift from the government of Bangladesh to Myanmar.

ALSO READ: Aung San Suu Kyi is a murderer, says Bob Geldof as he slams Myanmar leader over Rohingya crisis

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New Delhi:

The fragmented opposition in Syria on Thursday announced that they had reached an agreement to send a united delegation to next weeks UN-brokered peace talks.

The announcement came on the second day of a Saudi-sponsored meeting in Riyadh, where around 140 opposition figures are gathered to unify their ranks before direct talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime in Geneva on November 28.

The six-year war in Syria has killed over 3,30,000 people since 2011. The United Nations held several rounds of talks but has failed to bring an end to the war.

Speaking to the reporters in Riyadh, Bassma Kodmani, a member of the Syrian oppositions High Negotiations Committee said, We have agreed with the two other (opposition) branches to send a united delegation to participate in the direct negotiations in Geneva.

The further meeting would be held on Friday to finalise the names and number of representatives each group would have in the 50-strong unified delegation, Kodmani said.

The delegates at the meeting have been under heavy pressure to row back on some of their more radical demands after a series of battlefield victories that have given Assads regime the upper hand.

ALSO READ | Syria Chemical Weapons Inquiry: Russia vetoes UN resolution 11th time

A Cairo-based Syrian opposition group was reported to have agreed on Thursday to join ranks with other opposition clusters including the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) -- the largest bloc in the oppositionand the Istanbul-based National Coalition.

Kodmanis announcement implies that a Moscow-based Syrian opposition group has also agreed to join forces with that delegation.

Several key opposition figures have boycotted the meeting, including the Moscow groups Jamil and Riad Hijab of the HNC.

Hijab stepped down as leader of the Saudi-backed HNC this week over attempts to lower the ceiling of the revolution and prolong the regime.

Assads fate has been a major stumbling block in multiple rounds of negotiations between the Syrian regime and the opposition.

The HNC and its closest allies have consistently demanded Assad step down from power as a prerequisite for a transitional phase to end the Syrian war.

Other branches of the opposition have taken a softer stance against Assad.

Staffan de Mistura, the UNs Syria envoy, attended the opening session of the Riyadh gathering on Wednesday and said the goal of the meeting was to give momentum to next weeks peace talks.

The Riyadh talks come as Syrian regime ally Russia is seeking to organise a congress to bring together Assads forces and various opposition groups to reinvigorate the peace process.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the leaders of Iran and Turkey for a key trilateral summit aimed at finding a political settlement of Syrias conflict. Putin also met with Assad this week.

(With PTI inputs)

ALSO READ: IS recaptures Albu Kamal, last Syrian urban bastion of its collapsing 'caliphate'

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New Delhi:

The United States is set to deploy six F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill. The aircraft will take part in a joint air force exercise reportedly designed to put maximum pressure on the North Korean regime.

The five-day joint military exercise between US and South Korea has been named Vigilant Ace and will begin on December 4. A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an unspecified number of F-22s would take part in the drill.

A US Air Force spokesman declined to give any further details. Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets.

The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called a maximum pressure campaign against Pyongyangs nuclear program.

Earlier in November, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes.

ALSO READ: Donald Trump declares North Korea state sponsor of terrorism



This was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships in the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade.

North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainlandwhich were described by the countrys leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to American bastards.

It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test in Septemberby far its most powerful yet.Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back onto a US blacklist Pyongyang was taken off nearly a decade ago.

READ: N Korea says Trump deserves 'death penalty' for insulting Kim Jong-un

The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme.

Trump said that the terror designation and new sanctions are part of a series of moves over the next two weeks to reinforce his maximum pressure campaign against Kim Jong-Uns regime.

Pyongyang condemned the listing as a serious provocation on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the Norths sole ally, also rejected as wrong new US sanctions, which target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state.

Russia said on Thursday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a PR move that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global catastrophe.

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olalathos

The New World Order should more accurately be called the Deep State.For decades, extreme ideologies on both the left and the right have clashed over the conspiratorial concept of a shadowy secret government often called the New World Order pulling the strings on the worlds heads of state and captains of industry.The phrase New World Order is largely derided as a sophomoric conspiracy theory entertained by minds that lack the sophistication necessary to understand the nuances of geopolitics. But it turns out the core idea  one of deep and overarching collusion between Wall Street and government with a globalist agenda is operational in what a number of insiders call the Deep State.In the past couple of years, the term has gained traction across a wide swath of ideologies. Former Republican congressional aide Mike Lofgren says it is the nexus of Wall Street and the national security state  a relationship where elected and unelected figures join forces to consolidate power and serve vested interests. Calling it the big story of our time, Lofgren says the deep state represents the failure of our visible constitutional government and the cross-fertilization of corporatism with the globalist war on terror.It is a hybrid of national security and law enforcement agencies: the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Justice Department. I also include the Department of the Treasury because of its jurisdiction over financial flows, its enforcement of international sanctions and its organic symbiosis with Wall Street, he explained.Even parts of the judiciary, namely the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, belong to the deep state.How does the deep state operate?A complex web of revolving doors between the military-industrial-complex, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley consolidates the interests of defense contractors, banksters, military campaigns, and both foreign and domestic surveillance intelligence.According to Mike Lofgren and many other insiders, this is not a conspiracy theory. The deep state hides in plain sight and goes far beyond the military-industrial complex President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about in his farewell speech over fifty years ago.&amp;amp;amp;lt;iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8y06NSBBRtY" width="650" height="366" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/iframe&amp;amp;amp;gt;While most citizens are at least passively aware of the surveillance state and collusion between the government and the corporate heads of Wall Street, few people are aware of how much the intelligence functions of the government have been outsourced to privatized groups that are not subject to oversight or accountability. According to Lofgren, 70% of our intelligence budget goes to contractors.Moreover, while Wall Street and the federal government suck money out of the economy, relegating tens of millions of people to food stamps and incarcerating more people than China  a totalitarian state with four times more people than us  the deep state has, since 9/11, built the equivalent of three Pentagons, a bloated state apparatus that keeps defense contractors, intelligence contractors, and privatized non-accountable citizens marching in stride.After years of serving in Congress, Lofgrens moment of truth regarding this matter came in 2001. He observed the government appropriating an enormous amount of money that was ostensibly meant to go to Afghanistan but instead went to the Persian Gulf region. This, he says, disenchanted him from the groupthink, which he says keeps all of Washingtons minions in lockstep.Groupthink  an unconscious assimilation of the views of your superiors and peers  also works to keep Silicon Valley funneling technology and information into the federal surveillance state. Lofgren believes the NSA and CIA could not do what they do without Silicon Valley. It has developed a de facto partnership with NSA surveillance activities, as facilitated by a FISA court order.Now, Lofgren notes, these CEOs want to complain about foreign market share and the damage this collusion has wrought on both the domestic and international reputation of their brands. Under the pretense of pseudo-libertarianism, they helmed a commercial tech sector that is every bit as intrusive as the NSA. Meanwhile, rigging of the DMCA intellectual property laws  so that the government can imprison and fine citizens who jailbreak devices  behooves Wall Street. Its no surprise that the government has upheld the draconian legislation for 15 years.It is also unsurprising that the growth of the corporatocracy aids the deep state. The revolving door between government and Wall Street money allows top firms to offer premium jobs to senior government officials and military yes-men. This, says Philip Giraldi, a former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer for the CIA, explains how the Clintons left the White House nearly broke but soon amassed $100 million. It also explains how former general and CIA Director David Petraeus, who has no experience in finance, became a partner at the KKR private equity firm, and how former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell became Senior Counselor at Beacon Global Strategies.Wall Street is the ultimate foundation for the deep state because the incredible amount of money it generates can provide these cushy jobs to those in the government after they retire. Nepotism reigns supreme as the revolving door between Wall Street and government facilitates a great deal of our domestic strife:Bank bailouts, tax breaks, and resistance to legislation that would regulate Wall Street, political donors, and lobbyists. The senior government officials, ex-generals, and high level intelligence operatives who participate find themselves with multi-million dollar homes in which to spend their retirement years, cushioned by a tidy pile of investments, said Giraldi.How did the deep state come to be?Some say it is the evolutionary hybrid offspring of the military-industrial complex while others say it came into being with the Federal Reserve Act, even before the First World War. At this time, Woodrow Wilson remarked,We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.This quasi-secret cabal pulling the strings in Washington and much of Americas foreign policy is maintained by a corporatist ideology that thrives on deregulation, outsourcing, deindustrialization, and financialization. American exceptionalism, or the great Washington Consensus, yields perpetual war and economic imperialism abroad while consolidating the interests of the oligarchy here at home.Mike Lofgren says this government within a government operates off tax dollars but is not constrained by the constitution, nor are its machinations derailed by political shifts in the White House. In this world  where the deep state functions with impunity  it doesnt matter who is president so long as he or she perpetuates the war on terror, which serves this interconnected web of corporate special interests and disingenuous geopolitical objectives.As long as appropriations bills get passed on time, promotion lists get confirmed, black (i.e., secret) budgets get rubber stamped, special tax subsidies for certain corporations are approved without controversy, as long as too many awkward questions are not asked, the gears of the hybrid state will mesh noiselessly, according to Mike Lofgren in an interview with Bill Moyers.Interestingly, according to Philip Giraldi, the ever-militaristic Turkey has its own deep state, which uses overt criminality to keep the money flowing. By comparison, the U.S. deep state relies on a symbiotic relationship between banksters, lobbyists, and defense contractors, a mutant hybrid that also owns the Fourth Estate and Washington think tanks.Is there hope for the future?Perhaps. At present, discord and unrest continues to build. Various groups, establishments, organizations, and portions of the populace from all corners of the political spectrum, including Silicon Valley, Occupy, the Tea Party, Anonymous, WikiLeaks, anarchists and libertarians from both the left and right, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and others are beginning to vigorously question and reject the labyrinth of power wielded by the deep state.Can these groups  can we, the people  overcome the divide and conquer tactics used to quell dissent? The future of freedom may depend on it.truththeory
Police in Japan's northeastern prefecture of Akita say they have found 8 men of undetermined nationality and a wooden boat washed ashore. Police say the men claim to have come from North Korea.

Police received a report on the sighting of the men at a marina in the city of Yurihonjo late Thursday night.

Police rushed to the scene and discovered the men. They also found the vessel measuring about 20 meters long near a breakwater.

Police say they have taken the men into protective custody and that they can walk without help. Police add they have brought in an interpreter of the Korean language to obtain the men's story.

Nov 24 (Kyodo) - iiaaiiaSaaaccccaeaaaaeaaaeaaaaeaaaaaiiicaaaaYacecaecaaeaaaaeeaceaeazaaaSaaaaaaaaaaaaaeacaaaaaaceae eaciaaaaaaSaSaaeaaaYaaeZaaaaaaaa
At the opening of the documentary "Boys For Sale," a look at the underside of the trade in young boys in the 2-chome gay quarter of Shinjuku Ward, a former male prostitute, says, "I guess if you'd never experienced this, it would be hard to understand."

Such a summation could not be more accurate.

The film, which will make its Japan premiere at the Tokyo AIDS Week 2017 this weekend, includes interviews with urisen, who are young guys who engage in sex with men. The film presents a rare view of this underground business through the unsettling stories of the boys in candid interviews.

"I think, in general, people are surprised by it," said executive producer Ian Thomas Ash during an interview in Tokyo earlier this month. "I think especially because the guys are so frank, they are so frank."

That is clear from the start. The aforementioned former prostitute, who later went on to manage an urisen bar, says that boys seeking work at his establishment would ask him how he could get an erection. He answered, "Money. Making money will get you hard."

The film introduces the 2-chome area, the biggest gay quarter in Japan. The district includes about 800 businesses catering to homosexual clientele: gay and lesbian bars, dance clubs, adult shops and the urisen parlors.

A customer arriving at an urisen business will have his pick of about five boys, many as young as 19, standing behind the counter. Should one be to his liking, he will invite the boy to his table for a drink. If a mutual interest develops, they will then disappear together to a special room or hotel for sex in exchange for money. (Japan's Anti-Prostitution Law does not prohibit non-coital intercourse.)

"Ostensibly, this is supposed to be a sexy kind of industry," said Ash. "And yet, when you just get a little bit deeper into it and have a conversation with these guys, any veneer of sexiness just completely disappears, and you are just feeling disbelief about what is going to happen - that we were going to bring these guys back to their bar, and 20 minutes later, some 70-year-old guy was going to try to rape them. That was really hard for us to think about."
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The market for Black Friday shopping remains robust in southwestern Connecticut.

Amid the growing reach of e-commerce, shoppers still poured into area stores the day after Thanksgiving. Expanded store hours and an abundance of deals contribute to the appeal of a retail event that ranks as the most popular day on the biggest retail weekend of the year. Some 115 million were planning to shop on Black Friday, according to the National Retail Federation.

People are actually coming out more and more on Black Friday, said Loretta Mercado, general manager of the Bass Pro Shops store in Bridgeport. Were such a destination store. People like to come and shop with us because we have so much to offer.

Opening at 5 a.m., Bass Pro Shops served around 600 customers within the first hour, according to Mercado. Half of that crowd were waiting in line when she arrived.

In Norwalk, the retail strip on Connecticut Avenue also bustled with customers. At Best Buy on Friday afternoon, managers were dismantling fencing that had provided order on Thursday evening and the early hours of Friday morning.

You can really tell  people are buying better stuff, not just the door busters, said Tommie Coney, a systems manager in the Magnolia operations of Best Buy. I left at midnight (Thursday) and the store was packed.

Area malls also saw crowds.

Its a tradition, said Ray Manzella, of Woodbury, who made an early-morning trip with his wife to Danbury Fair. We got here around 6:30 (a.m.). Years ago, wed get here at 5, but you can find the same deals online so it doesnt really matter when you get here. It doesnt seem as crowded as it has in past years. I think a lot of people are shopping online or splitting it up. I like coming here, though.

Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, ranks as the second-most popular day of the five days counted in the Thanksgiving retail weekend. Some 78 million were planning to shop on that day focused on e-commerce, according to the NRF.

Retailers like Pedigree Ski shop use digital platforms as a complement to their brick-and-mortar operations. Pedigree, which has a Stamford store at 350 Bedford St., sends out a holiday magazine to customers who share their email addresses and also maintains Facebook and Instagram accounts. But in-person shopping still represents their main draw.

Weve established our customer base, we know our customers, and we strive to give them the best customer service when they come in here, said Pedigree assistant manager Farah Barrau. Were not in it to be the cheapest, but to give them something high quality that will last a long time.

Other small businesses eschew e-commerce because they said their merchandise needs to be seen and tried on before being bought.

With furs, youre supposed to see the quality and the color; the picture is different from seeing it in the store, said Paul Nanos, manager of Engels Furs, at 115 Bedford St., in Stamford. Its very important to the customers to see it and like it.

In downtown Greenwich, a number of retailers reported that Black Friday typically generates more foot traffic, but that it does not necessarily rank as the most important shopping day. With the density of luxury brands on and around Greenwich Avenue, sales generated by storefronts far outpace those made from online orders, many merchants said.

The luxury world is late to the party for e-commerce; they tried to resist it, said Kathryn Minckler, founder and chairman of The Luxury Marketing Councils Connecticut Hudson Valley chapter. Though, there is a sense of trying to integrate the luxury experience and personalization into the online experience because of the fear of the 900-pound gorilla called Amazon. Amazon is moving aggressively into the luxury space, and with its recent purchase of Whole Foods, they now have data on some of the most affluent people in the country. Theres a real fear of Amazon.

Macaela J. Bennett, Chris Bosak, Jordan Grice and Alexander Soule contributed to this article.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
It's that time of year again. Santa is making his rounds in southwestern Connecticut.

The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. According to History.com, "it is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick."
Today's consumers aren't just saying they value social responsibility, they're showing their values through spending.

A 2017 Unilever global study indicated that 33 percent of consumers actively seek brands that reflect a sincere, well-documented desire to promote smart stewardship of planetary, human and other limited resources. Nielsen underscored these numbers, reporting that companies committed to social entrepreneurship were preferred by 56 percent of buyers, regardless of price point.

Coupons, sales and gimmicks no longer move the needle like social entrepreneurship does. Brands with a conscience not only attract better talent and woo discerning consumers, but they also wind up building communities and boosting the bottom line.

As they say, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Focus on making a meaningful change by understanding the value in moving toward a model of social engagement and commitment.

Related: 4 Ways to Engage Your Customers in Social Good -- And Why It Matters

Give a nod to millennials, but don't stop there

Having a corporate heart has become a growing movement, in part because of the millennial workforce. Today, millennials make up the largest segment of the U.S. employee market, and as a group, they want to put in their time at companies invested in making positive social and environmental changes.

Although this generation has gotten a bad rap, millennials are incredibly serious and devoted when teamed with authentically mission-driven organizations. Think you can fake it? Not with these savvy job seekers. They know which companies are providing lip service and which value social and environmental opportunities to make the world safer, healthier, stronger and better in some measurable way.

Of course, millennials may be at the root of this trend, but they aren't the only population clamoring for a work environment that goes beyond churning out profits. Representatives of Generation X and baby boomers -- as well as up-and-comers from Generation Z -- are jumping on the social bandwagon, too.

What this means for you is a chance to carry out one of the most important tasks of your career: transforming your company into one that promotes social entrepreneurship. Start your journey with a few of these strategies:

1. Seek out meaningful causes.

With the world in crisis, you shouldn't have to look far to find a cause that has deep meaning for your team members. Your focus might even come from a personal experience, as it did for Glassybaby's founder, Lee Rhodes.

Rhodes battled cancer three times and couldn't help noticing that the people around her during chemotherapy were far less fortunate than she. They had to choose between the bare necessities and the treatments they desperately needed. Thus, Glassybaby, a distributor of exquisite, handblown glass votive candle holders, was born. Rhodes donates 10 percent of the company's revenue -- not simply profits, but raw purchases -- to promote what she calls "hope and healing" through the white light fund. To date, Glassybaby has raised more than $7 million in support of causes that affect people, the earth and animals.

Related: 5 Lessons We Can All Learn From This Entrepreneur's Philanthropic Journey

2. Open a dialogue with the community to find places to collaborate.

When Working Not Working, a real-time network for broadcasting creatives' availability to businesses, decided to take its innovative mindset to the public, the company looked no further than the city where it's headquartered, Los Angeles. Its initial social project is a relationship with VICE and the Mayor's Office of Innovation, a partnership Working Not Working wants to foster and grow. The partnership's goal? To use debate and discussion to make inroads on issues concerning the people of LA.

If you feel as deeply devoted to your surrounding community as Working Not Working, you can do likewise. Seek out the assistance of local leaders, and offer your help. The stronger you make the ecosystem where you work and live, the more likely you'll be to attract talented, like-minded employees to join you. Better still, they'll be more apt to stay on board because they'll believe in your vision of the future.

3. Establish company-wide volunteering groups.

The act of volunteering with colleagues gives people a sense of purpose outside the workplace. At the same time, it adds positivity to the community. Plus, people who enjoy serving others tend to be great leaders; that's a fantastic quality you can hone to ensure your management team is service-oriented and powerful.

To show your support of volunteering, why not add it to the benefits of working with your organization? You can offer a specific number of volunteer days per year as a perk, allowing employees to choose which nonprofits and causes they want to support, as well as when it's convenient for them to take off work to give back.

Related: 10 Ways Small Businesses Can Give Back Without Breaking the Bank

4. Be an inspiration by modeling social responsibility.

Thanks to the internet and social media, in particular, your brand can directly communicate with consumers. Rather than hide your social leanings, use these platforms to become an inspiration to the public. Post images, write blog posts and share experiences. The more human your brand becomes, the more likely you'll be to build loyal customers.

Encourage this same type of online motivation among your team members by urging them to practice the art of spreading optimism and inspiration. You can also designate passionate colleagues to help share your brand's voice, message and beliefs through your company's corporate channels.

Being a leader in the social entrepreneurship space takes forethought and sincerity, but the time invested can deliver far-reaching payoffs. Not only will your enterprise be seen as an appealing place to work by top emerging talent, but you'll also feel satisfied on an emotional level that you're not just going to work: You're honestly making a difference.

Related:

How Social Entrepreneurship Can Benefit Businesses and the Communities They Serve

Why Actress Robin Wright's Favorite Role May Just Be Entrepreneur

3 Ways Philanthropy Can Add to Your Company Culture



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


VANCOUVER, Nov. 24, 2017 /CNW/ - 3tl Technologies Corp. (TSXV: TTM)(OTCQB: TTMZF) (the "Company" or "3tl") announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2017. The financial statements and management discussion and analysis for the quarter ended September 30, 2017 are available on SEDAR.

The Company's performance highlights for the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2017:

Revenue increased by 51% to $921,774 compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2016 .

compared to the nine months ended . Gross margin as a percentage of revenue for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 was 70% and 68%, respectively, compared to 55% and 70% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 .

was 70% and 68%, respectively, compared to 55% and 70% for the three and nine months ended . Increased the average value of license agreements including the signing of multiple long-term (1 and 2 years) agreements.

Launched version 3.0 of PLATFORM3 which leverages Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to retarget consumers based on purchase habits and frequency. AI capabilities have been integrated into two new modules of PLATFORM3 3.0 - Targeted Couponing and Shopper Messaging and Retargeting. These developments were the result of experience and feedback aggregated from working with some of the largest CPG companies in the world and millions of consumers.

Subsequent to the third quarter, on November 20, 2017 the Company completed a private placement of 11,211,834 units for gross proceeds of $1,177,243.

In 2017 year-to-date, 3tl has 34 agreements that will generate approximately $1,500,000 in total revenues with approximately 70% of those revenues to be recognized in 2017, compared with revenues of $665,728 for the year ended December 31, 2016:

"In 2017 our team has grown revenues driven by repeat business and longer term agreements with leading U.S. based brands. The recently closed financing will enable us to accelerate sales growth by hiring some key sales people, who have relationships and expertise with major consumer goods brands," said Rob Craig, CEO of 3tl Technologies Corp. "This has been done while continuing to invest in R&D which has resulted in the release of our first artificial intelligence (AI) based modules. These modules enable CPG brands to automatically retarget consumers base on purchase behaviour.. This powerful new technology has extended our value proposition allowing us to gain further traction in the U.S. market as evidenced by new and repeat business from leading brands and ad agencies and longer term Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) license agreements."

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2017 increased by 35% to $362,518, and revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 increased by 51% to $921,774, compared with the same periods in 2016. The PLATFORM3 product is an integrated suite of digital marketing applications sold as SaaS for short-term promotions or on an annual subscriptions basis with recurring revenues. Revenue in the year reflected recognition of revenue from previous year contracts and new sales of the PLATFORM3 product offering.

Gross margin as a percentage of revenue for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 was 70% and 68%, respectively, compared to 55% and 70% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016. Gross margin as a percentage of revenue depends on the product mix for the reporting period. Revenues are comprised of higher margin sales of PLATFORM3, the Company's proprietary Software as a Service product combined with some lower margin third party services. In 2017, 3tl launched an API connection to third party digital rewards platforms. This service enables 3tl clients to offer digital rewards such as gift cards, movie tickets and virtual visas to incentivize purchase and purchase frequency. 3tl will purchase these rewards on behalf of the Company's clients and charge a 15% transaction fee for the total amount of rewards purchased. Cost of sales also includes the cost of servers to host PLATFORM3, and project management and customer support staff.

General and administrative expenses for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 increased by 23% and 29% to $227,817 and $889,592, respectively, compared to $184,527 and $691,805 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016. The increase was due to general office and other expenses including investor relations.

Sales and marketing expenses for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 increased by 0% and 19% to $207,826 and $644,053, respectively, compared to $207,233 and $539,111 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016. The increase was mainly due to increased salaries and wages, and consulting fees paid in connection with sales and marketing activities.

Research and development expenditure for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 decreased by 1% and increased by 21% to $89,618 and $304,094, respectively, compared to $90,909 and $250,358 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016. Research and development expenses increased for the nine months ended September, 2017 compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2016 as improvements were made to improve PLATFORM3. The costs recorded in 2016 relate to improvements to PLATFORM3. Research and development expenses may increase in the future as the Company seeks to evolve and improve PLATFORM3, as well as to invest in creating new technology and products that will enhance the Company's value proposition to customers and provide additional revenues. Research and development expenses include wages and salaries and consulting fees.

Share-based compensation for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 was $48,666 and $66,165, respectively compared to $62,271 and $211,704 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016. The share-based compensation expense is a result of stock options that vested during the period for stock options granted to employees, directors and consultants in the current and prior periods.

Net and comprehensive loss for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 decreased by 18% and 0% to $315,166 and $1,259,803, respectively, compared to $395,264 and $1,263,017 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016. This increase was mainly due to the increase of operating expenses.

As a result of the 10 for 1 consolidation of the Company's common shares effective in May, 2017, on November 23, 2017 the Company's board of directors, subject to shareholder and TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") approval, approved the re-pricing of a total aggregate of 564,000 options granted to certain Insiders and non Insiders of the Company to purchase common shares of the Company ("Options"), to an amended exercise price of i) the higher of $0.17 and ii) the closing market price of the Company's Common Shares at the date Shareholder approval, is obtained (the "Re-Pricing"). The closing price of the Company's common shares on the TSXV on the date of Board approval to the Re-Pricing, was $0.165.

Pursuant to the policies of the TSXV, the re-pricing of options held by Insiders is subject to disinterested approval. Shareholder approval will be sought at the Company's upcoming Annual General Meeting ("AGM") to be held on December 22, 2017 to the re-pricing of a total of 510,000 Options issued to Insiders of the Company. The Re-Pricing of the Options held by Insiders is subject to the approval of a simple majority approval of the Company's shareholders excluding votes attached to shares beneficially owned by Insiders to whom options may be granted under the Company's stock option plan or associates of such persons. If such approval is obtained the Re-Pricing remains at the discretion of the board of directors.

The Re-Pricing of the Options will be submitted for TSXV approval shortly after the Company's AGM. Prior to the Company's receipt of TSXV and shareholder approval, none of the Options may be exercised at the revised price.

Subsequent to September 30, 2017, the Company released the remaining 1,147,300 shares held in escrow on November 7, 2017. Subsequent to that date, there are no escrow shares outstanding.

On November 20, 2017 the Company completed a private placement of 11,211,834 units for gross proceeds of $1,177,243. Each unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company and one-half of a share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share in the capital of the Company at a price of $0.20 per Warrant Share for a period of two years from the closing of the offering. The Company is entitled to accelerate the expiry date of the warrants to the date that is 30 days following the date a news release is issued announcing the accelerated expiry date in the event that the volume weighted average price of the Shares has been greater than $0.40 for any ten consecutive trading days after four months and one day after closing of the Offering.

About 3tl Technologies Corp.

PLATFORM is a Software as a Service (SaaS) consumer marketing platform. It enables Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies and consumer brands to engage shoppers through their mobile device and influence their purchasing decisions. PLATFORM encompasses proprietary consumer engagement strategies and technology modules including optical character recognition (purchase receipt scanning), digital promotions, purchase data mining, loyalty and rewards. CPG companies and major retail brands use PLATFORM to influence and incentivize shoppers to interact with their brand and make purchases in-store and online.

For more information, visit 3tltechcorp.com.

For additional information about the company please visit www.sedar.com. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectation. Important factors - including the availability of funds and the results of financing efforts, - that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time on SEDAR (see www.sedar.com). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE 3tl Technologies Corp.

For further information: 3tl Technologies Corp., Robert Craig, Chief Executive Officer, (604) 639-5441, [email protected]
CALGARY, Nov. 23, 2017 /CNW/ - Acceleware Ltd. ("Acceleware" or the "Company") (TSX-V: AXE), a leading developer of high performance seismic imaging applications and RF heating technology, today announced results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 (all figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted).

During the three months ended September 30, 2017 (Q3 2017), Acceleware continued to invest in RF heating research and development. After a successful 1/20 scale field test, activities were focused on preparation for a commercial-scale test of the RF XL technology. Development activities included filing one new patent application, preparation of five additional potential patent applications, and working with service companies on proprietary well and well pad designs. On November 3, 2017, the Company announced that it had been awarded $10 million in financing for the commercial-scale test from Sustainable Development Technology Canada and Emissions Reduction Alberta. The funding is conditional on securing a suitable oil sands partner and test site. In addition to the funding announcement and technology development activities, the Company also made progress in the identification of an oil sands partner and the selection of a commercial-scale test site. Acceleware has been in discussions with three potential oil sands operating partners, and several simulations were conducted of potential oil sands test sites using the Company's AxHeat software. Acceleware generated revenue in its RF heating segment through the sale of AxHeat in the three months ended September 30, 2017 (Q3 2017). The Company's software and services business experienced a challenging oil and gas market in Q3 2017, with decreased software product revenue compared to the three months ended September 30, 2016 (Q3 2016), however a slight rebound was recorded compared to the three months ended June 30, 2017 (Q2 2017). Software maintenance, particularly seismic imaging software increased in Q3 2017 compared to both Q2 2017 and Q3 2016. Software consulting services revenue decreased significantly in Q3 2017 compared to both Q3 2016, and Q2 2017 due to decreased training revenue. For the nine months ended September 30, 2017, revenue was lower than for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 due to lower product revenue and despite higher maintenance and consulting revenue.

During the three months ended September 30, 2017, Acceleware recognized revenue of $237,576 - 35% lower than the $366,675 recognized during the three months ended September 30, 2016. The decrease is a result of lower software product and software services revenue. Revenue in Q3 2017 also decreased 24% compared to the $312,612 recorded in Q2 2017 due to lower software product and software services revenue including notably lower consulting services for training. On a segmented basis, the Company recorded $20,700 in RF heating revenue in Q3 2017 compared to no revenue in either Q3 2016 or Q2 2017. Software and services revenue was 41% lower at $216,876 in Q3 2017 compared to $366,675 in Q3 2016, due in large part to decreased services revenue including training. Software and services revenue was also 31% lower in Q3 2017 compared to $312,612 in Q2 2017 again due to lower training services revenue. For the nine months ended September 30, 2017 revenue decreased 14% to $1,048,377 from $1,219,530 in the nine months ended September 30, 2016 due to lower seismic imaging product revenue.

The Company had total comprehensive loss for Q3 2017 of $913,738, an increase of 181% compared to a total comprehensive loss of $324,722 for Q3 2016. The higher total comprehensive loss is a result of higher research and development (R&D) investment, higher general and administrative (G&A) expenses in the RF heating business, and lower revenue in the software and services business, combined with a significant loss on derivative instruments associated with the Company's convertible debentures. Total comprehensive loss increased 43% in Q3 2017 to $913,738 compared to $641,197 in Q2 2017, due to lower revenue and the loss on derivatives (the Company recorded a gain on derivative instruments in Q2 2017).

For the nine months ended September 30, 2017 total comprehensive loss was $2,003,794, an increase of 90% compared to a loss of $1,056,272 recorded in the nine months ended September 30, 2016. The increase is a result of greater investment in research and development (R&D) and higher general and administrative (G&A) expenses, and higher finance expense (accrued interest and accretion) associated with convertible debentures.

On a segmented basis, loss from operations attributed to the RF heating segment was 39% higher in Q3 2017 at $537,838 compared to $385,802 in Q3 2016, due to higher investment in R&D and higher G&A expense. Operating loss for RF heating was 26% lower in Q3 2017 compared to the loss of $753,686 recorded in Q2 2017 due to lower R&D and G&A expenses. Operating income attributed to software and services decreased to a loss of $136,436 in Q3 2017, compared to income of $79,434 in Q3 2016 due to lower revenue, higher investment in R&D, and higher G&A expense. Software and services operating loss was also lower in Q3 2017 compared to the loss of $23,107 recorded in Q2 2017 due to lower revenue.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2017, RF heating operating loss increased 43% to $1,684,016 from $1,176,754 for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 due to higher R&D investment, higher G&A expense related to stock based compensation, and despite higher revenue. For the nine months ended September 30, 2017 software and services operating loss was $145,930 compared to operating income of $192,282 for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 due to lower seismic product revenue.

Cash flow used in operating activities increased 502% to $721,543 in Q3 2017 compared to $256,971 in Q3 2016 due to the loss and a higher investment in working capital. Cash flow used in operations was also significantly higher in Q3 2017 compared to Q2 2017, rising 623% from $99,769 due to increased investment in working capital. During the nine months ended September 30, 2017 cash used in operations was significantly higher at $1,684,306 compared to $491,825 used in the nine months ended September 30, 2016. The increase is a result of increased loss and higher investment in working capital.

At September 30, 2017, Acceleware had $1,058,126 (December 31, 2016 - $1,616,415) in working capital, including $1,094,132 (December 31, 2016 - $1,922,318) in cash and cash equivalents, and $61,046 (December 31, 2016 - $58,095) in combined short-term and long-term debt in the form of finance leases. On September 26, 2017, the Company closed a non-brokered private placement consisting of 4,651,066 units at a price of $0.18 per unit for gross proceeds of $837,192, and proceeds net of issue costs of $823,486. Each unit consisted of one common share and one-half common share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase an additional common share of the Company at a price of $0.27 per common share for a period of two years. At September 30, 2017, the Company had $998,175 (December 31, 2016 - $928,800) (principal plus accrued interest) in convertible debentures that accrue interest at 10% per year. The decrease in cash (and consequently working capital) is a result of the comprehensive loss incurred in the nine months ended September 30, 2017, and an increased investment in working capital, offset by the proceeds from the private placement. The increase in working capital other than cash is a result of the decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities such as deferred salaries and other payroll liabilities. On November 17, 2017, the Company forced conversion of the convertible debentures, exercising the option to convert all outstanding principal and accrued interest into 6,762,014 units of one common share of the Company plus  common share purchase warrant.

Additional information, including the unaudited financial statements for the three months ended September 30, 2017, the management's discussion and analysis relating thereto, the audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2016, and management's discussion and analysis relating thereto, are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Acceleware:

Acceleware (www.acceleware.com) develops high performance seismic imaging and modeling software products and provides innovative technology for radio frequency (RF) heating, an emerging thermal enhanced oil recovery method. As experts in programming for multi-core CPUs and massively parallel GPUs, Acceleware's professional services team specializes in accelerating computationally intense applications for clients to speed up product design, analyze data and help make better business decisions. Acceleware's products and services are used by some of the world's largest energy and engineering companies.

Acceleware is a public company on Canada's TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol AXE.

Disclaimers

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information generally means information about an issuer's business, capital, or operations that is prospective in nature, and includes disclosure about the issuer's prospective financial performance or financial position.

The forward-looking information in this press release includes information about the technical and economic feasibility of Acceleware's RF heating technology. Acceleware assumes that the results of simulations, testing and economic modelling conducted to date are indicative of future performance of the technology.

Actual results may vary from the forward-looking information in this press release due to certain material risk factors. These risk factors are described in detail in Acceleware's continuous disclosure documents, which are filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Acceleware assumes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information in this press release, unless it is required to do so under Canadian securities legislation.

Neither the 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.

SOURCE Acceleware Ltd.

For further information: Geoff Clark, Tel: +1 (403) 249-9099, [email protected]; Acceleware Ltd., 435 10th Avenue SE, Calgary, AB, T2G 0W3, Canada, Tel: +1 (403) 249-9099, www.acceleware.com

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acceleware.com


OTTAWA, Nov. 24, 2017 /CNW/ - With Black Friday and holiday spending upon us, the Canadian retail sector as a whole can expect to see strong sales growth this year, according to The Conference Board of Canada's Canadian Industrial Profile: Autumn 2017. Robust employment gains across the country and the 'wealth effect' created by elevated house prices have provided a boost to consumer spending in Canada this year. Sales are expected to rise by as much as 11 per cent in home improvement stores in 2017, while grocery stores will see more muted growth of close to 3 per cent.

"While the closure of Sears in Canada has dominated news, Canadian retailers are actually having a good year. Consumer confidence has surged throughout the year, prompting Canadians to open up their wallets and boosting the performance of most retail sectors," said Michael Burt, Director, Industrial Economic Trends, The Conference Board of Canada. "Starting next year, however, record levels of household debt will weigh on consumer budgets and limit their spending and temper growth in retail."

Home Improvement Stores

Elevated housing prices are deterring some consumers from purchasing new homesinstead they are choosing to renovate. After expanding by an average of 4.5 per cent in the last two years, sales in home improvement stores are set to grow 11.2 per cent in 2017. Looking ahead, industry prospects will be tempered by slow disposable income growth and record levels of household debt, which will serve to tighten budgets on home improvement spending.

Furniture and Appliance Stores

Furniture and appliance retailers are benefitting from rising consumer confidence, as consumers who previously delayed purchases on new furniture, appliances, and electronics are finally ramping up their spending amid more stable economic times, particularly in some regions of the country. Industry growth is expected to be strong in 2017 with sales expected to rise by 8 per cent. However, starting in 2018, industry growth will moderate as the housing marketa key driver of the industry's performancecontinues to cool. Moreover, high consumer debt levels will also eventually start to weigh on sales potential.

Clothing and Department Stores

Clothing and departments stores operate in a highly competitive environment characterized by sluggish price growth and low margins. Firms are also challenged in keeping up with continually evolving consumer tastes, which make survival even more difficult. This year, good news is in store for clothing and department firms thanks to rising confidence among consumers and increased discretionary spending. Sector output is set to increase 5.6 per cent in 2017. The industry's capital and labour costs will be kept in check thanks to the continued growth of e-commerce and technology like self-service checkouts.

Grocery Stores

After a lacklustre 2015 and 2016, grocery store output is on track to expand by 2.9 per cent in 2017. However, record levels of household debt will weigh on consumer budgets and hurt their spending at supermarkets, limiting industry growth going forward. On a positive note, firms will further attempt to offset tightening budgets and razor-thin food margins by continuing to expand offerings on higher markup products, such as pharmaceuticals and financial services.

Wholesale Trade

With retail sales rising steadily since the beginning of 2016 and trickling down to stronger demand for wholesaling services, the wholesale industry is poised to expand by 7.3 per cent in 2017. Starting next year, however, growth is expected to slow, as tighter household budgets will limit purchases of big-ticket items like furniture and autossectors that are major users of wholesale trade. Moreover, a slightly stronger Canadian dollar will dampen export prospects of the manufacturing sector, affecting wholesalers.

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SOURCE Conference Board of Canada

For further information: Natasha Jamieson, Media Relations, The Conference Board of Canada, Tel.: 613-526-3090 ext. 307, E-mail: [email protected]; or Juline Ranger, Director of Communications, The Conference Board of Canada, Tel.: 613-526-3090 ext. 431, E-mail: [email protected]

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Co-presented by KPMG, the Top 100 Awards span the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, with recipients selected by an independent advisory board. The awards were given to remarkable women in 10 different categories and Ms. Petrolito won in the HSBC Corporate Executives category. Past Award Winners include some of Canada's most iconic women trailblazers: Margaret Atwood, Best-Selling Author; Dr. Roberta Bondar, astronaut; Christine Magee, President, Sleep Country Canada; Michaelle Jean, former Governor General of Canada; and Heather Reisman, Founder and CEO, Indigo Books & Music.

When asked how being described as "powerful" made her feel, Ms. Petrolito answered "For me, it is more about the power to influence, to change things and challenge the status quo. I am humbled to join WXN's network of powerful women and I admire their mission dedicated to the advancement and recognition of women leaders and the promotion of diversity."

Nadia Petrolito joined L'Oreal Canada in July 2006 as a legal counsel and within a year she was leading the department. In her current role, she is in charge of the legal affairs and corporate communications departments and helps coordinates the corporate social responsibility program, Sharing Beauty With All. She is part of the group's worldwide network of ethics correspondents and is a member of L'Oreal Canada's executive committee.

For a full list of winners, please visit www.wxnetwork.com/top-100/top-100-winners.

About L'Oreal Canada

L'Oreal Canada is a wholly-owned subsidiary of L'Oreal Group, the largest cosmetics company in the world. Headquartered in Montreal, L'Oreal Canada had sales of $1.133 billion in 2016 and employs more than 1,300 people. The company holds a portfolio of 39 brands, encompassing all aspects of beauty, and is present across all distribution networks: mass market, department stores, salons, pharmacies, drugstores, and branded retail.

SOURCE L'Oreal Canada Inc.

For further information: Media contact: Virginie Hotte-Dupuis, Manager External Communications & Philanthropy, L'Oreal Canada, T: 514-287-4618, [email protected], @LorealPress_Can
GATINEAU, QC, Nov. 24, 2017 /CNW/ - As part of Canada's 150th anniversary celebrations, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages is organizing a conference on The future of linguistic duality: Our official languages, our identity. The goal of this flagship event, which will be held simultaneously in six cities and bring together some 300 participants across Canada, is to define a vision for the future of linguistic duality and to identify ways to make that vision a reality.

Date: Thursday, November 30, 2017



Time: 9 to 10 a.m. HNE  Registration and opening remarks 10 to 11:30 a.m. HNE  Opening remarks by Interim Commissioner of Official Languages Ghislaine Saikaley and panel discussion on various topics related to the conference's theme (media welcome) 12:30 to 4:00 p.m. HNE  Group discussion on the future of linguistic duality and closing remarks (in camera)



What: Conference  The Future of linguistic duality: Our official languages, our identity



Who: Ghislaine Saikaley, Interim Commissioner of Official Languages



Where: Rooms 206 and 208, Shaw Centre, 55 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa

Information

Media representatives are invited to attend the first part of the event. To cover the conference in the other cities, please consult the program below:

Edmonton Winnipeg Montreal Toronto Moncton La Cite Francophone 8627 91 Street NW (rue Marie-Anne-Gaboury) Norwood Hotel 112 Marion Street Marriott Courtyard 380 Rene-Levesque Boulevard West Rooms: Jean Beliveau A, B, and C Ontario Investment and Trade Centre 250 Yonge Street, 35th Floor Rooms: Galleria, Seminar room and Multimedia boardroom Crowne Plaza 1005 Main Street Rooms: Acadian and York Media welcome 7:30 to 8 a.m. Registration and opening remarks 8 to 9 a.m. Registration and opening remarks 9 to 10 a.m. Registration and opening remarks 9 to 10 a.m. Registration and opening remarks 9:30 to 11 a.m. Registration and opening remarks 8 to 9:30 a.m. Opening remarks from the Interim Commissioner of Official Languages and panel discussion (live pan-Canadian webcast) 9 to 10:30 a.m. Opening remarks from the Interim Commissioner of Official Languages and panel discussion (live pan-Canadian webcast) 10 to 11:30 a.m. Opening remarks from the Interim Commissioner of Official Languages and panel discussion (live pan-Canadian webcast) 10 to 11:30 a.m. Opening remarks from the Interim Commissioner of Official Languages and panel discussion (live pan-Canadian webcast) 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Opening remarks from the Interim Commissioner of Official Languages and panel discussion (live pan-Canadian webcast)

Website: www.officiallanguages.gc.ca

Follow us: #OCOLCanada and #officiallanguages

SOURCE Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

For further information: For more information or to schedule an interview with the Interim Commissioner, please contact: Sylvie Lepine, Manager of Public Affairs, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, Cellular: 613-324-0999, E-mail: [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.ocol-clo.gc.ca


"We are thrilled to celebrate this honour for our new CEO and to support the promotion of women leaders," said Katherine MacMillan, Chair, Fundserv Board of Directors. "Fundserv is in very capable hands and is ready to embrace a bright future."

After joining Fundserv just five months ago, Adams has quickly become an integral member of Fundserv's executive team. Her ability to develop high-powered teams through employee engagement and communication has been critical as Fundserv seeks to further align its strategic direction with the needs of its members and the industry.

"Karen is an extremely accomplished communicator and we are thrilled to have her leading Fundserv," said Brad Badeau, Founding Chairman, Fundserv. "Congratulations Karen!"

"Karen is all about opening the doors and windows when it comes to communications  that's the secret to her success as a leader," said Don MacPherson, Partner, Deloitte Canada.

Before joining Fundserv, Adams served as President and CEO of Alberta Pension Services (APS), where she led the organization through a multi-year, $60 million, major technology and business improvement project.

Founded in 2003, the Top 100 Awards honour the vision, drive, and success of Canada's leading female executives, as well as their organizations and networks. They celebrate the incredible women who are the vanguards for change; overcoming obstacles, encouraging diversity, and challenging the next generation to continue the conversation.

Previous recipients of this honour include best-selling author, Margaret Atwood; CEO Arlene Dickinson; and former Governor General of Canada, Michaelle Jean. The full list of WXN's 2017 Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award Winners can be found at https://www.wxnetwork.com/top-100/top-100-winners/.

About Fundserv

Since 1993, Fundserv has connected the investment funds industry, delivering solutions that reduce time, cost, and risk, as well as fostering discussions that shape the way the industry operates. Fundserv's goal is to provide reliability, innovation, and thought leadership, improving the ease of doing business by ensuring every trade is processed timely, accurately, and securely, so that its clients can focus on what matters most to their business.

SOURCE Fundserv Inc.

For further information: Media Contacts: Sean Boulton, Fundserv, [email protected], 416-350-3017; Erin Cudmore, Fundserv, [email protected], 416-642-4682

Related Links

http://www.fundserv.com


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NEW HAVEN  After being out of work for a prolonged period due to an illness, Montreal Beckford has slowly been lifting herself back up with the helping hand of what she said is Gods grace.

During that time, it was a challenge to purchase coats for her three children and a nephew she has guardianship over.

I couldnt get anything, Beckford said.

But on Friday, she got another helping hand in the form of the Knights of Columbus K of C Coats for Kids giveaway at St. John the Baptist Church on Dixwell Avenue. The organization holds the events across the country and Canada for children in need.

I think this is awesome, Beckford said. There are so many kids... in Greater New Haven that Ive helped, with coat drives get coats, and I knew nothing about this. If I wouldve known earlier, I could have really spread the word for people (to) come out.

Beckford volunteers at her childrens school, Brennan Rogers in New Haven, where she learned about the event. She stopped by Friday with her three children and a nephew. She said there are children at Brennan who could use similar help.

Every day I see quite a few with no coats...its sad, Beckford said. I pray some of them (are) here.

Paul Healey, statewide Knights of Columbus Family Activities director, manages the coat events in Connecticut. In addition to the New Haven site, there were similar coat giveaways in Bridgeport, Stamford, and New London, as well as three other towns. Its the sixth year of the drive and the fifth year in New Haven.

Coats were available for toddlers through teenagers, Healey said. Twenty-five volunteers from New Haven, Hamden, Wallingford, North Haven and East Haven helped Friday to outfit children, help parents out at the event and even translate for Spanish-speaking parents.

Every year, we distribute 3,000 coats throughout Connecticut, Healey said. There are people that are deeply in need of simple warmth with the winter time coming on us.

The event purposefully takes place on Black Friday, the massive pre-holidays shopping bonanza day. Healy said their event brings awareness to people who may not have the opportunity to purchase new merchandise.

Theres nothing wrong with it, but people here in this country celebrate their abundance and at the same time, there are people who dont even have, children who dont even have the means to keep themselves warm in the winter time, Healey said. Its a time for us to give back.

Knights of Columbus Supreme Treasurer Ron Schwarz said the event is representative of the Knights values. The organization is the worlds largest Catholic fraternal order and is headquartered in New Haven.

Last years coat event saw more than 80,000 coats distributed across the country and Canada. That figure has already been exceeded this year, Schwarz said. The coats are purchased through local council fundraisers and with contributions from the Supreme Council in New Haven

Charity is one of the main principles of our order, Schwarz said. This is something that we can do to help families in need who cant afford coats for their own kids, struggling. It means that were providing something back for those in the communities that our order, our councils are involved in across the U.S. and Canada.

Tiffany Flowers, of New Haven, said she learned about the event through a family member who works at the Knights of Columbus. Shes gone to the giveaway for the past three years.

Its helpful for the community because kids grow every year, Flowers said. A lot of families cant afford to buy coats.

Flowers earlier Friday had visited to get a coat for her son, Thomas, before returning with her two young nieces. So did her son like his brand-new gear?

Yes, he did, Flowers said enthusiastically. He said it was nice and warm!

Reach Esteban L. Hernandez at 203-680-9901 or esteban.hernandez@hearstmediact.com
MILFORD  Police have charged a local man, 36, with assault and breach of peace for allegedly striking another man in the face with a glass bottle, a police department press release states.

Robert Flynn of 28 Sylvan Court, is charged with third-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace, the release states. Police said Flynn, who was arrested Wednesday, is alleged to have struck the man with a glass bottle and with closed fists.
DERBY  As her final few days in office near, Mayor Anita Dugatto received news this week about downtown redevelopment.

Dugatto announced that Derby was awarded a $200,000 state grant in support of the citys efforts to restore the downtown to help transform the area it into a vibrant hub of economic and community activity.

Derby was one of 14 municipalities to receive state funding through the Department of Economic and Community Development aimed at revitalizing Connecticuts cities and towns.

This latest grant, Dugatto said, will be used to conduct environmental assessments in the downtown redevelopment zone, which she said is a necessary step to pave the way for construction of the street grid for which the city previously received a $5 million grant.

Dugatto said both the study and construction of the street grid are vital to attracting private investors to the downtown.

It is an honor to have been chosen as only 14 municipalities in the state to receive awards in this round of grant funding aimed at revitalizing Connecticuts cities and towns, said Dugatto. This award speaks to the strength of Derbys plan and the positive momentum of our efforts.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, in a press release, announced that $13.6 million in funding was awarded to 14 towns and cities, with the goal to remediate and revitalize some 89 acres of blighted properties.

The money will be used to assess, remediate and revitalize blighted properties, also known as brownfields, in anticipation of the sites being put back into productive use.

These kinds of properties that have been vacant for decades are causing blight in neighborhoods, draining local resources and having a negative impact on towns and cities, Malloy said in the release. We can add value in our communities by making smart investments that repurpose these properties, resulting in a boost for local economies and spurring growth and private investments.

According to Malloy, for every dollar the state has invested in brownfield redevelopment, non-state partners have invested or will invest $11.41. Since 2012, for instance Connecticut has invested more than $220 million in brownfield redevelopment, resulting in creation of more than 3,000 permanent jobs and over 15,000 construction jobs in the state.

State DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith, in a prepared statement, said the funding will help spur commercial activity, promote transit-oriented development, create new housing, curb blight and address public health and safety concerns - all keys to boosting economic vibrancy.

Derby has been working with DPZ Partners, with public input, in developing a detailed plan dubbed Downtown Now! for the 14-acre redevelopment zone. The land has remained vacant for several years, and is largely void of economic activity since most of the previous buildings that stood on the land were demolished several years ago, Dugatto had said.

Two attempts at major downtown redevelopment occurred, in 2008 and 2013, by Ceruzzi-Derby Redevelopment and California developer Eclipse, respectively, but neither panned out.

Mayor-elect Richard Dziekan, who defeated Dugatto in the Nov. 7 election, will officially take office after his inauguration ceremony, scheduled for 10 a.m. Dec. 2 at Derby High School. He has been working with Dugatto over the last couple of weeks to ensure a smooth transition into office. One of hjs first orders of business, he has said, will be to hire a full-time economic development director, and a dedicated grants writer, to assist in downtown redevelopment.

Reach correspondent Jean Falbo-Sosnovich at jean.sos@snet.net.
A young girl allegedly lost N212,000 to a fraudster posing as a staff in First Bank, Ire-Akari branch, Lagos.A CCTV footage taken inside the bank shows the thief parading the floors of the bank while looking for an easy prey. No security personnel was on ground to notice his suspicious behavior.According to Ujunwa who shared the story, the man had walked up to a girl waiting in line to deposit money and told the girl that bulk deposits are to be done in a different hall. The girl went with him into the bulk room thinking he was a staff and he collected the money, claiming he wanted to deposit it for her. As the girl waited, he distracted her and made away with the money.There was no security personnel inside the bank to stop him as he looked around surreptitiously with the money he stole in his hand before sneaking out the door. The face of the criminal is not clear in the CCTV footage but the victim and her relatives are asking for help in identifying him.Watch the videos below.
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami claimed yesterday that about 222 assets were recovered by the Presidential Task...

Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami claimed yesterday that about 222 assets were recovered by the Presidential Task Force Team on Pension Reform.They were shared among some highly-placed Nigerians with links to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he alleged. The EFCC insists the assets are intact.The team is headed by fugitive civil servant Abdulrasheed Maina.Malami alleged that his signature on the document that ordered Mainas reinstatement into the civil service might have been forged because he did not sign such a memo.These are among the issues contained in a 13-page memorandum dated November 14 Malami sent to the Senator Emmanuel Paulker-led Senate committee probing Mainas controversial reinstatement before President Muhammadu Buhari ordered him to be fired.In what is a new twist to the Maina saga, Malami said houses and exotic vehicles that the task force recovered were also shared to some officials of the EFCC.He mentioned a property at 42, Gana Street, Maitama Abuja, which he claimed is worth N1 billion. He said it was allocated to a Lagos lawyer to buy.The No. 42 Gana Street, Maitama property was said to have been recovered from Dr. Shaibu Teidi, a former Director of Pensions Accounts, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.Malami, who said in the document that Nigerians were blindfolded from getting answers to two pertinent questions:a. What happened to the monies recovered from the syndicate? What about the 222 properties comprising real estate and motor vehicles, one of which is a mansion worth N1 billion situated at No 42 Gang Street Maitama, Abuja, allegedly given to a senior lawyer meant to crave for his buy in in maximizing media hype aimed at distracting the attention at the public pension fraud?Malami praised the Senate for the opportunity to engage with Nigerians on the matter by rising above the conspiracy of the pension predators that set in aggressive press negative campaign against me and allowing me an opportunity to address Nigerians, thereby upholding the national interest as against the interest of the chain of pension predators.Sources close to the committee indicated that Malami, who had appeared three times to expatiate on the memo, insisted that he did not sign the memo that ordered Mainas return.The AGF was said to have claimed that desperate people bent on smearing his image might have been behind the alleged forgery.In another document also submitted to the committee, a group of concerned pensioners claimed that 270 properties recovered by the Taskforce Team were in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).Part of the document reads: These properties are under the custody of the EFCC. The properties, as we speak, have been shared among top officials of the commission, friends and family members, including lawyers of the agency.The group, which went ahead to list over 63 estates and properties with names of the original owners, prayed the Senate to dig deep to unravel how the recovered properties and assets were shared and who got what.The Senate mandated its ad-hoc committee i to probe alleged sharing of 222 mansions. It also extended the sitting time for the Paulker Committee, following a request.The mandate followed the alarm raised by Paulker over alleged re-looting of choice properties recovered by Maina by EFCC officials.Paulker, who raised a Point of Order, told the Senate that about 222 recovered properties, including houses and hotels handed over to the EFCC by Maina before his removal, had been shared by top EFCC operatives and other persons of influence in the EFCC.The panel chairman said the committee got wind of the fraudulent sharing of the recovered properties from submissions made to that effect by some of the invited government officials connected with Mainas reinstatement and promotion.Paulker urged the Senate to expand the scope of his committees investigation to include tracing those involved in sharing the recovered properties and assets.He said: For this alarming revelation sir, this committee requests the Senate to expand the scope of its investigation on Maina by extending it to the management of assets recovered by him and handed over to EFCC before his removal as Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Pensions in 2014 and, by so doing, extend the duration of the assignment .Senate President Bukola Saraki put the request to a voice vote and it was unanimously okayed.Saraki said: This is a very serious matter and more of large scale corruption going on in a forbidden place. We just hope that it remains at the realm of allegation and not as it is presented.
Erstwhile Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has been commended for ditching the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a party he helped midwifed in 2013.Addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) group, under the aegis of Why It Must Be PDP in 2019 (WIMBPDP2019), disclosed that more than four million red cards are available to drive the APC away in 2019.National Coordinator of the group, Chinedu Eya said that Atiku was not satisfied, like other Nigerians, hence the decision to resigned his membership of the party.He described WIMBPDP as a grass root campaign mobilization for the PDP in 2019, even as he appealed to Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora to come together to oust the ruling party.According to him, more than 4 million red cards will be distributed to Nigerians and to have it close by if you come across any APC member.Eya further appealed to Nigerians to get their PVCs to make their red cards valid, adding that with their PVCs, PDP will come back and provide better governance.He said: The former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, did not resign but give the APC a red card because he is not satisfied and felt the party is not running a worthy government.PDP is the home of Atiku and he will be warmly welcomed back to the party.The convener l and Abuja coordinator of the group, Austus Chinese said that our major role in WIMBPDP is to advocate for good governance and fight for the return of PDP back to power in 2019.
Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai on Friday criticised the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar for dumping the All Progress...

Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai on Friday criticised the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar for dumping the All Progressives Congress (APC).He said that Atiku has made the greatest mistake made by the movement.El-Rufai also said that Atiku was an inconsequential candidate to wrestle power from President Muhammadu Buhari, whom the entire North has rallied behind for 2019.The governor spoke with State House journalists after observing the Friday Jumaat prayers at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.El Rufai said that the ex-Vice President was simply re-enacting his usual practice of cross carpeting aimlessly.According to him, Atiku would not be missed in any way and that he lacked the political clout to pull any of the APC governors to his fold.He said Well, I wont even say we were in the APC together. Some of us formed the APC, some of them joined because they thought that the APC was a platform for which they would contest election. But when they didnt get the opportunity, they started looking around.I have heard about what the former Vice President said about leaving the APC. We knew he was going to leave in December but he has left in November which is good because the earlier he leaves for where he belongs the better. He has changed political parties a few times, there is nothing surprising. Before the 2019 elections if situation changes and he thinks he can get the ticket in 2019 he will come back. That is what he has done a few times.On claims that Atiku was driven out of the party, he said No one has driven him out of the party. The APC is an equal opportunity platform for everyone. He has in his statement of leaving the party made reference to the memo I wrote to Mr. President in September 2016, where I was calling on the President to reach out to party leaders that feel aggrieved and I mentioned him, the Asiwaju and many others.The others are still in the APC because they believe in the direction of the party, they believe we have come to save the country from a very bad situation. But the former Vice President is always looking for an opportunity to contest. He is a serial contestant and we wish him luck. he saidOn possibility of some members leaving with Atiku, he said I dont know about the loyalists in the APC that will go with him, but I want to assure you that there is no one governor in the APC that is going to go with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.The only governor that he would think will go with him; the governor of Adamawa State has already endorsed President Buhari for the 2019 elections. And there are many governors I will not mention the number but a majority of the APC governors have already taken the position that the president should run for a second term in office.And we are grateful to the Almighty God that the question marks about his health have been put to rest, he is getting better every day and we are confident that the way to preserve our party and preserve and advance the interest of Nigeria is for Mr. President to run for a second term. Im curious to see which APC governor will go with Atiku.As for party loyalists it depends on what you defend as loyalists. We will wait and see how that evolves. But as a governor I want to assure you that not one governor is going to leave the party to go with the former Vice President. That I am sure of. I can speak authoritatively about it because Im in touch with my colleagues he said.He said that Atiku will never be a threat to Buhari if they run for the Presidency in 2019.He has never been and will never be a threat to President Buhari. Let me say this very clearly, and I have said this to the former Vice President in 2014 Dubai when we met because before joining the APC he sent for me. He told me of his intentions and I welcomed it because politics is a game of addition not subtraction. So the more you have the merrier.However, I told him not to run for the presidency because I believe very strongly this is Buharis era. As long President Muhammadu Buhari is in politics I do not see any Nigerian from the northern part of the country that will be able to match him in popularity.The people of the nineteen northern states and Nigeria have decided because of the Presidents past history of Integrity and good governance they are committed to him. Anyone standing up to challenge him is wasting his time. God has decreed that this is Buharis time and we are waiting for the PDP to give Atiku Abubakar the ticket and we will face in on the field, but I have no doubt that I will not lose any sleep about it, he stated.
Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has disclosed what he and ex-Pension Reform boss, Abdul...

Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has disclosed what he and ex-Pension Reform boss, Abdulrasheed Maina discussed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January, 2016.

He gave the details when he appeared before a House of Representatives Committee on Thursday.





Malami said his official meeting with Maina was in the presence of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno.





My meeting with Maina was after securing no objections from the security agencies, particularly the DSS, he recalled.





He pressurized seriously to meet me on the matter. There was a third party in attendance.





The NSA was part of the entourage and I intimated him. I had cause to meet with Maina with NSA in attendance.





At the meeting, Maina made a submission to us that he was responsible for the recovery of N2bn pension fund and another N1bn.





He alleged that there was an attempt to eliminate him when he went to the Villa.





He said N3.7bn was shared by some powerful forces in the pension circle.




Maryam Sanda, alleged killer of her husband, Bilyamin Bello, has been spared, for now, of being remanded in prison by the police.

Maryam Sanda, alleged killer of her husband, Bilyamin Bello, has been spared, for now, of being remanded in prison by the police.Anjuguri Manzah, spokesman of the FCT police command said the police did not demand prison remand for her because she is nursing a six month old baby. Police said they have secured a court order to remand her for two weeks, after charging her at the High Court in the Jabi district of Abuja, with culpable homicide punishable under section 224 of the Penal Code.It should also be noted that this present charge is as a result of preliminary findings; at the end of investigations, additional findings will determine whether the current charge will be amended or whether other persons will be charged along with the suspect, Manza said.To assist the police with their ongoing investigations, some persons have been invited for questioning on the matter. Sanda is the daughter of Maimuna Aliyu, the former Executive Director of Aso Savings and Loans Limited, while Bello was the son of Haliru Bello, former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).In the meantime, the police will be relying on the testimony of some security guards, who witnessed the tragic assault. Sanda allegedly stabbed her husband in the neck, chest and genitals on Saturday while he slept at their home in Maitama, Abuja. She was said to have rushed him to a hospital where he died.The deceased was reported to have divorced his first wife before marrying Sanda and the couple had a daughter together.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Friday, said a Forward Operation Base (FOB) would be set up in the once dreaded Falg...

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Friday, said a Forward Operation Base (FOB) would be set up in the once dreaded Falgore forest in Doguwa Local Government Area of Kano State to address security challenges in the area.The army chief announced this when he paid a visit to troops undergoing training in the forest, which once served as safe haven for banditry, cattle rustlers and kidnappers.Buratai said that the forest would henceforth serve as one of the permanent training grounds for the soldiers.This, he said, was made possible as the Kano State Government had allocated the forest to the army.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a joint exercise tagged WAZOBI Kungama which begun on Nov. 17, billed to end on Nov. 25, is ongoing in the area.The exercise is the the conclusion of training to assess the 76 Regular Regular Recruits of the Nigerian Army and other participants in tactical, command and control, as well as all manners of maneuver warfare on counter insurgency.Other participants were drawn from Nigerian Army Schools of infantry and Artillery, as well as Nigerian Defence Academy.Buratai said exercise WAZOBIA Kungama is a training for Nigerian Army School of Infantry, as well as the Depot, where they put their students together on what they were taught indoors.He said since his appointment as chief of army staff in 2015, the army had been purposeful in its training schedules.He added that we have been seeing areas that have challenges and we bring troops to have a feel in real terms where they will be operating once they graduate and this terrain, vegetation and environment  Falgore forest is a very good training ground.He noted that the forest would both serve as training ground and provide the needed security to address banditry, kidnapping and other criminal acts common in the area.He explained that our presence will serve as deterrence, where our troops on training meet such criminal elements and deal with them accordingly.The army flushed bandits and other criminal elements from the forest through Operation Harbin Kunama I and II  in 2016 and early 2017.The forest is in Tudun Wada, Doguwa and Sumaila local government areas of the state and extends its boundary line between Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi states.It covers an area of about 1000 square kilometers.
Nigerians have publicly declared the 'political transfer window' open after former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar announced toda...



Nigerians have publicly declared the 'political transfer window' open after former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar announced today that he was done with his 'dying party' - All Progressives Congress (APC). See reactions below:

Nigerians have publicly declared the 'political transfer window' open after former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar announced today that he was done with his 'dying party' - All Progressives Congress (APC). See reactions below:









"I will not leave APC." -



If you took the former seriously & campaigned/voted for him, you cannot validly condemn the latter for leaving APC "I will never contest for Presidency again." - @MBuhari (2011)"I will not leave APC." - @atiku (2014)If you took the former seriously & campaigned/voted for him, you cannot validly condemn the latter for leaving APC November 24, 2017



Obanikoro has moved for a record breaking fee

Atiku is returning to his boyhood club. It's going to be a very busy transfer window.Obanikoro has moved for a record breaking feeAtiku is returning to his boyhood club. https://t.co/g6M4ig2cPZ November 24, 2017

I dont get this 'Atiku should resign from politics'. Why should he???



We supported an old, incompetent & half-dead Buhari in 2015. Same Buhari will recontest in 2019.



But it is Atiku that we want to quit politics.



Una no well...  Kingsley (@kingysly_01) November 24, 2017



How these people easily mention God and at the same time rape His people is what intrigues me.



And this same God will soon tell him to go back to PDP In everything @atiku wrote in that party resignation letter it's the "God" part that struck me the most.How these people easily mention God and at the same time rape His people is what intrigues me.And this same God will soon tell him to go back to PDP November 24, 2017

Sule Lamido now needs to step up his game. No one knows his views on economics and restructuring.

He'll give Buhari a good fight up North. But down South, Atiku seems to be more popular.

Either way, 2019 politics season has started. Governance is over. Buhari's 1st term is over.  Gege (@nigeriasbest) November 24, 2017

Dear Atiku, despite Baba's warning to u about 2019 via INTELS, u still did your habitual political jorojarajoro. U leave Baba no choice. All flights to Russia from Nigeria in 2018 must be routed thru Alaska on US soil. Politics is the father of geography...  Pius Adesanmi (@pius_adesanmi) November 24, 2017

Atiku should have remained in the PDP and supported GEJ for a Second term. Maybe 2019 woulda been easier for him as PDP would have had the power of incumbency. Loyalty has its benefits  Itu Baba ita (@Oddy4real) November 24, 2017





It took courage to take that bold step and I commend him for it. Congrats to @atiku for dumping the plague called APC and coming back home to the PDP family.It took courage to take that bold step and I commend him for it. November 24, 2017

A political prostitute and opportunist will always remain a political prostitute and opportunist. @Atiku has never fitted inn in APC. His political ideology is that of looting the treasury, while APC stands for something entirely different. Good riddance.. pic.twitter.com/Lua99jExX7 November 24, 2017

When EFCC hears Atiku has resigned from APC pic.twitter.com/GlDrFBWk1B November 24, 2017

If elections were to be held today

Who would you vote for as President?



Atiku Abubakar or Muhammadu Buhari  Tweeted Polls (@VotingPollNG) November 24, 2017












The presidency has opened discussions with the Senate leadership over the refusal of the upper chamber to confirm the head of the countrys...

The presidency has opened discussions with the Senate leadership over the refusal of the upper chamber to confirm the head of the countrys anti-graft agency.

The Senate twice refused to confirm Ibrahim Magu as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).





But the government has kept Magu in office in acting capacity for over one year now.





This has, however, drawn the ire of the Senate which has stood down nearly all nomination requests from the Presidency until Magu is removed.





Sources yesterday revealed that the Presidency has reached out to the Senate in order to find a middle ground upon which the dispute could be resolved.





A meeting to that effect was held on Monday with both parties, our sources said.





Presidency and Senate sources said, at the moment, confirmation of close to 50 nominees of the president is pending.





Confirmation of nominees for the Deputy Governor and four members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Pension Commission (PenCom), Code of Conduct Bureau (CBB), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) among others, are pending.





Contacted, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly (Senate),





Senator Ita Enang confirmed that the presidency has resumed talk with the Senate.





We are not resting on our oars; we are conducting the best and highest level of diplomacy. We have started talking again; we have changed the tone of our speaking. We are arriving at something like a middle ground that would be satisfactory to all parties.





So long that these appointments stand unconfirmed, foreign investment, funding from foreign partners and governance are being affected. We are not attacking, we are engaging and I believe in the next few days, the result will be evidenced and we will come out of it, he said.





Asked whether the executive has agreed to sack Magu, Enang said: We are working with them and we are arriving at some solutions .





When our correspondent asked him to list the number of pending confirmation, he said: We have nominees for NERC, CBN, Pension Commission, NDIC, NDDC among others.





Again when asked on whether the executive has agreed to implement the resolution on Magu, he repeated: We are arriving at some solutions .





Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday confirmed the nomination of Rufus O. Akeju (Lagos) and Mohammed Isah (Kebbi) as Resident Electoral Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).





The confirmation followed the consideration of the report of Senate committee of INEC on the screening chaired by Senator Suleiman Nazif (APC,Bauchi). The Senate approved the recommendation of the committee rejecting Ahmad Bello Mahmud ( Zamfara).





The confirmation came five months after 12 other nominees (RECs) had been confirmed. Our correspondent reports that Senator Tijjani Kaura (APC, Zamfara) and Senator Kabiru Marafa clashed over the Zamfara nominee.




Senator Ben Murray-Bruce has appealed to Atiku Abubakar to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce has appealed to Atiku Abubakar to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).



Bruce, who made this appeal on his social media page on Friday, congratulated and praised Atiku for the courage he took to leave APC. Bruce, who made this appeal on his social media page on Friday, congratulated and praised Atiku for the courage he took to leave APC.





Atiku Abubakar on Friday announced that he has dumped APC.



According to the statement Atiku said, "On the 19th of December, 2013, I received members of the All Progressives Congress at my house in Abuja. They had come to appeal to me to join their party after my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, had become factionalized as a result of the special convention of August 31, 2013. According to the statement Atiku said, "On the 19th of December, 2013, I received members of the All Progressives Congress at my house in Abuja. They had come to appeal to me to join their party after my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, had become factionalized as a result of the special convention of August 31, 2013.





"The fractionalization of the Peoples Democratic Party on August 31, 2013 had left me in a situation where I was, with several other loyal party members, in limbo, not knowing which of the parallel executives of the party the legitimate leadership was.





it was under this cloud that members of the APC made the appeal to me to join their party, with the promise that the injustices and failure to abide by its own constitution which had dogged the then PDP, would not be replicated in the APC and with the assurance that the vision other founding fathers and I had for the PDP could be actualized through the All Progressives Congress.





"It was on the basis of this invitation and the assurances made to me that I, being party-less at that time, due to the fractionalization of my party, accepted on February 2, 2014, the hand of fellowship given to me by the All Progressives Congress.





" On that day, I said 'it is the struggle for democracy and constitutionalism and service to my country and my people that are driving my choice and my decision' to accept the invitation to join the All Progressives Congress.





"Like you, I said that because I believed that we had finally seen the beginnings of the rebirth of the new Nigeria of our dreams which would work for all of us, old and young.





" However, events of the intervening years have shown that like any other human and like many other Nigerians, I was fallible. While other parties have purged themselves of the arbitrariness and unconstitutionality that led to fractionalization, the All Progressives Congress has adopted those same practices and even gone beyond them to institute a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced.





"Only last year, a governor produced by the party wrote a secret memorandum to the president which ended up being leaked. In that memo, he admitted that the All Progressives Congress had 'not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight change but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance."





Read tweet below:
It is common knowledge that the late President Umaru Musa YaAdua did not pick former President Goodluck Jonathan as his running mate in th...

It is common knowledge that the late President Umaru Musa YaAdua did not pick former President Goodluck Jonathan as his running mate in the 2007 presidential election.





However, it has now been revealed that YarAduas preference was James Ibori, who was then completing his second term as governor of Delta state.





This is contained in a new book, On a Platter of Gold: How Jonathan Won and Lost Nigeria, written by Bolaji Abdullahi  who served as a minister under Jonathan from 2011-2014.





The book will go on sale nationwide from November 30, 2017 after the launch.

In the advance copy, the author said after three governors from the south-south  where vice-presidency was zoned to by the PDP  had been ruled out for one reason or the other during deliberations, YarAdua asked Nuhu Ribadu, then-chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), about Ibori.





This got President Olusegun Obasanjo angry  and YarAdau quickly retreated.





A UK court would convict Ibori of fraud in 2012, handing him a 13-year jail sentence.





He regained freedom in December 2016 after serving four and the half years and agreeing to be deported to Nigeria.





Abdullahi wrote: During deliberations on the issue of zoning, the party leadership had also agreed that the running mate to whoever emerged from the North, would come from the South-South. This remained sacrosanct. The question was: who the running mate should now be, with Odili out of the picture. One major concern was that the eligible South-South governors were not only ambitious, they were all street smart and could easily overwhelm the mild-mannered YarAdua.





Victor Attah and Donald Duke were ruled out on that account. However, even though it could be argued that Odili was more ambitious than those two, he had also contributed the most to the party. Now that his nomination had suffered a misadventure, the South-South options were even more limited.





As they agonised over their limited options, YarAdua casually asked Ribadu in Hausa, Shi mutumin Delta din nan fa? (What about the Delta person?) He probably had forgotten that though not fluent in the language, Obasanjo could follow simple conversations in Hausa. Before Ribadu could muster a response, Obasanjo flared up again. Over his dead body would Ibori be Vice President. Ribadu knew at the time that Ibori had an outstanding case with the Metropolitan Police in London.





When Ribadu dropped the bombshell, YarAdua relented and said, almost apologetically, that he had not been aware that Ibori had such a thing hanging over him; otherwise he would not have brought up the Delta governors name. In any case, those close to Ibori at the time said he had only been interested in becoming the minister of petroleum resources. The search continued.





It was at this stage that Jonathans name cropped up  and he initially rejected the slot.





Goodluck Jonathan, the Governor of Bayelsa State, who had succeeded his impeached boss only about a year before never came up for discussion. Until now. Ribadu said all through the EFCCs investigation of Alamieyeseigha in Bayelsa, nothing was found on Jonathan, wrote the author.





Moreover, he did not do anything to obstruct the investigation or to encourage it, as many ambitious deputies would have done. This indicated that Jonathan could be trusted with power. Even more significantly, he was Ijaw. By making an Ijaw man vice president, Obasanjo would have taken a major step in redressing the cry of marginalization by the Niger Delta; and this would go a long way in restoring peace to the otherwise troubled region. Obasanjo would not need any further persuading. It was shortly afterwards that Odili was invited in and informed that he would not be announced as running mate that morning.





YarAdua eventually read his acceptance speech, but was silent on the issue of running mate. For those unaware of the intrigues that had played out all through the night, there was nothing strange about this. The running mate did not have to be announced at the convention venue. It was also not unusual for a candidate to ask for more time to name his running mate. But by daybreak, the rumour mill had gone wild. Names had started flying around as possible replacements for Odili.





Meanwhile, Odilis team had busied itself through the night trying to prepare a response to some of the weighty allegations against their boss. They were ready by 10:00 am on Sunday morning, but by then the horse had already bolted from the stable.





Without much fuss, Jonathan was invited to the Presidential Villa and informed of the decision of President Obasanjo and the party leaders to name him as the running mate to YarAdua. His immediate reaction was that he didnt want to be Vice President. Some said when he first got wind of the decision earlier in the day, he had reacted the same way, saying he was happy as the Governor of Bayelsa State, which in any case, made more sense to him than this vice presidency business.





However, with the combined force of President Obasanjo, Tony Anenih and YarAdua mounting pressure on him, he could not hold out for too long. By 4pm that Sunday, Goodluck Jonathan was announced as the running mate to Umaru Musa YarAdua in the 2007 presidential election.





Abdullahi was fired as minister of sport in March 2014 by Jonathan allegedly on account of his godfather, Bukola Saraki, who had joined other party rebels in defecting to the APC.




Nigerians have dug out an interview Atiku Abubakar granted in September 2014. During the interactive session with journalists he had said t...

Nigerians have dug out an interview Atiku Abubakar granted in September 2014. During the interactive session with journalists he had said that the APC is his last bus stop.

This morning the former vice president announced his resignation from the APC and Nigerians have gone to the archives to pull out his interview.





According to him in 2014, having defected from PDP to APC, he would not be leaving the party for any other one. Read excerpt from the interactive session below:





According to him, the period he has been out of power has given him the ample opportunity to study the challenges rocking the country and measures needed to solve the problems.





He said, As I have already indicated, I will be offering myself as a candidate under the platform of my party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).





If anything, I want you to see me as a new Atiku. I was in government from 1999 to 2007 and I always thank my God that it did not continue. I have had a break. That break has enabled me to interact with ordinary Nigerians, listen to them and know what they want. Probably if I had continued and become the president, I wouldnt have been the new Atiku that I am now.





On inconsistency in political party membership, Atiku said it is the party that has been inconsistent with him.





As for me as far as I am concerned APC is my final bus stop. In the present dispensation I am not aware of anyone contesting that wants to give up on APC. I know Rabiu will not do so, General Muhammadu Buhari is not going to do that.





Atiku added that allegations of corruption levelled against him were the handiwork of his political adversaries bent on denting his image.





I have not been charged for corruption; I am the most investigated Nigerian today. All these investigations revealed nothing, so it is a question of perception. I am capable of running a corruption free economy, he assured.





Corruption can always be tackled by deploying political will and building institutions to deal with it. No administration has done that in the country better than our administration.





We set up all the anti-corruption institutions to deal with corruption. They may not be perfect but the fact that we set up these institutions to deal with corruption is an effort we made to deal with the issue of corruption. During our period, more people were charged to court for corruption than any other administration.





Then again the records have to be put right that the draft of the Economic and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC) we wanted was a tougher EFCC than what the national assembly approved, they watered it , we wanted a tougher EFCC..





When it was eventually approved I even went out of my way because there was no appropriation for the agency to borrow money from a government agency to enable EFCC function effectively pending when the national assembly will appropriate money for the agency. So no administration that has done as much as had done to fight corruption since the return of democracy in Nigeria.





Meanwhile, there are reports that Atiku would be returning to PDP on Saturday, November 25th. According to sources in his camp, his resignation is to position him well for the PDP convention which comes up on December 9th.





The former VP would first collect his membership card in his Jada 1 polling ward in Adamawa. Thousands of his supporters from the 21 local areas in the state have been mobilized to join him on Saturday.




Oba of Benin, his Royal Majesty, Omo NOba NEdo Uku Akpolokpolor, Oba Ewuware 11, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to provide th...

Oba of Benin, his Royal Majesty, Omo NOba NEdo Uku Akpolokpolor, Oba Ewuware 11, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to provide the people of Edo State with infrastructural development, security, end human trafficking as well as complete the Benin-Auchi road.

He told Buhari that the problem of insecurity in the state was multidimensional and required Federal Governments assistance.





The monarch said this during a meeting with the President at the Presidential villa, Abuja, on Thursday.





According to the monarch, Mr president, what you are yet to do for us includes the areas of more infrastructural development, security, human trafficking and to complete Benin-Auchi road dualization.





Human trafficking incidents are not reducing what NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations) are doing is merely palliative and at best scratching the surface. Some NGOs may even be in business for themselves. The Federal Government needs to assist Edo state to develop low to medium scale cluster industries or establish factories in each Local Government Areas, LGAs, to reduce unemployment and prompt urban to rural migration in order to decongest the centre for a very holistic development in Edo state.





We command your Excellency in the manner you have been handling security issues in the country. In Edo state, security issues seemed to be multidimensional. in addition to the prevailing criminal activities of cultist killings, kidnappings etc, the activities of the so-called community development associations are crippling the economy of our state even much more.





The Benin traditional authority has been relentlessly tackling the menace of community development associations that earned for themselves the disreputable name of community destructive associations.





These networks of groups attack and are systematically destroying the normative and value system of our society and heritage. Their evil practices scare investors away.





Our governor and the people of Edo state need more support from the federal government to effectively and decisively tackle the security challenges in our state.





May I use this opportunity to appeal to your Excellency to kindly assist our state governor in dealing with the security challenges in the state.





Finally, traditional rulers in the country play stabilising and developmental roles in the country particularly when there is crisis brewing at the grassroots. It is sad that the role of traditional rulers is yet to be reflected in the constitution of the country.





Nigeria is a country strongly rooted in cultural blues and norms. May I use this opportunity to reassure government that traditional institutions will be used to strengthen the unity and development of Nigeria.




New Jersey may be one of the most racially diverse states in the nation, but many of its public schools don't reflect it, according to a new report.

The nearly 1.4 million public school children in New Jersey remain among the most segregated in the nation, according to an analysis by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angles.

The percentage of New Jersey students attending "apartheid schools" -- where only between 0 and 1 percent of the pupils are white -- has nearly doubled from 4.8 percent to 8.3 percent since 1989, the report concluded.

"This report shows that New Jersey has moved another substantial step toward a segregated future with no racial majority but severe racial stratification and division," said Gary Orfield, one of the report's authors and co-director of UCLA's Civil Rights Project.

New Jersey ranks as the sixth most segregated state in the nation for black students and the seventh most segregated for Latino students, the report said.

Why are New Jersey's schools so segregated?

The problem isn't within school districts, the researchers found. Most of New Jersey's schools are an accurate representation of their school districts -- rarely are all the white kids in a town sent to one school while the minority students are sent to another school.

Instead, much of the segregation can be traced to how New Jersey's cities, suburbs and school systems are structured, the study said.

Because the state has 585 school districts, and few regional districts, schools largely reflect the housing in their towns. Many wealthy suburbs tend to be more white or Asian. Larger cities are mainly black and Hispanic.

So, black and Hispanic students may be concentrated in one town's high school, while there is a nearly all-white school a few miles away, the report said.

What are "apartheid schools"?

Apartheid was used to describe the system in South Africa before 1991 that used laws to create institutionalized racism by keeping black and white residents separated.

Education researchers use the term apartheid to describe the most segregated schools in New Jersey, where less than 1 percent of students are white, because they say the segregation creates its own form of institutionalized racism.

Research shows that students who are educated in high-minority, high-poverty schools often have lower grades, lower graduation rates and a lifetime of lower achievement compared to other students in more diverse districts, the report said.

Studies also show that students who go to racially diverse schools as children often choose to live and work in more racially diverse areas as adults, creating better options for their children, the report said.

How are New Jersey's schools changing?

The new report -- titled New Jersey's Segregated Schools: Trends and Paths Forward -- is an update to a similar study by the Civil Rights Project that analyzed the state's school segregation between 1989 and 2010.

For the new report, researchers looked at how the state's school population changed between 2010 and 2015.

They found the percentage of white students was shrinking, the percentage of black students was relatively steady and the number of Hispanic and Asian students were on the rise.

In 2015-2016, the percentage of white students in New Jersey's public schools dropped below 50 percent for the first time and no race made up the majority of the state's school children.

Though New Jersey was growing more diverse, its schools are getting more segregated, researchers said.

"The passage of time is only making the challenges more severe. Little has been accomplished in the years since the first report. It is time to act," Orfield wrote.

Are charter schools or private schools more diverse?

New Jersey's public charter school enrollment has been rising in recent years, but students are unlikely to find ethnically diverse schools if they enroll, the study found.

In 2015-2016, the state's charter schools were 55 percent African American, 31 percent Hispanic, 8 percent white and 5 percent Asian, the study found.

New Jersey's private schools, where 70 percent of the students enrolled are white, are even less diverse than public schools, the study found.

What can New Jersey do to make public schools less segregated?

The authors of the report suggest some of the solutions to school segregation might include starting regional school districts, offering some school choice options and locating affordable housing options outside of cities to bring a more diverse mix of wealthy and low-income families into school districts.

Another option is having the courts step in, as they have in New Jersey to require more equitable school funding between wealthy and poor districts.

"Because the commitment of the courts has been to create schools that are more equitable solely in terms of dollars and programs, segregation has gone unchecked," the report said.

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook.
NEWARK -- A person was shot and killed in Newark Thursday night, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said.

The shooting occurred around 8 p.m. in the 400 block of South Orange Avenue. The victim, who was not identified, was rushed to University Hospital, where the pronouncement was made.

Additional information was not immediately available Thursday night.

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- The campaigning in this year's municipal contest is fading but the election is not over yet.

In four ward council races -- A, B, C and E -- the first-place finisher on Election Day did not receive over 50 percent of the vote, so voters will head to the polls again in 11 days in four runoff elections.

Mayor Steve Fulop's control of the nine-member council hangs in the balance. With his three at-large council allies winning outright on Election Day, along with Ward F Councilman Jermaine Robinson, Fulop heads into his second term with at least four allies (he now has six). The results of the runoffs could expand his council majority to at least seven.

Fulop critic Michael Yun, the Ward D councilman, also won handily on Election Day.

This year will be the first time the runoffs are held in December instead of June.

When Fulop pushed to move the municipal races from May to November two years ago, he also proposed eliminating runoff elections, an idea he resurrected after Election Day this year. Only voters, via a binding referendum, can eliminate runoffs.

Voter turnout for the second round of balloting is generally worse than even the anemic turnout for the first round. Four years ago, an average of 2,229 fewer voters cast ballots in each of the four competitive ward runoffs compared to the first round.

2017 RUNOFFS

In Ward A, Denise Ridley will face off against Joe Conte. Ridley, 34, who works in sales and marketing for a pharmaceutical firm, received 42 percent of the vote on Nov. 7, with Conte, 62, a school district employee, coming in second with 23 percent. The winner will succeed Councilman Frank Gajewski, who did not seek re-election.

In Ward B, Mira Prinz-Arey, 45, who works for local nonprofit Rising Tide Capital, lost out on an Election Day win by the slimmest of margins. She received 49.45 percent of the vote to second-place finisher Councilman Chris Gadsden's 38 percent. Gadsden, 43, is a Lincoln High School vice principal.

Ward C Councilman Rich Boggiano, 74, finished in first place on Nov. 7 but snared only 43 percent of the vote, so he will face off against city worker John Hanussak on Dec. 5. Hanussak, 48, won 28 percent.

The final runoff will be in Ward E. Attorney Rebecca Symes, 36, came in first on Election Day with 42 percent of the vote, followed by James Solomon, 33, who teaches at two local colleges. Solomon received 32 percent on Nov. 7. The winner will replace Councilwoman Candice Osborne, who did not run for a second term.

The runoffs will be on Tuesday, Dec. 5.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- Friends of Liberty State Park is planning a protest next week to show opposition to a plan it says the state is mulling to add a marina to the south end of the park.

State officials have not confirmed there is a plan, but a source with knowledge of the matter told The Jersey Journal that the state is mulling a lease with Suntex Marina to open a private marina along the waterfront near the park's flag plaza. Suntext runs the marina on park's north end.

Friends of Liberty State Park is asking anyone in opposition to a second marina in the 1,200-acre park to meet at the south side picnic area, 200 Morris Pesin Dr., for a group protest photo on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 11 a.m.

Park advocates say a new marina would obstruct views, limit public access to the park and potentially threaten wildlife.

A spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the park, has said only that the public would have a say on any proposed changes to Liberty State Park.

Mayor Steve Fulop said he is "adamantly opposed" to the marina plan.

"We feel that Liberty State Park doesn't need another marina and the fact that these proposed changes were being done initially in secret speaks to the lack of integrity to the process," Fulop said in an email. "It is a bad plan and we will explore every option to fight it."

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
A Jersey City man was shot in the chest on Martin Luther King Drive Wednesday night, but he is expected to survive, police said.

The shooting occurred just before 6:30 p.m. on MLK Drive near Grant Avenue, Jersey City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said.

The 21-year-old Virginia Avenue man, who authorities say was uncooperative with police, was taken to the RWJBarnabas Health's Jersey City Medical Center for nonlife-threatening injuries.

The investigation is ongoing, Morrill said.
The sentencing of a Jersey City man who strangled the mother of his child in 2014 was postponed when his attorney filed a motion for a new trial.

Nathan Williams III, 36, had been scheduled to be sentenced today for the aggravated manslaughter of former girlfriend 33-year-old Marilyn Albizu, 33, on June 17, 2014 in the Old Bergen Road home they shared. He was convicted on Sept. 29.

"We truly believe he deserves a new trial," defense attorney James Lisa said Monday.

Lisa, who defended Williams with co-counsel Max Novel, added, "We also believe the verdict was compromised and the jury did not believe the charge of murder was proven beyond a reasonable doubt and they just settled on aggravated manslaughter."

The defense moved for a new trial, saying security video shown to the jury had not been properly verified as to the time it was recorded.

The defense also noted that guns recovered in the home were listed on the evidence list given the jury, but the gun charges against Williams had been severed from the murder trial. He is to be tried on those charges in January.

Finally, the defense says the prosecutor improperly made a statement at the beginning of the trial that suggested Williams was already incarcerated. At the time, Williams was already serving a prison sentence, but his record could not be brought up unless he testified.

The defense and state agreed that a transcript of the trial was necessary to move forward and transcribing the audio recording could take about a month. The motion for a new trial will be taken up again once the transcript is complete.

Hudson County Superior Court Judge Vincent Militello set Dec. 29 for the next hearing on the motion.

The day of the homicide began with Albizu telling Lenisha Murray, who also has a child with Williams, that Williams was with a third woman. Murray testified she went to the Old Bergen Road home that morning and found Williams in bed with Alicia Santana. Both Murray and Santana testified at the trial.

According to authorities and testimony, Williams struck Albizu and then left the apartment. Responding officers issued a warrant for his arrest and took a picture of Albizu showing a bump on her forehead.

That evening, Murray called Albizu's phone and a man answered, saying "Ain't no need to call this number anymore. That b---- is dead." The phone was on speaker and Tenyel Manning dialed 911 after hearing the man's response.

Murray told police it was Williams' voice, but changed her story on the witness stand.

Officers responded to the apartment again at about 6:30 p.m. for a welfare check and found Albizu dead.

Police were on the lookout for Williams' vehicle, which was spotted in Newark around 11 p.m. that night, according to testimony.
This map displays the Woodthorpe area of York in the United Kingdom, where authorities stated seven-year-old Katie Rough was found with severe lacerations to her neck and chest on a field on January 9, 2017. (Google Maps)
The setting of the official announcement Monday, Nov. 13, that DXC Technology, a global technology company that consults with the private sector and governments, will bring 2,000 jobs to downtown New Orleans as part of a company expansion.(Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com |The Times-Picayune)
Former President Donald Trump is preparing to launch his third campaign for the White House with an announcement Tuesday night. Trump is looking to move on from disappointing midterm defeats and defy history amid signs that his grip on the Republican Party may be waning. The former president had hoped to use the GOP's expected gains in last week's elections as a springboard to win his party's nomination by locking in early support and keeping potential challengers at bay. Instead, Trump now finds himself being blamed for backing a series of losing candidates in last week's midterm elections.
Weather Alert

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST THURSDAY... * WHAT...North winds 20 to 25 kt with gusts up to 30 kt and seas 5 to 8 ft. * WHERE...All of the coastal waters and lakes. * WHEN...Until 6 AM CST Thursday. * IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller vessels, should avoid navigating in hazardous conditions. &&
When it comes to good deals on Black Friday, people will drive near and far to take advantage of bargain prices. That certainly was the case at many retail locations in Council Bluffs.

Shortly after 5 a.m., there was a good number of people in line at in front of Menards in the Manawa Shopping Centre. But as the 6 a.m. opening approached, more arrived. By 5:45, the line extended around the side of the of the store.

This is interesting, said Council Bluffs resident Mark Woods as he surveyed the scene.

Kallie Sherwood of Rockport, Missouri, traveled with her family to take advantage of the stores sales.

We got up at 2:30 a.m., she said. Weve been coming every year for the last five years.

It was a different situation for Bill Hartzell of Council Bluffs.

This is my first time, Hartzell said. Theres a lot more people than I thought there would be.

On the other side of town, many shoppers also headed for Bass Pro Shop this morning in search of Black Friday deals. Annie Peterson of Council Bluffs started shopping at 5:30 a.m. at another store and made it to Bass Pro Shop a little later.

Ive been to a couple other stores already, she said. Ive got two little boys Im buying for.

Peterson went to Bass Pro Shop especially for sweatshirts and insulated socks and found a few other things to buy, too. She said it was absolutely worth getting up early to shop.

It hasnt been bad at all, I didnt feel like, she said.

Unlike past years, Friday mornings above normal temperatures gave shoppers a good deal.

Its a day for it, Woods said.

Jared Runte of Council Bluffs had similar thoughts while waiting with his two friends at Menards.

I was here last year and it was way colder last year, he said. Its worth it. Ive been doing this for four years.

Runte and his friends arrived at midnight and got a place near the front. To pass the time, Runte said he tried sleeping on the ground, but without success. Most of the time, they watched movies on their phones, said Austin Quakenbush of Council Bluffs.

Randy and Debbie of Woodbine were set to buy two shopping carts of merchandise at Bass Pro Shop. They had started shopping at about 6:30 at another store. They went to Bass Pro Shop to get a food dehydrator and found many other things along the way.

We got a few presents we didnt have, Debbie said.

While other stores here and nationwide may have had mad dashes when doors opened, the crowd at Menards actually walked at a casual pace through the doors.

Not a big deal at all, Woods said as he carted off with numerous boxes, noting the wait was worth it.

Debbie Newhouse of Glenwood found jackets and $10 flannel shirts at Bass Pro. At the same time, Dusty Richard of Beaver Lake, Nebraska, had a shopping cart full of clothes, and his wife was looking for more.

We got six boys at home, he said.

There were some real good bargains at the store, Richard said.
LINCOLN, Neb.  One of Nebraskas problem prisoners has moved to Iowa.

Court records show that Erica Jenkins has been transferred from the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, Nebraska, to the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville.

Jenkins, 27, is serving life in prison for the 2013 slaying of Curtis Bradford of Omaha. She is the sister of death-row inmate Nikko Jenkins, who participated in Bradfords killing and was responsible for three other murders.

Dawn-Renee Smith, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, said she cant discuss the reasons for the transfer because an inmates institutional file is not public. But Smith has previously said that out-of-state transfers can occur only with an inmates permission.

The transfer did not require Nebraska to accept an Iowa inmate in exchange for Jenkins, Smith said. Nor does Nebraska have to pay Iowa to house Jenkins under the transfer agreement, she added.

According to information included on the Iowa Department of Corrections website, the daily cost for prison incarceration of an offender is $95.85, a figure that translates to an annual cost of $34,985.25.

Iowa Department of Corrections officials were not available for comment on Friday.

Had the transfer taken place a year ago, it might have saved Christine Bordeaux a concussion, broken forearm and fractured nasal bone.

Jenkins faces felony assault and weapons charges for allegedly using a combination lock as an improvised weapon to assault Bordeaux on Sept. 24, 2016. Bordeaux, who is Jenkins cousin, also was an inmate at the York prison, but she, too, has been transferred out of state. Officials have declined to say where.

Bordeaux, 43, testified against her cousin, helping prosecutors obtain robbery convictions. A prison investigator testified at a preliminary hearing earlier this year that Jenkins demanded that her cousin recant the testimony. The assault allegedly ensued when Bordeaux refused.

Although prison policy calls for the protection of witnesses for the state, staff members at York allowed the cousins to be placed in the same cell shortly before the assault occurred. Prison officials have not said how the breakdown occurred.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine has lamented the assault of Bordeaux, saying it could make other co-defendants less willing to testify for the state.

Jenkins has been a handful for authorities since she was arrested. She has been convicted of assaulting guards three times.

The transfer to Iowa means Jenkins will have to travel about 260 miles from the prison east of Des Moines to attend her court hearings in York. The added transportation costs will be covered by the state and not York County, Smith said.

 Nonpareil reporter Jon Leu contributed to this story.
Authorities are still investigating the death of an Harlan woman who was killed Thursday morning after a car struck her while walking along Highway 59.

The Iowa State Patrol said the incident is still being looked into by law enforcement concerning the death of Patsey Ann Maria Nuzum, 50.

The Shelby County Sheriffs Office said the incident occurred just before 6 a.m. in the 700 block of Highway 59. Two vehicles were southbound when one vehicle, a 2005 Chevy Trailblazer, reportedly attempted to pass the other.

During the pass attempt, the Trailblazer struck Nuzum, who was walking southbound in the northbound lane. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
MISSOURI VALLEY  The father of a Missouri Valley man who was thought to be missing following a Thursday morning fire said his son is dead. In addition, the remains of another body were also found.

Ed Murray, Missouri Valley Police Chief, said the bodies were burned beyond recognition and that autopsies would need to be performed for identification.

But Gary Stevens of Mondamin said his son, Chad Stevens, 44, was found dead in the debris of the fire, which began around 7:45 Thursday morning at CTI Electronics, 204 Erie St. Crews had the blaze extinguished by 10:50 a.m.

Gary Stevens said he was informed of his sons death by members of the Harrison County Sheriffs Office. He said he was told the charred remains of two people were found in the building. No information about the second victim has been released, but two body bags were removed from the building after 3 p.m.

Authorities did not rule out if foul play was involved in the incident.

The business, which focused on computer sales and service, is owned by Tracy Scott. The business appeared to be a total loss, Missouri Valley Fire Chief Caleb Wohlers said.

Scott, who has owned the building for four years, said he has no idea how the fire started.

A friend called me and said my building was on fire, Scott said. The next thing I know, my shoes were on and I was out the door.

Local residents spent most of Thursday trying to locate Chad Stevens, who lived in an apartment within the building. Scott said Chad Stevens worked for him doing night security.

Chad Stevens friend, Amber McCall of Missouri Valley, said she last spoke with him early Thursday morning when he was trying to find a ride to Walmart.

McCall said Stevens had planned to spend Thanksgiving at her home. She said Stevens was supposed to fry a turkey and that she planned a traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce and various pies.

For decorations, McCall added she had jars made for each of her guests to take home. Inside those jars are notes that said what each person is thankful for.

Im praying to God (Chad) shows up at my house for Thanksgiving, McCall said before news of his death had been announced.

Chad Stevens had a daughter, but Gary Stevens did not have information about her.

Chad Stevens also had a dog, Bella, a black mini poodle that was not in the building at the time of the fire, McCall said. Bella is currently staying with some of Chad Stevens friends.

Wohlers would also not comment on whether foul play is suspected.

The blaze was difficult for firefighters because of the age of the building and recyclable electronics inside the business, Wohlers said.

Missouri Valley Assistant Police Chief Lee Lange said investigators from the State Fire Marshals Office would help with the investigation of the fire.

Assistance was provided by fire departments from Crescent, Logan, Magnolia, Modale, Mondamin, Neola, Woodbine; and Blair and Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. The Missouri Valley Police Department also provided assistance.
The following editorial first appeared Nov. 13 in The Fort Dodge Messenger.

Some politicians seek federal office in part so they can live an extravagant lifestyle paid for by American taxpayers. U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst is determined to curtail that type of self-serving behavior.

Thats why the Iowa Republican has just introduced legislation that would eliminate a tax break federal lawmakers crafted to benefit themselves.

Iowans sent me to Congress to make Washington, D.C., squeal and that includes eliminating handouts to politicians, Ernst said. To achieve the ultimate goal of lowering tax rates for hardworking families and businesses, Congress is going to have to eliminate various loopholes and deductions in our outdated tax code. Congress should lead by example and offer up its own unnecessary tax break.

With that in mind, she is promoting the Stop Questionable, Unnecessary, and Excessive Allowances for Legislators Act, also known as the SQUEAL Act. If it becomes law, this proposal would eliminate a provision of the tax code that allows Members of Congress to deduct, for income tax purposes, up to $3,000 annually in living expenses while in the Washington, D.C. area.

While this part of the tax code isnt hugely expensive, it is typical of the thousands of special provisions that have been added to our nations tax laws to advantage people who have influence with lawmakers. Collectively, they make our tax laws thousands of pages long, waste taxes people pay and produce a tax system that almost no one believes to be fair.

Ernsts proposal is a small step in the right direction. Its adoption by the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives would show that the members of these bodies are serious about reforming our tax system to make it both fairer and less wasteful.

The Messenger applauds Ernsts initiative. This legislation demonstrates that she views the pledges she made during her campaign for office as commitments to be pursued vigorously. Thats an example we wish more of her colleagues in Washington would emulate.
JOIN A WINNING TEAM right here in northwest indiana We have been covering Northwest Indiana for over 100 years and were still growing. We are, by far, the main source of news, information and advertising in the Region and are looking for great people to join out team. Whether youre just starting out or looking for a place to step up,TheTimes has opportunities you need to explore. PAGE DESIGNER TheTimes Media Co., located 20 miles from downtown Chicago, is looking for highly motivated, creative page designers who can bring a new dimension to our brand of local newspapers and magazines. As our design center has expanded, so has our drive to find designers with innovative newspaper and magazine design and illustration skills. Our energetic design staff is working hard to change the perception of designers as merely visual people. We work with the belief that good content drives readership, and we push our staff to be content editors. If you possess the heart of a journalist and an innovative mind, we want you to join our close-knit, talented design team. Our ideal candidates will have experience in design at a newspaper or magazine, understand the fast-paced, newsroom environment, have the ability to manage several tasks simultaneously, and are experienced in information and content design. Candidates also must display a strong instinct for problem solving, a sense of urgency, and a passion for news. Experience with InDesign and Photoshop is preferred. In this position you must be willing to work a varied schedule with night hours. TheTimes Media Co. is one of Lee Enterprises 46 daily newspapers. Lee also publishes 300 weekly newspapers, shoppers and classified and specialty publications. In addition, Lee provides a wide variety of associated online services. EOE Call Center Representative (Part-time 30-39 hrs/wk) We have immediate openings for experienced Customer Service Representatives (CSRs), for our call center operations atTheTimes in our Munster & Crown Point, Indiana locations.TheTimes of Northwest Indiana is part of Lee Enterprises which is a leading provider of local newspapers, information and advertising in primarily midsize markets, with 46 daily newspapers and a joint interest in two others, along with rapidly growing digital products and nearly 300 specialty publications in 21 states which includesTheTimes of Northwest Indiana. Our call center agents are the backbone of our business. When customers call us, our CSRs answer the phone, make connections, answer questions, solve problems, and get people happily on their way as quickly as possible. As a Lee Enterprise Call Center Customer Service Representative, youll handle heavy call volumes daily in our fast paced call center, while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. When you join Lee Enterprises, you will enjoy:  Instantly becoming part of our family of diverse people focused on making really good customer experiences happen.  Ways to earn more every single month through bonus and incentives.  A clear path and the tools you need to progress with more responsibilities and promotions  Earning paid time off which includes vacation, sick and personal days, along with paid holidays  Eligibility for Medical, Dental, Vision, & Life Insurance, along with a 401K Match! Bring it.Youre qualified if you:  Love to help people  Have experience performing comfortably in a fast paced, deadline oriented environment.  Are proficient with MS Excel, Word & Outlook & have the ability to navigate thru various software programs efficiently  Above average typing skills (50+wpm)  Have sales ability and experience with inbound/ outbound customer service Learn more or apply online at www.nwi.com/timesjobs. EOE Distribution Assistant  Temporary/Seasonal TheTimes is currently looking for part-time Distribution Assistants to work in one of our Distribution Centers, working an average of 35 hours per week.These positions are temporary, seasonal positions that may continue through January 2018. Our centers are located in Valparaiso, Merrillville, and Hammond, IN. Work hours are in the early morning and include holidays and weekends. The work consists of:  opening and closing the distribution center  stacking bundles on tables  assisting with the delivery of newspaper routes  other duties assigned by the District Manager Candidates must have a valid drivers license and good driving record, as well as a reliable vehicle and proof of auto insurance. Mileage reimbursement is available if asked to use your vehicle for work purposes. Other requirements include basic computer skills and the ability to lift up to 40 pounds. The starting hourly wage for this position is $12.00/hour. This is an excellent entry level position for a company with a history of promoting from within. TheTimes is a drug-free workplace and all candidates offered a position will be asked to complete a pre-employment drug screen. Interested candidates should apply online at www.nwi.com/timesjobs. Equal Opportunity Employer Multi-Media Sales Executive  Outside Sales Base Salary PLUS Un-capped Commissions Join a winning team! We reach more consumers than we ever have before through NWI.com and our award winning print products. Consumer in NW Indiana rely onTheTimes and NWI.com for local news and information that no one else can deliver. Over 75% of all adults in NW Indiana connect with us through our on-line and print products on a weekly basis. We deliver 1.6M unique visitors per month with over 12.6M page views and 8.2M mobile sessions per month! We are looking for Multi-Media Sales professionals who possess the drive and passion to help local business owners increase market share through real time solutions and products that deliver superior results! We offer:  Competitive base salary  Un-capped commissions  On-going incentives and spiffs  Mobile phone  Mileage reimbursement  Benefits including: 401K (matching too), medical, dental, vision, paid vacation and personal time, life insurance, flexible spending accounts  Laptop and tools to be successful Our Multi-Media Sales professional manage an existing base of wellestablished accounts along with the responsibility and ability to hunt and develop new accounts... we want HUNTERS. Plus work alongside a team of sales professionals in a competitive market serving 6 counties! You Are:  Competitive  Driven to be the best  Results and goals oriented  Mentally tough  Possess a strong work ethic  Tech savvy  High character  Want to grow a great career  Willing to have fun! Ideal candidates possess:  3 + years of sales experience with a demonstrated track record of success  Prospecting & cold calling experience in successfully opening new accounts  Excellent communication skills  Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high transactional sales environment  College degree preferred  Valid drivers license, good driving record and access to a reliable vehicle Were willing to train the right candidate! If you bring the heart and desire to succeed we will equip you with the tools and knowledge to be successful! Drug Free Workplace Equal Opportunity Employer APPLY AT NWI.COM/TIMESJOBS
ArcelorMittal was recognized for its ongoing efforts to preserve rare dune and swale on the campus of ArcelorMittal Global R&D in East Chicago.

The Shirley Heinze Land Trust awarded the steelmaker a "Bringing Nature Home Award" for its efforts over the last three years to preserve 10 acres of the globally rare habitat at the former Inland Steel Research Center on Columbus Drive and Cline Avenue in East Chicago. ArcelorMittal has been working to restore the dune and swale created by a glacier that receded from Lake Michigan thousands of years ago.

"The Field Museum and The Nature Conservancy were partners in the project which saw the cessation of mowing on seven acres of remnant prairie and the installation of natives on another three acres," The Shirley Heinze Land Trust said in a news release.

ArcelorMittal R&D threaded a walking trail along the dune and swale for its employees to use in order to encourage their wellness. It also frequently shows the nature area to visiting students, who go on field trips to learn about what the engineers and scientists do there.

Other organizational Bringing Nature Home Award recipients include the city of Garys Department of Green Urbanism and Stormwater Management, and the town of Munsters Department of Parks and Recreation.
Food Bank of Northwest Indiana officials were thrilled when Strack & Van Til's founding families saved the company from bankruptcy earlier this year.

Strack & Van Til is one of the food bank's biggest fundraisers and has again launched a "Round Up" campaign to fight hunter across the Region this holiday season. Customers at Strack & Van Til or Town & Country stores can choose to "round up" their bill and donate the difference to the Food Bank's hunger relief efforts across Northwest Indiana.

The Round Up campaign is proof that every little bit counts, and even loose change can make a huge difference," Food Bank of Northwest Indiana Executive Director Steve Beekman said. "Each dollar raised will provide three meals to a child or adult in need. We are so grateful to Strack & Van Til and their customers for continuing to support the Food Banks mission and join the fight against hunger in Northwest Indiana.

When shoppers choose to round up at the register, that change will provide nutritious meals for families right here in our own community.

It's Strack & Van Til's sixth annual holiday giving campaign for the Food Bank. Last year, it raised $91,000, providing 270,000 meals for needy families.

"Our goal at Strack & Van Til and Town & Country is to help build brighter futures," said Ashleigh Marlow, a spokesperson for Strack & Van Til. An easy way to contribute this holiday season is by rounding-up your order at any of our store locations."

Strack & Van Til also distributed Thanksgiving meals to 400 local families, passing them out at a church in Gary.
Some workforce development professionals hope an effective method to shore up hard-to-fill but in-demand jobs is to showcase potential opportunities to young people still undecided about their careers.

That's the hope for the inaugural Northwest Indiana Construction & Skilled Trades Day program, set for Tuesday in the Industrial Building at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Crown Point. The event is open to students and their families from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then to the general public from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

"We really want to get our message out there that there are viable jobs in the construction industry and the trades," said Kevin Comerford, director of professional development with the Portage-based Construction Advancement Foundation. "Far too often, our schools are pushing students toward a college career path when for some students that may not be their best option."

Comerford said the construction industry as well as the trades also seek talented individuals, people with good soft skills including being effective communicators and recognizing the importance of arriving at work on time and being ready to work when they arrive.

"Sometimes when someone receives a college degree, they end up in a field where they don't earn enough to support themselves let alone pay back student loans," Comerford said.

Among the trades represented at the event will be carpenters and millwrights. Government data suggests carpenters can earn between $45,000 and $61,000 annually though entry-level positions may start at $20 per hour.

Other trades, which will be represented include technical engineers (surveyors); sheet metal workers; ironworkers; plumbers; electricians; bricklayers; roofers; operating engineers; laborers; insulators and pipefiters. There also will be representatives from the Teamsters and The Indiana Plan for Equal Employment, a Gary-based group, which is working to get more minorities involved in the trades and We Build NWI.

Students can interact with trade representatives but they also will get some hands on training.

"We'll have some activities for the students to try," Comerford said. "We really want to showcase that there are other career options out there. There is a misconception out there that jobs in the trades are for people who do not want to go to college, but our message is we do want people who may be college material but are more interested in working with their hands."

Linda Woloshansky, president and CEO of the Valparaiso-based Center for Workforce Innovations, said the event is an opportunity to help the trades with its recruitment efforts.

"We began talking with the schools and gauging their interest in an event like this and many offered positive response to it," she said.

Woloshansky said because there was advance planning done for the event, the 20 participating Region high schools found students to attend the program who may be more inclined to purse a job in the trades. More than 1,000 students are expected.

"Many of the students coming in still are undecided about their career fields, so we think we're getting the right kinds of kids in front of the trades," she said. "People in the trades really love their respective industries so this will be an opportunity for them to share their stories."
Bobbie Sue Kvachkoff, co-director of Valparaisos Memorial Opera Houses A Christmas Story, The Musical admitted to having initial reservations about bringing a musical version of the beloved holiday favorite to the stage.

I thought Why are you doing this? Why are you turning this into a musical? she said. But then I started working on it and saw that the music really enhances everything. It brings everything further forward. It doesnt alter anything.

Opening Friday and running through Dec. 10, Story tells the tales first found in Hammond-reared Jean Shepherds 1966 tome In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. It was adapted for the big screen in 1983 and to song and stage less than a decade ago.

Story chronicles the highs and lows of a working class family in a fictional Northwest Indiana town as they endure a Christmas season in the 1940s, with youngster Ralphie vying for a beloved Red Ryder Carbine Action Range Model Air Rifle and the neighborhood bully, his father struggling with his car and a beloved lamp, and his mother trying to keep her family together.

Featuring songs such as It All Comes Down to Christmas, Ralphie to the Rescue and Youll Shoot Your Eye Out, the musical version of Story was first staged in Kansas City in 2009 before heading to Broadway three years later, where it received a trio of Tony Award nominations.

On Dec. 17, a live version of Story will air on Fox, with Matthew Broderick narrating.

It really jumps all over the place, Kvachkoff said of the music. You have a big, classic Broadway show stopper. Theres a couple with a Western twang, and theres a really beautiful female ballad. Theres a little taste of a few different areas of music.

J.J. Boylan is the narrator, Jayne Bartlett is Ralphie, Douglas DeLaughter is Ralphies father and Leann Wright is his mother in Memorial Opera Houses Story. Also included in the near-four dozen member cast are Joseph Koloski as Ralphs brother Randy, Selena Ruiz as schoolyard bully Scut Farkus and Gannon Michna as Farkus right hand, Flick.

My cast is incredible said Kvachkoff who is directing Story with Jennifer Lundin. From the narrator down to the youngest member of the childrens ensemble, they are engaged and eager and they have made the entire process a joy.

At press time, tickets for the Nov. 26, Dec. 3 and Dec. 10 performances have sold out.

Next up for Memorial Opera House is a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, scheduled to open Feb. 16.
A new federal law designed to put states in charge of school accountability soon will be implemented fully throughout the country, but there still are questions as to whether  and how  it will work.

The Every Student Succeeds Act, called ESSA, is bipartisan legislation passed by a Republican U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2015.

Under the law, states were required to submit plans detailing how they would implement the law, and to engage with a wide array of stakeholders instead of just a few traditional education officials such as superintendents and classroom teachers.

With two deadlines to choose from, Indiana chose to submit its plan to the U.S. Department of Education in September, while Illinois sent in its plan in April.

Since the law took effect in 2016, state education officials and lawmakers have been getting a handle on federal compliance and understanding their new responsibilities.

But how much of the law is new, and how much is a rehash of previous federal requirements?

A lot of ESSA is still No Child Left Behind reworded, said Sharon Johnson-Shirley, superintendent of Lake Ridge New Tech schools, during a recent roundtable discussion with other local superintendents held at The Times Oct. 23 in Munster.

Both ESSA and No Child Left Behind, which was passed in 2001 and signed into law by President George W. Bush, are the most recent reincarnations of a 1960s-era law that attempted to standardize education requirements, standards and academic benchmarks among all states, by having the federal government set them.

As with ESSA, No Child Left Behind focused on eliminating achievement gaps among student demographic groups and called for high academic standards and school accountability.

ESSA is different

ESSA marks the first time since the 1980s, however, that federal law requires the U.S. Department of Education to pull back and hand over control to states.

In the past, federal law was pretty prescriptive for states for how they should handle their statewide accountability systems, said Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers.

But there was no clear data on how kids or groups of kids were doing. No Child Left Behind fixed that, but there was a single solution for states, with no choice" on how schools could measure student progress.

That single solution was test scores, which led to overwhelming criticism that No Child Left Behind was forcing teachers to teach to the test.

Classroom teachers found themselves focusing on teaching testing strategies to try to boost scores, which they feared were only teaching students how to excel at picking the right answer through a process of elimination, instead of their learning how to analyze and apply what they learned. Tying teacher evaluations to test scores also led to raucous opposition.

ESSA still requires students in grades three through eight to take annual assessments and high school students to be tested at least twice over four years. Now, however, states will determine for themselves how much weight scores will have on a schools accountability rating.

In addition to test scores, schools must track graduation rates, English-language proficiency, and the academic progress of low-income and minority students. States also have to choose other indicators of student growth, but ESSA doesnt define what else can be used. Thats part of the flexibility written into the law that gives states more control of local education.

States are looking at things such as chronic absenteeism or school climate surveys that will help parents better understand how their childs school rates against others in their area.

State and local leaders should be making decisions when it comes to education, not the federal bureaucracy, said U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, who co-authored ESSA.

With ESSA, we are already seeing a devolution of power from the U.S. Department of Education to the states.  This means that those who know the students best are making decisions about their education. Accountability is an important aspect of ESSA, but the accountability system is designed by the state, for the state.

Two decades of education uncertainty

In between No Child Left Behind, which was passed in 2001, and ESSA, passed nearly 15 years later, a state-driven education reform movement took root that sought to create commonality among states, so that a measure of academic success in one state would mean the same thing in another state.

In 2010, more than 40 states, including Indiana and Illinois, adopted the Common Core standards, which were driven by the National Governors Association, and supported in Indiana by then-Gov. Mitch Daniels.

The U.S. Department of Education included those standards as ones that states could use to apply for grants under Race to the Top, an Obama administration initiative in which states competed for grants that totaled $4 billion by showing innovative education reforms.

But that led conservatives, especially those in the Tea Party movement, to link the standards with the grants and begin a campaign to force other states to withdraw. Only three states  Indiana, Nebraska and South Carolina  wound up rewriting their own standards.

In response to the perception that Common Core was a federal program, ESSA forbids the federal government from incentivizing states to select a particular set of academic standards, noting only that states must have challenging standards.

Education upheaval in Indiana

Major shifts in kindergarten-through-12th grade education tend to move more like glaciers than rock slides. So the upheaval over the last seven years in Indiana  adopting, rejecting and then developing several sets of academic standards and assessments in quick succession  have been seismic, and frustrating for educators.

In 2014, former Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation withdrawing the state from Common Core and directed education officials to write new math and English standards that would be uncommonly high and written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.

State leaders said this year's state-mandated exam assessed more rigorous Indiana Academic Standards adopted in 2014 for English/language arts and mathematics.

But the state has given students three different assessments in the last three school years, meaning teachers had to prepare students for three different tests in each of those years.

That may help explain why the head of the Indiana State Teachers Association, Teresa Meredith, said many of her members know theres been a change from No Child Left Behind, but may not know the details. Whats important, though, will be the new law's impact.

Its like, here we go again, another change, Meredith said. Did anyone really listen to the people on the ground? That creates some anxiety.

Meredith wants to make sure the schools are creating independent thinkers so that students will be successful after graduating from high school.

Graduation rate, other initiatives spark concern

Indiana educators are hearing a variety of things about how ESSA will affect them, and particularly how reporting graduation rates uniformly nationwide will affect their school graduation rate. Graduation rates account for a significant portion of a high school's letter grade, along with scores from Indiana's mandated exam.

Indianas high school graduation rate over the past 10 years has increased by 10 percentage points to 89.07 percent in 2016, from 78.15 percent in 2006, according to data from the Indiana Department of Education. That increase bodes well for students, but Indiana still is trying to close achievement gaps among student demographic groups.

An independent analysis by the Collaborative for Student Success, called The Honesty Gap, found the state had narrowed the gap between its own proficiency rates and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national measure of student achievement, by 18 percentage points in fourth-grade reading, and 29 percentage points in eighth-grade math.

School accountability plans, plus ESSAs emphasis on educating all students equally, could be a significant factor in eliminating these gaps for good.

I am glad to see that growth is still factored into the accountability portion of the plan, meaning that schools in more disadvantaged areas will still be recognized for the progress they are achieving as the students in those areas are working toward greater proficiency and higher test scores, said Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Merrillville.

As the plan is implemented, we will have a better idea of its effects on our students. But going forward, it will remain critical that we support all of our public schools through adequate funding at the statewide level.

ESSA requires states to detail when and how they will intervene in schools that are underperforming. How Indiana approaches that will play out over the ensuing months as the states plan is under federal review and, following that, will be implemented.

A state-designed plan, though, is likely to inspire educators and other stakeholders to greater success than one imposed by the federal government, said Minnich, of the state school chiefs group.

Our states have seen this as a road map to developing a strong system that is right for them, Minnich said. Thats what this has to be about: not fighting in Washington, D.C., about whats allowed  but whether kids are doing better.
LAPORTE  Police have arrested a man believed responsible for a rash of diesel fuel thefts at Northwest Indiana truck stops.

The 12-volt motor for the siphon ran quietly enough that one victim filled his tank, slept in his rig, then woke up to find his fuel gauge on empty, police said.

William Fencik, 61, of Knox, is charged in LaPorte Circuit Court with level 6 felony theft for 280 gallons of diesel fuel stolen Nov. 7 from a parked truck at Speedway on U.S 421 south of Interstate 94 near Michigan City.

He's also charged with one misdemeanor count for a theft quickly interrupted by a run-in with police along the Indiana Toll Road.

According to LaPorte County police, Fencik hauled a 300-gallon storage container fastened to a motor-driven siphon hose behind the cab of his semi.

Images of the truck captured by surveillance cameras at a Speedway station nearly three weeks ago were shown to authorities in Starke County, who recognized it as belonging to Fencik.

A GPS tracking device was then placed on the truck.

Jeff Wright, a detective with the LaPorte County sheriff's office, said the tracking device revealed the semi leaving Fencik's home late Sunday night and stopping at the Flying J truck stop along Interstate 65 in Lowell.

Wright said the semi remained there for several hours, and later fuel was reported stolen during the same time period from that location.

Early the next morning, Wright said, the truck was followed by GPS from Fencik's property to Speedway again.

Wright said Fencik, unable to remove a locked fuel tank cap, then went directly to where truck drivers park overnight to sleep along the Toll Road near Rolling Prairie.

He had just began drawing fuel when interrupted by LaPorte County Police Chief of Detectives Pat Cicero, Wright said.

Fencik did not have a commercial driver's license, and his regular Ohio driver's license was suspended, Wright said. The plates on the front of his semi were also expired.
Thanksgiving throughout the Region found people giving thanks and giving back to their communities.

In St. John, Pathway Church, in conjunction with the town's chamber of commerce, donated and distributed 1,500 Thanksgiving dinners to needy families, elderly, shut-ins and more in Lake County and the south suburbs. The meals were prepared on Wednesday at Lencioni Catering in Lynwood.

"It's just a good thing to do on Thanksgiving Day," volunteer Steve DeYoung said. "It's just a great thing for the families from our church to get involved in."

Last year the church distributed about 500 to 600 meals.

Pastor Joel Zuidema said the church has been doing this each Thanksgiving for the last seven or eight years. This year they expanded it to include the chamber of commerce, which purchased food and provided 40 delivery teams to go along with 20 teams from the church.

"We turned this into a non sectarian meal delivery," Zuidema said. "We've been having such a beautiful time with it."

Zuidema said St. John is a "pretty blessed" community fiscally.

"We just thought this was a cool way to tell some of our neighbors we love them," he said.

Carrying out a mother's tradition in Hammond

In Hammond, Reggie and Fred Weems are carrying out a tradition their mother started by feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving. Tera Weems, a restaurant owner who died two years ago, used to feed the homeless for Thanksgiving out of her home. Her sons, with the help of close family friend Steven Smith, brought the tradition back this year, serving meals for the hungry, homeless and shut-ins at New Hope Too on Calumet Avenue.

Brothers Reaching Out Serving the Community  BROS for short  were ready to feed 300 to 400 people on Thursday.

Food was cooked in Tera Weems' tradition with family recipes for macaroni and cheese, dressing and candied yams. There was ham and turkey for the main course.

Volunteering to help out at the sit-down dinner was Carlotta Blake-King, who said Tera Weems was her best friend.

"We did everything together," she said. "This was her heart. Feeding people and making sure they got a good meal."

Fellow volunteer Donya Coty said she grew up with the Weems family.

"It's a blessing to always give back," she said. "That's the joy for me. To give back to the community and trying to keep the legacy going for Ms. Weems."

Feeding the Lowell community

The Gold Star Cafe hosted its third annual free Thanksgiving Day dinner.

Each year, owner Charlene Hall and her employees and a host of volunteers prepare a free Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving. There's no income level or proof of need involved. She expected to serve about 100 at her cafe in addition to making more than 150 deliveries out to the community.

"We feed everyone who has to keep our town running," Hall said. "Anyone who has to work."

Hall said they go to local businesses a week prior to see how many employees will be working so they can plan to drop off food.

"This town supports me like nobody's business," Hall said. "And if we can spoil them a couple of times every year it's the least I can do. The No. 1 thing in this building is gratitude and appreciation."

One of Hall's guests on Thanksgiving was Mike Ellis, who was enjoying a meal of pork, mac and cheese, string bean casserole and vegetable lasagna. It marked the third consecutive year he made the Thanksgiving trip from his home in East Chicago to Gold Star Cafe.

"There are other places close to home but I like the people and food around here," Ellis said.

All are welcome in Portage
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  The Alabama Democrat who was disparaged by President Donald Trump as "soft on crime" is a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted church bombers and domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph.

Trump on Tuesday gave Republican Roy Moore a near endorsement in Alabama's Senate race, saying Moore "totally denies" allegations of sexual misconduct with teens. Trump then called Democrat Doug Jones soft on crime, border security and the military.

"We don't need a liberal person in there, a Democrat, Jones. I've looked at his record. It's terrible on crime. It's terrible on the borders. It's terrible on the military," Trump told reporters. Trump did not elaborate on the reasons behind his assessment.

Here's a brief look at Jones' record and views on the subjects mentioned by Trump :

CAREER

Jones spent 12 years as a prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice, serving as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1980 to 1984 and as U.S. attorney in Birmingham under the Clinton administration from 1997 to 2001. He has been in private practice since leaving the Department of Justice, and has worked as a defense attorney for some of the state's well-connected political figures in white collar cases.

CHURCH BOMBING PROSECUTION

Jones is best known for leading the prosecution of two Ku Klux Klansmen who bombed Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. was convicted in 2001 and remains in prison. Bobby Frank Cherry was convicted in 2002 and died in prison two years later.

ERIC RUDOLPH INDICTMENT

Jones also helped coordinate the task force that led to the indictment of domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph. Rudolph bombed a Birmingham abortion clinic in 1998, killing an off-duty police officer. Rudolph pleaded guilty to four terrorist bombings in Birmingham and Atlanta including the fatal 1996 Olympic Park bombing.

SENTENCING REFORM

Jones says on his campaign website that he disagrees with Attorney General Jeff Sessions "rolling back sentencing reform efforts." Jones says prosecutors and judges should be given flexibility in handling cases. While on the bench. Jones' opponent Roy Moore, also criticized mandatory minimum sentences for people he said should be considered non-violent offenders.

BORDER WALL

It's not clear what Trump meant by his criticism of Jones' record on borders. However, Jones has said he does not support Trump's proposal for a border wall. He called it too expensive and said the money could be put to better use.
Two local charity events will help provide a good workout and, later, tasty treats.

On Sunday, runners will be able to give back to children in need when the Auburn Opelika Running and Track Association (AORTA) hosts a Toys For Tots 10k, 5k and 1 Mile Fun Run.

On the following Saturday, thousands of home-baked cookies and other snacks will be displayed during the 22nd annual Cookie Walk, an event sponsored by the Auburn WeHelp Coalition of 11 Auburn churches that helps raise funds for the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity, a Christian housing ministry.

Give back to our community

The Toys For Tots runs will begin at Wrights Mill Road Elementary School, beginning at 2 p.m. for the 10k, while the latter two will commence 15 minutes later, according to Tracey Buckingham, race director and AORTA member.

The main focus of these races is to gather toys, Buckingham said, adding that the entry fee will be $10 and a new, unwrapped toy.

The event will focus on meeting the needs of local children at Christmastime, Buckingham further explained.

The toys do stay locally, and folks can have fun and kickoff the holiday season, she said. It allows us to give back to our community while doing something that we love, which is running and walking.

Lori Connors, assistant race director, said the event helps parents with making sure children have a merry Christmas. Runners are encouraged to bring new, unwrapped toys for a variety of ages, ranging from baby toys to bicycles.

The children arent expecting anything, so this is a way to help their parents make their Christmas a little merrier, Connors said.

Christmas cookies

On Saturday, Dec. 2, the 22nd annual Cookie Walk will be held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Grace United Methodist Church, located at 915 E. Glenn Avenue.

Its a fun event and a good way to start the holiday season, said Mark Grantham, executive director for Auburn-Opelika Habitat for Humanity.

Walking through aisles lined with tables upon which thousands of holiday cookies and snacks will be available, shoppers can fill boxes with their favorite goodies, afterward paying $6 per pound, Grantham said. A cookie contest, photos with Santa and two quilt giveaways will also be featured attractions.

All proceeds from the event will go to Habitat for Humanity to help construct a house for a local family, Grantham also informed.

The WeHelp Coalition of churches from the community have helped us through the years build 14 habitat homes, Grantham said, referring to the events sponsorship. This money theyre raising right now will help fund and sponsor the habitat home that well build in 2018.

Habitat for Humanity helps build homes in Auburn and Opelika for qualified families, Grantham explained, in which the ministry's evaluation involves three criteria: a familys need; their willingness to partner or provide 500 hours of volunteer work on homes currently being constructed before they can volunteer to build their own home; and a familys ability to pay a mortgage. The ministry then sells the home to the family in need at a no-interest, no-profit mortgage.

Cookies can be brought to Grace United Methodist Church on Dec. 1 between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., as well as before 9 a.m. on the day of the event, Grantham further informed. Those seeking more information are asked to visit auburnopelikahabitat.org.

Its amazing, Grantham said. I mean, youve never seen that many Christmas cookies on display.
Last year, Chris Kimmenez and his wife asked their doctors a simple question. Could Chris, who has been HIV-positive since 1989 but keeps the virus in check through medication, transmit it sexually to Paula?

They were pretty sure they knew the answer. Married for more than 30 years, they had not always practiced safe sex, but Paula showed no signs of having the virus.

Their physicians were less certain. They had a conversation and they did some research on it, Kimmenez said. They came back to us and said there may still be a risk, but were comfortable enough that unprotected sex is safe.

We knew that all along, said Kimmenez, 56, who works with ex-offenders in Philadelphia.

Simple acknowledgments like that one, spoken quietly in the privacy of doctors offices, mark the arrival of a historic moment in the history of HIV: Medical authorities are publicly agreeing that people with undetectable viral loads cannot transmit HIV.

The policy change has profound implications for the way people view the virus. It promises not just unprotected sex for couples like Kimmenez and his wife, but also reduced stigma for the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV. The change also offers the hope that more people will be tested and begin treatment if they are found to have the virus rather than live in denial.

There was something in me that said Im damaged and I made a mistake and people see it and Im a danger, said Mark King, 56, a writer and activist who tested positive for HIV in 1985. But now treatment has fully suppressed the virus. When I finally internalized this message ... something suddenly lifted off of me that is hard to describe. It was almost as if someone wiped me clean. I no longer feel like this diseased pariah.

Once considered a death sentence, HIV infection can now be managed via medication, much like chronic diseases such as diabetes, and people with the virus live full lives.

In July, Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the worlds leading authorities on HIV, publicly agreed at an international conference that people with undetectable viral loads in their blood cannot transmit the virus.

On Sept. 27, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention followed, releasing a letter that said people who take medication daily and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner.

The influential British medical journal the Lancet HIV endorsed the idea in an editorial this month. All told, more than 500 organizations in 67 countries now agree, according to Bruce Richman, who is leading the Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) campaign credited with beginning to change public perception of HIV transmissibility.

Like many developments in the four-decade history of HIV, this one has been slow to gain acceptance among mainstream health-care providers. Many are not aware of it or must unlearn the habit of drilling safe-sex lessons into patients, as they have been doing almost since the AIDS epidemic began. HIV-positive people also must alter deeply-ingrained beliefs that nothing good can come of revealing their status.

The change in philosophy also has sparked concerns, for which there is some evidence, that more condomless sex will lead to an increase in other sexually transmitted infections. And experts acknowledge that a few people whose viral load is not truly suppressed will eventually transmit HIV to others.

Laws in many states also are out of date. Many still criminalize the failure to reveal HIV status to a sex partner, even when there is no danger of transmissibility.

But on balance, authorities said, the agreement that people with HIV can prevent sexual transmission by taking a single pill each day is nothing less than revolutionary.

Nothing is completely risk free, Fauci said in an interview. What the community feels is that all of the good that will come from the lack of social stigmatization is worth the risk. This means a lot to them. This has a lot to do with their self-worth, their identity.

An undetectable viral load is defined as fewer than 200 copies of the virus in a milliliter of blood. Generally, people with HIV should maintain that level or a lower level for six months before beginning to consider themselves incapable of transmitting the virus sexually.

Many who faithfully take antiretroviral medication and lead healthful lifestyles can bring their viral loads considerably lower, to 50 or even 25 copies.

But progress raises other questions, said Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDCs National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. What if a person forgets to take medication for one day? What about two, or more? How long after resuming therapy should someone wait before once again considering himself or herself incapable of transmitting the virus? And what about people who go above and below the 200-copy threshold over time? Studies show that to be the case for about 10 percent of the people with HIV, Mermin said.

As yet, there are no evidence-based answers to these questions, he said. The public-health challenge now is moving from theory to implementation, he said. Many questions arise following the information that when a person with HIV has an undetectable viral load, he has effectively no risk of transmitting the virus.

In 2008, Swiss experts announced that people with undetectable levels of HIV could not transmit HIV through sex. But the world was not ready to hear the message then.

Starting in 2011, three large studies confirmed the idea, tracking more than 75,000 vaginal and anal condomless sex acts without finding a single HIV transmission to an HIV-negative partnerfrom someone whose viral load was undetectable. The initial 2011 study was named breakthrough of the year by Science magazine.

Now the challenge is to get the message out to HIV-positive people, caregivers and the public. And that process has been slow.

I would tell everyone about this, friends and family and people I wanted to date and I was coming across so much resistance, because major institutions were saying this is wrong, Richman said.

He launched U=U last year, initially a lonely and sometimes controversial campaign to let the world know something that many people with HIV had concluded for themselves. His breakthrough moment came in August 2016 when New York Citys health department signed on. Soon, other cities and organizations were joining.

Still, the message is moving mainly from people with HIV to health authorities and policymakers, rather than in the other direction, Richman said.

This is a radical challenge to the status quo and to 35 years of HIV and fear of people living with HIV, Richman said.

Brigitte Charbonneau, 71, of Ottawa, found out this year that she could not transmit the virus after 23 years of being HIV positive. I thought, My God, Ive been living with my man for 20 years and weve been using condoms,  the retired hairdresser recalled. And I phoned him right that afternoon.

Jennifer Vaughan of Watsonville, California, vividly remembers the moment she learned she could not transmit the virus to her boyfriend. The mother of three tested positive in February 2016 after she became critically ill with what was finally determined to be AIDS. HIV was not among the possibilities she or her doctors considered, until a blood test revealed the virus. She thinks she was infected by a previous boyfriend with a history of intravenous drug use.

She attended a speech Richman gave and was speaking with him in a parking lot outside a Starbucks.

Ill never forget him saying those words, You cant transmit the virus if youre undetectable,  the 47-year-old substitute teacher recalled. And I said, Wait, what?

It was like the sky opened. Are you kidding? Theres, like, zero risk? I dont feel like Im a threat anymore. I dont feel like Im dirty. I dont feel like Im a dangerous person.
At least 52 bodies Rwenzururu royal guards who were killed during the November 2016 attack on Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere's palace are yet to be claimed, almost a year after they were buried in a military barracks.



More than 100 people are believed to have died when the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) under the command of the then Second Division Commander, Major General Peter Elwelu, raided Rwenzururu kingdom palace in Kasese town.



The attack carried out on November 26 and 27 came after the Rwenzururu king refused to hand over the guards whom the army accused of engaging in clandestine activities.

Police burying one of the bodies of the Kasese attack last year

Mumbere and his supporters, numbering about 150, were arrested and charged with several counts of murder and terrorism among others. Mumbere and several of his officials have since never set foot in Kasese, as they are restricted to stay within Kampala as part of their bail conditions.



After the attack, 52 unclaimed bodies were buried by the police and UPDF soldiers at Kihara army barracks, Nyamwabwa Division, Kasese municipality. District leaders resolved that the bodies be buried at the barracks because there wasn't adequate space at the district headquarters located at Rukoki, five kilometers from Kasese town.



The bodies had been taken to several hospital mortuaries in the region. Police pathologists led by Dr Moses Byaruhanga, the director Police Medical Services, then took DNA samples from each of the bodies so that they can be identified later by their relatives for proper reburial.



When no relative came out to claim any of the bodies, each of the bodies was then buried in a separate grave so that once relatives show up the bodies can be exhumed.



According to police records, out of the 82 bodies that had been kept in mortuaries, only 30 were claimed by the relatives.



Lt. Col James Mwesige, the resident district commissioner Kasese, says that no relatives have approached his office claiming the bodies.

According to Mwesige, they received intelligence information that the unclaimed bodies could have been royal guards from Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, who have no relatives in Kasese.



Mwesige adds that a week before the palace was attacked several people entered Kasese district to be recruited as royal guards.

Clarence Bwambale, the Rwenzururu kingdom spokesperson, says that it was not easy to claim the bodies because they were burnt beyond recognition during the raid at the palace.



Bwambale also says that there are plans to hold prayers at the burial site, but they may not be allowed since the barracks can't easily be accessed.



Before the bodies were buried, the government rejected a proposal by Kasese district authorities that the bodies be buried in a mass grave.
A Malaysian man is protesting what he claims was an unjust termination from oil giant Chevron Malaysia Limited (Caltex) by supergluing his hand to their headquarters floor.

Fadzilah Abdul Hamid worked as a Caltex petrol station operator for the past 17 years at two sites in Kelana Jaya and Kampung Subang, Selangor, until being served an unexpected notice in May ordering him to vacate both locations within 30 days. The letter claimed that his termination was due to unpaid charges outlined on a circular regarding the Implementation of Self-Service at Petrol Stations.

Photo: Muhamad Yusuf Azmi/Facebook

However, Muhamad Yusuf Azmi, a social activist representing Hamid, refuted the letters claims via Facebook. The Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry, explicitly stated in the circular that all costs for implementing self-service including the set-up of automatic devices and calibration of those devices are to be borne fully by the oil company, and no direct or indirect charges are to be made by the petrol station operators.

Hamid tried to object his wrongful termination through official channels but never received a response from the company. On November 21 he went to the Caltex headquarters in Kuala Lumpur in an attempt to meet with officials, but they ignored him again. That is when Hamid decided to take the drastic measure of gluing his hand to the floor.

Photo: Muhamad Yusuf Azmi/Facebook

The operator Fadzilah Abdul Hamid turned up at 11 am to meet the companys upper management, but until 3.30pm, not a single representative met him, Azmi told Malay Mail Online. Until today, after 175 days since the date of the termination claim, no response has been received.

Azmi has also shared photos of Hamids protest against Caltex on Facebook, while Hamids wife brought food and other supplies to support him. Azmis translated caption reads, My heart hurts when I see Fadzilah and his wife resorting to these measures.

Photo: Muhamad Yusuf Azmi/Facebook

Its so sad because the authorities have not taken action against Chevron. They have broken their promises towards him. I appeal to the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (KPDNKK) or any other party to help this citizen in need.

According to the activist, Hamid is only one of several other Caltex operators who had repeatedly asked the oil company to review the charges, but he is the first to take such direct and desperate action.
Emigration is a big problem nowadays, and even breathtakingly beautiful mountain villages in Switzerland are not immune to its bite. But that doesnt mean they are willing to give up without a fight. Just look at Albinen, where the local council will vote soon on proposals that could save it from extinction.

Exactly how does a shrinking mountain village plan to ensure its survival? Well, the 240-member community in the canton of Valais is betting that the gift of 70,000 Swiss francs (about US$71,000) will lure outsiders into settling there. The amount above is what the village will pay to a family of four willing to move to Albinen. Adults stand to receive 25,000 francs and the allotment per child is 10,000 francs.

Photo: Xenos/Wikimedia Commons

The local council has been pushed into action by Albinens residents, who believe the policy may very well ensure the future of the village. Eager as the locals are for an infusion of fresh blood, they remain level-headed and their offer comes with some strings attached, as ATS learned from commune president Beat Jost.

For starters, dont rush to pack your bags and haul your family to this Alpine nook if youre over 45. (Sorry!). In addition, the newcomers must agree to stay put for at least 10 years plus buy a house or renovate an existing one in the village. The building must be worth minimum 200,000 francs and serve as a permanent residence, not simply a get-away home for holidays and vacations.

If you take the villagers up on their offer but skip town before the designated deadline, youll have to pay back every franc.

Albinen, which sits a mere six kilometers (3.7 miles) from the renowned Leukerbad spa resort, has lost three families to the city-bound exodus within a few years. The defectors took away eight children, which forced the village school into closure. Jost admitted jobs were few and far between, but also noted that two towns, Visp and Sion, are a mere half an hour away by car.

Photo: Sandrine Z/Wikimedia Commons

The local council believes that the carrot it dangles is an investment in the villages future, as the community newsletter puts it. The plan will profit Albinen by bringing tax revenues from the newcomers, construction contracts, and customers for the local shop. In a best-case scenario, even the village school will reopen, according to the newsletter.

Will the plan turn Albinen into a bustling, thriving spot? Highly unlikely: the highest population count showed 380 and that was way back in 1900. But it would definitely be heartwarming to see this picturesque village succeed in staving off its demise.

Despite their natural beauties, many Swiss villages are suffering a fate similar to Albinens. Charming chalets may attract tourists, but they cant sustain a local economy single-handedly. According to Thomas Egger, head of the Swiss Working Group for Mountain Areas (SAB), villages all across Switzerland are losing residents at an alarming rate.



In response, mountain communities are getting creative in their attempts to stem the outflow. Another Valais municipality, Inden, offers discounts in the local shop. Safien, a town in the canton of Grisons, provides its young residents with public transport subscriptions, Egger said. The weirdest plan might be the one devised by Corippo, the tiniest mountain village in Switzerland. With only 13 residents left, Corippo hopes it can survive by becoming one giant hotel.
5W Public Relations has been named PR agency of record by The Trade Desk, a global technology platform for buyers of advertising. The agency has placed The Trade Desk CEO and founder Jeff Green and other executives into features in Recode, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, and in broadcast segments on CNBC Cheddar TV. 5W has also highlighted the company's key announcements such as its partnership with White Ops to fight ad fraud and the launch of its Connected TV product in publications such as Adweek, MediaPost and AdExchanger.

Troy, MI-based Bianchi Public Relations has been named PR agency of record for law firm Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C., Bianchi will help Jaffe with media relations around its key business law growth areas  including entrepreneurial start-ups, technology, real estate, estate planning, intellectual property, privacy and data security, mergers and acquisitions, and nonprofits. It will also promote the firm's upcoming 50th anniversary and related future-focused activities. Adriana Van Duyn, a 13-year veteran with Bianchi, will direct the firm's work for Jaffe as account supervisor.



Scott Signore

Matter Communications has been named AOR for ZappRx, a Boston-based digital health company aimed at reducing the administrative burden associated with prescribing specialty medications. Matter will support a comprehensive PR program for ZappRx, including executive and customer-focused media relations, social media, awards, speaking, branding, messaging and overall strategic counsel. As we continue to increase our focus on the healthcare industry, ZappRx is an excellent example of the kind of companies we want to represent, said Matter CEO Scott Signore. We are looking forward to a long and fruitful partnership.


Brent Colburn



Princeton University has named Brent Colburn VP-communications and PA, effective Feb. 1. Colburn comes to Princeton from the top communications post at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic organization founded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician and educator Dr. Priscilla Chen. He has also served as national communications director for the 2012 Obama For America campaign and has held senior communications and public affairs positions at several cabinet-level federal agencies. In his new role, Colburn will oversee the presentation of Princetons objectives and activities, serve as a spokesman for the university and have responsibility for the offices of communications, public affairs, government affairs, and community and regional affairs. Brents talent, energy and values are impressive, and I believe that he will be a spectacular colleauge for all of use at Princeton, said Princeton University president Christopher L. Eisgruber.



Elisabeth Bromberg

Lippe Taylor has added Elisabeth Bromberg to its senior leadership team as senior VP, digital & social. Prior to joining Lippe Taylor, Bromberg was director of global social media at Kiehls, leading multiple award-winning digital campaigns. She has also worked for such companies as Publicis Groupes MRY, VaynerMedia, MullenLowe Profero, and L'Oreal, developing campaigns for Neutrogena, Listerine, Coca-Cola, Dove, TRESemme, Smirnoff, and Kiehl's, among others. At Lippe Taylor, she will provide social strategy thought leadership, as well as supporting the execution of brand partnerships and helping lead social creative development work. Hiring Elisabeth, who played a key role in making Kiehls into a hugely successful brand in social media, enhances our ability to help clients accelerate digital transformation, said Maureen Lippe.



Lara Cohn

Krupp Kommunications (K2) has brought on Lara Cohn as vice president. Before coming to K2, Cohn led teams and managed PR programs for such brands as GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, Bayer, American Red Cross, PetSmart and the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. She began her communications career in television at NBC News. Lara supports K2s vision with her proven track record of developing and executing high-impact integrated marketing communications campaigns, K2 CEO Heidi Krupp said. Her journalism background, passion for good storytelling and focus on clients needs will continue to elevate the agencys growth.



T.R. Straub

Global search and leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates has hired T.R. Straub as a member of its Corporate Affairs Officers Practice, based in Washington, D.C. Straub was most recently at executive search firm Heyman Associates, where he was a senior VP. At Russell Reynolds, he focuses on searches in corporate communications, public affairs and government relations. With increasing political volatility globally, many large organizations are looking for best-in-class communications, public relations and government affairs executives. T.R.s work in this space will serve to further strengthen our capabilities for clients seeking to ensure that they have and are developing the talent with the highest potential in these critical C-suite roles, said Constantine Alexandrakis, leader of Russell Reynolds Associates U.S. Region.
23/11/2017 - Personal income taxes are playing an increasingly significant role in the tax mix as revenues from social security contributions and consumption taxes fall, and corporate tax collections remain low, according to a new OECD report.

Revenue Statistics 2017 shows that, on average, OECD countries are becoming more reliant on personal income tax (PIT) revenues, with social security contributions (SSCs) and taxes on goods and services declining as a share of total tax revenue. The average share of PIT in total taxation increased from 24.1% in 2014 to 24.4% in 2015, while the respective shares of SSCs and taxes on goods and services (including VAT) fell slightly, according to the report. Corporate income taxes, which fell significantly during the financial crisis, have not recovered, remaining flat at around 8.9% of revenues.





On aggregate, the average tax-to-GDP ratio rose again in 2016, to 34.3%, compared to 34.0% in 2015. Increasing tax-to-GDP levels were seen in 20 of the 33 OECD countries that provided preliminary data in 2016, while tax-to-GDP levels fell in the remaining 13 countries. (Download data in Excel).

In 2016, the highest tax-to-GDP ratios were recorded in Denmark (45.9%), France (45.3%) and Belgium (44.2%) and the lowest in Mexico (17.2%), Chile (20.4%) and Ireland (23.0%). All but 5 countries (Canada, Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg and Norway) have increased their tax-to-GDP ratio since 2009, the post-financial crisis low-point for tax revenues in the OECD; most of them (18) reaching or exceeding their pre-crisis high point.

This years report also confirms three emerging trends in the OECD average tax structure since the global financial crisis: firstly, the share of PIT in total taxes initially fell, from 23.7% in 2007 to a low of 23.2% in 2010, before increasing steadily to 24.4% in 2015; secondly, and by contrast, the share of SSCs and taxes on goods and services initially rose to highs of 26.6% in 2009 and 33.0% in 2010, before decreasing steadily until 2015, to 25.8% and 32.4% respectively; and finally, the share of corporate tax revenues fell during the crisis, from 11.2% in 2007 to a low of 8.8% in 2010, and has since remained relatively stable, at 8.9% in 2015.

In 2016, the largest increases in tax-to-GDP ratios were seen in Greece (2.2 percentage points) and in the Netherlands (1.5 percentage points). The largest decreases were seen in Austria and New Zealand, at one percentage point. On average, the OECD tax-to-GDP ratio is now higher than at any point since 1965, including prior peaks in 2000 and in 2007.

Revenue Statistics contains a special feature on complementary indicators of tax revenues, which considers revenues as a proportion of gross national income, per capita, and relative to total revenue and expenditures. It finds that on average, taxes accounted for 82% of total revenues in the OECD in 2015. The share of taxes in total revenues remains lower than prior to the financial crisis, even though the OECD average tax-to-GDP ratio has surpassed pre-crisis levels.

In 2015, the share of subnational tax revenues has remained relatively stable relative to 2014 in both federal and unitary countries. In federal countries, an average of 24.6% of revenues is attributed to subnational governments, with approximately one-third attributed to local governments and the remainder to state governments. In unitary countries, an average of 11.8% of revenues is attributed to local governments. Government-owned social security funds account for 21.1% and 24.4% in federal and unitary countries, respectively.

Further information, including country summaries, on Revenue Statistics 2017 is available at: www.oecd.org/tax/tax-policy/revenue-statistics-2522770x.htm.

Media queries should be directed to Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (+33 6 2630 4923), media officer Lawrence Speer (+33 1 4524 7970) or the OECD Media Office (+33 1 4524 9700).

Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.
'Localised' flooding has occurred overnight in Portarlington after parts of the river flowing from Mountmellick to Portarlington reached its highest ever recorded level yesterday.

Director of Services at Laois County Council, Kieran Kehoe, has said that localised flooding has occurred overnight in the town.

"Botley Lane, the Bog Road and Patrick Street have experienced localised flooding. We have been in discussion with Offaly County Council since last night. We are setting up diversions along these routes.

"There is a stop/go system on Patrick street at the moment and it is likely that this road could be closed off later today," he said.

AA Roadwatch have already reported that Patrick Street is closed and all motorists should avoid the town.

The Portarlington Rd (R423) is closed between Mountmellick and Portarlington due to flooding.

Traffic delays have been reported in the area.

Laois Civil Defence and Irish Defence Forces were deployed to Portarlington this morning to help people that have been hit by flooding.

Crews currently providing sandbags to Patrick street, Portarlington pic.twitter.com/TAFlApsaIp  Laois Civil Defence (@LaoisCivilDefen) November 23, 2017
DJ Gardy Girault Is Elevating The Haitian EDM Movement To The World Stage Okayplayer

The creator behind the Rara Tech EDM movement explains how his new music genre is changing perceptions toward Haiti.

You know, it feels like the world is finally associating Haiti with its positive, rich culture, said Gardy Girault, fresh off his evening flight from Dubai and just a few days after performing his EDM trademark, Rara Tech, in several European cities. Hip-hop is still dominating in the U.S.; we participate and make our own version of it, but we also have something very unique to offer the worldour own tradition.

Were lounging in Miamis Wynwood Yard, discussing the ways in which afro-pop has built a connecting bridge for the African diaspora, and how Jamaicans and Puerto Ricans have historically used their soft power, their musical export, to entice investment in their respective country. Haitian culture, on the other hand, has been reluctantly insularHaiti is a francophone country surrounded by Latin American and Caribbean neighbors, whose marginalized groups tend to spark cultural movements in Spanish or English.

Its officially Haitis time now, said Girault, sitting on a high barstool, grinning and nodding his head.

Techno and House, which originally derived from its black American protest roots in Detroit and Chicago, is now infused with a fresh hybrid of traditional Haitian sounds called Rara, a form of festival music celebrating African ancestry with vodou (voodoo) and Taino indigenous elements. Visit the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the epicenter of the movement, and an eclectic community of DJs and artists will steer aficionados towards Gardy Giraults legendary dance party, No Passport.

Girault, through his infectious music production, is spreading the No Passport vibes to American audiences. He is playing alongside Haitian EDM star Michael Brun at the sold-out Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York on November 24th. @Okayplayer caught up with Girault to continue our conversation on the lifeline of the burgeoning wave and what he wants the world to know about Haiti.
Darlene Kent spent hours this week dialing up out-of-town relatives to check in and send warm greetings ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Shes outlived her two sisters and both parents, so this time of year can leave her feeling a little lonesome.

But thanks to a decades-long tradition of the Prince Hall Masons in Nat Hunter Lodge No. 12, Kent enjoyed a hot turkey dinner on Thursday.

Kent was one of about 95 residents at Evans Tower and more than 500 at five other Omaha Housing Authority complexes that were treated by Lodge No. 12 on Thursday.

The organizations members have been serving Thanksgiving dinners for about 45 years.

Freddie Clopton is past president of Lodge No. 12 and said hes been serving Thanksgiving meals to OHA residents for 12 years, the last seven of which have been at Evans Tower, at 3600 N. 24th St.

He said people like Kent have kept him vested in the tradition.

One of the main reasons we do this is we want to give back to the community, and we feel this is one way to do that, because we know that not everybody is always as fortunate to have family to spend Thanksgiving with, Clopton said.

The Thanksgiving meal effort was one of several happening around Omaha on Thursday.

Archbishop George Lucas visited over lunch with homeless men, women and children at the Stephen Center. The Omaha Salvation Army expected its volunteers to deliver about 1,400 dinners to older adults across the city, and the Siena-Francis House, with a little help from Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, planned to serve about 400 homeless families and individuals on Thursday evening.

Cloptons group began its preparations by defrosting and roasting turkeys on Tuesday at the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, 2412 Ames Ave.

Members of Lodge No. 12 donated 31 turkeys to this years effort and worked for about a day and a half to roast them all. Once cooking was complete, the turkeys were carved, divided into large serving pans and refrigerated.

Then, about 3:30 a.m. Thursday, volunteers began arriving and cooking the side dishes: green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, macaroni and cheese and dinner rolls.

Sometimes people volunteer from other lodges. Sometimes theyll bring their kids, and everyone takes a job. It all comes together, Clopton said.

Between 11 and 11:30 a.m., about 60 volunteers split into six teams and delivered meals to six OHA towers: Jackson, Evans, Florence, Benson, Underwood and Pine.

Two of the towers, Underwood and Evans, are for senior housing. Each tower has its own kitchen for serving.

The lodge used to host the dinner, but the event got too large through the years and members thought it was best to go to the residents.

Evans Tower residents made sure to express their gratitude.

They do this every year and its such a good thing they take time out of the holidays to serve us, Kent said. The food is good and they give you a lot of it.
Charles Mansons bizarre plan to ignite a race war was unknown to Los Angeles in August 1969, as were his pathetic collection of young, rapt followers, his bizarre misinterpretation of Beatles lyrics and Manson himself. What L.A. knew at the time was that seven people had been brutally murdered in two homes, apparently by invasion-style killers who left little clue as to motive. Crime was up nationwide, the turbulent 1960s were nearing their finale and the world seemed to have lost its mind. The city was terrified.

The closest modern comparison may be disco-era New York, eight years later, when a killer who called himself Son of Sam stalked the streets with a .44 caliber revolver, shot 13 people and wrote mocking notes to police.

In both cases, though, the killers instigated urban panic, gained media notoriety before being caught and, afterward, cemented their presence in the public mind and popular culture, assisted by endless news stories, books, documentaries and dramas.

Manson was a rank amateur by the murderous standards set by more recent killers, who acted in single spasms of violence. But in the near future the names of those killers will be recalled only sporadically, perhaps with the help of a quick Google query and a check of Wikipedia.

But we will remember Manson.

Why is that? After the murders and the trial, Manson did nothing but sit in prison  as befits someone who misused his odd power over others by directing them to commit multiple murders. He forfeited his freedom and died an inmate.

But the rest of us have kept him alive. While some media organizations have made a point not to repeat the names of suspected mass killers in the belief that doing so gives them unwarranted fame, there is no such decorum with Manson. He is a fixture in the popular imagination, a point underscored in the film Natural Born Killers, itself a send-up of the intimate link between mass murder and pop culture. Guns N Roses recorded a middling song Manson wrote. Pop act Marilyn Manson named himself partially after the killer.

Its hard to argue that Mansons notoriety did him any good. Although he was sentenced to death, he was spared after a court ruling striking down Californias death penalty statute. But he never got parole, despite repeated pleas for release.

The place of the Manson killings in the public mind may help ensure that none of the surviving murderers is ever paroled, leaving this nagging thought: If these killings had not resonated as they did, and were just seven scattered murders, would the five have been released long ago? Is parole actually granted or withheld based on the crimes themselves and on evidence of remorse and rehabilitation, as it should be, or instead based on the publicity that can be marshaled for or against the inmates?

For Manson himself, though, there never was much of a question at all. He was such a troublemaker in prison that he was almost certainly never going to be released. Hes been effectively dead to the world for more than 40 years, except to the extent that we insisted on keeping him alive in print, on television, in pop music and film. It would be nice if now, finally, we would just let him die.
A Nov. 19 World-Herald article states that opium production in Afghanistan has nearly doubled from 2016 and that Afghanistan is the worlds top cultivator of the poppy from which opium and heroin are produced.

The U.S. military has been in Afghanistan for nearly 17 years and hasnt done enough to eradicate the very product that is contributing to the epidemic of opioid abuse in this country.

At the end of World War II, the U.S. and other countries sent advisers and business people to help Japan create a vibrant and productive economy. We can see how that effort has paid off.

So why havent the United States and other countries sent more agricultural experts to Afghanistan to replace the poppy fields with crops that can make money for the farmers, feed the people of Afghanistan and the world?

The reality of this mess it that not only do we have our military personnel dying in Afghanistan; we have civilians in the United States dying from the crop produced in that country.

The time for new strategies is over. It is time fish or cut bait in Afghanistan. It only took Russia nine years to realize that there was no end to fighting in Afghanistan.

For some odd reason, the U.S. is unwilling to learn from history.

Clark R. Crinklaw, Omaha
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Opalesque Industry Update - POLARIS Investment Advisory AG announced the appointment of Dr Hanspeter Bader, Baldomero Falcones, Dr Thomas Friese and Matthias Knab as Members of its Senior Advisory Board. "We are delighted to have gained such renowned and globally-networked experts for our company. With this step, we are substantiating our claim of having in-depth expertise and an extensive network in all areas of alternative investments," comments Rolf Dreiseidler, Managing Partner of POLARIS. Dr Hanspeter Bader is regarded as a proven expert in private equity. He worked for Unigestion for 17 years, most recently in the position of Head of Private Equity/Private Assets. Dr Thomas Friese most recently held the role of Head of Global Pensions at the Nokia Group. Prior to this, he was in charge of infrastructure projects and investments at the Siemens Group for 26 years. Matthias Knab is the Founder and Managing Director of Opalesque, a global news and research portal for alternative investments. The Advisory Board is to play a key role in supporting the further development of investment strategies and the asset manager selection process at POLARIS. Another focus of its work will be to tap new customer segments as part of a European expansion strategy and to provide advice to POLARIS' existing customer groups. In this context, Baldomero Falcones will contribute his country-specific knowledge and network as Senior Advisor. Baldomero Falcones has worked as a Member of the Management Executive Committee of Banco Santander and as Chairman of MasterCard International, among other roles. He is also a Co-founder of Spain's biggest private equity fund. "The establishment of such a top-class Advisory Board marks another milestone in the development of POLARIS. We are confident that we will be able to gain additional experts with knowledge of specific customer groups and regional expertise as Senior Advisors in the near future. This way, we are systematically pursuing our goal of offering our asset management partners extensive sales support across Europe," says Claus Hilpold, Founder and Managing Partner of POLARIS Investment Advisory. POLARIS Investment Advisory AG POLARIS Investment Advisory AG specialises in business development and marketing for asset managers with alternative investment strategies in liquid alternatives and private market investments. Since 2008, we have been supporting asset managers with their market entry, fund-raising and customer support activities with institutional investors in Europe. The asset managers we support are examined by POLARIS together with renowned experts as part of an extensive due diligence process and are selected only if they meet the highest quality standards.
The Midland Fire Department urges community members to use caution when decorating for the holidays.

Based on National Fire Protection Association and U.S. Fire Administration data, an estimated 230 home fires involving Christmas trees and 150 home fires involving decorative lighting occurs each year. This could cause property damage, injury and deaths in some cases.

The Midland Fire Department offers the following advice for picking, placing and lighting trees, holiday lights and other decorations:

Make sure Christmas trees or holiday decorations do not block exits. In the event of fire, time is of the essence. A blocked entry or exit puts families at risk.

If you choose a fresh tree, make sure the green needles don't fall off when touched; before placing it in the stand, cut 2 inches from the base of the trunk.

Needles on fresh trees should be green and hard to pull back from the branches. Needles should not break if the tree has been freshly cut. The trunk should be sticky to the touch. Old trees can be identified by bouncing the tree trunk on the ground -- if many needles fall off, the tree is older and has most likely dried out, which is a fire hazard.

Make sure the tree is watered daily. Well-watered trees are not a problem, but a dry and neglected tree can be.

Avoid placing your tree close to a heat source such as a fireplace or heating vent. The heat will dry the tree out, causing it to more easily ignite by heat, flame or sparks. Be careful not to drop or flick cigarette ashes near a tree. Don't put up your live tree too early or leave it up for longer than two weeks.

Before putting up holiday lights, inspect them for frayed wires, bare spots, gaps in the insulation, broken or cracked sockets, and excessive kinking or wear. Use only lighting listed by an approved testing laboratory.

Do not link more than three light strands, unless the directions indicate it is safe. Connect strings of lights to an extension cord before plugging the cord into an outlet. Make sure to periodically check the wires; they should not be warm to the touch.

Choose holiday decorations that are flame-resistant or flame retardant.

Make sure candles are in stable holders, and place them where they cannot be easily knocked down. Keep candles at least 12 inches from anything that can burn. Never leave a room or go to bed with candles burning.

For more information, call the Midland Fire Department at 989-837-3410, email Midland's Fire Marshal Tony Lelo at alelo@midland-mi.org, "like" Midland Fire Department on Facebook, or visit www.cityofmidlandmi.gov/fire.
Stabilizing two riverbanks at Imerman Park is part of the work planned next year to clean up contamination in the Tittabawassee River. The park is a river launch site at 3495 Midland Road in Saginaw.

The process of cleaning up rivers near Midland's Dow plant has been ongoing for years from dioxin and furans -- byproducts of former waste management practices at the plant. The Saginaw-Tittabawassee Rivers Contamination Community Advisory group (CAG) had its last meeting of the year on Nov. 20, where clean up progress for 2017 was discussed, as well as what the future plan entails for decontamination.

To organize the cleanup process, the Tittabawassee River was divided into seven segments ranging from 3 to 4 miles each. Each year a portion of the river is cleaned up, while a plan is formed for decontaminating the next area, traveling downstream.

Decontamination work in 2017 included cleaning up 34 properties.

Cleanup in 2018 will mostly focus on Segment 5 - an about 2.7 mile stretch that begins about 15 miles downstream from the Tridge, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson. The work will include stabilizing 10 eroding contaminated riverbanks and cleaning up two sediment deposits using a combination of dredging, excavating, capping and monitored natural recovery.

It is important to stabilize banks that are contaminated so they don't recontaminate the river, explained CAG president David Sommers.

"It's slow and steady, but it's methodical," Sommers said. "We're making progress."

In terms of the potential risk of using the river, people are still fishing and using it, Sommers said, which should generally be safe as long as they are aware of a potential risk.

"Anybody that's working around the waterway should be aware there could be a contamination and watch postings on consuming fish levels, and hunting," Sommers said. "If you decide to go fishing, at least be aware of it."

To determine what areas need cleanup, Dow officials test properties and consider them contaminated if dioxin and furan levels are at least 250 parts per trillion.

The Dow Chemical Co. carries out the cleanup with oversight by the EPA and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Officials from the agencies were also present at the Nov. 20 advisory group meeting.

Residents may not be directly affected by the cleanup work because it is so far downstream, the EPA spokesperson said, but the EPA will work closely with the community to provide updates on the project.

One of the more frequently visited areas that will be cleaned up in 2018 is Imerman Park, which will require Dow and the EPA to work closely with the local park department to minimize impact.

Two main goals the EPA has for the cleanups are limiting the spread of contaminated riverbank soil and sediment to reduce dioxin levels, and helping keep contamination from building up in fish in the Tittabawassee River.

Cleanup is also taking place at some floodplain properties that flood frequently, the EPA spokesperson said, which will be worked on during the spring after the highest expected water levels recede.

What's next?

The EPA will draft a cleanup plan next year for decontaminating a segment of the river located about 17 miles downstream from the Tridge, said Diane Russell, EPA community involvement coordinator.

Community input will be gathered on a proposed plan cleanup plan during CAG meetings next year, as well as a formal comment period. The input process will probably be around summer or fall next year, Russell said.

The CAG group meeting with Dow and environmental officials allows important input from the community to affect decision-making of the clean up plan, Sommers said. There are people who are concerned or upset about the contamination, but overall Sommers said the current situation is "a good working relationship."

Before the meeting adjourned, a CAG member expressed interest in forming a long-term subcommittee to increase access to the riverbank for community use in the future.
To the editor:

After the terrible shooting tragedy which occurred in Texas, I knew that certain powers in this country would use this sad situation as an argument for gun control in our country. However, the exact opposite mentality is prevailing. If ever there was a time in the history of this country where the populace distrusts the government, it is now.

This is why Donald Trump was elected. There is no faith in the FBI, the CIA or the Justice Department, or a number of politicians . It is because of the corruption of the above mentioned agencies that these same powers want to disarm the American public in order to more easily control and dominate U.S. citizens. The irony and truth is that it was an armed citizen outside of the Texas church who heroically shot at and chased down the armed murderer. Recently, a similar situation occurred at a small Southern church. Again, it was an armed 22-year-old citizen who shot the murderer before he could do more harm.

The concealed firearm law states that guns are not allowed at schools, hospitals and churches. Is it any coincidence that these establishments seem to be targeted because they are defenseless?

There is a church protection act which allows someone to carry a firearm in the church. Renowned clergy have suggested that this act should be utilized by adept volunteers, and that backpacks not be allowed in churches. I tend to agree with this cost-effective safety precautionary measure.

I also note a strange similarity in a number of the mass murders in this country involving guns. Many of the murderers spent time in government medical or VA hospitals. Many complained of hearing voices and an inability to sleep. Some of them killed themselves after their killing spree. We know about the government research and experimentations of mind altering drugs including LSD. Given this, I would hope that the murderers corpse is not cremated without an autopsy by the government.

There are simply too many mass gun murders occurring lately with no reasonable explanation. Historically, the Romans always said to look at who benefits in each particular situation that does not otherwise seem to make sense. We can see a disturbing pattern of manipulation of events by creating ones own events. Here is how it goes:

1. We want an outcome. 2. We create a crisis. 3. We propose a solution to the crisis which just happens to be the outcome that we wanted.

This technique as we know it was historically used in Nazi Germany. Goebbels was a master at using it to manipulate the German people.

In todays situation, there are forces that want people to give up their guns. Therefore they create or knowingly facilitate mass murders. They then tell the public that if they give up their guns, we can avoid mass murders.

Personally, I have made a decision that I will carry my concealed weapon everywhere it is legal to do so. Prior to this tragedy, I carried my weapon only for travel across the country.

I am suggesting that more Americans arm themselves in order to be prepared to help in an emergency, and defend yourselves and family. Our police cannot be expected to be everywhere. I personally would be in favor of a local tax increase to help fortify our local police department.

My husband wanted me trained and properly licensed in firearm safety. The Michigan State Police will advise you. Cabelas in Saginaw and Ace Hardware in Midland will also help with gun sales and will recommend professionals to provide instruction and licensing.

Ken Paxton, the attorney general for the state of Texas has recommended that businesses and churches be armed to protect themselves, and that we should be armed to protect ourselves and others."

DEBRA WARNER-MILLER

Midland
BLOOMINGTON  Shirley LeVeque knows about helping the less fortunate.

In 2002, LeVeque and her husband, Richard, helped make Christmas for dozens of local families by rescuing hundreds of usable toys and shoes from trash containers at Goodwill Industries in Normal, according to a Pantagraph story published that Christmas Eve.

This year, LeVeque will be on the receiving end, thanks to The Pantagraph's Goodfellow Fund and generous donations from the community.

Since my husband died, Ive been on a limited income, $900 a month, and $380 of that is rent. ... Im on pain medication constantly, and I have no family that lives here in town, so Im kind of on my own, she said. I haven't always been this poor, and I always try to help people, but now I need a little help myself."

LeVeque will be one of nearly 2,000 people helped next month by the fund, which pays for food baskets, blankets, hams and gift cards that are distributed throughout Central Illinois by Pantagraph employees.

Goodfellow, in its 90th year, raised more than $55,121 last year and helped 1,308 people in Central Illinois, including residents in nursing homes and needy children and families.

The first list of this year's donors will be in todays edition. Donations can be made year-round; donors usually give in honor of loved ones, soldiers, pets, co-workers or emergency workers.

For Karen Munz of Fairbury, donating to Goodfellow is a way to honor her son, Brian, a firefighter who died fighting a fire in 2008, and her father, Charles Haley, "who liked to help people." The retired substitute teacher donated $50.

"I like to give to funds where the money goes directly to helping people, and the Goodfellow (fund) goes directly to helping people, she said. "Being a teacher, I saw the great need for clothes and food in Central Illinois.

The Woman's Club of Bloomington-Normal donated $250 in part because Goodfellow supports senior citizens, said co-president Donna Dickson.

Many of our members are senior citizens, and they know the need, she said. This is a white-collar community, but there are so many that dont have enough. I feel like its our duty to help when we can. Our main purpose of our club is to be philanthropic and help out those who need it.

To find those who need a hand, The Pantagraph partners with groups that include The Salvation Army and Safe Harbor shelter, PATH, Mayors Manor, Heartland Head Start, St. Marys Church, Mid Central Community Action, Western Avenue Community Center, Childrens Advocacy Center, Livingston County Housing Authority and Peace Meals.

For St. Mary's, the partnership has been very fruitful, said Tina Boettcher, director of religious education.

"Our congregation is very generous to people in need, but theres so many people who fall through the cracks, she said. (Goodfellow) has made a huge difference to so many families.

Boettcher said she's been touched by how recipients react to their Goodfellow packages.

"Theres been many tears when they come to pick it up. Theyre so touched that somebody cared, she said. "More than one family has gotten food through Goodfellow and invited friends over who dont have a meal. They are always so generous with everything they have."

LeVeque is an example. She said every part of her package gets used every year, including the parts she doesn't personally need.

My neighbor that lives behind me has Huntingtons (Disease), and I gave her the blanket so she could wrap up when she visited her mother out of state on a bus, she said.

Boettcher said she hopes to see Goodfellow, and its donors, helping the community for years to come.
LINCOLN  A 22-year-old Wood River woman, who was a graduate of Normal Community West High School, has been identified as the victim of a fatal crash Wednesday night on Interstate 55 near Lincoln.

Courtney E. Littell was killed when a southbound car driven by Adriana Rodrigues, 26, of Wenona, went off the the road, traveled through the median and struck Littell's vehicle in the northbound lane, according to Illinois State Police. The 9 p.m. crash occurred near milepost 128.

Littell died as a result of blunt force trauma, Logan County Deputy Coroner Chris Sprague said on Friday.

Rodrigues, who was treated for minor injuries, was issued tickets for improper lane usage and driving without insurance, said police.

Littell was a student at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, who graduated from Normal West, said Sprague.

The accident was the second fatal crash over the holiday weekend in Central Illinois.
SPRINGFIELD  The Illinois Supreme Court has denied Alan Beaman's appeal in his claim that three former Normal police officers urged prosecutors to charge him in the death of his former girlfriend.

Beaman, now 45, was released from prison in 2008 after the high court reversed his murder conviction in the 1993 strangling death of Jennifer Lockmiller, an Illinois State University student who was Beaman's former girlfriend.

In a Facebook posting after the court decision Wednesday denying his appeal, Beaman said "while I am grateful that the same court released me over nine years ago, they still had an obligation to follow through in seeking complete justice for the 13 years I spent wrongfully convicted."

The Supreme Court ruling was issued without comment.

Beaman, who now lives in Rockford with his wife and two children, received a certificate of innocence from the state and a pardon from former Gov. Pat Quinn.

An earlier appellate court ruling stated there was no evidence of pressure or undue influence by the officers on former McLean County prosecutor James Souk to file the murder charges against Beaman.

David Shapiro, one of the lawyers who handled the unsuccessful lawsuits filed in federal and state court since Beaman's release, also expressed disappointment with the ruling that ends Beaman's legal options against the police and prosecutors involved in the Lockmiller investigation.

"Alan is an American hero massively wronged and denied the justice and recompense he deserves," said Shapiro.

The alleged misconduct by former Normal officers Tim Freesmeyer, Dave Warner and Frank Zayas should not taint the public's view of all law enforcement and prosecutors, Beaman said in his social media post.

"In order to properly back the badge, it is essential to protect our mostly good cops from the bad attitudes and now glorified entitlement of a few of their properly trained peers. Police misconduct has become an epidemic and while our courts look the other way, it will only get worse," wrote Beaman.

On Friday, Beaman told The Pantagraph he supports a Conviction Integrity Unit in McLean County to review previous murder convictions. State's Attorney Jason Chambers said previously that he could consider such a unit if the county saw a high volume of potential exoneration cases.

Beaman also supports better police training to prevent the use of what the Supreme Court termed tenuous evidence in his case and greater awareness of the potential harm of wrongful convictions.

"American deserves better than a polarized and willful ignorance of the potential fallibility of our public officials," said Beaman.

No forensic testing or investigative work is pending in the case, according to NPD Chief Rick Bleichner.
BLOOMINGTON  Lawyers for the media and accused murderer Kirk Zimmerman have filed arguments with the Illinois Supreme Court about whether the public should have access to sealed records in the case.

The court has agreed to review both defense lawyer John Rogers' arguments that information about Kirk Zimmerman should not be disclosed until after a jury is chosen, and media arguments that the documents should be unsealed.

Zimmerman, 59, is accused in the November 2014 shooting death of his ex-wife, Pam Zimmerman, in her east-side Bloomington office.

In December 2016, Judge Scott Drazewski granted a defense request to keep two pre-trial motions under seal until after jury selection. Rogers argued that the state did not intend to use the information at trial and releasing it publicly could prejudice Zimmerman.

The ruling came despite arguments by The Pantagraph, WGLT and the Illinois Press Association that the records filed with the McLean County Circuit Clerk are public documents. The state took no position.

Court documents and hearings are presumed open unless a judge closes them based on a specific exemption, according to federal and state laws.

In March, the Fourth District Appellate Court sided with the media and sent the issue back to Drazewski for another hearing. Zimmerman has appealed that ruling.

In a Supreme Court brief, media lawyer Don Craven argues that such motions play an important role in deciding what evidence may be heard by a jury.

Craven cited an instance, filed by The Pantagraph and other media in the 2003 DeWitt County murder case against Maurice LaGrone Jr., in which the appellate court reversed a judge's decision to close the courtroom for a hearing on potential evidence.

Zimmerman's right to a fair trial could be harmed if the "inflammatory and sensitive evidence  including prior bad acts evidence" was released ahead of trial, Rogers argued in his Supreme Court brief.

A trial date has not been set on the murder charges that have kept Zimmerman confined to his home since in release on bond in November 2015. The suspect was arrested in July 2015 after an eight-month investigation by Bloomington police.

According to the state, the motive for the killing stemmed from an ongoing dispute between the Zimmermans over child support and the victim's threat to take Zimmerman back to court if he did not pay back child support.

The Supreme Court has not set for oral arguments on the records issue.

Zimmerman is due in court Dec. 20 for a hearing on other pending pre-trial motions.
DWIGHT  Lindsey Jensen had trouble suppressing her emotions when she walked into her classroom at Dwight Township High School.

No one here knows why youre so shocked," a senior boy told her. "We all knew you would win.

Jensen was named 2018 Illinois Teacher of the Year by the Illinois State Board of Education. She was selected from hundreds of nominated teachers around the state.

No one was more shocked than me, said Jensen who teaches English and literature. It doesnt mean Im the best teacher in the state, it means I was chosen to be the voice of all teachers in the state.

Her students say the title suits her well.

She makes learning enjoyable through her actions and how she explains things. She relates to all of us. She also has this great amount of work ethic, which is very inspirational, said Scott Schultz, a senior. Its hard to imagine any teacher being better than Mrs. Jensen.

Senior Brandon Dahlstrom said Jensen is really energetic and takes pride in her work.

She loves what she does and that reflects in her teaching, said Dahlstrom.

Jensen said her love of education sprouted in grade school and high school, where exceptional teachers proved that learning was cool.

I just fell in love with teaching and education. I knew I wanted to teach junior high or high school because of my sense of humor and personality. I wanted to be a role model for students on the brink of adulthood, said Jensen.

She earned degrees from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and Oakland City University in Indiana. Shes working on her doctoral dissertation at Illinois State University.

Teaching is the most important job in the world. In what other career do you impact kids on a daily basis? she said.

Jensen lives in Dwight and has taught at the high school for 10 years.

"There are a lot of really wonderful things happening in Illinois schools. I hope people take note of those good things," she said.

Principal Dan Kaiser said Jensen's teaching methods inspired his daughter to become a teacher.

"We all know teachers who are great at forming curriculum and engaging with students, but Lindsey brings an element of energy into her classroom," said Kaiser. "She creates a special bond with the kids. You can tell by the students who come back after graduating to thank her."

The wall behind Jensen's desk in her classroom is plastered with hundreds of senior photos from previous students.

"I want kids to know if they don't like their world, they can change it, and education is the best way to do that," said Jensen.

"Teaching is hard. It can be heartbreaking. You work incessantly," she added. "With this award, I want to showcase all the work teachers do. We're more than glorified babysitters; we're teaching the next generation of adults."

Jensen is the first teacher from The Pantagraph area to receive the award since 2000.

According to ISBE, Jensen will have an opportunity to share her knowledge and expertise outside the classroom. Jensen will be available beginning in next spring to speak at teaching workshops, education conferences and community meetings. She will represent Illinois at the NASA Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., and the National Teacher of the Year program sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers in partnership with Voya Financial.
BLOOMINGTON  State police reported a tragic start to the holiday weekend, with two crashes claiming two lives in Central Illinois.

In Logan County, a 22-year-old woman died after her car was hit by a wrong-way driver on Interstate 55. In Ford County, a 43-year-old woman died after her car went off the road and rolled several times, throwing her out of the car.

The Logan County accident occurred at 9 p.m. Wednesday in the northbound lanes at milepost 128.5. Police said Adriana Rodrigues, 26, of Wenona, was driving south when her car left the road, crossed the median and struck a northbound car, whose driver died.

That victim has not been publicly identified pending notification of relatives. Rodrigues was taken to a Springfield hospital with minor injuries and issued tickets for improper lane usage and no insurance.

The northbound passing lane was closed until almost 2:30 a.m.
100 years ago

Nov. 24, 1917: The Rev. J. N. Elliott, formerly of Second Presbyterian Church, was back in town for a speech. He is now director of home missions of Illinois for the Presbyterian Church. He works with struggling churches and looks for communities where new churches may be built.

75 years ago

Nov. 24, 1942: Mayme Borges, 56, was fatally injured when she tried to beat a Big 4 passenger train to the West Front Street crossing. A truck driver said the flashers were working when she began to run across the tracks. She was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where she died.

50 years ago

Nov. 24, 1967: The people of Washington, Ill., have fought Washington, D.C. and won. The proposed improvements to U.S. 24 would have caused removal of the square in the middle of town. They ran a campaign to stop it, enlisting help from U.S. Sen. Charles Percy, and prevailed.

25 years ago

Nov. 24, 1992: Bakers Square, a chain restaurant known for its food but famous for its pies, will open near Vernon Avenue and Veterans Parkway in Normal. Bakers Square is part of VICORP Restaurants, and has 180 stores across the country. It should be open in June.
Patently Apple reported earlier this month that the iPhone X would be on sale in 14 more countries on November 24 and one of the countries listed was South Korea. Despite the government raid on Apple yesterday in an effort to mar the iPhone X's launch today, it didn't work as you could see by the lineup at the SK Telecom store in Seoul this morning.









Korea's top three wireless carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus began iPhone X sales today. SK Telecom noted last week that preorders of the iPhone X sold out in 5 minutes.









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: Shops in Raja Bazaar and other areas in Patna remained closed on Thursday in protest against the killing of Jitendra Kumar Gandhi, a businessman who was gunned down on Tuesday night by four motorcycle-borne criminals who are yet to be identified.

Chanting anti-administration slogan about poor law and order situation in the state capital, the traders demanded immediate arrest of the killers and intensification of police patrol across the city to deter growing crime against businessmen and other citizens.

Speaking on the occasion, the victim's cousin Pankaj Sinha said that he expected the police to catch the killers soon and also provide adequate security to businessmen who, he said, remained soft targets for the criminals. He also demanded installation of security cameras in these areas to deter criminals from carrying out their dastardly plans.

The protestors also took out a protest march between Ashiana Mor and Sheikhpura to highlight growing crime against businessmen in Bihar.

The incident occurred on late Tuesday night when Gandhi was returning home in his motorcycle after closing his Khadim shoe store in Raja Bazaar. His 24-year old son Abhiyu was sitting on the backseat when four criminals on two motorbikes forced him to pull over.

The criminals tried to snatch the bag containing cash from Gandhi's possession. When Gandhi showed reluctance, one of the masked criminals pulled a gun and shot him in his neck from a close range killing him instantly.

Before police could reach the crime scene, the criminals were long gone.

So far no one has been arrested in the case.
Russia, Iran, Turkey Call For Syrian 'Congress' Between Government, Rebel Forces

11/24/17

Report by RFE/RL; photos by Islamic Republic News Agency

Russia, Iran, and Turkey have agreed to organize a "congress" involving Syrian government and opposition forces in an effort to end the Middle East country's six-year civil war, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on November 22. Putin made the comments at the end of trilateral peace talks with his counterparts from Iran and Turkey -- Hassan Rohani and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, respectively -- in the southern Russian city of Sochi.



Russia, Iran, and Turkey at the trilateral Syria peace talks

"The Iranian and Turkish presidents have supported the initiative to convene the Syrian national congress," Putin said, citing a joint statement issued by the three leaders at the end of their summit.



"We have agreed to hold these very important events at the appropriate level and ensure the participation of representatives of broad layers of Syrian society in it," Putin said.



Putin said the leaders had instructed diplomats, security, and defense officials to work on the composition and date of the congress to be held in Sochi, calling it a first step to establishing an "inclusive dialogue" among warring parties.



"It is planned to bring together at the negotiating table delegates from different political parties, internal and external opposition, ethnic, and confessional groups," he added.

It was not immediately clear how the new congress would differ from two parallel rounds of peace talks surrounding Syria's bloody civil war, which has killed more than 310,000 people, created 6.1 million refugees, and internally displaced some 5 million Syrians since 2011.



The United Nations sponsors peace talks in Geneva in search of a political solution, while Russia, Iran, and Turkey co-sponsor negotiations in the Kazakh capital, Astana, that focus on battlefield issues and involve some rebel forces and the government.



Russia and Iran back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict, while Turkey and the United States support differing rebel groups fighting against his government. The extremist Islamic State (IS) group has also entered the fighting and is opposed by all other sides.



Moscow's two-year air campaign in Syria has given Assad an upper hand in the conflict, while Russia has also faced accusations of killing hundreds of civilians with its aerial bombardments, allegations it has denied.

Rohani called the trilateral talks "very useful" and added his support for the so-called Congress of National Dialogue between Syrian factions in Sochi.



Earlier in the day, Erdogan stressed the "need to make significant progress on the political solution. I believe we will make critical decisions here."



Before the start of the talks, Putin had said there is a "real chance" to end the civil war but that a political solution to the conflict would require compromises from all parties involved, including the Syrian government Moscow is backing.



"There is a real chance to put an end to this yearslong civil war," Putin said.



"It is obvious that the reform process will not be simple. It will require compromise and concessions from all parties, including obviously the Syrian government," he added.



It was not immediately clear what Putin was referring to in the way of "concessions" by the Syrian government.



The fate of Assad has been a stumbling block in previous rounds of peace talks.



The United States and opposition groups have at times said his removal was a prerequisite to a peace deal, although U.S. officials, both under former President Barack Obama and current President Donald Trump, have eased off those demands.



Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported on November 22 that a draft of a final statement of Syrian opposition groups meeting in Riyadh calls for Assad's ouster before the start of any transition period.



Some members of the Syrian opposition have suggested the communique could drop mention of Assad, which would represent an easing of long-standing demands that he not have a role in any transition period.



The groups are meeting in Saudi Arabia in a bid to create a single representative body for a new round of UN-sponsored talks in Geneva on November 28.



With reporting by Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP, TASS, and the BBC
Mr Razak Kojo Opoku, President and Founder of the Concern Voters Movement has commended Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) and the Board for implementing reforms at the Authority.



He said after just nine months in office the management and the Board of the NLA had succeeded in implementing a number of reforms and innovations that deserved commendations.



Mr Kojo Opoku praised the Director General and the Board in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, on Thursday.



He mentioned some of the reforms as the abolishment of the 7.5 per cent Income Tax on the Commission of the Lotto Marketing Companies (LMC) and the yet to be restored 25 per cent Commission to the LMCs.



With the removal of the 7.5 per cent Income Tax, the LMC would now enjoy 25 per cent Commission and this will significantly improve the conditions of service for them.



Mr Kojo Opoku said the restoration of the 25 per cent commission will equally compete fairly with the 30 to 35 per cent commission of the Banker-to-Banker Lottery, bearing in mind the reliability and dependability of the NLA as a Government Institution.



He said the government in the 2018 Budget also removed the 5 per cent Withholding Tax on Lotto Prizes through the efforts of Mr Osei-Ameyaw and the new NLA Board, adding that, this laudable initiative will increase patronage from the LMCs.



The CVM President said with the passage into law of the National Lottery Act, 2006 (Act 722) and Lottery Regulation, 2008 (L.I. 1948), the first since 2006 by the Board and Management of NLA.



He said Mr Osei-Ameyaw also decided to Register and License Lotto Operators, Agents, Sub-Agents and writers of Banker-to-Banker Lottery under the Public-Private Partnership.



This, he said, would enable them to operate legitimately and pay their taxes to Government in order to increase revenue mobilization for Government through Lottery as well as create jobs for people who are interested in Private Lottery.



Mr Kojo Opoku said this initiative would help Government to join forces with the Licensed Banker-to-Banker Lotto Operators to identify and fight against money laundering and recalcitrant operators, including foreigners, who are operating Banker-to-Banker Lottery in the Country.



He said within the few months in office, Mr Osei-Ameyaw and the Board of NLA had paid over GH26 Million into the Consolidated Fund, as compared to the GH16 Million paid in 2016.



Mr Kojo Opoku said the Implementation of the NLA owned self-regulated, self-monitored and self-controlled Platform, as part of measures of maximizing revenue for the Government as well as cementing the 25 per cent commission to the LMCs will be launched soon.



The over 30, 000 modernised lotto kiosks known as E-Kiosk introduced by Mr Osei-Ameyaw and the Board of NLA will be a multi-purpose centre for staking Lotto as well as serving as a receiving point for the payment of Light and Water Bills, GRA Revenue Collections as well as Banking Transactions.



He said as part of the NLA efforts in fulfilling the vision of President Akufo-Addo's Government, Mr Mnagement ansd Board of the NLA would be creating over 100,000 jobs for Ghanaians through initiatives such as Recruitment of District Managers and Supporting Staff to manage the 216 NLA District Offices.



Also the recruitment of over 60,000 employees to work in the NLA E-Kiosks and recruitment of over 30,000 Security Personnel to protect the NLA E-Kiosks across the Country.

Source: GNA









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The Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, says the governments decision to employ some 100,000 graduates under the Nation Builders Corps (NBC) is a right move to deal with the volatile unemployment situation.



He said the country required sustainable measures to help provide jobs for the youth to avoid serious problems in the future.



Mr Ofori-Atta, who was speaking at the PwC 2018 budget forum, said the programme would be planned to ensure that it did not negatively affect the public sector wage bill.



The forum is an annual initiative by the PwC to help break down government policies as announced in the budget to partners and stakeholders of the audit and accounting firm.



Mr Ofori-Atta said the graduates would be engaged in critical areas such as; the collection of taxes, enforcement of sanitation rules and delivery of health and education services in the various district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies.



Mr Ofori-Atta said the NBC was a well-thought-out programme meant to address the national security risk posed by growing graduate unemployment.



Meanwhile, the Minister said the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund would be reviewed to allow for additional resources to be committed to the fund.



He said the move is to restructure the Fund to allow for mobilisation of foreign and private capital for critical infrastructure development.



We are looking at the GIF law so that we move the fund to about US$1 billion or even US$2 billion to be a key player in our infrastructure drive, he stated.



The GIIF was established in 2014, in pursuant to the GIF Act, Act 877 of 2014 with the mandate to provide financial resources to manage, coordinate and invest in a diversified portfolio of infrastructure projects in the country for national development.



Dr Eric Osei-Asibey, a lecturer at the Economics Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, commended the government for fiscal consolidation and a stable economy but wondered if the growth would be sustainable over the medium to long term.



On lending rates, Dr Eric Osei Asibey, urged the government to put in place measures that would ensure a rapid decline of lending rates in the country, insisting that the move would be a major first step to ensure the private sector drive inclusive and sustainable growth.



However, he said, there was the need for government to adopt measures to mobilise enough domestic revenue to avoid a cut in expenditure to ensure fiscal consolidation.



If you want to ensure fiscal consolidation, you look at either increasing your revenue generation or cutting expenditure or the combination of the two but we have so far achieved fiscal consolidation largely because we cut expenditure and that is good but to what extent can we continue to do that, he explained.



Mr Abeku Gyan-Quansah, Associate Director PwC Ghana, said it was time stakeholders developed a home grown dispute resolution mechanism to deal with business disputes between partners.

Source: GNA









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Government is to establish a GHs 400 million fund toward agriculture financing and crop insurance schemes, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has indicated.



The Nana Akufo-Addo government also intends to support the development of agri-business start-ups through grants and provide specific technical assistance and tax incentives to support agro-processing, packaging, and market access to provide a boost to Ghanas agriculture sector.



As well, government intends to abolish duties on some agricultural produce processing equipment and machinery, launch a pension fund for cocoa farmers, develop modern storage facilities through the One-District, One Warehouse programme and open up key food basket zones through road construction and irrigation projects.



Speaking at the opening ceremony of an 8-day agricultural show leading up to the 33rd National Farmers Day, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said these measures, which are contained in the 2018 budget, form part of the Akufo-Addo governments programme to make agriculture and agri-business a major part of Ghanas economy and provide jobs for the youth.



Nana Chairman, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has a vision to modernize and transform agriculture in order to expand the opportunities for job creation, and to provide the basis for agro-processing industries. The vision is the outcome of careful assessment of the fundamental capacity of the Ghanaian economy and in line with our economic history. It is a history that tells us that massive and sustained investment in agriculture is the surest pathway to accelerated economic development.



In addition, Government realizes that its aim of promoting agro industries as a key strategy for achieving rapid industrialization, through the concept of One District, One Factory cannot be achieved without a solid agriculture base that thrives on agribusiness.



In a bid to reverse the decline in agriculture, government is developing a major intervention known as the Akufo-Addo Agricultural Plan for the modernization of agriculture in Ghana, Dr Bawumia disclosed.



Under the charge of the President, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in early November this year assembled a number of Ghanaian and foreign experts for a 2-day meeting to discuss the future of agriculture in this country. The outcome of the conference was fed into the 2018 Budget for our agricultural transformation strategy.



I wish to assure you therefore that our policies and strategies have prioritized agricultural development in Ghana and will do everything possible to meet the needs of the agricultural sector. Every effort is being made to make agriculture very attractive to our teeming youth, especially unemployed graduates the Vice President added.



According to the Vice President, critical issues such as financing and technical support are receiving serious attention with the assistance of Ghanas development partners to facilitate and sustain interest in agriculture.



Yes we know that the challenge is enormous, but there is nothing a determined people cannot do. I invite you all therefore to take an interest in the opportunities on offer, to help revolutionize Ghanas agriculture and make it a shining example to the world. The examples of countries like Japan, China, South Korea, Brazil, Israel and Thailand among others are there to inspire us. We have done it before and can surely do it again Dr Bawumia declared.



Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia expressed special thanks to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, for granting a special dispensation for the celebration of the Farmers Day during a time of mourning for the late Asantehemaa.



All well-meaning Ghanaians owe the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and the entire Asanteman a great debt of gratitude for agreeing to host this years National Farmers Day under special circumstances.









For those who may not know, in an unusual break with tradition, the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II magnanimously agreed to host National Farmers Day during a period of mourning coming before the funeral of the Queen mother of Asanteman, the Late Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem. We are specially grateful because this is a period when all major activities and funerals are temporarily suspended in honour and respect for a loving and distinguished mother of Asanteman.



This remarkable gesture is not only the highest expression of selflessness and commitment to nation building, but a true mark of statesmanship consistent with the character and reign of Otumfuor Osei Tutu II.



Nana, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, we say thank you and we are very grateful.



The 2017 edition of the National Farmers Day will take place on Friday 1st December, 2017 in Kumasi. Unlike previous celebrations, the organisers have included an eight day national agricultural fair ahead of the Farmers day celebration. It is under the theme Farming for Food and Jobs.



Present at the launch was the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Akoto Afriyie; Minister for Aquaculture and Fisheries Hon Elizabeth Afoley-Quaye; Minister for the Interior Hon Ambrose Dery; Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Nurah Gyeile, Deputy Minister for Agriculture Hon Kennedy Osei Nyarko; and other senior government officials.



Nana Adu Gyamfi, Otumfuos Adontenhene, was chairman for the occasion.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Deputy Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has stressed that it is better for children to learn and eat under trees than hawk on the streets and go hungry.



Reacting to Member of Parliament of North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwas statement that the 2018 budget did not provide enough funds to address the current challenges the programme is facing, Dr Adutwum said Ill rather have children learning under trees that walking on the streets and selling dog chains. Ill rather have children eating under trees than going hungry.



The Former Deputy Minister for education accused government of failing to do enough to resolve the many challenges facing the Free Senior High School.



According to him, government did not allocate enough funds for the rolling out of the project and have repeated the same thing in the 2018 budget by allocating just GH1.13billion for the programme for the next academic year.



He said, When we told our colleagues on the other side that the allocation of the GH400 million was inadequate they called us names, today the finance minister came to parliament and told us the allocation was inadequate they have done the same thing again in the 2018 budget".



He added that the whole Ghana expected that this 2018 budget under education would have come with a marshal plan, a rescue package for the free SHS disaster but this budget has not made an allocation to address these challenges.



To avoid being accused of engaging in propaganda, Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa presented some graphical demonstrations of students in some Senior High schools in the country, sitting on cement blocks to study and others learning under trees whilst others had to keep their belongings (trunks and chop boxes) outside and sleep on the floor due to lack of the necessary infrastructure.





In his defence, Deputy Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, said the NPP administration was aware that the rolling out of the Free SHS programme will face some challenges before deciding to go ahead with it.



We did not go into the implementation of Free Senior High School with allusions that its all going to be hunky-dory but no child can wait their turn until everything is great in this country before they can have the opportunity for secondary education, he said.



He added that as a child who grew up in the rural area who almost did not go to Senior High School, I sit here, and I feel like the poor children of this nation who have now been given the opportunity to attend Senior High School are now being insulted.



Dr Adutwum said the Akufo-Addo government has created a level platform for all to get adequate Senior High School education and with time all the challenges were going to be over.





Source: Ghanaweb









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The Tema Metropolitan Assembly is the Ghana District League Tables (DLT) highest ranking district in 2017, returning for a second year in the top spot after being kicked out of 1st place by La Nkwantanang-Madina in 2016. This means, Tema has Ghanas highest level of development - scoring the highest ever score of 80. The 216th position however, went to Krachi East in the Volta Region with a score of just 50.6.



Produced annually since 2014 by UNICEF Ghana and the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), with the collaboration of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Office of the Head of Local Government Service, the District League Table assesses the level of development in all 216 Districts across the country by ranking their level of wellbeing. The DLT is the only tool in Ghana that allows stakeholders to track the progress of development across the country to determine which districts are making progress and which are struggling and need greater support. The Table aims to improve transparency and accountability in national development by making progress public.



Overall, the DLT proves that Ghana is making progress in development, although at a gradual rate as the average score has improved. However, with an eventual target of a score of 100, the majority of Districts are still far from this goal. Furthermore, the gap between the top and bottom remains large as Temas level of development is 60% better than Krachi Easts.



Surprising findings this year include the fact that the Upper West region  considered one of Ghanas poorest - had the highest average regional score. This is due to reasonably high indicators in its Districts across the DLT sectors . In particular the region has some of the highest rates of communities that have ended open defecation, although its education indicators are still low.



Another key result is that being a District with a high level of poverty does not necessarily mean that it will score poorly in the DLT. This implies that other factors, such as infrastructure, isolation, leadership, or climate are also important. The findings also show that funding allocations to the local level from the Governments District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) are not allocated in favour of struggling Districts. The more deprived Districts at the bottom of the DLT are not receiving greater support to help them face their challenges.



Sarah Hague, Chief of Policy for UNICEF said While it is encouraging that Ghanas overall level of development appears to be slightly improving, we should be concerned that the gap between the top and the bottom of the District League Table remains so large. We encourage Government to more effectively target resources based on need to those Districts that are struggling most.



Franklin Oduro, CDD-Ghanas Deputy Director indicated that it is important for citizens and key duty-bearers, particularly at the district level to use the findings in the DLT report to engage in evidence-informed dialogue and discussion of the pathways to improve district development outcomes.

Source: UNICEF









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Nungua Warehouse Ghana Limited, a premium importer, distributor and warehousing company, has been presented with the Golden Award for Quality and Business Prestige by a Spain-based business association, the Global Trade Leaders Club (GTLC).



The widely expanding Nungua company was chosen to receive the award, whose recipient is adjudged by the business members of the GTLC. The GTLC decoration is mainly to recognize excellence in organizational quality and image by businesses from all sectors.



The award was received on behalf of the company by a team including the Chief Executive, Mr. Collins Otoo Okley and the Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Wendell Otoo during a ceremony at the plush Melia Castilla Hotel in the Spanish capital Madrid over the weekend.



The award came as welcome news to the company, a preferred wholesale distributor of ethanol and industrial chemicals in Ghana.



We are very excited and moved to work harder to get more global recognitions like this. We have been working tirelessly over the past decades and we are glad to see it paid off. Hopefully, this is an indication of many accolades to come the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Collins Otoo Okley, said after the grandiose event.



For his part, the Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Wendell Otoo used the occasion to highlight the need for motivation and hard work to strive for excellence in business.



An important factor that has taken our company global is motivation. We always make sure that all employees are well motivated to move with the drive and mission of the CEO. This is something I dont seem to find everywhere in the Ghanaian working environment and I'll encourage employers to also do more."



There are a lot of opportunities available in Ghana, but the problem is most people do not strive to go the extra mile. It is necessary to inculcate the habit of applying precise strategic thinking and assessment to our daily activities to constantly push us forward," he asserted.



The group from Nungua Warehouse Ltd subsequently paid a courtesy call on Ghanas Ambassador to Spain, Mrs. Elizabeth Adjei. She expressed her delight at seeing Ghanaian Companies soar high in global business.



The Global Trade Leaders Club, a grand association of businesses from across the world, annually presents the Golden Award for Quality and Business Prestige to recognize excellence in organizational quality and image by businesses from all sectors.



The GTLC states that it instituted the award as a title of quality and excellence and a recognition of the trajectory of the enterprises of the men and women leading them.







Nungua Warehouse Ltd, operating since 1989, is a private international trading and distribution LLC.



The companys niche is in supplying the highest quality ethanol and industrial chemicals to clients across a spectrum of businesses. Based at Spintex in Accra, with branches in the Tema Harbour, Kumasi, Kpong, Techiman, Togo, Benin and Cote d'Ivoire, the company has built an ultra-modern warehouse complex and offices at Togo purposely to store and distribute ethanol in that country, Benin and the other landlocked French-speaking countries within the sub region.



Presently, Dangote Cement relies heavily on Nungua Warehouse Ghana Limiteds warehouse facilities for the storage of its cement in Ghana.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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THE WAIT for the creation of the proposed Ahafo Region out of the Brong-Ahafo Region, is no longer bearable as far as the chiefs, indigenes and opinion leaders in the Ahafo part of the Brong-Ahafo Region are concerned.



Spokesperson for the petitioners who are calling for the carving of the Ahafo Region out of the Brong-Ahafo Region, Nana Ansah Adu Baah II, Omanhene of Yamfo, said this in an interview with DAILY GUIDE yesterday at the Osu Castle, Accra. That was when the petitioners appeared before the Justice Stephen Alan Brobbeys nine-member Committee of Enquiry on the creation of new regions, to make their case on why they think there is the need for the Ahafo Region to be created.



According to him, the creation of the Ahafo Region is long overdue and that the people of Ahafo had for the past 31 years suffered disappointment from successive governments in honouring their plea to have the region created.



The creation of the region is long overdue and the President (Akufo-Addo) even said it when he came there so its long overdue. We want a separate region, a separate region should be carved out of the Brong-Ahafo Region for Ahafo people, he said.



The Justice Brobbey Commission was formed by President Akufo-Addo under Constitutional Instrument (CI) 105 to among other things, inquire, pursuant to petitions, into the need and substantial demand for the creation of new regions and, thereby, the alteration of the Western Region, Brong-Ahafo Region, Northern Region and Volta Region. About six proposed new regions are on the table for their creation to be defended by the petitioners before the commission.



It is the same CI 105 that mandates the commission to make recommendations to the president, based on its findings, and to specify the issues to be determined by a referendum and the places where the referendum should be held  when it makes recommendation for the creation and alteration of regions.



At its first sitting on Tuesday, November 21, the commission met with petitioners from the Western Region who are pushing for the creation of the Western North Region, and on Wednesday, November 22, it granted petitioners from the Volta Region  who are calling for the establishment of the proposed Oti Region out of the Volta Region  the opportunity to make their case.



The meetings are being held in camera and journalists are only allowed to cover the introductory sessions and have brief interactions with the petitioners.



Genesis



The Omanhene of Yamfo reported that since the days of former Presidents Hila Limman, Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor, the people of Ahafo had been consistently filing petitions, calling for the establishment of the Ahafo Region but nothing has been done in that direction.



Asked what they were taking to the negotiation table before the commission, Nana Ansah Adu Baah II said, All that we are going to say is that we have written so many petitions to the government from President Dr. Limmans time. We have written to former President Jerry John Rawlings, we have written to former President J.A. Kufuor and now we have written another one to President Nana Akufo-Addo.



All what we are saying is that the region is so big that the regional minister cannot finish everything before his tenure ends. So we need a separate region; we want development in our area, the region, according to him.



Aside the size of the region, we want development, that is all, schools, universities, hospitals, roads and good drinking water.



Other petitioners are Nana Fosu Gyeabour Akoto II, Bechemhene; Nana Osei Kofi Abiri I of Kenyasi; Osuodumgya Barima Appia-Dwaa Boafo, Omanhene of Hwidiem Traditional Council; the youth and other opinion leaders from the area.



3 More Petitioners



The second petitioners from the Brong-Ahafo Region (Bono East) are expected to appear before the commission Tuesday, November 28, at the Osu Castle when it returns from break, to also make their case. They will be followed by petitioners from the Northern Region (Gonja Land) on November 29, and on December 5, those from Mamprugu side of the Northern Region will take their turn.



Caption: Nana Ansah Adu Baah II (second right) conferring with his colleague traditional rulers from Ahafo at the Osu Castle yesterday

Source: Daily Guide









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Ms Otiko Afisa Djaba, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection on Friday launched the 16-Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence in Accra.



The Activism is an International Calendar campaign against Gender-based violence which begins every year on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and falls on November 25 and ends on the International Human Rights Day on December 10.



It is a campaign which emphasises that gender-based violence in any form is a human rights violation and unacceptable.



The16-days of activism campaign will continue to contribute to a world free from Gender-Based Violence especially for women and girls, including other vulnerable groups such as the aged, persons living with disability and orphaned children.



It will include; more awareness-creation activities that comprises attracting attention through advocacy, generating public support to effectively prevent and address Gender Based Violence in education, health and job market among others.



She said Gender based violence refers to atrocities meted out to individuals based on their gender, either males or females and cited some examples such as child marriage which is targeted at young girls and not boys, female genital mutilation, different widowhood rites for males and females, women tagged as witches and maltreated whilst men are not tagged as wizards.



Ms Djaba said, over the years, the campaign had different themes which had helped address different dimensions of gender-based violence in the world and this years global theme for the campaign is, "Leave No One Behind: End Violence Against Women and Girls.



She said there could not have been a more appropriate theme than the one selected for this year, adding that statistics by the National Domestic Violence Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service indicate that from January to March 2016, 79 men (perpetrators) were arrested for defilement while no woman was arrested for same purpose and 187 females were defiled as against 11 males within the same period.



The Gender Minister said, leaving no one behind means prioritising and putting people at the centre of development and placing the progress of the most marginalised groups and communities first (women and girls being all too often at the top of the list).



She said the campaign urged governments all over the world, development partners, civil societies, traditional rulers, the media, individuals and the general public to address the structural causes of inequality and marginalisation that affect women and girls and the marginalised in general.



Ms Djaba said Gender-Based Violence was complex in nature, and that, addressing such issues needed a multi-dimensional approach through the implementation of human rights frameworks to ensure that both state and non-state actors were held accountable for acts of violence against women.



She said the Ministry through the Domestic Violence Secretariat would appeal to relevant authorities and stakeholders not to relent in their efforts to end Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Women and Girls.



Ms Djaba advocated activities such as Health Walks to be organized in all regions, a National Durbar to be held at Assin Fosu in the Central Region, a debate between St Thomas Aquinas and Labone Senior High Schools, Outreach to some selected schools, Radio and Television Talk Shows, Health Education and Screening, Stakeholder Consultations on the Draft Ghana Report on the implementation of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability Stakeholders Meeting on Inclusive Policy on Education and Forum on Disability.



The Minister emphasised that violence against women and girls was a crime against humanity and punishable by law and warned perpetrators against abusing another, no matter the situation as violence against women and girls had no justification.



She said the Ministry was strengthening its existing networks, while establishing new ones and would commit resources where necessary to ensure that more awareness activities were carried out to name and shame peroetrators.

Source: GNA









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A Deputy Minister of Communication Vincent Sowah Odotei was on Thursday, November 23, 2017 sacked from Parliament when he appeared to answer questions about his ministry.



The Minority argued the junior minister was not well placed to answer probing follow-up questions hence the need to defer the session.



According to Starr News Parliamentary correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan, the Speaker Prof. Mike Oquaye had no option than to yield to the request of the Minority to send the deputy minister away.



The Minority insists the substantive Minister of Communication Ursula Owusu-Ekuful should appear before the House to answer the questions.



Meanwhile, there is a standoff in Parliament as the Speaker refuses to recognise the leadership of the Minority prior to the commencement of the budget debate. The impasse has resulted in suspension of sitting for about an hour.



Alhassan reports that the Speaker together with leadership of both sides are currently locked up in a meeting to resolve the issue.

Source: Starr News









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A Senior Law lecturer at the University of Ghana Law School, Dr. Raymond Atuguba has said that without any legislation binding all political parties to sustain the Akufo-Addo governments Free Senior High School [SHS] policy, it can collapse at anytime.



Speaking at a constitutional review conference at Dodowa, today (Friday), on retooling the constitution from a political to a developmental one, the senior law lecturer at the University of Ghana Law School stated that the country needs a long term development plan that will bind the programme forever, before any political party who is not in line with it decides to call it off.



We need a long term development plan that is binding on all governments, binding at a certain level of governance that for example every government will say implement free SHS, he stated.



Dr. Atuguba is of the hope that a legislative instrument, through constitution review, will protect the Free SHS policy from political interference.



Lets say that NDC wins in 2020 or 2024, you know they can cancel free SHS? what sense does that make? but right now without any binding national development plan, they can do that. With a binding national development plan, it indicates that every government must work progressively towards free SHS and no government can go against the laws binding it. And they can even add that when a government does that the system can go to the Supreme Court and stop them, he said.

Source: Elizabeth Semiheva Bedi/Peacefmonline.com









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Hello there! I'm Penny, author of Penniless Foodie in the Wild , an adaptable cookbook for frugal people like myself who like to eat great food. I'm a single mom of four who loves to blog about how to have the best life possible while living on a relatively low income. I love frugal travel, gluten free cooking, and standing up for things I am passionate about, like mental health and awareness of abuse.I'm always happy to receive emails from readers at pennilessparenting@yahoo.com
Harrisburg-based federal officials on Friday accused four men of illegally returning to the United States after being deported.

Authorities allege that Fausto Lubo-Castillo, 33, of Mexico was deported in 2008 and returned a short time later. He allegedly was found in York County and faces up to two years in jail.

Authorities allege that Andres DeLeone-Cedillo, 25, of Guatemala, was deported in 2012 and subsequently returned to the United States. He allegedly was found in Dauphin County and faces up to two years in jail.

Authorities allege that Marcelo Barranco-Ramirez, 28, of Mexico was deported in 2007, 2014 and 2015. He was allegedly found in York County and, because he was previously convicted of illegal re-entry, faces up to ten years in prison, authorities said.

Mario Peralta-Lopez, 32, of Mexico is accused of being deported in 2013 and 2016. He was allegedly found in Dauphin County. Because he was convicted in 2015 of possession with intent to deliver cocaine, he faces up to 20 years in prison, authorities said.
A Harrisburg man wasn't punished excessively when he was sentenced to 18 to 36 years in prison for a fatal shooting outside a city bar, a state Superior Court panel has found.

And a Dauphin County jury was justified in rejecting Shane Barker's claim that he committed the killing in self-defense, the state judges found in an opinion Judge Anne E. Lazarus issued this week.

Barker's sentence stems from his third-degree murder conviction for the October 2014 slaying of Jerome Buckner outside Queenie's Cafe at South 14th and Swatara streets.

Police said Buckner was shot four times as he fled from Barker. Barker claimed he fired the shots after Buckner attacked him.

While Barker conceded he might have over-reacted because he was intoxicated, he stressed that his fear was exacerbated by the fact that he had been stabbed 11 times during an unrelated assault in 2000.

Lazarus turned aside Barker's contention that his sentence was too severe and didn't properly consider the impact on his five children.

County President Judge Richard A. Lewis weighed all the appropriate factors in choosing a penalty, including the fact that Buckner had nine children, Lazarus found.

She cited Lewis' statement at the sentencing hearing that there is no evidence Buckner had in fact attacked Barker. "You brought a gun to an argument and the results are tragic," Lewis told Barker.
The victim's family gave a round of applause when the penalty was imposed, but a state appeals court has voided the life prison sentence for a Harrisburg teen who killed his cousin.

That Superior Court decision wasn't contested, since the Dauphin County District Attorney's Office agreed that, due to a change in the law, Niejea Stern's life without parole sentence is no longer enforceable.

The state judges vacated Stern's sentence this week in ruling on his appeal of his 2016 conviction by a county jury for the August 2014 murder of 18-year-old Malik Stern-Jones in the city's Hall Manor public housing complex.

Prosecutors said Stern, who was then 15, shot Stern-Jones at point-blank range as the victim sat in a car. Days before the slaying, Stern had escaped from juvenile justice officials who had detained him on a robbery charge.

In ordering Stern's resentencing, Superior Court Judge Jacqueline O. Shogan noted that a state Supreme Court ruling issued this year - after Stern was sentenced - invalidates his penalty. That state Supreme Court ruling is based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision which essentially bars the imposition of life without parole sentences for juvenile killers.

So, Stern must receive a new sentence that allows him some shot at eventual parole.

Shogan's court rejected the rest of Stern's appeal and kept his first-degree murder conviction intact.

Stern failed to convince the state judges that his rights were violated when county President Judge Richard A. Lewis allowed prosecutors to present recorded testimony from a witness who was murdered before Stern went to trial. Although the witness wasn't available for cross-examination by the defense during the trial, Stern's attorney had ample opportunity to question the man during Stern's preliminary hearing, Shogan found.

She also discounted Stern's claim that a photo array police showed witnesses was biased against him because he was the only person pictured who was dressed in green, the color of a hoodie witnesses said the killer was wearing.
Carol Ann Rissmiller of Berks County died Thursday as the result of an auto accident in Chester County, state police said.



State police said the crash took place at about 3:45 p.m. on Route 41 in Atglen Borough. Rissmiller was a passenger in a vehicle that crossed into the opposite lane and collided with two other vehicles.

People in all three vehicles were taken to the hospital. Their names and details of their conditions weren't immediately available.

State police gave no information on the cause of the crash and said they are investigating.
Shoppers hoping to take advantage of Black Friday bargains say they were duped thanks to an online company.

WPXI reports shoppers at Walmart in Indiana, Pa., said a third-party online company entered before the store's sale started, loaded up, and left at 6 p.m. Thursday with toys and other sale items.

Shoppers even took to social media to express their anger. One shopper posted video of numerous items being removed from the store. They were then loaded on what appears to be a U-Haul truck.

How would you feel if you went out to Walmart or any other retail store for the Black Friday sales. just to find out... Posted by EDmund Porta on Thursday, November 23, 2017

Staff at the Walmart told WPXI they couldn't confirm what happened, but said they are investigating.
It won't come in time for this Christmas shopping season.

But those behind the flourishing credit card skimming industry could feel more heat in Pennsylvania under a bill now headed for a vote in the state House of Representatives.

The bill, which passed the House Judiciary Committee on a 25-0 vote this week, would make it illegal to use or possess the hard-to-detect credit card skimmers, which are used to copy identifying information off cards at gas pumps, cash machines and other common points of payment.

It would also criminalize the act of transferring such stolen information onto a different card without the first card user's approval.

Graded as a third-degree felony, the new crime would in many cases carry a stiffer punishment than the theft charges that are currently the standard for prosecution for credit card theft cases.

Punishments for theft charges vary with the value of the amount stolen, and, according to York County District Attorney Tom Kearney, "usually when these people are caught the penalties are not all that great."

A felony conviction, meanwhile, carries a greater chance of prison time for a first offense, longer terms and stiffer fines.

In addition, under the terms of House Bill 1918, the grading for possession or use of a skimming device would jump to a second-degree felony for a second or subsequent offense.

State Rep. Kristin Phillips-Hill

Bill sponsor Rep. Kristin Phillips-Hill believes a change in approach is needed that includes criminalizing everything about the way many would-be thieves carry out the act.

"There is no other use of those devices, other than to defraud you of your money," Phillips-Hill said at a press conference before Tuesday's vote.

Outlawing scanners would help Pennsylvania catch up to what more than 30 other states have already done, hopefully making Keystone State consumers less of a target in the process.

"Our laws have not kept up with the technology and this is very important to get done," the second-term Republican from Dallastown said.

Phillips-Hill said she was prompted to tackle the issue after seeing reports on the growing issue of credit card theft, which, coupled with her own past experience as a victim, forced her to consider the growing scope of the problem.

According to trade newsletters covering the payment card industry, fraud losses in the United States hit $8.45 billion in 2015. That was 38.7 percent of the worldwide total, even though the U.S. generated just 22.9 percent of global purchase volume.

The bill. which still needs final passage by the full House and consideration in the state Senate before it can be signed into law, has attracted support from both the law enforcement and business communities.
MIDDLEBURG -- The state Supreme Court has refused to accept an appeal from a contractor who has been convicted or charged in approximately a dozen counties including Dauphin.

Tuesday's decision was on an appeal Robert A. Kolovich, 60, took of his 2016 conviction in Snyder County in which he was found guilty of theft and deceptive business practices.

He was sentenced to 6 months to 5 years consecutive to a Bradford County jail term of 111/2 to 23 months. He also was ordered to make restitution of $11,600.

Charges against Kolovich in the various counties stem from his now defunct Lifetime Choice Windows business near Selinsgrove.

He was accused of defrauding customers by signing contracts, accepting down payments but not doing the work or issuing refunds.

Excuses he provided for not doing the work included, according to court documents, problems with a supplier, weather, illness and injuries.

Kolovich has claimed he was "less than a stellar businessman but not a criminal." He contended the disputes with customers were a civil, not criminal matter.

Superior Court earlier this year in affirming the Snyder County conviction ruled District Attorney Michael Piecuch had properly consolidated two cases for trial and Kolovich's prosecutions in other counties did not bar that from occurring in Snyder.

A Superior Court panel in an August opinion affirming Kolovich's conviction in Mifflin County recommended the Legislature make "specific intent to deceive" an element of the deceptive business practices law.

The issue arose because the law states a defense to the charge would be for a defendant to prove by the preponderance of the evidence his conduct was not knowingly or recklessly deceptive.

Knowingly and intentional are not at the same level of culpability in the criminal context, the court panel said.

Kolovich contended his due process rights were violated because the burden shifted to him to prove his conduct was not knowingly or reckless.

Commenting on the Supreme Court ruling in the Snyder County case, Piecuch said:

"Kolovich damaged many lives with his swindling. For the sake of his victims, we are glad to have the finality that comes with the end of his direct appeals."
A state Superior Court panel has refused to void the 21-month to 6-year jail sentence for a prisoner who doused another inmate with urine.

Miguel A. Landrau-Melendez, 31, of Lebanon, is serving that sentence on top of another prison term he received after being convicted in a child-sex case.

The urine-tossing incident occurred in May 2015 at the Lebanon County Correctional Facility. Landau-Melendez was convicted of aggravated harassment by prisoner in that case.

In the state court opinion denying his appeal, Judge H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr. rejected Landau-Melendez's argument that his lawyer was ineffective on several levels.

Landau-Melendez complained that his attorney didn't listen to his advice as to who he did and did not want on the jury for his trial. The jurors were mostly white, which reflects the demographics of Lebanon County, Moulton noted.

Landau-Melendez also argued that his lawyer blocked him from testifying, failed to call the victim's cell mate as a witness, and refused to introduce the prison misconduct report as evidence. His lawyer should have had a handwriting expert analyze a note he wrote to the victim as well, he contended.

Moulton dismissed Landau-Melendez's claim that he was prevented from testifying. He noted that Landau-Melendez told the county judge he didn't want to take the witness stand.

Not calling the cell mate as a witness was justified because Landau-Melendez already had told his attorney he was guilty of the urine toss, Moulton noted. Nor, he added, did Landau-Melendez actually tell the lawyer he wanted her to call the cell mate to testify.

Moulton cited the lawyer's testimony that she didn't use the misconduct report because is portrayed Landau-Melendez as "uncooperative and combative."

The attorney didn't hire a handwriting expert since Landau-Melendez admitted writing - and signing - the note that was passed to the victim right after the dousing, the state judge noted.

According to court filings, the note stated, "Don't press charges. Please don't be a bitch. Don't (expletive) with my time. Please, I'm trying to go home. Thank you, Miguel."
A federal judge has, at least temporarily, blocked Gov. Tom Wolf and the Legislature from forcibly siphoning $200 million from a quasi-state agency to help balance Pennsylvania's cash-starved budget.

U.S. Middle District Chief Judge Christopher C. Conner issued a preliminary injunction this week barring the state from making good on a threat to dissolve the Pennsylvania Professional Liability Joint Underwriting Association if it doesn't hand over that money by Dec. 1.

Conner's order puts the issue on hold until a federal trial can be held on the dispute.

In granting the injunction, he noted the nonprofit association, although created by the state, does not and never has received state funds. It is financed completely by mandatory contributions from 621 medical malpractice insurers.

Conner's approval of the injunction is at this point just a temporary victory for the association. If the agency wins the case, however, it will punch a major hole in the $2.2 billion package Wolf and legislators cobbled together to fill the state's funding gap.

The association filed suit right after Wolf signed Act 44, which demanded the $200 million, on Oct. 30. The money is to come from the association's budget surplus.

The Legislature created the association in 1975 to provide medical malpractice coverage for hard-to-insure clients, including doctors with a history of malpractice claims, those with gaps in coverage, and those reentering practice after license suspensions.

None of the association's money is held by the state treasury, Conner noted. At the end of the 2016 fiscal year, the group logged a surplus of just over $268 million.

Act 44 states that there has been a decline in the need for the association's services and that the agency has more than enough money to meet its mandate. So, it continues, squeezing $200 million from the association "is in the best interest of the residents of this commonwealth."

Conner cited the association's claim that it will lose more than $200 million if it is forced to comply with the state's hand it over or die command. It could cost another $20 million to pry the cash from the group's investment portfolio, agency officials contend.

"All told, the association faces considerable financial harm," the judge wrote.

"We have no quarrel with the governor's assertion that the citizens of this commonwealth have a genuine interest in a balanced budget, and we are not unsympathetic to the Byzantine intricacies of the General Assembly's budget process," Conner added. "But a sovereign cannot achieve a legitimate end by unconstitutional means."

Whether the state's means in this case are unconstitutional remains to be determined, he found. In granting the injunction, Conner promised to expedite the case to quickly reach a resolution as to whether that $200 million is really the state's for the taking.

He also ordered the association to post a $2.9 million bond for the continuation of the court fight.
If you've lived for any number of years in central Pennsylvania, you know what winter brings: a seemingly unbroken gray sky from late November until mid-March. It's a period of time that feels like an endless gloomy parade of cloudy mornings that makes you just want to pull up the covers and stay in bed.

The good news is you're not crazy; in general winter does tend to bring more cloudy weather than other seasons.

The following chart shows four years of National Weather Service sky cover data for Harrisburg. Gold bars represent clear days, light gray bars partly cloudy days, and dark gray bars cloudy days.

While there is a lot of variation year-to-year, there is also a general pattern of more cloudy weather bracketing the month of December. (May and June also see their own share of cloudy weather).

Kyle Imhoff, a Penn State climatologist, said the short answer is that this occurs because the atmosphere is more disturbed in winter than the summer due in part to smaller temperature differences between the tropics and northern latitudes.

Smaller temperatures differences, he said, lead to less storminess (and thus, less clouds). In the winter the pattern is reversed, and the greater temperature differences result in more wind, clouds and precipitation.

READ MORE: Snow coming to Pa. in hurricane season and other predictions from the Old Farmer's Almanac

There is also likely a psychological side to it as well. During the winter days are shorter, it's colder, and most people are probably more likely to spend their time indoors -- even when it is sunny. That probably makes us think its grayer than it actually is.

The following chart shows the percentage of sunny days in each month in Harrisburg over the last five years.

Again, while there is a lot of variation, the trend of less sunny weather in the winter appears to hold true. Interesting, during this period the Harrisburg region experienced its most sunny weather during the fall.

So how do cities across Pennsylvania stack up? Looking at just the National Weather Service data from 2016 of the 366 days (with the bars broken into sunny, partly cloudy and cloudy days):

Allentown somehow had the sunniest weather along with Reading, while Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia rounded out the bottom. This is just one year's worth of data, but the interesting result is Pittsburgh, which, on average, has the least sunny weather of any city in the lower 48 states.

According to Chris Leonardi, a National Weather Service meterologist in Pittsburgh, that's due in part to the region's geography and location relative to the Great Lakes.

As moisture evaporates off the Great Lakes, prevailing winds push it south toward Pittsburgh, where the wet air tends to sink and get trapped by the mountains surrounding the city.

"Once you get cloud cover here, it's really hard to get rid of it," Leonardi said. "It kind of gets trapped here."
When gun-control and gun-rights advocates clash after the latest mass shooting, you can usually count on two rhetorical gambits being thrown onto the table:

"What new law would have stopped the latest massacre?" gun-rights advocates will ask

That'll inevitably be followed up with the assertion that if we put limits on gun ownership, then only the bad guys will have guns.

The former is designed to stop any debate over gun-control before it begins, because, you'll read in a bit there are new laws that can stop the slaughter.

And we now know that, thanks to a law enforcement turf war, the latter is provably untrue.

That's because, back in February, 70,000 people were purged from an FBI database over a disagreement over the definition of "fugitive from justice," leaving them legally able to purchase firearms (unless, of course, there's some other disqualifying reason).

As The Washington Post reported last week, people wanted by law enforcement were removed from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System when the FBI "changed its legal interpretation of 'fugitive from justice' to say it only [pertained] to people who crossed state lines."

Since its creation in 1998, the NICS system, as it's known, has prevented some 1.5 million people from buying guns. That includes 180,000 denials to to fugitives, the newspaper reported, citing government statistics.

It's not clear, The Post noted, how many people included in the February purge were previously banned from buying guns.

The background checks system, which is run by the FBI, made headlines when it was revealed that the Air Force followed to fail policies that would have added Texas church shooter Devin P. Kelley to the system.

The Charleston, S.C. church shooter, Dylann Roof, was wrongly able to legally purchase the weapon in his murderous rampage after his name was not added to the database because of an arrest for drug possession, The Post reported. The mistake in the Roof case has been referred to as "The Charleston Loophole."

Gun owners, spurred by on the National Rifle Association, have opposed efforts to expand background checks, arguing they "don't necessarily stop criminals from getting firearms."

No fooling.

The government is its own worst enemy in this instance.

Taking a break from forgetting things about Russia and trampling on the rights of America's LGBTQ citizens, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions at least had the presence of mind last week to send a letter to the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms calling on the two agencies to fix the system.

The NICS system is "critical for us to be able to keep guns out of the hands of those . . . prohibited from owning them," Sessions said, according to The Post.

Sessions also ordered the two agencies to report back to him on measures ensuring that "people who are prohibited from purchasing firearms are prevented from doing so," the BBC reported.

The problem is that Sessions' own Justice Department is part of the problem here.

Last year, before President Donald Trump took office, the DoJ's Office of Legal Counsel sided with the ATF (which had narrow definition of fugitive) against the FBI (which had historically had a broader one), agreeing that gun purchases could only be denied to fugitives who crossed state lines, The Post reported.

Then, after Trump took office, the DoJ further narrowed the definition, confining it those who had crossed "state lines to avoid prosecution for a crime or to avoid giving testimony in a criminal proceeding."

And faster than you could say "shall not be infringed," what had once been a list of 500,000 fugitives in the database had been trimmed to ridiculously small 788.

Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, called on the FBI and ATF to "correct this self-inflicted loophole,' sensibly pointing out that "any one of these potentially dangerous fugitives can currently walk into a licensed gun dealer, pass a criminal background check, and walk out with a gun," The Post reported.

Thomas also called on the government to recover the weapons that had been illegally purchased by people purged from the database.

That's a tall order, since the folks with the guns are, well, fugitives, and are presumably pretty good at evading contact with law enforcement. One also imagines that taking the weapons back might not end well for at least one side of that discussion.

David Chipman, a former ATF official who now advises the Giffords group, says Congress should pass a law cleaning up the definition of fugitive so that the current legal logjam won't repeat itself in the future.

"I would imagine 99 percent of Americans don't want people who have a warrant out on them to be able to buy a gun," Chipman told The Post. "I can't believe there is a constituency for wanted people. Wanted people are particularly dangerous. They've already proven that they'll break the law."

With Congress unwilling to take even the most minor of steps to expand background checks or limit the sale of devices that enable mass slaughter, those on both sides of the debate should be able to agree that this "fugitive loophole" should be closed as soon as possible.
At the reception with Japanese guests (Source: VNA)



During a reception in Hanoi on November 23rd for President of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hiroshi Ozaki, the PM described Japan as Vietnams leading economic partner, the largest supplier of official development assistance, the second largest investor and the fourth largest trade partner.

He pledged to direct ministries, agencies and localities to offer all possible support to Japanese businesses in any field of their demand and in any locality.

The host suggested that the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry work closely with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry to further promote business partnership in localities, adding that Vietnam encourages Japanese and Osaka enterprises to become strategic shareholders that actively join equitisation of State-owned enterprises in the country.

Ozaki, for his part, said Osaka firms want to seek opportunities in advanced and eco-friendly technology, urban development and energy and are willing to partner with Vietnam in fields of strength such as exploitation and processing of aquatic products, health care and tourism.

Receiving Chairman of SK Group of the Republic of Korea Chey Tae-won the same day, Phuc hailed the group for joining in the equitisation of the State-owned enterprises in Vietnam and committed all possible support to them during the process.

He suggested SK Group join a joint investment fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam, especially start-ups.

The PM wished that SK Group would continue assisting Vietnam in human resources development, semi-conductor industry and key infrastructure construction.

Chey, in reply, wished to extend investment in Vietnam, adding that SK Group is strong in green and eco-friendly industry.

He proposed that Vietnam should build a strong data platform to adapt with the Industrial Revolution 4.0 as well as improve workforce quality./.
In this Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017 photo textile conservator Kate Tarleton, of Rochester, Mass., stands between two oversized spools holding a portion of the 1848, "Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage Round the World," at the museum in New Bedford, Mass. The quarter-mile-long (0.4-kilometer-long) panorama toured the U.S. after it was completed in 1848. . (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 22, 2017, file photo, former World War II "comfort woman" Yongsoo Lee, 89, of South Korea, stands by a statue of Haksoon Kim while looking at the "Comfort Women" monument after it was unveiled in San Francisco. Japan has expressed strong regret over San Francisco's decision to give formal city property status to a statue commemorating women who worked in military-backed brothels for Japanese troops during World War II, with Osaka declaring it will terminate its 60-year sister-city ties. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
Secretary of Hanoi City Party Committee Hoang Trung Hai receives Ireland Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton (Source: CPV)

Speaking at the reception, Mr Hai expressed his pleasure that the relationship between Vietnam and Ireland has improved and Ireland has become a close friend of Vietnam. Currently, more and more Irish companies have invested in Vietnam, and more and more Vietnamese students have chosen Ireland as a reliable destination for study and research. Mr. Hai affirmed that the Minister's visit marked a new step in the cooperation between the two countries, especially in education.

The city Party Secretary expresses his gratitude for the effective assistance that the Government and people have given to Vietnam in recent years, especially in the fields of poverty reduction, education and training, rural development, energy and electricity. In addition, the Irish community in Vietnam has made positive contributions, which are appreciated by Vietnamese people.

Thanks to the warm welcome of Secretary Hoang Trung Hai, Minister Richard Bruton said that education plays a very important role in the development of the country. This is also one of the motivations to help Ireland overcome difficulties and grow strongly. Like Vietnam, Ireland is always looking for solutions to meet the needs of industry, especially with the rapid development of information technology in the current context.

The visiting Minister said that Ireland is actively seeking and promoting trade with other countries in the world. He hopes cooperation will continue to open up more opportunities for both sides, not only in education, but also in different fields, on the basis of mutual benefit./.
For more than half a century, Saudi Arabia's oil minister could move markets with a few choice words about what OPEC may decide at its next meeting, generating millions if not billions of dollars of profit for insiders.

Not anymore. While OPEC's gatherings still influence prices, it's not Saudi Arabia's voice that matters most, but the voice of a non-member: Russia, specifically Vladimir Putin.

Since engineering Russia's pact with the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries to curb supplies a year ago, Putin has emerged as the group's most influential player. As one senior OPEC official put it on condition of anonymity, the Russian leader is now calling all the shots.

The Kremlin's growing sway within the cartel reflects a foreign policy that's designed to counter U.S. influence across the globe through a wide mix of economic, diplomatic, military and intelligence measures. That strategy, which is undergirded by Russia's vast natural-resource wealth, appears to be working.

Putin is now the world's energy czar, said Helima Croft, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst who directs global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets LLC in New York.

Vienna Meeting

The strength of Putin's position will be in the spotlight on Nov. 30, when OPEC's 14 members, including Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and Venezuela, host nominally independent producers such as Russia and Mexico in Vienna to discuss whether to extend the cuts past March. At stake is the economic and political health of all states involved, including Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics that Putin brought into the deal. Participants in the accord collectively pump 60 percent of the world's oil.

Putin spurred a short-lived spike in prices on the eve of the first-ever visit by a Saudi king to Russia last month by suggesting the cuts be extended until the end of next year, though he stressed he hadn't made a final decision. Putin's remarks, though qualified, triggered a fresh rush of diplomacy by both OPEC and non-OPEC producers to try to hammer out a deal.

To be sure, it's an uneasy alliance. The Saudis, the world's largest exporter and already unhappy about bearing the brunt of the cuts, complain that allied producers aren't fully complying. They're also growing frustrated with Russia's reticence to prolong the curbs, according to a person briefed on the Saudi view.

Since Putin's comments, the Kremlin has been sending mixed signals, in part to placate domestic oil barons like state-run Rosneft PJSC chief Igor Sechin and Lukoil PJSC billionaire Vagit Alekperov. But it's also trying to keep oil prices from rising enough to spur shale companies to drill even more in the U.S., which expects domestic production to reach a record 10 million barrels a day next year, a level exceeded only Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Putin, who embarked on his unprecedented alliance with OPEC when prices were about $20 a barrel lower than today and the market looked far more oversupplied, has another reason not to want oil prices to rise sharply. Russia is currently benefiting from a weaker ruble, which benefits exporters, and becoming less dependent on energy sales to meet its spending commitments.

Mutually Beneficial'

For Russian producers, the cuts are getting increasingly painful. With Brent, the global benchmark, at about $63 a barrel, almost 30 percent higher than a year ago, they're anxious to start cranking up production. Rosneft this month even said it needs to be ready to open the spigots in December -- a surprising date since it's three months before the current agreement expires.

"There are three scenarios we're looking at, okay, that the OPEC cuts stop end of the year, end of March next year, or they continue throughout 2018," Eric Liron, Rosneft's first vice president for upstream, said on a conference call.

Still, current prices -- and geopolitical realities -- suggest the accord will be rolled over, according to Edward C. Chow, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a former Chevron Corp. executive.

It's mutually beneficial, Chow said. "The Saudis need a large oil-producing partner to effectively influence the market and the potential for a greater geopolitical and economic role in the Middle East for Russia makes compliance with production cuts an expedient move for Moscow."

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih has said he would like to announce next week an extension until the end of 2018, while Russian officials have said privately they'd like to wait and decide in March. That's when President Putin is widely expected to win a final six-year term. The most likely outcome of the Vienna meeting is some kind of compromise between the two sides.

For Saudi Arabia, having to share output decisions with Russia, an ally of its arch-enemy Iran in the Syrian civil war, is a bitter pill to swallow. In the past, the Saudis could impose their will on prices and punish rivals by flooding the market, as they did against other OPEC members in 1985-86, Venezuela in 1998-99 and the U.S. shale industry in 2014-15. Russia was an afterthought.

But now the Saudi economy is reeling and the kingdom needs higher crude prices as much as everyone else. By some measures, including its fiscal break-even point, Saudi Arabia needs even higher prices than Iran or Russia, which is basing its budget for next year on oil averaging $40 a barrel.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's sweeping crackdown on corruption, including the sudden arrests of scores of royals and billionaires, appears to have only increased the kingdom's newfound reliance on Russia. The purge upended the decades-old model that held the elite together and turned the success of his ambitious economic-reform program into a battle for survival, according to Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd. in London.

"Because of this vulnerability, we believe the kingdom, and more importantly Mohammed bin Salman, needs strong oil revenues -- and hence higher oil prices -- to ensure he stays in power," Sen said.
Overseas Vietnamese donated to support flood victims (Photo: VNA)

Accordingly, officials and staff from the embassy and agencies each donated at least one days salary to the fund.

The Embassy also received EUR200 from Ms. Nguyen Thi Nois family, living in the capital Algiers.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Algeria Pham Quoc Tru said that this was a significant activity of the overseas Vietnamese community in Algeria to share and support people in the Central and Central Highlands regions to overcome the consequence of the storm, restore production and quickly stabilize their lives.

The storm had caused 100 deaths and left 18 missing; 120,847 houses collapsed and damaged; 9,350ha of rice and 15,203ha of other crops were flooded as of November 8th./.
Joe Stafford of Upper Chichester (left), Bill Barber of Chester (center), and Ron Navin Upper Chichester protest outside Merenda Hall at Neumann College before a meeting of the Chester Water Authority board, which is split among members from Chester City, Delaware County, and Chester County on Nov. 21. Read more

Joe Stafford's T-shirt is emphatic: "No way, Aqua. No means No. What part of No don't you understand?"

The Upper Chichester resident and other customers of the Chester Water Authority have joined employees at the low-cost public utility's recent board meetings to protest for-profit, publicly-traded Aqua America of Bryn Mawr's persistent proposal to buy their utility. Aqua made an unsolicited $250 million offer (plus $70 million in debt assumption) in May, which the Chester Water board unanimously rejected. The board includes three members each from Chester City and Delaware and Chester Counties, where it serves 44,000 residential and business customers and 200,000 users.

Despite that initial rejection, "the deal, previously thought dead, has new life," utility analyst Ryan M. Connors wrote last week in a report to investor clients of Boenning & Scattergood in West Conshohocken after Aqua raised the offer anew at a meeting earlier this month. To sweeten its offer, Aqua has taken out full-page ads in local newspapers promising to keep water rates at today's levels for 10 years and to offer Chester Water workers jobs if it is able to privatize the authority.

"This company is a predator," water customer Joe DiMarco said at Tuesday's authority board meeting at Neumann University in Aston. He cited rate hikes and profit margins Aqua has requested and gotten from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in other towns where it has taken over water systems.

Aqua typically charges more than 40 percent above what Chester Water charges customers in nearby towns, according to rate data collected by the authority.

Aqua could use profits from its three million water and sewer users on the Main Line and in upstate Pennsylvania towns to subsidize Chester City residents and customers in 39 other Delaware and Chester County towns Chester Water now serves  if Aqua can get the PUC to approve. "If Aqua can't raise rates" or cut jobs, its return to investors would decline, analyst Connors added in his report. That would likely drive down the company's stock price.

As a 130-year-old company, "Aqua views the financial aspects of this deal over the long term, not the next quarter," spokeswoman Stacey Hajdak told me.

Chester Water supporters fear that Aqua has friends in high places  specifically, in Harrisburg. Private-sector firms advising the city and the state Department of Community and Economic Development, which oversees finances for Chester and dozens of other fiscally strapped Pennsylvania cities, have been exchanging ideas with Aqua about how to take over Chester Water, according to correspondence the authority obtained under the state Right-to-Know law and made public at Monday's meeting.

Chester Water solicitor Francis Catania showed board members correspondence between economic advisers Econsult Solutions of Philadelphia, investment bank Fairmount Capital Advisors Inc. of Philadelphia, and law firm McNees, Wallace & Nurick LLC and Aqua on potential plans to take over the authority and use the money to pay the city's bills, including shoring up its chronically underfunded pension plans, even before the recent offer.

To be sure, "the [State of Pennsylvania] and its Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission have long promoted consolidation in the water industry over the long term," Aqua spokeswoman Hajdak told me.

Chester City has been in financial trouble and under state supervision since the 1990s, Catania noted. The city is supposed to file a detailed recovery plan in the near future. But, Catania told me, board members object to using the authority to fix Chester's books, given that many people outside the city as well as city residents are likely to pay more for water if a sale goes through.

In its direct appeal to Chester Water customers and the public, Aqua stressed its size and service capacity, and sought to raise doubt as to whether the board can legally resist a sale  especially if city officials can be made to support it in exchange for a promise of regaining control over their budget.

"There is a disagreement about who owns" Chester Water, the utility said in its ad. Noting that Chester owned and operated the authority in its early years, Aqua says suburban board members were "abruptly" added to its board under a state law passed in 2012. If Chester goes along, Aqua suggested it could force a sale despite suburban opposition: "Some have suggested that this issue could end up in a protracted legal dispute," it added in the ad.

The authority has already paid millions to Chester in recent years to help with its fiscal woes, noted Stafford, the Upper Chichester resident. He questioned why suburban ratepayers should in the future have to pay a for-profit company extra for water "because Chester screwed up."

(Previous versions of this article used an outdated name for Neumann University)
It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the
Blossom Philadelphias group homes have 18 residents who were at Pennhurst State School & Hospital before it closed 30 years ago. Here, state officials tour the facility in 1965, when the facility housed 3,182 people. Read more

Blossom Philadelphia's population of 89 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities includes 18 former residents of Chester County's Pennhurst State School and Hospital, which was closed 30 years ago this month after more than a decade of legal battles.

Those 18 former Pennhurst residents, living in one of Blossom's small-group homes, are protected by a 1985 consent decree that was supposed to guarantee them access forever to medical care, freedom from abuse and neglect, and good living conditions in a community.

But last month, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services revoked Blossom's license because of long-running deficiencies and failure to report incidents as required by law. Violations included the use of untrained staff as well as the failure to give residents their medications and get residents to medical appointments.

"Right now, the 18 people have deviated from the requirements in, not all, but in some instances, of the settlement, yes. There's nobody that's going to tell you otherwise," said Tim Gruesel, who was hired in 1994 to monitor conditions of Philadelphia residents who had been at Pennhurst after the city was found to be in contempt of earlier court orders.

Blossom's contract is with the state and those officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

At the request of the city and DHS's Office of Developmental Programs, Gruesel early last month put Blossom's clients who are part of the Pennhurst class-action settlement on an enhanced-monitoring schedule.

Gruesel said he had found some problems with access to medical care and therapy, as well as staffing deficiencies and lack of access to the community.

"There are some people who are doing well despite their issues, and that's because they themselves are doing pretty well, and others who are not doing as well because of the failures of the agency and some aspects of their care and treatment," he said.

Family members of the general population at Blossom said conditions at Blossom have worsened in recent in weeks. For the 18 individuals he is watching, Gruesel said, he had not seen conditions deteriorate, but they "are not getting substantially better."

It is not clear what is done with the information he gathers.

Gruesel said he gives his reports to city and state officials, including the state's Pennhurst Advocacy Unit, and to organizations that are supposed to coordinate services for the individuals. Gruesel described the city as his client.

The information also goes to the former Pennhurst residents and their families. "It's an aging population, so we do not have a lot of families that are involved at this point," Gruesel said.

Gruesel said he did not know if attorneys would get involved to enforce the 1985 consent decree.

David Ferleger, a Jenkintown lawyer who brought the original class-action lawsuit on Pennhurst in 1974, knew nothing of the problems at Blossom until told about them by a reporter on Wednesday.

"If necessary  it sounds like it may already be necessary  we may have to go back to federal court to be sure that their rights are protected," Ferleger said. He could not be reached for further comment Friday.

An official at the nonprofit Public Interest Law Center, which represented the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens and other organizations in the class-action lawsuit, also said Wednesday he was not aware of the situation at Blossom.

Once the situation is brought to the law center's attention, "we will take a careful look at it, because the premise of the consent decree was that the city and state agencies would in fact be careful and attentive in their duties," said Michael Churchill, who is of counsel at the law center.
Ron Smith, 82 and a retired businessman, contends he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to a start-up that had phony financials; he's contacted state regulators to investigate, but to no avail. Read more

Thinking of investing with friends or family? Take a huge step back  and consider the story of Ron Smith and his daughter Lynn Byrne of Doylestown.

Theirs is a cautionary tale about investing with friends and their risky start-up companies. Altogether, the father-and-daughter duo invested and lost roughly $230,000 in a physical therapist's start-up small business  and got no help from regulators.

Smith, 82, and his daughter, 53, in 2013 invested in a company called R.I.M. Medical, founded by Linda T. Miller and partner Keith DeStefano, of Wyncote and Collegeville, respectively. Smith was one of several Philadelphia-area investors who put in $1 million in Miller's lymphedema "compression" medical device. Smith's daughter Lynn was a breast-cancer patient of Miller's under treatment for cancer-related lymphedema by Miller at a physical-therapy practice.

"I wanted to help her because the compression had been so helpful in my cancer treatment," Byrne recalled.

"I would do anything for my daughter," Smith added.

Miller made the business look better than it was and blamed the manufacturer, which ran over budget, Smith alleges. When the company went under, Smith and his daughter, as well as several other investors, lost all their money.

Investments gone bad often read like a financial "he said, she said." Miller says it was a "misunderstanding" and not a crime or theft from a retiree and a cancer survivor.

"This wasn't elder abuse, as Ron Smith calls it," Miller says. "He's come after me in all different manner, and I almost lost my house. Everyone lost money, including me and my partner." They cosigned a $500,000 loan from the Small Business Administration. Currently the loan is in default. DeStefano declined to comment.

Investing in friends' start-up businesses is risky business  and generally isn't suitable for an older person who doesn't have a lifetime left to make up for a sizable loss.

Byrne wells up in tears discussing the loss; she invested $80,000, her father invested $150,000.

"I feel terrible that I got my father involved," Byrne said.

Smith alleges Miller was effectively out of business "when she took the money from us. It was a Ponzi scheme. She didn't tell us she'd let all the sales force go three months before."

Due diligence

The importance of doing due diligence on a start-up venture can't be overstated  except the due diligence needs to be done ahead of time on the main players.

Miller said she'd founded companies before that were successful. Smith alleged Miller used his money to pay off old creditors and to gamble. She tried to file for bankruptcy in 2014 but was denied.

Justice?

Smith is pursuing resolution like a dog with a bone  but is getting nowhere.

"I went to the police department in Doylestown, then the Bucks County District Attorney's Office, who told me they didn't have money to investigate. The DA sent me to the state Banking and Securities office. Five different people there gave me the runaround. So I went to the Montgomery County district attorney to file a complaint, who in turn sent me to the attorney general in Norristown."

Don't expect any help from state regulators if you invest in a start-up, Smith said. He's filed complaints with the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities and Attorney General Josh Shapiro. He got back two form letters.

"I don't want anyone else to lose money to Miller," Smith added.

Banking and Securities spokesman Ed Novak in Harrisburg said the department "cannot confirm or deny anything about complaints. Those are completely confidential."

Miller said with hindsight, she wouldn't have taken money from Smith and his daughter.

"It was unfortunate. It was high risk. It looked great. I cashed out my entire pension. My frustration is that Ron is really the one who has continued to say that something was shady and illegal. And I'm embarrassed because I still get a processor serving me papers. We're all disappointed. We all took hits. We've all tried to move on. If you ask them, it was an unfortunate thing that had great potential. It didn't happen."

Another investor, Anthony Visco, a retired attorney, confirmed that Miller's business "went belly up. Miller wasn't a good business person. I didn't blame her, however. I put in $100,000 and it was a stupid investment. She wasn't a thief, but she was a bad businesswoman. She made bad decisions and business deals. She sunk everything she had into this."

What would he advise about investing with friends and relatives? "Even if you know and love them, do your due diligence and ask a lot of questions."
In a city growing as quickly as Philadelphia is these days, it's no easy task for developers to find sprawling lots of vacant land that can be developed in attractive neighborhoods.

Yet local developer Dan Neducsin has been sitting on one for decades.

While developers have been snatching up the last pieces of buildable land in neighborhoods stretching from South Philadelphia to Fishtown in recent years, few beyond Neducsin have paid much attention to Manayunk.

Until recently.

With the cost of building in core urban areas mounting, and with affordability concerns rising, Philadelphia's formerly "it" neighborhood, located just eight miles outside Center City, is back in the spotlight. In particular, developers in the last few years have rushed to build luxury apartments in the tiny enclave  so much so that 3,000 units are expected to be delivered within a one-mile radius of Manayunk between 2014 and 2018.

But what has been lacking in Manayunk, some say, is an influx of new housing to meet the demand of wealthier residents who have arrived in the last decade as the neighborhood has tried to shed its image as a post-college hub.

That's exactly what a pair of developers intend to bring to Neducsin's land.

After sitting vacant for more than a decade, 1 Leverington Ave.  between Green Lane and Leverington Avenue, and between the Manayunk Canal and the Schuylkill  is finally seeing some activity. Greg Hill of locally based D3 Developers and Concordia Group of Bethesda, Md., are partnering once again to transform the former industrial site into 70 high-end townhouses, each starting at $599,000. For now, Neducsin, the developer credited with reviving Manayunk in the 1990s, remains the owner of the land.

The plan for the sleek homes  which Neducsin said would include roof decks and underground parking garages  is quite the change for the nearly 400,000-square-foot parcel, which for more than a decade has sat overgrown and unkempt as a fierce legal battle between Neducsin and residents flared over the land's fate. It's also quite the change for Manayunk, a neighborhood that for decades has been defined by the aging, pre-1940s rowhouses that dot its hilly streets.

Manayunk "is going to be the next Brooklyn," said Neducsin, when talking about the vision for the site. "They are running out of spaces in the city [to build]  yet this is not the suburbs, and that is why people like living here. Because it's in the city."

"In Center City, this would be a $2 million unit," he continued, speaking about the homes planned. "They are going to see this [development] and come out here."

Still, there is a long way to go before shovels are in the ground. The developers have had initial meetings with the Manayunk Neighborhood Council, but both a formal Registered Community Organization meeting and a presentation in front of the city's Civic Design Review board are still needed. Plus, the land is zoned for smaller-scale commercial space on the ground floor and residential up top, meaning that D3 Developers and Concordia will need a change in zoning to accommodate the 70 townhouses.

Even so, the developers have reason for optimism. According to the Lower Northwest District Plan published in 2014, part of the Philadelphia2035 project, the land surrounding 1 Leverington Ave. was recommended to be rezoned to a more residential area. And initial meetings with the Manayunk Neighborhood Council were generally positive, both sides say, a reversal from years ago when a lengthy legal battle stalled Neducsin's initial plans to build 280 condominium units on the site.

Kevin Smith, president of the Manayunk Neighborhood Council, said the group generally supports the latest plan, despite having lingering concerns about residential building on the site  one that he said could be prone to flooding by the two bodies of water that surround it. (To combat that, Hill, of D3 Developers, said they plan to raise the grade of the site and install early flood warning systems.)

"In the biggest picture, it is still our belief that residential is inappropriate down by the river," Smith said. " But our approach now is obviously development.

"The development is positive, and it seems like the community would support it with adequate flood evacuation plans."

It wasn't always this way for Smith and his Manayunk Neighborhood Council. Nearly a decade ago, Neducsin  who has owned 1 Leverington Ave. for decades  proposed to develop 280 dense condominium units, which would stand nearly 90 feet tall, and require hundreds of parking places.

Immediately, residents pushed back.

"It would have been huge; it would have changed the face of Manayunk," Smith said. " There was no hardship and no justification for the variance" that Neducsin was granted at the time.

Saying that the proposed condo complex was too dense, too tall, and too vulnerable to flooding, Manayunk's residents fought back, appealing Neducsin's zoning approval to Philadelphia's Zoning Board of Adjustment, the Common Pleas Court, and the Commonwealth Court. For years, the case wound its way through the court system, as multiple appeals and remands ensued. In the end, Neducsin never built his project.

For years after, Neducsin's land remained bedraggled, as brush and trees grew over. And the only building left at 1 Leverington Ave.  which formerly housed two prominent restaurants, Arroyo Grille and then Carmella's  fell victim to trespassers, graffiti, fires, and trash.

But a few years ago, Neducsin said, his thoughts about the site changed.

"I feel that it's the wrong time to build 280 units and the right time to do this," Neducsin said. "We have a huge advantage over kind of anything  to me, it's one of the best sites in the city. You're on the river, you have the [Manayunk] towpath right there, and Main Street right there."

"You can see the influx of people coming [to Manayunk], and it's a higher income group," Neducsin said.

Indeed, in recent years, Manayunk has grown wealthier as its population has increased, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Between 2011 and 2015, the neighborhood's population surged nearly 29 percent, and its median household income jumped 27 percent, to $70,556.

Yet median home sale prices have not increased quite the same way that they have in other city neighborhoods in recent years. In the third quarter of 2017, the median price of a home in Manayunk was $234,500  less than the median price of $253,000 a decade before, according to data from Drexel economist Kevin Gillen. While Neducsin recently sold a newly constructed property for more than $900,000 on the 4500 block of Silverwood Street, it's unclear how much demand there may be for 70 properties priced at more than $599,000.

The developers and Neducsin say the site has a lot of perks working in its favor. With river and canal views, the roof decks on the four-story homes will be in high demand, Hill predicted. Developers plan to create landscaped green space on the land closest to Green Lane. And, Hill said, architecturally, they are planning for a "contemporary design that's respectful of [Manayunk's] industrial past."

"When doing townhouse work, it's challenging to find sites that really provide a sense of community  mostly, it ends up being just infill sites in the city," Hill said. "I think the intriguing aspect of Venice Island is that it's an isolated parcel of land on the waterfront, with just a great opportunity to create a sense of place."
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the debt-ridden drug maker with U.S. headquarters in North Wales, plans to fire as much as 25 percent of its Israeli workforce, according to an Israeli business daily.

The world's largest manufacturer of generic medicines will begin the dismissals in coming days, Calcalist reported Thursday, without saying how it got the information. Teva also will let go more than 10 percent of its U.S.-based workers and some in Europe, according to Calcalist. Michael Hayden, head of global research and development, is expected to leave the company, the report said.

Eliran Levy, a Teva spokesman, declined to comment. Yaniv Levy, a spokesman for Histadrut, Israel's national labor union, said the union had been told "that there is no plan or numbers at this stage, and every step, if and when they are taken, will be done through discussion."

Teva shares were up 22 cents, or 1.63 percent, to close at $13.70. The company's U.S. shares have plunged 63 percent this year, worst among 138 traded companies on the MSCI World Health Index.

Teva faces tough choices to stem its dramatic slide. The company lost its monopoly on its best-selling product last month and is racing to sell off assets to pay back $34.7 billion in debt, a figure that dwarfs the company's market value. Analysts expect the company to announce a cost-cutting plan, but reducing its workforce in Israel  where Teva was founded and is based  has proven historically difficult. When Teva announced in August that it would lay off 350 Israeli workers, the union responded with labor disputes and negotiated the final number down to 230.

Earlier this month, Kare Schultz, the Israeli drugmaker's new chief executive officer, pledged to investors that he would "improve financial performance, and reposition Teva operationally and financially."
Gift books don't have to be big. A few of this year's holiday coffee-table selections are of modest dimensions, including one that takes you deep inside some of modern art's masterworks. Others, though  a large, slender look at the poetry of bridges; a comprehensive look at the African American experience in America  are appropriately grand. Among the rest, there's a reminder of Grace Kelly's classic beauty, a survey of the fine art in illustration, and proof that a humble table utensil should not be taken for granted.

Bridges: A History of the Worlds Most Spectacular Spans, by Judith Dupre, $29.99.

"The unassuming poetry of bridges reveals itself to those who would see it," Judith Dupre observes in the foreword to this splendid volume, which amply demonstrates her point. The arrangement is chronological, starting with the Pont du Gard in Nimes, France, which dates to 18 B.C.E., and concluding with two  the Chenab Bridge in India and the Danjiang Bridge in Taiwan  expected to be completed in 2020. The Ben Franklin doesn't make the cut, but the Delaware Aqueduct between Lackawaxen, Pa., and Minisink Ford, N.Y., does. Built between 1848 and 1850 by John A. Roebling, who also built the Brooklyn Bridge, it is "the oldest wire cable suspension bridge still standing that retains most of its original structure."

Black Dog & Leventhal, hachettebookgroup.com

Howard Pyle, His Students & the Golden Age of American Illustration, by Judy Goffman Cutler and Laurence S. Cutler, et al., $35

Howard Pyle, justly renowned as the father of American illustration, began his teaching career at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry (now Drexel University). His students included Maxfield Parrish, Violet Oakley, and N. C. Wyeth. This book is the catalog of an exhibition put together by Drexel's Pennoni Honors College and the National Museum of American Illustration. It provides page upon page of wonder and delight. Take a look at Why Don't You End It? on Page 35, and you'll see what Pennoni's Dean Paula Marantz Cohen means when she notes that "there is a direct line of descent from [Pyle's] illustrations to Johnny Depp  in Pirates of the Caribbean."

National Museum of American Illustration, americanillustration.org

Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl, by Jay Jorgenson and Manoah Bowman, $45

Cary Grant called her "the most memorable and honest actress I've ever worked with." Philadelphia's Grace Kelly made only 11 films, winning an Academy Award for best actress opposite Bing Crosby in The Country Girl. She retired from acting at 26 to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco. Twenty-six years later, she died in an auto accident. Her extraordinary beauty is manifest on just about every page of this very engaging book. She really was a star.

Dey Street, harpercollins.com

Dream a World Anew: The African American Experience and the Shaping of America, $40

The National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened last year, stands appropriately adjacent to the Washington Monument and the White House. This profusely illustrated book addresses "the complicated narrative of the African American experience." Plenty of familiar scenes and faces here, but plenty of surprises, too. How many people remember jockey Isaac Murphy, who won three Kentucky Derbies in the late 1800s? There's also a shot of Sammy Davis Jr. making his film debut at age 7 in the title role of Rufus Jones for President. Definitely a keeper.

Smithsonian, smithsonianstore.com

East Coast: Arctic to Tropic, photographs by David Freese, text by Simon Winchester and Jenna Butler, $65

It starts with a shot of the spartan landscape surrounding the town of Uummannaq in Greenland and ends with one of the Atlantic Ocean, Biscayne Bay, and North Miami Beach. In between are scores of black-and-white photos as fine as any you will ever see, including some of Philadelphia, the Delaware River, and the Schuylkill. As Simon Winchester notes, this is "a 5,000-mile display of venerable geologic pedigree  landscape that is stubborn and settled and vulnerable."

George F. Thompson Publishing, gftbooks.com

Legendary Authors and the Clothes They Wore, by Terry Newman, $29.99

Any book about authors and their apparel would have to include Oscar Wilde, and, sure enough, Oscar not only is included in this volume, but he also makes perhaps the definitive observation: "Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear." All these writers dressed to please themselves. All look comfortable. Some are striking. Wilde himself, of course, if your taste runs to flamboyant. But also Donna Tartt, alluring in her black suit, white blouse, and severe coiffure. Yes, Tom Wolfe does make an appearance in his trademark white suit. Anyone up for Dress Like a Writer Day?

Harper Design, harpercollins.com

Modern Art in Detail, by Susie Hodge, $39.95

Here's an art book with a difference. Each of these 75 works gets a fresh look, focusing on key details. Hodge's close look at Giorgio de Chirico's Mystery and Melancholy of a Street reveals how exaggerated perspective and distorted light combine with long shadows to produce a sinister effect. And who knew there are actual footprints in Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles?

Thames & Hudson, thamesandhudsonusa.com

Spoon: A Guide to Spoon Carving and the New Wood Culture, by Barn the Spoon, $25

The author of this volume, a.k.a. Barnaby Carder, is obviously wedded to his work, which is carving spoons out of green wood  wood that is freshly cut and still 50 percent water, not dry and seasoned. Spoons date back to prehistory, but even then their utility was supplemented by artistry. As Spoon the author says, "the sculptural possibilities within a craft such as spoon making are really limitless." The many illustrations certainly back him up. The book includes instructions  also illustrated  on carving techniques. So you can learn how to arrive at your very own little dipper.

Scribner, simonandschuster.com

Night Vision: Magical Photos of Life after Dark, by Susan Tyler Hitchcock, $40

"Magical" is no exaggeration. From a shot of Mont-Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy to a mist-shrouded Taj Mahal under the light of the full moon, this book serves to remind us of how transfigured the world can seem after nightfall. National Geographic, amazon.com/National-Geographic-Night-Vision-Photographs/dp/1426218524/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511295974&sr=8-1&keywords=national+geographic+night+vision

Frank Wilson is a retired Inquirer book editor. Visit his blog Books, Inq.  The Epilogue. Email him at PresterFrank@gmail.com.
Rutgers University scientist Juliane Gross trained on a Ski-doo in Cleveland to prepare for her two-month excursion to Antarctica Read more

To prepare for a two-month excursion in Antarctica, Rutgers University scientist Juliane Gross had to undergo an extensive dental exam with X-rays  in case she needed treatment before heading down there, she assumed.

That was only part of it, trip organizers told her. The X-rays also were required in case rescuers needed to identify her body.

"I did not tell my parents that part," she said.

Gross leaves Sunday for the first leg of her trip to the remote Transantarctic Mountains, less than 300 miles from the South Pole. She and team members are on the hunt for meteorites  rocks from outer space that can yield valuable clues about the history of our solar system.

The NASA-funded project, managed by Case Western Reserve University, has recovered more than 21,000 meteorites since 1976. These excursions are sometimes called "the poor person's space mission," as the cost is a small fraction of the price tag for an actual trip to outer space.

But team members may well feel as if they have journeyed to another world.

Gross, an associate professor of earth and planetary sciences at Rutgers, heads first to Christchurch, New Zealand, where she spends a few days before another flight to McMurdo Station, a U.S. research facility at the edge of Antarctica. On the agenda at McMurdo are extensive safety training and lessons in how to fix a Ski-doo  the kind of snowmobile that she and her fellow scientists will use at their eventual camp site.

From there, the eight-member team flies toward the center of the polar continent, to Shackleton Glacier Camp, named for early 20th-century polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. Then they switch to smaller planes for the final leg of the journey to Mount Cecily and Mount Raymond, which Shackleton named after his daughter and elder son.

It will be spring and summer on Antarctica while the group is there, but the temperatures are still well below freezing, with winds sometimes approaching 40 miles an hour.

Meteorites can fall anywhere on earth, but these Antarctic mountains are prime hunting ground for two reasons.

First, the dark rocks show up well on the icy white background, and there is little native rock to confuse it with. As the mission's official website states: "Go to the right place, and any rock you find must have fallen from the sky."

Second, meteorites carried by the natural flow of ice sheets tend to get trapped against the mountains and pushed to the surface for easy discovery, geologists have found. And the environment is cold and relatively free of any contaminants that might interfere with scientific analysis.

Seeking to maintain that pristine condition, the researchers will handle the rocks with tongs and pack them carefully in bags for transport to a freezer at base camp.

"We cannot touch them," Gross said of the meteorites. "We cannot breathe on them. We can't have the Ski-doos anywhere near them."

Gross hopes to find meteorites from the moon or Mars, with the goal of learning more about the history and formation of those celestial bodies, while other team members are more interested in meteorites that predate the planets.

But the rocks belong to NASA, and any analysis has to wait until the samples are shipped to an agency facility in Houston. Even then, the team members get no special priority. Anyone who wants to analyze the rocks, whether or not they helped find them, must submit research proposals for agency approval.

The reason for going on the trip is simply to contribute to the greater cause of science, Gross said. NASA covers most of her expenses, but she gets no payment beyond that.

Other than the thrill of journeying to a place that she and team members called "the bottom of the world."

Keep up with the team's blog at caslabs.case.edu/ansmet/category/17-18/.
During his nation's "darkest hours" in World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, inspired the United Kingdom  and much of the rest of the world  with his strength and certainty that the Allies would defeat the Nazis, however hard the struggle.

"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender," the 65-year-old prime minister intoned on June 18, 1940, in his "Finest Hour" speech, as the Battle of Britain was about to begin.

Few knew that as a youngster, the man whose soaring oratory would mean so much to so many suffered from a stammer, a speech disorder that is notoriously difficult to overcome. Prime example: Britain's wartime King George VI, whose own struggles to control his stammer were the subject of the Oscar-winning 2010 film, "The King's Speech."

Churchill was more successful at mastering the impediment, teaching himself to practice his speeches well in advance, and developing the art of effective, loaded pauses.

But the strains of war showed even on the man called Britain's Bulldog. He suffered a mild heart attack in December 1941 while at the White House shortly after Pearl Harbor to solidify relations with his most important ally, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Two years later, he contracted pneumonia.

Through it all, he enjoyed his trademark cigars and his favorite cocktail, whisky and soda.

Some have thought Churchill was bipolar, sometimes suffering from depression he later would call his "Black Dog," other times exhibiting vast levels of energy, working from early morning to past midnight, often from his bed wearing the pale pink silk underwear he preferred, and even from his bathtub.

After the war, in the summer of 1949, Churchill went to the south of France to rest and enjoy painting the French Riviera. While there, he suddenly lost sensation in his right arm and right leg.

The incident was handled quietly, with a sign stating only that he "contracted a chill while bathing" posted at the villa where he was staying. He rapidly recovered and returned to England.

Churchill once again became prime minister on October 24, 1951. In June 1953, at a dinner to honor the Italian prime minister, Churchill gave a speech, but then suddenly couldn't continue discussion and slumped back in his chair.

His son-in-law noticed he appeared weak on his left side, and quietly got Churchill up to his room.

The next day, after conducting a cabinet meeting, he was driven to Chartwell, his country home in Kent. The public and Parliament were told he was suffering from exhaustion.

What was really going on, and why was it hushed up?

Solution

As his son-in-law noticed at the 1953 dinner, the left side of Churchill's mouth was drooping, and his left arm and leg were weak. This was his second hypertension-related lacunar stroke he suffered; the first was in 1949. This most common type of stroke is caused by blockage of small arteries leading to the brain.

Once at Chartwell, Churchill received around the clock nurse's care and physical rehabilitation. The news blackout during these tense, Cold War times, was maintained; the nation's press barons agreed to keep the secret. The young Queen Elizabeth II was among the few who knew what was going on.

For the better part of a month, "my colleagues and I had to handle requests for decisions from Ministers and Government departments who were entirely ignorant of the Prime Minister's incapacity," his private secretary, Jock Colville, later wrote.

He didn't stay down for long. In December 1953, Churchill went to Bermuda to meet with President Dwight Eisenhower, who was not aware of Churchill's strokes.

Churchill's physician, Lord Moran, his staff and family also kept hidden other events including the "mini-strokes" he suffered in 1950 and 1951. In 1952 a fleeting speech disturbance suggested a spasm or partial occlusion of the artery supplying the speech center of the brain. By then, both the right and left sides of Churchill's brain were affected by atherosclerosis and hypertension.

Recognizing he was slowing down physically and mentally, Churchill retired as prime minister in 1955, but remained in Parliament until 1964.

On Jan. 15, 1965, the 90-year-old Churchill suffered another stroke, which was announced. He died nine days later, and was mourned by millions at a massive state funeral, televised worldwide, to say farewell to the man who may have done more than any other to stop the Nazis.

Allan B. Schwartz, M.D., is a professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology & Hypertension at Drexel University College of Medicine
The International Museum of the Baroque in Puebla, Mexico, was designed by the Japanese architect Toyo Ito. Read more

Maybe it's not surprising that there aren't many museums devoted to the baroque, the artistic and architectural style that's been described as "clumsy in form and extravagant in contorted ornamentation" and whose name may derive from the Spanish word for "wart."

And yet, the baroque is also Don Quixote" Descartes, Rubens, Rembrandt, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Isaac Newton, Shakespeare. For a century and a half, the style pervaded nearly all artistic disciplines and aspects of transatlantic culture, a strange, frantic expression of the newfound contact between two hemispheres that would profoundly change the lives of people on both sides of the ocean. In Mexico, the baroque left its most indelible mark on the colonial city of Puebla, two hours southeast of Mexico City.

After visiting Puebla's new International Museum of the Baroque, I'm not sure I understand the style any better, but the journey, at least, was thought-provoking. Gallery after gallery in the spectacular all-white building, designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito, is filled with paintings, sculptures, installations and digital interactive displays that attempt to explain what exactly the Baroque meant and how it expressed itself. Leaving a temporary exhibition this spring, I had the feeling that the baroque is everywhere and nowhere, a kind of "know it when I see it" aesthetic that snares works from artists as diverse as Johann Sebastian Bach and David Bowie.

The museum's delicate white exterior walls catch the eye from miles away. They look like sheets of paper set on end and precariously assembled. Doubled by the surrounding reflecting pools, the walls, when seen up close, aren't fragile at all but are made of 14-inch-thick cast concrete.

"We try to break and dissolve the cold and rigid order to achieve fluid spaces," the architects wrote in a statement timed to the museum's opening last year. "We hope that when people move from one room to another, they experience a baroque space."

Ito, who won architecture's Pritzker Prize in 2013, designed the building to be earthquake-resistant, a feature that was put to the test (and passed) when a 7.1-magnitude temblor struck less than 100 miles away in September. Inside, a sweeping curved staircase is bathed in sunlight streaming in through a vast glass wall that looks out on a central courtyard.

"In baroque art, light symbolizes a revelation from God opposing the darkness of ambivalence," the architects wrote. "In this project, light also acquires a special meaning."

A recording of choral music welcomed us as we entered the galleries, setting the tone for the journey to come, which can take several hours if you let it. A timeline written on one wall explained that the baroque lasted roughly from 1598 to 1752, capturing a moment when Western Europe was beginning to grapple with shifts, including the conquest of the Americas and the Protestant Reformation.

Silver and gold extracted from Spain's colonies were flowing to the Far East and to Europe, where the Roman Catholic Church had responded to Martin Luther's threat by building temples of worship that bombarded the senses with excessive decoration and copious amount of gold. They reminded all who entered of the awesome power the church wielded. This intimidation tactic is on full display throughout the Americas, including in several remarkable baroque churches that still stand in Puebla.

One gallery was filled with a room-size scale model of the city's centro historico, where visitors could touch a button that lit up the location of this or that baroque structure, including the intricately tiled Casa de Alfenique and the Church of Santo Domingo. We had a chance to visit the latter, which contains the gold-dipped Capilla del Rosario (Rosary Chapel), a shining (literally) example of Mexican baroque with acres of gold leaf coating its every surface. The museum auditorium also provides a virtual tour of the chapel, along with other famous baroque churches around the world, on its four video screens.

Wall texts explained that the baroque aimed to spark awe in the viewer. Drama, exaggerated emotion, theatricality, and sensuality were core elements of the style, which also took on a local dimension in Mexico, the Philippines and Italy. In Cholula, one of Puebla's suburbs, the eye-popping Church of Santa Maria Tonantzintla features cherubs with distinctly indigenous features, carved into every last inch of the church's stucco interior.

Another gallery demonstrated the interest that upper-class Europeans developed in the "exotic" cultures they were increasingly hearing about from merchants and explorers. They started collecting artifacts and animal specimens to display in their lavish homes. One installation re-created such a collection room, complete with "cabinets of wonders," taxidermied birds, animal tusks, and furniture from faraway lands.

The museum's permanent exhibition is divided among several galleries, each devoted to a different discipline (art, theater, music, literature, clothing, etc). Most come with some kind of interactive technology, such as headphones that demonstrate how a baroque cello should sound, and touch screens that explore the differences between Mexican and European baroque architecture.

Between the luxurious 18th-century gowns, the urns made from Guatemalan silver, and Peruvian gold and the artifacts on loan from institutions such as the Prado and Madrid's National Museum of Decorative Arts, it's too much to see in one stretch. The interior courtyard is a relaxing place to take a break next to a mesmerizing reflecting pool, where an eddy of swirling water speeds up and slows down unpredictably.

For a longer pause, we headed upstairs to Barroco, a chic power-lunch spot whose menu was designed by celebrated Mexico City chef Martha Ortiz. Golden ears of corn adorn every table, each draped in crisp white linen. The dishes are refined takes on poblano classics such as chalupas (small fried tortillas topped with chicken or pork and doused in red salsa, green salsa, or mole) and tacos arabes (spit-roasted spiced-meat tacos originally brought to Mexico by Lebanese or Iraqi immigrants). The day we visited, the dining room was quiet except for a few tables of men in expensive suits having business meetings.

Like the Catholic Church centuries before, the museum projects gilded elegance at every turn, reflecting its hefty price tag. Local papers have estimated its cost to be somewhere between $350 million and $560 million (depending on the exchange rate), a sum that left many poblanos wary. The governor of Puebla has said he hopes the museum will do for Puebla what the Guggenheim did for Bilbao, but it doesn't seem to be getting that kind of traction, at least not yet.

In the end, the museum is awe-inspiring, sometimes clumsy, and has a lot going on  a bit like the baroque itself.

If you go

Where to stay

Rosewood Hotel

10 Norte #1402, Col. Barrio del Alto

011-52-222-122-2300

rosewoodhotels.com/en/puebla

The fourth Rosewood in Mexico, this newly opened 78-room property incorporates stunning colonial architecture and work by Mexican artisans. There's also a rooftop pool, offering scenic views of Mexico's twin volcanoes. Rooms from $225.

Where to eat

Mural de los Poblanos

Avenida 16 de Septiembre 506, Centro Historico

011-52-222-242-0503 or 011-52-222-242-6696

elmuraldelospoblanos.com

This classic restaurant is named for the detailed mural that graces one of the dining room walls, depicting characters from Puebla society past and present. On the menu, don't miss the mole sampler, which comes with chicken, turkey, pork or shredded duck and five different kinds of mole sauce ($12.65). Breakfast daily from 8 a.m. to noon; lunch and dinner from 1 p.m. until about 11 p.m.

What to do

International Museum of the Baroque

Via Atlixcayotl 2501, Puebla

011-52-222-326-7130 or 011-52-222-326-7131

mib.puebla.gob.mx/en

Designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning Japanese architect Toyo Ito, the museum is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is about $4.20; free on Sundays.

Information: visitmexico.com/en/main-destinations/puebla/puebla
Left to right, Celia, Paul, and author, Monica Gondek standing in Bettles, Alaska, 35 miles above the Arctic Circle at 11 p.m. in March ,2017, looking at the Northern Lights. Read more

When our daughter Celia told us that in March 2017 she might be working in one of four distant locales (Guam, the Mariana Islands, Alaska, or Hawaii), we said we would meet her there for an adventure. Of course, I dreamed of a warm climate, but she was chosen for Alaska. We began to prepare for cold weather.

The trip turned out to be a surprising mix of relaxation, education, and inspiration, along with a rewarding dining experience.

In mid-March, my husband, Paul, and I flew to Anchorage, where Celia was working, and we spent three days exploring the city. It is small enough to walk everywhere easily and has wonderful restaurants. The Anchorage Museum featured two fascinating exhibits: one on the native people of Alaska, and the other describing the convoluted relationship between the United States and Russia over "Seward's Folly," Alaska statehood, the Cold War, and the possibility of the Crimea-zation of Alaska. Our daughter's colleagues were kind and generous; they took us to the Alyeska ski resort, where we saw a moose munching on a tree branch by the side of the road.

From Anchorage, we all rode the Alaskan Railway to Fairbanks. The twice-weekly winter service was delightfully calm and serves locals who live far from any towns as a "flag stop" train. The views were spectacular: frozen rivers, snowy peaks, deep gorges, and  the best view of all  Denali, North America's highest peak.

Fairbanks had the feel of a small town. We viewed the International Ice Sculpture Competition in minus-10-degree weather, but the beauty of the ice sculpture was worth the cold evening. The city's Visitors Center had wonderful exhibits about the Iditarod and the return of land to the native people of Alaska through the Alaska Native Settlement Act.

The next day, we flew in a nine-seat plane to Bettles, a tiny settlement 35 miles above the Arctic Circle. We found welcoming hosts, good food, great company, somewhat spartan accommodations, and beautiful scenery. But besides taking a dog sled ride, experimenting with snowshoes, and trying to stay warm (it was minus-28 degrees one morning), we saw the Aurora Borealis for two evenings. Nothing can describe the feeling of watching the dancing lights amid sparkling constellations on a cold winter evening with no one else around. When the moon rose later, the snow sparkled just like the sky. For a few moments, we felt like we were all alone in a beautiful world of light and color.

It was a trip we never imagined, but it was one of the best we have ever taken. Alaska in the winter is beautiful.
Residents choose from the produce dropped off by North Philadelphia residents Michael Jarman and Wiley Cunningham at 17th and Francis streets on Nov. 3. Cunningham started the food distribution when he moved to Francisville in the early 2000s. Read more

Michael Jarman's kitchen has always been a place where people gather.

His grandmother baked cakes for extra income and always invited customers into his childhood home in Francisville to sample the product. While working as a chef in Philadelphia for 45 years, he often invited family and friends over for meals. Now, the retired 62-year-old keeps busy by volunteering for a weekly, community-run food distribution in Francisville.

Neighborhood resident Wiley Cunningham started the food distribution 11 years ago to "connect with neighbors," he said.

"It's the difference between bringing us all together and it being like a charity relationship, which is often patronizing," he said. "It's like, 'Hey, let's all do this together to help ourselves.' That's the difference that I think is really important."

Every Friday at 7 a.m., Cunningham and Jarman drive to Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market in Southwest Philadelphia to pick up cases of fresh produce to distribute in the neighborhood.

How much they collect depends on what vendors at the wholesale produce market can donate, Jarman said. One morning earlier this month, they brought a bounty of potatoes, snap peas, peppers, broccoli, clementines, apples and bananas back to the neighborhood.

David Braine, an employee for the food company Ryeco, which sells goods at the wholesale produce market, gives cases of produce to Jarman every week.

"It's easy for us to give stuff away, but it's tough to give up your time," Braine said. "We're just trying to take care of these people. Really, they're the ones giving up a lot."

In North Philadelphia, one in four households struggles with hunger, according to research by Mariana Chilton, director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities and a professor of health management and policy at School of Public Health at Drexel University.

Kamaryn Norris, a project coordinator at The Food Trust, a Philadelphia organization that works to increase access to fresh produce, said corner stores are often the only places in Francisville where residents can buy groceries, and they don't sell a lot of fresh food.

Food distributions like Cunningham's, she added, can "revitalize communities."

When the truck pulls up to 17th and Francis Streets, residents are waiting on the corner to help unload the produce and lay it out so residents can pick whatever they like. Some slip Cunningham a couple bucks for gas and parking at the wholesale produce market. If there's leftover produce, residents drop off the surplus at charities and churches across the city.

About a dozen people regularly come to the food drop-off, and their ages vary between middle-aged and elderly. Some bring kids and others attend with feeding family members at home in mind.

Francisville resident Terry Johnson started coming nine years ago. She said there's "no questions asked," and people can take whatever they need.

She likes to make vegetable stir fry or an apple cake for a treat, and she'll share what she makes to help keep "the neighborhood nice and healthy."

"If I didn't have them, I would go without" fresh produce, said Johnson, 61.

Sometimes residents don't know how to prepare the particular fruits and vegetables offered, so Jarman teaches them in his Strawberry Mansion home.

"A lot of my childhood and growing was spent sitting at a kitchen table, watching and learning from my grandmother and mother," said Jarman, who started volunteering with the food distribution five years ago. "I don't mind passing that on."

Food access points, whether a corner store or a supermarket, are anchors for a community, said Norris, who works on the Food Trust's National Campaign for Healthy Food Access. "It's where people can come together and get food for their family. It's important for them to exist."

In 2003, Cunningham ran a similar food distribution in West Philadelphia while squatting in an abandoned home at 41st and Lancaster Streets. He started the Francisville food distribution when he settled in that neighborhood.

The California native also operated a soup kitchen out of his Bay Area home in collaboration with the organization Food Not Bombs, which has a Philadelphia chapter, before he left there in 2005.

"Everyone needs to eat," Cunningham said. "It's, like, a little bit of work, and a lot of people benefit.  I don't think it should be a question if people should have access to fresh food."

Editor's Note: This story was revised to correct the location of the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market. It is in Southwest Philadelphia, not West Philadelphia.
A man has died after he was attacked by four dogs in the rear yard of a home in North Philadelphia's Hunting Park section Thursday night, authorities said.

In an effort to rescue the man, a police officer shot and killed one of the pit bulls involved in the attack on the 1300 block of West Pike Street, prompting the other dogs to flee back into their house, police said.

The man, whose name has not yet been released, was taken to Temple University Hospital in critical condition after the 9 p.m. attack, police said. He died at 10:18 p.m.

Neighborhood resident Janet Wilkie told NBC10 she had just given the man a plate of food when he went down an alley to the yard of the home of where the dogs live. She said she could not understand why he was in the yard.

Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said the man was so covered in mud and dirt when officers rescued him they could not even estimate his age.

The investigation is continuing. This story will be updated as information becomes available.
A lawyer for former national security adviser Michael Flynn informed an attorney for President Trump this week that he can no longer discuss the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, a sign that Flynn may be preparing to cooperate in the probe, people familiar with the investigation said.

The call from Flynn lawyer Robert Kelner to Trump attorney John Dowd came Wednesday evening and is a potentially ominous sign for Trump and other close associates to the president. Before this week, Kelner and been strategizing with lawyers for Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, among others.

The split suggests that Flynn, who has been a top target of special counsel Robert Mueller and his team, may be looking to share information with the prosecutor and his team.

The development was first reported by the New York Times.

Kelner did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, said: "This is not entirely unexpected."

"No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president," he said, adding: "It's important to remember that General Flynn received his security clearance under the previous administration."

In complex investigations, lawyers for subjects often enter into agreements that allow them to share information without waiving attorney-client privilege. Such agreements generally include provisions that require the lawyers to immediately end the arrangement if their clients begin discussions with prosecutors or if other developments pose a conflict of interest.

Even if Flynn has begun discussions with Mueller's office, there is no guarantee he will ultimately reach a deal with prosecutors.

Flynn served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama before he was pushed out in 2014 amid criticism of his management style and clashes with other Obama administration officials.

He then established a private consulting firm and gave paid speeches, work that has drawn intense scrutiny from Mueller.

In December 2015, Flynn was paid by the Russian government-funded television network RT to attend a dinner in Moscow, where he was seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Even as he became an adviser to Trump's presidential campaign, his consulting firm was paid to promote the interests of the Turkish government. Flynn failed to initially report his payments from either engagement.

Flynn served 24 days as Trump's national security adviser, but was forced to resign after acknowledging that he had secretly discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during Trump's presidential transition in December.

Lawyers for the president and senior White House aides had been quietly speculating over the last few weeks that Flynn was under increasing pressure to cooperate because Mueller had signaled his ability to charge his son alongside the father.

Michael Flynn , the retired general's son, helped his father with business arrangements and served as chief of staff at his father's consulting firm, the Flynn Intel Group.

Barry Coburn, an attorney for Michael Flynn, declined to comment.
Erika Guadalupe Nunez holds the placard she created for South Philadelphia households to display to promote solidarity in the wake of ICE raids. Read more

Erika Guadalupe Nunez dwells at the intersection of art and resistance.

So when the activist group Juntos needed a bold image to inspire neighborhood solidarity amid unnerving immigration raids  federal authorities snatched 107 people in a single September sweep  it turned to her.

The result: a full-color placard for households to display in their front windows, alerting all, "This home resists." It anchors a "community resistance zone" that Juntos has launched across a large swath of South Philadelphia.

One side of the poster shows a young Latin boy standing in front of a brick rowhouse, his hand raised as if to say, "Stop." On the back, in English and Spanish, is a list of "Do's and Don'ts" if immigration agents or police come pounding on the door.

Tip No. 1: Don't open the door.

"It speaks across languages," said Nunez, 26. "It's community members saying, 'We have to start looking out for one another.'"

She enveloped the poster boy with an elliptical, blue background, as a way to make him more prominent. But others see the sacred, an outline similar to the aureole that surrounds the Aztec goddess Tonantzin or the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Nunez swears that was unintentional.

Whether secular or religious, that art now hangs in an outsized gallery: The windows and doors of shops and homes from Third Street west to Ninth Street, and Washington Avenue south to Oregon Avenue.

There Juntos has created its first "resistance zone," a block-by-block effort to oppose the Trump administration's tough stance on immigration and undocumented immigrants. During one weekend this month, Juntos' volunteers knocked on 3,000 doors, handing out posters as they went.

They trained people how to protect their rights and those of their neighbors, should they be approached by local police or agents from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.

"It was really important to have something you put up in your window, so that when they're at your door, and they might be banging on the door, that you're reminded of your rights," said Juntos Executive Director Erika Almiron. "It was important for community members to see these posters in the windows and know our neighbors and friends have committed to be our allies."

By using posters to spread awareness, Juntos draws on a rich history of protest art, of drawings and prints that aim to coax people into movements by engaging their emotions and intellect. The best endure forever:

The plain and powerful signs  "I am a man"  carried by striking Memphis sanitation workers in 1968. The dainty flower in the Vietnam-era poster, "War is not healthy for children and other living things." Or, more recently, the Women's March image of a woman wearing a red, white and blue hijab.

"People need to see something in order to be able to respond," said Christian Frock, a California arts writer and educator who recently curated, Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area. "Empathy is the driving mechanism of a response."

Nunez was born in Mexico and lived in Phoenix and Chicago before coming to Philadelphia. She graduated with a degree in fine arts from Bryn Mawr College in 2013, and now works as manager of community programs at the Fleisher Art Memorial.

She lives in South Philadelphia, but her true home, she said, is at Juntos, where she volunteers, serves on the board, and most important, works as what might be called the artist in residence.

If you notice an especially affecting banner carried at the front of a Juntos march, one that makes people call out in praise or dismay, Nunez probably created it.

She was 10 when she came to the United States, traveling with her mother on a

dangerous three-day trek through the desert. Her father was already here.

None had legal permission to be in the country. All have it now.

They came, Nunez said, to escape desperate poverty. When she was a baby, her mother so lacked food and nutrition that she could not produce breast milk. Her parents wanted her to have a better life.

Nunez' drive and intelligence stood out at Waukegan High School in Illinois. Her father hoped she would go into medicine. But a cringing dissection of a pig in college put an end to that plan. And besides, art was calling.

For the poster, Nunez recruited a young friend as a model. The rowhouse of a colleague supplied the background. It's the familiar Philadelphia setting, and the boy, in all his vulnerability, that touches our common humanity, she said.

"I'm hoping that when folks see it they feel empowered to take action to fight against hate in all of its various forms," Nunez said. "I hope the poster reminds folks that they are the greatest defenders of their community."
* Exports of all UK food and drink grew to 5.9bn in Q3 2017, up 14.7% on 2016. This represents growth of 11% to 16.1bn from January to September 2017 year to date (YTD) compared to 2016.

* Q3 export growth to non-EU markets (+18.2%) out-performed that to EU markets (+12.5%), raising the non-EU share of exports to 41.2%.

* The UKs top three fastest growing export products are liquid milk and cream, butter and spreads, and vegetable oils for the period from January to September.

* The five fastest growing export markets by value (YTD 2017) were the Philippines (+289%), Latvia (+116%), Iceland (+73.2%), South Korea (+55%) and Romania (+48%) for the period January to September.

* Exports of branded goods saw growth of 12.7% to 4.3bn YTD 2017, demonstrating strong progress towards achieving FDFs branded export ambition ahead of schedule.

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has published its quarterly Exports Snapshot, which highlights key UK food and drink export figures for the third quarter of 2017. Q3 saw further growth, building on the strength of the record-breaking first half results seen earlier this year. Exports grew to 5.9bn during this time period, up 14.7% on Q3 2016. This represents growth of 11% to 16.1bn from January to September 2017 (YTD) against the same period in 2016.

From January to September, Ireland, France and the United States remained the top three destinations for UK food and drink in terms of overall value. The US remains the UKs top non-EU market for exports of food and drink, reaching 1.6bn, up 7.7%. Growth was reported in all top 20 markets during that time period, apart from Spain, which saw a 7.1% decrease due to reduced sales of barley and wheat (-78%).

The balance between exports to non-EU and EU markets shifted slightly in the third quarter, with growth to non-EU markets (+18.2%) out-performing EU markets (+12.5%). There has been notably rapid growth in the sectors exports to the Philippines (+289.1%), Latvia (+116.1%), and Iceland (+73.2%). The surge in growth to the Philippines was led by higher demand for pork (85%), whisky (277%), cheese (1608%) and salmon (226%), while exports to Latvia more than doubled from 60m to 129m, driven by sales of whisky (131%), wine (239%), gin (86%) and fish fillets (125%).

Exports of branded products grew by 14.3% in Q3, reaching 1.5bn, and up 12.7% to 4.3bn for the first nine months of the year. This means branded export growth is firmly on track to reach FDFs export ambition ahead of schedule. In 2015, FDF set a target to grow exports of branded food and non-alcoholic drink by a third, from a 2014 baseline, reaching 6bn by 2020.

Despite the growth recorded, the UKs food and drink trade deficit increased by 0.7% to -5.6bn in Q3 2017 as our trade deficit with EU countries widened.

As part of the Governments Industrial Strategy, FDF is developing sector deal proposals to boost specialist export support for the industry, with an aim of delivering ambitious long-term export targets for the industry. Exports were highlighted as an area of opportunity for manufacturers in the economic contribution report conducted by Grant Thornton. In the report, China, India and the UAE emerged as the top three markets that exporters would like to target, however food and drink businesses continue to struggle to enter these markets due to complexities, cost and unfamiliarity.

Ian Wright CBE, Director General, FDF, said: The continued growth of food and drink exports demonstrates the strength of UK production in international markets. UK food and drink is recognised throughout the world for its quality and we must be ready to take advantage of the opportunities created from leaving the EU.

Exports to non-EU markets did outperform those to EU markets in the last quarter but the EU remains our number one trading partner. With fewer than one in five food and drink manufacturers exporting, it is vital that we continue to work closely with Government in order to take advantage of the opportunities to sell Great British and Northern Irish food and drink abroad.

Elsa Fairbanks, Director, Food & Drink Exports Association (FDEA), said: FDEA members continue to be very positive about their sales to international markets. It is particularly encouraging at this time of change that exports continue to grow in our top EU markets and that markets like South Korea and China are gaining traction.

Our challenge is to ensure that new exporters have the confidence to develop markets closer to home and the skills and knowledge to explore the important but often complex markets further afield. The FDEA team is committed to helping food and drink exporters identify the most appropriate markets for their products and to exploit the commercial opportunities for British food and drink across the globe.

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Texas Trooper Damon Allen was shot and killed Thursday during a traffic stop. (Photo: ODMP.org)

A Texas state trooper was shot and killed during a Thanksgiving traffic stop near Fairfield. A suspect is in custody.

Trooper Damon Allen, 41, was reportedly shot and killed shortly before 4 p.m. by a man using a rifle. DPS said Allen joined the department in 2002 and was married with three children.

Dabrett Black, 32, of Lindale, Texas, was apprehended about five hours after the shooting in Hempstead, about 110 miles south of Fairfield, NBCDFW reports.

Black is charged with capital murder of a peace officer, among other charges.

The Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said in a statement Thursday night "Our DPS family is heartbroken tonight after one of Texas' finest law enforcement officers was killed in the line of duty. Texas Highway Patrol Trooper Damon Allen was a loving husband and father of three, and we ask for your prayers for his entire family and his many friends and colleagues during the difficult days ahead. Trooper Allen's dedication to duty, and his bravery and selfless sacrifice on this Thanksgiving Day, will never be forgotten."
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A woman who sent a homemade bomb to President Obama was caught because of the cat hair on the package.

CBS News reported, Court documents filed in district court in Houston last week show Julia Poff was indicted earlier this month on six counts for allegedly mailing the bombs in October 2016, including mailing injurious articles and transporting explosives with the intent to kill and injureAn obliterated shipping label on the package sent to Abbott led investigators to Poffs address in Sealy, and a cat hair found under the shipping label of the package sent to Obama matched one of Poffs cats, the indictment says. The device contained a cellphone, a cigarette package and a Kens salad dressing cap which were also linked to Poff, including by witnesses who said she had bought the salad dressing for an anniversary dinner, according to the indictment.

People try to harm presidents and other elected officials for all sorts of reasons, but Poff tried to blow up Greg Abbott because her ex-husband was not paying support, and she tried to kill the then President Of The United States because she didnt like him.

There are people with mental health issues all over this country who want to harm political leaders for all kinds of bizarre reasons. Luckily, this bombmaker wasnt very smart. Criminals are caught by human DNA all of the time, but this might be the first time that a cat hair has caught someone who tried to harm a president.
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Christian Pastor Flip Benham recently claimed that Roy Moores pursuit of a 14-year-old girl was justified because there is something about the purity of a young woman. Benham is an anti-gay conservative firebrand who tried to justify Moores alleged sexual assault of a minor. Benham was quoted as saying,

I think that number one, you need to understand, 40 years ago, what the Sitz im Leben was like in Alabama. Judge Roy Moore graduated from West Point and then went into the service, served in Vietnam and then came back and was in law school. All of the ladies or many of the ladies that he possibly could have married were not available then, they were already married, maybe, somewhere. So he looked in a different direction and always with the [permission of the] parents of younger ladies  He did that because there is something about a purity of a young woman, there is something that is good, thats true, thats straight and he looked for that.

The argument that Pastor Benham is making is that its okay for evangelical adults to pursue teenage girls because they are pure, thus making the men godly. There is no other way to describe Benhams statement other than completely disgusting. There isnt any defense for grown men pursuing teenage girls. Teenagers do not have the life experience to make mature decisions regarding adult relationships. Laws against these types of relationships exist for a very good reason. There is a huge power imbalance between an adult lawyer in his 30s and a 14-year-old girl.

This is a reoccurring problem within the evangelical movement. The Duggars are the best example of religious hypocrisy used to justify sexual assault. Josh Duggar is the poster child for the character of the men who are indoctrinated from birth. Cult leader Bill Gothard started the homeschool evangelical (Quiverfull) movement. In February 2016, 18 victims filed a lawsuit against Bill Gothard, alleging sexual abuse. Daniel Dorsett, one of Gothards former drivers, claims that he witnessed the abuse of more than 150 girls between 1994 and 1996.

The conservative evangelical movement is clearly harmful to society as a whole. When the movement justifies the sexual abuse of children for the sake of political power, it becomes the embodiment of everything wrong with the Christian Church in America. It is imperative that Americans reject Roy Moore and reject any philosophy that tries to justify sexual abuse.
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The news that Mike Flynn is either trying to cut a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller or has cut a deal means that someone or all of the Trump family are going down.

Via The Washington Post, The call from Flynn lawyer Robert Kelner to Trump attorney John Dowd came Wednesday evening and is a potentially ominous sign for Trump and his close associates. Before this week, Kelner had been communicating with lawyers for Trump. The split suggests that Flynn, who has been a top target of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team, may be looking to share information with the prosecutor and his team.

As Norm Eisen put it:

I negotiated a cooperation deal for a target with Mueller's office when he was US Atty and lemme tell ya, he's not gonna give one to Flynn unless he implicates someone up the ladder. That means Kushner, Don Jr., or Big Daddy. They are all having indigestion tonight. https://t.co/8SNzelLuBp  Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) November 24, 2017

This development explains why Trump was pressuring James Comey to kill the investigation into Mike Flynn. The President may have been trying to obstruct justice to keep Mike Flynn from talking to Mueller. The special counsel has had enough evidence to charge Flynn and his son for weeks. The delay in charges was likely related Flynn trying to cut a deal. Mueller is handling this investigation like he is breaking up an organized crime ring, which means that Flynn is going to have give up the bigger fish to save himself and/or his son.

Mike Flynn was in the inner circle of the campaign and the White House. He can implicate the Trump family. If Flynn tells prosecutors all that he knows, Trump, Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner could all be charged for potential Russia crimes.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Mostly clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 44F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 44F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
In tourism-driven cities across the country, online booking platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway have all but erased the line between vacation homes and residential rentals.

Zoning rules that once kept them in separate districts have become practically obsolete as the listing services make it easier and more profitable than ever for homeowners to rent a guest house or spare bedroom to visitors.

Over the past few years, many homes traditionally rented by residents have been converted to short-term rentals. In popular neighborhoods, property owners can earn twice as much renting to visitors as they would leasing to long-term tenants, according to data from Airdna, a California-based consulting and analytics firm that tracks Airbnb rentals.

For historic cities like Charleston that are seeing a rapidly growing population and a shrinking supply of affordable housing, the explosion of short-term rentals stands to make a bad situation worse.

That fact hasn't been lost on the city's Short-Term Rental Task Force, a group of local historic preservationists, residents and real estate professionals who have worked all year on a new set of regulations for short-term rentals.

"Its indisputable that short-term rentals raise the cost for housing in neighborhoods," task force member Kristopher King, executive director of the Preservation Society of Charleston, said.

The group's proposed ordinance is being reviewed by the Planning Commission, which ultimately could approve it, change it, or reject it altogether before it goes to City Council.

The ordinance would legalize short-term rentals across the city for the first time. Currently, the city only permits them in commercial areas of Cannonborough-Elliottborough downtown, but city officials acknowledge there are hundreds operating illegally across the peninsula, West Ashley, James Island, Johns Island and Daniel Island.

The new rules aim to better regulate them and ultimately ensure that short-term rentals don't outnumber residences. But some provisions meant to protect the local housing stock are unpopular with homeowners already operating short-term rentals. Others say they don't go far enough to truly keep residents from being priced out of their neighborhoods.

Under the new ordinance, the rentals would have to be owner-occupied, registered and licensed by the city so that they can be monitored.

Eligible homes would have to be at least 50 years old, to keep developers from building new units solely for short-term rental use.

The most controversial proposal would require hosts to be on the premises throughout their guests' stays. Whole-home rentals are the most popular type of rentals on all the platforms, primarily because hosts can rent out their houses while they're traveling themselves, and most guests prefer the privacy.

City Planner Jacob Lindsey said the provision is designed to protect the stock of housing available to residents.

"When whole homes are listed as vacation rentals, those homes are removed from the rental market, which lessens supply and therefore drives up cost," he said. "If someone rents a spare room to a traveler, it doesnt seem to remove housing from the system."

Rashaunda Grant, who uses her family's secondary home on James Island as a whole-home rental, argued against the rule at one of the Planning Commission meetings.

"We tried long-term rentals, and it was terrible," she said. "People were tearing up our home."

Property owners who live in duplexes or have accessory dwelling units such as granny flats would have an advantage because they can be rented as private units but would still be considered owner-occupied.

But Daniel Ravenel, a Charleston native and real estate agent who serves on the task force, said those are the types of units his company often rents to residents. Allowing them to be used for short-term rentals still would shrink residents' already slim housing options.

"I wonder how many young people who work in the hospitality industry or who go to the College of Charleston or who intern at the Medical University, how many of those folks will be able to afford living on the peninsula with the pervasiveness of short-term rentals?" he asked.

Asheville, N.C., a nearby tourist destination also in the throes of an affordable housing crisis, does not allow hosts to use their whole homes or accessory dwelling units for short-term rentals.

In New Orleans, whole-home rentals are only banned in the historic French Quarter. In other neighborhoods where they're allowed, they're multiplying rapidly.

Breonne DeDecker, who works for a community land trust and housing rights organization in New Orleans, has been tracking short-term rental listings throughout the city since 2014 with other volunteers. She said whole-home listings have increased by more than 120 percent in the past two years.

"You can get so much more money in New Orleans renting to a tourist than you can to a renter," she said. "We've lost almost 4,000 entire homes off the market."

In Charleston, Lindsey said the city plans to hire a data analytics firm next year to get a deeper understanding of how short-term rentals affect the housing stock. That will indicate whether stricter regulations on short-term rentals are needed to preserve long-term housing, he said.

The Planning Commission will meet again at 3 p.m. Dec. 4 to review the short-term rental ordinance. The meeting will be held in the auditorium of the Charleston County Public Library, 68 Calhoun St.
AUSTIN  Hormel Foods Corp. distributed its 79th annual profit sharing to eligible employees Wednesday morning.

The company distributed about $17.5 million to hourly and salaried employees during its yearly tradition before Thanksgiving. The profit sharing program was started by Jay C. Hormel in 1938 and is voluntarily paid at the discretion of Hormel's board.

"We continue to grow our brands and reach consumers in more ways than ever before," said Jim Snee, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer at Hormel Foods. "We are proud to once again celebrate our achievements through this year's profit sharing contribution, a program that is unique in our industry."
If you've got a stargazing fan on your holiday gift giving list and you're considering a telescope for that special someone  even if that someone is you!  I want you to buy right and buy smart. Get the most astronomical bang for your buck.

The most important thing a telescope can do for you is gather light. That will determine how clear the astronomical target will be. Light-gathering ability is determined by the aperture of the telescope. The wider it is, the more light you're able to gather.

Magnification is clearly in second place. Too many folks go for scopes that brag of high magnification without considering aperture, and that's too bad, because you could wind up with a scope that gives fuzzy disappointing views, and what good is that?

Beware of telescopes that claim something like 500 or 600 magnification power. That's just asking for trouble! Even though you'll see astronomical targets over 500 times larger than you would with your unaided eyes, there's a very good chance that all you'll wind up with is a mess of fuzz and a lot of disappointment.

It's been my experience that many telescopes that claim outrageous magnifications are found in department stores and general online shopping websites. I really think that your best bet is to purchase a telescope from an outlet that specializes in astronomy and telescopes, both online as well as brick-and-mortar. I'll have some specific recommendations toward the end of the column.

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Price points

Getting back to magnification, most of the time you'll be very happy seeing heavenly bodies in a general range of 100 to 200 power. In fact, some celestial goodies look their best with less than 100 power.

The least expensive way to go with a telescope in most cases is a small refracting telescope. These are the kind of telescopes most people think of when they think of a telescope. Light is collected by a lens called the objective lens in the front of the scope and is bent toward the eyepiece at the rear. The wider that objective lens is, the more light gathering you'll have. The minimum diameter for the objective lens should be about 60 mm. Anything less than that and you have a toy. At minimum, you'll spend $200 to $300 for a decent refractor telescope.

My favorite telescopes are Newtonian reflectors, invented by none other than Isaac Newton in 17th century. You'll have to spend a little more money, but I think they're so worth it. They collect light from celestial objects with a concave parabolic mirror in the rear of an open tube. The collected light bounces back to a focal point at the front of the tube and is directed by a secondary flat mirror to the eyepiece mounted on the side of the tube.

The easiest reflectors to use are the ones with Dobsonian mounts. They're often referred to as "Dobsonians." The minimum size reflector you should get in my opinion is one with an 8-inch diameter mirror. You can get one of those on the web for about $400-$500.

If you're looking to get a first telescope for child age 6-10, I have a very specific Dobsonian telescope recommendation. It's the Meade telescope Lightbridge Mini 82 with an 82-millimeter mirror. It's so easy to use, as it can sit on a tabletop. You can get nice views of the moon, planets and more. Depending on where you buy it, you'll be spending about $60-$70.

If you have an older "giftee," you can really do it right with a computer-guided Dobsonian reflector. I think the best buy out there is from Orion Telescopes. I'd highly recommend the Skyquest XT8 Intelliscope Dobsonian telescope that comes with multiple eyepieces and computerized object locator that can be a huge aid in helping you find astronomical objects. It's priced at around $700.

Cassegrain telescopes are another kind of telescope that's more or less a hybrid of reflector and refractor telescopes. They're generally much more expensive but are fairly portable and do a great job.

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As far as astrophotography with a telescope it's not an easy process and certainly not cheap. That's actually a column for another day. I will say this though. At least for bright objects, especially the moon and the planets it's amazing what you can do with cell phone camera. There are even mounting devices that'll latch your phone on the eyepiece of your scope but just holding the phone over the eyepiece can produce some amazing images!

Shopping sites

There are many good brick and mortar astronomy/telescope retailers across the USA and we're lucky enough to have a great one in the Twin Cities: Radio City Astronomy in Mounds View ( radioinc.com ).

There are others, but two main websites I recommend are Telescope.com for Orion telescopes and Telescopes.com for all the other brands like Celeston, Meade, and others. I'm also a big fan of Starizona.com , which also has a wonderful store in Tuscon, Ariz.
ST. PAUL  The former Rochester coffee-shop owner convicted of sexually assaulting a minor lost his appeal at the state level.

In June 2016, a jury convicted Christopher Lee Holloway, now 47, of one count each of third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, with aggravating factors.

On Sept. 16, 2016, Olmsted County District Court Judge Joseph Chase handed down stayed prison terms of 60 months and 15 months, respectively, and ordered Holloway to spend 240 days in jail.

After representing himself during the trial, Holloway retained attorney Max Keller, who two months ago appealed the verdict before the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Keller argued that Holloway should have been allowed to use the "mistake of age" defense; the local court's denial of that defense was "unconstitutional and unfair," Keller said.

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Defendants who are more than 240 months or 10 years older than the Complainant are not allowed to raise the mistake of age defense.

Holloway and the boy  then 14  met Dec. 19, 2014, on a social media site frequented by homosexual males. Holloway went to the victim's house early Dec. 20, 2014, and went into the boy's bedroom, where the sexual contact took place.

Holloway left a few hours later, and the two continued chatting throughout the day Dec. 20, the records show. He went to the boy's house about 2:30 a.m. the next day, when more sexual contact occurred. The victim's mother discovered the two in the bedroom, prompting Holloway to flee.

The victim told authorities he admitted his actual age to Holloway before both meetings.

Holloway disputed that fact during his local trial, and provided transcripts that he claimed indicated the boy consented to the encounters and was a willing participant.

Keller told the appellate judges that "all of the facts were undisputed," except for Holloway's knowledge of the boy's age.

"They met on the Internet, and (the victim) told Mr. Holloway he was 18," Keller said.

"And nobody lies on the Internet," Justice Kevin Ross said.

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"Well, that's the problem," Keller responded.

The 10-year age difference cited by the law is an arbitrary number, Keller said, not made on any rational basis  and therefore unconstitutional.

That argument, however, "overlooks the ... intent to afford the most protection to the youngest victims," Ross wrote in his ruling.

"Reducing the number of potential offenders who can avoid conviction ... necessarily affords greater protection to the youngest potential victims."

The conviction was upheld.
CALEDONIA  A search warrant executed in Houston County led to two arrests for alleged drug manufacturing and distributing.

The Houston County Sheriff's Office  along with the Caledonia Police Department and South East Minnesota Violent Crimes Enforcement Team  executed a search warrant in Caledonia, according to a Houston County Sheriff's Office news release.

Authorities seized more than 50 grams of suspected loose leaf marijuana; more than 19 grams of suspected methamphetamine, which was found individually packaged; and multiple containers of suspected marijuana wax.

"It is particularly concerning that we are seeing marijuana wax in the amount seized in our area," the sheriff's news release said, "as that is a potent and dangerous form of marijuana."

Also obtained during the search were "numerous items of drug paraphernalia," items used for manufacturing and distributing narcotics, a stun gun, and a shotgun.

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Two suspects were taken into custody: Michael Massman, 31, of Caledonia and Bridgette Blumenstein, 34, also of Caledonia. A juvenile was also placed in the custody of family.

Massman was charged in Houston County District Court with six felony level counts related to the possession of a controlled substance, manufacturing and distribution of controlled substance crimes.

Blumenstein was also charged in the Houston County District Court with one gross misdemeanor count of fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance and a petty misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Drive along the river in Lake City, and you'll see a beautiful marina, public parks, a long pier and beaches bordering Lake Pepin.

But for the mayor and other city leaders in Lake City, good isn't good enough. They want more.

During a bonding tour for state lawmakers in September, Lake City Mayor Mark Nichols told the group at the Lake City Marina that the city has long been seen as a summer and fall getaway, but is working to become a four-season destination.

"I came here in 2016," said Mark Sievert, Lake City's city administrator. "The summer before in 2015, they had a big-tent meeting where they invited a lot of people to come in and talk about the waterfront. They wanted to see some revitalization, develop more to offer in terms of recreational amenities."

All along the Mississippi River, cities are looking at riverfront downtowns and devising ways to revitalize those old areas, turning them into hubs of activity among refurbished and rehabilitated old buildings.

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Winona's Success

Peter Shortridge and his partners hope to close on a late 1800s building at 102 Walnut St. sometime in December and begin working on refurbishing the building for move-in by 2019. It would be the third building remodeled and rebuilt by Latsch Building Partnership LLC.

Shortridge said developer Michael Gostomski, a founder of Fastenal Company, has looked to help revitalize Winona's downtown one old building at a time.

"His vision has been to help invigorate and invest in dowtown," said Shortridge, the general manager of Latsch Building Partnership. "We're afraid Winona would become that community where the money went away for the winter."

Instead, as Winona works on redeveloping its downtown, people have shown a commitment to participate in the city culturally throughout the year, he said.

The 102 Walnut building is following on the heels of the company's completion of the Latsch Building, located diagonally across the street.

"The Latsch was our first deep dive on redevelopment," Shortridge said.

Home to commercial and retail space, the 1960s building required $4 million in construction costs. Fortunately, the development company picked up about $1.5 million in tax credits on the job. With so many hoops to jump through for redevelopment  the Latsch Building is on both the national and local list of historic places  the credits on such projects are a must to make funding possible for redevelopment, Shortridge said.

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Planning Ahead

Cities often talk about redevelopment, said Lucy McMartin, director of community development for the City of Winona. But getting that investment in older downtowns doesn't just happen. It takes planning ahead, a unified vision and a city willing to invest in itself to attract private dollars.

In Winona's case, the city's investment in Levee Park, with its developed trails, green space and pedestrian mall and signature gateway that are being built, that has helped draw investors willing to build new or redevelop old buildings, she said.

A good example is the 60 Main project, a mixed-use hotel, residential and retail property being proposed by Sherman Development of Minneapolis.

The mixed-use theme is common in Winona. Shortridge said the 102 Walnut Building will have commercial, retail and even 10 apartments priced in the "not student housing" but affordable level.

All this is designed to make Winona's downtown a year-round, day and night hub for the city. Designed is the key word. In 2016, the development of Levee Park and the refurbishing of the Masonic Temple as a theater were part of an overall plan to create a more active downtown.

"Our goal is to have live events downtown every day," said Winona City Manager Steve Sarvi. "That's how you have that vibrancy downtown."

Big Dreams

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While Winona is on its way to redeveloping its downtown, Lake City has rolled out its plans and is hoping to start rolling up its sleeves. The city worked with Stantec, an engineering and planning company, to develop a list of possible ideas to take its lakefront along Lake Pepin from good to amazing.

Admittedly, Sievert said, some of the ideas are grandiose.

"It's pretty broad, and it's pretty grand," he said. Sievert likened the master plan to a parade of homes tour. Not everyone can afford the details incorporated in the million-dollar homes on the tours, but those details provide inspiration for affordable options. "Is it too much for what we can bite off?"

The plan includes affordable projects such as trails connecting the various waterfront zones of the city and a bandshell along the lake to more aspirational features such as a pair of pedestrian bridges that rise over the harbor with room for sailboats to slide underneath.

Sievert said the city council will likely start at Hok Si La Park, making the park more accessible and giving it more amenities for use. The park will have its own master plan, making it eligible for the state's Legacy Grant funding.

Sievert said the city's plans for the waterfront have already met with positive responses from developers looking to put their own money into the downtown area.

"The developer (of Block 13) has publicly stated the Stantec plan would be very beneficial to his development," Sievert said.

With a captive audience of boaters at the Marina during the summer, businesses in downtown are looking for amenities that will attract those non-boaters. "Whether it's the residents or the tourists, we need more opportunities to draw people down there," he said.

Eagle Eyes

Down the river in Wabasha, the city might not have a specific plan solely for its downtown and riverfront, but, said City Administrator Chad Springer, the city's comprehensive plan is guiding the mayor and council to make the river a focus of its development.

Of course, right on the river, Wabasha benefits from the National Eagle Center, a tourism destination that is in the process of growing and making the downtown even more accessible for residents and tourists.

It's a recipe that has worked before for the city.

"The city of Wabasha has a history of that," said Springer, referring back to the initial investment of city, state and private money that built the facility. Now, as the Eagle Center plans to expand into the undeveloped green space to its north, the city is there to make the most of the deal.

While the Eagle Center expands into some of the space, the rest of the green space will be developed. The city is also planning to build dock space to accommodate visiting paddle wheelers and other large private boats.

The ongoing dredging issue in Wabasha may lead to a commercial port on the north end of town.

"That opens up a lot of different angles when you have a major highway, a railroad and a port on the river all within a half mile of each other," Springer said.

And as Lake City, Red Wing and Winona develop new riverfront projects around his town, Springer said it's less about competition and more about synergy.

"Every project these cities are putting together will benefit one another either directly or indirectly," he said.
Three tax-forfeited properties  two in Rochester and one in Chatfield  are a step closer to providing affordable homes for families.

Olmsted County commissioners, who also serve as seven of the county's eight Housing and Redevelopment Authority board members, agreed Tuesday to sell three tax-forfeited properties to nonprofit agencies through the HRA with the intent they be converted to affordable housing.

The three properties were among five held back from potential auction earlier this year and offered to three agencies  Three Rivers Community Action, First Homes and Rochester Area Habitat for Humanity  as part of a pilot program.

"It will stop them from being holes in neighborhoods," HRA Director Dave Dunn said, noting the planned projects will return abandoned homes to livable spaces.

The pilot program was initiated in August with the hopes of finding properties that could be improved in an effort to provide affordable housing.

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Minnesota statute allows tax-forfeited properties to be sold to local government agencies, such as the HRA, for reduced prices.

Heather Beastlier of the county's Property, Records and Licensing Office, has said the county could see approximately six eligible properties a year, if the pilot program is deemed a success and commissioners want to continue the effort.

Of the three properties approved Tuesday, Habitat for Humanity will purchase two of the properties for a total of $22,500 with plans to build at least one new house and remodel another.

Dunn said a property at 307 Avenue B NE in Chatfield will be purchased for $2,500 with plans to demolish the existing house and build a new home that will be provided to a family with mortgage payments equal to 26 percent to 30 percent of the household's income. The plan calls for construction to be complete in 2020.

Habitat is also buying a home at 418 18th St. SW in Rochester for $20,000 with plans to reconstruct the home to create a five-bedroom home for a local family.

The third property will be sold to Rochester Area Foundation's First Homes program for $2,500 with plans to demolish the house and build a new home on the site, with the property put into the program's land trust, which helps lower the home's cost and keep it affordable for future buyers.

Two of the five properties considered for the program  one in Rochester and one in Eyota  did not receive bids from the non-profit agencies and will be returned to the county for a future auction.

The properties sold to Habitat and First Homes will remain off the tax rolls until they are sold to homeowners, said Mark Krupski, the director of Olmsted County's Property Records and Licensing Office.

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County Commissioner Sheila Kiscaden said the benefits go beyond the added tax revenue, however.

"It's nice to see these properties reconditioned, reused and rebuilt," she said.
ST. PAUL  High-speed internet access will soon be available to an additional 1,195 households and 260 businesses in southeast Minnesota thanks to grant funding.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic development announced this week that $26 million in grants had been awarded to 39 broadband projects statewide. Of that money, more than $4.3 million is being used for seven projects in southeast Minnesota.

Approximately 20 percent of Minnesotans lack access to high-speed internet access that meets the basic state standard of 25 megabits per second download speed and 3 megabits per second upload speed. Lt. Gov. Tina Smith said the state needs to do more to expand broadband access in Greater Minnesota.

"It is a basic utility of the 21st century. Without it, you can't get your work done, you can't get your school work done, you don't have access to health care. It's not something that is nice to have. It's something that is really necessary to participate in the economy of the 21st century," Smith said.

Among those celebrating the grant announcement was Fillmore County Coordinator Bobbie Vickerman. Two Fillmore County projects  one in Fountain and one in Rushford  made the cut.

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"It is exciting  especially for the rural patrons to have that access," she said.

Below is a list of local projects that received funding:

$2 million for Rushford Village/rural Rushford fiber build AcenTek will install fiber-optic cable to improve broadband levels to a minimum of 1 gigabit per second download and 100 megabits per second upload. It will benefit an estimated 226 unserved households, 20 underserved businesses and two underserved community anchor institutions. Fillmore County is providing a $75,000 loan to the company for the project. Total eligible project cost is more than $5 million with more than a $3 million local match.

$606,108 for rural Kasson fiber build KMTelecom will install fiber optic cable to provide high-speed internet access to 149 unserved households and nine unserved businesses in Canisteo and Ashland townships, which are located south of Kasson in Dodge County. Internet speeds will be 1 gigabit per second download and 1 gigabit per second upload. Total eligible project cost is more than $1.5 million with a $948,016 local match.

$202,125 for Fountain broadband build Mediacom will leverage its existing hybrid fiber and coaxial network in the city of Fountain in Fillmore County to provide high-speed internet access to 161 unserved households and 20 unserved businesses. Internet speeds will be 25 megabits per second download and 3 megabits per second upload. Total eligible project cost is $421,094 with a $218,969 local match.

$768,600 for Wanamingo broadband improvements Midcontinent Communications plans to extend high-speed internet access to 597 unserved households, 76 unserved businesses and four community institutions in the city of Wanamingo in Goodhue County. Internet speed levels will be 1 gigabit per second upload and download. Total eligible project cost is $1.5 million with a $768,000 local match.

$411, 704 White Rock rural fiber to the premises New Ulm Telecom will provide high-speed internet access to 22 unserved households and 88 unserved businesses in the White Rock area in the northern half of Goodhue County. Internet speeds will be 1 gigabit per second download and upload. Total eligible cost is $914, 898 with a $503,194 local match.

Push for more broadband funding in 2018?

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One of the big questions looking ahead is whether lawmakers will invest more in the state's Border-to-Border fund during next year's legislative session. The Legislature approved $20 million for broadband funding this year. The Governor's Task Force on Broadband has recommended $100 million be invested over two years. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton called for a $66 million investment last session.

Demand for the grants is outpacing funding. The state received a total of 70 applications seeking $50 million during the most recent grant cycle.

Deputy Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, authored the jobs budget bill that included the $20 million for broadband funding. He said he is a strong supporter of the state's Border-to-Border broadband program. However, he said lawmakers first need to see the updated budget forecasts to see if there will be extra money available to invest in broadband. Those forecasts project whether the state will have a budget surplus or budget deficit in the coming year.

Miller added, It's important for folks in rural areas to have high-speed internet access. Times are changing and internet access is more important than ever. So think it's critically important that we are investing in getting folks that access."
ISIS apparently carried out a terror attack on a mosque in the northern Sinai Peninsula today, killing at least 235 and wounding more than 100 more. The mosque was in al-Arish, just a few miles from Israel:

Apparently the terrorists set off a bomb inside the mosque, where Sufi Muslims were worshipping, and then shot those who streamed out of the mosque. The attack seems to have been executed in a military manner, with, reports say, at least four vehicles containing gunmen. In retaliation, the Egyptian government has launched air strikes against mountainous areas where ISIS terrorists are believed to congregate.

The attack has shocked Egyptians:

There has been a wave of attacks on the countrys Coptic Christian minority, but strikes on mosques are rare and Fridays onslaught shocked many throughout Egypt.

President Trumps response was appropriate:

Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt. The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017

Hes right about the ideology, but discrediting ideologies is hard. One would think that after the fate of Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, the USSR, Communist China, Albania, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela et al., the ideology of socialism would be utterly discredited. And yet it is still with us. For the foreseeable future, immigration policy will be critical to minimizing the risk of terrorist attacks in the U.S.
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP  Students from Atlantic County finished with top honors Sunday in Stockton Universitys annual computer science competition.

Judges gave awards to a team of Egg Harbor Township High School students who built an interactive add-on to a popular web-based study application and a group of Stockton students who designed a real-time translation and grammar app.

About 85 high school and college students from New Jersey participated in the event, dubbed StockHack. They worked overnight in groups from noon Saturday to 8 a.m. Sunday creating an original app, website or service to help solve a problem.

You really surprised all of us with your creativity and dedication, said Robert Heinrich, Stocktons chief information officer and also a judge in the competition.

The top two teams gave presentations on their projects Sunday morning at Alton Auditorium on Stocktons campus.

One of those teams was a group from Egg Harbor Township High School made up of junior Leo Shao, 16, sophomore Vick Zheng, 15, and junior Alex Cohen, 16.

They built an iMessage app for Quizlet, an online study program popular with students. Cohen said the app works like a video game, allowing friends to compete against each other for correct answers to Quizlets study sets.

Video games are a lot easier and a lot better for reviewing information, Cohen said during the presentation.

It (the app) is a competitive, one-on-one, back-and-forth system between two people, he added.

The other top award went to Huy Vu, 24, of Atlantic City, Christian Mauriello, 26, of Mays Landing, and Sheikh Mahmud, 22, of Egg Harbor Township, all seniors at Stockton.

They designed an iPhone app called Iris that uses the phones camera as a scanner to analyze text for grammatical errors. It can also translate a passage of text to more than 100 languages in real-time. It has the potential to be a powerful business tool and travel companion, they said.

During the hack-a-thon, the students could use computer labs, couches and work stations throughout the night. They also had scheduled breaks and meals until polishing their product by the morning.

Each member of the top two teams received a drone as a prize. A panel comprised of Stockton faculty, high school teachers and people with careers in computer science-related fields judged the competition.
ATLANTIC CITY  On a recent Saturday morning, 9-year-old Jayla Smith worked diligently on a robot at Atlantic Cape Community College.

She ran back and forth from her computer, to the robot, back to the computer in order to program it just right, so the robot could do what she designed it to do, and so it would work on its own with her instructions.

Im doing detect and react, the fourth-grader at the Pennsylvania Avenue School said, explaining how the robots she designed can detect colors on a map and travel on their own. You can make them do whatever you want.

Smith is part of a group of about 30 students from grades one through 12 who spend their Saturday mornings in the city working on computer engineering, science and robotics in a program known as STEM Saturdays. The 10-week program focuses on building robots, design and computer science for children, augmenting their education in science, technology, engineering and math.

The program is part of the Pleasantville-based nonprofit organization American Engineering and Science Robotics Academy, led by Dr. Basilyn Bunting, 68. Bunting has been executive director since 2011, but STEM Saturdays have been around for the past three years.

The primary skill that they really are learning in robotics is problem-solving, she said. Everything that could go wrong goes wrong. They learn.

At the weekly program, the kids are there by 9 a.m. They use robotic devices that have the ability to travel on different maps, one of which looks like outer space, and learn to program them to follow lines, detect colors or, in some cases, pick up or knock down rovers.

They learn what kind of coding and instructions are needed to make the robot pathways, force or turns just right.

Atlantic County students win big at Stockton hack-a-thon GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP  Students from Atlantic County finished with top honors Sunday in Stockto

Bunting said the program gives children another way to exercise strategic thinking. While she has a bunch of volunteers helping her, including college students from area schools, most of the work is done by the children themselves, working together on the second level of Atlantic Capes campus in the city.

Harpreet Singh, 10, wants to be a surgeon, he said. The student at Atlantic Community Charter School in Galloway Township comes to the program every week because he loves to code.

At first, we had to build a robot, he said. If it didnt work, you would just keep trying and trying to fix your mistakes.

Amarjeet Kaur, of Pleasantville, brings her three children to the program, who never want to take a day off, she said.

The fall semester wrapped Nov. 18. Bunting has been advertising for the winter session to begin in December.

Partnerships, grants and sponsors help make the program possible, she said.

Donna Vassallo, dean of the Worthington Campus at Atlantic Cape, said the campus enjoys supporting outside programming that encourages youth, especially if it helps them take notice of the community college building and strive to get there one day.

Pleasantville students say 'thanks' for giving PLEASANTVILLE  North Main Street School students showed their appreciation for all of the d

We provide support for unique learning opportunities, Vassallo said. These are not our students  yet. But its our community.

Many of the students, who are mostly from Atlantic City and County, also work through a certification program through Carnegie Mellon University while theyre there. The more steps and badges in the online course they complete, the closer they get to bringing a certificate home. Its a nice accomplishment for the children, Bunting said.

Bunting retired from the William J. Hughes FAA Technical Center in 2012 and decided to put all of her time and energy into teaching children, she said.

She said now is an important time to expose the youth to STEM skills and careers  especially girls. She wants to help instill this career interest in children as they grow older, she said.

I love to see what they do. They surprise me, she said.
ATLANTIC CITY  The green teams of Ventnor, Margate and Longport received the Sustainable Jersey Collaboration Award at the New Jersey League of Municipalities annual conference and luncheon Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the Sheraton Hotel.

The award recognizes municipal green teams that have advanced sustainability by building strong partnerships.

Nearly 80 percent of all New Jersey municipalities participate in the sustainability effort, which has a collective impact on the environment, Sustainable Jersey executive director Randy Solomon said. Through its sponsors, which includes the PSEG Foundation, the organization has awarded more than $4.3 million in small grants.

The Ventnor Green Team, Sustainable Margate and Sustainable Longport have worked together on projects to clean up the back bays and educate people on how plastics affect the marine environment. They have worked with other shore communities to make the mass release of lighter-than-air balloons illegal.

The teams have also worked together to make roads safer through the Safe Streets to Schools and the Bike and Pedestrian Safety programs. All three Absecon Island communities are working to develop a comprehensive watershed management plan.

Through collaboration, Sustainable Downbeach is making considerable progress, NJ DEP Assistant Commissioner of Air Quality, Energy and Sustainability Paul Baldauf said.

Many of the environmental issues affecting New Jersey towns cannot be confined to municipal boundaries, Sustainable Margate Chairwoman Monica Coffey said, addressing the nearly 900 environmental advocates in attendance from around the state.

We realized early on that our chances of success greatly increased if we work together, she said.

Working with the Surfrider Foundation South Jersey Chapter, the green teams convinced municipal leaders in Longport to pass the first reusable bag fee ordinance in the state. The ordinance requires stores to charge a fee of 10 cents for each single-use bag it dispenses.

During semiannual bay cleanups over the last two years, green team volunteers  who don muck boots and waterproof gear regardless of the weather, or paddle the bay on kayaks  have removed more than 18,000 pounds of debris from the marshlands, Coffey said.

We plan to expand this effort next year to include all coastal communities in Atlantic and Cape May counties, she said.

Coffey said Margate adopted a balloon release ordinance in 2014, and other Downbeach communities followed suit, along with Atlantic City, which was recognized nationally by PETA for passing the ordinance. The ordinance prohibits the mass release of lighter-than-air balloons, which wind up in the ocean and are ingested by sea creatures.

Last year we asked NJ Sen. Jim Whelan to sponsor legislation, which he agreed to do. Although his untimely passing leaves the legislation in question, we continue to enlist other municipalities to build support for the issue, Coffey said.

Atlantic County Utilities Authority President Richard Dovey chairs the Sustainable Jersey board of directors. Coffey, who lives on Fredericksburg Avenue, the border between Ventnor and Margate, is a public relations official at the ACUA and chairs the Margate green team.

We at the ACUA are very proud of the significant contributions and leadership Monica has provided to Sustainable Margate and to Sustainable Downbeach. Monica has brought knowledge and passion to both roles, producing tangible results in Margate, Longport, Ventnor and beyond, Dovey said.

Coffey said collaboration is the key to solving issues.

"Sustainable Downbeach will continue to follow the path of sustainability and bring other interested stakeholders along with us, she added.

All three Downbeach communities have achieved Sustainable Jersey bronze level certification by amassing more than 150 points on action items that help improve the environment.

Three Atlantic County municipalities were awarded bronze recertification at the luncheon: Brigantine with 195 points, Linwood with 155 points, and Margate with 170 points.
LONGPORT  Matthew Conlon, 45, of Atlantic City, has been appointed acting clerk to take the place of retiring Borough Clerk Emilia Amy Strawder.

The Board of Commissioners welcomed Conlon at the Nov. 16 meeting, which was his first and Strawders last.

Longport applauds retiring municipal clerk Amy Strawder LONGPORT  Municipal Clerk Emilia "Amy" Strawder was honored by the mayor and Board of Commissioners at the Friday, Nov. 17 commission meeting on the occasion of her retirement from public service.

I love the way government works at its core, Conlon said.

The first thing he did stepping into his office at Borough Hall was to move the American flag to a prominent location.

Im proud to be part of that flag and all that it stands for, he said.

Mayor Nicholas Russo said the borough received many applications for the position from good candidates.

But by far, the top candidate accepted our job offer, he said.

Conlon will serve in the acting role until he obtains his registered municipal clerk certification.

That should not be a problem, Russo said, as he already holds a law degree.

Conlon faced a panel interview with the mayor, chief financial officer Jenna Kelly and solicitor Pacifico Pat Agnellini, and had a second interview with Agnellini.

I will be working closely with the mayor and the solicitor, so it was good to create a foundational relationship, Conlon said.

In January Conlon will start 111 hours of training at the Rutgers University Center for Government Services in New Brunswick. The training will include five courses on the duties of a municipal clerk, elections and finance administration, and information and records management. Conlon will also take classes online.

He said he is confident he will be able to pass the state exam in October.

Conlon was appointed for a two-year term at a starting salary of $45,000 and has three years to obtain his certification.

I would need to be approved by the Division of Community Affairs to serve without a certification in the second term. Although Im not worried, because Amy is a very good teacher, he said.

Strawder, who earned $68,964 including longevity and her work as registrar of vital statistics, started training Conlon Nov. 13.

I officially start as acting clerk on Dec. 1, he said.

Conlon, a native New Yorker, has spent recreational time in Longport. He has fished off the jetty since 2009, when he moved to New Jersey from West Virginia.

I have met a lot of wonderful people riding my bicycle in Longport, and am aware of the many veterans events, including the Wounded Warrior Week welcome," he said. When the job opened up, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to serve a wonderful community.

Conlon holds a law degree from Widener University School of Law and has bachelors degrees in English and history from the State University of New York at Albany.

Downbeach green teams win Sustainable Jersey Collaboration Award ATLANTIC CITY  The green teams of Ventnor, Margate and Longport received the Sustainable Jersey Collaboration Award at the New Jersey League of Municipalities annual conference and luncheon Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the Sheraton Hotel.

I went to law school to think like a lawyer, not to be one, he said.

Over the years he has worked for law firms that did municipal work, he said.

He was also a program director for a foreclosure intervention program and worked as a licensed insurance producer for Bloom Realty and Insurance in Atlantic City.

We are very excited to have him on board, Russo said.
The new service allows merchants to upload the SF CIS stamp on their website and social media platforms. The stamp will also appear on e-waybills, which can provide real-time tracking and international end-to-end visibility of the package, including details in the destination country. The service is currently available in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan in Asia and the UK, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Germany in Europe. Australia and the US are also included.

With its decades-long history in China, SF Express understands and works to meet the demands of online shoppers in China who value full track and trace transparency on their cross-border purchases. With the CIS stamp, overseas merchants will be able to leverage SF's brand value and trust to increase confidence among their customers, as well as suppliers and fellow merchants.

"SF CIS is our latest value-added service for cross-border B2C merchants. Proving their products are actually shipping from overseas is a common challenge for these overseas sellers. This new unique service solves this problem. We are providing a visual stamp certifying these cross-border shipments originated in overseas countries, which raises confidence among online shoppers in China. Cross-border merchants can differentiate themselves by using this new service," said David William Adams, the CEO of SF Express International Business Unit.

Companies that would like to apply for SF CIS service must be cross-border B2B and/or B2C businesses. They must also be an existing SF Express customer and have been using SF cross-border logistics service for at least three months. The application time usually takes about two weeks.

Interested companies can download the application form here:

http://intl.sf-express.com/shtm/en/pphd/20171117/849/index.do

About SF Express

Established in Shunde, Guangdong province, China in 1993, SF Express is one of the leading courier in China, which provides domestic and international express delivery solutions to a wide array of customers. Its mature, diversified networks and robust IT infrastructure allow it to provide unparalleled delivery options that connect China to the rest of the world. The first private express delivery company in the Chinese Mainland to include an airline subsidiary, SF Express has 50+ cargo aircrafts and is continually expanding its international presence.

For more information, please visit: www.sf-express.com

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20171120/1995882-1

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/607645/SF.jpg

Related Links

http://www.sf-express.com



SOURCE SF Express
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Dhaka, Nov 19 : Bangladesh announced on Sunday that it was seeking China's support in urging Myanmar to allow the more than 600,000 Rohingyas who fled sectarian violence in western Rakhine state to return.

"Bangladesh wants China to create pressure on Myanmar to exp1edite the process" of repatriation of the Rohingyas, a member of the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry who did not wish to be named told Efe news agecy.

The announcement comes after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Bangladesh to meet his Bangladeshi counterpart, Mahmood Ali, on Saturday.

Wang, who left the country on Sunday, told Ali that "as a friend China will help resolve the issue and will not be partial to any side", according to a Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry statement.

The statement said the Chinese leader "stressed the importance of continued consultations and dialogue between Bangladesh and Myanmar on the issue. He acknowledged that Bangladesh is facing the brunt of continuing influx of Rohingya refugees".

Ali, meanwhile, said that Bangladesh would continue its commitment to pursue a dialogue with Myanmar and find a solution to the crisis.

Bangladesh "look(s) forward to China's support for the early return of the Rohingyas to their homeland in Myanmar with dignity and safety", he said.

In its latest report released on Thursday, the UN Inter Sector Coordination Group estimated that 620,000 Rohingyas have arrived in Bangladesh since more than two and a half months ago.

The crisis erupted on August 25, after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group on police and military checkposts in the western state of Rakhine in Myanmar.

The Army retaliated with a violent campaign that is still ongoing and which the UN has called "ethnic cleansing".

Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingyas as citizens and considers them illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, while Bangladesh, where 300,000 Rohingyas were already living before the latest crisis, also considers them to be foreigners.
Chandigarh, Nov 19 : Rejecting allegations of torture of British national Jagtar Singh Johal, arrested in the cases of targeted killings of Hindu leaders, the Punjab Police said on Sunday that due process of law was followed at every stage and the accused was allowed access to his counsel, family members and British consular officers.

"Not only did it have sufficient evidence to prove the complicity of Jagtar alias Jaggi in the cases of targeted killings, the police had also ensured that there was no violation of his rights at any stage," a police spokesperson said on Sunday, trashing allegations of a frame-up and torture.

Johal (Jaggi), a British national of Indian origin who was arrested by the Punjab Police recently after a terror module, allegedly involved in targeted killings of Hindu leaders in the past two years, was busted, has got support from political leaders in Britain and Canada who have urged Indian authorities to get him released.

"Besides being allowed to talk to his family members after his arrest, Jaggi was produced before a Judicial Magistrate within 24 hours of his arrest as laid down under the Criminal Procedure Code. The British High Commission was duly informed about the arrest of Jaggi, whose medical examination was also conducted as required under the procedure," the spokesperson said.

The British Deputy High Commissioner in Chandigarh was in touch with Punjab's Director General of Police, said the spokesperson, adding that the envoy did not question the arrest of Jaggi.

"Jaggi has been found by the police to be a staunch supporter of terrorist activities in Punjab," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that there was a huge pile of evidence against Jaggi, who had been produced before the court several times and taken on police remand as per the court's orders, before he was sent on judicial remand to Faridkot Jail on November 17.

"Jaggi's medical examination has also been conducted regularly since his arrest from Dakoha Fatak in Jalandhar on November 4," said the spokesperson, adding that his family members and relatives were allowed to meet him.

"Further, on November 15, Jagpreet Singh Chaddha, a lawyer, met Jaggi between 8 and 9 p.m. The next day, a team from the UK High Commission in New Delhi, comprising Margaret Partridge and Amit Kotecha, consular officers, met Jagtar Singh," the spokesperson said.

Giving details of Jaggi's involvement in conspiracy, coordination, funding and arranging of weapons for members of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) module busted in connection with the targeted killings, the spokesperson said the accused came in contact with Gursharanbir Singh, also a British national based in Coventry, UK, who was involved in the killing of Rulda Singh, President of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, Punjab, in July 2009.

"Jaggi came in contact with Harmeet Singh alias Ph.D, a Pakistan-based KLF terrorist, and Taljeet Singh alias Jimmy of Glasgow, Scotland (arrested on October 30, 2017 for being a KLF module member) for funding and sourcing of weapons.

"Jimmy went to the UK on study visa in 2012 but had overstayed illegally in Glasgow after the expiry of the visa in 2014," the spokesperson said.

"In March 2016, Harmeet Singh asked Jaggi to arrange locally-made pistols for his module members in Punjab. In April 2016, Jaggi further asked Taljeet Singh Jimmy to supply pistols with the help of his acquaintances in Jammu.

"Jaggi paid 3,000 pounds to Jimmy in Glasgow in November 2016 for weapons, which Jimmy arranged to have dumped near a milestone, on way to Zaffarwal (Gurdaspur)," he said.

He said the Canada-based militant leaders Gurpreet Singh (Vancouver) and Gurjeet Cheema (Toronto) had supplied the second pistol to other module members Gurpreet Singh Peet (Faridkot) and Simaranjit Singh alias Nikka (Moga) in May/June 2017.

"There was sufficient evidence to show that Jaggi had conspired with Gursharanbir Singh of UK and Pakistan-based Harmeet for carrying out the targeted killings of Hindu leaders and others in 2016-17.

"Jaggi had remained in touch with Gursharanbir Singh and Harmeet and was privy to the selection of targets, raising module members and provisioning of weapons with the help of gangster Dharminder Singh alias Gugni.

"It is pertinent to mention here that Gugni had supplied the weapons to module members with the help of his known local weapon suppliers based in UP and Bihar," the spokesperson said.

"Jaggi, along with his family members, went to Surrey, Canada, in August 2016, and met militant elements Satinderpal Singh Gill, Maninder Singh Bual and Parupkar Singh in Surrey, British Columbia.

"Gursharanbir Singh from UK also came to Surrey and Jaggi met him to discuss ways of reviving militancy in Punjab," said the spokesperson.
Panaji, Nov 20 : A Panaji special anti-corruption court on Monday granted interim relief to former Chief Minister and Congress MLA Digambar Kamat, who is embroiled in an illegal mining case.

The court, while granting Kamat interim relief, also set the next hearing for his anticipatory bail application for November 27.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Goa Police, which is probing the illegal mining case, has also been directed to file a reply by November 27.

Kamat, who is one of the key accused in a multi-crore illegal mining case, had filed for anticipatory bail before a special anti-corruption court in Panaji on Saturday.

Kamat, along with then Principal Secretary Mines Rajiv Yaduvanshi and several other bureaucrats, is accused of allowing mining companies to fraudulently avail of the "condonation of delay" clause to renew their iron ore mining leases.

Yaduvanshi, who is currently Health Secretary in the Delhi government, turned state approver on Saturday, which has added an edge to the police efforts to nab Kamat. A police team had raided Kamat's residence in Margao in a bid to arrest him, but the Congress leader could not be traced.

The former Chief Minister, who is currently a sitting Congress MLA from the Margao assembly constituency, has also served as a minister in a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government in the early 2000s.

State Congress chief Shantaram Naik on Monday told IANS that condonation of delay is a quasi-judicial function of a government minister and police were targeting Kamat because he was a Congress leader.

"A minister has the power to pass a quasi-judicial order. Even if you consider that it is an erroneous order, why you hold him to be a criminal, unless there are other things which I am not aware of?" Naik said.
Hyderabad, Nov 23 : US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump's visit to India next week will not be just a trip to attend the business conclave as she will also be exploring this historic city of pearls.

Ivanka Trump, who is also the advisor to the US President, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) on November 28 at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), located in Hitec City, the information technology hub housing many US tech giants.

A business owner herself, she will also speak at a session with the theme 'Women first, prosperity for all'. About 1,500 delegates, over half of them women, from 150 countries will participate in the three-day summit.

On evening of November 28, she will make a trip to Falaknuma Palace located on a hillock in the Muslim-majority old city of Hyderabad.

She will not only attend the dinner being hosted by Modi but will also get an opportunity to see the opulent palace, a symbol of a long Muslim rule and culture.

Trump, along with Modi and top US and Indian officials, will dine at 101-seater dining table, one of the longest in the world and a key attraction of the palace, which served as the residence of Nizam, the ruler of erstwhile Hyderabad State.

Built in 1893, the scorpion-shaped, all marble palace with its opulent interiors and breathtaking views was converted into a hotel by the Taj Group about a decade ago.

Trump will take a guided tour of Falaknuma, a majestic blend of Italian and Tudor architecture.

Her visit to the old city might also include a sight-seeing trip to Charminar, the iconic symbol of Hyderabad and globally recognised monument, located about three km from Falaknuma and surrounded by densely populated neighbourhoods and dingy lanes.

An epitome of architectural marvel, Charminar with four distinct minarets, was built in 1591 by then ruler Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah to commemorate the founding of the city.

For any tourist, a visit to Hyderabad is incomplete without Charminar.

Trump is also likely to go for shopping at Laadbazar, a market famous for Lac bangles and bridal wear, at Charminar.

While Trump's schedule is being kept a closely-guarded secret by the US authorities due to a 'high threat perception', Telangana government officials have not ruled out the possibility of her visit to historic Makkah Masjid and Chowmohalla Palace, both located near Charminar.
London, Nov 23 : The British Board Of Film Classification (BBFC) has cleared controversial Indian film "Padmavati" for release on December 1 but a source close to the film's makers said it won't release anywhere on that date.

According to the official website of the BBFC, "Padmavati" will be released "uncut" in the UK. But the release will have to wait, according to the makers.

"We are not releasing the film anywhere on December 1," the source told IANS.

"Padmavati", which according to director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a tribute to the valour of legendary queen Padmavati, is mired in controversy in India as Hindu groups backed by the BJP are up in arms against alleged "distortion of historical facts".

Bhansali has repeatedly rebuffed the charges.

The release of the film, which was earlier slated for December 1 in India too, has been deferred as the filmmakers are yet to secure a censor certificate.

It is to be distributed in India by Viacom18 Motion Pictures Ltd, while the film's international distribution rights are with Paramount Pictures.

Starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in key roles, the magnum opus tells the tale of Rani Padmavati, the legendary Mewar queen known for her beauty and intelligence as well as courage, her husband Maharawal Ratan Singh, a Rajput warrior king who fought to defend his kingdom and his wife's honour, and Sultan Alauddin Khilji, an ambitious invader.
Panaji, Nov 23 : As protests against "Padmavati" gather steam all across India, "Pihu" director Vinod Kapri finds the issue scary for a citizen as well as a filmmaker. He says the government needs to take a stand and protect freedom of expression.

"The 'Padmavati' issue is really concerning. It is scary for all of us, as a citizen and as a filmmaker also. If we as a nation treat a legendary filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali (like this), then I am really worried about the future," Kapri told IANS on the sidelines of the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here.

"There is a censor board and people should respect the censor board, or we should shut down the censor board. But if there is a censor board, then everyone should including the Shree Rajput Karni Sena (which is at the forefront of the protests), should respect its sanctity. They are not respecting it," he added.

Bhansali's attempt to bring alive the story of Rajput queen Rani Padmavati on the silver screen with his movie "Padmavati" hasn't gone down well with Hindu groups backed by the BJP. It features Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in pivotal roles.

Bhansali faced many hiccups while shooting the film, but the protests escalated as the film neared its release date. There are conjectures that it "distorts history" regarding the Rajput queen, and Bhansali has denied it repeatedly.

The movie's release date has been deferred from the original December 1 date, but there are efforts from Hindu groups to have it banned.

Kapri, whose film "Pihu" replaced the opening Marathi film "Nude" in the Indian Panorama segment at IFFI, hopes that "this bad phase" will get over soon.

"It will get over. People will realise their mistakes."

Kapri has had his share of trouble over the release of his film "Miss Tanakpur Hazir Ho" in 2015. Despite getting a clean chit from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), a leading farmer's union in Uttar Pradesh "banned" the movie as they were not happy with the portrayal of khaps (kangaroo courts).

So what's the way forward to tackle such protests, which many call an act of bullying?

"I expect my government to take a tough stand. My government is capable enough to handle such fringe elements. I think government should take a stand and protect freedom of expression."

Kapri, who was a journalist before foraying into showbiz as a director, says "harsh realities are mind blowing", and he is trying to capture "those realities in his cinema.

On his future projects, Kapri said: "We are planning to release 'Pihu' very soon. I am also working on my next project with Drishyam Films. There is also a project with Siddharth Roy Kapur. I can't talk about it, but we will be able to say something by 2019 or end of 2018."

(Sugandha Rawal's trip to Goa is at the invitation of the IFFI organisers. She can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)
New Delhi, Nov 23 : Sensing the need to skill the Indian talent for emerging technologies, Google, in association with technology learning platform Pluralsight and educational institution Udacity, on Thursday announced a new scholarship programme that will help train 1.3 lakh developers and students across the country.

As part of the programme, Google will fund 100,000 scholarships on the Pluralsight technology learning platform and 30,000 scholarships on Udacity platform.

The scholarship would enable students gain access to advanced learning curriculum and further their employability in mobile and web development, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud platforms.

"The new scholarship programme is in tandem with Google's aim to train two million developers in India. The country is the second largest developer ecosystem in the world and is bound to overtake the US by 2021," William Florance, Developer Products Group and Skilling Lead for India, Google, told reporters here.

In 2015, Google CEO Sundar Pichai had stated that the global Internet search engine giant will train 2 million new android developers in the next three years in India.

"In the last one year, we have engaged over half a million students and developers across India through a variety of programmes and initiatives. Since we announced our skilling initiative in India, 210,000 students have completed Google developed courses on Udacity, with 117,000 students completing the course this year," Florance informed.

With Udacity, 1,000 developers will also be selected to receive full Nanodegree scholarships.

"Unlike China, India is lagging in innovation but is adopting technologies faster. There is an urgent need to upskill and reskill India's technology workforce," Florance said.

According to Arun Rajamani, Country Head and General Manager, Pluralsight, India's tech workforce is going through a phase of transition.

"We are thrilled to partner with Google to help developers across India understand their skill level using Pluralsight IQ and advance their skill sets in four key roles: Android Developer, Mobile Web Specialist, Cloud Architect and Data Engineer," Rajamani said.

"With this scholarship programme, students can master web and mobile development skills with the experts from Udacity and Google," added Ishan Gupta, Managing Director-Udacity India.
Mumbai, Nov 24 : Eight months after it was denied a censor certificate on various grounds, the producers of the Hindi feature film "Modi Ka Gaon", loosely inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development agenda, has finally cleared all hurdles for release.

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) informed the producer, Suresh K. Jha, on Wedneday that the film has been approved and 'sealed' prior to the certificate, paving the way for its exhibition.

"This is a major victory for us. All the objectionable points raised by the CBFC have been crushed by the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT). Now we plan for it to hit the screens all over India by mid-December," an elated Jha told IANS.

Last February, then CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani had refused to certify the film on various grounds and asked Jha to get a NOC from the PMO and Election Commission of India before it could get a censor certificate.

Nihalani's reluctance stemmed from the ongoing assembly elections in some states at that time, the resemblance of the main character to Modi, references to Pakistan's Uri attacks, news-speeches related to the Prime Minister and a character named 'Pappu' Bihari featuring in the film Unfazed by the unprecedented demands, Jha wrote to the PMO seeking the NOC to comply with the CBFC requirements, but there was no response.

Finally, he moved the FCAT challenging the CBFC order. The Tribunal viewed the film in July before delivering its detailed verdict last month.

In its October 12 order, the FCAT said that there are ano statutory basis or justifiable requirements for getting NOC from PMO and ECI.

"The requirement to obtain NOC from the PMO, since either references are made to the PM or a character is portrayed as the PM, have no legal basis or foundation," the FCAT said.

"The statutory responsibility for certification of films is cast upon the CBFC Board under the Cinematograph Acta (It) cannot be delegated to different statutory authorities, departments or individuals," the order added.

It noted Jha's contentions that though the film has been inspired by Modi's zeal, development plans and strategies, the scenes in the film are imaginary and not reproductions of any actual events.

The FCAT also considered Jha's plea that 'Pappu' is a baby's pet/nick name in many parts of India and later it supercedes the child's given name. Also, in the past, there have been instances like Bollywood film number "Pappu Can't Dance Saala" and an advertisement 'Pappu Pass Ho Gaya'.

After the FCAT ruling, 'Modi Ka Gaon' again went to the CBFC for the viewing and certification process, after which it has finally decided to give its green signal for public exhibition.

"Although it is not a biopic on Modi, throughout our film, we represent the working of our PM, his dream of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Smart India and Digital India," Jha explained.

On the Modi look-alike, he said when the film is about Modi's development agenda and vision of transforming India, how can it be portrayed with somebody else who does not resemble him.

Nevertheless, he has now removed the references like 'Pappu' and direct references to the Uri attack and the Prime Minister in sync with the CBFC's requirements.

Mumbai businessman Vikas Mahante enacts the main character of Modi. Television actors Chandramani M. and Zeba A. portray the other important roles in the 135-minute-long film, directed by Tushar A. Goel.

It was shot last year extensively on locales in Mumbai, Patna and Darbhanga, detailing the Prime Minister's aim of transforming all rural and urban centres into Smart Villages and Smart Cities.

The music for the film is directed by Manojanand Choudhary. It has seven songs. The all-India release was scheduled from Uttar Pradesh , said Jha.

After all the hiccups, Jha has directly blamed Nihalani "for the bad politics created and the losses" suffered by him on account of the huge delays in releasing the film and hinted he might claim damages from the ex-CBFC chief.

"We are trying our best to release the film by mid-December and hope we succeed in our endeavor," Jha concluded.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)
Seoul, Nov 24 : The US will send six F-22 Raptor fighters for joint air force maneuvers with South Korea in December, a defence spokesperson said here on Friday.

The aircraft will fly as part of the joint South Korea-US air force "Vigilant Ace" exercise between December 4 and 8, the spokesperson told Efe news.

According to South Korean media, this marks the first time that the US has deployed six F-22 Raptor fighters at the same time on the Korean peninsula. Washington had already deployed three nuclear-powered aircraft carriers near North Korean waters for the first time in a decade earlier this month.

The F-22 fighter jets, which are capable of executing precision attacks under the radar, will depart for the drill from the Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa and will stay at a US base in South Korea during the exercise.

Up to four F-35 Lighting stealth fighters are also likely to join the bi-annual exercise, which simulates their defensive strategies in the event of war, according to Yonhap news agency.

The deployment of six fighters on the peninsular is part of an agreement signed between Washington and Seoul, which aims at expanding "rotational deployment" of US strategic assets on the Korean peninsula and pressuring North Korea to drop its nuclear programme.
Seoul, Nov 24 : Ahead of the "super-premium" iPhone X launch in South Korea, regulators have reportedly raided Apple's offices in Seoul.

According to a report in London-based Metro late on Thursday, the raid was likely to raise questions about whether South Korean authorities were trying to hamper the success of the iPhone X.

The iPhone X went on sale in the country on Friday.

"Investigators visited Apple's HQ earlier this week to ask questions about its business practices ahead of the launch of the smartphone," the report said.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission has been accused of protecting local companies against competition from Apple and others.

Apple products are very popular in South Korea which is home to Samsung and LG.

In 2016, the investigators began a probe in a bid to discover whether Apple struck "unfair" contracts with local phone networks.

"It's understood the latest raid is part of this ongoing probe, which was launched just months after the American firm took action to address officials' concern about other aunfair' contracts with South Korean firms commissioned to repair iPhones and other gadgets," the report said.

Apple had 33 per cent market share when it launched iPhone 6 in South Korea in 2015.

Samsung has launched a scheme called "Upgrade To Galaxy" offering up to 10,000 iPhone users a one-month trial of the Galaxy Note 8 or Galaxy S8.
Canberra, Nov 24 : Asylum seekers who were refusing to leave a former Australian-run detention centre in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have been moved to alternative accommodation, the government in Canberra confirmed on Friday.

Buses carrying about 300 asylum seekers left the Manus Island camp on Friday following a police operation, reports the BBC.

Hundreds of men refused to leave the camp when it shut on October 31, prompting a three-week stand-off.

Some men were beaten with batons by PNG police, detainees claimed.

"They (the asylum seekers) are leaving, all the people. They don't like to move but then they beat us," one refugee told the BBC on Friday.

Earlier, police commissioner Gari Baki said that removals on Thursday had been conducted "peacefully and without the use of force". Australia has said it was not involved in the operation.

Under a controversial policy, Australia has detained asylum seekers who arrive by boat in camps on Manus Island and Nauru, a small Pacific nation.

Australia shut down the Manus Island centre after a PNG court ruled it was unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, the UN said on Thursday that it was troubled by reports the men were being forcefully moved but could not independently verify the allegations because its staff had been denied access to the centre.
Accra, Nov 24 : Following the success stories of Indian-owned educational institutions Bluecrest University (formerly NIIT) and IPMC Training in Ghana, other Indian companies can take advantage of the government's decision to offer tax breaks to entrepreneurs to improve the country's education sector.

Presenting the 2018 budget earlier this month, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said Ghana is considering tax breaks to assist entrepreneurs in the higher institutions sector to help position the country as a higher-education hub as of the recent growth in the sector which has attracted students from the West African region to the country.

Figures from the National Accreditation Board (NAB) show that there are 10 public universities and 79 private universities in the country. There are also five registered tertiary institutions. But these do not seem to be serving the enormous number of students looking to enter universities.

Ofori-Atta said the education sector represents high-growth potential with multiplier effects on the economy as confirmed by a recent "Country Private Sector Diagnostic" study by the World Bank Group. This is also borne out by the rapid growth in privately-owned and managed universities as well as in the inward flow of students from the West Africa sub-region.

It was, therefore, the government's intention to "support the sector in order to position Ghana as the premier higher education hub of the sub-region and to attract critical foreign direct investment into the sector".

The World Bank-International Monetary Fund report said the capacity of Ghana's public universities has not kept pace with demand and only half of all applicants to public universities can be admitted. It described this as a growth area that needs more investment.

The report said student enrolment in tertiary education is growing at 10 per cent annually, from 175,000 in 2011 to 267,000 in 2014. "However, the tertiary gross enrolment rate remains at only 18 percent, as opposed to a target of 25 per cent set by the government, leaving room to improve access to higher education," the report noted.

It said the demand for tertiary education is expected to continue to grow strongly, given the increasing enrolment at the senior high-school level. To keep up with rising demand and high gross enrolment rate targets, the government is considering distance education as a key solution.

"Distance education comprises about 15 per cent of total tertiary enrolment, with University of Cape Coast being the largest provider (about 37,000 enrolments). Apart from public universities, some private universities, such as Laweh Open University College and Accra Institute of Technology, also offer distance education," the report said. However, the presence of private providers is limited to less than one per cent.

Last year, the President of the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), Clement Dzidonu, said the current number of higher institutions for a population of 25 million translates into a university per capita rate of around 3.5 compared to the global average of 18.6. As a result, he said, given the Gross Enrolment Rate of tertiary education in Ghana, the country was registering just 10 per cent as against the global average of 27 per cent.

(Francis Kokutse can be contacted at fkokutse@gmail.com)
New Delhi, Nov 24 : It has barely been a month since acclaimed poet Jeet Thayil's "The Book of Chocolate Saints" hit the stands, but even in this short period, the novel has made a mark in literary circles.

Aleph publisher David Davidar was seen recommending the book to several Western authors at private parties of the just-concluded Dhaka Literature Festival. Instagram and other social media platforms are full of pictures of the book, often with a reader in frame, floating in their feeds. The publisher has billed it as the most awaited literary novel of the year and by its track-record so far, one cannot but agree.

In this novel, the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author paints a hallucinatory portrait of an ambiguous soul: A self-destructive figure, a charismatic contrarian, and a tortured, damned artist battling with his conflicting instincts. Vividly set in both Delhi and Manhattan, "The Book of Chocolate Saints" explores our deepest urges in a novel that is sexy, dangerous, and entirely uncompromising.

It is a sheer pleasure to read fiction works by a poet because poets break the staid rules, they experiment and play with words. Thayil mesmerises his readers with the way he uses his poetic tools to structure the many lines of his novel.

Below are nine brilliant quotes from the book, explained in Thayil's own words:

"Praise the broken world for it will vanish in a day and in a day be replaced by nothing."

Self-explanatory. Get your praise in while the world still works; it may not be around much longer.

"In my experience it's always the brightest that you have to watch. They cause the most trouble."

The problem with intelligence is that it comes with unpredictable riders, including a tendency towards insurrection, interrogation, and self-destruction.

"In other words they were the kind of English poems that the English no longer wrote."

In the mid-twentieth century, English poets stopped writing the kind of poems associated with a Romantic idea of English poetry. Indian poets continued to do so.

"The body is a cell and the soul a hermit who lives therein."

We are trapped in a prison of skin, hair, and cranial geography.

"I remember the old days better, when we were young and the world was beautiful."

Youth is wasted on the young.

"Words are cheap when you are talking to the press."

Case in point: Me, now, talking to you.

"But what books they were! You will not see the like again."

Once, Bardic utterance was the model for poetic speech. E.g. Homer, John Clare, Blake, Wordsworth, Whitman, Rimbaud, Ginsberg, Emily Dickinson, to name but a few. This is no longer the case. The reference here is to Newton Xavier's first two books of poems, which fall firmly in the Bardic and prophetic mode.

"Everybody wants to know about writer's block and how terrible it is. They love the idea of the tortured artist. Nobody talks about how super it is. How much like a paid vacation. You are giving yourself permission to not work."

Adding to this would be like gilding the poppy. But here goes: Writer's block is nothing more than the psyche repairing or recharging itself. Telling yourself you have writer's block is a way of giving yourself a holiday.

"The only poem that matters is the poem that picks up a gun."

In 2017 in India, literature seems irrelevant. What difference can a poem make in the time of hate, when the criminals are in government and the lunatics are in charge of the asylum?

(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)
Chennai, Nov 24 : The Election Commission (EC) on Friday announced that the by-election for Tamil Nadu's Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency will be held on December 21.

The poll body said the bypoll for assembly constituencies in Arunachal Pradesh (Pakke Kasang, Likabali), Uttar Pradesh (Sikandra) and West Bengal (Sabang) will also be held on that day.

According to the EC, the last date for filing of nomination is December 4, the last date for withdrawal of candidature is December 7 and counting of votes will be on December 24.

The EC's announcement comes a day after it awarded the popular "two leaves" symbol to the ruling faction of AIADMK headed by Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam.

The seat fell vacant following the death of Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on December 5 last year.

Though the bypoll was scheduled for April 12, it was countermanded following reports of attempted voter bribing by a candidate.

The Madras High Court had directed the poll body to hold the bypoll to the Radhakrishnan Nagar seat before December 31.

"We will win the bypoll with huge margin and prove that we are truly the successors of late Chief Minister and party leader J.Jayalalithaa," former MP and spokesperson K.C. Palaniswamy told IANS.

He declined to comment on the party's probable candidate to fight the by-election.

In April, when the AIADMK was divided into two -- one led by Panneerselvam and the other by jailed leader V.K. Sasikala and her nephew T.T.V.Dinakaran --, the former faction fielded E. Madhusudhanan and the later Dinakaran.

Later the Sasikala faction broke into two with Palaniswami leading one.

With Panneerselvam and Palaniswami factions coming together and the Election Commission allotting the "two leaves" symbol and the party name to Panneerselvam/Madhusudhanan, AIADMK leaders told IANS there was no need to scout for another person in the place of Madhusudhanan.

Speaking to television channels on the by-election to Radhakrishnan Nagar, Tamil Nadu Congress Chief S. Thirunavukkarasar said it will be a major test for the ruling AIADMK.

He said this will be the first election to be faced by the AIADMK government after the death of Jayalalithaa and also after it got the "two leaves" symbol.

Thirunavvukkarasar said Congress will support the DMK in the by-election.

The Tamil Nadu BJP Chief Tamilisai Soundararajan said a decision to contest or not will be taken after consultations within the party.

Last time, BJP had fielded music director Gangai Amaran as its candidate.

J. Deepa, niece of Jayalalithaa too, jumped into the electoral fray last time forming MGR Amma Deepa Forum. It has to be seen whether she would contest this time.

Dinakaran had earlier said he would contest in the by-election whenever it is held.
Nay Pyi Taw, Nov 24 : Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday dismissed an agreement signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh to repatriate Rohingya refugees, calling it "laughable".

"(Some) 620,000 Rohingya refugees have only just escaped one of the most brutal cases of mass persecution in recent times... The idea that Myanmar will now welcome them back to their smouldering villages with open arms is laughable," said HRW's Bill Frelick.

Bangladesh and Myanmar on Thursday signed a memorandum of intent that opens the way for the return of the displaced Rohingyas, whose exodus began on August 25 after attacks by an insurgent group and the subsequent retaliation by the Myanmar Army, reports Efe news.

The memorandum contains "the general guiding principles and policy arrangements to systematically verify and receive the displaced persons from Rakhine state", said the office of the State Counsellor of Myanmar and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Frelick called on the international community to "make it clear that there can be no returns without international monitors to ensure security", calling the bilateral agreement a public relations stunt.

He also called for a rejection of plans to establish detention camps, urging the return of their land and the reconstruction of towns and homes belonging to the Rohingya, the Muslim minority not recognised by Myanmar.

"Even then, it will be hard to build the trust necessary for many Rohingya to voluntarily return unless the Myanmar Army begins the mammoth task of reversing decades of abuses and discrimination against its Rohingya population," Frelick added.

Neither the Myanmar nor Bangladeshi authorities have revealed the details of the agreement, including when the repatriation of the 622,000 refugees will begin.

Myanmar has said it was willing to receive them as soon as possible but only after identifying them, determining their place of origin and sharing this information between the two countries.

The current Rohingya exodus began with the retaliatory operations of the Myanmar armed forces launched after the rebel group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked some 30 military and police checkposts in Rakhine.
Lahore, Nov 24 : Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai massacre, was on Friday freed after 10 months house arrest here in Pakistan.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief, who carries a $10 million bounty for his role in terrorist activities, was released after a Lahore High Court review board turned down the government's arguments that he was a threat to public safety.

As his detention order expired on Thursday midnight, authorities withdrew jail staff from his Johar Town residence.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : The delayed Winter Session of Parliament will begin on December 15 and continue till January 5, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said on Friday.

"The Winter Session of Parliament will be held between December 15 to January 5. It will have 14 sittings over a duration of 22 days," Kumar told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) here.

An official statement from the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry said the session dates were recommended by the CCPA, and is "subject to exigencies of government business".

Kumar also said that Parliament will remain closed on December 25 and 26 for Christmas.

Talking to journalists, Ananth Kumar said that it was not unprecedented for the Parliament Session schedule to be decided so as to avoid overlap with Assembly Elections.

"This practice has been followed on many occasions by different governments in the past," he said.

The Minister said earlier sessions have been delayed during the times of former Prime Ministers P.V. Narasimha Rao, and Manmohan Singh, in 1993, 2008 and 2011.

"Many times, the sessions have been planned considering the assembly elections of different states. Many times it has been held in late December and gone into January as well."

The Minister appealed to all political parties for fruitful and constructive discussions on important Bills and to ensure smooth functioning of both Houses of Parliament.

The meeting was chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the legislative agenda for the upcoming session of Parliament was also discussed.

Answering a question on Triple Talaq and the National Commission for Backward Classes, Ananth Kumar said it is "a strong desire of the people of India that Parliament should legislate on these two important issues and the Government is committed to respond to this desire".

The legislative business will include The Goods & Services Tax (Compensation to States) Ordinance, 2017, which was promulgated on September 9, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 and Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 which exempts Bamboo produced in non-forest areas from classification as a "tree" under the Indian Forest (Amendment) Act.

The Congress and the opposition parties have been criticising the delay in holding the session, saying it was being done as the government did not want to face inconvenient issues ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections.

The Congress had petitioned President Ram Nath Kovind on the issue on Thursday.

The Parliament session normally begins in the third week of November and continues for about a month.
Pretoria, Nov 24 : A South African court on Friday increased from six to 13 years and five months former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius's prison sentence for murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein increased the prison term after prosecutors argued that the six-year term for murdering Steenkamp in 2013, reports the BBC.

Pistorius claimed he shot dead Steenkamp on Valentine's Day after mistaking her for a burglar. He fired four times through a locked toilet door at his home in the capital city of Pretoria.

Prosecutors argued that the six-year term was "shockingly light".

However, a lower court justified the six-year sentence by citing mitigating circumstances such as rehabilitation and remorse. It said they outweighed aggravating factors such as his failure to fire a warning shot.

The athlete was not in court to hear the decision.

A spokesman for Steenkamp's family said the ruling "verified there was justice", the BBC reported.

Pistorius was initially given a five-year term for manslaughter in 2014 but was found guilty of murder on appeal in 2015.

Previously, the six-time Paralympic gold medallist had made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in 2012 in London, running on prosthetic "blades".

He had his legs amputated below the knee as a baby.
Nay Pyi Taw, Nov 24 : A 300-tonne massive jade stone, discovered in Myanmar's Kachin state and cut into pieces, will be sold at the Gem Emporium here in December, authorities said on Friday.

Local and foreign experts are being invited to assess the price of the jade stone, reports Xinhua news agency.

The stone was unearthed in October 2016 at the Mat Lin Chaung mine.

Stored in a warehouse in Nay Phi Taw under tight security, the jade stone is currently valued at over 10 billion kyats ($7.35 million), from which the government has collected over 2 billion kyats as extraction tax, the report said.

The profit will be shared between the government and the private company at a percentage of 25 and 75 respectively.

According to official statistics, Myanmar earned $23 million from export of jade in the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2017-18, increasing by 746,000 dollars as compared with the same period in the last fiscal year.

The country also fetched $45 million in March when over 4,200 lots of raw jade were sold at a government-sponsored jade exhibition, said the Ministry of Commerce.

Myanmar jade is mainly exported to China and India, with Beijing being the biggest purchaser.

During the last fiscal year 2016-17, Myanmar exported over 11,000 tonnes of raw jade worth of $246.7 million to neighbouring markets.
Islamabad, Nov 24 : At least three persons were killed and five injured on Friday in a suicide attack that targeted the vehicle of a senior police official in Pakistan's Peshawar city.

The attack took place at 9 a.m., when a man on a motorcycle detonated bombs he was carrying as he passed the vehicle of Additional Inspector General of Police Ashraf Noor, who was killed, Peshawar police spokesperson Afzal Khan told Efe news.

The Defence Ministry said that in addition to the police official and the suicide bomber, one of Noor's bodyguards was also killed and another five police officers were wounded.

On November 9, another senior police official, Deputy Inspector General (Transport and Telecommunications) Hamid Shakeel of Quetta, was killed in a similar attack while on his morning commute to work.

Six days later, Superintendent of Police Muhammad Ilyas was shot dead, along with his wife, son and brother, in Quetta.

Pakistan launched an operation in the tribal areas in June 2014, in which 3,500 alleged militants have been killed, according to the Army's data, which has not been independently verified. Violence in the country has come down drastically since the campaign began.

In February this year, the Pakistani Army launched a new anti-terrorist operation after a series of attacks and also started an offensive against the Islamic State terror organisation in the areas bordering Afghanistan in July.
Porbandar, Nov 24 : Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, addressing fishermen in Porbandar in poll-bound Gujarat, on Friday accused the ruling BJP in the state and Centre of working for a handful of industrialists and expressed confidence that the Congress would form the next government in the state.

On a two-day visit to the state, Rahul Gandhi was joined on stage by Bharat Modi, a leader of the fishermen community and till recently a senior BJP leader in the region.

Gandhi told the rally that a Congress government and Congress Chief Minister "will have their doors open for everybody in the state to listen to them".

"Modiji tells you his 'Mann ki Baat' but nobody listens to your 'Mann ki Baat'. Congress will win the December elections in Gujarat and will form a government which listens to you and works according to your needs," he said.

"If the Congress comes back to power at the Centre, it would consider setting up an independent fisheries ministry," he said, adding that the BJP government would not consider giving a subsidy of Rs 300 crore to fishermen but "waive Rs 1 lakh crore in debt to big business houses".

He said that it is these industrialists who are "marketing for the Modi government".

"This is interesting. A BJP worker here speaks out about your demands from the Congress platform. My dear friend, it is your government, the PM is yours, the CM is yours. Now that you have come here and Congress is going to win in Gujarat, we will listen to you," Gandhi said addressing Bharat Modi.

He hit out at NDA government on the issues of GST and demonetization and how it had affected the common people.

The Congress Vice President landed in Porbandar in the morning and visited the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi, the famous Kirti Mandir before addressing a public rally of fishermen.

The BJP on the other hand tried to lash out at the Congress leader on a very flimsy ground -- of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi that almost slipped out of Rahul Gandhi's hand when it was presented to him during his welcome at Porbandar. However, in a quick reflex action, Gandhi grabbed the statue before it fell to the floor and smashed.

A Congressman presented the statute to Rahul Gandhi at the fishermen's rally.

The saffron party tried to make an issue out of it, but wrongly claimed that it was a statue of Sardar Patel, and said that like in the past the Congress did not handle Sardar Patel properly, Rahul Gandhi was unable to handle Sardar's statue.

"You could not hold an idol of Sardar or Mahatma. It almost slipped out of your hand. It reminded me of the treatment the Congress meted out to Sardar Patel," Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman quipped, when told that it was an idol of Mahatma and not Sardar, while addressing the media.

Sitharaman also hit out at the Congress, stating that the track record of the party as an opposition in the state was depressing. "The people have rejected the Congress which in the last 3-4 elections has been in opposition. In 2012, they had 57 legislators out of 182. The Congress should have worked such that they could emerge as a strong contender. Instead, they have now been reduced to 43," she said.
Chennai, Nov 24 : Three members of a family were killed late on Thursday when their car fell from an under-construction overbridge near here, said police.

"The bridge is under construction for over four years. The construction company has not put any barricades there," a police officer told IANS on Friday.

He said the bridge is coming up near the Red Hills toll gate.

According to him, there were five persons in the car. One male and two female passengers died while the other two were injured and have been discharged from hospital.

The passengers were going back after attending a marriage and the car fell down from a height of around 20 feet, said reports.
Lahore, Nov 24 : Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, accused by India and the US of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai massacre, was on Friday freed after 10 months of house arrest here and vowed to continue the "jihad" for Jammu and Kashmir's "independence".

In an address to his supporters massed outside his Johar Town residence, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader thanked the Lahore High Court for refusing to buy the government's arguments that his release would pose a threat to public safety.

His release, he said, was a victory for Pakistan.

"Just as I am free today, Kashmir will also be free one day," Saeed said. "It is because of Kashmir that India has been after me.

"I pray to Allah to give us strength so that we keep fighting for Kashmir's independence (from India)," he told his supporters who had begun gathering outside his house even before the midnight hour.

Saeed, who carries a $10 million bounty announced by the US for his role in terrorist activities, was released just after Thursday midnight, after a Lahore High Court review board turned down the government's arguments that he was a threat to public safety.

A court on Wednesday ruled out prolonging Saeed's house arrest due to a lack of evidence or justification for it. Saeed was placed under house arrest on January 30 this year and a court regularly renewed his detention.

As his detention order expired on Thursday midnight, authorities withdrew jail staff from his residence.

"Now he is free and can go anywhere," JuD spokesperson Ahmed Nadeem told Efe news. Police left Saeed's house at midnight, he said.

The US and the UN classify JuD as a terrorist group and it is alleged to be a front organization for the terror outfit LeT, whose attack on Mumbai led to the death of 166 Indians and foreigners and almost brought India and Pakistan to war.

Interpol has also issued a red notice for his arrest.

New Delhi also accuses the LeT of carrying out terror attacks in other parts of India, including Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist campaign backed by Pakistan and raging since 1989 has left thousands dead.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack but was released about six months later.

India had earlier denounced the Pakistani court's decision to free Saeed, saying it "confirms once again the lack of seriousness on the part of the Pakistani government in bringing to justice the perpetrators of heinous acts of terrorism".

Although seen as a terrorist, Saeed's group is popular for its charitable work in Pakistan.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : Alleged hawala dealer Muhammad Aslam Wani on Friday moved his bail plea in a money-laundering case.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to its file reply on it by Monday.

Wani's counsel M.S. Khan stated that "since the section 45 PMLA has been declared unconstitutional, the present application is being filed in view of this changed circumstance".

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), paving the way for accused to get out on bail as per the provision applicable to other offences.

The ED in September filed a chargesheet against Wani and Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah under the provisions of the PMLA.

Khan stated that there is no evidence of any nature connecting Wani to the co-accused Shah and there is also no material to connect the accused with the offence of money-laundering.

Wani was arrested on August 6. He had reportedly confessed that he had passed on hawala money amounting to Rs 2.25 crore to Shabir Shah.

Shah was arrested on July 25 on charges of money-laundering in a case dating back to 2005 when the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Wani.

In the 2005 case lodged by the Special Cell, the court had acquitted co-accused Wani of the charges of criminal conspiracy and other offences but convicted him under the Arms Act, his defence counsel told the court.

The ED submitted that conviction under the Arms Act is a triggering point to take action under PMLA.

Both of them have denied charges.
Beijing, Nov 24 : The Chinese Embassy in Dhaka has warned its citizens travelling to Bangladesh to raise their safety awareness after receiving distress calls from Chinese workers claiming they were detained in the country.

The Chinese workers who went to Bangladesh for work in equipment maintenance and installation claimed they were detained for several days or even months by their local trading partners over product quality issues and poorly maintaining equipment, the Embassy said in a statement on its website on Thursday.

It warned that Chinese citizens should travel with companions, make hotel reservations appropriately and inform family and friends of their contact information before visiting Bangladesh, the Global Times reported.

Chinese travellers were told to seek help from the Embassy and police if their freedom was violated due to any dispute.

Chinese President Xi Jinping made a historic visit to Bangladesh in 2016, establishing the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : As India gets on the path towards digitisation, Microsoft with its impeccable threat intelligence capabilities to detect vulnerabilities across devices, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud infrastructure is ready to help the country, a top global Microsoft executive said on Friday.

"India serves as a large talent base for Microsoft. A lot of significant components of Microsoft products are manufactured here and the tech giant is committed to the digitisation drive in the country by integrating security at every step of its product development," said Jan Neutze, Director of Cybersecurity Policy for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Neutze was speaking at one of the sessions during the fifth edition of the Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) here.

According to him, in its push to advance digitisation, India has the opportunity to avoid some of the challenges and mistakes made by others and ensure that security is built into its framework right from the start, rather than sort of bolt it on at the end, The Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative, for instance, for which Microsoft is a partner, seeks to build the cybersecurity capacity of the Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) across the government, by training 1,200 government CISOs.

"We think this initiative has great potential, and we will see if we can replicate it elsewhere in the world," Neutze said on the sidelines of GCCS.

Microsoft has over 3,500 internal security professionals that work on cybersecurity and Cloud security at Microsoft and invest over $1 billion on cybersecurity every year.

"We have a methodology for developing our software securely - what is called our security development lifecycle (SDL)- which is something we established as a mandatory policy in 2004 and have since continued to evolve to a point where it has become an industry-leading standard on how to actually develop software securely.

"We have also taken the learnings from SDL and applied it to how we securely develop our cloud services - a process we call Operational Security Assurance (OSA). Both SDL and OSA have become critical foundations for how we build security into our products and services right from the start," Neutze noted.

According to him, Microsoft has developed several capabilities, including its Digital Crimes Unit (DCU).

"Launched almost a decade ago, DCU opened a global Cybercrime Centre in 2013 and has since established a network of satellite centres, the latest one being our Cyber Security Engagement Centre (CSEC) here in India. These investments are helping us combating cybercrime and advancing cybersecurity in a holistic way," Neutze said.

Microsoft President Brad Smith has called for the Digital Geneva Convention.

"We are talking about three things: Governments need to do more; industry needs to do more; and potentially, together, we can do more on this question of cyber-attack attribution," Neutze added.

Microsoft India this week said its "Cybersecurity Engagement Centre" in New Delhi has reached out to 126 organisations in a year, empowering them with information and techniques to secure critical information infrastructure and help reduce malware and digital risk in the country.

The centre, set up in New Delhi a year ago, is part of a global network of eight such centres.
Chennai, Nov 24 : The Madras High Court on Friday summoned the Superintendent of Parappana Agrahara Jail in Bengaluru to appear before it with the fingerprint records of Tamil Nadu's late Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa in connection with affixing of the thumb impression on poll documents, said a lawyer.

The prison official will have to appear before the High Court on December 8, V.Arun, the lawyer for P.Saravanan, the DMK candidate for the Thirupparankundram assembly constituency in the by-election held last year, told IANS.

The court had also asked the Central government to produce the Aadhar card details of Jayalalithaa if any, he said, adding that the fingerprints of Jayalalithaa with the Bengaluru jail and with the Central government if she had taken an Aadhar card would be compared with those in the poll papers.

Saravanan had approached the court to cancel the election of AIADMK's A.K. Bose from the Thirupparankundram Assembly constituency in the by-election held last year, raising doubts on affixing of the thumb impression by Jayalalithaa, also the AIADMK chief, in his poll documents.

Jayalalithaa was lodged in the Parappana Agrahara prison after she was convicted in a corruption case by the trial court in 2014 but later let out on bail.

In September 2016, she was admitted to Apollo Hospital for illness. In October 2016, she had an inflamed right hand as she had undergone tracheostomy and had to affix her left thumb impression in the poll documents submitted by the AIADMK candidate.

As per the Representation of People Act, a candidate contesting on behalf of a political party has to submit Form B, where their party leader has to authorise the candidate to contest under the party's election symbol.

The by-polls in Aravakurichi, Thanjavur and Thiruparankundram assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu were slated for November 19, 2016 and the ruling AIADMK candidates had submitted their papers on October 28, 2016 to the Returning Officers.

The thumb impression of Jayalalithaa was attested by a government doctor - P.Balaji, Professor of Minimal Access Surgery, Madras Medical College.

In his comments, Balaji said: "Since the signatory has undergone tracheostomy recently and has an inflamed right hand, she is temporarily unable to affix her signature. Hence she has affixed her left thumb impression on her own in my presence."

Dr Babu K. Abraham, working in Apollo Hospitals, signed as a witness.

Tracheostomy is a medical procedure whereby a direct airway is created by an incision in the windpipe enabling a person to breathe directly without the use of nose or mouth.

Jayalalithaa was admitted to the hospital with fever and dehydration on September 22 and died after over 70 days in December.
iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump will head to Capitol Hill Tuesday to meet with Senate Republicans at their weekly policy luncheon, ahead of an expected vote on tax reform this week.



We look forward to welcoming President Trump to the Senate again next Tuesday, the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., announced in a statement today.



This is a historic opportunity for our conference and the president to build on our momentum to give Americans the tax relief theyve been waiting for, he said.



Trump and Senate Republicans are also expected to discuss other fall legislative items. Congress is currently facing a Dec. 8 deadline to fund the government.



Tuesday will mark the president's second visit to the Hill in two weeks. Last Thursday, Trump traveled to the Capitol to rally House Republicans ahead of their tax vote on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act..



On Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.



The GOP tax measure will be the big ticket item in the Senate next week. Trump is eager to sign a tax bill by Christmas, and McConnell plans on bringing the bill to the Senate floor when members return from the Thanksgiving holiday. Any measure that passes the Senate would need to be reconciled with the House version.



It's still unclear whether Republicans have the votes to pass the GOP tax package in the Senate. Assuming all Democrats oppose the tax measure, Senate Republicans can only afford to lose two votes.



Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson came out against the House and Senate versions of the tax reform bill last Wednesday. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona, John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bob Corker of Tennessee have yet to say whether they'll support the measure.



Murkowski said she supports repealing the Affordable Care Acts individual mandate  a key provision in the Senate Republican tax bill  but she withheld a full endorsement of the tax package. Sen. Collins said in an interview on ABC News' This Week that she wants to see revisions to the plan.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : Late Union Environment Minister Anil Dave and Centre for Science and Environment's (CSE) Deputy Director Chandra Bhushan have been conferred with awards by the United Nations Environment.

The awards recognise the exemplary role played by individuals and institutions in protection of the ozone layer.

Dave, who died while in the office in May, was posthumously awarded the 'Political Leadership Award' at a ceremony held in Canada on Thursday to mark the 30th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol.

The award is in recognition of his leadership role in getting an amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer endorsed in the Rwandan capital in October last year. It is named the Kigali Amendment.

Bhushan was given the 'Partnership Award' for providing policy and research support to the negotiations during the Kigali Amendment.

The amendment is the single largest contribution the world has made towards keeping the rise of global temperature to "well below" two degrees Celsius, a target agreed upon at the Paris climate conference in 2015.

It aims to phase down climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used widely in refrigerators, air conditioners and aerosol sprays. It will enter into force on January 1, 2019.

Hailing India's role at the negotiations at Kigali last year, Bhushan said: "India did many things differently during negotiations. For one, NGOs and government worked as a team. India was proactive and not reactive. It submitted its own proposals, instead of reacting to the proposals of developed countries."

"Most importantly, India negotiated on the principal of positive reciprocity -- it came forward and took more responsibilities, thereby pushing developed countries and China to do more," he added.
Panaji, Nov 24 : Censorship is not just for cinema but literature too in contemporary India, National Award-winning actress Rohini said on Friday, while also claiming that the chaos following protests against "Padmavati" was also being used to divert attention from "real" crises in the country.

Rohini was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 48th International Film Festival of India, which has been marred by the controversy following the unceremonious dropping of two films "S Durga" and "Nude" from the Indian Panorama, that resulted in the resignation of three jury members.

The Andhra Pradesh-born actress, who won the National Award in 1995, said that the canvas of censorship covered literature as well as cinema, citing the example of Tamil writer Perumal Murugan whose novel "Madhorubhagan" (One Part Woman), which triggered protests as well as litigation. As a result, Murugan had threatened that he would give up writing.

"We live in a time of strict censorship. You can see many things happening over the last three years, which includes the protests against Perumal Murugan's novel," Rohini told reporters.

"There is no freedom of expression and freedom of speech. If somebody says something, they get arrested or raided," she said.

Commenting on the protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film "Padmavati", Rohini said that the agitations against the film drowned out the protests held by 3,000 odd farmers in the national capital on November 20.

"I think the controversy over 'Padmavati' was a tactic to divert people's attention. Because if you talk about cinema, everyone will speak about it," Rohini said.

Speaking about the ongoing controversy at IFFI over Malayalam film "S Durga", Rohini said that censorship in the sphere of art and literature must be protested against.

"We have to protest and stand our ground. We have to say that it's not right. We should send out a message that nobody is taking it lying down. You cannot curb freedom of expression and speech. We will protest and win back," she said.

Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court on Friday turned down a request from the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting to stay the court's earlier order, which directed the IFFI authorities to screen a certified copy of "S Durga" at the festival.
Mumbai, Nov 24 : Veteran actor Anupam Kher has thanked Indian-American actor Kal Penn for appreciating his series "The Indian Detective".

"Russell Peters dude, 'The Indian Detective' is so funny! Congrats. Anupam kher's Fart Attack had me rolling," Kal tweeted.

To which Anupam replied on Friday: "Thank you Kal Penn for your warmth and appreciation. I am so happy that you liked 'The Indian Detective'. Hope to see you soon."

"The Indian Detective" is about a Toronto police officer, who investigates a murder while visiting his father in India.

The Netflix's series also stars Russell Peters, Scott Cavalheiro and Christina Cole among many others.

On the film front, Anupam will next be seen in "The Accidental Prime Minister", where he will be seen playing the role of Manmohan Singh, the economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014.

It is directed by Vijay Gutte. The film is based on the 2014 memoir of the same name by Sanjaya Baru.

-*-Preeti Jhangiani would love to practice Bonsai Actress Preeti Jhangiani believes Bonsai helps people in their daily lives and she would love to practice the Japanese art form.

"Bonsai is the best way to get greenery in our lives. I would love to practice Bonsai; it helps us in our daily life. It helps purify our home and office. It also helps the environment as we all stay in closed places. I am excited to receive my first Bonsai today," said Preeti, who was here to support a Bonsai Bonanza and Ikebana Exhibition.

Talking about the art, Harsha Hinduja, President of the India Friendship Bonsai Society, believes issues faced by humanity today are due to lack of human connection with nature and environment.

"The separation we have created has led to issues like global warming, deforestation, health and energy crisis and food degradation. In the last few years we have felt the value of instilling love of nature in our children. Bonsai connects you with the five elements of nature - earth, water, fire, air and ether - as described in the Indian spiritual tradition," she said.

On the work front, Preeti will next be seen in "Wajood" which is based on the issue of child trafficking.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : Dismissing the opposition against the renaming of Dyal Singh College (Evening), the institution's chairman on Friday said there wasn't anything illegal about it and that there couldn't be a better name than Vande Mataram.

Amitabh Sinha also said that some opposition parties were misleading the people in general and the fraternity of teachers and students in particular by propping up the Akali Dal in order to make it appear like an issue concerning the Sikh community.

The General Body of Dyal Singh College on November 17 decided to change the evening college's name to Vande Mataram Mahavidyalaya after turning it into a day college.

"This decision of renaming the college was passed unanimously by the entire governing body. There is nothing legally or ethically wrong about it... Couldn't be a better name than Vande Mataram," Sinha told media here.

"Akalis have been hoodwinked by a lobby in the college to make them believe it was a Sikh issue," he said.

Noting that Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal asked for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in the matter, Sinha invited him to come ahead and debate on a neutral forum.

"Sukhbir Singh Badal has been misled. Either he convinces me and I reverse the decision to rename the new college, or I convince him and he issues a statement clarifying that he was misled," he said.

Delhi BJP legislator Manjinder Singh Sirsa had on Monday filed a police complaint against the college's principal and chairman over the name change.

The Congress' student wing NSUI criticised the move, saying the governing board should have focused on improving the college infrastructure rather than changing its name.

But Sinha asked why a hymn dedicated to the country and every mother should disturb anybody if the detractors do not have an anti-national agenda.

"There have been attempts to create a misunderstanding between different communities in addressing Dyal Singh as a Sikh or Punjabi," he said, adding that he was a nationalist.

He added that Vande Mataram is not just any other name but a "clarion call to nationalism".

"I am ready to sacrifice anything for it. If anybody has any problem with it, come speak with me individually. Convince me I am wrong, otherwise why should I change the decision?" he asked.

Set up in 1958, the college was named after Dyal Singh Majithia, who established The Tribune newspaper in Lahore in 1881, and was also the founder chairman of the Punjab National Bank established in 1894.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : Arms dealer Abhishek Verma, a witness in a 1984 riots case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, said that the CBI told him on Friday that it has postponed his polygraph test as the lie detection machine has broken down.

"CBI Investigating Officer called me at 2.20 p.m. today (Friday), saying that (someone from) the FSL Rohini (Forensic Science Laboratory) conveyed to him that their polygraph machine is broken (or faulty) and that's why they can't conduct tests from November 27 to 30," Verma told IANS.

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation had set November 27 to 30 to conduct Verma's polygraph test.

The CBI told Verma that new dates for conducting the test would be conveyed whenever the machine is repaired.

A court on November 1 had directed the CBI to conduct the lie detection test by the end of November.

The court has appointed noted advocate B.S. Joon as the commissioner to monitor Verma's polygraph test after Verma moved an application alleging that forensic lab was "unfair and biased".

The CBI is conducting the lie detector tests on Verma in a case against Tytler, accused of leading a mob in Pul Bangash area in 1984 that led to the killing of three Sikhs. The Congress leader has refused to undergo the test.

The agency's move came after Verma's accusation that Tytler influenced witness Surender Singh through money and a promise to send his son Narender Singh to Canada.

The CBI had earlier given a clean chit to Tytler in the case but reopened investigation following a December 4, 2015 court order in the wake of Verma's allegation.
Ranchi, Nov 24 : A woman was allegedly gang raped and murdered along with her husband in Jharkhand's Latehar district on Friday, police said.

According to police, unidentified people barged into the house of 32-year-old Kirtu Bhuiya, gang raped his wife and later hacked the couple to death. The incident occurred at Lawagara village of Latehar district.

Family members said the couple have three children aged six, eight and 12.

The reason for the murders is not known.

Police said they are investigating the incident and trying to trace the killers. The bodies were sent for post-mortem.
Hyderabad, Nov 24 : Hyderabad police on Friday conducted cordon and search in residential areas around Taj Falaknuma, the palace hotel in the old city of Hyderabad where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be hosting dinner for Ivanka Trump and other delegates of Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) on November 28.

The search operations were conducted in Madina Colony, Bibi Ka Chashma and Vatepally from 5.30 to 8.30 a.m.

Police also conducted census of the residents of Farooq Nagar, Fatima Nagar, Al- Jubail Colony and Jangammet areas surrounding Falaknuma and collected data, a senior official said.

They have urged people not to entertain or give shelter to any stranger and inform police about the relatives visiting them.

Police were keeping a tight vigil and surveillance in the colonies surrounding the palace located in the old city of Hyderabad, considered a sensitive area.

Deputy Commissioner of Police V. Satyanarayana told reporters that during cordon and search operations on Friday, 60 persons were taken in custody and their antecedents were being verified. Eight persons having criminal history were also picked up.

Two Omani nationals were among those taken in custody and police were verifying their claim that they were in the city for medical treatment.

The DCP over 250 policemen including additional deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners conducted cordon and search operations With the help of E-Finger Prints Recognition Device and 'Hydcops' app, police checked the fingerprints of the persons moving in suspicious circumstances. Police used geo-tagging in the operations to avoid inconvenience to the common people.

Police seized 51 two-wheelers, 3 auto-rickshaws and 2 four-wheelers and were verifying the documents.

The official said the operations were part of the efforts to provide foolproof security for the Prime Minister, US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and other delegates attending the dinner at Falaknuma.

Modi is hosting the dinner for all 1,500 delegates attending GES from 150 countries.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : The Aam Aadmi Party said there will be a special discussion on the issues of farmers and the Jan Lokpal Bill on the party's fifth Foundation Day, which falls on Sunday, alongside talks on its journey so far.

"The condition of India's farmers will be discussed in the context of the injustices being done to the farmers by the BJP-led Central government," AAP leader Gopal Rai told the media here on Friday.

He said the party will celebrate its fifth Foundation Day on November 26 at the "same venue which saw the Lokpal Movement gain strength", the Ramlila Maidan, in the presence of volunteers from across India.

"Jan Lokpal Bill will also be discussed, especially since the movement began at the same place. The Bill, which been passed by the Delhi Assembly, has been blocked by the Centre.

"AAP is the only party in Indian history to have established a national footprint within a short span of five years and is expanding rapidly across the country," Rai said.

Representatives from 22 states will join the celebration.
Kolkata, Nov 24 : Critically acclaimed actor Adil Hussain says role models are slowly emerging from the northeast states but it would take time. He drew attention to the absence of awareness about filmmaker Haobam Paban Kumar's special mention at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards for the Manipuri movie "Lady of the Lake".

"He (Kumar) got it, but we don't know about it. But we know about Rajkummar Rao's win," Adil pointed out during a session at the India Today Conclave East.

India's Oscar entry "Newton" secured two wins at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) in Brisbane on Thursday, with Rajkummar Rao winning the best actor and Mayank Tewari and Amit V. Masurkar claiming the best screenplay honour. Manipuri movie "Lady of the Lake" won a special mention.

Asked about role models emerging from the northeast states, the "Parched" actor responded positively, citing examples.

"It's happening with Papon from Assam. He is becoming famous across India for singing in Hindi films. I come from a small town called Goalpara in Assam... When they see Adil is doing films across the globe, (people feel) if he can do it, then we can do it... There is amazing amount of talent in the region," he said.

"The discourse has just started a few years ago... (the Look East and Act East policy). It will take a few generations, but with the help of information technology, it will go faster," added Adil, who has acted in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Norwegian and French films.

He added that the "narrative" of reverse racism needs to change and in today's day and age, he sees that evolving in the northeastern states with more exposure.

"When people from this part of the country go to northeast, when they go they can be asked 'Oh, you have come from India'... I have experienced that, but it was long back. I haven't faced that recently," said Adil.

He also said dark actors always being typified as villains also needs to change.

"We need to find ways to evolve from this narrative of reverse racism. A dark actor will always get to play negative characters," the 54-year-old added.

Assamese author Mitra Phukan urged the authorities to help develop infrastructure in the northeastern states so that more people can visit and tourism is enhanced.

"Everybody wants to go to the northeast. But the problem is infrastructure. The roads are not good enough. Except larger towns, there aren't enough good hotels. There is a threat of insurgency. Who will want to go like that?" she questioned.

The writer of "The Collector's Wife" added food bridges barriers and the fact that 'momo' is so popular across the country shows that. She also informed, conversely, that South Indian delicacy 'idli' is a favourite of many Meghalayans.

"Naga food is becoming very popular, Assamese food is also very popular and there is of course momo everywhere. Conversely, idli is becoming more popular in Meghalaya for instance," she said.

Meiyang Chang, who is of Chinese descent, born in Dhanbad, said he takes the catcalls of "Chinki" in his stride, and added that the situation has improved recently.

"I am not called a 'Chinki', but an assortment of sounds which sound like many things. I get offended when I hear that. I reply with a smile. Only when it gets beyond a limit, I react.

"For the longest time, I didn't think I was different. I had a Bihari accent as I am from Dhanbad. I used to tell people I look like you. I started realising later I look different after people asked me out of curiosity and not some malice. It's not always out of malice that people call you stuff," said the 35-year-old singing reality show "Indian Idol" contestant.
Kolkata, Nov 24 : The West Bengal government on Friday said it would sell the 15 year tenure securities for an aggregate amount of Rs 1,500 crore in order to meet the development expenditure.

"Government of West Bengal hereby notifies the sale of West Bengal government stock (securities) of 15 year tenure for an aggregate amount of Rs 1,500 crore....the proceeds of the loan will be utilised towards meeting the requirement for developmental expenditure of the state," a government notification said.

The government stock will be sold through the Reserve Bank of India by auction and the consent of the Central government has been obtained to the floatation of this loan, it added.

The auction will be conducted on November 28 and the successful bidders are required to make payments on November 29.

"The cut-off yield determined at the auction will be the coupon rate per cent per annum on the stock sold at the auction. The interest will be paid on May 29 and November 29," it added.

The loan will be repaid at par on November 29, 2032.
Liberation of Crimea is the only form of protection for Crimean Tatars - Poroshenko

The only form of protection for the Crimean Tatar people is the liberation of Crimea from occupation, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

Poroshenko told journalists after a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels on Thursday, November 23, that he had informed Tusk about the latest searches conducted by the Russian occupation authorities in the homes of activists of the Crimean Tatar people on the peninsula.

"I informed him of terrible events that are taking place in Crimea today, when, during the searches and detention of Crimean Tatar activists, an activist with a very important history of protecting the interests of the Crimean Tatar people died during the detention. We are not going to put up with it. Russia must bear responsibility for these terrible steps, and I want to say that the only form of protection for the Crimean Tatar people is the liberation of Crimea from occupation," Poroshenko said.

Earlier on November 23, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mariana Betsa reported searches on the homes of representatives of the Crimean Tatar community and detentions in the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.

According to the CrimeaSOS human rights organization, searches were carried out in Simferopol, Simeiz, Kholodivka, Hrushivka, Yuzhne. Ruslan Trubach, Bekir Degermendzhi, Asan Chapukh, Kazim Ametov, Kurtseit Abdullayev, Kazim Ametov and Vedzhie Kashka were detained.

According to the leader of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Bloc of Petro Poroshenko MP Refat Chubarov, Kashka was hospitalized and subsequently died.

"Bad news came from Crimea regarding the death of a veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement, 82-year-old legendary Vedzhie Abla Kashka, who fell unwell during the search of her house. Abla Kashka died in an ambulance," he wrote on his Facebook page.

According to Chubarov, the analysis of incoming information indicates a large-scale special operation being conducted by the Russian Federal Security Service in Crimea with the goal of making new arrests of activists of the national movement and discrediting the Mejlis.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : The Supreme Court on Friday directed GJM leader Bimal Gurung not to make speeches or hold demonstrations and asked him to respond by November 27 to a plea for modification of an apex court order that restrained the West Bengal government from taking coercive steps against him.

Giving the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader time till Monday to respond to an application by the West Bengal Director General of Police to seek modification of the November 20 order of the court, a bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan observed: "You have to ensure no speeches or demonstrations...."

The top court, by its November 20 order, had said that "no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioner (Bimal Gurung)."

Gurung is spearheading the agitation for a separate Gorkhaland state.

Appearing for the DGP, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi recounted instances of brutal violence allegedly by Gurung supporters, including killing of policemen, burning of their as well as government and private vehicles.

The senior counsel told the court that 54 FIRs stood registered against Gurung, besides 23 cases under trial.

The court told senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi: " "You have made allegations that are serious and need consideration" and directed for the listing of the matter on November 28.

On the other hand, Gurung's lawyer P.S. Patwalia told the court that Gurung was being targeted by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who was opposed to the Gorkhaland demand and urged for handing over all cases registered by police to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Patwalia said FIRs were being registered one after the other with identical wordings.

"Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) is against an independent state of Gorkhaland and against me," senior counsel Patwalia said, pointing out that "these FIRs are part of political persecution against me by the West Bengal government".

He wanted the Centre to be made a party in the case, a plea opposed by Singhvi who wondered what was the role of the Centre in the matter.

Seeking reversal of the November 22 order, Singhvi said the kind of immunity being enjoyed by the GJM leader was not enjoyed even by the President of India or the Governors.

The apex court ordered for making the Centre a party to the case.
Thiruvananthapuram, November 24 : Leader of the opposition Ramesh Chennithala has lodged a complaint with the state police chief over fake propaganda and misleading news appearing in social media and on some online news portals about the UDFs padayorukkam yatra.

In a facebook post on Friday, Chennithala alleged that certain news portals and social media users were indulging in fake propaganda that traffic block that led to the death of a 2 year old in Kottayam was caused by the UDF yatra.

2-year-old Ailin, who choked on a tablet, was caught in a traffic snarl caused by a demonstration taken out by an organisation. She died en route to hospital.

Chennithala points out that the tragic demise of the toddler happened on November 21 and on that day the UDFs padayorukkam yatra was in Idukki district. The yatra reached Kottayam only on November 22, he adds.

However, a few online news portals and social media users were using pictures of padayorukkam to propagate the falsehood that the UDF yatra caused the traffic block that led to the demise of the 2 year old, the facebook post alleges.

Exploiting a toddlers tragic death for political purposes is condemnable, Chennithala wrote.

Meanwhile, the state human rights commission suo moto registered a case on the toddlers death based on media reports and directed the district police chief to submit a report on the issue within three weeks.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asked the Delhi Minorities Commission to be more proactive to raise and solve problems of minorities in the city.

Kejriwal made the comment during the release of an annual report of the Commission led by Chairman Zafarul-Islam Khan.

"Releasing the annual report, the Chief Minister asked the Delhi Minorities Commission to be more vocal and proactive to raise and solve problems of the minorities in Delhi," an official statement said.
Srinagar, Nov 24 : A LeT militant was apprehended by security personnel from a forested area in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district on Friday, a defence official said.

"A Pakistani LeT terrorist was apprehended in a joint operation by army and the state police in Magam forest today (Friday)," said Defence Ministry spokesman, Col. Rajesh Kalia.

Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed by security forces in the same forest area four days back.
Chandigarh, Nov 24 : Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday rejected as "baseless" the statements emanating from the UK, Canada and other countries on the arrest and alleged torture of UK national Jagtar Singh Johal in a terror module case.

Flaying the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries and their leaders for questioning the arrest of Johal alias Jaggi, an Indian origin person, with the busting of a terror module in Punjab, the Chief Minister said none had approached either the Punjab government or the Indian government on the issue.

As for allegations of Johal's torture by Punjab Police, Amarinder said these foreign governments had no evidence of what they were claiming.

"They have no face to do so, as all their allegations are totally baseless, with not an iota of proof to support them," the Chief Minister said here.

"India has never interfered in other countries' policing and legal matters, even if an Indian citizen was involved, and expect the same respect and diplomatic propriety to be followed by other nations as well," he added.

"Radical elements based in Britain and other countries have orchestrated a false and slanderous media campaign against the Punjab government and state police," he said.

Amarinder Singh also flayed the opposition in Punjab for raising doubts over Johal's arrest in the targeted killing of Hindu leaders since January 2016, accusing them of "acting against Punjab's interests by echoing baseless statements of foreign elements".

Reacting to statements by Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party leaders, the Chief Minister termed their comments "unfortunate" and not in the interest of Punjab and its people.

"There is a well planned conspiracy at work in this whole affair," Amarinder Singh said, and challenged opposition leaders to prove their charge of human rights violation of Johal.

"In fact, police officers are receiving death threats targeted at them and their family members from such elements over phone, WhatsApp and social media platforms," the Chief Minister claimed.

"From permission to talk to his family to consular access, medical examinations to timely production in court, the due process of law had been followed at every step from the moment he was arrested," Amarinder Singh said.

The Chief Minister said his government was more concerned about maintaining Punjab's peace and stability rather than worrying about perceived embarrassment at the hands of foreign forces that have no stake in India's security or development.

Amarinder Singh said the whole issue was sought to be politicised by certain pro-Khalistani elements and it was unfortunate that certain Punjab leaders were lending their voice to these elements.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : Four juveniles have been arrested on the charge of murdering a young man in a moving Delhi bus after a row over a missing mobile phone, police said on Friday.

Mohammed Anas, 25, of Muradabad in Uttar Pradesh had on Thursday afternoon boarded a bus at Lajpat Nagar that was moving towards the Badarpur border when the accused snatched his mobile phone.

"The accused, aged between 13 and 16 and students of Class 8 and 10 at a government school of south Delhi, boarded the bus at Ashram Chowk and snatched Anas' mobile phone," Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baaniya said.

"Following an altercation, one of them slit his throat and escaped after threatening the bus driver," Baaniya said.

The teenagers were identified through local intelligence and technical surveillance and arrested from south Delhi's Badarpur and Ali Vihar near Sarita Vihar.

Five police teams scanned over 15 government schools located between Lajpat Nagar and Mathura Road and zeroed in on the accused," Baaniya told IANS.

The mobile phone has been recovered from the accused, the officer said. One of the accused is still absconding.
Kolkata, Nov 24 : Taking a dig at RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and veteran BJP leader Sushil Modi on Friday said the alliance between Nitish Kumar's JD-U and his party was "natural" and the "unnatural" Nitish-Lalu partnership died "naturally".

In July, Nitish Kumar became Bihar Chief Minister for the sixth time after he ended his two-year-old alliance with Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress.

"Nitish Kumar was with the BJP for 17 years. And again, the BJP and the JD-U have come together. That is the natural alliance.

"The unnatural alliance with Lalu Prasad died naturally. No gentleman can work with people like Lalu Prasad, a chaotic and disorganised man," Modi said at the India Today Conclave East.

Modi said he did not expect the Janata Dal-United and RJD alliance to come apart in such a short span of time but he knew it was bound to happen.

"How can Nitish Kumar defend Tejashwi Yadav (Lalu Prasad's son) who was facing corruption charges?" he asked.

Asked whether he saw any difference between the present JD-U-BJP partnership as compared to earlier one, he said: "I don't find any difference."

"During our earlier alliance, there was a government at the Centre which worked against Bihar. Now, there is a synergy between the Centre and state government.

"In the second tenure of the JD-U and the BJP, more development would take place. There is no confrontation between the state and centre now," Modi added.
Cairo, Nov 24 : At least 235 people were killed and 109 others injured in a gory terror attack on a mosque in Egypt's northern Sinai region on Friday, reported state media, making it one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the country.

The attack on Al-Rawdah mosque, affiliated with Sufi groups, took place during Friday prayers.

The assailants planted home-made explosive in the mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, near Arish, and detonated them as worshipers were leaving after prayers. They also shot at anyone who tried to escape, a security official told Efe news.

The gunmen also fired at ambulances transferring the injured to hospital, eyewitnesses said.

Pictures from the scene showed rows of bloodied victims inside the mosque. The blasts from improvised explosive devices caused considerable damage to the mosque, said state-run Al Ahram Online.

Speaking to state-run Masriya TV, Egyptian Health Ministry spokesman Khalid Mujahid described the incident as a "terrorist attack".

One report said the target appeared to be supporters of the security forces who were praying at the mosque. Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi was meeting with a security committee to discuss the bloodbath.

Egypt declared three days of national mourning. No group has claimed responsibility for the massacre.

In a statement, El-Sisi said that Egyptians will "derive hope and determination from such pain to triumph in the war against black terrorism".

The statement offered condolences to the families of the victims, stressing that the "vile and treacherous" activity will not pass without a decisive punishment and that the perpetrators will be brought to justice, said Al Ahram Online.

The President also ordered compensation of EGP 200,000 and EGP 50,000 to the families of the dead and injured, respectively.

US President Donald Trump condemned the attack as "horrible and cowardly". "The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!" he tweeted.

Egypt's security forces have been fighting an Islamist insurgency based in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula which has gained pace since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The insurgency has mostly targeted security forces, with attacks on military and police checkpoints common place.
London, Nov 24 : Police officers were at Oxford Circus metro station here on Friday following reports of shots fired in the area, according to British Transport Police.

A statement by the Metropolitan Police said that they were called at 4:38 p.m. (GMT) to "a number of reports of shots fired" on the Oxford Street and underground at Oxford Circus tube station, Xinhua news agency reported.

Police said they had responded as if the incident is terrorist related.

Oxford Circus Station had been closed while they are investigating, police said, adding everyone on the street was asked to go into a building as the main street is in lockdown.

The areas were crowded with shoppers due to the ongoing sales seasons.

Videos on social media showed people running along the streets. Local residents said heavy police presence could be seen.
New Delhi, Nov 24 : The Supreme Court-appointed environment panel on Friday directed oil companies to hand over a list of all their dealers to ensure that high-polluting petcoke and furnance oil is not rolled out in the market across Delhi and neighbouring states.

The Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) in a meeting held here with the oil companies including Reliance, Indian Oil, Bharat Petrolium and others, has warned that the sale of petcoke will be considered contempt of court.

Petcoke and furnace oil are used as fuel across India though being more polluting than diesel.

"All the oil companies were asked to provide us the list of all their dealers throughout the nation. EPCA will personally warning all those dealers that strict actions shall be taken against them if they are found selling petcoke or furnance oil in the northern region," Usman Naseem, researcher at the Centre for Science and Environment and member of the EPCA, told IANS.

The apex court had earlier in October reprimanded the Union Environment Ministry for not setting standards for industries using the highly polluting fuel, banned the cheap fuel completely from November 1 in Delhi and NCR where 34 industries were using petcoke.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the plea for the recall of its order banning the use of petcoke and furnace oil by industries in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The court also rejected a plea by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) seeking extension of time to switch over to an alternate fuel.

Banned across several countries, petcoke is made from the residue of the petroleum refineries and contains very high volume of sulphur and other major pollutants.

The manufacturing of petcoke results in emission of carbon dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulhpur dioxide and traces of heavy metals, according to Central Pollution Control Board .

In October, the Union Environment Ministry after agreeing that petcoke and the furnance oil is polluting, proposed tougher emission standards for about 21 industries (outside Delhi-NCR) using the cheaper fuel.

The new emission standards will apply to sugar, cotton textiles, composite woollen mills, synthetic rubber, pulp and paper, distilleries, leather industries, calcium carbide, carbon black, natural rubber, asbestos, caustic soda, small boilers, aluminium plants, tannery, inorganic chemical, lime kiln, glass, ceramic, foundries and re-heating furnaces industries.

Overall, there are 35 major industries including thermal power plants that use petcoke.
The European People's Party (EPP) will call on Russia to release Ukrainian political prisoners and hostages who are held in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Deputy Head of Ukraine's Presidential Administration Kostiantyn Yeliseyev has said.

"It is very important that at the [EPP] summit, on the proposal of Ukrainian President [Petro Poroshenko], the declaration calls for the immediate release of Ukrainian hostages in Donbas, as well as political prisoners in Ukraine, who are currently held in Russian prisons," he said live on the 112 Ukraine television channel on Thursday, November 23.

He also said that the Ukrainian president had raised the issue of the need to support the position on the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to the territory of the occupied Donbas.

"This proposal was approved, and this idea will also be included in the text of the joint declaration of the European People's Party summit," Yeliseyev said.

According to him, the EPP summit will condemn Russian aggression against Ukraine and call for the continuation of anti-Russian sanctions imposed several years ago.

The EPP summit is currently being held in Brussels (Belgium).
Kolkata, Nov 24 : Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and GST Council member Sushil Modi on Friday said the inclusion of real estate in Goods and Services Tax (GST) would take "much longer time" as it is "not that easy" though the council is slated to discuss about it in the next meeting.

"It is up to GST Council to decide. But I think it will take much longer time and it is not that easy. Let other things stabilise in the GST, then petroleum products and real estate," he said, to a query about the possible timing on the inclusion of real estate in the GST ambit, at the India Today Conclave East here.

Modi, who is also Bihar's Finance Minister, said GST Council would discuss about the real estate issues in the next meeting. In real estate, state levies such as stamp duty, registration charges, and property tax, which is a municipal levy, are currently outside the ambit of GST.

He said every state Finance Minister is concerned to protect their state revenue and the centre assured protection up to 14 per cent of revenue.

After the GST council's Guwahati meeting in which the GST rates of 178 items were reduced from 28 per cent, the GST is stabilising, Modi said Refuting the argument that the decision of pruning the number of items from higher bracket of GST rate to lower rates was taken in view of Gujarat assembly elections, he said: "88 per cent of small business in Bihar fall below Rs 1.5 crore (annual turnover). It is not the case for Gujarat."

"In the earlier regime, the small businesses with below Rs 1.5 crore (annual turnover) were exempted from excise duty. Most of the small businesses were below less than Rs 1.5 crore cap. Now, all of them came to net of GST."

On the hardships that the businesses have been facing in filing GST returns, he said, it would take some time to settle in the new indirect tax regime. "Earlier in the VAT (Value Added Tax) system, 40 per cent was online based and the rest was done manually. The GST is end-to-end automation.

In terms of compliance, the system would be simplified and in the coming two-three months, the GST compliance system would be less complicated and it would be easier for small businesses.

The issues related to GST rates on items have been resolved by more than 80 per cent and very few issues are yet to be resolved regarding the tax rates, he said,
New Delhi, Nov 24 : The Supreme Court on Friday gave the Gujarat government time till January to apprise it of action it has taken against policemen convicted in 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud was hearing the plea by Bano, a gang rape victim of post-Godhra 2002 Gujarat riots, seeking compensation and disciplinary action against the accused personnel found guilty by trial court and the Bombay High Court.

The bench gave the Gujarat government six weeks to seek "instructions" on the fate of six policement.

As Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought six weeks' time, advocate Shobha, appearing for Bilkis Bano, asked why he needs six weeks to seek instructions in "digital India".

"Why do they need six weeks' time to collect information on disciplinary action in a case where police officers have been found guilty by two courts below," Shobha said, urging the bench to hold the hearing in December.

As the bench cited difficulty in accommodating the matter in December, Shobha said that she has seen matters being heard on the same day.

"I am still requesting please have it in December," the lawyer told the bench.

As ASG Mehta told the court that he has to take instructions, Shobha said that one of the convicted officers has been given a promotion.

The top court in the last hearing of the matter on October 23 had sought the Gujarat government's response on the departmental action taken by it against the convicted state police personnel.

The court had given the government four weeks to respond.

Bano was given a meagre amount of compensation though she was entitled to more.

She was 19 years old and pregnant when she was subjected to the horror during the riots.

The horrifying incidents occurred in Randhikpur village near Dahod on March 3, 2002 when Bano and around a dozen of her family members were attacked by a mob. Many of those attacked were killed.

Only Bano and two relatives, Saddam and Husain, survived the savagery. Her mother, sister, minor daughter and other relatives were killed.
Mumbai, Nov 25 : Amid protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming film "Padmavati", the Indian Films and TV Directors' Association (IFTDA), along with 20 other bodies of the film and television industry, is planning a 15-minute blackout in support of the film and "to protect the right to freedom of expression of creative individuals".

Confirming the plan, Ashoke Pandit of IFTDA told IANS: "We will keep showing our support for 'Padmavati' and SLB (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) because it is the basic right of a creative person to tell a story in his own way.

"Sanjay is a responsible filmmaker, and making a film on history is not something easy for him but a big responsibility. To express our solidarity (with the film), we are gathering on Sunday for a 15-minute blackout where all shooting units in Mumbai will put off lights and no shootings will take place."

Pandit said: "We strongly protest against the non-institutional bodies who every now and then protest against movies and threaten actors and makers of films. We will keep condemning their actions in a democratic manner. We have faith in our Prime Minister...for justice to 'Padmavati'," added Pandit.

Earlier this month, IFTDA, along with several other cine bodies, came together in support of 'Padmavati'.

"We as film industry feel hurt every time such groups target our films and try to control our freedom of expression. Unfortunately, we do not get support from any other industry, not even from the government as if we are orphans as a community," Pandit added.

The controversy started with the assumption that there are some intimate scenes between Rajput queen Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji, which could hurt the sentiments of the Rajput community.

Thereafter, the Rajput Karni Sena started a protest and threatened the makers of the film to stop its release.

"We are living in a democracy and I have faith in the government and its judiciary. These protesters have not watched the film, and Sanjay has already made it very clear by releasing a video that it is a tribute to Padmavati and no obscene scenes are there," Pandit added.

The members of film and television industry will be joining the blackout protest, titled "Main Azaad Hoon", on November 26 at the Film City main entrance starting 3.30 p.m.
New Delhi, Nov 25 : The Congress on Friday alleged that a company owned by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's personal secretary Vaibhav Dange has been getting funds from his own ministry and other PSUs and demanded he come clean on it. The BJP rejected the charges as "baseless".

The Congress also alleged that this "scam" was linked to other alleged irregularities by BJP leaders, including its president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah and conflict of interest in (National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's son) Shaurya Doval's India Foundation.

It also targeted Union Ministers Gadkari and Suresh Prabhu, accusing them of conflict of interest for allegedly being part of the national executive committee of the Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE), owned by Gadkari's aide.

The Congress asked how Gadkari had permitted the Shipping Ministry as well as PSUs to participate in and financially contribute to IFGE, partly owned by Dange, who floated it on October 9, 2014, and owns a 50 per cent stake in it.

It also questioned how a company, which started in October 2014 with a capital of Rs 1 lakh only and zero cash and zero corpus, has built up a corpus of Rs 1.33 crore.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh asked: "The IFGE organises conclaves and programmes in tandem with PSUs and ministries under Gadkari's control and receives financial contributions. The firm also receives contributions from private individuals, corporate entities sponsoring these events and those who deal directly with ministries under Gadkari.

"This becomes even more serious as Dange deals directly with all ministries and public sector undertakings related issues as also private entities in his capacity as private secretary to the Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister.

"Even today (November 24) IFGE is organizing a conference on 'Ethanol As a Transport Fuel' in partnership with Centre Institute of Road Transport under Ministry of Transport at Pune.

Noting that even earlier similar conferences were organized in league with the Transport and other ministries, Ramesgh asked whether this was not a "conflict of interest" and if Dange had not violated the Central Civil Service Conduct Rules, which prohibit a public servant from accepting contributions and associating with raising of any funds or collections or cash.

BJP spokesperson G. V. L. Narasimha Rao rejected the allegations, saying that Congress was "rattled by the ever-rising popularity" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and "has been repeatedly trying to malign the government's image by making baseless allegations".

Terming these allegations "one such futile attempt", he said Dange himself has refuted these allegations in a detailed written statement "rejecting imagined conflict of interest formulation of the Congress".

Terming the Congress' repeated attempts in making allegations "in the hope that something would stick" a sign of its desperation, he said the only effect would be the erosion of the opposition party's credibility.
Cairo, Nov 25 : Egypt's President vowed to avenge victims of a brutal attack on Friday in the country's restive Sinai Peninsula that left at least 270 people dead and 90 others injured.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke on state television as the country came to terms with the worst terror attacks in its recent history after a bomb planted at a mosque in the Sinai town of Bir al-Abd, near Arish, was detonated during Friday prayers, Efe news agency reported.

Al-Sisi said Egyptian security forces would avenge the deaths, restore stability in the region and "respond to the act with brutal force".

"All this is an attempt to stop our efforts in facing terrorism, to destroy our will and our action to stop the terrible criminal plot aimed at destroying what remains of our region," he said.

"We will continue. As I said, this attack will only increase our determination... The armed forces and civilian police will avenge our martyrs and restore security and stability with maximum force over the next few days," the president added.

Three days of national mourning have been declared.

A security official told Efe that an unknown assailant detonated the explosives when the mosque was full of worshippers for Friday prayers.

In the wake of the blast, gunmen opened fire on those seeking to escape the building, which was a place of worship for Sufi Muslims, a sect of Islam that has been the target of persecution in the past.

Photographs showed bloodied bodies laid out on the floor of the mosque as emergency responders scrambled to bring the situation under control.

Ambulances that arrived in the immediate aftermath of the blast also came under fire.

An investigation into the incident has been opened by Prosecutor-General Nabil Ahmed Sadek.

No terror group has so far come forward to claim responsibility for the attack.

Several militant groups are active in that area of Sinai, including Al-Wilayat Sinai, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and has claimed responsibility for the bloodiest attacks in the region in recent years.
ezPaycheck payroll software customers are relieved that Halfpricesoft.com has just updated and released a feature to include W2 recipient printing on plain white paper. No expensive red ink forms for the employee to have W2 printed or -re-printed.

The latest version of ezPaycheck payroll software now offers W2 forms to print on plain white paper for recipient copy.  said Dr. Ge, the founder of Halfpricesoft.com.

New business owners are encouraged to visit http://www.halfpricesoft.com/payroll_software_download.asp and download ezPaycheck for up to 30 days with no cost or obligation. The download includes the full version of the paycheck software along with a sample database. The sample database allows new customers to try all of ezPaychecks exciting features, including the intuitive graphical interface, without wasting time entering data.



Features available in ezPaycheck payroll software are:

Supports both miscellaneous checks and payroll calculation checks

Automatically calculates Federal Withholding Tax, Social Security, Medicare Tax and Employer Unemployment Taxes

Creates and maintains payroll for multiple companies, and does it simultaneously

Prints tax forms 940, 941, W2 and W3

Supports unlimited accounts at no additional charge

Supports network for multiple offices or computers

Offers no cost live chat, email, and remote access for customer support

Supports differential pay rates within the company

Supports daily, weekly, biweekly, semimonthly and monthly pay periods

Features report functions, print functions, and pay stub functions

ezPaycheck is currently priced at $99 per calendar year for a single user version. (combo version of ezPaycheck 2017-2018 payroll software available for $119.00 for a limited time). Customers seeking a way to simplify payroll processing with more accuracy to start the no obligation 30-day test drive today at: http://www.halfpricesoft.com/index.asp

About Halfpricesoft.com

Founded in 2003, Halfpricesoft.com has established itself as a leader in meeting and exceeding the software requirements of small businesses around the world. Offering payroll software, accounting software, employee attendance tracking software, check writing/printing software, W2 software, 1099 software and ezACH deposit software. It continues to grow in the philosophy that small business owners deserve affordable, user friendly, and totally risk-free software.
Home remodeling contractor Fairfax, Virginia Life may appear simple on the outside of a lovely place like Fairfax, but when you spend some time there, you realize there is a lot of activity going on.

Elite Contractor Services, a respected family-owned remodeling contractor serving Northern Virginia cities, is proud to announce a new blog post relevant to Fairfax, Virginia, and home remodeling. Fairfax, Virginia, may appear to be an average-looking everyday town, yet one may notice activities unique to locals. Specific hobbies and interests can find a place in a newly remodeled room.

Life may appear simple on the outside of a lovely place like Fairfax, but when you spend some time there, you realize there is a lot of activity going on, explained Ana Blanco, marketing manager for Elite Contractor Services. "The new blog post discusses how a remodel can give a common space to a very unique hobby; this is true both to the city and to the county of Fairfax. Hence, we wrote this fun blog post on the topic.

The new blog post by Elite Contractors can be reviewed by going to http://elitecontractorservices.com/fairfax-both-a-county-and-a-city/.

Residents in the Northern Virginia area including Arlington, Vienna and Fairfax Virginia may review tips and information from a top home remodeling contractor serving the area. Information about common upgrades such as bathroom remodels and kitchen additions can be found. Details about building separate units for special hobbies such as a civil war clothing room or maker space can also be reviewed. Those interested in Fairfax home remodeling specifically can visit http://elitecontractorservices.com/services-areas/fairfax-va/.

Local Home Remodeling Contractor Creates a Common Space for Uncommon Fairfax, Virginia Interests

Here is further background on this release. A historic place like Fairfax, Virginia can appear to look like an average all-American township. Tree-lined main streets and family neighborhoods could give the impression that life can be just as simple inside a household as it looks on the outside. Visitors may be surprised to learn Fairfax harbors several intelligence agencies, including the CIA. It has also been known as a hotspot for passionate civil war reenactment groups. If a Fairfax, Virginia local decides to create a room for a unique hobby, finding the right home remodeling contractor may be important. It could take a local remodeling company to understand the specific desires of a Fairfax resident.

For this reason, Elite Contractors has release a new blog post specific to Fairfax, Virginia residents. Persons interested in creating an addition, remodel or separate structure for the home can learn more details. Common home remodeling projects may include a bathroom upgrade, new kitchen or extra guest room. Uncommon home remodeling projects may include building a high-tech game room, a Civil War reenactment clothing room or a small backyard cabin. A home addition can be as main-stream or off-beat as the inhabitants. The best home remodeling contractor in Fairfax, Virginia could support a commonly held vision and deliver the perfect uncommon result.

ABOUT ELITE CONTRACTOR SERVICES

Elite Contractor Services (http://elitecontractorservices.com/) is a family owned home remodeling company serving cities as diverse as Washington DC, Alexandria Virginia, and Bethesda Maryland as well as Falls Church home contractor services. Persons looking for a top home remodeling contractor for a home remodel or kitchen remodel in Northern Virginia can reach out for a no obligation consultation. The company consists of expert contractors for kitchen remodels, home remodels or additions, and even specific jobs such as basement remodels or attic additions. The company has been recognized as a top-rated home remodeling contractor for the Northern Virginia region. in Communities served include Arlington, Herndon, Washington DC and up to Vienna, Fairfax County or even Rockville, MD.

Media Relations

Tel. 703-813-1678.
Customers can enjoy a variety of handcrafted menu items throughout the day, including locally-roasted coffee, savory breakfast burritos, irresistible locally-baked goods and unique Ziggis favorites, like a Frozen Hot Chocolate Blender or Colorado Coconut Mocha

Ziggis Coffee (http://www.ZiggisCoffee.com), a rapidly growing Colorado-based coffee shop company, announced today that its long-awaited double-sided drive thru location in Loveland is now open. The new drive thru marks the ninth Colorado location for the company and is the first franchise-owned store to open among two others anticipated in Fort Collins and Greeley, proving the success of the brands expansion in Northern Colorado.

The 492-square-foot building is located at 4201 N. Taft Avenue and is locally owned and operated by husband and wife duo, Steve and Jill Anderson, of Loveland. Complete with two drive thru lanes, a walk-up window and patio seating, the new location is the ideal place for either a quick and convenient visit or spot to sit and relax awhile.

Customers can enjoy a variety of handcrafted menu items throughout the day, including locally-roasted coffee, savory breakfast burritos, irresistible locally-baked goods and unique Ziggis favorites, like a Frozen Hot Chocolate Blender or Colorado Coconut Mocha. Additionally, the Andersons look forward to providing customers with the superior level of fast and friendly service known to the Ziggis Coffee brand, which drew them to the franchise opportunity in the first place.

We are so excited to finally have our store open and bring Ziggis Coffee to Loveland, said Steve Anderson. As long-time customers of a different Ziggis location, we fell in love with the local menu offerings, positive interactions and authentic relationships that were always present among staff and customers, which really made the brand stand out to us. We knew we needed to bring that same experience to other communities and were looking forward to doing that here.

To help celebrate the opening, Ziggis Coffee will be offering the following special deals and discounts throughout the weeks leading up to the official grand opening on Sunday, November 26:

-Buy One, Get One Half Off Drink Coupons: Customers will have the chance to randomly receive a coupon with purchase starting on Thursday, November 9, through Saturday, November 25, for a buy one, get one half off menu drink they can redeem at future visits.

-Gift Card Giveaway: Fans and followers of the businesss Facebook page will have the chance to randomly receive a $10 gift card through a special gift card giveaway. For more details on how to participate, customers should visit http://www.facebook.com/ZiggisCoffeeLovelandCOTaft.

The official grand opening event for the store will take place from 11:00am  4:00pm on Sunday, November 26. During the event, customers will be treated to a variety of free samples from vendors, including Red Bull and Organic Bliss.

Additionally, there will be coffee giveaways and fun Ziggis merchandise items available for purchase and given out. The Loveland Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony towards the end of the event from 3:00pm-4:00pm. All proceeds generated will be donated to the Foundations Church (1380 Denver Avenue, Loveland, Colo. 80537), a special place to the Andersons.

When we first moved to Loveland several months ago, we didnt know anyone, but soon after joining Foundations Church, we were able to find a sense of community and connect with so many wonderful people, said Jill Anderson. We wanted to be able to give back to them, not only to show our gratitude for the support and positive impact theyve had on us, as well as others in the area, but so that they may also continue to provide a place for people to come together.

The new drive thru is open from 5:00 am  9:00 pm Monday-Friday; 6:00 am  9:00 pm Saturday; and 6:00 am  7:00 pm Sunday. Customers can contact the store by calling (970) 541-4210, visiting their Facebook page or website at http://www.ziggiscoffee.com.

Ziggis Coffee is on a fast-track of growth, with nine additional franchise units in development across Colorado and the U.S., including Arizona and Oklahoma, since introducing their franchise opportunity just over a year ago.

About Ziggis Coffee

Ziggis Coffee, the leading specialty coffee shop and drive-thru franchise, is dedicated to serving only the finest sustainably-sourced coffee, uniquely handcrafted drinks, and amazing, locally-made breakfast, lunch and snack options. Founded in 2004, the Colorado-based company is on a mission to elevate the standard of service within the coffee shop industry. From specializing in a variety of great-tasting coffee and food items to providing fast and friendly service, the Ziggis Coffee brand is focused on creating a positive experience that is faster, more authentic and convenient for the demand of consumers seeking higher-quality coffee and food options on the go. In addition to its distinctive menu and superior service, Ziggis Coffee is also committed to making a positive difference in the local communities it serves. With nine existing Colorado locations, and additional units in development, Ziggis Coffee is positioned to quickly grow its presence in a variety of communities across the U.S. To learn more about Ziggis Coffee and its franchising opportunities, visit http://www.ZiggisCoffee.com/franchise or follow Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Naigai Tengu Choshi Corp. (Inomachi, Kochi prefecture) will be attending the ASEAN Market Sales Channel Development exhibition hosted in Hanoi, Vietnam on November 30th, 2017. This is an event aiming to provide an opportunity for JETRO invited Vietnamese buyers and Japanese corporations to directly match with each other and develop overseas market sales channel. Naigai Tengu Choshi Corp. will be the first to participate in this exhibition as a Washi exporter from Kochi prefecture.

Naigai Tengu Choshi Corp. is targeting trading companies with Japanese artisan goods, Japanese cuisine restaurants, and Department stores. There are many Japanese expatriates living in Vietnam and the number of Japanese cuisine restaurants are also on the rise. For that, we predict that the need for interior decorations with Washi, especially high- end clients, will be on the rise accordingly.

Naigai Tengu Choshi Corp. will be introducing 9 different varieties of Tosa Washi at the exhibition. In addition, we will also be bringing our original calendar made with our Washi and rolled Tosa Washi as retail goods.

Furthermore, Naigai Tengu Choshi Corp. will be working hand in hand with INNER HOSPITALITY (Tokyo)s Mr. Inoue Yoshifumi as we begin developing global channels. Mr. Inoue has been supporting farmers and professionals around Japan and is considered as the mastermind for those planning to expand to global markets.

According to Mr. Inoue, Through talks with foreign buyers that have come to Japan to buy Washi, I have been inspired with new ways to utilize Washi. The pH of the Washi is perfect as restoration paper for Ancient artworks and papers. Vietnam has had deep connections with paper and has an environment that allows for smooth and natural integration of Washi to their lifestyle. We will aim to seamlessly integrate the Washi into the lifestyles of the mega- wealthy class.

For those interested in holding talks at Vietnam, please contact us. We will register you with JETRO and arrange to hold talks free of charge.

Exhibition date/ time and Access

2018/11/30 (Thursday) 9001700

Melia Hanoi 44B Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Hanoi
No Frill Bar and Grill's Laskin Road location will donate a percentage of lunch and dinner sales to ORPHANetwork's #GivingTuesday campaign on Tuesday, November 28th. This second annual partnership will continue to empower vulnerable children in Nicaragua to break cycles of poverty.

#GivingTuesday is a global giving movement driven by individuals, families, organizations, businesses and communities in all 50 states and in countries around the world. #GivingTuesday is the biggest giving day of the year worldwide; it follows Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday.

Simply by dining at No Frill Bar and Grill on #GivingTuesday, patrons will help provide educational resources, teacher salaries, and materials to support vulnerable Nicaraguan children served by ORPHANetwork's After School Education Program.

ORPHANetwork has partnered with businesses, families, friends, and individuals across the country who want to impact a childs future on #GivingTuesday to reach the campaign goal of $40,000 by November 28th. You can learn more about the campaign here: https://orphanetwork.org/givingtuesday/

More About No Frill Bar and Grill

During the month of November, the "local's favorite" restaurant is celebrating its 30th anniversary with 30 days of special deals during the entire month. Customers are enjoying special prices and giveaways from No Frill for the remaining days of the month - come out for Comfort Food Tuesday for a home-style dinner on November 28th. http://nofrillgrill.com/

More About ORPHANetwork

ORPHANetwork currently partners with more than 200 Local Church Initiatives in Nicaragua to break cycles of poverty through holistic care focused on health, education and job skills training for nearly 20,000 vulnerable children. Additionally, ORPHANetwork cares for 370 orphaned and abandoned children through partnerships with six child protection centers (orphanage homes) across Nicaragua. https://orphanetwork.org/
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker at the meeting in Brussels discussed the preparation of the European investment conference on assistance to Ukraine, which is scheduled to be held in 2018.

The meeting was held in the framework of the sixth meeting of the leaders of the European People's Party on the issues of the Eastern Partnership in Brussels, the presidential press service reported.

Poroshenko and Junker also discussed the implementation of the reform agenda in Ukraine, the implementation of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement and ways to optimize financial assistance from the EU and the prospects for a new financial package.

The two discussed ways of implementing Ukraine's integration into the common digital and energy markets of the EU.
Wichita Drain Service We like to say that clogged drains have met their match with us.

Wichita's leading drain service and plumber, Ben Franklin Plumbing, is proud to announce a new update to its "drain service" page. Central Kansas residents requiring support for drain unclogging, sewer line repair and other plumbing issues can review informational details on the newly updated page on one of the most common plumbing problems, a clogged drain. Residents of Derby, Andover and Haysville may also find answers to difficult plumbing emergencies as the Wichita company also services their communities.

We like to say that clogged drains have met their match with us, explained Jason Clark, Manager of Ben Franklin Plumbing of Wichita, Kansas. We find holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah test our motto. Excess food and grime can quickly clog a sink. Our team is up for the challenge and have an update drain service page helps locals learn what can be done.

The newly revised Wichita drain service page can be located at; http://www.benfranklinwichita.com/clogged-drain. Sewer issues during Thanksgiving and the fall in general may increase due to excessive use of kitchen sinks during holiday meals as well as because tree roots may break into pipes below and cause damage to a home sewer system. Several reasons for a clogged drain in Wichita can cause problems for a homeowner hosting guests at celebrations. Access to a professional 24/7 plumbing technician may provide quick solutions; many homeowners may not know the "cause" of their drain clog or slow drains, but a quick check of the new informational page and a quick call to Ben Franklin Plumbing can go quickly from a web research survey to an action item by a trained plumbing professional.

KANSAS RESIDENTS ADD DRAIN INSPECTIONS TO THEIR HOLIDAY CHECKLISTS

Here is background on this release. Wichita locals may have noticed the outdoors displaying the bright reds and golds of fall season. Cooler weather and falling leaves can indicate festive gatherings around the corner. Homeowners preparing for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or other holidays, may have a checklist of projects before guests arrive. Decorating the home and creating a holiday menu could be a good start. After the grocery list has been completed and guest rooms prepared, it may be a good idea to check the plumbing. If kitchen and bathroom sinks have been found to empty slowly, it may be wise to check out the newly revised web page or even contact a Wichita drain service. Slow drains could completely back up just as guests begin to enjoy the pumpkin pie. Pre-planning a holiday celebration in the home by contacting a top Wichita drain service may help avoid home plumbing emergencies.

For these reasons, Ben Franklin Plumbing, a highly-trained plumbing service in Wichita, Kansas, has announced an update to their drain service page. Kansas residents concerned about a slow draining sink in the home might find professional advice and support. Early intervention of a home plumbing issue can help avoid larger problems. A slow drain can indicate food and debris has begun to clog home pipes. Washing dishes in a sink after a large family meal could add to the clog and cause a sewer system to back up on the spot. If drains seem clear, the issue could turn out to be aggressive tree roots infiltrating the sewer system. Either scenario can mean a 24/7 home plumbing disaster can take place. Locals can contact a top Wichita drain service to find answers early and help avert a plumbing emergency before guests arrive.

ABOUT BEN FRANKLIN PLUMBING OF WICHITA, KANSAS

Ben Franklin Plumbing is a top-rated plumbing service at http://www.benfranklinwichita.com/, serving greater Wichita, Kansas and located at 2825 E. Kellogg Avenue. The company offers 24 hour, emergency plumbing service and sewer line repair not only to Wichita but to surrounding communities such as Derby, Andover, and Haysville, Kansas. Professionally licensed Wichita, KS plumbers are ready for plumbing problems such as: drain service, installing pump systems and water heaters, sewer line clean-outs and faucet repair. The company also replaces and installs faucets, garbage disposals and toilets. When searching for sewer line repairs, sewer repair and unclogging drains in Derby, Andover, Haysville or Wichita, Kansas, Ben Franklin Plumbing is available.

Tel. 316-858-5985
Wed like to remind the public to ignore anyone offering a service without the proper credentials. Shoddy training can equal low-grade workmanship

West Palm Beach Glass Repair (WGR), a top-rated sliding glass door repair service in West Palm Beach, Florida, is proud to announce a new informative blog post on post-hurricane issues. Residents may be interested in getting glass doors and windows inspected for damage after hurricane Irma. Contacting an expert glass technician trained in best practices may be a good start.

After disasters like hurricane Irma, its become normal for so-called contractors to approach residents and offer professional consulting services during clean up, commented Yaniet Santos, General Manager of WGR. Wed like to remind the public to ignore anyone offering a service without the proper credentials. Shoddy training can equal low-grade workmanship.

To review the new WGR post for hurricane recovery sliding glass door repair in West Palm Beach, please go to: https://westpalmbeachglassrepair.com/west-palm-beach-glass-repair-wgr-announces-new-post-best-practices-post-irma-recovery/. A fully-trained and credentialed glass repair technician can inspect window and door glass for storm damage or general wear and tear. A thorough inspection and repair could help secure a home or business for the 2018 hurricane season. For information specific to sliding glass door repair, visit https://westpalmbeachglassrepair.com/sliding-glass-door-repair/.

West Palm Beach Residents Use Best Practices Post-Irma to Secure Top

Sliding Glass Door Repair

Here is background on this release. News reports may be warning the public of nefarious practices in the contracting business pursuant to Floridas dangerous hurricane. Unlicensed journeymen may have approached owners about fixing storm-damaged properties. Such persons could begin by offering an attractive low bid to complete work. If a property owner does not practice due diligence and accepts a bid from a questionable journeyman, it may turn out to be a big mistake. If money has been paid up front but workers dont arrive on the scheduled day, repairs to shattered windows and sliding glass doors could cost more than expected. Florida residents may do better by inspecting credentials and customer reviews before agreeing to a repair contract.

For these reasons, WGR has announced a new informative post for the West Palm Beach community. Before accepting an attractive bid from a self-proclaimed contractor, citizens have been asked to review credentials first. A fully licensed and trained professional can be easily researched online. A top West Palm Beach sliding glass door repair professional may encourage locals to take such an action. Experts using best practices can ask the public to do the same. Repairing a Florida home after a disastrous storm can cost time and money. West Palm Beach locals should not have to pay for emergency sliding glass door repair twice. Investigating the background of a contractor can be a great best practice for Florida locals. After a damaging hurricane, West Palm Beach residents can find a fully credentialed, top sliding glass door expert ready to do a job right.

About West Palm Beach Glass Repair (WGR)

WGR is a family-owned and operated glass repair service in West Palm Beach, Florida, with more than 30 years of experience. Persons looking for window glass repair service for a home or business, should contact the company for a no obligation estimate. The company specializes in sliding glass door repair both residential and commercial, as well as emergency glass repair. If it's commercial glass repair or residential glass repair and in Palm Beach County, WGR has it covered! Please contact media relations at 561-336-6479 for more information.

WGR Glass Repair

Web. https://westpalmbeachglassrepair.com/
I hope that this website will serve as a hub for the public to get a deeper understanding of my background, experiences, and values in life.

Rupert Tarsey, secretary of the Broward Republican Party, today announced the launch of his new website, http://www.ruperttarsey.com. The website provides an overview of his progressing political career, community service background, and his philanthropic passions.

RupertTarsey.com features a clean and simple one-page layout that is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate on a tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. It focuses on Tarseys story and what fuels his work every single day.

I am excited about the launch of my new website, said Rupert Tarsey. Being a young Republican, I strive every day to make positive contributions to our society. I hope that this website will serve as a hub for the public to get a deeper understanding of my background, experiences, and values in life. I want to be open and transparent about my political viewpoints, as well as my dedication to community service, my faith and my family.

A public servant, Tarseys current role allows him to be a dedicated member of the Republican Party and an advocate for the local community. His career in public service began as a field officer for the Republican Party of Florida where he went door-to-door, speaking with thousands of Floridians and helping them register as voters. In 2017 Tarsey won a three-candidate election for secretary of the Broward Republican Executive Committee (BREC) in Florida.

To learn more about Tarseys personal perspectives on family, politics, and community relations, visit: http://www.ruperttarsey.com

About Rupert Tarsey

Rupert Tarsey is the secretary of the Broward Republic Executive Committee in South Florida. He also has extensive experience as a successful real estate owner, as well as stocks and commodities trader. Tarseys values for family, faith, and philanthropy play an integral part in his community advocacy, business, and government relations. For more information about Tarsey, please visit http://www.ruperttarsey.com.
Ray Linsenmayer Im running for Congress because more families need to be able to get ahead.

Ray Linsenmayer today announced his bid to unseat Keith Rothfus in Pennsylvanias 12th Congressional District. Linsenmayer enters the race with four endorsements from recently elected local candidates and over 100 committed volunteers. The list of endorsements includes:



Allyson Minton, School Board Member-Elect, North Allegheny School Board

Allison Mathis, School Board Member-Elect, North Hills School Board

Christine Allen, Council Member-Elect, Sewickley Town Council

Dr. April Kwiatkowski, School Board President, Shaler Area School District

Ray commented, Im running for Congress because more families need to be able to get ahead. Too many families in Western Pennsylvania play by the rules only to be left out. Everyone needs to be able to afford decent healthcare, our communities need real solutions to the opioid crisis, and we need a public school system that is able to teach to more than just a test.

Ray Linsenmayer was born and raised in McCandless, PA. He graduated from North Allegheny Senior High School and Duquesne University. He is a financial professional and has helped technology companies raise money that enabled them to stay afloat during the Great Recession. In addition, he worked at the Pentagon where he helped the government cut costs and build energy security by working with private-sector companies to put large solar, wind, and biomass projects on Army land. Ray is currently a finance and investor relations consultant to energy and technology companies.

Linsenmayer was previously the head of the North Pittsburgh Democratic Volunteer Corps, a grassroots organization that trained and deployed over 150 active volunteers to get a large number of Democrats elected in northern Allegheny County. Allyson Minton commented, The 2017 election was historic in the North Allegheny School district. This district has not elected a registered Democrat to the school board in decades. Ray helped change that by mobilizing a small army to help fight for my seat. We could not have won without him." Allison Mathis added, "Ray is a natural leader. He is inspiring, dedicated and passionate. He brings out the strengths of those around him. Most importantly, he is accessible and an extraordinary listener  both of which are qualities all of our elected officials should have.

Ray conducted several canvassing, poll working and get-out-the-vote workshops for area volunteers. Christine Allen commented, "Ray has helped build the Democratic party in northern Allegheny County into a force to be reckoned with. I have no doubt he has the best chance to beat Keith Rothfus." Dr. April Kwiatkowski added, " Ray has helped strengthen the Democratic community in Shaler in an important way."

#####

More information about Ray Linsenmayers candidacy can be found here:

Website

Facebook

Introductory Video

or contact press(at)rayforpa.com
In her latest article for The Legal Intelligencer, Employee or Nonemployee? That Is the Question in Uber Cases, Pond Lehocky Attorney Susan Nanes discusses recent litigation surrounding Uber drivers employment status, and the implications this has for workers compensation.

Theres no cliche better than a Shakespeare cliche, and no Shakespeare cliche more cliche than referencing Hamlet, Ms. Nanes begins. Duly noted and ignored. Lets turn to Uber, the Prince of 555 Market St. in San Francisco.

Ms. Naness article, which was also featured in the November Pennsylvania Association of Justice Member News Brief, explores the impact of granting Uber drivers full employee status. After describing the complex array of litigation that Uber is currently facingfrom cases concerning intellectual property, to invasion of customers privacy, securities fraud, antitrust, regulatory issues, race and gender discrimination, sexual harassment and, of course, employment lawshe focuses on Razak vs. Uber as a case that could mark a shift in the way ride-share companies operate going forward.

While taxicab drivers have never received the protections afforded those with employee status, ride-share companies fall somewhat outside the scope of the traditional taxicab companies. Razak affords the opportunity for drivers to question both their status and exactly what legal protections theyre entitled to. In the future, ride-share companies could be considered traditional employers - but that jurys still out.

For certain, litigation here and around the country on ride-share drivers employment status is far from over, Ms. Nanes writes. The stakes are high and Uber has shown how fiercely it will fight to defend its wealth and position. Having eaten like wolves, they will fight like devils.
Fort Langley based Jelly Marketing and Squamish based Marwick Marketing owners of CIMC have sold the conference to Surrey's, Agency Media.

"We felt it was time to hand it off to someone who could take the event to the next level," said Darian Kovacs, Principal/Director of Strategy at Jelly Marketing. "We pioneered something, built it out, took some risks and had fun experimenting. We're so excited to see where Adam and the team at Agency take it."

What was born out of a fun idea by Kovacs and Christian Thomson, Director of Strategy at Marwick Marketing, grew into BC's largest marketing conference. With guests from PIXAR, Google, Disney, and Adobe among others, Kovacs and Thomson were able to pull in the biggest brands and names in marketing and bring them to Squamish, BC.

"CIMC has been a conference that we have loved attending over the past few years. Our team is thrilled to keep the momentum going and make it an even bigger and better CIMC," said Adam Besse, President of Agency Media.

Agency Media is a video focused agency owned by the Westlund Group of Companies - the Westlund Group also owns Sky Helicopters, Apex Wireless, Vinyl Labs, Fluid Day Spa, Coastal Drones and Ashley West.

"We believe in streamlining the Canadian business, and our country needs the small to medium businesses internationally ready. We want our conference to focus on the knowledge and the tools that will help them grow in the digital age," said Andrew Westlund, CEO.

CIMC 2018 aims to be most impactful yet with speakers from Google, Facebook, Moz and more slated to attend.

For more information and to get updates check out http://www.cimc.marketing

-30-

Media Contact:

Tia Saini

tia(at)jellymarketing(dot)com

(604)674-3559
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has deported to Russia a Russian citizen who, as an agent of Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov, was collecting information about ethnic Chechens with pro-Ukrainian views in Ukraine, the SBU press service said on Friday.

Officers of law-enforcement agencies established that this citizen had left Ukraine after the Maidan protests in Kyiv and had returned to Grozny, the press service said. At the end of September 2017, he returned to Ukraine using a new Russian passport with different personal details, it said.

SBU officers documented that "during his illegal presence in Ukraine, this Russian citizen gathered information about the activities of pro-Ukrainian natives of the Chechen Republic who were involved in the anti-terrorist operation in the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions."

"Since the foreigner's activities posed a threat to Ukraine's national security - he gravely violated the law on the legal status of foreigners and non-citizens while crossing the state border of Ukraine and staying in the territory of our state with documents containing another person's personal details - a decision was made to deport him to Russia," the SBU press center said, declining to name the citizen in question.

According to local media reports, it is Kadyrov's former representative to Ukraine, Ramzan Tsitsulayev.
The Ukrainian side in the Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of the conflict in Donbas is making every effort for the exchange of hostages, Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Valeria Lutkovska has said.

"The negotiating group is working to ensure the exchange [of hostages]. We are doing all we can for this. It's hard to say how much this situation [the conflict between "DPR" and "LPR"] will influence the swap," Lutkovska told Channel 5.

She said that the Ukrainian side proposed to exchange 306 people for 76 Ukrainian hostages.

"Unfortunately, the visits to Ukraine and Russia that we conducted with [Russian human rights commissioner] Tatyana Moskalkova have currently stopped," Lutkovska added.

As reported, Ukrainian Choice  Right of the People NGO leader Viktor Medvedchuk said on November 23 that it was currently impossible to exchange all prisoners and expected the first stage of the swap to take place according to the "306 for 74" formula.

"The Minsk agreements provide for exchanging prisoners 'all for all.' There are today 386 persons held in Ukraine sought by the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR/LPR). There are currently 157 persons sought by Ukraine in DPR/LPR, of whom 94 have been confirmed. However, Ukraine cannot carry out the exchange because of legislation. So we can't exchange all these people, while DPR/LPR want to exchange everyone," Medvedchuk told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in an interview published on Thursday.

He added that his appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin was intended to facilitate a proportional exchange, as a first step within the "all for all" framework.

"Therefore, in line with this proposition, which Putin and Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill supported, we are counting on DPR/LPR releasing 74 persons in exchange for 306 persons held in Ukraine," Medvedchuk said.
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Mnangagwa is not new to the political scene but it is his nickname that brought him new found popularity across the world.

TheCrocodile as Mnangagwa has been nicknamed due to his political resilience, will complete Mugabes term in office which ends in 2018 before the former breadbasket for Africa goes for polls.

Business Insider SSA decided to dig into some of Africa leaders who have cool nicknames.

Jacob Zuma A.K.A Jay Z

South Africas President Jacob Zuma is widely referred as JZ in political circles, a short abbreviation of his name.

Muhammadu Buhari A.K.A Johnie Walker

Nigerias President frequent trips outside the country which sometime last for weeks earned him the nickname Johnny Walker.

The term became a slogan and indeed a catch-phrase for mostly young Nigerians who started calling the president 'Johnny Walker' and even photo-shopped his picture on Johnny Walker famous mystery brand character.

Yoweri Museveni aka Ssabalwanyi

The pearl of Africa could not just sit down and watch other countries nickname their Presidents and let their president who has ruled the land locked nation of East Africa take a pass, could they?

Museveni has several nicknames ranging from Ssabalwanyi (fighter among fighters), Leopard, Mzee (Old Man), Taata (Father) and Mulaalo (Herdsman) because he owns an impressive herd of Ankole cows.

His most popular nicknamed however may be Sevo after his 2011 campaign rap song You want another rap

Joao Lourenco A.KA. J'LO

Angolas new president who was elected on September is popularly known as JLo.

The Nickname is an abbreviation of his two names.

Uhuru A.K.A Kamwana

Kenyas President Uhuru Kenyatta is commonly referred to as Kamwana (Young Kid).

When Uhuru first ran for office in 2002 he was barely in his forties, something which veteran politicians picked on.

The name stuck since then, however over the years the name has changed its meaning and is now used to fondly refer to the president as our son.

Mohamed Abdullahi A.K.A 'Farmajo'

Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed was elected as president of Somalia in Feb, 2017.

He is commonly known as Farmajo, after the Italian 'formaggio' for cheese because of his reported love of the food.

Raila Odinga A.K.A Baba

Kenyas opposition chief, Raila Odinga is one of Kenyas most popular leaders and as a result has earned himself countless nicknames over the years.

He is fondly referred to as Baba (Father) by his loyal supporters, a title given to one who has come of age or is deserving of respect.

Kenneth Kaunda A.K.A "The Weeping President"

Zambias former President Kenneth Kaunda was known as the weeping president due to his tendency to break down in tears whenever he would talk about death, poverty and the general suffering of Africas people.

Jerry John Rawlings AKA "Junior Jesus"
The Nsuta Circuit Court presided over by Ms. Lydia Osei Marfo handed Ibrahim Alhassan Gawsu the sentence and he will serve a 10-year jail term in default.

That is not all, he was also ordered to refund all monies taken from property owners and then pay a compensation of GH4,000.00 to his employer, NEDCo.

Police Chief Inspector Daniel Gbedzinu narrated to the court that, the convict was employed by NEDCo about two years ago, to help in meter reading in the Ejura Municipality for calculation of monthly bills.

Inspector Gbedzinu said between the time of his employment and his arrest, he had been able to dupe property owners up to the tune of GH4,165.84.

The convict, according to the prosecution, had been taking monies from the property owners totaling the said amount, with the promise to help supply power to their properties.

READ ALSO: Editors and directors of a newspaper firm arrested for publishing fake news
Odditycentral.com reports that Fadzilah Abdul Hamid, from Malaysia glued his hand on the floor of the company on November 21 when he visited the company to see management for a possible resolution, but was ignored.

READ MORE: Electricity meter reader sentenced for defrauding landlords

Fadzilah reportedly used superglue to attach his hand on the floor ostensibly to suggest that he is inseparable from the company, because he had worked with it for the past 17 years. His wife later joined him with food and other items while the husband remained glued to the floor.

The reason assigned to his dismissal in the letter which asked him to vacate his position within 30 days was that, Fadzilah had failed to settle charges outlined on a circular regarding the Implementation of Self-Service at Petrol Stations.

Then, a social activist, Muhamad Yusuf Azmi who sought to represent Fadzilah challenged the position of the company, saying all costs for implementing self-service including the set-up of automatic devices and calibration of those devices are to be borne fully by the oil company, and no direct or indirect charges are to be made by the petrol station operators.

However, after the interesting protest by Fadzilah, Muhamad Yusuf Azmi told Malay Mail Online that The operator Fadzilah Abdul Hamid turned up at 11 am to meet the companys upper management, but until 3.30pm, not a single representative met him.

Until today, after 175 days since the date of the termination claim, no response has been received.

The social activist also posted photos of Fadzilah on Facebook with inscriptions which translate in English as My heart hurts when I see Fadzilah and his wife resorting to these measures.
Speaking at a public event in Guwahati on Wednesday, Himanta Biswa Sarma among other things said people could also suffer the disease "because of the sins of their parents."

READ MORE: All editors and directors of a newspaper firm arrested for publishing fake news

According to The Time of India, Mr. Sarma added that "God makes us suffer when we sin. Sometimes we come across young men getting inflicted with cancer or young men meeting with accidents. If you observe the background you will come to know that it's divine justice. Nothing else. We have to suffer that divine justice.

The ministers comments have sparked a social media war, with some suggesting that Mr. Sarma was finding excuses for his ineptitude at finding solution to the cancer epidemic in India.

The countrys Opposition parties have condemned his comments, saying they were "unfortunate" and he must apologise.

All India United Democratic Front also said Mr. Sarmas comments were meant to "cover his failure to control the spread of cancer in the state".

However, attempts by the minister to clarify his statement on twitter rather infuriated the social media community more.

Cancer is prevalent in India and research by the countrys Council of Medical Research suggests that only 12.5 of patients seek timely medical attention due to lack of awareness about the disease.
In its Monday edition, the Red Pepper newspaper is reported to have carried a story which suggested that Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni had been plotting to overthrow Rwandan President, Paul Kagame.

According to africafeeds.com, police besieged the Red Pepper premises on Wednesday and arrested several workers including the directors and editors.

The Ugandan police spokesperson, Emillian Kayima told the media that the news in question was not only false, but also poses a great danger to regional security and stability.

The Uganda police force initiated investigations into the serious statements and insinuations in that story that have grave implications on national and regional security and stability, Emillian Kayima said.
Poroshenko, Merkel intend to exert maximum efforts to ensure release of Ukrainian prisoners in Donbas

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel plan to make maximum efforts to secure the release of Ukrainian prisoners in Donbas.

"Poroshenko and Merkel agreed to press for the quickest release of Ukrainian hostages in Donbas and political prisoners jailed in Russia, as well as in occupied Crimea," the president's press service reported on Friday.

During talks in Brussels on Friday, the sides discussed the dangerous development of the situation in Donbas and uptick in ceasefire violations by Russian occupation forces, including shelling of civilian infrastructure, as well as the situation in eastern Ukraine generally.

The sides coordinated further steps for deploying a United Nations peacekeeping mission throughout occupied areas of Donbas, including the Ukraine-Russia border.

Poroshenko emphasized that the continuing Russian aggression in Donbas and worsening situation in Crimea required extending sectoral and economic sanctions against Russia. The leaders also discussed the next planned meeting of the Normandy Four [Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany].

Poroshenko told Merkel about reforms begun by Ukraine this fall and pledged to continue them.

As earlier reported, Poroshenko from November 23 to November 24 is on a working visit to Brussels, where he will take part in the fifth Eastern Partnership Summit.
In a letter he wrote to the staff of the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, Dordoye said he will do his best to manage the facility better than he used to and to the satisfaction of all.

I apologize unreservedly to all staff of Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital who have been hurt by my approach, the CEO, MHA, Central Regional Minister, Health Minister and all others affected and I will surely improve and manage the change better than I have done in the past going forward.

Angry nurses of the facility embarked on a sit-down strike demanding the removal of the Medical Director.

This has left the patients to their fate as some have also been discharged.

Activities in the hospital came to a halt thus the nurses warning not to work until the Medical Director is replaced.

However, attempts by the Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu on Thursday to resolve the industrial unrest in the hospital proved futile.

Read the full letter below

APOLOGY TO AGGRIEVED STAFF OF ANKAFUL PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL

I write in response to the petition a group of nurses at Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital sent to you and copied the CEO of Mental Health Authority, the Central Regional Minister and the Municipal Chief Executive of KEEA Municipality in the Central Region except me.

The group admitted it was an error on their part by not copying me when we met with the Central Regional Minister, Hon. Kwamena Duncan who committed so much time and effort to resolve the industrial unrest in Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital.

The upheaval started after an orientation schedule for newly recruited staff (nurses and others) was perceived as punishment for nurses in particular. The misconception was created because the nurse manager (the DDNS I/C) made an error on the orientation schedule she signed where nurses were to spend a week each in some departments such as kitchen and laundry which were supposed to be a day each.

The nurses were however made to understand later that orientation to various departments is a normal practice in organizations and it was not only meant for nurses. The nurses group (Psychiatric Nurses Group, PNG) on seeing the schedule wrote a petition to me through the DDNS I/C for the nurses to be withdrawn from the departments that in their estimation were outside the job description of nurses, and not necessary for nurses to rotate through those departments. In their petition, they threatened to boycott a staff durbar which was coming up in five (5) days if nurses were not withdrawn from those departments.

They indeed boycotted the durbar despite the DDNS I/C meeting with them on three (3) different occasions and on three different days for many hours prior to the day of the durbar. Management met some of the executives of PNG after the boycotted staff durbar and the matter was resolved by simply explaining and the DDNS I/C admitting that it was an error on her part that she labelled it Rotation instead of Orientation and those departments were only for a day or six (6) working hours daily and not a week each.

Management in its wisdom felt the orientation schedule causing an industrial action was just a facade for other grievances so the executives of PNG were given time to get back to their members and respond to management within a week. They met management after nine (9) days when they stated emphatically they had no other grievances. This written petition against the orientation schedule came after nurses have been advised severally to use dialogue rather than written petitions, and even other nurses who petitioned me verbally after the advice to dialogue through the DDNS I/C were duly sanctioned by the DDNS I/C. PNG, in spite of all these, presented a written petition to me through the DDNSI/C and copied all ward in-charges (who all got their copies before me), but they were not sanctioned by the same nurse manager or DDNS 1/C. Despite managements intervention, they still insisted they had no grievances further than what was contained in the petition and will accept the orientation schedule as originally intended.

Nonetheless, the CEO of the Mental Health Authority, Dr. Akwasi Osei, constituted a Fact-Finding Committee to investigate the authenticity of the numerous anonymous letters by my staff to him. Management met on a Thursday for our regular fortnightly meeting and the letter informing us of the coming of the team was discussed. PNG wrote their petition to you the Friday, 20th October 2017, following management meeting and before the Fact-Finding Team came on following Tuesday. And this was just few weeks following their meeting with management when they denied having any other grievances.

The orientation schedule they even agitated on was not of concern in their petition. The anonymous letters and the petition had a lot in common and these were mainly on disciplinary measures and systems management had put in place since I assumed leadership to enhance learning and improve quality mental healthcare in our attempt to achieve a center of excellence in the sub-region as is our vision. Also, all the anonymous letters sent to me by my boss to respond to, came from the same email address and had similar language or choice of words.

When I went around on a weekend to find out that nurses were either not on duty or reported late to work and I called the DDNS I/C on phone to inform her on a Sunday, she saw it to be interference and insulting. She was not happy when I requested I wanted to be involved in choosing ward managers since in her opinion I only need to be informed who heads the wards. She got the opportunity early this year to complain to my boss, Dr. Osei who also reiterated that it was proper we discuss that and not just be informed. She refers to this as me micromanaging her and hence tells the nurses (her subordinates) that I solely determine who works where. This went on to the extent that a ward orderly I never knew before our encounter, came to my house one early morning to change his ward as the DDNS I/C said I was the only one who can do that. Actually, this made PNG to demand that whoever was behind the nurses being asked to work at the kitchen, etc. which was outside their job description withdraws them even though the DDNS I/C clearly signed the document.

Generally, nurses are not happy about the new systems to improve quality mental healthcare such as weekly prescribers (psychiatry specialists, general medical doctors, physician assistants and nurse prescribers) meeting. I initially invited nurse managers to join voluntarily, but PNG will not accept that deputy ward managers were not invited as well. This I explained will decrease effectiveness of the meeting as the nurses will outnumber the prescribers and we will not be able to focus on the training needs of the prescribers. They petitioned the CEO on not allowing deputy ward managers to join the meeting and copied me. I never got my copy of that petition and only got to know about it when my CEO asked me to respond to it. My copy is yet to be found.

Physician Assistants (PA) and Nurse Practitioners (NP) were acting as doctors formerly and I requested they work per their job description. For instance, a PA gives a staff an excuse duty of one week when even a house officer (higher than PA) can only give a maximum of three (3) days. A staff (NP) got an excuse duty for two weeks from a house officer working at Cape Coast Teaching Hospital(CCTH) and I followed up for the hospital authority to check the doctor. Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital is also a site for training of housemen posted to CCTH. A nurse got an excuse duty for three days from her mother, who is a PA in a nearby hospital, when I had earlier found out she was not on duty and these were perceived as too harsh.

I observed increasing frequency of nurses particularly, attending regular school at nearby University of Cape Coast while also working full time for the hospital. I am a part-time lecturer at the university (as they are in dire need of lecturers at the mental health faculty) and some of them attend my lectures. Management placed a moratorium on such practice and requested all to get approved study leave before embarking on further studies. It was made clear to the nurses that subsequent unapproved schooling will not be rewarded with a promotion, upgrading or transfer to another facility to profit from the unapproved schooling.

An incident of note is one such nurse who got promoted twice in a year using certificate she acquired when she completed her unapproved schooling and the need for senior nurses in the hospital which the nurse manager advised was very necessary. She requested for transfer just after the second promotion and I was hesitant as I approved her promotion to get senior nurses in the hospital which we needed. She petitioned CHRAJ, Labour Commission and other ministries for not granting her release within a month. Even management members who backed her transfer claiming persecution from me agreed she quits her official accommodation after the transfer. Unfortunately, the same management members are now saying she deserves to be in the hospital accommodation as she works for the Ministry of Health though she has been transferred from the hospital.

Since I took office in January 2016, I have empowered the internal auditor who was not being used much. Now she checks everybody in management including me. For instance, any repairs or item(s) bought without her verification does not get paid by me. I have separated the pharmacy stores from the pharmacy so that the same pharmacist will not procure, stock and supply to self. I have also requested the Internal Auditor ensures every money collected is banked and we spend from the bank. I increased the casuals pay by 60% immediately on assuming office and requesting we work harder to get enough IGF to pay them more and decrease allowances due management members (including mine). Sometimes, I check lateness to work personally and request any staff coming to work late to respond in writing to their heads of department and copy me. Nurses instituted their own measures to curb lateness to work by taking some of their leave days depending on how often and how late they come to work. Unfortunately, they were made to believe I instituted that measure because it came after a litany of complaints of lateness to work by me to nursing administration

A ward manager, a nurse in charge of Drug Rehabilitation ward was removed as manager when the ward was observed to have been ran down with patients using alcohol and others getting syringes and needles from the ward to abuse drugs on the ward also claim persecution by me. Another nurse who before I took up leadership had absented himself many times to be considered as vacation of post gets his salary blocked and released to the Mental Health Authority after absenting himself for more than 10 days has also petitioned the CEO. These and many other measures I took to improve quality of work, which indeed has improved mental healthcare measured by significantly increased IGF and decreased mortality and morbidity, but has courted hatred for me by bringing these changes.

I admit I sometimes went overboard either carrying out some of these changes or teaching clinicians (nurses and prescribers) about the patients conditions during review of the patients which sometimes to them were very embarrassing.

I apologize unreservedly to all staff of Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital who have been hurt by my approach, the CEO, MHA, Central Regional Minister, Health Minister and all others affected and I will surely improve and manage the change better than I have done in the past going forward.

I pray all to accept my sincere apology and help build a better hospital to achieve the vision of becoming the Center of Excellence in Mental Healthcare and teaching of same in the subregion.
The Church of Pentecost believes that the use of oil in the Old Testament symbolises the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in as much as the Holy Spirit has been poured upon all believers, the use of oil either for divine healing or ordination is of no special value.

Consequently, as a result of the many cases of the abuse of the use of oil, including the sale of it, The Church of Pentecost discourages the use of oil, the Chairman of the Church, Apostle Professor Opoku Onyinah, has said.

He disclosed this while giving his keynote address at the 2017 November Heads Meeting of the Church, currently underway at the Pentecost Convention Centre (PCC), Gomoa Fetteh, near Kasoa, on Tuesday.

He explained that oil was used for many purposes among the Jews to anoint objects and set them apart for the use of God.

The President of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) also indicated that oil was used in the East as a means of healing of diseases.

It is said that the custom of anointing the sick prevails in the East; it is believed to have some medicinal and healing purposes. For this reason, many people carry oil along in their travels. This is pictured in the story of the Good Samaritan, where he poured oil and wine on the victims wounds (Luke 10:34).

However, in the healing ministry of Jesus, He never anointed the sick with oil. The apostles used oil once when Jesus sent them to go and preach (Mark 6:13). Since Jesus was not practising that, it could be that the apostles did this, from their Jewish background. After the death and resurrection of Christ, we did not see the apostles who were with our Lord Jesus anointing the sick with oil for healing purposes.

Against this backdrop, we can only guess why James advised his fellow Jewish elders to anoint the sick with oil. The brother of Jesus, who had become his apostle, certainly knew that the use of oil was a symbolic act of the Holy Spirit.
According to him, Lordina Mahama like Grace Mugabe of Zimbabwe became power drunk in Ghana when her husband, John Mahama was in power.

Lordina Mahama became so powerful in this country more than the Vice president that National Democratic Congress (NDC) members had to see her for appointment in government when her husband was President, Dennis Kwakwa alleged.

She also ill-advised her husband to take so many bad decisions, the outspoken communicator said during a panel discussion on Kumasi-based Nhyira FM morning show.
China has described the base on the Horn of Africa, which opened in August, as "defensive in nature", saying it will provide support for naval escorts, UN peacekeeping, anti-piracy and evacuating Chinese nationals from the region in emergencies.

Xi said relations between the two countries exemplify "the solidarity and mutual assistance among developing countries".

The Chinese leader thanked Guelleh for his congratulations sent after he was re-appointed head of the Communist Party last month.

"I am a great friend of China," Guelleh said.

"I would like to recall the geostrategic place of Djibouti and its importance in this part of the world as an islet of stability and a crossroads of Asia, Africa and the Middle East."

The Chinese base is just a few miles from Camp Lemonnier, the United States' only permanent base in Africa.

A Pentagon report said the strategically-sited camp, "along with regular naval vessel visits to foreign ports, both reflects and amplifies China's growing influence, extending the reach of its armed forces".

Home to only around 800,000 people, Djibouti also hosts troops from France and Japan.
Itati Leguizamon, wife of sonar operator German Suarez, said that days of false hopes had left the families feeling manipulated by the navy which had repeatedly retained information about the crew's fate.

"I feel cheated. How do they know it just now? They are perverse and they manipulated us!" said Leguizamon, a lawyer.

"They don't tell us they're dead, but they tell us that the submarine is at lying at a depth of 3,000 meters. What can you understand from that?"

In the parking lot of the base, some of the relatives hugged, others slumped to the ground and cried inconsolably. Uniformed sailors at the base wept.

One woman, a relative of a crewmember, approached a group of journalists but broke down in tears before she could say a word.

Relatives' vigil

Around 100 family members had been waiting hopefully inside the Mar del Plata naval base, the perimeter fence of which is festooned with messages of encouragement for the crew, religious images and Argentine flags and banners.

Families of the crew, some from distant parts of Argentina, have been keeping vigil here since a multinational air and sea search began last Thursday.

Leguizamon described how navy officers broke the news of the explosion to the families.

"They asked most of the people to leave and just close family members to stay," she said.

"When they heard the news they all exploded in there, they jumped on them and they had to stop reading their statement. People became very aggressive."

"They are going to continue looking for it, because they have an obligation to do so," she said.

"They launched a search because it looks good! Because they sent shit out there to sail!

"They already had problems in 2014, because it couldn't surface. Now I don't care if everything is known, he's not here anymore," she said, referring to her husband.

The German-built submarine was launched in 1983 and underwent a refit to extend its life from 2007-2014.

Suarez, she said, "was prepared for death. He always went to confession and was at peace. He was ready."

'They're all dead'

"I've just learned that I'm a widow," said Jessica Gopar, wife Fernando Santilli, an electrician aboard the sub, before bursting into tears.

After hearing the news of an explosion on board, her first reaction was: "They're all dead! It's the first thing I thought."

"We are going to get together and ensure we are going to get justice. I don't need a plaque that says 'the heroes of the San Juan'," she said before collapsing in tears.

"He was my great love, we were going out for seven years, married for six, 13 years together and now we have a son, Stefano.

"How do I tell my son that he is left without a father," said Gopar, who on Wednesday posted an emotional Facebook message to her husband saying that her one-year old had just learned to say "Dad."

Julian Colihuinca, 19, was at the perimeter fence, pinning up a plastic banner on which he had scrawled: "Be strong, the families of the 44."

"I'm the son of a tactical diver. The tragedy hits close.

"I know all the crew by their faces."

Outside the base, Hugo Daniel, 43, stopped as he was passing by on his bicycle.

Like the rest of the nation, he had been following the unfolding tragedy over the past week.

"It's a tragedy that will go down in history," he said. "Machines fail. The people who were on the submarine knew the risks."
The new charge could result in a further lengthy sentence.

The case has become highly politicised in Britain after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was accused of jeopardising Zaghari-Ratcliffe's defence.

He told a parliamentary committee earlier this month that she had been training journalists in Iran before she was arrested -- a comment her employer and her family said was wrong.

Ratcliffe met with Johnson last week to lobby for his wife to get diplomatic protection, and for him to accompany the foreign secretary on an upcoming visit to Tehran.

The requests were under review, the foreign office said afterwards.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran airport on April 3, 2016 after visiting relatives in the country with her young daughter.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards accused her of having taken part in the "sedition movement" of protests that followed the disputed 2009 re-election of then hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

She was sentenced to five years in jail, before authorities last month presented extra charges.

After being held in solitary confinement, she has been transferred to the women's quarters of Evin Prison in Tehran, where she has received visits from her daughter, who is living with grandparents in Iran after her passport was confiscated.

Ratcliffe will attend a march on Saturday in the family's home neighbourhood of West Hampstead in London, alongside local resident and Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson, who will lead calls for Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release.

Meanwhile, an online petition for her release has collected more than 1.3 million signatures.

Ratcliffe also revealed Thursday that his wife has not developed breast cancer as recently feared.

She had discovered lumps on her breast, and was examined in a Tehran hospital in recent weeks.
A wing of extremist monks have been stirring Islamaphobia in Myanmar for years, earning a reputation as incubators of "Buddhist terror".

But their cause has received new support since August, when the army launched a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya, expelling more than half a million from the country.

Global outrage over the violence -- which the UN and the US have called ethnic cleansing -- has triggered an ultra-nationalistic reflex inside Myanmar, pushing the public towards firebrand monks who have long cast the Rohingya as ill-intentioned outsiders.

"Our ideas have now won the vast majority of the population," said Ottama, a prominent monk in Buddhist nationalist circles.

Speaking to AFP in a temple in Yangon, the saffron-robed monk repeated a well-worn falsehood that Muslims are poised to "swallow the nation" in a demographic assault on Myanmar's Buddhist majority.

"Fifty years ago, only 12 percent people in Myanmar were Muslim. Now their population is about 38 percent," he said.

Census figures show Muslims make up less than five percent of the overwhelmingly Buddhist nation.

That fraction has been chiselled down further by the latest violence in Rakhine state, which has pushed over half of the 1.1-million Rohingya into Bangladesh.

The pope, who will head to Bangladesh after Myanmar, has thrown himself into the centre of the crisis rippling across the two nations' border.

In Yangon he will press for peace in masses expected to draw hundreds of thousands from the country's Catholic community.

But he will also meet with Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and army chief Min Aung Hlaing -- a highly symbolic sit-down between a peace icon and a general whose troops are accused murder, rape and arson.

All in the name

Francis is already in the crosshairs of Buddhist hardliners for expressing sympathy for the Rohingya, whom he has referred to as "brothers".

His public comments in Myanmar will be closely scoured for any mention of the group by name -- the term is rejected by the army, government and many in the Buddhist public, who insist the Muslims are "Bengalis".

"I do not understand why the Pope is coming in the middle of a conflict, many people say he's coming for the Bengalis,"Nyo Nyo Aung, a follower of an ultra-nationalist monk, told AFP.

Myanmar's Catholic leaders have advised the Pope not to use the 'R-word', a path Suu Kyi has also taken to avoid triggering backlash from Buddhist nationalists, a powerful political bloc.

Myanmar's Buddhist clergy has taken some steps to rein in radical members, including banning notoriously Islamaphobic monk Wirathu from giving sermons for one year, though with little enforcement.

A few days before the pope's visit, another prominent ultra-nationalist abbot, Parmaukkha, was detained over an anti-Rohingya protest he organised in 2016.

But those moves have done little to draw the toxicity from anti-Rohingya hatred pinballing across social media in the form of rants, memes and grotesque cartoons.

This hyper-nationalism stretches back to Myanmar's British colonial past, when the mass migration of people from South Asia caused economic and social tensions, according to Burmese historian Thant Myint-U.

"It created a sour, defensive nationalism, and remains at the heart of Myanmar's political DNA," he said.

Analysts warn the animus threatens to unpick fragile democratic gains in the former junta-run country and have chastised Suu Kyi for failing to use her moral authority to defend the Rohingya.

The Nobel laureate has avoided dangerous political territory by not condemning the army crackdown that sparked the refugee crisis.
Referring to "walls of hostility" in the two countries, he lamented conflicts in which children have no part, but "which rob them of their childhood and at times of life itself".

"How hypocritical it is to deny the mass murder of women and children," he said. "Here war shows its most horrid face."

Earlier in the year the pope repeatedly said that he wanted to visit South Sudan with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, his Anglican counterpart but the Vatican announced in May that such a trip would be too dangerous.

South Sudan plunged into civil war in December 2013, two and a half years after it gained independence from Sudan. The conflict has left tens of thousands dead and forced a third of the country's 12 million people out of their homes.

The pontiff has also said he wished to visit DR Congo, but would not do so before elections are held there.

Violence flared in the vast country after President Joseph Kabila refused to step down as constitutionally mandated in December 2016.

Kabila has been in power since his father was assassinated in 2001. Elections are now planned for December 2018.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has raised the issue repeatedly in official talks, according to a former American official, and called for their release.

US media reports have suggested in recent days that Zarrab may be seeking a plea bargain in the case and shown willingness to testify against Turkey.

Turkish officials are now denouncing the case as a another conspiracy by the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, the alleged mastermind of the 2016 failed coup targeting Erdogan.

According to Atilla Yesilada, Turkey specialist at Global Source Partners, the Erdogan-led ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is "extremely worried".

That explains the pro-AKP media campaign to portray the case as "orchestrated by the American Deep State and Gulenists," he added.

Embarrassing revelations?

Zarrab was one of the main figures of a 2013 corruption scandal in Turkey that Erdogan also sees as a bid by Gulen to bring him down.

Caught up in the scandal too were four ministers accused of accepting bribes from Zarrab, 34, to facilitate sanctions-busting trade and other deals.

One allegation at the time was that ex-economy minister Mehmet Zafer Caglayan received a $300,000 (255,000 euro) watch as a bribe. He is also charged in this case in absentia.

Erdogan, who has dismissed the claims as a fabrication, has raised Zarrab's case "multiple times" at the highest level under former president Barack Obama and his successor Donald Trump, former US State Department official Amanda Sloat said.

"Although he (Erdogan) is not charged with any crime, corruption revelations would be embarrassing to him, his family and his inner circle," Sloat, now a senior fellow at the US-based Brookings Institution, told AFP.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is part of Zarrab's legal team, met Erdogan in Turkey in April, joined by Michael Mukasey, a former attorney general during president George W. Bush's administration.

'Defendants held like hostages'

The trial is now set to kick off on December 4.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said this week that the defendants were being "held like hostages" and subjected to pressure.

Meanwhile, Turkish prosecutors even opened a criminal case against their US counterparts on charges of fabricating the case.

But analysts warned that the sheer intensity of Turkey's reaction risked further damaging already brittle relations with the US, a key NATO ally.

"Turkish reaction to the trial -- especially accusations it is an American conspiracy to bring down the government  could be toxic to Washington's perception of Ankara," Sloat said.

Heather Nauert, State Department spokeswoman, dismissed the accusations that the case was an American conspiracy, saying Washington had heard "that old same song and dance from Turkey before".

Negative impact on economy

There are also fears over possible fines on Halkbank -- and possibly other Turkish banks -- in the event of a guilty verdict.

The Turkish lira has hit record lows against the US dollar in the last days, partly due to the uncertainty generated by the case.

William Jackson, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics in London, said that if fines were issued, there could be an effect on credit conditions and GDP.

"The size of the fine that reports suggest Halkbank could face is large and could prompt it to tighten credit conditions.

"Moreover, were one bank to be fined, other banks might tighten lending conditions out of concerns that they could face fines too. That, in turn, is likely to cause GDP growth to slow," he told AFP.

Why did Zarrab go to US?

Zarrab was arrested in March last year after bringing his Turkish pop star wife Ebru Gundes and their daughter to visit Disney World in Miami.

But as the trial is shadowed by a host of questions.

Why did Zarrab, after facing legal troubles over accusations of busting sanctions on Iran, choose, of all places, the United States for a family holiday?

Why has Zarrab, after over one and a half years behind bars, not appeared in pre-trial hearings?

Those questions could finally start being answered on December 4.
Black Friday sales are surging, but you wouldn't know it by visiting Brooklyn's Atlantic Terminal Mall.

When its anchor store, Target, opened at 6 a.m. on Black Friday, I went to see for myself how the crowds compared to what I remembered from my childhood days in the 1990s.

I found a meager line outside, waiting for the mall to open, and even fewer people outside of Target and Best Buy. See what shoppers were buying  and how desolate it looked  below.

I arrived at the Atlantic Terminal Mall just before 6 a.m., and it was still dark out. Stores inside this mall include Target, Victoria's Secret, Best Buy, Uniqlo, Game Stop, and Marshalls.

The first store to open was Bath & Body Works. It had been open since 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving evening and will close at midnight on Friday.

The shoppers inside had already purchased items from J.C. Penney, Kmart, Gap, and Macy's.

Target had been open the night before, from 6 p.m. until midnight. This morning, it was opening at 6. About 100 people or fewer were lined up outside to get in.

As promised, the doors opened right at 6, and we all quickly got inside. I was the last person in a line, and with so much railing unnecessarily set up for crowd control, it made the line look even smaller.

Not hunting for anything in particular, I followed the group.

Everyone seemed to be going upstairs, so I followed.

Unsurprisingly, they were all headed for the electronics section.

Target was having a massive sale on TVs. Additional product was placed on the first floor near the lingerie department.

As I watched the shoppers, I realized almost everyone was buying a TV.

It was either the 32-inch Seiki ...

... or two 32-inch Seikis ...

... or the LG UHD 55-inch TV ...

... or the 65-inch Samsung.

There were other sales going on in the store, but not as many shoppers seemed to care.

The second-busiest department was the toys section.

Railings were set up for line control inside, too, but two employees I spoke with confirmed that last night was about the same as far as the number of shoppers. As you can see, there weren't a ton.

The interior of the mall was somewhat desolate.

Victoria's Secret also opened at 6 a.m., but aside from the loud music, it was quiet in there as well.

GameStop, which opened at 6 a.m., seemed to have a decent number of shoppers inside its already small store.

My next stop was Best Buy, which opened at 8 a.m. and had a line of about 100 people out front.

As I waited, two employees came around announcing that the Toshiba 55-inch TV was already sold out from last night's store hours. Upon hearing that news, some people bailed on the line. Both of the men I was standing with were in line for a TV, a laptop, and tablet.

Once inside, I immediately noticed the number of TVs placed out on the floor.

The shoppers did, too.

Within minutes, Insigna-Roku televisions were being put onto carts ...

... as well as 32-inch Vizios.

On my way back to see if the Target crowds had grown, I passed by a very empty Marshalls.

I passed one more line on my way back. Curious to know which TV they were looking to buy, I asked and learned it was a line for the Department of Motor Vehicles, which is also located in the Atlantic Terminal Mall.
Ukraine is hoping for cooperation with the European Union (EU) in four areas, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"The EU must defend itself from those who challenge it, and not from those who view the bloc with hope and respect. Each country of the Eastern Partnership views cooperation with the EU individually. Ukraine, first and foremost, wants to develop ties in the following four areas: a common digital market, customs union and Schengen Area association," Poroshenko said, speaking at the fifth Eastern Partnership Summit on Friday in Brussels.

Joint values and reasonable differentiation should be the basis for the Ukraine-EU partnership, he said.

"Let us build our partnership on the basis of reasonable differentiation, but not rigid individualism, on the basis of joint values, not nearsighted technocratic [rules], on the basis of brave ambitions, and not awkward excuses," Poroshenko said.

He called on the EU not to view the Eastern Partnership as a means to minimize ambitions of the region's countries toward EU accession.

"As long as the EU remains the emblem of success, countries will want to joint," the Ukrainian president said.
President Donald Trump sparked widespread concern within the US and Israeli intelligence communities earlier this year when he disclosed details of a highly classified Israeli operation to Russian officials, according to a new Vanity Fair report.

The Washington Post first reported in May that Trump told Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and ambassador to the US at the time, Sergey Kislyak, about the terrorist group ISIS's work to develop a laptop bomb that could pass through airport security undetected  information Trump had received from Israeli intelligence officials.

The information was highly classified and had not been disclosed even to close American allies.

Vanity Fair reported on Wednesday that a top American spy told Israeli intelligence officials during a meeting at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, a few weeks before Trump's inauguration that US intelligence believed Russian President Vladimir Putin had "leverages of pressure" over Trump.

The report said that American official warned that information provided to the White House could be leaked to the Russians and, therefore, eventually to their ally Iran, Israel's greatest adversary.

But the Israelis reportedly did not treat this warning with much seriousness and continued sharing highly classified information with the US, one of its closest allies.

Trump met with Lavrov and Kislyak in the Oval Office on May 10, the day after he fired James Comey as FBI director. Trump told the Russians that he had "faced great pressure" as a result of the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US election  and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow  that Comey was leading, calling him "crazy" and "a real nut job."

Trump then reportedly described the broad outlines of the Israeli intelligence and named the Syrian city in which it was gathered.

A hell of price to pay for a presidents mistake

When this surfaced in news reports, Israeli and US intelligence officials were infuriated, Vanity Fair reported.

"Trump betrayed us," a senior Israeli military official told the news outlet. "And if we can't trust him, then we're going to have to do what is necessary on our own if our back is up against the wall with Iran."

Michael Morell, a former CIA deputy director, told CBS News in May that Trump's apparently unvetted disclosure was "highly damaging" and would negatively affect the US's relationships with foreign allies.

"Third countries who provide the United States with intelligence information will now have pause," Morell said.

Morrell predicted that the Russians would attempt to determine how the Israelis collected the intelligence and could target its source, which Vanity Fair reported was embedded deep within ISIS territory in Syria.

"The Russians will undoubtedly try to figure out the source or the method of this information to make sure that it is not also collecting on their activities in Syria  and in trying to do that they could well disrupt the source," Morell said.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump spent part of Thanksgiving Day with members of the US Coast Guard in Riviera Beach, Florida.

While Riviera Beach is only a 20-minute drive from the president's Mar-a-Lago resort, it seems he did not bring food from there. Instead, the table seemed to be packed with premade food and brands you could find at your local Subway.

Except for some iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and onions to top sandwiches, there didn't seem to be a vegetable in sight  something especially striking considering the Obama administration's focus on nutrition.

Many of the items on the table, including the soda and chips, have been condemned by nutritionists for being high in sugar or carbs.

In comparison, President Barack Obama and his family had spent past Thanksgivings working in soup kitchens  and plenty of vegetables were visible in photos.
It's rare to find a question so predictive of someone's personality that it could make a CEO want to hire a job candidate on the spot.

But New York Times writer Adam Bryant said there's one that comes to mind, based on interviews he's done with hundreds of executives for his "Corner Office" column.

The question came from Bob Brennan, an executive director at the software firm CA Technologies who, at the time of his interview with Bryant, was CEO of records-management company Iron Mountain.

Brennan said his one-question interview would be: "What are the qualities you like least and most in your parents?"

"I want to know how willing people are to really talk about themselves," Brennan said, according to Bryant. "So if I ask you, What are the qualities you like least and most in your parents?' you might bristle at that, or you might be very curious about it, or you'll just literally open up to me. And obviously if you bristle at that, it's too vulnerable an environment for you."

Bryant said Brennan's question stood out among all the other times he's posed the challenge to CEOs.

"I'll let the human resources professionals debate whether such a question is out of bounds," Bryant wrote.

"But I'm hard pressed to think of a better crystal ball for predicting how somebody is likely to behave in the weeks, months and years after you hire them. After all, people often adopt the qualities of their parents that they like, and work hard to do the opposite of what they don't like."
A new photo of the two has emerged online and this the first time Yvonne Nelson has been seen with her baby daddy.

Nelson's baby daddy Jamie Roberts is a British photographer and there are unconfirmed reports that he is married to a Nigerian woman.

Ghanaian site, Ghana Celebrities reported on November 1, 2017, that Yvonne Nelsons invisible baby father is allegedly someones husband.

There is a published alleged screen shot conversation with a Nigerian woman who claims to be his wife on the site. According to the site, his wife's name is Keela Harrison. There is also a photo of what looks like the wedding between Jamie and Keela Harrison in London.

It would be recalled that Yvonne confirmed in her interview with WOW Magazine that, Jamie has kids with another woman.

Yvonne Nelson who recently had an interview spoke a lot her relationship the father of her baby. Having a baby was an ambition she had been nursing since she clocked 29, but that hardly provided the needed motivation to accept the proposal of a man who wanted her to relocate to London, England.

Despite her desire to get hitched at the time, she could not fathom having to make such change all because of a man.
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The very successful businessman did not know that his associates had a grand plan to celebrate him in grand style when they invited him to his cozy Pool Lounge & Restaurant located at Adeleke Street off Allen Avenue in Ikeja area of Lagos.

The bash, according to those who witnessed the event, was an occasion of class and opulence as friends and associates treated the birthday boy to a colorful surprise birthday party.

One of the media aides of Babalola said that unknown to the birthday boy who has business interests in some of Nigeria's juicy economy sectors like hospitality, real estate, luxury constructions and farming, was ushered into his luxury lounge by scenes of a colorful surprise party put together by his friends to celebrate his big day.

"The atmosphere for the high flying guests was breathtaking, and the setting was classical and expectedly, there were lots to munch and drink as champagne flowed like water while other sumptuous intercontinental dishes were on offer throughout the memorable night.

On the bandstand to add icing on the cake was , who was in his element as he dished out tunes to the delight of the guests.

It was indeed a night of fun and network for the circle of Lagos big boys like and other heavyweights who graced the party.

For those who don't know what Eleven07 represents, let us quickly educate you a bit: Eleven07 is one of the few top-notch companies that lay emphasis on quality of service delivery.

To his credit, Alhaji Yussuf has built his brand from the days of humble beginnings into one of Nigeria's companies behind the Pool Lounge and Restaurant.

There are plans in the pipeline to open another Pool Lounge & Restaurant in Abuja, and Abeokuta, his home state.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has said the work on the plan for supporting Ukraine (the so-called 'Marshall Plan for Ukraine') will continue, its road map will be formed.

"At the talks, in which European Commissioner Hahn took part, we agreed that we will work out the so-called 'Marshall Plan for Ukraine', the concentration of all resources... into a single document and the road map will be formed," Poroshenko said summing up the results of the Fifth Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels on Friday.

As reported, on November 6, in Vilnius, the ambassadors of the EU countries, the U.S., Canada and Japan presented the 'Marshall Plan' for Ukraine. It is designed for ten years and in the medium term (2018-2020) provides for the allocation of $5 billion per year.

According to the text of the resolution adopted on March 30, the EPP called upon the European states to develop a long-term plan for Ukraine's support that would include various programs of assistance in the military, humanitarian and economic spheres, promoting democratic reforms and supporting European and Euro-Atlantic integration.
Sanda was arraigned before a High Court in Abuja today, Friday, November 24, 2017.

The court ordered that she be remanded in Suleja Prison until the next court date.

James C Dachaba, the officer in charge of legal prosecution of FCT command spoke to pressmen about the case that has caught the attention of many Nigerians.

ALSO READ: Police obtains footage of Bilyaminu Bello's last moments

"What we have just witnessed is a formal arraignment of a defendant or an accused person alleged to have killed her husband.

It is the duty of the police after investigation to arraign her since on the 20th of this month, and today is the arraignment" he said.

"I mean we filed a charge against her since on the 20th and today we were given a date for her formal arraignment which we have just done. And now it has been adjourned for commencement of trial" further said Dachaba.

When asked by pressmen if justice will be served in this high profile case, James C Dachaba said "Oh definitely, definitely. We are before the court of law and our part is to prove our case. And the rest is that of the court to determine her guilt or otherwise. But we can assure you on our part, we remain on the side of the law and justice."

Maryam Sanda showed up in court with a green scarf covering her face and her six-month baby. She was also with a Quran which she read before the commencement of the court.

ALSO READ:Women stabs husband with broken bottle in Zamfara

She pleaded not guilty to a two count of homicide. Her counsel, Hussein Musa asked the court to let Maryam Sanda be in police custody because she is still a nursing mother.
In the tribute, the heartbroken friend, Mustapha Dikko, said Bello would have been 36-years-old on November 23, 2017, but was cut short by his beloved wife on Sunday, November 19.

Dikko who said he had been friends with Bello since their childhood, narrated how friends tried to stop him from getting married to Sanda because they knew she was violent but he went ahead to marry her because he was so much in love with her.

Dikko had earlier revealed in a Facebook post how Sanda, the daughter of a former Executive Director of Aso Savings, Hajiya Maimuna Aliyu Sanda, argued heavily with the deceased a night before she stabbed him to death, after reportedly seeing message between him and another woman on his phone.

Dikko also said that Sanda was able to manipulate her late husband and succeeded in alienating him from his friends and family members.

Dikko titled his tribute thus:

'She separated you from us, now she has separated you from the world

Today, I would have called to say happy birthday to you Bilya, as you would have clocked 36 but you are no longer with us

I am looking up and I trust you are looking down. Because I am insisting on smiles and not a single frown, I am trying so hard but these tears of pain keep flowing down my cheeks.

Sitting down here thinking about you, thinking about life without you, Bilya. I am in so much pain and I am so sorry for drifting apart when you wanted to marry Maryam.

I wish I pressured you more not to; I tried but I should have tried harder. I was angry with you at the moment and that was selfish, so

First, she separated you from your beloved wife, then she separated you from your family and friends.

As I sit here pondering what would have been if we had pressurized you, I feel guilty down my spine.

My thoughts are these:

If I had put so much pressure on you and succeeded in making you understand our point of view when you wanted to marry Maryam;

1. You would have left her and probably this wouldnt have happened.

2. As number 1 didnt happen, if we hadnt drifted a little too apart when you married Maryam, you would have confided in me, Usman, Abba or Bello about the harsh condition in your marriage.

And we would have adviced you accordingly and probably, all these wouldnt have happened.

Oh, Bilya, I am so sorry. I am so devastated by your demise. I wish I could turn the hands of time but its too late.

Maryam has finally separated you from this world completely. I recall what you used to say back in the days. You used to say 'when I get married, I am going to submit to my wife totally. I dont like woman wahala; let peace reign kawai.'

And we will call you names; Well, you did let peace reign and she took advantage of it.
The Cool FM presenter who has been at loggerheads with almost every man of God in the country on the issue of tithes and offerings, took to his Twitter account to share a video of one of Pastor Adeboye's sermon where he said, 'the only reason we take offering at all is because that's the only way to get you out of poverty'.

Daddy Freeze, the leader of the FreeTheSheeple Movement did not take the preaching in good taste and took a swipe at Pastor Adeboye, describing describes his statement as falsehood.

Watch the video here:

Captioning his tweet 'this is the kind of false preaching that probably plunged us into poverty in the first place,' Daddy Freeze wrote:

This is the kind of false preaching that probably plunged us into poverty!

Indias population is 1.3 billon, while Indian people living in extreme poverty are 80 million. Nigerias population circa 200 million, people living in extreme poverty according to worldpoverty.io is almost 80 million.

According to the world poverty index, by February 2018, Nigeria is billed to overtake India by having the MOST PEOPLE LIVING IN EXTREME POVERTY IN THE WORLD!

to these guys WON'T GET YOUR DUMB ASSES OUT OF POVERTY; there is a huge possibility that its what got you there in the first place! ~FRZ."

Watch a video of Daddy Freeze attacking Pastor Adeboye on his acquisition of a private jet:

Daddy Freeze has some questions for Pastor Enoch Adeboye

This is not the first that Daddy Freeze has taken on Pastor Adeboye as a few weeks ago, he had attacked the RCCG GO on his possession of a private jet.

He had taken to his Instagram account to show his displeasure that Pastor Adeboye flies the world in his private Gulfstream Jet which costs a whopping $65 million, Daddy Freeze said he will only agree that the GO needs the jet when he uses it to fly the sick to remote areas for medical help:

Until Adeboye uses his private jet to fly the sick to remote areas for medical help, I wont agree he needs one.
1. Line your nails with petroleum jelly before painting them for an easy cleanup

Use a cotton swab to rub petroleum jelly on the skin around your nails first. This creates a barrier between the polish and your skin so that after you've painted your nails, you can wipe off the Vaseline and any polish mistakes along with it.

2. To prevent the tips of your painted nails from chipping, paint two basecoat layers

Paint the first layer of your polish on the top half portion of your nails only. After your nails have dried, paint a second coat of polish, but this time cover the entire nail as you normally would.

This technique will help the polish on the tips of your nails last longer.

3. Use a white nail polish as your basecoat to make your nail pop

Naturally, the tint of your fingers will change the colour of your polish. To get the paint's true colour, add a layer of white nail polish first, and then go over it with your coloured polish.

4. Use the tip of a pencil eyeliner to place tiny nail art accessories on your nails

When your fingers are too big to grab and place tiny jewels, use the tip of an eyeliner or lip pencil instead. The end of a pencil is tacky enough to grip the jewel from above and won't get in the way of your design.

5. Mix loose pigments with clear polish to make a custom nail shade
Malam Garba Shehu, the Presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, in a statement in Abuja, said Buhari stated this when he received the Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Omo NOba Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II at the State House.

According to the president, Nigerians have reasons to be proud of the stabilising roles Benin chiefs played right from the colonial era to the current period, not only in the Delta region but the entire country.

He singled out the role of the immediate past Oba of Benin, Oba Erediauwa I, whom he described as his back bone of support.

In the late 1970s when Buhari was a Federal Commissioner of Petroleum Resources, the late Oba was a Federal Permanent Secretary.

I cannot hold back my emotions, talking about my relationship with your predecessor.

After General Murtala Mohammed was assassinated, I was moved from the North-East as governor to Ministry of Petroleum. Your father was then Permanent Secretary.

My relationship with him was very strong. I have lost count of the number of visits to his palace as Oba, he said.

Buhari praised the late Oba for stabilising that part of the country because of his firmness. I must also commend the immediate past governor, Adams Oshiomhole for stabilising Edo State.

The President commended Ewuare II for following the footsteps of his predecessor while reiterating his support for the traditional institution.

I know and respect the traditional institution. I try as much as possible to understand why the authors of our Constitution kept silent about their role, he said.

He, however, noted that this was probably the best way to preserve their neutrality.

He said: Your Royal Majesty, you are safe where you are.

In his remarks, Oba Ewuare II, who commended the President for his handling of security matters in the country, urged the Federal Government to establish industries in the rural areas to curb unemployment, rural-urban migration and human trafficking.

Oba Ewuares delegation was made up of chiefs from other parts of Edo, including the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
Mr Ayuba Wabba, NLC President, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, appointed a 30-member Tripartite Committee for the negotiation of the New National Minimum Wage for workers in the country.

The committee has its members across both federal, state and the private sector and would be inaugurated on Nov. 27.

While commending the President for the appointment of the committee, Wabba said it was timely and long overdue.

We hope that after the inauguration, the committee can commence work immediately so that we can cover some mileage and also cover the times that have been lost."

This is something that workers have long anticipated and our expectation is that we want a speedy process and that the fact that the issues are very obvious."

 If you look at the exchange rate, the N18,000 Minimum Wage of 2011 when we signed the agreement, it was almost equivalent to N110 dollars; today, the N18,000 is less than 46 dollars."

So, this is the reality and with the purchasing power of ordinary Nigerian worker, with the high cost of transaction, our expectation is that the committee should look at the conditions of the Nigeria workers and pensioners.

He, however, expressed dismay that there were places where pensioners were still receiving less than N4000 and that this called for an urgent consideration.

The NLC president said that the consideration was imperative to address the issue of social imbalance, inequality and the wide gap of poverty in the country.

As you are aware, there is lack of employment in the country, therefore, workers have a lot of burden like taking care of their children and other dependents."

So, there is no worker today that does not cater for dependents."
This is coming after former President Goodluck Jonathan said that he will not sleep well until PDP regains power in 2019.

Speaking to newsmen in Jigawa state, during the National Council on Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Mohammed said that Buhari has delivered on most of his campaign promises.

According to the minister, Buharis administration has succeeded in ensuring the security of Nigerians lives and properties, boosting the economy, enhancing agricultural sector among several issues, Vanguard reports.

No easy ride
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced reaching an agreement on the European Union macro-financial assistance program for Ukraine for 2018-2019.

"We have agreed that next week the European Commission will issue a communique on a very ambitious macro-financial assistance plan for 2018-2019, three tranches. It will have the same volume and will start operating in January 2018," he said at the press conference of the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels on Friday.

According to him, the aim of macro-finance assistance is to stimulate Ukraine in carrying out reforms.

"We have an agreement not to disclose the figures, but since you are very well read, we agreed that the volumes will be nearly the same," the president said, answering the question whether this assistance program from the EU would be the same as the previous one, which was EUR1.8 billion.

Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli earlier said in an interview with the European Truth e-magazine that Ukraine may lose the opportunity to attract EUR 600 million of macro-financial assistance from the EU, unless it meets a number of requirements.

The ambassador said that there are still four unfulfilled conditions for the country's getting the macro-financial aid: removing the moratorium on untreated timber exports, launching automatic e-declarations checks, passing the law on NBU's credit register, and introducing checks of information on beneficial owners of companies.
According to Daily Post, the group said that Mohammeds comment might lead to unrest in the nation.

They also said the minister should respect his old age and focus his attention on Boko Haram.

The BNYL Leader, Princewill Obuka said That old man does not know how determined the Biafrans are. He saw what happened during military raid.

Such resistance should have told them that Biafrans, if armed, would really consume Nigeria like Kanu was saying.

He should respect his old age and turn attention to Boko Haram and Shiites.

We have engaged mostly community youth leaders and even some community leaders in towns like Obudu, Bekwara, Ikom, and almost all the towns in Bakassi including ceded areas.

ALSO READ:Court grants injunction proscribing IPOB

What we have not done within the Cross River axis is meeting the paramount rulers but plans are on ground.

In Rivers State we are organising a similar internal grassroots referendum programs in Ekpeye land of Ahoada East like we did in some towns in Akwa Ibom on the day we all stormed Onna to mark the death of our late leader, General Philip Effiong.

IPOB ban

You will recall that all the Governors of South-East states, on Friday, September 15, 2017, announced that IPOB has been banned.
You only need to read The Accidental Public Servant to reach that conclusion.

Atiku and El-Rufai have also attacked the otherin the past. They fell out during the Obasanjo years when Atiku supervised El-Rufais Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

So, when El-Rufai learnt that Atiku has dumped the APC, he left us with these seven of the best.

1. El-Rufai says Atiku was never in the APC

Heres the Kaduna State Governor: Well, I wont even say Atiku and I were in the APC together. Some of us formed the APC, some of them joined because they thought that the APC was a platform for which they will contest election but when they didnt get the opportunity they started looking around.

2. El-Rufai says Atikus defection is good riddance

I have heard about what the former Vice President said about leaving the APC. We knew he was going to leave in December but he has left in November which is good because the earlier he leaves for where he belongs, the better.

He has changed political parties a few times, there is nothing surprising. Before the 2019 elections, if situation changes and he thinks he can get the ticket in 2019 he will come back. That is what he has done a few times.

3. 'No APC Governor will leave with Atiku'

I dont know about the loyalists in the APC that will go with him but I want to assure you that there is no one Governor in the APC that is going to go with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

The only Governor that he would think will go with him, the Governor of Adamawa State has already endorsed President Buhari for the 2019 elections, El-Rufai says.

4. El-Rufai says Governors have endorsed Buhari for a second term

And there are many Governors...I will not mention the number but a majority of the APC Governors have already taken the position that the president should run for a second term in office.

And we are grateful to the Almighty God that the question marks about his health have been put to rest, he is getting better every day and we are confident that the way to preserve our party and preserve and advance the interest of Nigeria is for Mr. President to run for a second term.

Im curious to see which APC Governor will go with Atiku. As for party loyalists it depends on what you defend as loyalists. We will wait and see how that evolves".

5. El-Rufai calls Atiku a serial contestant

No one has driven him out of the party, the APC is an equal opportunity platform for everyone. He has in his statement of leaving the I wrote to Mr. President in September 2016, where I was calling on the President to reach out to party leaders that feel aggrieved and I mentioned him, the Asiwaju and many others.

ALSO READ: All the times Atiku has dumped one political party for another

The others are still in the APC because they believe in the direction of the party, they believe we have come to save the country from a very bad situation. But the former Vice President is always looking for an opportunity to contest. He is a serial contestant and we wish him luck.

6. El-Rufai tells Atiku that hell never be a threat to Buhari

He has never been and will never be a threat to President Buhari. Let me say this very clearly, and I have said this to the former Vice President in 2014 in Dubai when we met. Because before joining the APC, he sent for me. He told me of his intentions and I welcomed it because politics is a game of addition not subtraction. So the more you have the merrier.

However, I told him not to run for the presidency because I believe very strongly this is Buharis era.

7. El-Rufai says this is Buharis time

As long as President Muhammadu Buhari is in politics, I do not see any Nigerian from the northern part of the country that will be able to match him in popularity. The people of the 19 northern states and Nigeria have decided because of the presidents past history of integrity and good governance ,they are committed to him.

Anyone standing up to challenge him is wasting his time. God has decreed that this is Buharis time and we are waiting for the PDP to give Atiku Abubakar the ticket and we will face him on the field. But I have no doubt that I will not lose any sleep over it, El-Rufai says.
The man who served as President Olusegun Obasanjos Vice President from 1999 to 2007, has just announced that hes dumpingthe governing APCa political party he just joined in 2014 after falling out with his friends in the PDP.

We go back in time to chart Atikus political journey as he seeks to become Nigerias president someday.

1992

Musa Yaradua props Atiku for the SDP Presidential primary. Atiku has been honing his craft under Yar'aduas PDM political machinery.

Atiku loses the SDP ticket to MKO Abiola and abandons his presidential ambition on the floor of the convention.

There is a gentlemans agreement that Abiola will announce Atiku as his running mate, but Abiola announces Babagana Kingibe as his running mate instead.

Atiku licks his wounds.

1999-2007

Atiku is elected Governor of Adamawa State.

However, Obasanjo who has just secured the PDP presidential ticket from prison, snaps Atiku up to become his running mate.

Atiku serves as Obasanjos Vice President. He falls out with Obasanjo before the end of their first term together and after they secure their second term ticket.

2006--2009

Atiku defects to Action Congress (AC) after picking fights with Obasanjo. Their relationship has frozen irredeemably.

At some point during their duels, Atiku secures the support of most PDP Governors who urge him to run against Obasanjo just before the expiration of their first term.

Atiku is that powerful and influential.

Obasanjo famously kneels before Atiku and extracts the latters support for a joint Obasanjo/Atiku re-election ticket in 2003.

Atiku is in the AC from 2006-2009.

2009

Atiku falls out with AC godfather Bola Tinubu and dumps the AC for the PDP.

2011

Atiku loses PDP presidential ticket to Goodluck Jonathan at the Eagle square venue of the PDP convention.

2013

Atiku stages walkout from the PDP convention alongside aggrieved Governors of the then governing party.

He pitches tent with the APC.

2014

Atiku runs for president on the APC platform.

He loses the APC presidential primary in Lagos to Muhammadu Buhari.

He polls a distant third behind Buhari and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

2017

Atiku says he has been sidelined by the APC, dumps the APC.

He cites lack of internal democracy, non-adherence to the constitution of the APC and dictatorial bent of the APC for his action.
The ex-VP also said that the ruling party has failed the youths of Nigeria.

He said How can we have a federal cabinet without even one single youth?

A party that does not take the youth into account is a dying party. The future belongs to young people.

The former VP said this in a statement which he released to newsmen on Friday, November 24, 2017.

Atiku, in his letter, also declared that he is leaving the ruling APC.

The ex-VP also accused the APC of clamping down on all forms of democracy within the party and the government.

Atiku also said that the APC has failed Nigerians, adding that the party is making the same mistake PDP made.

He said While other parties have purged themselves of the arbitrariness and unconstitutionality that led to fractionalization, the All Progressives Congress has adopted those same practices and even gone beyond them to institute a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced.

Only last year, a governor produced by the party wrote a secret memorandum to the president which ended up being leaked. In that memo, he admitted that the All Progressives Congress had not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight change but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance.

Of the party itself, that same governor said Mr. President, Sir Your relationship with the national leadership of the party, both the formal (NWC) and informal (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso), and former Governors of ANPP, PDP (that joined us) and ACN, is perceived by most observers to be at best frosty. Many of them are aggrieved due to what they consider total absence of consultations with them on your part and those you have assigned such duties.

Since that memorandum was written up until today, nothing has been done to reverse the treatment meted out to those of us invited to join the All Progressives Congress on the strength of a promise that has proven to be false. If anything, those behaviours have actually worsened.
Some Nigerians see the move as a good decision, while others have criticized the former vice president for leaving the APC.

For Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, Atiku could not have made a better choice.

Bruce advised Atiku to pack his bags back to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

I congratulate Atiku for leaving the APC, Bruce started.

It took courage especially as he has wide business investments that are already targets and could be further targeted. I, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, now appeal to Waziri Adamawa, to return to the house he helped build, the PDP, he said with pride.

Even the PDP congratulated Atiku with an outstretched arm.

Atiku is hot like that.

The leadership of the PDP have received the news of the resignation of the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar

Ayo Sogunro has an advice for Nigerian political analysts.

"Atiku
In a resignation letter signed by Atiku on Friday, November 24, 2017, he accused President Buhari of neglecting him and condemned the APC for "instituting a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy".

In a reaction to Atiku's exit from the ruling party, the PDP urged him to return to the party where he served as the deputy to former President Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007, and lost the primaries election to former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.

In a statement signed by the PDP's spokesman, Dayo Adeyeye, the party accused the APC of taking advantage of its leadership crisis to lure Atiku away. He further said that Atiku's exit from the ruling party means that he's realised that it is not the progressive party it's always claimed to be.

His statement read, "I believe they were deceived, people like Atiku because we had challenges in our party at that point in time, they went and join the new party called the APC which we have all now see; every Nigerian has seen, is a fallacy.

"The day APC was born marked a tragedy for Nigeria. It has been a monumental disaster for Nigeria. There is nothing progressive in them. Everything about them is unprogressive. Everything about them is complete disaster.

"It is human to make mistakes because we are not infallible. We have no knowledge of what will happen in the future. Human beings can always be deceived. But in John 8: 32, the Bible says 'And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.'

"I believe Atiku Abubakar has come to know the truth like he said in the statement that he has now known the truth, that the APC is not what they call themselves, is not a better platform. That platform is the worst platform in the history of politics in Nigeria.

"I believe that Atiku has seen the truth and the truth has now set him free and we thank God for that. Therefore, being a founding father and because we have an umbrella that is big enough to accommodate everybody, PDP is a democratic party. PDP is a free party and was conceived for all Nigerians and is free from all religious, ethnicity and geographical divisions.

"It has capacity to accommodate everybody. Our doors are open for him to come back to his home without any precondition. He is free to come back like every other Nigerian and we want to appeal to those who have not seen the truth and we are praying that they will soon see the truth , so that the truth will set them free. And as soon as they are free, let them come back."

ALSO READ: 6 reasons Atiku dumped APC

While expressing the willingness to welcome Atiku back into the party's fold, Adeyeye warned that he should not expect to be handed the party's presidential ticket for the 2019 elections.
Several rounds of talks hosted by the United Nations have failed to bring an end to the Syrian conflict, which has killed more than 330,000 people since 2011 and forced millions from their homes.

"We have agreed with the groups here in Riyadh, along with the Cairo and Moscow platforms, to form one united delegation to participate in the Geneva talks," Syrian opposition member Bassma Kodmani told reporters in Riyadh.

Kodmani added that further meetings would be held on Friday to finalise the names and number of representatives each group would have in the 50-strong unified delegation.

The delegates at the meeting have been under heavy pressure to row back on some of their more radical demands after a series of battlefield victories that have given Assad's regime the upper hand.

A Cairo-based Syrian opposition group agreed earlier Thursday to join ranks with other opposition clusters including the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) -- the largest bloc in the opposition -- and the Istanbul-based National Coalition.

After prolonged discussions that dragged into the night, Moscow-based Syrian opposition group also appeared to have joined forces with that delegation.

But there were still lingering differences.

Assad fate

Kodami said the HNC and its closest allies maintained their longstanding demand that Assad step down from power as a prerequisite for a transitional phase to end the Syrian war, prompting "reservations" from the Moscow group.

Several key opposition figures boycotted the meeting, including the Moscow group's Jamil and Riad Hijab of the HNC.

Hijab stepped down as leader of the Saudi-backed HNC this week over "attempts to lower the ceiling of the revolution and prolong the regime".

Assad's fate has been a major stumbling block in multiple rounds of negotiations between the Syrian regime and the opposition.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN's Syria envoy, attended the opening session of the Riyadh gathering on Wednesday and said the goal of the meeting was to give momentum to next week's peace talks.

The Riyadh talks come as Syrian regime ally Russia is seeking to organise a "congress" to bring together Assad's forces and various opposition groups to reinvigorate the hobbled peace process.

But Kodmani remained non-committal about the opposition's participation, saying no dates or goals had been laid out for the Russian conference.
A bomb explosion ripped through the Rawda mosque frequented by Sufis roughly 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish before gunmen opened fire on those gathered for weekly Friday prayers, officials said.

Witnesses said the assailants had surrounded the mosque with all-terrain vehicles then planted a bomb outside.

The gunmen then mowed down the panicked worshippers as they attempted to flee and used the congregants' vehicles they had set alight to block routes to the mosque.

The state prosecutor's office said in a statement that 235 people were killed and 109 wounded in the attack, the scale of which is unprecedented in a four-year insurgency by Islamist extremist groups.

US President Donald Trump condemened on Twitter the "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers."

A furious Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared three days of mourning and pledged to "respond with brutal force" to the attack.

"The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period," he added in a televised speech.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent condolences to Sisi, calling the attack "striking for its cruelty and cynicism", while condemnations poured in from Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other countries.

UK foreign minister Boris Johnson decried the "barbaric attack", while his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian labelled it "despicable".

- IS targeting of Sufis -

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bloodshed.

The Islamic State group's Egypt branch has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, and also civilians accused of working with the authorities, in attacks in the north of the Sinai peninsula.

They have also targeted followers of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam as well as Christians.

The victims of Friday's attack included civilians and conscripts praying at the mosque.

A tribal leader and head of a Bedouin militia that fights IS told AFP that the mosque is known as a place of gathering for Sufis.

The Islamic State group shares the puritan Salafi view that Sufis are heretics for seeking the intercession of saints.

The jihadists had previously kidnapped and beheaded an elderly Sufi leader, accusing him of practising magic which Islam forbids, and abducted Sufi practitioners later released after "repenting."

An IS propaganda outlet had published an interview earlier with the commander of its "morality police" in Sinai who said their "first priority was to combat the manifestations of polytheism including Sufism."

The group has killed more than 100 Christians in church bombings and shootings in Sinai and other parts of Egypt, forcing many to flee the peninsula.

The military has struggled to quell jihadists who pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014.

IS regularly conducts attacks against soldiers and policemen in the peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, although the frequency and scale of such attacks has diminished over the past year.

The jihadists have since increasingly turned to civilian targets, attacking not only Christians and Sufis but also Bedouin Sinai inhabitants accused of working with the army.

Aside from IS, Egypt also faces a threat from Al-Qaeda-aligned jihadists who operate out of neighbouring Libya.

A group calling itself Ansar al-Islam -- Supporters of Islam in Arabic -- claimed an October ambush in Egypt's Western Desert that killed at least 16 policemen.

Many of those killed belonged to the interior ministry's secretive National Security Service.
Italy recorded 149 female murder victims last year, barely changed from the 150 recorded in 2007. Femicides now account for 37 percent of the total compared to 24 percent a decade ago.

Not all killings of women are motivated by the victim's gender, but sexual assaults and domestic violence are key elements in the overall picture.

And official figures on these type of crimes represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Female victims often hesitate to file charges "for fear of being judged" or "because they are ashamed to reveal details of their intimate lives," according to a new booklet containing revised guidelines for forces dealing with crimes of violence against women.

The guidelines include new requirements for registering reports of domestic violence, designed to ensure incidents that don't necessarily lead to charges being pressed are kept on file.

"It is not enough to apply the law, we also have to assure women (making complaints) are welcomed, informed and supported in a way that enables them to escape the conditions of subservience and isolation they sometimes find themselves in," notes national police chief Franco Gabrielli.

The material to be delivered to forces around the country includes testimony from officers specialised in dealing with the victims of domestic violence.

"I'll never forget the faces of the women I've had in my office over the years, and above all their voices when they've told me they feel responsible for what has happened to them," recounts Rosaria Maida, a deputy police commissioner in Palermo, Sicily.

Instances of acid attacks by spurned lovers and other examples of violence against women are covered prominently by the Italian media and often cited as evidence of an unreconstructed macho culture in the country.
"The sister city relationship with San Francisco will be terminated," said Yoshimura, adding that the split will be formalised in December.

Japan's national government has stepped in to urge San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee to reject the memorial, as Tokyo struggles to explain its position to the international community.

Lee signed a document Wednesday formalising the city's acceptance of the memorial, according to Kyodo News.

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 as so-called "comfort women".

Activists have in recent years set up dozens of statues in public venues around the world, many of them in South Korea, in honour of the victims.

The statues have drawn the ire of Tokyo, which has pressed for the removal of one outside its embassy in Seoul.

Japanese conservatives say the 200,000 figure has no base and accuse activists as well as the South Korean government of politicising the issue even after the two nations officially settled it.

Japan's conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who also faces criticism as a nationalist attempting to gloss over the nation's wartime acts, has previously said San Francisco's "extremely regrettable" plan was "in conflict" with Japan's position.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reiterated the sentiment Friday.

"The government has explained our position to the San Francisco mayor about the comfort women issue" and urged authorities there to veto the measure to accept the memorial, Suga said.

"We will make efforts so that similar incidents will not happen again," Suga said.

In 2015, Japan signed a deal with South Korea offering an apology and one billion yen ($9 million) to open a foundation for those sex slaves still alive.

Both sides have said the agreement "resolved (the issue) finally and irreversibly."

However, some in South Korea say Japan has not done enough to atone for its wartime atrocities.
Speaking to reporters at the headquarters of the Argentine navy, Macri said the 34-year-old submarine was "in perfect condition," having gone through a refit.

Macri said the tragedy "will require a serious, in-depth investigation that will yield certainty about what has happened."

"My commitment is with the truth," he said.

Argentina's navy has been fiercely criticized for they way it mismanaged the operation since first reporting the submarine overdue at its Mar del Plata base on November 16.

The navy took several days to say that the San Juan had reported a problem with its batteries in its final communication on November 15.

Only on Thursday did the navy confirm there had been an explosion on board, which experts said was likely linked to the battery problem.

"Until we have the complete information, we do not have to look for the guilty, to look for those responsible. First we have to have certainty of what happened and why it happened," said Macri.

"My commitment is with the truth. It is the same commitment that we have throughout the government and the navy, which is suffering this moment with great pain. We will know the truth in time from that investigation."

The center-right leader was speaking as the search for the San Juan shifted from rescue to recovery on Friday, as navy officials lost hope of finding any of the crew alive.

"We have to find the submarine at the bottom of the sea, the area is large, the environment hostile, and the search very difficult," said Argentine navy spokesman Enrique Balbi.

Officially the navy has not declared the loss of the crew, but marine experts believe an explosion would have been catastrophic.

Brenda Salva, friend of crew member Damian Tagliapietra, said she had been told by the commander of the Mar del Plata naval base: "They are all dead".

For the relatives of the crew, grief had turned to anger by Friday.

"I want to tell Admiral Marcelo Srur that he is not in a position to be in charge of a force, and to the president (Mauricio Macri), to bring order," said Maria Rosa Belcastro, mother of 38-year-old Lieutenant Fernando Villarreal.

Relatives have focused their anger on the condition of the 34-year-old sub, which had undergone a seven-year refit to extend its service, and the navy's guardedness since the start of the search operation.

In his comments at the navy headquarters, Macri also paid tribute to the "patriotism, heroism and bravery" of the San Juan's crew.

"For all of them and their families, my greatest affection," he said.

To the relatives of the missing crew, angry at the way the navy has handled the operation, he said: "The pain is great but we are together, and we are going to travel this road all the way together."

Heads to roll

Argentine press reports on Friday said Macri's center-right government was preparing to sack navy chief Srur in a purge of top brass in a country where the military is distrusted.

Memories are still fresh in Argentina of the 1976-83 military dictatorship responsible for the disappearance of an estimated 30,000 people.

The San Juan tragedy comes a month after Macri's government was accused of a cover-up in the killing of activist Santiago Maldonado after he was arrested by security forces during an indigenous rights protest.

"The government is considering changing the leadership of the navy. They believe there was negligence in the disappearance of the ARA San Juan and criticize the handling of the situation," the influential Clarin daily said.

One newspaper reported that the navy had taken five days to inform the defense ministry of a battery problem aboard the German-built diesel-electric submarine.

The San Juan "has 500 tons of lead-acid batteries, which release hydrogen if there is an overcharge in the battery. Hydrogen in contact with oxygen is explosive," said Gustavo Mauvecin, director of the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine at Mar del Plata.

Horacio Tobias, a former diver aboard the San Juan, said the blast was likely "so violent that they did not have time to realize anything."

Depths plummet from 200 meters (650 feet) to over 3,000 meters on the edge of the Argentine shelf, where the sound of the explosion was picked up by hydro-acoustic sensors used by the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization.

Experts say the sub would begin to break-up once below depths of around 600 meters.

Argentina is leading an air-and-sea search to try to still find the sub. It is getting help from several countries now including Brazil, Britain, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Peru, Russia, the United States and Uruguay.

A Russian oceanographic research ship was steaming towards the area on Friday to join the multinational operation involving around a dozen countries.
A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an "unspecified number" of F-22s would take part in the drill.

A US Air Force spokesman declined to give details.

Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets.

The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against the North's nuclear program.

Earlier this month, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes.

This was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships in the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade.

North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainland -- which were described by the country's leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to "American bastards".

It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test in September -- by far its most powerful yet.

Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back onto a US blacklist Pyongyang was taken off nearly a decade ago.

The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme.

Trump said that the terror designation and new sanctions are part of a series of moves over the next two weeks to reinforce his "maximum pressure campaign" against Kim Jong-Un's regime.

Pyongyang condemned the listing as a "serious provocation" on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the North's sole ally, also rejected as "wrong" new US sanctions, which target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state.
Photos showed men with some scrapes and cuts they said came from being hit and dragged by PNG police, but no serious injuries were reported.

Several hours later, PNG and Australian officials confirmed the camp on a former PNG naval base had been emptied, as ordered by the PNG Supreme Court in a ruling last year that found the Canberra-run detention centre violated the country's constitution.

"It's empty. The military have taken back their base," PNG police spokesman Dominic Kakas told AFP.

Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton welcomed the news, and accused refugees and their advocates of making "inaccurate and exaggerated claims of violence and injuries" during the police operation.

Canberra set up the Manus camp and a similar complex on the Pacific island nation of Nauru under a policy of "offshore detention" designed to choke off the flow of migrants trying to reach Australia by boat.

The camps were described as "processing centres" where authorities would determine the legal status of detainees and then arrange resettlement for verified refugees.

But the resettlement policy stalled, with an agreement reached with former US president Barack Obama to take a number of the refugees put on hold when Donald Trump was elected a year ago. Only 24 refugees have moved to the US.

Around 600 men, most of them with refugee status, were left stuck on Manus since 2013 with diminishing hope of resettlement.

Safety fears

Following the PNG court ruling, Australia declared Manus closed on October 31 and shut off supplies of food, water and electricity to the camp so detainees would move voluntarily to the PNG-managed "transition centres".

The refugees refused to move, fearing for their safety among a local population where many opposed their presence.

They also worried that once no longer under Australian control they would lose any leverage they had for obtaining resettlement in third countries.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in welcoming the end of the confrontation at Manus Friday, did stress that the refugees were now under PNG authority.

"They're complying with the lawful directions of the PNG authorities and moving to the alternative facilities available to them and that's as they should," he said.

"That is precisely what you should do if you're in a foreign country, you should comply with the laws of that other country."

Turnbull's government has come under sharp international criticism during the standoff in Manus as conditions for the detainees deteriorated.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR expressed special concern this week when PNG police moved into the camp to force remaining refugees to leave.

"UNHCR reminds Australia of its obligation to take full responsibility and provide effective protection, safety and lasting solutions for all refugees and asylum-seekers in cooperation with the Papua New Guinean authorities," the organisation said in a statement Thursday.

After Australia withdrew from the Manus camp, PNG police initially engaged in an effort dubbed "Helpim Friends" to entice refugees to move voluntarily to the new centres.

jpegMpeg4-1280x720About 200 men complied, but 400 remained, leading to police raids Thursday and Friday to forcibly clear the camp.

Amy Frew, a lawyer at the Australia-based Human Rights Law Centre, said the violent resolution of the standoff bode ill for the refugees' future.

"After four and a half years of limbo and uncertainty they still have nowhere safe to go," she said.
President Raul Castro will lead a ceremony in the southeastern city of Santiago de Cuba, where his brother's ashes are interred.

Since his death at the age of 90 on November 25 last year, his wishes have been respected. No street, square or building bears his name, and no statue or monument has been erected in his honor.

But Fidel remains present in the minds of Cubans, and state media daily recalls his exploits, speeches and writings.

Whether by accident or design, the tributes coincide with the first round of municipal elections which will mark a turning of the page in Cuban history.

The polls will kick off a series of elections that will end in February next year with the first generational change at the top in Cuba in 60 years -- the election of Raul Castro's replacement, who will, for the first time, be a post-revolutionary figure.

President since 2008 when he took over from Fidel, 86-year-old Castro has announced that he will not run for re-election.

President in waiting

Favorite to replace him is first vice-president Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Born after the revolution, the 57-year-old with salt-and-pepper hair has the tough task of forging the first post-Castro government, consolidating the revolution's gains and executing an economic transition laid out by Castro.

For many in Cuba, economic change is happening too slowly.

Ernesto Jiminez Hierrequelo, 29, said he is optimistic about the country's future and eager for change, but fears that it will "take time."

"The few changes I've lived through in 29 years have taken a lot of work," said Hierrequelo, a doctor who earns 1,300 pesos, or around $52, a month.

"The food here is a little expensive. It's complicated. ....the economy is what penalizes the Cuban population the most and I think that to advance this sector would improve our daily life."

The official annual growth target of 2.0 percent last December was adjusted down to 1.0 percent in July. Some economists are predicting a deeper slowdown, as the country struggles to recover from the damage wreaked by Hurricane Irma in September.

Castro's guidelines, approved by the Communist Party, provide the framework for political and economic reforms until 2030, with the aim of consolidating the regime and dragging an obsolete economic model into the 21st century.

However, Castro is likely to stay on in the leadership of the Communist Party, at least until its next Congress in 2021.

"In that scenario, over the next couple of years the government's agenda and operating style will probably not change very much," said Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue.

However, such a transition "offers opportunities for policy changes according to the vision of the new generation that will occupy the top positions," according to Cuban Arturo Lopez-Levy, of the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.

Even if the incoming president has been provided with a roadmap, said Lopez-Levy, "this is about the closing of a Cuban national era."

Former Cuban diplomat and scholar Carlos Alzugaray points to a slowdown in the opening of the economy to the private sector as a major frustration.
Erdogan had himself, as prime minister, visited Greece in 2004 and 2010 but the trip will be the first by a Turkish president since Celal Bayer went to the country in 1952.

But Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), which came to power in 2002, has sought a more pragmatic relationship with Athens based on trade and tourism rather than nationalism.

"Our president will be the first Turkish president to visit Greece in 65 years," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Hakan Cavusoglu, said without specifying the precise timescale, quoted by the Anadolu news agency.

"I think that this visit will have significant results," added Cavusoglu, who was born in Greece.

Ties between Ankara and Athens have also been aided after Alexis Tsipras, who is believed to enjoy a warm personal relationship with Erdogan, became prime minister in 2015.

Greece and Turkey both joined NATO in 1952 but the thaw between the two countries only began in earnest in 1999 after destructive earthquakes struck both nations within weeks of each other.

They also cooperated closely in the 2015 migration crisis, with Greece backing an EU deal for Turkey to stem the flow of migrants.

However there are still many bones of contention.

Athens is unhappy over Turkey's upkeep of Byzantine monuments in Istanbul, the former Constantinople, including the Hagia Sophia which is officially a museum but has seen an uptick in Muslim activity in the last years.

Greece has also been rattled by Erdogan's sometimes angry tirades against the post World War I treaties that set the countries' modern borders and meant almost all the Aegean islands are Greek territory.

Turkey, meanwhile, is unhappy that Greece has given sanctuary to suspects wanted over the 2016 failed coup, notably eight troops who escaped by helicopter on the putsch night.
The boom of artillery fire marking the power transfer was audible across Bishkek, the capital of the majority-Muslim country of six million.

The former Soviet republic saw its first two presidents overthrown in revolts in 2005 and 2010, with ethnic violence leaving hundreds dead after the second revolt.

Speaking in both Kyrgyz and Russian, a notably nervous Jeenbekov cited inspiration from the country's mythical hero Manas, the main character of an oral epic, and pledged to battle systemic corruption.

"A ruthless fight against corruption has begun. Conditions have been created to purify society," said Jeenbekov, who began working life as school teacher.

Under Atambayev, who was constitutionally restricted to a single six-year-term in office, the country enjoyed a period of relative stability, albeit without real reforms.

After embracing his political ally, the controversial outgoing leader sounded a triumphant note, describing his time in office as one that spared the country from collapse.

"Foreign political scientists said we would fall apart, but it didn't happen. Now we are an independent country. I thank my people," Atambayev said.

Jeenbekov scored 54 percent of the October 15 ballot viewed as Kyrgyzstan's most competitive election since independence, with oligarch opponent Omurbek Babanov taking more than a third of votes cast.

But monitors said the vote was marred by evidence of voter intimidation and other forms of administrative leverage that appeared to benefit Jeenbekov's campaign.

Kyrgyz authorities earlier this month pressed ahead with a criminal case against Babanov over remarks he made in a neighbourhood inhabited by an ethnic minority during a bitter electoral campaign.

The 47-year-old former oil trader, who, like Jeenbekov, served as a prime minister during Atambayev's tenure, resigned his position as head of the parliament's second largest party earlier this month.

Atambayev steered a strongly pro-Russian foreign policy course, and while those relations are likely to remain unchanged, successor Jeenbekov faces an uphill struggle to repair ties with oil-rich neighbour Kazakhstan.

The two countries have been locked in dispute ever since a spat that began with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbyev appearing to endorse Jeenbekov's main electoral rival escalated into a full-blown trade war.

Kyrgyzstan hosts a Russian military base and is a member of a Moscow-led trade bloc, but leans heavily on next-door China for loans and investments.
"There are still issues across the various matters that we're negotiating on to be resolved, but there's been a positive atmosphere in the talks and a genuine feeling we want to move forward together," May said after talks with Tusk on the margins of an EU summit in Brussels.

The British premier met Tusk, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders on the sidelines of the summit with ex-Soviet states as part of a bid to unlock negotiations on a future trade deal.

May said they were making progress on all of the major issues -- Britain's exit bill, the rights of EU nationals living in Britain and the Irish border, which has flared up as a major sticking point in recent weeks.

"In relation to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, we and the Irish government continue to talk about the solutions for that," May said.

"We have the same desire. We want to ensure the movement of people and trade across that border can continue as now and we don't create any new barriers to trade or the movement of people across that border."

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he was more confident than before about a deal but added nothing would be decided before he had dinner with May on December 4.
His arrival in the capital Harare comes just days after Mugabe's resignation on Tuesday, ending his 37-year rule as MPs gathered in parliament to impeach their 93-year-old leader.

Stewart described the historic change as "an absolutely critical moment" following "Mugabe's ruinous rule".

"The events of the last few days have given people here real hope that Zimbabwe can be set on a different, more democratic and more prosperous path," he said in a statement.

Britain is Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler.

Around 20,000 British citizens live in Zimbabwe and some 112,000 Zimbabweans live in Britain.

Britain provides around 86 million (97 million euros, $114 million) in aid to Zimbabwe every year.

But relations were rocky under Mugabe, particularly over the expropriation of white-owned farms there.

"What comes next must be driven by Zimbabweans -- it must be in line with the Zimbabwean constitution and will be impossible without clear resolve from the incoming government. That is what my visit here is all about.

"Britain wants to be a genuine partner for Zimbabweans as they forge a new future," Stewart said.
(Xinhua) 07:27, November 24, 2017

Chinese PresidentXi Jinping(L) holds a welcome ceremony for visiting Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh before their talks in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 23, 2017. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- China and Djibouti on Thursday agreed to establish strategic partnership to strengthen all-round cooperation.

The announcement came as Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Guelleh is the first head of state of an African country to visit China since the conclusion of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October.

Stressing that China attaches great importance to relations with Djibouti, Xi said the two countries have always treated each other with equality and showed mutual respect and support since the establishment of diplomatic ties 38 years ago.

China is willing to work with Djibouti to speed up the implementation of the results of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), jointly forge ahead with Belt and Road construction, and fully strengthen bilateral cooperation in all fields, said Xi.

China welcomes Djibouti to participate in the Belt and Road construction, and is ready to advance cooperation on infrastructure projects including railways, ports, water supply, liquefied natural gas pipeline, as well as building of a free trade area and cooperation in agriculture, Xi said.

Guelleh, who is on a state visit to China from Wednesday to Friday, said he was very pleased to be the first head of state of an African country to visit China since the 19th CPC National Congress and congratulated Xi on his re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

Calling Djibouti "a good friend of China," Guelleh said his country views China as a top-priority and indispensable partner.

He expressed satisfaction with the development of bilateral ties over the past three decades and more, and thanked China for its assistance and support to Djibouti.

Djibouti would like to take an active part in the Belt and Road Initiative and enhance cooperation with China on infrastructure and areas important to people's livelihood, he said.

Guelleh said his country appreciates China's active engagement in UN peacekeeping and international anti-piracy efforts, thanking China for its role in maintaining world peace and prosperity.

China had made long-standing contribution to security and development in Africa even in the days when China itself was poor, said Guelleh, reiterating Djibouti adheres to the one-China policy and saying he is delighted to see China regain its due status in the world and will work closely with China in multilateral affairs.

"Whatever changes may take in China's development and the international landscape, China will stand by the developing countries including African countries and be their sincere friend and reliable partner," Xi said.

Xi called on both sides to maintain high-level exchanges and expand cooperation between the two governments, legislative institutions, political parties and local governments. He suggested both sides share experience in governance and development and support each other on issues concerning their core interests and major concerns.

China will continue to assist Djibouti in improving its healthcare and deepen cooperation in human resources development as well as people-to-people exchanges, said Xi.

"China supports Djibouti's role in international and regional affairs and will work with it in communicating on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and peace and security in Africa."

Xi hoped the two countries would work together to protect their own and other developing countries' interests and play a constructive role in safeguarding peace and stability of the Horn of Africa.

The two countries signed deals on economic, technological and agricultural cooperation after the talks.
Republicans have long been known as "the stupid party." They do stupid things, such as waiting until mid-November to push a must-pass tax cut that should have been done by April.

But in recent weeks the GOP is finally showing some brains and some backbone on taxes. They are using their majorities in Congress to roll back and roll over the left, and it's about time.

In a more rational world, tax reform could have been bipartisan. But once Democrats declared they would be unified obstructionists on tax reform, there was no reason to throw a bone to the "resistance movement." Playing nice with Sen. Chuck Schumer won't buy any votes, so why bother?

It's hard not to be impressed with how Republicans have instead suddenly gotten very smart on the "pay fors" in their tax bill. Three of these revenue raisers are welcome policy changes, and they help defund the left.

Start with the elimination of the state and local tax deduction. Congress shouldn't subsidize flabby and inefficient state and local services and bankrupt public pension programs. Just as one would predict, the states with the highest taxes are Democrat-controlled states.

There is no evidence that higher taxes in these states lead to better schools or safer streets. New York spends around $7,500 per person on state and local government, while New Hampshire spends less than $4,500. Yet public services are better in New Hampshire than in New York.

The big blue states must cut their taxes and costs, or the stampede of high-income residents from these states will accelerate. The big losers here are the public employee unions -- the mortal enemies of Republicans. This all works out nicely.

Next is the decision by Republicans to offset the cost of the tax cut by eliminating the individual mandate tax imposed mostly on moderate-income Americans. About 3 of 4 people who pay the tax earn less than $50,000 a year. The purpose of the tax is to force low-income Americans to purchase insurance they either don't want or can't afford.

Isn't it amazing that Obamacare provides subsidies to Americans if they buy the insurance and imposes penalties if they don't, yet at least 13 million Americans still refuse to buy it? What a great product this must be.

Eliminating the individual mandate will allow poorer and younger Americans to buy less expensive forms of coverage, such as health savings accounts. These additional options will lead to the slow death of Obamacare. Smart.

Finally, there is the proposed tax on college endowments. These are massive storehouses of wealth: Harvard and Yale combined sit on a nest egg of almost $60 billion, enough to give every student free tuition at these schools from now until forever.

Instead these university endowments act like giant financial trading dynasties, with very little of the largess going to help students pay tuition.

The GOP plan would put a small tax on the unspent money in the endowments if they don't start spending the money down. My only complaint is that the tax is way too low. But the first shot against the university-industrial complex has finally been fired.

The productivity of American universities, as Richard Vedder of Ohio University has documented, continues to decline. Vedder also found that university tuition doesn't go down when these schools have bigger endowments. It goes up. These endowments subsidize the six- and seven-figure salaries of pompous, tired, and tenured professors (who teach four or five hours a week) and administrators. Bravo to Republicans for starting to turn off the spigot.

The best indication that this is all working is the rise of what I call the "tax-bill crybaby caucus." This group consists of health insurance companies, Obamacare supporters, public employee unions, state and local officials, the welfare lobby, municipal bond traders, lobbyists and, most of all, the liberal politicians who are funded by all of the above.

Not only are we getting pro-growth tax policy but also Donald Trump and the GOP are finally draining the swamp. It doesn't get any better than this.
It's not hard to see why Shop Small Saturday has grown into a national movement in seven short years.

Since its launch by American Express in 2010, the Saturday after Thanksgiving has been set aside to draw holiday shoppers' attention to the brick and mortar small businesses that remain the economic backbone of local communities.

When this page began supporting the efforts of the new Shop Small Saturday Coalition in 2011, we hoped this good idea would take flight. But we're still stunned by the tale the numbers tell.

According to the Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and American Express, an estimated 112 million consumers reported shopping on Nov. 26, 2016, which represented another double-digit annual increase in Shop Small Saturday shoppers.

Organizer and industry officials anticipate more of the same this Saturday. That's a safe bet given that Shop Small Saturday has proven to be the gift that keeps on giving.

Consider that, of those 112 million who shopped small last year, 81 percent reported encouraging friends and family to shop or dine small as well.

By last year, a whopping 72 percent of U.S. consumers knew about Small Business Saturday. A growing online presence continues to amplify the message. Early this month, the coalition already was touting 135 million social media engagements in support of Small Business Saturday 2017.

Why does all this matter? Studies show that when consumers buy locally, $68 of every $100 spent remains in the community, compared to $43 of every $100 for non-locally owned business.

Not that we dont love Black Friday and the big-box stores that are so important to this newspaper, the economy and quality of life in our community. The holiday season is vital for their continued good health, so we again urge you to shop them, and whenever possible, to do so in person. When you buy here, you support local jobs and the tax dollars they and their employers generate.

Even if you intend to join the mass of Americans who shop online on CyberMonday, that doesn't mean you also cannot and should not support the stores in our community. The growing Shop Small Saturday social media campaign suggests there is a place for all these retail assets in our holiday shopping experience.

That includes those job-growing local businesses, which are owned by friends and neighbors who use local resources, employ local people and pay local taxes. When they thrive, it reduces the property tax burden on the rest of us. That doesnt happen when you shop online. And those online-only companies dont pay local sales tax or give to local charities.

One more thing, shopping locally is fun. This Saturday and throughout the holiday season, local businesses are stocked with one-of-a-kind finds that will have those on your shopping list buzzing long after the packages are open. Many also are offering special deals and promotions this Saturday to help you sample the wonderful things shopping locally has to offer.

Once again, we urge readers to give a gift to themselves and their communities by supporting local retailers, restaurants and services.

Please visit them in person, beginning Saturday and throughout the holiday season because when you buy here, you not only support your friends and neighbors, but local jobs, governments, schools, events and charities.

If that's not enough to convince you, consider this: These businesses are among the things that make our Quad-Cities the cool, creative, prosperous community we are striving to be.
Former Vneshprombank co-owner loses appeal against bankruptcy

MOSCOW, November 24 (RAPSI)  The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has upheld a lower courts decision to initiate debt restructuring as part of bankruptcy procedure against former Vneshprombank co-owner Georgy Bedzhamov charged with embezzlement, according to court records.

A bankruptcy claim against Bedzhamov has been lodged by VTB24 bank.

In 2016, Bedzhamov was put on the international wanted list on embezzlement charges. Investigators believe that ex-Vneshprombank president Larisa Markus along with her brother Georgy Bedzhamov, who once co-owned the bank, created an organized crime group to siphon money from the bank. The group including Glushakova allegedly granted loans to sub-companies and did not refund money to Vneshprombank. Allegedly, from May 2009 to December 2015, conspirators managed to embezzle about 114 billion rubles.

Markus has been sentenced to 9 years in prison. Later, her sentence was reduced by 6 months.

In March 2016, the Moscow Commercial Court declared Vneshprombank bankrupt. Vneshprombank was one of the top 40 by assets before it lost its license in January of the same year.




Secret case documents should be available to all litigants  Russian Constitutional Court

MOSCOW, November 24 (RAPSI)  Russias Constitutional Court has clarified that all litigants should have access to secret case documents, notwithstanding if they hold a security clearance or not, a decision published on the Courts official website reads on Friday.

The Constitutional Court examined a complaint filed by ex-policeman Yevgeny Gorovenko, who petitioned it to check if certain provisions of the law on state secrets were in compliance with the Russian Constitution.

Gorovenko was fired from the police for dereliction and sentenced on false denunciation charges. In spite of the fact that the former policeman could obtain a judgement granting him access to his case materials, investigators declined the request on the grounds they were under seal.

According to the applicant, the law failed to fully designate the scope of persons granted access to case materials containing state secrets, and the rules he disputed infringed on his right to judicial remedy.

In its decision, the Constitutional Court noted that if case materials under seal directly affected the rights of a litigant, be it a suspect or a complainant, such a person should be guaranteed to be able to take part in criminal proceedings on the equal basis with investigative authorities and to present his or her position with respect to the case.

The Constitutional Court stressed that in order to keep secrecy it would suffice to warn litigants of liability for disclosure of state secrets.

The decision issued by the Constitutional Court requires Gorovenko case to be reconsidered.
Alleged organizer of womens terrorist cell arrested in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, November 24 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov)  The resident of St. Petersburg Alla Bespalova has been arrested on suspicion of organizing and managing the activities of a regional womens cell of Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist group banned in Russia, the press service of the Federal Security services (FSB) regional directorate has told RAPSI.

A court is to apply a measure of restraint for Bespalova soon, the statement reads.

According to the FSB, the work on suppression of destructive activities of radical organizations in St. Petersburg is ongoing.

Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Islamic Liberation), founded in Jerusalem in 1953, is banned in several Arab and Central Asian countries. Russia's Supreme Court banned the group from operating on the territory of the country in 2003, describing it as a terrorist organization.

Hizb ut-Tahrir members are regularly arrested by the police across Russia, mainly in big cities in central Russia, the Volga region and Siberia. Also, there are many supporters in Crimea, which rejoined Russia in the spring of 2014.
(Xinhua) 07:28, November 24, 2017

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with workers who participated in this year's WorldSkills Competition in October and won the most medals and points among 68 countries and regions, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 21, 2017. Li Keqiang highlighted the importance of skilled workers and craftsmanship for China to realize quality development. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has highlighted the importance of skilled workers and craftsmanship for China to realize quality development.

Li made the remarks during a meeting Tuesday with workers who participated in this year's WorldSkills Competition in October and won the most medals and points among 68 countries and regions.

Young skilled workers are "irreplaceable" in pushing manufacturing and service sectors to a higher level and in realizing quality economic development, Li said.

With an average age of less than 21 years, the 52 Chinese participants won 15 gold, seven silver and eight bronze medals.

For the Chinese economy to move toward the medium-high end, workers must first master more sophisticated vocational skills, Li said.

The premier asked workers around the country to perfect their skills to "make extraordinary achievements in ordinary posts."

"It will be good for Chinese brands entering the global arena if youngsters are keen to become craftsmen and pursue excellence," Li said.

Craftsmanship should be reflected in every product and every procedure, and should become "a pillar for building a strong manufacturing nation," he added.

At present, there are 165 million skilled workers in China, but they cannot meet the needs of economic development.

Li said China should deepen reform, improve policy and increase input to build a skilled workforce and solve problems including low pay and narrow career prospects.

Shanghai will host the competition in 2021.
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China to build Xiongan into green area

08:07, November 24, 2017 Xinhua

BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- China has finished compiling an environmental protection plan for the Xiongan New Area in north China's Hebei Province, with an aim of building it into a modern green zone.

The plan will be based on the environmental protection of Baiyangdian, the largest fresh water lake in north China and an important part of Xiongan, said Wang Jinnan, head of the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, at a press conference Thursday.

With measures to protect the ecospace, improve environment quality and prioritize green development, Xiongan will be a low-carbon, intelligent, livable and globally influential city in which people and nature co-exist in harmony, Wang said.

You Yanxin, an official with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said the ministry had signed an agreement with the provincial government on environmental protection of the new area and started a soil pollution survey.

The central government has earmarked 500 million yuan (about 76 million U.S. dollars) for improving the area's environment, You said.

China announced in April the decision to set up Xiongan New Area, the third new area of national significance after the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and the Shanghai Pudong New Area.
Havmor makes 150 products from its two plants and has around 30,000 dealers

South Koreas Lotte Confectionery has acquired Ahmedabad-headquartered ice cream maker Havmor Ice Cream Ltd (HIL) for Rs 1,020 crore in an all-stock deal.

Privately held Havmor, whose annual turnover is estimated to be Rs 450 crore, worked with its financial advisor, KPMG, besides Veritas Legal and Dhruva tax consultants, to seal the deal.

Announcing the deal on Thursday, Ankit Chona, managing director, Havmor, said, It was a great offer and we felt that Lotte shared our vision.

"Also, Lotte can take the brand to the next level.

He added he would continue to run the company for Lotte for the foreseeable future.

For now, Chona would focus on running the eateries and restaurant chain business of Havmor, apart from its premium ice cream cafe brand, Huber and Holly.

The company owns and runs over 20 restaurants and 60 eateries.

A seven-decade-old company, Havmor claims to be Indias fastest-growing ice cream brand over the past five years, and operates a parlour network across 14 states in India.

Havmor makes 150 products from its two plants and has around 30,000 dealers.

Earlier, multinational food companies had evinced interest in picking up a controlling stake in Havmor, which enjoys a 3.5-4 per cent share of the Rs 6,000 crore Indian ice cream market, which is growing at 10 per cent annually.

The $80-billion Lotte Confectionery entered the Indian market in 2004, and it now runs manufacturing sites in Chennai and Delhi regions.

Its key brands in the Indian market include Choco Pie, Eclairs, Coffee Bite, and Lacto King.

Some of these brands like Coffe Bite and Lacto King came in Lotte's portfolio when it acquired Murugappa Group company Parry's Confectionery in 2004.

Lotte Group has presence across diverse sectors, including tourism, heavy chemicals, construction and machinery, communication and electronics, and trading services. Lotte Confectionery is Lotte Groups flagship company in the foods and beverages category.

Lotte Confectionery, Korea, was established with 500 employees in 1967 and now has presence in over 70 countries.

Havmor, on the other hand, is now being led by Ankit Chona, the third generation of the founding family.

Recently, he was planning to spend Rs 225-250 crore to expand its manufacturing capacity.

A new facility was planned at Faridabad, which would cater to northern markets.

The capacity of existing plants would also be expanded from 2,50,000 litres per day (lpd) to 350,000 lpd.

The company was founded in Karachi - then part of India - as a part-time venture by Satish Chona in 1944.

Immediately after partition in 1947, Havmor moved to India and set up its base in Ahmedabad.

In 1951, it started as a handcart venture, and the company's first shop was set up in 1953.

In 1974, Pradeep Chona joined his father in the business.

He introduced the latest technology, improved hygiene standards, and inculcated corporate business environment at Havmor.

In 2005, his son Ankit Chona joined the family business, and under his leadership, the company has witnessed expansion of business in various states.

Photograph: Reuters
Most adult Indians should have access to bank deposits, credit and remittance facilities as well as insurance and mutual fund products in the next decade, and technology will play a big role in this transformation, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com.

Through the essays in the book, I have tried to chronicle the developments in Indian banking and finance over a tumultuous decade. And, through this epilogue, let me attempt to play the role of a soothsayer, peer into the crystal ball and foretell Indian banking 2025.

What we have been witnessing in the past few years is, to use a cliche, a conundrum. Banks in India, particularly most State-owned banks, have been piling up bad assets and the health of some of them is in such a state that both the government and the Reserve Bank of India have been pushing for consolidation in the industry. At the same time, the RBI is also opening up the sector for new entities.

Consider the fact that since Independence till July 2015, in 68 years, India got 12 new banks (all of them have not survived).

On the other hand, since August 2015, we have got two new universal banks, 10 small-finance banks (at the time of writing this, eight of them are operational) and 11 payments banks (not all are operational as yet even as a few have surrendered their licences).

What more, the RBI has put the licence for universal banking on tap. This means, there is no special window for seeking a new bank licence. Any entity can knock at the regulators door any time and walk away with a licence to set up a bank if it is fit and proper.

The RBI is also planning to open the turf for new kinds of banks such as wholesale banks and depository banks. Besides, the foreign banks operating in India are being encouraged for local incorporation (one of them has already got the nod for its Indian subsidiary) and it wont be a surprise if the large cooperative banks are asked to migrate into full-fledged commercial banking over the next few years.

There is an apparent contradiction in the trend but consolidation (in the public-sector banking industry) and expansion (in overall) are probably both sides of the same coin.

The banking regulator wants to intensify competition by opening up the sector and forcing some of the public-sector banks to merge and consolidate. While the blueprint for this is being drafted, it is for sure that the public-sector banks, which currently account for around 70 per cent of the industry, will lose their market share probably to 60 per cent by 2025.

Similarly, the credit offtake in past few years has been tardy. For fear of creating more bad assets, many banks are afraid of giving new loans. That has led to the resurgence of the non-banking finance companies. Both their balance sheet growth and the rise in the value of their shares in the stock market in the past few years have been phenomenal. Does this mean the next decade will belong to the NBFCs? Will India cease to host a bank-led financial system by 2025? This is something we need to watch out for.

Till the NBFCs complete one full cycle -- say, of eight to 10 years -- it will be difficult to declare all of them winners. They are subject to light-touch regulations and its not easy to predict which entity will end up showing big holes in their balance sheets in the future. Only when the tide goes out, we will discover who have been swimming naked.

Talking about NBFCs, the flavour of the next few years will be financing affordable housing. The government is betting big on this. Its mission is Housing for All by 2022 and it is backing this up with fiscal incentives. A burgeoning housing sector fuels economic growth as it has a multiplier effect in terms of sale of cement, steel and other housing material, and can create jobs, and lead to increased investment in education.

There are about 20 new entrants in the affordable housing space even as the 14 existing lenders are significantly expanding their portfolios of low-cost home loans by broadening their distribution channels through direct sales and community-based loans. They are all using technology to reach out to the lower end of the customer segment. There has also been a rate war to woo the customers. A burgeoning middle class, rising disposable incomes and fiscal incentives on home loans have increased the affordability of homes, and the average age of a new home buyer in India is now 32 years, down from early 40s a decade ago.

Even though the little over Rs 12-trillion Indian mortgage market has been growing at around 18-19 per cent every year, its size is too small in relation to the economy -- around 9 per cent of the GDP, less than half of what it is in China. Singapores mortgage market is 32 per cent of its GDP, lower than Hong Kongs 41 per cent, and in the US and the UK, it is 81 per cent and 88 per cent of the GDP, respectively. In Denmark, the southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, the mortgage market is 104 per cent of the GDP.

Most bankers are seeing enormous opportunities in the market with a shortage of close to 19 million units in urban India and around 40 million in the rural pockets. One hopes that no one is losing sight of the affordability of the customers in this segment, compromising on loan appraisal and risk management, and that bubbles are not seen after a few years.

One set of NBFCs will definitely find it difficult to maintain the growth -- the microfinance institutions. A few years down the line, I will not be surprised if I hear the experts shouting, Microfinance is dead; long live microfinance! The market of microloans will continue to grow, but the process of intermediation will change.

The proposed merger of Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd with IndusInd Bank Ltd signals two new trends: one, the high-margin business of the MFIs is under threat by the new set of small-finance banks as well as some of the existing commercial banks which are seriously planning to penetrate semi-urban India; and two, at the right prices, the banks will be willing to buy the good MFI franchises to expand in the hinterland.

For the MFIs, the pitch has been queered for multiple reasons.

For instance, for a large MFI, the spread or the difference between the cost of funds and the price of its loan is capped at 10 percentage points. This means that if such an MFI is raising loans from other banks at, say, 10 per cent, it cannot charge more than 20 per cent for its loans. The banks which have access to lower-cost funds in the form of deposits do not have any such cap; they can charge their borrowers as much as they want. For the small borrowers, access to bank loan is more critical than the cost of the loan.

Also, a small borrower cannot take money from more than two MFIs, but the banks are not subjected to any such restriction.

Most importantly, cash has been the medium of transaction in the segment where the MFIs operate. The increasing focus on digitisation is hurting their business. To survive and flourish, the MFIs will have to forge alliances with different kinds of banks -- small-finance, payments and universal banks -- as well as digital wallet service providers, and disburse and collect money through the banking channel.

Theoretically, this new architecture will make money expensive for the small borrowers as the money cannot be disbursed at their doorsteps any more. They would need to travel to the nearest bank branch or the banking correspondent, and in the process, they may lose half a days wage and/or incur costs in transport.

On the other hand, the operational cost for the MFIs will come down as they would not need so many people for the disbursements of loans and collection of repayments. This will help them bring down the price of loans and compensate for the additional cost that the borrowers will incur.

However, this is a theory.

In reality, the MFIs will find the going tough. The universe of small loans is big but the banks and other NBFCs will gradually replace the MFIs on this turf. A few successful small banks will become universal banks by 2015 while others forge alliances with banks; a few more strong MFIs will migrate to the path of small-finance banks and many MFIs will be taken over by the banks.

All these will give a big leg up to the financial inclusion drive. Till mid-September, at least 302.5 million accounts have been opened in the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana scheme, the most ambitious financial inclusion drive globally, launched in August 2014. The money kept in these accounts is only Rs 666 billion, and many such accounts do not have any money kept or they are zero-balance accounts, but the fact remains that they have served a critical purpose -- access to banking for the people at the bottom of the pyramid, the first step towards financial inclusion.

We all know that it will take a while to achieve financial inclusion in the truest sense of the term -- access to credit at a reasonable price without much hassles. We also know that social and economic inclusion must precede financial inclusion. But lets admit that the PMJDY, to start with, is giving a big push for inclusive finance by opening millions of bank accounts and routing subsidies through these accounts. By 2025, most adult Indians should have access to bank deposits, credit and remittance facilities as well as insurance and mutual fund products.

Finally, technology will play a big role in this transformation.

Ideally, this book should have a chapter on technology in banking, but I didnt dare to attempt that as it has been difficult to keep pace with the changes in this space. I thought anything I write on banking technology would be irrelevant by the time the book gets published.

In 2015, in the run-up to its launch, IDFC Bank Ltd, Indias newest universal bank, was desperately looking for a unique selling proposition, or USP. How could it become different from other banks of its ilk in Mumbai where it is headquartered? It decided to showcase the ease of transactions as its USP or the differentiating factor from other banks. However, even before IDFC Bank was formally launched in October 2015, other banks such as HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, Kotak Bank Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd and the State Bank of India took giant strides on the technology front, creating mobile wallets, offering their customers ease of transaction and cutting down the time for sanctioning loans.

Use of Big Data, artificial intelligence, and even robots are the in-thing in Indian banks now; many private banks are showing the door to thousands of employees who are not needed in the new landscape. By 2025, or even before that, the point of sales, or PoS, machines and even ATMs and credit cards can become obsolete as the smartphone will be the main mode of all banking transactions.

And, to meet the young, impatient customers increasing demand for prompt and smart services, the banks will have to operate like air-traffic controllers, working 24X7. By 2025, at least a few banks will consider themselves as technology companies and feel tempted to say, We also do banking.

Will that be the slogan of 2025? Many believe that we dont have to wait for that long; it can even happen by 2020.

I have a different take on this. In India, it can happen, but in `Bharat, the banks will have to continue to treat technology as an enabler; technology by itself cannot be a product, at least in the foreseeable future. For various reasons -- ranging from connectivity to lifestyle and the pattern of cash flow of individuals and small businesses -- Bharat will continue to depend on relationship banking for small borrowers, and technology will cement that.

The challenge before us is to merge India and Bharat on the banking turf.

Yes, only technology can achieve that, but it is too ambitious to expect that to happen by 2025.

Excerpted from From Lehman to Demonetisation, A Decade of Disruptions, Reforms and Misadventures, by Tamal Banbyopadhyay, published by Penguin India.
Many companies have seen margins improving but its not significant and shipping companies are still not breaking even.

Shipping freight rates are rising on the back of the commodity boom.

The Baltic dry bulk, tanker segment, and other freight indices are rising fast for the past few months, following good demand in India, China, the Atlantic market, and the Gulf coast.

The Baltic dry bulk index is up 45.3 per cent this year even after a small correction in the past few weeks, and has achieved more than a three-year-high level.

The Baltic dirty tanker index, reflecting movements in crude oil, in the past three months went up 33 per cent after a surge in Brent oil on expectations of production cuts by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPECs), and geopolitical uncertainties in the region.

Similar movements have been seen in the S&P Platts shipping freight indices, which hold good for routes on which Indian ports fall.

The past two weeks have seen some correction from higher levels but the consensus of freight agents, analysts, and shipping companies is that that trends in the shipping freight market are expected to remain firm.

Will it help shipping companies to revive their fortunes? That depends upon how many companies are in a position to cash in on high freights.

An executive of Shipping Corporation of India said, Many companies have seen margins improving but its not significant and shipping companies are still not breaking even.

He said there was a lot of instability and volatility in the market.

The past two weeks small correction shows while overall trends will remain firm in the case of freight, movements will not be one-sided.

Pradeep Rajan, senior managing editor, Asia Pacific Shipping & Freight, S&P Global Platts, said: The dry bulk freight rates had registered a spike during September and October after steadily rising since the beginning of the second half of 2017 in the Asia-Pacific mainly due to the demand for coal in China and India.

A CARE Ratings report on power plants says: Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have been highly affected by the coal-shortage.

The tanker market, another important segment, has also seen demand despite the production cuts by OPEC and reports of the cuts being extended.

The rates from the start of the second half of the year have found support mainly due to the increase in the movement of crude oil from the Atlantic basin to Asia, said Rajan.

Due to a wide gap in prices of Brent and WTI oil, some imports coming from Gulf nations have been replaced by US shale oil because prices of WTI oil are lower by 10-12 per cent.

Rising imports from the US are keeping very large crude carriers employed for longer duration.

Internationally, even a strong Atlantic market, mainly due to a very robust grain market on the east coast of South America and the US Gulf Coast, drew vessels from the Asia-Pacific into the Western hemisphere, which tightened ship availability in the Asia-Pacific region.

So while on the one hand vessels in the dry bulk segment were in demand, the slow entry of newly-built vessels into the market is curtailing the addition of more tonnage.

The past two weeks correction from the peak has been attributed to a slow grain market in the Atlantic.

Apart from the coal demand in India, Rajan said, The burgeoning Indian exports of steel, iron ore, pellets etc have provided ample demand for the Supramax class vessels.

A Shipping Corporation official said, China is under watch as coal and ore import demand is expected to go up.

Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
The fruitless pursuit, which tore the Talwars' lives and reputations to shreds, means that Aarushi's killers have not only got away but may never be found, says Sunil Sethi.

IMAGE: Dr Nupur Talwar and her husband Dr Rajesh Talwar at the court in Ghaziabad. Photograph: Reuters

Collectively the nation exhaled a sigh of relief at the acquittal of Rajesh and Nupur Talwar for the murders of their 14-year-old daughter Aarushi and domestic Hemraj, the crimes they never committed in May 2008.

The Allahabad high court's 273-page judgment is a remarkable document.

Dense and devoid of digression, it is a detailed forensic examination of the evidence on record.

It is also one of the harshest indictments of the CBI's dirty tricks that put the Talwars through a horrendous nine-year ordeal, four in the grim environs of Dasna jail, Ghaziabad.

To quote just one operative line: '...There is not even an iota of evidence on record even remotely suggesting either Hemraj was assaulted in Aarushi's bedroom or of any sexual activity between the deceased.'

Shortly after being imprisoned for life in November 2013, Rajesh Talwar started a jail diary, some pages of which were published in journalist Avirook Sen's bestselling account Aarushi (Penguin, 2015; Rs 299).

'We are destroyed,' wrote the agonised father. 'We were destroyed by Aaru's loss and he (Shyam Lal, the CBI's trial judge who convicted them) has completely destroyed us by this kind of verdict.'

If Mr Sen's book, prophetic in hindsight, raised the bar in investigative journalism, Justices B K Narayana and A K Mishra, who have destroyed the CBI's prosecution case, may have opened a new chapter in criminal jurisprudence.

The CBI is now decisively in the dock. It stands accused of an appalling line-up of misdemeanours from suppressing and fabricating evidence, tutoring witnesses, falsifying forensic analysis and much else, chiefly the handiwork of the late A G L Kaul, the CBI's investigating officer who zipped round the country, hell bent on obtaining the Talwars' conviction by doctoring records.

This fruitless pursuit, which tore the Talwars' life and reputation to shreds, means that Aarushi's killers have not only got away but may never be found; the case that shook middle-class India to its core, and let loose the baying bloodhounds of the media to spin the most luridly prurient of yarns, will go down in the annals of the CBI as yet another unsolved -- and insolvable -- crime.

Rebecca Mammen John, a member of the Talwars' legal team and who fought their case pro bono for many years, regards the verdict as "a great personal victory", but points out that the defence arguing their innocence was "consistent throughout, it was the CBI's prosecutors that kept shifting their stand".

The key point to remember about the Aarushi case, as of countless others, is that it was a crime against the State; and that the CBI, as prosecuting agency, is funded by taxpayers' money.

It, therefore, involves us all -- in effect we have paid to tyrannise the Talwars, and accuse them of murdering their daughter for alleged carnal relations.

As Avirook Sen says, 'It was a case of collective suspension of rationality, of the courts, the media, and of us as consumers and supplicants to an entire system.'

We, too, have paid for CBI Judge Shyam Lal of the Ghaziabad court, whose much derided judgment of November 2013 that condemned the Talwars is a travesty of legal and linguistic balance.

With its crude references to Aarushi as 'a beaut (em>sic) damsel and sole heiress' and synonyms for penis (Hemraj's 'willy was turgid'; his 'pecker was swollen') it abounds in solecisms such as 'to repeat at the cost of repetition'. (Judge Shyam Lal, in violation of the judicial code, employed his son to help write the judgment.)

An important question arises in the aftermath of the Allahabad acquittal: In its moment of abject humiliation what will the CBI do?

Given the profile of the case and its tortuous unravelling, its choices are limited. The high court judgment leaves little room for appeal, but it has the right to approach the apex court, though the action may be fraught with risk.

Or it can hold an internal, even a public inquiry, and punish investigators for their trail of calumny and cover-ups.

And there could be a third option, tried in the West, but not tested strongly enough in public interest litigation in India. A collective body of the tax-paying public can sue the CBI and hold it accountable.

Because the bottom line is this: If a case as sensational as the Aarushi and Hemraj murders, which gripped the public imagination, is proven to be a monumental miscarriage of justice, then what of the grievous harm and condemned lives of the numberless poor in jails, doubly victimised, accused of crimes they may never have committed but destroyed by prosecution agencies of the State?
'In Bollywood, the power is disproportionately in the hands of a few men, whether they are actors or producers or directors.'

'The woman who makes an allegation against them can forget working in the industry again,' says Aakar Patel.

On October 5, The New York Times published a report on Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's sexual misbehaviour. The newspaper quoted actresses who said that they had been harassed or assaulted by Weinstein, one of the most powerful individuals in the film industry, someone who produced Oscar-winning movies like The King's Speech.

After the report, more women came out with their stories of abuse from Weinstein (by the end of October, the list of accusers had over 80 women), and a couple of days later, he was sacked from his own company by the board of directors.

Over the month, more women, many of them famous, began to tell their stories openly, and now the focus turned to other powerful men.

These included the director James Toback (accused by over 238 women) actors Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey, Steven Seagal and Ben Affleck, the stand up comedian Louis CK, the political analyst Mark Halperin and former US president George H W Bush.

Similar accusations have threatened the Senate campaign of a one-time favourite Republican candidate and ex-judge Roy Moore, and sitting Democratic Senator Al Franken.

Many of these men have apologised for their behaviour, including President Bush, and it is now clear that the women's courage had uncovered an epidemic.

It seems something has changed in America, even though this is not the first time that a wealthy and influential man has been exposed in similar fashion.

Only in 2014, one of America's most famous comedians, Bill Cosby, was accused by dozens of women of drugging and then assaulting them.

Most of the cases here were outside the statute of limitations (depending on the US state, the crime cannot be prosecuted if it is reported between three and 30 years after it took place).

However one case against Cosby is in court and it is likely to be decided some time next year. While Cosby's case was widely publicised, it did not produce the sort of general response that the Weinstein case did, and now every day is producing a report or two of a famous man who has been exposed.

A campaign on twitter began to take what was essentially an American moment international. So what has been the reaction in India?

It began with a list of academics, meaning professors and teachers, who were accused of harassment.

The accusers were anonymous but were apparently known to the individual who made the list public, a student in America named Raya Sarkar. One of the individuals on the list, the director of the Madras Music Academy has resigned, it was reported on November 16, after his name was published, though it was unclear if he had quit because of the allegation.

While the list has been attacked for being anonymous, for obvious reasons, it is not surprising that it is anonymous, given the history of sexual violence in India.

The government's data says that 99% of Indian victims of sexual violence do not report the crime to the police.

Even in the United States, only about a third or so of victims report because this is a crime that is a personal attack and the victim does not feel comfortable recounting the details.

In India, we have several other factors that are at work. One is a social and cultural landscape where women are often blamed for sexual violence committed on them.

Ours is a society that unfairly loads ideas of 'honour' on the person of the female. And then ours is also a society where the powerful man is almost never punished for anything wrong that he does.

In Bollywood, the power is disproportionately in the hands of a few men, whether they are actors or producers or directors. The woman who makes an allegation against them can forget working in the industry again, in addition to being humiliated, and the men can get away with almost anything.

In politics things are worse. Justice is impossible against the powerful political figure who is a predator. And political parties show absolutely no qualms in violating the privacy of individuals.

Innocent women are victimised merely for falling in love as the cases of the secretly recorded and intrusive 'sex tape scandals' show.

Given all of this baggage it would be wonderful if this becomes the moment when things change.

If they feel encouraged by the climate, Indian victims and survivors of such harassment and violence can choose to go public and bring about the same sort of focus on the crimes as the victims in the United States have managed to do.

It is cruel to put the burden of this on them, of course, and the only real solution for ending harassment or minimising it is to ensure that the law acts swiftly and punishes offenders.

But when the problem is also in parts cultural, the right moment can produce great change.

Other places have already failed their women. In response to the Weinstein story, China's State media has said that harassment of women was less common in China because 'Chinese men are taught to be protective of their women. Behaving inappropriately toward women, including harassing them sexually, contradicts every Chinese traditional value and custom.' This is, of course, rubbish.

It would be a shame if this opportunity passes because it is the sort of moment where a large section of the population can be turned.

They can be made more sensitive and more sympathetic to the victim, and more willing to set aside the social and cultural norms that in many ways have made the victim the guilty party.

Aakar Patel is Executive Director, Amnesty International India. The views expressed here are his own.

You can read Aakar's earlier columns here.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
'The principles on which a modern Republic should be governed are changing and taking dangerous turns,' warns Uddalok Bhattacharya.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

It isn't a surprise that Prime Minister Narendra D Modi, a professed 'Hindu nationalist', would indulge in a sectarian election campaign in the way he did in Bihar, very unsuccessfully, and in UP, where his success far exceeded all calculations.

The minorities do not matter to his party, the BJP. Its members go to the extent of saying the party does not need the Muslim vote and, therefore, by implication is not concerned with their betterment or their Constitutional rights, which are being trampled upon all over the country.

But when divisiveness or sectarianism proves beneficial electorally, it becomes a creed, or an ideology itself, as has happened with the BJP, which is taking to provincial politics without turning a hair.

It stokes every feeling of victimhood, real or imaginary. The PM's campaigns in Gujarat, and elsewhere, are a telling example of that.

In a recent public meeting in Gujarat, the PM said 'the family (the Nehru-Gandhi family) does not like Gujarat or Gujaratis', 'did not like Sardar Patel or Morarji Desai', and 'spread rumours about Desai when he became prime minister'.

When a person speaks such stuff standing on the podium, he or she can get away without having to produce a shred of evidence in support of what he or she said. But if the PM were to go by what's there in the public domain, he wouldn't travel very far.

Every school child today knows there was some friction between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel in one phase of our history, and between Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai, in another.

But to say on the basis of this that the family does not like Gujarat is taking a quantum leap whose import I am not sure if the BJP knows.

Divisiveness does not select a single target. It meanders into multifarious channels.

This is not the first time that the PM has dropped such provincial innuendoes. He did it once in Kolkata, when he was on the stump, barnstorming for the Lok Sabha polls in 2013-2014.

There he praised Pranab Mukherjee, who had become President by then, and his administrative capabilities. Then he sought to stir up the eternal Bengali grouse about being victimised by saying the Congress did not give Mr Mukherjee his due, which was the prime ministership.

The historical equivalent that comes to every mind -- and must have come to mind when Mr Modi (then he was Gujarat chief minister) was blazing away -- is not difficult to guess.

If Subhas Chandra Bose was unfairly treated (I for one do not set great store by that event), his tormentor, who called Bose a 'misguided patriot', was from Gujarat.

Fine, if there were differences between Gandhi and Bose. But basing himself on that, if a Bose admirer were to air the view that Gandhi hated all of Bengal, the admirer's followers would be led into uncharted territory and the consequences of that could be ominous.

This is vintage provincialism, which many in the past have been guilty of. Remember the gentle 'Bihari-Bahari' dichotomy during the Bihar elections in 2015?

And the man who gained from insinuating that people from outside Bihar (who could they be?) were trying to capture the mind and heart of the people of the state did a remarkable somersault after that.

During the Lok Sabha election campaign, in Maharashtra Mr Modi asked a question that reeked of Constitutional impropriety: Referring to Sharad Pawar, who was then Union agriculture minister, he posed the question why there were so many farmer deaths in Maharashtra when the country's agriculture minister belonged to the state.

Farmer deaths in Maharashtra were an enormous tragedy, but it cannot be said that for the country's agriculture minister they were a bigger tragedy than it would be had the deaths taken place anywhere else.

Mr Pawar was the country's agriculture minister and not of Maharashtra, and therefore duty-bound to protect each agriculturist of India, regardless of caste, religion, language, region, or, if you prefer, complexion.

That's the essence of our nationhood, that's the demand every Indian can make.

Anything that detracts from this can slide into things that our Constitution is opposed to.

This is one aspect of the matter. There have been occasions when the PM has said things than go against many presumptions that have taken civilisation forward, such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789 and several other proclamations thereafter.

In an interview to a newspaper and in an effort to be well-meaning, the PM said it should not be as though there should be red tape for the common man but not for Mukesh Ambani.

While the mission implied in this statement is laudable, the contrast he drew between the industrialist and the common man ties in with the thinking of the ancien regime.

I do not know if the common man exists anywhere except in R K Laxman's cartoons. But if there is, the discourse on the uniform applicability of the law should have been built on the assumption that Mukesh Ambani, like all others, is a common man.

The principles on which a modern Republic should be governed are changing and taking dangerous turns. Who can set things right?
'The new generation is looking for performance.'

'They don't want sermons, they don't want allegations, they don't want empty assurances and hollow slogans.'

"The government is acutely conscious of the inconvenience caused by GST," Bharatiya Janata Party national Vice-President Vinay Sahasrabuddhe tells Sunil Gatade.

"The government is working overtime to undo the unreasonable part of GST," Sahasrabuddhe, a Rajya Sabha member, adds.

Why do you think there is so much hue and cry over demonetisation and the goods and services tax?

Our campaign against black money -- demonetisation and GST -- was part of our larger agenda for cleansing the fiscal system and putting an end to the parallel economy.

Now, unfortunately the Opposition is out to bring a bad name to these efforts because some of them are hugely inconvenienced.

They want to abuse all our efforts because the shoe is pinching. They are feeling the heat of the changing situation. Therefore, they are trying to tarnish our efforts and our agenda.

Do you think the Opposition is not taking up the issue keeping in mind the national interest?

Apparently, yes.

You take 50 speeches of (Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in the last one year or so. Do you find a single reference to the agenda of making India free of nepotism, free of corruption and also free of bad governance?

Not a single reference. These things have never been on the agenda of the Congress.

There is absolutely no hope they will be in the future. They were never serious about fighting corruption.

This history of lack of seriousness dates back to the days of Indira Gandhi.

Is it going to be an issue in the 2019 general election?

Of course.

A significant change over the last three years is that previously the ruling party was indulging in corruption and the Opposition was targeting them on corruption.

Now, the ruling party is targeting corruption and the Opposition is targeting their targeting of corruption.

Otherwise, how do you explain the noises Congress leaders are making on GST, the structure of which was outlined with the participation and support of state finance ministers of the Congress as well?

There is an impression that the BJP has been on the back foot with economic issues gaining precedence.

On the contrary, why should we be on the back foot?

There is absolutely no reason.

The Congress has sensed an opportunity in certain incidents of people being inconvenienced due to demonetisation and the GST.

Nobody denies that a section of people were inconvenienced. The prime minister is on record seeking 50 days to deal with the situation and people accepted this and within that specific period, Herculean efforts were made to bring normalcy.

But exploiting inconvenience to the people for partisan political gains is unacceptable.

Remember, this is a war on corruption and black money.

When we are engaged in a war we accept the inconveniences that are caused due to blackout and other such restrictions.

Similarly, some of the inconveniences caused by GST are part of the price one has to pay for the larger good of the country.

Rahul Gandhi says it is a 'Modi-made disaster'...

He is trying to exploit the inconvenience caused to people due to demonetisation earlier and now GST.

The government is acutely conscious of the inconveniences. The government is working overtime to deal with them and to undo the unreasonable part of them. It has brought in reforms.

I personally led a couple of delegations to Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and he accepted certain points, which were later incorporated into policy.

The government is open-minded and receptive.

But whatever the lacunae in GST, they can't be looked at as a licence to exploit the inconveniences that people are facing.

But the way demonetisation and GST have been implemented is being seen in some quarters as 'India Shining'...

Unfortunately, when in the Opposition, the Congress gets nostalgic, and understandably so.

They hope that the BJP will take the same path, which it took in 2004 as that helps them daydream and set eyes on the 2019 elections.

But let me tell you that 2017 is neither 2013 nor 2002.

Things are changing and people are experiencing the changes and therefore their (Congress) dreams will never come true.

The BJP fought the last Lok Sabha election leading the National Democratic Alliance, but succeeded in securing an absolute majority on its own.

What is the road map for 2019?

What is the compulsion of going along with allies when you have a majority on your own?

As a party worker it is not for me to comment on future strategy. These decisions are taken at the highest level. I cannot say I am privy to them.

But what I understand as a party worker is, for us, an alliance is not just bringing a section of political parties together only to fight against the Congress.

We are, in a way, masters of alliance politics. Atalji (Bihari Vajpayee) ran at least two successful governments with some two dozen partners. So we understand that coalition politics depends upon mutuality of interests.

Mutual give and take is the foundation of coalition politics. The BJP takes its alliance partners along and continues with them whether technically we require them or not.

How do you look at the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, considering that a section of the Opposition is insisting that they are an 'open field'?

Our detractors fail to understand what the people understand.

The people of India have complete confidence in Prime Minister D Narendra Modi and nobody has even an iota of doubt in the purity of purpose that drives our prime minister.

People know him as a leader without any personal agenda, a leader who is working overtime.

The political situation is such that the prime minister is head and shoulders above all those in the Opposition, who are daydreaming of an opportunity simply because the general election is just about 18 months away.

There is talk that the Lok Sabha polls could be advanced and might take place along with the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

I believe this is more speculation than real information. I, at least, am not aware of any such plan.

Strangely, your allies such as the Shiv Sena claim that the Modi wave is on the wane.

Normally, I would have declined to comment on this as we believe that you don't talk publicly about your friends. But this particular observation is a case of needless kite flying. And there is no ban on it (kite flying).

Lately, some critics of Rahul Gandhi have become his admirers and are seeing a lot of potential in him. How do you see this?

So far as a new-found political mojo of the 'First Prince of the First Family' is concerned, a few smart tweets and a set of hired followers cannot create anything other than an illusion.

With a keen tussle between the BJP and the Congress, how do you see the Gujarat assembly elections panning out?

In Gujarat, the BJP is consolidating its position. There is bickering in the Opposition camp. Already, Shankersinh Vaghela is no more part of the Congress.

Besides, those who led the Patidar agitation are no longer unchallenged leaders of the movement. People have started doubting their intentions.

Internal contradictions in the conglomeration of social groups, which are still in the making, are obvious.

Therefore, if one community leader is today seen on the dais of the Congress, tomorrow he is either compelled to give an explanation or he has to openly dissociates himself...

These are indications that one after the other, community leaders are realising that the Congress continues to be a sinking ship.

Attempts to fan discontent have come to a nought, therefore, we are extremely confident that in both Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, the BJP will win hands down.

What makes you optimistic about the BJP's prospects under Modi?

After several decades, India is witnessing a tussle between the politics of performance and the politics of procrastination.

The new generation is looking for performance. They don't want sermons, they don't want allegations, they don't want empty assurances and hollow slogans.

They want results.

In the last three years, the BJP has shown resoluteness in taking an untrodden path.

To give examples -- demonetisation, GST, surgical strikes, formation of a solar alliance, consolidating India's position in BRICS, establishing Yoga Day. Several of these things are the first of their kind in our country.

There is emphasis on productive, result-oriented implementation.

Meetings of PRAGATI, the meeting the prime minister conducts with bureaucrats, are testimony to how he wants to walk the talk.

There is emphasis on innovation and people's participation, the extent of which goes far beyond previous experience.

The way the prime minister speaks to the people on Mann ki Baat and the way people resonate or extend wholehearted support to Swachh Bharat... all this shows the vibrancy of the relationship the prime minister continues to enjoy with the masses.

IMAGE: Rahul Gandhi on the campaign trail in Gujarat: Hanjadapar village, Dwarka district. Photograph: PTI Photo
The United States on Friday asked the Pakistan government to make sure that Hafiz Saeed is arrested and charged for his crimes, following the release of the 26/11 mastermind and JuD chief from house arrest.

Pakistan on Friday freed Saeed, the Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the "cause of Kashmir".

"The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Tayiba leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens," state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

"The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes," Nauert said in a statement after the release of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief.

The JuD leader, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after his 10-month detention as the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case, in a setback to India's efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.

In May 2008, the US Department of the Treasury had designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.

Saeed was also individually designated by the UN under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December, 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people, including six American citizens, were killed, Nauert said.

LeT and several of its front organisations, leaders, and operatives remain under both state department and Treasury department sanctions.

Since 2012, the US has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice, she said.
(Xinhua) 08:10, November 24, 2017

TALLINN, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- The "16+1" cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries injects new vitality into the China-Estonia relationship, Chinese Ambassador to Estonia Qu Zhe wrote on Thursday.

In an article titled "Advance '16+1' Cooperation into New Era Together" published by the Estonian financial newspaper Aripaev, Qu said that the "16+1" summit is now an indispensable platform for frequent communication between government leaders and has become essential for enhancing mutual trust and promoting China-Estonia practical cooperation in the fields of politics, economy and trade, culture and education, tourism as well as people-to-people exchanges.

He expressed the confidence that leaders from China and the 16 CEE countries will take the opportunity of the sixth meeting of heads of government of China and CEE countries to be held in Budapest, Hungary next week to build on achievements over the past five years after the first meeting of heads of government of China and CEE countries held in Warsaw, Poland in spring 2012.

The "16+1" cooperation compliments and provides added value to bilateral relations between China and each of the 16 CEE countries and the China-European Union(EU) Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, said the ambassador.

"Based upon the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, China and the 16 CEE countries work hand in hand to strengthen practical cooperation in various fields," Qu said.

Central and Eastern Europe is an area which sees active exchanges between Asia and Europe, and the alignment of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the Investment Plan for Europe (or Juncker Plan) provides new opportunities for "16+1" cooperation, said Qu.

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that was held in Beijing in October came to the important conclusion that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered into a new era and the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved into a contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life.

"The Party Congress drew up a two-stage development plan for the period from 2020 to the middle of this century. In the first stage from 2020 to 2035, we will build on the foundation created by the moderately prosperous society to see that socialist modernization is basically realized. In the second stage from 2035 to the middle of the 21st century, we will develop China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful," Qu said.

China's economy has contributed more than 30 percent on average to global growth for the past four years, and it will continue to be one of the main engines of the world economy in the years ahead, said the ambassador.

"We are committed to deepening comprehensive reforms and opening our doors wider to the world. We are ready to work together with other countries to make global growth more invigorated, more coordinated, more inclusive and more sustainable so as to build a community of shared future for mankind," Qu added.

In the coming five years, China is expected to import 8 trillion U.S. dollars of goods, attract 600 billion dollars of foreign investment and make 750 billion dollars of outbound investment, which will create a bigger market, more capital, more products and more opportunities for other countries, said the ambassador.

The "16+1" cooperation between China and CEE countries is expected to enter a new era and usher in a new chapter for bilateral relations and China-EU cooperation, Qu said.
The Delhi high court on Friday dismissed a plea against Bollywood flick Padmavati, observing that such petitions were encouraging those agitating against the movie.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar termed as hopeless and misconceived a petition seeking that a committee be set up before the film is released to check whether there was any distortion of history.

Have you (counsel for the petitioner) seen the film? Have the people, who are burning cinema halls seen the film? By this kind of petitions you are encouraging the people who are agitating, the bench observed.

It also directed petitioner Akhand Rashtrawadi Party, which claims to be a political party, to approach the Censor Board as the court was not inclined to entertain its plea.

The plea had said that the committee was necessary as there was alleged distortion of historical facts in the film starring Deepika Padukone. The Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed Padmavati also stars Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor.

However, the bench ruled that the matter is pending consideration before the Central Board of Film Certification. Similar reliefs have been declined by the Supreme Court as well. This petition is nothing but hopeless and misconceived.

It further said since the statutory body CBFC was looking into it, Let them carry out their job.

The public interest litigation had sought a direction to the CBFC to constitute a committee comprising members of the Censor Board, a social activist, three history experts from any university and a retired high court judge who shall head the panel.

The outfits PIL, filed through advocate R N Singh and Puneesh Grover, had said there was an apprehension of lowering the dignity and pride of icon Rani Padmavati, who immolated herself to protect her honour and dignity as well as for Chittorgarh in Rajasthan.

It had also said that no individual or group has a right to play with the sentiments or emotions of any caste or community by distorting the history or a historic icon.

Recently, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a plea seeking a stay on the release of film, saying the Censor Board was yet to certify the movie.

The top court said there were several guidelines for the CBFC to grant certification to a movie and, in addition, there was the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal to look into the grievances regarding a film.
Shortly after Hafiz Saeeds release, he said he would mobilise people for the cause of Kashmir".

IMAGE: Hafiz Saeed is showered with flower petals after he was released by the Pakistan government. Photograph: Mohsin Raza/Reuters

Pakistan on Friday freed Hafiz Saeed, the chief of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa and mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack from detention, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric by saying he would mobilise people for the cause of Kashmir.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah head, who carries a $10 million (Rs 64.6 crore) bounty for his role in terror activities, was released after the government decided against detaining him further in any other case.

He was under detention since January this year.

The fire-brand clerics release after midnight came ahead of the 9th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.

India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and also demanded trial of Saeed and Lashkar-e-Tayiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi in the light of evidence it had provided to Islamabad.

Saeed, addressing his supporters gathered outside his residence said: I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir.

I fight for the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir and we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom.

'I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release... India had levelled baseless allegations against me.'

Punjab provinces Judicial Review Board comprising judges of the Lahore high court on Wednesday unanimously ordered Saeeds release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest which expired on Thursday night.

India had expressed outrage over the decision of the judicial board to release Saeed, calling it an attempt by Pakistan to mainstream proscribed terrorists and a reflection of its continuing support to non-state actors.

The ministry of external affairs said Saeeds release confirmed once again the lack of seriousness by the Pakistan government in bringing to justice perpetrators of terrorism, including individuals and entities designated by the UN.

It also appears to be an attempt by the Pakistani system to mainstream proscribed terrorists. Pakistan has not changed its policy of shielding and supporting non-state actors and its true face is visible for all to see, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in New Delhi on Thursday.

Saeed said that he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris in January.

IMAGE: Saeed was under detention since January this year. He was detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. Photograph: Mohsin Raza/Reuters

Using the release order to buttress his claim of innocence, Saeed said: I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release... India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHCs review board decision has proved that I am innocent.

I was detained on the pressure of the United States on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India, he claimed.

Several JuD supporters, gathered outside Saeeds house in Lahores Jauhar town to celebrate his release, shouted anti-India slogans.

We are happy to see our leader free, JuD spokesman Ahmad Nadim said.

Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case, a top government official said.

He said that after a long deliberation, it has been decided to follow the review boards decision.

Saeeds release would lead to strong criticism from India and the US, official sources said.

It remains to be seen as how would the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government handle the foreign pressure to again detain Saeed, they said.

Punjab Assistant Advocate General Sattar Sahil said the government law officer had presented some important evidence to justify Saeeds detention, but all three members of the board unanimously rejected it and ordered his release.

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The last two extensions were made on the public safety law.

The board refused to give a further extension to the detention of Saeeds aides. They were set free last month.

According to the rules, the government could detain a person for up to three months under different charges, but for extension, it needs approval from a judicial review board.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned Lashkar-e-Tayiba which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack in November 2008 but he was freed by a court in 2009.

Ten LeT militants had killed 166 people and wounded dozens in Mumbai in November, 2008. Nine of the attackers were killed by police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught and executed after a court found him guilty.

Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN after the Mumbai attack.
The BJP hopes to highlight the "insulting" Congress meme on social media that had described the PM as a 'chaiwala', reports Archis Mohan.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership has already started calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi its 'trump card' for the Gujarat assembly polls, and he will renew his campaigning in the state by addressing eight public rallies in the first half of next week.

But if Modi's blitzkrieg of rallies will begin on Monday, the BJP has put in place a plan to have its Union ministers, chief ministers and senior leaders address at least one public rally in each of the 89 seats scheduled to vote in the first phase of the elections on December 9. The party has termed its plan "carpet bombing".

On Sunday, BJP workers across Gujarat plan to listen PM's 'Mann ki Baat' radio broadcast in public places over tea. The BJP hopes to highlight the "insulting" Congress meme on social media that had described the PM as a 'chaiwala', tea-seller.

"On the morning of November 26, we have organised 'Mann ki Baat, Chai ke Saath', where our workers will listen to the PM's broadcast at each of the 50,000 polling booths over tea," BJP Gujarat election in charge Bhupendra Yadav said.

The PM is scheduled to address eight rallies in the state from November 27 to 29 in Saurashtra and south Gujarat.

In addition to the PM's rallies, top BJP leaders, chief ministers of BJP ruled states and Cabinet ministers will also address public rallies on Sunday and Monday across the 89 of the 182 seats going to polls on December 9.

Each leader would address nearly five public meetings. Tribal leaders Jual Oram and Arjun Munda will address rallies in seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath will also address public rallies.

Of the cabinet ministers, Uma Bharti, Sushma Swaraj, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad and several others would be in Gujarat.

Image: Bharatiya Janata Party supporters form a map of Gujarat with candles ahead of the assembly elections, in Ahmedabad, on November 22, 2017. Photograph: PTI Photo.
At least 235 worshippers were killed and 109 others injured when heavily-armed terrorists bombed a mosque and opened fire on people attending Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, in the deadliest terror attack in the country.

The terrorists launched a targeted bomb and gun attack on the al-Rowda mosque in Al-Arish city during the Friday prayers, the state-run MENA news agency reported.

After the bomb ripped through the mosque, the gunmen on four off-road vehicles opened fire on the worshippers who tried to escape from the site after the explosion, it said.

At least 235 worshippers were killed and 109 others injured in the attack, Ahram Online said.

Pictures from the scene show rows of bloodied victims inside the mosque.

The blasts from improvised explosive devices caused considerable damage to the mosque, the website said.

Speaking to state-run Masriya TV station, Egyptian health ministry spokesman Khalid Mujahid described the incident as a "terrorist attack."

The Egypt government has announced three days of mourning. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi chaired an emergency meeting with officials to review security situation after the deadly attack.

In a statement later, Sisi pledged to respond with "brutal force" against terrorists.

He said that the "vile and treacherous" activity would not pass without a decisive punishment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the terror attack and said India supports the fight against terrorism.

"Strongly condemn the barbaric terrorist attack on a place of worship in Egypt. Our deep condolences at the loss of innocent lives," the prime minister tweeted.

He said India "resolutely supports" the fight against all forms of terrorism and stands with the people and the Egyptian government.

India's Ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya condemned the attack as "mindless violence" which he said "overtook sanity and held humanity hostage".

"Condemn terrorism, stand with people and government of Egypt in this difficult hour and join hands in fight against terrorism," Bhattacharyya tweeted.

One report said the target of the attack appeared to be supporters of the security forces who were praying at the mosque.

Local people are also quoted as saying that followers of Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, regularly gathered at the mosque.

Islamist jihadist groups, including so-called Islamic State, see Sufis as heretics.

About 50 ambulances were rushed to the attack site to shift the injured to hospitals.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack and there is no word yet on what happened to the militants involved. However, it bears the hallmarks of an attack by Islamic State, reports said.

There have been regular attacks blamed on militants on the Sinai peninsula since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak, but this is the deadliest assault of its kind.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has witnessed a series of terror attacks this year claiming scores of lives.

On May 26, gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others.

On April 9, two suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services at churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta left 46 people dead.

IMAGE: The exterior of Al Rawdah mosque is seen in Bir Al-Abed, Egypt in this still taken from video. Photograph: Reuters
Emmerson Mnangagwa, The Crocodile, has been sworn in as Zimbabwes president in a ceremony at a packed stadium in the countrys capital, Harare.

IMAGE: Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as Zimbabwe's president in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Photograph: Mike Hutchings/Reuters

It follows the dramatic departure of Robert Mugabe after 37 years of authoritarian rule.

Mnangagwa, the countrys former vice president, swore an oath of office to serve as interim president until a leader is elected at the polls next year. He is expected to contest the election as well.

I, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, swear that as president of the republic of Zimbabwe I will be faithful to Zimbabwe and obey, uphold and defend the constitution and all other laws of Zimbabwe, he said.

Mnangagwa fled the country after Mugabe fired him earlier this month, a dismissal that triggered the political turmoil and an apparent military coup in Harare.

IMAGE: People celebrate at the swearing-in ceremony of Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa fled the country after Mugabe fired him earlier this month. Photograph: Mike Hutchings/Reuters

Mnangagwa returned to Zimbabwe on Wednesday, a day after Mugabes resignation, and vowed to take the country into a new era of democracy and to rebuild the economy that rotted under Mugabes decades-long iron grip.

There was no sign of Robert or Grace Mugabe at the ceremony. Zimbabwes state newspaper, The Herald, reported Mugabe may not attend, saying he needed time to rest.

IMAGE: Mnangagwa returned to Zimbabwe on Wednesday, a day after Mugabes resignation, and vowed to take the country into a new era of democracy and to rebuild the economy that rotted under Mugabes decades-long iron grip. Photograph: Mike Hutchings/Reuters

The former president is likely to live out his last days in the comfort of his grand home in Zimbabwe. The couple was granted immunity from prosecution, the military had told news agencies earlier. Their safety has been guaranteed and they will be allowed to keep several of their properties.

Grace Mugabe had her own ambitions to take over the presidency. The military, determined to keep her from office, intervened when Mnangagwa was fired, fearing Grace Mugabes ascension.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday made a strong pitch for building the Ram Temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, saying only the mandir would come up there and not any other structure.

Addressing the Dharma Sansad, a congregation of 2,000 Hindu saints, mutt heads and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders from across the country at Udupi, he said there should be no ambiguity that Ram Temple will be built at Ayodhya.

We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of our faith. It will not change, Bhagwat said.

The RSS chief said that after years of efforts and sacrifice, it (building the Ram temple) seemed possible now, while also noting that the matter was in the court.

Ram Mandir only will be constructed and nothing else. It will be constructed there only (what is believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram), Bhagwat said.

He said the temple would be constructed in the same grandeur as it existed before, using the same stones under the guidance of those who were the flag-bearers of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement for the last 25 years.

But prior to it (building the temple), public awareness was essential, he said. We are close to achieving our goal but at this juncture, we should be extra cautious."

"We are close to achieving our goal but at this juncture, we should be extra cautious," he said.

Construction of the Ram temple, prevention of religious conversions and cow protection are among the key issues to be discussed at VHP's three-day 'Dharma Sansad'.

The meet will also discuss issues of discrimination on the basis of caste and gender and explore ways to ensure harmony within Hindu society, the organisers said.

The RSS chief also said the seers and Hindus gathered in huge numbers at the meet need to ponder over the conducive atmosphere prevailing in the country and elsewhere.

He cautioned the people against the forces which divide the society and asked them to remain alert.

The RSS supremo also spoke about religious conversion and the need to reach out to those who are prone to it.

"The strength of the society lies in its unity. When it is destroyed, anti-national forces gain foothold. We need to understand the consequences of religious conversion. We need to reach out to those who are prone to conversion," Bhagwat said.

He reminded the meet about the duty of seers and members of upper caste towards Dalits and other backward communities.

"The need for equality is still elusive in our deeds and practises though we all understand its significance."

"We should rise above the barriers of caste, creed and religion in our speech and action while treating people and embrace everybody wholeheartedly. There should not be any discrimination on the issues of sharing water, religious places and cremation grounds," said Bhagwat.

On cow-vigilantism, Bhagwat said people know what happens to the cows when they are sold to butchers.

He said 'cow protectors' surface due to the callousness of society.

"Society is careless about the status of cows. Those who have concern for the cows stand up to protect the cattle. This leads to conflict in the society resulting in bad name to the 'cow protectors'," said Bhagwat.

Vishvesha Teertha Swamiji of Pejavar Math of Udupi, who chairs the reception committee, said the Ram Temple would be built in a year, well before 2019.

The octogenarian seer with a huge following in Karnataka and elsewhere, demanded that the government amend the Constitution to do away with special provisions for minorities in order for equality in the society.

Addressing the meet earlier, VHP leader Pravin Togadia set the tone for the issues to be discussed in the Dharma Sansad in the next three days.

He reiterated VHP's affirmation to build the Ram Temple and a ban on cow slaughter.

Togadia also demanded that the government should not regulate Hindu temples.

"If the Indian Constitution is secular, why are governments regulating Hindu temples? Are there any instances of government controlling any mosque or church? If not, then why is this discrimination only with Hindu temples.

"Let Hindus manage their temples," he said.

Located in the coastal area, Udupi is famous for the Krishna temple with the idol believed to have been discovered by 13th century Vaishnavite saint Madhwacharya, who founded the Dwaitha school of philosophy.

While ochre colour festoons and flags dotted every part of Udupi and neighbouring towns such as Manipal, the attire of the participants and the marquee has filled in the atmosphere with Hindutva flavour.

Elaborate security has been made for the Dharma Sansad.

The Udupi event is significant as the first formal announcement for Ram Temple at Rama Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya was made here in 1985 and a year later, the doors of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya were open to the public for darshan.

'Bhagwat's remarks challenge to SC'

Muslim organisations reacted sharply to RSS chief's strong pitch for building the temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, terming it as a direct challenge to the apex court before which the matter wass pending, and demanded action against him.

They also alleged that Bhagwat was trying to help the BJP in the upcoming Gujarat elections by diverting the attention of voters from "real" issues with such statements.

"The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has faith in the judiciary and will try to implement its order... by issuing this statement Mohan Bhagwat has taken law into his hands," the spokesman of the AIMPLB, Maulana Khaild Saifullah Rehmani, said.

He demanded that the government take action against "such people who are openly showing disrespect to the courts and taking law into their hands".

Bhagwat has issued "a one-sided statement that only a temple will be constructed at the site and this is unacceptable to us", Rehmani said, adding this amounts to showing disrespect to the court.

The convenor of Babri Masjid Action Committee and member of the Board, Zafaryab Jilani, alleged that such remarks "challenging" the apex court are a threat to democracy.

Jilani, who is also a senior counsel, said that it appears that Bhagwat has tried to help the BJP in the Gujarat assembly elections through his statement.

"Bhagwat has given an open challenge to the Supreme Court .... As per the Constitution, the apex court is supreme and its orders have to be implemented in the country ...it has asked for maintaining status quo on the site ...through this statement Bhagwat has given a direct challenge to the Supreme Court and this is also a threat for democracy," he said.

The spokesman of All India Shia Personal Law Board, Maulana Yasoob Abbas, said "Sangh chief is not above the Supreme Court, he will also have to accept the court verdict".

"Despite the issue pending in the court, Mohan Bhagwat has given this statement only to divert the attention of voters in Gujarat from real issues," Abbas said.

The Supreme Court will on December 5 commence the final hearing on the cross-appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute.

The high court had ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acre area at Ayodhya among the parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla.
A day after three Muslim clerics were beaten up in a moving train in Baghpat for wearing scarves, principal of a missionary school in Barabanki on Friday asked a Muslim student to remove her headscarf or take admission in an Islamic institution.

The incident was reported from Anand Bhavan School in Nagar Kotwali area, prompting the local authorities to order a probe into the matter.

We got a complaint and we have asked the block education officer to conduct a probe. The school has been served with a notice, but it has not replied to it so far, Basic Shiksha Adhikari P N Singh said.

We have also asked the officer to visit the school and make an on-the-spot inquiry, he said.

The students father Mohammad R Rizvi alleged that he had approached the school principal, Archana Thomas, with a written request to allow his daughter to wear the religious headscarf.

But the principal asked him to get his daughter admitted to an Islamic school if he could not abide by rules laid down by the school.

It is to clarify to you that this is a minority school, but there are many communities in minority category, and one community cannot impose its rules on other communities, Thomas reportedly told Rizvi, adding, The school will not be able to provide an exemption to its rules.

The principal also asked the students father not to disrupt the schools functioning by asking unnecessary questions.

If you face any inconvenience, you can admit your ward to an Islamic school, she told him.

The principal of the missionary school further noted that wearing a headscarf did not conform to the dress code of the school, while reprimanding Rizvi for questioning the school managements decision on this issue.

Rizvi later met the district magistrate regarding the schools order.

He said his daughter had been studying in the school since kindergarten and as per Islamic tradition, the child had to cover her hair after reaching the age of nine.

My daughter was asked not to wear a headscarf to school, another girl was made to remove it. I argued that our Sikh brothers are allowed to wear turbans, even though the same is not part of the dress code, he said.

The principal, however, clarified that she did not ask the student to leave the school.

If they have a problem with the rules, they can admit their child to another school, not necessarily an Islamic one, Thomas said.

On the question of differentiating among communities by allowing Sikhs to keep the turbans and barring Muslims from practising their beliefs, the principal said, Sikhs do not study here.

The incident came to light a day after three Muslim clerics were beaten up by allegedly by unidentified persons in a moving train in Baghpat.

The maulvis, who had boarded a passenger train at Delhi on Thursday night, were on their way to their village in Baghpat, when they had a tiff with some youths who allegedly beat them up. The accused reportedly wanted to know why the clerics covered their heads with handkerchiefs.

The clerics received injuries on their heads, hands and legs.

The Baghpat police registered a case in this regard and are on the lookout for the culprits.

Image used for representational purposes only. Photograph: Mansi Thapliyal/Reuters
The LIGO announcement -- which confirmed, among other things, that gold, platinum and other heavy metals were products of neutron star collisions -- came just before Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar's 107th birthday.

Devangshu Datta on how a 19-year-old Indian first concluded how stars live and die.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

In July 1930, a 19 year old from Madras boarded a ship, heading for Trinity College, Cambridge. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who was born on October 19, 1910, was the son of C V Raman's brother, and reckoned a physics prodigy. He had already graduated.

His metier was astrophysics. On that journey, he came to some conclusions about the ways in which stars 'lived' and 'died'.

He would eventually win the Nobel Prize for the calculations initiated while on that voyage.

The latest news from the cutting edge of astrophysics confirms some of his theories. The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) witnessed an epochal event on August 17 when it observed gravitational waves from two colliding neutron stars, Source GW170817 in NGC 4993, from 130 million light years away.

The data from the two LIGO labs in the US were confirmed by the new Italian facility, Virgo, which meant unprecedented accuracy. Many other observatories chimed in with visual and electromagnetic data.

Fittingly, many Indians were among the 1,500-odd scientists involved in generating the data and making sense of it.

This event confirmed, among other things, that gold, platinum and other heavy metals were products of neutron star collisions.

In fact, as the song goes, 'We are all (literally) made of stars.'

Stars take hydrogen -- the simplest, lightest and most abundant element -- and turn it into helium through nuclear fusion.

Two hydrogen atoms are compressed and fused into one helium atom with the excess released as energy.

That's the sunlight and heat that we depend on.

As a star gets older, it starts running out of hydrogen. It uses helium in another fusion reaction to create beryllium.

After that, the fusion of beryllium with helium creates carbon, and carbon fusion with helium creates oxygen, and so on.

At each stage, fusion creates heavier elements. However, scientists weren't sure where the really heavy elements were created (an element gets heavier if it has a more complex atom with more particles).

When a star 'dies', matter is recycled.

Stars die in two (and a half) ways. Some go out with a very big bang (a supernova), some with a bang (nova); others wink out with a whimper (white dwarfs). It depends on how massive the star is.

A relatively small star -- something about the mass of the sun or little more -- collapses and becomes a white dwarf. That's a small blob of very dense matter. About 97 per cent of stars turn into white dwarfs.

More massive stars die in a much more spectacular way. A massive star collapses until it becomes unstable, and goes nova or supernova, blowing up in a huge explosion. That releases a massive burst of light and energy.

For a brief while a supernova can release more energy than the rest of the observed universe.

Matter is hurled out, travelling through space at great speeds. Those recycled elements get 'captured' and turn into planets.

After a supernova, what remains is compressed into progressively smaller space. It turns into a very small, very dense core stripped down to neutrons.

Neutron stars may be more massive than the sun but just occupy the same volume of space as a small city.

A teaspoon of neutron star material would have about 10 billion kg of mass.

If there's a lot of material left, compression doesn't stop at that stage. The core collapses to form a black hole.

When two stars are close together in the same system, it's called a binary system.

When a binary goes supernova, we get two neutron stars and those can collide and merge into one.

These observations confirmed that collapsing neutron stars release short intense bursts of gamma rays. It also confirmed that gravitational waves travel at the same speed as electromagnetic waves and light, just as Einstein had predicted.

Spectrum analysis of the material spewed out showed the signature of newly-created elements such as gold and platinum, confirming that it is indeed such events that create many of the heavy elements.

Chandrasekhar was the man who calculated the critical mass at which stars go unstable.

Stars above what is now called the Chandrasekhar Mass Limit (CML) -- about 1.4 times the mass of our sun -- go nova.

Stars below the CML become white dwarfs.

NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory was at the forefront of the many observatories working on the neutron star collision.

Chandra detected X-rays after the event, confirming that this is also a characteristic of such collisions.

The LIGO announcement came during the festive season, just before Chandrasekhar's 107th birthday.

This was fitting given that it tells us where precious metals come from and why these are so rare.

Now we know that jewellers, superstitious or not, can really thank the stars!
Giant panda Ba Xi runs to the forest at Liziping Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Nov. 23, 2017. A pair of giant panda, male and female, were released into Liziping Nature Reserve on Thursday as part of a program to rebuild the wild panda population. Ba Xi, the male, was born in July 2015, and Ying Xue is just 14 days older. China has 518 giant pandas in captivity. However, the captive stock lacks genetic diversity. China plans to create a giant panda national park and releasing more pandas into the wild. (Xinhua/Yang Jin)

CHENGDU, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- A pair of giant panda, male and female, were released into the wild on Thursday as part of a program to rebuild the wild panda population.

Ba Xi, the male, was born in July 2015, and Ying Xue is just 14 days older. In light snow on Thursday morning, they were released into Liziping Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

"They are in good condition today. When they saw humans, they ran very fast to the forest rather than seeking for food from them," said Wu Daifu of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

The pair disappeared in the forest equipped with radio monitoring equipment to track them and collect data on how they adapt to a natural environment and integrate with the wild panda population.

According to the center's Li Desheng the center chooses four pregnant pandas each year to lead their cubs in wilderness training.

"Ba Xi and Ying Xue have learned how to find food and water independently and avoid danger in their two-year training," Li said.

They are the second pair to be released into the wild.

In October last year, two female pandas Hua Yan and Zhang Meng, also both bred in captivity, were released into the reserve. They are currently believed to be in good condition.

The fourth national census on giant pandas in 2015 showed 33 populations in China, 22 with less than 30 pandas.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature reclassified the giant panda species as "vulnerable" rather than "endangered" last year, thanks to decades of protection.

China has 518 giant pandas in captivity. However, the captive stock lacks genetic diversity. China plans to create a giant panda national park and releasing more pandas into the wild.
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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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By MA SI (China Daily) 08:16, November 24, 2017

Airline passengers will be able to surf the internet in the air almost as fast as they do on the ground, as China Unicom, China's second-largest telecom carrier by subscribers, prepares to demonstrate its in-flight Wi-Fi service next month.

The move came shortly after local airlines were allowed to decide for themselves whether passengers could use personal electronic devices during flights, paving the way for a new multibillion market.

China Unicom said more than 80 airplanes from carriers including China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines have been equipped with its internet software and systems.

"Next month, we will demonstrate a stable, high-speed internet surfing experience onboard planes that's roughly similar to what we have on the ground," China Unicom said in a statement, without disclosing more details.

Currently, in-flight Wi-Fi is available only in some planes of Chinese airlines. A report by research firm Routehappy shows that 78 percent of airlines in the United States provide some sort of connectivity. In China, it is 23 percent, according to a domestic aviation statistics company Vari-Flight.

Xiang Ligang, a telecom expert and chief executive of industry website Cctime, said that so far, most of the in-flight Wi-Fi service in China is of poor quality or just partially connected, which makes it hard for airlines to commercialize such offerings.

"The effort by China Unicom is likely to change the landscape. Its years of experience in satellite communication and telecom services may help make onboard connectivity more affordable and stable," he added.

China Unicom said the service would be run by Unicom-AirNet, a joint venture it set up in April with several local partners. The company said it has built the largest satellite communication infrastructure in Asia, which will help ensure communication quality.

China introduced a ban on using electronic devices during flights in 1999 due to safety concerns.

But starting Oct 1, airlines were allowed to decide for themselves whether passengers could use such devices.

As an increasing number of passengers are willing to pay for onboard connectivity, Chinese airlines are expected to generate up to 11.83 billion yuan ($1.78 billion) in revenue from offering such service in 2020, Carnoc.com, a major Chinese civil aviation website, forecast.

Ma Bin, a software engineer in Beijing who is frequently on business trips, said, "That's exactly what I need. I am willing to pay for such service as long as it does not charge over 20 yuan an hour."
(Xinhua) 08:23, November 24, 2017

HARARE, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Thursday urged the new Zimbabwean government to dismantle all pillars of repression and oppression that had been put in place by former President Robert Mugabe.

"We remain firmly convinced that all the pillars, warts and all, of the Mugabe dictatorship have got to tumble," the MDC said in a statement.

"The people of Zimbabwe are looking forward to a new and refreshing era of political tolerance and socioeconomic transformation and regeneration.

"The politics of thuggery, intolerance, intransigence, patronage and corruption that were the hallmark of the collapsed Mugabe regime should never, ever be allowed to resurface in our beloved motherland," the party added.

It said the new government must ensure the creation of strong institutions as opposed to the creation of strong personalities, adding that it remains cautiously optimistic that the Mnangagwa administration "will not mimic and replicate the evil, corrupt, decadent and incompetent Mugabe regime."

"In this respect, therefore, we shall continue to denounce the deification of individuals in our political discourse. Politicians come and go but Zimbabwe shall always remain in place," the MDC said.

The opposition party also called for an even electoral playing field during next year's elections.

Former president Robert Mugabe resigned Tuesday following pressure from the military and Zimbabweans, ending his 37 year grip on power.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's constitutional watchdog Veritas on Thursday urged Zimbabwean authorities to uphold the rights of everyone detained following the military takeover of government on Nov. 15.

"Everyone who has been arrested and detained for a crime, whatever its nature, must be brought before a court as soon as possible and in any event within 48 hours.

"We urge the authorities to accord the detained ministers their fundamental constitutional rights, rights upon which Zimbabwe itself is founded by virtue of section 3 of the Constitution," Veritas said.

Media reports have alleged that the military arrested a number of former president Robert Mugabe's associates including some cabinet ministers and that they remain in detention.

However, the military has not provided information about any arrest, location, and conditions of detention, or reasons for arrest.
(Xinhua) 08:28, November 24, 2017

On a cloudy Tuesday Afternoon, Susan Emmanuel Mahaligewi, a mother of four children, walked out of the Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark wearing a broad smile.

A doctor from the Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark examines a child at the Kurasini Children's Home in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Nov. 21, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua/Li Sibo]

"I have undergone free medical check-up conducted by Chinese doctors in the ship and they have told me I have a clean bill of health," said 37-year-old Mahaligewi after disembarking the ship with a length of 178 meters, a beam of 24 meters and a height of 35.5 meters.

"For quite some time I have been through nightmares thinking I was a victim of breast cancer since I started feeling pains in one of my breasts in April this year," she told Xinhua in an interview.

Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark arrived on Sunday morning in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam, starting an eight-day humanitarian mission of providing free medical services to local residents.

Since arrival of the ship, crowds of Tanzanians have swarmed to the Dar es Salaam port and sign up for medical check-ups.

"The visit by the Chinese doctors to provide free medical care is a blessing to me. I have been seeking treatment in various hospitals since April without getting proper diagnosis," said Mahaligewi.

Apart from getting free medical check-ups, Mahaligewi was also given medicines without being charged.

A doctor from the Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark teaches children how to wash hands properly at the Kurasini Children's Home in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Nov. 21, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua/Li Sibo]

Mahaligewi was among more than 6,000 Tanzanians who have lined up for treatment by the visiting Chinese doctors.

On the same day, a team of about 11 Chinese doctors from the ship visited the Kurasini Children's Home (KCH), a government-owned center established in 1968 to look after abandoned, lost and abused children, where they provided free medical care and donated school bags and toys.

The children wore faces of joy on seeing their Chinese visitors, who also entertained them with Chinese martial arts.

More than 40 of the home's 75 children underwent free medical check-ups and were given free medicines.

Aurelia Michael, a nursing officer at the KCH, told Xinhua that a good number of the children were suffering from malaria, skin diseases, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia and diarrhea.

The nurse thanked the Chinese doctors for their kindness in extending a helping hand to the poor children staying at the home, which is running out of medicines and depends on donations to survive.

"We are very grateful for the visit by the Chinese doctors. Your visit shows how much you love us," said Beatrice Lawrence Mgumio, KCH officer in charge.

The arrival of the Peace Ark, its second visit to the East African country in seven years, was received with much joy.

A doctor from the Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark examines a child at the Kurasini Children's Home in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Nov. 21, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua/Li Sibo]

At the welcome ceremony held at the Dar es Salaam port, Task Group Commander of Peace Ark Guan Bailin said the crew will carry out free medical services, humanitarian assistance and medical training to promote friendly relations and deepen professional exchanges between China and Tanzania.

Tanzania Navy Commander Richard Mutayoba Makanzo thanked China for sending the Peace Ark to Tanzania again.

In 2010-2015, the Peace Ark visited 29 countries and regions in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania. A total 120,000 people received free on-board medical and humanitarian services.

The current tour has taken the ship to Djibouti, Gabon, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Mozambique in Africa, prior to Tanzania.
Will China have its #MeToo Moment?

Publisher Amnesty International Author Lu Pin Publication Date 24 November 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Will China have its #MeToo Moment?, 24 November 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a17fab34.html [accessed 17 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 tidal wave of sexual harassment allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men spurred millions of women to speak up online about their disturbing experiences.

Ten years after African American activist Tarana Burke coined #MeToo after meeting a victim of sexual violence, the social media campaign is an unexpected victory for the women's movement. Due to the bravery of these women the offenders may finally be held to account.

In China, people in power and wider society still struggle to accept that sexual harassment is a major problem. They fail to acknowledge that sexual harassment has a long-term impact on women. Whether it happens in the public or in the workplace, it brings fear, shame and timidity to women, preventing them from enjoying public space and opportunities. Some still blame women's "improper" behaviour for the men's actions- at once blaming the victim and denying the issue of sexual harassment as a human rights issue.

Yet, against this backdrop we have witnessed a victory for women's rights in China, one that was years in the making.

In June 2017, anti-harassment ads appeared in subway stations across Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenzhen - in campaigns funded either by corporations or by the government-backed All-China Women's Federation.

After years of work by women's rights advocates to ignite a mainstream debate on sexual harassment, often in the face of hostility and derision, the government could no longer ignore the issue.

In March 2015, on the eve of International Women's Day, five young feminists were detained for planning a campaign against sexual harassment on public transport. The "Feminist Five' incident rang alarm bells in China. People questioned why campaigning against sexual harassment was banned.

Five years earlier, in 2012 for the first time there was a heated online debate about women's rights. The question posed was whether a woman is responsible for being harassed if she wears revealing clothing? Some women from Shanghai declared "I can be sexy but you cannot harass me" to clearly express that a woman has rights over her own body. The debate had a long-lasting impact in China: young women became more outspoken about sexual harassment and numerous online debates have taken place ever since.

The "Feminist Five" attempted to redirect this online sentiment into real life activism. The response from the authoritarian government was to ignore the issue and instead suppress the protest. Anti-sexual harassment campaigns organized by civil society became 'sensitive' and more risky.

However, the government could not suppress the groundswell of support to end sexual harassment, which grew in scope and strength. A unique phenomenon emerged: public support for women's rights grew, but activism, which is at the core of the movement, took a backseat.

In 2016, a group of women in Guangzhou, southern China, undertook an online fundraising campaign to fund subway ads against sexual harassment. They waited a year for their ads to be approved, only to be told that government organizations alone can publish such ads.

One of the women involved Zhang Leilei* then took it upon herself to post the ads online. In May 2017, she called for people in different parts of the country to walk around as 'human billboards' to raise awareness of sexual harassment. The campaign took off with women and girls across the country posting pictures on social media of the adverts in front of landmarks in their cities. Zhang Leilei's call for action had given women and girls a channel to air their legitimate grievances and to fight for their own rights.

The successful initiative was abruptly halted by the authorities. The women's voices were silenced, ignored by China's mainstream state-run media. Zhang Leilei faced harassment and was forced out of her home.

Zhang paid a high price for her brave activism. While Zhang was left discouraged, ads sponsored by the government or by corporations started to appear on subways, and at least one borrowed words from her campaign.

The government sanctioned campaign is significant because tackling sexual harassment was finally brought into the official public sphere in China. It's a major first step to including the issue on the public policy agenda. It shows that, however difficult it may seem, change is possible.

Government-backed media outlets even delved into and attempted to take over the feminism discourse. In early 2017, state media outlet the Global Times openly spoke about "official feminism", suggesting that only the government can tackle concerns of women's rights. Such forces sometimes take on a more liberal approach, even becoming a voice of justice, but their purpose is only to attract "followers", luring young people who care about women's rights but fear social activism to become party loyalists. The fact that China has dropped to 100th in the Global Gender Gap Report shows the ineffectiveness of this "official feminism".

In an era where civil society is discredited by the government as a hostile force, a movement led by the younger generation, even with its strong public support, cannot garner enough social resources to become sustainable. Activists like Zhang Leilei adapted, eschewing coordinated campaigns. Activism became organic, initiated by one person and echoed by others.

Such groundbreaking activism generated strong public support and the government has heeded these calls. We need to try every means possible and see every failure as energy stored. Uncertainty is high, but in a society where all sense of security has been deprived, every bit of progress becomes a confluence of events.

It was only after decades of tireless advocacy that the anti-domestic violence law was finally enacted in March 2016. By comparison, the discussion on sexual harassment is only at its infancy.

Compared to #MeToo, the anti-sexual harassment campaign in China faces many more hurdles and challenges, but what is most precious and a source for great optimism is that the activists will never give up.

*Zhang LeiLei is a pseudonym

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Saudi Arabia: New Counterterrorism Law Enables Abuse

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 23 November 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Saudi Arabia: New Counterterrorism Law Enables Abuse, 23 November 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a1803644.html [accessed 17 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.

Saudi Arabia's new counterterrorism law includes vague and overly broad definitions of acts of terrorism, in some cases punishable by death, Human Rights Watch said today.

The law replaces a widely criticized counterterrorism law promulgated in 2014, adding definitions of specific acts of terrorism and their corresponding sentencing guidelines. It includes criminal penalties of 5 to 10 years in prison for portraying the king or crown prince, directly or indirectly, "in a manner that brings religion or justice into disrepute," and criminalizes a wide range of peaceful acts that bear no relation to terrorism.

"Saudi authorities are already methodically silencing and locking away peaceful critics on spurious charges," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead of improving abusive legislation, Saudi authorities are doubling down with the ludicrous proposition that criticism of the crown prince is an act of terrorism."

The Penal Law for Crimes of Terrorism and its Financing, published on November 1, 2017, strips away extensive powers from the Interior Ministry, which Saudi authorities reorganized in 2017, and transfers them to the newly established Public Prosecution and Presidency of the State Security, both bodies that report directly to the king.

The new law carries an overly broad definition of terrorism similar to the previous law. Unlike the previous definition, the new one includes a specific reference to violence with the clause "harm an individual or result in their death, when the purpose - by its nature or its context - is to terrorize people or force a government or international organization to carry out or prevent it from carrying out an action."

The new law, however, does not restrict the definition of terrorism to violent acts. Other conduct it defines as terrorism includes "disturbing public order," "shaking the security of the community and the stability of the State," "exposing its national unity to danger," and "suspending the basic laws of governance," all of which are vague and have been used by Saudi authorities to punish peaceful dissidents and activists. Prominent human rights activists Abdullah al-Hamid and Mohammed al-Qahtani are serving 11-year and 10-year sentences respectively, based on charges that contain similar language. Human rights activist Essam Koshak is currently on trial on similar charges.

The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism had concluded in May, following a visit to Saudi Arabia, that he was "concerned about the unacceptably broad definition of terrorism and the use of Saudi Arabia's 2014 counter-terrorism law and other national security provisions against human rights defenders, writers, bloggers, journalists and other peaceful critics."

One positive change to the definition of terrorism stipulated in article 1 of the previous law is the removal of the controversial phrase "insulting the reputation of the State," which prosecutors have vigorously employed to charge and prosecute dissidents. Article 30 of the new law, however, allows prosecutors to limit the right to free expression by designating criticism of the king and the crown prince that "brings religion or justice into disrepute" as a terrorist act.

Given the new law's vague definition of terrorism, which could allow authorities to continue to target peaceful criticism, other provisions of the law raise alarms, Human Rights Watch said. Article 34, for example, provides a prison term of three to eight years for anyone who supports, promotes, sympathizes with, or incites terrorism. Article 35 stipulates a sentence of no less than 15 years for anyone who "misuse[s] their status in any way either academic or social status or media influence to promote terrorism."

The new law undermines due process and fair trial rights, Human Rights Watch said. Instead of amending the law to strengthen the role of the judiciary, it grants the public prosecution and the Presidency of the State Security the legal authority to arrest and detain people, monitor their communications and financial data, and search their properties and seize assets without judicial oversight. The Presidency of State Security can ban a suspect from travel without notifying them, and the law gives police officers and military personnel authorization to use force "according to regulations laid down in the law." No additional regulations on use of force are mentioned in the text.

As in the previous law, article 19 of the new law allows the public prosecution to hold a suspect in pretrial detention for up to 12 months, with unlimited extension upon court order, and article 20 allows suspects to be held for up to 90 days in incommunicado detention, where torture and mistreatment are most frequent, according to the UN special rapporteur on torture. In a memorandum submitted to the United Nations Committee Against Torture in April 2016, Human Rights Watch highlighted seven cases in which detainees tried at the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) alleged that confessions were extracted through torture.

Article 21 restricts the suspect's right to a lawyer during interrogation, and article 27 gives the SCC the authority to hear witnesses and experts without the defendant or their lawyer present. It requires the court only to inform them of the content of the testimony, greatly hampering their right to challenge this evidence.

The law, which includes 27 articles on penalties, introduces the death penalty for three acts. Articles 40 and 41 state that the court may sentence to death "anyone who kidnaps or detains a person or threatens to do so in execution of a terrorist crime" and "anyone who seizes a means of public transport or threatens to do so in execution of a terrorist crime" whenever any such action is accompanied by the use or declaration of either weapons or explosives. International law mandates that in countries that retain capital punishment, the death penalty should be applied only to the most serious crimes such as those resulting in death or serious bodily harm, and urges countries to abolish the death penalty. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as cruel and inhuman punishment.

"Mohammad bin Salman claims to be a reformist but locking away peaceful critics as terrorists is the same old despotism we've often seen from Saudi rulers," Whitson said.

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Ugandan police arrest eight directors and editors of tabloid newspaper

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 23 November 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Ugandan police arrest eight directors and editors of tabloid newspaper, 23 November 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a180a1f4.html [accessed 17 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) calls for the immediate release of eight senior employees of the Kampala-based Red Pepper tabloid, arrested on 21 November, and for the reopening of the newspaper, which was closed the same day.





The eight employees arrested during an anti-terrorist police raid on Red Pepper's headquarter were directors Patrick Mugumya, Arinaitwe Rugyendo, James Mujuni and Johnson Musinguzi Byarabaha, financial manager Richard Tusiime and editors Ben Byarabaha, Richard Kintu and Tumusiime Francis Tinywana.





According to police sources, they are being held at Nalufenya detention centre in Jinja, a city 85 km east of Kampala. The centre is known for the use of brutal interrogation methods. They are said to be accused of endangering state security but the charges have not yet been confirmed.





The arrests were prompted by a 20 November article headlined "M7 plots to remove Kagame," which claimed that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni (nicknamed "M7") was plotting against his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame. According to local sources, Red Pepper took the article from a Rwandan online newspaper without verifying the information.





"This kind of reaction by the authorities is completely disproportionate," RSF said. "Charging journalists with endangering security because of an article? Sending anti-terrorist police to a newspaper? What is the Museveni government afraid of? We call on the authorities to free the arrested journalists at once, and to allow the newspaper to resume operating freely, in accordance with Uganda's laws."





The raid began when the anti-terrorist police arrived at Red Pepper's headquarters with a search warrant and surrounded the building. In the course of the search, they examined all the computers and electronic equipment and other documents used by the newspaper's journalists.





Referring to the newspaper's headquarters as a "crime scene," police spokesman Emilian Kayima said it was closed "until further notice."





The Ugandan government has of late taken several measures to restrict media freedom and intimidate journalists. This has included banning live transmission of parliamentary debates and interrogating newspaper publishers.





Uganda is ranked 112th out of 180 countries in RSF's World Press Freedom Index.
Pakistan: a month of silence for journalists in Balochistan

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 24 November 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Pakistan: a month of silence for journalists in Balochistan, 24 November 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a180b1e4.html [accessed 17 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 month after armed groups began silencing the press in the southwestern province of the Balochistan when their ultimatum expired on 24 October, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) appeals to the province's separatist rebels and to the Pakistani intelligence agencies to leave journalists out of the conflict.

No newspapers have circulated in almost half of Balochistan's districts for the past month. Grenades have been thrown and building facades have been raked with bullets. Journalists have closed 23 press clubs for fear of reprisals. Reporters, media workers and newspaper vendors are all now potential victims of these rebel groups.





"This situation might appear absurd if it were not for the level of violence," said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk. "The freedom to inform is essential for starting a dialogue and for conflict resolution. Like intelligence agency intimidation, preventing the distribution of newspapers can only make the situation worse. We urge all parties to let journalists do their work because it is vital for the public interest in the province."





At the start of the year, Pakistani intelligence agents began contacting Balochi journalists and ordering them to stop covering any statements by the province's armed separatist groups.





In retaliation, two rebel groups said they would respond with violence against local newspapers if they had not resumed covering the separatist struggle by 24 October. RSF and its partner in Pakistan Freedom Network launched a security fund in order to provide assistance to journalists in imminent danger.





As in the rest of Pakistan, where the army functions as a state within the state, coverage of security issues is off limits for the media. Journalists who cross this red line are liable to be harassed, arrested or murdered.





But the situation is even tenser in the unstable province of Balochistan, where around 40 journalists have been killed in the past decade. Death threats by both rebel groups and intelligence agencies are frequent.
On election eve, what hope for media freedom in Honduras?

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 24 November 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, On election eve, what hope for media freedom in Honduras?, 24 November 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a180baf4.html [accessed 17 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.

As Honduras prepares for a presidential election on 26 November, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) voices deep concern about the appalling state of media freedom in this Central American country.

Eight years after a coup d'etat in June 2009, the level of press freedom is still sinking in Honduras. Journalists continue to be the targets of judicial proceedings, violence and murder, reinforcing a climate of fear and self-censorship that has worsened under Juan Orlando Hernandez, the president since January 2014.





After getting the supreme court to strike articles from the constitution banning a second presidential term in 2015, Hernandez is running for reelection and is expected to win. His record on media freedom during his first term was particularly bad, so the prospect of his reelection is very disturbing for RSF.





Dangerous country for journalists





Honduras is one of the western hemisphere's most dangerous countries for the media. According to its National Commission for Human Rights (CONADEH), 70 journalists and media workers were killed in Honduras from January 2001 until August of this year. No fewer than 91% of these cases are still unpunished.





According to RSF's tally, at least four journalists have been killed in direct connection with their work since January 2014. The latest murder, that of Canal 22 journalist Carlos William Flores on 13 September, caused an international outcry. Many other journalists have been killed in Honduras in recent years but, in the absence of reliable information and proper investigations, it is hard to establish a clear link between their murder and their journalistic work.





The creation of a national mechanism for protecting human rights defenders and journalists in May 2015 has unfortunately not led to any improvement. Lacking staff and funding, this mechanism has yet to meet initial expectations. And in a country mired in corruption and impunity, it inspires no confidence in journalists.





In March 2017, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) voiced concern about the mechanism's ineffectiveness and made a number of recommendations, shared by RSF, for improving it.





"On the eve of this presidential election, we sound the alarm about the extremely dangerous environment in which Honduran journalists are operating," said Emmanuel Colombie, the head of RSF's Latin America desk.





"The winner of this election, whoever he is, needs to address the difficult task of ending this spiral of violence and reviving the status of journalism in Honduras. This requires political will and concrete action to reinforce the protection and risk-prevention mechanisms in a sustainable manner, to combat impunity and to end the systematic censorship of those who criticize."





State censorship, judicial proceedings





The Hernandez administration has used all possible means to try to control reporting and gag critics. The community media and opposition press have in particular been subjected to measures that include restrictions on access to public information, difficulty getting accreditation, procedural harassment and threats.





Journalists who investigate violence, human rights violations, corruption, organized crime and organized crime's infiltration of the state are the most likely to be the targets of reprisals.





The cases of Libertad TV director and presenter Ariel Armando D'Vicente, who was sentenced to three years in prison in 2016 on a defamation charge, and Julio Ernesto Alvarado, the target of prolonged judicial proceedings, are prime examples of how the authorities persecute critics.





A Radio Globo y TV presenter, Alvarado was prosecuted on a defamation charge in 2013 and was then banned from working as a journalist in 2015. RSF has issued many press releases about his case.





Many other journalists, who RSF met during a visit to Honduras last month, are embroiled in complex problems in which they are being targeted by organized crime or corrupt elected officials.





They include Jonny Lagos, the editor of the El Libertador newspaper, who escaped a murder attempt in Tegucigalpa on 26 August, Jairo Lopez, the victim of a major smear campaign and defamation proceedings marred by irregularities, and Milthon Robles, who fled to Spain in December 2016 to escape the threats he was getting in Honduras.





Honduras is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index. In 2008, it was ranked 100th.
The Chinese Ambassador to Cameroon, Wei Wenhua, on November 21, 2017 in the countrys capital, Yaounde, donated foodstuff and other basic items to assist vulnerable people in the North West and South West Regions. The gift worth about 9 million FCFA (107,000 RMB), was handed over to Habissou Bidoung, Secretary General of the Chantal Biya Foundation, FCB, the charity organization founded by First Lady Chantal Biya.

"We appreciate the work of Chantal Biya Foundation," Wei Wenhua noted. "FCB has been assisting the underprivileged for many years. On behalf of the Chinese Embassy, I commend the efforts of Mrs. Chantal Biya," the Ambassador said. "The Chinese Embassy is ready to continue to cooperate with Chantal Biya Foundation to improve the living standards of underprivileged people. The present donation, which is meant for people in the North West and South West Regions, demonstrates the deep friendship between China and Cameroon," Wei added.

Habissou Bidoung on behalf of Mrs. Chantal Biya thanked the Chinese Ambassador for the donation, adding that the First Ladys humanitarian activities were not limited to the Chantal Biya Foundation. Instead, they cover the country, assisting poor people in remote communities. Ambassador Wei Wenhua was later taken round on a guided tour of the Chantal Biya Foundation headquarters.

In order to raise public awareness on the fight against poverty, disease, misery and all types of exclusion in urban and rural areas, Mrs. Chantal Biya in 1994 founded the foundation that bears her name. The Chantal Biya Foundation seeks to prevent and ease human hardship; ensure the protection, education and social and health needs of mothers and children. It assists poor patients, abandoned children and the elderly; combats poverty and misery; protects the family, and assists needy hospitals and health centres with equipment and drugs.

An apolitical, non-denominational and non-profit humanitarian association, the Chantal Biya Foundation was recognized as a public interest association by government on April 30, 1999. It enjoys special advisory status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It is also member of the Francophonie Mother and Child Network.

Kimeng Hilton Ndukong, a contributor to Peoples Daily Online, is Sub-Editor for World News with Cameroon Tribune bilingual daily newspaper in Cameroon. He is currently a 2017 China-Africa Press Centre, CAPC fellow.
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TORRINGTON  More than six decades after the Flood of 55, the city is on course to have the Naugatuck River officially considered as an asset, not a threat, as it puts the final touches on restoring the levee system in the city.

U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Connecticut, Mayor Elinor Carbone, and Col. Bill Conde, the U.S. Army Core of Engineers district commander for New England, took a walk along the river Tuesday to discuss the status of the citys efforts and future possibilities for the waterway.

The corps began work on the citys flood protection system after the flood of 1955, Esty said.

Over time, that levee system has been worn down by the river and the elements, Conde and Esty said. Regulations have changed and the maintenance has not always been done, Conde said.

Just over the course of the years, when you have infrastructure thats 60, 70 years old, it needs routine maintenance, said Conde.

Mike Bachand, levee safety program manager with the Army Corps of Engineers, said Torrington has made progress by addressing deficiencies in the levee system for the past four years.

Now, piping and shoaling along the system need to be evaluated and inspected before the system can be deemed acceptable and safe, Bachand said.

The corps has been really working with the city here for quite some time on the levees, on vegetation, said Esty. This is in part a check-up, and seems were pretty close.

Carbone said the city welcomes the relationship with the Army Corps of Engineers as it works to recapture the river through development, and turn deficiencies in the levee system into positives.

Were awfully proud to show off our river, and grateful for the work that theyve done, said Carbone.

Once the system is deemed acceptable, the city would become eligible to receive federal funding if the levees are damaged through another flood, according to Conde. Esty said it would also open opportunities for redevelopment, as the city would be assured of the rivers safety.

Thats really what all of this is designed (to do)  make sure its safe, make sure that if something goes wrong, the federal government will be there to support the citys efforts, and then the positive part is the economic development opportunities, said Esty. Its down to the final details.

Public Works Director Jerry Rollett said the city sets aside approximately $50,000 per year to maintain the system, with about half of that going for mowing.

Paul Kundzins, deputy city engineer, said that, weather permitting, the city will be finished considering the piping by Christmas and submit reports to the Army Corps of the Engineers early in 2018.

The Army Corps of Engineers inspects the system each year and will continue to do so in the future, Banchand said.

Carbone said completing work on the levees would represent a new era in the citys relationship with the river.

For far too long, weve been turning our back on this river and ignoring it. The fact that all eyes are on this, from the federal government, from the state, and locally, I feel this is a new chapter, a beginning, said Carbone. Its all about safety, its all about flood control, its about setting the stage to redevelop the properties that run right along the river.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
TORRINGTON  A Manchester man was recently arrested and charged after allegedly breaking into a series of Dunkin Donuts restaurants, including a Torrington location, according to court records.

Brett M. Johnson, 32, of 124 Birch St., Manchester, was arraigned Friday in Superior Court in Torrington on charges of third-degree burglary, possession of burglary tools, fifth-degree larceny, and second-degree criminal mischief. The same charges are listed in two court files  one stemming from April 29, the other from May 19.

According to an affidavit for the May 19 matter, Torrington police responded to the Dunkin Donuts location at 595 Winsted Road just after 4 a.m. for a reported burglary.

Pry marks were found on the stores door, near the lock, which appeared consistent with the use of a crowbar to pry the door open. The stores safe was reported missing, according to the affidavit.

Surveillance footage showed two suspects, a white man and a white woman, entering the store after midnight. They were wearing dark clothing, including facial coverings, but their skin is visible at various points in the video. The man is shown taking tip money, and two remove the stores safe from the building.

During the burglary, $757 was reportedly taken, according to the affidavit.

A series of Dunkin Donuts locations across Connecticut were burglarized after the April 29 incident by an individual wearing very similar clothes using a similar modus operandi, according to the affidavit.

Torrington police were called back to the Dunkin Donuts location at 595 Winsted Road May 20 for another reported burglary, according to the affidavit. Surveillance video showed a white male taking money from the register and damaging the stores safe, which had been replaced between the two incidents, to the point that he can remove money from it.

During this episode, $824 in cash was reportedly taken from the store, according to the affidavit.

Johnson and Alexandria Kinney, 25, of the same address, became suspects as the incidents were investigated, according to the affidavit. Search and seizure warrants for their cell phone records were obtained by state police.

The two were arrested June 1 by Granby police, as officers responded to an active burglary at the Dunkin Donuts location at 7 Mil Pond Road, according to the affidavit.

Johnson was actively attempting to open the safe with a blue crowbar when arrested by police, while Kinney was arrested in a car outside.

According to the affidavit, Johnson provided a sworn written statement to Granby and state police, saying that he had begun to break into Dunkin Donuts locations a few months before he was arrested, as he had learned they did not have alarm systems. He said Kinney went with him a few times but... claims she did not know what he was doing.

Johnson admitted he broke into at least 20 stores and couldnt remember the exact locations, according to the affidavit. He named Canton, Haddam, Columbia, Higganum, Granby, Suffield, two break-ins in Burlington, New Hartford, Willimantic and Colchester as examples, according to the affidavit.

A Torrington detective also interviewed Johnson, along with a Meriden police detective, according to the affidavit.

Johnson told the Torrington officer that he had been addicted to Oxycodone for about a year, according to the affidavit.

(Johnson) said he was committing the burglaries to support his (Oxycodone) habit, the Torrington detective said in the affidavit. When we asked Johnson about the burglaries, he continuously told us that he could not remember which Dunkin Donuts he burglarized.

The cell phone attributed to Kinney was in the area of Torrington at the approximate time of the two burglaries in Torrington on April 29 and May 19, according to the affidavit. The phone attributed to Johnson could not be located during the time frame on April 29, and was located in Manchester on May 19.

An Alexandria Kinney is currently facing a series of cases in the Enfield Judicial District, according to state records. One of the records indicates that she was arrested by Torrington police in connection with an April 29 incident.

In that matter, she is charged with third-degree burglary and fifth-degree larceny.

Court records for both the April 29 and May 19 cases indicate that Johnsons bail was set Friday at $2,500 cash or surety.

He is next scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 9, according to court records.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
TORRINGTON  Two men were recently arrested and charged after officers found crack cocaine and heroin in their vehicle, police said.

James G. Williams, 33, of 76 Suburban Ave., Bridgeport, and Richard M. Neubauer, 35, of 2 Elwell Place, Danbury, were arrested Nov. 18, police said.

According to a probable cause report, two officers who were wearing plain clothes and driving an unmarked cruiser were on patrol in the South End, near the Cumberland Farms and Dunkin Donuts on South Main Street, when they noticed a Jeep occupied by two people.

One of the occupants, later identified as Neubauer, was in the passenger seat making abrupt movements, moving his body back and forth and side to side, which was enough to make the whole Jeep rock back and forth, police said in the report.

I noticed Neubauers hands (were) flailing up and down. His movements (were) very fast and frequent. Based on my training and experience, these movements can be consistent with someone who (may be) under the influence of a stimulant such as crack cocaine, a Torrington police officer said in the report.

What the two officers saw, coupled with recent reports of alleged narcotic use, sales, and prostitution in the area, led the officers to conduct a consensual encounter with the two subjects.

One officer noticed a syringe in Neubauers right hand as he approached the vehicle, according to the report. He informed the two men to place their hands on the dashboard of the vehicle, which they did. Neubauer then stepped out of the vehicle when asked.

I asked Neubauer how much heroin was in the Jeep and he informed me (there) might be a little bit left in the Jeep. I asked Neubauer who the heroin belonged to and he said both of us. I asked Neubauer (if there was) any crack cocaine in the vehicle and he replied maybe, said the officer.

The other officer said he found six bags of suspected heroin in Williams pocket, and saw him attempt to break a glass pipe, according to the report. The officer writing the report found a white rock that I was able to immediately recognize as crack cocaine in a cigarette package in the center console.

Both parties were asked who the crack cocaine belonged to and neither party wanted to answer the questions. Based on the crack cocaine being located in a common area in the vehicle that both parties occupied, the heroin being located in (Williams) pocket along with Neubauer admitting they were both using the heroin, both parties (are) charged with the possession of the narcotics, said the officer.

Williams and Neubauer are both also charged with possession in a school zone and possession of drug paraphernalia in a school zone, police said. Williams also is charged with tampering with physical evidence.

Both were released on $1,000 bail and scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Nov. 27, according to police.

Reach Ben Lambert at william.lambert@hearstmediact.com.
China on Thursday slammed the remarks on the South China Sea in a white paper released by the Australian government, urging the Australia government to stop releasing "irresponsible remarks."

Though the white paper has given positive comments about China's development and Sino-Australian relations, the remarks on the South China Sea issue were irresponsible, and we have expressed severe concerns, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily briefing on Thursday.

"Australia is particularly concerned about the unprecedented pace and scale of China's activities," read the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper released on Thursday.

The white paper was launched by the Australian prime minister and the ministers for foreign affairs and trade, tourism and investment.

It is also the first comprehensive white paper on Australia's international engagement in 14 years.

"Australia is not a claimant state of the South China Sea issue and has repeatedly stated that the country does not have any stance on issues of sovereignty disputes," Lu said, urging Australia to keep its promise and stop making "irresponsible remarks" on the issue.

"China and countries surrounding the region, or Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, have agreed to peacefully resolve disputes through negotiations among parties directly involved," Lu said.

Both China and ASEAN countries are making joint efforts to safeguard the peace and stability in the region, and we hope countries outside the region respect these efforts, he added.

The white paper's highlight of the South China Sea issue is an inappropriate move, especially when the countries in the region are jointly promoting stability, cooperation and development, Liu Feng, a Hainan-based expert on the South China Sea, told the Global Times on Thursday.

China and ASEAN have reaffirmed their commitment to long-term peace and stability in the South China Sea as they announced the start of negotiations on the details of a code of conduct in the area, the Xinhua News Agency reported on November 16.

The white paper also committed Australia to deeper engagement with other countries in the region, a move widely viewed as a hedging strategy against China, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

By doing so, Australia is seeking visibility in the South China Sea and in Southeast Asia, Liu said.

He added that Australia is also seeking potential benefits for itself by closely following the strategy of the US and enhancing the US-Australia alliance.

China should push forward its practical cooperation with countries surrounding the South China Sea to expand their mutual interests and leave no room for disturbance from outside countries, according to Liu.
Montage of migrant workers fleeing a crackdown in the wake of a deadly fire that destroyed an apartment building at a factory in Beijing's southern district of Daxing on Nov. 18.

Thousands of Beijing tenants, mostly migrant workers, are being evicted from their homes in a crackdown on unlicensed developments after a fatal fire last week.

Nineteen people died, eight of them children, when the blaze ripped through an apartment building at a factory in the southern district of Daxing on Nov. 18.

Now, the authorities have launched a city-wide crackdown on unlicensed rented accommodation, and thousands of low-paid migrant workers are being forced from their homes, official media reported on Friday.

The Beijing city governments work safety committee has launched a 40-day crackdown on buildings with potential fire hazards, targeting industrial and logistics warehouses, former agricultural properties remodeled and let as residential apartments, and older buildings in downtown areas, official media reported.

A document issued by the Fengtai district government and seen by RFA called on 10 government departments including police and firefighters to work together to identify hazardous enterprises and premises inhabited by low-income groups in the crackdown.

And a taskforce set up by the Haidian district government sent out an emergency directive, a copy of which was sent to RFA, calling for the immediate eviction of tenants from any unlicensed residential premises within three days.

And authorities in the Beijing suburb of Changping said they were targeting four kinds of electrical refrigeration appliances of the kind blamed for the Daxing fire for testing.

Anyone found living in accommodation where such appliances exist must immediately be removed from Beijing with no refund for rental or deposits ... already paid.

The crackdown has made thousands homeless, according to official media reports.

But a resident of Daxing said fires of this kind are a regular occurrence in China.

The  fire is being used as a trigger to remove these people from the city overnight, the resident said. China has always been this cruel; its being going on since 1949.

Peoples morality has become distorted, and they have become numb to it, she said. The state machinery is huge and powerful, and can confiscate your land whenever it chooses, so you have no freedom.

Even the Communist Party itself is afraid, because it could be removed from power in an instant, she said.

Crackdown getting more intense

A journalist who asked to remain anonymous said the crackdown is a particularly harsh one amid many targeting migrant workers in more affluent Chinese cities.

There have always been drives to get rid of migrants, but now its getting more intense, the journalist said. Its getting that way across the whole of Beijing now.

I know, because I live in a place like that too, he said. They do it when people least expect it, moving very suddenly to get rid of these people as quickly as possible.

The lower-ranking officials see it as an opportunity [for advancement], so they really carry it out with a vengeance.

But he said journalists operating under strict media controls darent report it in detail.

What can we do about it? The moment you post something like that, it would be immediately deleted, he said.

Requests for an interview with a Beijing municipal official met with no response by the time of writing.

Calls to the information office of the city government rang unanswered during office hours on Friday.

Reported by Wong Siu-san and Lam Kwok-lap for RFAs Cantonese Service, and by Gao Shan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Authorities in the southwestern province of Guangdong have continued their crackdown on Protestant Christian churches, holding more than a dozen church members for question on suspicion of "illegal assembly."

At least 10 church followers were detained in a police raid on a gathering they held in a restaurant on Nov. 19, in Shaping district of Guangdong's Heshan city, fellow believers told RFA.

"The police burst in on them while were were having a hymn meeting, and they were taken [to the police station] with them," one of the church members said on Thursday. "Some of them even had to sign a letter of guarantee [that they wouldn't worship again]."

The church members were released after promising not to continue to meet, according to a second church member.

"There were about a dozen people gathered, singing hymns, when the police and religious affairs bureau officials showed up," the second church member said. "Some of the women had brought their kids along.

"They told the worshipers with kids to go home, and those without had to go for questioning at the police department," he said. "They threatened them and had them sign guarantees of good behavior."

Repeated calls to the Heshan municipal bureau of religious affairs rang unanswered during office hours on Thursday.

Those detained were all members of the Shaping Church, which is affiliated with the ruling Chinese Communist Party's official Protestant body, the Three-Self Patriotic Association.

But they had gathered outside of official church meetings because they were dissatisfied with the events and style of worship on offer, church members said.

The restaurant owner Guo Yuling, and several key members of the group, were all warned never to meet informally again, they said.

Meanwhile, authorities in Guangdong's Jiangmen city detained 13 members of the Qingcaodi Church in a raid on their Sunday morning service earlier this month.

Splitting into smaller groups

Police and religious affairs bureau officials confiscated Bibles and other church-owned materials before taking the church members to a police station in Jiangmen's Xincheng district, they were questioned.

"On Nov. 5, Zhai Lili, a leader of the Qingcaodi Church, was taken away along with 13 people, who have since been release," a church member who requested anonymity told RFA.

"They are now not allowed to meet at their previous premises, so they have split up into smaller groups."

According to the U.S.-based Christian rights group ChinaAid, Zhai was sentenced to administrative detention, which can be handed down by police to perceived "troublemakers" for up to 15 days without trial.

It was unclear whether she has now been released.

Earlier this month, social media users from the eastern province of Jiangxi showed officials removing images of the cross and Jesus, because the Christian families had "recognized their mistakes and decided not to believe in Jesus but in the party."

Officials said Christians had "voluntarily" removed 624 religious images and posted 453 portraits of Xi, the Asian Catholic news service UCA News reported.

The moves are widely seen as part of a nationwide drive to force China's Christians to show their loyalty to the atheist Communist Party.

China is home to an estimated 68 million Protestants, of whom 23 million worship in state-affiliated churches, and some nine million Catholics, 5.7 million of whom are in state-sponsored organizations.

But the ruling Chinese Communist Party exercises tight control over any form of religious practice among its citizens.

The administration of President Xi Jinping regards Christianity as a dangerous foreign import, with officials warning last year against the "infiltration of Western hostile forces" in the form of religion.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
People stand in front of the main gate of the RYB New World Kindergarten in Beijing's Chaoyang district, Nov. 24, 2017.

Police in the Chinese capital have begun investigated alleged abuse of children at a kindergarten run by a New York-listed education company amid accusations of sexual and physical abuse.

Some teachers at the RYB Education New World kindergarten in Beijings Chaoyang district were suspended as police confiscated surveillance footage and carried out forensic tests, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Some parents said their children had been sexually abused, while others said pupils had been pierced by needles and given unidentified pills, it said.

Parents began reporting their concerns to police late on Wednesday, with a large group prevented from entering the school on Thursday.

Different parents are trying to find out about their own kid, if its true, a parent of a child in International Class 2 told RFA. They are being told that its true.

The parent said at least one parent had taken their child to hospital for immediate examination.

They were told that [the doctors found] anal fissures, the parent said, calling for a full investigation into all reports of abuse.

We hope that the police will be able to get hold of the school surveillance footage as soon as possible, the parent said.

State media quoted other parents as saying that their children had been force-fed pills, while others said their children were too young to be sure if sexual abuse had taken place.

And online news portal Sohu.com quoted others as saying that their children had been pricked by sewing needles or had unidentified yellowish and brown sweet-tasting fluids squirted into their mouths by staff at the kindergarten. Others reported being given sweet-tasting white-colored pills.

A mother surnamed Zhao said her daughter had told her that she had been given injections by the teacher, and found small puncture marks on her childs skin.

When she started telling me about it, at first I thought she was talking rubbish, so I went to ask the teacher, who said she didnt know anything about it, Zhao told RFA.

According to our kid, the teachers would bundle the children into a small, dark room, she said.

Powerful telescope

Zhao said her three-year-old daughter had been warned not to tell anyone what was going on.

They said they had a very powerful telescope that enabled them to see into the kids homes, to see what they were doing, she said. If they told anyone about this stuff, they would get into trouble.

An employee who answered the phone at the kindergarten hung up as soon as they heard the nature of the enquiry from RFA.

And an official who answered the phone at the Chaoyang district police department said they werent able to give interviews.

The Beijing abuse allegations emerged just days after authorities in Shanghai launched a probe into abuse allegations at a workplace nursery run on behalf of travel firm Ctrip.

Three members of staff at the nursery, run by a parenting magazine under the aegis of the Shanghai branch of the All China Womens Federation, were detained, and the facility shut down after video footage of the abuse was posted online.

A Beijing parent surnamed Wang, who has a child in a different kindergarten, said parents are all anxious about where the next abuse allegations will come from.

If you ask one kid, then two, then all of those other kids, and they are all saying it, then its true, isnt it? Wang said. They can check the surveillance footage but surveillance cameras can be avoided. If it cant be seen, it didnt happen.

What can you do? The state of this country, she said.

A kindergarten principal from the central province of Hubei surnamed Li said there is huge demand from working parents for daycare, which is currently being filled by largely unregulated private companies.

Ninety-nine percent of them are privately run, and  they want to turn a profit, and the rules for recruiting kindergarten teachers round here are pretty relaxed, she said.

With such a low entry threshold, its hard to avoid this sort of thing happening, Li said.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Lok-to for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
A Chinese enterprise has developed a gas engine which can not only use natural gas, petroleum gas, and coal-bed methane, but also low-concentration methane gas, CCTV.com reported.

The gas engine, developed by China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, is being used at a power plant in southwest Chinas Guizhou Province to generate electricity from the methane gas buried deep under the ground.

The engine has been operating for 1,476 hours, generating 1.04 million kilowatt hours of electricity, Ren Xiaohui, chief designer of the gas engine disclosed, adding that the process is mostly automatic.

The successful development of the engine also indicates that China has now become a world leader in using low-concentration methane, as its foreign peers can only use high-concentration methane, Ren noted.

The methane gas, as an exploitable clean energy, will only produce water and carbon dioxide after full combustion by producing 21 times less of carbon dioxide emissions, helping both the environment and the economy.

In the past two months, the power plant has generated nearly 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity, creating a profit margin of about 30 percent, said Meng Haitao, general manager at a Guizhou-based energy company.

Nearly 60,000 kilowatt hours of electricity can be generated in the plant on a daily basis, which can meet the demand of about 20,000 families, the manager added.

Moreover, Ren noted that unlike diesel engines, the gas engine can reduce harmful emissions by 50 to 80 percent.
Even though online shopping is giving brick-and-mortar retailers indigestion, consumers such as Rachealle Hartsook and Linda Hill prefer the in-store experience.

At the Kohls in Mechanicsville on Friday, the two women, who are cousins, pushed shopping carts filled to the brim with merchandise. Theyd arrived at the store at 4:30 a.m. with their daughters and had a full day of shopping planned after leaving there.

Were going to eat, then we are going to Old Navy, then we are going to the mall, Hartsook said. Its a tradition.

As for their purchases, Hill said: Some of its gifts, but some of it is for us.

The holiday shopping season has morphed into a mixed bag, with consumers expected to spend as much online as they spend in physical stores. In addition, with some stores opening Thanksgiving Day and offering deals even earlier in the month, Black Friday is no longer viewed as the only time to find bargains.

One result: fewer Black Friday door-rushing crowds of people pushing their way in to get to deals.

Amy Elkin said that when she and daughter Bella and two of Bellas friends arrived at Old Navy about 5 a.m. Friday, there werent any crowds.

I felt like we were one of the first getting there, Elkin said. It was getting busy when we were leaving.

They did find some deals. Fuzzy socks that usually sell for about $8 a pair were on sale for $1 a pair, Bella said.

Their second stop was the Target store in Mechanicsville, which opened at 6 a.m. Friday, but the chain also opened on Thanksgiving. About two dozen people were waiting for the store to open Friday morning, but by the time Elkin and her three in tow arrived later, parking was still plentiful and there was no waiting at cashier stations as a steady stream of customers came and went.

Last year, I came to Target early in the morning and there werent that many people here, either. I kind of knew that it wouldnt be too bad. But some of the better deals were already gone by the time I got here, Elkin said.

Crowds did, however, brave 31 degree temperatures to line up at a nearby Best Buy. Two hours before the stores scheduled 8 a.m. opening, about a dozen people stood in line. An hour before the opening time, the line had at least doubled.

Shonna Johnson said she was hoping to get a Lenovo laptop computer advertised for $179  $100 off the regular price.

I own a business that takes care of horse farms, Johnson said. I can save the business 100 bucks.

About 69 percent of Americans, or 164 million people, intend to shop at some point during the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, according to a survey released by the National Retail Federation. It expects Black Friday to remain the busiest day, with about 115 million people shopping.

By midmorning, parking lots at Richmond-area malls were filled. Every available parking spot around the upper-level entrance to the Macys store in Short Pump Town Center in western Henrico County was taken. Drivers circled the parking lot and waited for exiting shoppers to pull out of spaces. Walkways were crowded with people in the upscale, open-air mall.

At Chesterfield Towne Center, shoppers packed the J.C. Penney store, with a line of customers stretching along a back aisle in the store as four cashiers steadily rang up purchases.

Even as Black Friday was getting underway, retailers were already looking ahead to Cyber Monday. Shoppers are expected to spend $6.6 billion on Cyber Monday, up 16 percent from last year, according to Adobe Analytics.

Some advertised specials: Target says everything on its site will be 15 percent off on Monday, and it will offer discounts throughout the week on specific categories, such as 40 percent off towels and bedding on Tuesday.

Walmart says it has tripled the assortment of products it had online from last year. Itll offer thousands of deals, it says.

Amazons deals on its gadgets were similar to its Black Friday ones, such as 40 percent off its voice-activated Echo Dot. But it added other deals, such as 30 percent off Lego sets and 50 percent off certain Hasbro toys, such as Nerf and Play-doh.

One of the things we talk about all the time at the Brandcenter is what is your Amazon strategy, said Caley Cantrell, a professor of strategy at the VCU Brandcenter, the universitys graduate advertising program. Mobile technology allows consumers to compare prices on the spot, so stores have to be able to compete with online deals.

There are some people who need these deals to be able to put the Christmas that their kids or their family wants under the tree, Cantrell said.

If that means they are going to stand in line at the store so that they can make their Christmas budget go farther, they are going to do it. They may not have the luxury to skip the sales.
Head transplants will never be allowed in China: medical authority

Huang Jiefu

Clinical tests like head transplants will never be allowed in China, said Huang Jiefu, chairman of the countrys National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee (NODTC), on Nov. 23.

A year ago, Dr. Xiaoping Ren from Harbin Medical University in northeastern China performed head transplant anatomical research on two corpses together with Italian professor Sergio Canavero.

The study was recently misinterpreted as the first head transplant, triggering a wave of controversy.

Though Ren didnt provide details about the clinical test, he was quite confident about the results.

Huang, on behalf of all NODTC experts, said that head transplant tests will never be allowed in China.

Such a study goes against Chinas laws and regulations, he said, hoping that ethics organizations could take their responsibility.

Huang also doubted the feasibility of the surgery, saying the so-called head transplant experts have failed to provide proof that their methods would repair damaged core nerves.

Ethical issues are another problem. Patients are still themselves after receiving liver and kidney transplants, Huang said, but he wondered if that would still be the case if they had a head transplant.

According to Huang, China is broadly recognized for how it performs organ transplants. Voluntary donation is the only legitimate source of organs in the country. China is leading the world in liver, kidney, heart, lung and small intestine transplants, Huang said.

Transplant doctors should improve Chinas influence in this field with an indisputable manner, and every one of them should protect Chinas reputation, Huang told thepaper.cn.
A statewide activist group has started a campaign in Richmond seeking to create a citizen review board for the citys police department.

More than 500 community members  40 percent of whom are registered city voters  have signed a petition circulated by New Virginia Majority, a grass-roots organization focused on social, racial and economic justice. The petition calls for Richmond leaders to establish an elected, independent Citizens Accountability Board with subpoena-like power and the authority to hold RPD personnel accountable for misconduct and mistreatment of citizens.

But the request, like many previous attempts, is likely a nonstarter without support from Richmonds police chief and mayor.

I have the utmost confidence in myself, first of all, and the staff that when we get these complaints that we do a thorough and fair investigation, Police Chief Alfred Durham said. I think that we have a professional police department. Like I always say, were not perfect; no police department is. But when those complaints come in, we investigate those complaints thoroughly.

While championing transparency and soliciting complaints during town hall meetings and community walks in crime-heavy neighborhoods since taking over the department in 2015, Durham said he doesnt see a need for an independent review board. Complaints from the community have decreased this year, while infractions reported internally have risen  statistics that Durham say prove he has been effective at policing his own department.

Assaddique Muhammad Abdul-Rahman, a community organizer for New Virginia Majority, is leading the effort locally. In canvassing residents in South Richmond, mostly the Blackwell community, he said he often heard complaints about police  an invading army was one persons description. He also heard allegations of illegal detentions, racial profiling based on vague descriptions, and excessive use of force.

Abdul-Rahman said people in these communities arent likely to complain directly to the institution that committed the offense against them.

They just didnt trust the police, he said. They didnt think they were fair.

From there, Abdul-Rahman and other organizers held several meetings and developed the idea of an independent review board made of citizens to investigate complaints involving the police.

Here is the summary and background stated on the petition: Police are meant to be civil servants who have the trust of the community, but for many in Richmond this statement is not true. Many working-class residents and residents of color are often times stopped and harassed even though they have done nothing wrong and are humiliated in front of families, neighbors and potential employers. We believe that RPD Internal Affairs lacks objectivity and willingness in policing the Richmond Police Department and individuals will not come forward and speak to an agency they already do not trust.

***

Currently, the department investigates complaints internally either through the chain of command or the Internal Affairs unit, according to information provided by police. Any allegation that may be criminal in nature goes to Richmond Commonwealths Attorney Michael Herring, who decides whether to file charges.

In nine of the past 10 officer-involved shootings since 2015, both fatal and nonfatal, Herring has formally refused to prosecute any officers. The other shooting  which occurred July 25, when two officers opened fire on 23-year-old Alexander Schoessel after authorities say he attacked an officer with a small ax  is still under review. Its the only time a white citizen was shot in those incidents; eight of the people shot were black, and the other was Hispanic.

The Richmond Police Department noted administrative violations in four of those shootings  though Durham said federal guidelines prevent him from saying what kind of administration action was taken with the officers involved.

Incidents involving use of force, which can range from complaints that handcuffs were too tight to fatal shootings, that dont go to the prosecutor go before an existing review board.

Two citizens, who are handpicked by the department from those who attend its Citizen Police Academy, and four officers not involved in the incident review the departments investigation. They determine whether the action taken by the officer was within policy or training guidelines, and if not, recommend whether further training or other disciplinary action should be required. But the chief makes the final decision on discipline.

As of Nov. 20, 123 use-of-force incidents have been reported this year. Only two were considered excessive force, and thus reviewed by the board. One officer was exonerated of any wrongdoing, while the other officer was found to have used excessive force; Durham again said federal guidelines keep him from disclosing whether that officer was reprimanded.

***

This is not the first time a group has sought a citizen review board.

A search of the Richmond Times-Dispatch archives of just the past two decades showed that boards were suggested in 2002, again in 2006 and also in 2014. Some proposals gained traction and came before the City Council before they were ultimately quashed.

In 2004, City Councilwoman Ellen Robertson proposed a measure creating a Police Accountability Board after four police-involved shootings that year. Robertson said she withdrew her measure after the council decided they wanted to move toward more inclusive policing strategies that involved community policing.

Robertson, who still serves on the council, said she hadnt heard of New Virginia Majoritys request and quickly ended a phone interview after being asked whether she would support the measure.

Former police chiefs have said a citizen review board would hurt department morale and make its decisions less effective.

City Council members and the mayor have the ability to create such a board. Abdul-Rahman said he will start with Mayor Levar Stoney and then go to the council. If hes unsuccessful with city officials, he will seek a ballot referendum.

Stoney spokesman Jim Nolan said in a statement that the mayor doesnt support the proposal. Stoneys office said he met with the group in June to discuss the proposal; Abdul-Rahman said no meeting ever took place.

The mayor and Richmond Police Department take all use-of-force complaints seriously, Nolan said in a statement. To that end, the mayor supports the system currently in place, which already includes citizen representatives, and currently does not see evidence that an additional board is necessary.

***

New Virginia Majority teamed up with attorneys at the Legal Aid Justice Center and Washington-based Advancement Project to take a look at citizen review boards across the country.

Angelo Pinto, a senior attorney at the Advancement Project, said he examined about a dozen citizen review boards, looking for what worked and what didnt. He found most were ineffective.

By (and) large ... this isnt going to change the police department, Pinto said. Thats just the truth. A citizen review board does very little. At best, it will get you data. From time to time, and we see the percentages are very low, youll get police accountability.

Pinto cited a statistic out of Chicago that police were involved in approximately 200 shootings, but only two were investigated by its citizen review board.

But having a board opens the door to more transparent and community-led policing, he said.

Pinto recommends that a review board in Richmond should have:

civilian-led investigations independent of departmental influence;

subpoena power or the ability to summon individuals to appear before the board;

ultimate disciplinary authority; and

the ability to audit police policy.

Pinto said none of the boards he reviewed had all of these characteristics.

There are only two citizen review boards in Virginia. Virginia Beach established an Investigative Review Panel in 1991, but there was a hiatus from 2005 to 2012 during which more than 60 complaints went unaddressed, according to a report by The Virginian-Pilot.

In 2016, the panel received its first case in two years, the newspaper reported, because no citizen appealed the outcome of the police departments internal investigation. This year, according to the panels website, the board has conducted only one hearing, in which it confirmed the departments findings.

Fairfax County established a board earlier this year. It, too, lacks the ability to investigate complaints itself.

Abdul-Rahman said he wants Richmonds board to have teeth.

It must have large, drooling fangs of subpoena power. It must have the molars of electability. It must have the incisors of final authorities, and it must not be beholden to the tongues of the politicians, he said.

The group is working with police to get information about the number of arrests, searches and use-of-force complaints, as well as the racial breakdown of the incidents  data that Abdul-Rahman said is essential for figuring out the boards composition and parameters. Requests for documents using the Freedom of Information Act have been outright denied.

If we can get the transparency, we may not need the citizen review board, Abdul-Rahman said.

Durham, Richmonds police chief, said he has invited Abdul-Rahman to his office to meet. No meeting has happened.
CHARLOTTESVILLE  Attorneys representing a group of Charlottesville-area residents suing the city to prevent the removal of monuments of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas Stonewall Jackson want the citys Circuit Court to order the removal of tarps that are currently covering them.

In the aftermath of the white nationalist Unite the Right rally Aug. 12, which turned fatal, the City Council voted unanimously to shroud the statues. Officials said the intent was to provide a period of mourning after Heather Heyer, 32, was killed after a driver sped into a crowd near the Downtown Mall and two Virginia State Police troopers died when their helicopter crashed in Albemarle County after they provided rally surveillance and information that day. The council never agreed on a fixed date for removing the shrouds.

Earlier this month, the council voted to amend a previous resolution to redesign the statues respective parks in a two-phase approach amid the litigation and an upcoming legislative push that could enable the city to remove the statues.

With the first phase of the redesign calling for the installation of a more permanent fixture to cover the statues as the city waits for resolution in court or the General Assembly, the plaintiffs attorneys are alleging that shrouding the statues is a violation of the same law they believe disallows the city from removing the controversial Confederate monuments.

Although the court last month denied a request for the tarps to be removed, given the citys assertion that the tarps are a temporary fixture, the plaintiffs attorneys allege in a motion filed this week that the recent council resolution and other circumstances should compel the court to grant their new request.

The motion points out that the city never got (Board of Architectural Review) approval for the covers. And winter winds, tarps frozen to the monuments, and the weight of snow increase the potential for damage, plaintiff Charles Buddy Weber said in a news release.

When the council voted in August to also seek the removal of the Jackson statue, it also agreed to seek the BARs permission to remove the statue, a fact reiterated in the Nov. 6 resolution amending the councils resolution for the redesign of the two parks.

Alabama Attorney General Steven Marshall recently petitioned a state court to issue a fine against the city of Birmingham over the local governments decision to partially cover a Confederate monument following the Charlottesville rally. A decision has yet to be made regarding Marshalls request, according to the motion filed Monday.

Citing the Alabama case, the Charlottesville plaintiffs attorneys are asking that the Charlottesville Circuit Court consider a similar per diem fine against each city councilor if the city chooses to disobey a court order to remove the shrouds on the Lee and Jackson statues.

In view of the citys annual budget of approximately $160 million, only a substantial fine (or the prospect of incarceration of individual defendant councilors) will obtain compliance with this courts previous orders and findings enjoining interference with the Monuments, prohibiting city acts that damage them, and requiring that the covers are to be temporary, the motion says.

In an email last week, Councilwoman Kathy Galvin said physically screening the statue is part of the proposed redesign for the park. She said the reason for amending the resolution from earlier this year is so the city can begin to change the narrative in those parks on a city-established timeline.

Galvin said the first phase will begin while the court case and the General Assembly work concurrently on resolving whether the statues should be removed.

In Phase One, we will engage the community on how to physically screen the statues while more fully and honestly revealing their meaning. This community engagement phase will also get folks thinking about how their values should be reflected in our monuments, memorials and public parks, said Galvin, who added that the redesign in the preliminary phase will include new landscaping, plaques and signage.

Galvin said the council is planning to request legislation in the upcoming Virginia General Assembly session that would enable the city to remove the Confederate monuments.

The Democrats are sympathetic to Charlottesville and granting local governments the power to decide the fate of their own statues, so we could be in striking distance of getting the state legislation we need and want, she said.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday said that counter-terrorism, dialogue and reconstruction should be the focal points currently for resolving the Syrian issue.

Wang made the remarks in a meeting with Syria's presidential political and media advisor Bouthaina Shaaban, as the issue moves to a new development stage dominated by the process of political settlement.

"Counter-terrorism is the foundation, dialogue is the way out and reconstruction is the guarantee," Wang said.

Wang said that the recent intensive interaction among related parties on the future political arrangements in Syria will contribute to the positive outcome of the UN-sponsored Syrian political talks in Geneva.

Noting dialogue and negotiation are the only solution, Wang said that during the talks, "Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity must be maintained, and the Syrian people's core position in the political settlement process must be protected."

As a permanent member of the UN security council, China will participate in and support the Syrian political settlement process in accordance with security council resolutions.

Wang said that the international community has made important achievements in counter-terrorism cooperation, but the situation in Syria is still serious.

"The international community should put aside differences and continue to work together to fight against terrorist extremist groups and prevent them from spreading," he said.

"Only by steadily advancing reconstruction can we give hope to the people and guarantee the long-term stability of Syria. The international community should pay attention to and actively support the reconstruction of Syria," Wang said.

Shaaban agreed with Wang, speaking highly of China's stance.

Shaaban expressed the Syrian side's will to take part in the political solution, welcoming bigger Chinese role in the process.
Writer/director Martin McDonaghs latest film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is an angry, hot-blooded tale, seething with rage and energy. Its a barn burner, a bracing shot of whiskey downed while spoiling for a fight, a cathartic wail against the zeitgeist of rape culture and state brutality. Its a rallying cry, a right hook to the jaw, and wow, does it ever hurt so good.

Frances McDormand swaggers onscreen to Carter Burwells guitar-strummed score like a lone gunfighter in the Old West. Her Mildred Hayes isnt slinging bullets, though, just words, but they pierce just the same. Her words, plastered onto three blazing billboards she rents on a deserted country road, are a plaintive wail of grief. Her daughter, raped and murdered, has been dead for months. No arrests have been made. So Mildred turns to advertising to demand some answers from Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson).

It is effective, inviting the attention and ire of the police, townspeople and media of Ebbing. Mildred makes some enemies, but she also makes some friends, and finds some unlikely allies. Although shes declared war on Chief Willoughby, in their interactions, we see that theyre intellectual equals, with a deep sense of mutual respect.

McDonaghs sweet spot is brutal, dark, foul-mouthed comedy from the mouths of flawed but brilliant characters that you actually care for, as seen in the brilliant In Bruges, and Seven Psychopaths. Three Billboards masterfully achieves that with an even higher degree of difficulty, tackling sexual assault and police brutality with equal parts satire and humanity. This film feels far weightier than McDonaghs previous crime capers, and witnessing him it pull off feels miraculous.

Its thanks to the generous writing and fearless performances that it looks so easy. McDormand is absolutely riveting, in what will be one of the defining roles of her career, but Sam Rockwell has a much harder task as Jason, a police lackey of Chief Willoughbys who isnt the sharpest tool in the shed. His character is dumb, violent, impulsive and a laughingstock, but somehow, against all odds, we end up rooting for him. These characters arent all hero or all villain, but somewhere in between, and the tragic, comic Jason beautifully expresses those extremes.

McDonagh writes in Southern American archetypes, but the characters are morally complex, multi-dimensional, dynamic and smart  except for Jason, and thats kind of why we love him. But McDonagh never dumbs anything down. No character is beyond redemption, and no character is spared lifes worst disappointments.

Mildred is a hero that seems to have crawled from the depths of our injured souls. Flawed, human and trying her best, shes mad as hell and not taking it anymore. When justice fails, Mildred, who sells ceramic bunnies at the local gift shop, tosses a Molotov cocktail at justices front door.

The militant Mildred who comes to the surface captures an elemental collective female anger thats been bubbling for years, boiling over since last fall. Were sad, mad and sick of it, and Mildred is the mythical creature who holds our anger, makes it manifest, hurling off invective and foul-mouthed insults like sonnets. But shes vulnerable too. While Three Billboards is an invigorating fable of righteous vengeance, it espouses a trenchant message about the purifying power of forgiveness  and its hilarious, to boot.
Tis the season for Christmas stealing.

The post-Thanksgiving shopping season provides more opportunities for robbing the holiday packages left in cars and on porches, police warn.

With more shopping being done on the internet and more packages being delivered to doorsteps, studies commissioned by companies that sell security systems claim an increase in package thefts off of porches by so-called porch pirates.

United States Postal Service Inspectors, the law enforcement arm of the post office, say they see mail theft all year long.

We dont separate packages from other forms of mail when we compile statistics, so we cant say for sure that package thefts have increased, said Inspector M.J. Romano of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

But, Romano said, the postal service has seen its parcel business increase while first class mail has decreased in the past few years.

Were hearing much more about it because of individuals having the technology to report package theft in the form of video cameras and smart phone applications, Romano said. Thats also helping identify suspects in some of these cases.

Romano said having a piece of first class mail stolen often results in a paper trail. Use of stolen credit cards or financial information may lead investigators to culprits.

A package theft doesnt tend to leave a paper trail because its more of a property crime, he said. Its like stealing a flag off of someones front porch. Theres no way to really trace [a package] after its been delivered.

A study conducted by Shorr Packaging, a distributor of packaging products and equipment, echoes studies conducted by security firms.

While many believe theyre most at risk to package theft around the holiday season, package theft is an issue all year long, the 2017 Shorr study states. Thieves have been known to scout consumers homes and other locations where packages are unattended and look for common trends in shipping frequency and volume.

The Shorr study shows 92 percent of people surveyed preferred to get packages at home but 35 percent said they have sent packages to different addresses for fear of theft. That fear has also convinced a lot of people to not buy online.

We found that 41 percent of respondents dont buy certain items online because theyre afraid the packages will get stolen, the study states, noting that the top item people avoid buying online is electronics.

Those who suspect their packages were stolen need to report the possible theft to police as well as the company that shipped the packages.

For the most part, customers are out of luck if a package has been delivered and then stolen, shippers say.

There may not be anything [the shipper] can do if the package was successfully delivered and then stolen, the Federal Express website warns.

With stolen packages, youll probably need to consider other options like your homeowners or renters insurance, or additional third-party insurance.

United Parcel Service primarily works with shippers and generally does not take responsibility for packages stolen after being delivered to the door.

Amazon recommends that customers wait 36 hours before reporting a missing package as a theft because some packages may say delivered up to 36 hours after they are marked as arrived online.

U.S. Postal Service inspectors will investigate potential thefts but recommend customers keep receipts, tracking information, shipping dates and proof of value. Claims must be filed within 60 days. If the postal service can prove a package was delivered and then stolen or lost, customers may not have a claim, however.

Officer Joe George, crime prevention specialist with Albemarle County police, said homeowners might consider installing surveillance equipment to help track down and identify suspects in porch package thefts.

It doesnt really prevent the crime or stop anyone from stealing packages, but it does create video evidence of the crime and can lead to suspects, he said.

The other thing is to have packages delivered to trusted neighbors or have family members who can come by when a package is delivered. There are cellphone applications that will tell you when a package is going to be delivered that allow you to have someone come to the house and get the package.

George said porch piracy has not been a major problem in Albemarle County.

We havent had that many reported incidents of it, and it seems to be more of an issue in big cities where theres more organized crime, George said. We have pockets of apartments in the county and porch pirating is more of a crime of opportunity here.

County police have, however, seen a non-seasonal jump in vehicle smash-and-grab thefts where criminals smash out a window to get at valuables left in cars. They say that could continue to increase into the holiday season.

During the holiday there are a lot of crimes of opportunity that people can limit by keeping package or valuables out of sight, George said.
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The ribbon cutting ceremony saw Ricardo Guadalupe, Hublot CEO, next to Hublot Ambassador Lapo Elkann, Chiara Pisa (General Manager of Pisa Orologeria) and Augusto Capitanucci, Regional Hublot Mediterranean Countries Director. All together they officially inaugurated the boutique, and celebrated the Art of Fusion, the distinctive hallmarks of the swiss luxury watchmaker DNA.

Ricardo Guadalupe, Lapo Elkann, Chiara Pisa and Augusto Capitanucci  Hublot

By combining elements from nature, which are never found in their native state, Hublot has reproduced the Big Bang, the moment at which everything came into existence. A modern-day alchemist blending the past and the future, tradition and innovation. This is Hublots Art of Fusion! And is the central element of the exhibition that can be visited on the second floor of the Pisa Orologeria flagship store until 27 November. It highlights the brands unique ability to combine natural elements that will never meet in their original state.

TvBoy, the internationally renowned street artist and exponent of NeoPop art, also paid tribute to Hublots philosophy with a live performance, creating a unique graffiti inspired by the Hublot Art of Fusion.

TvBoy creating his unique graffiti for Hublot  Hublot

"The Art Of Fusion" origins

Created in 2004 by Jean-Claude Biver, Chairman of Hublot and President of the LVMH Group Watch Division, and Ricardo Guadalupe, Hublot CEO, "The Art of Fusion" motto has been a feature of the Brands identity since it was founded in 1980. Hublot was the first to combine gold with natural rubber. Ever since, this philosophy has brought dozens of new materials to life. Unique and exclusive, some are even patented.

These materials are all an invitation into the very heart of the watch; they shape its case and, sometimes, its dial. To realise the full potential of this constant pursuit in R&D, the Nyon-based Manufacture has had its own foundry since 2012, as well as a team dedicated to fusion  the Metallurgy and Materials Department. Hublot is investing in fundamental research by collaborating in particular with the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) since 2010.

The exhibition

At the Pisa Orologeria premises, Hublot creates a fascinating display of the watches and pictures that are best able to symbolise this unique, inimitable creative impulse, the fruit of constant research and development that has brought to life pioneering visionary ideas: the sophisticated encounter of different materials. But that is not all: Hublots Art of Fusion is a combination of past and present, tradition and innovation. It is a state of mind, a philosophy that also determines the brands collaboration agreements with partners and ambassadors who share the same striving for excellence and innovation: international athletes, world renowned artists, exciting sporting events and daring companies, which share and embody the Art of Fusion.

Exhibition - Celebrating The Art of Fusion  Hublot

The Hublot Boutique

An area of 40 square metres located at the heart of Milans fashion district, inside the Pisa Orologeria Flagship Store in via Verri 7. The Hublot boutique is located on the ground floor, with windows opening onto one of the most prestigious luxury shopping streets in the world, and accessible directly through the main door of this historical building. The store is outfitted with an all-new concept that is both modern and sophisticated, in which shades of grey and black dominate. It is a cutting edge design that recalls the Hublot boutique in New York, designed by the well-known American architect Peter Marino. It is the third Hublot boutique in Italy, after Capri and Porto Cervo.
CHARLOTTESVILLE  A man who tried to rob a food truck behind Pro Re Nata Farm Brewery in Crozet earlier this year will spend the next three years behind bars.

Anthony Euell Stargell Jr., 31, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and use of the firearm in the commission of a felony. The charges stem from May 6, when authorities said Stargell used a gun in an unsuccessful attempt to rob the food truck.

On Wednesday, Stargell appeared in Albemarle County Circuit Court with his attorney, William Tanner, for sentencing.

Tanner, who asked that his client be sentenced to just the three-year mandatory sentence for the use of a firearm charge, said that Stargell made the biggest mistake of his life. With only some driving and alcohol-related offenses on his criminal record, Tanner said, Stargell acted out of character when he tried to rob the food truck.

Stargell, who suffered head injuries in 2012 and 2016, struggles with alcoholism and undiagnosed mental health issues, Tanner said. Once those problems are addressed, he said Stargell can become a more productive citizen.

He has shown nothing but remorse, said Tanner, who noted that Stargells family has attended all of his court appearances. His family is willing and able to support him. Anthony is not going to engage in this behavior again.

Albemarle County Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Amanda Galloway agreed that Stargell has underlying physical and mental health issues, as well as an alcohol problem. However, she said, Stargell brandished and fired a gun during the attempted robbery, which put everyone there in danger.

The commonwealth asked that the court sentence Stargell to somewhere within the recommended sentencing guidelines. The attempted robbery charged carried a recommended sentence of 10 years, while the firearm charge carried up to five years in jail.

Following the attorneys statements, Stargell spoke for himself and apologized to the victims, his own family and the family of Loren Foster  who also faces charges in the incident.

Judge Cheryl Higgins agreed that Stargells actions seemed out of character, according to his minimal record. As a result, Higgins sentenced Stargell to 10 years with all time suspended for the attempted robbery charge and five years with two years suspended for the firearm charge.

Stargell will serve three years in jail and be subject to 15 years of good behavior. He will also have three years of supervised probation after he is released. Though Stargell objected, Higgins also required that he have no contact with Foster.
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The day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States has been known as Black Friday for around 65 years and signals the start of the Christmas shopping season. It has only been in the last seven years, thanks to Amazon, that the phenomenon made its way across the pond to my native UK, where retailers have embraced the concept with Black Friday deals. But according to a recent article in The Economist, UK retailers enthusiasm for Black Friday discounts is already dwindling against the backdrop of falling sales and diminishing margins.

Swiss Made watches are rarely offered with discounts (at least in official retail channels), but Black Friday comes to the industry this year as brands like Alpina and Frederique Constant are dipping their toes in the water. Click on the links to the respective websites to find special Black Friday discounts on just 100 watches for each brand.

Unbelievable though it may seem, the black in Black Friday is widely attributed to the fact that it is only from this day onwards that retailers actually start to turn a profit  with just over a month to go before Christmas! I, however, use the colour unashamedly as a pretext to show three all-black timepieces for men  and an unusually sober black watch for ladies  that you might have missed over the past six months.

Ladies first  the Faberge Lady Compliquee Peacock Black

While its case is in white gold rather than any black-coloured or coated material, the peacocks feathers on this model have been stripped of their colour and their silvery sheen shines against the deep black background of the lacquered dial. A unique manually-wound movement developed by Agenhor exclusively for Faberge brings the feathers alive to display the time. Presented at Baselworld this year, the Lady Compliquee Peacock Black has only been in stores for a few weeks and retails at 34,500 Swiss francs.

Lady Peacock Black Faberge

All black  the Graff Graffstar Slim Eclipse

With its lightweight case in black DLC titanium weighing just 39 grammes, this ultra-slim model is the perfect dress watch. And for a black-tie dinner, why not wear a watch that is completely black, from its case to its dial, strap and clasp. Price: $19,500.

Graffstar Slim Eclipse Graff

Natty in NATO - the Tiffany CT60

Tiffany & Co. created an altogether different look in its CT60 collection by pairing its two models with a black DLC case (one time and date and one chronograph) with a striped black and silver NATO strap. At under 5,000 Swiss francs they are great value.

CT60 in black Tiffany

Black Drum  Louis Vuitton Tambour All Black

Louis Vuitton also introduced all-black time and date and chronograph versions in its Tambour collection earlier this year. Both models have a black PVD steel case with matching black strap and contrasting white SuperLuminova accents and inserts in the hands. The small seconds version retails for 4,050 and the 46mm chronograph version for 5,850. Like all Louis Vuitton timepieces, they are available exclusively from Louis Vuitton stores.
Egypts army said on Friday it has killed two extremists during a security campaign in central Sinai.

Armed Forces Spokesman Colonel Tamer El-Refaie said in a statement that the armys third field forces also seized hideouts full of large amount of substances used to construct IEDs.

The forces also seized a truck carrying narcotics before it crossed one of the borders.

"This comes as the armys third field forces continue to exert efforts to eliminate takfiri elements and criminals," the statement read.

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Sarah Champion

CAMPAIGNING MP Sarah Champion has accused the Government of turning its back on child abuse victims over its lack of funding to support them.

Ms Champion spoke out after the Government turned down a 6 million bid for a four-year project to support those groomed and raped in the town between 1997 and 2013  the period covered by the Jay Report.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, she said: In Rotherham, we have hundreds of new cases of child sexual exploitation and thousands of survivors who have not received support or justice.

Two weeks ago, the Home Office rejected our application for additional funding for victims and survivors.

Ms Champion asked Victoria Atkins, the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Vulnerability, Safeguarding and Countering Extremism, to meet her and representatives of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and South Yorkshire Police to discuss a solution.

She added: Following the publication of the Jay report, I worked hard to ensure that appropriate funding would be made available to support survivors of child abuse in Rotherham. I received clear assurances that it would be.

We owe it to survivors of abuse in Rotherham to do everything that we can to support them and to bring perpetrators to justice. The Government cannot simply turn its back on them.
Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. announced the results of its recently completed ninth diamond sale.

A total of 280,000 carats were sold for proceeds totalling US$19.0 million. Over 150 companies attended the tender.

Pricing in this ninth sale was stable to firm, with prices across the full assortment profile generally averaging about 2% higher than the eighth sale.

Mountain Province Diamonds is a 49% participant with De Beers Canada in the Gahcho Kue diamond mine located in Canadas Northwest Territories. Gahcho Kue is the worlds largest new diamond mine and projected to produce an average of 4.5 million carats a year over a 12 year mine life.



Alex Shishlo, Editor of the Rough&Polished European Bureau in Brussels




At least 235 worshippers have been killed by gunmen who attacked a mosque affiliated with Sufi groups in Egypts North Sinai during Friday prayers, in one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the country in recent years.

A statement from the prosecutor-generals office on Friday afternoon said 235 people had been killed and at least 109 injured in the attack on Al-Rawdah mosque in Al-Radwa village situated between Bir Al-Abed and Al-Arish ciies.

The presidents office has announced a nationwide three-day mourning following the terrorist attack, state TV has reported.

Health ministry sources in the governorate said 30 ambulances were deployed to the scene to transport the injured to Arish Bir Al-Abed and Arish General hospitals.

Eyewitnesses told Ahram Online that improvised explosive devices were detonated at the mosque initially, then gunmen fired at worshippers, including targeting ambulances transferring the injured to hospital.

The Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis terrorist group have pledged allegiance to the IS group and have previously executed Soliman Harraz, a Sufi sheikh on November 2016; two Sufi shrines in Mazar village were also targeted with explosives.

"The area is known for the existence of Sufi Muslim groups, and it does not have an intensive security presence as it is outside of Arish and far from the traditional areas that host those militant groups," Mohamed Hamad, son of a tribal sheikh, told Ahram Online.

Hamad added that the long distance between Al-Rawda village, Bir Al-Abed city and Ismailia delayed the arrival of the ambulances, while the targeting of the ambulances increased the number of victims.

In an official statement, Prosecutor-general Nabil Sadek ordered that Ismailia prosecutors and high state security prosecutors be deployed to the scene to carry out needed investigations.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is set to hold a meeting with a security committee to discuss the repercussions of the terrorist attack.

Egypt's security forces have been fighting an Islamist insurgency based in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula which has gained pace since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The insurgency has mostly targeted security forces, with attacks on military and police checkpoints common place.

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The U. S. Navy announced that it has ended the search for three American sailors who have been missing after a transporter aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan two days ago.

The missing defense personnel are presumably dead as the search and rescue teams could not find their bodies.



American Navy's C2-A Greyhound plane carrying 11 crew and passengers crashed into the ocean southeast of Okinawa Wednesday.

It was en-route to the Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, which was operating in the Philippine Sea.

Japanese and American rescue teams rushed to the sea, and rescued eight people.

All are in good condition, the US Navy said in a statement.

The U.S. Navy ceased combined search and rescue operations with Japan Friday morning after two days of extensive efforts, led by USS Ronald Reagan.

Seven ships from U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft covered nearly 1000 square nautical miles in the search for the missing sailors.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families," said Rear Adm. Marc Dalton, Commander, Task Force 70. "As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates, and I appreciate the professionalism and dedication shown by all who participated in the search efforts."

The Navy has not yet published the names of the dead sailors pending completion of next of kin notifications.

The US Navy said the cause of the crash is not known, but the Japanese defense ministry says engine failure may have caused the crash.

An investigation into the incident is currently underway.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

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It is said, Let your dreams be bigger than your fears and your actions louder than words.

And why you may ask?

Let Saisamoa F. Grey Price tell you her story.

Saisamoa is the very first woman born and raised in Apia, Samoa, to be sworn in to the Hawaii State Bar and the United States District Court.

The swearing in ceremony was administered at the Hawaii State Capitol Senate Chambers on November 17th this year.

She joins the legal profession in the State of Hawaii where there are about 10 attorneys of Samoan ancestry.

Saisamoa is the daughter of Tuilaepa Soioamoa Mary Grey and William R. Price from Malifa, Tauese, Falefa, Lauli'i, Satupa'itea, Sapapali'i, and Falealili.

Becoming a lawyer has always been her childhood dream.

I have always wanted to be a lawyer since I was eight years old, and my day of reckoning was November 17th, she said.

To get to where she is today, Saisamoa has always tried to achieve every goal she set for herself.

I aspired to achieve my goals and with every small step that I accomplished, I never lost sight of the ultimate goal and that was to become an American Attorney and the first-born and raised Samoan woman, to do so.

Saisamoa is employed as a law clerk for the Honourable Fa'auuga L.To'oto'o of the First Circuit Court in Hawaii.

Growing up in Samoa, she attended St Mary's Primary School at Savalalo before moving to St Mary's College.

Saisamoa then attended the National University of Samoa, the American Samoa Community College, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and later, the William S. Richardson School of Law.

She says the words of former Head of State, Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese, motivated her to strive for the best.

His message was that we cannot be carried away by the moment because the final day of reckoning awaits us."

And that was exactly what Saisamoa did.

She never allowed anything to sway her away from achieving her ultimate goal  to be a lawyer.

She admitted that without God, she wouldnt have achieved her dreams.

Her family and many friends were also vital as they worked behind the scenes to help her achieve her dream.

I dedicate this achievement to my late grandmother, Toeasonaimoamoa Christina Grey, who was always known as Toeaso but the meaning of her name is something I strive to live by.

I would like to thank my parents and especially my mother for her never-ending prayers and support.

Saisamoa also acknowledged the support of the American Samoa Scholarship Committee and the McDonalds Scholarship Committee for recognizing her potential and providing her with the financial opportunity to pursue her studies in Hawaii.
Mailelani, which makes natural beauty products, exists to make Samoa, a dot on the world map, a place known in international markets.

The owner of Mailelani, Sylvie Salanoa, was part of the Samoa Association of Manufacturers and Exporters (S.A.M.E.) session on Project  Enhancing Private Sector Export Competitiveness and Partnerships possibilities between Samoa Exporters within European Union markets held at the M.C.I.L. conference room this week.

It is programmes like this where we get to view requests and to get a clear understanding of what we need to do as business people to meet the criteria to be able to export our goods to the European markets, she said.

Ms. Salanoa was thankful for the workshop because she said there is a demand by customers for their products in Europe.

It is important to be aware of the regulations before we apply to enter the European markets and to meet the expectations of the European Union, so we must first be educated on what to do.

Ms. Salanoa says the main focus of her business is to offer job opportunities and to make the small island of Samoa known to the world which is why she supports the expansion of Samoas market.

This is why Mailelani was created in the first place, to offer jobs. Anybody that has a job will be happy and I am certain about that because they will be able to provide for their families and their community.

This is our way of empowering youths and giving back to the community. So if we go international, this will open more opportunities for people to get jobs, she said.

Ms. Salanoa also emphasized putting Samoa on the map.

We make products that people are aware of such as body care. Being able to represent Samoa and show that not only the foreign countries can make high quality products, our small country that is found in an appealing location of the world, can make something fascinating out of our natural, Samoan ingredients, she said.

However Ms. Salanoa does admit that there are challenges associated with trying to trade on the international markets.

She says the isolation of our country is the biggest challenge.

Ms. Salanoa said the other issue that they have is the cost of shipping and transport which is expensive.

Despite the many challenges that they are facing, she is certain that nothing is impossible with God and that is the reason their business is called Mailelani which means from heaven.

Ms. Salanoa also acknowledged the event organised by S.A.M.E.
Theres a saying that a bird may wander everywhere but it will always make its way back to its nest.

Its the same thing for Arno Gurau.

Despite living abroad for a very long time, he will always call Samoa home.

Arno lost his father at a young age but coming back to Samoa has been the best way for him to get a deeper understanding of what his fathers culture is like.

It is important for me to always come back. This is the place to reconnect with my father because it is where he came from, he said.

Arno said that because his father died when he was young, he was not able to teach him anything about the Samoan culture and so he has had to find out everything on his own.

Coming back home is always a good time to visit family and loved ones here in Samoa. Every time I come, I always especially make time to see my aunt, my fathers sister.

On the other hand, Arno said that it was also great to have his two kids come to Samoa even though it turned out to be during the time of the 2009 tsunami.

But whenever you visit, its always important.

This is my fifth time now, being in Samoa. There is nothing that I love more than coming back for the faasamoa, the traditional food and the people, he said.

Arno said that he will definitely return soon and he is already looking forward to when that next trip may be.

He said that he loves Samoa and he will not stop coming back to the place that he still calls home.
What better place to spend your honeymoon than on the beautiful sandy beaches of Samoa?

Here are Mr. and Mrs. Buckley, the newly-wed couple from New Zealand.

They said there was nothing they would change about their trip to Samoa because it had been so surreal.

Talking to Dear Tourist yesterday, they said their experience in Samoa so far had been great.

They have been to the Piula Cave Pool and they also plan to visit the To-Sua Ocean trench.

The couple said Samoas natural scenery had just been mind-blowing for them.

It just looks so beautiful and amazing everywhere. It feels very good to be here, we love it, they said.

They are currently staying at the Saletoga Sands Resort and they acknowledged the hospitality shown by the Samoan people.

The Samoan culture has also mesmerised the couple.

The people have been friendly and very kind to us at Saletoga, but not just at Saletoga but everywhere we go people are very welcoming and so generous.

The people are always smiling and so nice to us even though they do not know us. They are very respectful. Samoa is so awesome, they said.

The couple were amazed by how strong the everyday Samoa culture is and also made reference to the cultural night held at the Saletoga Sands Resort where fire dancers astounded them with their skill and daring.

They owe this memorable trip to one of their close friends who recommended they come to Samoa.
Crying isnt a sign of weakness but a sign of having tried hard to be strong and having the courage to carry on.

Thats how a mother of three from Lealalii, Ana Vaiolo, expressed her feelings when approached by the Village Voice team yesterday.

She was asked of how life is in her family and she replied: We barely survive from day to day because we dont have much.

The 30-year-old mother explained how hard it is to get through the hurdles in life.

My husband and I sell Samoan cocoa for our family to survive daily, she said.

My husband goes from shop to shop to make deliveries but I stay home to prepare the Samoan cocoa and look after our children.

She repeated that life isnt easy.

We struggle every day but we keep on for our childrens sake.

Our three children are all in primary level, and trying to meet all the needs of our family especially our childrens lunch every day is hard.

So we always save (food and money) for them.

For my husband and I, we dont really care whether we have food to eat or water to drink, but we take our children as our first priority.

When it rains, their house is not a place of shelter.

As you can see, Im just about to go to the other family at the other side of the village to ask for lau to cover the roof of our house, she said.

The hardest time for us and the children is when it rains during the night, but we collect pieces of iron and steel to cover the roof.

They also have no water and electricity.

We only have two to three gallon containers that collect water, Ana said.

We always walk to fetch water from our other family at the other side, and its a lot of work because we dont have money to pay for a vehicle to deliver water to our place.

We try to save money so we will be able to connect water and electricity but we cant, because our children are our first priority.

Ana said that what they earned from selling cocoa every day wasnt very much.

Someday we sell two to three cocoa to nearby shops for $5 or $3 but some days no matter how much my husband tries to push selling...but if people arent interested, we cant force them.

We all know that you can only buy two items for $10, so most days we dont have tea or rice because we dont have money.

To be honest we go to bed with heavy hearts thinking of what the next day will bring and how we are going to survive the next day.

Looking at my children is really hard. I mean its so hard to live without money these days.

Whenever we have money we save it for them.

We are still trying to live from day to day.

Its so hard because of the high cost of living and to be honest we cant stretch what we earn to another day.

My husband was also looking for a job but he was unsuccessful.

She is pleading for help.

We are seeking help from whoever wants to help our family, especially with repairs to our house and a water supply.

We would appreciate anything.

If you want to help Ana, please contact her on 723-6437.
At Beach Road yesterday morning, the Police Band led a parade of some 400 registered nurses as well as students studying at the Faculty of Health Science.

The occasion was to commemorate 100 years of service of the Samoa Nurses Association Incorporated.

The Chairman of the Congregational Christian Church Samoa, Rev. Elder Tunumoso Iosia, gave the blessing before the Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi congratulated the Nurses Association for their hard work serving the people of Samoa.

The President of the Samoa Nurses Association Taulapapa Faamanatu Nielsen gave a brief history of the Association and paid tribute to those who started the work of nursing in Samoa and those who have since passed on.

The Samoa Nurses Association was founded in 1917 with just four girls from Papauta and now, in 2017, we have more than 400 registered nurses in Samoa," she said.

We have come a long way with so many challenges but we have also achieved so much, she said.

This years event is for celebrating the lives of those who first established the Association and took the necessary steps to improve the service of nurses in Samoa.

Taulapapa said that at first it was very hard but they overcame the early difficulties.

Those who first formed the Association were strong women, she said.

But now, we are just thankful for all these years because we know we have come a very long way.

An exciting part of the celebration was that the government of Samoa announced that they will build a new hall for the nurses in the next financial year.

The promise was made by Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi during his Keynote Address.

As a commemoration of your 100th year anniversary, a huge hall will be built to replace the one standing at the moment which is small and rotting, he said.

Befitting the celebratory occasion, the Prime Minister issued a reminder to the Minster of Health to keep the promise that had been made.

To the Minister of Health, make this promise that the government has made this morning, your priority.

[And] make sure it is done within the upcoming financial year and ensure that this promise does not backfire so the government is saying things and not doing them.

Aside from the promise of building a new hall next year, the government also gifted the Association with $20,000.

As part of your 100 years celebration, Cabinet has also passed yesterday, that $20,000 be given to the Samoa Nurses Association as a gift for your celebrations, said Tuilaepa.

A new hall will benefit the Nurses Association as it will help not only the nurses but also the students who want to become registered nurses in the future. It can be used for their gatherings as well as conferences.

The day ended with the cutting of the cake.
Dear Editor

Re: Head of State or Governor General?

The title Governor General applies to a person appointed to represent the monarch in an independent realm. If applied in Samoa it would raise the question who is the monarch?

History has clearly demonstrated that the role of monarch in Samoa has almost always been filled by a member of the Tama Aiga. The proposal would demote the Head of State to a role that is in theory responsible to the monarch.

Since there will no longer be a monarch it must be presumed that the Governor General would be responsible to - who else but the parliament?

That proposes a dramatic shift in the administration of the Independent State of Samoa and seems to echo the unfortunate situation currently being played out in Zimbabwe.

Colin Law
Dear Editor

Re: PM Tuilaepa attacks media for reporting on incest and rape! Why?

Hes worried that without tourists, his new airline Samoa Airways will repeat the horror thats still haunting him today

I just read some idiot got 15 years for the rape of his wifes younger sisters there in Samoa.

The PM is wrong for admonishing the press for reporting on animals like that guy.

Shout it from the roof tops! Incest and Sexual Assault on women and children is WRONG!

This always needs to be addressed and dealt with serious punishment.

F&AM
Dear Editor

I can find the O.L.P.

It should be quite simple and should only take up one page in your newspaper.

The Prime Minister wants the O.L.P. in prison and the O.L.P. wants the Prime Minister sacked.

Ask the Prime Minister publicly (via Samoa Observer) if he will agree to satisfactorily answer all allegations leveled against him in exchange for the O.L.P. to give up his/her identity.

The O.L.P. from what I can tell is a patriot.

And a true patriot would jump at the opportunity end this saga even at the cost of his own freedom.

However if O.L.P. claims are substantiated then the Prime Minister should immediately step down with our Head of State taking control, while a total overhaul of Samoas political structure occurs.

The O.L.P. should then have no case to answer.

If the O.L.P. refuses, then I say you are a coward and deserve to be in prison for sowing poisonous seeds around the country.

If the Prime Minister refuses, then the O.L.P. should continue and we the citizens should voice our opinions more vocally.

Not just on Facebook, in public until questions are answered. Being too busy shouldnt be an excuse either.

You, (Prime Minister) have time in your day to run Samoa rugby, a country, open new airlines, telethons, etc surely you can spare an hour out of your day to clear your name and put to bed some very serious allegations.

Not to mention catching the O.L.P.

What say you?

Misa Frost
Good news for those who will be part of Opotiki Packing and Cool Storage Limited (O.P.A.C.) under the Recognised Seasonal Employers Scheme (R.S.E.).

Representatives of the New Zealand-based company are in the country to recruit locals for employment.

Orchard Operations Manager, Simon Dondi said: Next year, the company will increase employees salaries from N.Z$16.50 (T$28.90) to N.Z$17 (T$29.83).

This is part of the R.S.E. programme that was introduced by the Samoa Government in 2007.

And O.P.A.C. has been recruiting locals under the R.S.E. programme for more than 10 years.

We are here recruiting people to replace other employees who may return home because of issues such as behaviour or because they can no longer come to work for O.P.A.C, Mr. Dondi said.

We arrived last Saturday and on Monday this week, we went to Savaii. It was a great turnout from the people living on the big island.

We have recruited 10 women and six men.

O.P.A.C. grows, harvests, packs and stores high quality kiwifruit (green or cold).

The company has 70 permanent staff and employs about 600 people during the harvest season, which runs from early March until the end of June.

Nila Siaulaiga Faalilo Misi from the villages of Leone and Safune, Savaii, was part of the R.S.E. programme working for O.P.A.C. in 2012.

I am very privileged to have such an opportunity to work for O.P.A.C. in N.Z. for six years now. Since then, I am able to fulfill many needs and obligations towards my family.

We are able to send money back home while we are working in N.Z. Our homes have been rebuilt, we have our own cars all because of our income that we earn while working for O.P.A.C.

For the six months,I earn over N.Z$12,000 (T$20,956) and to me it is a lot of money compared to we'd earn in Samoa.

Similar sentiments were also echoed by Puleia Jenkins who has been part of O.P.A.C. under the R.S.E. programme for 10 years now.

I am so honoured to be under the Recognized Seasonal Employers Scheme programme and it has been 10 years now since I was first employed by O.P.A.C. Limited.

If in the future I dont get this opportunity, I would rather set up a small business such as a shop for me to earn a living rather thanto look for a job.

But for now, I still want to be awarded with such an opportunity.

The announcement of a salary increase for Nila and Puleia is good news because they are preparing for next years trip to New Zealand.

Opotiki Packing and Cool storage Limited is recruiting people from Tonga, Malayasia and Samoa.
A Primary School teacher who offered a young female student $3 and $4 amounts of money to lure her for sex, has been sentenced to jail for 13 years.

The decision was handed down by Supreme Court Justice Mata Keli Tuatagaloa yesterday afternoon.

Efeso Pati Masina, 39, from the villages of Falefa and Asau, Savaii, was teaching at a church school when the incidents took place.

He was found guilty by a panel of assessor on one count of rape and five counts of sexual connection with a girl under 16 years old at the beginning of the month.

Prosecution was Fatumanavaupolu Ofisa Tagaloa of the Attorney Generals Office while defense counsel was Alex Sua.

In handing down her sentencing yesterday Justice Mata sent out a strong message to the defendant as well as others who commit similar offences.

You were a teacher and you took advantage of your position as a teacher towards the victim, said Justice Mata.

You also took advantage of the parents trust that was put in you to protect their children while they were under your care during school hours.

The younger the victims are, the heftier the penalty by the court is.

In reading out the aggravating features, Justice Mata took into account the age difference between the victim and the defendant.

You are 26 years older than the victim, she said.

[And] because of your actions towards her, she no longer attends school.

This was also confirmed by her mother during her testimony.

She told the court that her daughter feels too ashamed to go back to school, As a mother, she has tried so hard to take her daughter back to school but her daughter refuses to go.

The victim said she feels too ashamed to go anywhere even within her own village and especially back to school."
Hoteliers endorsed under the Tax Credit Scheme will have to pay tax come December 1st, 2017.

The Tax Credit Scheme was enforced in 2003 under the Income Tax Amendment Act which allowed hoteliers not to pay taxes but invest in other hotel developments.

This Act is renewed every five years.

The Act states that a person, who invests at least $100,000 in an approved tourism development, is allowed a credit against income tax payable for the persons income at the rate of 100 percent of the investment.

However, under the conditions of the Act, the approved tourism developer provides first class hotel accommodation in Samoa, approved by Cabinet.

The Bill to terminate the Tax Credit Scheme was approved in second reading during the recent one-day Parliament sitting and referred to the Economic Sector Committee for a report to hand to Parliament within 90 days.

Minister of Revenue Tialavea Tionisio Hunt stated the primary objective of the Bill was to extend the expiration date for income Tax Credit Scheme from 30th June, 2017 to 1st December, 2017.

This law should be abolished. I dont know who created this law but it should be abolished, said Tialavea during the Parliament sitting.

Initially the tax credit should have been terminated by June, 2017, however due to requests from the hotels approved by the Investment Committee for extension, hence the Bills extension to 1st December, 2017.

This was an issue I discussed with Minister of Finance, who agreed and noted the government has invested in a hotel, yet the hotels who are not paying taxes are not investing in hotels.

This is why this Bill is important and is discontinued effective 1st December, 2017.

The move was supported by the Member of Parliament for Vaimauga East, Sulamanaia Tauiliili Tuivasa.

He was under the impression that tax credits had already ceased to exist.

For the longest time, the hoteliers have benefited from this scheme, said Sulamanaia.

I was happy this scheme would be eliminated by 30th June, yet the extension is for another six months, 1st December, I think this law should be abolished immediately.

I do not support the extension, said Sulamanaia.

Tialavea explained to Members of Parliament the extension was granted upon the request from the Chamber of Commerce and the hoteliers.

The request came from the Chamber of Commerce asking for the extension to 1st December, 2017.

The difficulty, according to the Chamber is that hoteliers made the request for the extension due to the prompt move to discontinue this scheme immediately at the time, back in June.

This will be the last of this type of scheme, said Tialavea.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi says this has been going on for far too long.

Even to those hoteliers who received assistance through this scheme and after many years, we are still waiting for the new hotels, but so far nothing.

Tuilaepa says it is not financially feasible for new non-registered investors to seek another extension under this scheme because nothing can be done within six months.

There are businesses that have sought government assistance and of course once that has happened, then the waiting game starts.

There are also businesses who have visited the Minister to reconsider his decision and have come to me and I tell them that is what you get for waiting and waiting.

If the business had worked on their hotels, by now there would be a lot of hotels, then we would not hire the cruise ship to cater to the off island visitors when we had the Small Islands Developing States forum held in Samoa.

At the moment there are a lot of people who are making bookings with local hotels and this is one of the reasons why the Government invested in the new airline to bring tourists to Samoa, said Tuilaepa.

As reported last month, Tuilaepa told the Samoa Observer the scheme has deprived the government from collecting much-needed taxes for the development of the nation.

Such taxes, he said, was money that should be paid to the government. Millions of tala is involved.

Its a tax credit for certain companies on the excuse these companies will invest.

But those infrastructures are often delayed which at the same time deprives the government, in terms of revenue for our development, Tuilaepa added.
International condemnations followed an attack by gunmen on a North Sinai mosque on Friday during prayer that killed at least 200 worshippers.

According to Russian news agency TASS, Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a telegram of condolences to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi regarding the attack.

"The killing of civilians during the mosque prayer strikes one with its cruelty and cynicism. We can see once again that the human morality concept is totally alien to terrorists," Putin noted according to TASS, adding that his country is ready to boost cooperation with Egypt in the fight against international terrorism.

Boris Johnson, the UK Foreign Secretary, wrote on Twitter: "Deeply saddened by the abhorrent attack on a mosque in North Sinai, #Egypt. My sincere condolences to all those affected by such a barbaric act,"

In an official statement, the UK's envoy to Egypt, John Casson, also denounced the attack on Al-Rawda mosque in western Arish.

"I am disgusted by the evil attack that killed & injured so many Egyptians in Sinai today. On behalf of the UK my deep condolences to all involved. These attacks on people praying in mosques & churches only strengthen our determination to stand together, & defeat terrorism & hate," Casson tweeted.

Pope Francis condemned the "wanton act of brutality" against innocent people in a message sent on his behalf by the Vatican Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Pietro.

He said he is profoundly grieved to learn of the great loss of life caused by the terrorist attacks on the Rawda Mosque in North Sinai, while expressing solidarity with the Egyptian people.

The French ambassador in Cairo, Stephane Romatet, also condemned the attack, referring to it as "barbaric and ignominious."

"Egypt is in mourning and France stands beside it," Romatet said on his Twitter account.

Bahrain also denounced the attack in the strongest terms, with the Bahraini foreign ministry stressing its supportive stance with Egypt against terrorism and extremism.

In an official statement, the US embassy in Cairo described the attack as an "unconscionable act of cowardice and hate."

"As Egypt battles the scourge of terrorism, the United States stands committed to the safety and security of Egypt and its people," the statement read.

France has also condemned the attack, according to MENA.

"France condemns this low attack that has submerged the whole country in mourning," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

The minister said France will continue forming a joint front with Egypt to combat terrorism.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has also received condolences letter from his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella, stressed his countrys support for Egypt in the fight against terrorism, MENA reported.

"In the joint struggle against terrorism and religious extremism, who are the main enemies of freedom of worship, Egypt can always count on the sincere support from Italy," Mattarella said.

The ambassador of the European Union to Egypt, Ivan Surkos, has also condemned the "brutal terrorist attack against innocent civilians, stressing that the EU supports Egypt in combating terrorism, MENA reported.

Both King Salman and Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia have sent condolence letters to El-Sisi, MENA reported.

King Salman said that his country "stands by Egypt and its people in combating terrorism, and its attempts to establish the security and the stability of Egyptian people," MENA reported.

"I condemn this evil terrorist act that targeted secured innocents in a house of God," the king reportedly said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas strongly condemned the attack, saying in a statement that the Palestinian people and leadership stands beside Egypt in its war on terrorism.

Turkey also condemned the attack.

"I strongly condemn the terrorist attack in Sinai region of Egypt that took lives of many innocent civilians. I convey my condolences to the families of those who were killed and to the brotherly people of Egypt; I also wish speedy recovery to the wounded," Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote on Twitter.

Ukraine, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Libya, Mauritania, Bahrein, Sudan and Yemen also condemned the terror attack.

At least 125 worshippers were also injured in the attack that took place after gunmen fired heavily on worshippers after improvised explosive devices were detonated at the mosque after Friday prayers.

The attack is one of the deadliest such against civilians in the country in recent years.

The Egyptian presidents office has announced a three-day mourning period.

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Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, has issued what has been described as a brand new ultimatum.

During his press conference on Thursday, he ruled that couples working at the Ministry of Police, would no longer be allowed to work together.

In explaining why he was doing this, Tuilaepa said there are many reasons why this should not happen.

For instance, there were safety reasons, he said.

He also said this was part of the reforms since hed moved the Ministry of Police under his portfolio in December 2016.

Tuilaepa said he was not happy that this issue had been ongoing for so long, and yet nothing had been done to rectify it by the former Commissioners.

He said: This is one of the issues within the ministry that should have been dealt with a long time ago, said the Prime Minister.

He blamed the former Commissioners.

They knew what was going on right under their noses and they allowed it.

Couples cannot work together, he explained.

This is a standing policy all over the world; a wife cannot work with her husband, he said.

Tuilaepa said it would have been a different story if it was a family business.

He said this should not happen in any Ministry of Government, adding: What will happen, is that they will not heed the policies of the Ministry, but do what benefits them as a family.

The same will occur if they have their children working together with them.

This is one of the reasons there are numerous predicaments within the Ministry of Police, he said.

Tuilaepa did not identify how many couples within the Ministry worked together but he said pointedly: They know who they are.

He also said: Well nothing is hidden under the sun in our country. Everything will come out.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa was apparently told that some Police Officers had requested time to discuss the matter with their families.

He said they even wanted to know if they would be compensated for the time theyd been with the Police up to now.

Indeed, they even asked whether they would be compensated if they resigned as a result of the ultimatum.

Tuilaepa said: It has been a year. I told them this should be finalized by the end of December this year.

He also said: This should have not happened in the first place.

But it appears that nothing has been done about it and this is the end result.

He said: Postponing it will allow them to assume that there will be some sort of solution and that way this wrongdoing will continue.

Tuilaepa said: This is why there are problems in the government. It is utilizing mutual respect in a wrongful manner and it is not doing what is right.
The merge of the health sectors Ministry of Health (M.O.H.), National Health Services (N.H.S.) and National Kidney Foundation (N.K.F.S.) will take place next month.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi revealed this during his weekly conference with the media.

In May, 2017, Minister of Health, Tuitama Dr Leao Talalelei Tuitama confirmed the numerous predicaments arising from the Health Sector agencies and the merge is the end result.

Tuilaepa said the merge process should not take any longer now.

I was informed that it will happen soon; there are sensitive issues that need to be dealt with prior to the merge taking place.

Well its not really that sensitive; it is the same when the sectors were separated once before and now merging again.

The intention by the Minister of Health is to have this merge happen next month, said Tuilaepa.

As reported earlier, Tuitama told the Samoa Observer that the poor quality of healthcare; NZ$10million (T$17.7 million) spent on sending patients off island for treatment; too much money spent on hiring top officials rather than funding going to clinical services; duplicating work and lack of working relationship between the sectors are among the many reasons the merge is appropriate between the health agencies.

Tuitama explained that its been 10 years since N.H.S. and the M.O.H. were separated.

Over the years, the problems of offices not working together and the services not being up to par has continued.

Its apparent that the Ministry does its own thing, they are not working together, yet each Ministry cannot work without the other.

They need the cooperation of one another; this is the reason behind the problems that have occurred.

He said another reason was the lack of appropriate health care services as the Ministrys priority was not the right place.

Tuitama said at the time, there was a lack of appropriate equipment for better healthcare, the lack of experts and specialists and also the government is spending more than NZ$10million sending patients for treatment off island.

And this is every year. Yet because we have a new hospital, the service should be up to par.

The Minister said the question had been asked as to why the services were not up to par despite the new hospital.

It is expected the healthcare should be somewhat at the top level.

Its unclear why the hospital hasnt hired experts and specialists to conduct heart surgery, Ear Nose and Throat (E.N.T.) specialists and eye doctors.

We have a good hospital and we should be able to bring in the latest equipment to better the services but thats not happening.

The Minister is especially concerned with the increasing numbers of people utilizing the dialysis clinic and it raises the questions as to why.

Yet there are managers, assistant managers, officials with their assistants, the management has increased and depriving the clinical services, funds should go to these services, another reason which has prompted the move for a better change for the Ministry.

Tuitama pointed out that more than 100 people are employed with the corporate service at M.O.H., almost the same number of people are working for N.H.S. and N.K.F.S yet these three agencies have the same goals.

Do we need all these corporate services, the increasing numbers of management personnel and yet the clinical services are starving.

The top management is quite heavy creating all the new positions and in doing so they are there is duplication of services.

According to Tuitama, N.H.S. is mandated by M.O.H. in terms of Human Resources and quality assurance but it appears, they have hired their own people to do the same job and this means not only duplication of work, but also triplicating of services.

Aside from the management level each of the agencies has their own boards.

This is a service provider not a revenue earner and also the government is not looking for money by using our hospital.

The government is paying to take members of public off island, if the operation cannot be done locally; its the responsibility of the government to send the people off island to get treatment.

Because it is the responsibility of the government.... $10million that is, yet the hospital is not prioritizing the public.

These are some of the most difficult predicaments behind the move to merge these ministries.

According to Tuitama, experts who visited Samoa have given the advice and suggested to merge the services to minimize the excess.

The Minister said merging was nothing new to the government, and Samoa was not the only country thats done this.

He said in government there were ministries which had been created and established, yet in less than 10 years, they are back under the umbrella where they were separated from.

If we see the problem we have to fix it right away. We dont wait; we act immediately. Prevention is better than cure, said the Minister.

The Minister said there is a mission, a group of heart surgeons in Samoa, and they are conducting valve replacements.

It costs the government $50,000 for one operation and we had 14 operations conducted by this group.

The government has saved a lot of money, but this guided mission is kind of a goodwill mission.

Our main core is to cater to the needs of these people, but we cant just rely on the goodwill of others.

We need to stand on our own two feet, it is up to these people to help us or not.

The Minister said we needed to increase our own capacity to extend our own ability to deal with our own problems.

So based on those reasons and many others I cannot discuss with you fully, not because I dont want to, but simply because we dont have enough time, there are a lot of things involved that have an impact on the management issues.

The government feels that it is the appropriate time and it is the right move at this time to merge in order to minimize the impact at the management level.
Samoa is the perfect place away from home because not all of us were made for the fast lane.

Atam and Gina believe that Samoa is running at the right pace which is what some of them are searching for, to relax and refresh.

It is nice to take a break from the internet because not all of us who go on a holiday want to work. We just want to take a break from the outside world, they said.

They agreed that Samoa is the place that many people are looking for to relax in because there is so much happening in their everyday lives that you can get lost in the process of it all.

It is always good to take a break every now and then and it is even better when you are at the right place for Atam and Gina.

Going to sleep early has definitely been something new for them.

They said that everybody here in Samoa goes to bed early.

They have also noticed that there are barely any cocktail bars as well.

The couple is from Great Britain and they will only be here in Samoa for a week staying at the Saletoga Sands Beach Resort.

The scenery they said, is dramatic

They just marvel at how beautiful Samoa is.

Previous experiences of travelling to the Pacific have been visits to the Cook Islands.

There is a big difference from Samoa, said Atam.

Samoa is way bigger than the Cook Islands. It is nice and different here. It is very warm here and there are more open houses.

Atam and Gina wish that there could be more direct flights to Samoa because on their way to Samoa they have had to go through Fiji and the flight was delayed.

In terms of cuisine here in Samoa they both said that there should be more local food available such as seafood.
The best part about weddings is not just two people getting married; its about the whole family coming together.

Sarena Vaitupu, who was born and bred in New Zealand, finds so much excitement in coming back to their roots especially this time around when one of her family members is tying the knot next week.

This wedding is a great opportunity for Sarena and her family to finally meet up again and even though it is going to be for a short while before they part ways again, she is certain that families are forever.

The 24-year-old shared her own experiences that this is what she misses the most about home, it is the family and the culture which is really strong here in Samoa compared with how it is in Dunedin.

She is happy to return to her roots and get the opportunity to be reunited with her fathers family who is here in Samoa.

She is from Vailima.

Sarena says nothing has changed in Samoa, everyone is still close with one another and the love that we share is very much alive.

But in terms of development, she said Samoa had definitely changed a lot. She says every time she comes she gets to witness something new because she comes to Samoa at the end of every year.

Then we get to see that our small country is slowly developing which is really good. New buildings here and there, she said.

Despite living far away from Samoa, she told Dear Tourist that her Samoan culture is very much alive in her household, where they still do chores and clean up.

Everywhere we go and where ever we may live, we always do chores at home. The normal chores like cleaning up and all of that.

The lifestyle in New Zealand is very different from how it is in Samoa for Sarena because culture, religion and family are not very strong in New Zealand.

So she is grateful to be back in Samoa.
Hard work is a key component of life that can address the daily struggles we face in Samoa today.

This is the belief of Filivaa Faleiva, 21, from Faleasiu.

Mr. Faleiva met the Village Voice team while on his way home after working on his plantation yesterday morning.

Mr. Faleiva said the reason he was working so hard was because life was hard for him and his family.

The life in Samoa today is definitely a tough one, he said.

I think the basic rule for Samoa today is that if you dont work; your family will starve and struggle every day.

I also think the main issue today is earning money.

Mr. Faleiva said there were only two people working in his family and they also supported them financially.

I am currently working at the Aggies Resort in Mulifanua but today (yesterday) is my day off and that is why I am out here working and collecting coconuts for our feed tonight.

So its just me and my older brother who work and support our family.

Both of my parents are very old and sick and that is why we work hard to earn enough so we are able to take care of them and their medical checkups at the hospital.

Mr. Faleiva also shared their family expenses.

Our money mainly goes to buying food and our household items and paying the bills.

And then we have to take care of my parents in terms of their checkups at the hospital and paying for their medicine.

Mr. Faleiva added that life would be much harder if we just sat around doing nothing.

That is why today even though its my only day off from my work; I am still out here because I dont want my family to starve.

I also believe that in order to survive the hard life today, we have to keep working, he said.
Think a minuteThe former U.S. president, Harry Truman, had a reputation for being an honest and loyal friend no matter what the cost. One of Trumans friends, Tom Pendergast, helped Truman win his first election to public office as a county judge.

However, Truman did not always agree with his friends crooked way of doing business.

One time a group of dishonest businessmen wanted Pendergast to influence his friend Judge Truman, but Pendergast replied: Truman always stays true to his honest character and principles. There is nothing I can do to tempt or make Truman cheat or do anything dishonest.

Eventually Pendergast was put in jail for the crime of tax evasion. Years later when Truman was vice-president of the U.S., Pendergast died. Yet Truman still flew across America for the funeral. He said: Even though we disagreed, we were still friends.

True friendship is not based on what a friend does for you, but on what he means to you, even if you disagree with him and disapprove of his ways. True friends say whats trueeven if it hurts, because they care about what is right and best for your life.

A true friend gets in your way, if youre going down the wrong road. A proverb says: Faithful are the wounds from a friend.Just like a doctor sometimes must cut you to heal and save your life.

True friends stab you in the frontbecause they want to save you from worse problems and pain. Love does not lie, because Truths that are kept silent become poison.

We all have things in our character we need to change, so sooner or later confrontation is necessary. A close, strong relationship only grows out of deep trust built on honest communication with each other. My friend needs to know I will always accept him, even if I do not approve of what he is doing.

But friendship is a two-way street and the truth cuts both ways. So we need to be willing to listen when a friend cares enough to confront us about something wrong in our life. One of the most important reasons God gave us friends is to help us grow and become more like Him in our character.

Jesus is the best friend you will ever have. Wont you ask Him to forgive you for your wrong ways of living, and to take full charge of your character and way of life? That is when He can start rebuilding you into the man or woman He made you to be.

Just think a minute
Gov. Jerry Brown met earlier this month with executives from one of the worlds biggest energy companies to discuss the possibilities of developing the first offshore wind project in California.

While on his way to the recent world climate conference in Germany, Brown huddled with Bjrn Otto Sverdrup, senior vice president for corporate sustainability for Statoil in Norway, according to the news website Axios.

While offshore wind farms are becoming a common sight in Europe, none have been built on the West Coast and only one has been completed in the U.S.  off the shores of Block Island in Rhode Island.

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Its great, all that wind blowing, if we can get it, if the price is right, if the technology is there, if we can get through appropriate analysis, Brown told Axios last week in Bonn, Germany. I think it may have real potential, but theres lots of issues there.

Because the continental shelf plunges steeply off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, its impractical to bolt turbines into the seabed. As a result, constructing floating wind turbines is considered necessary.

Earlier this year, Statoil opened the first floating wind farm in the world, off the coast of Scotland and estimated to power about 20,000 homes.

Based in Oslo, Statoil is 67 percent owned by the Norwegian government and has been aggressively moving into wind power generation. Last year, the company applied to the U.S. government for a lease of nearly 56 square miles at Morro Bay.

But Statoil is not the only competitor for the Morro Bay lease.

Seattle-based Trident Winds has hopes to build a floating array of about 100 wind turbines some 33 miles from the shore by 2025.

Wind energy analysts believe offshore facilities have huge potential.

Its estimated that nearly a terrawatt of electricity will be generated off the coast of California, 13 times more capacity than all the land-based wind farms across the country generate.

In May 2016, Brown called on the U.S. Department of the Interior to establish a state task force in coordination with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to identify promising areas for wind energy off Californias coastline.

Business

rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski

ALSO

Wind energy in California: The good news and bad news

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Wind turbines taller than the Empire State Building?
Traffic from UC San Diegos growth will more than double at a key intersection and mean a 315.6-second delay at the afternoon rush-hour period by 2035, according to an environmental document covering a $609 million college construction project.

The findings will be covered at a public hearing at 6 p.m. Nov. 29 at the UCSD Faculty Club when the public can weigh in on the planned Sixth College project off North Torrey Pines Road and Genesee Avenue.

Only a small portion of the long-term traffic growth  at 5.6 seconds  is attributed to the 1.1-million-square-foot project, formally called the Living and Learning Neighborhood, due to open in 2020.

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But the environmental impact report, the subject of the hearing, lays out the transportation impacts of growing UCSD and the surrounding community over the next 18 years.

In 2020, just before the new college site is completed, the Torrey Pines/Genesee intersection is expected to see a daily rush-hour delay of 184.6 seconds every afternoon. That number is projected to increase nearly 71 percent by 2035, a bit from the college and much more from other growth, some generated by the university and another from nearby residential and commercial development.

Over that same period, the average daily trips on the portion of Genesee Avenue from North Torrey Pines Road to UCSD Northpoint Driveway, east of Interstate 5, will more than double from the present 22,640 trips to 50,000 trips, the report says.

Other intersections and segments anticipate various levels of growth and congestion, but the environmental impact report says theres only so much that can be done to mitigate congestion.

The 13-acre project site will replace Sixth Colleges interim home at the Matthew Campus, also known as Camp Snoopy, north of the VA Medical Center off Villa La Jolla and Gilman drives.

Located at North Torrey Pines Road and Muir Drive, Sixth College is to include seven buildings for 2,048 student dorm and apartment beds and more than a quarter-million square feet of academic and administrative space.

Plans call for starting construction next spring, assuming the UC Board of Regents approves the project in March, officials said. Financing is coming from state funds, non-resident tuition, auxiliary revenues and fundraising.

Besides the upcoming hearing, written comments are due Dec. 15 before the environmental impact report can be finalized and reviewed by the regents.

Amy Carr, president of the Blackhorse Homeowners Association at the residential community west of the site, said those nearby neighbors have already expressed concerns about the traffic, noise and light pollution.

Theres fear around wanting to know what will change and if the campus is getting bigger, what will the impact be, she said.

The report predicts 1,029 construction-related trips to and from the site between 2018 and 2020. Part of the nearby Torrey Pines Glider Port property would be used as a staging area and workers would be shuttled back and forth.

As a long-term fix to the increased traffic, the report mentions restriping some traffic lanes as one solution. But it rejects widening the surrounding streets as being too expensive, let alone condemning private property to do so, and counterproductive because some bike lanes would be eliminated.

The second most affected intersection  La Jolla Village at Villa La Jolla drives  would experience an afternoon delay increase from 75.2 seconds in 2020 to 219.9 seconds by 2035, according the transportation analysis.

Of that increase, the Sixth College project would represent just 6.3 seconds of the total delay by that year.

Still, that key intersection just west of Interstate 5 is heading toward redesignation in its level of service from the current E to F rating, the worst grade possible.

The impact at this segment would remain significant and unavoidable, the report says.

The North Torrey Pines/Genesee intersection level of service already is at F and will continue as such.

Caltrans characterizes an F service level as one plagued by extremely low speeds, high delay and adverse signal progression.

Janay Kruger, chairwoman of the University Community Planning Group, said the findings represent what will happen as UCSD grows by 10,000 students and together with staff increases to total 60,000 in the years ahead. That number is equivalent to the entire population of La Mesa.

We like the science and the jobs, she said. We dont like all the congestion and impacts.

The report notes that the impact would be worse if more on-campus housing isnt built and students have to commute. UCSD plans to house at least 50 percent of students on campus, up from todays 40 percent.

Students who dont live on or near the campus currently travel an average 14 miles a day each way to class, the report says.

The arrival of San Diego Trolley service to campus in 2021 is seen as one way to reduce car trips that otherwise would add to overall traffic congestion.

Kruger said she has invited the university to present the college project to her advisory city body in January, along with plans for a new parking garage and fire station.

Were not involved in any discussion of the impacts, said Roger Cavanaugh, another planning group member whose wife used to work on campus. Thats what were looking for.

On noise, the report says the increase from Sixth College would be less than one decibel, not enough to be noticed.

If concerts and other big events take place in the open space quad within Sixth College, an existing berm would buffer the sound for residents in the Blackhorse Farms townhomes, built in 1989 on land leased from the university just west of the college site, the report says.

As for light pollution, the report says outdoor lighting would be minimal and fixtures would be shielded to reduce spillover to the neighborhood.

Business

roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley
During the 16 years that James Stone has been blowing glass, using highly explosive materials that he melts and shapes in a 2,500-degree furnace, not once had there been a serious incident.

We have never had an accident in all the years weve been operating, Stone, 67, said.

Then a mattress store caught fire.

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For 14 years, Stone & Glass studio had been located in Rancho Bernardo, but in 2014 it moved to an industrial building in Escondido on Simpson Way that was better suited to Stones needs.

About 2 a.m. on April 1 (no fools day joke), two bays over from his studio in the large building, a heater in the ceiling malfunctioned and sent sparks down upon hundreds of new mattresses stored below.

It was like a campfire, Stone said.

The three-alarm fire, one of the biggest in recent memory in the city, burned for hours. Stone learned that firewalls that should have contained the smoke and soot to the mattress factory were never extended all the way to the ceiling. The result was catastrophic.

There was a lot of acid in the soot, Stone said. It etched every piece of raw metal and worked its ways into every tool cabinet. It destroyed the businesss air compressor and ate away at everything that was glued together, which was a lot of his artwork made of glass, metal and stone.

Last week, Stone & Glass reopened -- better than ever, Stone says -- in a building that has a Grand Avenue address right next to the famous Hawthorne Country Store where farm animals and supplies are sold.

Serendipity, Stone calls it. Stone had good insurance that covered most of the damage costs. To refurbish much of the metal that was damaged in the fire, he went to a metalworking refinishing business in town and while delivering the material looked around. He mentioned to the metal stores owner how much he liked the space and said if he was ever thinking of leaving to let him know.

The owner said in fact he was planning on moving out in just a few months. He and Stone went over to Hawthornes, which owned the building. One of the people there instantly recognized the artist because he had purchased a glassblowing class for his wife that she had yet to use.

I told him, this ought to be easy. When you rent us the building, she can just walk across the parking lot for the lesson. Stone said.

On the day Stone & Glass reopened, 300 patrons came on a Saturday to celebrate during an event Stone dubbed Rising from the Ashes of Adversity. He designed a logo in the shape of a Phoenix with the slogan embedded in the design and made mugs and T-shirts featuring the sentiment.

He has just built himself a very nice deluxe studio, said Garry Cohen, who helped teach Stone the craft and who Stone refers to as his mentor.

James is a very hardworking, competent glass blower, Cohen said.

Stone worked in Cohens private studio for several years learning the trade and took lessons from Cohen at Palomar College, where Cohen taught for 18 years before recently retiring. Stone said Cohen sowed the seeds of most of the handful of professional glass-blowing artists active in the San Diego area today.

Stone became a glass artist relatively late in life. For years, he worked in Hollywood and Las Vegas as a prop man using welding and metal-work skills he had learned while growing up on a chicken and sheep farm in New Jersey. He worked on the sets of movies such as Silverado and on the set of Vegas shows including Siegfried and Roy, Hallelujah Hollywood and the Dean Martin Roasts.

He later came to San Diego and got involved in the television industry, but he said television is for the young and when a friend suggested he pursue glass blowing, which he had been dabbling in for years strictly as a hobby, he made the leap.

Stone said his business has three main components. He teaches classes in the hot glass and warm glass arena  blowing, fusion and casting.

Its a very important part of our business. he said. Hell teach kids as young as nine and has held classes for nearly 100 Girl Scout troops over the years.

It changes their lives, he said. Standing in front of a 2,500-degree furnace, at first theyre afraid theyre going to get burned. But then they do it, while being closely supervised, and their eyes grow wide, he said.

Safety is always our main focus, said Stones wife, Carol Rogers, who Stone refers to as the studios COE  Chief of Everything. We are the only facility where you are always working with a glass blower and an assistant.

The second part of the business is making stuff to sell. Theyve produced thousands of drinking glasses, vases, and holloware as well as mixed-material art pieces.

The third part of his business is what Stone says he makes for his heart  large pieces made from glass, metal and stone that speak to the fragile state of our oceans today.

He says he considers himself an ocean conservation artist. In the front of his studio is a spectacular full-size bench he has titled Last Call Before We Eat Them All that features endangered fish.

While insurance covered the bulk of the fire damage, there are still some shortfalls. Soon, a GoFundMe site will be set up to help defray what remains. For details, Stone asks people to visit the businesses website: stoneandglass.com.

Stone & Glass is located at 629 W. Grand Ave. in Escondido. But the address is a bit confusing. The studio is accessed off Second Avenue right where Grand Avenue forks off into downtown.

jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones
They rattled doorknobs in the midnight hours and crept through unlocked doors.

Masked men then terrorized the residents  tying and blindfolding them before ransacking the homes and even sexually assaulting one woman while her children slept in another room.

San Diego police nicknamed the thieves the Open Door Bandits. Over a three-week span in early 2016, they targeted 10 homes and 12 people..

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The victims were traumatized, said Deputy District Attorney Jalyn Wang, who is prosecuting the case in San Diego Superior Court. She said some victims were dragged from their beds, pistol-whipped, forced into a closet.

The mouth of a 2-year-old was taped shut. An older child was hog-tied.

Detectives arrested six men and one woman in connection with burglaries and home-invasion robberies across the north end of the city: Mira Mesa, Sorrento Valley, Rancho Bernardo, Carmel Valley, Scripps Ranch, Sabre Springs and Carmel Mountain Ranch.

Since those arrests, Wang has been busy with four plea deals and sentencings and preparing for trial on three defendants. Here is a run-down on where the cases stand:

Jordan Hollywood Wilson, 19, pleaded guilty on June 9 to conspiracy, residential burglary and robbery. He admitted hitting four homes in one night, with six victims. He was sentenced in July to eight years in state prison.

Victor Harvey, 20, pleaded guilty on July 14 to burglary and robbery. He was sentenced in September to five years in prison.

Robin Shawver, 22, pleaded guilty June 9 to conspiracy, burglary and robbery for waiting as getaway driver at the home where the sexual assault occurred. She was sentenced in July to three years in prison.

Aaron David Rico V, 18, pleaded guilty on Sept. 29 to conspiracy, burglary and robbery. Charges that he took part in the sexual assault were dismissed.

Judge Joan Weber is set to impose a 12-year sentence on Dec. 12.

Trial is set for April 2 for Ricos brother, Aaron David Rico III, 22, Stephen Ramon Gomez, 22, and Thomas James Smith, 26. All face multiple counts of conspiracy, burglary and robbery. Smith faces a sexual assault charge.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepard
Children painted and played games under shade structures at the homeless camp in Balboa Park on Thursday as their parents and other adults lined up for a Thanksgiving feast.

Volunteers doled out huge helpings of stuffing, ham, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy to a line of people of all ages and ethnicities.

Look at the smiles on the kids faces, said Abbra Dugan, 36, who has being living with her husband and two daughters at the camp, located at the city public works yard in the park. That is the most amazing thing to be thankful for. They are happy and having fun.

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Charity groups have been giving out food to homeless folks all week, from the San Diego Rescue Mission to organizations such as Streets of Hope to individual church groups.

The charity nonprofit at the homeless camp on Thursday, Just Call Us Volunteers, prepared about 600 Thanksgiving meals, some of which were also distributed at Veterans Village of San Diego and the San Diego Center for Children. As part of that effort, in addition to roasted turkeys, the company prepared 300 pounds of ham, 100 pounds of potatoes, 75 pounds of green beans, 80 pounds of yams and two cases of stuffing with sausages and mushrooms.

Watching her volunteers interact with the families at the homeless camp on Thursday, chef and founder of the charity catering company, Julie Darling, said the experience was emotional.

It breaks my heart and makes me so happy at the same time, she said. Each one of these people has a heart-wrenching story about why theyre here.

Felicity Ukkerd, 25, has been at the camp for two months with her four children, who are between 2 and 4 years old. She said she was deeply touched by the effort.

It means a lot actually because somebody took time out of their day to care and bring families what they needed, said the 25-year-old. They could be at home with their own family. A lot of people dont think about the homeless a lot. They just walk past us.

Recently, the topic of feeding the homeless has become political, with some service providers urging people not to give food away in public.

The city of El Cajon went as far as to ban it on city property, although some groups are explicitly disobeying the new rules.

On holidays when people want to come out and help people thats a whole other story, said Amy Gonyeau, chief operating officer at Alpha Project, which runs the homeless camp in Balboa Park. Youre doing something thats important and you want to give back. In terms of doing it on an ongoing basis, there are other options.

Advocates such as Gonyeau argue that giving out food should be paired with providing other services at established facilities  not out of the back of a truck on the side of the street.

If people come into the day center to be fed, they can access additional services while there, she said. If you do it out on the streets, theyre not accessing any services.

Homeless issues have received significant attention in recent months, as an outbreak of hepatitis A has ripped through the community.

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com
The head of an Atlanta program that encourages landlords to rent to homeless people recently met with area nonprofits, city officials and business leaders in hopes of bringing the idea to San Diego.

Open Doors Atlanta Director Matt Hurd said the Georgia program has placed 4,500 people in rental units since its inception in 2012 by providing incentives for landlords to overlook past evictions and other barriers that often keep the homeless in shelters or on the street.

Landlord incentives are not unique to Atlanta, and were among the tactics used in San Diego to house 1,000 homeless veterans as part of the citys Housing Our Heroes initiative.

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The nonprofit Open Doors Atlanta is different in that it is not run by a government agency, but by real estate agents and property owners, with all its funding privately raised, Hurd said.

We act as basically an intermediary and a broker, Hurd said. We establish relationships with the nonprofits and service providers, then partner mostly with multi-family management companies, owners and some developers. Apartment complexes, basically.

Hurd said the program could be particularly useful in San Diego because of the areas low vacancy rate.

In June, the San Diego County Apartment Association reported a 3.3 percent vacancy rate in the city of San Diego and a 3.7 percent vacancy rate in the county.

Co-sponsored by the Atlanta Real Estate Collaborative and Enterprise Community Partners, Open Doors Atlanta has an annual budget of about $750,000 and five staff members: Hurd, a program coordinator and property navigators who help connect homeless people with landlords.

It is partnered with 30 management companies, which represent 134 complexes with 25,000 units in nine Georgia counties, said Hurd, who expects to have partnerships with 200 complexes by the end of the year.

Gordon Walker, CEO of the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless, likes the idea of starting a local Open Doors program.

Its a very good fit for San Diego, at least in concept, he said. We need to generate doors where we can house individuals, and the Open Doors program really focuses on that.

Walker was impressed with Open Doors partnerships with property owners.

They understand whats needed and what the private sector wants, and what the community needs to end homelessness, he said.

Rick Gentry, president and CEO of the San Diego Housing Commission, was less enthused.

Im not sure I see the value of it for us, he said.

The Housing Commission has its own landlord-incentive program that was created under Housing our Heroes, and Gentry said Open Doors could be a redundant effort. The local program was expanded in October to include non-veterans.

The commissions incentive program covers only the city of San Diego, and Gentry said he didnt know if other parts of the county would be interested in Open Doors.

Walker said he believed the program could provide another layer of service on top of the Housing Commissions work, and saw it as a way of expanding the pool of housing units.

Although Open Doors and the Housing Commissions landlord incentive programs have many similarities, there are some differences.

In the Housing Commissions program, landlords were offered $500 for the first homeless veteran they took in and $250 for each additional one. The cost came to $228,000 during Housing Our Heroes, and an additional $22,500 has been spent since the program expanded.

The Housing Commission also had a pool of $1 million to pay for any property damage caused by the tenants. Thirty claims were submitted for a cost of about $67,000 during Housing Our Heroes, and $15,000 was spent to cover four claims since October.

If somebody moved out, the commission covered the rent to keep the unit vacant until another homeless vet could be found.

Open Doors does not provide upfront financial incentives to landlords, but instead provides its partners a steady stream of referrals for vacant units, Hurd said.

The referrals come from nonprofits that work with homeless people who have some sort of subsidy, such as a housing voucher.

Open Doors also offers rent guarantees funded from small premiums paid by its partners to cover any lost rent if somebody is evicted.

In return, landlords are asked to take in tenants who have had up to two evictions in the past three years and to accept any credit score. They also must accept any income with temporary or permanent subsidies and people with a criminal history, with the exception of sex offenders, arsonists and producers and distributors of methamphetamine.

Hurd said Open Doors also helps keeps things running smoothly once people move in by offering property managers training in de-escalation techniques to deal with clients who might have mental health issues or other problems.

The program also will give financial support to tenants who temporarily find themselves in arrears in rent because of unexpected expenses such as car problems.

Kathleen Higgins, executive director of the emergency shelter for families Operation Hope in Vista, said she would welcome a program that would help find housing.

Ive never in my career seen a vacancy rate like we have here, said Higgins, who has been in the field more than 20 years.

I have folks in shelters who have saved $3,000 or $4,000 for their deposit, and theyre still not being accepted, she said. Its a landlords market now, so they can afford to be choosy.

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gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
Seeking to boost suppression of wildfires, San Diego plans to spend $34 million on a cutting-edge firefighting helicopter and a new hangar at Montgomery-Gibbs Field to house the new chopper and two older models the city operates.

The new helicopter, which would cost $20 million, is capable of dropping nearly three times the water of the citys current choppers  1,000 gallons versus 375 gallons.

Having three choppers instead of two would also ensure the city has at least two available at all times, said Fire-Rescue Chief Brian Fennessy, explaining that the choppers are frequently out of service for maintenance and repairs.

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The hangar, which would cost $13.7 million, would reduce rust and corrosion on the choppers and allow maintenance to be conducted indoors. The city now stores its firefighting choppers outdoors at Montgomery-Gibbs.

Both proposals are expected to be presented to the City Council for approval in coming weeks. Fennessy said no additional personnel or overtime would be required for the new chopper or the new hangar.

The citys independent budget analyst, Andrea Tevlin, has raised questions about the proposed hangar, contending city officials should consider using the money instead to build one of 10 new fire stations the city needs to fill coverage gaps.

Tevlin noted that two reports in 2010 and 2016 by an outside consultant didnt include a helicopter hangar among the list of the citys most urgent firefighting facility needs.

Fennessy said those reports were focused on fire stations and geographic coverage gaps, so it made sense that the hangar wasnt included. He said it would be short-sighted not to store a $20 million helicopter indoors.

If we dont get these aircraft inside, we are going to continue to lose on our investments, he told the City Councils Budget & Government Efficiency Committee recently.

He also said accommodations for the three-man crews that operate the choppers are subpar at Montgomery-Gibbs without the proposed hangar.

The new helicopter, which is called a firehawk, is a military-grade chopper that was first modified for the Los Angeles Fire Department, which owns three of them and is planning to buy two more, Fennessy said.

In addition to dumping water on wildfires, it can conduct hoistair rescues, shoreline rescues, swiftwater rescues, night vision goggle operations, patient transports, vehicle rescues, large animal rescues and infrared detection.

The new chopper can also help with disaster assessment and highrise fire incidents.

It is manufactured by the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, a division of Lockheed Martin. The citys existing firefighting helicopters are made by Bell.

The first chopper was manufactured in 1980 and bought by the city in 2005, just over a year after the notorious 2003 Cedar Fire made clear the region lacked adequate resources to fight wildfires.

The second helicopter was bought new in 2008, shortly after the 2007 Witch Fire. Fennessy said its more effective and reliable and gets much more use by firefighters than the 1980 model, but noted it has the same water capacity  375 gallons.

He said that doesnt seem adequate based on climate change making wildfires more common and more severe.

They are spreading faster and getting larger, Fennessy said. The need for aircraft to carry more water  for more water drop capacity  has become critical.

A consultant earlier this year recommended San Diego buy two Sikorsky helicopters, but Fennessy said the city can afford one. He suggested the city may buy a second Sikorsky chopper in 2022 or 2023.

The city will pay $9.8 million of the choppers $20 million purchase price up front and finance the balance.

While the county also has firefighting helicopters, they only operate during daylight hours. The city of San Diego handles all night firefighting chopper responses for the entire county.

Money for the hangar would come from revenue the city receives from a 1998 national settlement with tobacco companies, which the city sold bonds against in 2006.

The hangar would be large enough to house up to six firefighting helicopters, but Fennessy said he cant imagine the city would need more than three any time soon.

City Councilman Scott Sherman said he supports both upgrades to the citys firefighting equipment and facilities.

We need to be prepared, he said. Our job, first and foremost, is public safety.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
South Bay cities are uniting against a new San Diego effort to fight chronic homelessness, contending a proposed criminal halfway house near Imperial Beach would bring danger to the area and hurt the economy.

The mayors of Chula Vista, National City, Imperial Beach and Coronado recently sent a joint letter to the Coastal Commission seeking help in blocking the project, which would convert a rundown Nestor motel into housing for low-level criminals.

They say the project would hurt tourism by eliminating scarce low-cost lodging, bring criminals into the area and thwart efforts to upgrade the Highway 75 corridor economically and aesthetically.

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Were putting a lot of money into making Palm Avenue a lot more economically viable and safer, said Imperial Beach mayor Serge Dedina. Were more than a little discouraged. Were worried Palm Avenue will just get consistently worse.

San Diego officials stress that the program is restricted to low-level offenders who have committed misdemeanors, and that there have been no problems with security or loitering at similar halfway houses in other areas of the city.

RELATED: New San Diego program targets chronic drug offenders

They say opponents have distorted the proposal and exaggerated the risks of the motel conversion, which is key to an innovative city program that gives repeat offenders who are homeless a chance to permanently get off the streets.

State officials recently awarded the program  called San Diego Misdemeanant At-Risk Track, or SMART  a $6 million grant after it was judged superior to proposals from 57 other jurisdictions for dealing with low-level criminals.

RELATED: San Diego awarded $6M state grant to get chronic homeless off the street

The SMART program is an effective and compassionate solution that yields real results, said Cheryl Nolan, a spokeswoman for City Attorney Mara Elliott. The opposition to the SMART House is, unfortunately, fueled by misinformation, and is disengaged from our civic priority of helping our most vulnerable people get their lives on track.

Elliott has described opponents of the project as NIMBYs, which stands for not in my back yard.

There are no easy solutions to the homeless problem, Nolan said. Every community must do its fair share if we really want to get serious about tackling homelessness in our own city.

She has posted a myth vs. fact sheet about the project on the citys website.

South Bay leaders complain that they werent given a chance to comment on the proposal until it was essentially a done deal.

Particularly troubling is the lack of outreach to Coronado residents or public meetings with stakeholders during the consideration of this project, Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey wrote in a letter to San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer.

Elliott notes that she or members of her staff have attended at least 20 public meetings about the proposal this year, and that she is forming a neighborhood advisory committee to gather community input on security at the project.

That didnt sway the city of San Diegos Otay Mesa-Nestor Community Planning Group, which voted 12-2 on Nov. 8 to oppose the project.

RELATED: Homeless facility proposed for South Bay motel stirring opposition

The San Diego City Council approved $11.2 million to buy and renovate the motel in an 8-1 vote in July, with the lone no vote coming from Councilman David Alvarez, whose district includes Nestor and other South Bay communities.

But the council must approve next month a special use permit to allow the halfway house to operate there.

Even if that permit gets approved, South Bay leaders contend additional approval is needed from the Coastal Commission, and they are lobbying to block that.

The joint letter from the South Bay leaders says that Coastal Commission policies discourage the elimination of low-cost lodging in coastal areas because that limits public access.

The San Diego proposal would eliminate 68 low-costs rooms at the Super 8 motel, which was built in 1987 at 1788 Palm Avenue, just east of Imperial Beach in the Egger Highlands area of Nestor.

A letter from Diana Lilly, a Coastal Commission senior planner, says the commission can weigh in on the project because it would be a change in the intensity of use of a site within the citys coastal overlay zone.

South Bay leaders note that the Otay Mesa-Nestor Community Plan recommends retention and rehabilitation of the existing hotels, retail and visitor-oriented commercial areas along the southern edge of San Diego Bay.

They also say elimination of the Super 8 motel will damage the nearby economy.

Bailey, the Coronado mayor, said the timing of the proposal is particularly bad with efforts under way to boost the Highway 75 corridor, which many call a gateway to Imperial Beach, Silver Strand State Beach and Coronado.

While it might have been a suitable location in the past, the construction of a transitional housing program is now no longer an appropriate land use, Bailey wrote.

The construction of new businesses, hotels, restaurants and high-quality residences has had a significant positive economic impact on the surrounding region, he wrote. Converting the low-cost hotel into transitional housing is a step backward and jeopardizes the momentum.

Much of the new momentum is being fueled by a large Navy project under construction on the Silver Strand.

A potential compromise might include San Diego agreeing to fund several million dollars in improvements to Highway 75 that have already been approved as part of a master plan for the area.

Dedina, the Imperial Beach mayor, said the new crosswalks and bike paths included in the plan could significantly boost the corridor, which runs through Nestor and Imperial Beach.

Right now its a garbage dump, on the San Diego side especially, he said.

This isnt the first time that potential conversion of the Super 8 motel has sparked controversy.

In 2006, South Bay leaders successfully blocked a proposal by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to renovate the motel into a re-entry facility for parolees.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
Activists and family members of a North County man shot to death by a sheriffs deputy in July announced Wednesday that they will march and rally in Vista next month to bring fresh attention to the shooting.

The San Diego chapter of the National Action Network, a civil rights organization, is organizing the event to highlight the fatal mid-morning shooting of Jonathon Coronel on July 5, during an encounter in the backyard of a home after he ran from members of Vistas Gang Enforcement Team. Deputies were seeking to arrest the 24-year-old documented gang member on an outstanding warrant.

The shooting remains under investigation. His family and witness to the shooting said they believe Coronel, who was unarmed, was surrendering when he was shot multiple times.

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Flanked by activists as well as family members of men shot by local law enforcement, NAN leader the Rev. Shane Harris announced the coming event at a news conference in the groups San Marcos office.

Harris said the idea is to send a message to county law enforcement leadership and others that we will not stand idly by while these families lose their loved ones, and us to act like we are normalizing it.

Were bringing the police shootings up in this county, and the injustices that happen, from Alfred Olango to Sergio Weick to Jonathon Coronel.  We will shine a spotlight on those killings, he said.

The march and rally will also include supporters of Alfred Olango, an unarmed black man who was shot to death by an El Cajon police officer last year.

We want to come out and show these other families we are all together, Olangos brother Tony Abuka said.

Also supporting the march is 67-year-old Raymond Wiley, who was arrested while using a walking stick on his morning walk in San Diegos Encanto neighborhood in July. He was arrested on suspicion of felony possession of a baton and burglary tools.

Wiley has said the burglary-tool charge had to do with a thin key he had in his pocket that day, a key to his daughters car.

Wiley and the National Action Network of San Diego said the arrest was race-based. Wiley contacted the civil rights group on the night of the arrest.

Ever since then, Im doing everything I can to help bring racial profiling, injustice and everything together, Wiley said.

The District Attorneys Office declined to file charges against Wiley.

Coronel was shot multiple times by Deputy Christopher Villanueva. Eleven months before Coronel was shot, Villanueva and another deputy shot and killed Sergio Weick, 33, at the end of a pursuit in Vista.

Weick was also a Vista gang member wanted on an outstanding warrant. Earlier this year, the District Attorneys Office found that Weicks shooting was justified.

During the news conference, Harris also blasted a decision last week by the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board to dismiss without investigation 22 jail inmate deaths in the county. That action, too, is part of the reason for the march, he said.

The event will end with a rally at the Vista courthouse complex, which is also the site of the Vista Sheriffs station.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT
City Attorney Mara Elliott has hired the chief executive of a charity that her predecessor said signed illegal contracts with the city of San Diego and then refused to cooperate with an audit of the organization.

Elliott spokesman Gerry Braun confirmed that Gael Strack joined the city payroll in September as a provisional employee.

Ms. Strack is uniquely qualified to help the City Attorneys Office evaluate current service levels, and expand and elevate the victim services offered to domestic violence survivors, he wrote in an email.

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Strack will be paid $74 an hour for up to 720 hours a year, or nearly $54,000. She is chief executive officer of Alliance for Hope International, a San Diego nonprofit previously known as the National Family Justice Center Alliance.

She will keep her job at the alliance while working at City Hall.

The alliance mission is to work with police and other providers across the country  and world  to assist victims of domestic violence by setting up family justice centers, or one-stop shops where they can access services.

The nonprofit changed its name after Elliotts predecessor, then-City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, issued a 2012 report saying the charity and San Diego Police Department entered into unlawful contracts.

Goldsmith found that the no-bid contracts called for the charity to keep 10 percent of whatever funds it raised for the project  transactions that could not be audited by the city. He also said the agreements required but never received City Council approval.

Aside from contracting irregularities and failure to obtain signatures for proper contract execution, the agreements violated the city charter, the report stated.

The former city attorney singled out a $10,000 donation to the family justice center, saying it was not clear whether the cash went to the city or the nonprofit. He said the charity practices were unclear and that the situation should be audited by City Auditor Eduardo Luna.

The full extent of these issues requires further investigation and research, he wrote.

Strack and alliance president Casey Gwinn  another former San Diego city attorney who founded the charity during his last months in public service  refused to provide the city auditor documents he needed to complete his review of the financial arrangement.

Gwinn said his charity provided the city its independent audit, which concluded that the organizations books and business practices were compliant with generally accepted accounting principles.

He said there was no rule calling for him to provide the city auditor his charitys internal records.

It was clear that there was no contractual obligation to let the auditor come into our organization and there was no legal basis for the auditors demand, Gwinn wrote in an email. It was also clear by May 31 of 2013 that our independent audit answered any questions that the mayor, city council and city attorney may have had.

Luna closed his audit in 2013 without issuing any findings.

The San Diego Family Justice Center was the first of its kind in the nation. It opened as a program of the police department and was operated by the charity Gwinn and Strack founded.

The contracts called into question by Goldsmith five years ago subsequently lapsed. The program has since moved to the City Attorneys Office.

Strack declined to discuss her new role with the city of San Diego, or her involvement in the charitys decision four years ago to withhold records from the city auditor.

Braun said her responsibilities would be threefold: helping to transfer the center from the police department to the City Attorneys Office, aiding the search for a new program director and developing a plan to expand the effort regionally.

As a member of the team that created the San Diego Family Justice Center, Ms. Strack is uniquely qualified to help the City Attorneys Office evaluate current service levels and expand and elevate the victim services offered to domestic violence survivors, Braun wrote in an email.

She is one of the most experienced individuals in the country in this critical field, where the goal is to save lives, protect children and keep abusers from re-offending, he added.

Brauns emailed response to questions did not address whether Stracks work for the city might present a conflict of interest, since she will continue to serve as the alliance CEO while advising the city attorney.

But Gwinn said there is no conflict between the two positions because Strack plans to cut back her hours at the charity while working for the city of San Diego.

There are a variety of retired city employees that come back part-time for the city while still having other jobs, Gwinn wrote. This is not a conflict. Nothing Gael Strack gets paid by the city will go to me or the alliance. It will be personal, reportable income to her.

According to the 2016 tax return filed by Alliance for Hope International, Gwinn and Strack are each paid $151,250 a year by the nonprofit organization.

The nonprofit collects almost $2 million a year  much of that from government contracts  and spent in excess of $100,000 more than it took in over each of the past two years, the tax filings show.

Over the same period, the alliance payroll increased 58 percent to more than $1 million and net assets dropped from nearly $300,000 to less than $70,000.

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jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald
Rep. Duncan Hunter  whose spending of campaign funds on video games made national news this week  said on Thursday that hes cutting short a trip to Israel to return to the United States and rectify that problem and several other mistakes.

There was no taxpayer money involved, and I take full responsibility, Hunter, R-Alpine, said by telephone from his trip. Thats it. Im going to pay everything back by tomorrow morning, with interest.

Hunter said he and his wife were the only two holders of his campaigns credit card, which incurred most of the expenses. As of Thursday morning, he said, he is now the only card-holder.

Hunters call came amid a review by The San Diego Union-Tribune of an unusual pattern of expenditures listed on his disclosure forms as personal expenses or mistaken charges to be paid back.

Campaign finance reports show $5,339 in such charges during 2015 alone: $1,128 in travel, $1,650 to Hunters children's school in El Cajon, $1,424 for video games and $1,137 paid to an oral and facial surgeon.

The forms list only one personal expense that was actually paid back by Hunter  $169 on Oct. 21, with no indication of which personal expense was being reimbursed. None of the other outstanding charges were listed as repaid, or as an ongoing debt to the campaign for the year-end accounting.

The Union-Tribune was the first to report this week that more than 60 video game transactions totaling $1,302 were being questioned by the Federal Election Commission. News outlets from Esquire to Roll Call picked up the story.

Personal expenses of campaign funds are strictly forbidden under election laws, the agency told Hunter in a letter on Monday, although speedy correction of such errors is taken into consideration before enforcement decisions are made.

The Union-Tribune found additional video game spending  and the other personal or mistaken charges  in reviewing all Hunters filings for 2015. No personal or mistaken expenses were reported in Hunters disclosures for 2014.

The 2015 forms seem to indicate that months went by with no repayment of mistaken or personal expenses.

For instance, $1,128 of March 2015 travel expenses paid by the campaign to Expedia were listed as a mistaken charge  to be reimbursed on Hunters April 2015 disclosure forms. No reimbursement is listed on that form, or for the rest of the year.

A $1,650 payment on Sept. 21 to Christian Unified Schools  where Hunters three children attend  was listed as a personal expense  to be paid back on Hunters form for the period ending Dec. 31. No repayment is shown during the quarter in question.

Hunters campaign treasurer, Chris Marston, did not return calls all week. Hunters wife, Margaret, who is paid $3,000 a month in campaign funds as campaign manager, also did not respond to messages.

Hunters congressional office spokesman, Joe Kasper, said the video game charges were made by Hunters son, using the campaign credit card by mistake, and that subsequent unauthorized charges were made. Rather than pay the funds back, Kasper said earlier in the week, the congressman is awaiting resolution of a fraud dispute.

Hunter said on Thursday that he didnt know what needs to be repaid and what doesnt, but, Whatever that number is, its going to be all paid back with interest.

Hunter said that he has more than one credit card that is blue, which may be why his son mistakenly pulled the campaign card out of the congressmans wallet for online video game downloads, instead of the family one.

Hunter said he takes responsibility for his sons mistake and feels terrible that the teens actions made national news.

I feel bad for my son, Hunter said. Im gonna cry.

Paul Ryan of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday that accidents happen from time to time, but so many mistaken and personal expenditures in a single year is rare.

There are some types of reporting violations that are common but this is not one of them, Ryan said. Using campaign funds for personal expenses is a major violation of campaign law. I would definitely expect to see some enforcement action by the FEC in connection with this.

Ryan said its particularly troubling that the campaign flagged expenditures in need of repayment, but didnt promptly repay them.

My view is that if you violated federal law, and youve discovered that you violated federal law, and youve flagged it as an expense that needs repayment, you should repay it promptly and the correction should appear in the next reporting period, not nine months later, Ryan said.

Hunter said he didnt know why personal expenses, such as the payment to the oral and facial surgery center, were charged to the campaign card  or on whose behalf.

Richard Millen, a retiree living in San Diego, contributed $200 to Hunters campaign in December. Speaking on the phone Thursday, he said he had total confidence in Hunters good character and that any rule-breaking was accidental.

Duncan Hunter is a straight shooter and has been, Millen said. I dont know what the legalities are, and I certainly wouldnt dispute that, but I would suggest that if its against the rules its an absolute honest mistake and hell do whatever he needs to do to make it right.

The balance of Hunters campaign fund as of Dec. 31 was $601,792. His top contributors were defense contractors and those involved in sea and air transport. Hunter is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Members of Congress are paid $174,000 a year.

Hunters trip to Israel, the one thats being cut short, is funded by campaign dollars, he said.
A new report by federal watchdogs at the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that more U.S. Border Patrol agents are leaving than can be hired. This should concern President Donald Trump, who in January signed an executive order to hire 5,000 more agents. The hires will likely come in the form of a bill introduced in Congress by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, last month, the Border Security for America Act.

However, Border Patrol agents have significant disciplinary, performance and even corruption problems that should be resolved before hiring more agents.

Related: Border Patrol committed to earning public trust

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Border Patrol is the second-largest federal law enforcement agency in the country, with nearly 20,000 agents. They have extraordinary powers to enter property close to the Mexican border without a warrant and run checkpoints within 100 miles of any land or sea border, yet without the oversight that is common in even small-city police departments.

James Tomsheck, the former head of an internal affairs department that oversaw Border Patrol, recently said that it is conservative to estimate that 5 percent of the [Border Patrol] force is corrupt. This corruption and misconduct ranges from the brutal to the commonplace. Border Patrol agent Esteban Manzanares assaulted, kidnapped and raped three illegal immigrants he apprehended while on the job and later committed suicide when the police surrounded his apartment. The youngest of his victims was still bound in his home at the time. Oscar Ortiz was convicted of conspiring to bring at least 100 illegal immigrants into the United States and, oddly enough, being an illegal immigrant himself with a false claim to U.S. citizenship.

These problems exist because Border Patrol isnt monitored properly. After 9/11, Congress created a new agency called Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inside of the new Department of Homeland Security, which eventually came to house Border Patrol. Congress forgot to transfer Border Patrols old internal affairs department and didnt create a new one. Only in August 2014 did Tomshecks internal affairs department finally get the authority to investigate criminal misconduct.

Confusing and contradictory data make it difficult to gauge the extent of corruption and misconduct problems at CBP. According to one source, 158 CBP employees (which includes Border Patrol agents) were convicted or charged with corruption from 2005 to 2016. Another source claims there were 358 such convictions, but it doesnt distinguish between CBP employees and non-CBP persons who conspired with them.

Fortunately, the Office of Personnel Management does report data showing how many agents are terminated for disciplinary and performance reasons. To be clear, not all of those terminations represent corruption, but they do indicate performance issues  at minimum. A new Cato Institute study analyzed OPM data from 2006 through 2016 and found that Border Patrol agents had the highest termination rate of any large federal law enforcement agency. Border Patrol agents were 49 percent more likely than other CBP officers to be terminated for such reasons. They were 54 percent more likely to be terminated than guards at the Bureau of Prisons, six times as likely as FBI agents, 7.1 times as likely as Drug Enforcement Administration agents and 12.9 times as likely as Secret Service agents.

A good first step to fixing these personnel problems is implementing the Homeland Security Advisory Councils recommendations to speed investigations and streamlining internal affairs. One particularly important recommendation is bringing the number of internal affairs officers up to 729, which would give Border Patrol as least as much internal affairs oversight as the New York City Police Department. Arizona Republican Rep. Martha McSallys amendment to McCauls border bill that guarantees 550 full-time internal affairs investigators for CBP is a good start.

Congress should go further and not authorize any additional net-hires at Border Patrol until adequate oversight brings the termination rate down to that of other large federal law enforcement agencies.

The GAO should audit internal affairs at Border Patrol and use its forensic audits and investigative services to conduct undercover investigations to insure compliance. Communities should also be able to form civilian review boards to oversee all complaints made against agents, because law enforcement functions better with local trust and cooperation.

President Trump said that hiring 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents will help restore the rule of law in the United States  but such a laudable goal is impossible if law enforcement officers are themselves riven by corruption, misconduct, poor performance and a lack of discipline. Restoring the rule of law starts by holding law enforcement officers accountable to the law before expanding their numbers.

Nowrasteh is an immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institutes Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.
The Coptic Orthodox Church has denounced a deadly attack by gunmen on a North Sinai mosque that killed at least 184 worshippers on Friday.

A Coptic Orthodox Church spokesperson said the Church condemned "the flagrant attack that targeted worshipers in Deir Al-Abd's Al-Rawda mosque."

"We pray to God that Egypt is preserved from such unprecedented brutal terrorism," the statement read, adding that it is voicing its solidarity with the nation and state bodies in their fight against terrorism.

On Friday, Egypt's state news agency reported that at least 184 worshippers had been killed in what is believed to be one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in recent years.

At least 125 worshippers were also injured in the attack, when improvised explosive devices were detonated and gunmen opened fired on worshippers after Friday prayers.



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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has said that the pain felt by Egyptians as a result of a terror attack on a mosque in North Sinai will not go in vain, in his first official comment after at least 235 worshippers were killed in the attack on Friday.

In a statement, El-Sisi said that Egyptians will "derive hope and determination from such pain to triumph in the war against black terrorism," which the president said Egypt was undertaking with all power and honour.

The statement offered condolences to the families of the victims, stressing that the "vile and treacherous" activity will not pass without a decisive punishment and that the perpetrators will be brought to justice.

El-Sisi added that "black terrorism" would receive a defeat on Egyptian territory.

The statement comes after the president headed talks with his select security committee, which includes interior and defence ministers, as well as the heads of intelligence agencies.

According to state TV, the president is set to deliver a speech to the nation on Friday.

El-Sisi ordered EGP 200,000 and EGP 50,000 in compensations for the families of the dead and injured, respectively.

Earlier, Egypt's general prosecution said that at least 235 worshippers have been killed by gunmen who attacked the mosque, making the attack one of the deadliest targeting civilians in the country in recent years.

The statement said at least 109 people were injured in the attack that targeted Al-Rawdah mosque in Bir Al-Abed, 80km west of Arish city.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

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The grand imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed El-Tayyeb, has condemned the barbaric attack on a mosque in North Sinai on Friday which saw at least 235 worshippers killed.

Improvised explosive devices were detonated at Friday prayers at a mosque affiliated with Sufi groups in the town of Bir El-Abed, after which gunmen opened fire on worshippers, in what is believed to be one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Egypt in recent years.

"The shedding of blood, the violation of the sacred houses of God and the terrorising of worshippers are acts of corruption on the earth," El-Tayyeb said.

El-Tayyeb said that the targeting of mosques has followed the targeting of churches, as if terorrists want to unify Egyptians in destruction and death, but they will be beaten and the unity and strength of Egyptians will prevail with their solidarity and determination.

El-Tayyeb stressed Al-Azhar's support, and the Egyptian people's support, for the efforts of Egypt's institutions, and the armed forces and the police forces, in eliminating these terrorist gangs.

"Al-Azhar is praying to God to accept those killed as martyrs, and provide strength to their families, and bless the injured with speed recovery," El-Tayyeb added.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in a speech that the military and police will avenge our martyrs and will respond using brute force against those fragments of terrorists in the coming period to ensure stability and security.

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Holiday shopping can be a joy, but it often veers toward comedy. Our favorite Post artists turn these mundane experiences into paintings filled with delight, misery, and just plain silliness.

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The commercialization of Christmas is not a modern phenomenon. Holiday shopping can be a joy, but it often veers toward comedy. In the hands of Post cover artists, the mundane experience of making lists, checking them twice, and finally scavenging neighborhood stores to gather up holiday bounty is presented as equal parts delight, misery, and just plain silliness.

Under the humorous guise of this paintings subject matter, Norman Rockwell makes use of snow as white space to break the image of an overloaded grandfather into completely disjointed components. Its not quite a human being we are looking at, but pieces of onea subtle nod to cubism, perhaps?

Incidentally, Pops Fredericks, the model for this illustration, was an actor who never quite succeeded on the stage or the screen, but who achieved immortality on Rockwell covers as a cello player, a seasick cruise passenger, a hobo, Ben Franklin, Santa Claus, and a beloved doctor patiently examining a little girls doll.

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This stunning self-portrait by one of the Posts more popular female artists makes use of winters white in an unexpected way. Not only is the background washed outevoking a sense of snowbut the gifts are a stunning white against the stark black of the subjects mink. The multi-talented McMein, a Midwestern girl from Quincy, Illinois, and star pupil of the Chicago Art Institute, moved to New York City with dreams of succeeding as an artist, poet, or musician. The year before painting this cover, she traveled to war-torn Europe as a correspondent for McClures Magazine. In the mid-1930s she would make an indelible stamp on the marketing world by creating the face of Betty Crocker.

The rocking horse was not new in 1909. It had been popularized in England during the 1800s, then galloped from small workshops into factory production. By the early 20th century, it was a staple toy in America and made frequent appearances on The Saturday Evening Posts covers, especially around Christmas. Notice the detail in the harried commuters overcoat and pants. Leyendecker, whose roots were in fashion advertising, always gave close attention to the clothing of his models. A mentor to Rockwell, Leyendecker was also a darling of the public. At one point his fan mail eclipsed that of legendary film actor Rudolph Valentino.

The clerks face, almost floating in a sea of returned gifts, says all that needs to be said about the post-Christmas letdown. With its emphasis on the commonplace, the Post (and much of America) was willfully ignoring the global crisis brewing across the oceans. (The attack on Pearl Harbor that galvanized our engagement in World War II was still 11 months away.) Notice the signature, bottom right. Crockwell, who illustrated 18 covers for the Post, took to signing his illustrations Douglass, DC, or simply D to avoid being confused with another Post cover artist with a very similar last name.

Leyendecker was one of the longest running of the Post cover artists and certainly one of the most versatile. While best known for his stylish illustrations of fashionable people, he occasionally produced comic numbers, such as this colorful depiction of frantic, last-minute shopping. While many playful elements are at work, notice the visual pun of the bulky mom who bears an uncanny resemblance to St. Nick.

For this painting, Dohanos asked a man at a local nursery to

saw me down a small Christmas tree to take out. The little tree made this quirky cover in which all the players  duck included  seem remarkably complacent considering the circumstances. Post writer Rufus Jarman, a neighbor of Dohanos, makes a cameo appearance as the determined-looking man to the left of the tree.

Even 65 years ago, the ugly tie was universally recognized as the least desirable Christmas gift one could receive. But sometimes, well, thats the best a person can do. For this hectic scene, Falter relied on his background working at his fathers clothing store in Falls City, Nebraska. By the late 1930s, Falter had moved to New York and was painting shirts and ties for Arrow Shirt ads before being discovered by the Post.

At the center of the image, a child at the Information booth will soon be reunited with misplaced parents. Meanwhile, countless other dramas are being played in Utzs shopping pandemonium. Utz began drawing cartoons at 12 and knew he wanted to be an artist by the time he graduated from high school. But later he would say that he and a like-minded friend could probably have been talked out of the whole idea if wed been offered a good job driving a laundry truck. With his knack for capturing humor in everyday situations, Utz became one of the most successful cover artists of the 1950s.

While drawing plans for a new home near Arlington, Vermont, Hughes decided to designate a room for his model trains. Months later, when breaking ground for his new home, his responsible side won out: He abandoned plans for the train room. But did he abandon his wish? One can almost feel the artists yearning for the magic of toy trains in this captivating holiday window display.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/24/2017 -- Transparency Market Research has released a new market research report titled Oil Shale Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2014 - 2022. According to the report, the global oil shale market revenue stood at USD 1,134.60 million in 2013 and is projected to reach USD 7,400.70 million by 2022, expanding at a CAGR of 27.34% between 2014 and 2022.



View Report Preview @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/oil-shale-market.html



The report also provides both revenue and volume for the application segments. According to the report, the global oil shale market revenue (for electricity, upgraded and non-upgraded products) stood at USD 2,086.61 million in 2013 and is projected to reach USD 11,880.99 million by 2022, expanding at a CAGR of 23.4% between 2014 and 2022.



The report segments the global oil shale market on the basis of both process and application. In terms of process, the market is divided into ex-situ and in-situ segments. The revenue realization for process is done by multiplying the shale oil produced with forecasted crude oil prices. However, the actual revenue realization occurs through the sale of upgraded and non-upgraded products, which are provided under the application segmentation of the report.



The in-situ retorting technologies can further be classified into true in-situ and modified in-situ retorting technologies. In true in-situ method, post fracturing the oil shale rocks are subjected to high temperatures (a hot gas mixture is used to heat oil shale) to achieve the temperature suitable to cause pyrolysis (600 to 800 degree Fahrenheit). Modified in-situ retorting was first developed by Occidental Petroleum and involves fracturing of the oil shale deposit to create voids. The voids created through fracturing enable better movement of gases, thereby improving the volume and quality of shale oil released. Red Leaf Resources is expected to achieve breakthrough by developing a commercial demonstration plant during the forecast period through its hybrid EcoShale In-Capsule technology.



Request to View Sample of Research Report @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=425



The application segments provides the revenues after the sale of electricity produced from the oil shale and the non-upgraded and upgraded products obtained after retorting. Estonia is one of the major producers of electricity from oil shale. The Eesti and Balti oil shale fired power plants generate a major portion of the total electricity produced by the country. Apart from Estonia, oil shale power plants are also scheduled to commence operations in Jordan and China.



Currently, most of the shale oil produced is directly sold without refining for the heating and bunkering applications. However, with the rising demand for transportation fuel and advancements in retorting technologies we can expect a significant growth in the upgraded segment as well.



Key participants in the global shale oil market include Viru Keemia Grupp AS, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A., Exxon Mobil Corporation, Global Oil Shale Group Limited, Queensland Energy Resources Ltd, Questerre Energy Corporation, Jordan Oil Shale Company B.V., Fushun Mining Group Co., Ltd, Chevron Corporation, BNK Petroleum Inc., Eesti Energia AS, and Red Leaf Resources, Inc. The company profiles cover major market players in the oil shale market. The report provides an overview of these companies, followed by their financial revenues (on availability), business strategies, and recent developments.



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Paris' mayor says the Eiffel Tower will go black at midnight in homage to the victims of the deadly assault in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Via Twitter, Anne Hidalgo addressed her "condolences to the victims' families" and her "support to the people wounded" after Friday's attack in which at least 200 people were killed. She said that turning off the lights at the famed Paris monument would send a message of solidarity from the French capital that has itself been the site of a spate of deadly extremist attacks in recent years.

French President Emmanuel Macron also went to Twitter to send his "condolences to the victims of the terrible attack" against Sinai's Bir El-Abd mosque that was attacked by militants during Friday prayers who targeted worshippers with gunfire.

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President Donald Trump has informed Ankara that the US will no longer supply weapons to the Syrian Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State (IS) militants, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday.

Trump delivered the message during what the Turkish presidency called a "productive" phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday

"Mr Trump said he gave a clear order and that after this, weapons would not be supplied to the YPG, essentially he said this nonsense should have been ended earlier," Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference in Ankara.

The YPG is the Peoples' Protection Units Kurdish militia in Syria, which the US has seen as the most effective fighting force on the ground against IS.

"Naturally, we welcomed these statements," said Cavusoglu, adding: "Of course we want to see this put into practice."

There was no immediate comment from the US side regarding the content of the telephone call between the two leaders.

In recent months, the YPG has recaptured territory from the IS militants, including the former de facto IS capital Raqa in northern Syria.

But Turkey views the YPG and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as "terror" groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Cavusoglu again repeated that Turkey saw the YPG as a "threat" trying to divide Syria.

The PKK -- blacklisted as a "terror" group by Turkey and its Western allies including the US -- has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.

Relations between the US and Turkey have been strained since the administration of former President Barack Obama over its support for the YPG and the failure to extradite Pennsylvania-based Fethullah Gulen blamed for ordering last year's coup bid.

Gulen strongly denies the charges.

Bilateral ties are at further risk of fraying over a scheduled trial in New York of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab and Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, both accused of defying US sanctions on Iran.

The trial is expected to start early next month but there are fears over possible fines against one or more Turkish banks in the event of a guilty verdict.

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Related Pakistan cracks down on group linked to Mumbai attacks

The United States on Friday said it was "deeply concerned" over Pakistan's release of Hafiz Saeed, an Islamist leader accused of masterminding the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

Saeed, who Washington says is a leader of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) -- designated in the US as a terrorist group -- was put under house arrest in January following increased pressure on Islamabad to rein in militant groups.

On Wednesday however a Pakistani court released Saeed after Islamabad failed to back the charges of terrorism with evidence.

"The United States is deeply concerned that ... Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

"The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes."

LeT is accused of several bloody attacks, most notably the 2008 Mumbai attack that left nearly 166 people dead, including six US citizens and other Western nationals.

Nauert said that LeT is "responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens."

Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the United States and the United Nations over his alleged role in the Mumbai attacks.

"Since 2012, the United States has offered a US $10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice," Nauert said in a statement.

On Wednesday Indian officials expressed their outrage over Saeed's release.

"India, as indeed the entire international community, is outraged that a self-confessed and a UN proscribed terrorist is allowed to walk free and continue with his evil agenda," said Raveesh Kumar, India's foreign ministry spokesman.

"It also appears to be an attempt by the Pakistani system to mainstream proscribed terrorists," Kumar said.

Saeed heads the charity group Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which has operated freely across Pakistan and is popular for its charity work but is considered by the United States and India to be a front LeT.

US President Donald Trump in August angrily accused Islamabad of harboring "agents of chaos" while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said too many extremists are finding sanctuary in Pakistan.

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On Thursday, Auckland Council approved the construction of two outer dolphin mooring structures located between 80 and 85mtrs off the northern edge of Queens Wharf, connected by a walkway for berthing ships more than 300mtr long.



When Royal Caribbean International's 348mtr Ovation of the Seas made her maiden voyage to Auckland on December 27, 2016 she had to drop anchor in Waitemata Harbour and tender passengers ashore.

Ovation is making her second 2017/18 season and md Australia and New Zealand Adam Armstrong said that while disembarkation by tender is not the cruise line's preferred option for almost 6,500 passengers and crew, it acknowledges that Auckland is a key destination on New Zealand itineraries.



The estimated cost of the outer dolphins is NZ$10m to be recovered over time through cruise ship passenger levies proposed by Ports of Auckland which is owned by Auckland Council.



The dolphins are expected to be in place for New Zealand's 2019/2020 cruise season.



'This decision has taken a long time, but it is an important one,' O'Sullivan said. 'It gives the cruise industry an important signal that Auckland is ready to become a major hub in the South Pacific.



'Cruise ships are getting larger and we must be able to welcome them in order to reap the economic benefits from the fast-growing cruise sector.'



O'Sullivan said the improvement of Queens Wharf means cruise companies are more likely to choose Auckland to start and end voyages, attracting passengers and crew to the city before and after their cruises.



He said cruise lines will also reprovision in Auckland, creating jobs and demand for local produce.
Located just next door to Inmarsats new office, the IAM Experience Space, as it is known, will enable Rolls-Royce to demonstrate how ship intelligence systems can use data to optimise fleet operations, improve maintenance regimes, and cut costs.

Effective connectivity is a key component in the roll-out and operation of Rolls-Royces data-based asset management systems and the company has recently signed a Letter of Intent with Inmarsat, enabling it to provide its new Energy Management System (EMS) over the satellite communications companys high-throughput broadband service, Fleet Xpress. Rolls-Royce is therefore becoming an Inmarsat certified applications provider, supplying a service to its customers as a package, with connectivity already included, and therefore taking up no more of its customers bandwidth.

The new facility will provide Rolls-Royce with an opportunity to show its customers first-hand how highly sophisticated data analytics can improve the efficiency of relatively simple operations on board ship. Systems which the company will be demonstrating include its Energy Management and Equipment Health Management portals which can now be seen in real-time and in fully operational conditions.

Rolls-Royce Marine President Mikael Makinen admitted that it was sometimes difficult to convey the many commercial and operational benefits of new cloud-based digital technologies. Now, with the opening of this [facility], the first in a number of planned Ship Intelligence Experience Spaces around the world, we can fully demonstrate for our customers the very tangible benefits from what is often considered an intangible technology, he said.
The British embassy in Cairo this week launched a new initiative called StartEgypt, with a grant of EGP 47 million, which aims to provide young Egyptian entrepreneurs with the training and financing to get their businesses off the ground.

In an official statement released on Thursday, the embassy said the initiative was powered by the country's flagship and regional accelerator programme Flat6Labs, and in partnership with World Bank Group member International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Held at Downtown's entrepreneurs' hub the GrEEk Campus, the initiative was launched with its three themes of Ideate, Build and Accelerate.

According to the embassy, the themes were all designed "to form a comprehensive programme that will support Egyptian entrepreneurs from their initial idea stages all the way through to developing and scaling market-ready business solutions or products."

"With IFC and Flat6Labs we will to give Egypts young entrepreneurs the finance, the advice and the exposure to turn Egyptian ideas into international solutions, and make them the champions of the future economy of Egypt, Ambassador John Casson said, describing the initiative as a "new pillar in the partnership UK is building with Egypt."

The IFC country manager in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, Walid Labadi, said Egypt was full of passionate, technically savvy young entrepreneurs whose ideas could shape the future of the country.

With help from the United Kingdom and Flat6Labs, Start Egypt will provide not only the financial support entrepreneurs need to get their ideas off the ground, but also the hands-on experience that is crucial to growing a start-up," Labadi said.

According to the embassy, the newly launched initiative will start by touring Egypt over the next few months to offer Egyptian entrepreneurs a variety of activities and workshops including start-up competitions, hackathons, ideation sessions, workshops, impact research and video documentary series.

Following the roadshow, selected entrepreneurs will complete a six-month incubation period featuring a training programme that aims to turn their initial business ideas into more advanced and market-ready businesses.

With grants of up to $25,000 per company, the entrepreneurs at the final stage will then work within social impact sectors under Flat6Labs Cairo's accelerator programme.

The programme is now accepting applications from entrepreneurs via its website.



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The California attorney generals office has begun investigating a San Francisco charity that claimed to serve the developmentally disabled, after a Chronicle expose that found the nonprofit veered from its mission for years, doing little more than funding its directors high-society lifestyle.

The rare audit by the states top legal office is the most significant review of Helpers Community Inc.s finances. It comes as the once-celebrated nonprofit is launching new efforts to house and train adults with developmental disabilities, including plans to reopen three former group homes that have been shuttered for 15 years.

In August, the $6 million charity fired its longtime director, San Francisco socialite Joy Venturini Bianchi, and hired a replacement amid a flurry of new grant-making.

We are now trying to get back into direct care and our original mission, said the interim director, Jan Cohen, a consultant who has spent her career working with Bay Area nonprofits that serve individuals with disabilities.

Cohen said the attorney generals office requested financial and organizational materials from Helpers in October and that the nonprofit immediately complied. Those materials include 31 items, among them a list of people who have served on the groups board of directors, governance policies, conflict-of-interest rules, credit card statements and canceled checks.

She said the charity expects to submit all the requested information by the end of November, adding that, based on all the documents she has seen, I dont believe the attorney general will find anything terrible.

The attorney generals office declined to comment.

Nearly 200,000 tax-exempt organizations operate in California, according to state officials. More than 123 audit investigations were opened from 2014 to 2016 involving excess compensation, self-dealing transactions, illegal loans to directors, losses or threatened losses to charitable assets, and fundraising abuses.

Whenever an attorney generals office looks into a nonprofit, it is serious, said Laura Otten, a professor at La Salle University in Philadelphia, who has advised the nonprofit industry for 30 years and reviewed Helpers financial information. There has to be grave concern for any (attorney general) to single one nonprofit out from all in her or his state.

Helpers Community Inc.  known as Helpers of the Mentally Retarded until 2015  long housed people with developmental disabilities in Richmond District homes that the nonprofit owns. But since ending its residential services in 2002, it had done little charitable work, while amassing millions of dollars in assets and donations and handsomely compensating Bianchi as she traveled to numerous red-carpet affairs.

Despite its stated mission of collecting donations for groups housing adults with developmental disabilities, Helpers gave nothing to residential programs for 13 years. From 2003 to 2008, the group spent nothing on any charitable cause, financial records showed. All the while, Helpers IRS filings show, Bianchis annual compensation package was larger than the groups total charitable giving in every year since the homes were closed.

After The Chronicles investigation appeared, Helpers awarded $1 million in grants in July to several Bay Area nonprofits serving the elderly and disabled, its largest-ever annual disbursement of funds.

Audits by the attorney general can take anywhere from six months to several years, depending on the complexity of the complaint. If an audit uncovers problems, state regulators can demand corrective actions, take the charity to court, or revoke its registration status in California. Only the IRS can rescind an organizations nonprofit status.

Helpers board President Peggy Bachecki acknowledged in a recent interview that the charity strayed from its original mission but said she believes nothing illegal was done.

But some former Helpers employees said the attorney generals audit is overdue.

It is finally going to be thoroughly looked into, said Roberto Rosas Mariscal, an administrative assistant who worked at Helpers for three years. I hope that justice will be served, because a lot of people have been hurt and disappointed.

Founded in 1963, Helpers originally housed adults with developmental disabilities in a collection of homes on Fulton Street along Golden Gate Park. In 2002, under Bianchis leadership, the charity began selling donated high-end fashion pieces, the proceeds of which it claimed to be using to support other groups providing residential care for people living with disabilities.

Bianchis annual compensation of roughly $200,000 far exceeded that of CEOs at San Francisco human services nonprofits of similar size. At the same time, internal accounting records shared with The Chronicle show that during the past 15 years, Bianchi spent more than half a million dollars on such things as luxury clothing and accessories to resell at a pair of boutiques operated by Helpers; maintaining her Jaguar; domestic and foreign travel; and a public relations campaign that included buying symphony, orchestra and ballet tickets and dining at upscale restaurants.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

In contrast to Helpers assertions that it donated the money it raised, Helpers granted paltry funds to other charities.

Several Helpers donors said they were concerned that their contributions were being misused, while former employees recounted that Bianchi personally benefited from her position, in possible violation of nonprofit rules.

Three of Bianchis former administrative assistants said she routinely asked them to perform personal tasks they found inappropriate and outside the scope of their duties, including housekeeping, cooking and yard work at her private residence.

Bianchi, 79, said in a text message that she did not know why the attorney general would be investigating Helpers, and directed questions to the organizations board, stating: The Board had final responsibility in all matters.

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.

Bianchi, however, served on the Helpers board from 2002 until she was removed in December 2016. She has previously insisted that she served the nonprofit well and that the charity struggled to find worthy recipients for its funds.

Since her departure, Helpers has shifted its focus away from high-fashion resales and toward more front-line assistance.

Helpers House of Couture on Fulton Street, the charitys signature property, has been closed, and a liquidation sale of its inventory is planned next year. Cohen has given other clothing to Goodwill in San Francisco, and thousands of pieces of costume jewelry and other accessories collected by Bianchi are on consignment with Goodwill of Silicon Valley. Helpers online store, which sold antiques, jewelry and clothing, also has been shut down.

Within a year, Helpers plans to partner with the Pomeroy Recreation & Rehabilitation Center to open a state-licensed respite home to provide temporary care for up to seven adults. Bachecki said Helpers hopes its other two properties, planned as permanent residences for about a dozen adults, will open within five years.

Its most significant recent achievement is a job-training program at the Helpers Bazaar boutique in Ghirardelli Square, a glass-encased shop featuring holiday ornaments and used knickknacks. Helpers says it hopes to increase its stock of items created by people with developmental disabilities, including hand-loomed textiles, jewelry and candleholders, to a third of the stores inventory.

Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle

Three trainees are now working at the resale shop for the first time, the result of a new partnership with the Arc San Francisco and the Pomeroy center.

Clients from those organizations are opening and closing the boutique, working the cash register and greeting customers. Among them is Connie Chu, who along with other trainees has been earning $14 an hour since last month.

Chu, dressed in a button-up cardigan and blue-checked blouse, arrived 15 minutes early to work on Wednesday. A poet and science fiction writer, she said she gets the most pleasure from work directing customers to the used books section and hopes one day to donate her own self-published work.

Previously, the boutiques sales raised money for Helpers but did not employ adults with disabilities, despite having long received a tax exemption granted to agencies that provide such direct services.

Chu, who at age 40 has just moved out of her parents home into her own studio apartment, takes Muni to her new job at Helpers. She had one word for her newfound independence: freedom.

Cynthia Dizikes, Carolyne Zinko and Karen de Sa are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: cdizikes@sfchronicle.com, czinko@sfchronicle.com, kdesa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @CarolyneZinko, @cdizikes
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Hidden away in the bulging hills of the Sunol Valley, construction on the showpiece of San Franciscos water delivery system overhaul is nearing completion.

At the northernmost tip of the Calaveras Reservoir, a critical component of the vast Hetch Hetchy network that sends water to 2.7 million Bay Area residents, a brand-new, $810 million earthen dam is now 89 percent complete.

While the new Calaveras Dam rests just 1,000 feet downstream from its 91-year-old predecessor, its being built to meet far more stringent seismic standards.

Thats particularly important, considering that the new dam will sit just 1,500 feet from the Calaveras Fault, which is capable of producing a 7.25-magnitude earthquake and, with it, the potential to severely disrupt the entire regions water supply. The new dam is being built to take such a quake in stride.

When its full, Calaveras Reservoir represents 40 percent of all of our local water storage capacity  in that one reservoir, said San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spokeswoman Betsy Lauppe Rhodes. Should the region be suddenly cut off from its central source of water  the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite  or in times of drought, the local supply at Calaveras becomes even more critical, Lauppe Rhodes said.

The new Calaveras Dam represents by far the largest component of the Water System Improvement Program, an $4.8 billion project the city agency began in 2002 to upgrade huge portions of its water delivery system.

The agency is more than 90 percent of the way through the 83 projects that make up the improvement program, most of which are centered on strengthening the system better against earthquakes. The Hetch Hetchy system crosses three major faults as it moves water westward toward San Francisco and the Peninsula: the Calaveras, Hayward and San Andreas.

Each aspect of the improvement program, Lauppe Rhodes said, was designed to ensure that in the event of a catastrophic earthquake, the PUC would still be able to provide what it calls minimum-day demand within 24 hours  roughly the amount of water needed during the winter, when demand is usually lower.

Thats water for drinking and firefighting and keeping everything going, Lauppe Rhodes said.

One-third of the program is being paid for through gradual increases in residential and commercial water rates. Those customers use about a third of the reservoirs supply. The other two-thirds in revenue is coming from the PUCs wholesale customers, like the Alameda County Water District and cities like Hayward and Milpitas.

At the point where the new dam meets the Calaveras Reservoir, an inscription above a newly built water intake tower reads Lympha Optima, a rough Latin equivalent for pure water. Beneath the stately intake tower, adorned with Greek columns, a vertical shaft plunges more than 160 feet beneath the ground and is capable of drawing water from the reservoir at three different elevations.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

After five years of site preparation and excavation work, a mammoth undertaking in its own right that involved moving 7 million cubic yards of soil and rock  enough to fill two Levis Stadiums  PUC crews and contractors finally began building the dam upward in 2016.

The dam grows a foot in height each day as heavy earthmovers roll over its foundation, flattening layer after layer of rock and sediment. The earthen materials are transported to the dams basin via a screeching, 3,000-foot conveyor belt that winds around the work sites perimeter. By the dams anticipated completion in the spring of 2019, it will top out at 220 feet high. Its about half that height now, said Susan Hou, a senior project manager at the PUC.

Last year, workers also completed the dams 1,550-foot-long concrete spillway, which is as wide as an eight-lane highway.

For nearly 16 years, state regulators have required the agency to keep water levels in the reservoir well below what its capable of holding. In 2001, the states Division of Safety of Dams ordered the PUC to reduce the amount of water in the reservoir by 60 percent, citing earthquake safety concerns related to the dam.

Building the new dam will also allow the PUC to restore the Calaveras Reservoir to its full 31 billion-gallon capacity, greatly adding to the amount of local water the PUC can store.

Sixty percent is about 18 billion gallons, Hou said. Thats a lot of water.

The reservoir had to be lowered because, state regulators found, a 7.25-magnitude quake could cause the sides of the old dam to slump, unleashing a 30-foot-high torrent of water on Fremont.

Hou said the old dam, which was built in the 1920s with mule-drawn carts, used now-outdated methods and poor materials that didnt compact properly.

The construction method wasnt strong enough for the size, Hou said. We were testing the limits of the time to build such a high dam with those types of materials.

Bringing the reservoir back up to pre-2001 levels means being able to store a far greater amount of water, further protecting the region from disruptions.

You need to have that storage readily available if a drought comes or if we have an event at Hetch Hetchy, Hou said. Then you have to go to your local source, and this is the largest one in our regional water system.

Richard Luthy, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, said that in addition to hedging against the effects of a violent national disaster, increasing Calaveras Reservoirs storage capacity will also be crucial for combating the effects of climate change.

The snowpack in the Sierra wont be as big in the future because of climate change and warming, Luthy said. The way the snowpack worked is that it was water in storage. But as temperatures rise and as the snowpack melts earlier in the year, Luthy said, the amount of time available to capture and store the runoff will continue to shrink.

That time gap is getting shortened. In terms of increased capacity, it gives you more flexibility to deal with climate change, he said.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
Four years after Gov. Jerry Brown started his signature program to boost California jobs by awarding tax credits to the firms that create them, businesses have left two-thirds of those available credits unclaimed  a sign that most expected jobs have yet to materialize.

The state cant say for sure how many of the administrations 83,414 projected jobs over five years have actually been created. State offices responsible for awarding and monitoring the California Competes tax credits say they arent keeping count.

And the Legislative Analysts Office warned in an October report that some of the governors incentives that have been put to use may inadvertently be picking winners and losers within California. The state has awarded about 15 percent of the tax credits to service professionals such as hair stylists, plumbers, insurance agents and doctors, giving them an advantage over their competitors in the same market.

Brown administration spokesman Sid Voorakkara said the governor stands by California Competes, calling the program a vital tool to support businesses. He noted that businesses have five years to meet their hiring targets, and said there may be tax advantages for waiting to claim the credit.

One economic development expert, however, said he doesnt expect the claim rate to improve anytime soon, given that businesses have been doing brisk hiring these past few years.

I dont expect the early results that weve seen are just a matter of the program not being a full implementation, said Micah Weinberg, president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, a think tank focused on economic issues facing Silicon Valley. I think the results that weve seen are the nature of the results we should expect from that program.

California Competes was started in 2014 to help businesses stay in the state by offering tax credits based on the number of full-time jobs they create and how much a company seeks. Credits typically amount to several thousand dollars per new job.

So far, the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development, known as GO-Biz, has awarded $622.8 million to 865 companies.

However, the Franchise Tax Board, the state entity responsible for reviewing awards, isnt tracking the number of new jobs those credits have created. Tax board spokesman Jacob Roper said tallying the number at this stage wouldnt necessarily capture all the successful milestones of the program.

The jobs program was authorized with bipartisan support in 2013 as part of an overhaul of the states economic development strategy. California eliminated a three-decade-old enterprise zone program after finding it simply shifted jobs from one part of the state to another.

The state replaced it with three economic programs. In addition to California Competes, the Legislature authorized a sales tax exemption on manufacturing and research and development equipment, and hiring credits for businesses in areas with high unemployment and poverty.

So far, California businesses appear to be having a hard time using Browns economic development program. Of the $50 million that was available to be used in 2014 and 2015, the tax board reported 377 companies claimed just $15.7 million  less than a third of the credit eligible to be claimed for those years. The amount is low compared with the total handed out because the program was just being started and the credits are spread out over several years. Information wasnt yet available for the 2016 tax year.

The Legislative Analysts Office, lawmakers nonpartisan fiscal analyst, finds that low.

Based on the terms of the tax credit agreements, we anticipated somewhat larger amounts, the agency said in its October report. Either businesses havent hit their hiring targets or they are carrying the credit forward to claim on taxes later. The law allows businesses to carry the remaining amount forward for five tax years.

Some business owners say the credit isnt big enough. Matt Pentecost, owner of Sac Surface Pro, a tile-cleaning service in the Sacramento area, applied for the credit and was awarded $30,000 in April 2015 on the condition that he add three full-time workers within the next five years. His tax credit works out to $6,000 a year, which he says isnt enough of an incentive to hire; salary, workers comp and employment taxes can add up to more than $75,000 per worker.

I havent been able to take advantage of it, Pentecost said. All it is at this point is a little more of a negative for me, because I spent a lot of time setting this up, and now that I actually signed up for it, I have to submit paperwork every year.

Still, he said he hopes to use at least some of the credit before it runs out. He recently hired two employees and is in the process of training them.

Some large companies say they have quickly met or exceeded their hiring targets. Amazon, the online retailing giant, was awarded nearly $1.6 million in tax credits for adding 1,550 jobs at four warehouse and distribution centers. An Amazon spokesman said it has hired more workers than promised.

Northrop Grumman, the states largest aerospace employer, can claim $10 million for adding 1,359 jobs in Southern California. Northrop spokesman Tim Paynter said the aircraft manufacturer also expects to use all its credits.

But 21 businesses, including IBM, Honeywell and Novartis Pharmaceutical, have decided not to use their credits. The state can award those unused credits to other employers.

People shouldnt expect too much from tax incentives, said Weinberg of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.

The California Competes tax incentive is a fine arrow to have in our quiver, he said, but we also need to be very realistic about the extent to which incentives are a big part of siting decisions.

Judy Lin is a reporter for CALmatters, a nonpartisan, nonprofit media venture explaining California policies and politics.
Ashlee McAlister arrived at 5:30 a.m. Friday at Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton in search of bargains, and the experience didnt disappoint.

The deals are so amazing, said the 31-year-old Oakland resident, who scooped up a sweater and earrings at the clothing store Express, where items were half off.

McAlister was among the throngs of shoppers who piled into Bay Area malls on Friday, seeking deals on electronics, clothing, toys and other gift items. During the weekend that began on Thanksgiving and will end Monday, shoppers online and in physical stores are expected to spend an average of $427, up from $400 last year, according to a survey from consulting firm Deloitte.

People are buying more because they have higher-paying jobs, and more are expecting bonuses, said Britt Beemer, chairman of Americas Research Group, which tracks shopping trends. The proportion of those surveyed who said they would spend more this holiday season  33 percent  was greater than any year since 2007, he added.

Now Playing: Daniel Li explains why he is at Stoneridge Shopping Center on the day after Thanksgiving. Video: SFChronicle

For department stores and other brick-and-mortar retailers, the stakes have never been higher, as online shopping gets more popular. Many, including Macys, have had to close stores. Toys R Us has filed for bankruptcy protection. Amazon.com, known for its wide selection of products, is considered by analysts to be the biggest winner this holiday shopping season. Consulting firm Bain & Co. estimates that Amazon will take half of the holiday sales growth.

Some stores, as has become customary, opened their doors on Thanksgiving. The J.C. Penney at Stoneridge Shopping Center had longer lines this year than last, said Bobbi Loshonkohl, the stores general manager. People came as early as 10 a.m. Thursday, four hours before the store opened, she added.

Holidays are very important to retailers, Loshonkohl said. We are ready to win this holiday.

This year, stores like Best Buy and Walmart have tried to compete with Amazon by starting their sales in early November.

On Black Friday  the consummate shopping holiday  people now may spend more dollars online than in physical stores, according to research firm NPD Group.

Last year, shoppers spent on average $110 in stores on Black Friday, compared with $129 online, it said.

Marlene Towns, a professor at Georgetown Universitys McDonough School of Business, said retailers have tried to stretch the magic of Black Friday sales too much, to the point where many people believe the better deals will be unveiled closer to Christmas.

Its definitely lost some of its sparkle as a special day, Towns said, adding: Weve seen Black Friday sales and deals online for the last several weeks. Its kind of diluted its importance.

As of 5 p.m., shoppers had spent $3.54 billion online Friday, up about 16 percent from last year. About 39 percent of the online purchases were made on mobile devices, according to Adobe Analytics data.

The strong online performance of Black Friday this season shows that consumers are moving further away from leaving their homes to do holiday shopping, Taylor Schreiner, director at Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement.

Raine Corman, a 20-year-old student at the University of Redlands, said she will do 80 percent of her holiday shopping on Amazon this year. Corman has been an Amazon Prime member  which includes free shipping in the annual fee  for three years, significantly cutting down on the time she spends in malls. Before becoming a Prime member, she used to visit the mall three to four times a month. Now, its one or two times, she said.

On Amazon, the shopping is really convenient, Corman said, adding that she gets her packages super fast. Last year she didnt even go to the mall for Black Friday, but this year Corman accompanied her mother to Stoneridge Shopping Center and had spent $40 on discounted jeans and a shirt before 8 a.m.

Some analysts said Black Friday remains an important event for stores because many people have a tradition of spending the day with friends or family, scouring malls for holiday presents. Some shoppers said they prefer to feel and touch items, rather than take their chances online.

It is leaps and bounds the most important shopping day of the holiday season in terms of foot traffic, said Brian Field, senior director of advisory services at ShopperTrak, which monitors foot traffic at malls on Black Friday. Its a built-in tradition now that has been going for a long time in retail. People get together for Thanksgiving, and they are buddying up to go out shopping as a nice social activity for that weekend.

Field expects foot traffic at malls on Black Friday to be similar to what it was last year. At Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco, the parking lot, with a capacity for about 4,000 cars, was nearly full by 11 a.m., said Darren Iverson, the malls senior general manager. He said it was also busy on Thanksgiving.

It looks like its going to be a great start (to the season) if things continue this way, Iverson said.

Pam Camacho, a 41-year-old probation officer, said its tradition for her to go out to stores with her mother and sister-in-law on Black Friday. She planned to spend around $200 to $300 on holiday gifts and get her shopping done by the end of the day. I like to get it all done so I can enjoy December, said Camacho, who lives in Dublin and visited the Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton.

Discounts were not as deep on some products this year, according to Market Track, which provides data to businesses including retailers. In the firms analysis of 17 product categories using Black Fridays circular ads, discounts were 6 percent deeper last year. Items like sporting goods and kitchenware were discounted more last year, the firm said.

While some shoppers were excited to spend several hours at the mall, others raced to get the items they wanted and leave. Elementary school teacher Sharon Gitchell arrived at Stoneridge at 5 a.m. and filled a shopping bag with coats, earrings and shirts that were 50 to 60 percent off at J.C. Penney, spending about $220. By around 6:30 a.m., she was done.

Im going home, Gitchell said.

Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee
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Self-driving cars of the near future will rely on lidar, computerized mapping and anti-collision sensors. But those same technologies are already available inside homes today  along with dirt detection and advanced suction.

Robot vacuums, first introduced as a consumer product more than a decade ago, are rapidly advancing to the point they might soon clean floors better than any human.

Theyve got awareness of their surroundings, they have intelligence and algorithms running inside, said Christopher Caen, marketing manager for San Franciscos Ecovacs Robotics, which introduced a combined vacuum-floor mopper this summer equipped with lidar, which is the laser version of radar.

They are actually little autonomous cars, he said.

Ecovacs and Neato Robotics of Newark are among the competitors in a crowded market for robot vacuums, first popularized with the introduction of the Roomba in 2002 by iRobot Corp. of Bedford, Mass.

The Roomba was not the first robot vacuum, but iRobot has long led the field in what has become a $1 billion market by selling more than 20 million units over the years, said Dan Kara of ABI Research.

Sales of robotic vacuums should exceed $4.5 billion in 2025, said Kara, research director for ABIs robotics and intelligent systems practice. Thats one reason the biggest names in vacuums and home consumer electronics  Dyson, Hoover, Samsung, Sharp and LG  and dozens of smaller, little-known companies are bumping into each other in the home robot vacuum market.

Manufacturers are adding more features, such as integration with voice-activated speakers like Amazons Echo. The vacuums can map your floor plan to create more efficient cleaning routes, remember areas where more dirt accumulates and know when to switch from vacuuming rugs to mopping floors. Mobile apps let owners remotely track their vacuums progress.

Now, they have to keep looking for the next thing, Kara said.

Adding more technology hasnt been without controversy. Cybersecurity researchers for Check Point Software Technologies recently discovered a way for someone to remotely tap into the navigational video camera of an LG Hom-Bot vacuum cleaner and spy inside a home; LG says it has fixed the problem.

Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot, told Reuters in July that his company hopes to work with Amazon, Google and/or Apple  all of which have built digital voice assistants  to share (for free and with customers permission) the maps it develops. The Roomba can already work with Alexa, Amazons voice assistant.

The cost of a robot vacuum can be a deterrent. Although cheap knockoffs are available for as low as $125, high-end models can cost $1,000, Kara said. By comparison, a new old-fashioned but reliable hand-pushed model can go for $150, he said.

Some consolidation is happening in the industry. Neato Robotics, for example, agreed in September to be bought by the Vorwerk Group, a German home-appliance maker, although the company will remain in Newark.

Still, technology has advanced far from the first generation of robot vacuums, which had sensors that knew to keep going until they hit an object.

Theyd bonk into something and turn slightly, then bonk into something else and go straight, said Caen, the son of renowned Chronicle columnist Herb Caen.

But they were also known to get stuck in corners and run out of power in the middle of a room. Eventually, they became equipped with optical sensors that kept them from from falling down stairs and for telling the difference between carpet and hardwood.

With software now guiding the next generation of devices, Caen said, these are robots that instead of just randomly wandering around, they try to mimic how you and I would vacuum.

Kara said the next wave of incremental innovation included adding remote controls, programmable scheduling and ultraviolet light sterilization. Over the years, manufacturers included features like anti-collision and positioning sensors and intelligent navigation and mapping technologies.

Neato added laser navigation in 2010 and basically uses a miniature version of the guidance system atop Googles self-driving cars, CEO Giacamo Marini said in an interview. Like Ecovac Robotics top $549 Deebot model, Neatos Botvac line has a round disc on top that houses the lidar.

While some competitors use optical cameras to navigate, were staying with laser as a fundamental mapping technology because laser allows you to get precise maps, Marini said. In most cases with cameras, youre not getting precise measurements.

Ecovacs doesnt use optical cameras now, but in the future could tie one into image processing, said Raman Chari, a product marketing manager.

So when it finds a toy, it knows its a toy, Chari said. But thats going to be a few years away. Accuracy is pretty important and you dont want to misrepresent something.

Despite all the advances in technology, Kara said robot vacuum makers started to make a huge jump two years ago by adding two more basic features that made a difference in cleaning a house: more powerful suction and more complete coverage of floors.

Vacuum makers have also added Wi-Fi, which potentially connects the machines to cloud-based artificial intelligence technologies that would allow them to recognize objects to avoid.

The next step is tying robot vacuums into the growing network of Internet-connected home devices, like thermostats and TVs. Neatos Marini said the vacuums could learn to stop when the smart TV turns on, or to pause a programmed cleaning schedule if the smart thermostat senses the residents are on vacation.

And because the device moves around, it could serve as a robotic sentry of sorts, equipped with temperature sensing to determine if one room is colder than another.

The vacuums spend 10 percent of their time being a vacuum cleaner, and 90 percent of their time sitting in the dark doing nothing, Caen said. Whats going to be interesting over the next two years is to watch out for what happens to that other 90 percent.

Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChronicleBenny
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When Lou Nicolellas daughter called last year to tell him she was leaving her current job for a finance startup called LendUp, his first question was: Whats a LendUp?

For 64-year-old Nicolella, who works in a more traditional job at Wells Fargo in Iowa, the idea of a typical San Francisco startup  with pingpong tables, free snacks, relaxed dress codes and dogs  was an unfamiliar concept.

In an attempt to bridge the generation gap between employees and their parents, LendUp is among the Bay Area tech companies that host a Bring Your Parents to Work Day. These events are in a similar vein to Bring Your Kids to Work Day, where sons and daughters can see how their parents spend time out of the house.

Not only can parents get a glimpse into their childrens lives, but they can also learn about a work environment that wasnt common in their generation.

I wanted to know what this was all about, Nicolella said, while sitting on one of the many couches in LendUps sprawling San Francisco office during its first Bring Your Parents to Work Day this month.

More than a dozen parents came to LendUps San Francisco office in the Financial District for a day of presentations and activities. The startup indulged in stereotypes with its list of suggested activities: play pingpong, take a selfie, visit the parent swag shop for T-shirts and other gear with company logos. During one session, co-founders and stepbrothers Sasha Orloff and Jacob Rosenberg spoke about how the company  which helps customers with financial challenges obtain loans and credit cards and, hopefully, build up their credit  has grown over the past few years.

Theres a gap of what parents think your kids are doing, Orloff said as he sat with Rosenberg and their mother, Rebecca Orloff. Startups are risky and crazy  and why would your kid want to leave their comfortable corporate job for this uncertain path?

We want people to feel comfortable that their kids are making an impact and taking an active part in shaping a company, Orloff added.

On the same day, LinkedIn hosted its annual Bring Your Parents event, which it has been doing for the past several years. Mary Anne Viegelmann, a global events program manager at LinkedIn, said the company initially decided to hold the event because of a report that said parents often have no idea what their children do all day at work.

We wanted that opportunity to bridge the gap, she said. And, on top of it, the more (parents) know about LinkedIn, the more they can be brand ambassadors for us as well.

Google also hosts one of these days every other year. Its a way for Google to show gratitude to the people who raised the people at the heart of our business, Ty Sheppard, a company spokesman, said in an email.

Back at LendUp, as Lindsay Nicolella showed her parents around, they were enthralled by how many kitchens there were and how dogs were allowed to hang around the office.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

As they entered the pingpong room, Nicolellas mom, Cathy Nicolella, couldnt help but giggle.

Im envious, she said of the company. Its very fitting for the time. ... Back then, you just needed a job, so long as it paid the bills. And if you were happy, that was just an added bonus.

Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani
This years collection of cookbooks proves that great food writing can be  and should be  about so much more than food.

Its about diving deep to learn more about a country and its people. Its about finding ways to make cooking a little easier, and fun, in our increasingly busy times. It can offer a glimpse into the creativity that drives a cult-status restaurant. Or it can celebrate badass women who rule the kitchen and arent afraid to be themselves. Its about sharing deeply personal stories of finding a better understanding of ones cultural identity. It can even serve as a call to action to engage in helping to make our country a truly better place. These are our favorite cookbooks of 2017.

America The Great Cookbook. Compiled by the Washington Posts Joe Yonan, this cookbook employs food and cooking as a way to capture what it means to be an American. It offers a diverse collection of recipes from more than 100 food personalities around the country, such as Leah Chase of New Orleans famed Dooky Chases Restaurant, D.C. chef-activist Jose Andres, and San Francisco Chronicle contributors Tunde Way and Nik Sharma. Other familiar faces include Tanya Holland (Brown Sugar Kitchen), Teague Moriarty (Sons & Daughters) and Charles Phan (Slanted Door). Its a fitting cookbook to hail from the D.C. paper, which, following the inauguration of Donald Trump, adopted the motto: Democracy Dies in Darkness. Bonus: A portion of the books proceeds benefits No Kid Hungry, which targets ending childhood hunger.

America The Great Cookbook edited by Joe Yonan (Weldon Owen; 484 pages; $40)

BraveTart. With her first cookbook, Serious Eats pastry wizard Stella Parks wants to inspire home cooks to bake like crazy. More than recipes, Parks offers thoughtfully researched and detailed histories of each of her riffs on homey American sweets, like the evolution of the pineapple-upside-down cake and the true origins of chocolate chip cookies. Trouble-shooting tips and dives into the science behind baking encourage even more creativity in the kitchen. Look for her Mix it up! suggestions to recipes, such as adding coconut and white chocolate to her honey-roasted peanut butter cookies.

BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts by Stella Parks (W.W. Norton & Co.; 397 pages; $35)

Cherry Bombe. With its first cookbook, the team behind indie women-centric food magazine Cherry Bombe continues its celebration of inspirational women who cook. Its a lively and varied collection that includes recipes from celebrities like Chrissy Teigen, chefs like Calas Gabriela Camara and food bloggers like Impatient Foodies Elettra Wiedemann, who shares a beet-tinted Pink Spaghetti. This book also serves as a joyful antidote to the ubiquitous bro culture of the kitchen.

[See the recipe: Pink Spaghetti With Beet & Ricotta Sauce]

Cherry Bombe: The Cookbook edited by Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu (Clarkson Potter; 256 pages; $35)

Via various publishers

Dining In. Food writer Alison Romans latest book is devoted to lo-fi home cooking that is fun and approachable, and most likely better than most dishes youd order eating out. The book features dishes that are refreshing and unexpected, like grilled corn salad with fresh cheese and corn nuts (yes, corn nuts), and a savory breakfast of smashed cucumbers and scallions over garlicky yogurt with decidedly not sweet granola. As Roman herself puts it, this is a collection of recipes that are neither obnoxiously aspirational, nor so obvious that you wonder why you bought this book.

Dining In: Highly Cookable Recipes by Alison Roman (Clarkson Potter; 304 pages; $30)

Downtime. Nadine Levy Redzepi has cooked for some of the worlds most famous chefs on their nights off, including her husband, Nomas Rene Redzepi. This is essentially her contribution to the hygge revolution  comforting home cooking as only someone who has worked alongside one of the most cutting-edge and influential chefs could envision. Relaxed and eclectic, Redzepis recipes pull from global flavors that have inspired her on her travels, and she shares techniques shes picked up over the years. One of the most simple, yet unexpected, is a dessert featuring sugar-cured egg yolks, meringue and freeze-dried raspberries. These are recipes that feel like they hail from a high-end kitchen, but Redzepi promises that you dont need top-flight skills.

[See the recipe: Sugar-Cured Egg Yolk in a Meringue Cloud]

Downtime: Deliciousness at Home by Nadine Levy Redzepi (Pam Krauss Books/Avery; 304 pages; $35)

Feeding the Resistance. According to author Julia Turshen, food is the most democratic thing in the world, lower-case d, and affects all of us. Both practical and purposeful, Turshens latest book is for people who love to cook and recognize that, as Turshen puts it, resistance is the new normal. The book features essays from a diverse group of voices, both national and local, such as Shakira Simley (co-founder, Nourish/Resist), in addition to nourishing recipes, like a dark roux mushroom gumbo from Oakland chef-author Bryant Terry. Proceeds from the book go to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Feed the Resistance: Recipes + Ideas for Getting Involved by Julia Turshen (Chronicle Books; 146 pages; $14.95)

Via various publishers

Guerilla Tacos. Back in 2012, Wesley Avila started his taco revolution with a $300 cart and hibachi grill, pulling inspiration from his parents cooking and the hole-in-the-wall Mexican joints from his hometown of Pico Rivera (southeast of downtown Los Angeles). Since then, the former Teamster has earned praise from fans and critics with his L.A. taco truck. The recipes are irresistible, ranging from Avilas reinterpretation of Mexican classics like chile Colorado to unexpected flavor combinations, like his version of a surf-and-turf taco made with pork belly and caviar. Beyond the recipes, Avilas narrative of his journey of dropping out of high school following his mothers death and becoming a wake-and-bake stoner who didnt even know how to cook beans to opening the best taco place in L.A. is a heartwarming delight.

Guerilla Tacos: Recipes from the Streets of L.A. by Wesley Avila with Richard Parks III (Ten Speed Press; 272 pages; $30)

Istanbul & Beyond. Food writer Robyn Eckhardt traveled 15,000 miles and spent more than five years researching this deep dive into regional Turkish cooking. Through her stories and collected recipes  not to mention the photography by Eckhardts husband, David Hagerman  the book reveal s a varied, abundant and complex food culture. In addition to the workers canteens and street foods of Istanbul, Eckhardt showcases cooking from other parts of the country, including dishes like a vibrant sun-dried tomato and pomegranate salad that is served as part of breakfast in Turkeys Hatay province.

[See the recipe: Sun-Dried Tomato & Pomegranate Salad]

Istanbul & Beyond: Exploring the Diverse Cuisines of Turkey by Robyn Eckhardt (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 352 pages; $35)

The Juhu Beach Club Cookbook. For her first cookbook, named after her Oakland restaurant, Preeti Mistry , working with local writer Sarah Henry, bares her soul in a brutally honest and open fashion as she chronicles the journey of Juhu Beach Club from pop-up to beloved mom-and-mom neighborhood restaurant where all kinds of queer and colorful people are comfortable. Recipes like ginger chile Dungeness crab and sweet-and-spicy deep-fried Manchurian cauliflower are grouped around anecdotes about her evolution from corporate chef to reality television contestant (Mistry was cut after three episodes of Top Chef). Ultimately, its a book, as Mistry puts it, about failing up and being true to myself.

The Juhu Beach Club Cookbook: Indian Spice, Oakland Soul, by Preeti Mistry (Running Press; 288 pages; $30)

Via various publishers

Night + Market. When Kris Yenbamroongopened critically praised Night + Market next door to Talesai, his parents Thai restaurant on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, the film student-turned-chef couldnt decide whether it was an actual restaurant or a half-finished piece of performance art. With the arrival of his first cookbook, which is a fun and deeply personal read, its safe to say the decision has been made. As Yenbamroong writes, these arent necessarily recipes for authentic Thai food but rather his own interpretations designed to subvert expectation, and above all, make Thai food fun again.

Night + Market: Delicious Thai Food to Facilitate Drinking And Fun-Having Amongst Friends by Kris Yenbamroon (Clarkson Potter; 320 pages; $35)

On Vegetables. The marvelous first cookbook from Jeremy Fox  who earned numerous accolades for his cooking at Napas now-closed Ubuntu prior to taking the helm at Santa Monicas Rustic Canyon  serves up fine dining-caliber vegetable-focused recipes. Dishes like potato beignets, romesco and charred scallion are exciting and tempting. However, perhaps the best part of the book is Foxs frank and honest reflection of surviving an epic crisis that nearly imploded his career. He found redemption in the kitchen where hes now cooking what he considers to be the best food of his life.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

On Vegetables: Modern Recipes for the Home Kitchen by Jeremy Fox (Phaidon; 320 pages; $49.95).

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. By mastering these four notes of the culinary scale, Samin Nosrat enthusiastically guarantees in her debut cookbook that you can become not only a good cook, but a great one. Its a curriculum that the Berkeley writer and cook has used to teach people of all ages and backgrounds how to cook, including her former college professor, Michael Pollan. The cookbook, with its instructive recipes and playful illustrations by Wendy McNaughton, is an enjoyable and approachable culinary master class.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat (Simon & Schuster; 480 pages; $28).

Via various publishers

The Sioux Chef. Born in 1974 on South Dakotas Pine Ridge Reservation, a member of the Oglala Lakota, Minneapolis chef and food educator Sean Sherman looks beyond fry bread or Indian tacos in his debut cookbook. Realizing how underrepresented American Indian foods are in the United States, in 2014 Sherman began hosting pop-up dinners as a way to shine a light on indigenous food systems. The mission-driven business has since grown to include catering, a food truck and a forthcoming restaurant. Recipes from the cookbook include indigenous tacos, acorn and wild rice cakes, and maple-juniper roast pheasant. The chapters on The Indigenous Pantry and menus for the Feasts of the Moon are an especially thoughtful addition to the book.

[See the recipe: Maple-Juniper Roast Pheasant]

The Sioux Chefs Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman, with Beth Dooley (University of Minnesota Press; 256 pages; $34.95)

State Bird Provisions. Much like the highly popular Fillmore Street restaurant that its named after, the debut cookbook from Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski features recipes that are inventive, challenging and unexpected. For example, youll find instructions for how to make your own fish floss and chicken egg bottarga, as well as how to cure your own trout roe. While not necessarily for the casual home cook, the book offers a grand breakdown of the cooking and minds behind one of the countrys most popular and celebrated restaurants.

State Bird Provisions: A Cookbook by Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski (Ten Speed Press; 368 pages; $40)

Unforgettable. Part biography, part greatest hits collection, Unforgettable is an eloquent celebration of the life and cooking of Sonoma food legend Paula Wolfert. Decades before Yotam Ottolenghi and Michael Solomonov made their names celebrating the flavors of the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, Wolfert traveled and chronicled the region, publishing eight seminal cookbooks, including her 1973 landmark debut, Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco. From her childhood years in Brooklyns Flatbush and a stint as a beatnik to the health issues that surfaced in her later years (Wolfert was diagnosed with dementia in 2013), author Emily Thelin chronicles Wolfert in tender yet warts-and-all detail. Unforgettable is a joy to read.

Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors Paula Wolferts Renegade Life by Emily Kaiser Thelin (Grand Central Life & Style; 330 pages; $35)

Honorable Mention

The Art of Flavor: Practices and Principles for Creating Delicious Food by Daniel Patterson and Mandy Aftel (Riverhead Books; $28; 288 pages).

Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking by Bonnie Frumkin Morales with Deena Prichep (Flatiron Books; 389 pages; $40).

Offal Good: Cooking From the Heart, With Guts by Chris Cosentino with Michael Harlan Turkell (Clarkson Potter; 304 pages; $40).

The Palestinian Table by Reem Kassis (Phaidon; 256 pages; $39.95).

Tartine All Day: Modern Recipes for the Home Cook by Elisabeth Prueitt (Ten Speed Press; 384 pages; $40).
A lawyer for former national security adviser Michael Flynn informed an attorney for President Donald Trump this week that he can no longer discuss the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, a sign that Flynn may be preparing to cooperate in the probe, people familiar with the investigation said.

The call from Flynn lawyer Robert Kelner to Trump attorney John Dowd came Wednesday evening and is a potentially ominous sign for Trump and other close associates to the president. Before this week, Kelner and been strategizing with lawyers for Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, among others.

The split suggests that Flynn, who has been a top target of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team, may be looking to share information with the prosecutor and his team.

The development was first reported by the New York Times.

Kelner did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, said: "This is not entirely unexpected."

"No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president," he said, adding "It's important to remember that Gen. Flynn received his security clearance under the previous administration."

In complex investigations, lawyers for subjects often enter into agreements that allow them to share information without waiving attorney client privilege. Such agreements generally include provisions that require the lawyers to immediately end the arrangement if their clients begin discussions with prosecutors or if other developments pose a conflict of interest.

Even if Flynn has begun discussions with Mueller's office, there is no guarantee he will ultimately reach a deal with prosecutors.

Flynn served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama before he was pushed out in 2014 amid criticism of his management style and clashes with other Obama administration officials.

He then established a private consulting firm and gave paid speeches, work that has drawn intense scrutiny from Mueller.

In December 2015, Flynn was paid by the Russian government-funded television network RT to attend a dinner in Moscow, where he was seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Even as he became an adviser to Trump's presidential campaign, his consulting firm was paid to promote the interests of the Turkish government. Flynn failed to initially report his payments from either engagement.

Flynn served 24 days as Trump's national security adviser, but was forced to resign after acknowledging that he had secretly discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during Trump's presidential transition in December.

Lawyers for the president and senior White House aides had been quietly speculating over the last few weeks that Flynn was under increasing pressure to cooperate because Mueller had signaled his ability to charge his son alongside the father.

Michael Flynn , the retired general's son, helped his father with business arrangements and served as chief of staff at his father 's consulting firm, the Flynn Intel Group.

Barry Coburn, an attorney for Michael Flynn, declined to comment.
One wants to end the death penalty. The other thinks capital punishment is just. One campaigned for tax increases that the other opposed. One tried to put Hillary Clinton in the White House. The other helped elect President George W. Bush.

What both men believe, however, is that Latinos  Californias largest ethnic group  suffer disproportionate levels of poverty in part because they barely turn out to vote. That common ground helps form the basis of an unlikely political alliance that could shape the 2018 race to determine the next governor of California.

Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa  a former mayor of Los Angeles and speaker of the Assembly  has hired a Republican political consultant, Mike Madrid, to work on his campaign to become California governor.

I brought him on because I want a broad cross section of eyes and ears to help me navigate through what admittedly is tough terrain ahead, Villaraigosa said. I make the decisions ultimately. But Im smart enough to know I dont know everything.

Madrid is a widely recognized expert in Latino voting patterns who has long urged Republicans to reach out more to Latino voters. He was the state Republican Partys political director in the 1990s and, more recently, has been paid by the state party to research local government elections. But Madrid has been so turned off by Donald Trump that he says he did not cast a vote for president last year and has begun criticizing his party for adopting a nationalistic tone.

Villaraigosa had a Republican chief of staff when he was mayor of Los Angeles. Madrid has done research for the Legislatures Latino Caucus, which is open only to Democrats. But this race marks the first time either man has formally joined forces with someone from the opposite party during a political campaign.

Isnt that whats wrong with politics right now  the screaming, the polarization? Villaraigosa said. I think people are looking for uniters. And I am a uniter.

Their bipartisan alliance comes as California has shifted to an open-primary system, in which the top two vote-getters on the June ballot advance to the general election even if they are from the same party. So far, four Democrats and two Republicans have entered the governors race, and the most recent poll shows Villaraigosa in second place to fellow Democrat Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor and former mayor of San Francisco.

The top-two system was designed to nudge candidates to appeal to voters beyond their own party, although Villaraigosa said that was not a factor in his decision to hire Madrid. The two have similar biographies  the grandchildren of Mexican immigrants, both grew up in working-class families in Southern California. But long before they joined forces, they were political rivals.

In the 1990s, Villaraigosa was Assembly speaker and Madrid was the press secretary to the Assembly Republican leader. As a consequence of a political spat, Villaraigosa had stopped issuing paychecks to the Republican leaders staff. After a few months, Madrid  whose job required him to live in Sacramento, away from his Southern California home  was going broke and decided he had to confront Villaraigosa.

I said, Look, Ive got a pregnant wife at home, and Im sleeping on my friends couch. I need to get my paycheck approved. Can you help me out? Madrid recalled. He looks at me and says, Let me see what I can do. Very noncommittal.

But Villaraigosa was moved by Madrids appeal and immediately released the paycheck. So thats where the relationship started, Villaraigosa said.

The Assembly Republican leader at the time, Rod Pacheco, didnt know that Madrid is now working for Villaraigosa until a reporter told him.

Are you kidding? he replied.

After further reflection, Pacheco said the arrangement makes sense given the decline of the Republican Party in California and how the states open primary is shaking up traditional partisan dynamics.

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.

Antonio Villaraigosa doesnt need a Latino consultant to tell him about Latinos, Pacheco said. Madrids value is really as a Republican consultant, and he knows Republican politics very well.

In a traditional primary, the four Democrats running for governor would be going after the partys liberal base. In a top-two, Im assuming Antonio is looking at how can he pull voters (outside) of the base, said Dana Williamson, a Democratic political consultant who is not working on a gubernatorial campaign. I think he knows he is at a political disadvantage with the left.

Both Villaraigosa and Newsom have progressive track records  they support gun control, marijuana legalization and same-sex marriage. But Villaraigosa clashed with labor unions during his tenure as Los Angeles mayor and blamed teachers unions for low performance in the citys schools.

Newsom has won endorsements from the teachers and nurses unions, while Villaraigosa is positioning himself as more of a centrist. He frequently talks about the states economic divide and has called for limiting statewide regulations, themes California Republicans have used to attack ruling Democrats.

If Villaraigosa embraces the Republican argument that deregulating industry will lead to more jobs, thats going to be a big problem, said Steve Smith, spokesman for the California Labor Federation, a powerful union umbrella group that has not yet endorsed a candidate in the race. Such a move would do nothing to alleviate poverty, but is a boon to big-business interests.

Madrid shares Villaraigosas interest in expanding jobs in depressed regions and engaging Latino voters. But he said he does not advise Villaraigosa on policy positions, instead focusing on statistical voting models that could help expand his reach.

That wont pull him to the right, Madrid said. It will explain his record to a broader base of voters.

Laurel Rosenhall writes for CALmatters.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
Dancers Sue Li-Jue and Joan Lazarus first met more than 30 years ago at Mills College. Li-Jue was getting her masters degree in dance, and Lazarus was her thesis adviser. They have been colleagues and friends ever since, but the last time they danced together was in a short piece back in the 1990s. That is about to change as Li-Jue, 59, and Lazarus, 60-plus, step into the spotlight in Homeward, the Sarah Bush Dance Projects 10th anniversary holiday show.

Dancing with Sue is one of the most wonderful parts of it, for me, says Lazarus. When we move together, because we moved together for so many years, it is like going home. Sarah has sometimes said in rehearsal, but you just did that in unison, its exactly the same. When youve trained and studied together, its amazing how easy it is to drop back into that.

Homeward is new but spun off of a dance titled Home that Bush conceived after Hurricane Katrina. The new piece, which comes in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and Octobers Wine Country fires, focuses on family relationships and the meaning of home. As times have changed, so has the dance. Li-Jue notes one significant alteration Bush has made.

Sarah really wanted a multigenerational cast, she says. Her original cast 10 years ago were 20-year-old dancers playing the roles of mothers and grandmothers and grandfathers. She felt it was really important to honor people of a certain age and to honor dancers who have had a very full life in dance, as Joan and I have.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

Lazarus and Li-Jues involvement with Homeward began with an audition notice posted at Berkeleys Shawl-Anderson Dance Center where Lazarus teaches. She went in support of three students who wanted to audition and came away with the part. When Bush inquired about dancers from the next generation down, Lazarus passed along Li-Jues name.

I have not performed anyone elses work in probably over two decades, says Li-Jue, who is the artistic director of Facing East Dance & Music, the modern dance company she founded in 1999, as well as a dance instructor and director of Physical Education at UC Berkeley.

Ive been slowly dancing less and less as Ive aged, as Ive matured, as things have developed. This, for me, is slightly scary and a very exciting project to almost test my dance chops again.

Lazarus teaches but no longer performs. The dozens of repetitions of movements that accompany rehearsing and performing are physically challenging, and so is getting used to the quirks of a dance style that is new to her. Nonetheless, she relishes the experience.

Its really fun, she says. Theres nothing quite like being back in the studio. Performing is fun, but being in rehearsal and working things out and doing it again until you find the smoothness and the organic flow of things, thats the thing I like to do.

The timing is fortuitous for Li-Jue. For three years, since she took on her directorship duties at Cal, her own choreography has been on hold. She simply hasnt had time for it. (Next July, she is retiring after 32 years at the university.)

This project came along at a really great time, because Ive been feeling the effects of doing too much administrating and not enough dancing, Li-Jue says. I felt like I was losing myself, my true self.

For both dancers, Homeward is a joyful reunion of old friends. Theyve never lost contact since Mills. Li-Jue was even on the advisory board when Lazarus was the director of the West Wave Dance Festival.

We just connected, just like old times, says Li-Jue. Its been a lot of fun. We laugh a lot and we wonder if we should modify material sometimes for our aging bodies, but in general, were doing all the material being asked of us and our bodies are responding really well.

Every time she walks in the studio and we start, I cant help slow-motion jumping up and yelling, Ow! Sues here! says Lazarus. Theres an intimacy about knowing someones body and how it moves. You know how there are friends you dont see and then you see them and its like theyve never been away? I think thats even more deep when youve danced together.

Pam Grady is a San Francisco freelance writer.

Sarah Bush Dance Project: Homeward. Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 9-10, and Dec. 16-17. $30. Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz Ave., Berkeley (Note: Venue not wheelchair-accessible). https://sarahbushdance.org/homeward/.
Big and small manufacturers are having a positive effect on the Bay Area economy. According to SFMade, the nonprofit that focuses on developing the areas urban manufacturing sector, the region has more than 340,000 manufacturing jobs. In reality, there are probably many more if you consider all the makers out there who are just starting to spread their creative wings. Many of them rely on holiday shopping events for exposure and financial sustenance. We rely on them to help us fulfill our shopping list with unique gifts that also support someones creative pursuits  kind of like two gifts in one. All the events listed are free and open to the public unless otherwise specified.

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios For the next few weeks, the general public will have the opportunity to visit more than 100 artists in their private creative spaces, shop and speak with them about various pieces for sale. Maps are available for download or for pickup at any of the participating studios. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 25-26, Dec. 2-3, 9-10, 16-17 and Dec. 18-24. http://www.berkeleyartisans.com.
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In downtown Salinas on a mild Wednesday evening, in a formerly blighted building once most notable for dust and bird droppings, patrons sit at a long polished bar in a beautiful brick-walled space, toasting one another with craft beer and boutique wines, watching the World Series on flat screens over the bar.

Lauren and Colin Hattersley, owner-operators of the new Farmers Union Pourhouse  so named for the local labor organization that occupied the building in the 1890s  tend to the taps. The mood is both energizing and relaxed.

Just down the block, another upstart is abuzz. The brand-new restaurant Portobellos features a full bar and deli counter with a colorful assortment of salads, sandwiches and indulgent desserts. A sunny patio and industrial-chic design born of concrete and exposed girders  courtesy of third generation-Salinas design firm Kasavan Architects  lends urban sophistication to the proceedings.

Freshly relocated from across town just a few months ago, Portobellos is already a local hub, with a menu that expands on its past incarnation with appetizers and popular pizzas  like the 104 with meatballs, mushrooms and roasted garlic. Its cult-favorite meals, meanwhile, remain hits, whether thats the plus-sized breakfasts, the braised short rib, the sand dabs or the meatloaf.

Not bad for what was  three years ago  a parking lot.

Welcome to the new Oldtown Salinas. After years of grumbling over its sleepy tendencies and watching locals habitually marching west to Monterey and Carmel for a night out, the downtown district of Monterey Countys biggest city (and seat of the countys government) has turned the corner. Ten years ago, it was pocked with empty storefronts and sidewalks empty enough to imagine a tumbleweed rolling through. Now its one of the areas most vibrant places to eat and drink.

Its nice to see people making Oldtown their destination, Colin Hattersley says.

At the same time, the area retains its folksy and familial element. At any given moment, a fellow diner might share a story of local history or a taste of her calamari.

The biggest catalyst for Oldtowns new energy: The debut of Taylor Farms huge five-story, 100,000-square-foot corporate headquarters  where Portobellos occupies the bottom floor  which brings both a swell of consumers and business space to Salinas.

Oldtown previously got a big infusion of energy in 2014, when two major anchor restaurants made their debuts; today both are undergoing renaissances-of-sorts, a gnocchis throw from Portobellos and Farmers Union.

Right at the heart of Oldtowns Main Street, Patria has done European countryside comfort food  and ambiance  with aplomb since its opening at the start of 2014. Every nook of the large floorplan enjoys cozy accents, whether its a vintage wooden wheelbarrow loaded with onions and herbs, paintings by chef-owner Paulo Kautz or the brick and slab wood bar of the cocktail area.

The menu dovetails naturally with the aesthetic, drawing from German, Italian and French influences to present habit-forming dishes like the prawns-and gigandes-bean salad, butternut squash pizza with bacon-bechamel sauce, wild boar pappardelle, and rabbit with braised red cabbage.

No discussion of the best food in Salinas was complete without Patria, but now, with new GM Kim Mihkail coming over from The Market Restaurant in North Monterey, the service and overall vibe are more welcoming than ever.

Across the street, Giorgios arrived around the same time as Patria and has also improved noticeably of late. The Italian restaurant, which debuted in 2014, occupies a mothballed bank and features soaring ceilings, chandeliers, neoclassical columns and a glowing onyx bar straight out of the 1950s. Unfortunately, a little bit of menu schizophrenia  including detours into everything from bulgogi broccolini to Moroccan pizza  on top of inconsistent service and cleanliness stole some of its lustre.

Of late, however, after a brief closure for a thorough cleaning and a rigorous staff training, Giorgios has found delicious new rhythm, lifting its cocktails, service and food to the level of its worldly ambiance. The menu is more focused without sacrificing creativity, dishing treasures like artichoke bisque, Frosted-Flake-and-chili-crusted asparagus and mesquite-smoked octopus salad. Meanwhile its sister business next door awaits a January relaunch as Citracada Pacific Fusion, which will deliver burrito and poke bowls in a fast-casual format.

Theres a lot going on along Main Street  an authentic old-world spot called Little Sicily just opened this fall. That said, Salinas will never compete with Carmel. And thats a good thing for people looking for something different and less discovered.

Its still a very homey city where people feel like family, Mikhail says. Only now its got more energy.

If You Go:

Giorgios

4 - 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 4 - 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Sunday, 201 Main St., Salinas, (831) 800-7573, www.201complex.com.

Farmers Union Pourhouse

2 - 10 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, until midnight Friday-Saturday, 217 Main St., Salinas, (831) 905-6924

Little Sicily

11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., 4:30 - 8:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, 16 E. Gabilan St., Salinas, (831) 676-0064

Patria

3 - 5:30 p.m. happy hour, 5 - 9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, 228 Main St., Salinas, (831) 424-5555

Portobellos

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Monday, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, 150 Main St., Salinas, (831) 753-0797
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A quarter century after its creation, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary has become one of the worlds largest outdoor laboratories, with teams of scientists spread across thousands of square miles of ocean studying everything from humpback whales to bone-eating worms that live on carcasses at the bottom of the sea.

Known to marine biologists as the Serengeti of the Sea, the Monterey sanctuary is a wonderland of screeching seabirds, frolicking sea otters, breaching whales, great white sharks and giant sea turtles. But it is also a playground for kayakers, scuba divers and tourists who come from across the country to see one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world.

The diversity of this area is just amazing, says Andrew DeVogelaere, research coordinator for the sanctuary, which protects sea life from the high tide line down to 12,800 feet deep. Within 20 minutes, you can visit an estuary, sandy beaches, rocky shores, kelp forests and the underwater equivalent of the Grand Canyon.

The sanctuary, which turned 25 this fall, encompasses 6,094 square miles of the sea, from kelp forests to deep ocean, and 276 miles of rocky shoreline in five counties, from Marin County south to San Luis Obispo.

It is home to dozens of marine mammals and thousands of birds, including 26 species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. It is an ornithologists dream, a marine biologists nirvana and a magnet for scientific research.

In the broader Monterey area, we have about 50 different research institutions that are doing marine science, DeVogelaere says. If you are a marine scientist, this is the place to be.

The dominant feature is, of course, Monterey Bay, which for 10,000 years provided American Indians with enough abalone, mussels, clams, snails and fish to sustain them. About 40 different Indian tribes lived between San Francisco Bay and Point Sur when the Spanish began settling the area in the 1700s.

At the time, sea otters, pelicans, sea lions and harbor seals were abundant, and every kind of shorebird imaginable lived in the wetlands and sloughs. Offshore, there were gray, humpback, fin and blue whales, dolphins, harbor porpoises and great white sharks that came to feed on the rookeries.

There is not a country in this world which more abounds in fish and game of every description, wrote visiting French explorer Jean Francoise de La Perouse after he visited Monterey Bay, marveling at how his ships were surrounded by pelicans and spouting whales.

The Spanish turned marshlands into pastures and hired Russian and Indian hunters to harvest sea otters. At about the same time, whalers began killing off the humpback and gray whales. Kelp, abalone, squid, shark and sea turtles were also harvested in the area.

By the mid 1900s, whales, sea otters, abalone and many other species were all but gone. The Monterey Bay sardine trade  made famous by John Steinbecks 1945 novel Cannery Row  peaked between 1910 and 1930 before that fishery, too, collapsed.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, a coalition of citizens groups fought proposals to drill for oil in the Monterey Bay area. The fight prompted Leon Panetta, then a congressman, to propose legislation that led directly to the establishment of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in 1992.

Im just one of many who have drawn inspiration from this very special piece of ocean, Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, wrote on the facilitys website. Well never run out of stories to tell about this place but, more and more, theyll be about people, not fish  how humans are taking action to protect and restore the ocean that sustains us all.

In 2009, the Davidson Seamount, an underwater volcano southwest of Monterey and west of San Simeon, was added to the sanctuary. The expansion was deemed necessary after scientists documented a dense population of large, ancient corals, some of them a century old.

The seamount is part of President Trumps executive order to re-examine whether to open 3,500 square miles of protected state waters to energy development. No decision has been made, but conservationists who fought for decades to protect Californias coast from offshore oil drilling vowed to oppose any effort to rescind sanctuary protections at the 11 sites under review.

Drilling would be insane, environmentalists say, given the sanctuarys status as a world renowned, and highly successful, experiment in ecosystem restoration.

Sanctuary officials report amazing increases in the populations of whales, sea lions and elephant seals, which migrate from Alaskas Aleutian Islands. Although sea otters are still in trouble, the lush refuge known as Elkhorn Slough is home to the largest population of the furry creatures on the West Coast.

Engangered Pacific leatherback sea turtles, which can weigh up to 1,500 pounds, swim across the Pacific Ocean every year from their breeding grounds in Indonesia to feed on the abundant jellyfish in the sanctuary.

And with the increase in wildlife has come an influx of biologists clamoring for an opportunity to study a recovering ecosystem.

Both scientists and tourists watch every spring as gray whales attempt to lead their calves through a gantlet of hungry orcas to reach their feeding grounds in Alaska. The annual extravaganza of death happens as the leviathans attempt to cross a deepwater depression, called the Monterey Submarine Canyon, at Point Pinos, that bisects their route from Baja, Mexico.

The canyon, which is 12,800 feet deep, is where scientists recently discovered a dozen species of bone-eating worms that devour the skeletons of whales. The bizarre, previously unknown creatures, soften bones enough for hundreds of other deep-sea scavengers, including anemones and crabs, to feed, according to scientists with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

Another study 2 miles below the surface off Point Sur found 300 new types of corals, sponges, sea stars, crabs and shrimp. Among the new discoveries were 8-foot-tall orange and pink coral that can live over 1,000 years in complete darkness, and bioluminescent jellies.

When you look at them, its like the Las Vegas strip, they light up so much, DeVogelaere says of the glowing jellyfish. The scenery is almost like Dr. Seuss imagery of corals and sponges in the deep sea. And a lot of these species are yet to be named.

DeVogelaere is working on an experimental project to filter living cells out of ocean water and determine from DNA which animals have been in that area, a process he likened to a crime scene investigation.

He is also studying sea life on a shipping container that was found 4,000 feet deep in Monterey Bay.

The hypothesis is that large expanses of mud in the deep sea are a natural barrier to migration, he says, but when containers and other debris are dropped on the sea floor, they might be creating stepping-stones, possibly for invasive species.

Sanctuary scientists are studying thousands of species of algae, octopus, mussels, sea stars and sea anemones in the lush intertidal zones and are working with UC Santa Cruz to collect endangered black abalone that are in danger of being smothered by landslides in the Big Sur area.

Meanwhile, on the first week of every month, volunteers walk the beaches and record every dead bird or mammal they find, an invaluable resource for scientists studying population trends, algae blooms and disease.

This area of the world is amazing for the amount of science we know, but it is also daunting in that we are learning how little we know, DeVogelaere says. We dont even know all of the species down there or how they interact ... but we are trying to better understand the area and protect it for future generations.

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite
Graduate student Josephine Shatara spent part of her Thanksgiving with her aunt and cousin, sorting through donated cartons of pasta and wrapping them in 1-pound bags at the SF-Marin Food Bank, to be distributed to food pantries and programs that serve the needy. Its the best way she knows to give thanks.

Its not like giving money. You see the bag of pasta, the final product, said Shatara, 32, a doctoral candidate in education at New Yorks Columbia University whose family lives in Burlingame. If youre about to eat a big dinner, its nice to know that other people are going to get food today.

As Shawn Kann, 32, of San Mateo separated cans of soup and vegetables in crates at the organizations San Francisco warehouse, he recalled what it was like living hand to mouth as a college student. He now works as a mechanical engineer and has been a Thanksgiving volunteer at the warehouse for the past five years.

The way the economy is going, a lot of low-income families are struggling, Kann said. Its a good idea to help.

They were among several hundred volunteers who spent their holiday morning and early afternoon sifting through truckloads of food donated by individuals and businesses and getting them ready for delivery to those who need them.

The volunteers, and a staff of 70, comb through as much as 80,000 pounds of produce in a day, tossing out spoiled apples and oranges and packing the rest into bins bound for soup kitchens and other facilities, said Mark Seelig, a spokesman for the food bank. Others separated huge boxes of pasta and rice into individual bags and waded through canned food donated at markets.

The warehouse draws volunteers every day  Hunger is a 365-day-a-year problem, Seelig noted  but people sign up months in advance to work on Thanksgiving. Volunteers increased from about 30,000 last year to 40,000 this year, an increase that Seelig said was at least partly a reaction to President Trump and his policies.

We dont like to be political. We serve everybody, he said. But when Trump came into power, people were calling us and wanted to do something.

One was Oaklands Clinton Karr, 37, who showed up in a turkey-shaped cap with a half-dozen members of a group they called the Great Give-Back.

The election was a wake-up call, Karr said. He said his 150-member group has been active in other food drives, blood donations, a cleanup of Lake Merritt and some political causes, and plans to march through San Franciscos Tenderloin neighborhood Dec. 9 in Santa costumes, handing out bags of socks, ponchos and toiletries.

One thankful consumer is Tenderloin resident Susan Vela. Blinded by diabetes since 2000, she survives on Social Security disability payments, a small stipend from her volunteer work at San Francisco General Hospital, and twice-weekly grocery packages from the nonprofit City of Hope  milk  potatoes, carrots, squash, whatevers in season, to be cooked by her social service provider. On Thursday, she shared in the annual Thanksgiving turkey feast at nearby Glide Memorial Church, one of several institutions offering meals for the needy.

Im one of the lucky recipients, said Vela, 58, who worked in customer service before her affliction. I cant rave enough about the volunteers, she said, reciting their names - Andy, Mark, Fox, Becky. The City of Hope changed my life.

Even in relatively prosperous San Francisco and Marin County, 1 in 4 people need food assistance, according to data provided by the food bank, which reports providing nourishment to 225,000 people a year  in all, 48 million pounds of food, 60 percent of it fresh fruits and vegetables. It supplies food to more than 400 nonprofits and runs 260 weekly farmers market-style food pantries in the two counties.

One volunteer who had a personal reason for showing up this year was 27-year-old Liz Drummond of Daly City, who manages a storage facility with her husband. She said her great-aunt in Santa Rosa lost her home and practically everything she owned in last months wildfires.

A lot of this is going up to fire victims, said Drummond, sifting through cans of food as her husband worked in another part of the warehouse. Its not difficult work. And the more hands, the faster itll go to get this to people who need it.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
COLUMBUS, Ohio  They seem an odd couple: J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, his best-selling memoir of growing up in the postindustrial Midwest and his journey of escape; and Steve Case, the billionaire co-founder of America Online.

But Vance joined Cases investment firm this year to scour the Midwest for small yet promising startups, particularly for a new seed fund. The firm, Revolution, plans to raise up to $100 million for that funds investments, it disclosed in a filing last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

They are by no means the only notable investors seeking opportunity in the region. Four years ago, Mark Kvamme, a top venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, left the heart of the tech industry to become a tech investor here in the Midwest heartland.

After a slow start, his firm has raised $550 million and invested in 26 companies. Its bet is that the middle of America amounts to an undervalued asset, rich in markets, new business ideas and budding entrepreneurs. The Midwest, the thinking goes, is not only untapped, but also an antidote to the scalding-hot tech market on the West Coast.

Silicon Valley is kind of crazy now, Kvamme said.

The money, power and influence of tech companies on the West Coast have reached new heights. Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon have become the four most valuable companies in the country.

Venture capital, the financial fuel for new companies, is also concentrated on the coast. More than half the venture capital money spent in the United States goes to companies in California, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

But some investors, led by people like Kvamme and his firm, Drive Capital, see plenty of potential in the center of the country. Focusing on the Midwest is no longer considered a nutty idea, as it was by skeptical West Coast venture capitalists when Kvamme and Chris Olsen, another Silicon Valley transplant from Sequoia Capital and co-founder of Drive Capital, made the move in 2013.

Every major Midwestern city now has clusters of startup accelerators and incubators, typically housed in renovated red-brick industrial buildings.

And a couple of big bets have been successful: CoverMyMeds, an Ohio startup, whose software streamlines drug prescribing, was sold to McKesson this year for $1.1 billion, and Salesforce bought ExactTarget, a maker of marketing software in Indiana, for $2.5 billion in 2013.

Deals like those are still rare. But entrepreneurs and big investors are scouting the Midwest for startup investments that range up to tens of millions of dollars, far more than local angel and venture investors. And they are beginning to attract venture capital from Silicon Valley for follow-on rounds of funding.

The rationale for investing in the Midwest combines cost and opportunity. A top-flight software engineer who is paid $100,000 a year in the Midwest might earn well more than twice that in the Bay Area. The Midwest, the optimists say, also has ample tech talent, with excellent engineers coming out of major state and private universities in the region.

But they also point to technology shifts. As technology transforms nontech industries like health care, agriculture, transportation, finance and manufacturing, the Midwest investors argue that being close to customers will be more important than being close to the wellspring of technology.

The value will come from marrying industry knowledge with technology, said Olsen of Drive Capital. Theres an arrogance in Silicon Valley that we dont need industry expertise. Thats going to be less and less true in the future.

But broadening the geography of innovation-fueled economic growth will require capital. Today, three-quarters of all venture capital invested in America goes to California, New York and Massachusetts, the venture capital association estimated. Ohio gets less than 1 percent and the 12-state Midwest region less than 10 percent in total, according to figures compiled by the State Science and Technology Institute.

There are two Americas, Case said. One with an abundance of capital and opportunity  in Silicon Valley and pockets around the nation. But not in the other America, and that other America is most of the country.

Case served on White House advisory councils on jobs, innovation and entrepreneurship during the Obama administration, and that experience, he said, shaped his thinking about investing in the middle of the country. Since 2011, his firm has raised more than $1 billion for two funds, Revolution Ventures and Revolution Growth, which generally make investments of $4 million to $50 million, including in startups in the Midwest.

Both Case and Vance, whose career path went through the Marines, Ohio State University and Yale Law School and then to a Silicon Valley venture firm, view building businesses as a social virtue as well.

Referring to the troubles chronicled in his book, Vance said that at least a partial solution is to get more investment capital into this part of the country.

The Kauffman Foundation, which studies startup activity, reported last month that Columbus ranked third among 40 metropolitan areas in growth entrepreneurship, the share of startups that employ 50 or more workers within 10 years.

CrossChx, a 5-year-old startup with a payroll of 80 people, is one of them. The company, which makes health care software, has raised $35 million of venture funding in three rounds. Drive Capital spotted the company, led the early financing and has since been joined by Bay Area investors including Khosla Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.

In Ohio, that $35 million is the equivalent of $70 million in the valley in terms of being able to hire talent and sustain operating costs, said Sean Lane, CrossChxs co-founder and chief executive.

Im not sure we would have made it through the zigs and zags if we were in the valley, Lane said.

CrossChx is one of more than two dozen companies in Drive Capitals portfolio. To date, none have folded, and they are generating more than $150 million in revenue. After three years  its first fund started investing in 2014  the firms gains look good on paper.

But it is too early to declare its Midwest bet a success.

That will take a few more years, and the proof will be if it delivers high returns to its limited-partner investors.

And if two guys from Silicon Valley and Sequoia cant do it, Olsen said, capital isnt going to come here.

Steve Lohr is a New York Times writer.
The admonitions to business travelers headed to other countries should be familiar by now: Keep your laptop with you at all times. Stay off public Wi-Fi networks. Dont send unencrypted files over the Internet.

But not all travelers are heeding them, and many are unaware of the foreign hackers and state-sponsored spies who are taking advantage of their lax security practices.

Theres a difficult intersection between convenience and security, said Samantha Ravich, who studies cyberenabled economic warfare at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which focusing on national security. It takes time to work abroad securely, and she said she would often see executives hanging their head somewhat sheepishly when I ask who in the room follows all the security protocols.

The theft of technical product specifications, investment plans, research on mergers and acquisitions, marketing plans and other information can have consequences beyond loss of revenue and market position, Ravich told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this year. She described potential large-scale effects of state-sponsored economic warfare, which, she said, could disrupt the delivery of items crucial for manufacturing, malware incidents that could disrupt travel and cyberattacks that could force companies to shut down their websites.

The problem of intellectual property theft is not new, but it is now much more widespread. Placing listening devices in conference rooms, hotels and restaurants is traditional Espionage 101, Ravich said. But with tools like tiny inexpensive cameras and microphones or compromised Wi-Fi networks, corporate or state-sponsored industrial espionage can be done cheaply and at scale, she said.

Microphones in a conference center, for instance, can be recording constantly, and those recordings can be fed into natural language processing software trained to flag certain words and report those conversations. Its not just a guy with headphones listening in the next room anymore, Ravich said.

Communicating online overseas can be especially fraught, said Nicole Miller, a San Francisco consultant who helps companies communicate with employees and customers on cybersecurity issues. Assume any data, any information you transmit can be taken by a hacker, nation-state or another business, she said. These are not pedestrian tools they are using. They are extremely sophisticated.

Physical security of phones, tablets and laptops is as important as online protection, Miller said. Dont leave your laptop or papers in your hotel room when you go out, she said. A hotel room safe should not even be considered secure.

Miller said she advises travelers to create complex passwords for their devices and all of their online accounts, to use two-factor authentication whenever possible and to avoid plugging other peoples USB drives or other external hardware into their computers.

Laptops should also be wiped clean of any data and software at the end of the trip, she said. Your device could have been altered, your data could have been altered, Miller said.

Stanford University and Microsoft are among educational institutions and companies that supply comprehensive precaution and instruction lists to their employees who travel abroad.

Maureen Sharma travels regularly to Asia as part of her work for Mullally International, a small product development company in Seattle. Some unsettling incidents, she said, have made her more cautious when she travels abroad.

I often get more spam and strange emails that look like they are from me with attachments, when returning from her business trips. Once, Sharma said, she received an email that looked as if it were from a Chinese factory she was working with, asking her to send the next payment to a new bank account. Luckily, I called to confirm, because the factory had not sent that email, she said.

Julie Weed is a New York Times writer.
The lack of retirement savings among Americans is almost universally bemoaned, but nudging, prodding and lecturing have done little to build up nest eggs for old age. So some states say they are going to make it easier to save with a simple plan: an automatic payroll deduction for retirement savings.

Oregon is the first state to roll out a plan that covers private sector workers who do not otherwise have access to a savings plan in their workplace. The deduction is an automatic 5 percent of gross pay, unless the worker opts out. Participants can reduce the percentage, if they choose. The state directs the money gathered under the OregonSaves plan to privately run low-cost investment funds.

With its heavy concentration of small businesses, Oregon calculates that it has more than 1 million workers whose employers do not offer a retirement savings plan. Many small employers say they cannot afford the expense or time to set up such plans.

Luke Huffstutter, who co-owns a hair salon in Portland, was among them.

I had looked into setting up an employee savings plan. We met with four different companies, but the plans were either too expensive or the fees were too high, said Huffstutter, who with his wife, Natasha, owns Annastasia Salon.

When he heard about OregonSaves, the states pass-through savings plan, Huffstutter signed up right away. The programs first phase began July 1, with 11 businesses participating, including the hair salon, a liquor store, a day care center and a chocolate maker.

All employers who pay unemployment insurance for their workers are required to sign up by 2020  about 60,000 workplaces and 600,000 workers.

Its genius because people are signed up and participate unless they actively decide they wont, Huffstutter said. Most of the salons three dozen stylists and other employees enrolled. They included Maria Rose Isaac, 26, the manager.

I dont have a retirement plan, but it was always on my mind, said Isaac, who has worked at the salon for seven years. This is the easiest, simplest way to have some savings.

Worker reception has been more mixed elsewhere, including at S&S Sheetmetal Inc., a family-owned air conditioning and heating business in White City, where about half the 30 workers have opted out, said office manager Christie Calkins. Some had their own plan and some are concerned about a plan that has the government involved.

To address any wariness about state-run pensions, Oregon structures its program so the state is only a conduit for funds. Savers can choose among investment options. OregonSaves offers three  preserving capital, growth and savings for a target date. Participants pay 1 percent of their total assets in annual fees and can withdraw their money without penalties.

Eight states have similar but not identical programs in the works, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and Washington, according to AARP, which has lobbied in support of the state-sponsored plans. California and Illinois are expected to start their versions in 2018. Maryland and Connecticut plan to follow soon after.

Oregon was an early adopter; its Legislature approved the retirement savings plan in 2015. The Obama administration tried to bolster state efforts to promote retirement savings by relaxing the strict rules and reporting requirements that employer-based retirement plans and pensions must follow. In May, Congress repealed those rules, leaving states on their own.

The basic idea was to do this federally, but states had to step into the breach, said J. Mark Iwry, a former Treasury Department official and a co-author of President Barack Obamas automatic IRA enrollment legislation  which some states are putting into effect. Many states are waiting to see how Oregon does with its plan.

States like California, whose planned program could cover as many as 7 million people, would most likely operate with some variation of paycheck savings  unless there is a real glitch in the Oregon program.

What spurred states to take action was actually federal inaction, said Sarah Mysiewicz Gill, senior legislative representative for AARP. Despite bipartisan support, there has been no concerted response on the federal level, so states looked at this and realized they could do for retirement what they did with 529 college savings plans.

Nearly half of Americans of all ages have little or no money set aside for their later years, according to several experts. Overall, the shortfall is estimated at nearly $7 trillion, the National Institute on Retirement Security found. As a result, there could be a tremendous drain on municipal coffers by older people who require more health care, housing and other services.

Even a modest amount of savings could make a difference, AARP has found. If lower-income retirees were able to increase their retirement incomes by as little as $1,000 a year, Oregon could save $98.9 million on public assistance programs between 2018 and 2032, according to the organizations analysis.

OregonSaves is facing its first legal challenge, however. The ERISA Industry Committee, a trade group of the countrys 100 largest employers, filed a federal lawsuit in October saying that Oregon created confusing and unnecessary paperwork for companies already complying with federal pension law.

Thats likely not to be the only challenge. Some small-business owners strongly object to being required to handle more paperwork, and the financial sector complains that government should not be involved in private savings.

Oregons plan caps the amount a worker can save at $5,500 a year, and $6,500 for those 50 and older, which means that even rigorous savers will need to set aside more than the state plan allows.

This is nothing magical, Read said. Were trying to promote a culture of savings. But were doing it deliberately and cautiously.

Elizabeth Olson is a New York Times writer.
LOS ANGELES  Globe-trotting EDM star Diplo recently checked another locale off his performance wish list: Cuba.

In March 2016, the Grammy-winning producer-DJ and his trio Major Lazer became one of the first American acts to take advantage of easing travel restrictions by staging a free concert in Havana.

Im always looking at like where is music happening? How can I be a part of it? How can I help it? How can I introduce something to it? And its easy for anybody to do that, you know, you just have to have a little bit of adventure, said Diplo, who has also performed in Nigeria, Nepal and Pakistan.

But pulling off the historic show in front of the United States Embassy was no easy task.

The Cuban side took a lot of wrangling, explained the hit maker behind Lean On and Where Are U Now. My team, my management, the producers of the event, they spent about 16 to 18 months planning it, procuring the event space, making it all right with both sides of the government.

The performance, along with Cubas youth culture and music scene, is documented in the film Give Me Future. It premiered on Apple Music last week.

Earlier this month the Trump administration imposed travel and commerce restrictions on Cuba that will make it harder for Americans to visit the island nation. The stricter rules mark a return to the tougher U.S. stance toward Cuba that existed before former President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro restored diplomatic relations in 2015.

In an interview, Diplo talked about traveling around the world and his hopes to perform in Cuba again.

Does the change in travel sanctions make it even more special that you got in when you could?

Diplo: In fact we tried to go and set up another kind of event next month, but we were in the process of pulling the trigger on that, and then the reversal of a lot of those rules came down in the last 10 days. So yeah, its not cool, but you know, it changes back-and-forth almost every presidency so well see if it switches up again.

Was Cuba one of the hardest gigs to pull off?

Diplo: Production-wise ... were talking about four barricades for almost half a million people. And these barricades were just dragged out of some storage and painted white the day of the show. So I couldnt believe it was all handled and put together and everybody was safe and the concert went with no problems.

I traveled from Pakistan a few days before the show in Cuba. We had been to Bangladesh last year. We did a whole tour in Africa. So we did shows everywhere from Nigeria to Uganda. But this was definitely the biggest and the craziest situation.

Whats left on your travel bucket list?

Diplo: We had a show in North Korea that was booked. And its funny, the actual club in North Korea, its called the Diplo. So it wouldve been a really cool show to do but that got pulled. ...

I actually wanted to go to Papua New Guinea earlier last year ... but we couldnt find any place safe even to stay so we skipped that show. Im ready. If anyones in Papua New Guinea, hit me on my pager or contact my management and Ill come.

Nicole Evatt is an Associated Press writer.
DALLAS  U.S. Rep. Joe Barton told a woman that he would complain to U.S. Capitol Police if sexually explicit photographs of him and other material from their relationship were to be exposed publicly, according to a published report.

The Washington Post reported the threat Wednesday after Barton, a North Texas Republican, apologized for a nude photo of him that circulated on social media.

The photo of Barton appeared on an anonymous Twitter account. It was not immediately known who posted the photo or when it was taken.

Barton issued a statement saying that while separated from his second wife, before their divorce in 2015, he had sexual relationships with other mature adult women. The 68-year-old Republican said each relationship was consensual and has since ended.

I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down, said Barton, the longest-serving member of Congress from Texas.

But a woman whom the Post did not identify told the newspaper of Bartons threat over the sexually explicit photographs, videos and messages he had sent to her. The woman described sexual encounters and contact extending over five years, beginning with her posting of a message on Bartons Facebook page in 2011.

She also shared with the Post a secretly recorded telephone conversation with Barton in 2015 in which he warned her against using the material in a way that would negatively affect my career.

The Post reported the woman, who is not married, spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy.

In a statement to the Post, Barton said a transcript of the telephone conversation provided by the newspaper may be evidence of a potential crime against me. He also said that Capitol Police had informed him Wednesday that they were opening an inquiry.

Earlier in the day, Bartons spokeswoman told The Dallas Morning News that the congressman has no plans to step down.

Barton, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, announced his re-election bid this month. His district includes several counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Barton was a consultant in the oil and gas industry before he joined the U.S. House in 1985.
WASHINGTON  Many of you have jobs, many of you have families, Sen. Al Franken told Democratic leaders gathered on the eve of a hotly contested governors election in Virginia. After an expectant pause, he leaned into the microphone and added, Ignore them.

Franken was jokingly beseeching activists to get out the vote the next day, in what ended up as a surprisingly decisive victory for Democratic candidate Ralph Northam. But the moment, barely two weeks ago, also underscored how high the onetime Saturday Night Live comic had risen in his partys firmament.
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NEW YORK  The Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade featured balloons, bands, stars and heavy security in a year marked by attacks on outdoor gathering spots.

With new faces and old favorites in the lineup, the Americana extravaganza made its way through 2 miles of Manhattan on a cold morning.

The crowds are still the same, but theres a lot more police here. Thats the age we live in, Paul Seyforth said as he attended the parade hed watched since the 1950s.

Not a lots changed  the balloons, the bands, the floats  and thats the good thing, said Seyforth, 76, whod flown in from Denver to spend his 50th wedding anniversary in New York and see this years parade.

The televised parade was proceeding smoothly, though about midway through, a gust of wind on a largely calm day blew a candy-cane balloon into a tree branch, and it popped near the start of the route on Manhattans Upper West Side. No one was injured.

In 2005, one of the parades signature giant balloons caught a gust, hit a Times Square lamppost and injured two people. The candy cane was smaller than the giant balloons.

Timothy McMillian and his wife, their 9-year-old daughter and his in-laws started staking out a spot along the route at 6:30 a.m. Theyd come from Greensboro, N.C., to see in person the spectacle theyd watched on TV for years.

McMillian, a 45-year-old schoolteacher, booked a hotel months ago, but he started to have some concerns about security when a truck attack on a bike path near the World Trade Center killed eight people on Halloween.

With the event being out in the open like this, we were concerned, he said. But we knew security would be ramped up today, and we have full confidence in the NYPD.

Authorities say there is no confirmation of a credible threat to the parade, but they were taking no chances after both the truck attack and the October shooting that killed 58 people at a Las Vegas country music festival.

New York Police Department officers with assault weapons and portable radiation detectors were circulating among the crowds, sharpshooters were on rooftops and sand-filled city sanitation trucks were poised as imposing barriers to traffic at every cross street. Officers also were escorting each of the giant balloons.

The mayor and police brass have repeatedly stressed that visitors shouldnt be deterred.

William Mathis is an Associated Press writer.
PALM BEACH, Fla. President Trump marked the Thanksgiving holiday by paying tribute to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, telling them were really winning because his administration has given them a greater ability to succeed.

Im letting you do your job, Trump said to the troops in a video call from Mar-a-Lago, his resort here where he is spending the holiday.

Trump spoke to all branches of the Armed Forces: the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan, the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion in Iraq, the 5th Fleet aboard the Monterey, the 74th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron in Incirlik, Turkey, and the Coast Guard aboard the USCG Wrangell at the Kuwait Navy Base.

Trump cited progress in Afghanistan, where he authorized a small increase in U.S. forces to help train and advise local fighters in the battle against the Taliban. And, he said, the fight against the Islamic State is coming our way amid gains in Iraq and Syria that have stripped the militant group of their remaining strongholds.

He professed that there has been more progress under his administration than under those of his predecessors and praised the brave, incredible fighters.

The president also took time to boast about the economy, which he said is doing great, and push the Republican tax bill in Congress, citing big, fat, beautiful tax cuts.

Youre fighting for something real; youre fighting for something good, Trump said.

He then ushered out reporters for a private question-and-answer session with the troops.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump later visited a Coast Guard station near Mar-a-Lago, where they provided a lunch of sandwiches, giant muffins, heaping baskets of fruit, chips and cookies for the men and women in the service.

Jenna Johnson and David Nakamura are Washington Post writers.
TOKYO  U.S. and Japanese ships and aircraft searched in the Philippine Sea on Thursday for three sailors missing since a U.S. Navy aircraft crashed a day earlier.

Eight people were rescued about 40 minutes after the crash of the C-2A Greyhound transport aircraft Wednesday afternoon, the Navy said. They were taken aboard the Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and were in good condition.

The Navy said it had notified next of kin that the three missing sailors were whereabouts unknown but that it would delay releasing their identities publicly for three days because of policy.

The twin-propeller plane came down about 500 nautical miles southeast of Okinawa as it was bringing passengers and cargo from Japan to the aircraft carrier, the Navy said in a statement. The cause wasnt clear, and the crash was being investigated, the Navy said.

The aircraft carrier was leading the search and rescue efforts along with Japans naval forces. The ships and aircraft had searched more than 320 nautical miles as of Thursday morning, the Navy said.

The Reagan was participating in a joint exercise with Japans navy when the plane crashed.

A full search mission is under way, U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said during a visit to Manama, Bahrain. The Japanese navy is helping us with many, many assets.

Japans Defense Ministry said the crash site is about 90 miles northwest of Okinotorishima, a Japanese atoll.

The Navys Japan-based 7th Fleet has had two fatal accidents in Asian waters this year, killing 17 sailors and prompting the removal of eight top Navy officers from their posts, including the 7th Fleet commander.
PLYMOUTH, Mass.  If youre a fan of the Mayflower II, heres something that will float your boat.

A year after craftsmen embarked on an ambitious effort to restore the rotting replica of the ship that carried the Pilgrims to the New World in 1620, the work is going really great, project manager Whit Perry says.

Britain built the vessel and sailed it to the U.S. as a gift of friendship in 1957. Usually its moored in Plymouth Harbor, where more than 25 million visitors have boarded it over the past six decades. But over the years, the elements, aquatic organisms and insects took their toll.

Its now in dry dock at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Connecticuts Mystic Seaport, getting a $7.5 million makeover in time for 2020 festivities marking the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrim landing.

Whit Perry, director of maritime preservation and operations at Plimoth Plantation, said the ship now has more than 100 new frames and floor timbers inside its hold, and work is about to start on the outside of the ship.

Currently, he said the workers have been spraying the boat with salt water and an antifungal agent.

As we put the ship back together, we try to keep the humidity up with misters so it doesnt dry out too much, he said. We also have to leave a little play on the new planking beneath the waterline so it doesnt buckle when the ship returns to the water and the wood starts to swell. Its not an exact science.

Perry also said the boats 20 workers found evidence of Teredo worms, a mollusk that can grow up to three feet long and eat wood.

On the bottom of the keel, theres something called a worm shoe  a 4-inch-thick piece of wood that runs the whole length of the ship, Perry said. It lets the worms have a field day but not get into the main structure of the boat. Thats where we found evidence of worms. The ship itself is OK.

In the meantime, the makeover is on budget and the ship is scheduled to leave Mystic Seaport by late spring or early summer of 2019, Perry said.

Sailing the Mayflower II back to Plymouth is going to be quite a spectacle. Seeing the ship back under sail is going to be a beautiful sight, said Perry.

William J. Kole is an Associated Press writer.
BOGOTA, Colombia  In a tiny restroom, Marilu Ramirez prepares for her segment in a recording studio by brushing her long black hair and covering her lashes in another coat of mascara, small luxuries in a life no longer being spent behind bars.

Sentenced to 27 years in jail for her role in a car bombing at a military school, Ramirez was released as part of Colombias peace agreement with leftist rebels and is now the host of an online debate show.

The live program is produced by Nueva Colombia Noticias, a new network started by former guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that aims to offer an alternative to what some see as a media landscape crowded with biased, traditional outlets.

One year after the signing of the accord, the ex-combatants are living in a hotel paid for by the Colombian government, teaching themselves how to operate cameras and gearing up to launch a daily newscast.

Their audience is still minuscule, but they hope to attract a large, loyal following by focusing on stories from the places they know best: remote parts of Colombia long neglected by state and establishment media networks alike.

We want to give a voice to those who have been living for decades in silence, but experiencing firsthand the states neglect, Ramirez said after a recent taping of her debate show, La Mesa Caliente (The Hot Table).

The story of Nueva Colombia Noticias is in many ways a microcosm of both the successes and challenges of reintegrating former guerrillas into Colombian society. Reporting on the streets, the ex-combatants are coming face-to-face with a Colombian populace reluctant to embrace them after five decades of bloody conflict. Many Colombians are also wary of the networks continued ties and unabashed support for the former guerrillas new political party.

They still have a long way to go in becoming independent and not appearing like propaganda, said Fabiola Leon, the Colombia representative for international advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.

The channel currently has 25 reporters in Colombias capital, nearly all of whom are former rebels living off monthly payments that the Colombian government agreed to pay as part of the peace accord.

Christine Armario is an Associated Press writer.
BERLIN  The leader of Germanys center-left Social Democrats said Friday his party will join talks on forming a new government, reversing his stance and raising the prospect of an end to the political impasse that has existed since inconclusive national elections in September.

Martin Schulz told reporters in Berlin that the Social Democrats were now willing to meet with other parties, but insisted that the talks wont automatically take a particular direction.

Should the talks mean that we participate in the formation of a government, in whichever form or constellation, then our party members will vote on it first, he added.

The move marks a U-turn for Schulz, who had previously ruled out any participation in a future government after he lost to Angela Merkels conservative Union bloc in the Sept. 24 vote.

Schulz said the party was moved to reconsider following a meeting with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday.

Steinmeier called all mainstream parties for talks after Merkel failed to form a coalition with the left-leaning Greens and pro-business Free Democrats last weekend.

With the Social Democrats initially refusing to consider continuing the grand coalition theyve had with Merkel over the past four years, that left a new election as a viable option.

Schulz said the talks would likely take several weeks and a ballot of party members, should it be required, could delay the formation of a new government even further.

Steinmeiers office on Friday said that he had asked Merkel, the head of her partys Bavaria-only Christian Social Union, Horst Seehofer, and Schulz in for joint talks next Thursday evening.

Merkel has always suggested shes open to talking with the Social Democrats, and Schulz said his party would naturally accept Steinmeiers invitation.

As they prepare to engage with Merkel, the Social Democrats are split between those on the left who see the two coalitions with Merkel as the main reason for the slump in its support and those who spy a chance to push through policies such as expanded health care and reaching out to French President Emmanuel Macron to strengthen the euro area, reported Bloomberg News.

Frank Jordans is an Associated Press writer.
BEIRUT  Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri assured regional bankers Thursday that Lebanons stability is his top concern, one day after walking back his shock resignation that threw his country into turmoil.

Hariri, speaking at the Arab Banking Conference in Beirut, said his government was going to prioritize Lebanons interests over regional challenges and stressed a return to the countrys official policy of disassociation, or neutrality in regional affairs.

Our primary concern in Lebanon is stability, and that is what we are going to focus on, said Hariri.

Hariri stunned Lebanon and the region by resigning on Nov. 4 while in Saudi Arabia, raising fears of market panic and recession.

But he told President Michel Aoun on Wednesday, Lebanons Independence Day, that he would stay on to allow for consultations that would seek to safeguard the tiny countrys delicate political system, stretched by competing agendas in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Saudi Arabia is seen as the guardian of Lebanons Sunnis and is a main sponsor of its national government and military. Iran sponsors Lebanons Shiites and mostly funnels its funds and interests through the militant group Hezbollah.

Weighing in on Thursday, Irans powerful Revolutionary Guard chief, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, said the issue of Hezbollahs arms is non-negotiable. He said Lebanon remains Israels first target, adding that therefore Hezbollah should be armed against it to maintain security in Lebanon.

In its first remarks since Hariri resumed his post, Hezbollah called the prime ministers return promising and said it sends the signal that matters can return to normal. Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah lawmaker, said Hariris Independence Day remarks could form the basis for efforts to find appropriate solutions to Lebanons crisis.

Philip Issa is an Associated Press writer.
EL-ARISH, Egypt  Militants attacked a crowded mosque during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula, setting off explosives, spraying worshipers with gunfire and killing at least 235 people in the deadliest ever attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt.

The attack targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of Islams mystical movement, in the north Sinai town of Bir al-Abd. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith.

The startling bloodshed, which also wounded at least 109, was the latest sign of how more than three years of fighting in Sinai has been unable to crush an insurgency waged by the Islamic State affiliate. Seeking to spread the violence, the militants the past year have carried out deadly bombings on churches in the capital, Cairo, and other cities, killing dozens of Christians. The affiliate also is believed to have been behind the 2016 downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed 226 people.

But this was the first major militant attack on a Muslim mosque, and it eclipsed any past attacks of its kind, even dating back to a previous Islamic militant insurgency in the 1990s.

The militants opened fire from four off-road vehicles on the hundreds of worshipers attending the sermon in the mosque. They also blocked off escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the burning wrecks blocking the roads, three police officers on the scene said.

Dozens of bloodied bodies wrapped up in sheets were laid across the mosque floor, according to images circulating on social media. Relatives queuing up outside the hospital as ambulances raced back and forth. The state news agency MENA put the death toll at 235.

Resident Ashraf el-Hefny said many of the victims were workers at a nearby salt factory who had come for Friday services at the mosque.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. But Islamic State has targeted Sufis several times in the area in the past, notably beheading a leading Sufi religious figure, the blind sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz, last year and posting photos of the killing online.

Egypts presidency declared a three-day mourning period, as President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi convened a high-level meeting of security officials.

In a statement afterward, el-Sissi said the attack will not go unpunished and that Egypt will persevere with its war on terrorism.

President Trump denounced what he called a horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers in Egypt.

The world cannot tolerate terrorism he said on Twitter, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!

Egypt has also faced attacks by militants in its Western Desert, including an attack last month that killed 16 police, according to the Interior Ministry.

Ashraf Sweilam and Brian Rohan are Associated Press writers.
LAHORE, Pakistan  Pakistani authorities acting on a court order released a U.S.-wanted militant Friday who allegedly founded a banned group linked to the 2008 Mumbai, India attack that killed 168 people, his spokesman and officials said.

Hafiz Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department and has a $10 million bounty on his head, was released before dawn after the court this week ended his detention in the eastern city of Lahore.

The move outraged the U.S. and Indian authorities, but Saeeds spokesman Yahya Mujahid confirmed his release, calling it a victory of truth.

Hafiz Saeed was under house arrest on baseless allegations and jail officials came to his home last night and told him that he is now free, he said.

Saeed ran the Jamaat-ud-Dawa organization, widely believed to be a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, which India believes was behind the deadly attack in Mumbai.

As expected, the U.S. State Department expressed deep concern over Saeeds release from house arrest. In a statement, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the Lashkar-e-Taiba group was a designated foreign terrorist organization responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens.

The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes, she said.

Pakistan has been detaining and freeing Saeed off and on since the attack and he and four of his aides were put under house arrest in Lahore in January under a vague law known as Maintenance of Public Order. His release came after a three-judge panel dismissed the governments plea to continue his house arrest.

Babar Dogar and Munir Ahmed are Associated Press writers.
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina  The nations navy announced Thursday that a sound detected during the search for a missing submarine apparently came from an explosion  an ominous development that prompted relatives of the 44 crew members to burst into tears.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan. He said evidence showed an anomalous event that was singular, short, violent and non-nuclear that was consistent with an explosion.
BAGHDAD  A top U.N. official Thursday called on the Iraqi government to speed up investigations into allegations of human rights violations committed by security forces during the fight against the Islamic State and to make the results of those probes public.

Since 2014, the U.S.-backed Iraqi forces fight against the Sunni militant group has been mired in violations committed by government forces and paramilitaries that international human rights groups have decried as war crimes, ranging from extrajudicial killings of Islamic State suspects to forced displacement and detention of civilians.

On Friday, Iraqi forces drove Islamic State militants from the last Iraqi town near the Syrian borders more than three years after the militant group stormed across nearly a third of Iraqi territory, keeping the militants scattered in a wide desert area to the west and north of Baghdad.

Concluding an official visit to Iraq, Agnes Callamard, the U.N.s special investigator on extrajudicial executions, stressed to the Iraqi officials on the importance of translating the military defeat over ISIS into victories for accountability and over impunity. ISIS is another acronym for Islamic State.

Callamard told reporters in Baghdad that Iraqs new transition phase presents both opportunities and challenges and that the government should respond effectively and impartially to allegations of violations in order to build and strengthen confidence.

The Iraqi government has previously acknowledged some of the allegations, but insisted that these were individual acts and promised to investigate them and punish the perpetrators. No outcomes have been published by the government on these investigations.

Callamard discussed with officials from the government and Shiite-dominated paramilitary troops known as Popular Mobilization Forces, six or seven large scale allegations, including disappearances around Fallujah west of Baghdad and the killing of some prisoners before the June 2014 Islamic State onslaught.

She said that investigations have already taken place, but the problem is that there is not transparent reporting on the outcomes of those investigations.

Also on Thursday, the Iraqi army and PMF launched a new military operation to clear the al-Jazeera area from Islamic State militants, said a statement. The area is in a swath of desert between Salahuddin, Anbar and Ninevah provinces north of the capital. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that chasing down Islamic State militants in the al-Jazeera area and the western desert will be the last stage before declaring the final victory over Islamic State.

Sinan Salaheddin is an Associated Press writer.
New Zealand shares were mixed, with Ryman Healthcare and Stride Property making gains while Port of Tauranga and A2 Milk Co declined.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 28.34 points, or 0.4 percent, to 8,130.29. Within the index, 21 stocks fell, 15 rose and 14 were unchanged. Turnover was $179 million.

Ryman led the index higher for a second day, gaining 3.7 percent to $9.80. The country's biggest retirement village operator and developer said yesterday it had boosted first-half profit 8.4 percent to $202.6 million, and lifted its interim dividend, after reaping bigger margins on resales of existing units, even as the broader property market slowed. "

Stride gained 3 percent to $1.74, continuing yesterday's gains which came after it posted a 44 percent gain in first-half profit to $33.3 million as growth in management fees and lower costs made up for a decline in rental income.

"They both reported yesterday - it has taken a while for some investors to absorb that, and put aside all the new government-related risks that have surrounded that sector, and look at the underlying company and think that it was a good result," said Greg Easton, an adviser at Craigs Investment Partners. "Normally you would expect an immediate reaction but people may be looking at things a bit more closely."

Kathmandu Holdings rose 2.9 percent to $2.49. The outdoor equipment retailer, which held its annual meeting today, said this week that first-quarter earnings were up despite sales dipping as it widened margins by selling less discounted stock.

Auckland International Airport advanced 1.8 percent to $6.31. In its monthly traffic update today, the company said international passengers (excluding transits) were up by 6.8 percent in October 2017 compared to October 2016, and Chinese visitor arrivals were up 10.7 percent.

"They give these every month, and it was largely as expected," Easton said. "We're pretty used to seeing Chinese visitor arrivals up 10.7 percent but the fact that keeps happening is a story that Auckland Airport really wants to tell. The growth is relatively unlimited from that market, so it's reinforcement of the long-term story that is unfolding. It's good to see those shares move upwards because they have been in the doldrums."

Port of Tauranga was the worst performer, down 1.8 percent to $4.87. Today, Marsden Point-based Northport, which is co-owned by Marsden Maritime Holdings and Port of Tauranga, published its vision for growth which could see the port grow to more than twice its current size if container operations are moved from Ports of Auckland.

A2 Milk dropped 1.2 percent to $8.33 and Fletcher Building declined 1 percent to $6.86.

Outside the benchmark index, Warehouse Group gained 0.5 percent to $2.05. Chair Joan Withers and chief executive Nick Grayston said in notes for the annual general meeting in Auckland today that the retailer is accelerating its transformation plan as only the fittest and most savvy retailers will survive the digital era.

Warehouse's share price has fallen around 30 percent since the annual meeting a year ago, a "serious concern," Withers said. The stock last traded at $2.04 versus around $3 at the prior AGM. "Globally, retailers are besieged and only those who are the fittest and who have made the changes needed to compete for today's customers are successful," she said.

"They're talking about how aggressively they need to push the online channel because they want a share of it," Easton said. "They're doing pretty well, actually - I guess they want to say sure, Amazon's coming, but we're still there and you can get to us the same way. A great example of that has been Walmart, they've been one of the better-performing stocks on the US exchanges this year, despite the Amazon threat, because they've adapted to the times."

(BusinessDesk)

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Social enterprise Conscious Consumer, whose data analytics platform connects consumers with retailers to help promote more ethical and sustainable business practices, has raised $2 million to fund a beachhead into the UK.

The Wellington-based business has attracted 500 retail stores and 20,000 consumers and has ambitions to take its product to the UK, where chief executive Ben Gleisner sees an opportunity to tap into a market that has a level of maturity in both growing consumer desire for better social outcomes, but also an investor appetite to fund that business. The company, which had its origins in a charitable cafe accreditation programme, raised $2 million from investors led by impact investment vehicle Soul Capital, and joined by the likes of Stephen Tindall's K1W1 Fund, The Icehouse and Angel HQ, and is planning a $1 million raise from UK investors next year.

"More traditional investing groups are now waking up to the fact you can have financial returns and get some social and environmental impact," Gleisner told BusinessDesk. "It's a multi-faceted return, where the social and environmental returns can happen from day one."

Social enterprises have been attracting wider public attention in recent months after the global after a world forum was held in Christchurch in September, and as a growing number of young entrepreneurs increasingly adopt a multi-pronged approach to developing business mandates.

Conscious Consumer is among that new breed of company, providing retailers greater insights about their customers and what they would like to see more of, while empowering consumers to lobby for practices they're personally more comfortable with. The company's laundry lists of social impacts to date include supporting 45 stores to switch to free range certified products, 21 firms to switch to eco-friendly packaging, and 19 to start buying Fair Trade certified products.

Gleisner says that not only underpins support for a more socially conscious business but also creates greater engagement with its customers.

"If a business has a social or environmental purpose, it can have a strong business model," he said.

Conscious Consumer wants to get 200,000-to-300,000 consumers in New Zealand signed up to its platform, which Gleisner says will provide the scale to send "a significant signal to the market" to shift company behaviour.

Gleisner will spearhead the launch into the UK, moving there next year, where he wants to build a team of six to eight people to support the expansion. They considered 20 markets before settling on the UK. The company has a heavyweight director lined up as well, with former PricewaterhouseCoopers global vice chair Richard Collier-Keywood set to join the board.

(BusinessDesk)

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New Zealand structural log prices rose to the highest level in 24 years and A-grade export logs hit a record as local mills compete with the export market to secure supply for the domestic construction market amid strong demand from China.

The price for structural S1 logs increased to $130 a tonne this month, from $128 a tonne last month, marking the highest level since 1993, according to AgriHQ's monthly survey of exporters, forest owners and saw millers. Export log prices lifted between $2-to-$5 a tonne for the majority of grades, with the price for A-Grade logs touching $128 a tonne, up from $127 a tonne last month and the highest level since AgriHQ began collecting the data in 2008.

New Zealand is experiencing strong demand for its logs from China, which has clamped down on the harvesting of its own forests and reduced tariffs on imported logs to meet demand in its local market. AgriHQ said Chinese demand for softwood logs remains strong, lifting back to record levels in the latest data for September with Chinese imports of New Zealand logs currently tracking 10 percent ahead of last year.

"Those trading in the domestic log market are continuing to receiver near-record returns and there's nothing to signal that this situation will change anytime soon," said AgriHQ analyst Reece Brick. "Looking forward, all prospects will be determined by the direction the export log market takes."

Brick said wharf gate values climbed through October and early November and will likely hold high until the Chinese New Year period. Also known as the 'spring festival', the Chinese New Year falls on Feb. 16 next year, and the festival will last until March 2, about 15 days in total. As an official public holiday, Chinese people can get seven days' absence from work, from Feb. 15 to 21.

"Beyond that point, it's still a wait-and-see situation," Brick said.

He noted the latest situation and outlook report released by the Ministry of Primary Industries continues to shed a positive light on forestry's prospects over the next two years.

"They predict strong Chinese interest in logs over the short-medium term, underpinned by its ban of commercial logging of natural forests, falling Russian log supplies, and a 2 percent reduction on its imported log tax."

Brick said "the only proper negative" when it comes to the export market is shipping rates, which are rising faster than log values. However, this was being masked by a weaker New Zealand dollar, he said.

"There is still a level of uncertainty as to whether shipping rates have reached their peak or have a little more upswing to come," Brick said.

Still, he said "in terms of market fundamentals it is all still quite positive."

(BusinessDesk)

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A National Energy Guarantee could risk years of ACT energy policy and force Canberrans to pay more, ACT climate change minister Shane Rattenbury has warned.

The Greens minister met with his state and federal counterparts at the COAG Energy Council meeting in Hobart on Thursday and Friday.

Ministers Shane Rattenbury and Andrew Barr at the Mugga lane solar farm in October 2016. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg had intended to ask state and territory leaders to give in-principle support to the energy guarantee, but instead sought approval to undertake further analysis of the proposal.

But Mr Rattenbury said he was concerned that the guarantee would "stymie" new sources of renewable energy, the emission targets were too low, the agreement too short and the modelling was tailored to "inflate the apparent cost-savings".
Raiders general manager Simon Hawkins rejected the commission's finding, saying its report on the case was "riddled with errors". The Raiders would appeal the "erroneous decision", he said, revealing that the commission was pushing a fine of $120,000.

Clubs are required by law to keep a record of anyone showing signs of problem gambling - signs such as being unable to stop gambling, or making multiple ATM withdrawals.

The commission released a statement late on Friday saying it had taken disciplinary action against the club, finding the club had not recorded signs that a patron had a gambling problem as required by law.

The Gambling and Racing Commission had found against the Raiders over its treatment of Laurie Brown, an addicted poker machine gambler who says she lost well over $200,000 at Raiders clubs in Canberra, with the club now facing a fine of $120,000.

Raiders general manager Simon Hawkins rejects the gambling commission's report as "riddled with errors" and says the club will appeal. Credit:Karleen Minney

Prof Brown made a complaint against the Raiders after two stints of major gambling after losing $226,050 over 18 months at the Raiders club in Belconnen, until the alert was finally raised by her bank at the beginning of this year. Prof Brown says she gambled on 160 nights from about 10pm to closing 4am, making 242 cash withdrawals from ATMs and 353 from the club's eftpos. On some nights she went back six or more time to withdraw more money, losing thousands of dollars on some nights.

Prof Brown says it was her second stint of problem gambling. In 2011, she $30,000 at the Raiders in Gungahlin, and made a complaint but no action was taken. She put her name on the self-exclusion list, but says she was allowed back into the Raiders' Belconnen club in 2015 when she relapsed.

While Prof Brown believes her problem gambling over such a long period was obvious to staff, Mr Hawkins said in May that Prof Brown had been "calm and relaxed, very friendly" and had shown no signs of distress or problem gambling, which could have triggered intervention.

"At the end of the day there are some very wealthy people who like to gamble and it's not for me as an operator to say they're not allowed to," he said then. Mr Hawkins said the club had not picked up on Prof Brown's previous exclusion, but systems had improved.
The Australian War Memorial is beefing up its technology so lovers of military history can explore wartime objects using augmented reality.

The memorial will offer an interactive look inside a number of important objects from Australia's military history, including a Mark IV tank, the G for George bomber and the bridge of HMAS Sydney.

The bridge of HMAS Sydney IV, deployed in the first Gulf War, which lovers of military history will be able to explore online in a new augmented reality project at the Australian War Memorial. Credit:Australian War Memorial

People will be able to explore these objects on the war memorial website, in detail that has previously been inaccessible  pressing buttons, hearing sounds and listening to accounts of people who used the objects.

The war memorial's head of digital experience Amanda Dennett said the project would explore all three arms of Australia's military  army, navy and air force  and cover a range of time periods.
As if constantly touring the globe wasn't enough, Flume, aka Harley Streten, has been given a gig at the National Gallery.

The Aussie electronic musician has been named the official NGA Ambassador for the Hyper Real exhibition, which opened last month.

Flume has been announced as the official NGA ambassador for Hyper Real. Credit:Cybele Malinowski

It's another feather in the cap for the 26-year-old musician, who over the past few years has picked up more ARIA awards than you could fit in carry on, taken out the triple J Hottest 100 countdown, and sold a huge number of tickets to shows and festivals across the world.

The Hyper Real exhibition, which is on now at the National Gallery, features works of 32 artists from around the world of uncanny creatures, flesh, giants, clones and ultra-realistic representations of the human form.
A Canberra baby neglected by his parents was so dehydrated that when authorities removed him it was three days before he could cry tears, court documents revealed on Friday.

Child protection services took emergency action on Christmas Eve in 2015 and removed the one-year-old boy from his parents in Higgins.

He was at significant risk of illness or death.

The father, 45, and mother, 23, who cannot be named because it would identify the boy, pleaded guilty in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday to causing grievous bodily harm by negligent or unlawful act or omission.

"The care given to [the boy] ... was grossly deficient and caused serious harm to his physical state," documents handed to the court for the pleas said.
The ACT Supreme Court has frozen assets belonging to a woman and two of her sons who remain behind bars accused of killing the family matriarch at her Red Hill home.

The decision, in September, scuttled plans to mount a bid for bail as the accused could not afford to pay for legal representation, forcing them dump their lawyers and apply for Legal Aid.

Melissa Beowulf, 60, pleaded not guilty to murdering her elderly mother-in-law in Red Hill. Credit:Facebook

It prompted the former lawyer for well-known artist Melissa Beowulf, 60, and her sons Bjorn Toren Beowulf, 29, and Thorsten Beowulf, 31, to claim the freeze order made a mockery of the presumption of innocence.

However, ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Jon White, SC, said the application had been standard procedure and the law was designed to prevent accused criminals from "enjoying the benefit of their alleged offending" until the matter resolved.
ACT Fire and Rescue officers Phil Levings, Paul Bunfield and Shane Ryan following their rescue of five-year-old Emiliana Barry, who became stuck in play equipment at Weston Park in September. She is pictured with her baby brother, Arthur and grandmother, Pauline. To add to the drama, she was at the park with her grandmother from Ireland, Pauline, and her 16-month-old brother Arthur while her parents were in Sydney following the birth of their third child, Adaline. For about 20 minutes, a passerby held up Emiliana to relieve the pressure on her stuck leg while she stood tippy-toe on a borrowed esky with her other leg. ACT firefighters during a training exercise. They attended 1182 road accident rescue operations in the ACT last financial year. Credit:Graham Tidy A crew from ACT Fire and Rescue arrived - much to the excitement of the multitude of holidaying kids in the park - and within minutes had Emiliana freed, after using a large hydraulic cutter to snap the steel barrier.

The officers also gave her a firefighter teddy bear - or a "trauma teddy" - with all fire trucks carrying them for such an occasion. ACT Fire and Rescue officer used hydraulic cutters to free Emiliana while keeping her calm and distracted. Emiliana never cried or complained once and the officers kept her calm along the way, her grandmother told her parents, Canberra ophthalmologist Dr Richard Barry and his wife Lucinda. "She was just happy she got a teddy bear from the fire brigade," Dr Barry said, with a laugh. "They have a thing called 'show and wonder' at school so she took the teddy to show and wonder and told her classmates the story about the rescue.

"My mum was really impressed by how the firefighters kept Millie calm and distracted while they rescued her. She said they were really good with her." ACT Fire and Rescue chief officer Mark Brown said last financial year local firefighters attended 1669 non-fire rescue calls including1182 road accident rescue operations and 179 other rescues including animal rescues. They also assisted in 298 medical emergencies. Mr Brown said the ACT Fire Brigade was renamed ACT Fire and Rescue in 2011, to better reflect its diverse capabilities.. But, still, the general community could underestimate the scope of the service.

"They think fire brigade go to fires and police go to these incidents and paramedics go to those. But who does all the motor vehicle accidents extrications in the ACT? Well, it's Fire and Rescue," he said. ACT Fire and Rescue is responsible for all rescues in the built-up, urban areas of Canberra but will also assist ACT Policing with search and rescue operations in the surrounding national parks. "But in terms of road accidents, animal rescue, collapsed buildings or collapsed part of buildings, confined space rescue, those sort of things, that's Fire and Rescue," Mr Brown said. And, yes, there have been some cats-stuck-in-trees rescues. "We get a spate of animal rescues. The public in general are always interested in that. Cats or birds stuck in trees or drains. Dogs stuck in drains. We had one a couple of weeks ago where there was a cat stuck in the wall cavity of a house. So all sorts of things like that," Mr Brown said.

"Often we can coax the animal out with food but occasionally we have to put one of our search cameras into the cavity or drain to find out exactly where the animal is and sometimes it requires busting holes in walls or jack-hammering up footpaths and things like that. That happens quite regularly." The firefighters need to be empathetic dealing with people in high-stress situations including cutting them out of car wrecks and particularly when it comes to children. "All the trucks have got trauma teddies in them and it's just to calm the kids down while the firefighters are working around them. Because obviously it can be very scary," Mr Brown said. "We often have kids with their fingers stuck in bath plugholes. We've got to use some pretty scary cutting equipment if it comes to that and we need to have the kids distracted and thinking about something else while firefighters are cutting quite close to them." All 340 officers in Fire and Rescue are trained extensively to attend whatever comes their way.
HerCapital sounded very similar to HerCanberra by declaring it was site for and about Canberra women. HerCanberra was launched in 2011 by Amanda Whitley who has grown her enterprise from the ground up, even being named ACT Woman of the Year in 2016 for her efforts. Ms Whitley said she understood the HerCapital URL was registered this month, just hours after she declined an offer from the RiotACT for HerCanberra to engage in a business relationship with it. The RiotACT director Michael McGoogan denied HerCapital was trying to ride off the success of HerCanberra. "We were in discussions about ways we might cooperate and engage commercially and we decided that we didn't want to formalise any kind of arrangement," she said.

Ms Whitely said it was too soon to say if HerCanberra would be taking any legal action but it was looking closely at intellectual property laws. The RiotACT has admitted it used photographs taken from the HerCanberra website to use on the HerCapital Facebook page. "We're doing our research on what our options are," she said. "I'd obviously prefer to work things out peacefully." Social media users quickly called out The RiotACT for using very similar branding to HerCanberra when it created HerCapital.

Mr McGoogan apologised to Ms Whitley for using the HerCanberra photographs and took them off the HerCapital site. He blamed an overly "ambitious" graphic designer for RiotACT for launching the HerCapital Facebook site on Thursday when everyone else at RiotACT was at the staff Christmas party. Mr McGoogan denied he had signed off on the HerCapital page. "Our graphic designer took a bit of liberty in terms of pushing that out, it wasn't meant to be public at all," he said. He added:"As soon as we got back to our desk and saw what was going on, it was removed". But Mr McGoogan has failed to see anything wrong with using HerCapital or acknowledge its similarities to HerCanberra. He refused to say when HerCapital was registered. He claimed HerCapital was among branding acquired by the RiotACT when it bought Capital magazine.

"Capital magazine existed before HerCanberra," he said. "HerCapital is literally one of dozens of brands which swing off Capital magazine." When it was suggested that HerCanberra existed before HerCapital, Mr McGoogan declined to comment. He also refused to address the claims that the RiotACT created HerCapital after HerCanberra refused to enter into a business partnership with it. "I'm not in a position to discuss that," he said.

Mr McGoogan said he couldn't say if the RiotACT created HerCapital or bought it. "I don't know the answer to that," he said. When asked when HerCapital was created, Mr McGoogan claimed he had nothing to do with it. "I am unaware of the answer to that," he said. Mr McGoogan said he didn't accept that HerCapital was trying to ride off the success of HerCanberra.

"It is literally just a holding page for a brand we own," he said. He also couldn't say if the RiotACT would continue to use HerCapital in the future. "I don't know what the answer to that question is but at this stage I think the issue has been blown out of proportion, right?," he said. Ms Whitley said she was shocked to see the HerCapital branding. "The first I knew of any of this was [on Thursday] when a Facebook friend sent me a screenshot of the Facebook account and said, 'Is this in any way associated with HerCanberra?'

"I said, 'No, it's not'. I checked it out and I guess a couple of things struck me. One was the font was very similar to Capital magazine which was recently acquired by the RiotACT. "And that the Facebook cover photo was made out of 64 of our photographs, including our HerCanberra Active branding, which was interesting. "We did a 'who is?' search and found it was registered to the RiotACT and that they had registered hercapital.com.au as a URL shortly after we'd advised we didn't want to formalise any cooperative arrangements." Ms Whitley said she had a "very real concern" that people would by mistake think HerCapital was a HerCanberra initiative. "That was certainly borne out by some of the comments on social media including 'Oh, I saw this today and I liked it because I thought it was yours'.

"That's obviously disappointing." Ms Whitley said Mr McGoogan emailed on Friday morning to apologise and confirm the RiotACT had removed the offending images. "I responded that for me the real issue was IP [intellectual property] infringement with the name and that I would probably think very carefully about proceeding with the use of HerCapital," she said. Ms Whitley said she was buoyed by the support she had received. "It's actually turned out to be an incredibly positive thing," she said.
The ACT government is tinkering with housing and planning policy while ignoring repeated calls for a $100 million fund to help address the growing housing affordability problem facing struggling Canberrans.

Canberra's community services sector has called, for the third consecutive year, for fund to immediately boost the city's public and community housing stock to help the thousands of residents at or below the bread line.

Social services groups in Canberra are calling for action on housing affordability in the capital. Credit:Alan Porritt

While ACT Council of Social Services' Susan Helyer acknowledged Housing Minister Yvette Berry's recent pledge to add 240 more units to the stock, she said it was not enough to help the 37,000-odd Canberrans struggling to pay rent.

"They've said they'll create hundreds of new dwellings to add to the affordable housing market, but we need thousands," she said.
New laws holding bank executives to greater account for scandals and misconduct should be broadened to cover other financial services operators, as well as to conduct causing harm to consumers, a senate committee has urged.

And the cross-party committee has called on the government to push back the rollout of the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) laws by at least six months, after complaints by the banks and comments by the prudential regulator that the current July 1, 2018, launch date would be "challenging" to implement.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has promised that the BEAR legislation will force banks and their leaders to "wear the consequences" of bad behaviour. Credit:James Alcock

Labor and Greens senators also cautioned that, while their parties would not try to block the new laws in parliament, the BEAR bill did not reduce the need for a royal commission into the scandal-plagued banking sector.

"This inquiry, in fact, has received evidence that strengthens the case for a holistic and considered review of the sector rather than [ad-hoc] reforms," the Labor senators said.
James Packer's Crown Resorts has begun discussions about the future of its interest in online corporate bookmaker CrownBet.

In a statement to the stock market on Friday, the casino giant confirmed it was in talks concerning its 62 per cent stake in CrownBet following speculation about a potential merger.

CrownBet chief executive Matt Tripp earlier this month said "consolidation at some point in the industry is inevitable". Credit:Arsineh Houspian

"Crown evaluates opportunities regarding its investments from time to time," the company said.

"Crown confirms that it is in discussions concerning its interest in CrownBet. There is no certainty as to whether any transaction will eventuate."
Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes says he has "never been more happy to lose a bet" than his high-profile wager with fellow billionaire Elon Musk over the installation of the world's largest lithium battery in South Australia.

Mr Musk promised Mr Cannon-Brookes in March that Tesla would install the 100 megawatt hour energy storage plant in the state within 100 days of a contract being signed or it would be free. The clock started ticking at the end of September.

Mike Cannon-Brookes conceded the bet via Twitter on Friday. Credit:Daniel Munoz

With the batteries now installed and set to begin testing next week, indicating Tesla has met its self-imposed deadline, Mr Cannon-Brookes conceded the bet via Twitter on Thursday.
Tasmania is partnering with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to begin work on a study for a second energy pipeline between the state and the mainland, creating new opportunities for renewables investment.

The pipeline across the Bass Strait would allow Tasmania to supply increased levels of renewable energy to Victoria, and encourage the development of more renewable energy generation, providing additional backup energy supplies for the National Electricity Market.

It comes the same day as the Coalition of Australian Governments gathers in Tasmania to discuss the National Energy Guarantee, which will set out measures to increase Australia's energy security, and is seeing pressure to include a greater percentage of renewable energy under its auspices.

Tasmania's major energy supplier Hydro Tasmania's chief executive Steve Davy said that as the east coast faces an energy crisis, the need for a second energy pipeline was only increasing.
Punishment to fit the crime? "When you start from the situation we're in  there's over 200 million guns in the US  it becomes very hard to find meaningful solutions, whatever policy you put forward," Levitt says. There are more than 200 million guns in the United States. Credit:AP "Even we if legislated that everyone should turn in guns ... most people wouldn't." The only policy that may be effective against gun violence is "really serious penalties for illegal uses of guns".

In the United States, states with tougher punishments for crimes committed with guns have lower gun crime, he says. But even those laws are not "going to stop insane people from trying to do mass killings". About 600,000 guns get stolen in the US every year. "For the people really who want to use them illegally, there will always be a way," Levitt says. Assuming you accept Levitt's thesis that getting rid of guns won't work, he says a more interesting question is why there is more use of guns for mass killings.

He speculates there may be "some bizarre copycat phenomenon going on". Trump and the trickle-down theory Levitt is speaking to Fairfax Media ahead of a planned visit to Australia on December 4, where he will appear alongside English-born Canadian author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell at a seminar presented by The Growth Faculty. On December 4, Steven Levitt will appear alongside English-born Canadian author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell, pictured, at a seminar presented by The Growth Faculty. While Levitt doesn't typically take conventional approaches to economics  he's more focused on what drives human behaviour  when it comes to tax policy, he does.

Levitt has long been a strong advocate of tax reform. "I think that tax simplification  something that moves towards a flat tax  is a good idea," he says. But he says the Trump tax plan does not meet most economists' criteria of tax simplification. Donald Trump has proposed cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 20 per cent. He also wants to give a multitrillion-dollar tax cut for multinational corporations and tax cuts for the wealthy. Companies such as Apple and Microsoft will get a one-time "tax holiday" to to return overseas funds to the US.

Many commentators dismiss the Trump administration's notion that big tax cuts for companies will trickle down through the economy and pay for themselves. Some suggest the plan, if implemented, could go so far as resulting in a recession. Levitt says most of the literature on trickle-down economics over the past few decades "has not generally supported the idea that tax cuts like this will actually simulate enough economic activity to, in any shape or form, begin to pay for themselves". Furthermore, "the [Trump] administration's estimates of how much economic activity will be spurred are probably wildly, overly optimistic". Levitt says the plan will result in changes to the way people classify themselves for tax purposes, so that they avoid paying high personal tax. "There will be enormous migration by everyone who has the ability to turn their personal income into corporate income," he says.

Preying on people's fears That's not the only Trump policy Levitt is critical of. US President Donald Trump has come under fire for his tax and immigration policies. Credit:Alex Brandon He says channelling billions of dollars of resources into fighting terrorism, and thinking that closing borders is likely to be successful in fighting terrorists, "are not great ideas". "Statistics disprove the idea that terrorism is among the threats we should fear most," he says.

"Everything from automobile crashes to resistant bacteria to obesity pose a greater threat to our existence. "But the nature of terrorist attacks is that they are very public, they're very startling, and so they get far more [policy] attention than the more silent killers like suicides or car crashes or heart attacks." There's also the reality that political leaders "prey on the fear and overreaction of people", he says. Perhaps fear and overreaction is another reason why getting rid of guns in America is so hard? Levitt comes back to the stats: "In a country where we have 200 million guns and a number of insane people who decide that gun violence is the right way to express their insanity or carry out terrorist attacks ... there's not much we can do.
Pizza Hut is taking on the highly-competitive fast-food sector more vigorously with the launch of 100 new-look licensed restaurants in a bid to get customers to linger longer.

The group will target neighbourhood shopping centres and new developments that offer a "town square" community atmosphere.

Pizza Hut is introducing new-look restaurants, with the first to open at Divercity, Waterloo.

Its first site will open on Saturday, November 25, at Divercity Village in Waterloo, Sydney, with more to be rolled out along the eastern seaboard.

The chain, run by the US giant Yum foods business, has 314 outlets in Australia from kiosk-style stores in shopping centres to stand-alone restaurants.
The decision by Lang Walker's group to change his tower at Parramatta from residential to office and retail is a role reversal and reflects the increased demand for commercial sites.

It also shows that local councils are cognisant of apartment oversupply. The changes in prudential rules, the tightening of bank lending and changes by the Chinese Government on outbound investment are all having an impact on off-the-plan residential projects.

Walker Corporation proposed new commercial tower at 6 and 8 Parramatta Square.

Experts believe more developers will now turn back to office sites, which are more profitable to a city as workers need daily food, drinks and clothing.

Walker Corporation launched what will be Australia's largest commercial office tower, following approval on Tuesday night by Parramatta City Council to convert the tower from residential to commercial use.
Amazon's foray into Australia has all the hallmarks of becoming a resounding success as the country still has more demand for online shopping, UBS predicts, with 51 per cent of all respondents in its survey saying there was a "strong likelihood" they would shop at Amazon. And existing retailers would have to contend with "more empowered" shoppers who are increasingly likely to price check, UBS warned.

But not all is lost for local stores, said the bank's analysts.

Aussie retailers are "well placed" to compete, they found, with local websites such as Australian brands' and department stores' online offerings and e-commerce stores such as Kogan featuring prominently in Australians' online purchases. As local brands stepped up their online presence, the market share of international online shops actually dropped to about 20 per cent from 27 per cent in January 2012, the report shows.

"Click and collect" offerings, where shoppers choose goods online and then pick them up in bricks and mortar stores, could be a major opportunity for local retailers to bolster sales and defend their turf. With just 9 per cent of online shopping collected in stores, click and collect shopping could become the "key driver of online growth for traditional players", UBS said.

All in all, sharemarket investors had been too pessimistic in their sell-off of local retail stocks, the bank concludes. Shopping centres and bricks and mortar stores would still have a place in the era of online shopping, even if they become less relevant.
A pig, a dinosaur, and a monster caught up for their annual end-of-year lunch in the city. They went to a modern-fusion eatery because the pig was vego, the dinosaur was a carnivore, and the monster ate children, so they knew there'd be something on the menu for everyone.

The three friends sat down and ordered their meals. The dinosaur leaned back with a glass of wine and said, "So  how's everyone's year been?"

The pig sighed and snorted, "Ahhh, not so great. With Weinstein and this Hollywood sex abuse scandal, it's been hard on my self-esteem. Every sexual predator is being called a pig or a dirty pig or a misogynistic pig  it's soooo not me! I'm a clean, intelligent, highly socialised mammal but for some reason, humans constantly insult me, degrade me, or put a comical illustration of me on their packaged bacon products, smiling and wearing a chef's hat like I'm happy about cooking my own meat! It makes no sense!"
Manus Island is a sleepy, pretty Melanesian island in the Bismarck Sea off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. It has few claims to fame. Japanese war trials were held there. The anthropologist Margaret Mead lived there. But now, its name has been dragged through the international mud as a byword for Australia's shameful refugee detention policies

Over the past two days, PNG police have done the Australian government's dirty work, breaking up the former detention centre and forcibly removing more than 300 men who were refusing to go to new facilities, in no small part because it consigns them to further indefinite detention.

But if Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton think that's the end of the matter, they're kidding themselves. All they have done is move the old problem to a new location, a few kilometres away. Without hope, without a solution this problem goes on and it remains Australia's responsibility.

The language used by Peter Dutton, describing the refugees as "bad tenants", has been appalling. They are not bad tenants. They are refugees. They were the unlucky last who tried to reach Australia before the gates banged shut, who put their money into the hands of unscrupulous people smugglers and hoped the ocean would not kill them before they reached freedom.
The same-sex marriage survey results showed which members of Parliament voted in a starkly opposite fashion to those in their electorates. The electorate of Blaxland had a strong "no" vote, while their MP Jason Clare voted "yes", and in prominent "no" campaigner Tony Abbotts seat of Warringah there was a strong "yes" vote.

Some people may think it's the duty of their MP to vote in the way they did. Of course, this could mean that as every state voted "yes" then the Senate as a whole should support the same-sex marriage legislation. But generally, this connection between popular sentiment and how a MP votes is usually made in terms of single member constituencies.

It's based on a very old idea of the role of MPs as "delegates" or "agents" of their constituents and therefore liable to be issued instructions on how they should vote on any issue. This idea relates back to a time when Parliament, especially in England, could be understood as bringing together the interests of its various boroughs and counties.

This model of representation is difficult to sustain once a country is understood as constituting a national entity with a unified political culture. It's also difficult to sustain once Parliament begins to deal with a range of complex policy matters. The idea of a newly elected member being issued with a list of instructions and then needing to go back to their constituents every time a new issue arises may sound very democratic, but its also quite impractical.
The Turnbull government has picked a German firm to design its new $3.5 billion fleet of naval patrol ships but, in an unusual move, will split the building of the vessels between three companies across Adelaide and Fremantle.

The move feeds work to two shipyards in a bid to bolster the nation's naval industry but could, according to some industry sources, raise the risk of delays and cost overruns.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Defence Minister Marise Payne at the announcement Credit:AAP

The 80-metre, steel-hulled "offshore patrol vessels" will replace the current Armidale Class boats and will do much of the navy's heavy work cruising waters near Australia for asylum-seeker ships, drug smuggling consignments and illegal fishing.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said the split build of the ships would partially fill what is known as the "valley of death"  when shipbuilding work dries up, stripping the yard of workers and skills  in Adelaide between the construction of the previous Air Warfare Destroyers and the future fleet of naval frigates. It would then help build up Henderson yards in WA.
The month-long standoff on Manus Island came to a violent end on Friday after Papua New Guinea police carrying batons raided the decommissioned processing centre and forced out about 330 remaining refugees and asylum seekers.

The men had subsisted on stockpiled food and rainwater for 24 days since the facility officially closed on October 31, having refused to leave citing fears for their safety and an unwillingness to move "from one prison to another".

Some of the new accommodation to which asylum seekers on Manus Island moved on Friday.

PNG police entered the site for the second day in a row in Friday's early hours, and by midday all the remaining men had boarded buses for the nearby town of Lorengau, saying they could no longer resist police willing to use force.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull welcomed the men's capitulation, telling reporters in Canberra: "That's as they should. That is precisely what you should do if you're in a foreign country: you should comply with the laws of that other country."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull dined with a Chinese businessman in Brisbane just days after one of the executive's companies declared a $40,000 donation to the Liberal National Party ahead of the Queensland state election.

Liu Xiaodong is a director of Gold Coast-based company Australian Energy Windfarm and chairman of China-based renewable energy firm Heilongjiang Ainaji Dianli Co Ltd, which owns 100 per cent of AEW and is seeking other investment opportunities in Queensland.

Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Friday he did not recall having a detailed discussion with Mr Liu. Credit:Brook Mitchell

A photograph was taken of Mr Turnbull and 11 guests.

The donation was declared with the Electoral Commission of Queensland on November 15.
A panel or tribunal would be created to review so-called legacy cases and consider claims for financial compensation from victims, with a compensation fund set up that banks would contribute to.

Treasurer Scott Morrison and Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer has been working on the scheme for some time and Mr Morrison this week held high-level discussions with the heads of Australia's major banks about signing up to the scheme, which has been discussed by the cabinet.

But the push to establish the scheme will not head off a push led by Nationals senator Barry O'Sullivan to set up a wide-ranging banking commission of inquiry, which is similar to a royal commission but reports to Parliament, not the executive.

The Turnbull government is working on a 'last resort' compensation scheme for people who have been ripped off by banks and other financial institutions, in a last-ditch move to head off a Nationals push for a banking commission of inquiry.

Government insiders have told Fairfax Media the scheme could be unveiled as soon as next week, though they stressed key details of the scheme have not been finalised.

A spokesman for Senator O'Sullivan said "there will be no change to our plans". The bill is likely to sail through the Senate with Labor and Greens support but the powerbroker needs two of his colleagues in the lower house to cross the floor and team up with the opposition and crossbench to facilitate its passage.

Mr Morrison hinted on Thursday at the plan to address so-called legacy cases in which people have been ripped off, but have not been able to secure compensation.

"For some years now I've been talking to the banks about resolving some legacy cases where people have had issues. These cases have been raised in various fora. I've been impressing upon them for some time now the need for those cases to be resolved and, like in other meetings I've had with them, I'll continue to have those discussions as well as on other matters," he said.

One of the major grievances cited by government MPs such as Mr O'Sullivan - and other Coalition MPs such as Warren Entsch and George Christensen - is that people or businesses with so-called legacy cases do not have a clear course to pursue to secure compensation for being ripped off.
When it comes to glamorous pieces that might signal that you are, in fact, officially a grown woman, it's hard to beat wearing (or at least frantically pin pics to your Pinterest board) a Max Mara coat.

Especially a camel one, but you know, choose your weapon.

A peek inside the archives ahead of the Coats! exhibition in Seoul.

Worn by everyone from Kate Middleton to Gigi Hadid, Max Mara coats have become iconic enough to warrant several exhibitions in recent times, including in New York City last month and one set to open in Seoul, Korea, later this month.

Founded in 1951 by Achille Maramotti, the Italian luxury house has long specialised in refined clothes for working women with places to be.
Emily Joyce was at a yoga retreat when she realised her memory was not what it used to be.

"I was with a group of friends and we were trying to remember the name of a restaurant," says Joyce. "None of us had our phones and it took us so long to remember it."

Digital dementia can result in the deterioration of cognitive abilities such as short-term memory. Credit:Stocksy

For 38-year-old Joyce, from NSW, this wasn't simply forgetfulness but a deeper indication of how her reliance on technology was affecting her. "I started to wonder whether being connected all the time reduces our brains' ability to work out complex things  or even answer easy questions," she says.

"Digital dementia" is the idea, coined by a neuroscientist, that constant use of digital technology can result in the deterioration of cognitive abilities such as short-term memory.
A budget-blowout at St Vincent's Hospital Sydney will force staff to find $18 million worth of cuts as external consultants are called in to audit the hospital's services.

The hospital's financial woes blindsided doctors who spoke to Fairfax Media, after a memo from the executive in September celebrated St Vincent's on budget performance in 2016-17 "in the face of extraordinary activity levels".

St Vincent's Hospital Sydney has called in external auditors after an $18 million budget blowout. Credit:Daniel Munoz

But in an email to staff earlier this week, chief executive Anthony Schembri said "over the past months our financial position throughout St Vincent's Health Network has been challenged".

"I want to acknowledge that these cost saving initiatives will involve changes being made by our hospital departments," Mr Schembri said.
Former A Current Affair reporter Ben McCormack previously sought treatment for his sexual attraction to children and had twice attempted to take his own life following his arrest, a court has heard.

McCormack, 43, a self-described paedophile, appeared in court on Friday for a sentencing hearing having pleaded guilty in September to two counts of using a carriage service to transmit child pornography.

In defence submissions, his lawyer Sam Macedone told the court that McCormack had twice tried to take his life following his arrest in April, telling his family: "It's not your mess I've created, it's mine".

McCormack also said he found it difficult to live with the public humiliation he was suffering.
It remains Australia's largest strike, with more than 70,000 taking to streets across NSW for six weeks to protest changes to how the productivity of rail and tram workers was monitored.

The "Great Strike" of 1917 also cost 32-year-old Merv Flanagan his life.

Tramway men marching to The Domain in Sydney, during the 1917 General Strike.

During an altercation in late August on Bridge Road, Camperdown, Flanagan  a member of the Trolley, Draymen and Carter's Union, was shot in the chest with a revolver by Reginald Wearne, a stock and station agent brought in as a strike breaker from his northern NSW hometown of Bingara.

Accounts vary. The Sydney Morning Herald at the time reported a group of striking carters  horse-drawn cart drivers  including Flanagan assaulted Wearne after abusing him as a "scab". Flanagan's brother James said Wearne was never assaulted.
The Berejiklian government is spending $300,000 a year on a shuttle bus so senior Roads and Maritime Services "fat cats" can ride for free between two RMS offices.

But less than six months after it began, the government could be about to scrap the shuttle bus, the existence of which caused controversy in Wollongong as the community fights to keep its free "Gong Shuttle" from becoming a paid service.

The Berejiklian government funds a free shuttle bus for RMS employees between Rozelle and the Sydney CBD. Credit:Daniel Munoz

On Tuesday, Labor leader Luke Foley revealed documents that showed the NSW government was paying $303,000 a year for the RMS shuttle bus.

RMS employees can catch a free shuttle to take them the five kilometres between their offices in Rozelle and the Sydney CBD.
A second Rebels bikie has been dramatically arrested at Sydney Airport over the execution of South Coast father Johnny Salafia.

The 42-year-old, suspected of being the "organiser" of the killing, was allegedly trying to leave the country on Friday morning, just 24 hours after fellow Rebels gang member Robert John Stewart McCloskey was arrested and charged over the 2013 slaying.

Mr Salafia, 38, was shot in the head and chest after answering a knock at the door of his Kings Point residence late on a Sunday night more than four years ago.
Illustration: John Shakespeare Here are the highlights of Mehajer's horror year, on and off the road. The taxi trials Salim Mehajer leaves Darling Harbour police station after allegedly assaulting a taxi driver. Credit:Ben Rushton Pundits pondered whether Mehajer would have been better off getting an Uber after a series of unfortunate incidents vis-a-vis taxis.

The former councillor was handcuffed and frisked by police in Ibiza in the weeks before Christmas 2016 after an altercation with a Spanish taxi driver. No charges were laid. Back on home soil, Mehajer was charged with assaulting a cabbie outside The Star casino in the early hours of April 2 by throwing an eftpos machine at the driver's face. Mehajer was charged with a second assault later that day as he was being whisked away from Sydney City police station on Day Street in a Porsche, after a taxi driver aborted the fare. Channel Seven journalist Laura Banks was caught between the car door and the Porsche as Mehajer attempted to flee a media scrum outside the police station. He was charged with assaulting Banks. Driven to distraction

Mehajer was involved in a car accident in October. Credit:ABC News If things were subpar in the passenger seat, Mehajer fared no better behind the wheel. He was due to face two back-to-back assault trials over the April incidents, starting on October 16, when he was allegedly involved in a car crash in his white Mercedes SUV in Delhi Street, Lidcombe. The trials were delayed until next year. A spokesman for Mehajer told Fairfax Media any suggestion the crash was staged was "ludicrous", "evil" and "irrational". NSW Police subsequently raided Mehajer's luxury Lidcombe home in connection with an "ongoing investigation". It is believed to be related to the car crash.

Courtroom drama The staircase inside Mehajer's mansion in Lidcombe. Mehajer's courtroom dramas were legion in 2017 and he faced a string of civil and criminal trials. After months maintaining his innocence he pleaded guilty in November to failing to disclose his political donations by the September deadline last year, when he was still deputy mayor of Auburn. He was fined $3300 and ordered to pay the prosecution's legal costs, which exceeded the fine.

The former councillor is still at the centre of a long-running electoral fraud trial and has pleaded not guilty to more than 100 offences related to his alleged rigging of the 2012 Auburn Council election. His sister Fatima, who also stood for election but missed out on a spot, was to stand trial alongside him but pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial to 77 counts of giving false or misleading information to the Australian Electoral Commission. The offences attract a potential prison sentence. Mehajer was also ordered to cough up almost $700,000 plus legal costs after the District Court found he failed to pay for elaborate stonework at his palatial home in Lidcombe, dubbed a "marble palace" by Judge Judith Gibson. To cap it off, the property developer boasts the distinction of being involved in one of the shortest Court of Appeal hearings in history.

In August Justice Anthony Meagher cut short an appeal by Mehajer against a Supreme Court ruling that administrators were validly appointed to two of his financially ailing companies by asking bluntly: "What are we doing here?" Mehajer's lawyer conceded the appeal could not succeed and the three-judge bench dismissed the appeal in minutes. Outside the courtroom, the colourful developer had the odd tussle with his own lawyers. Two of Mehajer's solicitors asked the court for permission to stop acting for him in unrelated cases over financial disputes. In June one lawyer was forced to continue acting for him, despite expressing fears he would not be paid, after the Supreme Court found he made the application to cease acting for Mehajer too close to the hearing date. The media glare

Media surround Salim Mehajer outside court in April. Credit:Daniel Munoz Where he goes, the media hounds follow. The social media-savvy Mehajer appears at times to revel in the limelight but the negative publicity clearly hit a nerve in October. Mehajer took the unusual step of issuing a 2am press release  via his solicitor sister Zenah Osman  on October 28, threatening to launch "Australia's Largest Case of Defamation" against a host of media outlets. "I let the media throw in all the punches for the past 20 months and watched my case build just like a business deal," Mehajer said in the letter, addressed to Fairfax Media and styled an "exclusive story". "I think now though, it has reached its peak and its [sic] time I commenced legal proceedings. All proceeds will be donated to charity."

Damages were calculated at $103 million, far in excess of Rebel Wilson's historic $4.56 million defamation damages payout earlier this year. Fairfax Media was told the claim would be filed on November 2. It was not. The business plans Salim Mehajer's 2015 wedding landed him in the spotlight. It was a lavish wedding and an elaborate pre-ceremony video that catapulted Mehajer into the national spotlight in August 2015  before the relationship soured and police applied for an apprehended violence order to protect his estranged wife, Aysha, in July 2016.

Undeterred, Mehajer exhibited the kind of bullishness for which he is famous by announcing a new wedding and events planning business in October this year. A small roadblock emerged in November when the sole director of his wedding venture, Ahmed Jaghbir, was charged over his alleged role in the murder of bikie associate and underworld figure Kemel "Blackie" Barakat in March. Less than a fortnight later, the wedding preparations of Mehajer's sister Aisha and her groom Sam Sayour  the nephew of nightclub boss John Ibrahim  were interrupted, but not halted, by the shooting of Ibrahim's bodyguard Semi "Tongan Sam" Ngata. The social media ban Salim Mehajer arrives at Burwood Local Court in November. Credit:Nick Moir

It was, perhaps, the most Mehajer of moments. Hours after he was arrested in the early hours of November 20 for dangerous driving and breaching an AVO by allegedly stalking his estranged wife, Aysha, his lawyer sought bail for Mehajer and promised the court his client would stay off Instagram. The social media account, which boasts 194,000 followers, features hundreds of photos of Mehajer posing in luxury cars and sporting designer jewellery and accessories. Shortly before his arrest, Mehajer had published a cryptic post on Instagram that included a photo of himself and Aysha along with a claim his account had been hacked. The post was deleted by the time he was conveyed to Burwood Local Court in a police van, dressed in a hoodie and thongs. Magistrate Joy Boulos said she would impose "very stringent" bail conditions on the 31-year-old, which would ensure he was kept "virtually under house arrest" at a residence in Vaucluse.
A man has been charged with attempted murder over a "vicious" stabbing attack at a Logan shopping centre on Monday night, according to police.

A 22-year-old Mount Gravatt man, who police will allege was known to the victim, was taken into custody on Friday morning and later charged.

Police set up a major investigation at Logan police station after the 'vicious attack' at Underwood Marketplace. Credit:Nine News

Meanwhile, the alleged victim remained in the intensive care unit at Princess Alexandra Hospital in a stable condition on Friday.

It will be alleged a 25-year-old man arrived at Underwood Marketplace on Beenleigh Road about 6.40pm on Monday in his mother's Mercedes-Benz.
Poll Call: Queensland election live coverage November 24, 2017

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Socialite Maureen Boyce's lover told police she went "berserk" the night before her death because she thought he was having an affair with his elderly aunt, a court has heard.

New Zealand-based doctor Thomas Chris Lang is on trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to murdering the 68-year-old at her Kangaroo Point sub penthouse in 2015.

The court has heard Lang called triple-zero on the morning of October 22 after finding Ms Boyce dead in her bed with a knife her abdomen.

Maureen Boyce Boyce was found dead in her bed with a knife her abdomen.

Crown prosecutor David Meredith has told the jury they must decide whether Ms Boyce took her own life or if she was killed by Lang in a "jealous rage".
Clayfield: Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls holds the Brisbane seat with a margin of 6.6 per cent. Labors candidate is solicitor Phil Anthony, who has run at Brisbane City Council level. Will be interesting to see if the One Nation factor impacts Mr Nicholls margin. Safe seat. Cook: Labor MP turned independent Billy Gordon is retiring. The far north seat has a margin of 6.8 per cent to Labor, and if their candidate Cynthia Liu wins, she would be the first Torres Strait Islander elected to the Queensland Parliament. Inala: Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk holds one of Labors safest seats, and with a margin of 20.6 per cent it will likely be called early. Annastacia Palaszczuk can afford to smile, as her margin is one of the safest in the state. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Ipswich: Fresh from the High Court declaration ruling that he wasnt eligible to sit in the Senate, One Nations Malcolm Roberts is trying to revive his political career in Ipswich. But its deemed a very safe Labor seat, with first-term MP Jennifer Howard on a 16 per cent margin.

Keppel: Labors Brittany Lauga has a 4.1 per cent margin, but with minor boundary changes she could face a challenge from the LNPs Peter Blundell who is a former local mayor, particularly if he receives preferences from One Nations Matthew Loth. Lockyer: LNP MP Ian Rickuss won the seat by 114 votes in 2015, narrowly beating Pauline Hanson. With the LNP stalwart retiring, the southern Queensland seat is one to watch, with long-time One Nation executive member Jim Savage running against Laidley councillor and policeman Jim McDonald. Logan: Boundary redistributions may produce an interesting result in this traditionally Labor seat. Labor MP Linus Power faces five challengers including One Nation candidate Scott The Cannon Bannan - a former Hells Angels bikie who was inducted into the Muay Thai Hall Of Fame in 2015. McConnel: The inner-city Brisbane seat has a new name, boundaries and size, shrinking from 18 to 13 square kilometres. Labor MP Grace Graces buffer has been trimmed as a result, with the electorate deemed a marginal Labor seat. Maiwar: One of the new Frankenstein seats created with parts of Indooroopilly and Mt Coot-tha electorates. The Indooroopilly voters have favoured the LNP but the Mt Coot-tha electors have given the Greens their highest vote at past elections, so LNP MP Scott Emerson faces a challenge particularly when the support for the Greens is factored in.

Scott Emerson will have to attract new voters to win Maiwar. Credit:Jono Searle/AAP Mansfield: The LNPs Ian Walker has not fared well in the redistribution with his southern Brisbane electorate now deemed a marginal Labor seat. Labors candidate is principal of the local high school. Maryborough: This LNP-held seat is extremely marginal, with a 1.1 per cent margin. One Nation is a threat in this seat. It will likely come down to One Nation and the current Labor MP Bruce Saunders. Mount Ommaney: This is the LNPs most marginal seat. Boundary changes has seen the seat gain Darra - a strong Labor area. This seat is currently held by LNPs Tarnya Smith. Boundaries shifted were enough to make Mount Ommaney a marginal Labor seat. Mirani: The seat is held by Labors experienced Jim Pearce with a 3.8 per cent margin and comes up against well-known RAAF staff officer Kerry Latter as the LNP candidate. This is a seat where either One Nation or Green preferences will decide if the LNP or Labor will win.

Nicklin: The 19-year-old veteran of Queensland politics, independent MP Peter Wellington, is retiring, leaving a void in the Sunshine Coast electorate. He helped Labor form government twice, under Peter Beattie and Annastacia Palaszczuk. Pumicestone: Pumicestone MP is dumped Labor MP Rick Williams. Boundary changes in this area have overturned Labors majority. Pumicestone is now a very marginal LNP seat. Rick Williams is running as an independent. Rockhampton: Bill Byrne is retiring due to ill health and the Premiers pick to replace him, high-profile Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow, missed out to Barry ORourke - who has since appeared alongside the Premier - because she was in the wrong faction, and decided to quit Labor and run as an independent. South Brisbane: Deputy Premier Jackie Trad holds this seat, but Greens leader Amy McMahon is a contender in this seat and polls show she could do quite well. Only minor boundary changes for this seat. The Greens' Amy MacMahon is aiming to take South Brisbane off Deputy Premier Jackie Trad. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
A man charged over a Cranbourne East crash that killed a woman and her teenage daughter as they were leaving a parent-teacher conference has fronted court in a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace.

Thomas Charles Adamson, 26, may have been more than three times the legal blood alcohol limit when he allegedly crashed into Ma Li Dai, 44, and her daughter Xinyu Yuan, 14, outside Lighthouse Christian College in Cranbourne East on August 9, the court heard.

Ms Dai and her daughter were pulling out of the school's car park after parent-teacher night about 7.20pm when their Toyota was struck by a Holden Commodore on a stretch of the South Gippsland Highway outside the college.
But announcement of its unprecedented cost on Friday  $16.5 billion  came as a surprise. The road, first conceived in a 1969 transport plan but never built, was costed by Labor at $6 billion in 2008. In August, Mr Andrews said the road would cost "around $10 billion". After complaints from private schools on Bulleen Road about the toll road's likely impact on them, it will now tunnel underneath sporting fields near the Eastern Freeway interchange. But the Boroondara Tennis Centre in Balwyn North will not be spared, with the toll road to carve through the centre of it. Greensborough's Boyd Street will be among the roads affected by the project. Residents Adrienne and Lawrence Osellame say they are devastated. Ms Osellame spent most of Thursday night crying.

Officials from North East Link Authority knocked on the door of their Boyd Street home about 8pm and handed them a letter. The document notified them that their home of 40 years "may be required for construction" to make way for the new highway. It was a great shock to the couple who raised their four children there. "We were not aware that our house could possibly be one that was going to go," Ms Osellame said. "It's not definite, but we won't know for another six to 18 months."

The couple will now halt the renovations to their kitchen, and new flooring they planned for the house. "We're sort of in limbo. We are devastated, we haven't slept, we have to put everything on hold now, we don't know what to do. We can't sell it." Adrienne and Lawrence Osellame, who learnt on Thursday night that their home will likely be acquired. Credit:Timna Jacks Another Boyd Street resident Tamara, also received a knock on the door on Thursday. Even if her property was not acquired, she said the value of her house would dive. "Who is going to buy our property? I wouldn't."

She said that, beyond her home's financial worth, it had emotional importance. "I have a maple tree that my sister planted. My sister died ... and they are going to dig it up?" She said her whole street was "in tears, nobody slept". Greensborough resident Tamara whose house could be acquired. Credit:Jason South Residents in Rosanna and Yallambie, who live near the corner of the Greensborough Highway and Lower Plenty Road, also received notices of likely acquisition on Thursday night. Jack Liao was told on Friday morning that he would probably lose his property  two acres of land on Bullen Road  if the North East Link goes ahead.

Mr Liao bought the site a decade ago and has built up a successful French-Japanese fusion restaurant, where he is also head chef. He is worried his business will be hit badly if he is forced to relocate. "We worked very hard for this and our customers love it here," he said. "I have no idea what to do  what should we do next?" Mr Liao also owns property five minutes' drive from the restaurant, which he was hoping to sell in December. He has already been told by a real estate agent the property would lose 30 per cent of its value due to its proximity to the tunnel. "We feel very unlucky." Jack Liao's restaurant will make way for the new road. Credit:Jason South

By comparison to the North East Link, the cost of building the original Snowy Mountains hydro scheme was about $5.5 billion in 2013 dollars, NSW government documents released to Fairfax Media under freedom of information show. A new rail tunnel being built under central Melbourne will cost $11 billion. In response to questions about a cost blowout, the Premier said the tunnel, which would the longest tunnel in Melbourne's road network, had driven up the cost. "The costs go up the longer the tunnelling," he said. "Yes, $16.5 billion is a significant investment, but it's one that we simply have to make. It would have been cheaper if we had done it 30 years ago," he said. Opposition treasury spokesman Michael O'Brien said that the price for the road had inflated by billions within months. "You couldn't burn money this fast," Mr O'Brien said. "This is the biggest series of cost-blow outs in Victorian history  and all before a single shovel is in the ground."

Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said the sheer cost of the project was remarkable, and if spent on public transport could have paid for a second rail tunnel or two new suburban rail lines. Boroondara Council attacked the decision to choose the route, which mayor Jim Parke said would be "a disaster" for residents as it would increase traffic on Bullen and Doncaster roads. "This is not a true orbital ring road connecting the industrial areas of northern suburbs ... through to Dandenong. This option will direct freight and commuter traffic onto inner-city roads," he said. Meanwhile, the trucking industry welcomed the confirmation of the road's location. Victorian Transport Association chief Peter Anderson said it was good the difficult decision of where the road would be built had been made.
A teenager has been arrested outside a house in Melbourne's south-east after a series of threatening messages were allegedly sent to a television network.

Channel Seven reported the television network received a series of social media messages detailing terror threats and a hostage situation to two of the network's social media pages about 12.30pm on Friday.

Another message was reportedly sent to Ambulance Victoria, the television network said.

However, Police said on Friday evening it was not being treated as a terror related incident.
Commissioner for Consumer Protection David Hillyard feared more money would be lost unless those involved in property transactions double checked information before sending money.

In the latest case, a buyer of a Karrinyup property lost $20,000 after a cyber scammer sent an email purporting to be from his real estate agent, requesting the deposit be paid into a bank account that was controlled by scammers.

It follows three similar email interceptions by scammers which resulted in almost $590,000 being stolen and one elderly woman losing $557,000 from her western suburbs home purchase.

"Email accounts are frequently being hacked by scammers and messages are being sent that can look almost identical to the email address of a real estate or settlement agent," he said.

"So we recommend that, before sending money, buyers or tenants should check the bank account details by calling the agency to verify they are correct.

"Do not use contact details contained in emails that ask for money to be deposited into a particular account as the calls could be diverted to the scammers."

Mr Hillyard said the substantial amount of money often being transferred during home purchases validated the few minutes it would take a buyer to double check the validity of the emails or bank account details they have been sent.

In March, an astute Perth father and son thwarted an attempt by scammers to steal more than $200,000 during their property settlement after fraudsters likely hacked their actual settlement agency's email accounts.
A QantasLink flight from Perth bound for Port Hedland has been diverted on Friday, landing back at Perth Airport shortly after take-off.

Flightradar24 mapping showed the Boeing 717-231 took-off around 6am, circled the broader metropolitan area, and then landed at Perth Airport.

The QantasLink flight circled Perth before landing. Credit:FlightRadar24

In a statement, Qantas said the pilots turned the aircraft around after noticing an indicator warning light had been activated.

"The aircraft landed normally and is currently being checked by our engineers," the statement read.
Bangkok: Accused Australian spy James Ricketson has pleaded to be released from Cambodia's harshest jail so he can continue the charity work for Phnom Penh's poor which he has been doing for more than 20 years.

The 68-year-old Sydney filmmaker says that after almost six months in Prey Sar prison on the outskirts of Phnom Penh "I am still confused as to what I have done other than flying a drone without a permit to deserve such punishment".

In this photo from Cambodian website Fresh News, Australian filmmaker James Ricketson is seen apparently operating a drone.

"I hope that any misunderstanding that may exist can be resolved so that I can continue with my humanitarian work and to being papa to my adored Cambodian family."

Ricketson's Australian family members say he is in declining health in the prison and there are "grave fears" for his life unless he is released soon.
Buenos Aires: Families of the 44 crew members of a missing Argentine submarine gave up hope and went home on Friday after a days-long wait at the sub's Mar del Plata naval base.

The submarine went missing nine days ago with only a one-week supply of oxygen onboard. The navy vowed to keep searching for the vessel and declined to confirm if the crew could be dead.

"Until we find the submarine and know the facts, we cannot venture to say anything more one way or the other to the families," navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said.

"The search is very difficult."
Jalalabad: Islamic State beheaded 15 of its own fighters in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar, officials said.

Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial governor's spokesman, said the 15 IS fighters were executed after a bout of infighting in the group, which has become notorious for its brutality. The killings occurred in the Surkh Ab bazaar of Achin district.

An Afghan security policeman stands guard near a damaged bus after a suicide attack in Nangarhar province east of Kabul, on Thursday. Credit:AP

The Taliban and IS have frequently fought each other in Nangarhar and both have been targeted by sustained US air strikes.

Nangarhar, on the porous border with Pakistan, has become a stronghold for IS, one of the country's most dangerous groups since it appeared locally around the start of 2015.
It is run by the Niqab Squad, a support group that Indadari founded in Indonesia. Indadari Mindrayanti is a founder of the Niqab Squad formed to help remove the stigma associated with the garment in Indonesia. Credit:Jefri Tarigan Niqab Challenges are generally public events. A video on Facebook reveals how emotional they can be for participants. But I am invited to try one in Indadari's cheerful Rumah Polkadot (Polka dot House) in Bogor, just out of Jakarta. Rumah Polkadot feels like it has jumped off the pages of a Dr Seuss book. There are polka dots on the walls, polka dots on the chairs and polka dots on the crockery. Even the television, tissue box and tea towels are spotty. There is also a giant, blow-up whale in the living room. Niqab Squad members check their phones outside a gathering in Bogor, Indonesia. Credit:Jefri Tarigan

"After the woman puts on the niqab, I usually will ask: 'How do you feel after you wear the niqab?'," Indadari explains. "They say: 'Before wearing the niqab, I didn't think I would be able to breathe'. They thought it would be hot and uncomfortable but after trying wearing the niqab they said they felt more calm, they felt they were protected." Since the fall of the autocratic president, Suharto, in 1998, more and more Indonesian women have started wearing the hijab, a headscarf that covers the hair and neck but exposes the face, in line with the increasing Islamisation of society. However the far more concealing niqab, which is similar to a burqa, is widely viewed with suspicion. "I am Muslim but I don't like it, it shows someone is a fanatic. It is too much," says a pious friend, whose wife wears a hijab. An unwanted Arab import

Many Indonesians see the niqab as an unwanted cultural import from countries such as Saudi Arabia, which encourages the practice of a conservative, puritanical form of Islam known as Wahhabism by funding education in Indonesia. In 2015, a study by the Jakarta-based Alvara research centre found 79.4 per cent of urban Indonesian Muslims preferred the standard length hijab, as opposed to the longer style. "There is a difference between the hijab in the Middle East and here," said researcher Lilik Purwandi. As for the niqab, less than two per cent of respondents preferred it. Last month there was an uproar in Indonesia after photos went viral of a classroom of students at a private Islamic school in Tegal, Central Java, that required girls to wear niqab as part of their uniform. The local education ministry office told Fairfax Media the school revised its uniform policy early this month after being warned it was not in accordance with government regulations.

Indadari says Indonesians often have "negative thoughts" about women who wear niqabs, associating them with the wives of terrorists or ninjas. Photographs of Indonesia's first female would-be suicide bomber, Dian Yulia Novi, wearing a niqab in court were plastered all over the media. Some of Indadari's friends stayed away after she started wearing a niqab in late 2014. "They thought people who wore niqab were stiff and introverted and avoided hanging out," she says. "I don't understand the doctrine out there that regards people with niqabs as weird. I always try to be nice and explain that the Prophet's wives wore niqab, that Islam also teaches wearing hijab and niqab." The polka dot queen In a past life, Indadari, the former wife of a celebrity in Indonesia, was a hijab stylist. She wrote (and modelled in) glossy hijab tutorial books that demonstrated how to achieve eye-catching party styles.

In one ensemble, Indadari is draped in head-to-toe green and white polka dots teamed with funky green platform shoes. "My hijabs were so happening I used accessories like feathers," Indadari says. "Actually Islam does not allow accessories on hijabs." Indadari in a former life. Credit:Jefri Taragan She gives us some of the books. Most have been sent back to the publisher because Indadari no longer wants them distributed. It was Indadari's decision to start wearing a niqab, and not, she stresses, that of her husband. "I have done many things and I did not feel happiness because in fact I stepped out of the rules Allah has set," she says.

"In Islam, wearing niqab is sunnah, sunnah means if we implement the regulation, we will get a reward. This is not a form of repression, in fact this is the proof of love from Islamic women to Allah." The bonus, Indadari says, is that the niqab protects women from harassment and the male gaze. "I asked the opinion of some of my male friends. They said when talking to women with niqab they did not have dirty thoughts ... they tend to respect them." Niqab and the career woman Dr Nur Rofiah Bil Uzm, an alima (female Islamic scholar) and postgraduate lecturer at the College of Koran Sciences in Jakarta, says that wearing a niqab is "certainly not Indonesian tradition". "Sometimes when people try to live their life according to Islam, what happens is they tend to become Arab," she says.

"People misunderstand and think 'modern' means 'Western' and 'Islam' means 'Arab'. We can be modern Indonesian women without being Westernised or becoming Arab." Dr Nur says she respects women's right to wear a niqab if their conscience dictates. "Perhaps they feel that by wearing certain clothes they feel closer to God. But what we need to be careful is that we don't become spiritually arrogant, looking down on someone who is different than us." She also warns that "usually niqabs go in one package with women who cannot have a career, woman must stay home, woman must obey her husband entirely". This is one of the niqab stereotypes that Indadari hopes to dispel with the Niqab Squad. She says niqabis can be doctors, lawyers, taekwondo martial art practitioners and henna artists.

Indadari and a female Muslim dermatologist hold talks on skin and beauty. "I hope she will inspire the attendees," Indadari says. "I will tell people that if wearing the niqab they can still be productive." The Niqab Squad started in February this year at a mosque in East Jakarta. "I thought maybe it's good to bring together people who wear niqab and create a community so that people wouldn't feel alone," Indadari says. There are now chapters in other Indonesian cities such as Bekasi, Yogyakarta and Bandung, and even further afield in Taiwan, Malaysia and South Africa. A male interloper The Niqab Squad holds a range of activities including archery, pre-marriage seminars, business workshops, fundraising for the Rohingya on car-free Sundays in Jakarta, the Niqab Challenges and Koran-reading classes.

However, after a "man who had a female name" wanted to join the Koran reading class, the Bogor Niqab Squad imposed a rule that women had to show their faces. "Some men have sex fantasies about women with veils," one niqabi from the Bogor chapter says. Some of the Niqab Squad chapters have active Facebook pages and Instagram accounts to advertise their events, though selfies are discouraged. "We can still do selfies but we keep the pictures for ourselves, we don't post them," Indadari says. "Because the idea of niqab is actually you should not draw people's attention to you." I find the niqab sweltering in the Jakarta humidity, despite Indadari using Arab chiffon, a cool material. However, it does not cling to my face and is less suffocating than I had imagined.
Johannesburg: South Africa's Supreme Court increased Oscar Pistorius' murder sentence on Friday to 13 years and five months after the state argued his original sentence of six years for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was "shockingly lenient".

Pistorius was jailed in July last year after being found guilty on appeal of murdering Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013 in a case that attracted worldwide interest.

Pistorius was found guilty of the Valentine's Day murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2015. Credit:AP

He was not in court for Friday's ruling. The court handed down the minimum 15-year sentence prescribed for murder in South Africa, and subtracted the years Pistorius had already served.

Steenkamp's family, who were not in court for the ruling, welcomed the sentence and said it showed justice could prevail in South Africa.
~ Politicians on St. Maarten had one common enemy, I was blamed for almost everything ~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Ousted Prime Minister William Marlin held an emergency press conference on Friday where he gave a total recap on what transpired from 2014 to present that led to the Dutch Government forcing him out of office. The Kingdom Council of Ministers issued an instruction to the Governor of St. Maarten to execute the resignation of the Prime Minister William Marlin, it should be noted that Marlin submitted the resignation of the Marlin II Cabinet after the UP/DP/ Brownbill coalition passed a motion of no confidence against five Ministers of his cabinet, after that the said coalition passed a second motion ordering Marlin to leave office, none of which worked until the Kingdom Council issued an instruction to Governor Eugene Holiday.

Marlin in his presentation said that the Dutch wanted the Integrity Chamber established on St. Maarten at all cost, something he said will trample on the basic human rights of the people of St. Maarten. Marlin said that while he was blamed for almost everything since the passing of hurricane Irma, the main focus from the Dutch was to get the Integrity Chamber established at all cost in the way they wanted it forgetting the decisions taken by the Constitutional Court and the Council of State. Marlin also reminded that he drafted the legislation to curb ship jumping but that legislation was put aside by the Dutch because according to them will hinder the free mandate.

Marlin said that local politicians were planning to bring down the Red/White and Blue coalition and they chose to use the Dutch aid and the devastation of the country for their own political gain. Marlin said that SP cartoon that was published by one newspaper is a total insult to the people of St. Maarten while MPs on St. Maarten did not condemn that cartoon. However, they chose to become the rubber stamp of the Dutch to enable the Dutch Government to impose their will on St. Maarten even though its not right.

Marlin said he is not saying goodbye, he is simply resigning since the Dutch Government will send the Governor an LB to dismiss him. Marlin said he already resigned but he will leave office because he does not want to prolong the issue. Marlin said the Dutch Government cannot fire him as he did not do anything wrong instead he stood up to the Dutch Government after they were bent on enforcing their will on the people of St. Maarten with the help of local politicians.

I am not quitting and I am not leaving, however the National Alliance decided in 2014 during the partys congress to hand over the NA leadership to the deputy leader Silveria Jacobs. Marlin said he stuck to his promise to allow the deputy leader lead the NA slate. Marlin also announced that he will be a candidate on the NA slate in 2018 and he will allow his fate to be in the hands of the people of St. Maarten and not the Dutch Government.

Marlin acknowledges that this may not be a good time for an election but if there is a political dispute then that dispute must be settled by the ballots and not otherwise.
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 42F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 42F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Outside the room, Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra joked that his country needed seven months to assemble a new government earlier this year, so the Germans still have five months left. But inside, the mood was more serious. Michael Roth, state minister in the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, did what he could to assuage the concerns of his EU counterparts. "Our neighbors are very concerned," he said. "It's quite distressing: The election of Macron opened the door wide to changes in the EU. But nobody is walking through."

The EU is particularly impatient for German input on questions pertaining to economic and currency union. Macron would like to see the creation of a budget to help countries that run into trouble through no fault of their own. But it remains unclear how large that fund should be and who will control it, the European Commission or the individual member states. To be sure, the draft coalition agreement that had been on the table before talks were broken off wouldn't have provided a clear answer on those issues either. But now, some in the EU are growing concerned that new elections in Germany - which wouldn't take place before early 2018, if that is the path that Berlin ends up choosing - would strengthen the FDP, which has shown significant skepticism regarding many of the reforms Macron has proposed. A poll released on Thursday found that the FDP is up to 12 percent support, up 1.3 percentage points from its result in the Sept. 24 general elections.
New York, Nov 24, 2017 (SPS) - The Security Council on Wednesday expressed its support to the efforts made by the UN SG Personal Envoy Horst kohler to revive peace process in Western Sahara, and called his mission important contribution to reviving negotiations between the Frente POLISARIO and Morocco.

Members of the Security Council express support to Kohler and hail his appointment and visit to the region. His contribution is important to give a fresh impetus to political process in the region, said Sebastiano Cardi, President of the Security Council in statement to the press following Kohlers briefing on Western Sahara.

On behalf of the 15 members of the Security Council, Cardi expressed support to the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), and gratitude, to his former chief, Kim Bolduc, appointed in early November as Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).

Kohler expressed his vision on the revival of negotiations, strongly backed by the Security Council. SPS

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Bissau (Guinea Bissau), Nov 24, 2017 (SPS) - A delegation representing the Sahrawi Youth Union (UJSARIO) is taking part in the African Youth Conference in Guinea-Bissau in the capital Bissau, scheduled to be from 23 to 25 November 2017.

The Sahrawi issue on the is on the top agenda of the Conference, as decolonization cause of the last colony on the African continent.

On the other hand, Hamdi Youssef, the Foreign Relations Officer, has broached the attendees on the latest developments in the African arena, especially after the return of Morocco to the AU and its attempt to undermine Unions unity and his support to the decolonization of the last colony on the continent.

He urged the conferees to continue their solidarity and support to Sahrawi people throughout their struggle for liberation.

The conference will conclude with a recommendation on Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa. SPS

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This combined conference and exhibition will address the important role that contractors play and examine how they may need to adapt to the changing needs of the farming industry post-Brexit. As well as an exhibition of contractor specific machinery and services, the day will feature high profile speakers at a morning conference, with additional transport-focused discussion and debate in the afternoon.

The speakers include NFU president Meurig Raymond, secretary and adviser to the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers Jeremy Moody, John Deere Limited managing director Jonathan Henry, NAAC member and chairman of the Agricultural Operations section Matt Redman, Waitrose agriculture manager Duncan Sinclair and agricultural supply consultant Cedric Porter of Supply Intelligence.

The John Deere stand, situated next to the NAAC seminar area, will include an interactive tractor optimisation feature using models to illustrate tractor ballasting, tyre pressure, axle loading and overall weight, based on using a front loader, trailer and both mounted and trailed implements. Visitors will be able to complete a simple worksheet to calculate the correct weight and ballast requirements.

The company will also be demonstrating aspects of John Deere Connected Support, which is designed to help improve machinery uptime. A free Connected Machine remote health check can be carried out on the stand for any customers machine working on the day with an active JDLink subscription, which just requires the vehicles serial number.

A John Deere survey conducted with a large target group of 243 contractors in the Netherlands in 2015 showed that investment in a connectivity package provided average savings of 56 per cent in administration costs, over 30 per cent faster work processes and earlier invoicing, and a 33 per cent lower risk of errors.
A teacher has been placed on leave after a racial slur was used by students acting out a scene in a social studies class at West Iredell High School.
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The pension law is in the works and "might be ready" next year, premier Mihai Tudose communicated Thursday night, specifying that this is "the hardest law" Romania can have at present.

"The pension point is rising starting next year (...) - a 10 percent rise. The pension law is underway, maybe it will be ready next year, we will see how long its implementation will take and (...) the order in which it will be implemented. (...) It will be very difficult to process millions of cases, to recalculate. (...) Simulations are being carried out at the Labour Ministry, procedures are being conducted, the budget impact is being established, how fast we can do it, in how many stages we can do it and how long it will take so that when we launch it for public debate to have the answers to all the questions, as it is a very demanding law, very serious, I believe it is the hardest law Romania can have today," premier Tudose stated for private TV broadcaster Antena 3.According to the head of the executive, there are" inequities to solve" in this domain."In the end the pension is not charity that someone receives from the state. It is his/her right, his/her reward. And big slippages have occurred there. (...) Two people worked equally hard, during the same interval, in similar circumstances, with equal qualification, they retired at a two-year interval and they have incredible discrepancies as to their pensions. This cannot be. People must feel that they are treated as they deserve after a life's work," Tudose further said. AGERPRES
AGERPRES special correspondent Florentina Peia reports: President Klaus Iohannis stated on Friday that he expects a balanced, sustainable 2018 budget that can be put into effect.

"My expectation is easy to define. I am waiting for a balanced, sustainable budget that can be put into effect, can be carried out. There are some concrete expectations. For example, I consider we absolutely need to have 2 percent allocated for Defence, it is also mandatory that we have a large enough amount for education, for health, but I hope that in 2018, unlike 2017, we have money not just allocated for public investment, but that these investments be carried through," the head of state said when asked about his expectations on Romania's budget design for next year.Klaus Iohannis is attending the Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels.
Secretary of State for Bilateral and Strategic Affairs in the Euro-Atlantic Space George Ciamba, on a visit to the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, met with Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller and the Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Alejandro Alvargonzalez, the two addressing the NATO Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting of December 5-6 and in anticipation of the Alliance's Summit of July 2018, informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE).

During the meeting with Rose Gottemoeller, the main topics currently in NATO's focus were reviewed, given the complexity and the unpredictability of the present security environment."In the context, George Ciamba highlighted the need to fully implement the decisions adopted in the Warsaw NATO Summit, in view of ensuring credible and efficient defence and deterrence postures. He emphasised the importance of NATO's unified approach regarding the entire eastern flank and presented Romania's contribution at implementing the advanced allied presence, in compliance with the commitments undertaken," reads the MAE press release sent to AGERPRES In his turn, the Deputy Secretary General of NATO praised Romania's important contributions to NATO, both as regards the implementation of the advanced allied presence in the Black Sea area and in Poland and the participation in allied missions."He also expressed special appraisal for Romania's commitment to allot 2 percent of the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] to defence and especially for the attention directed at investments in modernizing military equipment. Progress recorded in developing the NATO-EU cooperation was also reviewed, Secretary of State George Ciamba underscoring the special importance Romania grants the deepening of the two organisations' partnership in as many common interest domains as possible, on the basis of the complementarity principle," reads the release.The dialogue with Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Alejandro Alvargonzalez revolved around the arrangements in view of NATO's Foreign Affairs Ministers' meeting of December 5-6. The two officials exchanged views on the main security developments, regionally and globally, and their implications for NATO, special focus being granted to the evolutions in the eastern vicinity of the Alliance and the Western Balkans.The Secretary of State brought up the need for the Alliance to pursue its support of partner states, with a view to strengthening defence capabilities and national resilience and pleaded for the identification of new concrete projects meant to respond to these states' specific needs. The importance of a special focus on NATO's agenda to the expansion policy was also pointed out, the release further informs.
Updated at 6:53 a.m. Friday

BERLIN  Workers at a half dozen Amazon distribution centers in Germany and one in Italy walked off the job Friday, in a protest timed to coincide with "Black Friday" to demand better wages from the American online giant.

In Germany, Ver.di union spokesman Thomas Voss said some 2,500 workers were on strike at Amazon facilities in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben and Koblenz. In a warehouse near Piacenza, in northern Italy, some workers walked off the job to demand "dignified salaries."

The German union has been leading a push since 2013 for higher pay for some 12,000 workers in Germany, arguing Amazon employees receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers and employees earn relatively high wages for that industry.

The strikes in Germany are expected to end Saturday.

The Italian action, a one-day strike, was hailed by one of the nation's umbrella union leaders, the UIL's Carmelo Barbagallo, as having "enormous symbolic value because it's clear that progress, innovation and modernity can't come at the expense and the interests of workers."

The chief of the CISL umbrella labor syndicate, Annamaria Furlan, called on Amazon to work with unions for "proper industrial relations, employment stability and dignified salaries."

The Italian strike was called for permanent workers. The unions advised workers who are on short-term, work-on-demand contracts to stay on the job, so they wouldn't risk losing future gigs.

_______________

Our earlier story, by Reuters, posted Thursday at 9:33 a.m.

MILAN  Workers at Amazon's main distribution hub in Italy are planning their first ever strike for Friday, trade unions said, while they are also striking at six warehouses in Germany, threatening to disrupt one of the year's busiest shopping days.

Like the rest of Europe, Italians in recent years have embraced the U.S. tradition of Black Friday, a day of heavy discounting by retailers on the day after Thanksgiving.

Unions said in a statement more than 500 Amazon workers at the Piacenza site in northern Italy had agreed to strike following a failure to negotiate bonuses with the company.

Workers have also decided not to do any overtime until Dec. 31, covering the peak season for the online retailer which hires temporary workers during this period.

Amazon employs around 1,600 people on a permanent basis at the Piacenza site, the first it built in the country after launching its Italian website in 2010.

The Verdi trade union in Germany said Amazon employees would also strike on Friday at six distribution centers in the country as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

"The world's biggest online retailer wants to achieve record sales on this day, but employees have to produce record performance not only on this day so that everything runs how Amazon wants it," said Verdi board member Stefanie Nutzenberger.

Amazon in Italy said in a statement it remained focused on trying to guarantee scheduled deliveries for its customers on Black Friday and in the following days.

The company said salaries paid to its workers were among the highest in the logistic sector and that it also provided some benefits such as private medical insurance or money to pay for training programs.

E-commerce is growing fast in Italy where online sales account only for 10 percent of overall retail sales, according to consultancy EY, half the European average.
AWARDS

The Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants awarded Michelle F. Schwerin, an associate at Capes Sokol, with the 2017 Impact Award for Outstanding Young Professional.

Enterprise Holdings was named Transportation Partner of the Year by the American Society of Travel Agents. Enterprise Holdings Jeff Coggin, assistant vice president of travel agency sales, was named Supplier Representative of the Year.

Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. ranked fourth on the 2017 Best Workplaces in Retail list compiled by Great Place to Work and Fortune.

Kendrick Coleman, a staff accountant in the entrepreneurial services group at RubinBrown, was given the Emerging Saluki Leader Award by the Southern Illinois University College of Business.

HELPING OUT

TheBANK of Edwardsville donated $25,000 to the Anderson Hospital Foundation for its Private Room Campaign.

Amazon associates from the Edwardsville fulfillment centers donated 1,000 backpacks filled with winter essentials such as hats, gloves, socks, toiletries and snacks to United Way of Greater St. Louis to help people facing homelessness.

MetroGistics annual Monster Mash Halloween Party raised $24,148 for Helping Strays The Humane Society of Monroe County, Ill., and the Humane Society of St. Clair County SNAP (Spay, Neuter, Adopt and Protect) in China, Mich.

Edwards Carpet donated $3,184 to Gateway to a Cure, benefitting the Michael J. Fox Foundation to help people affected by Parkinsons disease.

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

Manna Pro Products LLC acquired Corta-Flx Inc., a global supplier of equine and canine health supplements.

Omnigo Software acquired Toronto-based iView Systems, a provider of public safety management solutions for the gaming and hospitality industries.

MILESTONES

Husky Corp. is celebrating 70 years in business.

OPENINGS

USA Mortgage opened a new location:

 2 West Main Street, Suite 101, Wentzville

TheBANK of Edwardsville opened a loan production office:

 3050 West Clay Street, Suite 100, St. Charles

A group of pediatric therapy clinicians opened Come Play, STL, a custom-designed therapy gym and treatment center:

 3115 South Grand Boulevard, Suite 224, St. Louis

Total Access Urgent Care opened a new location:

 2060 Hampton Avenue, St. Louis

PROJECTS

Wiegmann Associates completed design/build HVAC and refrigeration work at a new Quality Custom Distribution refrigerated warehouse in Apopka, Fla. The general contractor was ARCO Beverage Group.
INDIANAPOLIS  Alison Wrenne was making waffles for her two young children one morning when abdominal pain forced her to the floor. A neighbor who is a physician assistant urged her to go to the emergency room.

Wrong decision, according to her health insurer. Wrenne was diagnosed with a ruptured ovarian cyst, but Anthem said that wasnt an emergency and stuck her with a $4,110 bill.

How are you supposed to know that? said Wrenne, 34, of Lexington, Ky. Im not a doctor  thats what the emergency room is for.

In an effort to curb unnecessary and costly ER visits, the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer has told customers in a few U.S. states to go to the hospital only in a real emergency such as a heart attack, stroke and major bleeding  or they could wind up footing the bill.

Anthem, the nations second-largest insurer, wants patients to consider alternatives such as drugstore clinics, nurse advice hotlines or telemedicine. Insurers have been raising ER co-payments for years to try to deter unnecessary  and expensive  visits, and Anthems policy marks another round in this long-standing fight.

Doctors agree that the ER  an important revenue source for hospitals  isnt the best option for minor complaints such as sinus infections, rashes or ankle sprains. They say its better in those cases to see a family doctor who knows a persons medical history.

But some also worry that Anthems clampdown will scare patients away from the ER in an actual emergency, especially in cases in which major problems may not seem serious at first.

I think its completely unfair to patients, said Dr. Jesse Pines, who teaches emergency medicine at George Washington University. It runs the risk of really hurting some people.

Customers in Missouri and Georgia received letters this year from Anthem warning them that minor complaints should be checked out at places such as clinics or urgent care centers, where visits can cost $85 and $190, respectively. By comparison, Anthem says a typical ER visit costs about $1,200.

The ER should be used as it was designed  to treat life-threatening illness, said Dr. Craig Samitt, Anthems chief clinical officer. This is in no way meant to compromise a members determination of whether theyve got an emergency.

The push began in 2015 in Kentucky and will expand to Indiana next year and potentially other states that have seen a rise in unnecessary visits. Those involve common medical ailments that the average person knows should not be seen in an emergency room, according to Samitt.

Indianapolis-based Anthem Inc. says it wants to steer patients into using the right locations for their care. It has a similar policy for MRIs that pushes some patients away from getting scans at more expensive hospital locations.

There are many exceptions to the ER rule: Patients wont get dinged when there isnt an urgent care center nearby, if they need help on a Sunday or major holiday, if a doctor recommends going to the ER or if someone is under age 14.

Samitt also said Anthem wasnt simply rejecting every nonurgent ER claim it received. The insurer has a physician review a case before issuing a denial, and will consider a patients circumstances. Anthem said it might cover a patient who arrives with chest pains that turn out to be indigestion instead of a heart attack.

However, hospital officials in Missouri say many of Anthems reviews havent been this thorough. The insurer has rejected some claims in only a few days and hasnt requested patient records before making a decision, said Daniel Landon, a senior vice president with the Missouri Hospital Association.

U.S. emergency department visits are expected to climb to about 150 million this year, up from 141.4 million in 2014. The rise is due partly to coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act, an aging population and an increase in opioid overdoses, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Other insurers also review ER use but not as aggressively as Anthem, said Laura Wooster of the emergency doctor group. The group has asked Anthem to stop immediately.

I would hope that other insurers would take a look at this  and realize its a dangerous enforcement mechanism to consider, she said.

Anthem spokeswoman Joyzelle Davis said the insurer had met with representatives of the doctor group but had no plans to stop its program.

Anthem said it had seen a drop in unnecessary ER visits in Kentucky since it started its review there and had rejected only about 1 percent of all claims as avoidable.

In Wrennes case, the letter from Anthem said: We do not believe that a person with an average knowledge of health and medicine would think that this needed care right away to avoid a serious problem. The insurer said she could have been treated safely in a doctors office or clinic.

The hospital whittled Wrennes bill down to several hundred dollars. But now shes nervous about using the ER again.

Its just frustrating to be a reasonable person and have to weigh the cost of  going to the ER or not because you have no idea what the bill would be, she said.

Judy Kurtz also is worried about future emergency care. Kurtz, 62, a retired teacher from Maysville, Ky., was hit with a $1,600 bill a couple of years ago after the insurer rejected an ER visit.

A doctor had told her to seek emergency help after an antibiotic reaction made her throat and face swell. She said Anthem eventually paid the claim. But it took about a dozen phone calls and six months to get the insurer to change its mind.

Kurtz doesnt want to go through that again and has set a high bar for going to the ER.

It would have to be terribly life-threatening if I were to go, Kurtz said. I would probably have to be (unconscious) and someone would have to carry me out.
MEXICO CITY  Monsanto Co. said on Thursday that Mexico's agriculture sanitation authority SENASICA had revoked its permit to commercialize genetically modified soy in seven states, criticizing the decision as unjustified.

Monsanto said in a statement that the permit had been withdrawn on unwarranted legal and technical grounds. The company said it would take the necessary steps to safeguard its rights and those of farmers using the technology, but did not elaborate.

SENASICA officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Mexican newspaper Reforma cited a document saying the permit had been withdrawn due to the detection of transgenic Monsanto soya in areas where it was not authorized.

Monsanto rejected that argument, saying in its statement that authorities had not done an analysis of how the soy on which their decision was based was sown.

The revocation applies to the states of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo and follows a 2016 legal suspension of the permit.
SUNSET HILLS  A yearslong battle over the future of a corner at Lindbergh Boulevard and West Watson Road is headed from the zoning commission to the courtroom.

A property trust that owns real estate along Lindbergh Boulevard sued the south St. Louis County municipality this week after the Sunset Hills Board of Aldermen rejected last month a rezoning request to accommodate 15 attached homes and a credit union.

The Olga Despotis Perpetuities Trust, whose trustee is George Despotis, wants a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge to declare the citys zoning decision arbitrary, capricious, unconstitutional, and unreasonable.

The Despotis trust is seeking more than $25,000 in damages and wants the judge to immediately approve its rezoning and development plans for the site.

The city has not yet filed a response, and Sunset Hills attorney Robert E. Jones said the city did not comment on pending litigation.

For years, Sunset Hills has been grappling with what to do with the property along Lindbergh Boulevard around Court Drive and north of West Watson Road. Much if it was damaged by the tornado that rolled through the region on New Years Eve in 2010.

While most of the property is still zoned residential and abuts a subdivision, it is also along busy Lindbergh Boulevard and near other large commercial developments, including shopping centers across the road.

Some residents have fought hard over the years to keep commercial development off of the corner, worried it would encroach into the neighborhood and further south along Lindbergh Boulevard.

Several developers have eyed the site. George Despotis, whose family owned the land where a medical imaging center once stood before being destroyed by the tornado, has long advocated for light commercial with a buffer separating the neighborhood.

His lawsuit says the traffic and noise, and the citys refusal to rezone the area, has deprived him of all reasonable or economic use of the land.

In 2011, the Sunset Hills Planning and Zoning Commission rejected a change to its comprehensive plan that would have opened the door to commercial development on the tornado-damaged area.

In the ensuing years, the Despotis trust has acquired or put under contract nine properties  totaling roughly five acres  in the area. Despotis first submitted a plan for a credit union in February 2016, and he has amended it twice.

His lawsuit argues that the area is not suitable for strictly residential development but that he incorporated a residential component as a buffer for light commercial at the signalized intersection of West Watson Road and Lindbergh Boulevard. He agreed to remove the current commercial zoning on the tract where the imaging center once stood in exchange for allowing the credit union at the corner, according to the lawsuit.

Despotis then reduced the density to 15 homes, but that, too was rejected in October. Despotis attorney Dan Welsh said his client, an area doctor, had listened to residents concerns and devised plans that have carefully integrated a lot of those comments.

My client represents a group of property owners in St. Louis; he has multiple tracts of land under contract, Welsh said. This is by no means a situation where residential homeowners are aligning themselves against a commercial real estate developer.

Interesting precedent

This isnt the first time Sunset Hills has been sued over a zoning dispute in the area. In fact, the case Welsh cites in the lawsuit as a precedent for granting the rezoning was brought by Despotis mother, Olga Despotis, and resulted in the commercial zoning where the medical office once stood at 3825 Lindbergh Boulevard.

Even the city attorneys are similar. Sunset Hills attorney at the time, the late Robert C. Jones Jr., is the father of current Sunset Hills attorney Robert E. Jones.

Its an interesting precedent in that the (Missouri) Court of Appeals weighed in on very similar if not identical issues back in the late 70s and early 80s, Welsh said.

In that case, the St. Louis County Circuit Court overturned Sunset Hills decision and ordered the city to rezone the property to commercial. The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld that decision in a 1981 ruling.

Sunset Hills argues commercial zoning in Sunset Hills must end somewhere and, in effect, Sunset Hills has the right to draw the boundaries of zoning districts where it wills, the appeals court wrote in 1981. Municipalities have a great deal of discretion in determining the bounds of zoning districts.

However, such power is not unbridled and is circumscribed by the requirement that zoning not be arbitrary and unreasonable.
What would Transparent look like without Jeffrey Tambor?

Imagining it seems like an impossible task for a show that relies so deeply on its main character and star. As Amazon investigates complaints that Tambor, 73, sexually harassed a colleague on the set during the shows second season, the actor announced last week that he wont return to the series. He disputes the allegations made against him, but, he said in a statement, Given the politicized atmosphere that seems to have afflicted our set, I dont see how I can return to Transparent.

For four seasons (the most recent of which was released on Amazon Prime in September), Transparent has brilliantly and beautifully followed Tambors character, Maura Pfefferman, as she transitioned to life as a woman.

The show, of course, was never only about her. Mauras adult children  Sarah (Amy Landecker), Josh (Jay Duplass) and Ali (Gaby Hoffman)  quickly accepted their father, Mort, as their moppa, Maura, but are mostly absorbed with their own personal and relationship issues and hang-ups. Mauras ex-wife, Shelly (Judith Light), is a study in masked pain and self-delusion, arguably the shows most complex and entertaining character.

But before we go further, the question is whether Transparent should go further. Amazon (owned by Jeffrey P. Bezos, owner of the Washington Post) announced plans for Season 5 several weeks ago. It can still pull the plug, if it decides to, and the obvious solution (kill Maura off) seems harsh. For creator Jill Soloway and the shows crop of talented, sensitive writers, theres plenty of opportunity here, especially because theyve already lifted Transparent into an intellectual space that transcends the usual narrative of the transgender process.

With great thought and arftful execution, Transparent has become a master class on gender and sexuality as experienced by just about anyone, but especially by those in the Pfefferman orbit. Although the show has focused on Mauras discoveries from her point of view, it has diligently chronicled all sorts of awakenings and self-awareness in other characters, with storylines that track, metaphorically, with Mauras change.

Along the way, Transparent became one of the finest works (including novels) on the experience of being Jewish in modern America. One way to reboot Transparent might be to delve into the Pfefferman familys complicated past, which weve seen glimpses of in flashbacks and which include examples of gender questioning and persecution, with the Holocaust as a backdrop. An entire prequel series is possible in the Pfefferman ancestry, which could occasionally flash-forward to the present day.

Another option: Make it about Ali Pfefferman. Season 4 already laid the groundwork for the idea that she is finally finding her truer self  and Hoffmans performance is more than strong enough to become a focal point.

In an unforgettable recent scene, Ali and Maura go through security at Los Angeles International Airport on their way to Israel. As her daughter moved ahead of her through the checkpoint, Maura has a vision (to the soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar) of her daughter being lifted to glory by a group of men in Orthodox garb. Ali was briefly bathed in an ethereal light, a conscious passing-through to a new level.

Is she Transparents messiah, so to speak? Will she be the one to work through and beyond the generations of family hurt? Will she transition, in both a gender and spiritual sense?

Or maybe Transparent could just find someone else to play Maura. Its not as crazy as it sounds  soap operas used to do it all the time when actors or actresses moved on (The role of Maura will now be played by ...). Theres an even better reason to try this: Accepting his second consecutive Emmy in 2016 for Transparent, Tambor said he hoped he would be the last cisgender actor to play the role of a transgender person. In hindsight, it almost sounds like prophecy. Why not recast Maura with a transgender actress of a certain age? What could more affirm the shows core value?

Netflixs House of Cards is in a similar state of limbo, attempting one final season sans Kevin Spacey, but why bother? That was always a deliberately dark show that turned corruption into an unhealthy fetish and stopped being interesting somewhere in its second season. The only message in House of Cards was that everyone is worse than they seem.

The message of Transparent is that we can all become someone better. It is full of empathy and love and new information. Surely it is too soon to say goodbye to a show like that.
CHICAGO  At least a dozen Illinois Department of Children and Family Services workers have been attacked or seriously threatened while trying to protect children or investigate mistreatment allegations since 2013.

The Chicago Tribune analyzed government and police records to help to determine the figure. The newspaper reports the violence can be serious, though it's rarely publicized.

One DCFS investigator was choked and pushed by a mother after being called to a Chicago elementary school last week on a report that the woman's son had a burned ear.

Illinois lawmakers drafted legislation to stiffen criminal penalties for such assaults in the wake of the September beating of DCFS investigator Pamela Sue Knight. She's been in a coma since being attacked while trying to take protective custody of a child in Milledgeville.
ST. LOUIS  A former local fitness executives guilty plea to a kidnapping charge will have no impact on the company he founded, an executive told the Post-Dispatch.

BAM Brands COO Mark Otter wrote in an email that founder Todd Beckmans ownership interests had been transferred to a trust for estate planning and to benefit his children.

Otter said that the resolution of Beckmans legal issues would allow the company to refocus 100 percent of our attention on the growth of our brands.

Beckman, 53, pleaded guilty Nov. 2 and admitted conspiring to kidnap a Maplewood man in an attempt to recover about $15,000 and 24 pounds of marijuana that was stolen from a man who dealt marijuana for Beckman. The alleged thief also sold marijuana for Beckman, who imported the drug from California, according to court testimony.

The victim was held in a basement and then in a shipping container, beaten and had his life threatened, court documents say.

Beckmans attorney, Travis Noble, said he had no knowledge of how the plea would affect Beckmans business, and prosecutors have not raised the issue in court.

Three co-defendants have also pleaded guilty to the same kidnapping conspiracy charge. Prosecutors have agreed to ask for 20 years in prison when they are sentenced. Another pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony for failing to call police once he saw the victim being held in the basement.

The victim was released after his parents paid $27,000 ransom.

Beckman was founder, president and CEO of BAM Brands, but turned over day-to-day control to Otter in April 2016, Otter wrote in an email in response to questions about the case. The company owns TanCo, Xist Fitness, Massage Luxe and age management company LifeXist.

In the email, Otter said franchises were individually owned and operated. In all, those franchises employ more than 1,200 throughout the U.S., he wrote.

Otter said MassageLuXe alone had 52 locations in 12 states, with 20 to 25 expected to open in 2018.
Cat food. Construction paper. A Halloween costume for a dog. Even a religious garment handmade for a bishop.

Theyve all been stolen in greater St. Louis this year by the same common neighborhood scourge: the package thief.

These so-called porch pirates often make their moves in mid-day when people are at work and the front-porch pickings are good.

Its difficult to track just how many packages are stolen each year in the area, but from 2015 through July of this year, the U.S. Postal Inspector received 4,823 complaints of stolen packages in the city and St. Louis County combined.

That probably captures only a sliver of the total thefts because many stolen packages are never reported, authorities say. Still, its clear package theft has become one of the most common forms of petty crime in St. Louis neighborhoods today.

Some areas get it worse than others. The complaint data shows south St. Louis neighborhoods including Tower Grove South, Tower Grove East and Bevo reported the most package thefts during that time.

Its almost a daily thing now, said Tower Grove South resident John Tucker-Mancuso, who had two separate groups of packages stolen from his porch in the last month, including a sweatshirt and lion costumes for his two dogs. Its unnerving, but no one is surprised anymore.

Now is prime time for this type of theft.

The postal inspector data shows November, the beginning of the holiday shopping season, was the month when the most package thefts were reported in the city and county for the past two years.

But this package pilfering is not unavoidable. Residents have come up with creative ways to prevent falling victim to porch thieves.

Keep a lookout

Steve McClanahan has gone all-in on one of the most common defenses against package thieves: the home camera system.

McClanahan installed cameras at his home in Tower Grove South after he got worried about crime in the neighborhood, and hes captured one thief already.

In June, his doorbell camera recorded a package thief taking a package containing a car mat worth $140 before driving off in an Impala.

The weird thing was he was driving a fairly nice car, McClanahan said. That car mat wont even fit it, though, so it was really pointless.

McClanahan posted video of the thief on his neighborhood Facebook page but never got any good leads to track the man down.

But similar home surveillance systems have become a whole industry built around preventing this type of neighborhood crime. Devices such as smart doorbells can send live video to your phone anytime someone approaches your door.

Authorities suggest being smart about using the technology. Positioning the camera to the road to catch license plates can be much more helpful tracking down a porch thief if they come by car than grabbing video of them nabbing your packages.

Some departments in the area have made organized efforts to better use the popularity of neighborhood security cameras.

The Florissant Police Department, for example, recently started a Resident Camera Program that allows home and business owners to register their cameras to let the department know they have them in case a crime takes place nearby. Department officials said they hoped the program would help with investigations of package thefts as well as other crimes.

Other departments across the country have been more extreme in their response to this type of theft, including putting tracking devices in decoy packages.

St. Louis and St. Louis County police did not comment on whether they had used similar techniques to investigate package theft.

But vigilantes abound. Dozens of YouTube videos have popped up of people booby-trapping boxes on their porch with bricks, dog poop and minor explosives.

One video of an exploding bait package tricking a thief has more than 9 million views.

Part of the draw to the videos may be the reality that package thieves often get away with the crime.

In interviews with 10 St. Louis residents who have had packages stolen in the last few months, none ever got word about the culprits being caught, despite often having photos or video of the crime.

In one recent exception, police arrested an 18-year-old man suspected of stealing a package off a porch in the Dogtown neighborhood while distributing political flyers earlier this month. The homeowner watched footage from security cameras, drove around the neighborhood and called police when he spotted the suspect. The man was issued a summons for stealing under $150 and has a December court date.

Still, complaint data from the postal inspector showed only 11 of more than 4,000 cases in the city and county had a status listed as closed.

Authorities say that because package theft can be difficult to investigate, the best option for residents may be to focus on stopping it from happening in the first place.

Limit the opportunity

There may be some organized efforts, but I think a lot of package theft is a crime of opportunity, said Anna Hallstrom, a St. Louis postal inspector. So one of the best things you can do is try and not let packages sit out for too long.

The U.S. Postal Inspector and St. Louis County police offered some tips:

 Try to schedule deliveries for times when you will be at home. You can also opt to require a signature to prevent packages being left when you arent there.

 If you cant be home during delivery, request that packages be left in the back of your residence or have a neighbor pick them up.

 Send packages somewhere more secure. You can have a package sent to your employer or the post office. FedEx, UPS and Amazon all also now have secure lockers in greater St. Louis where you can send packages and pick them up at any time using a code, for no additional cost.

 Get a lock box. A variety of front-porch lock boxes that bolt to the ground are on the market. You can request deliveries be placed inside the box to keep them safe.

 Get updates. Its easy to track package deliveries now. Retailers such as Amazon as well as the U.S. Postal Service and FedEx all have ways to receive notifications that can tell you exactly when a package arrives.

 Report suspicious activity and persons to police immediately and remember that thieves come in all shapes and sizes.

How to report package theft

If a package does get stolen, the U.S. Postal Inspector recommends people report the theft on the departments website at uspis.gov. The complaint data helps the department spot trends and investigate the crime.

You can also report stolen packages to your local police department by calling the non-emergency number. For the city of St. Louis, the number is 314-231-1212. For St. Louis County Police, you can call 314-889-2341.
ST. LOUIS  The St. Louis Community College governing board is expected to vote Thursday on a budget reduction plan that still includes a reduction of "as many as" 70 faculty members and 25 non-faculty members.

There are three additional avenues identified in the board resolution to address the community college's ongoing budget woes, which leaders attribute to declining enrollment and state funding cuts for higher education. Those include:

 Temporarily suspending sabbatical and other changes to scheduling, amounting to about $400,000 in savings.

 Changing the group insurance program cost share ratio to "not less than 80/20" from 90/10 with additional changes for dependents. That saving is estimated to be about $900,000.

 Offering a voluntary buyout program with the same terms as the voluntary separation program that 117 people took advantage of earlier this year. The document doesn't list a saving value for this item.

College spokeswoman Kedra Tolson said, "things are subject to change," and "other resolutions could be put forth" before the board meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Cosand Center, 300 South Broadway.

Details in the document mirror those that have been discussed since late October. The layoffs in particular were contested during a special board meeting and again during multiple meetings between administrators and faculty.

The reduction in employees could save almost $6 million, according to the resolution.

Chancellor Jeff Pittman has scheduled multiple listening sessions between now and the meeting, Tolson said, and the budget concerns are the chief discussion point.

Robert Hertel, professor and president of the college's National Education Association chapter, said he's staying optimistic about the possibility something could change between now and the meeting.

The biggest concern among faculty is the number of proposed layoffs. The college employs almost 400 full-time faculty members, so cutting up to 70 is "drastic," Hertel said.

He said that faculty brought several cost-cutting suggestions to leaders, including the elimination of a professional development fund that many professors tap annually. That could save almost $400,000. Hertel said they haven't heard back about whether any of the ideas are gaining headway.

"If this happens, we'll work to mitigate and alleviate the damage as best we can for students," he said. "That's where the real concern is. Fall schedules are being built, and if changes have to be made, it can be quite dramatic."

Tolson said the students are at the center of the administration's decision making, as well. Pittman has spoken with several student groups during the budget talks.

"Layoffs are the last thing anyone wants to do, but the last thing we want to do is deprive our students of any services critical and important to them," she said.
JEFFERSON CITY  A proposal to overhaul how Missouri draws its legislative boundaries seeks to make the state one of the first in the nation to bring an end to partisan gerrymandering.

But the so-called Clean Missouri ballot measure being backed by labor unions, Planned Parenthood and scores of small donors from throughout the country could face a number of obstacles, according to redistricting experts surveyed by the Post-Dispatch.

Key among the potential problems is the ballot measure itself, which contains a number of ethics-related provisions that have been largely blocked by lawmakers. They include new, lower limits on campaign contributions, a ban on lobbyist gift-giving and a two-year cooling off period for lawmakers wanting to become lobbyists.

The inclusion of so many different elements into the proposed constitutional amendment could generate a legal challenge focusing on whether the initiative violates the states single-subject rule for new laws and constitutional changes.

Thats a lot to put in one measure, said Wendy Underhill, director for elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

A 1990 Missouri Supreme Court ruling would seem to provide a roadmap for a challenge. In Missourians to Protect the Initiative Process vs. Blunt, the court tossed out a proposed ballot initiative because it included too many subjects.

The court wrote that the ban on including too many elements in a ballot question is intended to discourage placing voters in the position of having to vote for some matter which they do not support in order to enact that which they earnestly support.

The initiative is aimed at allowing voters to choose whether to alter the states ethics law by changing the constitution next year.

In order to appear on the November 2018 ballot, the coalition must collect at least 160,199 signatures.

While the ethics-related provisions may capture the attention of the public, the provision for changing how the states political boundaries are created could have long-term effects.

District lines for the House and Senate are redrawn every 10 years after completion of the United States Census. Districts must have nearly equal populations and must not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity.

In Missouri, the House and Senate set up special commissions to redraw the boundaries. If the new maps fail to win the support of 70 percent of the commissioners, the Missouri Supreme Court appoints a special panel of six judges to draw the lines.

In 2010, the commissions failed to approve their own plans, sending the matter to the special court panel. The House version was approved in November 2011, but the Senate version was challenged. A new Senate map was not approved until March 2012.

Sean Nicholson, spokesman for Clean Missouri, said the current process had become dominated by party insiders who help craft district boundaries that favor incumbents or particular parties. The end result is that voters have few choices when they go to the polls because a majority of districts for the House and Senate are not competitive.

What were proposing is a world where there are a lot more competitive races, Nicholson said.

The proposed amendment would require a statistical test to measure partisan fairness in the redistricting process, and it would create a new position of state demographer to draw the new boundaries.

Under the proposed change, the auditor would get to choose three candidates to serve as the demographer. The legislative leaders would then select a finalist from that group.

Kansas City election lawyer Edward Greim said that elevated the power of the auditor to a new level.

The party that captures the office of state auditor is in a very powerful position, Greim said. Its a huge roll of the dice for either party.

Underhill agreed that Missouri would be unique if the plan went forward.

Missouri is blazing its own path, Underhill said.

The partisan makeup of the Legislature has been a sore point for Democrats for years. Republicans have controlled the House and the Senate chambers since 2003 and, in recent years, have tightened their grip by electing veto-proof majorities.

When the Senate convenes in January, Republicans will control the chamber by a 25-9 advantage.

In the House, Republican House Speaker Todd Richardson of Poplar Bluff will oversee a 112-46 majority.

Redistricting expert Michael Li of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law said the ballot proposal could help avoid the kind of gerrymandering that puts more emphasis on one party dominating legislative elections.

Its designed to kind of safeguard that, Li told the Post-Dispatch.

At the same time, Underhill said, it is not clear that Missouri has significant enough problems with its redistricting laws to warrant a major overhaul.

Nothing stands out about Missouri that would make me think its a particularly fraught state for redistricting, Underhill said. The proponents must feel that there are some unfairness in the existing laws.

Greim also said it was unclear why a change was needed.

I think the current set-up is adequate, said Greim, who was on the legal team that challenged the maps crafted after the 2010 census.

Nicholson said attorneys for Clean Missouri carefully vetted the language to ensure it would survive a constitutional challenge. He said the topics covered by the initiative focused on one thing  the Legislature.

The General Assembly is our subject and this package put together is to help create a General Assembly that works for everyone, Nicholson said.

Greim warns that the change could be damaging to both parties.

Even if they achieve passage of this, they will rue the day they submitted this position, Greim said.
America today has its first billionaire president, a millionaire majority in Congress and a campaign system in which a $174,000-a-year congressional seat often costs millions or even tens of millions of dollars to win.

And in Illinois, the stakes are about to get even higher.

The Land of Lincoln is on a path to what could become the most expensive governors race in U.S. history next year, and it isnt because big special interests and mega-donors are lining up. Its because two of the leading candidates are among the wealthiest people in America, and both are opening their personal checkbooks wide.

A year out from the November 2018 election, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and hotel heir and Democratic hopeful J.B. Pritzker already have self-donated to their own campaigns a combined total (so far) of some $92 million, with tens of millions more contributed from other sources.

Predictions abound that before its over, based on the patterns so far, the total cost of the contest could conceivably approach a third of a billion dollars, a level almost unheard-of in any political realm outside the presidency.

Its a testament to this unprecedented financial landscape that one of Pritzkers fellow Democrats fighting him for the partys nomination, businessman Chris Kennedy  yes, of those Kennedys  is struggling to keep up.

Its just insane, said Kent Redfield, political scientist with the University of Illinois at Springfield.

The most expensive gubernatorial race in American history (as measured by what the campaigns themselves spent, apart from separate spending by outside entities) was Californias 2010 election. Democrat Jerry Brown defeated Republican Meg Whitman after the two of them spent a combined total of about $280 million.

That one was unusual. In contrast, Missouris 2016 governors race totaled only about $60 million spent between Republican Eric Greitens and Democrat Chris Koster. Even at that, it was the most expensive gubernatorial contest in America that year and the most expensive in Missouri ever.

In Illinois, with Rauner and Pritzker spending freely from their personal fortunes  and with Rauner also pulling in massive contributions from fellow finance titans, including a record $20 million donation from Illinois richest resident  officials in both parties have said the races price tag ultimately could rise above $300 million.

Thats absolutely within the realm of possibility, said Sarah Brune, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. The organization has expressed concern that such expensive campaigns are having a trickle-down effect that is making even lower-tier races prohibitively expensive for typical candidates, she said. This election could send a message about the future of money in politics.

Checkbook campaigns

Rauner was a venture capitalist with no political experience when he won the governors office in 2014, with a largely self-funded campaign. His net worth has been estimated at close to $1 billion. When the Chicago Sun-Times suggested during that race that Rauner was part of the 1 percent, he famously corrected the interviewer: Oh, Im probably .01 percent.

Pritzker is even further beyond the decimal point. Heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, he is one of worlds richest people, with an estimated personal net worth of $3.4 billion.

Historically, the fact that two mega-rich, self-funding candidates are running for office wouldnt necessarily clear the field the way it seems to be doing this time. The track record for such candidates has generally been a poor one.

As the costs of running for office have escalated, more and more candidates are jumping into politics using their personal fortune, rather than trying to raise all those funds from other people, reports the Center for Responsive Politics, which found that more than 80 percent of self-funding congressional campaigns since 2002 have failed. Though they dont lack for money, self-funded candidates typically lose at the polls.

In Missouri, a prime example was Republican John Brunner, who spent about $7 million of his own money in 2012 to lose in the GOP Senate primary and another roughly $7 million more last year to lose in the GOP gubernatorial primary.

Some have interpreted those kinds of results as proving that checkbook campaigns dont work.

But what if all they really prove is that the checks werent big enough?

After all, Brunners investment of about $14 million total over two campaigns four years apart pales next to what has been happening across the river.

Rauner spent almost $28 million of his own money to win his first term. As with Pritzker now, Rauner then had no political resume nor public persona, but was able to in effect buy his way around that problem with a flood of self-funded advertising. Rauner has already put up an additional $57 million toward his re-election campaign since last year, though he faces no serious primary challenge.

Pritzker, meanwhile, has already put more than $35 million into his own Illinois gubernatorial campaign  and its still four months from the primaries. Pritzker has vowed to entirely self-fund his campaign, which means much more is coming.

And it already appears to be working.

Election or auction?

Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, has self-funded at a more modest level of about $750,000 so far. He was the polling leader among Democrats earlier this year. But that lead evaporated over the summer as Pritzker began blitzing the television airwaves with almost $7 million worth of self-funded advertising.

In the most recent polling, Pritzker now holds a double-digit lead over Kennedy headed toward the March 2018 primaries.

Chicago Alderman Ameya Pawar dropped out of the Democratic nomination race in mid-October, declaring the ante too high. We should all be disappointed in a system where money is driving people out of politics, Kennedy posted on Facebook at the time, and, in turn, silencing conversations that drive change.

Fellow Democratic candidate Daniel Biss, a state senator from Evanston, put it more succinctly on the campaign trail last month: Are we going to have an election or are we going to have an auction? he asked, according to the Associated Press.

Biss and two other major candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, Madison County Regional School Superintendent Bob Daiber and anti-violence activist Tio Hardiman, all are polling in single digits recently.

Redfield, the political scientist, said big-money self-funders could warp the political landscape in unexpected ways. Pritzkers endorsement from major labor organizations, for example, has been partly attributed to his vow to self-fund, because it will free up those unions to direct their political donations to other races.

It certainly has an impact on the decision-making of major interest groups, Redfield said.

Self-funding candidates generally tout themselves as being safe from the influence of big-money donors.

On the other hand, It makes running for office feel out of reach for average citizens, said Brune, of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. The danger, she and others say, is that public service will become even more of a millionaires club than it already is, which will mean losing the perspective that regular people can bring to elective office. When you see somebody (self-funding) $50 million, she noted, that can be intimidating.
Republicans are on the cusp of retaking control of the House, just one victory shy of the 218 seats the party needs to secure a majority. Control of the House would give conservatives leverage to blunt President Joe Bidens agenda and spur a flurry of investigations. But a slim numerical advantage will pose immediate challenges for GOP leaders and complicate the partys ability to govern. The full scope of the partys majority may not be clear for several more days  or weeks  as votes in competitive races are still being counted. Still, the party is on track to achieve 218 with seats in California and other states still too early to call.
A funny thing happened to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the way to the exit door: He didnt leave. He may be Dead Man Walking, as many Washington analysts assume. Yet hes still pursuing the same list of quiet but mostly correct diplomatic goals as when took the job 10 months ago.

Tillerson has had a catastrophically bad encounter with official Washington. The White House disdains him; the State Department resents him; the press corps mostly scorns him. Tillerson presses on as if he doesnt care. Many officials claim they dont give a damn about inside the Beltway opinion; Tillerson seems to mean it.

The latest instance of Tillerson clashing with his subordinates, according to Reuters, was a dissent memo from about a dozen foreign-service officers accusing him of giving Iraq, Myanmar and Afghanistan a pass on a federal law opposing the use of child soldiers. Thats just one example of internal criticism from the unhappiest State Department Ive seen in more than 30 years of covering Foggy Bottom.

Tillerson often seems out of sync with President Donald Trump on major issues including North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Lebanon. And White House insiders have been predicting for months that this marriage cant last. Yet it not only continues, but on many areas of supposed disagreement, Trump has ended up adopting, more or less, the diplomatic course that Tillerson recommended.

Tillerson has one secret survival weapon: Hes running a three-legged race, figuratively speaking, alongside Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who respects Tillersons judgment and stays aligned with him through all the palace intrigue. Trump may not be a soulmate with his secretary of state, but hes not going to pick a fight with Mattis.

Two policy areas where Tillersons approach seems to have the presidents support, despite noise to the contrary, are dialogue with China on the North Korea crisis, and cooperation with Russia to stabilize Syria. Administration policy could change at any moment, given the iron whim of the man in the Oval Office. But the persistence of diplomacy is one of the little noted facets of this most undiplomatic presidents first year.

U.S. engagement with China was the centerpiece of Trumps Asia trip this month. But observers overlooked one of Tillersons signature initiatives: During the Beijing visit, the U.S. continued a high-level, secret dialogue with China about how to secure North Koreas nuclear weapons if the regime implodes.

Tillerson lobbies China to encourage talks with the Kim Jong Un regime, even as the administration keeps escalating pressure. Two more turns of the screw came this week: On Monday, Pyongyang was added to the list of state sponsors of terrorism; on Tuesday, the U.S. applied new sanctions to Chinese and North Korean companies. But Tillerson cautioned that even as the U.S. seeks more pressure points, theres no silver bullet.

Asked how the Chinese are helping, a U.S. official noted last weekends visit to Pyongyang by a high-level Chinese emissary. The message was that the administration is still pursuing the Sino-American diplomatic track, along with sanctions and military options.

Trump and Tillerson also share the unpopular but probably inescapable view that the U.S. must work with Russia to stabilize Syria. Russias centrality in the miserable Syrian war was dramatized anew by President Vladimir Putins meeting Monday with President Bashar Assad, who thanked the Russian leader for saving our country. Putin will enhance his leverage as regional broker when he meets Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hasan Rouhani.

Putin has emerged as a dominant player in Syria, and he wants to play the peacemaker there now, but he doesnt hold all the cards. U.S. allies control big swaths of Syrian territory, and theyre the missing pieces of Putins peace process. Tillerson, working with Americas allies, has pushed for a resumption of U.N.-organized peace talks in Geneva. A meeting there is now scheduled for Nov. 28, followed by a gathering in Sochi on Dec. 2. These talks arent a cure-all; but they can help reduce Syrias violence and begin a gradual political transition.

Trump made the Russia connection personal with an hour-long phone call Tuesday with Putin, discussing Syria, Ukraine and North Korea. Trump may get hammered for it, but the conversation was sensible, and it capitalized on Tillersons patient spadework.

Tillerson is famously a former Boy Scout. He talked in 2014 about the character-building value of suffering in silence, during a frog-strangler downpour as a 12-year-old scout. Trump has tested Tillersons determination and dignity, but at Thanksgiving, the secretary of state was still at the table.

David Ignatius

Copyright The Washington Post
Police have issued advice to shoppers to help them avoid falling victim to scams and frauds during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday in particular is a peak time for online fraudsters, on the lookout to part customers with their money, bank details or personal data.

Detective superintendent, James Tozer of Warwickshire Police, said: "With increased numbers of online shoppers making the most of special offers this weekend, fraudsters will be seeking to take advantage. Fortunately, many scams can be avoided with some simple precautions."

Tips for safer online shopping

1.Take five seconds to think before you buy - do you know and trust this retailer? Does this offer look too good to be true? Trust your instincts and if it feels dodgy, it probably is.

2.Check it's a safe website - avoid clicking on links from unsolicited emails. When you visit a website, make sure its web address begins with https (the's' stands for 'secure'). Check there's a padlock symbol in the address bar, which usually indicates a website is secure. If you're using the latest version of your browser, the address bar or the name of the site owner should turn green.

3.Make sure your device's security systems are up to date - remember to frequently update your anti-virus software, which defends against viruses, malware and other online threats.

4.Check who you're paying- never transfer money directly into a seller's bank account; use a secure payment site (like PayPal, for example). Check your credit card or bank statements frequently after online shopping so you can spot any errors or suspicious transactions quickly.

5.Print your receipt and order details - a hard copy can be useful if any disputes arise, or the retailer 'loses' your order after taking your money.

6.Use shared computers wisely - remember to log off fully from all websites you've used during your session. Never allow sites to remember your usernames, passwords or card details on a shared computer.

More information and advice

There are some great sources of information and advice for safer online shopping and transacting:

Cyber Aware (www.cyberaware.gov.uk) gives practical tips, like how to choose secure passwords and update your software to ensure your devices are protected.

Take Five (https://takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/) provides the latest advice on various types of online financial scams and frauds. The organisation works with a wide range of partners in the finance, law, and telecommunications industries.

Action Fraud (www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud) is the UK's national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre. Through their website, or by phoning 0300 123 2040, you can report fraud, attempted fraud, and crime, and receive a police crime reference number.
Todd Talks

By Todd Muller

This week I have returned from Bonn in Germany, where I attended the COP23

Climate Change conference as part of the New Zealand delegation. This was the first time I had attended anything quite like this, and I was struck by the sheer size of the event.

Over 25,000 participants, politicians, corporations and NGOs were tasked with navigating the challenge of moving to a less carbon intensive global system, underpinned by the complexity of aligning the political responses of 190 individual countries.

This is the real test of climate change. How can we genuinely evolve all countries and all economies for the long term benefit of all, rather than evolving the economies of a few at some real risks to those few, while the majority stay stuck in their rhetoric and dont make the necessary changes?

The key question for us is not do we change? but rather how do we change to a lower carbon intensive country in a manner that enhances families, jobs, communities and regions?

We need to avoid evangelical fervour and rhetoric. Now is the time for considered, collaborative cross sector and community conversations that see us change at a pace we can cope with, can succeed in and play our proportional part in the global effort.

I suspect the new governments rhetoric will come hard up against community realism and expectation over the coming months  as it already has on the topics of Manus Island, Pike River and immigration.
Straight from city council

A personal view,

by Councillor Steve Morris

Thats the question Patrick Gower asked Bill English and Jacinda Ardern at a pre-election debate a few months ago. You can judge their answers, but what if the same question was asked of local government politicians?

This week we were presented with the draft rates requirement for the coming year - a 13.6 per cent increase. This figure represents decisions councilors made on projects over the last few months but, more significantly, the rising cost of infrastructure and the failure of the rating system to cope.

Were not alone. Hamilton are discussing a 16.5 per cent increase for the same reasons. Clearly, the days of running a city by invoicing property owners isnt sustainable anymore.

We can do better. Despite claims from some of my colleagues to the contrary, TCC already has the highest average rates of the major centres outside of Auckland.

The excuse that we charge less is a fiction. Rather than giving up and asking you for more, we should exercise the leadership we did last term and direct staff to find savings to bring the increase down to an acceptable level.

There are significant savings to be had by considering if we are too risk focused when building infrastructure, and there are easy wins in canning minor spends such as $210,000 for media advocacy to promote certain types of art.

I believe you elected us to trim the budget into shape before we present it to you. Some dont want to, thats democracy. Well debate this again on December 8. In the meantime, heres a link to promises made last election: https://sunlive.co.nz/tauranga-city-council.html
Gibraltar welcomed a host of international speakers to its 5th annual Literary Festival last week.

More than 3,000 bookworms attended the four-day event that saw an eclectic mix of personalities give talks on everything from fiction and history to comedy and politics.

Staged in historical buildings such as the Garrison Library and the Convent, eight of the talks were sold out making it one of the most popular festivals to date.

According to festival organisers, the most popular event this year was Just a Minute, which was a special version of the long running BBC Radio 4 show, where panel members are challenged to speak for one minute without repetition or deviation on any subject that comes up.

Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, said at the end of the festival: A glowing testament to our festival is the fact that writers ask to be invited back, which speaks volumes about how highly regarded this event has become within the world of words.

For Gibraltar, there is no better way to share our story than to rely on our guests to return home and talk about what they have learnt, seen and done while they have been here.

Other famous faces giving talks included politician Ann Widdecombe, explorer Colonel John Blashford Snell and author and comedian Tony Hawks. The latter talked about how he hitchhiked around Ireland with a fridge, leading to a subsequent book and film about his adventure.

The festival also featured a one day writing work shop, and a talk by Kate Adie, an English journalist who used to be the chief news correspondent for BBC News.

During the festival there was plenty of opportunity for interaction between authors and audiences, as people were able to purchase the books on sale at the different venues and then have them signed personally by the authors after each event, with an extra chance for exchanging views and impressions on the talk.
The Michelin Guide for Spain and Portugal 2018 was officially presented in Tenerife this week and, as expected, Malaga province can boast another star, this time for Bardal, Benito Gomez's restaurant in Ronda which was previously the prestigious Tragabuches.

In this new venture, Gomez places the emphasis on local produce, reinvented tradition and deep and recognisable flavours. The inspectors from the Michelin Guide said they had been completely surprised by the authenticity and freedom of style which combine to perfection creative gastronomy with the finest interiorism.

Thanks to this recognition, Bardal joins Dani Garcia, who has two Michelin stars, Jose Carlos Garcia Restaurante, El Lago, Skina, Messina, Sollo and Kabuki Raw in the list of shining stars of Malaga cuisine. Dani Garcia was particularly pleased with the news: I am especially delighted because that was the place where I began and these are people with whom I have spent many hours in the kitchen, he said.

Malaga, at the forefront

Jose Carlos Garcia said he was proud that Malaga had retained its existing Michelin stars, but stressed that we have to keep working for more; there are other chefs in the province who could achieve it. Malaga is at the forefront, he said, and he is convinced that there are many worthy ideas and much impressive talent in the area.

Diego Gallegos (from Sollo) agreed. The more stars we have, the more we make this a destination for tourism and gastronomy, he said. Andalucia benefits from every Michelin star, referring to the interest in the new guide every year and the rush to book tables in the featured restaurants.

Marcos Granda (Skina) stressed that nobody can afford to be blase. This requires constant work, he said. He declared himself delighted with the way Skina is going, and is excited about his new project, Clos, in Madrid, which opens in early December. This is a really good time for Andalucia, he said.

Like the other Michelin starred chefs, Francisco Garcia (El Lago) could barely hide his delight at retaining his star. This is excellent news for Malaga. We are all pleased that Andalucia and Malaga are growing in this way, he said.

Bib Gourmand

There was more good news for Malaga province at the presentation, as well: more restaurants have now been included in the Bib Gourmand category, for good food costing less than 35 euros. There were already two of these (BiBo Marbella and Figon de Juan), but they have now been joined by Aderezzo (a sister establishment to Skina in Marbella), El Palangre restaurant in Estepona and Platero & Co, which is in Gaucin.
A row has broken out between the interior ministry, lawyers and NGOs over the decision to hold nearly 500 illegal immigrants in the new Archidona prison in inland Malaga province, which is due to open in January. According to Spanish law, migrants can only be held in internment centres while their deportation papers are processed, not in jails.

The situation arose after hundreds of immigrants arrived in small boats off the coasts of Murcia and Almeria last Thursday. According to reports, the police went to court on Sunday morning and asked the judge for permission to admit them to the 'Centro de Internamiento de Extranjeros de Archidona', in other words referring to an internment centre for foreigners, and not to a jail. The judge agreed. A lawyer assisting the immigrants has said that neither he nor they were told that they were to be taken to a prison.

Related stories Red Cross struggles with double the number of migrants arriving in Malaga

The mayor of Archidona, Mercedes Montero, received a call on Sunday morning from security minister, Jose Antonio Nieto, to advise her that the prison was going to be used provisionally and as an exceptional measure to house the immigrants, and that they would be arriving soon. No date was given, so she says she was surprised when 464 of them were transferred to the jail on Monday.

On the same day, the interior ministry issued a press release, in which it referred to the prison as a centre and used the word rooms instead of cells. The jail was officially announced as such in the Official State Bulletin (BOE) on 18 March, but there is some debate about whether this applies while it is brand new and has never been occupied by prisoners.

The haste with which the immigrants were sent to Archidona caused considerable logistical problems. Internment centres may only be guarded by police officers, not prison officers, so those who had started working at Archidona to prepare for the arrival of the first prisoners in January had to be sent back to their previous places of work and others who were due to join them were told not to do so.

The interior ministry also had to ask for police officers to volunteer to guard the jail while the immigrants are being kept there, but many of those who did so will not be able to start work until next week.

When the immigrants arrived on Monday there was no food or drink available for them, not even water, because the tap water is not suitable for domestic consumption. The mayor of Archidona says the town does not supply water to the jail, and although it has its own treatment plant this has not yet been authorised for use.

On Tuesday the interior ministry remedied this situation by sending 2,000 food portions and thousands of bottles of water to the prison for the immigrants. Two doctors and support staff were also assigned to the prison, and Red Cross workers are expected to join them this week.

The government insists that, although the regulations do not permit immigrants to be held in jails, there are exceptions to this in situations where no other solution is available, and that this is laid down in an EU directive.

In face of the criticism, interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said that this solution was infinitely preferable to setting up a temporary camp. His ministry also says that although the authorities are permitted to keep the immigrants for up to 60 days while their deportation papers are being processed, in this case it should be completed within 40 days.

The situation has caused an outcry among charities and around 30 of them, including SOS Racismo, Andalucia Acoge, ProDerechos Humanos de Andalucia and Servicio Jesuita de Migrantes, have made an official complaint to the Andalusian Ombudsman, Jesus Maetzu, who said he was surprised and concerned by the government's decision.

The Junta de Andalucia has warned that a jail is not a suitable place for immigrants and the PSOE and Unidos Podemos political parties have described the move as illegal.
Malaga. National Police officers have arrested a 64-year-old British man in connection with alleged sexual abuse against two seven-year-old girls. The man taught English at a private language school in Estepona where the two girls were pupils, SUR confirmed on Thursday.

The investigation began when the girls' mothers reported the abuse to police, after their daughters told them that their English teacher had been touching them, said sources.

Investigations were launched and the teacher was arrested.

The suspect is married with children and grandchildren and apparently has no criminal record.
SUR in English and Linea Directa called on the expertise of Pedro Fernandez this week for another essential expat advice seminar on the subject of taxation.

After the success of the seminar held at the recent Home Fair in Marbella, this week's event took place at the town hall offices in La Cala, in collaboration with the Mijas Foreign Residents Department.

Fernandez, a tax partner at the Garrigues law firm who has been dealing with foreign residents' tax management affairs for 20 years, spoke of the different Spanish taxes that affect people of all nationalities who come to live in Spain, or who simply own a property here.

Issues such as inheritance tax and wealth tax - about which Fernandez detailed the good, the bad and the controversial sides to the Spanish system - raised numerous questions and comments from the guests attending the event, who represented several nationalities.
Few people can say that they are not aware of the problem of violence suffered by women at the hands of their present or former partners, not just in Spain, but in countries across Europe and the world.

Tomorrow, Saturday 25 November, is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and events have been taking place over the last few days and weeks to raise public awareness of the problem and of the responsibility of society as a whole to help eradicate it.

A march in support of the elimination of violence against women begins in the Plaza de la Constitucion in central Malaga at 12pm on Saturday 25 November

The Malaga provincial government has launched a campaign this year in collaboration with the Bar Association to take the message to all the towns and villages in the province.

The provincial government president, Elias Bendodo, and representatives of all the political groups got together with mayors from around the province on Wednesday, to show that the fight against domestic, or gender, violence knows no political nor geographical boundaries.

Signs to demonstrate that there is no place for violence, in the form of a no-entry traffic sign in the shape of a broken heart, have been placed in strategic positions in towns and villages around the province.

The president of the Malaga association of lawyers, Francisco Javier Lara, stressed the need to speed up the judicial system for domestic violence, saying that cases are taking a minimum of seven months to reach court.

Women can't wait that long, he said on Wednesday after providing a cold statistic. Last year 4,208 women were given help by duty lawyers in cases considered to be domestic violence.

This, added Rosa Galindo of the Malaga Ahora party, is only the tip of an iceberg of everyday situations of rape, humiliation and all types of harassment that women suffer.

Another issue discussed was the need for more public financing for policies and measures to combat violence in a domestic situation.

Resources are never enough, said Bendodo, But we are negotiating an increase in the 2018 budget for this area, he added referring to the Diputacion provincial authority,

He provided more chilling statistics that he described as outrageous and unacceptable: 44 women and eight children have been murdered this year in Spain in cases of domestic violence.

Campaigns have been active at all levels this week, from town hall initiatives to central government campaigns and schools, where values of equality and respect have been delivered to children of all ages.

A march in support of the elimination of violence against women begins in the Plaza de la Constitucion in central Malaga at 12pm on Saturday.
Convicted on Thursday of taking indecent liberties with a minor, an Austinville man was sentenced to jail time and will have to register as a sex offender.

James Scott Pearman, 42, pleaded no contest to the June 26 felony charge stemming from a Virginia State Police investigation. As part of a plea agreement, the commonwealth dropped another indecent liberties count.

According to a special prosecutor, Pearman exposed his genitals to a child, identified in court documents as a 14-year-old girl.

Pearmans case was supposed to go to a grand jury in January 2018 for consideration, but on Thursday Pearman waived his right to have the jurors consider the charges and entered his no contest plea.

Jailed since his arrest, Pearman was sentenced to serve seven months in jail and will be given credit for time served while awaiting trial.

After his release, hell be on probation for two years, during which time hell waive his Fourth Amendment protections, which means police can search him or his property at any time without a warrant. He was also ordered to have no contact with the victim or her family and to have no contact with minors without his probation officers approval.

In other Circuit Court cases heard on Nov. 16:

Crystal Lynette Crouse, 39, of Rural Retreat pleaded guilty to charges of attempted unlawful wounding, being a felon in possession of a firearm and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, which was reduced from felony child endangerment.

According to an evidence summary, Crouse was arrested after deputies responded to a shots fired call at the residence of Crouses estranged husband on June 18.

Police said that Crouse appeared to be intoxicated and was struggling with deputies. Her husband said that she had come to the residence to retrieve some items while he waited on the porch.

While inside with a 4-year-old child, Crouse fired a rifle with the bullet hitting near the husband, a prosecutor said.

Crouse, who has been jailed while awaiting trial, was sentenced to serve two years and will be on probation for two years after her release.

Convicted of June 7 grand larceny and burglary charges, 20-year-old Matthew Gene Hatchell of Ivanhoe was given a seven-year suspended prison sentence and will be on probation for three years.

Jailed since his arrest, Hatchell has similar pending charges in South Carolina, according to court testimony.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Destiny USA shoppers can help turn Black Friday into green Friday.

A Central New York nonprofit has partnered with Onondaga County programs to attempt to earn a Guinness World Records title for the most reusable shopping bags distributed in 24 hours.

Mainstream Green, of Camillus, in partnership with Onondaga County's Block Litter program and Covanta Onondaga will give away 5,100 free reusable shopping bags to 5,100 adults at Destiny USA on Friday.

The giveaway, which is sponsored by Trader Joes, Destiny USA and Embassy Suites Syracuse Destiny USA, will start at 9 a.m. Friday at Destiny USA behind Santa on the lower level.

To receive a bag, guests must be an adult over the age of 18. Only one bag will be given to each person. Guests must give basic information, sign a form with a photo/video release on it and have his or her photo taken.

Americans use about 720,000 plastic bags every minutes, according to Mainstream Green.

"We can't recycle enough of them," the nonprofit said in a news release. "Reusable shopping bags are much better for the planet and all creatures on it."
Syracuse-born rapper Post Malone spent his Thanksgiving holiday responding to backlash over comments he made earlier this week about hip-hop music.

The 22-year-old hitmaker, whose song "Rockstar" has been No. 1 on the charts for the past 6 weeks, appeared in a video interview with a Poland music publication on Monday where he said he doesn't find a lot of emotion in his genre of choice.

"If you're looking for lyrics, if you're looking to cry, if you're looking to think about life, don't listen to hip-hop," Malone said. "There's great hip-hop songs where they talk about life and they spit that real s---, but right now, there's not a lot of people talking about real sh---. Whenever I want to cry, whenever I want to sit down and have a nice cry, I'll listen to some Bob Dylan."

Malone added that he likes hip-hop when he wants "to have a good time and stay in a positive mood... Because it's fun. I think hip-hop is important because it brings people together in a beautiful, happy way."

The comments were met with criticism from hip-hop fans and fellow rappers, including Lil B and Vince staples. Malone, who first emerged on the scene in 2015 with "White Iverson," has previously been accused of appropriating black culture but he has frequently brushed it off.

Malone was born Austin Post in Syracuse in 1995 and lived in Central New York until he was 10, when his family moved to Dallas. He credits his father, who briefly worked as a DJ in Syracuse, for introducing him to a wide variety of music, including country, grunge, modern hip-hop and classic rock.

On Thursday, he blamed his controversial comments about hip-hop music on alcohol.

"Apparently there's a lot of people saying that I don't appreciate hip-hop or that hip-hop has never made me feel anything," Malone said in a video posted on Twitter. "It was a beer-tasting interview, so they put a lot of beer in my face and asked me what kind of beer tastes good to me, so you know, knowing me, I drank it. And apparently I said that whenever you wanna feel something, don't listen to hip-hop. And it's funny because who the f--- am I to tell you don't listen to this and whenever you wanna feel something don't listen to this? Or who am I to tell you that you should feel a certain way when listening to something?"

"A lot of people saying that I don't appreciate hip-hop, or I'm taking advantage of hip-hip. My last hip-hop album was f---ing hip-hop," he added. "My next hip-hop album is f---ing hip-hop. I love hip-hop. I make hip-hop. I wanna take this genre and stretch it so far that people who may not listen to it, listen to it, and wanna listen to the new artists and whatever's going on."

Malone announced last week that his sophomore album "Beerbongs and Bentleys," featuring "Rockstar," will be available Dec. 1.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Three Syracuse men and a teen were charged with criminal possession of a handgun and other crimes early this morning following a car chase through the city's South Side that ended when the suspects' vehicle slammed into a tree.

Three police officers were dispatched at 12:05 a.m. to the 1400 block of South McBride Street in response to reports of a suspicious group of males with a handgun leaving the area in a Chrysler Sebring, police said.

When officers attempted to pull the car over, the vehicle took off, police said. The chase ended when the car struck a tree in the 800 block of South Geddes Street, police said. A loaded .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver was found in the road next to the car, police said.

The four occupants of the car were arrested following a foot chase, police said.

The driver of the car, Stefan Ragland, 23, of 100 Rigi St., was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon; criminal possession of a firearm; fourth-degree conspiracy; fourth-degree criminal mischief; unlawful fleeing of a police officer; and reckless driving.

Simeon Marshall, left, and Rakim Gunn, right, were among four people charged today with weapon possession and conspiracy.

Police said the three passengers in the car were Rakim Gunn, 16, of 302 Merriman Ave.; Quincy Durham, 39, of 110 Angelou Terrace; and Simeon Marshall, 19, of 4300 S. Salina St.

Gunn, Durham and Marshall were each charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon; criminal possession of a firearm; and fourth-degree conspiracy.

The police officers involved in the arrests were Joel Dorchester, David Craw and Joseph Moran.

The suspects were taken to the Onondaga County Justice Center jail pending arraignment.

Contact reporter Tim Knauss | email | Twitter | 315-470-3023
To the Editor:

In 1993, as a U.S. Public Health Service Officer, I was part of a team assessing how U.S. government humanitarian aid was being spent in Bosnia. In our tour, Bosnian Muslims told us again and again almost unbelievable stories about the extreme sadism of their Serbian foes. One example reported repeatedly was how Serb snipers knew that people would not risk themselves to help an injured adult, thus they would systematically shoot children in the legs as bait, so they could kill others who would come to help the injured child. Because this was reported with such vitriol, and since no one could show us examples, we were not sure what to think of the claims.

On an August morning, I walked into the surgical recovery ward in the Kosovo Hospital, the principal surgical facility in Sarajevo. In a city where children under 12 had largely been sent away and constituted perhaps 10 percent of the population, almost all of the roughly 15 recovering patients were children who had been shot in the legs. Those wounded children made manifest the most profound human evil I have ever seen in a career of working in war zones.

The

in the International Criminal Court of Ratko Mladic, the commander of those Serb snipers, is a major positive step in drawing the boundaries of human decency. If we want to be part of the global effort to define that decency, this week's events should inspire the U.S. to consider joining the 120 members of the ICC.

Les Roberts, Ph.D.

Cincinnatus

The writer, a 1979 graduate of Westhill High School, is director of the Program on Forced Migration and Health at Columbia University.
Onondaga County is poised to join more than a dozen communities in New York state that ban the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of 21.



"Tobacco 21" is a wise public health measure that will give teens a few more years of experience, maturity and understanding of the adverse health impacts of smoking before they decide if they want to start.



The Onondaga County Legislature will vote next month on the proposal. We urge lawmakers to approve it.



Fifty-three years after the U.S. Surgeon General's report on the dangers of smoking, there is no argument about the fact that it causes cancer, lung and heart disease. It is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and costs New York state $10 billion in health care expenses annually.



It is also well-known that the nicotine in tobacco products is addictive. Once you start smoking, it's incredibly hard to quit. Tobacco 21 aims to break the cycle by making it harder for teens to start smoking in the first place.



Right now, you must be 19 to buy tobacco products in Onondaga County. So how do teens obtain cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and "vaping" products? They get their older friends to buy for them. Advocates of Tobacco 21 argue that it is unlikely a 21-year-old will be hanging out with younger teens in high school and middle school. Thus, raising the purchasing age removes a key source of tobacco products for younger kids.



Twenty-one is a key age for other reasons. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 95 percent of smokers start before age 21. If you get to age 21 without ever having smoked, you are not likely to start.



Despite vigorous statewide anti-smoking campaigns and health education in schools, youth smoking is a problem in Onondaga County. One in five 11th graders and 13 percent of 9th graders have smoked a cigarette, according to Prevention Network's 2012-13 youth survey. Smoking rates for adults in the county are higher than the state average.



The introduction of e-cigarettes reversed the downward trend in youth smoking. Use of e-cigarettes by high school students doubled between 2014 and 2016, to 20 percent, according to the New York State Department of Health. There is not yet consensus on whether vaping is "safer" than cigarettes, but we should be concerned about nicotine's effects on young, developing brains, no matter how it is delivered.



This gets to the question of whether we ought to be telling 19- to 21-year-olds who are old enough to vote and join the military that they can't buy tobacco products. The answer is yes. We already tell them they can't buy alcohol until age 21, when they presumably are more mature and can make better judgments about its consumption. Tobacco products arguably are worse than alcohol - there are no positive health benefits, and even moderate use of tobacco products can lead to negative health consequences.



It is important to note that penalties for violating the law will fall on the retailers who sell tobacco products, not the young people who try to buy them.



Tobacco 21 won't prevent every Onondaga County teen from obtaining tobacco products - they will still be available from surrounding counties and from Native American sellers. However, it will make it a lot harder.



Tobacco 21: Time to stand up to the tobacco industry (Commentary)
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Despite a warning from the Food and Drug Administration about the dangers of codeine, doctors still continue to prescribe the opioid medication to children after undergoing surgeries, a new study finds.

Codeine Prescriptions

Back in 2013, the FDA issued an official safety announcement, which warned against the use of codeine in children who underwent tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy.

Since then, the number of codeine prescriptions managed to drop by around 13 percent. However, in the new study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers found that around 5 percent or one in 20 children was still getting the drug to treat their pain since December 2015.

Researchers came to this conclusion after reviewing over 300,000 cases of children who had their tonsils and adenoids removed between 2010 and 2015.

Codeine

Codeine is an opioid painkiller used to treat mild to moderately severe pain. The drug is also used along with other medication as a cough suppressant. According to the FDA, doctors prescribed the drug to about 1.7 million patients under the age of 17 in 2011 alone.

Codeine used to be the drug of choice for treating kids after tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. However, after the FDA received 13 reports of children who died as a result of the drug, they decided to issue a strong warning against its use.

Unsafe And Ineffective

Many of those children who died from codeine overdose are known to have "ultra-rapid metabolizers" of codeine. This means that their liver can change codeine into morphine faster and completely than others, and their blood is more likely to contain higher levels of morphine.

Kao-Ping Chua, an assistant professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases at the University of Michigan and lead author of the study, said that while some children can rapidly metabolize codeine into morphine in their liver, other children can't, which makes the drug not only unsafe but also ineffective.

Chua added that many children do not experience severe pain after having their tonsils and adenoids removed. They can usually manage with other "safer and more effective alternatives" like ibuprofen or acetaminophen. If they require something stronger, doctors can prescribe either hydrocodone or oxycodone.

Tonsillectomy And Adenoidectomy

A tonsillectomy is a surgical procedure that involves removing the tonsils, which are small round glands located in the back of the mouth. Adenoidectomy, on the other hand, is a procedure to remove the adenoids, which are similar to tonsils but they are located above the mouth.

Doctors recommend tonsillectomy for children who usually have recurring tonsillitis or strep infections including swollen tonsils that make it hard for them to breathe during sleep and eat chewy food.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A loud boom-like noise shook parts of Lakewood, Brighton, Lochbuie, and Elizabeth in Colorado on Monday night. The sound, which residents described as an explosion, has left authorities baffled.

Mysterious Noise Baffles Residents

The boom was reportedly first heard around 9 p.m., local time, on Nov. 20. It was so loud that some people in the vicinity stated that their house and windows shook during the incident.

A few residents took to Facebook to report the matter, while several others called up Denver7, the local news channel, to describe the noise.

"It was just like boom and the trailer shook, and I thought, 'what the heck was that?, said Ray Armijo, a resident who has served in the military. "It kind of scared me a bit.

Armijo also added that the sound did not seem to come from the ground but rather from the air. Another resident, Aleja Moronez, claimed that the noise was so loud that it moved things in her room and some posters fell off the wall.

Lochbuie Police Chief, Tracey McCoy, said that he contacted both the Buckley Air Force Base and Federal Aviation Administration, however, they were carrying out no operations in the area at that time that could have contributed to the sound. The Brighton Fire Department also received several calls from worried residents, but they too could not locate the source.

Booms Also Heard In Other Parts Of United States

Colorado is not the only U.S. state, where residents of several towns have reported hearing explosion-like sounds. In the past few days, the booms have also been heard in New Jersey, Alabama, Idaho, and Detroit.

The residents of the areas are now speculating about the cause of the noise, now referred to as Bama Boom, with some attributing it to active meteor showers, deep earthquake, and even an alien invasion.

The Birmingham National Weather Service originally hypothesized that the sound could have come from a supersonic aircraft or that a meteor, from the Leonid meteor shower, which peaked on Nov. 17 and 18, could have broken the sound barrier. The latter, however, was refuted by the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, Bill Cooke.

Cooke said that the noise could have been caused by a ground explosion, supersonic aircraft, or probably a bolide, which is a large meteor that explodes in the atmosphere, but is unrelated to the Leonid meteor shower.

The U.S. Geological Survey's Lakeview Retreat near Centreville, Alabama had also picked up a boom sound. However, seismic data indicated that the boom was not the result of an earthquake-related event.

At present, authorities are still investigating the incidents and are trying to figure out the actual reason that led to the booms, which have been heard at various points throughout the month.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Galaxy S9, Samsung's next flagship smartphone after the Galaxy Note 8, could make its first public appearance as soon as on January 2018, at the annual CES trade show.

There have been a lot of rumors on the upcoming smartphone, but it is unclear how much Samsung will reveal about the Galaxy S9 at CES 2018. Samsung fans, however, should not expect a lot of significant upgrades for the device compared to its predecessor.

Samsung Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+ At CES 2018

According to VentureBeat's Evan Blass, a source with knowledge of Samsung's plans told him that the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are scheduled to be first seen in public in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The reliable leaker was able to obtain some detail regarding the upcoming smartphones, but Blass added that Samsung will still hold an official launch event for the Galaxy S9 in March similar to what it did for the Galaxy S8.

Samsung Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+ Specs

The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are described as "iterative updates" to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, compared to the radical redesign offered by their predecessors with the introduction of the bezel-less design and the Infinity Display. The Galaxy S9 will have a 5.8-inch display and the Galaxy S9+ will have a 6.2-inch display, similar to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.

However, while the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ only differed in screen size, it will be a different matter for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. According to Blass' source, the Galaxy S9+ will have more RAM at 6 GB, compared to 4 GB for the Galaxy S9, and will have a second rear camera similar to the Galaxy Note 8.

Specifications and features shared by the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, meanwhile, include an expandable 64 GB internal memory, the headphone jack, AKG stereo speakers, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 or a similar Exynos processor.

One more important change coming to the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ is that the fingerprint scanner will be moved below the rear-facing camera. This will address one of the biggest complaints on the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ and Galaxy Note 8, which had the fingerprint sensor in a horizontal orientation beside the camera.

Samsung Galaxy S9 Rumors

Leaked Galaxy S9 benchmark scores show that the smartphone falls short in challenging Apple's iPhone X in terms of performance, but the results may still change until the smartphone's official launch. Reports also claim that there will be no Galaxy S9 3D facial recognition system.

One other major rumor is that a Galaxy S9 Mini is in the works. Will we also see this smaller model at CES 2018?

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
You may want to add more cinnamon to the meals you're preparing this holiday season. Findings of a new study have shown that the popular spice can boost metabolism and may aid in weight loss.

Cinnamon And Cinnamaldehyde

Cinnamon, a popular ingredient used in mulled wine, pumpkin spice lattes and egg-nog, has also been associated with reducing risk for diabetes, relieving symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, and lowering cholesterol levels.

In a study published in the December 2017 issue of the journal Metabolism, Jun Wu, of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan, and colleagues looked into the effect of cinnamaldehyde on fat cells of mice and humans. Cinnamaldehyde, is the essential oil responsible for the flavor and color of cinnamon.

Fat Cells

Fat cells, also known as adipocytes, store energy in the form of lipids. Our distant ancestors benefited from this long-term storage since there was a greater need to store fat at the time when high-fat foods were scarce. The body uses fat in times of scarcity or in cold temperatures.

"It's only been relatively recently that energy surplus has become a problem," Wu said.

The researchers found that exposure to cinnamon oil triggered the mouse and human cells to burn energy through the process of thermogenesis, which burns calories to generate heat and keep the body warm.

Cinnamon As Treatment For Obesity

The potentials of cinnamon for treating obesity are promising given the obesity epidemic that the world faces. Figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 36.5 percent of adults in the United States are obese.

The condition has been linked to a range of health problems and diseases, which include heart disease, stroke, and cancer. In one study, researchers found that weight problem is one of the top factors that contribute to the development of cancer.

Since cinnamon is already widely used in the food industry, researchers said that it may be easier to convince patients to stick to a cinnamon-based treatment compared with a traditional drug regimen. Cinnamon may offer an approach to metabolic health that patients may find easier to adhere to.

"Given the wide usage of cinnamon in the food industry, the notion that this popular food additive, instead of a drug, may activate thermogenesis, could ultimately lead to therapeutic strategies against obesity that are much better adhered to by participants," researchers wrote in their study.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Not long ago, the Galaxy A5 (2018) has been confirmed to boast an Infinity Display, just like the Galaxy S8.

Now leaked case renders of the anticipated smartphone are making the rounds online, giving a closer look at what to expect from Samsung's upcoming midrange device with a flagship feature.

Galaxy A5 (2018) Catches Eyes With Infinity Display

The UK retailer Mobile Fun jumped the gun and posted Galaxy A5 (2018) renders for all to see, and for the record, the brand of the cases is Olixar.

At that, there's the FlexiShield Gel Case in blue, solid black, and purple, as well as the Ultra-Thin clear case (pictured above).

Sure, it's good to see that nice-looking accessories are making their way out, but the main takeaway here is the phone that's inside them.

If these renders turn out to be true in the end, then that means the fingerprint scanner of the Galaxy A5 (2018) will be placed in the rear, which is the result of having a bezel-less design with the Infinity Display.

On that note, it's not awkwardly placed beside the primary camera, an unfortunate layout for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 that many users didn't exactly appreciate. Samsung's solution was supposedly an under-display fingerprint reader, but it didn't work out. That's a whole different story, though.

As for a release date, these shouldn't be taken as an indication that it's close. However, based on history, it's not a stretch to believe that the South Korean brand might roll out the Galaxy A (2018) lineup sometime in January since it did launch the Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) in that month too.

Speaking of which, the word in town is that Samsung might take the wraps off the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus in January too at the Consumer Electronics Show or CES 2018 in Las Vegas. They might steal the thunder away from the Galaxy A (2018), but that's not surprising considering that they're the company's flagships, after all.

The Bottom Line

To sum things up, Galaxy A5 (2018) renders provide a glimpse of the Samsung midrange smartphone, giving away a pretty good detail regarding the fingerprint scanner's placement. But more importantly, it shows the Infinity Display in all its glory.

Also, while there's no clear reason why these case renders shouldn't be the real deal, it's still recommended to take them with a grain of salt, for good measure.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Korean won strengthened past W1,100 against the U.S. dollar for the first time in more than a year, closing at W1,097.5 Friday.

The won has appreciated nearly nine percent against the greenback since the start of 2017, including a four-percent rise in the last three months thanks to easing geopolitical tensions and strong economic fundamentals. A new currency swap deal between Korea and Canada on Wednesday also played a part in driving up demand for the currency.

Most experts say that if the economy keeps growing at the current pace, the won will continue to rise. But a stronger won means more pressure for Korean exporters as it raises the prices of goods sold abroad.

A Bank of Korea official said that officials are closely monitoring the markets because the won has risen so quickly.
Cuba said its foreign minister met with his North Korean counterpart in Havana on Wednesday and both rejected the United States' "unilateral and arbitrary" demands while expressing concern about escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea is searching for support amid unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

The country, which has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, has maintained warm political relations with the island just 90 miles (145 km) south since 1960, despite Cuba's opposition to nuclear weapons.

Some diplomats said Cuba was also one of the few countries that might be able to convince North Korea to move away from the current showdown with the United States that threatens war.

The ministers called for "respect for people's sovereignty" and "the peaceful settlement of disputes," according to a statement released by the Cuban foreign ministry.

"They strongly rejected the unilateral and arbitrary lists and designations established by the U.S. government which serve as a basis for the implementation of coercive measures which are contrary to international law," the statement said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has also increased pressure on Cuba since taking office, rolling back a fragile detente begun by predecessor Barack Obama and returning to the hostile rhetoric of the Cold War.

The U.S. State Department was not immediately available for comment. "On the situation on the Korean Peninsula, they expressed concern about the escalation of tensions," the statement read.

"The ministers discussed the respective efforts carried out in the construction of socialism according to the realities inherent to their respective countries."

The two Communist-run countries are the last in the world to maintain Soviet-style command economies, though under President Raul Castro, the Caribbean nation has taken some small steps toward the more market-oriented communism of China and Vietnam.

Cuba maintains an embassy in North Korea, but publicly trades almost exclusively with the South. Last year, trade with the latter was $67 million and with the North just $9 million, according to the Cuban government.


It was two weeks before Thanksgiving 1987 when Reginald Brown overheard a conversation that would forever change the way he  and many people in Baton Rouge  spend the holiday.

Brown, then an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriffs deputy, was eating at the Inn on the Lake restaurant while two people sitting nearby talked about how Baton Rouge could use a free Thanksgiving dinner for the needy. Brown, who spent much of his spare time volunteering, jumped into their conversation and decided to help coordinate such a meal.

I thought it would be one and done, said Brown, who is now the city constable.

But the diners who came to that first Thanksgiving Day feast were hungry for more. Brown, who would become president of a volunteer group called the Holiday Helpers of Baton Rouge, agreed to put on the meal again the next year, and every year after that  until this year.

The volunteers who prepare and serve food at the event, which has long been held at the Raising Cane's River Center downtown, are dedicated. So much so, Brown said, that many of them have stuck with Holiday Helpers until they simply can no longer work the event, which provides upwards of 1,000 meals each year.

Brown looked for help from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which also has been offering a Thanksgiving Day meal since the 1980s. On Thursday, St. Vincent de Paul was in charge of two events  one at its dining room off Florida Boulevard, and the other at the River Center  that together gave hot meals to about 1,600 people.

Holiday Helpers has done so much for this community, and our job is to keep that tradition of excellence and serving, said Michael Acaldo, president and CEO of St. Vincent de Paul, an organization that helps the poor and homeless.

A partnership of sorts already had been in place between the two groups.

Anything that was left over  whether it was ice cream, green beans, whatever it may have been  (Brown) would bring that to St. Vincent de Paul for Thanksgiving weekend because thats a very busy weekend for us, Acaldo said.

Just before lunchtime at the River Center on Thursday, Holiday Helpers officially passed the torch to St. Vincent de Paul in a brief ceremony. Brown was on hand at the event, smiling as he greeted long-time volunteers and diners alike with handshakes and hugs.

Many of the Holiday Helpers still volunteered this year, putting the number of people working at both meals at 450, according to Acaldo. The boost in help was welcome, he said, because St. Vincent de Paul is still seeing an increased need  not just for food, but also for clothing and shelter  following the catastrophic August 2016 flood and a spike in homelessness in Baton Rouge.

Acaldo expects the St. Vincent de Paul dining room to serve a record-high 250,000 meals this year, a figure that includes daily hot lunches and brown-bag suppers. Demand for the organizations services tends to be highest around holidays.

Congregation BNai Israel donated the bulk of the turkeys served at both meals on Thursday, and some were carved the afternoon before in a contest featuring elected officials and other local leaders. Volunteers donning plastic aprons and gloves guided people to seats in the crowded dining rooms and handed them plates brimming with turkey, dressing, vegetables and dessert.

We get to see the true spirit of Thanksgiving  people that want to give and are very thankful for all of the good fortune in their lives, and they want to share that good fortune with those who need that helping hand up, Acaldo said.

At St. Vincent de Paul, Lynley Dornier and her 18-year-old son, Bailey Luckett, were volunteering for their 12th year. Dornier said she wanted to bring up her son with a ritual of service on the holiday.

We see how blessed we are, Dornier said as she worked the serving line, adding that a smile and kind word can mean a lot to people who find themselves in need of a meal from the dining room.

Volunteers at the River Center had similar stories. Patti White, a Brusly resident and 19-year Holiday Helpers veteran, said she started volunteering at the meal after the death of her mother, who always invited people in need to Thanksgiving dinner.

I never knew what my mom was doing with so many strangers until working at the Holiday Helpers event, White said.

Bringing people who dont know one another together is a hallmark of the event, Brown said. Some people come because they need the food; some long to be in the company of others on the holiday.

Maxie Causey came all the way from Ethel with several family members for the meal, the first time she attended in more than 10 years.

Were eating with everybody in the city  thats what I really like about it, Causey said.

Brown said he is certain the future of the Thanksgiving meal is in good hands with St. Vincent de Paul, which also will be taking on the Holiday Helpers toy collection drives for Christmas and Easter.

Realizing that you have an organization that is structured, prepared and able like St. Vincent de Paul  it makes me feel very good, Brown said.
A Canberra man and his girlfriend fronted court on Friday accused of dealing cannabis from a bedroom they shared in his parent's house.

Oliver Mitchell Lloyd, 25, and Michaela Norris, 23, appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court where both were granted bail.

The Canberra couple have not entered pleas. Credit:Rohan Thomson

In a statement outside court, police said they searched the Nicholls home on Thursday and found three kilograms of cannabis and more than $13,000 in cash.

Officers also seized property allegedly "supporting drug distribution" and a car as tainted property.
Those arguments have cut no ice: the opponents insist that the film will hurt the honor of Rajputs, a warrior caste of North India for whom Padmavati is a symbol of pride and honor.

The filmmakers have repeatedly said the protesters should watch the movie before concluding that it hurts Hindu sentiment and denied that it depicts a romantic scene between the Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji and Padmavati -- the rumor that fanned the protests.

The violent protests have raised questions about an assault on the right of artistic and creative expression and concerns that Hindu fringe groups have been emboldened with the Hindu nationalist BJP in power.

A regional legislator of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced a $1.5 million reward to behead the heroine, actress Deepika Padukone, and acclaimed Bollywood filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The group spearheading the protests, Rajput Karni Sena, has attacked a cinema that showed the film's trailer, threatened to cut off the heroine's nose and vowed to block the film.

But the film's producers have indefinitely delayed its release amid fierce protests and violent threats by right-wing Hindu groups who charge the movie distorts history and depicts a romantic scene between Muslim king Alauddin Khilji and Padmavati, the Hindu queen, who historians say is fictional.

The Bollywood film Padmavati, a period epic depicting the story of a 14th century Hindu queen and a Muslim ruler, was one of the year's most awaited movies.

While the BJP government in New Delhi has distanced itself from the controversy, several leaders of BJP-ruled states have joined the chorus of protest with three chief ministers announcing the movie will not be screened in their states. "We believe in freedom of speech and expression, but any foul play with our great culture is not tolerated," said the chief minister of Gujarat state, Vijay Rupani.

Political analyst Satish Misra with the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi questions why authorities have not acted against those threatening violence. "It is the government's responsibility to keep the environment secure so that people can be creative, whether it is poetry or filmmaking," he said.

Historians have been taken aback by claims that the film distorts history and point out that there is no clear evidence that Padmavati existed. They say she became the stuff of folklore after she was extolled in a 16th century Sufi epic poem, "Padmavat," as a beautiful queen who committed "Jauhar," a medieval practice in which women of royal households walked into funeral pyres to avoid being taken captive.

But their repeated assertions have made no impact on the Karni Sena, whose members belong to the caste claiming its lineage from queen Padmavati. "Am I a ghost? I'm a descendant. Then how can anyone even question the existence of our family?" said the group's head, Lokendra Singh Kalvi.

Earlier this year the group vandalized the sets during the film's shooting and assaulted the director.

Puzzled by the outcry over the movie, historian Rana Safvi said people have stopped investigating. "They just like to believe whatever they have heard. Venting their anger at a filmmaker or maybe a story teller, or a writer, these are very easy targets, soft targets," she said.

Protests over books, films and writings which Hindu or Muslim groups find offensive are not new in India. American Indologist Wendy Doniger's book, "The Hindus: An Alternative History," was pulled off the shelves in 2014 by a publishing house after protests by a Hindu right-wing group. Salman Rushdie's book "The Satanic Verses" is banned in India since many Muslims consider it blasphemous.

Political analysts say the controversy has assumed larger-than-life proportions because it erupted ahead of a string of crucial state elections, when caste and identity politics always come into sharper focus. But Misra said the raging debate over the Bollywood film has reinforced perceptions that fringe Hindu groups have gained a bigger voice with the BJP in power both in New Delhi and in as many as 18 states.

"Today India is speaking in voices of caste and narrow political interests because this controversy had nothing to do with historical facts. It [such controversies] has been happening in the past also, but it is growing," he said.


The father of Australia's super system, Paul Keating, is completely on board with Pratt's cause. Credit:Peter Braig To have them compete as lenders to business is a prospect that has not been given much attention until now. Whether it catches on will in large part depend on whether medium and or even large businesses need a new source of funding or a longer-term source of funding. Over the past couple of years, Australian companies have been a bit sluggish in looking for large-scale funding, preferring to enhance their profits and appeal to shareholders by cutting costs and handing over bigger dividends. Large companies have not been complaining about getting access to bank finance, and many of them are accessing the large, sophisticated debt private placement markets in the US for big licks of capital.

Bringing longer-term bond financing into Australia's corporate mainstream is an idea whose time has come. Anthony Pratt To the extent that there is an opportunity in the borrowing market, it would be for companies that are looking for long-term debt of maybe seven or even 20 years. That is a market in which Australian banks typically don't play. If a big Australian company wants long-term funding, they head to US or European debt markets. Both News Corp and Westfield tapped into the US super funds market  the former issued a 100-year bond. "Bringing longer-term bond financing into Australia's corporate mainstream is an idea whose time has come," Pratt says.

So what do the Australian banks have to say about the prospect of this potential disruption to their market with the entry of super funds as lending competitors. Judging from the three bank executives who took part in Pratt's roundtable event this week, their response has been pretty positive. They don't want to lose a customer that seeks other ways to arrange debt. Rather, they are happy to help a corporate customer arrange debt from another source and continue providing them with other corporate services like financial markets and transactional banking. Indeed, in many instances the return banks receive on traditional lending to companies is not particularly attractive. And super funds will need the help of the banks  who have the expertise to assess credit risk  a vital tool that super funds don't have.

One senior banker I spoke with on Friday said there was plenty of interest from mid-sized companies to tap into longer-term loans that could be provided by super funds. He said it would take time but history had shown that new markets would develop when there was a need. From the perspective of Australia's super funds, the opportunity to invest in long-dated corporate debt certainly has some appeal. While they will need to be sensitive to the yield or the return on these investments, and will not have the same growth or higher-yield characteristics of shares, they will better suit older Australians that are looking for reliable returns as they move beyond the accumulation phase post their retirement. The idea certainly dovetails well in the profile of the ageing population that is living longer.

For companies, the introduction of another source of funding that could be cheaper than bank loans and much cheaper than issuing new equity, should be a winner, particularly if there are less onerous lending terms. Long-term funding from super funds can better match the tenor of loans with the life of the assets they are funding. But the last word should surely come from the father of Australia's super system, Paul Keating, who is completely on board with Pratt's cause. He says the super funds will increasingly need assets with long tenure and reliable interest payments as advances in medical technology extend the lives of Australians well beyond 100 years of age. Loading
The pressure is on Australian banks to keep up with customer's growing use of smartphone apps to pay for in-store and online purchases.

A Deloitte survey has found the use of mobile payment solutions has grown 14 per cent over the past year, with over a quarter of respondents now using them.

A Deloitte survey has found the use of mobile payment solutions has grown 14 per cent over the past year. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Mobile payment solutions include apps such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay, which allow users to process payments for online or in-store purchases using the app, without having to punch in their credit card details every time.

Most of these apps act as "mobile wallets", allowing users to store their card details and authorise payments using either a PIN or biosecurity measure like fingerprint recognition.
A Sydney-based small business has been left sharing one phone among six staff members after struggling to get connected to the national broadband network.

Big Splash Media managing director Peter Lynch's small multimedia business is currently without internet or a landline, leaving staff to rely on a neighbouring business' Wi-Fi connection, amid confusion about who is responsible for the delay.

Darren Williams, Peter Lynch, Dean Farrow and Teresa Ooi at Big Splash Media are among six members of staff using one phone and without the internet due to delays in getting connected to the NBN. Credit:Brook_Mitchell

He shifted his company into its new Pitt Street offices on November 17, but has been unsuccessfully trying to line up his NBN connection for weeks in preparation for the move.

The temporary solution provided by Telstra was a pre-paid handset, where landline calls would be redirected. This phone is now being shared by his staff.
Federal Parliament is not sitting on Monday. The reasons for delaying the sitting by a week are undoubtedly weak, driven at least in part by political considerations around a rogue lower house delivering a banking royal commission against the government's wishes.

Bob Katter has called for parliament to sit anyway, in spite of the government shifting the sitting dates. Labor initially toyed with supporting this idea, with deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek going further and describing the delay as the sort of thing that happens in a dictatorship. They have since backed away.

The Greens, too, were on-board. This is the second time in a month the Greens have sought to instigate a constitutional crisis: leader Richard Di Natale had earlier urged the Governor-General to intervene in the citizenship debacle. At least on that occasion, Labor's Anthony Albanese strongly condemned those calls.

Australia has become used to oppositions pulling no punches in their fight to get onto the Treasury benches. Nor is it surprising to see individual senators and backbenchers pulling stunts to grab the limelight.
Domestic violence used to be Canberra's secret shame.

It shattered lives, made women and children homeless and accounted for two out of every three murders committed in the ACT.

Understandably, many victims were reluctant to report attacks to the police and, in some instances, concealed what was going on from family and friends.

That was until 2015, one of the darkest year's in the ACT's history when three women and one man were allegedly murdered in acts of domestic and family related violence.
On the evening of July 25, 2016, an image of a skinny, semi-nude male youth was beamed into living rooms across Australia. The spindly, inert figure was sitting in a chair in the middle of a drab, featureless room, surrounded by men in khaki uniforms. The youth's arms, legs, waist and neck were bound to the chair's frame. A bag covered his head, muffling his already weak-sounding voice. This, we were told, was a scene from a youth detention facility in the Northern Territory.

In a country that has proved itself to be largely immune to documentary imagery of tragic, state-sanctioned violence  think of the endless flow of footage and photos from Manus and Nauru  the public response to the Four Corners program was, for once, commensurate with the content. Talkback radio and television news short-circuited into a playback loop, returning again and again to the images of the shackled, hooded youth. Comparisons with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay abounded as we realised the limits of our visual vocabulary, our very few points of comparison for an event that seemed almost unprecedented.

Meanwhile our politicians, not least our chameleonic Prime Minister, switched into damage-control mode, looking frantically for a way to get out in front of events that threatened to take on a momentum of their own. Something had to be done, or be seen to be done.

Malcolm Turnbull and those in his corner must have immediately known that the problems documented in the program were simultaneously shocking and, to some degree, predictable. They were shocking because, as a society, we have chosen not to want to know too much about what happens in our prisons (unlike the open and transparent models of corrections operating in some European countries, including Sweden, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands). But they were also, with the admitted benefit of hindsight, predictable results of an archaic model of youth "justice".
The Prime Minister "wants to make it clear" yet again that his government will not be moved by the heroic civil disobedience of genuine refugees on Manus Island. Nor will he be moved (but he will not say it) by the open letter of 12 Australians of the Year. This is the latest of similar statements over many years by academics, medicos, lawyers, church leaders, welfare workers, human rights organisations and advocates, foreign governments, some courageous Australian politicians, and hundreds of citizens groups. In this cruel saga, no politician yet has had the audacity to appeal to their reading of "community standards and expectations" for justification. What course is left to the citizen? In between elections, what political action besides donations to political parties is effective? Come the election, we will have the chance to eject those who are responsible for the tragedy from the Canberra compound. But that is too long for the innocent to suffer. Vince Corbett, Glenroy Clarifying that my office did respond Christine Claffey-Ross said she had not received a response from my office related to her inquiry about asylum seekers on Manus Island (Letters, 24/11). We have since confirmed my office did provide her with a response earlier this month, and she has accepted that. I accept errors do happen and appreciate her writing to me with her concerns. I take responsiveness to constituents very seriously; and particularly on a matter as important as human rights and the wellbeing of asylum seekers. I will continue to work with government to ensure the robustness of our refugee program, and to achieve as humane outcomes as possible Tim Wilson, formerly Australia's human rights commissioner, Liberal member for Goldstein, Bentleigh

Come in, you're welcome Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton are bleating about a new whiz-bang prison on Manus Island, with food and water provided. Bill Shorten is bleating about New Zealand being willing to take 150 of those poor souls. I am so ashamed to be an Australian. Bring the men here. There is room in my house for some of them. Judy Osmers, Pascoe Vale The double standard Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, your hypocrisy is breathtaking. You claim the refugees on Manus are acting illegally by not moving when they are directed to do so. However, under international law, Australia has illegally locked up these innocent people for five years.

Pat Agostino, South Melbourne THE FORUM Too much influence Chinese companies are poised to invest in Adani's coal and rail project in Queensland (The Age, 23/11). However, according to ABC Radio, it will come at the cost of local jobs, with some of the work being shifted out of Australia. The timing of this announcement, just before the Queensland election, is no coincidence. So, a foreign company from India is interfering in that election, and a foreign government, China, will have influence over what happens to Australian jobs, odious though the mine may be. Am I missing something? How far does this have to go before it is recognised as being against the national interest of Australia? Pia Brous, Prahran

A gift with conditions? Only days ago, Jacqui Lambie quit Parliament because she had duel citizenship  a perceived conflict of interest. Now I see Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, smiling and standing next to a Chinese businessman who has donated $40,000 to the Queensland Coalition. Of course the donor will expect no favours from the Coalition. He just liked the vibe of the thing. Don Relf, Coburg Leaders' empty words Does Daniel Andrews really expect us to believe his cynical announcement that construction will begin on a rail link between Southern Cross Station and Melbourne airport within a decade (The Age, 23/11)? Does Malcolm Turnbull expect us to accept the reason he advances for suspending Parliament for a week? What sort of fools do these people think we are? They monotonously insult our intelligence, and they will pay for it at the ballot box.

Peter Cash, Lake Wendouree Sadly, more of the same There must be a formula to properly show the link between feasibility studies of a rail link to the airport, and trucks stuck under the Montague Street bridge in South Melbourne. After all, they have the common bond of inevitability and futility. Tim Lambert, Maddingley 12 months too early

I have often admired Daniel Andrews as a forward thinker. However, with his announcement of an impending airport-rail link, he has got ahead of himself. In fact, a year ahead of himself. The plan for a link should be announced only in an election year. This has been the pattern since the 1960s and now our Premier has opened the "election promises envelope" too early. The election is not due for another 12 months. Doug Shaw, Sunbury Refund for lost power Reports of blackouts in Glenferrie Road (The Age, 24/11) must be costing business owners a lot of money in lost sales. All providers are covered by a service guarantee and if the outages fall within specified parameters, you can claim compensation. Having had similar problems on the Mornington Peninsula, I contacted the Water and Energy Ombudsman who advised me of the service guarantees. I have received many hundreds of dollars in refunds over the past three to four years. The guarantee covers all consumers, not just businesses. This will probably not cover all their lost revenue, but claiming refunds certainly focuses the providers' minds on rectifying problems more quickly. Jenny Callaghan, Hawthorn

Turn the AC down In this current hot weather, many premises are being excessively cooled. A few degrees warmer could reduce the strain on our already threatened energy supply and we would still be comfortable. This is better than losing power altogether. Margaret Sharpin, Blackburn Desperate for food Why aren't world leaders demanding (negotiating) or doing whatever it takes to convince Saudi Arabia that it must allow entry of life-saving food, and medicines to save millions of people in terrible need?

Marguerite Marshall, Eltham Helping the true needy Two articles (The Age, 24/11) spoke volumes. In the first, some of Australia's richest citizens discussed how to access funds from the superannuation industry, whilst enjoying exquisite food and wine. They would, I suggest, be advocates of the trickle-down effect. In the second article, we read about young "couch surfers, the hidden homeless" and the difficulties they face accessing Centrelink, education, jobs etc. Wouldn't it be great if the two groups could meet and discuss how some of the superannuation funds could be used to benefit the younger generation, instead of waiting for the trickle-down effect to eventuate? Bruce MacKenzie, Kingsville

It was two decades ago Politics aside, John Alexander having to retract and apologise over a couple of jokes he told in a pub 22years ago (The Age, 24/11) surely has to be the last straw for fair-minded people. It is time we all took a deep breath and stood back to reassess how we proceed with this. I will not go into the rights and wrongs of discrimination, abuse, harassment etc. Let us all agree they are not on  ever. But let us make it current. We (men) get it. It must never happen. And if we do it, then throw the book at us. Lawrence Maher, Kew Put the taxpayers first No, Bill Morrow ("'We're not the police': NBN boss reluctant to share data", BusinessDay, 24/11). You sell bandwidth to retail service providers. We, the taxpayers, pay your NBN salaries and meet your bills. Unfortunately, retail service providers are misleading us with their "plans". For the NBN to possess information on which of your "customers" are ripping off your shareholders, and refusing to disclose same, is reprehensible.

John Patrick, Wangaratta Therapy reimbursement Psychologists Merinda Brown and Robyn Ming (Comment, 24/11) are correct about the ramifications of the postal vote on the mental health of our children and the LGBTQIA+ community. Could I kindly ask these people, and parents, to send their therapy bills to their federal Liberal MPs. Pamela Papadopoulos, South Yarra Mugabe's terrible legacy

I lived in Rhodesia when it was known as the bread basket of Africa. To witness the transition to a complete basket case, and receiving commentaries from family and friends still living there, is too ghastly for words. Robert Mugabe, I will never forgive you for what you have done to this once beautiful country and its gorgeous people. I doubt there can be a recovery. I hope you burn in hell. David Price, Camberwell January 13, 1939 Our important historical association of "Black Friday" has been replaced by a hysterical, American-inspired shopping "event". The 1939 Black Friday fires were among the most widespread and devastating not only in Australia, but in the world. More than 2million hectares were destroyed and many lives were lost. It took decades for the burnt areas to recover and some remnants of the giant trees can still be seen around Warburton. Only the 1983 and 2009 fires resulted in more deaths. This insensitively named shopping frenzy is taking place during unprecedented hot weather, and summer has not yet begun. Lest we forget? It seems we have. Margaret Gibson, Ferny Creek

AND ANOTHER THING Politics Start the airport-rail link by 2026? Gee, Dan, even the bus might be solar powered by then. Geoff Hall, Mentone Bishop talked about Turnbull's "extraordinary leadership" (24/11). It's certainly extraordinary  extraordinarily bad.

Kate McCaig, Surrey Hills Australia's Guantanamo. Crimes against humanity. Trump was right when he said "you're worse than I am" on refugees. Marilyn Willis, Kallista What a disgraceful state of affairs when, apparently, there are no matters of importance to occupy the lower house. Bruce McQualter, Richmond

Adani's full-page ad (24/11): a junkie rolling up the sleeve for another hit of coal. Brian Hawkes, Horsham Superannuation Fuelled by 2009 Grange Hermitage and an expensive lunch, Rinehart and co want to raid the "piggy bank" to finance their expansion plans. Why do I feel uncomfortable? Les Anderson, Woodend

I thought the purpose of super was to provide a secure income for workers in their retirement, not to be a honey pot for big business. Geoff Hilton, Mount Martha Outrageous. A bunch of our richest people have decided our hard-earned super should be farmed out as venture capital. Reg Murray, Glen Iris Social issues

"Religious freedom" is a euphemism for the right to discriminate. Allan Stewart, Point Lonsdale Yes, but who will protect the people from religious freedoms? Mina Hilson, West Footscray Could religious freedom include the "right" to practise things such as genital mutilation and child marriage? Be careful what you wish for.
But given the widely-held expectation the same-sex marriage bill can be passed by the House in the four days from December 4, this explanation rings hollow. The decision is "just common sense", says Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Credit:Alex Ellinghausen And the hollowness only grows when you do the political arithmetic. By staying away from Canberra next week, the government will only have to endure four days, rather than eight, in which it is reduced to 73 members (Liberal speaker Tony Smith's 74th vote is only used in the event of a tie) versus 74 votes for Labor and the crossbench in the House of Representatives. It also means the date for lower house MPs to officially disclose their citizenship status is pushed back from December 1 (the Senate's disclosure date) to 8pm on Tuesday, December 5. Parliamentary officials will then need to process all the paperwork before it can be put online, and are not able to say when this will complete. Although, it is expected to take at least a day. The calculation made by the Coalition's leadership group seems plain: avoid losing a vote on the floor of the House at all costs. And delay for as long as possible the prospect of more lower house government MPs having to quit because of dual citizenship issues while Parliament is still sitting.

Despite the high level survival tactics, behind the scenes government MPs have been expressing dismay. One told Fairfax Media of their shock upon hearing of the cancellation via Sky News. "It seems like panic," said another MP. "In this game you put on a brave face, you front up and present an air of confidence. This seems like Turnbull is scared of the party room and the Parliament." Turnbull's enemies speak out Unsurprisingly, Turnbull's enemies have wasted no time in calling him out on the move. "You might not always want to go back to Parliament, but you always have to go back to Parliament, because that's your job," Tony Abbott told Sky News in a cosy interview with his former chief-of-staff, Peta Credlin.

Labor has also enjoyed a week-long fiesta of accusing the Prime Minister of being a scaredy-cat. As Bill Shorten gleefully told reporters on the Queensland state election trail on Wednesday: "He's frightened of his backbench. He's frightened of the electorate. He's frightened of Parliament." Labor initially suggested that it would bring all its lower house MPs to Canberra next week, to make a show of turning up to "work". But once questions were raised about the cost of this to the taxpayer, the opposition quickly backed away from the idea. Now it will only bring shadow cabinet to Parliament for a routine meeting. Illustration: Richard Giliberto Nonetheless, Labor continues to make hay over the decision, saying there are 53 bills the House could be looking at next week. This includes bills responding to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and those around tougher regulations for bank executives and counter-terrorism financing. Then there's the bank inquiry

There's also the renegade push to establish an inquiry into the banking sector swirling around in the mix. Nationals senator Barry O'Sullivan has broken with the government's opposition to the probe and has released a private members' bill for Parliament to set up a year-long commission of inquiry. An absolute majority of 76 votes will be needed to suspend standing orders and debate the bill in the House; a simple majority of 74 votes would then see it passed. If it is brought on in the week beginning December 4, Nationals MP George Christensen says he will cross the floor to back the bill in the lower house. That means a Labor-crossbench-Christensen combination could have 75 votes. With fellow National Llew O'Brien indicating he is a 50-50 prospect to also cross the floor  and others such as Liberal MP Warren Entsch waiting in the wings  there is a very real chance the bill could also pass the lower house. What is not clear yet is whether there will be time in among a lengthy same-sex marriage debate and the citizenship disclosures. So amid the government's claims it cancelled a week the lower house to ensure gay couples can marry as soon as possible, issues such as the banking inquiry and, possibly, a Labor push to reverse cuts to penalty rates ordered by the Fair Work Commission, would surely have factored into their "common sense". The decision, however, makes little sense to those who study Australia's Parliament.

Australian National University professor John Uhr says the decision to ditch a week of sittings cuts into Australia's already modest sitting load. This year, there were only 19 sitting weeks scheduled  some of which were just for the Senate, or include weeks when the Senate is not sitting due to estimates hearings (Canada's lower house alone has 26 weeks planned for 2017; its Senate has 28). "It's puny, what we already have. We rush stuff through," Uhr says. He adds that apart from making a bad situation worse, the optics of Turnbull's call are not good. "It just looks terrible." Won't somebody think of the caterers? Meanwhile, the ripple effect of Turnbull's parliamentary no-show is being felt far beyond MPs and their diary managers.

Sitting weeks do not just involve noisy question times and technical legislative business. The weeks are also jam-packed with meetings and events that go on around the sidelines, as lobbyists and experts take advantage of all the decision makers in town. The last two sitting weeks before Christmas are particularly busy, with organisations flooding to Canberra to meet MPs before the end of the year. And to wine and dine each other at what seems like a never-ending lineup of festive functions. With more than half of the Parliament not coming at the last minute, the events calendar has been thrown into disarray. The lower house crossbenchers have had to reschedule their annual Christmas drinks (complete with local cheese and muscat from Cathy McGowan's electorate), no doubt further endearing Turnbull to the group that could make or break him over the next fortnight. Breakfasts for White Ribbon Day (preventing men's violence against women) and World AIDS Day have had to be shifted, while some organisations have simply had to cancel. The Pharmacy Guild of Australia had a formal dinner booked in the Mural Hall for about 300 people for Tuesday, with Turnbull and Shorten due to speak. With no headline speakers and most of the guests now unavailable, the event has been called off. Our Watch, which aims to stop domestic violence, was due to have an event with MPs but is rescheduling to February. Chair Natasha Stott Despoja, while disappointed, was philosophical about the date change. "If you schedule an event in Canberra, you know anything can change," the former senator and Democrats leader said. "This is how policy and politics work. Even though this seems unprecedented."

Other organisations are less relaxed about having to rearrange their plans at the last minute. "This is not real good, Malcolm," one group said. Meanwhile, leadership Leadership talk has reared its head  again. The Prime Minister with his deputy, Julie Bishop. Credit:AAP Away from the flurry of the initial announcement, government MPs say they don't think the missed week of Parliament will hurt them in their electorates. As one MP said, voters prefer it when MPs are in the local cafe and at the school gate, not in Canberra. "I think it's white noise." Another frontbencher noted most people didn't know what the sitting calendar was, anyway, joking even their wife has no idea. But the decision to put the House of Representatives on ice cannot be separated from Turnbull's other political woes. And of these, there are many.

Apart from a conga line of bad polls that follows the Prime Minister wherever he goes, the government is facing two byelections before the end of the year, which can't help but be viewed as mini referendums on Turnbull's leadership. Similarly, all eyes will be on the Queensland state election result on Saturday. And it is entirely possible there are more "surprises" to come on the citizenship front, too. Then there are the leadership murmurs. On Wednesday, The Daily Telegraph reported cabinet has discussed reversing its stance on a banking royal commission in light of the threats from Christensen and others to cross the floor. While Turnbull dismissed it as "gossip," other ministers (furious about the leak) told Fairfax Media they believed whoever was pushing the story was trying to damage the Prime Minister, Morrison and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and create chaos within the government. Bishop angrily called for an investigation, declaring she was not the source. At the same time, the Herald Sun's Andrew Bolt was reporting a mystery MP has threatened to quit next month if the Liberal Party does not change to a more conservative leader. While an unsourced (and therefore unproven) malcontent might usually be dismissed by senior ministers as just that, in a sign of how seriously the government is taking the chatter, Bishop bought in to the story, urging the MP to talk to her or Turnbull about their concerns. Many government MPs are eager to downplay the leadership talk as a non-event. Or mischief-making. "It's just such a joke," said one frontbencher, who insists everyone in the partyroom  minus a few "has-beens"  is united behind Turnbull. Another said that while the citizenship fiasco is a mess, people understand it was not of the Prime Minister's making. Liberal MP Craig Kelly adds there is plenty of time for the government to recover its position in the polls before a 2019 federal election (if the election is indeed as far away as that). And there are only "one or two on [government MPs] on the margins who are getting excited".
When someone tells me they're moving to Sydney, I warn them that looking for a rental in this city is an exercise in: (1) sustained self-harm; and (2) compromise. After months of inspecting places with visible mould and rooms that resembled freshly cleaned crime scenes, my boyfriend and I decided to forgo car ownership and up our budget.

Eventually, we ended up with the best apartment: on the main road, it's a walk to work for him and above a grocery store; we need only go downstairs for eggs. If our landlords ever evict us, we plan to stage a non-violent protest.

Illustration by Simon Letch.

A trade-off is that we don't see much nature. A park with decent trees is several blocks away; the closest we get to wildlife is the pure-bred dogs of our wealthy neighbours. Ulcer-ridden ibises feast from public bins and  in another park  rats the size of toddlers don't so much scurry as strut arrogantly, knowing this territory is theirs.

After months of being trapped inside for work and going out of our minds, we booked a holiday house on the NSW South Coast. On the three-hour drive there, muscles we didn't know existed relaxed. After landing, we walked along tracks boasting explosive pink natives that could rival Japanese cherry blossoms; were surrounded by the Australian silhouette of gums and the smell of saltwater; made friends with kookaburras, pelicans and galahs.
In London at the moment, all anyone wants to talk about is Brexit. Not at the start of conversations, mind  that would be far too confrontational for such well-mannered folk. Instead, the topic creeps in halfway through a dinner, well before pudding but shortly after the first round of gin and tonics. (The British capacity for drinking never ceases to amaze me: happy hour there is splitting a bottle of wine between two, with a cocktail on the side.) Yet Brexit is a tricky subject to discuss, mostly because there are so many unknowns. There is neither precedent, nor a clear path forward. Even the most established ways of trying to make sense of the situation are falling apart  like the metaphor that Britain is divorcing Europe, for instance. As an American journalist now based on the continent pointed out to me, "You can't get married to 27 people." A Brexiteer I spoke to also took issue with the idea that leaving the EU should be akin to leaving a marriage: "All we wanted to do was look after our own borders," he said. "Why is Germany deciding to punish us like a misbehaving husband?" Experts are befuddled, too. They know it's bad. A "a slow-motion car crash" was the summation from an international trade lawyer who usually considers his words carefully. But they don't know how bad. "It's just not possible," was the phrase issued verbatim with shaking head from two separate sources, an economist and an historian.

Illustration by Simon Letch. They were referring to the intricate and manifold tapestry of agreements which will have to be unpicked. Still, I had trouble pinning them down on exactly why it will be such a disaster. It's tempting to see things the way the Brexiteer does: why can't everyone just get along, on their own terms? The economist, when pressed for his best guess on what will actually happen, said he thought Europe would at the last minute impose punishing conditions to which Britain would have no choice but to accede. The result would be a 10 to 15 per cent decline in GDP; akin to Britain turning into Italy, overnight. Without the cheese and the sunshine. The historian was worried about the impact Brexit is already having on the culture. "I look Asian and I've noticed I'm already being treated differently," he said. "Many of my colleagues at university are from overseas, too," he said. The European ones worry about being sent home; the rest are dependent on a system funded mostly by Europe. "All of us are in denial about what happens in 18 months," he added. Because of the stalemate in negotiations, the fanatical wing of Theresa May's Conservative Party is pressuring the government to simply walk away from the table and essentially start all over again. And that's if May can even hold onto power. As it happens, all these experts  the historian, the lawyer, the economist  are Australians who climbed to the top of their fields in a foreign land. The uncertainty and dread of Brexit is proving a tougher challenge for them than the weather ever has. For the first time, they're starting to talk about returning home.
The Navy said several U.S. and Japanese naval ships and aircraft have, so far, covered more than 320 nautical miles in their search for the missing. There was no immediate explanation for the crash, and the Navy said the incident is being investigated.

The Navy said the twin-propeller C2-A Greyhound aircraft plummeted into the sea about 925 km (575 miles) southeast of Okinawa while it was on a routine mission taking passengers and cargo from a U.S. base in Japan to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier. It said eight of the 11 people aboard were rescued about 40 minutes later and taken to the Reagan where they were reported in good condition.

Search and rescue operations continued Thursday for three sailors still missing after a U.S. Navy transport plane crashed Wednesday into the western Pacific Ocean.

 Military Exercises

U.S. President Donald Trump, at his oceanfront Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the Thanksgiving weekend holiday, said via Twitter that he is monitoring the situation. "Prayers for all involved," he said.

The Reagan was operating in the Philippine Sea as part of joint exercises with Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force, part of 10 days of training designed to increase defensive readiness and interoperability in air and sea maneuvers between the two countries.

More than 14,000 U.S. personnel are participating in the drills, which also include the guided-missile destroyers USS Stethem, USS Chafee and USS Mustin, and a maritime patrol and reconnaissance squadron.

 Fifth Navy Incident This Year

Wednesday's crash was the fifth major Navy incident in Asian waters this year. Two fatal accidents left 17 sailors dead and prompted the Defense Department to remove of eight top Navy officers from their posts, including the 7th Fleet commander.

The destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker in August off Singapore, leaving 10 U.S. sailors dead and five injured. The USS Fitzgerald, another destroyer, collided with a container ship in waters off Japan in June, killing seven sailors.

After investigations, the Navy concluded the collisions were avoidable, resulting from widespread failures by commanders and crew members, who did not recognize and respond quickly to the emergencies as they unfolded. The Navy has called for improved training, and increasing sleep and stress management for sailors.

Separately, in January, the USS Antietam ran aground near Yosuka, Japan, and the USS Lake Champlain collided with a South Korean fishing vessel in May.
Ive never really placed a huge emphasis on peoples physical being." Credit:Brian Bowen Smith/AUGUST/Raven & Snow She is less restrained about her excitement at working with one of her role models, Carrie Fisher (General Leia Organa), the Hollywood legend who died suddenly at the end of last year. "Princess Leia spoke to me," says Gwendoline of the original Star Wars. "She felt different, she was smart and she was strong." No wonder Gwendoline was "very, very starstruck" when she was introduced to Fisher. "When I meet someone I admire like that, I keep myself as far away as possible from the person, you know, don't bother them, eyes down at the floor. I am overcome with shyness. But, actually, Carrie was incredibly warm. Everyone around her felt electrified by her wit and humanity. She was so open about her struggles with mental illness. The sheer force of personality is ravishing." As Captain Phasma in the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The same could be said of Gwendoline. It's no coincidence that the characters that have defined her career so far have been warriors ranging across the moral spectrum, from Brienne of Tarth  all goodness and altruistic selflessness  to the pure evil of Captain Phasma.

She inhabits the kind of roles that are still rare for women. Brienne of Tarth, for example, is considered to be plain looking. "It has been thrilling for me to play her, particularly since she is a woman much maligned by society due to the way she looks," she says. I'm really not interested in talking about the bullying; what I am interested in is transcending that, because there is too much of an emphasis on suffering. We need to look at how we overcome it. As for Captain Phasma, audiences didn't even get a glimpse of her face in The Force Awakens, the stormtrooper being clad from head to toe in metal. "I've never really placed a huge emphasis on people's physical being," she says. "I remember Carrie Fisher referring to her body as her 'brain bag'." It's a subject that fascinates the actor, who is as intellectually curious as she is warm and funny. "We are so used to seeing images of women who are mostly conventionally attractive, and frequently scantily clad, and I found that a little restrictive," she says. "We have had a homogenised view not just of women, but really of the world. I think we all want to see ourselves represented [on screen] in some way."

She has an affinity for playing outsiders, "characters that feel like they aren't seen and don't fit in. Most of my life I have felt somewhat outside of the conventions of society  and certainly outside the conventions of the acting community." Gwendoline was born and raised in West Sussex, "the only product of my mother and father". She is deliberate about her choice of words, avoiding the term "only child". In fact, she describes her early life as "idyllic  I grew up in the countryside surrounded by fields and forests. I used to play outside all the time. I was generally alone, but I loved to read." Away from the sanctuary of her close-knit family, however, life was difficult. "I absolutely hated school because I was bullied quite a lot." She was bookish and "really enjoyed being in the library, but I didn't enjoy the other students". Was she bullied because of her height? "I don't think it was just my height." She pauses. "I don't know. I'm really not interested in talking about the bullying; what I am interested in is transcending that, because there is too much of an emphasis on suffering. We need to look at how we overcome it."

She explains her own coping mechanism: "I looked for where the sunshine was  for those who'd be more accepting and stimulating." As a child, Gwendoline threw herself into hobbies  dancing and rhythmic gymnastics (she had to stop because of a spine injury at age 11). "Retrospectively, I realise what I loved about gymnastics was the rigour of being disciplined and precise, and then applying the flow of emotion and imagination to that." Films provided "escapism", she says, singling out Orlando (1992), directed by Sally Potter, as "important". I can't help mentioning that she has been compared to the film's star, Tilda Swinton. "Well, that is an incredibly generous comparison," she exclaims. "I think she is a truly exceptional artist; she is doing her own thing." It's something Gwendoline has always done, too. Her parents were "incredibly supportive" and there's a story that when she was young her father told her, "You can do anything a boy can do." "He didn't use those exact words," says Gwendoline. "But he did say, 'There's no reason why you can't achieve anything.' "

Intent on acting from an early age, she recalls watching films as a teenager and wondering why the women's parts were so often boring. "When we studied classical plays at school, I wanted to play the male parts. I didn't understand why women would be treated in a certain way just because they were women. It didn't make any sense. A lot of things didn't make any sense." Life began to make more sense when Gwendoline left school and enrolled in art college. "I became friends with artists working in the fashion industry, and musicians. That is really where I found my family  unconventional people who were totally accepting of themselves in all of their colourfulness and extreme personalities." She went on to study acting at Drama Centre, London  "a conservatoire with a classical training and method approach" which she describes as life-changing. "It was hard, 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week. It was psychologically rigorous. You were broken down and sometimes criticised. It caused you to have an internal investigation of who you were, and that gave me confidence. They trained us to be artists." In her early 20s, Gwendoline also began working for the actor Simon Callow (Outlander, Four Weddings and a Funeral). "He gave me an enormous amount of confidence," she says. "He also educated me. He had an incredible house filled with music and books, and I looked after his two wonderful dogs. He is one of the closest and most trusted people in my life." With Callow's support, Gwendoline's career took off via well-reviewed stage performances and supporting roles in films including The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, before being cast as Brienne of Tarth in 2011. In doing so, she defied predictions that she'd find it difficult to work because of her height.

In fact, her stature and dramatic looks played to her advantage. With friends in the world of couture  she was interested in fashion long before art college  Gwendoline was in high demand as a model and became a muse of Vivienne Westwood. These days, she often collaborates with her partner of five years, British fashion designer Giles Deacon. She won't discuss her relationship with Deacon, citing her need for a private life that's just that. "Because of the phantasmagorical nature of being an actor, you have to have your own reality," she says. She explains that her "friends, family and partner form such an essential part of that reality that I do everything I can to get home, to see people as much as possible  because it is that life which is going to feed your work". Steering the subject back to her career, she happily tells me she is about to work alongside Steve Carell in The Women of Marwen. And she is enthusiastic about her recent role in Jane Campion's Top of the Lake: China Girl, the sequel to Campion's award-winning 2013 TV drama. In it, she played Miranda Hilmarson, a Sydney police officer assigned to work with detective Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss) investigating the death of a woman whose body washes up on Bondi Beach. Actresses Nicole Kidman, from left, Elisabeth Moss, director Jane Campion and actress Gwendoline Christie pose for photographers during the photo call for the film Credit:Alastair Grant/AP
London: An experimental therapy for people with schizophrenia that brings them face-to-face with a computer avatar representing the tormenting voices in their heads has proved promising in early stage trials.

Scientists who conducted a randomised controlled trial comparing the avatar therapy with a form of supportive counselling found that after 12 weeks, the avatars were more effective at reducing auditory hallucinations, or voices inside the head.

Avatars have been shown to be effective at reducing auditory hallucinations. This image shows virtual reality goggles used for research into anxiety disorders and paranoia by the Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis research group. Credit:University of Oxford

More research is needed to investigate the approach in other healthcare settings, so the therapy is not yet widely available.

But if further trials prove successful, experts said, avatar therapy could "radically change" treatment approaches for millions of psychosis sufferers across the world.
Home renovators and DIYers will be at increased risk of contracting an asbestos-related disease if the peak national body for raising public awareness of the deadly mineral is chopped or has its budget slashed, warn asbestos disease support groups, doctors, lawyers and consumer advocates.

The annual budget of the Asbestos Eradication and Safety Agency [AESA] is under review and there are fears the independent organisation will be wound back in favour of a smaller unit operating within the Department of Employment.

Peter Tighe, CEO of the Asbestos Eradication and Safety Agency.Some in politics do not support an independent agency. Credit:Andrew Beveridge

"The agency was created with bipartisan support to do a very important job but I am worried that there has not been a proper budget committed for the next operational year," said Peter Tighe, CEO of the agency. "Minister [Michaelia] Cash is now reviewing what the agency should do and what funding it should receive".

"Some in politics do not support an independent agency," said Mr Tighe. "We don't have a proper budget for the next financial year".
"We've had a series of governments who have deliberately played on our fears and exaggerated threats," he said. "Why do governments do that? Well, because in Australia, and elsewhere, we've seen governments benefiting from fear in the populous." Mackay suspects a more general "epidemic of anxiety" in the community also contributed to pessimism revealed by the poll. Australian National University international relations expert, Professor Michael Wesley, attributed Australians' gloomy threat assessment to the rapid shift in perceptions about security.

"Australians have travelled very quickly from feeling a very high level of personal safety to a situation where they are increasingly confronted by the fact that violent incidents can reach out and touch us at any time," he said. "Our perceptions about safety have perhaps moved further and faster than those of most countries in the world." The Ipsos poll, taken almost a year after the election of Donald Trump as US President, found 83 per cent of Australians believe the world has become more dangerous over the past year, up by two percentage points compared with a year earlier and three percentage points above the international average. A separate poll on Australian attitudes to the world published by the Lowy Institute earlier this year found "feelings of safety" were at the lowest point in the 13-year history of the survey. The Ipsos polling comes days after the federal government's foreign policy white paper drew attention to a number of entrenched security threats, including North Korea's long-range missile and nuclear programs, Islamist terrorism and the effects of climate change.

Ipsos researcher, David Elliott, said blanket media coverage of worrying events  such as terrorist attacks - had a significant influence on public perceptions. "We know from previous studies that we over-estimate issues we worry about," he said. But Australia had a higher than average share of respondents worried about threats which receive little media attention. For example, the proportion fearing an imminent health epidemic was up four percentage points compared with last year, to 55 per cent  the same as Mexico and higher than Argentina. Australians are also more worried than average about the threat of war. The poll found nearly two thirds of respondents fear an armed conflict with another nation within 12 months  11 percentage points above the international mean.

Professor Wesley said that high share may be linked to our close military ties to America. "Most Australians probably realise that if the United States gets involved in a barney somewhere there's a high likelihood that we'll be involved as well," he said. Most Australians also expect another world war  76 per cent anticipate another conflict involving super powers "similar to World Wars 1 and 2" in the next 25 years. That was the fourth biggest proportion out of the 24 nations surveyed - behind the US, Canada and India. But there is a silver lining to the glum risk assessment  Australians were more optimistic than the international average about our government's level of preparedness to deal with security threats. The poll found 72 per cent of Australians are confident authorities can provide "appropriate levels of security and protection" in the event of a natural disaster during the next 12 months  the second highest share among nations surveyed.
Federal Court bosses will accept an offer from the industrial umpire to mediate its workplace battle with staff after they emphatically rejected a second pay offer with a landslide 'no' vote.

Employees of the Federal, Family and Federal Circuit courts and the National Native Title Tribunal voted down the enterprise agreement by 69 per cent to 31 per cent, putting no end in sight to the bitter workplace deadlock that has drawn many staff for the first time into rolling strikes.

Community and Public Sector Union deputy national president Rupert Evans. The union said the Federal Court's proposed workplace deal was deeply flawed. Credit:Eddie Jim

The main public sector union vowed more industrial action would follow, while Federal Court executive director Darrin Moy told staff it would accept the Fair Work Commission's offer to mediate in the ongoing battle after the result.

Staff rejected the deal after a 90 per cent 'no' vote in June to an agreement that offered an average pay rise of 1 per cent for each of the three years, cuts to conditions and entitlements and, for some, a longer working week.
A man arrested for allegedly filming up a woman's skirt at Central Station has been charged with a further 38 offences after police allegedly found hundreds of other illegal images on his laptop and phone.

In October, a woman was travelling on an escalator at Central when she noticed a man filming up her skirt.

She reported the incident to the police, who launched an investigation.

After viewing CCTV footage, police arrested a 59-year-old man from Barden Ridge in Sydney's south on November 3.

He was charged with recording intimate images without consent relating to that incident.
Queensland's Labor government could be returned with a majority, a new poll shows, as the premier and opposition leader make a final push to woo undecided voters.

Labor leads the Liberal National Party 52 per cent to 48 per cent in two-party preferred terms, a News Corp Galaxy poll published on Friday shows.

Annastacia Palaszczuk has covered a lot of friendly ground. Credit:Dan Peled/AAP

Two-thirds of regional Queenslanders did not want Labor in power but the poll showed she could win enough south-east seats to replace losses in the region, where voters have turned on both major parties.

Polling in Queensland's south-east corner - which holds two-thirds of the state's 93 electorates - points to a clearer lead for Premier Annastacia Palasczczuk's government.
Queensland police will extradite a woman from New South Wales after she allegedly took a toddler and baby from a Sunshine Coast home.

Police said a group of people, including two women and two men, went to a Beerwah home and threatened the residents, a man and a woman, on Tuesday morning.

The female resident was hit in the head with a pole before the group took a three-year-old girl and her one-year-old baby brother from the home, police said.

On Friday, police confirmed the two children were found safe in Moree, New South Wales with a woman allegedly involved in the attack.

New South Wales police arrested the 30-year-old Toowoomba woman and Queensland detectives were expected to travel south to seek her extradition.
North Korea has replaced all guards in the Joint Security Area since one of them fled through a hail of bullets to the South Korean side.

"We detected signs that all of their JSA guards were replaced right after the defection," a government source here said. "It seems that the guards were held accountable."

The North's security detail at the JSA consists of about 35 to 40 guards including officers.

The North also seems to have closed the so-called 72-Hour Bridge -- so named because it was built so fast -- over which the defector drove a jeep to reach the border area without being checked.

"The North seems to be tightening its screening of soldiers coming in and out of the JSA by setting up a lockable gate," a military source here said.


Warning: This article contains a flashing image that may not be suitable for photosensitive epilepsy.

You might think you see and hear continuously, like a video camera that is always recording.

"Your vision goes through periods of peak sensitivity": Professor David Alais. Credit:Louise Kennerley

But emerging science suggests we're more like a DSLR camera that takes 10 pictures a second, while our brain frantically works behind the scenes to string them together into what seems like continuous motion.

Think of a reel of film composed of thousands of separate frames. By running them quickly through afilm projector, it looks to our eyes like live action. But it's not.
Victoria's magistrates have formed a "wellness and wellbeing committee" amid concerns that some are not managing the stress and strain of life on the bench.

The Age understands that some magistrates are struggling to cope with rising caseloads while others are feeling the strain of being confronted in their daily work with graphic evidence of violence and sexual abuse.

Credit:Penny Stephens

A decision was made last month to form the committee, to be headed by former Supreme Court Judge Bernard Teague, after a gathering of magistrates in Melbourne.

A fresh meeting on Friday was expected to talk more about how they could help their colleagues to cope with the stresses of the job.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton is taking sick leave, saying he is run down physically and mentally.

Mr Ashton said on Friday that he would take up to six weeks off to recover from a "fatigue-related" illness.

"Unfortunately, I have allowed myself to become run down, both physically and mentally and now need to take a short break to recover," he said.

"I have not had to manage a condition like this before but I expect to take approximately three to six weeks off duty."
A man accused of severing the arm of a tow truck driver after veering off a Melbourne freeway has faced court, charged with dangerous driving causing injury.

Nathan Cameron, 39, was allegedly driving a Holden Commodore when he swerved off the Peninsula Link freeway at Carrum Downs and struck the tow truck driver who was helping another motorist in the emergency lane on November 14.

Nathan Cameron leaves court after facing charges related to an incident where he allegedly slashed the tow struck drivers arm. Credit:Jason South

The impact caused the Commodore to flip and land on its roof several metres along the freeway.

The tow truck driver was hit while loading a four-wheel drive that had broken down on the side of the freeway, police say.
A woman has died and a man remains in a serious condition in hospital after they were struck by lightning in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs.

Croydon real estate office manager Lauren Brownlee died and her partner Ben Hollow was injured.

The couple were struck by lightning on Sunset Drive in Chirnside Park around 8.40pm on Friday, police spokeswoman Leonie Johnson said.

"The woman, who was in her 20s, was conveyed to hospital but died overnight," she said.
French troops from the Pacific (described as "Loyalty Islanders and Tahitians") with local children at Healesville, November 1917. Credit:Table Talk Most of these visitors had enlisted in the Pacific and were en route to, or returning from, Europe. Like their Australian hosts, they hailed from the farthest outposts of European empire, and signed up often as much for adventure as out of any sense of duty. Bonds of imperial patriotism could however be as strong for Pacific volunteers as for Australia's own AIF. "I do not love war," one poilu told Major Butter in Healesville, "but I love France." Punch magazine shows French soldiers returning to New Caledonia on a visit to Melbourne, April 1917. Credit:Francis William Tolra For Australians, visits of French troops between 1915 and the war's aftermath offered rare opportunities for connection to events that were otherwise impossibly distant, even if they dominated the waking thoughts of many and filled the pages of local newspapers. Almost everyone had a son, brother, father or uncle at the front in France, and many had lost them there.

There were local organisations such as the French-Australian League of Help, along with prominent society figures like Madame Charlotte Crivelli, who established the Victorian branch of the French Red Cross. The French Economic Mission to Australia with Australian liaison officers, September 1918. General Paul Pau, second from right, drapes his famously empty right sleeve over his chair. Commandant d'Andre is behind him. Credit:Australian War Memorial Yet France itself was on the other side of the world, and despite the renown won by Australian soldiers there, ordinary Victorians had seldom had a chance to receive gratitude and praise directly from French forces, or to give thanks in return. Here, with these 800 poilus assembled in the November sunshine of the Yarra Valley, was that chance. Press coverage of these visits attests to the delight with which French soldiers received "the warmth of Australian hospitality", in Major Butter's words. Days in honour of France featured in Sydney 64 convalescent poilus in full uniform, while in Newcastle, Bastille Day 1916 was celebrated by 3000 schoolchildren forming a living French flag. The Graphic of August 1, 1918, covers the returning French servicemen's visit to Melbourne, accompanied by a tank. Credit:V. Akers

As the seat of federal parliament at the time and a major seaport en route to the Pacific, Melbourne hosted many of these visitors, with Frenchmen frequenting the Soldiers' Lounge on the Esplanade at St Kilda. Some appear to have appreciated Australian hospitality a little too much. Poilus occasionally went absent without leave or even deserted while on shore. In honour of the Franco-Australian alliance, it was decided upon news of the Armistice in November 1918 not to pursue these renegade insoumis ("insubordinates") any further. The most significant French visit - indeed, "the biggest thing in the way of international politics ever to come to Australia" to that date, according to Sydney newspaper The Land - found itself on our soil when the Armistice came into effect. The French Economic Mission to Australia was conceived as a means of developing bilateral commercial relations, capitalising upon ties forged in war. Leading it was popular and respected General Paul Pau who, along with his adjutant Commandant Felix d'Andre, lent such a martial air to the mission that some journalists wondered why the rest of its entourage of businessmen had been included. With his famously missing right arm, lost fighting the Prussians in 1870, Pau exuded a charm both soldierly and quintessentially French. The mission began by visiting Australian battalions at the front, before voyaging to Sydney via the US. Pau and d'Andre consoled bereaved Australian mothers and wives and also took the salute from local dignitaries, military men and welcoming hordes of singing children.

The number of renditions of La Marseillaise the mission must have endured from its arrival in September 1918 can only be guessed, but it also inspected economic concerns and was in South Australia when the guns fell silent in Europe on November 11. In Victoria, Pau and associates visited Bendigo, Seymour and Geelong as well as various sites in Melbourne, and Frenchmen were again in the Yarra Valley early that November to visit Lilydale, Yarra Junction and logging operations in Powelltown. Local politics also interested the French, and no issue was more pressing than that of conscription. Australians had voted "No" in two bruising plebiscites on the question, and Pau was keen to learn how our war effort might be affected. Local newspapers were equally willing to exploit French visits to further the "Yes" case. The Tamworth Daily Observer wrote of Pau's mission: "In their own land these gallant gentlemen of France must have been considerably puzzled by the continual diminution in the ranks of the Australian forces fighting side by side with their own heroic veterans  They will learn ... that working against the loyal majority is a handful of extremists ... who oppose the war from every standpoint." The implication that those who opposed conscription were betraying a valiant ally was clear. For the 800 men who visited Healesville a century ago, such questions were forgotten. They enjoyed picnics and played games in Queen's Park, including throwing boomerangs, overseen by local Wurundjeri men. This was "a more thrilling kind of amusement", according to the Healesville Guardian, "in which the onlookers did not show as much enjoyment as did the throwers".
"This important program will not only deliver new capability for the Navy but will continue to build the industrial base in Australia in line with the Government's stated intent," he said. "[However], Civmec were part of that bid originally and they deserve something solid out of the process and I am sure they will get a good work share." Mr Singleton said about 70 per cent of the ships built at Henderson were subcontracted in some capacity. "There is a lot of steel cutting and fabrication that is done local companies and I am sure that will be the case on these new vessels," he said. "The Navy have said 'ok, we like the Luerssen boat'. Then they've said ASC is best company to build the boats in Adelaide, and I agree with that. Austal is the only shipbuilder in Henderson, so it is natural that we are heavily involved in the Henderson shipbuilding. At the end of the day I think what they have done is pretty smart."

Civmec also made an announcement on the Singapore Stock Exchange this morning, which said that its Henderson workforce would also play a key role in the Offshore Patrol Vessel program, which is set to begin in 2020. Civmec managing director Mike Deeks said the announcement was "certainly unexpected". "It is early days. The government announcement is different to what anyone expected. We are all digesting it and analysing it as we speak," he said. "We are now, it looks, going to be working for Luerssen, but we are getting a contribution from Austal for that work. We were going to get a contribution from ASC but that is obviously not going to happen now. How the work is going to be divided up between us and Austal, where it is going to be done, and the contractual obligations between Luerssen, ourselves and Austal is too early to speculate on at the moment. "It is certainly unexpected, but when you want to go buy your next Toyota, you choose the model you want and you choose the car-yard you want to buy it from. In some ways the customer is doing exactly that."

This decision to involve Civmec in the construction of the vessels will underpin the company's commitment to build a new state-of-the-art shipbuilding facility at its Henderson base. The question of how the shipbuilding work will be divided between Civmec, ASC and Austal remains unclear. Meanwhile in Adelaide, Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union have said that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne have failed to give certainty to 700 workers at ASC in Adelaide. The shipbuilding program will see 12 vessels built in total, with the first two being constructed in Adelaide by ASC, but AMWU assistant national secretary Glenn Thompson said there were still questions to be answered. "There is no clear pathway for a transition of up to 700 existing workers at ASC to either the [Offshore Patrol Vessel] program or to any other future projects under the National Shipbuilding Plan," said AMWU assistant national secretary Glenn Thompson.

"What plans are there to make sure we do not lose experienced, skilled shipbuilders currently at ASC in the lead up to Future Frigates and Submarines?" Mr Thompson said the Federal Government needs to urgently provide certainty to the ASC workforce which remains under the threat of further job losses. "We are seeking assurances from the Government that it will make sure more skilled shipbuilders don't lose their jobs while the [Offshore Patrol Vessel] project and the Future Frigate Project are brought online," he said. "Merely announcing that the Government has made a decision does not secure these jobs." Austal chairman John Rothwell said he was pleased that the Federal Government had selected WA as one of two centres for naval shipbuilding.
Hundreds of people have gathered at Perth Motorplex to farewell eight-year-old Anita Board who died after crashing into a cement barrier during a junior dragster event.

Anita lost control of her vehicle and smashed into a cement barrier at the end of her solo run at Perth Motorplex during the Goldenstates Junior Dragster event on November 11, and died in Princess Margaret Hospital the next day.

Anita's mother Sonja, father Ian and sister Zara. Credit:AAP

At her funeral service on Friday, racers placed helmets on display behind a dragster vehicle as a mark of respect.

The stage was also adorned with enlarged photographs of Anita in her vehicle.
Scores of people were killed or injured when houses and schools collapsed in a village near Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province on Sept. 3 when North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test, a source said Thursday.

SAND (South and North Development), a defectors' think tank in Seoul, quoted the source as reporting after a recent trip to the area that the powerful artificial earthquake created by the nuclear test caused the collapse of dozens of houses in the village of Sindong-ri, about 8 km away.

Collective farms suffered the most damage, the source said. The damage was serious because the houses are built on wooden stilts. Schoolchildren also suffered because the regime did not warn schools of the imminent test.

"Sept. 3 was a Sunday, but some 150 students were waiting in their classrooms to do some work," the source said. "Casualties occurred when half of the school building crumbled."

Nevertheless, the regime mobilized farmers in the disaster area to harvest crops, which it said was more important than restoring the damage.

"Farmers couldn't even think of repairing the damage because they're busy harvesting crops even though three months have passed since their houses were destroyed," the source added. "Displaced farmers are staying in temporary shelters or living with neighbors whose houses sustained less damage."

The source said if that is the situation 8 km away, the damage in Punggye-ri must be even worse.

Earlier, Japan's Asahi TV reported that up to 100 people were trapped and about 200 killed when an underground tunnel collapsed at the test site. North Korea denied the report.


Several African leaders have faced popular opposition in recent years, from Togo, where thousands protested this autumn, to Gabon, where riots broke out last year after President Ali Bongo was re-elected in a disputed vote. Mugabe's fall has raised hopes among opposition politicians that other long-serving leaders will fall, but also stoked fears that those who replace them may be no better. Long-time leaders Uganda's long-time President Yoweri Museveni. Credit:AP Ugandan President since 1986, Museveni is among Africa's longest-serving leaders. They include Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang, president for 38 years; Cameroon's Paul Biya, president for 35 years. Congo's Denis Sassou Nguesso, president for two stints totalling 33 years.

The Gnassingbe family have ruled Togo for half a century; as have the Bongo family in Gabon. The Kabila family have run the Democratic Republic of Congo for 20 years. Some countries allow only two presidential terms, but several have rolled back such legislation. In Cameroon, Biya scrapped term limits and cracked down on the opposition. In Congo, Nguesso jailed an opposition leader this year for protesting against removal of term limits. Franck Essi, secretary-general of the opposition Cameroon Peoples' Party, said opposition movements were closely watching events in Zimbabwe. "Leaders must put in place mechanisms for a democratic and peaceful transition that will allow new leadership. If not, sooner or later, the people who are suffocating will wake up," he said. Some places have already seen change. Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore was ousted by protests in 2014 as he tried to change the constitution and extend his decades-long rule. In January, Gambia's erratic ruler Yahya Jammeh fled after regional pressure ended his 22-year reign. Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos stepped down this year after four decades in power; his handpicked successor has pushed out some key dos Santos allies.

For many nations, a Zimbabwe-style switch in the loyalties of the armed forces or a rift in the inner circle represents one of the few ways that rulers might be forced from power. Despite Zimbabwe's well-established opposition, change didn't come until Mugabe's inner circle fell out over his succession plans, and the military put him under house arrest. Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson, a top Togolese opposition official, said they had hoped for a Zimbabwean-type change of power where the military came over to their side. "We'd wanted the Togolese army to fight alongside us. We were moved seeing that Zimbabwe's army and civilian population were all in the streets dancing. That's what we want in Togo," she said. "There will be change in Zimbabwe this year and there will be in Togo too. Standing firm Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila. Credit:AP

In central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo's Joseph Kabila has repeatedly postponed elections after refusing to step down at the end of his term last year, sparking deadly protests. Jean-Pierre Kambila, Kabila's deputy chief of staff, tweeted that Zimbabwe's protests were a colonial fantasy. "A fabricated demonstration dreamed up by those who do not accept the liberation of Africa. Other Mugabes will be born. Nothing to worry about," he wrote. Uganda, a key Western ally set to begin exporting its substantial oil reserves, removed term limits in 2005 to extend Museveni's rule. The east African nation has seen far less violence under Museveni than the two dictators who preceded him. But now tensions are rising as social services crumble and parliamentarians attempt to remove a constitutional age cap that would bar Museveni from standing in the next election. Police have used deadly force against protesters, and repeatedly arrested the main opposition leader. Security forces dragged parliamentarians opposing the bill out of the legislature. On Wednesday, police raided a popular newspaper, detaining eight staff. Okello Oryem, Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs, dismissed any parallels with Zimbabwe, saying Mugabe's overthrow was the result of Western interference.

"The intelligence services of the West have worked day and night to bring down Zimbabwe," he said. "Citizen pressure in Zimbabwe can only work if and when the army allows it." But another Ugandan opposition leader, Asuman Basalirwa, warned that national leaders who refused to step down risked plunging their countries into conflict. Military intervention to end dictatorships ultimately leads to more repression, he said, something that many feared might be in store for Zimbabwe. "It is time for the continent to democratise," he said. "Those who have not yet experienced what happened in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and now Zimbabwe should just wait for their turn because it will surely come." Hunger for change Zimbabwe's incoming leader Emmerson Mnangagwa. Credit:Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi

In Zimbabwe, there's a public hunger for a real break from the policies of Mugabe, whose resignation sparked scenes of jubilation in the streets of the capital. Change is desperately needed. Mnangagwa is inheriting an economic wasteland that will take years and a complete reversal of some of the government's signature policies to set right. The economy is half the size it was in 2000, and has slipped from being one of the 10 biggest in sub-Saharan Africa to No. 20. Formal jobs outside the government are virtually non-existent, there are chronic cash shortages and roads and other public infrastructure have crumbled. Many of the best-educated Zimbabweans have moved to neighbouring South Africa and Britain, leaving the country with limited expertise to rebuild. When Mnangagwa spoke to thousands of supporters in Harare on Wednesday evening in his first public appearance since returning to Zimbabwe, he promised a new start. "The voice of the people is the voice of God," he said. "Today we are witnessing the beginning of a new and unfolding democracy." But opposition leaders such as the Movement for Democratic Change's Morgan Tsvangirai, a former prime minister, and former finance minister Tendai Biti, who heads the People's Democratic Party, will be listening to Mnangagwa's inaugural speech closely for clues as to whether he's ready to build bridges with ruling party Zanu-PF's rivals before general elections next year.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a meeting with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Wednesday, "China attaches great importance to Korea's statement that deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery will not damage China's security interests. We hope the Korean side will continue to appropriately handle the matter."

But instead of bristling at this interference in Korea's legitimate defense interests, Kang merely muttered, "We both realize that continued conflict is in neither of our interests, so we have come to this outcome." She added that it is necessary to resume exchanges between the two sides before President Moon Jae-in's visit to Beijing next month. It appears that the government has staked everything on making Moon's trip to China happen and is touting it as a major achievement. Yet Beijing did not even mention it. The only reference to Moon's visit to China was a short notice in the Chinese state media. To add insult to injury, Wang arrived half an hour late for the meeting with Kang, who said she was not told why.

Cheong Wa Dae announced on Oct. 31 that Seoul and Beijing have agreed to put bilateral relations back on the right track. The presidential office at the time said the THAAD issue will not be raised again, but there it was again in the meeting between the two foreign ministers, and Moon continues to be pressured by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to "deal with the issue." The government meekly accepts this, and there has been no news that it demanded compensation from China for the damage incurred from its unofficial boycott of Korean products and services.

Moon's visit to China and Xi's presence at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang may be important. But the government really needs to be more assertive on the diplomatic stage. It can only diminish Korea's stature if it puts up with this kind of behavior.

During negotiations over THAAD, Beijing apparently demanded access for inspectors to the THAAD battery in Seonju, North Gyeongsang Province and the construction of a barrier wall to ease the Chinese government's unfounded fears that the radar will somehow be used to spy on its military activities.

No foreign government should has the right to demand access another country's defenses. This is a violation of its sovereign right. Yet the government was only too keen to agree to China's demands. Beijing's behavior clearly shows the high price Seoul will have to pay for the decision. Now China is demanding that Moon and Kang deal with the THAAD issue "in stages." A high-ranking government official said, "China used the phrase 'at the current state' to refer to the need for the issue to be put to rest." But that makes no sense, and really suggests that the issue is at some sort of interim stage of development instead of being over, and China intends to keep telling Korea what to do.

China has no history of dealing with foreign countries on an equal basis. It historically only understands vassal states and enemies, nothing else. That means that when a country deals with China, it needs to stick to its principles. But there are no principles visible in the way the government here is kowtowing to the bullies. Seoul does not have to do this. It is a mystery why the government is taking this approach.


The protection of property rights is a matter of overall strategic significance, Premier Li Keqiang said at the State Council executive meeting on Nov 22.

The meeting presided over by Premier Li, heard a report on progress of property right protection, and determined to do more to improve the property protection system with comprehensive legal guarantee, a key part to build a socialist market economy.

We shall send out a clear signal: The government will build a strong confidence among all market players with a more effective property protection system, the Premier said.

At the meeting, Premier Li urged to focus on rectifying wrongly ruled cases involving property rights and offer more legal aid to the victims.

At present, although private investment has stopped declining, its growth still lags behind that of the total investment in fixed assets. To promote private investment, its vital to strengthen protection of property rights, the Premier stressed.

He also pointed out that this move is not only beneficial to boost innovation and investment willingness, but also to create new growth drivers and expand opening-up.

Meanwhile, property rights of public ownership and non-public ownership must be treated equally, and companies autonomy in management and legal property must get more protection, Premier Li added.

The Premier demanded revision or abolishing rules that go against property right protection and contradict higher-level laws.

Development opportunities never wait! We must seize them, he added.

According to the Premier, the transformation and upgrade of the Chinese economy should rely on innovation which requires enhanced intellectual property protection (IPR).

He emphasized China should address the low cost of IPR infringement and high cost in defending them. Internet Plus should be applied to realize real-time monitoring and online IPR identification with faster pace to set up a punitive compensation system.

Premier Li also demanded efforts to promote honest administration, break regional protection, and improve the safeguards against malpractice.

The government should enhance the confidence of market players in investment and entrepreneurship with effective property right protection, to raise the sense of gains of the general public and entrepreneurs, the Premier said.
BenRiach Authenticus 30 Years Old released

Brown-Forman's The BenRiach Distillery has announced the release of BenRiach Authenticus 30 Years Old.

Since the 1970s The BenRiach Distillery has distilled a proportion of its whisky using peated malted barley. Today the distillery holds a rare inventory of peated Speyside single malt, dating as far back as 1975.

Research by whisky expert Charles MacLean indicates BenRiach was the first Speyside distillery to release a peated expression since WW2.

This came in the form of BenRiach Curiositas 10 years old in 2004, which remains part of the core BenRiach peated range today.

BenRiach peated single malt whiskies are distilled from peat cut in the North-East of Scotland, containing a prevalence of wood derived from ancient trees, heather and bracken.

Announcing Authenticus 30 year old, BenRiach Distillery master blender Rachel Barrie, says: At the BenRiach Distillery we pride ourselves on our unconventional distilling philosophy, creating unpeated, peated and triple distilled malt whisky. As the oldest expression in our peated range, we believe Authenticus 30 years old will impress with its distinguished profile. It is a more intense Speyside malt which carries a delightful balance of wild honey and peat on the nose. The combination of the soft, creamy vanilla, summer fruits and slight hint of cocoa coax the palate, while the infused sweet peat builds gradually to complete the unique character.

BenRiach Authenticus 30 years old is non chill filtered, bottled at 46%, of natural colour and will be available at specialist retailers worldwide.

24 November 2017 - Sam Coyne The Drinks Report, news editor
The past few months have been rough for Beth Maples after the Houston-area friend's home she was staying at was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. But sitting down with a plate full of turkey Thursday, she said she has a lot to be thankful for.

"Took the breath out of me for a minute -- then it was time to move on," she said before pausing at the Twin City Mission Thanksgiving lunch. "You never know what you are going to learn. You never know what the Lord has in store for you."

She said she's extremely appreciative for the meal in front of her -- Thanksgiving isn't the same without the classic turkey meal, she said -- but she's even more grateful for the people at the table with her.

"Thanksgiving is about food and family," she said before gesturing to Gelonda Wilson next to her. "And this is my family now."

Wilson herself lives at Twin City Mission's homeless center with her husband. This year, the shelter and resources at the center are what she is most thankful for.

"We're together, and we're not sleeping in a car no more," she said.

Across town, a line stretched outside of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Bryan during its Thanksgiving meal.

Standing in that line was Fredrick Rayson, a truck driver from Galveston. He was working on Thanksgiving but decided to make a quick pit stop at the church for a turkey meal.

"I'm away from family right now," he said. "So I come here, and move on."

He said this Thanksgiving he is grateful for the basics.

"I'm thankful for just being alive -- the world is so crazy right now," he said.

Dennis Hill and his family stopped by before he headed to shifts at two different jobs. The lunch has become something of a tradition for the long-time parishioners.

"I'm happy to be celebrating Thanksgiving in the church -- we've been coming here 15 years," he said.

Michael Knight stopped by to pick up a meal for both himself and his wife at home. He said Gloria Kennard, the woman behind the event for 29 years, is a big part of what makes the meal special.

"Gloria makes a wonderful meal," he said. "I've never missed it, and I never will."

Being able to help out with the meal is what volunteer Searcy Toliver said she is grateful for this season.

"Thankful for another day and being able to spend this with family and friends and being able to give back to community," she said.

For her, the holiday is a reminder of how lucky everyone is to be alive.

"So many people have passed away, no matter what age," she reflected Thursday.

Before getting her own plate at the church, Zuleama Saldana said she was grateful this season that she and her four kids are physically well.

"We don't have health [insurance], we don't have nothing," she said, before adding, with palpable relief, that she's also grateful her husband was able to find a job after a month of unemployment.

She said it's been a stressful month -- both of their cars broke down, and bills began to pile up -- but standing in line on Thursday, she said all you can do is press onward.

"We keep going," she said.
U.S. Rep. Bill Flores will hold two remote town halls next week to discuss lawmakers' work in Washington, D.C., answer questions and receive feedback from constituents.

The technological town hall for Brazos, Bastrop, Burleson, Lee and Travis counties will be from 6:55 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, while the town hall for Falls, Freestone, Leon, Limestone, McLennan, Milam and Robertson counties will be at the same time on Tuesday.

The town halls will be conducted over the telephone, similar to other tele-town halls the representative has held in the past, and a live video broadcast will be available at flores.house.gov/liveforum/ and on his Facebook page. Participants can ask Flores questions through the caller queue and the comments section of the video feed.

Flores, who will take the questions from D.C. since Congress will be in session next week, said he is particularly excited to talk about what he considers the "awesome" tax reform bill passed by the House last Thursday. Flores said he will open the "inclusive multimedia town hall" by talking about tax reform and addressing what he says are perceived misconceptions about the bill, after which he will take questions from those watching or listening.

Flores spoke highly of the remote town halls because they let him reach a greater number of constituents and do not require the same level of security as in-person town halls.

"I like those, personally, better," he said, referring to in-person town halls. "I think it's more fun and fulfilling to engage face-to-face."

Still, Flores said, the "new format is working much better than the old format," pointing to a poll taken during a spring telephone town hall in which 75 percent of respondents said they preferred remote to in-person town halls. Flores said he has not held an in-person town hall in Brazos County since April 2016.

Flores said it was also potentially more costly to hold in-person town halls because of added security -- which, he said, taxpayers pay for.

"Every day is like a mini-town hall," Flores said of his day-to-day activities when he is back in his district, since he routinely schedules face-to-face meetings with constituents at one of his offices.

Raul Castillo, volunteer with the Democratic Party and Precinct Chair of College Station's Precinct 9, said he was disappointed Flores would hold another remote town hall rather than an in-person one.

"The only way you can get to the congressperson in this district is to call in when it's convenient for him and ask him questions with which he's comfortable," Castillo said.

The point of a town hall, Castillo said, is to allow people to meet their congressional representative and ask questions, not allow those members of Congress to cherry-pick which calls to air through a screening process.

"It's somewhat cowardice on his part to not hold town halls that people can actually attend," Castillo said. He will not participate in the remote town hall, he said, because, "if you call in with a critical question, it's not going to be answered, it's not going to be responded to, because they're pre-screened."

Flores said his staff screens calls so there are ideological and categorical ranges of topics, not to silence dissenting or varying opinions.

"We don't make it a love-fest. That's not our goal," he said.

Flores said those who object to his technological town halls do not fully appreciate the number of people reached by the remote format and the benefits it offers, He said if constituents want to see him, they're welcome to set up a time to meet with him in person at his office.

To be added to the call list, go to flores.house.gov/liveforum/.
Texas A&M University is receiving national recognition for its study-abroad program, ranking first among public universities according to a recent study.

Jane Flaherty, study abroad director for Texas A&M, said when she first began in the position a decade ago, a much larger percentage of her time was dedicated to convincing students, faculty and parents of benefits and value in taking time to study abroad. Today, however, she said she and her colleagues "don't have to do that as much any longer."

"A&M has always emphasized excellence and, of course, life-long learning for students," she said. "I think people at all levels of the university have come to see international opportunities as part of that formula."

The study, which was conducted by the Institute of International Education and the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, found that 3,683 A&M students participated in credit-bearing study-abroad programs during the 2015-2016 academic year. The number placed A&M first among public universities and second only behind private New York University, which sent 4,481 students during that same year.

University officials said the number of A&M students studying abroad has been rising steadily over the past few years, increasing by more than 650 since the 2013-2014 academic year.

Flaherty said the university's recent focus on high-impact, transformational experiences has been a major factor in the growth of the study-abroad program.

"Study abroad has been identified as one component of this effort," she said. "Both the president and the provost's office have provided the impetus to make international engagement a central part of the A&M mission."

Flaherty said the recognition also is significant for the university's national reputation. Recently, she said, colleagues from across the country have reached out to express their excitement for the program.

"They certainly understand this is a tremendous honor for A&M and that it came through a lot of hard work and a university-wide commitment," Flaherty said.

She said the importance of giving students the opportunity to have international experiences goes beyond their personal development: Flaherty said she believes that as future members of the Texas economy, students who participate in study-abroad programs come away with a stronger understanding of other cultures and societies.

A&M President Michael K. Young said in a statement he is proud of the university's role in providing study-abroad opportunities for its students.

"A robust study-abroad program is essential to a university's ability to provide high-impact learning experiences to students, and it is heartening to know Texas A&M is among the best in the nation at providing these invaluable opportunities," Young said.

Flaherty said one of her goals for the program for the future is to provide more of the university's students with the information on the accessibility and academic cohesiveness of the opportunities available.

"Moving forward, we want to make sure that every student coming into A&M knows that a study-abroad experience is both affordable and also can fit seamlessly into their degree plan," she said. "We want to make sure all students know study abroad is not just a one-off -- it can actually be a central part of their academic experience."

For those interested in learning more about the study-abroad options available, go to studyabroad.tamu.edu.
Premier Li Keqiang met with the Chinese team of the 44th World Skills Competition in Beijing on Nov 21.

Premier Li hailed them for their outstanding achievements obtained in the competition. The new generation of teenagers shoulder the irreplaceable mission in promoting manufacturing and services in China to a medium and high end, he said.

Premier Li encouraged them to work hard to become excellent craftsmen in China, perform their daily work with what they have learned in the competition, and improve the vocational skills in various fields to higher level.

[Photo/China News Service]

He called for efforts to promote the innovation-driven development strategy, the entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives, and the craftsman spirit in the country, which provide strong momentum to Chinas economy.

There is plenty of room for skilled talents, and they are able to develop their ability to the full, in the course of driving forward a modern and prosperous China, said the Premier.

[Photo/China News Service]

The representative from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security briefed the Premier on the competition, and medal winners delivered speeches.

Premier Li said the upgraded skills of workers are the premise for the Chinese economy to move to the medium and high end. He hoped technical talents can work on their skills and contribute more with their wisdom.

Craftsmanship is the soul of quality. Bearing such spirit in mind, Chinese brands will become world brands one day, Premier Li said.

He added that craftsmanship lies in every process and product, which will support the entrepreneurship and the nations ambition to become a strong manufacturing giant.

[Photo/China News Service]

With the number of skilled workers reaching 165 million, the quality, scale and structure of such talents still cannot support the economy and society to develop to a higher level.

Premier Li said China should deepen reform and increase input to build a skilled labor force.

He emphasized that more work should be done to expand development paths and increase incomes of skilled workers, bringing more sense of gain to the group.

At the World Skills Competition held in October in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 52 Chinese players won 15 gold medals, 7 silvers, 8 bronzes, and 12 excellence awards. The competition in 2021 will be held in Shanghai.

Vice-Premier Ma Kai also attended the event.
Franklin County leaders voted Tuesday to support a study that would aim to generate increased dairy production throughout the state.

The dairy industry generates $4.3 billion annually and supports 16,000 Virginia jobs, according to data from the county.

Franklin Countys Board of Supervisors agreed to partner with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services along with five surrounding counties to put together an Agriculture and Forestry Industry Development grant for the study.

Under the plan, the partners would fund a study to attract new diary processing businesses in Virginia. Each county provides $5,000 and 20 hours to the study, to be matched by a $35,000 grant from AFID.

The report will provide companies and site consultants the information to make an investment decision. It will also inform economic developers about the type of dairy processors to recruit.

The full study is expected to take about nine months to complete after the contract award. A recommendation of award will be presented to the Board of Supervisors in January.

Also Tuesday, a majority of the county board voted in support of negotiating an easement agreement with Mountain Valley Pipeline. Boone District supervisor Ronnie Thompson was the only supervisor not willing to accept any offer from Mountain Valley at this time.

Franklin County was among other landowners Mountain Valley filed a federal lawsuit against last month. County Attorney Jim Guynn said supervisors had to take some type of action. If they agree with the offer by Mountain Valley they could accept it, or they could leave it to the courts to decide the value of the land or negotiate with Mountain Valley.

The county previously considered an easement in October 2016, but later voted against entering the agreement.

The pipeline still needs to earn permits before construction can begin.

The board also voted to approve the Sheriffs Office request for six new vehicles for the department.

According to the countys vehicle policy, law enforcement vehicles are normally replaced with 125,000 miles and these vehicles may be reissued to support services such as prisoner transport or spare fleet vehicles or they may be surplused. They are maintained in this capacity until they become unreliable or repairs and maintenance becomes cost prohibitive.

The Sheriffs Office asked to receive five Dodge Charger Police Pursuit vehicles for about $23,838 each, and one Ford Police Utility (Explorer) vehicle for about $28,375 to replace six of their current vehicles, which all have more than 125,000 miles.

The existing vehicle replacement budget for the Sheriffs Office will be used to buy the vehicles.

In other business Tuesday:

Supervisors approved a request to begin advertising for contractors to bid on repairs to the fire training building in Ferrum. After an annual structural and electrical engineering inspection by Thompson and Litton in 2016, issues came up the county is addressing. There is currently $50,000 from carry-over funds to begin the repairs, but that amount will not cover the full cost, which is unknown at this time.

They also approved the 2018 Preliminary Legislative Program which was drafted and released by the Virginia Association of Counties. The document includes a host of proposed policy statements pertaining to K-12 education funding, local taxing authority, transportation, health and human services and other issues.

The board voted 6-1 to provide $2.2 million to the schools for the next fiscal year, with Thompson voting against. The request was initially brought before the board in October.
When the Petska Fur truck pulls into a town, people show up with deer hides, raccoons, antlers and skunk.

What the company really likes to see, though, is coyote.

Right now the only thing that we can sell without much trouble is a coyote, said Greg Petska, who heads the Ord-based fur company.

The fur from coyotes trapped in this area will wind up on coats produced by a company called Canada Goose. That company, based in Toronto, spearheaded this whole coyote craze five or six years ago, Petska said. Strips of coyote are used on the coats collars and hoods. The company sells high-end coats, popular with young urban residents who dont have a problem with fur.

Canada Goose had the market to itself for two or three years. A couple of other companies have now joined the field.

So youve got three companies basically competing against each other for this raw material that were gathering out here in the country, Petska said.

Canada Goose charges a handsome price for its apparel, which is sold in 37 countries. A childs jumper, featuring a fur collar or hood, goes for $700 or $800. Some coats are priced at $1,500 to $1,800. Ive seen them as high as $2,000, Petska said.

To bring in fur, Petska covers a very big area.

The company sends its trucks to eight or nine states, including the Dakotas, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. One of the routes hits Central Nebraska hard.

In Nebraska, the company is very busy in November and December. Were as available as we can possibly be, because thats just when the fur is coming into prime, as your days get shorter, Petska said.

Five or six of the vehicles are based in Ord. Petska Fur also has drivers who live in Alliance and Wyoming. Each of those vehicles puts on 30,000 to 35,000 miles per season. Running each truck costs $300 a day. This week, Petska operated five trucks, so the company has $1,500 in fixed costs per day.

In order to recoup those costs, Petska collects many types of fur.

Deer is a good, stable part of the business. The company makes only $2 or $3 per deer hide, but they help cover expenses. We buy 20,000 or so deer hides a year, he said.

The hides are sold to a glove wholesaler in Wisconsin, who works with a highly regarded Chinese tannery and glove maker. The Wisconsin man buys a million deer hides from fur buyers like Petska.

Hunters who bring deer hides to Petska are compensated with deer or cash, whichever they prefer.

Petska competes directly against ranch fur. Ranches havent figured out how to produce coyote, but theyre doing very well with mink and fox, Petska said.

The larger ranches might have 20,000 to 30,000 breeding pairs of mink, he said.

China entered the ranch mink business four or five years ago. The world went from producing 30 or 40 million mink annually in 2012-2013 to 800 million mink per year.

China now has a big middle class, as well as an upper-middle class. The country is like the U.S. was in the 1950s, Petska said. People want their own homes and have money to spend. And one of the things they want first is a fur coat, Petska said. That yearning is filled with ranch mink.

A good mink coat now costs only $600 to $800. In the 1970s, the pricetag was $3,000 to $5,000.

Petska doesnt want to criticize mink. Its a timeless item. Its a product that everybody wants to buy for their first coat, he said.

But in so many industries, China makes the world go around. They want the raw materials. They know they can build it cheaper than anybody, and theyre darn sure doing it. At this point, China is even being undercut by other countries, such as Pakistan and India.

Petska has been buying fur in Nebraska since 1972 or 73. Thats when Gregs father, Ken, started the company. Ken, now 77, is doing his best to get out of the business. Greg, 56, is now in charge. He is assisted by his sons.

The company will buy any fur-bearing animal thats legal to take in Nebraska, he said.

Raccoon is a staple fur in Nebraska.

In the mountain states, the company buys mountain lions and bear. Petska Fur also buys elk and deer antlers, which are mostly used to produce dog chews.

Pet stores will charge $12, $15 or $20 for a small piece of antler, Petska said. Many dog owners like to buy natural or organic chews for their pets.

Its probably also true in the bigger cities in Nebraska. But you get on the east coast or the west cost and you put organic or natural in front of anything, and they will buy it, no matter what it costs, he said.

The company also buy peoples fur coats.

A year or two ago, we donated one to our local high school rodeo queen. She sold the coat at her fundraiser auction. And the darn thing brought crazy money,

But in old coats, the leather has deteriorated because its so old. Hes trying to work with people who do leather work. But the company is much more interested in fresh fur.

Well even buy jackrabbits, for crying out loud, Petska said. Not so much in Nebraska, but in other states its legal to hunt and resell them.

What fur isnt the company crazy about? Possums have almost no value, he said.

Petska also doesnt want smelly skunk.

Skunks are a cool fur, but our business is in town, he said. The neighbors just dont take too kindly to a skunk odor wafting across the neighborhood. We try our darnedest not to buy smelly ones.

Petska is continuing to expand because, he says, youve just got to get big to survive. This year, the company will visit the panhandle of Oklahoma and Texas for the first time.

The company that deals with hunters and trappers is hunting for new revenue streams. The internet has opened up new possibilities for selling fur, he said. The company, for instance, supplies good skunks to a dozen different taxidermists, who create smaller mounts.

Visiting so many towns, Petska drivers might as well pick up whatevers in demand, because theyre already there.

Petska knows many Americans now shy away from fur.

But, he said, Its a natural resource that goes to waste if we dont utilize it.
Dear Annie: I do not get to see my friend Amy as often as Id like because of our busy schedules. My problem is that she continually shows up to our planned outings with her daughter, Jennie.

She gives little or no notice when shes bringing her. Her daughter is 17 and not mature for her age, and I dont feel comfortable talking about adult things (such as marriage issues or other personal problems) in front of her. I end up feeling obligated to ask her questions about her school and her boyfriend, etc.

This has been going on for years, though I understood when the child was, well, a child. I just want to have grown-up time and conversations with my friend. I almost want to cancel when I find out that Jennie is tagging along again. It bewilders me why a girl this age cannot cut the apron strings, though I dont care if it doesnt affect my time.

I am not good with confrontations but have hinted a few times to my friend that this bothers me. Can you give any advice on how to handle this situation? Im thinking of just giving up on this until Jennie goes to college.

 Threes a Crowd

Dear Threes a Crowd: Mother birds shouldnt wait until theyve an empty nest to take alone time for themselves now and then. Its healthy to get together with friends and commiserate about adult problems  though not in the presence of children.

Im not sure why Jennie would want to go to every single lunch with her mom or why her mom would make her. But theres no reason you cant politely request one-on-one time. The next time you two are planning an outing, say something like this: Id really like a chance to talk to you about my personal life, and I just dont feel comfortable doing that when Jennies there. Could we keep this lunch to just us?

If she rejects the idea, put the ball in her court. Ask her to let you know when its a good time for the two of you to get together.

Dear Annie: I am writing in response to If Only He Had a Heart, who complained about her younger brothers behavior.

One of her statements was sheer prejudice: He was ... lets face it, a teenage boy. Not all teenage boys are troublemakers. Why should teenage boy be a synonym for bratty, angsty and entitled? No other group can be treated as being all the same just because some are bad.

But apparently, its OK to say such a thing, because you didnt correct her.

 A Teenage Boy in Texas

Dear Teenage Boy: I appreciate your writing. You are absolutely right. Not all teenage boys behave badly, and making sweeping generalizations helps no one. Im printing your letter to correct the record.

Annie Lane, a graduate of New York Law School and New York University, writes this column for Creators Syndicate. Email questions to dearannie@creators.com.
Policymakers have enjoyed a free pass in discussions over what to do in response to the sexual harassment allegations taking down Hollywood producers, news media titans and actors. Because the worst of the transgressions already are illegal, lawmakers seem satisfied to call for culprits to be fired or to step down and for corporate leaders to promise that theyll crack down on offenders more quickly in the future.

But legislators can do more to address the problem. They can make workplace bullying illegal. Too many corporate leaders find it expedient to look the other way when bosses  especially ones they deem indispensable  systematically intimidate and humiliate underlings. Bullies who believe that their whims matter more than other peoples dignity often dont see why their sexual impulses shouldnt be just as indulged.

Sweden, France and Belgium, as well as the Canadian province of Quebec, have passed anti-workplace bullying laws. Courts in Spain, Germany and Great Britain consider it a violation of other statutes.

The U.S. should follow their lead. Workplace bullying is morally repugnant, bad for business and it seems to correlate closely with sexual harassment. Harvey Weinstein and Fox News head Roger Ailes, for example, were famous for their general cruelty long before we knew how they treated women.

Harvey was a bully. Harvey was arrogant, his brother, Bob, told the Hollywood Reporter. That I knew. And I had to clean up for so many of his employee messes. People that came in crying to my office: Your brother said this, that and the other. And Id feel sick about it.

But, he said, he didnt do anything because it didnt rise to a certain level. Instead, he counseled employees to leave, please leave.

Ailes behavior was just as obvious. The real harassment was emotional harassment, CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota  who worked for 16 years at Fox News  said on air in April after Ailes died. I went to my superiors to talk to them about it, and there was certainly a feeling like, This is Roger. What are you going to do? Who are you going to go to?  She added: Hed call people names. And it was that feeling of not wanting to run afoul of him. That was really the chilling effect.

Abused employees would be able to go to court if states or Congress adopted laws like the Healthy Workplace Bill, proposed by Suffolk University Law School professor David Yamada. He found that U.S. courts rarely sided with victims of bullying who sought relief under employment laws that already prohibit intentional infliction of emotional distress. Taking a page from the standards for a hostile work environment established under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Healthy Workplace Bill would empower employees to sue companies for actions that a reasonable person would find abusive, based on the severity, nature or frequency of the conduct.

That would patch a hole in discrimination law, says Gary Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group. Employees need the leverage provided by a spelled-out set of protections because perpetrators often are considered indispensable, even if they are jerks.

And there are a lot of them. In an April online Zogby Analytics survey, about 9 percent of the respondents said theyd been bullied at work within the last year, and an additional 10 percent said theyd experienced it too, though not in the last year. That would translate to about 30 million employees. Men in the survey accounted for about 70 percent of the perpetrators and they targeted women 65 percent of the time. Female bullies targeted women 67 percent of the time. Although the survey covered all workplace bullying, the most common and extreme examples involved bosses bullying subordinates.

State and local chambers of commerce and other business groups have effectively fought the Healthy Workplace Bill. It has been defeated in 29 state legislatures. Its opponents say its too vague and too likely to sink small businesses with unfair lawsuits. They worry about undermining hard-driving perfectionists who prove to be business geniuses, such as Steve Jobs at Apple.

But all laws that protect workers could be said to weigh most heavily on small businesses, and courts should find it relatively easy to differentiate between frivolous cases and serious systematic abuse. In fact, the Healthy Workplace legislation is written to protect employers who take reasonable care to prevent or correct abuses. It requires plaintiffs to take advantage of in-house remedies. And it only covers repeated offenses, unless the abuse was especially severe and egregious.

The potential problems an anti-bullying law might create for a business would be more than offset by the advantages of replacing bullies with managers who truly have the temperament to lead. Hundreds of experiments, writes Robert Sutton, of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, show that demeaning bosses undermine employees decision-making skills, productivity, creativity and willingness to work harder and help coworkers.

Weinstein, Ailes and others in positions of power who stand accused of sexual harassment are not merely isolated bad apples who couldnt control their libidos. They are bullies, too, who learned they could get away with almost any behavior, as long as their operations generated enough cash.

Bullies affect all industries. Lawmakers can establish that intimidation and humiliation are off-limits in the workplace. They can give employees a better option than taking the abuse or leaving.
The November overthrow of Zimbabwes despotic dictator Robert Mugabe brings some hope to those who long for the rule of law in that long-suffering nation. Mugabes 37-year misrule saw his nation change from Africas breadbasket to Africas basket case.

For years, Zimbabwes vast natural resources have been harvested for the benefit of Mugabe and his cronies. They have accumulated vast wealth while the rest of their nation has suffered. Only time will tell if the potential of that nation will be realized, but the rest of the world wishes them well.



This November also marks the 100th anniversary of the Bolsheviks taking power in Russia, and the establishment of the worlds first communist nation, the Soviet Union. While promising equality and opportunity for all, that system quickly became one in which the favored were rewarded while the rest continued to suffer.

The Soviet Unions political system finally collapsed in 1991, ending years of a one-party dictatorship and state-controlled economy. Unfortunately, the past 25 years did not bring about the democratic institutions that many hoped might develop. Instead, we have a new Russia that seems to want to rebuild many of the former Soviet Unions foundations.



Thursday marked the 54 years since President John F. Kennedys assassination in Dallas. The nation was shocked and grief was widespread that day and for a long time after. There was confidence in government in the early 1960s, as people responded to Kennedys call to public service.

That confidence has certainly diminished in recent years, and it hurts the nation. Optimists say that it will return someday, and we agree. Political life has its ups and downs, but the great principles on which the United States was founded will continue to endure.



Finally, we celebrated Thanksgiving this week and our nation has plenty of reasons to be thankful. A quick look at the wars and poverty that exist in other parts of the world should be reason enough. Added to that is our freedom to worship God as we choose, without fear of repression or condemnation.

Surely, we are blessed.
In regard to a strategic plan for the Veterans Home land in Grand Island, the development of a new public, residential state high school  The Nebraska School of Science, Mathematics and Technology  could be modeled after the successful development of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, which was developed in a former hospital facility in Durham, N.C.

The residential magnet school attracts the best and brightest high school students from North Carolinas 100 counties. Similar schools have emerged in other states around the country. Each of Nebraskas 93 counties would select four individuals to attend this school  a total of 372 students.

The potential location of such a facility in Grand Island could have a positive impact on the work force that is currently needed. It would expose Grand Island to hundreds of the states most academically gifted students, and potentially create lasting connections to the community and local employers through internships, student projects and other forms of collaboration. The potential co-location of a new University of Nebraska Innovative Park (west campus) adjacent to the school could provide opportunities for students to collaborate with startups and utilize other resources that may be available to the park.

The Innovative Park and the school could have a specific focus (not exclusive) on agri-business applications, a logical niche focus for the state and the Grand Island region. Tenants at the Innovation Park could potentially access land used for Husker Harvest Days as a testing ground for products and processes. The opportunity for synergy with other objectives and recommendations in this strategy are immense.

Outreach to representatives from the University of Nebraska will be necessary to evaluate the existing utilization of Innovation Park in Lincoln and the need for potential future expansions.

The community should study the best model of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and gain support for such a development locally and in partnership with its elected representatives. Once support is gained locally for the concept(s), the community should begin working with key elected and appointed leadership to evaluate potential re-uses and advance mutually-beneficial opportunities.

The development of or the relocation of a four-year college or satellite campus is a potential goal that should be embraced as another strategic part of this educational/business plan.
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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 08:10 1819 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a87505 4 Editorial Papua,Papuan-administrations,#Papua,Otsus-Day,special-autonomy,development-outside-Java Free

Celebrations are moments of joy to commemorate milestones in a persons life, or a nation. Today, Papuans have a new commemoration: Otsus Day, or Papua Special Autonomy Day, as declared this week by Governor Lukas Enembe.

Some residents grumbled for not being notified that Nov. 21 was an official holiday. But others may be forgiven for wondering what there was to celebrate. Maybe the blessing in disguise is that the commemoration of the 16-year-old law brings to mind the pile of work that is progressing too slowly to catch up with numerous shouts of unaddressed grievances.

The 2001 Special Autonomy Law brought much hope to the nation and to the people of what is now Papua and West Papua; hope that they could be trusted to run their own government with the Papuan Peoples Council representing customary groups, diverse faiths and women. The central government under then-president Abdurrahman Gus Dur Wahid had hoped that a special autonomy, following the symbolic name change from Irian Jaya of the Soeharto era to Papua, would help tone down cries for independence following unresolved human rights violations and continued poverty despite Papuas rich natural resources, including the worlds largest gold mine.

Since the granting of its special autonomy, Papua has received Otsus funds reaching almost Rp 60 trillion (US$ 4.4 billion)  yet natural-resources rich Papua and West Papua remain provinces with the lowest Human Development Index.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has stood out among his predecessors for showing more attention to Papuans. He pardoned political prisoners and is accelerating infrastructure development in the province. But efforts at winning over the hearts and minds of Papuans remain paltry to what is being ignored.

Among others, a special team set up last year to address major human rights violations has yet to announce any progress. Among the reasons law enforcers cite as hurdles in investigations are the refusal of families to exhume the bodies of victims for autopsies, such as those killed in the December 2014 shooting of civilians, including teenagers.

Papuan civilians have come to perceive that as Indonesias minority of non-Muslim Melanesians, they are valid targets as suspected supporters of the independence movement, while losing out to migrants economically.

Though Papua does not host a battlefield as in the war between the government and Aceh rebels in the past, Papuans are often subject to an insecure life with lowlevel eruptions of violence with unclear actors  the worst involving the recently reported hostage taking of 1,300 people in Mimika regency near PT Freeport Indonesias mine. That a separatist group claimed responsibility has not helped bring clarity over the incident as independent verification by media is restricted.

Papuans are not the only ones complaining about corruption and suspected rigging in local elections.

But addressing the wide corruption loopholes and repeated flaws in Papuas local elections  including a glaring discrepancy between registered voters and population data, as cited again in the latest report of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict  are just a few of many urgent corrections, if indeed Papuans are considered equal to other citizens.
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Linkedin Jalur Rempah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia  Sat, November 25, 2017

Sebastian Partogi, The Jakarta Post,

Palembang in South Sumatra, which we know today as an industrial city, was an international trade hub for a 100 years, beginning with the rise of the Sriwijaya kingdom in the seventh century.



While conducting research on the kingdom's history, archaeologists have also unearthed the history of the city itself. How do archaeologists work to gain insight into the past, and what are the conclusions of their investigation?



According to National Archaeology Research Center researcher Bambang Budi Utomo, before they venture out into the field, archaeologists study existing literary sources on their research subject, in this case on the Sriwijaya kingdom.



"For example, we read [late British historian] O. W. Wolters' Early Indonesian Commerce: A Study of the Origins of Srivijaya to examine his assumption that the ancient kingdom's hub was located in what we know today as Palembang. We would also take a careful look at the inscriptions he used as evidence to support his hypothesis," Bambang explained.



Furthermore, the researchers will go on a site visit to find artifacts as potential evidence that what we know as Palembang today is an ancient city.



To be categorized as an ancient city, a number of criteria need to be fulfilled by a particular site, including: the existence of written documents; evidence of the involvement in long-distance trade and of a division of labor and specialization among skilled workers as well as evidence of the existence of public spaces.



According to Bambang, Palembang meets all of those criteria. Evidence suggesting that the city was involved in international trade included ceramics from China, beads from India and glass from Persia [now Iran], he added.



The ancient city also had a public park, established in 684, stupas as well as various inscriptions, some of them pointing to the existence of workers specializing in specific skills.



To interpret the artifacts, archaeologists conduct both laboratory and aesthetics analyses.



"For instance, to determine when a particular statue was crafted, we could trace the origins of its aesthetic style. If it is similar to the aesthetic style of the Chola dynasty in South India, for instance, then it was probably crafted in the eleventh century, at a time when locals interacted with people from the kingdom," Bambang explained.



To determine the age of an artifact more precisely, laboratory tests are very useful. "For instance, we can use thermal analysis to measure the amount of heat absorbed by a particular object to determine its age," he said.



After analyzing the objects and how they were used by people in ancient times, archaeologists can start to reconstruct what the ancient city might have looked like.



Bambang lamented that, because of the rural nature of the old South Sumatra city, many of its buildings and temples were made of soluble materials like bricks and wood, which ultimately moldered by air and water after hundreds of years, making the old city almost untraceable.



"This is why it is easy for us to talk about the greatness of the ancient Mataram kingdom (around the 17th century), because its temples -- made of solid rock -- are still visible. Unfortunately, it can be hard to talk about Sriwijaya's greatness for the reason mentioned," Bambang explained.



Most of the artifacts found by the archaeologists are from the northern areas of the Musi River in South Sumatra, where ancient residential complexes were erected in the highlands, resulting in rich amounts of artifacts.



Meanwhile, the Southern areas of the river are assumed to have comprised swamps in the time of the Sriwijaya kingdom. The areas have been dredged to erect the industrial city we know today, demolishing any original structures.

. (./.)
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Linkedin Jalur Rempah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia  Sat, November 25, 2017

Learning from history remains an abstract concept for many.

Sebastian Partogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The adage "those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it" may be applicable to the pride many Indonesians feel for the great ancient kingdom of Sriwijaya, which rose to power in South Sumatra in the seventh century, and controlled international trade for 500 years before facing its terminal decline around the 12th century.



The global spice trade, which reached its peak during the 15th and 16th centuries with the arrival of European traders and colonists to Asia, helped shape the world as we know it today, including national identities, languages, inter-religious relationships and much more.



"Many people would be fascinated to learn about Sriwijaya and other great ancient Indonesian kingdoms because they are proud of the fact Indonesia has been home to great, wealthy and strong kingdoms. [The purpose of] learning history, however, is not to brag about our past but instead to inspire us to create concrete strategies to develop our nation for the better," National Archaeology Research Center researcher Bambang Budi Utomo said recently.



He added that this kind of pride was similar to a person who bragged about their mother being a minister, without making any effort to forge their own accomplishments.



According to Bambang, learning history should involve critically analyzing the mistakes and shortcomings of our past, while motivating ourselves to achieve great things by developing on the strategies previous eras used to solve societal challenges, many of which remain relevant to our contemporary circumstances.



To facilitate this learning process, PT Jalur Rempah Nusantara is currently holding a month-long exhibition on the history of the Indonesian spice trade, with a focus on the aforementioned ancient kingdom, called "The Sriwijaya Kingdom: The Great Maritime Empire." Held at the National Museum in Jakarta the exhibition kicked off on Nov. 4 and will continue until Nov. 28.



As a whole, the exhibition seeks to shed light on the ancient kingdom by focusing specifically on four main elements of its society: the use of spices in medicine, ecology, maritime sovereignty and religious tolerance.



According to Bambang, these topics are especially relevant today, particularly when we look at the over-exploitation of nature in this industrial age, our struggle to maintain maritime sovereignty, as well as the increasing level of religious intolerance in the country.



For instance, one can draw lessons from Sriwijaya's success stories in guarding its seas against intruders as part of its international trade network, as well as its ability to preserve religious harmony among people of different faiths.



The exhibition explores the topics through various media: historical evidence, archaeological relics, contemporary visual artworks, videos, photographs, books and discussion sessions featuring experts. Here is a sneak preview of some of the exhibition's highlights:



Health care



During the Sriwijaya period, monks from across the globe came to South Sumatra not only to study Buddhism but also the potent power of herbal medication, one of the earliest drivers of international trade.



"Camphor, an endemic species from Barus, North Sumatra, is capable of curing numerous diseases. People from different religious faiths also came to Barus for therapy; this is why local medicine men used prayers of different religious systems -- Islam, Christianity and even Judaism -- to heal their patients," historian JJ Rizal explained.



The exhibition also features the much coveted camphor plant that requires hundreds of years to produce its crystalline sap, which is used for healing purposes.



The ecology



Although spices and plants were traded for both health care and other purposes during the Sriwijaya era, they were conscious not to over-exploit the plants. The pledge to preserve nature through proper cultivation was recorded in the Jaya Siddhayatra inscription, commemorating a king who not only created welfare for his people but also for nature as a whole.



Furthermore, the Talang Tuwo inscription announced the establishment of a city park in 684, which "must be used to guarantee the welfare of all creatures, animals and plants alike," Rizal said.



Maritime sovereignty and ways of life



The exhibition also has a section dedicated to the maritime lifestyles of Sumatra's sea tribes during the time of the Sriwijaya kingdom and features the skeleton of a padewakang ship. Visitors are invited to imagine how people whose lives revolved around sailing the open seas lived, as the exhibition also features relics of a tungku sepatu (shoe-shaped furnace) that was used to cook food inside the ships, as well as other eating utensils.



Religious harmony



The Sriwijaya kingdom earned a reputation for being a center of Buddhist teaching. The kingdom, however, was also beacon of religious tolerance. Visitors to the exhibition can learn about how people from different religions were united through the use of herbal medication during the era. Visitors can also learn how, in the eighth century, the Sriwijaya king offered a tribute to caliph Umar bin Abdul-Azis from Saudi Arabia while asking him to send a mubaligh (missionary) to teach Islam to everyone who lived in the kingdom.



"It was an inter-religious comparative study, supposedly to maintain open-mindedness," Bambang explained.



In order to help visitors dig deeper into the history of the Sriwijaya kingdom, the exhibition's historiography section also features a mini-library containing an array of relevant history books available for the public to read. The exhibition also features a series of seminars for visitors keen on expanding their knowledge of Sriwijaya even further.



The exhibition will host a discussion on inter-religious relationships, in conjunction with the launch of a book called Gerbang Agama-Agama Nusantara (Gateways to Indonesia's religious traditions) by medical anthropologist Rusmin Tumanggor featuring culture director general of the Culture and Education Ministry Hilmar Farid on Nov. 25 (the exact schedule is yet to be announced).

. (./.)


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Linkedin Stanley Widianto (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 09:58 1819 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a8a54c 4 Art & Culture music,#music,Performance,Goethe-Institute,indonesian-music Free

At the fourth Alur Bunyi (Flow of Sound) concert series, two composers were armed with two computers. They were Indonesias Patrick Hartono and Germanys Marcus Schmickler, and they let the music surround their audience.

The Alur Bunyi monthly event, held at the Goethe Institut in Jakarta and curated by musician Aksan Sjuman, has featured acts like guitarist Gerald Situmorang and psychedelic-electro group Monohero. It provides a home for experimental music and promises an audience thats listening.

That night, the experimentation of both musicians capitalized on the spatial elements of the auditorium, or as Schmickler explained: Its part of a sonification project that deals with astronomical phenomena, in terms of different subjects that have been sonified, from solar flares to the sun.

His composition  a guttural, droning piece of electronica  made extensive use of the concept of gravity and how its rules govern the motion of elements in space: circular, revolving.

And it sounded like it. The speakers were placed elaborately, emitting sounds from all sides of the auditorium to punctuate the pieces peaks and valleys  bleep bloops on the right, a brisk metallic drone on the left, whirring in the center. The music traveled in different directions and, at times, became enveloping, like a stronger grip on an airplane seats handle when the aircraft is about to take off.

Musical experimentalists: Patrick Hartono (right) and Marcus Schmickler (center) answer questions from the audience. (Goethe Institut Jakarta/File)

It helps that Schmickler  having discovered synthesizer music after years of being a trained guitarist  has earned accolades for his music and his research of it.

His inspirations range from techno music (which was all the rage in the late 1980s, the years that served as one of his formative experiences) to European classical music  think Luc Ferrari and the likes.

I decided that club music with straight beats was not something I wanted to do for myself, he said.

After Schmickler finished his piece, it was Patricks turn. Played after an enduring, unnerving silence, Patricks electronica composition, Matrix Studies, was played in front of an animated backdrop. The piece mixed serrated, menacing industrial grinds with some manic pacing.

Patrick intended for his music to be imbued by science and technology, or specifically, 3-D sound spatialization, analog-digital synthesis, psychoacoustic and visual music, according to a press release.

I noticed that he could also get a little finicky with his music, replaying it midway because the volume wasnt doing it for him.

As a composer, I always try to find another meaning in music, he later said. And music cant just be all about the romanticism of it.

Surround sound: Marcus Schmickler's composition travels around the auditorium. (Goethe Institut Jakarta/File)

Patrick has traveled far and wide to carve out more space for his music; it could take him years to work a piece. He studied at the Codarts University for the Arts in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, after a stint at Pelita Harapan University (UPH) in Tangerang, Banten. Hes currently studying at Goldsmiths College of the University of London. Hes also been mentored by renowned composer Otto Sidharta, who shares his affinity for electronic music.

His experiment also involved a piece of Indonesian music through the kecapi,a traditional Sundanese instrument. Each pick of the kecapi produced a sound that also played from those circular speakers in patient and hypnotizing tone.

The next Alur Bunyi, scheduled for Dec. 14, will be the final one of the year and feature composer/contra-bass player Indra Perkasa, along with musician Aksan Sjuman (piano, gong, modular), drummer Enrico Octaviano (drums, modular) and vocal arranger Ranya Badudu (vocals, FX, Modular).
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Linkedin Sri Wahyuni (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 09:18 1819 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a884cd 4 Books borobudur-writers-and-cultural-festival,borobudur,literary-festival,pluralism Free

The 6th Borobudur Writers and Cultural Festival (BWCF) opened on Thursday in Yogyakarta with a theme that focuses on Borobudur temples Gandawyuha reliefs.

Gandawyuha, the name of the reliefs on the walls of Borobudurs second, third and fourth levels, centers on the story of a young man, Sudhana, who travels across India in search of the ultimate truth.

During his travels, he meets 53 gurus before meeting Bodhisatwa Samanthabadra, one of three bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism tradition who, together with the other two bodhisattvas, Manjusri and Avalokikitesvara, represent the essence of Buddhas character.

Catholic priest Mudji Sutrisno SJ said that, in his search for the ultimate truth, Sudhana met monks, nuns, traditional physicians and a high-class prostitute named Vasumitra, showing that the truth in the Gandawyuha perspective could come from anywhere in society.

That was why BWCF considered Gandawyuha reliefs as one of the oldest references on tolerance and pluralism in Indonesia, said Mudji, who delivered the opening speech at the festival along with archeologist Agus Widyatmoko.

A curator at the festival, Seno Joko Suyono said the annual event, first held in 2012, would run until Saturday at Borobudur temple in Magelang regency, Central Java as well in Yogyakarta.

He said the festivals curators considered the reliefs as the core of Borobudur. Its very important to understand and study them because only by reading them can we really understand the deepest meaning behind the development of the temple, Seno said.

He said the theme was chosen because there were no symposiums or seminars that specifically focused on Gandawyuha, a situation he attributed to archaeologists having primarily studied the reliefs from a physical perspective as opposed to studying its literary roots.

Mudji said Gandawyuha was the last section of Avatamsaka, a sutra (sacred text) carved on 460 reliefs of Borobudur, thus dominating the temples reliefs.

So its very surprising Gandawyuha has never been seriously discussed, said Mudji, a professor in philosophy at the Driyarkara College of Philosophy and festival consultant.

For the event, the organizing committee also invited researchers of local faiths, such as the Kaharingan, Marapu, Parmalin, Sumarah, Sunda Wiwitan faiths, to talk about similarities among the faiths interpretations of the spiritual journey.

Their presence in the festival, attended by some 250 participants this year, is timely as local faiths were recently recognized by the Constitutional Court.

The three-day festival offers various programs, including a morning meditation session at the foot of Borobudur led by three different instructors: Buddhist priest Santachitto leads a 30-minute sitting meditation, Jesuit priest Sudrijanto SJ teaches a 30-minute peace walk meditation and seasoned yoga instructor Yudhi Widiantoro offers 60-minute sunrise yoga.

Mahayana Buddhism expert Salim Lee is scheduled to talk about the Gandawyuha reliefs on Friday afternoon, while on Saturday morning he will take participants on walks through the temple to directly read the reliefs.

I think reading reliefs directly from the temple like this has rarely been done. Its therefore not surprising if not many people know about what the reliefs on levels two, three and four talk about, Seno said.

Other programs include seminars, public speeches, exhibitions, documentary film screenings and arts and cultural performances.

Two documentaries, Hari Suryantos Swarnadwipa and Naswan Iskandars Sunyata: Mahavihara Muarajambi, are to be screened on Saturday. Both documentaries explore the Muarajambi site in Jambi, Sumatra Island, where noted Buddhist priest Atisha from India gained knowledge on Mahayana Buddhism teachings from a local guru named Serlingpa aka Dharmakirti.

Old manuscripts from Bali featuring the collections of KRT Manu W. Jayaatmaja Wangsawikrama, a senior Javanese manuscript expert of Gadjah Mada University (UGM), are on display in an exhibition open from Thursday to Saturday.
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Linkedin Jason Scott (Bloomberg) Canberra  Fri, November 24, 2017 10:28 1819 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a8ce96 2 Politics Australia,anti-Muslim,religion,politics,vote Free

Pauline Hanson, the firebrand anti-Muslim immigration lawmaker who has rattled Australian politics from the fringes for more than 20 years, could be on the verge of a breakthrough in one of the countrys biggest states.

Her One Nation party is tipped to win a clutch of seats Saturday in the Queensland state election, while the two main parties may struggle for an outright majority. That could make Hanson, 63, the kingmaker and see her party become a junior player in the state parliament.One Nation looks like it could play a big role in deciding the outcome of this election, said Chris Salisbury, a political analyst at the University of Queensland. Hanson is a lightning rod for voters with grievances and has re-emerged on the political landscape at a time when theres a lot of disaffection with the major parties.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who is seeking a second term for her center-left Labor party, has ruled out forming a coalition with One Nation if she fails to get a majority, saying shed rather lose office. Opposition leader Tim Nicholls, who heads the Liberal National Party, has also ruled out a formal coalition but indicated he could govern via a loose arrangement for One Nations votes in parliament.

While the campaign has largely been fought on state issues, the result may also have implications for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. His Liberal-National government lost its majority in the federal parliament after two lawmakers discovered they had dual-citizenship, in breach of the constitution, and were forced to quit the lower house.

Anti-Asian, Anti-Islam

Hanson was first elected to Australias lower house in the 1990s on an anti-Asian immigration platform before her party imploded. After turning her sights on Muslim migrants, she returned to parliament in 2016 as a senator, along with three One Nation members.

The party, which is opposed to multiculturalism and wants to curb free trade, has tapped into the voter shift from mainstream parties thats also swept through the U.S. and Europe. Hanson was widely criticized in August for wearing a burqa in the federal parliament to highlight her demand for a ban on the garment in public places.

Hanson has campaigned heavily for her party in her home state, and says Palaszczuk, 48, and Nicholls, 52, have failed to provide clear leadership.

The development of a A$16.5 billion ($12.6 billion) coal mine in the state by Indias Adani Group has become the most heated issue of the campaign, with supporters saying it will create thousands of jobs, and opponents citing increased carbon pollution that could further damage the Great Barrier Reef.

Jobs Promises

Palaszczuk has rejected federal funding for a railway line linking the mine to the coast, a decision Nicholls says jeopardizes the project and puts future jobs at risk. Some areas of the state, which has the nations second-highest unemployment rate, are struggling to recover from the end of a decade-long mining investment boom.

Labor says 122,500 jobs have been added under its watch since 2015 and has pledged more funds for training and infrastructure. The LNP has said it will increase spending from resource royalties in regional areas and cut electricity bills by ending renewable energy subsidies.

One Nation won 11 seats in the 1998 Queensland election, but because Labor won a majority it wasnt needed to form government. Polls indicate Labor and the LNP will struggle on Saturday to win the 47 seats needed in the 93-seat parliament to govern in their own right.

A Sky News/ReachTel poll of Queensland voters released Tuesday had Labor leading the LNP 34 percent to 30 percent and One Nation on 17 percent of the primary vote.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24 2017

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has approved a proposal from Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati to appoint Robert Pakpahan, 58, as the new director general of taxation.

An official at the Presidential Palace told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that Robert, currently the ministrys financing and risk management director general, would assume the role on Dec. 1 to replace Ken Dwijugiasteadi, who is retiring.

Prior to leading the financing and risk management directorate general, Robert spent his entire career at the tax office, one of the countrys most powerful institutions.

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Linkedin News Desk (ANN) Dhaka  Fri, November 24, 2017 17:15 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2aa165d 2 World #Bangladesh,#Myanmar,#Rohingya,#MyanmarRohingya,#RohingyaCrisis Free

Foreign relations experts say they are not optimistic about the deal signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar for return of Rohingya refugees, as the bilateral instrument sets no timeframe for completing repatriation and fails to mention the UNs role in the process.

Referring to the previous experiences of Rohingya repatriation, they said Myanmar had always employed delaying tactics and acted on its own agenda, despite efforts from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh may have fallen into the trap of Myanmars tactic by signing the deal, said Professor CR Abrar, who teaches international relations at Dhaka University.

Myanmars early signing of the deal is meant to defuse the international pressure mounted on it stemming from atrocities committed by Myanmars security forces which have forced over 620,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh since Aug. 25.

The United Nations and United States have both termed the actions ethnic cleansing, while rights bodies define them crimes against humanity and genocide.

The UN has also adopted a resolution urging Myanmar to grant citizenship to the Rohingya, accept their return and halt the atrocities in Rakhine. The Muslim Rohingya have been denied citizenship and its attendant rights in Buddhist-majority Myanmar despite having lived there for generations.

It is very likely that Myanmar will arbitrarily decide  who is to be repatriated and who is not if the UN is not involved, said Abrar, also executive director at the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit.

Myanmar will take back a token number of refugees, as happened before, he said.

Around 250,000 Rohingya fled persecution in Myanmar in 1978. Almost all were sent back by agreement, but another 250,000 Rohingya re-entered Bangladesh in 1991-92.

Between 1992 and 2005, a total of 236,000 Rohingya were repatriated under an open-ended 1992 Myanmar-Bangladesh bilateral agreement. Since 2005, not a single Rohingya has been repatriated despite numerous efforts by Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, 300,000 additional Rohingya fled to Bangladesh between 2012 and 2016. With the new arrivals, about 900,000 Rohingyas are now living in Bangladesh, mainly in refugee camps, putting the country under tremendous pressure.

Abrar said if Myanmar is sincere about taking back the Rohingya, they should have prepared detailed terms by this time.

Humayun Kabir, former Bangladeshi ambassador to the US, said, When the deal is open-ended, we become concerned over the fate of repatriation, because our experience in the past is not a happy one.

Moreover, the evidence present in Rakhine on persecution of the Rohingya is even more concerning as Myanmar authorities have not been able to restore the law and order in the Rakhine state, he said.

Kabir said no mention of UN involvement in the repatriation process is totally unexpected.

He said the most important thing for repatriation of the Rohingya is creating a favorable environment in Rakhine, but such an effort is yet to be seen.

On verification of the Rohingyas, he said it is clear they had fled to Bangladesh, which the Myanmar authorities had already acknowledged. Bangladesh authorities had also biometrically registered them all, and that should be one basis of repatriation, Kabir said.

Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of international relations at Dhaka University, said the major issue in repatriation is whether the Rohingya are issued citizenship. If that guarantee is not there, repatriation would be a difficult job, he added.

I dont know the details of the arrangement signed, but Bangladesh must have addressed the citizenship issue, Imtiaz said.

He thinks the bilateral deal between Bangladesh and Myanmar does not mean that international pressure has stopped. Both the UN and the US have identified the violence in Rakhine ethnic cleansing.

Therefore, Imtiaz said, the issue has to be dealt with legally on an international level.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 13:25 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a96db7 4 Business OJK,conventional-bank-closure,aceh Free

Financial Service Authority (OJK) chairman Wimboh Santoso has said that customers of conventional banks need not worry about the Aceh government's plan to close all conventional banks in the province, as they could still access banking services.

The people don't need to worry, as they can access bank services from anywhere without being constrained by regional restrictions, Wimboh said in Jakarta on Thursday, as reported by kompas.com.

OJK commissioner and banking supervision CEO Heru Krisriyana said the provincial government had the authority to close Aceh's conventional banks and could implement the policy as long as the people accepted the decision.

If that's what the local government wants, they can go ahead. Whether it can be implemented or not depends on the people. Most of the people there are Muslims, so why cant they? he said, adding that the Aceh government had informed the OJK of its plan.

To implement the new banking policy, the Aceh provincial legislative Council (DPRA) is currently preparing a draft qanun (Islamic bylaw) on sharia financial institutions that will be used as the legal basis for closing conventional banking operations in the province. (bbn)
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Linkedin Rachmadea Aisyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 14:39 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a9b8a6 1 Business Cisumdawu-toll-road,West-Java,construction,kick-off Free

The Public Works and Public Housing Ministry broke ground Friday on the third phase of the 61.7-kilometer Cisumdawu toll road that connects several West Java towns, including Cileunyi, Sumedang and Dawuan.

The third phase of the project would be completed in 2019, director general of roads Arie Setiadi Moerwanto told reporters on Friday at the ministry.

The ministrys toll road authority will be supervising the joint construction project of the China Road and Bridge Corporation and state-owned construction firm Adhi Karya, he said.

Arie said the project cost Rp 2.24 trillion (US$165.6 million), which would be covered by a loan from China. We still have work left to do to complete the loan agreement, and we will work very hard toward it," he added.

The government also needs to finish acquiring land for the project: As of November, it had acquired only 37.5 percent of the land needed for the project.

Freeways and regional roads director Sugiyartanto said ministerial representatives had already spoken with the landowners. So we expect to be able to acquire the rest of the land soon, he said. (bbn)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 14:15 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a99cda 1 Business PT-PP-Presisi,listing,IDX Free

Heavy equipment and construction services provider PT PP Presisi, a subsidiary of state-owned construction firm PT Pembangunan Perumahan (PT PP), listed its shares on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) on Friday after obtaining Rp 1 trillion (US$74.04 million) from the initial public offering (IPO).

PP Presisi president director Iswanto Amperawan said 70 percent of the IPO proceeds, or Rp 700 billion, would be used for capital expenditure (capex) in 2018, to purchase new equipment and land and for other spending items.

The remaining Rp 300 billion would be kept as corporate equity. "The company will continuously invest in heavy equipment and human resources development to support infrastructure projects in Indonesia," he said at the IDX building in Jakarta.

Read also: PP Presisi pins hope on infrastructure

PP Presisi finance director and corporate secretary Benny Pidakso said the company needed a total of Rp 1.4 trillion for capital expenditure in 2018, with Rp 700 billion to come from bank loans.

The planned capital expenditure for 2018 is lower than the Rp 1.8 trillion allocated in 2017, because this year the firm acquired PT Lancarjaya Mandiri Abadi, a heavy equipment rental company. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 15:27 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a9cb77 1 National fishermen,repatriation,capsize Free

The Indonesian Consulate General in Davao, the Philippines, is organizing the repatriation of five Indonesian and two Japanese fishermen days after they were rescued at sea.

The seven sailors had been forced to abandon their capsized fishing vessel, the Japanese-flagged Gyotoku Maru No. 1, after a collision with Philippines-flagged vessel F/V Jocelyn some 370 kilometers southwest of Palau on Monday.

It was that vessel that eventually located and saved the crew, but only after they had been drifting at sea in a lifeboat for a day, prompting joint search efforts involving Japan, Palau and the United States.



The F/V Jocelyn took the stricken sailors to General Santos, a port city in the southern Philippines, on Tuesday.



"Upon receiving word that five Indonesians were brought to General Santos, the Indonesian Consulate General in Davao sent two officials to check on them on Wednesday," said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the Foreign Ministry's director for the protection of citizen overseas, in a statement on Friday.



However, due to a lack of immigration facilities at General Santos, the officials were given permission to bring the seven crewmen back to Davao City to prepare for their repatriation, Iqbal said further.



After coordinating with the consulate general and the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo, the ministry secured a commitment from the capsized vessel's agent to pay for the Indonesian crewmens return flights and fulfill the rights of the two Japanese fishermen.



The sailors, Romadhon, Muhammad Rafles Saputra, Teguh Wahyu Utomo, Alizar and Reza Indrawan, are currently staying on the consulate-generals premises while they wait for their trip home.

Topics : fishermen repatriation capsize
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 13:17 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a96c14 1 City bullying,Regulations,KPAI Free

The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) has urged the Jakarta administration to revise the governor regulation that prohibits children involved in school bullying or brawls from continuing their studies in public school.

Even though the Governor Instruction No. 16/2015 on the prevention and mitigation of bullying aims to eradicate child bullying in Jakarta, the content of the regulation is believed to deviate from the child protection law.

KPAI urges the administration to revise the governor regulation. Children should be taught that they should respect others and such understanding shall begin with a policy that humanizes the humans, KPAI commissioner Retno Listyarti said in a statement on Thursday.

The commission said the instruction should be revised by referring to antibullying regulations addressed in the Education and Culture Minister Regulation No. 82/2015.

In a Forum Group Discussion initiated by KPAI on Tuesday, Pratiwi Febry, a lawyer with the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) said the administration had failed to see that the policy would exclude children away from education facilities.

Through this, the administration would prevent the children from receiving protection in the form of education, she said.

Based on the latest data from KPAI, 86 children across the country have become victims of school bullying this year while 71 have been accused of instigating the bullying.

Topics : bullying Regulations KPAI
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 21:14 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2aa4073 1 Business Jokowi,Silangit-airport,inauguration Free

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has inaugurated Silangit International Airport, the main gate to the government-promoted tourist destination of Lake Toba and its surroundings in Tapanuli Utara regency, North Sumatra.

The airport with international standard facilities is only a 30-minute drive from Lake Toba.

"Now we have created a new boom for tourism. The gate to the beautiful Lake Toba, which preserves the cultures and traditions of the Batak people, is now open," he said in his speech on the official opening of the airport on Friday.

To achieve international status, Silangit Airport has seen a comprehensive overhaul of its facilities. The terminal is now ready to handle one million passengers annually.

The runway has been expanded to a length of 2,650 meters and a width of 45 m from the previous 2,400 m x 30 m, enabling it to accommodate larger planes, such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-800.

Jokowi, however, called on state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II to extend the runway again to a total length of 3,000 m, so that it could accept bigger aircraft. "I want the extension to be implanted by 2020 at the latest," he said.

Jokowi arrived at the airport at 10:35 a.m. local time by helicopter from the Soewondo military airfield in Medan.

On Oct. 28, Silangit welcomed its first international flight from Singapore by flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said Silangit currently served 10 international chartered flights a month, a number he expected to double in December. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 17:28 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2aa2345 4 Business PLN,PPA,Luhut-Binsar-Panjaitan,rejection,review,IPP-independent-power-producers Free

Maritime Affairs Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has rejected a request from state-owned electricity firm PLN to review a power purchase agreement (PPA) with independent power producers (IPP), signed more than 10 years ago.

Luhut argued that such a review would hamper investment because it would put investors in difficult position. The PPAs are final. Dont evaluate them, Luhut said at his office in Jakarta on Thursday as reported by tribunnews.com.

Previously, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministrys electricity Director General Agus Tribusono said the objective of the review was to lower electricity rates at the consumer level.

Read also: PLN's scramble becoming Jokowi's political liability

He added that the review was reasonable because the power plant projects had not been constructed and there were also no binding agreements between the PLN and private companies.

According to the PPA, such a revision is possible as long as it is agreed upon by two parties, he added.

Meanwhile, Fahmy Radhi, a lecturer at Yogyakarta-based Gajah Mada University (UGM), said under the PPA, energy prices were too high, adding that the producers could understand the idea of such a review. As an example, PT Adaro Energy had maintained its contract with the lower price.

It is in the interest of the state to offer more affordable electricity rates to the customers, Fahmy added.

Meanwhile, Arthur Simatupang, from the Indonesian Private Electricity Producers Association (APLSI), supported Luhurs argument, saying the PPAs had a strong legal basis. If the contract is signed, it cannot be revised because it is legally valid, he added. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 11:05 1819 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a919d8 1 Business PHRI,Airbnb,Rudiantara,Arief-Yahya Free

Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara will talk to Tourism Minister Aief Yahya about the request to block global hospitality marketplace Airbnb from the Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants Association (PHRI), an official has said.

The request will be discussed by Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara and Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, Communications and Information Ministrys information applications director general Samuel Abrijani said in Jakarta on Thursday night as reported by tempo.co.

Samuel commented on the request from PHRI chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani because the platform had hampered conventional hospitality businesses, indicated by the decline in the countrys hotel occupancy rate.

Read also: Government asked to stop issuing licenses for hotel construction

Hariyadi said he had no problem with the business model of Airbnb as long as it was properly regulated, because the unregulated business created unfair business competition.

Samuel said the decision would be made by Tourism Minister Arief Yahya. We are still waiting for the ministers decision, he added.

He said the government would consider all aspects related to the request because Airbnb had created opportunities for households to earn rental fees from unoccupied spaces in their houses, but the the government also needed to maintain a good business climate. (bbn)
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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24 2017

The Polish Embassy in Indonesia celebrated on Thursday the 99th anniversary of its independence, a slow process that dragged over the better part of the 20th century.

A student choir from the University of Indonesia (UI) provided the main entertainment for the evening, singing Polish folk songs as the guests sampled delicacies from both nations.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 21:10 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2aa3f5a 1 City human-trafficking,China Free

The National Police have arrested a man, identified only as Sulikah, for allegedly trafficking Indonesians into China. The suspect allegedly promised his victims a salary of Rp 10 million (US$740) per month to work as domestic workers in China.

A top official at the police's criminal investigation department, Sr. Comr. Ferdi Sambo, said on Friday that the victims were accommodated at a hotel in Central Jakarta and underwent medical checkups at a hospital in East Jakarta before traveling to China. Sulikah, Ferdi said, sent the victims to China using tourist visas.

In fact, the victims had never received their salaries, Ferdi said, adding that the police had seized, among other things, 28 passports, thirteen bank account books, 19 Indonesian ID cards and three mobile phones as evidence.

In making the visas, the suspect was allegedly assisted by a broker at the West Jakarta Immigration Office and paid Rp 2 million for each visa to the broker. Furthermore, he allegedly received Rp 20 million from a woman he cooperated with in China for every person he sent to the country.

The case was opened when Chinese police arrested the victims for working illegally in July before deporting them to Indonesia on Nov. 3.

One of the victims, Ertin Binti Sudiono, said they were sent to China in April 2016. They were asked to sign a contract of employment with a salary of 5,000 yuan (US$757) per month.
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Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Manado, North Sulawesi  Fri, November 24, 2017 16:18 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a9f7d1 1 Business robert-pakpahan,directorate-general-of-taxation,leadership Free

The appointment of Robert Pakpahan as the director general of taxation will bring a more moderate face to the tax authority, said Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA) executive director Yustinus Prastowo in Manado, North Sulawesi, on Thursday.

In my opinion, [Robert] is moderate and calm. It is an indication that the tax office will have a softer approach, he said.

Roberts appointment is likely to change the image of the tax office, particularly due to the upcoming political years, regional elections in 101 regions (provinces, regencies and cities in 2018) as well as residential and legislative elections in 2019, Yustinus added.

He also said Roberts leadership was needed to create confidence among tax officers due to his past experience as the finance ministers financing and risk management director general, the finance minister's expert staff for state revenues and the tax office's director for business transformation.

There is no official statement yet on the appointment of Robert, but according to a source at the Presidential Palace, President Joko Jokowi Widodo has approved Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawatis proposal to appoint him to replace Ken Dwijugiasteadi, who would retire. (bbn)
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Linkedin (AFP) Riyadh  Sat, November 25, 2017 00:06 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2aa5fff 2 Politics Ayatullah-Khameini,Hitler Free

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has denounced Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the "new Hitler of the Middle East", as tensions simmer between the regional rivals.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have engaged in a bitter war of words after a missile fired from Yemen was intercepted near Riyadh airport on November 4. The missile was claimed by Yemen's Tehran-backed Huthi rebels.

Iran's "supreme leader is the new Hitler of the Middle East", Prince Mohammed told The New York Times in an interview published Thursday.

"We learned from Europe that appeasement doesn't work. We don't want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East."

Tehran has strongly denied supplying any missiles to the rebels, and President Hassan Rouhani has warned Saudi Arabia of Iran's "might".

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman reacted scathingly to the interview, comparing Prince Mohammed to "a dictator" and urging him to "reflect on the fate" of some leaders in the Middle East in recent years.

"The immature, unpredictable and senseless behaviour and remarks by the Saudi crown prince result in no one in the world giving the slightest credit to comments of this kind," spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said in a statement.

"Errors due to the adventurism of the Saudi crown prince -- the latest being the scandal of (Saudi) interference in Lebanon's internal affairs -- have been the cause of great problems for Saudi Arabia's traditional allies," he said.

The spike in Saudi-Iran tensions coincides with Prince Mohammed's new anti-corruption purge, which saw around 200 elites including princes, ministers and business tycoons arrested or sacked earlier this month.

The prince described as "ludicrous" reports equating the crackdown to a power grab, saying that many of those detained at Riyadh's opulent Ritz-Carlton hotel had already pledged allegiance to him.

"A majority of the royal family" is behind him, the prince said, dismissing longstanding rumours of internal opposition to his meteoric rise.

He said 95 percent of those detained agree to a "settlement", or handing over ill-gotten gains to the Saudi state treasury.

Saudi Arabia's attorney general estimates at least $100 billion has been misused in embezzlement or corruption over several decades.

Authorities have frozen the bank accounts of the accused and warned assets related to the alleged graft cases would be seized as state property, in what they describe as a top-down approach to battling endemic corruption.

"About one percent are able to prove they are clean and their case is dropped right there. About four percent say they are not corrupt and with their lawyers want to go to court," the prince said.

"We have experts making sure no businesses are bankrupted in the process," he added.

The purge has triggered uncertainty among businesses that could lead to capital flight or derail reforms, experts say, at a time when the kingdom is seeking to attract badly needed investments to offset a protracted oil slump.
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Linkedin Leila B. Salaverria (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) Manila  Fri, November 24, 2017 16:50 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2aa104b 2 SE Asia #Philippine,#Philippines,#Duterte,#UN,#UNDrugPolicy,#drugs Free

Dont come to the Philippines unless youre invited.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque had this to say to UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who has been the subject of tirades by President Duterte.

The President said last week he would slap Callamard if she investigated him over alleged extrajudicial killings in his administrations war on drugs.

The UN human rights office condemned the threat on Tuesday.

Roque said Duterte should be taken seriously but not literally, adding that the Presidents attacks on Callamard were due to her conduct when she visited the Philippines earlier this year.

According to Roque, Callamard came to the country uninvited, despite the fact that at that time, we were already negotiating the requisite invitation required for special rapporteurs to be able to investigate in member nations of the United Nations.

So what she did, to come here despite the fact that negotiation was still pending, was an act of bad faith, he said in a press briefing.

Duterte, he said, was angered as well when she brought along a doctor who opined that illegal drugs do not cause brain damagecontrary to UN literature that showed prohibited drugs had adverse effects.

Now, my advice: Dont come to the Philippines when uninvited, Roque said.

Callamard came to the country last May not to conduct a fact-finding probe on extrajudicial killings, but to attend a drug policy forum. She was invited by the Free Legal Assistance Group.

Asked about this fact, Roque said Callamard should have resisted the invitation since there were ongoing negotiations about her official visit to the country.

He also said that during that visit, she still commented on matters that should have been investigated first.

So the position of the Palace is, how could she have come up with conclusions when she had not yet conducted an investigation? To us, because she already had conclusions even before an investigation, she has preconceived conclusions about the issue of alleged killings in the drug war, Roque said.

Duterte has met criticism of his blood-soaked war on drugs with insults and threats, and has accused foreign parties who commented on it with meddling in Philippine affairs.

Topics :

This article appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Pyeong Chang, Gangwon  Fri, November 24, 2017 11:19 1819 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a924ac 1 Destinations South-Korea,religious-tourism,Buddhist,#SouthKorea,#Buddhist,goblin Free

In the middle of a thick forest in the eastern valley of the Odaesan Mountain in Pyeong Chang County in Gangwon Province, around two hours from Seoul, is Woljeongsa Temple, one of Koreas 10 major Buddhist temples.

Founded in 643 AD during the reign of Shilla Queen Seondeok by the Precepts Master Ven. Jajang, the temple is a good place for people to contemplate and experience Buddhist culture.

The atmosphere cannot be more romantic.

To enter the temple area, visitors have to cross Haetalgyo bridge, which spans a clear river that seems to be able to set you free from all kinds of pressure.

The bridge is best known as the site where the Korean drama, Guardian: the Lonely and the Great God or Goblin, was filmed.

Read also: Finding the Goblin in Korea

At the entrance, called the Heavenly Kings Gate, four statues of Buddhist kings greet visitors.

The temple provides a homestay with 15 rooms, where it usually welcomes 50 visitors every week. One room costs around US$90. But do not forget to bring along your own towels, socks to wear in the Buddha hall and comfortable shoes. Slippers and flip-flops are frowned upon.

Through Woljeongsas temple stay program, visitors can participate in monastic Buddhist life and experience the 1,700-year-old tradition of Korean Buddhism for short stays.

The program is also open to everyone regardless of their religious beliefs and there is no need to convert.

People are here to practice happiness and peace. Theyre searching for peace and light [because] Buddhism is about enlightenment, one of the monks said during The Jakarta Posts visit to the temple.

When he was speaking to the Post, the monk was standing near an octagonal, nine-story stone pagoda, which represented the Goryeo Dynasty.

Behind the monk was the Jeokgwangjeon or the Main Buddha Hall where several people bowed, which is one of the etiquettes visitors will be learning during their stay.

On week days, the temple offers a relaxation program that allows participants to spend their time freely except when they have to attend Buddhist ceremonies and take meals.

On weekends, it offers Buddhists cultural programs and various traditional experiences.

If visitors do not have enough time to experience the temple stay program, they can still participate in a program called Templelife.

One of the Templelife activities is to make 108 prayer beads with the help of an instructor.

The monk explained that in the traditional process of making the beads it was required that the maker bow 108 times, For tourists, the instructor usually asks them to bow just three times.

In your mind, theres delusion, anger. If you want to be free of the anger you have to practice bowing, the monk said.

Visitors can take their beads anywhere in the temple complex while saying prayers according to their beliefs.

If youre a Buddhist, you can say Buddhist, Buddhist, Buddhist. If youre a Muslim, you can use it for zikr [chanting in praise of God]. It all depends on you. It can help you to concentrate, said the monk.
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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Seoul  Fri, November 24, 2017 10:24 1819 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a8cbdf 1 Destinations Seoul,Seoullo-7017,destination,#destination,South-Korea,#SouthKorea Free

A group of Indonesian journalists, including some from The Jakarta Post, was invited to tour several cities across South Korea, including the capital Seoul, by Korea Press Foundation (KPF). Here is the report.

The South Korean capital Seoul is a comfortable place filled with high energy and intensity.

It is a very busy city that never sleeps. Traffic is heavy and crowded, particularly at rush hours. Despite this, Seoul is also a great place for a day of strolling around.

Here are some places that you must visit if you go to Seoul.

Namsan Tower

Seoul, a modern metropolis, has a number of ancient landmarks and tourism spots. Around 30 minutes from the city center, stands the landmark N Seoul Tower, the so-called Namsan Tower, an observation tower located in Mount Namsan.

Huffing up the stone stairs to the peak of Mt. Namsan, the tower offers some of the best views and they get even better at night.

At 236 meters, the tower is the second-highest point in Seoul. Established in 1971, the tower was designed as a broadcast tower to send out TV and radio signals throughout the Seoul metropolitan area.

For couples, bring a padlock for the so-called lock of love to be snapped onto a fence or purpose-built structure then throw away the keys. The love locks are believed to bring everlasting love and strong commitment.

Love locks: People put padlocks onto a fence at the N Seoul Tower, or Namsan Tower, an observation tower in Namsan Mountain, Central Seoul. (JP/Nurul Fitri Ramadhani)

Make it more romantic by buying your loved one sour ice cream made with yoghurt and served in a cone. Sour ice cream is one of the classic Korean snacks.

Walking the Seoullo

Around 24 minutes from Mt. Namsan is the Seoullo 7017 overpass, which is a great place to have a walk. Seoullo 7017 refers to a pedestrian overpass located in the middle of Seoul.

Decades ago, Seoullo was a highway, before the local administration turned it into a paved pedestrian walkway. The so-called Skypark begins at Mali Dong Plaza, passing through Seoul Station and ends near Namdaemun at Hoehyeon Station.

The 1-kilometer pedestrian path is connected to surrounding buildings, including a mall and restaurants, through a bridge. The visitors here can utilize one of eight information centers and eateries to get tourist information, rest, and to have a light meal or snacks.

Walking along the path can be very entertaining because it has many spots for art performances. There are volunteers performing music or attractions on a daily basis. Plants and trees placed along the walkway, many planted by volunteers, make the walk even more delightful.

The Seoullo also has gift shops where tourists can buy souvenirs, such as tote bags, glassware and other Korean crafts. To get lost is impossible given the eight information centers.

Seoullo 7017 refers to a pedestrian overpass located in the middle of Seoul. (Shutterstock.com/CHO MINJUN)

Shopping time

Do not return to your country with nothing in your hands, because Seoul is a shopping haven, especially for fashion and beauty products.

We are all familiar with the Lotte brand. Indonesia already has a number of Lotte department stores. However, Seouls Lotte World Mall and Tower has it all and is a place that tourists flock to.

Located at 300 Olympic-ro, Sincheon-dong, Songpa-gu, the shopping mall, which opened in 2014, is South Koreas iconic shopping venue and is one of the largest shopping malls in Asia.

Entering the mall visitors will see hundreds of outlets featuring a variety of goods and hundreds of brands, from Korean labels to world-famous luxury brands. Therefore, a shopping list must be prepared.

Besides shopping, visitors can enjoy various facilities ranging from an aquarium and movie theaters to a dental clinic.

But that is not all. The Lotte World Mall is apparently the base of something even more stunning.

Above the mall, there soars the 555-m Lotte World Tower, a monument to modern Korea. The tower is one of the worlds top-10 tallest buildings.

The construction process for the tower took six years. The tower now has a total of eight mega columns that take care of 40 percent of the total gravity load. People can view the city of Seoul from the sky, Lotte Seoul Skys senior manager of the observatory operation team, Jeon Seon-hwa said.

For 27,000 won (US$24.80) per person, visitors can enjoy the view of Seoul from the nations tallest building. Admission to the Lotte Sky Tower is through an entrance gate inside the shopping mall.

Walking to the lift, visitors pass through a corridor with LED pictures displaying traditional Korean patterns in a traditional-modern atmosphere.

The lift has its own impressiveness. It can carry the visitor to the 117th floor in less than a minute with a four-wall screen displaying the story of the transformation of Seoul and the Han River over time.

Arriving on the 117th floor, take an elevator to the Sky Deck. A favorite spot is a transparent glass floor where visitors can observe busy Seoul 478 m below.

Visitors can also go to the Sky Terrace on the 120th floor to enjoy the fresh air and views of Seoul.

Myeongdong Street

Still have enough time for more beauty shopping? Stop by at the Myeongdong-gil, Jung-gu, where you will find the largest and hottest shopping spot in the country.

Myeongdong is the most popular shopping district in South Korea and a go-to place for skincare and beauty product hunters with its dizzying variety of luxury beauty brands, including Nature Republic, Innisfree, Etude House, Tony Moly and Laneige. Better bring a large bag or, indeed a suitcase.
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 14:36 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a9acc8 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Sail-Sabang,Indonesian-culinary Free

There are plenty of things to look forward to at the upcoming Sail Sabang 2017 that will be held on Nov. 28  Dec.5, one of them is the food scene.

The city administration has assigned several locations in Sabang City and Plah Island to become culinary areas, explained Sabang tourism department head, Zulfi Purnawati.

Additionally, the city of Sabang has been included in the national strategic tourism plan (KSPN) by the government.

Said to be the biggest sailing event in Indonesia, Sail Sabang 2017 will lure visitors with Indonesian dishes such as sate gurita, mi jalak, mi sedap, kue kacang and others.

Sate gurita is octopus satay marinated with spices and is best enjoyed with rice or lontong (rice cake) and peanut or Padang sauces. One portion is priced at Rp.15,000 ($1.11).

If Aceh has the eponymous mi aceh, than Sabang has mi jalak, it's a bowl of yellow noodles served with broth, bean sprouts, wahoo fish and a sprinkle of sliced scallions. This can be enjoyed with just Rp. 12,000.

Another noodle-based dish that will be presented at the event is mi sedap that is sold by Sedap Shop located on Perdagangan Street. The shop is available from 08:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. and offers visitors with noodles that are served with meat cutlets. The dish can be served without the soup or stir-fried. A portion of this dish costs Rp. 10,000.

When you are satisfied with the savory dishes, you can sample the sweets. Kue kacang is pretty similar to Yogyakartas bakpia (moon cake-like pastries), but kue kacang is bigger and has peanuts filling that is moister. It is available in three flavors: Green tea, pandan and durian. (asw)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 18:26 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2aa33a9 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Silangit-airport,Arief-Yahya Free

On Nov. 23, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya went to see the development of Silangit International Airport in North Sumatra.

He walked through the indoor and outdoor areas of the airport, arrival gates and existing restaurants, examining every detail of the physical amenities for the passengers, including the restaurants and cafes that will soon be in operation.

The growing accommodation shows how alive tourism [industry] is, its the result from the improvement on air accessibility, told Arief.

The airport was officiated as an international airport on Sept. 8 this year.

By the end of 2017, the airport will have the width of 45 meters and can accommodate narrow body airplanes like Airbus 320 and Boeing 737-800, he added. (asw)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 21:53 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2aa4d7c 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Tourism-Ministry,surabaya Free

Tourism Ministry held a tourism human resources training to 200 people on Nov. 9 at Fair Field Hotel in Surabaya, East Java.

Communities in East Java are working and there are plenty of tourist destinations here, up to 784 places. However, if its not supported by world-class human resources the result will be zero, explained Tourism Ministrys deputy for institutional development, Ahman Sya.

In the tourism industry, its the locals who communicate directly with the tourists and the locals also reap the benefit from the industry.

What needs to be remembered is these human resources force will control the comfort and satisfaction of the tourists, he added.

Additionally, the locals also need to learn about Sapta Pesona, an understanding of security, orderliness, cleanliness, freshness, beauty, friendliness and memories. (asw)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 16:35 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2aa069d 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Tourism-Ministry,Riau Free

Tourism Ministry recently hosted a two-day seminar about Pesona Indonesia Branding Socialization at Aryaduta Hotel, Pekanbaru, Riau on Nov. 21  23.

A total of 150 people consisting of representatives of tourism departments in Riau Province, academicians, businessmen, communities and stakeholders attended the seminar.

The Tourism Ministrys archipelago tourism marketing development deputy Esthy Reko Astuti said there were four main topics being discussed: Situation analysis strategy, formulation strategy, implementation strategy, brand and branding.

The Ministrys Marketing Strategy Department acting assistant Hariyanto added that the seminar also talked about 10 main implementation points in which three of them were the primary focus: Digital tourism (E-tourism), homestay, airlines or airports.

Other topics were branding, top 10 origination, top three main destinations (15 branding destinations), human resources competency certification and tourism awareness campaign, tourism improvement, crisis center management and development of 10 priority destinations. (asw)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Fri, November 24, 2017 13:32 1818 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2a9718b 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Tourism-Ministry,Wonderful-Indonesia,Melbourne Free

Tourism Ministry together with Helloworld, one of the biggest travel agents in Melbourne, is offering Wonderful Indonesia Packages 2017 tour packages to the Melbourne residents from Nov. 20 until Dec. 3.

Located in Westfield Southland Melbourne, the promotion and selling activities are available from Nov. 20 until Dec. 3 whilst the activation event is held from Nov. 20  26.

The response is very good because of the extremely affordable price. With only $1,189, you can go to Bali and stay for seven nights. We are offering six prices for different destinations, told Emil Hadi Ridwan of The Ministrys Visit Indonesia Tourism Officer (VITO).

Australia contributes 10 percent to our target number for overseas tourists, said the Ministry's strategic management special force, Priyantono Rudito.

For access, weve partnered up with Garuda Indonesia, for accommodation weve partnered up with hotels in Bali and Lombok and the attractions has also been prepared by Bali and Lombok, he added.

From the year of 2015 to 2016, the number of Australians traveling to Indonesia increased by 14 percent. (asw)
(lead article)

SWP: Deepen the partys work in the working class

NEW YORK  There is an election for U.S. Senate, for governor or Congress  and sometimes all three  in 2018, every place where the Socialist Workers Party has a branch, and we plan to take advantage of this to deepen the partys work in the working class, John Studer, organizer of the SWP national campaign committee, said at the Militant Labor Forum here Nov. 18.

The SWP explains why workers need to see every political question from a working-class point of view, he said, and why workers can organize to fight against the attacks the propertied rulers bring down on us because of the crisis of their capitalist system.

For decades, labors share of gross domestic product has shrunk, Studer said, quoting the Wall Street Journal, while the share that goes to capital like profits, interest and rent, has risen.

Studer was joined on the platform by Margaret Trowe and Osborne Hart, the SWP candidates for mayor of Albany and New York, and by Paul Landry on behalf of the Communist League in Montreal, which ran Philippe Tessier for mayor this year. They encouraged participants to join in the parties 2018 campaigns, to present a revolutionary course for workers to take power out of the hands of the capitalist rulers.

Studer said the axis of the work of the SWP today is knocking on workers doors to discuss the origins of the capitalist crisis and how workers can organize independently of the bosses and their parties to move forward.

He drew attention to how record-low official unemployment rates actually mask the fact that the size of the active working class in the U.S. has been shrinking. In Tennessee, where large numbers of workers face a deep social crisis, the government reports the unemployment rate is a historic low of 3 percent. But the percentage of the population participating in the workforce has continued to fall.

The reason? The best explanation, the Journal says, is the opioid epidemic and educational attainment. They think workers are just too stupid and prone to addiction.

The speakers described how the two SWP branches and Communist League in Montreal used their 2017 campaigns in widespread discussions among workers on the crisis they face, and found many interested in learning more about the program and activities of a party that speaks uncompromisingly for the working class.

Workers in stronger position today

Workers are in a stronger position today to confront the bosses efforts to intensify competition among us, Studer said. This is a result of important victories won in the Black-led working-class fight that overthrew Jim Crow segregation, the fight for womens emancipation , and the fact that workers who are native-born and immigrant have confronted the same depression conditions together for years. The party advances proposals to combat the bosses efforts to pit workers against one another, as workers seek to build unions to defend themselves in the struggles ahead.

Many of our 2018 campaigns will challenge prominent capitalist political figures  like Andrew Cuomo in New York and U.S. senators Ted Cruz in Texas and Dianne Feinstein in California, Studer said. These races give the SWP the opportunity to sharply counterpose our working-class course to their proposals to try and shore up capitalist exploitation, oppression and war.

The explosive revelations in Hollywood and Washington over allegations of sexual harassment partly come out of advances made in the fight for womens rights, Trowe explained. Womens oppression grew out of the development of class society and when workers take power from the capitalist class well have the tool we need  a government of our own  to wage a fight to eliminate it.

At the same time, she said, the rulers are using charges of sexual harassment to justify chipping away at rights workers need, including the presumption of innocence and the statute of limitations.

The partys door-to-door campaigning will be advanced by the work of members of its trade union fractions, Studer said, as they meet with co-workers, their families and friends, introduce them to the party, and work with them to campaign in areas near where they live and work.

Osborne Hart described how party members and campaign supporters as they go door to door meet GIs, veterans, or those with a relative or neighbor in the army who want to discuss the SWPs explanation that Washingtons imperialist wars are not in workers interests. From Iraq to Afghanistan, the boss class uses workers as cannon fodder in their wars against competitors for markets and investments, and then throws them aside when theyre finished.

More independents, socialists

More election candidates will claim to be independent of the Democrats and Republicans  or even socialist, because millions of workers are disgusted with the Democrats and Republicans, Trowe said, pointing to the election of an independent candidate as mayor of Syracuse, New York. But these candidates, like Bernie Sanders, aim to drag workers back into the politics of capitalist reforms.

Real politics, she said, is decided in the streets, not annual trips to the ballot box.

In the lively discussion period, Landry was asked whether health care for working people in Canada was better than the health insurance available in the U.S. He described how more and more workers in Montreal wait hours in emergency department lobbies before theyre seen, and months to get an appointment with a specialist.

Everything under capitalism is a commodity, including health care, he said. The only way to have health care that starts from human need and not profit is for workers to take power.

Trowe encouraged meeting participants to join the international May Day brigade to Cuba in 2018, describing her experiences on similar brigades this year.

The leadership of the Cuban Revolution knew what was needed to overthrow the Batista dictatorship and had confidence that working people could go on to overturn capitalist rule, she said. As we campaign we explain that the Cuban Revolution  and the way Cuban working people were transformed in the process  are an example to emulate here and around

the world.





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Workers need our own party to back all our struggles







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(front page)

March demands massive aid to rebuild Puerto Rico

Cancel the debt! Repeal colonial laws!

Militant/Seth Galinsky

WASHINGTON  More than 2,000 people marched here Nov. 19 to demand that Washington provide massive aid for the reconstruction of hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, the cancellation of the U.S. colonys $74 billion debt and the lifting of laws that reinforce U.S. domination of the island.

Even before Hurricane Maria we were suffering from a humanitarian crisis, Evelyn Mejil, central organizer of the Unity March for Puerto Rico, told the crowd. She was referring to high unemployment, low wages, cuts in social services and health care, and deteriorating infrastructure across the island. Hurricane Maria just exposed what [the U.S. government] has been doing with Puerto Rico. It made the world a witness to the injustice that Puerto Rico has been suffering because of legislation that has been crippling our nation.

We are not demanding handouts, Mejil added. Were asking them to eliminate the Jones Act, that they cancel the debt, and that they provide the funds necessary to rebuild the country.

The Jones Act, which requires that maritime cargo between Puerto Rico and the United States be carried on U.S.-owned vessels, increases shipping costs and the price of basic necessities and everything else.

Other speakers, including Congressman Luis Gutierrez and well-known actor and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, noted that the U.S. government and the Federal Emergency Management Agency had provided faster, more efficient aid to victims of the recent hurricanes in Florida and Texas, than they have to Puerto Rico.

Participants in the demonstration came from across the Eastern Seaboard and as far away as Chicago; Lorain, Ohio; and Florida. Many said it was the first time they ever joined a protest.

Angelita Berrios, 56, a truck driver from Philadelphia, told the Militant that two months after Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria most of her family there is still without electricity. Were a colony and were part of the United States, she said. Weve been forced to fight in their wars and pay the taxes they impose on us. But now that we need aid, its not enough and its too slow.

More than half of Puerto Ricos residents are still without electricity, a fifth have no running water, thousands of homes are without roofs and large parts of the island have no phone service. Even those with running water are told to boil it first to avoid getting sick.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, who headed up work in Puerto Rico by the U.S. National Guard and Army, clearing many roads, restoring electricity and distributing some food and water, announced Nov. 17 that Washington is winding down this operation.

Should be treated as human beings

Sol Nadal, 22, from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, was visiting relatives in the U.S. when she heard about the demonstration. We have no electricity, except for what we get from our own generator, said Nadal, a student at the University of Puerto Rico. The gasoline to run the generator just eight hours a day costs $600 a month. It doesnt matter if we are U.S. citizens or not. We should be treated as human beings.

In mid-November Puerto Rican officials admitted that although the official death toll is 55, in September this year 472 more people died than in that month last year. Deaths as a result of lack of refrigeration for insulin, cutbacks in dialysis because of electricity shortages, closed hospitals and doctors offices, contaminated water, and lack of air conditioning for people who were already ill when the storm hit are not included in the official figures.

Even before the hurricanes hit, so many people have been leaving  some 1,200 every week  that more Puerto Ricans live in the U.S. than in Puerto Rico. The New York Times reported Nov. 17 that at least 168,000 people have fled the island in the last two months, most heading

to Florida.

Prior to the storms, the U.S.-imposed Financial Oversight and Management Board  set up to tighten Washingtons control of Puerto Ricos government finances to maximize payment on the debt to bondholders  had ordered the Puerto Rican government to make steep cuts in the pensions and the workweek of public employees and to the budget of the University of Puerto Rico. Bondholders continue to press for payment of the debt.

Participants in the march had a variety of views on what to do about Puerto Ricos

colonial status.

We need something new, said Maria Franco, who moved from Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico, to New Haven, Connecticut, after the hurricane. I dont like Commonwealth, what we are right now. With statehood, we would have a clear designation with the USA.

I want the whole system to change, for independence, said Milly Guzman-Young, who helped organize participation from Hartford, Connecticut, in the march. Look at what happened in the last 100 years in the hands of the U.S.  debt, laws against our economy.

Anger is growing on the island over the continuing social crisis. Residents of the Puerto Nuevo neighborhood in San Juan marched Nov. 19 to protest the lack of electricity in their community and health centers.

Jacob Perasso in Albany, New York, contributed to this article.
(front page)

Workers need our own party to back all our struggles

Socialist Workers Party members in a number of areas report that they have met or gone over their quotas in the partys falland book drives. We can say with confidence that the effort to expand the reach of the party and its press to 1,500 new readers worldwide has been successful.

In addition, members say theyre poised to go over the top in the $100,000 fund drive to finance the ongoing work of the party. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Militant is being printed a day early  before the final results have all been tallied. A final account and evaluation of the drives will come in the next issue.

Initial reports on the last weeks experiences show that all areas finished the drive on a strong note. At the heart of the effort has been going door to door in working-class areas to discuss the carnage workers face at the hands of the capitalists economic and political crisis and introducing the partys revolutionary

working-class alternative.

SWP members who work in retail continue to help lead the effort.

Party members organized two teams that went door to door in a neighborhood near a Walmart store in Compton, Bill Arth writes from Los Angeles. We sold three Militant subscriptions, two books on special, and got two contributions for the fund. And two of my co-workers gave a total of $25. One of them came back to me later and said she wanted to make an additional

$5 donation.

Workers contributions on their doorsteps and from co-workers have been important parts of the fund drive.

Isabella Graham from Chicago reports that one of her co-workers just paid off her final $10 installment on a $40 pledge. Workers need a political party that supports their struggles and encourages them to organize themselves, she told Graham. You are very committed to this, so I know my contribution is going to a good cause.

Donald Freeman and I went to visit with people at another Walmart store, where we used to work, Graham said. We met a former co-worker, who had read the Militant back then.

Freeman talked about what he learned from participating in the recent In the Footsteps of Che brigade to Cuba, describing how workers there were transformed in the process and their revolution was an example for working people everywhere.

We were expecting to help with cleanup after Hurricane Irma battered the island, Freeman told her. But they had already done so. So we did volunteer agricultural work instead.

I guess its time to re-up, said another former co-worker and subscriber they met.

One thing weve been doing here in Lincoln, Joe Swanson writes from Nebraska, is to follow up with subscribers to discuss what they think of the paper and to suggest they consider picking up some of the book offers. So far weve sold four books in the last week this way.

We also think about what other books by party leaders and other revolutionaries are most helpful on political questions tied to events taking place, he said. There was a protest here against the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, so we took the two issues of New International with Our Politics Start With the World and The Stewardship of Nature Also Falls to the Working Class and we sold three of them.

SWP members from Albany and New York hooked up to campaign door to door in Kingston. An active-duty GI, an artist and a Puerto Rican customer service call center worker got books

and subscriptions.

Alex Huinil and Ved Dookhun took part in a Nov. 18 rally against police brutality in Troy, New York, demanding the police who shot Dahmeek McDonald earlier this year be charged and disciplined. As they protested, they sold three subscriptions and four books. Some participants said they wanted to set up a meeting with Maggie Trowe, SWP candidate for Albany mayor in the recent election, who went on the solidarity brigade to Cuba.

A young worker Dookhun had met recently campaigning door to door in Ravena came to the rally, the first protest he had ever attended. He joined the two SWP members for dinner and discussion, getting a copy of Its the Poor Who Face the Savagery of the US Justice System: The Cuban Five Talk About Their Lives Within the US Working Class.

The book about the experiences of the Cuban Five along with Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, Are They Rich Because Theyre Smart? and The Clintons Anti-Working-Class Record, all by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes, and Is Socialist Revolution in the US Possible? by party leader Mary-Alice Waters, were featured throughout the drive and are still available for purchase.

Two SWP members who work in an area chemical plant knocked on doors in the neighborhoods around the plant last week. A woman got a subscription and three of the books on special, and a Yemeni-born high school student subscribed.

Members of the Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom joined in the international effort to increase readership of the Militant and party books. Katy LeRougetel from Vancouver reports that Joe Young and Lynda Little knocked on the door of a member of the bakery workers union. I remember that paper! You joined us on our picket lines, he said. The Militant built solidarity with the fight at Canada Bread in Langley earlier this year. He and his wife decided to get a subscription.

Be sure to check out the final results in the drive in the next issue! To help in the ongoing weekly work of the SWP and Communist Leagues in taking a revolutionary perspective to workers on doorsteps, strike pickets and social protests far and wide, contact the party in your area listed on page 8.





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SWP: Deepen the partys work in the working class







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(front page)

New Florida prison censorship threatens broader ban on Militant

In a broader attack on the constitutional rights of theand its subscribers behind bars, authorities at the Jefferson Correctional Institution in Monticello, Florida, impounded the Nov. 6 issue of theon multiple charges, including that the publication encourages protesting and group disruption.

Unlike previous impoundments by Florida prison officials  often overturned on appeal by the prison systems Literature Review Committee  the banning of this issue is not aimed at a specific article, but at a series of material in the issue. Censorship at one prison, according to Florida regulations, is extended to all state prisons there.

This is a serious escalation by Florida prison officials attacking the Militants right to freedom of the press and the right of our readers behind bars, Militant editor John Studer said after the paper received the notice of rejection Nov. 18. If not overturned it could lead to authorities attempting to bar the Militant completely from Florida prisons.

The Jefferson Correctional Institution officials also checked off boxes on the impoundment notice that claim the subject material in the issue depicts, describes or encourages activities which may lead to the use of physical violence or group disruption and that it is dangerously inflammatory in that it advocates or encourages riot, insurrection, disruption of the institution, violation of department or institution rules.

As justification for all their charges, prison authorities point to Pg. 1 continued on Page 9, 5, 7.

The three front-page articles from the Nov. 6 issue that continue on page 9 are, Protest US Economic War Against Cuban Revolution! GIs Come Back From Horrors of Imperialist War to Carnage at Home, and Working-Class Solidarity Got Many Out of Harms Way in

Calif. Wildfire.

There are no articles on page 1 that jump to 5 or 7. The articles on page 5 are about the effect on workers of competition between Walmart and Amazon, and about miners on strike to get back wages in Ukraine. Page 7 has two articles, Brigadistas Learn About Cuba, Organize to Defend Revolution and Oscar Lopez: Cuba Gives Us Best Example of Resistance.

These pages also feature ads asking readers to consider joining a Rally and March for silver miners on strike in Coeur dAlene, Idaho, and a Rally to defend Cuban Revolution at the United Nations in New York.

Perhaps prison authorities now plan to bar any issue that publicizes public events, Studer said. That would be virtually every issue of the Militant.

The Florida Department of Prisons also impounded the Oct. 30 issue, citing the article Florida Prison Officials Step Up Censorship Against Militant.
(front page)

Israeli, Saudi conflict with Tehran grows as war in Syria winds down

In response to Tehrans growing clout in the Mideast, Washington is seeking to bolster its long-term alliance with the Saudi Arabian monarchy and its allies as a counterweight. Similar concerns are driving growing contacts between Riyadh and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.

Irans capitalist rulers made the most gains through years of fighting  alongside Tehran-backed Hezbollah forces and more recently Russian airstrikes  to shore up the once teetering Bashar al-Assad dictatorship against efforts by the Syrian people to bring it down.

Gains by Iranian-trained militias with officers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard fighting alongside Iraqi troops strengthened Tehrans influence over the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Iraq. They dealt a blow to the Kurds fight for independence, seizing Kirkuk and 30 percent of the Kurdistan Regional Governments territory, some of which had been part of its autonomous region there since 2003.

Tehran is on the verge of consolidating a land route to move weapons and combatants from Iran through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.

Riyadhs concerns about developments in Lebanon led them to press their ally, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, to resign, and he did so Nov. 4. Other Lebanese officials and Hezbollah have charged Riyadh was holding Hariri in Saudi Arabia and forced him to step down.

Hariri traveled to Paris Nov. 18 to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron. Hariri announced he will return to Lebanon in a few days to make known my position on all

the issues.

To counter Tehrans growing influence in the Mideast, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has taken steps to open the kingdom to more modern social development and consolidate the nations financial capital. The regime arrested over 200 people, including royal family members, current and former government ministers and oil-monopoly billionaires, for corruption. The detainees are now being offered plea-bargain deals, where they can pay their way to freedom by putting large amounts of their wealth into government coffers.

The regime is also promoting foreign investment in the government-run Saudi Aramco oil company and moving to wean the economy off over-dependency on oil resources through construction of industrial zones and resorts.

Shifts in the Middle East

The consolidation of the Assad regime and recapture of virtually all territory from Islamic State in all but a few isolated areas in Syria, raises new concerns in Tel Aviv and Washington about what Israel will now face on its borders. A lesser enemy is being supplanted by a far more dangerous one  Iran and its allies, writes the

Tehran has stepped up verbal threats against Israel, including the slander that Tel Aviv and Washington were responsible for the Kurds efforts to win independence.

In recent talks with Moscow and Washington, Tel Aviv has sought to win agreement to establish a buffer zone of some 25 miles inside Syria from its border. But a new deconfliction agreement between U.S. and Russian forces would allow Hezbollah or other pro-Tehran forces to remain just three miles away, reports the Jerusalem Post.

In response to these developments, the Israeli government admits it has begun to share intelligence with the Saudi regime.

Moscow, with five military bases in Syria, plans to maintain its presence there as an ally of Assad. Washington with some 13 military bases across Syria has supported Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in beating back Islamic State, while also seeking to counter Tehrans efforts to open a land route to Lebanon.

In the changed landscape in the Middle East, Washington, Moscow and all the capitalist regimes in the area are maneuvering to protect their economic and political interests.

In Iraq, U.S. forces have operated out of nearly a dozen regular and temporary bases, with at least 5,000 troops in the country, according to official Pentagon figures. Over the past three years U.S.-led coalition forces have conducted over 24,500 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, targeting Islamic State but leading to collateral damage killing thousands of civilians.

The Uncounted, an article in the Nov. 19 New York Times magazine, reports that deaths of civilians from U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq occurred at a rate 31 times higher than authorities acknowledged, causing some 2,800 deaths in the last 18 months in Iraq. The Pentagon claims just 89 were killed.

Kurds face threats across the region

The governments of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria all bitterly oppose any move toward Kurdish independence or autonomy. The over 30 million Kurdish people are divided between the four countries, where theyve faced decades of persecution and national oppression  the worlds largest nationality without their own state.

As part of a de-escalation agreement with Moscow and Tehran, Ankara has been setting up observation posts in Idlib province in northern Syria, ostensibly to keep the peace. But the location of what are in fact Turkish military bases  and recent belligerent threats by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan  make it clear their goal is to prepare to attack the adjacent Kurdish-controlled Afrin canton. Turkish and Kurdish forces exchanged artillery fire across the Afrin-Idlib border Nov. 20.

There is a growing assessment that the US is using both Daesh [Islamic State] and the YPG [Kurdish Peoples Protection Units] as an excuse to stay in eastern Syria, Ibrahim Kalin, a special adviser to Erdogan, wrote in Daily Sabah, as a potential counter-weighing force against the Russian-Iranian presence.

The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq said Nov. 14 that it would retreat from the Sept. 25 Kurdistan independence referendum, approved by over 92 percent, and respect the Iraqi Supreme Federal Court ruling declaring that no Iraqi province could secede.





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London protest: Support Kurdish independence!







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(special feature)

Discussion and debate mark world youth festival

in Russia

SOCHI, Russia  The 19th Festival of Youth and Students, held here at Olympic Park Oct. 15-21, was organized by the government of Russia with the aim of winning youth in this country and around the world to see Moscow as a progressive force in world politics  a global power holding Washingtons hegemony at bay.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) agreed two years ago to a proposal from the Russian government to host the festival with the perspective of organizing activities around a range of political questions similar to those at previous youth festivals, most recently in Ecuador in 2013 and South Africa in 2010.

To a much greater degree than those in recent decades, however, this festival was dominated by programs organized by the host government. Events promoted economic, political and cultural interests of the Russian government, as well as sporting competitions and art programs, academic and scientific seminars, a film festival and numerous exhibit halls. The opening and closing ceremonies pointed to festivals held in Russia in 1957 and 1985, which Putin supporters promoted as a source of Russian national pride.

Festival organizers reported 30,000 participants from 185 countries. This included more than 12,000 delegates from across Russia, as well as 5,000 volunteers to facilitate the event. Thousands more came from countries and territories in Moscows near abroad surrounding Russia, as well as delegations from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.

A few thousand delegates were brought by member organizations of WFDY. Many of them organized and attended some dozen parallel sessions of their own each day, featuring discussion of revolutionary Cuba, solidarity with anti-colonial struggles in Puerto Rico and Western Sahara, and other topics. Delegates from the Americas organized a Casa America room where solidarity forums and presentations on books by revolutionary leaders such as Che Guevara and Fidel Castro were organized.

Broad-ranging discussion

While Moscow used the event to advance its world standing, the most striking feature of the gathering was the openness and breadth of political debate and discussion.

Top Moscow figures spoke and fielded questions at well-attended meetings. These included President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and vice chairman of the State Duma, the parliament. Participants, both from Russia and elsewhere, were able to challenge these speakers on issues from military intervention in Ukraine to the Syrian civil war and more  something uncommon in Russia, to say the least.

During informal discussions, many Russian delegates described how they and millions of others here are affected by the world crisis of capitalism. Most supported the Putin government, but many said they didnt agree with various of its policies and methods. We have elections but we know beforehand whos going to win, one Russian delegate told us, a view echoed by others.

Communist workers and youth found a thirst to hear more about life and politics in the U.S. and interest in discussing a working-class perspective to confront the economic devastation and wars that capitalism produces.

The Russian government organized a five-day program on Global Politics, Their Agenda and How to Protect International Peace. It was opened by two panels where Foreign Minister Lavrov spoke.

We hope that the objective tendency for multipolarity will grow stronger, with new economic and financial powers rising on various continents and translating their power into political influence, Lavrov said. Russia will undoubtedly become one of the poles.

Russias influence has increased, he said.

The discussion and debate took up developments in Catalonia, Ukraine and Crimea, Syria and the Middle East, Korea, and the government of Myanmars brutal assaults on the

Rohingya people.

This and other panels promoted Moscow-dominated international economic forums such as the Eurasian Union and Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a counterweight to Washington and the European Union.

Two Global Politics events featured Liberal Democratic Party leader Zhirinovsky. Prominent in Russian politics since the 1990s, Zhirinovsky is a xenophobic backer of using Moscows military power against peoples asserting their national rights, from Chechnya to Ukraine. Some participants objected to his glorification of the czarist monarchy that ruled the Russian empire until 1917. When will you leave power? another asked.

Delegates challenged Zhirinovsky on Moscows intervention in Ukraine. Lenin and the Bolsheviks created Ukraine, he complained. It was dangerous and nothing good came from it. He also opposed allowing neighboring nations to voluntarily disassociate from Russia, saying the only way to keep humanity working together is through force and violence.

Discussion also took place on the rights of women and environmental destruction in Russia.

Capitalism or socialist revolution?

Delegates also debated whether capitalism or socialist revolution like in Cuba is the road forward for humanity.

The solution is to increase economic growth, and that will increase jobs, argued Xu Beining from China, speaking on unemployment at a WFDY-organized panel. Steady growth in China has given a platform for employment stability for the last 40 years.

The capitalist system is in crisis, and the only way out is for workers to build a leadership capable of taking power, responded Pierre-Luc Filion, a member of the Young Socialists in Canada. Workers produce all the wealth, but its not organized in our interests. He pointed to the Cuban Revolution as a living example of the capacity of working people to organize society based on human needs.

Cuba is the example today, its an internationalist country, Artem Lepeshkin, a history student from Moscow active in the Committee for Friendship with Cuba in Russia, told us during a discussion. They were able to face the crisis after the collapse of the socialist camp because they organized through mass organizations  from Committees for the Defense of the Revolution to womens organizations. They involve everyone.

Che Guevara explained that building socialism is not only an economic question but a question of consciousness, said Cuban writer Iroel Sanchez at a program on Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution. That consciousness is expressed internationally, he added, with the revolutions commitment that we dont give whats left over, we share what we have.

Debates and discussions spilled over to literature tables set up by youth organizations from around the world in the sprawling Media Center, the main venue for programs, where participants in all aspects of the festival programs met and talked. Exchanges continued day and night in dining halls and housing dorms.

At tables set up by delegates from the Young Socialists in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, participants bought more than 800 books in English, Spanish, French, Farsi, Arabic and Russian by V.I. Lenin, Fidel Castro, Leon Trotsky, Thomas Sankara, Nelson Mandela and other revolutionaries, including leaders of the Socialist Workers Party in the U.S.

The Cuban delegation of more than 200 had a large display of books and other items for sale.

Media Center hallways were also lined with booths promoting Russian banks and other companies, showing off the latest robotics and advertising gimmicks. Russian festival hosts provided each delegate with a smart phone with a Russian phone number.





Related articles:

Festival goers show thirst for political literature







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The petition was filed by Joseph Scariah, assistant professor of Malayalam at St. Berchmans College, Changanassery.
Oxford history graduate Fiaz Siddiqui is suing the university for 1million because he failed to receive a first class degree. Siddiqui who took his finals in June 2000 said that poor teaching meant he lost the chance to become an international commercial lawyer after leaving Brasenose College. Siddiqui received a low upper second degree and claims the teaching of his Indian Special subject course was inadequate. He also believes that staff failure to report medical issues to examiners and missing professors on sabbatical leave were crucial to missing the first class result. On Tuesday, His counsel Roger Mallalieu told the High Court that Mr Siddiqui was a driven young man and wanted to pursue a postgraduate qualification at an Ivy League university Mallalieu added: Whilst a 2:1 degree from Oxford might rightly seem like a tremendous achievement to most, it fell significantly short of Mr Siddiqui's expectations and was, to him, a huge disappointment Mallalieu added that his clients employment history was frankly poor and he is now unemployed. Julian Milford, representing Oxford University, told the High Court that Siddiqui had received the same amount of teaching as any other student. Oxford University denies claims of negligence and causation, they said Siddiquis claim of a lost career was complete speculation and fanciful. Oxford denies the accusation that staff failed to inform examiners about his depression and insomnia so his marks could be adjusted. The University further states that the only action at the time would be for examiners to award him the proper class and in Siddiquis case, that would have still been a 2.1 and not a first.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government of deliberately hindering industry investments in her state.

You tell industry dont go, dont invest your money in Bengal. Is it not a crime in a federal structure? Why central government is telling industry not to go to Bengal? Banerjee asked here at the India Today Conclave East 2017.

She also questioned the pendency of projects in the state.

Why so many projects are pending? Pendency has become the tendency. There is no cooperative federalism. Super emergency is going on. Every industrialist in now under threat, under the scanner. There is no voice in the industry. All media (outlets), except one or two, are under scanner. This is a sorry state of affairs Never seen this type of arrogance and attitude, Banerjee said.

The Trinamool Congress supremo said even leaders were not being allowed to voice their opinion on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

If I say something, their minister calls me and says why are you speaking against Narendra Modi? I say this is my political right  and they threaten us also sometimes like this. This is the situation. Where will we go? Democracy is under the scanner, she said.

Banerjee also reiterated her stand that the eastern states have been neglected: Gujarat in Gujarat. I respect Gujarat. One shouldnt discriminate between different states. Every state is doing work. I dont want to discriminate between states.

Northeastern and eastern parts have been neglected from the beginning. Problem is that you dont give proper justice to the people. I dont agree that we have to beg for everything.
Verbal spat between Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his Congress predecessor Bhupinder Singh Hooda over reward for Miss World Manushi Chhillar escalated further on Friday when the former took a serious note of the latters statement wherein he tried to take a jibe at Khattar unmarried status saying that those who dont have daughters cant understand how to honour them.

Condemning Hooda for his personal comment, Khattar said that one should not indulge in such cheap politics and refrain from making personal comments. He said, Although I did not raise my own family and have no son or daughter, yet I always remain deeply concerned about the sons and daughters of the state, and considered them as his family. For me, the whole Haryana is my family.

If the former chief minister was so concerned about the daughters, why he did not take any steps during his tenure to curb the social evil of female foeticide which was mainly responsible for the imbalanced sex ratio in the state. The present government has not only been successful in addressing the problem of skewed sex ratio which had become a blot on the fair name of the state, but also saved the lives of thousands of girls who used to be killed in the womb of the mother. Hooda cannot feel the pain of a father more than him, Khattar said.

The chief minister said Manushi Chillar had brought laurels to the country and the state on her own, and she would be suitably honoured after a round of consultation with her.

The controversy began few days ago when Hooda raised a demand of honouring Chhillar by offering a plot and Rs Six Crore for winning the Miss World 2017 title. However, Khattar flayed Hooda for it and said, What the former Chief Minister offered is his temperament, as his thinking is confined only to plots and cash. One should think above all this.

This led a political war of words between the two leaders and subsequently, Hooda hi back at Khattar saying that the latter could not value his demand as he was not a father. Meanwhile, Incharge, All India Congress Committee (AICC), Communication, Randeep Singh Surjewala too joined the political controversy over the issue saying that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not have a culture to understand such issues.

Meanwhile, an official spokesperson revealed that Chhillar is coming to Kurukshetra on 30 November and would also participate in a programme to be organised at Bhagat Phool Singh Women University in Khanpur Kalan, district Sonipat on 1 December.

The state government plans to utilise her services for a social cause, he added.
As protests against Padmavati gather steam all across India, Pihu director Vinod Kapri finds the issue scary for a citizen as well as a filmmaker. He says the government needs to take a stand and protect freedom of expression.

The Padmavati issue is really concerning. It is scary for all of us, as a citizen and as a filmmaker also. If we as a nation treat a legendary filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali (like this), then I am really worried about the future, Kapri said on the sidelines of the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here.

There is a censor board and people should respect the censor board, or we should shut down the censor board. But if there is a censor board, then everyone should including the Shree Rajput Karni Sena (which is at the forefront of the protests), should respect its sanctity. They are not respecting it, he added.

Bhansalis attempt to bring alive the story of Rajput queen Rani Padmavati on the silver screen with his movie Padmavati hasnt gone down well with Hindu groups backed by the BJP. It features Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in pivotal roles.

Bhansali faced many hiccups while shooting the film, but the protests escalated as the film neared its release date. There are conjectures that it distorts history regarding the Rajput queen, and Bhansali has denied it repeatedly.

The movies release date has been deferred from the original December 1 date, but there are efforts from Hindu groups to have it banned.

Kapri, whose film Pihu replaced the opening Marathi film Nude in the Indian Panorama segment at IFFI, hopes that this bad phase will get over soon.

It will get over. People will realise their mistakes.

Kapri has had his share of trouble over the release of his film Miss Tanakpur Hazir Ho in 2015. Despite getting a clean chit from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), a leading farmers union in Uttar Pradesh banned the movie as they were not happy with the portrayal of khaps (kangaroo courts).

So whats the way forward to tackle such protests, which many call an act of bullying?

I expect my government to take a tough stand. My government is capable enough to handle such fringe elements. I think government should take a stand and protect freedom of expression.

Kapri, who was a journalist before foraying into showbiz as a director, says harsh realities are mind blowing, and he is trying to capture those realities in his cinema.

On his future projects, Kapri said: We are planning to release Pihu very soon. I am also working on my next project with Drishyam Films. There is also a project with Siddharth Roy Kapur. I cant talk about it, but we will be able to say something by 2019 or end of 2018.
The controversy surrounding Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor starrer Padmavati took a tragic turn on Friday (November 24), as a man from Rajasthan allegedly committed suicide to protest against the period drama which many believe disrespects queen Padmavati of Chittor, revered and worshipped as a goddess by many in the state.

Bollywoods young actor Alia Bhatt has broken her silence and expressed shock over the recent suicide of a man in Jaipur. She took to Twitter to say how not punishing such violent threats is leading to extreme events.

Alia in her tweet wrote, This is what happens when violent threats are allowed to made openly without punishment! What is happening? Shocked!.

The man had hung himself from a tower at the Nahargarh Fort which overlooks Jaipur city and a note scribbled on a boulder next to the body read: Padmavati virodh (protest against Padmavati) We wont burn effigies. We kill.

This came on a day when the Delhi High Court (HC) turned down a plea seeking to set up an expert committee to ensure that historic facts were not distorted the film.

The protests against the film have now reached Delhi. Fringe groups have been ranting slogans against the movie and have been seen burning Sanjay leela Bhansalis effigy in the capital.

The top court said there were several guidelines for the CBFC to grant certification to a movie and, in addition, there was the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) to look into the grievances regarding a film.

READ ALSO: Rajasthan man allegedly commits suicide to protest against Padmavati
India is a land rich in culture and classical music. From Coldplays Hymn For the Weekend, to Selena Gomezs Come and Get it and Major Lazers Lean On, the ethnicity of Indian folk music has gained popularity worldwide.

French boy band Colt Silvers is the latest to have shown keen interest in Indian music. The band is currently touring India and has been performing in front of live audiences. The response they have received from the country has been phenomenal as told by Colt Silvers drummer/manager Julien Holt to thestatesman.com.

Hailing from the city of Strasbourg, Colt Silvers comprises of vocalist Tristan, bass player Nicolas, guitarist Florian and drummer Julien. The band produces intense indie-electro rock, which is inspired by pop culture.

Colt Silvers started gaining popularity beyond France within a year of its inception with the debut release Night of the Living Robots in 2009. Their debut tour in India will see them perform at this years NH7 Weekender, Pune.

Excerpts from Julien Holts interview:

1. What was the first thing that came to your mind when you thought of touring India?

We were surprised because its so far away, we didnt expect to be coming to India one day. Weve been to many places but this was a real surprise.

2. How was the tour promoted in the country?

From what we can tell, its been promoted well on digital platforms. We also gave a few interviews.

3. This is a land of ragas, have you explored Indian classical yet?

No, actually were not familiar with Indian music yet; we are looking forward to discovering it.

4. We have always seen some or the other band mates take a separate route. What do you have to say about that?

We each already have different side projects, and our main focus has always stayed on Colt Silvers, so its not a problem for us.

5. Do you intend to making solos sometime later in your career?

Wow, that would be weird. But who knows. Anything can happen.

6. What was it that brought you all together as a band?

Our passion for science fiction! We met at a SF film festival and shared a lot, so we decided to put this influence together with our rocknroll background and see what happens.

7. You have had many concerts in Europe! How was the experience performing in the European countries?

Its always great, with a lot of energy, and at the same time already very different from one country to another here. For example Germany is really different from France. People dont act the same. But I think the gap will be even bigger between India and France, were looking forward to be surprised by the audience.

8. Bands like One Direction, Imagine Dragons, Eagles and many more have been quite popular in India. Do you think your band can be as popular here?

Well, so far weve had pretty good response for our first show in Delhi. So we will just go on and see, but we definitely hope to come back for another tour.

9. One thing that differentiates you from other bands?

Probably the cinematographic mood, and also the electronic textures which add to the general rock background!

10. You released you first album early this year, any more albums in the pipeline?

We are working on an album with an orchestra in France, which we will release in December. Its a huge challenge and were very proud of this experience.

11. Did you face any hurdles while forming a band?

Weve been together for 9 years now, so yes we had ups and downs, but were so good friends that we always overcome.

12. How long did it take for you all to get fame?

Its just an ongoing process, I couldnt tell that we have arrived there yet, but its always getting bigger so were enjoying it.

13. Do you think the future of bands is bright?

Yes, because bands are based on combining musical personalities and ideas, and music will always be stronger when resulting from collaborations.

14. What cities in India have you explored?

Just Delhi! Next is Chennai, we cant wait!

15. How is India treating you? Did you try the spicy food and cuisines of the country yet?

Oh yes, it is spicy. Haha. Also, people have been so nice to us here. Thank you for being awesome!
The Shiv Sena on Friday said if the government decided to introduce a legislation for a ban on triple talaq it would permanently free Muslim women.

The demand comes at a time when the Centre is mulling bringing in a legislation in the Winter Session of Parliament to put an end to instantaneous triple talaq which is still practised despite the Supreme Court striking it down.

A ministerial committee has been set up to propose a suitable legislation or amend the existing penal provisions, which would make instantaneous triple talaq an offence.

It would a good step if the Union government introduces a bill on triple talaq as it would permanently free Muslim women. The tradition should be banned completely and its exercise should considered as a crime, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana said.

Earlier, the voice of Shah Bano was suppressed. But through the case of Shayara Bano, it would be the dawn of Muslim womens freedom, the party claimed.

In the editorial, the party took potshots at its senior partner by raising its long-standing promises of constructing a Ram temple in Ayodhya, implementing uniform civil code and repealing Article 370 which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The way the Union government is following directives of the Supreme Court on triple talaq, it should do the same with the Uniform Civil Code. The Supreme Court had given directives to the Centre thrice over the UCC but still the government did not take any steps for it, the party claimed.

The issue of Article 370 can be solved but it is always opposed by Kashmiri leaders, it said.

And for Ram temple, the BJP has sufficient political power at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh. If the government takes it seriously, it can complete the promises it made to the people, the party added.
The Delhi High Court (HC) on Friday turned down a plea seeking to set up an expert committee to ensure that historic facts were not distorted in Sanjay Leela Bhansalis period drama film Padmavati.

Noting that the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against release of the film was hopeless and misconceived, the court said such pleas only encourage people who are agitating against the period drama.

The court further said that the final call regarding the release of the film will be taken only by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

The PIL was filed on November 16 by Akhand Rashtrawadi Party who said that the committee should be headed by a retired Delhi High Court judge and should include historians, social activists, and a CBFC official as members.

The plea said the CBFC requires to examine/re-examine the movies contents with the help of historians or authors with excellent knowledge of historic facts about Rani Padmavati, so that wrong or fictitious image of the queen will not go before people worldwide nor public sentiments hurt.

The PIL, filed through lawyer Puneesh Grover, made the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, producer Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali, movies scriptwriter and the CBFC as respondents.

Recently, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a plea seeking a stay on the release of film, saying the Censor Board was yet to certify the movie.

The top court said there were several guidelines for the CBFC to grant certification to a movie and, in addition, there was the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) to look into the grievances regarding a film.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will on Friday engage with fishermen, Dalits, and the public health and teaching communities in a series of meetings in poll-bound Gujarat.

Congress VP Rahul Gandhi travels from Porbandar to Ahmedabad, where he will interact with members of the fishermen, Dalit, public health and teaching communities, the Congress party tweeted.

Congress VP Rahul Gandhi travels from Porbandar to Ahmedabad, where he will interact with members of the fishermen, Dalit, public health and teaching communities. #Congress__ pic.twitter.com/zvF3ihm6fr  Congress (@INCIndia) November 24, 2017

As per schedule, on the first day of his two-day visit starting Friday, the Gandhi scion will arrive at Mahatma Gandhis birthplace Porbandar and address a public rally, focussing on issues of the fishing community.

Thereafter, he will visit Ahmedabads Dalit Shakti Kendra where he will be presented a mammoth Indian flag made by Dalit workers which activists say the Chief Ministers Office and other officials refused to accept.

He will interact with community representatives in Ahmedabad besides meeting doctors, nurses, paramedics and small scale pharmaceutical manufacturers.

In the evening, he will meet with the teaching community  university professors, primary teachers and ad hock teachers.

He will wrap up the days programme by addressing a public gathering at Bhakti ground in the Patidar-dominated area of Nikol, Naroda.

On day two, Gandhi will visit Dehgam in Gandhinagar district and then leave for Aravallis Bayad region for a corner meeting.

He will have another meeting in Lunawada in the newly-formed Mahisagar district and yet one more at Santrampur.

Gandhi will then reach Dahod district and address a gathering of Congress workers. More meetings have been planned in Dahod to be followed by a public meeting. He will leave Gujarat from Vadodara.

This will be Gandhis fifth visit after Assembly polls were announced in the state.

(With inputs from agencies)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released its fifth list of 13 candidates, who shall contest for the second phase of Gujarat Assembly Elections 2017.

On 17 November, BJP released its the first list and declared its 70 candidates. 49 sitting MLAs were retained on this list. The second list saw 36 candidates names with 19 new faces in it, however, 12 sitting MLAs, including one minister, were not given tickets in the list.

On 20 November, the party released its third list with the names of 28 candidates. Surprisingly, the list did not have the name of senior leader and spokesperson IK Jadeja, who seemed hopeful to get a ticket for Dhrangadhra constituency.

In his place, the list included the name of Jayarambhai Dhanjibhai Sonagra, who will contest in Jadejas place from the Dhrangadhra constituency.

On 21 November, BJP released its fourth list with only one name, Piyushbhai Desai, as their nominee from Navsari.

BJPs fifth list:

1) Dhanera constituency : Mavji Desai

2) Patan constituency: Ranchhod Desai

3) Kadi constituency: Karsan Solanki

4) Nadiad constituency: Pankaj Desai

5) Unjha constituency: Naran Lallu Patel

6) Idar constituency: Hitu Kanodia

7) Dhandhuka constituency: Kalu Dabhi

8) Kalol constituency: Suman Chauhan

9) Vadgam constituency: Vijay Chakrvarti

10) Mansa constituency: Amit Chaudhry

11)Vijapur constituency: Ramanbhai Patel

12)Dahegam constituency: Balrajsinh Chauhan

13) Thakkarbapanagar constituency: Vallabhai Kakadiya
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai massacre, was on Friday freed after 10 months house arrest here in Pakistan.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief, who carries a $10 million bounty for his role in terrorist activities, was released after a Lahore High Court review board turned down the governments arguments that he was a threat to public safety.

Also Read: India outraged over Hafiz Saeeds release by Pak court

As his detention order expired on Thursday midnight, authorities withdrew jail staff from his Johar Town residence.
Stressing that there was a time when students from across the world chose India for higher studies, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said it was time to restore the countrys status as Viswaguru, destroyed by the Mughals and British.

Interacting with members of National Foundation of Communal Harmony on the occasion of The Communal Harmony Campaign week, Naidu said the citizens of the country must follow the rich cultural heritage of our motherland.

India was once known as Viswaguru and students from several countries used to come here and study in our universities such as Takshashila, Nalanda and other centres of learning, he said.

The situation has changed following Mughal invasions and the British colonization and now the time has come for India to once again emerge as the global knowledge hub, he added.

Naidu said Indian culture was much ancient than many other in the world and so, it must be preserved.

We have to protect and follow the rich cultural heritage of our motherland which we have inherited from our forefathers. Irrespective of caste, creed, race or religion we are all one Unity and integrity is the strength of our country, he said.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday lauded women officers serving in Indian Armys medical corps for proving themselves in extremely difficult situations.

Indian Armed Forces Medical Services has had women adorn the uniform as medical, dental and nursing officers since our Independence, Kovind said in his address to the closing ceremony of 42nd World Congress of International Committee of Military Medicine.

And they have served and proved themselves in extremely difficult situations, he added.

Kovind further said that the medical corps of the Indian Army has been providing stellar service to the nation both in peace and war.

Armed Forces Medical Services of India have been providing stellar service to the nation both in peace and war, he said.

For nearly a century now, International Committee of Military Medicine has been contributing to the practice of military medicine across the world, he added.

Uniformed medical services deliver health care in the most trying circumstances, he said further.
The South Asian Association for Gastronomy brings the third edition of the Food for Thought fest. The two-day event will take place from December 23 at The Plaza here where representatives from countries like Bhutan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal will participate.

Founded by Maneesh Baheti and Sonali Anand, the event celebrates the diverse culinary heritage of the South Asian region.

A special one of a kind initiative that focuses on the common heritage and history of the region, as well as the unique influences that make up a part of it, the event promises to set a benchmark as a forum for conversations, cuisines and the exchange of ideas and philosophies.

There will also be talks and discussions around culture and cuisine in the Thought Fest, while the Food Fest will be offering cookery workshops with master chefs of the region and an authentic flavour from the participating countries.

This year the Gastronomy Bazaar, will offer many products for the avid shopper. Another attraction this year will be the Fun Fest which will be held outdoors and will offer a concert by leading artists.
It has been a long road to justice, which has eventually been meted out to the victims of the Srebrenica massacre in the mid-1990s. And it has happened more than two decades after the butchery that shocked the conscience of the world, five years after the trial began, and on the basis of evidence furnished by no fewer than 600 witnesses. Ratko Mladic ~ the butcher of Bosnia ~ has met his nemesis with the life imprisonment pronounced by a UN tribunal at The Hague for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Forty-six years after 1971, the charges are faintly reminicent of the events in East Pakistan. The verdict reaffirms that the wheels of justice grind slowly and remarkably prompt has been the warning advanced by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein to other perpetrators ~ They will not escape justice, no matter how powerful they may be nor how long it may take. They will be held accountable. Which assurance affords a measure of hope to the persecuted Rohingyas of Myanmar and to the families of the genocide victims in Bangladesh, not to forget the hundreds killed in Syria more recently. This is the thread that links Bangladesh to Bosnia via Myanmar. From one century to another, there is no full stop to ethnic cleansing, no lessening of the savagery of mans inhumanity to man.

The trial of the former Bosnian Serb commander at the international criminal tribunal for former Yugoslavia coupled with Wednesdays verdict do symbolise a watermark in terms of international justice for mass crimes. Though the chief perpetrators of genocide in the Balkans have been convicted, there are many more among the guilty who walk free. With the imminent closure of the Hague tribunal, the task of prosecution now lies with courts in the respective countries, a prospect that cannot readily inspire hope and confidence. The outlook is grim and the uncertainty can be contextualised with the warning of prosecutor Serge Brammertz that regional judicial cooperation in war crimes justice is heading in the wrong direction and that the message of denial and revisionism is loud and clear  y our war criminals are our heroes. The light may be flickering, but it ought never to be extinguished. Justice in Bosnia or the capital punishment awarded in Bangladesh earlier this week cannot bring back the dead or erase trauma. Two decades later, the world must listen to the survivors and the victims families and to Bosnian Muslims generally. The hunt for Mladic took 14 years and at times seemed almost hopeless.

The fact that he could be brought to the dock and convicted is testament to the tenacity and commitment that marked his trial and conviction. And the epitome of international justice shall not be denuded with Mladics outrageous cry in court ~ This is all lies, you are all liars. Truth has prevailed.
The Saudi-led coalition against terrorism is formally being launched with a meeting of the defence ministers of member states being held in Riyadh on Sunday.

The inaugural meeting of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) Ministers of Defence Council will be held under the theme of Allied Against Terrorism, according to a press statement.

IMCTC acting secretary general Lt Gen Abdulelah Al-Saleh said: This meeting marks the official launch of the IMCTCs operations at our centre in Riyadh.

The alliance described as a 41-nation pan-Islamic coalition was announced in December 2015.

Pakistan was part of the initial list of 34 countries that had agreed to become part of the coalition.

Pakistans former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif joined the alliance as its top commander in April this year.

Core areas that the IMCTC seeks to address have been identified as ideology, communications, counter terrorist financing and military.

IMCTC encompasses an integrated approach to coordinate and unite on the four key domains of ideology, communications, counterterrorism financing and military, in order to fight all forms of terrorism and extremism and to effectively join other international security and peacekeeping efforts, said Gen Sharif.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been the driving force behind this coalition, will inaugurate the defence ministers meeting.

Gen Al-Saleh will outline the coalitions strategy, governance, activities and future plans, the statement added.
Sudans President asked his Russian counterpart on Thursday for help to face down the United States, in a meeting held in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi.

During his meeting with Vladimir Putin, Omar al-Bashir accused the US of splitting South Sudan, which became an independent country recognized by the international community in 2011. Al-Bashir has been charged by the International Criminal Court for his part in genocide in the Darfur region of South Sudan, Efe news agency reported.

In the end, it turned out that our country split into two parts, which resulted in a worsening of the situation, and as a result, we need protection from the aggressive actions of the United States, al-Bashir said.

Al-Bashir, who has been in power for almost thirty years, pointed out that Sudan is to launch a programme to rearm the Sudanese Armed Forces.

We are launching a comprehensive program aimed at re-equipping our armed forces, and we have agreed with (the Russian) defense minister that Russia will assist us in this task, al-Bashir said.

When asked about charges of genocide against the Sudanese president, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that al-Bashir is the legitimate president of Sudan.
The US on Friday said it was deeply concerned over the release from house arrest of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and asked Pakistan to arrest and charge him for his terrorist crimes.

The US is deeply concerned that Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement. The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head, was freed after midnight Thursday after 10 months of house arrest following an order from the Lahore High Court.

Saeed, accused by the US and India of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, was placed under house arrest on January this year. After his release, he vowed to continue the jihad for Jammu and Kashmirs independence.

Just as I am free today, Kashmir will also be free one day, Saeed told his supporters. It is because of Kashmir that India has been after me.
President Jacob Zuma on Thursday praised Zimbabwes former President Robert Mugabe for his contribution to the liberation of the southern African region and the decolonization of the African continent in general.

Mugabes contributions will always be acknowledged and celebrated, Zuma said, extending his good wishes to Mugabe, who resigned on Tuesday after 37 years in power, Xinhua news agency reported.

Mugabes successor, former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, will be inaugurated on Friday.

Zumas spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga said Zuma will not be able to attend the inauguration of Mnangagwa because he will be hosting Angolan President Joao Manuel Lourenco, who pays his first state visit to South Africa on Friday, the same day when the inauguration takes place.

Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Siyabonga Cwele will represent Zuma at the inauguration of the president-elect of Zimbabwe, Ngqulunga said.

Zuma met with Mnangagwa on Wednesday in Pretoria before the latter returned to Harare to take up the presidential helm.

Mnangagwa fled to South Africa in self-imposed exile after he was removed from the post of vice president by Mugabe earlier this month.

During his meeting with Mnangagwa, Zuma congratulated him and wished him well, said Ngqulunga.
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But the tribe has a long way to go
The Centres ordinance to prevent promoters  who are wilful defaulters  from bidding for their own stressed assets has been wholeheartedly welcomed by experts. Experts remarked that the ordinance, which received the Presidents assent on Thursday, is expected to protect the insolvency resolution process from being debauched.

Sumit Agarwal, founder of Suvan Law Advisors and an ex-SEBI official said, IBC Ordinance is intended to prevent wilful defaulters from bidding for stressed assets. The idea is to prohibit certain persons from submitting the resolution plan who may adversely impact the credibility of insolvency resolution process because of their antecedents. These antecedents include an undischarged insolvent or a wilful defaulter, a convict, disqualified director and SEBI debarred persons among others. Further, the amendment includes certain thresholds such as 75 per cent voting approval of financial creditors, before the amendment it was approved by a committee of creditors. The Ordinance aims to protect the resolution process from any contamination.

Meanwhile, legal eagles observed that the move was in the interest of stakeholders. Yogesh Chande, partner of Mumbai-based law firm, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas said, Dubious promoters should realise that somewhere in their journey of entrepreneurship, at the right place and at the right time if the situation warrants, they should stop chasing the business, instead of clinging on to the emotional attachment. The amendment is a welcome move and is in the interest of various stakeholders.

Top 12 Insolvency Cases

The Reserve Bank of India on June 13, 2017 had asked banks to invoke insolvency proceedings against the top 12 defaulters by filing cases in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The top 12 defaulters constituted about Rs 2 lakh crore or 25 per cent of the bad loans in the banking system (gross NPAs).

Under this code, 180 days are provided for insolvency resolution and 90 days for appeal  against the decision by the aggrieved party, if any  taking the resolution process time to a maximum of 270 days.

The bankruptcy code seeks to give teeth to the lenders, who have not been able to recover money from the defaulters despite being given several schemes to recover debt by the Reserve Bank of India, such as corporate debt restructuring, strategic debt restructuring, use of joint lenders forum, 5/25 mechanism and scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets also called S4A.

Experts felt that promoters could have obtained undue advantage if the amendment had not come about.

Vikram Babbar, partner at Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services of EY India said, The current situation on bad loan crisis and higher proportion of wilful default cases especially among large corporates, has warranted the restriction as imposed by the amendment. This is imperative in weeding out the undue advantage promoters would have otherwise got and aid effective implementation of the IBC.

At the same time, a few others opined that the promoters had already been provided ample opportunities to revive the business and did not deserve another chance.

The amendment seeks to give an opportunity for the deal (sale of the stressed asset) to fructify. Having been given multiple opportunities through the life of the asset that has turned stressed and failed, why should yet another opportunity be given to the promoter? When the promoters did not have the money to fund earlier attempts of restructuring, how did the money crop up suddenly? summed up Arun Kejriwal Founder, KRIS Research.

The issue of loan defaults is one of the most contentious problems, the present government has been facing. Whether the new amendment will succeed in its proposed goals or will it end up on the long list of measures the government had taken to address the issue of loan defaults, is something which only time can reveal.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the publication.
On Wednesday when 23-year-old Hardik Patel announced at a press conference that Congress' formula for reservation was acceptable to Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, there was a sigh of relief in the opposition party camp.

After all its efforts of soliciting pro-quota agitation stir leader's support ahead of a do or die assembly election had paid off.

On the other hand, the ruling BJP was stunned, though nobody would admit it. The way deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel reacted has provided ample evidence.

PAAS has been spearheading the agitation for reservation under OBC category for over one and a half years. While the state government had rejected the demand saying that it was not possible as per the Supreme Court guideline of not having reservation over 49 per cent, the Congress has succeeded by convincing the Patidar leaders.

The Congress is believed to have agreed to give at par rights, as per the Constitution, like the ones given to the OBCs. It has also agreed to undertake a survey. The Gujarat High Court had rejected the state government's move of giving 10 per cent reservation under the EBC on the grounds that a survey was not undertaken. The case is now in the apex court.

Leaders of a few Patidar organisations, close to the ruling party, have openly said that there was no need for an agitation as majority of the demands of the Patidars were met. They have been giving examples of cases against the Patidars being withdrawn, the state government setting up a separate commission and so on. Hardik, however, had not budged.

He continues to hold public meetings and draws huge crowds. This is essentially bothering the other Patidar organisations and the ruling BJP. These organisations say that people in the villages come to listen to him as they are uneducated.

On Wednesday, the deputy chief minister reacted in a manner that might not befit a leader of his stature. Addressing a press conference, he spoke as if he was talking one on one with Hardik and that, too, like someone who would pick up a fight on the street. Reminding Hardik that his political career was much more than the young leader's age, Nitin said that he had shown many people their real place. You will be a blot on the Patidar community, he said.

Hardik, too, has played his cards in a strategic manner. Comprising about 12 per cent of the population, the Patidars have been traditionally the BJP voters since mid-1980s when the then chief minister of Gujarat Madhavsinh Solanki propagated the Khastriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim theory.

In the elections to taluka and district panchayats held in the end of 2015, the BJP had suffered a setback. The loss was attributed to the Patidar stir. And this is what is bothering the BJP ahead of the assembly elections due next month.

Girish Patel, a senior advocate of Gujarat High Court, maintained that quota for Patidars is difficult but not impossible. According to him, as per the provisions of Article 46 of the Constitution, a special category can be created following a survey. However, the educational and economic backwardness need to be established, he has stated.

All this happens, only subject to the Congress coming to power. But for the time being, Hardik is happy that the Congress has at least heard the Patidars with patience. He is angry with the state government and blames the ruling party for the death of 14 Patidars during the agitation.

PAAS, led by Hardik, had not easily agreed with the formula. The end result came after at least five meetings. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal was also present in some of the meetings. In between, PAAS continued to keep the Congress on tenterhooks by setting deadlines to make its stand clear.

Hardik has been drawing huge crowds. Whether it translates into votes or not remains to be seen, but for the time being, people love the manner in which he talks. Their numbers have not dwindled even after the leak of a series of video clips in which Hardik was allegedly seen with a woman in one, and with two men and a woman in another.

The BJP has distanced itself from the CD row and held that it was the result of an internal conflict within the PAAS over the money given to them by the Congress. Hardik, however, has alleged BJP's hand behind the entire episode.
India wants legal assistance from Afghanistan to bring key IS recruiter Abdulla Abdul Rashid alias Abdul Rashid (who allegedly took 21 Keralites to IS-controlled territory in Afghanistan), back to the country.

After exploring various legal options to get Rashid and other IS recruits back to India, the National Investigation Agency has sent Letters Rogatory to Afghanistan to secure his custody. Letters Rogatory are formal requests to a foreign court for lending any kind of judicial assistance.

Rashid has been chargesheeted by the NIA in the case relating to the radicalisation of 21 Keralites luring them to IS- controlled Nangarhar province in Afghanistan.

All eyes were on Rashid when recently an audio clip, transmitted through telegram messenger, surfaced exhorting lone wolf  attacks at Hindu religious congregations in India, sending security agencies on alert. Rashids voice was identified by the agency which has been on its feet exploring ways to crack down on the IS network being run by Rashid from Afghanistan.

Rashid ran the IS recruitment drive initially luring 21 Keralites, including women and children, to perform Hijra (religious journey) to IS controlled Nangarhar province in 2016, and later created a WhatsApp group trying to lure more youth to join them, sources in the NIA said. He has also made at least 50 audio clips of terror threats in the last two years exhorting youth belonging to the minority community to carry out lone wolf attacks in the country. In his latest audio clip, he specifically named the Kumbh Mela and Thirssur Pooram, which are Hindu religious congregations, as possible terror targets.

The IS recruiter, who hails from Kasargod in Kerala, gave the example of the recent deadliest gun massacre in the US where a lone wolf gunman carried out a mass shooting at a festival crowd in Las Vegas in the first week of October .

The audio clip in Malayalam was analysed by the NIA which, having had his voice identified, now wants him as well as the absconding Keralites be handed over from Afghanistan. "Various legal options have been explored to bring him as well as the other Indians, who are in the IS controlled territory in Afghanistan, back. Letters Rogatory have been sent to Afghanistan since we believe Rashid is still there and is actively carrying out anti-India activities. We are actively looking into the matter,'' said a senior official.

The NIA has also unconfirmed reports of some of the absconding Indians suffering ill-health, but officials said there has been no recent communication between them and their families in Kerala which have come under the radar of the intelligence agencies. "Till we have evidence, we cannot say what has been the fate of these Indians living there,'' said an official. The crackdown by the NIA and local police had led to the WhatsApp group being abandoned virtually cutting off all channel of communication. The latest audio clip sent by Rashid is the latest evidence with the NIA of his continuing activities from the IS controlled territory in Afghanistan.

It may be recalled that a group of people, comprising 13 men, six women and three children, is learnt to have had left their houses in Kasargod and Palakkad districts of Kerala between mid-May and first week of July last year. According to the NIA, all of them had left India from Bengaluru, Hyderabad or Mumbai airports for Kuwait, Dubai, Muscat or Abudhabi from where they are learnt to have travelled to Afghanistan through Iran.
The Union home ministry has lambasted the statements made by 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed saying that the principal and consistent stand of the Indian government on the issue is that Jammu and Kashmir is the integral part of India. Recent statements of Hafiz Saeed is simply a re-articulation of the agenda of terrorist constituency which thrives across the border, official sources said.

In an address to his supporters massed outside his Johar Town residence, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader, who was released from house arrest on Friday, had vowed to continue the "jihad" for Jammu and Kashmir's "independence".

"Just as I am free today, Kashmir will also be free one day," Saeed had said, adding that it is because of Kashmir that India has been after him.

Such statements have been made repeatedly in the past and each time they have received an appropriate and resounding response on the ground from the people as well as law enforcement agencies, said MHA officials.

The border guarding agencies will maintain the high level of vigilance to thwart any attempts made by the terror machinery under Saeed to create trouble in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country.

Saeed, who carries a $10 million bounty announced by the US for his role in terrorist activities, was released just after Thursday midnight, after a Lahore High Court review board turned down the government's arguments that he was a threat to public safety.

(With inputs from agencies)
Minister of State for External Affairs, M.J. Akbar today said that it will be challenging to have a rules-based regime in a world without boundaries. Akbar was referring to internet and how it has created a borderless world, while addressing a session on cyber diplomacy.

"It has been a challenge to work out a rules based regime in a world with boundaries, how do we meet the challenges of having a rules-based regime in a world without boundaries. We need a global order which reflects the value system where every body treats human kind as collective and works for the common good", said Akbar.

"When it comes to diplomacy, what we are engaged in is what we call a frontier. We are entering a new frontier without knowing what we are entering into precisely. And we have to deal with new challenges even as we are not finished dealing with the old ones. 21st century is going to be a century of shared prosperity and shared peace, he further said.

Minister for Communications and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad in his valedictory address also shared his thoughts on cyber diplomacy.

"As data becomes an important resource, regimes for sharing data would require co-operation. Jurisprudence in this borderless world would require new collaboration and co-operation.

Representatives from various countries  Hungary, Denmark and China  agreed that global challenges for cyber space must be met through global co-operation.

Akbar described how technology has become the greatest enabler behind gender emancipation in India. He gave the example of MUDRA scheme, where $12 billion has been disbursed to 90-100 million people. "78 per cent of these loans have gone to women, creating economic empowerment for them, he said.
Pakistani Islamist Hafiz Saeed, seen as the mastermind of a 2008 militant assault in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai in which 166 people were killed, has been released from house arrest, his religious charity said on November 24.



Saeed has been under house arrest since January after living freely in Pakistan for many years, a sore point in Pakistan's relationship with the United States and neighbour India. "He is free, we are happy. Thank God there is no more restriction," Nadeem Awan, a spokesman for Islamist charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), told the media.



Read more: Saeed walks free ahead of Mumbai attacks anniversary

A court on November 22 ordered an end to his house arrest. Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks in which 10 gunmen attacked targets in India's largest city, including two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and a train station in a rampage that lasted several days.



The violence brought nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India to the brink of war.Habibullah Salafi, another JuD official, said supporters were arriving at Saeed's house to celebrate ahead of Friday prayers."Today, he will lead Friday prayers at All Qadsia," Salafi added, referring to the headquarters of the JuD.



The United States had offered a $10 million bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Saeed, who heads the JuD. The United States says the JUD is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.
The US will send six F-22 Raptor fighters for joint air force maneuvers with South Korea in December, a defence spokesperson said on November 24.



The aircraft will fly as part of the joint South Korea-US air force "Vigilant Ace" exercise between December 4 and 8, the spokesperson told the media.



According to South Korean media, this marks the first time that the US has deployed six F-22 Raptor fighters at the same time on the Korean peninsula. Washington had already deployed three nuclear-powered aircraft carriers near North Korean waters for the first time in a decade earlier this month.



The F-22 fighter jets, which are capable of executing precision attacks under the radar, will depart for the drill from the Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa and will stay at a US base in South Korea during the exercise.



Up to four F-35 Lighting stealth fighters are also likely to join the bi-annual exercise, which simulates their defensive strategies in the event of war, according to Yonhap news agency.



The deployment of six fighters on the peninsular is part of an agreement signed between Washington and Seoul, which aims at expanding "rotational deployment" of US strategic assets on the Korean peninsula and pressuring North Korea to drop its nuclear programme.
Living in despair and discomfort had become a daily affair for Smitha Jhathe ovarian cancer that was first diagnosed in 2015 had made a comeback, and there was fluid accumulation in her abdomen. The 40-year-old Mumbai resident had stopped responding to routine chemotherapy after 12 sessions and was on the verge of giving up. Thats when doctors suggested an alternative treatment called Pressurised Intraperitoneal Aerosolised Chemotherapy (PIPAC).

Dr Ninad Katdare, surgical oncologist, S.L. Raheja Hospital in Mumbai, said, Jha had a form of ovarian cancer called mucinous adenocarcinoma, which is traditionally more resistant to routine chemotherapy, he said. Wherever it is operable, these patients get treated using cytoreduction surgery (CRS) with HIPEC [hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy]. However, this case was advanced even for that procedure. She was an ideal candidate for PIPAC. She responded to the treatment as the ascites or fluid in the abdomen had shrunk from 3 litres to 100ml and due to PIPAC, the new formation of ascites is also under control. Jha was the fourth patient to have undergone the first cycle of this treatment. Only two centres in India perform the PIPAC procedure, according to Katdare. If the patient responds to PIPAC, they can be considered for cytoreduction with HIPEC. This has been proved in a clinical trial now. In other cases, it can help in the control of disease and/or symptoms, he said.

For patients suffering from peritoneal cancers, which mainly affect the lining of the stomach, abdominal cavity and other organs like the ovaries, gallbladder, pancreas and colon, PIPAC offers hope as it is a combination of both chemotherapy and surgery. A laparoscopic or keyhole surgery is used to directly deliver the chemotherapy drugs, with the help of carbon dioxide, to the affected areas. A special device known as a CapnoPen is used to make the incision, and after the chemotherapy, drugs are sprayed directly to the affected areas. A filter is used to absorb any residual fumes before the incision is closed. Katdare is the first Indian doctor to perform the PIPAC procedure after undergoing training at Germanys University Hospital of Tubingen. Of the four patients who have undergone the first cycle of PIPAC, the second patient unfortunately succumbed to ovarian cancer before the next cycle as the disease was advanced, he said.

PIPAC costs Rs 2.5 lakh per cycle, and the treatment requires at least three cycles. However, the good news for peritoneal cancer patients is that steps are being taken to manufacture the CapnoPens, which is the most important and costly part of PIPAC, in India. By mid-2018, the cost will come down to Rs 1 lakh per cycle. The side-effects of routine [intravenous or oral] chemotherapy like hair loss, vomiting and rashes are not seen with PIPAC. However, as PIPAC is done under general anaesthesia, the risks related to it remain, said Katdare.

While PIPAC was invented by Professor M.A. Reymond of University of Tubingen, Indian researchers are currently working hard to develop a therapeutic vaccine, which has the potential to fight cervical and breast cancer. One lakh women die of cervical cancer every year in India, making it the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women. Breast cancer, however, tops the mortality list here, claiming nearly 1.7 lakh patients every year. Researchers at New Delhis National Institute of Immunology (NII), however, have extracted a tumour antigen known as SPAG9, which, they said, promises to kill tumours with no side-effects or toxicity effects.

In search for cure: Dr Ninad Katdare of S.L. Raheja Hospital, Mumbai, is the first oncosurgeon in India to use the PIPAC procedure | Amey Mansabdar

SPAG9 antigen is involved in cancer progression. In our human clinical trials, one of the inclusion criteria of cervical cancer patients is that their tumour must be expressing SPAG9 antigen, said Dr Anil Kumar Suri, director, NII. Therefore, it is mandatory that only those patients whose tumour is expressing SPAG9 are included in the trial. From such patients, SPAG9 primed dendritic cells are prepared and are injected back into patients own dendritic cells. These dendritic cells educate the T cells to kill SPAG9 expressing tumour cells. This is how a tumour is killed specifically, with no side-effects and no toxicity effects.

Dendritic cells are our bodys potent detector of foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses and are also the internal police to detect if our cells are turning cancerous. Once cancer develops, the immune system is suppressed to allow the growth of cancer. Among the factors which lead to the immune system losing its potency is suppression of the dendritic cell function in the tumour area, said Suri.

Researchers said the immune system can be reactivated by developing dendritic cells derived from the patients own blood cells and then priming them with cancer antigens, before returning the mature primed dendritic cells back to the patient.

In the phase 1 of the clinical trial held between 2004 and 2006, the therapeutic vaccine was tested on 54 patients at the molecular oncology department of Cancer Institute, Adyar, Chennai. A team, led by Dr T. Rajkumar, is currently conducting the Phase 2 trial on 23 cervical cancer ( stage IIIB) patients.

This is a three-arm double-blind randomised trial, wherein one group of patients will receive only concurrent chemotherapy with radiation and saline placebo, said Rajkumar. Arm 2 patients will, in addition to concurrent chemotherapy with radiation, receive dendritic cells primed with the patients own tumour proteins. Arm 3 patients will, in addition to chemotherapy with radiation, receive dendritic cells primed with SPAG9 protein. The number of doses of the vaccine would be ten. The results will be out only next year. Three patients have completed all the ten doses and will undergo evaluation next month. So far, no patient has developed toxicity due to the vaccine, said Rajkumar.

In Mumbai, another team of researchers is gaining momentum in treating surface tumours like oral and cervical cancer with the help of gold nanoparticles. A team of four researchers from Tata Memorial Centre and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have developed hybrid polymer-gold nanoparticles as photothermal agents to get rid of tumours.

Dr Abhijit De from the Molecular Functional Imaging Lab at ACTREC, Tata Memorial Centre, said a thermoresponsive polymer nanoshell, which consists of an anti-cancer drug, is coated with gold nanoparticles. The gold particles are between 3 and 5 nanometres in size, and as the kidneys have the ability to filter out anything which is below 15 nanometres, any residues or potential toxicity which could be caused by these particles is not an issue, said De. When the core is heated with a laser for three to five minutes after it is injected in a tumour, we have observed that the tumour completely disappears after three days. In some cases, thermal ablation is required the next day, but the results are very promising.

Cancer patients, said De, will be able to get treated in the outpatient department of hospitals in 45 minutes through this procedure. Also, deep-seated tumours could be effectively treated with photoablation using a catheter.

Dr Rohit Srivastava, department of biosciences and bioengineering, IIT Bombay, said they are now planning on conducting the Phase I clinical trials on patients with oral cancer. We are in the process of setting up a company in Bengaluru known as C-Camp on the NCBS [National Centre for Biological Sciences] campus, said Srivastava, and raise the funds required for the clinical trials through crowdfunding.
Andia/UIG via Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A 95-year-old woman has come under fire after an Australian newspaper dubbed her a "real-life tomb raider" and "Indiana Joan" for her collection of ancient Middle Eastern artifacts.

Joan Howard of Perth, Australia, shared some of the highlights of her collection with The West Australian, a local news outlet, which reported the collection could be valued at AUD $1 million. Now, some archaeologists and officials are asking the Australian government to investigate how Howard obtained the rare objects and are demanding that she return any that were taken from their countries of origin illegally.

Monica Hanna, an archeologist and founder of Egypts Heritage Taskforce, started an online petition calling for an investigation by the Australian government into the origins of Howard's artifacts. So far, the petition has received nearly 500 signatures. Hanna also wrote an open letter to Neil Hawkins, the Australian ambassador to Egypt, on Facebook.

The artifacts include coins, pottery, jewelry and other objects, according to the West Australian.

"I passionately dislike how Indiana Jones is viewed as a hero, rather than a tomb raider. I think in the 21st century, this stereotype of pillaging cultures should disappear and be reprehended rather than praised," Hanna told ABC News via email.

Lara Lamb, the president of the Australian Archaeological Association, shared a letter she said she sent the West Australian on Twitter acknowledging Howard's "great passion for collecting relics and artifacts" while calling her collecting "highly unethical, both by past and present standards."

"Rather than celebrating Mrs. Howard's activities, we should be condemning such behavior," Lamb wrote. "Make no mistake, tomb raiding is not archeology."

Howard has not publicly spoken about the criticisms leveled against her, and a family member speaking on her behalf declined to comment to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Howard told the West Australian that she traveled through Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Israel while her husband was working as a United Nations diplomat in the region five decades ago.

Of her time volunteering on archeological dig sites led by British and American experts, Howard told the West Australian: "It was all good fun. Dirty work, of course. But as it turned out, very, very rewarding.

Howard "used her diplomatic freedom to search for antiquities before laws changed and it became legally difficult to do so," the paper reported.

In 1970, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted a convention prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export and trade in cultural artifacts. Many individual countries adopted their own laws about the sale and export of antiquities before that. Keith Howard was posted to his role in 1967, according to the West Australian. It is not clear whether any of the artifacts in Joan Howard's collection were obtained illegally.

"Collectors need to realize that their expensive hobby sometimes funds terrorist acts and destroys archaeological sites," Hanna said, adding that children are sometimes used to help extract antiquities and have died in the process.

Shaaban Abdel Gawad, the director-general of the Retrieved Antiquities Department at Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the Sydney Monring Herald that Egypt's foreign ministry had contacted Australian authorities to open an investigation.

The Herald also reported that the country's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was looking into the matter.

Neither the Australian Government Department of Communications and the Arts nor the Australian embassy in Cairo have responded to ABC News' request for comment.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
In a huff? HSBC's head of global banking Matthew Westerman is leaving

HSBC's rotund head of global banking Matthew Westerman, 52, is leaving, a memo revealed yesterday.

His surprise departure is much discussed among staff. Some suggest he's in a huff over failing to land the chief executive role ahead of HSBC lifer John Flint.

Others say Westerman's less than collegiate management style has 'ruffled feathers' since arriving 18 months ago. He's a bruiser, in other words.

Hewlett Packard boss Meg Whitman, who took home 27million last year, surprised analysts by saying she's off in February.

There's loose talk the combustible executive, 61, is considering a run at the White House  unwise, considering her 2010 bid to be California governor.

Despite spending 108million of her own cash on the campaign, more than four times her Democratic opponent, she was still soundly beaten.

Qatar Holdings says its proposed 200million redevelopment of Harrods is to make the store more attractive to the Chinese.

Perhaps they might remove the Diana and Dodi memorial erected by previous owner, Mohammed Al-Fayed, 88, at the bottom of the escalators. Sample reviews on the Tripadvisor website by recent visitors read: 'Cringeworthy', 'tacky' and 'appalling taste'.

Donald Trump's bullish economic adviser Gary Cohn faked a bad connection to get Donald Trump off the phone.

The claim is made by Democratic senator Tom Carper, whose meeting with Cohn this month was interrupted when the president phoned. Still rambling 15 minutes later, Harper claims Cohn ended Trump's talk by pretending the line was cracking. The White House's predictable response: 'Fake news!'

Philip Hammond was erroneously referred to by the Daily Star yesterday as 'Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Green.'

A terrifying thought. Though, come to think of it, Sir Philip, 65, produced a sensible report on Government waste in 2011, foolishly ignored by mandarins, which Hammond could do worse than take a peek at.
Stanley Gibbons has been the respectable face of the highbrow world of philately  stamp collecting to you and me  since it was founded back in 1856, but its trustworthy reputation has come into question this week.

On Tuesday the AIM-listed company confirmed its postage stamp investment business had gone into administration, leaving hundreds of investors who bought rare stamps with the promise of a 'buyback guarantee' in limbo.

The Guernsey-based subsidiary is in possession of 12.6million worth of rare stamps but has about 54million of liabilities relating to the buyback guarantees, plus a further 11million in undefined liabilities and another 6.5million which it owes to the parent company.

Highbrow: Stanley Gibbons has been in the highbrow world of stamp collecting since 1856

The scheme  which guaranteed customers at least 75 per cent of the book value of their stamps at the end of a given period  was stopped last year amid concerns about just how safe the guarantees were.

With Stanley Gibbons revealing last month that it was in default on its bank facilities, investors will be hoping this isnt the sign of things to come. Shares took a licking, down 26.7 per cent to 5.12p.

Toilet roll maker Accrol Group had a bit of a stinker as well after it issued another profit warning and unveiled plans to raise funds through a heavily discounted share placing.

Chairman Peter Cheung said the past few weeks had been 'extremely challenging' and the company  which supplies loo and kitchen roll to retailers including Aldi  expects to just about break even or post a slight underlying loss this year.

Accrol has suspended its final dividend and axed 89 jobs to cut costs and try to keep it in the black.

In the same announcement, the group said it plans to raise 18million through a placing of 36 million shares at 50p each  a steep discount to the stocks mid-market price of 132p before suspension on 5 October. Unsurprisingly, Accrol shares plunged 71.3 per cent to 39.1p.

Those two shockers aside, its not been a terrible week for those on the junior market, with the AIM All Share advancing 0.4 per cent, or 3.9 points, to 1,028.7.

Administration: On Tuesday Stanley Gibbons confirmed its postage stamp investment business had gone into administration

It was a similar performance from the blue chips this week as the FTSE 100 also added 0.4 per cent, or 26.5 points, to 7,407.2.

E-commerce enabler blur Group was one of those lifting the junior market higher following a short but sweet statement on Thursday.

The company  which has overhauled its board and raised fresh cash in recent months  told investors it is on an upward trajectory, with third quarter gross profit and revenue ahead of first-half levels.

Management expects to see another quarter-on-quarter improvement in the final few months of the year as well, thanks to new customer wins and encouraging repeat business. Shares jumped by a third to 6.14p.

Bagir Group was another back in fashion this week, more than doubling in value to 2.47p as a major Chinese textile company took a majority stake and agreed to help the tailor win new business.

Shangdong Ruyi Technology, one of Chinas top 100 multi-national enterprises with listed subsidiaries in China, France and Japan, will invest US$16.5million for a 54 per cent holding.

Its paying 3.5p per share for its holding  a 155 per cent premium to the price before the shares were suspended on Monday but about the same as last Decembers fundraising. Since then there have been two profit warnings due to a slowing flow of orders.

Bagir boss Eran Itzhak said having Shandong as a key shareholder and partner would enable it to exploit the opportunity presented by its Ethiopian manufacturing base far quicker and with more certainty than it could independently.

The money will be used to expand the suit trouser business and establish the jacket production lines in Ethiopia, he added.

It was more of an up and down few days for Premaitha Health  unfortunately for shareholders, it was mainly the latter.

Shares plunged by almost 50 per cent on Tuesday after the UK high court ruled that its non-invasive prenatal testing device, IONA, infringes on some of US-listed Illumina Incs patents.

Premaitha had proposed two alternative methods of performing the IONA test  which screens for various birth defects and can determine a babys sex  but the court rejected them.

The firm warned that, if upheld on appeal, the judgement could impose restrictions on its ability to sell into the UK market which represents around 20 per cent of its revenue.

There was some better news on Thursday when Premaitha inked a deal with a new laboratory partner in East Asia to offer a NIPT solution.

Illuminas patents dont cover this particular territory and so the partner will supply the test to its network of hospitals and clinics in the region. Still, Premaitha shares plummeted by 34.7 per cent across the week to 5.14p.
Top Kat: Compare The Market mascot Aleksandr Orlov

Price comparison website Compare the Markets owner has ditched plans to float after a Canadian pension fund ploughed 675million into it.

BGL Group had been considering a public offering on the London Stock Exchange but has instead struck a deal with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The fund agreed to buy 30 per cent of shares in the business, which is famous for its adverts with the colourful meerkat Aleksandr Orlov, valuing it at 2.25billion.

The deal is expected to complete in April, with BHL  the owner of BGL  retaining a majority stake.

Peter Winslow, the chairman of BGL, said of the firms new backer: It is a hugely respected and experienced global institution, with a long-term ethos and track record of supporting growth.

Pension fund director Ryan Selwood said the investment would diversify its portfolio.

It comes as ZPG, the owner of property website Zoopla and energy comparison website uSwitch, has been unsuccessfully trying to woo rival Gocompare.
Price hikes: British Gas has lost 823,000 customers since June 30

More than 560,000 individual investors in British Gas are nursing heavy losses after shares slumped to their worst one-day loss.

Shares in Centrica fell more than 15 per cent yesterday to 138p as it revealed British Gas had lost 823,000 customers since June 30.

Customers have left in droves after the firm hiked its prices and grapples with rivals.

Centrica still has lots of individual investors after 1.5m people bought shares in British Gas when it was privatised in 1986.

But they lost out massively yesterday when shares slumped 17 per cent in early trading, after Centricas 4.1million-a-year chief executive Iain Conn laid bare a disappointing second half of the year and warned on profits.

The firm said 650,000 of those who left did so on collective switch deals. More than 600,000 customers also deserted British Gas in the 16 months to May, taking its customer numbers to historic lows of under 14m.

In September it raised electricity prices by 12.5 per cent, adding 76 to standard tariff dual fuel bills for a typical household.

The firms business division has also been under pressure, particularly in the US, due to steep competition from rivals.

Yesterday, it sought to reassure investors over its prized dividend, saying it was making enough to cover it.

Analysts at RBC said the scale of customer losses was alarming. They added: This statement shows a very difficult operating environment for Centrica.

Ken Odeluga, market analyst at City Index, said: Centrica has handed wary shareholders a good reason to pull the plug after a shock profit warning.

Neil Wilson, analyst at ETX Capital, said: The practice of blue-chip companies tanking on profit warnings is becoming something of a trend this year.
Shares in Mitchells & Butlers dived yesterday after the pub owner put its dividend payment on ice.

The firm, which owns Harvester, All Bar One and Toby Carvery, said economic and political uncertainty in the UK forced it to cancel its next payment.

Full-year profits dropped to 77million from 94million the year before, despite a small uplift in sales to 2.2billion, from 2.1billion.

Mitchells & Butlers recommended a final dividend of 5p per share but did not recommend an interim dividend for the current financial year, saying it would review the full-year payment once it had assessed its options.

Share plunge: Mitchells & Butlers, which owns Harvester, All Bar One and Toby Carvery, said the economic and political uncertainty in the UK had forced it to cancel its next payment

Phil Urban, chief executive, said: The consumer environment is changing, with people eating out less frequently but spending more when they do make the decision to go out.

In addition, although restaurant supply growth has steadied over the last year the market remains highly competitive and, as a result, levels of discounting appear to be increasing in some segments.

His comments come after the firm posted a 9.6 per cent drop in half-year profits in May, blaming the rising minimum wage and fragile consumer confidence.

At the time it said Brexit had caused customers to rein in spending while the oversupply of casual dining outlets had led to heavy discounting.

Yesterday, its shares dropped 6.6 per cent, or 17p, to 241p as a result, pushing down rivals Marstons, which fell 2 per cent, or 2.1p, to 101.9p, and Greene King, which slipped 1.7pc, or 9p, to 509p.

STOCK WATCH - MEDICLINIC Shares in Mediclinic soared despite news it could crash out of the FTSE 100. The South African hospital firm, listed in Johannesburg and London, has seen shares halve since August 2016 and may leave the blue-chip index in next weeks reshuffle. It has sought deals to fuel growth but this week ditched a 1.3billion move on Spire Healthcare. Yesterday, chief executive Jurgens Myburgh bought 30,000 shares worth 217,321. Shares finished up 3.2 per cent, or 16.5p, at 525p.

Newcomer The City Pub Group bucked the trend, with shares up 6.5 per cent, to 181p, from its placing price of 170p.

The company, which listed on AIM yesterday, operates 34 public houses across London and the south of England.

It successfully raised 35million, which was 5million more than originally proposed, valuing the business at 96million.

It now plans to double the size of its estate in three to four years.

The FTSE 100 finished down 0.02 per cent, or 1.78 points, to 7417.24 while the FTSE 250 finished down 0.04 per cent, or 7.81 points, to 20,006.05.

Biotech firm Angle soared 7.5 per cent, or 3p, to 43p after securing a new contract with Philips.

The company, which makes devices for people to capture cancer cells, is teaming up with Philips to develop a treatment for breast and rectal cancer.

Premaitha Health increased by 17.1 per cent, or 0.75p, to 5.12p, after it secured a new agreement with an East Asia partner.

The surge was a bounceback for the company, which slipped on Tuesday following a disappointing judgement by the UK court regarding patents.

Shares in H&M suit maker Bagir shot up after a Chinese rival took a 54 per cent stake in the business.

The purchase, by textile firm and Aquascutum owner Shandong Ruyi, worth 14.7million, sent shares in the company rocketing 90.9 per cent, or 1.25p to 2.62p.

Bagir was set up 56 years ago and counts Marks and Spencer among its past customers.

Ruyi is apparently eyeing up Bagirs lucrative business in Ethiopia, where low labour costs allow it to produce garments cheaply.

The new funds will be used to extend the trouser suit business in the region, and establish jacket production lines in Ethiopias duty-free manufacturing base.

Eran Itzhak, chief executive, said: With Shandong Ruyi Group as a key shareholder and partner we believe that Bagir will be best placed to exploit the opportunity presented by our Ethiopian manufacturing base far quicker and with more certainty than we could independently.
Moving on: Unilever's long-serving boss Paul Polman

Unilver is poised to search for a successor to long-serving boss Paul Polman, it was claimed last night.

The consumer goods giant, which owns brands including Hellmann's mayonnaise, Lipton Ice Tea, Dove and Persil, has reportedly hired headhunters in preparation for the departure of its chief executive.

Polman's departure date has not been fixed but could be in 18 months.

His exit has been mooted as the FTSE 100 firm carries out a major shake-up of its businesses and reviews whether it will remain listed in London.

Polman, who was paid 8.4million last year, has been at the helm since January 2009 and was in charge when the company fended off a 115billion takeover bid by Kraft Heinz.

The 61-year-old launched an overhaul soon after, including a merger of the company's food and refreshment arms.

Recruiter Egon Zehnder has been hired to prepare for Polman's departure.
The boss of JP Morgan believes Donald Trump is unlikely to serve a second term

TRUMP'S ALERT Donald Trump is likely to only last one term as US president, according to Jamie Dimon, the boss of Wall Street bank JP Morgan. But he says rival Democrats have to come up with a reasonable candidate or Trump will win again.

LEGAL PROFITS Britains legal professions made a 4billion trade surplus last year, says TheCityUK lobby group. It said that lawyers generated 31.5billion of revenues.

FLOAT TARGET Motor firm Sabre Insurance Group has said it will be valued at up to 600million in a stock market float later this year when between 33 per cent and 50 per cent of the business will be sold.

FRACKING INJUNCTIONS The High Court has renewed injunctions preventing disruption by anti-fracking campaigners at Ineoss fracking sites.

SALE FAIL The 3.4million sale of some of oil and gas explorer Trinitys assets in Trinidad and Tobago has fallen through, as regulators could not approve the deal.

DIVIDEND UP South Africa-based miner Tharisa has hiked its final dividend for 2017 to five cents per share, up from one cent.

CAR PRODUCTION UK car manufacturing rose 3.5 per cent during October with 157,056 cars rolling off production lines.

But demand in the UK fell 2.9 per cent with 28,178 cars produced for domestic buyers, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said.

DIAMOND FIND Miner Gem Diamonds has discovered a 202-carat diamond at its Letseng mine in Lesotho.

WIND PAYOUT Renewable infrastructure firm Greencoat Renewables has announced a maiden dividend of 2.61 euro cents per share. The firm has two Irish wind farms.

NEW FACE Scandal-hit Telit Communications has appointed new board members ahead of a trading update next month.

The AIM-listed firm, whose former chief executive Oozi Cats was found to be fugitive in August this year, said Richard Kilsby would be its new chairman.

BUNZL SWOOP Retail distributor Bunzl has completed its acquisition of three French businesses  Hedis, Comptoir de Bretagne and Generale Collectivites.
Harrods will undergo its biggest-ever facelift as the luxury store spends 200million to attract more Chinese customers.

In the biggest single investment in its 180-year-history, owners Qatar Holding will redevelop the shop's 330 departments, covering a million square feet of floor space.

The food hall will be expanded, the internal layout will be improved to make it easier to get around, and a new, larger luxury watch room will be built, with a marble staircase, on the lower ground floor.

The overhaul comes after Chinese customers complained it was hard to find their way around the shop in Knightsbridge, West London.

In a 200m facelift Harrods owners Qatar Holding will redevelop the shop's 330 departments, covering a million square feet of floor space

Michael Ward, managing director of Harrods, said: 'Visitors from across the world visit us for a magical retail experience, and we want to ensure that we are investing in providing the most luxurious shopping destination to each and every customer.'

Qatar Holding bought Harrods in 2010 for 1.5billion from Egyptian tycoon Mohammed Al-Fayed, who owned the department store for 25 years.

It has had several refurbishments in a bid to attract more tourists.

Last year, it unveiled a 20million revamp to its entrance hall which includes 16 sets of double escalators and a glass-domed roof.

The store will bid to improve the shopping experience in special areas. Harrods has become a key destination for shoppers seeking out luxury watches  so this will get a refit.

An entire floor will be dedicated to menswear and sports, and the beauty hall will be expanded over two floors.

Information about the range of produce in the food halls will also be increased, as this area is expanded.

Sales at Harrods smashed the 2billion mark last year, boosted by international customers, particularly from China, who were taking advantage of the weaker pound after the Brexit vote.

The Chinese spend 1 in every 5 spent at the store and Hong Kong is its fastest-growing and largest market in South East Asia.

Harrods will direct some of the 200million investment towards its e-commerce business, pouring money into its existing accounts with two of China's most popular social media platforms, Weibo and WeChat.

It will also allow customers to pay for goods using Tencent-owned WeChat Pay from next year.

Ward said: 'Our Hong Kong and Chinese customers are extremely important to Harrods, so are considered part of our redevelopment plans.

'For us, the future is in the East and we have been focusing on that for a number of years.'
Sir,



I wrote this letter in memory of the students who were viciously assaulted by the police and military on November 14, 1990 at the University of Swaziland.

The spine chilling event was eventually called Black Wednesday because it happened on a Wednesday.

In the ensuing melee several students were crippled for life, hundreds injured and one woman successfully sued government for the loss of an eye. Our brothers and sisters were subjected to the most inhuman and vicious violence of mankind.



The reasons why the students staged the boycott ranged from the poor quality of food provided in residence to extremely low allowances and lack of faculty lectures. Among their demands was that a student and lecturer who were members of the banned political organisation, Pudemo, and who had been charged and acquitted of high treason, should be reinstated at the university.



It was on this day that the Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini-led government set the army and the police, both armed to the teeth on students at the University of Swaziland Kwaluseni campus. The crime of the students was protesting for better learning environment and mostly they demanded to be given their meal allowances instead of being given unhealthy food at the so called refectory. Upon arrival of the forces at the campus, the students, conscious of the fact that police and soldiers are scared of books, went to gather at the library which was under construction then.

The forces, however, invaded the library and attacked the students and caused major injuries on many of them.

It is for this reason that I pay homage to those students who never looked back in their struggle for allowances and quality education. The strides that they made in the quest for a better learning environment are still visible even today.

The mark that they made greatly impacted on the lives of the students who came after them and their legacy still lives on. Surely they are the oasis of inspiration for students of today. I for one support the spirit of solidarity.



What happened in 1990 is still happening even today. The problems faced by students of Swaziland are mainly caused by government rather than the institutions. As a result of this government manufactured injustices students find themselves spending less time in class because they will be on the streets inhaling teargas and dodging rubber bullets.



Goodman Maziya
MBABANE  As means of assisting chiefdoms to become agents of their own development, chiefs from the Hhohho Region will donate two cows.



Individuals and companies have also been encouraged to donate as well if they wish to support this initiative.



The donation of the cattle is part of a project called the Hhohho Regional Development Initiative (HRDI), which was announced by the Regional Administrator (RA), Prince Tshekedi.



Each chiefdom is expected to submit two cattle for the project with preference being heifers (ematfokati).

During a press conference held at the Municipal Council of Mbabane yesterday, the prince mentioned that the initiative was aimed at assisting government and the King in addressing the many challenges faced by communities.



As chiefs, there is a need for us to show that we support our King in his endeavour to promote economic development. We are launching a fund that will help deal with challenges brought by natural disasters like storms, poverty and problems faced by the elderly, the prince said.



He highlighted that such a project would not succeed if there was no financial muscle.

According to the prince, the project had already been started with the identification of the cattle being submitted to the RAs office and that the deadline for submission was December 14.
MBABANE  Civil rites marriage is not superior to Swazi Law and Custom marriage.



This was the finding of the Supreme Court judges in the matter where a man wanted to declare that his civil rites marriage was automatically dissolved after their Swazi Law and Custom marriage was dissolved.



Mduduzi Masiko Dlamini and Philile Nonhlanhla Dlamini (nee Ndzinisa) were in a dual marriage. The parties were first married by customary rites (through the kuteka custom) during the year 2001 and in January 2002 they were married through civil rites marriage in Manzini.



The Supreme Court judges who heard the matter were Justices Benjamin Odoki, Majehenkhaba Dlamini and Robert Cloete.

Judge Dlamini said clearly what the parties entered into was what was termed dual marriage where the customary and civil rites marriage co-existed.



Unless otherwise specifically provided such an arrangement introduces in the life of the parties a conflict of laws situation in terms of which the legal systems compete for domination requiring the court to determine which system trumps the other, said Judge Dlamini.

He pointed out that this conflict of laws at personal level had been avoided by simply assuming that the first marriage defined the choice of law to apply in the marriage.

The judge said this was so because both marriage types were lawful and equal in this country.

In the present matter, he noted that the declaration sought in prayer two required to have declared that Swazi Law and Custom was the only legal regime in marriage of the parties and the civil rites marriage was not a real marriage but just a celebration to placate Christians within the families of the parties.




LOBAMBA  When people in power fight among themselves it is the powerless that suffer.



This is the exact position that the ordinary Swazis find themselves in, as the battle between Members of Parliament (MPs) and Cabinet intensifies. Cabinet has allegedly taken a stand that it will not be returning to the House of Assembly until the motion kicking them out of the House, or the resolution that was taken by the MPs that Cabinet pays the elderly, is reversed.



This is according to the Speaker, Themba Msibi, who relayed his alleged telephone conversation with the Prime Minister (PM), Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini yesterday. Once again, not a single member of the Executive arm of government made their way into the House of Assembly yesterday.



The Speaker told the MPs that he had tried to call the PM on Wednesday evening to inform him that the House had resolved that Cabinet should come back to Parliament so that they could work on other national issues, and further address the matter of the non-payment of the elderly. Msibi said he had eventually failed to get the PM, but communicated with the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM), Paul Dlamini.



Msibi said however, yesterday morning he finally got hold of the PM and told him and his team that they were wanted in the House. Kutaba lukhuni Speaker kutsi sibuye ngoba sacoshwa, was allegedly the PMs response according to Msibi.



This can be translated to mean that Dlamini said it would be difficult for Cabinet to return to the House as they were chucked out. Msibi said he insisted to the PM that the House had simply sent them on an assignment and therefore, they could return.



However, the PM allegedly remained adamant that in that case the MPs should withdraw the motion or the resolution and that the issue should never be debated in the House, at least this year. The pm further told the Speaker that they would also not attend House business until something was done to Mbabane West MP Johane Shongwe, who had torn a government document in the chamber.
MANZINI  The unthinkable almost became possible. This was after family members of five victims of Vikizijula who died while attending the Reed Dance in 2015 from Vikizijula caused a scene as they went straight to the graveyard at Duze, where their children were buried with the intention to exhume their corpses.



The incident took place on Wednesday morning.

The family members are said to have been unhappy over some promises that were made to them but eventually not fulfilled.

It is said that the family members were carrying pickaxes and shovels and they were stopped by the quick intervention of Siphofaneni Member of Parliament (MP) Gundwane Gamedze from executing their plan. The MP is said to have found the aggrieved families while trying to force their way through the fence at the graveyard.



The incident had already attracted the attention of some community members who came to witness the exhumation which eventually did not take place. An inside source said the families were angered by promises which were allegedly made by their emissary which included the recruiting of at least one member from each family to the Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF).



The Imbali accident took place in August 28, 2015 near Mahhala in Matsapha where a truck which was ferrying the maidens crashed into a van before another lorry smash into it from behind. A total of 10 maidens and three tindvuna (Imbali regiment leaders) were killed in the process, while over 100 were seriously injured.



The source said after being compensated with about E17 000 each, government asked the families if they had any propositions to the authorities of the country and they requested to have at least two family members from each of the affected families recruited into the army.
ALBANY - Dennis Burke was watching the movie classic "The Quiet Man," in which John Wayne plays an American returning to his Irish homeland, when he learned his longtime friend Jeanette Ryan Bryce had passed on.

"I took that as a sign," said Burke, who met Ryan some six decades ago in Albany when they were both young recent Irish immigrants.

Sharing a strong belief in independence for Northern Ireland, the pair in 1971 helped found the local chapter of Irish Northern Aid, which raised money to support the political struggle back in their homeland.

"She was sassy, she was saucy, and if you said one word against Ireland, God help you," recalled Burke, reminiscing Friday on Bryce, who died Monday at age 93. "Together, we helped raised a lot of money, and we sent it home."

In 1995, that longstanding support from Bryce, Burke and the Albany branch of Irish Northern Aid resulted in to a visit to Albany by Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein. The group is the political wing of the provisional Irish Republican Army.

On Thursday, the 69-year-old Adams wrote an online obituary for Bryce in An Phoblacht, the Sinn Fein monthly newspaper. He remembered her as a "proud Belfast woman, a mother, and a committed Irish Republican."

And Adams recalled the Starry Plough, a Rensselaer pub that Bryce ran with her husband, John, who died in 2008. Adams called it a "focal point for the gathering of republicans and the organization of protests."

Burke said the Second Street pub also was a popular meeting spot for Irish newcomers to the region.

"There was music, there was dancing. She had a band there called the Irish Revolution." Burke had his own restaurant popular with the Irish crowd, called The Leprechaun, in Colonie. Both spots are long since closed.

"I am sure that we are going to have a lone piper for Jean at her funeral. It is an Irish thing," said Burke.

Bryce's funeral will start at 8:45 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 25, from the Daniel Keenan Funeral Home, 490 Delaware Avenue, Albany. That will be followed by a funeral Mass at 9:30 a.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 391 Delaware Ave. Memorial donations are being accept at St. James Food Pantry, 391 Delaware Avenue.
Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Some information technology companies are growing so concerned about their inability to find enough digital talent that they're training their own.

IBM, Amazon and Microsoft all now have apprenticeship programs that pay workers while they train for jobs demanding hard-to-find IT skills. Tech companies view apprenticeships  a staple of European labor for centuries and common in the U.S. for trades like welding and carpentry  as addressing the shortage of workers trained in skills that growing companies need.

It's a problem that the U.S. Labor Department identified 20 years ago. And it persists even though the median pay last year for computer and information technology occupations was about $83,000, compared to $37,000 for all jobs, with demand growing rapidly over the next decade, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

IBM now has several hundred open jobs in the U.S. for people early in their IT careers  a number expected to grow over time  and is tackling the vacancies with its new apprenticeship program, vice president for talent Joanna Daly said.

"It's not just IBM," Daly said. "When you look at nationally, there's a half-million open technology jobs in this country and we're only producing 50,000 computer science graduates each year. So for the industry, we have a technology skills gap."

IBM has long had apprenticeships at its operations in Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia, Daly said. The tech giant hired hundreds of people who've completed those apprenticeships, but hasn't pinpointed if the program is mainly responsible for greater talent supply, she said.

Industry coalitions as well as states like Minnesota and Washington have invested in encouraging IT apprenticeships. Trade groups including the Information Technology Industry Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association say more federal funding is needed. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed into law legislation increasing access to apprenticeship programs which train veterans.

But individual companies too are launching apprenticeship programs  a mix of classroom and paid on-the-job training to master skills  that cost them tens of thousands of dollars per person. Carousel Industries, which integrates and maintains communications and data networks, spends about $54,000, including salary, for each of the apprentices in its yearlong program, Chief Client Officer Tim Hebert said.

"Finding good talent today is really hard, especially at entry levels," where searching can take months, Hebert said. "We feel that the amount of money we're saving in the recruiting process helps offset some of the expense that we have, but it also gives us better-quality candidates."

In the decade since Hebert started the apprenticeships at a company that Exeter, Rhode Island-based Carousel bought last year, 90 percent of the more than 320 workers who completed the program remain, he said.

Last month, IBM enrolled its first U.S.-based group of seven apprentices working at the company's sprawling North Carolina campus. All will spend a year learning software engineering, including working in teams on actual tasks IBM needs to be accomplished, while earning benefits and a starting paycheck about 40 percent below the position's regular salary. Several are shifting from other careers.
The year isn't over yet, but it looks like air travelers are having fewer things to complain about in 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

From January to September of this year, passengers filed 1,434 complaints related to customer service. That's 52 less than in 2016.
Supermarket chain Wegmans will not have to pay more than $227,000 in sales taxes after the state Supreme Court's appellate division reversed a prior decision.

Rochester-based Wegmans has been battling the state over whether information the grocery retailer bought from RetailData LLC between June 2007 and February 2010 is taxable.

Wegman's is based in Rochester and operates about 50 locations throughout New York.

Since 1995, Wegmans has purchased competitive price audits and reports from RetailData LLC to figure out how much the supermarket chain's competitors charge for certain items. The Department of Taxation and Finance audited Wegmans' tax liability for a time period from June 2007 to February 2010 and determined that the information provided by RetailData qualified was taxable and that Wegmans owed more than $227,000 in sales taxes.

The grocery chain filed an appeal challenging the finding and asking for a refund. In 2015, a judge concluded that the supermarket chain did not qualify for a refund because the information Wegmans bought from RetailData was not personal and individual in nature. In order to qualify for a tax exemption, the information would need to be personal and individual in nature.

A three-member tribunal upheld the judge's decision last year. "There is nothing 'uniquely personal' about the price of an item in a supermarket," the tribunal said. "Furthermore, such information is obviously not confidential, as it is accessible to anyone who enters a store. These facts thus indicate that the information provided by petitioner to its clients is non-personal and non individual in nature and therefore taxable."

Wegmans appealed and on Wednesday the state supreme court's appellate division concluded that the information RetailData provided to Wegmans was considered personal or individual in nature and annulled the previous decision.

"We agree with petitioner that, under the circumstances presented here, such information does not derive from a singular, widely accessible common source or database as that test has previously been applied and commonly understood in determining the applicability of the subject tax exclusion," the court said.

Efforts to reach a lawyer for Wegmans were unsuccessful.

miszler@timesunion.com  518-454-5018  @madisoniszler
They've replaced egg nog with pina coladas. Instead of snow, they have sand. And while everyone is focused on the North Pole, their eyes are set on flying south. These are the people who've made a holiday tradition of escaping colder weather to spend time on the beach.

But after a particularly harsh hurricane season, some travelers are concerned about returning to their winter escapes.

TAKE NOTE: You might not know these TSA rules, like you can pack an entire cake

Comparison group Price of Travel has compiled and ranked the cheapest Caribbean islands to travel to in 2018. Not only did they look at the price of traveling there, they also took note of what affect the 2017 hurricanes had on the islands, thanks to information from Caribbean Travel Update online.

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"The hurricanes had an interesting effect on the rankings. Strangely enough, nearly all of the cheaper islands and destinations were untouched by major storms," said Roger Wade, the creator of the annual ranking for the Price of Travel. "The ones that got hit hardest are the more expensive ones. So the cheaper half of the list didn't change much at all, at least based on the storms."

The criteria for the ranking was the sum of the average cost of a 3-star hotel for a 7-night stay and two tickets for flights from New York City (since it's one of the furthest American cities from the Caribbean). Lucky for us, flights from more southern locations will typically be a fraction of the price.

To see what islands made the annual list, go through the photos in the gallery above.

Keep in mind that every nation has different standards for what a 3-star hotel is. A 3-star hotel in one nation may not even amount to a 1-star hotel in another. For new travelers, it's important to research what criteria is included for a 3-star hotel in your country of choice.

Bermuda, Turks & Caicos and The Bahamas were included in the ranking even though they technically aren't defined as Caribbean islands. These were included as good alternatives for a Caribbean-like scenery, according to the methodology used by Price of Travel.

BE KIND: Tip these people while traveling to avoid looking like a jerk

Furthermore, it is important to mention that the CDC has travel notices for the majority of the Caribbean islands, because of the Zika virus. So, if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, keep the CDC's warning in mind before traveling. If not, just be sure you load up on mosquito spray and remember that the Zika virus can be transmitted through sexual intercourse, as well.
Albany

Only a few years ago, rail tankers like those now parked idle in the Adirondacks were hauling crude oil across the nation by the thousands. Now, with those tanker models falling short of new federal safety standards, owners are running out of places to put them.

This fall's sudden appearance of old, graffiti-scarred DOT-111 tanker cars parked for long-term storage on a remote Adirondack section of the Saratoga and North Creek rail line has drawn criticism from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, local officials and environmental groups.

The tankers' unwelcome arrival comes as the DOT-111 model has been pulled almost entirely from the national rail fleet that hauls crude oil produced by the hydrofracking boom in the Bakken fields of North Dakota. And it also illustrates how federal railroad rules allow broad leeway for storage of unneeded rail cars, even in a protected state park like the Adirondacks.

"DOT-111 owners are running out of places to put these. Storage space is now at a premium ... That is probably why they are now showing up in a place like the Adirondacks," said John Byrne, a vice president of the Railway Supply Institute, which represents the rail equipment industry.

Thousands of the old tankers are now stored on remote rail lines in Texas, he said. "Other places, like former munitions plants, have rail yards that are now full of them," Byrne added.

He predicted that most of the old tankers will ultimately have to be scrapped, since upgrades are too expensive compared to building newer, safer models like the DOT-117. The new models have thicker tanks, insulation and armor plate to reduce the risk of explosions and fire in a derailment.

Ed Ellis, president of Iowa Pacific Holdings, which owns the Saratoga and North Creek, has said he has enough room to lease parking for up to 2,500 unneeded oil tankers at $4 per car a day. That would be about 25 miles of tankers, which he said have been cleaned of crude oil.

Ellis said the company needs revenue to cover the costs of buying and maintaining the line. He said if the state were to invest in the line, it would reduce the need to make money by renting parking for the old tankers.

The nationwide demise of the DOT-111, a workhorse for decades, has been driven by two forces. First, a glut of hydrofracked oil has reduced overall rail shipments. Also, new federal safety laws adopted in late 2015 are starting to require newer tanker designs for shipment of crude oil, ethanol and other explosive liquids.

"The DOT-111 is a menace on the rails because it was prone to leaks and explosions," said John Sheehan, a spokesman for the Adirondack Council, a park advocacy group that wants the tankers removed. "But the oil companies kept filling them and moving them to market, regardless of the danger. Now they want to dump the awful things and Iowa Pacific is inviting them here."

Part of the line that Ellis is using to store the tankers is about 75 feet from the Boreas River, a pristine trout stream that flows out of the High Peaks on its way to the Hudson River.

Shaped like a long black cylinder and able to carry 30,000 gallons or more of flammable crude oil, the DOT-111 became infamous in the summer of 2013. That was when several of the tankers derailed and exploded in the small Canadian city of Lac-Megantic in Quebec, causing a firestorm that killed 47 people. A spate of other derailments and explosions elsewhere involving DOT-111s began to follow.

That year, the model made up more than half of the U.S. rail fleet hauling crude oil, according to figures from the Association of American Railroads.

After Lac-Megantic, critics questioned the relative fragility of the DOT-111, and its presence in the crude fleet began to decline, falling to 32 percent in 2014.

By the time Congress passed new laws in 2015 requiring the DOT-111 to be phased out for crude oil shipments by January 2018, the older tankers accounted for just 15 percent of the fleet hauling crude. That fell to just 4 percent in 2016, according to Association of American Railroad figures.

Those figures are mirrored in a recent federal Transportation Department report, which found that DOT-111s carried about half of all crude shipments in 2013, 32 percent in 2014, 16 percent in 2015 and just 2 percent in 2016.

There were more than 58,000 of the model in active service in 2013, hauling crude oil, the biofuel ethanol and other explosive liquids, according to the DOT report. By the end of 2016, that had fallen to less than 48,000 tankers. It is not immediately clear where those 10,000 cars went.

DOT-111s can still be used to haul ethanol for another five years, until May 2023, and for other, less flammable liquids through May 2029. But when cars like DOT-111s go out of service, owners don't have to report that to federal regulators.

"There is no regulatory requirement for a car owner to report to the Federal Railroad Administration the number of cars taken out of service and placed into storage," said FRA spokeswoman Desiree French.

However, she said, industry records kept by the Association of American Railroads showed that by the summer of 2016, there were about 66,000 rail tankers  of all types, not just DOT-111s  that were listed as "non-active."

Railroad companies also have been discouraging the use of DOT-111s in recent years. In early 2016, a federal judge in Texas upheld a $1,000-per-tanker surcharge on the DOT-111s imposed by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway Co.

The railway had been sued by the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers over the surcharge. The largest carrier of crude oil in North America, BNSF called DOT-111s "the oldest, least safe tank cars currently authorized to haul crude oil."

BNSF is owned by the private investment firm of Berkshire Hathaway, which also controls both tank car companies whose cars are now being parked in the Adirondacks. The UTLX and NATX tanker companies are both owned by Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary Marmon Holdings.

A Marmon spokesman referred questions to UTLX, whose general manager, William Constantino issued a written statement saying that storage of its tanker cars was "a normal course of business activity whether for an individual railroad or an equipment leasing company such as Union Tank Car Company."

Asked if Marmon has any foreseeable commercial use for the DOT-111s, Constantino wrote a single word reply of "Yes," but offered no further details.
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Albany

After months of fruitless searches for a home, Debra and Eric Fagans decided to a build a one-story house in the South End.

They thought they'd cleared the hurdles of a home search. Soon, they learned it was just beginning.

First, the bank wouldn't give them the mortgage amount necessary to build a new home at their chosen location  Osborne Street.

Then, they struck out several times looking for a contractor to build it.

"It's because of the ideas about the neighborhood," Eric Fagans said.

"... Their perception about the South End," Debra Fagans added.

Struggling neighborhoods are often hampered by low property values and the perceptions of high crime, which become major hurdles for developers and individuals who try to improve those communities.

Banks are reluctant to provide the money needed to purchase and rehabilitate buildings or build new ones because of fear the home will never be worth the money that goes into the construction. Contractors often fear that building materials will be stolen from job sites.

"The banks are dooming the area to not get any better than it is," Debra Fagans said. "Because it's going to cost more than $70,000 to rehab any one of these houses."

Even though they only sought a $100,000 loan from the bank, the Fagans were denied, and relied on the sale of their Clifton Park home to build their new one in the South End.

The estimated cost for their one-story home on Osborne Street was about $200,000, yet it's valued at $95,000, according to city property records.

Other buildings on the block range from $15,000 to $75,000 in value, records show.

The cost of renovating vacant and abandoned homes in distressed communities  especially if they're poised to be affordable, low-income housing  makes the need for historic and low-income housing tax credits that particularly necessary, elected officials say. Both tax credits may face cuts in the federal budget.

Costs to rehabilitate one floor of a home in the South End is roughly $150,000 to $200,000 due to lead and asbestos abatement requirements and interior and structural improvements, said Cynthia Herbach, executive director of the South End Improvement Corp.

"I think it's important for us as elected officials and government officials to promote homeownership in general, and promote a lot of the existing programs that probably not a lot of people know about," said Albany County Legislator Sam Fein, who represents parts of the South End.

Amid reluctance from banks, developers and individuals often turn to alternative sources of funding like community development agencies, tax credits and grants, said Peter Schaeffing, an analyst at High Impact Financial Analysis in Albany. "It just costs too much to rehab these properties relative to what you can sell them for," he said.

Organizations like the South End Improvement Corp. and Albany County Land Bank provide assistance to fix up homes or obtain grants.

"I think there are resources out there," Herbach said. "If we could pull them all together we could do a bigger lift. But the problem I've seen, for every one that you fix up, two more go into disrepair."

Adam Zaranko, executive director of the Land Bank, admits they face an uphill battle, but sees a change with lending agents. The non-profit made efforts to developing stronger relationships with banks.

"Banks have received a bad rap in terms of their role in the 2008 banking crisis," he said. "But now there is a willingness, local banks especially, they're interested in being part of the solution. I see more interest in banks being invested in the community."

If the economic hurdles weren't enough for distressed communities, those wanting to improve the neighborhood also face negative perceptions about crime and safety.

Dan Kepple, of Kepple Glass Block in Albany, said because of past experiences he's not a fan of doing work in Albany's West Hill as well certain part of Schenectady and Troy.

"I'm not crazy about going down there. It's kind of scary," he said. "The last job I did on First or Second (streets), a week later a guy got killed right in front of the place. You have to watch your truck like crazy."

Fein said he'll often hear comments about certain areas of Albany being unsafe, but he thinks it's a misconception.

"I live 100-feet off Grand Street (in the South End) and never feel unsafe," he said. "It's definitely a difficult notion to dispel, but the main goal is to get people who already live in the community, who feel safe, to get others to feel that it's a nice neighborhood" where residents care about each other and "get them to purchase homes."

The Fagans eventually found a willing contractor  HRS Construction  to build their home on two vacant lots purchased through the Albany County Land Bank.

"The people who built our house lost nothing," Eric Fagans said. "At times, they even put things out front hoping neighbors would take them so they wouldn't have to take them to the dump."

Debra Fagan added: "We have not lost anything."

afries@timesunion.com  518-454-5353  @mandy_fries
ALBANY  It started a few years ago on a hunch.

Unhappy with the number of former students defaulting on loans, the State University of New York began studying its defaulters in a quest to learn why they hadn't kept up with their loan payments. A common thread soon emerged: Too many of them simply hadn't finished their degree. They'd dropped out.

"We were interested in testing this theory," said Patti Thompson, assistant vice chancellor for student financial aid services. "Obviously we know that the easiest way to repay is to get a job, and the best way to get a job is to complete a degree. What if we just told them, your best bet to repay your loan is to come back and finish your degree?"

That probably sounds obvious, but borrowers who default often only ever hear from their loan servicers about the various methods to repay their outstanding debt  consolidate, rehabilitate, pay in full, and so on. With an average debt load of $25,250 among four-year SUNY graduates, those payments can rack up fast.

Participating colleges 1. Alfred State

2. Buffalo State

3. Cobleskill

4. Cortland

5. Old Westbury

6. Oswego

7. Plattsburgh

8. Broome CC

9. Cayuga CC

10. Clinton CC

11. Finger Lakes CC

12. Genesee CC

13. Herkimer CC

14. Jamestown CC

15. Jefferson CC

16. Monroe CC

17. Niagara CC

18. Onondaga CC

19. Ulster CC

20. Westchester CC

21. Canton

22. Brockport

23. Empire State College

24. Fredonia

25. Rockland CC

26. Delhi

27. Nassau CC

28. Fashion Institute of Technology

29. University at Albany See More Collapse

So in the 2014-15 school year, SUNY partnered with a federal loan servicer and recruited 17 campuses to try something new. After a student loan borrower dropped out, they messaged that person a lifeline: "Come back and avoid default. We'll be here to help you re-enroll." The results were so successful  one in five borrowers returned to college  that SUNY is now seeking to expand the program across all 64 of its campuses.

"Once this federal servicer saw the difference between our messaging and their messaging, they were more than surprised," said Thompson. "It was pretty eye-opening for them."

Historically, just 2 percent of their borrowers ever returned to college after dropping out, the servicer told SUNY.

Prior to the experiment, the two parties reached a no-fee contract  the servicer would give SUNY the names and contacts of its borrowers on the chance that it would lead to fewer defaults down the road.

In that pilot year of the program, 1,185 borrowers were reached and 240 of them went back to college for a 20 percent success rate. Not all of them returned to SUNY, but most did  187 of the 240 re-enrolled at a SUNY campus. The others re-enrolled at private colleges in the state, or went somewhere out of state.

"We wanted to make sure we helped them find the best fit," Thompson said. "So if they went back to the same campus, that's great. But if there was another option that would work better for them we wanted to help facilitate that as well."

The public university system is currently in the process of bringing a dozen more campuses into the program, dubbed Re-Enroll to Complete. Participating colleges in the Capital Region include the University at Albany, SUNY Cobleskill and SUNY Empire State College, a distance-learning institute based in Saratoga Springs.

The goal is to eventually expand the program systemwide.

To that end, SUNY is hoping the state might help further incentivize dropouts to return to school by offering to forgive a portion of their debt  but only for those who were forced to withdraw due to certain life events. In return, that borrower would agree to return to school, finish a degree in a specific field and remain in the state for a set period of time after graduating.

Similar stipulations appear in the state's free tuition program, which covers tuition for middle-class students who agree to remain in the state post-graduation for the same number of years they receive free tuition.

SUNY's request for state help appeared in a 2018-19 operating budget request approved by the system's board of trustees earlier this month.

"What makes us so unique is we really do have something for everyone," Thompson said. "So even if, on the first try, you end up withdrawing from one campus, we can kind of walk you through getting you back into either another degree program, another campus or another schedule that works better for you. The goal is to help you succeed."
Washington

Lawyers for Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, notified the president's legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the special counsel's investigation, according to four people involved in the case, an indication Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors or negotiating such a deal.

Flynn's lawyers had been sharing information with Trump's lawyers about the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is examining whether anyone around Trump was involved in Russian efforts to undermine Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

That agreement has been terminated, the four people said. Defense lawyers frequently share information during investigations, but they must stop when doing so would pose a conflict of interest. It is unethical for lawyers to work together when one client is cooperating with prosecutors and another is still under investigation.

The notification alone does not prove that Flynn is cooperating with Mueller. Some lawyers withdraw from information-sharing arrangements as soon as they begin negotiating with prosecutors. And such negotiations sometimes fall apart.

Still, the notification led Trump's lawyers to believe that Flynn  who, along with his son, is seen as having significant criminal exposure  has, at the least, begun discussions with Mueller about cooperating.

Lawyers for Flynn and Trump declined to comment. The four people briefed on the matter spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A deal with Flynn would give Mueller a behind-the-scenes look at the Trump campaign and the early tumultuous weeks of the administration. Flynn was an early and important adviser to Trump, an architect of Trump's populist "America first" platform and an advocate of closer ties with Russia.

His ties to Russia predated the campaign and he was a point person on the transition team for dealing with Russia.

Among the interactions Mueller is investigating is a private meeting that Flynn had with the Russian ambassador and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, during the presidential transition. In the past year, it has been revealed that the Trump campaign repeatedly tried to meet with Russian officials who were promising compromising information on Clinton.

Flynn is regarded as loyal to Trump, but he has in recent weeks expressed serious concerns to friends that prosecutors will bring charges against his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who was his father's chief of staff.
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Mar Del Plata, Argentina

An apparent explosion occurred near the time and place an Argentine submarine went missing, the country's navy reported Thursday, prompting relatives of its 44 crew members to burst into tears and some to say they had lost hope of a rescue.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan, despite the evidence of an explosion and with more than a week having passed since the submarine disappeared. It was originally scheduled to arrive Monday at Argentina's Mar del Plata Navy Base.

The U.S. Navy and an international nuclear test-ban monitoring organization said a "hydro-acoustic anomaly" was produced just hours after the navy lost contact with the sub on Nov. 15.

"According to this report, there was an explosion," Balbi told reporters. "We don't know what caused an explosion of these characteristics at this site on this date."

The navy spokesman described the event as "singular, short, violent and non-nuclear." It was detected near where the ARA San Juan went missing.

Relatives of the crew who have gathered at the base to receive psychological counseling broke into tears and hugged each other after they received the news. Some fell on their knees or clung to a fence crowded with blue-and-white Argentine flags, rosary beads and messages of support. Most declined to speak, while a few others lashed out in anger at the navy's response.

"They sent a piece of crap to sail," said Itati Leguizamon, wife of submarine crew member German Suarez. "They inaugurated a submarine with a coat of paint and a flag in 2014, but without any equipment inside. The navy is to blame for its 15 years of abandonment."

The German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refit in 2014.

During the $12 million retrofitting, the vessel was cut in half and had its engines and batteries replaced. Experts say that refits can be difficult because they involve integrating systems produced by different manufacturers and even the smallest mistake during the cutting phase of the operation can put the safety of the ship and the crew at risk.

The Argentine navy and outside experts have said that even if the ARA San Juan is intact, its crew might have only enough oxygen to be submerged seven to 10 days.

Authorities said late Wednesday that Argentine navy ships as well a U.S. P-8 Poseidon aircraft and a Brazilian air force plane would return to the area to check out the abnormal sound, which originated about 30 miles north of the submarine's last registered position.

The search location straddles the edge of the continental shelf, with widely varying ocean depths, some as great as 10,000 feet. Experts say the submarine could not have supported pressures that far down.

"If a submarine goes below its crush-depth, it would implode, it would just collapse," said James H. Patton Jr. a retired Navy captain. "It would sound like a very, very big explosion to any listening device."

Whatever it was, U.S. Navy Lt. Lily Hinz said the sound detected "was not a whale, and it is not a regularly occurring sound."

Claudio Rodriguez, brother of crew member Hernan Rodriguez, said his family suspects "the explosion was so strong that they were not able to rise to the surface or shoot any flares. They didn't have time for anything."
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President Donald Trump thanked U.S. troops for their service on Thursday, assuring them "we're really winning" against America's foes as he celebrated Thanksgiving at his private club in Florida and provided lunch for Coast Guard men and women on duty.

Trump told deployed military members via a video conference that they've achieved more progress in Afghanistan and against the Islamic State group under his watch than had been made in years of the previous administration.

"Everybody's talking about the progress you've made in the last few months since I opened it up," he told the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, whose members are in Kandahar, Afghanistan. "We're being talked about again as an armed forces  we're really winning."

Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago club, Trump said: "We're not fighting anymore to just walk around, we're fighting to win, and you people are really, you've turned it around over the last three to four months like nobody's seen, and they are talking about it, so thank you."

Trump and his wife, Melania, made a trip to a Coast Guard station in Riviera Beach, Fla., where they delivered a lunch of turkey sandwiches, giant muffins, baskets of fruit, chips and cookies to men and women on duty for the holidays.

During his remarks, Trump, singled out the service for its hurricane relief efforts during Harvey and the other storms that battered the country earlier this year.

At the earlier video conference, Trump cleared the room of press after about 10 minutes so he could have "very confidential, personal conversations" with those on the line. Borrowing a line from his "Apprentice" days, he told the reporters "You're fired," then wished them a happy Thanksgiving, too.

On the Trumps' own Thanksgiving menu at Mar-a-Lago: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, red snapper, Florida stone crab, baked goods, local produce and cheeses, and a selection of cakes and pies for dessert.

 Associated Press

Homeless man gets housing, interview

A homeless man in Connecticut who found a $10,000 check and returned it to its owner because he wanted to "do the right thing" has been rewarded with housing and a job interview.

Fox 61 television reports that real estate agent Roberta Hoskie  who lost the check  has arranged for Elmer Alvarez to have a place to live and lined up an interview for him with one of her business partners.

A grateful Alvarez was in tears Wednesday as he learned of his latest rewards for returning the check earlier this month.

Hoskie had offered Alvarez free classes at her real estate school.

Hoskie says she was once homeless herself. She says the only condition is that Alvarez help another homeless individual once he's back on his feet.

 Associated Press

Icon's home may be added to register

The boyhood home of country music icon Johnny Cash is being considered as a nominee for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program's review board is to meet to consider 14 properties for nomination to the list of the nation's historic places.

The Cash home was built in 1934 in Dyess in northeastern Arkansas, about 30 miles northwest of Memphis, Tennessee.

The house and 40 acres were provided to the Cash family as part of a government economic recovery program during the Great Depression.

A final decision will be made by the National Park Service.

 Associated Press

Museum focusing on Churchill collection

A Massachusetts museum is touting its collection of Winston Churchill artifacts following the release of a major new biopic about the famous British prime minister.

The International Museum of World War II in Natick says it holds the most comprehensive collection of original Churchill letters, manuscript and artifacts outside of the Churchill Archives in England.

Among the artifacts are Churchill's cigar box, his favored suit worn through World War II and a typewritten manuscript of his "we shall never surrender" speech that has his handwritten notes.

The museum's promotion of the collection coincides with the opening of the film "The Darkest Hour," which stars Gary Oldman.

 Associated Press
An 8-year-old was seriously injured when the child was steering a car while sitting on a Washington County man's lap and the car crashed, State Police said.

Troopers said Brett Reynolds, 36, of Whitehall took his mother's car without permission and worked the pedals while the child steered.

After the accident, troopers said, Reynolds left the crying child outside of a residence in Whitehall about 11:30 p.m. then fled without trying to contact authorities.

The 8-year-old was taken to Albany Medical Center with a fractured arm, fractured rib, a punctured lung and head injuries.

Glens Falls Police arrested Reynolds the following day on an unrelated warrant and turned him over to troopers at Glens Falls Hospital, where he was receiving treatment for his injuries as a result of the accident.

Reynolds was charged Wednesday for unauthorized use of a vehicle, vehicular assault and leaving the scene sf a serious personal injury accident, all felonies. He was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Other charges are pending, troopers said.

He was arraigned in Fort Edward and sent to the Washington County Jail without bail.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the State Police in Greenwich at 518-692-3015 or in Granville at 518-642-0599.
Three men who travelled from Dublin to Nenagh pleaded guilty to a number of thefts at a building site in the town last March before Nenagh Court.

Jason Collins, 22, of 2 Ramillies Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10; Thomas Collins, 25, of 18 Labra Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10, and James Sweeney, 3 Turnpike Lane, Ballymount, Dublin 22, pleaded to theft at the JJ Rhattigan compound and Kenny Civils compound at Streame, Nenagh, on March 28, 2017.

Among the items taken were a vibrating poker, a wacker plate, a generator, a hammer drill, a Kango hammer, a laptop and four drums of green diesel.

They also pleaded to the theft of a powerwasher valued at 1,550, from a car at the Sue Ryder car park, Streame, on the same date.

The court heard that they were observed leaving the car park with the stolen powerwasher.

The Gardai were notified and followed them along the M7.

Near Mountrath, they threw the laptop from the vehicle.

They stopped two miles south of the M7 toll near Portlaoise and the driver jumped over a bridge and on to a minor road. He was never apprehended.

The rear of the vehicle was full of industrial equipment and the powerwasher.

The court heard the three men were brought to Roscrea and Nenagh Garda stations but made no comment during their interviews.

Thomas Collins had just been released from prison in January 2017, the court heard. He has five previous convictions, including one for theft.

Jason Collins has 17 previous convictions, including four for theft, while James Sweeney has four previous convictions, including one for theft.

Solicitor Conor Ruane, for Jason and Thomas Collins, said Jason Collins had had a substance abuse problem, but this was now dealt with.

Jason Collins was married with two children and his wife was pregnant, said Mr Ruane

His last previous conviction for theft was for stealing a bottle of minerals, he said.

Thomas Collins was married with three children and worked part-time in a garage, said Mr Ruane.

Sara Brennan, BL, for Mr Sweeney, said her client as 31 years old and married.

This was a moment of madness. He wishes he could turn back the time, said Ms Brennan.

She said the incident was out of character.

Ms Brennan said Mr Sweeney suffered from depression. Two of his childern had died and another was in Crumlin Children's Hospital waiting for a bone marrow transplant and would most likely need chemotherapy.

Judge Bernadette Owens, said that in the defendants' favour was the fact that the property had been recovered and they had pleaded guilty, saving the State the cost of a hearing.

But the context is that it was an organised matter and all three had played a part in the robbery. They travelled from Dublin down the country, she said.

Judge Owens ordered probation reports on Jason Collins and James Sweeney and said she was looking at 200 hours of community service in lieu of four months in prison.

However, Thomas Collins was in a different position. He had been released from prison in January and the robbery took place in March. He had also had the benefit of a previous suspended sentence.

Giving him as much credit as possible, Judge Owens sentenced him to four months in prison, suspended for two years in his own bond of 250.
THREE criminals, one of whom is from Tipperary Town, have received lengthy prison sentences for their roles in two violent burglaries in County Limerick more than five years ago.

Following a six week trial earlier this year, Patrick Roche, aged 53, of Kilcronan Close, Clondalkin, Dublin; his son Philip Roche, aged 24, also of Kilcronan Close, Clondalkin and his son-in-law Alan Freeman, aged 37, of Pearse Park, Tipperary Town were convicted of aggravated burglary and false imprisonment relating to an incident at Sunville House, Pallasgreen on April 16, 2012.

Patrick and Philip Roche were also convicted of similar charges relating to an incident at the home of three elderly members of the Creed family at Ballyluddy, Pallasgreen on May 31, 2012.

Imposing sentence this Friday, Judge John Hannan said the actions of the defendants had been deliberate and pre-planned and were terrifying for the two families. He said any sentence he imposed had to have a deterrent effect.

The judge said the level of violence perpetrated, the use of weapons and the targeting of families living in rural Ireland were aggravating factors he had to consider.

Patrick Roche was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment, Philip Roche to 15 years imprisonment and Alan Freeman 14 years imprisonment. The final three years were suspended in each case.

Speaking briefly after the sentences were handed down, Tommy Creed  a brother of Willie, Nora and Chrissie Creed  welcomed the sentences praising the judge while Gerard Garvey said he and his family believe justice has been served and that are now getting on with their lives.

Earlier this month, Sgt Mike Reidy said all three defendants have criminal records and that both Patrick Roche and Alan Freeman were on bail at the time.

Patrick Roche has 139 previous convictions and is currently serving a 17-year prison sentence for a serious offence.

Philip Roche has 37 previous convictions while Alan Freeman, who has 22 previous convictions, is currently serving an 11 year prison sentence relating to the theft of around 40 guns from a firearms dealer in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary in January 2009.

He told Michael Collins BL, instructed by state solicitor Aidan Judge, that around 10,000 in cash was taken from the Garvey and Creed homes and that the occupants of both houses were assaulted, tied up and threatened by the raiders.

During the trial, the jury of seven men and five women heard from a large number of gardai as well as several civilian witnesses.

The trial also heard evidence from two witnesses who have each been convicted over their involvement in the aggravated burglaries.

Laywers representing the three defendants said their clients had made certain concessions which meant certain witnesses were not required to give evidence  including members of the Creed family who are all aged in their 70s.

Judge Hannan was told Philip Roche and Alan Freeman are both working in prison and have completed several courses.

The sentences imposed on Patrick Roche and Alan Freeman are to be served consecutively to sentences they are currently serving for separate offences.
The Fianna Fail Finance Spokesperson, Michael McGrath will deliver an oration this Sunday, 26th November 2017, at 1.30pm at Lisnagaul to commemorate the November 1920 ambush of Royal Irish Constabulary personnel.

Organised by Tipperary Fianna Fail, and local TD, Jackie Cahill, the event will commemorate the men of the flying column of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the IRA which was led by Dinny Lacey from Attybrick.

On 13th November 1913, they led an ambush of a military convoy that was travelling from Galbally to Bansha.

Local TD, Jackie Cahill said: We are proud of our republican heritage here in County Tipperary. The events of 1919 and 1920 were of critical importance in Irelands quest for freedom and independence.

Im delighted that our Finance Spokesperson has agreed to be our keynote speaker this Sunday. Its testament to the respect the Fianna Fail party has for our revolutionary past and for our revolutionary leaders.

I am calling on the people of Tipperary to join us this Sunday in commemorating this period of our history, concluded Cahill.

The commemoration will take place at Lisnagaul which is about 6 Km from the Village of Bansha in the direction of Lisvernane. All welcome.
Tipperary looks set to benefit from two major jobs announcements in neighbouring Kilkenny this week following news that Taxback International and financial services company Carne will create 130 new jobs in the Marble City.

Taxback International, a VAT recovery specialist, will create 80 new jobs at its Kilkenny headquarters following an announcement earlier today.

The roles are being created across a number of departments, including sales and marketing, as well as R&D, to deal with an increased demand for the company's services from both Irish and international clients.

Meanwhile fund management company Carne, which was founded in 2004 by John Donohoe, has announced it is to hire at least 50 new staff at a new regulatory technology, development and operations centre in Kilkenny

Positions will be available in management, compliance, risk management, technology and operations.

Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection Pat Breen said the announcement was very positive for the South-East Region.

"All jobs created have a positive knock-on effect for the wider community, he added.
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[November 24, 2017] Mahindra Special Services Group Wins International Green Apple Award for Sustainability in House of Commons, UK

MUMBAI, November 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mahindra Special Services Group (MSSG), a subsidiary of Mahindra Defence Systems Limited, India's leading corporate security risk consulting firm, has won the prestigious International Green Apple Award for the Coconut Project. Mahindra SSG Coconut Project comprised of coco painting and coco planting as two initiatives aimed at fighting dengue. Since coconuts are fertile breeding grounds for mosquitoes, the idea of using coconut shells for decorative and reusable purposes was initiated. Thus it also complements the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by the Government of India. The MSSG Coconut Project engaged with not only employees but also leaders in the corporate world in the Coco Painting activity and also gifted plants in coconut shells to employees of over 100 companies in India. On receiving the award, Mr. Dinesh Pillai - CEO - Mahindra Special Services Group, said, "It is an honour and privilege to receive the prestigious Green Apple Award for the Coconut Project. Dengue has the power to impact business continuity in a big way as people cannot report to work if they are affected with the disease. Team Mahindra SSG, as a responsible corporate in the security busiess, has worked very hard to take the initiative at an international level. We believe we have made an attempt to spread the awareness on doing the right thing amongst our people."



The Green Apple Awards began in 1994 and have become established as the UK's major recognition for environmental endeavours among companies, councils, communities and countries. The awards are organised by The Green Organisation, an international, independent, non-political, non-profit environment group dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practices around the world. About Mahindra Special Services Group

Mahindra Special Services Group is India's leading corporate security risk consulting firm that helps organizations reduce risk and enhance competitive advantage. With a core team comprising of ex-forces officers and domain experts, MSSG's risk mitigation advisories enable major corporate clients to secure their physical and information assets. About Mahindra Group The Mahindra Group is a USD 19 billion federation of companies that enables people to rise through innovative mobility solutions, driving rural prosperity, enhancing urban living, nurturing new businesses and fostering communities. It has a leadership position in utility vehicles, information technology, financial services and vacation ownership in India and is the world's largest tractor company, by volume. It also enjoys a strong presence in agribusiness, components, commercial vehicles, consulting services, energy, industrial equipment, logistics, real estate, steel, aerospace, defence and two wheelers. Headquartered in India, Mahindra employs over 200,000 people across 100 countries. Learn more about Mahindra on http://www.mahindra.com, Twitter and Facebook For further enquiries please contact:

Shubhada Dharwadkar

Deputy General Manager

Group Communications

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

Tel: +91-22-2491-7040

Email: [email protected]



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[November 24, 2017]

Clavister Holds Investor Briefing on Growth Plans

STOCKHOLM, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Clavister's executive team, hosted by Redeye, will hold an investor briefing webinar on November 29 at 13:00 CET, ahead of the upcoming extraordinary general meeting.

The briefing webinar will provide valuable investor insights into Clavister's updated and ambitious growth plans and the overall business case. In addition, more details on the recently announced proposed funding structure will be presented along with how the proceeds from the funding will be utilized.

The webinar will feature Clavister's President and CEO, John Vestberg, Chairman of the Board Viktor Kovacs as well as board member Peter Dahlander. They will give the investor audience an opportunity to hear the plans as well as ask questions and engage in feedback.

For more information and registration, please visit Redeye's event portal at https://www.redeye.se/events#/event/570766

Presentation material is available for download from Clavister's website at http://ow.ly/71Hk30gMKqb

For more information, please contact:

John Vestberg

President and CEO

[email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/clavister/r/clavister-holds-investor-briefing-on-growth-plans,c2398982

The following files are available for download:









http://mb.cision.com/Main/9441/2398982/756997.pdf PDF http://mb.cision.com/Public/9441/2398982/a017ca691b3c8fd2.pdf Clavister Investor Brief prior to EGM 2017-11-29


[November 24, 2017] PAX and TOSAN Techno Launch Android Smart POS and Appstore Solutions in Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PAX Technology (HKEx: 00327.HK - PAX GLOBAL), a global leader in the provision of secure electronic payment terminal solutions, and regional channel partner TOSAN Techno, announced the Middle East regions first launch of new generation Smart POS and Smart ECR terminals based on Android, supported by TechStore, an advanced appstore cloud service powered by PAXSTORE.

Andrew Wu, Vice President of PAX said: "This was an incredibly successful event hosted by TOSAN Techno, with our E-series and A-Series solutions generating a tremendous level of interest. He added: Banks and PSPs alike now understand how they can help radically improve and modernize their merchants retail checkout areas." Over 150 people ttended the event, including acquiring banks, payment service providers and local media. Mark OFlynn, Sales Director of PAX, gave a presentation on the convergence of payment, retail and eCommerce, followed by interventions of TOSAN Techno staff to fully describe PAX Technologys innovative E-series Integrated Smart POS, and the new Android family of terminals.



Mr. Mohammad Mazaheri, CEO of TOSAN Techno, concluded: "The seminar was a great success. We are excited to be launching our TechStore to support these new point of sale technologies from PAX, and very much look forward to crowd sourcing ideas and innovative apps from independent software vendors, which will deliver new value added services to our customers and their merchant base alike." About PAX (www.pax.com.cn)

PAX Technology is an innovative global provider of electronic payment solutions, offering world-class, cost-effective and superior quality products. Building on its service excellence and proven leadership position, PAX is one of the fastest growing payment industry suppliers with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, excellent R&D capabilities and a worldwide network of sales and channel partners. PAX is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange as PAX Global Technology Ltd. (00327.HK).

Contact: Mandy

+86-755-2661-2501

[email protected]

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[November 24, 2017] Invitation to Presentation of Sectra's Interim Report on December 8

LINKOPING, Sweden, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --The international medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra (STO: SECT B) will publish its six-month report for the period May to October 2017 on December 8, 2017. Sectra invites analysts, investors and the media to attend a teleconference in conjunction with the publication of the report. Torbjorn Kronander, President and CEO of Sectra, and Mats Franzen, CFO of Sectra, will present the interim report and answer any questions. Publication of interim report: 8:00 a.m. December 8, 2017 Presentation/teleconference: 10:00 a.m. December 8, 2017 To participate, call one of the following numbers five to ten minutes before the conference begins: SE +46856642690

UK +442030089801

US +18557532235

/ul>



The presentation will be held in English and can also be followed online at www.sectra.se/irwebcast . A recorded version will be available via this link after the conference. Approximately 15 minutes before the start, a presentation (PDF document) will be available for download at www.sectra.se/irwebcast.

Sectra's financial calendar for the 2017/2018 fiscal year December 8, 2017 at 8:00 a.m. : Six-month interim report



March 12, 2018 at 8:00 a.m. : Nine-month interim report



May 29, 2018 at 8:00 a.m. : Year-end report 2017/2018 Further information about Sectra's financial events and interim reports: http://www.sectra.com/investor/calendar/ Subscribe for information To subscribe to financial reports, invitations, and information from Sectra via e-mail, please fill in your contact information at www.sectra.com/subscribe. For further information, please contact: Helena Pettersson

Chief Investor Relations Officer Sectra AB

ph +46-13-23-52-04

e-mail [email protected] This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/sectra/r/invitation-to-presentation-of-sectra-s-interim-report-on-december-8,c2399077

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[November 24, 2017] Yirendai to Hold 2017 Annual General Meeting on December 15, 2017

BEIJING, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Yirendai Ltd. (NYSE: YRD) ("Yirendai" or the "Company"), a leading fintech company in China, today announced that it will hold its 2017 annual general meeting of shareholders at 10/F, Tower B, Gemdale Plaza, 91 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100022, the People's Republic of China on December 15, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. (Beijing time). Holders of common shares of the Company whose names are on the register of members of the Company at the close of business on December 1, 2017 are entitled to receive notice of the annual general meeting or any adjournment or postponement thereof. Beneficial owners of the Company's American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") are welcome to attend the annual general meeting in person. No proposal will be submitted for shareholder approval at the annual general meeting. Instead, the annual general meeting will serve as an open forum for shareholders and beneficial owners of the Company's ADSs to discuss Company affairs with management. The notice of the annual general meeting is available on the Company's website at http://yirendai.investorroom.com/. Yirendai has filed its annual report on Form 20-F, including its audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Yirendai's Form 20-F can be accessed on the above-mentioned Company website, as well as on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.



Shareholders may request a hard copy of the Company's annual report on Form 20-F, free of charge, by contacting Yirendai at [email protected], or by writing to Yirendai at 10/F, Building 9, 91 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100022, the People's Republic of China, telephone: +86 10 5395-3680. About Yirendai Ltd.

Yirendai Ltd. (NYSE: YRD) is a leading fintech company in China connecting investors and individual borrowers. The Company provides an effective solution to address largely underserved investor and individual borrower demand in China through an online platform that automates key aspects of its operations to efficiently match borrowers with investors and execute loan transactions. Yirendai deploys a proprietary risk management system, which enables the Company to effectively assess the creditworthiness of borrowers, appropriately price the risks associated with borrowers, and offer quality loan investment opportunities to investors. Yirendai's online marketplace provides borrowers with quick and convenient access to consumer credit at competitive prices and investors with easy and quick access to an alternative asset class with attractive returns. For more information, please visit yirendai.investorroom.com. For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Yirendai

Hui (Matthew) Li

Director of Investor Relations

Email: [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yirendai-to-hold-2017-annual-general-meeting-on-december-15-2017-300561481.html SOURCE Yirendai Ltd.

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[November 24, 2017] Huawei Launched Its Latest Government Cloud Solution to Western Europe

BARCELONA, Spain, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, Huawei launched its latest Government Cloud Solution to Western Europe. The solution provides a unified framework to integrate private and public clouds into an open-sourced platform. Cloud providers in Western Europe leverage this solution to drive city administration innovation and meet government customers' service needs. When connected to an Internet of Things (IoT) network, the solution effectively improves city operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM). With the support of Big Data technology, the solution enables real-time command, allows intelligent traffic management, and proactively prevents public safety incidents. Huawei's Government Cloud Solution exchanges information between government departments and offers public services to residents. Huawei utilizes its unique advantages in cloud operating system kernel and hardware to provide solution performance and reliability that open-sourced versions can never have. In adition, the solution decouples applications from data, permitting multiple departments to share updated data in real time. This laid a foundation for smart government applications, such as unified planning, proactive protection, real-time command, precise operation, and collaborative administration innovation.



At present, Huawei's Government Cloud Solution ranks top in China's market according to an IDC MarketScape evaluation report on Chinese Government cloud market and vendors. Outside China, Huawei is serving more than 100 government customers across over 80 countries. The innovative Cloud Service Platform Huawei launched this time helps governments and government cloud service providers to develop cloud applications, migrate services to clouds, improve cloud operation, and enhance customer abilities. Huawei deployed OpenLabs in multiple regions around the globe, supporting more than 300 customers and ecological partners in cloud and Big Data innovation. In Huawei's OpenLabs, they can share innovation experience they gained in different markets, their knowledge on market demands, and their latest progresses in building technical solutions. Huawei won extensive recognition from global customers using these labs. Huawei is committed to providing innovative ICT platform for government customers and promoting the construction of service-oriented governments. Governments and government cloud service providers need stable, collaborative, innovative cloud and Big Data platforms. In the future, these platforms will gradually integrate IT technology with city operating experience. Government clouds will not only bear government departments' internal ICT services, but also support digital services of the whole city. Huawei will join hands with its customers and partners to build a new smart city with justice, optimal management, and sustainable development.

SOURCE Huawei

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[November 24, 2017] Canada Post segment reports $62-million loss before tax in third quarter

Despite loss in traditionally soft quarter, Canada Post anticipates profitable 2017 largely due to parcel growth OTTAWA, Nov. 24, 2017 /CNW/ - The Canada Post segment lost $62 million before tax in the third quarter, traditionally the postal service's slowest period of the year. Year-to-date, the Canada Post segment is reporting a profit of $13 million before tax heading into the holiday season when millions of Canadians are expected to make an unprecedented number of purchases online. The Canada Post segment's $62-million loss before tax in the third quarter, which ended September 30, 2017, compares to a loss before tax of $60 million for the third quarter of 2016. For the first three quarters of 2017, Canada Post reports a profit before tax of $13 million, compared to a loss before tax of $15 million for the same period in 2016. The sustained growth in parcels was made possible by Canada Post's strategic decision in 2011 to become a leader in e-commerce. However, structural challenges  such as Lettermail decline and the pension funding obligation  remain significant long-term threats to financial self-sustainability. Parcels results Parcels revenue increased by $129 million or 38.9 per cent in the third quarter, while volumes increased by 16 million pieces or 43.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2016. Domestic Parcels, the largest product category, continued to grow, as revenue increased by $101 million or 43.1 per cent and volumes grew by 11 million pieces or 41.4 per cent in the third quarter. In the first three quarters of 2017, Parcels revenue increased by $257 million or 22.5 per cent, and volumes increased by 32 million pieces or 25.3 per cent when compared to the same period in 2016. For Domestic Parcels, revenue increased by $199 million or 24.3 per cent and volumes increased by 22 million pieces or 22.7 per cent in the first three quarters of 2017, compared to the same period in 2016.1 The increases in revenue and volumes were partially a result of increased business from major commercial customers and solid delivery performnce, as well as the continued growth in e-commerce as consumers continue to order more products online. The increases are compared to the third quarter of 2016, when volumes and revenue were affected as customers made alternative delivery arrangements due to labour uncertainty.



Transaction Mail results Transaction Mail is mostly letters, bills and statements. These volumes for the Canada Post segment decreased by 8 million pieces in the third quarter, which is relatively flat compared to the same period in 2016, which had one extra business day, while revenue increased by $3 million or 2.2 per cent compared to the third quarter a year earlier. The increase in revenue in the third quarter of 2017 is compared to a year earlier, when revenue in the third quarter of 2016 was lower, as a result of fewer mailings due to labour uncertainty. Excluding this impact, Transaction Mail revenue would have declined in the third quarter of 2017 when compared to the same period in 2016. In the first three quarters of 2017, Transaction Mail volumes decreased by 159 million pieces or 5.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2016, while revenue decreased by $92 million or 3.5 per cent.1 The ongoing decline in mail volumes, due to the use of digital alternatives by consumers and businesses, remains a significant challenge for the Corporation.

Direct Marketing results Direct Marketing volumes increased by 151 million pieces or 17.1 per cent in the third quarter, compared to the same period in 2016, while revenue increased by $15 million or 7.9 per cent. Neighbourhood Mail, the largest product category by volume, saw revenue increase by $18 million or 25.2 per cent, while volumes grew by 155 million pieces or 24.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2016, mainly due to new and incremental sales to commercial customers. Excluding the negative impact of the labour uncertainty in the third quarter of 2016, Direct Marketing revenue would have decreased in the third quarter of 2017 when compared to the same period a year earlier. In the first three quarters of 2017, Direct Marketing revenue decreased by $6 million or 0.1 per cent, while volumes increased by 171 million pieces or 5.6 per cent compared to the same period in 2016. Neighbourhood Mail revenue increased by $24 million or 9.3 per cent in the first three quarters, while volumes increased by 221 million pieces or 9.6 per cent compared to the same period in 2016.1 Personalized Mail and Publications Mail volumes and revenue declined in the first three quarters of 2017 compared to the same period last year. Group of Companies results The Canada Post Group of Companies2 reported a loss before tax of $25 million for the third quarter of 2017, consistent with the third quarter of 2016. For the first three quarters of 2017, the Group of Companies recorded a profit before tax of $111 million, an increase of $92 million compared to the same period in 2016. Purolator recorded a profit before tax of $31 million in the third quarter of 2017, relatively flat compared to the profit before tax of $32 million in the same period last year. For the first three quarters of 2017, Purolator earned a profit before tax of $84 million, due to business growth, an increase of $49 million compared to the same period in 2016. Visit Financial Reports for the full report. Background The operations of the Canada Post Group of Companies are funded by the revenue generated by the sale of its products and services, not taxpayer dollars. 1 Adjusted for business (trading) days or paid days, where applicable. For the first three quarters of 2017, there was one less business (trading) day and one less paid day compared to the same period in 2016. 2 The Canada Post Group of Companies consists of the core Canada Post segment and its three non-wholly owned subsidiaries, Purolator Holdings Ltd., SCI Group Inc. and Innovapost Inc. SOURCE Canada Post

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[November 24, 2017] Government of Canada kicks off the Smart Cities Challenge - Calling on the communities of Quebec to improve the lives of Canadians through innovation, data, and technology

MONTREAL, Nov. 24, 2017 /CNW/ - Making our communities smarter by being innovative and using data and connected technology will help Canadians live better lives now and prepare for the challenges ahead.

Following the official kick-off of the Smart Cities Challenge by the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, yesterday in Calgary, the Honourable Minister Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport, invited Montreal to take up the Challenge for their residents. Minister Garneau encouraged communities to think smart and be innovative by working with the private and not-for-profit sectors and the research community to identify their priorities, set their own goals and come up with bold ideas to address them. With today's launch, the Government of Canada has fulfilled a commitment made in Budget 2017 and Quebec communities have what they need to begin developing their applications. Detailed application guidelines are now available on the new Impact Canada Challenge Platform. Communities have until April 24, 2018 to submit their applications. Those that are selected as finalists by the Smart Cities Challenge independent jury will receive a grant of $250,000 to support the development of their detailed proposal and business case. Winners will receive funding to implement their proposals. Infrastructure Canada is engaging Indigenous leaders, communities and organizations to finalize the design of a competition specific to Indigenous communities that will reflect their unique realities and issues. Indigenous communities are also eligible to compete for all the prizes in the current competition. Quotes "This challengethe first of its kind in Canadaencourages communities to innovate by using bold ideas to improve people's lives. Real change is happening already and across the country, communities large and small are bursting with new ideas. The Smart Cities Challenge will help bring them to life, and find solutions that achieve real and positive outcomes for residents. I am excited to hear the great ideas of Quebec." Minister Garneau, on behalf of The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Quick facts The Smart Cities Challenge was announced in Budget 2017. Through the Investing in Canada plan, the Government of Canada is launching the first competition of the Smart Cities Challenge, helping communities across the country develop and implement their smart cities initiatives.

plan, the Government of is launching the first competition of the Smart Cities Challenge, helping communities across the country develop and implement their smart cities initiatives. The available Smart Cities Challenge prizes are: one prize of up to $50 million , available to all communities; two prizes of up to $10 million , available to all communities below 500,000 residents; and one prize of up to $5 million , available to all communities below 30,000 residents Finalists will be announced in Summer 2018, and winners will be announced in Spring 2019.

, available to all communities; two prizes of up to , available to all communities below 500,000 residents; and one prize of up to , available to all communities below 30,000 residents Finalists will be announced in Summer 2018, and winners will be announced in Spring 2019. Finalists and winning communities will be selected by an independent jury. An open call for jury members is posted on the Infrastructure Canada website. Related product(s) Backgrounder: Smart Cities Challenge (https://www.canada.ca/en/office-infrastructure/news/2017/11/backgrounder_smartcitieschallenge.html) Associaed links



http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/cities-villes-eng.html https://impact.canada.ca/en/challenges/smart-cities

https://impact.canada.ca/en Twitter: @INFC_eng

Web: Infrastructure Canada Backgrounder: Smart Cities Challenge The Government of Canada is challenging communities of all sizes, from coast to coast to coast, to come forward with their best ideas to improve the lives of their residents through innovation, data and connected technology. The Challenge Statement

Communities understand best their own pressing and important issues.

Each community will begin its Challenge application process by defining its Challenge Statement. The Statement will guide the proposal, and will define the outcome (or outcomes) a community aims to achieve by implementing its smart cities proposal.

The Challenge Statement should be measurable, ambitious, and attainable through the proposed use of data and connected technology. Prize Structure

One prize of up to $50 million

Open to all communities, regardless of population

Two prizes of up to $10 million each

Open to all communities with populations under 500,000 people

One prize of up to $5 million

Open to all communities with populations under 30,000 people

Infrastructure Canada is engaging Indigenous leaders, communities and organizations to finalize the design of a competition specific to Indigenous communities that will reflect their unique realities and issues. Indigenous communities are also eligible to compete for all the prizes in the current competition. The Process

There are five key steps to the Challenge process: Application:

Applicants engage with their residents, define their Challenge Statement, develop their ideas, and submit their applications by April 24, 2018 . Selection of Finalists, Summer 2018:

Jury selects finalists; Infrastructure Canada provides $250,000 grants to finalists to develop their proposals. Final Proposal, Fall 2018:

Finalists work to develop fully-implementable proposals that outline all design, planning, and project management components; and establish partnerships with organizations that will help implement their proposal.

Final proposals are due in Winter 2019. The deadline and evaluation criteria for final proposals will be made public at the time of the announcement of finalists. Selection of Winners, Spring 2019: Infrastructure Canada posts all final proposals on the Challenge website.

posts all final proposals on the Challenge website. Jury selects the winners by Spring 2019. Implementation

Winners will receive prize money through contribution agreements with Infrastructure Canada.

Winners will implement their projects over 2-5 year timelines, depending on the nature of the project. They will maintain close contact with Infrastructure Canada, who will monitor progress towards established outcomes and work with winners if course corrections are necessary.

Lessons learned and successful approaches will be shared with communities across Canada . Who Can Apply

Municipalities, local or regional governments

Indigenous communities including First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities Two or more of these organizations can submit a joint application. Indigenous communities are eligible to apply for any of the prizes regardless of their population. Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated against criteria summarized below. Full criteria are posted in the applicant guide on the Challenge website. Criteria Summary and Weighting

Problem Definition (55/100)

The Challenge Statement and outcomes.

The Challenge Statement is ambitious, measurable and achievable through the proposed use of technology and data.

Outcomes are meaningful, measurable, reflect the needs of the community and are explained within the context of a smart city approach.

Community Engagement

Proposals should demonstrate that efforts have been made to incorporate a diverse range of feedback from residents and community organizations and should demonstrate plans to sustain community engagement throughout the life of the proposal. Preliminary Proposal Details (45/100)

Preliminary Proposal Description

Proposal qualifies as a smart cities approach, is feasible, suited to achieving the expected outcome in an impactful, ambitious and transformative way. Proposal is forward-thinking, pertinent, easily adaptable, replicable, can be expanded within the community, is robust and flexible enough to accommodate changing circumstances, and has the potential to serve or enable other purposes or uses.

Strategic Alignment

Proposal is well-aligned with a larger smart cities vision for the community and complements additional efforts to achieve the outcome.

Applicant Readiness

Applicant has planned for organizational structures, processes and practices needed to implement its proposal.

Plan for using the grant

Applicant's plan to use the finalist grant reflects an appropriate use of funds to build capacity to implement its proposal.

Partnership Approach

Proposal identifies real and potential partners and all major players, who are relevant and have clear roles and responsibilities in the execution of the proposal and are diverse (e.g. private sector, not-for-profit, public utilities, research, and community organizations).

The Jury

Finalists and winners will be determined by a panel of jury members.

The Jury will be comprised of accomplished individuals from across the country who are publicly recognized in their field and have a strong track record of leadership across a range of disciplines.

Infrastructure Canada will strive to reflect gender parity and appropriate representation of Indigenous peoples and minority groups in the Jury composition.

Jury members will be selected by the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities. The selection process is now open on the Infrastructure Canada website.

News and Updates

Updates on the Smart Cities Challenge will be posted on Twitter and Facebook as well as the Impact Canada Challenge Platform.

SOURCE Infrastructure Canada

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[November 24, 2017] The Palais des congres de Montreal and McGill University's James Clark bring a major AI conference to the city

MONTREAL, Nov. 24, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Thanks to the hard work and determination of James J. Clark, a professor at the McGill Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Director of its Centre for Intelligent Machines, and of Marc-Andre Gemme, a member of the Palais des congres de Montreal's business development team, 6,000 delegates will be converging in Montreal in October 2021 for the IEEE Computer Society's International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). This major international conference, which is expected to translate into 16,800 room nights for the city's hotels, will generate an estimated $12.7 million in tourism revenues for Montreal and Quebec. This large-scale high-tech event is the 3rd artificial intelligence (AI) conference the Palais des congres has announced in the last 3 months, news that confirms the city's expertise and global standing in the field of AI. Proud of the outcome after more than a year of hard work, Professor Clark said: "Winning the bid speaks to the importance of making clear the added value of hosting this major international event in Montreal. I'd like to thank Marc-Andre Gemme who played an active role in bringing this conference to our city, by talking to and persuading many of the people who participated in the voting and selection process. I look forward to working with the members of the Paais team these next 4 years on putting together a high-quality conference. Montreal is known for its advanced technological expertise, and this represents an opportunity for the city to showcase its active AI industry and excellent research centres." Professor Clark will continue to enjoy the support of the Palais des congres de Montreal and Tourisme Montreal, as well as that of the local organizing committee, for matters related to the planning, promotion and hosting of the conference.



A committee packed with luminaries

What tilted the balance in Montreal's favour is without a doubt the quality of the organizing committee put together by Professor Clark, whose presence helped clinch the bid. This shows the importance of having a rich scientific program for a conference in a field as specialized as computer vision. "Montreal hosts more international events than any other city in North America, and artificial intelligence features in numerous major conventions focused on the future. We have the privilege of hosting these world experts and playing an active role in bringing them together in the heart of our city, which will translate into significant intellectual benefits for the city and the province," stated Raymond Larivee, President and CEO of the Palais des congres de Montreal. This bid was made possible thanks to the support of numerous partners, including funding from Tourisme Montreal.

City emerging as an AI and ICT hub

With its world-renowned speakers, luminaries and advanced research centres, Montreal has become fertile ground and the quintessential setting for developing a topnotch scientific and professional program for ICCV delegates. In fact, the city enjoys the support of four major universities and is home to numerous centres specializing in fundamental and applied research in computer vision and machine learning, and is shaping the next generation of engineers and scientists in the field. These include the McGill University Centre for Intelligent Machines, an inter-departmental group formed in 1985 to facilitate and promote research on intelligent systems. The city can also count on the reputable expertise of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA) and the Institute for Data Valorization (Ivado), both associated with Universite de Montreal, the Laboratory for Imagery, Vision and Artificial Intelligence (LIVIA) of the ETS school of engineering, Concordia University's Centre for Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence (CENPARMI), and the Computer Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM). Convention city

Montreal hosts more international events than any other city in North America, according to the rankings released by the International Congress and Convention Association. Shortlisted for the World's Best Congress Centre award (AIPC) and the recipient of the highest quality standards certification in the industry, the Palais des congres de Montreal enjoys the collaboration of leaders from various sectors, who in turn can count on the Palais' experience and support, in order to foster the international reputation of industries that are continually evolving. About the Palais des congres de Montreal

The Palais des congres de Montreal attracts and hosts conventions, exhibitions, conferences, meetings and other events, and generates major tourism revenues and intellectual wealth for Montreal and Quebec, while also contributing to Montreal's international reputation as a premier host city. congresmtl.com SOURCE Palais des congres de Montreal

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By Azernews





By Sara Israfilbayova

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is ready to support the improvement of business sphere in Azerbaijan.

EBRD Vice President of Banking Alain Pilloux during a meeting with Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev said that the wide opportunities for cooperation in bank financing, support for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as renewable energy sources.

In turn, Mustafayev stressed the importance of EBRDs support for infrastructure projects, further adding that Azerbaijans economic potential is planned to be presented in EBRD's main office.

The minister added that the Ganja-Gazakh-Georgian Border, Bahramtepe-Bilasuvar highways are planned to be constructed through the EBRDs financial support.

The EBRD is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies.

The Bank was established to support countries of the former Eastern Bloc in the process of establishing their private sectors. To that end, it offers "project financing" for banks, industries and businesses, for new ventures or existing companies.

The EBRD has allocated more than 3 billion to Azerbaijan for implementation of 160 projects since 1992.

One of the main priorities of the EBRD in Azerbaijan for 2017 is support the local corporates with direct financing. The EBRD continues to pursue investments in energy projects, especially where there is a gap to improve efficiency and energy security.
By Azernews





By Rashid Shirinov

Despite the announcement of the ceasefire in 1994, unfortunately, Azerbaijan continued to record the facts of killing of Azerbaijani children by Armenians, Hijran Huseynova, chairman of Azerbaijans State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, said on November 24.

She stressed that since that period until now, 34 children became victims of the Armenian terror, 14 of whom died and 20 were wounded.

However, many more Azerbaijani children were killed by Armenians during the war preceding the ceasefire. Huseynova noted that 175 children were killed, and hundreds were wounded during this military conflict.

During the conflict, Azerbaijan was able to release 214 children from captivity and hostages, 66 children went missing, and 29 children are still being kept as hostages, she said.

The chairman further noted that protection of childrens rights has always been a priority for Azerbaijan, even in the most difficult years of restoration of its independence. One of the first international documents, which Azerbaijan joined, was the Convention on the Rights of the Child, she added.

Using the opportunities provided by this document, the Azerbaijani government was able to inform the international community about the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and about 300,000 children, who became refugees and internally displaced persons, Huseynova noted.

The last Azerbaijani child that fell victim to Armenia's aggression on the frontline was a two-year old girl named Zahra. In July this year, she and her grandmother were killed in Alkhanli village of Fizuli region by Armenian armed forces. In March 2011, nine-year-old Fariz Badalov was shot in the head by an Armenian sniper while playing in the courtyard in Aghdam region. In July of the same year, 13-year-old Azerbaijani girl Aygun Shahmaliyeva fell victim to Armenias inhumane and immoral policy in the Alibayli village. She tragically died as a result of the explosion of a toy with an explosive device, which the Armenian side deliberately dropped into the river flowing to the village.

Today, all Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons, and first and foremost children wish the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to end and peace to come in the region. However, the aggressive policy Armenia has been pursuing for almost three decades still makes it impossible to realize their dream.
It looks as though Microsoft has a bit of a legal situation on its hands in regards to its HoloLens technology.

The software giant stands accused of willfully infringing upon patents held by Connecticut-based HoloTouch. Recent court filings in the Southern District of New York reveal allegations of infringement on at least two holographic imaging tech patents dating back as far as 2006. Making matters worse, it appears that Microsoft even acknowledged HoloTouch's patents as "prior art" in a 2013 patent filing of its own.

The technology in question covers a variety of touchless controls for a range of industries, including "ATMs, automotive equipment, aviation devices, consumer electronics, gaming equipment, home appliances, kiosks, leisure products, medical and military equipment."

The story, as told by HoloTouch, is a familiar one. Little company approaches big company with what it believes to be new and exciting technology. Big company ignores little company, builds new product using technology eerily similar to what was pitched by little company years earlier. The little company then demands a licensing deal for the patents it believes big company has been using without permission. Once again, big company ignores little company. Lawsuit is filed by little company seeking a jury trial and triple damages, although no amount was specified in this case.

Commonly referred to as treble damages, the request for triple damages stems from the fact that HoloTouch believes Microsoft willfully infringed on the patents in question. The problem is that to establish willful infringement, not only is the patent holder required to prove damages, but it must do so with clear and convincing evidence that the accused knew that its action constituted infringement of a valid patent. The key word here is valid.

There are several ways to challenge the validity of a patent, even after it has been granted, without ever stepping into a courtroom. One such legal maneuver would be for Microsoft to seek cancellation of the patents in question altogether. Beyond that, Microsoft has teams of lawyers that are more than familiar with their way around litigation.

Although in these David-and-Goliath scenarios it's hard to imagine the little guy winning out, there is recent precedent in the XR world. Zenimax scored a big legal win against Oculus (which is to say, Facebook), for misappropriating VR trade secrets, to the tune of $500 million.

This is just the first shot fired in what will no doubt be a protracted legal battle between the two companies. With so much riding on this case, it seems fairly obvious that, regardless how the courts rule in this case, an appeal will be filed by whomever comes out on the losing end of the decision.

Microsoft declined to comment for this story.
KANSAS CITY 'BUY BLACK' EMPOWERS URBAN CORE MERCHANTS AND CONSUMERS WITH A GREAT DEAL OF EAST SIDE GRASSROOTS SUPPORT!!!

"Are you ready to help circulate the Black dollar in our community? Come out and shop with Black owned businesses in the Kansas City area at the 5th Annual Buy Black Saturday Flash Market. Vendors of all kinds will be on site and ready to sale their goods and services. Event is FREE and open to the public and is child friendly. So save some of those dollars and come out and shop with us this Saturday.





Remember - Who you give your money to is who you give your power to! ~Frederick Douglass"

"What if people advertised - BUY WHITE???"

In the marketplace of ideas, searching for an opportunity to be offended comes cheap. The reality is that KANSAS CITY BUY BLACK is doing important work in a small biz community that has been otherwise neglected by the slate of eco-devo focused mostly on developers, lawyers and multi-national corporations headquartered in the metro. Ironically, complaints from SOME so-called Conservatives over politically incorrect branding follow the same twisted logic as their liberal counterparts as they both constantly obsess over perceptions of identity.

This Friday is mostly focused on commerce in Kansas City yet politics still powers our purchases even if most Americans are content to throw their money away on cheap junk manufactured by toddlers in China.To wit . . .Here's a bit of promotion from Kansas City activist, businessman and local leaderStill, this largely successful effort always causes a bit of consternation for locals . . .The focus on financial support determined solely on the basis of racial background strikes many as inherently exclusionary. Instead, an effort that sought to includefrom the 3rd District or any under-serviced section of Kansas City might prove even more successful and avoid reactionary opposition to an idea with the very best of intentions. Translation . . . The hard-line right-wing gut reaction to this new small biz tradition has always been:Despite the fact that this kind of divisive sentiment seems to beBut I digress . . .What's the solution???Put simply, providing support, economic opportunity and consideration for Kansas City small biz shouldpolitics.And so, the we encourage ourto move past the rhetoric of partisan snowflakes who are offended by everything during the holiday season and instead consider every opportunity torather than greedy international corporations.You decide . . .
Our corrections officers are dedicated, hard-working professionals, who have the difficult job of ensuring the safety and welfare of inmates. They are an important component of our criminal justice system. I admire the work they do to keep our community safe and they deserve to be treated with respect. As Ive stated numerous times, the safety and security of our corrections officers will always be of utmost importance.





My administration and I take these assaults very seriously. Such violent behavior by inmates toward our corrections officers will not be tolerated. It is our hope that the person responsible for this assault will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.





Our thoughts and prayers are with the corrections officer who was injured in this assault. We are fully committed to supporting the corrections officer and his family throughout this difficult process.





KMBC: Police say videotape of the assault shows the suspect beating the guard for eight minutes, using several items including a plastic cone. Investigators say the guard was unconscious for part of the attack.





KCUR: The suspect was arrested in April by Kansas City police and charged with operating a vehicle in a careless manner and resisting arrest, according to online court records.

The ongoing Courthouse human rights crisis continues this Thanksgiving and presents a continuing clear & present danger to guards and other inmates.This is just the latest in a litany of jail trouble amid an FBI raid earlier this year along with millions in an upcoming bond issue directed toward repairing the damage.In response to the assault, Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr. has issued the following statement:Here's the roundup . . .Developing . . .
In the January-September period, the balance of travel services recorded a surplus of 11.5 billion euros, up 12.4% y-o-y

Greeces balance of travel services showed a surplus of 2.3 billion euros in September, up 17.2% y-o-y, provisional data from the Bank of Greece showed. More specifically, travel receipts rose by 15.5% to 2.5 billion in September 2017, from 2.1 billion in the same month of 2016, while travel payments decreased by 3.0%.

The rise in travel receipts is attributed to an 11.8% increase in inbound traveller flows and to a rise in average expenditure per trip by 3.9% to 518 euros. Net receipts from travel services accounted for 83.2% of total net receipts from services and more than offset (173.9%) the goods deficit, BoG noted in a statement.

In the January-September period, the balance of travel services recorded a surplus of 11.5 billion euros, up 12.4% y-o-y.

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: Dimboukas License: CC-BY-SA

Source: capital.gr
Along with Patra, the entire region of Western Greece was also honoured with the same award while the other Greek municipalities such as Veria, Dodoni, Larissa and Tinos made it as runners up

The Carnival capital of Greece, Patra, has been distinguished by the European Commission and awarded the title of European Destinations of Excellence (EDEN) for cultural tourism 2016/2017.

Along with Patra, the entire region of Western Greece was also honoured with the same award while the other Greek municipalities such as Veria, Dodoni, Larissa and Tinos made it as runners up.

The Region of Western Greece was chosen as the winner for 2016/2017 due to the cultural value of its proposed resources and the exceptional presentation of its nomination. The regions nomination focused on the cultural sites of the regional districts of Achaia, Ilia and Etoloakarnania.

This is an honorary title that officially signifies that Patra with its cultural heritage deserves to be among the European cultural destinations, Western Greece Regional Governor Apostolos Katsifaras noted, adding that in its nomination the region focused on the Achaia capital as the headquarters of a region that offers alternative and personalized experiences to the visitor.

The distinction we have accomplished highlights the dynamics of Patras as an emerging tourism destination and justifies our choice to promote the powerful potential of Western Greece, Katsifaras continued.

According to the Vice Governor of Regional Development and Entrepreneurship, Kostas Karpetas, the Region is aiming to boost thematic tourism forms in order for Western Greece to develop tourism 365 days a year.

Western Greece is a synthesis of the different experiences that invite the visitor to be inspired by linking the journey to its destinations with his personal quests, Karpetas noted .

Every experience is an inspiration, as it is focused on in the regions campaign concept The Western Greece Collection. Inspirations and through the slogan Be Inspired.

The Region of Western Greece has a comprehensive tourism plan, which was designed in collaboration with tourism professionals and the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) and focuses on an organized promotion of the region.

The EDEN project was launched by the European Commission in 2006 with the goal to promote emerging destinations and sustainable tourism. It involves an annual competition to select an emerging tourism destination of excellence in each participating country (EU and candidate.

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: Jean Housen License: CC-BY-SA

Source:greekcitytimes.com
So far, 2017 has been a very good year for travel and tourism in Europe with very good growth in outbound trips and good performances by many destinations across the region over the first eight months of the year. City trips are continuing to boom and beach holidays have grown much more strongly than in 2016 but long-haul travel by Europeans has slowed down, including a downturn in trips to the USA from some European source markets. Looking ahead, another good year is forecast for 2018. Those were some of the results of the 25th World Travel Monitor Forum in Pisa, Italy (November 9-10).

Current trend so far even exceeding last years forecast

Outbound travel by Europeans grew by 5.5 percent in the first eight months of 2017, according to World Travel Monitor figures. This is well ahead of the 3 percent growth seen in 2016 as a whole and the original forecast of a 4 percent increase for this year. This strong performance reflects positive economic trends and a high level of confidence in travelling. Europe remains one of the top drivers of world travel growth, declared Rolf Freitag, CEO of IPK International, which conducts the World Travel Monitor.

Outbound travel from Russia heading towards a comeback

The most spectacular source market this year was Russia where outbound trips increased by 18 percent between January and August. Other top performers in terms of outbound growth were amongst others Poland, Netherlands and France.

Highest growth for outbound travel within Europe, some drops to US

In terms of destinations, Europeans again generally preferred to stay relatively close to home this year, generating a 6 percent rise in trips to destinations within Europe between January and August, according to World Travel Monitor figures. When looking at European long-haul travel, last years trends also continued in the first eight months of this year. There was a 3 percent increase for Asia but trips to the Americas, including the USA, dropped by 3 percent. This might reflect a so-called Trump effect in some European outbound markets as visitors are put off travelling to the US, IPK consultant Madeleine Bullinger said at the World Travel Monitor Forum.

Sun&Beach and City Trips further on the rise

In terms of the purpose of outbound trips, the number of holiday trips by Europeans increased by 6 percent in the first eight months of this year, which was well ahead of last years 2 percent growth for the same period, according to World Travel Monitor figures. In particular, Europeans flocked back to the beach this year with an above-average 7 percent increase in the number of sun & beach holidays following zero growth last year. City trips also remained very popular over the first eight months of this year with a 20 percent rise, after a 15 percent rise in 2016. The overall average spend per trip increased by 4 percent to 945 euros.

Strong growth in international arrivals to Europe

When looking at worldwide inbound travel to Europe, many destinations within the region have welcomed more international visitors this year, according to World Travel Monitor figures. Top performers with high growth rates above the European average include countries as diverse as Iceland, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal and Croatia.

This positive trend is reflected in the latest figures from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which show a strong 8 percent rise in international arrivals in European destinations between January and August this year. This is well above growth rates of recent years. International arrivals rebounded in both Southern and Mediterranean Europe (+12 percent) and Western Europe (+7 percent) following a weaker 2016. Arrivals grew by 6 percent in Northern Europe and by 4 percent in Central and Eastern Europe between January and August 2017.

Commenting on this years European travel trends, Dr. Martin Buck, Messe Berlins Senior Vice President Travel & Logistics, said: Europe is clearly having a good year for travel and tourism. European outbound travel has so far even exceeded the forecast that was made for this year and travellers are going on more city trips and sun & beach holidays in particular. This augurs well for prospects in 2018.

Positive outlook for 2018

Looking ahead, IPK International is forecasting a 4 percent rise in European outbound travel in 2018. Particularly strong growth is expected from the UK (+6 percent) despite the weaker pound and Russia (+6 percent) which would confirm this years comeback. Good demand is also predicted from Belgium, France, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. Meanwhile, Europes largest outbound travel market, Germany, is once again expected to show solid growth of about 2 percent.

The forecasts are based on IPKs World Travel Confidence Index, which is compiled annually based on the views of the survey participants about their travel intentions for the coming 12 months.

About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention

ITB Berlin 2018 will take place from Wednesday to Sunday, 7 to 11 March. From Wednesday to Friday ITB Berlin is open to trade visitors only. ITB Berlin is the Worlds Leading Travel Trade Show. In 2017 a total of 10,000 companies and organizations from 184 countries exhibited their products and services to around 169,000 visitors, who included 109,000 trade visitors. Parallel with the show the ITB Berlin Convention, the largest event of its kind, will be held from Wednesday, 7 to Saturday, 10 March 2018. Admission to the ITB Berlin Convention is free for trade visitors and exhibitors. More details are available at www.itb-berlin.com, www.itb-convention.com and at ITB Social Media Newsroom.

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:pixabay.com
The number of French tourists visiting Greece rose by more than 10 pct in 2017 compared with the previous year and is expected to exceed 1.9 million

Greek Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura underlined Greece's important growth opportunities in tourism and investments, while addressing an event on Friday. Kountoura was speaking at the 2nd Business Forum entitled "Tourism: Strategic Growth Sector" organised by the Hellenic-French Chamber in Athens.

Greece and France, she noted , are linked by mutual friendship, trust and long-term cooperation on all levels.

The number of French tourists visiting Greece rose by more than 10 pct in 2017 compared with the previous year and is expected to exceed 1.9 million by the end of the year, she added.

During the last three years, the increase in tourist traffic from France has exceeded 30 pct, which corresponds to 500,000 additional arrivals of French tourists in Greece, Kountoura noted. For this year, she estimated that total arrivals of all tourists in Greece will reach 30 million, including cruise visitors.

Kountoura also referred to the significant rise in tourist investments over the last two years and to the friendly environment that has been created for new business initiatives, synergies and partnerships in the dynamically-growing tourism sector. The minister noted that there were 300 investment proposals in the tourism sector, of which 254 qualified for funding under the investment law.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Source: ANA-MPA
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Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 24

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has constituted a committee to oversee action taken on prompt disposal of contraband recovered by the police in view of guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court of India.

Appearing before Justice Rajan Guptas Bench, counsels for the states of Punjab and Haryana, along with the Union Territory of Chandigarh, also undertook to comply with the directions issued by the Supreme Court in letter and spirit. The Bench was also told during the course of hearing that half-yearly status report would be submitted in the High Court Registry.

Taking up the matter, Justice Gupta observed that a report had also been received from the High Court Registrar-General informing the Bench that the committee had been constituted by the Chief Justice to keep an eye on the action taken in compliance with the directions issued by the Supreme Court in its judgment in the case of Union of India versus Mohanlal and another.

The undertakings came in a suo motu or court on its own motion case emanating from an order passed on April 7, 2015, by the coordinate Bench of Justice Amol Rattan Singh on the administrative side.

The question involved is regarding prompt disposal of contraband recovered by the police in cases in terms of the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, Justice Gupta added.

Disposing of the petition instituted some two years back after taking note of the developments, Justice Gupta directed the placing of the reports received before the committee on a regular basis.

In its judgment on storage of seized narcotics, the apex court had ordered destruction to prevent recirculation. The court had, in fact, issued guidelines on the disposal of narcotic drugs, psychotropic and controlled substances. The apex court Bench, comprising the then Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice Kurian Joseph, had issued the directions to avoid any confusion arising out of the continued presence of two notifications on the same subject.

The apex court had also requested the Chief Justices of the High Courts across the country to appoint a committee of Judges on the administrative side to supervise and monitor progress made by the respective states in regard to compliance of the directions.
Satyawan Malik

Satyawan Malik

Professor, Government College, Jind

Inaam Dus Crore! The late Padmavati must be mysteriously smiling over the 'protectionism' offered to her honour on the earth nowadays. We are a society where praise is lavished more on the dead than the living. The lives of millions of women in Rajasthan, UP and Haryana, however, may be an inglorious saga of disrespect, torture, exploitation and killings. Our male chauvinistic lords wouldn't excuse the woman coaxingly singing "Mujhko Ranaji maaf karna, galti maahre se ho gayi" in the film Karan Arjun.

The New India deshbhakti and izzat provisions  historical or fictional  demand very strict honour clauses from the alive for the dead. But unfortunately, the 'clan honour' practitioners have, perhaps, turned a blind eye to the recent Global Gender Gap Index.

Owing to economic inequality, poor hygiene and low proportion of women in the legislature, India has slipped down from 87 last year to 108 out of 144 countries, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). India ranks 139 in 'Economic Participation and Opportunities for Women'. The most abysmal for Indian women is 141th rank in 'Health and Survival', which is a terrible disgrace.

Woefully, women will struggle and cease to be if they fail to fall in line with what men approve of! Female subjugation in India is long, hard, clumsy, toxic and coercive.

Admittedly, the biradari ki izzat (clan honour) in North India is tyrannically and hypocritically defended by a father, brother, husband, or jilted lover as the subjugator. Femicide in North India appears to take place with impunity, making it a ghetto society for women.

Irked by the presence of paranoid elements in society, the Kerala High Court recently observed in the Hadiya case: "If the parents of the boy or girl do not approve of inter-caste and inter-religious marriage, the maximum they can do is that they can cut off social relations with the son or the daughter."

Interestingly, Egeus, the father in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream avers: "As she is mine, I may dispose of her to this gentleman (Demetrius) or to death."

Ironically, the living women in India are today facing ostracism similar to what Shakespeare wrote in the 16th century. The recent WEF survey points out the same tale of victimisation. The dead are peaceful, far from the misogynistic crowd.

Sadly, a policeman allegedly killed his daughter for 'honour' in Surehti (Jhajjar) on October 25. Harshita Dahiya, a stage performer, paid a similar price in Haryana. The police version that "she had joined a rival gang to take revenge from her jeeja for raping her and killing her mother" highlights the culture of misogyny and its strong societal roots.

A baby girl, from her very birth, is unwelcome to the galaxy of relationships. Shockingly, newborn girls are found dumped in garbage bins. Isn't it despicable how, in July 2017, a woman burnt the genitals of her four-year-old granddaughter at Mauju Khera (Sirsa)? The District Child Protection Officer stated: "The girl's mother toldthat her mother-in-law burnt the child's private parts with hot tongs because she was upset at the birth of three consecutive daughters to her." (The Tribune, July 23).

Ironically, hakeems and babas do thuggery with gullible females having a strong preference and desire for sons. In doing so, an inglorious slugfest of gender discriminations begins.

The sense and sensibility issues in the developed world are vastly different from our macro-issues of dowry-deaths, domestic violence, female foeticide, stalking, kidnapping, molestation, rape, murder, malnutrition, economic deprivation, prostitution, sex-trafficking and incest. However, it is not a rule out that cinema objectifies women and police are victim-unfriendly in North India. Society, in general, is callous to women. Moreover, it is good that modernity should be guided by the past; tradition ought not to be misrepresented. But fighting injustice in the wake of tardy and costly law processes, most women undergo social stigma, bear financial insecurity, suffer nervous breakdown and face physical extermination. How bizarre it is that 150 gangrapes by Axle gangsters in Gurugram were a mystery to police.

The women in Rajasthan, UP and Haryana want education, safety, health, hygiene and employment before Deepika Padukone is made to learn lessons. Deepika is also a woman and an artiste! Let's not transgress the decency norms in the country of Sita, Savitri and Padmavati.

The real tribute to Padmavati...

Thousands of women are still struggling to get drinking water, food, clothing, education and hygiene before the question of Utopian honour. The inaam raashi (Rs 10 crore-plus) may be used for making elusive water and needful education available. A great homage to Padmavati!
A DEMOCRACY must not tolerate an incompetent government. Indian politicians insist on exercising their right to govern, but are most reluctant to take responsibility for their follies. Ever since the Bofors scandal, scams have increasingly become part of our political landscape. We have also devised a standard operating procedure to avoid any accountability  the political person in power constitutes a special investigative team, then a judicial probe is conceded and finally, the matter gets referred to the CBI. After years of shoddy and indifferent probe, investigators would produce some innocuous and small-time operatives. The resourceful mastermind remains elusive. That spells Vyapam.

Scams like Vyapam, cannot take place without direct or indirect political and administrative patronage. The CBI has now chargesheeted 592 persons, mostly insignificant front-desk operators, in the five-year-old corruption case. It has also exposed the engine-bogie modus operandi of the examination racket where bribe-givers copied answer-sheets of hired bright students called solvers to qualify in the medical entrance test for Madhya Pradesh colleges. These accused had also manipulated governments quota in private institutions to secure seats for students who did not even appear in the entrance test. These interesting theories of the central investigating agency seem plausible. It is also to be noted that chairmen of three private medical colleges have been chargesheeted. This would certainly deter other such private institutions from making quick money. And, what a sorry tale this scam tells of the state of our education, in our supposedly well-run states.

It is inconceivable that a director and some junior-level officials can carry out on their own a scam of this magnitude. More than 40 mysterious deaths have totted up during the investigation. Senior secretary-level IAS officials and their minister bosses, who have been responsible to run the Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam), rechristened as Professional Examination Board, remain untouched. The political leadership cannot pretend to be unconcerned, uninvolved and unanswerable. Vyapam is a glaring case of gross political incompetence and criminal misgovernance, masquerading as su-shasan.
THE Ryan International School murder case continues to remind us of how poorly our police forces perform. First they bumbled and bungled in the sensitive and high-profile case of a childs murder in the school. On the orders of his seniors, the bus conductor had rushed to the site of the crime and readily carried the seriously injured boy to the car, poised to take the child to hospital. A fairly natural sequence of events. Then the public outrage and media glare, also fairly natural, following the death of the seven-year-old led to a rather unprofessional conduct by the cops. Under public pressure, they zeroed in on the poor conductor, accusing him of murder, cooking up evidences along a shoddy investigation process.

It now transpires that the police had brutally tortured the poor semi-literate bus conductor of the Gurugram school into confessing to the murder. The torment and shock treatment of the poor accused in custody is plainly illegal and unwarranted; what makes it worse is that the CBI has subsequently pointed the finger of suspicion on little Pradyumans schoolmate. The gross mishandling of the case reinforces the perception of the force as being generally incompetent, partisan, corrupt and politicised. The inhumane treatment meted out to the poor bus conductor bespeaks of a brutalised and brutalising police force. It is ironic that the police need to be reminded that they must uphold the rule of law in all situations. Under no circumstances must they violate the mandate of protecting the human rights of the accused.

The case also puts focus on the need of police reforms. Their methods and mode of functioning are woefully outdated, calling for modernisation. We are much short of the required number of police personnel for our citizens safety. Of those that we do have, many are put on duty with VVIPs, making the balance more disproportionate. For maximum efficiency and accountability, it is high time that our cops are adequately equipped with weaponry, forensic support, and transportation and communication means. Only an impartial and competent police force can drive the criminal justice system to its logical end.
Sonepat, November 24

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today squarely blamed the BJP over messing up the Jat reservation issue in the Supreme Court during a hearing in a case related to the reservation issue.

Talking to mediapersons here, Hooda said the Congress had prepared a 36-page affidavit for submission in the Supreme Court during the hearing of the Jat reservation case. But with the change of government, it was not submitted. He squarely blamed the government for not fulfilling its promises. In reply to a question, Hooda claimed that the Congress would get a majority in the Gujarat Assembly election as people knew very well that the BJP was against communal harmony and social amity.  OC
Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, November 24

Jat activists clashed with police personnel during a protest in Jind today against the scheduled address to the public by Kurukshetra MP Rajkumar Saini on Sunday.

Reports said a number of protesters sustained injuries. There was no confirmation about anyone suffering a major injury. The protest began near Shahpur under the leadership of Jat youth leader Sandeep Bharti. Officials claimed that protesters pelted stones at police personnel. After the police resorted to a mild lathi-charge to disperse the crowd, the protesters assembled at Kandela village.

Jind DC Amit Khatri said traffic on the Kaithal-Jind road was diverted. He said the situation was tense but under control. Confirming injuries on both sides, he said there was no information of any critical injury. Saini was scheduled to address a samaanta mahasammelan in Jind on Sunday.

Bharti led a group of protesters and demanded that the rally be cancelled.

He charged the MP with spreading communal hatred by making inflammatory and derogatory statements about Jats.

The DC said the rally had been granted all clearances by the administration. The MP had been urged to refrain from making any reference to any community or caste, he said.
Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, November 24

Former Union Home Minister and veteran BJP leader ID Swami on Friday criticised the proposed move to rename Dyal Singh College (Evening), Delhi, as Vande Matram, saying it was the worst decision.

Swami, 87, said everyone should respect the contribution of Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, who was a great philanthropist, patriot, social reformer and educationist.

He devoted his entire wealth and life for the welfare of the society, Swami said.

He had established The Tribune Trust in 1881 and the Punjab National Bank in 1894, the first Indian bank, he said, adding that Dyal Singh Library was started in 1908 in Lahore, while a college named Dyal Singh College was established in Lahore in 1910.

Two colleges of the same name were also established in Karnal and Delhi in 1949 and1959 respectively to spread liberal education, he said.

Lamenting the issue, the two-time MP from Karnal, said, It is unfortunate that we in India are erasing the legacy of a legendary personality, but the Pakistan Government has respected the feelings and emotions of lakhs of people, who know Sardar Majithia, and did not change the name of Dyal Singh College in Lahore.

He said so many institutions across the country are running in the name of Sardar Majithia.

There is no sensible reason behind changing this name, he said.

I request President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Vice-Chancellor of the Delhi University to intervene and ensure that this unreasonable proposal is not implemented.

I think the Union Government would respect the sentiments of lakhs of people, Swami said.
Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 24

Dreams are extremely important, you cant do it unless you imagine it, the saying has given wings to Himachali girl Jagriti Bahri Khoond, who recently won the Mrs India Universe-Globe 2017 title.

Her next move is to realise the dreams of underprivileged girls in her village.

All I wish is to educate and motivate married and unmarried women to believe in themselves. Dream big and follow your heart. Life is full of surprises. I am overwhelmed with the love showered on me by village girls who say I am an inspiration for them. I wouldnt have asked for more, she said.

My achievement will inspire a lot of women, especially those who are married, to chase their dreams. I want to work towards empowering the girl child through education. There should be no discrimination when it comes to educating boys and girls. I want to be the voice of hope and motivate people. Dare to dream and act, Jagriti said.

On her visit to her native village Addu near Nankhari in Shimla district, she decided to take responsibility of an underprivileged girl and support her education. The aim is to rope in family members, friends and like-minded people for the cause.

Jagriti spent her initial years in Shimla Public School before moving to Chennai, where her father had apple trading business, She still cherishes those days when she would stroll the Mall Road and her apple orchards. The best days were the ones spent at her grandmothers place in Kotgarh, she added.

Married to Vivek, the man behind her success, Jagriti is a mother of two kids and is settled in the UK. She quit her career in journalism to pursue a degree in teaching and child psychology. She has also bagged the title of Mrs Beautiful and will compete in Mrs Universe and Mrs United Nations contests next year.
Srinagar, November 24

Security forces on Friday arrested a Pakistani militant belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) from a forest area in Jammu and Kashmirs Kupwara district, an Army official said.

A Pakistani LeT terrorist was arrested during a joint search operation by the Army and the police in Magam area, he said.

The official said that the arrested militant, whose identity has not been disclosed, is being interrogated.

Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in the same area on Tuesday.  PTI
Tribune News Service/ PTI

Jammu, November 24

The Centres special representative on Jammu and Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma today visited the Jagti township, the largest settlement of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits here, and met people to understand their problems.

He visited several households in the area where people apprised him of their problems, officials said. Sharma, who visited Srinagar and Jammu earlier this month, will be in the state for the next four days.

Sharma met nearly 15 delegations of displaced Kashmir Pandits at Jagti township in Jammu. Earlier upon reaching Jammu, he straightway went to Chief Minister Mehbooba Muftis residence, where he had a 25-minute meeting with her.

Sharmas meeting with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is significant as the Central government has already initiated a slew of measures, including amnesty for first-time stone throwers, to improve the situation in the Kashmir valley.

The officials said Sharma would also meet people who came from West Pakistan immediately after Partition in 1947 and settled in Jammu. There are nearly three lakh such people.

Besides, he will visit camps housing those displaced from their homes in border villages to understand their plight and ensure that they are properly rehabilitated.

Around 60,000 Kashmiri Pandit families migrated in 1990 after the onset of militancy. Of these, 39,000 families live in various camps in Jammu.

Discusses with Governor geopolitical developments

Dineshwar Sharma, the Centres special representative on J&K, met Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhawan for over an hour in Jammu on Friday. They discussed the significant geopolitical developments in the region since the latters last visit to the state.

Pandits want to return to Kashmir with dignity

Even as the Centre has ruled out composite township for displaced Pandits in the Valley, all delegations which met Dineshwar Sharma demanded settlement in Kashmir. Pandit representatives demanded return to their native places with dignity and honour.
Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 24

Little did Dhan Bahadur knew that he would not be able to visit his family in Nepal ever again. The 35-year-old worker at the plastic manufacturing factory that caught fire and collapsed on Monday had returned to work just two weeks ago after spending some time with his family at his native village  Sakot in district Accham of Nepal.

He was cremated in Ludhiana, but now, his ashes and some soil from the site would be taken to Nepal to perform the final rituals for the peace of the departed soul.

Deceaseds brother Hasiya Bahadur came to collect some soil from the collapsed factory site today, where his brother breathed last. Dhan Bahadur was among the 13 persons, whose bodies have been extracted from the collapsed building site near Suffian Chowk so far.

Dhan Bahadur has left behind his wife and five children. His wife and three children used to live at his village, while he used to stay at a room inside the plastic manufacturing factory with his two sons.

It is learnt that when the fire broke out at the factory on Monday, Dhan Bahadur had safely taken his sons out of the factory. Unfortunately, he went inside the the factory again. His two sons  8 and 5-year-old  were seen waiting for him near the factory when it collapsed after catching fire.

Hasiya Bahadur said: My brother came to Ludhiana from Nepal around 20 years ago to earn a livelihood. He started working at the residence of the factory owner. Me and my brother were working at the same plastic manufacturing factory for the past some years. We both went to Nepal last month to attend a religious ceremony. My brother came back to Ludhiana just two weeks ago. I came two days ago, when someone informed me about the incident at the factory site.

We cremated him in Ludhiana and I have come to collect some soil from the collapsed factory site, where my brother died. Now, I will take this soil and his ashes to our home in Nepal so that we can perform the last rituals for the peace of the departed soul. In our community, it is a ritual to collect soil from the site, where a person takes the last breath, said Hasiya.

He said Dhan Bahadur was the lone breadwinner in the family. We want the government to provide financial aid to his family members and a job, he said.

A plastic manufacturing factory near Suffian Chowk caught fire on November 20 and collapsed around 12 pm. A total of five factory employees including Dhan Bahadur, Sandeep Singh, Amarjot Singh, Ghaniya and Baldev Raj have lost their lives in the incident. However, it is still unclear how many factory employees and labourers were inside when the building collapsed.
New Delhi, November 24

In an unprecedented event, troops of the three armed forces have carried out a military exercise with a scenario to recapture an island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.

Called "Defence of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Exercise (DANX)", the five-day tri-services - Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force - exercise ended today. This was the first-ever such exercise to prepare for a contingency at this scale on the islands located in the Bay of Bengal and very close to the vital Straits of Malacca though which passes more than 50 per cent of the world trade volume.

The main objective of the exercise was to practice and validate procedures and drills of all command forces aimed at defending Andaman and Nicobar Islands. From mainland India flew in fighter jets, Special Forces on board a military transport plane, the C-130-J, warships capable of doing amphibious landing of armed troops and armoured troop carriers.

The highlights of the exercise were fighter operations, night para-jumps at sea, slithering of troops from helicopters and amphibious landings of troops by ships.  TNS

IAF trainer aircraft Kiran crashes in Telangana, woman pilot ejects safely
Aurangabad, November 24

The Bombay High Court on Friday annulled the election of Shiv Sena MLA and Maharashtra minister Arjun Khotkar from Jalna in 2014 on the grounds that he filed his nomination papers after the deadline had expired.

Khotkar is currently the Minister of State for Textiles, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries.

Justice TV Nalawade of the Aurangabad bench of the high court passed the order on an election petition by Kailash Gorantyal of the Congress who had contested against Khotkar.

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Gorantyal had claimed in his petition that Khotkar filed his nominations after the expiry of the deadline. The petitioner also prayed to the court to declare him elected from the seat.

The court said though it was nullifying Khotkars election, it would not pass any order declaring Gorantyal as MLA.

The bench stayed its order for a period of four weeks to enable Khotkar to appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.

The high court bench has given the ruling on a technical issue. We will challenge it in the Supreme Court, Khotkar, a fourth-term MLA, said. PTI
Lahore, November 24

Hours after his release from house arrest, Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed gave an hour-long Friday sermon at the JuD headquarters here, accusing the Pakistan Government of taking dictation from foreign masters to appease India.

A large number of JuD activists had gathered at the Jamia Masjid Al-Qadsia at Chauburji here.

After Friday prayers, the charged workers greeted Saeed on his release and renewed their pledge for Kashmir Jihad.

Saeed in his speech also targeted the Pakistani government for taking dictation from foreign masters and spoke of Indian atrocities in Kashmir.

He told his supporters the reasons behind his 10-month detention, and also as to why Nawaz Sharif was ousted as prime minister.

Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been punished for forsaking Kashmiris. Sharif is ousted from the prime minister house because he committed treason with Kashmiris. He wanted friendship with India and completely ignored the Kashmir cause, he said and warned the PML-N government not to bow before the international community for loans.

The rulers must not take dictation from the US and other countries and take its own decisions, he said.

Saeed walked from house arrest as a free man in the early hours of today after the Pakistan Government decided against detaining him further in any case.

He had been under detention since January this year.

The JuD head, who carries a bounty of USD 10 million announced by the US for his role in terror activities, reiterated that he was detained for raising his voice for the Kashmiri people.

He said Pakistan should not hold peace dialogue with India till it withdraws its Army from Kashmir.

He said he would continue fighting for Kashmiris till they get freedom.

Saeed reiterated that the US, on Indias request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.  PTI
Lahore, November 24

Pakistan on Friday freed Hafiz Saeed, the LeT founder and mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the cause of Kashmir.

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The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case, in a setback to Indias efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.

Saeed, in his late 60s, was under house arrest for 297 days since January.

The fire-brand clerics release after midnight came ahead of the 9th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.

India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and also demanded trial of Saeed and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi in the light of evidence it had provided to Islamabad.

Saeed, addressing his supporters gathered outside his residence said: I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir.

I fight for the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir and we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom.

Punjab provinces Judicial Review Board comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday unanimously ordered Saeeds release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest which expired last night.

India had expressed outrage over the decision of the judicial board to release Saeed, calling it an attempt by Pakistan to mainstream proscribed terrorists and a reflection of its continuing support to non-state actors.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Saeeds release confirmed once again the lack of seriousness by the Pakistan government in bringing to justice perpetrators of terrorism, including individuals and entities designated by the UN.

It also appears to be an attempt by the Pakistani system to mainstream proscribed terrorists. Pakistan has not changed its policy of shielding and supporting non-state actors and its true face is visible for all to see, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in New Delhi on Thursday.

Saeed said that he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris in January.

Using the release order to buttress his claim of innocence, Saeed said: I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release... India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHCs review board decision has proved that I am innocent.

I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India, he claimed.

Several JuD supporters, gathered outside Saeeds house in Lahores Jauhar town to celebrate his release, shouted anti- India slogans.

We are happy to see our leader free, JuD spokesman Ahmad Nadim said.

Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case, a top government official told PTI.

He said that after a long deliberation, it has been decided to follow the review boards decision.

Saeeds release would lead to strong criticism from India and the US, official sources said.

It remains to be seen as how the PML-N government would handle the foreign pressure to again detain Saeed, they said.

Punjab Assistant Advocate-General Sattar Sahil said the government law officer had presented some important evidence to justify Saeeds detention, but all three members of the board unanimously rejected it and ordered his release.

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, and the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. The last two extensions were made on the public safety law.

The board refused to give further extension to the detention of Saeeds aides. They were set free last month.

According to the rules, the government could detain a person for up to three months under different charges, but for extension, it needs approval from a judicial review board.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack in November 2008 but he was freed by a court in 2009.

Ten LeT militants had killed 166 people and wounded dozens in Mumbai in November, 2008. Nine of the attackers were killed by police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught and executed after a court found him guilty.

Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN after the Mumbai attack. PTI
Jaipur, November 24

The body of a 40-year-old man was found hanging from the outer walls of Nahargarh Fort here on Friday, with the message "'Padmavati' ka virodh" - in protest against the film "Padmavati".

#Rajasthan: Body found hanging at Nahargarh Fort in #Jaipur, threat note on rocks also seen #Padmavati pic.twitter.com/sSx9ONhF7D  ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017

One of the messages, written on the stones near the fort wall adjacent to the body, read, "Hum putle nahin jalate....latkate hain" (we don't burn effigies, we hang them).

DCP North Satyendra Singh said the body of Chetan Kumar Saini, a resident of Shastri Nagar here and a handicraft worker, was found hanging from the boundary wall of the fort.

He said that messages were found scribbled on stones, but it was premature to connect the incident with Padmavati protests.

The body has been sent for post-mortem and further investigation into it is on, the police said.

An outfit representing the Rajput community said it was not the way to protest.

President of Rajput Karni Sena, Mahipal Singh Makrana, said the messages on the stones were written to provoke the outfit.

People are threatening us... Whatever is being done is wrong, he said.

Padmavati has been facing the wrath of various Rajput groups and political leaders, who have accused the films director Sanjay Leela Bhansali of distorting history.

Many groups have been protesting amid rumours that there was a romantic dream sequence between queen Padmini and Allauddin Khilji. However, Bhansali said in an appeal that there was no dream sequence and it was all a rumour.

On November 22, protesters blocked the entry to the Chittorgarh Fort till 5 pm and burnt effigies of Bhansali.

The next day, locals led by the Rajput community blocked entry to the Kumbhalgarh Fort in Rajsamand district for some time demanding a ban on the film.

However, historians are divided on whether Padmini actually existed. She finds mention in the 16th century epic poem Padmavat.

The release of the movie, earlier scheduled for December 1, has been deferred. Agencies
New Delhi, November 24

Dismissing the opposition against the renaming of Dyal Singh College (Evening), the chairman of the institution said there wasnt anything illegal about it and that there couldnt be a better name than Vande Mataram.

The General Body of Dyal Singh College (DSC) on November 17 decided to change the evening colleges name to Vande Mataram Mahavidyalaya after turning it into a day college.

This decision of renaming the college was passed unanimously by the whole governing body. There is nothing legally or ethically wrong about it... Couldnt be a better name than Vande Mataram, college chairman Amitabh Sinha told media here.

Read: Renaming of Dyal Singh College: Veteran BJP leader opposes move

Noting that Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal asked for Prime Minister Narendra Modis intervention in the matter, Sinha invited the politician to come ahead and debate on a neutral forum.

Delhi BJP legislator Manjinder Singh Sirsa had on Monday filed a police complaint against the colleges principal and chairman over the name change.

The Congress student wing NSUI criticised the move, saying the governing board should have focused on improving the college infrastructure rather than changing its name.

There have been attempts to create a misunderstanding between different communities in addressing Dyal Singh as a Sikh or Punjabi, said Sinha, adding that he was a nationalist.

Vande Mataram is not just any other name. Its a clarion call to nationalism. I am ready to sacrifice anything for it. If anybody has any problem with it, come speak with me individually. Convince me I am wrong otherwise why should I change the decision? he said.

Set up in 1958, the college was named after Dyal Singh Majithia, who established The Tribune newspaper in Lahore in 1881, and was also the founder chairman of the Punjab National Bank established in 1894.  IANS
New Delhi, November 24

Former Union Minister Arun Shourie on Friday advocated unity among Opposition parties to defeat the BJP, saying there must be one candidate in every seat against its nominee in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

If you really think the country is in peril... then you must get together. There must be one candidate against people who we all believe are taking the country to a dangerous zone, he said, sharing the dais with AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

His comments came on a day when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave a similar call, saying democracy is under threat under the BJP rule as she asked Opposition parties to work together for the greater interest of the people before the next Lok Sabha polls.

The leaders were together at a panel discussion following the release of a book, India Social, written by AAPs social media strategist Ankit Lal.

Kejriwal, who has been kept out of the Congress-led unity efforts among Opposition parties, said the next election will be Modi versus people of India as he hit out at the BJP government over its economic policies which, he claimed, have derailed peoples lives and left them angry.

The discontent will rise if they dont do much on the economic front, Kejriwal said.

Both leaders also attacked the government over the suspicious death of a judge.

Shourie, who had supported Modi in the 2014 polls before turning a critic of his governments policies, said even at the height of Modis popularity in the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had got 31 per cent of votes but it won due to fragmentation of the remainder 69 per cent votes.

The Opposition needs a minimum working programme to field a joint candidate, he said.

KC (a reference to a member in the audience) and I can write it in 15 minutes, he said.

Asked about the Moodys rating upgrading India, Shourie shrugged it off, claiming that the government has gamed the rating system.  PTI
Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 24

The US on Friday asked the Pakistan Government to make sure that Hafiz Saeed is arrested and charged for his crimes, following the release of the 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief from house arrest.

Expressing deep concern over Lahore High Court Judicial Review Boards release order, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert sought his re-arrest.

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The LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens. The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes. Nauert said.

Read: JuD chief Hafiz Saeed walks free; vows to fight for Kashmir cause

Hafiz Saeed gives Friday sermon after release from house arrest

Saeed is as a specially-designated Global Terrorist by the US Treasury Department since May 2008.

Following the horrendous killing of 166 people, including six American nationals in the Mumbai massacre, UN had proscribed Hafiz Saeed in 2008 as a global terrorist.

In 2012, the US Justice Department also announced a 10 million USD reward for actionable evidence against Saeed.

LeT and several of its front organisations, leaders, and operatives remain under both State Department and Treasury Department sanction, said the State Department spokesperson.

However, the LeT was recently de-linked from the Congressional certification process for providing aid to Pakistan.

Hafiz Saeeds detention since January this year was considered a damage control move under pressure from the new Trump administration and Financial Action Task Force Committee.

But the house arrest was a far cry from meaningful efforts towards bringing the Mumbai attacks perpetrators to justice.

Saeed walked out a free man just ahead of the ninth anniversary of the Mumbai attacks and spewed poison against India on Kashmir in a video message upon his release.

India had on Thursday expressed outrage over Saeeds release alleging Pakistan of attempting to mainstream proscribed terrorists.

His release confirms once again the lack of seriousness on the part of Pakistani government in bringing to justice perpetrators of heinous acts of terrorism, including by individuals and entities designated by the United Nations, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said.

The American statement on Saeed comes just days ahead of the expected visit of Defence Secretary James Mattis to Islamabad.
Chennai, November 24

Bypoll to the Dr Radha Krishnan Nagar Assembly constituency here which fell vacant following the demise of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa last year will be held on December 21, the Election Commission announced on Friday.

The counting of votes will be held on December 24 and the election process will be completed before 26th of next month, an EC press release which was made available by Tamil Nadu's Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni here said.

The announcement comes days after the Madras High Court said it expected the EC to hold byelection in RK Nagar by December 31.

Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar made the observation on a plea of a DMK leader R S Bharathi.

Bypoll in RK Nagar previously scheduled for April 12, 2017 was subsequently cancelled by the EC following allegations of bribing of voters.

Also, the cancellation of bypoll came days after the Income Tax department held searches in premises of Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar.

It may be recalled that premises belonging to the Minister's associates were also searched and raids revealed routing of Rs 89 crore for "distribution to voters" in RK Nagar Assembly segment.

Documents seized during searches at the premises of an accountant of the Minister showed details of Rs 89 crore and the money being channelled to RK Nagar through party functionaries.

The amount was allegedly channelled through many party functionaries for distribution to voters, Income Tax sources had told PTI in April.

The RK Nagar by-poll was announced as part of byelection to constituencies in States, including Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The date of Gazette notification for the bypoll will be on November 27.

Last date for filing nominations will be December 4 and scrutiny will be on December 5 and last date for withdrawal of nominations will be December 7. PTI
Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 24

Three days before the scheduled appearance of Akhila, alias Hadia, who is at the centre of a love jihad storm in Kerala, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a petition filed by the mother of another Hindu girl seeking an NIA probe into Islamic radicalisation in the state.

Petitioner Bindu Sampath  whose daughter Nimisha, alias Fathima, has been taken to Afghanistan to join the ISIS  said incidents of love jihad needed to be probed.

The phenomenon has wreaked havoc in the lives of many young, hapless girls, including the petitioners daughter, and poses a grave threat to national security, she submitted.

Petitioners counsel Aishwarya Bhati told a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra that dental college student Nimisha was coerced, manipulated and brainwashed by the idea of jihad and taken to Afghanistan, where she is believed to be in Khorasan province with the ISIS.

The Bench, which has already ordered a probe by National Investigation Agency (NIA) into Akhilas case, agreed to take up the fresh petition after two weeks.

Akhila is to appear before a Bench of CJI Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud on November 27 for an interaction that would help the judges to ascertain if it was a case of indoctrination and sham conversion.

The top court had on October 30 asked the father of Akhila (24) who converted to Islam to present her in court on November 27 to ascertain her views on her marriage to a Muslim man, Shafin Jahan.

The marriage was annulled by the Kerala High Court and her custody was handed over to her parents, forcing Jahan to challenge it before the top court. He also wanted cancellation of the NIA probe into their marriage ordered by the top court in August.

The latest petition alleged it was not an isolated instance of entrapment and exploitation but one involving a motivated scheme of operation at a much larger scale as terrorist organisations such as ISIS were operating a well-oiled scheme.

Young, impressionable and vulnerable girls and boys professing Hinduism, Sikhism, and Christianity are identified for conversion to Islam with the eventual motive to recruit them for practicing or propagating jihad, the petitioner submitted.
Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, November 24

At least three people were killed and nine others injured after a four-storey building collapsed in the power loom town of Bhiwandi in Thane district on Friday morning, police and fire officials said.

The names of the deceased have been given as Rukhasar Yakub Khan (18), Parvin Bano Khan (36) and Ashfaq Mushtak (38).

The incident happened at around 9 am when the building, located at Nehru Nagar in the Nai Basti area of Bhiwandi, collapsed.

While a few residents ran out of the building in the nick of time some were trapped in the debris, officials said.

Since the incident happened at 9 am most of the men had gone to work and youngsters had left for schools and colleges, according to officials.



Work was still going on to clear the debris while the search for people trapped within was going on.

However, the work was hampered by the narrow lanes which made it difficult for ambulances and fire

engines to be brought in, police said.

Shortly after the crash, the district administration rushed in a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to carry out relief and rescue operations.
Barabanki (UP), November 24

A day after three Muslim clerics were beaten up in a moving train in Baghpat for wearing scarves, principal of a missionary school here today asked a Muslim student to remove her headscarf or take admission in an Islamic institution.

The incident was reported from Anand Bhavan School in Nagar Kotwali area, prompting the local authorities to order a probe into the matter.

We got a complaint and we have asked the block education officer to conduct a probe. The school has been served with a notice, but it has not replied to it so far, Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) P N Singh said.

We have also asked the officer to visit the school and make an on-the-spot inquiry, he said.

The students father Mohammad R Rizvi alleged that he had approached the school principal, Archana Thomas, with a written request to allow his daughter to wear the religious headscarf.

But the principal asked him to get his daughter admitted to an Islamic school if he could not abide by rules laid down by the school.

It is to clarify to you that this is a minority school, but there are many communities in minority category, and one community cannot impose its rules on other communities, Thomas reportedly told Rizvi, adding, The school will not be able to provide an exemption to its rules.

The principal also asked the students father not to disrupt the schools functioning by asking unnecessary questions.

If you face any inconvenience, you can admit your ward to an Islamic school, she told him.

The principal of the missionary school further noted that wearing a headscarf did not conform to the dress code of the school, while reprimanding Rizvi for questioning the school managements decision on this issue.

Rizvi later met the district magistrate regarding the schools order.

He said his daughter had been studying in the school since kindergarten and as per Islamic tradition, the child had to cover her hair after reaching the age of nine.

My daughter was asked not to wear a headscarf to school, another girl was made to remove it. I argued that our Sikh brothers are allowed to wear turbans, even though the same is not part of the dress code, he said.

The principal, however, clarified that she did not ask the student to leave the school.

If they have a problem with the rules, they can admit their child to another school, not necessarily an Islamic one, Thomas said.

On the question of differentiating among communities by allowing Sikhs to keep the turbans and barring Muslims from practicing their beliefs, the principal said, Sikhs do not study here.

The incident came to light a day after three Muslim clerics were beaten up by allegedly by unidentified persons in a moving train in Baghpat.

The maulvis, who had boarded a passenger train at Delhi last night, were on their way to their village in Baghpat, when they had a tiff with some youths who allegedly beat them up. The accused reportedly wanted to know why did the clerics cover their heads with handkerchiefs.

The clerics received injuries on their heads, hands and legs.

The Baghpat police registered a case in this regard and are on the lookout for the culprits. PTI
WE are informed by the Punjab Text Book Committee that the time is drawing near for the consideration of publications submitted in connection with the Patronage of Literature Fund. This Fund is maintained for the encouragement of vernacular literature, and awards are annually made for works in Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu. The Committee confines its patronage to works produced in the Punjab by residents of the province. The rules framed for the guidance of the Committee exclude from the scope of the Fund books dealing with religious and political topics of a sectarian or controversial nature, technical and professional manuals, or text-books, pamphlets of less than 100 octavo pages, and those not suitably bound and printed.
Peshawar, November 24

A suicide bomber on Friday rammed his motorcycle into a vehicle, killing a senior Pakistani police officer and his gunman in Peshawar city, capital of the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Additional Inspector General (AIG) Headquarters Ashraf Noor and his gunman were killed and six cops escorting the vehicle were injured in the blast, police said.

Ashraf Noor was on his way to work when his vehicle came under the attack. The vehicle caught fire after the blast and a thick cloud of smoke could be seen billowing from the area, police said.

The blast was so powerful that the windowpanes of the passing vehicles also broke and the nearby trees caught fire.

The suicide bomber, on a motorbike, targeted the police convoy. The blast appeared to be a suicide attack, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Tahir Khan was quoted as saying by the Dawn News.

The CCPO confirmed the death of the AIG and added that at least six policemen were injured and shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex.

Following the blast, security officials cordoned off the area and began a search operation in the surrounding area.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the report said.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi strongly condemned the blast in Peshawar. The premier also lauded the sacrifices of policemen in the fight against terrorism.

He said that dastardly acts of the militants cannot deter our law-enforcement agencies and the nation in taking the fight to its logical conclusion. Our resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism cannot be shaken, Abbasi said.

For decades the city of Peshawar has faced the threat of militants, due to its status as a front line for the ongoing war on terror as well as its proximity to the restless tribal areas and the Pak-Afghan border.

In September, at least three policemen were killed by two Taliban gunmen in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. PTI
Sydney, November 24

The Papua New Guinea police have emptied a shuttered Australian detention camp where hundreds of refugees were holed up in, the police said today, ending a three-week-old standoff.

The police operation, which started yesterday and saw 50 men removed from the closed, Australia-run centre, resumed this morning with a fresh push to take the remaining 320 detainees to new, PNG-run transit centres.

Between 9 and 10 am (2300-0000 GMT), they had all been moved, PNG police spokesman Chief Superintendent Dominic Kakas said, adding that the men were moved to two of the three transition facilities.

Its empty. The military have taken back their base, he added of the Manus camp, which is located on a PNG naval base.

Video and photos posted by the refugees on the social media showed uniformed police swinging and poking long metal poles at detainees and dragging them from their rooms towards buses bound for the transition centres elsewhere on Manus.

The police, engaged in an operation they dubbed Helpim Friends, had vowed not to use force against the refugees, who have been refusing to leave the camp since Australia declared it closed on October 31.

Food, electricity and water supplies were shut off in a bid to get the detainees to move to the new facilities.  AFP
Berlin, November 24

Germanys Social Democrats bowed to pressure from across the political spectrum today to help form a new government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, but pledged that party members would have final say on any deal.

The turnabout by the centre-left party, which had said it would go into opposition after suffering its worst result in 70 years in a September election, could help avert a disruptive repeat election in Europes economic and political powerhouse.

SPD leader Martin Schulz told a news conference that the party leadership had reached the decision out of a sense of responsibility to Germany and Europe after Sundays collapse of talks aimed at forming a three-way coalition.

There is nothing automatic about the direction we are moving in, Schulz said. If a discussion results in us deciding to participate in any form whatsoever in the formation of a government, we will put it to a vote of party members, he said.

Backing for a new government could come in various forms other than a coalition, including a formal agreement not to obstruct a Merkel-led minority government or an informal agreement to tolerate it.

The decision to support a government is a fraught one for party members, who saw four years of constructive participation in a Merkel-led government rewarded by voters with its worst vote share since World War-II.

Over her 12 years in power, Merkel has seen off a succession of coalition partners who then went to endure painful electoral defeats.  Reuters

German President to host talks next week

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, the head of Bavarias conservatives, and the leader of the centre-left Social Democrats on Thursday, his office said on Friday. He played a central role in encouraging the SPD to reverse its pledge to go into opposition. The meeting will include Merkel, SPD leader Martin Schulz and Horst Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union, the sister party to Merkels Christian Democrats.
Oslo: Norways $1-trillion sovereign wealth fund and Unicef have established a network to strengthen childrens rights in the garment and footwear industry. The network will facilitate dialogue, exchange experience of childrens rights efforts, and work to increase awareness and acceptance of childrens rights, the fund said. reuters

Osaka to cut sister city tie with San Francisco

Tokyo: The mayor of Japans western city of Osaka plans to cut ties with US sister city San Francisco after the latter accepted the donation of a comfort women statue from a private group there. The issue of comfort women, as those forced to work in Japans wartime military brothels were euphemistically known, has long embittered the ties of neighbours, such as China and South Korea, with Japan. Reuters

Twitterati can save tweets for later reading

New York: Twitter is testing a new feature Bookmarks that allows its over 300 million active users to privately save tweets for reading later. It has been one of the most sought-after features. Earlier this month, Twitter rolled out a 280-character tweet limit for its users, including those who tweet in Hindi, ending its iconic 140-character limit. PTI
London, November 24

A 22-year-old Pakistan-born man has been jailed for six years in the UK for preparing acts of terrorism after being arrested in an undercover police operation last year.

Mubashir Jamil, a warehouse worker for the online retailer Amazon, had told an undercover police officer he wanted to wear a suicide vest and "press the button", the Old Bailey court in London heard during his trial.

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He was arrested in April, a few days before he planned to leave for Turkey, after messaging the officer on a mobile app in which he also revealed that he wanted to fight for the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group in Syria.

If you or some brother you know can put an explosive belt on me and tell me how to press, as soon as possible for security reasons, I can do something in the UK even tomorrow after I find a good target, he told the undercover officer using the name of Abu Hasan.

Jamil had denied the charge of preparing acts of terror and claimed that he was hearing voices and wanted to go to Syria to be exorcised of the "jinns" that were plaguing him.

The court was told that he had suffered bouts of mental illness and the judge ruled that a part of his six-year sentence will be served in a secure hospital.

Jamil was a former A-grade student from Challney High School for Boys in Luton, near London.

He became obsessed with the idea of martyrdom after surfing the internet for execution videos and ISIS propaganda, his trial was told.

Jamil, who moved to Luton from Pakistan with his family when he was two-year-old, had planned his trip to Turkey carefully and "deliberately" changed his appearance, shaving off his beard after reading ISIS guidance online about how to be a "secret agent" in a non-Muslim country.

Judge Peter Rook said on Thursday his crime was only "in part" explained by his mental health disorder and described him as "dangerous".

He handed Jamil a hybrid order, meaning he will continue to be treated in a secure hospital until he is well enough to be transferred to prison.

Jamil will also have to serve a further five years on extended licence, or under police monitoring, on his release.

The undercover officer who entrapped Jamil had posed as ISIS handler Abu Hasan to persuade Jamil to send him a copy of his passport, photographs of himself and even a copy of the boarding pass for a flight to Turkey leaving on April 30, 2016.

Jamil was caught red-handed chatting to Hasan online as counter-terrorism officers burst through his bedroom door in Luton on April 27.

His online research became more sinister around November 2015, when he trawled the web for slick propaganda videos produced by ISIS.

In March 2016, he was sent an ISIS "application form" by someone using the handle 'abdullah9996' on Telegram, the encrypted messaging app used by the network.

The contact led him into the web of the undercover operation planned by the UK's counter-terrorism officers. PTI
Johannesburg, November 24

A South African appeals court increased paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius sentence for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to 13 years and five months today.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein more than doubled his original sentence of six years after the state argued that it was unduly lenient.

Pistorius, 31, was not in court for the hearing.

Prosecutors argued earlier this month that Oscar Pistorius failed to show genuine remorse after killing his girlfriend.

One of the essential ingredients of a balanced sentence is that it must reflect the seriousness of the offence, Andrea Johnson, of the National Prosecution Authority, had told the court.

Pistorius lawyer Barry Roux mounted a strong defence of the judge who handed down the six-year sentence, saying she took into account his claim that he believed he was shooting an intruder.

The Paralympic athlete shot dead Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentines Day in 2013 when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

He pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014 and has always denied that he killed Steenkamp in a rage, saying he mistook her for a burglar.

In 2015, Pistorius was found guilty of murder and given less than half of the minimum 15 years in jail for that crime.

Pistorius was originally convicted of culpable homicide  the equivalent of manslaughter  but the appeal court upgraded his conviction.

Nazreen Shaik Peremanov, a constitutional law expert at the University of South Africas law school, said Pistorius could now appeal the latest sentence at the countrys highest court  the Constitutional Court.

But National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said he was pleased with the Supreme Courts ruling.  AFP
Harare, November 24

New President Emmerson Mnangagwa, known as the Crocodile, laid out a grand vision today to revitalise Zimbabwes ravaged economy and vowed to rule on behalf of all countrys citizens.

Sworn in days after the overthrow of Robert Mugabe, the 75-year-old former security chief promised to guarantee the rights of foreign investors and to re-engage with the West, and said elections would go ahead next year as scheduled.

In a speech to thousands of supporters in Harares national stadium, Mnangagwa extended an olive branch to opponents, apparently aiming to bridge the ethnic and political divides exploited by his predecessor during his 37 years incharge.

I intend, nay, am required, to serve our country as the president of all citizens, regardless of colour, creed, religion, tribe or political affiliation, he said, in a speech that also hailed the voice of the people as the voice of god.

Behind the rhetoric, some Zimbabweans wonder whether a man who loyally served Mugabe for decades can bring change to a ruling establishment accused of systematic human rights abuses and disastrous economic policies.

He made clear that the land reforms that sparked the violent seizure of thousands of white-owned farms from 2000 would not be reversed, but promised that those who lost property would receive compensation.

To some political opponents, the speech was a welcome change from the habitual belligerence of Mugabe and appeared to be drawing on Mnangagwas knowledge and understanding of China as a model for running an economy.

His model has been the Chinese, said David Coltart, a former education minister and MP from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

He will drive to make Zimbabwe a more attractive investment location, and more efficient, but like China will not tolerate dissent. If you behave, you will be secure.

Mnangagwa was incharge of internal security at the time, but has denied any part in the atrocities.  Reuters

Portrays Mugabe as national hero
Washington, November 24

President Donald Trump highlighted how the US military was "really winning" since he took office as he spoke to five branches of the military serving overseas via satellite on the occasion of Thanksgiving Day, the media reported.

After sending out two tweets on Thursday praising his own administration, Trump addressed the troops stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Bahrain and on the USS Monterey from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida where he is spending Thanksgiving with his family.

In the teleconference, Trump told members of the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division stationed in Afghanistan: "Everybody is talking about the progress you've made in Afghanistan since I opened it up, and you've turned it around in the last three-to-five months like nobody has seen," CNN reported.

Trump also spoke directly to a Marine Corps unit serving in Iraq, thanking them for their efforts against the Islamic State (IS) terror orgainsation.

"What you are doing with IS is again being talked about -- with armed forces, we're really winning. We know how to win, but we have to let you win. You weren't winning before. They were letting you play even. We want to let you win," Trump said, referencing to his predecessor Barack Obama's administration.

At various times during the conference Trump contrasted his own leadership with that of Obama: "They say we've made more progress against IS than they did in years with the previous administration, and that's because I'm letting you perform your job.

"We're very very proud of you. Everybody in this country is watching and they are seeing positive reports for a change. Instead of the neutral and negative reports." Later on Thursday, the President and First Lady Melania Trump visited members of the US Coast Guard and their families stationed at Coast Guard Station Lake Worth in Florida, reports CNN.

Speaking to the attendees, Trump called meeting with the troops an "honour" and thanked the Coast Guard for the work they did saving stranded people in the hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico this year.

"You saved 16,000 lives. Nobody knows that." He also commented on the "Cajun Navy" civilians who take their boats out in hurricanes.

"I still haven't figured out how people take their boats out in to a hurricane.

"There is no brand, of any kind, not just talking about a military brand, that has gone up more than the Coast Guard," Trump added.

Thanksgiving is celebrated in many countries but is a national holiday in the US and Canada. It is a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest.

IANS
Seoul, November 24

The US will send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill, reports said today, in a new show of force aimed at Pyongyang.

Six fighter jets, normally based in Okinawa, Japan, will be deployed to the South for a five-day joint military exercise, Vigilant Ace, starting December 4, local media reported.

A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an "unspecified number" of F-22s would take part in the drill.

A US Air Force spokesman declined to give details. Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets.

The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against the North's nuclear program.

Earlier this month, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes.

This was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships in the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade.

North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainland, which were described by the country's leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to "American bastards".

It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test in September -- by far its most powerful yet.

Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back onto a US blacklist Pyongyang was taken off nearly a decade ago.

The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme.

Trump said that the terror designation and new sanctions are part of a series of moves over the next two weeks to reinforce his "maximum pressure campaign" against Kim Jong- Un's regime.

Pyongyang condemned the listing as a "serious provocation" on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the North's sole ally, also rejected as "wrong" new US sanctions, which target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state.

Russia said yesterday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a "PR move" that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global "catastrophe". AFP
An area near Seventh Street and Utica Avenue will be home to a new distillery, in addition to two breweries.

Hunter Stone Gambill started Oklahoma Distilling Co., 1724 E. Seventh St., which is just across the street from the soon-to-open Cabin Boys Brewing Co. and just down the street from Marshall Brewing Co.

The companys first product, Indian Grass Oklahoma Vodka, should be arriving in stores at any time.

This is our first brand and our first product, Gambill said. We want every product to have something unique to Oklahoma and it not just be another ubiquitous product on the shelf. We want it to stand out.

Indian grass is Oklahomas state grass. We actually have a piece of Oklahoma grass in the bottle, which over time gives it a very, very subtle grass flavor, nothing super noticeable, but if you let it sit long enough, it will hit you ever so slightly.

The water used to make vodka will have a flavor. Oklahoma Distillery is sourcing its water from Jet, Oklahoma, from a spring that was formed during the last ice age. They are calling the water Oklahoma Ice Age water.

It has a slight salinity to it, which gives our vodka a really fresh taste. We 10-times charcoal filter it. What we are going for is a super, ultra smooth vodka with a very clean taste, he said.

There are plans for other products when the still arrives from Poland. The company will make a rum called Rose Rock Rum. It will be using Oklahoma rose rocks and sandstone to filter the white rum.

It also plans to make a coffee liqueur with beer malts as the sweetener.

In a few months, it will be planning to distribute Oklahoma Cream, a whiskey-based drink with pecan flavor, which will have a slightly sweet flavor. That is something you can mix with the liqueur or use it to make a latte.

The company also plans to purchase craft whiskeys to mix with its whiskey and to barrel-age them for up to four years. Oklahoma Standard and Territory Rye will be the names of the blended drinks.

The whiskeys will be called Rectifier Standard and Rectifier Select. Rectifier Select will be an ultra-premium product with whiskeys that have been aged eight to 12 years.

Gambill isnt new to distilling or to world travel. He and his wife arrived back in Tulsa last June after being abroad for seven years and started the process of getting the required permits and licenses from the federal and state government, as well as the ABLE Commission.

From start to finish, we are trying to get up and running as quickly as possible, Gambill said.

His past life includes working with AmeriCorps, then being an assistant food and beverage manager for three Las Vegas casinos. He learned about fermentation at Oregon State University.

He wanted to start a distillery after getting his MBA at Oregon State, but with lack of funds, he decided to take an adventure. He traveled to Guatemala and then to China, where he became a third-grade teacher and then a principal. He traveled to more than 50 countries on his adventure and still had time to do some distilling for friends while in China. Thinking about the future, he decided to move back to Tulsa.

If you would like to try Oklahoma Distilling Co. offerings, it will have tastings at the following locations:

Tulsa Hills Wine Cellar, 7422 S. Olympia Ave., at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24; and Parkhills Liquors & Wine South, 10018 S. Memorial Drive on Dec. 2.

Contact the stores to make reservations for the tastings.
OKLAHOMA CITY  The countrys natural gas storage entered the winter heating season at levels down slightly from previous years but still near capacity, according to a report this week from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Storage finished last winter at above-average levels, but increased summer demand limited refilling during the summer season.

From May 2015 through mid-September 2017, working gas levels were higher than the five-year average for 118 out of 122 weeks, the report states. However, since late September 2017, working natural gas levels have been lower than the previous five-year average for seven consecutive weeks, based on data through November 10.

Storage entered the winter filling Nov. 1 at 3.78 trillion cubic feet, which is down 2 percent from the five-year average and 5 percent less than last years record of almost 3.98 trillion cubic feet.
A festive six-car train from Kansas City will make stops in eastern Oklahoma during its holiday tour.

The Kansas City Southerns Holiday Express will bring Santa Claus and his elves to two Oklahoma towns on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9.

The train, six cars decked with lights, will stop at 4 p.m. Dec. 8 at the KCS Yard at 403 W. First St. in Heavener. The following day at 4 p.m., the Holiday Express will stop at the depot in Stilwell.

Leading up to its two Oklahoma stops, the train is scheduled to tour Texas and Louisiana. After its brief stint in Oklahoma, the train will continue on through northwest Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas.

During each stop, the KCS Holiday Express crew make a contribution to the local Salvation Army, according to the KCS website.

People who visit the train can meet Santa Claus and walk through three cars of holiday displays. Each event is free and open to the public.

The train features a smiling tank car named Rudy, a flat car carrying Santas sleigh, a gingerbread boxcar, an elf workshop, a reindeer stable and a little red caboose.
The leader behind a legal aid organization advocating for mothers in north Tulsa was motivated by what she saw here to choose Tulsa for a nationwide initiative that helps low-income defendants remain out of custody while their cases proceed through court.

Starting in January, The Bail Project will install activists in Tulsa and St. Louis to identify people who they believe would otherwise stay jailed until their legal matters are resolved. It will use a $16 million revolving fund to pay their bail. It hopes to eventually spread to 40 high-need jurisdictions so it can bail out 160,000 people within the next five years.

Supporters say The Bail Project will cut back on the costs of keeping people in jail and remove what they say is the financial leverage to compel those who are jailed to enter guilty pleas in hopes of being released faster than if they challenged their cases.

Tulsa County has said it incurs costs of about $56 per day per person housed on state charges at the Tulsa Jail, which has a capacity of roughly 2,000. About 80 percent of those in custody awaiting trial are ruled indigent and therefore receive representation from the Tulsa County Public Defenders Office or from a network of attorneys who take cases for which the office has a conflict.

The Bail Project started with a similar effort in New York, where the Bronx Freedom Fund has been in place for the past decade under the leadership of Robin Steinberg. Steinberg, director of The Bronx Defenders in New York, has since January served as leader of Still She Rises, which has an office at 537 E. 36th St. N.

Steinberg, along with a team of attorneys from The Bronx Defenders, established Still She Rises after noticing Oklahomas No. 1 incarceration rate for women and seeing what she has said is the historic marginalization and criminalization of those women due to their race and socioeconomic status.

Still She Rises, with a grant from the George Kaiser Family Foundation among other assistance that includes individual donations, offers free representation to mothers in such areas as criminal defense for adults and minors, family law and housing-related litigation.

Steinberg told the Tulsa World that the firms observations of how those women are treated by the justice system underscored the need for Tulsa to be one of the first sites for The Bail Project, for which she is the CEO.

The lessons could not be more stark: The legal system conspires in many ways to keep our clients trapped in poverty and despair, Steinberg said. Unaffordable cash bail and exorbitant court fees and fines are the oil that keeps this machine running.

We see women pleading guilty because they cant afford bail. The system is literally asking them to purchase the presumption of innocence. It is this reality that we hope to address with The Bail Project.

A communications liaison for GKFF told the World on Tuesday that the organization does not currently fund The Bail Project, which organizers said so far has drawn funding from other private donors.

Tulsa County Chief Public Defender Corbin Brewster said Wednesday that The Bail Project is reaching a population, including the majority of clients represented by his office, that is in serious need of financial aid and compassion.

He said the majority of indigent defendants are jailed the entire time their cases are pending, which means they are completely removed from their ability to take care of their families or make necessary payments to keep their homes and transportation.

People who are incarcerated often make decisions on their case based on getting out of jail, Brewster said, noting that his experience has shown out-of-custody defendants often end up with better case resolutions.

Defendants will take a deal, even if they have a good defense, because it means they get out. It (release on bond) helps people go back to work and shows the court that they can be productive members of society.

He added that he hopes to collaborate with the projects leaders when their work gets under way. The Bronx Defenders, including Steinberg, provided legal training to attorneys in Public Defenders Office during the tenure of former Chief Public Defender Rob Nigh.
Post-imprisonment supervision for Robert Bates, the former Tulsa County reserve deputy sheriff convicted in a 2015 shooting death, has been transferred to the state of Florida, where he will be allowed to stay for the duration of his supervision if he chooses.

Bates, 76, was released from prison Oct. 19 after earning enough credits toward the reduction of his four-year sentence to be freed about 1 years into his incarceration.

Bates has a residence in Florida, where he spent some time after he was charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Eric Harris.

Bates supervisory office changed last week. Matt Elliott, a spokesman of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, said Tuesday that Bates is eligible to leave the state under requirements set forth by the Interstate Compact for Probation/Parole.

His supervision was transferred to Florida, where he will be under post-incarceration supervision until July, Elliott said. Unless his supervision is transferred back to Oklahoma or somewhere else, thats where hell be until his nine months of supervision ends.

To qualify, an offender must have at least three months or an indefinite period of supervision remaining and be in substantial compliance with supervision terms. Other requirements include being a resident of the receiving state or having family there willing to help with supervision and employment opportunities or a visible means of support.

Bates was convicted in April 2016 of second-degree manslaughter for culpable negligence in mistaking his revolver for his Taser when he fatally shot Harris during a gunsting operationa year earlier.
Tulsa Jail inmate Herman McHenry has been waiting nearly a year to participate in a yoga class at the jail.

He has signed up three times and still hasnt heard back, likely because the waiting list is so long.

Outside of that class, McHenry says there isnt much else available for him.

They dont have no classes really for you to take here, he said. They got the GED classes, but Im a graduate, so I cant get into none of that.

Its an issue at Tulsa Jail, where scant funding means volunteers teach and provide nearly all programs, and a disproportionate amount of them are available only to the jails significantly smaller female population.

Female inmates account for less than 20 percent of the jails population, but nearly 40 percent of the programs there are offered only to women, according to information provided to the Tulsa World from the Tulsa County Sheriffs Office.

An art program, which was available to both men and women, recently ended because its instructor stopped working at the jail, said Sgt. Stacie Holloway, director of jail programming.

Holloway acknowledges the discrepancy in programming, and that fewer programs for a larger population of men mean fewer are served, but said theres little she can do about it.

Unfortunately, right now, more of your funding and more of your groups like Family and Childrens (Services) are looking at women, simply because (in Oklahoma) we rate the highest in incarcerating women, so that gets a lot of play in the grant world, she said.

The idea behind programming is to reduce recidivism by giving inmates tools to change the pattern of thinking that lands them back in jail.

In a perfect world, Holloway said, the Tulsa Jail would offer more substance abuse classes that go beyond Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, which are support groups rather than professional treatment, she said. The biggest issue she sees in the inmates is addiction.

Another issue is anger and not knowing how to self-regulate. Its something Melissa Smith tries to instill in inmates through yoga classes at the jail.

I think everyone needs yoga, but people in jail need yoga more to connect with themselves, with their breath, to just be more mindful, she said.

Smith, who has been teaching men yoga at the jail since 2013, said she often sees a change in inmates from when they arrive to when they leave.

Some of the men tell her they joined the class merely to spend an hour outside the pod, and thats fine with her. She still feels like the class is making an impact on their lives.

Im planting the seeds, she said. Maybe someone else waters them along the way, maybe they find another tool or another system or way of being that works with them. Maybe this can add to that. Its one more little thing to help.

McHenry, 44, has been in and out of jail for numerous theft-related charges since 1994. Hes been in the Tulsa Jail since last November, accused of robbery with a dangerous weapon after a felony conviction.

He said that since his first arrest, he has participated in many classes while in custody that taught him to manage his anger and to rethink how he responds to situations.

Which leaves the question, if he learned so much in those classes, why is he back in jail?

McHenry took a deep breath before answering.

I would say reuniting with the old crowd, being back with friends that you shouldnt have had as friends, friends who wasnt really friends, he said. Which thats not saying a whole lot because everybody has their own mind.

Despite that mistake, McHenry said he believes programming for inmates is helpful. He has used what he has learned in classes to mediate disputes between inmates in his pod. He said when guys wont listen to anyone else, theyll listen to him.

That got him thinking: If there arent enough volunteers to teach classes, why not let inmates teach classes to other inmates?

Holloway said programming comes to jails when volunteers reach out to her or through connections she and other jail staff make with community members.

Thats how the jails Active Parenting class, which teaches mothers coping and parenting techniques, began.

While the job of using limited funds to provide programming to inmates is sometimes frustrating, Holloway said its little moments that make her job worth it.

We tell ourselves if we can just help one, weve accomplished something, she said.
Gov. Mary Fallin should stop delaying consideration of medical marijuana and schedule the vote on State Question 788 as soon as possible.

In the past 60 days, Ive gone to the state Capitol five times, making that point to more than 40 elected officials, including the governor.

The people of Oklahoma have done their part. They followed the procedure of petitioning, gathered the tens of thousands of signatures, fought to have the ballot title approved and finally secured that medical marijuana will be on the ballot sometime in 2018.

However, Gov. Fallin has yet to do her legal duty and set a date with the election board. Its a simple task; why is it being delayed? The people of Oklahoma have spoken: We want medical marijuana, and we need it now more than ever.

With the current state of affairs and budget crisis in Oklahoma, the issue is even more pertinent. The latest Quality Counts grade for Education in Oklahoma is a D, ranking our state 47th in the country. SQ 788 will directly benefit our education system. The proposed law designates that any surplus of the taxes collected shall be apportioned with 75 percent going to the general revenue fund and may only be expended for common education. In our neighboring state of Colorado, their once-crumbling, outdated schools have had a massive boost and incredible renovation thanks in part to the influx of recent tax revenue pouring out of that states marijuana legislation.

To compound our states current financial woes, we also have an incredible problem with meth and opioid addiction. Oklahoma ranks second in the nation for substance abuse, according to OK.gov. SQ 788 also addresses this issue, because the other 25 percent of surplus taxes is apportioned to the Oklahoma Department of Health, earmarked for drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

It is also worth mentioning that new research shows medical marijuana as a treatment for addiction or a safer replacement of opioid painkillers. The American Journal of Public Health published research earlier this year showing that Colorados marijuana legislation coincided with a 6.5 percent reduction in opioid overdose deaths. The National Institute of Drug Abuse is funding projects investigating medical marijuana and its components for treatment of substance use disorder, methamphetamine use disorder and relapse prevention. The institute is also looking at the potential therapy for alcohol use disorder and opioid withdrawal.

In other states with medical marijuana, we have already seen the profound effects of cannabis in children with seizures, helping patients who are fighting cancer, those with chronic pain and other debilitating diseases. Let us not stand in the way of a doctors right to prescribe a safe, effective medicine to patients as the doctor deems fit. No one else needs to suffer because of an outdated law.

Please, lets not be last anymore, Oklahoma!

I know that my state is filled with some of the best people in the nation. If anything ties us together, its that we care. We care about our sick. We care about our elderly and those who are suffering. We care about teachers, and we all want to see our schools flourish.

But despite having great everyday Oklahomans, our neighboring states are about to pull ahead again with Arkansas and Texas enacting medical marijuana legislation ahead of us. More than half of the states have legalized medical marijuana, hemp, or recreational use. Our government denies suffering Oklahomans legal access to medicine that is safer than prescription drugs. Furthermore, it is robbing our state of the opportunity to address Oklahomas financial crisis.

Gov. Fallin, lets not put Oklahoma and its people last. We expect you to follow the will of the people and set the date for medical marijuana to be on the Oklahoma ballot as soon as possible in June 2018.

Shawn Jenkins is an Oklahoma native and the father of four beautiful children, one of which suffers from intractable epilepsy. He is a U.S. Army Veteran (101st Airborne Div.), graduated with B.S. and M.S. degrees from OSU, and is a former Oklahoma teacher.
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UNHCR is deeply disturbed by the forcible removal of refugees and asylum-seekers from the former Regional Processing Centre on Manus Island today. The beating of refugees and asylum-seekers by uniformed officers with metal poles, shown by footage released today, is both shocking and inexcusable.

UNHCR staff remain on the ground on Manus Island, where limited access is continuing to hamper our monitoring role. Our staff have received reports that several men remain inside the Regional Processing Centre, having been seriously injured, and are seeking additional information from the Governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea at this time. Medical treatment for all refugees and asylum seekers who require it is of paramount importance.

UNHCR unequivocally advised the Governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea prior to closure of the Regional Processing Centre that comprehensive, intensive support for refugees and asylum-seekers is critical. Despite this, medical care remains inadequate, and caseworkers, interpreters, and torture and trauma counselling are completely unavailable. Similar concerns have been voiced by the authorities of Papua New Guinea, who lack the means and infrastructure to provide such services without further resources.

The situation still unfolding on Manus Island presents a grave risk of further deterioration, and of further damage to extremely vulnerable human beings, said Thomas Albrecht, UNHCRs Regional Representative in Canberra. UNHCR renews its call for all Australian Parliamentarians and leaders to take immediate action to provide protection and safety for all refugees and asylum-seekers transferred to Papua New Guinea.

UNHCR remains particularly concerned that even recognized refugees are still being offered enticements to voluntarily return to their home countries. This includes countries where human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the past 12 months. Severely inadequate services and conditions may now further coerce refugees with a well-founded fear of persecution to nevertheless return to their countries of origin. UNHCR is aware, for example, of a refugee who recently returned to his home country, despite the precarious situation there, given fears for his safety and health in Papua New Guinea. Having been attacked by machete, and unable to get required medical treatment for a serious existing medical condition that had then been exacerbated, he felt he had no choice but to go back.

UNHCR urges the Government of Australia to take immediate action to provide protection and solutions, and to avert further harm and tragedy.
Hamida, 22, (center) and her son Mohammed, aged one, wait to receive food aid along with hundreds of other Rohingya refugees, at Kutupalong Refugee Camp, in Bangladesh.  UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

UNHCR takes note of reports that the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar have reached agreement on the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. Some 622,000 people have fled Myanmar's northern Rakhine State since 25 August, triggered by a wave of violence underpinned by denial of citizenship and decades of deep discrimination.

UNHCR has not yet seen the details of the agreement. Refugees have the right to return. And a framework that enables them to exercise this right in line with international standards, will be welcome. First and foremost, this means that return must be voluntary, and take place in safe and dignified conditions that pave the way for lasting solutions.

At present, conditions in Myanmars Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns. Refugees are still fleeing, and many have suffered violence, rape, and deep psychological harm. Some have witnessed the deaths of family members and friends. Most have little or nothing to go back to, their homes and villages destroyed. Deep divisions between communities remain unaddressed. And humanitarian access in northern Rakhine State remains negligible.

It is critical that returns do not take place precipitously or prematurely, without the informed consent of refugees or the basic elements of lasting solutions in place. People must have the option of returning home, and not be confined to specific areas. Progress towards addressing the root causes of flight, including their lack of citizenship, as recommended by the Rakhine Advisory Commission, will also be crucial.

UNHCR looks forward to seeing details of the agreement between the two countries, and stands ready to help both governments work towards a solution for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh that meets international refugee and human rights standards.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
A Somali family who lost most of their livestock because of severe drought pose for a picture in Wajaale, Somalia, June 2017.  UNHCR/Mustafa Saeed

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, attended this months United Nations climate talks in Germany with the aim of raising awareness of displacement caused by extreme weather and other effects of climate change.

The agency, whose work includes help for those affected by disaster- and climate-related displacement, argued that climate change cannot be treated separately from other global trends such as population growth and urbanization, and a holistic approach is needed to tackle the consequences.

The conference, known as COP 23, took place in Bonn from 7 to 16 November and was attended by delegates from nearly 200 countries, as well as non-governmental organizations and commercial companies. Its goal was to discuss ways of implementing the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on halting global warming.

Displacement caused by climate change was a key topic, both at the conference and at more than 20 side events, in which UNHCR took part.

It pointed out that climate change amplifies the frequency and intensity of sudden disasters, such as hurricanes, floods and tornados, and contributes to more gradual environmental phenomena, such as drought and rising sea levels.

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Miriam Velasquez and her husband Ricardo Angel may have fled violence in their native Colombia, but they reached safety in Costa Rica with their entrepreneurial spirit intact.

With hard work, determination and a helping hand from Costa Rican authorities and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, they have built a successful bakery.

We came with the desire, and still have the determination, to strive do something, to work and to keep moving ahead, says Miriam.

Serving up gluten-free versions of traditional Colombian treats  such as almojabanas, a dumpling shaped cheese bread  they have carved out a niche for themselves in the capital, San Jose.

Costa Rica has developed standout systems of protection allowing refugees to flourish. It allows refugees two asylum appeals and grants them the right to work and attend schools while their petitions are processed.

See also: Costa Rica gives refugees opportunities to succeed

Through a programme developed by the Costa Rican Migration Agency in collaboration with UNHCR, refugees and asylum seekers also receive employment skills training, access to job fairs, and support to set up their own businesses.

Seed money from UNHCR has helped Ricardo invest in training and equipment, and the couple are now lobbying to extend financial credit to other refugee entrepreneurs.

Maybe what weve done can serve as an example for many others still arriving, Miriam says.
VIENNA, 24 November 2017  The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), will further advance their strategic partnership in the field of accreditation of conformity assessment bodies.

A memorandum of understanding on this was signed in Vienna today by LI Yong, the Director General of UNIDO; XIAO Jianhua, Chair of IAF; and Merih Malmqvist Nilsson, Chair of ILAC. They met on the sidelines of the seventh session of the Least Developed Countries Ministerial Conference, organized by UNIDO.

The three institutions will jointly support the development of internationally-recognized accreditation systems in developing countries; enhance the impact of industrial development on economic growth; and assist the beneficial integration of developing countries and transition economies into global trade and value chains.

UNIDO, IAF and ILAC have a long-lasting tripartite cooperation. This has contributed significantly to supporting developing countries and transition economies in quality infrastructure development and capacity building, enhancing the impact of inclusive and sustainable industrial development on their economic growth, and promoting their integration into international trade and global value chains.

Quality infrastructure, including accreditation, plays a critical role in helping UNIDO Member States build effective and efficient productive capacity in line with market needs, as well as in complying with standards and regulatory requirements in national, regional and international markets.

Internationally-recognized accreditation systems are vital to reduce technical barriers to trade, trade costs and facilitate their integration into global markets and value chains, contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

For more information, please contact:

Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento

Director, UNIDO Department of Trade Investment and Innovation

Email
Aid agencies say Yemen blockade remains, Egeland calls it "collective punishment"

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, Nov 23 (Reuters) The Saudi-led coalition's blockade of Yemen, which has cut off food imports to a population where 7 million people are on the brink of famine, is "illegal collective punishment" of civilians, a prominent aid official said on Thursday.

Major agencies said aid was still blocked a day after the Saudi-led military coalition said it would let humanitarian supplies in.
Five Ukrainian servicemen killed in eastern Ukraine - military

KIEV, Nov 24 (Reuters) Five Ukrainian servicemen were killed when pro-Russian rebels attacked government positions mostly in the Luhansk region on Thursday, the Ukrainian military said.

An almost three-year-old peace agreement has failed to stop fighting in eastern Ukraine with each side accusing the other of violating the terms of a ceasefire on a near-daily basis.

The Ukrainian military said in a statement they suffered losses during an eight-hour clash near the small village of Krymske, 30 km (20 miles) west of Luhansk.
New Delhi, Nov 24 (UNI) Charging Union Ministers -- Nitin Gadkari and Suresh Prabhu -- of being a part of the national executive committee of a company floated by Mr Gadkari's private secretary Vaibhav Dange, the Congress on Friday said both the ministers violated the code of conduct for Union Ministers.

Talking to the reporters here, AICC spokesperson Jairam Ramesh -- alleging that the Indian Federation of Green Energy, a firm floated by Union Minister Nitin Gadkaris Private Secretary Vaibhav Dange, had raised funds from government departments and state-owned entities -- said it was a matter pertaining to a conflict of interest of Mr Nitin Gadkari.

Posing several questions to Mr Gadkari and Mr Prabhu, Mr Jairam Ramesh said, 'isn't conflict of interest of Mr Nitin Gadkari writ large?

Have not Mr Nitin Gadkari as also Mr Suresh Prabhu violated the code of conduct as Union Ministers," he asked.

He also questioned as to how Mr Gadkari permitted his own ministry and PSUs to participate and financially contribute to a company which is partly owned by his own personal secretary.

Mr Ramesh also charged Mr Dange of violating the Central Civil Service (conducting) Rules, which prohibit a public servant from accepting contributions and associating with raising of any funds or collection or cash.

Giving details in this regard, Mr Ramesh said,'on October 9, 2014, Mr Vaibhav Dange, along with Mr Motiram Kisanrao Patil, floated a company, 'Indian Federation of Green energy' with a paid capital of Rs 1 lakh.

IFGE organises conclaves and programmes with PSUs and ministers under the control of Mr Gadkari and receives financial contribution. It also receives contributions from private contributions from private persons or corporate entities attending or sponsoring therse events and who deal directly with the ministries controlled by Mr Gadkari. This becomes even more serious as Mr Vaibhav Dange deals directly with all the ministries and the PSUS' related issues as also private entities in his capacity as personal secretary to the Union Cabinet Minister.'

He pointed out that IFGE, which started with a capital of RS 1 lakh only and zero cash as also zero corpus, has a built up corpus of RS 1.33 crore.

'This company also has cash or cash equivalent of RS 1.54 crore,' Mr Ramesh said.

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Irish foreign minister says opposition vote would bring down government

DUBLIN, Nov 24 (Reuters) Ireland's government will collapse if the opposition Fianna Fail party proceeds with its plan to vote for the resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

"If they move ahead with the motion of no confidence, then the confidence and supply (agreement) is over," Coveney, a member of the ruling Fine Gael party, told state broadcaster RTE on Friday, referring to a three-year agreement Fianna Fail signed to support the government.

"If there is no confidence and supply agreement in place ... then I don't see how we can have a government that can function," he said.
Iran says seized Iranian-flagged tanker departs Greek waters 17 Nov 2022 | 10:03 AM Tehran, Nov 17 (UNI) Iran said that an Iranian-flagged tanker carrying the country's oil, which was seized by Greece in April, has left the Greek waters for its predetermined destination. see more..

Ex-UK envoy, filmamker among 6K to be freed in Myanmar 17 Nov 2022 | 9:44 AM Yangon, Nov 17 (UNI) Myanmar's military is set to release 6,000 prisoners including a former UK ambassador, a Japanese filmmaker and an Australian adviser to the country's ousted leader. see more..

Slog or leave, Musk tells Twitter staff 17 Nov 2022 | 8:56 AM San Francisco, Nov 17 (UNI) Elon Musk has announced to Twitter staff that they must commit to working "long hours at high intensity" or else leave the company, as per media reports. see more..

Poland may have been hit by Ukrainian missile: Nato 17 Nov 2022 | 8:44 AM Brussels, Nov 17 (UNI) Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has told the media that a missile which killed two people in Poland on Tuesday was probably Ukrainian. see more..
Mexico ruling party leans to outside candidate to save presidency

MEXICO CITY, Nov 24 (Reuters) The threat of losing power to a fierce leftwing rival next year is tempting Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to enlist outside help for the first time in its nine- decade history.

Corruption scandals, sluggish growth, failure to curb gang violence and persistent allegations of electoral fraud have seriously eroded the centrist party's already rocky reputation ahead of the July 2018 presidential election.

That has opened the door to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist former mayor of Mexico City and twice runner-up for the presidency who has set the early pace with a relentless campaign against government corruption.
Nepal to build Budhi Gandaki hyd-pro with own investment

Kathmandu, Nov 24 (UNI) Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Kamal Thapa on Friday said the government would construct the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower project with domestic investment.

A Cabinet meeting on Friday made the decision to build the storage type project under Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) model, The Kathmandu Post reported.

Earlier on November 13, the government had scrapped the deal to construct the project signed with Chinas Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) citing instructions issued by parliamentary committees in September. The fate of the 1,200-megawatt project had plunged into uncertainty after the government scrapped the deal with the Chinese company.
New Delhi,Nov 24 (UNI) Policy makers, legal experts and other stakeholders will discuss various issues and challenges of parliamentary democracy in a two-day conference beginning tomorrow -- the National Law day.

While President Ram Nath Kovind will inaugurate the conference here on Saturday to celebrate the adoption of Constitution,Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address its valedictory session on November 26.

Briefing media here on Friday, Law Commission Chairman Justice B S Chauhan said the National Law Day is being observed jointly by the NITI Aayog and the Law Commission of India. The event will have four sessions to discuss Judicial Review and Parliamentary Democracy.

"Balancing the separation of powers, appointments to higher judiciary - constraints of collegium system and reforms ahead, structural reforms for overcoming delays in justice delivery and scope of judicial power-judicial activism would be some of the core issues," he said.

An informal report will be prepared on the outcome of the discussion, he added.

To a query on vacant posts in lower judiciary, Justice Chauhan said there are 5,000 vacancies in subordinate courts which has to filled by High Courts.

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Nigeria ruling party governors back Buhari to run again -Kaduna governor

ABUJA, Nov 24 (Reuters) The majority of Nigerian state governors from the ruling All Progressives Congress party say President Muhammadu Buhari should run for second term, the governor of Kaduna state said on Friday.

Nasir El-Rufai said Buhari seeking re-election would be the best way to preserve the party. His comments came hours after an ally of the president, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, quit the party. Abubakar's spokesman said he might run in the presidential election due in February 2019.

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Pakistani Islamist blamed for 2008 attacks in Mumbai released from house arrest

By Mubasher Bukhari and Asif Shahzad

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD, Nov 24 (Reuters) Pakistani Islamist Hafiz Saeed, seen as the mastermind of a 2008 militant assault in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai in which 166 people were killed, has been released from house arrest, his religious charity said on Friday.

Saeed has been under house arrest since January after living freely in Pakistan for many years, a sore point in Pakistan's relationship with the United States and neighbour India.
Punjab CM calls for vigilance against social media radicalisation campaigns

Chandigarh, Nov 24 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday asked state police to be vigilant against social media radicalisation campaigns and also urged them to be alert along the Indo-Pak border to thwart any infiltration activity in the region.

Chairing a high-level meeting here to review the crime and law and order situation in the state, the Chief Minister said prevention of terrorist crime was his governments top priority agenda and ordered all SSPs and CPs to lead from the front in combating such threats to Punjabs peace and stability.

He ordered all-out efforts on the part of the police to trace previous undetected cases in a time-bound manner, especially the Maur bomb blast in Bathinda (January 31), murder of Chand Kaur (Bhaini Sahib) and attack on Dhadrianwale in Ludhiana.
Russia working with Saudi Arabia to unify Syrian opposition - Lavrov

MOSCOW, Nov 24 (Reuters) Russia is working together with Saudi Arabia to unify the Syrian opposition, Russia's RIA news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying on Friday.

Lavrov was speaking at a meeting with United Nations special envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura, who is visiting Moscow.

De Mistura said a new Syrian constitution will be one of the main items on the agenda for UN-sponsored talks in Geneva next week between opposing sides in the Syria conflict, RIA reported.
Transforming districts vital to improve security environment: Home Secretary

New Delhi, Nov 24 (UNI) A conducive security environment in the country may be created by improving infrastructure and rapid execution of development works at district levels, Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba said on Friday.

"There would be tremendous improvement in security environment if the districts are transformed," Mr Gauba said while addressing a meeting of Prabhari officers here.

He emphasised that while 35 districts have been selected on the basis of reported violence by Left Wing Extremism, 55 districts out of 115 are affected by Left Wing extremism and another 15, including districts in Jammu and Kashmir and North East are affected by terrorism.
Vietnam prosecutes bank officials in corruption crackdown

HANOI, Nov 24 (Reuters) Vietnam has prosecuted five former officials of the unlisted Dong A Bank for violating rules that "lead to serious consequences", police said on Friday, part of a widening investigation involving the Ho Chi Minh City-based lender.

Energy and banking firms are at the heart of a sweeping crackdown on corruption in the communist state, a campaign that made global headlines this year when Germany accused Vietnam of kidnapping a Vietnamese businessman in Berlin.

The troubled, partly private Dong A Bank is among several lenders under scrutiny of the authorities who say they want to tackle corruption, including abuse of power and violation of lending rules.
The ASEAN-Hong Kong China Free Trade Agreement came into effect on June 11, 2019, for Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand.

Vietnam recently issued regulations on special preferential import tariffs for the implementation of the AHKFTA effective February 20, 2020, as well as guidelines on rules of origin.

The agreement will allow Vietnam to continue improve its competitive free trade network and move up the value chain from exporting low-tech manufacturing to high-tech goods.

Vietnam issued Decree No. 07/2020/ND-CP on the special preferential import tariffs for the implementation of the ASEAN-Hong Kong China Free Trade Agreement (AHKFTA). The decree took effect on February 20.

The AHKFTA came into effect on June 11, 2019, for Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand. The remaining ASEAN member states are expected to complete the ratification process soon. The deal was first signed and agreed in November 2017 to increase economic cooperation, reduce taxes, and increase investment between regional markets and Hong Kong.

As per the Decree, the preferential import tax rates are applicable under the following conditions:

Imported goods are listed in the special preferential import tariff under Decree 7;

Imported from countries that are part of the AHKFTA;

Transported directly from the exporting country part of the AHKFTA; and

Meet rules of origin guidelines and obtain the certificate of origin (C/O).

In addition, goods that were imported after June 11, 2019, and until February 20, 2020, under the AHKFTA will be eligible for a refund if they paid tax at a higher rate.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) also issued Circular 21 specifying rules of origin guidelines for the AHKFTA. The origin criteria are similar to several other FTAs. Circular 21 came into effect in December 2019.

Vietnam and Hong Kong trade

Analysts have noted that with ongoing trade tensions, Hong Kong businesses are keen to expand investment opportunities in Southeast Asia, and particularly in Vietnam. At the end of 2019, Hong Kong was the second biggest investor in Vietnam. Hong Kong businesses have invested more than 1,300 projects in Vietnam on key sectors such as textiles and garments, real estate and investments. Many expect these numbers to improve following the AHKFTA.

Vietnam is Hong Kongs third largest trade partner and biggest export market in ASEAN. In the first five months of 2019, Hong Kong accounted for 30.4 percent of total FDI investment in Vietnam, equaling US $5.08 billion.

Hong Kongs importance as an entrepot for trade between mainland China and Vietnam will continue to grow at a much faster pace with the FTA coming into force. Re-exports of goods of ASEAN origin through Hong Kong to China have been growing at an annual average rate of 6.4 percent since 2012.

On the other hand, re-exports of mainland Chinas origin goods to ASEAN through Hong Kong have been growing at an annual average rate of 3.7 percent since 2012. Vietnam was the sixth largest destination for Hong Kongs exports in 2018, with 60 percent being re-exports originating from the Chinese mainland. With ASEAN countries custom duties reduced or eliminated, Hong Kongs domestic goods will become more competitive in the region.

While China has been rapidly increasing investment in Vietnam, some analysts say China is also pushing investment into through Hong Kong as Vietnam becomes more cautious about Chinese investment.

In addition to an increase in traded goods, the FTA and the Investment Agreement (IA) will encourage the service sector in ASEAN countries to take advantage of Hong Kongs professional, financial, commercial, and legal services. The region will also benefit from increased investment flows, especially in the real estate, manufacturing, and service industry.

With increased access to Hong Kongs trade network, its proximity to mainland China, and Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, foreign and domestic firms should prepare to take full advantage of the FTA.

ASEAN-Hong Kong trade explained

Hong Kong is among the worlds most open economies, and with its liberal tariff regime, the FTA aims to increase the flow of goods and services from Hong Kong to the ASEAN countries.

The agreement covers four major areas, namely tariff reduction for goods traded, reducing restrictions for trade in services, longer stay for business travelers, and better investment protection. With respect to trade reduction, most ASEAN states will eliminate or reduce custom duties on goods from Hong Kong.

On reducing trade restrictions, both parties have agreed to remove restrictions on foreign capital participation and the number of people employed. Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines will also allow Hong Kong firms to take 50 percent or full ownership of firms.

On the issue of business travel, Hong Kong business visitors will be able to stay in an ASEAN country for 90 days. As of now, seven of the ASEAN member states allow Hong Kong travelers to stay for 14 to 30 days without a visa.

Hong Kong will be providing tariff free access to all products from ASEAN countries as the FTA enters into force, while for goods originating from Hong Kong, individual member states have made the following commitments on tariff reduction:

Singapore will reduce customs duties to zero;

Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand will eliminate customs duties of about 85 percent of their tariff lines within 10 years and reduce customs duties of about another 10 percent of their tariff lines within 14 years;

Indonesia and Vietnam will eliminate customs duties of about 75 percent of their tariff lines within 10 years and reduce another 10 percent of their tariff lines within 14 years; and

Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar will eliminate customs duties of about 65 percent of their tariff lines within 15 years and reduce another 20 percent of their tariff lines within 20 years.

Hong Kong  ASEAN bilateral relations

As of 2018, ASEAN is Hong Kongs second largest trading partner in merchandise trade and the fourth largest in services trade. Hong Kongs total exports to ASEAN increased by 7.3 percent year on year to US$2.8 billion, while imports totaled US$73 billion, a 20.1 percent year-on-year increase. With China being ASEANs largest trading partner since 2009, trade is likely to further grow with Hong Kong increasingly handling re-export trade.

In 2018, the US $28.1 billion  or 97%  of Hong Kongs exports to ASEAN were re-export items, of which 69.8 percent from mainland China highlighting Hong Kongs importance as a trading hub.

Amongst the ASEAN member states, in 2018, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam were Hong Kongs top three trading partners at US$13.4 billion, US$12.3 billion, and US$10.7 billion of Hong Kongs total exports with ASEAN, respectively.

Opportunities for business

With its liberal tariff regime, its position as a financial hub, a strong legal system, and excellent infrastructure, Hong Kong is an ideal location for Southeast Asian corporations.

Hong Kong has a Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) with China, which allows preferential market access to Hong Kong service providers and tariff-free treatment for products originating in Hong Kong. With the CEPA, ASEAN-China FTA, and AHKFTA, Hong Kong has the potential to facilitate and increase investments and trade across the region.

Hong Kong also gives access to the Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD), an economic hub in China, and with the signing of the Framework Agreement on Deepening Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation in the Development of the Bay Area in July 2017, regional cooperation will continue to increase. The focus is on increasing infrastructure connectivity, enhancing market integration, developing innovation hubs, building modern industries, and increasing international cooperation.

Hong Kong will continue to be a stepping-stone for mainland Chinese firms expanding in the region and a major destination of Chinese outward investments, attracting almost 60 percent of the total Chinese outward FDI.

AHKFTA and Vietnam

The implementation of the AHKFTA will allow Vietnam to continue improve its competitive trade agreement network. It will further help the economy to move up the value chain from exporting low-tech manufacturing to exporting high-tech goods such as electronics, machinery, vehicles and medical devices as well.

Businesses leaders should take the time to understand whether their operations can benefit from AHKFTA, but also how the new deal will affect competitors and larger market conditions.

Note: This article was first published in November 2017 and has been updated to include the latest developments.
Lrdalsyri, again in the county of Sogn og Fjordane. In the image above, we see how the population was in 1884. At the bottom, how it is today. Norway it has been gaining ground in the valleys, the only habitable areas of the country. It shows how well more houses, more trees, as in the rest of Europe, the decline of agriculture has allowed the resurgence of forests. (Image: Axel Lindahl and Oskar Puschmann)
Deutsche Bank AG Singapore will act as facility agent for this $100 million loan. FE CREDIT holds nearly 50 per cent of the market share in the consumer finance industry in Vietnam.

We are very pleased to receive such strong support from our international banking partners with the help of this facility, said Kalidas Ghose, vice chairman and CEO of FE CREDIT. Our partnership with Deutsche Bank re-affirms our brand value and the operational excellence of our business in meeting the highest level of international standards. Also, it demonstrates the trust that our partners have in our business performance, the sustainable growth of FE CREDIT and the vision of its shareholders as well as management going forward.

Founded in Germany, the worldwide Deutsche Bank provides commercial and investment banking, retail banking, transaction banking, and asset and wealth management products and services to corporations, governments, institutional investors, small- and medium-sized businesses, and private individuals.

With a history in the international market since 1870, Deutsche Bank is Germanys leading bank with a strong position in Europe and a significant presence in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific.

We are delighted to be working with FE CREDIT. CREDIT. This is Deutsche Banks largest loan to the consumer finance industry in Vietnam to date, Sreenivasan Iyer, managing director and head of Corporate Finance Southeast Asia at Deutsche Bank, said. This year, Deutsche Bank celebrated its 25th anniversary in Vietnam. This co-operation demonstrates the banks unwavering commitment to our clients in this country. As Vietnam's economy continues to thrive, we see many opportunities to partner with our clients to support their growth. We are proud to play a role in Vietnams growth story.

Pioneering in consumer finance, FE CREDIT has established solid foundations to become the market leader of the unsecured consumer loans market. It currently provides consumer lending services, such as personal loans, two-wheeler loans, consumer durable loans, and credit cards. FE CREDIT has served almost seven million customers, co-operating with 5,500 partners across 9,000 points of sale nationwide.
Newborn care at Bac Ninh Hospital of Obstetrics and Pediatrics. - Photo thanhnien.vn

The newborns were admitted to the Bac Ninh Hospital of Obstetrics and Pediatrics between November 12 and 16 to receive neonatal intensive care following their premature arrivals. They were born between the 32nd and 35th week of pregnancy, and all weighed less than 2.3 kilograms.

Sadly, one by one, they were all pronounced dead between 2:00am and 9:30am on Monday morning, while receiving neonatal treatment at the hospital.

Officials said they died of respiratory failure, septic shock and multiple organ failure.

A working group was set up a day later to investigate the exact causes behind the deaths, and concluded that the preemies died of hospital-acquired infections.

After the incident, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien ordered the immediate transfer of other critically-ill infants receiving treatment at Bac Ninh hospital to centrally-administered ones.

Tien said apart from hospital-acquired infections, overloading at the Bac Ninh hospital was another cause for concern.

There are 320 beds for children at the hospital, of which 90 are for infants. Of these 90 infant beds, 25 beds are for the critically ill. Meanwhile, the department for infants only had seven doctors and 25 nurses, which, in theory, could only work on the 25 beds for the critically ill, the minister said.

But of course this is an unusual case, she said.

Of the three infants transferred from Bac Ninh hospital to Bach Mai Hospital in Ha Noi, one had severe septicemia and is still in critical condition. Seven other infants from Bac Ninh Hospital were also transferred to the National Paediatrics Hospital and National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology on Tuesday.

Not just a single case

Doctors have long warned about hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in Viet Nam, before this tragedy happened.

Statistics from the health ministry said that on average the rate of HAIs in Viet Nam is 7 per cent and one of the leading threats to patients lives.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Viet Tien once said that HAIs had a large impact on patients treatment process. Many cases were hospitalised when their conditions were not critical, but worsened due to hospitals infection control.

Nguyen Viet Hung, head of the Infection Control Department at Bach Mai Hospital in Ha Noi, said the rate of HAIs in Bach Mai Hospital has reduced by almost 50 per cent in the last 10 years, but was still high compared to other countries in the region  ranging between 15 and 20 per cent.

A study titled Burden of Hospital Acquired Infections and Antimicrobial Use in Vietnamese Adult Intensive Care Units by doctor Vu inh Phu from the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases and colleagues in 2016, revealed that the HAI prevalence in 15 Intensive Care Units of hospitals in the country ranged from 19.3 per cent to 31.1 per cent.

The study, which was carried out from 2012-13 on hospital sizes ranging from 280 to 2,362 beds, with participating ICU sizes ranging from 10 to 60 beds, found that 29.5 per cent of patients staying in ICUs had at least one HAI; 922 patients had one HAI, 39 patients had two HAIs, and four patients had three HAIs.

Most HAIs, 84 per cent, were acquired in the survey hospitals: 42.5 per cent acquired prior to ICU admission and 57.5 per cent developed after ICU admission.

Ta Thi Hang Nga, head of the Infection Control Department of ong a Hospital, said that the hospital environment, medical materials and health staff might all be threats of infection.

Infections from the hands of health staff are mostly threatening if they do not properly wash their hands, Nga said.

She also said overloading is a reason for this negligence.

Nguyen inh Hung, director of Saint Paul Hospital in Ha Noi, said proper use of alcohol rub can reduce the risk of infection by between 10 and 45 per cent.

The study by Vu inh Phu suggested the same thing, when saying that low healthcare staff ratios and high bed occupancy rates made infection control very challenging.

The lack of nursing staff for patient care allows little time for proper infection control measures, which may lead to an increased HAI rate. This is supported by the smaller amount of alcohol hand rub used: a median of 66.4 ml/patient per day, compared with a median of 83 ml/patient per day in ICUs of Germany in 2010, the study said.

Nguyen Viet Hung from Bach Mai Hospital said patients families are advised to strictly follow hygiene rules in hospitals, Hung said, and emphasised that improved infection control in hospitals, including upgrades to facilities, wastewater treatment systems and regular inspections of infection control practices, will help reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infections.



Read more at http://vietnamnews.vn/society/418150/hospital-acquired-infections-a-threat-to-patients.html#WxaOmAZHej8UUXGa.99
The National Assembly ratified six bills and ten resolutions and amended nine bills

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan stated that during the 26-day session the National Assembly has considered and ratified six bills and ten resolutions, as well as reviewed nine bills.

The session was a big success, with National Assembly members having made positive and responsible contributions to the sessions discussions, Ngan said. All discussed laws will continue being considered carefully, so that they will have the best quality and meet all new requirements of the countrys socioeconomic development.

During the session, the National Assembly reviewed, debated, and gave opinions on a number of reports regarding the socioeconomic situation of 2017 and objectives of socioeconomic development for 2018, as well as the implementation of the 2017 national budget allocation. Q&A activities were also conducted transparently, democratically, and constructively.

The legislature also passed a hallmark resolution on Vietnams socioeconomic development for 2018, with the targeted economic growth of 6.5-6.7 per cent.

The economy grew by 6.41 per cent in this years first nine months, higher than the 5.99 per cent in last years corresponding period. The rate hit 7.46 per centfrom 6.28 per centin the second quarter and 5.15 per cent in the first quarter. It is expected that the economy will grow 6.7 per cent this year, reaching the National Assemblys target set earlier.

According to the government, the economy is likely to reach its 6.7 per cent growth target, thanks to strong growth in the economys key sectors this year, including the agro-forestry-fishery (up 3 per centa fourfold increase against 2016 to hit a record $35 billion in export turnover), industry and construction (up 7.17 per cent), and services sectors (up 7.25 per centthe highest rise since 2008).

Of the industrial sectors growth, the manufacturing and processing sector is expected to rise by a record rate of 12.8 per cent year-on-year.

However, this year, if the mining sector had not suffered from an estimated decrease of 5.9 per cent, the whole economy would surely grow by 7.24 per cent, the government said.

Notably, among the many laws approved, the legislature adopted the Law on Public Debt Management, which will help the country to control public debt more effectively.

Responding to National Assembly members anxiety about the countrys financial security, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue reassured them by announcing that the public debt situation is getting better.

The public debt rate is 62.6 per cent of the GDP now, with the governments debt being 51.8 per cent of the GDP, both lower than the respective permissible limits of 54 and 65 per cent set by the National Assembly, Hue announced.

The government and the prime minister have made thorough calculations, and see that the public debt cap is just one factor. The most important thing is our ability to repay the debt, Hue said.

In addition, the National Assembly also adopted the long-awaited Law on Planning, which is compiled by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, making it more convenient for the government to control the planning of many sectors and products, where there are overlapped control mechanisms at the moment.

The law will adjust a total of 190 articles in 25 existing laws, and cover 38 types of national-level sectoral planningsuch as road, railway, seaport, airport, waterway infrastructure, electricity, energy, information and communication, and gas and petrol supply.

Product-level and sector-level planning will be integrated into master planning at all levels.
Protesters march outside Macys store during the Black Friday protest on November 28, 2014 in New York |  AFP/File | Kena Betancur

Businesses usually offer deep discounts starting early Friday morning, prompting massive crowds that have led to numerous injuries and a number of deaths in years past.

This year, businesses continued a trend in starting shopping deals earlier and extending them longer, leading to smaller crowds.

But many major retailers, including discount megastore Walmart, also emphasized online shopping as a way to get consumers purchasing faster.

There were smaller lines and fewer packs of frenzied shoppers at malls around the country Thursday night and Friday, US media reported.

Still, several people were injured and three were arrested after a shopping fight early Friday morning at a department store in southern California, reports said.

And what appeared to be a murder suicide took place Friday night at a Nordstrom department store in Chicago. Police deemed it domestic-related, according to the Chicago Tribune.

This year the shopping day was also caught up in a furor over the decision not to indict the police officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in Missouri. The shooting has put American race-relations under scrutiny and prompted demonstrations over how police, especially white officers, interact with African Americans.

Black public figures called for Black Friday boycotts, and in Ferguson, Missouri, where the killing took place, protests briefly shut down a local mall.

In the west coast city of Seattle, protesters chained a malls doors closed, and in Californias San Francisco, hundreds rallied and a police officer was injured by a bottle thrown at a police car, local media reported Friday.

Meanwhile, the FBI recorded 144,000 background checks for Black Friday gun sales, CNN reported. Black Friday is one of the busiest days for gun sales in the US, the FBI said.

 Online sales on the rise 

Early reports showed up to a 22 percent increase in Black Friday online shopping compared to last year, as well as an increasing number of people shopping online on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving online sales were up by 20 percent, according to a report from commercial analyst ChannelAdvisor Corp.

For the first time the majority of online sales came from mobile devices, a report by IBM said.

The largest day of online sales typically comes on the Monday following Black Friday, when stores offer a number of online-only discounts.

Retailers have been buoyed by predictions that a drop in gas prices and higher consumer confidence could lead to higher sales overall this year.

The start of the US holiday shopping season has slowly been been broken up into a number of shopping days including Gray Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday to prompt sales ahead of Christmas.

US president Barack Obama made a surprise visit Saturday morning to a landmark Washington bookstore to support small businesses.
View inside the Over cave. Courtesy Photo of Jungle Boss Company

The province Peoples Committee on Wednesday allowed a local company, Jungle Boss, to exploit the caves of Pygmy, Over and Dai A for tourism purposes.

The pilot exploitation of the caves will start on the first of December and end in April next year. After the pilot period, the local Department of Tourism and managers of the national park will examine the companys job, as well as the impact of tourism on the caves, before taking a final decision on the long-term exploitation of the caves for tourism.

The caves were discovered recently, making Quang Binh the Kingdom of caves in the country, with the worlds biggest cave Son Doong, and many other wet and dry caves located along the karst mountain range situated in the locality.

The caves are adjacent, with Pygmy 845m long, Dai A 1,616m long, and Over 3,244m long.

Visitors can register to visit the caves and will start their trip at Quyet Thang Village, which is 10km far west from the provinces municipal Dong Hoi City. They will trek on a 20km path under the primary forest in the national park before entering the grotto.

Each trip will take tourists three days and two nights to complete.
Long queues at the most popular stores across the malls of Ho Chi Minh City

Vincom Center Dong Khoi, which houses Zara, H&M, Charles and Keith, and several other famous brands, saw swarms of shoppers searching for Black Friday deals. The stores offered numerous promotions and discounts for a wide range of products like clothes, shoes, bags, cosmetics, accessories, and watches.

Nguyen Ngoc Thao, a 27-year-old office worker, told VIR that she is really excited about Black Friday sales. Branded handbags normally cost over VND1 million ($44), but with the up to 50 per cent discounts, the bag became almost inexpensive. She has bought a bag worth VND2 million ($88) for VND700.000 ($30.8).

At Takashimaya shopping mall, there are long queues of shoppers in front of the cosmetics counters. A cheerful female customer said that she is waiting to buy lipsticks as the Japanese brand is offering a buy one get one free deal.

Beside attractive deals offered by different brands, shopping mall operators also issued promotion programmes for Black Friday to lure in customers. Takashimaya launched its Shop Non-Stop programme so that customers spending more than VND2 million ($88) can redeem gift vouchers and get a chance to win the latest iPhone 8 plus.

Although it is raining in Ho Chi Minh City tonight, it does not deter shoppers rushing downtown and causing a mild traffic jam.

The following images are from stores in Vincom Center Dong Khoi and Takashimaya shopping malls in Ho Chi Minh City:
Daredevil and limousine driver Mad Mike Hughes hopes to prove the Earth is flat Saturday by launching himself into the sky aboard his steam-powered rocket constructed out of salvage parts.
Construction workers pass through Furnace Record Pressings factory, which could increase the production of records in the United States by almost 20 percent.
The Ministry for Heritage has announced that three new interpretation panels have been placed within our Old Town in order to provide information on our Medieval History, namely our Islamic and Spanish Periods.
AUSTIN  A soldier, called to serve in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is pulled one way by his duty to his country and another by his duty to his family.

This burden, felt by 225,000 Texas service members who have been deployed in the ongoing conflict, will be depicted in a new monument to be unveiled Dec. 2 on the south lawn of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission on Capitol grounds.

The overall story is that the service member is in limbo between heaven and heart. His wife and child are earthbound; hes got one leg on the ground and one foot lifted, being carried off by an angel, said Sandra Van Zandt, the artist who created the sculpture.

The bronze, 20-foot tall Price of Liberty monument has been in the works since 2015. To personalize the monument, the artist modeled the angel pulling at the soldier after the Lady Liberty statue on the Capitol dome, and labeled the soldiers uniform Houston as a dedication to the home of the monuments large funders. The base of the statue will feature dog tags that Van Zandt had families and service members adorn with the name of a soldier or a prayer.

It took two legislative sessions for veterans and Gold Star families  relatives of U.S. military members who died in battle  to secure the plot on Capitol grounds and raise funds for the sculpture. Terry Burgess, who lost his son Bryan Burgess in Afghanistan, traveled from Fort Worth to Austin to share stories of his son and to push for the monument. He remembered sitting in the offices of lawmakers and sharing tears over stories about Bryan.

We got to Austin, saw the model and its just heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking to a Gold Star parent, Burgess said. [The artist] didnt even have to explain it to me. All of the imagery is exactly what I carry in my heart every day.

Bryan Burgess, 29, was killed in action in March 2011. He had been awarded a Bronze Star Medal and was a husband and father of an 11-year-old daughter, Makya, and a 9-year-old son, Zander.

It was 16 days to the end of the deployment. We held our breath for almost a year. We had been through two other deployments and Bryan always came home, Elizabeth Burgess, Bryans stepmother, tearfully said. Until he didnt.

State Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, remembers meeting with some of the Gold Star families as they lobbied for the legislation, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 15, 2015, that cleared the way for the construction of the monument on Capitol grounds.

Every family loss is unique because its different, it strikes at the heart of the family, Campbell said. It makes me more aware of the value of what our soldiers do, the price our soldiers pay. This memorial depicts that, ensures their courage and bravery are remembered.

For Retired Army Colonel James Stryker, a Vietnam veteran, it was the sacrifices of service members and families like the Burgesses that inspired him to spearhead the movement for this memorial. Stryker lobbied for the legislation to secure the Capitol grounds and raised $440,000 to cover the cost of the statue. Major donors included the Houston Automobile Dealers Association and Houston auto dealer Tony Gullo, whose grandson served in Iraq. In partnership with the Texas National Guard Family Support Foundation, a nonprofit, Stryker is still raising funds for the dedication.

State Rep. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, chairman of the House Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee, said the monument will be significant not just for the service members and their families, but for all Texans.

Hopefully, when people come onto the grounds of the Capitol theyll be able to get a sense of what they go through, Gutierrez said. The fact that the conflict is still going on  hopefully, this monument will activate people to get involved in the process, make their leaders accountable and tell them to get our people home.
Peace Lutheran Church, 9301 Panther Way in Hewitt, will present its annual Advent Jubilee at 4 p.m. Sunday. The program will feature the Baylor Singing Seniors, the Peace Choir, Bells of Peace, flautist Jamie Espen, pianists Cristine Wolfe, Van Chaney, Carol Emley, and organist Kacy Baitz. The program is free with a reception following.

Mayborn hosts Santa

The Mayborn Museum Complex will have special Christmas themed events and activities including a visit from Santa and a special model train display from the Central Texas Area Model Railroaders from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30.

Visitors can participate in a nativity themed photo-op, make their own holiday decorations and much more. A special snow spectacular Spark Lab will start at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Activities and events are included in the price of admission. Admission is free to museum members and Baylor University students.

BU handbell choir

Baylor Universitys 13-member handbell choir will present its annual Christmas program from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 30 in Roxy Grove Hall, 624 Speight Ave., under the direction of Bob Avant. This event is free and open to the public.

Holiday concert

The Baylor Singing Seniors, conducted by Phillip Sitton, will present its holiday concert, Gods Gifts for All Seasons at 4 p.m. Dec. 3 at the Hewitt First Baptist Church, 301 S. First St.

The choir will perform music by Martin Shaw, Allen Pote, Joseph Martin, Cindy Berry, Heather Sorenson, and many more. A medley of Christmas favorites will be performed, along with standards including Victory in Jesus, and White Christmas.

The choir will be accompanied by pianists Van Chaney and Sandy Nolan, percussionist Walter Raynaud and trumpeter Greg Wallace.

The concert is free, and a free-will donation will be collected.

Big Girls Rock

Big Girls Rock Waco, a new social club for full-figured women, is hosting a Christmas party and meet and greet Dec. 16 at Ninfas, 220 S. Third Street.

Attendees are asked to bring a wrapped gift valued at $10, aside from the cost of the meal. The event runs from 7:15 to 9:45 p.m. For more information, call 262-1567. Big Girls Rock Waco is also on Facebook.
Prospective members of law enforcement are gaining new insights into local efforts, thanks to the newly established Explorers Post 301 with the Bellmead Police Department.

The purpose is to give (participants) a positive interaction with law enforcement and to give them the objectives of what we do on a daily basis, Bellmead police Sgt. Brenda Kinsey said. This is a new post for Bellmead, and our hope is to grow this as large as we can and encourage the positive impact with law enforcement.

Advisers and volunteers within the Bellmead Police Department established Explorer Post 301 last month with the goal of helping spread community understanding and introducing students between the ages of 14 and 21 to police work locally. Kinsey, the post commander, said a total of seven students with an interest in law enforcement are already enrolled in the program.

Sometimes the only interaction kids have with law enforcement is a negative one when we to have to interact with them during a domestic disturbance or something similar, Kinsey said. This will give participants an understanding of the complexities of the job, and they can see if they want to pursue a career in law enforcement.

Bellmead Police Chief Lydia Alvarado said starting the Bellmead Explorer post was a community outreach idea for several years. After some department restructuring, Alvarado said she believed the need for community interaction with local officers was paramount in moving forward.

Rather than wait until the world slowed down, which I dont think it will here, I decided to go ahead with the proposal, Alvarado said. I think every city needs a crime prevention and community outreach position and it is just absolutely necessary to have.

The Explorers program is a branch of the Boy Scouts of America, and both boys and girls are eligible to apply. With an application fee of $32.50, participants are allowed to enroll if they are in school, or have graduated from high school, maintain a C average and have parental permission if they are underage.

We are trying to show that we are human, just like you are, and we want to build the bridge over the gap between officers and the community, Kinsey said. Sometimes Bellmead can get a bad rap from outside communities. I know we have a good community here and a lot of people who care about our community, so it is time to bring more involvement together with the police department.

Throughout the yearlong program, Bellmead Explorers will participate in community opportunities and team-building events. Students also learn practical police skills and procedures like executing search warrants and processing crime scenes during hands-on activities.

Kinsey said guidance from advisers with the Waco Police Explorer Post 415 helped the Bellmead group get started. The Waco post was recognized as the Texas Law Enforcement Explorer Advisors Associations Explorer Post of the Year in July.

For more information about Bellmead Explorers Post 301 or for an application, contact Kinsey at 799-0251, 300-2590 or bkinsey@bellmead.com.
RICHMOND, Va. - Two weeks ago, I encouraged readers to keep your casserole-loving selves in check by filling your Thanksgiving plates with side dishes heavy on roasted root vegetables, lightly breaded and baked Brussels sprouts, and simple gratins void of butter and gobs of cheese?

Yeah, well, leftovers dont necessarily count.

Many people look forward to the days after Thanksgiving because mashing a variety of foods together into one bowl or between bread slices and drenching everything in rich gravy is, at least where I come from, typically more accepted on those days rather than at the main event. But before you skip off to the kitchen on Friday (and again on Saturday, maybe) to construct a five-layer meal with no discernible resemblance to anything you ate on Thanksgiving, consider a few other ways to use up those beloved turkey day leftovers.

For example, you could fill roasted and charred poblano peppers with cheesy leftover mashed potatoes and corn. Hand pies turn into convenient, portable lunches and can be made either savory or sweet  think turkey, stuffing and a little gravy for some, then leftover sweet potato casserole for others. (We all know that casserole is basically dessert disguised as a vegetable, anyway.)

Then theres the cranberry sauce. So lovely on its own, the leftovers can be used for so many things  whipped into compound butters, slathered on those aforementioned unrecognizable sandwiches or baked into cakes and cookies for dessert, pancakes and waffles for breakfast.

But, and I may be going out on a limb here, what if you added that cranberry sauce to ... homemade ice cream?

My friends, welcome to the reason you make (or buy) cranberry sauce this year. In fact, if you intentionally keep the cranberry sauce tucked away behind the turkey and mashed potatoes where no one can find it on Thanksgiving Day, and then later make ice cream with it, likely no one will care.

Cranberries and cream strike an amazing combo here, so pull out the ice cream maker you havent seen since July and let it do most of the work.

This works with both smooth and chunky cranberry sauce, though Im partial to the chunky. Depending on your ice cream makers instructions, you can add the sauce at the beginning or the end of the process, but either way, that crimson color is a thing of beauty. Throw in some dark or white chocolate chips and youve got a magical dessert experience suitable for any lingering holiday house guests.

And an icy treat is the perfect complement to the stuffed peppers youll make for dinner. Not that poblanos are very spicy. On the official Scoville heat scale, they rank just below jalapenos, with just a slight kick.

To elevate their smoky flavor, you can roast the peppers first  just a few minutes under the broiler, until their skins are charred and blistered  but its not necessary. Slice down the middle, take out the seeds and membranes and then stuff them with leftover mashed potatoes (why not use up the corn, too) followed by your favorite cheeses before baking. Serve with chunky salsa or sour cream, or simply eat them on their own. Poblanos are large enough that one pepper per person makes an excellent side dish.

Lastly, the hand pies. If youre like me, you tend to have a package of ready-made pie crusts on hand for those moments when youre not up to making crusts from scratch. Or maybe in the midst of the pumpkin-pie prepping for Thanksgiving Day, you made one or two extras.

Either way, once the feast is over, pull out those extra crusts and stuff them with all sorts of leftovers. I found that sweet potato casserole is the perfect filling because you dont have to add any additional ingredients.

As a clever colleague pointed out, serving the hand pies warm from the oven with a scoop of cranberry ice cream would be sublime. And chances are, this time around, there will be no leftovers.

More recipes

Sweet Potato Hand Pies

To save time and effort after a day of cooking on Thanksgiving, use pre-made pie crusts for these convenient, tasty hand pies. Sweet potato casserole works well, since it's already sweetened.

Makes 10 to 12 hand pies.

2 pre-made or from-scratch pie crusts

2 cups leftover sweet potato casserole

 cup heavy or whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll out dough and cut into roughly 4-inch circles with a large biscuit cutter or wide-mouthed glass. You may need to reroll scraps as you go.

Place 5 or 6 circles on a baking sheet. Top each circle with a scant tablespoon of sweet potato casserole and place another circle on top. Crimp the edges together with a fork.

Spread heavy or whipping cream on tops and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until tops are golden-brown.

 Holly Prestidge

Cranberry Ice Cream

Ice cream makers vary, so follow your machine's instructions. The cranberry flavor is subtle, but feel free to add white or dark chocolate chips or ribbons of chocolate fudge to complement it.

Makes approximately  gallon.

1 cup whole milk or half-and-half

 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cups cranberry sauce (chunky is better)

 cup chocolate chips, optional

Combine whole milk or half-and-half with sugar and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Pour in heavy cream and vanilla. Turn on ice cream maker and add contents to the bowl. Follow your machine's instructions for when to add other ingredients. I added the cranberry sauce and chocolate chips about 5 minutes before the ice cream was finished churning.

For better consistency, freeze immediately for at least 2 hours or overnight.

 Holly Prestidge
Starbucks to open outlets at Termini and Piazza di Spagna in spring 2018.

Starbucks, the US-based chain of coffee shops, is reportedly set to launch two outlets in Rome next spring: one at Termini station and the other in Piazza di Spagna.

The Termini outlet is expected to open in March 2018 while the cafe at the Spanish Steps is due to launch in May, according to a report in Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica.

Starbucks is believed to have selected the two Rome sites as being a relatively "safe bet" due to the large amount of passing tourists, although Italians have reservations about the arrival of the American chain in the land of coffee.

The company also has plans to open three outlets in Milan in 2018, and La Repubblica reports that if the initial cafes prove successful it could lead to 150-200 new Starbucks outlets opening across Italy in the coming years.
Paris: A tiger that escaped a Paris circus, roamed the streets of the capital for "some time" on Friday evening before being shot dead.

French police said the big cat was "neutralised" by a Bormann Moreno circus employee near a bridge over the River Seine, about two kilometres from the Eiffel Tower.

Yasha plays with his offsprings in an animal park in Hamburg, Germany. Credit:DPA/File

Paris police tweeted the animal had been found in the 15th arrondissement and the danger had been eliminated. It asked residents to "not relay false information" on social media.

A Paris police official said the tiger was on the loose for "some time" but there had been no reports of injuries or casualties.
Victorian dairy farmer Lindsay Anderson, also an exporter of solar power back to the grid. Credit:Paul Jeffers By setting a goal of reducing emissions from the electricity sector only in line with Australia's Paris commitment - cutting 2005 levels by 26-28 per cent by 2030 - the Turnbull government will have to find more costly reductions elsewhere in the economy, analysts have said. States and territories are also wary that the NEG will limit their own renewable energy targets, which are already legislated in some regions. Renewable energy would see little large-scale investment under the NEG, Bloomberg NEF says. 'Decimate'

The leak of the Hobart agenda comes as the NEG was assessed by respected industry analysis group, Bloomberg New Energy Finance as likely to "decimate" new investment in large-scale renewable energy because of its weak proposed emissions reduction goal for 2030. Labor's plan to cut national emissions by 45 per cent on 2005 levels, by contrast, would extend the current boom in the industry, BNEF said. The consultancy said the government's setting for the NEG would result in just 1.5 gigawatts of new wind and solar farms being built in the 2021-30 decade. Rooftop solar photovoltaics, though, would continue to grow, adding 12 GW of new capacity. New gas-fired power of some 4.9 GW would make up for most of the 6 GW of aging coal plants expected to close. "The [NEG] mechanism looks like it could be very effective, but if the target is weak, it will deliver little," Kobad Bhavnagri, BNEF's head of Australia, said.

"It would be like finally having the gumption to join the gym, but then not lifting any weights when you get there." By contrast, Labor's emissions pledge if applied to the electricity sector would trigger construction of 17.3 GW of large-scale renewable energy during the decade after 2021, BNEF's modelling showed. The electricity sector is widely considered to be among the industries that should lead emissions abatement mostly because low- or zero-carbon technology substitutes are already available and relatively competitive. Labor's 45 per cent overall emissions reduction target, for instance, "would continue the current pace of reductions from existing policies", BNEF said. (See Bloomberg chart below.)

'More affordable' State and territory energy ministers, particularly from Labor-run regions, are likely to challenge Mr Frydenberg over the ambition and impact of the proposed NEG that will require their approval to proceed. Friday's meeting is unlikely to produce much progress not least because Queensland will be represented by an official ahead of the state's elections on the following day. Mr Frydenberg told Fairfax Media the NEG would deliver "more affordable and reliable energy as we transition to a lower emissions future", including more renewable energy. "Labor's plan of a 45 per cent emissions target will drive up energy prices and lead to a less reliable system," he said.

Mark Butler, Labor's climate spokesman, said BNEF's analysis "confirms that the Turnbull government's NEG will strangle renewable energy", and backed the ALP's plan. "Under the government's NEG modelling, the renewable energy mix is only expected to reach 36 per cent by 2030," he said. "This translates to only a 0.5 per cent increase in renewables above already committed investment every year over the 2020s - or little more than 250 MW per year over the decade." 'Secretly developed' Leading environmental groups, meanwhile, called for a revision of the NEG to aim for a higher target, stating that in its current form, more carbon pollution and less clean energy will be produced by the power industry than if the Turnbull government did nothing. The groups, including the Australian Conservation Foundation and Solar Citizens, met South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill - one of the most outspoken critics of the NEG - on Thursday.

"The NEG has been hastily and secretly developed without the input of state and territory ministers to appease Malcolm Turnbull's climate-denying right flank," Paul Oosting, GetUp's national director, said. "It fails to deliver serious action to reduce climate pollution in Australia's energy sector." Questions remain Along with the emissions "guarantee", the NEG is also intended to bolster reliability of the electricity sector to cope with aging plant and also the integration of more intermittent electricity supplies. Bloomberg noted key aspects of the reliability guarantee remain unclear, such as whether so-called synchronous generation will be specifically required of electricity retailers, or whether contracts would be based on rated capacity or actual generation.
Former Labor senator Steve Hutchins, husband of Victorian cabinet minister Natalie Hutchins, has died aged 61.

Mr Hutchins, described on Friday as a "stalwart of the Labor movement," served as a senator for New South Wales between 1998 and 2011.

Former senator Steve Hutchins. Credit:Penny Bradfield

He worked as a forklift driver and a garbage collector before entering politics and also had stints as NSW party president and as Labor's national vice president.

Premier Daniel Andrews paid tribute on Friday to Mr Hutchins.
The Turnbull government has avoided an all-out brawl with the states and territories over its signature power policy, securing agreement from most energy ministers that more work will be done on the proposed national energy guarantee.

But South Australia's Labor government says coal is not part of Australia's future and the federal government is "clinging to the past".

The national energy guarantee forces energy companies to meet mandated standards of reliability and emissions reduction, but critics say it thwarts growth in renewable energy, props up ageing coal-fired power plants and will fail to sufficiently drive down dangerous carbon emissions.

The federal government needs the support of the states and territories to implement the guarantee. Rather than reject the policy entirely, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania - along with the Commonwealth - voted in favour of the Energy Security Board conducting more analysis of how it would operate. South Australia and the ACT opposed the move. Queensland is in caretaker mode ahead of the state election and did not cast a vote.
Gold miner Evolution Mining says the industry desperately needs to make mining more attractive to younger job seekers to deter them heading to the likes of Facebook and Google.

Chairman Jake Klein says the industry faces a dwindling number of new miners, with just eight mining engineering enrolments at the University of NSW in 2017 - the lowest in 40 years.

Only eight students will graduate as mining engineers in 2018 from UWA. Credit:Erin Jonasson

And, the University of Western Australia had forecast that only eight students will graduate as mining engineers in 2018, Mr Klein said.

The owner and operator of gold and silver mines in Queensland and Western Australia, employing more than 200,000 people, said it pays more than $8 billion annually in salaries and wages, plus almost $11 billion to state and federal governments each year.
Two Perth men involved in the kidnapping and beating of another man over a $250 drug debt have been sentenced to jail after the presiding judge described the incident as a "terrifying" act of underworld vigilantism.

Childhood friends Jesse Flintoff and Christopher Rose, both 25-year-old methamphetamine users, attended the Coolonup house of another man on February 15 around 5.30pm, and demanded he pay a $250 drug debt.

File image: Two men have been jailed over the beating and kidnapping of another man.

The victim, fearing for his safety, ran from the house and up the street.

The two men  Flintoff armed with a shotgun - chased him and fired a blank round as horrified neighbours watched on and called triple-0.
Firefighters have been kept busy overnight after two separate blazes broke out within hours of each other in Perth's northern suburbs.

It took 60 firefighters more than two hours to extinguish a massive fire that broke out at a block of units in Wangara overnight.

Firefighters are struggling to approach the fire. Credit:Graeme Powell - ABC

Emergency services were called to the blaze on Dellamarta Road just after 7pm on Thursday evening.
London: British Transport Police say they wanted to speak to two men who they believe started an incident that led to a massive anti-terrorism response operation and the evacuation of tube stations in London on Friday evening.

The busy Oxford Circus shopping district was locked down after the incident. It sparked the evacuation of Oxford Circus and the nearby Bond Street stations on one of the busiest days of the year, with Black Friday sales.

An armed police officer patrols a department store near to Oxford Street in London on Friday night. Credit:AP

Armed police surrounded Oxford Street station, while witnesses said crowds of people were seen running away in panic. Shoppers were told to seek shelter, with people barricaded into shops and cafes.

But after armed police responded to the area, which was packed with shoppers and rush-hour commuters, police said there was no evidence that shots had been fired, as had initially been reported, or that there were any serious casualties.
Florida: US President Donald Trump gave a bullish Thanksgiving address to troops overseas on Thursday, hailing progress in Afghanistan and against ISIS, and telling them they were fighting for "something real," including a stock market at record highs and his promised "big, beautiful fat tax cuts".

Speaking in a live video teleconference from Palm Beach, Florida, with military personnel serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, Trump told them they were "very, very special people."

He called troops in Afghanistan "brave, incredible fighters" who had "turned it around" in the past three to four months.

"We opened it up; we said go ahead, we're going to fight to win," he said. "We're not fighting any more to just walk around, we are fighting to win."
From 7 to 17 November 2017, Cuba hosted the Practical Training on Air Cargo Control in the framework of the UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP) at Jose Marti International Airport in La Habana. The training was conducted by a WCO technical expert and a UK Border Force training expert who had already experience working in Cuba. It was intended to support the establishment of a specialized Air Cargo Control Unit (ACCU) at this Airport.

The training introduced different interdiction techniques that can be used at the airport to identify and intercept illicit shipments including narcotics. A presentation on the implementation of CITES in Cuba and the smuggling of wildlife was delivered by the National CITES Management Authority while another presentation by the Ministry of Culture focused on the protection of cultural property in Cuba and the smuggling of Cultural artifacts. A total of 11 customs officers from Cuba participated in this training event.

Both the Cuban participants and the training experts were very satisfied with the outcomes of the training and are motivated to continue with the staged training concept applied by the CCP.

Currently, Air Cargo Control Units established in the framework of the CCP are operational in 4 countries; funding for 11 countries in total has been granted by the donors of this joint UNODC-WCO programme.

The implementation of the Container Control Programme in Cuba is funded by the Government of Canada.
The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducted a joint mission in Honduras from 30 October to 10 November 2017. While the WCO advisors conducted a scoping mission under the Mercator Program aiming at assisting Honduras in the implementation of the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement (the WTO TFA), the FAD/IMF consultants conducted a capacity development (CD) mission seeking to modernize Honduras Customs policies and institution.

The WCO and the IMF held simultaneous meetings with authorities such as the Honduras Ministry of Finance (SEFIN), the Presidential Commission for Comprehensive Reform of the Customs System and Trade Operators (COPRISAO), the Deputy Directorate of Customs Revenue (DARA), and the Revenue Administration Service (SAR). Both missions also visited Port Cortes, Toncontin International Airport, and the Corinto land border.

Honduras Customs faces the challenge to strengthen its current performance while carrying out a process of transition towards a new decentralized administration. With this in mind, Honduras authorities made presentations about their strategic plan, leading projects, indicators, organizational structure, HR selection process, budget, infrastructure, IT, special regimes, risk management systems, post-clearance audit, exchange of information, import, export and transit procedures. From an operative perspective, Honduras Customs is aware of the need to balance between facilitation and control to achieve higher institutional efficiency.

On November 9 and 10, the teams discussed their findings with, among others, Mr. Wilfredo Cerrato, Finance Minister, Mr. Jorge Hernandez Alcerro, Secretary General Coordinator of Government, Mrs. Eny Bautista, Coordinator of COPRISAO, and Mrs. Wendy Flores, Deputy Director of Customs Revenue.

The mission was a valuable opportunity for a cooperative approach between international organizations to assist Honduras Customs. Honduras authorities are committed to implementation of the WTO TFA and called for continued support for Customs reforms.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Nov. 21, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 21, 2017 | 04:43 PM | PADUCAH, KY

Each year several West Kentucky Community and Technical College students have an opportunity to travel to El Salvador to help people in need. As a fundraiser for their annual service learning trip, they will be delivering holiday meals to area businesses on December 12 and 14.



"This is a chance for employers to say 'thank you' for their employees' hard work and dedication throughout the year and for everyone to celebrate the holidays with their friends at work, while also helping our students raise money to travel to El Salvador for a first-hand perspective on helping others," said Jennifer Frazier, WKCTC advancement specialist.



The El Salvador Service Learning trip, sponsored by Starfish Orphan Ministry and the Hispanic Culture club, Diversity and Inclusion committee and Service Learning program at WKCTC, focuses on building houses, feeding the homeless and providing supplies to orphanages within the country. All proceeds from the holiday meal deliveries will benefit the WKCTC/Starfish ministry service learning trip.



Students participate in various fundraisers through the year to help pay for the trip each March. This year's meal delivery program is a new venture for the college.



"We haven't done this before, but it's a unique way for the community to be a part of something special," said Frazier. "Every dollar will make a difference in the lives of so many in El Salvador."



Each meal is $10. A minimum of eight orders needed within the Paducah area and a minimum of 20 are needed if the order is for a business outside of Paducah. Orders for delivery are needed by December 5.



For a list of meals that can be chosen for delivery, contact Jennifer Frazier at jennifer.frazier@kctcs.edu or 270-534-3229.
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#North Korea dog N. Korea registers Pungsan dogs as intangible cultural asset North Korea has registered its indigenous Pungsan breed of dogs as an intangible cultural asset, its state media said Thursday, amid a controversy in South Korea over a pair of suc...

#Stray Kids Stray Kids become 'triple million-seller' for first time Stray Kids' latest album "Maxident" has sold a cumulative 3 million copies, setting the best record for the band and all K-pop acts managed by JYP Entertainment, the agency said Th...
Christmas comes to the Homeplace 1850s Saturday after Thanksgiving
By Paul Schaumburg, Graves County Schools Nov. 21, 2017 | 06:37 PM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

Lowes, Symsonia, and Wingo elementary schools in Graves County recently celebrated the installation of exercise equipment on their playgrounds, thanks to an anonymous donor, Baptist Health Paducah, and Project Fit America. Along with teacher training and teaching curriculum, the equipment will help students develop habits conducive to good, long term physical health. The $16,500 donation will help hundreds of children over the years. Baptist Health Paducah chief operating officer Bonnie Schrock expressed gratitude to all involved for bringing the project to fruition. Principals of the three schools and other representatives of the Graves County School District thanked all involved as well.

"These three schools in Graves County brings our total to 15. We've had schools in Graves, McCracken, Marshall, and Calloway counties." said Donna Rains, Baptist Health Paducah's director of community outreach. "In 2007, when we opened the Baptist Heart Center, we wanted to do something to help children grow up to be heart healthy. We researched the topic and really like this program because it's really a turnkey. We thought that even though it is a two-year grant program, that it could last well beyond that two years, once we invested in a school. The equipment should be permanent and the teacher training and teaching curriculum can be used well beyond that time. In fact, Graves County Central Elementary was one of our first two schools."

"During our capital campaign, 'Celebrating Miracles, Transforming Lives,' last year that concluded this October, we were able to fund various projects in the community," said Roy Lowdenback, Baptist Health Paducah's vice-president of business development. "We had a donor very passionate about Graves County and due to her time as a physical education teacher in another state and her interest in projects at the hospital, this came about. She funded projects that weren't slated to take place this year. So, we were able to unite those programs and make this all happen this year."
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Nov. 22, 2017 | PRINCETON, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 22, 2017 | 08:14 PM | PRINCETON, KY

A man has been arrested following an investigation into a hit-and-run accident that claimed the life of a pedestrian.



According to the Princeton Police Department, 21-year-old Kyle A. Laffoon of Eddyville turned himself in to officers on November 21. He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, and with failing to render aid in an accident involving death or serious injury.



The charges stem from an accident on Halloween night, when officers responded to Baldwin Avenue and found the pedestrian victim, 41-year-old Ramiro Ortiz lying on the side of the street. He was taken to Caldwell County Hospital but died from his injuries.



Police had a description of the vehicle from witnesses, and had asked for the public's help in finding the vehicle and its driver.
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By The Associated Press

Nov. 23, 2017 | NEW YORK, NY

By The Associated Press Nov. 23, 2017 | 08:47 PM | NEW YORK, NY

Shoppers are hitting the stores on Thanksgiving as retailers under pressure look for ways to poach shoppers from their rivals.



As the holiday shopping season officially kicked off, retailers are counting on a lift from a better economy. But theyre also looking beyond economic data and mapping out ways to pick up sales from other retailers as Amazon expands its reach.



That can mean opening earlier than rivals on the holidays or even jumping into new product categories. At Macys Herald Square in Manhattan, it was the deals like cosmetic and perfume sets from $10 to $20 as well as 40 percent off on boots and shoes that drew attention. Its Apple shop was packed too, with deals on gadgets like the Apple Watch.



Tiffany Lloyd, in town from Columbia, Maryland, was visiting tourist sites when she realized stores were open.



This is not a traditional Thanksgiving. We ate pizza, said Lloyd, who was buying a pair of Naturalizer shoes at 40 percent off and said she planned to buy three more pairs. She said she also picked up sweaters on sale at Old Navy.



Despite the early crowds at stores, analysts at Bain say Amazon is expected to take half of the holiday seasons sales growth. And Amazon is the top destination for people to begin holiday shopping, according to a September study by market research firm NPD Group.



The retailers are in survival mode. Its about stealing each others market share, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD. Amazon is the Grinch. Theyre stealing the growth.



Abi and Sush Gyawali  both 27-year-old biology graduate students at the University of Missouri  were among hundreds of people who lined up outside J.C. Penney in Columbia, Missouri, before the store opened at 2 p.m. Thursday. Abi Gyawali normally shops online on Amazon or Best Buy for Cyber Monday, where he said he finds some of the best deals.



But he said the couple wanted to check out the scene at the mall before friends came over to share a meal. He and his wife planned to just collect coupons that were being handed out, but ended up getting a discounted air fryer.



With the jobless rate at a 17-year-low of 4.1 percent and consumer confidence stronger than a year ago, analysts project healthy sales increases for November and December. The National Retail Federation trade group expects sales for that period to at least match last years rise of 3.6 percent and estimates online spending and other non-store sales will rise 11 to 15 percent.



Amazon is expected to be a big beneficiary as it cements loyalty among its Prime members and moves into new services and private-label merchandise. That leaves stores looking at rivals to see where they can pick up sales. There are extra dollars up for grabs this year, after thousands of store locations have closed and several retailers filed for bankruptcy protection.



Target CEO Brian Cornell recently noted that up to $60 billion in consumer spending will be up for the taking in the next few years, and said the chain has been picking up market share in such areas as clothing.



Greg Foran, CEO of Walmarts U.S. division, said that the retail giants holiday shopping season appeared to be off to a good start. It got things going in the first minutes of Thursday with an online sales event that featured a range of deals from toys to TVs to slow cookers and Google Home mini gadgets.



We have a bit of momentum and we had a good kickoff online, Foran told The Associated Press, and with a bit of luck we are going to have a good 24 hours and be ship-shape for the weekend, and go from here to the 25th of December.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 24, 2017 | 09:37 AM | HOPKINSVILLE, KY

Authorities say a police officer in western Kentucky is facing official misconduct charges after agreeing not to arrest a woman if she would have sex with him.WKDZ reports former Hopkinsville Police Officer Daniel Gray has been charged with two counts of first-degree official misconduct. Gray has since resigned.A criminal complaint says Gray was supposed to arrest a woman for violating her probation. Instead, he took her to a hotel and had sex with her. The woman told police she had sex with Gray multiple times in exchange for not arresting her, and Gray admitted having sexual contact with the woman twice. The incidents reportedly date back to November 2016.Hopkinsville Police Chief Clayton Sumner said the allegations give a black-eye to the profession.Sumner told WKDZ, "Officers in this department are being held accountable, plain and simple. When something like this happens, people tend to stereotype the whole profession, and the only thing I can say is when that stuff happens, you all continue to know about it, because I'm not tolerating it."Gray had worked for Hopkinsville Police for almost 10 years.

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Thanksgiving day saw free meals offered by Hendersonville's Rescue Mission and the Fresh Market. The Rescue Mission opened their doors to the community for anyone who wanted a free meal of turkey and all the 'fixins.

Additionally, Hendersonville's Fresh Market donated meals to Hendersonville First Responders at station # 1 and #2.
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A new Miss Winona was crowned last Saturday evening, making St. Marys University sophomore Casey McCarraher the 72nd winner of the Miss Winona competition in as many years.

Shell go on to compete in the Miss Minnesota pageant this summer, and if she wins that, shell advance to the Miss America pageant next fall.

The Miss Winona competition has not missed a year since its inception in 1946  an impressive feat for a small-town branch of the Miss Minnesota organization.

Were the longest continually running pageant in Minnesota, executive director of the program Joan Sasser said. Were definitely proud of that.

She said the community of Winona has always been supportive of the competition and everyone involved in the organization.

Sasser started with the program as a volunteer in 1988. She said shes seen the citys pageants go from huge to struggling to find anyone to run in the competition. If it wasnt for volunteers like Sasser who stepped up through the years chances are the program wouldnt boast the title of longest run pageant in the state.

On another hand, scrutiny for competitions like this is nothing new. In todays fast-paced, social media-driven world it only takes a simple Google search to find text critiquing such competitions.

They objectify competitors, demoralize them, and have negative long-term effects on social health and well-being, among other things.

But one thing Sasser and Terry Sim (an executive board director of the competition) want to make sure is clear is there are two large pageant competitions our there  Miss America and Miss U.S.A  and there are drastic differences between the two.

Miss U.S.A. is just a beauty competition  the biggest drawback for Miss U.S.A is you have to pay to get in, Sasser said. Miss America also has a talent portion, an interview portion, and its one of the largest scholarship programs for women in the country.

For women who wish to enter the Miss Winona competition, they also have to find donors and raise at least $100 to donate to the Childrens Miracle Network.

Sim said the competition also acts as a huge confidence and self-esteem boost because competitors arent just judged on their beauty. When it comes to choosing the competitors for Miss Winona, she said they look for women with visibility in the community and have a history of volunteer work.

Also, there are hours of preparation competitors must go through.

We have an orientation period where we tell them whats needed for each part of the competition, Sim said. Preparing for the interview portion (of the competition) is the most intense.

Sasser compared the intensity of the interview portion of the competition to the intensity of job interviews because it keeps them on their feet.

Theyve got five people they dont know asking whatever they want, Sasser said. We have them do a lot of practice interviews  its great real-world preparation for them.

Sasser said shes received numerous calls and letters from previous winners and competitors thanking her and the organization for how much it prepared them for the real world.

One difference in the competition Sasser has seen since she started as a volunteer is the impact of social media, and the growth in maturity of young women, calling the change a complete 180. She said theyre more aware of their public image, and generally do a good job monitoring their social media presence.

When I go back to where I started, the biggest change is the lifestyle of young women, she said. The way girls have moved forward in the world is amazing to see.

It provides beneficial opportunities to young women in the community, as well as role models for young girls to look up to.

Sim said shes looking forward to the competition continuing. Theyre approaching 75 years and plan to do something special when that time comes.
Winonas newly adopted Energy Action Plan sets a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, and as a first step, plans to reduce energy use 10 percent over a 2016 baseline by 2025. These goals are not just for our municipal government which consumes only 1 to 2 percent of Winonas energy but for the whole community. Winonas Energy Action Team, made up of representatives from business, institutions and citizens of Winona, spent several months this year laying out the plan and how it will be implemented. In collaboration with Xcel Energys Partners in Energy, this group has mapped a set of steps that will more than achieve the 2025 target, based on energy modeling.

So where is electricity and natural gas being used today? Though the majority of premises in the city are residential, most electricity and natural gas are consumed by commercial and industrial energy users. As a result, while residents can have a large and important impact by reducing energy use at home, the action plan also calls for engaging Winonas businesses and institutions. In fact, three of the four major focus areas of the Energy Action Plan are targeted towards the broad spectrum of Winona commercial and industrial businesses, and institutions including schools, universities, places of worship, and health care facilities.

What about energy efficiency? Nationally energy efficiency is now the third-largest and least expensive source of electricity, having helped avoid the building of over 300 new power plants since 1990. Xcel Energy, in response to Minnesotas legislatively mandated Conservation Improvement Program, offers a wide variety of energy efficiency programs and incentives. Over the past three years about 17 percent of residential premises and 23 percent of commercial and industrial premises have participated in these programs, reducing Winonas overall energy use by an average of 1.5 percent annually. In 2016 these customers saved over a half-million dollars as a result. Winonas action plan leans heavily on energy efficiency with goals of doubling residential participation in current energy conservation programs, engaging 90 percent of large commercial and industrial customers in at least one conservation program, doubling small/medium businesses conservation, and reducing institutional energy use by 15 percent.

What about renewable energy? Fifteen percent of Minnesotas total energy in 2016 came from renewables, which is ahead of the national average of 10 percent. Much of Minnesotas progress has been made in the electricity sector where a full 22 percent of electricity consumed is generated by renewables. Locally, Winona County, Winona Area Public Schools, and St. Marys University have all subscribed to cover 100 percent of their electricity use with community solar, and the city has subscribed to cover 40 percent of their electricity use. The action team counted approximately 20 roof-top solar installations in the city, and Xcel Energy confirmed that 362 residential customers and 2 businesses are subscribing to its Windsource program. Here the Energy Action Plan aims to double residential subscriptions to renewable energy programs, spur institutions to source at least 10 percent of their electricity consumption from renewables, and find three large business customers to add on-site renewable energy generation by 2020.

Want to learn more? The Energy Action Team is looking for help. Residents can contribute immediately by completing the residential energy survey available on line at https://tinyurl.com/Winona-Energy-Survey. Volunteers are also needed for residential and/or business outreach, and direct actions such as reducing energy use in your home. The full Energy Action Plan is posted on the city of Winona website along with contact information for those who would like to be more involved https://www.cityofwinona.com/2017/11/proposed-energy-action-plan/
The Baraboo News Republic has filed a lawsuit against Sauk County, alleging government officials have improperly withheld public documents.

The lawsuit asks a judge to intervene in two instances in which the county has denied the newspaper access to documents requested under the states Open Records Law.

In one instance, officials declined to release emails between government employees involving the zoning case of a Spring Green man who was found dead in his trailer last year. In a separate matter, officials did not provide the application materials of applicants for the countys top administrative job.

In both cases, county legal staff has argued the requested documents are legally exempt from disclosure.

The lawsuit names Interim Sauk County Corporation Counsel Debra ORourke and Personnel Department Director Michelle Posewitz as defendants.

ORourke said in an email that the county will be vigorously defending the action.

Zoning emails

The request for emails involved the zoning case of Christopher Scott Mueller, who was found dead inside his rural Spring Green trailer on Oct. 26, 2016.

The county deemed Muellers property a human health hazard nearly two years before his body was discovered, and eventually served him with orders to vacate the trailer. He never complied.

An ordinance says the countys attorney has the duty of prosecuting people who violate such orders to enforce their removal from hazardous property.

Zoning staff notified Todd Liebman, the countys corporation counsel at the time, that Mueller had missed a 30-day deadline to vacate the property. However, during the 10 months that followed until the day Muellers body was discovered, Liebman never filed legal action to enforce his removal.

The coroner listed Muellers official cause of death as natural causes, but said in an interview that he could not rule out environmental factors.

As part of a broad request for documents, the newspaper asked for copies of email exchanges between then-Administrative Coordinator Renae Fry and county zoning staff involving Muellers case.

The corporation counsels office has refused to turn over the emails, citing a state law that exempts treatment records from being disclosed to the public.

The newspaper also sought the emails of a former legal secretary who had been feeding Fry information about Liebmans job performance.

In response to that request, the county attorneys office turned over numerous emails, but heavily redacted one the secretary sent to Sauk County Board Chair Marty Krueger about a planning and zoning case. The county cited the same treatment records exemption for the redactions.

Candidate identities

The second contested denial involves a state law that requires public agencies to identify and release the application materials of final candidates for public office.

In the weeks that followed Muellers death, Fry was forced out after less than a year on the job. In December, she signed a controversial separation agreement that entitled her to a full years salary in exchange for her resignation.

The deal  which cost taxpayers about $135,000  prohibited Fry from speaking openly about her departure to the media or anyone else. It also singled out Liebman and Krueger, and forbid them from disparaging Fry.

After the agreement was finalized, a Sauk County Board committee began the process of searching for Frys replacement. During a Dec. 29 meeting, the committee decided its first step should be to review the list of finalists from the prior search that ended in Frys hiring.

The next day, Krueger scheduled a meeting that went beyond that procedural step. The agenda included a closed session to interview a candidate and an open session item to recommend a hire.

I put it on the agenda, so it can be done, Krueger said at the time, when asked whether his agenda reflected the committees decided course of action.

Following a lengthy closed session, the committee recommended the appointment of former Sauk County Assistant Corporation Counsel Alene Kleczek Bolin. She was not among the six named finalists from the prior search, and this was the first time the public learned she was even a candidate.

However, committee members declined to discuss how they had arrived at their decision.

During an interview after the meeting, Kleczek Bolin disclosed that she had been an applicant during the prior search, although she was not one of the six finalists. She said Krueger invited her to coffee weeks before the new search even began to ask if she still wished to be considered for the position.

Candidates who were among the six named finalists from the prior search told the newspaper that no one from the county had reached out to them to ask if they still wished to be considered.

Weeks later, during a Jan. 17 county board meeting to confirm Kleczek Bolins appointment, Vice Chairwoman Joan Fordham of Baraboo sought to dispel concerns that Krueger had manipulated the hiring process.

She said there actually had been 10 finalists during the prior search, but that the committee only chose to interview six of them. Kleczek Bolin was one of the remaining four, whose identities were not disclosed the first time around.

Fordham and Kreuger said the other three other unnamed finalists no longer wished to be considered for the position, or had taken other jobs. Therefore, Kleczek Bolin was the only one who was interviewed in the most recent search.

Kleczek Bolin also also had moved on. She was working in the county attorneys office when she first applied to become administrative coordinator, and had since accepted a job as the Baraboo City Attorney.

The newspaper has sought to contact the three remaining unnamed finalists to ask whether they too were given an opportunity to be reconsidered for the position. However, the county has not identified them or provided their application materials upon request.

In an email to the newspapers attorney, Liebman said Fordham was incorrect when she labeled the unnamed candidates as finalists. He said the three candidates the newspaper wishes to contact were never finalists, and therefore do not have to be identified under the law.

Liebman said there were only six finalists during the first search. There was one finalist in January. She was hired, Liebman wrote. He also said the county does not possess documents related to the three unnamed candidates.

A video of the Jan. 17 meeting shows Liebman was sitting next to Fordham when she made her remarks. He did not correct her at that time.

Capital Newspapers Regional Editor Todd Krysiak said filing a lawsuit was a last resort. The newspaper has sought the information through usual channels, such as interviews and open records requests.

Unfortunately, those efforts were thwarted and the courts are the only remaining option to ensure the public has proper access to information and decisions made by government officials on behalf of the countys taxpayers, Krysiak said.
Movie producer Harvey Weinstein and comedian Louis C.K. are pariahs. Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama is under fire, and so is Democratic Sen. Al Franken. What a righteous moment of accountability for creepy men in power.

We dont know if this is the dawn of a new era when American society repudiates sexism and embraces equality and respect. Certainly it feels like new rules of conduct are pinned to the national bulletin board: Behave or be toast.

History may show the catalyst was the release last year of a vulgar conversation, taped in 2005, in which Donald Trump bragged about groping women. Trump denied committing assaults, brushed off his repulsive language as locker room banter and won the presidency.

Trump may have gotten a pass from voters, but his crassness seems to be responsible for the remarkable transformation now in progress. The revolt against sexism is a rejection of the presidents ugly, thoughtless outbursts and attacks on opponents. Many Americans, us included, are appalled by his unseemly side. Perhaps thats what encouraged victims of Weinstein and others to speak up. Thankfully, this is happening. Without an opposing force, Trumps nasty edge could be legitimized.

The Hollywood side of the equation has momentum. The producer and the comedian have been excoriated and at least temporarily banished by their industry for abusive, repugnant behavior toward women. They may never work again, or in time rehabilitate themselves. Others, including actor Kevin Spacey, also are being held to account.

The political side faces an imminent test in Alabama, where Moore is competing for a U.S. Senate seat and is suddenly behind in the polls. He has a detestable record as a public figure, having twice been elected and removed from the Alabama Supreme Court for acting as if he were above the law. Numerous women have come forward to say Moore pursued them as teenagers when he was in his 30s. The most serious allegation is that he engaged in sexual touching with a 14-year-old girl.

On-the-record accounts of Moores behavior are credible. Moore denies wrongdoing and says hell stay in the race, which is driving uneasy Republican leaders to threaten to not seat him if elected. The best result is for Moore to lose.

Franken is not up for re-election, but a lot of people want to throw him out anyway. Confronted with allegations he forcibly kissed and later groped a fellow participant during a 2006 USO show, he apologized. He acknowledged wrongdoing but sidestepped whether he aggressively kissed her.

What Franken did was shameful. It doesnt rise to the level of what Moore is accused of, but its still rude and inappropriate. The victim accepted his apology. We dont know if there are other incidents. Franken said he would cooperate with a Senate ethics committee investigation of his behavior. Thats the right next step.

Trump has gleefully lambasted Franken, but he hasnt demanded Moore step aside. Given his own track record, the president has zero credibility on the issue of respect and support for womens rights, anyway. The good thing is no one is waiting for him to lead the way. The country appears ready to move forward, starting with taking actions to hold miscreants responsible. Thats what makes this such a positive moment.
Rosanne S. Woodward died peacefully Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017, at SSM Health Hospice House in Baraboo, after cancer snuck up on her and all of us shortly before she died.

She was born Oct. 24, 1942, to Rodney and Genevieve Bussian. Rosanne married Art Woodward of Rio in 1961. She was a proud farm wife who loved being outdoors, always ready to teach visitors about farming, and was the first to lend a hand when needed. She was an active community member including Poynette Inch United Methodist Church, 4-H, school board, and Lowville Center Homemakers. She loved history and was proud of her Norwegian heritage.

Rosanne and Art have three children, Julie (Joan Jacobsen) of McFarland, Jim (Paula) of Rio and Joe (Ellen) of Poynette; and the pride of her life, four grandsons, Jackson, Ike, Sawyer and Gage. She is further survived by her sister, Pat (Lawrence) Ford; brothers, Don (Diana), Bill (Linda) and Randy (Jill); and numerous other relatives and close friends.

The family wishes to extend their gratitude to the folks who helped guide Rosanne and her family on this last journey, including the staff on 5SW at St. Marys Hospital, SSM Health Hospice House, and especially to Pastor Dianne Vielhuber for helping Rosanne and Art find peace in a short period of time.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 27, at The Barn at Harvest Moon Pond, N3540 Highway 22, Poynette, with the Rev. Dianne Vielhuber officiating. Burial will be at Rocky Run Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 26, at The Barn at Harvest Moon Pond, and from 10 a.m. until the time of service Monday, Nov. 27.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Rosannes name to SSM Health Hospice House, 915 12th St, Baraboo, WI 53913 or Poynette Inch United Methodist Church, 402 S. Main St., Poynette, 53955.

Pflanz Mantey Mendrala Funeral Home in Poynette (pmmfh.com) is assisting the family.
Wits research on HIV viral load urges updates to WHO therapy guidelines

The study shows that clinical interventions should take place at lower viral loads than those proposed by the current World Health Organization guidelines.

A large cohort study in South Africa has revealed that that low-level viraemia (LLV) in HIV-positive patients who are receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART) is an important risk factor for treatment failure.

Viraemia is a medical condition where viruses enter the bloodstream and thus have access to the rest of the body.

The findings indicate that the current World Health Organization (WHO)-defined threshold for virological failure does not identify a large subset of patients who are at increased risk of poor outcomes of ART. Thus, clinical intervention should take place at lower viral loads than those proposed by the current WHO guidelines.

Viral load refers to the amount of HIV virus in the blood.

A team of scientists including Dr Sergio Carmona from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the National Health Laboratory Service; the Ndlovu Research Consortium in Limpopo Province; the University of California San Diego, USA; and the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, published the study in Lancet Infectious Diseases in November 2017.

Dr Sergio Carmona, in the division of Molecular Medicine and Haematology, School of Pathology at Wits University and Head of the Viral Load Unit at the National Health Laboratory Service, says: "This study provides clear evidence that clinical interventions should take place at lower viral loads than those proposed by the current WHO guidelines. We need to support the scale-up of viral load testing in low and middle-income countries as well as encourage adherence to ARVs and close follow-up of viral load results.

The WHO guidelines on HIV viral load for antiretroviral therapy

The monumental response to the global HIV epidemic has led to an unprecedented number of patients on ART. The goal of ART in HIV positive patients is to suppress the viral load. From the start of the ART roll-out, South Africa has invested in laboratory capacity to enable routine viral load monitoring of all patients on ART. The implementation of viral load monitoring was done largely in accordance with WHO ART guidelines, which advises annual routine monitoring, and a threshold of 1000 copies/mL to define virological failure.

In clinical guidelines for high-income settings, cut-offs for therapy failure are lower, and clinical intervention is already required above 50 copies/mL. Suppression below 50 copies prevents disease progression towards AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome - the result of untreated HIV infection), prevents selection of resistance, and lowers the risk of transmission of the virus to others.

The South African large-scale viral load monitoring programme yields unique insights into crucial aspects of WHO ART guidelines, such as the WHO's current definition of virological failure.

The study of over 70 000 patients attending 57 HIV treatment facilities has shown that patients presenting with detectable viral loads below the lenient 1000 copies/mL threshold are at an increased risk to develop virological failure - i.e. less than 1000 copies/mL.

Study shows clinical intervention required at lower viral loads than proposed by the WHO

A quarter of the patients in this cohort, who were on first-line ART, experienced one or more episodes of LLV. Compared to patients with virological suppression, that is with less than 50 copies/ml, patients with LLV were threefold more prone to develop failure of ART. In patients with LLV of the highest range (400-999 copies/mL) this risk increased to nearly fivefold. The risk to change to second-line therapy was even more pronounced to 13 times.

Important conclusions can be drawn from this study. The findings indicate that the current WHO-defined threshold for virological failure fails to identify a large subset of patients who are at an increased risk of poor outcomes of ART.

A more active approach to low-level viremia is essential to prevent virological failure and subsequent selection of resistance. Such an approach should be implemented prior the introduction of integrase inhibitors which are the cornerstone of ART globally to preserve this powerful treatment for the coming decades.

Sustainable virological suppression is an important part of the 90-90-90 targets defined by UNAIDS. This study shows that patients with low-level viraemia are at risk for therapy failure. A strong message from WHO regarding the risk of virological failure after LLV could motivate clinicians to act when LLV is encountered, says Professor Francois Venter, deputy executive director, Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI).

90-90-90 refers to 90% of all people living with HIV knowing their status by 2020, 90% of those diagnosed be receiving ART bu 2020, and 90% of those on ART will have viral suppression by 2020.




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Minister: No change to South African energy policy

24 November 2017

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South Africa's energy policy has not and will not change, Energy Minister David Mahlobo told the country's Portfolio Committee on Energy earlier this week. He said energy was an important catalyst and enabler for economic development, and the country must ensure it used a diversity of energy resources.

"We are blessed with uranium that could be extracted and be put into use to produce nuclear power. We have gas, but not in abundance. Nuclear energy [has] got to be at a cost that we could afford. If energy is expensive it will be an impediment to growth and stability," he said.

South Africa's current Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), drawn up in 2010, called for construction of 9600 MWe of new nuclear capacity over the period to 2030. The country's Department of Energy is in the process of updating the IRP, and in November 2016 issued a draft IRP and Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) for public consultation. The 2016 draft IRP, under its base case, calls for 1359 MWe of new nuclear capacity to be built by 2037 and a total of 20,385 MWe by 2050.

The IRP guides the government's plan for electricity provision within the energy mix, while the IEP aims to guide future energy infrastructure investments over the period up to 2050, and identify and recommend policy options to shape the future energy landscape of the country.

Portfolio committees are appointed from members of South Africa's National Assembly to provide parliamentary oversight for the work of government departments.

Chairman Fikile Majola said the Portfolio Committee wanted to deal with issues previously identified as important in the energy sector.

"The Committee wants to be sure on processes that are said to be under way so that there is certainty," Majola said. "There has to be clarity with the general attitude of government with regard to energy policy so that the public is clear [about] the intentions of government. On all the big issues in the sector, we want some level of certainty with regard to where we are," he said.

Mahlobo, who became energy minister in a cabinet reshuffle last month, said reliability and sustainability of energy supply, as well as social, political and environmental impacts, were important factors. "The implementation of the policy has to give consideration to clean energy sources going into 2025 when it is expected that the country cuts down its gas emissions, in line with the climate change commitments that have been made," he said.

South African utility Eskom in December 2016 released a request for information to support the future procurement of the new nuclear capacity under the existing IRP. However, The South African High Court earlier this year ruled ministerial determinations underpinning the country's nuclear procurement plans to be unlawful and unconstitutional. It also declared the same to be the case for intergovernmental nuclear cooperation agreements, including those with Russia, South Korea and the USA, and ruled that they and the request for information must now be set aside.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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22 November 2017

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Harmonising the training of contractors to access multiple nuclear facilities in the USA is one example of ensuring safety amid pressures on the industry to cut costs and remain competitive, Peter Prozesky, CEO of the World Association of Nuclear Operators, told World Nuclear News in a recent interview. This approach is one answer to the industry's need to align its procedures, as outlined in World Nuclear Associations Harmony initiative, he added.

Any operator or owner of a nuclear power plant or nuclear fuel reprocessing facility, and any non-governmental organisation that has an important impact on nuclear safety, can apply for membership of WANO. The London-headquartered organisation has members from every nuclear power plant currently in operation across the world.

Best practice



Unveiled in September 2015, the Harmony initiative states that the global nuclear industry should aim to achieve a 25% share of world electricity production by 2050 by adding 1000 GWe of new capacity. To achieve this, World Nuclear Association has outlined three objectives - a level playing field for nuclear among sources of electricity generation, a harmonised regulatory process, and an effective safety paradigm.

Asked about the Harmony goals in an interview on 25 October, Prozesky said one of WANO's key roles is to look for examples of the most effective approaches to nuclear safety and to share best practice. He referred to the Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative in the USA, which is a collaborative effort over the last two years to find ways to improve performance efficiency without reducing safety.

"[US operators] are certainly delivering really good cost saving initiatives. For example, whenever a contractor waits to go in and work in a nuclear site, it would take him probably between one eight-hour day to two eight-hour days to become qualified to have unescorted access on that site," he said. "The training they needed to go through for radiation protection, access control, safe working arrangements, was typically one to two days. They have now harmonised their training across the US, so that once you have been trained on one site that authorisation is now valid for all the sites across the US. That has already saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in contractor man hours."

Having a wide variety of regulatory standards around the world is not only holding the industry back in terms of growth, it is also a potential pitfall in terms of nuclear safety

WANO has observer status at the board level of World Nuclear Association and Prozesky is therefore "very familiar" with the three Harmony goals, and WANO is "clearly very supportive of many aspects" of them. It has also "engaged directly" with the work of the Associations working group on Cooperation in Reactor Design Evaluation and Licensing (CORDEL), which promotes standardisation of nuclear reactor designs on the merit of improved economics and safety.

Prozesky stressed that WANO's mission is "clearly driving for the safety of existing nuclear power plants", and it is "not an advocate of nuclear power". He said WANO is careful it is not seen to be promoting the industry, but rather as a "critical observer" driving industry safety standards.

"We have to be careful with how exactly we endorse or support Harmony because clearly Harmony is driving the objective of meeting the climate change targets using nuclear power and that is not WANO's mission at all; we have no mandate from our members to promote the technology, we are here exclusively to observe safety," he said.

"Nevertheless, having a wide variety of regulatory standards around the world is not only holding the industry back in terms of growth, it is also a potential pitfall in terms of nuclear safety," he said. An example of this is the response to fire safety standards following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in March 2011.

Challenges



Operators and employees of 122 nuclear power plants in 34 different countries and areas gathered in Gyeongju, South Korea on 15-18 October for WANO's Biennial General Meeting (BGM). Its BGMs are closed meetings, but a key topic discussed at this year's event was the "gravitation from West to East" of nuclear industry projects, he said.

"The shift in the centre of gravity from a WANO point of view means putting more of our focus on support, as opposed to assessment, particularly around new units. We need to make sure we are putting more of our collective energy into supporting those new units as they go through construction and commissioning, and bringing them into service in a safe and robust way," he said.

The BGM also discussed the challenges of electricity market pressures, particularly in Europe and North America and the impact this is having on the nuclear power business and the need therefore for robust diligence and strong corporate oversight by each WANO member to ensure the industry continues to operate safely, he added. This is an issue for the Harmony goal of a level playing field.

Another "engaging topic" is societal risk, he said. This is "so much dependent on the national culture that there is no absolute means of measuring acceptability of risk".

Referring to the Japanese industry post-Fukushima, he noted the "huge preoccupation" with reduction of risk.

WANO has a role to play in public acceptance of nuclear power, he said.

"WANO, to be an effective conscience for the industry, needs a degree of confidentiality in terms of what it finds when it goes and has a look at a member's plant. We can be far more aggressive and forthright in what we write and in the way in which we address plants that are further from excellence if it can be assured that what we say is confidential. So, unlike the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is required to publicise what they find when they do an OSART mission, WANO says what we find we will keep confidential. However, where we can perhaps help the public is to tell them what we do and how we do it and that should give them a degree of confidence that the industry is very strongly self-policing."

Chief executives at the BGM shared the performance of the industry in a very transparent way, he said, which "helps to apply peer pressure to those that need to move forward". This approach should give assurance to the public that the industry is serious about safety, he added.

Cooperation



The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), which is headquartered in Atlanta, USA, has been downscaling its international activities since mid-2016, and Prozesky has been chairman of its International Safety and Reliability Steering Committee since February. WANO has also taken over responsibility for the INPO International Participant Forum and replaced it with a Chief Nuclear Officers' Forum. The first meeting for this will be in December this year, in Paris.

The Committee is now a broader-based international meeting because not all operators in the world used to be members of INPO, he said.

"It pretty much excluded the Russian Federation and the Former Soviet Union bloc countries, for obvious reasons, and they were always outside of that very valuable forum. With WANO running it now we are opening it up to everybody and we'll get a much better product as a result."

International members of INPO also have access to event reports on US nuclear power plants, but WANO "picks up 95% of that anyway, so there's not a huge difference", he said. They also had an INPO assessment rating at the end of their peer review process.

"With WANO, post-Fukushima, also implementing an assessment process on the same 1-5 numerical scale, that service is now offered by WANO, so it's no longer unique to the Atlanta Centre and to the US plants," he said.

WANO has also been expanding its cooperation with other organisations, including World Nuclear Association, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), OECD-Nuclear Energy Agency and International Youth Nuclear Congress.

Each of the organisations has its own "specific niche", Prozesky said. The IAEA focuses on regulation in its member countries, while WANO is a member organisation of nuclear power plant operators. But the two bodies have common interests and programmes, such as WANO's peer reviews and IAEA's Operational Safety Review Teams (OSART). They share methodologies and sometimes personnel, he said.

OECD-NEA also focuses more on countries and on regulators than on operators, but it collaborates with WANO on areas such as improving understanding of nuclear safety culture.

INPO launched an initiative three years ago to bring together organisations, including IAEA, OECD-NEA, WANO, Japan Nuclear Safety Institute and China Nuclear Energy Association, to talk about how to avoid duplication of effort, he said. For example, WANO and IAEA share their calendar of events and programmes, so that peer review and OSART missions do not overlap.

Confidentiality



WANO has a formal signed confidentiality agreement with each of its members. Any third party who wishes, for legitimate reasons, to have access to that information may do so on the basis that they also sign a confidentiality agreement. Confidentiality applies equally to the positive findings as it does to the negative, Prozesky said.

"Confidentiality means confidentiality of everything, and if information does get out publicly, then we would find a situation where people at the power stations would perhaps not be as open with sharing their weaknesses with us and it's really important for us to have a completely open and transparent relationship; it's not in their interest to hide anything because if they do then they can't improve, and they can potentially cause a problem for everybody else in the industry. We do find occasionally defensiveness and we work to get people to open up, but we have to do it in the spirit of trust."

There was a long debate among the governors of WANO after the Fukushima accident about whether WANO should publish its reviews in the way IAEA publishes its OSART reviews. WANO concluded it could be transparent about why and how it works, but not about what it finds, he said.

Further developments



At the BGM in South Korea, WANO launched its second iteration of Compass, in which is outlined its strategy for 2018-2022. The foreword of the latest document states that a "consistent message from all sources, and therefore the main change in our strategy" is that WANO and its members need to provide more support to improve plant safety and performance.

"With limited resources and challenging economic pressures for many members, support activities must focus on the most significant safety and performance issues, in particular, supporting those further away from excellence as well as new entrants and new units to help them start up safely and reliably," it says. "WANO will also review the location of the support activities, particularly with the growth in nuclear generation in Asia, to ensure that they are being provided in the most efficient and effective manner."

The focus areas in Compass are: continue to support and set the standards of high performance of the world's existing nuclear fleet; build and maintain a highly trained, professional workforce in WANO and improve the effectiveness of the governance arrangements; forge a more effective WANO through more consistent, credible products and programmes, including providing nuclear leadership development; and instil superior standards among new units and new industry entrants.

WANO is studying developments in digital technology and how these are affecting its members.

"The design of control rooms in the 1960s didnt change much right through the 80s and the early 90s; you had operators walking around, operating switches on panels. Modern controls rooms are completely different; the operators sit behind a bank of cathode ray tube screens, using a mouse or a track ball, and are starting and stopping pumps by selecting things from the keyboard. That brings challenges for us in terms of how supervisors have oversight of the activities in a control room and how we assess performance," he said.

"But it's a very interesting time for us to go through because there are huge benefits to effectiveness and efficiency, to reducing human error. Instead of an operator, or a maintenance person going to wrong piece of equipment, they now have a hand-held device with which they scan the barcode, which tells them they are in the right place.

"WANO has to adapt and we expect our members, not us, to be the innovators."

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing company owned by Amazon, announced Monday that they are launching a new AWS Secret Region cloud designed to host government data classified as Secret. The AWS Secret Region is the most recent product of the companys $600 million deal reached in 2013 with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the military-intelligence apparatus, and signals the complete integration of Amazon with the government and spy agencies.

While no details have emerged about the cost, security architecture or design of the Secret Region cloud, leading company and state officials are hailing it as the culmination of Amazons deepening partnership with the American spy agencies.

In a post on the AWS Government, Education, & Nonprofits Blog, the company proudly proclaims, With the launch of this new Secret Region, AWS becomes the first and only commercial cloud provider to offer regions to serve government workloads across the full range of data classifications, including Unclassified, Sensitive, Secret, and Top Secret. By using the cloud, the U.S. Government is better able to deliver necessary information and data to mission stakeholders.

Summarizing the significance of the new storage cloud, Teresa Carlson, vice president at AWS Worldwide Public Sector, said in a statement, The U.S. Intelligence Community can now execute their missions with a common set of tools, a constant flow of the latest technology and the flexibility to rapidly scale with the mission. The AWS Top Secret Region was launched three years ago as the first air-gapped commercial cloud and customers across the U.S. Intelligence Community have made it a resounding success. Ultimately, this capability allows more agency collaboration, helps get critical information to decision makers faster, and enables an increase in our Nations Security.

John Edwards, the chief information officer of the CIA, declared, The AWS Secret Region is a key component of the Intel Communitys multi-fabric cloud strategy. It will have the same material impact on the IC at the Secret level that C2S has had at Top Secret.

The AWS Top Secret Region that Carlson and Edwards refer to is a private, off-the-grid computing cloud used solely by the 17 agencies that comprise the military-intelligence state apparatus. The cloud, known as the Commercial Cloud Service (C2S), stores large portions of the internet and telecommunications data collected by the IC agencies. It is a component of the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise (IC ITE) program launched in 2011 in response to the data breaches carried out by Chelsea Manning, which exposed the war crimes carried out by American imperialism in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In a speech given before the 2017 AWS Public Sector Summit in Washington DC last June, Edwards heaped praise upon Amazon for the benefits that the C2S cloud has brought the CIA and other spy agencies. He declared, Its the best decision we ever made. Its the most innovative thing weve ever done. It is making a material difference and having a material impact on both the CIA and IC [intelligence community].

Edwards noted that the cloud has led to significant cost savings, while providing the IC with the ability to scale vast infrastructures in seconds. He revealed that adoption of the cloud across the IC is growing at 208 percent year-over-year.

Edwards went on to characterize the C2S cloud as the equivalent of a superhero, possessing the superpowers of Speed, Power, Scalability, Strength, Durability and Truth, with each attribute as a separate heading on his PowerPoint slides.

Regarding the Strength of the C2S cloud, he stated, Im never gonna say that anything you do in the cyber world is totally invincible, but this is pretty close.  I would argue and say that this is probably the most secure thing there is out there.

Edwards claims that C2S is nearly impenetrable are belied by revelations made last week that a massive database created by the Department of Defense (DoD) and hosted on an AWS server has been publicly exposed. The database contained upwards of 1.8 billion internet posts from thousands of people across the world that had been compiled by the Pentagon over the past eight years, apparently as part of a vast intelligence-gathering operation. In all likelihood, this database was classified as Top Secret and therefore could have been hosted on the supposedly impenetrable C2S cloud.

Breaking the story, US cybersecurity firm UpGuard wrote, UpGuard Director of Cyber Risk Research Chris Vickery discovered three Amazon Web Services S3 cloud storage buckets configured to allow any AWS global authenticated user to browse and download the contents; AWS accounts of this type can be acquired with a free sign-up.

Describing the character of the released documents, UpGuard noted, The repositories appear to contain billions of public internet posts and news commentary scraped from the writings of many individuals from a broad array of countries, including the United States, by CENTCOM and PACOM, two Pentagon unified combatant commands charged with US military operations across the Middle East, Asia, and the South Pacific.

The character and immense scale of this data gathering operation provide a glimpse into the profoundly antidemocratic spying activities which the Pentagon and spy agencies engage in every day, and which Amazon has been profiting from handsomely in recent years.

The internet posts compiled by the Pentagon included content captured from news sites, comment sections, web forums, and social media sites like Facebook, featuring multiple languages and originating from countries around the world, according to UpGuard.

As Google and other tech companies are working with the American state to censor the internet and countries around the world prepare their own plans for internet censorshipall in the name of combating the bogeyman of fake newsthe Pentagon has secretly been engaged in mass surveillance of the global populations online activity, in close consultation with Amazon.

The creation of the new Secret Region cloud, alongside the broader drive toward internet censorship and surveillance, highlights the growing integration of all the major tech corporations with the state in preparation for a vast expansion of war abroad and attacks on democratic rights within the US.

Last Thursday, the Senate voted to approve the $700 billion National Defense Authorization Act by a voice vote, after it quickly passed through the House of Representatives by a bipartisan vote of 356 to 70. While significantly increasing troop levels and providing funding for more ships and military equipment, the budget also mandates the creation of e-commerce portals, which will eventually lead to the funneling of billions of dollars directly to Amazon.
As opposition to Indias Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government mounts within the working class and among the rural poor, Indias principal Stalinist parliamentary party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM, is deeply divided over whether to form an explicit electoral alliance with the Congress Partythe Indian bourgeoisies traditional party of government. So deep are the divisions, a party split cannot be excluded.

According to media reports, last months three-day meeting of the CPM Central Committee revealed the party leadership to be vertically split over forging an election bloc with the Congress Party for the 2019 national elections.

Dissenting from the approach favored by the majority of the CPM Politburo, party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury submitted a minority draft of the main resolution for the partys upcoming congress. It advocated the Stalinists and their Left Front champion an electoral bloc of all secular parties, including the Congress, against the Hindu supremacist BJP. A counter document that argued the Stalinists should work for an alliance of all secular parties except the neoliberal Congress was presented by an opposing faction, led by Yechurys predecessor, Prakash Karat.

Out of the 63 CC members who spoke at the meeting, 31 are said to have endorsed Yechurys call for an electoral bloc with the Congress, while 32 members backed Karats stance. With the party leadership split down the middle and the CPMs two principal leaders arrayed against each other, the Central Committee ultimately opted to defer any decision. Under a compromise formula, the Politburo was instructed to rework the draft resolution for the partys 22nd national congress to be held next April on the basis of the Politburo outline and the discussions in the Central Committee.

Given the differences and the perceived stakes on both sides, there is every possibility that the dispute will rage until the party congress and beyond.

In arguing for his reactionary line of support for the big-business Congress, Yechury invoked the name of Leon Trotsky, drawing an utterly fraudulent parallel between Trotskys call for a united front of working-class organizations and parties against the Nazis in the early 1930s to his advocacy of a Left Front-Congress-led electoral bloc against the Hindu fascist BJP.

According to the Hindu, Yechury quoted Trotskys famous distillation of the policy of the united front, march separately, but strike together, to bolster his claim that as the BJP is in the ascendant there is a need for all anti-BJP political forces to unite in an electoral alliance.

The policy advocated by the CPM General Secretary today and that advocated by Trotsky are diametrically opposed. Trotskys policy was aimed at mobilizing the independent class strength of the working class against fascist reaction, while Yechury, in the name of opposing the Hindu communalist BJP, seeks to shackle the working class to the Congress Party, the crisis-ridden Indian bourgeoisie, and its state.

Under conditions where the German Communist Party (KPD) was fatally underestimating the threat represented by the fascists, as exemplified by its claim After Hitler, then us, and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) was opposing working-class struggle and promoting the institutions of the bourgeois Weimar Republic as the bulwark against fascism, Trotsky urged the KPD systematically demand of the SPD that it join it in united actionsworkers defense guards, strikes, etc.to fight the fascists, but without any political compromise with the Social Democrats. As Trotsky said, No common platform with the Social Democracy, or with the leaders of the German trade unions, no common publications, banners, placards! March separately, but strike together! Agree only how to strike, whom to strike, and when to strike!

Yechurys attempt to pass off the Congress as the prospective member of a united front as advocated by Trotsky is patently absurd. By the early 1930s the SPD had long betrayed its revolutionary origins and been transformed into a prop of bourgeois rule; but it was a bourgeois workers partya party with a mass working-class membership and millions of affiliated members in the trade unions.

The Congress is a decrepit bourgeois electoral machine, with a dynastic leadership. It has been the premier party of bourgeois rule during the seven decades of independent India; spearheaded the post-1991 the drive to make India a cheap-labor haven for global capital and a strategic partner of US imperialism; and, the Stalinists promotion, of its secular credentials notwithstanding, has repeatedly connived with the Hindu right.

Yechury is an arch opponent of Trotskyism. Like the rest of the CPM leadership he steadfastly defends the Stalinist bureaucracys bloody suppression of the Left Opposition and the nationalist program of socialism in one country that culminated in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the restoration of capitalism. That the CPM general-secretary should now cynically invoke the name of the founder of the Fourth International in an attempt to justify a further lurch right on the part of the CPM is a measure of the crisis of the Indian Stalinists.

For decades CPM leaders have waved red flags and used anti-imperialist and Marxist rhetoric while integrating themselves into the bourgeois establishment. This has included propping up a succession of rightwing anti-BJP governments at the Centre from 1991 to 2008 and implementing what they themselves call pro-investor policies in the three states where they have formed the government.

As a result, the CPMs support in the working class has hemorrhaged, with their representation in the Lok Sabha, the popularly elected lower house of parliament, reduced to less than a dozen MPs.

The policy advocated by Yechurys opponents within the CPM leadership is no less antithetical to the interests of the working class. Whereas Yechury wants the CPM to rush to the aid of the Congress, which is on life support in large swathes of the country, the Karat faction advocates the CPM forge an electoral alliance with a host of regional and caste-based parties that are viciously hostile to the working class and have repeatedly allied with both the Congress and BJP.

The differences are largely rooted in narrow electoral calculations, but as these are bound up with access to patronage networks, the wrangle over them is fierce. Yechury is backed by the CPMs West Bengal state unit. The CPM-led Left Front ruled West Bengal for 34 consecutive years, ending in 2011, but is now only the third-largest party in the state assembly. It is desperate for an alliance with the Congress Party to avoid being wiped out electorally, as politics in the state have become increasingly polarized between the rightwing, viciously anticommunist Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

In Kerala, where the Stalinists currently lead the state government, the Congress is the CPMs principal electoral rival. The Karat faction voices the apprehensions of the Kerala CPM leadership that an explicit electoral alliance with the Congress will undermine its support.

The Karat faction also fears that if the CPM enters into closer collaboration with the Congress it will further discredit itself in the eyes of workers, the rural poor and youth. At last months CC, the Karat faction reportedly argued that the effort should be to strengthen the mass movements against the BJP and this stand would be diluted if the CPM allied with the Congress.

According to media reports, so angered is the Karat faction over Yechurys stand, they may seek to deny him the standard second term usually accorded CPM general-secretaries.

However, it was under Karats leadership that the CPM-led Left Front served as the principal prop of the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from May 2004 to June 2008. Indeed, while the CPM formally stayed out of the government, it played a leading role in convincing other parties to join the Congress-led government and in writing the Common Minimum Programme that ostensibly underpinned the UPA.

Karat and his faction also turned a blind eye when the West Bengal CPM, with Yechurys support, violated a CC decision and formed the first-ever publicly declared electoral bloc between the Stalinists and the Congress Party for the 2016 West Bengal assembly election. Only after the election ended in a debacle for the CPM did the Karat faction turn on the West Bengal CPM leadership, insist it immediately end its alliance with the Congress, and publicly admit it had violated party policy.

Just as both CPM factions have supported the Indian bourgeoisies drive to attract foreign capital, dismissing in the words of the late West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, socialism as a far off cry; so they have facilitated the Indian bourgeoisies great power ambitions, including facilitating the development of a strategic partnership with Washington.

The CPM propped up the Congress-led UPA as it forged closer relations with the US under the war criminal George W. Bush and it has supported Indias massive military expansion. When the BJP government launched illegal and provocative surgical strikes inside Pakistan in September 2016, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, a Karat ally, moved a resolution in the state assembly congratulating the Indian military.

The rise of the Hindu right is directly bound up with the Stalinists decades-long suppression of the class struggle and active role in implementing the agenda of the bourgeoisie both at the Center and in the states. Now the Stalinists point to the crimes of the BJP under Narendra Modi, including its incitement of communalism and moves toward authoritarian rule, to promote the same line of subordinating the working class to the parties and institutions of the bourgeoisie that has paved the way for the growth of reaction.

The working class must blaze a new road: it must forge its political independence from all the political representatives of the bourgeoisie, advance its own socialist solution to the failure of Indian capitalism to lift the masses out of poverty and deprivation, and on that basis rally the toilers behind it in the struggle for a workers government and international socialism.
The resignation of Robert Mugabe as president was celebrated among broad masses, who have seen nothing but hardship due to the catastrophic economic situation facing Zimbabwe and the brutal repression and lack of democratic rights accompanying this social decline.

But those who believe Mugabes downfall will bring an improvement in their lives will be cruelly disappointed. The military and the faction of the ruling ZANU-PF led by Emmerson Mnangagwa have used Mugabes 37 years as head of state to channel social discontent against him and his wife Grace and the nouveau riche clique that makes up the Generation 40 faction she heads.

However, the promises made by Mnangagwa, sworn in as president today, of a new and unfolding democracy and jobs, jobs are worthless. His goal is to impose an adrenalized version of the capitalist policies that have already created so much suffering. What is needed is not merely the removal of Mugabe, but a political reckoning with Zimbabwes bourgeoisie and its abject failure to end imperialist domination, brutal exploitation and the looting of the countrys rich natural resources.

Mugabe came to power after a 15-year armed struggle against the white settler regime of Southern Rhodesia. He headed the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which drew its support from the majority Shona people, with its main rival, the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) led by Joshua Nkomo, based among the Ndebele people.

The insurgency led to fears of the Soviet Union developing a bridgehead in Southern Africa, prompting US-inspired talks with the British Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. With its close relations to China, ZANU utilised socialist phrases to secure popular support, while exploiting fears of ZAPUs relations with Russia, to secure Britains backing.

The Lancaster House Agreement paved the way for elections in 1980 won by ZANU. As a precondition for taking power, Mugabe signed up to policies preserving capitalist rule in the newly independent state of Zimbabwe and the domination of the key mining and agricultural sectors by international corporations. He also agreed not to encroach on the interests of white landowners for 10 yearstaking over land only on a willing seller basis with full compensation.

In 1982, Mugabe launched Operation Gukurahundisweep away the chaffin Ndebele-majority Matabeleland, a genocidal campaign led by Mnangagwa. Mugabe declared an amnesty in 1987, and the two rival parties merged to form ZANU-Popular Front.

The 1980s were a period of apparent success for Zimbabwe, which enjoyed a developed economy with rich resources, and was given favourable treatment by the West as a means of combating Soviet influence. Welfare measures and other progressive health and education reforms were implemented.

The liquidation of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought this period to an end. In the post-Cold War era, Washington, London and the European Union were no longer ready to extend the limited room for manoeuvre they once gave Zimbabwe.

Mugabes regime, reliant on patronage and nepotism, was viewed as an impediment to the interests of international investors. Throughout the 1990s, the International Monetary Fund cut off funding and demanded the opening of Zimbabwe to foreign investment, privatisation and ever-greater levels of exploitation as part of the Structural Adjustment Programmes agreed to by Mugabe.

This led to social unrest, including general strikes between 1997 and 1999. However, the Zimbabwe Confederation of Trade Unions (ZCTU) opposed Mugabe from the rightforming an alliance with white business and farming interests in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 2000, which pledged to privatise and restore business confidence.

Mugabe did nothing to wage a genuine offensive against big-business interests. He responded by combining attacks on the working class in the urban centres with encouraging limited land seizures to cement ZANU-PFs overwhelmingly rural basewith Mugabe declaring, Our roots are in the soil and not in the factories.

His land policy offered no genuine solution to the social and economic problems facing either the rural poor or the workers and unemployed of the cities. The division of large agribusiness estates into small farms tied agrarian layers to ZANU-PF, but condemned previously productive agricultural land to subsistence farming when collective land ownership would have allowed for a highly productive alternative.

The imperialist powers replied to the land seizures and repression of the MDC with brutal sanctions in 2002 and 2008. Mugabe embarked on the Look East Policy in 2003 to seek alternative investments and markets, particularly from China and Russia. But Zimbabwes subordinate position in relation to the major imperialist powers was only replicated with its new trading partners, who took over vast tracts of industry, mining and the production of consumer goods. Rather than facilitating Mugabes declared policy of indigenisation, the domestic economy underwent a further collapse leading to a massive trading deficit.

Mugabes threat to extend indigenisation to the extraction industries was used by Mnangagwa and Commander of the Armed Forces Constantino Chiwenga to seek Beijings backing for their palace coup against Mugabewith promises of a more liberal trade policy that were also extended to the US, Britain, etc. More importantly, Zimbabwe has placed itself at the centre of a struggle being waged by US imperialism against China and Russia in a contemporary version of the scramble for Africa that threatens the world with war.

The experience of Zimbabwe is that of the workers and agrarian masses in South Africa, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and throughout the continent.

None of the states established following World War II decolonisation have secured genuine independence from imperialism, or developed a viable economy that provides decent jobs, homes, education and health care. Instead, promises of national economic development have given way to the local elites acting as naked political agents of the imperialist governments, transnational corporations and banks.

The working class must adopt a genuinely socialist strategy in opposition to the counterfeit one advanced by ZANU-PF. Trotsky, based on his Theory of Permanent Revolution, opposed the Stalinist two-stage perspective that the path to socialism would proceed through a protracted stage of bourgeois democratic development, which has played such a disastrous role in Africa.

He insisted that in countries with a belated capitalist development, the resolution of the democratic tasks associated in the 19th century with bourgeois revolutions, including national unity and land reform, were now bound up with the taking of power by the working class. He made clear that the global development of capitalism in the imperialist epoch, coupled with fear of an already developed working class that threatened its interests, inevitably drives the national bourgeoisie into the arms of the imperialist powers that have already divided the world between them.

The realisation of socialism must be based on the same objective reality of a global economy and of the international character of the working class. Zimbabwes workers must strive to seize power and form their own state, offering leadership to the rural masses. But the success of a socialist revolution, even if begun in a single country, demands that it is spread to neighbouring countries in Africa, and can only be completed on the world arena.

The working class must maintain political independence from all representatives of the national bourgeoisie and the imperialist powersincluding both factions of ZANU-PF, the rival MDCs, etc.and the trade union federations that back them. The advanced workers and youth must begin building a Zimbabwean section of the International Committee of the Fourth International to fight for a socialist Zimbabwe and a United Socialist States of Africa, and to forge a unified movement for socialism with workers in the US, Britain and other imperialist states.
Tomorrows election in the northern state of Queensland has become a concentrated expression of the breakdown of the long-standing two-party parliamentary system, as well as of the deeper political impasse confronting the working class in Australia and internationally.

Various media polls point to both traditional ruling parties, Labor and the Liberal National Party (LNP), struggling to push their respective votes over 30 percent, opening the door for the extreme right-wing One Nation to possibly pick up enough seats to enter government for the first time anywhere in Australia.

One Nation is cynically exploiting the public disgust toward the political establishment, falsely depicting its pro-business agenda as anti-elite, while trying to divert social and political disaffection in poisonous nationalist and anti-Asian and anti-Islamic directions.

The election outcome could reverberate across the country, potentially accelerating the collapse of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls Liberal-National government. More fundamentally, the crisis poses the necessity for the working class to break out of the political straitjacket of the Labor Party and the trade unions and turn to an alternative socialist perspective.

The LNP is openly prepared to enter a coalition with One Nation, an avowedly anti-immigrant and xenophobic party. Labor has insisted it will not do a deal with One Nation, warning that would create instability. But Labor MPs are publicly cosying up to Senator Pauline Hansons party, sharing its rabid nationalism.

The seething hostility to the two major parties is the product of decades of mounting attacks on the jobs, living standards and basic services of the working class to satisfy the dictates of the financial elite. This corporate offensive has been imposed by one government after another, both Labor and LNP, and enforced by the trade unions, which have smothered every outbreak of opposition by workers.

Years of bitter experiences have demonstrated the political dead-end confronting millions of working people across Australias third most populous state. Over the past decade, in particular, the 2008 global financial meltdown and the subsequent implosion of the mining boom that propped up the state economy have produced mass unemploymentup to 20 percent officiallyand social misery in working class and regional areas.

This economic and social breakdown has produced unprecedented political fluctuations. Five years ago, in 2012, the two decade-old Queensland Labor government of premiers Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh was thrown out of office in a landslide that reduced Labor to a parliamentary rump of just seven seats.

Just three months after the 2009 state election, Bligh had repudiated her electioneering promises to defend, not cut, public services. She announced a $15 billion sell-off of public enterprises, axing thousands of railway and other jobs.

Explicitly backed by the then federal Labor government, Bligh declared that her decision was essential to restore the states AAA-credit rating on the global financial markets after the 2008 crash.

The trade unions proceeded to suffocate the opposition of rail and other workers, paving the way for the election of a LNP government. For her services, Bligh was well rewardedshe is now the CEO and public face of the Australian Bankers Association, directly representing the interests of the financial oligarchy.

The incoming LNP government, led by Premier Campbell Newman, set about slashing healthcare and other essential social services, axing 14,000 public sector jobs, in an effort to appease the financial markets and attract rapacious investors. That assault allowed Labor to scrape back into office in 2015, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk heading a precarious minority government.

Over the past three years, Labor has refused to restore the services gutted by the LNP. Nor has it been able to reverse the economic decline, despite offering huge subsidies to corporate operators, including royalty rebates, infrastructure funding and other concessions worth an estimated $500 million over the next five years for the Adani companys proposed coal mine in central Queensland.

Instead, hand-in hand with its desperate pro-business measures, the Labor government has undertaken a law-and-order offensive, boosting police numbers, resources and powers to deal with anticipated social unrest. Palaszczuk also joined her state counterparts and Turnbulls government in introducing police-state provisions, such as extended detention without charge, under the guise of combatting terrorism.

Labors main pitch to voters has been to play upon fears of another LNP government, headed by Tim Nicholls, who was the Newman governments treasurer and personally championed its mass job destruction. Labors main election advertising slogan warns of cuts and chaos under a LNP-One Nation coalition.

Beneath the sloganeering, Palaszczuks essential appeal has been to business leaders to back Labor as a more reliable instrument for inflicting their requirements. At Labors official campaign launch last Sunday, she insisted the election was a choice between certainty and uncertainty, a choice between stability and instability.

Cynically, the trade unions are doing everything they can to corral their members behind yet another corporate-dominated Labor government. Their election slogans, such as Itll be grim under Tim [Nicholls], are designed to block any examination of Labors record, especially under Bligh. Palaszczuk was a key ministerthe transport ministerin Blighs hated government.

The Greens are playing a parallel role. While trying to win an inner-Brisbane seat from Labor, by appealing to upper middle-class voters in gentrified suburbs, they are essentially backing Labors retention of office. Likewise, the pseudo-left Socialist Alliance is running a candidate in a central Brisbane electorate to provide a safety valve for discontent, but allocating its preferences to the Greens and Labor.

All the most critical political issues facing working class and young people have been buried throughout the campaign. Behind a wall of phony election promises, both Labor and the LNP have avoided any discussion about their commitments to the financial markets to reduce the states ballooning public debt. There is a conspiracy of silence about the realityas soon as the election is out of the way, the next government will intensify the assault on the jobs, conditions and basic services of the working class.

Above all, there is no mention of the escalating danger of a catastrophic war, triggered by Washingtons aggression against North Korea and China, with both Labor and the Coalition pledging unconditional involvement in any US military operation.

One Nation, which also backs US militarism, has no solutions to the social distress it is capitalising on. Its program mainly rests on promoting the profit interests of national-based business operators who are being squeezed by the big banks and transnational corporations. The poorest and most vulnerable members of society would be the primary victims of its anti-welfare and divisive policies.

Polling has shown that only about 13 percent of intending One Nation voters are motivated by its policies, whereas 45 percent are simply determined to shake things up or dislike the old parties. One Nation is also wracked by its own rifts, with its latest federal Senate nominee, Fraser Anning, splitting from the party before he was even sworn into office last week.

This right-wing formation is only able to feed off the political alienation because the working class remains sidelined and suppressed by Labor and the unions, which have been at the forefront of enforcing the social devastation. Alongside similar experiences in Europe and internationally, this demonstrates the urgent necessity for a conscious political turn to the only progressive alternative: a socialist and internationalist program.

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The well-known proverb Beware of false friends should be taken as a warning by German Siemens workers, who are protesting against the elimination of 6,900 jobs and the shuttering of several plants. Some 2,500 Siemens employees demonstrated in Berlin on Thursday.

Among the speakers who addressed the protesters was Social Democratic (SPD) leader Martin Schulz. He condemned the companys actions as anti-social and irresponsible. He accused Siemens of following the maxim, So we can make a bit more profit, well throw the people out. A day earlier, IG Metall trade union leader Jorg Hofmann bellowed that his organization would not accept the closure of plants and will now make an orderly ruckus.

But despite their radical phrase-mongering, the SPD and IG Metall have been at the forefront of the ruling elites drive to slash workers wages and benefits. Hofmann leads a trade union whose functionaries, works councilors and supervisory board representatives have negotiated and signed off on hundreds of thousands of job cuts over recent years and decadesat Siemens, Opel, ThyssenKrupp and many other companies.

Schulz is chairman of a party which with the Hartz laws created the means making it possible for the companies to impose ruthless attacks on workers. The huge low-wage sector created as a result of Agenda 2010 creates downward pressure to reduce wages and undermine working conditions. Schulz spent 23 years of his political career in the European Parliament, and as its president he played a major part in throwing the living standards of Greek workers back decades.

After attending the Siemens workers demonstration, Schulz hurried to Bellevue Palace, where he informed German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier that the SPD is no longer insisting on new elections to resolve the government crisis. On Monday, after the failure of the Jamaica coalition talks, the SPD executive, at Schulzs insistence, unanimously called for new elections.

In practice, the SPDs about-face either means they will back the continuation of the hated grand coalition, which was severely punished in the federal election, or support a minority government made up of only Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union ministers that could rely on the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany), Free Democrats or Greens when required.

Both cases would involve the creation of an extreme right-wing government which will owe its power to manoeuvres behind the scenes with no democratic legitimacy. This would intensify the attacks on jobs, workers rights, wages and pensions, and press ahead with the strengthening of the domestic and external state apparatus that was begun by the grand coalition.

Siemens chief executive Joe Kaeser, who knows Schulzs real agenda, mockingly answered his accusation of irresponsibility by referring to Schulzs refusal to negotiate a new government coalition. Perhaps you should consider who is acting irresponsibly, he wrote in an open letter to the SPD leader. Those who proactively deal with foreseeable structural problems and search for long-term solutions, or those who avoid taking responsibility and dialogue.

Schulzs appearance at the Siemens demonstration prior to his meeting with Steinmeier shows what the SPD leader is up to. His initial insistence on new elections was linked to the fear that left-wing and socialist ideas would gain influence if the SPD remained in the government and left the leadership of the opposition to the right-wing extremist AfD.

Social tensions are seething beneath the surface. The Siemens demonstration in Berlin was only one of many demonstrations over recent days. Also on Thursday, around 8,000 employees of ThyssenKrupps steel division protested in Andersnach, Rheinland-Palatinate against the planned merger with Indias Tata Steel. On Wednesday, a thousand laid off workers from the bankrupt Air Berlin marched from Berlins main train station to the Chancellors Office. Spiegel Online entitled an article, Anger at the bosses, anger at politics. And over the previous days, protests were held at several Siemens locations.

The SPD is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain control over social dissatisfaction in alliance with the trade unions, and to inoculate it against the influence of socialists. The SPD has been in government since 1998, with just one four-year break. This has discredited the party. It has shrunk to an organisational rump of state office holders, functionaries and public officials and barely secured 20 percent of the vote in the election.

The SPDs attempt to pose as an opposition party also collides with its call for responsible statesmanship. President Steinmeier, Bundestag President Wolfgang Schauble (CDU), Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leading state representatives want to avoid at all costs a re-run of the election because they fear an open political conflict. They are pushing for the decision on the composition of the next government to be arrived at in a small circle. In addition, there is the fear that a long-lasting government crisis would weaken Germanys international standing. By abandoning the call for new elections, the SPD has endorsed this stance.

It is impossible to defend a single job, or any social or democratic right without challenging this conspiracy. The workers will confront the embittered hostility of the SPD and trade unions, and the government they back, if they launch a genuine struggle against Siemens plan, and not just a symbolic protest.

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP) demands new elections to prevent the formation of a right-wing government behind the scenes. The SGP fights for a socialist program, which unites the working class on the basis of a struggle against social inequality, war and capitalism. Such a program, which places the social interests of the working class above the profit interests of the corporations, provides the basis for a defence of jobs.
Since the beginning of the year, the US has rapidly expanded its forces and significantly ramped up its military offensive in Somalia, conducting at least 28 air strikes in 2017. By comparison, 13 such air strikes were carried out in 2016, and five during 2015.

On Tuesday, AFRICOM stated that a US air strike killed more than 100 at a training camp purportedly belonging to the Somali-based Al-Shabaab militia. The air strike impacted an area around 125 miles northwest of capital city Mogadishu. US officials claimed the strike was carried out at the request of the US-backed Federal Transitional Government (FTG).

Speaking on the US pretext for the attack, a spokesperson from AFRICOM told the media, Al-Shabaab has publicly committed to planning and conducting attacks against the US and our partners in the region.

The attack is part of the broader US campaign against Al-Shabaab, in which the US has carried out repeated drone strikes against militants in the several weeks since a truck bombing in central Mogadishu by Al-Shabaab killed over 350. Increased air strikes augment a ramped-up military offensive by the Trump administration in the Horn of Africa.

The expanded campaign comes with new rules of engagement enacted by the Trump administration in March, granting broad authority to US forces to conduct open-ended warfare. These loosened restrictions on rules that were ostensibly in place to protect the civilian population from US bombardment make it clear that Washington is preparing for a dramatically expanded military offensive in Somalia.

Al-Shabaab maintains a strong presence in the center and south of the country, but has steadily lost ground since 2011, when US-backed forces from the African Union routed the militia that had taken control over most of Mogadishu.

In deploying the largest contingent of US military troops in the country since 1993, AFRICOM has increased its troops in Somalia to more than 500 soldiers. In launching an all-out offensive in the country, the deployment includes special operations personnel, including Green Berets and Navy Seals, the elite commandos known for carrying out US imperialisms gravest crimes.

For its part, the Pentagon sought to downplay the significance of the increased troop levels. Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Politico, I would not associate that with a buildup, as youre calling it. I think its just the flow of forces in and out as different organizations come in that might be sized a little differently, and I certainly dont think theres a ramp-up of attacks.

Despite this, the increased number of US troops taken together with more than twice the number of air strikes over the previous year constitutes a significant expansion of the American military campaign in the country.

Robyn Mack, spokesperson for AFRICOM, said, [The larger] advise and assist mission [is now] the most significant element of our partnership [in Somalia].

For the better part of a decade, the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militia has sought to topple the US-backed government in Mogadishu. The US, in carrying out its offensive against the militia, has been augmented by over 22,000 troops from the African Union, consisting of forces from several African countries, together with the Somali army. The African Union mission, called AMISOM, having officially lead the US-backed offensive since 2007, is set to withdraw its forces in December 2020.

Retired Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, who headed AFRICOM until June, spoke of the expansion to Politico: We had to put more small teams on the ground to partner in a regional way with the Somali government. So we changed our strategy and we changed our operational approach. Thats why the footprint went up.

AFRICOMs expansion follows the template set in 2016 in the northern Somali region of Puntland, when AFRICOM deployed elite soldiers to assist the Somali army in routing ISIS militants who had taken control of the city of Qandala.

Outlining Washingtons strategy as a move toward a more proactive military offensive in the country, Bolduc said, Puntland was the example we used. We said, We can do this in the other areas. So we changed our strategy and we changed our operational approach.

Being more specific, Bolduc said, Do we get into contact with the enemy? Yes, we doour partners do and were there to support it, and sometimes we come into contact by virtue of how the enemy attacked them. Bolduc went on, Taking out high-value targets is necessary, but its not going to lead you to strategic success, and its not going to build capability and capacity in our partners to secure themselves. So we provided a plan that complemented the kinetic strikes.

Since the end of the Mohamed Siad Barre dictatorship in 1991, the US has been engaged in an effort to secure a puppet regime in Mogadishu. The consequent decades of war and conflict stoked by US imperialism have left the country in complete disarray, with the population experiencing conditions of mass deprivation and misery.

According to UN figures, more than half the population does not have access to clean water sources, and 73 percent are completely impoverished. Due to the destruction of vital infrastructure, the Somali masses have been deprived of access to decent health care and education.

The US-backed FTG government has no popular support anywhere in the country, and is viewed with outright hostility by the majority of Somalis. The military offensive and drone strikes carried out by the US and its proxy forces have killed thousands of Somalis. The consequent destruction of Somali society has led to the emergence of Al-Shabaab.

The American military expansion in the Horn of Africa must be seen in the context of Chinas far-reaching and expanding economic influence on the continent, together with Beijings recent opening of a navy base in Djibouti, which has provoked Washingtons ire. Washington is seeking to neutralize Beijings influence by military force.

In establishing its first overseas base, some five miles from the joint US/French military base Camp Lemonnier, Beijing agreed to pay the Djibouti government $100 million per year. Beijing claimed the base is merely a logistics facility.

Last week, Chinas POLY-GCL Petroleum Group signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Djibouti to invest $4 billion in a natural gas project at Damerjog near the border with Somalia. In six months, the company will begin construction on the project, which includes a pipeline, a liquefaction plant, and an export terminal. The pipeline is projected to transport 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from Ethiopia to Djibouti.

China Railway Group and China Civil Engineering Construction Corp (CCECC) have financed 70 percent of the construction for an electrified Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, the first such cross-border railway on the continent. The commercial rail line connects Ethiopias capital with the Rea Sea port in Djibouti, and carries 90 percent of the trade from Ethiopias goods.
Up to 300 workers will have their jobs cut in the one-industry town of Camas, Washington when the paper mill, which has operated since 1885, closes down several of its operations. Approximately 120 to 140 workers will remain in the huge facility, which, at its height in the early 1970s, employed over 2,600 workers.

Multinational paper products giant Georgia-Pacific, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, says weak copy-paper demand is forcing it to halt production of paper used in printers and copiers, as well as wood pulping operations and other related procedures. It plans to implement these production and job cuts in the second quarter of 2018 while continuing its profitable paper towel manufacturing operations.

The paper mill is the reason Camas exists, Peter Capell, city administrator, told the local media. The biggest concern we have about this is the people. They have mortgages, college payments, retirement. Its something I wouldnt wish on anybody.

In August, NORPAC (North Pacific Paper Company), located in Longview, Washington, announced the shutdown of its Paper Machine No. 1, one of three such machines, and the slashing of half of the production workers, or approximately 50 jobs. One Rock Capital Partners moved rapidly after buying the mill from Weyerhaeuser in 2016, unilaterally imposing a ten-percent wage cut and significant reductions in retirement benefits on the nonunion workforce this past May.

Georgia-Pacifics notice comes less than a month after West Linn Paper Company announced plans to immediately close its Willamette Falls, Oregon mill, eliminating 250 jobs. The mill was previously closed in 1996 by James River Corporation and reopened a year later as a nonunion operation.

Greg Pallesen, president of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW), sought to direct workers anger and opposition in a nationalist direction, blaming cheaper Asian paper imports. The anti-Asian agitationwhich echoes the America First nationalism of Trump and his fascistic former aide Stephen Bannonhas nothing to do with defending workers jobs. Its aim is to subordinate the working class to the profit interests of the corporations and impose further wage and benefit cuts in the name of making American capitalism more competitive.

This is why the national AWPPW and Local 5 (the bargaining agent for the Camas workers) have remained silent about the overwhelming rejection by rank-and-file workers of Georgia-Pacifics retrograde contract offer and their vote last August to authorize strike action.

The companys contract offer would create a two-tier structure, with new employees earning lower wages and benefits. In addition to a 20 percent reduction in wages, new hires would lose the defined pension plan, have fewer holidays, reduced vacation pay and no wage increase.

For current employees, wages would only increase a miserly one percent on average, while allowing only health care plans with reduced benefits and higher deductibles. In addition, the proposed contract would allow the contracting out of floor work, maintenance and production.

That this contract has been in negotiation since 2014 gives the highly paid executives at Georgia-Pacific and the billionaire Koch brothers every reason to believe that the union will sanction the latest round of job cuts. The AWPPWs capitulation in 2010 to Georgia-Pacifics imposition of a concessions-filled last, best and final ultimatum provides additional grist to their belief. Despite every member voting no at that time against the proposed contract and authorizing a strike, the AWPPW, revealing its pro-corporate orientation, refused to conduct any struggle against G-P, let alone mobilize thousands of paper mill workers facing similar attacks by other wood and paper corporations.

In defying the strike authorization vote by rank-and-file workers, the union is acting as a labor police force for the corporations, facilitating the slashing of 300 jobs now and even more in the future. This betrayal will only lead to more social devastation in the region, including a new wave of home foreclosures, drug overdoses and suicides.

Since the purchase of Georgia-Pacific by the Koch brothers in 2005 for $21 billion, the number of better-compensated unionized G-P employees has dropped from 22,000 to 11,800 currently. While the brothers far-right inclinations and support for the Republican Party are notorious, the states of Washington and Oregon have both been longtime bastions of the Democratic Party. The promotion of economic nationalism and the political subordination of workers to the Democratic Party has been used to block workers from taking up the struggle which is necessary: an industry-wide battle combined with a political struggle against both pro-corporate parties, the Democrats and Republicans.

Paper mill workers have to draw the lessons of the 2010 Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging Inc. (now owned by KapStone Paper and Packaging) contract struggle. In the 2010 contract fight, a bitter conflict in which workers rejected two offers, the second time by 634 to 1, workers were ultimately forced to accept concessions after the union offered an unconditional return to work. Two years later, after years of losing money, Longview Fiber earned $118 million.

In the 2015 contract negotiations, this time with the new owner KapStone, a strike was called after the company declared an impasse and unilaterally imposed its final contract offer. After a seven-day strike, the AWPPW sabotaged the struggle and offered another unconditional return to work, which the company accepted. Upon ratification, which occurred two years after the previous contract expired, the AWPPW could only cite the rehiring of four workers accused of strike misconduct by the company to falsely declare the strike a victory.

This record shows that paper mill workers can place no confidence in the AWPPW. Only through the formation of rank-and-file committees that will appeal for industry-wide support, nationally and internationally, can a genuine struggle be organized to defend the jobs and living standards of all workers.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Tallahassee man was arrested on drug charges after officers investigating the crash of a Mercedes smelled marijuana in the car and found in it nearly $4,800 and a list of narcotics deals.

Levy Marquis Bishop, 24, was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Leon County Detention Center. The charges against the convicted felon include ones for possessing marijuana with intent to sell and possessing narcotics equipment.

Bishop crashed the car on East Orange Avenue, just east of the roundabout at Jim Lee Road. He was bleeding profusely from cuts to his head, according to a probable cause affidavit.

A Florida Highway Patrol sergeant said she was in an Uber behind Bishop's vehicle when he lost control of the car and it swerved and struck a tree.

The FHP sergeant told the investigating Tallahassee Police Department officer that Bishop was the only person in the car.

Bishop was disoriented and not speaking complete sentences after the crash, the TPD officer wrote in the court document.

"I could detect an overwhelming odor of marijuana, even through the smell of the airbag deployments," the TPD officer wrote.

The officer said he looked in the center console and glove compartments for the documents needed for the traffic report but did not find them and eventually opened a duffel bag.

The duffel bag contained three gallon-sized freezer bags of marijuana, which he estimated to weigh up to three pounds, a box of plastic bags and a scale.

The TPD investigator said he found a spiral notebook listing names and dollar amounts for narcotics transactions.

In a pocket of a jacket, he wrote, he found $4,753, and in the center console another $6. He also found two cellphones.

Bishop was taken from the crashed car to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, where police handcuffed him to his bed. After Bishop refused medical treatment, police took him to jail.

He remained in jail on Friday on a $5,500 bond.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Having a few people over for Thanksgiving dinner is a wonderful way to share the spirit of the holidays.

But what about more than 1,000 people?

That's what the Ghazvini family does every year.

The family coordinates a free Thanksgiving meal at Lake Ella, where everyone is welcome.

The community has come together for 33 years, donating food to offer a Thanksgiving meal to celebrate the holiday.

Outside the American Legion Hall, locals and visitors gathered for the annual meal.

The Ghazvini family couldn't do it without the help of many volunteers.

Students from Keiser University's culinary arts program lent a helping hand in the kitchen.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Tallahassee woman with memories lasting more than a century shares what she's thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Emma Baker recalled for members of the Woodville community her holiday memories of when she was just a young girl.

She says her mother would have a house full of guests and would take hours to prepare a Thanksgiving meal to enjoy after church.

On Thanksgiving, Baker said she was very thankful to continue to share these holidays with multiple generations in her family.

One piece of advice Baker has for younger generations is to continue to give thanks for health and blessings, not only on Thanksgiving, but everyday of the year.

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Copyright 2017 WTXL via Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.
If you want a real tree this holiday season, look to the U.S. Forest Service, which now has tree permits on sale.
AWSL high school students from all across the state gathered at Eisenhower High School Oct. 14, 2017, for a statewide service project. Students assembled backpacks for Teytum's Gifts, an organization that provides foster families with backpacks containing amenities for the foster child's use when they are placed in a new home. (FREIDA RAJ/West Valley High School)
AHMEDABAD: Addressing a campaign rally here in Gujarat, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that Hyderabad Dalit student Rohith Vemula did not commit suicide but he was murdered by the government.

Rohith Vemula took a brave step when he decided to join the university but his career was crushed after that letter from a minister. He was murdered by the Indian government, the Congress leader, who began his two-day tour of Gujarat on Friday, said.

The 28-year-old, a second-year research scholar, was found hanging in his friend's hostel room last year.

His suicide had triggered a huge political furor with the then HRD minister Smriti Irani coming under attack along with labor minister Bandaru Dattatreya for having written a letter related to the matter.

The highlight of Rahul's tour is the visit to the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), a vocational training institute run by Dalit activists near the Sanand town.

He was expected to receive a giant national flag made by Dalits during his visit to the institute. The flag was originally presented to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani but his office had reportedly turned down, citing lack of space.

"During his visit, Rahulji will accept a giant national flag, measuring 125 feet in length and 83 feet in height, from Dalit students of the Kendra.

He will also address locals and Dalits of surrounding areas at the center," Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

DSK founder Martin Macwan said the giant flag was made as part of a movement to end untouchability in the country.
TOKYO: The US Navy on Friday called off its search for three sailors missing since two days when a transport plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean on its way to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.

Eight people were rescued but the remaining three sailors have not been found, the Navy's 7th Fleet based in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, said in a statement.

The Reagan had been leading the search effort, joined by eight US Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft, the Washington Post reported.

They had covered nearly 1,000 square nautical miles in the search for the sailors, who had been missing since the C-2A Greyhound crashed about halfway between Okinawa and Guam on Wednesday afternoon.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families," said Rear Admiral Marc Dalton, Commander of Task Force 70.

"As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates."

The cause of the crash was not known and an investigation is being conducted.
Peshawar: A top Pakistan police official was killed in a suspected suicide blast in Peshawar's Hayatabad area on Friday.

According to Dawn, the attacker, who was on a motorbike, rammed into the police vehicle carrying the Additional Inspector General (AIG) Headquarters, Ashraf Noor, and other officials.

The blast, which left the police vehicle in flames appeared to be a suicide attack, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Tahir Khan said.

The blast occurred near the Zarghooni Mosque, when the police officials were on their way to work this morning, the CCPO added.

Khan, confirming the death of the AIG, said at least six policemen were injured and shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex.

The police has cordoned off the blast site and further investigation is underway.

Earlier in October, the deputy governor of Afghanistan's Kunar province, Muhammad Nabi Ahmadi, was abducted by unidentified gunmen in the Dabgari area of Peshawar.
Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday summoned the Superintendent of Parappana Agrahara Jail in Bengaluru to appear before it with the fingerprint records of Tamil Nadu`s late Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa in connection with affixing of the thumb impression on poll documents, said a lawyer.

The prison official will have to appear before the High Court on December 8, V.Arun, the lawyer for P.Saravanan, the DMK candidate for the Thirupparankundram assembly constituency in the by-election held last year, told IANS.

The court had also asked the Central government to produce the Aadhar card details of Jayalalithaa if any, he said, adding that the fingerprints of Jayalalithaa with the Bengaluru jail and with the Central government if she had taken an Aadhar card would be compared with those in the poll papers.

Saravanan had approached the court to cancel the election of AIADMK`s A.K. Bose from the Thirupparankundram Assembly constituency in the by-election held last year, raising doubts on affixing of the thumb impression by Jayalalithaa, also the AIADMK chief, in his poll documents.

Jayalalithaa was lodged in the Parappana Agrahara prison after she was convicted in a corruption case by the trial court in 2014 but later let out on bail.

In September 2016, she was admitted to Apollo Hospital for illness. In October 2016, she had an inflamed right hand as she had undergone tracheostomy and had to affix her left thumb impression in the poll documents submitted by the AIADMK candidate.

As per the Representation of People Act, a candidate contesting on behalf of a political party has to submit Form B, where their party leader has to authorise the candidate to contest under the party`s election symbol.

The by-polls in Aravakurichi, Thanjavur and Thiruparankundram assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu were slated for November 19, 2016 and the ruling AIADMK candidates had submitted their papers on October 28, 2016 to the Returning Officers.

The thumb impression of Jayalalithaa was attested by a government doctor - P.Balaji, Professor of Minimal Access Surgery, Madras Medical College.

In his comments, Balaji said: "Since the signatory has undergone tracheostomy recently and has an inflamed right hand, she is temporarily unable to affix her signature. Hence she has affixed her left thumb impression on her own in my presence."

Dr Babu K. Abraham, working in Apollo Hospitals, signed as a witness.

Tracheostomy is a medical procedure whereby a direct airway is created by an incision in the windpipe enabling a person to breathe directly without the use of nose or mouth.

Jayalalithaa was admitted to the hospital with fever and dehydration on September 22 and died after over 70 days in December.
Kochi: The Kerala High Court today declined to stay a single bench order to screen the controversial Malayalam film "S Durga" in the Panorama section of the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice A Muhamed Mustaque refused to stay the single judge order while admitting an appeal filed by the Centre.

In the appeal, the government stated that the film though selected by the jury had not secured the exemption as required by the Panorama regulation in the absence of any certification from the Central Board of Film Certification.

It was also contended by the Centre that inclusion of the film is likely to upset the arrangements of the 48th IFFI, which comes to a close on November 28.

'S Durga' narrates the horrifying experience of a hitchhiking couple.

The director of the film Sanal Kumar Sasidharan moved the court after the film was dropped from the Indian Panorama section of the festival along with the Marathi film "Nude".

According to the petitioner, the I&B Ministry's decision to overrule the recommendation of the 13-member jury and pull out the two films was "unconstitutional".
Chennai: Days after veteran Tamil filmstar Kamal Haasan made the controversial ''Hindu terrorism'' remarks, the Madras High Court on Friday said that action against him can be taken if he is found guilty.

The high court today directed the state's police to register an FIR against actor Kamal Haasan if a cognisable offence is made out against him over his alleged remarks.

Haasan had courted a bitter controversy over his "Hindu terrorism" comments made in a Tamil weekly. His remarks reportedly hurt the sentiments of Hindus after which he was verbally attacked by several right-wing outfits.

The order was passed by Justice MS Ramesh while responding to a petition by G Devarajan, a registered advocate clerk in the Madras High Court.

The petitioner had sought a direction to the police to register the FIR against the actor based on his complaint.

According to the petitioner, the actor said in an article published in the magazine's November 8 edition that the presence of "Hindu terrorism" in the country cannot be ruled out.

"By making such statements Kamal Haasan is trying to brand Hindus as terrorists. He should understand that no religion preaches violence but only peace. The actor with vested interests is trying to divide the Tamil community on basis of religion," the petitioner said.

He further said he had approached the Chennai Police Commissioner on November 4 and Teynampet Police on November 6 with his complaint against the actor.

Since no action was taken on the complaints, he moved the high court.

Owing to his criticism from several quarters, Kamal Haasan later tendered an apology and said that he was misinterpreted.
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by November 27 in connection with the bail plea of alleged hawala dealer Mohammad Aslam Wani, a close aide of Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah, in connection with the terror-funding case.

Mohammad Aslam Wani moved to the Patiala House Court after the Supreme Court set aside all orders by which bail to an accused was denied due to stringent bail condition in money laundering cases and directed that such cases be remanded back to the respective courts to be heard on merits.

Wani was arrested, on August 6, in connection with this decade-old money laundering case involving Shah.

The ED had, on September 23, told the court that Shah admitted to receiving funds from Pakistan`s terror outfits to spread terror in Jammu and Kashmir and others parts of the country.

The chargesheet filed by the ED stated that the separatist had admitted of talking to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed on phone on the issue of Kashmir and had last spoke to him in January this year.
Chennai: The two major unions in the banking sector - All India Bank Employees` Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers` Association (AIBOA) - on Friday announced sector wide strike on December 27 in support of wage revision in IDBI Bank.

In a joint statement issued here, the two unions said they have been taking up the matter repeatedly with IDBI Bank management and with the central government but the matter is dragging on endlessly.

Hence it has been decided to give a call for all-India strike in all the banks on December 27.

According to AIBEA and AIBOA, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has decided to extend support for the December 27 strike.

The UFBU is an umbrella body of nine unions in the Indian banking sector.

According to the statement, the wage revision for IDBI Bank employees was due on 1.11.2012.

The IDBI Bank employees went on two-day strike in October demanding revision of wages.
BRUSSELS: British Prime Minister Theresa May holds a crunch meeting with European Union President Donald Tusk on Friday as hopes mount that she will offer compromises to secure a Brexit deal in December.

The talks, on the sidelines of a summit with ex-Soviet states in Brussels, come a week after Tusk gave May until the start of December to make "much more progress" on divorce terms in order to unlock trade negotiations.

After months of deadlock, European officials say they hope May will finally bring a new proposal on Britain`s exit bill after senior British ministers agreed earlier this week to improve the offer to a reported 40 billion euros.

The EU has demanded "sufficient progress" on the bill as well as the increasingly delicate issue of Northern Ireland and the rights of EU citizens, if it is to move onto the next phase of negotiations at a December 14-15 summit.

The Tusk meeting -- for which no timing was immediately available -- launches a frantic few days of Brexit diplomacy, during which May will also meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on December 4.

Juncker indicated there was movement when he said on Thursday that "we are out of the woods" on the first phase, although he stressed that "the situation isn`t so that I can now definitively say that we have made enough progress".

"We have to see in the next few days," he said.EU member states have become increasingly impatient for Britain to meet its terms, and increasingly worried that May`s fragile Conservative government is unable to do so even if it wanted to.

Former Polish premier Tusk has warned that without progress by early December "at the latest" it will be too late to prepare guidelines for the summit for the move towards talks on a future trade deal, and on a post-Brexit transition period of around two years.

Tusk was "more optimistic" after meeting May a week ago on the sidelines of an EU summit in the Swedish port city of Gothenburg, but when it came to tabling a new offer "the earlier the better", an EU source told AFP.

Britain is reportedly set to double its offer to settle its commitments to the EU budget from 20 billion to 40 billion, but the EU has so far said the true figure should be closer to 60 billion.

The British position on the bill was "evolving, they are laying the ground for domestic public opinion", another EU official added.

"But if they want `sufficient progress on December 15 they can`t come with their offer on December 13 or 14. We have sent them a simple message: don`t wait until the last minute!"

One potential sticking point remains the fact that May`s cabinet says that an increased offer can only be part of a final deal on leaving the EU -- which is at odds with the Brussels line on tying up divorce terms before discussing future relations.Ireland is meanwhile pushing to ensure its concerns about the border with British-ruled Northern Ireland are taken into account, adding an unexpected hurdle to a December deal.

"I believe we have a reasonable chance of there being progress in December, but nobody should underestimate in my view the strength of feeling in the Irish government on this border issue," Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

"We will not be a government that undermines the peace process upon our own island," he said, referring to the 1998 Good Friday agreement that ended decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

Failure to reach a deal at the December summit would leave little time for trade talks, which the EU wants to wrap up in October to allow time for a deal to be ratified by national parliaments ahead of Brexit Day on March 29, 2019.

May meanwhile said her presence at the so-called Eastern Partnership Summit with six former Soviet states showed that Britain was "unconditionally committed to maintaining Europe`s security" despite Brexit.

The British premier also took aim at Moscow, saying Europe must be "open-eyed to the actions of hostile states like Russia which... attempt to tear our collective strength apart."

Russia said Thursday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a "PR move" that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global "catastrophe".
New Delhi: Principal and students of a school based in Haryana's greater Faridabad on Friday handed over a cheque of Rs 45 lakh to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as a contribution to the Army Battle Casualties Welfare Fund.

The students of the Modern Delhi Public School had individually collected money for the contribution to the fund, the defence minister's official Twitter handle said.

The Army Battle Casualties Welfare Fund (ABCWF) was set up by the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (ESW) under the Ministry of Defence, following many requests from citizens.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted six weeks time to the Gujarat government for apprising it on whether any disciplinary action has been initiated against policemen convicted in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, considered the submission of Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, that some more time be given to get instruction on the authorities concerned in the case.

The bench listed the plea for hearing in the first week of January.

The bench, however, made it clear that the separate plea, seeking enhancement of compensation to be awarded to Bilkis Bano, would be taken up next week for hearing.

The apex court had already granted time, on October 23, to the state government to apprise it whether any departmental action had been initiated or taken against police officers whose conviction was upheld in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

The Bombay High Court had on May 4 upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 12 people in the gangrape case, while setting aside the acquittal of seven people including policemen and doctors.

Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped in March, 2002, while she was pregnant, lost seven of her family members in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident.

The bench had convicted seven persons, including five policemen and two doctors, for not performing their duties (sections 218) and tampering of evidence (section 201) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The convicted policemen and doctors are Narpat Singh, Idris Abdul Saiyed, Bikabhai Patel, Ramsingh Bhabhor, Sombhai Gori, Arun Kumar Prasad (doctor) and Sangeeta Kumar Prasad (doctor).

A special court had on January 21, 2008, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men in the case.

They later approached the Bombay High Court challenging their conviction and sought for the trial court's order to be quashed.

The CBI had also filed an appeal in the high court seeking harsher punishment of death for three of the convicted on the grounds that they were the main perpetrators of the crime.

According to the prosecution, on March 3, 2002, Bilkis Bano's family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots and seven members of her family were killed.

The trial in the case began in Ahmedabad. However, after Bilkis Bano expressed apprehensions that witnesses could be harmed and CBI evidence tampered, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.
AHMEDABAD: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who will be on a two-day campaign tour of Gujarat from Friday, will accept a giant national flag made by the dalit community that was presented to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani but which officials reportedly refused to accept citing lack of space.

Gandhi will accept the flag, about 125 feet wide and 83.3 feet high, when he visits the Dalit Shakti Kendra near Sanand on Friday.

The highlight of his two-day tour is the visit to the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), a vocational training institute run by Dalit activists, near Sanand town.

"During his visit, Rahulji will accept a giant national flag, measuring 125 feet in length and 83 feet in height, from Dalit students of the Kendra. He will also address locals and dalits of surrounding areas at the centre," Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

According to the founder of the DSK, Martin Macwan, the giant flag was made as part of their movement to end untouchability in the country.

Indias largest national flag was supposed to be handed over to Rupani, with a request that he take steps to end untouchability practices. But it was not accepted by officials of the Gandhinagar Collectorate on behalf of the Chief Minister saying We dont have enough space to keep the flag and shall inform once available, said Dalit leader Martin Macwan.

This is the insult of an Indian national flag prepared by Dalits from 10 states, said Macwan, who heads the Navsarjan Trust, which works for Scheduled Caste community in Gujarat.

"The flag is made out of khadi cloth and has been designed and coloured by 100 Dalit Shakti Kendra students and teachers who worked on it for 25 days...The 125 feet length of the flag signifies 125 years of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's birth anniversary this year," added Macwan.

"We went to Gandhinagar to hand it over to the CM on August 11, he did not meet us. Officials at the Gandhinagar collectorate also refused to accept it, saying they don't have the space to keep it," Macwan said, adding, "It was disheartening because we just wanted to spread the message and wanted to urge the CM to do his bit in Gujarat to end the practice of untouchability. When Rahul Gandhi learned about it, he informed us that he will accept the flag when he will visit the DSK tomorrow," Macwan added.
Gandhinagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick-off his party's campaign for the upcoming assembly elections in his home state Gujarat from November 27.

According to reports, Modi will start his party's Gujarat election campaign with a rally in Bhuj and will follow it up with several public meetings and interactions with supporters and party workers all over the Saurashtra and South Gujarat on the same day.

Between November 27 to 29, the PM is expected to address as many as eight rallies across Saurashtra and south Gujarat, where polling for the first phase of assembly elections will be held on December 9.

Prior to his visit, a horde of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states will tour and campaign across all the 89 constituencies for the first phase.

As per the election schedule prepared by his party, PM Modi would address a gathering in Bhuj in Kutch district on November 27.

From here, the PM would move on to address public gatherings in the Saurashtra region at Jasdan town of Rajkot and Dhari in Amreli district before flying off to Kamrej of Surat district in south Gujarat.

On November 29, he would be back in the state to address poll rallies in Saurashtra at Morbi and Prachi villages near Somnath, Palitana in Bhavnagar and at Navsari in south Gujarat.

"Each rally has been organised so that people from five to six surrounding constituencies can participate," BJP`s Gujarat in-charge Bhupendra Yadav had said during an interaction with media.

Prior to Modi`s campaigning, top BJP leaders have been asked to address rallies in different parts of the state on November 26 and 27.

They would align their campaign by merging the "Chai pe Charcha" with workers across 50,000 booths in all the 89 constituencies with tuning in and listen to Prime Minister`s "Mann ki Baat".

The BJP has named this programme as `Mann Ki Baat - Chai Ke Saath`.

Party workers have been directed to interact with people assembled at the polling booth region and project the party`s themes and the development works carried out by the BJP over the years.

Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, and Uma Bharti, and Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Vasundhara Raje (Rajastha), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) will also be in the state for the campaigning.

Along with them, BJP national President Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, state BJP president Jitu Vaghani, former Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and national Vice President Purshottam Rupala will address gatherings.

Assembly elections in Gujarat will be held in two phases  December 9 and 14  and the results will be declared on December 18.

While 89 seats of Saurashtra and South Gujarat region will go to polls in the first phase, the election in the remaining 93 constituencies in central and northern regions will be held in the second phase.
Porbandar: Reaching out to the fishermen community in Gujarat ahead of the next month's Assembly polls, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday promised to create a separate ministry for fisheries if the party comes to power at the Centre.

He criticised the BJP government in Gujarat for stopping the subsidy given to fishermen to buy diesel for their boats.

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi alleged that the fishermen from Gujarat are now forced to venture deep into the sea because of the pollution caused by 10-15 industrialists, who are "Modiji's friends".

Gandhi, during his address to the fishermen at this coastal town on the first day of his two-day campaign tour of Gujarat, expressed confidence that the Congress will emerge victorious in the state, where the party has been out of power for 22 years.

"Fishermen's work is equivalent to that of farmers. Sometime back, you demanded that if there is a ministry to look after the agriculture sector, then why not for fishermen? I agree with you, and I promise that the Congress will set it up after forming the government at the Centre," Gandhi said.

He claimed that the BJP-led state government, during the tenure of Narendra Modi as chief minister, gave away Rs 33,000 crore to Tata Motors for its Nano car plant.

"When Congress was in power, fishermen used to get 25 per cent subsidy on the purchase of diesel. That subsidy, which was just Rs 300 crore (per annum), has been abolished by the BJP government here. What kind of magic is this? They can give Rs 33,000 crore for Nano factory but they cant give Rs 300 crore to you," he asked.

"I have learnt that now you have to go deeper into the sea to catch fish. Why? Because of pollution. But, who caused this? Definitely not the fishermen. It was caused by some 10- 15 industrialists who are Modiji's friends...He took all your money and gave it to those 10-15 persons," he alleged.

Gandhi added that instead of doing anything concrete for the fishermen, Modi has gifted ports to "some of his industrialist friends".

Taking a jibe at Modi's radio programme 'Mann ki Baat', the Congress leader promised that the doors of Congress government will be opened once the party comes to power in Gujarat.

"I am confident that the Congress will win this election. After that, doors of the Chief Minister's Office and the Assembly will be opened for you, so that you can tell us your 'mann ki baat'. Till now, those doors were open only for the rich, and only their voice was heard. Your voice never reached the government," he alleged.

Rahul Gandhi is in Gujarat for two days to lead his party's election campaign ahead of the first phase of polling on 89 Assembly seats next month.

During the campaign, Gandhi would interact with Dalits, doctors, teachers and villagers on his route covering Porbandar, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Arvalli, Mahisagar and Dahod district.

Polling for the two-phase elections in the state, having a total of 182 seats, will take place on December 9 and 14 and votes will be counted on December 18.

Eighty nine seats of Saurashtra and south Gujarat region are going to polls in the first phase, while the remaining 93 seats in central and northern region would vote in the second phase.
HYDERABAD: While the Andhra Pradesh assembly is in session, at least 100 lawmakers have applied for leaves on the same dates. Reason? To attend weddings.

Lawmakers in Andhra Pradesh have been granted their request for leave, en masse, while the assembly is in session - to attend weddings.

A report in NDTV states that nearly 1.2 lakh marriages are to be held over the next few days. Applying for leave for two days, the lawmakers have agreed to work for two additional days after the session ends.

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Kodela Sivaprasada Rao on November 23 announced that the House would not sit on Thursday and Friday. Dr. Rao said the decision not to have sittings was taken on the request of the members, who said they had to attend weddings.

The House will reassemble on November 28 and will be in session till the end of the week.

The Andhra Pradesh Assembly had in March last year passed a bill to hike salaries and other emoluments of legislators. As per the bill, the monthly salary of each legislator has been enhanced from Rs. 95,000 to Rs. 1.25 lakh.

The accommodation allowance has been doubled from Rs. 25,000, while maximum pension to retired members has also been increased to Rs. 50,000. For the first time, an annual allowance of Rs. 20,000 to each member towards magazines and books was also given.

Motor car/ house building advance, which is recoverable, had been doubled to Rs. 20 lakh.

However, YSRC member Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy had opposed the Bill saying that at a time when the state is reeling under severe financial crisis, "people will not appreciate if we give ourselves a salary hike like this."
Hyderabad: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) would initially run 50 buses on 10 routes to connect with the Hyderabad metro rail, which is slated for inauguration next week, on an experimental basis.

State Transport Minister P Mahender Reddy said plans would be prepared to connect the bus service with the metro rail in a phased manner, an official release said.

"There is no immediate plan to put in place a ticketing system by linking bus services with the metro rail," he said.

The minister also said that the corporation would have new buses to prevent air pollution and also make efforts to have electric buses.

He said 60 AC buses of the RTC and 10 buses of Telangana Tourism would be deployed to serve the delegates attending the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) to be held here on November 28, 29 and 30.
JAIPUR: Amid the controversy over Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Padmavati, a body was found hanging in Rajasthans Nahargarh Fort, with slogans against the movie scribbled on stones nearby.

"Padmavati ka virodh. Hum putle nahin jalate....latkate hain" slogans were seen on the stones nearby the body.

"It is early to comment on it as the matter is under investigation. The identity of the man, around 40-years-old, is yet to be ascertained," Satyendra Singh, DCP Jaipur (North), told IANS.

Padmavati, based on the life of a Rajput Queen Rani Padmavati, is in the eye of the storm following protests from right-wing groups over alleged tampering with historical facts, a charge which Sanjay Leela Bhansali has categorically denied.

Meanwhile, Shri Rajput Karni Sena said it condemns violence and has nothing to do with the body found at the Nahargarh Fort.

On Wednesday, the Karni Sena had said that it would not allow the period drama starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor to be released even if required changes were made in it.

The release of the film, which was earlier slated for December 1, has now been deferred as the filmmakers are yet to secure a censor certificate.

Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat all BJP ruled states - and Punjab, ruled by the Congress, have already opposed the release of the movie.

Amid rumours that there was a romantic dream sequence between Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji's characters, various Rajput and other groups have been protesting against the film, alleging it "distorts" history and hurts the sentiments of the people.

Facing massive opposition at home, Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie 'Padmavati' has been cleared uncut by the British censors even as the Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to hear a plea seeking directions that the film is not released abroad on December 1.

However, a functionary at Viacom 18 said there was no plan to release the film globally without it being cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

Earlier scheduled to arrive in cinema halls on December 1, the release date of the film has now been postponed by the makers till further notice.
NEW DELHI: In the backdrop of the 73-day- long Dokalam standoff, the Army has decided to significantly ramp up road infrastructure along the Sino-India border and tasked its Corps of Engineers to vigorously work on it to ensure swift movement of troops whenever necessary. Official sources said the Corps of Engineers (CoE) has already initiated a series of steps including placing orders for latest versions of various mountain cutting and road laying machines and equipment besides procuring assault tracks for fast movement of troops.

The sources said the Army headquarters ordered over 1,000 dual track mine detectors to enhance Corps of Engineers mine detection capability.

Over 100 excavators with latest features are also being procured to increase the existing capability of the engineers to lay operational track along mountainous regions in Northern sector.

The sources said over 50 short span bridges and a sizeable number of assault tracks for quick movement are also being procured to increase their mobility.

India and China share a 4,000-km-long border. The 237 year-old CoE provides key combat engineering support and maintains connectivity in key border regions for speedy movement of troops and artillery.

As per the plan, the Army engineers will initially lay roads in mountainous terrains and if necessary they will be further strengthened by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

In 2005, the Border Road Organisation was asked to construct 73 roads in the strategically important regions along the Sino-India border but there has been huge delay in implementation of the project which has apparently left the Army unhappy.

They said enhancing infrastructure along the sensitive borders is part of the governments overall strategy to boost combat readiness of the armed forces. The first company of CoE was raised in 1780 and the organisation celebrated its raising day on November 18.

The Army has been focusing on enhancing infrastructure along the Sino-India border following the Dokalam standoff.

Soon after the face-off ended, Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat had expressed serious concern over Chinas muscle flexing and said these conflicts can expand into an all out war.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam since June 16 after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese Army.

The face-off ended on August 28.

Recently, the Army has also finalised one of its biggest procurement plans for infantry modernisation under which a large number of light machine guns, battle carbines and assault rifles are being purchased at a cost of nearly Rs 40,000 crore.
NEW DELHI: Gandhinagar Archbishop Thomas Macwan has said he his controversial letter regarding the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections was not in support of or against any particular political party.

"My appeal is not against any party or in favour of any party. I have just asked people to vote according to their conscience and vote for those who are more open to secularism and constitutional values," said Macwan, reported news agency ANI.

Macwan's letter to clergymen, dated November 21, had sparked controversy for its appeal to save the country from 'nationalist forces'. He had also said there was a growing sense of 'sense of insecurity' among minorities, OBCs, BCs and the poor, among others.

He had appealed for prayers for "divine intervention" and to vote for candidates who would "safeguard people against discrimination".

The RSS-affiliated Legal Rights Observatory (LRO) had complained to the Election Commission, calling Macwan's letter "highly provocative and objectionable", reported DNA. The complaint said Macwan's letter clearly alludes to the BJP and RSS.

The LRO complaint also alleged that the aim of the letter was to spread " rumors to create clashes between various social groups and also making baseless allegations against Nationalists Forces".

The Supreme Court had ruled in January that it is illegal to seek votes in the name of religion, caste, race, community or language.

Macwan's appeal for prayers

"The results of this election are significant and will have its repercussion and reverberation throughout our beloved nation. It will influence the future course of our country," Macwan's letter read.

"We are aware that the secular and democratic fabric of our country is at stake. Human rights are being violated. The constitutional rights are being trampled. Not a single day goes without an attack on our churches, church personnel, faithfuls or institutions."

"The democratic fabric of the country is at stake amidst growing sense of insecurity among the minorities, Other Backward Class (OBC), Backward Class, poor, etc," he added.
New Delhi: An Indian Air Force aircraft with relief material for distribution among the displaced persons in Myanmar's restive Rakhine State landed in Yangon on Friday.

"With best wishes from the people of India. Indian Air Force aircraft lands today in Yangon, Myanmar with 3,000 family relief packs consisting of daily essentials including rice, oil, salt, sugar, soap, etc.

For distribution amongst the displaced persons in Rakhine State," external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

Rakhine State has witnessed unrest in recent months.

In September, India had asked Myanmar to handle the situation in the Rakhine State with "maturity and restraint" while focusing on the welfare of the civilian population along with that of the security forces.
NEW DELHI: India on Friday warned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed to be prepared for a "resounding response" as he pledged to continue "jihad" in Jammu and Kashmir after a Pakistani court ended his 10 months of house arrest.

The statement Saeed made after his release in Lahore was a "re-articulation of the agenda of terrorist constituency", a Home Ministry official here said.

"The principal and consistent stand of the government of India is that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. Recent statements of Saeed are simply a re-articulation of the agenda of terrorist constituency which thrives across the border," the official said.

"Such statements have been made repeatedly in the past and each time they have received an appropriate and resounding response on the ground from the people as well as law enforcement agencies," said the official without elaborating.

Saeed, who carries a $10 million bounty announced by the US for his role in terror activities, made the comment to supporters gathered outside his Lahore residence.

"Just as I am free today, Kashmir will also be free one day," Saeed said after midnight Thursday. "It is because of Kashmir that India has been after me. I pray to Allah to give us strength so that we keep fighting for Kashmir's independence (from India)."
NEW DELHI: The new US Ambassador to India, Kenneth I. Juster, has said that he looks forward to the next chapter in the strengthening of relations between the two countries.

Juster presented his credentials to President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday during an official ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

"It was an honour to present my credentials to President Kovind," Juster said.

"I thank the President for a very warm and gracious welcome, and am looking forward to the next chapter in strengthening US-India relations," he added.

A United States Embassy release said Juster will make his first official trip next week to Hyderabad to take part in the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit from November 28-30.
MUMBAI: In more trouble for Indrani Mukerjea, a team of Enforcement Directorate on Friday reached Byculla women's prison in Mumbai to question her in connection with a money laundering case against her.



A special CBI court which is conducting the trial in the Sheena Bora murder case had on Thursday given permission to the Enforcement Directorate to question Indrani. The case also includes other prominent names like Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister Chidambaram.

The ED registered a case in May under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, and others.

It had sought the permission of Mumbai court to question Indrani who is behind bars in connection with the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora.

Indrani along with her husband Peter Mukerjea "allegedly siphoned off 90 million GBP (Great Britain Pounds) and this money is suspected to have gone to overseas countries through unauthorised route of hawala etc", the ED plea had said.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) permitted INX Media to receive FDI for Rs 46.2 million, however, it received foreign investment totalling to Rs 3,053.6 million during August 2007 to May 2008, the ED said.

"Thus excess foreign exchange equivalent to Rs 3004.4 million beyond the disclosed and permitted foreign investment was received by INX media from three Mauritius-based foreign investors," the agency had said.

Rabin, Peter's son from an earlier marriage, was found to be handing funds of Peter and Indrani Mukerjea held in the form of bonds in New Zealand, the ED said.

"Rabin... Peter and Indrani have laundered money and are involved in financial transactions in UK connected with illicit funds generated in India," the application said.

The ED also noted that the murder of Sheena Bora, Indrani Mukerjea's daughter from earlier relationship, was suspected to be motivated by financial reasons.
LUCKNOW: Muslim organisations on Friday reacted sharply to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's strong pitch for building a Ram Temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, terming it as a direct challenge to the apex court before which the matter wass pending, and demanded action against him.

They also alleged that the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) chief was trying to help the BJP in the upcoming Gujarat elections by diverting the attention of voters from "real" issues with such statements.

"The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has faith in the judiciary and will try to implement its order... By issuing this statement Mohan Bhagwat has taken law into his hands," the spokesman of the AIMPLB, Maulana Khaild Saifullah Rehmani, said.

He demanded that the government take action against "such people who are openly showing disrespect to the courts and taking law into their hands".

Bhagwat has issued "a one-sided statement that only a temple will be constructed at the site and this is unacceptable to us", Rehmani said, adding this amounts to showing disrespect to the court.

The convenor of Babri Masjid Action Committee and member of the Board, Zafaryab Jilani, alleged that such remarks "challenging" the apex court are a threat to democracy.

Jilani, who is also a senior counsel, said that it appears that Bhagwat has tried to help the BJP in the Gujarat Assembly elections through his statement.

"Bhagwat has given an open challenge to the Supreme Court .... As per the Constitution, the apex court is supreme and its orders have to be implemented in the country ...It has asked for maintaining status quo on the site ...Through this statement Bhagwat has given a direct challenge to the Supreme Court and this is also a threat for democracy," he said.

The spokesman of All India Shia Personal Law Board, Maulana Yasoob Abbas, said "Sangh chief is not above the Supreme Court, he will also have to accept the court verdict".

"Despite the issue pending in the court, Mohan Bhagwat has given this statement only to divert the attention of voters in Gujarat from real issues," Abbas said.

Addressing the "Dharma Sansad", a congregation of 2,000 Hindu sages, mutt heads and VHP leaders from across the country in Udipi earlier today, Bhagwat said there should be no ambiguity that Ram Temple will be built at Ayodhya.

"We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of our faith. It will not change," Bhagwat said.

The RSS chief said that after years of efforts and sacrifice, building the Ram temple seemed possible now, while also noting that the matter was in the court.

"Ram Mandir only will be constructed and nothing else. It will be constructed there only," Bhagwat said.

He said the temple would be constructed in the same grandeur as it existed before, using the "same stones" under the guidance of those who were the flag-bearers of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement for the last 25 years.

The Supreme Court will on December 5 commence the final hearing on the cross-appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute.

The high court had ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acre area at Ayodhya among the parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla.
JAIPUR: The brother of the man who was found dead at Nahargarh Fort in Jaipur has claimed that the deceased had nothing to do with the threat and called his death a murder.

"My brother cannot commit suicide, it appears to be a murder. Will demand an investigation into the death. He has nothing to do with the threat note written on rocks Padmavati," said Ram Ratan Saini, brother of the man whose body was found.

A body of a 40-year-old man was found hanging from the outer walls of the fort with a message "'Padmavati' ka virodh" - in protest against the film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali's movie.

The message, written on the stones near the fort wall adjacent to the body, read, "Hum putle nahin jalate....latkate hain" (we don't burn effigies, we hang them).

The police had said that it is early to comment on the matter and the identity of the man has not yet been ascertained.

"It is early to comment on it as the matter is under investigation. The identity of the man, around 40-years-old, is yet to be ascertained," Satyendra Singh, DCP Jaipur (North) said.

The movie has been mired in controversies over its release. There have been widespread protests against the movie in several parts of the country with activists claiming that the film "distorts" historical facts.

"They are trying to defame queen Padmavati by distorting historical facts. It is not acceptable," an activist of the Karni Sena said.

Activists of the Karni Sena earlier this month vandalised a theatre in Kota, Rajasthan, over reports that it was showing a trailer of "Padmavati". A Karni Sena leader threatened actress Deepika Padukone, who plays the lead in the movie, with physical harm.

The release of the movie, earlier scheduled for December 1, has been deferred.
NEW DELHI: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of 'playing with fire' on the issue of Ram temple with its 'obnoxious' statements.

Reacting to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's comments that "only Ram Mandir and nothing else" will be built at the disputed site in Ayodhya, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief told a news channel: "This is a very delicate matter and RSS is playing with fire on this issue.

"The obnoxious statement by the RSS chief clearly gives a message that the RSS is assuming to be the Supreme Court. The RSS is trying to give a message that they know what the judgment of the apex court will be, and that would be on the basis of `aastha` (faith) but not on evidence or Constitution," he added.

He said that by making such "obnoxious statements" the RSS is trying to convey that it would go ahead with its plans to make India a Hindutva country "come what may". Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and RSS of trying to create an atmosphere of fear, Owaisi said that this kind of politics is not good for the country.

"They want to make this a political issue so that they can gain some benefits in Gujarat elections or perhaps in 2019 (Lok Sabha polls) as well. I hope that the Supreme Court would take notice of this devious design being laid out by the Sangh Parivar," he said.

Earlier, speaking at the three-day `Dharam Sansad` of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Udupi in Karnataka, Bhagwat said: "The Ram temple will be constructed at the site of Ramjanmabhoomi and nothing else will be built. It will be constructed in its original form and with the same stones. It will be built under the leadership of those who led this movement and have been holding its flag for 20-25 years."

Defending Bhagwat`s comments, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy said the RSS chief did mention that he has reached this conclusion after seeing all the documents related to the case.

"What is the obnoxious in this? He has made an absolutely logical statement. I too have made this statement earlier because the arguments are very strong," Swamy said.

Reacting to Owaisi`s comments, Swamy said that attacking Bhagwat "is a favourite sport with some Muslim leaders" and added that the AIMIM leader has no locus standi in the case.

"I am sure there is no locus standi for Mr Owaisi in this case. Masjid can be built anywhere but temple for Ram Lalla cannot be built anywhere except for the place where he is assumed to be born by faith," he said.
UDUPI: Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat today made a strong pitch for the construction of a grand Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya district of Uttar Pradesh.

The RSS chief made this remark while addressing a "Dharma Sansad" - a congregation of nearly 2,000 Hindu saints and mutt heads in the small temple town of Udupi.

''Nothing but a Ram Mandir would come up there,'' the RSS chief said.

"We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of our faith. It will not change," Bhagwat said.

The RSS chief further said that after years of efforts and sacrifice, it (the construction of Ram temple) seemed possible now, while also noting that the matter was in the court.

"Only Ram Mandir will be constructed and nothing else. It will be constructed there only" (at the site that is believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram), Bhagwat said.

He said the temple would be constructed in the same grandeur as it existed before, using the "same stones" under the guidance of those who were the flag-bearers of the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement for the last 25 years.

Meanwhile, several Muslim organisations today reacted sharply to Bhagwat's strong pitch for building a Ram Temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) termed it as a direct challenge to the apex court before which the matter was pending, and demanded action against him.

They also alleged that the RSS chief was trying to help the BJP in the upcoming Gujarat elections by diverting the attention of voters from "real" issues with such statements.

"The AIMPLB has faith in the judiciary and will try to implement its order... By issuing this statement Mohan Bhagwat has taken the law into his hands," the spokesman of the AIMPLB, Maulana Khaild Saifullah Rehmani, said.

He demanded that the government take action against "such people who are openly showing disrespect to the courts and taking the law into their hands".

Bhagwat has issued "a one-sided statement that only a temple will be constructed at the site and this is unacceptable to us", Rehmani said, adding this amounts to showing disrespect to the court.

The convenor of Babri Masjid Action Committee (BAMC) and member of the Board, Zafaryab Jilani, alleged that such remarks "challenging" the apex court are a serious threat to democracy.

Jilani, who is also a senior counsel, said that it appears that Bhagwat has tried to help the BJP in the Gujarat Assembly elections through his statement.

The spokesman of All India Shia Personal Law Board, Maulana Yasoob Abbas, said, "The RSS chief is not above the Supreme Court, he will also have to accept the court verdict".

"Despite the issue pending in the court, Mohan Bhagwat has given this statement only to divert the attention of voters in Gujarat from real issues," Abbas said.

The Supreme Court will on December 5 commence the final hearing on the cross-appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute.

The high court had ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acre area at Ayodhya among the parties - the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla.
NEW DELHI: The government on Friday announced that the Winter Session of Parliament will commence from December 15. The session will end on January 5.

Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar confirmed that the Winter Session of Parliament will have 14 sittings and December 25 and 26 will be Christmas holidays.

"I request political parties to cooperate and make the Winter Session successful and fruitful. We expect that we will have attendance on all 14 days, including the New Year's day," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.

For the past few days, the Congress and the BJP were in loggerheads over the delay in convening the Winter Session with the opposition party claiming that the government was doing so to avoid a debate on "scams", including the Rafale deal, during the Gujarat polls.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, met on Wednesday and decided that the session would end on January 5, sources said.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, accusing them of sabotaging the Winter Session of Parliament on flimsy grounds by "locking the temple of democracy".

Rejecting opposition criticism that the government wants to avoid parliament before the elections, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the session will be held and it will be a regular session, not overlapping with the Gujarat Assembly election dates.
KASHMIR: The Centre's special representative for a sustainable dialogue in Jammu and Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma will begin his second tour of the state during which he will visit migrant camps in Jammu as well as epicentres of unrest in the Valley.

An old Kashmir hand, Sharma, who had served in the state with the Intelligence Bureau from 1992-94 when militancy was at its peak, will be in the state for four days, spending two days in Jammu before going to Kashmir.

Sharma who was appointed the Centre's interlocutor on October 23 to hold talks with all stakeholders in an effort to find lasting peace, will visit camps of migrants from Kashmir as well as those displaced from border villages following shelling from Pakistan. In Kashmir, he will visit the "ground zero" of unrest in south Kashmir's Pulwama and Anantnag districts, officials said.

The high point of his visit, officials said, will be his interactions with youths and students in Pulwama and Anantnag.

The districts were the epicentres of unrest following the death of Hizbul Mujahideen's poster boy Burhan Wani on July 8 last year.

On November 15, Dineshwar Sharma, who earlier undertook a five-day visit to the state, briefed Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the first round of talks he had with various sections of the society there last week.

Sharma had made his presentation at a core group meeting, chaired by Rajnath Singh for a security review of Jammu and Kashmir. It was attended by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra and top brass of Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, National Investigation Agency and para-military forces.

In the meeting, Sharma informed the Home Minister about the response that he got during his meetings with different sections of society, including political parties, student organisations, and social and religious groups in Jammu and Kashmir as well as those from the Jammu Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Jammu Bar Association, representatives of West Pakistan refugees and others. The former spy chief also shared the major concerns voiced by those he had met during the visit.

(With agencies inputs)
SRINAGAR: Security forces on Friday arrested a Pakistani militant belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) from a forest area in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, an Army official said.

"A Pakistani LeT terrorist was arrested during a joint search operation by the Army and the police in Magam area," he said.

The official said that the arrested militant, whose identity has not been disclosed, is being interrogated.

Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in the same area on Tuesday.
SRINAGAR: A Pakistani terrorist was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district on Friday, a media report said.

A rifle and two magazines were recovered from his possession after his arrest from the Magam area of Handwara, the ANI reported.

The arrested terrorist is believed to be a member of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).
RANCHI: A woman was allegedly gang-raped and murdered along with her husband in Jharkhand's Latehar district on Friday, police said.

According to police, unidentified people barged into the house of 32-year-old Kirtu Bhuiya, gang-raped his wife and later hacked the couple to death.

The incident occurred at Lawagara village of Latehar district.

Family members said the couple have three children aged six, eight and 12.

The reason for the murders is not known.

Police said they are investigating the incident and trying to trace the killers. The bodies were sent for post-mortem.
Kanpur: Two teenage brothers were hacked to death here allegedly by their brother-in-law with a sharp weapon while they were asleep, police said on Friday.

The boys Sumit (15) and Atul (13) were killed last night, said Lokendra Singh, station officer at Sajeti police station.

The accused, Manoj, was angry as he wanted to take his wife home, but was denied, Singh said.

He married their sister, Rachna, about a year ago, Singh said.

A case has been registered and the investigation is on, he said.
KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking a direction to state chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on taking action against four CPI ministers who had stayed away from the Cabinet meeting of November 15.

While dismissing the plea, a division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice A Muhammed Mustaque said it was not the court which should take decision on matters related to ministers.

The powers to take decision on such matters are vested with the chief minister, the court said.

The court also asked the petitioner whether he had approached the chief minister seeking action against the ministers.

The four CPI ministers had abstained from the state cabinet meeting held on November 15 after their party protested participation of NCP nominee Thomas Chandy in the cabinet even after the Kerala

High Court made stinging observations against him in an encroachment case.

Following the court's observations, Chandy had resigned as state transport minister.

The observations were made when Chandy, accused of land encroachment for his luxury resort, had challenged a report by Alappuzha district collector in this regard.

In his plea, Alleppey Ashraf, a filmmaker, sought a direction to the chief minister not to permit participation of CPI ministers in evolving important policy decisions in view of the "commission of breach of oath" taken by them under the constitution.

He said Revenue minister E Chandrasekharan, Food minister P Thilothaman, Agriculture minister V S Sunil Kumar and Forests minister K Raju had failed in fulfilling their constitutional obligations by boycotting the cabinet meeting.
Kochi: A junior public health nurse was attacked by some unidentified persons during the ongoing Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination campaign at a school in Kerala's Malappuram.

According to ANI, Junior public health nurse Shyamala Bai CK was attacked by a group of parents led by a middle-aged man around 1 pm at Government Lower Primary School, Athippatta, near Valanchery.

She was administering MR vaccine to the children when the attack took place.

Edayoor Public Health Centre medical officer Ali Mohammed, who supervised the vaccination, was abused by the parent group.

According to the eye-witnesses, the leader of the group grabbed Shyamala Bai by the neck and pushed her. They reportedly twisted her harm and broke her mobile phone. She said the attacker carried a rod in his hand. She was admitted to a hospital with injuries.

The nurses on the scene alleged that the parent group had come prepared for the attack. They said it was an unprovoked charging at them. Nurses also alleged that the police reached the scene much later. The attackers left the school before the police came.

At least three persons have been arrested by the police in this connection.

The attack on the nurse has dealt a serious blow to the ongoing MR vaccination campaign here.

After the incident, the nurses threatened to launch an agitation by boycotting the vaccination programme if the culprits are not arrested at the earliest.

The association of doctors and public health workers had strongly condemned the attack.

District Collector Amit Meena has issued a warning against the anti-vaccine lobby.

He said strong action would be taken against those who prevented vaccination and spread fear in society.
Lucknow: As part of efforts to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of doubling farmers' income by 2022, a 'Kisan Mela' will be held here on November 30.

In Uttar Pradesh, around 220 lakh farm families are dependent on horticulture, which contributes to more than 33 per cent of the country's GDP.

The day-long 'Kisan Mela' and Technology Exhibition will be held at ICAR-Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture, an official release said today.

The annual increment of production by 7.5 per cent and 9.5 per cent from vegetables and fruits, respectively has been a prime factor for increase in GDP, from the horticulture sector.

The ever-increasing demand of fruits and vegetables provides opportunities to increase the production, which will eventually raise farmers' income, the release said.

The main emphasis and objective of this programme is to provide solutions to major problems faced by horticulture farmers and also create awareness about improved production technologies, crop protection and post harvest management practices, the release said.

Of the 220 lakh farm families dependent on horticulture in the state, only 30 per cent are big farmers, who are progressive and take benefits from majority of government schemes/programmes.

Nearly 70 per cent small and marginal farmers are the Institute's target who needs attention.

During the Kisan Mela, services of E-platform containing information of farmers would be made available, which is expected to increase direct contact between consumers and growers, and farmers may get better price for their produce.

Experts related to different crops (fruits, vegetables, sugarcane, banana, etc) and fisheries, poultry and animal husbandry will provide scientific knowledge to farmers and related literature will be distributed to provide pace to crop diversification.

Demonstration of technology by ICAR institutes, KVKs, private agencies, PFDC and exhibition of produce by the selected farmers of 'Farmers First Project' will also be done in the exhibition.
MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Friday said if the government decided to introduce a legislation for a ban on triple talaq it would permanently free Muslim women.

The remark comes at a time when the Centre is mulling bringing in a legislation in the Winter Session of Parliament to put an end to instantaneous triple talaq which is still in practise despite the Supreme Court striking it down.

A ministerial committee has been set up to propose a suitable legislation or amend the existing penal provisions, which would make instantaneous triple talaq an offence.

"It would a good step if the Union government introduces a bill on triple talaq as it would permanently free Muslim women. The tradition should be banned completely and its exercise should considered as a crime," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said.

"Earlier, the voice of Shah Bano was suppressed. But through the case of Shayara Bano, it would be the dawn of Muslim women's freedom," the party claimed.

In the editorial, the party took potshots at its senior partner by raising its long-standing promises of constructing a Ram temple in Ayodhya, implementing uniform civil code and repealing Article 370 which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

"The way the Union government is following directives of the Supreme Court on triple talaq, it should do the same with the Uniform Civil Code. The Supreme Court had given directives to the Centre thrice over the UCC but still the government did not take any steps for it," the party claimed.

"The issue of Article 370 can be solved but it is always opposed by Kashmiri leaders," it said.

"And for Ram temple, the BJP has sufficient political power at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh. If the government takes it seriously, it can complete the promises it made to the people," the party added.
AGARTALA: An Election Commission (EC) team led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AK Jyoti will visit three northeastern states -- Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya -- next week to review the poll preparedness, an official said here on Friday.

"Assembly elections are due in February next year in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. The EC team would visit the three northeastern states next week to review the poll preparedness," an official of the Tripura election department said.

He said that the CEC accompanied by Election Commissioners Om Prakash Rawat and Sunil Arora, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain along with other EC officials would arrive here on November 28 from Nagaland. From Tripura, they are likely to visit Meghalaya.

"During its visit, the Commission would hold a series of meetings with the police, district and state election officials besides high-ups and leaders of various political parties," the official added.

The five-year term of the assemblies in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, with 60 seats each, would expire on March 6, 13, and 14, respectively.

The Left Front rules in Tripura, Congress holds power in Meghalaya, while the Naga People`s Front-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland rules in Nagaland. The Democratic Alliance is supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

A four-member EC team led by Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain had visited Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya last week and held a series of meetings with the leaders of various political parties and asked them to make all preparations in place for the next assembly polls.

The Election Commission on November 13 held a meeting in New Delhi with Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland to take stock of preparations for the February 2018 assembly elections in these states.

"EC officials have apprised the three CEOs on the use of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines at all polling stations in these states. Effectiveness of booth-level officers in the states was also discussed," the official said refusing to be named.
Patna: Two Bihar policemen, who are also top office bearers of the state police Association, have been dismissed from service for consuming liquor and creating nuisance in an inebriated condition here recently.

The two officials, both of constable rank, dismissed from the service are Bihar Police Men's Association (BPMA) President Nirmal Singh and its General Secretary Shamsher Khan.

They were charged with the offence of consuming liquor and creating ruckus on the new police line premises in May last in the state capital.

A case was registered against them with Buddha colony police station. They were arrested on May 4, 2017 and sent to jail under new Excise Act which prohibits sale and consumption of liquor in Bihar.

"Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) has terminated the two office-bearers from the service in connection with a case of creating nuisance after consuming liquor at the police line," Patna City SP D Amarkesh told PTI.

Amarkesh, who is officiating as SSP, Patna, said that the decision to this effect was taken four-five days ago by the SSP who is currently on leave.

The Nitish Kumar government had on April 5, 2016 enforced total prohibition in the state. The stringent law against alcohol has provision for dismissal of guilty government employee from service.
New Delhi: The finance ministry has said there is no proposal to withdraw the bank cheque book facility, which is an integral part of the payments landscape.

The clarification comes in the backdrop of reports in a certain section of media that there is a possibility that the central government may withdraw bank cheque book facility in the near future, with an intent to encourage digital transactions.

This has been denied by the government and reaffirmed that there's no such proposal, it said in statement.

The finance ministry in a tweet said that there is NO proposal under consideration to withdraw the bank Cheque Book facility.

The Government of India has reaffirmed that there is NO proposal under consideration to withdraw the bank Cheque Book facility.  Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) November 23, 2017

Post demonetisation, the government has been pushing digital transaction with an aim to move towards less cash society.

The ministry emphasised that while the government is committed to transform India into a less cash economy and promote digital and electronic transactions, "cheques are an integral part of the payments landscape".

It had appeared in a certain section of media that there is a possibility that the Central Govt may withdraw bank cheque book facility in the near future, with an intent to encourage digital transactions.This has been denied by the Govt & reaffirmed that there's no such proposal  Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) November 23, 2017

It said cheques form the backbone of trade and commerce, by being negotiable instruments, which often serve as the security for underlying trade transactions.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in the budget speech for 2017-18, had said that as the country moves faster on the path of digital transactions and cheque payments, "we need to ensure that the payees of dishonoured cheques are able to realise the payments".

With PTI Inputs
New York: Researchers have converted a natural bacterial immune system into the world's smallest data recorder, laying the groundwork for a new class of technologies that use bacterial cells for everything from disease diagnosis to environmental monitoring.

The researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) in the US modified an ordinary laboratory strain of the ubiquitous human gut microbe Escherichia coli, enabling the bacteria to not only record their interactions with the environment but also time-stamp the events.

"Such bacteria, swallowed by a patient, might be able to record the changes they experience through the whole digestive tract, yielding an unprecedented view of previously inaccessible phenomena," said Harris Wang from the CUMC.

Other applications could include environmental sensing and basic studies in ecology and microbiology, where bacteria could monitor otherwise invisible changes without disrupting their surroundings, according to the study published in the journal Science.

Wang and his team created the microscopic data recorder by taking advantage of CRISPR-Cas, an immune system in many species of bacteria.

CRISPR-Cas copies snippets of DNA from invading viruses so that subsequent generations of bacteria can repel these pathogens more effectively.

As a result, the CRISPR locus of the bacterial genome accumulates a chronological record of the bacterial viruses that it and its ancestors have survived. When those same viruses try to infect again, the CRISPR-Cas system can recognise and eliminate them.

To build their microscopic recorder, the researchers modified a piece of DNA called a plasmid, giving it the ability to create more copies of itself in the bacterial cell in response to an external signal.

A separate recording plasmid, which drives the recorder and marks time, expresses components of the CRISPR-Cas system.

In the absence of an external signal, only the recording plasmid is active, and the cell adds copies of a spacer sequence to the CRISPR locus in its genome.

When an external signal is detected by the cell, the other plasmid is also activated, leading to insertion of its sequences instead.

The result is a mixture of background sequences that record time and signal sequences that change depending on the cell?s environment.

The researchers can then examine the bacterial CRISPR locus and use computational tools to read the recording and its timing.

"Now we are planning to look at various markers that might be altered under changes in natural or disease states, in the gastrointestinal system or elsewhere," said Wang.

Synthetic biologists have previously used CRISPR to store poems, books, and images in DNA, but this is the first time CRISPR has been used to record cellular activity and the timing of those events.
Shimla: A court here on Thursday extended the judicial custody of the Himachal Pradesh Police officials arrested by the CBI in connection with the custodial death of an accused in the Kothkai rape and murder case till November 25.

The court is also likely to hear the CBI's plea seeking permission on voice sampling test of the accused on November 25. This was deferred after the lawyer of the accused did not appear for the third time.

Though the probe agency has already taken the voice samples of the accused, they are seeking the court's permission to match these.

The CBI had arrested Inspector General of Police (IG) GZH Zaidi and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Manoj Joshi and six others on August 29.

Superintendent of Police (SP) D W Negi was arrested on November 16 by the central probe agency.

The Himachal Pradesh Police had arrested six people in the rape and murder case. One of them, Suraj Kumar died under mysterious circumstances while in police custody.

A case of custodial death was registered and the CBI arrested the police officials.

The charge sheet in the custodial death case is ready and would be filed by November 30, the deadline fixed by the Himachal Pradesh High Court, sources in the CBI said.
Dindigul: Three sanitary workers were hacked to death at two different areas here early on Friday by a gang, sparking tension, police said.

The five-member gang, which came in two-wheelers murdered the sanitary workers when they were involved in cleaning work.

The reason for the murders was not known, they said, adding previous enmity was suspected.

The workers were in the age-group of 35-40, police said.

Superintendent of Police Sakthivel said special teams had been formed to nab the gang.
FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar: Cristiano Ronaldo to Lionel Messi, stars likely to play their last WC
New Delhi: The popular face of reality TV, Priyank Sharma, who is currently inside the 'Bigg Boss 11' house had a bumpy start followed by a messy comeback and now he is literally touching the ground in terms of his behaviour.

After slut-shaming Arshi Khan and calling out names against her, Priyank hit a new low in last night's episode where he was seen chatting with Hina Khan, Luv Tyagi and Sapna Chaudhary.

This group of people was discussing how Shilpa doesn't deserve to be one of the contenders for the captaincy task. Hina was seen saying that she did better than Shilpa and should be in her place instead.

While all of this discussion was taking place, Priyank, who looked frustrated with the recent developments said some really crass words about Shilpa and Arshi Khan. He body-shamed them by using words like 'fat', 'Buffalo' and 'drum'. He even said the both Shilpa and Arshi are 70 kgs and have become so fat by eating all the time inside the house that they look like a buffalo, a drum.

Soon after this telecast, Twitterati slammed Priyank for his words and even former Bigg Boss contestant Dolly Bindra shot back at the actor's body-shaming statements.

#bb11 Surat achi uparwale ne di hain toh serat bhi achi hona hain zaruri #priyaaank and #hina   Dolly Bindra  (@DollyBindra) November 24, 2017

#bb11 groupisum se khelna toh kya khelna hUa aao apne balbuteh se akele aao maidan mein jhund kyun lateh ho #hina November 24, 2017

Yeh Jo girls ko fat aur body shame ki baatein ho raihi hain yeh Bahar hoti toh outraged of modesty mein priyank would have been arrested #bb11   Dolly Bindra  (@DollyBindra) November 24, 2017

Now such body-shaming coming from a known face on television looks absolutely untasteful and presents him in a bad light. After Priyank spoke at length about how Shilpa and Arshi look, Hina suddenly felt it might look bad on them and asked him not to talk like that, joined by Luv, who tried to stop him.
BARABANKI: A day after three Muslim clerics were beaten up in a moving train in Baghpat for wearing scarves, principal of a missionary school here on Friday asked a Muslim student to remove her headscarf or take admission in an Islamic institution.

The incident was reported from Anand Bhavan School in Nagar Kotwali area, prompting the local authorities to order a probe into the matter.

"We got a complaint and we have asked the block education officer to conduct a probe. The school has been served with a notice, but it has not replied to it so far," Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) P N Singh said.

"We have also asked the officer to visit the school and make an on-the-spot inquiry," he said.

The student's father Mohammad R Rizvi alleged that he had approached the school principal, Archana Thomas, with a written request to allow his daughter to wear the religious headscarf.

But the principal asked him to get his daughter admitted to an Islamic school if he could not abide by rules laid down by the school.

"It is to clarify to you that this is a minority school, but there are many communities in minority category, and one community cannot impose its rules on other communities," Thomas reportedly told

Rizvi, adding, "The school will not be able to provide an exemption to its rules".

The principal also asked the student's father not to "disrupt" the school's functioning by asking unnecessary questions.

"If you face any inconvenience, you can admit your ward to an Islamic school," she told him.

The principal of the missionary school further noted that wearing a headscarf did not conform to the 'dress code' of the school, while reprimanding Rizvi for questioning the school management's decision on this issue.

Rizvi later met the district magistrate regarding the school's order.

He said his daughter had been studying in the school since kindergarten and as per Islamic tradition, the child had to cover her hair after reaching the age of nine.

"My daughter was asked not to wear a headscarf to school, another girl was made to remove it. I argued that our Sikh brothers are allowed to wear turbans, even though the same is not part of the dress code," he said.

The principal, however, clarified that she did not ask the student to leave the school.

"If they have a problem with the rules, they can admit their child to another school, not necessarily an Islamic one," Thomas said.

On the question of differentiating among communities by allowing Sikhs to keep the turbans and barring Muslims from practicing their beliefs, the principal said, "Sikhs do not study here".

The incident came to light a day after three Muslim clerics were beaten up by allegedly by unidentified persons in a moving train in Baghpat.

The 'maulvis', who had boarded a passenger train at Delhi last night, were on their way to their village in Baghpat, when they had a tiff with some youths who allegedly beat them up. The accused reportedly wanted to know why did the clerics cover their heads with handkerchiefs.

The clerics received injuries on their heads, hands and legs.

The Baghpat police registered a case in this regard and are on the lookout for the culprits.
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that democracy is under threat in the country under the BJP rule and called upon Opposition parties to work together for the greater interest of the people before the next Lok Sabha polls.

She accused the NDA government of trying to halt the developmental process in her state.

"Democracy is under threat in this country under the present central government. It is a super emergency that is going on in the country. I have been an MP for nearly two decades but I have never seen such a government at the Centre," she said.

"I believe in collective leadership... At present all are working together and that is the best policy. Let us work together," Banerjee said about the Opposition, adding she shares good relations with the DMK, the SP, the BSP and the BJD and is working with the Congress inside Parliament on various issues.

When asked whether she is hinting at a broader opposition coalition with the Congress before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, she said, "In Bengal, the Congress and the Left are working with the BJP at the state level. But at the national level for greater interests I think we should work together."

To a question whether the country would see a grand opposition coalition ahead of 2019, she said, "It depends. We are working together in Parliament. I went to (RJD chief) Lalu Prasadji's programme in Patna."

Banerjee said, "I have good relationship with (Samajwadi Party chief) Akhilesh ji and (BSP chief) Mayawati ji in Uttar Pradesh, with Stalin ji (DMK), Naveen ji (BJD)... I maintain the best of relations with so many other people. Even, within the BJP I maintain good relation with some people, but not with all."

Bengal will never accept divide and rule politics of the BJP, she asserted and dismissed that it was a challenger to the ruling (TMC) Trinamool Congress government.

"The BJP is nowhere in Bengal but only on media and social media. They only shout. Let the BJP shout along with their bike vahini, but they cannot do anything in Bengal," Banerjee said.

The BJP is trying to position itself as the main opposition in the state.
Kolkata: A massive fire broke out at a rubber factory in the city on Friday, a fire brigade official said. Nobody was injured in the incident.

"The fire broke out at about 9.41 a.m. in the footwear making factory situated at Chowbaga area near Eastern Metropolitan bypass," the official said.

#WATCH: Fire breaks out in West Bengal's Chowbaga, fire tenders present at the spot. pic.twitter.com/uEmmQWCuF7 ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017

Seven fire tenders were pressed into service. They worked for more than one hour. But the blaze is yet to be put out completely, he added.

"The reason behind the fire is not clear yet. Initial reports have suggested it broke out of waste materials. There may be stock of inflammable materials in the factory," the official said.

"There was a huge smoke in the area. It engulfed the entire neighbourhood. We have been trying hard to stop the fire from spreading to the adjacent establishments," the official added.
Kolkata: Amid the raging controversy over noted film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama 'Padmavati', West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that her government was ready to welcome the film and its crew.

"Yes, we would welcome them. They are welcome here if they can't do it in other states. We can make special arrangements," Banerjee at a private event here.

The firebrand leader said this why responding to a query whether West Bengal would welcome the film's crew for a premiere at a time when many states have banned the movie.

"Bengal will be very happy to welcome them," Mamata Di said.

Padmavati has landed in troubled waters in view of protests by several right-wing outfits, including the Sri Rajput Karni Sena, over the alleged distortion of historical facts by its makers.

Besides these right-wing outfits, several political leaders and their parties along with key members of the erstwhile royal families have demanded a ban on the film's release.

The Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor starrer was scheduled to be released on December 1, but it has now been deferred.

Padukone  who plays the titular role of Rajput Queen Padmavati in the movie  and the film's director have received threats from the Rajput Karni Sena for defending the movie.

On November 22, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani declared his government would not allow the release of "Padmavati" in the poll-bound state.

Earlier, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held the film had "distorted facts" about Rajput queen Padmavati and would not be allowed to be released in his state, even if it gets a censor board certification.

His Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath had held the movie director responsible for hurting the sentiments of the Rajput community, while Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had sought edits in the film to remove "objectionable sequences".
Generally speaking, any league match amongst the big-six teams is bound to be an interesting affair. However, Liverpool versus Chelsea games have proven to be season-defining games in the recent past. The Blues defeat at Stamford Bridge last season was the first of the two defeats that prompted Antonio Conte to switch to a back-three. Chelsea went on a 13-match winning streak and became the clear favorites to win the title. In April 2014, Liverpool were the clear favorites to win the Premier League but a famous loss to Mourinhos Chelsea at Anfield meant that the title slipped away from their hands. On Saturday evening, Chelsea visit Liverpool for what promises to be a very interesting match.

Liverpool are getting ready to host Chelsea after a debacle of sorts in Seville. After leading 0-3 at half-time, the Reds conceded three goals in the second half, the last one in injury time. While the end result was disappointing, the Reds can take heart from the fact that they scored three in a country where they had lost 1-0 in their previous three visits. They also scored three in a single game against Sevilla, who have been incredibly miserly at home this season. However, in the Premier League, Liverpool have had a good run after that miserable defeat against Tottenham. Three games, all three won by a margin of three goals, and the two at home  versus Huddersfield and Southampton have been won 3-0. While a few performances in Seville were disturbing, Liverpool will be confident of a better performance at home, especially against a top-four rival.

For a brief period in October, it did seem that Chelseas internal politics will begin clouding their results on the field. A loss to Crystal Palace was also followed by a draw and a loss to Roma in the Champions League. But since then, the Blues have been cruising. They have won last four league encounters at a canter and have just returned after dishing out a 0-4 thrashing to Qarabag in Azerbaijan. They have won their last two matches by four goals to none margins and if they were playing a non-top-six team in the league, they would definitely be the favorites. However, playing Jurgen Klopps Liverpool two days after a long mid-week flight is a challenge. It is a challenge that Contes side did not have to deal with last season and one that seems to have troubled the Blues this season. But, given his sides overall form, Conte will be hopeful that they will be able to hold their own at Anfield.

Interesting Stats

In 50 Premier League matches, Liverpool have won 19, Chelsea have won 19 and 12 have been drawn. In the last five encounters between the two teams, Liverpool have won 2 and won 3.

Liverpool have converted Anfield into a fortress of sorts, having conceded only one goal in last eight home games.

Chelsea have the second-longest winning streak in Premier League this season. They have won their last four games on the trot, while Liverpool have won their last three Premier League games.

This game will see the team with lowest passing accuracy among the top-six  Liverpool with 82.4%, go toe-to-toe with the team with the lowest possession among the top-six teams  Chelsea with 52.7%.

Key Men

Sadio Mane

While currently Liverpools talisman is considered to be Mohamed Salah, the overworked Egyptian might find the encounter against his former side a bit challenging. Other than the international break, Salah has not had a lot of rest this season. On the other hand, Sadio Mane, who was Liverpools top scorer last season, has had a few injury-induced resting periods this season. Over the last two matches, Mane has put in great performances and he was at hand to nod in one of the three goals that Liverpool scored at Sevilla on Tuesday night. With an xG per 90 minutes of 0.39 and xA (expected assists) per 90 minutes of 0.22, he continues to match Salahs threat on the other wing. His expected stats are as of now better than his expected stats from last season, with a 5 percent higher chance of goal contribution per 90 minutes. The Senegalese star will be keen to get into a scoring groove and will relish the opportunity against Chelsea.

Eden Hazard

In 2015-16, Eden Hazards magic seemed to have died out. But under Antonio Conte, Eden Hazard has started to shine again, albeit not as brightly as he did in that wonderful season. With six goals and three assists in all club competitions this season, he is in fine form. In Batshuayis absence, Hazard is also perhaps the only player that can help Chelsea use the 3-5-2 formation that Conte talked about earlier in the week. An xG per 90 minutes of 0.28 and xA per 90 minutes of 0.22 does not look world class but it does translate to a 50% goal involvement probability per 90 minutes. Against Liverpools weak central defense, a two-men forward-line of Hazard and Morata can wreak havoc and Hazard will look forward to improving his expected stats at Anfield on Saturday.

Team News

Nine of Liverpools ten outfield players have started against Southampton and Chelsea, so the Reds might feel a bit of fatigue. While Adam Lallana is knocking on the doors, he might not be fit enough to start versus Chelsea. Joel Matip has not featured in last two games but is expected to start on Saturday. After their terrible performances against Sevilla, Klopp might be tempted to replace Alberto Moreno with Andrew Robertson and Henderson with Emre Can. Joe Gomez might be retained at right back to provide more defensive stability, while the front three of Mane-Firmino-Salah will be retained due to their great form. Coutinho will slot in on the left midfield slot, while Wijnaldum should retain his midfield spot ahead of James Milner.

Antonio Conte praised his 3-5-2 formation to which he switched after the defeat to Roma in Champions League. In two matches against Manchester United and West Brom, the Blues have not conceded a goal using this tactic. Thus Conte is expected to use it against Liverpool as well. If he does, the midfield will consist of Kante, Bakayoko, and Fabregas with Zappacosta and Alonso on the flanks. Eden Hazard and Alvaro Morata are likely to lead the line while Christensen, Gary Cahill and Azipilicueta are likely to be the three-men defense. Many of these players were rested during the mid-week trip to Baku and that will suit the Blues better.

The Verdict

For Liverpool, Saturdays match is about winning against a top-four rival and strengthening their top-four credentials. For Chelsea, it is about keeping pace with the Manchester sides ahead of them. These objectives ensure that both the sides will treat Saturdays game as a must-win game. Both the sides have the firepower to score a few goals and both sides are fatigued in their own way. These balancing forces on both sides will possibly lead to one more score draw, which would be a third consecutive score draw between these sides at Anfield.

Liverpool 2  2 Chelsea
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she was willing to work with the opposition at the national level to politically take on the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Denying she had any "personal agenda" against Modi, she said at the India Today Conclave East: "Whenever the public face problems, it`s our duty to raise our voice. I believe in collective leadership... At present, all (opposition) are working together and it is the best policy. Let us work together."
BANGKOK: Thirteen Burmese people were killed Friday when their van collided with a truck in central Thailand and burst into flames, police said, the latest gruesome accident on the kingdom`s notoriously dangerous roads.

The van was travelling from the border town of Mae Sot, a common entry point for Myanmar migrant workers, to Bangkok when it crashed into the 10-wheeler in Singburi province early Friday morning, said a local police officer.

"Authorities are still identifying (the victims) as their bodies were heavily burned," the officer said, adding that the Thai driver was also killed in the accident.

Thailand`s roads are some of the most lethal in the region.

Around 24,000 people die on the kingdom`s roads each year, a figure well above the relatively prosperous country`s neighbours, according to data from the World Health Organisation.

While more than half of accidents involve motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians, bus crashes involving migrant workers and other travellers are also common.

Earlier this month four Japanese tourists and their Thai guide were killed in Ayutthaya province when their van crashed into a truck and was engulfed by flames, leaving no survivors.
CAIRO: At least 184 worshippers were killed and 125 others injured when militants struck a mosque during Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region, in the deadliest terror attack in the country.

The militants launched a targeted bomb and gun attack on the al-Rowda mosque in Al-Arish city during the Friday prayers, the state-run MENA news agency reported.

After the bomb ripped through the mosque, the gunmen on four off-road vehicles opened fire on the worshippers who tried to escape from the site after the explosion, it said.

About 50 ambulances were rushed to the attack site to shift the injured to hospitals.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

The Egypt government has announced three days of mourning, even as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi chaired an emergency meeting with officials to review security situation after the deadly attack.

Egypt's North Sinai region has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has witnessed a series of terror attacks this year claiming scores of lives.

On May 26, gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others.

On April 9, two suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services at churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta left 46 people dead.
Kabul: An Afghan official says a government airstrike has killed a Taliban commander and five of his family members in the northeastern Kapisa province.

Qais Qaderi, a spokesman for the province's governor, said today that the attack took place early morning in Nijrab district, killing Taliban commander Dilawar Khan and two women and three children from his family.

Qaderi said authorities were also searching for Khan's brother who apparently escaped during the attack.

He added that Khan was shooting at the air force from his home before the airstrike.
Washington: The United States administration of President Donald Trump on Friday asked Islamabad to arrest Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed who was freed after nearly 10 months of house arrest following a court order in Pakistan.

The United States calls for Pakistan to arrest and charge recently freed Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed, a statement from the State Department said.

The US is deeply concerned that LeT leader Hafiz Seed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. Pakistani government should make sure he is arrested and charged for his crimes, US Department of State Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens, the US State Department release said.

Saeed, soon after his release from the house arrest, vowed to continue the "jihad" for Jammu and Kashmir's "independence".

Addressing his supporters gathered outside his Johar Town residence, the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) leader thanked the Lahore High Court for refusing to buy the government's arguments that his release would pose a threat to public safety.

His release was a victory for Pakistan, he said.

"Just as I am free today, Kashmir will also be free one day," Saeed said. "It is because of Kashmir that India has been after me.

"I pray to Allah to give us strength so that we keep fighting for Kashmir's independence (from India)," he told his supporters who had begun gathering outside his house even before the midnight hour.

Saeed, who carries a USD 10 million bounty announced by the US for his role in terrorist activities, was released just after Thursday midnight, after a Lahore High Court review board turned down the government's arguments that he was a threat to public safety.

A court on Wednesday ruled out prolonging Saeed's house arrest due to a lack of evidence or justification for it. Saeed was placed under house arrest on January 30 this year and a court regularly renewed his detention.

As his detention order expired on Thursday midnight, authorities withdrew jail staff from his residence.

"Now he is free and can go anywhere," JuD spokesperson Ahmed Nadeem told Efe news. Police left Saeed's house at midnight, he said.

The US and the UN classify JuD as a terrorist group and it is alleged to be a front organization for the terror outfit LeT, whose attack on Mumbai led to the death of 166 Indians and foreigners and almost brought India and Pakistan to war.

Interpol has also issued a red notice for his arrest.

New Delhi also accuses the LeT of carrying out terror attacks in other parts of India, including Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist campaign backed by Pakistan and raging since 1989 has left thousands dead.

Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack but was released about six months later.

India had earlier denounced the Pakistani court's decision to free Saeed, saying it "confirms once again the lack of seriousness on the part of the Pakistani government in bringing to justice the perpetrators of heinous acts of terrorism".

Although seen as a terrorist, Saeed's group is popular for its charitable work in Pakistan.

(With Agency inputs)
WASHINGTON: Black Friday is referred to the shopping day after Thanksgiving. But the Philadelphia Police reportedly first coined it to describe the mayhem involving the traffic and congestion on Friday that followed Thanksgiving Day.

According to a media report, the name was first recorded in 1966 by a rare stamps dealer, Earl Apfelbaum, who in an ad claimed that Philadelphia Police termed the Friday violence as Black Friday.

Black Friday officially opens the Christmas shopping season. However, it brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks and the stores are often mobbed from opening to closing.

Retailers wanted to make "Black Friday" mean something positive as the shopping day after Thanksgiving turned out to be a very profitable day.

Black Friday crowds hunting for good bargains give the police a major headache as frantic shoppers hit the streets looking for insane discounts.

The stores offer mind-boggling discounts on items ranging from electronics, furniture, and clothing to other must-have items of the holiday season.

With the dawn of online shopping, Black Friday has lost some of its sheens but that won't keep the customers from hitting the streets early on Friday.

Most major retailers open very early and offer promotional sales.

Black Friday is an official holiday in the United States.
NAYPYIDAW: A fiery brand of Buddhist nationalism is burning brighter than ever as Myanmar braces for its first ever papal visit, posing a challenge to the message of religious tolerance Pope Francis is expected to preach next week.

A wing of extremist monks have been stirring Islamaphobia in Myanmar for years, earning a reputation as incubators of "Buddhist terror".

But their cause has received new support since August, when the army launched a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya, expelling more than half a million from the country.

Global outrage over the violence -- which the UN and the US have called ethnic cleansing -- has triggered an ultra-nationalistic reflex inside Myanmar, pushing the public towards firebrand monks who have long cast the Rohingya as ill-intentioned outsiders.

"Our ideas have now won the vast majority of the population," said Ottama, a prominent monk in Buddhist nationalist circles.

Speaking to AFP in a temple in Yangon, the saffron-robed monk repeated a well-worn falsehood that Muslims are poised to "swallow the nation" in a demographic assault on Myanmar`s Buddhist majority.

"Fifty years ago, only 12 percent people in Myanmar were Muslim. Now their population is about 38 percent," he said.

Census figures show Muslims make up less than five percent of the overwhelmingly Buddhist nation.

That fraction has been chiselled down further by the latest violence in Rakhine state, which has pushed over half of the 1.1-million Rohingya into Bangladesh.

The pope, who will head to Bangladesh after Myanmar, has thrown himself into the centre of the crisis rippling across the two nations` border.

In Yangon he will press for peace in masses expected to draw hundreds of thousands from the country`s Catholic community.

But he will also meet with Myanmar`s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and army chief Min Aung Hlaing -- a highly symbolic sit-down between a peace icon and a general whose troops are accused murder, rape and arson.

Francis is already in the crosshairs of Buddhist hardliners for expressing sympathy for the Rohingya, whom he has referred to as "brothers".

His public comments in Myanmar will be closely scoured for any mention of the group by name -- the term is rejected by the army, government and many in the Buddhist public, who insist the Muslims are "Bengalis".

"I do not understand why the Pope is coming in the middle of a conflict, many people say he`s coming for the Bengalis," Nyo Nyo Aung, a follower of an ultra-nationalist monk, told AFP.

Myanmar`s Catholic leaders have advised the Pope not to use the `R-word`, a path Suu Kyi has also taken to avoid triggering backlash from Buddhist nationalists, a powerful political bloc.

Myanmar`s Buddhist clergy has taken some steps to rein in radical members, including banning notoriously Islamaphobic monk Wirathu from giving sermons for one year, though with little enforcement.

A few days before the pope`s visit, another prominent ultra-nationalist abbot, Parmaukkha, was detained over an anti-Rohingya protest he organised in 2016.

But those moves have done little to draw the toxicity from anti-Rohingya hatred pinballing across social media in the form of rants, memes and grotesque cartoons.

This hyper-nationalism stretches back to Myanmar`s British colonial past, when the mass migration of people from South Asia caused economic and social tensions, according to Burmese historian Thant Myint-U.

"It created a sour, defensive nationalism, and remains at the heart of Myanmar`s political DNA," he said.

Analysts warn the animus threatens to unpick fragile democratic gains in the former junta-run country and have chastised Suu Kyi for failing to use her moral authority to defend the Rohingya.

The Nobel laureate has avoided dangerous political territory by not condemning the army crackdown that sparked the refugee crisis.

The Pope`s visit will test that intransigence.
BEIJING: China on Friday denied reports that the closure of a key border bridge connecting it with North Korea was aimed at punishing the reclusive Communist state for its defiance over its nuclear programme.

"It was closed temporarily because the North Korean side needs to carry out some maintenance work on this bridge," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a media briefing here.

It will be opened again for passage after repair and maintenance work, he said when asked whether the closure was aimed at punishing North Korea for continuing to pursue its nuclear programme in defiance of UN sanctions and international pressure.

Geng however did not give a time-line for its reopening.

"Just for recent days," Geng said when asked for how long it would be closed.

The 944-metre-long China-North Korea Friendship bridge over the Yalu river in Dandong, Liaoning province is a lifeline for North Korea as it facilitates all essential supplies from its big neighbour.

The river is the border between the two countries. It is the route of 80 per cent of trade and a large amount of personal travel between the neighbours. North Korea is virtually dependent on China for most of its essential goods.

The closure came in the immediate backdrop of the visit of President Xi Jinping's special envoy Song Tao to North Korea.

Reports said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un snubbed China by not meeting him leading to strained ties between the Communist neighbours.

North Korea, regarded as a close ally of China, was reportedly cut up with Beijing over the implementation of UN sanctions that increased pressure on Pyongyang which is not willing to give up its nuclear and missile programmes.

The closure came as relations were strained because of China's sanctions against North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

North Korea's recent missile and nuclear tests demonstrating its ability to launch long-range ballistic missiles have sparked fears that the regime is developing nuclear weapons faster than previously estimated by the US.

Regular joint US?South Korea military drills as well as US warnings to North Korea have also raised tensions recently in the region and beyond.

Both Beijing and Pyongyang have tried to put a positive spin on Song's trip but have remained tight-lipped about whether the Chinese envoy met the reclusive North Korean leader, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported earlier.

Although Song met Choe Ryong-hae, a vice-chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and Kim's right-hand man, and Ri Su- yong, Pyongyang's top diplomat, analysts said his failure to meet Kim if confirmed was a deliberate snub to Xi and again showed China's limited influence over the unruly regime, it said.

China is also increasingly coming under pressure from US President Donald Trump to use its influence over North Korea to curb Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.
NEW DELHI: China has said it its Air Force conducted a series of provocative combat air patrols on Thursday. Not just the disputed South China Sea, but this round of acknowledged exercises also seem designed to send a message to a number of countries in the region, all of whom have disputes with China.

And, Beijing has made no bones about the nature of the exercises. They were clearly termed 'combat air patrols' by Xinhua, the Chinese government news agency.

"The PLA Air Force recently conducted a combat air patrol in the South China Sea A team of various bombers completed the routine patrol," Xinhua reported military spokesman Shen Jinke as saying.

Any Chinese moves in the South China Sea are generally viewed as sabre-rattling and intimidation. However, the path the exercises took were significant.

The Chinese Air Force planes passed over the Bashi Channel, a key shipping lane that lies between Philippines's largest idland Luzon and Taiwan. China's relations with both sides of the Bashi Channel are strained - it has unresolved disputes with Philippines in the South China Sea and claims Taiwan as its own territory.

However, Bashi Channel's importance stretches beyond territorial disputes. It is one of the most significant bottlenecks for undersea cable networks for telephone and internet connectivity.

The Chinese Air Force also passed over the Miyako Strait, a passage between the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyako. The Miyako Strait is China's easiest channel to access Pacific trading and military routes. It is adjacent the Okinawa Island, which hosts 32 US military bases.

The Miyako Strait is not too far north of Japan's Senkaku Islands, which China claims.

Though not many other details of the exercise were released, pictures released by Xinhua showed an assortment of long-range bombers and fighter jets taking part. The centrepiece of the exercise was the H-6K bomber, which carries supersonic land-attack cruise missiles.

The combat patrols come at a time when countries around the Indo-Pacific region are scrambling to build a security understanding with each other, thanks solely due to the perceived threat of China's rising adventurism and expansionism.
London: Actor Billy Baldwin has accused US President Donald Trump of hitting on his wife after gate crashing a party two decades ago.

In response to a tweet from Donald Trump Jr. about the latest sexual harassment allegations against Democratic Senator Al Franken, Baldwin said Trump once "hit on my wife" at a Manhattan hotel.

The tweet read: "Your Dad is a 5th-degree black belt when it comes to sexual impropriety allegations. In fact. I once had a party at the Plaza Hotel. your father showed up uninvited & hit on my wife. invited her on his helicopter to Atlantic City."

"She showed his fat a-- the door," he added.

Your Dad is a 5th degree black belt when it comes to sexual impropriety allegations.

In fact I once had a party at the Plaza Hotel your father showed up uninvited & hit on my wife invited her on his helicopter to Atlantic City.



She showed his fat ass the door.#TrumpRussia https://t.co/A8BInetbbZ  Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) November 23, 2017

The 54-year-old, who has been married to Chynna Phillips since 1995, used to be cordial with Trump but has been a staunch critic since the campaign, regularly lashing out at him over Twitter.

Baldwin's brother and fellow actor, Alec Baldwin has on several occasions drawn ire for his Trump impersonation on 'Saturday Night Live.'
BANGKOK: UK-based Baloch nationalist leader Mehran Marri has warned the Pakistan establishment not to trust China, especially when it comes to the latter's ongoing involvement in the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Speaking to the Asia Times, Marri, who was denied political asylum by Switzerland recently, when asked about the possibility of China establishing a hegemony in Balochistan, said, "To be honest, it's much worse than the Punjabi hegemony - I've said that on many occasions. In fact, the Punjabis should start fearing the Chinese as well. These guys will eat your children. Beware of the Chinese."

Marri squarely blamed Pakistan for convincing the Swiss authorities to bar his entry into that country.

Senior Pakistani officials said the ban was requested by Islamabad as follow up to the take down of the 'Free Balochistan' banners that appeared in Geneva.

Similar posters also emerged on London taxi cabs and buses, with Transport for London taking them down following the Pakistani High Commission's request.

He said the Swiss authorities have been harassing him with questions for the past ten years, but this (rejection of political asylum) was the last straw.

Marri said, "I've been going to Switzerland since 2001. Since 2006, they've started interrogating me, whether or not I have another passport, where I was born - blatantly foolish questions the answers to which they can find on my passport. This is because the Pakistani consulate there has provided them details of somebody with my credentials - but no picture - that claim that I'm a Pakistani citizen. I am a British citizen, not born in Pakistan."

Marri described Islamabad as being very desperate since the campaign for freeing Balochistan has picked up in Geneva and elsewhere in Europe over the past year.

"They (Switzerland) deported me and put a 10-year ban on me, but I'm taking them to court," he said.

".I believe I have been accused of supporting terrorism and that I'm involved in militant activities, which is basically the line that the Pakistani establishment toes. Pakistan has always been great at blackmailing the Western countries. But what is shocking is that Switzerland, a neutral country, the home of UN Human Rights Council, is falling into the trap. This is why humanitarian groups are absolutely shocked by the developments," he said.

He said, "My struggle for the past 17 years is evidence that there is actually an increase in awareness of the Baloch cause. If anything, the fact that the Pakistani establishment is acting in desperation shows how big a thorn in the backside we are for them. They're clearly getting paranoid..."

He believed that the Baloch movement for independence is now taking proper shape and moving forward.

".We are demanding the restoration of our sovereignty - separatist makes it look a bit radical and militant. We just want independence, which is a basic human right. Every nation has that right and that is what is mustering worldwide support," he said.

"Pakistan has been framing Baloch nationalists from day one. We have been dubbed Iraqi agents, Israeli agents, Russian agents, Indian agents. Today, they're accusing us of being affiliated with the BLA and the UBA, tomorrow it's going to be ISIS and al-Qaeda," Marri said.

When asked if the final goal is the creation of an independent Balochistan state, Marri said, "Our goal wasn't the creation of an independent Balochistan to begin with. To be honest, my father and all Baloch nationalist leaders all tried to work out a union within Pakistan. But they were all disappointed since Pakistan cannot exist as a union, because of the hegemony of Punjab of every other nation. So now we've reached the conclusion that we need to struggle for our rightful independent state of Balochistan."

Pakistan would eventually self-implode, he added.
Egypt declares 3 days of mourning over North Sinai mosque attack

Egypt's government has declared three days of mourning after an attack on north Sinai mosque killed at least 85 people on Friday, state television said.
CAIRO: The death toll in a militant attack on a mosque in Egypt north Sinai region has risen to 235, Egyptian state television reported, quoting the public prosecutor.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but since 2013 Egyptian security forces have battled a stubborn Islamic State affiliate in the mainly desert region, and militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers.

The assailants planted home-made explosive in the al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, near Arish, and detonated them as worshipers were leaving after prayers. They also shot at anyone who tried to escape, a security official told Efe news.

State media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of El Arish, the main city in North Sinai. The blasts from improvised explosive devices caused considerable damage to the mosque, Al Ahram Online said.

Speaking to state-run Masriya TV, Egyptian Health Ministry spokesman Khalid Mujahid described the incident as a "terrorist attack".

One report said the target appeared to be supporters of the security forces who were praying at the mosque.

Around 40 gunmen set up positions outside the mosque with jeeps and opened fire from different directions as people tried to escape, witnesses said.

"They were shooting at people as they left the mosque," said a local resident whose relatives were at the scene. "They were shooting at the ambulances too."

The public prosecutors` office said in a statement 235 people had been killed and 109 more wounded.

Striking at a mosque would be a change in tactics for the Sinai militants, who have usually attacked troops and police and Christian churches.

Arabiya news channel and some local sources said some of the worshippers were Sufis, whom groups such as Islamic State consider targets because they revere saints and shrines, which for Islamists is tantamount to idolatry.

The jihadists have also attacked local tribes and their militias for working with the army and police, branding them traitors.

The Sinai branch is one of Islamic State`s surviving branches following the collapse of its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq after military defeats by US-backed forces.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces commander who presents himself as a bulwark against Islamist militancy, convened an emergency meeting with his defence and interior ministers and intelligence chief soon after the attack, the presidency and state television said.



He promised the attack "would not go unpunished". "Justice will be served against all those who participated, contributed, supported, funded, or instigated this cowardly attack," Sisi said in a statement.

The Egypt government has declared three days of national mourning.

Several world leaders condemned including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President condemned the 'barbaric' terrorists attack in Egypt and said the world is committed to weed out the menace of terrorism.

Strongly condemn the barbaric terrorist attack on a place of worship in Egypt. Our deep condolences at the loss of innocent lives. India resolutely supports the fight against all forms of terrorism and stands with the people as well as Government of Egypt.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 24, 2017
BERLIN: The leader of Germany`s Social Democrats came under growing pressure on Thursday to drop his opposition to a new "grand coalition" with Angela Merkel`s conservatives, with senior politicians arguing the party had a duty to promote stability.

Merkel is facing the biggest political crisis of her career since efforts to forge a three-way coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens collapsed last weekend. That has raised worries across Europe of a prolonged leadership vacuum in the continent`s economic powerhouse.

The Social Democrats (SPD) have governed in coalition under Merkel since 2013. But leader Martin Schulz said the party must heed the will of voters by going into opposition after achieving its worst result of the postwar period in the Sept. 24 election.

Pressure is growing on the party to revisit his decision, either by agreeing to prop up a conservative-led minority government by not voting against it, or by forming a renewed coalition.

In either case, the position of Schulz as party leader could become untenable. If changing course and teaming up with the conservatives requires a change of leadership at the SPD, that would be unlikely before a party conference on Dec. 7-9.

Schulz held a lengthy meeting with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a former SPD lawmaker and foreign minister, on Thursday afternoon before heading to party headquarters to consult senior party members. Steinmeier is trying to help facilitate a coalition government and avoid fresh elections.

"We will talk about if and how one can get a federal government in Germany," a senior SPD member said ahead of the meeting, adding that one option on the table was to support Merkel only indirectly by not blocking a minority government.

But Stephan Weil, the SPD premier of the state of Lower Saxony, one of the party`s most influential figures after he defied polls by winning re-election this year, implied a full coalition would preferable to a minority government.

"Minority governments are fragile constructs," he told the RND newspaper consortium. The SPD had to chart a path between a party rank-and-file reluctant to repeat the bruising experience of a grand coalition and its democratic obligations.

"Everyone understands that the stakes are high, involving the stability of an extremely important member of the European Union," he added.

Volker Kauder, leader of the conservative parliamentary group and a key ally Merkel ally, echoed the sentiment, calling for the grand coalition to be reprised.

WAITING FOR AN ANSWER

"Europe is waiting for a Germany capable of acting so that it can finally respond to the questions raised by French President (Emmanuel) Macron," he said, referring to Macron`s call for fiscal reforms to strengthen the euro zone.

Germany, the world`s fourth-largest economy, has long been a bastion of stability in the EU, and officials in Brussels and Paris fear months of political uncertainty could harm plans to reform euro zone governance and EU defence and asylum policies.

Merkel, who remains acting chancellor until a new government is agreed, has said she would prefer to work with the SPD, but if that option fails, she would favour new elections over an unstable minority government.

Another election would also provide no speedy resolution. Under Germany`s constitution, the president could call another election only after Merkel had lost several votes in the Bundestag -- a process that could take several months.

The mass-circulation Bild newspaper reported on Wednesday that 30 members of the SPD`s 153-strong parliamentary group this week had questioned Schulz`s preference for going into opposition during a meeting of the parliamentary party.

Speaking to ZDF television on Thursday, SPD deputy leader Karl Lauterbach said his party might have to rethink its opposition to another "grand coalition", but added he was still skeptical about joining one led by Merkel.

The SPD supports Macron`s proposal to give the euro zone the power to spend money to protect members of the single currency bloc against external shocks.

If the SPD changes tack about a "grand coalition", however, the leader of Merkel`s sister party in the state of Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CSU), said on Thursday it should not expect the conservatives to grant any significant concessions.

"We cant be blackmailed," said Horst Seehofer, who is himself fighting to hang on as CSU leader in the face of internal opposition.
HOUSTON: A Houston-area woman has been charged with mailing booby-trapped packages designed to explode to former U.S. President Barack Obama, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and a federal office in Maryland.

Julia Poff, 46, was ordered held in jail last week ahead of trial after she was indicted on charges of mailing packages last year that were designed to kill, transporting explosives and other criminal counts, court documents showed.

"Poff presents a real safety risk to witnesses and others in the community," U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy wrote in a five-page order outlining the case.

Poff, who was charged earlier this month and pleaded not guilty last week, reached out to the Houston Chronicle to defend herself, the newspaper reported on its website on Thursday.

Poff told the Chronicle that investigators had taken trash from her home. The trash was "used in some serious crimes that we did not commit and know nothing about," she was quoted as saying.

It was not clear whom Poff was referring to as "we."

An explosive-laden package mailed to Obama in October 2016, while he was still in office, contained hair that an FBI crime lab matched to one of Poff`s cats, the judge wrote in the detention order.

Poff is said to have expressed dislike for Obama, who is a Democrat, according to the order. Packages sent to Obama and the U.S. Social Security Administration in Maryland were both stopped in screening, according to Houston TV station KPRC.

In October 2016, Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, opened a third package that also was rigged to explode, but it failed to detonate.

The judge`s detention order said Poff was upset with Abbott because she believed that in his previous role as state attorney general, he played a part in her inability to receive support from her ex-husband.

It was unclear what type of support Poff might have sought. The state attorney general`s office has a division that handles requests for child support after a divorce or separation.

The packages sent to Obama, the Social Security Administration and Abbott contained pyrotechnic powder, and investigators found a large amount of fireworks at Poff`s home in Brookshire, west of Houston, the court order said.

Poff is represented by a public defender, who could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

She is scheduled to appear in court for a hearing on Jan. 2.
Leinster: Ireland's main opposition party on Friday submitted a motion of no-confidence in the country's deputy prime minister over her handling of a police whistleblower controversy, warning that elections loomed if she did not step down.

Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald "should step aside... that would avoid a general election," Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said on RTE radio.
NEW DELHI: China is clearly irritated by the Australian foreign policy white paper released on Thursday, which painted Beijing as a problem. A Chinese government-run newspaper has hit back at Australia, dismissing it as 'narrow minded' and 'not important', and saying China can afford to 'disregard its sensitivities'.



Australia's concerns over China were outlined in its first Foreign Policy White Paper in 17 years, released on Thursday by Aussie PM Malcolm Turnbull.

The document outlined the way Australia views the world, and there were significant parts where China came across as a villain. Clearly, this pissed Beijing off.

"Australia calls itself a civilized country, but its behavior is confusing. While it is economically dependent on China, it shows little gratitude," said Chinese government-run newspaper Global Times in a sharp editorial. Global Times is considered close to the Communist Party of China and its editorials are widely considered articulations of the party policies.

"Affected by China's rise, Australia has adopted a narrow-minded mentality toward this trend. As the US government welcomes China's peaceful rise, Canberra continues with its negative attitude," the editorial continued.

Also on China's mind seems to be Australia's participation in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue that was launched recently with the US, India and Japan. The goal of the dialogue was perceptibly to contain China's rising military and territorial adventurism.

"Australia, with its limited strength, cannot sustain an influential foreign policy white paper. The newly released paper will neither evoke ASEAN countries nor affect Washington," was another stinger the paper threw.

"Australia after all is not part of the Asian continent. China should prepare both a friendly face and a cold shoulder," the editorial concluded.
WASHINGTON: Lawyers for Michael Flynn, President Donald Trumps former national security adviser, have told Trumps legal team they can no longer discuss a probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, indicating Flynn may be cooperating with the investigation, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

Flynn is a central figure in a federal investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into whether Trump aides colluded with Russia to boost his 2016 presidential campaign.

In comments to the Washington Post, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow was quoted as saying the move was not entirely unexpected and added: No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president.

Reuters was unable to reach Sekulow or Trumps other outside attorney, John Dowd, on Thursday. Flynns lawyer and a spokesman for Mueller declined to comment.

The probe has hung over the White House since January, when U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her.

Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election and Trump has said there was no collusion.

The Times reported that Flynns lawyers had been sharing information with Trumps legal team about the Mueller investigation. Citing four unnamed people involved in the case, the newspaper reported the cooperation agreement had ended.

Due to rules that aim to prevent conflicts of interest when lawyers represent clients, the move by Flynns lawyers to stop communicating with Trumps lawyers indicated Flynn was now cooperating with Mueller, the Times said, although adding that in itself was not proof.

But the development has led Trumps lawyers to believe that Flynn has begun discussions with Mueller about cooperating, according to the Times.

Flynn served 24 days as Trumps national security adviser but was fired after it was discovered he had misrepresented his contacts with a Russian diplomat to Vice President Mike Pence.

Muellers inquiry is looking into Flynns paid work as a lobbyist for a Turkish businessman in 2016, in addition to contacts between Russian officials and Flynn and other Trump associates during and after the Nov. 8 presidential election, Reuters reported in June.

A lawyer for Flynns son, Michael Flynn Jr., who worked with his father and is also being investigated by Mueller, according to a person familiar with the matter, declined to comment.
MAR DEL PLATA: The Argentine navy raised the possibility on Thursday that a navy submarine missing in the South Atlantic suffered an explosion, heightening concerns over the fate of the 44 crew members on the eighth day of an international search effort.

A sound detected underwater by an international agency on the morning of Nov. 15, around the time the ARA San Juan sent its last signal and in the same area, was "consistent with an explosion," navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters.

The sub had only a seven-day supply of oxygen, a fact that drained hope from some of the relatives of the crew who have gathered at the vessel`s base in the city of Mar del Plata.

"What`s the point of hope if it`s already over?" Itati Leguizamon, wife of one of the missing crew members, told reporters.

The navy did not have enough information to say what the cause of the explosion could have been or whether the vessel might have been attacked, Balbi said.

Search-and-rescue crews were undeterred by a series of false leads that raised hope over recent days that the sub might be located. Asked during an evening news conference about the fate of the 44 sailors, Balbi said the situation was "critical".

"We are not going to enter into conjecture out of respect for the families," he added.

The information about the possible explosion was received on Thursday from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, or CTBTO, an international body that runs a global network of listening posts designed to check for secret atomic blasts.

The Vienna-based agency, which has monitoring stations equipped with devices including underwater microphones that scan the oceans for sound waves, said in a statement that two of its stations had detected an unusual signal near where the submarine went missing. The agency was more guarded about whether that was caused by an explosion.

OPTIMISM FADES

A huge sea and air hunt is being conducted for the San Juan, a German-built, diesel-electric powered submarine that was launched in 1983, as crew members` relatives waited anxiously for news more than a week after the vessel disappeared.

The relatives had been largely optimistic until Thursday. They shed tears and insulted authorities after being briefed on the news of the possible explosion. They were told about it before the public announcement.

Balbi said the news of the abnormal sound was consistent with a separate report received on Wednesday of an "acoustic anomaly" in the same area and around the same time. The San Juan was some 430 km (270 miles) off the Patagonian coast when it sent its last signal.

"This is very important because it allows us to correlate and confirm the acoustic anomaly from the U.S. report yesterday," Balbi said. "Here, we`re talking about a singular, short, violent, non-nuclear event, consistent with an explosion."

In Vienna, CTBTO hydroacoustic engineer Mario Zampolli said the signal his agency had detected "could be consistent with an explosion but there is no certainty about this." Speaking to Reuters, he agreed with Balbi`s description of the signal as unusual and short, adding that the cause was non-natural.

The submarine was en route from Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, to Mar del Plata, 400 km (250 miles) south of Buenos Aires, when it reported an electrical malfunction shortly before disappearing.

Some relatives have questioned authorities for letting the crew navigate on an ageing submarine - criticism that has highlighted the armed forces` dwindling resources since the end of a military dictatorship in the 1980s.

Authorities have said the level of maintenance, not the age, was what mattered, and that the vessel was in good condition.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday condemned the devastating bomb and gun attack in Egypt's restive North Sinai region in which at least 235 people lost their lives.

The Prime Minister took to his Twitter and wrote, "Strongly condemn the barbaric terrorist attack on a place of worship in Egypt. Our deep condolences on the loss of innocent lives. India resolutely supports the fight against all forms of terrorism and stands with the people as well as Government of Egypt."

Strongly condemn the barbaric terrorist attack on a place of worship in Egypt. Our deep condolences at the loss of innocent lives. India resolutely supports the fight against all forms of terrorism and stands with the people as well as Government of Egypt.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 24, 2017

United States President Donald Trump too condemned on Twitter the "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenceless worshippers."

Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt. The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017

A furious Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared three days of mourning and pledged to "respond with brutal force" to the attack. "The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period," he added in a televised speech.

235 worshippers were killed in a bomb and gun assault on a packed mosque in the North Sinai province in Egypt, in what is believed to be the country's deadliest attack in recent memory.

A bomb explosion ripped through the Rawda mosque frequented by Sufis roughly 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish before gunmen opened fire on those gathered for weekly Friday prayers, officials said.

Witnesses said the assailants had surrounded the mosque with all-terrain vehicles then planted a bomb outside.

The gunmen then mowed down the panicked worshippers as they attempted to flee and used the congregants' vehicles they had set alight to block routes to the mosque.

The state prosecutor's office said in a statement that 235 people were killed and 109 wounded in the attack, the scale of which is unprecedented in a four-year insurgency by Islamist extremist groups.

United Kingdom foreign minister Boris Johnson condemned the 'barbaric attack' in a post on Twitter, while his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian expressed his condolences to the families of victims of the 'despicable' bloodshed.
RIYADH: Syrian opposition representatives selected Nasr Hariri to head a negotiating team at an upcoming round of U.N.-backed peace talks in Geneva, spokesman Ahmad Ramadan told Reuters on Friday.

The decision came at a meeting in Riyadh where, a day before, Syria`s main opposition stuck by its demand that President Bashar al-Assad play no role in an interim period, despite speculation that it could soften its stance because of Assad`s battlefield strength.
LAHORE: Newly freed Pakistani Islamist Hafiz Saeed, accused of masterminding the 2008 assault in the Indian city of Mumbai, called on Friday ousted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a 'traitor' for seeking peace with neighbour and arch-foe India.

Saeed, who has a USD 10 million U.S. bounty on his head over the Mumbai attack, spoke at Friday prayers after being freed earlier in the day from 11 months of house arrest by a court that said there was no evidence to hold him.

Saeed was placed under house arrest in January while Sharif was still prime minister, a move that drew praise from India, long furious at Saeed`s freedom in Pakistan.

A Supreme Court ruling disqualified Sharif from office in July over a corruption investigation, though his party still runs the government.

Saeed, however, said Sharif deserved to be removed for his peace overtures with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Nawaz Sharif asks why he was ousted? I tell him he was ousted because he committed treason against Pakistan by developing friendship with Modi, killers of thousands of Muslims," Saeed said.
MANILA: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has terminated the on-again, off-again peace talks with Maoist-led rebels as hostilities have continued despite the negotiations, the president`s spokesman said on Friday.

Ending the nearly half-century-long conflict, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed, was among Duterte`s priorities since he took office in June last year.

"We find it unfortunate that their members have failed to show their sincerity and commitment in pursuing genuine and meaningful peaceful negotiations," Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement late Thursday.

"The president, as we all know, has always wanted to leave a legacy of peace under his administration. He has, in fact, walked the extra mile for peace," Roque added.

The president signed on Thursday the proclamation terminating the peace talks, which were being brokered by Norway.

In May, government peace negotiators cancelled the fresh round of formal talks with the Maoist-led rebels in the Netherlands as guerrillas stepped up offensives in the countryside.

Revolutionary forces now have no choice but to intensify guerrilla warfare in rural areas, the Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF), said in a statement.

NDF, the political arm of the Maoist guerrillas, said it regrets the unilateral cancellation of talks on such vital social and economic reforms.
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has called Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the "new Hitler of the Middle East" amid heightened tensions between the two countries.

In an interview to the New York Times, Salman said Iran could not be allowed to spread its influence and that it was important to avoid a repeat "of what happened in Europe in the Middle East".

"We learnt from Europe that appeasement doesn't work. We don't want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East," the paper quoted him as saying.

He said Saudi Arabia was slowly building a coalition with its allies to "stand up to Iran".

Saudi Arabia -- a Sunni Muslim-majority country -- and Shia Muslim-led Iran are at loggerheads across the Middle East and increasingly accuse each other of fuelling instability across the region.

There was no official Iranian reaction to the latest remarks.

Salman has taken a hard line towards Iran since coming to prominence in the past two years.

Earlier this month, he accused Iran of what he said was "tantamount to an act of war", blaming it for a missile attack aimed at the Saudi capital by rebels in neighbouring Yemen. Iran denied its involvement.

The crown prince also dismissed claims in the interview that the anti-corruption drive in his country that led to the arrest of several prominent royals was a "power grab", saying such comments were "ludicrous", the New York Times reported on Thursday.

He said that many of those being held in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton had pledged allegiance to him and the proposed reforms.

Adding that he also had the support of most key royals, he said, "Our country has suffered a lot from corruption from the 1980s until today."

He said that when his father, King Salman came to power, they decided it was time to put an end to the problems tarnishing the country's reputation.

The crown prince said each of the billionaires and princes accused of corruption was arrested, presented with the evidence and given the choice to come clean.

He said about 95 percent agreed to settle, signing over cash or shares in their businesses to the Saudi State Treasury.

Mohammed bin Salman also praised US President Donald Trump and described him as the "the right person at the right time".
GAUTENG: A South African appeals court increased Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius` sentence for murdering his girlfriend to 13 years and five months on Friday, marking a victory for prosecutors in a case that shocked the world.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein more than doubled his original sentence of six years after the state argued that it was unduly lenient.

Pistorius, 31, was not in court for the hearing.

Prosecutors argued earlier this month that Oscar Pistorius failed to show genuine remorse after killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

"One of the essential ingredients of a balanced sentence is that it must reflect the seriousness of the offence," Andrea Johnson, of the National Prosecution Authority, had told the court.

Pistorius` lawyer Barry Roux mounted a strong defence of the judge who handed down the six-year sentence, saying she took into account his claim that he believed he was shooting an intruder.

The Paralympic athlete shot dead Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013 when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

He pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014 and has always denied that he killed Steenkamp in a rage, saying he mistook her for a burglar.

In 2015, Pistorius was found guilty of murder and given less than half of the minimum 15 years in jail for that crime.

Pistorius was originally convicted of culpable homicide -- the equivalent of manslaughter -- but the appeal court upgraded his conviction.Nazreen Shaik Peremanov, a constitutional law expert at the University of South Africa's law school, told AFP that Pistorius could now appeal the latest sentence at the country`s highest court -- the Constitutional Court.

"They were forced to impose that sentence, and the court found there were no substantial and compelling circumstances and thus handed down (that) period of imprisonment," said legal analyst Ulrich

Roux. "(Recent) sentences have been much more harsh than in the past, in my opinion."

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said he was pleased with the Supreme Court`s ruling.

"We always maintained as an institution that this appeal is not about an individual. It has got everything to do with the proper administration of justice," he said.

"We hope the family will find closure knowing that justice has been served and the proper sentence has been handed out."

Oscar`s brother Carl Pistorius tweeted that he was "Shattered. Heartbroken. Gutted" following the court`s ruling.

"We have all suffered incomprehensible loss. The death of Reeva was and still is a great loss for our family too," he wrote.

Previously an ambassador for disabled people worldwide, Pistorius was released from jail in 2015 after serving one year of the initial five-year term for culpable homicide.

He returned behind bars after his conviction for murder.

The year before he killed Steenkamp, Pistorius became the first double-amputee to race at the Olympics when he competed at the London 2012 games.

In a television interview, he said he believed an intruder was in the house and "instant fear" drove him to grab his gun and walk on his stumps towards the bathroom.
BRUSSELS: Prime Minister Theresa May urged the EU to "step forward together" with Britain on Friday as the bloc`s leaders hoped she would finally offer a compromise to reach a Brexit divorce deal in December.

The embattled British premier met German Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU President Donald Tusk and other leaders on the sidelines of a summit with ex-Soviet states in Brussels as part of a bid to unlock negotiations on a future trade deal.

Impatient EU leaders were increasingly hopeful she would bring a new proposal on the thorny issue of Britain's exit bill, after senior British ministers agreed earlier this week to improve the offer to a reported 40 billion euros ($47 billion).

Arriving in Brussels, May refused to deny she was ready to bump up the amount Britain would pay, but insisted any such move must be tied to a final deal on future relations next year.

"These negotiations are continuing but what I`m clear about is that we must step forward together. This is for both the UK and the European Union to move to the next stage," she told reporters.

At a meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, a week ago, Tusk gave May until the start of December to make "much more progress" in order to unlock trade negotiations at an EU summit on December 14-15.

May's hastily arranged talks with Merkel, whose status as Europe`s most powerful leader has been undermined by the collapse of German coalition talks, were "very constructive", her Downing Street office said, without giving any further details.

May also pushed her case with the leaders of Belgium, Denmark and Lithuania, who appeared to offer tentative support.

"From my perspective it seems that they are progressing, so I have decided to be optimistic about this, and I really hope that we can move forward in December," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasumussen told reporters after meeting May.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said on Twitter that "clarity on our future relations is in everyone`s interest."

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he was more confident than before about a deal but added nothing would be decided before he had dinner with May on December 4.

"The actual final phase begins on December 4. There is some movement, I don`t know in which direction, but I hope in the right direction," the former Luxembourg prime minister said.

The EU insists Britain must tie up divorce terms -- the exit bill, the Irish border and the rights of EU nationals living in Britain -- before there can be any talks on future relations.

EU member states have become increasingly impatient for Britain to comply, and also worried that May`s fragile Conservative government is unable to do so even if it wanted to.

"It`s high time the English came with clear proposals," a European diplomatic source said on condition of anonymity. "The more the English let us stew, the more unified we become."Ireland remains a major sticking point, with Dublin stepping up threats to veto a deal if its concerns about the border with British-ruled Northern Ireland are not taken into account.

"If progress isn`t made in terms of more clarity and more credibility... in a way that prevents a hard border on the island of Ireland, well then we cannot move on to phase two," Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

Coveney admitted however that a political crisis in Ireland over the deputy prime minister`s handling of a police whistleblower case had left the government in a "precarious position".

"The financial question is the least difficult issue in the negotiations. So far, the Irish question is unsolvable," an EU diplomat said.

Failure to reach a deal at the December summit would leave little time for trade talks, which the EU wants to wrap up in October to allow time for a deal to be ratified by national parliaments ahead of Brexit Day on March 29, 2019.

May meanwhile said her presence at the so-called Eastern Partnership Summit with six former Soviet states showed that Britain was "unconditionally committed to maintaining Europe`s security" despite Brexit.

She also took aim at Moscow, saying Europe must be "open-eyed to the actions of hostile states like Russia which... attempt to tear our collective strength apart."
ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday is suing the main opposition party chief, seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages over "slanderous" comments about him and his family, state media reported.

Ahmet Ozel, a lawyer for Erdogan, made an application to an Istanbul civil court for 1.5 million Turkish liras ($380,000, 320,000 euros) in compensation for "spiritual damage" from Republican People`s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, state-run news agency Anadolu reported.

Kilicdaroglu on Tuesday demanded to know whether Erdogan was "aware" that his family, including his children, were "sending millions of dollars of money to tax havens", the Anadolu news agency reported.

"Do your children have millions of dollars sent to overseas accounts?" Kilicdaroglu asked during the CHP group meeting in parliament.

The comments were "slander" against the president, Ozel said, describing them as "humiliating, insulting, false accusations", Anadolu reported.

The move comes after Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation last month into CHP spokesman Bulent Tezcan on charges of "insulting the president" after he called Erdogan a "fascist dictator".

A similar investigation was launched in 2016 against Kilicdaroglu after he repeatedly called Erdogan a "tinpot dictator".

Thousands of Turks have been prosecuted in recent years for allegedly insulting Erdogan but most of the complaints did not lead to jail time.
KAMPALA: Eight managers and editors of a daily newspaper arrested this week have been charged with treason, Ugandan police said on Thursday.

Police raided the Red Pepper, Uganda`s leading tabloid, late on Tuesday and detained the journalists, whom they accused of publishing a false story the previous day.

The story, citing unnamed sources, alleged that Rwanda believed Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was plotting to oust its leader, Paul Kagame.

Besides treason, the journalists were charged with "offensive communication and publication of information prejudicial to national security," police spokesman Emilian Kayima told Reuters.

Kayima couldn`t say when the journalists would appear in court.

Rights groups and journalists have complained of escalating harassment and intimidation of independent media by security personnel in Uganda.

"We believe that this is economic sabotage aimed at occasioning the media house financial loss since all its production have been stopped," the Human Rights Network for Journalists - Uganda (HRNJ-U), a local media rights group, said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Local media, including Red Pepper, have reported this month on tensions between Uganda and neighbouring Rwanda over a range of economic and security disputes. Uganda`s foreign affairs ministry has dismissed the reports as rumours and insisted relations between the two countries were untroubled.
MEXICO CITY: The United Nations said on Thursday a group of experts on freedom of expression will visit Mexico at the end of November to assess the safety of journalists in the country, one of the most dangerous in the world for reporters.

David Kaye, U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, and Edison Lanza, who holds the same position at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, will visit from Nov. 27 to Dec. 4 after an invitation by the government.

"This visit is about the crisis the press is going through in Mexico, the exponential increase in violence," said Leopoldo Maldonado, the protection and defense program officer in Mexico at Article 19, a freedom of expression advocacy group.

The visit comes as Mexico`s journalists live through one of the worst waves of violence in recent history, with at least 11 reporters murdered in 2017, the same number killed in 2016.

Over the past 17 years, 111 journalists have been killed in Mexico, more than one third of them under the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto. Reporters are also having to contend with other forms of intimidation.

In June, activists, human-rights lawyers and journalists filed a criminal complaint after experts found that their smartphones had been infected with advanced spying software sold only to the government.

The Mexican government said at the time that there was no proof it was responsible for the spying and that it condemned any attempt to violate the privacy of any person.

The rights experts will travel to Mexico City and the states of Guerrero, Veracruz, Tamaulipas and Sinaloa to meet legislative, executive and judicial authorities plus journalists and representatives of civil society, the U.N. said.

Reporters Without Borders ranks Mexico at 147 out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index, below Venezuela, South Sudan and Bangladesh, and one place above Russia.
SEOUL: The US will send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill, reports said on Friday, in a new show of force aimed at Pyongyang.

Six fighter jets, normally based in Okinawa, Japan, will be deployed to the South for a five-day joint military exercise, Vigilant Ace, starting December 4, local media reported.

A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an "unspecified number" of F-22s would take part in the drill.

A US Air Force spokesman declined to give details.

Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets.

The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against the North`s nuclear program.

Earlier this month, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes.

This was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships in the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade.

North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainland -- which were described by the country`s leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to "American bastards".

It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test in September -- by far its most powerful yet.

Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back onto a US blacklist Pyongyang was taken off nearly a decade ago.

The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme.

Trump said that the terror designation and new sanctions are part of a series of moves over the next two weeks to reinforce his "maximum pressure campaign" against Kim Jong-Un`s regime.

Pyongyang condemned the listing as a "serious provocation" on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the North`s sole ally, also rejected as "wrong" new US sanctions, which target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state.

Russia said Thursday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a "PR move" that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global "catastrophe".
Found Objects

Patrick Nagatani, 1945-2017

Nagatani once wrote of his work and unique tapist process that, the Zen of the material and process moves me to spiritual happiness. I've been in the zone off and on for over 30 years with this work. Most things seem to now have a place in the cosmic meaning of things  I believe that the pieces have a life of their own and will change very slowly in time, much like mummies from ancient Egypt have lasted through the centuries but nevertheless have changed. The work of Nagatani, a longtime faculty member of UNM's renowned photography program, will certainly endure, though it is with great sadness that friends, family, students, admirers and the art community at large marked his passing during the last week of October.

Nagatani was born in Chicago in 1945 to Japanese-American parents who had survived internment during World War II. Nagatani later moved to Los Angeles, where he earned his MFA in 1980. He produced numerous photographs during his storied careerkeen inquiries into staged scenes and studio set-ups. These images, and much of his work, often explored the topics of Buddhism, nuclear power, history and the multitudes of identity. In 1982 he began his tapist workthat is, transforming found printed photographs into icons, relying heavily on the often disregarded material of masking tape. In 1987, Nagatani joined the UNM Departments of Art and Art History, where he was a much admired educator, receiving many accolades and awards during his tenure, which ended when he retired in 2007.

Through his photography and teaching, Patrick devoted his life to finding and sharing the deep generosity of the soul. His art revealed the location where creativity, interior life and the life of the spirit are mysteriously woven together, Director of the UNM Art Museum, Arif Khan wrote in an announcement last week. For those of us who will continually return to Nagatani's work, through all the years and all its inevitable changes, what will never be altered is its abiding soulfulness.
Indigenous Comic Con is returning for year two, bringing all things Indigenerd to Albuquerque Nov. 10 through 12 at Isleta Resort & Casino (11000 Broadway Blvd. SE). The expansive weekend-long festival features everything you'd expect of a comic concelebrities, cosplay, panels, vendors and moviesbut this one also has robots, puppetry, a maker space and so much more! Indigenous Comic Con, which celebrates the expansiveness of Indigenous comic culture, is bringing to Albuquerque the likes of Eugene Braverock best known for his role in 2017's Wonder Woman, the actresses/ models/ gamers/ entrepreneurs The Baker Twins and a myriad of local and regional artists, like Jason Garcia, creator of Tewa Tales of Suspense!, who hails from Santa Clara Pueblo.

Looking to his upcoming appearance at the second annual Indigenous Comic Con, where he will display work and deliver a talk on Pride and Power: Reimagining Indigenous Identity, Garcia took some time out of his preparations to answer some questions about his history, inspirations and work.

Alibi: Tell me about your first introduction to the arts and the arts your family practiced?

Garcia: I come from a family of artistspotters, painters, jewelers and various crafts people. I grew up in a very immersive, creative artistic environment. My parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles all work with pottery in some way. I grew up by attending various gallery shows and exhibitions that my parents were involved in and in a sense, didnt know anything else.

What was your first introduction to comic books?

Through my older brother. I learned a lot from him, [he] exposed me to different types of music, movies and comic books. While my parents were participating in gallery shows ... we would research comic book stores in different cities and visit them. Also the local barber shop was next door to a grocery store and we would often stay for an hour after our haircuts and read comics and buy some with the leftover change. I've always been immersed in popular culture and have interests in movies and collecting comics and action figures.

What appeals to you about the medium?

I've always loved the graphic format of comic books and the stories that they tell [and] the ability to take you to different worlds and universes.

When did you develop of the idea for Tewa Tales of Suspense!?

I began developing the idea for Tewa Tales of Suspense! around 2005, when I was visiting multiple sites related to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, plus I knew that I wanted to document and research this important story/historical event related to my own Tewa culture. Plus, also creating a way to visually tell this story and make it easier for a younger audience [was important to me]. Children, including my own, that have learned their history and choices made by their ancestors that have allowed us to maintain, sustain and keep our Tewa and Pueblo cultural identities intact despite 500+ years of contact.

The first clay tile piece was created in 2007 and since then I've created multiple pieces in the series using different mediums. Traditional clay tiles mimic the size of comic books. I've also created pottery that tells stories in a circular manner. The exhibition Tewa Tales of Suspense! is currently at the Poeh Museum in Pojoaque Pueblo and runs until January 2018 and is a seven serigraph print suite illustrating the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. This work was part of my MFA in printmaking work at the University of Wisconsin.

How do you translate Native culture and stories into imagery like this?

The majority of the work comes from personal research which includes reading various historical documents, books and other writings regarding the Pueblo historical events. I also speak with Pueblo elders and people to gain the Native/Puebloan perspective, I visit ancestral sites and places to see on the ground the area where this history took place, along with researching museum collections to see artifacts associated with the event.

What is your highest hope for readers and viewers of your work?

That younger Native audience members become interested in their own tribal histories, family lineages, and culture and want to investigate and share their own stories with the world.

What excites you about Indigenous Comic Con?

That there are more and more Indigenous/Native people/ artists/ creators/ writers that are expressing themselves with the comic and graphic novel format. Plus, that there will be other artists that I personally know and others that I do not know personally, but I enjoy and am inspired by their work.

What will you discuss in your talk at Indigenous Comic Con?

I will be discussing and explaining my background, influences, creation of the work in all types of media and my exhibition [at the Poeh Museum].
Rob M.

US Attorney General Jefferson Sessions is too busy fending off criticism of his kick- 'em- in- the- face- and- shoot- their- dog approach to crime fighting to say anything nasty about cannabis recentlywhich means I get to use this space to talk about more upbeat subjects, like our state's second chance at making cannabis history.

Yes. Earlier this year, Department of Health Secretary Lynn Gallagher rejected the recommendation made by the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board to add opiate dependence and Alzheimers disease to the list of qualifying conditions for medical cannabis use. The board voted 5-1 in favor of adding the conditions last November after receiving a petition signed by a number of healthcare professionals, but Gallagher said there wasn't enough scientific research available to justify the policy change and shot it down.

But cannabis advocates are hard to deter these days, and the process just started all over again. A new petition to add opioid use disorder (OUD) was recently submitted to the board by Dr. Anita Briscoe, a clinical nurse. This time, 21 pages of research were attached to the petition. Once again, the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board voted, but this time, they voted unanimously in favor of adding the condition, reportedly receiving applause from the gathered crowd.

Whether or not this will translate into an actual policy change seems unlikely, but one can hope. In the months since Secretary Gallagher rejected the last recommendation on the subject, the idea of using cannabis as an addiction treatment has gained more and more popularity in the national discussion, and it seems silly that the one person in a position to potentially turn around New Mexico's rampant opioid addiction problem is unaware of the current research on the matter.

The board considered a total of 15 petitions during its semiannual meeting earlier this month and voted to recommend 5 new qualifying conditions to the list, including the skin conditions eczema and psoriasis, muscular dystrophy, Tourettes syndrome, substance use disorder and opioid use disorder.

The board voted against recommending the addition of six conditions: polymyalgia rheumatica, dysmenorrhea, cystic fibrosis, post-concussion syndrome or concussion, diabetes and arthritis.

Money is Green, Too, Eh?

Here comes an I told you so. Anyone with a sound mind and a good internet connection knows that the easiest way for the government (state or federal) to make a quick buck is to legalize cannabis. Go on, tax the hell out of it. You can stop putting people into cages for smoking a plant and we'll give you lots of extra monies. It seems like an obvious and easy enough plan, but good luck convincing some of these dummies.

But last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government proposed a C$1 tax on every gram of legal cannabis sold in the country, sending cannabis stocks through the greenhouse roof. According to Bloomberg Markets, some Canadian cannabis companies saw as much as a 22 percent raise in their shares. That means more buds for everyone!

Canadian citizens will get to enjoy their newly won freedom in July, when full legalization of cannabis for adults over 21 goes into effect. Maybe those last holdouts on Capitol Hill blocking up progress stateside will answer the rumble in their bellies when they see the financial gain that inevitably follows legalization.

PTSD Research Stalled by Federal Agencies

The nonprofit research group Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is currently conducting the first FDA- and DEA-approved clinical trial on whole-plant cannabis. The study aims to investigate the effects of cannabis on post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly in veterans.

To conduct the clinical trials, the scientists involved will have to find 76 participants who suffer from treatment-resistant PTSD. The issue now is finding enough volunteers who fit the proper criteria and are able to participate on-site in Phoenix, Ariz. The researchers estimate that there are nearly 20,000 veterans in the Phoenix VA hospital who would be viable subjects, but the hospital refuses to share the study's existence with its patients.

Brad Burge, communications director at the MAPS, told Forbes that in the nonprofit's experience, the US Food and Drug Administration has shown interest in medical cannabis and is even willing to approve protocols for research into other schedule I drugs like MDMA. According to Burge, research is being blocked by other regulatory agencies. Most likely, these would be the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Justice.
Rob M.

I'd just spent six hours at a car dealership trying to look savvy when I read the news that a pair of Colorado doctors had witnessed the first case of fatal cannabis overdose. I did the knee-jerkmy least favorite dance moveand immediately called bullshit. The rationalizations came later, but that first reaction might have been due to all of the powdered donuts and tar-crusted coffee I'd been hammering at over negotiations. Liars! I said. Finks!

A case report was published last March in the journal of Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicineco-authored by a pair of doctors at the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Centerwhich detailed the death of an 11-month-old baby 2 years ago due to myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle). The doctors working on the case reportedly found a large concentration of THC in the child's urine and blood, leading some to proclaim it a marijuana overdose.

According to the report, the child had been living in an unstable motel-living situation, and the parents had admitted to keeping drugs, including cannabis, in the house. Myocarditisthe actual cause of the child's deathcan be caused by a viral infection, immune disorder or a number of other complications. We extensively ruled out almost every other cause that we can think of, Dr. Christopher Hoyte, co-author of the report told news crews. We found no other reason why this young kid ended up having inflammation on his heart.

Even after my initial knee-jumping reaction, I still had trouble believing this news, because I knew the theorized lethal dose of cannabis for humans is ridiculously high. The Schaffer Library of Drug Policy says: According to which US Government authority you want to believe, the lethal dose of marijuana is either about one-third your body weight, or about 1,500 pounds, consumed all at once. The University of Michigan's Mind the Science Gap blog says the LD50lethal dose for half of the populationof delta 9-THC (the chemical that converts to THC when burned) is theoretically between 15 and 70 grams. These numbers are based on the LD50 of the delta 9-THC for rats, mice and monkeys. For obvious reasons, no human trials have ever been conducted, but here was an actual case study that seemed to dispute my long-held belief that it's impossible to overdose on cannabis.

Luckily, my paradigm hadn't completely shifted before both authors of the report came forward to blast the apparent click-baiting sensationalism of the earliest news reports.

We are absolutely not saying that marijuana killed that child, Dr. Thomas Nappedirector of medical toxicology at St. Lukes University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa., and second co-author of the reporttold the Washington Post. Dr. Hoyte took to Twitter to say: News story totally sensationalized. Kid had myocarditis after marijuana exposure. We just said more study is needed. Not that marijuana was the cause of the death. News story totally overblown.

The study does advise physicians to counsel parents on preventing the exposure of children to cannabis and suggests that further study into the links between THC and unexplained pediatric myocarditis should be conducted. But if one actually reads the report, they will find that the high concentration of THC in the baby's body was observed and documented, but was never posited as the cause of death.

The confusion seems to stem from the report's statement that this is the first reported pediatric death associated with cannabis exposure. There is a difference between associated with and caused by, a point that Nappe made when speaking to the Post.

Which comes as a relief to any cannabis patient. But what's even more of a relief was the response of the American media. Within days of the initial news stories covering the supposed overdose, major pieces debunking the claim were released by the New York Daily News, Ars Technica, VICE News and the aforementioned Washington Post. If you start feeling hot anger creep up your clenched back when you realize that some asshole in a Colorado newsroom just tried to shit in the public milkshake of information just to get a few clicks, think about all the other, bigger outlets who took the high road and stayed off the crazy wagon.

The times, they are a-changin'.

The bad news: You're probably going to have to fend off your misled friends for the next few months when they approach you with the terrible news. Facebook just told me cannabis killed some kid, they might say. I'm totes worried about you, homie. How you handle the situation is up to you. I guess you could always shame them for not reading their sources more thoroughly, but I would suggest we all take the high road and just explain the facts patiently with special attention given to detail.

The Drug Enforcement Agency continues to maintain that there have been no reported instances of cannabis-caused deaths.
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Pop Quiz! The holiday season is in full force. Would you rather: Go shopping at the mall with your mother, cook dinner for all your our-of-town relatives or escape to the nearest movie theater and watch something with lightsabers? Riiiiiight.The holiday movie season, wedged tightly between Thanksgiving and New Years Eve, has arrived, and with it comes something for everyone. There are cartoons for the kids, rude comedies for the teens, Oscar-bait dramas for the adults and amovie for just about everyone. To help guide you through this cinematic snowstorm, were running down the major movie releases from now until the end of the year. Keep in mind, of course, that all opening dates are subject to change.The freewheeling manager (Freeman) of a luxury Palm Springs retirement resort makes the lives of his residents one big, nonstop party. But his status quo is challenged when a new charmer (Jones) checks in and battles the manager for the affection of the communitys newly arrived hot property (Russo). Also, Freemans character is an ex-mob lawyer in the witness relocation program and Jones character is an ex-FBI agentso there are some mob-based shenanigans as well.In the early days of World War II, with the fall of France imminent and England facing the very real possibility of invasion, newly appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Oldman) debates negotiating with Hitler or fighting back against incredible odds.James Franco directs and stars in this tragicomic biopic about oddball filmmaker/actor Tommy Wiseau, the incomprehensible force of nature behind the comically awful cult filmThe classic kids picture bookcomes to life in a heartwarming animated flick about a giant bull with a great big heart. This one comes from the folks behind the animated parrot flickIts a family affair (appropriately enough) for this biopic about crime boss John Gotti and his son starring several members of the Travolta clan. Kevin Connolly (Eric from Entourage) directs.When a famed frontier lawman (Fonda) is gunned down, his longtime sidekick and friend (Pullman) stops at nothing to avenge his death. The film is billed as a coming of age Western for a 65-year-old man.So, Force-infused orphan Rey (Ridley) has found her mentor (and possible father?) Luke Skywalker. Now she begins her training into the Jedi ways. Will it be enough to stop the newly empowered First Order? And what about Finn? Whats that dude up to? So many mysteries to be solved in episode VIII of George Lucas epic space opera.This original musical biopic is inspired by the imagination of circus legend P.T. Barnum. Jackman, of course, plays the colorful circus mogul.Kids dont play boardgames much anymore, so this sequel to the 1995 fantasy adventure Jumanji turns to the realm of video games. Here, four teenagers get trapped in a magical video game (in the form of various avatars) and must fight to escape back to the real world.Ridley Scott () directs this historical drama following the kidnapping and subsequent ransom of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III, grandson to famed billionaire J. Paul Getty (Plummer, who replaces the sudden actor non grata Kevin Spacey).During the summer of 1983 in northern Italy, a precocious 17-year-old American-Italian boy (Chalamet) spending his days at his familys 17th century villa meets and falls in love with a charming American scholar (Hammer). This prestige drama is based on the novel by Andre Aciman.Twin brothers (Helms, Wilson), raised by their eccentric mother (Close) to believe that their father is dead, discover their family history is one big lie. Naturally, they hit the road to locate their biological pop.Alexander Payne () cowrites and directs this imaginative sci-fi satire about a future world where overpopulation is solved by citizens who volunteer to be shrunk to a mere five inches high. Our protagonist is an impoverished everyman who volunteers to join this brave new (not to mention) tiny worldonly to find that his wife has chickened out.In 1950s London a renowned dressmaker (Day-Lewis) finds his fastidious life disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman (Krieps). Paul Thomas Anderson () writes and directs whats looking like Academy Award-winner Daniel Day-Lewiss final film.Fans of The Voice, American Idol, Glee et al., rejoice! Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and the other members of their college a capella singing group reunite for one last singing competition at an overseas USO tour. Hijinks (and peppy George Michael covers) ensue.From master storyteller Guillermo del Toro () comes this otherworldly fable set in Cold War-era America. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Hawkins) falls in love with a kindly amphibian man (Jones).
Zeitgeist Films

The personal is absolutely political, and idealistic revelations do make for terrific revolutionary metaphor. But something called peer pressure is often the most direct catalyst for truly meaningful social change. Swiss screenwriter- director Petra Volpe deftly illustrates the subversive power of communal coercion in the Swiss suffrage dramedy The Divine Order.

The films premise is absurda relatively utopic European union forbids the fair sex the right to vote through the early 70sbut the history behind this cinematic narrative is legit. The men of Switzerland first passed a referendum allowing women to vote in 1971, and it wasnt ratified throughout the country until the 90s. There, women still needed their husbands explicit consent to work outside the home until 19-freaking-84.

From the transcendently ugly 70s wardrobe (big ups, Linda Harper) to Annette Focks stellar soundtrackfeaturing Lesley Gores rendition of You Dont Own Me and Aretha Franklin on Respectto Volpes classicist indie dramedy script, The Divine Order earnestly portrays a muted version of whats possible. Traumatic events close to home lead stay-at-home mom Nora (the transfixing Marie Leuenberger) to lose patience with her marriage to handsome, sympathetic factory foreman Hans (Maximilian Simonischek).

Drowning in Hans normative machismo, her father-in-laws nostalgic misogyny and her cherubic sons mere compulsory sexism, Nora stumbles onto nascent second-wave feminism. One meet-cute with an activist in the city and a couple of late nights spent with a German translation of Betty Friedans The Feminine Mystique and some pamphlets on the patriarchy and Swiss marital law, and the hook is set.

Like the faintly smiling sun from a fable, The Divine Order gradually warms its audience to its purpose, persuading us to take off our coats and sit a while. Volpe skillfully builds the drama to a crescendo before ramping up the Chocolat meets Norma Rae vibe with a womens strike and significant subsequent personal and political drama.

The towns leading anti-suffragette, Dr. Mrs. Charlotte Wipf (Therese Affolter), convinces Hans brother Werner (Nicholas Ofczarek) that his teenage daughters sexuality is criminal. When Werner sends Hanna to prison, Theresa doesnt speak up. As apparent opposites, Werners wife Theresa (Rachel Braunschweig) and rebellious daughter Hanna (Ella Rumpf) play host to a veritable Russian nesting doll of gendered mores and norms.

Theresa has nearly willed herself out of independent existence while Hanna is downright aggressive in her allegiance to her own wants and needs. Given 10 seconds to assign Switzerland an adjective, many would likely choose some variant of neutral in tribute to Swiss foreign policy. After coming out (loudly) in support of womens right to vote, Nora finds her rural popularity threatened but also attracts unlikely comrades.

Feisty widow Vroni (Sibylle Brunner) and Italian divorcee Graziella (Marta Zoffoli) populate her cheering section. As for red wine, it certainly doesnt hurt the village recruitment numbers. After fits and starts embracing the Heidi of the non-gendered right to vote character, when Noras son is bullied because shes a womens libber, it seems certain that the campaign will lose her. Then a repentant Theresa reappears.

Change can be scaryand not just for the generation that feels left behind. At a protest in the city, Nora, Vroni and Theresa participate in a womens rights march and attend a speculum party; feminist consciousness- raising and examining your vagina as a group activity apparently went hand in hand in the 70s. Genitalia observation expert Eden (German TV star Sofia Helin) passes out mirrors and displays her naturalistic paintings of vulvas; some are the spitting image of a tiger or a butterfly, while others bear more than a passing resemblance to, say, a bunny or a wolf.

As for reasons to revisit the history of suffrage, what springs to mind is the sense of cultural agency and urgency fostered by a series of recent sexual harassment accusations, the various responses of those accused and the growing sense that public disclosure of harassment and assault can indeed be revolutionary acts. If you can, invite your spiritual grandmotherwhether thats actually your moms mom or notto go watch The Divine Order with you.
PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Reel World After Earth Central Features Contemporary Art Gallery will feature a film screening and discussion of the 1954 feature Salt of the Earth on Thursday, Nov. 16. Shot in New Mexico, the film is based on an arduous 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grant County, N.M. The film, directed by Howard Bieberman, utilized few professional actors, relying instead on Grant County localsmany of whom were involved in the actual incident depicted. At the time of its release, the strongly pro-labor, anti-corporate film was labeled Communist and blacklisted. Bieberman spent six months in prison after he refused to answer questions from the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The film itself went unseen for decades because many theaters refused to show it. In recent years, however, it has become an important historical document and a hallmark of American neo-realist cinema. Artist Nina Elder will be on hand to discuss the film. The screening/discussion will take place from 7 to 9pm. Central Features is located at 514 Central Ave. SW Ste. 2. View in Alibi calendar

Students of Cinema The New Mexico Film Foundation unveils its second annual Student Filmmakers Showcase this Saturday, Nov. 18, at Santa Fes Violet Crown Cinema (1606 Alcalesea St.). From noon to 3pm a collection of short films by college-age filmmakers from around the state will be showcased. Tickets are $5 for the general public or free for students with ID.

Pueblo Fest The 4th Annual Pueblo Film Fest gets underway, Nov. 17 through 19, at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (2401 12th Street NW). This film festivalthe only one in the US dedicated to the work of Pueblo filmmakers and actors, as well as films that explore the Pueblo experiencewill include screenings, presentations, workshops, an open casting call and discussions with renowned Pueblo filmmakers. This years fest even includes some classic Native-made films, alongside the new work. It all kicks off on Friday at 6pm with an opening reception featuring drinks and appetizers. The opening night film is the Canadian documentary Rumble: Indians Who Rocked the World, which fills in a missing chapter of rock and roll history covering the indigenous influence on popular music. Eleven other features and shorts will screen throughout the weekend. A suggested $10 donation gets you in the door. For a complete schedule of films and events, go to indianpueblo. org/ centerevent/ 4th- annual- pueblo- film- fest.
For the past several years, actress/writer Greta Gerwig has served as an indie film muse to herself and others (see for example: Joe Swanbergs LOL and Hannah Takes the Stairs, Jay & Mark Duplass Baghead, Noah Baumbachs Frances Ha, Greenberg and Mistress America, Whit Stillmans Damsels in Distress, Daryl Weins Lola Versus). With her newest, the coming-of-age semi-memoir Lady Bird, Gerwig steps fully behind the camera to write and direct, leaving the acting duties to others.

The wisely chosen Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn, Hanna, The Grand Budapest Hotel) is our cinematic Gerwig stand-in, Christine McPherson, whose given name is Lady Birdin that, as she puts it, I gave it to myself. Tottering on the edge of her senior year in high school (Catholic school, no less), Lady Bird is contemplating applying to as many East Coast, Ivy League-ish schools as she can namenot because shes such a shining academic example, but because it will allow her to escape the grip of boring Northern California and get away from her overbearing, hypercritical mother (Laurie Metcalf from Roseanne, using her sitcom skills to consummate effect). Needless to say, mom is firmly opposed to this flight plan, counseling her daughter to settle for more local (not to mention cheaper) options.

Lady Bird has pretty much been the poorest kid in the richest suburb of Sacramento her whole life. (The Midwest of California, as she terms it.) Mom works double shifts as a nurse at the psychiatric hospital, and dad (famed playwright/actor Tracy Letts) has just lost his jobwhich puts a serious crimp in Lady Birds plans to jet off to the glamorous world of the East Coast academia. (Part of my job, cautions a school counselor, is to temper your expectations. To which Lady Bird quietly grouses, That seems like everybodys job.) Creative and smart, though not particularly scholarly, Lady Bird starts hanging out with the theater nerds in her school. (I hear, ya, sister.) Lady Bird wants to be a rebel, but shes got so little to actually rebel againstaside from middle class boredom and an overworked mom who cares too much.

Like a lot of indie coming-of-age films, Lady Bird isnt in a hurry to impart any particularly dense, life-changing narrative. Problems with grades, money, friends, family, jobs and virginity follow over the course of Lady Birds eventful senior year. (All set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 2002 Gulf War, unfolding in the background on TV.) But the everyday details here are so infused with Gerwigs energy, wit and heart, the film continually pops off the screen and into the laps of its audience. Ronan is completely engaging as the indefatigable dreamer who cant seem to nail down a specific dream. Gerwig seems incredibly savvy to the joys and attendant horrors of our teenage years. But shes got the wisdom of adulthood behind her now. And Lady Bird is at its finest when slowly confronting the idea that maybe we didnt see our world quite as clearly as we thought when we were young. Maybe your parents arent really the devil. Maybe the friendship of popular kids isnt a currency that will outlast 12th grade. Maybe that sweet theater nerd who doesnt touch your boobs because he respects you so much is actually inclined in a different sexual direction. What seems obvious as an adult is Earth-shattering as a teen.

Gerwig doesnt break any particularly new ground here (like, for example, Lukas and Coco Moodysons blast of teenage punk rock feminism We Are the Best!). At the end of the day, shes following relatively closely in the arty, funny footsteps of those shes collaborated with (Swanberg, the Duplass brothers, Baumbach, Stillman). And yet, pure and undiluted Gerwig is a perfectly balanced cocktail of sweet and cynical, snarky and sincere, heartfelt and hilarious. If you are or ever were a deeply dissatisfied teenager, Lady Bird knows how you feel  or felt.
Thursday 23

See Idiot Box above.

Friday 24

Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie (Nickelodeon 5pm) Popular 90s kids cartoon fave Hey Arnold returns after 13 years to wrap up some of the old plot threadslike, what the hell ever happened to Arnolds parents?

Finding Santa (Hallmark 6pm) Young woman takes over running her New England hometowns annual Christmas parade. Old dude playing St. Nick drops out. She finds a hunky but unwilling last-minute replacement. Boom! Holiday rom-com, Hallmark-style.

DreamWorks Trolls Holiday (KOB-4 7:30pm) The animated stars of last years fuzzy haired toy-based feature keep the brand name running with a spin-off holiday special.

Grammys Greatest Stories: A 60th Anniversary Special (KRQE-13 8:01pm) John Legend and Carrie Underwood host this behind-the-scenes look at the last 59 years of the music award show.

Saturday 25

Wrapped Up in Christmas (Lifetime 6pm) An 8-year-old asks a mall Santa for a boyfriend for her beloved aunt. Aaaaand romance! I mean, its no Hallmark rom-com, but solid effort, Lifetime.

The Beatles: Eight Days a WeekThe Touring Years (KNME-5 7pm) Ron Howards recent fanboy documentary looks in on the early days of The Beatles, from their first club dates in Liverpool to their concert tours in Europe.

Sunday 26

Christmas Solo (UP 5pm) Two young girls embroiled in a nasty rivalry at school are horrified to learn that their single parents might be falling in love. Boy, everybody wants in on this holiday rom-com action.

A Very Merry Toy Store (Lifetime 6pm) Rival toy shop owners (can you guess where this is going?) reluctantly join forces when an unscrupulous toy magnate opens a box store in their town. Everybody!

Snowmance (ION 7pm) In the wake of her pre-Christmas breakup, a hopeless romantic finds true love in the unlikely form of a snowman come to life.  OK. ION, you may have taken this holiday rom-com thing too far.

Monday 27

Angry Angel (Freeform 7pm) A young angel is stuck on Earth trying to get into Heaven, but two important men in her life unexpectedly show up to fight for her affections. Eh, nice first try at a holiday rom-com, Freeform. Not as creepy as IONs snowman sex thingbut points off for picking Jason Biggs as one of the potential love interests.

A Very Pentatonix Christmas (KOB-4 9:01pm) Clearly an improvement over last years A Mildly Pentatonix Christmas.

Fashion Police: The Farewell (E! 9pm) Two years after its original host (Joan Rivers) passed away, E!s catty fashion review show gets folded up and stuffed in a closet.

Tuesday 28

Victorias Secret Fashion Show (KRQE-13 9pm) If you asked Santa for scantily clad supermodels for Christmas, your wish has come true.

Drunk History Christmas Special (Comedy Central 11pm) George Washington crosses the Delaware; Charles Dickens writes A Christmas Carol, and Teddy Roosevelt bans Christmas trees in the White Houseall told by stinking drunk comedians and celebrities.

Wednesday 29

Christmas in Rockefeller Center (KOB-4 7pm) Pentatonix performs. Guess that makes this an extremely Pentatonix Christmas.

Bruno Mars: 24k Magic Live at the Apollo (KRQE-13 9pm) Talk about your uptown funk!
Reel World

Win Some Jedi History

Anyone whos gone to college at UNM or spent time in the university area should be familiar with Louies Rock-N-Reels. For more than 20 years, owner Louie Torres has been vending classic and current movie posters, concert posters and movie memorabilia. Cinema-loving students have been decorating their dorm rooms with his posters since the 90s. The store has bounced around locations several times, but has been at its current digs on Harvard Mall for the past several years. Since the ongoing ART construction started clogging up Central Avenue, however, Torres has seen a 50 to 60 percent drop off in business. Hes not the only one, of course, but the past year has been lean for his store. A passionate movie and music fan, Torres wants to keep his business afloat. In order to help pay his rent, hes started two money-raising efforts. The first is a GoFundMe account that will hopefully help cover some back rent on the store. The other is a very cool holiday raffle. In celebration of the new Star Wars film, The Last Jedi, hitting theaters this Dec. 15, Louies Rock-N-Reels is raffling off a very rare and very valuable Revenge of the Jedi poster. Longtime Star Wars fans will recall that 1983s Return of the Jedi was originally called Revenge of the Jedi until George Lucas changed his mind. A handful of Revenge of the Jedi teaser posters leaked out to movie theaters before the name change, however. Torres will be raffling off one of these original, recalled movie posters. Tickets are $20 each or three for $50. Second place prize will be an original bus shelter movie poster for Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones featuring artwork by legendary movie poster artist Drew Struzan. Third place will be an original double-sided movie poster for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. For more info on the raffle stop by Louis Rock-N-Reels (105 Harvard Dr. SE) or check out the stores Facebook page.
PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Newscity Waste Drum Mislabeled by N.M. Lab Los Alamos National Laboratory failed to accurately label drums of liquid waste shipped to a disposal center in Colorado multiple times, according to an email sent to the New Mexico Environment Department. Policy dictates that waste sent to Veolia ES Technical Solutions for disposal must be thoroughly screened and properly documented identifying the types and amounts of chemicals, pH levels, potential for combustion and whether any radiological material is included. In May, operators in Colorado examined a drum shipped from Los Alamos and determined the pH level was significantly lower than the label indicated. A lower pH level meant the material was more acidic than Los Alamos had recorded, meaning it was more volatile than expected. According to federal and state reports, the lab has consistently violated requirements to accurately document the contents of hazardous waste drums. Veolia has been unable to release any details about this or previous errors due to a confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement between the company and Los Alamos. The lab's spokesman Kevin Roark confirmed the incident, but said, The Laboratory believes the lower pH value was immaterial to the disposal process. According to officials, none of the instances at Veolia have involved radioactive materials.

Lawsuit Against PED Goes to Trial A trial to determine if New Mexico's Public Education Department provided enough funds to meet the needs of students began last week in Santa Fe. The trial consolidates two lawsuits: Martinez v. New Mexico and Yazzie v. New Mexico. New Mexico's Constitution requires the state to provide a sufficient education for its students, but the plaintiffs in the casea number of families from seven school districtsclaim the districts' funding is inadequate and does not meet the requirements. They also assert that the negative impact of the low funds is disproportionately felt by Native Americans, low-income students and students learning English as a second language. The PED's attorney, Jeff Wechsler, told Judge Sarah Singleton in his opening statement that the plaintiffs must prove the complete failure of the system, which he says has not happened, and that poor student performance can be blamed on poverty across the state. The trial is expected to last nine weeks.
Eric Williams Photography

Taking a cue from ancient Roman leaders, Albuquerque City Councilors made it a crime to give beggars a quarter along busy roadways, commissioned a new fresco Downtown and tweaked the proposed overhaul of the citys planning and zoning codes at their Nov. 6 regular meeting.

Revisiting IDO

About 25 Westside neighborhood associations came to together to ask the Council to put the brakes on approval of the citys proposed Integrated Development Ordinance. The groups asked for a pause of at least 90 days, but preferably 6 months. The IDO is a comprehensive rewrite of the citys 40-year-old development plan along with its associated zoning code. The proposed IDO consolidates dozens of separate zoning plans into one inclusive document. City planners and supporters say the update is needed to simplify and integrate the citys zoning regulations, to streamline the citys development review and approval procedures, and to improve economic development.

Those opposing the plan say the plan has not been vetted or explained completely and it pushes high density zoning across the city. It also does away with individual neighborhood sector plans, which protect many historic neighborhoods. The folks opposing the plan say the proposed ordinance reflects policies to restrict neighborhood associations and property owners in the administrative and approval process, elevating government and friendly developers above everyone else.

Joe Valles, from the Westside Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, said the IDO is not ready for approval due to too many problems. Valles said the rewrite imposes severe restrictions on peoples rights and gives preferential treatment to developers.

Councilors dealt with about 19 amendments to the plan, some of which were intended to ameliorate some of the issues of concern. Councilors approved some and others not.

There is one more public hearing at 5pm Monday, Nov. 13, before the Council gets set to vote on the massive document. Some of the Councilors have said they want this passed before Mayor Richard Berry leaves office. Valles has said that such a rush is not good governance. For more information log on to abc-zone.com, check out the project Facebook page or view the official project youtube video at https:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=YBih7OSfZW8.

An End to Handouts

Councilors approved a measure prohibiting pedestrians from soliciting motorists and banning motorists from interacting with pedestrians while in the traffic lanes. Councilor Trudy Jones sponsored the pedestrian safety ordinance that prohibits collecting or begging for money at intersections. This includes firefighters doing their boot brigades holiday funding drives or folks handing out flyers.

City law enforcement officers can now issue citations when motorists in the travel lanes physically engage with pedestrians along sidewalks and intersections. This means if you hand the down-and-out person on the corner a dollar, you could get a ticket and have to go to court.

The city previously had an aggressive panhandling ordinance, but it was found to violate free speech and due process rights. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico says that citizens have the right to stand in public places like sidewalks and street corners to solicit money.

Councilor Jones said the ordinance is not about stopping free speech, it is about safety for both drivers and pedestrians in a city where there is a high rate of pedestrian deaths. The Councilor, however, did not cite any specific examples of injuries arising from beggar/car interactions.

Downtown Fresco

On a more positive note, Councilors commissioned a new fresco illustrating New Mexicos deep agricultural roots. The mural, by local artist Frederico Vigil, will soon grace the citys downtown Convention Center. The 2,540-square foot mural will cost about $293,000 and will take about three and a half years to complete. In addition, Vigil will mentor up to 10 art students in the art of fresco.

When it is done, the finished work will reflect the richness of Rio Grande Valley agriculture and viticulture heritage from Las Cruces to Northern New Mexico. Vigil is also the artist of the fresco in the Torreon at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

Stepping Up

Kudos go out to three Burquenos who are doing something to make a difference. The citys Arts Board welcomes Dorothy Stermer, the Affordable Housing Board greets Shawn Colbert, and Gary Van Luchene was reappointed to the citys Ethics Board.

Quick Hits

Councilors also got some other business done for Albuquerque citizens when they dealt with the following procedures:

 Accepted a Department of Justice Grant for about $294,000 for an opioid abuse program that will proactively address overdose survivors by connecting them with treatment and support immediately following the overdose. Currently, many overdose survivors have nowhere to go and are released back on the streets with no immediate support or treatment plan.

 Approved a real estate sale of about $750,000 for 113 acres of Burque-owned land in Dona Ana County. We owned the land through a prior land swap and the City of Las Cruces wants it for possible future animal welfare expansion. The land is upon a former landfill so Councilors wanted to make sure there will not be any future liability, satisfied themselves and approved the sale.
PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Newscity State Proposes Changes for Medicaid During a public meeting held by the Human Services Department last week, healthcare authorities discussed a set of proposed changes to the state's Medicaid program that would result in patients having to pay copays and premiums. The meeting was held at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, and the proposal drew criticism from attending citizens, who voiced concerns over the ability of low-income patients to meet the financial demands of extended copays and the introduction of premiums. Some also opposed the elimination of transitional and retroactive coverage. Under the HSD's proposed changes, the state will charge monthly premiums ranging from $10 to $50 depending on household income, copays for doctor visits will cost $5, inpatient and outpatient surgery will cost $50 a day and prescription drugs would cost $2 to $8. If a recipient fails to pay premiums for 90 days, they risk losing coverage. Medicaid covers more than 40 percent of the population in New Mexico. According to reports, state Medicaid costs could grow to $82 million next year due to policy changes in federal funding.

APS to Appoint New Board Member Four candidates are looking to fill the vacant Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education seat. Last month, Analee Maestas resigned from her position on the board following allegations of embezzlement at a charter school she helped found. Earlier in the year, State Attorney General Hector Balderas threatened legal action against Maestas when an investigation into La Promesa Early Learning Center uncovered that Maestas' daughterLa Promesa's assistant business managerhad embezzled around $700,000 from the school. Some of the theft happened during Maestas' tenure as Executive Director at the school. The APS board will now have to select a new member on Nov. 13 after conducting public interviews with the candidates. The new board member will serve through 2019, the remainder of the term. They will officially take office Nov. 15 and will represent District 1.
Just about a year ago there was an election. Donald Trump was elected President of the United States by using a plethora of questionable tactics. According to the latest credible sources, these tactics may have included working withor at least ignoring the machinations ofthe Russian government, a fearsome and imperialistic thing that is led by a macho, posturing former KGB agent.

What followed has been a dissembling of the cultural advances, societal safeguards and general progress that this nation made under its former leader, a stoic, intellectual fellow, a progressive centrist named Barack Obama.

Fortunately, however, the followers of Obamathe progressives who now bear the brunt of the ass-backwards policies being blithely enacted by a president who continues to pander to an ass-backwards base of ignorant, reactionary and anti-democratic citizenssoldier on, working diligently to restore reality to a system run amok.

As the rest of this nations voters advance past the latest autumnal round of municipal, state and federal elections, it has become clear that resistance to Trumpism has borne fruit. As the US heads toward the 2018 mid-term congressional elections, a new storm is forming on the horizon, one that may very likely help topple the executive branch travesty that has been visited upon our otherwise decent country.

National News

Anti-Trump momentum seems to be the common thread in elections held on Nov. 7. Gubernatorial races held in Virginia and New Jersey finished with conclusive wins by Democrats. Also in Virginia, transgender Danica Roem soundly defeated a 13-term Republican legislative delegate who openly touted his homophobic views while telling voters that Roem was out of touch with suburban voters for playing in a heavy metal band.

Other advances were made at the city and state level. Andrea Jenkins, a trans woman of color, was elected to the Minneapolis City Council. In Charlotte, N.C., Democrat Vi Lyles was elected to be the first female, African-American mayor of the city.

The Southern Lands

Closer to home, here in New Mexico, the backlash against Trumpian politics was clearly noted in the municipal elections held in Las Cruces. Followers of la politica may recall that following violent clashes in Charlottesville, Va. this past summerand the death of an innocent observer at the hands of an alt-right, neo-Nazi symathizerDona Ana County GOP chairman Roman Jimenez made angry social media posts that blamed leftist protesters for the violence.

A few months later, the local daily down south trumpeted the inevitable outcome of such outrageous claims, proclaiming that progressive candidates for that citys governing council swept council races and concluding that The Las Cruces City Council will be progressive heading into 2018, after the three more liberal candidates all won their races by double digits.

Here in Albuquerque

All of the phenomenon reported on and analyzed above points to the mayoral election that was held in Albuquerque on Tuesday, Nov. 14.

Here is a perfect example of how Trumpian Ideologytrickle down economics buoyed by starkly antiquated social conservatism all wrapped up in apocalyptic costumes designed to frighten voters into accepting a strongman politician or one of his benighted representativesmay fail to garner further advances.

Dan Lewis, for all of his genteel demeanor, represents the worst this city, state and nation have to offer. Backed by a local pastor whose church is quick to note its anti-civil rights stance on marriage and supported by greedy, out-of-town developers hellbent on forcing an ecologically disastrous development on Bernalillo County residents, Lewis campaign has been a dark and stark reminder, not only of what is at stake for Burquenos, but also what the true nature of Trumpism really is.

It is abundantly clear that if Tim Keller is elected mayor of Albuquerqueand he should be, despite the last minute machinations of the city bureaucracyhe has a huge task ahead of him. Undoing the damage done by a dangerously out-of-touch Republican mayor is going to take more than vision; it will require sustained and committed actionas well as a productive relationship with Albuquerques City Councilto accomplish what the man has said he would work diligently to attain.

In the final mayoral debate, Keller claimed that the city has money in its budget to immediately hire 100 new police officers. Accomplishing this goal in short order would bolster his claim to progressive leadership and is an important initial step in making our city safe once again.

Further, revising, clarifying and supporting the mission of ART, so that the new public transportation initiative is integrated and works with existing infrastructure should be an essential goal of the new municipal administration.

Finally, halting ecologically ignorant projectsin an environment where water is becoming a precious commoditylike the Santolina mega-development, establishing a business-and worker-friendly sick leave program, bolstering local business over pie-in-the-sky outsider corporations and taking a serious look at how a lack of public health and mental health services has contributed to Albuquerques intense yet transitory malaise are all goals the new mayor must embrace.

As citizens, we can only blame ourselves for the temporary triumph of Trump and his cronies. We may have been comfortable, asleep, assured of the future as last winter beckoned. That is not the case now; now we are awake and alive with the agency needed to reclaim what was so wantonly taken from us. The fact that this battle can and will be waged at the local level should be a hopeful indicator of its outcome.
The corruption trial of former state Sen. Phil Griego is causing a reexamination of the state's citizen legislator system . Griego is charged with violating laws on bribery, fraud and ethical misconduct. Prosecutors for the state Attorney Generals Office claim that Griego used his influence as a legislator to pressure his fellow lawmakers into approving the sale of a historic state building , earning himself a $50,000 real estate commission. The scandal highlights what some lawmakers say is an inherent problem in our state's legislator systemthe only one in the nation that does not pay legislators a salary. Lawmakers must either be retired or have other jobs when they aren't in session. Griego and his attorneys are defending his actions, saying that in such a system, conflicts of interest are inevitable. They also argue that Griego's role in the sale didn't come about until after it had been made. They say he did not vote on the sale and did not apply any political pressure to his colleagues. In 2015, Griego signed an agreement stating that he had asked someone else to introduce the resolution authorizing the sale. Griego's lawyers say he has not committed any crimes, and that he was unaware of a provision in the state Constitution which prohibits legislators from having an interest in any state contract authorized by laws passed during their tenure.

Court Battle Between Health Care Providers Stalls

The five-year-old legal battle between the New Mexico Cancer Center in Albuquerque and Presbyterian Healthcaretwo of the states best known health care organizationshas been put on hold. Before 2002, doctors at the New Mexico Cancer Center provided treatment for cancer patients in the Presbyterian Healthcare system. This practice stopped after the construction of the New Mexico Cancer Center, and the founders filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Presbyterian alleging that the organization acted purposefully to put New Mexico Cancer Center out of business. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim Presbyterian lowered monetary reimbursement to the New Mexico Cancer Center, threatened to terminate the centers provider contract, obtained and sold drugs through a federal Medicare program in an unlawful manner and told at least one patent that the cancer center was not an approved healthcare provider, along with a litany of other charges. As part of the lawsuit, the cancer center is seeking three times the amount of lost profits plus punitive damages, and wants to see a court order stopping Presbyterian from engaging in alleged anti-competitive activities. After an unsuccessful attempt to arrange a settlement this past summer, the case was supposed to go before a jury over the fall, but will be unable to continue until it has been determined if the cancer centers founders would be testifying as expert witnesses or fact witnesses. No court date has been set. Presbyterians attorneys claim that the cancer center is using the lawsuit as part of a demand for higher reimbursements and more patient referrals.
Via Facebook

Last week, in what many watchers ofsaw as an inevitability, State Auditor Tim Keller was elected mayor of Albuquerque. The 39-year-old Burqueno will bring his formidable education and experience to bear upon a city menaced by crime and stretched to its limit by civic demands that range from Westside development to a stagnant jobs market.

Kellers success as a candidate was buoyed by an optimistic outlook combined with a no-nonsense resume as the states chief financial watchdog. But whats he really gonna do, now that the reins of the big horses driving our municipal wagon are about to be handed over to a young, exuberant and focused progressive?

Weekly Alibi asked the Keller transition team about all of that and by way of response, Keller responded the next day, before he headed to Santa Fe to finish up his business with the state. We talked about the city; we talked about solutions, and because its that time of year, we talked turkey, too.

Weekly Alibi: Hey, Mr. Mayor, glad to hear from you! Hang on just a second, Im getting all my recording gear up and running.

Tim Keller: No Worries! Glad to talk to you, I just appreciate it, man. When I needed inspiration, I would read your articles about the mayors race.

Youre kidding me  thats such an honor. Well thanks so much for saying that. As the mayor-elect of Albuquerque, what do you see happening in the first 100 days of your administration?

The 100 days are unique in this situation. Normally, a mayors first 100 days come after having 60 days of transition. Were going to have a transition period for the first 60 days out of 100, anyway. I am going to take some time to listen and learn, much like one would during a transition period.

But, theres a couple of exceptions to that. The first one is certainly APD. Im going to make some changes right away with who is in charge of the DOJ reform [efforts] and also who is in charge of the police department.

Just to be clear, you anticipate a change with the DOJ personnel as well as with the department administration?

Yes, there has got to be change there. So, well start our APD reforms right away. And thats also why I want to bring in an interim management team across the top of city hall, so we can work at a department level while were still doing the transition. We have some fires to put out, the budget is very tight, so we have to look at how to squeeze money right away, because the budget takes effect in January. Soon, Ill know what programs are affected, but its going to be pretty tight.

From there, Ill try to build out some of the issue areas that are important to me. In particular, the social justice concerns, well be enhancing those from a city hall perspective. For instance, there is no one who is charge of anything education related. There is no one in charge of anything that has to do with community engagement, other than people on the City Council. We are going to have to do a lot of restructuring to set the stage for the platform I ran on.

Youll be inaugurated on Dec. 1. Are you spending time tying up loose ends at the state auditors office in the interim?

Were actually headed to the state auditors office after this interview. Were working on a transition out of that office as well. Theres some on-going audits of course, so we are working to get those to a place where we can hand them off. Ill resign from that position on Nov. 30, ahead of the municipal inauguration.

Hows Burques inauguration shaping up?

Its very cool, its a multi-day affair. First, Ill take the the oath in a private ceremony on Nov. 30, just before midnight. At 12:01am on Dec. 1, federal regulations require that there has to be a new mayor of record. Anyway, Ill do that in the company of my family, at my parents home, up by Del Norte High School. On Dec. 1, theres an inaugural ceremony at the Convention Center at 5pm.

Is that a public event?

Yes, but theres limited space. Unfortunately, the Convention Center is mostly booked [that day]. The actual room only holds about 900 people. We are planning multiple inauguration celebration events that night, following the ceremony. Citizens will have five or six areas where they can partake in the festivities. Those will be at public places, like breweries Downtown, and Ill be stopping by to say hello.

Speaking of festivities, how are your Thanksgiving plans shaping up?

So I have two Thanksgivings planned. My parents live here and so do my in-laws. We split the day between two families; the extended family comes over. Its very traditional, and luckily for us, we get to do it twice per year. Then we also cut a Christmas tree that day; we go up to the Jemez and cut one down. Ive been doing that since I was born. Its the beginning of the holiday season.

For the holidays, I always dig tamales. Whats your favorite holiday food?

For me, red chile gravy is my favorite. Theres got to be plenty of that. Its a great New Mexico drizzle on top of an American Thanksgiving!

As we head into the holiday weekend and your tenure as mayor, is there anything youd like to tell our readers?

I like to say thank you to Albuquerque for helping make our city one we can believe in. If folks want to engage with us in the transition, if they want to talk they can get involved by visiting our Facebook pagefacebook. com/ MayorKellerthe details are all up there; join us!
Dateline: Germany

Police find a man's stolen car parked in the same place he left it 20 years ago. Last week, Frankfurt police officers took a 76-year-old man to the Volkswagen Passat he reported stolen in 1997. According to authorities, crews were attempting to demolish a dilapidated industrial building when they discovered the rotting vehicle blocking their progress. According to the Augsberger Allgemein, the car was in the exact place the owner had parked it 20 years ago. It appeared that the car had never been stolen in the first place, but had only been hidden from the owner's view. Frankfurt authorities said the car is unable to be driven and will be destroyed. How the man forgot where he parked has not been explained.

Dateline: Tennessee

A church discussion about guns ends with two attendees being shot. According to police reports, the members of First United Methodist Church were meeting for an early Thanksgiving dinner and began discussing the mass shooting that recently happened in Texas. One of those gathered asked if any of the other attendees had brought a firearm with them that day, and a gentleman reportedly answered that he took his handgun everywhere. He then allegedly produced the weapon, emptied its magazine and chamber, and allowed some of the other members to examine it. When the handgun returned to its owner, he reloaded it and put it back in its holster. Police say that another member of the church approached the man and asked if they could see the gun. When he pulled it out, he was heard by witnesses to say, With this loaded indicator, I can tell that its not loaded. He then pulled the triggerseemingly forgetting that he had just reloaded the weapon. The bullet cut the man's palm and entered his wife's abdomen on her left side before exiting her right. The man and his wifeboth reportedly in their 80swere taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center with injuries that weren't life-threatening. Police did not file charges against the man.

Dateline: New Zealand

A man was pulled over for practicing bagpipes while driving his car. Last week, a motorist in Dunedin, New Zealand was detained by law enforcement officers at a checkpoint. Acting Sergeant Bryce Johnson reported that the man was playing a black-type instrument, which looked like a clarinet. He also said that the driver's fingers were going a million miles an hour. The instrument was later identified as a chanter from a set of bagpipes. According to officer Johnson, both of the driver's hands were occupied with the chanter and away from the steering wheel while he was operating the vehicle. The piper was issued a warning. Officer Johnson told the Otago Daily Times that law enforcement was not only concerned about people playing instruments while driving, they were also worried about texting behind the wheel. Neither of these things are a good idea, he said.

Dateline: Washington

US Navy officials confirm that an obscene sky drawing reported by residents in Washington were made by one of their aircraft. Last week, officials with the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island told local news stations that one of their aircraft was responsible for drawing an image of a penis in the sky using contrails. Numerous residents of Okanogan County, Wash. took photos of the image and posted them to social media almost immediately. In the Navy's statement concerning the incident, officials stated that they hold their aircrews to the highest standards and found the case absolutely unacceptable. They said the crew responsible will be held accountable. When asked about the incident by local reporters, a representative of the Federal Aviation Administration said that the organization can only intervene if the act poses a safety risk and that they cannot police morality.

Dateline: Missouri

A man's interrogation at the hands of police ended when he began answering questions with flatulence. Police in Kansas City, Missouri report that a man under investigation for intent to sell cocaine and illegal possession of three firearms was arrested following his involvement in two different traffic stops. According to police reports, in early September, a backpack owned by Sean A. Sykes Jr. was allegedly discovered to contain drugs and two handgunsone of which had been reported stolen days earlier. Sykes claimed to know nothing about the contraband. Months later, in November, Sykes was pulled over by officers who searched his car and reportedly found cannabis, crack cocaine and a revolver. According to recently released documents detailing the suspect's interview during the first incident, the detective conducting the interview wrote that when asked about his address, Sykes released a loud fart before answering. Mr. Sykes continued to be flatulent and I ended the interview, wrote the detective in his report. Sykes is currently being held in custody.
PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Newscity History Test Omissions Under Fire Lawmakers are saying that the state's standardized test for US history is missing some key questions. Among the topics omitted from this year's exam are Rosa Parks' act of civil disobedience, Roe v. Wade, Malcolm X and the bombings that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Members of the Legislative Education Study Committee met last week to discuss the proposed changes, and some implied that they were purposefully being made by the Public Education Department to obscure events in history. In response, PED's deputy secretary for teaching and learning, Matt Montano, told the committee that the topics had been removed by the history teachers, themselves. He claimed that the omissions were made to shorten the test. The deletion of the key topics came to light when an end-of-course assessment blueprint was published on PED's website last week. Educators noted that topics were missing, such as McCarthyism and the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, the impeachment process, the end of slavery and others. Montano said he would consider the comments, and that PED has the ability to restore the missing topics, but failed to make any commitments. Earlier this month, PED decided against altering Next Generation Science Standards after public outcry erupted. The proposed changes would have removed any references to the age of the earth, global warming and evolution.

Lujan Grisham Tells Padilla to Leave Race Last week, New Mexico Democratic gubernatorial candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham said Democratic Sen. Michael Padilla should quit the race for lieutenant governor over harassment claims. In a statement to The Associated Press, Lujan Grisham said that charges of harassment against Padilla made a decade ago have been revisited recently on social media. The allegations date back to 2006, when Padilla overhauled a 911 call center for the city. It was his job to review personnel and procedures at the center. Two federal lawsuits later alleged that while managing the call center, Padilla made inappropriate comments to female subordinates. Padilla has continued to deny that the cases involved sexual harassment claims and says the lawsuits were related to a hostile work environment. He said the complaints were lodged against him by people who were worried they were going to lose their jobs and were untrue. The city ultimately settled the claims, and Padilla resigned from his position in 2007. Padilla has called Lujan Grisham an excellent candidate for governor and says he wants to meet and speak with her.
Editorial

There Was an Election

And another, and one after that
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. In the framework of his working visit to the Kingdom of Belgium, President Serzh Sargsyan met with the members of the Board of European Friends of Armenia international non-governmental organization. Greeting the participants of the meeting, the President of Armenia highlighted the importance of similar contacts with Armenias friends who, according to the President, have assumed an important and responsible mission, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Armenian Presidents Office.

Serzh Sargsyan thanked the organization for standing by and supporting Armenia and went on emphasize that by voicing Armenias concerns on European platforms, providing comprehensive information on Armenia and raising awareness of our country in Europe and, thereby, shaping a favorable opinion, the European Friends of Armenia are doing valuable and significant work, while at the same time promoting Armenias cooperation with European countries, European institutions and mobilizing Armenias friends.

The President of Armenia presented the hectic agenda of his meetings and discussions in the framework of his working visit to Brussels, talked about the prospects of EU-Armenia cooperation and relationship, dwelling on issues of paramount importance to Armenia, including the regional developments. The President answered the questions of meeting participants.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. The European Peoples Party (EPP) fully supports the efforts of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group regarding the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, reports Armenpress.

The EPP adopted a declaration based on its summit results in Brussels on November 23.

We reaffirm our full support for the efforts of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group regarding the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, based on the norms and principles of international law, in particular those concerning the non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples; we call on all sides of the conflict to adhere to the ceasefire regime with full respect to the 1994-1995 ceasefire agreements, to implement confidence-building measures and to reduce tensions on the Line of Contact, including those measures agreed to during the Summits in Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva, stated in the declaration.

The Armenian delegation participating in the summit approved this declaration with reservations.

On a working visit to the Kingdom of Belgium, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan participated in the Summit of the European Peoples Party (EPP) in Brussels on November 23.

President Serzh Sargsyan delivered a speech at the summit, in which he touched upon the agenda of EU-Armenia cooperation and the dynamics of relationship development, the importance of those issues of interest to Armenia to be discussed at the EPP and Eastern Partnership summits in Brussels, the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between Armenia and the European Union, as well as on inter-party cooperation-related activities. Noting that this year marks the 5th anniversary of RPAs membership of the EPP, Serzh Sargsyan stressed that despite the relatively short period of time, the RPA managed to fully integrate into this European family. RPAs cooperation with the EPP has become one of the most important platforms for Armenias involvement in European politics.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. An ordinary citizen will feel the results of the Armenia-EU agreement during the course of time since Armenia is able to quickly implement the reforms by the EUs assistance, President Serzh Sargsyan told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty after the European Peoples Partys (EPP) summit in Brussels, reports Armenpress.

Asked what this agreement will give to an ordinary Armenian citizen, the President said: The day after tomorrow, perhaps, he/she will not immediately feel anything, but he/she will feel it within the course of time since we are able to quickly implement the reforms by the EUs assistance. We ourselves do not have the ability and the desire to invent a bicycle, there are absolute truths, and we should be led by these truths. But during the course of time, in addition to internal freedoms, Armenian citizens will have a chance to visit Brussels, Paris and other European countries without an obstacle, and I think this was clearly stated in the EPPs todays statement, lets see what will happen during tomorrows summit.

Asked whether this agreement will contribute to strengthening Armenias security, whether it is an alternative direction for ensuring a security, President Sargsyan said here the word alternative is not right to use. But, of course, especially in case when the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the US and Russia in particular agree on the main challenges threatening our security, and this is one of the unique places where they completely cooperate, as they announce. This, of course, is an achievement for us, the Armenian President said.

The President also touched upon Russias stance over the agreement to be signed with the EU, stating that he didnt hear any criticism from the Russian President over Armenias cooperation with the EU. Soon it will already be ten years I am a president, before that being in different posts, I have never heard half a word from any Russian leader, especially from President Putin which would involve in it a reproach on our partnership with the EU, Serzh Sargsyan said.

Asked how he imagines, where he will be after 2018, whether he will remain Armenias President or not, President Sargsyan said: If I had imagined it, I would have already announced. When I imagine it, I will announce.
BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Brussels is hosting the leaders of the Eastern Partnership countries aimed at discussing the opportunities to move forward the partnership.

Armenia and this powerful European political structure are going to record a new level of relations by signing a new Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.

According to this Agreement, the sides are committed to strengthen the comprehensive political and economic partnership and cooperation based on common values and close ties, as well as to increase Armenias participation in the EU policy, programs and works of the agencies. The agreement aims at promoting, maintaining and strengthening peace and stability at regional and international levels, including through combining efforts, strengthening the border security to eliminate the sources of tension, as well as promoting the inter-border cooperation and normal relations. Mobility and contacts between peoples of different countries will also expand.

The Agreement highlights the importance of Armenias commitment for a peaceful and lasting settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the necessity to reach that settlement as soon as possible within the frames of negotiations being held by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs: also accepting the need to reach that settlement based on the goals and principles enshrined in the UN Charter and the OSCE Helsinki Final Act, in particular, those goals and principles relating to non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity of states, equal rights and self-determination of peoples and which are reflected in all statements made within the frames of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship since the 16th meeting of the OSCE ministerial council in 2008: highlighting also the EUs commitment to assist this settlement process.

Armenpress correspondent from Brussels reports that the heads of Eastern Partnership countries, EU high-ranking officials already arrive in this great structure to hold the summit.

The summit will discuss how to further strengthen cooperation in the four priority areas agreed in Riga.

The EU and six partner countries agree that its necessary to strengthen the economy having better improved market opportunities, strengthen the governance improving the institutions, to enhance the communication especially in the fields of transport and energy.

The EaP was launched in 2009 to promote political association and economic integration between the EU and the six Eastern European partner countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.

Narine Nazaryan
BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics welcomes the signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership agreement by Armenia and says its Armenias choice to move as far as possible in the relations with the EU.

The Latvian FM told Armenpress correspondent in Brussels that the new agreement, which is expected to be signed on November 24, will ensure structural and good circle of further activity in spheres selected by Armenia and the EU for a deep partnership.

I welcome the agreement that ensures a very good path for further partnership. Armenia decides itself how far to go in this partnership taking into account that the country is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, Edgars Rinkevics said.

The EU Eastern Partnership summit has kicked off in Brussels on November 24. It is expected that Armenia and the European Union will sign the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership agreement during the summit. According to the agreement, the sides are committed to strengthen the comprehensive political and economic partnership and cooperation based on common values and close ties, as well as to increase Armenias participation in the EU policy, programs and works of the agencies. The agreement aims at promoting, maintaining and strengthening peace and stability at regional and international levels, including through combining efforts, strengthening the border security to eliminate the sources of tension, as well as promoting the inter-border cooperation and normal relations. Mobility and contacts between peoples of different countries will also expand.

The agreement highlights the importance of Armenias commitment for a peaceful and lasting settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the necessity to reach that settlement as soon as possible within the frames of negotiations being held by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs: also accepting the need to reach that settlement based on the goals and principles enshrined in the UN Charter and the OSCE Helsinki Final Act, in particular, those goals and principles relating to non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity of states, equal rights and self-determination of peoples and which are reflected in all statements made within the frames of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship since the 16th meeting of the OSCE ministerial council in 2008: highlighting also the EUs commitment to assist this settlement process.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan delivered speech at the EU Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels on November 24, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

Armenpress presents the full text of his speech.

Distinguished Mr. Tusk,

Distinguished Mr. Juncker,

Dear colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,



I am grateful for the patient preparatory work and excellent organization of this Summit.



I would like to mention that we consider 2017 as, indeed, one of the important milestones in the quarter of the century long history of the relations between Armenia and EU, which is signified today under the framework of this Summit by signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement. It is a comprehensive document that reflects the significant developments of the recent period of our collaboration and defines the guidelines that are necessary to deepen these relations.

This Agreement is not merely a legal document, but a reflection on the wealth of values of human rights and fundamental freedoms that we share. Important elements of the strengthening of democracy such as rule of law, consolidation of judiciary, development of public and social institutes, good governance ae the core of this Agreement. The efficient realization of these elements is of vital importance for our nation in order to implement successfully the envisaged reforms. It is exactly the development based on these shared values that ensures the long-lasting and sustainable development for any responsible member of the international community. I thank the leadership of the European Union for the support provided throughout this process.



The importance of this Agreement is not limited to the Armenia-EU relations: many international counterparts of ours describe Armenia as a nation that brings various integration processes closer to each other, a nation that is led by desire to reconcile and complement interests in the spirit of cooperation and cohabitation, and it is something that seriously obliges us to meet the expectation. I would like to underline that throughout this process the objective Armenia pursued from the very outset was further deepening of our bilateral and multilateral relations.

The Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between the Republic of Armenia and European Union is our joint achievement, and I can become a positive precedent for other cooperation projects. I congratulate all of us upon this occasion.

Dear colleagues,

The achievements registered in the course of the past two years have been to a large extent conditioned by the results of the Riga Summit, in particular, by the joint endeavors taken for the implementation of the clauses related to Armenia in the Joint Declaration adopted at the Summit, Armenia, perhaps, is one of those EU partners that was able to almost fully implement commitments undertaken in 2015. We believe that Armenias determination in this process, as well as determination of our EU partners will soon result in further bringing our societies closer to each other, for which, of course, launching of the visa liberalization dialogue would be of great significance.

Ladies and gentlemen,



We arrived to Brussels convinced that this Summit will be an important milestone for the Eastern Partnership. From the outset Armenia supported this cooperation format since we believed that this partnership was draught in order to encourage sustainable regional development and serve as a unifying factor, thus removing the dividing lines and reinforcing the human and peoples fundamental rights.



Mr. President,



Once again, the President of Azerbaijan has voiced ill-grounded accusations against Armenia. As much as the Azerbaijani side may try to distort and misinterpret the essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and its peaceful settlement, the conflict has to be settled on the basis of three principles of international law: non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity and the peoples right to self-determination as proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, which is the only structure vested with an international mandate.



The position of the international community on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is reflected in the statements issued by the leaders of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries. In this context, any solution to the conflict without the exercise of Nagorno-Karabakh peoples right to self-determination is simply impossible.

I also want to emphasize that each conflict is unique in its nature, essence and background, and in this respect, it would be wrong to apply similar approaches to different conflicts.



Another remark: the UN has never adopted a resolution regarding the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh issue. The four resolutions adopted by the UN in 1993 were about the ceasing of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan has ignored so far. And now, as 25 years have passed, in my opinion, it is irrelevant to say that Armenia has not fulfilled its commitments.



I strongly hope that resolution of the existing issues in the Eastern Partnership region will let us have a more peaceful and prosperous Europe.



Armenia will continuously and faithfully be devoted to its vision of consolidation of peace and sustainable development.

I thank you.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict without the exercise of the NK peoples free right to self-determination is simply impossible, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said in his speech at the EU Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels on November 24, reports Armenpress.

The Azerbaijani president once again makes unreasonable accusations addressed to Armenia. As much as the Azerbaijani side may try to distort and misinterpret the essence of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and its peaceful settlement, the conflict has to be settled on the basis of three principles of international law: the non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity and the peoples right to self-determination which have been proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, the only structure having an international mandate dealing with the conflict settlement. The international communitys stance over the NK conflict is reflected in the statements adopted by the leaders of the OSCE Minsk Group three Co-Chair countries. In this context the settlement of the conflict without the exercise of the NK peoples free right to self-determination is just impossible, the President said.

He stated that each conflict is specific with its nature, essence and settlement grounds, and in this sense the attempts to view the conflicts in a single whole are incorrect.

One more notification too: the United Nations has never adopted a resolution regarding the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The four resolutions adopted by the UN in 1993 related to the cessation of hostilities in Nagorno Karabakhs part which Azerbaijan refused. And now, after 25 years, to say that Armenia doesnt fulfill its obligations, I think, is not relevant.

I am full of hope that the settlement of issues in the Eastern Partnership region will enable to have a more peaceful and prosperous Europe, the President said, adding that Armenia will remain committed to its vision of strengthening peace and sustainable development.
BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Participants of the EU Eastern Partnership summit adopted a declaration, ARMENPRESS special correspondent reports from Brussels.

The declaration defines the values by which EU and Eastern Partnership countries must be guided with in the upcoming years, outlines directions of further partnership in economic, political, humanitarian and other fields. This time, the declaration doesnt cite any conflict nominally.

In terms of general formulations regarding settlement of conflicts, they completely meet Armenias stances and views. Conflicts must be settled based on norms of international rights and principles  also taking into account existing formats and processes.

The EUs stance regarding the NK conflict is expressed in the Comprehensive and Expanded Partnership agreement, which will be signed today.

The document touches upon the three main principles of settlement and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format.

The agreement will have the power of law, because it will be ratified by all parliaments of EU member states. The declaration also touched upon the agreement with Armenia.

Narine Nazaryan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian on November 24 met with minister for foreign affairs and cooperation of Spain Alfonso Dastis in Brussels, press service of the foreign ministry told Armenpress.

FM Nalbandian arrived in Belgium with the Armenian delegation led by President Serzh Sargsyan.

During the meeting the two FMs discussed agenda issues of Armenian-Spanish relations, attached importance to the need to further deepen the mutual cooperation at bilateral and multilateral formats, stating that it is possible to boost the partnership through joint efforts. In this regard the two ministers attached importance to regularly holding consultations and expanding the legal framework.

The sides also discussed a number of regional and international issues.

FM Nalbandian presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries aimed at peacefully settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

The Spanish minister presented the recent developments over the situation around Catalonia and the steps to find solutions.

The officials also exchanged views on the Armenia-EU relations, the Eastern Partnership summit, as well as the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced partnership agreement.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. On 23 November 2017, President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan joined the Inaugural Meeting of European Friends of Armenias Honorary Council, EuFoA told ARMENPRESS.

Greeting the President and the members of the newly established Council, EuFoA Director Diogo Pinto stressed the importance of the Eastern Partnership Summit for the development of EU- Armenia relations.

Many say this will be a low-key summit, but for us here and millions of Armenians it will be a historical one, marking the fresh start for the deepening of relations between the EU and Armenia, which is EuFoAs core business.

Mr Pinto also reiterated EuFoAs commitment to raise awareness of Armenia in Europe and build bridges between Armenia and the European Union. Armenia can count on its friends, Armenia can count on us, Mr Pinto said addressing directly President Sargsyan, who thanked EuFoAs valuable and significant work in promoting Armenias cooperation with European countries and institutions.

President Sargsyan informed the Councils members about his busy agenda of meetings during his stay in Brussels, as well as the future prospects of EU-Armenia relations. Joined by Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian, President Sargsyan emphasised the need of furthering the cooperation with the European Union on issues relevant to Armenia, based on shared European values of democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights.

The President followed his speech by engaging in a fruitful Q&A session with EuFoA Honorary Council members, moderated by EuFoA Director Diogo Pinto. Opening the conversation, member of the British Parliament Stephen Pound highlighted the support of his Parliament for the Armenian cause, describing Armenia as a beacon of political stability in an unstable region. The dialogue then touched upon topics related to Armenias international affairs and shared identity between Armenia and the rest of Europe.

At the end of the meeting, President Sargsyan extended an invitation for EuFoA to organize the 2018 meeting of its Honorary Council in Yerevan.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Ameriabank won Citibank STP Award 2015 and STP Award 2016 for excellence in processing international transactions. Citibank grants the award to its best partner banks worldwide in recognition of high performance in international transactions both quantity and quality-wise, Ameriabank said.

While working with correspondents Ameriabank processes most international wire transfers via STP (Straight Through Processing) solutions where payment transactions are fully automated to ensure the highest speed for wire transfers.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) Armenia Office is ready to act as an independent mediator and organize the transfer of the body of soldier to the Azerbaijani side, Zara Amatuni, communications officer of the ICRC Armenia Office, told Armenpress.

We are ready to act as an independent mediator and organize the transfer of the body of Azerbaijani soldier from the moment when we reach an agreement with each of the authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan, she said.

In response to the question, according to which the Armenian side expressed readiness to transfer the body to the Azerbaijani side through the ICRC, and now in fact we are waiting for the consent with the other side, Zara Amatuni said: When we say a consent, we dont mean the statements. Here there are some issues which need to be settled so that we will be able to act as a neutral mediator. The consent is on the one hand a request to the side you apply, and on the other hand, when all issues are already agreed upon. It is a process which can be solved in one or more days, the ICRC representative said.

On November 23 the Armenian defense ministry released a statement according to which the Armenian military discovered the body of an Azerbaijani soldier in the morning of November 23 outside a military position stationed in the south-eastern section of the Armenian state border. The body was found in the neutral zone. According to intelligence, the dead soldier is a captain, company commander of the Azerbaijani military, who escaped a military base after a crime. The Armenian defense ministry expressed readiness to hand over the body of the soldier to Azerbaijan with mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Most read of the week
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. President of the European Council Donald Tusk assesses the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with Armenia as ambitious, Tusk announced during a press conference summing up the results of the Eastern Partnership summit. We will sign an ambitious agreement with Armenia. We coordinated the perspectives for moving forward in economic and political directions with the EaP participant countries for the future, until 2020, during the Eastern Partnership summit, ARMENPRESS reports Tusk saying. He added that the EU is Armenias second largest trade partner for both imports and exports.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. The Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between Armenia and the EU supports the peaceful settlement of regional conflicts, including Nagorno Karabakh conflict, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said following the signing of the agreement. We will support the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs aimed at a peaceful settlement of the conflict, ARMENPRESS reports Mogherini saying.

She emphasized that this is the first time the EU signs such an agreement with a member state of the Eurasian Economic Union. Mogherini added that now its important that the EU and Armenia take joint measures to bring the agreement into life. According to her, regular monitoring of the works aimed at the implementation of the agreement will be conducted.

Federica Mogherini stressed that the agreement assumes close cooperation in the spheres of transport, energy, peoples mobility, business, investments and trade.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan sent a condolence letter to President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the occasion of the terror attack in Rawda mosque in North Sinai, claiming lives of hundreds of innocent people.

Armenia severely condemns that inhuman deed and reaffirms its solidarity to its friendly Egypt in its fight against terrorism.

In this difficult period I extent my sincere condolences to You, the friendly people of Egypt and the relatives of the victims, wishing them fortitude and courage, and a speedy recovery to the injured, ARMENPRESS reports reads the condolence letter of President Sargsyan.
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.
The Church of Sweden is changing its language so that God will no longer take on the human characteristic of "he." And while they're at it, "Lord" will be dropped as well.

After an eight-day discussion about updating a church handbook that offers guidelines on now to conduct services, the decision to make God gender-neutral was made yesterday. Church of Sweden Archbishop Antje Jackelen, a woman, says that a gender-neutral God is something that the church has been talking about since a 1986 conference, and "we know that God is beyond our gender determinations, God is not human."

Not everyone in the church agrees with this move. According to The Guardian:

Christer Pahlmblad, an associate theology professor at Sweden's Lund University, told the Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper in Denmark that the move was "undermining the doctrine of the Trinity and the community with the other Christian churches". "It really isn't smart if the Church of Sweden becomes known as a church that does not respect the common theology heritage," he said.

However, Sweden, "one of the most progressive countries when it comes to gender equality", is moving forward with the change. On May 20th, the Christian holiday of Pentecost. God will simply be God. Hallelujah.

Image: Cima da Conegliano
Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, has been the source of many shocks since he took office last year: he admitted to murdering people as a teen gangbanger and then later as a public official; he zeroed out the budget for the National Commission on Human Rights, and announced that deposed mass-murdering dictator Ferdinand Marcos would be treated as a hero, even as he rolled out death squads that have murdered thousands in cold blood (he also hears voices from God).

The latest is perhaps inevitable, given Duterte's frankness about his criminality and admiration for thugs: he has described himself as a "fascist" and vowed to crack down on peaceful opposition groups like Bagong Alyansang Makabayan ("New Patriotic Alliance" or BAYAN), a group aligned with students, trade unions, human rights groups, and opposition politicians.





Duterte attributed his embrace of fascism to Trump and the shift in US politics, stating "I will follow America, since they say that I am an American boy. OK, granted, I will admit that I am a fascist. I will categorize you already as a terrorist."

Duterte is part of a pack of authoritarian global leaders whose "dominance" style has come into vogue in concert with increased economic insecurity and inequality.

"The timing of the threat is not surprising since Duterte and Trump reaffirmed U.S.-Philippine relations," Reyes said. "Trump has increased military aid to the Philippines  Duterte may be thinking that U.S. support for counter-insurgency, terror listing and Martial Law are enough to defeat the revolutionary forces. "His imagined 'conspiracy' between the NPA and the legal organizations under Bayan is meant to justify increased political repression in order to eliminate the most effective resistance to fascist dictatorship, human rights abuses, anti-people economic impositions and increased U.S. intervention." On Tuesday, Duterte also threatened to shut down mines that pay "revolutionary taxes" to the Maoist combatants, accusing mine operators of depositing money in bank accounts maintained by the fighters in exchange for allowing their operations to continue. "If I go against the communists, then everybody has to reconfigure their relationship with the New People's Army," he said. "If you support them financially, I will close you down."



Duterte Admits 'Fascism,' Ends Peace Talks With Communists and Vows Crackdown on Left [Elliott Gabriel/Telesur]





(via Late Stage Capitalism)





(Images: Trump's Hair; Kremlin.ru, CC-BY-SA; Polyvore)
The term "values voter" is taken to mean someone who votes for politicians on the basis of their personal integrity and values; in reality, polls and studies show that evangelicals who identify as "values voters" support candidates they know to be repugnant or even monstrous, if they believe that those politicians will promise to take away abortion rights and persecute queers.



Subsequent research indicated that the latter was more common. In a survey conducted just after the 2004 election, Pew asked voters who said moral values were the most important issue to them in the election what concerns fell under the umbrella of "moral values." Forty-four percent mentioned specific issues like abortion or gay marriage, while 23 percent referenced personal characteristics of the candidates. (The rest referred in more general terms to Christianity or "traditional values.")

According to a 2015 survey conducted by the Barna Group, a research organization that focuses on Christian trends, 58 percent of evangelicals said that candidates' stances on the issues were a key factor for their presidential vote, while less than half said the same of a candidate's character (46 percent) or religious faith (45 percent). Robert Jeffress, a prominent Christian conservative supporter of Donald Trump, told The Washington Post that for evangelicals, character matters, but "leadership, experience, morality and faith are all important, and the rank of those changes according to circumstances."






A frequent criticism of Jeremy Corbyn and the revitalised, principled, post-Blair Labour Party is their lack of clarity on Brexit  some speculated that Corbyn felt that Brexit would, at least, allow for re-nationalisation of privatised industries, something the EU might block  but at Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions, Corbyn shredded Theresa May and the Tories with a series of relentless, devastating questions about the slow-motion train-wreck that is the Tories' bungling handling of Brexit.



Polly Toynbee's postmortem on the Prime Minister and Exchequer's humiliating performances and Corbyn's sea-change sounds very plausible to me: noting that the EU was sold in part by guaranteeing neoliberal financial deregulation and the essential role of the EU in imposing brutal austerity to working people in order to ensure capital flows to bondholders (in Greece, Spain and elsewhere), Toynbee hypothesises that Corbyn has an instinctive "'capitalist club' Euroscepticism", but that this has been overriden by the views of Corbyn's base in the party's youth wing and the trade unions.





More important than the views of Corbyn's allies is the changing nature of the facts over Brexit; the Tories are steaming towards a deregulation bonanza in which the UK's principle exports will be financial secrecy for the world's looter class and unlimited cruelty to real people in the real economy.

In PMQs he has usually dodged the great issue. But his tone changed recently: on a visit to Shipley, in West Yorkshire, he was asked how he would vote if there were a referendum now  a question the PM and chancellor duck, while those turncoats Jeremy Hunt and Liz Truss cravenly recant. Corbyn unhesitatingly said he'd vote remain: "I voted remain because I thought the best option was to remain. I haven't changed my mind." He added: "We must make sure we obtain tariff-free access to the European markets and protection of all the rights and membership of agencies we have achieved through the European Union." He was, say some, hesitant on unfamiliar policy turf. But now he has found his feet, and his voice and confidence. "The danger is, we will get to March 2019 with no deal, we fall out of the EU, we go on to World Trade Organisation rules, and there will be threats to a lot of jobs all across Britain," he warned. "I think it is quite shocking." This time next week the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, will deliver his verdict on whether sufficient progress has been made. He has already thrown down the challenge to the chaotic Tories: what kind of country does Britain want to be, a European model country, or something else altogether? Theresa May doesn't know, but Jeremy Corbyn does. The European model beckons as the enlightened, internationalist, progressive vision  the Europhobic model is a land of impoverished deregulation.

Corbyn has seen the light on Brexit. Now he's taking the fight to the Tories

[Polly Toynbee/Guardian]





(via Naked Capitalism)
The Innu Nation will not accept Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's apology to the province's residential school survivors Friday.

Trudeau will be in Happy Valley-Goose Bay in the morning for a special ceremony.

In a release sent to media, Innu Nation wrote it feels the apology will be too narrow, covering just residential schools. They argue Innu people have also suffered under other institutions, like Mount Cashel Orphanage, and the provincial child protection system which exists today.

"Our Elders are not ready to accept an apology that is made for such a small part of our experience," Grand Chief Gregory Rich said in a statement.

"Frankly, I don't think Canada is truly ready to make an apology to Innu if it does not include recognition of other

damages done to our people  I'm not satisfied that Canada understands yet what it has done to Innu and what it is still doing."

There are plans for an inquiry into the treatment of Innu children currently under the province's care, but no date has yet been set for it to proceed.

Ottawa had said that federal representatives would not be attending the inquiry, only supporting it. That included a pledge of $250,000 to support the inquiry.

The Innu Nation and the province are still working on the details of the pending inquiry.

Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott reversed Ottawa's stance last week, when she told CBC's As It Happens that federal representatives would be at the inquiry after all.

The release from the Innu Nation says will not be participating in tomorrow's ceremony as an organization, though individual members are free to decide whether or not to attend.

Trudeau was in Clarenville, Newfoundland Thursday evening to support the Liberal candidate in the upcoming byelection in the riding of Bonavista-Burin-Trinity. He did not take questions from the media.

Survivors of Newfoundland and Labrador residential schools were left out of a 2008 apology made to survivors in the rest of the country by former prime minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government.

Trudeau's apology follows a $50 million dollar settlement last year of a class action suit launched more than a decade ago.
Tammy Chen, killed in Burkina Faso, awarded Senate medal for being 'a ray of light'

Tammy Jane MacKay Chen was 32 years old and six months pregnant when she became one of the 18 people killed in a Burkina Faso terrorist attack on Aug. 13.

She was "doing what she loved," her mother said  completing a doctorate on poverty and gender issues at the University of Cambridge in England.

Thursday marked the 99th day since she was killed. Nancy MacKay would know.

"As a mother, I can feel it every day."

On Thursday, MacKay stood in a room inside Riverdale High School in the Montreal neighbourhood of Pierrefonds where she works with special needs students and where Chen went to school.

She is holding the minted Senate 150th Anniversary Medal posthumously awarded to Chen this week for her "commitment to education and development among the world's poor [which] was a ray of light in the face of tragedy."

The medals were created to honour Canadians who enriched their communities.

"Tammy was a superstar, right? She was a superstar," MacKay said.

"She truly deserved it."

Mother remembers determined and caring daughter

MacKay showed photos and memorabilia that made up Chen's life.

They range from Chen, newly married, with her Senegalese husband Mehsen Fenaiche (who was also killed in the attack) kissing her forehead, to the ultrasound of MacKay's unborn grandchild.

There is also her bachelor's degree from McGill University and her master's from Queen's University.

Chen was so dedicated, her mother says, "she was the first at school, last to leave. She never missed a day."

A passion for helping those in need

Her daughter took that passion for learning and worked to pass it onto others, especially those most in need.

She founded a charity called Bright Futures of Burkina Faso after she graduated from Queen's and lived in the West African country for more than eight years.

There, she conducted fieldwork on poverty and women's empowerment and worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, according to her LinkedIn page.

Story continues

"I just want to say besides all that, she was the funnest and I miss that [most]," MacKay says, her smile dissolving to tears.

If you were standing in the kitchen in pyjamas, washing dishes, Chen may come up behind you and surprise you, her mother said. Or, she'd hide around a corners in the hall, ready to pounce.

Raised to be strong and independent

When Chen visited in July, "we went to Chateau Vaudreuil and had dinner for six hours," MacKay says. Chen brought her mother a necklace from Burkina Faso and a statuette representing strong women.

It's one of the values MacKay says she instilled in her two daughters, "to be strong, smart, independent women, who care about themselves and the world."

MacKay reminds herself now that she, too, is strong. "They got that from somewhere, right?"

"I tell myself in the morning when I cry in the shower, 'Suck it up buttercup,' and I come to school and I hug everyone. and I love everyone, and the day goes by."

She says she feels it's her job "to keep Tammy alive by passing on the torch of love."

The year before Chen was killed, there was a terrorist attack in another restaurant not far from where she stayed.

Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world and has long battled Islamic extremists.

'If I die there, I'll have died happy'

"I asked her, 'Why the hell do you want to go back?'"

Chen replied that, "if I die there, I'll have died happy, doing what I love, I believe in the people and the country. I want to help," MacKay said, remembering what her daughter told her.

She says Cambridge is reviewing Chen's work, which she was close to finishing, and plans on granting her an honorary PhD.

A tribute on the university website calls her "an exceptional student." The school has pledged to create a scholarship in her honour.

Riverdale has created a scholarship fund in her honour too, so that her positive contributions can continue to be felt by future generations.
Rumble

Our lives are full of moments where we must interact with each other and make compromises for the sake of coexisting. We face complicated social involvements that require some give and take to get things done and to benefit everyone. A life full of selfish decisions and actions would make everything harder for all involved. But occasionally, this compromise is difficult and emotions and pride get the better of us all. Tact an diplomacy gives way to anger and resentment and the sparks fly. This is what happened here in a simple and easily solved dilemma. As cars made their way through the parking lot, two met bumper to bumper and reached an impass. Onlookers could hear horns honking and impatient voices. It seemed that either could have backed up a little to make way, but the moment became tense and both dug in their heals. Cameras came out as people watched the exchange. Two grownups should have been able to resolve the matter without a spectacle. The man in the car with the trailer has difficulty in backing up. And in fairness, he has not blocked anything but his own lane. He wants to go forward and around the corner. The lady coming around the curve has entered into the middle of the lane and she could either adjust to her right, or back up out of the way. But she has her sights on a parking spot that is being blocked by the car and trailer. She may be afraid to back up, but she has the option to veer out and to her right. The car and trailer could pull forward and completely resolve the matter. What she does not like is the escalation in his voice as she hesitated and tried to decide what to do. Her initial reaction was to stop and do nothing. The man honked. She stared at him. He gestured and told her to move her car. And this is where it seemed to become unfriendly. Her passenger got out of the car, stood in the lane and began smoking a cigarette. She said she could not move as she was waiting for him to get back in. This was clearly a move of defiance. The camera recorded the moments that followed that initial meeting and up to that point. The man's impatience is now at a peak as the minutes have dragged on. Traffic has built up behind both vehicles. Backing up now is tricky for the woman, and impossible for the man. Other horns honked. The man began to swear and the passenger of the woman's car makes a deliberate show of taking his time getting back into the car. Spectators began to talk about intervening with advice or a reprimand. The cars behind both vehicles backed up and out of the way, leaving just the two in the predicament. The man finally got into the vehicle and the woman made a very slow move forward and out of his way. For Canada, this is an unusual display of impatience that left people shaking their heads. What had gone on for nearly 5 minutes was a seemingly needless showdown. Who is more to blame in this scenario? Is it the man with his rude demands, or the woman with her reluctance to move her car over to the right?
Reese Witherspoon and her lookalike daughter Ava Phillippe arrived in Paris just in time for her introduction to society with the Debutantes Ball. The Hollywood actress was pictured at the Charles de Gaulle airport with her husband Jim Toth, their five-year-old son Tennessee and Ava, who she shares with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe. Reese's 18-year-old daughter is set to attend Le Bal in Paris.

Ava will be supported by her family as she makes her big debut this weekend. Her dad Ryan is also flying in for the event, and was pictured at a Los Angeles airport with her younger brother Deacon, 14. At the gathering, Ava, who is interested in drawing and photography, will be escorted by her cavalier, the Maharajah of Jaipur. She and her mom Reese, 41, will be dressed by Giambattista Valli.

TAP TO VIEW GALLERY Reese and Ava pictured in LA about to board their flight

Reese Witherspoon and Ava Phillippe

Other debutantes at this year's edition of Le Bal include Princess Charlotte of Nassau from Luxembourg, Princess Gauravi Kumari from India and Bollywood actress Ananya Panday. On the night, the debutantes are traditionally introduced in alphabetical order on the arms of their cavaliers. Dinner is served, after which the ladies take part in an opening dance with their fathers, followed by a waltz.

The family arrive in Paris for Le Bal

Reese Witherspoon and Ava Phillippe

Ava is the eldest child of Reese and her ex-husband Ryan. The Cruel Intentions co-stars were married from 1999 to 2007. Reese went on to marry talent agent Jim in 2011, and welcomed their son Tennessee in 2012. During a recent appearance on Lorraine, the actress spoke about her ex-husband and her decision to tie the knot at the tender age of 23.

Referring to her movie Home Again, in which she plays a mother-of-two who starts a romance with a 26-year-old toyboy, Reese remarked: "It's about that next chapter in your life. What do you do when you get to 40 and you made a decision when you were 25 to get married and have kids? I got married when I was 23 and had two kids by 27 Sometimes it's good to know yourself." She added: "I would never change anything!"
Want to be your own boss? Study suggests it's harder if you're a new Canadian

They come to Canada with dreams of starting a business in their new home, but many immigrants who settle in Ontario are facing significant barriers in making those dreams a reality.

That's according to a study released by Ryerson University's Diversity Institute.

"Many of them are very similar that all entrepreneurs face, so navigating the systems, defining the market, accessing the funding, but we do see immigrants report more challenges than Canadian born entrepreneurs," said Wendy Cukier, who authored the report.

Cukier said that many of the services and supports available for entrepreneurs don't really have a diversity lens and address the needs of immigrants or women and indigenous people.

"Canadian born entrepreneurs are more than two times as likely to access government grants," she said. "And partly that is not an eligibility issue, it's a question of how do you navigate all of the systems because there are lots of services available but they are very fragmented."

The issue is definitely not because a lack of desire. The study showed that 73 per cent of new Canadians are attracted to entrepreneurship as a desirable career choice, but 54 per cent said they had difficulty finding regular employment. On top of that, 31 per cent said they had difficulty having their credentials recognized.

This is not the same for Canadian-born entrepreneurs.

"A lot of Canadians go into entrepreneurship because they don't like their jobs, that's not the case of immigrants," said Cukier.

The first-of-its-kind study was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. The research combined a review of previous research, a survey of more than 200 immigrant and Canadian born entrepreneurs, a review of services and interviews with entrepreneurship organizations and community groups in Mississauga, Niagara, Picton and Toronto.

The immigrant entrepreneurs who participated in the study had high levels of education and more than one third were women.

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"We have to I think really calibrate our thinking of what entrepreneurs are bringing not just what they need," said Cukier, adding that many of these newcomers bring an in-depth knowledge of international markets. She said that better business partnerships could be a "win-win" for all business owners  born in Canada or not.

"Linking them up with Canadian-born entrepreneurs lets them share what they know about how to go global and also helps them develop more understanding of the nuances and peculiarities of Canadian markets."

Some recommendations from the study include having better diversity accountability in government-funded services, and more multilingual supports.
Just prior to the 2017 IPCPR Trade Show, Mombacho Cigars announced its Cosecha project. The name cosecha is Spanish for harvest. Its a concept that is analogous to the wine world  namely harvesting premium grapes from a particular crop. When it comes to cigars, it involves using tobaccos from a harvest year. The Mombacho Cosecha is project spearheaded by company President and Master Blender Claudio Sgroi. Mombacho Cigars is known for its 100% Nicaraguan tobacco releases, and in the case of the Mombacho Cosecha 2012, it uses Nicaraguan tobaccos exclusively from 2012. The plan is for future Cosecha releases to come from Mombacho, featuring cigars with tobaccos aging from 2013, 2014, and 2015. Today, we take a closer look at the Mombacho Cosecha 2012 release.

Mombacho Cigars is unique for a couple of reasons. First, all of its production comes out of the companys Casa Favilli factory. What is notable about this is that the factory is located in Grenada, Nicaragua, which is somewhat out of the ordinary as most of the Nicaraguan-based manufacturing operations in the cigar industry take place further north in Esteli, Nicaragua. Secondly, each of the four cigar lines the company has released use 100% Nicaraguan tobacco in the blend. This not only includes the Cosecha 2012, but the companys Tierra Volcan, Liga Maestro, and 10th Anniversary lines.

The Cosecha 2012 project is also somewhat unique in terms of other Cosecha releases. Not only are all of the components from the 2012 vintage, but the cigars were actually rolled over four years ago in 2013 and have been aging at Casa Favilli since then.

It was a project of patience to get the Cosecha 2012 to market. In fact at the IPCPR Trade Show, while Mombacho showcased the new cigar, the bands had yet to be finalized. It was back in October (when the Cosecha 2012 shipped) when the final bands were unveiled.

Without further ado, lets take a look at the Mombacho Cosecha 2012 and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

According to Mombacho, the all-Nicaraguan tobaccos are select ones  namely ones that were the best they could obtain from the 2012 Harvest Year.

Wrapper: Nicaraguan (2012 Vintage)

Binder: Nicaraguan (2012 Vintage)

Filler: Nicaraguan (2012 Vintage)

Country of Origin: Nicaragua (Casa Favilli)

Vitolas Available

The Mombacho Cosecha 2012 is available in one size  a 6 x 52 Toro. The cigars are packaged in 10-count boxes. Production was limited to 500 boxes (5,000 cigars total).

Appearance

The Nicaraguan wrapper of the Mombacho Cosecha 2012 had a medium brown color with a cinnamon tint to it. There was some oil on the surface of the wrapper. The wrapper itself was slightly bumpy with some thin visible veins and thin visible wrapper seams. The cigar was finished with a thick pig-tail.

The new bands introduced with the Mombacho Cosecha 2012 still use the banding scheme design that was introduced by Mombacho Cigars SA in 2016. The difference is in the color. The primary band an orange background with gold trim and gold font. On the front of the band, it features the companys triangular volcano logo. Just below it is the text MOMBACHO. On the left side of the band is the text Grenada Nicaragua in cursive font while on the right side is the text Casa Favilli  also in cursive font.

The back of the band is stamped with the date the Cosecha 2012 was rolled.

The secondary band is also orange with gold trim and gold font. It features the text COSECHA 2012 on the center of the band. On the left side of the band is the text TOTALAMENTE A MANO while on the right side is the text PURO NICARAGUA. There are also some gold adornments to the left and right. In a ticker tape pattern toward the top and bottom is the text 2012 EDICION UNICA  also in gold font.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As opposed to pulling off the pig-tail off the Mombacho Cosecha 2012, I chose a straight cut to remove the cap. Once the cap was removed, I proceeded with the pre-light draw ritual. The cold draw delivered a mix of cream and oak, along with a slight amount of cedar sweet-spice. Overall, I considered this to be a satisfactory pre-light draw. At this point, I was ready to light up the Mombacho Cosecha 2012 and see what the smoking phase would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The start of the Mombacho Cosecha 2012 produced a mix of cream, earth, cedar, and a slight red pepper note. As the cigar moved through the early phases, the cream and earth notes moved into the forefront and developed a nice synergy. The cedar and red pepper settled into the background. This was soon joined by a subtle berry sweetness. On the retro-hale, there was a nice (but not overpowering) layer of mixed spices including cedar, red, and black pepper notes.

During the second third of the Mombacho Cosecha 2012, there was an increase in the cedar notes. These notes would join the cream and earth notes in the forefront. By the midway point, the cedar took over pushing the cream and earth notes in the background. These notes joined the berry and pepper notes in the background.

The cedar remained in the forefront during the last third of the Mombacho Cosecha 2012. The pepper spices increased slightly and closed in on the forefront. The earth notes remained in the background while there was a diminished presence of the berry and cream notes. This is the way the cigar experience of the Cosecha 2012 came to a close. The resulting nub was slightly soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

The Mombacho Cosecha 2012 was a well-constructed cigar and this reflected nicely on the burn and draw. This cigar had little problem maintaining a straight burn path from start to finish. The resulting ash was skewed toward the firmer side. The ash was mostly light gray with some darker speckling in there. As for the burn rate and burn temperature, both were at ideal levels.

The draw was excellent as well. It had a touch of resistance to it  which is something that I like. There was an ample amount of smoke produced from this cigar.

Strength and Body

With about four years of age since it was rolled, I wasnt expecting a powerhouse cigar with the Cosecha 2012  and my experience with this pretty much confirmed my expectations. This is not a negative as I found the intensity levels meshed well with the flavors delivered.

This is a cigar that started out mild to medium in both strength and body. Both attributes increased gradually. By the last third, the strength progressed to a medium level. The body increased a little more rapidly and moved into the medium range by the midway point.

For the most part, when it came to strength versus body, I found the body to have a slight edge over the strength.

Final Thoughts

The Mombacho Cosecha 2012 made its debut at the 2017 IPCPR Trade Show and I believe it to be one of the standout cigars of the trade show. From an intangibles standpoint, I found this cigar very much smokes like a connoisseurs cigar. With four years of age, I didnt find this cigar experienced any youngness whatsoever  and Im confident that Claudio Sgroi and his team waited until the right moment to set these cigars loose on the market. This is not a cheap cigar  coming in at $21.95.

In the end, this is a cigar I could recommend to a novice or experienced cigar enthusiast. As for myself, given this was quite enjoyable, I feel its worth trying to get a box of these while they last. Its a cigar that is worthy of making a box purchase.

Summary

Key Flavors: Cream, Earth, Cedar, Pepper, Berry

Burn: Excellent

Draw: Excellent

Complexity: Medium+

Strength: Mild to Medium (1st 2/3), Medium (Last Third)

Body: Mild to Medium (1st Half), Medium (2nd Half)

Finish: Very Good

Rating

Assessment: 4.0-Box Worthy *

Score: 92

References

News: Mombacho Cigars Releases Cosecha 2012

Price: $21.95

Source: Mombacho

Brand Reference: Mombacho

Photo Credits: Cigar Coop, except where noted

* This cigar was assessed using the 2017 Cigar Rating criteria.
Migratory birds start arriving in Chilika Lake

Published: November 24, 2017

Lakhs of migratory birds have made their way to Chilika Lake (Odisha) after a long flight of thousands of miles. Major bird congregations were spotted in wetlands of Nalabana Bird Sanctuary inside Chilika and Mangalajodi, a major village on banks of lake.

During winter season, migratory birds fly across continents from Caspian Sea, Baikal Lake and remote parts of Russia, Mongolia and Siberia and flock to the marshy lands of Nalabana Bird Sanctuary inside Chilika Lake, which is spread across over 1000 sq. km.

Chilika Lake

Chilika Lake or lagoon is the largest coastal lagoon or brackish water lake in India and Asia and second largest lagoon in the world after New Caledonian barrier reef in New Caledonia, US. It spread over Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of Odisha state on east coast of India, covering an area of over 1,100 km2 at mouth of Daya River, flowing into Bay of Bengal.

It is largest wintering ground for migratory waterfowl found anywhere on Indian sub-continent. It is one of the hotspot of biodiversity in country and some rare, vulnerable and endangered species listed in IUCN Red List of threatened Animals inhabit in lagoon for atleast part of their life cycle.

It was designated as the first Ramsar Site of India on account of its rich bio-diversity and ecological significance. Nalaban Island within the lagoon is notified as Bird Sanctuary under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. It also has been identified as a priority site for conservation and management.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2017

Topics: Chilika Lake  Environment  Nalabana Bird Sanctuary  Odisha  Wildlife conservation

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Growing international interest in original content from China was apparent at a recent children's book fair in Shanghai. Zhang Kun reports.

The 5th China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair attested to growing interest in Chinese publications from local readers and international publishers alike.

The fair took place at the Shanghai Expo Exhibition Center from Nov 17-20, attracting more than 360 publishers and creative institutes. More than 1,000 authors, illustrators and industry professionals from 50 countries and regions participated in book readings, forums and other events.

The fair was established in 2013. It's the only one in the Asia-Pacific region that focuses solely on books for readers younger than 16 years old. This year, it occupied some 25,000 square meters of floor space, 12 percent more than the previous year, as the number of visitors increased.

Organizers didn't release specific numbers about copyright deals. But publishers were quick to note growing international interest in content from China.

Shanghai Century Publishing Group, the largest exhibitor, highlighted a series of new books featuring traditional Chinese folklore and classical literature.

"Books about ancient Chinese poetry, culture and science education have enjoyed great popularity with Chinese parents in the last few years," says Bi Sheng, head of the sales department at Century Publishing.

These titles have also attracted wide interest from overseas publishers and copyright agencies.

The Juvenile and Children's Publishing House affiliated with Century Publishing sold the copyrights of 266 books to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. The publisher made more deals involving electronic copyrights.

Beijing Dandelion Children's Book House has been a regular participant at the fair.

"Over the past four years, we have made continuing efforts to work on the production of original Chinese picture books," says Yan Xiaoli, chief editor of the private publishing company. Since 2014, Dandelion has been promoting its products to the world. They've been published in the United States, Canada and Japan. One of Dandelion's books, There Are Always Reasons to Eat a Steamed Bun, has won high praise in China and attracted publishers from Japan and the US.

Books featuring Chinese cuisine have proved popular with readers both at home and abroad, she says. "A powerful story travels far beyond borders."

Encouraged by the success and popularity of Chinese food, Dandelion is working on more stories "with a taste of China", Yan says. One title, Grandma Peach Blossom Fish, featuring a kindhearted witch and her secret recipe for cooking fish, was launched at the fair. "There are already foreign publishers expressing interest in the copyright," Yan says.

Lu Jun, deputy editor-in-chief of CITIC Publishing Group, believes 2015 marked the start of a "golden decade" of rapid development for China's children's books market.

In the past few years, China has introduced a large number of foreign books for children, which largely expanded the vision of China's parents and publishers. However, this has "to some degree suppressed the development of original Chinese creativity", Lu says.

Also, he attributed the underdevelopment of Chinese picture books to inefficient working practices among authors, illustrators, publishers and even printing factories.

"Things are beginning to change, and a growing number of outstanding books for children has been published".

British translator Helen Wang won the "special contribution" award at the Chen Bochui International Award for Children's Literature during the book fair.

"If there is a good story, let's share it, and let everyone share it," Wang says.

There are very few people who translate children's books from Chinese to English. When a friend invited her to translate Cao Wenxuan's Bronze and Sunflower, she took the job and went on to translate five more books by the author.

Thanks to the work of translators such as Wang, Cao has been published in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Korean. He won the Hans Christian Anderson Award in 2016.

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn

The 5th China Shanghai International Childrens Book Fair, which took place at the Shanghai Expo Exhibition Center from Nov 1720, draws children and their parents for such events as book signings, meeting writers and earlyeducation forums. Photos Provided to China Daily

(China Daily 11/24/2017 page19)
The U.S. continues to prosecute endangered species traffickers. Michael Hegarty, an Irish national, was sentenced in federal court in Miami, Florida, on November 14th to 18 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for fraudulently facilitating the transportation and concealment of a libation cup carved from the horn of an endangered rhinoceros.

Hegartys sentencing is the result of the strong partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute those who engage in illegal trade in protected wildlife, said Jeffrey Wood, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice .

There is a frequent connection between wildlife smuggling and organized criminal activity. We remain committed to combatting this illegality.

Hegartys arrest and subsequent extradition were part of Operation Crash, a U.S. crack-down on criminal trafficking in rhinoceros horns.



Hegartys eighteen month sentence was the high end of the sentencing range for his crime.

Operation Crash was conducted by the Department of the Interiors Fish and Wildlife Service, in coordination with other federal and local law enforcement agencies including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations. Office of International Affairs of the Department of Justice played an important role the extradition procedures. A crash is the term for a herd of rhinoceros. Operation Crash was an effort to detect, deter and prosecute those engaged in the illegal killing of rhinoceros and the unlawful trafficking of rhinoceros horns.

The sentencing of Michael Hegarty sends a message to those who profit from the slaughter and illicit trade of wildlife, you will be caught and prosecuted no matter where you hide, said Ed Grace, Acting Chief of Law Enforcement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I commend our special agents who connected this defendant to the Rathkeale Rovers, a transnational organized crime syndicate responsible for trafficking endangered rhinoceros products worldwide. Thank you to our international counterparts and to the U.S. Department of Justice for arresting, extraditing, and prosecuting this individual.
Interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido in Catalonia on October 7. EFE

The Spanish Interior Ministry is reducing its special police contingent in Catalonia by half, given the absence of street unrest after emergency powers were rolled out in the region to contain the illegal secessionist push.

Around 6,000 members of the National Police and Civil Guard had been stationed in the northeastern region as part of Operation Copernicus since mid-September, ahead of the unconstitutional independence referendum held on October 1. In recent days, nearly half of these officers have returned to their regular posts.

High-ranking ministry sources told EL PAIS that the plan is to keep the remaining 3,000 officers in Catalonia until after the regional election of December 21, which was called by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy using special powers granted by Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution.

At the height of the crisis, the Interior Ministry sent two-thirds of Spains 2,700 riot police officers to Catalonia

This contingent will provide backup for the 2,929 police officers and 3,164 civil guards who are stationed permanently in Catalonia.

Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido and his team consider that their tasks have been reduced to protecting state-owned buildings and critical infrastructure in the region. Public order duties fall to the regional police force, the Mossos dEsquadra, who now answer directly to the Spanish Interior Ministry rather than the Catalan government following the application of Article 155.

This ship that served as living quarters for Spanish police in Catalonia made world headlines because of its Looney Tunes characters. Carles Ribas

The Mossos loyalty was questioned after the October 1 referendum, when they failed to stop the vote from taking place despite orders from the Spanish government to do so. The agency was found to be divided over the independence issue, with some members pledging allegiance to separatist Catalan leaders rather than national authorities.

At the height of the crisis, the Interior Ministry deployed two-thirds of Spains 2,700 riot police officers in Catalonia as a precautionary measure. But their upkeep is a financial burden on the ministrys budget, and the situation in Catalonia remains peaceful despite fears that invoking Article 155  a move that included removing the entire Catalan government from office  would trigger street revolts by separatist sympathizers.

The officers who remain in Catalonia have been assigned two moored ships as living quarters. A passenger ferry that had been used for this purpose  the Moby Dada, made famous because of the Looney Tunes cartoon characters painted on its hull  left the port of Barcelona last week.

The first officers started to go home on November 16, when their superiors deactivated several emergency measures, including one preventing any member of the National Police or Civil Guard in Catalonia from taking leave.

English version by Susana Urra.
Approximately 120 million girls around the world  more than one in every 10  has suffered some form of sexual violence throughout their lives, according to recent figures released by UNICEF. In Europe, one in every 10 women has been a victim of sexual violence since the age of 15, and one out of every 20 has been raped, according to the latest survey by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, which uses 2014 data. At the global level, one out of every 14 has suffered some form of sexual aggression  abuse with and without penetration  from someone who was not their partner, says the World Health Organization (WHO), in what constitutes the biggest global report on the issue to date.

Sindy Hernandez is a three-time survivor of sexual violence. Daniel Villa

Yet experts note that even this overwhelming tide of figures does not capture the full extent of what they consider to be a silent epidemic. Epidemic because of its devastating effects on more than half of society, and silent because a majority of women do not report it.

They are very scared of being misjudged, they have a tremendous guilt complex that they pick up from their environment, says Tina Alarcon, president of the Madrid Center to Help Victims of Sexual Aggression (CAVAS). It is the kind of environment where you still hear things like, she was asking for it, especially when the person is a relative, a friend, someone you know, which is the case 80% of the time.

This tendency to blame the victim is a common pattern throughout the world. The following are stories of women who suffered sexual violence and broke their silence in a bid to help stop the epidemic.

Ana: The person who should have taken care of me robbed me of my innocence

The first time he walked into her room she was asleep. It was cold and she had pulled the covers up to her nose. Its been 21 years since that night, but Ana has gone back to it in her mind many times. She can still see the color of the bedsheets, and she remembers that he was wearing blue pajamas. The nightstand lamp was casting an orange-hued light on the textured walls. I was seven; I was a little kid who loved playing with building blocks and going out in the backyard, I was quite happy, she recalls, shrugging as she holds a cup of tea between her long, bony hands.

Ana is 28 today, a willowy young woman with dark hair and hazelnut eyes. Its taken her five years to talk about the sexual abuse that she endured from a very close relative for an entire decade. She never told her mother or brother about it. Thats why its better for you to call me Ana, she says.

I grew up as though I were two different people: one who was small and scared about the visits by that man, and another cheerful, talkative one who was afraid that somebody would discover what was going on.

Then, after a suicide attempt, the visits became less frequent. Later she left home and moved to Madrid. She has hardly been back since then. Ana is still recovering. She has been following treatment for anxiety and for the eating disorder she developed as a teenager  a very common circumstance among victims of abuse, say the experts.

Every day I tell myself that I am a survivor, that I have been through a lot and that I can deal with anything that comes my way, she explains. That this man whom I trusted completely, who was meant to take care of me and protect me; my abuser, as I force myself to say, ruined my childhood and robbed me of my innocence, but he will not destroy my life. Theres many of us out there [1.4 million, according to a 2015 survey by the Equality Ministry], we are not alone.

But Ana is still dealing with feelings of guilt. He used to give her little gifts that she could not refuse, and then he would call her a whore for accepting them. And she still cannot bring herself to tell the whole story. I know that if I do, everything will change, and those I love the most will suffer a lot.

Juanita Diaz: Telling my story has helped me heal

It took Juanita Diaz many months to come to terms with what had happened to her. She was a 19-year-old art student at Javeriana University in Bogota, and not sexually active yet, when a classmate assaulted her inside a photography lab. I was waiting for the photos to dry for one of my final projects. I was alone because it was lunchtime. He walked in and said hi; I knew him so I did not suspect, she recalls. Juanita is a slight young woman with large brown eyes and fair skin. In a calm voice, she explains how he blocked the door, grabbed her and ripped off her shirt.

Juanita Diaz. Camilo Rozo (EL PAIS)

I froze; I was in shock. All I could manage to say is stop, leave me alone. He kept yelling that I was a bitch, she recalls. Juanita managed to escape before her assaulter finished what he had come for.

I was so nervous I didnt know where to go. I couldnt even tell anyone about it that day. Later I left my boyfriend because I couldnt stand being close to any man. I locked myself up at home and I was so scared that I carried a screwdriver around in my purse for a while.

Then, when it was time to go to class again after the holiday vacations, she bumped into her aggressor. I ran into the bathroom and threw up. I felt I was going mad, then one early morning I broke down and told my brother about it. Then I told my father and my mother.

Juanita began treatment for post-traumatic stress and reported the case to university officials and then to the police. But it was a year-and-a-half before she was able to bring herself to do so. She then learned that she was not the only one, that this student had assaulted around 10 other young women. He was expelled, but five years after the events, no trial date has been set.

Just like the cases of Juanita and Ana, over 80% of abusers are people whom the victims know: relatives, friends, colleagues, sometimes even their own sentimental partners. And this helps perpetuate the silence.

I was finally able to talk about it. Talking about being assaulted has helped me heal, says Juanita. I am now an empowered woman.

Juanita has gone one to write a song, Despegas, she has founded an organization to fight abuse at institutions, she helps other victims, and has co-drafted university protocols to prevent such situations from happening again.

Macarena Garcia. I was ashamed to say that my husband had raped me

I suffered abuse for years, and if its embarrassing to say that youve been beaten or insulted, imagine saying youve been raped. I was extremely embarrassed. Talking about sex is still not a normal thing, its viewed as an inadequate subject matter, says Macarena Garcia, 48. For 23 of those years, she was married to a man who abused her physically and psychologically. This included sexual violence, as is often the case.

Macarena Garcia. Paco Puentes

At first you think, hes my husband and thats the way these things are done. But thats until you realize that you are a person, not an object, and that you do not have to do anything you dont want to, says Macarena, who lives in a village in Seville and has since left her husband. She now volunteers for the Ana Bella Foundation for victims of abuse.

Macarena says it is important to break the silence so those who are still suffering will know that they are not alone. I remember nights of terror when I would yield and have sex with him just so my children would not wake up. Or when he told me that if I wanted to sleep in the bed, I had to do whatever he asked of me.

Macarena, who has two teenage children (aged 18 and 19), says that when she finally asked for help, nobody asked her about the sexual violence. She only began talking about it after some time, when she had partly recovered: Its not really about sex, but about domination, about power.

Sunitha Krishnan: Eight men abused me, but I was the guilty one

Sunitha Krishnan, a native of India, tells her story with breathtaking serenity. When I was 15 years old I was raped by eight men. My community considered that I was the guilty one, not the victim of a crime. They decided that my character was not good, that I had done something to deserve this. I was isolated and my family stopped getting invited to social events. I was viewed as a prostitute, recalls this petite woman.

Sunitha Krishnan.

Now 44, she recalls that after that, I promised myself that I would not let it destroy me, that I would recover and devote my life to fighting sexual violence, making the topic visible and helping other women.

And she did. Sunitha founded Prajwala, an organization to help women who have been sexual slaves. Women who were not raped once like myself, but hundreds of time, she notes.

Her demands include better assistance and prevention policies, and a change in the way women are socialized to feel guilty about being victims of sexual crimes.

We shouldnt educate our girls to take care of themselves, but our boys to respect them and not be aggressors, she says.

Its important to talk, to break the silence, she adds. Its the only way to change things.

Sindy Hernandez: I am not seen as a victim because I dont go around crying

When Sindy Hernandez was four years old she was abducted in the middle of the street and raped. Her parents were poor peasants who had moved to Bogota, the capital of Colombia, where they ran a tobacco store. She had run out of the establishment to play in the street while her parents worked.

I dont remember much, but I can clearly recall something my aggressor told me, that I was a very good bitch. This marked my sex life from that moment on, says Sindy, who is now 41.

Her family never talked about it: They are very conservative and their way of dealing with it was to conceal it, as though it had never happened.

Sindy Hernandez. Daniel Villa

When she was 10, a friend of the family locked Sindy in the bathroom and touched her while he masturbated. He was smart: he did not threaten me. Instead he manipulated me, told me not to tell my parents, because this was what couples did together. I never saw him again, but that defined my character. I ended up accepting the phrase that my first aggressor told me, and I became a yielding person with my sexual partners. That made me tremendously vulnerable to aggression, she notes.

Later she met her future husband, a Mexican actor who began abusing her after their honeymoon. When we split up, three years ago, I came to realize that he had abused me sexually as well. At first I couldnt grasp the fact that its possible to get raped if you are married. But if you dont consent to the sex, then its rape. So I was raped many times within my marriage.

She is still afraid of her ex, and has yet to fully recover. I am not seen as a victim because I dont go around crying and dragging myself on the floor. One needs to survive, and thats what I did. And I survive because I talk about it. I talk so that this secret that society normalizes because its concealed will come to light and be viewed as intolerable. Every day I say to myself and to my son: Your body is sacred and you decide who gets to touch it.

English version by Susana Urra.
Veterinarian Deborah McCauley and Bishnu Lama on an elephant in Chitwan. Luis Almodovar

The young Rajan Sanu, still beardless, shows a picture he took with his cellphone a few months ago. On the screen, on a path in the middle of the jungle, there is a disemboweled corpse, its intestines protruding from his abdomen. He was 28 years old. He was eaten by a tiger.

It is not a strange event in his village, he says. Sanu lives in Sauraha, a locality of about 2,700 inhabitants located in the vicinity of Chitwan National Park, in southern Nepal. The place is one of the last strongholds of the so-called man-eater, the Bengal tiger. Of the fewer than 2,500 remaining Bengal tigers on the planet, 120 live in this area. The rest are concentrated in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

About 120 of the fewer than 2,500 remaining Bengal tigers on the planet live in Chitwan

Local newspapers are used to publishing the same news, with different victims. On October 2, a tiger mauled a 25-year-old woman to death after she entered the jungle to gather food for her livestock. Between 1979 and 2014, tigers have killed 120 people in Chitwan.

The jungle, now considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, used to be a hunting ground for Nepalese royalty for more than a century. Legend has it that the maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana shot 31 tigers all by himself in the winter of 1861 on the back of his elephant. And the killing continued in the 20th century, until humans exterminated more than 95% of the 100,000 tigers that once swarmed through the jungles of Asia. But, in Chitwan, the tigers rival is no longer the shotgun. It is an invisible enemy.

In early May 2017, US veterinarian Deborah McCauley made a historic journey from the Nepalese jungle to Cornell University in New York. She carried with her samples taken from 11 Bengal tigers. For the first time, the species blood serum had left Nepal for analysis. And the preliminary results were alarming: tigers are exposed to diseases that they share with humans, dogs and cows.

An Indian rhinoceros being cared for by VIEW. Luis Almodovar

Around the world, endangered wildlife is dying due to diseases shared with domestic and human animals. Its happening on a global scale, warns McCauley, who was born in New York but lives in Madrid.

The veterinarian recites examples from all over the planet. Two years ago, she recalls, more than 200,000 Saiga antelopes were found dead in a few days in Kazakhstan, victims of bacteria. The infection decimated a third of the worlds critically endangered antelope population.

This is an emergency on a global scale and time is running out Deborah McCauley, veterinarian

In North America, white-nose syndrome caused by a fungus has killed millions of bats in the last decade. In Russia and India, corpses of tigers infected with distemper virus have cropped up, the same virus that affects dogs. In Africa, lions are suffering from dangerous outbreaks of tuberculosis.

Millions of dollars are dedicated to reducing poaching and protecting habitats, but there is very little money, if any, going to improving the health of threatened wildlife, McCauley laments. Five years ago, she and her colleague Gretchen Kaufman founded the Veterinary Initiative for Endangered Wildlife (VIEW), to address this forgotten front in the global fight for environmental conservation.

Nepal is its testing ground. There, McCauleys team works with the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), a government organization that employs the person who has possibly caught the highest number of live tigers in history. I have captured more than 100, says Bishnu Bahadur Lama, a friendly 62-year-old man whose job is to chase tigers through the jungle.

Deborah McCauley and Bishnu Lama look at a rhinoceros in Chitwan. Luis Almodovar

Its an extraordinary show to watch. When a tiger is prowling about the villages or attacking people, an operation gets underway: hundreds of meters of ropes with white sheets hanging from them are stretched from tree to tree all around the predator. The white color works like a wall for the animal. At the same time, 10 or 15 men on the backs of as many elephants push the tiger into the improvised corral. Once he is trapped among pachyderms and linen, Bishnu Bahadur Lama shoots a well-aimed anesthetic dart at the animals muscles.

Prior to relocating dangerous tigers to remote areas away from human populations, Lamas team takes samples for VIEW to analyze. McCauley fears cases of parvovirus, a disease that causes deadly bloody diarrhea in puppies in the villages near Chitwan. Leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that can be deadly in humans, and distemper are the other threats.

No one knows the magnitude of these threats because no one in the world is investigating them Deborah McCauley, veterinarian

In Chitwan, wildlife lives side by side with humans and domestic animals because of the conversion of the jungle into agricultural land. When dusk falls in Sauraha, it is customary to see two-ton rhinos calmly strolling down the streets, surrounded by gaping tourists who went out for a beer.

This coexistence is dangerous for both sides, warns McCauley. Deaths from tiger attacks have spiked from one per year before 1998, to peaks of seven annual casualties in recent years. VIEW has also documented cases of five tigers who appeared thin and disoriented, with symptoms compatible with distemper. In villages near Chitwan, 27% of dogs have been infected with the virus, according to the organizations analysis. Vaccinating these pets would prevent their diseases from spreading into the jungle.

No one knows the magnitude of these threats because no one in the world is investigating them, McCauley says. On February 16, 2015, national park rangers observed a female Indian rhinoceros who was apparently ill. She was lethargic and refused to eat. The next day the officers found its corpse. The Nepalese veterinarian Amir Sadaula, who was trained by McCauley, confirmed their suspicions: tuberculosis. It was the first case detected in Asia, where the last 3,500 Indian rhinoceros live.

Veterinarian Deborah McCauley, founder of VIEW. Luis Almodovar

We regularly see herpes virus infections in elephant calves under the age of five. The mortality rate is 90%, and if an animal becomes infected with herpes, it dies in six or seven hours, says Sadaula. The Nepalese government maintains 200 captive elephants in Chitwan for use in their jungle patrols against poachers. Herpes has killed six of their offspring in recent months. It's a major problem, in Nepal and in the rest of the world, says Sadaula.

In places such as Chitwan, where excellent work has been done to reduce poaching and provide a habitat for endangered wildlife, the main cause of death is natural or unknown causes, McCauley says. The veterinarian speaks at the site of what will be a three-story hospital for wild animals in the national park in the coming months.

Chitwan is an excellent model to show the rest of the world how wildlife health can be included in environmental conservation, she says. It is urgent to investigate these diseases with diagnostic techniques of veterinary medicine. This is an emergency on a global scale and time is running out.

English version by Debora Almeida.
Irans former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unleashed his harshest criticism yet against the countrys judicial branch, saying it is more powerful than the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and it is not supervised by any higher authority.

In a video interview published on Thursday, Ahmadinejad sharply attacked the judiciary and its head Sadegh Larijani for prosecuting his allies and said; due to the poor performance of the judiciary and its neglect of justice the whole country is in danger.

Several close friends of the former president are either convicted or facing pending trials.

Mohammad Reza Rahimi, one of his deputies is currently serving a 5-year prison sentence due to conviction over corruption. His other deputy, Hamid Baghaei is currently facing various legal problems.

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the head of presidents office under Ahmadinejad was officially charged last week over insulting the supreme leader, propaganda against the regime, illegal usage of government assets, insulting high ranking state officials and spreading lies.

Ahmadinejad accused the judiciary of corruption, tyranny and dictatorship and called the charges against his deputy Hamid Baghaei fabricated.

Baghaei also has chosen to attack the judiciary as his defense strategy. "I do not have 63 accounts, my daughter is not a spy, and I have not violated any laws in this country, Baghaei said in a furious and sarcastic speech in front of the courthouse after the second session of his trial last month.

He was referring to two major accusations against Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary. Because of these statements he was later charged with defamation of high-ranking officials.

Larijani has been reportedly transferring millions of dollars of his institutions income to his private accounts. And according to unconfirmed reports, his daughter has been charged with espionage for British embassy in Tehran. The government and judiciary have denied both allegations.

Ahmadinejad also criticized the fact that, unlike many other countries, the prosecutors and prisons in Iran were under the control of the judiciary and said the judiciary has even handed over the supervision of some prison wards to the intelligence service and the revolutionary guards which is a clear violation of the law.

He described the death of a blogger Sattar Beheshti, 35, in the notorious Evin prison in 2012, as a result of having security and intelligence organs run the prisons and insisted, this was wrong and the judiciary was responsible for it.

In his weblog, Beheshti had criticized the Iranian regime and its leader Ayatollah Khamenei for human rights violations and supporting the Lebanons Hezbollah. Beheshti died in custody a few days after his arrest.

When they violate the law in the case of the presidents deputy, God may help the 17 million others who have a legal case in the judiciary, Ahmadinejad said.
Syrian mainstream opposition groups gathered in Riyadh, blasted the military presence of Iran and its proxies in their country and asked them to leave.

More than 140 participants in the two-day conference also reiterated that they do not see a role for Bashar al-Assad in an interim period under any U.N. sponsored peace arrangement.

Some observers believed that mainstream opposition groups might soften their position on Assad, given his military successes in the past year. But in a communique, they demanded that the Syrian strongman and his clique leave power at the beginning of any peace process.

The communique also said that Iran-backed militias sowed "terrorism and sectarian strife" between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.

In contrast, there was little criticism of Russia by the opposition, which will elect a body on Friday to represent it in U.N. sponsored peace talks and other possible initiatives.

Russia announced on Thursday that it will undertake a major pull-out from Syria, "When we complete our tasks, military tasks, the Chief of General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov announced.

"We will leave the Center for Reconciliation, our two military bases (in Tartus and Hmeimim) and several necessary structures to maintain the state which has developed at this time," Gerasimov added.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP
Chinese paper-cutting is one of the oldest handicrafts in China. It varies from animals and plants to the vivid scenes of our everyday lives.

Guangling paper-cutting, in northern China's Shanxi province, is one of the country's most renowned craftsmanships, and thanks to the efforts of Zhang Duotang, a descendant of its founder, the concept has now developed into a lucrative industry.

Zhang Duotang is the fourth generation of the founder of Guangling paper-cutting. Now 62 years old, he began to learn this skill at the age of eight.

The Guangling paper-cutting has been listed in the catalog of nationally protected intangible cultural heritage.

With bright colors, vivid models, delicate lines, dynamic forms of expression and skillful engraving, it is regarded as a "Unique Chinese Folk Art" and was added to the list of World Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2009.

There are 38 procedures involved in making paper cuts - it's a pure handicraft that cannot be replaced by modern machines.

But as more and more young people are leaving Guangling to find work, it's an art that is slowly dying.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.24

By Gulgiz Muradova  Trend:

Cooperation with Azerbaijan is among the priorities of the European Union, EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said.

Hahn made the remarks when answering the question of "Agenzia Nova", exclusively for Trend, on the sidelines of the Eastern Partnership Summit running in Brussels Nov.24.

"Inter-connectivity is a priority area within the Eastern Partnership and therefore among the priorities of the European Union's cooperation with Azerbaijan," he said.

Asked about the negotiations on the new agreement between the EU and Azerbaijan, he noted that negotiations are still ongoing.

"We are definitely making progress and hope to reach an agreement, of which both the European Union and Azerbaijan will benefit in the near future", he added.

Hahn stressed that this new agreement will broaden and deepen the scope of the relations, "based on shared fundamental values and principles, and taking into account the new global, political and economic interests we share and challenges face together."

"We want to upgrade our relationship and develop its full potential through a new bilateral agreement," said Hahn.

Reminding his visit to Baku in June 2017, Hahn stressed that he had an excellent opportunity to exchange on issues related to transport and interconnection.

"In the context of the Eastern Partnership we work together, for instance, to expand the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline. Progress is well on track and I believe this is one of the many examples that show how, through the Eastern Partnership, citizens in all Partner Countries and the European Union benefit from our shared efforts in the area of inter-connectivity," he concluded.

The European Council adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan in November 2016.

The new agreement should replace the 1996 partnership and cooperation agreement and should better take account of the shared objectives and challenges the EU and Azerbaijan face today.



The agreement will follow the principles endorsed in the 2015 review of the European Neighborhood Policy and offer a renewed basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @GulgizD
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

Azerbaijan has the right to defend itself like all other states, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministrys Spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev said in his interview with Portugals Diario de noticias Mundo news portal, titled Armenia is the only mono-ethnic state in the world, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told Trend Nov. 24.

Armenia used force to carry out ethnic cleansing in the occupied Azerbaijani territories and more than one million Azerbaijanis were expelled from the lands, noted Hajiyev.

He said that due to the occupation of Azerbaijani territories and the illegal existence of the Armenian armed forces in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, ceasefire is violated every day and this leads to human casualties.

Therefore, first of all, the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan should be ensured. First of all, the occupation fact should be abandoned and the Armenian troops must be unconditionally withdrawn from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, added the official.

Hajiyev said that first of all, Armenia should abandon its occupation policy.

He went on to say that four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council demand unconditional and complete withdrawal of Armenian occupation forces from Azerbaijani territories.

The occupation must be abandoned and the return of internally displaced persons to their lands should be ensured. According to international law, internationally recognized borders of states can not be changed forcefully. Armenia must also understand that these feudal rules are unacceptable in the 21st century, noted the Azerbaijani official.

Armenia occupied the territory of another country and carried out ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani population in the occupied lands, destroyed civilian property, and then presented its results as self-determination, he added. If the Armenian troops leave the occupied Azerbaijani territories, Azerbaijan may view granting Nagorno-Karabakh with a status of high autonomy within its borders.

I would recommend you to only look at secondary school textbooks in Armenia, said Hajiyev responding to the question that There is such an opinion in Armenia that the hatred of the Azerbaijani side is very great. How would you comment on this?

You will see the extreme manifestations of xenophobia and hatred there, added Hajiyev. Armenia is the only mono-ethnic state in the world, because ethnic cleansing has been carried out regularly there. 300,000 Azerbaijanis have been subjected to ethnic cleansing.

Two years ago, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said that Armenians and Azerbaijanis are ethnically incompatible. This is a statement of a nature of racial discrimination, noted Hajiyev.

Answering the journalists question on Azerbaijans possible returning Nagorno-Karabakh by force, Hajiyev said that there are still ways for solving the conflict by peaceful means.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

Despite the announcement of the ceasefire in 1994, unfortunately, Azerbaijan continued to record the facts of killing of Azerbaijani children by Armenians, and since that period until now, 34 children became victims of the Armenian terror, 14 of whom died and 20 were wounded, Hijran Huseynova, chairman of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, said Nov. 24.

Huseynova noted that 175 children were killed, and hundreds of children were wounded during this military conflict.

During the conflict, Azerbaijan was able to release 214 children from captivity and hostages, 66 children went missing, and 29 children are still being kept as hostages, she said.

The protection of childrens rights has always been a priority for the Azerbaijani state, even in the most difficult years of restoration of its independence.

One of the first international documents, which Azerbaijan joined, was the Convention on the Rights of the Child, added the committee chairman.

Using the opportunities provided by this document, the Azerbaijani government was able to inform the international community about the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and about 300,000 children, who became refugees and internally displaced persons, said Huseynova.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

About 250 Azerbaijanis have held a protest rally in front of the building of the European Parliament in Brussels, Azerbaijans State Committee on Work with Diaspora told Trend.

The rally was organized by the Congress of European Azerbaijanis.

The main purpose of the rally was to convey to MEPs the concern of Azerbaijanis living in Europe over the long-standing Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Holding Azerbaijani flags, protesters strongly condemned the genocide acts and terrorist acts committed against Azerbaijanis by Armenia and called for the liberation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands occupied by Armenia.

At the end of the two-hour protest rally, participants adopted a statement urging the EU and the entire world community to give a fair assessment to this problem in order to ensure the return of Azerbaijanis to their native lands and the liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

The statement stresses that Armenias aggressive policy caused killing of tens of thousands of people and at the same time, poses a threat to peace and stability in the region.

Representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora organizations in Europe expressed deep concern about the activities of Armenia, as well as the Armenian diaspora and lobby which inspire ethnic hostility and ethnic hatred, and called on world countries to take adequate steps against such initiatives.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.24

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

Conflicts continue to prevent development and create hardships in Eastern Partnership countries, said President of the European Council Donald Tusk during the press conference following the Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels.

Tusk noted that the participants agreed on new economic and political objectives to be reached by 2020.

We want to enhance Eastern Partnership in a number of specific areas, such small and medium enterprises, digital economy and infrastructure projects, he added.

Regarding the joint declaration adopted during the summit, Tusk said he would prefer the wording of the declaration were more ambitious.

Today we adopted a joint declaration which is as always a compromise. I would prefer the wording of the declaration were more ambitious. But we all decided that demonstration of our unity is the most important objective, he added.

The 5th Eastern Partnership summit was held in Brussels on November 24.

The summit discussed how to further strengthen cooperation in the four priority areas agreed in Riga: stronger economy - economic development and better market opportunities; stronger governance - strengthening of institutions and good governance; stronger connectivity - enhancing interconnections, notably in the areas of transport and energy; stronger society - increasing mobility and contacts between people.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.24

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The Eastern Partnership program is a priority for the whole European Union, said Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas on the sidelines of the 5th Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels Nov.24.

I think today we could see that the Eastern Partnership is now coming to the heart of Europe. I hope that today we could answer the question how we can make the Eastern Partnership even stronger for the people in six participating countries and in EU. We are stronger and better together, he said. I think one thing is important and sure that the Eastern Partnership is a priority for the whole EU.

The 5th Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit kicked off in Brussels on 24 November.

Heads of state or government from the EU member states and the six Eastern Partnership countries (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia) will look forward to future cooperation.

They will also take stock of what has been achieved since the last summit in Riga in 2015, focusing on the tangible benefits delivered to the citizens of the six Eastern Partnership countries.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

A delegation led by Assistant of Azerbaijan's First Vice President, Executive Director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Anar Alakbarov discussed prospects of cooperation with a number of organizations in Chinas capital, Beijing.

Alakbarov met with President of the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries Li Xiaolin and Vice President of the Association Song Jingwu on November 23.

Directions of activity of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and issues of future cooperation were discussed at the meeting.

Alakbarov noted that First Vice President of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva attaches special importance to bilateral cooperation with the Peoples Republic of China.

It was noted that the Heydar Aliyev Foundation is ready to support the cooperation with the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries for further expansion of close friendly relations.

The Azerbaijani official invited Li Xiaolin to Azerbaijan to discuss future projects.

Li Xiaolin, for her part, spoke about the comprehensive opportunities for expanding relations with Azerbaijan. She said she would be happy to visit Azerbaijan.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to China Akram Zeynalli, speaking at the meeting about the rapid development of the two countries and the future realization of joint cooperation in all spheres, noted that the projects envisaged by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation will serve an even closer rapprochement of the countries and peoples. It was noted that the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries have wide opportunities in this direction.

A memorandum on friendship and cooperation was signed during the meeting by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

Then the Azerbaijani delegation became acquainted with the Museum of the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

On the same day, Executive Director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Anar Alakbarov met with Vice Chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Wang Jinzhen.

During the talks, the presentation of the Baku Expo 2025 took place, as well as discussions were held in connection with the Beijing Expo 2019 horticulture exhibition.

Wang Jinzhen expressed happiness with the presentation of the Baku Expo 2025 and the decision by Azerbaijan to participate in the Beijing Expo 2019.

The parties also reached an agreement to continue the discussions on the Beijing Expo 2019 and the candidacy of Baku for Expo 2025.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

Officials of Air Force of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Air Force of the Republic of Turkey held staff talks in Baku on Nov. 24, said the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

During the meeting held with participation of experts, an exchange of views was held on the current state and prospects for military and military education cooperation, improvement of joint plans, and other issues.

The guests from Turkey also visited the military units of the Azerbaijani Air Force.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and Head of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev discussed the current issues of the Russia-Azerbaijan security cooperation.

The parties signed a plan of cooperation for regular exchange of information and consultations at the level of security councils, law enforcement and special service experts of the two countries.

Patrushev and his Belarus and Uzbek counterparts, Stansilav Zas and Viktor Mahmudov, also signed cooperation plans.

Secretary of Moldovas Supreme Security Council Artur Gumenyuk and Nikolai Patrushev signed a protocol on cooperation between the security councils of the two countries.

During a meeting with the Secretary of the Security Council of Tajikistan Abdurahim Qahhorov, the sides discussed interaction between the security forces and special services of the two countries.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has expressed condolences to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

I was deeply saddened by heavy casualties caused by an armed attack targeting Al Rawdah mosque, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter. We are extremely outraged by this horrifying terrorist attack against civilians, and deem it necessary and crucial to fight against terrorism in all its manifestations in the severest, resolute and consistent manner.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died and the people of Egypt, and wish those injured the soonest possible recovery.
Song Changhong puts together a kite in her studio in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province, Nov 20, 2017. [Photo/IC]

Song Changhong is the master of a kite-making craft which traces its roots back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

Instead of painting the whole paper, she always leaves a blank space at both ends of the kite wings and creates a small piece of traditional Chinese painting.

It is said that Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) created this style. After generations of preservation, this royal kite-making craft with sophisticated production procedures still attracts customers.

"I remember people lining up in front of my house just to buy a kite from my father," she said. "Now I want to introduce this craft to more art lovers and to the world."
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemns terrorist attack in Egypt.

"We strongly condemn terror attack in Mosque in Sinai and convey our heartfelt condolences to the families of victims and to Egypt'ian people. Azerbaijan, as a country suffering from terrorism condemns all forms and manifestations of terrorism," Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry tweeted.

At least 235 people were killed and 109 injured in a terror attack on a mosque in Egypts North Sinai region on Friday.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

Rector of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Elmar Gasimov met with a delegation of China Minsheng Investment Group (CMIG), a leading international private investment company.

The meeting, which was held at BHOS, gathered CMIG Vice President Ma Shaoyin, President and Vice President of one of CMIG subsidiary companies Gu Minchi and Bay Baolin, and head of departments of the company.

Having welcomed the guests, the rector Elmar Gasimov informed them about main achievements and activities of the Higher School. Having said that more attention is paid now to usage of alternative sources of energy in Azerbaijan, he told that BHOS also participates in conducting research work in this field.

Vice President of CMIG company Ma Shaoyin thanked the rector and told about CMIG development and activities. He also spoke about latest achievements in usage of alternative energy sources and renewable energy resources in China. The Vice President expressed interest to cooperation with BHOS in this sphere and said that there are opportunities to develop partnership ties between the Higher School and leading Chinese universities in many fields including student exchange programs.

The Chinese delegation members emphasized that Azerbaijan occupies an important place in the company strategy of development international relations. Representatives of CMIG management expressed their willingness to provide financial support to BHOS projects on usage of new energy sources and render assistance in their implementation.

Then the guests were given a tour around the Higher School campus and were acquainted with laboratories and conditions created there for conducting research work at the campus.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is ready to support the improvement of business sphere in Azerbaijan, EBRD Vice President of Banking Alain Pilloux said.

Pilloux made the remarks during a meeting with Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev in Baku, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy said.

Pilloux also stressed the wide opportunities for cooperation in bank financing, support for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as renewable energy sources.

In his turn, Mustafayev stressed the importance of EBRDs support for infrastructure projects.

The Azerbaijani minister added that the Ganja-Gazakh-Georgian Border, Bahramtepe-Bilasuvar highways are planned to be constructed through the EBRDs financial support.

Mustafayev added that Azerbaijans economic potential is planned to be presented in EBRD's main office.

EBRD has been cooperating with Azerbaijan since 1992. During this period, the bank invested about $2.8 billion in the country's economy.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

The first phase of construction of the Baku International Sea Trade Port in the Alyat settlement will be completed by the middle of 2018, Vahid Aliyev, deputy director of the port, told Trend.

"Construction work within the first phase will be completed in the second or third quarter of the next year, after which the first phase of the port will be fully commissioned," he noted. "Thereby, the cargo traffic and harbor capacity will be increased."

Once the first phase ends, the Baku International Sea Trade Port will be able to receive up to 10-11 million tons of cargo and process 50,000 containers per year.

The second phase envisages the construction of additional three cargo berths, and the third one - the construction of additional two cargo berths.



In the second phase, the ports cargo transhipment capacity will reach 17 million tons of cargo, and 150,000 containers, and once the third phase ends this figure will be 25 million tons of cargo and one million containers.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Nigar Guliyeva  Trend:

The aviation authorities of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have agreed on increasing flights between the two countries, the press service of the Civil Aviation Committee of the Investments and Development Ministry of Kazakhstan reported.

Following the negotiations between the Civil Aviation Committee and the aviation administration of Uzbekistan, as well as airlines of the two countries, agreements were reached to increase the number of flights.

Thus, the Kazakhstan airline Air Astana plans to increase the number of flights to Uzbekistan starting December 2017 from 6 to 7 flights a week on the route Almaty-Tashkent and from 3 to 4 flights a week on the route Astana-Tashkent.



In turn, "Uzbekistan Airlines" plans to increase the number of flights to Kazakhstan from 6 to 7 flights a week on the route Tashkent - Almaty from December 2017, and from 3 to 4 flights a week on the route Tashkent-Astana from 4 March 2018.



Thus, the total number of flights between the countries will be 22 flights per week, so passengers can fly to Tashkent from Almaty twice a day and on a daily basis from Astana.



In the future, it is planned to open flights to Samarkand, Bukhara and Urgench.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

The EU and Azerbaijan are implementing another statistics project, EU ambassador to Azerbaijan Kestutis Jankauskas told reporters in Baku Nov. 24.

The ambassador, participating in the event dedicated to the completion of the twinning project "Support to the State Statistical Committee in Modernization of the National Statistics System of the Republic of Azerbaijan in line with EU Standards", stressed that the new project is being worked out.

Touching upon the completed twinning project, Jankauskas stressed that this project allowed to bring the national statistics system of Azerbaijan in line with European standards.

The EU is ready and pleased to support Azerbaijan in achieving a reliable, comprehensive statistics system to diversify economy and implement road maps, Jankauskas said.

The EU allocated 1.2 million euros for the improvement of the national statistics system of Azerbaijan within the twinning project.

The project consisted of five components, namely, the improvement of management of statistics data and dissemination of statistics information through a geographic information system, as well as statistics data on income and living standards, etc.

The main partners of the project were Germanys Federal Statistical Office and Bulgarias National Statistical Institute. Moreover, the project was supported by the Netherlands, Slovenia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Croatia.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

The statistics system of Azerbaijan fully complies with international standards, Tahir Budagov, chairman of the State Statistics Committee, told reporters in Baku on Nov. 24.

This is also evidenced by the report on global assessment of the national statistics system of Azerbaijan, conducted by the European Statistical Bureau (Eurostat), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), said Budagov.

He noted that 35 highly qualified experts were involved in the projects implementation.

Moreover, 64 specialists of the State Statistics Committee took part in the project. International experts paid 37 visits to Azerbaijan, and meanwhile, local specialists participated in 14 foreign trainings, said Budagov.

An event dedicated to the completion of the twinning project Support to the State Statistical Committee in Modernisation of the National Statistics System of the Republic of Azerbaijan in line with European standards was held in Baku on Nov. 24.

The European Union allocated 1.2 million euros for the improvement of the national statistical system of Azerbaijan.

The Federal Statistical Office of Germany and the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria were main partners of the project. Moreover, the project was supported by the Netherlands, Slovenia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Croatia.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

The EU has invested $21 billion in the Azerbaijani economy over the past 10 years, Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev said.

Mustafayev made the remarks at an event in Baku Nov. 24 dedicated to the completion of the twinning project entitled "Support to the State Statistical Committee in Modernization of the National Statistics System of the Republic of Azerbaijan in line with EU Standards".

"Thus, 24 percent accounted for investments made by the EU countries, he said. At present, more than 1,400 European companies operate in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has signed a memorandum on strategic partnership with eight EU countries."

The minister also stressed that the EU is the main trade partner of Azerbaijan.

"The EU share in the total trade turnover of Azerbaijan amounted to 35 percent in 2016, the minister said. Taking into account the results of this year, this figure has not decreased and remained at the level of 35 percent."

According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the EU countries amounted to $5.67 billion for 10 months of 2017, almost $4.2 billion of that amount accounted for the export of Azerbaijani products to the EU countries.
Details added (first version posted on 11:31)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

The statistics system of Azerbaijan fully complies with international standards, Tahir Budagov, chairman of the State Statistics Committee, told reporters in Baku on Nov. 24.

This is also evidenced by the report on global assessment of the national statistics system of Azerbaijan, conducted by the European Statistical Bureau (Eurostat), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), said Budagov.

He noted that 35 highly qualified experts were involved in the projects implementation.

Moreover, 64 specialists of the State Statistics Committee took part in the project. International experts paid 37 visits to Azerbaijan, and meanwhile, local specialists participated in 14 foreign trainings, said Budagov.

An event dedicated to the completion of the twinning project Support to the State Statistical Committee in Modernisation of the National Statistics System of the Republic of Azerbaijan in line with European standards was held in Baku on Nov. 24.

The European Union allocated 1.2 million euros for the improvement of the national statistical system of Azerbaijan.

The Federal Statistical Office of Germany and the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria were main partners of the project. Moreover, the project was supported by the Netherlands, Slovenia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Croatia.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

S&P Global Ratings has revised its outlook on Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Co. (JSC) to positive from stable, affirming the 'BB' long-term corporate credit rating.

At the same time, we affirmed our 'BB' issue rating on KEGOC's senior unsecured bank loan from the European Bank For Reconstruction And Development (EBRD), S&P reported.

The outlook revision reflects organizations view that KEGOC's credit ratios could strengthen in the next 12 months, owing to the favorable tariffs set for 2016-2020 and efficient cost management.

We expect the company will continue generating stable operating cash flows that suffice for gradual debt repayment. We forecast funds from operations (FFO) to debt will increase to more than 30 percent in 2017 and to 33-35 percent in 2018, from about 26 percent in 2016.

S&P also stressed that the appetite for dividends of KEGOC's parent, 100 percent state-owned national welfare fund Samruk-Kazyna, is likely to increase to up to 100 percent of net income, in line with the existing dividend policy, compared with moderate 40 percent payouts on average in the past.

This, together with still-significant capital expenditure (capex) needs, will lead to negative discretionary cash flow in the next few years, according to S&P.

The positive outlook on KEGOC reflects the increased likelihood that KEGOC can sustainably exceed our upgrade thresholds through solid performance and continued debt reduction. We think the current favorable tariffs can support KEGOC's cash flow generation and enable the company to gradually reduce its debt.
16+1 summit in Budapest aims to grow trade, investment between China and Central and Eastern Europe

The process of building links between China and Central and Eastern European countries is kicking into high gear due to efforts of top leaders of the region and China. During a five-day trip to Budapest, Hungary, and Sochi, Russia, starting on Nov 26, Premier Li Keqiang will attend the sixth meeting of heads of government of China and the 16 CEE countries in Budapest.

China expects to deepen mutual trust, further promote trade liberalization, facilitate investment and upgrade the 16+1 mechanism for cooperation between China and the 16 European nations during the China-CEE meeting, said Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Chao at a news briefing.

This effort ties in with the broader Belt and Road vision, laid out by President Xi Jinping, which will link Eurasia with a network of infrastructure and trade. Wang said China is willing, together with the CEE countries, to make 16+1 cooperation an important support for the Belt and Road Initiative.

The meeting will also further advance a multiyear process of deepening relations between China and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. President Xi and Premier Li have made repeated trips to the region since 2014. And, in 2012, the China-CEE Secretariat was established, linking China with the 16 CEE countries.

CEE leaders have also worked to build the relationship. For example, during Xi's visit to Poland in June 2016, Polish President Andrzej Duda said, "Poland is willing to actively take part in the Belt and Road Initiative and deepen cooperation with China in such fields as infrastructure, railroads, logistics and transportation."

In a visit to Beijing earlier that year, Duda pledged to help boost Europe-China ties and expressed his country's willingness to dovetail its development strategies with those of China.

Li Chenggang, assistant minister of commerce, says infrastructure and connectivity will remain as highlights of China-CEE cooperation, with the planned China-Europe Land-Sea Express Route and the Hungary-Serbia railway being priority projects.

China's trade with Central and Eastern European countries almost doubled from $32 billion (27.2 billion euros; 24.2 billion) in 2009 to $60 billion in 2014, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce and the National Bureau of Statistics. As recently as 2003, it was less than $1 billion. Similarly, Chinese investment in CEE manufacturing and infrastructure has soared from $400 million in 2009 to over $3 billion in 2016.

Snowball effect

Still, trade between China and CEE is in its early stages, now totaling only 8 percent of total China-Europe trade, the data shows. And CEE countries still receive only about 2 percent of total Chinese foreign investment.

Furthermore, three-quarters of all the trade and investment so far has been with the four northern CEE countries of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. A key point of discussion at the upcoming 16+1 summit in Budapest is expected to be how to encourage much-needed investment into the less-developed countries in the Balkans.

Until recently, few Chinese businesses had much experience operating in CEE countries. But the recent growth in business and government-to-government interactions has led to a snowball effect, with the growth of Chinese business making it easier for additional Chinese companies to make investments in the region.

Huang Dawen, vice-general manager of Sichuan Changhong Electric Co, which has a television production plant in Nymburk, Czech Republic, says: "The Belt and Road Initiative is very important because it enables more and more Chinese companies to operate in the region. There are more companies with whom we can share experiences."

Changhong extensively uses the new Belt and Road-promoted rail lines from China to Europe. "The railway from Chengdu (in Southwest China's Sichuan province) to Poland was extended to the Czech Republic this September. Now it comes directly to Prague," says Huang. "This can reduce our transportation costs and delivery time. This is very useful for us and, of course, for other Chinese and European companies."

He adds that the Belt and Road Initiative and the 16+1 process have led to more support from countries in Central and Eastern Europe. "The governments in CEE countries want Chinese investment. They give us human resources support, policy support, help with local bank financing."

"It is easier than other places. For example, if we invest in Western Europe or the US, we cannot get support from the local government. But the Eastern European governments can support us. They can give us some suggestions because we don't know all about the local culture and local resources. That is why in the future we will choose the Eastern European countries for investment," Huang says.

Wu Changqi, professor of strategic management at the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, says Chinese companies are learning how to do business in the region. "CEE countries can be favorable locations, but, of course, when Chinese companies try to develop in this area, they also face competition, from Germany and other developed European countries. This area requires the Chinese companies to be prepared."

Wu says that Chinese infrastructure companies are now world leaders, and large State-owned companies have resources to devote to the region, but more emphasis needs to be placed on attracting dynamic small and medium-sized Chinese companies.

"Private companies are more versatile. They are typically less visible - not doing big megaprojects. The bigger private companies, such as Huawei, already consider the CEE to be a very important area. But there are many entrepreneurial private companies that need to learn more. They need to gain more international experience. Currently, the barriers to them going into CEE are quite high. The countries should put more effort into promoting entrepreneurial private companies. This can facilitate trade for the 16+1."

BYD, China's biggest maker of electric vehicles, owns a factory for making electric buses in Komarom, Hungary.

Isbrand Ho, BYD's managing director for Europe, says of the decision to locate there: "After the Paris climate change conference in 2015, more and more operators were moving to electric buses. So after looking at logistics, support from the government, location and uptime, we realized that Komarom was the ideal location to build our first factory in Europe."

He says the Belt and Road Initiative and 16+1 are a plus for BYD. "This also stimulates a lot of governmental support for Chinese businesses being able to set up our facilities and investment in the CEE countries - Chinese government support on one hand, but also local government support. "For example, the national development bank is very much aware of all the activities of the 16+1 and they are aware of our facilities. Because of our being there in the 16+1 countries, they are very interested in working together with us to stimulate some of these national projects.

"I think the fact that the Chinese government and the Hungarian government are creating a very warm atmosphere helps us with developing a close relationship with the government of Hungary as well as with the local authorities in Komarom. They are very much aware of the Chinese government's movements. Being a Chinese company, they are more than willing to bend over backward for us," he says.

Balkans lagging

Ravik Mima, a former adviser to Albania's minister of economic development, tourism, trade and entrepreneurship who is now studying for a PhD at Peking University, says the CEE countries, especially the less-developed countries in the Balkans, need to use the 16+1 process as a venue for cooperation among themselves.

Mima, who, as a member of the Albanian delegation, attended the 2016 16+1 ministerial meeting in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, says: "You can see that 16+1 is a signature of Xi Jinping. It's a priority for him. I see in the last few months that the vice-ministers of each country have been designated as the national coordinators of the Belt and Road Initiative."

Despite this increased attention, Mima says all the countries of the region need to take a more proactive and coordinated approach. "I don't think people have a good understanding of how important this could be for countries along the Belt and Road.

"The Balkans need to leave behind the stories of competition between each other," he says. "This is minimizing the potential. We do have free trade agreements, but if you see your bordering countries as competition, that is a very closed mindset. The world is too big for small countries to be interesting. We need to understand that. Unless we see southeastern Europe as a common market with a common target, we will not reap those benefits."

Valbona Zeneli, who is originally from Albania and is now a professor and Black Sea and Eurasia director at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, makes a similar argument. "In Central and Eastern Europe, Chinese investments have gone from $400 million in 2009 to $3 billion in 2016. However, 95 percent of these investments are going to only six countries - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania."

She says that southeastern European countries are short of infrastructure and investment. "All the Balkans, including EU member Croatia, attract less than 0.9 percent of global foreign direct investment. This is true even for such a strategic region so close to the EU, which is one of the main outward investors. Of course, they are in need of FDI."

However, she worries about the ability of these countries to manage and absorb inflows: "Most of this money is concessional lending. The governments have to pay this money back. Some of the countries have sovereign debt of 70 to 80 percent of GDP. They are very debt-burdened countries.

"Chinese infrastructure investment could be a win-win if the governments have resilient institutions. What I'm concerned about is the countries where institutions are still weak. You have to look at short-, medium-and long term effects of the spillover effects of the projects," she says.

She also notes that there is some EU concern about Chinese investments. For example, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called for a new EU framework for investment screening. He called for limitations on foreign state-owned enterprises' purchases of harbors, energy infrastructure or defense technology.

Leaders push ties

At the 2016 summit in Riga, Latvia, Premier Li Keqiang emphasized that the 16+1 process is a positive factor for world peace and development, is part of and a beneficial supplement to China-EU cooperation, and is conducive to advancing China-EU partnerships.

At that summit, Li announced that China would establish an $11 billion investment fund, to be operated by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, to finance projects in the region. The bank said that the fund will operate under market business principles and will seek to raise a total of 50 billion euros ($58.8 billion; 44.4 billion) of investable capital.

During President Xi Jinping's visit to Prague in March 2016, 30 new deals were announced, potentially worth $9.8 billion. And in a visit to Poland and Serbia, Xi signed 40 bilateral agreements related to construction, energy and finance. Among 22 agreements signed with Serbia were agreements to build a highway in Belgrade and to finance a waste-to-energy plant. Last year, plans for a Chinese company to build the rail line between Budapest, Hungary, and Belgrade, Serbia, were announced. China has signed comprehensive strategic partnerships with both Hungary and Serbia.

While attending the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in May, then Serbian premier (and now President) Aleksandr Vucic said: "Serbia has benefited enormously from participating in the forum. Key projects of the Belt and Road initiative have yielded positive results."

He added: "Serbia firmly believes China's economic development will benefit other countries. Serbia is willing to enhance bilateral cooperation in industrial capacity, infrastructure and agriculture, and actively advance the 16+1 cooperation."

New trade and investment is especially welcome in a region short of capital and infrastructure. President Milos Zeman of the Czech Republic said, "The Belt and Road Initiative brought up by President Xi Jinping is a grand proposition that will connect and benefit the countries along the routes."

davidblair@chinadaily.com.cn

Employees at the television factory of Sichuan Changhong Electric Co Ltd in Nymburk, Czech Republic. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 11/24/2017 page1)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

A lot of work should be carried out in Azerbaijan to organize occupational safety, Salim Muslumov, the countrys minister of labor and social protection of population, told reporters in Baku Nov. 24.

In particular, it is necessary to create an occupational safety fund in Azerbaijan, he added.

We must step up our work in this direction, Muslumov said. The work shouldnt be limited to inspections after workplace accidents. It is necessary to take preventive measures to reduce the number of workplace accidents.

The minister noted that the 2017 statistics show a significant reduction in the number of victims of workplace accidents.

However, creating the fund and holding educational activities at the funds expense, and sometimes providing practical assistance to employers is a necessity, and we are working on this, Muslumov said.
Details added (first version posted on 11:49)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

The new areas of further cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan will be determined during the Eastern Partnership Summit, EU ambassador to Azerbaijan Kestutis Jankauskas said.

Jankauskas made the remarks at an event in Baku Nov. 24 dedicated to the completion of the twinning project entitled "Support to the State Statistical Committee in Modernization of the National Statistics System of the Republic of Azerbaijan in line with EU Standards".

"The Eastern Partnership Summit has kicked off in Brussels today, he said. The events that have occurred over the past two years will be discussed within the summit. Moreover, the current problems will be touched upon and further areas of cooperation will be determined there.

Touching upon the ongoing negotiations on a comprehensive agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU, the ambassador added that the negotiations will continue following the summit.

"Azerbaijan and the EU will start to cooperate in new spheres, which will further strengthen the ties between us and will be useful for both sides," he said.

The 5th Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit kicked off in Brussels on November 24.

The heads of state and government of the EU member-states and six Eastern Partnership countries (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia) will discuss further cooperation.

They will also sum up the results achieved following the Riga Summit in 2015. At the same time, special attention will be paid to the significant benefits obtained by the citizens of six Eastern Partnership countries.

EU outlined its approach to the Eastern Partnership as result-oriented. In this regard, the EU outlined 20 key tasks that should be implemented by 2020.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

Currently, more than 200 companies with German capital operate in Azerbaijan, Samir Valiyev, head of the Azerbaijani Economy Ministrys office, said.

Valiyev made the remarks at the 7th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Germany high-level working group in Berlin Nov. 24, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy said.

Valiyev also said that up till now, Germany invested $496.9 million in Azerbaijan's fixed capital.

He added that German companies are also actively participating as contractors in the implementation of projects in Azerbaijan.

Valiyev said that Azerbaijani entrepreneurs have participated in two exhibitions in Germany, namely, ProWein and Anuga, this year.

He said that the mutual trade turnover will increase due to the contracts signed within the exhibitions.

The next meeting of the high-level working group will be held in Baku in autumn 2018.

According to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Germany amounted to $668.46 million for 10 months of 2017.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

It is necessary to adopt a law on protection of creditors rights in Azerbaijan, Zakir Nuriyev, chairman of the countrys Banks Association (ABA), said Nov. 24 at the 2nd banking forum in Baku.

Nuriyev noted that this is exactly the law the development of which the banking sector expects from the Financial Market Supervisory Authority of Azerbaijan (FIMSA).

Until such law is adopted, we will not be able to rapidly develop credit market and provide the necessary financing of the economy, he said.

Nuriyev added that the rights of creditors should be protected in the same way as the rights of borrowers.

He reminded that at present, banks are required to write off credit debts [formed as a result of two devaluations of Azerbaijani manat in February and December 2015].

However, this approach is wrong, as it may create a precedent in the future, when bank customers will not repay debts, hoping that they will be written off again, he said.

This is unfair to diligent borrowers, who regularly repay their debts, he added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

Kazakhstan needs investments worth 1.3 trillion tenge to provide its villages with drinking water. One of the potential investors of the countrys water projects is Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Recently, we discussed the possibility of launching a new project with the government of Kazakhstan to provide drinking water to the country's villages . We expect that due to this project, the current volume of water supply in rural areas of the country will increase more than fourfold, said Giovanni Capannelli the Director of the Representative office of the Asian Development Bank in Kazakhstan, Kazakh media outlets reported.

He added that ADB is briefed that Kazakhstan currently needs 1.3 trillion tenge for the implementation of the water projects, and that the bank is ready to consider supporting this project, taking into account Kazakhstan's need to find a source of financing outside the budget.

ADB can provide concessional funds within sovereign borrowing on attractive terms, according to Capannelli.

Taking into account the scale of investments and the impact of tariff increases, we suggest that the country's leadership considers a financing option with low costs and long-term benefits, said Capannelli.

ADB has been working in Kazakhstan since 1994. In September 2016, ADB presented a new country partnership strategy with Kazakhstan. According to this strategy, ADB plans to invest about 1 trillion tenge by 2021 in agriculture, water, energy, rural and urban development, transport, health, education and financing of small and medium of enterprises.

(Exchange rate on 24.11.2017: $1  330 tenge)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.24

By Gulgiz Muradova - Trend:

The European Union has encouraged the opening visa liberalisation dialogue with Azerbaijan.

The EU may open a Visa Liberalisation Dialogue with Azerbaijan, provided that conditions for a well-managed and secure mobility are in place, including the effective implementation of Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements between the Parties, reads a declaration adopted following the Eastern Partnership Summit held in Brussels Nov.24.

"Support will continue to be provided to the implementation of the existing Mobility Partnerships i.a. with a view to improved migration management in partner countries," reads the declaration.

Implementing Integrated Border Management through a modernised network of border crossing points among the partner countries and between them and the EU Member States will facilitate mobility, while increasing security, and contribute to enhanced trade flows, the document underlines.

In November 2013, Azerbaijan signed an agreement on the simplification of the visa regime with the European Union. The agreement provides for easing visa formalities for Baku with the EU countries, mainly for Azerbaijani businessmen, students, scientists and cultural workers, as well as citizens travelling for medical treatment in the EU.

The agreement on visa facilitation came into force on Sept. 1, 2014.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.24

By Nigar Guliyeva -Trend:

Azerbaijan and the European Union have inked the indicative maps of the Trans-European transport network, Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend.

The document was undersigned by Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Elmar Mammadyarov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan in Brussels Nov.24.

The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) is a network which comprises roads, railway lines, inland waterways, inland and maritime ports, airports and rail-road terminals throughout the EU Member States.

This characteristic is a key factor for the network's efficient, safe and secure operation, using seamless transport chains for passengers and freight. It builds on existing and planned infrastructure in these States which has been identified on the basis of a single methodology and which has to comply with common requirements/standards.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.24

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Around 480 kilometers of 550 kilometers-long route of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in Greece have been cleared and more than 340 km of the pipeline have been placed inside the trenches.

The remarks were made during the meeting held at Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy.

During the meeting, TAP AG consortium representatives said that the project in Greece is progressing according to the schedule.

The rehabilitation process has begun in more than 240 km of the pipeline to allow the land to be returned to its legitimate owners in its original condition, according to the consortium representatives.

Further, meeting participants emphasized the strategic importance of the project for Greece, as it will enhance the countrys role in the energy map of Southeastern Europe.

TAP is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.

The pipeline will connect to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italys south.

TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers).

TAPs shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).

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Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

By Nigar Guliyeva  Trend:

In Uzbekistan, residents of remote districts and towns, where there is no centralized gas supply, will receive gas cylinders, the Uzbek media reported.

Uztransgaz JSC, a structural subdivision of Uzbekneftegaz NHC, controlling gas transportation and supply in Uzbekistan, promised to fully provide the countrys population with domestic gas cylinders before December 1.

To date, consumers in Uzbekistan have already received over 670,000 of the planned 750,000 gas cylinders.

We are actively working to develop the infrastructure for providing the population with liquefied gas, Akmal Eshonkulov, department head at Uztransgaz JSC, said. Forty service centers for storing and selling domestic gas cylinders have been built, 40 special vehicles for their transportation have been bought, and five gas filling stations have been commissioned.

Eshonkulov added that cylinders with liquefied gas have already been delivered to 2.7 million consumers.

By the end of the year, consumers will additionally receive more than 376,000 tons of liquefied gas, which is 125,000 tons more than last year, he said.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Nov. 24

By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:

Investments worth 159.9 billion Turkmen manats will be allocated to the oil and gas sector of Turkmenistan as part of the program of the social and economic development in 2018-2024, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported.

Along with increasing oil and gas production and export, and expansion of geological exploration to strengthen the industrys crude sources, priority will be given to technical and technological re-equipment of energy sector facilities, creation of modern infrastructure, and science-intensive facilities producing a wide range of oil and gas chemical products, the report said.

In general, all this is designed to ensure the most effective use of natural resources for sustainable economic growth, strengthening of energy independence and security of Turkmenistan, its position in the global energy markets, the report noted.

It is also noted that international cooperation in energy is an important direction of economic strategy of Turkmenistan, which ranks fourth in the world for proven natural gas reserves.

(3.5 Turkmen manats = $1 on Nov. 24)
Ethiopian Airlines, the largest aviation group in Africa, is set for the debut flight of its latest aircraft, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, to Beijing in two weeks.

The airline has named the new aircraft "Beijing".

Yared Berta, EAL's regional director for China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Mongolia, says the airline named the new Dreamliner aircraft after Beijing to honor the good relationship and remarkable communication between China and Ethiopia.

In 2014, when the airline welcomed its ninth Boeing 787 Dreamliner, it named the aircraft "China Great Wall" to commemorate the long history of Ethiopian Airlines in China and how it has served as a bridge for the peoples of China and Africa.

Naming the latest aircraft "Beijing "also symbolizes the significance of the China market to EAL, he adds.

"The delivery of the aircraft showcases the consideration given to the development of the aviation sector in the country and thereby enhancing China-Africa economic and people-to-people relations with a safe and modern transport system."

He says the new aircraft has finished the registration process with the Civil Aviation Administration of China on the Addis Ababa-to-Beijing route, adding that it will be a historic moment when "Beijing" meets Beijing.

The aircraft, which has 30 business-class and 285 economy-class seats, is the newest Boeing aircraft in the world and makes EAL the first African airline, and the second worldwide after Japan, to receive the 787-9 Dreamliner.

Currently, EAL has five destinations in China and is striving for the steady growth and enhancement of China-African connectivity by adding such destinations as Shenzhen, Chongqing and Zhengzhou.

The airline says it plans to increase its frequency on existing routes to Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Chengdu, in addition to the daily flight to Beijing.

EAL now has more than 200 Chinese employees in its five destination cities in China and Addis Ababa, the airline says.

For China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 11/24/2017 page3)
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Nov. 24

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Under the interstate agreements, the capacity of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline will be gradually increased up to 65 billion cubic meters per year in the coming years, the Turkmen Dovlet Habarlary state news agency reported.

The construction of the fourth branch (D) of this major power line, which involves the idea of recreating the Great Silk Road that for thousands of years connected the peoples of the continent, is on the agenda, says the report.

After the commissioning of the gas pipeline, 194 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas were exported to China, said Li Shuliang, general manager of CNPC International Turkmenistan, at the Ashgabat Oil and Gas Conference in November 2017.

Turkmenistan is one of key players on the energy market of the Caspian region and ranks fourth in the world in terms of its gas reserves. Currently, the country delivers gas to China and Iran.

The gas communication route passes through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The construction of the fourth line of the gas pipeline is planned to be conducted through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.24

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The possible oil swap deal between Iran and Iraq may not affect the latters conformity with OPEC/non-OPEC oil output cut deal, Alaa K. Alyasri, director general of Iraqs Oil Marketing Company SOMO, told Trend.

Discussions with Islamic Republic of Iran are still ongoing. However, SOMO will announce the outcome in due course, he said. Moreover, such agreement, or any other agreement if and when it is finalized, should not affect Iraq's conformity of OPEC guidelines.

Earlier, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi through a Facebook post said that Kirkuk will supply about 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil to the Kermanshah refinery in western Iran. He also said that the figure may reach 60,000 barrels per day in future.

According to Iranian media reports, Alaa al-Moussawi, director of the oil marketing company Oil Marketing Company SOMO, has also echoed plans for delivering Kirkuks oil to Iran.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh earlier said that his country preferred to swap oil with Iraq. He had mentioned that Kirkuk oil would feed refineries in northern and northwestern Iran, including Arak, Kermanshah, Tehran and Tabriz. In turn, Iran will deliver the same amount of oil to Iraq through its southern borders.

According to Iraqi oil minister, Kirkuks oil will be carried by road tankers and in the meantime, the sides will take measures to construct a pipeline to transfer the Arab countrys oil to Iran.

The Iraqi official has said that the oil swap deal is capable of contributing to the economic situation of the southern ports of the Arab state, as well as strengthening ties with its eastern neighbor, Iran.

Iraq used to ship Kirkuks oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan via a pipeline owned and operated by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). However, following the recent tensions in the region, the Iraqi Oil Ministry took control of the oil filed and started talks with Iranian officials about the provinces oil exports through the Islamic Republic.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.24

By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:

Uzbekistan is considering investing in Iran's petrochemical ventures around the Persian Gulf.

Head of the Iranian National Petrochemical Company Seyyed Reza Norouz-Zadeh said that Uzbekistan is open to making investment in petrochemical projects, where there is abundant gas supply and access to international waters.

Representatives of NPC and the government of Uzbekistan are now set to assess petrochemical investment opportunities in Iran, Norouz-Zadeh said.

The issue was previously discussed at a meeting between Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran's oil minister, and Alisher Sultanov, Uzbekistan's deputy prime minister.

The Central Asian country is particularly interested in methanol-to-olefin projects. Olefin is the building block for wallpapers, carpeting, ropes and vehicle interiors.

Uzbekistan is rich with hydrocarbon resources, and about 60 percent of its territory possesses potential oil and gas reserves. However, the supplies no longer meet the demand for oil products in the country.

While oil-processing capacity of Uzbekistan will remain within the same range of 225,000 and 230,000 bbl/day up until 2024, the volume of the refined oil products is expected to decline from 75,640 bbl/day to 69,050 bbl/day by 2024. Therefore, Uzbekistan will have to increase the volume of crude oil imports in the near future from Russia, Kazakhstan and now Iran if it decides to take the advantage of its oil refining capacity.

Iran's crude output has almost climbed to the pre-sanctions level of around 4 million barrels per day and is slated to rise to 4.7 million bpd in four years. Under the sanctions, Iran lost more than one-third of its oil production capacity, as output declined to 2.5 million barrels a day.

Iran's Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021) has envisaged attraction of $40 billion worth of investment to the petrochemical sector.

The latest statistics indicate that Iranian petrochemical plants produced 22.6 million tons of petrochemical products during the first five months of the current fiscal year that started March 20, meanwhile the value of exported products accounted for $4.6 billion (9.2 million tons) in the mentioned period.
Extension parameters of the OPEC and non-OPEC oil production limiting agreement expiring in March 2018 will be discussed further, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told TASS on Friday on the sidelines of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) summit.

"We will discuss; no [not approved - TASS]," the minister said responding to a question whether Russia and OPEC reached an agreement to extend the deal until 2018 year-end.

Russia and OPEC negotiated extension of the deal until the end of the next year, some mass media reported earlier citing sources. Russia is ready to discuss extension of the deal after March 2018, Novak said earlier.

According to information of TASS sources, the Russian Energy Ministry discussed an option of the OPEC+ deal extension with national oil companies and companies expressed readiness for such a scenario.

The OPEC+ meeting will be held in Vienna on November 30. Ministers of OPEC and non-OPEC countries are expected to discuss potential extension of the OPEC+ oil production limiting deal. The agreement aimed at oil rebalancing on the global market is to expire in March 2018.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

Azercell Telecom LLC, the leading mobile operator of Azerbaijan, recently announced the launch of 4G network in Barda, Shamkir and Lankaran, along with Baku, Absheron peninsula and Ganja. Now the company is starting a campaign providing an opportunity for its subscribers residing in those regions to benefit from 4G internet. Under the campaign, by joining the 4G network the subscribers will get 5GB internet for free. In order to join 4G service and enjoy high speed internet, subscribers need to have 4G-backed phone and 4G SIM card and select 4G [LTE] network from settings. Subscriber can verify whether 4G service is enabled by texting 4G+ to 2525.

In order to get 5G of free internet, subscribers need to text 4 to 2525. If your SIM card does not support 4G service, you need to visit Azercell Customer Service offices in Ganja, Shamkir, Barda and Lankaran where you will obtain 4G SIM cards for FREE. Hurry up, the time is limited!

Azercell possesses the largest 4G network in the country. The users of 4G internet provided by Azercell have increased five-fold in 2017 while the volume of mobile internet usage increased by 55 percent. Last year Azercell improved its 4G network by 84,1 percent. Unbelievable high speed internet provided by 4G network allows for better usage of mobile TV, video-conference, online and various programs offered via internet. The high speed internet provided by 4G especially boosts the development of device-to- device and M2M services. This technology provides for data measurement, collection and delivery and is mainly used in banking, transportation, security, health, utilities services.

Azercell Telecom continues its activities aimed to provide all regions in Azerbaijan with high quality mobile internet.

For more information, please contact [email protected]

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.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.24

By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:

The next meeting of the leaders of the metro and industrial enterprises, uniting the metro stations of Russia, Czech Republic, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Ukraine was held in Tashkent.

The participants discussed transport security, technical means of ensuring traffic safety, fire fighting activities and a number of other issues.

A report was read out on all the activities of the Association in 2017.

Following the meeting, the protocol was signed.

The International Association "Metro" unites metro stations of Russia and CIS countries, built and operated on the same technological principle, as well as manufacturers of rolling stock and equipment for the needs of subways.
The priority direction of the policy of the new president of Kyrgyzstan is the fight against corruption. This Sooronbai Jeenbekov said today in his opening speech at the inauguration ceremony after taking the oath, 24.kg reports.

The president promised to fight corruption and ensure the transparency of the work of the judicial system.

We must significantly improve the infrastructure of the courts and implement a digital justice system, then there will be transparency and responsibility of the judges, Sooronbai Jeenbekov said.

He added that Kyrgyzstan will not turn off the path of a socially-oriented state.

In foreign policy, the President intends to continue to cooperate with regional and international organizations. The head of state particularly noted the continuation of the strategic partnership with Russia.

We will develop cooperation with the countries of the European Union, Japan, Korea, India, Mongolia, China, Turkey and the United States, the President noted.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Nov. 24

By Diana Aliyeva  Trend:

Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev during his trip to South Korea visited Seoul mayors office, the press service of the Uzbek president reported Nov. 24.

Mirziyoyev was met by Mayor of Seoul Pak Won Sun.

At their meeting, special attention was paid to the use of South Koreas advanced experience in city management, development of transportation system, as well as housing and communal services using modern technologies. Importance of active interaction in urban planning, architecture and landscape design was also noted.

Also a ceremony of presenting the title of Seoul Honorary Citizen to Shavkat Mirziyoyev was held. Speakers at the ceremony noted the dynamic development of cooperation between Uzbekistan and South Korea, and importance of Mirziyoyevs visit for further strengthening of friendly relations between the two countries.

In turn, the Uzbek president offered to name one of the streets in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent in honor of Seoul as a sign of friendship between the peoples of the two countries.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Nov. 24

By Diana Aliyeva Trend:

Prime Minister of South Korea Lee Nak-yeon has met with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who is in Seoul on a state visit since Nov. 23, the press center for the coverage of the visit reported.

At the meeting, Lee Nak-yeon has offered to open in his country a center for Uzbek entrepreneurs under the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in response to a similar initiative by Mirziyoyev to establish an Uzbek-Korean business center under the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan.

Speaking about the economic partnership, the parties discussed in detail the issues of export of fruit and vegetable products from Uzbekistan to Korea, removing any bureaucratic obstacles in this matter.

The South Korean prime minister also proposed to expand cooperation in the educational sphere, in particular, to consider the possibility of opening new branches of South Korean universities in Uzbekistan. A proposal was made to assist Uzbekistan in the sphere of reforming preschool education by establishing an exchange of experts in this field.

Lee Nak-yeon proposed to intensify cooperation in the healthcare sector by providing an opportunity for doctors from Uzbekistan to take regular internships in leading medical centers of South Korea.

The Uzbek president expressed gratitude for the proposals made and invited the South Korean prime minister to pay a visit to Uzbekistan.

The prime minister of South Korea accepted this offer with gratitude, and noted that he had dreamed to visit the ancient cities of Uzbekistan since his childhood.
Tehran, Iran, November 24

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Iran has been too patient with the signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) because they have not, by any degrees, kept pace in following their commitments, an Iranian Member of Parliament believes.

Nasser Mousavi Laregani made the statement in an interview with Trend, commenting on an EU delegation's recent visit to Tehran, where the delegation members promised full support of the nuclear deal.

"Such statements by Mogherini (the EUs foreign policy chief) or her representative are acceptable only if they turn into action," the Iranian MP noted.

"While we have so far acted to all our commitments under JCPOA, such as exporting the surplus enriched uranium, dismantling and filling with concrete our reactors calandria, reducing the number of centrifuges from 19,000 to less than 5,000, and turning the Fordow facility into a research complex, the other side has not done anything so far," Laregani stressed.

"At the start of the implementation of the deal, some breakthroughs seemed to be on horizon. Such as oil contracts that were signed or aircraft purchase deals," he said.

"However, these contracts are also problematic. While we are the holder of the oil reserves, we have a mere 19 percent share of the contract, while the European side gains 52 percent and the Chinese contractor gains the rest. As for the airplanes, a few of the promised 100 were imported, the fate of the rest is unclear. Neither have the banking restrictions been removed, so that our businessmen cannot open lines of credit or transfer money via banks," said Laregani.

The MP stressed that Iran must have restored its full nuclear program upon the first breach of the JCPOA by the United States.

"Right after the US extended the 10-year sanctions, Iran should have restored its 20-percent uranium enrichment. But no action was taken. Later, the KAATSA sanctions were introduced, yet no action was taken by Iran. When the other party is so rude as to abandon its own word, more serious actions have to be applied," Laregani believes.

"All that is happening is the unwrapping of the Supreme Leaders predictions, that is, once the nuclear issue has been settled, (the West) will set for the missiles issue, then for the IRGC, then Lebanons Hezbollah. There is no end to what they demand. This is because they are against our system from the bottom up," he said.

On October 13, US President Donald Trump announced tougher approach to the IRGC (Islamic Revolution Guards Corps) for its missile program and regional presence.

Following that, French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is a signatory of the JCPOA, launched a campaign against Irans missile program and started calling for tougher sanctions on Iran.
Not much was expected to come out of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement.

And not much seems to have been achieved at the annual gathering of global climate negotiators, which was scheduled to end on Nov 17 but dragged into the wee hours of Nov 18.

However, many see a silver lining in the dark clouds of global warming, because a new alliance of 19 countries committed on Nov 16 to quickly phasing out coal, which was welcomed by many as a "political watershed" that signaled the beginning of the "end of the dirtiest fossil fuel". New promises were made by Angola, Denmark, Mexico and New Zealand for the "Powering Past Coal Alliance", led by the United Kingdom and Canada.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, addressing the conference, emphasized that the response to climate change would determine the destiny of humankind, and she urged accelerated action to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

French President Emannuel Macron, who has emerged as a new climate champion and the most vocal critic of Trump, said France would try to bridge the funding gap for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change created by the withdrawal of the United States, and urged its European Union partners to do the same.

And on Nov 16, governments for the first time acknowledged they can play a leading role in protecting forests and reserved natural habitats, and keep temperature rise at a "safe level", which indigenous peoples' groups saw as a victory.

These "first peoples", long marginalized, also seem to have achieved breakthroughs in terms of official international recognition of their rights, autonomy and participation in negotiations.

This is important, since the territories of these groups, whose combined population is about 370 million, contain 20 percent of the carbon of the world's tropical forests, which they often have to defend against loggers, farmers and miners.

In addition, less-developed countries succeeded in brokering a resolution on Nov 15 to ensure that the final document will put pressure on rich countries to take action on carbon cuts and climate finance.

Now down to the brass tacks. Instead of accepting the less-developed countries' proposal to discuss the pledges made by the rich economies to fight climate change, the conference agreed to seven measures to monitor the rich nations' actions, including urging UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to make efforts to persuade the majority of the parties to ratify the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, work out a process to track and report on the progress made to meet pre-2020 commitments, including taking stock in 2018 and 2019, and assess the funds that rich economies contribute to help the poor ones to cope with climate change.

That means there is no consensus yet on ratifying the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, without which keeping global temperature rise to below 2 C will be impossible.

All this shows that the consensus is on compromise, not climate action. And Aziz Mekouar, Moroccan ambassador to the climate talks who brokered the talks, said as much in his remark: "People were really constructive and willing to reach a compromise."

Amid all this comes a dire warning from more than 15,000 scientists from over 180 countries that time is running out to stop business as usual, because the threats posed by rising greenhouse gas emissions on biodiversity are pushing the biosphere toward disaster.

The new warning, published in BioScience on Nov 13, is an update to the "World Scientists 'Warning to Humanity" issued by about 1,700 leading scientists 25 years ago. That the 1992 warning that the planet was on its way to being "irretrievably mutilated" went largely unheeded should give us an idea about what to expect in the future.

And it's anybody's guess whether the climate skeptics and deniers will be swayed by the latest warning or heed the words of 12-year-old Timoci Naulusala from Fiji, who, speaking in Bonn about the impact of last year's Cyclone Winston, said: "My home, my school, sources of food, money, water were totally destroyed. My once beautiful village, which I called home, is a barren waste. Climate change is real, not a dream."

The author is a senior editor at China Daily. Contact him at oprana@hotmail.com.

(China Daily European Weekly 11/24/2017 page12)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24

Trend:

The EU may include Armenia in the list of offshore countries, where companies and individuals conduct financial activities, avoiding national taxation, according to Bloomberg.

Ambassadors representing EU governments are due to discuss the list ahead of the finance ministers meeting. As many as 36 countries could be included according to the draft summary table dated Nov. 21 and seen by Bloomberg, including Serbia, Armenia, Cook Islands, the Marshall Islands, Panama and Tunisia.

Earlier, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moskosvici said in an interview with Italian media that the EU is working on a system for monitoring and regulating "financial intermediaries" and will submit a list of offshore countries by the end of 2017.
A local Japanese politician has been criticised by lawmakers for trying to bring her baby to a council session, CNN reports.

Yuka Ogata said she wanted to show how difficult it is for women to juggle careers and raise children.

Kumamoto municipal assembly officials said she had violated assembly rules as visitors and observers are forbidden from the floor.

After a lengthy discussion, Ms Ogata left the child with a friend and the session started 40 minutes late.

The council says it will discuss her case and ways to support lawmakers with young children.

Speaker Yoshitomo Sawada told reporters: "We would like to work on a system where assembly members can participate in meetings with their children," Mainichi newspaper reports.

Wednesday's incident was the first time Ms Ogata had attended a municipal assembly plenary session since giving birth to her son seven months ago.

She told reporters that she had asked the secretariat repeatedly to either allow her son to be with her during the assemblies or to provide a day-care facility.

"I wanted the assembly to be a place where women who are raising children can also do a great job," she told Mainichi.

She said she received no positive response, but decided to simply bring her child anyway.

Meanwhile, the council secretariat told Asahi Shimbun newspaper that Ms Ogata had only expressed her "anxiety about being separated from the child for a long time" but had not actually requested to bring her child to the plenary session.

While there is no explicit rule against bringing infants, assembly rules forbid visitors or observers from being present on the floor when a meeting is in session.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.24

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The 5th Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit is all about taking stock and about finding the ways to tackle shared challenges together both in security and development, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said on the sidelines of the summit.

I am looking forward today to renewed commitment from European countries to working together to tackle challenges both in security and development, she added.

The 5th Eastern Partnership summit kicked off in Brussels on November 24.

Heads of state or government from the EU member states and the six Eastern partner countries will look forward to future cooperation.

They will also take stock of what has been achieved since the last summit in Riga in 2015, focusing on the tangible benefits delivered to the citizens of the six Eastern Partnership countries.

The summit will discuss how to further strengthen cooperation in the four priority areas agreed in Riga: stronger economy - economic development and better market opportunities; stronger governance - strengthening of institutions and good governance; stronger connectivity - enhancing interconnections, notably in the areas of transport and energy; stronger society - increasing mobility and contacts between people.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Turkish foreign minister said late Thursday that the the YPG -- the military wing of the PKK/PYD terror organization -- was preventing Syrian Kurds from returning home, Anadolu reported.

Speaking at a conference in Rome, Mevlut Cavusoglu said they need to help Syira at least to build basic infrastructure that people can go back.

"We took back more than 2,000 square kilometers [over 770 square miles] of land from Daesh," he said.

In a wide-ranging Euphrates Shield Operation launched last summer, the Free Syrian Army -- with the support of the Turkish army -- cleared 2,000 square kilometers of land along the Turkish-Syrian border of terrorist elements.

Cavusoglu added that almost 100,000 Syrians in Turkey had returned to this area in Syria.

Around 150,000 internally displaced people in different cities in Syria also had gone back to this area, he said.

Cavusoglu continued : "Why? Because we reach them. Humanitarian assistance is there. We supply electricity and even water to some of the towns [...] They feel safe"

Cavusoglu said the YPG (the military wing of PKK/PYD) was controlling 20 percent of Syria, referring to the terror group's presence in northern Syria.

"In Turkey we have 300,000 Syrian Kurds. Not even one of them is able to go back to this area."

"The YPG confiscated their properties, houses, all official certificates. No archives. Everything is burned.Their land and houses are taken, they cannot go back," he said.

Cavusoglu also added that the PKK/PYD did not represent Kurds.

The PYD and its military YPG wing are Syrian branches of the PKK, which has waged war against Turkey for more than 30 years.

Since the PKK launched its terror campaign in Turkey in 1984, tens of thousands of people have been killed.

The U.S. and the coalition have largely ignored PYD/YPG links to the PKK, which the U.S., the EU, and Turkey list as a terrorist group.
U.S. President Donald Trump has told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Washington will not give terror group PKK/PYD weapons anymore, according to Turkish foreign minister Friday, ANadolu reported.

Remarks by Mevlut Cavusoglu came after Trump and Erdogan spoke over the phone on Friday to discuss the recently-concluded Sochi summit, Syria crisis and bilateral ties.

"Mr. Trump [...] clearly stated that weapons will not be given to YPG anymore and said that essentially this nonsense should have been ended before," Cavusoglu told reporters in a joint news conference with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Deputy Prime Minister, and Foreign and Regional Integration Minister Leonard She Okitundu.

Following the phone call, Erdogan tweeted: I had a fruitful phone conversation with the U.S. President Donald Trump today."

Cavusoglu said one of the topics that negatively affected U.S.-Turkey ties the most were the weapons that Washington supplied to the PKK/PYD terror group.

"Lately, we have seen that some armored vehicles were also given, he said. Our president once again conveyed our discomfort to Mr. Trump.

The PYD and its military YPG wing are Syrian branches of the PKK terrorist network, which has waged war against Turkey for more than 30 years.

Since the PKK launched its terror campaign in Turkey in 1984, tens of thousands of people have been killed.

The U.S. and the coalition have largely ignored the links of the PYD/YPG group with the PKK, which the U.S. and the EU also list as a terrorist group.

Turkey has repeatedly objected to U.S. support for the terrorist PKK/PYD as a reliable ally in Syria, support which has included supplying arms and equipment.

Cavusoglu said Erdogan also informed Trump about Turkey's view on the visa issue with the U.S. and called for complete resolution of the issue.

About ties between Turkey and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the foreign minister said the African country is a strategic partner of Turkey. "We want to stress that we see Congo as an important partner.

Cavusoglu also thanked the DRC government for showing sensitivity on the presence of Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) in their country.

"The necessary work to transfer FETO schools [in the DRC] to Maarif Foundation has started," he said.

Turkey established the Maarif Foundation to take over the administration of overseas schools linked to FETO. It also establishes schools and education centers abroad.

Nineteen African countries have handed over FETO schools to Maarif or closed them on Ankara's request.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup attempt of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

FETO also has a considerable international presence, including private educational institutions that serve as a revenue stream for the terrorist group.

Okitundu, for his part, said they want to benefit from Turkey's expertise for development of the DRC.

"There are diverse investment opportunities in Democratic Republic of Congo. This can be utilized for benefit of both Turkey and our country," he said.

After meeting Cavusoglu, Okitundu met Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 24, 2017 - 17:32 | Feature, All

A senior member of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party was criticized from inside and outside the party on Friday over his remark the day before that same-sex partners of state guests should not be invited to banquets hosted by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

LDP General Council Chairman Wataru Takeshita later expressed his regret but did not retract the comment, which key members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community have called discriminatory.

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Seiko Noda, a fellow member of the LDP, expressed discomfort with the remark, saying that as "someone who values diversity, I want Japan to be somewhere where any sort of person can live freely."

Taiga Ishikawa, an openly gay member of Tokyo's Toshima Ward assembly, said the comment "further isolates" Japan when it comes to LGBT rights.

Same-sex marriage is not yet legal in Japan, leaving it out of step with an increasing number of countries.

But some wards in Tokyo and other cities recognize same-sex partnerships, with Sapporo in Hokkaido becoming the first major city to have done so in June this year.

"I'm more surprised than disappointed that someone in such an important position in national politics would say something like this, despite an increasing number of municipalities having officially recognized same-sex partnerships," Ishikawa said.

"Japan is the only country in the Group of Seven (advanced nations) to legally disadvantage same-sex partners," he added.

Japanese Twitter users slammed Takeshita, calling him ill-suited to being a politician.

A tweet by Kanako Otsuji, a lesbian House of Representatives lawmaker of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, calling for Takeshita to retract the remark before it becomes an "international issue" had been retweeted more than 6,000 times.

Among tweets including #WataruTakeshita, one said the remark maligns the emperor and empress, "who have stood close by every sort of person without discriminating."

Takeshita, 71, said Thursday evening he was "opposed" to having same-sex partners at the banquet table with the emperor and empress because it "doesn't fit with Japan's traditions."

"I shouldn't have said that," he told reporters Friday after a party event in his home prefecture of Shimane in western Japan, saying members of his family had been telling him off for the comment.

"There are people close to me who have same-sex partners themselves, but I just wondered, when we're thinking of the imperial family, how (that fits with) the mentality of the Japanese people," Takeshita said.

Sexual orientation is not a protected category under Japan's Constitution, which came into force in 1947. Some scholars argue an amendment to the part of the Constitution pertaining to marriage would be necessary to make same-sex marriage legally possible.

While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed caution about the subject of same-sex marriage in 2015, the LDP included in its manifesto for last month's general election a plan to enact a law promoting understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

But one Japanese tweet Friday attacked that pledge as merely "rhetoric for the purpose of winning the election."
KYODO NEWS - Nov 24, 2017 - 14:48 | Urgent, All

Prosecutors on Friday demanded life imprisonment for a former U.S. civilian base worker charged with raping and killing a 20-year-old woman in Okinawa in April last year.

Claiming Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, 33, committed "extremely heinous and selfish crimes," the prosecutors sought the life term, while the defendant denied intent to murder the victim. The Naha District Court will hand down a ruling on Dec. 1.

The case sparked public anger and strengthened anti-U.S. base sentiment in Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities and has seen a series of crimes committed by U.S. servicemen or military-linked personnel.

According to the indictment, Shinzato attacked the woman for the purpose of raping her on a road in Uruma in central Okinawa around 10 p.m. on April 28, 2016. He stabbed her in the neck with a knife and struck her on the head with a bar so she would not resist, killing her as a result.(Supplied Image)

The remains of the woman, who was taking a walk at the time of the crime, were found on May 19 of that year in a wooded area in the village of Onna, north of Uruma. They were found based on information in Shinzato's statement. The accused has admitted to the charges of rape resulting in death and abandoning the victim's body.

In their closing arguments, the prosecutors maintained Shinzato "stabbed the victim in the neck with a knife three to four times and struck her with a bar on the back of her head five to 10 times, therefore he had intent to kill the victim."

They also said Shinzato committed "grave" crimes as he "assaulted an innocent woman like a phantom killer and took her future."

"No sincere apologies have been offered to the victim's family and he has shown no remorse," the prosecutors said, adding he had premeditated the crimes by preparing a knife and a suitcase to transport her body beforehand.

They said they had thought about seeking the death sentence but "reluctantly gave up the idea in light of striking a balance (of punishment) with other similar criminal cases."

Ex-U.S. base worker denies intent to kill Okinawa woman

The accused said in his last statement during the trial, "I did not intend to cause such a result." The defense counsel also requested that the court "forget about (local residents') frustration with U.S. bases" when deciding on the ruling.

Shinzato's defense counsel repeated his denial of murderous intent and said there is a possibility that the woman died as a result of falling and hitting her head on the ground.

The defendant was working at an internet company within the premises of the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa at the time of the incident after serving as a U.S. Marine from 2007 to 2014, according to his lawyers and the U.S. Defense Department.

While the southern Japanese island prefecture has been following the trial of Shinzato, which began last week, a 21-year-old U.S. Marine was arrested on Sunday over an alleged drunk-driving accident that killed a local resident in Naha.

On the following day, the U.S. Forces in Japan prohibited all U.S. service members from drinking alcohol on or off base.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 23, 2017 - 21:59 | All, World

Myanmar and Bangladesh reached a deal Thursday over repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled homes in western Myanmar since late August to escape violent persecution.

The "Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State" was signed in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw by Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali and Kyat Tint Swe, Myanmar minister for the Office of the State Counselor, a Myanmar government press release said.

The signing followed a meeting earlier Thursday between Ali and Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a final round of discussions between the two sides Wednesday, according to official sources.

Details of the arrangement were not immediately available, though the statement said the document is based on a 1992 agreement between the two countries pertaining to an earlier period of repatriation of "displaced persons from Rakhine."

According to Bangladesh media reports, terms and conditions for a time-frame regarding completing the repatriation were discussed Wednesday.

The reports said Myanmar wants to start repatriation within the next two months but not set a completion deadline, while Bangladesh wants to complete the repatriation of Rohingyas within one year.

Bangladesh also reportedly proposed involving the international community, including U.N. agencies, in the verification process.

At Wednesday's meeting, the two sides did agree on establishing a ministerial-level joint working group to oversee the start of the process of repatriating all Rohingya, the Bangladesh media reported.

Myanmar immigration minister Thein Shwe said last month that under the repatriation process, Myanmar would provide application forms to be filled out by the refugees for officials from his ministry to verify, before allowing the Rohingya back into Myanmar through temporary holding facilities currently under construction in Maungdaw in northern Rakhine state.

Suu Kyi told a press briefing Tuesday at the end of the Asia-Europe foreign ministers meeting in Naypytiaw that her government was planning to sign a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh this week which would enable the start of the repatriation process of all Rohingya from Bangladesh to Myanmar.

The United Nations estimates that more than 600,000 Rohingya from Myanmar's strife-torn Rakhine state have flooded into Bangladesh since late August, when violence broke out between armed Rohingya and Myanmar security forces, prompting a harsh crackdown.

The U.N. Security Council earlier this month issued a statement expressing alarm at the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine, urging Myanmar authorities to halt the "excessive use" of military force against the Rohingya, and expressing "grave concern" over reported human rights violations and abuses committed by security forces against them.

Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh have told of atrocities committed by security forces including pack rape, execution-style killings and the razing of entire villages, leading the United Nations to claim that the situation in Myanmar's westernmost state appears to be "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing."

Myanmar authorities have said the military operations in Rakhine are simply aimed at restoring stability and eliminating the threat of "terrorism," after about two dozen government security posts there were attacked on Aug. 25 by Muslim militants calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

The Myanmar government has long claimed that the Rohingya, a Muslim community in the overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in eastern India, and not legitimate citizens of Myanmar, even though many have lived there for generations.

U.N. panel takes aim at Myanmar's rights record in Rakhine

Myanmar's Suu Kyi meets with Rohingya villagers in strife-torn Rakhine

Malaysian director's film explores ordeal of Rohingya refugees
KYODO NEWS - Nov 24, 2017 - 16:44 | Urgent, All

A boat carrying eight North Korean men has washed ashore in the northeastern Japan prefecture of Akita, police said Friday.

The men said they were fishing before the boat broke down, Hachiro Okonogi, chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, told reporters. The police also said it is unlikely the men will seek asylum in Japan, while investigative sources said they are hoping to return home soon.

The government will "respond appropriately," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference.

The police received a call from a resident in the city of Yurihonjo around 11:30 p.m. Thursday about suspicious men on the sea coast. They later found the men, with a catch of squid, on the wooden boat at a nearby marina.

The boat had a plate bearing the word "Chongjin" -- the name of a city in northeastern North Korea -- in Hangul letters. Investigative sources said the men are believed to have left North Korea about a month ago.

The men had no life-threatening injuries, said the police, who took them into protective custody for questioning along with immigration officials.

The eight men told the police they had left North Korea for fishing but were cast adrift following an engine failure, the sources said. The local resident called the police after the men rang a doorbell late at night and spoke in an "incomprehensible" language.

Local residents expressed anxiety over the incident, while some said they were surprised the crew members reached Japan alive given the rough sea conditions.

"I was very surprised at the news. I heard an unidentified ship had arrived and I feel anxious," said an 84-year-old man.

A number of unidentified boats have been found on the Sea of Japan coast. Wooden boats bearing Hangul letters were found after drifting ashore last Sunday and Monday in Aomori Prefecture, north of Akita.

From Nov. 15 to 17, three North Korean men were rescued and seven bodies were recovered after two boats capsized off the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture.

In November 2015 a wooden boat drifted ashore in the city of Noshiro in Akita and skeletal remains of two men were found inside the vessel and nearby.

Japan returns 3 N. Korean fishermen home after rescue from sunken boat

N. Korean soldier shot while defecting to S. Korea at border village

N. Korea violated armistice in pursuit of defector: U.N. Command
The Chinese co-founder of an innovative platform for design and marketing services links young talent with corporate clients

At 28, the smart and ambitious Daisy Guo Xiaoqian remains single - anathema in a traditional society that dismisses such females as shengnu, or "leftover women".

In a session at this year's Davos annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in January, Guo said that in traditional Chinese culture a woman's success is measured by how well she raises her children and takes care of her family. But, she insisted, "this is no longer true for most women in China".

"If career success brings a woman happiness, she shouldn't be judged only by her marriage," she said.

Guo walks the talk. While she admitted that her family is worried by her single status, she never apologizes for it, nor for any of the maverick decisions she has made in pursuit of her own happiness.

Guo eschewed the traditional career path of being a corporate employee by being her own boss. She is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Tezign, an online platform that connects creative professionals with big companies seeking design and marketing services.

The Shanghai-based tech company is among China's fast-rising startups and counts venture capitalists Sequoia Capital as an investor.

Guo has been recognized for her contributions to both the business and arts sectors. She was included in this year's Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia list, named a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum, and is the curator of the Global Shapers Shanghai International Hub.

She has traveled back and forth from China in recent months to attend prestigious international forums, either as a participant or a speaker. Such events include the Winter Davos in Switzerland, the Summer Davos in Dalian, Liaoning province, the Horasis Global Meeting in Portugal, and the Forbes Under 30 Summit Asia in Manila, the Philippine capital. Guo said these events gave her the opportunity to "communicate with brilliant people".

"I am quite open-minded and optimistic about change. I feel grateful that the World Economic Forum has provided me great opportunities to join Davos and other high-level and visionary meetings, letting me discuss with and learn from those great minds," she tells China Daily.

It has been a whirlwind of learning and growing ever since Guo - together with architect/design scholar Ling Fan - set up Tezign in 2013.

At that time, Guo had just obtained a degree in landscape architecture from the prestigious China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

She also worked as a publicist and curator while studying for her degree and was a part of the curating team for the Chinese pavilion at Venice Biennale 2012, the Architecture China 2013 exhibition in Segovia, Spain, and the Next City project of the annual Beijing Design Week in 2012.

But instead of looking for a job, she set up a business to ease the "inefficient and rigid" collaboration between large corporations and creative talent.

The idea for Tezign stemmed from Guo meeting creative industry professionals who found it difficult to deal with corporate clients and manage the legal and financial aspects of their work.

On the other hand, she also met corporate executives who bemoaned the lack of art and design professionals who can execute their projects.

Seeing a gap in the market, Guo decided to cash in on this unmet demand. "I was thinking, why not develop a platform that could bridge the brands and the creative side, and take care of these issues that puzzle the creative talents?" she says.

So, together with business partner Ling (who is now Tezign's CEO), Guo used data technology and machine learning to make Tezign a platform that "transformed how brands engage with global creative talents".

Tezign is an online software-as-a-service platform, embedding in one dashboard, or user interface, the systems that are required for legal, payment and project management. It serves as a bridge between top-tier design talent and the marketing demands of corporate clients. It frees creative talent to focus on the design process without getting distracted by legal issues or paperwork. The matching algorithm ensures the best results for both the creative talent and the client.

In 2016, the partners raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding from venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Fenghou Capital and Linear Venture. Guo credits co-founder Ling, their friends and social network for getting the funding needed to grow Tezign.

"We benefited from our friends and a strong social network during the funding process. Many of our investors are introduced by our friends," she says.

"As for the investors, they always emphasize whether a project is reasonable or not, whether the company has a vision that they agree with or not, and whether there is a considerable market share. This is also where Tezign wins and we feel lucky and grateful."

Tezign was initially based in Beijing, and Guo says this helped it to grow, since the city has a "friendly culture and environment for startups".

"The government and organizations in Beijing have provided great support for us in the perspectives of policy and funding. Moreover, the community of startups is beneficial for us. We've communicated and learned a lot from each other within the community," she says.

Four years since its founding, Tezign has served more than 4,000 enterprise users and has listed more than 10,000 design professionals from 16 countries and 74 cities. Most of the talent offers graphic design, UI/UX (user interface, user experience) design, illustration, animation and social marketing services.

Tezign's clients include fast-growing startups, social organizations and Fortune 500 companies. Among these are big players like Alibaba, Unilever, Starbucks, China Eastern Airlines, Youku, ofo and Uxin.

Guo is proud that Tezign has helped young creative professionals to build their own businesses and increase their earnings.

Tezign is also used as a platform to solve social issues. For instance, Tezign linked Dutch artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde with the Beijing-based bike-sharing startup ofo to develop the Smog Free Bicycle in China. The innovative bicycle collects polluted air, purifies it and releases clean air around the cyclist. A prototype of the smog-sucking bike is expected to be released by the end of this year.

Moving forward, Guo is optimistic about China's creative industry and how this will benefit Tezign. In a panel discussion on Chinese millennials held at this year's Winter Davos, Guo, who was one of the panelists, said "consumption upgrade" is now a trend among her peers.

"We like shopping and, instead of buying more goods, we are seeking more qualified stuff, more professional services, more value-added brands and more customized experiences," she said.

Guo said the increased demand for better products and services is driving companies in China to change their branding strategy.

"They are seeking to optimize their branding strategies in order to stand out from the crowd. This trend results in an increasing demand for creative talent and better design, which drives marketing growth."

Guo says Tezign's top-tier creative talent can meet these companies' marketing and design needs.

"Tezign provides solutions for companies to achieve marketing campaigns, go global or adapt locally. We believe that excellent creative solutions can help brands with the positioning strategy and achieve long-term growth," she says.

For China Daily

Bio

Daisy Guo Xiaoqian

Chief marketing officer and co-founder, Tezign

Career highlights:

2013-present: Chief marketing officer and co-founder, Tezign, Shanghai

2012-13: Assistant project manager, seed Design Studio, Beijing

2011-12: Assistant curator, Fang Media, Beijing

2009-13: Organizer and principal-in-charge, Textent, Beijing

Education:

2008-13: Bachelor of landscape architecture, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing

Awards:

2017: Included in Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia list, Enterprise Technology category

2014: Named Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum

Quick takes:

What are your favorite art spaces/museums/art galleries?

My favorite art space in China is the CAFA Art Museum (in Beijing), where I saw many exhibitions during my university life, which inspired me a lot. It was designed by Arata Isozaki, the famous Japanese architect. He blended the definition of walls and roofs. There is a gentle arch on the top of the space, and the light comes through the skylight. It stimulates an interesting dialogue between the artwork, the space and the audience.

The New Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, is another one I love. Designed by the famous architect Bernard Tschumi, the museum is very elegant and the artworks and relics are quite ancient. The space is designed in a very logical way, and the skylight is great.

How does your past experience help you as co-founder of a startup?

My previous job as an assistant curator provided abundant experience in building connections with creative talent worldwide. In my life, I emphasize cultural diplomacy a lot, and I also brought this gene to Tezign.

(China Daily European Weekly 11/24/2017 page31)
Cocktail bars put fiery liquor to the test as demand grows for drinks with difference

Drinks columnist Douglas Blyde began his affinity with baijiu when he was presented an intriguing looking bottle with a red ribbon around its neck in a shopping mall in China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Since then, he has become a fan of the fiery Chinese spirit that is the most widely consumed alcohol in the world, despite being little known beyond the borders of China, where it is the national drink.

A bartender makes baijiu-based cocktail in Central London. Kevin Wang / China Daily

Baijiu, usually distilled from sorghum and rice, contains between 40 to 60 percent alcohol by volume. With over 5,000 years of heritage, it is a mainstay at festive occasions in China, from New Year dinners to wedding receptions to business banquets.

Around 5.5 billion liters of baijiu were consumed last year, according to London-based consultancy Euromonitor International.

"I tend to enjoy baijiu neat, as it often has an indefatigable, flamboyant, exotic essence which brings excitement to the table," says Blyde, who writes a column for the London Evening Standard. He also advises sipping, not shooting, quality baijiu.

Baijiu is far from taking over the bar, but in recent years baijiu cocktails have been appearing on menus across London, from the Yauatcha in Soho, to the Arbitrager in the City, to the Mei Ume bar in the Four Seasons Hotel.

"When we first started selling baijiu cocktails around 2010/11, we were pretty unique," says Paul Mathew, owner of the Arbitrager and the Hide, two cocktail bars in London. "Things are definitely moving on."

Bars across London have been celebrating China's world-leading spirit with special drinks and menus for Baijiu Cocktail Week for the past few years.

Sarah Lewis, one of the founders of Baijiu Cocktail Week, says the spirit has grown in popularity as drinkers look for something new and different. "They love the history, the unusual taste and the design of the bottles," she says.

As different categories of baijiu present different challenges, bartenders must think carefully about what flavors work well and what characteristics they want to draw out or hide.

For example, baijiu with a strong aroma is harder to complement. "I like using these with things like pomelo, strong teas, pear or smoky flavors," says Mathew, who recently took part in a baijiu seminar panel at the world's biggest International cocktail festival in New Orleans.

Eder de Oliveira Fonseca Neto, Hakkasan Group's head of bar, has been creating baijiu cocktails since 2015. His bar sells around 15 to 20 baijiu cocktails a day, priced at 12.50 ($16.50; 14.06 euros) each.

"Baijiu cocktails tend to be fruity and earthy, while the majority of traditional cocktails would be one or the other," he says.

Neto says the distinctive character of baijiu adds a complexity to drinks when mixed well.

"Bartenders are constantly searching for new products to take their drinks to the next level, and baijiu certainly does the job," he says.

The growing popularity of baijiu cocktails is not limited to London.

New York venues, including the Mission Chinese Food, Red Farm, the Peninsula Hotel and the Park Hyatt Hotel, now regularly serve them.

Sam Anderson, beverage director at Mission Chinese Food on East Broadway, says the key to making a good baijiu cocktail is to mix it with equally strong flavors.

"If you do a baijiu cocktail with St-Germain," Anderson says, referring to a liqueur flavored with elder-flowers, "the St-Germain will get blown out of the water."

The growth of baijiu abroad is in line with the increasing appreciation and understanding of China globally, says Mathew.

"Bartenders are becoming more ... adventurous," he says. "They are increasingly looking to Asia for flavors and ingredients. We had bartenders from all over the world at a cocktail festival asking about mixing baijiu, production techniques and which brands to buy for the cocktails."

However, the association with Chinese culture in drinking is not necessarily a blessing.

"Many (foreigners) find baijiu off-putting," says Bill Isler, co-founder of Beijing's Capital Spirits, the world's first baijiu-themed bar. "But it's not about the liquor itself."

Isler says the drink's fearsome reputation originates from visitors being coerced into excessive drinking by friends or co-workers in China, where persuading people to drink is a gesture of generosity and being a good host.

In China, baijiu drinking is a hugely important part of the ritual of dining and cementing relationships. Sharing a bottle around the meal table is as much symbolic as it is for the consumption of alcohol.

But Mathew says there's a competitive element of baijiu drinking in China.

"I've experienced it being the Westerner around a dining table and everybody wants to toast you," he says. "It is a bit of a knife fight - there's an interesting dynamic as to who toasts whom and how it goes around the table."

Despite its growing popularity outside of China, there is still a long way to go.

Michal Maziarz, head bartender at Mei Ume restaurant at London's Four Seasons Hotel, says there is little knowledge about baijiu - how to recognize the different varieties or understand how the flavors have been created.

Maziarz suggests promoting baijiu in Western markets by standardizing the flavor. One way would be to invite Western spirits experts or sommeliers to create a panel where they could discuss the flavor and categorize baijiu, he says.

Baijiu-producing companies are eager to enter Western markets.

The State-owned Kweichow Moutai Co launched its iconic Moutai brand in Hamburg, Germany, to bring the fiery spirit to mainstream Europe.

Sichuan Swellfun, a baijiu maker in Chengdu, Sichuan province, sold a stake to London-based beverage multinational Diageo in 2013.

"It would be great to see brands partnering with spirit distributors who specialize in bars," says Mathew, who adds that sourcing baijiu easily at a good price can be difficult.

"A lot of baijiu marketing in China surrounds the aura of the brand without giving too much detail," he says. "But here, bartenders and an increasingly educated spirits consumer want to know about the raw materials, fermentation process, stills and aging."

Zhang Yangfei contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at wangmingjie@mail.chinadailyuk.com

(China Daily European Weekly 11/24/2017 page28)
The 2016 election season was indeed polarizing and it has done anything but cool off since the swearing in of President Donald Trump in January.

But on Thanksgiving Day we all need to come together at the dinner table and give thanks for all that we have. This Baby Boomer is forever thankful for my health and my family -- which grew by one last month with the addition of my third grandson.

According to Susan Weinstock, AARPs vice president of Financial Resilience programming, older Americans have a lot to be thankful for in 2017. Heres Weinstocks top 5 reasons for Boomers to give thanks this year:

A Bigger Social Security COLA

In 2017 retirees and other Social Security beneficiaries received word that their cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security would increase by 2%, the biggest increase since 2012. Every single cent of Social Security benefits counts a great deal for most older Americans, but the adjustment of 2% next year may not cover the rising costs of prescription drugs, utilities, housing, and Medicare Part B premiums that many older Americans face.

No Age Tax

In legislation that passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year, but did not pass the Senate, health insurance companies would have been allowed to charge Americans 50-64 an age tax of up to 5 times more than other Americans. We give thanks an age tax has not become law.

An Ability to Grow Retirement Savings

The stock market remained strong in 2017, and many older Americans looking to save saw their retirement savings grow. However, we know many Americans fear they wont ever have enough to retire. One reason AARP joined the Ad Council this year to launch www.AceYourRetirement.org, a free place to look in to how you can start or continue saving for retirement at any age, since its never too late or too early to start planning. In addition, web tools that make planning easier are another boon for older Americans.

Working Can Bring Happiness

Older workers are taking increased advantage of alternative working arrangements and the opportunities for enhanced flexibility that new technologies offer. In 2015 Uber indicated that approximately 25 percent of their drivers were aged 50 or over, while approximately a quarter of Airbnbs hosts were also aged 50 plus. A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows an increase in 55-75 year-olds engaging in alternative work arrangements from 14.4 percent 10 years ago to nearly 24 percent in 2015. And the Employee Benefits Research Institutes 2017 Retirement Confidence Survey shows that 9 in 10 retirees who continue working do so to stay active and involved. Almost all retirees who worked for pay in retirement gave a positive reason for doing so, saying they continue to work because they want to stay active and involved (90 percent), they enjoy working (82 percent), or a job opportunity came along (47 percent).

Story continues

A Total Eclipse of the Family

This summer families and friends of all ages from all over America got to gather together and saw something spectacular that wont happen again until 2024: a solar eclipse. Gathering with grandparents, parents and children, we enjoyed the unique experience in the sky!

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We believe that H&E Equipment Services, Inc. HEES is a solid choice for investors seeking exposure to the machinery space. The company is poised to gain traction from its initiatives to acquire meaningful businesses, healthy end-market demand and international expansion.



The stock was upgraded to a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) on Nov 22.



H&E Equipment reported better-than-expected earnings in three of the last four quarters, pulling off an average earnings surprise of 34.66%. Notably, the companys shares have rallied 78.5% in the last three months, outperforming 27.1% gain of the industry.







Why the Upgrade?



H&E Equipment performed well in third-quarter 2017, with earnings per share surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 94.87%. Revenues grew 5.9% primarily on the back of 6% increase in equipment rental revenues, 9.3% growth in new equipment sales, 7.9% increase in used equipment sales and a slight 1.6% rise in parts sales. Gross margin improved 30 basis points year over year.



We believe that H&E Equipment is well placed to gain traction from the strengthening non-residential construction end market. Notably, revenue contribution from this end market was 63% in the third quarter. Also, healthy Gulf Coast activities, active energy market, rise in industrial production, long-term industrial projects and infrastructure backlogs are positives for the company. Its equipment fleet is well maintained and young, with average rental fleet age of 34.3 months, lower than the industry average of 43.4 months.



In addition, H&E Equipment believes in expanding its businesses geographically and widening its product portfolio through its acquired assets and expansion of greenfield sites. Notably, the company recently signed an agreement to acquire Contractors Equipment Center (CEC), a Colorado-based equipment rental company. CEC, which primarily serves the non-residential construction market, will strengthen H&E Equipments footprint in Colorado as well as double its branch count to six.



Earnings estimates for both 2017 and 2018 have been revised upward by two brokerage firms in the last 30 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate stands at $1.61 for 2017 and $1.46 for 2018, reflecting a respective increase of 43.8% and 12.3% from 30 days ago.



H&E Equipment Services, Inc. Price and Consensus



Story continues

H&E Equipment Services, Inc. Price and Consensus | H&E Equipment Services, Inc. Quote



H&E Equipment has a market capitalization of $1.3 billion.



Other Stocks to Consider



Other stocks top-ranked stocks in the industry include Caterpillar, Inc. CAT, The Manitowoc Company, Inc. MTW and Terex Corporation TEX. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



Caterpillar pulled off an average positive earnings surprise of 53.06% over the last four quarters. Also, earnings estimates for 2017 and 2018 were revised upward over the last 60 days.



Manitowoc delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 139.10% in the trailing four quarters. Also, bottom-line expectations for 2017 and 2018 improved over the past 60 days.



Terexs financial performance was impressive, with an average positive earnings surprise of 135.92% in the last four quarters. Also, earnings estimates for 2017 and 2018 were revised upward over the last 60 days.



Today's Stocks from Zacks' Hottest Strategies



It's hard to believe, even for us at Zacks. But while the market gained +18.8% from 2016 - Q1 2017, our top stock-picking screens have returned +157.0%, +128.0%, +97.8%, +94.7%, and +90.2% respectively.



And this outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. Over the years it has been remarkably consistent. From 2000 - Q1 2017, the composite yearly average gain for these strategies has beaten the market more than 11X over. Maybe even more remarkable is the fact that we're willing to share their latest stocks with you without cost or obligation.



See Them Free>>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



Terex Corporation (TEX) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Manitowoc Company, Inc. (The) (MTW) : Free Stock Analysis Report



H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (HEES) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
Per a Reuters report, Apple Inc. AAPL scientists Yin Zhou and Oncel Tuzel presented a research report on autonomous vehicles to online journal, arXiv on Nov 17.



The paper talks briefly about a technology that in spite of using fewer sensors will enable self-driving cars to better detect cyclists and pedestrians.



The new technology "VoxelNet" as proposed by the companys scientists relies only on Light Imaging, Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data to detect three dimensional objects on road.



The researchers argue that VoxelNet will be able to eliminate the reliability issues associated with LiDAR systems. Use of LiDAR requires an additional camera to spot distant objects.



Although the new solution has not been tested on real cars but per computer simulation (KITTI Car Detection Benchmark), it outperforms the state-of-the-art LiDAR based 3D detection methods by a large margin.



Notably, shares of Apple have gained over 51.1% year to date, significantly outperforming the industrys 49.9% rally.





Efforts in Self-Driving Cars



Apples autonomous car technology development efforts have been in the news since 20142015.



On its August conference call, CEO Timothy Donald Cook said, autonomy is the mother of all AI projects. He mentioned an ongoing project in autonomous vehicles and the large investment related to it.



The CEO added that, autonomous systems can be used in a variety of ways and a vehicle is only one.



However, the company has not disclosed any information pertaining to it so far, not even in its Apple Machine Learning Journal that was launched in the month of July. The disclosure of this research paper is important for researchers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in our view.



In April, Californias Department of Motor Vehicles (DMW) reported that Apple secured a permit to test self-driving of three vehicles (2015 Lexus RX450h models) with two drivers each.



In August, it was reported that Apple was testing its self-driving technology with its employee ferry vehicles. The effort codenamed PAIL (Palo Alto to Infinite Loop - Apples office) will shuttle Apple employees to its various offices located in the Silicon Valley. Reportedly, 5K employees use the company shuttle to travel to work.



The company was earlier rumored to be working on an iCar, which later lost steam as the project was reportedly marred by conflicts and management troubles. There were also reports of the company making talent acquisitions as well as collaborating with the likes of BMW for the car design.

Story continues

Apple Inc. Price

Apple Inc. Price | Apple Inc. Quote

Autonomous Car Market



According to Boston Consulting Group estimates, the autonomous car market will be worth $42 billion by 2025 and $77 billion by 2035. Per Statista, the market for fully autonomous vehicles will grow to almost $6 billion while partially autonomous vehicles market will reach $36 billion by 2025.



We note that the robust growth in the number of autonomous vehicles will lead to a subsequent increase in demand for sensor technology and auto components (chips, electronic circuits, algorithms) that support advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), the basic building block of self-driving cars.



Notably, the evolution of driverless cars is a significant boost for technology companies like Apple, Alphabet GOOGL, Intel INTC, Qualcomm and NVIDIA NVDA, among others who are already putting in efforts to tap the growing market by developing new and advanced technologies for autonomous vehicles.



Cab aggregators Uber and Lyft, search engine Baidu, Microsoft, as well as automakers General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen are prominent names looking to capitalize on this extremely lucrative opportunity.



This week, Uber announced a new deal with Volvo per which the company is planning to buy 24,000 of Volvos flagship XC90 SUV cars.



However, analysts are skeptical about self-driving cars being feasible before 2020, at least.

Zacks Rank

Apple has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Today's Stocks from Zacks' Hottest Strategies

It's hard to believe, even for us at Zacks. But while the market gained +18.8% from 2016 - Q1 2017, our top stock-picking screens have returned +157.0%, +128.0%, +97.8%, +94.7%, and +90.2% respectively.

And this outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. Over the years it has been remarkably consistent. From 2000 - Q1 2017, the composite yearly average gain for these strategies has beaten the market more than 11X over. Maybe even more remarkable is the fact that we're willing to share their latest stocks with you without cost or obligation.

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Investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel has sold 73% of his remaining shares in Facebook, earning $29 million on the sale.

Thiel now owns 59,913 Class A shares of Facebook after he sold 160,805 shares on Nov. 20, according to an SEC filing Tuesday.

An early investor in Facebook, Thiel currently sits on the social-media giants board, which he first joined in 2005. Following Facebooks IPO in 2012, Thiel sold about 20 million of the 26 million Facebook shares he owned at the time for $400 million.

Thiel has a net worth of $2.6 billion, according to Forbes. He first amassed his wealth after co-founding PayPal, which eBay acquired for $1.5 billion in 2002. Thiel also co-founded Palantir Technologies, a data-analytics and antifraud software company valued at $20 billion, in which he owns a significant stake.

Thiel has been the tech industrys biggest booster of Donald Trump, having donated $1.25 million to Trumps presidential campaign and organized a meeting of tech CEOs with Trump last December. Recently, however, Thiel has reportedly become disillusioned with the administration.

Last year, Thiel was revealed to have funded Hulk Hogans lawsuit and two other suits against Gawker Media, which led to Gawkers filing for bankruptcy and the sale of most of its assets to Univision Communications. Thiel, who said in a speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention that Im proud to be gay, remained upset about a 2007 Gawker article that reported he was gay.

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A Black Friday promotion at a store in Rennes, western France. The marketing event was unknown in France just a few years ago (AFP Photo/DAMIEN MEYER) (AFP)

Paris (AFP) - Having adopted hamburgers, Halloween and a host of English words, some in France are worried about the latest cultural import from America: the day of rampant consumerism known as Black Friday.

Unheard of only a few years ago, the cut-price deals made the television news bulletins Friday as local retailers copied their American counterparts in trying to lure in shoppers ahead of the Christmas season.

According to a survey conducted for online shopping giant Amazon by the CSA polling group, 52 percent of French people said they planned to take part this year, up from just 21 percent in 2016.

And though there were none of the frenzied scenes usually seen in the United States of buyers fighting each other for TVs, for some in France the flurry of marketing and conspicuous consumption was too much to bear.

"I feel like we're importing a style of consumption which is sort of Anglo-Saxon," Sandrine Roudaut, an author and publisher on ethical buying, told AFP after taking to Twitter to vent her disapproval.

Like thousands of others, she used the hashtag #sansmoi (Without Me) and said she was spending no money Friday in a quiet personal protest against the mass binge-buying.

"I hadn't heard of this Black Friday thing before, but I find it sad," one French shopper, Pierre-Francois Grosjean, told AFP as he peered in the window of a FNAC electronics store in Paris. "It's another English word, it's annoying."

Creeping Americanisation is a longstanding source of concern in France, where successive governments have sought to shield the country's distinctive culture and language from British and American imports.

Though the battle for global linguistic dominance was long ago surrendered to English, France remains protective of its film industry, music, food and diplomatic clout, which are seen as an important counterpoint to US hegemony.

But Anglo-American influence has already seen both Halloween and Valentine's Day adopted by many French people, and some worried Friday that the Thanksgiving holiday and -- scandalously -- the idea of eating turkey could be next.

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Already three-quarters of French restaurants offer the quintessentially American "le burger" on their menus, according to a study by the Gira Conseil food consultancy last year.

"But why are French retailers imposing this stupid #BlackFriday even though we don't even celebrate #Thanksgiving?" French researcher Laurence Nardon at the French Institute of International Relations wrote on Twitter.

- US soft power -

Black Friday, held on the day after Thanksgiving, which is celebrated in the US on the fourth Thursday of November, was first aggressively marketed in Europe by online giant Amazon but has since been copied widely.

Frederic Martel, a sociologist and writer on global culture and media, said it should be seen as another example of the reach of American "soft power" which has had the greatest influence on global culture in the past century.

"American soft power isn't directed, which explains its impact," he said. "It's innumerable people -- retailers, artists, the media -- which all act in their own commercial interests with very powerful effects."

But others in France, already resistant to the idea of another American import, worry about the environmental impact of more buying at a time when concerns about climate change and pollution are rising.

Roudaut, for her part, hoped the spirit of Black Friday would be extinguished by changing buying habits.

"I think our society is in the process of changing, that we are now starting to ask questions about how we consume," she told AFP.
A photo illustration shows a Yahoo logo on a smartphone in front of a displayed cyber code and keyboard on December 15, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - A Canadian accused by the United States of helping Russian intelligence agents break into email accounts as part of a massive 2014 breach of Yahoo accounts is expected to plead guilty next week, according to court records.

Karim Baratov, who earlier this year waived his right to fight a U.S. request for his extradition from Canada, is scheduled to appear in federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday for the plea hearing, according to a court calendar seen on Friday.

Baratov, a 22-year-old Canadian citizen born in Kazakhstan, was arrested in Canada in March at the request of U.S. prosecutors. He later waived his right to fight a request for his extradition to the United States.

Andrew Mancilla, Baratov's lawyer, declined to comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco did not respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. Justice Department announced charges in March against Baratov and three other men, including two officers in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), for their roles in the 2014 theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts.

Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), the largest U.S. wireless operator, acquired most of Yahoo Inc's assets in June.

Prosecutors said that the FSB officers, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, directed and paid hackers to obtain information and used Alexsey Belan, who is among the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's most-wanted cyber criminals, to breach Yahoo.

When the FSB officers learned that a target had a non-Yahoo webmail account, including through information obtained from the Yahoo hack, they worked with Baratov, who was who paid to break into at least 80 email accounts, prosecutors said.

The individuals associated with the accounts they sought to access included Russian officials, the chief executive of a metals company and a prominent banker, according to the indictment.

At least 50 of the accounts Baratov targeted were hosted by Google, the indictment said.

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Tuesday's proceedings before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria are scheduled as a "change of plea" hearing.

Baratov, the only person arrested to date in the case, previously in August pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit computer fraud, conspiring to commit access device fraud, conspiring to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Tom Brown)
Global crude steel production expanded at solid pace in October on the back of a surge in output in China  the world's biggest steel maker  according to a World Steel Association ("WSA") report. Higher output across India, the United States and Europe also supported the production growth.



According to the international trade body for the iron and steel industry, crude steel production for 66 reporting nations went up 5.9% year over year for the reported month to 145.3 million tons (Mt). This follows a 5.6% gain last month.



By regions, October production data shows gains across all areas barring Oceania where output declined 3.1%.



China Steel Mills Roar, but Winter Cuts to Tighten Output



Output from China, which accounts for around half of the global production, shot up 6.1% year over year to 72.4 Mt in October as steel mills in the country continued to take advantage of a spike in steel prices that translates to higher profits for the industry. This follows a 5.3% rise to 71.8 Mt in September.



Nevertheless, Chinese steel output is expected to decline moving ahead as Beijing has started implementing a four-month reduction in production to streamline its burgeoning steel sector and control pollution during the winter months (lasting until the middle of March 2018). The Hebei province  Chinas top steel producing region  is looking to shutter 50% of its steel capacity during winter in a bid to clean up the environment.



Overall, China is expected to cut its steel production capacity by around 50 million metric tons in 2017. The countrys actions to reduce its excess steel supply during winter are also expected to lend support to global steel prices moving ahead. This is also expected to tighten global steel output in the coming months.



Chinas finished steel exports also slumped around 35% year over year to 4.98 million tons in October, per data released by the General Administration of Customs. The countrys steel exports are also down roughly 30% for the first ten months of 2017. Positive rulings in trade cases (resulting in levy of heavy tariffs) against China is contributing to a decline in Chinese steel exports.



How Other Key Producers Fared in October?



Among other major Asian producers, Japan saw a 1% decline in production to 9 Mt in October following a 2% rise a month ago. Production in India went up 5.3% to 8.6 Mt in October. Higher domestic steel prices and increasing local demand are benefiting Indian steel mills. South Korea raked in a 4% gain to 6.2 Mt. Consolidated output were up 5.7% to 99.8 Mt in Asia.

In North America, crude steel production climbed 12% to 7 Mt in the United States. Output in Canada shot up 13.4% to around 1.1 Mt. Overall production for the region was up 9.3% to roughly 9.8 Mt.



In the Europe Union, production from Germany  the biggest producer in the region  rose 2.7% to 3.6 Mt. Output went up 6.1% in Italy to 2.3 Mt while rising 1.6% to 1.4 Mt in France. Spain saw a 11.9% jump to 1.3 Mt. Total output rose 3.4% in the European Union to 14.7 Mt.



Output in the Middle East surged 18% to 3 Mt with with Iran, the top producer in the region, seeing a 24.2% rise to 2 Mt. Africa logged a 19% gain to 1.2 Mt in the reported month.



Among other notable producers, production from Turkey was up 11.1% to 3.3 Mt. Output from Brazil, the largest producer in South America, increased 3.9% to 3 Mt.



Crude steel capacity utilization ratio for the reporting countries was 73% in October 2017, up from 70% a year ago and down from 73.6% in the previous month.



Demand Outlook Suggests Recovery



The WSA, last month, said that it sees global steel demand to expand 7% in 2017 following a 1% rise in 2016. Steel consumption in China is expected to go up 12.4% this year as closure of most of its outdated induction furnaces are expected to lead to a jump in steel use. Global steel demand barring China is expected to rise 2.6% in 2017.



A cyclical upturn in steel demand this year has been backed by strong economic momentum across advanced and developing economies. The U.S. economy is showing strong fundamentals on the back of improving business confidence and healthy consumer spending. Steel demand in the United States is expected to rise 4.8% this year.



Moreover, Eurozones economic recovery continues apace, as evident from recent upbeat economic data. The regions recovery is backed by declining unemployment and strengthening business and consumer confidence. The WSA sees steel demand in the European Union to go up 2.5% in 2017. This augurs well for companies like ArcelorMittal MT, which generates almost half of revenues from this region. United States Steel Corporation X also has a significant presence in Europe.



Demand in emerging and developing economies (barring China) is also expected to rise 2.8% this year. Developing economies are gaining from an upturn in the world economy and economic reforms across several countries including India and Brazil.



Steel Stocks to Watch For



A couple of stocks worth considering in the steel space are POSCO PKX and Carpenter Technology Corporation CRS, both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



POSCO has an expected earnings growth of 134.7% for 2017 while Carpenter Technology has an expected earnings growth of 107.8% for the current fiscal year. Shares of POSCO have rallied around 37% year to date while Carpenter Technology has returned 33% over the same period.



More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!



It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.



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Warsaw region can become an aviation and railway hub, former prime minister says

Waldemar Pawlak, who served as Poland's prime minister twice in the 1990s, was a European pioneer in engaging China by putting his country, the biggest in Central and Eastern Europe, on the regional chessboard.

During his political comeback in the first decade of this century, working as his country's deputy prime minister and minister of economy, Pawlak kept a close watch on China's dazzling transformation.

And he paid special attention to China's rapid expansion of highways and high-speed railways.

Waldemar Pawlak, former Polish prime minister, says the Belt and Road Initiative has created a "very strong, very prospective area for development". Fu Jing / China Daily

In 2009, during the visit by Xi Jinping, who was then vice-president of China, Pawlak raised the idea of recognizing the regional role of Poland.

"Then we prepared a concept and offered it to China for cooperation based not only on relations between Poland and China, but to show Poland from a regional aspect," Pawlak tells China Daily in Warsaw.

"This concept was evaluated and developed," Pawlak recalls.

He says Poland has very good reason, historically and geographically, to take such responsibility. Pawlak says Poland was the center of Europe and even now, when the European Union has expanded with new members, Poland is a European gateway.

China has recognized the regional significance of Poland. The inaugural meeting between China and the 16 Central and Eastern European countries was held in Warsaw in 2012. The sixth such annual meeting is scheduled for Budapest, Hungary, at the end of this month.

"We think this 16+1 platform between China and Central and Eastern Europe is going well," says the former prime minister.

In further expanding cooperation, he says the Belt and Road Initiative will play a decisive role.

He says the China-led initiative has given his country a new chance to reposition its development strategy by turning Warsaw and the neighboring region into an aviation, railway and economic hub.

Pawlak also says the Belt and Road Initiative not only integrates one country, but all countries with relatively common interests and similar histories.

The Belt and Road Initiative, he says, "from our perspective, is a very big project, especially when we discuss relations around the world, the cooperation between China and the EU, and Russia."

"It has created a very strong, very prospective area for development. And I think it's a good base for development of cooperation between Poland and China," he adds.

Pawlak says his country is eager to build a railway, aviation and commercial hub in central Poland. "And in this concept, our government is looking for Chinese partners right now to participate in this huge investment project, because it's on the level of about more than $10 billion."

Pawlak says Poland's government started with the idea around a year ago and has decided to work on the concept.

"I think they are preparing the draft concept of this project and it will be finished in the near future," he says.

Poland has no high-speed railway, he says, and it has planned to build one in the country, whose big cities are 300 to 400 kilometers apart.

This would create "huge potential for import", says Pawlak.

He adds that three of China's banking giants - Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Construction Bank of China - are good examples of the cooperation between the Chinese financial sector and Polish companies.

Pawlak says Poland and China have had similar experiences, since both countries started deep changes in their economic systems at the same time, although in different ways. He says both countries have developed the concept of special economic zones to invite foreign investment.

In addition, Pawlak says the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which was held in October, will play a crucial role in reshaping China, and that the implications of its active diplomacy in recent years are huge.

"If you look at general aspects of Chinese activity in the last five years, I think what stands out is the active leadership of President Xi," says Pawlak.

"This is very important today, because the world needs stabilization."

He adds, "If we look at the Chinese situation, I think President Xi has created a better balance between development, social evolution and economy.

"When I read the book The Governance of China by President Xi, for me, it is very interesting because many elements of this book are dedicated to the best governance of Chinese institutions and the Chinese economy," he says.

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
By Tom Arnold and Eric Auchard

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - German business software giant SAP <SAPG.DE>, which last month said its South African sales commissions were being probed by U.S. regulators, has launched an investigation into its business practices in the Gulf region, it said on Wednesday.

The company also said one of its executives in the Gulf region had resigned and another was on administrative leave, without giving further details.

SAP operates in more than 180 countries, selling business planning software that many of the world's top multinationals rely on to manage their far-flung business operations. It is a big supplier of corporate compliance software.

A source familiar with the matter said the individuals referred to by SAP were Tayfun Topkoc, the company's country manager for the United Arab Emirates, and Oman country manager Przemek Oledzki - whose LinkedIn profile identifies him as chief of staff for the UAE, Iran and Oman region.

The source added SAP's investigations related to the company's dealings with Iran, which are overseen by its Gulf States offices in Dubai.

Topkoc and Oledzki did not immediately respond to requests for comment via their email and social media profiles.

"We are currently investigating business activities in the region," SAP told Reuters in a statement, without specifying whether the matter concerned Iran.

"SAP is committed to the highest standards of business ethics and we always strive to operate with transparency and integrity. Please understand that we cannot say more while the investigation is ongoing," it said.

GLOBAL COMPLIANCE CRACKDOWN

Last month, SAP promised to make sweeping changes to its sales practices around the world after the company revealed it was the subject of a U.S. corruption probe tied to its South African business. (http://reut.rs/2jNUIey) (http://reut.rs/2z8By9x)

A spokesman declined to comment on whether the issues in the Gulf had arisen after the company put in place additional compliance and due diligence controls worldwide on the use of sales agents and resellers to win SAP contracts.

Story continues

In April, SAP warned customers and sales partners that U.S. sanctions continued to restrict its dealings with Iran and the sale of the company's software there.

Despite the lifting of some sanctions by the European Union and the United States in early 2016 following a multinational nuclear deal, severe penalties could result from violating the remaining U.S. sanctions, the company said at that time.

In October, an SAP board member told Reuters that an internal probe by the company had found faults in its compliance and due diligence controls on how it conducts sales in South Africa and in other countries.

In response, SAP said it no longer would pay sales commissions on public sector deals in nations where risks of corruption in government contract awards remained high, such as Brazil, China, India, Russia, Iran and South Africa.

Last year, SAP was fined $3.9 million by U.S. securities regulators for failing to maintain internal controls to prevent a bribery scheme by a former sales executive who won lucrative contracts from the Panamanian government. (https://reut.rs/2vcPOIp)

(Reporting by Tom Arnold in Dubai and Eric Auchard in London; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Mark Potter)
Bitcoin cash is flying high today and could gain more altitude in the near-term.

This morning, the bitcoin cash-U.S. dollar (BCH/USD) exchange rate clocked an 11-day high of $1,623.80 at 08:14 UTC before losing some momentum.

At press time, the world's third-largest cryptocurrency by market value is currently changing hands at $1,508  up 21 percent for the last 24 hours, as per CoinMarketCap.

A look at the exchange data indicates that the rally is being fuelled by Korean desks. Trading volumes in BCH/KRW pair offered by Bithumb, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, have gone up by 42 percent in the last 24 hours.

Driving the rise may be today's news that a South Korean financial regulator has said it has "no plans" to regulate cryptocurrency trading.

Meanwhile, the total trading volume for the last 24 hours is well above $4 billion, the highest since Nov. 13. A high volume rally indicates an active market, and that a rally is likely to be sustained.

The price action analysis, too, suggests the rally could be extended in the near-term.

4-hour chart

The overbought nature of the relative strength index (RSI) could be responsible for the pullback from previous highs above $1,600.

However, the 5-MA and 10-MA are curving up in favor of the bulls. On the daily chart, the moving averages (MA) are sloping upwards as well.

The daily RSI, though close to the overbought territory, is well short of the highs seen in earlier this month.

View

The base appears to have shifted higher to $1,250.

Technical pullbacks could run out of steam around $1,250

BCH looks set to take out resistance at $1,550 (horizontal red line) and move higher to $1,800-$2,000 in the near-term.

Korean kite image via Shutterstock

Related Stories
SSE, Pearson, and Aggreko are three of the best paying dividend stocks for creating diversified portfolio income. A sizeable part of portfolio returns can be produced by dividend stocks due to their contribution to compounding returns in the long run. If youre a long term investor, these high-performing top dividend stocks can boost your monthly portfolio income.

SSE plc (LSE:SSE)

SSE plc produces, generates, distributes, and supplies electricity and gas, as well as other energy-related services in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Established in 1989, and now run by Alistair Phillips-Davies, the company now has 21,157 employees and has a market cap of GBP 13.54B, putting it in the large-cap stocks category.

SSE has a juicy dividend yield of 6.80% and pays 68.23% of its earnings as dividends , with the expected payout in three years hitting 75.91%. In the last 10 years, shareholders would have been happy to see the company increase its dividend from 0.58 to 0.913. The company has been a reliable payer too, not missing a payment during this time. SSEs earnings per share growth of % outpaced the Global Electric Utilities industrys 0.05096% average growth rate over the last year.

LSE:SSE Historical Dividend Yield Nov 24th 17

Pearson plc (LSE:PSON)

Pearson plc provides educational materials and learning technologies for teachers and students worldwide. Formed in 1844, and currently headed by CEO John Fallon, the company size now stands at 35,700 people and with the stocks market cap sitting at GBP 5.64B, it comes under the mid-cap group.

PSON has an appealing dividend yield of 5.50% and is currently distributing -14.90% of profits to shareholders , with analysts expecting the payout ratio in three years to be 35.36%. PSONs dividends have increased in the last 10 years, with DPS increasing from 0.293 to 0.52. They have been consistent too, not missing a payment during this 10 year period.

LSE:PSON Historical Dividend Yield Nov 24th 17

Aggreko plc (LSE:AGK)

Aggreko plc engages in the rental of temporary power and temperature control solutions to various customers. Founded in 1962, and now led by CEO Chris Weston, the company now has 6,181 employees and with the companys market cap sitting at GBP 2.18B, it falls under the mid-cap group.

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AGK has a wholesome dividend yield of 3.11% and has a payout ratio of 57.40% . AGKs dividends have increased in the last 10 years, with DPS increasing from 0.0784 to 0.2712. They have been reliable as well, ensuring that shareholders havent missed a payment during this 10 year period.

LSE:AGK Historical Dividend Yield Nov 24th 17

For more solid dividend payers to add to your portfolio, you can use our free platform to explore our interactive list of top dividend payers.

To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.
As Black Friday kicks off the busy holiday shopping season, many have raised concerns that the day no longer holds the importance for retailers it once did and that brick-and-mortar stores will struggle to compete with online retailers.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia founder Martha Stewart discussed Black Friday on the FOX Business Networks Mornings with Maria.

Its only about the price, Black Fridayits the pricing, its the sales price that people are going after and its an excitement, its really trying to get people to get out [and] shop.

According to Stewart, Black Friday sales help get consumers into the stores, but shoppers often end up buying more than they plan on.

Theyre not going to buy just the things that are sale, theyre going to buy other things too, thats what the merchants need.

Stewart said brick-and-mortar retailers are suffering because of the Amazon Effect.

We need to get people into the stores again, stores are really suffering because of online sales. But I think its 59% of Americans that want to shop online either by their phone or just sitting at their desk at home.

Stewart was optimistic about the state of the U.S. economy.

I think business is doing well and I think that we are recapturing some of the manufacturing that weve lost.

Related Articles
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - November 23, 2017) - Millrock Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: MRO) (MLRKF) ("Millrock") is pleased to announce that PolarX (PXX.AX) ("PolarX") has issued a press release concerning the recently completed drilling program at the Alaska Range Project in Alaska. Results from the first five holes of the program are reported. The Alaska Range Project is a new name given to the combined Stellar and Caribou Dome projects.

The work was executed by Millrock on behalf of PolarX. Millrock presently owns 10.74% of the issued and outstanding shares of PolarX and is entitled to certain milestone and royalty payments on portions of the project.

Assay results from the first five holes drilled into the deposit confirm the presence of high-grade copper and gold from near surface.

PolarX reported the following highlights drill intervals:

14.5m @ 2.5% Cu and 2.0 g/t Au from 34.9m in hole ZM-17007

5.3m @ 2.0% Cu and 2.7 g/t Au from 9.7m in hole ZM-17006

3.5m @ 3.9% Cu and 2.2 g/t Au from 99.1m in hole ZM-17002

2.8m @ 2.6% Cu and 0.5 g/t Au from 227.4m in hole ZM-17005

Note: The mineralized intervals reported are down-hole, measured thickness. There is insufficient interpretation of the mineralization to confidently report "true widths". However, it is noted that the mineralized lenses appear to be relatively steeply dipping. As such, "true widths", depending on hole dip angle, will be 50% to 60% of the reported down-hole, measured thickness.

PolarX also reported that the results indicate:

mineralization is over wider intervals than previously expected (in comparison to historic drilling in two of the first holes); and

the deposit extends further along strike than previously thought; and

it remains open along strike and at depth.

The detailed PolarX press release can be read here.

Quality Control -- Quality Assurance

Millrock adheres to stringent Quality Assurance -- Quality Control (QA/QC) standards. Drill core and samples are kept in a secure location at all times. Representative quarter-core samples were collected and assayed at ALS Chemex laboratories in Vancouver, Canada and Reno, Nevada, USA. Gold was analyzed by Fire Assay (specifically ALS code Au-AA25 - Au by fire assay and AAS using a 30g nominal sample weight). Other elements (33 in total including copper) were analyzed using ALS method code ME-ICP61 which involves a four-acid digest and an ICP-MS finish. Over range (Cu >= 1%) was analyzed using ALS method code ME-OG62 which involves a four-acid digest and an ICP-AES or AAS finish. The following QA/QC protocols have been adopted for this program: 1) Duplicates were created as coarse crush duplicates on every 20th sample in the sample preparation process at the laboratory, and 2) Blanks every 20th sample, and 3) Standards  Certified Reference Material (CRM's) every 20th sample plus additional random insertions at supervising geologist's discretion. All results from blanks, standards and duplicates were reviewed and found to be accurate within acceptable tolerances for results obtained to date.

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The scientific and technical information disclosed within this document has been prepared, reviewed and approved by Gregory A. Beischer, President, CEO and a director of Millrock Resources. Mr. Beischer is a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101.

About Millrock Resources Inc.

Millrock Resources Inc. is a premier project generator to the mining industry. Millrock identifies, packages and operates large-scale projects for joint venture, thereby exposing its shareholders to the benefits of mineral discovery without the usual financial risk taken on by most exploration companies. The company is active in Alaska, British Columbia, the southwest USA and Sonora State, Mexico. Funding for drilling at Millrock's exploration projects is primarily provided by its joint venture partners. Business partners of Millrock have included some of the leading names in the mining industry: Centerra Gold, First Quantum, Teck, Kinross, Vale, Inmet, Altius, and Riverside. Millrock is a major shareholder of junior explorers PolarX Limited. and Sojourn Exploration Inc.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Gregory Beischer"

Gregory Beischer, President & CEO

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. 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 completion of planned expenditures, the ability to complete exploration programs on schedule and the success of exploration programs.
A Black Friday sale sign in a store at a different mall in Bloomington, United States: Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

A shooting outside a Missouri mall just before Black Friday has left one teenager with life-threatening injuries, police said.

A 19-year-old person was reported injured at 11:30 pm the night before the infamous shopping holiday, according to a police report. The mall was open until midnight in anticipation of Black Friday shopping, according to its website.

Police said the shot was fired by a man sitting in his car outside the mall, who accidentally discharged his weapon while trying to re-holster it. Authorities have not determined whether the shooting was accidental or deliberate.

Another man was also in the car, police said. The investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made. The mall opened on schedule for Black Friday, at 6 am, according to local reporters.

Violence broke out in other areas of the country as well, as shoppers lined up to score their post-Thanksgiving deals. In Alabama, police shut down a mall on Thursday night after several fights were reported.

Officers responded to a mall in Birmingham, Alabama shortly after 11 pm, and found two girls fighting while other shoppers looked on. Both were treated by paramedics for minor injuries. The fight was not related to Black Friday sales, police said.

"Hoover Police will have extra officers on site at our retail areas throughout the holiday season to ensure the safety and security of the patrons and stores in our city," the department said in a statement.

Black Friday, once known exclusively for the tide of sales it brings, has in recent years become synonymous with consumer aggression and occasionally, violence.

In 2013, two men were arrested in Virginia after allegedly engaging in a knife fight over a Walmart parking space. The next year, police in California responded to reports of two women who started a "pushing and shoving match" over a Barbie doll on Thanksgiving night.

Deploying additional security officers on Black Friday has since become common practice at malls across the country. This year, however, some stores are stepping up their security to protect not from shoppers, but from possible shooters or terrorists. In Wrentham, Massachusetts, one outlet mall has installed large plastic barriers to prevent truck attacks like those recently seen in New York and Paris.

[The outlets] attracts a broad population,"Deputy Police Chief Bill McGrath told WPRI. "And for that reason we think its somewhat more of an attractive target."
FILE PHOTO: Monsanto logo is displayed on a screen where the stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Monsanto Co said on Thursday that Mexico's agriculture sanitation authority SENASICA had revoked its permit to commercialize genetically modified soy in seven states, criticizing the decision as unjustified.

Monsanto said in a statement that the permit had been withdrawn on unwarranted legal and technical grounds. The company said it would take the necessary steps to safeguard its rights and those of farmers using the technology, but did not elaborate.

SENASICA officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Mexican newspaper Reforma cited a document saying the permit had been withdrawn due to the detection of transgenic Monsanto soya in areas where it was not authorized.

Monsanto rejected that argument, saying in its statement that authorities had not done an analysis of how the soy on which their decision was based was sown.

The revocation applies to the states of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo and follows a 2016 legal suspension of the permit.

(Reporting by Dave Graham and Noe Torres; editing by Richard Pullin)
FILE PHOTO: Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

(Reuters) - Venture capitalist Peter Thiel may be looking to buy online news site Gawker.com, BuzzFeed said on Wednesday.

Thiel's lawyers have objected to the currently ongoing sale process of Gawker.com, saying that he has been prohibited unreasonably from bidding for the website's assets, the internet media company reported, citing a federal bankruptcy court filing. (http://bzfd.it/2zYuQmk)

Thiel, who is Facebook Inc's first major investor and a co-founder of payment service PayPal, is known for funding the Hulk Hogan lawsuit that led to the shutdown of Gawker. The site published an article in 2007 about Thiel's homosexuality.

He may buy the defunct website to stop any legal threats against him or to remove content, BuzzFeed reported.

(Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
(Reuters) - Facebook Inc's first major investor Peter Thiel has sold three-quarters of his remaining stake in the social network as part of a previously established trading plan, a regulatory filing showed. Thiel, who is a member of Facebook's board had already sold more than $1 billion worth of its stock before the filing made on Tuesday. It said he had sold another 160,805 shares for about $29 million, leaving his holdings at 59,913 Class A shares in the company. http://bit.ly/2zd34za The only major name in Silicon Valley to back President Donald Trump, some have called for Thiels removal from Facebooks board. Chief Executive and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has said he should stay, citing the importance of diversity of opinion at the company. A Facebook representative called Thiels sales routine and said there was nothing new to say about the billionaire' s seat on the company's board. Representatives for the venture capitalist could not immediately be reached for comment. Thiel co-founded payment service PayPal and is known for funding the Hulk Hogan lawsuit that led to the shutdown of online news site Gawker. He became a Facebook investor in 2004 with an initial investment of $500,000 at a $5 million valuation. When Zuckerberg took the company public in 2012, Thiel sold 16.8 million shares at the IPO for about $640 million. Later the same year, he sold roughly 20 million of his remaining 26 million shares for $400 million after the expiry of a lockup. He hit the market once again in 2016 to sell a little less than 1 million shares for about $100 million. Facebook shares were down 0.7 percent at $180.59 on Wednesday. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru and David Ingram in San Francisco; editing by Patrick Graham)
LONDON (Reuters) - Tech stocks remain the largest net sector exposure for equity hedge funds, which are set to deliver their strongest returns since 2013, Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday in a note on the industry's most and least favored areas of the market. Information technology accounts for 27 percent of hedge fund portfolios, GS says. Financial are the largest underweight -- and the biggest area of divergence with large-cap mutual funds, which like the sector. Equity hedge funds have returned 10 percent year to date as stock-picking has gone particularly well. The most popular hedge fund long positions have outperformed both the broad market and the largest shorts, GS said. The U.S. bank's 'Hedge Fund VIP' basket of most popular stocks has outperformed the S&P 500, up 25 percent compared with 17 percent for the index. Aside from the global tech stock boom, hedge funds have also benefited from tilting towards parts of the market they do not typically favor, such as large-caps, momentum and growth stocks, which have outperformed this year, while avoiding value and small-caps, which they have historically preferred. "Tilts toward outperforming momentum and growth stocks have helped lift the most popular long positions for most of 2017, but have weighed on returns during the past month as those factors dipped," wrote Goldman analysts. Momentum stocks have been the strongest-performing this year, returning 15 percent, GS data showed, while value stocks have been the weakest. Hedge funds' crowding in the most popular positions rose slightly in the third quarter, they found, though it remains below the extremes reached in 2016. This top-heavy tilt - with the average hedge fund holding 68 percent of its long portfolio in the top 10 positions - reflects a heightened concentration of the broader market, where the largest companies account for a growing share of total index market cap. Turnover in hedge fund holdings has also hit historical lows this quarter, declining in all sectors but healthcare. As hedge fund managers' conviction on the tech sector crystallized, turnover in IT stocks hit its lowest level on record. Among the 50 stocks that most frequently appear in hedgies' top 10 holdings, the usual suspects of U.S. tech Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft rub shoulders with Chinese internet giant Alibaba, while Bank of America and Citigroup also feature. (Reporting by Helen Reid; editing by John Stonestreet)
Investors seeking to increase their exposure to growth should consider companies such as Equity Financial Holdings and SEMAFO. Analysts are generally optimistic about the future of these stocks, based on how much theyre expected to earn and return. If a buoyant growth prospect is what youre after in your next investment, Ive put together a list of high-growth stocks you may be interested in, based on the latest financial data from each company.

Equity Financial Holdings Inc. (TSX:EQI)

Equity Financial Holdings Inc., a financial services company, through its subsidiary, Equity Financial Trust Company, provides alternative residential mortgage loans to non-prime and near-prime customers in Canada. The company size now stands at 98 people and with the companys market capitalisation at CAD CA$93.05M, we can put it in the small-cap category.

EQIs projected future profit growth is an exceptional triple-digit, with an underlying 73.89% growth from its revenues expected over the upcoming years. An affirming signal is when net income increase is supported by top-line growth. Since net income isnt artificially inflated by one-off initiatives such as cost-cutting, we know this profit growth is more likely to be sustainable. This prospective profitability should trickle down to shareholders, with analysts expecting the company to generate a high double-digit return on equity of 20.18%. EQIs impressive outlook on all aspects makes it a worthy company to spend more time to understand. Could this stock be your next pick? Check out its fundamental factors here.

TSX:EQI Future Profit Nov 24th 17

SEMAFO Inc., a mining company, engages in the exploration and production of gold properties in West Africa. Started in 1994, and currently lead by Benoit Desormeaux, the company employs 1,695 people and with the companys market capitalisation at CAD CA$1.08B, we can put it in the small-cap category.

SMFs projected future profit growth is an exceptional triple-digit, with an underlying 96.12% growth from its revenues expected over the upcoming years. Profit growth, coupled with top-line expansion, is a positive indication. This is because net income isnt artificially inflated by unsustainable activities such as one-off cost-reductions expected in the future. This prospective profitability should trickle down to shareholders, with analysts expecting the company to generate a positive return on equity of 13.60%. SMFs bullish prospects on both the top and bottom lines make it an interesting stock to invest more time to understand how it can add value to your portfolio. Want to know more about SMF? Take a look at its other fundamentals here.

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TSX:SMF Future Profit Nov 24th 17

Cardiome Pharma Corp. (TSX:COM)

Cardiome Pharma Corp., a specialty pharmaceutical company, engages in the development and commercialization of therapies for the treatment of patients suffering from heart diseases. Established in 1986, and currently run by William Hunter, the company currently employs 75 people and has a market cap of CAD CA$67.53M, putting it in the small-cap stocks category.

Driven by exceptional sales, which is expected to more than double over the next few years, COM is expected to deliver an excellent earnings growth of 62.06%. An affirming signal is when net income increase is supported by top-line growth. Since net income isnt artificially inflated by one-off initiatives such as cost-cutting, we know this profit growth is more likely to be sustainable. COMs impressive outlook on all aspects makes it a worthy company to spend more time to understand. Interested to learn more about COM? Check out its fundamental factors here.

TSX:COM Future Profit Nov 24th 17

For more financially robust companies with high growth potential to enhance your portfolio, use our free platform to explore our interactive list of these stocks.

To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.
By Jim Finkle and Heather Somerville TORONTO (Reuters) - Governments around the globe launched investigations into Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] after the company disclosed it had covered up a breach that exposed data on millions of customers and drivers, the latest scandal to rock the ride-hailing firm. Authorities in Britain and the United States, two top Uber markets, as well as Australia and the Philippines said on Wednesday they would investigate the company's response to the data breach. Some U.S. lawmakers called for Congressional hearings and implored the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look into the matter. Uber said on Tuesday that in late 2016 it had paid hackers $100,000 to destroy data on more than 57 million customers and driver stolen from the company and decided not to report the matter to victims or authorities. [L1N1NR2BD] Uber representatives could not be reached on Wednesday to comment on the response from authorities. The company's chief executive had acknowledged in a Tuesday blog that the company had erred in handling the breach. (http://ubr.to/2AmxlQt) The money-losing ride-hailing service is known for the tough stance it has taken against regulators as it seeks to aggressively expand and compete with existing taxi services. Attorneys general in at least four U.S. states, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, said they had launched investigations into the breach. We have serious concerns about the reported conduct, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal took to Twitter to call for the FTC to investigate Uber, describing the company's behavior as "inexplicable" and asking for the FTC to impose "significant penalties." The FTC, which investigates companies accused of being sloppy with consumer data, said it was looking into the matter, but declined to say if it had launched a formal investigation. "We are aware of press reports describing a breach in late 2016 at Uber and Uber officials actions after that breach. We are closely evaluating the serious issues raised," an FTC spokesman said. U.S. Representative Frank Pallone called for a Congressional hearing. "If Uber did indeed secretly pay-off the hackers to keep the breach quiet, then a possible cover up of the incident is problematic and must be investigated," Pallone said in a statement. Britain's data protection authority said it would work with agencies in the United Kingdom and overseas to investigate the matter. "If UK citizens were affected, then we should have been notified so that we could assess and verify the impact on people whose data was exposed," James Dipple-Johnstone, deputy commissioner of the UK Information Commissioner's Office, said in a statement. British law carries a maximum penalty of 500,000 pounds ($662,000) for failing to notify users and regulators when data breaches occur. "Deliberately concealing breaches from regulators and citizens could attract higher fines for companies," Dipple-Johnstone said. The stolen information included names, email addresses and phone numbers of 57 million Uber users around the world, and the names and license numbers of 600,000 U.S. drivers, according to a blog post by Uber's new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, who replaced co-founder Travis Kalanick as CEO in August. Uber said it fired its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, and a deputy, Craig Clark, this week over their role in the incident. Sullivan, formerly the top security official at Facebook Inc and a federal prosecutor, served as both security chief and deputy general counsel for Uber. Sullivan declined comment. Clark could not be reached for comment. Kalanick, through a spokesman, declined to comment. The former CEO remains on the Uber board of directors, and Khosrowshahi has said he consults with him regularly. A stream of executives have left Uber in recent months amid controversies involving sexual harassment, data privacy and business practices in Asia. The board removed Kalanick as CEO in June. London's transport regulator recently pulled Uber's operating license, saying the company failed to deal with public safety and security issues. Uber is appealing the decision. The agency said on Wednesday it was seeking more information about the breach. "We are pressing them for the full details of what has happened so that we can be satisfied that all the right protections are in place for the personal data of drivers and customers in London," a Transport for London spokesman said. Uber said earlier this month it had struck an agreement to allow Japan's SoftBank Group <9984.T> to invest up to $10 billion, most of it by buying shares from existing investors. The final price has yet to be decided, and SoftBank could back out if not enough Uber investors are willing to sell at the right price. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
The UK's digital minister has said the October 2016 data breach that Uber disclosed this week does affect UK users -- though it's still unclear how many are impacted at this stage.

Making a statement in parliament yesterday, Matt Hancock said:

We are verifying the extent and the amount of information. When we have a sufficient assessment, we will publish the details of the impact on UK citizens, and we plan to do that in a matter of days. As far as we can tell, the hack was not perpetrated in the UK, so our role is to understand how UK citizens are affected. We are working with the Information Commissioners Office and the National Cyber Security Centre, and they are talking to the US Federal Trade Commission and others to get to the bottom of things. At this stage, our initial assessment is that the stolen information is not the sort that would allow direct financial crime, but we are working urgently to verify that further, and we rule nothing out. Our advice to Uber drivers and customers is to be vigilant and to monitor accounts, especially for phishing activity. If anyone thinks they are a victim, contact the Action Fraud helpline and follow the NCSC guidance on passwords and best practice.

On Tuesday, a year after it had learned about the breach, Uber informed the press that hackers had accessed the personal data of 57 million Uber users and drivers.

It said ~50M Uber riders were affected and around seven million drivers. Data accessed included names, email addresses and phone numbers in the case of Uber users. Some 600,000 US drivers license numbers were also accessed. Uber has claimed no financial information leaked.

It also apparently paid $100,000 to the hackers to delete the data.

Uber also said some of the data involved users of its service outside the US, though it has not yet publicly provided a breakdown of specific affected markets.

"We do not have sufficient confidence in the number that Uber has told us to go public on it," said Hancock, responding to questions put to him in parliament about the breach, and implying the government believes the figure Uber has provided is too small to be credible.

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"We are working with the National Cyber Security Centre and the ICO [UK's data watchdog] to have more confidence in the figure," he continued, pointing out that in the case of the recent Equifax breach, which also affected UK users, the "initial figure suggested went up".

"We want to get to the bottom of it and will publish further details within days, and if required I will be happy to come before the House to take further questions," he added.

Reached for a response to Hancock's comments, an Uber spokesperson told us he could not provide any additional information on the breakdown of the breach at this stage.

"We are in the process of notifying various regulatory and government authorities and we expect to have ongoing discussions with them. Until we complete that process we aren't in a position to get into any more details," he added.

Meanwhile, the European Union's Article 29 Working Party -- aka the influential data agency that's made up of representatives from all 28 EU Member State's national data protection bodies -- said it has added the Uber data breach to its agenda for its next plenary session, due to take place on November 28 and 29.

A spokeswoman for the group told us: "It is too soon to talk about the possible actions that have to be decided by the group. The enforcement actions are still on the national level until GDPR next May (investigations, sanctions). But the plenary session could decide for example to dedicate a taskforce to coordinate the national initiatives."

GDPR refers to the incoming General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into force across the EU in May 2018.

The regulation sets a new standard for breach disclosures -- of just 72 hours after a company has become aware of an intrusion that has compromised personal data.

The new rules are also backed up by far stiffer penalties for non-compliance, including a fine of 4% of a company's annual global turnover (or 20M, whichever is greater).

For now though, Uber faces a compliance patchwork of different national rules across any European Union countries impacted by the data breach.

In the UK, Uber could be on the hook for a fine of 500,000 if it's found to have broken UK data protection law -- aka the current maximum the ICO can leverage, ahead of new legislation currently being debated to align UK law with the incoming EU regulation.

Responding to a question on whether he believes Uber has broken current UK law, Hancock said it "would be a matter for the courts" -- but added: "I think there is a very high chance that it has."

He further revealed the government only learned about the breach via the media: "As far as we are aware, the first notification to UK authorities -- whether the government, the ICO or the NCSC [National Cyber Security Centre] -- was through the media," he said.

Labour MP Wes Streeting took the opportunity to press Hancock on the government's response to Transport for London stripping Uber of its license to operate in the city in September -- a decision Uber is currently appealing.

"Does he think that a company that covers up the theft of data and pays a ransom to criminal hackers can possibly be considered a fit and proper operator of licensed minicabs in our towns and cities?" Streeting asked the minister, accusing the government of attacking London's mayor for his support of the Uber ban.

"Given that we now know that Uber plays fast and loose with the personal data of its 57 million customers and drivers, is it not time that the government stopped cosying up to this grubby, unethical company and started standing up for the public interest?"

"Licensing taxi companies and private hire companies is rightly for local authorities. This is a data protection issue, and we are dealing with it with the utmost urgency," responded Hancock, going on to note that the government is currently legislating for higher fines for data protection failures, in a new Data Protection Bill, as well as pointing to the incoming 72-hour breach disclosure standard which will align UK law with GDPR.

"Delaying notification is unacceptable unless there is a very good reason and is, as I said, an aggravating factor when the Information Commissioner looks into such cases," he added.

Yesterday the ICO put out a strongly worded statement regarding the Uber breach, saying it "raises huge concerns" and warning that companies that conceal breaches can "attract higher fines".

The Uber breach has also renewed calls for the government to rethink its approach to data redress by supporting a provision being added to the Data Protection Bill to allow independent bodies to pursue data redress on behalf of consumers.

Last month UK consumer group Which? called for the government to give independent bodies the power to seek collective redress on behalf of consumers when a company has failed to take sufficient action in the wake of a data breach.

However the government has so far opposed any such provision.

"Uber's data breach -- and the fact that it's been hidden -- will worry customers and drivers alike. It's critical that the company does all that it can to ensure affected people get clear information about whats happened," said Which?'s MD of home products and services, Alex Neill, discussing the Uber breach in the Telegraph.

"Data breaches are becoming more and more common and yet the protections for consumers are lagging behind. The UK Government should use the Data Protection Bill to give independent bodies the power to seek collective redress on behalf of affected customers when a company has failed to take sufficient action following a data breach."

Hancock was also pressed in parliament on whether the government will now commit to reversing its opposition to collective redress -- to, as one MP put it, "show that we are on the side of consumers and employers, not huge corporations that are careless with our data".

He responded by claiming the government had rejected an amendment to include collective redress because it "pushed in the opposite direction" to the "principle" behind the Data Protection Bill which he said aims to "increase the level of consent required and peoples control over their own data".

But he also noted that the draft bill will be debated in the House of Commons in due course -- meaning there's at least a possibility that Uber's decision to conceal a massive data breach for so long could end up helping to bolster consumers protections in UK data protection law.

It's even more likely to play an influential role in determining the outcome of Uber's appeal against its London license loss.

While, over in the US, the FTC has also said it's evaluating "serious issues" raised by the breach. And the New York AG has also launched an investigation of the $100k hack cover up.

Uber will likely soon be facing multiple class action lawsuits in the US too.
US ride-hailing app Uber has had its licence refused in the British city of York, creating more headaches for the company in Britain. (AFP Photo/Anthony WALLACE) (AFP/File)

San Francisco (AFP) - Two US states said Wednesday they are investigating Uber's cover-up of a hack at the ride-sharing giant that compromised the personal information of 57 million users and drivers.

Uber purportedly paid data thieves $100,000 to destroy the swiped information -- and remained quiet about the breach for a year.

That decision evidently came despite a promise by the firm to "adopt leading data security protection practices" in a settlement with New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman.

Schneiderman and his counterpart in Connecticut, George Jepsen, on Wednesday told AFP that Uber is the target of probes in their states over the hidden hack.

"None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it," Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over at the company in August, said Tuesday.

Two members of the Uber information security team who "led the response" that included not alerting users about the data breach were let go from the San Francisco-based company effective Tuesday, according to Khosrowshahi.

The Uber chief said he only recently learned that outsiders had broken into a cloud-based server used by the company for data and downloaded a "significant" amount of information.

Stolen files included names, email addresses, and mobile phone numbers for riders, and the names and driver license information of some 600,000 drivers, according to Uber.

Uber paid the hackers $100,000 to destroy the data, not telling riders or drivers whose information was at risk, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Co-founder and ousted chief Travis Kalanick was advised of the breach shortly after it was discovered, but it was not made public until Khosrowshahi learned of the incident, the source confirmed.

- Promise to protect -

In early 2016, Schneiderman announced a settlement with Uber stemming from an investigation into the company's handling and protection of riders' personal information.

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The probe was prompted by word of a hack, and by reports that Uber executives were able to track the locations of riders in real-time using a tool known internally as "God View."

The settlement required Uber to better protect rider data, and pay $20,000 for failing to tell drivers about the 2014 data breach in a timely manner.

Schneiderman's office determined that the earlier hack took advantage of access information posted by an Uber engineer at software development platform Github.

Computer security specialists interviewed by AFP said the recent breach apparently involved a similar slip with a password that was taken from Github and used to get into Uber data stored in the cloud at Amazon Web Services.

"The fact that attackers were able to compromise an Amazon Web Services account and not come away with credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other highly sensitive information could mean that Uber had controls in place to keep this kind of data very well-secured," said Covata vice president of security Mike Fleck.

"Its also possible that the attackers just didn't look very hard and Uber got lucky."

Hackers are known to take seemingly low-value information, such as email addresses, and build on them with what they can find or steal elsewhere to prey on victims, according to McAfee vice president of labs Vincent Weafer.

"On the hacker side, there is aggregation, tying disparate data sets together," Weafer said.

"There is no such thing as benign information; we really have to take better care."

Law firm Keller Rohrback put out word on Wednesday that it is looking into the potential for a class action suit against Uber.

"By choosing not to disclose this massive data breach and attempting to mitigate the breach by paying the hackers to destroy the data, Uber has essentially rolled the dice with its customers' and drivers' personal identities," law firm partner Cari Campen Laufenberg said in a release.

State law in Uber's home state of California calls on companies to disclose big data breaches without unreasonable delay, meaning the handling of the hack could herald a rough stretch of road there.
(Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc said on Thursday that it discussed a massive data breach with potential investor SoftBank Group Corp ahead of going public with details of the incident on Tuesday. The ride-hailing service is trying to complete a deal in which the Japanese company would invest as much as $10 billion (7.52 billion) for at least 14 percent of Uber, mostly by buying out existing shareholders. We informed SoftBank that we were investigating a data breach, consistent with our duty to disclose to a potential investor, even though our information at the time was preliminary and incomplete," Uber said in a statement. "We also made clear that our forensic investigation was ongoing," Uber said. "Once our internal inquiry concluded and we had a more complete understanding of the facts, we disclosed to regulators and our customers in a very public way. Uber described its early discussion with SoftBank when asked to comment on a Thursday Wall Street Journal report on the disclosure, which the newspaper said occurred about three weeks ago. The Wall Street Journal also said that more than two months elapsed between the time Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi learned of the breach and this week's disclosure, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Uber did not say when Khosrowshahi first learned of the breach, or reveal the specific date of its disclosure to SoftBank. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto and Kanishka Singh in BengalaruEditing by Marguerita Choy)
(SAN FRANCISCO)  For months before a shooting rampage that killed five people, a violent feud brewed among the gunman and his neighbors on a dirt road in a tiny rural community in Northern California.

Tehama County sheriffs deputies received 21 calls in the past year from Kevin Neal and other residents of three ramshackle homes on Bobcat Lane, according to documents released Tuesday to The Associated Press in response to a public records request.

Neal and his wife told police their neighbors were cooking methamphetamine. The neighbors reported violent acts by Neal: He punched a female neighbor in the face, repeatedly shot his gun and, in January, stabbed another woman neighbor who he believed was poisoning his dog.

That stabbing led to Neals arrest but he was quickly out on bail and, despite a restraining order and a requirement that he surrender his weapons, continued to harass his neighbors and fire his weapon, according to the documents.

Police never re-arrested Neal and on Nov. 13 he killed his wife and the next day killed two neighbors, two others and wounded eight people during a 45-minute rampage through Rancho Tehama Reserve before being fatally shot by police.

One of the wounded was a 6-year-old boy shot in the chest when Neal opened fire at an elementary school in what may have been an attempt to carry out a threat to kill the 7-year-old son of one of the neighbors who was shot to death.

Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston defended his deputies handling of the situation on Bobcat Lane, saying there never was enough evidence to arrest Neal for violating conditions of his release by firing a weapon.

Not one person could say they saw Mr. Neal with a firearm, Johnston said. No one could say they (shots) absolutely came from his residence.

Neal, 44, was out on bail after being arrested in January on suspicion of stabbing neighbor Hailey Poland and accosting her and Diana Lee Steele, 68, who was killed in the rampage.

A judge ordered Neal to stay away from the women and to surrender all of his firearms. But months after Neals arrest, the women called the Tehama County Sheriffs Department several times to report Neal had been firing a gun.

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In one week in August, the two women called sheriffs deputies for help three times. In one of the instances, Poland told the dispatcher that she had a restraining order against Neal and that he was outside her house with a flashlight, firing at her house and car, according to an incident report.

Records show police seized an AR-15 rifle from Neal when he was arrested and that once out on bail he certified that he surrendered a handgun. Johnston said investigators believe last week Neal used two homemade assault rifles and two handguns registered to someone else.

Records show seven of the calls in the past year were initiated by Neal and his wife, Barbara Glisan, often reporting foul odors from what they said were neighbors cooking methamphetamine.

Neal once called 911 to report that he thought Steeles adult son, Danny Elliott, had pointed a gun at him and showed sheriffs deputies surveillance video that apparently captured the incident.

The deputies said in their report that the video captured Elliott moving a rifle from the front seat to backseat of his car, not pointing the gun at Neal.

Another neighbor told reporters last week that Neal had threatened out loud that he was going to kill Elliott and then go to the elementary school to kill Elliotts son. Elliott was among those killed last week.

District Attorney Gregg Cohen said sheriffs officials never informed his office about the repeated calls accusing Neal of firing a gun but stopped short of blaming sheriffs officials.

Im not going to speculate or make a suggestion that someone did or didnt do something, he said.

Johnston said prosecutors had access to the sheriffs records and could have reached out to the victims if they were concerned, but deputies didnt have probable cause to search Neals house to see if he still had guns.

Ill say this: Were we confident that Mr. Neal surrendered all of his firearms? No. Did we have probable cause to search (for them)? No, Johnston said.
It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Illinois Tool Works Inc. ITW. Shares have added about 2.6% in that time frame, outperforming the market.

Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to the stock's next earnings release, or is it due for a pullback? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted of late, let's take a quick look at its most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important catalysts.

Third-Quarter 2017 Highlights



Illinois Tool Works reported impressive results for third-quarter 2017, pulling off a positive earnings surprise of 3.64%. Results were primarily driven by sales growth, benefits from enterprise initiatives and 2.7% fall in the diluted share count due to the company's active share buyback activities.



Earnings in the quarter came in at $1.71 per share, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.65 and roughly 14% above the year-ago tally of $1.50. As noted, the bottom-line results excluded roughly 14 cents benefit accrued from a legal settlement.



Organic and Forex Gains Drove Top-Line Results



The quarter's revenues totaled $3,615 million, reflecting growth of 4% from the year-ago tally. The improvement was driven by 2% organic gains and 2% positive impact of foreign currency movements.



Also, the top-line result surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.58 billion.



Illinois Tool Works reports its revenues under the segments discussed below:



Test & Measurement and Electronics' revenues increased 1.8% year over year to $525 million. Revenues from Automotive OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) grew 4.1% to $795 million. Food Equipment generated revenues of $549 million, increasing 1.1% year over year.



Welding revenues came in at $378 million, growing 4.8% year over year. Construction Products' revenues were up 6% to $440 million while revenues of $498 million from Specialty Products reflected growth of 4.6%. Polymers & Fluids' revenues of $434 million increased 2.6% year over year.



Margin Profile Improves



In the quarter, Illinois Tool Works' cost of sales increased 3.3% year over year, representing 57.9% of total revenues compared with 58% in the year-ago quarter. Selling, administrative, and research and development expenses, as a percentage of total revenues, came in at 16.3%.



Operating margin improved 130 bps year over year to 24.4%, driven by roughly 110 bps contributions from enterprise initiatives. The margin excluded the impact from the legal settlement.



Cash Position Strong, Debt Increases



Exiting the third quarter, Illinois Tool Works had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $2,785 million, up from $2,496 million recorded in the previous quarter. Also, the company generated net cash of $780 million from its operating activities in the quarter, up 25% year over year. Capital expenditure on purchase of plant and equipment totaled $78 million. Adjusted free cash flow was $702 million, reflecting a conversion rate (as a percentage of net income) of 110%.



The company's long-term debt balance increased 1.1% sequentially to $7,439 million.



Outlook: Illinois Tool Works increased its GAAP earnings guidance to $6.62-$6.72 per share, reflecting 25 cents growth at mid-point.



Organic revenue growth is expected to be 2-3% while operating margin is projected to be 24.5%. Full-year free cash flow is anticipated to be in excess of 100% of net income.



For fourth-quarter 2017, GAAP earnings per share are expected within $1.55-$1.65. Organic revenues are expected to be 2-3%.

Story continues

How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?

Following the release, investors have witnessed an upward trend in fresh estimates. There have been two revisions higher for the current quarter. While looking back an additional 30 days, we can see even more upward momentum. There have been seven five moves up in the last two months.

Illinois Tool Works Inc. Price and Consensus

Illinois Tool Works Inc. Price and Consensus | Illinois Tool Works Inc. Quote

VGM Scores

At this time, Illinois Tool Works' stock has a nice Growth Score of B, however its Momentum is doing a bit better with an A. However, the stock was allocated a grade of D on the value side, putting it in the bottom 40% for this investment strategy.

Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of C. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.

Our style scores indicate that the stock is more suitable for momentum investors than growth investors.

Outlook

Estimates have been trending upward for the stock. The magnitude of these revisions also looks promising. Notably, the stock has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We expect in-line returns from the stock in the next few months.



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Ranger Energy Services, Inc. (RNGR) shares have started gaining and might continue moving higher in the near term, as indicated by solid earnings estimate revisions.

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  November 24, 2017  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Hawaiian Holdings HA, Allegiant Travel Company ALGT, Copa Holdings CPA, Alaska Air Group ALK and United Continental Holdings UAL.

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.

Here are highlights from Wednesdays Analyst Blog:

Airline Stock Roundup: HA's Long-Serving CEO to Retire, CPA, ALGT in Focus

This week Hawaiian Airlines  the wholly owned subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings  announced the appointment of Peter Ingram as its president and chief executive officer. Notably, Ingram will replace Mark Dunkerley from Mar 1, 2018, as a result of the latters retirement.

Additionally, Allegiant Air, which is owned by Allegiant Travel Company, grabbed headlines by virtue of its pay-related tentative five-year deal with the union representing its flight attendants. During the week, Copa Holdings and Alaska Air Group unveiled their respective traffic numbers for October. While load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) increased at Copa Holdings, the metric declined at Alaska Air Group as capacity expansion was surpassed by traffic growth at the Seattle, WA based carrier.

Furthermore, expansion-related updates from United Continental Holdings and Alaska Air Groups subsidiary, Alaska Airlines, also grabbed headlines in the past five trading days.

(Read the last Airline Stock Roundup for Nov 15, 2017).

Recap of the Past Weeks Most Important Stories

1. Hawaiian Airlines announced that its CEO Mark Dunkerley will retire in March 2018. Dunkerley will be succeeded by Peter Ingram, currently the airlines chief commercial officer. Having joined the company in 2002, Dunkerley served the post since 2005 for both Hawaiian Airlines as well as its parent company. His tenure has been one of the longest in the airline industry. (Read more: Hawaiian Holdings Arm to Bid CEO Dunkerley Adieu Next March)

Story continues

2. Copa Holdings reported a substantial rise in traffic for October. Traffic  measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs)  came in at 1.71 billion, up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis.

Consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) expanded 11.5% to 2 billion. Load factor expanded 150 basis points (bps) to 84.8% as traffic growth outweighed capacity expansion of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company. (Read more: Copa Holdings' October Traffic and Load Factor Rise)

You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

3. At Alaska Air Group, RPMs came in 4.37 billion, up 11%. ASMs rose 11.6% to 5.21 billion. Load factor contracted 40 bps to 83.8% as capacity expansion outpaced traffic growth. (Read more: Alaska Air Group Traffic Rises in October, Load Factor Dips)

On a separate note, Alaska Airlines announced its decision to start operating flights on a daily basis connecting Seattle and Pittsburgh from Sep 6, 2018. These nonstop flights will be the first such service connecting two popular destinations. (Read more: Alaska Air Group Arm to Initiate Seattle-Pittsburgh Flights)

4. Allegiant Air announced that it has reached a tentative agreement with Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents its 1,150 flight attendants after many years of negotiation. Tentative agreements, however, do not necessarily mean that the deal will be operational. They will be effective only on ratification. In fact, Allegiant and TWU had reached a tentative deal last year as well. However, it was voted down by the flight attendants. Allegiant will be hoping that results of the ratification vote are favorable this time. Results of the ratification vote are anticipated to be out by year end. The deal, if ratified, will result in significant pay raises for the flight attendants.

5. In a bid to expand its domestic network, United Continental announced its decision to add flights from five of its hubs in the United States to 10 cities in California, Florida, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Texas. The daily year-round flights, expected to be launched in April 2018, will meet the surge in demand for air travel next spring. The company also intends to start operating daily seasonal flights from the O'Hare International Airport (ORD) and Los Angeles (LAX) from June 2018, as part of its expansion drive. The carrier also aims to enhance operations at ORD from February 2018.

What's Next in the Airline Space?

With the earnings season over, stay tuned for the usual news updates in the space. Moreover, it is likely to be a busy week for carriers ahead with the Thanksgiving week in progress. Stay tuned for further updates on the issue.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.



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On Nov 21, we issued an updated research report on Warsaw, IN-based Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. ZBH. The company carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Over the last three months, this leading musculoskeletal healthcare company was trading below the broader industry on macroeconomic uncertainties, pricing pressure and unfavorable currency fluctuations. The stock has gained 0.2% versus the broader industrys 7% gain.

The companys third-quarter results fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate and its own expectations. Per management, Zimmer Biomet is grappling with headwinds such as supply delay of certain products, leading to the inability of regaining lost customers in the United States and tapping new ones; the softened domestic market conditions; the impact of consecutive hurricanes and a significant price reduction in the Indian knee market. The trimmed 2017 guidance adds to our concerns indicating little chances of recovery ahead.

Estimate revision trend for 2017 also remains unfavorable with 17 estimates moving south and none in the opposite direction over the past month. The stock has seen the Zacks Consensus Estimate being revised 20 cents downward over this period to $8.04 per share.

On a positive note, we look forward to the expected synergies to be drawn from the recently completed LDR Holding acquisition, which should broaden and complement the companys musculoskeletal offering. This is in line with its strategy to grow through inorganic means by focusing on mega buyouts. We are also impressed by the strong strategic and financial goals which the combined entity anticipates to reach, now that the deal has been closed.

Zimmer Biomet has been of late working to strengthen its foothold in the emerging markets that provide long-term opportunities. The companys strategic investments in these regions over several quarters with a view to enhance operational and sales performance are yielding results.

Story continues

Key Picks

A few better-ranked medical stocks are PetMed Express, Inc. PETS, Align Technology, Inc. ALGN and Myriad Genetics, Inc. MYGN, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

PetMed has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 10%. The stock has rallied roughly 79.4% in a year.

Align Technologyhas a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 28.9%. The stock has gained 168.4% over a year.

Myriad Geneticshas a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 15%. The stock has surged 91.6% in a year.

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Three Georgian soldiers were injured when their vehicle came under attack near Bagram Airfield outside the Afghan capital, Kabul.

A spokesman for the NATO Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan said that none of the injuries from the November 23 incident were considered life-threatening.

Captain Tom Gresback said the injuries occurred when a motorcycle-borne improvised explosive device was detonated near the vehicle in which the soldiers were conducting a routine patrol.

Georgia's Defense Ministry confirmed the report, adding that the soldiers were members of the 31st infantry battalion of the Third Infantry Brigade.

With about 880 troops in Afghanistan, Georgia is one of the leading contributors to the 13,500-strong NATO-led force, after the United States, Italy, and Germany.

In August, a Georgian soldier was killed and six other NATO troops injured in a convoy attack near the place where the November 23 attack occurred.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Agenda.ge
Kyrgyzstan's new president has been inaugurated in the capital, Bishkek, in a first peaceful transfer of power between elected presidents in the region.

Sooronbai Jeenbekov replaces President Almazbek Atambaev, who was constitutionally barred from seeking a second term.

Delivering remarks in both Kyrgyz and Russian at his inauguration ceremony, Jeenbekov pledged to protect the "unity of the country."

Jeenbekov, who served as Atambaev's prime minister from April 2016 to August 2017, also vowed to tackle rampant corruption in the Central Asian state of 6 million.

"A ruthless fight against corruption has begun. Conditions have been created to purify society," he said.

According to official results, Jeenbekov won the October 15 election with 54 percent of the vote -- enought to avoid a runoff -- after a campaign in which critics said the outgoing president used the courts, law enforcement, and other levers of power to put his former prime minister in power.

Jeenbekov's main rival, Omurbek Babanov, gained just short of 34 percent of the vote and has alleged that the voting was marred by violations.

International observers praised the vote as competitive and transparent, but said that "numerous and significant problems were noted" during the count and that "misuse of public resources, pressure on voters, and vote buying remain a concern."

Atambaev defended the results of the election in comments following the November 24 inauguration ceremony, calling the ballot "transparent and competitive." He said he was confident Jeenbekov would "continue Kyrgyzstan's chosen path toward development and prosperity."

Jeenbekov's inauguration marks the first peaceful handover of power from one elected president to another in any Central Asian country since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Presidents were driven from power by street protests in Kyrgyzstan in 2005 and 2010, and for more than two decades only the death of a president in office has ushered in a new leader in any of the other four countries in the region.

With reporting by AFP
A suicide bomber on a motorcycle has killed a senior regional police official in northwestern Pakistan and one of his guards, police said.

Six other people were injured in the attack in Peshawar on November 24 that killed deputy provincial police chief Ashraf Noor, city police chief Tahir Khan said.

Noor also held the additional rank of inspector-general of police.

Khan said Noor was traveling to his office when the attacker slammed into his vehicle with the motorcycle. He said some of the attacker's remains had been recovered by police.

Peshawar is the capital of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, where Pakistani Taliban often target security forces.

Television footage from the scene of the attack showed the burning vehicle as firefighters attempted to extinguish the blaze.

Khan said that Noor died at the scene, and that one of his five guards later died in the hospital.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though authorities have previously accused Islamic State militants and the Pakistani Taliban of carrying out similar attacks in the country.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi "strongly" condemned the attack.

"Our resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism cannot be shaken," he said.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and Dawn
ishitagohil wrote:

Hello Everyone! I am looking forward to apply to Canadian B-schools for fall 2018 intake. I have 4 years of professional experience in the Indian banking industry. I do not want to apply to the top five bschools viz. Rotman, Schulich, Ivey...etc. because of the high tution fees. So I needed some advice about tier-2 bschools in Canada which are good for MBA finance. Also, I am considering to apply to Universities in the vicinity of Toronto and Vancouver.

I hope you people can guide me in this matter. Thanks.

I understand that high tuition might seem insurmountable, but I don't think this is the correct way of going about it if you are planning on staying in Canada. Yes, the tuition is high, but you will generally make that back in a few years due to the increased opportunities and better positions you'd get after one of these schools. Rotman's graduates average 93k a year. Degroote's average is 73k. Thats a 100k difference in earnings after 5 years post grad. That alone covers the tuition difference, and some. Not to mention the extra stock/bonuses/etc.If you are planning on moving out of Canada to a place where salaries are lower, then I can understand the worry. If not, I would aim for the best program you can get into.Per finance specialties, there isn't nearly as much depth in the Canadian schools as there is in the US, so I would recommend just following overall rankings. Any of them should be able to help place you into strong finance roles with your background.
Request for Profile Evaluation| Female | 21 | 690 GMAT | 7.7 CGPA [ #permalink

Hello Experts,



I am currently a final year student in Bachelors of Engineering (Computer Science) non-IIT college in India. Can you please evaluate my profile for the best suited MiM courses as well as MBA courses in top universities which accept recent graduates. Here is my profile:





Below is my profile :



1) GMAT: 690 (1st attempt)

2) CGPA: 7.7/10 (Absolute grading; among top 10%)

3) Female - 21 years old

4) Member of college's social society; Led multiple events.

5) Volunteered for 6 months in an NGO.

6) 2 IT internships, one in GE and the other in State Government organisation.

7) Part-time work experience at mother's Chartered Accountancy firm.

8) Have won multiple competitions at college.











Thanks for taking out your time and reading my profile.

Your suggestions would be of great help.
Fri, 11/18 (10:30am ET): How to Write the Best M7 MBA Essays
vshaunak@gmail.com wrote:

The first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, it was Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1959, and was later made into both a film and a musical.





A. it was Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1959, and was later made



B. in 1959 A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and was later made



C. Lorraine Hansberry won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for A Raisin in the Sun in 1959, and it was later made



D. Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1959 and was later made



E. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1959, and later made it

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers

A:

B:

C:

Lorraine Hansberry

A Raisin in the Sun

D:

Correct.

A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun

by some other entity

E:

A Raisin in the Sun

some unspecified thing

A Raisin in the Sun

by some other entity

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

Dear Friends,Here is a detailed explanation to this question-Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun was the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1959 and was later made into both a film and a musical.This answer choice incorrectly uses "The first commercially successful drama...Broadway" to modify the placeholder pronoun "it", producing an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun was the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway; remember, in the phrase + comma + noun and noun + comma + phrase constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.This answer choice incorrectly uses "The first commercially successful drama...Broadway" to modify the prepositional phrase "in 1959 A Raisin in the Sun", producing an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun was the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway; remember, in the phrase + comma + noun and noun + comma + phrase constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.This answer choice incorrectly uses "The first commercially successful drama...Broadway" to modify the noun "Lorraine Hansberry", illogically conveying thatwas the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway; the intended meaning is that Lorraine Hansberryswas the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway; remember, in the phrase + comma + noun and noun + comma + phrase constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.This answer choice correctly uses "The first commercially successful drama...Broadway" to modify the noun phrase "Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun", conveying the intended meaning - that Lorraine Hansberryswas the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway. Further, Option D uses the phrase "and was later made into both a film and a musical", conveying the intended meaning - thatwas madeinto both a film and a musical.This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "and later made it into both a film and a musical"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies thatmadeinto both a film and a musical; the intended meaning is thatwas madeinto both a film and a musical.To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase", you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):All the best!Team_________________
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
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Guwahati, Nov 23 (IBNS): Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd, on Thursday started its banking operations in Guwahati with the launch of a branch.

The new branch was inaugurated at Lachit Nagar area in the capital city of Assam.

It is the second live branch of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (USFB) in Assam.

During a press conference held in Guwahati, MD and CEO of USFB Ltd Samit Ghosh said that, USFB started its banking operations in February last year with pilot branches in Bangalore.

Currently we 17 branches in eight districts of Assam catering to over 1.5 lakh customers and 12 branches will be converted to USFB this year and rest to be converted next year. There are a total of 26 branches in North East region covering three states Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura. We are looking to extend our business to other NE states, Samit Ghosh said.

In nine months of our bank launch, we have established our presence across all four regions with 110 bank branches covering 19 states and union territories. We will continue to increase our banking footprint across the country to serve the target customer segments, Samit Ghosh said.

On the other hand, Chief Operating Officer of USFB Ltd Ittira Davis said that, USFB is oofering savings bank account with no charges for minimum balance.

We are providing a whole host of benefits such as doorstep banking, mobile, internet and phone banking, access to biometric ATMs and Aadhar enabled debit cards. Aadhar enabled KYC facilities paperless account opening in approximately 5-7 minutes using biometric authentication on a hand-held device. The device can also be used for cash deposits, withdrawals and fund transfers at the customers doorstep. The customers of USFB will have unlimited access to ATM transactions on Ujjivans ATM network and a total of six free transactions on other banks ATM network, Davis said.

On the other hand, USFB also launched a educational film on financial literacy titled Paison Ki ABCD inpartnership with Parinaam Foundation.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Islamabad Nov 24 (IBNS): A speeding bus crashed into a motorcycle on MA Jinnah Road in Pakistan's Karachi city on Friday, killing a girl, media reports said.

The deceased girls' father was injured in the incident.

Enraged bystanders, after witnessing the unfortunate incident, torched two buses which were reportedly racing on MA Jinnah Road towards Numaish, before one of the buses crashed into the motorcycle, Geo News reported.

The driver of the bus escaped from the site of the incident.
There is nothing to suggest that Khanzadis claims are credible, however. In fact, NBC News pointed out that the previous commander of the Iranian navy had made virtually identical claims in 2014 before saying that the plans to take up a position in Americas backyard had been delayed by a change of schedule. Furthermore, Iranian officials have a long track record of boastful comments about the countrys military capabilities, and even about its readiness for war with the United States, Israel, and their allies.

While it cannot be denied that Iran has made some strides in the development of its military technology, it nonetheless remains true that the Iranian armed forces are overwhelmingly reliant on outdated equipment. The range of Iranian ballistic missiles has increased in recent years, but the country lacks heavy warships and submarines capable of operating away from home for long periods of time. Although Irans air force is larger than that of its immediate neighbors, it is mostly comprised of aircraft that date back to before the 1979 Iranian revolution. Newly unveiled Iranian military equipment often turns out to be non-working mock-ups or old equipment with superficial modifications.

Propaganda and Muslim Unity

But these facts may go unrecognized by some Iranians whose access to information is dramatically limited by the regimes heavy censorship. For these people and for supporters and affiliates of that regime, Khanzadis remarks only served as further support for a large-scale propaganda project aimed at projecting an image of the Islamic Republic as a world power capable of standing toe-to-toe with global superpowers.

Further illustrating that effort, Azer News reported on Thursday that Khanzadis remarks had been closely followed by a similarly boastful speech delivered to a religious conference by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. In it he said that Iranian military and paramilitary forces were prepared to help any other countries in countering the arrogance front, a term used by the Iranian regime to describe Western powers. Khameneis speech also called for unity all Muslims, thus highlighting the regimes commitment to positioning itself as the de facto leader of the Muslim world in a conflict with the US, Europe, and Israel.

This goal has certainly been a major contributing factor in the escalating tensions between Iran and its main regional rival, Saudi Arabia, which fills a similar role for Sunni Muslims as Irans Shiite theocracy does for adherents to that branch of Islam. This in turn calls attention to Irans apparent efforts to develop a Shiite crescent stretching from Tehran to Beirut and potentially beyond, thus solidifying Iranian leadership within the Shiite-majority portion of the Muslim world.

The notion of a Shiite crescent was a major focal point in an article published by the Washington Times on Wednesday regarding the entrenchment of Irans influence in Syria, where a six-year civil war is evidently coming to a close following the defeat of Islamic State militants in their last territorial holdings. This had been preceded by the reclamation of territory from moderate rebels working to unseat Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, an ally of the Iranian regime. The Washington Times article recalls attention to the idea that Tehran and Assad initially focused their efforts on the moderate rebels in order to provide international justification for the continued presence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and its affiliates in Syrian territory.

Now that presence is poised to become permanent. Citing an intelligence report from the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the Washington Times reports that Mohammad Bagheri, the head of the Iranian armed forces traveled to the Syrian city of Aleppo last year in order to secure an agreement with the Assad government permitting the Iranians to remain in the country indefinitely and help to rebuild Syrian military bases.

If the National Councils report is accurate, then Gen. Bagheris agreement signals that Iran is fulfilling a strategic goal of stretching a Red Crescent of domination west from Tehran through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to Israels doorstep, the article affirms.

Declarations of Intent

The NCRIs intelligence appears to be supported by statements from the Iranian regimes own officials, and not just Khameneis recent remarks about Muslim unity and Iranian leadership. Reuters reported on Thursday that the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari had used state media to declare that his organization intends to remain in Syria, assist in rebuilding, and help to establish a lasting ceasefire.

Jafari also underscored the supreme leaders earlier remarks, referring to the global arrogance and praising a resistance front comprised of Irans regional allies and closely overlapping the theoretical Iranian-controlled Shiite crescent. In the same speech, Jafari insisted that the Lebanese paramilitary Hezbollah will not disarm under any circumstances. Financed and effectively controlled by Tehran since its inception, Hezbollah is now widely regarded as the model for more recently formed Iranian proxies, including the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the various militias that fought against the Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq.

Jafari made no effort to conceal the ideology or goals behind Iranian support for Hezbollah, saying it must be armed to fight against the enemy of the Lebanese nation which is Israel. Furthermore, the Algemeiner quotes the IRGC commander as saying any forthcoming war in the Middle East would lead to the eradication of the Zionist regime.

Yet the ongoing financing and armament of Hezbollah is not only a threat to Israel, and neither is the more general increase in Iranian influence over the surrounding region. The Washington Times article notes that Irans imperialist aims in the Middle East have apparently accelerated over the past year, as it contributed directly to conflicts in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, as well as to confirmed terrorist activity in other areas. As always, Hezbollah has been a major agent of these efforts, but the regions of open conflict have created new openings for that terrorist group, which reportedly enjoys a permanent presence in Syria right alongside agents of the IRGC.

In recognition of Hezbollahs role as an arm of Iranian imperialism, Arab states led by Saudi Arabia collectively designated the Lebanese paramilitary and political party as a terrorist group last year. This turned out to be only one aspect of an ongoing effort to push back against Irans regional influence. This week, an emergency meeting was held in Cairo on this same topic, after previous meetings of the Gulf Cooperation Council already singled out the Islamic Republic in their policy statements. Saudi Arabia is also leading an Arab coalition in a fight against the Iran-backed rebels in Yemen.

On Thursday, Gulf Today reported that a parliamentary delegation of the United Arab Emirates had used a meeting of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly to once again call for Iran to stop interfering in the internal affairs of other nations. Turkey, the host of the assembly, has enjoyed closer relations with the Islamic Republic over the past year, but the two remain at odds over the future of the Assad government, which Ankara opposes despite finding common cause with Tehran in other matters. The Associated Press indicates that Turkish diplomats continued to stand by their position on Assad as of Wednesday. Turkey and Iran have both been joined by Russia in negotiating over the situation in Syria, and representatives of all three met this week at the Russian resort town of Sochi.

Subtle Support from Rouhani

At a glance, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani seemed to agree with the UAEs call for non-interference when he spoke at the Sochi gathering. Reuters reports him as saying foreign intervention in the Syrian conflict must come to an end. However, the report notes that he Rouhani did not specifically identify any specific foreign parties. And while he did not call attention to Irans own influence over the conflict, he qualified his remarks by saying that foreign military presence in Syria would be acceptable if it was at the request of Damascus.

Considering that the Iranian president gave no indication of plans for the removal of Iranian forces from that conflict zone, his remarks would appear to support the aforementioned intelligence report by the NCRI, which indicated that the Assad government had effectively requested Iranian presence by signing off on an agreement with the head of the Iranian armed forces, at the request of Supreme Leader Khamenei.

Although Rouhani was initially regarded by some as a moderate who would oversee rapprochement with Western nations, he has failed to live up to that reputation since his first-term election in 2013. Furthermore, various reports have suggested even more open alignment between the president and hardliner entities like the supreme leader and the IRGC since Rouhanis reelection in May of this year. The president did oversee the negotiation of a nuclear deal with the US and five other Western powers in 2015, but he has made no recognizable effort to stand against subsequent escalations in anti-Western rhetoric or against worsening tensions with regional rivals.

Illustrating the apparent absence of serious factional divisions, the Rouhani government has provided several funding increases to the Revolutionary Guards and the armed forces, as well as contributing to the boastful public commentary regarding Irans military and missile capabilities. An editorial in Forbes pointed out on Thursday that the budget for Irans five military entities is 13.5 billion dollars for the current Iranian year. More than half of this is earmarked for the IRGC, whose budget is 24 percent greater this year than last.

Following President Donald Trumps announcement last month that he would not certify Iranian compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement, the White House undertook measures to greatly expand sanctions against the Islamic Republic and particularly against the IRGC, which it identified as a global sponsor of terrorism. As the Trump administration strives to build consensus around this assertive Iran policy, there is little doubt that it will continue to point to these various indicators of Irans regional interference and belligerence. To these the White House may now add the direct threats issued against the US itself by the new head of the Iranian navy.
Ahmadinejad attacked the judiciary and its leader, Sadegh Larijani, in a video interview published on Thursday, for prosecuting his allies. He said that due to the poor performance of the judiciary and its neglect of justice, the whole country is in danger. Several allies of the former president are either convicted or facing pending trials.

One of his deputies, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, is currently serving a 5-year prison sentence due to conviction over corruption.

Last week the head of presidents office under Ahmadinejad, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, was officially charged over insulting the supreme leader, propaganda against the regime, illegal usage of government assets, insulting high ranking state officials and spreading lies.

His other deputy, Hamid Baghaei, is currently facing several legal problems. Ahmadinejad called the charges against Baghaei fabricated. He accused the judiciary of corruption, tyranny and dictatorship.

Baghaeis defense strategy appears to be to also attack the judiciary. I do not have 63 accounts, my daughter is not a spy, and I have not violated any laws in this country, Baghaei said in a speech outside the courthouse after the second session of his trial last month.

This was a reference accusations against Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary. Baghaeis statements resulted in his being charged with defamation of high-ranking officials.

Larijani is reported to have transferred millions of dollars of his institutions income into his private accounts. Unconfirmed reports also allege that his daughter has been charged with espionage for British embassy in Tehran. However, the government and judiciary denied both allegations.

Critical of the fact that prosecutors and prisons in Iran are under the control of the judiciary, Ahmadinejad also said that the judiciary has gave supervision of some prison wards to the intelligence service and the revolutionary guards  which is a clear violation of the law. He referred to the death of the blogger, Sattar Beheshti, 35, in Evin prison in 2012. He called it a result of having security and intelligence organs run the prisons. He insisted that this was wrong and that the judiciary was responsible for it.

Beheshti had criticized the Iranian regime and its leader Ayatollah Khamenei for human rights violations and supporting the Lebanons Hezbollah in his weblog. Beheshti died in custody a few days after his arrest.

Ahmadinejad said, God may help the 17 million others who have a legal case in the judiciary.
Hariri claimed that he would return to Lebanon very soon, and might withdraw his resignation if Hezbollah respects Lebanons policy of staying out of regional conflicts.

On November 4th in Riyadh, Hariri resigned, allegedly due to Iranian influence in Lebanon, and fear for his life. In a television interview, he said the decision was his alone, and that his goal was to cause a positive shock to draw Lebanons attention to the dangers it was facing.

Hariri said that King Salman of Saudi Arabia treated him as his own son, and that he had the greatest respect for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In the interview, broadcast from Riyadh, he said the stability of Lebanon was important for both the king and the crown prince, and that more than any other country, Saudi Arabia had helped Lebanon after the 2006 war with Israel.

Lebanon is a small country and it needs to be nonaligned, and Saudi Arabia always demands the best for Lebanon and stresses the importance of distancing itself. What would happen to 400,000 Lebanese in the Gulf if we join an axis? he said.

Iran must stop meddling in the affairs of Arab countries and we refuse to be taken by Iran to an axis against Arab countries. I will not be drawn to building relations with the Syrian regime, which does not want me. Things have to be straightened out to keep Lebanon away from regional conflicts.

When he agreed to a political settlement for a consensus government with Hezbollah ministers, Hariri lost popularity with the Lebanese people, but the others did not live up to their commitment. I cant be the only one making concessions while the others do whatever they want.

According to Hariri, he visited the UAE last week to explain to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, his position and the need to protect Lebanon. He described their meeting as brotherly and positive.

He denied any connection with the anti-corruption investigation launched in Saudi Arabia last week. I wish we could fight corruption in Lebanon like Saudi Arabia is doing, but fighting corruption in Saudi Arabia is an internal affair that we have nothing to do with. I have not been subjected to any questioning in the context of the campaign in Saudi Arabia.

Hariri said that he was still free to return to Lebanon. His fears of being assassinated like father, Rafiq Hariri, are genuine, but he says, I am free to travel tomorrow if I want to. I will be back in Lebanon in a few days, and adds, I dont care about my life  what matters to me is that Lebanon stays safe.
According to Ghassan Charbels article for Asharq Al-Awsat, he adds, Iranian interference is nothing new. But after the blatant Iranian role in Yemen, it took a more dangerous course. What is new, however, is that targeted countries feel that they can no longer avoid calling things by their proper name and that this interference is a fixed item in Arab meetings and talks with international powers.

The policies of the American administration toward Iran is also new. After signing the nuclear agreement, Iran stepped up its intervention in the region, and the US president refused to re-certify compliance, leaving the future of the deal uncertain.

Now that threats posed by ISIS have diminished, talks regarding Iran have reemerged. Some believe that Irans sectarian-based policy of destabilization is the reason for the fragmentation of national unity in more than one Arab country and that ISIS was born out of these ruptures.

On the eve of the Cairo meeting, Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron discussed the situation in the Middle East. According to the White House, the two presidents agreed on the need to work with allies to counter the destabilizing activities of Hezbollah and Iran in the region. At the meeting, Iran was accused of pursuing sectarian policies, deploying its militias on Arab soil and interfering in internal affairs.

Charbel writes that Three parties must reflect on the outcome of the emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers. He identifies the three as:

Iran  whose behavior was condemned by the participants. The question is whether it wants to coexist with its Arab neighbors, or continue trying to subjugate them.

Hezbollah  which is no longer seen as a resistance against Israel, but as a terrorist organization, based on its role in the Iranian coup.

President Michel Aoun  whose role as president will be meaningless if he does not use his position to defend the interests of the Lebanese people.
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Egyptian media say suspected militants have killed more than 230 people in an attack on a mosque in the northern Sinai Peninsula.

Egypts state-operated news agency reported that officials said the attack took place in a town west of the provincial capital, el-Arish.

The officials said extremists targeted the al-Rawdah mosque during Friday prayers.

Arab media reported that militants in four-wheel-drive vehicles opened fire on people inside the mosque after an explosion. Media reports said this information came from a man who claimed he was inside the religious center at the time of the attack.

Eyewitnesses said the militants fired on emergency rescue vehicles as workers tried to take the wounded to hospitals.

Egyptian military airplanes reportedly attacked suspected terrorist targets in the Sinai following the mosque attack.

The Egyptian government has declared three days of mourning.

Shortly after the attack, Israel expressed its condolences to Egypt. Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 and have cooperated closely on security issues since then.

In the United States, President Donald Trump denounced the attack. He said, The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence! Trumps comments appeared in a statement on Twitter.

Egypt's security forces have been fighting supporters of the self-declared Islamic State group, mostly in the northern Sinai. Militants have killed hundreds of police officers and soldiers since fighting there intensified three years ago.

In July, more than 20 soldiers were killed when vehicles carrying bombs exploded at two military positions in the Sinai. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for those attacks.

The militants have also carried out attacks beyond the Sinai, striking Christian religious centers and civilians in other parts of Egypt. In May, gunmen killed 29 people in an attack on a Coptic Christian group as it was traveling by bus to a remote desert monastery.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Isabela Cocli reported this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted her report for Learning English, with additional information from the Reuter news agency. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

condolence  n. sympathy

tolerate  v. to accept or permit

beyond  adj. outside; away from

monastery  n. a home or center for religious workers

remote - adj. far from someone or something
We present the short story "Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen," by O. Henry. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Department of State.

There is one day that is ours. There is one day when all Americans go back to the old home and eat a big dinner. Bless the day. The President gives it to us every year.

Sometimes he talks about the people who had the first Thanksgiving. They were the Puritans. They were some people who landed on our Atlantic shore. We dont really remember much about them.

But those people ate a large bird called turkey on the first Thanksgiving Day. So we have turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, if we have enough money to buy turkey. That is a tradition.

Yes. Thanksgiving Day is the one day of the year that is purely American. And now here is the story to prove to you that we have old traditions in this new country. They are growing older more quickly than traditions in old countries. That is because we are so young and full of life. We do everything quickly.

Stuffy Pete sat down on a seat in the New York City park named Union Square. It was the third seat to the right as you enter Union Square from the east.

Every Thanksgiving for nine years he had sat down there at one in the afternoon. Every time, things had happened to him. They were wonderful things. They made his heart feel full of joyand they filled another part of him, too. They filled the part below his heart.

On those other Thanksgiving Days he had been hungry. (It is a strange thing. There are rich people who wish to help the poor. But many of them seem to think that the poor are hungry only on Thanksgiving Day.)

But today Pete was not hungry. He had come from a dinner so big that he had almost no power to move. His light green eyes looked out from a gray face on which there was still a little food. His breath was short. His body had suddenly become too big for his clothes; it seemed ready to break out of them. They were torn. You could see his skin through a hole in the front of his shirt. But the cold wind, with snow in it, felt pleasantly cool to him.

For Stuffy Pete was overheated with the warmth of all he had had to eat. The dinner had been much too big. It seemed to him that his dinner had included all the turkey and all the other food in the whole world.

So he sat, very, very full. He looked out at the world without interest, as if it could never offer him anything more.

The dinner had not been expected.

He had been passing a large house near the beginning of that great broad street called Fifth Avenue. It was the home of two old ladies of an old family. These two old ladies had a deep love of traditions. There were certain things they always did. On Thanksgiving Day at noon they always sent a servant to stand at the door. There he waited for the first hungry person who walked by. The servant had orders to bring that person into the house and feed him until he could eat no more. Stuffy Pete happened to pass by on his way to the park. The servant had gathered him in. Tradition had been followed.

Stuffy Pete sat in the park looking straight before him for ten minutes. Then he felt a desire to look in another direction. With a very great effort, he moved his head slowly to the left.

Then his eyes grew wider and his breath stopped. His feet in their torn shoes at the ends of his short legs moved about on the ground.

For the Old Gentleman was coming across Fourth Avenue toward Stuffys seat.

Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years the Old Gentleman had come there to find Stuffy Pete on his seat. That was a thing that the Old Gentleman was trying to make into a tradition. Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years he had found Stuffy there. Then he had led Stuffy to a restaurant and watched him eat a big dinner.

They do these things more easily in old countries like England. They do them without thinking about them.

But in this young country, we must think about them. In order to build a tradition, we must do the same thing again and again for a long time. The Old Gentleman loved his country. He believed he was helping to build a great American tradition. And he had been doing very well. Nine years is a long time here.

The Old Gentleman moved, straight and proud, toward the tradition that he was building. Truly feeding Stuffy Pete once a year was not a very important tradition. There are greater and more important traditions in England. But it was a beginning. It proved that a tradition was at least possible in America.

The Old Gentleman was thin and tall and sixty. He was dressed all in black. He wore eyeglasses. His hair was whiter and thinner than it had been last year. His legs did not seem as strong as they had seemed the year before.

As this kind Old Gentleman came toward him, Stuffy began to shake and his breath was shorter. He wished he could fly away. But he could not move from his seat.

Good morning, said the Old Gentleman. I am glad to see that the troubles of another year have not hurt you. You continue to move in health about the beautiful world. For that blessing you and I can give thanks on this day of thanksgiving. If you will come with me, my man, I will give you a dinner that will surely make your body feel as thankful as your mind.

That is what the Old Gentleman said every time. Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years. The words themselves were almost a tradition. Always before, they had been music in Stuffys ear. But now he looked up at the Old Gentlemans face with tears of suffering in his eyes. The snow turned quickly to water when it fell upon his hot face. But the Old Gentleman was shaking with the cold. He turned away, with his back to the wind, and he did not see Stuffys eyes.

Stuffy had always wondered why the Old Gentleman seemed sad as he spoke. He did not know that it was because the Old Gentleman was wishing that he had a son. A son would come there after he himself was gone. A son would stand proud and strong before Stuffy, and say: In remembrance of my father. Then it would really be a tradition.

But the Old Gentleman had no family. He lived in a room in one of the old houses near the park. In the winter he grew a few flowers there. In the spring he walked on Fifth Avenue. In the summer he lived in a farmhouse in the hills outside New York, and he talked of a strange bug he hoped some day to find. In the fall season he gave Stuffy a dinner. These were the things that filled the Old Gentlemans life.

Stuffy Pete looked up at him for a half minute, helpless and very sorry for himself. The Old Gentlemans eyes were bright with the giving pleasure. His face was getting older every year, but his clothes were very clean and fresh.

And then Stuffy made a strange noise. He was trying to speak. As the Old Gentleman had heard the noise nine times before, he understood it. He knew that Stuffy was accepting.

Thank you. Im very hungry.

Stuffy was very full, but he understood that he was part of a tradition. His desire for food on Thanksgiving Day was not his own. It belonged to this kind Old Gentleman. True, America is free. But there are some things that must be done.

The Old Gentleman led Stuffy to the restaurant and to the same table where they had always gone. They were known here.

Here comes that old man, said a waiter, that buys that old no-good fellow a dinner every Thanksgiving.

The Old Gentleman sat at the table, watching. The waiters brought food, and more food. And Stuffy began to eat.

No great and famous soldier ever battled more strongly against an enemy. The turkey and all the other food were gone almost as quickly as they appeared. Stuffy saw the look of happiness on the Old Gentlemans face. He continued to eat in order to keep it there.

In an hour the battle was finished.

Thank you, Stuffy said. Thank you for my Thanksgiving dinner. Then he stood up heavily and started to go to the wrong door. A waiter turned him in the right direction.

The Old Gentleman carefully counted out $1.30, and left fifteen cents more for the waiter.

They said goodbye, as they did each year, at the door. The Old Gentleman went south, and Stuffy went north.

Stuffy went around the first corner, and stood for one minute. Then he fell.

There he was found. He was picked up and taken to a hospital. They put him on a bed, and began to try to discover what strange sickness had made him fall.

And an hour later the Old Gentleman was brought to the same hospital. And they put him on another bed, and began to try to discover what his sickness could be.

After a little time one of the doctors met another doctor, and they talked.

That nice old gentleman over there, he said. Do you know whats wrong with him? Hes almost dead for the need of food. A very proud old man, I think. He told me he has had nothing to eat for three days.

Download activities to help you understand this story here.

Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. What is your favorite holiday? What kinds of holiday traditions do they have in your country? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

QUIZ

Quiz - Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

Puritan(s)  n. a member of a Protestant group in England and New England in the 16th and 17th centuries that opposed many customs of the Church of England

tear(s)  n. a drop of liquid that comes from your eyes especially when you cry

bug  n. a usually small insect

cent(s)  n. a unit of money that is equal to / of the basic unit of money in many countries
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NextEra Energy, Inc. is the largest electric utility holding company in the US. It operates a network of power generation and distribution facilities that include fossil-fuel-generated and green energy. As of mid-2022, the company was capable of generating 58 GW of electricity with nearly 60% of the load produced by green sources including wind and solar. In their view, going green isnt an option, its the solution. NextEra Energy has been recognized multiple times as a leader in clean energy and ESG practices and was ranked the #1 electric and gas utility on the Forbes list of Most Admired Companies.

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Hello! What do you get the husband who has everything? He doesn't need new clothes and isn't super into electronics (for instance, I broached the idea of getting him an Apple Watch, and he said "I don't wear watches so I feel like I wouldn't use the Apple Watch"). He seems kind of into cool idea things--I got him a cigar humidifier for our anniversary and he says he likes that (even though he never uses it). I am just at a loss. He is a lawyer and works all the time, so he doesn't want books since he wants to just chill when he gets home. He is traditional thinking about it because he is fine with never getting new things as long as the old stuff is working fine. My last thought is to get him an "experience" but what would you suggest for an experience gift (and not restaurants either! Since he does love going out but it wouldn't be a "special gift" really to just get him a gift card or to go out somewhere for dinner since we do that already).
Pope Francis is planning a visit to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia next year, when the three Baltic nations celebrate their 100th anniversaries.

Daiva Ulbinaite, a spokeswoman for Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, tells the Baltic News agency the visit is scheduled for autumn of 2018. The agency said the Vatican will soon announce exact dates for the trip.

The three Baltic nations declared their independence from Russia in 1918 but were incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 and remained part of it until 1991.

Francis has one other confirmed trip so far in 2018, a Jan. 15-22 visit to Chile and Peru. He is also widely expected to travel to Ireland in August to participate in a large Catholic family rally.
The Macau European Chamber of Commerce (MECC) marked its fourth anniversary yesterday at The St. Regis Macao, in a ceremony where its representatives vowed to continue promoting Europe-Macau exchanges.

MECC launched its permanent office last month to enable greater proximity and co-operation across national chambers in Macau, and welcomed the Italian Chamber of Commerce into the fold.

In January, the chamber published its first research paper jointly with the Institute of European Studies of Macau titled Report on the role of the European Union in stimulating Macaus development.

The report provides supportive measures and strategies for enhancing economic cooperation between the European Union (EU) and Macau, based on feedback from local enterprises.

Additionally, a luncheon was hosted in March with the Macau Government Tourism Office, discussing the impact of the Hong KongZhuhaiMacau Bridge on Macaus tourism.

Kevin Thompson, president of the board of directors of MECC, recalled in his speech that Europe has shown the degree to which co-operation between societies is integral to how the global world operates.

Today we celebrate seven European business associations and chambers, including a fully-fledged chamber of commerce which is new to Macau. Each chamber reflects its own distinctiveness, said Thompson.

The president reiterated that MECC supports free, fair, and inclusive trade and market access through advocacy and negotiations with key policy makers and agreements with major economies around the globe.

MECC represents not only businesses, Thompson said, but also the potential that specific Chamber of Chambers can play in vocational education  developing new skills for Macaus changing business environment and social stability.

Meanwhile, Thompson pledged that the chamber will continue to reinforce its leadership position representing European chambers and businesses in Macau.

It will do so by organizing high profile speakers and networking events which aim to have government and business representatives attending in a bid to stimulate collaboration in areas where European entities have much to offer Macau, while bringing together the Macau and European business communities.

Other specific activities on the agenda include a members-only visit to the Hong KongZhuhaiMacau Bridge on January 24 next year, and a reception to welcome a leading legal affairs academic from Cambridge University, who was unnamed. LV
Ugandas foreign minister faced growing calls for his resignation yesterday following allegations in the United States that he accepted a bribe shortly after finishing his term as president of the U.N. General Assembly.

Sam Kutesa allegedly accepted USD500,000 from Hong Kongs former home affairs secretary, Patrick Ho, who was charged in New York earlier this week with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and international money laundering. Prosecutors said the bribe paid to Kutesa was meant to secure business advantages for an unidentified energy company.

Ugandan lawmaker Moses Adome, a ruling party member, said Kutesa should resign or step aside to protect the countrys image abroad.

Officials should not hold important posts just because they are related or so close to the president, he said.

At least three other lawmakers have called for Kutesas resignation, and opposition leader Kizza Besigye said he should face censure proceedings in the national assembly.

Kutesa has denied the allegations, saying his interactions with Ho were in fulfillment of his official functions as president of the U.N. General Assembly.

Kutesa, who held the U.N. post between 2014 and 2015, is a wealthy businessman widely seen by critics to have benefited from his close ties with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Kutesas daughter is married to Musevenis son.

Ahead of his election in June 2014 to the largely ceremonial but prestigious U.N. post, Kutesa faced opposition from critics at home and abroad who said past allegations of corruption made him an unworthy candidate.

Lawmakers in this East African country censured Kutesa in 1999 over allegations he abused his office and peddled influence while he served as a deputy finance minister. But Museveni later appointed Kutesa to another cabinet post, and he has served as foreign minister since 2005.

More corruption allegations came over the years, including accusations in 2011 by an independent lawmaker who said Kutesa took bribes from foreign companies jostling for oil contracts in Uganda. He denied those allegations. AP
Early next year, the government will deliver a report to the Standing Committee for the Coordination of Social Affairs on topics concerning professional drivers, the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong said yesterday.

Upon being questioned by several lawmakers regarding Macaus lack of professional drivers, Leong admitted that he is dissatisfied with the results of matching between employers and professional drivers.

The secretary noted that, in the beginning of December, the Labor Affairs Bureau (DSAL) will organize a matching session for employers and professional drivers. After the matching session, the government will then draft a report combining the governments own study and the publics opinions on employment matters related to the citys professional drivers.

Leong noted that the government has already invited, higher education institutes, twice, to study the market of Macaus professional drivers, and the government also conducted a survey on professional drivers.

The common point of the conclusions is that no matter if its residents, employers or employees, all agree that Macau indeed lacks professional drivers, said Leong. However, there is no consensus regarding how best to solve the problem.

DSAL director Wong Chi Hong noted that employees primarily hope to work as drivers, but SMEs hope that professional drivers can also be a porter.

Wong also disclosed that the government currently holds approximately 200 job vacancies for professional drivers.

Chui Sai Peng wants the government to create a clear definition of a professional driver, as different definitions of this position exist among employers and employees.

Kou Hoi In called the government to open the employment market of Macaus professional drivers. These numbers made it clear that we do not have enough people working as professional drivers, said Kou.

We indeed find that the requirements from demanders and suppliers are different, said Leong.
Widespread atrocities against Rohingya Muslim women and girls have been orchestrated and perpetrated by Myanmars military and may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the U.N. envoy on sexual violence in conflict said.

Pramila Patten, who met many Rohingya victims of sexual violence in Bangladesh camps during a visit this month, said she fully endorses the assessment by U.N. human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein that Rohingya have been victims of ethnic cleansing.

Patten said at a news conference that the widespread use of sexual violence was clearly a driver and push factor for more than 620,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar. It was also a calculated tool of terror aimed at the extermination and removal of the Rohingya as a group, she added.

Myanmars government has denied committing any atrocities as has its military. The government refused a request from Patten to visit northern Rakhine state where many Rohingya lived.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar doesnt recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group, insisting they are Bengali migrants from Bangladesh living illegally in the country. It has denied them citizenship, leaving them stateless.

The recent spasm of violence began when Rohingya insurgents launched a series of attacks Aug. 25. Myanmar security forces then began a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages that the U.N. and human rights groups have called a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Patten said that during her visit to camps for the displaced, she heard the most heartbreaking, most shocking, and horrific accounts of abuses committed cold bloodedly with unparalleled hatred against the Rohingya community.

Patten, a former member of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, said sexual violence including gang rape by soldiers, forced public nudity and sexual slavery and it was clearly being used as a tool of dehumanization and as a form of punishment.

She said a number of eyewitnesses reported rapes of the most extreme and brutal nature, which included the tying of women and girls to a rock or tree before being gang raped by multiple soldiers  and many were literally gang-raped to death.

Some girls who were raped in their houses were left to die when their houses were torched, she added.

Witnesses also said that even before Aug. 25, Myanmar troops would throw Rohingya babies into fires or into village wells to contaminate the water and deprive residents of drinking water, Patten said.

My observations point to a pattern of widespread atrocities, including sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls who have been systematically targeted on account of their religion and ethnicity, said Patten, a lawyer from Mauritius.

And a clear picture has emerged about the alleged perpetrators of these atrocities and their modus operandi, she said. The sexual violence has been commanded, orchestrated, and condoned and perpetrated by the armed forces of Myanmar, the Tatmadaw. And other actors involved include the Myanamar border guard police and militia composed of Rakhine Buddhists and other ethnic groups.

Patten said the U.N. population agency has provided services to 1,644 survivors of various forms of sexual and gender-based violence. My guess is that this is the tip of the iceberg, she said.

Patten said she believes there is a prima facie case for pursuing these atrocities in an international court, especially given that the sexual violence was targeted against the women on the basis of their religion and ethnicity as a form of collective punishment and persecution against the group as a whole.

I can also see a basis for characterizing these violations as war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide, but it is not my role to make that determination, she said.

Patten said she plans to participate in a Human Rights Council meeting on Myanmar in Geneva on Dec. 5 and hopes to be able to brief the Security Council in New York on sexual violence against Rohingya on Dec. 12.

The council would have to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court for the violence against Rohingya to be considered as possible war crimes. That appears highly unlikely as China, an ally of Myanmar, is one of the councils five powers that can veto any action.

Nonetheless, Patten said she plans to meet with the courts prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, next month at U.N. headquarters in.Edith M. Lederer, United Nations, AP
20. Question: What is Stamp Duty in Macau?

Stamp duty is the government tax levied on buyers of properties, and is usually paid by the buyer, not the seller.

The amount of stamp duty is calculated incrementally on three different levels.

Up to $2m, it is 1%

From $2m to $4m it is 2%

Above $4m it is 3%

A property acquired for $4.5m would incur a stamp duty of $75,000 ($2m x 1% = $20,000) + ($2,000,000 x 2% = $40,000) + ($500,000 x 3% = $15,000)

A property acquired for $5m would incur a stamp duty of $90,000 ($2m x 1% = $20,000) + ($2m x 2% = $40,000) + ($1m x 3% = $30,000).

A government initiative to try to curb property speculation was introduced in April 2011. Properties sold within 1 year of the original purchase will pay an additional stamp duty of 20%, and properties sold within 2 years will pay an additional 10%.

Furthermore, there is also an additional Stamp Duty for non Macau ID holders of 10% of the purchase price, payable upon purchase, to try and slow down the flood of foreign investment in Macau property and keep prices affordable for the local population.

It is also worth remembering that Macau Properties are priced in HK$, but the stamp duty is calculated in Patacas. Hence, stamp duty on a property that sells for HK$4m will be calculated on MOP4,120,000

19. Question: Do I need insurance if I am renting an apartment?

Yes, to protect yourself against the loss of the contents of the property.

The owner is responsible to acquire insurance for the construction of the apartment, whilst as a tenant you are responsible for the welfare and safekeeping of the contents and furnishings.

We recommend that you have content insurance, it can be obtained from Banks in Macau, and we also have contacts for Insurance companies that we are happy to share if you are having trouble getting insurance.

The amount you pay depends on the sum insured.

18. Question: How much cash do I need to buy an apartment?

There are a few factors here, such as whether you are a Macau resident / non-resident, plus of course salary levels and your track record with the bank.

In a nutshell, the more you can borrow from the bank, the better. Generally the banks will lend up to 60% of the property price to Macau ID holders, and 50% of the price to non-residents.

If you are buying a property for $4m, as a Macau resident you will have to find 30% of the cash or $1,200,000 for the deposit, plus an additional 5% or $200,000 to cover fees.

As a non-resident, you will have to find 50% of the price or $2.0m for the deposit, and again approx. 5% or $200,000 for the fees.

17. Question: Whats the best time to find a rental apartment

The turnover of apartments in Macau is very fast. As supply is low and demand is high, there is always a battle to find and confirm a suitable apartment in which to live before someone else takes it.

Whilst planning ahead is important, the best time to find an apartment is a maximum of 4 weeks ahead of your scheduled move date, although 2 weeks ahead is a more usual scenario.

Owners will generally refuse to hold a property for more than 4 weeks unless there is compensation for the amount of rental income being lost whilst an apartment stands empty.

16. Question: How much will it cost in total to purchase an apartment?

Whilst prices vary, bank charges, stamp duties and agency fees when buying an apartment are all known amounts, and can be calculated as follows

Stamp duty is calculated according to the formula outlined in Question 20

Agency fees are normally 1% of the purchase price

Most importantly, you will need a deposit of 30% or more of the purchase price, which of course can add up to several hundred thousand of dollars.

We usually estimate the fees of 5% in total when purchasing a property.

However, if you are renting a property, expect to pay an agency fee equal to 1 month of the rental amount of that property.

*All figures expressed in HKD unless otherwise stated

Juliet Risdon is a Director of JML Property and a property investor.

Having been established in 1994, JML Property offers investment property & homes. It specializes in managing properties for owners and investors, and providing attractive and comfortable homes for tenants.

www.JMLProperty.com

info@JMLProperty.com
The Chief Executive has ordered disciplinary procedures against the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureaus (SMG) deputy director Florence Leong and former director Fong Soi Kun, following the disclosure this week of some of the findings from an independent commissions investigation on the response by authorities to Typhoon Hato.

Following the August 23 tragedy, Fong resigned under heavy criticisms brought by the devastation of the deadly typhoon, while Leong was promoted for a brief period to head the SMG.

Leong headed the bureau for several weeks until the director of the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA), Raymond Tam, was appointed as the new interim director of the weather department on September 20.

The SMGs current deputy director is still in the position despite being accused of neglecting her duties in the report conducted by the independent commission.

The Times contacted the office of the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosario, which oversees SMG, to inquire as to whether Leong will remain as the bureaus deputy director while subject to disciplinary proceedings. The office stated it will not give a comment.

Yesterday, the Times contacted Leong via the SMGs spokesperson to ask whether she intends to suspend her mandate or resign given that she now faces disciplinary proceedings. However, no reply was received by press time.

Local lawyer Sergio de Almeida Correia told the Times that a suspension is not mandatory, arguing that if there is no inconvenience to the service, the worker can remain in his or her post.

The civil servants legal regime implies that the entity instructing the disciplinary procedure may propose the suspension of the employee, although the suspension is not mandatory, he said.

According to the law, the suspension takes place if the disciplinary breach is punishable with a suspension penalty ranging between 241 days and one year or compulsory resignation and if remaining in the post is inconvenient to the service or impedes the condut of the investigation.

Almeida Correia further added that if the worker is suspended, the suspension can reach 90 days, though they will still receive full salary during that time.

The initial timeframe of 90 days can be extended until a court verdict is reached.

Last month, the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) issued a report on the SMGs typhoon forecasting procedures. The report noted that the bureau, when issuing typhoon forecasts and warning signals for tropical cyclones, relied on the personal judgments and decisions of the former director. The report also alluded to the SMGs deputy director and made mention of rumors that Leongs religious beliefs played a role in the bureaus decision-making. The CCAC admitted that it was difficult to verify whether the rumors, sourced from the internet, were true or unsubstantiated.

Nevertheless, according to the personnel the CCAC got in touch with, the rumors were widely circulated in the bureau and everyone [had] heard of them, the report states.

The CCAC questioned Fong, however, he stated that he had never read the posts, thus was not in a position to determine if the rumors were true  a response that the CCAC criticized. LV/PB
As Zimbabwe prepared to swear in a new leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, after 37 years, attention turned to the fate of Robert Mugabe and the wife who just days ago was poised to succeed him.

The 93-year-old Mugabe, who resigned this week as lawmakers began impeaching him, has not been seen outside a few photographs since his stunning speech to the nation earlier this week in which he defied calls to step down.

Mugabe was said to remain in the capital, Harare, with former first lady Grace but it was not clear under what terms. Some wondered whether the former president had secured guarantees of protection, including immunity from prosecution.

A photo circulating on social media, said to be taken this week, showed Mugabe and his wife sitting on a sofa with a trio of advisers standing behind them. A dejected-looking Grace Mugabe, who earlier this month was likely to replace Mnangagwa after his firing as vice president, looks off camera while Robert Mugabes eyes are closed. The photo could not immediately be verified.

Mnangagwa is set to be sworn today after making a triumphant return to the country. He had fled shortly after his firing, claiming threats to his life.

He greeted a cheering crowd yesterday [Macau time] outside ruling party headquarters and promised a new, unfolding democracy. He also reached out to the world, saying international help is needed to rebuild the shattered economy.

Mnangagwa, who fled Zimbabwe upon being fired as vice president on Nov. 6, returned a day after Mugabe resigned. Mugabes departure followed a week of intense pressure  from the military that staged a government takeover, from members of parliament who started impeachment proceedings and from citizens who protested by the tens of thousands in the streets.

While Mnangagwa spoke about working together, he also recited slogans from the ruling ZANU-PF party that are unlikely to attract Zimbabweans in the opposition.

Mnangagwa, a former justice and defense minister with close ties to the military, served for decades as Mugabes enforcer, a role that earned him the nickname Crocodile. Many opposition supporters believe he was instrumental in the army killings of thousands of people when Mugabe moved against a political rival in the 1980s.

Mnangagwa was in hiding during the political drama that led to Mugabes resignation. His presence Wednesday, flanked by heavy security, delighted supporters who hope he can guide Zimbabwe out of political and economic turmoil that has exacted a heavy toll on the southern African nation of 16 million.

The 75-year-old said he had received messages of support from other countries. We need the cooperation of the continent of Africa, he said. We need the cooperation of our friends outside the continent.

After meeting with South Africas president, Mnangagwa flew home in a private jet. He said his inauguration today is when we finish this job to legally install a new president.

Mnangagwa will serve Mugabes remaining term until elections at some point next year after the ruling partys Central Committee voted to remove Mugabe from his party leadership post. Opposition lawmakers who have alleged vote-rigging in the past say balloting must be free and fair, a call the United States has echoed.

Mugabes firing of his longtime deputy as the first lady positioned herself to succeed her husband led the military to step in, sending tanks into the streets and putting the president under house arrest. That opened the door for the party and the people to turn against the man who took power after the end of white minority rule in 1980.

Mugabes resignation has been met with wild celebrations by people thrilled to be rid of a leader whose early promise was overtaken by economic collapse, government dysfunction and human rights violations.

Yesterday, an editorial in the privately run NewsDay newspaper said Mnangagwa has an unenviable task and that he should set up a coalition government that represents all Zimbabweans.

Arguments by some sections of society are that indeed Mnangagwa was part of the failed Zanu PF regime until two weeks ago, and may not have been the right person for the job, given the political and economic errors of the past, the editorial said. The new president will come under significant pressure to perform miracles to prove his critics wrong and revive the sinking economy.Farai Mutsaka & Christopher Torchia, Harare, AP
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Assisted dying can be a divisive and polarising subject. But there is one aspect on which most people probably agree  the need to improve the conversations people have about death.

At the moment, there is uncertainty in the UK regarding what people  especially health professionals  can and cannot say when the topic of assisted dying comes up. Conversation can become especially stilted when it turns to patients obtaining the medical documentation required for an assisted death abroad.

The situation requires clarification. Currently, if a doctor in the UK writes a specific report to help with an assisted death abroad (three organisations in Switzerland accept UK citizens), the General Medical Council (GMC) may view this as a "fitness to practice" issue.

However, if a doctor provides copies of medical records, even with the knowledge that they will be used for an assisted death, it is not a fitness to practice issue. The GMC's position is that this would be "too far removed from the act of suicide to constitute encouragement or assistance". Yet the doctor can still refuse this request for documentation. (The patient can then appeal to the information commissioner under the Data Protection Act 1998, but this may be unsuccessful.)

The desire to hasten death affects a significant proportion of dying people  not just the small proportion who undergo an assisted death. In places where a form of assistance to die is legal, such as the US state of Oregon, just 10-20% have their request agreed to. The ability to talk about these desires and the presence of an option can "make the future feel navigable".

It is hard to measure how common a desire to hasten death is. One study revealed it was up to 11% within people in a UK hospice. The meaning behind this desire is varied, ranging from an avenue to begin talking about dying more generally through to wanting greater control.

I started my own research after noticing two major barriers in the conversations about assisted dying between doctors and patients. First, the Swiss organisations advise applicants not to divulge the reason for a request for medical documents due to the risk of refusal. Second, the uncertainty surrounding professional guidance means patients are not telling doctors about their plans or fears (and they may not be asked about them).

These barriers are affecting the crucial therapeutic alliance between doctor and patient. They also remove opportunities to highlight the specific needs of the dying. The fact that people change their mind about hastening their death is a reason to address their fears upfront  not push them away or ignore them. Yes, end-of-life care needs more funding, but this is of no use if those that need it do not feel they can be heard.

Sadly, this is what is borne out in Dignity in Dying's recent publication The True Cost: How the UK Outsources Death to Dignitas. The report revealed a large discrepancy between those who felt they should be able to discuss these desires (82%) with those who felt that they would (32%). One respondent commented:

I wish there was somebody that was medical that you could talk to and [who could] explain  I just wish there were people you could talk to.

Another recalled a doctor saying: "You know you can't talk about this sort of thing."

Dying to talk

Throughout the publication runs a desire for openness to be able to talk about thoughts they are having, researching and acting upon. Instead, people encounter systemic obstruction, disapproving prejudgement and arbitrary practices. At its worst, the document highlights active silencing of these voices  people being told they mustn't talk about assisted dying with anyone involved in their care.

Being able to talk openly about a desire to hasten death serves a vital palliative and therapeutic function. The opportunity to discuss perceptions of dying on the patient's  rather than the profession's  terms would help people to consider what it means (for them) to die. It could also serve to reaffirm social bonds, empower self-identity and give a voice to suffering.

Yet currently, people are possibly going abroad to die without ever talking to a healthcare professional about it.

Everyone wants to work towards getting our only experience of death right. For this to occur, the medical profession must avoid its dominance over end-of-life discussions, and seek instead to address the concerns of the dying  whatever they are. If not, the harm caused by the current fudge of legislative and professional guidance will not only go unrecognised, it will grow.

Listening and discussing requests to hasten death is not remotely illegal. The GMC itself states that doctors should "be prepared to listen and to discuss the reasons for the patient's request".

Improving these conversations is an urgent middle ground that both sides of the assisted dying debate can surely agree on. It is vital that the voices of the dying are heard.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
EU urges Spain to resolve stolen babies cases



ARCHIVED ARTICLE

A European Commission urges Church and State to clarify Franco-era baby-snatching cases

The vast majority of Spains stolen babies cases, which have their origins during the dictatorship of General Franco (1939-75) and in the years immediately after the Caudillos death, remain unresolved, and although at times it appears that the matter is one of little interest to the Spanish government, in international circles the same is not true.

This was borne out this week when the European parliaments Petitions Commission made an official request for the Spanish government to adopt urgent measures in order to resolve outstanding cases and allegations. Among the measures recommended is the setting up of a specific public prosecutors office to deal with stolen babies cases, and the creation of a DNA bank for use by that office in identifying possible victims.

The call for action is directed not only at the government, however, as the Catholic Church is also involved in many of the cases. Both Church and State are urged to make documentation freely available, including civil registry certifications, hospital birth records and parish church archives.

One of the members of the Commission is British MEP Jude Kirton-Darling, who describes the request as an important step forward in the process to provide answers for those affected by the scandal, which involved the alleged snatching of babies from mothers who were considered inappropriate under Francos regime. The biological parents of those babies were informed that their offspring had died, but the allegation is that in fact they were re-distributed to couples who were considered to be more deserving of offspring.

Spain has left victims to mount their own investigations over decades with no legal or psychological support, and these people are at their wits end, Ms Kirton-Darling stated last week in the UK national press, adding that Spain must bolster victim support.

Image: an activist who believes her child was stolen from her at birth in 1984 (archive)EU urges Spain to resolve stolen babies cases

A European Commission urges Church and State to clarify Franco-era baby-snatching cases

The vast majority of Spains stolen babies cases, which have their origins during the dictatorship of General Franco (1939-75) and in the years immediately after the Caudillos death, remain unresolved, and although at times it appears that the matter is one of little interest to the Spanish government, in international circles the same is not true.

This was borne out this week when the European parliaments Petitions Commission made an official request for the Spanish government to adopt urgent measures in order to resolve outstanding cases and allegations. Among the measures recommended is the setting up of a specific public prosecutors office to deal with stolen babies cases, and the creation of a DNA bank for use by that office in identifying possible victims.

The call for action is directed not only at the government, however, as the Catholic Church is also involved in many of the cases. Both Church and State are urged to make documentation freely available, including civil registry certifications, hospital birth records and parish church archives.

One of the members of the Commission is British MEP Jude Kirton-Darling, who describes the request as an important step forward in the process to provide answers for those affected by the scandal, which involved the alleged snatching of babies from mothers who were considered inappropriate under Francos regime. The biological parents of those babies were informed that their offspring had died, but the allegation is that in fact they were re-distributed to couples who were considered to be more deserving of offspring.

Spain has left victims to mount their own investigations over decades with no legal or psychological support, and these people are at their wits end, Ms Kirton-Darling stated last week in the UK national press, adding that Spain must bolster victim support.

Image: an activist who believes her child was stolen from her at birth in 1984 (archive)

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There is not much opportunity for acquisitions in the South African Wi-Fi space for VAST Networks, CEO Grant Marais told MyBroadband.

Marais said the owners of VAST  a joint venture between Dimension Data and Naspers  see opportunity in the technology, however, and continue to fund the growth of the company.

Earlier this year, there were rumours that VAST Networks was up for sale. Dimension Data and Naspers declined to comment on the matter.

On the topic of acquiring companies, Marais said they are very circumspect about using third-party infrastructure.

He said when VAST was formed, it acquired the network assets of its two owners  AlwaysOn and MWEB.

It changed the architecture of the two networks into something fundamentally different, he said.

Our network looks more like that of a mobile network operators now. We have a carrier-grade network, said Marais.

Perception of Wi-Fi

Marais said there has been a legacy of poor delivery from certain Wi-Fi brands in South Africa, and VAST is trying to change the consumers perception of the technology.

There also are not many players left from the Wi-Fi landscape that used to exist in South Africa.

A lot of those players have evolved into something else, said Marais.

As a result of these factors, there may not be an opportunity for VAST to make acquisitions.

Even if an opportunity comes up, VAST would first have to look at how to adapt the company  and its network architecture  to meet its performance standards.

Now read: VAST Networks planning aggressive growth
Oil prices may reach $120 a barrel and stay at this level for 2 years

Zelenskyy receives 'signals' that Putin wants direct talks

Security Service of Ukraine puts Ramzan Kadyrov on wanted list

Unidentified men open fire at market in Izeh city in southwestern Iran

Karen Donfried tries to explain State Department's decision to exempt Azerbaijan from 907th Amendment

Philip Reeker says U.S. administration representatives have no access to Nagorno-Karabakh

Rimac Nevera sets speed record for production electric cars

Reeker: Pace and depth of current talks between Yerevan and Baku demonstrate potential to resolve conflict

FBI director considers TikTok threat to US National Security

Bob Menendez says Ukraine supplies Azerbaijan with phosphorus bombs it used in Karabakh

Delegation headed by Speaker of Armenian Parliament is in Tbilisi

Austin: U.S. intends to continue supplying weapons and aid to Ukraine during winter

Armenian politician charged with abuse of office, money laundering

Karen Donfried says Armenia and Azerbaijan have historic opportunity to establish lasting peace

Bob Menendez: How can the U.S. justify security assistance to the Baku regime?

Azerbaijan fires at residents of Sarushen village of Artsakh

Head of Portugal's Finance Ministry: EU countries must work faster on energy intervention

Kuwait executes 7 prisoners

Czech Republic plans to train up to 4,000 Ukrainian servicemen next year

Ukraine once again asks US for powerful drones

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Armenian Deputy PM: Regional electricity export opportunities significantly increased

Greek authorities temporarily ban export of firewood from country

Azerbaijan protests to France in connection with Senate resolution

Blinken calls on Aliyev to observe ceasefire and limit provocations

Pashinyan: We're advancing rights of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinyan: Armenia invites Azerbaijan to sign framework agreement on peace

Pashinyan: Most of the arable land of 4 villages in Tavush Province is occupied by Azerbaijanis

Armenian Prime Minister: Let the opposition loudly reject Russia's proposals

Pashinyan: 2023 budget growth in social protection compared to 2018 is 56%

Inflation in UK up to 41-year high of 11.1% in October

Pashinyan: We don't want to provoke war between CSTO and Azerbaijan

Pashinyan's explanation: How should we fight inflation?

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CNN: CIA director visits Kyiv

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Four explosions blow up in sky over Belgorod

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Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem receives group of wounded participants of 44-day Karabakh war

AP: Drone with explosives attacks oil tanker off the coast of Oman

LPR announces attack by AFU from Popasna to Kharkiv Oblast

Toyota reveals next-generation Toyota Prius hybrid

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Erdogan believes Russia had nothing to do with the missile incident in Poland

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Erdogan: Biden administration is determined to sell F-16s to Turkey

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Copper falls in price

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AP: Missile falls in Poland may have been fired by Ukraine to shoot down Russian missile

Erdogan plans to discuss fertilizer transportation and grain deal with Putin

Oil price falls

Blinken calls on Armenian Prime Minister to maintain momentum of peace talks with Azerbaijan

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U.S. believes that meeting between Biden and Jinping was strong signal to rest of world

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Armenia is qualified as a country which successfully combines its Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) membership with participation in the European Union (EU) Neighborhood Strategy.

The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, on Thursday stated the aforesaid at the Summit of the European Peoples Party (EPP), in Brussels.

In his address at this event, he touched upon the agenda of EU-Armenia cooperation and the dynamics of relationship development, the importance of those issues of interest to Armenia to be discussed at the EPP and Eastern Partnership summits in Brussels, the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between Armenia and the European Union, as well as on inter-party-cooperation-related activities.

Noting that this year marks the 5th anniversary of the ruling Republican Party of Armenias (RPA) membership in the EPP, Serzh Sargsyan stressed that despite this relatively short period of time, the RPA managed to fully integrate into this European family. As per the President, RPAs cooperation with the EPP has become one of the most important platforms for Armenias involvement in European politics.

Serzh Sargsyan said it was noteworthy that the November 15 resolution of the European Parliament qualifies Armenia as a country which successfully combines its EAEU membership with participation in the EU Neighborhood Strategy. The President assured that Armenia will abide by the aforementioned formula of co-existence, in the future as well.

Also, President Sargsyan expressed the hope that Fridays discussions at the EU Eastern Partnership Summit will be so effective as to make the joint initiatives more targeted, and the resultsmore visible and tangible for societies.
The Eastern Partnership summit is opening in Brussels on Thursday with the participation of the heads of states of the member countries and EUs leadership.

Armenia and the EU are expected to sign a Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.

President Serzh Sargsyan arrived in Brussels on Thursday and participated in the meeting of EPP leaders.

The Eastern Partnership, presented by the Foreign Ministers of Sweden and Poland in 2008, aims at building a common area of democracy, prosperity, stability and cooperation between the EU and six countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The EU invited some countries, among them Armenia, to conclude an Association Agreement, which was to be initialed, and ratified by the parties. Armenia and the EU entered into negotiations on the Association Agreement, including the establishment of a deep and comprehensive free trade area back in July 2010.

Armenia announced its accession to the Customs Union in September 2013 and refused to conclude an agreement with the EU. Despite the refusal, EU decided to develop further relations with Yerevan. On 12 October 2015 the Foreign Affairs Council authorized the European Commission and the High Representative to open negotiations on a new, legally binding and overarching agreement with Armenia, and adopted the corresponding negotiating mandate. Negotiations on the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement were successfully concluded on 26 February 2017.

Road to Brussels summit: Armenia makes second attempt to get closer to EU
YEREVAN.  Within the framework of his working visit to Belgium, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on Friday met with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

Sargsyan stressed that Armenia is interested in intensifying the Armenian-Belgian dialogue and making cooperation with the friendly Belgium become mutually beneficial, press office of the President informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The interlocutors agreed that over the past 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between them, Armenia and Belgium have developed relations in numerous domains, and based on mutual trust and understanding. Also, President Sargsyan and PM Michel concurred that their talk is a good opportunity to outline the avenues for furthering cooperation. They highlighted the need for expanding cooperation within international platforms, especially the European Union (EU).

With reference to EU-Armenia relations, Serzh Sargsyan expressed confidence that the forthcoming signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement will open a new chapter in the history of bilateral relations, and provide ever new opportunities for the deepening of relations with the EU and its member states, including Belgium.

From the perspective of promoting Armenian-Belgian bilateral cooperation, the President of Armenia highlighted the intensification of high-level political contacts, and expressed the hope that the dialogue between Armenia and its friendly and reliable partner Belgium will be continuous.

In addition, President Sargsyan underscored that Belgium is of special importance to Armenia because it provided shelter to the Armenians who had survived the Genocide, and whose descendants today are the cornerstone of the Armenian community in Belgium.

The President conveyed to Charles Michel the appreciation of the Armenian people for his statement of June 18, followed by the adoption of the Armenian Genocide recognition resolution in the Belgian House of Representatives on July 23, and which completed the process of Belgiums recognition of this tragedy. To note, that the Belgian Senate had passed a similar resolution back in 1998.

Furthermore, the parties lauded the Belgian Armenian community, which was said to play an important part in the promotion of bilateral relations.

Next, President Serzh Sargsyan and PM Charles Michel discussed Armenian-Belgian trade relations, and cooperation in several mutually beneficial domains. The President suggested that Belgian companies consider the possibility of engaging in Armenias economy, taking into account the business-friendly investment climate in the country, and its involvement in various integration processes.

Also, the President pointed out that Armenias proactive membership in the International Organization of La Francophonie is another opportunity to deepen bilateral cooperation in science, culture, municipal governance, and some other spheres.

Noting that next year Armenia will be hosting the 17th Summit of La Francophonie, the President thanked Belgium for its respective support, and availed himself of the opportunity to invite Prime Minister Michel to attend this event slated for October 2018.
Russia is looking forward for expert-level consultations with the European Union on a wide range of issues, from combating drug trafficking to EU enlargement, Permanent Representative of Russia to the EU Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov said in an interview with Euractiv.

Asked whether Russia has now a say in EU enlargement, Chizhov said: Of course, we are interested.

Many of the countries aspiring to join the EU (although EU enlargement is not one of the top priorities these days), be it in the Western Balkans or even Turkey, they are well-known and well-established trade and economic partners of the Russian Federation, so we are closely following what is happening, Ambassador said.

He added that they are also monitoring the events over the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels, because as we said when the Eastern Partnership first appeared in 2009, Russia doesnt consider itself to be either a subject or an object of that policy.

But of course, having in mind that all focus countries of the Eastern Partnership are our neighbours, and that we have multiple ties with all of them, some of them are members of the Eurasian economic union [Belarus, Armenia], and of course as such they have taken upon themselves certain obligations, so whatever they do with the EU should not infringe on those obligations. Having said that, I need to stress that we have nothing against any of these countries, or other countries, establishing and promoting good relations with the EU. We have nothing against enlargement of the EU, as different from NATO enlargement of course, he said.
Armenia is not going to block the adoption of the final declaration of the 5th Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit of the European Union (EU).

The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, on Friday stated the abovementioned at the said events venue in Brussels, and when asked by the RFE/RL Armenian Service as to whether Armenia was going to block the adoption of this declaration.

Why should we [Armenia] block [it]? asked Sargsyan and continued: I believe it will pass with a compromise version.

And to the observation that Azerbaijan is positing quite problematical wordingin connection with the declarations provision on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Armenian President responded as follows: Azerbaijan can posit. However, who should accept this wording? And I dont think that the Eastern Partnership summit is that platform where we should discuss our relations.

Sargsyan added that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship is engaged in settlement of the Karabakh conflict, and that the EU fully supports the Minsk Group on this matter.

This satisfies us [the Armenian side to this conflict] completely, stressed the President of Armenia.
New Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with Armenia will be signed today, European Parliament president Antonio Tajani said in his address to the Eastern Partnership summit.

Whether we take the example of the association agreements or of the visa liberalisation process, the European Parliament has fought hard to achieve these milestones and to combat the myths surrounding them.

We stand shoulder to shoulder with you, and we will continue to do so. All these advances we have made provide an excellent basis for the discussions at todays Summit and should also encourage us to take a more ambitious approach to our future cooperation, Tajani said

The time is now ripe for us to set out a clear political vision for the future of the Eastern Partnership, based on the core values of democratic pluralism, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, the rule of law and good governance, the fight against corruption and measures to enhance transparency and increase the involvement of civil society.

Tajani believes EU must use this partnership to build confidence in the area of our common security. The Eastern Partnership region is one of old and new security threats, and of conflicts that not only affect your independence, your sovereignty, your territorial integrity and the protection of human rights, but which also threaten to undermine the stability and security of the EU, he added.
The United Nations (UN) has never adopted a resolution regarding the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, on Friday stated the aforementioned in his address at the European Union Eastern Partnership (EU EaP) summit in Brussels.

Once again, the President of Azerbaijan has voiced ill-grounded accusations against Armenia, Sargsyan noted in connection with this conflict. As much as the Azerbaijani side may try to distort and misinterpret the essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and its peaceful settlement, the conflict has to be settled on the basis of three principles of international law: non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity and the peoples right to self-determination as proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, which is the only structure vested with an international mandate.

The position of the international community on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is reflected in the statements issued by the leaders of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries. In this context, any solution to the conflict without the exercise of Nagorno-Karabakh peoples right to self-determination is simply impossible.

I also want to emphasize that each conflict is unique in its nature, essence and background, and in this respect, it would be wrong to apply similar approaches to different conflicts.

Another remark: the UN has never adopted a resolution regarding the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh issue. The four resolutions adopted by the UN in 1993 were about the ceasing of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan has ignored so far. And now, as 25 years have passed, in my opinion, it is irrelevant to say that Armenia has not fulfilled its commitments.

I strongly hope that resolution of the existing issues in the Eastern Partnership region will let us have a more peaceful and prosperous Europe.

Armenia will continuously and faithfully be devoted to its vision of consolidation of peace and sustainable development.
This Agreement is not merely a legal document, but a reflection on the wealth of values of human rights and fundamental freedoms that we share.

The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, on Friday said the abovementioned in his address at the European Union Eastern Partnership (EU EaP) summit in Brussels, and regarding the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.

I am grateful for the patient preparatory work and excellent organization of this Summit, said the Armenian President. I would like to mention that we consider 2017 as, indeed, one of the important milestones in the quarter of the century long history of the relations between Armenia and EU, which is signified today under the framework of this Summit by signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement. It is a comprehensive document that reflects the significant developments of the recent period of our collaboration and defines the guidelines that are necessary to deepen these relations.

This Agreement is not merely a legal document, but a reflection on the wealth of values of human rights and fundamental freedoms that we share. Important elements of the strengthening of democracy such as rule of law, consolidation of judiciary, development of public and social institutes, good governance are the core of this Agreement. The efficient realization of these elements is of vital importance for our nation in order to implement successfully the envisaged reforms. It is exactly the development based on these shared values that ensures the long-lasting and sustainable development for any responsible member of the international community. I thank the leadership of the European Union for the support provided throughout this process.

The importance of this Agreement is not limited to the Armenia-EU relations: many international counterparts of ours describe Armenia as a nation that brings various integration processes closer to each other, a nation that is led by desire to reconcile and complement interests in the spirit of cooperation and cohabitation, and it is something that seriously obliges us to meet the expectation. I would like to underline that throughout this process the objective Armenia pursued from the very outset was further deepening of our bilateral and multilateral relations.

The Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between the Republic of Armenia and European Union is our joint achievement, and I can become a positive precedent for other cooperation projects. I congratulate all of us upon this occasion.

Dear colleagues,

The achievements registered in the course of the past two years have been to a large extent conditioned by the results of the Riga Summit, in particular, by the joint endeavors taken for the implementation of the clauses related to Armenia in the Joint Declaration adopted at the Summit, Armenia, perhaps, is one of those EU partners that was able to almost fully implement commitments undertaken in 2015. We believe that Armenias determination in this process, as well as determination of our EU partners will soon result in further bringing our societies closer to each other, for which, of course, launching of the visa liberalization dialogue would be of great significance.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We arrived to Brussels convinced that this Summit will be an important milestone for the Eastern Partnership. From the outset Armenia supported this cooperation format since we believed that this partnership was draught in order to encourage sustainable regional development and serve as a unifying factor, thus removing the dividing lines and reinforcing the human and peoples fundamental rights.
The European Union concluded negotiations with Armenia for a new aviation agreement on the margins of the Eastern Partnership Summit held today in Brussels.

It is estimated that this agreement will bring an additional 87.000 additional passengers and will generate more than 16 million in the first five years. This agreement will improve market access for airlines, providing better connectivity, more choice and lower fares for travellers. More flights also means more jobs and more wealth for all partners.

Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said, Today we are further delivering on our ambitious aviation strategy by taking our aviation relations with Armenia to the next level. This agreement will not only improve market access, it will also contribute to the highest safety, security and environmental standards. This is good news for European and Armenian travellers and businesses.

This agreement was negotiated by the European Commission as part of its Aviation Strategy for Europe, a milestone initiative to give a new boost to European aviation and provide new business opportunities.

The Armenian delegation has agreed to recommend its authorities to sign the agreement following the completion of the necessary internal procedures.
YEREVAN.  The new deal signed between Armenia and the European Union would not be a crucial change but an important message on both the EU and Armenias flexibility, nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Mr. Balazs Jarabik believes.

Armenia and the European Union have signed the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement on Friday following the Eastern Partnership summit.

The new deal is sides wish to find a common approach toward Armenias EU integration or at least getting closer to the EU by legal standards.

It is also showing that out of the two Eurasia member states Armenia is much closer to the EU as Belarus does not even have a legal base of its relations, not even offered one at this stage, he said in an e-mail inquiry to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The analyst emphasized that the expectations that the Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit will be leading toward membership are crashed after the Dutch referendum on Ukraines Association Agreement in 2016.

This was a kind of official confirmation and the end of the debate that the EU  due to its internal cohesion issues but also due to the difficult transition of the region as well as the role of Russia  will be capable to move toward integration quickly. At the same time the EaP is a framework and much depends on partner countries how to fill the framework. Particularly those countries not having a full fledge Association Agreement can think about other ways and means of cooperation within the EaP as policy framework, he said.
The new agreement signed between Armenia and EU will broaden the scope of our relations in the view of global political and economic interests that we share and the challenges we face together, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said after signing of an agreement with Armenia.

Mogherini said the new deal will bring concrete benefits to the people in Armenia and EU and will strengthen cooperation in many different fields: energy, transport, environment and will lead to increased mobility.

According to her, it will also lead to improvement in business environment and opportunities for investments. The agreement is based on our commitment to democracy, human rights and rule of law.

The agreement is the first of this kind that is concluded with a party that is also a member of the Eurasian Union, she emphasized, adding that it will be important to implement it at full.

The parties will work together on implementation and monitoring of the implementation that we will now bring forward.

The agreement supports peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The EU firmly believes that the conflict needs an early political settlement in accordance with the principles and norms of the international law and continues to fully support the mediation efforts and related proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in this context, Mogherini said.
Satyana and Keeva are adorable, as is that video.



And God, I need to binge-watch all of Facts of Life soon. Following Lisa, Kim, and Mindy on Instagram is only making me want to do it even more.



Love Angela Kinsey and her family. Dying at Olivia Munn tackling her brother, and also love Chloe Bennet with her family.



And I love Mark Hamill so much and cannot wait to see The Last Jedi.

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maybe i dislike emma roberts so much but her body language w/evan always seems pretty weird to me

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its def a very toxic relationship

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oh i know it is. it just seems like she's very possessive with him in photos and it creeps me out

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It's giving me "we just had a massive fight but are posing together to prove we are fine" vibes which I know all too well from my 2011 self :(

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I'm eating leftovers right now, so good.

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I did that earlier with the baked mac n cheese leftovers, I recooked them with my mini rice cooker. OH MY GOODNESS  def gonna eat them more tonight lmaaaaooo

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Mac n cheese is not usually my favorite but it was really good this year so I brought half a plate home. I'm saving the rest for tomorrow.

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seconds plz. lmao. i came in here to post the EXACT same thing.seconds plz.

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I had some mashed potatoes, stuffing, and turkey for lunch.



I just want more of the same for dinner and my mom wants to make stir fry with the leftovers I DON'T want. No thank you.

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I'm about to heat up some leftovers too! If anything, I regret not packing more



Btw, love how you edited your icon <3

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i ate left over roasted pork, kimchi and brown rice. essentially i made kimchi fried rice with leftover roasted pork.

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Queen Latifah is so beautiful.



And DAMN, Michael Douglas and CZJ's kids are so big!

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I love Olivia Munn.



Catherine Zeta and Michaels son looks like Gregg Sulkin.

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i saw photos of goldie and kurt on a bike ride on twitter and laughed my ass off that she was wearing underarmour and not fabletics or w/e it's called

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i havent been home for any holidays in 4 years :(

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2013 wasn't that long ago

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I honestly thought thanksgiving was officially cancelled 



Made me realize that I actually never had taken fam photos for thanksgiving tbh, like ever lol. Anyways I spent alone but accompanied and helping a friend out cooking, who gave me the leftovers including a huge baked mac n cheese in foil pan, genuinely felt so nice. Bless. I'll prob spend Christmas alone~ but at least I'll be at work rakin in more $$$ for 2018. Hopefully I'd go out with a Big Bang in style for NYE, I wanna go wild but not too wild lol.

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gus is really cute. its crazy how much they post of him on social media now.



also have a soft spot for autumn reeser. her instagram gives me total mom blogger vibes.



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You know, so you can see who's coming or who is at the door.

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that's pretty common in giant houses. all the 'rich kids' growing up would have the same kind of thing installed at home, though with 4-8 cameras not 16.

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Sofia Vergara's picture is unnecessary. Ridiculous.



I have an adorable picture of me and my 5 month old niece because we somehow wore the same exact color

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Really stretching the definition of "celebrity" with some of these people.

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I wouldn't smile if I was sitting beside Ryan Murphy either tbh

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Taylor Townsend on ONTD? What year is this?



Sofia Vergara is posing like some insta-famous girls from my university so I was shocked it was her and not some random 21-year-old.



Carys, holy crap. I remember when Catherine was pregnant at the Oscars. Didn't realize how old she was now.

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Thank you for this post, OP. This is truly awful.

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I just don't know what to say anymore.

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Damn 

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This is honestly so devastating

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Unfortunately, b/c it's brown people America dgaf as we're an insular nation.

This is heartbreaking, and I hope that people this actually give a crap and do anything to help unlike the Somalia attacks.



Edited at 2017-11-24 09:03 pm (UTC)

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I just read about this and so many of the witnesses were speaking to the press on condition of anonymity because they fear they could become targets. This world is really sick.

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I've been on twitter all day basically and haven't seen nearly as much coverage on this, I follow a lot of publications too and I feel like it's not being reported?

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I don't know where you live, but if you're American it's never going to be reported on widely.



IDK, I follow a lot of politicians/publications so I did hear about it on twitter first and it was also trending on my timeline.

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I'm in the US and I follow publications from other countries too for that purpose. I think I saw from the BBC and the Guardian

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For U.S. media, ABCNews' website has/had it as their main story. Not anywhere else that I've looked (as far as U.S. media), though.. X_X

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I think it depends on both who you follow, where you are, and just luck of the draw wrt the

"algorithm" thay most social media has adopted when it comes to showing you stuff instead of an actual timeline. There's been a lot of discussion on this from people I follow and it was trending for me, but Twitter/Facebook/Insta still keeps insisting on prioritizing random ass posts from like 1-2 days ago in the actual feed so it looks like nobody is talking about Egypt. But when I actually go to pages or the trending topics, it's definitely bring discussed.



Tl;dr the relevancy algorithm makes social media suck for breaking news more and more. Hate it.

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i've begun to follow more reporters and ppl who generally react to news like this or share more links of international incidents instead of publications bc sometimes they'll just end up RT-ing the same old stories over and over. it takes a while to curate your feed to get there though. sadly stories like this aren't gonna be prioritized esp over the holiday weekend. :/

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this happened quite late european time, iv'e seen the story in every local news site but i also think we will see more in depth reports in the morning. also follow aljazeera.com

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Such a high number of people killed. Im feeling extremely disturbed by so much loss of human life lately. Like it feels like it means so little and thats an awful realisation. Idk this doesnt make much sense.

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Mte, that's a perfect (sadly) way to describe it.

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I know what you mean. A single life should be precious, and the disregard of so many lives in one go is unthinkable. I genuinely don't understand how someone can ever feel justified to do something like this. Life must mean nothing to them, and that's a terrifying thought.

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The Eiffel tower has been having to go dark a lot lately.



I grieve for all those dead people and I feel so awful for the injured and all the families. This attack truly sounds spectacularly horrific with the way it was executed. 235 people dead is so many.



Also please be careful looking up articles about the attack because a lot of sources are posting/tweeting photos of the bodies.

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Are humans really this desensitized to such violence now?

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There have been several points over the last few years when I've had to not watch TV for several days because they were showing deaths.



One of the worst ones I saw was the murder of this black man (how shameful that I can't even remember his name) and they played bodycam footage of the cop that shot him over and over again on a loop with no warning not even a "get your kids out of the room/if you're sensitive change the channel".

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I feel like this never happens when there are attacks in western countries.

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Omg D: that's so horrible. So many people :'(((

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Will be calling the President of Egypt in a short while to discuss the tragic terrorist attack, with so much loss of life. We have to get TOUGHER AND SMARTER than ever before, and we will. Need the WALL, need the BAN! God bless the people of Egypt.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017

This is so sad, like what do you even say at this point? Of course tramp made it about the wall and ban instead of expressing sympathy.

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I thought of including this, but honestly his statements are so offensive and irrelevant to the actual situation so I decided not to.

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wait what? having a wall will stop terrorist attacks abroad?

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I mean, it'll be a REALLY great wall! The best wall. We're gonna get sick of how great this wall will be. It will also solve world hunger.

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it's just a constant appeal to his base constituents who hate POC (and are too stupid to make the distinction).

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i actually had a hysterical white woman tell me once that "it's so scary out there, they're flying over here into buildings, that's why we need the wall" and i was just like "????"

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moron. my 8th graders know about this "appeal to fear" fallacy

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I hope he chokes.

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what a cunt

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I was really hoping he'd have choked on a turkey bone yesterday.

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My god he's the literal worst. Built a wall around his golf course and trap him inside.

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this fucking asshole HAD to make it about himself didn't he







fuck these terrorists assholes.

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what.... is a wall going to do about terrorist attacks abroad?

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I feel like my brain cells just melted by reading this tweet

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really dont think the president of Egypt is prioritizing talking to The Molden Cheeto right now

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This fucking dumbass.

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what does the wall have to do with terror attacks tho? the fuck

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didn't he say it wasn't a ban???

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Honestly im popping big bottles the day he jokes. I cant stand him and his racist supporters.

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RIP to the victims of such a senseless, senseless attack. I hate this.



I saw an article too with a picture with the bodies and nearly threw up. Fuckin tactless

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JESUS CHRIST



first that attack on a mosque in Nigeria and now this





WHERE IS THIS WORLD GOING :((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( (((((((((((((((((((((



Edited at 2017-11-24 09:27 pm (UTC)

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They shot at ambulances as they went to the Mosque to care for the wounded.

Jfc 

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DOT Starts Forces to Flyers to Ease Pilot Shortage

"In order for America to continue to be a world leader in aviation, we must search for ways to address our country's pilot shortage, invest in our nation's workforce, and ensure that our veterans have the support they need as they transition to the next phase of their careers," Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao recently announced Forces to Flyers, a new research initiative that will encourage military veterans who are interested in becoming commercial pilots. Spearheaded by DOT and its Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, the three-year program will examine strategies for employing military veterans as pilots in order to address the nation's current and future pilot shortage.

"There is a commercial pilot shortage due to the increased demand for air travel," she said. "The Forces to Flyers research initiative is a new strategy to address the pilot shortage by offering interested military veterans a path to becoming commercial pilots."

DOT cited Boeing's 2016 Pilot Outlook, North America, as saying the industry needs to hire 112,000 pilots by 2035 in order to meet demand. "In order for America to continue to be a world leader in aviation, we must search for ways to address our country's pilot shortage, invest in our nation's workforce, and ensure that our veterans have the support they need as they transition to the next phase of their careers," Chao continued.

U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who chairs the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee, applauded the move. "As just about anyone who comes from a small or rural community can tell you, maintaining adequate air service has been a major challenge for many years and has recently been exacerbated by the pilot shortage facing the airline industry and the U.S. military. Forces to Flyers is an innovative initiative for helping veterans who aspire to fly and a step toward helping rural communities threatened by the loss of safe passenger air service. I applaud Secretary Chao and the Department of Transportation for launching this initiative, including the planned research into pathways for entering the pilot workforce, as recent rules have significantly increased the cost and entry requirements for this critical career," he said.

Researchers working in the program will study pathways for entering the pilot workforce, identify barriers to training and employment, and design and implement an initiative that can provide flight training to people interested in becoming commercial pilots. And a major priority of the initiative will be preserving and increasing air service to rural and small communities. Details on how to become involved in the Forces to Flyers research initiative will be made available at a future date.
On a recent trip to Baskin-Robbins, my family saw a poster for the "Turkey Cake." We all laughed at its hyper-realistic glaze and shape. And my wife decided it was the perfect weird addition to bring to my parents Thanksgiving dinner.

The description of the cake, which says it serves 12-16 people, is a little vague:

"Our unique dessert is sure to be the centerpiece of any holiday gathering. This all ice cream cake with sugar cone legs can be customized with your guests favorite flavor."

Is it turkey-flavored? Whats that brown glaze all about? Does it contain bones? Whats with its little feet?

On Baskin-Robbins website, you can choose from 16 different flavors, but we called in the order by phone, so the flavor was a mystery until we picked it up on Tuesday. They set aside a small "turkey," for $32.99.

It looks like we have a new Thanksgiving tradition in the Tarnoff family.











Our turkey cake was chocolate chip flavored, and the brown glaze was caramel. No, there is no difference between white meat and dark meat. It actually was really good, and more importantly, provided many laughs as we carved it up.

I totally endorse the ice cream turkey cake. It may not replace the apple pie at my parents Thanksgiving table. But it will sit hilariously next to it for years to come.
President Rodrigo Duterte has warned Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, Agnes Callamard several times.

To just illustrate to you, I do not think if you remember that black doctor brought by Callamard. And he had the gall to go in public before TV and said that, No, drug does not harm. It is not something which is permanent. I wanted to slap his face. Really, I will slap his face if I see him, said President Duterte during his speech at the 65th General Assembly of the League of Cities of the Philippines on Tuesday.

Malacanang said the statements of the Chief Executive must not be taken literally but seriously.

According to Presidential Spokesperson Secretary Harry Roque, the President is displeased by the conduct of Callamard who came to the Philippines even without final negotiations yet on her official visit and she brought with her a resource person who said that illegal drugs were not harmful to health.

This is aside from the comments and conclusions of Callamard even without proper investigations.

So the position of the Palace is: how could she have come up with conclusions when she had not yet conducted an investigation? So to us, because she already had conclusions even before investigation, she has preconceived conclusions about the issue of alleged killings on the drug war, Roque said.

My advice: dont come to the Philippines when uninvited, he added.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had previously criticized President Duterte because of his statements against Callamard.  Rosalie Coz | UNTV News & Rescue

The post Malacanang to Callamard: Dont step on Philippine soil uninvited. appeared first on UNTV News.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has called on police to once again take the lead role in his deadly drug war, having twice demoted them in response to criticism of the crackdown. The fiery leader, who rights groups say may be orchestrating a crime against humanity with his bloody anti-drugs campaign, said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) with 2,000 officers was incapable of doing the job. "Whether I like it or not, I have to return that power to the police," he said in a speech on Wednesday night. Duterte, 72, was elected last year on a promise to eradicate drugs from Philippine society by launching an unprecedented campaign in which up to 100,000 people would die. He first ordered the police to take a step back in January, describing them as "corrupt to the core" and instructing the PDEA to lead after revelations that officers kidnapped and murdered a South Korean businessman. But it wasn't long before Duterte reinstated the 165,000-strong force without any major reforms, re-launching the war under the name "Double Barrel Reloaded" -- so-called for the two-pronged police strategy to wipe out drugs. In October, he announced the PDEA would again take the helm in the face of mounting public opposition, including rare street protests triggered by the murder of three teenagers -- allegedly by police officers. His latest decision follows a regional summit in Manila this month where US President Donald Trump and most other world leaders were silent on allegations of extrajudicial killings in the drug war. Trump instead hailed his "great relationship" with Duterte and praised him for hosting the meeting, a move rights groups say may have emboldened the President to pursue his campaign. Duterte last month admitted that he removed police from the drug war "in deference" to critics including rights campaigners, Catholic bishops and the European Union. Neither Duterte nor his spokesman Harry Roque said when police would rejoin. Asked about government reforms this time around, Roque told reporters Thursday: "He (Duterte) has also said that by and large, not everyone in the (police) is corrupt and therefore he still believes in the institution". Since Duterte took office, police have reported killing 3,967 people in the crackdown. Another 2,290 have been murdered in drug-related crimes, while thousands of other deaths remain unsolved, according to government data.
Seagrass meadows are present around the coasts of all continents except the Antarctic. Credit: Benjamin Jones, Author provided

Some 95% of the ocean is completely unexplored, unseen by human eyes. That naturally means that there are many marine environments that we don't know much about, but that we're still putting at risk from damaging activities such as bottom trawling. Meadows of seagrass  flowering plants that live in shallow, sheltered areas  are a prime example of such a habitat.

Knowing the location and value of environments such as seagrass meadows, which are a nursery for fish, is key if we are to tackle our biodiversity crisis. With 70% of the Earth covered by ocean, exploring it all presents an enormous challenge. Thankfully, seagrass meadows are restricted to the shallow waters (less than 90 metres deep), but finding them still isn't easy.

From charismatic and endangered species like seahorse, turtle and dugong to important food fishes like cod and herring, seagrass meadows support rich biodiversity. Importantly, 22% of the world's most landed fish species (including the Atlantic cod) use seagrass as a home at some stage in their life.

Seagrass meadows also provide one of the most effective stores of carbon on our planet. Sustaining this store may be an important part of mitigating the worst impacts of climate change. Marine vegetated habitats, which include seagrasses, salt-marshes, macroalgae and mangroves, occupy only 0.2% of the ocean surface, but contribute 50% of carbon that is stored in ocean sediments. Knowing where this carbon is stored will help us to keep it in the ground.

The use of satellites is often considered to be a panacea for understanding habitat distribution. This is not the case for shallow water seagrass meadows though. If you can't see the seagrass (due to turbid water) with a snorkel and mask, then how do you expect a satellite to see it? Solutions for locating and mapping seagrass are needed that go beyond space observation.

Although seagrass meadows are of fundamental value to people, data on their distribution and health around the world is limited. To date, around 600,000km of seagrass has been mapped globally, but it is estimated there could be some four million km of it. If we are to protect this key marine habitat, we need to know exactly where it is as there are a myriad of threats to these powerhouses of the sea, including poor water quality and climate-related impacts followed by extreme weather events.

The scale and cost of responding to this challenge appears to be beyond the capacity of most governments. This is a logistical, as well as a financial issue. Even in developed countries such as the UK there is not a reliable estimate of seagrass extent, which could be over 600km.

Enter citizen scientists

To plug this significant global information gap a new approach is needed. This approach should enable partnerships and encourage data sharing between governments, private enterprises, conservation groups and the general public. To achieve this we need user-friendly tools and resources that can draw on a global community of citizen scientists to help understand these amazing habitats.

Citizen science has contributed to major scientific breakthroughs, most notably in space. They represent a potential research team that could be drawn upon to help solve some of the challenges facing seagrass meadows today. Citizen science enables us to crowdsource data and engage people in conversations about why we need to protect biodiversity and other resources provided by nature.

As seagrass prefers sheltered and shallow coastal bays, it is an ideal candidate for citizen science programmes. It is easily accessible, and its functional characteristics mean that answering broader questions about its health, reproductive status or even associated fauna can be met using targeted citizen science campaigns.

Our new research, published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, illustrates how citizen science platforms can be a key means of collecting much needed information to secure a future for seagrass. Such platforms can also inspire a new generation of seagrass scientists wishing to conserve them  and help meet the challenge of making seagrass a familiar species.

One platform, SeagrassSpotter (created by scientists at Swansea University, Cardiff University and the marine conservation charity Project Seagrass), was developed to engage and support budding seagrass citizen scientists. In a Pokemon-Go style, SeagrassSpotter aims to engage citizens from around the world to find and document seagrass meadows. They may do this when walking at low tide, snorkelling or when diving underwater.

In effect, the programme provides a means for untrained scientists to collect reliable and geo-referenced data on seagrass presence and condition  data that is typically costly and logistically difficult to collect on a regular basis.

SeagrassSpotter was officially launched in 2015. To date, over 750 observations have been recorded by 360 users from 94 locations throughout the North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean regions. This includes one sighting of a seagrass meadow in Wales that was last recorded in 1891. Over the coming months, SeagrassSpotter will be expanded to include more regions of the world.

We believe that while governments should have a statutory responsibility to monitor, map and understand our important seagrass resources, it's unrealistic to expect this to be complete. If recent viewing figures for the documentary series Blue Planet II are anything to go by, members of the public are becoming more interested in the marine environment. Securing a future for seagrass could well lie in the hands of local people (literally) acting as citizen scientists.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
The Catalan crisis has made headlines numerous times around the world over the past few months. It has sparked heated arguments between pro-independance and anti-independence supporters. And in many of the reports, the Catalan people  especially pro-independants  have been referred to as "troublemakers" and "nationalists".

While some Catalan people might indeed be nationalists, not everyone is. And in this way, accepting a simplistic representation of individuals limits our understanding of complex human beings, and complex societies. Not only is this unfair, it is also dangerous, as it puts social cohesion at risk.

As a researcher of intercultural communication and education, I spend a lot of my time investigating how people can learn to accept and respect cultural diversity. I also look into how people can interact peacefully with those who are different from themselves. These are important skills to have, because all of us encounter people who are culturally different to us on a daily basis. This can either be in the immediate reality or mentally  through things like newspapers, TV, books and films.

The Catalan crisis has shown how people living in the same country can have strongly opposing views  which are sometimes different to friends, family members or neighbours. And for some of these people, inflamed passions and lack of understanding have led to violence and misunderstandings, protests and the severing of personal relationships.

It is clear then that being able to accept and respect other people's views and cultures helps people to live harmoniously in multicultural societies. And in this way, there is a lot that can be learnt from what has happened in Spain.

1. No two people are the same

In the midst of the current political conflict in Spain, it is important to attempt to understand what may unite the Catalan people, but also to develop an understanding of the unique complexity of each person. Catalan people do not make up a homogeneous group  based on their shared (national) culture. Nor does any given group of people.

The contemporary societies we live in are multicultural. And a broad understanding of culture involves differences among the citizens of such societies in terms of nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, abilities and disabilities. In this way, we all belong to multiple cultural groups and as a result have multiple cultural identities.

2. It's time to ditch the stereotypes

To coexist peacefully in any multicultural society, we need to resist the human tendency of thinking in stereotypes and of ascribing imaginary identities to others. Thinking in stereotypes prevents people from grasping individual complexity. Stereotypes reduce individuals to a prevalent characteristic  which can be real or imaginary. Even when an attribute is real, it might not be stable over time and across different situations. This is because culture is something that is fluid, dynamic and context-specific  it is ever changing and always evolving, just like us.

3. It's not just enough to have an opinion

Everyone has the right to agree or disagree with the fight of some Catalan people to gain their independence from Spain. In fact, in democratic societies, we are all free to hold and respectfully support our own opinion on any matter. But this right comes with a responsibility: to learn as much as possible about the matter at hand and about the people involved. For example, many people still don't know that Catalunya is an autonomous region of Spain, with its own language, its own historical and cultural heritage.

4. Walking in someone else's shoes pays off

One of the most powerful ways of understanding others is by stepping into their shoes, to see the world through their eyes. Empathy can be defined as:

The ability to identify with or understand the perspective, experiences, or motivations of another individual and to comprehend and share another individual's emotional state.

No doubt, empathising with others takes an effort and requires people to step-out of their comfort zone. But caring for others is a social investment  because everyone will ultimately benefit from a spirit of mutual understanding and care.

Thinking and acting in these ways  with more knowledge and with greater empathy, without prejudice, and without leaning on stereotypes  would allow people to value those who think and feel differently. And it would also make it easier for the voices of the "smaller", the "weaker", or simply the "other" to be heard and respected.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Fats being released into the atmosphere from cookers such as deep fat fryers may be enhancing the formation of clouds, which have a major cooling effect on the planet.

In a Nature Communications paper published today, scientists demonstrated for the first time that fatty acid molecules emitted during cooking can spontaneously form complex 3-D structures in atmospheric aerosol droplets. The team believes that the formation of these highly ordered structures is likely to extend the atmospheric lifetimes of these molecules and affects how clouds form.

The work is a collaboration between the atmospheric scientist Dr Christian Pfrang and the biophysical chemist Dr Adam Squires. Dr Pfrang, Associate Professor of Physical & Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Reading, said:

"It is known that fatty acid molecules coating the surface of aerosol particles in the atmosphere may affect the aerosol's ability to seed cloud formation. However, this is the first time scientists have considered what these molecules do inside of the aerosol droplet, and we have shown that they may be assembling into a range of complex, ordered patterns and structures. This means they may last longer in the atmosphere."

"The full impact of the surprisingly complex molecular arrangements of these fatty acid molecules in the environment is hard to quantify at this stage since these structures have not previously been considered by the atmospheric science community: there is no reliable estimate available yet how much organic material shows such complex self-assembly in the atmosphere and further research is urgently needed."

"However, it is likely that these structures have a significant effect on water uptake of droplets in the atmosphere, increase lifetimes of reactive molecules and generally slow down transport inside these droplets with yet unexplored consequences."

Dr Squires, Associate Professor of Biophysics and Materials at the University of Bath, said:

"We know that the complex structures we saw are formed by similar fatty acid molecules like soap in water. There, they dramatically affect whether the mixture is cloudy or transparent, solid or liquid, and how much it absorbs moisture from the atmosphere in a lab. The idea that this may also be happening in the air above our heads is exciting, and raises challenges in understanding what these cooking fats are really doing to the world around us."

The international team also included researchers from Universities of Bristol and Lund, Diamond Light Source and MAX-lab; they studied a model system to represent atmospheric aerosol consisting of individually levitated droplets of mixtures of brine and oleic acid, a fatty acid associated with cooking emissions which contributes approximately 10% to the urban load of fine particulate matter in London.

They observed that the fat molecules assembled into highly ordered "lyotropic" phases  crystal-like lattices of spheres or cylinders which are known to strongly affect water uptake from the surrounding environment, a key process in cloud nucleation, and viscosity, which affects chemical reaction rates. Further experiments showed that the fatty acids were more resistant to chemical attack by ozone, and therefore can survive longer and travel further in the atmosphere, if they adopt these complex structures. The extended lifetimes of these molecules may facilitate droplet growth and thus cloud formation.

Although the behaviour of organic molecules in atmospheric aerosols is subject of high profile current research activity, such lyotropic phases have not until now been considered by the atmospheric community. Given the potential importance of these phases has clearly been demonstrated in the new paper, the team hopes that these results will encourage researchers to explore the actual impact of complex self-assembly in the atmosphere.

More information: C. Pfrang et al. Complex three-dimensional self-assembly in proxies for atmospheric aerosols, Nature Communications (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01918-1 Journal information: Nature Communications
David Willetts was minister for universities and science in the coalition government from 2010 to 2014, when the cap on tuition fees was raised to 9,000 per year in England and Wales. In his new book, A University Education, he provides a defence of that policy following intense recent debate about it.

Willetts, who now sits in the House of Lords and is also the executive chair of the Resolution Foundation, sees the fee rise as pivotal in increasing the number of people benefiting from higher education, a process he is keen to see continue further. But the book goes far beyond the tuition fee debate. It provides an engaging and authoritative guide to "the university" as an institution which aims to instil "values of pursuing truth through reason and evidence"  values of particular importance in the current context of "fake news" and populist politics.

But while universities may share this overarching aim, Willetts also argues that we need to celebrate diversity in our higher education (HE) sector, rather than a single idea of what constitutes a top university. I sat down with him for The Conversation.

Karen Rowlingson: You show, in the book, that university education benefits society as well as individuals. So should the funding of universities also be better balanced between society and individual students? Would one possibility be to reduce the fee and raise extra through general taxation and then change the repayment mechanism so that those on higher earnings pay more back?

David Willetts: I think actually the way that you can reflect and put in public support is different and I identify the ways we do. First of all  we should meet the extra cost of higher cost subjects. Secondly, students who for whatever reason  may find it harder to benefit from HE, for example disabled students, students from tough backgrounds, there's still some funding  not as much as there was  but there's still some funding for the extra costs of those students

And then thirdly, writing off the repayments from people with low incomes So I think that's a well-designed, well-targeted way of using public resource to support people in higher education.

But still the 9,250 a year fee is a very large share of the cost and is it fair that younger generations have to pay so much more for their higher education than older generations did?

I understand that argument. The good news is that I think most 18-year-olds do understand the reality that it is not an amount of money they have to pay up front. The real thing that matters is it's 9% of earnings above 21,000  of course that's going up to 9% of earnings above a threshold of 25,000.

Is that something you agree with, changing the threshold?

Well, I personally didn't think that 9% on earnings above 21,000 was unduly onerous. It meant that if you were earning 25,000 a year you were paying back 9% on the final 4,000 so that was 360 a year, 30 a month. If there were resources available to help people in HE, increasing the repayment threshold would not have been my priority. It's good that graduates are going to be paying back a lower proportion of their earnings, but as I say, I think one could have spent the money in other ways.

You talk about graduate tax in the book and that's one alternative that's been suggested. What are your thoughts on that?

Basically what we've got is a repayable education voucher for HE. You're given an education voucher and told, take it to the university. The university has to decide whether or not to admit you and then if you end up in a well-paid job, we'll gradually reclaim it off you. I know the graduate tax is now back on the agenda, but it does have a range of defects.

First of all it brings the whole system back into tax and public spending. And it's no longer the case that the individual is bringing the resource to educate him or her, instead it's coming as public expenditure out of central government. My view is that has never worked to the advantage of higher education, it's always ended up being at the back of the queue.

Secondly, you will expect some people to pay back a lot more than the cost of their higher education  That means if I am studying economics at the LSE or law at Oxford and some others which we know about, there are now massive penalties for me to study in the UK rather than going abroad. You're saying, by virtue of having done this course, you will be paying back a very large amount of money.

Thirdly, it doesn't solve today's funding problem. The big design question is do you collect it off current graduates? There's nothing in the system that tells the Inland Revenue I'm a graduate, so you need some massive exercise, to do a sort of Doomsday Book exercise, to try and work out the people in the country who are graduates.  You can only roll it in for future generations, so once you say it's for current students and their successors, it doesn't solve a problem for about ten years.

The last Labour government, encouraged by Gordon Brown, looked at it very carefully and all the people who were involved in the debate then, including Andrew Adonis  concluded that a graduate tax is a bad idea. So I don't think it's a flyer. Labour tried to make it work. All three political parties when they've actually been in office have ended up with this model that we've got.

When I talk to my own students it's the level of maintenance support which is a key problem. What do you think we should do about that?

I completely agree with you  The pressure point is cash to live on while you're at university. And in terms of access that's the pressure point. When I was in office we increased the total amount of maintenance cash available for students and it's gone up a bit more since. But  if there were any spare resource around, my priority would be more cash for students to help with their living costs while at university.

You talk about the benefits of the current system in increasing the numbers going to university. Do you think there is any kind of limit to the numbers of people that should go to university?

I don't believe in government setting a target. So I don't believe in the Blair 50% target [of people going to university] but I do absolutely think that in modern societies for deep social, cultural and economic reasons, the numbers going to university have increased, are increasing and ought not to be diminished. So if I look forward I see no reason why it should stop at 50%.

And also, this is a good thing, we've achieved 50% for women. We've not achieved 50% for men and so I think it would be good if men could catch up with the academic achievements of women.

Should we move towards a more comprehensive system of universities that people could go to locally, perhaps?

I think the English model is distinctive and I think it's a good thing that it's distinctive. The idea of going away from home to university I'm sure goes back to the Oxford and Cambridge model and then this extraordinary 600 years when they were the only two English universities suppressing attempts at creating other universities. Not until the 1830s did we get any further universities in England.

Now one of the effects of that was to establish very clearly the idea you went away from home to university and it is a really important rite of passage, especially in England. And I think it's a kind of managed transition to adulthood, it's about the most powerful effective form that the modern Western world has got.

So I do understand the value of people leaving home to go to university. I wouldn't want to see a situation where poor kids stayed at home and rich kids went away to university.

You talk a lot about digital innovation in education  will that help mature students who are less likely to go to university now? And how do we reflect on that with the experience of the Open University at the moment which is going through a really difficult time, but which is digitally advanced?

I always kind of plead guilty on this, that one of the things in my time as universities minister that I most regret is the decline in the number of mature, part-time students. It was not the plan. What I thought we would achieve is by extending more fee loans to more mature students that they would take them out. But actually the evidence is that whilst the classic young person going to university to get their first degree understands and is comfortable with the graduate repayment scheme; that's not the case for mature students  That's where we both need technological innovation and we also need more funding.

You challenge the predominant, uni-dimensional hierarchy of universities and suggest that we should recognise the strength of some universities outside of the Russell Group. Can you say more about this?

One of the themes running through the book is that our understanding of what constitutes a good university is incredibly limited. When you look at the ones that get to the top of the conventional rankings, you do it above all by high-quality research and high prior attainment of your students. That is one model and it's a good model. But my frustration is people think that means that if you're a university that focuses more on teaching than on research and which takes students with lower priority attainments, that means you're a less good university. It doesn't. It means you've got a distinct and different mission.

So I'm trying to get people to have a broader view of what constitutes a good university. There are a range of ways of being world class and taking kids with lower attainment  pushing them forward and transforming their life chances with strong links to local businesses is a fantastic way of being a world class university.

So how can we do that in practice? Shall we have different kinds of league tables?

Whatever the issues around the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)  and of course ministers have made clear from the beginning that it's a kind of first go, it's open to revision and amendment  the crucial prize of the TEF is at last we've got a league table that doesn't have exactly the same structure as every other league table. Although it is very tough really to measure teaching, nevertheless I think as the big data revolution reaches HE we will have increasing opportunities to do so.

Given that there are already many different universes serving different missions, do you think there's a gap? If a new university were to be set up tomorrow to meet today's needs, what would that new university look like?

The teaching of STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] would be a very strong candidate because as there is public funding for the higher-cost subjects and STEM of course comes with higher cost, eligibility for that public funding has become a kind of barrier to entry for new providers in this area. And that's particularly acute with medical schools which have very high costs and where hitherto there's been a kind of restriction on the numbers of medical students and NHS-linked medical schools. There's an Aston initiative on medical education, and I think Buckingham are trying to get into medical education.

And then on engineering there's this Olin model which is a different approach to engineering that is willing to take on people who may not have got A-levels in maths and physics. That's also very interesting. Engineering is a case study of why I care so much about broadening education and not having so much early specialisation. If you say in order to do engineering at university you have to have A-levels in physics and maths, you're down to about 4% of teenagers being eligible to do engineering. If classics was still working on the basis you've got to have A-levels in Latin and Greek, classics would have died as a discipline in English universities, but was obliged to change it sort of as the A-levels declined.

What about the idea of challenge-led universities which bring together disciplines across the STEM/non-STEM divide to try to tackle major problems globally and nationally?

It's not that I think that STEM is the only route to truth. The two cultures problem in England is acute, unusually acute, because of early specialisation.

I argue that universities have quite a high part of the responsibility for early specialisation because they're looking for people who already know a lot about a very narrow range of subjects. [That is] such a contrast with America where the most popular single course specified when you apply for an American university is undeclared.

As soon as you think about a university recruitment system where the biggest single group of people applying are called undeclared, and you think through how a classic English university would operate if the biggest single category of students had not yet decided what they're going to study, you realise the incredible power of the particular way we do admissions in England.

How do you think Brexit is going to impact on universities?

Well, I was a Remainer and there clearly are massive risks for universities from Brexit. On the research side  the fact that they've just started the FP9 discussions in Brussels with no British representatives around the table as they start shaping the research priorities for that next seven year programme in the EU is so dispiriting and frustrating.

For student recruitment, the evidence is a bit more complex because of course one of the results of Brexit has been a fall in the value of the pound. So that has meant we look cheaper if you're coming from abroad. Now on the other hand, EU students may lose their access to loans but we don't know that. You could imagine in the negotiations about the future long-term relationship that we say we will extend loans to British students to study in the EU in return for EU students having loans from their government, or from us, or some combination to come and study here. So I think that it is all up for negotiation and we must hope that we can signal that we're open to students and academics from around the world.

Karen Rowlingson, Professor of Social Policy, University of Birmingham

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Must we always talk for victory, and never once for truth, for comfort, and joy  Ralph Waldo Emerson.

On Sunday night we gasped in awe at the latest stunning images of marine life in BBC's marvellous Blue Planet II. Blue sharks dodged great whites to scavenge on oceanic carrion; a baby turtle took its chance to shelter on some remote piece of driftwood; albatrosses sadly caressed one another as their final chick took flight; spinner dolphins, yellowfin tuna and giant rays raced for the spoils of a giant bait ball; sperm whales dozed vertically then plunged to unfathomable depths to feed. For the fourth week running it was jaw dropping stuff.

In the final set piece, narrator David Attenborough's tone changed  as it does when he has bad news. He showed us grim images of a turtle tangled in plastic debris, a beautiful tropical fish sheltering among our waste, and most heartbreaking of all, a mother pilot whale unable to let go of her long-dead infant as the rest of her family grieved.

"Today in the Atlantic waters they have to share the ocean with plastic. A mother is holding her newborn young  it's dead," he said.

Attenborough's wise voiceover described the sadness of the great cetaceans, and the threat of plastic waste to top predators, and showed us more plastic debris. He then returned to the grieving giants: "The mother's milk may have been contaminated by plastics."

This had a big impact. The Daily Telegraph headline "Shocked Blue Planet viewers vow never to use disposable plastic again after heartbreaking whale scene" captured the reaction of many. And the message boards buzzed on Twitter:

Mother whale carrying her dead pup is just heart rending. And needless. Were it not for us wasteful humans. #blueplanet #plastic  Emily Griffiths (@Emily_Griff) November 19, 2017

Conflict

I know the messages  researchers have shown there could already be over five trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean; that by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish; that our oceanic giants are becoming islands of garbage; that birds are starving as they fill their guts with plastic waste; that microplastic is in our seafood. I wanted to stand up and say "Yes, that's it, that's what we need!" but the scientist in me held me back.

In the whole sequence, there was no direct link made between the death of the baby whale and the plastic debris we saw in parallel footage; no evidence that its mother's milk actually contained contamination from plastics. Nothing.

My inner environmentalist convulsed with frustration at wildlife being killed by unnecessary human waste, but my inner scientist screamed foul at the lack of direct evidence shown on the programme.

BBC Wildlife has been criticised before for passing off footage of captive animals as hard-won material taken in the wild. I have no problem with that if the facts are right and it makes striking educational TV, but this time it was fake  the linkages between the dead whale and plastic pollution were at best circumstantial. So I faced a dilemma: should I add to the clamour to restrict our wasteful use for plastic and to clean up our oceans, or call out the questionable editing and lack of facts?

I chose to call it out via a personal tweet and it was picked up by a number of different media (Mailonline, the Daily Telegraph, The Sun). I certainly didn't want to be sucked into any wider agendas that are more about bashing the BBC, but I still had a point.

Paul Jepson, a wildlife population health specialist based at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society London, mounted a defence. He said the plastic and toxic chemicals are capable of killing young whales and added that studies show the UK's orca population, for example, has failed to breed successfully for 25 years, which correlates with that period's high levels of contaminants.

"We already know that some chemical pollutants can cause the death of a new born calf," he said. However, he also added that the camera team were unable to perform an autopsy on the calf featured in the programme. It's a shame Attenborough's voiceover couldn't have articulated the right evidence to cut through the emotive presentation.

In the end, I'd rather not have found myself writing this article as I didn't want exposing the production fakery to become the story. In fact, it seems that it hasn't  the bigger story about plastic pollution has prevailed as the headline. Besides, we really do need emotive images and heart-rending story lines to impress on everybody the urgency of the plastic pollution issue.

The UK government has at least started to inch forward, but a promised ban on microplastics seems to be in the long grass. Other governments have moved forward, for example Costa Rica and Sri Lanka, who are already pressing on with restrictions on disposable ("single use") plastic. Meanwhile, at least in his Budget, the chancellor, Philip Hammond, got as far as confirming that the government will launch a call for evidence on a "tax system" for single use plastics, such as food packaging. We are, however, less clear on the timescales for any action.

So urgent action is needed and we need to keep up the pressure with good evidence. Please BBC, and Attenborough (long may he reign!), keep educating, keep going beyond the brilliant images and story lines into the big issues. Powerful environmental documentaries like Blue planet II can change views on the big environmental issues; just please use truth and scientific evidence.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
After decades, 89% of Indonesian children are in schools. But only a few are actually learning well as shown in the results of Indonesian National Assessment Program. Indonesia was also still ranked in the lowest ten in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Thus, following a recent global trend in education, Indonesia should shift its education goal from enrolment to include learning. How?

Research shows the teacher is a key to learning improvement. What teachers know, do and care about accounts for 30% of success in students' learning. According to an interview with an officer with a national agency, Indonesia has allocated 52% of the 2017 education budget for teachers.

Despite the huge percentage of the education budget being spent on teachers, including to raise their salaries, their performance has not yet improved. Nor has student learning. What was missing?

We have done a diagnostic study, a preliminary part of Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE). We analysed education policy documents and interviewed education stakeholders such as policy makers, teachers and experts. We found passion is believed to be the "must have" characteristic for good teachers. This quality has commonly been assumed to improve teaching and increase learning.

We looked into the concept to find whether there really is a connection between passion and quality of teaching, and whether the Indonesian government has a clear guideline on how to measure passion.

Teachers' passion and its impact on learning

Research into teacher quality finds having passion differentiates excellent or expert teachers from mediocre teachers. Expert teachers will pay great attention to how students attain knowledge and how they interact with students. Their feelings and emotions are attached to their sense of responsibility about achieving success in their work.

Passion could be the love of the knowledge itself or to achieving students' potentials. As a concept, the understanding of passion in the Indonesian context is similar to that of education scholars.

According to our interviewees (education authorities, policymakers, experts, principals), passion is the internal drive that keeps teachers improving and developing their skills and methods. Continuous improvement of teaching skills, according to Patrick, Hisley and Kempler (2000), will not only be good for teachers themselves but also for their pupils.

If not managed well, though, passion might have a negative impact on a teacher, such as burnout. In addition, several studies have tried to find a correlation between teacher passion and student learning, but empirical investigation of teacher passion is still lacking. Scholars have yet to achieve a consensus on a "theory of passion".

If passion is essential to high-quality teaching, but no clear-cut theory of passion is available, how then do we identify and measure passion?

How to identify passion

Some see passion in teaching as enthusiasm. Others define it as commitment to the profession and dedication to student learning. In Indonesia, as mentioned in Teacher Law No. 14/2005, passion in teaching is labelled as "calling of the soul", or panggilan jiwa.

As the popularity of the teaching profession in Indonesia is increasing, how can the Indonesian government ensure the new batches of teachers have passion as stipulated in the 2005 Teacher Law?

Unfortunately, we have not found clear guidance from the government on how passion should be embedded in Indonesia's teacher education, recruitment or professional development.

How to nurture passion? Or is it nature?

Previous studies have shown that interest in the teaching profession has increased since the implementation of professional allowances. Thus, motivation to enter teaching colleges may not necessarily be driven purely by interest in becoming a teacher, or panggilan jiwa, but due to the (relatively) attractive salary.

As our interviewees suggested, a teacher who lacks interest may be harmful to students' learning. Such a teacher will only ensure that they follow authorities' instructions without considering students' needs.

Therefore, it is critical for Indonesia's teacher colleges and other relevant stakeholders to develop a system to identify the passionate one from the pool of applicants. Then, any amount of passion they have at the beginning of teacher education should "be fostered" through their teaching career.

Echoing an education scholar, John Hattie, our government should "focus on  identifying, esteeming and encouraging excellent teachers, wherever they may be". Attracting and selecting passionate teacher college applicants is as important as nurturing and maintaining passions among teachers. Hence, the effort should be coherent and sustainable.

Interestingly, one of our informants, a school principal, argued that the previous teacher education programme, Sekolah Pendidikan Guru (SPG), was "producing" a better quality of teacher. Compared to the current teacher education, a four-year college education, our interviewee argued that SPG provided more classroom experience in which mentors fostered enthusiasm for teaching and students.

Various sources support the idea that passion is essential in improving teacher quality. It is important to note, however, that passion is not a silver bullet in improving the quality of education. Passionate teachers still need supportive systems, such as proper incentives, adequate preparation to deal with the demanding nature of the profession, access to teacher networks and professional development, as well as passionate colleagues and mentors.

Supportive systems will not only attract the best and most passionate people into teaching but also improve teachers' qualities. At the end of the day, supportive systems will benefit both our teachers and students' learning progress.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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Black Friday is upon us once again. Deals for cut-price clothes, televisions, appliances  you name it  are popping up. And for a limited time only. While stocks last, you could snag a bargain before Christmas.

Traditionally in the UK, you had to wait until the day after Christmas for these kinds of offers. But the last few years have seen Black Friday imported from the US, where it comes the day after Thanksgiving.

Crucially, it is the day that retailers are finally able to turn a profit for the year  putting their accounts in the black, hence the name. With retailers increasingly struggling to survive, the need to lure people into spending has never been greater. To do so, marketers play on two of our key emotions: pride and regret.

To buy or not to buy?

Research on decision making has shown that fear of future regret influences our decision making. While the feeling is only experienced fully after the fact, it can be anticipated before an action, and we are therefore driven by a desire not to feel it. Regret is a complicated emotion that can manifest itself both in the form of "acts of commission", regret when we do something; as well as "acts of omission", regret when we don't.

Research in the area has produced some conflicting results. People have reported feeling more regret for actions that led to a bad outcome than bad outcomes that occurred from failing to act. But long-run regret is often linked to things not done rather than actions taken.

For consumers presented with the option of participating or abstaining in Black Friday, regret may well be triggered in both cases. Regret for taking part in the sale, or regret at not having taken advantage of the discounted offers. So which option is likely to prevail?

The answer may well lie in the consumers' emotional memory. What decision did they take the last time and how did it make them feel? Actions that resulted in emotional pleasure are likely to be repeated and reinforced.

Research on transactions that are made for purely financial gains (such as investing in the stock market) has shown that investors are able to sustain their appetite for trading by making trades that enhance the emotional experience, without actually improving performance. Thus, investors engage in reinforcement learning by repurchasing stocks whose previous purchase resulted in positive emotions and avoiding stocks whose previous purchase resulted in negative emotions. While investors are unable to predict the future outcome of their trade, they are able to predict how they are likely to feel based on what happened the last time.

The same may well apply to consumers' approach to Black Friday. If the price of the item went up after it was bought at a discount it's likely to result in pleasure, increasing the chances of participating in Black Friday sales again. If on the other hand, the price of the item was further reduced in a post Black Friday sale, the pain of not having saved as much may result either in abstaining from Black Friday in future or from the retailer that increased the discount later.

Avoiding regret

While regret is an emotion to avoid, pride is actively sought. In the case of investors, selling a share at a loss induces regret, while selling at a gain induces pride. This leads to a disposition to sell profitable shares and hold on to those in losses, a phenomenon known as the disposition effect. Decisions are also likely to be coloured by the response of others to our purchases. If a consumer was applauded for getting a good deal, the anticipated pride may result in pursuing a Black Friday bargain again this year.

Research shows, however, that pride and regret do not have equal power over us  regret is stronger. For a consumer who bags a bargain in the sale only to find the item was further discounted at a later date, the initial feeling of pride may be tempered by the regret at having bought it too soon and not receiving an even bigger discount. So if a mixture of pride and regret was experienced, it will likely lead to inaction with consumers staying away from the sales this year.

Consumers may not be able to predict if the discounts will go up or down, but they will have a sense of how the decisions will affect them emotionally. Remember that saving 100 is likely to bring less pleasure than the pain of having spent 100 more than was needed if the item was further discounted. So if you're looking to bag a Black Friday deal, be aware of your emotions and avoid a festive financial hangover.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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An EU project working with ultrafast optics, furthers control over the spatial-temporal quantum states of light, advancing quantum information science.

Quantum Information Science (QIS) holds out much hope for improved metrology as well as various Information, Communications and Technology (ITC) systems. However, the degree of control over quantum states necessary to render the approach superior to conventional techniques, makes the realisation of the technology's potential especially challenging. So called 'squeezed states in continuous-variable systems' have been posited as one approach which might bring success for better control of quantum states, partly because these systems are thought to be scalable.

The EU-funded QCUMBER (Quantum Controlled Ultrafast Multimode Entanglement and Measurement) project, explored the use of such squeezed states, or multiphoton states, in different temporal modes based on integrated optics devices. In a paper recently published in the journal 'Philosophical Transactions A' of the Royal Society, the researchers scope the current limits of waveguide squeezing and the loss limits in the conversion process.

Entangling squeezed states

The paper's authors point out that over recent decades, significant progress has been made on low loss waveguides, very efficient photon-number detectors and nonlinear processes. Additionally, thanks to the success of the non-linear optical process known as 'engineered sum frequency conversion', operation on arbitrary temporal broadband modes is now achievable. This opens up the spectral degree of freedom for information coding, often into the temporal modes of a single photon.

QCUMBER examined the prospect of combining, in a waveguide system, both squeezing and mode-selective frequency conversion. By creating an analogy between the Quantum Pulse Gates (QPGs  basic quantum circuits) and spatial networks, they enabled a visualisation of the process for entangling squeezed states or constructing complex multimode continuous-variable states.

Looking at the squeezing achievable in a KTP single-pass, single-mode waveguide, the team found that squeezing was possible up to 20 decibels, but the complicated behaviour of the process, resulted in significant degradation, limiting the conversion efficiency to below 90 %. However, they point out that this is still promising for the future of the technology. They go on to argue that for applications where low conversion efficiency is sufficient, this doesn't present a problem and phase-matching can be engineered using a simple model without the need for pump-power.

In the spectral domain, the team also achieved the entanglement in a continuous-wave frequency comb structure of up to 60 temporal modes and around 10 modes in a pulsed, ultrafast system. They report that once the squeezing is able to reach certain thresholds, error correction for quantum computing becomes possible, which will drive the science forwards.

Tapping extreme timescales and broad spectra

Ultrafast pulses of light offer opportunities to better understand underlying system dynamics at time scales of very short duration. The harnessing of light's quantum attributes has advanced the fundamental physics knowledge gleaned through experimentation and has been key to progress in quantum communication and quantum metrology. Indeed, high precision metrology has been enabled through the exploitation of the broad frequency comb structure that trains of ultrafast light pulses create.

QCUMBER was set up to further investigate opportunities that might exist within the relationship between the quantum properties of light at extreme timescales and over extremely broad spectra. Exploiting the structure of ultrafast quantum pulses will enable ever more precise time-frequency measurements and introduce innovation for scalable quantum information processing.

More information: Project website: www.qcumber.eu/

Provided by CORDIS
Imagine sitting down to your business meeting in a ball-pool room with multi-coloured walls and bean bags instead of chairs. If that's not crazy enough, how about a massive hammock to take a breather on during a hectic nine-hour shift?

Many companies are coming up imaginative ways to keep their staff satisfied. The theory goes that with more entertaining and exciting work spaces, employees no longer feel like they are stuck at work. Instead, they adopt a "work hard, play hard" attitude and the company enjoys greater productivity.

But do companies actually benefit from investing in the satisfaction of their employees? Shareholders are sceptical. Their common view is that for every dollar invested in staff satisfaction, a dollar is taken away from them. But my colleagues Efthymia Symitsi, Panagiotis Stamolampros and I have just completed a new study that shows employee satisfaction really does affect the long-term financial success of a business.

To do this, we examined the relationship between reviews by employees of a company and how successful it was using measures of profitability (return on equity) and value (Tobin's Q). We found that companies whose employees said they were highly satisfied performed better financially than those who were unsatisfied. The more reviews per employee that a company had, the more pronounced this effect seemed to be.

What makes this study different?

Previous studies on this topic have mainly used Fortune magazine's "100 Best Places to Work for in America" list to measure staff satisfaction. This rates workplaces using an extensive anonymous employee survey. The survey includes questions relating to the support employees get in their personal and professional lives, the quality of communication by management and relationships with colleagues. The problem is that companies have to pay a fee to participate in the survey and be included in this list. So they are only likely to do this if they believe their employees are satisfied, an issue known in statistics as self-selection bias.

To avoid this, we gathered data from a collection of reviews posted by employees on jobs website Glassdoor. This also meant our analysis wasn't limited to a small number of companies. To prevent disgruntled ex-employees from unfairly skewing the picture of their old companies, we focused on reviews from employees who were still working at each company. In total, we used approximately 326,000 "overall" satisfaction ratings for 313 public US companies posted from 2009 to 2016 on Glassdoor.

Does the stock market agree?

We also looked at whether investors in the stock market recognised the value staff satisfaction brings to a business. The answer was a resounding no. An investment portfolio that included stocks of the top 25% of companies in terms of employee satisfaction produced an "abnormal return" over the period we studied. That is, given the portfolio's risk, the rate of return was significantly higher than expected according to standard asset pricing models. This supported our finding that employee satisfaction is important for companies and investors, but also revealed it is not fully reflected in companies' stock prices.

If it was, the portfolio wouldn't have achieved this abnormal return. The reviews from Glassdoor are public information so if investors recognised the importance of staff satisfaction, they could easily use them when deciding which stocks to buy. The increased demand would translate to an increase in the stock price of companies with high employee satisfaction and so the return of the portfolio wouldn't be abnormal.

What are the implications for managers?

Some economists have been arguing for almost two decades that employees are becoming more important to modern corporations. They aren't just in charge of company assets but are assets themselves. Our findings, which are consistent with previous studies, support this idea that looking after employees' job satisfaction is very important to the company's financial success.

This is especially true in a knowledge and service-based economy where innovation and customer relationships are key for creating value. Managers need to recognise this even when shareholders don't. Investing in staff satisfaction will pay dividends in the long-term.

Finally, it's worth noting that doing this doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Despite the popularity of quirky office design, spending millions of dollars transforming the physical surroundings of a business isn't what keeps employees satisfied. The answer could be that employees simply want to be appreciated.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Manmeet Maggu and Rahul Udasi, pictured here shortly after completing U of T's Creative Destruction Lab accelerator program, took home first prize in a Sunnybrook Hospital pitch competition . Credit: Chris Sorensen

Just like the purposeful gait of their child-sized robotic exoskeleton, the entrepreneurs behind University of Toronto startup Trexo Robotics are propelling their young business forward one step at at time.

Co-founders Manmeet Maggu and Rahul Udasi this week took first prize in a pitch competition organized by the philanthropic arm of Sunnybrook Hospital in partnership with U of T's Health Innovation Hub, or H2i, incubator, among others.

The judges, including representatives from private equity funds and medical device companies, were won over by Trexo's vision to help children suffering from disabilities escape life in a wheelchair with a walker-like device equipped with robotic "Iron Man" leg attachments.

"The prize is going to be really helpful in enabling us to reach a commercial point," said Maggu of the roughly $35,000 that Trexo will take home.

"The next batch of products we make, I'll be taking one back to India for my nephew."

That would be nine-year-old Praneit, who suffers from cerebral palsy and inspired Maggu and Udasi to build a robotic exoskeleton prototype while studying engineering at the University of Waterloo. The idea ultimately led to the launch of a promising startup after the pair arrived at U of T, where Maggu did an MBA at the Rotman School of Management and Udasi completed a master's in engineering.

In the summer of 2016, Maggu and Udasi packed the prototype exoskeleton in a suitcase and flew to India to visit Maggu's brother, his wife and Praneit, who tried out the device in the middle of the living room.

"Watching Praneit take his first steps using our device was an incredibly proud moment for us," Maggu told U of T News back in June.

Trexo's evolution from cool technology to promising startup is a case study in the advantages of launching a startup at U of T. Over a period of just 24 months, Maggu and Udasi drew on the resources and multidisciplinary expertise of no less than four U of T entrepreneurship hubs to help get Trexo off the ground. They were: H2i, the Entrepreneurship Hatchery, the Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab (DCSIL) and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL).

"Our product is really unique," said Maggu. "There's a health care aspect, computer science and the engineering, so we benefited a lot from being involved with all these different accelerators at U of T."

Following Trexo's completion of CDL's rigorous nine-month program earlier this year, Maggu and Udasi left to participate in New York's Techstars IoT accelerator program, which Maggu says helped to further fine-tune Trexo's business plan.

It also helped open doors in the huge U.S. market  including at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

"They saw our device and were really excited about it," said Maggu. "We're planning to start pilot studies with them early next year.

"It's the largest children's rehabilitation program in the United States, so getting recognition from them was really amazing for us."
Uber has admitted that a 2016 data breach put at risk the personal information of 57 million Uber users worldwide and at least 600,000 drivers in the United States.

The ride-share firm's CEO said that:

two individuals outside the company had inappropriately accessed user data stored on a third-party cloud-based service that we use.

Now it has been reported that Australian riders and drivers are part of the data breach.

It would be prudent for Australian Uber users and drivers to change their passwords as soon as possible. Here's what else you need to know:

If you use Uber, your name, email address and mobile phone number may have been leaked

Uber says:

Rider information [put at risk in this data breach] included the names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers related to accounts globally. Our outside forensics experts have not seen any indication that trip location history, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers or dates of birth were downloaded.

Breaches of this kind can mean an increase in people receiving spam email. Some experts have said that any personal information could be worth something to criminals.

What evidence is there that the hack included data from Australian users of Uber?

The public disclosures Uber has made so far make it very difficult to identify Australians caught up in the data breach. That's because the firm was not very transparent about it.

Media reports that Uber worked hard to conceal the data breach suggest Uber's corporate governance needs improvement.

In its recent statement on the data breach, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi acknowledged the firm's "failure to notify affected individuals or regulators last year" and promised to do better.

I'm an Uber driver. What do I need to know?

Uber has said:

Driver information included the names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers related to accounts globally. In addition, the driver's license numbers of around 600,000 drivers in the United States were downloaded.

As with the message to riders, Uber says it has seen no indication that trip location history, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, or dates of birth were downloaded.

The firm says that it is directly notifying affected drivers by mail or email, and is offering them free credit monitoring and identity theft protection  but, in any case, it's a good idea for any Uber driver to change their password.

The longer-term issue is that news of the hack might conceivably dissuade some people from using Uber at all, which would be bad news for drivers.

So a fundamental part of Uber's crisis management strategy should be educating drivers on how to respond to consumer questions about data privacy. This will not only assure the drivers but also help rebuild the trust of customers.

That said, it is pre-Christmas party time in cities throughout the world, and that means boom time for the Uber, taxi and personal transport industries.

So it's easy to imagine there would be only a small impact on Uber drivers over this period.

What's the cost of online convenience?

Uber is not the first and won't be the last to be involved in a data breach. As transactions are increasingly made over the internet, it is highly likely Australians will fall victim to more and more data hacks.

Consumers who may be left out-of-pocket, receiving increased spam email and risking other privacy breaches such as identity theft may be less than loyal to firms that don't look after their data.

Moreover, as there is money and influence to be gained through online data crime, it is highly likely that criminals will become better organised to reap the incentives in a very strategic manner.

It's worth remembering that, in many cases, the cost of convenience for using a service over the internet is your private information.

Many people do not read the terms and conditions they agreed to for internet transactions, and they may shocked by the level of exposure they face.

Consumers accept financial and privacy risk by trading over the internet, all for the sake of cheap tickets, discount car rides and other conveniences.

As these breaches happen more often, it may be impossible to totally avoid one's exposure to internet-based transactions and online data storage. So there will likely be increasing pressure on politicians and regulators to add some real teeth to prosecutions (although many seem to be based in difficult-to-prosecute jurisdictions).

The Australian government's notifiable data breach scheme will start on February 22, 2018. It only applies to eligible data breaches that occur on, or after, that date.

How can Uber prevent this from happening again?

In the short term, Uber says it has "implemented security measures to restrict access to and strengthen controls on our cloud-based storage accounts".

The longer-term problem is changing the attitudes that led to the data breach being concealed for so long.

When Dara Khosrowshahi took over as Uber's CEO last August, hopes were high that he would soften some aspects of the extreme-performance culture that led to earlier ethical lapses in Uber.

There may be a perception among consumers that the firm's desire to keep secret its intellectual property relating to algorithms has spread to its broader operations.

A good start for Uber would be to increase its public reporting on its operations. A widely publicised code of ethics, whistleblowing protections and ethics training for all staff would certainly not go amiss.

Rohan Miller, Senior Lecturer, Marketing and Digital Business, University of Sydney and David Oliver, Senior Lecturer in Management, University of Sydney

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether 

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While many individual airports have plans of their own, these are designed to deal with a communicable disease on only one or two inbound planes, not a full-blown epidemic that could involve dozens of planes flying to airports across the U.S., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Countries are required to have a national aviation preparedness plan for communicable diseases under a 2007 addition to the Chicago Convention, an international aviation treaty signed by the U.S. and other nations.

Both the U.S. Department of Transportation and CDC agreed such a plan could have value. But both felt another agency, not their own, should lead the effort.

In response to questions, CDC issued a statement saying, Relevant agencies have met around the concept of developing a National aviation communicable disease response plan.

Jonathan D. Quick, a faculty member at Harvard University and author of the forthcoming book, The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It, said a national plan should be put in place.

Unfortunately, he added, the history of diseases is that things that should be done arent done until theres an outbreak.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) A respiratory illness found in people and in civets, a small, nocturnal cat-like mammal. Transmission Mainly through contact with infected saliva or droplets released by coughing. There have also been cases of laboratory-acquired transmission, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Geographic Regions SARS cases were found in 26 countries, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Vietnam and Canada. Symptoms High Fever, body ache, headache, dry cough and difficulty breathing. Most patients develop pneumonia. Oxygen levels in the blood can be low, a condition known as hypoxia; about 10% to 20% of patients require mechanical ventilation. Cases and Death During the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak:

8,098 cases of those, 774 died In the U.S. There have been relatively few cases. The U.S. recorded eight laboratory-confirmed cases during the 2002-2003 outbreak. Treatment Experimental vaccines are under development. There is no consensus on treatment. Antibiotics, antiviral agents, immunotherapy and supportive care have all been used. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organization

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) A respiratory illness found in people and in civets, a small, nocturnal cat-like mammal. Transmission Mainly through contact with infected saliva or droplets released by coughing. There have also been cases of laboratory-acquired transmission, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Geographic Regions SARS cases were found in 26 countries, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Vietnam and Canada. Symptoms High Fever, body ache, headache, dry cough and difficulty breathing. Most patients develop pneumonia. Oxygen levels in the blood can be low, a condition known as hypoxia; about 10% to 20% of patients require mechanical ventilation. Cases and Death During the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak:

8,098 cases of those, 774 died In the U.S. There have been relatively few cases. The U.S. recorded eight laboratory-confirmed cases during the 2002-2003 outbreak. Treatment Experimental vaccines are under development. There is no consensus on treatment. Antibiotics, antiviral agents, immunotherapy and supportive care have all been used. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organization

The link between global travel and the spread of disease did not start with the airplane.

The first major global health threat in which modern transportation played a large role was the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918, according to a report earlier this year by the National Academy of Sciences. In that pandemic, travel by steamship and rail, not air, accelerated the spread of disease.

A series of outbreaks over the last 15 years, however, have hammered home the link between air travel and communicable diseases: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, swine flu in 2009 and Ebola in 2014, among others.

If youre in aviation, youre in the infection control business. The volume of air travel is just so vast, said Mark A. Gendreau, chief medical officer of Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals in Massachusetts, and one of the first to study the spread of infectious disease on aircrafts.

Yet at a time when airlines serving the U.S. carried a record 932 million passengers, and the global total reached almost 3.7 billion, the GAOs report found numerous examples of poor coordination on communicable diseases.

CDC officials complained that the information on sick passengers they receive from airlines and the control tower is often incomplete or inaccurate.

Airport staff cited similar problems. In one case, an airport launched an Ebola response after an airline told them of a suspected case. The airport discovered later that the passenger was traveling from East Africa  not the Ebola-affected region of West Africa. Moreover, the passenger was not suffering from any physical illness at all, but from fear of flying.

Cleaning crews said cabin staff sometimes fail to inform them when a plane has been contaminated by blood, vomit, feces, saliva and other potentially infectious bodily fluids. But airline workers also complained about the cleaners; one said, cabin cleaners sometimes use the same towels to clean potentially infectious materials and later to clean food service equipment such as coffeemakers.

Airport officials said that agencies responding to sick passengers sometimes end up working cross-purposes. In another suspected Ebola case, one group of responders blocked off a road at the airport to give themselves room to dress in protective equipment. Inadvertently, they blocked all the baggage-handling trucks, which in turn blocked other responders who were arriving at the scene.

Finally, Department of Transportation officials have complained that the CDC sometimes issues guidance to airlines without running it past DOT, leading to potential safety problems. For example, if the disinfectant used to clean suspected Ebola contamination is not compatible with the aluminum and other materials on the plane, the aircraft could be damaged, which could negatively affect its airworthiness, GAO noted.

The lack of uniformity in dealing with communicable diseases during air travel was evident when the National Academy of Sciences asked 50 different airports in the U.S. and Canada how they expect to learn of an incident aboard a plane. They found 15 different notification procedures.

One airport explained: Its hoped that a flight crews discussion with an inflight medical consultant (such as Medlink) would give us advance notice; however, Im afraid we may not learn of the issue until first responders have already made contact with the ill passenger.

The National Academy also examined one issue raised by the 2011 incident in Milwaukee. Researchers asked airports whether their plans took into account the possibility of social media posts by passengers about disease on an inbound flight. About 39% said yes, 37% said no. Most of the remaining airports said they didnt know.

To learn more about how airlines deal with infectious diseases, the Journal Sentinel prepared an online survey, which the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA offered to members; 106 responded, an unscientific sampling from a membership of 50,000.

The responses, however, offered a first-hand glimpse into an area that garners little attention: the health conditions aboard airplanes.

Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Ticket agents work with travelers in the Southwest ticketing area at Mitchell International Airport in 2015. Passengers, unwilling to postpone plans, sometimes travel while sick. Passengers can also harbor a virus without showing symptoms, meaning that they aren't even aware that they could be passing a disease to fellow passengers.

Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Ticket agents work with travelers in the Southwest ticketing area at Mitchell International Airport in 2015. Passengers, unwilling to postpone plans, sometimes travel while sick. Passengers can also harbor a virus without showing symptoms, meaning that they aren't even aware that they could be passing a disease to fellow passengers.

About 82% of those responding said their airline needs to improve its communicable disease policy. About 70% reported that they somewhat-to-strongly disagreed with the statement: Crews responsible for cleaning airplanes after sick passengers do a good job.

In more detailed comments, attendants described cases in which cleaning crews demonstrated little knowledge of how to clean biohazards such as vomit or feces, and wiped galley countertops with the same cloths used to clean the bathroom floor.

If its happening the way they describe, thats a real concern, said Quick, the Harvard faculty member.

United flight attendant Diane Johnson described an incident in the spring of 2016 in which a passenger vomited violently over several rows inside an aircraft. When the cleanup staff arrived after the plane had landed, they were not carrying special biohazard kits. They simply wiped down the floor and seats. One used sparkling water as a cleaner.

Their supervisor said they were not trained, in the cleanup of biohazardous materials, Johnson said. He was very honest.

Sara Nelson, the union president and a flight attendant herself for 20 years, watched how the airlines handled the 2003 outbreak of SARS and said the companies appeared to have learned little when the Ebola outbreak occurred in 2014.

Nothing had really changed, Nelson said. And I would argue the airlines were less prepared.

We dont do enough through government, through the infrastructure of the industry to learn from the experiences of the past. That became very clear during the Ebola crisis.

As one example, she said during the Ebola outbreak, the union had to fight to wear gloves on board. At first, flight attendants asked to wear both gloves and masks, and were told by the airlines that they could not. Then some airlines struck what they viewed as a compromise, Nelson said. Flight attendants could wear gloves, but only in economy class, not first class.

Nelson said several airlines followed the compromise policy for a short time until flight attendants informed a federal health official and received permission to wear gloves throughout the plane.

Health experts, however, remain dubious about whether gloves, and even masks, would be of much help to flight attendants with a sick passenger.

If you are with somebody who is symptomatic with Ebola, you need a lot more protection than that, Quick said.

When the Journal Sentinel asked about the problems cited by the flight attendants, the trade association Airlines for America sent this statement:

Airlines work continuously to keep their aircraft clean for their passengers and crewmembers. In addition, (the association) works closely with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other government agencies such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection, when there is a communicable disease threat to ensure that our member airlines are kept informed regarding any specific government guidelines during the outbreak.

The spread of disease isnt confined to international flights, although they have drawn most of the attention in recent years. Most inbound flights to the U.S. have domestic connections, meaning that passengers can land, proceed through customs and board connecting flights before they show any symptoms, before anyone realizes they have a communicable disease.

In fact, diseases not only fly on planes to new countries, then on to different regions of those countries, but in some cases, illnesses spread mid-flight, passenger to passenger. Although the risk of in-flight transmission is considered low, medical literature includes probable in-flight transmissions of SARS, swine flu, measles, mumps and norovirus.

And the risk doesnt end when a passenger steps off the plane.

Malaria cases occurring in and around airports all over the world in people who have not traveled to endemic areas, known as airport malaria, are evidence that malaria-carrying mosquitoes can be imported on aircraft, wrote Gendreau and colleagues in a 2015 paper in the journal Microbiology Spectrum.

Such experiences underscore a major challenge facing scientists and travelers: There is much were still learning about how diseases spread.

Conventional wisdom, repeated in numerous scientific and medical journals, has long held that one passenger is highly unlikely to catch a disease from another unless they are seated within two rows of one another for a flight of at least eight hours.

That precept failed on Air China Flight 112 from Hong Kong to Beijing in March of 2003.

One of the 112 passengers on the flight was a 72-year-old man whod developed a fever four days before the flight. In the days leading up to the flight, the man had been visiting his brother in a hospital ward that held SARS patients.

Upon arrival in Beijing, the 72-year-old was hospitalized. He died five days later of SARS.

At least eight days after the flight, health investigators began contacting other passengers. They reached 65; of those, 18 had come down with probable cases of SARS. Chinese health authorities identified another four passengers and crew from the flight who also came down with SARS. All told, five of those 22 SARS patients from Flight 112 would end up dying.

Not only had the flight been less than half of the eight hours thought to be needed to transmit a disease, nine of those who became ill were seated more than two rows away from the 72-year-old man; two had sat seven rows in front of him. Flight 112 is now considered to be a superspreading event, triggered by a person able to transmit disease to a large number of others.

Claude Thibeault, medical advisor to the International Air Transport Association, a trade association, said what happened aboard Flight 112 has been misinterpreted.

People automatically assume there was transmission, said Thibeault, whose background is in aviation medicine. We cannot prove there was transmission on this plane. They could have already been infected when they got on board.

In a separate study, researchers looked at Flight 112 and 39 other flights that had carried SARS-infected patients. Five of the 40 flights were linked to probable cases of in-flight transmission.

As the first severe contagious disease of the 21st century, Gendreau and a colleague wrote in the journal The Lancet, SARS exemplifies the ever-present threat of new infectious diseases and the real potential for rapid spread made possible by the volume and speed of air travel.

They wrote, too, that the unusual distribution of passengers who became ill after Flight 112 emphasizes the need to study airborne transmission patterns aboard commercial aircraft.

During outbreaks such as SARS and Ebola, countries have faced intense pressure to act on aviation procedures, though some argue the actions had more symbolic than scientific value.

Associated Press A South Korean quarantine officer (left) checks the body temperature of a passenger in August 2014, at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea. South Korea stepped up monitoring of its citizens returning from trips to West Africa and other areas affected by the deadly Ebola virus. Some health experts believe temperature scanners are not all that useful since a fever can be a symptom of many conditions including the stress of everyday air travel.

Associated Press A South Korean quarantine officer (left) checks the body temperature of a passenger in August 2014, at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea. South Korea stepped up monitoring of its citizens returning from trips to West Africa and other areas affected by the deadly Ebola virus. Some health experts believe temperature scanners are not all that useful since a fever can be a symptom of many conditions including the stress of everyday air travel.

For example, the SARS outbreak prompted airports in Asia to use thermal screening tools to measure the body heat of passengers before boarding flights. They were searching for people with high temperatures, since fever is often a sign that the immune system is fighting an illness.

Airports in China and Singapore have continued to use the scanners. Other airports around the world have used the scanners during other major outbreaks such as Ebola.

But critics believe the equipment does little to keep diseases from crossing borders by plane. For one thing, the scanners wont detect a person who is infected but has not begun to show symptoms. For another, fever is such a common symptom that it can be a sign of dozens of diseases, or alternatively a symptom of the everyday stress of air travel.

You have to screen many, many people to find anybody with an infectious disease, said Michael T. Osterholm, author of the 2017 book, Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs. Osterholm noted that during the swine flu pandemic, the Mexico City airport used thermal scanners.

Top 10 destination countries for U.S. air travelers Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Theres not a lick of evidence, he said, that it made one bit of difference in the movement of the virus in and around their country.

He added that by the time health officials realized they were dealing with an outbreak of swine flu, the virus had already reached 27 countries.

Even the most extreme measures, such as restricting air traffic or closing national borders, may do more harm than good, experts say. Curbing air travel ends up slowing the flow of badly-needed medical supplies to an affected area. Closing borders to people from an outbreak region means telling aide workers who come to help that they may be unable to return home for months.

Lisa Rotz, CDC associate director for global health and migration, conceded that stopping diseases from spreading via air travel is a huge challenge. Even passengers who know they are sick often board planes rather than postponing plans.

I would say its difficult to prevent completely, Rotz said, but there are a lot of things we can do to mitigate.

For example, health care agencies have performed what she called enhanced monitoring during particularly serious outbreaks. In such cases, officials use scanners to detect potentially ill passengers departing from an affected area. Those who show elevated temperatures are then asked more detailed questions about their travel histories and symptoms.

In the years after Southwest Flight 703 to Mitchell, Biedrzycki  the Milwaukee health official  tried to address the shortcomings hed seen, organizing a dry run of a similar health emergency.

Ebola A virus disease with a 50% fatality rate. First discovered in 1976 when outbreaks struck in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Transmission Close contact with the blood, secretions, bodily fluids or organs of an infected human or animal. Geographic Regions Outbreaks have occurred in Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Symptoms Fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. Severe Symptoms Vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function, sometimes bleeding from gums or blood in the stool. Cases and Death According to the World Health Organization, outbreaks from 2014 to 2016 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone:

28,600 cases more than 11,000 died In the U.S. In 2014, a patient returning to the U.S. from Liberia was diagnosed with the disease and died. Two health care workers who cared for the man developed Ebola, but recovered. A medical aide worker whod returned from Guinea also developed Ebola and recovered. Treatment While there is no proven treatment, administering oral and intravenous fluids and treating other symptoms helps survival. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organization

Ebola A virus disease with a 50% fatality rate. First discovered in 1976 when outbreaks struck in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Transmission Close contact with the blood, secretions, bodily fluids or organs of an infected human or animal. Geographic Regions Outbreaks have occurred in Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Symptoms Fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. Severe Symptoms Vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function, sometimes bleeding from gums or blood in the stool. Cases and Death According to the World Health Organization, outbreaks from 2014 to 2016 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone:

28,600 cases more than 11,000 died In the U.S. In 2014, a patient returning to the U.S. from Liberia was diagnosed with the disease and died. Two health care workers who cared for the man developed Ebola, but recovered. A medical aide worker whod returned from Guinea also developed Ebola and recovered. Treatment While there is no proven treatment, administering oral and intravenous fluids and treating other symptoms helps survival. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organization

The exercise took place in the spring of 2014. Forty officials from Southwest and Delta, the FBI, the Coast Guard, the Milwaukee County Sheriffs Office, local hospitals and public health groups and the CDC all took part.

They met in a conference room at the Clarion Hotel near the airport. Biedrzycki and an expert hed met at previous workshops, David J. Dausey, of Mercyhurst University in Erie, Penn., gave officials a scenario:

A full domestic flight, two hours from Milwaukee, has identified a sick passenger described as having a probable case of deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus.

The attendees were given three tasks: first, decide which agencies to notify, what to tell them, and establish an incident command center; second, after the flight has landed, make an initial assessment and develop a response; third, based on what they learned during the exercise, develop a preliminary action plan and recommendations to improve local emergency planning.

As the exercise unfolded, officials ran into familiar problems, including jurisdictional disputes.

Turf. Oh, God, yes, said Biedrzycki. "I think a lot of them went in thinking that this (scenario) was a very low probability. Nothing ever happens in Milwaukee.

Biedrzycki said he would have given the performance a grade of C+.

I didnt think it was phenomenal, but it was productive.

Three years later he held a second exercise. This time the 35 officials who attended were given a less exotic disease to deal with: a case of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis on an inbound flight from Los Angeles.

Biedrzycki, who would retire from the Health Department a short time later, noticed a marked improvement the second time around. The airport issued an early alert to the local health department. Agencies did a better job of notifying one another, determining what information to give the public and establishing an emergency operations center at the airport.

Rotz of the CDC said she does not consider what happened with Flight 703 to be a quarantine, but more of a temporary pause on movement.

That the news got out before local health officials learned what was going on, she said was an unfortunate consequence of modern life.

In this day and age, with cellphones on board, things get ahead of us, she said.

In 2013, two years after the incident in Milwaukee, US Airways Flight 2846 landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and the pilot announced to passengers: Weve been notified of a health emergency aboard the aircraft.

As passengers looked nervously at each other, one of the flight attendants approached a middle-aged male passenger, handed him a medical grade mask, and with emergency personnel in tow, escorted him from the plane, according to an account given to the National Academy of Sciences.

Another announcement followed a few minutes later informing passengers that the patient had active tuberculosis, was highly contagious and had exposed everyone aboard the flight.

Then all of the passengers in Phoenix were confronted by a message that the passengers two years earlier in Milwaukee never had to hear.

Please contact your physicians immediately.
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Cuba's President Raul Castro attends an ALBA alliance summit to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, March 5, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins (Reuters)

By Sarah Marsh

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro met with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Friday amid hopes the Communist-run island might be able to convince its Asian ally to avert a showdown with the United States.

North Korea is facing unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Cuba has maintained close diplomatic ties with North Korea since 1960 but is opposed to nuclear weapons.

"In the brotherly encounter, both sides commented on the historic friendship between the two nations and talked about international topics of mutual interest," Cuban state television said on its midday broadcast.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he had discussed with Castro last year the possibility of working together to defuse global tensions with North Korea.

"Can we pass along messages through surprising conduits?" Trudeau asked in a Q&A session after a speech.

"It was a topic of conversation when I met President Raul Castro last year. These are the kinds of things where Canada can, I think, play a role that the United States has chosen not to play, this past year."

Canada had an interest in seeking solutions, not just because of regional security but also because the flight path of possible North Korean missiles would pass over its territory, Trudeau said.

North Korea is working on developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, aiming to achieve what Ri has called "a real balance of power with the United States".

Ri met his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez this week and the ministers denounced U.S. "unilateral and arbitrary lists and designations" that led to "coercive measures contrary to international law", according to Cuba's foreign ministry.

The ministers called for "respect for peoples' sovereignty" and the "peaceful settlement of disputes", according to a ministry statement.

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President Donald Trump has increased pressure on Cuba since taking office, rolling back a detente begun by his predecessor Barack Obama and returning to the hostile rhetoric of the Cold War.

North Korea and Cuba are the last countries in the world to maintain Soviet-style command economies, though under Raul Castro, the Caribbean nation has taken small steps toward the more market-oriented communism of China and Vietnam.

Raul took over the presidency in 2008 from his older brother and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who died on Nov. 25 last year. Cuba is marking the anniversary on Saturday with vigils and concerts. [L8N1NS6SF]

Cuba maintains an embassy in North Korea but trades mostly with South Korea. Last year, trade with the latter was $67 million and just $9 million with the North, the government said.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh in Havana; Additional Reporting by Nelson Acosta in Havana, Julie Gordon in Vancouver and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Daniel Flynn and James Dalgleish)
Foreign venture capital firms in Indonesia talk about market size and opportunity in various industries

Foreign VCs representations in Wild Digital Indonesia

As one of the most promising countries on economics and technology in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is globally being watched over by investors. In 2008-2010, when the startup community was still growing, only few foreign investors coming in and Japanese venture capital (VC) was dominating. In 2017, US and Chinese VCs are coming to invest in Indonesia.

In a session of Wild Digital Indonesia, foreign VC representatives, like Bluesky Investment Director Ben Dunphy, SBI CEO & Managing Director Ryosuke Hayashi, and OPT SEA COO & Partner Soonhe Kim, discussed about the enthusiasm towards Indonesia.

Indonesias huge market size



Out of the many reasons to regard Indonesia as superior over Malaysia and equivalent to Singapore is the huge market size. Proven by the increasing use of smartphone and internet penetration in Indonesia.

According to current data, consumers in Indonesia and Singapore contributed the most profit in many industries, a proof for the huge market size, Dunphy said.

Hayashi shares similar opinion, seeing the lack of financial services creates opportunity for startup development in Indonesia.

Also Read: Tech investment value in Indonesia might outgrow its oil & gas investment: Google-A.T. Kearney

The great number of unbanked people is an opportunity for startup to develop solution for this problem, Hayashi added.

Since 2011, Indonesia has started significant change in technology, led by local rising stars such as Tokopedia, GO-JEK, and Bukalapak. The dynamic puts Indonesia as one of the fastest growing economy in Southeast Asia.

When local startup was non-existence, there is no clear opportunity for investment. Nowadays, many high-potential local startup are rising and attracting foreign investment, Kim said.

Ready to compete with Chinese VCs



The similarity in market and technology development between Indonesia and China becomes a reason why many foreign investors come and invest more in Indonesia. It does not complicate Bluesky, OPT SEA, and SIB to keep looking for opportunity in potential startup in Indonesia and to compete with Chinese VCs.

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With China VC experience, they will get a head start. However, for Southeast Asia-focussed investor like OPT SEA, it wont be a problem, Kim said.



The article Closer Look on Foreign VCs Interest in Indonesia first appeared in DailySocial.

The post Closer look on foreign venture capital firms interest in Indonesia appeared first on e27.
FILE PHOTO: Igor Plotnitsky (R), leader of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, salutes during the Victory Day military parade in the rebel-held city of Luhansk, Ukraine May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo (Reuters)

By Denis Pinchuk

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The security minister of Ukraine's pro-Russian rebel region of Luhansk said on Friday he was taking over power from regional chief Igor Plotnitsky, who days earlier had said he was facing an attempted armed coup to force him out.

In a video posted on a rebel news portal in Luhansk, the security minister, Leonid Pasechnik, said he was taking over after Plotnitsky resigned for health reasons. But there was no immediate word from Plotnitsky himself.

Luhansk and the neighbouring Donetsk region rebelled against rule from Kiev in 2014 and declared themselves independent.

More than 10,000 people were killed in the conflict between the pro-Russian rebels and Ukraine's Western-leaning government.

But since then, the regions, which are backed by Moscow, have been troubled by infighting that has at times turned violent.

"Today Igor Venediktovich Plotnitsky resigned for health reasons. Multiple war wounds, the effects of blast injuries, took their toll," Pasechnik said in the video.

"In accordance with his decision, I am taking on the duties of head of the republic until forthcoming elections."

Earlier this week, armed men in camouflage uniforms, with masks over their faces, blocked access to central streets in the city of Luhansk, capital of the self-proclaimed "People's Republic of Luhansk".

Plotnitsky said it was a coup attempt by supporters of Igor Kornet, the rebel region's interior minister whom he had sacked. But Plotnitsky said at the time he had the situation under control and that the plotters would be dealt with.

Though Moscow denies having any influence over the rebel regions, multiple separatist leaders have told Reuters that Kremlin officials effectively select the rebel leaders. A Kremlin spokesman this week said Moscow was watching events in Luhansk, but declined to make any further comment.

The two self-proclaimed republics are not recognised by Russia or any other nation. The main rebel stronghold is in Donetsk, while Luhansk is less populous and less industrialised.

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Plotnitsky has not released any public statements since giving a news conference on Wednesday. On Thursday, a message was posted on his Internet site saying it had been subject to hacking attacks. There have been unconfirmed Russian media reports that he was in Moscow.

Vladimir Degtyarenko, the speaker of the rebel region's parliament, issued his own video on Friday backing Pasechnik as the new leader. Kornet, the interior minister fired by Plotnitsky, said in a statement he issued via his ministry's official web site that he was still in his job.

The tension in Luhansk did not appear to have any direct connection to the conflict between the rebels and the Western-leaning government in Kiev.

Russia denies accusations from Ukraine and NATO that it supports the rebels with troops and weapons.

(writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
World leaders may have been quick to voice outrage over video footage of Libyan slave auctions, but activists raised the alarm months ago -- and their warnings fell on deaf ears. Aid workers, rights groups and analysts say they had been shouting about rape, torture and forced work for thousands of black Africans in the war-torn north African country until they were blue in the face. But it took CNN's footage of young Africans being auctioned off near Tripoli, filmed on a hidden camera and aired on November 14, to force Western and African leaders into a flurry of condemnation. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres was "horrified"; African Union chief Alpha Conde was "outraged". France requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, with President Emmanuel Macron branding the auctions a crime against humanity. But NGOs and experts have charged leaders with hypocrisy. "Ordinary people aside, everyone knew about this -- governments, international organisations, political leaders," said Hamidou Anne, a Senegalese analyst at think-tank L'Afrique des Idees. Alioune Tine, Amnesty International's West Africa director, said "hostage-takings, violence, torture and rape" were well documented in Libya. "And we've been talking about slavery for a long time," he added. Libya became a massive transit hub for sub-Saharan Africans setting sail for Europe after the fall of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011 tipped the country into chaos. The EU has been desperate to stem the influx -- more than 1.5 million migrants have arrived in Europe since 2015, according to UN figures. But leaders are at a loss to find solutions for the asylum seekers on the other side of the Mediterranean. This month it faced heavy criticism from the UN over its training of the Libyan coastguard, which the world body's rights chief said resulted in migrants being sent back to "horrific" prisons. - 'Unimaginable horrors' - With EU support, Italy has been training Libyan coastguards to intercept boats as part of a controversial deal that has seen migrant arrivals down nearly 70 percent since July. But the UN charges that the policy leaves migrants returned to Libya at risk of torture, rape, forced labour and extortion. "The international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the unimaginable horrors endured by migrants in Libya," UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said. Brussels has hit back that its coastguard training has helped save lives -- nearly 3,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year -- while EU aid has helped UN agencies to send 10,000 migrants home from Libya voluntarily. In The Gambia, Karamo Keita set up a group to warn fellow youngsters not to attempt the trip to Europe, after suffering horrific abuses in Libya including slave labour. "In Libya, black people have no right," he told AFP back in September. "We were taken to various farms where the Libyan guy sold us as slaves. We worked on the farms for free." The International Organization for Migration had in April reported the existence of markets where migrants became "commodities to be bought". And several months later the head of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, Joanne Liu, wrote an open letter to European governments warning of the thriving "kidnapping, torture and extortion business". "In their efforts to stem the influx, are European governments ready to pay the price for rape, torture and slavery?" she asked, adding: "We can't say we didn't know about this." - 'Don't condemn, act' - Amnesty's Tine said that in its efforts to stop migrants arriving "at all cost", Europe bore "a fundamental responsibility" for the horrors in Libya. Yet others are also to blame, he told AFP. "African countries do nothing to make their young people stay, to give them work," he said. Analyst Hamidou Anne also said a passive response from African leaders was in part to blame for the unfolding disaster, along with "systematic racism in the Maghreb countries". "This cannot go on," he said. "Faced with a crime against humanity you don't condemn it, you act." Tiny Rwanda has offered, since the scandal broke, to take in 30,000 Africans from Libya. Migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos meanwhile told AFP on Thursday that the EU was "working without let-up" to find solutions. Tine said slavery needed to be on the agenda at an EU-AU summit on November 29-30 in Abidjan, an idea already floated by Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou. "We need an impartial investigation to see how the trafficking is organised and who is behind it," Tine said. And, he added, "everyone must take their responsibilities."
By Mubasher Bukhari and Asif Shahzad

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Newly freed Pakistani Islamist Hafiz Saeed, accused of masterminding a bloody 2008 assault in Mumbai, called ousted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a "traitor" on Friday for seeking peace with neighbour and arch-foe India.

The release of Saeed from house arrest raised fresh questions as to whether Saeed might enter politics to run a new, unregistered political party founded by his supporters.

India and the United States expressed concern at his release, calling for Saeed to be prosecuted over the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including Americans.

Saeed, who has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, spoke at Friday prayers in a mosque in the city of Lahore after being freed from house arrest by a court that said there was no evidence to hold him.

Saeed was placed under house arrest in January while Sharif was still prime minister, a move that drew praise from India, long furious at Saeed's continued freedom in Pakistan.

In July, a Supreme Court ruling disqualified Sharif from office over a corruption investigation, though his party still runs the government with a close ally as prime minister.

Saeed, however, said Sharif deserved to be removed for his peace overtures with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Nawaz Sharif asks why he was ousted? I tell him he was ousted, because he committed treason against Pakistan by developing friendship with Modi, killers of thousands of Muslims," Saeed said.

India's Ministry of External Affairs condemned Saeed's release, saying it showed Pakistan was not serious about prosecuting terrorists.

A U.S. official said Washington was "deeply concerned" about the release.

"The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

'NO ALLEGATION PROVED'

Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the 2008 Mumbai violence in which 10 gunmen attacked targets in India's largest city, including two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and a railway station.

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The assault brought nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India to the brink of war.

"Im happy that no allegation against me was proved," Saeed told supporters after his release, according to a video released by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Islamist charity, which he heads.

The United States says the JuD is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group, which Saeed founded and which has been blamed for a string of high-profile attacks in India.

Pakistan officially banned the Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2002.

Saeed blamed India for his incarceration in Pakistan, saying "Pakistan's rulers detained me on the aspiration of Modi because of their friendship with him".

Saeed has long campaigned in support of Muslim separatists in the Indian-ruled portion of the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, which Pakistan also claims.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting the LeT and other separatists battling in the Indian part of Kashmir. Pakistan denies that.

While Saeed was under house arrest, his JuD charity launched a political party, the Milli Muslim League (MML), which has won thousands of votes in by-elections.

Senior government and retired military figures say the party has the backing of Pakistan's powerful military. The military denies any direct involvement in civilian politics.

MML officials have privately said that the party is controlled by Saeed, but it is not clear if Saeed will seek to contest elections or launch a political career.

(Additional reporting and writing by Kay Johnson.; Editing by Robert Birsel and Nick Macfie)
By Tom Westbrook and Jonathan Barrett

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Papua New Guinean police cleared the remaining asylum-seekers from a shuttered Australian-run detention complex on Friday, ending a three-week protest which started with some 600 people surviving on rain water and smuggled food and supplies.

Australia closed the Manus Island detention centre on Oct. 31, after it was declared illegal by a Papua New Guinea court, but the asylum seekers refused to leave to transit centres saying they feared for their safety.

Despite the unsanitary conditions and lack of adequate food and fresh water, about 300 remained when Papua New Guinea police started removing people on Thursday and Friday.

"The refugees are leaving the prison camp," Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani told Reuters in a text message on Friday. "We did our best to send out our voice but the government does not care."

Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement on Friday that all of the asylum seekers had now departed for alternative accommodation.

"Advocates should now desist from holding out false hope to these men that they will ever be brought to Australia," Dutton said.

The fate of the asylum seekers, some of whom have been detained for years and come mostly from Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Syria, remains unclear.

Australia steadfastly refuses to allow them entry under its strict "sovereign borders" policy and the asylum seekers have refused to resettle in Papua New Guinea.

Australia and Papua New Guinea both say the asylum seekers are now the other's responsibility, although the Australian government said it had spent A$10 million ($7.6 million) on the transit facility and it wanted the men to move there.

Under Australia's "sovereign borders" policy asylum seekers trying to reach its shores by boat are intercepted and detained in either Papua New Guinea or Nauru in the South Pacific.

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The United Nations and human rights groups have for years criticised Australia's policy, citing human rights abuses in the offshore detention centres and called for their closure.

Papua New Guinea intensified efforts to clear the Manus facility on Thursday by bringing in buses to start moving the men and cutting off routes previously used to deliver smuggled supplies, said Christian pastor Jarrod McKenna, who was at the shuttered centre earlier this week helping the refugees.

Pictures sent to Reuters by an asylum-seeker showed Papua New Guinean officials wearing army fatigues inside the camp on Friday, and a video distributed by advocacy group GetUp showed police armed with sticks pulling an asylum seeker to his feet.

"Buses are waiting for you, trucks are waiting for you...you will get on to them and you will move to your new location, you will not stay here," a man who identified himself as a police commander told the asylum seekers in a video posted to Facebook by Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz.

Papua New Guinea immigration and police officials did not return telephone calls from Reuters to seek comment.

($1 = 1.3118 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook and Jonathan Barrett in SYDNEY; Editing by Richard Pullin and Michael Perry)
By Denis Pinchuk and Stephen Kalin

SOCHI, Russia/RIYADH (Reuters) - Russia's Vladimir Putin won the backing of Turkey and Iran on Wednesday to host a Syrian peace congress, taking the central role in a major diplomatic push to finally end a civil war all but won by Moscow's ally, President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian opposition groups, meeting in Saudi Arabia to seek a unified position ahead of peace talks, decided to stick to their demand that Assad leave power, Al Arabiya television reported, following speculation they might soften their stance after their hardline leader quit.

Two days after being visited by Assad in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, President Putin hosted his counterparts Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rouhani there.

In a joint statement, the three leaders called on the Syrian government and moderate opposition to "participate constructively" in the planned congress, to be held in the same city on a date they did not specify.

"The congress will look at the key questions on Syria's national agenda," Putin told reporters at the summit, sitting alongside Rouhani and Erdogan. "First of all that is the drawing-up of a framework for the future structure of the state, the adoption of a new constitution, and, on the basis of that, the holding of elections under United Nations supervision."

There was no word from the leaders on who would be invited. The list of invitees has been a sticking point, with Turkey objecting to some Syrian Kurdish groups attending.

Syria's civil war, in its seventh year, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and created the world's worst refugee crisis, driving more than 11 million people from their homes.

All previous efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution have swiftly collapsed, with the opposition demanding Assad leave power, the government insisting he stay on, and neither side able to force the issue by achieving a military victory.

But since Russia joined the war on behalf of Assad in 2015, the balance of power has turned decisively in his government's favour. A year ago, the army forced rebels out of their last urban stronghold, the eastern half of Aleppo.

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In recent weeks, the self-proclaimed caliphate of jihadist group Islamic State has collapsed. Government forces now effectively control all of Syria apart from a few shrinking rebel pockets and a swathe in the north held by mainly Kurdish forces backed by the United States.

STILL SEEKING ASSAD EXIT

Opposition groups held their meeting on Wednesday at a luxury hotel in Riyadh, two days after the leader of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) that has represented them at previous peace talks quit abruptly.

HNC chief Riyad Hijab had been known as an uncompromising defender of the position that Assad must have no role in any political transition for Syria, and his resignation had led to speculation the opposition could soften its stance.

However, a draft of the meeting's final statement still included the demand Assad leave office at the start of any transition, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported.

Having helped Assad's government reach the cusp of victory, Putin now appears to be playing the leading role in international efforts to end the war on Assad's terms.

In addition to hosting Assad, Rouhani and Erdogan, the Russian leader has also phoned U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman in the past 24 hours.

Iran has long supported Assad.

Saudi Arabia, Iran's arch rival in the Middle East and long a backer of rebel groups in Syria and advocate of the position that Assad must leave, has been the main supporter of the HNC. But after King Salman made an historic visit to Moscow a few months ago, Riyadh appears to have come around to Russia's dominant role in Syria.

Similarly Turkey, traditionally one of the Syrian leader's implacable foes, has increasingly shown willingness to work with Russia to resolve the crisis.

"This summit is aimed at results. I believe critical decisions will be reached," Turkey's Erdogan said in Sochi before his meeting with Putin and Rouhani.

The Syrian government welcomed the final statement from the three-way Iran summit, Syrian state media said on Wednesday, quoting an official source in the Foreign Ministry. It described it as the culmination of Assad's summit with Putin.

The other major power with troops in Syria, the United States, has so far kept its distance. Washington has been arming, training and sending special forces to assist a Kurdish group fighting against Islamic State, angering Turkey which is fighting its own Kurdish insurgency.

HARD DISCUSSIONS

Still, any final settlement that keeps Assad in power will probably require the participation of some kind of opposition delegation willing to negotiate over the demand that he go.

U.N. peace talks mediator Staffan de Mistura, host of the formal peace process in Geneva, told the opposition groups at the Riyadh meeting they needed to have the "hard discussions" necessary to reach a "common line".

"A strong, unified team is a creative partner in Geneva and we need that, one who can actually explore more than one way to arrive to the goals that we need to have," he said.

De Mistura will meet Russia's defence and foreign ministers on Thursday to discuss preparations for a new round of Geneva talks, Russian news agency RIA reported.

Russia said on Tuesday that the resignation of such "radically minded" Syrian opposition figures as HNC chief Hijab would help unite the disparate opposition factions around a more "realistic" platform.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi, Sarah Dadouch and Dahlia Nehme; Writing by Peter Graff; editing by John Stonestreet)
By Polina Nikolskaya and Polina Devitt

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is concerned that Japan is allowing Washington to use its territory as a base for a U.S. military build-up in north Asia under the pretext of countering North Korea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

His remarks came at a joint press conference with his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, after talks between the two men in Moscow, and prompted Kono to defend Japan's stance toward North Korea and its ties with the United States.

Japan had wanted to focus on resolving a seven-decade old territorial dispute between the countries but Lavrov's comments on North Korea cast a shadow over the meeting.

"We are expressing deep concern, with facts to back it up, that Japan along with South Korea is becoming a territory for the deployment of elements of the U.S. global missile defence system which is being rolled out in that region under the pretext of the North Korea threat," Lavrov said.

"We have no problems directly with Japan, we do not see risks there. We see risks because of the proliferation of a global U.S. missile defence system on the territory of countries that neighbour Russia, including Japan."

He said that in the past few weeks the United States had conducted military exercises in the region and adopted additional sanctions despite the absence of provocation from Pyongyang.

"We are alarmed that in the last two months when North Korea conducted no tests or rocket launches, it seemed that Washington was not happy about that, and tried to do things that would irritate and provoke Pyongyang," Lavrov said.

Referring to U.S. officials, he said: "It's as if they are hoping that they (the North Koreans) will lash out again, and then it would be possible to engage in military options."

"As you know, the U.S. leadership has said many times that all options are on the table, including military options, and we note that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at a meeting with President Trump in early November, said that he supports the American position 100 percent," Lavrov said.

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PEACE HOPES FADE

Japanese Foreign Minister Kono, after listening to Lavrov's remarks, responded that Japan and its allies were not seeking regime change in North Korea. He said Tokyo had to act to defend itself after Pyongyang test-fired missiles which flew over Japan's territory.

"This is unprecedented, the most important and most pressing threat not just to Japan and Russia but to the international community as a whole. It's absolutely unacceptable," Kono said, speaking through an interpreter.

"We believe it's necessary to use all possible means and to increase the pressure on North Korea as much as possible to stop its nuclear programme and the rocket launches," he said.

"Japan welcomes the position of the United States, which is that to protect Japan and South Korea, all means of deterrence will be used."

Earlier this year, Japan's Abe expressed hope of a breakthrough in Tokyo's dispute with Moscow over a group of islands in the Pacific, but that prospect has now dimmed.

The islands are known in Japan as the northern territories and in Russia as the Kurile islands.

At the end of World War Two, Soviet forces took control over the islands from Japan. The island dispute has meant that Moscow and Tokyo have still not signed a formal peace agreement to end war-time hostilities.

Lavrov and Kono said at their talks that they had made progress on measures to boost Russian-Japanese economic cooperation on the islands, and to ease access for Japanese people wanting to visit.

They offered no details about any progress on resolving the core of the dispute, about who has sovereignty over the islands.

(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks as he meets with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other officials following an earthquake that hit Kermansheh province, in Tehran, Iran November 15, 2017. Leader.ir/Handout via REUTERS

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince called the Supreme Leader of Iran "the new Hitler of the Middle East" in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday, sharply escalating the war of words between the arch-rivals.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran back rival sides in wars and political crises throughout the region.

Mohammed bin Salman, who is also Saudi defence minister in the U.S.-allied kingdom, suggested the Islamic Republic's alleged expansion under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei needed to be confronted.

"But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesn't work. We don't want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East," the paper quoted him as saying.

Iran reacted harshly by saying that Salman was discredited internationally by his "immature" behaviour, state television reported.

"No one in the world and in the international arena gives credit to him because of his immature and weak-minded behaviour and remarks," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying.

"Now that he has decided to follow the path of famous regional dictators ... he should think about their fate as well."

Tensions soared this month when Lebanon's Saudi-allied Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned in a television broadcast from Riyadh, citing the influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and risks to his life.

Hezbollah called the move an act of war engineered by Saudi authorities, an accusation they denied.

Hariri has since suspended his resignation.

Saudi Arabia has launched thousands of air strikes in a 2-1/2-year-old war in neighbouring Yemen to defeat the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement that seized broad swaths of the country.

Salman told the Times that the war was going in its favour and that its allies controlled 85 percent of Yemen's territory.

The Houthis, however, still retain the main population centres despite the war effort by a Saudi-led military coalition which receives intelligence and refuelling for its warplanes by the United States. Some 10,000 people have died in the conflict.

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The group launched a ballistic missile toward Riyadh's main airport on Nov. 4, which Saudi Arabis decried as an act of war by Tehran.

Bin Salman said in May that the kingdom would make sure any future struggle between the two countries "is waged in Iran".

For his part, Khamenei has referred to the House of Saud as an "accursed tree", and Iranian officials have accused the kingdom of spreading terrorism, an accusation it denies.

(Reporting By Noah Browning in Dubai and Parisa Hafezi in Ankara; Editing by Michael Perry, Ralph Boulton and William Maclean)
President Donald Trump told Ankara on Friday that the US will no longer supply arms to the Syrian Kurdish militia Washington has used against the Islamic State, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday. Trump delivered the message during what the Turkish presidency called a "productive" phone call with his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the White House hailed as reaffirming a "strategic partnership." "Mr Trump said he gave a clear order and that after this, weapons would not be supplied to the YPG, essentially he said this nonsense should have been ended earlier," Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference in Ankara. The White House was less explicit about the US military's intentions towards the YPG. But it confirmed that Trump had told Erdogan "of pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria, now that the battle of Raqa is complete and we are progressing into a stabilization phase to ensure that ISIS cannot return." The YPG is the Peoples' Protection Units Kurdish militia in Syria, which the US has seen as the most effective fighting force on the ground against the Islamic State extremist group. - Threat to divide Syria - "Naturally, we welcomed these statements," said Cavusoglu, adding: "Of course we want to see this put into practice." In recent months, the YPG has recaptured territory from the Islamic State jihadists, including the former de facto IS capital Raqa in northern Syria. But Turkey views the YPG and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as "terror" groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Cavusoglu again repeated that Turkey saw the YPG as a "threat" trying to divide Syria. The PKK -- blacklisted as a "terror" group by Turkey and its Western allies including the US -- has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984. Relations between the US and Turkey have been strained since the administration of former president Barack Obama over Washington's support for the YPG and the failure to extradite Pennsylvania-based Fethullah Gulen blamed for ordering last year's coup bid. Gulen strongly denies the charges. Bilateral ties are at further risk of fraying over a scheduled trial in New York of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab and Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, both accused of defying US sanctions on Iran. The trial is expected to start early next month but there are fears over possible fines against one or more Turkish banks in the event of a guilty verdict.
The US will send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill, reports said Friday, in a new show of force aimed at Pyongyang. Six fighter jets, normally based in Okinawa, Japan, will be deployed to the South for a five-day joint military exercise, Vigilant Ace, starting December 4, local media reported. A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an "unspecified number" of F-22s would take part in the drill. A US Air Force spokesman declined to give details. Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets. The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against the North's nuclear program. Earlier this month, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes. This was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships in the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade. North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainland -- which were described by the country's leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to "American bastards". It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test in September -- by far its most powerful yet. Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back onto a US blacklist Pyongyang was taken off nearly a decade ago. The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme. Trump said that the terror designation and new sanctions are part of a series of moves over the next two weeks to reinforce his "maximum pressure campaign" against Kim Jong-Un's regime. Pyongyang condemned the listing as a "serious provocation" on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. China, the North's sole ally, also rejected as "wrong" new US sanctions, which target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state. Russia said Thursday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a "PR move" that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global "catastrophe".
An important but haunting memorial can be found in the Low Tatra Mountains not far from Banska Bystrica, in former village Kaliste.

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Uprising. Does that ring a bell? Most young Slovaks will probably think about the popular reggae festival which takes place at the lakeside of the recreation area Zlate Piesky on the outskirts of Bratislava. It is not a coincidence that the festival starts near the date of the anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising, one of the most important events in the Slovak history.

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Slovak National Uprising or the SNP (Slovenske Narodne Povstanie) was an armed resistance organized by Slovaks during WW2. It started on the 29th of August 1944 and it aimed to end the Nazi occupation of the country and took down the pro Nazi puppet government of Jozef Tiso. Like many topics in Slovakia also SNP is a polarizing one, which leads to endless public arguments.

In 2015 during the anniversary of the SNP the leader of the far right political party LSNS displayed a black flag at the office of the Banska Bystrica Region. This was a clear message that for the ultra nationalist and present day political far right the SNP is a black day in our history according to them those who joined and supported the uprising betrayed this nation and the first independent Slovakia under Jozef Tiso. In their interpretation the SNP was no more than a bolshevik coup.

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Read also: War, heroism and history in Slovakia (Spectacular Slovakia - travel guide) Read more

Involvement of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union is clear, however there were various other entities across all political spectrum and social classes actively involved in the SNP. The Communist regime also tried to hijack the SNP to serve it`s own purpose and presented it as a flawless event fully orchestrated by the communists. Many opinions tend to be very biased and the realistic and pragmatic view is often forgotten.

Although the final outcome of the uprising was rather unsuccessful and in most of its parts it was suppressed, it played a crucial role in determining the position of Slovaks in the post-war negotiations. The position of a country where the population stood up against the brutal power of Nazi Germany. On the other hand the immediate aftermath of the SNP - the German counteroffensive was very brutal. Eight German divisions aided by the Slovak Nazi soldiers swept across the rebel held territories and got hold of the strategic areas of central Slovakia where the core of Uprising formed around Banska Bystrica.

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Read also: Rise up, Slovaks! Read more

The official strategy of the uprising has since changed to guerilla war fought mostly by the so called partisans were hiding in the mountainous areas and deep forests depending on the vital help of people from nearby villages. Unfortunately the aid to the partisans became an official reason and excuse for the Nazis to punish Slovaks for the uprising in an extremely brutal way. Ninety-three villages were largely destroyed.

Today many of the important places of the SNP are reminded to us by memorials. Perhaps the most fascinating one can be found in the heart of the uprising in Banska Bystrica. A monumental building is split in two halves like a symbol of two opposing forces. The memorial includes a museum and outdoor exhibition of cannons, tanks, airplane and one specialty - one of three armoured trains used by the rebels.

Another important but haunting memorial can be found in the Low Tatra Mountains not far from Banska Bystrica, in former village Kaliste. During the counteroffensive against partisans and their supporters the Nazis surprised the villagers and at the night executed most of them and burned their houses to the ground. Only two houses remained standing and from the rest that were left in ashes we can still see their foundations.

Very similar unfortunate events unfolded also in the village Klak where most of the inhabitants including 40 children were brutally murdered tortured and some of them burned alive by the Nazis and their Slovak collaborators. All 132 houses were burned down. Today this brutal massacre is reminded to us by the mass graves and memorials in Klak and nearby Ostry Grun. These war crimes were carried out by the infamous division SS Edelweiss where 130 Slovaks from POHG were also its members.

Other tragic events reminded to us by a memorials of the massacres in Kremnicka and Nemecka. It was a series of mass executions in which almost 2000 people found their death. From these at least 900 were cremated in the furnace of the local lime works in an attempt to cover up the evidence of the massacre. In terms of number of casualties this remains the most tragic event from the era of punishment of the Uprising. Most of the victims were participants of the uprising transported from the prison in Banska Bystrica, their families, villagers and ethnic minorities such as jews and gypsies.

The whole country is scattered with many places connected to the events of uprising and many of them are marked with memorials. These memorials are reminding us the struggle against a brutal oppressive regime but also serve as a reminder of the bitter fact that the collaborators did not hesitate to turn the weapons against its own people in many cases.

Juro Sikora is one of the guides of Authentic Slovakia, offering guided tours beyond the ordinary.

Images by: Vaclav Sulek, Planet Slovakia
After success in London, bubbles travel to USA and France.

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Not long ago, the frozen bubble of Slovak photographer Daniela Rapava decorated the title page of The Guardian. It also charmed the jury of the Royal Photographic Society that chose the top few hundred photos from more than 3,500 photos that were presented at a prestigious exhibition in London. The bubbles name was Levitation, My Novohrad wrote.

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Today, Rapava has a new bubble with the name Bud svetlo (Let there be light) that has also drawn attention from abroad. The photo was awarded the silver position at the SPIE Annual International Day of Light Photo Contest in the USA. Next year, visitors may see it in Paris as part of a scene for the International Day of Light, My Novohrad reported.

I am pleased that my photo will be part of this prestigious event where there will be significant personalities and laureates of the Nobel Prize, said Rapava for My Novohrad portal.

Inspired by citation from Bible

Its interesting to watch how the light extends on miniature crystals, as it was born. That was the moment when the Bible citation let there be light came to me, the photographer said, explaining the origin of the photograph name, as cited by My Novohrad.

The recipe for making soap bubbles is easy  it is enough to have water with sugar or glycerol. However, the recipe is one thing; the final piece of art is second thing. She never knows in advance what the final work will be, My Novohrad stated.

I blow the bubble, the rest is natures task, said the photographer for My Novohrad, adding that light is a real artist.

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The Error 2017 festival, unique in Europe, presents theatre of the homeless, disabled or socially disadvantaged people from all over Europe over two days .

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The 11th year of the Error festival, the only one of its kind in Europe that focuses on theatres where homeless and socially excluded or disadvantaged people play, takes place on November 25 and 26 in Bratislava. Part of the event  the venue of which is the Pisztory Palace in Stefanikova Street, is also an international conference, as well as performances by ensembles from Finland, the Czech Republic, France, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, Ursula Kovalyk informed the SITA newswire for organisers.

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The opening piece of the festival will be at 16:00 on Friday with the Czech dance theatre, AmnesiaTheatre, performing Slave on the Rhythm. It will be followed by the Finnish Home Theatre (which works also with mentally challenged people) and its Sketches for Home piece about what it means to have a home, or to lose a home. In the evening, the Bratislava-based Divadlo Bez Domova (Theatre of the Homeless) will bring a staged reading from the book The Equestrienne by Kovalyk. At 19:30, the Friday programme will be concluded by the Kosice-based social theatre Hopi Hope, where actors with Down syndrome are involved. Their performance Emily's Rose is a musical alternative history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The second day brings surprising perfomers

After the Saturday morning conference, the plays will start at 15:00, by the Slovenian ensemble Carnium Legendarium with the On the Way stageing, musing on the sense of life and perceived solitude. Then, the Hungarian AHA theatre presents their At the End of the World, Everything is Well and Good play which tries to find the best place for a child to live. The Polish Teatr Grodzki presents Somewhere over the Rainbow piece, based on the memories of actors who are hearing impaired. The French Les Coquelicots Sauvages theatre is a newcomer to the festival, and at 19:00, the ensemble composed of former prostitutes will offer the It's Not Cheerful piece: stories of their lives. The perceived star of Saturday evening is the Czech Rozkos theatre which combines homeless people and those working in the sex business. At 20:30, they will bring insight into the life of less traditional families, Daddies and Cuckoos.

Error is a festival unique in Europe, which gives the theatre groups working with disadvantaged people a chance to present their original theatre performances, films or musical production to the public, say organisers. The goal is also to stress social issues that professional theatres often ignore, and to break prejudices and stereotypes. More information can be found at the www.divadlobezdomova.sk website.
Cardinal Health, Inc. operates as an integrated healthcare services and products company in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and internationally. It provides customized solutions for hospitals, healthcare systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, physician offices, and patients in the home. The company operates in two segments, Pharmaceutical and Medical. The Pharmaceutical segment distributes branded and generic pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical, and over-the-counter healthcare and consumer products. The segment also provides services to pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare providers for specialty pharmaceutical products; operates nuclear pharmacies and radiopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities; repackages generic pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter healthcare products; and offers medication therapy management and patient outcomes services to hospitals, other healthcare providers, and payers, as well as provides pharmacy management services to hospitals. The Medical segment manufactures, sources, and distributes Cardinal Health branded medical, surgical, and laboratory products and devices that include exam and surgical gloves; needles, syringe, and sharps disposals; compressions; incontinences; nutritional delivery products; wound care products; single-use surgical drapes, gowns, and apparels; fluid suction and collection systems; urology products; operating room supply products; and electrode product lines. The segment also distributes a range of national brand products, including medical, surgical, and laboratory products; provides supply chain services and solutions to hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, and other healthcare providers; and assembles and sells sterile, and non-sterile procedure kits. The company was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio.
Greenhill & Co., Inc., an independent investment bank, provides financial and strategic advisory services to corporations, partnerships, institutional investors, and governments worldwide. The company offers advisory services related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, financings, private capital raising, and other similar transactions. It also advises clients on strategic matters, including activist shareholder defense, special committee projects, licensing deals, and joint ventures; and valuation, negotiation tactics, industry dynamics, structuring alternatives, and timing and pricing of transactions, as well as financing alternatives. In addition, the company provides restructuring advisory services to debtors, creditors, governments, and other stakeholders, and acquirers of distressed companies and assets; and advice on restructuring alternatives, capital structures, and sales or recapitalizations. Further, it assists clients in identifying and capitalizing on incremental sources of value; and on court-assisted reorganizations by developing and seeking approval for plans of reorganization, as well as the implementation of such plans. Additionally, the company advises on private placements of debt and structured equity, refinancing of existing debt facilities, negotiating the modification, and amendment of covenants, as well as acts as an independent advisor. It also offers financial advisory services to pension funds, endowments, and other institutional investors on transactions involving alternative assets; and advice to alternative asset fund sponsors for private capital raising, financing, restructuring, liquidity options, valuation, and related services. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
More than 300 international and local company leaders, policymakers, experts, scholars and students gathered for a colloquium in Ho Chi Minh City to discuss the international business environment in Vietnam on Wednesday.

Among the attendees were Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung, former deputy head of the Office of National Assembly, Ha Thu Thanh, CEO of Deloitte Vietnam, and Blair Fowler, CEO of Renaissance Hotel Saigon.

The speakers addressed Vietnams current business environment, managing across cultures, business culture and ethics, free trade agreements, and other major international business themes relating to Vietnam.

The event, hosted by RMIT University Vietnam, aimed to explore different views from industry experts, policy makers, and academics on the issues and challenges facing international business in Vietnam, according to Dr. Nguyen Quang Trung, the events organizer.

For the past two decades, Vietnam has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and has become increasingly attractive for foreign investment, Trung, RMIT Vietnams discipline lead for the International Business Program, said in a statement.

Understanding the domestic business and policy environment is crucial for both foreign firms seeking to invest and Vietnamese firms seeking to internationalize.

Dr Trung added that RMIT Vietnams decision to establish a forum to discuss vital international business themes in Vietnam is meant to build a foundation for future annual events related to Vietnams economic integration and international business best practices.

Vietnam has to continue improving the makeup of its economy and enhance its competitiveness and restructuring initiatives to be able to adapt and participate in the global value chain, Dr. Tran Du Lich, an advisor to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, said at the forum.

Whats more important is that we must change our way of doing business.

The colloquium, held at the universitys Saigon South campus, brought together stakeholders in international business, and improved inter-industry and inter-disciplinary networking and understanding, as well as enhanced government and industry engagement through dialogue.

A similar event will take place at RMIT Vietnams Hanoi campus on December 13, which will include a presentation by Truong Dinh Tuyen, a former minister of trade who served as director of several of Vietnams major free trade pacts.
A newly opened convenient store in downtown Ho Chi Minh City requires no cashiers, as all purchases are done by customers via a mobile wallet app.

Located on Mac Thi Buoi Street in District 1, Toromart is the first unmanned convenient store in the southern hub, developed by Kootoro Services.

Customers who shop at Toromart must first install a mobile app called TORO Wallet, available on Android and iOS devices, where they can buy credits known as TORO points which would be used to make purchases.

The app also allows users to send TORO points to others and top up their phone using the available credits.

Interface of the TORO Wallet mobile app

The store itself is operated by vending machines, with each product accompanied by a QR code for customers to scan if they wish to buy the item.

The cost will automatically be deducted from their TORO wallet once the purchase completes.

Customers can also withdraw cash at the store using available points in the account.

Kootoro Services has unveiled their plan to open as many as 200 stores across Vietnam in the near future.

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Check out news you should not miss today, November 24:

Politics

-- Vietnams Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc received President of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hiroshi Ozaki in Hanoi on Thursday, expressing his hope to see Osaka and Japanese firms expand operations in the country.

Society

-- Police in the northern province of Ha Nam on Thursday issued an arrest warrant against Nguyen Thi Han, 58, for allegedly abusing a month-old child she was hired to babysit.

-- Karen Lanyon, the Australian Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, a breast cancer survivor has recently shared her inspiring journey of treatment, as well as advice to people with cancer, in an exclusive interview with Tuoi Tre News.

-- A charity run will be held by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper from 6:00 am to 9:00 am at Dam Sen Cultural Park in Ho Chi Minh Citys District 11 on Saturday, followed by a Sunflower Festival on Sunday in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the dailys charity campaign called Uoc mo cua Thuy (Thuys dream).

-- Some 230,000 turns of motorbikes, and 45,000 turns of cars passed through the Saigon River Tunnel per weekday in 2017, three times higher than 2012 figures, according to the tunnels management center.

-- An establishment that recycles scraps and produces plastic beads in the northern province of Hung Yen was caught red-handed illegally dumping wastewater to a local canal at first light on Thursday.

Business

-- A no-keeper convenience store, the first of its kind in Ho Chi Minh City, has been inaugurated in the downtown area, allowing customers to buy goods from vending machines and pay by the Totomart app.

Lifestyle

-- The administration of the central province of Quang Nam has licensed a company to pilot a tour to explore the culture of the Arem and Ma Coong ethnic groups, who live in the core of Phong Nha  Ke Bang National Park.
A Chinese tourist has reportedly gone missing in Ho Chi Minh City for ten days following a last-minute cancelation to join his friends in a planned trip to Can Tho.

The missing of Xie Xin Lai, 29, was reported to police in Binh Tan District on Thursday, the citys Cong An (Police) newspaper reported.

The man reportedly visited Ho Chi Minh City with a group of Vietnamese friends from Hong Kong, who all stayed at a hotel on Nguyen Thuc Duong Street in Binh Tan.

On November 14, while his friends went to the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho to follow their initial itinerary, Xie asked to stay at the hotel to take some rest as he was feeling unwell, according to his friends account.

On November 17, the group of friends returned to the hotel only to find that Xie was nowhere to be seen and his phone could not be reached.

All of Xies personal belongings, including his clothes, passport and visa, were still in the hotel room, according to the report.

The friends only sought help from the police after having spent days searching for their missing friend in vain.

According to their description, Xie is 172 centimeters tall and weighs around 65 kilograms, with tanned skin, short hair and crossed eyes.

Before he went missing, Xie had been using a gray OPPO smartphone and a Vietnamese SIM card number +84971364901.

Binh Tan police are searching for the man and encourages anyone with information about his whereabouts to come forward.

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Mark Willacy digs into the Marshall Islands and its dirty legacy when Foreign Correspondent returns to ABC on Monday.

Rising sea levels threaten to flush a vast stash of highly radioactive plutonium into the Pacific Ocean. And as Mark Willacy reports, this is not the only toxic fallout from a legacy of US nuclear tests.

Runit is a far-flung coral speck surrounded by shimmering blue lagoons, a tiny outpost of the Marshall Islands.

Its also Ground Zero of the South Pacific or, as one Marshallese calls it, a big monument to a giant American f***-up.

Runit is dominated by whats called the Dome. It looks like the work of extra-terrestrials. But this is a man-made, sprawling concrete circle that encases tonnes of nuclear waste including about 400 lumps of plutonium, one the deadliest substances known to science.

Now the Dome is cracking and leaking. Storm tides flood over it. Seawater is inside it. The fear is that a typhoon will break the whole thing apart and spew its radioactive contents into the ocean.

That dome is the connection between the nuclear age and the climate change age. Itll be a devastating event if it really leaks. Were not talking just the Marshall Islands, were talking the whole Pacific Ocean Alson Kelen, Marshallese community leader

As reporter Mark Willacy discovers when he journeys to remote Runit, the Dome is a literal concrete example of Americas cavalier treatment of the Marshall Islanders. Bikini is seared into history for the 23 atomic bomb tests carried out there. Yet at least 40 more were done at Enewetak atoll, which includes Runit, and other Marshalls atolls in the 1940s and 1950s.

Displaced Marshallese cant go home to contaminated islands. Many were burned by the fluttering fallout they called snow. Despite a US$2.3 billion compensation award, a mere US$4 million has been paid out.

Were disposable. Our lives dont matter. War matters. Nuclear bombs matter Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, poet and activist

Not only the Marshallese feel disposable in Washingtons eyes. When a bomb test at Runit misfired, leaving clumps of plutonium scattered over the island, someone had to clean it up. The job fell to US servicemen like Ken Kasik and Jim Androl in the late 1970s.

I was told I was going to a tropical paradise. I didnt know it was radioactive Jim Androl

My whole vision in life was to live on a deserted tropical island. We were lied to Ken Kasik

Kasik and Androl say the clean-up teams shifted radioactive muck for months on end without radiation-protective clothing. For years they have battled cancers which they blame on the clean-up, and which they say also affect a disproportionate number of Runit vets.

But they cant get extra help with medical bills because the US Government wont recognise them as atomic veterans.

The government put us in the middle of a danger zone. Our boys worked six-month tours on a dirty island and the government says You were never there Ken Kasik

8.30 pm Monday November 27 on ABC
On Thursday ABC screens The Dream Factory, a TV tribute to ABCs famed Ripponlea studios.

Opened in 1956, the studios have been home to iconic shows including Bellbird, Countdown, The Big Gig, Kath & Kim, Spicks and Specks, Seachange, Adventure Island, Frontline, The Late Show, The D-Generation, Round the Twist, The Gillies Report, Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries, plus Something in the Air, Recovery, The Adventures of Lano & Woodley and more recently The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight, Dirty Laundry Live, Newtons Law and Hard Quiz.

ABC has since relocated to new studios in Southbank with the site due to be sold for redevelopment.

Floor manager Darrin Oakley, who began in he mailroom in 1986, told TV Tonight, the corridors were a hub of activity, where the famous rubbed shoulders with crew & audience.

You can stand here with the two studios behind you, and youre looking directly at Make-Up, Wardrobe, Dressing Rooms you just call out for an actor and they will come running.

At Southbank this area doesnt exist. Youre on the 2nd floor so its a 5 minute elevator ride just to get up there and you have to hope the person is up there!

He nominates Kath & Kim and Mad as Hell as his two favourite productions.

Ive done a lot of drama shows but you tend not to have as much fun on those, he says.

With the comedies you try to create a good environment for the actors.

Oakley says there arent too many stars that left him starstruck.

You name an Australian actor and I reckon I have probably worked with them. There wouldnt be many that I havent.

I was starstruck by Barry Humphries because I had grown up watching Dame Edna. So when you are face to face with someone like that you just pinch yourself, he continues.

Sting came in for Recovery and we were live to air. We had built this elaborate set for him to sit on. But he took one look at it and said Im not sitting on that. We had only 2 minutes to go, so the director said Put him wherever he wants to go! It was just chaos.

But he also recalls stumbling onto a secret romance between Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness when he was the third A.D. on 1995s Correlli.

I had to pick her up at 5 in the morning. It was 5am at her house and when the lights came on there were 2 silhouettes at the door, he recalls.

When the car door opened she sat in the front and then the back door opened and she says Not a word! And it was Hugh Jackman.

I kept it a secret, but they eventually got sprung by the caterers having a pash in her dressing room!

The Dream Factory airs 9pm Thursday on ABC.

Click on a photo to begin slideshow
Canadian mockumentary Trailer Park Boys is back on Netflix with new episodes Trailer Park Boys: Out of the Park: USA from today.

This is the second season in the Out of the Park spin-offs. There are 8 episodes this season.

The boys are back on the loose as Bubbles, Julian and Ricky head south of the Canadian border for some outrageous American adventures.
SWNS

<p>Red-faced council chiefs have been forced to send back Britain's saddest Christmas tree after locals were left so shocked they thought it was a joke.</p><p>The partially brown 16ft spruce, which seemed to be missing several branches, was erected in the centre of St. Helens, Merseyside, earlier this week.</p><p>But locals were left fuming at the sub-standard conifer, with one claiming that theyd been given the worst tree in England for two years in a row.</p><p>Residents also joked that it might be a re-potted version of last years festive failure, which was so bare the only light on the tree was the sun shining on it.</p><p>Meanwhile, others branded the fir disgusting and called for more spending on Yuletide celebrations.</p><p>The tree has been branded a 'laughing stock' after it was put up in Church Square earlier this week, with one resident saying he thought it was a prank.</p><p>Embarrassed officials from St Helens Borough Council later accepted that the spruce did not meet our standards and agreed to replace it within 24 hours.</p><p>One wrote: If it hadnt have been so poor last year, Id have agreed it was a mistake this time around. I think the council chanced their arm on a cheap tree again.</p><p>Surely someone saw it and picked it out? And surely it would have some resemblance when unpacked?</p><p>The Norwegians manage to get a decent one all the way to Trafalger Square every year without incident!</p><p>It isnt important per se, but things like this are a visual representation of the town at large. Last years was uninspired, lacking effort and depressing. I think we all deserve better.</p><p>Another angry resident added: Disgusting. Typical St. Helens council trying to line there own pockets as per usual instead of spending money on the town or the towns people. </p><p>Im not surprised the council are a laughing stock and no one trusts them anymore.</p><p>A further local said: The poor tree looks like its been dug up years ago ..might even be last years tree that had tried to be replanted and sadly failed to thrive for this year ...if they fork out on LOADS of lights it will shine I'm sure .....</p><p>While another resident added: Two years in a row we have probably the worst in England.</p><p>This years ill-fated tree follows controversy over St Helens previous Christmas fir, which had no lights after the council decided to forgo illuminations for it all together.</p><p>At the time, Resident Paul Whittaker, who took a picture of the sun peeking through the spruces leaves, joked that it was the only light that would featured on the sad tree.</p><p>But it seems local organisers were quick to take note of the criticism this time around after they hastily released a statement saying the tree would be replaced.</p><p>A spokesperson said: Hello everyone, just to let you know we're not happy with this tree either.</p><p>When the tree is unwrapped it is our first chance to look at it too and this does not meet our standards.</p><p>We can assure everyone that this tree will be replaced with a new one in the next 24 hours!</p><p>Rainford's Christmas Trees, who supplied the local fir, added that large spruces dont always come through the transportation process well and were finding a replacement.</p><p>A spokesperson for the business said: "We installed this tree, when its in the forest trees look great, when you take them from their natural surroundings, cut them down bale them up, transport them then put them up again, big trees dont always come through the process that well. </p><p>We recognised this after it was erected and was allowed to open out and immediately organised a replacement.</p>
HONG KONG (AP)  A Chinese energy company denies it had anything to do with a multimillion dollar bribery scheme that U.S. prosecutors say was organized by two businessmen to secure business from African officials on its behalf.

In a statement late Tuesday, CEFC China Energy Co. sought to distance itself from the corruption, money laundering and conspiracy charges filed against former Hong Kong home secretary Patrick Ho and Cheik Gadio.

Prosecutors say the two arranged bribes to secure business advantages for an unnamed Shanghai-headquartered company. The complaint's details indicate it was CEFC.

CEFC said it "conducts its business activities in strict accordance with the law." It denied investment activities in Uganda and having an "interest relationship" with Chad's government.

Prosecutors allege Ho and Gadio were involved in bribing officials of the two countries.

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WASHINGTON  Earlier this year, Americas most famous investor, Warren Buffett, characterized cyberattacks as a bigger threat to humanity than nuclear weapons, calling them the No. 1 problem with mankind.

Buffett, who describes himself as a cyberthreats neophyte, was echoing the concerns of government officials and national security experts going back at least five years. The nation finds itself in a situation comparable to the Cuban missile crisis of 55 years ago, a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the deployment of Soviet ballistic missiles on Americas doorstep in Cuba, which followed American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey. This confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.

But the resolution of the crisis, involving a joint pullback by the two nuclear powers, laid the groundwork for the nuclear arms control and reduction treaties that have kept nuclear war at bay ever since. More than half a century later, we face comparable uncertainties in the global cyber-arena, and there is the same urgent need for de-escalation.

President John F. Kennedy meets with U.S. Army officials during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. (Photo: Corbis via Getty Images)

The similarities between cyber and nuclear weapons are painfully apparent: These attacks are capable of imposing catastrophic consequences on our critical national assets, with quick delivery times unimpeded by geographic boundaries. Conflicts between our nation and other countries, including Russia and North Korea, dominate the headlines. Our global landscape has become increasingly digitized, and this increased cyberconnectivity is changing the nature of the threats we face, posing serious implications for our national security.

In October, a report surfaced that hackers linked to North Korea targeted American electric utilities. The ability to impact national critical infrastructure, by either taking it offline or weaponizing it, constitutes a very real threat but with a significant difference from the Cuban missile crisis: The enemy is unknown and the path to resolution is unclear.

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When it comes to traditional warfare, there is an understood set of norms  a code of conduct  between nation states. These norms give the system predictability, which leads to stability. In the cyberworld, the impacts are significant, but the code of conduct and the consequences for bad behavior havent been defined yet. The concept of cyberattack is not even clearly defined by the U.S. government, much less our potential enemies. And this lack of definitions and standards of conduct means that it is impossible to predict how a target will react or respond to a cyberattack.

This undated picture released by North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency in September shows Kim Jong Un, center, at an undisclosed location looking at a metal casing with two bulges. (Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

This summer, we learned that the notion of a cyberattack against nuclear infrastructure within the U.S. is truly a practical reality. According to the New York Times, since May 2017, hackers have been penetrating the computer networks of companies that operate nuclear power stations and other energy facilities, as well as manufacturing plants in the U.S. and other countries. Among the companies impacted was the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, which runs a nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kan. Further reporting revealed that the U.S. government believed that the Russians were behind this and other attacks.

And this wasnt the first instance of a cyberattack intentionally targeting some of the most sensitive facilities in the world. Stuxnet, a malicious computer worm that targets industrial computer systems first publicly identified in 2010, was responsible for causing substantial damage to Irans nuclear program. Although neither country admitted responsibility, the worm is frequently described as a jointly built American-Israeli cyberweapon. Stuxnet switched off safety devices, sabotaging centrifuges by making them spin out of control and destroy themselves. Weve known for a decade that these potential consequences existed. In 2007, the Idaho National Laboratory conducted the Aurora experiment to demonstrate how a cyberattack could destroy physical components of the electric grid. The experiment used a computer program that rapidly opened and closed a diesel generators circuit breakers out of phase from the rest of the grid, causing them to explode.

The use and sophistication of these exploits is on the rise, and our physical national assets are not all that is being held at risk. The country is continuing to deal with credible allegations that our electoral and news media platforms were manipulated in the last election. Allowing for the obvious differences between cyberweapons and nuclear bombs, its not a stretch to say we are now heading toward a second Cuban missile crisis  of cyberwarfare.

Steam rises from the warm waters created by the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation at Coffey County Lake in Kansas. (Photo: Michael Pearce/TNS/Zumapress.com)

And it calls for the same determination and ingenuity that resolved the original one. Experts say the U.S. is well-positioned to lead an effort toward an enforceable treaty that establishes norms on the use of cyberweapons. Until we take on that challenge, we are unsure as a nation which act will generate what response, and so we stand by as malicious cyber acts expand and escalate. Powerful nations continue to test their abilities to use and deploy new kinds of weapons, and conflict seems inevitable, if not already a reality. It is likely to end in a crisis that will demonstrate and define acceptable limits and unacceptable actions. In 1962, that limit was found when the arming of a tiny island in the Caribbean pushed us to the edge of a nuclear disaster. How will it be found in 2017?

Anthony J. Ferrante is head of cybersecurity and a senior managing director at FTI Consulting. He served as director for Cyber Incident Response at the U.S. National Security Council.

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A man is on the phone in front of the office of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO), in Phnom Penh, Cambodia November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Samrang Pring (Reuters)

By Prak Chan Thul and Matthew Tostevin

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - "We speak our mind", says the website of a group of young Cambodians who have met at weekends for the past six years to discuss politics over mugs of coffee.

But discussions by the Politikoffee group were postponed indefinitely by the organisers after the main opposition party was dissolved last week at the request of authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen's government.

For participants, the suspension of their meetings because of the difficult environment was just one more sign of debate being shut down in what has been one of Southeast Asia's most open societies.

"People are sensitive in talking about politics or talking about what the government is doing right now," said Noan Sereiboth, 28, a researcher for health projects who was a regular attendee at the Politikoffee gatherings.

"Sometimes people's parents tell them not to talk about politics to stay safe," he said.

The arrest of opposition leader Kem Sokha for alleged treason in September and the ban on his party have eliminated the main obstacles to Hun Sen extending more than three decades in power in a general election next year.

NGOS PARALYSED

But the crackdown by the government has been felt much deeper: to once vocal civil society groups nurtured by Western donors, to independent media and to anyone posting subversive comment on social media.

"Local NGOs have been paralysed and scattered," said Naly Pilorge of the Licadho human rights group, which has a long record of reporting on detentions and land seizures.

"People say space is shrinking. It's not shrinking, it's closed," she told Reuters at her office in Phnom Penh.

Three other groups declined to comment or did not respond to requests for official comment.

It was not lost on the groups that their names featured as associates of the opposition during testimony at the Supreme Court on banning the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was accused of plotting a revolution with American help.

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The opposition says there was never a plot, dismissing accusations as a ploy to eliminate Hun Sen's rival.

"GRADUATED FROM FEAR"

The government said nobody had reason to fear in a country that has been transformed since the devastation wrought by the Khmer Rouge genocide in the 1970s.

"Everyone has full freedom of expression in every way," said Huy Vannak, undersecretary of state at the Interior Ministry. "We have long graduated from fear."

Civil rights groups and other non-governmental organisations flourished in Cambodia with the help of Western countries that hoped to build a liberal democracy after the first multiparty elections in 1993.

That brought a more open environment than in neighbouring countries such as communist Vietnam and Laos or military-ruled Thailand, with its harsh sentences for criticising the monarchy.

But Western donors lack the weight they one had in Cambodia and Hun Sen has brushed of their criticism of the crackdown.

China is now the biggest aid giver. Since the ban on the CNRP, it has voiced support for Cambodia in the name of protecting political stability and economic development.

NOT GIVING UP

Politikoffee, which gets speakers from all sides for its debates, said that postponing its recent events because of the difficult environment did not mean it was giving up.

"We hope we can weather the dramatically changing political order," team leader Aun Chhengpor told Reuters. "The forum will be back in place soon."

Although the debates among a few dozen participants cost little to organise, Politikoffee uses space provided by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, a German pro-democracy group which said it had no say over the group's discussions.

The political troubles are not evident in the daily bustle of Phnom Penh, capital of a country of 16 million people which has recorded economic growth of around seven percent for the past six years.

But few wish to speak about politics.

"We must just keep quiet and let it pass," said Chrock Soth, 46, who just about makes a living selling bananas from his bicycle on the outskirts of the city.

In an informal survey of more than 30 people in and around Phnom Penh, traditionally a stronghold of the opposition, roughly half declined to comment on the situation or said they did not care about politics.

The rest were unhappy, but said they could do nothing.

"Youths care about politics," Noan Sereiboth said. "But in the current situation they can't do anything except watch."

(Editing by Bill Tarrant)
By Richard Lough

PARIS (Reuters) - Barely six months into office, President Emmanuel Macron is already preparing for his third visit to sub-Saharan Africa. Yet while the energetic young leader is eager to reshape France's relationship with the continent, old problems die hard.

His Nov. 28-30 trip to Burkina Faso, Ghana and Ivory Coast is aimed at boosting cooperation on education, the digital economy and the environment. The visit will be capped by an EU-Africa summit in Abidjan, when migration will top the agenda.

"Africa is not just the continent of migration and crises. It's a continent of the future," the 39-year-old president told French ambassadors in August.

But even then, French forces were being sucked deeper into a years-long battle to quell Islamist militancy in Mali. Last month, a raid by French special forces in the Malian desert illustrated how deep that quagmire is becoming.

French troops stormed an Islamist training camp, killing 15 suspected militants. French officials said the operation was based on intelligence the camp housed Malians who had joined the Islamists. Mali said government soldiers held hostage by the Ansar al-Dine group were among the dead.

As recriminations flew, a defence official spoke of "a real trust problem". Laurent Bigot, a former under-secretary in the French foreign ministry, was blunt: "Mali is a disaster," he said. "We're repeating mistakes made in Iraq and Afghanistan."

That assessment underlines just how much work Macron faces if he is to strengthen security and migration policy without getting bogged down in costly military ventures. More than 7,000 French troops are already deployed across Africa.

CHANGE OF TACK

Macron will make his first stop in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso, where he will set out his vision for Franco-African relations in his favoured style - a speech.

Language and tone are critical. French presidents usually make early visits to Africa, but some have misjudged. Nicolas Sarkozy declared "the tragedy of Africa is that the African has not fully entered into history". The comment has haunted him.

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A presidency official said Macron would emphasise education and investing in youth across the continent, themes he has touched on in his first six months in power.

In Ghana, a former British colony where France has ramped up investment, including in oil, telecoms and technology, Macron is to promote the digital economy and a broadening of French education initiatives.

In Ivory Coast, environment will be the main topic, before EU and African leaders meet to discuss security and migration, with both Macron and Germany's Angela Merkel keen to limit the flow of migrants to Europe by introducing tighter checks and controls on African soil, not in Europe.

Macron's proposals to bolster African growth and create jobs echo Germany's call for a "Marshall Plan for Africa". He also promises to raise France's aid budget from 0.38 percent of national income to 0.55 percent by 2022.

NO MORE FRANCAFRIQUE

After French colonialism ended in the 1950s and 60s, France wielded a tight grip over its former dominions, using military might to install leaders in return for French companies securing lucrative contracts -- a policy dubbed "Francafrique".

But French diplomats say the days of France throwing its weight around for commercial favours are over.

Macron, born months after Djibouti became the last French colony to gain independence, has shown little inclination to revive the old networks that linked French businessmen and intelligence agents with African politicians.

"We have a president who has never known the colonies and never had those close links to the region's leaders. He has more freedom to say what he thinks," said one diplomat.

Macron has created an African Presidential Council to help shape his thoughts. Its 11 members are mostly young, dual-national entrepreneurs with backgrounds in art, media, finance and ecology. It reports directly to the president, irking some in diplomatic circles.

France's shift away from Francafrique has eroded the privileges once enjoyed by companies such as Total, Orange and Areva, just as globalisation has opened the field to China and India.

French business group Medef is lobbying Macron for a greater role for the private sector in his vision for Africa, although some acknowledge French companies face huge competition and can still suffer an image problem.

"Africa is a fast growing continent, business opportunities are not a problem," said Patrice Fonlladosa, president of Veolia Africa & Middle East and head of Medef's Africa committee. "The problem is being chosen as the partner of choice."

(Additional reporting by John Irish, Marine Pennetier; Editing by Luke Baker and Richard Balmforth)
By Katharine Houreld

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Hours after Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe was forced out after 37 years in power, Uganda's president, another former guerrilla in office for more than three decades, was tweeting about pay rises for civil servants and bright prospects for his army tank crews.

Supporters of long-serving African leaders dismiss parallels with Zimbabwe, where Mugabe's former deputy - sacked during a power struggle with Mugabe's wife - is about to take power with military and public backing.

But Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's tweets, which come amid rising anger at the 73-year-old's attempts to prolong his rule, suggest he is looking south and wondering about his own fate.

"Now that the economic situation in Uganda is improving, the government will be able to look into raising of salaries of soldiers, public servants, health workers and teachers and also deal with institutional housing," Museveni tweeted on Wednesday.

It was unclear what improvement he meant. Uganda's faltering economy is growing too slowly to absorb a booming population of 37 million. The number of citizens spending less than a dollar a day has surged to 27 percent, the statistics office reported in September, up from 20 percent five years ago.

Museveni's office was not immediately available for comment on the tweets, but John Baptist Nambeshe, a ruling party lawmaker who opposes the president's attempts to have an age limit on his post lifted, said there was no coincidence.

"The timing couldn't have been coincidental. It was to underscore his might, that probably the military is still solidly behind him, unlike in Zimbabwe," Nambeshe told Reuters.

Museveni may not be alone.

Several African leaders have faced popular opposition in recent years, from Togo, where thousands protested this autumn, to Gabon, where riots broke out last year after President Ali Bongo was re-elected in a disputed vote.

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Mugabe's fall has raised hopes among opposition politicians that other long-serving leaders will fall, but also stoked fears that those who replace them may be no better.

AGING RULERS

President since 1986, Museveni is among Africa's longest-serving leaders. They include Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang, president for 38 years; Cameroon's Paul Biya, president for 35 years; Congo's Denis Sassou Nguesso, president for two stints totalling 33 years.

The Gnassingbe family have ruled Togo and the Bongo family have ruled Gabon for half a century, while the Kabila family have run the Democratic Republic of Congo for 20 years.

Some countries allow only two presidential terms, but several have rolled back such legislation.

In Cameroon, Biya scrapped term limits and cracked down on the opposition. In Congo, Nguesso jailed an opposition leader this year for protesting against removal of term limits.

Franck Essi, secretary-general of the opposition Cameroon Peoples' Party, said opposition movements were closely watching events in Zimbabwe.

"Leaders must put in place mechanisms for a democratic and peaceful transition that will allow new leadership. If not, sooner or later, the people who are suffocating will wake up," he said.

Some places have already seen change. Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore was ousted by protests in 2014 as he tried to change the constitution and extend his decades-long rule. In January, Gambia's erratic ruler Yahya Jammeh fled after regional pressure ended his 22-year reign.

Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos stepped down this year after four decades in power; his handpicked successor has pushed out some key dos Santos allies.

For many nations, a Zimbabwe-style switch in the loyalties of the armed forces or a rift in the inner circle represents one of the few ways that rulers might be forced from power. Despite Zimbabwe's well-established opposition, change didn't come until Mugabe's inner circle fell out over his succession plans, and the military put him under house arrest.

Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson, a top Togolese opposition official, said they had hoped for a Zimbabwean-type change of power where the military came over to their side.

"We'd wanted the Togolese army to fight alongside us. We were moved seeing that Zimbabwes army and civilian population were all in the streets dancing. Thats what we want in Togo," she said. "There will be change in Zimbabwe this year and there will be in Togo too.

"THEIR TURN WILL COME"

A slump in commodities prices has deprived some nations of the resources they have traditionally used to muffle protests. In some cases, corruption has also emptied state coffers.

In central Africa, Congo's Kabila has repeatedly postponed elections after refusing to step down at the end of his term last year, sparking deadly protests.

Jean-Pierre Kambila, Kabila's deputy chief of staff, tweeted that Zimbabwe's protests were a colonial fantasy.

"A fabricated demonstration dreamed up by those who do not accept the liberation of Africa. Other Mugabes will be born. Nothing to worry about," he wrote.

Uganda, a key Western ally set to begin exporting its substantial oil reserves, removed term limits in 2005 to extend Museveni's rule.

The east African nation has seen far less violence under Museveni than the two dictators who preceded him. But now tensions are rising as social services crumble and parliamentarians attempt to remove a constitutional age cap that would bar Museveni from standing in the next election.

Police have used deadly force against protesters, and repeatedly arrested the main opposition leader. Security forces dragged parliamentarians opposing the bill out of the legislature. On Wednesday, police raided a popular newspaper, detaining eight staff.

Okello Oryem, Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs, dismissed any parallels with Zimbabwe, saying Mugabe's overthrow was the result of Western interference.

"The intelligence services of the West have worked day and night to bring down Zimbabwe," he told Reuters. "Citizen pressure in Zimbabwe can only work if and when the army allows it."

But another Ugandan opposition leader, Asuman Basalirwa, warned that national leaders who refused to step down risked plunging their countries into conflict. Military intervention to end dictatorships ultimately leads to more repression, he said, something that many feared might be in store for Zimbabwe.

"It is time for the continent to democratize," he said. "Those who have not yet experienced what happened in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and now Zimbabwe should just wait for their turn because it will surely come."

(additional reporting by Josiane Kouagheu in Douala, John Zodzi in Lome, Amedee Mwarabu in Kinshasa, and David Lewis in Nairobi; writing by Katharine Houreld; editing by Giles Elgood)
Former Peru's President Alejandro Toledo and his wife Eliane Karp arrives to the 2015 IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in Lima, Peru, October 8, 2015. REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo (Reuters)

LIMA (Reuters) - The Peruvian attorney general's office accused former president Alejandro Toledo on Friday of taking bribes from Brazilian construction firm Camargo Correa SA in exchange for a lucrative highway contract during his 2001-2006 term.

An unnamed state's witness had helped uncover evidence that showed some $3.98 million (2.98 million) in payments Camargo made to Toledo through offshore bank accounts controlled by one of Toledo's associates, the attorney general's office said in an emailed statement.

Camargo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In Lima, Toledo's attorney, Heriberto Benitez, said Toledo was innocent of the accusations.

"I spoke with him yesterday, he said: 'I didn't take money from anyone,'" Benitez said to Reuters in a phone interview.

Toledo is already wanted in Peru in connection with allegations that he took $20 million in bribes from Odebrecht, another privately owned Brazilian builder, for help winning a contract for building a different section of the same highway.

Peruvian authorities are seeking Toledo's extradition from the United States. His current whereabouts is unclear, but authorities said in February that he was in California, near his alma mater Stanford University.

Following a judge's order in February that he should be held in pre-trial detention, Toledo said he would not return to Peru. He has repeatedly described the probe as "political persecution".

Last year Odebrecht admitted to paying millions of dollars in bribes in Peru to secure lucrative government contracts over a decade-long period, spurring a far-reaching investigation to determine which officials received them.

Odebrecht and Camargo were at the centre of Brazil's biggest-ever graft inquiry, known as 'Operation Car Wash.'

(Reporting By Mitra Taj and Marco Aquino, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
Albin Kurti, speaks at the Vetevendosje party rally in Mitrovica, Kosovo, October 14, 2017. Picture taken October 14, 2017. REUTERS/Hazir Reka

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo police arrested three lawmakers on Friday, including the popular main opposition leader whom they handcuffed in the street, after the three failed to appear in court on charges of releasing tear gas in parliament in 2015 and 2016.

Opposition lawmakers obstructed parliament for almost two years by letting off tear gas in the chamber in a protest against a border deal with Montenegro and an EU-brokered agreement with Serbia.

The leader of Kosovo's biggest opposition party, Vetevendosje Albin Kurti, was seized and handcuffed by police close to parliament building when he was on his way to attend a regular session.

Police used paper spray to disperse several other lawmakers from Kurti's party who tried to hold onto him and prevent police from taking him away, Kosovo media showed. He was eventually moved into a police van.

Kurti won more votes than any other political candidate and his party came first in June snap elections, but he did not enter the ruling coalition.

Dozens of other MPs have been indicted so far for releasing tear gas in the 120-seat parliament.

"This is the continuation of a massive and wide-ranging persecution that has started against Vetevendosje," the party president, Visar Ymeri, said.

Last week a court in Pristina sentenced four people, including one member of parliament, to prison terms ranging from two to eight years for taking part in a grenade attack against the parliament building last year. They were all loyalists of Vetevendosje.

Opposition parties oppose the border deal with Montenegro saying the country of 1.8 million is losing land by handing over some 8,000 hectares (19,700 acres).

The opposition is also against a deal signed in 2013 between Pristina and Belgrade as part of an EU-sponsored dialogue that would give more rights to the local Serb minority. They say the deal will practically divide the poor Balkan country on ethnic lines.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after NATO bombing drove Serb forces from the territory.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Ivana Sekularac and Richard Balmforth)
Sweden's Europe minister has poured cold water on the idea of the UK enjoying "frictionless trade" after Brexit.

Ann Linde, who has sat on the Nordic country's frontbench since May 2016, told Sky News: "It's not possible to have frictionless trade if you are not part of the customs union and the single market."

In recent weeks and months she has met with Brexit Secretary David Davis and his Labour opposite number, Keir Starmer.

Both were interested in how the 1,000 mile long frontier between Sweden and neighbouring non-EU nation Norway works.

Mr Davis has suggested its border with Sweden - and therefore the EU - could be one Britain might imitate after Brexit.

Ms Linde admitted that it does represent the best option for a non-EU country.

But she told Sky News it would come as a shock to British people and businesses accustomed to experiencing no bureaucracy over travel and trade with continental Europe.

Ms Linde said: "We did research with 2,000 Swedish companies to say which country is the most difficult to have export relations to and number one was Norway and after that came China."

She also criticised British ministers' approach to the whole question.

"You cannot be half in the customs union," Ms Linde said. "Either you are or you're not.

"They say they want a bespoke arrangement. Well it's not possible. I think they hope for a solution that no other country has been able to negotiate at all."

Despite the UK's hopes to use technology to create an invisible, if not frictionless, border to solve the Northern Ireland question, the Republic claims that is not an option.

Irish Europe minister Helen McEntee told Sky News: "When we're talking about no return to the border for us, and we have been very clear from the beginning that the way that we could achieve that is by the UK and northern Ireland remaining part of the customs union and the single market."
Tzipi Hotovely, the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, came under fire this week for a statement she made on TV about Jewish people in the US, in which she said they led convenient lives and didnt send their children to fight for their country.

She was responding to questions about a disconnect between young Jewish people in the US and Israel, after protests led to her planned talk at Princeton University being cancelled.

On November 24, a day after Thanksgiving in the US, Hotovely shared this video of a celebration she had with Americans living in Israel who, she says, had made Aliyah, travelling to train with the Israel Defense Forces. Hotovely says she sees them as ambassadors to Jewish people in the US.

In a separate post in English she said she was sorry for her misconceived remarks and that the bonds between Israel and Jews everywhere are critical to ensuring our common future. Credit: Facebook/Tzipi Hotovely    via Storyful
By Susan Taylor

TORONTO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Unionized workers at Alcoa Corp's Canadian aluminum smelter in Becancour, Quebec have rejected the company's contract offer and adopted a strike mandate, the United Steelworkers said on Wednesday.

The collective agreement for 1,030 unionized workers expires at 11:59 EST (0459 GMT) Wednesday, after which workers will be in a legal position to strike and Alcoa will have the right to lock them out, the union said.

Becancour produces 430,000 metric tonnes of aluminum annually, Alcoa said. Combined with the company's Deschambault and Baie-Comeau smelters in Quebec, total annual production capacity is nearly 1 million metric tonnes of ingots, plates and billets, Alcoa said.

Alcoa, which owns 74.95 percent of Becancour with Rio Tinto Alcan holding 25.05 percent, said in a statement that management remains open to talks and hopes to reach an agreement in the coming hours.

"As the expiration of the contract approaches, we have taken steps to ensure safe and efficient operations, and our customers have the support of Alcoa's global network of casthouses," Alcoa spokeswoman Joyce Saltzman said in an email.

Some 90 percent of union members turned out to vote at meetings over the last two days, the union said in a statement, with 97 percent rejecting the contract offer and giving their bargaining committee a strike mandate.

The contract proposal includes a two-tier pension plan that is less favorable to new workers and demands concessions on seniority rights, said union spokesman Denis St. Pierre.

"The local union planned to be in contact with the employer today, is hoping for a resumption of negotiations," St. Pierre said in an email. (Reporting by Susan Taylor; editing by Grant McCool)

See Also:
HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam has prosecuted five former officials of the unlisted Dong A Bank for violating rules that "lead to serious consequences", police said on Friday, part of a widening investigation involving the Ho Chi Minh City-based lender.

Energy and banking firms are at the heart of a sweeping crackdown on corruption in the communist state, a campaign that made global headlines this year when Germany accused Vietnam of kidnapping a Vietnamese businessman in Berlin.

The troubled, partly private Dong A Bank is among several lenders under scrutiny of the authorities who say they want to tackle corruption, including abuse of power and violation of lending rules.

"The Investigation Police Department of the Ministry of Public Security is urgently investigating the case," police said in a statement.

"Abuse of trust to appropriate assets, deliberate violation of state regulations on economic management that led to serious consequences and the violation of lending provisions ... occurred at Dong A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (DAB)," police said.

The five former officials were banned from leaving their homes, police said.

Dong A Bank said it would respond to a Reuters request for comment later in the day.

Among the five is Tran Phuong Binh, the bank's former chief executive officer, who was arrested in 2016 along with four other executives.

The central bank, the State Bank of Vietnam, had placed Dong A Bank under special supervision in 2015 "for violations in financial management and credit grants" by some executives.

The ministry of public security said in a statement on Friday that 17 people have been arrested in the Dong A Bank fraud case.

(Reporting by Mai Nguyen in HANOI; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Robert Birsel)
Photo credit: Robin James / Getty

From NetDoctor

As the days grow shorter and weather colder, many people are prone to feeling a little blue. But farmers, who work long, lonely hours with little rest-bite, are particularly vulnerable to visits from the black dog.

A new US study has revealed a correlation between crop prices and the mental health of farmers, the findings of which suggest we need to do more to ensure the wellbeing of farming industry workers.

Crop prices have been steadily declining since 2012, leading experts to believe farmers are increasingly at risk of depression. Research conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012 revealed farmers were the group with the highest rates of suicide.

In the UK alone, on average, one farmer tragically commits suicide every week, so this research is a cause for concern on both sides of the Atlantic.

Why are farmers at higher risk?

With flooding, disease and poor crop yields, the struggles of the farming community have been well documented in recent years. But often farmers must deal with the stress, financial pressure and difficult working conditions alone  often with little human contact for days on end  leading to feelings of isolation.

Farmers tend to be male  and studies have shown that men are far less likely to discuss personal issues and more often suffer in silence. What's more, a US study by the National Institutes of Health also suggested that use of pesticides, which can be inhaled and absorbed through skin when used on crops, is linked to an increased risk of depression.

What you can do...

Across the country there are many organisations dedicated to tackling depression and supporting farmers. If you're affected by any of the issues discussed, visit one of these websites for further advice and support.

The Farming Community Network - The FCN runs a confidential national helpline open every day from 7am to 11pm.

Mind - Mind provides millions of people struggling with their mental health with support and advice

The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution - this welfare charity is devoted to supporting farming families - offering financial support to those facing hardship.

Papyrus - this mental health charity specialises in the prevention of young suicide, delivering awareness and prevention training.

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As two PricewaterhouseCooper employees who exposed favourable tax deals Luxembourg made with about 340 multinationals begin their appeal on Monday, Oxfam has labelled the Grand Duchy along with Bermuda, the Netherlands and Ireland as some of the worlds top tax havens.

Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet were found guilty in the Lux Leak case in June and were handed 12 and nine months suspended sentences respectively, for blowing the whistle in 2014 on deals negotiated by tax authorities in Luxembourg that enabled multinationals to dodge millions of dollars in tax. Oxfam has called for the whistle-blowers to be protected, not prosecuted.

Oxfam said that Luxembourg is the seventh worst corporate tax haven, and according to Eurodad, an NGO, the country had 519 deals in force in 2015, up from 172 in 2014, the year the scandal broke.

The charity compiled the list by assessing the extent to which countries employ damaging tax policies, such as zero corporate tax rates, the provision of unfair and unproductive tax incentives, and lack of co-operation with measures against tax avoidance.

Bermuda, a British territory, topped the list, followed by the Cayman Islands, another British territory, then the Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore and Ireland.

Esme Berkhout, tax policy advisor for Oxfam said: Corporate tax havens are helping big business cheat countries out of billions of dollars every year. They are propping up a dangerously unequal economic system that is leaving millions of people with few opportunities for a better life.

Ireland has been implicated with an alleged sweetheart deal with technology giant Apple to pay 0.005% corporate tax, while the British Virgin Islands was home to more than half of the 200,000 offshore companies set up by law firm Mossack Fonseca, exposed in the Panama Papers scandal.

Sweetheart tax deals cost the EU up to 70bn a year in lost tax revenue, while Oxfam claims that tax dodging costs poor countries at least $100bn a year.

Berkhout said: There are no winners in the race to the bottom on corporate tax. Ordinary people  particularly the poorest  are paying the price for this reckless competition through increases in personal taxes and cuts to essential services, such as healthcare and education. Governments must work together to stop this crazy race to the bottom on corporate tax and ensure companies pay their fair share.

One way to encourage investment in a country is to cut corporation tax, and according to the Oxford University centre for business taxation the average corporate tax rate across G20 countries is less than 30% today, down from 40% 25 years ago.

British companies pay 20% of their profits on corporation tax and that is expected to fall to 19% in April next year and 17% in April 2020. Corporation tax is not the only tax that companies pay.

The charity said it is calling on governments to stop unfair and unproductive tax incentives and work together to set corporate tax at a level that is fair, progressive and contributes to the collective good, and ensure tax blacklists are based on objective, comprehensive criteria including whether or not a country offers zero rates of corporate tax.

It also wants governments to improve tax transparency by requiring all multinational companies to publish financial reports for every country in which they operate, so it is clear what taxes companies are paying and where.

The top 15 tax havens, according to Oxfam:

1. Bermuda

2. the Cayman Islands

3. the Netherlands

4. Switzerland

5. Singapore

6. Ireland

7. Luxembourg

8. Curacao

9. Hong Kong

10. Cyprus

11. Bahamas

12. Jersey

13. Barbados

14. Mauritius

15. the British Virgin Islands
Lloyds Banking Group has agreed to buy Zurich Insurance's UK workplace pensions and savings business, which has assets under administration of 19bn, for an undisclosed sum.

The bank said the deal enhances Scottish Widows' current offering and broadens its participation in the financial planning and retirement segment, while delivering a modern, flexible workplace savings platform. Scottish Widows currently manages more than 124bn of funds, of which 35 billion is workplace pensions business.

The acquisition is expected to partially close in the first quarter of next year, with subsequent completion and transfer of assets following the required regulatory and legal approvals.

Antonio Lorenzo, director of insurance & wealth and chief executive of Scottish Widows, said: "Today's announcement is a clear signal of Lloyds Banking Group's commitment to the financial planning and retirement segment. The acquisition of Zurich's UK workplace pensions and savings business complements Scottish Widows' growth to date and provides us with an ideal opportunity to accelerate our goal to become a market leader in this important sector, for advisers and customers."

Analyst Laith Khalaf at Hargreaves Lansdown said the move underlined Lloyds commitment to the pensions market, scotching rumours that have circulated for years that the bank is looking to sell off the Scottish Widows franchise.

"This part of the business adds some diversification to the Lloyds stable without the risks inherent in the investment banking activities practiced by its peers. By comparison the workplace pensions business is sleepy, steady and sticky. The defined contribution market is also growing, thanks to the governments automatic enrolment programme which is forcing employers and employees to pay money into workplace pensions."

He the wider pressure on fund management fees meant there is strength in numbers for the likes of Scottish Widows and Zurich.

"This is compounded by the increasing regulation faced by financial services firms. We have already seen Standard Life and Aberdeen tie up to battle these headwinds together, no doubt that deal raised an eyebrow or two across the Edinburgh streets at Scottish Widows HQ."

At 1130 BST, the shares were up 0.2% to 66.63p.
The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant said Carver is the fastest-growing skincare business in South Korea through sales of its brand AHC. The company generated sales of 321m and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 137m in 2016.

Alan Jope, president of Personal Care, said: "We are delighted to be acquiring Carver Korea. It is an impressive business that is completely aligned to our Personal Care strategy. It will significantly strengthen our position in North Asia, the largest skincare market in the world; and will complement our existing portfolio, enabling us to offer luxury skincare products at attainable price points.

"AHC has been strongly gaining popularity thanks to its efficacious, innovative and premium products; and it therefore offers great opportunities for growth."

Ed Han, a managing director for Bain Capital Private Equity, said: "This has been a great opportunity for us to partner with a leading Korean company in an exciting segment of the cosmetics space and to help support its brand, operations and growth around the world. Unilever is a strong partner to help the company in its next phase of growth and development.
Central and Eastern Europe-focused budget airline Wizz Air has announced five new West Balkan routes from Budapest that will commence in April next year.

The new routes will connect Budapest with five capitals of countries in the West Balkan region, Skopje in Macedonia, Podgorica in Montenegro, Tirana in Albania, Prishtina in Kosovo and Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Wizz said the routes will connect the countries directly, boost bi-directional tourism and establish an important link for trade and business between Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Chief executive officer Jozsef Varadi said: "Today's announcement further underlines our commitment to Hungary as de facto Hungarian national carrier. In the past few months we have made several major announcements including basing a new aircraft at Budapest in April, revealing the unique Budapest livery that is designed to promote the city with Budapest 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Bid elements, announced four new routes to start in 2017 and today we add another five strategically important routes to our Budapest network.

Today's announcement is the result of a first ever example of imposing a public service obligation in aviation industry in Hungary. We believe that this unprecedented example will help stimulate economic and business relations between the countries as well as further improve accessibility to Budapest where Wizz has the most diverse network, offering 59 routes to 28 countries."

At 1130 GMT, Wizz shares were up 0.3% to 1,842p.
Theresa May will tell Donald Tusk on Friday she is prepared to give ground on the Brexit divorce bill as Brussels demands a written guarantee of more money to unlock trade talks. The European Council President will make it clear to the Prime Minister that Britain must give a no strings attached promise of paying substantially more than the current 20 billion on offer. - Telegraph

Britains leading financial thinktank has warned workers to expect an unprecedented two lost decades of earnings growth and many more years of austerity as a result of the marked slowdown in the economy announced in Philip Hammonds budget. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said in its traditional post-budget analysis that forecasts slashing productivity, earnings and growth in every year until 2022 made pretty grim reading, and predicted that even by the middle of the next decade, Britains public finances would still be in the red. - Guardian

Home insurance companies may be overcharging up to 13 million UK households, new research suggests, with older people particularly hard hit. A study conducted by Citizens Advice and published on Friday shows that 40 per cent of people over the age of 65 have had their home insurance policy for over five years, which means they could be paying 70 per cent more than a new customer would for the same policy. - Independent

Online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay will be forced to police their own websites to prevent billions of pounds of VAT fraud, under a renewed government crackdown on the scam. The move represents the second effort in as many years to close down an estimated 1.2bn-a-year tax fraud and follows a Guardian investigation as well as criticism of HM Revenue & Customs for being slow to act. - Guardian

Shoppers will splash out more than 2.5bn on Black Friday deals, as the UK continues its affair with the US-inspired discount day. Sales will continue over the weekend with 7.3bn expected to be spent between Friday morning and Monday night according to the Centre for Retail Research and the Vouchercodes website. - Guardian

Ministers still do not grasp the complexities of leaving the European Union, the British judge on the European Court of Justice has privately warned, questioning the calibre of politicians negotiating Brexit. Ian Forrester, Britains representative on the European Court of Justice for the past two years, candidly told Irish diplomats that there were issues around the quality of politicians in Westminster at present. - The Times

Unilever has hired headhunters to find a successor to Paul Polman as chief executive of the Anglo-Dutch food to toiletries group. Mr Polman oversaw the expansion of Unilever and a series of acquisitions to broaden its product range but will probably be best remembered for the failed takeover bid of the group this year by Kraft Heinz. - The Times

The activist fund attempting to have the chairman of the London Stock Exchange voted off the board at a forthcoming shareholder meeting could bring legal action against the exchanges directors. The Times understands that TCI Fund Management could try to force the exchange to disclose the service contracts of its directors, including any payoff its departing chief executive, Xavier Rolet, may be due. - Times

Britains booming craft beer industry helped delivery firm APC Overnight post a 30pc growth in pre-tax profits to 3m last year. Revenues at APC, which has 112 sites around the UK, crept up 0.8pc to 103m in the year to March 31 as the company moved away from so-called heavy traffic like white goods and carpets towards smaller parcels and packets, shipments of which have increased as online shopping has boomed. - Telegraph

Harrods will undergo its biggest-ever facelift as the luxury store spends 200million to attract more Chinese customers. In the biggest single investment in its 180-year-history, owners Qatar Holding will redevelop the shop's 330 departments, covering a million square feet of floor space. - Mail

The global titans of technology are forcing workers into a form of slavery, Britains trade union chief will tell Catholic and labour movement leaders at the Vatican on Friday. Trade unions and the Catholic church must build a popular alliance for economic justice, Frances OGrady, the TUC general secretary, is to say in a speech in Rome. - Guardian

Cyclists could be made to wear helmets for the first time in a review of bike safety. A government consultation in the new year will consider whether helmets and high-visibility vests should be mandatory on British roads, the transport minister Jesse Norman said. - The Times
The Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Personal and Commercial Banking, U.S. Retail, Wealth Management and Insurance, and Wholesale Banking segments. The company offers personal deposits, such as checking, savings, and investment products; financing, investment, cash management, international trade, and day-to-day banking services to businesses; and financing options to customers at point of sale for automotive and recreational vehicle purchases. It also provides credit cards and payments; real estate secured lending, auto finance, and consumer lending services; point-of-sale payment solutions for large and small businesses; wealth and asset management products, and advice to retail and institutional clients through direct investing, advice-based, and asset management businesses; and property and casualty insurance, as well as life and health insurance products. The company also provides capital markets, and corporate and investment banking products and services, including underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues; advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures; and trading, funding, and investment services to corporations, governments, and institutions. It offers its products and services under the TD Bank and America's Most Convenient Bank brand names. The company operates through a network of 1,061 branches and 3,381 automated teller machines (ATMs) in Canada, and 1,148 stores and 2,701 ATMs in the United States, as well as offers telephone, digital, and mobile banking services. It has a strategic alliance with Canada Post Corporation. The Toronto-Dominion Bank was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
Banco Santander-Chile, together with its subsidiaries, provides commercial and retail banking products and services in Chile. It operates through Retail Banking, Middle-Market, Corporate Investment Banking, and Corporate Activities segments. The company offers debit and credit cards, checking accounts, and savings products; consumer, automobile, commercial, mortgage, and government-guaranteed loans; and Chilean peso and foreign currency denominated loans to finance various commercial transactions, trade, foreign currency forward contracts, and credit lines, as well as mortgage financing services. It also provides mutual funds, insurance and securities brokerage, foreign exchange, financial leasing, factoring, financial consulting and advisory, investment management, foreign trade, treasury, and transactional services, as well as specialized services to finance projects for the real estate industry. In addition, the company offers short-term financing and fund raising, and brokerage services, as well as derivatives, securitization, and other tailor-made products. It serves individuals, small to middle-sized entities, companies, and large corporations, as well as universities, government entities, and local and regional governments. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 326 branches, which include 220 under the Santander brand name, 14 under the Select brand name, 7 specialized branches for the middle market, and 22 as auxiliary and payment centers, as well as 1,338 ATMs, including depository ATMs. Banco Santander-Chile was incorporated in 1977 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
The following companies are subsidiares of Ingersoll Rand: 13125882 Canada Inc., 211 E. Russell Road LLC, 4458664 Canada Inc., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES ASIA PTE. LTD., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES BORROWER S.C.A., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES LLC, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES MIDDLE EAST FZE, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES SERVICES LIMITED, ASTRUM IT GmbH, Accudyne Industries Acquisition S.A r.l, Accudyne Industries Canada Inc., Accudyne Industries S.A r.l., Air Dimensions, Air Dimensions Inc., Albin Pump SAS, BOC Edwards Global Low pressure Air business, CISA S.p.A., Cameron-Centrifugal Compression, Comercial Ingersoll-Rand (Chile) Limitada, Comingersoll-Comercio E Industria De Equipamentos S.A., CompAir, CompAir (Hankook) Korea Co. Ltd., CompAir Acquisition (No. 2) Ltd., CompAir Acquisition Ltd., CompAir BroomWade Ltd., CompAir Finance Ltd., CompAir GmbH, CompAir Holdings Limited, CompAir International Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CompAir Korea Ltd, CompAir South Africa (SA) (Pty) Ltd., Consolidated Distribution Holdings Ltd., DV Systems Inc., Dosatron International SAS, Emco Wheaton Gmbh, Emco Wheaton USA Inc, Enza Air Proprietary Limited, FlexEnergy Holdings LLC, Frigoblock Grosskopf Gmbh, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Investments Limited, GD First (UK) Ltd, GD German Holdings GmbH, GD German Holdings I Gmbh, GD German Holdings II GmbH, GD German Investments GmbH, GD Global Holdings II Inc., GD Global Holdings Inc., GD Global Holdings UK II Ltd., GD Global Ventures I B.V., GD Global Ventures II B.V., GD Global Ventures III B.V., GD Industrial Products Malaysia SDN. BHD., GD Investment KY, GD UK Finance Ltd., GPS Industries, Gardner Denver (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Austria GmbH, Gardner Denver Bad Neustadt Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Belgium NV, Gardner Denver Brasil Industria E Comercio de Maquinas Ltda., Gardner Denver CZ + SK sro, Gardner Denver Canada Corp (Canada), Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Limited, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Engineered Products India Private Limited, Gardner Denver FZE, Gardner Denver Finance II LLC, Gardner Denver Finance Inc & Co KG, Gardner Denver France SAS, Gardner Denver Group Svcs Ltd, Gardner Denver Holdings Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Ltd, Gardner Denver Iberica SL, Gardner Denver Inc., Gardner Denver Industries Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd., Gardner Denver International Inc., Gardner Denver International Ltd., Gardner Denver Investments Inc., Gardner Denver Italy Holdings S.r.L., Gardner Denver Japan Ltd., Gardner Denver Kirchhain Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Korea Ltd., Gardner Denver Ltd., Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Nash Brasil Industria E Comercio De Bombas Ltda, Gardner Denver Nash LLC, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd., Gardner Denver Nederland BV, Gardner Denver Nederland Investments B.V., Gardner Denver Oy, Gardner Denver Polska Sp z.o.o., Gardner Denver Pte. Ltd., Gardner Denver S.r.l., Gardner Denver Schopfheim GmbH, Gardner Denver Schopfheim Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Schweiz AG, Gardner Denver Slovakia s.r.o., Gardner Denver Sweden AB, Gardner Denver Taiwan Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas GmbH (f/k/a ILMVAC GmbH), Gardner Denver Thomas Inc., Gardner Denver Thomas Pneumatic Systems (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Garo Dott. Ing. Roberto Gabbioneta S.r.l., Ghh-Rand Schraubenkompressoren Gmbh, HASKEL EUROPE LTD., HASKEL HOLDINGS UK LIMITED, HASKEL INTERNATIONAL LLC, Hamworthy Belliss & Morcom, Haskel France SAS, Haskel Sistemas de Fluidos Espana S.R.L., Hibon Inc., Highspeed Newco LLC, Hingerose Limited, ILMVAC (UK) Ltd., ILS Innovative Labor Systeme, ILS Inovative Laborsysteme GmbH, INGERSOLL RAND ITS JAPAN LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND (CHANG ZHOU) TOOLS CO. LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND (CHINA) INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING CO. LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND CHINA LLC, INGERSOLL-RAND COMERCIO E SERVICOS DE MAQUINAS E EQUIPAMENTOS INDUSTRIAIS LTDA., INGERSOLL-RAND DE PUERTO RICO INC., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL COMPANY B.V., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL SP. Z O.O., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL U.S. INC., INGERSOLL-RAND PHILIPPINES INC., INGERSOLL-RAND SPAIN S.A., INGERSOLL-RAND U.S. HOLDCO INC., IR HPS Holdco. Inc., ITO Emniyet, Ingersoll Rand Cyprus Investments Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Finance LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Investments LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Ventures LLC, Ingersoll Rand Hong Kong Investments Limited, Ingersoll Rand Inc., Ingersoll Rand Investments (SG) Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Investments B.V., Ingersoll Rand Schweiz Investments Gmbh, Ingersoll Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (Australia) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (China) Investment Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Guilin) Tools Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Hong Kong) Holding Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (India) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Ab, Ingersoll-Rand Air Solutions Hibon Sarl, Ingersoll-Rand Beteiligungs Und Grundstucksverwaltungs Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Colombia S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited (Uk), Ingersoll-Rand Company South Africa (Pty) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Cz S.R.O., Ingersoll-Rand De Mexico S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Equipements De Production S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Industrial Ireland Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International (India) Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Italia S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Italiana Manufacturing S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Korea Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Korea Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments II S.A R.I., Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Luxembourg Industrial Company S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Machinery (Shanghai) Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Malaysia Co. Sdn. Bhd., Ingersoll-Rand S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Services And Trading Limited Liability Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Singapore Enterprises Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand South East Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Superay Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technical And Services S.A.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Technologies And Services Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Tool Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Trading Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Vietnam Company Limited, Instrum Rand JSC, Interflex Datensysteme, Ir Canada Holdings Ulc, Ir Canada Sales & Service Ulc, Ir France Sas, Kryptonite corp, Lawrence Factor Inc., LeROI, LeRoi International Inc, MILTON ROY (HONG KONG) LIMITED, MILTON ROY (UK) LIMITED, MILTON ROY EUROPA B.V., MILTON ROY EUROPE SAS, MILTON ROY INDUSTRIAL (SHANGHAI) CO. LTD., MILTON ROY LLC, MILTON ROY US PURCHASER INC., MP Pumps Inc., Maximum AG Technologies Inc., Maximus Solutions, Mb Air Systems Limited, Nash Elmo, Officina Meccaniche Industriali Srl, Oina VV, Oina VV Aktiebolag, Plurifilter D.O.O., Pt Ingersoll-Rand Indonesia, Robuschi, Runtech Systems, Runtech Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Runtech Systems Inc., Runtech Systems OY, SEEPEX, Seepex (M) SDN, Seepex Australia Pty Ltd, Seepex Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft mit Beschrankter Haftung, Seepex France S.a.r.l., Seepex GmbH, Seepex Inc., Seepex India Private Ltd., Seepex Italia SRL, Seepex Japan Co. Ltd., Seepex Nordic A/S, Seepex OOO, Seepex Pumps (Shanghia) Co. Ltd., Seepex UK Ltd., Shanghai CompAir Compressors Co Ltd, Shanghai Compressors & Blowers Ltd., Shanghai Ingersoll-Rand Compressor Limited, Shenzhen Bocom System Engineering Co., Superay, Syltone, TIWR Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, Tamrotor Marine Comp AS Norway, Tecno Matic Europe s.r.o., Thomas Industries Inc., Trane Technologies, Tri-Continent Scientific Inc., Vacuum and Blower Systems division, Welch Vacuum Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zaxe Technologies Inc., Zeks Compressed Air Solutions Llc, Zinsser Analytic, Zinsser Analytik GmbH, Zinsser NA Inc., and crayon interface.

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Events this week include an opera at NSU, Winterfest and Miss Aberdeen

Looking for something to do this week, check out an opera at NSU, Winterfest or the Miss Aberdeen coronation.
The Nutcracker has become a part of the holiday season.

Its also a staple for ballet companies across the country.

And the New Mexico Ballet Company is ready to present its show beginning on Saturday, Nov. 25, at Popejoy Hall. It will run for five shows over two weekends.

The beloved classic ballet, featuring Clara and her Nutcracker Prince, will be performed by the professional dancers of the New Mexico Ballet Company and will feature current principal dancers of the New York City Ballet.

The New Mexico Ballet Company is thrilled to bring accomplished professional dancers from the New York City Ballet to dance with the professionals of the New Mexico Ballet Company to the music of the New Mexico Philharmonic, says Virginia Wilmerding, managing director of the New Mexico Ballet Company. It will be a wonderful and unforgettable experience.

During the first weekend, Teresa Reichlen will dance the role of Sugar Plum Fairy and Russell Janzen will perform as her Cavalier. The second weekend will feature Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle in those roles.

The dancers from New York have been with us for five or six years, Wilmerding says.  Weve been very lucky in that the dancers enjoy their time in Albuquerque and want to perform with us.

As part of the New York Ballet Company, the dancers are able to get waivers from the company for outreach.

When Wilmerding found out about the program, she wanted in on it.

Its an opportunity for dancers to see our company and a chance for our audiences to see new dancers, she says.

This years production features 84 cast members.

Theres a lot of logistics with each persons needs and schedules, she says. Its quite an undertaking.

The New Mexico Philharmonic, conducted by David Felberg, will play Tchaikovskys score at each show.

The great thing about this ballet is that it wasnt a hit when it first came out in 1892, she says. It was presented in the 1940s, and thats when the popularity soared.
The Beatles have a place in pop culture and music history.

And the documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week  The Touring Years focuses on the Fab Fours career from 1962 to 1966.

The film explores how John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr came together to become this extraordinary phenomenon.

It reveals their inner workings  how they made decisions, created their music and built their collective career together.

The Beatles began touring Europe in late 1963, after an extraordinary arrival on the British scene in 1961 and 62. However, it was their much-heralded Ed Sullivan Show appearance on February 9, 1964, that caused the bands popularity to explode.

By June, the band had commenced its first world tour, and it continued on a relentless schedule for two subsequent years.

By the time the Beatles stopped touring in August 1966, they had performed 166 concerts in 15 countries and 90 cities around the world. The cultural phenomenon their touring helped create, known as Beatlemania, was something the world had never seen before and laid the foundation for the globalization of culture.

The film will air at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 25, on New Mexico PBS.

Sam Okell worked on the film, and I caught up with him by telephone while he was working at Abbey Road Studios.

Okell is a senior engineer at Abbey Road Studios and worked on the documentary. In fact, hes worked on all the Beatles films over the past couple of years.

My job was to make the old recordings sound great for cinema, he says. Amazingly, there are only a couple shows where there are multiple recordings. They did three-track recordings. Many of the sources are very bad quality, and it was a lot of work to try and top those live performances.

Okell worked with the material for nearly three months.

Like many others, he grew up listening to the Beatles music.

They have an amazing catalog, he says. Ive been working with their music for a long time. I worked on Sgt. Pepper for the anniversary, and it was about taking the songs and making them sound modern, all while not changing the genius of it all. My job in the projects is trying to make it a better listening experience.

SEND ME YOUR TIPS: If you know of a movie filming in the state, or are curious about one, email film@ABQjournal.com. Follow me on Twitter @agomezART.

On TV

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week  The Touring Years will air at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 25, on New Mexico PBS.
WAUKESHA, Wis.  Wisconsin Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson, a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, doesnt look much like the renegade outsiders whom political strategist Steve Bannon says hes recruiting for his war on the Republican establishment. But Nicholson has Bannons backing anyway, thanks to his loyalty to President Donald Trump.

As Bannon drafts his team of challengers to the old guard, the new guard is increasingly aligned not by ideology, but by its history of support for the president. Republicans who have criticized the president or been slow to embrace him are out.

One particular test for the Breitbart News chairman and former Trump White House strategist is how such Republicans reacted during the campaign to the 2005 Access Hollywood video showing Trump bragging about sexually imposing himself on women. Those who kept quiet about it or stuck with him earn Bannons favor now even if it means looking the other way on some policy positions and affiliations. Nicholson, for example, has backing from wealthy free-trade advocates, an awkward policy fit with Trumps economic nationalism.

If you were never-Trump, refused to ever endorse the president or withdrew your endorsement following Access Hollywoodweekend, dont even bother walking through Bannons door, said Bannon adviser Andy Surabian.

Bannon hopes chiefly to topple Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom he has blamed for obstructing Trumps agenda, especially efforts to dismantle Barack Obamas 2010 health care law. Bannon has threatened to find a Republican primary opponent for almost every GOP senator seeking re-election in 2018.

The United States Senate in particular has done, I think, a terrible job in supporting President Trump, Bannon told the California Republican convention last month.

In Wisconsin, state Sen. Leah Vukmir is opposing Nicholson for the GOPs U.S. Senate nomination. In last years presidential campaign, she first supported Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walkers short campaign before shifting to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. She helped record a pro-Trump radio ad a week before the election  perhaps too little, too late, in Bannons eyes.

The voters know I have been a supporter of Donald Trump, she told The Associated Press last month. Ive traveled around this state and talked to countless people who want to see the presidents agenda move and are frustrated that its not happening. She hasnt said publicly whether she supports McConnell.

Nicholson only recently swung against McConnell. Hes backed by the pro-trade Club for Growth, and in 2000, spoke to the 2000 Democratic National Convention as the national president of College Democrats.

In September he said: I have no issues voting for Mitch McConnell.

But the following month, after meeting with Bannon, Nicholson publicly called for new leadership.

While Surabian said Bannon is generally looking for candidates who support the president and his America First agenda, policy unity is not a prerequisite.

You dont have to be perfect, Bannon told the California convention. This is not a commoditized product like Procter & Gamble.

Nor is it a free-for-all. Some positions, such as supporting a route to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally, would be a big problem for Bannon.

Bannon thinks his nascent insurgency is already having results, thanks to the retirement announcements of two sharp critics of Trump, Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona. In Tennessee, Bannon supports Rep. Marcia Blackburn, a popular conservative House member bidding for the Senate. She has McConnells backing, too.

Bannon also has endorsed former Arizona state Sen. Kelli Ward, who lost her 2016 primary challenge to Sen. John McCain. Republican Rep. Martha McSally, who never endorsed Trump, is weighing a campaign for Flakes seat.

Bannon is also looking to unseat Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, who opposed Trump last year and opposed legislation in July aimed at dismantling Obamacare.

Yet Hellers challenger, Danny Tarkanian, has supported trade treaties, specifically the Trans Pacific Partnership. Trump pulled out of the Obama-era treaty in January, a move Bannon praised.

In Montana, Bannon is supporting the state auditor, Matt Rosendale, hardly an anti-establishment figure as the former majority leader in the Montana House. But he runs without the trail of tweets left by rival Troy Downing, who last year described Trump as not electable and having a tenuous relationship with the truth.

In West Virginia, Bannon is supporting Attorney General Patrick Morrisey over Rep. Evan Jenkins, a Democrat who switched parties four years ago to run for Congress. Morrisey, however, is no Washington newcomer, having been a lawyer for a Washington lobbying firm and later a lawyer for the House Energy and Commerce Committee before he moved to West Virginia.

___

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
JOHANNESBURG  Zimbabwes new president Emmerson Mnangagwa, widely known as the Crocodile, is seen as a smart, ruthless politician, but many question if he will be able to bring the change the country craves.

We are witnessing the beginning of a new, unfolding democracy, the 75-year-old announced Wednesday upon his return to the country, two weeks after his firing by longtime mentor Robert Mugabe led to the presidents downfall.

Despite the message of inclusion, Zimbabweans noted that Mnangagwa made his first public remarks outside ruling ZANU-PF party headquarters and, switching to the local Shona language, praised the party.

They ask whether Mnangagwa will be adequately independent from ZANU-PF to revive the battered economy and restore democracy with the backing of the opposition and others.

The ruling party has proven it protects its own. It assured Mugabe he would not be prosecuted if he stepped down, ZANU-PF chief whip Lovemore Matuke told The Associated Press: He is safe, his family is safe and his status as a hero of his country is assured.

Mnangagwas remarkable rise to power  from being sacked as vice president and fleeing the country to being named Zimbabwes next leader  was largely thanks to the military, which put Mugabe under house arrest, and ruling party lawmakers who introduced the impeachment proceedings.

It is widely expected that Mnangagwa will continue to rely on them.

Can a crocodile change its scales? Everybody is asking that question. Certainly his first speech was a lost opportunity. He did not speak about the need for an inclusive government, said Piers Pigou, southern Africa expert for the International Crisis Group. He has a long past with ZANU-PF and the military and that past may stick to him like chewing gum on a shoe.

Pigou said more will be known when Mnangagwa announces his new government and policies. It will be difficult for him to escape his history, he said. But the door is open.

Mnangagwa served for decades as Mugabes enforcer and among Zimbabwes population, he is more feared than popular. He now urges the country to come together, to bury our differences and rebuild a new and prosperous Zimbabwe, a country that is tolerant to divergent views.

For weeks before the political turmoil erupted, Mnangagwa had been publicly demonized by Mugabe and his wife, Grace, who was seeking to succeed her 93-year-old husband in power.

That gave Mnangagwa time to prepare his strategy. Within days of his firing, his supporters in the military put Mugabe and his wife under house arrest.

When Mugabe refused to resign, a massive demonstration backed by the military brought tens of thousands of people into the streets of the capital, Harare. It was not a spontaneous uprising. Thousands of professionally produced posters praising Mnangagwa and the military had been printed ahead of time.

Mnangagwas links to the military and ruling party go back decades. He joined the fight against white minority rule in what was then Rhodesia while still a teen in the 1960s. In 1963, he received military training in Egypt and China. As one of the earliest guerrilla fighters he was captured, tortured and convicted of blowing up a locomotive in 1965.

Sentenced to death by hanging, he was found to be under 21 and his punishment was commuted to 10 years in prison. He was jailed with other prominent nationalists including Mugabe.

While imprisoned, Mnangagwa studied through correspondence courses. After his release in 1975 he went to Zambia, where he completed a law degree and started practicing. Soon he went to newly independent Marxist Mozambique, where he became Mugabes assistant and bodyguard. In 1979, he accompanied Mugabe to the talks in London that led to the birth of Zimbabwe.

Our relationship has over the years blossomed beyond that of master and servant to father and son, Mnangagwa wrote this month of his relationship with Mugabe.

When Zimbabwe achieved independence in 1980, Mnangagwa was appointed minister of security. He directed the merger of the Rhodesian army with Mugabes guerrilla forces and the forces of rival nationalist leader Joshua Nkomo.

In 1983, Mugabe launched a brutal campaign against Nkomos supporters that became known as the Matabeleland massacres for the deaths of 10,000 to 20,000 Ndebele people in Zimbabwes southern provinces. Mnangagwa was widely blamed for planning the deadly campaign of the armys North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade. Mnangagwa denies it.

He also is reputed to have amassed a considerable fortune. He was named in a United Nations investigation into exploitation of mineral resources in Congo and has been active in making Harare a significant diamond trading center.

In 2008, Mnangagwa was Mugabes agent in an election marked by violence and allegations of vote-rigging, leading him to be placed under U.S. sanctions that continue to this day. He also helped broker the creation of a short-lived coalition government that brought in opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister.

Mnangagwa has updated his image. Two years ago he had a short afro of grey hair, now his hair is black and trimmed very short.

In recent years, Mnangagwa has promoted himself as an experienced leader who would bring stability to Zimbabwe.

Despite his bloody past, some people see redeeming features in Mnangagwa, said Tichaona Zindoga, political editor of the state-run Herald newspaper. He is seen as business-oriented, which may help him improve the economy.

However, Zindoga added, politically his ties to ZANU-PF cannot be wished away. And the events of the past two weeks mean that he is ingratiated to the military.
SAN ANTONIO  A 10-year-old girl was shot dead as she sat in bed watching television in her bedroom in what San Antonio police suspect was a gang-related shooting.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said someone sprayed the girls home with bullets on the citys North Side about 7 a.m. Thursday. The girl was wounded fatally in the chest, but five other people in the house werent wounded.

McManus said police have had problems at the house previously. He said investigators believe the shooting is gang-related directly to the brother, who has been detained for questioning.

The chief appeared to be moved by the timing of the Thanksgiving Day shooting, saying, There will be a special place for this person when he goes to the next life.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

Shoppers had countless Black Friday deals, discounts and doorbusters awaiting them Thursday afternoon and early evening as chain store operators kicked off the holiday shopping season a bit earlier than previous years.

Over a thousand people snaked around the JC Penney store at Cottonwood Mall, which opened at 2 p.m., the retailers earliest Thanksgiving opening yet, according to a store official.

Shoppers said they hoped to score gift cards totaling as much as $100 or $500 to apply to their purchases; however, most ended up with gift cards for $10. A few said they were in line to kill time prior to their Thanksgiving meals, or they were staggering early Black Friday shopping visits at their favorite stores.

JC Penney Store Manager Matthew Curry said the earlier opening at both the Cottonwood and Coronado Center locations is in keeping with an industry trend to give consumers a jump-start on seasonal deals, not to mention boost sales for the brick-and-mortar operators.

Penneys will remain open until 10 p.m. on Friday, Curry said. He expected top sellers to include boots, toys such as Baby Alive and small kitchen appliances, such as the air fryer.

Yes, they shop all through the night, he stated.

Indeed, many retailers have been offering early Black Friday deals for many days now, stretching what was once a one-day shopping frenzy into a week or more of sales.

The National Retail Federation is predicting as much as a 4 percent increase in holiday shopping this year for a total of $682 billion. Thats up from last years $655 billion. The Federation said the most popular items purchased will include gift cards and clothing and accessories.

Too lazy to head to the malls? Mobile shopping is also expected to increase by about 13 percent. According to Adobe Digital Insights, this holiday season will be the first to break $100 billion in online sales with more than $19 billion coming from Thanksgiving Weekend alone.

On the earlier-the-better front, Best Buy, Kohls, Toys R Us and several other big-box stores opened at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving this year in Albuquerque.

And outdoors retailer Cabelas welcomed its first shoppers at 8 a.m. on Thursday, but it was just a regular shopping day. Still, for a day without doorbusters or sales items, a store official said 50 people were already in line prior to opening. A steady stream of customers were scoping out products while employees were stocking shelves and tagging merchandise in anticipation of the Black Friday opening.

Once Cabelas closed at 6 p.m. on Thursday, diehards were expected to seek coveted places in line. A few customers will be camping overnight, said Chris Bellantoni, the Albuquerque stores marketing manager. He said the retailer would put out portable heaters to take off the chill.

Doors opened at 5 a.m. today and the first 600 Cabelas customers in line, 18 years of age or older, will be eligible to receive a mystery envelope containing information about their gifts.

Some early bird shoppers were able to squeeze in the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends before heading out to the stores on Thursday.

Sisters Lupe Madrid and Viola Bermudez were in camp chairs at the Best Buy Cottonwood Corners store. They even had a makeshift table to hold their coffee, laptops and cellphones. With shopping lists in hand, the two sisters were the familys designated shoppers and waiting to purchase 50-inch TVs for what they called rock bottom prices.

But Thanksgiving dinner?

Its already cooked, declared Madrid, who showed up at 6 a.m. on Thursday. We got this organized mom thing down to a tee, she grinned.

Some of the shoppers at Best Buy had come as early as Wednesday afternoon. They sacked out during the night in tents and were making do with McDonalds.

Back at JC Penney, aisles were heavy with bargain seekers and checkout lines were long within a half hour of opening.

We had to rush dinner to get here, said Emily Watson, who much preferred the old school Black Fridays when dinner was done and the dishes washed. Its OK, but I think this is too early of a kick start to the holiday shopping season, she said.

Her husband, Jarrod, loaded down with merchandise for both home and gifts, nodded agreement.
The head of Albuquerque Public Schools Educational Police Officers Association is fighting the district over a 1.5 percent pay cut imposed on some employees last spring.

Acting Sgt. Roy Dennis has threatened litigation if his unions members dont receive all the money they lost.

Last week,the APS Board of Education voted to restore full salaries to about a thousand year-round employees  administrators, Central Office staff, maintenance and operations crews, police officers and dispatchers  but the $570,000 allocation will not cover reimbursement.

Dennis told the board his union members deserve the lost pay, and he is prepared to go to court for it.

Our membership was not in agreement to this (salary cut), not that we didnt understand the shortages and the hardships that the district has faced and continues to face, but many of our people are barely making it as it is, Dennis said during the boards public forum.

APS Chief Financial Officer Tami Coleman declined to comment because the district is still negotiating with the Educational Police Officers Association.

Dennis told the Journal he hopes to reach an agreement and said litigation would be an ugly, no-win situation for both sides.

He was not sure how much his unions 175 members lost in total.

An APS employee who makes $35,000 a year will have seen a gross reduction of $21 per paycheck across 13 paychecks, totaling $273 in lost pay. Staff who make less than $25,000 a year were not impacted by the cut.

Board member Peggy Muller-Aragon expressed support for the union members and cast the lone no vote against a $6.6 million package of budget reallocations, which includes the $570,000 for employee salaries.

The $6.6 million had been set aside in May for an anticipated state budget cut that never materialized.

APS will redistribute the money for programs, new hires, library support and other needs, as well as the salaries.

After listening to Roy, I just think that we should have let everyone make their case in regards to the budget, Muller-Aragon said.

Several other board members said the pay cuts are a symptom of the districts larger financial struggles and argued for more funding from the state.

APS faced an unprecedented money crunch last winter, losing $12.5 million from cash reserves in late January on top of a $12.5 million reduction instituted during the special legislative session in October 2016.

Were really underfunded, board member Lorenzo Garcia said.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

The cafeteria at Kirtland Elementary School had a distinctly homey feel to it on Thursday afternoon.

Each long, faux-wood table was covered in a festively-colored tablecloth and centerpiece of autumn leaves, pumpkins and gourds.

Cheery music floated in from unseen speakers.

But the best part were the smells emanating from a table at the front of the cafeteria, where volunteers were serving helpings of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn and pumpkin pie to Kirtland students and their families.

The effort was headed up by Kirtland principal Rayetta Baty.

Every year, we (Albuquerque Public Schools) give out food boxes for needy families, Baty said. It dawned on me that there are those who cant even cook what we gave them.

So Baty, with the help of a Kirtland teacher, prepared the food donated by Rivers of Living Water Outreach and brought it to the school to serve.

Baty called on her chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., to help serve the hot meal.

Anytime we hear about people needing assistance within the community, we are more than happy to jump in, said Deidre Gordon, vice president of the Iota Xi Omega chapter.

Baty, who said it was the first time the district had hosted an event like the one on Thursday, said all Kirtland students were invited to participate.

Fourth-grader Dalilah Richardson and her family were some of the first to arrive.

It brings your family together, she said of the holiday, adding that the dinner rolls were her favorite part of the meal.

Her little sister, DariAnna Richardson, sat across the table on mom Danielle Richardsons lap, happily smearing mashed sweet potatoes across her face.

I came here, my brothers came here, we all came to Kirtland, Danielle Richardson said. This is the first time we were invited here for Thanksgiving dinner.

Baty said she hoped the event served as a way to remind students and their families that the district is looking out for them, even when theyre not in school.

Were a community school, so I thought what better place to be able to come, Baty said. Not only are we educating their children but were meeting their needs and making sure you were thought of during the holidays.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

Six Santa Fe homeowners claim their southside houses are falling apart, so they filed suit against Centex Homes, the company that built them, in an attempt to be compensated for what they say are structural defects.

The filing comes on the heels of the state attorney general sending a letter to the companys president to inform him that it was under investigation for deceptive trade practices. Willie Venegas, Abenicio Baldonado, Lawrence Lucero, Susan Taylor and married couple Brian Gallegos and Charlotte Martinez filed a lawsuit in Santa Fe District Court earlier this month against Centex Homes, its parent corporation and several unnamed people and companies. Centex is a brand of Pulte Group, which has been the subject of several lawsuits nationwide over faulty construction work in recent years.

The Santa Fe plaintiffs, who own houses in the Colores del Sol subdivision near Airport Road and South Meadows Road, claim their homes were built with poor constructional standards.

The lawsuit says the houses have stucco that is prone to crack, inadequate foundations, cracking to concrete and interior flooring, baseboards separating from walls and floors, cabinets and countertops that are separating from walls and other surfaces, defective doors that are difficult to use and windows and roofs that are prone to leaks, among several other complaints.

Because of these defects, Plaintiffs have been damaged in that they have been, and will be, required to incur expenses to investigate, correct, replace, and reconstruct defects to their homes, as well as the damage to property resulting therefrom, and related to costs such as relocation, loss of use, substitute housing and mitigation expenses, in amounts to be proven at trial, the lawsuit states.

The suit adds that Centex was negligent by hiring incompetent workers to build the houses and that the defendants violated building codes during the planning and construction phases, but it doesnt specify which rules were violated. No one in Santa Fes Land Use Department could be reached to confirm if the office is aware of any building code violations at Colores del Sol.

The homeowners want compensatory and punitive damages as well as money to cover the cost of filing the suit.

The Santa Feans arent alone in their complaints against Pulte.

Attorney General Hector Balderas sent a letter to Pulte Group, Inc., President and CEO Patrick R. Marshall on Oct. 19 informing him that several homeowners have contacted his office saying the company failed to honor warranties for home repairs and complaining about the general quality of the construction of the homes Pulte is selling. He wrote that he was investigating the company for potential violations of the states Unfair Practices Act.

I am deeply concerned that the safety and economic wellbeing of these homeowners and their families may be compromised as a direct result of Pultes failure to address emergent issues reported, Balderas wrote. On their face, the allegations against Pulte Homes point to a series of troubling business practices that harm New Mexico consumers and may be in violation of the law.

Attorney General spokesman James Hallinan said the investigation is ongoing.

There have been a few class-action lawsuits filed against Pulte and Centex in recent years.

In September 2016, a federal judge in Florida dismissed a class action lawsuit accusing Pulte of using defective stucco by ruling that the lawsuit was barred by the economic loss doctrine, which allows parties who suffered economic harm to recover damages.

In 2015, a California jury decided that Centex owed 56 southern California homeowners $3,700 each for repairs after the residents sued the company for building code violations and construction defects.

And Pulte finalized a $5.6 million settlement in 2013 for a 2008 lawsuit filed over numerous construction defects in a Delaware townhouse development.

A spokesman at Pultes corporate office could not be reached this week.
A few years ago, ranchers in northern New Mexico were in a contentious dispute with environmental groups and the U.S. Forest Service over access to grazing land in the Jemez Mountains, all because of a tiny mouse.

In 2014, the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, a rarely seen subspecies in hibernation for most of its short lifespan, was recognized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an endangered species requiring habitat protection.

That led to nearly 15,000 acres of riparian areas along rivers and streams in Arizona and Colorado, but mostly in New Mexico  including acreage along the Rio Cebolla and tributaries in the Jemez  being designated as critical habitat for the mouse.

Areas were fenced off, preventing ranchers  some whose families have grazed cattle on the Santa Fe National Forest for four generations  from gaining access.

But that dispute has been defused since each side sat down and started talking to each other in what Toner Mitchell of Trout Unlimited described as a newfound spirit of cooperation.

Conflict was getting us nowhere, he said. So we decided to try collaboration over conflict and work together in the spirit of cooperation and partnership. I wont speak for the ranchers, but I think its worked out to where were now seeing results.

Mike Lucero confirms the collaboration has produced results in the eyes of ranchers. He is president of the San Diego Cattlemens Association, one of two such groups with allotments in the Jemez. The two groups graze 576 head of cattle on 160,000 acres of public land permitted for grazing.

Were working good together now, said Lucero, who has been critical of the U.S. Forest Service in the past. Starting with these projects, were benefitting not just the cattlemen, but everyone using the land  and the watershed and forest, too.

Were watering wildlife

Lucero was referring to projects complete, underway and on the horizon that are designed to bring water to areas that have been left dry, as well as improve environmental conditions in meadows, wetlands and the forest.

The first project replaced a well in San Diego Canyon that had been out of commission for about eight years. Lucero said about 17 miles of water lines run from the well to the mesa tops on each side of the canyon where the cattle normally are. Water is pumped through the lines that run along mesa ridges to feed several drinkers, or water troughs, spaced a mile or two apart.

With access to water on the mesa tops, the cattle dont need to venture into the valley to drink from the Rio Cebolla, a part of the mouses protected habitat.

As a result of that, the riparian areas have never looked as good as they do right now, Lucero said.

A second project involved burying 8,500 feet of water line running into a canyon ranchers lost access to when the Forest Service decommissioned a road leading into the canyon about 15 years ago and ripped out the water line in the process.

Lucero said ranchers have been trying to regain access to that area for years.

It took a while to get through the lengthy (National Environmental Policy Act) process to make sure nothing is negatively affected, he said, adding that the water system is designed to be wildlife friendly.

Were not just watering livestock, were watering wildlife.

That includes elk and bear.

Lucero said cameras have caught bears bathing in the water tanks.

That project involved many weekends of work by the ranchers, but all came together on a dedicated field day last summer organized by Mitchell, Trout Unlimiteds public lands coordinator in the state. He helped assemble volunteers on a day trenches were dug and pipeline was laid. TU also kicked in $5,000 for the project.

Other possible projects in the future include more waterline extensions, purchasing portable corrals to assist ranchers in moving cattle from one area to another to prevent overgrazing, installation of rain-capturing stations, restoration of eroding areas in meadows and stream channels, forest thinning and creating cattle/wildlife gateways that also aims to eliminate problems ranchers have with people  often recreational ATV riders  cutting fences.

Another partner is The Nature Conservancy  a national group that works to conserve lands and waters  which has committed $72,000 to the Forest Service to pay for projects that improve the water-holding capacity of meadows and increase forage as part of a comprehensive approach to restoring the Rio Cebolla and other tributaries of the Jemez River and Rio Grande.

The health of the land that is supporting grazing is as important as the grazing itself, said Laura McCarthy, associate state director of The Nature Conservancy. They have to go hand in hand.

Ranchers, who work to maintain the 30 miles of water lines that help provide water to the San Diego and Cebolla-San Antonio grazing allotments at their own expense, have provided in-kind contributions in the form of labor and the use of equipment.

Moving forward

Playing a crucial role in the collaboration is the U.S. Forest Service, which in addition to being charged with managing national forest land also provides the bulk of the funding.

When plans for closing off riparian areas were announced, Lucero had harsh words for the agency, which he said at the time acted in haste and irresponsibly in erecting 8-foot-tall fences around habitat protected areas in 2014.

What it was, was Fish and Wildlife was pushing the Forest Service to deal with it immediately, he said, adding that the federal agencies were under the threat of lawsuits by environmental groups if they didnt act to protect the mouses habitat. We were fighting with each other and we werent making any progress. It caused a lot of friction and didnt result in a darned thing.

Now, he has nothing but praise for the Forest Service from the regional office all the way on down.

A fresh face may have helped the situation. It was about the time Mitchell and Lucero started talking again that Brian Riley came on board as ranger for the Jemez district. He had no part in the previous dispute and that was probably a good thing, Riley said.

I was lucky not to be there when the controversy happened, said Riley, who came in with a clean slate. But now the sides are talking, weve got some collaboration and hopefully that will build synergy that will allow everyone to achieve their goals.

The collaboration started when Mitchell and Lucero decided to get together and talk about two years ago. They made acquaintances during the heat of the battle over protected areas, but then fell out of touch. They crossed paths again more than a year later and found common ground in agreeing that nothing would change if they didnt start talking.

I just saw an opportunity there, Mitchell said. I personally believe that grazing can be a tool to improve the land and I knew that Mike really wants to make it work.

We just felt that theres got to be a way for everybody to get what they want out of the deal, Lucero said. We brought the Forest Service in and then things started moving forward.

Riley said the alliance is a bit unusual.

Id say its not common for a governmental agency and environmental groups to be working with grazing permitees on anything like this, but we think it makes a lot of sense, he said. Its required a few compromises, but thats OK. Were talking now, and were working together.

Mitchell said Trout Unlimited got involved partly because it would like to see more Rio Grande Cutthroat  the state fish  running in streams in the Jemez, but also because TU tries to do its part to be good land stewards and to work cooperatively with others.

For trout people, it was coming to grips with the fact that we have to share lands and streams with grazers. Kicking out cattle for the trout was not going to be a long-term solution, he said.

Lucero said part of what riled ranchers was that over the years, theyve felt they were already giving more than their fair share and werent being listened to.

The permittees were upset because they were constantly giving things up and were getting backed into a corner, he said. But you have to listen to us because we know the land.

Lucero, whose family has been ranching in the area for four, going on five, generations, said hed ultimately like to see the fences protecting the meadow jumping mouses habitat taken down  not because he wants to stop protecting the mouse, but because theyve found solutions that render fences unnecessary.

This has been a good experience being able to move this forward and hopefully we can keep moving it forward, he said. If we can make it so well be ranching for another four generations, Ill be satisfied. And I think we can do it.
Lately, we cant seem to get enough of Italy, or at least ristoranti italiani. And if a recent visit to a trattoria in the Railyard neighborhood reminded us of Romes out-of-the way Trastevere area, il Piatto on the sunny side of Marcy Street, to play the same game, might be the more central Campo de Fiori district.

Just a stroll up from the Plaza on an unseasonably warm mid-November afternoon, il Piatto (the Plate) is as informal and inviting as a traditional Italian country kitchen, which it endeavors to be, surrounded by hip shops, galleries, and with a superb strip of outdoor tables for two, molto romantico.

Inside, tucked in a corner of the bar and a little Frank Sinatra on the box, it could be Mulberry Street, Little Italy, NYC. Our trio settled in for two orders of the three course prix fixe ($25, appetizer, entree and dessert; entree prices noted henceforth).

The Bay Scallops Rockefeller ($13) with besciamella served on a half shell topped with breadcrumbs, onion and bits of bacon were a pluperfect, top-of-the-class, solid A.

The New Mexico beef carpaccio ($13) is top drawer, as well, and comes with a crisp arugula and heirloom tomato salad, crostini, but a bit overdressed with pickled onions, capers and a drizzle of mustard aioli.

The true test of any Italian restaurant, no matter where, is their spaghetti Bolognese. The dish is in my Pantheon of Comfort Foods and il Piattos very generous serving (lotsa pasta!), with a very Italian, savory ragu with bits of pork, prosciutto and beef, crowned with chunky flakes of Parmigiano, gets full marks.

Gorgonzola and walnut ravioli ($15) is an unbeatable combo and, here, with a sun-dried tomato pesto, is no exception, but for a decidedly, and a bit overriding, sweetness of indeterminate ingredient. (What was that?)

An order of calamari spaghetti ($14; in honor of Mulberry Street!) rounded out our entrees. Again quite generous, with lots of squid, lots of garlic (you can never overdo it) and adamantly savory  those bits of anchovies carry quite a wallop that a few turns of the pepper grinder balanced  and picante red pepper flakes in a velvety sauce of white wine and butter (lots, we were told).

We might sound ungrateful were we to ask for a bit more spaghetti (as in the Bolognese) for all those lonely squid at the end, but a bit of excellent bread was the solution (breads, pastries, pastas and pizzas use Sangre de Cristo Mills Whole Wheat Flour).

Desserts (part of our prix fixe deal) were panna cotta, tasty but decidedly too gelatinous; and, while not a favorite, the tiramisu was the real deal, cool, sweet whipped cream slathered between slices of coffee-soaked cake  firm, not soggy!  and a drizzle of chocolate. I stand corrected.

All in all, lunch was a smash, and dinner is more of the same excellence.

In addition, two happy hours (4:30-6 p.m. and 9-10:30 p.m.) are one of the best values around, offering half price on selected appetizers, entrees and wines (a comprehensive selection curated by sommelier Jamie Taylor).

After working in a number of internationally acclaimed kitchens and at The Coyote Cafe with Mark Miller, Chef Matt Yohalem opened il Piatto in 1996 (immediately given an Esquire Top 20 Best New Restaurants in America Award), and he has been a noted promoter of the farm-to-table movement, and a committed supporter of local organizations, artisans and markets. All meats and poultry are organic and free range, and a local fishmonger is engaged to fly in wild, sustainable or bio-dynamically farmed seafood.

After over two decades, il Piatto remains a classy, consistently reliable and immensely satisfying dining experience. Bravo!

LOCATION: 95 W. Marcy St., Santa Fe, NM

PHONE: 505-984-1091

HOURS: Lunch, Wed.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; dinner, 7 days a week from 4:30 p.m.

FOOD: Classic and creative Italian, with innovative, seasonal, regional variations

ATMOSPHERE: Classy casual

SERVICE: Excellent

Wine and beer, an extensive half-bottle program and daily wine specials
Youre a responsible pet owner who loves her furry family like children. But suppose the unpredictable happens, and Max or Bella goes missing. Would you know what to do?

Julie King is betting that you dont. The foster coordinator for Lap Dog Rescue, King has reunited lost dogs with their families to the tune of about 40 a year, just from checking online and print sources and matching lost to found. She does it every morning as she drinks her coffee  a dog-lovers daily puzzle.

Nicknamed Dog Sleuth, King offers some advice that even the most animal-savvy probably doesnt know  or wont remember in a moment of panic.

The first thing to do if you lose an animal is to call 311 and report it, she says. Then go online to the Albuquerque Animal Welfare website, cabq.gov/pets, and click on Search for a Lost or Adoptable Pet.

Most people do not know there is a database with pictures and descriptions, says King, and its updated hourly.

Its also important to check other animal shelters that are within range, such as Bernalillo County, Rio Rancho or Corrales, which also list their found pets online. Bernalillo County will hold found pets only three days before sending them to another shelter, because they lack kennel space.

King regularly scans the photos of found dogs on these databases, and then scans lost sections of Craigslist, Facebook, Nextdoor and the Albuquerque Journal. In many cases, people who find dogs list them in one place, and dont think to look in others.

With Craigslist, she cautions people to be very careful about returning animals without some identifying information. Were pressing charges against someone who claimed a dog as their own, and sold it, she says. Go ahead and put it on there, whether lost or found  just be really careful about how you return.

On Facebook, she recommends LostAndFoundPets AlbuquerqueNM.

Many people do not know that the Albuquerque Journal will list lost or found animals for free. And many times, people who use print media do not think to look online, and vice versa, King says.

Another gap that many people overlook, from the time they adopt an animal, is to update their microchip information.

Likewise, if you find an animal with no tags, you can request a free microchip scan at any veterinary office or shelter, King notes. A lot of people, believe it or not, dont know about microchips and wouldnt think of that. A scan will also tell you which microchip company to call.

Sometimes people will hesitate to call the shelter, King says, because theyre afraid the animal might end up euthanized. But the Albuquerque shelters no longer routinely euthanize for lack of space, and its the first place an owner is likely to look.

The shelters also have a list of animals that have been brought in dead, which they always scan for microchips.

The No. 1 most important thing  this seems really obvious  is to have a collar with a current ID, King adds. You can get flat IDs that slide on the collar, so they wont clatter or rust.

As far as putting up lost pet signs, thats effective at the very start, before the animal can get far away, she says. I tell people to go door to door, and give photos to mail carriers and deliverymen, too.

The Dog Sleuth got her very first dog when she moved to New Mexico 11 years ago, adopted from Lap Dog Rescue. She has since become a devoted rescuer who cant bear the thought of dogs lost and frightened, far from home.

Im still searching for some dogs years later, she says. I do know a lot dont get found.

Its the joyful reunions that keep her sleuthing. Theres nothing better than someone saying, Thats my dog!' she says, recalling a shih-tzu reunited with a mother and son.

I had never heard so much joy  And the person who found the dog said, Now I understand why you do this.'
Toronto school board votes to end having police officers stationed in schools

TORONTO - The Toronto District School Board has voted to permanently end the practice of having police officers stationed in high schools.There was loud applause when the result of a vote to scrap the School Resources Officer Program was announced on Wednesday night "We're not saying we don't want to have a relationship with the police, but we just won't want armed police officers in our school every day," school board chairwoman Robin Pilkey told reporters after the vote.Toronto school district staff recommended removing officers from schools after a survey of students, staff and parents found that the police presence leftteens feeling intimidated or uncomfortable.The program, which was suspended at the start of the school year, saw police officers stationed at 45 high schools in the district to try to improve safety and perceptions of police.It began in 2008 after 15-year-old Jordan Manners was shot and killed at C. W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute.) of the students surveyed for the school district report said that having an officer in school made them feel safer, but the more than two-thousand students who said they felt uncomfortable with a police presence was enough to justify the decision, Pilkey said."We have to reflect that two-thousand students are a significant number of students to not listen to," said Pilkey.However, a handful of trustees opposed ending the program, with one complaining that the decision is being made based on surveys rather than hard facts about whether the program has been a success or failure."It's very unsatisfactory for us to make a decision as important as this without data, we have opinion but not data," Gerri Gershon told the board meeting, adding that the school district should not walk away from improving relations between police and students."This is a horrible pun, but I think this is a big cop out," she said.
A group of Republican senators, including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, sent a letter last week to Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson in support of embattled Col. Leland Bohannon, a former Kirtland officer who was disciplined after refusing to sign a certificate of appreciation for a retiring master sergeants same-sex spouse.

During your own confirmation process, you made it a point to acknowledge that, Air Force commanders have a responsibility to ensure that the spiritual needs of all Airmen are met,' the Nov. 13 letter states. We were highly encouraged by your answers and trusted that, when the time came, you would follow through. That time is now.

In May, Bohannon had been asked to sign a series of documents for the retiring officer, including the customary  and optional  certificate of appreciation.

Bohannon said signing the certificate would be affirming the same-sex marriage contrary to his religious beliefs.

He then requested a religious exemption, which went unanswered.

Instead, he arranged for another officer to sign the certificate.

The retiring officer then filed an Equal Opportunity complaint, alleging Bohannon had discriminated against him due to his sexual orientation.

As a result, Bohannon was stripped of command of the Air Force Inspection Agency at Kirtland and removed from consideration for a promotion to brigadier general.

The letter seeks the reversal of Bohannons discipline and that the Air Force put in place formal guidance and adequate training to leadership on religious rights.

The firm representing Bohannon, First Liberty Institute, is requesting similar action be taken.

Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, John Kennedy of Louisiana, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Mike Lee of Utah and Roger Wicker of Mississippi also signed the letter.

Bohannon also has found support in the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian nonprofit, which is circulating a petition calling for the same actions.

More than 24,000 people had signed the online petition as of Wednesday morning, around two weeks after its creation.
The University of New Mexico produced hundreds of Paul Krebs emails in response to a recent public records request by the Journal.

The Journal earlier this month reported that UNM had first sent all of those emails to Krebs personal attorney to determine what should be released. UNM said at the time that was necessary to honor the attorney-client privilege between Krebs and his attorney, Gene Gallegos, while open records advocates expressed concern that sending emails to Gallegos, especially those that did not involve him, violated the state Inspection of Public Records Act.

In an op-ed published in the Journal on Monday, deputy UNM counsel Kimberly Bell said UNM did not send all of the emails to Gallegos first.

On Tuesday, she clarified over email that not all, but most, of the emails were sent to Gallegos first  regardless of whether they named Gallegos. She explained that the schools IT department produced the requested emails in nine batches. Gallegos was permitted to review all the emails in six batches that included any correspondence between Krebs and Gallegos.

UNM initially told the Journal it did not know how many emails or which ones Gallegos had withheld. This week, Bell said she recently completed an inventory of the emails and that Gallegos cited 40 of the 1,330 pages his office reviewed as privileged.
WASHINGTON  Lawyers for former national security adviser Michael Flynn have told President Donald Trumps legal team that they are no longer communicating with them about special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian election interference.

The decision could be a sign that Flynn is moving to cooperate with Muellers investigation or negotiate a deal for himself. Flynns legal team communicated the decision this week, said a person familiar with the move who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

In large criminal investigations, defense lawyers routinely share information with each other. But it can become unethical to continue such communication if one of the potential targets is looking to negotiate a deal with prosecutors. Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn, didnt respond to a request for comment Thursday. A lawyer for Flynns son, Michael Flynn Jr., who has also come under investigation from Muellers team of prosecutors, declined to comment.

The New York Times first reported the decision.

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February after White House officials concluded that he had misled them about the nature of his contacts during the transition period with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

He was interviewed by the FBI in January about his communications with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The deputy attorney general at the time, Sally Yates, soon advised White House officials that their public assertions that Flynn had not discussed sanctions with Kislyak were incorrect and that Flynn was therefore in a compromised position.

Flynn was facing a Justice Department investigation over his foreign business dealings even before Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to investigate potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mueller has since inherited that investigation.

Flynn, a prominent Trump backer on the campaign trail, has been a key figure in Muellers probe and of particular interest to Trump. Former FBI Director James Comey, for instance, said that Trump encouraged him to end an FBI investigation into Flynn during a private Oval Office meeting in February.

In addition to scrutinizing Flynns contacts with Russia during the transition and campaign, Mueller has been investigating the retired U.S. Army lieutenant generals role in $530,000 worth of lobbying work his now-defunct firm performed for a Turkish businessman during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

The lobbying campaign sought to gather derogatory information on Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric and green-card holder living in Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulen of being behind a botched coup and has sought his extradition. Gulen has denied the allegations, and U.S. officials have rebuffed Turkeys extradition demands, citing a lack of evidence.

Flynn and his firm, Flynn Intel Group, carried out the lobbying and research work for several months, meeting with officials from the U.S. and Turkish governments. Flynn also published an op-ed on Election Day in The Hill newspaper, parroting many of the Turkish governments talking points about Gulen. At the time, neither Flynn nor his company was registered with the Justice Department to represent Turkish interests.

Soon after the publication of the op-ed, the Justice Department began investigating Flynns lobbying work, and in March, he registered with the department as a foreign agent. In federal filings, Flynn acknowledged the work could have benefited the government of Turkey.

Since then, FBI agents working for Mueller have been investigating whether the Turkish government was directing the lobbying work and not a private company owned by a Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, as Flynns firm has contended. FBI agents have also been asking about Flynns business partner, Bijan Kian, who served on Trumps presidential transition, and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who worked for his father as part of the lobbying campaign. Flynn Jr. also was a near constant presence around his father during the Trump campaign and presidential transition period.

Mueller announced his first charges in the investigation last month, including the guilty plea of a foreign-policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, and the indictments of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and business associate Rick Gates.

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Associated Press writer Chad Day contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  In a move that could signal cooperation with the government, lawyers for former national security adviser Michael Flynn have told President Donald Trumps lawyers that they are no longer communicating with them about special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian election interference.

Flynns legal team communicated the decision this week, said a person familiar with the move who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The New York Times first reported the decision.

The decision could be a sign that Flynn is moving to cooperate with Muellers investigation or negotiate a deal for himself. In large criminal investigations, defense lawyers routinely share information with each other. But it can become unethical to continue such communication if one of the potential targets is looking to negotiate a deal with prosecutors.

Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn, declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Flynns son, Michael Flynn Jr., who has also come under investigation from Muellers prosecutors.

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February after White House officials concluded that he had misled them about the nature of his contacts during the transition period with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

FBI agents interviewed Flynn in January about his communications with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. Days later, Sally Yates, then acting attorney general, informed White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn was in a compromised position and vulnerable to blackmail because of inaccurate public statements from the White House about Flynns contacts with Kislyak.

Flynn was facing a Justice Department investigation over his foreign business dealings even before Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to investigate potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mueller has since inherited that investigation.

Flynn, a prominent Trump backer in the campaign, has been a key figure in Muellers probe and of particular interest to Trump. Former FBI Director James Comey, for instance, said that Trump encouraged him to end an FBI investigation into Flynn during a private Oval Office meeting in February.

In addition to scrutinizing Flynns contacts with Russia during the transition and campaign, Mueller has been investigating the retired U.S. Army lieutenant generals role in $530,000 worth of lobbying work his now-defunct firm performed for a Turkish businessman during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

The lobbying campaign sought to gather derogatory information on Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric and green-card holder living in Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulen of being behind a botched coup and has sought his extradition. Gulen has denied the allegations, and U.S. officials have rebuffed Turkeys extradition demands, citing a lack of evidence.

Flynn and his firm, Flynn Intel Group, carried out the lobbying and research work for several months, meeting with officials from the U.S. and Turkish governments. Flynn also published an op-ed on Election Day in The Hill newspaper, parroting many of the Turkish governments talking points about Gulen. At the time, neither Flynn nor his company was registered with the Justice Department to represent Turkish interests.

Soon after the publication of the op-ed, the Justice Department began investigating Flynns lobbying work, and in March, he registered with the department as a foreign agent. In federal filings, Flynn acknowledged the work could have benefited the government of Turkey.

Since then, FBI agents working for Mueller have been investigating whether the Turkish government was directing the lobbying work and not a private company owned by a Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, as Flynns firm has contended. FBI agents have also been asking about Flynns business partner, Bijan Kian, who served on Trumps presidential transition, and Flynns son, Michael Flynn Jr., who worked for his father as part of the lobbying campaign. Flynn Jr. also was a near constant presence around his father during the Trump campaign and presidential transition period.

Mueller announced his first charges in the investigation last month, including the guilty plea of a foreign-policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, and the indictments of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and business associate Rick Gates.

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Associated Press writer Chad Day contributed to this report.
CAIRO  In the deadliest-ever attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt, militants assaulted a crowded mosque Friday during prayers, blasting helpless worshippers with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades and blocking their escape routes. At least 235 people were killed before the assailants got away.

The attack in the troubled northern part of the Sinai Peninsula targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of a mystic movement within Islam. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State group, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith.

The startling bloodshed in the town of Bir al-Abd also wounded at least 109, according to the state news agency. It offered the latest sign that, despite more than three years of fighting in Sinai, the Egyptian government has failed to deter an IS-led insurgency.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi vowed that the attack will not go unpunished and that Egypt would persevere with its war on terrorism. But he did not specify what new steps might be taken.

The military and security forces have already been waging a tough campaign against militants in the towns, villages and desert mountains of Sinai, and Egypt has been in a state of emergency for months. Across the country, thousands have been arrested in a crackdown on suspected Islamists as well as against other dissenters and critics, raising concern about human rights violations.

Seeking to spread the violence, militants over the past year have carried out deadly bombings on churches in the capital of Cairo and other cities, killing dozens of Christians. The IS affiliate is also believed to be behind the 2016 downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed 226 people.

Fridays assault was the first major militant attack on a Muslim congregation, and it eclipsed past attacks, even dating back to a previous Islamic militant insurgency in the 1990s.

The militants descended on the al-Rouda mosque in four off-road vehicles as hundreds worshipped inside. At least a dozen attackers charged in, opening fire randomly, the main cleric at the mosque, Sheikh Mohamed Abdel Fatah Zowraiq told The Associated Press by phone from a Nile Delta town where he was recuperating from bruises and scratches suffered in the attack.

He said there were explosions as well. Officials cited by the state news agency MENA said the attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades and shot men as they tried to run from the building. The militants blocked off escape routes with burning cars, three police officers on the scene told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Abdullah Abdel-Nasser, 14, who was attending prayers with his father, said the shooting began just as the cleric was about to start his sermon, sending panicked worshippers rushing to hide behind concrete columns or whatever shelter they could find. At one point, a militant shouted for children to leave, so Abdel-Nasser said he rushed out, though he was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel and a bullet.

I saw many people on the floor, many dead. I dont think anyone survived, he said at a hospital in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, where around 40 of the wounded were taken, including many children.

Mohammed Ali said 18 members of his extended family were killed in the attack. The mosque belonged to a local clan, the Jreer, so many of its members worshipped there.

Where was the army? Its only a few kilometers away. This is the question we cannot find an answer to, he said.

The attackers escaped, apparently before security forces could confront them.

Afterward, dozens of bloodied bodies wrapped in sheets were laid across the mosque floor, according to images circulating on social media. Relatives lined up outside a nearby hospital as ambulances raced back and forth. The state news agency MENA put the death toll at 235.

Resident Ashraf el-Hefny said many of the victims were workers at a nearby salt mine who had come for Friday services at the mosque.

Local people brought the wounded to hospital on their own cars and trucks, he said by telephone.

No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack. But the IS group affiliate has targeted Sufis in the past. Last year, the militants beheaded a leading local Sufi religious figure, the blind sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz, and posted photos of the killing online.

Islamic State group propaganda often denounces Sufis. In the January edition of an IS online magazine, a figure purporting to be a high level official in the Sinai affiliate of the group vowed to target Sufis, accusing them of idolatry and heretical innovation in religion and warning that the group will not permit (their) presence in Sinai or Egypt.

Millions of Egyptians belong to Sufi orders, which hold sessions of chanting and poetry meant to draw the faithful closer to God. Sufis also hold shrines containing the tombs of holy men in particular reverence.

Islamic hardliners view such practices as improper, even heretical, and militants across the region often destroy Sufi shrines, saying they encourage idolatry because people pray to the figures buried there for intercession.

El-Sissi convened a high-level meeting of security officials as his office declared a three-day mourning period.

In a statement, he said the attack would only add to our insistence on combatting extremists. Addressing the nation later on television, he said Egypt is waging a battle against militancy on behalf of the rest of the world, a declaration he has often made in seeking international support for the fight.

President Donald Trump denounced what he called a horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers.

The world cannot tolerate terrorism he said on Twitter, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence! He later tweeted that he would call el-Sissi and said the attack showed the need to get tougher and smarter, including by building the wall he has promised along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Islamic militants stepped up their campaign of violence in northern Sinai after the military ousted the elected but divisive Islamist Mohammed Morsi from power in 2013 and launched a fierce crackdown on Morsis Muslim Brotherhood group.

The result has been a long, grinding conflict centered on el-Arish and nearby villages. The militants have been unable to control territory, but the military and security forces have also been unable to bring security, as the extremists continuously carry out attacks.

The attacks have largely focused on military and police, killing hundreds, although exact numbers are unclear as journalists and independent investigators are banned from the area. The militants have also assassinated individuals the group considers spies for the government or religious heretics.

Egypt has also faced attacks by militants in its Western Desert.

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Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Ismailia and Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish contributed to this report.
FORT WORTH, Texas  A woman accused of mailing potentially deadly homemade bombs to then-President Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in 2016 was arrested, in part, due to cat hair, a cigarette box and an almost-destroyed shipping label bearing her address.

Julia Poff, 46, mailed the devices in October 2016, along with a third package that she sent to the Social Security Administration, near Baltimore, according to an indictment. Of the three packages, only Abbott opened his. It did not detonate because he did not open it as designed, court documents said.

A grand jury indicted her this month on six counts, including mailing injurious articles and transporting explosives with the intent to kill and injure, according to documents filed this week in district court in Houston.

Federal investigators said the improvised explosive device sent to Abbott contained a cellphone, a cigarette packet and a salad dressing cap, according to a court document from a Nov. 17 detention hearing. It says a similar device was sent to Obama and that the same device was sent to the Social Security Administration.

The device sent to Abbott came in a package still bearing an obliterated shipping label addressed to Poff, the court document said. The cigarette box used in the device bore a Texas tobacco stamp that identifies the store where the cigarettes were bought. Poffs bank card records showed a purchase of cigarettes at that store. The two incendiary powders in the box matched materials found in Poffs home, federal court documents showed.

Investigators traced Poff to the package sent to Obama because of cat hair found under an address label, according to the detention hearing court document. An FBI crime lab compared the hair to some from two of Poffs cats and found it microscopically consistent with the hair of one of those animals, according to the court filing.

At the hearing, a federal agent testified that Poff was angry with Abbott because she did not receive support from her ex-husband when Abbott served as Texas Attorney General, before he was elected governor in 2014. According to court documents, Poffs application for social security benefits was denied.

The agent also testified that Poff said she just didnt like Obama.

Katie Hill, a spokeswoman with the former presidents private office, declined to comment Friday. A call by The Associated Press to Abbotts public affairs office in Austin was not returned.

Poff is being held at the Houston federal detention center. Poffs attorney, Ashley Kaper, declined to comment except to say she had been unable to keep her client out of custody.

A criminal background check shows Poff has a misdemeanor conviction for theft. She was also convicted for state felony fraud. In both cases, she was given probation.

A pretrial conference in the case is scheduled for early next year.

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Associated Press writer Sara Burnett contributed to this report from Chicago.

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DENVER  Police say a woman and two boys were shot and wounded in the parking lot of a Denver high school.

The Denver Post reports one of the boys was in critical condition after the Thanksgiving Day shooting outside Manual High School.

Police spokesman John White says the victims were in a car when two or three suspects approached on foot, fired into the car and fled.

White says the police gang unit will investigate but officers dont know whether gang members were involved.

The victims names werent immediately released.

White says the critically injured boy was shot multiple times. A second victim was shot in the arm and a third in the leg.

No classes were in session this week but its not clear if anyone was inside the school.

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Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com
ALBUQUERUQUE, N.M.  Drought is expanding its grip on New Mexico and parts of he Southwest once again thanks to a stretch of warm, dry weather.

Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque say Friday marks the 50th consecutive day without measurable rain in Albuquerque.

While the states most populous area is still far from setting any dryness records, many parts of New Mexico are seeing unseasonably warm temperatures that are helping to dry out soils and exacerbate the problem.

Many cities topped out Thursday in the 60s and 70s. In western New Mexico, Grants broke a previous record with a high of 67.

Forecasters say New Mexico is on track to mark the warmest November on record.

As for moisture, the latest maps show abnormally dry and low-level drought conditions have expanded slightly along the Arizona-New Mexico border.
CHICAGO  More than 2,000 students got into the hottest show in Chicago for free  Hamilton: An American Musical   as part of their acceptance to Northwestern University.

Its one of the ways colleges and high schools are using the hugely popular musical to teach students about history, art, drama, culture, and even politics. Theres even a high school program coordinated through the show that has allowed nearly 49,000 students in four cities to see the show for free or reduced admission.

Its one thing to learn about these kind of events in a classroom but to go and see this in a production its different, and its just amazing, said Northwestern freshman Alex Richards after seeing the smash hit musical.

First-year Northwestern students went to two matinees at CIBC Theatre in October on 48 buses as part of the One Book One Northwestern program, which includes a series of discussions, speakers and other events around the theme of a book. This year it was Danielle Allens Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality.

Nancy Cunniff, director for One Book One Northwestern, says the program gives students a common discussion point when they get to campus as well as a different perspective on a subject.

Our approach has been to find different access points, Cunniff said. So maybe history is not your thing but you like musicals and then you go and see this musical and then maybe history isnt so bad.

The university also started a class last year called Hamiltons America, a lecture course cross-listed in history and Latino studies. Last year they taught 135 students and this year they plan to raise the cap to 180, expecting interest to increase after the One Book program, said Geraldo Cadava, an associate professor who helps lead the class.

Milwaukees Marquette University is offering an honors, pass-fail course this semester for freshman called Lin-Manuel Mirandas Hamilton, after the musicals creator. And its overfilled by almost double at 14 people. Assistant English Professor Gerry Canavan uses the soundtrack, videos and lyrics as well as the Ron Chernow biography of Alexander Hamilton, which Miranda used as inspiration for the play.

To me its a really interesting way to teach the skills of criticism and interpretation and careful reading because you are looking at something that you havent necessarily been trained how to read in the same way youve been trained to read great literature, Canavan said.

Ithaca College, Duke University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison are among the other schools that have credit or noncredit courses or touch on the show in other music or history classes.

Educators are also targeting high school students. Theres a program coordinated through the show and donors that uses donations to allow mostly 10th and 11th graders to see Hamilton for free or reduced admission. Some students also write dramatic scenes, poems or songs drawing on the founding era time period to present on stage before a performance.

Since 2015, nearly 49,000 students have gone in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. It has started to expand to San Diego, Tempe, Ariz., Seattle, Denver, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Houston and Washington D.C. and the idea is to send at least 100,000 students to the show by next summer.

Our goal is to ensure that students have a shot to see Hamilton and use its words, music and staging to further their understanding and enjoyment of American History, music and drama, Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller said about the program in a press release.
PHOENIX  A federal lawsuit set to go to trial next month marks the latest legal action brought against former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio over allegations that he pursued a trumped-up criminal case to get publicity and embarrass an adversary.

The political opponent in this case: U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake.

One of Flakes sons filed a malicious-prosecution lawsuit, saying Arpaio pursued felony animal cruelty charges against him and his then-wife in a bid to do political damage to the senator and gain publicity.

Austin Flake and his wife were charged in the heat-exhaustion deaths of 21 dogs in June 2014 at a kennel operated by his in-laws. The Flakes were watching the dogs when the in-laws were out of town.

The dogs died when an air conditioning unit failed in a small room where the animals spent the night.

The case against the Flakes was dismissed at the request of prosecutors, and the owners of the kennel pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges after an expert determined the air conditioner failed because the operators didnt properly maintain it.

The lawsuit, which is scheduled for trial on Dec. 5, alleges that Arpaio was intent on linking the Flakes to the deaths, going so far as to conduct surveillance on the senators home. The suit also says Arpaios investigators examined phone records to see if the younger Flake called his father during the time he was watching the dogs.

Lawyers for Austin Flake and his then-wife have said the senator disagreed with Arpaio over immigration and was critical of the movement questioning the authenticity of then-President Barack Obamas birth certificate.

In a deposition, Arpaio didnt accept responsibility for bringing the charges against the couple and was unable to cite any evidence to support the allegations. But he still expressed confidence in his investigators.

I am going by what my detectives accomplished during their investigation, Arpaio said during the July 2016 deposition. They had the nuts and bolts already. I defend my people. I have confidence in them. I dont have to know everything thats going on.

Arpaio and Jeffrey Leonard, an attorney representing Maricopa County and the former sheriff, declined to comment on the case.

Stephen Montoya, an attorney for Austin Flake and his former wife, Logan Brown, said the sheriffs office didnt have evidence showing his clients intended to hurt the dogs, yet still charged them with crimes that devastated them and contributed to the demise of their marriage.

It splashed their names across the internet as the murderers of 21 dogs. It really ravaged them emotionally, Montoya said, noting that Austin Flake was 21 and his wife was 20 at the time.

A ruling in August by U.S. District Judge Neil Wake dismissed a defamation allegation from the lawsuit but determined investigators didnt have probable cause to charge the couple.

A factfinder could thus reasonably find that the prosecutors initially charged the Flakes based on pressure from Arpaio, Wake wrote.

The prosecutor who brought the allegations said in a court filing that she wasnt pressured by Arpaios office to prosecute the couple and that the decision to present the case to a grand jury was made by her and her supervisors. The Maricopa County Attorneys Office isnt named as a party in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit doesnt specify how much money the younger Flake and his ex-wife are seeking. But they previously sought $4 million in a notice of claim  a precursor to a lawsuit.

It isnt the first time Arpaio has been accused of trumping up charges in an animal cruelty case.

He launched an investigation against a police officer from the Phoenix suburb of Chandler over a 2007 death of a police dog that was left in a hot vehicle for 12 hours in blistering summer heat.

The officer was charged with animal abuse but eventually acquitted. He filed a lawsuit alleging Arpaio brought the criminal case so the sheriff could exploit the publicity.

Taxpayers paid $775,000 to the officer to settle the case.

___

Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/jacques%20billeaud .
Bernalillo police are investigating a bomb threat at the Wal-Mart on U.S. 528 south of U.S. 550 Friday, according to the chief of police.

Chief Tom Romero said around 11 a.m. someone called dispatch in the Town of Bernalillo to say there was a bomb at the Wal-Mart.

Wal-mart evacuated the customers, he said. The building is being checked by employees, Bernalillo police, and the New Mexico State Police bomb squad.

He said unless authorities find anything significant the store should be reopened shortly.
Dozens of New Mexico-based Native American businesses are getting a huge boost from a novel program thats focused exclusively on building tribal entrepreneurship.

New Mexico Community Capital, a nonprofit that started out as a local venture investment fund, has expanded and blossomed into a bustling center in Downtown Albuquerque for existing and aspiring Native American entrepreneurs to get the assistance they need to launch and grow businesses.

Backed by about $5 million in federal funding and grants, the NMCCs flagship Native Entrepreneur in Residence Program has helped more than two dozen companies since launching in 2014, many of which are now flourishing. The program functions as an incubator and accelerator for tribal enterprises.

At last count, the 26 companies that have graduated from the program have generated 84 new jobs and over $7 million in gross revenue, said NMCC Managing Director Peter Holter.

That includes pre-revenue startups that launched through the program, early-stage businesses looking to grow, and established firms seeking to expand.

The program provides a culturally appropriate, supportive place for Native American participants to gain confidence, grow and become successful, Holter said. It offers intensive, one-on-one mentorship stretched over six months to dive deep into every aspect of a business.

That includes essential skills of financial and cash management, marketing, sales, production and administration, plus supportive mentoring to manage the unique pressures entrepreneurs face.

It also includes a $12,000 stipend and modern office space for companies that need it. In addition, financing from the federal Community Development Financial Institution allows NMCC to invest up to $150,000 in businesses graduating from its program.

A new, $1.2 million grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in October will also allow NMCC to launch a financial literacy and business basics program in January for Native American parents with young children. And, the program is now supporting a new Native Women Business Summit that held its first conference in October, with another one planned for February.

Program graduates say NMCC provided critical support.

Mahadevi, a combination health beverage business and support network for new mothers, is now expanding its reach online through a new website and email system NMCC helped build, said founder and owner Lisa Foreman, a Shawnee who grew up in Albuquerque.

The program taught me the nuts and bolts of everything I need to succeed, Foreman said. They helped me talk through my ideas, get clear what I actually wanted to do, and then break things down into doable, bite-size pieces.

Cochiti Pueblo member Phoebe Suina, co-founder and owner of environmental consulting firm High Water Mark LLC, said NMCC helped her create a growth action plan.

I expect to expand from eight employees now to 20 to 30 in the next three to four years, Suina said. I cant say enough about all the knowledge, skills, mentoring and support NMCC has provided.
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina  Argentinas president said Friday that an international search will continue for a submarine carrying 44 crew members that has been lost in the South Atlantic for nine days and that the subs disappearance will be investigated.

The Argentine navy says an explosion occurred near the time and place where the submarine went missing on Nov. 15 as it was sailing from the extreme southern port of Ushuaia to the coastal city of Mar del Plata. Thats led some family members of the crew to give up hope of a rescue. Navy officials and outside experts also worry that even if the sub is intact but submerged, its crew may be running out of oxygen.

The disappearance and current search of the ARA San Juan submarine has touched all Argentines. Its a difficult moment for all, but obviously, especially for the families of the 44 crew members, President Mauricio Macri said in his first public comments about the missing sub at the navys headquarters in Buenos Aires.

Im here to guarantee you that we will carry on with the search, especially now that we have the support of all the international community.

More than a dozen airplanes and ships have been participating in the multinational search across an area of some 185,000 square miles (480,000 square kilometers), which is roughly the size of Spain.

The Argentine navy said Friday that Russia is sending an Antonov transport aircraft and a ship in the southern Patagonian port of Comodoro Rivadavia is being adapted to carry a U.S. Navy submarine rescue chamber to the area.

The ARA San Juan, a German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine, was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refitted in 2014.

No one goes out to sea knowing that they can lose their life, said Ramon Francisco, who was part of the crew that first brought the sub from Germany to Argentina in 1985. It was a reliable submarine.

The sub was originally scheduled to arrive Monday to a navy base in Mar del Plata, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Buenos Aires. Local residents prayed for the crews return during a religious ceremony outside the base Friday. Some relatives of the crew who have gathered there fear that their loved ones will no longer be rescued.

Hope is the last thing you lose. Im waiting for a surprise, but Im not really counting on it, Luis Tagliapietra, father of 27-year-old crew member Alejandro Damian Tagliapietra, told The Associated Press.

You go from denial to suffering, from optimism to pessimism, he said, holding back tears. When he found out about the explosion from his sons direct superior, he was told that there was a possibility there were no survivors.

I asked them if they were all dead, and he said: Yes.'

Some family members have denounced the navys response to the disappearance and the condition of the 30-year-old vessel.

Although Macri said that its not the time to point fingers at anyone, he promised a probe of the subs disappearance.

This demands a serious, deep investigation, Macri said. We need to understand how a submarine that had undergone a midlife refit, and that was in perfect conditions to sail, suffered this explosion.

__

Henao reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writer Mayra Pertossi and video journalist Paul Byrne contributed to this report.
NEW YORK  The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resigned Friday and named his own successor, leading to an open conflict with President Donald Trump  who announced a different person as acting head of the agency later in the day.

That means there are now effectively two acting directors of the CFPB, when there should only be one.

Typically an acting director position would be filled according to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. But Richard Cordray, along with his resignation, elevated Leandra English, who was the agencys chief of staff, into the deputy director position.

Under the Dodd-Frank Act that created the CFPB, English would become acting director. Cordray  an Obama appointee  specifically cited the law when he moved English, a longtime CFPB employee and ally of his, into that position.

Within a few hours, President Donald Trump announced his own acting director of the agency, Mick Mulvaney, who is currently director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney had widely been expected to be Trumps temporary pick for the bureau until a permanent one could be found.

Mulvaney is a long-time critic of the CFPB, and has wanted the agencys authority significantly curtailed. So the difference between English and Mulvaney running the agency would be significant.

The person nominated to be director of the CFPB requires confirmation by the Senate, and it could be many weeks or months before the person would be able to step into the role permanently. Cordrays move was aimed at allowing his favored successor to keep running the agency for as long as possible before a Trump appointee is confirmed by the Senate.

Cordray had announced earlier this month that he would resign by the end of this month. There is wide speculation that Cordray, a Democrat, is resigning in order to run for governor in his home state of Ohio.

The CFPB was created as part of the laws passed following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. The agency was given a broad mandate to be a watchdog for consumers when they deal with banks and credit card, student loan and mortgage companies, as well as debt collectors and payday lenders. Nearly every American who deals with banks or a credit card company or has a mortgage has been affected by new rules the agency put in place.

Cordray used that mandate aggressively as its first director, which often made him a target for the banking industrys Washington lobbyists and Congressional Republicans who believed Cordray was overreaching in his role, calling the CFPB a rogue agency.

As director, he also was able to extract billions of dollars in settlements from banks, debt collectors and other financial services companies for wrongdoing. When Wells Fargo was found to have opened millions of phony accounts for its customers, the CFPB fined the bank $100 million, the agencys largest penalty to date.
In the latest move by marketing and communication companies entering the video production space, FoxyMoron, one of Indias leading independent digital agencies, has collaborated with the acclaimed Famous Studios, to create Indias largest Digital Content Lab.

Video has become an integral part of digital and video formats are being championed by every digital platform today. The average Indian internet user views more video content than any other format, of which, most is on Social Media. Thus, the focus is to be able to efficiently and quickly deliver high quality video content by setting up a technology enabled production house that is also a high-end studio, making it possible to create and manage high volumes of video outflow.

FoxyMoron is a full service digital advertising and media solutions agency where tech geeks, creative mavericks and innovative storytellers create some of the best brand led activities in India. Famous Studios is one of Indias oldest & most acclaimed studios, that has varied interests in production, post production, animation and visual effects. It is a creative, innovative and experienced studio having the necessary tools and workflows for the execution & processing of all types of audiovisual content.

With their strategic partnership to create a high-end content lab, it will provide brands the flexibility to pick and choose customizable, personalized video content solutions. The lab will begin with amplification for FoxyMorons current brand partners, aiming to both the quality and the quantity of content solutions. However, it will be a full service content lab, which will also enable independent content creators to exploit the creative and technology resources of the studio, in addition the grounded studio infrastructure that the lab brings with it. The creator community will holistically benefit through the labs community development initiatives in order to ensure a unique experience for their consumers by amalgamating content, video production and technology.

This fully loaded lab is spread across 50,000 square feet and boasts of cutting edge technology to aid production, audiovisual, post-production and visual effects technology for content creators. The 360 degree approach offers content creators the comfort and flexibility to imagine and execute their projects, all under one roof.

Commenting on this collaboration, Suveer Bajaj, Co-founder, FoxyMoron said, With our recent investments in the development of the content space, we feel that this partnership with India's largest, oldest and most reputed studio will bring formidable change in the content arena. Famous' technology and infrastructure coupled with FoxyMoron's keen eye for creative and publishing will help give us a unique edge both for brands and publishers. Our distinctive initiative towards community development will now enable every content creator to leverage our pooled resources, resulting in an enhanced environment for the development of quality content. This initiative is largely built on the back of building tools and allowing the creator community to leverage the same in order to really open up the landscape with independent creators. Our initiative is to make this India's largest Maker Studio that bridges the gap between talent, creators, producers, publishers and brands. We are excited to embark on this journey with the newly evolved avatar of Famous Studios and hope to do some significant work in the space of content creation and community development.

Content is the most crucial aspect of marketing today. After over 70 years in the industry, weve seen a lot of growth and are always looking for new ways to evolve. We are proud to take this leap ahead, with which we aim to give content a completely unique outlook and we are thrilled take our studio to the next level with FoxyMorons creative approach to achieve great new heights. Over the years, they have grasped an in-depth knowledge of content and creativity, which when amalgamated with our high-end technology, the possibilities are infinite! This partnership is extremely exciting and we look forward to an interesting and insightful journey ahead said Anant Roongta, Director, Famous Studios commenting on this partnership."

Famous Studios has been at the forefront in introducing new technology and workflows for the audio & video content production industry since 1945. 2017 has been an exciting year for them with the launch of our state-of-the-art High Speed product packshot studio best suited for the FMCG, food and beauty industry. The setup comprises of the latest Phantom 4K Flex Global Shutter camera, High Speed lights from Arri and sets of macro and prime lenses. This entire setup is plug and play which makes it easy to churn out content in quicktime. In the first quarter of 2018, Famous will introduce India's first ever international grade Motion Capture studio which will assist content creators from all spheres to access this technology, right here in the heart of Mumbai. The Motion capture technology will offer unique perspectives and capture movements of characters real-time which will help save time in post-production and help content publishers monetize effectively by releasing it sooner to the market. This technology will work best for gaming, ad Commercials and feature films.
News18.com, one of Indias top breaking news websites, recently announced its annual marquee property  the Tech and Auto Awards,Indias first combined awards for Technology and Automotive sector. The unique awards show aims to recognise and honour innovative products from the tech and auto sectors that have set the standards in their respective fields. The extravagant event will be held on 29th November 2017 at New Delhi. The jury members for this distinctive property comprise some of the most sought after names from both national and international technology and auto sectors.

The prestigious jury includes Rahil Ansari (Head, Audi India), who at 38 is the youngest Brand Director for Audi, across the globe. The panel also comprises Pranay Jivrajka (Founding Partner - OLA), an alumnus of IIT - Bombay, he is Olas founding partner and a part of the company's core team since its inception in 2011.Sandeep Bhushan (Director- Facebook, South Asia), an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, who holds experience across fields of Media, CPG and Technology is also a part of the jury.

Other members on the panel are Jatin Ahuja (Founder & MD, Big Boy Toyz Ltd), Suhail Tariq (CMO, Huawei India Consumer Business Group), Ashish Bhatia (Technology Columnist), Nikhil Chawla (Founder & Editor-In-Chief, The Unbiased Blog), Sandeep Budki (Founder & Managing Editor, The Mobile Indian), Ranojoy Mukherjee (Ex-SIAM Dy Director, Auto Journalist), Vikram Gour (Founder & Editor, MotorScribes), Ramesh Somani (Founder & CEO, Exhibit Technologies), and Sumit Dayal (Photographer).

In a short span of time, since the announcement of the awards property, approximately 1.5 lakh votes have been received from the online audience, for various award categories.

One of the many highlights of the evening is a Key Note speech by Mr. Larry Paulson, Vice President and President, Qualcomm India.

Larry Paulson, Vice President and President, Qualcomm India said, I am honoured to be a part of News18s unique Tech and Auto Awards property. The awards is a celebration for both the tech and auto industry combined. At the event, I am looking forward to meet leaders, innovators and creators of transformational designs and innovations that will define the future of technology and auto industry.

Siddhartha Sharma, Editor Technology and Automobiles News18.com said, We at News18.com have always believed in innovations and setting up trends for others to follow. The Tech And Auto Awards is a part of that initiative as we believe that why should the Indian consumer wait for Detroit and Silicon valley to make innovations for us. The Tech and Auto Awards also presents a unique platform for the Technology and Automotive industry of India to come together under one roof and pave the way for future innovations and products in terms of technology and automobiles that are solution centric to Indian consumers. This is also a one of its kind awards events in India, and we as a part of a young and a very small team here at News18.com are proud of.

Commenting on the announcement for the jury members, Manish Maheshwari, CEO, Network18 Digital said, Products of both tech and auto industries are more often than not judged on similar principles by consumers; the design, innovation, power, style amongst other factors. So, it is an absolute pleasure to bring experts, leaders, entrepreneur, achievers and more from both the fields under one roof for News18s Tech and Auto Awards. It will be an evening to celebrate excellence, converse and let ideas perpetuate for steadfast growth of the two sectors.
Laban Stretchy Man  the new human shaped, stretchy, fruit flavoured chews  Norways largest selling confectionary brand - has been brought to India and localized by MTR Foods Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Orkla ASA, Norway. The brand has launched its first TV Commercial (TVC) for the product, bringing alive the key properties of Laban, the TVC focuses on the mischievously funny Laban-fueled exploits of two kids based purely on their imagination.

The TVC plays out an encounter between two school-going brothers and a taxi driver. When a taxi driver rudely shouts at the children who are trying to cross a busy traffic signal, the kids bring out their Laban Stretchy Men and catapult them across the street. The imaginary Stretchy Men stretch, jump and fly across the crossing and finally land on the traffic signal itself. They then proceed to dance on the lights, changing its colors in the process. This confuses the taxi driver who thinks the signal is at green. When he tries to cross the signal he gets caught by a traffic policeman who shows the taxi driver that the signal is actually at red and that the taxi driver has almost broken a traffic rule by jumping a red light. This leaves the kids laughing and feeling satisfied that they have taken their revenge on the rude taxi driver with the help of Laban Stretchy Man!

The concept of the TVC was based on the insight that kids see themselves as small but they wish they could have the last laugh. The personality of Laban, which is uniquely differentiated from other confectionary in the market, provides a moment of escape for kids from their fixed routines. Laban is an idea engine that pushes their imagination and empowers them with creative ideas to help overcome everyday challenges. The communication and the new TVC has emphasised on this concept.

On the launch of the new campaign, Sunay Bhasin, CMO, MTR Foods Pvt. Ltd. had this to say, Laban is a powerful product that is capable of sparking imagination and encouraging creativity in the consumers minds. For its first TVC campaign, we wanted to focus on what makes Laban so unique by showcasing its differentiated properties and at the same time emphasize on the true spirit of joy and playfulness that the confectionary personifies. The new TVC is fun, engaging and relatable for our consumers with a memorable jingle Laban ki Pahunch Lambi Hai that has added to its fun aspect. We know that this TVC will be well-received and loved by our consumers. 

Samrat Chengapa, Senior Vice President, Dentsu India Pvt Ltd Laban is an exciting new product that is unlike any other in the market. The Labans Stretchy Man is a very interesting and lively character. It was a fun challenge to conceptualise the Stretchy Man and create Labans first TVC in India. We are confident that the ad will catch the attention of our audience and are delighted to have worked on it

Campaign Credits:

Chief Creative Officer: Rahul Sengupta

Executive Creative Director: Ajesh N

Senior Creative Director: Rajesh Narasimhan

Director: Abhijit Chaudhuri Dadu

Production House: QED films

Languages: Hindi & Tamil

The campaign will be further propelled via 360 degree initiatives, digital and on-ground branding.
WATConsult, Indias leading and most awarded digital and social media agency, a part of the Dentsu Aegis Network has successfully wrapped up its second season of WATs Your Big Idea (#WYBI) yesterday at an event in Mumbai.

The winning trophy was awarded to WATs in the Name from MICA. The first runner-up was team BhaiBhaiBhai from MICA, while the second runner-up position was awarded to ThreeTwoOne from IIMC - Delhi.

This year WATs Your Big Idea received over 240 entries from 390+ students who participated from leading institutions like MICA, SIMC, XIC, IIMB, IIM (Indore), SP Jain, Jamnalal Bajaj, NMIMS, MET and Jai Hind.

Associated brands had shared their background and company history along with the objective, target audience, target market, challenges faced and the requirement from each team in terms of a campaign. ITCs Savlons brief was to increase usage of hand-wash in households and to increase usage adoption, while HE Face Wash looked for an integrated marketing idea for their newly launched product, waterless face wash.

Naturolaxs marketing objective was to establish a new brand positioning, thereby driving new trials and increasing market share. JACK & JONES core objective was to establish them in the mens comfort zone brand and gain branding visibility along with garnering actual footfalls and sales. Madame Tussauds looked for ideas which helped in increasing repeated walk-ins and ideas on new possible opportunities to drive revenues and Swarovski wanted ideas which helped increase sales and create a brand visibility in their TG.

The shortlisted teams got an opportunity to work with the team at WATConsult, to understand the nuances of digital campaigns and improvise their entries before presenting in front of the esteemed jury today, which comprised of Rajiv Dingra (Founder and CEO, WATConsult), Jaikishan Chhaproo (Head Media and PR, ITC), Praveen Das (Co-Founder & Managing Director, Happy Mcgarrybowen), Vineet Gautam (CEO, Bestseller Group) Sukanya Dutta Roy (MD, Consumer Goods Division, Swarovski), Sabia Gulati (Head, Sales & Marketing, Madam Tussauds) Rajesh Kamat (VP, Strategy & Operations, Piramal Enterprises) and Anoop Agarwal (DGM Marketing, Emami Group).

Speaking on the same, Rajiv Dingra, Founder and CEO, WATConsult said, I would like to congratulate all the winning teams for their incredible participation. This year we have received a tremendous response, the entries were more than double from last year and the quality of work was also commendable. We hope to take this initiative to greater heights next year.

Sharing his views, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO - South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network said, WATConsult has been doing an excellent job with WATs Your Big Idea and I would like to congratulate them on the same. Also, would like to extend my wishes to the winning teams on the fabulous ideas they came up with.

WYBI is one of its kind digital ideation competition for colleges across the country which provides a unique platform and massive opportunities to the next generation in the field of digital advertising and marketing. Launched last year, the first edition saw more than 150+ registrations, 120 entries, 250 students participating and 28 teams. This year besides the cash prize of 1 lakh, endorsed certificate and an assured job offer, the winning team will also get an opportunity to visit Cannes Lions in 2018.

Along with announcing the winners, WATConsult also announced the launch of DASH, a singular dashboard to view all data insights and its next report under Recogn, on effectiveness of mobile advertising.
Ed Faltin was in a battle.

It was 1951 and the former Scribner resident was in a place known as Heartbreak Ridge during the Korean War.

American forces were advancing against those of North Korea and China.

An enemy machine gun nest was posted atop a steep, rocky ridge.

The enemy had Ed and other men in his company pinned down.

An officer told Ed to crawl to the side of the enemys bunker and take it out with a grenade.

Ed  then just 20 years old  crawled for what seemed like hours to reach it in the inky darkness.

When he was about 8 feet from the bunker, Ed threw the grenade.

Enemy soldiers hurled a grenade at him.

Ed knew the Korean grenades sparkled like a kids sparkler so he could see it coming and started to roll away.

The bunker was destroyed, but shrapnel hit Ed in the face.

He survived. The officer whod ordered him to take out the bunker died a day later. Ed and other soldiers pushed on, however, eventually reaching the top of the ridge.

Ed still lives with a reminder of that night on Heartbreak Ridge.

Years ago, he learned a piece of shrapnel had gone in alongside his nose and lodged below his brain where it remains today.

Many of us  praise God  will never have to be in a battle like Ed.

But weve been facing some battles of our own.

We might be in a battle for our health, finances, jobs, marriage or kids, who are going through a rocky time.

Maybe thats why I love stories in the Bible like the one about Gideon.

This account takes place long after the Israelites have left their lives of slavery in Egypt and then wandered 40 years in the desert before finally reaching their Promised Land.

Yet after they settled into a place their ancestors only dreamed about, generations of Israelites fell into a disturbing cycle.

When things were going well, theyd forget about God and start doing evil.

God would let their enemies oppress them. Theyd cry out to God and he would raise up people called judges  leaders who would help them defeat their enemies.

The people would live in peace while the judge lived. But after that person died, theyd return to their evil ways.

It happened repeatedly.

At one point  after they had forsaken Gods ways  he allowed a group of people called the Midianites to oppress the Israelites for seven years.

The Midianites and their allies would devour the Israelites crops and livestock leaving the people impoverished. It was so bad the Israelites hid in caves in the mountains.

They cried out to Lord.

And he answered.

At this point, a man named Gideon is threshing grain in a winepress  hiding out from the Midianites  when he gets an unexpected guest.

Its an angel of the Lord.

The Lord is with you mighty warrior, the angel says.

I think I would have dropped my grain, but we dont read where anything like that happened.

Instead, we hear Gideons lament.

If the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened to us? he asks. Where are all the wonderful deeds our fathers told us about?

Gideon believes the Lord has abandoned them.

And dont we do that sometimes?

When tough times crash  or seep  into our lives, we ask questions like: Lord, why did you let this happen? When will you answer my prayer? Are you even listening?

The angel doesnt try to explain anything to Gideon  or even answer his questions.

Instead, the angel just says: Go in the strength you have and save Israel.

Poor Gideon. He sees himself as the weakest of the weak.

How can he save anybody?

Thats when the Lord offers reassurance with the words: But I will be with you.

Gideon will ask for three signs from God, who provides them.

Then this warrior-in-the-making assembles 32,000 men.

But God isnt going to have the Israelites claiming they defeated the enemy by themselves so he has Gideon tell all the men who are fearful to go home  and 22,000 leave.

God says the 10,000 left are still too many so he has Gideon tell all but 300 to exit the scene.

If I were Gideon, I think my knees would have been shaking.

Next, we learn the Midianites are camped out in a valley and the Scriptures say those folks are as thick as locusts and their camels were a numerous as sand on a seashore.

Thats quite a crowd of camels.

God tells Gideon that if hes still afraid to go down into the enemy camp with his servant.

So they do. And while there, Gideon overhears two men talking. One tells of a dream he had, which the other interprets it to mean that God intends for the Israelites to defeat them.

After hearing this, Gideon worships God and heads back to round up his men.

Gideon then implements one of the most unusual battle strategies in the Bible. He gives the men trumpets and empty jars with torches inside.

They go out in the middle of the night. Can you imagine tired enemy soldiers just getting off their shift of guarding the camp, while still groggy ones are just starting theirs?

Thats when Gideon has his men blow their trumpets and smash their jars and yell out: A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!

When the men blow their trumpets, the Lord has the enemy soldiers turn on each other with their swords and then their army ends up running.

Its an astounding victory.

And it has me thinking.

If God can use a group of 300 men armed with jars, torches and trumpets to defeat an army of thousands, how much more could he help us?

Stop and think.

This is the same God who created the entire universe  a place of 100 billion galaxies by astronomers best estimates.

Our God raises the dead, heals the sick and comforts the weary and grieving.

The Bible is filled with his miracles. He parted the Red Sea and the Jordan River, fed manna to the Israelites in the desert for 40 years, made water come out of a rock and defeated armies.

Old women  like Sarah and Elizabeth  were able to give birth to babies long after the age when women can do that.

God protected Noah and his family from a worldwide flood, had a big fish swallow the runaway Jonah and helped a shepherd named David take down the giant Goliath.

Its true, we all can face a flood of troubles or problems that seem as huge and scary as Goliath.

And maybe a few of us  like Ed  will actually make a life-threatening climb up a rocky ridge in the dark.

Life can be terrifying, but remember what the Lord told Gideon: I will be with you.

Gideon and his men may have been greatly outnumbered  but they didnt have to be the biggest or toughest guys or outfitted with top-notch weapons.

Why? Because they had the God of the universe in their corner.

He was on their side and had their backs.

And he has ours as we reach out to him. We must trust and obey him, but we can rest in his gentle love and forgiveness and tender compassion.

He is the God who saves, renews, transforms and protects.

Even in the dark.
KELOWNA, British Columbia, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Marapharm Ventures Inc. (OTCQB: MRPHF) (CSE: MDM.CN) (FSE: 2M0) ("Marapharm" or the " Company") (http://www.marapharm.com/) "Marapharm" says that their annual AGM (Annual General Meeting) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 17, 2017, was well attended and successful.

The open house that followed was held at the Marapharm facility in Las Vegas, and showcased Marapharm's successes thus far as well as allowed for those driving that success to show their appreciation.

This event was attended by more than 300 shareholders, investors, and industry leaders who travelled from Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, England, and all over the United States to celebrate Marapharm's exponential growth in such a dynamic and rapidly expanding industry.

''The corporate strategy was reaffirmed at the AGM and we are looking forward to a great 2018. The open house was fantastic! So many people attended! Marapharm's president, Brian Lovig, was joined by Councilman Isaac Barron and Councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown for the ground breaking for the third building which is a 65,635 square foot cultivation building." Linda Sampson, Marapharm CEO.

Photographs of the event are being posted daily on our website.

EVALUATION

Marapharm engaged Kurt Keating to do the evaluation of the 65,635 square foot facility located in Las Vegas. Kurt won 2 High Times Cannabis Cups in 2014 while cultivating medical cannabis and he has been consulting, evaluating and growing cannabis for several years. The market price for this type of marijuana at present is approximately $2300 wholesale per pound in Nevada. The evaluation for the three floors is 22,600 pounds per year. Current pricing and comparable facilities in Nevada indicate that revenue from the new 3 story building could potentially be $50 million gross and $30 million net, after operating costs, for the first year of production which is expected to begin in 2018. (source Kurt Keating).

OTHER NEWS

The Marijuana Business Conference and Expo, the industry's largest annual gathering, was held in Las Vegas the week of Marapharm's AGM and Open House.

18,000 cannabis business leaders and investors attended the conference to listen to the 110+ speakers and interact with the 678 exhibitors that took over 300k square feet of Expo Hall space. Marapharm partners and employees were among the forward thinking visionaries who were excited to witness the progression of our industry.

ABOUT MARAPHARM VENTURES INC.

Marapharm is a publicly traded company primarily investing in the medical and recreational cannabis space, with corporate operations based in British Columbia, Canada. Since 2016 they have rapidly expanded their footprint to include production locations in the key North American states of Washington, Nevada, and California. They actively seek expansion opportunities worldwide.

www.marapharm.com

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Facebook: facebook.com/marapharm

Twitter: twitter.com/marapharm

Web Program: marapharm.tv

STOCK EXCHANGES:

Marapharm trades in Canada, ticker symbol MDM on the CSE, in the United States, ticker symbol MRPHF on the OTCQB, and in Europe, ticker symbol 2Mo on the FSE. Marapharm also trades on other recognized platforms in Europe including Stuttgart, Tradegate, L & S, Quotnx, Dusseldorf, Munich, and Berlin.

Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB has approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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Copies of licenses are posted on Marapharm's website. Marapharm has internal compliance procedures in place and has compliance focused attorneys engaged in jurisdictions to monitor changes in laws for compliance with US federal and state law on an ongoing basis. These law firms inform any necessary changes to our policies and procedures for compliance in Canada and the US.

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Aiken, SC (29801)

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Clarke W. McCants III, left, chairman of the Salvation Army of Aiken's Advisory Board; Maj. David Phelps; and Aiken Mayor Rick Osbon kick off the annual Red Kettle campaign in front of Kroger. Bell ringers will at businesses throughout Aiken through Dec. 23 to raise funds to help meet needs in the community not only at Christmas but all during the year. This year's goal is $60,000. The Angel Tree campaign also has begun.
November 20, 2017

On top of the political and geographic division that Palestinians experienced over the past 10 years  since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, until Fatah and Hamas signed the reconciliation agreement in October  many contradictory presidential decrees, laws and government decisions were issued in the Palestinian territories.

In the coming weeks, the reconciliation committee will be preoccupied with determining the fate of these laws, to reach a unified legal system that will put an end to the legislative duplication between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Legislative duplication between the West Bank and Gaza is evident in their tax laws. Palestinians are subject to double taxation by virtue of legislation issued by the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank government. The two governments have separate budgets.

Mazen Noureddine, the dean of the faculty of law at Ummah University in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, Talks about unifying Palestinian laws issued during the divide must be based on two principles: the rule of law and the preservation of the Palestinian public interest. However, questioning whether or not legislation issued during the divide is constitutional would undermine any hope of establishing the unity of the Palestinian society and regulating its legal system  as a safety valve for the State of Palestine.

Noureddine added, This is why it is necessary to elect a legislative council, have an elected president and an appointed government, in accordance with the constitution. Only then we can review legislation and make sure it meets the requirements of the public interest and preserve the rights acquired under the Palestinian Basic Law.

Hassan al-Awari, a legal adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas, said Nov. 10 that the presidential decrees issued during the split were in accordance with the constitution, but that they need to be ratified by the PLC in the first session that will be held after the reconciliation. Meanwhile, he noted that the laws enacted in Gaza are unconstitutional, which requires rectifying this legal status for the success of reconciliation.

Ammar Dweik, the head of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, told Al-Monitor, Dozens of laws were issued in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank during the split in order to facilitate the lives of Palestinians, and we cannot change these arrangements all at once. Meanwhile, some Palestinians are calling for holding a PLC session as soon as reconciliation is completed, to either carry out specific legal tasks or prepare for legislative elections immediately.

The legislation and decisions issued under the divide may have served the authority that approved them, not the Palestinian national interest. These decisions led the executive authority to impose control over the functions of the legislative authority. This violated the basic principle of governance, based on the principle of separation of powers, and it negatively affected public freedoms in the West Bank and Gaza.

Attorney Samir al-Manahemeh, a legal researcher at Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, told Al-Monitor about the duplication that emerged after 2007, which was reflected in the issuance of 194 laws by President Abbas and 59 laws by the Hamas-affiliated Change and Reform bloc of the PLC.

He said, The most important repercussions included establishing two separate legal systems and differing rights and duties among citizens of the Palestinian state, creating a legal situation that undermines the possibility of developing the justice sector, and obstructing the State of Palestines obligations as part of human rights conventions.

Manahemeh added, To overcome this, we should no longer issue new legislation. Instead, we need to complete the reconciliation agreement, hold legislative elections, and present all decisions and laws before the elected PLC to approve, reject or amend them.

Al-Monitor examined Al-Waqae  the official Palestinian gazette where laws, regulations, orders and presidential decrees are published  and noticed that the number of decisions Abbas has issued since 2007 is close to 200, much larger than the number of PLC laws issued between 1996 and 2007, which amounted to only 90 laws before Hamas won the legislative elections in January 2006.

Hamas' Change and Reform bloc said Nov. 12 that the PLC will remain a safety valve for reconciliation, and that the constitutional legitimacy of any future government can be achieved when it receives the PLCs vote of confidence.

After passing bills, the PLC would send them to Abbas via fax or email for ratification within 30 days. If Abbas fails to act on a bill that was passed within this deadline, it would automatically become law. However, since January 2009 when Abbas term legally ended, the PLC stopped sending bills to the presidency for ratification as the Change and Reform bloc affiliated with Hamas was the only party convening in the PLC in Gaza. The other parliamentary blocs representing Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine boycotted the PLC sessions in Gaza.

Faraj al-Ghoul, a former Palestinian justice minister in the Hamas government in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, During the split, Abbas issued decisions and laws without submitting them to the PLC, and they would be put up for review during the PLCs first session following reconciliation, so deputies can amend or cancel them. Although the PLC remained effective in Gaza, it was shut down by the Palestinian Authority [PA] in the West Bank, and [the PA] security services prevented members of parliament from entering the PLC building in Ramallah or the holding of sessions.

Ghoul added, Nevertheless, the PLC is the only Palestinian institution that still enjoys legitimacy and no party can disrupt it. This is why a heated debate is expected to start in the coming days about the future of the PLC; some blocs want to activate it, while the Fatah bloc refuses and insists on keeping all functions and powers in the hands of the executive authority, headed by Abbas.

The PAs security services in the West Bank shut down the PLC's headquarters and told deputies not to enter the building and hold sessions, thus disrupting the PLC for over 10 years, since 2007, when the Palestinian division began.

The fact that the PLC was not convening or was forced to remain inactive in the West Bank during the years of division made it easier for Abbas to issue laws without long periods of deliberation as they required only a public discussion and three readings. Abbas was able to use these laws to extend his control over the West Bank and establish power there. Meanwhile, Hamas sought to manage Gazas affairs by issuing laws that fell in line with its own political, economic and social inclinations.

All this opens the door for extensive discussions between Fatah and Hamas during the upcoming reconciliation talks in Cairo on Nov. 21, as each party will seek to consolidate its own laws and decisions in the future.
November 23, 2017

CAIRO  In an attempt to tackle the problem of sexual harassment of girls and women, a group of young Egyptians applied modern solutions to tackle a problem that government initiatives and laws have failed to rein in. The mobile phone app Street Pal acts as a guard to women, protecting them from harassment attempts and giving them ways of dealing with the phenomenon.

Abdul Fattah al-Sharqawi, the apps developer, said in a press statement Nov. 21 that the number of users reached 800 since the app was launched Oct. 29. He noted that they already received several calls from women telling them about their experiences with sexual harassment and seeking awareness.

The app covers the three main stages of harassment: when a woman notices someone following her in the street, when she is being harassed and in the aftermath.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Sharqawi said the app aims to increase young womens awareness of harassment, giving them information and advice on dealing with it. The app has a five-star rating on Android, according to Sharqawi.

We designed three example cases within the app, he explained. The first helps women by answering specific questions, such as 'What is the person doing as he watches her? Is the area where she is walking uninhabited? Is there anyone around who can offer help if she needs it?' The app guides her step by step, helping and protecting her through the entire process, he said.

As for the second phase  in which the woman actually gets harassed  the user can press a button to make the app contact someone in the area to inform them. The app works on the basis of a network of volunteers who can help women who are harassed. Soon, there will also be a feature for identifying volunteers so they can be vetted and selected to protect and support women.

Sharqawi added, As for the third case in which the young woman was harassed, the app provides a map to show her how to reach the nearest police station to lodge a complaint and take legal action against harassment. The app includes the locations of police stations and can show the user the nearest one. It also has an audio recording feature for the details of the incident to be recorded in case they are needed by the authorities.

Sharqawi said the app also helps women find hospitals and health clinics so they can seek treatment, as well as provides a list of mental health centers and women's services.

He said the National Council for Women had welcomed and supported the idea, agreeing to receive complaints from women who have experienced harassment and helping them take legal action against the culprits, as well as providing psychological support after the incident.

He said the team had worked for 14 months to create the app, noting that work was ongoing to broaden its scope so it can be used outside Egypt, with prototypes being tested in other Arab countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco.

Harassment on Egypts streets has increased despite strenuous efforts by the state to tackle the problem. In June 2016, the Ministry of Interior established a unit to follow up on crimes against women and pursue harassers after sexual harassment cases increased, especially on social media and in crowded public places. The unit is made up of female officers who specialize in providing psychological help and refer victims of sexual harassment to social services  but it has not been very effective.

A study by UN Women published in April 2013 showed that harassment in Egypt had reached unprecedented levels, with 99.3% of women saying they had experienced at least one of the 13 forms of harassment defined by the agency.

On Oct. 17, the Thomson Reuters Foundation published a study that named Cairo the most dangerous megacity for women. The study found that Cairo had become particularly dangerous since 2011, following a string of violent sexual attacks in Tahrir Square, and that the situation had since deteriorated. According to the study, Cairo came out as the worst of 19 megacities (with over 10 million inhabitants), after New Delhi; Karachi, Pakistan; and Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It also gave Cairo poor rankings in several subcategories. It was the third-most dangerous megacity for women in terms of sexual violence, i.e., to live without the fear of rape and sexual assault (Sao Paulo and New Delhi ranked joint worst).

The #MeToo campaign launched by actress Alyssa Milano Oct. 16 drew the worlds attention to women who face harassment and sexual assault, with a hashtag that went viral. Egyptians were among the top users of the hashtag, as Egyptian women face daily harassment.

In a bid to help Egyptian women tackle harassment, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in January declared 2017 as a year of Egyptian women.
November 8, 2017

AMMAN, Jordan  When Mohammad Qutaishat, the director of the Jordan Media Commission, received a letter from the prime ministers office Oct. 24 that renewed his appointment, he did what most people in his position would do: He ordered two large trays of kanafeh for the entire office.

Kanafeh, a popular Levantine sweet, is often consumed in Palestine and the Middle East to celebrate a wedding, birth, family feast, graduation, promotion or the first salary of a newly employed young person. Some sources claim kanafeh originated in southeastern Turkey, while others suggest Istanbul; still others claim the sweet originated in Nablus, Palestine, as early as the 10th century.

Kanafeh  made of wheat, cheese, ghee, rose water and sugar  is different from many of the other Middle Eastern sweets because its ingredients include cheese. As it is served hot, the cheese melts and adds a slightly salty taste to the sweetness.

The sweet is almost exclusively produced in family-owned pastry shops, such as Al-Aker, Shanteer, Arafat, Jafar in Jerusalem, and many have become famous brand names throughout Palestine, Jordan and the Middle East.

While pastry shops take orders for large trays of kanafeh for family and public events, most of the sweets are sold in smaller quantities. In Beirut, kanafeh is often stuffed in a piece of bread covered with sesame seeds and eaten on the go.

Habibah Sweets, founded in 1951 by Mahmoud Habibah, is one of Jordans icons when it comes to kanafeh. Habibah started his trade in Nablus in the early 1940s, before he moved to Jerusalem in 1947. He then settled in downtown Amman and, a few years later, opened a small store next to the Arab Bank in the center of the Jordanian capital.

Hani Habibah, Mahmouds son and the current CEO of Habibah Sweets, talked with Al-Monitor about the family's journey that made it a household name. I am proud of the fact that generations growing up in Amman and Jordan have become so accustomed to Habibahs kanafeh that wherever they have settled, when they return to their hometown they always stop by Habibahs for a plate of hot kanafeh.

Habibah said that kanafeh in Jordan has had a "unifying cultural role" that complements mansaf, the national dish made of rice, lamb and hot yogurt. Everyone knows that the Jordanian main national meal is mansaf, but people buy kanafeh for dessert to complement the main dish, he said.

He noted that the recipe of the sweet dessert has undergone changes over the years, saying, We now have both thick- and thin-crusted kanafeh. The original is the thick topping that used to be called 'Istanbulieh'  a reference to the Turkish city of Istanbul.

According to Habibah, with time a thinner crust became more popular because it is softer on the palate. In the past, we would sell 90% thick and 10% thin kanafeh, but now the numbers are nearly reversed with more than 60% of the customers preferring the thin version.The thin kanafeh takes more time and care to prepare but it has become more popular, he said.

Customers can also buy the ingredients from Habibah Sweets. Habibah said that good-quality ghee and cheese are crucial in making tasty kanafeh, and that the hard part is to make it both crisp and succulent. The dough is laid out at the bottom of a round, circular tray that is placed in a gas oven. Once baked, it is turned over and sprinkled with rose water syrup and crushed pistachios.

Habibah refuses to use any food coloring in the kanafeh recipe. The reddish color that kanafeh is famous for comes from natural ingredients, he said, boasting that his family's insistence on rejecting food coloring has now become a standard, following the Jordanian Ministry of Healths banning of food coloring for all sweets.

Habibah has served Jordanians who have welcomed over the years refugees from Palestine, Lebanon, Kuwait and Iraq. However, the latest wave of Syrian refugees has had an impact on the economy. This latest wave of Syrian refugees has negatively affected the national economy and along with the violent conflicts around us has caused a decrease in regional tourism by as much as 30%, he said.

Regardless of the economic effects of the Syrian refugee crisis, new sweet shops have opened with a clear focus on the Levant and Syria that are popular and financially successful.

The most popular of the new sweet shops in Amman is Nafeeseh, a Jordanian sweet shop that, according to its Facebook page, creates authentic Levantine/Syrian flavored sweets, with pistachios, cashews or "special Arabian cream and cheese."

Ahmad Salah, the head of staff recruitment at Nafeeseh, told Al-Monitor that the Jordanian sweet shop owners are proud to employ Syrian refugees and assist them in obtaining a work permit. We have an excellent relationship with Syrian refugees who work in the companys six stores throughout Amman and are very productive.
November 21, 2017

BAGHDAD  Now that Iraq's central government in Baghdad has retaken control of Kirkuk and other disputed areas that had been administered by the Erbil-based Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), citizens of those regions are demanding to know the fate of relatives who have disappeared or been detained during the past 14 years.

Dozens of Kirkuk residents demonstrated Nov. 7 to demand information on the fate of their kin allegedly held by Kurdish security forces. Their demands were echoed by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who on the same day called for an investigation into how these people disappeared.

Iraqi Kurdistan's peshmerga and Asayish fighters have overseen security in Kirkuk, the Tuz Khormato district and other ethnically mixed, disputed areas of Iraq since 2014, when they were able to take advantage of the chaos created as the Islamic State seized a third of Iraqs territory. Before then, the Kurdish forces had shared control with the central government in Baghdad.

In the face of accusations that Kurdish forces active in Kirkuk and the disputed areas took part in kidnappings and forced disappearances, Azad Jibari, the former head of the security committee of Kirkuks provincial council, denied Nov. 8 that the forces had played any such role.

Most of the cases of missing persons  both Arabs and Turkmens  date back to the US occupation from 2003 to 2011, and the Kurdish Asayish forces have nothing to do with them, he told journalists.

Federal forces had barely retaken control of Kirkuk and swathes of the disputed areas Oct. 16  during a battle launched in retaliation for the KRG holding an independence referendum  before Arab and Turkmen residents began reporting arrests and forced disappearances of their relatives, allegedly by Kurdish forces. These reported arrests and abductions stretch from 2003 through this year.

Khola Mohammad, who fled her hometown of Kirkuk to Baghdad in 2008, spoke to Al-Monitor at the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) branch in Baghdad.

I lost my husband after he was arrested by Kurdish forces in 2008, and I have no news on his fate to this day, she said. I dont know whether he was arrested or killed, for ethnic or political reasons.

Al-Monitor spoke to Abdulrahman al-Lawizi, an Arab Sunni member of the Iraqi parliaments Legal Committee who comes from a part of Ninevah province that until recently was under Kurdish control. He said there have been arrests and killings in the area recently.

Members of parliament representing Arabs in Kirkuk told me [that since 2003] there [have been] more than 5,000 Arab detainees, of which 4,000 are in Erbil and another 1,000 in Sulaimaniyah, as well as 2,000 kidnapped."

He attributed the violations to the Kurdish parties program to Kurdify the area and exert control over it, going from kidnappings to killings of opinion-makers, politicians and members of the provincial and local councils who want to preserve and defend Kirkuks Arab nature.

Lawizi said the issue of missing people is being raised now because residents are no longer afraid, since the return of federal forces to Kirkuk and other restless areas. He added, That has encouraged the families of the disappeared to give testimonies and talk about their secrets. The coming period will see many violations [reported and] their perpetrators and the political actors behind them come to light."

The Iraqi Turkmen Front said in a statement Nov. 7, There are many missing, including Turkmens, some whose fates are unknown, who were kidnapped by security forces run by Kurdish parties."

Mohammad al-Khalidi, a former rapporteur of Iraqs house of representatives, comes from the area between Kirkuk and Diyala where there have been hundreds of kidnappings.

No official body has statistics on the number of detentions in Kirkuk since 2003, he said. There are only mutual accusations between rival parties."

He added, "Verifying the numbers of detained and disappeared and their identities is hard because of the turnover in authorities in Kirkuk." The problem will not be solved "unless an official inquiry is ordered by the government and carried out by nonpoliticized security and judicial authorities.

Ali al-Bayati, an OHCHR spokesman, blames the kidnappings and disappearances in Kirkuk and the disputed areas on the party that controlled the area at the time in question  whichever side it belonged to.

OHCHR "is taking note of demands by the families of detainees and the disappeared in Kirkuk, Tuz Khormato and Diyala, and those whose fate has not been determined over the past 14 years," he told Al-Monitor. The governor of Kirkuk met with the commission Nov. 7 and "asked it to play an active role in uncovering the fate of the disappeared."

Bayati said the commission has heard "residents demands to know the fate of their relatives who have gone missing in recent years from areas that werent under federal government control but [rather] were run either by police forces present in those areas or by the forces of Kurdish parties with major clout in Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato, or by extremist armed groups such as the Islamic State or other terrorist groups.

He noted, Many civilians were captured or killed [and there were] armed gangs kidnapping people for ransom."

Bayati added, The commission receives complaints via its offices in Kirkuk and Salahuddin and studies whatever lists and documents on violations can be obtained from official authorities and trusted sources, once they have been verified, to mobilize the public prosecution and bring the perpetrators to justice."

Activating state institutions represented by federal forces in Kirkuk and other restless areas of mixed ethnicity and sectarian makeup  along with punishing the human rights violators  will enable more citizens to inform authorities and help prevent such violations in the future.
November 21, 2017

ALEPPO, Syria  Activists in the city of Manbij in Aleppos eastern countryside, which is under the control of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), are demanding the SDF to release 15 people who organized a strike in the city Nov. 5. The strike came in protest against a new law on forced conscription issued by the SDFs legislative council Nov. 2.

Human rights activist Abu Mohammed (pseudonym) told Al-Monitor, Dozens of Manbij residents who were arrested the day following the strike have been released. But 15 of those who organized the strike remain in prison. As activists in the city of Manbij, we are demanding their immediate release from the SDF.

The strike came in response to statements issued Oct. 3 by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) military office in Manbij and its countryside and the FSA military council of Jarablus and its countryside. The statements called on Manbij residents to oppose the SDF conscription decision as they declared full solidarity with Manbij residents.

Several demonstrations were staged before the strike in the city of Manbij and the surrounding areas, as demonstrators threatened to escalate their protests in the event their demands were not met.

Abu Usama, a resident of Manbij and one of the participants in the strike, told Al-Monitor, No one can impose on us something we do not want to do. We  the Manbij residents  previously staged a strike against the Syrian regime in Manbij and the Islamic State [IS] when it was controlling Manbij, and now we are on strike against the SDF because of a decision that will force the people of Manbij to fight in the ranks of the SDF. The SDF is also fighting the FSA, and many of our sons, relatives and acquaintances are fighting in the ranks of the FSA. We will not agree to point our weapons at people who essentially want to defend and liberate the Syrian people from the brunt of the regimes slavery. We have shed blood for the sake of freedom and dignity, and we have no intention of going a single step back.

The strike staged by the Manbij residents against the SDF decision was met with sympathy in other villages and cities in the countryside of Aleppo. Demonstrations were held in Jarablus in the eastern countryside of Aleppo and in Azaz in the northern countryside of Aleppo. On Nov. 5, activists also protested in Atarib in the western Aleppo countryside in solidarity with the demands of the Manbij residents.

Meanwhile, the city of Manbij witnessed Nov. 6 a large-scale arrest campaign carried out by the SDF against about 100 people in the age range of 18-30 as several military checkpoints were erected by the SDF at the entrances and exits of the city.

Abu Mohammed said, On the second day of the strike, the SDF forced shop owners to open their shops and even broke several locks. This led residents to leave their houses out of fear. But dozens of Manbij residents were arrested at SDF checkpoints, which created a huge congestion in Manbij.

He added, There were calls for civil disobedience in Manbij because of the campaign of arrests carried out by the SDF, but a large number of the detainees were released at the end of that day, while the 15 people who organized the protests remain in prison to date."

The SDF issued a statement Nov. 6 in which it announced the suspension of the decision to impose compulsory conscription on the people of Manbij and called instead on the residents to voluntarily join the self-defense army in Manbij and its countryside as a means of protection against IS cells and Syrian regime advocates.

Despite the SDF decision to abolish the conscription law, the Manbij residents continue to distrust the SDF.

The SDF has indeed abolished the law of conscription, but the Manbij residents still have concerns in this regard. Those who organized the protests are still detained, and the people can no longer trust the decisions issued by the SDF. We hope that the decision to abolish forced conscription was a genuine decision, not one issued based on popular pressure, Abu Mohammed said.
Black Friday is upon us, and so is a swath of fantastic deals on all kinds of consumer electronics, streaming devices included. Cue another deep discount on Googles Chromecast, the go-to streaming solution for countless households, with the device now being 43 percent off, down to only $20 from its original price of $35. No particular expiry dates have been attached to Walmarts latest promotion, with the offer presumably being good while supplies last. With the Google Chromecast already being one of the Alphabet-owned companys best-selling products to date, dont count on its Walmart stock to survive this week, especially considering how quickly the gadget sold out over last years holiday period.

In case youre one of the few people that have been living under a rock and still arent familiar with the concept of Chromecast, this tiny gadget is meant to plug into your TV, A/V receiver, monitor, or any other device with a display, speakers, and an HDMI port, being designed to facilitate the process of casting content to its host from a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. The stick is extremely intuitive to use and is one of the few truly plug-and-play gadgets that you can currently buy for up to $20, being simple enough for even the least tech-savvy consumers. As such, its a fantastic entry point into streaming and cord-cutting in general that doesnt require you to buy a bunch of expensive equipment like a new TV. All of those advantages make the Google Chromecast a great and inexpensive holiday gift, as well a smart long-term investment for people preparing to ditch cable.

Apart from the regular warranty, you can also get the Google Chromecast from Walmart with an additional two-year protection plan for just four more bucks, with the companys Care Plan having a 0$ deductible. As is the case with all other products offered by Walmart, the Google Chromecast is eligible for free two-day shipping at no cost. Provided you manage to order it on Black Friday, you should get your hands on the streaming stick before the end of the month and have it just in time for the holiday season. Refer to the banner below to check whether Walmart still has any units left in stock.
Black Friday is here and Samsung is more than ready for it, having discounted the price of its new Gear IconX earbuds by 25 percent, offering the Bluetooth earphones for just $149.99, or $50 down. The move marks the first occasion on which the South Korean tech giant discounted the second generation of its truly wireless earbuds that launched only recently, having originally been unveiled at IFA this fall.

The 2018 edition of the Gear IconX is widely praised as the best wireless audio experience on the market, with Samsung improving on the 2017 model by including a larger battery at the expense of an integrated heart rate monitor, a feature that many Gear IconX (2017) users found to be more of a gimmick than a useful functionality of wireless earbuds. Besides having a battery that will last you up to seven hours on a single charge, the charging case that comes with the earphones is capable of holding one extra charge for each earbud, with the device itself boasting 4GB of internal flash memory that can store around 1,000 MP3 songs. The existence of native storage means you dont have to sync music from your smartphone and can utilize the Gear IconX (2018) as a standalone device, hence using even less battery than you would via a Bluetooth connection. Samsungs high-end wearable also ships with support for Bixby and the Google Assistant which you can address by speaking while wearing the earbuds.

Finally, the device features robust fitness tracking capabilities, being able to measure your steps taken, calories burned, and other metrics that the Samsung Fit mobile app can subsequently analyze and help you exercise more efficiently. Its currently unclear how long this newly introduced deal will last, but dont count on it being live next week. The $149 figure is the lowest price tag ever attached to Samsungs premium wearable, applies to all three color variants of the gadget, and comes just in time for the holiday season, making the Gear IconX (2018) a highly suitable tech gift for a loved one.
The Galaxy S9 will have an unprecedented screen-to-body ratio, SamMobile reported on Thursday, citing an anonymous industry insider who claims up to 90 percent of the front panel of Samsungs next Android flagship will be covered by its screen. The rumor suggests that Samsung made another major technological breakthrough, having already delivered the highest screen-to-body ratio in the industry with the Galaxy S8 Plus whose front was 84 percent screen. While the company was later beaten by Essential and its PH-1 that has a screen-to-body ratio of 84.9 percent, it appears that Samsung may be on the verge of not just taking that title back but establishing a much more convincing lead in this segment than it previously had.

The first somewhat credible sighting of the Galaxy S9 came in the form of several protective case renders earlier this week, with one insider claiming that the device depicted in them will have an even thinner top bezel despite the leaked image showing a nearly bezel-free handset already. With Samsung having a rich history of innovation in the mobile industry, the possibility that the Galaxy S9 lineup breaks the worlds screen-to-body ratio record of a commercial smartphone is far from implausible. The companys latest flagship duo slightly differed in this regard, with the smaller Galaxy S8 having 83.6 percent of its front panel dedicated to the 18.5:9 Infinity Display, 0.4 percentage points less than the Galaxy S8 Plus. The Galaxy Note 8 was actually a small step back in this regard, featuring a screen-to-body ratio of 83.2 percent. Samsung hasnt been advertising specific percentages while promoting the bezel-free aesthetic adopted by its latest Android flagships, but that may change should the company manage to deliver a device with nearly non-existent bezels.

According to latest reports, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus will be showcased earlier than expected, with the South Korean phone maker supposedly planning on revealing them at the latest iteration of CES taking place in mid-January. The duo is still likely to be officially launched closer to MWC 2018 that starts in late February and should be on sale come spring, with the 5.8-inch model supposedly having 4GB of RAM, whereas the 6.2-inch handset is alleged to ship with 6GB of RAM.
Lyft has secured an additional investment of $500 million in another funding round led by CapitalG, the investment arm of Alphabet Inc. A recent share authorization document filed in Delaware on Tuesday indicates the ride-hailing company is seeking to raise more funding at a share price of $39.75, which is the same price tagged to its share during the $1 billion round announced last month led by CapitalG, putting the San Francisco, California-based firms valuation at $11 billion.

According to a new report by Axios, a representative from Lyft has clarified that the $500 million additional funding is not final yet, adding that infusing more money into the financing round will help to advance Lyfts efforts to improve its services for passengers and drivers. The funding round in October was believed to be a strong indication that Lyft would be able to kick off nationwide operations in 2018 backed by funding from CapitalG. Now the additional funding from Alphabets investment arm is supposed to further increase the chance of Lyft to expand its business across the entire country next year. One of the businesses Lyft is likely to focus on include autonomous driving, as the company just recently received a go signal from Californias Department of Motor Vehicles to conduct autonomous vehicle testing on public roads in that state. Its worth pointing out that Lyft has collaborated closely with Waymo to develop its self-driving system for its fleet of vehicles. Other investors that previously injected funds into Lyft to help accelerate its self-driving efforts include General Motors, which earlier last year led a funding round that helped to raise $500 million for the ride-hailing company and put its valuation to $5.5 billion at that time.

The latest round of funding is expected to boost the ride-hailing services valuation to $11.5 billion, a slight increase from the valuation it gained from the previous round of financing last month. Prior to that round, Lyfts market valuation was at $7.5 billion, which the company reached in April of this year following a funding round that helped the company to raise $500 million. However, Alphabet-owned Google has a stake in Lyfts major rival Uber as well, though it seems likely that the Mountain View, California-based company also wants to diversify its portfolio even if it could mean investing in competing companies.
It seems like Xiaomi is planning to launch a new smartphone in India really soon, Xiaomi Indias Managing Director confirmed. Manu Kumar Jain shared this info via his official Twitter account, and this phone is being promoted as Xiaomis Desh Ka Smartphone. Having said that, chances are this is an entry-level handset, the way it is being promoted suggests this will be an India only smartphone (unless its not a completely new device, of course), and budget phones are doing great in India, Xiaomis success in the country only testifies to that.

Having said that, the companys cheapest handsets are priced at Rs. 5,999 ($93) in India, which means theyre really affordable, though it will be interesting to see whether Xiaomi can beat that and if this upcoming handset will be even more affordable. Truth be told, we really do not know what to expect from this phone, as no specs have leaked, nor did its design surface. It is, however, possible that this is the Xiaomi Redmi 5A which still did not land to India, even though it has been announced in China a while back. The Redmi 5A is priced at 599 Yuan in China, which translates to around Rs. 5,900, so it is possible that Manu Kumar Jain is teasing this handset, which would mean that were not looking at an India only smartphone, or anything of the sort.

Now, both the Xiaomi Redmi Y1 and Redmi 4A are now available in India, these two phones are priced at Rs. 6,999 ($108) and Rs. 5,999 ($93) in India, respectively, and if the Redmi 5A arrives, chances are that it will be priced as much as its predecessor, which means that Xiaomi will probably discount the Redmi 4A. Xiaomi has been really successful in India this year, the company actually managed to catch up to Samsung, and both companies now hold 23.5 percent of Indian smartphone market. This information applies for the end of Q3, and it was provided by IDC earlier this month. It will be interesting to see what will the percentages look like at the end of the year, but everything indicates that Xiaomi will take lead in India, as the company has really been striving in 2017.

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Samsungs Galaxy S6 series marked a turning point for Samsungs flagship Galaxy S line, and now it seems that family will also have the honor of being the first Galaxy S phones to get three years of support from Samsung, if reports of a planned update to Android 8.0 (Oreo) are true. Reddit user CyberConCoder reportedly spoke with a Samsung representative about the matter, and was told that there will be an Oreo update for the aging flagship. The Samsung representative who gave them the information claimed to have spoken with a supervisor about it, and was confident enough in the information to directly authorize CyberConCoder to share it with the Reddit community.

In the chats, which can be seen below, the Samsung representative starts out shaky on the information, but seems to consult their supervisor early on in the conversation. From then on, the representative is completely confident that the Samsung Galaxy S6 will be getting Oreo in the future, though no ETA can be provided. Naturally, this likely also means that the Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus will be getting the same update, since they run the same hardware and have almost no software-level differences from the normal Galaxy S6. When CyberConCoder asks if this level of support will become Samsungs new policy, the representative dodges the question. This could simply mean that the representative couldnt get a straight answer from their supervisor, or the Galaxy S6 could actually be popular enough to warrant further support completely on its own merits, a feat that the super-popular Galaxy S5 likely could not replicate due to its 32-bit processor limiting its ability to take advantage of modern software features.

If the Galaxy S6 does indeed end up getting Oreo, it would be the first time that a Samsung phone has ever seen three years of major Android updates. Many older Samsung devices are still getting security patches, especially in markets where they were extremely popular, but major updates are out of the question at this point for devices from early 2015 and older, which are out of the standard 18-month support period. The Galaxy S6 and its cousins were extremely popular and lucrative devices for Samsung, and established a premium aesthetic that was a breath of fresh air from the companys previous plastic efforts. If any older Samsung phones are worth supporting for longer than usual, those are very suitable candidates. Thus far, similar news concerning other Samsung devices of similar age has not come to light. If this does become the new normal for Samsung, owners of this years Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 series can most likely expect to see major Android updates all the way to whatever Android Q will be.
SoftBank knew about the massive hack Uber suffered in late 2016 before details of the incident were publicly revealed on Tuesday, the ride-hailing company confirmed in a statement issued to Bloomberg. The breach that compromised approximately seven million drivers and 50 million riders was disclosed to the Japanese conglomerate as part of its due diligence investigation into the worlds most valuable startup which it intends to back with around $10 billion in the near future, seeking to gain at least a 14 percent stake in it. As per a statement from an Uber official, the information that was given to SoftBank was still incomplete as the firm didnt conclude its investigation into the matter at that time, but the management opted for disclosure in an effort of negotiating with a potential investor in good faith.

Good faith is what some critics claim Uber was lacking in its approach to addressing the general public that was unaware of the incident for over a year despite being affected by it. People from all over the world were compromised in the breach that occurred at some point in October 2016, with Ubers management led by now-former Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick opting to cover up the ordeal and paying $100,000 to hackers responsible for the incident in exchange for having them delete the stolen data. Uber believes the leaked information was never used but previously refused to reveal the identities of the hackers, though its currently unclear whether it even holds such information. No highly sensitive data like social security numbers, riding histories, and credit card info is said to have been compromised in the hack whose perpetrators allegedly obtained names, email addresses, and phone numbers of tens of millions of riders around the world, as well as numerous drivers license of people working for Uber.

Uber Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan was fired in the aftermath of the ordeal as new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi continues to clean house in an effort to repair the startups damaged public image. The company says it didnt disclose the hack to the public earlier as it still didnt have a complete picture of the event. At least four European Union state members are presently investigating the incident and may opt to fine the San Francisco, California-based ride-hailing startup next year.
As we recently saw in a detailed walkaround of the car, it's also quite practical for an exotic. The new Vantage has space behind its seats and a deep trunk hidden under that sexy rump. However, it wouldn't hurt to have a more practical Shootin Brake version.You guys already know the drill; every time there's an awesome new coupe or convertible coming out, people with above-average Photoshop skills try to make the roof a little longer.Of course, only a few manufacturers have been crazy enough to put such creations into production. They include Mercedes with its CLS Shooting Brake, which is only months away from being discontinued, and Ferrari with the FF and GTC4Lusso. While the Vantage Shooting Brake wouldn't compete with GTC4Lusso on price or practicality, the two would be neck and neck in the beauty department. Not only that, but everybody would be able to compare their twin-turbo V8 engine sounds.But we think Aston Martin is the most significant maker of shooting brake models in the world. There's the recent and incredibly stunning example by Zagato, the 1992 Virage, the DB6 SB and Lagonda SB. Those are just the ones we can remember right now, but there are tons of others.For now, the Vantage Shooting Brake remains a rendering. Aksyonov Nikita from Russia made it happen, and he envisioned it with the largest clear carbon fiber roof we've seen in a while. That's yet another reason why we're curious to see a production model.Of course, the slightly taller roof probably only have a minimal impact on practicality while somewhat affecting the top speed. However, no other car at the $150,000 end of the market would look as good.
As more information comes out about sexual harassment by members of Congress and their staffs, Sen. Chuck Grassley wants to improve the protocols for reporting and handling those allegations.

Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, recently co-sponsored a resolution with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., requiring members of Congress and staff members to complete previously voluntary sexual harassment training within 60 days.

Our legislation was simply to make sure that it was mandatory in every office, so at least you would do what prevention you can do, said Grassley, who has required the training for all of his staff members.

The resolution, which was unanimously adopted, requires a certificate of completion to be published on the Secretary of the Senates website.

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, a co-sponsor of the resolution, said its critical that Congress has zero tolerance for such inappropriate behavior.

Since passage of the training requirement, however, Grassley said what hes learned makes him think the process for reporting sexual harassment is flawed.

The process they have to go through is ridiculous and works against the interest of the victim, he said. I think youve got to assume everyone is innocent until they are proven guilty, but right now it looks pretty ridiculous for the victim.

He also was critical of the way sexual harassment claims have been kept from the public through confidentiality agreements and a secret congressional fund reportedly used to pay $17 million in settlements for sexual harassment and other claims over the past 20 years.

You have to sign a nondisclosure statement just to get justice? It doesnt make sense, Grassley said. Thats what were going to have to look into.

Loebsack, Blum say no tax dollars to settle harassment claims JOHNSTON  An Iowa member of Congress will work to change U.S. House rules to require member

He agreed with Iowa Republican Rep. Rod Blum and Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack that the secret fund should be abolished and the settlements, including names of sexual harassment perpetrators, be made public.

This sort of behavior is outrageous and cant be tolerated, he said. We have to fight sexual harassment wherever it comes up.

According to RollCall.com, which pulled numbers from the congressional Office of Compliance for the past 10 years, the highest number of harassment or hostile workplace complaints was 113 in 2011. That was roughly one-third of the 333 complaints in that time frame.

There were 15 harassment or hostile work environment complaints discussed during the OOCs formal complaint process in fiscal 2016  the lowest annual total of the years Roll Call analyzed. Overall, 83 complaints were filed last year. They include training, leave, discipline as well as harassment. Nineteen came from employees in the Architect of the Capitol, 18 from Capitol Police and a total of eight from the House and Senate.
About 235 people were killed and 109 more wounded in a bomb and gun attack on a mosque in North Sinai, Egypt's general prosecutor has said. Police say men in off-road vehicles fired upon worshippers during Friday prayers at the mosque, in the town of Bir al-Abed. It appears that the explosion happened first, and the attackers fired on the worshippers as they fled.

NY Times' Rukmini Callimachi: "No group has claimed responsibility, but we know ISIS has a powerful affiliate there and the group has long targeted Sufis around the world."

Trump's tweets:
The new agreement between Armenia and the European Union is our joint achievement that can become a positive precedent for other cooperation projects, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian stated on Friday as he attended an Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels.

We consider 2017 as, indeed, one of the important milestones in the quarter-century-long history of the relations between Armenia and the EU, which is signified today under the framework of this Summit by signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement. It is a comprehensive document that reflects the significant developments of the recent period of our collaboration and defines the guidelines that are necessary to deepen these relations, Sarkisian said, as quoted by his press office.

The agreement known as the CEPA commits Armenia to reforming its institutions and strengthening human rights protection with the assistance of the EU. The 350-page document does not make Armenia part of a deep and comprehensive free trade area, but still commits Yerevan to approximating Armenian economic laws and regulations to those of the EU.

This Agreement is not merely a legal document, but a reflection on the wealth of values of human rights and fundamental freedoms that we share. Important elements of the strengthening of democracy such as rule of law, consolidation of judiciary, development of public and social institutes, good governance are the core of this Agreement. The efficient realization of these elements is of vital importance for our nation in order to implement successfully the envisaged reforms. It is exactly the development based on these shared values that ensures the long-lasting and sustainable development for any responsible member of the international community, the Armenian leader said shortly before the official signing ceremony scheduled for the evening.

According to Sarkisian, the importance of the Agreement is not limited to just Armenia-EU relations. Many of our international counterparts describe Armenia as a nation that brings various integration processes closer to each other, a nation that is led by the desire to reconcile and complement interests in the spirit of cooperation and cohabitation, and it is something that seriously obliges us to meet the expectation, he said.

Sarkisian went on to say that Armenia is one of those EU partners that have managed to almost fully implement commitments undertaken in 2015 under the Joint Declaration of the Riga Summit. We believe that Armenias determination in this process, as well as the determination of our EU partners will soon result in further bringing our societies closer together, for which, of course, launching of the visa liberalization dialogue would be of great significance, he said.

In his statement, Sarkisian scolded his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev who, he claimed, has voiced ill-grounded accusations against Armenia.

As much as the Azerbaijani side may try to distort and misinterpret the essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and its peaceful settlement, the conflict has to be settled on the basis of three principles of international law: the non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity and the peoples right to self-determination as proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, which is the only structure vested with an international mandate, the Armenian president emphasized.

The position of the international community on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is reflected in the statements issued by the leaders of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries. In this context, any solution to the conflict without the exercise of Nagorno-Karabakh peoples right to self-determination is simply impossible.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have reportedly been at odds over language in the final declaration of the summit concerning Nagorno-Karabakh. One paragraph concerning conflicts in the region had been left open for the two South Caucasus neighbors to agree on compromise wording.

EU diplomats told RFE/RL that they wanted neutral wording in the statement and to omit any mention of specific conflicts in the Eastern Partnership countries, citing squabbles between Baku and Yerevan over the 2015 declaration that delayed the summit by several hours.

The current text of the final declaration reads: The summit participants call for renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region on the basis of the principles and norms of international law. It adds that the resolution of the conflicts, building trust and good neighborly relations are essential to economic and social development and cooperation.
European Union leaders and six former Soviet republics have swiftly agreed on a final joint declaration of their Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit in Brussels, avoiding a repeat of the squabbling between Armenia and Azerbaijan that triggered delays at the last summit two years ago.

The final declaration, published on the European Councils website, does not mention any specific conflicts in the region, including the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

But it states that the summit participants remain deeply concerned about the continued violations of principles of international law in many parts of the region.

It adds that they welcome the EUs strengthened role in conflict resolution and confidence building in the framework or in support of existing agreed negotiating formats and processes, including through field presence, when appropriate.

That language was enough to secure approval from Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two neighbors, who have been locked in a decades-long standoff over Nagorno-Karabakh, clashed over the final text of the declaration at the 2015 summit in Riga.

The final text of this years declaration features the same language as the Riga declaration concerning the potential future EU accession of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, each of which have signed Association Agreements with the 28-member bloc.

It states that the summit participants acknowledge the European aspirations and European choice of the partners concerned, as stated in the association agreements.

The EU launched the Eastern Partnership in 2009 to promote economic integration and European values in six Eastern European and South Caucasus countries.

The summits main event will likely be the signing of an enhanced EU partnership deal with Armenia. That pact, however, omits free trade and is less ambitious than the Association Agreements secured by Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Like those three countries, Armenia previously negotiated an EU Association Agreement. But Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian walked away from the deal in 2013 under apparent pressure from Russia, and Armenia later joined the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

However, Sarkisian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service upon arrival in Brussels on November 23 that there was no contradiction between Yerevans EU partnership and its EEU membership.

By signing this agreement were saying that indeed it is possible to be a member of the Eurasian Economic Union and also be a member of the Eastern Partnership, Sarkisian said.

He added that he has never heard from any Russian leader, and especially from President Vladimir Putin, so much as a word of reproach about Armenias cooperation with the EU.
The European Union and Armenia signed an agreement aimed at significantly deepening their relations at a ceremony in Brussels on Friday held on the sidelines of the Eastern Partnership Summit.

Signatures to the document entitled the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) were put by High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Armenias Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

The signing ceremony took place in the presence of European Council President Donald Tusk and Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian.

In her remarks after the signing of the document Mogherini said that the CEPA is based on our common commitment to democracy, human rights and rule of law.

This agreement is the first of this kind that is concluded with a party that is also a member of the Eurasian Economic Union. It will now be very important to implement it, the EUs foreign policy chief said.

Nalbandian, for his part, described the wide-ranging and ambitious document as our joint endeavor that opens a new chapter in the bilateral relations between the Republic of Armenia and the European Union.

The Agreement establishes a solid legal basis for strengthening the political dialogue, broadening the scope of economic and sectoral cooperation, creating a framework for new opportunities in trade and investments and increased mobility for the benefit of our citizens, the top Armenian diplomat said.

According to Nalbandian, it is important that the Agreement reaffirms the stated commitment of the European Union to support the efforts and approaches of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the norms and principles of international law, in particular, non-use of force or threat of force, equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and territorial integrity.

Armenia is determined to further develop and strengthen a comprehensive cooperation with the EU in all areas of mutual interest based on this Agreement, Nalbandian stressed.

The ceremony became one of the focal points of the EUs Eastern Partnership summit that brought together the leaders of six Eastern European and South Caucasus nations in the Belgian capital on November 24.

Since the launch of the Eastern Partnership program in 2009 Russia has regarded it as a potential threat to its geopolitical interests in the post-Soviet territory.

In the case with Armenia, officials in both Yerevan and Brussels have repeatedly stated that the deal does not contradict Yerevans allied relations with Moscow or jeopardize the South Caucasus nations membership in the Eurasian Economic Union, a Russian-led trade bloc that also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Russian pressure exerted on Yerevan is widely believed to have scuttled a more ambitious Association Agreement which Armenia and the EU nearly finalized in 2013. President Sarkisian precluded that accord with his unexpected decision to join the Russian-led customs union less than three months before the planned initialing of the document.

Speaking to RFE/RLs Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) ahead of the summit, President Sarkisian again denied any Russian pressure in Armenias dealings with the EU.

Russian Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Volynkin told local Arminfo news agency today that Armenia is a sovereign nation and has the right to participate in any pacts and associations that do not breach its existing commitments.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also attended the summit in Brussels, acknowledged Russias central role in countries like Armenia and Azerbaijan as she spoke to Deutsche Welle earlier on Friday.

Unlike the Association Agreement that Yerevan negotiated but did not sign with Brussels four years ago, the CEPA does not make Armenia part of a deep and comprehensive free trade area with the EU. Still, the 350-page document commits Yerevan to approximating Armenian economic laws and regulations to those of the European Union.
24 November 2017 10:11 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 122 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on November 24.

Armenians were using large-caliber machine guns.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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24 November 2017 11:55 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is ready to support the improvement of business sphere in Azerbaijan.

EBRD Vice President of Banking Alain Pilloux during a meeting with Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev said that the wide opportunities for cooperation in bank financing, support for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as renewable energy sources.

In turn, Mustafayev stressed the importance of EBRDs support for infrastructure projects, further adding that Azerbaijans economic potential is planned to be presented in EBRD's main office.

The minister added that the Ganja-Gazakh-Georgian Border, Bahramtepe-Bilasuvar highways are planned to be constructed through the EBRDs financial support.

The EBRD is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies.

The Bank was established to support countries of the former Eastern Bloc in the process of establishing their private sectors. To that end, it offers "project financing" for banks, industries and businesses, for new ventures or existing companies.

The EBRD has allocated more than 3 billion to Azerbaijan for implementation of 160 projects since 1992.

One of the main priorities of the EBRD in Azerbaijan for 2017 is support the local corporates with direct financing. The EBRD continues to pursue investments in energy projects, especially where there is a gap to improve efficiency and energy security.

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24 November 2017 12:09 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

Baku hosted the event dedicated to the completion of the twinning project "Support to the State Statistical Committee in Modernization of the National Statistics System of the Republic of Azerbaijan in line with EU Standards" on November 24.

The event was attended by a number of officials including EU ambassador to Azerbaijan Kestutis Jankauskas, Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijani Minister of Labor and Social Protection Salim Muslumov, chairman of the State Statistics Committee Tahir Budagov.

Jankauskas made remarks at the event and stressed on the future cooperation areas between the two countries as well as the issues to be discussed at the Eastern Partnership Summit.

The new areas of further cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan will be determined during the Eastern Partnership Summit, EU ambassador said.

"The Eastern Partnership Summit will kick off in Brussels today, he said. The events that have occurred over the past two years will be discussed within the summit. Moreover, the current problems will be touched upon and further areas of cooperation will be determined there.

The diplomat noted that the EU and Azerbaijan are implementing another statistics project and stressed that the new project is being worked out.

Touching upon the completed twinning project, Jankauskas stressed that this project allowed to bring the national statistics system of Azerbaijan in line with European standards.

The EU is ready and pleased to support Azerbaijan in achieving a reliable, comprehensive statistics system to diversify economy and implement road maps, Jankauskas said.

Mustafayev was also among the officials addressing the event. The minister spoke about the amount of EU investments made in Azerbaijan.

The EU has invested $21 billion in the Azerbaijani economy over the past 10 years, the minister said.

"Thus, 24 percent accounted for investments made by the EU countries, he said. At present, more than 1,400 European companies operate in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has signed a memorandum on strategic partnership with eight EU countries."

The minister also stressed that the EU is the main trade partner of Azerbaijan.

"The EU share in the total trade turnover of Azerbaijan amounted to 35 percent in 2016, the minister said. Taking into account the results of this year, this figure has not decreased and remained at the level of 35 percent."

The event was further addressed by Salim Muslumov who talked about the employment statistics.

The minister said that Azerbaijan should improve employment statistics and added that the reforms carried out in the national statistics system helped Azerbaijan create a law on Compulsory insurance against unemployment, which will come into force on January 1, 2018.

"From now on, this law will allow us to distinguish the concepts of the unemployed and job seekers," he said. At present, we must find out unemployed, job seekers and amend the law On employment.

Today we do not have centralized data on unemployment, the minister said. So we should create employment statistics in Azerbaijan in accordance with European standards.

Commenting on statistics system of Azerbaijan, chairman of the State Statistics Committee Tahir Budagov told reporters that the national system fully complies with international standards.

This is also evidenced by the report on global assessment of the national statistics system of Azerbaijan, conducted by the European Statistical Bureau (Eurostat), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), said Budagov.

He noted that 35 highly qualified experts were involved in the projects implementation.

Moreover, 64 specialists of the State Statistics Committee took part in the project. International experts paid 37 visits to Azerbaijan, and meanwhile, local specialists participated in 14 foreign trainings, said Budagov.

The EU allocated 1.2 million euros for the improvement of the national statistics system of Azerbaijan within the twinning project.

The project consisted of five components, namely, the improvement of management of statistics data and dissemination of statistics information through a geographic information system, as well as statistics data on income and living standards, etc.

The main partners of the project were Germanys Federal Statistical Office and Bulgarias National Statistical Institute. Moreover, the project was supported by the Netherlands, Slovenia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Croatia.

According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the EU countries amounted to $5.67 billion for 10 months of 2017, almost $4.2 billion of that amount accounted for the export of Azerbaijani products to the EU countries.

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24 November 2017 15:59 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

The 7th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Germany High-Level Working Group addressing a number of issues including the current state of economic and trade relations between the two countries was held in Berlin on November 22.

The meeting was co-chaired by Azerbaijan's administration head at the Ministry of Economic Development of Azerbaijan Samir Valiyev and Eckhard Franz, Director-General for External Economic Policy, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

The event also covered the issues concerning investments, industry, pharmacy, tourism, energy, oil and gas, education, business as well as export and import issues.

Co-chairman of the working group Valiyev said that political relations between two countries are developing. The visit of the President Ilham Aliyev to Germany in February this year is of great importance for expansion of ties, and the current level of political relations between the countries create favorable conditions for the expansion of economic cooperation, he added.

It was noted that currently more than 200 German companies operate in Azerbaijan and it invested $496.9 million into major capital of the country.

The work on establishing vocational education in accordance with the German model is being continued at the newly built vocational training complex in Sumgayit Chemical Industry Park.

About 300 entrepreneurs and young manager have been trained in Germany within the framework of the 2009-2017 cooperation program.

This year Azerbaijan's export mission visited Germany and the country was represented at the international wine exhibition "Prowein" in Germany and at the international food fair "Anuga" by the united country stand. It was noted that agreements signed during these events will contribute to trade turnover between the two countries.

Franz expressed his confidence that the issues discussed during the meeting would be important for the development of economic and trade relations between Germany and Azerbaijan and shared his views on prospects for expanding German economy and economic cooperation.

The meeting focused on the directions of development of Azerbaijani-German economic cooperation, as well as the activities of German companies in the occupied territories and a number of other issues.

At the end of the meeting, it was agreed to hold 8th meeting of the Working Group in Baku in fall 2018.

Diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Germany were established in February 1992.

Over the past two decades, the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Germany are developed into new heights and objectives. The exchange of official visits and extensive contact of the business community have played an important role towards transforming the bilateral relations between Baku and Berlin from formal and official diplomatic contacts into a strategic partnership that continues to flourish every day.

Azerbaijans trade turnover with Germany in January to June 2017 amounted to 715 million euros, 577 million euros of which accounted for the exports to Germany.

Although the main share of Azerbaijani exports accounts for oil and oil products, the country also considers Germany as a strategic market for the export of non-oil, in particular agricultural and industrial products. In turn, Azerbaijan imports pharmaceutical products, building materials, chemical products, equipment.

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Investigators heard several reports of sexually suggestive comments by Iowa Republican caucus staff members and senators, but found no provable incidents of sexual harassment in the state Senate, a review released Friday shows.

The three-page report features staff members recollections of at least seven incidents of sexually suggestive or offensive comments, but no allegations of physical harassment. The report reveals two incidents in which what appears to be senators made offensive comments, but their names are censored.

The report shows the workplace culture needs to improve, according to Senate President Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, who originally had refused to release it.

The internal investigation followed former staff member Kirsten Andersons successful sexual harassment lawsuit this summer that resulted in a $1.75 million settlement to be paid by taxpayers.

Anderson was the Republican caucus communications director between 2008 and 2013 when she was fired hours after lodging a sexual harassment complaint. Leaders cited poor work performance as the reason for her dismissal.

During Andersons trial, GOP Senate staff members testified to ongoing sexual harassment, which led to the internal inquiry of allegations from December 2012 to now. Current members of the staffs of the Republican Senate caucus and the Secretary of the Senate were interviewed between July 25 and Aug. 7.

The leaders, who have brought in former ambassador and Senate President Mary Kramer to help them address what Anderson described at trial as a toxic environment, said workplace culture at the Senate can improve, and with a lot of hard work, it will improve.

But Senate Minority Leader Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, found the report deeply troubling because investigators heard about senators making sexually suggestive comments as recently as the 2017 legislative session  after Dix and other GOP leaders said they had zero tolerance for such behavior.

The report will increase the disgust that Iowans feel about the harassment, discrimination, and retaliation against Kirsten Anderson and other legislative staff, Petersen said in a statement. The report paints a picture of an environment in the Iowa Senate that will lead to more lawsuits against Republicans senators and staff unless dramatic changes are made.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Kim Reynolds, who earlier called for the report to be released, said Friday that the governor had no comment.

In releasing the report Friday, Whitver and Dix said they were trying to balance two competing concerns: openness and protecting staff members.

The first concern is to be open with Iowans about the workplace issues in the Iowa Senate, they said in a statement.

Names were redacted from the report because to improve the workplace culture, employees need to know they can share their concerns without those issues being shared publicly.

Publicizing those individuals could have a chilling effect on the willingness of employees to make reports of future incidents, they added.

Whitver and Dix also shared a letter from the Des Moines law firm of Ahlers Cooney advising them to black out the names of employees because participation in the investigation related to job conduct and performance would be confidential information under Iowa law.

The attorneys also advised that senators names should be redacted because under Iowa law, personal information in personnel records of government bodies relating to identified or identifiable individuals who are officials, officers or employees of government bodies is protected.

In their investigation, Secretary of the Senate Charlie Smithson and Whitvers senior aide Mary Earnhardt looked at incidents and comments in and by the Senate caucus staff and office environment, the Senate floor environment and the Secretary of the Senate staff.

Among the findings:

 An staff member said an person made a sexually suggestive comment during the 2013 legislative session.

 Another provided copies of handwritten documentation of offensive comments within the GOP staff office that occurred after December 2012.

 A person specifically noted a sexually explicit story told by a fellow staff member. The staff member asked that the story be stopped.

The report notes that documentation of the events was provided, but it was not included in the materials released.

 A member of the Secretary of the Senate staff indicated a person overheard what could possibly be interpreted as harassment, but declined to give specifics.

 Many caucus staff members indicated there is an environment on the Senate floor of senators making sexually suggestive comments or about sexual preferences.

 One recalled one occasion of a senator making a sexually suggestive comment in 2017.

 Another detailed a story about a senator making sexually suggestive comments regarding proposed legislation on dense breast tissue.

 There were other reports involving former senators.

Some staff members told investigators they feared retaliation, say that is why they did not feel comfortable reporting harassment. Other staffers, however, said they were comfortable reporting potential harassment.

The investigators said that, in conclusion, it does not appear that any provable incidents of sexual harassment as defined in Section 17 of the Personnel Guidelines have occurred.

Democratic leader Petersen said the report by a political appointee and a Republican staffer confirms her belief that an independent, outside investigation is needed.

We called on all senators to work together to fix this problem, she said. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans have ignored the calls for action by refusing to fire any of their staff or to make any changes in their leadership.
24 November 2017 15:09 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Istafilbayova

The second day of the 2nd Banking Forum held in Baku continued discussions concerning credits, bank consortium, and securitization.

Addressing the event Zakir Nuriyev, chairman of the countrys Banks Association (ABA) spoke of the necessity to adopt a law on protection of creditors rights in Azerbaijan.

Nuriyev noted that this is exactly the law the development of which the banking sector expects from the Financial Market Supervisory Body (FMSB).

Until such law is adopted, we will not be able to rapidly develop credit market and provide the necessary financing of the economy, he said.

Nuriyev went on to say that the rights of creditors should be protected in the same way as the rights of borrowers.

He reminded that at present, banks are required to write off credit debts [formed as a result of two devaluations of Azerbaijani manat in February and December 2015].

However, this approach is wrong, as it may create a precedent in the future, when bank customers will not repay debts, hoping that they will be written off again, he said.

Further, Nuriyev stressed that it is planned to start holding e-auctions on the sale of bank assets in Azerbaijan next year.

The chairman said that at present, an organization, which will be engaged in holding e-auctions, has been already established under the association, but due to certain technical issues it has not yet started to operate.

We hope that the organization will start operating next year, Nuriyev said. I would like to note that the absence of the relevant law creates certain problems for the activity of such organization.

Addressing the event, Babayev, head of Legal and Methodology Department of FMSB mentioned that banks in Azerbaijan should create a consortium and the state should provide tax benefits to solve the issue of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the country.

At present, according to our calculations, the volume of NPLs has reached 2 billion manats, he said. However, troubled assets cause damage not only because a bank cannot return them, but also because a bank is obliged to create reserves for troubled assets. In other words, the total burden on banks, caused by the growth of troubled assets, may reach about 4 billion manats. These funds could have been used to develop the real sector, and this would have helped create new jobs.

Babayev stated that solving this problem requires not only changes in legislation, but also institutional reforms, further adding that to solve the problem, FMSB created a special working group.

We have studied the international experience, Babayev said. There are various ways of solving the problem - the so-called London Approach, the Istanbul Approach, the Azerbaijani government may be attracted to solve the problem, or a bank consortium may be established, which will deal with restructuring assets.

Speaking of a law on securitization he noted that it will be adopted in 2018.

Securitization is the financial practice of pooling various types of contractual debt such as residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, auto loans or credit card debt obligations (or other non-debt assets which generate receivables) and selling their related cash flows to third party investors as securities, which may be described as bonds, pass-through securities, or collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).

In turn, head of the Department for the Supervision of Payment Systems of FMSB said that in the future, mobile operators can become serious competitors for banks and payment organizations.

The participation of mobile operators in the payment market will become possible thanks to the new law On Payment Services and Systems, according to him.

Further Rustamov noted that it is planned to introduce licensing of payment organizations and issuers of electronic money.

The new law On Payment Services and Payment Systems will cover the activities of banks, postal operators, electronic money issuers and other organizations.

As Rustamov noted the bill also provides for the introduction of the concept of "paying agents". Paying agents will play a significant role in deepening financial inclusiveness.

This will not only expand access to finance, but will also allow us to work with clients more efficiently.

A paying agent is an agent who accepts payments from the issuer of a security and then distributes the payments to the holders of the security. Also known as a "disbursing agent."

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24 November 2017 14:13 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

An exhibition of Moldovan artists Ion and Julia Carchelan opened in Art Tower Gallery on November 22.

The exposition title "Moldova in Flower Poetry" was co-organized by the Embassy of Moldova in Azerbaijan, Arts Council Azerbaijan, the State Historical and Architectural Reserve Icherisheher and with the support of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Moldovan Culture Ministry and Arts Council Moldova, Trend Life reported.

Famous artists, sculptors, representatives of diplomatic missions attended the event.

Moldovan artists displayed their paintings in Romania, France, Italy, Austria, China and other countries. Notably, they presented their works in Baku for the first time.

Addressing the event, head of Arts Council Azerbaijan Dadash Mammadov said that Moldova is an amazingly beautiful country, which can be talked about a lot, and the presented works show only a part of the bright colors of this country. Moldova is considered a country of grapes, fruits and vegetables, bright sun,forests, lakes and endless fields of sunflower, as if they came off the canvases of artists. These breathtaking landscapes are an inspiration for the artists themselves.

The Ambassador of Moldova in Azerbaijan, Gheorghe Leuca, said that the exhibition aims to show the beauty of Moldova.

In their speech, father and daughter, Ion and Julia Carchelan thanked to the organizers of the event and guests of the exhibition, noting the hospitality of Azerbaijani people, the beauty of the city and its ancient part Icherisheher (Old city).

Ion Carchelan prefers not to be a part of the larger artistic establishment, but to live and work instead in that small village in which he was born. The artist usually spends his days in his studio, creating works that make people admire the audience.

Ion works in a complex watercolor technique, which is called "raw" or "wet-on-wet". The artist developed a unique style, accompanied by a multitude of details.

In her works, In her paintings, Julia Carchelan mostly depicts beautiful ladies, city landscapes and loving couples.

Fine works of Moldovan artists were highly appreciated by the guests.

Carchelan began his formal arts education in childhood, at the Childrens Art School in Nisporeni, Moldova.

He toured Europe to supplement his academic training with direct observation of the work of painters.

Most of his inspiration comes from the rural scenes around him in Moldova.

The objective subjects of artist's watercolors are the people, places and things that he sees around him  harvest scenes, distant churches, farm yards, the ordinary activies of daily life in rural Moldova.

Carchelan`s daughter, Julia followed her father's steps. She studied at the Nisporeni Art School, the College of Fine Arts in Chisinau, and completed her studies of theory and art history at the George Enescu University of Art in Romania.

Art works of Ion and Julia Karchelan are exhibited in various galleries in U.S., Romania, France, Italy, Austria, Russia and China.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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23 November 2017 17:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The European Azerbaijanis (EuroAz.nl) organization, based in the Netherlands, has launched a protest campaign against booking hotels in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh through the Booking.com website.

The co-chairman of the organization, blogger Emil Aliyev, said this to Report on November 23. He noted that bloggers from several countries have also joined the campaign.

At present, it is possible to book a hotel room in Nagorno-Karabakh through the Booking.com website. We decided to protest against this by launching a campaign and sending letters with protests mainly in English and French to the website e-mail, the blogger said.

Some time ago, after a serious protest from Azerbaijans Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture and Tourism, Booking.com ceased making illegal hotel reservations in the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenian armed forces. However, the Netherlands-based website has recently renewed the illegal hotel bookings in the occupied lands.

Currently, the two Azerbaijani ministries carry out coordinated relevant measures in connection with the issue, and Azerbaijans Embassy in the Netherlands has also received instructions.

Azerbaijan takes necessary measures against those, who are engaged in illegal business or economic activity in the countrys territories occupied by Armenia. Moreover, unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied regions of Azerbaijan are considered illegal and individuals who pay such visits are included in the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministrys black list.

The ministry has today shared an infographic titled Illegal economic and other activities in the Armenia-occupied territories of Azerbaijan. The infographic can be reached at http://www.mfa.gov.az/folder/media/Infoqram.pdf

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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24 November 2017 10:34 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Russia is interested in settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as soon as possible, Russian Foreign Ministrys Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on November 23.

Settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is one of the priorities for Russia, she said. We very much want the conflict to be resolved and the sooner the better.

Zakharova added that the work on the resolution of the conflict takes not weeks  it is conducted all the time.

When the current work gives the corresponding results, then the activity that you see on the screens appears. It is carried out constantly, she noted.

The Nagorno-Karabakh 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.

Until now, Armenia 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.

Russia, along with the U.S. and France, is a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group established to broker a peace to the conflict. Today the country can be called the most active co-chair of the MG, as the Russian president and FM have numerously held trilateral meetings with Azerbaijani and Armenian heads of state and foreign ministers in order to accelerate the settlement process of the long-standing conflict.

This week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov paid a visit to the region, where he met with Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents and FMs and among other topics discussed the conflict related issues with them.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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24 November 2017 11:55 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijan has the right to defend itself like all other states, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministrys Spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev said in his interview with Portugals Diario de noticias Mundo news portal, titled Armenia is the only mono-ethnic state in the world, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told Trend on November 24.

Armenia used force to carry out ethnic cleansing in the occupied Azerbaijani territories and more than one million Azerbaijanis were expelled from the lands, noted Hajiyev.

He said that due to the occupation of Azerbaijani territories and the illegal existence of the Armenian armed forces in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, ceasefire is violated every day and this leads to human casualties.

Therefore, first of all, the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan should be ensured. First of all, the occupation fact should be abandoned and the Armenian troops must be unconditionally withdrawn from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, added the official.

Hajiyev said that first of all, Armenia should abandon its occupation policy.

He went on to say that four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council demand unconditional and complete withdrawal of Armenian occupation forces from Azerbaijani territories.

The occupation must be abandoned and the return of internally displaced persons to their lands should be ensured. According to international law, internationally recognized borders of states can not be changed forcefully. Armenia must also understand that these feudal rules are unacceptable in the 21st century, noted the Azerbaijani official.

Armenia occupied the territory of another country and carried out ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani population in the occupied lands, destroyed civilian property, and then presented its results as self-determination, he added. If the Armenian troops leave the occupied Azerbaijani territories, Azerbaijan may view granting Nagorno-Karabakh with a status of high autonomy within its borders.

I would recommend you to only look at secondary school textbooks in Armenia, said Hajiyev responding to the question that There is such an opinion in Armenia that the hatred of the Azerbaijani side is very great. How would you comment on this?

You will see the extreme manifestations of xenophobia and hatred there, added Hajiyev. Armenia is the only mono-ethnic state in the world, because ethnic cleansing has been carried out regularly there. 300,000 Azerbaijanis have been subjected to ethnic cleansing.

Two years ago, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said that Armenians and Azerbaijanis are ethnically incompatible. This is a statement of a nature of racial discrimination, noted Hajiyev.

Answering the journalists question on Azerbaijans possible returning Nagorno-Karabakh by force, Hajiyev said that there are still ways for solving the conflict by peaceful means.

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24 November 2017 14:17 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

It is highly commendable that President of Turkey defends Azerbaijans position and at the talks with the Russian president raises the topic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani lands, a well-known Azerbaijani political scientist Fikret Sadikhov told Day.az.

He was commenting on the recent statement of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The head of state said that only Russia can solve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and that he would raise this issue again at the meeting with the Russian president in Sochi. Erdogan also noted that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a national issue for Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Sadikhov notes that such a position of Turkey unequivocally meets Azerbaijans interests and is an indicator of allied and fraternal relations between the two countries.

In the issue of settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the positions of Ankara and Baku coincide completely, as both sides consider it possible to resolve the conflict solely on the basis of restoring the territorial integrity and inviolability of the Azerbaijani borders, the political scientist said.

Turkey contributes to efforts aimed at the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within Azerbaijans territorial integrity and sovereignty through peaceful means. Ankara has repeatedly stated that the OSCE Minsk Group needs to intensify the search for solutions to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and offered its assistance in this matter.

Sadikhov noted in the interview that much in the issue of the Karabakh settlement depends on the Russian side, yet not absolutely everything.

Russia, if it wishes, can exert pressure on Armenia as on its closest ally, and, for sure, there can be certain results in this case. However, I believe that the role and significance of other OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, the United States and France, should not be underestimated in this issue, because when addressing some specific issues, unified decisions that would also meet the interests of these states will be taken into account, Sadikhov noted.

He added that despite the complexity of the relations between Russia and the West, they have a complete coincidence of views on the Karabakh issue.

And this to a certain extent meets our interests as well as the fact that in the current situation, Turkey and Russia are in a rapprochement format. Thus, it is advantageous for us that Russia is getting closer to Turkey, the expert noted.

In turn, Turkey raises the issue of the need to address this problem within the norms of international law, Sadikhov said.

Given that the United States and France are also active participants in the negotiation process, it is clear that this is exactly the case when, given the political will, desire and activity from Russia, it will be possible to move the issue from the deadlock, he concluded.

Although active hostilities on the frontline ended in early 1990s, the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is still actual. The Armenian armed forces illegally keep under occupation 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands for more than two decades, thus making over a million of Azerbaijanis live a life of internally displaced persons far from their homes.

The efforts of Russia, the U.S. and France to resolve the conflict within the OSCE Minsk Group have produced no tangible results so far due to Armenias reluctance to join serious constructive negotiations on the conflict settlement with Azerbaijan.

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24 November 2017 16:11 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The historical truth in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is on Azerbaijans side, and Russia should behave more actively in this situation and support Baku, said Maxim Shevchenko, member of the Izborsk Club expert group, addressing a round table dedicated to this issue in Moscow.

He noted that one should not forget about people who were expelled from their lands.

It is necessary to put a rigid question on the return of them or their descendants, and there can be no solution without this, the expert said.

Due to the ethnic cleansing policy carried out by Armenia and the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan hit more than 1.2 million people. With a population of over 9.8 million, Azerbaijan is among the countries carrying the highest IDP caseload in the world in per capita terms.

Shevchenko expressed the opinion that the U.S. and the European Union cannot and do not want to resolve this issue, adding that this can only be done in the Tehran-Moscow-Ankara dialogue.

He further supported the holding of a retreat of the Izborsk Club in Ganja. Then, in his opinion, it is worth trying to hold a similar meeting on the Armenian side, if, of course, we are allowed to go there after this.

Earlier, the chairman of the Izborsk Club Alexander Prokhanov said that the Club intends to visit Baku and the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict soon to hold meetings and study the nature of the conflict.

Shevchenko is convinced that the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh is completely controlled by Russia at the moment.

Russia fully controls the situation in this zone. In future, Russia must assume a humanitarian function. The Karabakh conflict today can further help bring Iran, Turkey and Russia closer together, and the Izborsk Club should contribute to this as much as possible, the expert said.

Russia is among the three co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group established to broker a peace to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The country has been making notable efforts to move the settlement of the long-standing conflict forward.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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24 November 2017 16:53 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Despite the announcement of the ceasefire in 1994, unfortunately, Azerbaijan continued to record the facts of killing of Azerbaijani children by Armenians, Hijran Huseynova, chairman of Azerbaijans State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, said on November 24.

She stressed that since that period until now, 34 children became victims of the Armenian terror, 14 of whom died and 20 were wounded.

However, many more Azerbaijani children were killed by Armenians during the war preceding the ceasefire. Huseynova noted that 175 children were killed, and hundreds were wounded during this military conflict.

During the conflict, Azerbaijan was able to release 214 children from captivity and hostages, 66 children went missing, and 29 children are still being kept as hostages, she said.

The chairman further noted that protection of childrens rights has always been a priority for Azerbaijan, even in the most difficult years of restoration of its independence. One of the first international documents, which Azerbaijan joined, was the Convention on the Rights of the Child, she added.

Using the opportunities provided by this document, the Azerbaijani government was able to inform the international community about the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and about 300,000 children, who became refugees and internally displaced persons, Huseynova noted.

The last Azerbaijani child that fell victim to Armenia's aggression on the frontline was a two-year old girl named Zahra. In July this year, she and her grandmother were killed in Alkhanli village of Fizuli region by Armenian armed forces. In March 2011, nine-year-old Fariz Badalov was shot in the head by an Armenian sniper while playing in the courtyard in Aghdam region. In July of the same year, 13-year-old Azerbaijani girl Aygun Shahmaliyeva fell victim to Armenias inhumane and immoral policy in the Alibayli village. She tragically died as a result of the explosion of a toy with an explosive device, which the Armenian side deliberately dropped into the river flowing to the village.

Today, all Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons, and first and foremost children wish the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to end and peace to come in the region. However, the aggressive policy Armenia has been pursuing for almost three decades still makes it impossible to realize their dream.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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24 November 2017 10:42 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijani defense minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov has met with chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of Pakistan, General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, who is on an official visit to Azerbaijan, the press service of the countrys Defense Ministry reported.

Firstly, the delegation led by Pakistani general visited the Alley of Honors, paid tribute and laid a wreath at the tomb of national leader Heydar Aliyev. The delegation also paid tribute and laid flowers at the grave of the prominent ophthalmologist, Academician Zarifa Aliyeva.

The delegation also visited the Alley of Martyrs, paid tribute and commemorated Azerbaijani heroes, who gave their lives for the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, laid flowers to their graves and wreaths at the Eternal Flame monument.

Then an official welcoming ceremony for the Pakistani delegation was held in the Ministry of Defense. The guest passed along the guard of honor and national anthems of both countries were played. The Book of Honor was signed in accordance with the protocol.

Then, Zakir Hasanov and Zubair Mahmood Hayat held a one-on-one meeting, which was continued in an expanded format.

During the meeting held with the participation of delegations, Hasanov, greeting the guests, expressed satisfaction with the friendly attitude and mutual trust between the two countries, as well as the development of Azerbaijani-Pakistani relations and the level of strategic partnership.

Touching upon the military-political situation in the region, Hasanov comprehensively informed the guest about the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Expressing gratitude for Pakistans support to Azerbaijans position in international organizations in resolving this conflict, the minister stressed that Azerbaijan also supports the territorial integrity of Pakistan.

The meeting highlighted the importance of cooperation in the military, military-technical spheres and in security and military education, as well as in expansion of relations between the air and naval forces of the two countries.

Then the Pakistani delegation visited a museum in the administrative building of the General Staff featuring expositions reflecting the life and activities of the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, as well as got acquainted with the work in other office premises.

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24 November 2017 10:34 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijans State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons has appealed to international organizations for returning the body of an Azerbaijani soldier, the Commission told Trend on November 23.

Urgent measures are being taken on this issue. The public will be informed.

According to a message from Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, it was established that the body of the Azerbaijani serviceman, Bahruz Jalilbayli, who left the service place after committing a military offense, was found on the contact line at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border in the direction of the Ordubad District of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, near the positions of the Armenian armed forces.

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More than 14,000 Iowans had signed up for health insurance in the Affordable Care Act marketplace through the end of last week, according to new government data, exceeding the number who had done so last year at this time.

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services released third week figures for signups on Wednesday, reporting that nearly 2.3 million Americans had selected plans.

Signups have been ahead of last year's pace. Last week, CMS reported that nearly 1.5 million people had selected ACA plans in the first two weeks of enrollment, which began Nov. 1. For a similar period the year before, it was just over 1 million.

Wednesday's release was the first glimpse at what has been happening in Iowa this year.

The report said that 14,284 Iowans had signed up in the first three weeks of this year's enrollment window, which has already surpassed the 12,099 who had done so in the first four weeks of last year's sign up period.

Last year's figures were reported in two-week increments, making direct comparisons difficult. In addition, the Trump administration cut the the enrollment period this year to just six weeks, half the three months that people were given last year.

Overall, 51,573 Iowans ended up selecting ACA plans last year.

Iowa's individual insurance marketplace has seen a great deal of turmoil this year, as all but one company, Medica, have left the marketplace. Also, President Trump and Republicans in Congress have sought to kill the ACA.

This summer, Iowa's insurance commissioner sought federal permission to revamp the ACA marketplace in the state with a temporary measure that officials said would stabilize the market. However, the state withdrew the plan late last month.

One enrollment specialist in the Quad Cities said she has seen an increase in interest in marketplace plans this year.

Linaka Kain, who oversees enrollment activities regionally at UnityPoint Health, said Tuesday that about 290 people had enrolled in plans in the Quad Cities.

That is nearly three times what it was last year at this time.

However, nearly all the people who were helped qualified for tax credits, which bring down the cost of premiums.

Because of how insurers and state regulators responded to the administration's elimination of government payments for cost-sharing subsidies last month, many people who qualify for the tax credits are seeing lower costs this year.

That has even allowed some to afford higher value plans.

"This is the first year we've had so many people picking gold plans," Kain said.

People who buy outside the marketplace or don't qualify for tax credits aren't having the same experience. They're seeing higher costs. Medica's average premium in Iowa is up about 57 percent over last year.

In proposing its stopgap measure to the Trump administration earlier this year, the state's insurance commissioner predicted that between 18,000 and 22,000 Iowans would lose health care coverage if the plan was not approved.
24 November 2017 11:29 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Turkey intends to implement an agrarian project in Jojug Marjanli village of Azerbaijans Jabrayil region, Turkish ambassador to Azerbaijan Erkan Ozoral said on November 23.

He made the remarks at a meeting with Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev in Baku.

Ozoral said that Turkey would like to contribute to the development of the village.

The project envisages the creation of farms and production of agricultural products with the aim of developing agriculture and livestock in the village, he said, adding that the products of those farms can also be exported in future.

Mustafayev, in turn, noted that this project will be very important for development of the village and improvement of populations social status.

Jojug Marjanli village was liberated by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces from the Armenian occupation in April 2016. In late January 2017, President Ilham Aliyev ordered to restore the village.

During the first phase of restoration, 50 private houses, a school, mosque, electric substation, hydrometeorological station, highway and other relevant infrastructure were constructed in Jojug Marjanli. The village was provided with gas, electricity and water supply.

The second phase of construction and restoration work and work on improvement and creation in Jojug Marjanli started on June 15 this year, and currently it is nearing completion.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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24 November 2017 12:19 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the European Union`s Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels at the invitation of President of the European Council Donald Tusk.

The head of state arrived at the EU headquarters to attend a plenary session of the Eastern Partnership Summit.

President of the European Council Donald Tusk, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and Prime Minister of Estonia, which holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, Juri Ratas greeted President Ilham Aliyev.

Then they posed for official photos.

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24 November 2017 14:40 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

Long since eclipses of the Sun and the Moon fascinated people with the mystery and beauty of what is happening. From January 2018 to January 2019, the world will witness as many as five eclipses, three lunar and two solar.

Khidir Mikayilov, Deputy Director of Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory named after Nasiraddin Tusi for Scientific Affairs of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) told local media the dates when the eclipses are expected to occur.

Mikayilov said that the first lunar eclipse will start on January 31 at 15:48 and noted that these eclipses are called central eclipses.

"Namely, the eclipse will take place from the Earth's equatorial part with the Moon been in the equatorial zone of the Earth. In this case, the Moon will pass through the center of the Earth's shadow. Therefore, this is called central eclipse".

He said that the complete end of the eclipse will occur at 19:11.

Mikayilov also revealed the date of the second lunar eclipse. The official said that the second lunar eclipse will take place on July 28.

"The natural event will start at 22:24. The beginning of full eclipse will take place at 23:30 and will end at 01:13. Complete end of the eclipse will be recorded at 02:19 and lunar surface will be fully open. It will be possible to observe second eclipse in Azerbaijan as it will take place at night".

The observatory official noted that three solar eclipses will occur in the country in 2018, which are expected to be partial.

"Namely, eclipses will occur in the small portion of the Sun. Two out of the three solar eclipses will be observed on the south hemisphere and one on the northern hemisphere. No full solar eclipses will occur next year. It will take place in a maximum of 70 percent of the Sun".

The inhabitants of the Earth will not be able to see total solar eclipses in the coming 2018. In case of partial solar eclipses, however, three are expected to be observed.

The natural event will occur at 22:55 Baku time and continue also on February 16. That is, the eclipse will reach the maximum at 00:51 and end at 02:47. The natural event will be observed in the southern part of South America and Antarctica.

The second solar eclipse will take place on July 13 at 05:48. The maximum will be at 07:01 and the end at 08:13. The eclipse will be observed between outskirts of Australia and Antarctica, which are almost unsettled.

The third solar eclipse will begin on August 11 at 12:02 with maximum been at 13:46 and ending at 15:30.

"The last eclipse will be observed on the northern hemisphere, which will be observable almost everywhere in Russia. The process will begin in the East Asia region and will cover all parts of Russia," noted Mikayilov.

The sun, the moon and the earth constantly rotate relative to each other, but at certain points they line up in a single line. At this point, an eclipse occurs, which has received its name for the fact that one cosmic body closes another.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly behind the earth into its shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and moon are aligned exactly, or are very close to each other with the earth in the middle. So, a lunar eclipse can only occur at nights when the Moon in its full shape. The type and length of an eclipse depends upon the moon's location relative to its orbital nodes.

As looking directly at the Sun can lead to a permanent eye damage or blindness, special eye protection method or indirect viewing techniques are used when viewing a solar eclipse.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon gets between Earth and the sun, and the moon casts a shadow over Earth. In some ancient and modern cultures, solar eclipses have been attributed to supernatural causes or regarded as a bad omen. A total solar eclipse may frightening those people, who are unaware of its astronomical explanation, as the Sun seems to disappear during the day and the sky darkens in a matter of minutes.

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24 November 2017 16:30 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population assigns a special role to attracting people with various categories of disability to self-employment program, Salim Muslumov, minister of labor and social protection of population, told reporters on November 24.

The ministry plans to increase the programs coverage by 5-6 times next year, he said.

About 1,320 families were involved in the self-employment program this year, and we tried to ensure the necessary inclusiveness, the minister said. Citizens with disabilities also took part in the program, however, their number was too small, and this didnt satisfy us. Next year, we plan to attract at least 6,000-7,000 families, including disabled people who want to work.

The minister also noted that people with disabilities will be able to improve their professional skills and master new professions with the help of regional vocational education centers.

We plan to open one such center until the end of the year, and create three more centers next year, he added. As you know, we have the Vocational Rehabilitation Center for young people with disabilities in Bakus Ramana settlement, where more than 1,200 people were trained. In order to facilitate this task for citizens in the districts, we plan to use our regional centers. After receiving education in these centers, citizens with disabilities will be able to get involved in the self-employment program.

Muslumov added that employers should create necessary conditions for disabled people in Azerbaijan, and noted that at present, some employers are not ready to create these conditions.

Some employers dont want to spend money on people with disabilities, he said. We must address this issue jointly. In accordance with the Azerbaijani legislation, half of job quotas are provided for people with disabilities. However, these quotas are not respected today. Absence of serious financial sanctions is one of the reasons for that.

Muslumov added that this problem should be solved by changing public opinion.

We need to understand that people with disabilities are citizens just like us and we need to provide conditions for them to lead professional activity and normal life, he said.

A lot of work should be carried out in Azerbaijan to organize occupational safety, he said.

In particular, it is necessary to create an occupational safety fund in Azerbaijan, Muslumov added.

We must step up our work in this direction, he said. The work shouldnt be limited to inspections after workplace accidents. It is necessary to take preventive measures to reduce the number of workplace accidents.

The minister noted that the 2017 statistics show a significant reduction in the number of victims of workplace accidents.

However, creating the fund and holding educational activities at the funds expense, and sometimes providing practical assistance to employers is a necessity, and we are working on this, Muslumov said.

There were about 570,000 people with disabilities in Azerbaijan, which makes up 6 percent of the total population of Azerbaijan and of them only 10 percent have a job, according to the information of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare of the population for May 1, 2016.

The report revealed that about 50 percent of minors were at the age to receive education. However, during the mentioned period of time only 288 people are involved in inclusive education.

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24 November 2017 17:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

Every year, several hundred thousand earthquakes occur on the globe, and about a hundred of them are destructive, causing death to people and entire cities.

Although Azerbaijan is not the most earthquake-prone place on Earth, the country has witnessed a considerable number of earthquakes from the beginning of the year.

The Republican Center of Seismological Service of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan told Trend that the number of earthquakes occurred in Azerbaijan and adjacent territories has reached 5,779 this year.

From the beginning of the year until the present time, some 3,642 earthquakes were registered in Azerbaijan, 25 of which were felt.

The strongest earthquake of this year with a magnitude of 5.7 occurred on November 15 in the Aghdam region.

It should be noted that on November 15 at 23:48 local time a strong earthquake occurred in the country, which was most felt by the residents of Aghdam, Barda, Terter and Mingachevir regions. In Aghdam, tremors were felt by the magnitude of six, while in Terter and Barda the magnitude was between 5-5.7 points.

Characterized by high seismic activity and situated in the active collision zone of Arabian plate with Eurasian, the territory of Azerbaijan has complicated block structures differing from each other by the level of seismic activity.

Therefore, Azerbaijan is considered to be a seismically active region  a lot of earthquakes occur here every year, however, majority of them are not felt.

The seismogenic zones with potential to produce dangerous force cover the whole country as the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt passes through Azerbaijan. Strong and catastrophic earthquakes that took place several times in this area from ancient times till now caused huge destructions.

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24 November 2017 17:21 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The European Union remains committed in its support to the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of all its partners, reads a declaration adapted following the Eastern Partnership Summit held in Brussels on November 24.

"Full commitment, respect for and adherence to the purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter, the 1975 Helsinki Final Act and the 1990 OSCE Charter of Paris are fundamental to our shared vision for a peaceful and undivided Europe," the declaration reads.

The Summit participants further voiced concern about the continued violations of principles of international law in many parts of the region.

They called for renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of unresolved conflicts in the region on the basis of the principles and norms of international law.

"The resolution of conflicts, building trust and good neighbourly relations are essential to economic and social development and cooperation. The Summit participants welcome efforts and the EU's strengthened role in conflict resolution and confidence building in the framework or in support of existing agreed negotiating formats and processes, including through field presence, when appropriate," the declaration reads.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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24 November 2017 14:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The oil price recovery is still unstable, thus a decision to prolong production cuts during Vienna meeting this November should be expected, Danila Bochkarev, Senior Fellow at the EastWest Institute told Azernews.

Bochkarev added that going ahead of $65-70 is not fully in interest of the key oil exporting countries. Normally the prices oscillating around $60-65 are at comfortable level for the key oil exporters such as Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Competition both from renewable sources of energy and unconventional oil will be higher, if oil is too expensive and that might lead to another collapse in oil prices, he said.

Bochkarev believes that most likely prices will stay in the range of $60-70 per barrel in 2018. It allows them to balance their budgets and is well above their production costs," he added.

The meeting of OPEC+ will be held in Vienna on 30 November to discuss further policies.

A meeting of the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), which includes Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, Algeria, Oman and Russia, will take place in Vienna on November 29.

Oil prices are supported with data of the U.S. Energy Department on oil reserves. The Department reported on November 22 that commercial oil reserves in the country (excluding the strategic reserve) for the week ended on November 17 fell by 1.9 million barrels, or 0.4 percent, to 457.1 million barrels. Analysts had expected the reduction of the indicator by only 0.3 percent, or 1.5 million barrels, to 457.5 million barrels.

Oil reserves at the country's largest terminal in Cushing fell by 1.9 million barrels, amounting to 61.2 million barrels. At the same time, before the release of the statistics, oil prices were supported by data from the American Petroleum Institute (API). The Institute also forecasted a decline greater than forecasted, naming a value of 6.356 million barrels.

Moreover, investors reacted to reports that at the end of the last week TransCanada closed part of the Keystone pipeline after the leakage of 5,000 barrels of oil in the U.S. state of South Dakota.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures are at $57.90 per barrel, down $0.21, while Brent crude futures are at $63.16 per barrel, down 0.25 percent, according to RIA Novosti.

OPEC and other major oil producers such as Russia and Azerbaijan reached an agreement in December 2016 to remove 1.8 million barrels a day from the market.



OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till March 2018 in Vienna on May 25, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.

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24 November 2017 13:12 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkey welcomed on Thursday the European Parliament's (EP) prohibition of terror groups from its premises, which included the PKK terror group, Anadolu reported.

The European Parliament on Wednesday issued an updated list of people and groups prohibited from the legislative body's premises, including the PKK terror group.

"We welcome the decision of the Bureau of the European Parliament (EP) that denies access to terrorist organizations listed as such by the EU, including the PKK and other groups involved in terrorist activities against Turkey.

"According to the said decision, individuals representing these groups cannot be invited to the European Parliament, nor shall these groups be allowed to be promoted on the premises of the EP," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement.

The PKK has organized events in EP in support of itself through its associations in Europe, which have exasperated Ankara.

Turkey, for instance, condemned the placing of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan's photographs at an event in the European Parliament last year.

The Turkish statement called the decision "a step forward" regarding the EUs international obligations in the field of combatting terrorism.

"We will closely monitor the implementation of the EPs decision," the statement added.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization also by the U.S., and the EU. In its over three-decade terror campaign against Turkey, more than 40,000 people have been killed.

Since the group resumed its armed campaign in July 2015, more than 1,200 people, including security force personnel and civilians, have lost their lives.

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24 November 2017 11:06 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

The Turkmen Railway Transport Ministry and the Afghanistan Railway Authority have signed an agreement which will give additional impetus to Afghanistans economic development and provide possibilities for the countrys access to third states.

The MoU envisages a major overhaul of the railway track at the border station of Torgundi in Afghanistan, the Turkmen state news agency reported.

During the signing ceremony in Ashgabat, representatives of the Afghan side noted that Afghanistan attaches much importance to cooperation with Turkmenistan.

The new document aims to strengthen cooperation, expand transport infrastructure between the two countries and extend integrated services in the railway sector.

The railway line from the Turkmen station of Serkhetabat to the Afghan station of Torgundi will be totally rebuilt. The project, which includes the construction of a 13-km-long railway track, approach lines, and modern infrastructure, will be financed entirely by Turkmenistan.

The implementation of this project is set to enhance the stations handling capacity, and increase its importance for land-locked Afghanistans trade relations. The track will ensure the most convenient way to export Afghanistans domestic products to foreign markets.

There are a number of infrastructure projects, especially in energy and transport areas, with Afghanistans active participation aimed at further integration of the country into regional network.

Among them is the large-scale project envisaging construction of a railway from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan. Its first phase, the Atamyrat-Ymamnazar-Aqina Railway, was completed last autumn.

Today, the countries are closely cooperating on the issue of continuing the construction project in Afghanistan. In the long term, the railway is planned to reach the border of Tajikistan and to become a significant part of the Asian International Railway Corridor.

This project will open up opportunity to become a key player in international transport corridors, crossing Central Asia, in particular the North-South and East-West Corridors.

In this context, construction of the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey Transport Corridor is seen as a promising direction.

The five nations have recently signed an agreement on the creation of the Lapis Lazuli transport corridor.

It is envisaged that the railways and motorways will connect the city of Torgundi in the Afghan province of Herat with Ashgabat, then with the port of Turkmenbashi on the shore of the Caspian Sea. Further, the corridor will pass through the Caspian Sea to Baku, then through Tbilisi to Ankara with branches to Poti and Batumi, and further from Ankara to Istanbul.

The budget of the project is estimated to exceed $2 billion. Consultations on the creation of the transport corridor began back in 2012. National railways and motorways are already forming a significant part of this transport corridor, so the agreement is primarily aimed at facilitating transit logistics and simplifying customs procedures.

The initiative seeks to improve transport infrastructure and procedures (including for road, rail, and sea), increase exports, and expand the economic opportunities of citizens in countries benefiting from this new transport corridor.

The name Lapis Lazuli is derived from the historic route that Afghanistans lapis lazuli and other semiprecious stones were exported along, over 2,000 years ago, to the Caucasus, Russia, the Balkans, Europe, and North Africa.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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24 November 2017 12:10 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

Attraction of investments for the transit of Iranian gas to Tajikistan can be a turning point in improving economic relations between the two countries.

This was stated by the Iranian parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, on the sidelines of the 10th plenary meeting of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA), Iranian media outlets reported.

Larijani told Vice-Speaker of the Tajikistans Parliament Khairiniso Yusufi that investments could be attracted, in particular, for electricity generation and water transfer from Tajikistan to Iran and sending gas from the Islamic Republic to the countries of Central Asia.

Commenting on the high scale of Iranian companies presence on the Tajik market and assistance in improving the economy of this country, he said that the relations between Iran and Tajikistan can be strengthened taking into account the commonality between the two states.

The APA meeting began in Istanbul on November 21 and will end today, on November 24. The meeting is devoted to the theme of maintaining peace and development in Asia. The ninth APA meeting was held in Cambodia in November 2016.

Iran has vast energy resources  the worlds largest proven natural gas reserves and the second-largest trove of oil in the Persian Gulf, according to BP.

Iran's proven gas reserves amount to 33.5 trillion cubic meters of gas. However, the country lacks necessary export infrastructure to realize gas sales. Under sanctions, Iran was banned from the global financial system, preventing the development of its oil and gas fields and necessary infrastructure.

Irans gross gas output stands at 285bn m3/yr. The country plans to increase this volume to about 440 bcm/y by 2021 after full operational of South Pars and starting gas production from other projects like Kish gas field.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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ALBERT LEA, Minnesota | Nearly 470 people have reportedly signed a petition expressing their opposition to the proposed Freeborn Wind Farm project in southeast Freeborn County.

Representing the Association of Freeborn County Landowners, Doreen Hanson presented the petition Tuesday to the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners.

Hanson said landowners and residents expressed their opposition to the project based on concerns regarding electromagnetic currents, noise, light flicker, possible loss of on-air signals and other possible impacts from the turbines.

Our objective is to see the rules followed in the proceedings and not just the steps, Hanson said. The importance of local control, of respecting local ordinances that have been enacted and respecting local preferences and sightings vital for the protection of public health and safety.

The presentation of the petition came after continued division over the project, which includes the construction of 100 wind turbines in Freeborn County and Iowa, including 42 in Minnesota. Turbines are expected to be in London, Shell Rock, Hayward and Oakland townships, with the remaining balance planned for Iowa.

After the meeting, District 1 Commissioner Glen Mathiason described himself as a supporter of wind energy. He expressed support for landowners who view wind energy as their third income, noting the form of energy provides extra revenue for Freeborn County.

Commissioners Mike Lee and Dan Belshan stated their desire for minimum setbacks for wind turbines in Minnesota to match the 1,500-foot minimum setback for Iowa wind turbines in the project.

Mathiason said the 1,500 feet standard has a very minimal impact in Freeborn County because there are not a lot of planned wind turbines that fall within that distance.

Mathiason said he will continue to work with opponents of the plan but favors the project, calling wind energy a viable generation of power for Freeborn County and the United States.

Hanson and a few other people have attended Public Utilities Commission meetings in St. Paul since a nearly six-hour public information meeting in September at Riverland Community College.

Another public information meeting is planned Jan. 29 in Albert Lea and evidentiary hearings are Feb. 6 and Feb. 7.

Hanson requested the board take steps to support the landowners, including enforcing the shadow flicker ordinance in Freeborn County and continuing support of increasing the minimum setback allowance to 1,500 feet.

Non-participants should not be without a voice, she said. We bought and maintained homes in the townships of Shell Rock, London, Hayward and Oakland. We bought homes in a rural setting and love it here. We love the quiet; turbines are not conducive to quiet. We love the dark, starry nights; red flashing lights are not stars. We love our unobstructed sunrise and sunset  good sleep for good health.

We love our quality of life. The residents of the projects have businesses, businesses that could be adversely affected. This is a case of a nuisance coming to us. We did not buy homes in an industrial park, and we should not have to live in an industrial park after choosing a rural area for our lives and our homes.

After the meeting, Judy Olson, who lives in the path of the proposed project, said she initially objected to the project because of aesthetic concerns and has since become aware of possible health effects of placing wind turbines near homes, strengthening her opposition.

Thats my objection, she said.

Olson expressed support for commissioners supporting those who are against the project in front of the Public Utilities Commission and request the project not be approved.

State approval is needed for the project to unfold.

Mariah Lynne, a local consultant for Invenergy, the wind farm developer, said the company will attend the next commissioners meeting Dec. 12 to update the board and the public on the project.

She said there is misinformation regarding the project, noting the project, which is undergoing a contested case proceeding, will allow them to build a robust, complete case.

We see that as very valuable because there is a lot of misinformation in the community, she said.

Lynne said she foresees the project being approved by the PUC because of Invenergys following of state and local regulations.

She said there is not a 1,500-foot required minimum setback in Iowa, noting the differences between setbacks in the two states can be attributed to a more stringent regulatory process in Minnesota.
24 November 2017 13:40 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

Reduction of the Russian military contingent in Syria may begin before the end of the year, according to the General Valery Gerasimov, Russias Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and First Deputy Minister of Defense, RIA Novosti reported.

After the completion of the military tasks, there are very few left, of course, the decision will be made by the supreme commander-in-chief and the grouping will be reduced, he told journalists answering a question about the prospects for the beginning of the contingent's reduction before the end of the year.

"We will see the situation, of course, [the reduction will be] significant," Gerasimov said commenting on the issue.

He also added that the Center of Reconciliation, our two military bases and a number of necessary structures will be left to support the situation, which has now taken shape.

On November 21, it was announced that Islamic State's days in Iraq and Syria are over as the last vestiges of territory are won back from the self- proclaimed caliphate.

Sochi hosted a trilateral meeting of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 22 which addressed the issue of Syrias future as an independent state.

During the meeting it was stressed that the Syrian national sovereignty should be respected and interference of foreign powers in the country would not be legitimate.

Turkey, which backs the opposition, and Russia and Iran, which support Bashar Assad, are the guarantor countries who brokered a December ceasefire in Syria, that led to the Astana talks aimed at strengthening the ceasefire.

Russia, Iran and Turkey - all deeply involved in the Syrian civil war - decided to launch Syrian National Dialogue Congress in December that is intended to help frame a constitution for an integrated Syria, including the terms of presidential elections in which Assad would be entitled to stand

Syria has been locked in civil war since March 2011. All previous efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution were ruined, with the opposition demanding Assad leave power, the government insisting he stay on, and neither side able to force the issue by achieving a military victory.

According to UN's special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, around 500,000 people have died in the conflict while half the population has been driven from their homes.

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24 November 2017 16:50 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

Turkey is hosting a NATO drill on November 24 with the participation of naval, air force and coast guard commanders as well as troops from Turkey and NATO countries amid strained ties over Norway incident.

The Turkish Air Force and Navy will participate in NATO exercises NUSRET-2017, which is being held on November 25 - December 4 in the Gulf of Saros, an inlet of the northern Aegean Sea, the Turkish General Staff said in a message.

Each year Turkey organizes a mine warfare exercise named after the famous minelayer Nusret.

The aim of the exercises is to work with mine barriers and to develop cooperation in the course of these operations between the military of participating countries

The Armed Forces of Turkey, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria will take part in the exercises, and representatives of Azerbaijan, Algeria, Qatar, Romania, Slovenia and Turkmenistan will monitor them.

Participants will also test finding and neutralizing mines, using divers, sonar as well as remotely operated vehicles.

Earlier, Turkey withdrew its forty servicemen participating in drills at NATOs joint warfare centre in Stavanger, Norway, due to the fact that photos of Turkeys incumbent president, as well as first president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk were placed as conditional enemy images on the shooting range as part of the military exercises.

Erdogan said that such behavior does not correspond to the spirit of cooperation and alliance between Turkey and NATO.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Norwegian Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen have apologized to Turkey over the incident.

There is also growing tension between Turkey and some of its allies within the alliance, for example the U.S. Ankaras rapprochement with Russia and purchase of S-400 missiles raised eyebrows among some NATO member states, including the U.S., and caused concerns as they are supposed to only buy compatible weapons systems from other members.

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24 November 2017 17:50 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

Complications with regards to the supply of Russian agricultural products to Turkey have been practically abolished.

This was stated by Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister Yevgeny Gromyko on the sidelines of the fifth International Export Forum Made in Russia, TASS reported.

They [procedural complications] are practically canceled at the moment. They are coming to an end. Perhaps there are flaws and nuances left somewhere, but almost all issues are solved, and there is no excessive red tape now, he said.

Gromyko noted that the Turkish side agreed with the cancellation of additional certification of the invoice.

Maybe it's still there, according to the formal signs, but we do not have the confirmation from the business that this constitutes a serious problem and hinders the conclusion of contracts. There is no such information. We are working in the usual manner, the deputy minister added.

In October 2017, Turkey imposed new restrictions on agricultural products from Russia, which affected the export of wheat, unrefined sunflower oil, corn and other products.

According to additional requirements, suppliers have to certify invoices. Earlier, Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev noted that Russia hopes for a complete lifting of restrictions for the countrys agricultural producers.

Turkey from March 15 suspended the issuance of licenses for duty-free supplies of wheat, corn and sunflower meal from Russia. Earlier, Turkish importers and processors could carry out duty-free import of Russian products to Turkey on the basis of issued licenses for import of agricultural products in the "internal processing" mode.

This was mainly done in response to Russian food embargo on Turkish products and especially ban on Turkish tomato. Russia levied an embargo on the imports of certain products from Turkey because of the jet-downing crisis in late 2015. Many have been resolved, except the tomato ban, which is the most serious for the Turkish suppliers.

Recently, the situation changed and Russia has officially allowed the import of Turkish tomatoes on quotas set by the Agriculture Ministry in late October. From November 1, Russia lifted a strict ban on the import of tomatoes from Turkey. Nevertheless, certain restrictions still remain in place. Ankara will be able to deliver 50,000 tons of tomatoes to the Russian market by the end of the year.
24 November 2017 13:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

The New Year is one of the most anticipated holidays of the year on the whole planet, it brings new opportunities, plans and achievements. Many of us are celebrating the new year in the traditional home atmosphere with our families and friends, but more often people decide to spend this holiday in a new original place where unusual scenarios are born by themselves.

Azerbaijan, with its unique culture and history, is the best choice for those who want to spend unforgettable New Year holidays. The country is among the favorite destinations for a large number of tourists among which Russians have the highest number compared to other neighbor countries.

Analytical agency TurStat compiled the rating of the best cities of the CIS for winter trips of Russian tourists.

Top 10 cities of the CIS popular among Russian tourists for New Year holidays are Minsk, Almaty, Baku, Astana, Tashkent, Brest, Bishkek, Chisinau and Ganja.

Baku, the beautiful capital of Azerbaijan, is included in the first three winter trips to the CIS countries in the New Year.

With the advent of the New Year holidays, Baku is turning into one of the largest New Year venues in Europe - bright and radiant, with many options to celebrate the holiday in the capital, both for the guests of the city and for the local residents.

Travelers can explore the famed medieval Old City, hailed as a must-visit, which houses the UNESCO-listed Shirvanshahs Palace, and Maiden Tower.

The visitors can admire the citys contemporary buildings such as the Heydar Aliyev Center, designed by Zaha Hadid, and the Flame Towers  a trio of skyscrapers covered with LEDs and displaying the mesmerizing movement of a flame.

On the eve of the New Year, the capital of Azerbaijan is transformed into the capital of fairs: the city's squares are filled with tents with festive illumination, selling all kinds of fragrant snacks, hot drinks and of, of course, traditional souvenirs.

For the New Year holidays, tourists will visit Baku on average for four days and spend on living $85 per day, according to Turstat.

The rating list of the best destinations for Russians also includes Ganja, the second capital of Azerbaijan, especially for those looking for budget holidays.

Without any doubt, the "second capital of Azerbaijan", as a place of tourist pilgrimage, is beautiful at any time of the year. The fact that the local infrastructure allows you to combine active winter holidays with a busy excursion trip.

Founded more than 4,000 years ago and called the Cultural Capital of the CIS in 2017, the city of Ganja, is visited by over 400,000 tourists annually, and most of them are from Russia. Some 50 km from Ganja there is a unique city called Naftalan, which is considered the most popular health resort in the CIS.

The region is famous for its nature, namely Goygol Lake and reserve. A large mountain lake surrounded by the mountains of the Lesser Caucasus was formed as a result of a devastating earthquake that destroyed the mountain Kapaz in the 12th century.

One of the main advantages of Azerbaijan, besides the captivating beauty of the country and hospitable population, is the fact that many people here know Russian and English.

Russian tourists do not need visa to travel to Azerbaijan, which makes the country more attractive. Tourists from neighboring Russia were always frequent guests in Azerbaijan and the recent developments made more Russians to think about Baku when planning their vacations.

As of September, as many as 1.81 million tourists visited Azerbaijan, according to the Ministry.

With approximately 1 million tourists Russia, surpasses the number of tourists from neighboring Georgia and Iran.

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One of Belfast Harbour's major office developments looks set to get a new mixed-use cafe and retail business

One of Belfast Harbour's major office developments looks set to get a new mixed-use cafe and retail business.

The City Quays 2 building, which is almost completed, will soon play host to UTV and Tullett Prebon, among other businesses currently going through legal processes.

According to newly revealed plans, the large ground floor is could become a shop and hot food bar.

Belfast Harbour is understood to be in the early stages of discussions with a developer which could take on the entire ground floor unit.

Plans show the "amalgamation of ground floor coffee shop and office to single unit and change of use to retail unit with associated hot food bar for the sale of hot food and drink for consumption on the premises and for distribution off the premises".

Work on a third, 17-storey City Quays building is scheduled to start next year.

In an interview with this newspaper in October, Belfast Harbour chief executive Roy Adair - who oversees the port and a development business worth 400m - said that while "there could be border difficulties" with Brexit, the organisation was ready to cope with the complexities of leaving the EU.

Mr Adair is stepping down from the role next year.
A former Northern Ireland Secretary of State has said government ministers are in chaos over Brexit and how to deal with the question of the border in Ireland.

His comments come after a UK government spokesman said Northern Ireland staying within the EU customs union was a "matter for negotiations" - only for sources to later dismiss the suggestion, saying the government's position had not changed.

Theresa May and her government are facing intense pressure to come up with a solution on maintaining arrangements in Ireland without imposing a "hard border".

It is one of the key issues alongside the divorce bill and the rights of EU nationals living in the UK in the first stage of the Brexit talks. Both sides have stressed they are in favour of avoiding any change to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic - but the EU is insisting it is the UK's responsibility to find a solution that works.

But a spokesman for the Prime Minister muddied the waters on Friday.

Asked if Northern Ireland could stay in the customs union after Brexit, Ms May's official spokesman said: "I think that is a matter for negotiations.

"Our position on Northern Ireland has been set out in the papers and we need to continue to negotiate to find an innovative way forward."

However a Downing Street source later insisted that the Government's position that the whole of the UK will leave both the customs union and single market after Brexit has not changed.

Former Northern Ireland secretary of state Lord Peter Hain said the government must reconsider and ensure the entire UK stays within the customs union.

Another day, another dose of confusion about the Governments position on Ireland. It looks like the policy of potentially keeping Northern Ireland in the Customs Union has lasted the best part of forty minutes," he said.

Ministers are in such chaos because their position is so impossible and illogical. They want a totally open border in Ireland and the continuation of the common travel area, while leaving the customs union and ending free movement. The circle cannot be squared.

The bottom line must be that nothing should be done that jeopardises peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland, or that weakens the bonds between Ireland and the United Kingdom. That means the government must change course and negotiate to keep the whole of the UK in the customs union.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said it was difficult to see how border checks could be avoided if the UK's departure from the customs union and single market resulted in "regulatory divergence" between Northern Ireland and the Republic. He has insisted there will be no progress to phase two of the talks on trade until the border issue was resolved.

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However, DUP leader Arlene Foster fired off a warning about placing any border in the Irish sea and accused the Irish government of pushing for how a united Ireland would look in the future.

The Prime Minister, who was in Brussels for a meeting of the EU said "we have the same desire - we want to ensure that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now".

"That's the outcome that we are both agreed on and that is what we believe is in the best interests of Northern Ireland."
The aftermath of a crash in which a Co Antrim man who was more than three times the drink-drive limit struck a house was "like a scene from a war film," a court was told yesterday.

District Judge Peter King made the comments at Ballymena Magistrates' Court, where defendant Colin David Johnston (44) was given a four-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and banned from the roads for five years.

The former joiner, from Ashvale Park in Islandmagee, ploughed into a wall and house at Ballystrudder Road at 6.20pm on August 20.

The crash, in which he was driving a friend's van, caused substantial damage.

Children had been present in the house that was damaged the day before the smash.

A prosecutor said Johnston was found to have had an alcohol level of 123mg. The legal limit is 35mg.

A defence lawyer accepted her client could have been standing in the dock in "much more grave circumstances".

She said Johnston was insured to drive the van which belonged to a friend, and confirmed the insurance company had compensated the householder.

She added the defendant was a sole carer for his mother and had been drinking a "very considerable amount" of alcohol at a friend's house on the day of the accident.

However, he then received a call from his mothers saying she had fallen. He was going to her aid when he crashed.

The lawyer told the court Johnston was left "terrorised" by the crash and had vowed never to drive again.

Judge King, who was shown a video of the crash aftermath, said: "Quite frankly, it looks like a scene from a war film."

He told the court the injury that could have been caused if children had been present "makes me shudder".

Judge King described the alcohol level as "completely unacceptable" and told Johnston he could count himself extremely fortunate no one was hurt.

At an earlier hearing, Judge King said the incident "could be taken straight from a government information advert about the dangers of drink driving".

At yesterday's court, he told Johnston to stay away from vehicles and alcohol.

The defendant previously pleaded guilty to charges of driving without due care and attention and failing to provide a specimen of breath.

A charge of driving while unfit was withdrawn.
DUP leader Arlene Foster has accused the Irish government of using Brexit to promote the idea of a united Ireland - as she said negotiations must move to the next stage.

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4's Mrs Foster said the Irish government were "using the negotiations to put forward their views on what they believe the island of Ireland should look like in the future".

On Thursday Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told a parliamentary committee that he wants to see a united Ireland in his political lifetime.

She added: Weve heard from the foreign minister of the Republic of Ireland just yesterday talking about his aspiration for a united Ireland. He is entitled to have that aspiration but he should not be using European Union negotiations to talk about those issues.

"What he should be talking about are trading relationships moving forward."

When asked if she could imagine applying the rules of the EU Customs Union without being in it Mrs Foster said she "cannot accept any position after Brexit to say that Northern Ireland is any different to any other part of the Union".

She said: "What we don't want to see is any perception that Northern Ireland is in any way different to the rest of the United Kingdom.

"Because that would cause us great difficulties in relation to trade, because of course the single market that really matters to us is the market of the United Kingdom.

"That's the most important market for Northern Ireland.

When probed on whether the Republic of Ireland was Northern Ireland's main export market.

Mrs Foster said "no, it's not".

She continued: "Well of course external trading partner. But most of our trade is within the United Kingdom. That's the most important issue to remember in all these negotiations. And actually for the Republic of Ireland their most important trading partner is Great Britain so they need to remember that as well."

Mrs Foster said she wanted to see negotiations move onto the next stage.

"I think it's wrong that the Irish Government are saying they will not allow the process to move forward until they have certain things they demand," she said.

"I've always felt it's actually very difficult to have an agreement in relation to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic when we haven't moved to the next stage to talk about trade.

"You can't have it both ways. Leo Varadkar is saying he won't allow the discussion to move to the next stage to talk about trade and these issues until he has a commitment in relation to the Irish border.

"You cannot have it in that fashion, you have to move to the next stage."

On Friday Ireland issued a fresh warning to Theresa May that the deadlock in the Brexit negotiations cannot be broken until it is clear there will be no "hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

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Arriving in Brussels for a gathering of leaders from the EU and former Soviet states, the Prime Minister said it was time to move onto the "next stage" in the negotiations, including talks on a free trade deal.

However Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney insisted EU leaders would not give the green light for the phase two negotiations to begin at their summit in December unless there was progress on the border issue.

He said British assurances on the issue were "aspirational" and that there had to be a "credible roadmap" from the UK setting out how they would ensure there was no return to a hard border.

With the UK committed to withdrawing from customs union and the single market, Mr Coveney said it was difficult to see how they could avoid border checks if it resulted in "regulatory divergence" between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
RomReal hereby announces the third quarter 2017 results highlights:

Net Asset Value (NAV)

 Net Asset value was EUR 0.44 (NOK 4.07) per share, at the end of Q3 2017

 The NAV would have been EUR 0.48 (NOK 4.41) per share if the value from all binding sales agreements had been applied.

Operational highlights

 During the third quarter 2017, the Company managed to close further sales of assets for a total price 22% over the carrying value based on the end 2016 independent valuation. Total sales price net of fees was EUR 0.61million.

 Carrefour plot (No. 8 on the list): presale agreement signed in July 2017 for a total price of EUR 65,000 of which EUR 5,000 received. The transaction for this farmland plot is expected to be concluded immediately after the pre-emption right legal period is over. Expected to be finalised and the difference in price collected by December 2017.

 Alexandriei plot (No. 9 on the list): The Urbanization Certificates referring to the main building characteristics of the plot is obtained and the demolition application process is ongoing. The plot is a highly attractive development project in Bucharest.

 Ovidiu Lakeside (No. 1 on the list): the new planning permission (PUZ) was obtained on 2 August 2017. The Company is currently negotiating some utilities infrastructure investment on the plot. This investment is expected to further improve the attractiveness of the most important project in the portfolio.

 The Company is presently simplifying the Romanian Group structure. The ongoing process is expected to be finalized during Q1 2018.

Financial Results

 Net Result for the quarter was a loss of EUR 360,000 compared to a gain of EUR 277,000 in Q3 2016. Operating cash flow for the quarter was a negative EUR 195,000 compared to a negative EUR 68,000 in the same period last year.

 By the end of the quarter, the Company has a cash position of EUR 3.4 million plus the remainder of the seller's credit of about EUR 0.8 million, totalling at about EUR 4.2 million or about EUR 0.10 per share.

Macro and real estate market highlights

 Romania scored the highest growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) among the 28 European Union member states, of 8.6 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to the preliminary data of the European Statistical Office (Eurostat).

 According to the online real estate platform immobiliare.ro, asking prices in Romania were up by 12.4% in in the last twelve months from a national average of EUR 1,042/sqm to EUR 1,171 /sqm. Still these prices are about 43% below peak prices in 2008. Prices in Constanta have reached in October 2017 EUR 1,059 /sqm, a 10.7% increase year on year.

A recorded investor presentation will be made available on Friday 24 November after 10:00am CET at www.romreal.com

For further information please contact:

Harris Palaondas

IR

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
The new security measures outside the Christmas Market at Belfast City Hall

The new security measures outside the Christmas Market at Belfast City Hall

Counter-terrorism measures to protect the public at Belfast's Christmas Market lag far behind those at similar events across Britain, a security expert has warned.

Andrew McQuillan accused the authorities of failing to do as much as they should to protect the public and called on the council to urgently make improvements.

He was speaking after the Belfast Telegraph yesterday revealed details of a counter-terrorist assessment showing City Hall was extremely vulnerable to a car bomb or lone wolf attack involving knives or other weapons.

The National Counter-Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) identified the Christmas Market, which runs until December 23, as a "specific vulnerability".

The report will be discussed by the council's strategic policy and resources committee today before it is debated at a full council meeting on December 4.

Mr McQuillan said: "I have worked on security at events across the UK, Europe and the US.

"The measures adopted in Northern Ireland just aren't as good as those elsewhere, which is surprising given the significant paramilitary threat we faced in the recent past.

"Security at the Winter Wonderland event in London is phenomenal and that at the Christmas markets in Birmingham and Manchester is also very high.

"The measures in place at Belfast City Hall's market lag seriously behind and this must be urgently addressed.

"We should not bury our heads in the sand. There are steps which can be taken immediately to improve the situation."

The council has installed large planters on the pavement outside City Hall "to provide some protection in case of a vehicle-born attack". But Mr McQuillan said that while the measure was welcome it wasn't nearly enough.

He suggested that protection could be enhanced if interlocking red-and-white security barriers were placed around City Hall. He added: "These have been placed at bridges in London before permanent barriers go up.

"They are filled with water and sand and are very cheap to erect.

"NaCTSO is a highly respected organisation. They have highlighted weaknesses and Belfast City Council really should move swiftly to implement their recommendations."

Mr McQuillan, who owns Crowded Space Drones and whose father Alan was a former PSNI Assistant Chief Constable, said there was a dangerous complacency in Northern Ireland about the dangers of an attack at a public venue.

He added: "Just because we had republican and loyalist violence in the past doesn't exempt us from international terrorism. Some claim on social media that reporting the threat here is scaremongering.

"These people have no awareness whatsoever of public safety at events. A report from the National Counter-Terrorism Security Office is not scaremongering. It has to be taken seriously."

Mr McQuillan also claimed it was wrongly argued that increased security would mean Northern Ireland was returning to the past.

He said: "What these people ignore is that armed police at Christmas markets in England is very normal and England usually has an unarmed police force.

"We are dealing with a new emerging threat. Not updating and changing your plans is just not smart. It is waving a red flag at a bull.

"People can choose to inhabit a bubble but it doesn't reflect the world we live in. No risks should be taken with major events."

Mr McQuillan said the council could apply to have the national barrier asset system deployed - temporary high-grade security fencing which protects high-profile locations or events.

He added: "I feel sorry for the council as the market's location at City Hall isn't the easiest to protect. We really need to talk about the issue. Ignoring it doesn't make our vulnerability go away.

"Making security at your event look visibly as hard as possible is a great deterrent for terrorists who are hunting vulnerable targets".
Belfast City councillor David Browne apologised after claims he called a disabled Sinn Fein representative a "one-armed bandit".

During a committee meeting at City Hall on Friday, the UUP man made a comment about councillor Ciaran Beattie.

The Black Mountain representative lost his left hand after being caught in an explosion during the Troubles. He has served on the council since 2013.

Sinn Fein Belfast City Council leader Jim McVeigh described the comments as "vile" saying they would be making a report to the Local Government Ombudsman.

"They are disgraceful and should be withdrawn immediately," he said

Someone should tell the UUP that this is the 21st century and that such comments are highly inappropriate. This type of abuse can rightly be deemed a hate incident and has no place in our society never-mind being spoken by an elected representative."

Alderman Browne, is a former deputy lord mayor of Belfast and has served on the council for over 20 years.

He said: I should not have said what I said, and apologise for saying it. However I won't be taking any lectures from Sinn Fein or their group leader.

"I too am physically disabled. I regret lowering myself to the same level as Sinn Fein."

He added: "Jim McVeigh is a former car bomber, who was caught in possession of explosives and also convicted of conspiracy to murder and has never apologised for his thoroughly vile actions when he was trying to murder people on the streets of our Capital City.

"His actions never had any place in our society.
A Belfast councillor yesterday claimed that the Housing Executive offered a homeless Belfast woman a place in a hostel in Londonderry

A Belfast councillor yesterday claimed that the Housing Executive offered a homeless Belfast woman a place in a hostel in Londonderry.

SDLP representative Paul McCusker, who founded the Homeless Aware initiative, slammed the organisation for offering unsuitable emergency accommodation to the needy.

He said: "The Housing Executive may fulfil their statutory obligation by making the offer, but it's not a rational solution.

"They then shun a person who rejects the offer, but of course they turn it down - they have kids at school and they have families who they rely on for support."

Mr McCusker described the situation facing numerous families he has encountered, including that of a young Belfast mother who was offered a hostel 70 miles away. He explained: "They were forcing her to choose between ending up on the streets or being unable to send her children to school.

"They eventually offered sensible shelter in Belfast, but only because I intervened.

"There is a crisis going on and Housing Executive isn't painting the full picture.

"People in crisis still worry about their kids and they fear being isolated from their friends and family."

Mr McCusker, who volunteers in a soup kitchen, also criticised the body for failing to define 'temporary' and warned that tough living conditions were impacting on people's health.

He said: "I know one family who were told they would be in a hostel for a maximum of six months, and they are still there after 12 - they have been forgotten.

"A mother, a father and their three children are distraught - it's having a horrendous impact on their son, who has been referred to mental health services after threatening to kill himself."

The councillor claimed he dealt with families in similar situations on a daily basis and called for the Housing Executive to be honest about the problem.

"Without additional provision, we are going to see more people on the streets," he warned.

A Housing Executive spokesperson said there were more than 2,500 temporary spaces, which they have a statutory obligation to provide, in the Belfast area, but stressed that families were free to reject offers.

They added that suitable accommodation was provided "within hours" to two families referred by Mr McCusker.

The spokesperson also insisted the body always "sensitively place families in accommodation which is appropriate to their needs close to local services, including schools".
Belfast Lord Mayor Councillor Nuala McAllister and Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council Councillor Maoliosa McHugh at the launch of the European Capital of Culture 2023 bid

Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson has said the joint bid by Belfast and Londonderry to be the European Capital of Culture 2023 can still be rescued - but only if Northern Ireland remains in the Customs Union.

Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson has said the joint bid by Belfast and Londonderry to be the European Capital of Culture 2023 can still be rescued - but only if Northern Ireland remains in the Customs Union.

In a statement Mrs Anderson said the news the UK would not be able to host the award in 2023 "does not mean that the bid is finished; it is still rescuable".

Belfast and Derry's taxpayer-backed joint bid was struck a blow after the emergence of a letter, published by Politico, from the European Commission to the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport saying that after the UK's withdrawal from the EU, "the participation of the United Kingdom in the European Capital of Culture Union action will not be possible".

Responding to this, Mrs Anderson said: "If the British government make a declaration to the EU that the north can stay in the Customs Union and single market then the bid could continue.

"We also need to explore options with the Irish government to see if they can take this bid forward under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and the bodies it established."

SDLP councillors from Belfast and Derry/Strabane Council groups have also called for an urgent meeting of both councils to discuss the future of the bid.

Londonderry councillor Martin Reilly said: "An immense amount of preparatory work has already gone into the joint bid to bring the European Capital of Culture title to Derry and Belfast.

"In an effort to boost both regions and demonstrate positive cooperation across the north, our councils have been working closely on this collaborative bid. It presented a real opportunity economically, politically and culturally.

Belfast-based councillor Tim Atwood said: "The European Commission decision is extremely disappointing but it should not be the death knell for what would be a significant celebration of our common culture.

"The EU has demonstrated a unique understanding of our circumstances. I firmly believe that our two councils can come together and present a powerful case for a special consideration of our bid."

The SDLP has written to the European Commission making the case for special consideration for the Belfast-Derry bid, and has written to the Irish government to ask for its intervention.
Lord Kilclooney said he withdrew a remark in which he referred to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as "the Indian".

The peer was forced defended himself against claims of racism after sparking a Twitter storm on Thursday evening.

The Northern Ireland peer said he used the term as shorthand for Mr Varadkar as he "couldn't spell his name". He later withdrew the remark because of the "upset and misunderstanding caused".

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His tweet came in reply comments by the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney who said he would like to see a united Ireland "in his political lifetime".

"Simon Coveney is stirring things up . Very dangerous non statesman like role! Clearly hoping to undermine the Indian," Lord Kilclooney tweeted.

The comments led an onslaught of accusations that to use the term was racist. Something the peer outright rejected.

"Certainly not racism but shorthand for an Indian surname which I could not spell," he responded.

"I should have said PM and not used Indian as shorthand for his name which I must learn to spell correctly," he added when told using the term was "lazy".

"The new Irish PM is 100 per cent Irish and has an Indian name which I am still trying to spell! Term Indian used for shorthand as I am certainly no racist as my past confirms."

Former victims commissioner Patricia MacBride said she would report the comment to the the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards while Alliance's Stephen Farry urged the peer "to have the courage and integrity to withdraw" the remark.

Leo Varadkar replaced Enda Kenny as Taoiseach earlier this year. He is the son of Indian immigrant Ashok from Mumbai and his Irish born mother Miriam from Dungarvan, Co Waterford. They met while working in a hospital in England. Mr Varadkar was born in Ireland after the family spent a period living in India.

As a Twitter storm erupted around the Peer, the BBC presenter Mark Carruthers pointed out that he had been able to spell the Fine Gael leader's name correctly in a previous tweet.

Lord kilclooney responded: "Some tweets say Veradkar and others Varadkar - I now know the latter is correct and am assured he is 100 Per cent Irish with an Indian name. He is not enjoying ioyal (sic) support of Coveney who shot down his idea of an Irish Sea border!"

However, later the former Ulster Unionist Party deputy later retracted his remarks.

He tweeted: "In Twitter one is restricted to a limited number of words and so for shorthand I used the term Indian for the new PM in Dublin. This has caused upset and misunderstanding and so I withdraw it. I am no way racist and accept that Varadkar is 100 percent Irish Citizen."

Kilclooney, formerly John Taylor, is a former unionist minister of Home Affairs, MEP, MLA and MP who left the UUP to join the cross-bench group in the Lords. Having served in every level of government he made his fortune in the newspaper business.

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A dispute which started with the removal of Union flags from the centre of Magherafelt has seen a complaint made requesting the town's Christmas tree be taken down / Credit: PA/stock

A dispute which started with the removal of Union flags from the centre of Magherafelt has seen a complaint made requesting the town's Christmas tree be taken down.

Loyalist group the British Truth Forum has complained to the Mid Ulster District Council and the PSNI about the tree, which is located on the town's Broad Street.

The tree is an annual feature, and this year's event for switching on its lights is set to take place on Saturday evening.

Speaking to the Irish News, the British Truth Forum's chairman William Lennox said the complaint had been made as there are "Muslims in the town and a lot of non-Christians" who could be offended by the tree.

"If the council says our Union flag offends people then the Christmas tree has offended people.

"The council has to stick to their policies," he said.

Last year a row broke out after a Union flag and pole - understood to have been erected by the Orange Order 65 years ago - were removed by the Council as part of public works.

In February, the British Truth Forum replaced the flag and pole, but this was subsequently taken down.

A public art piece was placed on the location where the flag once stood.

In his letter to the Council, Mr Lennox says the tree should be subject to an equality impact assessment (EQIA) - which would allow for a consultation process to consider how to make a policy more inclusive if it is considered to have an adverse impact on a certain group.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Mid Ulster District Council said: "We can confirm that a complaint has been received in relation to the Christmas Tree erected in Magherafelt Town Centre this week. We have initiated our complaints process and it will be dealt with in due course."
A condolence message sent by the then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland following the IRA assassination of Irish justice minister Kevin O'Higgins has gone on display.

The telegram from James Craig features in an exhibition at the Irish Department of Justice which opened yesterday.

It marks the life of Mr O'Higgins, who was murdered on his way to Sunday Mass in Booterstown, Co Dublin, in July 1927.

Also among the items is a message of sympathy from the British Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin.

The telegram from Viscount Craigavon to WT Cosgrave, the Republic's head of government, on the day of the assassination spoke of his shock at the murder.

It also passed on the sympathy of the then Northern Ireland government.

"I am horrified to learn of the brutal assassination of Mr Kevin O'Higgins and tender deepest sympathy on behalf of the government of Northern Ireland and myself," he wrote.

Mr O'Higgins was Irish deputy premier as well as minister for justice, and established the Republic's police force, An Garda Siochana.

His murder was a turning point in Irish politics.

The government led by Cosgrave enacted legislation to force Fianna Fail to either take its seats in the Dail or be excluded from the electoral process - a move which brought an end to the party's policy of abstention.

Other items to feature in the exhibition, opened yesterday by current Irish justice minister Charlie Flanagan, include the telegram from Baldwin to Cosgrave.

It read: "Loss will be felt. Please accept on behalf of myself and my colleagues our deepest sympathy. We should be grateful if you would convey to Mrs O'Higgins our very sincere condolences."

A letter from Tom Casement, whose brother Roger had been executed in 1916, said: "Dear Mr Cosgrave, I am just shocked at the sinister news. Poor dear Kevin O'Higgins. I feel from my heart that you will feel this very deeply and I feel that all men who stand for the causes of Ireland are just helpless to do anything.

"You have all our deep sympathy and I wish I could do more than just write.

"No answer is needed. I just wanted to tell you how I feel on this matter and how much I would like to help you. Your friend, Tom Casement."

Another exhibit is a telegram from the then world famous tenor John McCormack to Cosgrave

He wrote: "May I express to you and your colleagues my most profound sympathy on the dreadful tragedy that has only overtaken you. Words futile things at such a time. Poor Kevin."

There are more than 1,000 documents in the O'Higgins file, including witnesses' statements to gardai.

The exhibition is not open to the public, but the entire file will shortly be sent to the National Archives in Dublin where it can be accessed.

After his assassination, Mr O'Higgins was buried in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin, in the same grave as his infant son, Finbarr Gerald.

He was survived by Brigid and two daughters, Maev, born in 1923, who became a Carmelite nun and is still alive, and Una, born in 1927, who died in 2005.
People have been warned to prepare for cold weather as ice and snow is set to hit the country.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for ice in parts of the UK over Friday night and Public Health England has told people to take precautions as temperatures look set to drop.

Snow is predicted to fall overnight, mainly on higher ground, with up to 5cm of snow possible in some areas over 300m.

The weather warning, which is in place from 5pm on Friday to 10am on Saturday, has been issued for Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland and Wales as well as the north of England, Yorkshire and the West Midlands.

The forecaster said: "A band of rain, sleet and snow showers will move from the North West to South East across the yellow area through Friday, clearing during the early hours of Saturday, followed by further wintry showers.

"Icy patches are likely to form on untreated surfaces as temperatures fall."

Public Health England reminded people to be prepared ahead of the cold weather, with temperatures expected to fall below 2C in some areas before Saturday.

Dr Thomas Waite, of their Extreme Events team, said: "We're well used to winter in this country so most people know what to do to protect their health before and during cold spells.

"But there are people who may not take precautions and who are at a very real risk.

"We know that every winter thousands of people fall ill and many die because of exposure to cold both in the home and while outdoors.

"Those most at risk include older people, very young children and those with conditions like heart and lung disease.

"That's why every cold season we urge people to look out for family, friends and neighbours who may be at risk.

"Ask yourself if you could check on a neighbour to see if there's anything they need?"

Paul Gundersen, chief operational meteorologist at the Met Office, said: "Colder air has now reached most parts of England, with temperatures expected to fall further by Saturday, when the cold will be accentuated by strengthening winds."

Figures earlier this week showed there were more than 34,000 "excess deaths" across England and Wales over the last winter period, the second highest level in eight years.

The Office for National Statistics said the rise was likely to be due to a "predominant strain of flu prevalent during the 2016 to 2017 winter".

Dr Waite said: "We know that more deaths occur every winter in the UK than in the summer due to a wide range of causes including cold weather, influenza and other respiratory infections.

"The flu vaccination is the best protection we have against flu and it's really important to have it if you are eligible."
A father-of-seven who flagged down a passing Housing Executive maintenance man near his home before calling him a "paedophile" and attacking him has been jailed for three months.

District Judge Peter King told Ballymena Magistrates Court yesterday: "This victim was a public servant going about his business."

The judge told Patrick Ward (33), of Sandown Park, Ballymena: "It is quite clear when you flagged him down he thought you needed some help with a maintenance issue.

"You attacked him. It was quite clear the injured party was telling you he was a Housing Executive employee, but that didn't stop the attack.

"I have to send out a very clear message that public servants in this town are protected whilst going about their normal duty."

A defence lawyer said it was a "mistaken identity attack".

The incident happened at Sandown Park in the town's Doury Road estate on August 24 this year.

A prosecutor said that police received a report of an assault at Sandown Park around noon on the day.

A workman said he was driving along when Ward flagged him down and tried to open the door of the vehicle, while asking him what he was doing in the area.

The lawyer said Ward called the workman a "paedophile" and struck out at the man leaving him with cuts and bruises to his face and head.

The prosecutor said the workman tried to tell Ward he was working with the Housing Executive but it had no effect.

A previous hearing heard Ward had CCTV at his own house which captured the incident.

A defence lawyer told yesterday's hearing the attack was "inexcusable" and that it was a "mistaken identity assault".

He said the defendant had been drinking and the assault lasted no more than 30 seconds although verbal abuse had continued.

The lawyer said Ward would not be able to do any community service locally "given a threat he feels he is under in the Ballymena area".

Judge King said he took into account the guilty plea but on the other hand the defendant had a number of previous convictions.

Jailing Ward, he said he had to send a "clear message" out that public servants would be protected.
A serial flasher who has more than 20 convictions for exposing himself to women has been jailed.

Father-of-two Jason Leonard Shaw, whose address cannot be published due to a reporting restriction under the Human Rights Act, was handed a 13-month sentence yesterday.

The 47-year-old was appearing in court for the latest incident, which occurred as a woman sat in her car in south Belfast.

Judge David McFarland sent him to prison and said: "All attempts to support him in the community have failed."

Shaw will serve half his sentence behind bars, with the remainder on supervised licence upon his release.

Before sentence was passed, prosecutor Simon Jenkins told Belfast Crown Court Shaw's victim had just parked her car on Wellesley Avenue at 8.20am on February 20 when a man with his face covered approached her window.

He stood there for around 30 seconds before running down an alleyway.

The court heard he re-appeared at the car window several minutes later, where he exposed his penis and handled it in full view of the woman.

She blasted her car horn several times, causing Shaw to flee, and was left shaken by the incident. The driver contacted police and after a photofit of the suspect was created, a police officer recognised Shaw.

He was arrested and later picked out by the woman in an identification procedure.

Telling the court Shaw was a "prolific offender", Mr Jenkins said 24 of his 43 convictions were for "exposure offences".

These, he added, were mostly carried out in the University area of Belfast, when Shaw exposed himself to young women, mothers with children and female students.

A defence lawyer said that despite initially denying it was him, Shaw "has had time to reflect in custody", adding the guilty plea had spared the witness the ordeal of giving evidence.

He told the court Shaw was attempting to address the issues, which were linked to "events visited upon him as a child".

Jailing him, Judge McFarland said that due to Shaw's repeated offending, he had been fined, given suspended sentences and made the subject of Probation Orders.

Saying any attempts to support him had failed, and citing his behaviour as "unpleasant and shocking" for his victims, Judge McFarland said any remorse expressed was "a little hollow".
MONO-ME Cooperation with European deposit distribution partner Raisin



Monobank ASA (MONO-ME) has signed a German and European service agreement with Berlin based Raisin GmbH, the leading deposit provider to the European Economic Area. The cooperation will allow Monobank to provide deposit products via the Raisin internet platform to European private individuals, hereunder predominantly to the residents of Germany, France, Austria and Spain.

"The scalability in our platform is Monobanks uniqueness, and the fact that we are able to roll out the cooperation with Raisin swiftly is a proof of this. Our ambition is clear, we will be a multi-country operation, and this is our first step out of the Nordics. That we are able to mitigate currency risk by ensuring deposits in other currency is also part of the puzzle here", says Bent Gjendem, CEO of Monobank ASA.

Raisin provide deposit products to more than 95,000 customers and is present in more than 30 countries. The agreement will allow Monobank to raise funding in other currencies as well as to introduce Monobank to the European market and thus to exploit the scalability in the Monobank technical platform.

For more information about Raisin GmbH, please see www.raisin.com

Contact:

Bent H. Gjendem, CEO, +47 996 11 996

Lene Sjbakk, CFO, +47 940 19 896

About Monobank:

Monobank is a digital bank offering unsecured lending to qualified

private individuals in Norway and Finland. Operations started out of Bergen,

Norway, in November 2015 after received its banking licence from the Financial

Supervisory Authority of Norway. The bank also offers attractive deposit rates

on its savings accounts. Deposits up to NOK 2 million are guaranteed by the

Norwegian Banks' Guarantee fund, of which Monobank is a member. For further

information, please visit the company web page www.monobank.no
Charlene daughter of Joseph Parker and Francis Cosgrove uncle talks to the the press outside court in Belfast. Pic: Pacemaker

Joseph Parker died after being shot in the legs.

A killing of a man who was shot by a soldier at a Christmas dance in Belfast in 1971 was not justified, a coroner has ruled.

The soldier who fired the fatal shot had not aimed at any individuals deliberately but had acted recklessly by firing into a crowd at close range, coroner Joseph McCrisken found.

Joseph Parker, 25, was fatally shot in the thighs after a patrol of soldiers entered the dance at Toby's Hall in the Ardoyne area of the city.

He had an 18-month-old daughter and his wife was heavily pregnant with their second child at the time of his death.

A coroner's court in Belfast was told that on the evening of Mr Parker's death, around 100 people were at the dance when soldiers entered in search of an individual who they wished to speak to.

Witnesses told the court that the atmosphere became hostile as some members of the crowd shouted at the soldiers to get out. Some chairs were knocked over and bottles broken, the court heard.

As tensions escalated, a soldier fired shots at the ceiling, prompting those present in the hall to duck to the ground.

Another soldier then shot into the crowd while he was in a crouching positing, hitting Mr Parker in his thighs.

Coroner McCrisken told the court: "I am satisifed that this shot was fired deliberately but that Mr Parker was not deliberately targeted, in other words, this soldier was acting recklessly when he fired shots at such a low level in a hall full of civilians.

"I have not been presented with any evidence which suggests that Mr Parker posed any threat, either direct or indirect, to the military patrol."

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He concluded: "I am satisfied, therefore, that the force used against Joseph Parker was not justified since he posed no threat to members of the patrol."

In his findings, Mr McCrisken said that the atmosphere in Northern Ireland was extremely tense at that time, with a considerable number of people feeling hostile towards the Army amid backlash to UK Government policies such as internment.

He said: "I am entirely satisfied that the atmosphere was tense and extremely hostile toward the soldiers."

Mr McCrisken said the patrol had not realised how many people would be in the hall due to poor planning.

"This lack of planning not only risked the lives of those members of the patrol who went inside but also civilians who were already inside," he said.

He said the patrol captain should have realised this risk after the troops entered the hall and were met with a large number of people and a hostile response.

"[He] probably should have reassessed the situation and the risk posed to his patrol and those civilians present.

"The situation in the hall can best be described as a powder keg. The military presence ignited the fuse with tragic consequences."

An inquest was held into Mr Parker's death in 1972 which recorded an open verdict. After an investigation by the Historical Enquiries Team in 2009, a fresh inquest was ordered into the killing.

Mr Parker's wife, Dorothy, has since died. Their two daughters Joanne and Charlene were present in court throughout the inquest, which took place over a period of two weeks in November.

Following the findings, the family's lawyer Padraig O Muirigh read a statement outside court on behalf of the family.

It said: "Today we are elated that our father's name has been cleared and our only regret is that our mum is not here to witness it."

Mr O Muirigh added that the family are now considering whether to bring a civil case against the Ministry of Defence in light of the inquest findings.
Senior Tory cabinet minister Damian Green is to attend the DUP's annual conference in Belfast this weekend.

Mr Green, who has also other engagements in Northern Ireland, is facing allegations that he made an inappropriate advance to a young party activist and previously viewed extreme pornography on his House of Commons computer.

It is claimed the pornography was found in a police raid in 2008. The First Secretary of State, who is de facto Deputy Prime Minister and Theresa May's closest ally, vehemently denies both allegations.

A Whitehall inquiry into the alleged inappropriate advance to Kate Maltby is due to conclude in days. Although he will attend the DUP conference, Mr Green is not due to deliver an address. But Conservative chief whip Julian Smith will give a keynote speech at the event tomorrow afternoon.

The attendance of two senior Tories at the conference symbolises the two parties' intimate working relationship.

Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo will also address the DUP gathering. The party's supply and confidence deal with the Tories at Westminster means that media interest in its conference is at all-time high.

The DUP said more than 100 journalists had sought accreditation for the event compared to around 20 in previous years and security has been tightened.

The conference's theme is 'Standing up for Northern Ireland - the next generation'. Newly-elected Upper Bann MLA Jonathan Buckley and Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough councillor Jordan Greer will be featured in "new voice" videos.

Conference speakers include DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds, South Belfast MP Emma Little Pengelly and MEP Diane Dodds.

Last year's event was Arlene Foster's first as DUP leader.

Just weeks later, her party was engulfed in the cash-for-ash scandal which brought down the Executive in January.

The 2016 gathering ended with the party faithful taking to the stage and singing "Arlene's on fire" as Mrs Foster joined in the dancing. This year's event is likely to be more sedate in keeping with the party's role in holding the balance of power at Westminster.

In her speech, Mrs Foster is expected to defend the record of the power-sharing institutions.

"It's popular to bash Stormont and to criticise devolution. To say it has delivered nothing," she will say.

"But the truth is that during devolved government - while far from perfect - there were record levels of inward investment, scores of new schools built, miles of new roads constructed and hundreds of millions more spent on health."

The DUP leader will also reaffirm her party's commitment to devolution: "While we have more influence than ever before at Westminster we also want to see our local institutions functioning and delivering for the people of Northern Ireland.

"We're about building for the next generation. A properly functioning devolved government is the best foundation."

Mrs Foster will state that her party believes government must "protect people, provide the vulnerable with a safety net and act when and where markets fail to serve the people properly".

She will pledge that the DUP's mission is to affirm the British identity "upholding the constitutional status of Northern Ireland as an integral part of the United Kingdom".

But she will add: "Our mission is also about ensuring that people all across the UK can have a good life too. That's why our MPs used their influence in the budget to ensure all regions of the UK got a better deal.

"I want everyone in Northern Ireland regardless of whether they're unionists or nationalists or don't consider themselves to be either, to enjoy a good quality of life and to be able to pass on to the next generation a better Northern Ireland filled with opportunities for all."

See Comment, Page 33
Ulster University could be set to face "critical" funding cuts, according to a letter sent to the leaders of Northern Ireland's political parties.

Ulster University could be set to face "critical" funding cuts, according to a letter sent to the leaders of Northern Ireland's political parties.

The letter from Vice-Chancellor of Ulster University Professor Paddy Nixon, which has been seen by the BBC, says the university has been advised by the Department of Economy it faces a 3.5% cut in 2018/19, and a 4.5% cut in 2019/20.

Taking account of the 2% cut in 2017/18, it works out at a 10% cut in funding over three years.

The letter has been sent to the leaders of Sinn Fein, the DUP, the SDLP, the UUP, the Alliance Party as well as Secretary of State James Brokenshire and UK Universities Minister Jo Johnson.

In the letter, Professor Nixon said: "Whilst the current situation is unsustainable the prospect of further cuts communicated by the department has turned a serious situation into a critical one."

For 2016/17 Ulster University received core funding from the Northern Ireland Executive of 70.8m.

The cuts come at a time when Ulster University is already facing the potential loss of 17.5m in EU funding after Britain leaves the European Union.

Earlier this week it was revealed the development of a 250m Belfast campus by Ulster University had been put back by a year, with the predicted completion date for the building work now the end of 2019.
Ireland's minority government is facing crisis as a row over the future of its deputy premier threatened the confidence and supply deal keeping the Fine Gael-led administration in power

Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has pledged to try to resolve a crisis which has threatened the future of his minority Government and a snap election.

Mr Varadkar met Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin for under an hour in Government Buildings in Dublin amid a deepening row over attempts to have a senior minister sacked.

And he vowed to continue negotiations.

"I think we still have an opportunity over the next couple of days and the weekend to avoid a general election," he said.

"I don't want there to be a general election. I don't think Micheal Martin wants one either."

Mr Martin, whose party is keeping the Taoiseach's Fine Gael Government alive through an 18-month-old confidence and supply agreement, has refused to budge on a motion of no confidence in deputy prime minister Frances Fitzgerald.

It is scheduled for next Tuesday and was called over the handling of a 2015 email that revealed attempts to discredit a Garda whistleblower.

But the threat of an election has caused turmoil in government and political circles, with the biggest fear that it would be fought in the teeth of Brexit negotiations which could determine the future of the Irish border.

The Taoiseach said he would not be seeking Mrs Fitzgerald's resignation and he said the case against her was flimsy.

The crisis centres on Mrs Fitzgerald's knowledge of a legal strategy to be employed by lawyers for the Garda Commissioner that was designed to discredit whistleblower Garda Sergeant Maurice McCabe at a private inquiry into his allegations of bad policing.

The information was contained in an email sent to the Tanaiste by a deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Justice in 2015. It also advised that legally she had no grounds to intervene.

The Taoiseach said Mrs Fitzgerald had been advised not to intervene in the legal strategy. He said that has since been backed up by advice from the Attorney General.

The Tanaiste has faced days of allegations from opposition parties that she was aware of the campaign by lawyers for the Garda Commissioner and took no action.

Sinn Fein were first out of the blocks earlier this week with plans for a motion of no confidence.

Fianna Fail followed suit as the row deepened. But Mr Martin's demands for a head could ultimately bring down the minority Government as it signed up to abstain on motions of no confidence for three years.

Mr Varadkar said it was an issue of "truth, justice and fairness".

"I don't believe that the decapitation of the Tanaiste, based on trumped up charges, is fair," he told RTE's Six One News.

The treatment of Sergeant McCabe over several years and allegations of a smear campaign against him are being examined by the Disclosures Tribunal, chaired by Judge Peter Charleton.

The tribunal announced that in January it would also examine the email issue.

"Let's all calm down a bit, let's pause for reflection, let's withdraw these motions, get on with the business of parliament, of government over the next couple of weeks and allow the Charleton Tribunal, starting on January 8, get on with its work," Mr Varadkar said.

The Taoiseach said he would not sack Mrs Fitzgerald to save the Government.

"What that would mean is me throwing a good woman under a bus for political expediency, to save myself and my own Government and that would be the wrong thing to do," he said.

Discussions between the Taoiseach and Mr Martin, described as open and frank, are to continue.

Mr Varadkar said that if a snap election is forced it will be called on Tuesday and it would be held in the week before Christmas. He rejected suggestions that it could be delayed until January.

"I don't know if it is the wishes of the country that we should have an execution without trial," the Taoiseach said.

"I think Irish people deep down believe in fair play, believe in justice, believe people should get a fair hearing and that we shouldn't have kangaroo courts and that the Dail (parliament) shouldn't operate in this manner."

Mr Varadkar said that an election in the week before Christmas would allow him to attend the European summit on Brexit in mid-December.

"In the final analysis you have to do what you feel is right," he said.

"I don't feel a summary execution of Frances Fitzgerald, when people don't even know the facts, when people don't even know the charge against even, is, would be wrong."

The Green Party urged both Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein to postpone the motions until the new year to allow time for the Brexit negotiations.

The Independent Alliance, which supports the Government, urged both sides to pull back from the brink.

Shane Ross, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, said: "Going to the country in the weeks before Christmas is not what the public either needs or wants.

"Given present indications it seems possible, even likely, it could take months for a government to be formed."

The moves against the Tanaiste could lead to a general election being held right in the midst of a crunch Brexit summit in mid-December when the Irish border question is front and centre.

Another prospect is that voters could be asked to go to the polls in January.

The Tanaiste has said she cannot remember getting the email in 2015. It alerted her that "a serious criminal complaint", which had always been denied by Sgt McCabe, was raised at the commission.
The family of a forestry worker murdered 41 years ago have vowed to continue their fight for justice after they lost a legal appeal for the Government to establish two committees of inquiry into his killing.

Relatives of Seamus Ludlow, 47 - whose body was found in a ditch with bullet wounds near his home on the Cooley peninsula, Co Louth, on May 1 1976 - launched legal proceedings in a bid to force the Minister for Justice to open inquiries into the State's handling of investigations into his death.

His family have long maintained Mr Ludlow was an innocent victim of a loyalist death squad comprising a Red Hand Commando and two members of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).

They believe gardai were complicit in spreading false rumours that Mr Ludlow was killed for being an IRA informant and that some family members had prior knowledge it was planned.

The family wanted a High Court declaration that a decision by the justice minister not to launch an inquiry was unlawful.

Their legal team argued that to not hold an inquiry was a breach of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to effective investigations.

However, the High Court in Dublin denied the motion on Friday.

High Court Judge, Justice Mary Faherty, said it was "not for the court to stand in the shoes of the decision maker".

She said Article 2 is concerned "with ensuring there has been an effective investigation into a homicide or suspicious death, not the ascertaining of historical truths".

Despite losing their High Court battle, the family insisted their fight "is far from over".

Speaking outside court, Mr Ludlow's nephew Michael Donaghan said: "I'm disheartened. It would appear we were comprehensively ruled out. But we are not finished. We keep coming back.

"We know we are in the right. We have had law, we haven't had justice. We'll keep going until we get that justice."

The family's solicitor, Gavin Booth of KRW Law, added: "This is not the end of this quest by the Ludlow family for justice. Seamus Ludlow was an innocent man.

"Many serious questions remain unanswered today. The family are understandably disappointed but we are looking at grounds for appeal. We do believe we have some."

A parliamentary committee in Dublin recommended more than 10 years ago that two commissions of investigation be held into the murder and subsequent events, after an official judge-led report damned the original botched Garda probe.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary told the Garda in 1979 the names of four loyalists it suspected of being involved in Mr Ludlow's killing but the information was not pursued by the Garda at the time.
Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald is resisting growing calls to quit over a controversy involving a bid to discredit a Garda whistleblower

Ireland's minority government is facing crisis as a row over the future of its deputy premier threatens the confidence and supply deal keeping it in power.

Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald is resisting growing calls to quit over a controversy involving a bid to discredit a Garda whistleblower.

As opposition parties Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein separately threatened no confidence votes against her in the Dail parliament, Fine Gael ministers rallied to her defence.

Simon Coveney, Foreign Affairs Minister, said: "The Government is going to stand by the Tanaiste.

"What we have here are calls for her resignation built on sand. We are still not fully sure what she has been accused of."

Mr Coveney claimed the row was more about Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein competing for a political scalp.

The row deepened this week over her knowledge of a key email about the legal strategy deployed against Sergeant Maurice McCabe during an inquiry into his claims of bad policing.

But crisis hit when Fianna Fail - the main opposition party keeping Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's minority government in power through an historic confidence and supply arrangement - threatened to vote against Ms Fitzgerald in a confidence vote next week.

It then announced plans for its own no confidence motion in the Tanaiste. Sinn Fein had already vowed to table its no confidence motion.

If the Tanaiste remains in post next week and Fianna Fail follows through with its threat, its confidence and supply deal with Fine Gael would have been breached and a Christmas general election would be in the offing.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin told the Taoiseach on Wednesday night he did not have confidence in the Tanaiste.

Urging her to quit, Fianna Fail's justice spokesman Jim O'Callaghan told RTE the matter was the "most serious" challenge facing the 18-month-old support for the minority government.

Earlier in the Dail, Ms Fitzgerald rejected allegations she was privy to the conspiracy aimed at discrediting Mr McCabe.

Ms Fitzgerald told TDs: "I am trying to provide answers. I am not trying to hide anything. I was not part of any conspiracy to undermine Sergeant McCabe. Quite the contrary."

This week a Government email emerged indicating the Tanaiste was told in 2015 about the tactics being used by Garda lawyers at an inquiry examining allegations of malpractice.

The note, written by the assistant secretary of the Department of Justice, alerted Ms Fitzgerald, then justice minister, that "a serious criminal complaint" which had always been denied by Sgt McCabe, was raised at the commission.

Last year it emerged the legal team appointed by the former Garda commissioner was instructed to question Sgt McCabe's motivation and credibility during the inquiry.

The strategy pursued against Sgt McCabe is one of a number of issues being examined by an ongoing tribunal chaired by Mr Justice Peter Charleton.

Mr Coveney told RTE News that the Tanaiste's resignation would prejudge the work of the tribunal.

"It's also dangerous politically at a time when the country does not need an election," Mr Coveney said.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said that the Tanaiste acted appropriately over the affair. He added: "To have an election now would be incredibly irresponsible."

At an emergency meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party on Thursday night, members unanimously passed a motion to back Ms Fitzgerald.

Mr Varadkar told the gathering the Tanaiste was facing a "trumped up charge from the opposition".

Afterwards, Fine Gael's parliamentary party chairman Martin Heydon said: "What we have seen from both Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail today is a political stunt, pure and simple. We will not allow the opposition to bully us.

"Sinn Fein is attempting to undermine the work of the Charleton Tribunal which was set up by the Fine Gael-led Government to investigate the treatment of Maurice McCabe and get to the bottom of whether or not there was a campaign against him - the same Charleton Tribunal that the opposition agreed to in the first place.

"History shows that Fine Gael adheres to due process and has respect for natural justice.

"Fine Gael stands fully and united behind the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald."
Lord Kilclooney is photographed in the Houses of Parliament in London.

Former Ulster Unionist deputy leader Lord Kilclooney has denied being racist after calling Ireland's Taoiseach 'the Indian'.

The peer, who is no longer a member of the UUP, acknowledged his remark about Leo Varadkar had caused "upset and misunderstanding" so he was withdrawing it.

Mr Varadkar was born in Ireland. His father is from India and mother from Ireland.

Lord Kilclooney, 79, stirred controversy in a tweet on Thursday evening as he commented on a political story involving Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney.

He wrote: "Simon Coveney is stirring things up. Very dangerous non statesman like role! Clearly hoping to undermine the Indian."

The tweet was met with condemnation on social media.

Lord Kilclooney later tweeted: "In Twitter one is restricted to a limited number of words and so for shorthand I used the term Indian for the new PM in Dublin.

"This has caused upset and misunderstanding and so I withdraw it. I am no way racist and accept that Varadkar is 100 percent Irish Citizen."
Theresa May has been given 10 days to offer further concessions on issues including the Brexit divorce bill and the complex matter of the Northern Irish border if she wants European Union leaders to agree to trade talks.

The Prime Minister hopes a crunch summit in Brussels next month will give the green light to move on to the next stage of the Brexit process, covering future trading arrangements and a possible implementation period to avoid a cliff-edge for businesses.

Talks on trade will not be allowed to begin until European Union leaders are satisfied that "sufficient progress" has been made on the first round of issues being discussed including the divorce bill the UK will pay to Brussels and the Northern Irish border.

After talks with the Prime Minister, European Council president Donald Tusk said it was "possible" sufficient progress could be made at the December summit but remained a "huge challenge".

"We need to see progress from UK within 10 days on all issues, including on Ireland," he said.

As she left a gathering of European leaders in Brussels, Mrs May said: "There are still issues across the various matters we are negotiating on to be resolved but there has been a very positive atmosphere in the talks and a genuine feeling that we want to move forward together."

On the border issue, Mrs May is coming under intense pressure from Dublin for fresh assurances there will be no "hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar warning that deadlock in Brexit negotiations cannot be broken until the issue is resolved.

The Prime Minister insisted "we have the same desire - we want to ensure that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now".

Mrs May's comments came after Downing Street backed away from suggestions that Northern Ireland's continued membership of the EU customs union could be up for negotiation in Brexit talks.

A Number 10 spokesman told reporters on Friday the UK continued to look for "an innovative way forward" on the issue.

Asked whether Northern Ireland could remain in the customs union following Brexit, the spokesman said: "That is a matter for negotiations."

But a Downing Street source later insisted the Government's position that the whole of the UK will leave both the customs union and single market after Brexit has not changed.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said on Friday it was difficult to see how border checks could be avoided if the UK's departure from the customs union and single market resulted in "regulatory divergence" between the North and the Republic.

Mr Varadkar has previously suggested a "bespoke" arrangement, similar to that operated on the Isle of Man, under which Northern Ireland, or the whole of the UK, would continue to observe the rules of the single market and customs union without necessarily remaining a member of them.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier discussed the situation with Mr Coveney in Brussels ahead of the European Council meeting on December 14-15 which will decide whether talks can progress as Mrs May hopes.

Mr Barnier said there was "strong solidarity" with Ireland, adding that "Irish issues are EU issues".

The Prime Minister said: "In relation to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, we and the Irish government continue to talk about the solution to that.

"But we have the same desire - we want to see that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now and that we don't create any new barriers to trade or the movement of people across that border.

"That's the outcome that we are both agreed on and that is what we believe is in the best interests of Northern Ireland."

As well as talks with Mr Tusk and Mrs Merkel in Brussels, the Prime Minister also had meetings with Danish premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Belgium's Charles Michel, and Lithuania's Saulius Skvernelis in the margins of the Eastern Partnership summit.

One of the issues under discussion was thought to be the amount the UK is prepared to offer Brussels following reports that Cabinet ministers agreed to double the sum originally put on the table by Mrs May to around 40 billion.

However it is thought she does not want to name a precise figure until she has a clear idea of what kind of trade deal is available with the remaining EU member states in the phase two negotiations.

The Prime Minister said: "We have been talking about how we can progress the issue in relation to the financial settlement. I have set out the position. I did so in the Florence speech.

"I said that we would honour our commitments. I said that no member state of the European Union need worry that they would receive less or have to pay more in the current budget plan."
Theresa May has been given 10 days to offer further concessions on issues including the Brexit divorce bill and the complex matter of the Northern Irish border if she wants European Union leaders to agree to trade talks.

The Prime Minister hopes a crunch summit in Brussels next month will give the green light to move on to the next stage of the Brexit process, covering future trading arrangements and a possible implementation period to avoid a cliff-edge for businesses.

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Talks on trade will not be allowed to begin until European Union leaders are satisfied that sufficient progress has been made on the first round of issues being discussed including the divorce bill the UK will pay to Brussels and the Northern Irish border.

After talks with the Prime Minister, European Council president Donald Tusk said it was possible sufficient progress could be made at the December summit but remained a huge challenge.

We need to see progress from UK within 10 days on all issues, including on Ireland, he said.

As she left a gathering of European leaders in Brussels, Mrs May said: There are still issues across the various matters we are negotiating on to be resolved but there has been a very positive atmosphere in the talks and a genuine feeling that we want to move forward together.

On the border issue, Mrs May is coming under intense pressure from Dublin for fresh assurances there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar warning that deadlock in Brexit negotiations cannot be broken until the issue is resolved.

The Prime Minister insisted we have the same desire  we want to ensure that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now.

Mrs Mays comments came after Downing Street backed away from suggestions that Northern Irelands continued membership of the EU customs union could be up for negotiation in Brexit talks.

A Number 10 spokesman told reporters on Friday the UK continued to look for an innovative way forward on the issue.

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Asked whether Northern Ireland could remain in the customs union following Brexit, the spokesman said: That is a matter for negotiations.

But a Downing Street source later insisted the Governments position that the whole of the UK will leave both the customs union and single market after Brexit has not changed.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said on Friday it was difficult to see how border checks could be avoided if the UKs departure from the customs union and single market resulted in regulatory divergence between the North and the Republic.

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Mr Varadkar has previously suggested a bespoke arrangement, similar to that operated on the Isle of Man, under which Northern Ireland, or the whole of the UK, would continue to observe the rules of the single market and customs union without necessarily remaining a member of them.

The EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier discussed the situation with Mr Coveney in Brussels ahead of the European Council meeting on December 14-15 which will decide whether talks can progress as Mrs May hopes.

Mr Barnier said there was strong solidarity with Ireland, adding that Irish issues are EU issues.

The Prime Minister said: In relation to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, we and the Irish government continue to talk about the solution to that.

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But we have the same desire  we want to see that movement of people and trade across that border can carry on as now and that we dont create any new barriers to trade or the movement of people across that border.

Thats the outcome that we are both agreed on and that is what we believe is in the best interests of Northern Ireland.

As well as talks with Mr Tusk and Mrs Merkel in Brussels, the Prime Minister also had meetings with Danish premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Belgiums Charles Michel, and Lithuanias Saulius Skvernelis in the margins of the Eastern Partnership summit.

One of the issues under discussion was thought to be the amount the UK is prepared to offer Brussels following reports that Cabinet ministers agreed to double the sum originally put on the table by Mrs May to around 40 billion.

However it is thought she does not want to name a precise figure until she has a clear idea of what kind of trade deal is available with the remaining EU member states in the phase two negotiations.
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1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: HARGREAVE HALE LIMITED (for Discretionary Clients) (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. N/A (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree SERVELEC GROUP PLC (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: N/A (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:

For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 23 NOVEMBER 2017 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?

If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" NO

If YES, specify which:

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:



ORDINARY 18p



Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: 2,000,000 2.8636 (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



(3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL: 2,000,000 2.8636

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale



Number of securities Price per unit NONE

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit NONE





(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit NONE

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit

(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable) NONE

4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



NONE





(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



NONE





(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO

Date of disclosure: 24 NOVEMBER 2017 Contact name: DAVID CLUEIT

HARGREAVE HALE LTD Telephone number: 01253 754739

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.
Demonstrators hold a banner and posters during a rally against the online retailer Amazon in Berlin (AP)

Workers at half a dozen Amazon distribution centres in Germany and one in Italy walked off the job on Friday in a protest timed to coincide with "Black Friday" to demand better wages from the American online giant.

In Germany, Ver.di union spokesman Thomas Voss said some 2,500 workers were on strike at Amazon facilities in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben and Koblenz. In a warehouse near Piacenza, in northern Italy, some workers walked off the job to demand "dignified salaries".

The German union has been leading a push since 2013 for higher pay for some 12,000 workers in Germany, arguing Amazon employees receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centres and employees earn relatively high wages for that industry.

The strikes in Germany are expected to end on Saturday.

Amazon Germany defended its position, saying it was a "fair and responsible employer" that offers "attractive jobs."

"The strikes will not affect us keeping our word to our customers, as the overwhelming majority of our workers are continuing their normal work," the company told The Associated Press.

The Italian action, a one-day strike, was hailed by one of the nation's umbrella union leaders, the UIL's Carmelo Barbagallo, as having "enormous symbolic value because it's clear that progress, innovation and modernity can't come at the expense and the interests of workers".

The chief of the CISL umbrella labor syndicate, Annamaria Furlan, called on Amazon to work with unions for "proper industrial relations, employment stability and dignified salaries."

The Italian strike at the facility near Piacenza was called for permanent workers. The unions advised workers who are on short-term, work-on-demand contracts to stay on the job, so they would not risk losing future gigs.

Amazon says it has created 2,000 full-time jobs in Italy, where unemployment remains stubbornly high.

Amazon's head of personnel at the Piacenza-area centre, Salvatore Iorio, told Italy's Sky TG24 TV on Friday that despite the strike, the facility was keeping "our commitment to serve our clients".

Asked about union complaints that workers there did repetitive physical tasks to the point of experiencing health problems, Mr Iorio said the company "balances" positions at work areas to avoid any such problems.

AP
Donald Tusk said the EU will never recognise the illegal annexation of Crimea

The European Union has blamed Russia for the deaths of at least five troops in eastern Ukraine in what appears to be the worst outburst of violence in months.

"The death of five Ukrainian servicemen yesterday is the just the latest proof of the tragic consequences of Russia's aggression in Ukraine," said EU Council President Donald Tusk after a summit with six eastern European nations, including Ukraine on Friday.

Fighting between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian government troops has killed more than 10,000 people since it began in 2014.

A ceasefire deal signed in 2015 helped to reduce the scale of fighting but did not stop it altogether. In the meantime, Russia has annexed the Ukraine peninsula of Crimea.

"Frozen and armed conflicts continue to prevent development and create hardships in eastern partnership countries. The EU condemns Russia's aggression and will never recognise the illegal annexation of Crimea," Mr Tusk said.

The EU has already imposed restrictive measures against Russia.

The press office of the Ukrainian armed forces said in a statement that four out of the five troops killed in the past 24 hours died outside the village of Krymske in the Luhansk region where the fighting lasted for eight hours. The Ukrainian government called it the biggest loss of life since July.

The Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe, which monitors the shaky truce in eastern Ukraine, said on Friday there was a spike in violence in eastern Ukraine.

Alexander Hug, first deputy chief of the OSCE's monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine, said in a statement that the European monitors last week recorded the highest weekly number of ceasefire violations since mid-June including 360 instances of the use of heavy weapons that should have been withdrawn

"With 400-plus civilians killed and injured this year because of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, the sides need to ensure the well-being of the civilian population," Mr Hug said.

AP
Joe Robinson has been released from jail pending the outcome of the trial

A Turkish court has released a former British soldier from jail pending the outcome of his trial for alleged membership of a terrorist organisation.

Joe Robinson was arrested while on holiday in Turkey, accused of fighting alongside Syrian Kurdish militia against the Islamic State group in Syria.

Lawyer Mehmet Baykara said the court in western Turkey ordered him to be released from jail on Friday on condition that he regularly reports to police. The trial was adjourned until March 12.

His girlfriend, a Bulgarian citizen, who is accused of engaging in terrorist propaganda, was released on bail earlier.

Turkey considers the militia group a terror organisation because of its outlawed Kurdish rebels in Turkey.

Robinson denies fighting alongside the militia, insisting he travelled to Syria to provide medical aid.

AP
The last asylum seekers have left a decommissioned immigration camp in Papua New Guinea (Refugee Action Coalition via AP)

The last asylum seekers have abandoned a closed immigration camp on Papua New Guinea, ending a three-week standoff between police and the hundreds of men who had remained there.

Police Chief Superintendent Dominic Kakas said police and immigration officials had removed all 378 men from the male-only camp on Manus Island over two days and had taken them by bus to residences in the nearby town of Lorengau.

Some of the refugees had earlier refused to leave, and were prepared to suffer squalid conditions without power or running water rather than move to other accommodation where they feared violence.

Refugee advocates say officials used force and destroyed asylum seekers' belongings to make them leave Manus. Video was released of officials in the camp wielding batons.

Water, power and food supplies ended when the Manus camp officially closed on October 31, based on the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court's ruling last year that Australia's policy of housing asylum seekers there was unconstitutional.

Australia pays Papua New Guinea, its nearest neighbour, and the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru to hold thousands of asylum seekers from Africa, the Middle East and Asia who have attempted to reach Australian shores by boat since mid-2013.

Australia will not settle any refugees who try to arrive by boat - a policy that the government says dissuades them from attempting the dangerous ocean crossing from Indonesia.

The navy has also been turning back boats to keep them from reaching Australia since July 2014.

Before confirmation that Manus Island had been emptied, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull welcomed news that asylum seekers were leaving.

"I'm pleased to say in terms of Manus, that the reports we have are that busloads of the people at Manus are leaving, they're complying with the lawful directions of the PNG authorities and moving to the alternative facilities available to them and that's as they should," Turnbull told reporters.

"That is precisely what you should do, if you're in a foreign country. You should comply with the laws of that other country," he added.

Shen Narayanasamy, activist group GetUp's rights campaigner, said in a statement: "I awoke this morning to frantic phone calls from refugees on Manus screaming: 'Help, help, they are killing us'. It is astounding that refugees being beaten and dragged out to buses has the support of the Australian government."

Police maintain no force was used.

Australian Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton accused refugee advocates of making "inaccurate and exaggerated claims of violence and injuries on Manus" without providing evidence.

Dutton also accused asylum seekers of sabotaging backup generators and water infrastructure at the new accommodation provided by Australia in Lorengau.

"What is clear is that there has been an organised attempt to provoke trouble and disrupt the new facilities," Dutton said in a statement.

UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, said in a statement that its staff had heard troubling reports of forcible removal. UNHCR said it had been given assurances that excessive force had not been used, but could not independently confirm as staff had not been allowed full access to Manus.

Peter Costello, chief advocate of the Christian charity World Vision Australia, who is on Manus, said at least one of the three alternative camps in Lorengau was still under construction.

"If you were an Australian builder, you wouldn't let a civilian on to it, let alone move in," he said.
The Democratic Unionist Party's annual conference in Belfast tomorrow should be lively. It follows one of the most remarkable periods in the party's 46-year history. For the first time, organisers have had to put up the "House Full" sign for an event which previously captured little outside attention.

It will be interesting to see what first-time attendees from the London media make of traditional conference favourites. Maybe they'll be entertained by former MP Willie McCrea belting out There'll Always Be An Ulster. Maybe not. One suspects that, post-RHI, last year's spontaneous conference stage hit, Arlene's On Fire, will not re-surface.

Delegates will gather in buoyant spirits, after a year for which the phrase "roller coaster ride" seems inadequate. It hardly began well. A fusion of Sinn Fein grievances, including RHI, Brexit, an Irish Language Act, legacy issues and same-sex marriage, crashed the devolved institutions.

Martin McGuinness' final act - his resignation as deputy First Minister - sacked Foster as First Minister. Foster dismissed Sinn Fein as "crocodiles", always coming back for more. The republican vote increased by 60,000 at the Assembly election in March, while the DUP lost 10 seats, leaving them only one ahead of Sinn Fein. Unionism lost its overall majority and a Sinn Fein First Minister seemed inevitable in future.

Yet, even March's apparent nadir confirmed the DUP's dominance among unionists. The UUP, flirting with the nationalist SDLP, failed to lay a glove on Foster's party. Three months later, DUP supremacy landed that record haul of 10 Westminster seats - and a pivotal position as monopoly supplier of friends to a beleaguered prime minister. Don't expect Arlene to even bother dismissing the UUP leader as she did last year. Other unionists are not the problem.

Nigel Dodds may have told the Conservative Party conference that, "this is a five-year deal" with the Tories, but it is inconceivable the DUP will not ask for more in due course. And why wouldn't they?

Brexit and the collapse of power-sharing ought to be the two items dominating the conference. The DUP's support for the Conservatives makes a hard Brexit and reinvigorated border much more probable.

An all-island customs union is mooted by the EU and the Irish government, the Opposition parties and some Conservatives, but is unsellable to the only party on the island with Westminster seats.

And DUP hostility to the EU is popular among their supporters. Seventy per cent opted to leave the EU in 2016 and the 2017 election survey evidence shows they haven't budged.

This DUP veto - and, of course, the small matter of 1bn - makes the DUP's Westminster strength more important than its Stormont vulnerability. The social conservatism of the DUP's membership can be upheld without devolved government.

It would be a brave direct rule minister - and we haven't got one - who tried to liberalise Northern Ireland's laws on marriage and abortion, given Conservative reliance upon the DUP at Westminster.

Yet, the collapse of Northern Ireland's political institutions does harm the DUP, particularly its leader. The DUP cannot restore devolution without concessions to Sinn Fein. This is awkward for Arlene Foster. She is leader of her party, but also jobless; the empress without political clothes.

Nigel Dodds - who in a rare period of functioning devolution declared it was "impossible for the DUP to be led from Westminster these days" - is effectively doing just that.

When Secretary of State James Brokenshire finally gets tough and imposes a real deadline (I'm stretching the political imagination, I concede), after which the salaries of Assembly members are stopped, 28 DUP MLAs lose their livelihoods, as will those in related jobs.

While the party conference will be gung-ho about not capitulating on an Irish Language Act, unemployment for dedicated party workers is a grim spectre.

A downgrading of the Assembly into a direct rule scrutiny body - with MLAs in place on reduced salaries - satisfies no one. That's why a DUP-Sinn Fein deal might yet be reached to restore power-sharing. The 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement looms in April, so Sinn Fein could sell a deal as a heroic restorative act and the DUP might make concessions on an Irish Language Act and not attempt, with the reduced Assembly size, to veto same-sex marriage via a petition of concern.

But there are strong disincentives - and not just that Sinn Fein's focus is on the Irish Republic. The official verdict on RHI is a long way off.

Republican caution over re-entering government in the meantime may be understandable.

Why rejoin the DUP in loveless matrimony for a few months, if the RHI inquiry then leads to calls for ex-ministerial heads to roll anyway? Whatever the inquiry's conclusion, one that hails the scheme as a wonderful model of DUP ministerial and special advisor decision-making seems improbable. Not that this will be a weekend for too much introspection. Expect instead a parade of the world's most valuable MPs, a celebration of the DUP's dream election result and maybe visits from a few Conservative friends. Just no crocodiles.

Jon Tonge is Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool and co-author of The Democratic Unionist Party: From Protest to Power (Oxford University Press)
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MOSCOW, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mechel PAO (MOEX:MTLR) (NYSE:MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, announces that it intends to release its operational and financial results for the nine months period ending September 30, 2017, on Tuesday, November 28, 2017. In conjunction with these releases, Mechel will host a conference call, which will be simultaneously broadcast live over the Internet. Oleg Korzhov, Chief Executive Officer, will host the call.



The conference call will take place at the following time:

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

6:00 PM Moscow Time

3:00 PM London Time

10:00 AM New York Time

Please dial the number below approximately 10 minutes prior to the scheduled time of the call.

Conference Call Phone Numbers:

International: +44 (0)330 336 9105

US: +1 323-701-0225

Russia: +7 495 213 1767

Conference ID: 8428628

Listeners can access the conference call live over the Internet through a link on Mechel's web site at http://www.mechel.com/shareholders/report/

Please take 10 minutes prior to the call to visit the site and download presentation and any necessary audio software. Additionally, a record of the webcast will be available on our web site.

Mechel PAO

Alexey Lukashov

Phone: +7 495 221 8888

e-mail: alexey.lukashov@mechel.com

Mechel is an international mining and steel company. Its products are marketed in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa. Mechel unites producers of coal, iron ore concentrate, steel, rolled products, ferroalloys, heat and electric power. All of its enterprises work in a single production chain, from raw materials to high value-added products.

Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Mechel, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not intend to update these statements. We refer you to the documents Mechel files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned Risk Factors and Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements in our Form 20-F, that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, the achievement of anticipated levels of profitability, growth, cost and synergy of our recent acquisitions, the impact of competitive pricing, the ability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals and licenses, the impact of developments in the Russian economic, political and legal environment, volatility in stock markets or in the price of our shares or ADRs, financial risk management and the impact of general business and global economic conditions.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/11/2017 (1818 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Agriculture and the closely tied issue of watershed conservation were both cited as priorities in the Manitoba governments third throne speech earlier this week.

As with any throne speech, government commitments were clouded in ambiguity that wont be clarified until the budget drops early next year, but some stewards working in these areas are enthused by what theyve read.

Keystone Agricultural Producers president Dan Mazier said that with Manitoba pretty stagnant as it relates to agricultural research compared with Saskatchewan during recent years, he hopes to see the throne speech enthusiasm translate into funding dollars come budget 2018-19.

Matt Goerzen/The Brandon Sun) Keystone Agricultural Producers president Dan Mazier, seen addressing Brandon Chamber of Commerce members on at the Victoria Inn Hotel and Convention Centre on Nov. 16, says he hopes provincial throne speech enthusiasm will translate into agricultural research dollars in the next budget.

In the throne speech, its noted that the provincial and federal governments have committed $176 million during the next five years through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

This is the exact same amount that was provided in the previous five-year joint agreement, called Growing Forward 2, and Mazier said it remains unclear as to how much of this funding will be devoted toward research.

The fund covers a wide swath of agricultural efforts that includes research, crop insurance, business risk management, growing agriculture and various other related things.

Since the province has indicated that it wants to grow agriculture and work more with those in the sector, Mazier said that he remains optimistic.

Closely tied to agriculture is the provinces green plan, which the throne speech highlighted briefly in a passage that included a commitment to introducing legislation to strengthen conservation at the watershed level, creating a new licensing regime for water management and working with private landowners to conserve wetlands and natural habitats.

Ducks Unlimited manager of provincial operations Rick Andrews said he was very pleased to see the mention of wetlands in the throne speech.

He said that Ducks Unlimited partners with farmers through various programs in order to help preserve wetlands in as mutually beneficial a manner as possible, which includes a handful of incentive programs.

Some of these wetlands need to be preserved and that might come with legislation  but we also recognize that landowners need to make a living, he said.

While he said that certain nuisance wetlands can, and probably should, be drained for the benefit of the agricultural industry, class three, four and five wetlands those that are of the greatest ecological importance can and should be protected.

The province continues to lose approximately nine acres of wetlands per day, he said, adding, We need to look at a way to stem this loss.

If the provincial government is looking for organizations to take on watershed conservation efforts, they should look no further than the provinces 18 conservation districts, Ryan Canart said.

Manager of the Upper Assiniboine River Conservation District, Canart said that these frontline community-based organizations are already set up to tackle these issues, already boast low overhead and high ambition and are keen to expand operations as needed.

Much needs to be done as it relates to mitigating the impact of agricultural drainage, he said, adding that those in the agricultural sector particularly those just starting off tend to drain wetlands in order to get as much as they can out of their land.

When faced with $1-million debt, can you blame them? he said, adding that with the price of land trending upward, it might just be heavy-handed regulation that protects this las remaining portion of wetland.

While Canart said that both the latest throne speech and the recently released Climate and Green Plan have included promising words related to conservation, he said he wants to see something come of it.

Just make this happen, guys, Canart said, directing his comments to the provincial government. You keep talking about it and it feels like its been forever.

 tclarke@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
24 November 2017

ETAIREIA INVESTMENTS PLC

(Etaireia" or the "Company")

Issue of Equity

Etaireia is pleased to announce that 24,166.667 new ordinary shares have been issued to Blue Oak Assets Limited (representing 21,750 at 0.09p per share) in full settlement of an outstanding loan to the Company.

The Company also announces that 22,222,222 new ordinary shares have been issued to Oliver Fattal (representing 20,000 at 0.09p per share) in partial settlement of deferred cash payment due relating to the acquisition of Pacha Cleator Limited.

Following the issue of the shares above totaling 46,388,889 shares, Etaireia has a total of 2,514,338,844 ordinary shares of 0.01p in issue carrying voting rights. As a result the Company is aware of the following interests in the share capital of the Company:

Name of Shareholder Ordinary Shares held % Holding in Company Oliver Fattal 250,499,145 9.96%

Shareholders may use the above figure as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, Etaireia under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for this announcement.

ENDS



Enquiries:

Etaireia Investments Plc

Tel: 079 1756 5565

Baron Bloom, Chairman



NEX CORPORATE ADVISER:

Alexander David Securities Limited

David Scott - Corporate Finance

James Dewhurst - Institutional Sales

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7448 9820

http://www.ad-securities.com 49 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4N 4SA
"It's a pretty daunting affair to be in one of those big boardrooms and to be surrounded by all those suits, it's frightening," she says. "There's no class that I went to for it, no advice. But most of the time I think they're quite scared of me. They think I'm a real hard arse down at News. I'm not really, I just yelled a lot, I had to, to get over the top of their voices. I was pretty scared, it was a pretty male-dominated industry." Chocolate peanut slice, from Hay's newest book Donna Hay: Basics to Brilliance Kids Credit:Chris Court Hay says she doesn't see the industry changing. "A tiny bit," she says. "Not much. I just kind of ignore it now, I wish I had ignored it earlier." Out on her own

Hay started her career as a home economist and food stylist for The Australian Women's Weekly and worked her way up to food editor of Australia's Marie Claire magazine. In the process Hay created a new style of Australian cuisine featuring simple food photographed with lots of natural light and minimal props. She resigned from Marie Claire after a feature she had worked hard on was cut significantly in the magazine. "It was so heart wrenching when you put everything into a job," she says. "I thought, 'I'm not cut out for this anymore, there has to be something else for me to do'." It was the push Hay needed to go out on her own and in 2001 she launched her eponymous magazine, which she says was originally meant to be called Seasons but was renamed as Donna Hay.

"[At the time] I didn't really think about the ramifications of calling it my name," she says. A household name was born and Hay says this means she has to keep tight creative control. "Everything we do is in the one office," she says. "It's pretty easy to keep an eye on everything and it's pretty important to me as well. I still see everything." That attention to detail has led to a booming business, with every product from Hay's packet cake mixes to her crockery branded in the same signature shade of duck egg blue. "In our OCD world we do have five versions of the same blue depending on what is going on," she says. "I've never taken a business course. I don't know why, I think I've been too busy, it's not because I know everything. I do run on gut a lot. You have to have the confidence to make the wrong decision, that's more important I think, without making mistakes you can't move forward as quickly."

More focused The mother of two says motherhood has made her more focused. "I decided to become a lot more time effective so I don't usually ever go out for lunch," she says. "I used to hide things in my diary like the swimming carnival or my son getting an award. But being a mum is part of my job." In the office Hay says she is the loudest and the "most jovial" as well as being in charge of making drinks on Fridays. "We have really strict hours of work, by 5.30 everyone's out of the office, they can't fuel their creativity by being together all the time, they have to be out in the world," she says.
Sydneysiders are about to enjoy the warmest November week in nearly 50 years, with temperatures to reach or exceed 25 degrees over the next seven days.

While temperatures in the mid-to-high 20s are common for the city this time of year, it's unusual for Sydney to have such a prolonged run of uninterrupted warm weather.

Jumping for joy: Sydneysiders will be able to enjoy the warmest November week in nearly 50 years. Credit:Ben Rushton

"The last time Sydney had seven consecutive days with maximum temperatures equal to, or above, 25 degrees in November was back in 1968, and it's only happened twice in November in the last 118 years," Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino said.

The consistently warm weather is the result of a high pressure system - known as a "blocking high" - that is centred over the Tasman Sea and is stopping any strong cold fronts from moving up Australia's east coast, Mr Domensino said.
Think about it. It's what everyone else doesn't know that moves a share price. If BHP hits its forecasts it doesn't move. If it surprises it does. In which case, to predict a share price, you have to accurately deduce or imagine the things that others haven't.

The only thing that will make you money is knowing what is not in the price and that means working out what assumptions the market has gotten wrong, not right, because as it turns out all the money will be made in the stocks that the analysts get the most wrong.

In other words, you will not make money knowing what everyone knows. You will not make money listening to an adviser telling you about consensus forecasts, price-to-earning ratios and yields, or calculating valuations based on accurate forecasts. All that is valueless, because it is already built into the price.

In order to make any money in the sharemarket you need to focus on the unknown and stop wasting your time on the known. Every year the top- and bottom-performing stocks are not those the market predicts most accurately, the big money is always in the stocks that the market gets most wrong.

There is a saying, "if you are not on the inside you are on the outside", suggesting that the sharemarket is a Machiavellian plot run by the "smart money" which is taking advantage of the "dumb money" and that the only people making money are those with illegal inside information.

Laughably I used to work with a stockbroker who would exploit this desire for an inside edge by whispering everything on the phone like it was a secret. The fact that we had all heard the same story in the morning meeting was irrelevant, his clients thought they were special. Very effective.

But let me tell you, by the time you or I hear what purports to be inside or illegal information, we are the bunny at the end of the chain. What sounds like inside information is often fabricated to serve a purpose, to move the share price. As one seasoned stockbroker once said to me resignedly, "If I'd never been told any inside information in my life, I'd be a million dollars better off."

On the contrary the only "dumb money" is invested by the people who think that you can find stocks going up in price by looking at a spreadsheet of numbers everybody else has got. That's pointless. Far better you go looking for your own insights, or your own legal inside information.

On this front, it may surprise you to know, that a lot of investors don't realise they have their own (legal) inside information but are not bothering to exploit it. Ask yourself, what industry do you work in, who do you know who is doing well, what business are they in? It's all out there in plain sight if you bother to look and ask.
Matt Naysmith says he was known to his mates for making "stupid decisions" when he had been drinking: "getting into partying mode", risk taking and "hopping into cars and not really thinking about the consequences".

But his worst decision was the day the 21-year-old mechanic decided to jump off a waterfall after drinking with about 15 Fly In, Fly Out workmates. Ignoring signs that Mr Naysmith admits clearly said "no climbing", he slipped and crashed onto the rocks below at Fern Pool in Karijini National Park, Western Australia.

Matt Naysmith and mates carrying eskies and inner tubes on the way to the rockpool where he jumped and broke his neck.

Waiting for the ambulance that "beautiful hot sunny day coming up to Christmas", Mr Naysmith couldn't move and felt nothing. He recalled thinking, "This should hurt."

That was when the future of the young mechanic, who had been "living the dream" near Marble Bar  earning good money, living in his own house and saving to go overseas  changed irrevocably.
As Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk utters almost daily with conviction: "Queensland is a big state".

With 93 seats in play in the state election - 31 in the south-east - Labor and the LNP have had to prioritise their strategies based on defensively holding onto already-won electorates versus trying to pick up new seats.

The view of Brisbane from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's plane in one of its last flights of the campaign. Credit:Tracey Nearmy/AAP

North and far north Queensland were popular, with Ms Palaszczuk and LNP leader Tim Nicholls spending 11 days there.

After calling the election on October 29, Ms Palaszczuk hopped on plane to Proserpine, while Mr Nicholls finally flew into Townsville when he secured a plane on day four.
The standoff on Manus Island came to a violent end on Friday as Papua New Guinea police re-entered the camp and appeared to forcibly remove refugees and asylum seekers.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, a PNG police spokesman, and several refugees separately confirmed all the men left the decommissioned site on Friday.

The men, who had refused to leave the decommissioned detention centre for more than three weeks, capitulated and boarded buses for alternative accommodation in the nearby town of Lorengau.

"We don't have any option to stay here. All of us, we all are going," Pakistani refugee Samad Abdul told Fairfax Media from inside the camp, where he was preparing to leave once buses returned.
Hamilton, Bermuda, 24 November 2017 - Reference is made to the stock exchange notice on 15 December 2016, in which Hoegh LNG Holdings Ltd. ("Hoegh LNG" or "the company") announced that it had signed an FSRU contract with Global Energy Infrastructure Limited ("GEI") for GEI's LNG import project in Pakistan.

As explained in its third quarter 2017 financial report issued 16 November 2017, Hoegh LNG has considered its options under the contract with GEI, and has today informed GEI that it has concluded to terminate the FSRU charter agreement signed 15 December 2016.

However, Hoegh LNG is involved in several ongoing processes for alternative employment for FSRU #9, which was originally intended for the GEI project, and the company remains optimistic that firm FSRU employment will be in place before delivery end 2018.

* * *

About Hoegh LNG:



Hoegh LNG provides floating energy solutions and operates world-wide with a leading position as owner and operator of floating LNG import terminals; floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), and is one of the most experienced operators of LNG Carriers (LNGCs). Hoegh LNG's vision is to be the industry leader of floating LNG solutions and the strategy is to continue to focus its growth plans in the FSRU market, with the objective of securing long-term contracts with strong counterparties at attractive returns. Hoegh LNG is a Bermuda based company with established presence in Norway, Singapore, the UK, USA, South Korea, Indonesia, Lithuania, Egypt, Colombia, China and Turkey. The company employs approximately 115 office staff and 500 seafarers.

Contacts:

Sveinung J. S. Sthle, President and Chief Executive Officer, Telephone +47 975 57 402

Steffen Freid, Chief Financial Officer, Telephone +47 975 57 406

Erik Folkeson, Head of IR, Telephone +47 414 21 769

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act or the Continuing Obligations of Oslo Brs.
On the day you vote, you must number every box on your ballot paper.

More than 3 million people will vote in the Queensland election. Credit:Paul Harris

A number of things have changed since the last state election - Queensland now has Full Preferential Voting, and there are four new electorates - so here is a rundown of what you need to know ahead of casting your vote.

More than 3 million Queenslanders have to cast their vote either on or before Saturday, November 25.

While FPV (also known as compulsory preferential voting) may take longer to count, it means as a voter your vote still counts even if your first choice does not win the seat.

If one candidate secures a clear majority of first preference votes, then they win the seat. If there is no clear majority, however, electoral officers will remove the candidate with the lowest number of votes from the count.

The second preference votes for that candidate would then be counted and redistributed to the remaining candidates.

Second preferences may win a candidate a seat, but the process can continue until all preferences are exhausted and one candidate has a majority - so if a fight for an electorate is tight, it takes time for a clear winner to emerge.

This is a change from previous state elections - the government changed the voting system in 2016 - but its the same system used to elect members of the House of Representatives in a federal election.
Queenslanders will soon discover if either of the major parties have arrived at their final destination in the long road to secure the 47 seats needed to win a majority.

Labor and the LNP both go into the Queensland election with 41 seats and the need to win six more to govern in their own right.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk hopes she has done enough to lead Labor on its path to a majority 47 seats. Credit:AAP Image/ Dan Peled

Labor is polling slightly ahead of the LNP, and a Galaxy poll revealed a tale of two states, with support for Labor higher in the capital, and a backlash in the regions.

Griffith University political expert Paul Williams said he believed Labor would win more seats than it lost, and the LNP would lose more seats than it won on Saturday.
Adani undoubtedly distracted from the key messages the party was trying to deliver before pre-polling opened, with up to one-third expected to vote before this Saturday. The campaign changed tack on the first Friday, when Ms Palaszczuk announced she would veto an almost $1 billion loan to Adani from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, blaming an alleged smear campaign about her partner's work on the loan application. Later, Ms Palaszczuk's rhetoric shifted, insisting it was always an election commitment not to give taxpayer funds to Adani. "We've always had that election commitment but I put to rest any doubt by announcing the veto," she said. Ms Palaszczuk denied the issue of Adani had derailed her campaign.

"At the end of the day, Adani has said that their project will stack up financially by themselves and now they should get on with it," she said. Labor wants to remind voters that LNP leader Tim Nicholls was premier Campbell Newman's treasurer. Credit:Renee Melides Ms Palaszczuk said the five key policy differences between Labor and the LNP were in the areas of jobs, health, education, environment and the economy. "I think you only have to go through first of all jobs, I've been very much focused on delivering jobs and frontline services. The LNP under Tim Nicholls sacked 14,000, I don't think they have a good track record when it comes to jobs," she said. "When you look at health, again, we have delivered record budgets, they cut, Tim Nicholls cut health services, he hasn't made a significant health announcement during this whole election campaign."

The Greens have been fighting hard to get an MP into Parliament, but Ms Palaszczuk said she believed her deputy Jackie Trad would hold on in South Brisbane against Greens contender Amy MacMahon. "I'm very confident that Jackie will retain that seat," she said. Ms Palaszczuk, who said she would go into opposition rather than make any deals, was short and sharp when asked about the potential of forming a government with independents, the Katters or Greens. "I said no deals," she said. "I'm going for a majority.

"I've said no." Labor MP Jo-Ann Miller greeted One Nation leader Pauline Hanson with a hug and some booties for her new grandson, despite Labor's attempts to link the resurgent party with the LNP. Credit:AAP Image, Darren England She was just as succinct when asked if maverick Bundamba MP Jo-Ann Miller, who was photographed embracing One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, had been an unnecessary distraction to her campaign, after Labor had repeatedly drawn a link between One Nation and the LNP. "No," she said. Could she see Ms Miller, who was once her police minister, rejoining the cabinet?

"I'm not even going to talk about that. I'm focused on election day," she said. Ms Palaszczuk said she hoped she could get a majority of 47 seats, and revealed the start of the road to getting there. "We're doing everything we possibly can, we were up in Toowoomba North yesterday. Today we were up on the Sunshine Coast, so you know, these are the sort of seats that do come into play if a government is, you know, trending towards a majority," she said. That journey will be made more complicated by the decision to introduce compulsory preferential voting, the resurgence of One Nation and a backlash from the public against politicians. But Ms Palaszczuk said the protest vote was not new.
Bangkok: Human Rights Watch has described an agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh to begin repatriating more than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar's violence-wracked Rakhine State as "laughable" and a "public relations stunt."

In a brief statement Bangladesh said the neighbouring countries had agreed to start returning Rohingya to Rakhine within two months. The agreement was signed on Thursday in Naypyitaw.

Myanmar's Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe, right, shakes hands with Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdul Hassan Mahmud Ali after signing the deal in Naypyitaw. Credit:AP

It comes as the Turnbull Government has for the first time used the term "ethnic cleansing" while referring to atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's violence-wracked Rakhine state.

A day after the United States accused Myanmar security forces of committing "horrendous" crimes that amount to ethnic cleansing, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told Fairfax Media
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi attends the ASEAN Summit in Manila this month. Credit:AP The idea that states have the right to act within their borders and protect their interests dates back centuries. It is in many ways the core principle around which the international system is built. When a state invokes sovereignty, as Myanmar did by calling its actions a domestic security matter, it becomes far harder to organise action. Then US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with then US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power during a 2015 meeting on the conflict in Syria. Credit:AP "We can talk about responsibility to protect, we can talk about living in an age of human rights, but this is a system of states," said Kate Cronin-Furman, a Harvard University fellow who studies mass atrocities. "And states have privileges and rights that are baked into the international system. It's very hard to generate the will or the momentum to impinge upon that."

When the Philippines launched a "war on drugs" that killed thousands, foreign leaders protested but were unable or unwilling to override what President Rodrigo Duterte described as internal policing decisions. One of two people killed in a double shooting in the Manila suburb of Baclaran, lies in the street. Credit:Kate Geraghty In such cases, the world has two options. It can override sovereignty, imposing change from the outside. Or it circumvents sovereignty by persuading or pressuring actors within the country to effect change. With Myanmar, conditions are ripe for neither. 2. A Unified Nation Followers of Ashin Wirathu, an ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk, watch him deliver a sermon in June 2013. Public opinion among Myanmar's Burmese majority runs strongly against recognising Rohingya rights. Credit:New York Times

Though discussion often focuses on halting genocides and crackdowns already in full swing, the greatest and easiest successes may come in preventing them from ever occurring. In Egypt in 2011, security forces that had spent days firing on anti-government protesters appeared on the verge of far greater violence. Instead, under international pressure, the military deposed the government, stood down security forces and promised elections. Ashin Wirathu, an ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk, at Thein Taung Monastery in Taunggyi, Myanmar. Credit:New York Times The pressure worked by exploiting pre-existing divisions within Egypt, including among the ruling elite. In Myanmar, however, citizens and elites appear near-universally united against the Rohingya. Kyaw Thu, who runs the Yangon-based civil society group Paung-Ku, said the crisis was "polarising society" in support of the military and against critics, including foreign governments.

Rohingya women stand on a hill near the border with Myanmar, outside Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit:New York Times Leaders and institutions ultimately care more about pressures at home, where stakes are highest and most immediate, than those from abroad. "State forces commit atrocities when they have strong incentives to do so," Cronin-Furman said. "And to counteract those incentives, you have to have something pretty substantial on the other side of the balance." Rohingya children study the Koran at a makeshift mosque in a refugee camp outside Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit:New York Times This is why, she added, "I'm not sure that even with all of the options available for exerting influence if there was something that would have prevented this."

In Sri Lanka, this may have constrained global action against the military there, which committed extensive atrocities against ethnic Tamil civilians and rebels but enjoyed strong support from majority Sinhalese leaders and citizens. An aerial view of the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh. Credit:New York Times 3. No Access Sometimes the most effective pressure comes through personal relationships. US military officials could call up the Egyptian generals they had worked alongside for years, for instance, appealing quietly and directly. Few ethnic groups on Earth have been locked into such hopeless logic as the Rohingya, now marooned on an international border, unwanted by either side, weary, traumatised, stateless, their very origins in dispute. Credit:New York Times

This is a ready first option because nearly every country on Earth relies on one of the great powers, which will have many points of contact and a range of issues on which it can exert leverage. Even if that great power has little concern for its partner's abuses, it may listen to other great powers, as Russia has sometimes done when Central Asian allies appeared on the verge of atrocities. Myanmar may be an exception because of a quirk of its transition to democracy, in process since about 2010. Rohingya refugees near the Naf River separating Myanmar and Bangladesh in September, as villages in Myanmar are set ablaze, allegedly by Myanmar's military. Credit:New York Times It was once close to China. Its leaders, feeling abused by Beijing, opened up partly in hopes of aligning instead with the West. It is currently between great power sponsors. Western diplomats here say they have little access to military or civilian leaders, with whom they have few long-standing relationships. With scant ongoing deals that they could use as leverage, their choices are either to say nothing or to publicly condemn, which would risk ending what little access they have.

Rohingya refugees after crossing the Naf River from Myanmar, near the village of Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh. Credit:New York Times South Sudan presented a similar dilemma. Though government-backed forces attacked civilians openly, the world had little pre-existing leverage with leaders of this young, poor and largely isolated country. 4. Great Power Gridlock Pressuring a country from the outside can be even harder. International action tends to work only when it is perceived as a matter of global consensus, which in practice is determined by the great powers.

This requires the powers to all agree or at least acquiesce, as they did with 2005 sanctions on Sudan over its actions in Darfur and with the 2011 intervention in Libya. Otherwise, any one power can veto action or shield the target state. As a result, serious pressure is often reserved for countries that have made enemies of all the great powers, as had Sudan and Libya. Myanmar has not. Aiding the Rohingya offers little strategic benefit to the great powers. But it would risk their influence in Myanmar at a moment when both China and Western powers are worried the country will embrace the other side. The powers may be most constrained by divisions among one another over North Korea, Syria and Ukraine, all of which rank higher on their agendas than does Myanmar. "You could say this about a lot of human rights norms," Cronin-Furman said. "We're committed to them and invested in making them work as long as it's not running up against something more important."

This may also help explain the world's failure to forestall humanitarian crises in Yemen, which has been devastated by bombings led by Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich nation close to the United States. 5. No Gatekeepers This has created what Roland Paris, a University of Ottawa political scientist, termed the "mixed-motives problem". Because great powers pursue altruistic missions when it is in their self-interest, those missions invite charges of hypocrisy. As a result, the powers need local or regional actors to invite them to act, giving the mission legitimacy. In Libya, for instance, intervention required the blessing of the Arab League. This elevates regional actors into "gatekeepers" whose approval is crucial for coordinating international action, according to research by political scientists Alex Bellamy and Paul Williams.

Though a number of Myanmar's neighbours have condemned the violence, they are wary of going much further. India, Turkey and other nearby countries face international criticism for crackdowns against what they consider domestic terrorists. Even if these states do not believe Myanmar's claims of rooting out terrorists, they fear setting a precedent that could be turned against them. 6. No Cards to Play The Rohingya themselves may be the final point of failure. International politics, though presented as a realm of pure values and reason, is still politics. The Rohingya, through no fault of their own, like many victims worldwide, are too poor and powerless to take part.

There is no Rohingya lobby to push their cause in world capitals or within complex foreign bureaucracies, as Kurdish groups were able to do. Nor is there an organised Rohingya diaspora that can mobilise student groups and social media campaigns. Western governments "know that the welfare of the Rohingya is not galvanising their respective electorates to the extent that they need to take any meaningful action", Aidan Hehir, a scholar at University of Westminster, wrote at Duck of Minerva, a political science site. With virtually every necessary condition for action absent - except, of course, for the atrocities themselves - Hehir concluded, "we can hardly be surprised at this latest triumph of realpolitik over human rights in Myanmar". Loading New York Times
President Emmanuel Macron poses with workers before meeting construction businessmen in Paris in October. Credit:AP And when a country is more open to change, it sees the world not in terms of threats but opportunities, Lecourtier says. Losing its grip Since the 1980s, when Germany reuinified and the Eastern European countries were accepted into the EU, there has been the impression in France that they were "losing grip on globalisation, on what's going on; that they don't know how to compete, they don't know how to win in a more global world. "We were almost paralysed," Lecourtier says. "I am not saying it's all done and it's in the pocket, but for the very first time there's a sort of turning point."

Macron is determined but he is also lucky. Europe as a whole is bouncing back from the financial crisis in industrial production, unemployment is decreasing, the competitiveness of its companies is better. There is stable ground on which to build. And he is building on it, at astonishing speed. The President has already pushed through new labour laws seeking to energise entrepreneurship, to rewrite France's social pact and allow companies the right to hire and fire more freely, wiping away rules that made them overly cautious in expanding, reducing the influence of unions on workplace conditions. Unions protesting against labour law reforms in France this month. Credit:AP He has abolished a wealth tax that encouraged the rich and successful to leave the country with their assets and warded off speculators and investors.

Macron is financially constrained  the state is highly in debt  but he hopes that his work so far will bring in more money, more projects, more foreign investment. And as the deficit falls he hopes to find wriggle-room to ratchet down company tax and continue the virtuous cycle of economic growth, lifting all boats. Next he plans huge welfare and training reform, along with a project of re-investing in poorer suburbs, re-opening public services and improving schools and hospitals in the unemployment-ravaged "banlieue" suburbs where crime  and Islamist extremism  breeds. "It's a revolution," says Lecourtier. "Now there is a huge demand from the people, and Macron knows he will have to work hard not to disappoint them." Macron is working hard not to lose momentum. "As many decisions as possible have to be taken before next summer," Lecourtier says. "He has to do as much as possible in the first 12 months." Beauty contest

Agnes Romatet-Espagne, director of communications at the foreign ministry, says Macron believes "we should not even take a breath between legislation". "There is not one aspect of political life which is not going to go through changes in the next months or years. The speed is pretty quick. Typically the French are anxious about changes but for the time being there are not major protests," Romatet-Espagne says. "They were aware of what to expect, it hasn't taken anyone by surprise." The universe seems to be conspiring to favour Macron. Brexit has created a growing crisis of confidence on the other side of the channel, and business is looking south. There is a beauty contest between Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid and Dublin to lure bankers and corporate headquarters into Europe, and Paris is putting on an impressive show.

Arnaud de Bresson, head of Paris Europlace, the equivalent of the City of London, says there was going to be a rebalancing anyway after a two-decade obsession with London, and Paris sees itself as the financial centre of the European Union, the only global city of the EU, with the culture, the allure, the stability and the infrastructure to win corporate hearts. This week's announcement that Paris would be the new headquarters for the European Banking Authority was the icing on the cake. "I am sometimes dazed by the [amount] of good news we are receiving," says Romatet-Espagne. She adds that Macron has grand plans on the world stage, too. His headline-grabbing handshake battle with Trump was a signal of intent. Macron recently gathered his ambassadors and gave them a new mission: their priority is France's safety and security. This translates into an imperative to work to fix problems in the Middle East and Africa, to take control of both France and Europe's borders.

Why the hurry? "Look at the state of the world," Romatet-Espagne says. "Don't you have a feeling of emergency? Look at the mood of Europe before the elections in France and the Netherlands. Don't you feel a sense of emergency? "Really we missed [dodged] a bullet here. It was a close call, we have to be aware of that. Not acting would be a big mistake." 'Climbing Everest without oxygen' Macron's most audacious foreign policy is to remake Europe. He wants to head off the populist, nationalist wave with a "Europe that protects": one that reassures and re-empowers its citizens; one that is more sceptical of and cautious in supporting Brussels' international trade deals (bad news for Australia, which is in the first stages of pushing for a free trade agreement with the EU).

At the Sorbonne in September, Macron said Europe was "where our battle lies, our history, our identity". But "today it finds itself weaker, exposed to the squalls of today's globalisation and, surely even worse, the ideas which offer themselves up as preferable solutions". While Brexit inspired some European solidarity, it arose from a distrust of Brussels and a retreat from globalism that is not unique to the British Isles. Macron's answer is to bring Europe together on defence, with new shared military and intelligence capabilities that complement NATO's, and to more effectively police its borders and "preserve our values". This means faster asylum processing and the expulsion of those who do not need protection. He wants to reform the common agricultural policy, to deepen co-operation on the environment, to more closely co-ordinate European education, economic policies and national budgets. The plan has already met push-back. Slovakia's Europe minister, Ivan Korcok, said Macron's long-term vision for the EU was "like climbing Everest without oxygen. We need to go with the team, start in the first camp."

And Macron has a big problem: Germany. He needed a friendly, influential Merkel on board, but instead there is paralysis across the border, as Merkel seems unable to pull together a ruling coalition after a disastrous election. Macron needed a strong ally in Angela Merkel in Germany. Credit:AP More ritual than revolt But Macron cannot afford to take his eye off the domestic ball, either. In France the gap between rich and poor has been growing for years, and Macron's plans will not obviously reverse that, at least in the immediate future. He has already been dubbed in some quarters the "president for the rich".

He plans to cut spending by 16 billion next year, including a civil servants pay freeze, making their first day of sick leave unpaid, and the loss of nearly 1600 public jobs  with 120,000 to go by 2022. Especially in France, where the social model is a matter of faith, this doesn't sound like progress. "In the space of a few weeks, Macron has gone from being Jupiter to Thatcher without any warning," said state sector union leader Pierre-Marie Ganozzi. Macron still has little effective opposition. The socialist left is subdued, distracted by its internal squabbles. The right is fractured by the success of Le Pen's National Front, which itself is starting to bicker and fragment. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the radical-left rabble-rouser who caused a stir with his surprisingly lively presidential run, tried to regain momentum this northern autumn with a call for a "casserolade", a saucepan-banging protest like the ones that echoed across Barcelona this summer.

"This would tell Macron that his economic reforms "ruin our life and keep us from dreaming, so we stop you from sleeping," Melenchon declared. But the turnout was minuscule, and France slept on. French unions have four times tried to rally street protests against Macron's labour law reform, with some success. But in the most recent, the turnout fell. The obligatory scuffles amid the tear gas looked more like a ritual than revolt. A man wearing a mask of of French President Emmanuel Macron attends a demonstration in Paris this month. Credit:AP Macron's biggest political opponent, for now, is himself. He can lapse into contemptuous anger at those hurt by his reforms  he caused an uproar in October when he told workers at a factory protesting against job losses to stop "wreaking f---ing havoc" and look for work elsewhere. He called opponents of reform "slackers".

Guy Sorman, a respected public intellectual and French-American professor in politics and economics, wrote earlier this year that "Macronism" has its roots in a particularly French mindset: a longing for an enlightened despot. Macron is another in the mould of Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles de Gaulle, Sorman said in Le Monde: a philosopher-king who appeals to the French scepticism of democracy and romantic longing for an unapologetically powerful ruler who forces change through revolution rather than consensus. But reality always hits, sooner or later. And the people realise they have to take to the streets to depose their idols. "The despots, at first enlightened, change as they get older," Sorman said. "They disappoint, or they are drunk on power. Loading
Washington: Lawyers for Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, notified the president's legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the special counsel's investigation, according to four people involved in the case, an indication that Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors or negotiating such a deal.

Flynn's lawyers had been sharing information with Trump's lawyers about the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is examining whether anyone around Trump was involved in Russian efforts to undermine Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

That agreement has been terminated, the four people said. Defence lawyers frequently share information during investigations, but they must stop when doing so would pose a conflict of interest. It is unethical for lawyers to work together when one client is cooperating with prosecutors and another is still under investigation.

The notification alone does not prove that Flynn is cooperating with Mueller. Some lawyers withdraw from information-sharing arrangements as soon as they begin negotiating with prosecutors. And such negotiations sometimes fall apart.
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This opera is a musical tribute to the dead.

An experimental multimedia opera about the Nubian diaspora will open in Boerum Hill next week  one year after the death of one of its creators. The Nubian Word for Flowers, playing on Nov. 30 at Roulette, was written by composer Pauline Oliveros, who died in November of 2016, in collaboration with her wife, the playwright and artist Ione, who says that completing the project is a way to honor her wifes legacy.

This is bringing awareness to the diaspora of the Nubian people to the world, but the mission of this project at this point is to finish it, said Ione. Pauline and I worked collegially on the project, traveling from Venice to Cairo, working with Egyptian artists.

The show reflects the experience of the pair traveling to Egypt, and also deals with the effects of the Aswan High Dam in southern Egypt in 1964, which flooded the ancestral home of the Nubian people and caused a mass migration across the world. The piece, subtitled A Phantom Opera, also explores the ghosts of colonialism, with an appearances from Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener of Khartoum, the British officer who oversaw the region during the late 1800s.

The piece will use songs, music, and video projection to tell its story, with images projected onto triangular screens meant to reflect the sails of boats from the 19th century. The video elements are a rare example of technology contributing to the telling of a story, according to the founder of Experiments in Opera, which is co-producing the evening.

Experimental opera tends to shy away from multimedia, because the question is about what the best way is to serve their opera. When people use video because they want to substitute for and create a big experience otherwise, it will just be cheap, said Aaron Siegel.

Oliveros was a giant in the field of electronic and experimental music, and she founded the deep listening approach, which deals with focusing the audiences attention on echoes and reverberant sounds. The play incorporates some of Oliveross approach, according to Siegel

As an audience member, there are opportunities to listen deeply in the second half, he said.

Ione and Oliveross opera will be followed by a work-in-progress performance of Rainbird, an opera based on the work of poet Janet Frame.
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They started the season with a skal!

Scores of families flocked to Brooklyn Heights on Saturday to kick-off the holiday season at a Scandinavian yuletide bash filled with Nordic food, drinks, and gifts that offered attendees a festive taste of the region, according to an event volunteer.

Some of these special Christmas decorations are really cute and remind you immediately of Denmark, said Helena Barton, a native Dane who moved to the United States last year and traveled from Connecticut to work at the Danish Christmas Fair. Just seeing the crowds, the interest, and the excitement, I get nostalgic for Christmas in Scandinavia.

Officials from the Danish Seamans Church hosted the annual event, which occupied spaces at the Willow Street house of worship as well as at nearby Plymouth Church, on Hicks Street, and took place ahead of Thanksgiving in order to welcome expatriates from Denmark who return to their home country for the holidays.

Kitchen volunteers whipped up traditional holiday treats such as bleskiver, spherical popover-like pastries, and glgg, a type of mulled wine, for guests at the seamens church, while workers at Plymouth Church served open-faced sandwiches called smrrebrd.

And the food-filled fair was also a one-stop stocking-stuffer shop, according to one Dane who brought her youngsters along and said shes been coming to forage for trinkets  many of which are otherwise only sold in Denmark  for 40 years.

Its the place in the tri-state area to get Christmas things from Denmark for the holidays, said Anina Rossen, who traveled from faraway New Jersey to attend. We bought some Danish chocolate, herring, Danish rye bread, and some Danish candy.

Reach reporter Julianne Cuba at (718) 2604577 or by e-mail at jcuba @cngl ocal.com . Follow her on Twitter @julcuba.
Deloitte has today released its latest European CFO Survey which finds that business leaders across Europe are more optimistic than they were six months ago and the outlook for revenue growth, hiring and capital spending is improving.



Forty three of Europes CFOs say they are more optimistic about the prospects for their company than they were three months ago, up from 38% in the first quarter survey. Just 11% say they are less optimistic, down from 13%.

In Ireland, 56% of CFOs say they are more optimistic, while just 14% indicated they are less optimistic. Optimism is highest in France, with 78% of CFOs more positive, and lowest in the Netherlands with 23% more optimistic.



Fifty one percent of Irish CFOs rate the overall level of uncertainty facing their business as high, compared with 79% in the first quarter 2017. Widespread expectations of revenue growth are prevalent once more  four in every five CFOs surveyed anticipate this financial metric will continue to rise in the next year.

Irish CFOs are most bullish amongst their European counterparts with regards to capital expenditure  58% plan to invest in their business by increasing capex, directly aligning to their top priority of driving organic growth within their businesses.



Commenting on the research, Partner at Deloitte Ireland and EMEA CFO Programme Lead, Alan Flanagan said, "Here in Ireland, the findings mark a noticeable recovery from some of the shocks to the market in 2016, namely Brexit and the US presidential election. The identification of geopolitical risks and currency fluctuations amongst the top risks in the minds of the Irish CFOs demonstrates that they are not getting ahead of themselves, but the survey results certainly highlight some stabilisation over the last six months."

He added, "With the economic outlook improving and levels of uncertainty receding, CFOs are able to shift their focus to longer term issues, planning for more expansionary strategies and capital investment. Its encouraging that over half of Irish CFOs are expecting to recruit, although the availability of people, with the required shills, may be a challenge in this regard."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
SANDAL PLC

("Sandal" or the "Company")

RESULT OF AGM

24 NOVEMEBER 2017

The Company announces that at the Annual General Meeting of shareholders held today all resolutions were duly passed.

This announcement contains information which, prior to its disclosure, was inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

The directors of Sandal Plc accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

Ends

Enquiries:

Sandal Plc 01279 422022

Alan Tadd, CEO

Oliver Tadd, Director

www.sandal-plc.co.uk

Cairn Financial Advisers LLP

David Coffman/Jo Turner 020 7213 0880

MB Communications

Maxine Barnes 07860 489571

Notes to editors:

Sandal plc commenced business in 1996 and joined NEX in March 2015. The Company designs, develops and manufactures consumer electronics products. Its business is divided into two distinct product groups, PowerConnections, a long established wholesaler and reseller of a successful and patented range of converter plugs and power cables, and Energenie, which sells a newer product range that includes energy saving products, portable charging devices and the new Energenie MiHome range of products aimed at the "Home Automation" and "Internet of Things" marketplace.

The range of Energenie MiHome home automation products makes the remote operation of everyday household appliances and energy monitoring more accessible through integration with smartphone and tablet connectivity. The Energenie MiHome range is also integrated with the major players in the home automation market including Google Nest and Amazon Echo. Energenie MiHome products are available through a number of mainstream retailers including Amazon, Argos and Sainsbury's. In addition Energenie also offers Eco and electrical, travel and energy saving products for homes and offices, reducing energy usage and the Home Automation sector. It has store listings for its current products with several large retailers including Homebase, Maplin, Amazon, Screwfix, Toolstation and ASDA.

PowerConnections is a supplier to customers, in the UK and abroad, of single-phase electrical connection products. The products are manufactured in three partner factories in the Far East and have distributors worldwide for its range of patented converter plugs. The Company's product portfolio consists of International Power Leads, Rewireable Plugs, Converters and Connectors. These products are stocked in the Far East, Australia and UK.
The Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection Pat Breen, TD has welcomed the publication of the 2017 Small Business Act (SBA) Fact sheet for Ireland.

The SBA Fact Sheets are produced annually by the European Commission and aim to improve understanding of recent trends and national policies affecting SMEs across the European Union. Irelands SBA profile continues to be competitive and the Fact sheet shows improvements on last years performance. In the area of skills and innovation, the Fact Sheet finds that Ireland is the top performer in the EU. Another measure where Ireland scores particularly well is the percentage of public contracts being secured abroad by SMEs. This is at 17.2% many multiples of the EU average of 2.6%

In eight of the nine SBA areas  entrepreneurship, second chance, responsive administration, state aid & public procurement, access to finance, single market, skills & innovation and internationalisation  Ireland performs above or well above the EU average. On the environment, Ireland performs in line with the EU average.

During 2016 and the first quarter of 2017, which is the reference period for policy measures in this years SBA fact sheet, Ireland implemented a substantial (17) number of relevant policy measures and announced a further three planned measures that will improve conditions for small businesses. A total of 20 measures address 6 out of the 10 policy areas under the Small Business Act. Overall, the stakeholders acknowledge that the progress made in implementing the SBA has been substantial.



Welcoming the publication of the SBA Fact Sheet, Minister Breen said, "I am pleased to see positive results for Ireland in the SBA Sheet again this year. Our rankings have been improving since the publication of Irelands first ever National Entrepreneurship Policy Statement in 2014. The Policy Statement sets out a plan until 2020 and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation will shortly publish a mid-term review outlining what has been achieved to date."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
It was announced today that the six ambitious companies who were selected in June to take part in The Thrive Project, an initiative created by Coca-Cola in partnership with Enterprise Ireland, made their way over to London this week for a special two-day Marketing Innovation and Strategy masterclass.

The masterclass, hosted between Coca-Cola GB Headquarters and the Enterprise Ireland office in London, gave the participants the opportunity to meet experts on marketing, digital communications, innovation, consumer insights and social media strategies.



'The Thrive Project' is designed to provide the founders with the insights, expertise and innovative ideas on branding, packaging and marketing from some of Coca-Colas global experts which will help fuel the companies growth for the future. It is part of a six month programme developed to inspire and support ambition amongst some of Irelands fastest growing food and drink start-ups.



The six companies were given an overview of Coca-Colas innovation and marketing strategyas well as a preview of some of their new product launches. The day also consisted of strategy sessions from Coca-Cola experts in the areas of media planning, digital marketing, social media, research and consumer trends.

The Coca-Cola experts shared their experience, expertise and mistakes so that the entrepreneurs could take as much of the information as possible and apply it to their own businesses.

Day two took the group on a study visits to see the latest trends in health and wellness. They then made their way to the Enterprise Ireland London office where Holland & Barrett and a top London PR firm talked them through innovation and brand strategy.



Speaking this week, Orla Battersby from Enterprise Ireland said, "The Thrive Project is an initiative we are proud to get behind and we are delighted to partner with Coca-Cola for the second year in a row. Enterprise Irelands strategy is to support Irish businesses to build scale and expand their reach into international markets. The unique concept about this programme is that it combines Coca Colas market and global insights with Enterprise Irelands know-how in business development, allowing the entrepreneurs to gain invaluable knowledge on how to go about scaling businesses and operations."



Marketing Director at Coca-Cola GB and Ireland, Aedamar Howlett added, "I am delighted that we are in a position to partner with Enterprise Ireland to give these six great start-up businesses a boost. We hope that the trip to London has been extremely beneficial to each company and that they have gone home inspired and even more motivated than before."



Source: www.businessworld.ie


British Prime Minister Theresa May repeated her wish on Friday to make a joint move with the European Union to open negotiations on a post-Brexit trade deal.

Speaking to reporters on arrival at a Brussels summit with ex-Soviet states, she said she would talk to EU summit chair Donald Tusk later in the day about "positive negotiations we're having, looking ahead to the future deep and special partnership that I want with the European Union."

"What I'm clear about is that we must step forward together," she added. "This is for both the UK and for the European Union to move on to the next stage."

The EU wants May to improve her financial and other offers before opening trade talks. May has said she wants guarantees of trade talks before making a new offer.

May will discuss Brexit plans with European Council President Tusk at 4:30 p.m. (1530 GMT) on Friday, the EU summit chair's office said, confirming the time of talks.

EU officials are waiting for signs from May that she is ready to strike a deal on finances and other issues to conclude a first phase of talks next month on Britain's withdrawal in order to secure EU agreement to negotiate a future trade pact.

EU negotiators are not expecting a major move from May as early as Friday. She has said she wants a guarantee of opening trade talks if she increases Britain's financial offer. EU officials say they are working on a "joint report" that will confirm in public the results of the first stage of bargaining.

May will meet Tusk, the former Polish prime minister, after he has chaired an EU summit in Brussels at which six former Soviet neighbors including Ukraine are discussing their partnership with the European Union. May said that Britain would remain committed to European security after it leaves the EU.

Aside from how much Britain will pay the Union on leaving in March 2019 to cover outstanding commitments, EU leaders also want to see better terms from London for the rights of EU citizens living in Britain after Brexit and more detail on how it will avoid a disruptive "hard border" in Northern Ireland.

A domestic government crisis in Dublin has raised further questions about how Ireland will be able to sign off on any deal. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, representing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at the summit, told reporters that the threat by Fianna Fail to bring down the minority government over calls for the deputy premier to resign were irresponsible.

Ireland did not need a new election now, Coveney said.

He stressed that Ireland would not approve a move to trade talks if there were not "sufficient progress" toward a clear plan from Britain on how to avoid a hard border.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he thought talks were making progress and he would see after his own meeting in Brussels with May on Dec. 4 whether there was sufficient progress to recommend that leaders who meet again at a summit on Dec. 14-15 should launch future trade talks. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
State-owned oil giant China National Petroleum Corp. will spend the next year moving its various services units into a new company that will eventually be listed. The new oil services company will have roughly 172.3 billion yuan in assets and 68.1 billion yuan in debt. Photo: Visual China

State-owned oil giant China National Petroleum Corp. (PetroChina) is undergoing a restructuring to consolidate its money-losing services units into a new company, with plans to list the firm, sources at the company told Caixin.

The overhaul now taking place will see PetroChina consolidate its various units engaged in oil exploration, drilling, engineering and other services into a single company. PetroChina held a meeting to discuss the plans structure and implementation on Wednesday, where a team leading the project passed a reform plan, a knowledgeable source told Caixin.

The company will spend the next year moving its various services units into the new company, which will eventually make a public listing. The new company will have assets worth about 172.3 billion yuan ($26 billion), 68.1 billion yuan in debt and around 180,000 employees. It would become the worlds third largest oil services company, behind global giants Schlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton.

Many such companies sunk into the loss column in recent years due to low oil prices, which have dampened demand for services associated with development of new wells. Both Schlumberger and Halliburton lost money last year, and the latter also lost money in 2015.

Units being put into the new PetroChina services company posted a collective loss of 2.3 billion yuan last year. That came as the companys revenues have declined steadily over the last three years, from 136.7 billion yuan in 2014 to 98 billion yuan last year.

But the situation has improved this year, and PetroChina reported a better-than-expected first half profit for this year as crude oil prices rebounded.

PetroChinas net profit for the first half reached 12.7 billion yuan, way up from 528 million yuan in the similar period last year, the state oil giant reported. It was the highest six-month profit since the first half of 2015.

PetroChinas revenue also rose 32% to 975.9 billion for the first half of the year on higher prices of crude oil, natural gas and other products, as well as an increase in sales volume.

Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)
Chinese shares stabilized after taking a tumble yesterday, quelling fears of a stock market correction.

The CSI 300 Index, which tracks 300 large- and mid-cap stocks on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges fell by nearly 3% in its largest single-day drop in 17 months. At the end of trading Friday, it was up 0.04%.

The Shanghai stock market stabilized on Friday after experiencing its largest single-day drop of the year a day earlier.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks all stocks traded on the citys bourse, inched up 0.06% on Friday after shedding 2.3% on Thursday.

Similar to corrections seen in April-June 2016, December 2016-January 2017, as well as April-May 2017, the decline of stocks was triggered by an earnings season lull, rising sovereign bond yields and the year-end activities of institutional investors, said Xun Yugen from Haitong Securities.

Looking ahead, the medium-term trend remains positive, Xun said, explaining that corporate earnings will likely continue to improve, and both onshore and offshore institutional investors are going to snap up more equities. However, in the shorter run, investors will still be burdened by negative sentiment and policy uncertainty generated by the Central Economic Work Conference that will be held in mid-December.

Chinas sovereign bond yields surpassing 4% has had a large impact on the market, said Ma Quansheng, chief strategist at Fullgoal Fund Management. In the last few years, rising sovereign bond yields have spread from the debt market to the stock market.

CITIC strategy research said the drop was mostly due to market emotions rather than any trend. It was driven by transactions rather than fundamentals.

Contact reporter Liu Xiao (liuxiao@caixin.com)
Liu Zhenyun says that he has been able to play with fire without getting burned because his books use comedy to make serious points. Photo: Visual China

Have Chinese people turned into a bunch of passive watermelon eating spectators? Liu Zhenyun, one of Chinas foremost contemporary writers, is tackling the dicey question of apathy in his new novel after a five-year hiatus. And the book is selling like hotcakes.

The title of Lius book The Era of Watermelon Eaters, plays on a popular internet meme used when people are indifferent to whats happening around them. It was coined last year after a bystander who witnessed a fatal traffic accident told a reporter, I know nothing, I was eating a watermelon.

Liu, 59is known for his politically-charged storytelling and says its his absurd and hilarious comedy that has allowed him to play with fire without getting burned.

English-language readers first encountered Liu through the translation of his 2009 novel A Word is Worth Ten Thousand Words. The book traces the fate of a family from the chaotic fall of the Qing dynasty through painful foreign invasions to the volatile revolution and the chaotic reforms that followed. It won Chinas top literary prize, the Mao Dun award, in 2011.

His latest work 'The Era of Watermelon Eaters' explores how how internet vigilantes who claim to be passive bystanders, in fact help connect the fates of seemingly unrelated characters.

His latest novel shows how internet vigilantes who claim to be passive bystanders, in fact help connect the fates of seemingly unrelated characters. It starts with Niu Xiaoli, who is in debt after paying a 100,000 yuan ($15,177) dowry to help her brother. But after the bride disappears, Niu ends up working as a high-end escort hired by business tycoons for an extra bit of help when securing government deals. Then we switch to the life of provincial governor Li Anbang, who is on the verge of being promoted when his son runs over a pedestrian. Then there is the Yang Kaituo, head of the provincial highway authority bureau, who is caught smiling at cameras while inspecting a major bridge collapse. Angry netizens also notice he is wearing a luxury watch and start digging into his illicit gains. The plot reaches a climax when they uncover that both officials were trading power for sex.

The main characters are tortured by their situations, but onlookers are excited and feed on their trouble, said Liu. Indeed, the main characters in this book are people who first pretend to be passive watermelon eaters. But, they push up the story forward.

Li says he has drawn inspiration from real life news events that are more absurd than fiction.

For example, the story of the man who fell from grace after sporting a luxury watch to an accident site echoes the real life story of a Shaanxi province official who was jailed for 14 years after grinning at the scene of a bus crash that killed 36 people. Angry internet users, like the ones in Lius book, found several pictures of him wearing luxury watches and argued that Yang could not have afforded the watches on his civil servants salary, resulting in an investigation.

Will you join in corruption if you are in the same position as these official? We never know. Thats the problem we need to focus on, Liu said.

Liu graduated from the Department of Chinese Literature and Language at Peking University and worked at state-run Peasants Daily for over two decades. Many of his successful works have been made into films. Most notably I am not Madame Bovary, based on his book about a woman who tries to get her fake divorce reverse, was adapted to the big screen by famous director Feng Xiaogang.
Vancouver, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In being named one of Canadas Most Admired Corporate Cultures for 2017, O2E Brands has earned one of the countrys most prestigious human resources industry honors for the second time since 2014.

This is a testament to our highly passionate team of people who are dedicated to creating an exceptional workplace, said Jerry Gratton, VP, People and Culture.

A core philosophy at O2E Brands is, Its All About People. Our culture focuses on hiring happy, passionate people, and supporting their development through transparent workplace practices and tangible reward systems. Examples of initiatives that set O2E Brands culture apart are the 101 Life Goals program, which allocates $101,000 aside to support employees in achieving their biggest personal goals and dreams; the famous Huddle, a daily all-company meeting; and Our Leadership Way development program, which facilitates a spirit of ongoing learning and leading.

If your company has a bold vision, you need people who are equally ambitious and passionate about achieving it. Investing in culture is hiring happy people and supporting their well being, says Brian Scudamore, founder and CEO of O2E Brands. After all  people spend more than half their lives at work. It should be awesome!

In addition to being named one of Canada's Most Admired Corporate Cultures, O2E Brands was listed as a Great Place to Work 2017, and one of Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers.

About O2E Brands

Founded by Brian Scudamore, O2E Brands is the banner company for 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, WOW 1 DAY PAINTING, You Move Me, and Shack Shine. O2E stands for ordinary to exceptional because each service focuses on providing excellent customer service in traditional industries. Each brand offers uniformed employees, up-front pricing, and clean, shiny trucks.

About Waterstone Human Capital

The Canadas Most Admired Corporate Cultures and Canadas Most Admired CEO programs are founded and presented by Waterstone Human Capital. These national programs annually recognize best in class Canadian organizations, and CEOs, for fostering cultures that enhance performance and help sustain a competitive advantage. For more information visit WaterstoneHC.com or CanadasMostAdmired.com

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bfc1b4b7-af61-4412-96da-ea2cf8fd3ce5
Modified On Feb 12, 2018 06:37 PM By Khan Mohd.

Updates from the Auto Expo 2018

Mahindra and Mahindra is among the prominent automakers participating in the Indian Auto Expo since its inception in 2008. In the last expo, the homegrown automaker displayed a variety of vehicles including the Mahindra Aero concept, e-Verito, Thar Daybreak Edition, Ssangyong Tivoli, e2o Sport etc. For the next year too, hopes are high that the UV maker will be coming up with a lot of exciting products at its pavilion. Lets see what it will be displaying at the 2018 Auto Expo in February.

Mahindra XUV Aero - (It was not showcased at the expo)

Mahindra had displayed the XUV Aero at the Auto Expo last time and it did garner a lot of attention from the media and visitors alike. It was expected to be the next big thing from M&M. The coupe-styled concept is most likely to be displayed at the upcoming Auto Expo as well, most probably in a production-ready avatar, if the carmaker wishes to launch the same in the country. It has two doors on the passenger side and one on the driver side. It is likely to be equipped with a 2.2-litre mHawk diesel engine with different driving modes. Its price is expected to fall in the vicinity of the Rs 20 lakh mark.

Mahindra MPV U321 - (It was not showcased at the expo)

Mahindra has been testing an all-new MPV, codenamed U321, since quite a while now. With the Xylo nearing the end of its lifecycle, the automaker is looking for an MPV that could be positioned a rung above the Xylo to take on the Toyota Innova Crysta. Likely to be placed above the XUV500, it is expected to be offered with a 2.2-litre diesel engine. We expect its prices to fall in the vicinity of Rs 10-15 lakh.

Mahindra S201 - (It was not showcased at the expo)

Among the most awaited products from Mahindra, the Ssangyong Tivoli-based SUV is likely to be showcased at the upcoming Auto Expo. Codenamed S201, the vehicle will be borrowing a lot of cues from the original Tivoli, with some signature Mahindra additions. With respect to engines, it is likely to come with a new set of 1.5-litre TGDI petrol and 1.5-litre mHawk diesel engines built jointly by Mahindra and Ssangyong. It will rival the likes of the Renault Duster, Ford EcoSport and the Hyundai Creta. The prices are expected to fall in the range of Rs 8-12 lakh.

Mahindra TUV 300 Plus - (It was not showcased at the expo)

Mahindra is also working on a longer version of the TUV300 and recently, it was spotted testing without any camouflage. Visually, the car remains unaltered, except for the new set of taillamps which now extend into the sides. Touted to replace the ageing Xylo, it will be offered in a 9-seat configuration with last row seats facing each other.

It will get a new mHawk D120 1.99-litre diesel engine developing 121.5PS and 280Nm. This is the same motor which was powering the Scorpio and the XUV during the ban on 2.0-litre and higher capacity diesel engines in Delhi. Besides, a 1.5-litre diesel motor will also be available as an option. Both the engines are likely to be mated to a 5-speed manual or an automated manual transmission (AMT). The Mahindra TUV 300 Plus will be taking on the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga facelift (launching shortly) and is expected to fall in the price bracket of Rs 8 lakh  Rs 11 lakh.

Stay tuned to Cardekho for all the dope on the 2018 Auto Expo.

To know more about what other carmakers have in store for the upcoming Expo, head over to the below stories.

Auto Expo 2018: Maruti Suzukis Expected Lineup

Auto Expo 2018: Expected Hyundai Lineup

Auto Expo 2018: Honda Cars India Expected Lineup

Mahindra MPV U321 - Image source
PPC board rejects Fairfax offer

ICR Newsroom By 24 November 2017

The board of PPC has advised its shareholders not to accept the offer of Fairfax Africa Investment Pty Ltd to buy a stake in the South African cement producer. The company will continue talks with LafargeHolcim and CRH on the sale.



The Takeover Regulation Panel has extended the deadline for the Fairfax offer to 12 December 2017, according to the cement producers board. Fairfax has signalled its intention to make an offer to acquire ordinary shares representing ZAR2bn (US$144.1m) of PPCs capital at a price of ZAR5.75/share.



While PPC will continue negotiations with LafargeHolcim and CRH, the board explained that these will not necessarily result in the submission of firm letters of intent. LafargeHolcim is considering a possible merger of African assets while CRH is looking at buying a controlling stake.

Published under
Pakistan sees 31% YoY rise in exports in October 2017

24 November 2017

The export revenue of the cement industry in Pakistan fell 18.57 per cent YoY throughout the July-October 2017 period, to PKR9.05bn (US$85.97m) from PKR11.12bn. The volume of cement exported also decreased by 16.6 per cent in the same period, to 1.7Mt from 2.03Mt of the year-ago period.



Exports to Afghanistan recorded an increase of 15.41 per cent YoY to 885,967t. However, exports to India saw a drop of 22.9 per cent YoY to 377,761t for the four-month period. Likewise, cement exports to the rest of the world deteriorated by 42 per cent YoY through July-October 2017.



In October 2017 alone, Pakistan reported revenue growth from cement exports of 31.3 per cent to PKR2.45bn from PKR1.87bn of the previous month. Similarly, the volume rose by 34.1 per cent MoM to 472,291t from 352,126t.



However, when compared to the data of the previous year, the revenue of October 2017 decreased by 17.7 per cent (October 2016: PKR2.98bn). The volume of cement exported fell by 13.2 per cent YoY (October 2016: 544,131t).

Published under
American kids are famously picky eaters. Whether you have kids or grandkids at home, youve probably fielded demands for pizza or French fries. And you may have failed to get your charges to try a new vegetable or a different preparation of chicken. But the problem isnt universal. In fact, it may be uniquely American. Need some evidence? Just look at the foods served at French daycares and schools. There, teachers serve their students four-course school lunches each day.

In France, even the smallest children regularly try  and enjoy  sophisticated foods. Below, check out some of the most amazing things that even tiny children will eat in France.

French children eat four-course meals at daycare, including a cheese course

Pamela Druckerman wrote  in her book Bringing Up Bebe and in The Huffington Post  that even toddlers eat a four-course meal at French daycares. A typical lunch started with carrot salad and moved on to salmon in lemon-dill sauce with a side of pureed broccoli. This was followed by goats milk cheese and baked organic apples, she explains. And surprisingly enough, the toddlers  mine included  actually ate these gourmet lunches, often with gusto. When I sat in on one meal, the kids had made it to the cheese course, and were earnestly debating the merits of Roquefort.

They dont snack, so they eat their vegetables at school and at home

One way the French sidestep the problem of picky eaters? According to Druckerman, they avoid letting children snack during the day. French children usually eat at mealtimes. And they can eat at the official afternoon snack time. Thats it, Druckerman notes. Parents dont panic if their kids get a little bit hungry. So, when hungry kids sit down to lunch, they often want to eat whatevers in front of them. At the daycare, teachers serve vegetables first. So if you have a hungry child faced with a bowl of steamed green beans or cut-up carrots, he will probably eat it.

When they try something new, French kids just have to taste it

Of course, French children dont magically love everything that lands on their plate. But Druckerman reports that the most scared French food rule posits that you just have to taste it. Kids just have to take a bite of a new food. She explains, Kids dont like a lot of new foods simply because the foods are unfamiliar (we grown-ups are often the same way). By taking a bite  even just one  that fear dissipates a bit. French parents consider it their responsibility to gradually shape their childrens tastes. Thus, they ensure that their children repeatedly try each new food in order to slowly learn to like them.

France doesnt spend more on school lunches than we do, but French children eat better

Embed from Getty Images

Karen Le Billon, a Rhodes scholar and the author of French Kids Eat Everything, concedes that French school lunches arent perfect. But they do demonstrate a French priority on teaching children to love healthy food. The public school system provides three and four-course lunches to more than 6 million French children each day. These meals cost about $3 per child. (Not much higher than the cost of school lunches in the United States.) As Le Billon explains, the French dont spend much more than we do, yet their kids eat seem to eat, on average, better than ours do  even in the smallest villages and poorest towns of France.

There arent kid foods in France

Le Billon adds that one of the most striking things when you read the menus for French school lunches is whats missing: the kind of kid foods that we serve all the time in the U.S. French schools dont serve flavored milk. (Instead, students drink water.) They allow ketchup only once per week, and only with dishes like steak. They serve little fried food. In fact, the Ministry of Education only lets schools serve fried foods a few times per month. So what do French children eat instead of kid foods? Pretty much everything else.

School lunch menus offer only one choice

Embed from Getty Images

Le Billon notes that children only have one choice of lunch at school. (They cant opt out of entrees that they think sound icky!) Starting when theyre three years old, they eat four courses. They get a vegetable starter, such as a grated carrot salad or beet salad. Then, they get a warm main course served with a side of grains or vegetables. Next comes cheese. And then theres dessert, usually fresh fruit. Schools also serve baguettes. And children always drink water. Teachers serve school lunches to the children at the table. And according to Le Billion, the French Ministry of National Education sets a minimum time requirement for children to sit at the table: 30 minutes.

American school lunches dont even compare to French school lunches

During a typical week in 2015, Quartz compared the menu at a school in New York City with the menu at a school in Paris. The American kids ate macaroni and cheese, vegetable pizzas, egg rolls, and kale salads. But their French counterparts ate pork rib in dijon sauce. They tried veal sauteed in olives and broccoli. They sampled a tomato, onion, and coriander salad. And of course, throughout the week, they ate numerous kinds of European cheese. The French children also ate goat cheese, cucumber salad with creme fraiche, salmon spaghetti, and a French dessert called gateau de semoule fait maison au caramel.

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Archbishop of York returns to Andrew Marr show a decade on from dog collar protest

The Archbishop of York is set to return to the BBC's Andrew Marr programme almost exactly a decade after he dramatically cut up his clerical dog collar on live television in protest at Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe.

John Sentamu vowed he would not wear it 'until Mugabe's gone' and he has not worn it in any setting since.

Now with the former president removed from power and his successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, sworn in on Friday, John Sentamu has accepted an invitation to return to the programme, prompting speculation he would don the mark of ordination for the first time since December 9, 2007.

A spokeswoman for the archbishop told Christian Today Andrew Marr has kept the pieces of Sentamu's dog collar to this day and the The Times reports Marr is looking forward to 'congratulating him on being so unflinchingly open-throated for so long'.

The spokeswoman added Sentamu was not currently wearing his dog collar but would do 'when the time is right'.

The show's editor, Rob Burl, tweeted:

Almost ten years ago, @JohnSentamu cut up his dog collar on the #Marr Show, in protest at Robert Mugabe. Now Zimbabwe has new leadership, will he put it back on again? Find out on Sunday on #marr 9am BBC1 pic.twitter.com/vGyIXgcpYO  Rob Burley (@RobBurl) November 24, 2017

While Sentamu is live on the Marr programme, the Archbishop of Canterbury is scheduled to appear on ITV's rival show with Robert Peston.

A man used to working on Sunday morning. Joining Robert live at 10am on @ITV is Archbishop of Canterbury and Leader of the @c_of_e @JustinWelby #Peston pic.twitter.com/t2fWdK67Ad  Peston on Sunday (@pestononsunday) November 23, 2017

When Sentamu appeared on the Marr programme on December 9, 2007, he said: 'As an Anglican this is what I wear to identify myself, that I'm a clergyman,' he told the Andrew Marr programme on Sunday, December 9, 2007.

'Do you know what Mugabe has done? He's taken people's identity and literally, if you don't mind, cut it to pieces. This is what he's actually done to a lot of - and in the end there's nothing.

'So, as far as I'm concerned, from now on I'm not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe is gone.'
'Avengers: Infinity War' cast spoilers: Mark Ruffalo hints at Hela and The Ancient One's return

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) seems to be unfinished yet with Tilda Swinton's The Ancient One and Cate Blanchett's Hela. Both characters have presumably died in "Doctor Strange" and "Thor: Ragnarok," respectively, but they may just pop up again in the upcoming "Avengers: Infinity War" if Mark Ruffalo's recent comments are any indication.

In an interview on the "I am Rapaport" podcast with Michael Rapaport, the Hulk actor was asked to name some of the stars he has recently worked with who had left the best impression, and among his suggestions were Swinton and Blanchett whom he said he had "just worked with." While it is possible that Ruffalo was referring to working with the latter on "Thor: Ragnarok," there seems to be no other projects that can qualify as recent than the two "Avengers" installment Marvel has filmed back-to-back.

Of the two characters, Comic Book opines Hela's return would be more logical. Although she went up in flames along with Asgard at the end of "Thor: Ragnarok," her fate was not definitively revealed in the film. In the comics, however, the Goddess of Death earned another chance in life when she was restored by Thor alongside the rest of the Asgardians as he built Asgard in Oklahoma.

The Ancient One's resurrection, on the other hand, looks a little far-fetched. In "Doctor Strange," Swinton's character is introduced as an ageless being who has been alive for centuries, acting as Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. After a brutal fight with the villain Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) in the film, she has accepted death and passed away for good. If the Ancient One does appear in "Infinity War," the publication states that the most plausible way would be a flashback.

Previous casting calls and set photos suggested "Infinity War" will feature some scenes from the past. In this case, seeing The Ancient One again would make sense, especially because she was the primary caretaker of the Time Stone for many years.

"Infinity War" directors Joe and Anthony have teased they will feature a plethora of surprise characters in the movie, so pretty much anyone who has appeared in the MCU in the past has a chance to show up when the Avengers fight Thanos (Josh Brolin). Then again, Ruffalo's comment is by no means any confirmation, so fans should still take this with a grain of salt.

"Avengers: Infinity War" will officially open in cinemas on May 4, 2018.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reliq Health Technologies Inc. (TSXV:RHT) (OTCQB:RQHTF) (Reliq or the Company), a technology company focused on developing innovative mobile health (mHealth) solutions for Community-Based Healthcare, will host an investor update conference call to review the Companys recent progress and answer questions from shareholders.

Conference Call Information:

When: December 1, 2017, 8:00am  9:00am PST / 11:00am  noon EST ID: 3298828 Dial In: Canada and U.S. - (844) 461-9931 International - (636) 812-6630

The Company would like to advise participants to join the conference call at least 10 minutes early in order to register. Investors are encouraged to submit questions in advance to info@reliqhealth.com as these questions will be addressed first, following which the moderator will open up the call to questions from investors who have registered and joined the queue. To join the queue participants will be asked to key in *1 at any point in the call. Once the questions submitted in advance via email have been addressed, the moderator will open the line to callers in the queue one at a time in order of priority. A recording of the conference call will be available afterwards until December 8, 2017, and will be accessible by calling either of the following numbers: (855) 869-2056 or (404) 537-3406.

New iUGO Care Website:

Reliq is also pleased to announce that it has launched a new website for its iUGO Care product platform at www.iugocare.com. The new website is intended to support Reliqs business development and customer outreach efforts and increase product brand awareness. The site provides detailed information on the iUGO Care product line, cloud platform, cybersecurity, company partners and customer testimonials.

Reliqs iUGO Care digital health solution provides high quality virtual care in the community by creating a virtual hospital ward within the patients home, automatically collecting vital signs and tracking medication adherence. iUGO Cares interactive voice technology provides patients with audible alerts and reminders to take their medications, collect their vitals using Bluetooth-enabled monitoring devices and perform prescribed rehab or fitness activities. iUGO Cares two-way voice hub provides voice-activated access to patient education content, empowering patients and family members to proactively manage complex chronic conditions. Reliqs iUGO Care cloud platform instantly alerts the clinical care team if a patient develops key warning signs, allowing clinicians to intervene before a health crisis occurs and preventing costly and disruptive hospital readmissions and ER visits.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Dr. Lisa Crossley

CEO and Director

For further information contact:

Renmark Financial Communications Inc.

Laura Welsh: lwelsh@renmarkfinancial.com

Tel: (416) 644-2020 or (514) 939-3989

www.renmarkfinancial.com

or CORE Capital Partners at 604-566-9233 or investors@ccpartnersinc.com

Neither the 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.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information

Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements, within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, are "forward-looking statements".

We caution you that such "forward-looking statements" involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual and future events to differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to commercial operations, including technology development, anticipated revenues, projected size of market, and other information that is based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management.

Reliq Health Technologies Inc. (the "Company") does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties relating to, among other things, technology development and marketing activities, the Company's historical experience with technology development, uninsured risks. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: Reliq Health Technologies Inc.
Faith schools show 'sharp decline' in standards over concerns about British values teaching

A 'sharp decline' in standards at private faith schools has led to a growing proportion failing tests by the schools watchdog Ofsted, official statistics show, with concerns raised about the quality of leadership and the teaching of British values.

Analysis by the schools inspectorate said nearly half of private faith schools are now judged to be less than 'good', with particular concerns over teaching children 'fundamental British values'.

A quarter of all private faith schools were given the lowest possible Ofsted rating of 'inadequate'.

The latest figures suggest there has been a sharp decline in standards across all small, fee-paying schools but this was particularly stark in faith schools where a 'higher proportion' are not making the standards set.

Part of the reason for the decline is the introduction of new standards three years ago that specifically focus on leadership and British values, according to Ofsted.

'The new standards on fundamental British values look at requirements in relation to written policies on the curriculum, the quality of teaching and the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils,' their report read.

'While numbers are small, a higher proportion of the weaker faith schools are failing on these requirements when compared to those with no faith.'

The data was released as part of Ofsted's inspection of non-association independent schools  smaller, fee-paying schools not affiliated to the Independent Schools Council.

Ofsted admitted there is 'a lot of variation' within different faith groups with 81 out of 139 independent Muslim schools found to be less than good at their most recent inspection, while 39 were inadequate. One-third of Christian schools were judged less than good, and of 58 Jewish schools, more than half were either 'requires improvement' or inadequate.

Ofsted added it has increased the number of faith schools it inspects after the previous body for Christian and Muslim schools, the Bridge Schools Inspectorate (BSI), was shut down in 2015 following concerns it was failing to spot the 'warning signs of extremism and radicalisation in school settings'.

The Ofsted report, published on Thursday, said: 'The inspection of these schools has caused a far larger fall in the proportion judged good or better than would otherwise have been expected.'
'Gangs of London' TV series news: 'Raid' director helming the series

"The Raid" director Gareth Evans is working on a new series called "Gangs of London," which, as related as it may seem, is totally independent of the hit 2006 video game of the same title.

The director is currently working on an original idea, in collaboration with cinematographer Matt Flannery.

Set in the present-day capital of England, "Gangs of London" will show a city torn apart by power struggles and consistent wars among various international gangs. The head of one major criminal organization will be assassinated, making the city rift for a more intense warfare. This will threaten the already fragile stability among the underworld groups.

Evans' "The Raid" franchise is known for its well choreographed fight sequences, and the same can be expected in his small screen action series.

"It has been a thrilling experience to leap into long-form storytelling, exploring a multicultural world of global crime as it intersects on the streets of London," the director said in a statement.

Gareth has high hopes for the series, and plans to start shooting in 2018. That is after he gets the script from writers Peter Berry, Clare Wilson, and Joe Murtagh.

The project will be a co-production between HBO/Sky Atlantic with Pulse Films and Sister Pictures. Thomas Benski and Lucas Ochoa from Pulse, along with Featherstone and Anna Ferguson from Sky, are serving as executive producers.

Gareth made his directorial debut in 2006 for the revenge thriller "Footsteps," but his international acclaim came in the martial arts action film "The Raid," which had its first installment in 2001. It was followed by "The Raid 2" in 2014, and "The Raid 3," which has just recently ended filming. He also has an upcoming periodic thriller, "Apostle," coming out in 2018.

"Gangs of London" is slated for a 2019 premiere, to be aired in Cinemax in the U.S. and Sky in the U.K.
'The Crown' season 3 update: Claire Foy talks about Olivia Colman's upcoming portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II

Claire Foy and Matt Smith graced the red carpet premiere of "The Crown" season 2 at Leicester Square in London on Tuesday, Nov. 21. The two reprised their roles as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, respectively, but this will be the last time that fans are going to see them portray these characters. In "The Crown" season 3, they are going to be replaced with new cast members to play an older version of their roles.

So far, the only known new cast member joining the Netflix series' third installment is Olivia Colman. The 43-year-old star will portray the United Kingdom's Queen during her reign in the 1970s.

In an interview with Metro News, Foy expressed her excitement to see Colman in "The Crown" season 3 take over her role. "I just think it's hers. I can't wait to see what she does with it," she said. And although she started to play the character of Queen Elizabeth for the show's two seasons, she insisted that she never owned it.

Meanwhile, talking about the upcoming "The Crown" season 2, Smith told the reporters that they had a wonderful time filming the show. "We're into the '60s and there are some interesting storylines," he said.

The 35-year-old actor also teased that fans may think they already know the new installment's story, but they actually have no idea what is going to happen. He then explained the second season is a "difficult watch" because of the complicated stories the royal family has.

Aside from the 60s, the story will show Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby) riding a motorbike, and feature difficulties in her marriage. Also, fans will have a glimpse of the young Prince Philip (Smith) in "The Crown" season 2 and a backstory of his younger years.

"The Crown" season 2 is set to be released on Friday, Dec. 8, on Netflix.
Vatican speech for TUC general secretary demands Apple and Amazon offer 'better way'

The Catholic general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Frances O'Grady, will today deliver a speech at the Vatican arguing the 'titans of technology' such as Apple and Amazon are depriving working people of dignity.

The speech comes during a two-day meeting of Catholic and labour movement leaders which will hear of injustices suffered by working people, consider the structural reforms needed to the global economy to put human dignity before markets and capital, and serve as a chance for trade unions and the Catholic Church to share ideas in order to achieve greater social justice for working people and their families.

O'Grady, who came 8th in a recent list of influential Catholics by the respected journal The Tablet, will warn of the harm done to UK workers by inequality and corporate power, including tax avoidance by new 'titans of technology' like Apple, Facebook and Google, and worker exploitation by firms like Uber and Amazon.

Catholic teaching through papal encyclicals has commended trade unions, highlighting their importance as what the late Pope John Paul II called 'a mouthpiece for the struggle for social justice, for the just rights of working people'. O'Grady will call on the Catholic Church and trade unions to continue their historic association by building an alliance for economic justice.

She will say: 'The Catholic Church and trade unions have a shared history in Britain. In the 19th Century, Cardinal Manning supported striking dockers who demanded a pay rise, minimum hours and the right to a union voice. He called the refusal of employers to negotiate with their workers a "public evil".

'This year I met the "McStrikers"  young fast food workers at McDonald's, stuck on low pay and zero-hours contracts. Their demands are the same as the dockers nearly 130 years ago. They want a fair wage, guaranteed hours and recognition of their trade union. They need a modern-day Cardinal Manning.'

She will address global challenges that permeate inequality, saying: 'Inequality, conflict and climate change are threatening the peace and prosperity of the world. Technological change is concentrating wealth at the expense of working people. And our schools and hospitals suffer from rich corporations not paying a fair share of taxes.

'New global titans of technology now have wealth and power beyond our imagination. And many workers have become slaves to an app, with employers washing their hands of any notion of an employment relationship. We must offer hope that there is a better way.

'We must challenge the very values on which our economies run. The market should be our servant, not our master. Value cannot be measured in monetary terms alone. And individual greed must not triumph over the common good.'

She will ask Catholic leaders to work with trade unions, which, she argues, have much in common, saying: 'The Catholic Church and trade unions both understand that much more can be achieved together than alone. We share values of community, dignity and social solidarity, values that bind us together as workers, citizens and human beings.

'Together, we can improve working lives and put dignity for working people ahead of market forces and freedom of capital. We can build a popular alliance for economic justice, in Britain and around the world.

'So speak out and support the courageous workers who stand up against injustice. Call on your congregation to join a union. And encourage Catholic employers to do the right thing and recognise trade unions.'
'Watchmen' TV series update: Damon Lindelof hints show's possible release date

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen" will soon be adapted into a TV series, thanks to HBO. With that, screenwriter Damon Lindelof now expressed interest in handling the show, even describing it to be "dangerous."

At the Vulture Fest L.A. on Saturday, Nov. 18, the 44-year-old producer talked about why he is interested in helming the TV adaptation of the DC Comics' story. "The reason that I'm doing this is these are dangerous times, and we need dangerous shows," he said.

With the emergence of superhero films and TV series, he believes the story of "Watchmen" will be more relevant today. The co-creator of "Lost" explained that how people perceive superheroes is actually wrong.

He said that athough he loves these kinds of fictional stories and characters, superhumans who are hiding their faces behind masks should never be trusted. "If you hide your face, you are up to no good," he explained.

Talking about Moore's take on the "Watchmen," he described the iconic writer as "the greatest writer in history of comics" or maybe, "of all time." Although Moore does not want his story to be told on TV, Lindelof said they are finding a way to do it that could honor him.

The comic-book limited series was published by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987, but Lindelof believes that now is the right time for a "Watchmen" series. Despite the optimism, the production of the comic book's TV adaptation still remains up in the air.

As "Westworld" season 2 is set to be released in 2018, "Watchmen" may not be launched in the same year. The western thriller TV series' production has already started, while the television adaptation of Moore's comic-book series has yet to begin. This means fans might have to wait a little longer for HBO's announcement on when they can finally see Rorschach, Doctor Manhattan, and Ozymandias on the small screen.
Canada, Ontario announce new immigration agreement Stephen Smith Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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The governments of Canada and Ontario have announced a new agreement designed to enhance their efforts to recruit skilled immigrants and get them the training they need to meet the provinces occupational requirements in their professions.

The Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (COIA) includes up to $91 million in funding for bridge training programs over the next three years to help newcomers bring their skills into line with Ontarios professional standards.

The agreement was unveiled Nov. 24 in a signing ceremony featuring Canadas Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen, and Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Laura Albanese.

In a news release, the governments said the COIA establishes a framework to strengthen their joint efforts to welcome and settle immigrants to Ontario with an eye on boosting the economy of Canadas most populous and prosperous province. The agreement will also enhance their shared humanitarian responsibilities and their ability to attract French-speaking immigrants to Ontario.

Ontario is the top destination for new permanent residents settling in Canada each year, typically exceeding 100,000 newcomers, Hussen said. The time is right to put a new agreement in place that defines how Canada and Ontario will work together to achieve our mutual goals.

Hussen said the new agreement will contribute to the ambitious targets set out in Canadas recently announced multi-year Immigration Levels Plan. The plan will see the admission of nearly one million new permanent residents welcomed to Canada over the three years spanning 2018 to 2020.

Albanese said immigration is win-win for both Ontario and Canada, and the new agreement will enhance those benefits.

The Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement strengthens Ontarios ability to partner with the federal government to attract skilled newcomers who will benefit our shared economies and contribute to Canadas future prosperity.

In 2017, Ontario issued 6,000 nominations to candidates for Canadian permanent residence through its Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP).

Earlier this week, the OINP announced that it had reached its provincial nomination allotment for 2017. Ontarios PNP allotment for 2018 will likely exceed 6,000 given the higher PNP targets established under the federal governments 2018-2020 immigration plan.

To find out if you are eligible to enter the Express Entry pool, the first step to immigrating to Canada through many PNP streams, please fill out a free online assessment.
James Baldwin wept.

I was wrong, he said.

Winter 1986. February.

Baldwin stood in the living room of his house near Amherst, Massachusetts, watching the television news, which had just reported something new about Wayne Williams, the suspect in the 197981 Atlanta child murders, who was convictedunjustly, Baldwin thoughtof killing two young black men and suspected of (but not charged with) killing 22 additional black children. Williamss attempt to get police files that might have vindicated him and proved that the KKK had committed the murders had been rejected by the courts.

Baldwins story about the Atlanta murders, in the December 1981 Playboy, had won the magazines Best Essay of the Year; mine, about the relationship between the mind and the body, had won Playboys Best Article of the Year. We were at Elaines for a publicity party. The paparazzi popped their flashes. We shared the same agent, Jay Acton. (The recent movie about Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro, is based on one of the projects that Jay had set up.) As we stood blinking in the flashing lights, Baldwin said that hed heard I was going to be teaching at Mount Holyoke College the following fall. He told me that hed be up the road, at Hampshire College. He had been hired as a Five College (Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Smith, U. Mass., and Hampshire) Scholar.

Baby, we can keep each other sane, he said. In September, I started commuting from New York City to South Hadley, Massachusetts. A party was held to celebrate Baldwins arrival. Baldwin arrived hours late in a taxi from Logan Airport in Boston. A few people scrambled to cover the cost of the fare. Baldwin took me aside and said, No one was there to meet me. We got drunkwhich we proceeded to do frequently, usually in Northampton, at Fitzwillies or Packards. One icy winter night, as I drove him home, I took the curve on Route 9 toward Amherst too fast, and skidded. The car slammed into a funeral parlor sign.

You almost went down in history, Baldwin said, as the cat who killed James Baldwin.

We talked about writers and writing. (In a blurb for my first novel, Like Father, in a quote that my editor said was unpublishable, Baldwin had written: David Black writes like a nigger. With great pain.) We talked about neglected writers like Nelson Algren and Edward Dahlberg, and about the comedians Lord Buckley and Del Close. We talked about moviesRide the High Countryand Hollywood gossip. We argued about race versus class. I claimed that poverty had more of an effect on our country than color.

No, no, baby, he said. Rich blacks had just as much a problem as poor blacks. Money didnt make whites colorblind, he thought.

Baldwin talked about how in America being white was not a matter of fact. I was white, I said. Look at my skin.

You look kind of beige to me, Baldwin said. When did you become white? And when did I first become aware of racism? he asked.

I wasnt sure. But it must have been around the time my father took me to a sit-in at a Woolworths lunch counter.

Some people, my father explained, think that just because people have different skin color, theyre better than other people.

Thats not fair, I said, Were just as good as they are.

Black radical attacks on Baldwin started early. In the era of Rap Brown and the Black Panthers, Baldwins position seemed increasingly anodyne. Toward the end of his life, when I knew him, Baldwin was struggling. He continued to believe that blacks and whites could work together to rescue the soul of America, which caused some radicals, black and white, to accuse him of being an Uncle Tom.

In February 1986coming full circle from his essay on the Atlanta child murdersI was at Baldwins house and came in from his kitchen to find him standing and watching the TV news, tears running down his cheeks.

About the Panthers who had been attacking him for trying to work with whites, he said, They were right. They were right. I was wrong.

Photo by Philip Townsend/Getty Images
Hastings Pier Charity has gone into administration less than a month after the pier won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize.

In an announcement on its website the charity said that it had been unable to agree a new three-year business plan with the Heritage Lottery Fund, Hastings Borough Council and East Sussex County Council.

Hastings Pier Charity was set up in 2011 to restore and run the pier after it was closed in 2008 following a storm. It then suffered a fire in 2010. The pier was reopened in April 2016 and last month won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize.

The charitys website says it receives no government funding and it spends over 800,000 a year to maintain and operate Hastings Pier.

It said it the plan would have meant it could "potentially reach self-funding status within three years" and that it needed an additional 800,000 over this time to build its capacity.

The charity was set up as a community benefit society, an exempt charity, and had raised funding via a community share issue to fund some of the renovation.

"Hastings Pier Charity has always taken the view that it would be wrong to ask community shareholders for more money to fund the on going operating costs of Hastings Pier. The major stakeholders did not feel able to support the new three-year plan," it said.

The pier remains open and "remains fully staffed" as the Heritage Lottery Fund has provided funding for 2018.

Administrators appointed

Accountancy firm Smith & Williamson announced on Friday that its partners Adam Stephens and Finbarr OConnell had been appointed as administrators of the charity.

The administrators said in a statement that no employees have been made redundant and they intend to work with staff, the previous trustees and local stakeholders to guarantee a sustainable future for the pier.

OConnell said his firm had been preparing for this situation before being appointed by the charity and was already in discussions with one party which is seriously interested in the pier.

He said: We have already been talking with a number of key stakeholders in the run up to our formal appointment as administrators in this case. We will be continuing to liaise with those key stakeholders and intend to reach out to others.

We anticipate extensive talks with local stakeholders including Hastings Borough Council and East Sussex County Council as we work towards the long-term sustainable solution for the pier.

A spokesperson for the administrators said "it is still being decided" whether a potential sale will be for ownership of the charity, or just the pier itself.

The charity had been going through a restructuring process for some time but had failed to produce a sustainable business model.

Stephens said: The trustees sought professional advice and this advice suggested that administration would better position the charity to restructure itself and move forward to a successful outcome for this heritage asset.

We want to acknowledge the fantastic work done by the board of trustees of the charity. Their work has created an amazing bridgehead for us in our search for a new long term sustainable solution for the pier.

Hastings MP Amber Rudd said she was very disappointed to hear that the charity had entered administration.

She said: Now we need a solution for all parties to work together towards which will provide it with a sustainable future. I will certainly work as hard as I can to make this happen.
Social action charity Community Links has announced a new brand and strategy after being becoming part of welfare charity Catch 22 in February.

A Community Links spokeswoman said the new strategy is more of a statement of intent as it aims to develop the focus of its work over the next few year with the local community where it is based.

As part of the aim to work more closely with the community, the charity is refurbishing its head offices at 105 Barking Road, Newham, East London into a space that will be designed and used together with local residents.

The strategy, Ready for Everything Communities, sets the aim of working across skills and employment, health, and advice to reach at least 15,000 people.

Its plans for campaigning aim to build on its Early Action Task Force work, using evidence based research into issues such as mental health, housing and welfare.

The new brand was developed by Community Links with the help of design agency The Bureau, which was paid a small amount.

Arvinda Gohil, chief executive of Community Links, said: We want our community to be defined by what it dreams of, not what holds it back.

A community that is supported by an effective network of voluntary, private and public sector partners that recognise they are a fundamental part of the picture. Based in Canning Town, we are hoping this Ready for Everything approach can be replicated and expanded elsewhere.

Community Links also published yesterday a book called Generating Change, sponsored by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which celebrates the charitys most influential work in its 40-year history.

Takeover

Catch 22 acquired Community Links in February, since when it has offered it back office and group services support.

While Community Links has retained its own charity number, branding and office, Catch 22 chief executive Chris Wright now sits on its board of trustees.

Writing for Civil Society News in April, Chris Wright said: At a time of challenge and opportunity for the sector, Catch22 and Community Links are trying to reimagine how partnerships could and should work.

Local charities should be enabled to keep their identity and autonomy but to operate at scale through this kind of relationship, for the greater social good.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novo Resources Corp. (Novo or the Company) (TSX-V:NVO) (OTCQX:NSRPF) is pleased to provide an update on exploration activities at the Purdys Reward tenement, a key tenement within the farm-in and joint venture Novo has with ASX-listed Artemis Resources Limited (Artemis) and part of Novos greater Karratha gold project, Western Australia. In addition to this update, Novo wishes to advise that the Company has recently been notified by Artemis that the Western Australian Governments Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) has granted a 20,000 tonne excess tonnage permit for the extraction of a bulk sample from the Purdys Reward tenement.



Karratha Gold Project

Gold mineralization at Karratha is hosted by a sequence of conglomerate beds and fossil gravel horizons ranging from a few meters to approximately 20 meters thick comprising the base of a much thicker package of sedimentary and volcanic rocks called the Fortescue Group. Rocks of the Fortescue Group were deposited between 2.78 and 2.63 billion years ago upon 3.0 to 3.7 billion year old igneous and metamorphic rocks that make up the Pilbara craton. Gold-bearing conglomerates dip gently southeastward under cover at shallow angles of less than 10 degrees, and Novo believes that these rocks may underlie significant areas within the greater Fortescue basin.

Conglomerate-hosted gold mineralization at Karratha is extremely nuggety and requires exceptional exploration techniques for its evaluation. In the Companys news releases dated August 31 and September 21, 2017, Novo detailed its multi-pronged approach to exploration including: 1) scout diamond drilling for geological data, depth to target and thickness of conglomerates, 2) large diameter drilling for bulk sampling and 3) trenching for geological information and bulk sampling.

Trenching and Bulk Sampling

As discussed in the Companys news release dated November 2, 2017, trenching is proving invaluable for providing geologic data as well as bulk sample material. Therefore, Novo recently accelerated trenching and bulk sampling activities along the strike of the daylighting conglomerate package. A comprehensive overview of trenching activities will be provided by Novo approximately mid-December once this fieldwork is complete.

Nagrom Metallurgical Laboratory, Perth (Nagrom) has recently indicated to Novo that the first trench bulk sample grade results will be available in January. Processing of samples has been delayed while Nagrom has adjusted and optimized the sorting ability of its new Steinert sorting machine. In the meantime, Novo has been shipping bulk samples to Nagrom in preparation for processing.

Given the nuggety nature of gold mineralization at Karratha, Novo considers bulk sampling the best practical means of evaluating grade and potential viability of the deposit. Prior to signing definitive agreements with Novo in August, Artemis had filed an application with the DMIRS for a 20,000 tonne excess tonnage permit for extraction of bulk material from the Purdys Reward tenement. This application was recently approved. To move the project forward, Novo and Artemis are now working together on plans to utilize this permit to undertake systematic bulk sampling for grade purposes. Given what has been learned from recent trenches, Novo envisions collection of bulk material from multiple sites and positions within the conglomerate package at Purdys Reward to provide the greatest understanding of this unusual gold system.

Drilling

As of the date of this news release, sixty diamond core holes have been completed in a northeast-trending corridor approximately 1,000 m long and 100-400 m wide. As discussed in Novos news release dated October 17, 2017, diamond drill holes indicate strong continuity of the targeted conglomerate package (please refer to a plan map of drill sites and cross sections in the Companys news release dated October 17, 2017 for further details). Geologic logging of all backlogged core holes is ongoing and expected to be completed by approximately mid-December at which point data will be collated with trench data and used to generate a 3D model of the conglomerate package.

Over a three-week period, FORACO International SA experimented with various drill bit diameter sizes, drilling dry and wet, various sampling techniques, and a mix of sample collection tooling. Upon careful review of sample consistency, integrity and recovery, Novo has decided it is uncomfortable with the product and its use as bulk sample material for grade estimation. While disappointing, Novo is reviewing other potential options for collecting bulk samples from drilling. As discussed above, Novo is currently putting emphasis on collection of bulk samples from trenches.

Recent Geologic Findings

In the Companys news release dated October 17, 2017, Novo discussed that much of the historic prospecting activity at Purdys Reward and Comet Well focused on the lower, mafic igneous rock clast-rich conglomerate sequence. Recent observations in trenches continue to confirm this pattern. Novo personnel have noted metal detector strikes throughout this lower conglomerate sequence, however most occur near its base. Interestingly, black chlorite-rich shale fragments are commonly observed in areas with abundant visible nuggets. Such shale fragments are seen in proximity to gold nuggets in the second video linked to Novos July 12, 2017 news release announcing the discovery of gold nuggets at Purdys Reward. The geologic reason for the association between these shale fragments and gold nuggets has not yet been determined.

Scanning electron microscopy of cut slabs of gold-bearing conglomerate has yielded important information about the distribution of fine gold particles within the rock. Although a limited number of samples have been analyzed and more work is underway, current findings suggest most fine-grained gold occurs as halos of particles within a few millimeters of much coarser gold nuggets. Novo believes such fine-grained gold was remobilized and re-precipitated following burial and lithification of gold-bearing gravels. Novo believes it is possible that fine-grained gold observed in panning of weathered rock collected from trenches as well as the fine gold component observed in the first bulk sample (please refer to the Companys news release dated August 8, 2017 for further details) is derived from such halos of fine gold.

We were fully aware from day one that the Karratha gold project is a coarse gold system, commented Dr. Quinton Hennigh, President, Chairman and a director of Novo Resources Corp. The fact that numerous prospectors have been detecting gold here since its discovery is compelling evidence. While the ability to recover consistent, quality sample material using large diameter drilling has not yet been accomplished, trenching appears to yield acceptable bulk samples for test work. Bulk sampling at surface will be the most critical means of determining the grade, processing characteristics and viability of this deposit. We look forward to working with Artemis on ways to fast track a bulk sampling strategy at Purdys Reward.

Dr. Quinton Hennigh, the Companys, President and Chairman and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has approved the technical contents of this news release.

About Novo Resources Corp.

Novos focus is to explore and develop gold projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, and Novo has built up a significant land package covering approximately 12,000 sq km. Novo also currently 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

President and Chairman

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.

Forward-looking information

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information (within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation) including, without limitation, statements as to planned exploration activities and the expected timing of the receipt of results. 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, customary risks of the mineral resource industry as well as the performance of services by third parties.
Rob Preston investigates the current trend of international aid charities moving their headquarters out of the UK.

Many UK-based international development charities have centred their overall strategy in recent years on moving control of the organisation to other countries they operate in, with a handful making great strides towards doing so.

Some charities have done this by moving UK-based roles overseas where appropriate while others, like Oxfam and Actionaid, have taken the leap of relocating their head offices to the global south.

The reasons for this shift appear to be both practical and philosophical, with charities wanting to improve the efficiency of their work and protect their incomes during difficult economic conditions in the UK.

Tamsyn Barton, chief executive of Bond, the umbrella group for international development charities, says: It is often felt that greater impact can be achieved by increasing the numbers of staff on the ground relative to those in the north.

There is also the recognition that the role of northern NGOs is to provide support and not to drive the development agenda.

Donors are another factor, says Barton, as they are increasingly looking to fund southern civil society organisations directly.

And then there is Brexit. According to Bonds research, UK charities currently receive around 356.9m (317.8m) of EU funding and service contracts, which is now at risk as the government negotiates its exit terms from the union.

Barton says this potential withdrawal of funding has led many charities to look to other routes to secure the delivery of their programmes.

Moving jobs

Many international charities already base most of their staff overseas, even if their executive team remains in the UK.

For example, sexual health charity Marie Stopes has only 220 people based in its London office, out of a total workforce of about 13,000 and development charity World Vision has 376 staff in the UK out of 42,000 worldwide.

But some are tipping the balance even more in favour of other countries than they have been. Human rights charity Amnesty International has halved its number of UK-based roles in the past few years, with many of these being replaced in its other offices around the world.

Nicki Deeson, finance and IS director at Amnesty, said in a recent interview with Charity Finance: Weve opened up branch offices in places like Kenya, South Africa and Mexico, and moved quite a lot of the research and campaign roles we used to have in London to those offices.

Development charity VSO, which has 244 domestic staff and 566 overseas, has also started moving roles abroad and expects to cut its UK workforce by 25 per cent over the next five years.

Responding to Charity Finances Chief Executives Survey 2017, Philip Goodwin, chief executive, said: We recently reduced the UK headcount by around 20 posts as part of an overall need to streamline and boost efficiency. It is likely that as a global organisation whose work is primarily delivered in the global south, we will continue to reduce the size of our London-based staff. A good example of this is our current head of monitoring and evaluation  previously a UK-based post, is now being recruited outside the UK.

International charity WaterAid, which has 764 staff across the country, including 64 per cent in the UK, also plans to move roles out of London where appropriate, but has come across some barriers to doing so.

Head of international people management Sarah Redshaw said: Where possible, as regional roles have become vacant and where strong local talent exists, we have relocated them out of London and into the region or country. For example, when our East Africa Regional Director role became vacant in the UK, we recruited the replacement in the region.

However, three members of the South Asia regional team remain in London because we do not have a regional hub in South Asia and there are certain challenges in the region.

A spokeswoman for the charity added that there are political sensitivities in South Asia that restrict travel to and from some countries in the region if based in a neighbouring country. Therefore the regional director and team for the region are based in the UK. All of the charitys other country directors and their teams are based in the country they serve, apart from Sierra Leone and Liberia, where both country offices are managed under one programme with one director.

Power to the people

As well as moving roles oversees, the focus for some international charities has been increasing the agency of their international offices.

Speaking to Charity Finance recently, Oxfam director of finance and information services Alison Hopkinson said the charity is giving international affiliates more autonomy, including some, such as Oxfam India, being able to do their own fundraising.

Oxfam GB is phasing out its country directors and has moved most of these roles to Oxfam International, where there is one per country. In 2016/17, it transferred half of the country offices it previously owned to the charitys affiliates and plans to sign over the remainder by 2018, according to its latest accounts.

Oxfam GB has also closed or transferred to other affiliates many of the regional centres it ran, which provide back-office support to country offices, as part of it move to reduce the number of countries reporting to it from 45 to 35.

During 2016/17, it transferred Oxfam GB staff and assets in Cambodia, Vietnam, Niger and Nigeria to management by Oxfam Netherlands, and in Honduras, Bolivia and Guatemala to Oxfam Spain.

In that year and the first half of 2017/18 it has closed Oxfam GB regional centres in Latin America and the Caribbean, Southern Africa and Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, the Horn, East and Central Africa and West Africa.

This reorganisation has meant making many staff redundant, 126 in 2016/17, and an introduction to the charitys latest accounts describes it as a challenging journey.

It says: In the past, we managed, spent and accounted for the money we raised from the British public and institutions. Now, we share this responsibility with others, and act as a partner rather than a manager. Despite the challenges, we are making significant progress.

In her interview, Hopkinson said: The end game total makes sense to me, it is just getting there that is the painful thing.

Earlier this year, Marie Stopes launched a staff training programme to help workers in the global south develop their skills with the aim to step into country or regional director roles.

According to the charitys latest accounts, the programme consists of two modules, the first of which was delivered in April 2017.

It says: The initial focus is on clinical standards, understanding financial management and project cycle management, whilst also bringing in broader topics like self-awareness, situational management and effective decision making.

International HQ

Oxfam International confirmed this year an agreement with Kenyas government to move its international headquarters to the countrys capital city of Nairobi.

It is not the first aid charity to move its international headquarters out of the UK. In 2005 ActionAid moved its head office to South Africa to be closer to where it operates.

Adriano Campolina, chief executive of ActionAid International, said: Until that time, we worked in many countries, but the decision making was mostly done in the UK, where our management structures were based. At governance level we had a board of trustees, most of them coming from the global north.

We understood that a radical change was needed, so that we could ensure decisions would be made closer to the communities we work with, increasing our accountability to the poor and the quality of our decision making.

All of ActionAids 30 country organisations have the same voting power on the charitys international general assembly, meaning they have an equal say in its overall direction.

The key change is that decisions at country level are made by the country management and board. This allows us to take into consideration local realities and priorities and gives us a greater ability to be accountable to the communities we work with, says Campolina.

When we opened our Johannesburg headquarters almost 14 years ago we were the only international development organisation headquartered in Africa and we welcome the fact that other international NGOs based in the global north have decided to increase their presence and decision-making in countries in the global south.

Why the move?

Oxfam first made the decision to move its international secretariat from its headquarters in Oxford to either Bangkok or Nairobi in April 2014 as a way of effectively devolving power from the northern to the southern hemisphere.

Winnie Byanyima, executive director at Oxfam International, wrote in a blog post in July 2016: The British public will continue supporting an Oxfam that is part of a movement led from an African location  not a European one.

This move is far deeper than a symbolic one. The fact is the world is changing and I believe it is necessary for NGOs like Oxfam to change.

Oxfam has always said its relocation of its international headquarters is not a cost-cutting exercise.

However, the decision came shortly after the organisation reported a 17m drop in income in 2012/13 and announced a subsequent restructure of its UK operations resulting in the loss of 125 domestic jobs.

Initially announcing its plans to restructure Oxfams international programmes in 2013, the charity said it expected to make savings, but that these would be reinvested in its programmes aimed at fighting poverty.

At Amnesty, Deeson told Charity Finance that part of her organisations reason for moving roles overseas was to save on costs. But the weakened pound, following last years EU referendum result means that, at the moment, the charity would actually have saved money if it had kept the majority of its roles in London.

However, Deeson stands by Amnestys decision and says other charities have to seriously consider shifting control closer to their cause from a philosophical standpoint. She said: They are now much closer to the ground where the human rights abuses are happening. We have got relationships with local media organisations and stakeholders.

Both Oxfam and Amnesty made their decisions to shift roles away from the UK in the aftermath of the 2008 recession and during the governments austerity drive. If the UKs exit from the European Union in 2019 leads to another recession and further tightening of budgets, it will be interesting to see if more charities announce moves abroad.

Added to this, as Bond's research suggests, is a potential loss for the sector of more than 300m of EU money. While the philosophical reason for aid charities to empower their colleagues in the global south has been clear for some time, this more recent financial pressure might be the final nudge for more NGOs to move their staff and infrastructure out of the UK.

Civil Society Media is hosting its NGO Insight Conference on 28 November 2017. For more information, and to book, click here
Linda Greenhouse occasionally stepped into controversy as The New York Timess Pulitzer Prize-winning Supreme Court reporter. In 1989, her participation in a march for reproductive rightsas a citizen, not a journalistprovoked criticism. So, too, did her 2006 remarks to a group of Radcliffe alumnae complaining about the Bush administrations attempts to exempt detainees at Guantanamo Bay from judicial oversight. Now Greenhouse, the Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and a contributing op-ed writer for the Times, is free to stoke whatever controversy she wants. Her new book, Just a Journalist, is not a memoir, she says, but a personal reflection on the challenges journalism is facing. CJR talked with her by phone, and what follows is a condensed, edited version of the conversation.

The book is based on lectures that you gave at Harvard in November 2015. But since then youve had to revise it to deal with the phenomenon of Trump coverage.

That ended up driving the project. When I started writing, the 2016 election was barely in view, and Donald Trump wasnt plausible. So when I first gave the lectures, I dont think I really paid any attention to him. Then, as events unfolded, I realized that the mainstream medias coverage of would-be candidate and then nominee Trump really crystallized some of the themes that I had been exploring and made those themes more urgent.

ICYMI: Explosive BuzzFeed scoop raises eyebrows

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You say you train an autobiographical lens on the practice of journalism. What do you think the value is of that approach, and the pitfalls?

The value is it brings theory down to practice. The pitfall is that its one very partial view, one persons experiences. In part my project is to engender robust conversation and debate about the practice of journalism in the maelstrom that it currently finds itself in.

One thing I try to say in the book is that for too long the norms that had developedthe he said, she said, the two sides to every story type of normsimply werent seriously challenged. It didnt take me to challenge [them] because the very existence of Donald Trump would have brought the challenge to the fore.

How have you evolved on the issue of journalistic objectivity? When you were starting out, did you embrace it as a goal?

I guess thats right. Whats the purpose of daily journalism? I think the purpose is to enable an informed citizenry to have at hand the facts they need to decide how they wish to be governed and to live in society. I think I always thought that the obligation was to sort out facts from rhetorical assertions. So when I was covering politics in New York, if the governor of New York had said the moon is made of green cheese, Im sure I would have quoted him, and I would have said, By the way, it isnt. And I wouldnt have thought of that as a lack of objectivityI would have thought of it as the essence of separating fact from fiction.

Theres this other mantraof fairness and balancebecause objectivity has been under siege for a long time. Is that more helpful?

I think fairness resides in giving everybody youre covering a shot, letting them say what they want to say. Obviously you wouldnt refuse to quote somebody.

But you might. In the spectrum of opinions, some opinions arent really considered acceptable. There might be cases where you might not want to quote an avowed white supremacist, for example.

Well, I guess, maybe. My sense always was it wasnt my job to tell readers what to think, but to give them the facts so they could come to their own informed conclusion.

Do you think theres such a thing as objectivity, whether its desirable or not? It seems as though the stories that newspapers choose to cover, the questions that are asked, will always embody biases.

Yes, its a very reductive concept because were all human; were filtering everything we see through our own minds and our own experiences. You get a big debate on just a standard inverse pyramid lead. Whats the most important thing? Sometimes its obvious, and sometimes its a matter of judgment.

What role did the rise of digital journalism play in undermining the idea of objectivity?

In the old days, when I was first in the Washington bureau, the ethos was they didnt want you to go on television: Dont undermine the brand. You embody The New York Times, and this low-level medium wants to exploit the fact that you are a New York Times reporter to aggrandize themselves.

ICYMI: The story the NYTimes, BuzzFeed didnt want to publish

And now its gone in the other direction.

Its amazingthe irony is how much that has flipped. Ive been gone [from the Times] almost 10 years. I really hardly know anybody there anymore. But my impression is that people are urged to extend the brand into other mediainstead of being bad for the paper, its good for the paper. Now its at a point where [the question is] exactly how far should this go.I read the [recent New York Times] memo saying there are some limits to what you can say on Twitter. I dont knowIm not on any of these social media. I have no personal experience.

Youre not on Twitter at all?

Im not at all. I know thats shocking.

Or Facebook?

No, Im really not. I feel like I spend most of my waking hours on the Web and on emailIm not a technophobe, but I just havent felt the need to do social media.

Its clear that mainstream news organizations are really struggling with where to draw the line between what is permitted and what is prohibited.

I think journalists should be judged by their work, and not by what they do in their private life.

There are two separate issues, though. One is how far you can go in terms of calling out perceived falsehoods or biases within the work. And then the other is how much of a civic life youre allowed to have.

They are [separate]. I think, say, someone covering the Supreme Court who might take a pretty dim view of the direction of the court probably shouldnt go on Twitter and denounce the Chief Justice. Theres a certain amount of common sense. I dont really have a sense of how crazy that [social media] world might be.

I think it is powered by opinion.

Sure. I think were in a whole process of norm creation. Its behavior thats far outstripping theory. The behavior is really driving the creation of norms.

The extreme avatar of the other point of view is [former Washington Post executive editor] Len Downie. Hes well known for not voting. But you quote him as saying he gave up having private opinions about anything. That seems impossible.

Well, it surprised me. Ive never met Len Downie or had an occasion to discuss this with him. But I found that surprising, and I guess he was kind of proud of that accomplishment.

Its emulated. Hes spawned imitators.

I truly dont get that. It can come from one of two motivations, it seems to me. One could be, Oh my gosh, I have so little self-control that if I actually voted for one candidate over another, who knows, I might somehow tilt my coverage in one direction to validate the choice that I made. Thats one theory. The other would be, not so much out of fear of oneself, but fear of others: Oh, Im in a public position, my byline is well known, my party registration is a public document, somebody could get ahold of that, and say, Nah, nah, that persons registered as a Republican, and we can attribute all kinds of lack of fairness and balance to him because of that fact.

So its the fear of the schoolyard bully. And I think thats a really self-destructive attitude for any news organization to take because the schoolyard is full of bullies, and if thats what drives your behavior, theres really no stop to it.

Lets talk about the change we see happeningfor instance, news organizations such as the Times calling out some Trump statements as lies. You write, It was with relief that I saw loyalty to the old rules erode and eventually buckle. You also say you have no certainty that anything fundamental has changed.

Is every falsehood properly called a lie? I think thats a fair question, and I think mainstream journalism is still wrestling with the implications of actually labeling something as a lieits so counter these long-held norms. Trump makes it so easy. But the fact that he makes it so easy I dont think has ended the internal self-reflection of mainstream newspaper editors and writers. So the question is, is this basically Trump-specific? Is it going to fade away when Trump fades away?

Because his liesmaybe we should say falsehoodsare so much more prolific and easier to call out than the normal politicians?

Yes. Weve all seen pendulum swings. So when Trump is eventually gone, will the pendulum swing back? I dont know. Its really put everybody to the test. One thing Ive tried to chronicle is how self-reflective the media has been. These were not casual decisions. They were very considered decisions, and I would argue necessary decisions. The fact that they were considered raises the question of what happens next.

I wonder if concern about the fragility of our democracy is pushing journalists in a more activist direction.

I think its enabling a deeper, maybe more politically inflective kind of analysis. There is a change in tone definitely, and a feeling in the mainstream media that were not doing our job unless we take the public by the lapels and say, Somethings happening here thats kind of scary. And what if we have a president who suffers from delusions or major mental health problems? Not too many decades ago, these things would have been hushed up. Now were dealing with something that really has no precedent.

You mention that were living in a post-truth age. Is this something particular to the United States, as Kurt Andersen suggests in his new book, Fantasyland?

It seems to me that Western-style democracy is under great stress everywhere. I dont think this is an example of American exceptionalism.

ICYMI: How Alaskas largest newspaper went bankrupt

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Julia M. Klein is a longtime CJR contributor and a contributing book critic for The Forward. She is a cultural reporter and critic in Philadelphia. Follow her on Twitter @JuliaMKlein.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MX Gold Corp. (TSX-V:MXL) (FSE:ODV) (OTCQX:MXLGF) (the Company or MX Gold) is pleased to announce the Magistral Joint Ventures appointment of Kevin Weston as Director of Operations of the Magistral Del Oro Project in Mexico (the Magistral Project). The Magistral Project is operated by MX Gold and its joint venture partner, GracePoint Mining Corp. (together, the JV). Under the terms of Mr. Westons engagement, and subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange, MX Gold has undertaken to issue 350,000 common shares of MX Gold to Mr. Weston, as security for payment of Mr. Westons salary from the JV.



Mr. Weston holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mining and Mineral Engineering from McGill University and has over 35 years of experience in developing and operating mining projects. Among other prior roles, Mr. Weston has served as Chief Operating Officer of Farallon Mining Ltd., VP Operations (Canada) of Capstone Mining Corporation, and Chief Operating Office at JDS Silver/Silvertip.

Mr. Weston speaks excellent Spanish and has previous experience as a Senior Operator in Mexico with Farallon Mining.

MX Gold CEO, Dan Omeniuk, comments, We are excited to bring Mr. Weston on at this key time for the Company in its partnership with Gracepoint. Working in close collaboration with Benitzel Avila Sanchez, our Magistral Project Manager, Mr. Weston will bring extensive operational experience to the table as we move the Magistral Project forward.

MX Gold is also pleased to announce an update on various activities underway at the Magistral Project:

All major tankage at the project has been installed.

The installation of equipment at the project is ongoing, with installation of the grinding mill scheduled for completion by December 1, 2017 and installation of the Merrill-Crowe circuit underway.

All other equipment, including piping, pumps and electrical, has been sourced and is in transit.

The contractor is focused on the resources needed to complete construction, with operating manpower requirements being filled and reagents being purchased.

Dan Omeniuk stated, The build out at the Magistral Project is on track, with various milestones already complete and the remainder of the installation underway.

About MX Gold

MX Gold is a junior mining company focused on the exploration and development of advanced projects located in Mexico and British Columbia, Canada. The companys primary focus, is the Magistral del Oro tailings project located 392 km SW of Chihuahua and includes a 500 tonnes-per-day dynamic cyanide countercurrent system plant constructed in 2013. The Company also owns 50% of the IDS Project, which includes a smelter that was completed in 2014 for a throughput capacity of 50 tonnes per day. The smelter was built to receive and process material from small-scale miners across the state of Durango and beyond. MX Gold has acquired a substantial land package of approximately 22,881 acres in the heart of the Golden Triangle. The Companys primary focus in British Columbia is its Willa gold and copper project located 12 kilometers south of Silverton, B.C. In 2015, MX Gold Corp. completed the accretive acquisition of the Willa project and the Max Molybdenum Mine and Mill Complex. The Willa mine is located 135 kilometers south of the Max Mill. MX Gold Corp. can also elect to reopen the Max Molybdenum mining operation once world Moly prices improve. For updates on the Companys projects please visit our website. www.mxgoldcorp.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Akash Patel

Akash Patel, Vice President and Director, MX Gold Corp.

For further information, please contact

Dan Omeniuk, CEO

Email: dano@mxgoldcorp.com

Or by email to:

info@mxgoldcorp.com

Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical, and consist primarily of projections - statements regarding future plans, expectations and developments. Words such as "expects", "intends", "plans", "may", "could", potential, "should", "anticipates", "likely", "believes" and words of similar import tend to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements respecting the benefits to the JV of Mr. Westons engagement, the potential requirement to issue shares to Mr. Weston, the Companys plans to move the Magistral Project forward and the Companys expectations of when certain equipment at the Magistral Project will be installed. All of these forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied, including, without limitation: that Mr. Westons engagement may not benefit the JV as anticipated; that the Company will be required to issue common shares to Mr. Weston; that the Magistral Project will not move forward as expected or that the timeline for same will not be as expected; and the ability of the Company to fund its operations, as well as other risks and uncertainties identified under the heading Risk Factors in the Companys continuous disclosure documents filed on SEDAR. You are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which may have been used. MX Gold cannot assure you that actual events, performance or results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements, and managements assumptions may prove to be incorrect. These forward-looking statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date hereof and MX Gold does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or managements beliefs, expectations or opinions should change other than as required by applicable law. For the reasons set forth above, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange Inc.) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
oilseeds grown in Kazakhstan to be processed by Chinese company Aiju, before being sold back to Kazakhstan

Two workers at Xian Aiju Grain and Oil Industry Group monitor a robot as it handles jugs of rapeseed oil. Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

China is growing its ties with Kazakhstan as the "Belt and Road" program gets underway. A prime example is the roughly seven-year-old railway container center in China's ancient capital city of Xi'an that links the world's second-largest economy to the Central Asia country. Kazakhstan is the so-called inland port's biggest market, followed by Amsterdam, said Jie Gai, project manager in marketing for Xi'an International Inland Port Multimodal Transportation.

The Xi'an Railway Container Freight Station in the Xian International Trade and Logistics Park opened in 2010 and covers 68.3 hectares. Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

Xi'an is also home to the terracotta warriors and the starting point of the historic Silk Road over which merchants once traveled to bring goods between China and Europe. Now China, under President Xi Jinping, is trying to reopen that channel of commerce through the Belt and Road initiative (also known as "One Belt, One Road"). A string of projects, typically led by corporations using funding from China and other countries, seeks to build up infrastructure in the surrounding regions. China also hopes to benefit economically from improved growth in the region. In November 2014, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced a domestic stimulus program called "Nurly Zhol" (Bright Path) which called for $9 billion in state and foreign direct investment into infrastructure and industries such as agribusiness and information technology, in an effort to move the economy away from the oil industry. "Their demand for tires, more building materials, cement, steel  day by day, increases a lot," Gai said, speaking with a group of U.S. journalists during a September visit to Xi'an. The Central Asian country also sends food to China. Oilseeds grown in Kazakhstan are exposed to far less pollution than they would be in China, Gai said. The railway transfers the seeds to Xi'an, where they are turned into oil. The finished product, a regional cooking oil called rapeseed oil, is then sent back over the railroad to Kazakhstan. That process cuts costs by about 20 percent for local oil producer Aiju, Liu Dongming, vice president and deputy party secretary, told the U.S. journalists. The company also has a processing plant in Kazakhstan.

Liu Dongmeng is vice president and deputy party secretary of Xi'an Aiju Grain and Oil Industry Group. Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

Going by rail over land is also cheaper than air transport and faster than traveling by ships through water. "Kazakhstan, through One Belt, One Road, is playing a key role in products coming from Western China, all the way to the Riga port and other places," said David Merkel, senior fellow at U.S.-based think tank Atlantic Council. "They've been working on it for a while and they're starting to see real results from it being opened, and the One Belt, One Road is a reason for that." The Kazakh government announced on July 11 an agreement to cooperate on trade in grain and oilseeds with Aiju. Part of the agreement allows for Kazakhstan to supply 100,000 tons of oilseeds to China and create a storage facility for the crops along the national border, the announcement said. Exports of agricultural goods from Kazakhstan to China rose 7.7 percent in the first four months of 2017 to $61.6 million, while imports of Chinese goods rose 23.7 percent to $51.6 million, the report said. "Turnover of agricultural products and products of agricultural processing" between the two countries rose 14.5 percent to $113.2 million.

Xian Aiju Grain and Oil Industry Group has 40 oil tanks similar to the ones pictured above with a total capacity of 90,000 tons, according to the company. Evelyn Cheng | CNBC
Ned Naylor-Leyland, manager of the Old Mutual Gold and Silver Fund, said it started buying bitcoin in April, and that the virtual currency serves as a better allocation than a heavy weighting toward mining stocks.

A precious metals fund is investing in bitcoin to reinvest profits from the digital currency in gold assets.

He said that both bitcoin and gold complemented each other as assets, as the cryptocurrency was designed to be "digital gold."

"Bitcoin's frictionless and immediate blockchain payment system resolves the criticism of gold as lacking divisibility and having problems with ease of transmission," Naylor-Leyland said in an emailed statement.

"I believe this recognition of a differentiated form of payment will bring the ownership of disciplined money into the modern world, paving the way for the return of gold as a global currency."

Bitcoin has surged more than 700 percent since the start of the year, and surpassed $8,000 earlier this week.

Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz said earlier this week that the digital currency would reach $10,000 by the end of 2017.

But a number of bank bosses have voiced concern over the rapid growth and volatility of the cryptocurrency.
A fake advertisement that looked like a legitimate link to Amazon was visible in Google search results on Thursday, just ahead of the Black Friday shopping frenzy.

The advertisement, first spotted by CBS News, appeared if a user typed "Amazon" into Google Search. It looked like a normal ad but, when clicked, it routed users to a Facebook page and tried to trick users into thinking their computer might be infected with malware.

A message that appeared to be an official notification from Microsoft then suggested that a user's financial data may have been compromised and to call a support number.

CBS said scammers answered the faux support number and claimed to work for Microsoft before asking for $150 to rid the computer of a virus that didn't exist. People who may have fallen for this scheme could have put their personal information, including credit card numbers, at risk.

Microsoft doesn't ask for this sort of information over the phone.

"We do not send unsolicited email messages or make unsolicited phone calls to request personal or financial information or fix your computer," Microsoft's privacy page says. "If you receive an unsolicited email message or phone call that purports to be from Microsoft and requests that you send personal information or click links, delete the message or hang up the phone."

A Google spokesperson told CNBC that the ad was an "abuse of our platform."

"We strictly prohibit advertising of illegal activity and have removed these ads and suspended the account," the spokesperson said. "When we find ads that violate our policies, we take immediate action to disable the offending sources."

Read the full report from CBS.
FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: P. Schoenfeld Asset Management LLP (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree Tesco Plc (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:

For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 23 November 2017 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?

If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" Yes, Booker Group Plc





2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:



5p ordinary



Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



17,272,366 0.21 (3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL: 17,272,366 0.21

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale



Number of securities Price per unit





(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit 5p ordinary Equity Swap



Reducing a short position 861,000 GBP 1.938



5p ordinary Equity Swap Reducing a short position 430,500 GBP 1.936

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit





(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)





4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



None





(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



None





(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? No





Date of disclosure: 24 November 2017 Contact name: Alan Chan Telephone number: +1 212-649-9500

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service and must also be emailed to the Takeover Panel at monitoring@disclosure.org.uk. The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.
The largest insurance company in Britain has announced that all new parents are to be offered the same amount of paid leave after a child's birth.

Aviva is offering one full year of leave, with half of that term to be on full pay.

The firm said the terms will apply to all employees, irrespective of their gender or sexuality. Further, it won't matter on how the employees became a parent, be it by birth, adoption or surrogacy.

Aviva said the rule change creates a "level playing field for men and women" who want to balance time with their newborn with career progression.

As it stands in the U.K., only mothers are entitled to 52 weeks maternity leave. Laws dictate that maternity pay covers the first 39 weeks of a child's life.

This is usually paid at 90 percent of the mother's weekly wage for the first six weeks, before a lower rate kicks in  the legal minimum amount that an employer can offer, although contracts vary.

Shared parental leave, which allows both parents to share up to 50 weeks out of the office, was introduced in the U.K. in 2015 as an available replacement for maternity leave.

But research by EMW, a commercial law firm, showed that between April 2016 and March 2017, just 8,700 new parents took advantage of the new laws  a tiny proportion.

Analysis by the trade union body TUC suggested that the UK ranked 22nd out of 24 European countries that offered statutory maternity leave.

In the United States, mothers only receive 12 weeks of guaranteed leave following the birth of a child and there is no law requiring businesses to offer any pay.

In 2015, announced that it would start offering employees "unlimited" maternity and paternity leave on full pay through the first year after a child's birth or adoption.
WHEN: Monday, November 27, 2017 at 11:30AM ET

WHERE: CNBC's "Squawk Alley"

In a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview, CNBC's Leslie Picker will sit down with Citadel Founder & CEO Ken Griffin on CNBC's "Squawk Alley" (M-F 11AM-12PM) next Monday, November 27th at 11:30AM ET. Topics will include: Citadel's 2017 finale of its "Data Open" university competition, the state of the hedge fund industry and Washington, among others.

For more information contact:

Jennifer Dauble

CNBC

t: 201.735.4721

m: 201.615.2787

e: jennifer.dauble@nbcuni.com

Emma Martin

CNBC

t: 201.735.4713

e: emma.martin@nbcuni.com

About CNBC:

With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and CNBC World, CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business information to more than 409 million homes worldwide, including more than 91 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 15 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night features a mix of new reality programming, CNBC's highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries.

CNBC also has a vast portfolio of digital products which deliver real-time financial market news and information across a variety of platforms including: CNBC.com; CNBC PRO, the premium, integrated desktop/mobile service that provides live access to CNBC programming, exclusive video content and global market data and analysis; a suite of CNBC mobile products including the CNBC Apps for iOS, Android and Windows devices; and additional products such as the CNBC App for the Apple Watch and Apple TV.

Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBCUniversal Media Village Web site at http://www.nbcumv.com/programming/cnbc.

For more information about NBCUniversal, please visit http://www.NBCUniversal.com.
Air travel has long been an established way of life for millions around the world, but innovation continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the skies.



To give one example, in 2016, a solar-powered aircraft landed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to complete an epic and historic round-the-world journey. The Solar Impulse 2 traveled 24,855 miles powered solely by the sun. One of its pilots described the trip as the "definition of adventure."

While aviation has made it easy to travel long distances, the need to lower emissions from flights is pressing. The European Commission has described aviation as "one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions."



In Germany, researchers at the University of Stuttgart have been working on what they describe as a "high performance," electrically- powered two-seater aircraft called the e-Genius.



"The e-Genius is a full electric battery-powered airplane with a max take-off mass of 900 kilograms," Andreas Strohmayer, from the university's Institute of Aircraft Design, told CNBC's Sustainable Energy. Strohmayer added that the aircraft could carry two pilots over a distance of just under 250 miles.



Len Schumann, also from the Institute of Aircraft Design, said that the e-Genius behaved like a "conventional airplane" during flight, and that its performance was also comparable to conventional airplanes.



The e-Genius has proved that is capable of traveling long distances. In 2015, it undertook a return flight from Hahnweide airfield near Stuttgart to Calcinate del Pesce airport in northern Italy. The aircraft had to fly over the Alps, climbing to an altitude of 13,123 feet and travelling 199 miles.



Strohmayer said that the team was now focusing on the development of a high-performance hybrid aircraft with a smart diesel engine.



Could an electric passenger plane be on the horizon? "I think it's possible," Peter Palensky, from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, told CNBC.



"We have now lightweights, ultra-light airplanes, experimental ones from NASA," Palensky said. "On (a) city to city trip, London (to) Amsterdam, it might be reality in the not-so-distant future. On the long-haul, it might be a bit further on down the road."
The leader of Germany's socialist party is under heavy pressure to fix the country's political stalemate  despite the experienced lawmaker not being involved in recent coalition talks.

Martin Schulz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has stated repeatedly that the party wants to stay in opposition rather than joining another coalition, despite gaining 20.5 percent of the vote in September's election.

Leopold Traugott, policy analyst at Open Europe, told CNBC Friday that this "blunt rejection" has thrown up an issue for Schulz.

"If the SPD was to actually join a coalition again with the conservatives, this would make Schulz  a turncoat, because he said the opposite before, forcing him to resign," he added.

Talks to draw up a new executive in Germany between the pro-business FDP (Free Democratic Party), Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU (Christian Democratic Union), its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Greens came to an end at the weekend, after the FDP decided to walk out for what it saw as a lack of compromise from other parties.

As a result, either the SPD agrees to enter a coalition with Merkel, she heads a minority government, or the country holds news elections. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is currently pressuring his party (the SPD) to form a so-called Grand Coalition with the conservatives and avoid the need for snap elections.

The influence of the president seems to be working. A general secretary for the SPD said early Friday that the party is ready to talk to , though the group has yet to decide if it will be part of the new government or not.

"The SPD is firmly convinced that talks have to take place. The SPD is not closed to talks," Hubertus Heil of the SPD said, according to the Financial Times.

Schulz opposes becoming the junior coalition partner because this has previously impacted the party in a negative way, every time it joined forces with Merkel.

"It (the SPD) definitely doesn't work for them and it didn't work last time. That's why they said this time they would go into opposition and rejected the idea of another grand coalition," Traugott told CNBC.

The Social Democrats, who had governed alongside Merkel in the previous mandate, saw its worst election result since the World War II in September. An outcome particularly tough on Schulz, who left his role as chief of the European Parliament earlier this year to lead the Socialist Party and put an end to Merkel's 12 years at the helm.
A flock of birds near a Delta plane as it lands at Reagan International Airport in Washington, DC. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

As you make your way home from a turkey-filled weekend, spare a thought for some late birds that didn't even make it to the table: the fowl that jet-engine makers shoot into airplane engines to ensure your flight is a safe one. Long before your airplane's engines are installed, manufacturers, such as General Electric and United Technologies unit Pratt & Whitney, shoot dozens of bird carcasses into jet engines from giant air guns to test the machinery's ability to safely ingest such animals without disrupting the takeoff and climb. The tests, mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration and other aviation safety agencies, are crucial to ensuring safe flying for passengers, as birds flock near airports and pose a threat to planes. In what is perhaps the most famous case, on Jan. 15, 2009, the twin engines of a U.S. Airways Airbus A320 lost thrust after colliding with a flock of Canada geese moments after taking off from New York's LaGuardia Airport. Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger safely landed the plane in what became known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" as all 155 people on board survived.

How it works

Because engines are often tested on the ground, and not while flying, engine makers need to simulate the speed with which an aircraft would slam into birds during takeoff and its climb. That's where pneumatic barrels come in. Using pressurized air, the bird carcass is shot at engines at speeds of around 250 to 350 feet per second, according to GE. (A military engine test required speeds of 750 feet per second.) Pratt & Whitney uses pheasants from farms, a spokeswoman said. They are frozen for shipping and then thawed before testing. The barrel at GE's engine-testing center in Ohio is 50 feet long. GE said it has tested engines for a variety of bird sizes, including a Canada goose. Four to six birds are used for a medium-bird test, for those weighing 2.5 pounds. GE purchases the frozen carcasses of birds including geese, ducks and gulls through federal programs because they are often protected species.



These birds may have been roadkill, or kills taken from poachers when no longer needed as evidence, or those trapped by government agencies because they had become aggressive and dangerous in public areas, the company said. GE does not use live birds in its testing it said. "The feathers stay" on the bird when they are shot into the engine, said a GE spokesman.

Costly problem

The FAA logged 166,276 wildlife strikes with civil aircraft between 1990 and 2015, nearly 97 percent of them from birds. Damage to aircraft occurred in just under 9 percent of the cases. They can be costly. In that period, wildlife strikes cost $731 million in damages and lost revenue over that time period, according to the FAA.

One of many tests
"I keep saying Amazon should buy Kohl's ," Jan Kniffen, a retail consultant and former retail executive, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday morning.

"It's a very simple reason," Kniffen said. "It [would give Amazon] a nice little halo."

Kohl's roughly 1,100 department stores across the country  most of which are only one level, are detached from malls and have plenty of parking space  would help grow the internet giant's physical footprint, he said.

Earlier this year, , where it now sells some of Amazon's tech gadgets and accepts Amazon returns at a handful of stores.

The Wisconsin-based department store chain has quietly been working on an alliance with Amazon since the spring, Kohl's chief merchandising and customer officer, Michelle Gass, told CNBC when the partnership went live. Gass will be succeeding Kohl's CEO Kevin Mansell in May, when he retires.

"We've got a really simple objective ... to improve traffic in our stores," Mansell told CNBC Wednesday about the relationship. "The objective right now is to improve traffic, which would lead to an expansion of the program."

Mansell wouldn't comment on Amazon acquiring Kohl's.

The "early indications" from the Amazon pilot, which is only a few weeks in, are "very positive," Mansell said.

Amazon should outright own Kohl's, as it would give the company a place to sell and store merchandise, and accept returns, Kniffen said. This opinion is held by other retail industry analysts.

"Four hundred Whole Foods stores isn't going to do that for them," he said. And Kohl's $7.5 billion market capitalization would only be "pocket change" for Amazon.
Charred vehicles are seen on the site of a suicide bomb attack in the Syrian capital's eastern Tahrir Square district, on July 2, 2017.

Islamic State (ISIS) is looking a shadow of its former self, having lost almost all trace of its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq.

But experts are predicting that the militant organization will regroup and return should the political and physical reconstruction of those two countries be unsuccessful.

Fearful of a resurgence of ISIS and its aims of setting up a religious state, analysts have warned an "Islamic State 2.0" or "al-Qaeda 3.0" could emerge.

"The Islamic State is almost defeated, but a radical Islamist insurgency will remain in both Iraq and Syria as the fighters turn to traditional terrorism," Ayham Kamel, practice head of Middle East and North Africa at Eurasia Group, told CNBC on Thursday.

"However, losing the pillars of its state, ISIS no longer represents a strategic threat to the integrity of either Iraq or Syria. There's even a possibility of alliances with al-Qaeda in Syria (the Nusra Front) as these configurations are usually fluid," he said.

"The danger here is that (with) absent reconstruction aid, terrorism will remain a key challenge. The core challenge is that the world continues to focus on military tools to defeat a problem that transcends an armed challenge."

ISIS is largely made up of Sunni militants from Iraq and Syria but has drawn jihadi fighters from across the Muslim world and Europe. Its origins lie in regional conflicts and instability going back decades, but the group came to prominence in 2014 when it was able to take over swathes of Iraq and Syria amid power vacuums in those countries.

Syrian and Iraqi government forces and disparate rebel groups, assisted by international forces, particularly in Syria, have fought to reclaim territories lost to ISIS over the last few years as it attempted to spread a caliphate  a state governed by a strict interpretation of Islam.

Faced with airstrikes and repeated attacks by ground forces, ISIS strongholds have been steadily recaptured from the group. Currently, it has few pockets of resistance left, leading many to believe ISIS is on the cusp of defeat.

Regeneration

Experts have warned that ISIS is unlikely to disappear, however, predicting that it will go to ground, regroup and regenerate.

Speaking at a counter-terrorism conference in London on Thursday, Jane Marriott, director of the Joint International Counter-Terrorism Unit (JICTU), said that although defeating ISIS was "the right thing to do," there were "no easy solutions" to resolving deeper issues in the region, such as sectarian conflict, economic hardship, and religious rivalries.

"Defeating the physical caliphate so it's no longer on a map has to be a good thing, it's the right thing to do," she said. "But you then have to get the follow-up right and if we, the international community, don't get the politics right, the reconstruction, the economic (element) and the governing solutions in the right place then it will lead to Daesh (ISIS) 2.0 or al-Qaeda 3.0."

"So it's about ensuring that the things that (governments) do are the right things and that ultimately they don't make the situation worse in the long run," she added.

Many towns and cities in parts of Syria and Iraq have been reduced to rubble during multiple battles to defeat ISIS. Millions are estimated to have been displaced by the fighting, with hundreds of thousands more killed in the Syrian civil war, according to international non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch.

As a result, the country faces years of reconstruction ahead. In the meantime, controversial President Bashar al-Assad remains in power.
Qatar's deputy prime minister and foreign minister has defended his country's record on extremism. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani said Thursday that Qatar is assisting in global counter-terrorist operations, just as Gulf countries added to a "terrorism list" more entities they say are supported by Doha.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani attends a news conference in Rome, Italy, July 1, 2017. Alessandro Bianchi | Reuters

"I come from a region brimming with extremism," Al-Thani said. "The Middle East was once a region of peace and co-existence but sadly it has transformed into a region of turbulence and extremism where terrorism flourishes." Speaking at a counterterrorism conference hosted by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a U.K.-based defense and security think-tank, Al-Thani said the fight against extremism was "not over." "For many years, Qatar has stood with allied regions to say enough is enough," he said, adding that "Qatar is committed to destroying terrorism."

Blockade extended

Al-Thani's comments come amid an ongoing economic and transport blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that started in June. The Gulf allies also cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting Islamist groups and destabilizing the region, allegations that Qatar denies. The blockade was extended Thursday when Saudi Arabia's press agency said that the four countries had added two organizations and 11 individuals to a "terrorism list" of entities that it says are supported by Qatar. "Through their monitoring, the four countries emphasize continued Qatari authorities' support for and sponsor and finance of terrorism, promotion of extremism and dissemination of hate speech, and that these authorities have not taken effective action to stop terrorist activity," the Saudi press agency reported.

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Adela Morales and Adrian Bonilla with their grandchildren Jaslene Orozco, 9, and Raul Orozco, 10, who live together in a recreational vehicle in East Palo Alto, Calif., Nov. 22, 2017. Wherever Facebooks co-founder Mark Zuckerberg goes in Silicon Valley, he seems to generate a housing problem, including at this RV community where residents were evicted this month.

Adrian Bonilla lived in a shared house in this Silicon Valley town with his wife and two grandchildren until earlier this year, when the rent for their bedroom jumped to $1,200 from $900 a month. Mr. Bonilla attributed that rise to Facebook , which is based nearby and was growing.

So Mr. Bonilla, a 43-year-old mechanic and Uber driver, bought a 1991 recreational vehicle and joined a family-oriented R.V. community on a quiet cul-de-sac. They lived there until last week, when Mr. Bonilla received an eviction notice.

This time, Mr. Bonilla said, the reason he had to move was because the city wanted to clear the way for ''the Facebook school.'' That school is funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited liability company set up by Facebook's co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to work on social change endeavors. Ms. Chan is a co-founder of the school, a private institution for low-income children called the Primary School.

Despite the good will behind the school, it has been met with wariness.

''The school is a Facebook school. It's not a city school,'' Mr. Bonilla said, adding that he knew he would have to move again when he heard about it. ''When Facebook comes, everybody moves everywhere.''

Mr. Zuckerberg is already facing plenty of troubles across the globe, including questions about Russian interference on Facebook during the 2016 election. The skirmish between the couple's initiative and the R.V. community, which city officials said was becoming a flood hazard, is a reminder of how the billionaire also faces difficulties on his own doorstep.

For many in East Palo Alto, which is just blocks from Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., no C.E.O. and company have come to embody the anxieties of the modern tech boom more than Mr. Zuckerberg and Facebook. At a meeting last Wednesday at East Palo Alto's City Hall, about 100 residents and protesters gathered with city staff to discuss their housing and some invoked Mr. Zuckerberg's name.

''I want to talk about the elephant in the room,'' said Zach Kirk, 20, a Stanford University student who grew up in Palo Alto. ''Actually, he's not in the room, he's in some mansion: Mark Zuckerberg.''

Wherever Mr. Zuckerberg goes in Silicon Valley, he seems to generate a housing problem. In 2014, after the tech mogul bought a house in San Francisco, neighbors complained about construction, his security detail, the parking and how his presence would inflate prices. Earlier this year, protesters marched in East Palo Alto to denounce the displacement of residents because of big tech companies like Facebook.

The battles are likely to grow as Facebook continues its expansion in Menlo Park, with 1.75 million square feet of new office space expected to be built. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has also been growing, staffing up as it prepares to invest Mr. Zuckerberg's enormous fortune in efforts like his stated goal to ''cure, prevent, and manage all disease.''

Community members expect more tension later this month at an East Palo Alto town hall hosted by Real Community Coalition, a local citizens group, and featuring Facebook. At the meeting, residents will have the opportunity to ask Facebook executives questions about the company's role in the community.

''Connections are at the core of everything we do at Facebook and our relationship with residents of East Palo Alto is no different,'' Juan Salazar, a public policy manager for Facebook, said in a statement.

The social network has been lobbying to build more housing in the region, which Silicon Valley cities, worried about traffic and preferring a commercial over residential tax base, have fought against. In East Palo Alto, Facebook has invested $18.5 million into the Catalyst Housing Fund, an affordable housing initiative; the company has set a goal to grow the fund to $75 million.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is also writing grants for affordable housing, said working side by side with local communities was ''core to our work.'' In a statement, the Primary School said the episode with the R.V. residents was ''frustrating and emblematic of larger housing issues in the Bay Area,'' but that it was not aware of East Palo Alto's action to evict those residents and had not engaged with city officials on the matter.

East Palo Alto's residents have long felt disempowered against change brought by tech leaders like Mr. Zuckerberg. A 2.6-square-mile town where one-third of the school children are homeless, it has stood as a sign that Silicon Valley's wealth might not spread to those beyond its tech campuses. And so even as Mr. Zuckerberg's limited liability company seeks to build a school here, many of its residents are skeptical.

''CZI's just walking into something with a lot of baggage,'' said Daniel Saver, a lawyer with the Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, which receives funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. ''People here have been pushed around by very big interests and have been taken advantage of for decades. ''

Paul Bains, a pastor and president of Project WeHope, a local organization funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, said that the initiative needed to figure out how to interact with wary residents. ''They have to learn how to communicate with communities of color,'' Mr. Bains said.

The recent evictions at the R.V. enclave were not requested by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, said Donna Rutherford, an East Palo Alto City Council member and a former mayor of the town. Instead, city officials said the area had become a flood hazard as rains were coming and the vehicles had spilled wastewater into storm drains.

''Let me just walk you through the gross part,'' said Michelle Daher, an environmental management analyst for East Palo Alto, heading to a storm drain last week where she said 6,000 gallons of waste from R.V.s had to be pumped one day.

Ms. Daher pointed out the future site of the school, an empty lot surrounded by a chain-link fence. ''This obviously is the Chan Zuckerberg location,'' she said. She added that the flood-prone street would be rebuilt for the school, so the R.V.s would have had to move in any case.

Sean Charpentier, East Palo Alto's assistant city manager, said the region had been squeezed by the wealth around it and that the homeless population had grown. ''We're a receptacle for the externalities around us,'' he said. ''It's felt more deeply here because this city was formed to provide safe and affordable housing.''

Patricia Lopez, 48, who owns a home on the street where the R.V.s were parked, said the trouble for the R.V. residents began after a community meeting that Facebook executives attended.

''They didn't introduce themselves, but the organizer said, 'Facebook is in the house,' and they waved. And ever since then, it's been heavy harassment, heavy policing,'' she said, which ultimately led to the evictions.

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At last week's City Hall meeting, residents and protesters expressed support for the school but anxiety over the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

''The first step is to make sure quasi-affiliated supposed philanthropic organizations don't set the policy,'' said Johannes Muenzel, 28, a software engineer who is the co-chairman of Silicon Valley's Democratic Socialists of America chapter.

Mr. Kirk, the Stanford student, stood in the back, organizing other students. He said he had never seen so much grass-roots energy to protest among his cohort.

''It's sprung up out of nowhere. This is the issue we need to focus on," he said, adding that it was remarkable to get so many Stanford students protesting on a school night.

By 11 p.m., protesters and city staff were getting agitated and tired. Eventually, the Public Works and Transportation Commission recommended that city staff pursue a long-term solution for the R.V. community by working with nonprofit organizations and by looking into a ban on oversize vehicles parking overnight.

Facebook said a senior executive attended the meeting. Nearly 50 community members spoke that night. The Facebook executive did not.
North Korea has reportedly replaced guards and fortified a section of its border with South Korea where a North Korean soldier staged a daring defection last week, while South Korean and U.S. soldiers have been decorated for their role in his rescue.

The North Korean defector was shot and wounded by his fellow soldiers as he dashed into the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area (JSA) last week. The South Korean and U.S. soldiers who led a rescue attempt to drag the gravely injured solider to safety have been awarded medals, according to U.S. Forces Korea.

A group of senior diplomats based in Seoul visited the JSA on Wednesday morning where they saw five North Korean workers digging a deep trench in the area where the soldier had dashed across the line after getting his jeep stuck in a small ditch, a member of the diplomatic delegation told Reuters on Friday.

In a photograph of the visit posted to the Twitter account of acting U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Marc Knapper, North Korean workers could be seen using shovels to dig a deep trench on the North Korean side of the line as soldiers stood guard.

"The workers were being watched very closely by the KPA guards, not just the two in the photo, but others out of shot behind the building," said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.

According to an intelligence official cited by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, the North has replaced the 35-40 soldiers it had guarding the JSA at the time of the incident.

"We're closely monitoring the North Korean military's movement in the JSA," a South Korean defense ministry official told reporters, without confirming the reduction in border guards. "There are limits as to what we can say about things we know."
It's easy to say "Of course not" to my own query of whether I could be guilty of wrongdoing on this scale. The answer to many questions is no: Have I ever dated, attempted to embark in any physical relationship, made sexual explicit comments, or suggested any improper activity with a person at my company? No. Does that let me off the hook? I don't know.

I have winked at men, and at women, after making a point that I thought was amusing or irreverent. Is that wrong? I have lunched and dined with my partners, clients, attorney, and business associates for decades without any more incident than sometimes fighting over a check. I buy Scratch tickets for male colleagues' birthdays. Is that provocative? I sure hope not.

Even if I cannot identify anything in my work history about which someone has ever taken offense, I should not take my clean slate for granted in the future. Power positions have conferred entitlement, including sexual, in the workplace. Therefore, anyone with the power, male or female, can somehow forget that sexual authority over a subordinate is not a professional perk.

Two days ago, I gave a hug to one of my male partners as I left for the airport in San Francisco and he was staying on for more meetings. Was that inappropriate? Not in my book, but the book is being rewritten and I want to stay current with the new edition.

A few years ago, I learned that the rules had changed for good on interactions between the sexes. The headmaster of the high school for which I served as chairman of the board told the students that if they wanted a hug along with their diploma, a common and longstanding tradition at commencement, they should give him a specific hand signal. Otherwise he would only shake their hand. He was following new guidelines on physical contact with students, and hugs were verboten, although graduation was an exception. About half the women and a quarter of the young men gave him the signal.

If misuse of power is the dominant enabling force in sexual misconduct, anyone at a high level within an organization might cause harm, unintentionally, to a subordinate. The risks of ignoring this subject can be very painful in human terms, expensive to your business, extremely disruptive, and wildly time consuming. Insurance premiums, for policies that cover legal cases or settlements, are, unsurprisingly, skyrocketing.

Women in executive positions should not think of themselves as immune to bad behavior or less likely to face serious charges and repercussions if they act inappropriately. Because many of us have been the victims, we should be leaders in solving this workplace problem, both by standing up to our abusers and by setting examples for model behavior as corporate leaders.

Commentary by Karen Firestone, chairman and CEO, Aureus Asset Management.

Follow CNBC's Opinion section on Twitter @CNBCopinion.
Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

 is considering raising its offer to buy its rival chipmaker, according to a Reuters report. Broadcom's last offer consisted of $60 per share in cash and $10 per share in Broadcom stock, but sources say top Qualcomm shareholders want at least $80 per share.

SandRidge Energy  Investor Carl Icahn bought a 13.51 percent stake in SandRidge and indicated he would vote against the firm's proposed purchase of Bonanza Creek Energy .

UPS  UPS acquired a manufacturing pharmacy license from Georgia regulators, allowing it to relabel pharmaceuticals as well as ship them.

CBS  CBS and Dish Network agreed on a new carriage contract that ends a three-day blackout of CBS channels for the satellite TV service's subscribers.

Amazon.com  Amazon workers in Italy and Germany are planning a strike for Black Friday. The Italy walkout follows a failure to agree over bonuses, and German workers are striking in an ongoing dispute over pay and working conditions.

Raytheon , Boeing  The two defense contractors were reportedly selected to sell about $7 billion in munitions to Saudi Arabia, according to sources quoted by Reuters.

Teva Pharmaceutical  Teva plans to cut 20 percent to 25 percent of its workforce in Israel, according to the financial news website Calcalist. The drugmaker employs nearly 6,900 workers in Israel.

Nektar Therapeutics  An experimental pneumonia treatment developed by Nektar and partner Bayer did not meet its primary goal in a phase III study.
Applying to college can be incredibly confusing. Few understand this quite as well as Adrian Ridner, CEO and co-founder of Study.com. Ridner was born in Argentina and later moved to Venezuela and Brazil. When he moved to the United States for his senior year of high school, applying to college was chaotic. "I was learning English at the same time as I was trying to figure out all of the applications and prerequisites that I needed," he tells CNBC Make It. "My parents were also immigrants, so they were not really able to help me a ton, and my high school counselor just had limited information, so I was really left to fend for myself." Today, Ridner works to provide students with the educational resources that he didn't have in high school. "That's one of the big reasons I ended up starting Study.com. It wasn't just the fact that education became really inaccessible," he said. "I want to help students get the information that they need." With thousands of colleges and universities to choose from, figuring out where to apply was one of the most overwhelming decisions Ridner faced. Here are the five types of colleges that he says every student should apply to.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology was Ridner's dream school Steve Lewis Stock | Getty Images

The dream school

"The first is the dream school," says Ridner. "This one is obvious, but some of us have had it in our minds since we were very very little." Many students dream of attending the same exclusive Ivy League schools. This approach is narrow-minded and unrealistic, argues Ridner. "Sometimes the bar is being set by members of the family or by society as a whole, and it's not a bar that is always realistic," he says. "The reality is you might have to reach out academically and financially outside what you're capable of to achieve it," he says. Even though the chances of getting into your dream school may be low, Ridner says there is no harm in applying to one of these schools. "I think you can put it on your list and realize that its something that you've always dreamed about, but be realistic," he says. "Most students focus too much on the schools in this category."

The safety school

Ridner says the safety school is one of the most underappreciated types of colleges. "Actually, a lot of students ignore it," he says. "But this is the school that you're almost certainly going to get into based on your academic record and your test scores." "By applying to the safety school, you're not saying that's where you want to go," he explains. "But you want to have choices at the end of the college application process, and you want to make sure that you are able to go somewhere." Going to a college is more important than going to the best college, says Ridner. "Ultimately, what the research shows is that the difference between having a bachelor's degree and not having a bachelor's degree is huge," he says. "It's not as clear that the exact school makes that big of a difference at the end of the career."

Pomona College Ted Soqui | Corbis | Getty Images

The low-cost school

"A lot of times students don't take cost into account until it's too late," says Ridner. This, he argues, is a big mistake. "We have $1.3 trillion of student loan debt in the United States, and it can cripple you as a graduate," he says. "If you have too much debt, you can't move on with your life, buy your first car, your first home. So it's really important to have a school that you can afford." A low-cost school looks different for every student. "I think a misconception about the financial aid process is thinking that the sticker price of the college is what you pay," says Ben Kaplan, author of "How to Go to College Almost for Free." For instance, if a private college indicates that it "meets full demonstrated need" it means that the school guarantees students that they will only pay as much as they are able. These schools can be great options for students looking to apply to a low-cost school. Furthermore, many community colleges offer programs where students can attend for one year and then transfer to a traditional four-year institution. This approach can help students save a significant amount on their first year of college. "Having a low-cost option is really important as something to have in your back pocket," says Ridner.

The flexible school

Ridner says that every student should apply to a school that has flexible scheduling options. "Maybe they have online or hybrid educational opportunities and cater to students who have to work or have family obligations," he says. "Forty percent of students today are over 24 years of age," he explains. "A lot of working adults that are looking to enter college have different personal situations, and flexibility is a major factor for them when picking a school." Indeed, students over the age of 24, described as "nontraditional students," are one of the largest groups of students in higher education. For students like these, opportunities to take classes at night or online can help them continue their education while balancing their other commitments.

The potentially perfect school
Goldman Sachs says the stocks most owned by hedge funds are crushing the market this year, leading to stock pickers' strongest start since 2013. The bank's hedge fund VIP (very important positions) list consists of the 50 stocks that "appear most often among the top 10 holdings of fundamentally driven hedge fund portfolios" for the September quarter. Goldman analyzed the positions of 804 hedge funds with total long and short stock holdings of $2.1 trillion. "Our Hedge Fund VIP list of the most popular long positions  has outperformed the S & P 500," strategist Ben Snider wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. "From an implementation standpoint, the hedge fund VIP list represents a tool for investors seeking to 'follow the smart money' based on 13-F filings." Snider noted that technology is a favorite sector for the hedge-fund managers. Popular stocks such as Facebook , Amazon , Alibaba and Alphabet are among the top names on the list. The firm's basket of the top holdings of hedge funds is up 25 percent this year through Nov. 20 versus the S & P 500's 17 percent gain, according to Goldman Sachs. As a result, the average hedge fund is up 10 percent, the industry's best performance in four years, according to the strategist. The VIP list has beaten the market's performance in 65 percent of quarters and by 62 basis points on average per quarter since 2001. Turnover for the VIP list was below normal, with 10 new stocks in the September quarter compared with the historical average turnover of 16. Here are the top 10 stocks on the Goldman's hedge fund VIP list.

Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump should give special thanks to two U.S. Senators this Thanksgiving weekend. One is still serving in the Senate, the other recently retired. One is a Republican. The other a Democrat. And what should President Trump be thanking them for? Quite simply they have handed him one of the biggest victories any president could claim in the past 45 years.

Yes, this has happened even as one of the most widely covered stories of the past year has been President Trump's difficulties in working with Congress. The growing rift between him and Republican Senators John McCain, Jeff Flake, and Bob Corker alone has made headlines for months. For a U.S. president to have this many public feuds with senators from his own party this early in his presidency is really unprecedented and makes for hot news copy.

But that story ignores a bigger and longer-lasting development in the federal judiciary. That brings us first to naming the Republican gift giver: Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa. The longtime member of Congress has big time clout as the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. And Grassley has just used that clout to eliminate one of the final hurdles in the already furious pace of Trump administration judicial appointments to the federal bench.

Late last week, Grassley decided not to honor a Senate tradition of holding up hearings for judicial nominees who aren't cleared by their own home state senators. That tradition is known as the "blue slip courtesy" born out of time before nationwide communication technology when a given state's senators had access to much more information about nominees than their colleagues from the rest of the country. Grassley correctly noted that Democrats were now trying to use the blue slips tradition to replace the filibuster, and he's having none of that. As recently as last month, the Democrats and much of the news media's punditry were expecting Grassley, who is no fan of the president, to keep the blue slip tradition in place. But Grassley gave Trump this very special gift instead.

And that brings us to the Democrat who provided the initial generous source of President Trump's solid triumph: Former Senate Majority Leader, and Democrat, Harry Reid. Reid is a major reason this good fortune has befallen President Trump because Reid was the one who killed the filibuster rule for judicial nominees in 2013. And when he killed it, it was gone for good.

Republicans were powerless to stop a series of President Obama's judicial nominees after that. That is, until they won control of the Senate in the 2014 elections. The GOP may have failed at using that majority to achieve much, especially making even a dent in Obamacare. But they were able to freeze the Obama nomination process in its tracks, most notably by delaying and eventually killing Merrick Garland's nomination for the Supreme Court.

That long period of confirmation obstruction has given President Trump a huge number of seats to fill; twice as many as President Obama's also large number of vacancies when he took office in 2009. The Christian Science Monitor reports this is likely the most vacancies for a president to fill in 40 years. And the Trump team hasn't been wasting much time.

For those who believe President Trump won the 2016 election thanks to a series of Democratic Party errors, this is cut from the exact same cloth.

Consider that as of November 3rd, 13 Trump nominees to the courts have been confirmed this year. The big name is Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, but we also have eight new federal appeals court judges, and four new U.S. district court judges. President Trump has now already surpassed the last four presidents' records for first-year judicial confirmations. And he's even tied President Ronald Reagan number of appeals court confirmations in year one.

But this isn't just about sheer numbers, it's about ideology too. While President Trump and conservatives have diverged in matters of policy several times over the past year, the judicial nomination process is decidedly not one of them. The nominees sent to the Senate from the White House are more conservative and even younger than what we saw during President George W. Bush's two terms in office.

In case the importance of making an impact on the courts is lost on anyone, just note the many setbacks the Trump administration has suffered this year alone thanks to the courts. Delays and changes to the White House-imposed travel and immigration bans have grabbed the most attention. But the administration is also dealing with judicial push back and other potential hurdles on everything from its opposition to the AT&T-Time Warner merger to its transgender military ban.

Now fast forward a couple of years where the Trump judicial appointment surge will have set in across the federal system. Just for this administration alone, that could make a huge difference. And for conservative causes and cases over time, it will be even more significant.

Sure, the tax reform and Obamacare repeal bills may be jeopardized by internal spats between the GOP and the White House. But real history is being made in the courts all thanks to a bad bet made by Senator Reid and remarkable cooperation between the Trump team, Senator Grassley, and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. While the fights with other senators like Flake et al may grab headlines, these judicial confirmations will have a much bigger impact.

And unless the Democrats win control of the Senate in 2018, there's nothing they can do about it.

So on this Thanksgiving weekend the most grateful person in America should be President Trump. An unlikely set of benefactors has truly given him the political gift that will keep on giving.

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
TORONTO, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For over seven years, the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) and the Right to Housing Coalition - alongside housing advocates from across the country, including those with lived experience of homelessness - have pressed for a National Housing Strategy and the recognition in law of the right to housing. Those demands have finally been heard by the federal government in their announcement of a National Housing Strategy.



The courts repeatedly blocked our efforts to have these rights recognized under existing laws. But the community organizing on the ground sent a loud message to the government that enough is enough, says ACTO lawyer Tracy Heffernan, one of the legal counsel in the historic Charter challenge. The fight isnt over just yet. Until new legislation is adopted by Parliament, we have to keep up the pressure to ensure that our government stays true to their promise of legally recognizing that housing is a human right.

From 2010 to 2015, the Right to Housing Coalition worked tirelessly to have the voices of those impacted by the affordable housing crisis heard by the courts through the Charter case called Tanudajaja vs. Canada. 10,000 pages of evidence never heard by the court demonstrated:

Five applicants bravely shared their life stories of struggling with inadequate housing and homelessness, while many social justice organizations intervened in the case to echo the call for the right to housing, backed up by a National Housing Strategy.

In 2015, ACTO, the Right to Housing Coalition and others went to Geneva to make the case before the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) that people were suffering from governments broken promises and to push for the right to housing in Canada.

Details of the National Housing Strategy unclear

While we celebrate the recognition of the right to housing and the creation of the first National Housing Strategy, we are also waiting for more details of how it will be implemented, to verify that it actually meets the needs of those living on lower incomes in Canada. The affordable housing crisis most adversely impacts hundreds of thousands of people living on lower incomes and fighting to keep a roof over their heads. These people cannot wait several years for the bulk of the money to be spent.

Committing to a national strategy is an important step toward ending the affordable housing crisis, but a generation has gone by without meaningful spending and the time is now to invest in building communities, says Kenneth Hale, the Director of Advocacy and Legal Services at ACTO. We must continue to advocate for the rights of the most marginalized members of our society and work in partnership with people whose lives are being thrown off course by a lack of housing opportunities.

About Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario

The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) is a specialty community legal clinic, funded by Legal Aid Ontario, with a province-wide mandate. ACTO works for the advancement of human rights and social justice in housing for low-income Ontarians through legal advice and representation, law reform, community organizing, and education and training. The clinic also coordinates the Tenant Duty Counsel Program (TDCP) across Ontario, which provides legal information and assistance to self-represented tenants appearing at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

About the Right to Housing Coalition

The Right to Housing (R2H) Coalition includes people from a variety of backgrounds and expertise, including people with lived experience of homelessness or of being inadequately housed, community organizations, advocacy groups and academics.

For more information including interviews with ACTO and Right to Housing Coalition representatives:

Bahar Shadpour

Communications Coordinator, ACTO

shadpob@lao.on.ca

416-834-9645
Five years ago, the TaxPayers Alliance reported that in the last year, five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories.

Since then, the figures have varied, and some Conservative members or supporters have been selected to fill important posts.

Nonetheless, it remains the case that, since it took office in 2010, our Party has punched beneath its weight when it comes to public appointments. One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply dont apply in the same number as Labour supporters.

To help remedy this, every fortnight we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies, so that qualified Conservatives might be aware of the opportunities presented.

         

Animals in Science Committee  Chair

The Chair of the ASC will be expected to deliver a key leadership role by harnessing the energy and expertise of committee members to deliver timely advice to Ministers. To enable this, the successful candidate will be required to develop and foster strong and constructive relationships with committee members and senior stakeholders, including Ministers, Parliament, Devolved Administrations, Government officials, and practitioners. The Chair will, on behalf of the membership, provide the primary interface to Government Ministers and other stakeholders, including the public and media. The Chair is accountable for ensuring the timely delivery of the ASCs programme of work.

Time: Three-year term.

Remuneration: Travel and subsistence expenses.

Closes: 26 November

         

British Film Insitute  Governors

The role of the Governors is primarily to develop BFI strategy, oversee its policy and review procedures, as well as provide constructive challenge to the organisation in order to support it in achieving its strategic aims. Governors participate in the Boards decision-making processes including preparation for and attendance at all meetings of the Board and any committees. A Governor should have a commitment to the objectives of the BFI, uphold BFI policies and act as an advocate for the BFI, including assistance with activities to generate funding from the corporate sector, trusts and foundations and philanthropy. Furthermore, the Governors will support the BFI to achieve value for money and sustainability across its activities.

Time: Preparation for and attendance at all meetings of the Board and any committees.

Remuneration: None.

Closes: 27 November

         

UK Research & Innovation  Governors

For the right person, this is an exciting, highly influential role. The Chair will be a key figurehead for UKRI and will be integral to shaping the new organisation and ensuring its success and the UKs continued leadership globally on research and innovation. They will work with the CEO and the Board, leading UKRI in pursuit of its objectives. The Chair acts as custodian for UKRIs mission and objectives and is responsible for overall direction and management of UKRI, ensuring that the Board takes an effective governance role.

Time: Approx. one day per week.

Remuneration: 28,000 per annum.

Closes: 29 November

         

Intellectual Property Office  Chair

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is responsible for intellectual property rights including patents, designs, trademarks and copyright. It operates and maintains a clear and accessible intellectual property system in the UK, which encourages innovation and helps the economy and society to benefit from knowledge and ideas. The organisation also helps people get the right type of protection for their creation or invention. The IPO Steering Board is responsible for advising the CEO and Minister on the overall direction and policies of the IPO. It ensures the IPO delivers on its strategic priorities and that resources are allocated effectively for their delivery. The Steering Board also regularly reviews the management and performance of the IPO and ensures high standards of corporate governance are maintained at all times.

Time: Approx. 22 days per annum.

Remuneration: 10,000 per annum, plus travel expenses.

Closes: 07 December

         

Regulatory Policy Committee  Members

The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) is an advisory Non-Departmental Public Body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It provides independent, expert advice on the quality of analysis and evidence used by departments and regulators in their assessments of economic impact on business from regulatory interventions, including through their advice to Ministers on cross-cutting issues. The Committee ensures transparency and accuracy of measurement of the impacts of regulation. It is an essential part of the better regulation system, providing stakeholders, in particular business, with confidence that the costs and benefits from regulatory change have been properly considered. The Committee is currently formed of the Chair and seven other members. It is supported by a Secretariat based in London.

Time: See listing.

Remuneration: 350 per diem, up to 40 days per annum.

Closes: 07 December

         

Competition and Markets Authority  Chair

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was created in April 2014 to promote competition to benefit consumers, both within the UK and internationally, and ensure that markets operate well for consumers, businesses and the economy. The CMA has established itself domestically and internationally as the UKs primary competition and consumer body. There will be significant challenges in building on this initial success, as the CMA seeks to continue to meet its challenging target to deliver consumer benefits equivalent to ten times its costs.

Time: Approx. three days per week.

Remuneration: 140,000-160,000 per annum, plus reasonable expenses.

Closes: 08 December

         

Social Security Advisory Committee  Chair

Scrutinising, and where the Committee so decides, reporting on draft regulations entails mastering complex legal and technical detail, as well as understanding the operational context in which legislation will be brought into effect. The Chair will be able to draw on the considerable knowledge and expertise of the Committee membership during the scrutiny process, however they will need to have the capability to pick up on detailed proposals quickly in order that he/she can communicate credibly with Ministers, stakeholders and the media as appropriate.

Time: Approx. five days per month.

Remuneration: 22,000 per annum.

Closes: 10 December

         

Construction Industry Training Board  Chair

The Chair and the Board will hold the Executive Team to account for the delivery of the organisations offer to the construction industry, provide inclusive and dynamic leadership to the Board of Trustees, ensuring that each trustee fulfils their duties and responsibilities for the effective governance of the organisation. The Chair will also support and, where appropriate, challenge the Chief Executive and ensure that the Board functions as a unit and works closely with the entire Executive of the organisation to achieve agreed objectives.

Time: Avg. one day per week.

Remuneration: 22,500 per annum plus expenses.

Closes: 19 January
Intro

Like death and taxes, one thing that you can be sure of is that using C macros in a modern software project will cause a debate. While for some macros remain a convenient and efficient way of achieving particular programming goals, for others they are opaque, introduce the unnecessary risk of coding errors, and reduce readability.

The criticism of macros is particularly acute in the wider security community. Among Cossack Labs engineers and the core Themis crypto library contributors there are people who previously worked on auditing cryptographic implementations of critical code. Their typical knee-jerk reaction to macros was always kill it with fire and never use it again. Taking no sides, we would like to assess both pros and cons of using such dangerous things as macros in security code (as we faced the issue when developing Themis) and suggest some techniques for lowering the accompanying risks.

Well also discuss a custom for-audit build target for Themis designed specifically to generate source code that exposes the macros to inspection because we appreciate the need for security software to be subject to detailed source code scrutiny.

Problem

Macros are a dangerous thing. Used carelessly, they will lead to potentially fatal problems. But like medicine  when applied with knowledge, in moderate quantities and in a controlled manner, they only help. So whats so special about macros that the general approach is to treat them like a last-resort tool that should be replaced with functions wherever possible?

The problem with macros is that few people understand how to use them properly. Even fewer people are willing to invest time into learning how to implement the evil macros for the greater good of a specific project. Since macros rely on substitution and expansion, and cannot be checked by a compiler (which only checks the expanded expressions that use macros), they are prone to creating all sorts of unfortunate problems.

As software developers of cryptographic tools, we are quite used to handling dangerous things :).

Our weapon of choice

We created Themis to be a highly parameterised library, which abstracts dependencies, allows for massive refactoring of wrappers around different layers of code, and is cross-platform and architecture independent. Building it would be nearly impossible without macros.

In doing so we were (and still are) using pure C as the programming language with the widest portability and the best performance characteristics for the tasks we have in mind*.

To ensure that security of resulting code is consistent and proper, a thorough audit is necessary. Auditing code full of macros demanded customised tools that would allow expanding the macros and checking them in a for audit build target by the Themis build system. By for audit we mean that the build system generates code (instead of binaries) intended for manual inspection by human developers. The resulting output is surely not intended for an actual compilation (if attempted, youd get a ton of compiler warnings from the duplicate #include and local #define statements).

Lets get more specific.

Why use macros in the first place

Back in the day, macros were used for protecting headers from being included twice by the processor and the compiler. Nowadays, macros (when in skilled hands) allow us to use meta-programming and assist in creating more concise code for debugging purposes through error handling and parameter validation.

Meta-programming

Macros allow code generation during compilation (meta-programming). Unfortunately, the chance to apply this in C arises quite rarely and the resulting code indeed looks a bit weird, so we try not to abuse this approach. However, sometimes it allows to considerably shorten the code thanks to transferring the process of code copying from the writing stage to the compilation stage. An example of such use of macros can be found in our soter/soter_sign.c.

One of the primary objectives we kept in mind when developing Themis is the ability to add or change not only the cryptographic primitives used by higher level crypto systems but the underlying provider libraries that deliver those primitives, too.

For example, here a macros allows generating the structure for algorithm selection based on the pre-set list of cryptographic algorithms:

... switch (algId){ case SOTER_SIGN_rsa_pss_pksc8: //do something for rsa_pss_pksc8 break ; case SOTER_SIGN_ecdsa_none_pkcs8: //do something for ecdsa_none_pkcs8 break ; } ...

In fact, this fragment of code could have been written without using macros as there are only two switches, but in soter/soter_sign.c there are many switches and if we suddenly decide to add or delete an algorithm (i.e. RSA with no padding: rsa_none_pkcs8), changing only the first define will be enough:

... #define SOTER_SIGN_ALGS \ SOTER_SIGN_ALG(rsa,pss,pkcs8) \ SOTER_SIGN_ALG(ecdsa,none,pkcs8) \ SOTER_SIGN_ALG(rsa,none,pkcs8) ...

During the compilation, all selections will be expanded automatically. Without the macros, it would have taken even more time and  quite possibly  introduced mistakes.



The main problem with macros in C is that they do not check the parameter type, so if anything ill-fitting is introduced at the compilation stage, the macros can process it, and this will lead to extremely unpleasant results**.

This seems to be the cause from which stems the dislike for macros  they can be hiding a careless mistake inside, but no one will detect it until they are expanded. However, macros are created to be used often, which is why they are usually refined by developers until a chance of a human error lurking inside is eliminated. In our case, the macros for C are additionally checked using a compiler until were sure everything works just as intended.

Error handling and parameter validation

Another thing we can effectively do using macros is creating more concise code  i.e. in the situations when the same code needs to be executed several times in different parts of the program, but its not necessary (or even possible) to turn this code into a separate function. This is when some developers create a macros with an intuitive name and wrap it around the code.

For instance, in Themis we used macros for error processing, i.e. instead of:

if (error){ // do something return error_code; }

such macros was created:

THEMIS_CHECK(condition, error_code, snippet) / / snippet is some code that needs to be executed in do something

It is convenient, and the code of the macros can always be substituted for something like:

if (error){ fprintf(stderr, "error in file:line - %s:%s" , __FILE__, __LINE__); // do something return error_code; }

This allows bringing up the exact file/line where the error took place, not just the error code for debugging purposes. Since it is a macros and not a function, each error will have a correct filename and line index.

This is the best and the most convenient feature  otherwise youd need to comb through the whole code looking for the error message because in C the error processing in general usually looks like this:

if (condition){ // something //some code; }

In fact, the usage of macros wont make the code considerably shorter, but  for the sake of debugging  macros are used for efficient pointing out of mistakes. A common practice is adding if to the following line:

fprintf( "error %s in file %s on line %u" , "ERROR MESSAGE" , __FILE__, __LINE__);

Standard constants __FILE__ and __LINE__ display the filename and the line in which it is found. The problem is that if you dont use macros, youll need to add such line to each debugger. This would take considerable time and effort and if we want this output to take place only in the DEBUG version of the product, well need to add at least 3 lines everywhere:

... #ifdef DEBUG fprintf( "error %s in file %s on line %u" , "ERROR MESSAGE" , __FILE__, __LINE__); #endif ...

But if you create a macro that looks like this:

#define THEMIS_CHECK(cond, error_handler) \ do{ \ if(cond){ \ error_handler; \ } }while(0)

And write:

uint8_t * out_message = malloc(out_message_buffer); assert(out_message); THEMIS_CHECK(THEMIS_SUCCESS != themis_secure_message_unwrap(private_key, peer_public_key, in_message, in_message_length, out_message, & amp;out_message_length), free(out_message); return THEMIS_FAIL);

Youll get the following result through expanding the macros:

#define THEMIS_CHECK(cond, error_handler) \ do{ \ if(cond){ \ #ifdef DEBUG fprintf( "error %s in file %s on line %u" , "ERROR MESSAGE" , __FILE__, __LINE__); \ #endif error_handler; \ } } while ( 0 )

In all the places where error processing occurs, error output will be added.

Why not just use inline functions? The answer is simple  preprocessor finishes its work before an inline function actually turns into an inline function (during the compilation process). This is why in all the places where there are constants __FILE__ and __LINE__ (basically a single place where the defined inline function will be substituted for filename and line index) are just a file and a line where a function is defined, but where an error has occurred.

The downside to this is that when a snippet becomes complicated enough (i.e. contains many commands), the call to the macros turns into one long pile of code that is hard to read. Macro expansion of structured multi-line logic into a single line is one of the typical macro-driven obstacles to proper macro debugging. And this doesnt just apply to machine debuggers  the human eyes like structure, too. So, to keep the resulting code debuggable, in Themis we try to keep the macros short and make sure that they look well expanded by verifying it with a 'for-audit' target (see below).

Preprocessors with macros  splendours and miseries

Despite having said many nice words about macros, they still bloat readability and auditability of the code. Can we keep using macros, but also make the code auditable? As it turns out, yes.

Audit-friendly code is code that is transparent and easy to read without jumping back and forth. Which means that macros need to be expanded and turned into a clear and comprehensive code. Well, gcc provides a macro expansion mode that gathers a bunch of files and expands macros before building. So lets try using the command gcc-E on the following example. This is the code before executing gcc-E:

... themis_status_t themis_secure_message_wrap( const uint8_t * private_key, const size_t private_key_length, const uint8_t * public_key, const size_t public_key_length, const uint8_t * message, const size_t message_length, uint8_t * wrapped_message, size_t * wrapped_message_length){ THEMIS_CHECK_PARAM(private_key != NULL); THEMIS_CHECK_PARAM(private_key_length != 0 ); THEMIS_CHECK_PARAM(message != NULL); THEMIS_CHECK_PARAM(message_length != 0 ); THEMIS_CHECK_PARAM(wrapped_message_length != NULL); if (public_key == NULL & amp; & amp; public_key_length == 0 ){ themis_secure_message_signer_t * ctx = NULL; ctx = themis_secure_message_signer_init(private_key, private_key_length); THEMIS_CHECK(ctx != NULL); themis_status_t res = themis_secure_message_signer_proceed(ctx, message, message_length, wrapped_message, wrapped_message_length); themis_secure_message_signer_destroy(ctx); return res; } else { THEMIS_CHECK_PARAM(public_key != NULL); THEMIS_CHECK_PARAM(public_key_length != 0 ); themis_secure_message_encrypter_t * ctx = NULL; ctx = themis_secure_message_encrypter_init(private_key, private_key_length, public_key, public_key_length); THEMIS_CHECK__(ctx != NULL, return THEMIS_INVALID_PARAMETER); themis_status_t res = themis_secure_message_encrypter_proceed(ctx, message, message_length, wrapped_message, wrapped_message_length); themis_secure_message_encrypter_destroy(ctx); return res; } return THEMIS_INVALID_PARAMETER; } ...

And this is what it looks like after expanding the macros with the following command:

$ gcc - Isrc - E - CC src / themis / secure_message.c & gt;secure_message.c.aud $ cat secure_message.c.aud

The resulting output:

... themis_status_t themis_secure_message_wrap( const uint8_t * private_key, const size_t private_key_length, const uint8_t * public_key, const size_t public_key_length, const uint8_t * message, const size_t message_length, uint8_t * wrapped_message, size_t * wrapped_message_length){ if ( ! (private_key != (( void * ) 0 ))){ ; return 12 ; }; if ( ! (private_key_length != 0 )){ ; return 12 ; }; if ( ! (message != (( void * ) 0 ))){ ; return 12 ; }; if ( ! (message_length != 0 )){ ; return 12 ; }; if ( ! (wrapped_message_length != (( void * ) 0 ))){ ; return 12 ; }; if (public_key == (( void * ) 0 ) & amp; & amp; public_key_length == 0 ){ themis_secure_message_signer_t * ctx = (( void * ) 0 ); ctx = themis_secure_message_signer_init(private_key, private_key_length); if ( ! (ctx != (( void * ) 0 ))){ ; return 11 ; }; themis_status_t res = themis_secure_message_signer_proceed(ctx, message, message_length, wrapped_message, wrapped_message_length); themis_secure_message_signer_destroy(ctx); return res; } else { if ( ! (public_key != (( void * ) 0 ))){ ; return 12 ; }; if ( ! (public_key_length != 0 )){ ; return 12 ; }; themis_secure_message_encrypter_t * ctx = (( void * ) 0 ); ctx = themis_secure_message_encrypter_init(private_key, private_key_length, public_key, public_key_length); do { if ( ! (ctx != (( void * ) 0 ))){ return 12 ;}} while ( 0 ); themis_status_t res = themis_secure_message_encrypter_proceed(ctx, message, message_length, wrapped_message, wrapped_message_length); themis_secure_message_encrypter_destroy(ctx); return res; } return 12 ; } ...

Oops. This can hardly be called an auditable code.

Lets see what we can do to get expanded code that makes sense.

Why so bloated

While an effective expansion of macros means that a variety of conditional clauses can be validated by the same macros, one particular disadvantage is that the error handling macros (in themis/themis_error.h) can cause functions to return with some error code which impacts the execution flow. This can be an impediment for those doing code audits through code inspection where the flow should be explicit.

This happens because gcc or clang (or any other) preprocessors cannot selectively expand only macros  they will expand whatever they lay their hands on  include statements, ifdef, endif, defines (constants). It turns any file into a monster filled with incomprehensible numbers (the constants defined through #define are expanded/substituted, too). The preprocessors need to be tweaked and modified for the expanded code to be useful in the auditable sense (readable). This is why we created a custom script that solves the problem for us.

Taming the preprocessor with a custom script

Theoretically speaking, there are ways to create a preprocessor that wont need the custom treatment for every macro. This, however, would involve substantial patching of some non-gcc preprocessor and it is unrealistic to assume that the pre-patched preprocessor will be able to process correctly each and every exotic thing it might encounter when expanding a macros.

To address this concern, we created our custom script specifically for inspection of C code in Themis, but the whole approach should help with enhancing the readability of other code as well. It creates a copy of the source code with pre-expanded macros  to make the code easier to read for those who want to read it.

The script consists of 4 steps executed for each file in the project:

Step 1.

grep ' ^ \ s * #\ s * include ' $ file_name & gt; / tmp / include.c

Copies all the #include statements into a temporary file /tmp/include.c. This must be done because if the preprocessor touches the #include statements, the code will look much worse than before we started expanding the macros, and it will be totally useless for a sane audit process.

Step 2.

grep - Pv ' ^ \ s * #\ s * include \ b ' $ file_name & gt; & gt; / tmp / code.c

Copies everything except for #include statements into a temporary file /tmp/code.c and adds file definitions from soter/soter_error.h" and "themis/themis_error.h" files into the start on the code. This is done to expand the error processing macros on the next step  since weve deleted all the #include statements in the Step 1., otherwise the preprocessor wont be able to find them.

Step 3.

gcc - I src - E - CC / tmp / code.c | grep - v ^ # & gt; / tmp / preprocessed.c

File preprocessing is executed without the #include statements and the result is put into a temporary file /tmp/preprocessed.c.

Step 4.

cat / tmp / include.c & gt; $ 2 cat / tmp / preprocessed.c & gt; & gt; $ 2

Were bringing together the #include statements and the result of preprocessing. The resulting source file will retain the #define statements for function-like macros. This is done to help the person auditing the code understand that there was a macros which is now expanded. Our script for cpp retains the #define statements for this purpose.



Now how about this? What if we run this script on the original example (from src/themis/secure_message_wrapper.c):

$ . / scripts / pp.sh src / themis / secure_message.c secure_message.c.aud $ cat secure_message.c.aud

The output now will look like this:

... themis_status_t themis_secure_message_wrap( const uint8_t * private_key, const size_t private_key_length, const uint8_t * public_key, const size_t public_key_length, const uint8_t * message, const size_t message_length, uint8_t * wrapped_message, size_t * wrapped_message_length){ if ( ! (private_key != NULL)){ ; return SOTER_INVALID_PARAMETER; }; if ( ! (private_key_length != 0 )){ ; return SOTER_INVALID_PARAMETER; }; if ( ! (message != NULL)){ ; return SOTER_INVALID_PARAMETER; }; if ( ! (message_length != 0 )){ ; return SOTER_INVALID_PARAMETER; }; if ( ! (wrapped_message_length != NULL)){ ; return SOTER_INVALID_PARAMETER; }; if (public_key == NULL & amp; & amp; public_key_length == 0 ){ themis_secure_message_signer_t * ctx = NULL; ctx = themis_secure_message_signer_init(private_key, private_key_length); if ( ! (ctx != NULL)){ ; return SOTER_FAIL; }; themis_status_t res = themis_secure_message_signer_proceed(ctx, message, message_length, wrapped_message, wrapped_message_length); themis_secure_message_signer_destroy(ctx); return res; } else { if ( ! (public_key != NULL)){ ; return SOTER_INVALID_PARAMETER; }; if ( ! (public_key_length != 0 )){ ; return SOTER_INVALID_PARAMETER; }; themis_secure_message_encrypter_t * ctx = NULL; ctx = themis_secure_message_encrypter_init(private_key, private_key_length, public_key, public_key_length); do { if ( ! (ctx != NULL)){ return THEMIS_INVALID_PARAMETER;}} while ( 0 ); themis_status_t res = themis_secure_message_encrypter_proceed(ctx, message, message_length, wrapped_message, wrapped_message_length); themis_secure_message_encrypter_destroy(ctx); return res; } return THEMIS_INVALID_PARAMETER; } ...

As we can see, macros and macros alone were expanded. All the constants remain untouched and the code is readable, turning the macros into  to misquote Goethe  a part of that force that always promises the trouble and sometimes produces the good.

Conclusions

Why did we bring up this topic, knowing that many developers wont ever be convinced that selling your soul to macros is worth the trouble? Well, for once, for the sake of the good old mischievous myth-busting. However, having a flexible codebase is very important to us, and having an ability to manipulate it programmatically is just as important, and well be returning to this notion in the upcoming articles.

Sure, like any other tool, macros can be used poorly. We all still remember that careless manipulation of defines and macros in a well-matured C codebase provides a chance to accidentally build an operating system, a Quake clone, or 3 alternative Haskell compilers. But a thoughtful application of macros provides useful instruments that are too good to be overlooked due to nothing but a widespread prejudice, even if this requires creating a workaround (i.e. custom script) for correct functioning. And the demonic power of macros suddenly comes in very handy  just as weve demonstrated in the code examples from Themis above.

Sure, the pitfalls of macros and the implied risks of choosing the preprocessor script over the safety afforded by the compiler regarding type-checking, namespaces, etc. are not going anywhere. But given the objectives and constraints, conservative and careful use of macros is appropriate and justified.

P.S. Field Trials or Organising the Process

If you want to see how this recipe works in a large real-world project, take a look at the for-audit target in Themis build system. If you follow the instructions below, youll get a similar output with expanded auditable code.

1. Clone Themis to your machine and build for-audit sources:

$ git clone https: //github.com/cossacklabs/themis.git $ cd themis $ make for - audit

2. The output will look like this:

compile build / for_audit / soter / soter_container.c [OK] compile build / for_audit / soter / soter_crc32.c [OK] compile build / for_audit / soter / soter_hmac.c [OK] ... compile build / for_audit / themis / secure_message.h [OK] compile build / for_audit / themis / themis_error.h [OK] compile build / for_audit / soter / soter_hmac.h [OK] compile build / for_audit / soter / soter_hash.h [OK]

3. The for-audit Soter and Themis code will be placed into a for-audit build folder.

$ tree build / for_audit / build / for_audit  soter   ed25519    api.h    base.h    base2.h ... whole source follows

Thats it!

P.P.S. Footnotes

* If we were using C++, wed resort to templates or extensions instead of macros  far from being explicit, but a bit safer. However, were using optimal tools for our particular case, which is the feared and hated by many use of macros.

** In C++ the macros are more advanced and understand polymorphism  when there are multiple macros with the same name, but with a different number of parameters, the macros with a correct number of parameters for the received input will be selected).

This is our take on the subject. If you have something to add or would like to share your take on auditing of code with macros, please reach out to us via @CossackLabs or email.
In 2013, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved changes and additions to Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Reliability Standards, also known as CIP v5, which are a set of requirements for securing the assets responsible for operating the bulk power system.

CIP is just one of 14 mandatory North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) standards that are subject to enforcement in the U.S. However, it gets a good deal of attention because this regulation is centered on the physical security and cybersecurity of assets deemed to be critical to the electricity infrastructure. Within CIP, there are eleven reliability standards currently subject to enforcement under CIP v5, but there are plans to introduce more in the future.

Obtaining compliance under CIP is more about policy and procedure than technology. The firms that help the responsible entities achieve CIP compliance aren't widely known to the public. Because cybersecurity requirements for the energy sector are so new, there isn't a lot of competition.

Most of the consultancies in this space have rarely strayed outside of critical infrastructure. They're specialized, and have a lot of institutional knowledge and previous experience with these types of systems. Some well-known commercial vendors are working in the space too, but most only sell products that address certain needs under CIP.

After talking with several experts and those familiar with CIP, as well as reading all of the NERC documentation, one thing became clear: CIP isn't about technical controls. If technical controls are considered, such as an IP camera or a firewall, the effectiveness of said control doesn't really come up.
Here's where to find deer on public hunting grounds in Pennsylvania

Whenever guys tell me theres no deer, I just say yep, youre right, said one hunter, with a laugh.
For over two weeks now, Islamabad has been virtually cut off from "Pakistan" (or more appropriately, Rawalpindi). Barelvi clerics, protesting against an insignificant change in the oath taken by candidates that they believe in the finality of Muhammad as the last Prophet of Islam, have sat on a dharna at a crucial intersection that connects Rawalpindi with Islamabad.

Change

Although the change in the oath has been reversed, the Barelvi clerics show no sign of letting up on their agitation. They are pressing for the head/s of the person/s responsible for the alteration of the oath that according to them violated, or at least tried to dilute through the back door, the Islamic principle of Khatm-e-Nabbuwat.

With many analysts seeing the clerics dharna as a redux of the Lal Masjid affair just over a decade ago, the civilian government is terrified of the political and security repercussions of using force against the clerics to lift their siege of Islamabad. The real ruler of Pakistan  the military  also appears reluctant to crack down and end the siege partly because of the fear of yet another blowback of the type that happened after the Lal Masjid operation and partly because it would rather want the civilian government to take the call.

As is usual in Pakistan when such incidents happen, conspiracy theories are rampant. One set of conspiracy theorists claim that the civilian government has deliberately allowed matters to spiral out of control. Another set of conspiracy theorists are convinced that the army is behind the clerics agitation.

A variant of the theory pointing fingers at the army is that the army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa is chary of ordering his troops to move against the Barelvis. Reason? The anti-Ahmadi basis of this agitation tie in with insinuations that Bajwa is a closet Ahmadi, or at least very closely related to Ahmadis.

Meanwhile, with the state appearing paralysed because of the fear of the consequences of any action, the clerics have got emboldened. What was initially a few score protesters has snowballed into a few thousand fulminating fanatics who are openly abusing and defying the administration and the judiciary and seem set on making a show of force that they feel will catapult them on to the center-stage of politics.

They are issuing fatwas against the media and have created a climate of fear in which no one is ready to take them on. The result is that regardless of whether the agitation fizzles out or ends in a violent clash, the Barelvis have already established themselves as a power player on the political scene of Pakistan.

Surprising everyone, the Barelvi party, Tehrik Labbaik Yah Rasul Allah Pakistan (TLP) announced its arrival by putting up a strong performance in two recent by-elections in Lahore and Peshawar, worsting established religio-political parties like Jamaat Islami. The TLP is the latest and most vicious edition of Barelvi politics which until recently had been in retreat.

Earlier Barelvi versions like Jamiat Ulema Pakistan, Sunni Tehrik, etc, either withered away or couldnt make their mark. Part of the problem was that the Barelvi parties were deeply faction-ridden and couldnt emerge as a major force. Even when some of the Barelvi parties tried to organise themselves, they suffered major setbacks.

Leadership

For instance, almost the entire leadership of the Sunni Tehrik was wiped out in one fell swoop when a bomb blast ripped through a rally organised by the party in Karachi in 2006. Later attempts by the Barelvis to make themselves relevant suffered a huge credibility blow when in 2012 it became known that they had received money from the US embassy for organising their political programmes.

The Americans thought that the Barelvis would be an effective counterforce against the rising influence of the Deobandi and Wahabi clergy which had gone from strength to strength with the connivance, complicity, and cash of the Pakistani military establishment.

The assassination of the Punjab governor Salman Taseer by his security guard Mumtaz Qadri disabused the Americans of the "moderate" nature of the Barelvis. The TLP has in fact been organised around the "martyrdom" of Qadri, who is now the new icon and rallying point of the Barelvi assertion.

Initially, the emergence of the TLP was ignored by everyone despite the fact that the massive turnout at the funeral of Qadri last year, should have served as a wake-up call. Clearly, there was mobilisation at the grass root level that didnt appear on the radar screen. While the Barelvis are often confused with Sufis, this is a misnomer.

Tradition

The syncretic tradition is for all practical purposes dead in Pakistan. True, the Barelvis represent a quite different version of Islam from the more puritanical Deobandi or Wahabi schools. They engage in practices that are uniquely subcontinental and have elements of Indic religions. Although the Barelvis of the TLP variety share their doctrines with the Sufi shrines, they dont control them.

Unlike the Deobandis and Wahabis, the Barelvis are not known to have any military wing or being involved in jihadist activities. But this could change in the near future because, in terms of fanaticism, there is little to choose between the puritans and the "innovators" or Barelvis, who have taken hate-mongering to a new level.

The siege of Islamabad holds lessons for India where the Barelvis have been positioning themselves for state patronage by selling the line that this is indigenous Islam compared to Deobandi/Wahabi schools which have been spreading their baleful influence and taking over mosques with Saudi and Gulf money.

But while the Barelvi pitch is seductive, their track record in terms of fanaticism doesnt really inspire any trust (remember Azad Maidan incident in Mumbai?). In the end, choosing between different schools of fanatics is a mugs game. The best way to control radicalism is by marginalising the extremists, not by patronising them or pitting one against the other.
The forthcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat have generated unprecedented levels of interest both in political and public engagements. The reason for this has been the media-fuelled "prestige issue" for the BJP and an opportunity for the Congresss political revival.

However, the closer we get to the elections, the more inevitable a massive win for the BJP seems. A closer look at the data on voting intentions of the people of Gujarat suggests that any hopes for the Congress may come to naught.

Three major trends seem to consistently emerge from different pre-election surveys conducted by various agencies. The first and possibly the most important factor is the unabated popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Despite the narrative which the Congress has tried to build around GST and demonetisation, PM Modi continues to enjoy broad support across the state, starting from the Pew Survey earlier in the year which put his favourable rating at 88 per cent.

Second is the lack of credibility that the Congress faces on developmental issues, a perception which would be further exacerbated by the chaos surrounding the negotiations with PAAS and ticket distribution. Any momentum which the media coverage had initially created for the Congress seems to have dissipated.

Third is the limited influence that Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani would have on the final outcome of the elections. The opinion of previously undecided voters within the respective communities of these young leaders is crystallising, mostly against these leaders. Alpesh Thakors overt association with the Congress has dented his support base. While in Hardik Patels case, the perception regarding the core issue of reservation taking backstage and the release of the alleged sex tapes has accelerated the already declining graph of his popularity. With the Patidar community split vertically over the elections mostly in favour of the BJP, Hardik Patel would be a limited factor even in seats with heavy Patidar influence.

The region-wise voting scenario also appears to be in favour of the BJP. Various surveys indicate that the BJP enjoys a decent lead in South Gujarat. In 2012, the BJP had won all 12 seats in Surat and 28 of the total 35 seats in South Gujarat.

Even in central Gujarat, the BJP is expected to have a double digit lead over the Congress which makes this region favourable for the BJP in most of its 40 seats. The BJP has also traditionally performed well in the six seats of Kutch district. With PAASs political influence waning, the BJP can expect to reverse the reduction in Patel support in the regions of Saurashtra and north Gujarat and retain much of the vote share it bagged in 2012. The absence of Keshubhai Patels GPP cutting into the BJP vote share in Saurashtra could bring additional seats to the party as compared to 2012.

Also, with 69 constituencies throughout the state with an urban population of more than 50 per cent, and over 43 per cent of the state's population residing in urban areas, BJP can hope to cash in on its popularity among urban voters to come back to power.

While the Congress has tried to build a rainbow coalition based on caste, various polls suggest that the BJP has cracked the caste equation too. The 16 per cent upper caste votes have continued to back BJP. A plurality of Patidars also seem to be behind the BJP despite Hardik Patel with more coming back to the BJP fold because of him.

Among the OBCs too, the BJP has a decent lead over the Congress including among the Kshatriyas. The election of Ramnath Kovind as the president of India has further consolidated the Koli vote for the BJP.

In addition to this, BJPs inroads in 2012 among the Adivasi and even Muslims, who were traditionally Congress voters, seem to have expanded further. In terms of gender split, female voters, especially from middle and low income groups and Patidar households, have expressed a clear preference for the BJP. This broad demographic support, which is generally consistent in most of the pre-election surveys, makes a BJP win a foregone conclusion.

The BJP has also carefully calibrated its candidate list with a mix of incumbent candidates and fresh faces, which would swing quite a few votes. And with the campaign gaining momentum over the next few days, many undecided voters who do not want to waste their votes would also choose to vote for the BJP. Given these facts, the BJP seems to be well on its way for a sixth consecutive victory with massive margins in Gujarat.
AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The team of deal review experts at Eye See 360 are comparing the best Black Friday deals on Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets including the popular S8, Note 8 and S7 devices. The best value deals for shoppers this year are:



Samsungs flagship smartphone, the S8, comes in two sizes: the smaller S8 and larger S8 Plus. The smartphones feature near-bezel less 5.8 and 6.2 inch QUAD HD infinity displays. Their fast performance, ergonomic design and powerful 12 megapixel rear camera have led to the S8 emerging as one of the most popular smartphones of 2017.

The Note 8 is a high-end Android smartphone manufactured by Samsung and noted for its impressive camera and virtually borderless 6.3 inch Quad HD+ infinity display. Similar to previous Note smartphones, the Note 8 comes with an S Pen that enables hand written notes and a variety of stroke-based gestures. Check the full range of Galaxy smartphone deals on Amazon here.

Ranging from entry-level to premium, Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets appeal to a range of shoppers and budget levels. With HD displays and fast processors, the Galaxy Tab series of tablets are an attractive alternative to the iPad. This year there's Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts on some of the most popular Galaxy Tab tablets including the Tab A, Tab S3 and Tab E. Check out the Galaxy Tab sale at Amazon here.

E-commerce specialists at Eye See 360 compare discounts from the most popular retailers to find the best value Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Black Friday is the most popular day of the year for online deals with total sales this year expected to break consumer spending records. According to a recent survey published by the National Retail Federation (NRF), spending over the holiday shopping season has been rising at 5% per annum since the start of the decade. Total spending peaked at approximately $650 billion in 2016.

Whilst historically Black Friday has involved lengthy queues and chaotic scenes at retail stores, the transition to online deals has eased the pressure on brick and mortar sales. A survey from the National Retail federation found that more people shopped via the internet for the Black Friday weekend 2016 showing the growing importance of e-commerce to retailers.

Most retailers start their Black Friday sales on Monday 20th November and keep deals running until the following Monday (Cyber Monday).

Throughout Black Friday week the team at Eye See 360 are continually monitoring and posting new Black Friday and Cyber Monday Samsung Galaxy deals on their website.

About EyeSee360: EyeSee360 are a leading deal review and comparison website that specialize in rounding up Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on gadgets, electronics, home and outdoors gear. EyeSee360 participate in affiliate programs including the Amazon Associates program and earn income by providing links to Amazon.com and other websites.
Ecolab Inc. provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Global Industrial, Global Institutional & Specialty, and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences segments. The Global Industrial segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, metals and mining, power generation, pulp and paper, commercial laundry, petroleum, refining, and petrochemical industries. The Global Institutional & Specialty segment provides specialized cleaning and sanitizing products to the foodservice, hospitality, lodging, government and education, and retail industries. Its Global Healthcare & Life Sciences segment offers specialized cleaning and sanitizing products to the healthcare, personal care, and pharmaceutical industries, such as infection prevention and surgical solutions, and end-to-end cleaning and contamination control solutions under the Ecolab, Microtek, and Anios brand names. The company's Other segment offers pest elimination services to detect, eliminate, and prevent pests, such as rodents and insects in restaurants, food and beverage processors, educational and healthcare facilities, hotels, quick service restaurant and grocery operations, and other institutional and commercial customers. This segment also provides colloidal silica for binding and polishing applications in semiconductor, catalyst, and aerospace component manufacturing, as well as chemical industries; and products and services that manage wash process through custom designed programs, premium products, dispensing equipment, water and energy management, and reduction, as well as real time data management. It sells its products through field sales and corporate account personnel, distributors, and dealers. The company was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Douglas Dynamics, Inc. operates as a manufacturer and upfitter of commercial work truck attachments and equipment in North America. It operates through two segments, Work Truck Attachments and Work Truck Solutions. The Work Truck Attachments segment manufactures and sells snow and ice control attachments, including snowplows, and sand and salt spreaders for light trucks and heavy duty trucks, as well as various related parts and accessories. The Work Truck Solutions segment primarily manufactures municipal snow and ice control products; provides truck and vehicle upfits where it attaches component pieces of equipment, truck bodies, racking, and storage solutions to a vehicle chassis for use by end users for work related purposes; and manufactures storage solutions for trucks and vans, and cable pulling equipment for trucks. This segment also offers up-fit and storage solutions. It also provides customized turnkey solutions to governmental agencies, such as Departments of Transportation and municipalities. The company sells its products under the BLIZZARD, FISHER, SNOWEX, WESTERN, TURFEX, SWEEPEX, HENDERSON, BRINEXTREME, and DEJANA brands. It distributes its products primarily to professional snowplowers who are contracted to remove snow and ice from commercial and residential areas. The company was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
MONTREAL, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Tag Resources Ltd (TSXV:GOG) announces that it has entered into an agreement with Rubicon Minerals Corporation (Rubicon) to sell Golden Tags 40% interest in the McCuaig Property in Dome Township, Ontario for 550,000 common shares of Rubicon with a 4 month hold. The transaction closing is expected to complete by month end, subject to customary Toronto Stock Exchange approval for Rubicon.



Golden Tag also announces that it has granted 3.2 million five year incentive share options to insiders and others with an exercise price to be calculated using the five day volume weighted average price of Golden Tag shares on the TSX Venture exchange after the date hereof, less the allowable discount.



For additional information, please contact:

Golden Tag Resources Ltd.

Marc A. Carrier, President & CFO

Ph: (514) 426-8542

Fax: (514) 426-8543

Email: p r e s @ g o l d e n t ag.ca

www . g o l d e n t ag.ca

Neither the 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.
WellCare Health Plans, Inc. provides government-sponsored managed care services. The company operates in three segments: Medicaid Health Plans, Medicare Health Plans, and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs). The Medicaid Health Plans segment offers plans for beneficiaries of temporary assistance for needy families, supplemental security income, and aged blind and disabled residents; and other state-based programs, such as children's health insurance programs and long-term services and supports programs for qualifying families who are not eligible for Medicaid. The Medicare Health Plans segment provides Medicare, a federal program that provides eligible persons aged 65 and over, as well as some disabled persons with a range of hospital, medical, and prescription drug benefits; Medicare Advantage, a Medicare's managed care alternative to the original Medicare program, which offers individuals standard Medicare benefits directly through Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; and coordinated care plans that are administered through health maintenance organizations and require members to seek health care services and select a primary care physician from a network of health care providers. The Medicare PDPs segment provides Medicare part D PDP plans to Medicare-eligible beneficiaries. Its PDP plans offer national in-network prescription drug coverage, including a preferred pharmacy network. As of December 31, 2018, the company served approximately 5.5 million members in the United States. WellCare Health Plans, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.
GoDaddy Inc. engages in the design and development of cloud-based technology products in the United States and internationally. The company provides domain name registration product that enables to engage customers at the initial stage of establishing a digital identity. It also offers shared Website hosting products that provide various applications and products, such as web analytics, Secure Sockets Layer certificates, and WordPress; Website hosting on virtual private servers and virtual dedicated servers products, which allows customers to select the server configuration suited for their applications, requirements, and growth; managed hosting products to set up, monitor, maintain, secure, and patch software and servers for customers; and security products, a suite of tools designed to help secure customers' online presence. In addition, the company provides presence products, such as Websites + Marketing, a do-it-yourself mobile-optimized online tool that enables customers to build websites and e-commerce enabled online stores; a range of marketing tools and services designed to help businesses acquire and engage customers, and create content, as well as search engine optimization that helps customers get their websites found on search sites; and social media management services. Further, it offers business application products, such as Microsoft Office 365, email accounts, email marketing, and Internet-based telephony services; online store capabilities that allows customers to transact business directly on their websites; GoDaddy Payments, a payment facilitator; and point-of-sale (POS) devices, as well as software for POS. The company serves small businesses, individuals, organizations, developers, designers, and domain investors. GoDaddy Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.
MARKHAM, Ontario, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BMG Management Services Inc. (the Manager or BMS), the manager of the BMG Funds, today announced changes to the risk ratings of its three publicly offered mutual funds effective immediately. These changes are the result of complying with the recently mandated Canadian Securities Administrators updated risk classification methodology.



These changes have been reflected in the renewal of the BMG Funds simplified prospectus and fund facts each dated November 23, 2017. There are no changes to the investment objectives or strategies of the BMG Funds associated with these new risk ratings.

Fund Former Rating New Rating BMG BullionFund Medium High BMG Gold BullionFund Medium Medium to High BMG Silver BullionFund Medium High

The BMG Funds are specialized funds that invest in precious metals bullion (gold, silver and platinum as applicable). The BMG Funds are not intended to be a standalone investment, and should not represent more than 20% of an investors overall total investment portfolio including any other bullion investments. Due to the fact that bullion typically has a low correlation to other financial assets, including it as part of a portfolio should generally reduce the portfolios volatility (i.e., which may help improve returns over the long-term).

About BMS

BMS is a subsidiary of BMG Group Inc. (BMG). Founded in 2002, BMG is a dedicated guardian of physical bullion. BMS and BMG are both based in Markham, Ontario, and BMG has offices in multiple countries including Panama and the United Kingdom. BMS offers the BMG Funds to interested investors, and BMG offers a wide range of physical bullion products designed for portfolio diversification and wealth preservation. BMG bullion products, including the BMG Funds, are stored on an allocated and insured basis within LBMA-member vaults. BMG was the first precious metals bullion management company in Canada to become an Associate Member of the LBMA, an honour it shares with the Royal Canadian Mint, the Crown Corporation that produces Canadas currency. This validation and endorsement is only bestowed upon firms that meet the LBMAs rigorous industry standards on refining, reliable trading and Good Delivery practices. BMG is also an associate member of the Responsible Investment Association (RIA) and a signatory to the Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI). The PRI is the worlds leading proponent of responsible investment.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Marty Nicandro

Vice-President, Operations and Marketing

905.415.2958

m.nicandro@bmg-group.com
Meggitt PLC designs and manufactures components and sub-systems in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the United States, and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Airframe Systems, Engine Systems, Energy & Equipment, and Services & Support. It offers ice protection products, radomes, and structures; air data and flight display products; brake control and tyre pressure monitoring systems, and wheels and brakes; engine health and vibration monitors, H2/O2 analyzers, and turbine monitoring and protection products; and aircraft cameras and security systems, and wireless aircraft systems. The company also provides ammunition handling, thermal, weapon scoring, and weapon training systems; energy storage, power conversion and distribution, and power generation systems; ducting systems, engine composites, and flow control valves; and fire protection and controls comprising bleed air leak detection products, cables, electronic control units, fire and overheat detection products, and fire suppression products. In addition, it offers ground fueling, and fuel systems and tanks; motion control actuators, electric motor drives, and electric motors; oxygen and specialty restraint systems; and accelerometers, ceramics, fluid sensors, magnetic and current sensors, position and inertial sensors, pressure sensors, speed sensors, and temperature sensors. Further, the company provides polymer seals; heat exchangers, printed circuit heat exchangers, thermal components, and thermal management systems; and live fire and virtual trainers, as well as aftermarket services. It serves aerospace, defense, and energy and equipment markets. The company was formerly known as Meggitt Holdings Public Limited Company and changed its name to Meggitt PLC in April 1989. Meggitt PLC was incorporated in 1947 and is headquartered in Coventry, the United Kingdom.
Motorola Solutions, Inc. provides mission critical communications and analytics in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Products and Systems Integration, and Software and Services. The Products and Systems Integration segment offers a portfolio of infrastructure, devices, accessories, and video security devices and infrastructure, as well as the implementation, and integration of systems, devices, software, and applications for government, public safety, and commercial customers who operate private communications networks and video security solutions, as well as manage a mobile workforce. Its land mobile radio communications and video security and access control devices include two-way portable and vehicle-mounted radios, fixed and mobile video cameras, and accessories; radio network core and central processing software, base stations, consoles, and repeaters; and video analytics, network video management hardware and software, and access control solutions. The Software and Services segment provides repair, technical support, and hardware maintenance services. This segment also offers monitoring, software updates, and cybersecurity services; and public safety and enterprise command center software, unified communications applications, and video software solutions through on-premise and as a service. It serves government, public safety, and commercial customers. The company was formerly known as Motorola, Inc. and changed its name to Motorola Solutions, Inc. in January 2011. Motorola Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1928 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Last Chance for Animals (LCA), along with a coalition of animal rights organizations and activists, led the annual Fur Free Friday demonstration in Beverly Hills today. The event, which included a march of more than 200 protesters along Rodeo Drive, aimed to raise awareness of the cruelties inflicted on the millions of fur-bearing animals that are slaughtered each year for the sake of fashion.



Actresses Mena Suvari and Donna DErrico were among those who peacefully protested among bustling Black Friday shoppers, echoing comments made this year by luxury brand leaders that fur is not modern and going out of style.

The demonstration was organized and hosted by LCA and led by Bryan Monell, LCAs Activist of the Year award recipient and former LCA undercover animal rights investigator who was instrumental in passing the historic West Hollywood fur ban.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), In Defense of Animals, Beagle Freedom Project, Compassion Works International, Anti-Fur Society, All-Creatures, Earthlings, Los Angeles Animal Save and Animal Pac also participated in todays protest to double down on their firm stance against retailers that sell fur and the inherent cruelty of the fur industry that uses torturous kill methods, including suffocation, electrocution, gas, and poison.

Billions of animals are executed every year to make coats, bags and charms, said Chris DeRose, LCA president and founder. The decision not to buy or wear fur would be easy if more people knew about the deplorable conditions these animals are raised in that literally drives them insane. Our goal on Fur Free Friday is to pull back the veil and educate the public about the grim truth.

Visit www.FurFreeFriday.com to view a video message from actress Priscilla Presley. Protest photos are available at http://bit.ly/2n0yOWL.

About Last Chance for Animals

Last Chance for Animals (LCA) is an international non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating animal exploitation through education, investigations, legislation, and public awareness campaigns.Since its formation in 1984, LCA has succeeded as one of the nations pioneer animal advocacy organizations. LCAs educational and public outreach programs have empowered others to make positive changes for animals.

Press Contact: Arron Neal

arron@arprla.com, 213-568-3334
The following companies are subsidiares of Pearson: AEL (S) PTE Limited, ATI Professional Development LLC, Addison Wesley Longman Inc., Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., Aldwych Finance Limited, Americas Choice Inc., Atkey Finance Limited, Author Solutions, Axis Finance Inc., CAMSAWUSA Inc., CTI Education Group (Pty) Limited, Camsaw Inc., Casapsi Livraria e Editora Ltda, Centro Cultural Americano Franquias e Comercio Ltda., Century Consultants Ltd., Certiport, Certiport China Co Ltd, Certiport China Holding LLC, Certiport Inc., Cogmed Systems AB, Connections Academy of Arkansas LLC, Connections Academy of Florida LLC, Connections Academy of Iowa LLC, Connections Academy of Maine LLC, Connections Academy of Maryland LLC, Connections Academy of Minnesota LLC, Connections Academy of Missouri LLC, Connections Academy of Nevada LLC, Connections Academy of New Jersey LLC, Connections Academy of New Mexico LLC, Connections Academy of New York LLC, Connections Academy of Oregon LLC, Connections Academy of Pennsylvania LLC, Connections Academy of Tennessee LLC, Connections Academy of Texas LLC, Connections Education Inc., Connections Education LLC, Connections Education of Florida LLC, Dominie Press Inc., Dorian Finance Limited, Dorling Kindersley Australasia Pty Limited, EBNT Canada Holdings ULC, EBNT Holdings Limited, EBNT USA Holdings Inc., Edexcel Limited, Edexcel South Africa Pty Ltd, Education Development International plc, Education Resources (Cyprus) Limited, Educational Management Group Inc., Educational Publishers LLP, Embanet ULC, Embanet-Compass Knowledge Group Inc., EmbanetCompass, Embankment Finance Limited, English Language Learning and Instruction System Inc., Escape Studios Limited, FBH Inc., Falstaff Holdco Inc., Falstaff Inc., GED Domains LLC, GED Testing Service LLC, George (Shanghai) Commercial Information Consulting Co. Ltd, Global Education, Global George I Limited, Global George II Limited, GlobalEnglish, Globe Fearon Inc., Guangzhou Crescent Software Co. Ltd, Heinemann Education Botswana (Publishers) (Proprietary) Limited, Heinemann Publishers (Pty) Ltd, INTELLIPRO INC., Icodeon Limited, IndiaCan Education Private Limited, Integral 7 Inc., Integrated Analytics LLC, J M Solucoes Exportacao e Importacao Ltda, K12 Learning Services LLC, Kagiso Education Pty Ltd, Knowledge Analysis Technologies LLC, LCCI International Qualifications (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., LCCIEB Training Consultancy. Ltd, Learning Catalytics, LessonLab Inc., Lignum Oil Company, Linx Brasil Distribuidora Ltda., Longman (Malawi) Limited, Longman Australasia Pty Ltd, Longman Group(Overseas Holdings)Limited, Longman Indochina Acquisition L.L.C., Longman Kenya Limited, Longman Mocambique Ltda, Longman Romania S.R.L., Longman Swaziland (Pty) Limited, Longman Tanzania Limited, Longman Zambia Educational Publishers Pty Ltd, Longman Zambia Limited, Longman Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd, Longmaned Ecuador S.A., Major123 Limited, Maskew Miller Longman (Pty) Limited, MeasureUp LLC, Modern Curriculum Inc., Multi Holding, Multi Treinamento e Editora Ltda, NCS Information Technology Services (Beijing) Co Ltd, NCS Pearson Inc., NCS Pearson Pty Ltd, NCS Pearson Puerto Rico Inc., National Computer Systems Japan Co. Ltd, Ordinate Corporation, PN Holdings Inc., PT Efficient English Services, Pearson (Beijing) Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Pearson (Guizhou) Education Technology Co. Ltd., Pearson Affordable Learning Fund Limited, Pearson America LLC, Pearson Amsterdam B.V., Pearson Australia Finance Unlimited, Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd, Pearson Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Pearson Australia Pty Ltd, Pearson Benelux B.V., Pearson Books Limited, Pearson Brazil Finance Limited, Pearson Business Services Inc., Pearson Canada Assessment Inc., Pearson Canada Finance Unlimited, Pearson Canada Holdings Inc, Pearson Canada Inc., Pearson Central Europe Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Pearson College Limited, Pearson DBC Holdings Inc., Pearson Desarrollo y Capacitacion Profesional Chile Limitada, Pearson Deutschland GmbH, Pearson Digital Learning Puerto Rico Inc., Pearson Dollar Finance Two Limited, Pearson Dollar Finance plc, Pearson Educacion SA, Pearson Educacion de Chile Limitada, Pearson Educacion de Colombia S A S, Pearson Educacion de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pearson Educacion de Panama SA, Pearson Educacion de Peru S.A., Pearson Education (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Pearson Education Achievement Solutions (RF) (Pty) Limited, Pearson Education Africa (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Education Asia Limited, Pearson Education Botswana (Proprietary) Limited, Pearson Education Hellas SA, Pearson Education Holdings Limited, Pearson Education Inc., Pearson Education Indochina Limited, Pearson Education Investments Limited, Pearson Education Korea Limited, Pearson Education Limited, Pearson Education Namibia (Pty) Limited, Pearson Education Publishing Limited, Pearson Education S.A., Pearson Education SA, Pearson Education South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Education South Asia Pte. Ltd., Pearson Education Taiwan Ltd, Pearson Education do Brasil S.A, Pearson Educational Measurement Canada Inc., Pearson Educational Publishers LLC, Pearson Egitim Cozumleri Tikaret Limited Sirketi, Pearson Falstaff (Holdings) Inc., Pearson Falstaff Holdco LLC, Pearson France, Pearson Funding Five plc, Pearson Funding Four plc, Pearson Funding Two Limited, Pearson Holdings Inc., Pearson Holdings Southern Africa (Pty) Limited, Pearson IOKI Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Pearson India Education Services Private Limited, Pearson India Support Services Private Limited, Pearson Institute of Higher Education, Pearson International Finance Limited, Pearson Investment Holdings Inc., Pearson Italia S.p.A, Pearson Japan KK, Pearson Lanka (Private) Limited, Pearson Learning China (HK) Limited, Pearson Lesotho (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Loan Finance No. 3 Limited, Pearson Loan Finance No. 4 Limited, Pearson Loan Finance No.2 Unlimited, Pearson Loan Finance Unlimited, Pearson Longman Uganda Limited, Pearson Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Pearson Management Services Limited, Pearson Management Services Philippines Inc., Pearson Maryland Inc., Pearson Netherlands B.V., Pearson Netherlands Holdings B.V., Pearson Nominees Limited, Pearson Online Tutoring LLC, Pearson Overseas Holdings Limited, Pearson PEM P.R. Inc., Pearson PRH Holdings Limited, Pearson Pension Nominees Limited, Pearson Pension Property Fund Limited, Pearson Pension Trustee Limited, Pearson Pension Trustee Services Limited, Pearson Professional Assessments Limited, Pearson Real Estate Holdings Inc., Pearson Real Estate Holdings Limited, Pearson Schweiz AG, Pearson Services Limited, Pearson Shared Services Limited, Pearson South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Strand Finance Limited, Pearson Sweden AB, Pearson VUE Philippines Inc., Pearson in Practice Holdings Limited, Pearson in Practice Skills Based Learning Limited, Pearson in Practice Technology Limited, Penguin Capital LLC, Phumelela Publishers (Pty) Ltd, ProctorCam Inc., Reading Property Holdings LLC, Rebus Planning Associates Inc., Reston Publishing Company Inc., Rycade Capital Corporation, Shanghai AWL Education Software Ltd, Silver Burdett Ginn Inc., Skylight Training and Publishing Inc., Smarthinking Inc., Sound Holdings Inc., Spear Insurance Company Limited, Stark Verlag GmbH, Sunnykey International Holdings Limited (BVI), TQ Catalis Limited, TQ Clapham Limited, TQ Education and Training Limited, TQ Global Limited, TQ Group Limited, TQ Holdings Limited, The Financial Times (I) Pvt Ltd, The Learning Edge International pty Ltd, The Waite Group Inc, Trio Parent Holdings LLC, US Learning Services LLC, USLS Holdings LLC, Virtual Nerd, Vue Testing Services Israel Ltd, Vue Testing Services Korea Limited, Wall Street Institute Kft., Williams Education GmbH, eCollege.com, and Editions Du Renouveau Pedagogique Inc..

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The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates in four segments: Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Wealth Management, and Global Banking and Markets. The company offers financial advice and solutions, and day-to-day banking products, including debit and credit cards, chequing and saving accounts, investments, mortgages, loans, and insurance to individuals; and business banking solutions comprising lending, deposit, cash management, and trade finance solutions to small, medium, and large businesses, including automotive financing solutions to dealers and their customers. It also provides wealth management advice and solutions, including online brokerage, mobile investment, full-service brokerage, trust, private banking, and private investment counsel services; and retail mutual funds, exchange traded funds, liquid alternative funds, and institutional funds. In addition, the company offers international banking services for retail, corporate, and commercial customers; and lending and transaction, investment banking advisory, and capital markets access services to corporate customers. Further, it provides online, mobile, and telephone banking services. The company operates a network of 954 branches and approximately 3,766 automated banking machines in Canada; and approximately 1,300 branches and a network of contact and support center internationally. The Bank of Nova Scotia was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada.
KeyCorp operates as the holding company for KeyBank National Association that provides various retail and commercial banking products and services in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer Bank and Commercial Bank. The company offers various deposits, investment products and services; and personal finance and financial wellness, student loan refinancing, mortgage and home equity, lending, credit card, treasury, business advisory, wealth management, asset management, investment, cash management, portfolio management, and trust and related services to individuals and small and medium-sized businesses. It also provides a suite of banking and capital market products, such as syndicated finance, debt and equity capital market products, commercial payments, equipment finance, commercial mortgage banking, derivatives, foreign exchange, financial advisory, and public finance, as well as commercial mortgage loans comprising consumer, energy, healthcare, industrial, public sector, real estate, and technology loans for middle market clients. In addition, the company offers community development financing, securities underwriting, brokerage, and investment banking services. As of December 31, 2021, it operated through a network of approximately 999 branches and 1,317 ATMs in 15 states, as well as additional offices, online and mobile banking capabilities, and a telephone banking call center. KeyCorp was founded in 1849 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.


China, Trump and the North Korean nightmare



Beijing could get drawn into a war on the peninsula



Gideon Rachman





With the threat of another Korean war looming, this weeks US-China summit in Beijing could be the most important in decades.



Most western commentary on North Korea has focused on President Donald Trumps warnings of fire and fury to combat the regimes nuclear threat. But the Korean crisis also poses a huge risk to China. If a war breaks out, China will literally be on the frontline  potentially exposed to nuclear fallout, refugee flows and dramatic shifts in the regional balance of power.



These acute risks have produced a startling variety of opinions among Chinese experts about the best way forward. There are some who even argue that China and the US should co-operate in joint military operations against North Korea. Others take a completely different line  contending that Washingtons policy is leading to disaster, and that it is time for Beijing to break publicly with the US.



Beijings official position avoids either of these dramatic alternatives. Instead, the government of President Xi Jinping is pressing to restart diplomacy through a freeze for freeze policy.



The idea is that North Korea would freeze the development of its nuclear weapons, in return for the US freezing military exercises that alarm Pyongyang.



In principle, this sounds like a decent idea. In practice, neither North Korea nor the US seem willing to take the steps needed to make the policy work.



Given this reality, the Chinese are having to consider other more radical alternatives. One senior official argues that by agreeing to US demands for tougher sanctions on North Korea, China has lost its influence in Pyongyang. So, the official argues, China should now attempt to rebuild ties with the Kim Jong Un regime  even if that means antagonising the US administration.



But, among Chinese academics, there are eminent figures who take a radically different position. These hawks argue that a nuclear North Korea is a profound threat not just to South Korea, Japan or the US  but to China itself. In strategic terms, the growing North Korean threat may well persuade both South Korea and Japan to acquire their own nuclear weapons  which would sharply increase tensions within East Asia.



Chinese experts also fret about the dangers of a North Korean nuclear test going wrong, or of an accident at the Yongbyon nuclear facility, near the border. Any such development would pose serious environmental risks to China. Yongbyon could be our Fukushima, worries one academic  referring to the 2011 nuclear accident in Japan.



North Korea is now estimated by the Chinese to have 40-60 nuclear weapons. If any were used during a conflict, the risks to China would be enormous.



All of this leads some Chinese experts to consider a radical alternative  perhaps Beijing should co-operate with the US, in a joint military action, aimed at toppling the Kim regime and seizing its nuclear weapons. Such a strategy would allow China to take active steps to defend its own security  rather than helplessly watching a conflict unfold from the sidelines. Offering to ally with the Trump administration might also allow China to secure a new grand bargain over postwar arrangements. The Chinese could, for example, look for guarantees that US troops would withdraw from a unified Korea  and might also seek concessions on other regional security issues, such as the status of Taiwan or the South China Sea.



Any joint military operations, however, would be fraught with risk. Above all, there is the fear that North Korea could launch a devastating retaliation  using either nuclear weapons or conventional artillery. To avoid this, one Chinese expert speculates that an attack on the Kim regime could begin by using an electromagnetic pulse weapon (EMP), designed to disable all electronic communication in North Korea  so making it impossible to co-ordinate defences or launch nuclear weapons.



However, while the US and China are both known to have worked on EMP weapons, they have never been used. It would be extremely risky to rely on an untried weapons system to disable the North Korean nuclear threat.



Given all these considerations, an alternative school of thought argues that, if the Trump administration launches a strike on North Korea, the sole Chinese military response should be to advance 50km into North Korea, to protect its border, and to prevent uncontrollable flows of refugees. One nationalist academic argues that a US pre-emptive strike might ultimately benefit China. Americas allies, such as South Korea and Japan, would be appalled and would break their ties with the US, destroying American influence in the Pacific, or so the thinking goes.



But there would also be costs if China tried to watch a conflict from the sidelines. The humanitarian consequences would be horrendous. And even a limited advance into North Korea would risk drawing Chinese troops further into the conflict. But if China sat the fighting out completely, it would risk looking like an impotent bystander as the US fought a war in a country that remains a Chinese ally and neighbour.



In Washington, there is a saying that North Korea is the land of bad options. It looks that way from Beijing, too. The problem is that, with North Koreas nuclear weapons programme advancing fast, doing nothing may not be an option, either.
Block, Inc. is the parent company to a host of digital financial solutions including Square. The company was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey (also founded Twitter) and Jim McKelvey as a solution to a problem faced by McKelvey. Mr. McKelvey was unable to complete a transaction because he was unable to accept credit cards and that provided inspiration for Mr. Dorsey. The firm was founded in St. Louis but now has no official headquarters, instead choosing to do most work remotely or from one of several key hubs. That decision was made in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic when it became clear telecommuting was a solution that worked.

The original Square app provides a multitude of payment and POS solutions that include hardware and software. The hardware includes the iconic Square card mag-stripe reader that can be plugged into any tablet or smartphone as well as many other solutions. The software enables sellers to turn their smart devices into POS on a temporary or permanent/dedicated basis.

The company went public in 2015 when it IPOd on the NASDAQ stock exchange and then later decided to change its name to Block to better represent the business. Today, Block, Inc. operates as a network of businesses that are working together to expand access to the economy. The core brands are Square, CashApp, AfterPay, Weebly, Tidal, Spiral, and TBD.

The Square brand encompasses all the core business including but not limited to hardware and its related software. The CashApp business is a money transfer solution that is working to make money more available and universally acceptable. Afterpay is a buy-now-pay-later service. Weebly is an eCommerce and web hosting service for small and medium-sized businesses. Tidal is a platform for musicians and artists to connect with fans and monetize their brands. Spiral is the firm's cryptocurrency division and TBD is a division focused on crypto, specifically building a crypto platform.

Block, Inc. stunned the market in 2020 when it began to purchase Bitcoin. Then Square, the company purchased Bitcoin in two transactions for a total of $210 million. The holdings amount to 8,027 Bitcoins which were worth $154.75 million in October 2022. The purpose of Spiral is to fund open-sourced applications that encourage and facilitate the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Mr. Dorsey remains the CEO and chairman of Block, Inc. The company employs more than 8,500 individuals across its footprint and netted $17.66 billion in revenue for 2021. Mr. Dorsey is also the companys largest shareholder with about 10% of the shares.
Tyler Technologies, Inc. provides integrated information management solutions and services for the public sector. The company operates in three segments: Enterprise Software; Appraisal and Tax; and NIC. It offers financial management solutions, including modular fund accounting systems for government agencies or not-for-profit entities; utility billing systems for the billing and collection of metered and non-metered services; products to automate city and county functions, such as municipal courts, parking tickets, equipment and project costing, animal and business licenses, permits and inspections, code enforcement, citizen complaint tracking, ambulance billing, fleet maintenance, and cemetery records management; and student information and transportation solutions for K-12 schools. The company also provides a suite of judicial solutions comprising court case management, court and law enforcement, prosecutor, and supervision systems to handle multi-jurisdictional county or statewide implementations, and single county systems; public safety software solutions; systems and software to automate the appraisal and assessment of real and personal property, as well as tax applications for agencies that bill and collect taxes; planning, regulatory, and maintenance software solutions for public sector agencies; software applications to enhance and automate operations involving records and document management; and data and insights solutions. In addition, it offers software as a service arrangements and electronic document filing solutions for courts and law offices; software and hardware installation, data conversion, training, product modification, and maintenance and support services; and property appraisal outsourcing services for taxing jurisdictions. The company has a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services for cloud hosting services. Tyler Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.
The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.

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Hilltop Holdings Inc. provides business and consumer banking, and financial products and services. It operates through three segments: Banking, Broker-Dealer, and Mortgage Origination. The Banking segment offers savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; lines and letters of credit, home improvement and equity loans, loans for purchasing and carrying securities, equipment loans and leases, agricultural and commercial real estate loans, and other loans; and commercial and industrial loans, and term and construction finance. This segment also provides treasury management, wealth management, asset management, check cards, safe deposit boxes, online banking, bill pay, trust, and overdraft services; and estate planning, management and administration, investment portfolio management, employee benefit accounts, and individual retirement accounts, as well as automated teller machines. The Broker-Dealer segment offers public finance services that assist public entities in originating, syndicating, and distributing securities of municipalities and political subdivisions; specialized advisory and investment banking services; advice and guidance to arbitrage rebate compliance, portfolio management, and local government investment pool administration; structured finance services, which include advisory services for derivatives and commodities; sells, trades in, and underwrites U.S. government and government agency bonds, corporate bonds, and municipal bonds, as well as mortgage-backed, asset-backed, and commercial mortgage-backed securities and structured products. This segment also provides asset and liability management advisory, clearing, retail, and securities lending services. The Mortgage Origination segment offers mortgage, jumbo, Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Affairs, and United States Department of Agriculture loans. Hilltop Holdings Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Duck Creek Technologies, Inc. provides software-as-a-service core systems to the property and casualty insurance industry in the United States and internationally. The company provides Duck Creek Policy, a solution that enables insurers to develop and launch new insurance products and manage various aspects of policy administration ranging from product definition to quoting, binding, and servicing; Duck Creek Billing that provides payment and invoicing capabilities, such as billing and collections, commission processing, disbursement management, and general ledger capabilities for insurance lines and bill types; and Duck Creek Claims that supports entire claims lifecycle from first notice of loss through investigation, payments, negotiations, reporting, and closure. It also offers Duck Creek Rating that allows carriers to develop new rates and models and deliver quotes in real-time based on the complex rating algorithms; Duck Creek Insights, an insurance analytics solution that allows carriers to gather and analyze data from internal and external sources and facilitate analysis and reporting on a single system; Duck Creek Digital Engagement that offer digital interactions between property and casualty insurers and their agents, brokers, and policyholders; and Duck Creek Distribution Management that automates sales channel activities for agents and brokers, including producer onboarding, compliance, and compensation management. In addition, the company provides Duck Creek Reinsurance Management that automates financial and administrative functions; and Duck Creek Industry Content that provides pre-built content, including base business rules, product designs, rating algorithms, data capture screens, and workflows for insurance lines of business, such as commercial auto, inland marine, and workers compensation. It has a partnership with Shift Technologies, Inc. to implement AI fraud detection. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. develops, manufactures, and distributes motorcycles, automobiles, power products, and other products in Japan, North America, Europe, Asia, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Motorcycle Business, Automobile Business, Financial Services Business, and Life Creation and Other Businesses. The Motorcycle Business segment produces motorcycles, including sports, business, and commuter models; and various off-road vehicles, such as all-terrain vehicles and side-by-sides. The Automobile Business segment offers passenger cars, light trucks, and mini vehicles. The Financial Services Business segment provides various financial services, including retail lending and leasing services to customers, as well as wholesale financing services to dealers. The Life Creation and Other Businesses segment manufactures and sells power products, such as general purpose engines, generators, water pumps, lawn mowers, riding mowers, robotic mowers, brush cutters, tillers, snow blowers, outboard marine engines, walking assist devices, and portable battery inverter power sources. This segment also offers HondaJet aircraft. The company also sells spare parts; and provides after-sale services through retail dealers directly, as well as through independent distributors and licensees. Honda Motor Co., Ltd. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
Associated Banc-Corp, a bank holding company, provides various banking and nonbanking products to individuals and businesses in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota. The company operates through three segments: Corporate and Commercial Specialty; Community, Consumer, and Business; and Risk Management and Shared Services. Its Corporate and Commercial Specialty segment offers lending solutions, including commercial loans and lines of credit, commercial real estate financing, construction loans, letters of credit, leasing, asset based lending, and loan syndications; deposit and cash management solutions, such as commercial checking and interest-bearing deposit products, cash vault and night depository services, liquidity solutions, payables and receivables solutions, and information services; specialized financial services such as interest rate risk management, foreign exchange solutions, and commodity hedging; fiduciary services such as administration of pension, profit-sharing and other employee benefit plans, fiduciary and corporate agency services, and institutional asset management; and investable funds solutions such as savings, money market deposit accounts, IRA accounts, CDs, fixed and variable annuities, full-service, discount and online investment brokerage; investment advisory services; and trust and investment management accounts. The company's Community, Consumer, and Business segment offers lending solutions, such as residential mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, personal and installment loans, auto loans, business loans, and business lines of credit; and deposit and transactional solutions such as checking, credit, debit and pre-paid cards, online banking and bill pay; and money transfer services. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 215 banking branches. Associated Banc-Corp was founded in 1861 and is headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Customers Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Customers Bank. Customers Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1997 as New Century Bank which operated 5 branches in Southern Pennsylvania. The companys lending portfolio, which was primarily residential mortgage loans, led to the bank's eventual rebranding and hiring of Jay Sidhu as chairman and chief executive officer. The bank changed to a Bank Holding Company after it made a few strategic acquisitions and it now operates 12 full-service branches across 10 states and provides financial services to individuals, and small, and medium-sized businesses. The bank was a troubled asset worth $250 million when Mr. Sidhu took over and now it is worth upwards of $20 billion.

Customers Bancorp, Inc is a super-community bank operating in multiple states across the US. The companys assets topped $20.3 billion in mid-2022 which put it on par with many of the US regional banks. The company sets itself apart by offering dedicated personal service to all its clients and by operating as a digital-first business. This means a single point of contact to help with any needs that may arise and full-service digital banking for all client needs.

Customers Bancorp offers traditional deposit products, including checking, savings, MMDA, and other deposit accounts as well as a full range of loans. Loan products include but are not limited to commercial warehouse loans, loans for multi-family construction, commercial real estate, small business loans, equipment financing, residential mortgages, and consumer lines of credit.

The company also offers traditional and business banking activities including mobile, internet, wire transfers, electronic bill payment, safe deposit boxes, remote capture, courier, payment processing services, and cash management.

Among the many services offered by Customers Bancorp are digital assets. The company supports a wide range of cryptocurrency-related services for individuals and businesses and even uses its own token. The token is used to power instant B2B payments across the TassatPay blockchain network. The companys native token is CBIT (Customers Bancorp Instant Token).

Customers Bancorp is headquartered in West Reading, Pennsylvania, and operates 12 full-service branches, as well as production and administrative offices in several counties in southeastern Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Illinois, Florida, and North Carolina.
DTE Energy Company engages in the utility operations. The company's Electric segment generates, purchases, distributes, and sells electricity to approximately 2.3 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers in southeastern Michigan. It generates electricity through fossil-fuel, hydroelectric pumped storage, and nuclear plants, as well as wind and other renewable assets. This segment owns and operates approximately 698 distribution substations and 449,800 line transformers. The company's Gas segment purchases, stores, transports, distributes, and sells natural gas to approximately 1.3 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers throughout Michigan; and sells storage and transportation capacity. This segment has approximately 20,000 miles of distribution mains; 1,304,000 service pipelines; and 1,305,000 active meters, as well as owns approximately 2,000 miles of transmission pipelines. The company's Power and Industrial Projects segment offers metallurgical coke; pulverized coal and petroleum coke to the steel, pulp and paper, and other industries; and power, steam and chilled water production, and wastewater treatment services, as well as supplies compressed air to industrial customers. Its Energy Trading segment engages in power, natural gas, and environmental marketing and trading; structured transactions; and the optimization of contracted natural gas pipeline transportation and storage positions. The company was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan.
The following companies are subsidiares of Quanta Services: (De) Lazy Q Ranch LLC, 1 Diamond LLC, 1Diamond AS, 618232 Alberta Ltd., 8246408 Canada Inc., Advanced Electric Systems, Advanced Electric Systems LLC, Advanced Utility Testing & Maintenance LLC, Alexander Publications LLC, Allteck GP Ltd., Allteck Limited Partnership, Apprenticeship Programs Inc., Arby Construction, Arcanum Chemicals LLC, Arnett & Burgess Oil Field Construction Limited, Arnett & Burgess Pipeliners (Rockies) LLC, Arnett & Burgess Pipeliners Ltd., B&N Clearing and Environmental LLC, Banister Pipelines Constructors Corp., Banister Pipelines Constructors GP Ltd., Banister Pipelines Limited Partnership, Brent Woodward Inc., Brink Constructors Inc., Brink Constructors Inc. A Corporation Of South Dakota, Brown Engineering and Testing, CAT SPEC Ltd., CAT-SPEC Limited Partnership, CAT-SPEC Limited Partnership (Regd Name) CAT SPEC Ltd., CAT-Spec Limited Partnership, Canadian Utility Construction Corp., Cat Spec Limited LP, Cat Spec Ltd, Cat Spec Ltd. L.P., Cat Spec Ltd. LP, Cat Spec. Ltd. LP, Cat-Spec Ltd (A Domestic limited Partnership), Cat-Spec Ltd LP, Cat-Spec Ltd., Cat-Spec Ltd. L.P., Cat-Spec Ltd. LP, Cat-Spec Ltd. Limited Partnership, Catalyst Changers Inc., Chatham Electric, Citadel Industrial Services L.P., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd. L.P., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Coe Drilling Pty Ltd., Computapole, Conam Construction Co., Consolidated Power Projects Australia Pty Ltd, Conti Communications Inc., Crux Subsurface Canada Ltd., Crux Subsurface Inc., Cutting Technology - 1 Diamond LLC, DB Utilities Inc., DE Lazy Q Ranch LLC, DNR Pressure Welding Ltd., Dacon Corporation, Dashiell (DE) Corporation (Dashiell Corporation), Dashiell Corporation, Dashiell Corporation DBA Dashiell (DE) Corporation, De Mears Group, De Mears Group Inc., Delaware Quanta Technology LLC, Delaware Underground Construction Co., Didado Utility Company Inc., Digco Utility Construction L.P. Digco Utility Construction Limited Partnership, Dorado Specialty Services L.P., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd. L.P., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Dorado Specialty Services. Ltd. L.P., Driftwood Electrical Contractors, EHV Power ULC, ELITE PIPING & CIVIL L.P., ELITE TURNAROUND SPECIALISTS LTD, Elite Fabrication Ltd. Elite Fabrication LP, Elite Piping & Civil Limited Partnership, Elite Piping & Civil Limited Partnership, Elite Piping & Civil Lp, Elite Piping & Civil Ltd L.P., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd. L.P., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd. Limited Partnership, Elite Piping and Civil L.P., Elite Turnaround Specialists L.p., Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Lp, Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Partnership, Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Partnership, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd Lp, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd., Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. L.P., Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. LP, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. Limited Partnership, Energy Consulting Group LLC, Enscope, Enscope Pty Ltd, FIC GP LLC, Field Personnel Services LLC, First Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC, First Infrastructure Capital GP L.P., Five Points Construction Co., G-Tek, G-Vac, GEM Engineering Co., Grand Electric Inc., Great Lakes Line Builders, Grid Creative Inc., Grid Manufacturing Corporation, Grid Training Corporation, H.L. Chapman Pipeline Construction Inc., Haverfield Aviation, Haverfield Aviation Inc., Haverfield International Incorporated, Heritage Midstream LLC, IM Electric Inc., IUC ILLINOIS LLC, IUC Nebraska LLC, InfraSource Construction LLC, InfraSource Field Services LLC, InfraSource Services LLC, InfraSources Construction LLC, Infraestructura ETP de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V, Infrasource Engineering Company PC, Infrasource Iowa Underground LLC, Infrasource Of Pa LLC, Integracion Tecnologica del Peru SAC, Intermountain Electric Inc., Intermountain Electric Inc. A Corporation of Colorado, IonEarth LLC, Irby Construction Company, Irby Construction Company Inc., Iron Mountain M.J. Electric LLC, Island Mechanical Corporation, J.C.R. Construction Co. Inc., J.C.R. Utility Construction Co., J.W. Didado Electric Inc., J.W. Didado Electric LLC, J.w. Didado Electric, JBT Electric LLC, Kingston Contracting Inc., Lazy Q Ranch LLC, Lazy Q Training Center LLC The Lazy Q Lineman School, Legend Foundation Services, Lex Engineering Ltd., Lindsey Electric L.P., Logical Link, Longfellow Drilling, M. G. Dyess Inc., M. J. ELECTRIC LLC IRON MOUNTAIN, M. J. Electric LLC, M. J. Electric LLC - Iron Mountain, M. J. Electric LLC DBA M. J. Electric Iron Mountain LLC, M.J. Electric LLC DBA M.J. Electric Iron Mountain, M.J. Electric LLC Iron Mountain, MTS Field Services, MTS Field Services (Richmond Co), MTS Quanta LLC, Manuel Bros. Inc., Marathon Construction Services, Mears Canada Corp., Mears Equipment Services LLC, Mears Group Inc., Mears Group Pty Ltd, Mears Installation LLC, Mearsmex S. de R.L. de C.V., Mejia Personnel Services LLC, Mercer Technical Services, Microline Technology Corporation, Mid America Energy Services Inc., NACAP Niugini Ltd., NC Northstar Energy Services Inc, NGI Construction, NGI Construction Inc., NGI Construction Inc. (FN), NLC CA. Inc., NLC FL. Inc. Northwest Lineman Center, NLC ID. Inc. Northwest Lineman College, NLC TX. Inc., NPC Energy Services LLC, Nacap Australia, Nacap PNG Limited, Network Communication Services, North Houston Pole Line L.P., North Houston Pole Line Limited Partnership, North Sky Communications, NorthStar Energy Services Inc., Northern Powerline Constructors Inc., Northstar Energy Solutions LLC, Northwest Lineman Center, Northwest Lineman College, Northwest Lineman Training Center, Northwest Lineman Training Center Inc., Nova Constructors LLC, Nova Constructors LTD, Nova Equipment Leasing LLC, Nova Group Inc, Nova Group Inc (CA), Nova Group Inc., Nova Group Inc. DBA NGI Construction, Nova NextGen Solutions LLC, O. J. Pipelines Canada Corporation, O. J. Pipelines Canada Limited Partnership, O.J. Industrial Maintenance, O.J. Pipelines Canada, One Call Locators Canada Ltd., P.D.G. Electric, PAR Electrical Contractors Inc., PDG Electric Co., Par Internacional S. de R.L. de C.V., Performance Energy Services Guyana Ltd., Performance Energy Services L.L.C., Phasor Engineering Inc., Phoenix North Constructors Inc., Phoenix Power Group Inc., Potelco Inc., Potelco Incorporated, Power Delivery Program Inc., Price Gregory International Inc., Price Gregory Services LLC, Probst Construction Inc., Probst Electric Inc., QEPC, QEPC Power Solutions LLC, QES GP LLC, QP Energy Services LLC, QPS Engineering LLC, QPS Engineering LTD., QPS Engineering PLLC, QPS Environmental, QPS Flint Construction, QPS Flint Tank Services, QPS Global, QPS Global Services, QPS Global Services (Richmond Ci), QPS Professional Services, QPSE, QS Mats, QSI Engineering Inc., QSI Finance (Australia) Pty Ltd., QSI Finance (Cayman) Pvt. Ltd., QSI Finance Canada ULC, QSI Finance GP (US) LLC, QSI Finance I (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., QSI Finance I (US) LP, QSI Finance II (Australia) Pty Ltd., QSI Finance II (Lux) S.a r.l, QSI Finance II (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., QSI Finance III (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance III (Lux) SARL, QSI Finance IV (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance IX (Canada) Limited Partnership, QSI Finance V (US) L.P., QSI Finance VI (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance VII (Canada) Limited Partnership, QSI Finance VIII (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance X (Canada) ULC, QSI Inc., QSN Lux Holdings I SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings II SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings III SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings IV SCSp, QTSL LLC, QUANTA FOUNDATION SERVICES, Quanta APL GP II Ltd., Quanta Asset Management LLC, Quanta Associates L.P., Quanta Aviation Services LLC, Quanta Canada GP ULC, Quanta Canada Holdings III Limited Partnership, Quanta Canada Holdings LP, Quanta Canada III GP Ltd., Quanta Capital GP LLC, Quanta Capital LP L.P., Quanta Capital Solutions Inc., Quanta Cares, Quanta EPC Services, Quanta Electric Power Construction LLC, Quanta Electric Power Construction Management Inc., Quanta Electric Power Services LLC, Quanta Electric Power Services West LLC, Quanta Energized Innovations Ltd., Quanta Energized Services U.S. LLC, Quanta Energized Services of Canada Ltd., Quanta Energy Services LLC, Quanta Environmental Solutions, Quanta Equipment Company LLC, Quanta Government Solutions Inc., Quanta Holdings I (Netherlands) B.V., Quanta Holdings II (Netherlands) B.V., Quanta Infraestructura de Chile SpA, Quanta Infrastructure Services LLC, Quanta Infrastructure Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Quanta Inline Devices LLC, Quanta Inspection Services, Quanta Insurance Company Inc., Quanta International Holdings (US) LLC, Quanta International Holdings II Ltd., Quanta International Holdings Ltd., Quanta International Limited, Quanta Kingsvale LP Ltd., Quanta Lines Pty Ltd., Quanta Maine Services LLC, Quanta Middle East LLC, Quanta Pipeline Services Inc., Quanta Power Australia Pty Ltd, Quanta Power Generation Inc., Quanta Power Inc., Quanta Power Solutions India Private Limited, Quanta Resource Development, Quanta Services Africa (PTY) Ltd., Quanta Services Australia Pty Ltd., Quanta Services Chile SpA, Quanta Services Colombia S.A.S., Quanta Services Costa Rica Ltda., Quanta Services Guatemala Ltda., Quanta Services International Holdings II LP, Quanta Services International Holdings LP, Quanta Services Management Partnership L.P., Quanta Services Netherlands B.V., Quanta Services Panama S. de R.L., Quanta Services Peru S.A.C., Quanta Services Puerto Rico LLC, Quanta Services of Canada Ltd., Quanta Subsurface Canada Ltd., Quanta Subsurface LLC, Quanta Tank Services, Quanta Technology Canada ULC, Quanta Technology LLC, Quanta Technology UK Ltd., Quanta Tecnologia do Brasil Ltda., Quanta Telecom, Quanta Telecom Services, Quanta Telecommunication Services, Quanta Telecommunication Services LLC, Quanta Telecommunications Services LLC, Quanta Underground Services, Quanta Underground Services (Culpeper Co), Quanta Underground Services (Spotsylvania Co), Quanta Underground Services Inc., Quanta Utility Engineering Services Inc., Quanta Utility Installation Company Inc., Quanta Utility Operation LLC, Quanta West LLC, Quantecua Cia. Ltda., R. R. Cassidy Inc., RMS Holdings LLC, RMS Holdings LLC (Delaware), RMS Welding Systems, RMS Welding Systems LLC, Ranger Directional, Realtime Engineers Inc., Realtime Utility Engineers Inc., Redes Andinas de Comunicaciones S.R.L., Riggin & Diggin Line Construction, Rms Welding LLC, Rms Welding Systems LLC, Road Bore Corporation, Ryan Company Inc. The, Ryan Company Inc. of Massachusetts, Ryan Company Inc.(The), Seaward, Seaward Corp, Seaward Corporation, Service EC (DE) Inc., Service Electric Company (DE), Service Electric Company Inc., Service Electric Company of Delaware, Servicios Par Electric S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios de Infraestructura del Peru S.A.C., Southwest Trenching Company Inc., Specialty Tank Services L.P., Specialty Tank Services LP, Specialty Tank Services Limited Partnership, Specialty Tank Services Limited Partnership, Specialty Tank Services Ltd., Specialty Tank Services Ltd. (LP), Specialty Tank Services Ltd. L.P., Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, Specialty Tank Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold General LLC, Stronghold Holdings (BVI) Limited, Stronghold Inspection L.P., Stronghold Inspection Limited Partnership, Stronghold Inspection Limited Partnership, Stronghold Inspection Lp, Stronghold Inspection Ltd L.P., Stronghold Inspection Ltd., Stronghold Inspection Ltd. L.P., Stronghold Inspection Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Limited Partnership, Stronghold Ltd., Stronghold Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Management Holdings LP, Stronghold Specialty General LLC, Stronghold Specialty Ltd., Stronghold Specialty Ltd., Stronghold Specialty Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Tower Group LP, Stronghold Tower Group Ltd LP, Stronghold Tower Group Ltd., Stronghold Tower Group Ltd. LP, Stronghold VI LLC, Subterra Damage Prevention Specialists Ltd., Summit Line Construction, Sumter Utilities Inc., T. G. Mercer Consulting Services Inc., TA Construction, TC Infrastructure Services Ltd., Taylor Built, Texas Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, The Aspen Utility Company LLC, The ComTran Group Inc., The Hallen Construction Co. Inc., The Massachusetts Ryan Company Inc., The Ryan Company Inc Of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Inc., The Ryan Company Inc. (Massachusetts), The Ryan Company Inc. of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Incorporated of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Of Massachusetts Inc., The Ryan Company of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company of Massachusetts (FN), Tom Allen Construction Company Inc., Tom Allen Construction Company of Delaware, Trans Tech Electric, TurnKey Automation Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Ltd., TurnKey Automation Ltd. Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Ltd. Limited Partnership, TurnKey I&E Ltd., Turnkey Automation Ltd. L.P., Turnkey Automation Ltd. LP., UCC Underground Construction Co. Inc., Ucc - Underground Construction Co., Underground Construction Co. Inc., Underground Construction Co. Inc. (Delaware), Underground Electric Construction Company LLC, Utilco Inc., Utility Fleet Services, Utility Line Management Services Inc., Utility Testing & Maintenance LLC, Utility Training Services Corporation, VALARD Polska sp. Z o.o., Valard, Valard, Valard Construction (Ontario) Ltd., Valard Construction (Quebec) Inc., Valard Construction 2008 Ltd., Valard Construction Australia Pty Ltd, Valard Construction LLC, Valard Equipment (AB) Ltd., Valard Equipment GP Ltd., Valard Equipment Limited Partnership, Valard Geomatics (Ontario) Ltd., Valard Geomatics BC Ltd., Valard Geomatics Ltd., Valard Mechanical Ltd., Valard Norway AS, Valard Sweden AB, Valard Zagreb d. o. o., Wade D. Taylor Inc., West Coast Communications, Winco Helicopters, Winco Inc., Winco Inc. an Oregon Based Corporation, Winco Powerline Services, Winco Powerline Services Inc., Winco Powerline Services Inc., Winco Services Inc., World Fiber Inc., and mmit Line Construction Inc..

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Fabrinet provides optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical, and electronic manufacturing services in North America, the Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The company offers a range of advanced optical and electro-mechanical capabilities in the manufacturing process, including process design and engineering, supply chain management, manufacturing, printed circuit board assembly, advanced packaging, integration, final assembly, and testing. Its products include switching products, including reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers, optical amplifiers, modulators, and other optical components and modules that enable network managers to route voice, video, and data communications traffic through fiber optic cables at various wavelengths, speeds, and over various distances. The company's products also comprise tunable lasers, transceivers, and transponders; and active optical cables, which provide high-speed interconnect capabilities for data centers and computing clusters, as well as Infiniband, Ethernet, fiber channel, and optical backplane connectivity. In addition, it provides solid state, diode-pumped, gas, and fiber lasers used in semiconductor processing, biotechnology and medical device, metrology, and material processing industries; and differential pressure, micro-gyro, fuel, and other sensors used in automobiles, as well as non-contact temperature measurement sensors for the medical industry. Further, the company designs and fabricates application-specific crystals, lenses, prisms, mirrors, laser components, and substrates; and other custom and standard borosilicate, clear fused quartz, and synthetic fused silica glass products. It serves original equipment manufacturers of optical communication components, modules and sub-systems, industrial lasers, automotive components, medical devices, and sensors. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is based in George Town, the Cayman Islands.
Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., through its subsidiaries, produces, markets, and distributes fresh and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Fresh and Value-Added Products, Banana, and Other Products and Services. It offers pineapples, fresh-cut fruit, fresh-cut vegetables, melons, and vegetables; non-tropical fruits, such as grapes, apples, citrus, blueberries, strawberries, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, and kiwis; other fruit and vegetables, and avocados; and prepared fruit and vegetables, juices, other beverages, and meals and snacks. The company also engages in the sale of poultry and meat products; and third-party freight services business. In addition, it manufactures and sells plastic and box products, such as bins, trays, bags, and boxes. The company offers its products under the Del Monte brand, as well as under other brands, such as UTC, Rosy, Fruit Express, Just Juice, Fruitini, Mann's Logo, Arcadian Harvest, Nourish Bowls, Broccolini, Caulilini, Better Burger Leaf, RomaLeaf, and other regional brands. It markets and distributes its products to retail stores, club stores, convenience stores, wholesalers, distributors, and foodservice operators. Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. was founded in 1886 and is based in George Town, Cayman Islands.
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.
Axalta Coating Systems Ltd., through its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and distributes high-performance coatings systems in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. It operates through two segments, Performance Coatings and Transportation Coatings. The company offers water and solvent-borne products and systems to repair damaged vehicles for independent body shops, multi-shop operators, and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) dealership body shops. It also provides functional and decorative liquid, and powder coatings used in various industrial applications, including architectural cladding and fittings, automotive coatings, general industrial, job coaters, energy solutions, HVAC, appliances, industrial wood, coil, and oil and gas pipelines; and coatings for building materials, cabinet, wood and luxury vinyl flooring, and furniture market under the Voltatex, AquaEC, Durapon, Hydropon, UNRIVALED, Tufcote, and Ceranamel for liquid coatings; and Alesta, Nap-Gard, Abcite, Teodur, and Plascoat brands for powder coatings. In addition, the company develops and supplies electrocoat, primer, the basecoat, and clearcoat products for OEMs of light and commercial vehicles; and coatings systems for various commercial applications, including HDT, bus, and rail under the Imron, Imron Elite, Centari, Rival, Corlar epoxy undercoats, and AquaEC brands. It also sells its product under the Audurra, Challenger, Chemophan, ColorNet, Cromax, Cromax Mosaic, Durapon 70, Duxone, Harmonized Coating Technologies, Imron ExcelPro, Lutophen, Nason, Spies Hecker, Standox, Stollaquid, Syntopal, Syrox, Raptor, U-POL, and Vermeera brand names. The company was formerly known as Axalta Coating Systems Bermuda Co., Ltd. and changed its name to Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. in August 2014. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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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NL Industries, Inc., through its subsidiary, CompX International Inc., operates in the component products industry in the United States and internationally. The company manufactures and sells mechanical and electronic cabinet locks, and other locking mechanisms, including disc tumbler locks, pin tumbler locking mechanisms, and CompX eLock and StealthLock electronic locks for use in various applications, such as ignition systems, mailboxes, file cabinets, desk drawers, tool storage cabinets, integrated inventory and access control secured narcotics boxes, vending and cash containment machines, medical cabinetry, electronic circuit panels, storage compartments, and gas station security. It also offers original equipment and aftermarket stainless steel exhaust headers, exhaust pipes, mufflers, and other exhaust components; gauges, such as GPS speedometers and tachometers; mechanical and electronic controls and throttles; wake enhancement devices, trim tabs, steering wheels, and other billet aluminum accessories; grab handles, pin cleats, and other accessories; and dash panels, LED indicators, wire harnesses, and other accessories primarily for performance and ski/wakeboard boats. In addition, the company offers insurance brokerage and risk management services. It sells its component products directly to original equipment manufacturers, as well as through distributors. NL Industries, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is based in Dallas, Texas. NL Industries, Inc. is a subsidiary of Valhi, Inc.
Oxford Industries, Inc., an apparel company, designs, sources, markets, and distributes products of lifestyle and other brands worldwide. The company offers men's and women's sportswear and related products under the Tommy Bahama brand; women's and girl's dresses and sportswear, scarves, bags, jewelry, and belts, as well as footwear and children's apparel and swimwear under the Lilly Pulitzer brand; and men's shirts, pants, shorts, outerwear, ties, swimwear, footwear, and accessories, as well as women and youth products under the Southern Tide brand. It also designs, sources, markets, and distributes premium childrenswear, including bonnets, hats, apparel, swimwear, and accessories through thebeaufortbonnetcompany.com and wholesale specialty retailers; men's apparel, which include pants, shorts, and tops through duckhead.com and wholesale specialty retailers. In addition, the company licenses Tommy Bahama brand for various products, such as indoor and outdoor furniture, beach chairs, bedding and bath linens, fabrics, leather goods and gifts, headwear, hosiery, sleepwear, shampoo, toiletries, fragrances, cigar accessories, distilled spirits, and other products; Lilly Pulitzer for stationery and gift products, home furnishing products, and eyewear; and Southern Tide trademark for bed and bath product. Oxford Industries, Inc. offers products through its retail stores, department stores, specialty stores, multi-branded e-commerce retailers, off-price retailers, and other retailers, as well as e-commerce sites. As of January 29, 2022, it operated 186 brand-specific full-price retail stores; 21 Tommy Bahama food and beverage locations; and 35 Tommy Bahama outlet stores. Oxford Industries, Inc. was founded in 1942 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; Panorama, a security management solution for the control of firewall appliances and software deployed on a customer's network, as well as their instances in public or private cloud environments, as a virtual or a physical appliance; and virtual system upgrades, which are available as extensions to the virtual system capacity that ships with physical appliances. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, and firewall; and DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention. In addition, the company offers cloud security, secure access, security operations, and threat intelligence and cyber security consulting; professional services, including architecture design and planning, implementation, configuration, and firewall migration; education services, such as certifications, as well as online and in-classroom training; and support services. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. sells its products and services through its channel partners, as well as directly to medium to large enterprises, service providers, and government entities operating in various industries, including education, energy, financial services, government entities, healthcare, Internet and media, manufacturing, public sector, and telecommunications. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc. provides home and security products for residential home repair, remodeling, new construction, and security applications. It operates in three segments: Plumbing, Outdoors & Security, and Cabinets. The Plumbing segment manufactures, assembles, and sells faucets, accessories, kitchen sinks, and waste disposals under the Moen, ROHL, Riobel, Victoria+Albert, Perrin & Rowe, and Shaws brands in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Southeast Asia, Europe, and South America directly through its own sales force, as well as through independent manufacturers' representatives to wholesalers, home centers, mass merchandisers, and industrial distributors. The Outdoors & Security segment offers fiberglass and steel entry door systems under the Therma-Tru brand; storm, screen, and security doors under the Larson brand; composite decking and railing under the Fiberon brand; and urethane millwork under the Fypon brand. This segment also manufactures, sources, and distributes locks, safety and security devices, and electronic security products under the Master Lock and American Lock brands; and fire resistant safes, security containers, and commercial cabinets under the SentrySafe brand. It serves home centers, hardware and other retailers, millwork building products and wholesale distributors, specialty dealers, and remodeling and renovation markets, as well as locksmiths, industrial and institutional users, and original equipment manufacturers in the United States, Canada, Europe, Central America, Japan, and Australia. The Cabinets segment manufactures custom, semi-custom, and custom cabinetry, as well as vanities for the kitchen, bath, and other parts of the home directly to kitchen and bath dealers, home centers, wholesalers, and builders in North America under the AOK, Diamond Brands, Homecrest, Kitchen Craft, Omega, and EVE brands. The company was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.
Everest Re Group, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States, Bermuda, and internationally. The company operates through Reinsurance Operations and Insurance Operations segments. The Reinsurance Operations segment writes property and casualty reinsurance; and specialty lines of business through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies in the United States, Bermuda, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The Insurance Operations segment writes property and casualty insurance directly, as well as through brokers, surplus lines brokers, and general agents in Bermuda, Canada, Europe, South America, Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The company also provides treaty and facultative reinsurance products; admitted and non-admitted insurance products; and property and casualty reinsurance and insurance coverages, including marine, aviation, surety, errors and omissions liability, directors' and officers' liability, medical malpractice, mortgage reinsurance, other specialty lines, accident and health, and workers' compensation products. In addition, it offers commercial property and casualty insurance products through wholesale and retail brokers, surplus lines brokers, and program administrators. Everest Re Group, Ltd. was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
KALISPELL  The Flathead County sheriff's office has released the names of a Kalispell couple killed in a crash west of the city earlier this week.

The Daily Inter Lake reports 31-year-old Justin Edward Novak and 33-year-old Rose Marie Novak died at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday when the vehicle they were in hit black ice on U.S. Highway 2 near McGregor Lake, went off the road and struck some trees. The Novaks were thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene.
WESCO International, Inc. provides business-to-business distribution, logistics services, and supply chain solutions in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Electrical & Electronic Solutions (EES), Communications & Security Solutions (CSS), and Utility and Broadband Solutions (UBS). The EES segment supplies products and supply chain solutions, including electrical equipment and supplies, automation and connected devices, security, lighting, wire and cable, and safety, as well as maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) products. This segment also offers contractor solutions, direct and indirect manufacturing supply chain optimization programs, lighting and renewables advisory services, and digital and automation solutions. The CSS segment operates in the network infrastructure and security markets. This segment sells products directly to end-users or through various channels, including data communications contractors, security, network, professional audio/visual, and systems integrators. It also provides safety and energy management solutions. The UBS segment offers products and services to investor-owned utilities; public power companies; and service and wireless providers, broadband operators, and contractors. This segment's products include wire and cable, transformers, transmission and distribution hardware, switches, protective devices, connectors, conduits, pole line hardware, racks, cabinets, safety and MRO products, and point-to-point wireless devices. This segment also offers various service solutions, including fiber project management, high and medium voltage project design and support, pre-wired meters and capacitor banks, meter testing and metering infrastructure installation, personal protective equipment dielectric testing, and tool repair, as well as emergency response, storage yard, materials, and logistics management. The company was founded in 1922 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The following companies are subsidiares of PepsiCo: Alimentos Quaker Oats y Compania Limitada, Alimentos del Istmo S.A., Amavale Agricola Ltda., Anderson Hill Insurance Limited, Asia Bottlers Limited, BAESA Capital Corporation Ltd., BFY Brands, BFY Brands LLC, BFY Brands Limited, BUG de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Balmoral Industries LLC, Bare Foods Co., Barrhead LLC, Be & Cheery, Beaman Bottling Company, Bebidas Sudamerica S.A., Beech Limited, Bell Taco Funding Syndicate, Bendler Investments II Ltd, Bendler Investments S.a r.l, Beverage Services Limited, Beverages Foods & Service Industries Inc., Bishkeksut OJSC, Blaue NC S. de R.L. de C.V., Blue Cloud Distribution Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Arizona Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Arkansas Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Colorado Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Florida Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Georgia Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Illinois Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Indiana Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Iowa Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Kentucky Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Louisiana Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Minnesota Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Mississippi Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Missouri Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Nebraska Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Nevada Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of North Carolina Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Ohio Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Oklahoma Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Pennsylvania Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of South Carolina Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Tennessee Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Texas Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Virginia Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Wisconsin Inc., Blue Ridge Sales LLC, Bluebird Foods Limited, Bluecan Holdings Unlimited Company, Bokomo Zambia Limited, Bolsherechensky Molkombinat JSC, Boquitas Fiestas LLC, Boquitas Fiestas S.R.L., Bottling Group Financing LLC, Bottling Group Holdings LLC, Bottling Group LLC, Bronte Industries Ltd, C & I Leasing Inc., CB Manufacturing Company Inc., CEME Holdings LLC, CMC Investment Company, Caroni Investments LLC, Centro-Mediterranea de Bebidas Carbonicas PepsiCo S.L., Ceres Fruit Juices Pty Ltd, ChampBev Inc., China Concentrate Holdings Hong Kong Limited, Chipsy International for Food Industries S.A.E., Chipsy for Food Industries S.A.E., Chitos Internacional y Cia Ltda, Cipa Industrial de Produtos Alimentares Ltda., Cipa Nordeste Industrial de Produtos Alimentares Ltda., Cocina Autentica Inc., Comercializadora CMC Investment y Compania Limitada, Comercializadora Nacional SAS Ltda., Comercializadora PepsiCo Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., Compania de Bebidas PepsiCo S.L., Concentrate Holding Uruguay Pte. Ltd., Concentrate Manufacturing Singapore Pte. Ltd., Confiteria Alegro S. de R.L. de C.V., Copella Fruit Juices Limited, Copper Beech International LLC, Corina Snacks Limited, Corporativo Internacional Mexicano S. de R.L. de C.V., CytoSport Holdings Inc., CytoSport Inc., Davlyn Realty Corporation, Defosto Holdings Limited, Desarrollo Inmobiliario Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Dilexis S.A., Donon Holdings Limited, Drinkfinity USA Inc., Drinkstation Inc., Drinkstation Innovation Co. Ltd., Drinkstation Limited, Dutch Snacks Holding S.A. de C.V., Duyvis Production B.V., EPIC Enterprises Inc., Echo Bay Holdings Inc., Elaboradora Argentina de Cereales S.R.L., Enter Logistica LLC, Environ at Inverrary Partnership, Environ of Inverrary Inc., Eridanus Investments S.a r.l, Evercrisp Snack Productos de Chile S.A., FL Transportation Inc., FLI Andean LLC, FLI Colombia LLC, FLI Snacks Andean GP LLC, Fabrica PepsiCo Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Fabrica de Productos Alimenticios Rene y Cia S.C.A., Fairlight International SRL, Far East Bottlers Hong Kong Limited, Food Concepts Pioneer Ltd., Forest Akers Nederland B.V., Forty-Six Peaks Holding Inc., Fovarosi Asvanyviz es Uditoipari Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Freshwater International B.V., Frito Lay Gida Sanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Frito Lay Poland Sp. z o.o., Frito Lay Sp. z o.o., Frito Lay de Guatemala y Compania Limitada, Frito-Lay Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Frito-Lay Dip Company Inc., Frito-Lay Dominicana S.A., Frito-Lay Global Investments B.V., Frito-Lay Inc., Frito-Lay Investments B.V., Frito-Lay Manufacturing LLC, Frito-Lay Netherlands Holding B.V., Frito-Lay North America Inc., Frito-Lay Sales Inc., Frito-Lay Trading Company Europe GmbH, Frito-Lay Trading Company GmbH, Frito-Lay Trading Company Poland GmbH, Frito-Lay Trinidad Unlimited, Fruko Mesrubat Sanayi Limited Sirketi, GB Czech LLC, GB International Inc., GB Russia LLC, GB Slovak LLC, GMP Manufacturing Inc., Gambrinus Investments Limited, Gamesa LLC, Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Gas Natural de Merida S. A. de C. V., Gatorade Puerto Rico Company, General Bottlers of Hungary Inc., Golden Grain Company, Goveh S.R.L., Grayhawk Leasing LLC, Green Hemlock International LLC, Grupo Frito Lay y Compania Limitada, Grupo Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Grupo Mabel, Grupo Sabritas S. de R.L. de C.V., Gulkevichskiy Maslozavod JSC, Hangzhou Baicaowei Corporate Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co, Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co. Ltd., Hangzhou Tao Dao Technology Co. Ltd., Health Warrior, Health Warrior Inc., Heathland LP, Helioscope Limited, Hillbrook Inc., Hillgrove Inc., Hillwood Bottling LLC, Hogganfield Limited Partnership, Holding Company "Opolie" JSC, Homefinding Company of Texas, Hudson Valley Insurance Company, IC Equities Inc., IZZE Beverage Co., Inmobiliaria Interamericana S.A. De C.V., Integrated Beverage Services Bangladesh Limited, Integrated Foods & Beverages Pvt. Ltd., International Bottlers Management Co. LLC, International KAS Aktiengesellschaft, Inversiones Borneo S.R.L., Inversiones PFI Chile Limitada, Inviting Foods Holdings Inc., Inviting Foods LLC, KAS Anorthosis S.a r.l, KAS S.L., KFC, Kevita Inc., Kinvara LLC, Kungursky Molkombinat JSC, Larragana S.L., Latin American Holdings Ltd., Latin American Snack Foods ApS, Latin Foods International LLC, Lebedyansky, Lebedyansky Holdings LLC, Lebedyansky LLC, Limited Liability Company "Sandora", Linkbay Limited, Lithuanian Snacks UAB, Mabel, Marbo Product d.o.o. Beograd, Marbo d.o.o. Laktasi, Matudis - Comercio de Produtos Alimentares Limitada, Matutano - Sociedade de Produtos Alimentares Lda., Mid-America Improvement Corporation, Mountainview Insurance Company Inc., Muscle Milk, NCJV LLC, New Bern Transport Corporation, New Century Beverage Company LLC, Noble Leasing LLC, Northeast Hot-Fill Co-op Inc., Office at Solyanka LLC, Onbiso Inversiones S.L., One World Enterprises LLC, One World Investors Inc., P-A Barbados Bottling Company LLC, P-A Bottlers Barbados SRL, P-Americas LLC, PAS Luxembourg S.a r.l, PAS Netherlands B.V., PBG Canada Holdings II LLC, PBG Canada Holdings Inc., PBG Cyprus Holdings Limited, PBG Investment Partnership, PBG Midwest Holdings S.a r.l, PBG Soda Can Holdings S.a r.l, PCBL LLC, PCNA Manufacturing Inc., PR Beverages Cyprus Holding Limited, PR Beverages Cyprus Russia Holding Limited, PRB Luxembourg S.a r.l, PRS Inc., PSAS Inversiones LLC, PSE Logistica S.R.L., PT Quaker Indonesia, Papas Chips S.A., Pei N.V., Pep Trade LLC, Pepsi B.V., Pepsi Beverages Holdings Inc., Pepsi Bottling Group Global Finance LLC, Pepsi Bottling Group GmbH, Pepsi Bottling Group Hoosiers B.V., Pepsi Bottling Holdings Inc., Pepsi Bugshan Investments S.A.E., Pepsi Cola Colombia Ltda, Pepsi Cola Egypt S.A.E., Pepsi Cola Panamericana S.R.L., Pepsi Cola Servis Ve Dagitim Limited Sirketi, Pepsi Cola Trading Ireland, Pepsi Logistics Company Inc., Pepsi Northwest Beverages LLC, Pepsi Overseas Investments Partnership, Pepsi Promotions Inc., Pepsi-Cola Advertising and Marketing Inc., Pepsi-Cola Bermuda Limited, Pepsi-Cola Bottlers Holding C.V., Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company Of St. Louis Inc., Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Ft. Lauderdale-Palm Beach LLC, Pepsi-Cola Company, Pepsi-Cola Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Pepsi-Cola Far East Trade Development Co. Inc., Pepsi-Cola Finance LLC, Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers Poland Sp. z o.o., Pepsi-Cola Industrial da Amazonia Ltda., Pepsi-Cola International Cork, Pepsi-Cola International LLC, Pepsi-Cola International Limited, Pepsi-Cola International Limited U.S.A., Pepsi-Cola International Private Limited, Pepsi-Cola Korea Co. Ltd., Pepsi-Cola Management and Administrative Services Inc., Pepsi-Cola Manufacturing Company Of Uruguay S.R.L., Pepsi-Cola Manufacturing International Limited, Pepsi-Cola Manufacturing Mediterranean Limited, Pepsi-Cola Marketing Corp. Of P.R. Inc., Pepsi-Cola Mediterranean Ltd., Pepsi-Cola Metropolitan Bottling Company Inc., Pepsi-Cola Mexicana Holdings LLC, Pepsi-Cola Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Pepsi-Cola National Marketing LLC, Pepsi-Cola Operating Company Of Chesapeake And Indianapolis, Pepsi-Cola Sales and Distribution Inc., Pepsi-Cola Technical Operations Inc., Pepsi-Cola Thai Trading Co. Ltd., Pepsi-Cola de Honduras S.R.L., Pepsi-Cola of Corvallis Inc., PepsiAmericas Nemzetkozi Szolgaltato Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, PepsiCo ANZ Holdings Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Alimentos Antioquia Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos Colombia Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos Ecuador Cia. Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos Z.F. Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos de Bolivia S.R.L., PepsiCo Amacoco Bebidas Do Brasil Ltda., PepsiCo Asia Research & Development Center Company Limited, PepsiCo Australia Financing Cyprus Limited, PepsiCo Australia Financing Limited Partnership, PepsiCo Australia Financing Partner 1 LLC, PepsiCo Australia Financing Partner 2 LLC, PepsiCo Australia Financing Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Australia Holdings Pty Limited, PepsiCo Australia International, PepsiCo Austria Services GmbH, PepsiCo Azerbaijan Limited Liability Company, PepsiCo BeLux BV, PepsiCo Beverage Sales LLC, PepsiCo Beverage Singapore Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Beverages Bermuda Limited, PepsiCo Beverages Hong Kong Limited, PepsiCo Beverages International Limited, PepsiCo Beverages Italia Societa' A Responsabilita' Limitata, PepsiCo Canada Finance LLC, PepsiCo Canada Holdings ULC, PepsiCo Canada Investment ULC, PepsiCo Canada ULC, PepsiCo Captive Holdings Inc., PepsiCo Caribbean Inc., PepsiCo China Limited, PepsiCo Consulting Polska Sp. z o.o., PepsiCo De Bolivia S.R.L., PepsiCo Del Paraguay S.R.L., PepsiCo Deutschland GmbH, PepsiCo Eesti AS, PepsiCo Euro Bermuda Limited, PepsiCo Euro Finance Antilles B.V., PepsiCo Europe Support Center S.L., PepsiCo Finance Americas Company, PepsiCo Finance Antilles A N.V., PepsiCo Finance Antilles B N.V., PepsiCo Finance South Africa Proprietary Limited, PepsiCo Financial Shared Services Inc., PepsiCo Food & Beverage Holdings Hong Kong Limited, PepsiCo Foods A.I.E., PepsiCo Foods China Company Limited, PepsiCo Foods Group Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Foods Guangdong Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Foods Nigeria Limited, PepsiCo Foods Private Limited, PepsiCo Foods Sichuan Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Foods Taiwan Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Foods Vietnam Company, PepsiCo France SAS, PepsiCo Global Business Services India LLP, PepsiCo Global Business Services Poland Sp. z o.o., PepsiCo Global Holdings Limited, PepsiCo Global Investments B.V., PepsiCo Global Investments S.a r.l, PepsiCo Global Mobility LLC, PepsiCo Global Real Estate Inc., PepsiCo Global Trading Solutions Unlimited Company, PepsiCo Golden Holdings Inc., PepsiCo Group Finance International B.V., PepsiCo Group Holdings International B.V., PepsiCo Group Spotswood Holdings S.a r.l, PepsiCo Gulf International FZE, PepsiCo Hellas Single Member Industrial and Commercial Societe Anonyme, PepsiCo Holding de Espana S.L., PepsiCo Holdings, PepsiCo Holdings LLC, PepsiCo Holdings Toshkent LLC, PepsiCo Hong Kong LLC, PepsiCo Iberia Servicios Centrales S.L., PepsiCo India Holdings Private Limited, PepsiCo India Sales Private Limited, PepsiCo Internacional Mexico S. de R. L. de C. V., PepsiCo International Hong Kong Limited, PepsiCo International Limited, PepsiCo International Pte Ltd., PepsiCo Investments Europe I B.V., PepsiCo Investments Ltd., PepsiCo Ireland Food & Beverages Unlimited Company, PepsiCo Japan Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Light B.V., PepsiCo Logistyka Sp. z o.o., PepsiCo Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., PepsiCo Management Services SAS, PepsiCo Manufacturing A.I.E., PepsiCo Max B.V., PepsiCo Mexico Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., PepsiCo Nederland B.V., PepsiCo Nordic Denmark ApS, PepsiCo Nordic Finland Oy, PepsiCo Nordic Norway AS, PepsiCo Nutrition Trading DMCC, PepsiCo One B.V., PepsiCo Overseas Corporation, PepsiCo Overseas Financing Partnership, PepsiCo Panimex Inc, PepsiCo Products B.V., PepsiCo Products FLLC, PepsiCo Puerto Rico Inc., PepsiCo Sales Inc., PepsiCo Sales LLC, PepsiCo Services Asia Ltd., PepsiCo Services CZ s.r.o., PepsiCo Services LLC, PepsiCo Twist B.V., PepsiCo UK Pension Plan Trustee Limited, PepsiCo Ventures B.V., PepsiCo Wave Holdings LLC, PepsiCo World Trading Company Inc., PepsiCo Y LLC, PepsiCo de Argentina S.R.L., PepsiCo de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., PepsiCo do Brasil Industria e Comercio de Alimentos Ltda., PepsiCo do Brasil Ltda., PepsiCola Interamericana de Guatemala S.A., Pet Iberia S.L., Pete & Johnny Limited, Pine International LLC, Pine International Limited, Pinstripe Leasing LLC, Pioneer Food Group Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods Groceries Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods Group Ltd., Pioneer Foods Holdings Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods UK Ltd, Pioneer Foods Wellingtons Pty Ltd, Pipers Crisps Limited, PlayCo Inc., Pop corners, PopCorners Holdings Inc., Portfolio Concentrate Solutions Unlimited Company, Premier Nutrition Trading L.L.C., Prestwick LLC, Prev PepsiCo Sociedade Previdenciaria, Productos Alimenticios Rene LLC, Productos S.A.S. C.V., Productos SAS Management B.V., Punch N.V., Punica Getranke GmbH, Q O Puerto Rico Inc., QFL OHQ Sdn. Bhd., QTG Development Inc., QTG Services Inc., Quadrant - Amroq Beverages S.R.L., Quaker Development B.V., Quaker European Beverages LLC, Quaker European Investments B.V., Quaker Foods, Quaker Global Investments B.V., Quaker Holdings UK Limited, Quaker Manufacturing LLC, Quaker Oats Asia Inc., Quaker Oats Australia Pty Ltd, Quaker Oats B.V., Quaker Oats Capital Corporation, Quaker Oats Europe Inc., Quaker Oats Europe LLC, Quaker Oats Limited, Quaker Sales & Distribution Inc, Raptas Finance S.a r.l., Rare Fare Foods LLC, Rare Fare Holdings Inc., Reading Industries Ltd, Real Estate Holdings LLC, Rockstar Energy Drink, Rolling Frito-Lay Sales LP, S & T of Mississippi Inc., SIH International LLC, SVC Logistics Inc., SVC Manufacturing Inc., SVE Russia Holdings GmbH, Sabritas LLC, Sabritas S. de R.L. de C.V., Sabritas Snacks America Latina de Nicaragua y Cia Ltda, Sabritas de Costa Rica S. de R.L., Sabritas y Cia. S en C de C.V., Sakata Rice Snacks Australia Pty Ltd, Sandora Holdings B.V., Saudi Snack Foods Company Limited, Sea Eagle International SRL, Seepoint Holdings Ltd., Senselet Food Processing PLC, Senselet Holding B.V., Servicios GBF Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Servicios GFLG y Compania Limitada, Servicios Gamesa Puerto Rico L.L.C., Servicios SYC S. de R.L. de C.V., Seven-Up Asia Inc., Seven-Up Light B.V., Seven-Up Nederland B.V., Shanghai PepsiCo Snack Company Limited, Shanghai YuHo Agricultural Development Co. Ltd, Shoebill LLC, Simba (Proprietary) Limited, Simba Proprietary Limited, Sitka Spruce, Smartfoods Inc., Smiles and Bites Holdings S.de R.L. de C.V., Smiths Crisps Limited, Snack Food Investments GmbH, Snack Food Investments II GmbH, Snack Food Investments Limited, Snack Food-Beverage Asia Products Limited, Snacks America Latina S.R.L., Snacks Guatemala Ltd., So Spark Ltd., Soda-Club CO2 Atlantic GmbH, Soda-Club CO2 GmbH, Soda-Club CO2 Ltd., Soda-Club Switzerland GmbH, Soda-Club Worldwide B.V., SodaStream, SodaStream Australia Pty Ltd, SodaStream CO2 SA, SodaStream Canada Ltd., SodaStream Enterprises N.V., SodaStream France SAS, SodaStream GmbH, SodaStream Iberia S.L., SodaStream Industries Ltd., SodaStream International B.V., SodaStream International Ltd., SodaStream Israel Ltd., SodaStream K.K., SodaStream New Zealand Ltd., SodaStream Nordics AB, SodaStream Poland Sp. z o.o., SodaStream SA Pty Ltd., SodaStream Switzerland GmbH, SodaStream USA Inc., SodaStream Osterreich GmbH, South Beach Beverage Company Inc., South Properties Inc., Spitz International Inc., Sportmex Internacional S.A. de C.V., Springboig Industries Ltd, Spruce Limited, Stacy's Pita Chip Company Incorporated, Star Foods E.M. S.R.L., Stokely-Van Camp Inc., Stratosphere Communications Pty Ltd, Stratosphere Holdings 2018 Limited, Streamfoods Ltd, TFL Holdings LLC, Tasman Finance S.a r.l, The Gatorade Company, The Good Carb Food Company Ltd., The Pepsi Bottling Group Canada ULC, The Quaker Oats Company, The Smith's Snackfood Company Pty Limited, Thomond Group Holdings Limited, Tobago Snack Holdings LLC, Tropicana Alvalle S.L., Tropicana Beverages Limited, Tropicana Europe N.V., Tropicana United Kingdom Limited, Troya-Ultra LLC, United Foods Companies Restaurantes S.A., V-Water, VentureCo Israel Ltd, Veurne Snack Foods BV, Vitamin Brands Ltd., Walkers Crisps Limited, Walkers Group Limited, Walkers Snack Foods Limited, Walkers Snacks Distribution Limited, Walkers Snacks Limited, Whitman Corporation, Whitman Insurance Co. Ltd., Wimm-Bill-Dann Beverages JSC, Wimm-Bill-Dann Brands Co. Ltd., Wimm-Bill-Dann Central Asia-Almaty LLP, Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods LLC, Wimm-Bill-Dann Georgia Ltd., Wimm-Bill-Dann JSC, and Wimm-Bill-Dann Ukraine PJSC.

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Snap-on Incorporated manufactures and markets tools, equipment, diagnostics, and repair information and systems solutions for professional users worldwide. It operates through Commercial & Industrial Group, Snap-on Tools Group, Repair Systems & Information Group, and Financial Services segments. The company offers hand tools, including wrenches, sockets, ratchet wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, punches and chisels, saws and cutting tools, pruning tools, torque measuring instruments, and other products; power tools, such as cordless, pneumatic, hydraulic, and corded tools; and tool storage products comprising tool chests, roll cabinets, and other products. It also provides handheld and computer-based diagnostic products, service and repair information products, diagnostic software solutions, electronic parts catalogs, business management systems and services, point-of-sale systems, integrated systems for vehicle service shops, original equipment manufacturer purchasing facilitation services, and warranty management systems and analytics. In addition, the company offers solutions for the service of vehicles and industrial equipment that include wheel alignment equipment, wheel balancers, tire changers, vehicle lifts, test lane equipment, collision repair equipment, vehicle air conditioning service equipment, brake service equipment, fluid exchange equipment, transmission troubleshooting equipment, safety testing equipment, battery chargers, and hoists, as well as after-sales support services and training programs. Further, it provides financing programs to facilitate the sales of its products and support its franchise business. The company serves the aviation and aerospace, agriculture, construction, government and military, mining, natural resources, power generation, and technical education industries, as well as vehicle dealerships and repair centers. Snap-on Incorporated was founded in 1920 and is based in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Thomson Reuters Corporation provides business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments. The Corporates segment provides a suite of content-enabled technology solutions for legal, tax, regulatory, compliance, and IT professionals. The Tax & Accounting Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on tax offerings and automating tax workflows to tax, accounting, and audit professionals in accounting firms. The Reuters News segment provides business, financial, and international news to media organizations, professional, and news consumers through news agency and industry events. The Global Print segment offers legal and tax information primarily in print format to legal and tax professionals, governments, law schools, and corporations. The company was formerly known as The Thomson Corporation and changed its name to Thomson Reuters Corporation in April 2008. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Thomson Reuters Corporation operates a subsidiary of The Woodbridge Company Limited.
Red Hat, Inc. provides open source software solutions to develop and offer operating system, virtualization, management, middleware, cloud, mobile, and storage technologies to various enterprises worldwide. It offers infrastructure-related solutions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, an operating system platform that runs on hardware for use in hybrid cloud environments; Red Hat Satellite, a system management offering that helps to deploy, scale, and manage in hybrid cloud environments; and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, a software solution that allows customers to utilize and manage a common hardware infrastructure to run multiple operating systems and applications. The company offers application development-related and other technology solutions, such as Red Hat JBoss Middleware, a solution for developing, deploying, and managing applications; integrating applications, data, and devices; and automating business processes in hybrid cloud environments; The company's application development-related and other technology solutions also includes Red Hat cloud offerings, a software solution that enables customers to build and manage various cloud computing environments; Red Hat Mobile, a software development platform that enables customers to develop, integrate, deploy, and manage mobile applications for enterprises; and Red Hat Storage, a software solution that enables customers to manage large, unstructured, or semi-structured data in hybrid cloud environments. It also provides consulting, support, and training services; and realtime operating system, distributed computing, directory services, and user authentication. Red Hat, Inc. has collaboration with Juniper Networks Expand to provide a unified solution for enterprises designed to manage and run applications and services. The company was formerly known as Red Hat Software, Inc. and changed its name to Red Hat, Inc. in June 1999. Red Hat, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.
General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates in five segments: North America Retail; Convenience Stores & Foodservice; Europe & Australia; Asia & Latin America; and Pet. It offers ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and salty snacks, ice cream, nutrition bars, wellness beverages, and savory and grain snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. It also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the North American foodservice and commercial baking industries; and manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food. The company markets its products under the Annie's, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Blue Basics, Blue Freedom, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, EPIC, Fiber One, Food Should Taste Good, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto's, Go-Gurt, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Haagen-Dazs, Helpers, Jus-Rol, Kitano, Kix, Larabar, Latina, Liberte, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Oui, Pillsbury, Progresso, Raisin Nut Bran, Total, Totino's, Trix, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, Yoki, and Yoplait trademarks. It sells its products directly, as well as through broker and distribution arrangements to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores, as well as drug, dollar, and discount chains. The company operates 466 leased and 392 franchise ice cream parlors. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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.
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides various specialty insurance and reinsurance products worldwide. It operates through two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance. The Insurance segment offers property insurance products for commercial buildings, residential premises, construction projects, and onshore energy installations; marine insurance products covering offshore energy, cargo, liability, recreational marine, fine art, specie, and hull war; and terrorism, aviation, credit and political risk, and liability insurance products. It also provides professional insurance products that cover directors' and officers' liability, errors and omissions liability, employment practices liability, fiduciary liability, crime, professional indemnity, cyber and privacy, medical malpractice, and other financial insurance related coverages for commercial enterprises, financial institutions, not-for-profit organizations, and other professional service providers. In addition, this segment offers accidental death, travel, and specialty health products for employer and affinity groups. The Reinsurance segment offers reinsurance products to insurance companies, including catastrophe reinsurance products; property reinsurance products covering property damage and related losses resulting from natural and man-made perils; professional lines; credit and surety; and motor liability products. This segment also provides agriculture reinsurance products; coverages for various types of construction risks and risks related to erection, testing, and commissioning of machinery and plants during the construction stage; marine and aviation reinsurance products; and personal accident, specialty health, accidental death, travel, life and disability reinsurance products. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.
PetroChina Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in a range of petroleum related products, services, and activities in Mainland China and internationally. It operates through Exploration and Production, Refining and Chemicals, Marketing, and Natural Gas and Pipeline segments. The Exploration and Production segment engages in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil and natural gas. The Refining and Chemicals segment refines crude oil and petroleum products; and produces and markets primary petrochemical products, derivative petrochemical products, and other chemical products. The Marketing segment is involved in marketing of refined products and trading business. The Natural Gas and Pipeline segment engages in the transmission of natural gas, crude oil, and refined products; and sale of natural gas. As of December 31, 2021, the company had a total length of 26,076 km, including 17,329 km of natural gas pipelines, 7,340 km of crude oil pipelines, and 1,407 km of refined product pipelines. The company is also involved in the exploration, development, and production of oil sands and coalbed methane; trading of crude oil and petrochemical products; storage, chemical engineering, storage facilities, service station, and transportation facilities and related businesses; and production and sales of basic and derivative chemical, and other chemical products. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China. PetroChina Company Limited is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation.
Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunication services in Taiwan and internationally. It operates through Domestic Fixed Communications Business, Mobile Communications Business, Internet Business, International Fixed Communications Business, and Others segments. The company offers local and domestic long-distance telephone, broadband access, and related services; information and communication technology and VAS services; and interconnection with its fixed-line network to other mobile and fixed-line operators. It also provides mobile; HiNet Internet, data communication, and cloud; Internet data center; and international long-distance telephone and data services. In addition, the company distributes and sells mobile handsets, data cards, electronic materials, and computing and business machinery equipment and software; designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and services semiconductor testing components, printed circuit boards, and electronic components and finished products, and automatic license plate recognition software and hardware products. Further, it offers real estate development and property management; system, network, and communications integration; intelligent buildings and energy network; digital information supply and advertisement; property and liability insurance agency; family education; computing equipment installation; management consultancy; data processing; telecommunication engineering; Internet identify; and information and communication solution services. Additionally, the company provides software design services, and Internet contents production and play services; motion picture production and distribution; and energy saving solutions and international circuits, and services for electronic parts and machinery processed products. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Taipei City, Taiwan.
The first Europeans that arrived in Montana were not interested mountain biking or sight seeing. They came to make money, fast. The determination to make money as quickly as possible without considering long-term consequences triggered a series of boom and bust cycles. Except for agriculture, boom and bust cycles characterized the Montana economy from about 1850 to 1950. We had a gold boom and bust, a silver boom and bust, and the one we are reminded of most frequently today, the copper boom and bust. The Berkeley Pit remains a reminder of how important through long-term planning is when dealing with natural resources.

A new economic opportunity has been emerging without much fanfare over the last decade. Our new economic opportunity is different from boom and bust opportunities of the past. It is an opportunity that employs our public lands without devastating them. Please welcome and acknowledge our new economic champion, outdoor recreation.

The Outdoor Industry Association (see outdoorindustry.org to learn more) reports Montanas outdoor recreation industry now accounts for 7.1 billion in consumer spending and provides 71,000 direct jobs in Montana. In August Headwaters Economics released a report (https://headwaterseconomics.org/economic-development/trends-performance/montanas-economy-and-protected-lands/) that describes how public lands generate recreation, quality of life, commodity production, wildlife, scenery, and clean water. Senator Tester introduced the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) this past February. Along with supporting timber and conservation, the BCSA provides recreation areas for mountain biking, snowmobiling, hiking, and more. Montana recently announced the creation of the Montana Office of Outdoor Recreation. These developments will facilitate and support our newest economic champion, outdoor recreation.

The Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act will establish two new recreation areas, one for snowmobiling and one for mountain biking. All forms of outdoor recreation help restore and energize people; it just feels good to get outside. For many, the pinnacle of outdoor recreation is being in a designated Wilderness area. Theres nothing more stimulating, and soothing, as being in a place where nature rules while humans are only short-term visitors. Six states  Colorado, Washington, Arizona, Idaho, California, and Alaska  have more Wilderness than Montana. But in my proudly biased opinion, I dont think you can beat The Bob.

Research and current results confirm outdoor recreation is a tremendous economic opportunity for Montana. Public lands, Montanas office of Outdoor Recreation, and the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act are economic building blocks of the future. They can help ensure Montana will remain a compelling destination to live, work, and play 50 years from now. Enjoy your public lands and know your children and grandchildren will be able to do the same thanks in part to our new economic champion, outdoor recreation.

Enjoy Montanas outdoor recreation!

A. Lee Boman lives in Seeley Lake, Montana. He is a former JCPenney executive and a founding member of Seeley Lake ROCKS, an organization working towards creating healthy children, strong families, and vibrant communities through outdoor recreation.
As the viral social-media campaign "Me Too" has made abundantly clear in recent months, gender-based harassment and violence are all too commonplace.

And this fall, for the third year, Dal's Human Rights & Equity Services (HRES) office has teamed up with sexual and gender resource centre South House and nearly 40 community partners to do its part to help educate and empower people in an effort to combat this widespread problem.

Dal hosted a kick-off event for its 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign Friday afternoon in the Student Union Building, a day before the official launch on November 25th  the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The campaign, modelled on a Rutgers University initiative that has now spread around the world, runs through to International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.

Learn more: 16 Days of Activism website



Shakira Weatherdon, education advisor with HRES (below), said the campaign  themed Solidarity, Not Silence  offers a chance to acknowledge that there are spaces at Dal that may not always be safe for certain individuals and to come up with strategic measures to help disrupt violence.

"This is an invitation for us to come together and think about ways to make our spaces safer for all of us on our campus," she said in remarks at Fridays launch, which also included a button-making session.

Dal Elder-in-Residence Geri Musqua-Leblanc also spoke, providing an opening prayer and remarks about missing and murdered Indigenous women in communities across Canada and how to take action.

"Listen to your peers. Learn from what they have to say. Believe them and support survivors in what they have to say. And if you see gender-based violence, intervene in a safe way, she said.

Events through December 10



HRES and South House have worked with various faculties, organizations, services, departments, centres, offices and programs across the university and in the community to plan the more than 40 of events, activities and initiatives for the coming weeks.

Toronto-based sex and emotional literacy educator Karen BK Chan will deliver a keynote address Dec. 1 titled Rejection Resilience: Conversations about Healthy Relationship Were (Not) Yet Having.

Known for having a plainly spoken and emotionally honest take on everything relationship problems and sex education, Chans afternoon talk (2-3 p.m.) will identify and address issues such as jealousy, rejection, insecurity and empathy. A debrief will follow at South House.

The Indigenous Student Centre will host a Sisterhood Coffee House on Nov. 30, an event designed to bring sisters together to support each others efforts for change through song, poetry, spoken word, dance and storytelling.

On Dec. 5, Black and Indigenous individuals as well as People of Colour are invited to a closed space for a session on collective care and healing at South House. Attendees will share stories and swap skills about self-care, self-preservation and self-prioritization in a loosely facilitated discussion.

Student Success peer educators in Halifax and on the Agricultural Campus in Truro will run a social-media campaign called '16 Reasons Why' starting Saturday, Nov. 25, sharing one reason for action each day across various channels.

South Houses Carmella Farahbakhsh closed out Fridays launch by offering words of encouragement to those working to hold a mirror to society on this and other issues.

"This is brave work, said Carmella. It's brave work to hold our communities to account. It is integral work needed to inspire and enact change."

Learn more: 16 Days of Activism website



Members of Dal's Student Engagement Program and HRES helped prepare campaign posters in several different languages.
The board of Brazilian operator Oi has revised its proposals for restructuring its debt after its creditors shot down its previous suggestions.

Ois updated plan has the core goal of bringing in an overall increase in capital of up to BRL8 billion ($2.4 billion). It has asked its creditors to contribute a minimum of BRL3.5 billion in fresh capital, with a maximum cap of BRL5.5 billion, and will accrue the remaining BRL2.5 billion from its shareholders.

Brazilian regulator Anatel was dismissive of Ois previous proposals to pay creditors capitalisation fees upfront, and the operator has responded by updating this term. It will now only pay the charges once funds have been received. Oi will be able to choose whether to make these payments in cash or shares. Upon receiving the capital, it will pay fees of up to 14% of the total within the first year, and 8% in the second year.

In October, Ois creditors rejected the boards previous proposals for restructuring its debt, while in turn the board was not keen for a group of creditors holding liabilities worth BRL23 billion to assume an 88% equity stake in Oi.

Oi will present its updated proposals to the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission and several courts before its scheduled creditors meeting on 7th December. The operator filed for bankruptcy protection in June last year, with debts of BRL65.4 billion. Recent reports have indicated that China Telecom may acquire a BRL20 billion stake in the operator.
Bharti Airtel is among the operators interested in acquiring assets and spectrum from Reliance Communications (RCom).

A key factor in Airtels motivation will be the fact that RCom owes the Indian market leader INR450 billion ($6.93 billion), and obtaining some of the available assets will enable Airtel to recover some of this.

The available assets include network equipment, fibre cables and spectrum in the valuable 800MHz band, as well as in the 1.8GHz and 2.3GHz bands. While operators will be interested in the spectrum, most have sufficient airwaves following the last round of auctions so are unlikely to bid too competitively for RComs holding.

RComs assets are being sold by a consortium of Indian and international banks, with the sale managed by SBI Capital Markets  the investment arm of the operators largest creditor, the State Bank of India. The assets are expected to be sold off separately.

Several companies, including Bharti Infratel, Brookfield Asset Management, and Indus Tower, have expressed interest in obtaining some of RComs assets. Interested parties have until 12th December to make non-binding offers.

Reports last month pointed to RCom closing down the majority of its wireless operations in November following the collapse of its merger with Aircel, which was itself prompted by the operators struggles with intensifying competition in the market. RCom cited inordinate delays caused by legal and regulatory uncertainties as the main cause of the mergers failure.
Apple researchers have proposed a VoxelNet technology which can supposedly make better sense of the currently used LiDAR technology for recognising objects nearby an autonomous vehicle.

Even though many reports of Apple testing their autonomous vehicles have come up, the company has never given an official statement about it. Now an open research paper by Apples Yin Zhou and Oncel Tuzel spotted on arXiv by Reuters, describes a new method to implement the LiDAR mapping system. LiDAR can be used for many different applications such as powering autonomous navigation, housekeeping robots, and augmented / virtual reality.

The LIDAR sensors are used for mapping surrounding area nearby an autonomous vehicle. It uses lasers to generate a 3D model of nearby objects and predicts their position accurately in space. But, it produces low-resolution models which according to the Apples research are sparse and have highly variable point density and need to make use of additional sensors and cameras which drive up the overall projects costs.

The VoxelNet technology proposed by Apple researchers makes use of deep learning architecture. The research claims it can make better sense of the 3D LiDAR data of nearby objects and divide them into different categories like cars, pedestrians or cyclists, thus eliminating the need for additional cameras and sensors.

Image credits: Apple research paper

Although Apple has been tight-lipped about its efforts in the autonomous vehicle developments, a previous report claimed that the company is using a Lexus crossover for testing its autonomous driving technology. The report also said that a document from the California Department of Motor Vehicles reveals that Apple will be partnering with Hertzs Donlen Fleet Management subsidiary for procuring vehicles to test its technology.

Apples CEO Tim Cook had earlier said that the company is indeed working on autonomous driving technology and called autonomy "the mother of all AI projects". He had earlier stated the companys interest in the technology and hinted that the companys work on autonomous tech could most likely be used for many other areas than vehicles.
Back in 2014, a group of Redditors started debating net neutrality in India after Airtel announced it would charge extra for Voice Over IP (VoIP) services like Skype. Soon, that snowballed into a nation-wide campaign with over a million internet users participating. Things didnt help when Facebook too wanted to provide a bunch of internet services for free in India through its Internet.org or Free Basics initiative. However, a year-long discussion and public outrage against the two, led the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to rule in favour of net neutrality and stop both Airtel and Facebook in their tracks of violating a free and open internet.

Fast forward three years down the line and America, the birthplace of the internet, is struggling with the problem of internet freedom. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Donald Trump Administration led by Chairman Ajit Pai submitted a final draft proposal yesterday to repeal the existing net neutrality laws put in force by the Obama administration in 2015. The draft proposal will be voted upon by FCC by the end of the year and considering the FCC has a Republican majority under Ajit Pai, the proposal is likely to pass.

What is FCC chairman Ajit Pai doing?

The draft removes almost every net neutrality rule from 2015, making ISPs the gatekeepers of the internet. It states internet providers will have the freedom to implement fast and slow speed lanes, prioritise traffic and block apps and services. The only rule they have to follow -- publicly disclose when they are doing any of the things stated above.

Here's my plan to repeal the Obama Administration's heavy-handed regulation of the Internet. This time--unlike in 2015--you can read it before the @FCC votes. https://t.co/xcPDkxPgW7 https://t.co/wnshqlJoMa pic.twitter.com/wACDCspuEP  Ajit Pai (@AjitPaiFCC) November 22, 2017

Executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, Sunil Abraham elaborated on what's on Pai's mind.

"Ajit Pai's ideology is pro-market. He believes the market will sort all problems out. According to Pai, the magic of competition will eliminate all the harms emerging from net neutrality violation," he said.

"Pai has said, you do what you want to do, but you have to disclose that to the public. You can block, throttle, have fast lanes, prioritise traffic, have discriminatory pricing, but you disclose them. If the customer doesn't like it, he can swith to another network. Pai believes the transparency requirements will allow the magic of the market to diminish and eliminate harm. His regulation of net neutrality is transparency," Abraham further added.

However, such a move will have drastic effects on the free flow of internet traffic. Telecom companies and ISPs can handpick services by charging customers to access some sites or by slowing down the speeds of others. For instance, ISPs can make consumers pay more to watch high-quality content on Netflix.

With net neutrality rules repealed, the internet will become a pay-to-play service. It will essentially divide the internet into fast and slow lanes. One will be a speedy service that could be priced higher and another, much slower and cheaper. While big players like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix and the likes can easily pay the higher fees and stay unfettered, newcomers and smaller players will have it tough. Although, the move will lead to cuts in profits for everyone. A higher price to consumers will eat into the user base of these companies, while startups and new voices in the media will find entry and success prohibitive.

Although its true that no single ISP in the US has the entire market to itself and the market is indeed divided into a handful of players, they do operate in a de facto monopolised way. How? ISPs in the US have sliced up the entire country into areas such that users in a particular area have only one choice of service provider. That essentially leaves users at the mercy of whatever Comcast or Spectrum is offering (or not offering).

By putting the net neutrality rules in place in 2015, the US had ensured these ISPs wont do anything grossly uncompetitive. The current rules make broadband in the country a public utility, same as electricity. And now, Ajit Pai-led FCC is about to repeal those very rules that kept them grounded.

Will the FCC ruling make apps and services expensive in other countries?

While Pais jurisdiction does not extend beyond the United States, his tirades against a free internet will most definitely have rippling effects across the world. More importantly, it will raise the cost of operations of companies like Netflix and Amazon who will have to hire legal experts and lobbyists to negotiate deals with service providers. That extra cost will be burdened on the US consumers of course, but since they have a large international presence, it is likely that the extra cost will trickle down to users outside the US as well.

And thats not just the streaming companies. All the tech giants hail from the US and it is only logical that a rise in their costs of operation will have an impact on their global operations.

Although, if the level playing field in the US is disrupted, companies will look for greener pastures and if that means moving out of the US to other countries, it could happen.

How will FCCs decision impact India?

While US is grappling with such a reality, Indians fought against it and won. Or did they? Last year, after Airtel and Facebook were asked to drop their plans for differential pricing, TRAI released a paper on net neutrality and differential pricing to finalise its views on the matter. The regulatory body released a 14-question long consultation paper seeking comments on internet traffic management from the public.

Increasingly, concerns have been raised globally relating to discriminatory treatment of Internet traffic by access providers. These concerns relating to nondiscriminatory access have become the centre of a global policy debate. The purpose of this second stage of consultation is to proceed towards the formulation of final views on policy or regulatory interventions, where required, on the subject of NN, the paper read.

Net Neutrality being repealed in the US will hurt innovation in that country, and will lead to a consolidation of power with those Internet companies which have the money to partner with US carriers. This hurts Indian product startups, because it means that their apps may not be as easily available to users in the US. The Internet is one world, and we need the same Internet to be available everywhere, across the world: one Internet for the entire world, Nikhil Pahwa, Co-Founder of Internet Freedom Foundation told Digit.

That means, essentially, the debate on net neutrality is not over in India. In fact, both RS Sharma, the Chairman of TRAI and FCCs Ajit Pai agree on the need to bridge the digital divide. Both are exploring ways to keep the internet open while providing access to the unconnected. Thankfully, both differs on the approach to meet that goal.

Had very fruitful meeting with Chairman Ajit Pai @AjitPaiFCC in Stockholm.

It was, as usual, a pleasure to meet him. pic.twitter.com/jKsk9ROZx6  RS Sharma (@rssharma3) June 26, 2017

Pai believes the internet should be left unregulated despite the hypothetical harms to the consumer. He thinks the current rules were put in place to avoid theoretical harms which were not based on hard evidence. Pai claims there should be evidence-based regulation of the internet.

Always nice to see my good friend, @TRAI Chairman @rssharma3! Look forward to working together on broadband, robocall enforcement, and more.  Ajit Pai (@AjitPaiFCC) June 26, 2017

Sharma, in contrast, disagrees on an evidence-based approach.

The TRAI's view of Net Neutrality has so far been diametrically opposite to Ajit Pai's FCC, and with good reason. Net Neutrality ensures that all ISPs and telecom operators act as exchanges of data between users, and do not discriminate on the basis of the type or source of that data. This allows for permission-less innovation on the Internet, which has given us the Internet that we have today, Pahwa added.

Will Indias stance on net neutrality change after the FCCs decision?

Rajan Mathews, Director General of Cellular Operators Association of India believes the FCCs decision will no doubt have some impact on the path India takes.

I think the policymakers will look at the decision the US makes. They had taken their decision as a point of reference before and the FCCs ruling is too large an issue to not look at it. Both the DoT (Department of Telecom) and TRAI will have to reevaluate their approach in the context of the what happens in the US, he said.

Net neutrality approach in both countries is still in flux and India is going to tread lightly on net neutrality issues, he added. As per Mathews, in India, the situation is different from the US where a handful of telecom companies and ISPs wield control of the entire country. In India, there is a licensed environment which provides a minimal standard of net neutrality, which is applied across the board and everybody who is providing a similar service is made to follow similar guidelines.

However, Mathews did attribute Indias efforts to enforce net neutrality to the United States efforts to place the rules in the first place in 2015 under the Obama administration, when internet was deemed as a public utility, same as electricity or telephone.

Net neutrality in India emerged from the US definition. Now that they are going to repeal it, people in India who were looking at the US as a model will evaluate the implications of the move, Mathews elaborated.

The US is looking to implement an ex-post approach to regulating the internet wherein the ISPs and telcos will adopt a free market approach and will only be investigated if they violate a rule. India, Mathews says, is adopting an ex-ante approach where there will be some commonly accepted criteria of net neutrality, but operators will have the ability to manage their traffic to ensure quality of service.

Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Ravi Shankar Prasad also helped alleviate fears of India following suit. During the Global Summit for Cyberspace Security held yesterday, he said, "The citizens' right of accessing the internet is "non-negotiable" and the government will not allow any company to restrict people's entry to the worldwide web."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also came in support of net neutrality in India. He tweeted, "The internet, by nature, is inclusive and not exclusive. It offers equity of access and equality of opportunity."

The internet, by nature, is inclusive and not exclusive. It offers equity of access and equality of opportunity: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) November 23, 2017

Pahwa, who fought hard against Airtel and Facebook to ensure the internet remains neutral, was confident the decision wont affect Indias stance on net neutrality. However, he is apprehensive that Indian telecom companies might borrow a leaf from their US counterparts and lobby hard to repeal the rules.

I don't think the FCC decision affects the Indian regulation in any way, because the Indian regulator TRAI has already established strong and well rooted principles for Net Neutrality regulations in India. The only thing that worries me is that Indian telecom operators will use the developments in the US to push back against Net Neutrality with renewed vigour, he said.

So, on the face of it, while India is well insulated from the catastrophe the United States has embarked upon, it is important to watch what the US is doing closely and make sure we dont repeat their mistakes here.
Google Pixel 2 XL was launched in September 2017 & runs on Android 8.0 OS. The Smartphone is available in three color options i.e. White, Just Black, Black & has a built in fingerprint sensor as the primary security feature, along with the host of connectivity options in terms of 3G, 4G, GPS, Wifi, NFC Bluetooth capabilities. Priced at Rs. 45499 the phone is available with 64 GB of internal storage.

The Smartphone is powered by 2.4 GHz Octa core Qualcomm
Design, specification and distributor of specialist technologies and electronic components, APC Technology Group , has signed an agreement to become the exclusive UK and Ireland distribution partner for the Austrian manufacturer of PTP switches and network interface cards, Oregano Systems .

The AIM-traded firm said the Oregano Systems products would complement APC's existing time and frequency synchronisation technologies, enabling their specialist technical team APC Time to provide a more complete time stamping solution for customers within high frequency trading, broadcast, telecoms, IT and power sectors.

Established in 2001, Oregano Systems is a provider of proven, ready-to-use network devices to efficiently build an IEEE1588-2008 system.

Their range includes network interface cards, single chip nodes, the PTP stack and transparent clocks.

APC said all of its products were compatible with its existing Meinberg range of grandmaster clocks and time servers.

I am excited to be partnering with APC, said Oregano Systems general manager Nikolaus Keroe.

Through their existing customer base and proactive approach to promoting our products I am confident they can boost our market share in the UK, in line with Oregano's successes in other countries such as [the] US and Germany.

Keroe said APC's penetration in other vertical markets such as defence, healthcare and rail transport was also attractive to Oregano.

By leveraging APC's relationships in these markets Oregano's products can be promoted into the myriad of applications that we service.
Marshall Motor Holdings said it has completed the sale of its wholly-owned leasing segment, Marshall Leasing Limited to N.I.I.B Group Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ireland for 42.5m, creating greater long-term value for its shareholders.

Marshall Motor said completion, which was subject to regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority, had further strengthened the Group's balance sheet with net cash proceeds to be initially used to cut existing levels of indebtedness.

The Group reported net cash of approximately 4.6m on its balance sheet as at 30 June 2017 and net assets of 254p per share.

According to the Board, the sale would provide an opportunity to create greater long term value for its shareholders by allowing MMH to focus on its core motor retail business, as it continued to focus on its successful strategy of driving both organic growth and increasing its UK footprint through targeted acquisitions with existing brand partners.

Daksh Gupta, CEO commented: "The strategic disposal of our leasing business is an important step for MMH as it has de-geared the Group's balance sheet and allows us to remain focused on driving our core retail operations. I am particularly pleased that MMH has an ongoing relationship with MLL for the supply of new vehicles and we look forward to supporting the continued growth of MLL under its new ownership."
In a bid to move Brexit negotiations onto trade and a transition deal, Theresa May will tell European Council President Donald Tusk on Friday that the UK is prepared to surrender to some of Brussels' demands regarding the Brexit divorce bill.

Tusk was likely to inform May that Britain must make a "no strings attached" commitment to paying significantly more than the 20bn currently on offer.

The Prime Minister won the support of several senior Cabinet ministers to present the EU with an offer of up to 40bn, and while she was said to have not ruled out offering the EU's chief negotiator Michael Barnier a written breakdown of what exactly it is that Britain considers its financial obligations to be, May is demanding he provide a written guarantee of trade talks in the trade-off.

Barnier warned Downing Street on 10 November that it had two weeks to provide "clarity" on the financial settlement, or risk trade and transition talks being taken off the agenda at the December meeting of the EU Council.

However, Brussels announced it would no longer be holding the UK to its strict self-imposed deadline, but noted that it would need to know what the offer was ahead of the next meeting of the EU Council on 13 and 14 December.

The EU stated that while it did not anticipate May would offer an exact figure before the December meeting, it was demanding transparency on exactly what Britain was willing to pay.

In addition to her Friday meeting with Tusk, the Prime Minister would also meet with the leaders of Lithuania, Belgium and Denmark, and would also sit down with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on 4 December.

Juncker, who had previously indicated that progress had been made in the Brexit talks, said on Friday "I will meet the British prime minister on 4 December. Then we will see if there has been sufficient progress."
Credit Suisse believes the market has become too pessimistic on Ophir Energy 's ability to reach a financing deal with its potential Chinese investors in order to progress on Fortuna.

With a delay in Ophir's first-investment-decision already priced-in and following 10% underperformance in the shares quarter-to-date, Credit Suisse said it now saw an "attractive" risk-reward trade-off in the shares; hence its decision to upgrade its recommendation for the same from 'neutral' to 'outperform'.

According to the Swiss broker's analysts, market pricing was currently implying only a 50% chance of success.

"With an offtake agreement already in place, securing project financing may help to further de-risk the project to 90% we carry in our NAV," Credit Suisse added.

Furthermore, the broker hailed the company's decision to search for alternate project financing options in parallel to its talks with those Chinese investors.

Ophir was set to update the market in December and was aiming to wrap-up the necessary talks on project financing by mid-month with a view to taking FID in the first quarter of 2018.

Nonetheless, missing that schedule was a near-term risk which might potentially push-out FID and negatively impact management's credibility.

Despite all of the above, Credit Suisse pared its target price from 85p to 80p after pushing out the expected date for finalising Fortuna to the end of 2021, assuming a higher cost of debt and after increasing provisions for exploration write-offs and selling, general and administrative expenses at the corporate level.

To take note of as well, even at the new target price the shares were trading on five times their estimated 2019 EV/EBITDAX multiple versus 5.5 for the broader sector.
Former South African sprint runner Oscar Pistorius's jail sentence has been increased to 13 years and five months for the murder of model and celebrity girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, it emerged on Friday.

Prosecutors argued that the six-year term was "shockingly light" considering the Paralympian had fired four bullets into a bathroom door behind which Ms Steenkamp was hiding unarmed.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, South Africa, has now sentenced Pistorius to a minimum of 15 years for murder, as normally prescribed in South Africa.

The Steenkamp family spokeswoman said the parents of the victim were "emotional" as they observed the ruling from home and now feel a sense of justice for Reeva.

Pistorius was given a six-year sentence after the lower court argued mitigating circumstances such as rehabilitation and remorse, which they believed outweighed his failure to fire a warning shot.

The six-time Paralympic gold medalist reportedly shot the model four times through a locked toilet door at his home in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.
At least 115 people have been killed with dozens more wounded when extremists carried out a devastating attack on a mosque in the Egyptian town of Bir al-Abed located on the Sinai peninsula.

Ambulances transported scores of wounded along with the casualties from the al-Rawdah mosque, which also lay west of the northern city of Arish.

Officials told Egypt's state news agency, Mena, that militants arrived in four 4WD drive vehicles before proceeding to bomb the place of worship and open fire on the survivors who had been attending a sermon at the Friday prayer session.

"They were shooting at people as they left the mosque," a local resident told Reuters.

"They were shooting at the ambulances too," they added.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called an emergency security meeting immediately after the attack.

Militants in the Sinai region had previously mainly targeted security forces with their attacks, but of late had expanded attacks beyond the peninsula to target Christian churches and pilgrims.

Responsibility for the attack, the worst the African nation had endured in the last three years, was not immediately claimed by any group.
Global Petroleum announced on Friday that its wholly owned subsidiary, Jupiter Petroleum Namibia , has agreed an extension to the First Renewal Exploration Period of 12 months to 3 December 2018 with the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy, for Petroleum Exploration Licence 29.

The AIM-traded firm said the licence covers Blocks 1910B and 2010A in the Walvis Basin offshore Namibia.

In addition, it said the ministry had agreed entry into the Second Renewal Period, effective from 3 December 2018, for a period of two years.

Global, via Jupiter, holds an 85% participating interest in the licence, which was originally issued on 3 December 2010 and then covered 11,730 square kilometers in water depths ranging from 1,300 metres to 3,000 metres.

In December 2015, the company entered into Phase 2, making a mandatory relinquishment of 50% of the licence area.

Phase 2 was for a duration of 24 months.

The company said the renegotiated reduced minimum work programme involved the reprocessing of all existing 2D seismic lines across the retained portion of the licence and the acquisition of 800km of long offset 2D seismic data over the retained acreage, in place of the previous well commitment.

Interpretation of the newly-acquired 2D data was completed in October.

The new information from the 2D seismic had significantly improved the prospectivity across the licence in general, the board reported, and the Gemsbok prospect in particular.

It said better imaging from the 2D data revealed that the known source rock intervals were likely to be within the oil generative window and that, combined with data showing repeating oil seeps along the faulted flanks of Gemsbok, had greatly improved the chance of a major oil discovery.

Gemsbok remained the Company's primary exploration target.

We would like to thank the Ministry of Mines and Energy for their help in constructing a practical framework for future operations in Global's Namibian acreage, said CEO Peter Hill.

The extension to Phase 2 and assurance of subsequent entry into Phase 3 gives us time and flexibility to find the right partner and also to progress the exploration of what we believe to be very exciting acreage.
DECATUR  The financial pundits who say online retail sites like Amazon are spelling doom for traditional department stores like Sears and J.C. Penney are also giving some local governments heartburn. The fear, along with lost jobs and vacant buildings, is a slide in sales taxes, which for cities like Decatur is a major revenue source.

"It's killing cities all over the place," Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe said at a recent city council meeting.

The city's sales tax revenue has mostly stayed flat for a decade, even fallen slightly. The attention is especially acute during the busy holiday season, which long had been a critical source of municipal tax revenues through purchases at large department stores, downtown retailers and other brick and mortar stores.

Falling sales tax revenue is not uncommon among Central Illinois cities. Recently, Springfield reported a similar dip, and Peoria officials voted to increase the city's sales tax a percentage point to boost slumping revenue. Bloomington's city council recently heard stagnant retail sales tax and rising costs are projected to create a revenue gap in its fiscal 2019 budget.

"You need to pass that (sales tax) on down to the municipalities based on the ZIP codes of the people that bought (online)," said Decatur City Councilman Pat McDaniel.

In the city of Decatur, about a quarter of its annual revenues come from state and local sales taxes.

Some online sellers do not have to hand over sales tax collections to where the purchaser lives. Amazon does collect sales tax, for instance, but any third-party sellers on the site do not have to  and states and cities worry that's a disadvantage for local stores, and hurting local revenue as a result.

"The people who live here still buy clothes and shoes, and if they're doing it online, that revenue needs to be coming back to us," Moore Wolfe said at the most recent council meeting.

There's no doubt local governments have to be losing some revenue to online sales, but it's difficult to track accurate figures, given that sites like Amazon and eBay include so many small purveyors all over the country.

But it is a different story in the adjacent villages of Forsyth and Mount Zion, where officials say sales tax figures are holding steady, even growing.

So far, sales tax receipts in Forsyth are about even with 2016, said Andrew Zupkoff, the village's community and economic development coordinator, "But that's not taking into effect all the business that have opened up literally in the next four months," he said.

In 2016, Forsyth ended up with $4.2 million in local sales tax receipts, and Zupkoff counts 10 new businesses that set up shot in Forsyth in the past year, including a number of stores that have filled some of the vacancies in Hickory Point Mall.

"We've had a very successful two months," said A.J. Miller, store manager of Hibbett Sports, which opened in the mall in September. "We are trending above new store expectations for (the company)."

Zupkoff, who started at his position in Forsyth this year, said promoting the village's high median income is helping attract more national chains.

"A lot of the time, when we bring up the Decatur market to a group of brokers and the company (representatives), they'll even say, 'If you want to be in the Decatur market, Forsyth is where you want to be," Zupkoff said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Forsyth's median household income is $95,000, versus $50,500 in Decatur, and $93,000 in Mount Zion.

"Our sales tax (receipts) over the last several years have been very stable," said Julie Miller, Mount Zion village administrator.

Mount Zion's local sales tax has dipped slightly over the last three years, from $340,000 in 2014, to $331,000 last year.

"The village doesn't have any of the major retailers. We have lots of small businesses, so it's very stable," Miller said.

Mount Zion's reliance on property taxes to fund local schools and government services is also much less of a guessing game when sales taxes can ebb and flow based on any range of economic factors.

"The economy doesn't affect us as much as say, Forsyth or Decatur," Miller said.

Decatur officials, including McDaniel and Moore Wolfe, say the city's slumping sales tax figures could be boosted if state lawmakers, or even Congress, established measures to ensure all online purchases see sales tax collections go to where the consumer is.

Zupkoff said the strip of national retail stores on U.S. 51 near the mall sees some of the highest car traffic in the area, and even though online shopping has grown, it's still only 10 percent to 15 percent of total sales in the country.

According to a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce, e-commerce sales brought in $394.9 billion in 2016. The Commerce Department said online sales grew 15.1 percent in 2016 and accounted for 8.1 percent of total retail sales for the year.

"I don't know if news of the retail apocalypse is overblown, or we're insulated from it, but people are still going out and shopping," Zupkoff said.

"There's still nothing better than going to the store and getting that item on that day," Miller said. "Amazon is great, but you still have to wait; and everybody still likes going to the store to get something new, and there's nothing quite like that feeling."
Among the strategy is to make the Tata Nexon available over the weekends at prominent public places for exposure. Tata Motors will incorporate Star Wars merchandise, accessories and props to promote the upcoming movie.

The new adventure of Tata Nexon and Star Wars will begin from September 25, 2017, when both the brands will bring alive this association by connecting with their customers at the Nexon Skill Arena in Bangalore.

Also Read: First Drive Review Of Tata Nexon

The Nexon Skill Arena will be held at E-Zone, 23/24, Marathahalli Bridge, KR Puram Ring Road, Chinnapahalli in Bangalore and the company's existing and prospective customers have been invited to the event.

The Nexon Skill Arena includes four zones: Explore, Skills Arena, Fun and Test Drive. Each of these zones gives customers an opportunity to get up-close with the SUV and experience its capabilities.

Recommended Video Tata Nexon Price And Features Variant-wise - DriveSpark

Tata Motors says the Nexon with colours Moroccan Blue and the Vermont Red are symbolic of the light and dark side of the Force in the Star Wars galaxy. The movie is slated for India release on December 15, 2017.

The Tata Nexon is the newest sub-compact SUV launched in India with latest and premium features. The Nexon is available in both petrol and diesel variants.

Power to the petrol version of the Tata Nexon comes with a 1.2-litre turbocharged engine producing 108.5bhp and 170Nm of torque mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox. The diesel version is powered by a 1.5-litre unit developing 108.5bhp and 260Nm of torque mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox.

The Tata Nexon boasts of some unique features such as Wristband Key, Floating Navigainment Touchscreen with Voice Control, 8-Speaker Sound System and driving modes.

According to Mr. Vivek Srivatsa - Head - Marketing, PVBU, Tata Motors - "We are very excited to associate the Tata Nexon with the Star Wars brand which is a huge franchise globally. Nexon has been one of the most talked about recently, just like the The Last Jedi' has been for the movie buffs."

"Fueling the force within you, the Tata Nexon takes driving to LEVEL NEX which has resulted in a culmination of a radical shift in thinking about our products. Nexon promises to deliver an experience beyond the next level which will change the norms of what you can expect out of a car just like the Star Wars movies."

He further added, "We are excited as we bring this association to life for the first time in Bangalore and are sure that this partnership will definitely prove to be a real treat for fans of both the brands."

DriveSpark Thinks!

Tata Motors and Disney India have come together to showcase their newest creation - Nexon and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The Nexon boasts of modern design, advanced technology, and comfort, while the Star Wars franchise boasts of futuristic technology, both the brands have the DNA to be a potential winner in their respective category.
Students and teachers from Delft University of Technology visited the Volta Delta and worked together with Ghanaian students of KNUST, Central University and University of Ghana, on integrated solutions for the complex issues of this river delta in Ghana.

The full week meeting included workshops and site visits in the river delta, focussing on a more strategic long-term response to climate change rather than on isolated engineering solutions. The visit was hosted and facilitated by the Ghana Wing of the Delta Alliance network organisation.

Waterbed-like reactions

The Volta Delta is experiencing interacting problems due to a combination of climate change, coastal erosion, intensive urbanization and poor land use planning.

One of the major problems in Ghana is severe coastal erosion that affects coastal communities. Engineering solutions, such as the construction of groins and revetments have stabilized parts of the coast, but also blocked access to the beach, which is affecting traditional marine fishing activities, and have led to increased erosion of neighbouring areas.

In the lagoons, industrialization of salt mining and the development of intensive agriculture and unplanned urbanization put pressure on the deltas ecosystem.

This competes with the traditional way of living of coastal communities and exaggerates the already poor livelihood of communities as a result of low fishing and agriculture harvests.

Guiding principles

The workshop funded by the Delft Deltas, Infrastructure and Mobility Initiative (DIMI) and Delta Alliance sought to improve the understanding of the complex challenges of the Volta delta and to develop guiding principles to support an integrated development that balances needs of local communities and economic development.

During one of the workshops, the Delft  Ghanaian student group developed long-term strategies based on the option of a managed retreat and relocation of the most vulnerable communities, a hold the line strategy by improved coastal protection, and a dynamic coast strategy, in which the sandy coast is maintained according to its natural dynamics.

Although the workshop did not aim to develop a comprehensive master plan, it helped to better understand the complexities of a delta that is urbanizing rapidly and that is threatened by climate change.

Key findings

One of the key findings of the workshop is that it is absolutely necessary to better understand the natural dynamics of the delta and to better understand how the coastal system reacts to climate change.

Additionally, there is a strong need for both strategic long-term planning and new governance structures on the level of the delta to manage urbanization, coastal protection and other economic developments and the development of new economic activities to support a sustainable livelihood of the coastal communities.

Lastly, the lack of spatial planning and the community-focused culture brings in an element of complexity.

The workshop was funded by the Delft Deltas, Infrastructure and Mobility Initiative (DIMI) and Delta Alliance. A follow-up meeting will be held in Delft, the Netherlands, in April 2018.

This news item was originally published on the website of Delft University of technology and Delta Alliance.

Read also on this website

 Delta Alliance hosts free webinar on adaptive management for river deltas, 28 June 2017

 River basin management of Volta delta focusses on balancing preservation and development, 17 March 2017

 Adaptive coastal management casts new light on construction of large flood barriers, 2 February 2016

 Country: Ghana

 Expertise: Enabling Delta Life



More information

Delta Alliance  Ghana Wing

c/o Delta Alliance

Wageningen, the Netherlands

+31 317 48 6540

www.delta-alliance.org/wings/ghana-wing

Delft Deltas, Infrastructure and Mobility Initiative (DIMI)

c/o Delft University of technology

Delft, the Netherlands

www.tudelft.nl/infrastructures
Amazon on Wednesday announced a new service that will allow Prime members to receive in-home delivery of packages with the help of high-tech smart locks that allow drivers to open their front doors.

Amazon Key will launch officially on Nov. 8 in 37 U.S. cities and surrounding communities, with additional locations to be added over time. The service will be available at no extra cost to Prime members, and it will work with standard, two-day, overnight and same-day deliveries.

Amazon Key gives customers peace of mind knowing their orders have been safely delivered to their homes and are waiting for them when they walk through their doors, said Peter Larsen, vice president of delivery technology at Amazon.

To use the service, Prime members must order an Amazon Key in-home kit, which includes the Amazon Cloud Cam and one of several compatible smart locks offered by Kwickset or Yale. The Amazon Key In-Home Kit starts at US$249.99. The locks can be installed professionally at no extra cost or self-installed by customers, according to Amazon.

Beyond Deliveries

When a driver requests access to the customers home, the Cloud Cam confirms the driver is at the right address through an encrypted authentication process. After the request is authenticated, the Cloud Cam starts recording the delivery and the door is unlocked.

Customers can track the delivery using the Amazon Key app on their mobile phones. They get real-time notifications and can watch deliveries live or view recordings later. The entire delivery process is backed up by the Amazon Happiness Guarantee, the company said.

The agreement is a big step for Yale. Its parent firm, Assa Abloy, also on Wednesday announced that it is testing an in-home delivery service with 100 customers in Sweden, in collaboration with delivery firm PostNord and e-commerce retailers Jollyroom, Apotea and Komplett. Yale Doorman digital locks are being used in the tests.

Its significant in that were working with Amazon, obviously a powerhouse in online retailing, and working with them on one of the most innovative programs in e-commerce and home delivery, the firm said in a statement provided to the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Terry Shea.

The Amazon Key program will provide features beyond home delivery of packages, the company said. Customers will be able to grant keyless entry for family and friends, and theyll be able to set frequency and length of time for access to the home.

Amazon plans to roll out a new program that will allow thousands of companies to access homes using the smart lock technology, including companies like housekeeping service Merry Maids and dog walking and pet sitting service Rover.

Rover is changing the way pet owners discover, book and manage personalized care for their pets, said spokesperson Brandie Gonzales.

This new integration with Amazon Key is the latest example of how we are leading the pet care revolution, she told the E-Commerce Times.

Growth Outweighs Risk

Amazon is gambling that the benefit of having secure home delivery of packages will outweigh the potential downside of the perception that its seeking an invasive level of access to the customer.

While many customers might see this capability as overly intrusive, Amazon  and Walmart  has identified an intersection of customer needs and new technologies, noted Matt Sargent, senior vice president of retail at Magid.

This capability [is] not only possible, but incredibly interesting to a subset of cutting-edge customers, he told the E-Commerce Times.

The need already exists, according to Sargent. People have been looking for a way to provide secure access to prevent package theft, and to allow entry of housecleaners and other service providers. The advent of remote security cameras and smart locks has made fulfillment of this need a reality.

The in-home delivery service is another example of Amazon inventing new ways to reach into consumer wallets without an obvious business case, said Paula Rosenblum, managing partner of RSR Research.

I think its too intrusive and too risky, she told the E-Commerce Times.

Amazon Prime has about 90 million members in the U.S., according to a report Consumer Intelligence Research Partners released last week.

About 63 percent of all U.S.-based Amazon customers belong to Prime, the firm noted. Amazon considers Prime members critical to its growth, because on average they spend $1,300 a year on purchases  nearly twice as much as non-Prime members.

From a security standpoint, smart lock technologies pose more of a physical challenge than a technology challenge, suggested William Malik, vice president for infrastructure strategies at Trend Micro.

The technology may grant access only to authorized Amazon employees, but it would be helpful to understand Amazons process for vetting delivery people, revoking their access, auditing conformance to Amazons standards, and providing warranty to misuse of that access, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Augusts Experience

August for years has been running August Access, a home delivery service that provides retailers and services of all stripes  including Sears Home Delivery and dog-walking service Wag  with the ability to get secure access to customers homes.

Years ago, when his former housekeeper had to return home to Brazil, she still had the keys to his house, recalled August CEO Jason Johnson.

What are people to do in situations such as that one, he wondered, change the locks? Although Johnson didnt feel he needed to do that, it seemed many people would value the ability to provide controlled access to their homes for certain activities,.

The desire to find a solution to that problem led Johnson and a cofounder to launch August.

From the beginning, we thought about how could we provide conditional access to the home, he told the E-Commerce Times.

The August smart locks use secure Bluetooth technology, with a layer of encryption on top, plus a third level of security that has been subjected to a white hat security audit to guard the systems against potential intrusion.

Just last month, Walmart began working with August and Deliv to test in-fridge delivery of food. The companies have been testing the service in the Silicon Valley area with a select number of customers who have August smart locks. They are provided a one-time passcode for secure access to allow deliveries to be placed inside the home.

Were interested in providing additional solutions and options for customers to make it easy for them, Walmart spokesperson Ravi Jariwala told E-Commerce Times.

Walmart earlier this month announced the acquisition of Parcel, a startup that delivers meal kits, groceries and e-commerce purchases to homes in New York City. Walmart plans to use Parcel for last-mile deliveries of groceries and packages from Walmart and Jet.
Monsanto has lost its permit to commercialize genetically modified (GMO) soy in seven Mexican states, Reuters reported.

Mexicos agriculture sanitation authority SENASICA revoked the permita decision that the St. Louis-based seed giant called unjustified.

Citing a SENASICA document, Mexican newspaper Reforma reported that the permit was revoked after authorities detected Monsantos GMO soy in unauthorized areas.

But Monsanto rejected that argument. According to a statement seen by Reuters, the company claimed that the authorities did not analyze how the soy on which their decision was based was sown.

Monsanto alleged that the permit was withdrawn on unwarranted legal and technical grounds and warned that it would take the necessary steps to safeguard its rights and those of farmers using the technology.

The permit revocation applies to the states of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo.

Monsantos presence in Mexico has a storied history, especially over corn, the countrys staple crop. The company has long wanted to grow corn in the country but earlier this year, a Mexican court upheld a 2013 ruling that stopped even pilot plots of GMO corn over how it could affect the environment, Reuters reported then.

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By

Rebecca Gruby, Lisa Campbell, Luke Fairbanks and Noella Gray

There is growing concern that the worlds oceans are in crisis because of climate change, overfishing, pollution and other stresses. One response is creating marine protected areas, or ocean parks, to conserve sea life and key habitats that support it, such as coral reefs.

In 2000, marine protected areas covered just

0.7 percent of the worlds oceans. Today 6.4 percent of the oceans are protectedabout 9 million square miles. In 2010, 196 countries set a goal of protecting 10 percent of the worlds oceans by 2020.

Ocean parks that are very large and often remote account for most recent progress toward this goal, but they also are

controversial. Some ecologists view them as the most effective way to protect ecosystems, deep-sea and open ocean habitats and large, highly migratory species. Critics say they may divert attention from conservation priorities closer to more densely populated areas, and are hard to monitor and enforce. And social scientists have questioned whether protecting such large zones infringes on indigenous peoples rights.

Our research seeks to inform conservation policies that are effective, equitable and socially just. In our new study of established or proposed large marine protected areas in Bermuda, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Palau, Kiribati and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, we show that efforts to protect even remote sites can generate important outcomes for local residents that they may view as positive or negative. They can increase national pride and political leverage for indigenous populations, for example. They can also complicate international conservation negotiations or cause broad shifts in national economies.

Here we discuss the Palau National Marine Sanctuary, one of the worlds largest, which was created in 2015. This sanctuary illustrates how large-scale ocean conservation has the potential to produce important social benefits.



Reefs in Palau. Rebecca Gruby, CC BY-ND

Palaus Strategy

Palau is a small nation spread across several hundred islands in the western Pacific. As with many Pacific Island nations, Palaus offshore tuna fishery is dominated by foreign vessels. Most of the revenues and fish that it produces are exported overseas. Only a small portion of the lowest-graded tuna makes it to Palaus domestic market. At the same time, demand for seafood from Palaus growing tourist industry is

stressing other fish species in nearshore reefs.

In 2016,

136,572 tourists visited Palaualmost eight times the resident population. Palau is struggling to balance increasing tourist demand for seafood with the needs of local residents, who depend on reef fish for about 90 percent of their fish intake.

As part of a sweeping conservation and development vision, the sanctuary

designates 80 percent of Palaus exclusive economic zone (defined in international law as waters extending from 12 up to 200 miles off its coastlines) as a no-take reserve, and the rest as a domestic fishing zone. Virtually all of the fish caught in this zone must be sold in Palau. Fishing in the no-take reserve will decline incrementally and end by 2020. Palaus territorial, or coastal, waters lie outside the sanctuary boundaries, but are protected by other policies like the Protected Areas Network.



The Palau National Marine Sanctuary covers 193,000 square miles and includes 80 percent of the nations Exclusive Economic Zonean area extending from 12 up to 200 nautical miles from its coasts, in which it has exclusive rights for fishing and other economic activities. Luke Fairbanks; data from from marineregions.org, protectedplanet.net, ESRI., CC BY-ND

This design seeks to protect marine species by eliminating foreign commercial fishing in most of Palaus waters, while developing a domestic fishing industry that supplies local markets with large open-ocean species like tuna. By shifting more consumption to these fish, it aims to reduce pressure on reef fisheries near shore. And by spotlighting these actions as part of a shift toward high-end tourism, it seeks to promote sustainable economic development.



As Palaus President Tommy E. Remengesau Jr.

summarized, The true purpose of the Palau National Marine Sanctuary is to protect our resources for our people.

Who Benefits?

Translating these goals into action has triggered social changes within Palau. Sanctuary managers and nongovernment organizations are raising funds to provide more local fishermen with the midrange fishing vessels and capacity they need to access fish in the offshore domestic fishing zone. Many local fishermen are eager for this new livelihood source.

Palaus government has drafted legislation and developed

marketing campaigns that feature Palaus conservation commitments. It is also increasing visitor fees and asking tourists to sign a Palau Pledge upon arrival, in which they promise to act in an environmentally and culturally responsible way during their stay.

While critics argue this strategy will do more for 

rich tourists than for conservation, we believe such assessments are premature. The goal is to limit the number of toilets flushing, divers on reefs and reef fish being eaten, while increasing revenue through higher returns from fewer visitors.

Not everyone in the tourism industry supports these changes. But models suggest that they can enable Palau to

meet future seafood demand while protecting its marine resources.

Importantly, we have seen no evidence that these changes will restrict local residents access to the spaces and resources they currently use. The domestic fishing zone is designed to give Palauans more access to fish in their waters. And Palaus leaders have historically protected local access to the

445 Rock Islandsthe primary destination for visitorsby designating only a small number for tourist use.

Linking Offshore Ocean Protection to Tradition

The marine sanctuary is also

changing the way in which many Palauans relate to offshore ocean space. Palaus council of highest ranking traditional leaders has enacted a customary law called a bul to protect the sanctuary through traditional protocols. A bul is conventionally used on land or in nearshore marine areas.

A member of Palaus Council of Chiefs, which advises the president, told us that this is the first time traditional leaders have issued a bul in an offshore ocean area. This move has been controversial, but according to many of our interviewees, it grants the sanctuary a culturally important seal of approval and embeds offshore conservation within traditional knowledge and governance systems.

Of course, not all Palauans support the sanctuary. Some think the domestic fishing zone is too small, while others question how much protection the sanctuary actually offers for highly migratory open-ocean fish. Still others worry about possible lost fishing revenue or the impact of increasing visitor fees.

Important questions remain about how Palau will effectively and ethically address

illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. This problem is a critical global challenge, and Palau has been both applauded and criticized for contesting it aggressively.

Future research should examine how these social changes unfold. So far, the evidence suggests that Palaus sanctuary has potential to deliver both conservation and development gains.

Defining a New Field

Palaus sanctuary is one example of a new global phenomenon. But the race to create large ocean parks has outpaced science. Managers, along with

biophysical and social scientists, are scrambling to answer questions about how well they work and who they benefit or harm.

Decades of research on smaller marine protected areas shows that they have to meet both

biological and social goals to succeed. Now, more researchers are examining human dimensions across a number of large marine protected areas. Scientists can inform these conservation efforts by weighing evidence carefully in assessing how and why large ocean parks matter for people as well as for sea life.

Reposted with permission from our media associate The Conversation.
BY Connor McGuigan

REI will once again shutter its doors on Black Friday as part of its #OptOutside campaign, which encourages people to forgo bargain-hunting and spend Americas busiest shopping day outside. The outdoor retailer will also suspend online sales and provide all 12,000 employees with a paid day off to enjoy the outdoors.

#OptOutside began in 2015 when REI executives began questioning their corporations involvement in the annual bargain bacchanal. Each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Americans generate one million extra tons of waste, a good portion of which can be attributed to Black Friday shopping.

REI decided to offer a different narrative for Black Fridayone that runs counter to consumerism and the environmental harms it generates. We think that Black Friday has gotten out of hand and so we are choosing to invest in helping people get outside with loved ones this holiday season, said president and CEO Jerry Stritzke in the letter first announcing #OptOutside in 2015.

During that first #OptOutside campaign, REI partnered with 170 organizations to help get the word out and arranged for 1,000 state and local parks to waive entrance fees that day. #OptOutside resonated widelymore than 1.4 million people posted on social media with the #OptOutside tag. Ad Age called the campaign the future of marketing.

After another successful campaign in 2016, REI has sought to widen the reach of #OptOutside this year with an experiential search engine designed to make it even easier for people to get outside. The search engine compiles thousands of photos depicting outdoor adventures that people have posted on Instagram with the hashtag #OptOutside. You can scroll through photos organized by activity, or search for outings in a particular area. If you find a photo that piques your interestsay a landscape in your area that youve never seenyou can click on the photo to find more information, including the name and location as well as the difficulty level of trails.

CEO Jerry Stritzke believes the search engine unites outdoor enthusiasts in an unprecedented fashion. We have captured the experiences of the outdoor community and organized them in a way that no one has done before, he said in a press release announcing the #OptOutside 2017 campaign and search engine. Right now, I think people are looking for a moment to take a breath, reground themselves, and come together.

Reposted with permission from our media associate SIERRA Magazine.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Recent advances in quantum computers may soon give hackers access to machines powerful enough to crack even the toughest of standard internet security codes. With these codes broken, all of our online data -- from medical records to bank transactions -- could be vulnerable to attack.

To fight back against the future threat, researchers are wielding the same strange properties that drive quantum computers to create theoretically hack-proof forms of quantum data encryption.

And now, these quantum encryption techniques may be one step closer to wide-scale use thanks to a new system developed by scientists at Duke University, The Ohio State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Their system is capable of creating and distributing encryption codes at megabit-per-second rates, which is five to 10 times faster than existing methods and on par with current internet speeds when running several systems in parallel.

The researchers demonstrate that the technique is secure from common attacks, even in the face of equipment flaws that could open up leaks.

"We are now likely to have a functioning quantum computer that might be able to start breaking the existing cryptographic codes in the near future," said Daniel Gauthier, a professor of physics at The Ohio State University. "We really need to be thinking hard now of different techniques that we could use for trying to secure the internet."

The results appear online Nov. 24 in Science Advances.

To a hacker, our online purchases, bank transactions and medical records all look like gibberish due to ciphers called encryption keys. Personal information sent over the web is first scrambled using one of these keys, and then unscrambled by the receiver using the same key.

For this system to work, both parties must have access to the same key, and it must be kept secret. Quantum key distribution (QKD) takes advantage of one of the fundamental properties of quantum mechanics -- measuring tiny bits of matter like electrons or photons automatically changes their properties -- to exchange keys in a way that immediately alerts both parties to the existence of a security breach.

Though QKD was first theorized in 1984 and implemented shortly thereafter, the technologies to support its wide-scale use are only now coming online. Companies in Europe now sell laser-based systems for QKD, and in a highly-publicized event last summer, China used a satellite to send a quantum key to two land-based stations located 1200 km apart.

The problem with many of these systems, said Nurul Taimur Islam, a graduate student in physics at Duke, is that they can only transmit keys at relatively low rates -- between tens to hundreds of kilobits per second -- which are too slow for most practical uses on the internet.

"At these rates, quantum-secure encryption systems cannot support some basic daily tasks, such as hosting an encrypted telephone call or video streaming," Islam said.

Like many QKD systems, Islam's key transmitter uses a weakened laser to encode information on individual photons of light. But they found a way to pack more information onto each photon, making their technique faster.

By adjusting the time at which the photon is released, and a property of the photon called the phase, their system can encode two bits of information per photon instead of one. This trick, paired with high-speed detectors developed by Clinton Cahall, graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, and Jungsang Kim, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, powers their system to transmit keys five to 10 times faster than other methods.

"It was changing these additional properties of the photon that allowed us to almost double the secure key rate that we were able to obtain if we hadn't done that," said Gauthier, who began the work as a professor of physics at Duke before moving to OSU.

In a perfect world, QKD would be perfectly secure. Any attempt to hack a key exchange would leave errors on the transmission that could be easily spotted by the receiver. But real-world implementations of QKD require imperfect equipment, and these imperfections open up leaks that hackers can exploit.

The researchers carefully characterized the limitations of each piece of equipment they used. They then worked with Charles Lim, currently a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the National University of Singapore, to incorporate these experimental flaws into the theory.

"We wanted to identify every experimental flaw in the system, and include these flaws in the theory so that we could ensure our system is secure and there is no potential side-channel attack," Islam said.

Though their transmitter requires some specialty parts, all of the components are currently available commercially. Encryption keys encoded in photons of light can be sent over existing optical fiber lines that burrow under cities, making it relatively straightforward to integrate their transmitter and receiver into the current internet infrastructure.

"All of this equipment, apart from the single-photon detectors, exist in the telecommunications industry, and with some engineering we could probably fit the entire transmitter and receiver in a box as big as a computer CPU," Islam said.

###

This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program on Wavelength-Agile QKD in a AQ12 Marine Environment (N00014-13-1-0627) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Defense Sciences Office Information in a Photon program. Additional support was provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, operated by UT-Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract no. DE-AC05-00OR22725, and National University of Singapore startup grant R-263-000-C78-133/731.

CITATION: "Provably Secure and High-Rate Quantum Key Distribution With Time-Bin Qudits," Nurul T. Islam, Charles Ci Wen Lim, Clinton Cahall, Jungsang Kim and Daniel J. Gauthier. Science Advances, Nov. 24, 2017. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701491
DECATUR  Mary Hill sat down at the foldout table with a plate of delicious grilled turkey and sides from Vinnie's, and drew into conversation Mark Turnbo about his current lot in life.

"They call it a spiritual detox...I mean the holy spirit actually grabbed my soul and I felt great," said Turnbo, describing a religious moment he experienced several months ago.

"And you been doing good ever since?" Hill asked.

"No, I kind of messed up, with my drinking," he told her. But Hill responded with nothing but encouragement.

Hill said she was passing around fliers to promote this year's Water Street Mission's Thanksgiving meal, and decided to stay put in Decatur rather than visit her family in Chicago.

Turnbo, who has a long rap sheet of various petty crimes from disorderly conduct to assault, comes to the Water Street Mission often for meals and camaraderie.

"These are really good people. You feel safe here," he said.

Hill, who says she came to Decatur six years ago and soon after got sober with the help of Heritage Behavioral Health Center, recognized the faces of old drinking buddies, some who look better, some who don't.

"My mother said, 'You're going to eat with the homeless?' But it feels good being here," Hill said. "I just want to help people who are going through what I've been through."

Finding redemption, or believing in its possibility, is a common theme in conversations at the Mission. As a well-known local organization that serves some of the neediest in the community, staff and volunteers often employ the Bible to cultivate hope for people struggling with mental illness, addiction, or plain bad luck.

"I had everything anybody could dream of, but I had it the wrong way," said Wilbert Taiferro, a shift manager at the Mission. Taliferro said just six months ago he had just finished a nine-year stay in prison. While he worked as a union laborer in the area, he also sold drugs.

"The material don't mean anything to me anymore," he said. "I used to drive a pretty Cadillac. This (work at Mission) right here means more to me than that Cadillac."

Vinnie Barbee, who retired from his barbecue restaurant several years ago, still cooks for the Thanksgiving event, now in its 16th year.

"I gotta do it because these people don't have anywhere else to go, so eat dinner with me," Barbee said.

When asked what Thanksgiving would be like without coming to the Water Street Mission, Barbee said, "I really don't know. I just think it might not be as joyful, might not be has happy, and (this many people) might not be eating beautiful smoked barbecue from Vinnie's Barbecue."
VOLO (AP)  There may be hope for the doomed replica of a historic McDonald's hamburger restaurant after all.

Upon hearing that McDonald's plans to demolish its museum in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines next month, the Volo Auto Museum in Lake County is exploring the possibility of picking up the entire structure and parking it at the auto museum.

The auto museum has reached out to the burger giant to save the replica of the first McDonald's restaurant. Ray Kroc opened it in Des Plaines in 1955 after he franchised the brand from the original owners, Richard and Maurice McDonald.

The auto museum in a Facebook post says it contacted McDonald's Corp. after pleas from the community to move the McDonald's museum to Volo.
COLUMBUS  If you think livestock and quail dont mix, a new concept in managed grazing may just change your mind.

USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service is now accepting applications for a program that focuses on establishing productive warm season forages to improve livestock production and provide large areas of prime habitat for ground-nesting birds and other wildlife.

Ohios Northern Bobwhite in Grasslands project, in southern Ohio, is part of a national Working Lands for Wildlife partnership.

The project is designed to help bring back the quail that were once an integral part of Ohios landscape.

Wildlife benefits

Researchers have documented the wildlife benefits of managed grazing on native summer forages, concluding that this approach enhances the habitat for the ground-nesting birds while improving livestock weight gains.

Ohios new project is a win-win for producers by enabling them to continue grazing on land with installed conservation measures, said Terry Cosby, NRCS state conservationist in Ohio.

NRCS uses the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to offer technical and financial assistance to eligible livestock producers to implement conservation practices to address habitat loss without taking their land out of production.

NRCS will conduct targeted restoration activities with a focus on 30 southern Ohio counties.

All NRCS financial assistance programs are offered in a continuous sign-up; however, to be considered for Northern Bobwhite in Grasslands funding, applications must be received by Jan. 19, 2018.

Check with your county NRCS office to find out if the program is offered in your county.
A Young Farmers Club is set to lose grant funding worth approximately 20,000 annually due to the council's "unprecedented financial shortfall".

The Young Farmers Club Meirionnydd YFC is likely to lose its grant funding worth approximately 20,000 annually.

Gwynedd County Council, who provide the grant through their Youth Service, are said to have to find savings of 270,000 to help address the authoritys unprecedented financial shortfall as a result of severe government cuts.

The Farmers Union of Wales has expressed its disappointment. FUW President Glyn Roberts said: We are extremely disappointed by this prospect and hope that Gwynedd County Council can find a way to keep funding this valuable youth movement.

Meirionnydd YFC use this money to employ a full-time county organiser and without such a role, most YFC activities would come to an end, from eisteddfoddau to county rallies and livestock competitions.

Mr Roberts said the service the YFC does is "invaluable" to young farmers in the area.

Of course, we understand that councils across Wales are under immense pressure due to funding cuts, but the service the YFC movement provides is invaluable, he said.

The work they do in helping and supporting young people to become successful farmers, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens, cant be praised enough. If only we could bottle the YFC secret sauce and introduce it to our larger towns and cities I'm sure we could rid ourselves of many societal problems.

This potential funding cut serves as another example of knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing. We therefore urge the local authority to rethink their decision.

The work of YFCs is seen as critical to an industry which worries over the lack of future generational support.

Earlier this year, members of the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs (NFYFC) spent more than 4,000 hours, as part of a nationwide campaign, fundraising and delivering community projects that benefited local residents.
Arlas price for conventional milk will remain unchanged in December at 32.30 pence for the conventional manufacturing litre.

Commenting on the reason behind the decision to hold the price for December, Johnnie Russell, Arla Foods amba board director, said: Commodity market prices have continued to fall over recent weeks, in particular European yellow cheese markets.

Skimmed milk powder continues to trade at below intervention prices although there is some short-term stability in the run up to Christmas.

The head of Arla Foods has urged the government to publish its future plans for agriculture in the UK through a parliamentary bill "at the earliest opportunity early next year".

The challenges and opportunities facing the dairy industry over Brexit were highlighted at the International Dairy Federations (IDF) World Dairy Summit on 31 October.

Speaking at the IDF Summit in Belfast, Tomas Pietrangeli, UK managing director of Arla Foods, said the industry was facing 'the biggest seismic change in the political and financial landscape in our lifetime'.

He said the end of free trade is a "major risk" for the British dairy industry.

"In order to protect the health of the dairy industry in the UK we need to have tariff-free and barrier free trading conditions. We are a business and an industry that make a significant contribution to the dairy industry and the wider UK economy," Mr Pietrangeli said.
British workers will have to be prepared to take up the food and farming jobs currently carried out by migrant workers if European labour is lost to British businesses following Brexit according to an industry expert.

Mark Williams, the chief executive of the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC), EU migrants currently accounted for up to 60 per cent of people employed in UK egg packing centres and as many as 40 per cent of those employed on farms.

Availability of labour is vital to the industry which is currently seeing a shortage of seasonal workers, despite official figures showing there is a record number of EU workers in the UK.

The industry was trying to promote careers in the egg industry, but he said some British people were not necessarily keen on the hard work involved in the agricultural industry.

"There are too many Brits who are not prepared to bend their backs in the broccoli fields of East Anglia in the middle of winter. That culture is going to have to change as we go forward," Mr Williams said.

The implications of Brexit were the focus of much of the debate at this year's Egg and Poultry Industry Conference (EPIC) which was held in Wales.

Concerns about freedom of movement across the European Union is believed to have been one of the factors that led British voters to vote by 52 per cent to 48 per cent to leave the EU in last year's referendum.

'Labour is business critical'

But ever since the surprise leave vote, farming leaders have been warning that losing access to European workers would be disastrous for British agriculture.

Gary Ford, the NFU's chief poultry adviser, told EPIC delegates: "We all know that labour is business critical to the poultry sector. We as an industry have been doing a lot of work with the Migration Advisory Committee, which recently called for evidence," he said.

"We have, as part of our submission, put a number of case studies in there. We can all talk about the importance of access to labour but it really does help illustrate the point when we put specific case studies in."

One case study, he said, was a medium sized poultry meat processor employing 240 staff. He said that 80 per cent of those workers were non-UK labourers. "When you start to talk about numbers and give examples it really does help to drive our argument," said Mr Ford.

'Prepared to work'

Mark Williams said that, following the referendum, the BEIC had conducted a survey which showed that between 55 and 60 per cent of those working in packing centres were from other EU countries.

Between 35 and 40 per cent of those working on farms were from other EU countries. "Continued access to labour is of vital importance to all of you sitting in this room no matter what type of business you are involved in," he said.

Mr Williams said that the foreign workers did "a fantastic job. They are prepared to work. They are prepared to work long hours as well."

However, he said that it was becoming increasingly difficult to attract the labour the industry needed. New recruits were harder to attract and foreign workers already here were going back to their own countries.

"There are people going home now. The UK was seen as a beacon, having a strong economy when the Eurozone was suffering. That's why people were coming here," he explained.

"Some of them are going home because of the Sterling effect. They are not taking as much money home in their pay packets now. But, of course, there are the reports of people not feeling welcome. All of this is having a cumulative effect. Even the labour agencies are saying now that the tap is being slowly turned off."

Unemployment low

Mr Williams said that the BEIC was making an effort to attract people into the industry, but unemployment levels in this country were currently very low - just 4.3 per cent. Agriculture had to compete with other industries for smaller of numbers of people.

"You have all seen UK unemployment figures. We are approaching full employment in the UK. Never before - not for many years, anyway - have we had so few people unemployed. That, in itself, adds further pressures on your businesses.

"I have been ringing around a few people last week knowing I would be here today just asking them, 'Where do you sit now? What's happening in terms of your labour.' They were saying that there is competition from other sectors. If an Ikea distribution centre opens down the road from an egg packing centre, obviously that's competition."

John Reed, chairman of the British Poultry Council, said that 60 per cent of workers in the chicken meat sector were from outside the UK and the industry would need a flexible visa system put in place once the UK withdrew from the EU.

Re-locate

Tim Rycroft, corporate affairs director of the Food and Drink Federation said the FDF had asked its members what the effect would be of no longer having access to a supply of EU migrant labour.

He said 17 per cent had said they would have to re-locate overseas and more than a third had said their business would no longer be viable.

The Government's chief vet, Nigel Gibbens, said the Government did understand the industry's concerns about the impact of Brexit on the availability of labour. "We get it. Access to labour is really important," he said.

"For me, I am working with the Royal Veterinary College and the British Veterinary Association to look at the very specific veterinary issues. You share some of those, but it's much broader than that. Other workers can be absolutely crucial.

"Actually, with vets we might have quite an easy sell because they have scarce skills, although they are not recognised as such at the moment. Other workers may be less so but it is probably a case for you to make."

Mark Williams said it was the role of Government to ensure that there was a visa system put in place no matter what happened in the future.
Farmers are being urged to give rams in commercial flocks more attention to improve their working lives.

The working lives of rams could be improved if farmers gave them more attention in terms of health and nutritional needs, according to a new report released.

The report looks at the longevity and welfare of rams, and was launched at the Sheep Breeders Round Table event in Nottingham. The study was funded by the BVA Animal Welfare Foundation and supported by the National Sheep Association (NSA).

Report authors Lesley Stubbings and Kate Phillips, both independent sheep consultants, gathered information from almost 600 UK sheep flocks, mainly through focus group discussions and an online survey.

Health status was identified by commercial sheep farmers as the highest selection priority when buying rams, yet knowledge of health and feeding before purchase was generally low, said Kate Phillips.

Routine vaccination of rams is also not widespread and respiratory diseases and poor body condition as a consequence of lameness, are high on the list of causes of ram deaths  both of which can be tackled with a sound health plan.

In terms of feeding, rams are on average losing 9% of bodyweight whilst working  with the worst losses up to 20%. There is a clear need for more accurate guidance on ram feeding throughout the year.

'Clean Bill of Health'

Further recommendations in the report on health issues include adapting the five-point plan for lameness in rams, involving vets - who are allowed to break open product packs and dispense small quantities of vaccinations, and looking to develop a Clean Bill of Health document.

Vendors would complete this and purchasers could use it as a guide for future treatments and nutrition.

Rams face considerable challenges, often moving from the relative luxury of a pedigree flock to the rigours of working life on their new farm, with little or no transitional period and patchy preventative health care, said Ms. Phillips.

While the farmers surveyed online were generally satisfied with how long their rams are lasting, their expectations are not matched with reality.

On average they wanted them to work for four to five years, but in practice they are lasting for 3.8 years. There is no doubt that if they can improve ram health and nutrition, they can improve the life of working rams and reduce their cost per lamb sold.
The Polish meat industry were given a thoroughly Great British lamb experience when they made a special visit to the UK this month.

The tour was hosted by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) to showcase the unique characteristics of the British lamb supply chain from farm to plate, through primary and further processing.

It included cutting and cooking demonstrations which illustrated the use of lamb in gastronomy as well as the retail presentation of cuts.

The event formed part of AHDB Beef & Lambs ongoing work to develop new markets for lamb  with Poland viewed as a key market for exports due to a rise in incomes over the past ten years.

Indeed, the UK has this week been given the green light to ship British pork products to its second largest market outside of the EU, China.

US President Donald Trump has also said he wants US agriculture to have more access to British markets after the UK leaves the EU. He has previously criticised the EU's trading relationship with the US on food products.

AHDBs Senior Export Manager Jonathan Eckley said the levy board has seen some good progress in developing the Polish lamb market over the last three years, and sales are building steadily.

Over the last thirty years, Polish consumers have lost the taste and knowledge of lamb. Consumption is small right now but Polish people like the product with a growing number of supermarket chains stocking lamb and restaurants offering it on their menus.

We are delighted with the level of interest from participants on this trip and have a number of commercial developments in the offing, Mr Eckley said.
Indywood Film Carnival (IFC), an ambitious initiative of 10 billion US dollar Project Indywood, will be held from December 1 to 4 at Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad.

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the third edition of the carnival on December 1 at Princess Hall at 6 PM. Union Minister of State for Tourism Alphons Kannanthanam, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, Telangana Minister for Cinematography Talasani Srinivas Yadav will also attend.

The four day Indywood Film Carnival is expected to draw 50,000 footfalls, 5000 trade delegates, 500 plus investors, 300 exhibitors and 2500 plus talents from across the country. Renowned film stars, leading technicians and eminent personalities from various walks of life will also attend.

UAE-based NRI industrialist Sohan Roy spearheads Project Indywood which is being promoted by 2000 Indian billionaires and corporates. Sohan Roy who is also the Chairman and CEO of UAE-based Aries Group aims at initiating 10,000 new 4K projection multiplex screens, 100,000 2K/4K projection home cinemas, 8K/4Kfilm studios, 100 animation/VFX studios and film schools conforming to international standards.

The major categories of the carnival are - All Lights India International Film Festival (ALIIFF), Indywood Film Market (IFM), Indywood Talent Hunt (ITH) and Indywood Excellence Awards.

Billion Dollar Club

The inauguration of Billionaires Club will be the major highlight of the film carnival. More than 50 billionaires of Indian origin and over 500 investors from across the globe will attend the inauguration.

World of Cinema

All Lights India International Film Festival (ALIIFF) will screen 115 plus movies from 50 countries. The third edition of ALIIFF has received over 1000 film submissions from over 80 countries.

Among this, 115 plus films have been shortlisted for screening in six competition and 8 plus non-competition categories respectively.

Renowned filmmaker and Padma Bhushan recipient Shyam Benegal is chairing the event as the Festival Director.

ALIIFF 2017 will also showcase a retrospective of Shyam Benegal as a tribute to the master filmmaker.

Another highlight will be the trilogy of 11 Palanca Award Winner Filipino Director Jun Robles Lana. ALIIFF will also have a special section dedicated to animation and environmental movies this year.

Global Business

While Indywood Film Market (IFM) expo has been conceptualized to connect stakeholders of the film industry with technology providers, developers, service personnel, production agencies, distribution partners, theatre owners etc.

The expo consists of four categories - IFM Tech Expo (A dedicated section for the world's best film technologists to showcase their latest products), IFM Theatre Expo (Tailor-made venue for world's best theatre technology providers, audio-video equipment manufacturers, seating providers, and theatre owners to showcase their solutions and services), Cine Hut (A demonstration room holding multiple desktops for technologists, individuals and professional film makers to showcase their innovations and creative work to public) and IFM Market Screening (A state-of-the-art Indywood Homeplex equipped with latest acoustics, A-V features and recliner chairs.

Exclusive screening of films can be organized for sales agents, distributors, producers, festival programmers and directors).

Indywood Talent Hunt will be an international platfrom for youngsters to showcase their talents.

The competitions will be held in 22 categories including short film, music, dance, still photography, advertisement, educational video, documentary film, animation character, drama, poster designing, dubsmash, performance art, film quiz, online promotion, music album, DJ, children's short film, best reporter or journalists, RJ hunt, VJ hunt, film club and model hunt.

For more details, please visit:

Indywood Film Carnival - http://www.indywood.co.in/

Sohan Roy - http://sohanroy.com/

Indywood Film Market: http://www.ifm.co.in/

Indywood Talent Hunt: http://indywoodtalenthunt.com/

ALIIFF: http://aliiff.com/

For PR enquiries, contact

Mukesh M Nair

Media Head

9539009983

9846094947
When you hold a global market position like The Coca-Cola Company (KO -0.18%), with products in over 200 countries, it's imperative to learn to think small if you want to remain competitive.

In the first article in this series, discussing the company's investor day conference on Nov. 16, we reviewed CEO James Quincey's directive that the company accelerate its brand development by favoring small and frequent experimentation over grand, big-bet product launches.

During the conference, executives informed investors that to this end, Coca-Cola plans to export the venturing and emerging brands (VEB) model to its various geographic regions. Developed in North America, VEB acts as a venture-capitalist investor, marketing partner, and advisor to promising brands in which it often takes an initial minority interest.

Bolt-on acquisitions of more mature companies also form part of the plan. CFO Kathy Waller described how the purchase of AdeS, a Latin American-based producer of plant beverages, provided a rich opportunity for Coca-Cola. The company spent time after the acquisition, which closed in March of this year, studying AdeS's business and marketing approach, while also learning about the supply chain for a plant-based beverage business. Now it's making use of that learning to introduce AdeS into Europe, a process executives refer to as "lift and shift."

Sounding a note of caution, Coca-Cola's new chief growth officer, Francsisco Crespo, warned that where product iteration is more frequent, the risk of not achieving any growth at all often spikes. Thus, Coca-Cola vows to be more disciplined and structured in its approach to innovation, and it's introduced a narrative-based framework that can be used to evaluate every brand, from test-market proposition to iconic bellwether. Crespo provided the following image that introduces the concept:

This framework immediately identifies where a beverage is in its life cycle and lends itself to creating a narrative around the product's current status and aspirations. Using this storytelling approach should prove effective in helping the company succeed in its quest to shore up its legacy, market-dominating brands with newer, emerging drinks.

The evolution from explorer, to challenger, to leader is not just a tool for Coca-Cola's development and marketing teams. It also creates a vocabulary of sorts that can help investors understand where the company is investing its research, supply-chain, and marketing dollars, and what the potential for certain up-and-coming labels might be.

For example, the Honest Tea brand has progressed from a disruptive explorer in the U.S. to a highly segmented challenger that's being rolled out across Europe. It's on its way to being a leader brand, which, although Coca-Cola's team didn't explicitly state, probably means it has the potential to join the company's 21 "billion-dollar brands."

Creating a shorthand narrative for each incipient label will also help Coca-Cola more quickly kill off its "zombie" brands -- that is, explorer beverages that can't quite scale to the next level of challenger. As you can see from the graphic, there's a binary decision path that must be taken during the explorer phase: scale, or kill.

To fulfill Quincey's goal of having the organization act like a smaller, more nimble company, it's imperative for Coca-Cola to develop the operational discipline of feeding more resources to promising new beverages, while mercilessly shutting down those that have slim chances of making it to challenger status.

We'll dwell on discipline of a different sort in the final article in this series: the financial discipline Coca-Cola is exerting to achieve its strategic priorities through the year 2020.
If you have an interest in bank stocks, then you've probably thought a time or two about Bank of America (BAC -0.90%). The nation's second-biggest bank is one of the most widely held bank stocks in the country, and it has also been one of the best-performing stocks in the industry over the past few years.

Does this mean that investors should rush to add Bank of America stock to their portfolio before 2017 ends? From a fundamental perspective, I would argue that the answer to this is yes, as the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank has seen its efficiency and profitability improve consistently over the past two years in particular. At the same time, however, investors need to be cognizant of the broader market right now.

What I mean is that stocks in general are trading at a very high valuation. If you look at the valuation index created by Yale economist Robert Shiller, large-cap stocks have only traded at a higher valuation twice in the past. The first time was in 1929, just before the market crash that ignited the Great Depression. And the second time was in 1999, at the peak of the dot-com bubble.

Further complicating things is the fact that investors appear to be eerily complacent right now. An absence of activity and volatility in the fixed-income markets (bonds, currencies, commodities, etc.) has caused trading revenues at universal banks like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase (JPM 0.14%), and Goldman Sachs (GS -0.14%) to contract.

At JPMorgan Chase, third-quarter revenue from its fixed-income trading operations was 27% below the same quarter last year. Goldman Sachs saw a 26% drop. The decline at Bank of America wasn't as sharp, but it was still significant, with fixed-income trading revenue falling by 22% in the three months ended Sept. 30 compared to the year-ago quarter.

There is a similar sense of complacency in the equity markets. You can see this by looking at the S&P Volatility Index (^VIX), or VIX. This tracks expected volatility in the stock market over the next 30 days. It used to be unheard of for the VIX to come in below 10, but that's been closer to the general rule than the exception this year. This means that expected volatility among large-cap stocks like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs, among others, is roughly half its long-run average.

This is unusual given the extreme domestic and international political volatility that only seems to grow with each passing day. It's this lack of consonance between the markets and politics that has some of the world's best investors and highly reputed financiers concerned.

Ray Dalio, the founder and former co-CEO of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds with $150 billion in assets under management, wrote in June in a LinkedIn post:

Ordinarily, politics and economics influence each other with economics being more of a driver on politics than politics is on economics -- e.g., bad economic conditions normally lead to political changes -- and normally we don't need to pay much attention to politics to get the economics and markets right. However, there are times when politics becomes the most important driver. History has shown us that these times are when there is great economic, social, and political polarity within a country and there is the selection of populist leaders to fight for "the common man" in a battle against "the elites." These conditions exist now. The 1930s were the last time this happened in the developed world and globally.

Here's what Howard Marks, co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Group (OAK), had to say in a memo to clients in July:

[I]t's essential to take note when sentiment (and thus market behavior) crosses into too-bullish territory, even though we know rising trends may well roll on for some time, and thus that such warnings are often premature. I think it's better to turn cautious too soon (and thus perhaps underperform for a while) rather than too late, after the downslide has begun, making it hard to trim risk, achieve exits and cut losses. Since I'm convinced "they" are at it again -- engaging in willing risk-taking, funding risky deals and creating risky market conditions -- it's time for yet another cautionary memo. Too soon? I hope so; we'd rather make money for our clients in the next year or two than see the kind of bust that gives rise to bargains. (We all want there to be bargains, but no one's eager to endure the price declines that create them.) Since we never know when risky behavior will bring on a market correction, I'm going to issue a warning today rather than wait until one is upon us.

Here's Jeffrey Gundlach, co-founder and CEO of DoubleLine Capital, a fund with $110 billion in assets under management, in a Bloomberg interview in August:

If you're waiting for the catalyst to show itself, you're going to be selling at a lower price. This is not the time period where you say, 'I can buy anything and not worry about the risk of it.' The time to do that was 18 months ago.

And most recently, at the end of October, the head of JPMorgan Chase's investment bank, Daniel Pinto, went on record to say the nation's biggest bank by assets is anticipating a painful market correction in the near future, according to analysts at KBW.

The implication is that there is a significant amount of so-called systemic risk in the market right now. This is the type of risk that goes with owning any stock, not just Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, or Goldman Sachs. Consequently, despite that fact that Bank of America is almost certain to have a better 2018, maybe even its best year ever, investors would be smart to consider the state of the overall market before making any buying or selling decisions.
Theres a wedding in Tlik, and the 18-household village straddling the border with Turkey in Armenias Aragatsotn Province is getting ready to welcome the new bride who hails from a village near Etchmiadzin.

Weddings are a big deal in the village. One of the school teachers says they take place once every twenty years.

Three days ago, Vrezh brought two hundred liters of water by truck to the Yezidi village where residents must buy their drinking water. They havent had the luxury of potable water for 24 years.

Hetq first visited Tlik last December, and uncovered a small community seemingly lost in time.

Water for household use and for animals is pumped from the Akhouryan River and collected in a cistern. Its not the cleanest, but residents say they cant afford to buy water just to bathe with and wash their clothes.

People pay for the cistern water based on the number of animals they raise.

Khanoum Sloyan has a herd of 400 sheep and pays 13,000 drams a month for the water.

Sloyan and the family moved to Tlik seven years ago from the village of Araks in Armavir Province. While they had potable water there, leasing pastureland for grazing was expensive.

We relocated to Tlik for the animals. Pastureland back there was expensive. Its now 300,000 drams for one hectare, Sloyan says.

Theres a one-ton water tank in her yard. The woman hopes that her new home will one day have water.

Even the village school must purchase its water. A red pail full of water sits on a ping-pong table placed in the hall. The pupils tell me that they do not plan to leave Tlik, even if theres no water supply.

Tlik Mayor Slavik Saloyan says its not correct to say that the village hasnt had potable water since 1993. He claims that Tlik saw the last of its drinking water in 2006, and that it received water every three months before that.

This place had 100 households. If there hasnt been water since 1993, couldnt one of them have gotten up and demanded water? the mayor said.

The mayor says he doesnt know what happened to the pipe that used to transport potable water from the Talin system to Tlik.

Saloyan says that the Aragatsotn Provincial Governor has promised to resolve the water issue by 2018, by drilling an artesian well.

He doesnt believe that the lack of drinking water is causing many to leave the village.

Back then, we had the same conditions. People lived and created. Today, they dont. As a mayor, Ive done things with money out of my own pocket. Ive installed street lights. Not one resident ever came to see what I was doing, says Mayor Saloyan.

Tliks former mayor moved to Russia. When I ask Saloyan if hell ever move, he replies after a few seconds of silence. Its possible Ill go one day, who knows? My relatives are calling me from there. But I just dont like staying there.

The village also lacks natural gas, and a convenience store.

The mayor argues that it doesnt make sense to bring in gas for just 18 households. He believes that once the water issue is solved, the population will increase and that only then will it be feasible to bring in natural gas for cooking and heating.

To buy what they need, residents must now travel twelve kilometers to the village of Aragatsavan.

The Tlik Municipality employs four  the mayor, secretary, accountant, and club director. The villages annual budget is AMD 5 million ($10,350).

Built in 1947, the municipal building hasnt been renovated since.

The only items inside hinting at modernity are the leather chair and a new desk.

Opposite the mayors office are the locked doors of the library. Its been closed for the past eight years.

The club entrance is nearby. Its mostly used for village celebrations and remains locked otherwise. Colorful balloons can be seen through the glass at the top of the doors.

In reply to my inquiry, sent to the Aragatsotn Provincial Administration, about Tliks potable water issue and when it might be resolved, Governor Ashot Simonyan said that the best option was to drill a deep well. Money for the project would be discussed during the drafting of the 2018 estimated state budget.

Simonyan added that it had been suggested to the Tlik mayor to make the first move and launch a geological examination of the aquifer and to file for a water usage permit.

Photos: Hakob Poghosyan
Two UK companies have been given official approval to start exporting pig trotters to China in a deal worth as much as 20m/year.

Trotters have little or no value in the UK but in China they are a delicacy and retail for about 6/kg.

The deals with Karro Food Groups Cookstown plant in Northern Ireland and Cranswicks sites in Ballymena, Northern Ireland and Hull in East Yorkshire are estimated to be worth 15m-20m/year.

Inspections

Exports can begin immediately after the sites passed inspections by a delegation of Chinese government officials.

See also: Trading with China: Opportunities for livestock producers

The green light follows years of negotiation, inspection and administration by a number of UK bodies including, the levy board AHDB and the UKs food and drink counsellor in Beijing, who is jointly employed by the AHDB and Defra.

AHDB strategy director for pork Mick Sloyan said the inspections on these three plants were made in April 2015 which indicated how protracted the negotiation process had been.

This approval is an important development for us because there is no better example of added value than trotters. It is a real boost for the pig sector, Mr Sloyan said.

Export approval

The next steps are to secure export approval for two other sites run by Karro and Cranswick along with a further two UK plants owned by processor Tulip.

Phil Hadley AHDB international market development director said: I am delighted that we have secured this latest opportunity in what has been a long-term project involving collaboration across industry and government.

Dr Hadley said officials from Defra, Food Standards Agency, Animal & Plant Health Agency and the UK Export Certification partnership had been involved in securing the deal to ensure the plants met the Chinese governments standards on animal health and hygiene.

China has been highlighted by the AHDB as a very high potential market for all UK pigmeat exports.

It is already the UKs biggest customer outside the EU, importing 40,000t of pork and 36,000t of offal in 2016.
The Third Official Ceremony of the Welcome to Georgia! National Tourism Awards - GeorgianJournal
EU Council President says Georgia is reliable and exemplary partner of EU - GeorgianJournal
Zara Amatuni, Head of Communications and Prevention Programs of the International Committee of the Red Cross Yerevan office, told Hetq that ICRC is ready to facilitate the transfer of the body of an Azerbaijani soldier found yesterday near an Armenian military position to Azerbaijan once an agreement has been reached by officials from the two sides.

Earlier, Armenias Ministry of Defense had contacted the ICRC office for assistance in transferring the body to Azerbaijan.

Amatuni said she could neither deny or confirm whether the ICRC office in Baku had contacted its sister office in Yerevan on the transfer.
You can soon rent a bike via Yulu Bikes app News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu

The bike-sharing startups are pretty common in China and it looks like this trend is catching up in India as well. Given the increase in traffic day by day, bike-sharing has progressed to become one of the fastest growing transportation economies right now.

Taking advantage of the same, InMobi Co-founder Amit Gupta along with other cofounders is gearing up to launch a new startup called Yulu Bikes that will provide IoT-based bicycle sharing in order to resolve the last-mile connectivity. The operations of Yulu Bikes will debut in Bengaluru in the coming weeks, claims a Techcrunch report. Similar to the cab-hailing services, this one will also let commuters rent a bike via the Yulu Bikes app.

The report clearly reveals the intention of Yulu to de-congest urban traffic by offering an affordable, scalable, clean and efficient solution for short distance commutes.

Initially, Yulu will start with a few hundred bicycles and interested users can book the same through the Android or iOS app. The bikes can be unlocked using QR codes. The service will charge riders for every 30 minutes of use. Right now, it is said that the service will be working with the local government in order to get dedicated lanes for bikes or bicycles and safe parking space as well.

Yulu is claimed to be the most advanced bike sharing solution providing beautiful and functional bicycles powered by GPS, GPRS and Bluetooth. The riders can use the app to both rent and return the bikes from the major locations in Bengaluru. The payments can be hassle-free and secure via a digital wallet but the exact payment service that Yulu will use remains to be unknown for now.

In order to rent a bike via the Yulu Bikes app, riders need to first locate a bike using GPS, then scan the QR code to unlock it, ride it and park the bike at the end of the ride. Whenever the bike is parked and locked, then Yulu bills the rider and deducts the specific money from the digital wallet.

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Samsung Pay now supports Bharat QR-code UPI payments in India News oi -Samden Sherpa Apart from Bharat QR code support, Samsung Pay app will now be compatible also.

Earlier this year, Samsung announced that its mobile wallets Samsung Pay was successfully integrated with Unified Payments Interface. While the aim has always been to make payments easier, Samsung Pay app has now got a new update. There is a new feature that allows Samsung Pay to scan Bharat QR codes to make easy UPI payments at merchants.

Well, it only means that Samsung Pay users will now be able to use their smartphones to pay at merchants that support UPI payment system by scanning Bharat QR code. Merchants will be getting barcodes through the government's Bharat QR Code initiative.

However, if you still haven't heard of UPI then broadly know as Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India facilitating inter-bank transactions. The interface is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and works by instantly transferring funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform. UPI is built over Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) for transferring funds. Being a digital payment system it is available 24X7 and across public holidays.

Apart from Bharat QR code support, Samsung Pay app will now be compatible with Android O thanks to the latest update.

Currently, the update seems to be rolled out in phases and therefore the new feature is not visible in the latest Samsung Pay version on Google Play. Users might have to wait for few more days for a new update to reach app and their devices.

Meanwhile, with digital payments slowing picking up the pace in the country, Samsung's mobile payments service Samsung Pay has now crossed 1 million users in over a month. The South Korean giant launched Samsung Pay in the country in March 2017 and India is currently in the top three countries among the 20 nations using Samsung Pay just behind South Korea and Russia.

Source

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Today, in Brussels, the Republic of Armenia and the European Union concluded the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, within the framework of the Eastern Partnership Summit.

The Agreement was signed by Edward Nalbandian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, and Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, in the presence of Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, and Serzh Sargsyan, President of Armenia.

In his speech following the signature, Nalbandian called this agreement a joint achievement for the parties, leading to the strengthening of political dialogue, broadening of economic and sectoral cooperation, creating a framework for new opportunities in trade and investments, and for increased mobility for the benefit of Armenian citizens.

Nalbandian also reaffirmed its importance in supporting the peaceful setting of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, thus joining the approaches and efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Photo (from left): Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Armenian Foreign Minister Nalbandian, Federica Mogherini, Donald Tusk.
Hezbollah parliamentary group: Hariri's return 'positive'

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 05:47PM

The parliamentary group of the Hezbollah resistance movement has welcomed Prime Minister Saad Hariri's return to Lebanon, who recently stepped back from his surprise resignation in Saudi Arabia.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc voiced its "great satisfaction" with recent political developments in Lebanon, adding that Hariri's latest "positive statements" signaled a possible return to normalcy in the country.

The recent developments were "the result of the adherence of the Lebanese to their unity, sovereignty, independence and national dignity," in tandem with "their rejection of any foreign dictates," the bloc said.

It further hailed the "outstanding management of President Michel Aoun" and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri during the fresh political crisis in Lebanon.

Hariri stunned Lebanon by announcing his resignation in a live television broadcast from Saudi Arabia on November 4.

Senior sources close to Hariri and top Lebanese officials said Saudi Arabia had coerced Hariri into stepping down and put him under house arrest.

The development was followed by a steep escalation in Saudi statements, accusing the Lebanese government of declaring war on the kingdom.

Aoun refused to accept Hariri's resignation and said that the premier was being detained in Saudi Arabia against his will.

On November 22, Hariri returned to Lebanon after a nearly three-week absence, emphasizing that he had accepted Aoun's request to suspend his resignation.

Put country first: PM to Lebanese

Separately on Thursday, Hariri described the latest turmoil as "a wake-up call" for the Lebanese people to put their country ahead of regional issues.

"The period that passed was perhaps like a wake-up call for all of us to look for Lebanon's interests rather than looking at problems around us," Hariri said at the annual Arab Banking Conference in the capital, Beirut.

Stability Lebanon's top concern

He also noted that stability was Lebanon's "primary concern" and thus his government would focus on the issue.

The prime minister further said that his government was going to prioritize Lebanon's interests over regional challenges.

"The problems around us are important, but Lebanon is more important," he said.

Hariri stressed the need for Lebanon to stay out of regional conflicts "not just with words but with action as well" and return to the official policy of "disassociation" or neutrality.

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Daesh beheads 15 members in Afghanistan after infighting

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 02:40PM

The Daesh terrorist group has beheaded at least 15 of its own members in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar, local officials say.

Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial governor's spokesman, said on Thursday that the Takfiri militants were executed following an infighting among them in the Achin district of the province.

Daesh has taken advantage of the ongoing chaos in Afghanistan to establish a foothold in the country and recruited some of its fighters from among Taliban defectors. As a result, the Taliban and Daesh have frequently fought each other in Nangarhar and elsewhere.

According to Afghan intelligence documents, security officials believe Daesh is present in nine provinces, from Nangarhar and Kunar in the east to Jawzjan, Faryab and Badakhshan in the north and Ghor in the central west.

The terrorist outfit, which has become notorious for its brutality, began establishing a notable presence in Afghanistan almost a year after making sweeping land grabs in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

It has mostly been populating the eastern province of Nangarhar, from where it has carried out high-profile brutal attacks against major population centers in the Central Asian country.

Former President Hamid Karzai recently said that the US was colluding with Daesh in Afghanistan and allowing the Takfiri group to flourish in the war-stricken country.

Bombing in Jalalabad

On Thursday, a bomb attack killed eight people and wounded 17 others in Nangarhar's provincial capital of Jalalabad.

According to Khogyani, the bomber approached a crowd who were demonstrating in support of a local police commander and calling for his reinstatement after his dismissal.

"Unfortunately, eight people were killed, all of them civilians," the provincial spokesman said. A further 15 people, including children, were wounded in the explosion.

Najib Kamawal, the provincial health director, said some of those wounded were in serious condition. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack.

Taliban militants were removed from power following the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan, but they have stepped up activities in recent months, attempting to overrun several regions.

During the past 16 years, the militants have been conducting terrorist attacks across the country, killing and displacing civilians. Many parts of Afghanistan remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of foreign troops.

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Zimbabwe's Mugabe granted immunity from prosecution: Sources

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 02:26PM

Zimbabwe's former leader Robert Mugabe has been given immunity to stay in the country as he bowed to increasing pressures and quit office after nearly four decades in power.

Sources close to the recent negotiations with Mugabe that led to his resignation said Thursday that he had been given immunity from potential prosecution and assured that his safety would be protected.

The 93-year-old former president had reportedly asked for assurances to stay in Zimbabwe and die there.

"For him it was very important that he be guaranteed security to stay in the country ... although that will not stop him from traveling abroad when he wants to or has to," said a government source about discussions between negotiators and Mugabe in recent days.

"It was very emotional for him and he was forceful about it," said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another source said Mugabe had received assurances that his wife, Grace, and other members of his family, would be protected following his resignation.

"The outgoing president is obviously aware of the public hostility to his wife, the anger in some circles about the manner in which she conducted herself," said the source, adding, "In that regard, it became necessary to also assure him that his whole family, including the wife, would be safe and secure."

The political standoff that began earlier this month in Zimbabwe and finally led to Mugabe's ouster after 37 years in power was triggered by a battle to succeed him that involved his wife.

The army put Mugabe under house arrest after he sacked his long-time deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa as fears grew that the president was engineering a path for his wife to succeed him. Mugabe refused to resign for almost a week, even after the ruling Zanu-PF party sacked him.

However, on Tuesday Mugabe sent a letter to the country's parliament, which had began an impeachment motion against him, and announced his resignation.

Mnangagwa, who had fled Zimbabwe out of fear for his life, returned to the country the same day to be nominated as new Zanu-PF leader. Parliament had announced that Mnangagwa would be sworn in as Zimbabwe's new president on Friday.

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Armenian Protesters Propose Students Serve In Military While In School

Ruzanna Stepanian November 23, 2017

Armenian draft protesters proposed that students be allowed to serve in the military for several months a year while studying in universities as a way of carrying out Armenia's new military draft system.

The proposal was presented during a roundtable discussion on November 22 that parliament members and Armenian defense and education officials agreed to hold with the protesters in exchange for their halting street protests against the draft last week.

David Petrosian, one of the leaders of the "For Science Development" protest group that spearheaded weeklong rallies and a boycott of classes at Yerevan State University and other schools, suggested to the roundtable that his plan was a way of "bringing the army into the university."

Petrosian's plan would apply to students pursuing bachelor's degrees as well as masters degrees at Armenian universities.

He said students would be able to fit in about four months of military service during each school year, scheduling two separate two-month periods of service.

"This allows us not to take the university to the army, but to bring the army into the university," he said.

Petrosian argued that under his plan, "the principle of the continuity of students' education will not be violated, and at the same time students will participate in the service."

The proposal was in response to legislation curbing student deferments of the military draft that was approved by the Armenian National Assembly on November 15 and will become law upon signing by President Serzh Sarkisian.

Under the legislation, to get a draft deferment, all male students must sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense and agree to serve three years in the military after completing their studies. Otherwise, the young men will be drafted to serve for two years once they turn 18.

The new restrictions on student deferments were sought by the Armenian Ministry of Defense, which argues they are needed to close a key loophole used to avoid compulsory military service as well as to ensure all young men are treated equally.

The student protesters and other critics of the law say it will discourage students from pursuing scientific careers and will eventually harm the development of science in the country.

Defense officials and lawmakers at the roundtable seemed open to the Petrosian plan as a way of easing the problems raised by students with the new system.

Deputy Defense Minister Artak Zakarian noted that Petrosian's proposal is similar to a system now used in Switzerland, though he added that is a country where there is no threat of war.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov, who represented the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, said "the discussion has been a successful one, because we hear each other, because from both sides there are common approaches and the desire to give a more comprehensive and full solution to the problem" raised by students.

Sharmazanov suggested that the government could take the students' ideas into account in carrying out the new law.

"The ball is in the government's court now," he said. "Let's start to work with the government together to make your recommendations documented so that they can be reflected in government decisions and sub-legislative acts. This is my suggestion."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/armenian-protesters-propose-students-serve -military-draft-duty-while-studying/28871146.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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NATO Chief, Azerbaijani President Discuss Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

RFE/RL November 23, 2017

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev discussed the conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in Brussels on November 23, with Aliyev reiterating Baku's harsh criticism of neighboring Armenia in the decades-long standoff.

Addressing reporters at NATO headquarters following the talks, Stoltenberg called the conflict a "matter of concern" for the Western military alliance and urged the two sides to "avoid any new escalation."

Standing next to Stoltenberg, Aliyev said the situation surrounding the breakaway region was "not changing, unfortunately," and accused Armenia of seeking "to keep the status quo."

Armenia-backed separatists seized control of mainly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people. Diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict have brought little progress.

Internationally mediated negotiations with the involvement of the OSCE's so-called Minsk Group, which is co-chaired by France, Russia, and the United States, have failed to result in a resolution.

'Renewed Dialogue'

The talks between Stoltenberg and Aliyev were held a day after the de facto military authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said three of its fighters were killed and one seriously wounded in a November 21 land-mine explosion near the line of contact separating the combatant sides.

Stoltenberg said he was encouraged by "renewed dialogue" between Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, who held talks in Geneva last month that the two sides called "constructive."

Aliyev, who slammed Armenia for what he called a policy of "ethnic cleansing" in the region, was set to meet officials from all 29 NATO member states later on November 23, Stoltenberg said.

Both Aliyev and Sarkisian are slated to meet EU leaders at the Eastern Partnership summit in the Belgian capital on November 24.

Addressing the UN General Assembly in September, Sarkisian accused Azerbaijan of committing "a number of war crimes" against civilians and "prisoners of war" in 2016.

He called on Baku to "recognize and respect the right of the people" of Nagorno-Karabakh to decide their "own future through a free expression of will."

With reporting by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani and Armenian services

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/nato-stoltenberg-aliyev -karabakh-brussels/28871743.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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EU Eyes Closer Ties With Armenia Amid Tensions Over Brussels Summit Declaration

Rikard Jozwiak November 23, 2017

BRUSSELS -- The leaders of the European Union and the six Eastern Partnership countries will meet in Brussels on November 24 in an effort to deepen ties between the EU and the former Soviet republics.

The summit's main event will likely be the signing of an enhanced EU partnership deal with Armenia. That pact, however, omits free trade and is less ambitious than the association agreements secured by Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Like those three countries, Armenia previously negotiated an EU Association Agreement. But Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian walked away from the deal in 2013 under pressure from Russia.

Armenia later joined the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

The EU launched the Eastern Partnership in 2009 to promote economic integration and European values in six eastern European and South Caucasus countries.

The run-up to this year's summit has otherwise been dominated by speculation about whether authoritarian Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka would show up. Minsk said on November 21 that Foreign Minister Uladzimer Makei would lead its delegation.

In October, EU sources told RFE/RL that Lukashenka had received an invitation "without restrictions," just like the leaders of the other five Eastern Partnership states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

This was a U-turn compared to the previous four summits, when he was blocked after being hit with EU sanctions following a violent crackdown on protesters after the Belarusian presidential elections in 2010.

Most of the sanctions, including those on Lukashenka, were lifted in February 2016.

Conflicting Statements

This year's summit in Brussels could also see clashes over the gathering's final declaration, according to EU diplomats familiar with the talks.

One paragraph concerning conflicts in the region has been left open after both Armenia and Azerbaijan wanted specific, but conflicting, statements on the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a draft text seen by RFE/RL.

The current text also fails to mention the war between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.

"The summit participants call for renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region on the basis of the principles and norms of international law," it reads.

It adds that "the resolution of the conflicts, building trust and good neighborly relations are essential to economic and social development and cooperation."

EU diplomats told RFE/RL that they wanted neutral wording in the statement and to omit any mention of specific conflicts in the Eastern Partnership countries, citing squabbles between Baku and Yerevan over the 2015 declaration that delayed the summit by several hours.

Ukraine is also likely to make a final push to secure more positive wording concerning its prospects of eventually joining the EU.

The current draft language on that topic is identical to that of the previous summit, stating that "the summit participants acknowledge the European aspirations and European choice of the partners concerned, as stated in the association agreements."

The text references a December 2016 decision by EU heads of state that included a legally binding supplement to its association agreement underscoring that Brussels will not give Kyiv the right to automatic EU membership or guarantee any EU military aid for Ukraine.

The addendum allowed the Netherlands to finally ratify the Ukraine Association Agreement earlier this year despite the fact that 61 percent of Dutch voters disapproved of the deal in a citizen-driven, nonbinding referendum held in April 2016.

The draft declaration also outlines some future EU strategies in the Eastern Partnership countries.

These include "facilitating access to local currency lending" for local small and medium-sized enterprises, supporting "increased access to high-speed broadband," and "progressing towards reduced roaming tariffs among the partner countries."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-eastern- partnership-armenia-azerbaijan-belarus-ukraine- georgia-moldova/28872395.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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Who is Zimbabwe's President-to-Be Emmerson 'Crocodile' Mnangagwa

Sputnik News

19:43 23.11.2017(updated 19:53 23.11.2017)

Zimbabwean Former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa will become the country's new president, with the swearing-in ceremony set to take place on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Mnangagwa will succeed Robert Mugabe, who has been leading Zimbabwe for over 30 years as both president and prime minister, and who was recently forced to resign.

He will serve as the country's interim president until late August 2018, when Mugabe's term was set to expire and after that, the people of Zimbabwe are set to elect their next leader.

Nicknamed 'Crocodile'

Mnangagwa, a relatively "young" Zimbabwean politician, is 75 years old. He is a member of the largest sub-ethnic group of the Shona-Karanga nation who sided with Mugabe during the guerrilla war against the white minority government of Ian Smith. In the 1960s, he was a member of the Crocodile Gang, a special weapons, tactics, and sabotage team that operated in eastern Rhodesia.

Vladimir Shubin, a chief research associate with the Russian Academy of Sciences' Africa Institute and a Valdai Club expert, told Sputnik that Mnangagwa owed his nickname to the name of the Crocodile Gang. The team was engaged in delivering weapons to guerrilla units operating in South Rhodesia and also provided them with militants.

"I do not know the details of Zimbabwean mythology, but a crocodile is a very positive nickname in many African countries. The crocodile plays the same role as the bear or the lion in Russia. Yes, Mnangagwa was a member of the so-called Crocodile Gang whose militants staged attacks and committed violence. I cannot say whether their actions were justified or not," Shubin noted.

Turbulent Past

Mnangagwa's biography is full of interesting facts. For instance, he was arrested for helping derail a train and sentenced to death, however, later the death penalty was commuted to a ten-year prison sentence because he was less than 21 years old at that time.

He studied in prison and received a bachelor's degree in law from London University. In 1973-1974, he studied at the University of Zambia. In 1977, Mnangagwa was elected to the top leadership of the ZANU.

Mnangagwa served as security minister in the first government of independent Zimbabwe and headed the Central Intelligence Organization, the country's main secret service. He later served as the minister of justice, the minister of finance, the speaker of the parliament's lower house and the defense minister.

In 2014, Mnangagwa was appointed first vice president of Zimbabwe and oversaw defense and state security issues, justice matters, and the Central Bank's activities. As Mugabe's loyal supporter, he was seen as the most likely successor to the aging head of state.

Dismissal

However, Mnangagwa's political career was threatened after he had become first vice president as Mugabe's wife Grace who also wanted to become the country's new leader urged her husband to dismiss the official, claiming that he was planning to stage a coup. On November 6, Mugabe sacked Mnangagwa, with the latter leaving the country, fearing for his life and his family's safety.

Mnangagwa's resignation outraged the army's high command who believed that Grace Mugabe was not the best person to succeed her husband. Last week, the country's military deployed armored vehicles to the Zimbabwean capital city of Harare, confining Mugabe, 93, to his house, while the country's ruling party, Zimbabwean African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), urged the leader to step down. After Mugabe's failure to meet the ruling party's ultimatum to resign, it decided to begin impeachment proceedings, with the Zimbabwean parliament's speaker announcing Mugabe's resignation the following day.

According to Shubin, Mugabe's wife was indeed seeking to grab power, and there was no external influence on the events in the country.

"I do not think there was any serious foreign influence on Zimbabwean developments. This is not to mention the fact that, all these years, Western countries demonized Mugabe and created problems for the country's development. This was a domestic affair of the ZANU-PF because the opposition did not play any substantial role in the country," Shubin said.

Interim President

On Tuesday, Speaker of the country's National Assembly (parliament) Jacob Mudenda said that the country's ruling party ZANU-PF had nominated Mnangagwa for president and that his inauguration was set for Friday.

Shubin explained that under the Constitution of Zimbabwe, a party that had the majority of seats in parliament had the right to appoint its own president until the incumbent president's term expired.

"Participants in the Central Committee's plenary meeting have already decided to appoint Mnangagwa, and he can serve as president until August 2018 when the next presidential elections are to be held," Shubin said.

He expressed hope that the attitude of Western countries toward Zimbabwe would improve after Mugabe's resignation.

"The situation should become more stable, and the West should scale down its sanctions against Zimbabwe. By the way, the European Union has already lifted sanctions, except those against Mugabe and his wife. The United States has not lifted sanctions because it does not have any major economic interests there. And Europe has many interests, especially in the diamond industry," he added.

However, Mnangagwa remains on the US sanctions list, Shubin pointed out.

Bring Democracy to Zimbabwe

According to Democratic Assembly for Restoration and Empowerment (DARE) Head of Communications Clemence Tauya Tabatapashi Nhliziyo, Emmerson Mnangagwa should start democratic reforms and rebuild Zimbabwe's economy after becoming president.

"Most importantly we expect Mnangagwa to curb corruption. Measures and stiffer penalties should be put in place to curb corruption. We expect all corrupt officials to be prosecuted and stiffer penalties given so as to deter corruption," Nhliziyo said.

Other expectations that DARE has for Mnangagwa's policy when he takes the office of president are electoral reforms to enable free and fair elections in 2018, and more cooperation with the international community to increase the flow of foreign investment into the country.

 Sputnik

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Kabul Needs Both US, Russian Military Equipment  President's Adviser

Sputnik News

14:57 23.11.2017(updated 16:35 23.11.2017)

Previously, the Afghan acting defense minister said that Kabul no longer needed Russian helicopters, citing deliveries by NATO allies, prompting a response from Moscow.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Afghan presidential national security adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar has stated that Kabul is not planning to completely give up on the Mi-17 helicopters and will use military equipment of both Russia and the United States.

According to the presidential adviser, in this case cooperation with one side does not contradict cooperation with another.

"I think that such a dual system will be the best option for Afghanistan. We hope that cooperation on Afghanistan will be restored and tensions will be reduced. It depends on both sides, all sides should work constructively. We have a common enemy and common challenge, which we cannot overcome individually," Atmar said.

According to the official, the United States has spent "hundreds of millions dollars" on the purchase of Russian Mi-17 helicopters for Afghanistan, which has become a large contribution to the combat capabilities of the Afghan forces.

"It was a wonderful example of cooperation between Russia and the United States on Afghanistan. We hope that such cooperation will be restored between the most important partners," Atmar said.

The situation has also been commented on by the Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second Asian Department Zamir Kabulov, who said that Moscow considers the decision of the US and NATO leadership to fully replace Russian armaments and equipment in Afghanistan with pieces produced in Western countries completely counterproductive.

"Such steps undermine the combat capabilities of the Afghan national security forces and endanger our common goal  stabilization of the situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan," Kabulov, who also serves as the Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan, added.

Foreign Troop Withdrawal Should Not Be Condition for Peace Talks

However, the diplomat stressed that the Russian agencies and government bodies are working on several requests from the Afghan side on defense industry cooperation, citing the November 2016 intergovernmental agreement on defense industry assistance to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which stipulates the legislative basis for Russian assistance in arming and equipping the Afghan armed forces.

"We advocate for equitable cooperation and coordination of approaches based on the national interests of all countries of the region without exception, and we are open to cooperation with those regional and extraregional actors, who are sincerely interested in ensuring stability in Afghanistan and who are not attempting to achieve their own agenda in this country," according to Kabulov.

Moreover, the diplomat reiterated Moscow's commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan.

"Russia is sincerely interested in the earliest return to normalcy for the people of Afghanistan. We believe that the launch of a national reconciliation process should be the focus of the settlement in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. To that end, Russia has initiated consultations on Afghanistan in Moscow," Kabulov said.

Commenting on cooperation with Russia on the fight against terrorism, Afghan presidential national security adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar said that Afghanistan offered to hold a meeting of the heads of intelligence services of Russia and Central Asian countries.

According to Atmar, withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan should not be a preliminary condition for launching the peace talks, but rather be the aim of these talks.

"We estimate that there are nearly 3,000-4,000 people. They are first of all recruits and criminals from Pakistan, there are also the Afghan nationals, but mainly Daesh in Afghanistan comprises the representatives of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan [terrorist group, banned in Russia], which declared their allegiance to Daesh," the Afghan official said commenting on the total number of Daesh militants in Afghanistan.

Kabul Offers Russia, West to Create Mission to Find Facts of Support for Taliban

Kabul has no evidence that Russia is supporting the Taliban terrorist group, Atmar said adding that Kabul expects Russia to use its contacts with Taliban to persuade them to sit down at the negotiating table, Atmar told journalists.

In August, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson directly accused Russia of supplying weapons to the Taliban. However, in October, Pentagon chief James Mattis said that the United States had seen some evidence of Russia's support for Taliban, but it could not determine the nature of such support, because it was sure that this did not correspond to Russia's national interests. Zamir Kabulov called such claims irresponsible and groundless, and said that Russia had not provided either military, or financial assistance to the outlawed group.

Kabul has offered Russia, the Western and Central Asian countries to establish mission to reveal facts for the support of Taliban movement, it can be set up under the UN auspices, Mohammad Hanif Atmar said.

According to the official, Afghanistan maintained friendly relations with "the United States, NATO, the West, but also with Russia, China, Central Asia, India and Iran."

"The format of such mission will be discussed, but its idea is that all the partners should seek to find out the truth together. It may be within the United Nations. This proposal has been praised by many people, but we have not reached agreement on the issue," Atmar said.

He noted that Kabul suggested that "Afghanistan will become a place for cooperation, not conflicts."

 Sputnik

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Hopes Fading as Search for Missing Argentine Sub Enters Second Week

Sputnik News

14:03 23.11.2017(updated 14:04 23.11.2017)

With hopes of finding the Argentine submarine that went missing in the South Atlantic a week ago beginning to fade, the families of the 44 crew members are increasingly frustrated with the Navy's lagging rescue efforts, British media reported.

The Navy explains away the delay in the search for the missing sub by a formal 48-hour waiting period preceding the start of search efforts for submarines lost at sea, The Guardian wrote.

According to media reports, Defense Minister Oscar Aguad only learned from newspapers on Saturday that the Navy had lost contact with the 34-year-old San Juan boat, which was in the middle of a 10-day journey from the Argentinian port of Ushuaia to the naval base in Mar del Plata.

Argentine Navy spokesman said on Tuesday that the search for the missing sub had entered a critical phase because her crew's oxygen could run out by Wednesday.

If the sub doesn't surface, oxygen might last only seven days he said, adding that the San Juan was submerged when the Navy last made contact with it last week.

Shortly before that, the submarine's captain reported it had experienced a "short circuit," and was told to change course and return to base.

Meanwhile, ships and aircraft from more than a dozen countries have been scouring the ocean for the missing sub on the surface and underwater.

Argentina has accepted help from Russia with President Mauricio Macri saying that President Vladimir Putin had phoned him with an offer to deploy a survey vessel and crew with experience in similar operations, the BBC reported.

The UK Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday that a RAF plane packed with tons of rescue equipment was on the way to Argentina and that a Royal Navy ice patrol ship had arrived on Sunday to the submarine's last known location and was using its onboard sonar in the ongoing search for the San Juan.

 Sputnik

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Suicide Bomber Kills 8 in Eastern Afghanistan

By Ayaz Gul November 23, 2017

A suicide blast in eastern Afghanistan killed at least 8 people Thursday and wounded 16 others.

Officials said the explosion in Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, ripped through a crowd outside the residence of a former district police commander.

A provincial government spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani, said the victims were supporters of the commander and demanded his reinstatement.

Islamic State, through its propaganda media wing of Amaq, took credit for the bombing, saying it killed and wounded more than 50 people.

The attack came hours after Khogyani confirmed to VOA that self-proclaimed Islamic State members had beheaded 15 of their own fighters in Nangarhar's volatile Achin district.

He said the slaying took place overnight in the remote Momand Dara area and the decapitated corpses could still be seen lying there. Khogyani suggested the incident was the outcome of "internal rifts."

Afghan media reports said the men were murdered for intending to quit IS and join a government peace process.

IS militants have their strongholds in Achin and adjoining Afghan districts, and the terrorist locations have come under routine attacks by Afghan security forces backed by U.S. airpower. The terrorist group has not yet offered any comments about the incident.

Meanwhile, Afghan officials and Georgia's Defense Ministry have confirmed three Georgian soldiers were wounded when their convoy was hit by a suicide bomber near the Bagram airfield north of Kabul.

The bombing of a convoy of NATO-led Resolute Support mission took place Wednesday evening in the Qarabagh district just 20 kilometers from Bagram, the largest U.S.-run military base in the country.

The soldiers were receiving medical treatment at the base, and their condition was "stable and their life is not under threat," according to the Georgian ministry.

The Afghan government in a statement expressed its "deepest sympathy to the government and family members" of Georgia's security personnel.

With 885 troops, Georgia is the largest non-NATO contributor to the military mission tasked to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces. Georgia has lost 32 soldiers, and about 280 others have been wounded in conflict-related incidents in Afghanistan since joining the U.S.-led military mission in 2001.

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Search Continues for Missing Sailors After US Navy Plane Crashes in Western Pacific

By Ken Bredemeier November 23, 2017

Search and rescue operations continued Thursday for three sailors still missing after a U.S. Navy transport plane crashed Wednesday into the western Pacific Ocean.

The Navy said the twin-propeller C2-A Greyhound aircraft plummeted into the sea about 925 kilometers (575 miles) southeast of Okinawa while it was on a routine mission taking passengers and cargo from a U.S. base in Japan to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.

It said eight of the 11 people aboard were rescued about 40 minutes later and taken to the Reagan where they were reported in good condition.

The Navy said several U.S. and Japanese naval ships and aircraft have, so far, covered more than 320 nautical miles in their search for the missing.

There was no immediate explanation for the crash, and the Navy said the incident is being investigated.

Military exercises

U.S. President Donald Trump, at his oceanfront Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the Thanksgiving weekend holiday, said via Twitter that he is monitoring the situation.

"Prayers for all involved," he said.

The Reagan was operating in the Philippine Sea as part of joint exercises with Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force, part of 10 days of training designed to increase defensive readiness and interoperability in air and sea maneuvers between the two countries.

More than 14,000 U.S. personnel are participating in the drills, which also include the guided-missile destroyers USS Stethem, USS Chafee and USS Mustin, and a maritime patrol and reconnaissance squadron.

Fifth Navy incident this year

Wednesday's crash was the fifth major Navy incident in Asian waters this year.

Two fatal accidents left 17 sailors dead and prompted the Defense Department to remove of eight top Navy officers from their posts, including the 7th Fleet commander.

The destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker in August off Singapore, leaving 10 U.S. sailors dead and five injured. The USS Fitzgerald, another destroyer, collided with a container ship in waters off Japan in June, killing seven sailors.

After investigations, the Navy concluded the collisions were avoidable, resulting from widespread failures by commanders and crew members, who did not recognize and respond quickly to the emergencies as they unfolded. The Navy has called for improved training, and increasing sleep and stress management for sailors.

Separately, in January, the USS Antietam ran aground near Yosuka, Japan, and the USS Lake Champlain collided with a South Korean fishing vessel in May.

Carla Babb contributed to this report.

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Mnangagwa Back in Zimbabwe Ahead of Friday Swearing-In

By Sebastian Mhofu November 23, 2017

Zimbabwe's incoming president returned to the country Wednesday to loud cheers after spending about two weeks in exile following his dismissal by then-President Robert Mugabe. Emmerson Mnangagwa will be sworn in this Friday.

In a speech that lasted fewer than 15 minutes, the 71-year-old leader adopted a reconciliatory tone.

"Today we are witnessing the unfolding of a new unfolding democracy. I appeal to all genuine Zimbabweans to come; we work together," he said. " No one is more important than the other. We are all Zimbabweans. We want to grow our economy. We want peace in our country. We want jobs. Jobs. Jobs."

Mnangagwa said he would reach out to the West and other African countries to help the battered economy recover.

Mnangagwa becomes Zimbabwe's second leader in 37 years following Mugabe's resignation on Tuesday amid pressure from the army and street protests.

Deprose Muchena, the director of Amnesty International in southern Africa, said he hoped Mnangagwa - a former longtime Mugabe ally - would improve Zimbabwe's human rights record.

"The resignation of President Mugabe signals a tragic end to a long reign of both rule and misrule," Muchena noted. "Zimbabweans have an opportunity now to chart a new path in which a new society can be built based fundamentally on accountable governance, a complete rejection of impunity, a systematic compliance with human rights standards and ensuring that peaceful co-existence of varied political opinion is allowed, including a vibrant media."

Muchena also said it is hoped the new leadership will accurately read the mood of the population and see "the tolerance levels for autocratic leadership and repression will be very low."

On several occasions, rights groups said Mugabe's government was disregarding human rights. Now it remains to be seen if Zimbabweans are entering a new era under Mnangagwa.

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Sources: Mugabe and Wife Granted Immunity

By VOA News November 23, 2017

Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace Mugabe have been granted immunity from prosecution.

An official in the ruling ZANU-PF party and a Harare journalist confirmed the development to VOA's Zimbabwe service on Thursday.

Mugabe has been negotiating terms of his retirement with Zimbabwean generals and political leaders who forced him to step down Tuesday after 37 years in power.

The military took over state institutions after Mugabe, who is 93, fired vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa on November 5 and suggested he would appoint his much younger wife to the post.

Human rights groups have accused Mugabe of rigging elections, allowing large-scale corruption and being responsible for the torture and killing of thousands of political opponents during his long rule.

Mnangagwa's return

Mnangagwa returned to Zimbabwe Wednesday after spending about two weeks in exile. The speaker of parliament says Mnangagwa will be sworn in as the country's new president on Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has urged Zimbabwe's new leaders to ensure the country holds free and fair elections. "The people of Zimbabwe must choose their own leaders," he said Tuesday.

Some Zimbabweans told VOA they have concerns about Mnangagwa, who is known as "The Crocodile" and was a close ally of Mugabe for decades. They are concerned he will run Zimbabwe in the same ruthless fashion as his predecessor.

"It's like the person who is coming was there before, and we don't know what he is thinking because of the previous things that he and the other ZANU people were doing. I don't know if those things are going to change, or if we're going for the worse," said Phillippa Mukumba, 37, a Harare business owner.

"Mnangagwa, and the government before  it's the same. So what did they change? ... If I'm looking at it, we are going to struggle the same way. So we want something in Zimbabwe which is better," said Terrence Mawere, a flag seller.

Mawere, incidentally, said he has enjoyed a brisk business this week, selling 350 Zimbabwean flags for prices from $2 to $10.

John Campbell, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said because Mnangagwa played such a key role in Mugabe's administration, he does not anticipate a dramatic change in the style of governance in the short term.

"Nevertheless, the fact that there has been a coup, the fact that Mugabe has resigned, opens the range of possibilities." Campbell told VOA. "Whether or not the Zimbabwean people will take advantage of that it is too soon to tell."

Ntungamili Nkomo and Anita Powell contributed to this report.

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Honduras - Politics

Public demonstrations, protests, and strikes are common. Most demonstrations are concentrated in/around city centers, public buildings, and other public areas. Most protests have been peaceful; however, on rare occasion, there have been violent confrontations between the police and demonstrators. Additionally, there have been demonstrations and road blockades along key routes (e.g. the road leading to the international airport in Tegucigalpa).

Honduras exhibits the third highest level of system support among the 22 countries surveyed by Pew in 2017; with higher system support than Canada and the United States; a dramatic increase in system support in 2010. Hondurans are well below the mid-point of 0-100 scale, and are the fourth from the bottom on political tolerance. Regression analysis reveals that support for coups and ideology are the two most significant factors in determining levels of political tolerance. A large plurality of Hondurans express attitudes conducive to authoritarian stability, thus perhaps explaining some of the consequences of the political crisis of 2009. The two factors that seemed to be weakly connected to attitudes supportive of stable democracy are satisfaction with the performance of the current president and corruption victimization.

Pervasive societal violence persisted, although the state made measurable progress in reducing it. Reports of violence in rural areas, including the Bajo Aguan region, related to land-rights disputes involving indigenous people, agricultural workers, and landowners remained significantly lower than in recent years. Organized criminal elements, including local and transnational gangs and narcotics traffickers, were significant perpetrators of violent crimes, and committed acts of murder, extortion, kidnapping, torture, human trafficking, and intimidation of journalists, women, and human rights defenders. The most serious human rights problems were corruption, intimidation, and institutional weakness of the justice system leading to widespread impunity; unlawful and arbitrary killings and other criminal activities by members of the security forces; and harsh and at times life-threatening prison conditions.

President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown on 28 June 2009 and forced into exile. The interim government said it ousted the president because he was trying to illegally change the constitution to extend his time in office. Conservative politician Porfirio Lobo was elected as the country's new president. Zelaya denounced the election as illegitimate, and many countries did not recognize the vote. Honduras was on the road to reconciliation, with political parties scheduled to hold primaries in 2012, and a general election scheduled for the following year.

Since 2009, the country has been on a social, political and economic downward spiral. President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown by a coup d'etat June 28, 2009 when soldiers stormed his residence and flew him to Costa Rica under a Supreme Court order. Overall, since the coup, underemployment, unemployment and sub-employment have doubled and by 2019 accounted for 63 percent of the population. Ever since the 2009 military coup (that removed President Manuel Zelaya) Honduras has failed (as) a state to provide for its citizens, enforce the rule of law, and function as a vehicle for democratic decision making, Professor Frank told teleSUR in 2018.

Economic inequality, which decreased for four years starting in 2006, the year after Zelaya entered office, began to increase in 2010, and by 2013 Honduras had the most unequal income distribution in Latin America, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). The country now experiencing near-constant electrical outages, the public healthcare system is being defunded, and several seemingly random massacres have happened since January around the country. Since late April 2019, strikes and protests across the nation have been taking place against Hernandez and legislators attempts to cut funding to public education and healthcare and make layoffs easier in these sectors. But most of the public anger was based in the rage against Hernandez and what he representscorruption, violence, elitism and keeping Honduras a puppet to the U.S. that supported the Zelaya coup ten years earlier.

Honduras erupted in protest in April 2019 against health and education privatisation, but the actions soon evolved into nationwide protests and blockades demanding "Fuera JOH" (Out With JOH), the acronym for Hernandez's name. Police and military forces cracked down on protests, sometimes with live ammunition. At least three protesters were killed last week alone. On 24 June 2019, military police entered the capital city campus of the National Autonomous University of Honduras and opened fire on student protesters, sending at least four to the hospital with gunshot wounds.

Hondurans on 18 October 2019 took to the streets to demand the resignation of President Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH) after the New York Federal Court found his brother, Tony Hernandez, guilty on charges of drug trafficking, use of weapons and lying to authorities. "We call on all our militancy to total, organized and permanent nationwide mobilization by performing peaceful but firm and forceful protests," said former president Manuel Zelaya, who is the Freedom and Refoundation Party (Libre) coordinator. Besides asking the United States to suspend all aid to the Hernandez administration, Zelaya asked to give the Honduran people a "democratic government" and fair laws.

Former presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla called for the installation of a transitional government, which would be chaired by him until the winner of the 2021 elections takes office. The rejection of President JOH happened even in the least expected places and moments. During a sports program broadcasted on television, the host railed against Hernandez whom he described as a "drug trafficker", emphasizing that the ruling National Party lawmakers are "cockroaches."







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Nepal - Politics

Nepal is governed by a Communist government, only the sixth in the world after China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos. April traditionally is a month of political ferment in Nepal, primarily for meteorological, rather than ideological, reasons. Protests are almost a springtime ritual here, and the scent of spring flowers in the air is typically accompanied by the smell of burning tires, as the warmer, pre-monsoon weather draws various groups out into the streets to vent assorted grievances.

A final agreement regarding a constituent assembly election was adopted by the political parties in December 2007. It elaborated a plan for an assembly of 601 seats335 elected under a proportional representation system, 240 under a first-past-the-post system, and 26 nominated by the Council of Ministers. The election took place in April 2008, following months of delay and political maneuvering. Approximately 60 percent of registered voters cast ballots.

The Communist Party of NepalMaoist, which later became UCPNMaoist, won 220 seats to become the largest party in the constituent assembly. The Nepali Congress captured the second largest number of seats with 110, followed closely by the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified MarxistLeninist), which won 103. The Madhesi parties, collectively, captured the fourth largest share with 83 seats.

The final list of members elected under the proportional representation system was released on May 8, 2008. The members of the Constituent Assembly [CA] were sworn in on May 27, 2008, and the first session of the CA was convened on May 28, 2008. In this session, the CA voted to declare Nepal a federal democratic republic by abolishing the monarchy. Out of 564 members of the CA who voted, 560 voted in favor and 4 against the motion.

Historically marginalized groups around the country, radicalized by the Maoists in the decadelong insurgency, began to press with increasing intensity for their rights and a greater inclusion in national-level affairs. This movement was particularly pronounced among the Madhesi people living in the Tarai, Nepals southern plains. Unrest in the Tarai continued for many months, with periodic strikes, bandhs (shutdowns), outbreaks of violence, and the rise and proliferation of armed groups.

Elections - 2008

Some observers were concerned that widespread violence may return if the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist (CPN-M), the group which waged a 10-year armed struggle against the former government of Nepal, felt its political agenda has been thwarted by political opposition in the Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly elections of April 10, 2008, were a key step toward consolidating peace in Nepal and enhancing Nepal's democratic process.

The Constituent Assembly was elected to form the structure of the new government of Nepal. It was also confronted with the need to address economic development and ethnic issues. The Maoists would lead this process as they had the largest representation in the Constituent Assembly.

As violence associated with the former Maoist insurgency abated, intercommunal tensions mounted and at times become violent. This has been particularly acute in the Terai region where the Madhesi live. The Madhesi, or plains folk, seek autonomy to free themselves from what they feel is domination by Pahadis from the more mountainous parts of northern Nepal. The Madhesi added a new regional dimension to Nepal's struggle for political stability. A new threat to the political stability of Nepalemerged from a number of groups representing Madhesi in southern Nepal.

In August 2008, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Maoist) was sworn in as Prime Minister. Less than a year into his term, Prime Minister Dahal resigned from the government on May 4, 2009 following a dispute over his bid to dismiss the Chief of the Army Staff. On May 23, members from 22 of the 24 political parties represented in the Constituent Assembly elected veteran Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist (UML) leader Madhav Kumar Nepal as Prime Minister. Madhav Kumar Nepal was sworn in on May 25, 2009. On June 30, 2010, Prime Minister Nepal announced his resignation "for the sake of consensus" and to end the country's political deadlock following months of Maoist protests. On February 3, 2011, after 16 rounds of voting, Jhala Nath Khanal (UML) was elected Prime Minister; however, 6 months later on August 14, 2011 Khanal resigned from the government, citing the failure to make significant progress on the peace process. On August 29, 2011, Baburam Bhattarai (Maoist) was sworn in as Nepal's 35th Prime Minister, and the fourth Prime Minister since the 2008 CA election.

The CA could not promulgate a new constitution and dissolved on May 28, 2012,. It failed to finish the constitution drafting process despite repeated extensions, ending four years of constitution drafting. This created a constitutional and political void in the country until the Second CA was constituted. When the CA was dissolved there was a great disappointment among the population and some anger against political parties.

Presidential Election - 2018

More than 330 lawmakers from the Federal Parliament and 550 lawmakers from the Provincial Council are eligible to vote for president. The Federal parliament was formed after the completion of House of Representatives and Province Assembly elections in December 2017. There are also 59 members of the National Assembly who can vote, minus three nominees of the National Assembly whose appointments have been challenged at the Supreme Court. A total of 549 lawmakers from the Provincial Council will vote to elect the new president. The polls opened at 10:00 am and closed at 3:00 pm. Incumbent President Bidhya Devi Bhandari looked poised to win a second term.





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Geography is not destiny: rise of Indo-Pacific

Global Times

By Xu Shaomin Source:Global Times Published: 2017/11/21 21:38:39

US President Donald Trump and other top national officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have increasingly favored use of the term "Indo-Pacific" over the more conventional "Asia-Pacific." Scholars, politicians and strategists in Australia, Japan and India have also been pushing to popularize the idea of the "Indo-Pacific" and make it the basis for regional policy. Consequently, some observers argue that the rise of the Indo-Pacific is inevitable, with some even heralding the beginning of an "Indo-Pacific century."

The new region of Indo-Pacific is essentially a social construction created through politics. It is by no means driven by any natural geographic factors, as there exists no exact boundary delineations for the Indo-Pacific area. Its membership is also a moot point.

However, if we want to understand why the Indo-Pacific has become popular with policymakers in the US, Australia, Japan and India, we need to look at contemporary geo-economic and geopolitical concerns of the major and middle powers that make up the region.

As key drivers of a new Indo-Pacific concept, the US, Australia, Japan and India share common geopolitical concerns regarding China's rising influence as a major power. Importantly, the geographic region where their concerns come from has expanded to not only the established Asia-Pacific region, but also the areas surrounding the Indian Ocean. Thus, it is not surprising to see the development of bilateral and multilateral security partnerships among these key drivers, particularly in reference to maritime security cooperation in the Indian Ocean. More recently, China's "assertive" security and foreign policy toward the South China Sea has given further impetus to this new "exclusive" Indo-Pacific construct, which has been welcomed by a significant number of strategists and political pundits in the US, Australia, Japan and India. Furthermore, the values of democracy and liberalism that these powers share help to set an ideological foundation for the conceptualization of the Indo-Pacific.

China has become the "odd man out" in this conceptual mapping of the Indo-Pacific. The association of China's rise by other powers as a "China threat" is an important reason for this. As a result, Chinese strategists have become increasingly concerned about growing soft power and political dynamics fostered between the Indo-Pacific's four main actors: the US, Australia, Japan and India, known as the Quad, and how China is implicated by this.

Despite joint concerns toward managing China's rise in the Indo-Pacific region, the four Quad countries may diverge on specific strategic considerations and priorities.

First, geopolitical concerns are seeming to dictate the US government's interests above all else in the Indo-Pacific, with the US-Indian strategic partnership playing a key role in the US' "pivot" toward Asia.

Consequently, the US government has supported India's rise as a global power in order to help check China's movements in the Indian Ocean. The US has reliable alliances already developed in the Asia-Pacific, but not specifically around the Indian Ocean, and because of this, in American eyes this is a necessary move. India's recent subtle policy changes within the South China Sea territorial dispute are illustrative of its potential to support American ambitions and its potential importance in the Asia-Pacific region.

Second, for Australian officials in particular, Australia's centrality in the Indo-Pacific provides welcomed attention to its generally neglected west coast and reinforces its status as an Indian Ocean power. When formulating and implementing its foreign and defense policies in recent years, the Australian government has increasingly favored the concept of the Indo-Pacific over the Asia-Pacific. Maintaining freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region remains a key Australian national interest.

The promotion of the Indo-Pacific idea also justifies Canberra's attempts to deepen its economic and security partnerships with Southeast Asian countries and with India. This would give Australia greater room to maneuver in the future when dealing with China and perhaps even the US.

Last, India's engagement and Act East policy overlaps with Japan's "Broader Asia" vision, which is vividly manifested in the joint "confluence of the two seas" concept. Yet, while Japan's Indo-Pacific idea carries with it a strong overtone of balancing and even containing China along with "the arc of freedom and prosperity," India places a high premium on developing its own regional security, political and economic interests without losing its strategic autonomy. After all, China and India were not born to be rivals.

While the new concept of the Indo-Pacific may be socially constructed through various geopolitical and geo-economic lenses, it has the potential to turn into a very real and strategic set of relationships. Geographic position may not necessarily be destiny, but it may suit some states to act as if it is. Chinese policymakers would be well advised to attentively monitor these developments.

The author is a research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy, South China University of Technology. Prof. Mark Beeson (The University of Western Australia) and Dr. Yi Wang (Griffith University) helped polish this article.

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Fall of China's Former Internet Censor Highlights Frustrations Over Controls

By Joyce Huang November 23, 2017

The former face of China's "Great Firewall," Lu Wei, has become the first "tiger" to come under the Communist Party's corruption investigation since President Xi Jinping began his second term last month.

Analysts say the graft probe into Lu's corruption practices is widely believed to be legitimate and long overdue.

But Lu's downfall has highlighted the simmering discontent among the country's netizens, many of whom have been frustrated with tougher internet regulations imposed by him.

It has also made a mockery of so-called Xi Praise, a flattery culture centering on the building of the Xi cult, analysts add.

Graft probe

Late Tuesday, China's top anti-corruption agency announced on its website that 57-year-old Lu, who formerly served as deputy chief of the party propaganda department, has been detained in an internal graft probe.

Along with six of his colleagues and family members, Lu was reportedly taken away by investigators late last week.

Lu, who served as the head of China's cyberspace administration between 2013 and 2016, was the key person in implementing Xi's cyberspace policies.

In that role, he wielded great power over what the country's 730 million internet users could access and acted as the gatekeeper for foreign technology companies seeking to enter the Chinese market.

Because of that, Time magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2015.

Just a cat

But his political career ended when he was stripped of the title as China's internet censor and was replaced by Xu Lin, a Xi protege, in June 2016.

"Actually, he ceased to be a tiger long ago. He's not a fly, but he's now just a cat instead of a tiger because he already lost his power in June 2016," Hong Kong-based China watcher Willy Lam told VOA.

In one of its two other statements, China's anti-graft body Wednesday explained why Lu became the first tiger under graft investigation after the party's 19th National Congress.

The cyberspace administration with Lu at the helm was found to have not been staunch enough in executing Xi's instructions, lacked political responsibility and integrity while being operated by a network of small circles, the statement said.

'Offenses of bygone'

The other statement warned not to "expect [criminal] offenses of bygone will be bygone today, lessons learned from the fall of Lu Wei."

No details about Lu's corruption offenses were revealed.

Chinese media reported that investigators would be mainly looking into corruption charges against Lu during the period when he worked for state-run Xinhua News Agency from 1991 and 2011.

Media speculation is also rife that Lu had angered Xi when the top leader discovered that the former internet censor had hired foreigners to masquerade as CEOs of multinational tech companies attending the World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, in 2014.

Xi praise

But Lam said that Xi, who he said is a "macromania," has no one but himself to blame for the trend of Xi Praise, a flattery culture in Chinese politics.

"This is the art of survival in the Chinese empire, so to speak. The officials have to be seen as bending forward and backward to please Xi Jinping," Lam said.

But Li Datong, managing director of Freezing Point, a weekly that reported on all aspects of contemporary life in China, said Xi Praise is an act of self-deception.

"If Xi Jinping knows how to surf on the Internet, he will see from a bevy of [online] chat rooms that many [netizens] not only made fun of him, but also lashed out at Xi Cult. It's a game for government officials themselves to play," Li said.

Discontent with internet controls

Chinese internet users, however, are happy to see Lu go, venting their frustrations over Internet controls.

But on Wednesday, a report in the state-run Global Times pointed out, "while news of Lu's removal has made a buzz on the internet, his corruption investigation isn't aimed at addressing dissatisfaction expressed by a minority of people over tighter internet controls. Neither is it a signal that internet controls will be re-evaluated as some have expected."

Li said netizens are aware of the fact that the country's internet controls won't be eased following Lu's downfall.

"Everybody knows that there won't be a change of policy. But they are still happy to see the executioner [Lu], who has done all evils, being taken down. [Internet] policies are national policies, which won't be easily revised as a result of personnel reshuffle," Li said.

On Thursday, Lu Wei was the top-trending topic on freeweibo.com, a website that captures censored social media posts. On SINA Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging platform, online comments posted by users in response to news reports were mostly erased.

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DPRK calls U.S. relisting it as "state sponsor of terrorism" serious provocation: official

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 07:42, November 23, 2017

PYONGYANG, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday slammed the United States for relisting it as a "state sponsor of terrorism," calling it a serious provocation and a violent infringement upon the country's dignity.

A spokesman for the DPRK's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that since 1979, the United States has been labeling the countries that are not obedient to it as "state sponsors of terrorism" and in 1988, Washington listed the DPRK as a "state sponsor of terrorism" before removing it from the list in October 2008.

He said that the label of "state sponsor of terrorism" is just a tool of American-style authoritarianism that can be attached or removed anytime in accordance with the United States' own interests.

"This is clearly an absurdity and a mockery of world peace and security," said the spokesman.

He said the DPRK values international justice and peace and consistently stands against all forms of terrorism and any sponsorship of terrorism.

"We do not have anything to do with terrorism and we do not care whether the United States puts a cap of terrorism on us or not," he said.

The spokesman said that by doing so, the United States "openly revealed to the whole world its intention to destroy our ideology and system by using all kinds of means and methods."

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday designated the DPRK as a state sponsor of terror, vowing to slap sanctions on the Asian nation.

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India Struggles to Solve its Fighter Jet Procurement Puzzle

Sputnik News

17:05 23.11.2017(updated 17:11 23.11.2017)

India, which intends to replace all of its Russian-made MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighter jets by 2024, is stuck in a difficult situation, as Lockheed Martin has denied total transfer of technology, SAAB itself lacks complete technology and local firm HAL is incapable of delivering at the required pace.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  In a rude shock to India, which has been preparing to issue a global tender for single-engine fighter jets, America's Lockheed Martin, considered a front-runner for the deal, has announced that it will not guarantee total transfer of technology if it is awarded the $10 billion contract. This has added to the woes of India's defense ministry that is already in the eye of a storm for failing to convince Dassault Aviation of France to transfer the technology for the multirole Rafale fighter aircraft.

"It will never be full transfer of technology. It is not in the national interest or industry's interest. Certain technologies are not transferable to anyone in the world," Keith Webster, senior vice-president of Defense and Aerospace, a US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), said in an interview with The Hindu Business Line on Tuesday.

The American F-16 and Swedish Gripen are the main contenders in the prospective deal of 114 fighter aircrafts, in which India intends to purchase 10 in flyaway condition, and the rest will be manufactured in India at a facility set up by the winning firm.

"Only a handful of aviation players have the main technologies in terms of radar, engines, stealth, EW systems, etc. India is the largest market and it is also an emerging power. No one would want India to become independent on this count," Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retired), a defense analyst told Sputnik.

Swedish SAAB has promised full technology transfer of its Gripen-E fighter. However, Gripen is not India's first choice as SAAB itself imports most of the components from elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the fighter jets being locally developed in India still have a lot to be desired in terms of radar, engine and EW system. The Indian Air Force has thus far inducted five Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) on initial operational clearance. The Indian Air Force has ordered 20 additional aircraft after the final operational clearance.

However, the Indian Air Force is not much satisfied with the progress made in the development of the aircraft by the state-owned manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. This is being viewed as a major reason behind the Indian Air Force's delay in placing the order for 83 of HAL's superior Tejas MK-1 fighter aircraft.

"India must make all efforts for LCA to succeed. Take help of radar, engine and EW systems," Air Marshal Chopra added.

Even if everything goes according to the promise made by HAL, it can deliver 16 Tejas Mark-1A per year and the induction of all 83 will be complete by 2028. However, the number and pace of delivery would not be enough, as the Indian Air Force has set a target to replace all 11 squadrons (18-20 fighter jets in a squadron) of its Russian-made MiG-21 and MiG-27 aircraft by 2024.

"To cater to delays and performance shortfall, India must buy single-engine aircraft and arm-twist at least all of the low-end systems it currently has," Air Marshall Chopra concluded.

But will this change the dwindling strength of the Indian Air Force? "Seems unlikely, as we [have] already [fallen] behind a decade due to indecision," a senior Indian Air Force official told Sputnik.

The concern is not illegitimate, as even in the best-case scenario if the government decides on the purchase of single fighter jets by 2020, a maximum of seven squadron single-engine fighters would be available to the Indian Air Force by 2032. Presently, the Indian Air Force has 33 squadrons against the parliamentary panel recommendation of 42 squadrons in order to be able to defend itself from Chinese and Pakistan troops simultaneously.

 Sputnik

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Indian Navy Ready to Receive Multiple Maneuverable Warhead Tracking Vessel

Sputnik News

15:23 23.11.2017(updated 15:26 23.11.2017)

The vessel's X-band precision tracking radar can track the inbound flight trajectories of multiple maneuverable warheads apart from monitoring the trajectories of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The Indian Navy is expecting to receive its first missile-range instrumentation ship (MRIS), the country's most advanced and largest ocean surveillance vessel, in the first quarter of 2018. The rigorous trial of the 1000-ton ship named VC-11184 is currently underway on the eastern coast of the country. Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL), a Vizag-based shipbuilder, is hopeful that it will be able to meet the delivery deadline of the twin 9,000 kW diesel engine ship.

"The ship is almost ready and once the trials get over, it will be officially handed to the Navy in 2018," an HSL official was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

This 175-meter-long vessel, designed by Vik Sandvik Design India, has a specialized deck to house a 12-ton multirole helicopter. The MRIS can cruise at a speed of 21 knots with 300 crew members.

A second MRIS, smaller in size and meant to monitor the flight trajectories of subsonic and supersonic cruise missiles, is also under construction at the state-owned Cochin Shipyard Ltd and is expected to enter into service in 2020.

The Indian government had asked its two state-owned shipbuilders to manufacture a specially designed ship that can monitor the flight trajectory of Indian intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles during test launches. However, the final product is an upgraded version that can also track the inbound flight trajectories of multiple maneuverable warheads.

 Sputnik

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Iranian military ready to stop Daesh-like moves: Chief of staff

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Nov 23, IRNA -- Iran will continue to overwhelm enemies with authority, wrote Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces on Thursday in a congratulatory message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

After the fall of the 'self-proclaimed caliphate' Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as Daesh, Major General Mohammad Baqeri congratulated Ayatollah Khamenei in a message.

The message reads, "I congratulate the glorious and historic victory of Islamic Resistance over the self-proclaimed caliphate of the vicious and criminal group to Your Majesty, Muslims, all the defenders of the holy shrines, and the honorable General Qasem Soleimani."

He also said that the Iranian military will go on with equipping itself with smart defensive weaponry and create new capacities to defend the country.

Although the fall of Daesh manifests the fall of "the ominous dominance of the US and its regional and non-regional allies", Your Majesty's letter to General Soleimani depicts the necessity to be fully vigilant about the enemy as an assignment and priority for the Iranian military, said the message.

"Most certainly, the wounded enemy that has been targeting the existence of the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic identity will not remain silent and motionless, and will continue its warmongering and plot-hatching against us; but their attempts are doomed to failure," said General Baqaeri.

He hailed all the Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, Pakistani and Afghan individuals, volunteers and military bodies that played a role in the phenomenal triumph.

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IAEA has access to all locations in Iran: Amano

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Nov 23, IRNA -- The International Atomic Energy Organization has had access to all locations in Iran needed to be inspected, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Thursday.

'As of today, the Agency has had access to all the locations that we needed to visit, Yukiya Amano told the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna.

Amano also emphasized that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been fully committed to the July 2015 nuclear deal between the country and the major world powers, known also as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

'As my report on Verification and monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 shows, the Agency continues to verify and monitor Iran's implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA. The nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran are being implemented,' he said.

'The Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of nuclear material declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement,' he added.

'Evaluations regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran continue,' the IAEA director general said.

Amano visited Tehran on October 29th for talks with President Rouhani and other government officials.

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Amano: IAEA has access to all sites it needs in Iran

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 01:11PM

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has once again confirmed Iran's commitment to the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement with six world powers, saying it has access to all sites it needs to inspect.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano made the remarks in an introductory statement to a meeting of the agency's 35-nation Board of Governors in the Austrian capital on Thursday.

Amano said the IAEA "continues to verify and monitor Iran's implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA," using the acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as the deal is officially called.

"The nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran are being implemented," he added.

The IAEA chief also noted that the agency would continue the verification process regarding the non-diversion of nuclear material and the absence of undeclared activities in Iran.

"As of today, the agency has had access to all the locations that we needed to visit," he said.

Amano further touched on his October 29 visit to Tehran, where he held talks with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and other government officials.

Amano said during the visit he had stressed the importance of full implementation by Iran of its commitments under the JCPOA.

The JCPOA was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries  namely the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain plus Germany  in July 2015. Under the deal, Iran undertook to apply certain limits to its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.

Eight IAEA reports have so far confirmed Iran's full commitment to its side of the bargain.

On October 13, US President Donald Trump refused to formally certify that the Islamic Republic was complying with the deal, warning that he might ultimately "terminate" it.

Trump further said he was directing his administration "to work closely with Congress and our allies to address the deal's many serious flaws."

The US Congress has until mid-December to decide whether to re-impose the economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the JCPOA.

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Iraqi forces flush out Daesh terrorists from desert hideouts in major offensive

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 05:16PM

Iraqi army soldiers, supported by allied fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, have liberated dozens of villages across the country as they are engaged in a large-scale military operation to dislodge Daesh Takfiri terrorists from their hideouts in the desert.

The commander of Upper Euphrates and al-Jazira Liberation Operations, Major General Abdul Amir Yarallah, said on Thursday that pro-government fighters, better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha'abi, had established control over Sheikhan and Sheikhanah villages south of al-Hatra district in the northern province of Nineveh, Arabic-language al-Forat news agency reported.

The 26th brigade of Hashd al-Sha'abi also managed to retake an air base southwest of Hatra.

Additionally, the units of the 9th Armored Division as well as the 2nd brigade of Hashd al-Sha'abi retook the Malaha area of Baiji district in the northern province of Salahuddin.

On Thursday noon, the 11th brigade of Hashd al-Sha'abi managed to liberate Zubaidah village in al-Jazira region.

Furthermore, fighters from the 2nd brigade of Hashd al-Sha'abi recaptured the villages of Abdullah al-Abidi and Sabiha al-Badou in Badiya region.

Later in the day, Yarallah stated that government forces and Hashd al-Sha'abi fighters had seized back 77 villages in the second phase of the offensive aimed at clearing the vast desert near the border with Syria, which extends to northern provinces of Nineveh and Salahuddin and the western province of Anbar.

The forces ended the first phase of the offensive on November 17, when they drove out Daesh extremists from the latter's last urban stronghold in Iraq and raised the Iraqi flag over buildings in the western town of Rawah and nearby border areas north of the Euphrates River.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the newly-liberated town of Qa'im and the nearby Husaybah border crossing in far western Iraq on November 5, and raised the Iraqi flag at the border crossing.

On October 5, Abadi said Iraqi armed forces had liberated Hawijah, driving Daesh Takfiris out of their last bastion in the oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk.

The Iraqi prime minister said on August 31 that the northwestern city of Tal Afar, located 200 kilometers northwest of Kirkuk, and the entire Nineveh province had been purged of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

The forces ended the first phase of the offensive on November 17, when they drove out Daesh extremists from the latter's last urban stronghold in Iraq and raised the Iraqi flag over buildings in the western town of Rawah and nearby border areas north of the Euphrates River.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the newly-liberated town of Qa'im and the nearby Husaybah border crossing in far western Iraq on November 5, and raised the Iraqi flag at the border crossing.

On October 5, Abadi said Iraqi armed forces had liberated Hawijah, driving Daesh Takfiris out of their last bastion in the oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk.

The Iraqi prime minister said on August 31 that the northwestern city of Tal Afar, located 200 kilometers northwest of Kirkuk, and the entire Nineveh province had been purged of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

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Iraq launches operation to clear western desert of remaining Daesh terrorists

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 09:23AM

Iraqi forces have launched a mop-up operation to clear the western desert near Syria of remaining Daesh terrorists, days after they fully liberated all the urban areas from the grip of the Takfiri outfit.

Iraqi forces backed by fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, better known as Hashd al-Sha'abi, launched the campaign on Thursday against the militants hiding in a large strip of border land, Iraqi military officials said.

"The objective behind the operation is to prevent remaining Daesh groups from melting into the desert region and using it as a base for future attacks," Reuters quoted army colonel Salah Kareem as saying.

On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Daesh has been defeated from a military perspective but Baghdad will only declare final victory after the militants are purged from the desert areas.

Abadi made the comments a few days following the collapse of the self pro-claimed caliphate of Daesh Takfiri terrorists in Iraq and Syria.

On Friday, Iraqi armed forces liberated the town of Rawa near the border with Syria, which was the last remaining town under Daesh's control, and raised the Iraqi flag over its buildings.

Two days later, Syrian army soldiers, backed by pro-government fighters from popular defense groups, fully liberated Bukamal, Daesh's last stronghold in Syria, which is a strategic city in the country's eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr on the border with Iraq.

The recapture of the two towns marked an end to Daesh's reign of terror, which started in 2014 with the group making vast territorial gains in a lightning offensive and establishing its self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Iraq's Mosul and Syria's Raqqah.

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Iraqi Forces Launch Cleanup Raid Against Terrorists on Border With Syria

Sputnik News

15:36 23.11.2017

Over the past few months Daesh militants have been expelled from most of the territories in Iraq and Syria under their control since 2014.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Iraqi forces have announced the launch of an operation to clean up the western desert territories of the districts of the al-Jazira region located between the governorates of Al Anbar, Saladin and Nineveh on the border with Syria from the Daesh terrorists.

The statement comes just days after the Iraqi government forces, supported by the US-led international coalition, regained control over the town of Rawa, the last Daesh stronghold in the country.

Rawa for some time was the only remaining Daesh bastion in Iraq. Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi announced in late October the start of an operation to retake the western towns of Rawa and Al-Qa'im, which were retaken in the beginning of November, and later Iraqi forces said they had taken control over the checkpoints at the Iraqi-Syrian border.

According to the US-led coalition's estimates as of October, the Iraqi forces had already liberated around 95 percent of the land once held by terrorists. Senior Adviser to the US Secretary of State Brian Hook said that Daesh would be defeated and eradicated from Syria by the end of 2017.

 Sputnik

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Bangladesh, Myanmar reach deal to repatriate Rohingya refugees in 2 months

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 03:58PM

Bangladesh says it has reached a deal with Myanmar to repatriate Rohingya Muslim refugees within two months, as global pressure mounts on Myanmar for driving more than half a million members of the persecuted minority out of their homes.

"The return shall commence within two months" said Bangladesh in a statement issued shortly after its Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali and Myanmar's Union Minister for the Office of the State Counselor Kyaw Tint Swe inked a deal, titled the Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State, in Myanmar's capital of Naypyidaw on Thursday.

"This is a primary step. (They) will take back (Rohingya). Now we have to start working," said the Bangladeshi top diplomat after the signing ceremony.

The agreement between the two neighbors was signed after weeks of negotiations on details of the accord, much of which has not yet been disclosed. However, Dhaka announced that a working group would be established within three weeks to agree the arrangements for the repatriation.

The office of Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, however, said that the deal followed a formula set in a 1992 repatriation agreement inked by the two nations following an earlier surge of violence. Under that pact, Rohingya Muslims were required to provide residency documents, which few had, before being allowed to return to Myanmar.

More than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since late last year, when military soldiers and Buddhist mobs began vicious attacks on the minority Muslims in Rakhine. The crackdown on the Rohingya has intensified since August 25.

All along, government troops and the Buddhist mobs have been killing, raping, and arbitrarily arresting members of the Muslim community. They have also been setting the houses of the Muslims on fire in hundreds of predominantly-Rohingya villages in the northern parts of Rakhine, where nearly all the Rohingya reside.

On Tuesday, the Amnesty International said in a report that the discrimination against Rohingya had intensified considerably in the past five years so much so that it amounted to "dehumanizing apartheid."

Myanmar's government denies full citizenship to the Rohingya, branding them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Dhaka, in turn, regards the desperate refugees as Myanmarese. The Rohingya, however, track their ancestors many generations back in Myanmar.

The volatile Rakhine, located in Myanmar's west, has been the scene of communal violence since 2012. Many Muslims had already lost their lives while tens of thousands had been displaced as a result of attacks by Buddhists long before the military began its crackdown in late 2016.

The UN has already described the Rohingya as the most persecuted community in the world, calling the situation in Rakhine similar to "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing."

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Myanmar, Bangladesh Sign Repatriation Agreement on Rohingya Refugees - Official

Sputnik News

11:40 23.11.2017(updated 17:46 23.11.2017)

The situation in Myanmar remains tense, with the US declaring the actions of the military in the northern Rakhine state "ethnic cleansing" against the Rohingya.

Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed on the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar's Rakhine into Bangladesh seeking safety from a military crackdown in Myanmar, Reuters reports citing a Myanmar's official.

The deal called Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from the Rakhine State does not include the time frame for repatriation, but according to sources in both delegations, the process may kick off within next two months, the Mizzima media outlet reported.

A source in Bangladeshi delegation said that the Dhaka proposed to complete repatriation within a year but pointed out that Myanmar's delegation was not ready to make such a decision now.

More than 600,000 Rohingyas were forced to flee the country as a result of Myanmar's authorities' response campaign launched after the conflict between the Rohingya minority and Myanmar's military had escalated in August following Rohingya militants' attacks on government positions. The actions of Myanmar's military have elicited worldwide condemnation.

The US has recently labeled the violence against the Rohingya as "ethnic cleansing", whereas in early November, Washington made one of its strongest efforts to intervene in Rohingya crisis introducing the bill on sanctions and travel restrictions on Myanmar military officials.

On November 7, The UN Security Council has issued a presidential statement expressing serious concern over human rights violations in Myanmar and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Rakhine state that could potentially further destabilize the situation in the region.

Russia and China agreed to the UN Security Council resolution urging Myanmar to refrain from further "excessive use of military force", but they opposed tougher steps against Myanmar.

 Sputnik

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Myanmar, Bangladesh Sign Agreement on Rohingya Return

By VOA News November 23, 2017

Myanmar and Bangladesh have signed an agreement for the return home of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, according to officials from both countries.

Myint Kyaing, a permanent secretary with Myanmar's Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population, said a memorandum of understanding had been signed Thursday, but gave no other details. More than 600,000 people have fled across the border to camps in Bangladesh, which said the repatriations are to begin within two months.

Reports said the deal was signed following talks in Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, with Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and Bangladesh's foreign minister, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali. The French news agency AFP quoted Ali as saying, "This is a primary step. [They] will take back [Rohingya]. Now we have to start working."

The development came one day after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said violence in Rakhine state targeting the Muslim Rohingya qualified as ethnic cleansing.

Wednesday's announcement marked the first time the State Department had designated the violence as ethnic cleansing. Officials briefing reporters called the designation a descriptive term.

In a written statement, Tillerson said, "After a careful and thorough analysis of available facts, it is clear that the situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya."

Tillerson also noted in his statement he had visited Myanmar November 15 and met separately with Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. In referring to Myanmar as Burma, Tillerson said he "reaffirmed the United States' strong commitment to Burma's successful democratic transition as the elected government strives to implement reforms, bring peace and reconciliation to the nation, and resolve a devastating crisis in Rakhine State."

Tillerson went on to say those responsible for the atrocities must be held accountable.

Myanmar's military repeatedly has rejected accusations that atrocities, including rape and extrajudicial killings, are occurring in northern Rakhine, the epicenter of violence the U.N. has qualified as "textbook ethnic cleansing."

The latest unrest erupted after Rohingya militants attacked police posts in Myanmar on August 25, prompting a military crackdown.

The government in mainly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya, referring to them as "Bengali" to imply origins in Bangladesh. Officials in Bangladesh say the Rohingya are "Myanmar nationals" and that it is a mistake to refer to them as Bangladeshis.

Aung San Suu Kyi has faced criticism for her response to the crisis. She initially maintained there had been "a huge iceberg of misinformation" about the plight of the Rohingya.

Amnesty's reaction

Human rights group Amnesty International said earlier this week that discrimination against the Rohingya had worsened considerably in the last five years, and that it amounted to "dehumanizing apartheid." In response to Thursday's announcement, the rights group said Rohingya returns in Myanmar were "unthinkable" until the "apartheid system" was dismantled.

A statement from Charmain Mohamed, Amnesty's director for refugee and migrant rights, said, "While precise details of this deal have not yet been revealed, talk of returns is clearly premature at a time when Rohingya refugees continue to trickle into Bangladesh on an almost daily basis as they flee ethnic cleansing in Myanmar."

Mohamed also said, "There can be no safe or dignified returns of Rohingya to Myanmar while a system of apartheid remains in the country, and thousands are held there in conditions that amount to concentration camps."

Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Myanmar and Bangladesh beginning next week.

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Saudi Arabia shelling out $7bn more for US munitions amid escalating war against Yemen

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 11:25AM

Saudi Arabia has struck a $7 billion deal with American arms manufactures for precision-guided munitions, sources say, a sign that the kingdom and its allies are adamant in pushing ahead with a years-long war on Yemen despite international pressure.

The weapons deal with Raytheon and Boeing is part of a $110 billion agreement between Washington and Riyadh that coincided with US President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia in May, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The US State Department has yet to formally notify the US Congress of the contract, which is expected to draw fire from a growing number of lawmakers who think such deals make the US an accomplice in Saudi Arabia's war against its impoverished southern neighbor.

The unprovoked war, which began in March 2015, has so far killed over 12,000 Yemenis while destroying the country's infrastructure, according to the United Nations.

The Saudi-led coalition began the brutal aggression in an attempt to crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.

On the ground, however, the outcome has been very different.

The incessant aerial campaign has seen hundreds of schools and medical centers getting destroyed. Saudi-led aircraft have even targeted fuel depots and power plants, according to Yemen's Human Rights Center.

The rights group added that Saudi military assaults have also destroyed airports, docks, harbors, bridges and hundreds of roads across Yemen.

The UN has blamed the airstrikes and a strict blockade on Yemen's only functioning ports and airports as the main reason for deadly outbreak of Cholera in the conflict-ridden country. Some 2,100 people have died of cholera since April and an average of around 2,600 new cases is reported per day.

There are also reports of a diphtheria outbreak in Yemen's southern parts.

UK-based charity Save the Children warned in November that an estimated 130 or more Yemeni children were losing their lives everyday due to the "extreme hunger and disease" resulting from the Saudi-led war.

'Precision-guided weapons'

Stuck in what seems to be a deepening quagmire, the Riyadh regime's outreach for precision-guided munitions is a desperate attempt at convincing observers that civilians were not the target of what many experts believe is a pointless war.

The agreement is likely to be held up in Congress, where Bob Corker, the Republican senator who chairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has promised to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other members of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council.

This wouldn't be the first time that Washington blocks arms sales to Saudis due to the kingdom's human rights record. In November 2016, the administration of then President Barack Obama halted a $1.29-billion precision guided weapons deal because of concerns about civilian casualties in Yemen.

Starting in 2015, that sale process included more than 8,000 Laser Guided Bombs for the Royal Saudi Air Force. Under the deal the Saudis would receive over 10,000 additional general purpose, or "dumb," bombs, together with more than 5,000 tail kits that could inexpensively convert them into laser or GPS-guided weapons.

The Senate voted 53 to 47 to narrowly defeat legislation that sought to block portions of the 2015 package in June.

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US military presence in Syria resembles occupation: Russia

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 07:13PM

Russia says the US military presence in Syria looks like an occupation as it runs afoul of international law and lacks authorization from the Damascus government.

"From the standpoint of international law, the United States of America stay illegally in Syria. They have no appropriate official permission or invitation from Damascus," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"They are there against the will of the legitimate government of Syria, without legal basis, so in fact their behavior closely resembles that of an occupation," she added.

On November 13, US Defense Secretary James Mattis said the US would not walk away from Syria until UN-brokered peace talks in the Swiss city of Geneva made progress.

"The enemy hasn't declared that they're done with the area yet, so we'll keep fighting as long as they want to fight," he said, claiming that Washington was conducting military operations in Syria under a UN mandate.

Syria reacted angrily to Mattis' remarks, condemning the US military presence in the country as "an act of aggression."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also denounced the American intervention as illegal.

"It is quite interesting how the US justifies its presence there, which is illegitimate because it does not rely either on the decision of the UN Security Council or on the invitation of the legitimate government," he said.

Russia has been conducting air raids against Daesh and other terrorist groups inside Syria at the Damascus government's request since September 2015.

On the contrary, the US and its allies back militants fighting to topple the Syrian government. American warplanes have been bombing Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate, which has seriously damaged the country's infrastructure.

The airstrikes have on many occasions resulted in civilian casualties and failed to fulfill their declared aim of countering terrorism.

Russian jets hit Daesh targets in Syria

Separately on Thursday, Russia's Defense Ministry said its bombers had targeted positions held by Daesh militants in eastern Syria.

"On November 23, 2017, Tu-22M3 long-haul bombers delivered a massive airstrike on Daesh terrorists' targets in the province of Dayr al-Zawr," the ministry said.

The Russian warplanes hit all the designated targets, it added.

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Nearly 3,000 Syrian civilians killed in US-led airstrikes in 38 months: Group

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 02:53PM

A monitoring group says nearly 3,000 civilians have lost their lives in more than three years as the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group continues its aerial assaults against residential areas across Syria.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Thursday that 2,759 civilians, including 644 minors and 470 women, had been killed in US-led aerial attacks against civilian areas in the war-devastated Arab country over the past 38 months.

The Britain-based monitoring group added that the US-led air raids had claimed the lives of 98 people, including four children and as many women, between October 23 and November 23 this year.

The SOHR went on to say that the civilian fatalities had been mostly recorded in the northern provinces of Hasakah, Raqqah, Aleppo and Idlib in addition to the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

On October 11, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said the US-led coalition was trying to destroy the Arab country and prolong the armed conflict there.

Muallem stated that Damascus would demand the dissolution of the military contingent, stressing that thousands of Syrian women and children had been killed by coalition airstrikes in Raqqah and Dayr al-Zawr.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of achieving its declared goal of destroying Daesh.

On November 12, Syria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates criticized the so-called human rights advocates for turning a blind eye to the atrocities the US-led coalition is perpetrating in Raqqah and Dayr al-Zawr.

It also called on the United Nations Security Council to "shoulder its main responsibility of preserving international peace and security and take immediate action to stop the brutal crimes committed by the illegal coalition against the innocent civilians and prevent more crimes from happening."

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Syria opposition should disarm, engage in dialog: Assad aide

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 02:49PM

The political and media adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called on opposition groups to disarm in order for a proposed National Dialogue Congress involving warring sides to be fruitful.

In an interview with Russia's Sputnik news agency on Thursday, Bouthaina Shaaban expressed Damascus' readiness to hold talks with those who believe in a political solution to the almost-seven-year-long conflict in Syria.

"Syria, since the onset of the crisis, has adopted a constructive pragmatic approach believing in engagement, political dialog and shared fate for all constituents of the Syrian people," Shaaban said.

However, the opposition's willingness or capability "to engage in a real political process has not yet been made clear," she added.

On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian and Turkish counterparts Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. They agreed to hold the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in the Russian city aimed at bringing together the opposite factions in Syria for peace talks.

The all-Syrian congress would involve drawing up a framework for Syria's future structure, adopting a new constitution and holding elections under the UN supervision, Putin said.

Elsewhere in her interview, Shaaban said, "The success of the proposed congress will depend on the various opposition groups realizing that it is high time to stop the violence, lay down their arms and engage in a national dialogue that leads to a comprehensive settlement of all issues pertaining to the current crisis."

She also emphasized that Damascus had always trusted Russia and Iran, which have both provided "invaluable assistance" to Syria in its counter-terrorism battle.

"We believe that they (Russia and Iran) will save no effort to put an end to the crisis in Syria. They have been cooperating with the Syrian army to eradicate terrorism, and preserve Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," she pointed out.

Syrian congress to be held soon: Kremlin

Separately on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Syrian congress would be convened "in the near future," without elaborating on further details.

He also assured that Turkey's opposition to the participation of Kurdish militants in Syria's political process would not hinder the holding of the congress.

"We know that there are certain reservations on the part of our Turkish partners," he said. "But this does not mean that work will not be conducted. Intense expert work to agree and check the lists [of congress participants] lies ahead."

Russia says may reduce forces in Syria

In a relevant development on Thursday, Russia's Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov announced that Moscow may "substantially" reduce its military presence in Syria.

He told reporters in Sochi that the drawdown could start before the end of the year but declined to specify the scale of the drawdown.

"There is very little left to do before the completion of military objectives. Of course, a decision will be made by the supreme commander-in-chief and the deployment will be reduced," Gerasimov said.

Russia will maintain two military bases and a ceasefire-monitoring center in Syria as well as and "a number of necessary structures to keep the situation where it is now," he said.

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Russia Declares UN Inquiry In Syria 'Dead' As West Searches For Alternatives

November 23, 2017

The UN's investigation into who is behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria "is dead," but Russia is open to efforts by Western powers to establish "a new mechanism," Moscow's UN ambassador has said.

Vasily Nebenzya made the assertion on November 22 after a closed United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss reviving the inquiry after Russia several times vetoed its extension in the last month.

Nebenzya claimed that the UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), which was supported by most council members and had found Russia's ally Syria responsible for all but two recent chemical attacks it investigated in Syria,"has discredited itself completely."

"But we are ready to talk about establishing a new mechanism that would replace the JIM and do the work in a truly professional, objective, and unbiased manner," Nebenzya said.

The United States and its Western allies say Russia killed the investigative body because it didn't like its findings implicating the Syrian government, which has waged a six-year civil war with rebel groups that has killed more than 330,000 people and displaced millions more.

Russia vetoed two council resolutions proposed by the United States and its allies last week to keep the investigation alive, and this week it rejected a Swedish-Uruguayan extension compromise before the UN council voted on it.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, one of the staunchest supporters of the inquiry, said on November 21 that "we are not going to give up, even if there is no more JIM."

Rycroft said supporters of the investigation are looking into other international justice mechanisms that might replace it.

"It will be possible to do something," he said, "and we are determined to make sure that this gap is closed. We are not going to allow the JIM just to be killed off like this with nothing to replace it."

"That is a crucial building block towards accountability, towards making sure that there is justice for the victims and for the survivors and for their families," Rycroft said.

While the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons still is authorized to identify instances in Syria where chemical weapons were used, Rycroft said "we require something whose job it is to look at those reports from the OPCW and to determine which of the parties in Syria is responsible for each use of chemical weapons."

Russia had agreed in 2015 to create the joint UN-OPCW mechanism to identify the perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. But it withdrew its support after the team repeatedly fingered Damascus.

Moscow's principle complaint is that the JIM uses evidence gathered by other parties, which it said could be manipulated, rather than obtaining all of its evidence first-hand.

JIM's recent conclusion that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's air force was responsible for a sarin gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhun on April 4 that killed nearly 100 civilians particularly rankled Russia.

The attack triggered global outrage as images of dying children were shown worldwide, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump days later to launch missile strikes on the Syrian air base where he said the attack was launched.

But Russia complained the UN team never sampled for evidence in the town of Khan Sheikhun or at the Shayrat air base, and based its conclusions on evidence gathered by other parties, such as rebel groups and the Turkish government, which are avowed enemies of Assad.

The UN team's leader conceded it had not visited Khan Sheikhun, but said it was unsafe to do so because it is controlled by the Syrian affiliate of the Al-Qaeda extremist group.

Nebenzya called the Khan Sheihun investigation "fictitious," and said Russia will demand changes in the way investigations are conducted if any new mechanism is established.

But the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said she doubted Russia will ever agree to set up independent, objective investigations again.

"Russia will not agree to any mechanism that might shine a spotlight on the use of chemical weapons by its ally, the Syrian regime," she said on November 17.

Uruguay's UN ambassador, Elbio Rosselli, said the council may find a way to keep an investigation going in Syria.

"There are mechanisms to look into these situations of chemical weapons everywhere, not only in Syria," he said. "We'll have to see what can be done. This requires a lot of doing."

With reporting by AP and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-declares-un- inquiry-in-syria-dead-as-west-searches-for -alternatives/28871284.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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Never-Ending Supply: US Continues Arms, Heavy Vehicle Shipments to SDF

Sputnik News

17:55 23.11.2017(updated 17:58 23.11.2017)

An SDF spokesman, on condition of anonymity, told Sputnik Turkey that they had received a large batch of armored vehicles and weapons from the United States on the eve of Deir ez-Zor operation.

The US supply of armored vehicles and heavy weapons to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is not slowing down.

"The US sent us 120 armored cars and weapons, including submachine guns, howitzers, mortars, which were brought overland from Northern Iraq, then fetched to the city of Hasek, and from there they were taken to the territory east of Deir ez-Zor, which was liberated from Daesh by our detachments," the SDF spokesman told Sputnik Turkey.

In addition to weapons, the spokesman said that the SDF received a large number of Hummer armored vehicles.

"This time, in addition to weapons, a large number of Hummer armored vehicles were delivered as we are experiencing a significant need for them," the spokesman said.

According to previous reports, since the decision was made to provide military assistance to the SDF Kurdish forces, the US has supplied them with a total of 1,900 trucks full of heavy weapons and armaments.

Earlier Hussam Shueib, a Syrian expert in militant groups commented to Sputnik Arabic saying that Daesh and other similar armed units are being defeated on all fronts while the Syrian government army is steadily advancing, so the US now needs a new tool for its military operations.

"Washington is now supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as it is almost its last ally in the north of Syria. First, they have close connections with the Kurds. Second, they pose themselves as a secular organization and oppose the Syrian government. And third, they are able to take control of the north of the country and break up Syria," Shueib explained.

He also pointed out that the SDF have proven that they can take Daesh's place, for example, in Raqqa. Therefore the US is not creating a positive image of SDF through its mass media, claiming that it is quite a numerous force which has "genuine representatives of the Syrian peoples in its ranks."

The SDF, however, are not being welcomed either by Syrians or by the Syrian Kurds. Nevertheless, the US is pinning its hopes on these forces, expecting them to be able to fight against the Syrian army and its allies, he concluded.

 Sputnik

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Russia to 'Significantly' Reduce Military Presence in Syria - General Staff

Sputnik News

16:41 23.11.2017(updated 20:43 23.11.2017)

The statement comes in the wake of the liberation of over 90 percent of the Syrian territory from terrorists.

Russia is set to "significantly" reduce its military contingent in Syria, keeping two military bases  an airbase in Hmeymim and a naval base in Tartus  and the reconciliation center there, Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov has announced.

"After the completion of the military tasks [] a decision will be made by the supreme commander-in-chief and the contingent will be reduced."

The announcement came in the wake of the meeting between leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran, who adopted a joint statement, in which the three ceasefire regime guarantors urged to continue de-escalation efforts in Syria in the framework of the Astana process, with President Vladimir Putin saying that the Arab Republic's collapse has been prevented, while the civil war has almost stopped.

Wednesday's negotiations came just a day after Syrian President Bashar Assad had paid a one-day visit to Russia to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and meet with the leadership of the Defense Ministry and the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, during which the leaders of the two countries noted the quick defeat of terrorists in the country and discussed the principles of holding the National Dialogue Congress in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

While over 90 percent of the Syrian territory has been freed from terrorists, Assad noted that the aerial support provided by the Russian Aerospace Forces had been a key to resolving the conflict.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Gov't Troops Completing Daesh Defeat in Euphrates Valley - Russian MoD

Sputnik News

13:03 23.11.2017(updated 15:59 23.11.2017)

After the liberation of the last major Daesh stronghold in Syria by government forces, the town of Abu Kamal, a swath of territory along the west bank of the Euphrates River remains the only area where Daesh units are currently still operating.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Russian Defense Ministry has announced that Syrian government troops, supported by Russia's Aerospace Forces continue to carry out successful offensive operations in the Euphrates River Valley.

"As part of the offensive operation planned under the guidance of Russian military advisers, units of Syrian troops under the command of Gen. Hassan Suhel completely liberated the locality of Al Qurayya from Daesh terrorists over 24 hours," the ministry's statement said.

According to the Defense Ministry, Syrian army units are pursuing and eliminating groups of terrorists in the area of the Euphrates River valley and its west bank will soon be completely liberated by government troops, which will make it possible to complete the operation to defeat the remaining Daesh militants in eastern Syria.

After the Syrian armed forces announced on November 9 that the government had gained control of Abu Kamal, the last Daesh stronghold in Syria, terrorists launched a counter attack and managed to retake the city. A week later, the Syrian army broke back into Abu Kamal and with the assistance of Russian jets cleared the terrorists from the town.

This year the Daesh terrorist group has lost most of the territory it occupied during the Daesh lightning offensive in Syria and Iraq in 2014. The operation in the area around the town of Abu Kamal has been conducted in the wake of the breach of the blockade and complete liberation of the city of Deir ez-Zor, which secured a foothold for the further offensive of the Syrian Army in the province.

 Sputnik

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Turkey has sent seven extradition demands for Gulen to US: Minister

Iran Press TV

Thu Nov 23, 2017 01:27PM

Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul says his country has submitted a total of seven requests to US officials concerning the extradition of Pennsylvania-based opposition figure Fethullah Gulen, whom the Ankara government accuses of having masterminded the failed July 2016 coup.

Gul said on Thursday that Ankara still expects Washington to hand over the 76-year-old cleric to the "independent and impartial Turkish judiciary."

"It is the Turkish nation's right to expect such a move within the framework of international and bilateral agreements between Turkey and the US," he pointed out.

The Turkish minister further accused the US of protecting Gulen by not taking the necessary steps to extradite him.

On July 15, 2016, a faction of the Turkish military declared that it had seized control of the country and the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was no more in charge. The attempt was, however, suppressed a few hours later.

Turkey also accuses Gulen of being behind a long-running campaign to topple the government via infiltrating the country's institutions, particularly the army, police and the judiciary.

Additionally, the Ankara government has outlawed Gulen's movement and has branded it as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

Gulen has denounced the "despicable putsch" and reiterated that he had no role in it.

"Accusations against me related to the coup attempt are baseless and politically-motivated slanders," he said in a statement in July.

The cleric has also called on Ankara to end its "witch hunt" of his followers, a move he said was aimed at "weeding out anyone it deems disloyal to President Erdogan and his regime."

Turkish officials have frequently called on their US counterparts to extradite Gulen, but their demands have not been taken heed of.

Turkey, which remains in a state of emergency since the failed coup, has been engaged in suppressing the media and opposition groups suspected to have played a role in the botched coup.

Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in Turkey on suspicion of having links to Gulen and the failed coup. More than 110,000 others, including military staff, civil servants and journalists, have been sacked or suspended from work over the same accusations.

The international community and rights groups have been highly critical of the Turkish president over the massive dismissals and the crackdown.

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Cap Times Talks will bring you recordings of smart conversations about big topics in Madison.
Realm Real Estate Development of Sun Prairie has submitted plans with the city of Madison to construct a four-story building with 52 apartments and 8,100 square feet of retail at the corner of Capital and University avenues. The site had been home to a Brennan's Market since 1967 until it closed in September.
The Nokia 8 Oreo beta-testing program wrapped up two weeks ago and today the OS update started arriving to users in Finland and Poland. According to XDA Developers fan forum users, devices with model numbers TA-1004 and TA-1012 are among the lucky that get Android Oreo. HMD executive Juho Sarvikas confirmed the update.

The software upgrade brings new features like Picture-in-picture, detailed Notification dots for every app and Autofill passwords. It also comes with the November Security patch and faster boot times. Users share that YouTube runs seamlessly in the dual app mode, meaning you can watch videos and browse at the same time.

O k, here we go

R eviewed your feedback

E verything is polished

O fficial update rolling out today! #AndroidOreo #Nokia8 #Oreo #Nokiamobilebetalabs pic.twitter.com/QpZeh9JTu0  Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) November 24, 2017

The camera performance was also improved. You still cant set up the ISO and shutter speed manually, but the shutter can stay open for up to 0.5 seconds. Back in August, when the phone was announced, the AF had some issues, but now they are fixed.

Sarvikas says the update should arrive for everyone in two days, but if any carrier decides to review the upgrade one more time, some users might have to wait a week more.

Thanks for the tips, Simeon & Akilesh!

Source
A bullet and a mobile phone were found beside the alleged getaway car after the fatal shooting of a pub manager in Dublin, the Special Criminal Court has heard.

Eamonn Cumberton (30), of Mountjoy Street, Dublin 7, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Michael Barr (35) in the Sunset House pub in the north inner city on April 25, 2016.

It is the prosecution's case that Mr Cumberton is "inextricably linked" to items recovered from a partially burnt-out car near the scene and that the items themselves were "inextricably linked" to the shooting.

The non-jury court heard evidence yesterday related to the alleged getaway car.

James Fogarty had previously told the court that on the night of the shooting, he saw a car drive up onto the path on Walsh Road, in Drumcondra, before three people got out.

There were "flames in the passenger side", the court heard.

Mr Fogarty told the prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn yesterday that one of the people "might have dropped something shiny or bright... within a foot or so of the car".

He said that the people ran toward a silver car.

Under cross-examination, Mr Fogarty told Bernard Condon SC, for Mr Cumberton, that he did not see anybody else going over and opening the door of the car.

Detective Garda Michael Harkin told Mr McGinn that he drove to Walsh Road, where he saw a grey Audi with smoke coming out of the front passenger window.

Disturbed

The court heard that the detective extinguished the fire.

Det Gda Harkin said that he then noticed a phone ringing on the ground, close to the vehicle, and what appeared to be a 9mm bullet.

He said that he covered the bullet with a glove, to make sure it was not disturbed, and placed the phone in an evidence bag.

Earlier, Stephen Clifford told the court he was in the Sunset House on the night of the shooting, when he saw "two boys coming in with masks, putting a gun to [Mr Barr's] head".

"I thought it was a wind-up, until I saw him [Mr Barr] at my feet," he said.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Micheal Curtis told the court Mr Barr died from seven gunshot wounds, five to the head and one each to the shoulder and leg.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding.
Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald will be backed by the Taoiseach despite the lack of backing from Fianna Fail

The country is on the verge of a general election after Fianna Fail last night expressed no confidence in Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald.

However, it is understood that Leo Varadkar told an emergency meeting of Fine Gael TDs that he is backing Ms Fitzgerald and will not give in to Fianna Fail.

Mr Varadkar told TDs and senators in Leinster House that he will not allow the Tanaiste to be "thrown under the bus" on a trumped up charge.

He said the Government would try to avoid an election and also pointed out that, while Health Minister, Micheal Martin once failed to recall an email, a letter and two conversations relating a nursing home controversy.

The opposition party will table a motion of no confidence in Ms Fitzgerald today over her lack of response to an email outlining clashes between legal teams for An Garda Siochana and whistleblower Maurice McCabe in 2015.

Senior government sources said Mr Varadkar is not prepared to back down in the row because the Fianna Fail argument is "based on sand".

Crisis

The Taoiseach is set to cancel a visit to Irish soldiers in Mali and a meeting with European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker in the Ivory Coast so that he can deal with the crisis.

"The Government is resolute," said a source close to Mr Varadkar. "Frances Fitzgerald has done nothing wrong. The confidence and supply agreement couldn't be clearer so Fianna Fail need to pull back."

However, Fianna Fail is adamant that Ms Fitzgerald should resign in the national interest to avoid an election.

If the Dail is dissolved in the coming days, it is likely a general election would be called between December 15 and 23.

Mr Varadkar is due in Brussels on December 14 for a pivotal Brexit meeting to decide the future of the Northern Ireland border. If the Government collapses, tax cuts and social welfare hikes announced as part of last month's Budget are unlikely to be passed in time for January.

There were cheers from Fianna Fail TDs in the Dail bar as their justice spokesman Jim O'Callaghan appeared on RTE's Six One news to announce: "She should go".

Asked whether his party was prepared for an election, he said if Ms Fitzgerald refused to step aside, then "so be it".

A series of emergency meetings took place in Government Buildings after Mr O'Callaghan's appearance on television during which Mr Varadkar indicated he will fight an election if Fianna Fail does not back down.

"I think we're having an election," said a Cabinet minister.

"Genuinely, there is no question of the Tanaiste being asked to resign.

"The Fianna Fail case is built on sand. We won't allow a political execution to take place."

A spokesperson for the Independent Alliance said it still had confidence in Ms Fitzgerald.

The chain of events was sparked by Sinn Fein's decision to place a motion of no confidence in the Tanaiste on Wednesday.

Under the confidence and supply agreement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, the Opposition party is expected to abstain on votes of no confidence in ministers.

Fianna Fail refused to be outflanked by Gerry Adams and is in a position to table a similar motion on Tuesday.

The row centres on an email sent in May 2015 which outlined how legal teams for Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan and whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe clashed at the inquiry.

Ms Fitzgerald said she does not remember the email and that legally, she could not have intervened.

Kangaroo

Health Minister Simon Harris accused Sinn Fein of trying to turn the Dail into a kangaroo court. He said the email at the centre of the controversy has been handed to the Charleton Tribunal which is probing allegations of a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe.

"I think most citizens respect the fact that when you ask a judge to set up a tribunal, you actually allow the judge get on with his work," Mr Harris said.

Government sources have raised concerns that even if Ms Fitzgerald stands down, attention may turn to current Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan.

He is under pressure for not alerting the Taoiseach to the email even after Mr Varadkar told the Dail there was no evidence the Department of Justice was aware of attempts to discredit Sgt McCabe at the O'Higgins Commission.
A Government grant scheme worth more than 5m for Dublin's inner city has been cut, the Herald has learned.

The much-needed funding, which is run by Dublin City Council (DCC) and funded by the Department of Housing, is worth around 1m annually between 2018 and 2022.

Tenders for Sicap (Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme) were issued for funding in five Dublin regions.

However, the tender for the inner city has been rejected on technical grounds.

This area includes the capital's north inner city, where a number of gangland shootings have been carried out as part of the Hutch/Kinahan feud. It also suffers from anti-social issues.

The area was regularly visited by former taoiseach Enda Kenny, who commissioned the Mulvey Report in response to the outbreak of violence.

Blow

The report, produced by former head of the Workplace Relations Committee Kieran Mulvey, recommended a three-year action plan to regenerate the area.

These recommendations have now been dealt a massive blow by the loss of 5m funding.

A source close to the council's Local Community Development Committee (LCDC), which co-ordinates Sicap, said that it remains committed to providing funding for the inner city.

"Those affected shouldn't panic, the tender has been rejected but LCDC are still committed to funding the north and south inner city," the source said.

"The tendering process, brought in by Fine Gael, is effectively privatising vital community services and it is clearly failing."

It is understood that a three-month period will be given for the tender to be reviewed.

The vital services funded by the Sicap grant include education and training, youth education and community action programmes.

A spokeswoman for DCC said that it could not comment on the matter at this stage.
The prison worker at the centre of the Charlotte Mulhall jail sex probe has been moved by management.

His transfer comes as the Herald can reveal that jail bosses are investigating whether Mulhall may have been in a relationship with the worker for up to a year.

He no longer works in the Dochas Centre, and officials are now deciding how to deal with the matter.

The man has not yet been suspended from duty but is understood not to have shown up for work since the controversy erupted earlier this week.

The Herald revealed earlier this week that 'Scissor Sister' Mulhall is under investigation after a prison member of staff was found hiding in the en-suite bathroom of her cell.

The Irish Prison Service launched an investigation into suspicions that the 33-year-old had become involved in an "inappropriate sexual relationship" with the staff member after he was found in the bathroom of her accommodation last Sunday.

It has since emerged that the man was captured on CCTV entering Mulhall's accommodation.

The footage is being examined as part of a major disciplinary probe into the employee.

Gruesome

It is understood that the man was in the room for a number of minutes before prison staff entered.

It also emerged that a female prison officer was in the room for 10 minutes with Mulhall before the man was discovered "concealed" in the bathroom.

Mulhall is co-operating with the investigation and has not been disciplined or moved out of the Dochas Centre.

The matter is not the subject of a garda investigation.

Mulhall and her older sister Linda were dubbed the Scissor Sisters after their involvement in one of the most gruesome killings in the history of the State.

In October 2006, Charlotte Mulhall was handed a mandatory life sentence for murder, while her sister Linda received a sentence of 15 years for her part in the death of Farah Swaleh Noor.

The women's mother, Kathleen, was given a five-year sentence for cleaning up the grisly murder scene.

She served her sentence in the Dochas Centre with her daughters and is now living in Britain.

While Linda Mulhall is due to be released some time in January, Charlotte could face many more years behind bars.
A man charged with murdering a father-of-one in north Dublin told gardai he stabbed him in the side three times with a knife, his trial has heard.

The jury was also told that Andrew Gibney went to a garda station of his own will and told officers: "I was involved in the incident, the chap is dead now and I need to give him peace."

Sgt Patrick Traynor was giving evidence to the Central Criminal Court yesterday on the third day of the 25-year-old's trial.

Penetrated

Mr Gibney, of Dromheath Avenue, Mulhuddart, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Gerard Burnett (28) at Castlecurragh Vale, Mulhuddart, on August 21, 2012.

Sgt Traynor said he was on duty on August 28 when Mr Gibney and his father came into Blanchardstown Garda Station and asked to speak to someone about Mr Burnett's death.

The accused told Sgt Traynor that he had a knife on the night of the incident and had used it on Mr Burnett by stabbing him "three times in the side".

Chief State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy gave evidence on Wednesday that she carried out a post-mortem on Mr Burnett's body, which had been found in his porch.

She said there were 30 knife injuries, but only six stab wounds had deeply penetrated the skin.

Prof Cassidy testified that these six wounds were to the right side of Mr Burnett's chest and had caused internal injuries to his right lung, heart and liver.

Sgt Traynor agreed that Mr Gibney's father was present throughout their conversation.

When the accused was asked if he wanted to add or change anything to his statement, he said: "No, I'm sorry to the family." Mr Gibney was then arrested for assault causing serious harm.

Under cross-examination by Giollaiosa O Lideadha, defending, Sgt Traynor agreed that Mr Gibney and his father were upset at the time.

He also agreed that Mr Gibney's father had been away on holiday and when he came home he had found his son "in a ball", crying in his bedroom.

The two men spoke and then went to the station to make an admission, the court heard.

Earlier, the jury was told that gardai searched Mr Gibney's home on August 27 and four kitchen knives were seized.

The trial continues.
How good are these two guys, Penn State fans? It may surprise you ...
K ate Gordon suggests art-inspired Christmas presents from the shops at Londons museums and galleries.

ROYAL ACADEMY: FOR A SENSE OF CALM

If the mere thought that Christmas is just a few weeks away is making you feel frazzled, bring calm into your life with this Serenity gold platter, below, designed by the late, great architect Zaha Hadid and priced 225.

Or if you love to give scented candles for Christmas but fancy doing something a bit different this year, consider a beautifully designed concrete and gold-encased candle. Its perfumed with amber and the price is 30.

TRY TATE: FOR SOMETHING TO WAKE THEM UP  OR HELP THEM SLEEP

Tate Shop has a terrific selection of artist-designed homewares, including Doorways to the Kingdom of Heaven espresso cups and saucers by Damien Hirst  perfect for an art lovers morning coffee, below, priced 20 for a cup and saucer.

We are already eyeing the Louise Bourgeois-designed eye mask at 28. The French-American artist, who suffered terrible insomnia, described the concept of sleep as paradise .

DESIGN MUSEUM: FOR SOMETHING CUTTING EDGE

Paper vases, below, 11 from the Design Museum, double up as chic wrapping for bottles of wine.

Also check out the Arhoj range  based on a classic Japanese design, our choice is the Winter bowl, at 32.50.

STUDIO VOLTAIRE: FOR ARTISTS AND COOKS

For a variety of fabulous finds, visit this non-profit space in Clapham. We love the Pablo Bronstein Saint Sebastian pencil holder. Its artwork for the desktop at 390.

If the cook in your family also happens to be an art lover, get them some amazing washing-up gloves, above, priced 50, by the artist Wilma Johnson.

GEFFRYE MUSEUM OF THE HOME: IT MUST BE TIME FOR TEA

Londons only museum dedicated to the home is the place for unusual homeware gifts. The Stump teapot, below, is 25.

BRITISH MUSEUM: FOR TRADITIONALISTS

A hand-patinated replica of Aphrodites head, below, 750, is stunning for a library or study. Its moulded from the original thats in the museums own collection of Greek and Roman antiquities.

The bronzed 30-minute hourglass, 99, has all kinds of uses. We know a chap who uses it to monitor the time his kids spend on screen.

SIR JOHN SOANES MUSEUM: TAKE TIPS FROM THE MASTER

The home in Lincolns Inn Fields of neo-classical architect John Soane (1753-1837), who built the Bank of England, features convex mirrors at every turn. Soane used them to bring in light and to expand the impression of spaciousness throughout the house  an idea that works perfectly year round, not just at Christmas. This one, below, sells for 55.

While youre there, book lovers cant fail to be impressed by the Corinthian Architectural Bookends, 150.

NATIONAL GALLERY: BARGAIN DA VINCI

For a Leonardo you can afford, take a look at this beautiful cushion, below, 35. Designed exclusively for the National Gallery, it features the angel from The Virgin of the Rocks.

And after all that Christmas shopping youll be ready for a well-earned rest and a drink, so treat yourself to a set of six coasters, priced 6.95, featuring images from some of the gallerys best-known portraits.
Editor Emeritus Dave Zweifel has been with The Capital Times since he graduated from UW-Madison in 1962, serving as the paper's editor in chief from 1983 to 2008. He was president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council for 15 years, served as a Pulitzer Prize judge in 2000 and 2001, and named to the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2011. A native of New Glarus, Wis., where he grew up on a farm, he serves on several non-profit boards and is a military veteran, having served on active duty as a field artillery officer in the early 1960s and for 26 years in the Wisconsin Army National Guard where he retired as a colonel in 1993.
Ottawa, Canada  Benbria Corporation, a leader in the area of mobile and text-based customer engagement, today announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with TaraSpan, a leading India-based unified communication solutions provider, to offer Benbria's Loop guest engagement solution throughout the region.

TaraSpan will be representing the entire suite of products offered by Benbria  all designed to help deliver a superior customer experience and drive greater overall loyalty. Their Loop Messenger suite is a personalized, one-on-one instant messaging solution that helps build powerful connections between a brand and their customers. Loop OnDemand allows guests to ask for frequently-requested items at the touch of a button, which are then routed to the relevant team members who can take immediate action to fulfill them. Finally, Loop Pulse is their mobile engagement solution that measures customer sentiment and allows you to communicate with and recover those at risk.

"Messaging with customers in real-time and using this as a gateway for improving their experience is key," said Jordan Parsons, CEO at Benbria. "We developed our Loop guest engagement platform and related software suite, to allow customers to communicate directly with a brand globally, and are very excited to be entering the South Asia market through our new partnership".

One of the biggest challenges for businesses today is the continuously evolving expectations of the customer when it comes to access to staff and their preferred method of communication. They expect a business to offer them personalized services and value for their money along with being accessible and quick to deliver upon requests. This is the area where they need to perform extremely well in order to stay ahead of their competition. Savvy customers expect to be able to communicate with a business using their personal mobile device and expect to have their questions and concerns routed to the right person, and answered quickly. This is the challenge Benbria's Loop solution is helping businesses worldwide overcome.

"We believe in empowering brands by providing them the right technology so customers can have hassle free services, an improved overall experience, and drive loyalty. Benbria has a revolutionary product that is changing the way companies engage with their customers." says Nihar Ranjan Sahoo  MD, TaraSpan.

Indian businesses can learn more about the Benbria suite of guest engagement solutions by speaking with their TaraSpan representative, visiting their Website at www.taraspan.com, or by visiting Benbria's global site at www.benbria.com.

AboutBenbria

Benbria is a leader in the area of mobile and text customer engagement, helping the world's greatest retail, hospitality, and restaurant brands to deliver a superior customer experience that goes above and beyond their competitors. Using a variety of mobile, in-store, and on-property technologies  including SMS, email, Web, mobile app and kiosk  Loop enables brands to capture and direct real-time customer requests, concerns, suggestions, and positive input to management and employees for action and closure. Closing the loop through on-the-spot staff action helps brands to quickly enhance the customer experience during visits, save dissatisfied customers, improve in-store sales conversion rates, avoid online criticism, and foster positive reviews.

AboutTaraSpan

TaraSpan is a multinational company with headquarters in India and Canada. Our customers include some of the World's foremost technology companies and India's prominent corporates. With more than 10 years since our inception, today we have offices in India in Gurgaon, Mumbai , Bangalore & Pune and we represent and sell some of the world's best technology products in the area of Unified Collaboration to Indian corporates. Our comprehensive portfolio includes IP telephony, Contact Center Solutions, Video conferencing & Mobility Enterprise solutions.

Media Enquiries:

Nicole Jardim

Benbria Corporation

[email protected]

Diwakar Loomba

TaraSpan

[email protected]

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Dusit International, one of Thailand's foremost hotel and property development companies, joined forces with leading consulting and services organization, HVS Asia Pacific, to co-host HVS Hotel Market Connections Bangkok  an exclusive seminar for hospitality leaders, hotel owners and developers  at Dusit Thani Bangkok, on 23 November 2017.

Designed to create cross-functional dialogues on the latest trends and critical issues in the hospitality industry, the event featured engaging presentations and interactive panel discussions with major industry executives in the region.

"HVS Hotel Market Connections Bangkok was a resounding success and we are delighted to have been a part of it," said Mr Lim Boon Kwee, Chief Operating Officer, Dusit International. "The shared knowledge and experience of the panellists proved a potent combination, delivering valuable insights and updates for all in attendance. It was truly an enriching experience for owners, developers and managers alike."

Daniel J Voellm, Managing Partner at HVS Asia Pacific, said, "With ideas and insights flowing free and fast, the event demonstrated the firm's strong footing in the region. The diverse group of guest speakers and panellists offered vast scope in their discourse providing plenty of food for thought in an iconic setting  the Dusit Thani Bangkok. Building on this success, we look forward to future HVS Market Connection events."

About HVS

HVS, the world's leading consulting and services organization focused on the hotel, mixed-use, shared ownership, gaming, and leisure industries, celebrated its 35th anniversary last year. Established in 1980, the company performs 4,500+ assignments each year for hotel and real estate owners, operators, and developers worldwide. HVS principals are regarded as the leading experts in their respective regions of the globe. Through a network of more than 40 offices and more than 350 professionals, HVS provides an unparalleled range of complementary services for the hospitality industry.

For more information, please visit www.HVS.com.

About Dusit International

Established in 1948, Dusit International or Dusit Thani Public Company Limited (DUSIT) is a leading hospitality group listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Its operations comprise five distinct yet complementary business units: hotels and resorts, hospitality education, food, property development, and hospitality-related services.

The group's portfolio of hotels, resorts and luxury villas includes more than 300 properties operating under a total of six brands (Dusit Thani, Dusit Devarana, dusitD2, Dusit Princess, ASAI Hotels, and Elite Havens) across 16 countries worldwide. The group also operates culinary schools and hospitality colleges in Thailand, plus catering companies for the education sector in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Dusit International's diversified investments in real estate development, hospitality-related services, and the food sector are part of its long-term strategy for sustainable growth, which focuses on three key areas: balance, expansion and diversification.

For more information, please visit dusit-international.com.
TOMAH  Three years after their son died from a lethal mix of drugs prescribed by doctors at the Tomah VA Medical Center, Marvin and Linda Simcakoski returned Wednesday to recognize the hospitals strides to reduce opioid use and focus on patient-centered care.

Linda Simcakoski said her son, 35-year-old Marine Jason Simcakoski, was drugged all the time before his death in August 2014 from a mix of opiates and Valium. Whenever she and her husband met with his doctors, she said, they seemed uninterested in their concerns.

It always felt like we were butting heads, she said during a Wednesday news conference to showcase the centers improvements. That has changed.

Simcakoskis death was one of several linked to the misuse of opioids by the Tomah VA, where such prescriptions were so common that patients called the center Candy Land, according to a report by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The 2015 story, which detailed a culture of retaliation against employees who spoke out, triggered an 18-month congressional investigation, ended several careers and inspired a host of new laws and policies aimed at reforming the way VA treats both pain and whistleblowers.

Under new leadership, the Tomah VA has reduced reliance on opioid painkillers and embraced alternative and holistic approaches to pain and patient health.

Simcakoski, of Stevens Point, said she has noticed a change in the culture as well. Workers who once kept quiet for fear of retribution are now speaking up  and being heard.

People are listening, she said.

Victoria Brahm, who took over as director of the center in October 2015, said a common mission of service has provided the energy and courage to move forward and regain the trust of those veterans that we let down.

This is a new VA, said Jake Leinenkugel, the former head of the Chippewa Falls brewing company who now serves as a White House adviser to the VA. When I talk to veterans, Im telling you at least nine out of 10 tell me that they are getting fantastic care.

A Marine Corps veteran, Leinenkugel said that while media coverage focuses on the VAs shortcomings, Wisconsins Congressional leadership on veterans issues are the high point in the country. Leinenkugel noted that trust in the VA has grown from about half of veterans in 2014 to nearly three-quarters, though he would like to see more gains.

We need to regain the trust of our veterans, he said. Were not there yet.

Data provided by the VA show the share of patients receiving high doses of opioids (more than 400 milligrams per day morphine equivalent) has been cut roughly in half  from a little more than 1 percent in 2013 to a little more than 0.5 percent, or just eight patients.

The Tomah VA has reduced the number of patients receiving lower doses by about half.

Although Tomahs opioid prescription rates remain above the average for the VAs Great Lakes network, which serves more than 220,000 veterans in three states, Brahm said it takes time to wean patients off high doses and notes that the Tomah clinic specializes in mental health and substance abuse.

These are the patients that struggle, she said.

VA data show Tomah has made strides in educating patients and cutting down on abuse. While fewer than 40 percent of chronic opioid therapy patients were drug tested in 2013, that number had reached nearly 90 percent by June, higher than any other hospital in the network. Drug tests help ensure that patients are taking the drugs they are prescribed  rather than selling them  and not taking others.

As part of the move away from narcotics, Tomah introduced a program known as Pain University and has since been tapped as one of 18 centers to implement the VAs new Whole Health approach, a patient-centered approach to improving health.

Shawn Plante, a 40-year-old Army veteran who struggled with chronic pain and PTSD, said his quality of life dramatically improved since starting the program, which incorporates alternative medicine such as acupuncture and aromatherapy, as well as meditation and yoga.

I didnt go anywhere. I didnt do anything, he said. I basically stayed home in pain.

Now hes active in the local VFW and is part of the honor guard.

Linda Simcakoski said if the program had been available to her son, he would still be alive.

Tony Worden said Pain University saved his life.

Worden, who suffered shoulder and leg injuries in a 1980s submarine collision, said he self-medicated with pills and alcohol for decades before coming to the Tomah VA in 2014, about the time of Simcakoskis death.

I was in a hole, he said. It was not a good place.

Since starting Pain University in April, Worden said hes now able to control his anxiety enough to go out. And while hes still in pain, he can manage it without pills.

The pain is there, Worden said. Its next to me. Its not my whole life.
Last Wednesday 22nd November, EHL signed a partnership with the EHT in Cambodia to train future professionals. EHT, founded by Paul Dubrule, co-founder of the Accor hotel group, is a vocational school that offers new perspectives to young ambitious students who aim to develop a career in the hospitality industry.

For its part, EHL commits to the academic and professional success of EHT Paul Dubrule under their Corporate Social Responsibility program. These engagements, based on common values of excellence, generosity and sharing, focus on the strategic and operational development of EHT Paul Dubrule in order to strengthen the institution's regional status and take the form of academic and managerial support and interventions by several EHL experts in Cambodia.

"Our aim is to support skilled young individuals, willing to succeed, bursting with talent and who are committed to their self-realization. It is with great pride that we put ourselves at the service of a youth whose minds are buzzing with dreams and innovative ideas; they just lack an appropriate educational environment", explains Andre Witschi, President of the Board of Governors of EHL.

About Ecole d'Hotellerie et de Tourisme Paul Dubrule

The Ecole d'Hotellerie et de Tourisme Paul Dubrule (Ecole Paul Dubrule) is a nonprofit organization and the personal initiative of Paul Dubrule, co-founder of AccorHotels. Founded in 2002, the Ecole Paul Dubrule has progressively established itself as one of the most renowned vocational hospitality institutions in South East Asia. In close collaboration with the prestigious Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne, Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne 2 we are preparing 300 young Cambodians every year for a dynamic career in the hospitality and tourism industry. Located in Siem Reap, near the temples of Angkor Wat, our mission is to allow young Cambodians and people from the ASEAN community access to an innovative and professional education. Our aim is to transfer the necessary knowledge and competencies to succeed in a management or entrepreneurial career in the hospitality and tourism industry, building tomorrow's leaders.

About EHL Group

EHL Group is the global reference in education, innovation and consulting for the hospitality and service sector.

With expertise dating back to 1893, EHL Group now offers a wide range of leading educational programs from apprenticeships to master's degrees, as well as professional and executive education, on three campuses in Switzerland and Singapore. EHL Group also offers consulting and certification services to companies and learning centers around the world. True to its values and committed to building a sustainable world, EHL Group's purpose is to provide education, services and working environments that are people-centered and open to the world. www.ehlgroup.com

Sherif Mamdouh

External Communications Manager

EHL
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
Its been four years since Just Bakery took in its first group of students, and since then, director Carmella Glenn said shes seen more than 200 success stories come through the kitchen.

Many of the students she mentored through Just Bakerys commercial baking program came in with serious barriers to finding employment. Some were homeless. Some were recovering drug addicts. Many had criminal histories and spent time in jail or prison.

But thats what Just Bakery is about. Its a fresh start for people to commit themselves to learning a skill that will help them break down some of the barriers they face.

Through the program, which is a part of Madison Area Urban Ministry, participants dont just learn how to make a few dozen cookies. They learn to bake on a commercial level by filling orders for thousands of cookies, cinnamon rolls, pies and other treats that are bought by and sold at area churches and businesses, including UW Health, which orders about 4,000 cookies each week, Glenn said.

The program isnt just about slinging dough and cutting cookies. Participants learn the math and chemistry involved with large-scale baking from instructors like Jaclyn Eitrem. Students also receive one-on-one case management sessions. Staff also help students find jobs, prepare them for interviews and motivate them to put their best qualities on display.

You can hear someone tell you something over and over again, but to actually get in and learn these skills and take out and utilize and sell yourself with them, thats so important, Eitrem said.

It costs about $3,500 to put each student through Just Bakerys program, Glenn said, but funding from Madison, Dane County and the United Way covers that cost.

Just Bakery moved into its Far East Side location at 1708 Thierer Road earlier this year. The new kitchen gives the program a more stable environment with more consistent access to the kitchen than the rent-by-the-hour kitchen the program worked at before.

The Just Bakery staff doesnt pretend like life is going to be easy for each of their participants. They know that housing insecurity and a history of incarceration place major roadblocks moving forward. Thats why well-rounded training and food-safety certifications are offered through the program. Applicants from Just Bakery are ready to work in commercial bakeries with little additional training required.

Having the experience, having the certification makes it harder for an employer to ignore your application, Eitrem said.

Annie Christian is one of Just Bakerys successful participants. She came to the program on a recommendation from her parole officer. She had gotten out of prison after serving time for her role in a series of robberies, and she was looking to turn her life around.

But as she was getting ready to take her food-safety certification test through ServSafe, she relapsed on heroine. Christian didnt let that stop her from getting back on track. After getting clean once again, Christian called Glenn, who re-enrolled Christian without hesitation.

Now, Christian, 32, says she feels better than she ever has in her adult life. She finally completed the program, shes about eight months sober, and shes now a paid commercial baker at Just Bakery.

Christian is one of about 100 participants to complete the full three-month  formerly four-month  program.

But Glenn doesnt only see the graduates as success stories for the program.

The students are at the kitchen or in the classroom for 30 hours over 12 weeks, and while they arent paying tuition, they also arent getting paid. The staff encourages and helps students seek other employment while they are in the program, but sometimes those schedules overlap. Many students have had to drop out to maintain their jobs.

Thats not a bad thing, Glenn said. She considers those students success stories as well because they accomplished what the program hopes for them  they secured employment despite the marks against them.

Although 100 actually graduated, Glenn says more than double that successfully completed the program.

Sometimes it isnt work that gets in the way of completing the program, though. Since many of the programs participants struggle with drug addiction, relapses have blocked some students from coming to class, as it did for Christian.

Our equipments big. If you arent right (sober), you could get hurt. You could hurt someone else, Eitrem said. A lot of our students are recovering, too, so its disrespectful to them to have someone under the influence coming into class. They can smell the alcohol or something and that could be a trigger. Then its not a safe environment for them.

But a relapse doesnt have to end a persons relationship with Just Bakery, Glenn said. Anyone can come back to the program when they are ready, she said. Christian stands as an example for that.

Glenn went through a lot of stuff with me, with my addiction and getting clean again, Christian said. I call her a motivator.

Glenn said she is passionate about working with her students because she doesnt see their struggles as an outsider. She grew up with family members in and out of jail or prison. She even spent time in jail herself after being pulled over for drunken driving. It was through turning herself around and seeing family do the same that Glenn realized she wanted to empower more people who went through similar experiences

I realized the systems broken, but the people arent, Glenn said.

It isnt only Just Bakery and Madison Area Urban Ministry promoting the idea of re-integration after incarceration. Just Bakery is working on a partnership with Madison Area Technical College to create a pathway to enroll in the school.

The current plan is that Just Bakery will modify its lessons to become accredited by the National Restaurant Association, and the college will transfer 11 credits of prior learning to a students degree.

MATCs Paul Short of the culinary arts program and Suzanne Daly of the baking and decorative arts program confirmed the upcoming partnership, although Daly said the baking agreement was still in the preliminary stages.
Mary Migala and Amanda Kessler had been at it for more than 13 hours but there was still much to do.

Migala, 51, of Necedah, was on a quest to complete Christmas shopping for her 11 grandchildren. Amanda Kessler, 33, of Reedsburg, had the same mindset for her two children.

The mother-daughter duo was lined up at the food court entrance of West Towne Mall Friday waiting for the doors to open at 6 a.m. But by that time, they had already hit the Walmart in Baraboo, Toys R Us and Kohls at West Towne and finished a 1 a.m. meal at Dennys after waiting 30 minutes for a table. Their plan for the mall included stops at Bath & Body Works, Victorias Secret and Hot Topic with a final stop at Barnes & Noble, west of the mall.

And then we wrap them when we get home and its all done, said Migala, who has been doing early morning shopping with her daughter for seven years. Trust me, theres no makeup by the end of the morning because weve laughed it off.

Black Friday may have lost some of the luster of years past when stores were closed on Thanksgiving Day but the mega shopping day continues to be a big event for shoppers and retailers. An estimated 69 percent of Americans plan to shop during Thanksgiving weekend, according to the National Retail Federation, with spending for the holiday season predicted to increase by as much as 4 percent to $682 billion.

West Towne, which draws 14 million shoppers a year, opened on Black Friday instead of Thanksgiving Day for the second straight year. Music echoed through the mall from a DJ, a selfie booth was set up and prizes for shoppers were planned throughout the day.

Weve done a lot to try and bring back the magic of Black Friday, said Megan Ballard, the malls general manager. Traffic- and volume-wise, we found that opening on Thanksgiving didnt really impact sales in a positive manner. We were just spreading the sales over a longer period of time. We probably will see more people today.

Ballard expected crowds to grow throughout the day but by 6:30 a.m., Pink, a clothing store for teens and young adults, was crammed with shoppers. A line snaked through the store, where sweatshirts were on sale for $30, V-neck T-shirts for $10 and bras for $25.

Alice Bertelrud, of New Glarus, stood outside the store with three large shopping bags while her daughter and niece shopped inside. They left New Glarus at about 4:45 a.m. but on Thanksgiving Day were at Walmart and Shopko in Monroe. Bertelrud has been joining the Black Friday crowds for more than 20 years. She also planned to stop at Menards, Target and at the Mattel store in Middleton for American Girl items and said her savings could top $250.

I dont mind it, Bertelrud said of the early morning and Thanksgiving Day shopping. People are very nice.

The mall is home to major anchor stores such as Boston Store and JC Penney but also features about 30 kiosks selling candy, cell phone cases, games, calendars, toys and jewelry. Pedro Ruiz, of Sun Prairie, has been selling stainless steel jewelry with his wife out of their home and at house parties for the past 18 months. This year marked the first time they have rented kiosks for the holiday season for their Elisa Jewelry business at both West Towne and East Towne malls. Mall business from October to February could account for 40 to 50 percent of their annual sales.

We hope this kicks it up to a new level, Ruiz said. We saw the market and we think the market is there for it, especially at the prices we have.

By noon, temperatures in the Madison area approached 60 degrees, which made the logistics of the day easier. The morning rush had also subsided and created a relatively relaxed experience for Karen Barman of Black Earth. Her first stop was at Farm & Fleet where her deals included 99-cent gallons of windshield-washer fluid, a snow shovel and bags of nuts.

Even the traffic is lighter, Barman, 53, said of shopping later in the day. I dont go early and I get what I want anyway.

In Middleton, parking was at a premium at Greenway Station. Most stores at the outdoor lifestyle mall avoided the early morning hours, which was just fine with Becky Duffy, 54, of Waunakee, who was shopping with her mother.

My mom lives in Minocqua so when shes down this is like retail therapy, said Duffy, who was shopping at Langs, a calendar and gift store. Theres been lots of lines but everybody has been really happy.

Thanksgiving Day shoppers were met with temperatures near 40 degrees and, later, a waxing crescent moon.

At the Kohls store at West Towne, an estimated 1,000 people were either in line or waiting in their cars when the store opened at 5 p.m. Thursday, an hour earlier than last years opening, said Todd Pralle, the stores manager for the past 14 years. Many shoppers were after electronics such as a $189 Xbox, $199 Sony PlayStation and a 55-inch, 4K ultra HDTV television for $300.

Pralle had about 120 employees in the store Thursday night, but a tight labor market with a low unemployment rate has not made holiday hiring easy for most retailers in Madison. Pralle said he could use another 30 employees, which is why a banner hung on the buildings exterior and yard signs dotted the landscaping advertising that the store was hiring.

Its a little bit tougher than normal but well make it, Pralle said. The people we have, theyll work some hours and some overtime but it would be nice if we could add a few more. Some people want to be seasonal for the holidays but those who want to stay on part-time, weve never had a situation where we cant keep them on.

Toys R Us opened at 5 p.m. Thursday with between 150 and 200 people in line looking for half-priced Nerf guns and board games like Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land for $5. The store stayed open all night and was scheduled to close Friday at 11 p.m. said Jeff Poteete, who is in his seventh Christmas season at the store.

It really helps spread it out so its not as stressful on the store, Poteete said of the extended hours. You dont have that big rush all at one time. So I think its worth it. Its easier on the store and easier on the staff.
Ireland's minority government is facing crisis as a row over the future of its deputy premier threatened the confidence and supply deal keeping the Fine Gael-led administration in power

Mr Varadkar met Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, pictured, for under an hour in Government Buildings in Dublin

Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has pledged to try to resolve a crisis which has threatened the future of his minority Government and a snap election.

Mr Varadkar met Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin for under an hour in Government Buildings in Dublin amid a deepening row over attempts to have a senior minister sacked.

And he vowed to continue negotiations.

"I think we still have an opportunity over the next couple of days and the weekend to avoid a general election," he said.

"I don't want there to be a general election. I don't think Micheal Martin wants one either."

Mr Martin, whose party is keeping the Taoiseach's Fine Gael Government alive through an 18-month-old confidence and supply agreement, has refused to budge on a motion of no confidence in deputy prime minister Frances Fitzgerald.

It is scheduled for next Tuesday and was called over the handling of a 2015 email that revealed attempts to discredit a Garda whistleblower.

But the threat of an election has caused turmoil in government and political circles, with the biggest fear that it would be fought in the teeth of Brexit negotiations which could determine the future of the Irish border.

The Taoiseach said he would not be seeking Mrs Fitzgerald's resignation and he said the case against her was flimsy.

The crisis centres on Mrs Fitzgerald's knowledge of a legal strategy to be employed by lawyers for the Garda Commissioner that was designed to discredit whistleblower Garda Sergeant Maurice McCabe at a private inquiry into his allegations of bad policing.

The information was contained in an email sent to the Tanaiste by a deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Justice in 2015. It also advised that legally she had no grounds to intervene.

The Taoiseach said Mrs Fitzgerald had been advised not to intervene in the legal strategy. He said that has since been backed up by advice from the Attorney General.

The Tanaiste has faced days of allegations from opposition parties that she was aware of the campaign by lawyers for the Garda Commissioner and took no action.

Sinn Fein were first out of the blocks earlier this week with plans for a motion of no confidence.

Fianna Fail followed suit as the row deepened. But Mr Martin's demands for a head could ultimately bring down the minority Government as it signed up to abstain on motions of no confidence for three years.

Mr Varadkar said it was an issue of "truth, justice and fairness".

"I don't believe that the decapitation of the Tanaiste, based on trumped up charges, is fair," he told RTE's Six One News.

The treatment of Sergeant McCabe over several years and allegations of a smear campaign against him are being examined by the Disclosures Tribunal, chaired by Judge Peter Charleton.

The tribunal announced that in January it would also examine the email issue.

"Let's all calm down a bit, let's pause for reflection, let's withdraw these motions, get on with the business of parliament, of government over the next couple of weeks and allow the Charleton Tribunal, starting on January 8, get on with its work," Mr Varadkar said.

The Taoiseach said he would not sack Mrs Fitzgerald to save the Government.

"What that would mean is me throwing a good woman under a bus for political expediency, to save myself and my own Government and that would be the wrong thing to do," he said.

Discussions between the Taoiseach and Mr Martin, described as open and frank, are to continue.

Mr Varadkar said that if a snap election is forced it will be called on Tuesday and it would be held in the week before Christmas. He rejected suggestions that it could be delayed until January.

"I don't know if it is the wishes of the country that we should have an execution without trial," the Taoiseach said.

"I think Irish people deep down believe in fair play, believe in justice, believe people should get a fair hearing and that we shouldn't have kangaroo courts and that the Dail (parliament) shouldn't operate in this manner."

Mr Varadkar said that an election in the week before Christmas would allow him to attend the European summit on Brexit in mid-December.

"In the final analysis you have to do what you feel is right," he said.

"I don't feel a summary execution of Frances Fitzgerald, when people don't even know the facts, when people don't even know the charge against even, is, would be wrong."

The Green Party urged both Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein to postpone the motions until the new year to allow time for the Brexit negotiations.

The Independent Alliance, which supports the Government, urged both sides to pull back from the brink.

Shane Ross, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, said: "Going to the country in the weeks before Christmas is not what the public either needs or wants.

"Given present indications it seems possible, even likely, it could take months for a government to be formed."

The moves against the Tanaiste could lead to a general election being held right in the midst of a crunch Brexit summit in mid-December when the Irish border question is front and centre.

Another prospect is that voters could be asked to go to the polls in January.

The Tanaiste has said she cannot remember getting the email in 2015. It alerted her that "a serious criminal complaint", which had always been denied by Sgt McCabe, was raised at the commission.
The Border issue is much more likely to scupper a deal at December's key Brexit summit of EU leaders than money or citizens' rights, the head of a UK-headquartered think-tank has said.

However, Charles Grant, of the Centre for European Reform, which Michel Barnier addressed earlier this week, said he believes a deal can be done - if Ireland agrees to language that signals there would be no regulatory divergence between the North and the Republic.

France and Germany are among the countries keen to move on to the next phase of the talks dealing with the future relationship, Mr Grant said.

If Ireland is the only obstacle, the Government will be "politely" encouraged to accept some form of compromise, he added, referring to recent meetings he has had in Brussels with both the UK and EU sides.

"Then the really difficult decisions on the Border and Ireland get postponed for phase two," Mr Grant told the Irish Independent.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said yesterday that it would be seen in the coming days whether sufficient progress had been made on the three key issues - citizens' rights, the financial settlement and Ireland - to be able to move on to the trade talks.

There has been speculation there may be support in Britain for the UK government to offer more money as part of the divorce bill, signalling the possibility of a deal in that once-controversial area.

The sides also appear to believe they are quite close on agreeing the scope of rights for expat citizens in Britain and on the continent.

That leaves the Border question, which remains a potential stumbling block. The differences of opinion between Ireland and the UK remain marked.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney told an Oireachtas Committee yesterday that he is hopeful a deal can be reached next month, but added it is by no means "pre-determined".

The Government has said it wants to ensure the UK is committed to not having regulatory divergence between the North and the Republic.

"On money, everybody in Brussels can see how a deal can be done," Mr Grant added.

"There may be problems, but the British have to cough up and the EU has to be seen to give them something in return, in terms of some political agreement on transition arrangements and talks on the future trade arrangements.

"It is not beyond the wit of man to get the two sides to come together on the money. The officials on both sides think they know how to do it.

"Ireland is much more difficult. If the Irish take a maximalist view on what they want to get the British to sign up to, there won't be a deal at all.

"If the Irish are prepared to accept vague assurances that the British agree that the North will have some regulatory convergence with the south, which I think the British can sign up to, then we can declare a deal in December."

Meanwhile, Minister of State for European Affairs Helen McEntee said the French government would give Ireland its "full support" during testy talks over the Border.

Ms McEntee was speaking after she met France's Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau in Paris yesterday.
Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara with Jim Clery, partner, head of Real Estate at KPMG Ireland, at the KMPG Irish Independent Property Industry Excellence Awards at the Convention Centre in Dublin last night. Photo: Iain White

Over 800 of Ireland's leading property professionals came together at the Convention Centre Dublin last night for the announcement of the winners of this year's KPMG Irish Independent Property Industry Excellence Awards.

More than 120 shortlisted nominations were considered across 11 categories by the judging panel. Chaired by Professor Brian Norton, president of DIT, the judges are leaders from related property professional bodies, including: Carole Pollard, president of RIAI; Pat Davitt, CEO of IPAV and Tom Parlon, director general of The CIF.

Both the 2017 Overall Winner and Outstanding Contribution to the Property Industry awards went to Grafton Architects.

Founded by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara in 1978, the firm has forged a global reputation for its work in Ireland, the UK, Italy, France, and Peru, and won the prize for World Building of the Year in 2008 for the Bocconi University project in Milan. This year, Ms Farrell and Ms McNamara are curators of the prestigious Venice Architecture Biennale.

Last night, Henry J Lyons Architects secured the Design Project of the Year award for its work on the Central Bank's new headquarters, while Tobin Engineering earned the Community Benefit award for Sport Ireland's National Indoor Arena.

The award for Commercial Agency went to Savills Ireland while Hooke & Mac Donald emerged as Residential Agency of the year.

The other winners were Joe McGinley of Iconic Offices and Roisin Lafferty of Kingston Lafferty Design (Emerging Talent), Irish Life Investment Managers (Property Investment Fund Manager of the Year), John Paul Construction (Contractor of the Year), Cairn Homes (Excellence in Planning for Marianella, Rathgar), Cosgrave Developments (Energy Efficiency award for Cualanor, Dun Laoghaire), Anderson Auctioneers (Regional Excellence).

Speaking at the awards, Paul Muldoon of INM thanked its sponsors KPMG, PINERGY and Eugene F Collins Solicitors for their support. He also acknowledged patrons Hibernia REIT, Irish Life, Cosgrave Developments and Linesight for their support of the DIT doctorate in Property Research.
The lack of a clear Brexit plan could potentially wreak havoc on the decades of progress made in the areas of animal and public health across the island of Ireland, according to the President of Veterinary Ireland.

Speaking at the 2017 Veterinary Ireland Conference in Kilkenny today, John V. O'Connor President of Veterinary Ireland warned that after decades of working closely with the UK and the EU to establish an all-island approach to animal health, public health, animal welfare and environmental protection, Brexit has the potential to seriously undo all this good work and jeopardise the high levels of animal health, welfare and public health across Ireland and the EU.

"Whatever the outcome of the negotiations, the biggest challenge is establishing an animal health policy with no dilution of current standards, which suits all vets, farmers, animal owners and the Irish livestock industry," Mr O'Connor added.

Mr O'Connor also highlighted the impact that Brexit would have on licensing and use of veterinary medicines.

"Currently, European legislation regulates the way veterinary medicines are authorised, marketed and used. Post-Brexit, the access for the UK and Ireland to veterinary medicines could potentially be restricted," he said.

"The UK needs to maintain a close working relationship with Ireland and the EU and , in particular the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

"We have progressed towards a regulatory and societal climate which leads, encourages and values innovation - allowing companies to develop new and improved medicines for animal health and welfare; ensuring safe, sustainable and productive global food systems. It is critical that these systems and practices remain in place," Mr O' Connor added.

The Veterinary Ireland conference follows a Brexit Co-ordination meeting held by Veterinary Ireland and its counterparts in the British Veterinary Association in Belfast in October 2017.

The meeting highlighted how the veterinary profession across the island of Ireland and in Great Britain must continue to have access to medicines for the treatment of animals and to meet standards that ensure safety, quality and efficacy.

Delegates attending the conference today were also told how the veterinary profession plays an increasingly vital role in today's society with growing consumer concerns around food safety, antimicrobial resistance and environmental protection.

"Our role and remit is expanding all the time and encompasses much more than animal health and welfare. Ensuring animal health, public health, food safety and animal welfare requires a cross-border and a collaborative international approach to avoid potential adverse consequences for both animal and public health. Brexit negotiators must be mindful of the risks posed to these sectors as they navigate and establish new policies for a post Brexit-era," added Veterinary Ireland President John V. O'Connor.
The failure of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to support amendments to the Finance Bill which would have reduced the exposure of land buyers under the new stamp duty regime has been slammed by Roscommon-Galway TD, Michael Fitzmaurice.

Mr Fitzmaurice and fellow Independent TD, Mattie McGrath, proposed an amendment to the Finance Bill which would have resulted in a sliding scale of stamp duty charges.

The amendment proposed that a rate of 2pc would be charged on all land purchases up to the value of 300,000.

A rate of 4pc would apply on land transactions between 300,000 and 500,000, with a 6pc rate being charged on all deals in excess of 500,000.

However, the amendment was not supported by either Fine Gael or Fianna Fail.

In the recent Budget it was initially announced that stamp duty on sales of non-residential land would rise from 2pc to 6pc.

However, following a post-Budget backlash, the Government agreed to put exemptions in place for farmers.

Under the proposed rules, it will be possible for all gifts and sales of farmlands to close relations - who do not qualify for the 100pc exemption available under the Young Trained Farmer Scheme - to benefit from consanguinity relief at a stamp duty rate of 1pc.

In addition, all farmers under the age of 35 who buy agricultural land will continue to be exempt from the higher stamp duty rate.

However, Mr Fitzmaurice pointed out that the current proposals will still cost ordinary land buyers thousands of euro in extra stamp duty.

For a 150,000 land purchase, the stamp duty charge will rise from 3,000 to 9,000 - an increase of 6,000.

Meanwhile, a 300,000 purchase will incur an additional 12,000 charge.

"How are we supposed to encourage people to set up businesses or extend their family farms? It files in the face of normality and cop-on," Mr Fitzmaurice claimed.

"It is sad that, when it came to a vote, Fine Gael totally opposed our plan; and Fianna Fail, who are propping up the Government, abstained," he said.

Vulture funds

Meanwhile, the ICMSA is renewing its call for the Central Bank to assist farmers whose loans have been acquired by vulture funds.

ICMSA president John Comer said it is "regrettable" and "not good enough" that the Central Bank hasn't issued a specific guidance document for farmers whose loans have been bought by vulture funds.

A spokesperson for the Central Bank told the Farming Independent that there are "a number of guides" on their website which are "applicable to farmers" which can help in the area of vulture funds.
Sun Prairie police are looking for two men who entered a local bar at closing time Wednesday night and took a cash bag.

The theft happened at the Varsity Bar and Grill, 1205 W. Main St., police said.

The green cloth cash bag had an undisclosed amount of money inside. The two suspects fled the bar before police arrived.

A surveillance video photo was released by police.

One suspect is Hispanic or light-skinned African-American in his 20s, corn-row braids in his hair, light beard, tattoos on his forearms, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with a large white "2" on the left side of the hood and a large white "3" on the right side of the hood.

The second suspect is black, in his 20s, with a light beard, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with white strings.
The EU is moving closer to a full-scale ban on bee-harming pesticides.

Neonicotinoids, or 'neonics', are pesticides with a chemical structure similar to nicotine, and which act on insects' central nervous systems.

They have been linked to worldwide declines in honey bee numbers, which the UN says could threaten global food supplies.

Since 2013, three neonics - clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam - have been banned for use on selected crops in the EU, such as oilseed rape.

The EU has suggested the chemicals be banned everywhere except greenhouses, with the EU's food safety authority due to publish an updated risk assessment in February.

The head of EFSA's pesticides unit said the risk assessment has proven "very complex" and has "generated a very large volume of additional information". EFSA is now reviewing the results with national pesticide experts.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation says three-quarters of the world's food crops rely on pollination by insects and animals, and is worth between 235 and 577 billion US dollars a year to food producers.

EU-funded research shows that bee mortality rates in the bloc have been rising, and are highest in the UK, Sweden, Finland, Poland, France and Germany.

UK environment secretary Michael Gove said this month that the UK would support a neonic ban even after Brexit. Clothianidin is produced by Germany's Bayer CropScience, whose proposed merger with US agri-chemical giant Monsanto is currently subject to an EU competition probe.

Thiamethoxam is manufactured by Swiss agri-business firm Syngenta, which recently merged with ChemChina.

Meanwhile, the EU will fight another battle over contested weedkiller glyphosate next week. Anti-glyphosate activists are in Brussels this week to promote an EU-wide petition to ban the chemical, which has garnered over a million signatures.

The Commission will next week appeal an inconclusive vote on its latest proposal to renew the chemical's EU licence for five years.
Earlier this year just over 100 staff in Bank of Ireland were impacted by a data breach when the bank accidentally internally circulated details of their pay and benefits.

The error was made by the banks Human Resource department last April, the Irish Times reports, and the error was reported to the Data Protection Commissioner.

Along with salary information, details of pensions and other benefits were also circulated to approximately 20 managers in Bank of Ireland.

The official that made the error did manage to recall the message before some recipients had viewed it, however some recipients had opened the email and also forwarded it.

The error comes as new Bank of Ireland boss Francesca McDonagh, who took over in October, already faces a torrid time.

Soon after taking over the reins at the bank, Ms McDonagh found herself being dragged into a meeting with Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to explain why the bank was so slow at owning up to and sorting out the tracker overcharging mess.

The bank, under old boss Richie Boucher, had been steadfastly holding out on giving trackers back to 2,000 of its own staff.

The bank now has 10,300 tracker-denial cases, the highest of any lender.
Revolut, a financial technology startup, has signed up one million customers across Europe.

In addition the company has saved consumers over 120m (135m) in hidden fees, as its fintech continues to disrupt traditional banking.

Customer savings are primarily coming from card payments abroad, global money transfers and international ATM withdrawals.

The London-based company is now signing up between 3,000 and 3,500 new users every day, an increase of 50pc growth from three months ago.

To-date Revolut users have now made over 42 million transactions with a total transaction volume of $6.1b.

Over half of Revoluts one million user base currently reside in the UK, with more than 150,000 users based in France, 60,000 in the Baltics and over 50,000 in countries such as Germany and Ireland.

"Its incredibly positive to see how fast our total transaction volume is growing also. This is a clear indication that many of our users now consider Revolut as their primary current account and daily spending card," Nikolay Storonsky, founder and CEO of Revolut, said.

In addition to its success in Europe, the company is also pressing ahead with expanding globally, with expansion into the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand all planned for the near future.

Todays news follows Revoluts announcement earlier this month that it had applied for a European Banking Licence which is expected to be in place by early next year.

The license will enable the company to offer credit and deposit services across Europe.

Revolut also said that it intends to build its own payment processor in-house following a series of complaints by users on social media recently, who said their cards had been declined or their payments had been rejected.
Under European law, the telecoms regulator is responsible for enforcing compliance with the roaming regulation. Stock photo: PA

The government has intervened in Irelands data roaming row, urging the telecoms regulator Comreg to make sure Irish mobile operators adhere to roaming rules when roaming fees are abolished across the EU in June.

The intervention comes a week after the European Commission warned Irish mobile operators that they must not attempt to reclassify data allowances to avoid adhering to the new EU roaming law.

"The new EU rules clearly cover data services, along with voice and SMS," said Communications Minister Denis Naughten.

"There is no exemption for the data services, only exceptional limits in case of unlimited or very competitive offers. The Irish Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg, is the competent statutorily independent regulatory authority for telecoms and as such will be the authority which will regulate the Roam Like At Home regime in Ireland from 15 June 2017.

"I would expect all mobile operators to be fully compliant with Irish and EU legislation, including Roam Like at Home from 15 June 2017.

"ComReg will have a role in scrutinising all existing and new mobile market offerings to ensure full legal and regulatory compliance."

Mr Naughten was responding to a parliamentary question put by Labour TD Sean Sherlock about what the government intended to do to ensure Irish mobile operators do not overcharge Irish consumers after the roaming law is introduced.

Last week, Irish mobile operator Three announced plans to offer as little as 1GB of roaming data on its plans after the roaming abolition law is introduced.

The company says that it cannot afford to translate its all you can eat data allowances, which equate to 60GB, into roaming allowances because of onerous costs of up to 7.70 per gigabyte charged by other European operators.

But the European Commission has warned that mobile operators cannot partially implement the new roaming law.

"There is no loophole by which part of the domestic data allowance could be regarded as gift or side benefit and would therefore not count when traveling abroad," said a spokesman for the Commission.

"Doing so would appear like a clear case of circumvention, for which there is no basis in the Roaming Regulation.

"Thus, under the new rules operators will not be allowed to offer only half a roaming experience to clients."

However, the Commission spokeswoman later confirmed that exceptional circumstances apply to mobile packages with unlimited data or which are considered very cheap.

A formula is currently being agreed whereby such unlimited data packages can be quantified for the purposes of roaming allowances. However, the spokesman said that an operator offering an all you can eat allowance at home for 20 per month, such as Three, might be obliged to offer at least 5GB of roaming data.

A spokesman for Comreg, which is tasked with monitoring compliance among Irish operators, declined to comment on Threes plans.
Donald Trump emerged as US president riding a wave of anger at the destruction of America's manufacturing base.

While it's true that the US manufacturing sector is declining in importance, it still managed to generate $2.2 trillion (1.85 trillion) in nominal value in 2015.

Put into context, that is larger than the entire gross domestic product (GDP) of Italy, Brazil, Canada, South Korea or Russia, according to global consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Even so, the erosion of manufacturing in the United States is happening, but has played out unevenly across sectors.

Over the past 20 years, output growth in US manufacturing has been concentrated in only a few industries, including pharmaceuticals, electronics, and aerospace.

Larger manufacturers have managed to thrive despite growing headwinds, but small and mid-size firms have been far harder hit by the changes in the market.

Reports maintain that little can be done to stop the ongoing decline of US manufacturing at the hands of globalisation and technology.

However, in their 'Making it in America: Revitalising US manufacturing', McKinsey argue that continued losses in the industry are by no means a foregone conclusion.

By carrying out demand projections with an analysis of specific trends in the manufacturing industry, as well as taking into consideration the historical performance of the industry, McKinsey found that the US has the potential to boost its annual manufacturing value added by up to $530bn, or 20pc, over current trends by 2025.

The three ways in which this will occur are through the increase in foreign demand, improved technologies, and value adding.

While domestic demand in the US for heavy machinery, equipment, and building materials may be at a 50-year low in terms of public investment, the report cites the growing demand in emerging economies such as Africa, Brazil, and India as offering an "enormous prize" for manufacturing companies that can successfully navigate the differences in these economies.

In addition, while in decline, the US market continues to remain one of the most profitable markets for the manufacturing of heavy machinery, equipment, and building materials in the world.

The report also argues that enhanced technology, including the use of machine learning and the internet of things, will lead to productivity gains.

Examples of ways in which technology developments can positively impact on the manufacturing industry cited in the report include the use of 3D printing.

However, in order to take advantage of the technology advances, companies will have to improve their technology offering or face missing out on new opportunities.

The third way in which the US manufacturing sector can stop its decline is through the capture of value beyond the traditional production activities, be this in the form of upstream in design and product development or downstream in services.

An example of value adding cited by McKinsey, include the sensors that John Deere has added to the farm machinery it sells.

Data captured by the sensors enable the company to offer farmers new types of user-sourced, real-time information on a number of things on the farm including planting and the health of their soil.
Oscar Pistorius was originally jailed for six years after he was found guilty of murder for shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)

Oscar Pistorius's prison sentence for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp has been increased to 13 years and five months by South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal.

Friday's decision more than doubled the Olympic and Paralympic runner's jail term for the murder of his girlfriend.

In an announcement that took a matter of minutes, Supreme Court Justice Willie Seriti said the Supreme Court upheld an appeal by prosecutors against Pistorius' original six-year sentence for shooting Ms Steenkamp multiple times in his home in 2013.

Prosecutors had called that six-year sentence "shockingly" lenient.

Pistorius should have been sentenced to the prescribed minimum of 15 years for murder in South Africa, Mr Seriti said, as he delivered the verdict that was reached by a panel of five judges at the Supreme Court in the central city of Bloemfontein.

The new sentence of 13 years and five months took into account time Pistorius had already served in prison and at home under house arrest, Mr Seriti said.

Pistorius, who turned 31 on Wednesday, has served over a year of his initial six-year sentence.

Pistorius killed Ms Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day 2013 after shooting four times through a closed toilet cubicle door in his home.

Claiming he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, he was initially convicted of manslaughter.

That conviction was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court in 2015.

Friday's decision likely brings an end to a near five-year legal saga surrounding the double-amputee athlete, a multiple Paralympic champion and record-breaker who was once one of the most celebrated sportsmen in the world.

Pistorius' lawyers have just one avenue open to them if they want to challenge the new sentence handed down by the Supreme Court, and that is to appeal to the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa.

Pistorius failed with an appeal to the Constitutional Court last year to challenge his murder conviction.
A garda has formally resigned from the force after pleading guilty to corruption charges.

John O'Halloran left An Garda Siochana after more than 20 years of Cork-based service as a consequence of pleading guilty to corruption, theft and fraud charges.

Judge Sean O'Donnabhain was told that O'Halloran, formerly of Barrack Street Garda station, has now tendered his resignation.

Last month, the former community garda pleaded guilty to 11 sample charges from more than 200 charges tendered.

Judge O'Donnabhain was told by Siobhan Lankford BL, for the defence, that the garda had resigned and was now seeking an adjournment of sentencing.

"It was listed today to clarify one issue. He has resigned," she said.

Ms Lankford said she was not seeking any special reports for the sentencing of her client.

However, she confirmed to the court that she would be introducing several character witness statements.

Judge O'Donnabhain agreed to adjourn sentencing until February 26 next.

He remanded O'Halloran on continuing bail.

The 46-year-old pleaded guilty in October to three counts of corruption, one count of making a gain by deception and seven counts of thefts.

All the charges involve various dates between June 2009 and September 2015 in Cork.

The corruption charges involve obtaining cheques for 785.40, 1,994.56 and 949.24.

All the cheques were drawn on the University College Cork (UCC) Students' Union account at AIB Bank, College Road, Cork.

The charges specified that O'Halloran corruptly obtained the cheques as an inducement or as a reward for the provision of his services as a garda while already employed and paid as a garda.

Three of the sample theft charges involved O'Halloran stealing monies at AIB Bank, Western Road, Cork, from the CIE pension scheme for staff. These charges involved dates between December 2011 and September 2014.

The deception charge involved inducing a resident of Connaught Avenue in Cork in November 2013 to give him 5,500 by claiming he had got a tax bill for 11,550 from the Revenue Commissioners.

The former garda had claimed the tax bill was in relation to an offshore bank account held by his late father, Sean.

However, the charge specified that O'Halloran knew that there was no tax bill issued by the Revenue Commissioners.

O'Halloran did not address the brief court hearing.
A YOUNG woman who lost her fiance in a head-on collision with a lorry said she was left heartbroken at having to pick out his coffin rather than a wedding venue.

Harrowing scenes marked the sentencing of Bulgarian truck driver, Ivan Gochev (40), for careless driving causing the death of Brian Fahy (24)

last year.

Gochev c/o Walton's Transport, Kilkenny pleaded guilty before Cork Circuit Criminal Court to careless driving causing the death of Mr Fahy.

He received a six month suspended sentence as Judge Gerard O'Brien noted that the tragedy was caused by a momentary lapse in concentration with absolutely no aggravating factors such as excessive speed or alcohol involved.

The incident occurred at Lisnacunna, Enniskeane in west Cork on May 25 2016 contrary to Section 52 of the Road Traffic Act.

Judge Gerard O'Brien heard that the fatal collision occurred when the outer wheels of Gochev's lorry had inadvertently gone inches off the road surface and onto a grass margin.

However, high grass masked the fact that the margin was several inches lower than the road surface.

In trying to recover, Gochev accidentally over-corrected and his lorry veered across the road and straight into the path of a Nissan Micra car being driven by Mr Fahy's fiancee, Joanne Walsh.

The court heard that there was absolutely nothing she could do to avoid the collision with the lorry which was on her side of the road.

Mr Fahy, who was from South Douglas Road in Cork city, was a front seat passenger in the car.

The young man suffered multiple injuries in the collision and tragically died two days later despite desperate efforts by surgeons to save him.

The couple, who had been together for four years, were due to get married a short time later.

I never imagined this for us," Ms Walsh said.

She suffered multiple injuries in the collision including a shattered hip.

"Instead of choosing a wedding venue, I was being wheeled into a funeral home to pick out a coffin (for Brian)."

"The loss of Brian has had so many impacts (on our lives). It has turned the usual happy times such as birthdays and Christmas into painful times. Life has little joy now," she said.

Mr Fahy's mother, Celeste, told the court that her son would have wanted her to forgive the truck driver and that was what she was now doing.

But she told the father of two she hoped he never had to experience the terrible grief the accident had inflicted on her family.

Mr Gochev, I hope you will never have to experience the death of one of your children as the loss is insurmountable," she sobbed.

"By driving the way you did, on that fateful summers day, you killed my beautiful son."

She said her son was a warm, caring and kind-hearted person who was so looking forward to his wedding and life with Joanne.

Brian would never want anyone to suffer and would always give someone the benefit of the doubt."

"I am sure my son has forgiven you and, so, I take my lead from him. I struggle to forgive you for what you have done and because of your

driving that day. I struggle to accept my beautiful boy is dead, she wept.

As Brians mother, whose job it was to give him life and keep him safe, I also struggle with the fact that I turned off his life support machine."

"I will never get over his death and I live every day with an ache in my heart in the knowledge my precious son will never be coming home.

Judge O'Brien described it as a very tragic case and commended the family on their forgiveness of the defendant.

He noted Gochev's remorse as genuine and heartfelt as well as the circumstances of the tragedy.

Judge O'Brien imposed a six month suspended sentence.
A MAN with a chronic gambling addiction who left Ireland after being charged in relation to a 439,000 drug seizure voluntarily returned nine years later after a second member of his family became terminally ill.

Aidan Crowne (39) was jailed for five years after pleading guilty to the drug charge which relates to events in 2008 but which have only come before the Circuit Criminal Court because the defendant had been out of the jurisdiction until now.

Judge Sean O'Donnabhain was told that Crowne was charged before Fermoy District Court nine years ago in relation to the discovery by Gardai of 58kg of cannabis and cannabis resin at a property in Castletownroche in north Cork.

The drugs, with a total street value of 439,000, were seized by gardai following an intelligence led operation on November 19 and 19 2008.

Crowne had been seen attending the property in a remote rural area of north Cork.

Gardai raided the property and found the cannabis.

However, Crowne subsequently left Ireland after the district court charge and did not answer his bail terms.

That resulted in 25,000 in bail funds being forfeited by his family.

The court was told that Crowne spent time in the UK and farther afield.

However, he was deeply ashamed of being unable to travel back to Ireland for his mother's funeral a few years later.

His brother then became seriously ill and he decided to contact gardai so he could return home to Cork.

The defendant's brother died and it was agreed with gardai that he would return to Ireland, attend the funeral and then be taken into custody.

That occurred on July 28 last.

Defence counsel, Jim O'Mahony SC, said Crowne came from a very respectable and hard-working family.

However, he lost his job in a Cork shopping centre and then developed a chronic gambling addiction.

At one point, he owed hundreds of thousands of Euro.

His involvement in the cannabis scheme was a desperate way of repaying his gambling debts.

The court was told Crowne did not have a drug addiction.

He had hoped the cannabis scheme would ultimately earn him up to 1,000 per week.

Crowne, formerly of Norwood Court, Rochestown, Cork, apologised to the court for his actions and to his family for any distress his actions had caused them.

Judge O'Donnabhain noted that Crowne had contacted gardai and voluntarily returned to Ireland despite knowing he faced a potentially lengthy jail term.

He also accepted the young man had a serious addiction problem.

"Gambling is a particularly cancerous kind of addiction," the judge said.

"It permeates every aspect of a person's life."

Mr O'Mahony told the court that his client's gambling debts in 2008 were "huge."

Judge O'Donnabhain noted Crowne's apology, his remorse and the fact he had described the drugs scheme as "a terrible error of judgement."

Crowne had described the incident as "a life-changing mistake."

He imposed a seven year prison sentence but agreed to suspend the final two years of the term.

The sentence was also backdated to July when Crowne was first taken into custody.
After a drive-by shooting in front of bars on University Avenue near the UW-Madison campus in 2012, some feared gangs were beginning to invade an area dominated by college students.

Five years later, it has become clear to Madison police and city officials that gang members  some of whom are carrying guns  now consider the 600 block of University Avenue, with its dense collection of bars and restaurants, part of their turf.

Adding to the volatility: A bar in the middle of the block that showcases hip-hop music that also caters to people under 21 for some events.

Fights that started inside the bar turned into brawls involving hundreds of people that spilled onto University Avenue on three successive weekends in late September and early October. Police used large tanks of pepper gas to stop each of them as well as an additional brawl that broke out a few weeks later that started in another bar.

Nobody has been shot in the area this year, although one of those late-night brawls may have led to the shooting death of a Madison man on the Far East Side earlier this year, police say.

Weve had a couple of incidents that were bad but could have been much worse. Eventually you run out of that kind of luck, said Madison police Central District Capt. Jason Freedman. Were going to assume that next year is going to be very challenging.

Ald. Mike Verveer, whose district includes the area, said hes so on edge about what might happen that many weekends he doesnt go to bed until 4 a.m.

Its not UW students that are causing the problem. The issue is not underage drinking in the bars, Verveer said. Im nervous about this very small area of the Downtown and the fact that its a magnet for people who have criminal histories involving use of weapons.

In the first 10 months of this year, police calls to the 600 block of University Avenue resulted in 173 criminal cases, a 65 percent jump compared to the same period last year, according to Madison police records. Most of the cases (151) occurred between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m., a 78 percent jump for that time frame compared to 2016.

The cases accounted for more than one in three of all of the Central Districts cases and included increases for disorderly conduct and underage drinking as well as for aggravated battery and simple assaults, credit card fraud and weapons violations, the data showed.

The city has made some changes that have helped reduce the problem, Freedman said. Congestion at bar time that had fueled fights and other incidents has been limited by moving food carts and taxi stands away from the block, he said. Quickie drug deals and other crimes in parking ramps have been reduced since the ramps eliminated free parking for short visits; now, late-night drivers are required to pay as they enter.

Bar owners and managers also have worked with the city to make the environment safer, Freedman and Verveer said.

For example, the music venue Liquid made several changes after the three fights that broke out there earlier this fall. The changes allowed the bar to maintain its license, which allows it to open its doors to underage patrons for some events, Verveer said. He said he hoped the effort marked a turning point for hip-hop in Madison, which some say has been too quick to crack down on such venues when problems crop up instead of helping them succeed.

It is fair to say that Liquid is the latest example of being, in a way, victimized by the genre of (hip-hop) music and being victims of their own success, Verveer said.

Freedman said Liquids owners and managers are people of good faith and good will who want a place for 18- to 20-year-olds to hang out at night. Im absolutely in favor of that.

But he said he also wonders why the nightclub is located in the middle of an alcohol zone.

Earlier this year, the Church Key also made changes after police said a huge brawl that started inside the bar contributed to the shooting death of Jameel Easter, 25, of Madison, on June 10. Easter was shot multiple times in a parking lot in the 900 block of Vernon Avenue around 3:25 a.m., police said.

Loitering gang members

What city and police officials cant control are the hundreds of people who loiter outside the bars, either while theyre open or after they close, Verveer said.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the state Department of Corrections and the citys gang unit have all done periodic surveillance work in the area on weekend nights and have spotted a number of people with a history of criminal activity and gang affiliations in the crowds, he said, including some with weapons.

Freedman, in his first year as district captain, expressed frustration that few of those people have been arrested or their weapons recovered.

Clearly there are groups around the city that dont get along with each other and sometimes they end up meeting each other Downtown. Thats certainly a driver for the increase in violence, he said.

Sometimes the loiterers appear to choose places like food cart lines at bar-time to pick fights with drunken students, said Sonny Torres, the longtime bar manager at the Vintage bar, which is located kitty-corner to the troubled block of bars.

The situation has gotten so bad that the Fluno Center, a nonprofit conference center with guest rooms affiliated with UW-Madison that is located across the street from the bars, has added extra security and patrols, general manager Andy Abelman said.

Abelman said its just a matter of time before the fist fights turn into gunfights. I think theres going to be one or multiple fatalities, he said.

Patrols come

at a cost

Overtime pay and other expenses to cover the additional police officers needed to patrol the area on Friday and Saturday nights this summer and fall could rise as much as 50 percent higher than last year, Freedman said.

There were times during weekends this year when all but a handful of the 28 police officers patrolling the entire city in the early morning hours were in a four-block area Downtown, he said.

But it still wasnt sufficient to keep people from engaging in disturbances, aggravated batteries, weapons offenses, you name it, Freedman said.

Sometimes, its even difficult to find officers to work the overtime shifts because its becoming too dangerous. During one of the September brawls that spilled onto University Avenue, two officers suffered minor injuries, he said.

Freedman has told his officers not to put themselves in danger by entering big fights to arrest somebody.

If people ask, You had five people fighting, you pepper-sprayed them, why didnt you arrest anybody? Well, (for) what is going to end up being a disorderly conduct or maybe a battery ticket, were not going to have our officers risk getting injured or possibly escalate and then we have a serious incident.

But Torres said the gangs see that as a green light to fight, recalling one brawl that happened in front of dozens of police officers, some of them on horseback.

Youd think with the bigger police presence that these people would be discouraged from fighting like they do, he said. But, nope, they dont care.
Three men have been sentenced to combined jail terms of nearly 50 years for "barbaric" break-ins at two rural homes in Co Limerick, five years ago.

Patrick Roche, (53), from Kilcronan Close, Clondalkin in Dublin, along with his son, Philip Roche, (24), were jailed for 17 years and 15 years respectively. Patrick Roches son-in-law, Alan Freeman, (37), from Pearse Park, Tipperary Town, was jailed for 14 years.

The final three years of each sentence was suspended, reducing the total combined sentences from 46 years to 37 years.

Free legal aid was granted to the three defendants should they wish appeal the length of the sentences.

In May 2012, Patrick and Philip Roche broke into the isolated rural home of pensioner siblings Willie, Nora, and Chrissie Creed near Pallasgreen, Co Limerick.

They tied up Mr Creed and his sisters, aged in their 70s, before assaulting them, and leaving them covered in blood. Willie Creed was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver during the horrific incident.

The Roches fled with 5,000 in cash which they had discovered hidden in a sock.

In passing sentence today, presiding judge John Hannan described the burglary at the Creed's home as "a heinous, barbaric, and very violent attack on very vulnerable people".

"It was a sickening episode and it indicated a complete lack of empathy for older people," he said.

Six weeks prior to the burglary at the Creed farmhouse, Patrick and Philip Roche, along with Alan Freeman, broke into the home of the Gerry and Anne Garvey in Pallasgreen, Co Limerick.

They tied up Mr and Mrs Garvey, and their four children, and assaulted them.

The gang also threatened Mr Garvey at gunpoint, before they fled the house with cash.

Gardai later recovered some of the stolen money.

The three defendants, who had denied charges of aggravated burglary and false imprisonment at the Creed and Garvey residences, were found guilty of the charges by a jury at Limerick Circuit Court.

Judge Hannan said the defendants had acted "menacingly" and with "brutality" having planned the burglaries, worn dark clothing and balaclavas and armed themselves with weapons.

He said these type of aggravated burglaries cause "great harm" to victims and to the communities where they occur.

"It tears up the fabric of rural community life and causes suspicion and fear which spreads like a virus," he added.

The judge also said the burglaries had "shattered the tranquility" of the lives of both families.

"To say it was terrifying for them, would be one of the greatest understatements of all time."

In handing down the sentences Judge Hannan noted "a lack of mitigating factors", adding, "they are few and far between".

During the trial of Patrick and Philip Roche, for aggravated burglary and false imprisonment at the Creed's home, statements given to gardai by Willie Creed, 79, were read into evidence.

Mr Creed told gardai: One of (the gang) rushed at me and knocked me to the ground. He was stabbing me on the head with a screwdriver. There was blood running down along my face.

He said the gang threatened the siblings that their throats would be cut if they didnt hand over cash.

The Creeds told gardai the burglars were masked and armed with a butchers knife, a screwdriver, sticks, and iron bars.

Willie Creed said: They told us they would cut our throats. One of them said hed cut off my hands.

He said one of the raiders slashed him on the arm and told him, "Were high on drugs and we can get real violent.

Chrissie Creed, 77, told gardai she was saying prayers in her bedroom when she heard Nora screaming. Chrissie said when she came out of her bedroom she saw two men standing over [Nora], and Willie had blood on his head.

Chrissie said she tried to call her brother Tommy, but before she could dial for help, one of the raiders grabbed the phone from her. She said: He laid into me, hitting me. He threw me across the room. I thought they were going to kill us.

Nora Creed, 72, told gardai she opened the front door of the house and saw two men standing in front of her dressed in black. She said she was punched backwards on to a nearby window and tied up.

After the gang fled, Willie Creed managed to free himself and his sisters from their binds and raise the alarm.

Tommy Creed, 74, told the trial that he later arrived at his siblings house to find a scene of mayhem.

He said Willie, Nora, and Chrissie were in the kitchen covered in blood.

Speaking outside the court afterwards, Tommy Creed, who found his siblings covered in blood in their home following the burglary, said he felt justice had been served: "Very good... I was amazed with the sentences they got, and (it's) a pity there wouldn't be more judges like him - the country would be a safer place."

Gerry Garvey, who was threatened during the burglary at his home that his head would be blown off, said gardai had "proved their worth" in bringing the gang to justice.

"We are pleased generally that justice has been served. I think the sentences are a very good deterrent. I think it sends a very strong message out that crime is not acceptable and that rural communities can be protected... and that rural communities are valued," he said.

"If the gardai are given resources, they can do a very good job," Mr Garvey added.

Limerick Metropolitan Mayor, Sean Lynch, a former detective who was part of the investigation team, paid tribute to his former colleagues for pursuing the gang through "fantastic police work".

"It was a victory for An Garda Siochana and for rural Ireland," he said.

Cllr Lynch praised recently retired Superintendent Tom O'Connor, who led the investigation.

"The sentences handed down today are a clear message that communities and gardai will not put up with this type of crime, and that the judiciary will not tolerate it," Cllr Lynch added.

Patrick Roche had 139 previous convictions and is serving lengthy jail sentences. Philip Roche had 37 previous convictions. Alan Freeman had 22 previous convictions, including aggravated burglary at the home of a Tipperary firearms dealer.

Up to 40 guns were stolen during the aggravated burglary.
A 37-year-old truck driver with a rather colourful history of previous accidents has now resolved six personal injury claims for a total of just under 120,000, the Circuit Civil Court was told Friday.

Martin Fox, of Willow Wood Grove, Hartstown, Dublin 15, was said by Circuit Court President Mr Justice Raymond Groarke to have a propensity of misinforming doctors regarding his injuries.

Barrister Ivan Daly, counsel for Dunns Seafare Limited, when cross-examining Fox, read out a list of his previous claims, settlements and awards totalling just over 114,000, some of which, Mr Daly alleged, he failed to divulge to doctors he had attended.

Mr Daly, who appeared with Ennis and Associates Solicitors, told the court Fox had another outstanding claim which was currently with the Injuries Board for assessment.

Judge Groarke told John Nolan, counsel for Fox, that he accepted his client had injured his left foot in a defective gully while delivering fish to Dunns Seafare Limited, in Jamestown Business Park, Finglas, Dublin.

The judge said that in determining Mr Foxs 60,000 claim before the court he wished to make an observation on the credibility of the plaintiff which, he said, to some degree coloured his view of the case.

Judge Groarke said he had been satisfied there had been no attempt made by Mr Fox to mislead the court in the case before him but given the manner in which he had dealt with queries from doctors regarding his previous history he had to seriously question his credibility.

He was satisfied Fox, who in his own words had visited Dunns Seafare yard on thousands of occasions, had been tripped by a defective shore in the centre of the yard and had fallen.

In the courts view Dunns Seafare was liable in that it had been negligent in the lay-out of the shore when their yard was constructed.

The plaintiff was extremely familiar with the yard and this was a very noticeable gully. Mr Fox had a duty to keep a look-out and I am holding him 50-50 with regard to responsibility, Judge Groarke said.

Given what I have said about credibility I will award him the sum of 6,000 which, together with 5,107 agreed special damages amounts to 11,107 the half of which is 5,522, he said.

The judge told Mr Nolan, who appeared with Tracey Solicitors, that he would award District Court costs with a certificate for council and his forensic engineer in the case.
A timeline:

January 2006:

Sergeant Maurice McCabe made a complaint about a colleague which led to the officer being disciplined.

December 2006:

A girl made a complaint about Sgt McCabe. In the complaint she alleged he had tickled and behaved inappropriately towards her while she played hide and seek with his children a decade earlier. A file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in which gardai said there was no grounds for prosecution.

2008:

Sgt Maurice McCabe attends a meeting with in Mullingar, Co Westmeath where he raises concerns about Garda malpractice. He secretly records the meeting.

2012:

Sgt McCabe steps into the public spotlight becoming the most high-profile whistleblower in the force after raising concerns about the internal handling of an assault allegation. A few months later, he lifted the lid on the penalty points controversy, claiming well- known personalities had their points wiped.

2013:

The C&AG publishes a report into the penalty points scandal which backs up claims made by whistleblowers including Sgt McCabe. However, then justice minister Alan Shatter alleges in the Dail that the whistleblowers didnt co-operate with the Garda investigation. This is denied.

January 2014:

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan tells the Public Accounts Committee that only two officers out of a force of 13,000 are making allegations. He says that on a personal level he thinks it is quite disgusting.

February 2014:

An inquiry led by barrister Sean Guerin is set up in to review the penalty dossier supplied by whistleblowers.

March 2014:

Leo Varadkar, as Minister for Transport, calls on Martin Callinan to withdraw his disgusting comment. Days later Callinan steps down amid a separate controversy over the taping of phonecalls at garda stations. Noirin OSullivan takes over as acting Commissioner. Meanwhile Mr Shatter apologises to the whistleblowers for saying they hadnt co-operated with the original penalty points inquiry.

May 2014:

Sean Guerins report says Mr Shatter failed to properly investigate matters raised by Sgt McCabe. The minister disputes the findings but stands down. Frances Fitzgerald moves to the Department of Justice. She promises an new era of policing.

November 2014:

Noirin OSullivan is appointed Garda Commissioner.

February 2015:

The Government sets up the OHiggins commission of investigation to probe accusations made by Sgt McCabe of garda malpractice in Cavan/Monaghan.

May 2015:

An email is sent to Frances Fitzgerald highlighting a row between legal teams for the Garda Commissioner and Maurice McCabe. No action is taken by the minister and she now says she doesnt remember the email.

December 2015:

An error on the part of Tusla leads a child protection social worker to write to Maurice McCabe informing him an investigation was taking place into allegations he had sexually abused a child. A claim of digital penetration is cited.

April 2016:

The OHiggins Report is given in to the Department of Justice. It is sent to the Attorney General for review before publication.

May 2016:

Leaked extracts from the OHiggins report show Shatter and Callinan handled McCabes complaints in an appropriate manner at all times.

May 2016:

Days after the OHiggins report is formally published further leaks reveal that Ms OSullivans legal team had a strategy of attacking Sgt McCabes motivation and integrity during the inquiry. As controversy engulfs the Government, the Commissioner issues a statement saying she never regarded Sgt McCabe as malicious. She points to the 2008 meeting at which it is claimed Sgt McCabe had expressed a grudge towards a senior officer. Sgt McCabe produces his recording to disprove this claim.

June 2016:

Tulsa writes to Sgt McCabe confirming that no allegation of digital penetration has been made against him. Sgt McCabe requested of Tusla all copies of records made on him and his family be released to him.

January 2017:

Children's Minister Katherine Zappone's private secretary phones Maurice McCabe's wife on foot of inquiries she made to the Department of Health. The minister meets Sgt McCabe.

February 2017:

Cabinet sets up a Charleton Commission of Investigation into an alleged smear campaign against Sgt McCabe. Labour leader Brendan Howlin alleges Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan was directly involved in a smear campaign - but the Government continues to stand by her.

June 2017:

Charlie Flanagan is appointed Justice Minister by Leo Varadkar. Ms Fitzgerald retains her position as Tanaiste and becomes Enterprise Minister.

September 2017:

Noirin OSullivan steps down as Garda Commissioner citing the "unending cycle" of investigations, including the Charleton Tribunal. Her stewardship had also been plagued by separate controversies over fake breath-tests.

November 2017:

Labour TD Alan Kelly asks a series of questions suggesting the Department of Justice knew in advance about the strategy to discredit Sgt McCabe at the OHiggins inquiry. Focus turns to when Frances Fitzgerald knew about the strategy. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tells the Dail she found out around the same time it came into the public domain in May 2016. However, it then emerges that an email alerting Ms Fitzgerald to a clash which occurred between the two legal teams at the OHiggins Commission was sent a year earlier . The Tanaiste says she cant recall the email and denies any wrongdoing.
Frances Fitzgerald has weathered many controversies during her time in Government, here we take a look at the storms she has weathered to date:

The existence of the IRA

In August 2015, the minister weighed in behind then-Garda commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan, after she insisted in a letter to Sinn Fein that gardai had no intelligence to suggest the Provisional IRA still maintains its structures. This was in stark contrast to the pronouncement of the chief constable of the PSNI.

After major political pressure, Ms Fitzgerald released a 900-word statement, confirming fully the threat posed by the IRA. She also ordered a fresh assessment of Provisional IRA activity, and challenged Gerry Adams to apologise for the IRA's legacy.

The Regency Hotel attack

Ms Fitzgerald found herself facing criticism after rowing in behind Noirin O'Sullivan in relation to the Regency Hotel attack.

The minister backed the force's stance that there was no "specific intelligence" to suggest criminal elements could strike the north Dublin hotel.

This is despite the fact four INM journalists were present at the hotel because they had information to suggest criminals would be present.

Ms Fitzgerald later announced a suite of measures in response to the gangland situation.

Templemore

Ms Fitzgerald again backed Ms O'Sullivan despite it emerging the commissioner did not inform her about mismanagement at the training college until October 2016 - a full 16 months after a working group had been set up to address claims of financial irregularities.

Rural crime

Ms Fitzgerald was accused of being "in denial" in relation to the scale of crime across rural Ireland. Despite previously claiming the focus should be on "smart policing", the government later agreed to launch a pilot programme to reopen a number of stations.

Children's referendum debacle

While she was children's minister in 2012, the Supreme Court severely criticised the government's 1.1m children's referendum information campaign.

In a detailed ruling, judges said Government "failed to hold the scales equally between both sides". The referendum passed by a small margin.
Motorists queue to fill up at Topaz, Glenview, Tallaght this morning where the filling station was selling fuel for 99 cent per litre for 99 minuted. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

Black Friday madness has well and truly arrived in Ireland with stores across the country advertising one-off specials and even hotels and holiday operators getting in on things.

Queues of motorists were spotted at Topaz garages around the country with fuel on sale for 99c per litre at selected stores for 99 minutes.

Retailers are predicting a spike in sales compared to last years event.

The tradition of holding sales on Black Friday has been imported from the United States with sales being held the day after Thanksgiving.

Across the pond people begin to queue the day before and frenzied scenes from stores have become a November news footage staple, but are Irish shoppers buying into the phenomenon and is there value for money to be had?
A medical consultant in one of the country's major hospitals was paid more than 330,000 in public funds last year.

The full-time senior specialist, who works in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, was the hospital's top earner.

The revelation comes as some of the country's hospital consultants have come under the spotlight in recent days for treating too many private patients.

The payment to the Beaumont Hospital consultant, which did not include any private fees, included their salary and arrears, according to a spokeswoman for the hospital.

She said it included a one-off payment of arrears relating to a contractual adjudication for the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 inclusive.

The arrears of circa 130,000 were a combination of basic pay, on-call pay and allowances dating back to the doctor starting work at the hospital.

"This change of contract and remuneration was fully approved by HSE and is compliant with national pay scales," she said.

Some 25 staff at the hospital earned more than 200,000 last year, all of whom were consultants.

Meanwhile, the human resources division of the HSE said it had been in communication with Beaumont Hospital about compliance with public pay policy in relation to 20 top-up allowances to a range of non-medical staff grades.

The total cost of the allowances came to 132,485 and they were disclosed to the HSE, the hospital's annual report revealed.

Some 15 cases related to a team-leader allowance. This was personal to the member of staff and will not be given to their successor.

Three cases involved the allowances which employees held when they were transferred from another part of the health service.

Two more staff were on acting allowances and these have since been deemed to be non-compliant.

The HSE spokeswoman said it should be noted that at all times the hospital has a statutory obligation to honour contractual agreements with staff.

A spokeswoman for the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland Hospital Group, which includes Beaumont Hospital, did not respond to questions from the Irish Independent asking for a breakdown of its public and private ratio of patients.
A lack of timely and effective healthcare is causing the early deaths of 3,800 people in Ireland annually from conditions such as heart disease, stroke and cancer, an EU report has warned.

The rate of avoidable premature death is lower than the European average, but much higher than in France, Spain and Italy.

It is seen in cancers of the bowel and breast, in particular.

Spending on health per head of population in Ireland is the fourth highest in the EU.

But just 70pc of this is coming from the Exchequer, and the rest is from people's own pockets in the shape of health insurance and fees.

It means the private sector plays a much bigger role in financing health care than in other countries.

The report from the European Commission profiles the health of member states and measures how they compare.

Ireland is now the only country in Europe that does not offer its citizens free GP care.

This is despite a pledge by Health Minister Simon Harris and the Government to roll out free GP care on a phased basis.

The report warns that in Ireland, the ageing population and growing number of people with long-term conditions like diabetes, need to be better managed to avoid unnecessary hospitalisations.

It highlights our long hospital waiting lists and the low availability of hospital beds.

In Ireland, 95pc of beds are occupied throughout the year compared to the EU average of 77pc, leading to brimming A&Es.

Life expectancy in Ireland stands at 81.5 years. This is an increase of five years since 2000.

But nine EU nations still live longer than us, with the Spanish and Italians enjoying the best life expectancies.

When it comes to respiratory diseases, Ireland is second only to the UK for the highest death rate.

Throwing light on our health behaviours, the report reveals that 18pc of people in Ireland describe themselves as obese, compared to a European average of 15pc.

However, when it is externally measured, the rate is nearer 23pc.

It confirmed, Ireland is no longer the booziest country in Europe, but we are still drinking more than the European average.

In the year 2000 Irish people were drinking 14.2 litres of pure alcohol per adult annually, putting us top of the consumption league, a new EU report has revealed.

At that stage we were consuming more than three litres more than the EU average.

That fell to 10.9 litres in 2015 but it is still one litre more than the average European.

That's equivalent to around 40 litres of vodka, 116 bottles of wine or 440 pints of beer per adult.

The report warns there is still a major challenge in reducing binge drinking among adults in Ireland. In 2015 nearly one third of adults in Ireland admitted binge drinking, higher than more other European countries.
The widower of Malak Thawley, who died during surgery at the National Maternity Hospital last year, is "stunned, dismayed and extremely aggrieved" at Health Minister Simon Harris's decision not to appoint an external expert team to investigate his wife's death.

Alan Thawley has rejected a proposal by Mr Harris to have the statutory inquiry into the death carried out by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), the State patient safety watchdog.

In strongly worded correspondence, Mr Thawley's solicitor Caoimhe Haughey said her client was considering legal action if the external inquiry was not agreed to "as promised".

It is understood that the National Maternity Hospital has also strongly objected to the decision to put the inquiry on a statutory basis, which would require sworn evidence.

Unjustified

It described this kind of inquiry as "unexpected and unjustified".

Ms Thawley, who was about to undergo a low-risk operation for ectopic pregnancy on Sunday, May 8, last year, died after one of her main blood vessels was accidentally injured.

An inquest has found that her death was due to medical misadventure.

In the letter to Mr Harris, the solicitor for the widower, who asked for the inquiry last summer at a meeting with the minister, said he had a list of external medical experts who could conduct the probe.

"He has provided you with the names of gynaecological, vascular and anaesthetic clinicians from the UK who are ready and willing to provide their expert services.

"All of this considerable dedication and collaboration on Mr Thawley's part has been side-lined and ostensibly rebuffed by virtue of the decision you have taken," the correspondence to the minister claimed.

He accused the minister of rejecting the commitment made recently that all maternal deaths would be reviewed by a panel external to the maternity hospital where they happened.

In his letter to Mr Thawley, the minister said he believed there were "reasonable grounds" for him to ask Hiqa to undertake an investigation into the safety, quality and standards involved in the care of Ms Thawley at the hospital.

"In this regard there are particular patient safety issues to be addressed such as the practice of surgery outside of core hours in maternity services and beyond, the seniority of staff out of hours and the readiness of hospitals to respond to major emergencies in such circumstances," he said.

Ms Thawley, who was seven weeks pregnant, was living in Blackrock with her American husband while he was working in Dublin.

Questions were raised at the inquest about how soon the accident was identified and treated.
A bar in Limerick city centre is asking customers who feel unsafe on a night out to 'Ask for Angela' as part of a campaign to stop unwanted attention or sexual harassment.

The campaign focuses primarily on bad dates, telling people to 'Ask for Angela' at the bar if they feel uncomfortable.

Pharmacia, on Sarsfield Street in Limerick, is encouraging men or women to use it in any sticky situation.

"If at anytime you are feeling unsafe in Pharmacia and need some help you can alert a member of staff here by asking 'Is Angela working tonight?'," Pharmacia staff wrote on Facebook.

"The situation will be handled discretely and with no fuss... We have yet to deal with this issue but feel its important to have a procedure in place as a safety net.

"It's unfortunate that posts like this are necessary but sexual harassment happens more than we realise and will not be tolerated.

"Please do not think it's anyway funny to use this as a joke with our staff or it will be impossible to tell when to take real action."

The campaign has been rolled out at a number of bars in the UK and has proven to be a success.

A pub owner in Gloucestershire told Gloucestershire Live how a woman in the bar availed of the scheme.

It was reported that a man had offered to let her stay in his hotel room. The woman became uncomfortable and said they should return to a bar  where she asked for Angela.

She was taken to the back of the venue, where a taxi was called for her, and a member of staff waited with her until she got into the taxi and left.

The initiative was originally launched by Lincolnshire County Council and in December 2016 the scheme went nationwide.
The first stage of President Donald Trumps controversial border wall project ended last week, while the prospects for any more wall construction  and even what type of wall  remain uncertain.

A border patrol agent was killed and his partner seriously wounded in the line of duty in West Texas. Few of the details of the incident have been released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but Border Patrol Agent Rogelio Martinez, 36, and his partner were said to have come under attack while on patrol, and some Texas lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, immediately called for enhanced border security.

Not to be outdone, President Donald Trump got into the act Sunday night tweeting not just condolences but  rather predictably  vowing to build a wall along the southern border. We will seek out and bring to justice those responsible. We will, and must, build the Wall! Trump wrote.

Glossing over the obvious hypocrisy that these are some of the same politicians who call it politicizing victims when theres any suggestion of limiting access to military-style firearms, large magazines or upgrading background checks in the wake of a mass shooting, the bigger problem with President Trumps proposal is that its simply ineffective and an enormous waste of time and money.

Whether Trump understands this or not is unclear. What is clear is he believes the call for the wall is a winning issue for him politically, and he feels no compunction about stirring public anger toward Mexicans and Latinos generally.

Whoever shot Agent Martinez deserves to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But even Congress seems to understand a border wall is a boondoogle. Theres little chance that funding for the project  conservatively estimated at $10 billion but more likely to cost at least two or three times that  will win approval in the U.S. Senate. Democrats have even rejected it as a bargaining chip to restore Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA protections for so-called Dreamers. Far more likely is Congress will eventually approve an expanded border patrol force.

Why is a wall the wrong fix? First, keep in mind that the proposal wasnt born of study or careful consideration but was part of candidate Trumps emotional appeal to voters, that mix of chest-thumping nationalism and race-baiting anger toward Mexican rapists and drug dealers. There are legal issues given that much of the land involved isnt controlled by the federal government. When attempted in the past, its often proved ineffective  tunnels are a popular counter strategy, but theres also a more basic counter-measure of simply entering the country legally and then overstaying your visa (which is how the majority of undocumented enter the country now).

On the other hand, if the attacker or attackers who killed Agent Martinez are involved in the drug trade, then theres all the more reason to doubt the effectiveness of a wall. If the United States has learned anything about drug trafficking over the last several decades, its the fallacy of conducting a war on drugs. Should some impregnable wall actually get built, drug trafficking with all its inherent dangers will simply find another avenue  much as bootleggers did during Prohibition.

Until the United States treats illegal drugs as a health scourge and not simply a crime, trafficking will continue, as the current opioid crisis with its accidental overdoses has demonstrated. Is it somehow more tolerable if a drug dealer was born and raised in this country? Statistically, police in Baltimore and other major cities face a greater threat of bodily harm than border patrol agents.

That makes the wall mostly a costly distraction, and one that stirs xenophobia and harms relations with one of this countrys most important trading partners. Illegal immigration isnt the cause of this nations crime problem. Indeed, studies have shown over and over that, as a group, the undocumented are less likely to commit violent crimes than people who were born and raised in the United States. The wall is mostly a symbol  not of U.S. hegemony over its southern neighbor, but of the knuckleheadedness of its current leadership.

We arent at war with Latin America. We dont need to turn Texas or Arizona into police states. And we dont need a wall. ...

What we need most is sensible policy, to pay attention to the circumstances that caused this tragedy, and to not mindlessly recite the usual scaremongering talking points to stir the electorate into fearing anyone who has a darker skin color or speaks Spanish.
Specialist staff are dealing with an ongoing incident in Mountjoy prison after two prisoners gained access to the roof.

Specialist staff are on site and are negotiating with the men in an effort to get them down, a spokesman for the Irish Prison Service said.

It is understood the two men gained access to the roof at around 6.30pm this evening.

An investigation will take place in relation to the incident.

More to follow...
Lord Kilclooney is photographed in the Houses of Parliament in London.

Former Ulster Unionist deputy leader Lord Kilclooney has denied being racist after calling Leo Varadkar 'the Indian'.

The House of Lords peer, who is no longer a member of the UUP, acknowledged his remark about the Taoiseach had caused "upset and misunderstanding" so he was withdrawing it.

Simon Coveney is stirring things up . Very dangerous non statesman like role! Clearly hoping to undermine the Indian  Lord John Kilclooney (@KilclooneyJohn) November 23, 2017

Mr Varadkar was born in Ireland. His father is from India and mother from Ireland.

Lord Kilclooney, (79), stirred controversy in a tweet on Thursday evening as he commented on a political story involving Simon Coveney.

He wrote: "Simon Coveney is stirring things up. Very dangerous non statesman like role! Clearly hoping to undermine the Indian."

The tweet was met with condemnation on social media.

In Twitter one is restricted to a limited number of words and so for shorthand I used the term Indian for the new PM in Dublin. This has caused upset and misunderstanding and so I withdraw it. I am no way racist and accept that Varadkar is 100 percent Irish Citizen.  Lord John Kilclooney (@KilclooneyJohn) November 23, 2017

Lord Kilclooney later tweeted: "In Twitter one is restricted to a limited number of words and so for shorthand I used the term Indian for the new PM in Dublin.

"This has caused upset and misunderstanding and so I withdraw it. I am no way racist and accept that Varadkar is 100 percent Irish Citizen."
Topaz to offer 99c per litre fuel at a number of locations Photo: Arthur Carron/Collins

Motorists will be able to fill up for less today as the price of fuel will plummet to just 99c per litre at 17 petrol stations for a limited time.

As savvy shoppers snap up bargains on Black Friday, Topaz has announced they are dropping the price of fuel to less than 1 per litre at selected stores for 99 minutes.

The offers will be taking place between 9am and 4.09pm at selected stations across the country.

The deal is also celebrating the successful rollout of miles earlier this year, a fuel that is comprised of a unique blend of additives that is designed to take motorists 3 per cent further.

Gordon Lawlor, Fuels Director at Topaz, said he is "delighted" with miles as he encouraged customers to make the most of the fuel sake.

He said: Black Friday has become a retail phenomenon in Ireland and we are delighted to be marking the day by offering this incredible promotion on the best fuel available in the Irish market.

"At Topaz, one of the core aspects of our business is value across our retail offering.

"The rollout of miles in Ireland and the continued significant investment in this brand, represents our commitment to value and to providing motorists with the best quality fuel products in Ireland.

"We have extra staff working at the 17 locations to meet the expected increase in demand. Our advice to customers is to arrive early, be prepared to queue, and to listen to the advice from our staff and Gardai."

Read More

Customers have been advised that the 99c Black Friday fuel sale only applies to the first 50 litres of miles fuel only, customers are limited to one transaction per day and it isn't available in conjunction with a fuel card or any other offer.

The deal applies to miles unleaded and miles diesel purchases only and does not apply to milesPLUS fuel.

The following Topaz branches will be offering fuel for 99 cent per litre today:

Topaz The Ward, North Road, Dublin 11: from 9:00am to 10:39am

Topaz Shannon, Tullyvaraga, Co. Clare: from 9:30am to 11:09am

Topaz Eglinton, Cabinteely, Co. Dublin: from 10:00am to 11:39am

Topaz Citywest, Browns Barn, Naas Rd, Co. Dublin: from 10:00am to 11:39am

Topaz City Avenue, Citywest, Dublin 24: from 10:00am to 11:39am

Topaz Bantry, Newtown, Co. Cork: from 10:00am to 11:39am

Topaz Glenview, Tallaght, Co. Dublin: from 10:30am to 12:09pm

Topaz Kinnegad, Co. Meath: from 11:00am to 12:39pm

Topaz Clonshaugh, Dublin 17: from 11:00am to 12:39pm

Topaz Parkway East, Palmerstown, Dublin 17: from 11:00am to 12:39pm

Topaz Rochestown Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin: from 11:00am to 12:39pm

Topaz Kilcolgan, Co. Galway: from 11:30am to 1:09pm

Topaz Grange Castle, Nangor Road, Clondalkin: from 2:00pm to 3:39pm

Topaz Ballymun, Ballymun Cross, Santry, Co. Dublin: from 2:00pm to 3:39pm

Topaz Westview, Lissenhall, Swords, Co. Dublin: from 2:30pm to 4:09pm

Topaz Clonee, Co. Meath: from 2:30pm to 4:09pm

Topaz Stillorgan Rd, Stillorgan Road, Co. Dublin: from 2:30pm to 4:09pm

For more information please visit here.
Labour leader Brendan Howlin has said that he thinks a general election is now '"likely to be called over the next week".

At a meeting of the Labour Party Parliamentary Party, the Wexford TD added that his party were "ready" for the election.

Mr Howlin described the situation of the last two weeks as "extraordinary" before saying that he felt an election was not yet inevitable.

My judgement remains that there is still an opportunity for Fine Gael to reflect on this situation over the weekend. It is clear now that a majority of Dail Eireann does not have confidence in the Tanaiste. If the Tanaiste resigns, the threat of an immediate election could pass, allowing the Taoiseach to focus on Brexit and other matters, as Fine Gael have made clear they want to. But if they are determined not to budge, then so be it.

However, if an election is called Mr Howlin said his party was ready.

It seems likely now that an election will be called over the next week. And we are ready for it.

We have been selecting candidates for the last six months - I am asking our organisational committee to meet on Monday to complete this work. Our campaigns and policy units will meet on Wednesday to sign off on our election campaign, our posters and leaflets, and to finish off work on our draft manifesto. And on Thursday, the Executive Board will meet.

At that point we will have certainty regarding an election, and I will bring our complete election plan to that group for approval.

Earlier today Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said his party "does not want a general election" and has called on Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald to step down.

His ultimatum to Fine Gael follows the lodging of a motion of no confidence in Ms Fitzgerald by Fianna Fail this morning.

The motion is over concerns about the way Ms Fitzgerald handled the whistleblower controversy during her time as Justice Minister, in particular her lack of response to an email outlining clashes between legal teams for An Garda Siochana and whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe in 2015.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said there is "no reason for Frances Fitzgerald to resign" and accused Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail of "trying to damage the government" by lodging the motion.

Speaking to RTE's Morning Ireland, Minister Coveney hit out at Fianna Fail and accused them of trying to bring down the government for "political party reasons".

"What we are dealing with today is Fianna Fail insisting on moving a motion of no confidence in a Tanaiste who is being accused of not protecting whistleblowers on the basis of facts that have not been established by a tribunal. We need to call this for what it is. This is reckless politics that is politically opportunistic to damage a Taoiseach who is doing a really good job and to a damage a government that is trying to move forward," he said.

However, Fianna Fail is adamant that Mrs Fitzgerald should resign in the national interest so as to avoid an election. If the Dail is dissolved in the coming days it is likely that a general election would be called at some point between December 15 and 23.
TANAISTE Frances Fitzgerald cancelled a scheduled appearance at a high-profile Kilkenny jobs announcement today as the escalating political crisis over her future now threatens to spark a general election.

Ms Fitzgerald was due to attend a major jobs announcement at the plush Lyrath House Hotel outside Kilkenny city this morning.

However, her attendance was cancelled at the eleventh hour as the political crisis escalated at Leinster House.

Junior Trade Minister Pat Breen was delegated to serve in her place at the Kilkenny function.

The cancellation came as senior Fine Gael and Fianna Fail officials are expected to consult over the weekend in a bid to end the impasse over the Tanaiste's future and avoid a general election.

Ireland now hovers on the brink of a general election over the crisis which could be called for December 21.

If an election is ordered, there is now a looming prospect of ballot counts taking place up until Christmas Eve.

The crisis erupted when Fianna Fail said it no longer had confidence in the Tanaiste over her handling of a key email in relation to Garda whistleblower, Sergeant Maurice McCabe.

A no confidence motion is now scheduled to be tabled on Tuesday.

Fianna Fail officials said the crisis can be resolved if Ms Fitzgerald resigns or is removed by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

However, at a late night meeting all Fine Gael ministers and TDs voiced overwhelming support of Ms Fitzgerald and her position.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney urged other parties to put the country rather than narrow political interests first given the important issues over budget matters, Brexit and Northern Ireland now looming.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy insisted that if Fianna Fail does table a no confidence motion in Ms Fitzgerald, it will amount to a clear breach of the agreement the minority Government has with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin.

Fine Gael officials have accused Fianna Fail of putting their rivalry with Sinn Fein ahead of national interests and rejected the email controversy as warranting either a no confidence motion or a general election.
FINANCE Minister Paschal Donohoe has said that potentially historic decisions will have to be made with regard to Brexit in the coming weeks while the Fianna Fail locker room is focused on politics.

A highly animated Mr Donohoe launched into a defence of Frances Fitzgerald as he arrived at a scheduled event hosted by the Rehab Group in Dublin city centre this afternoon.

In a three-minute monologue, he said Ms Fitzgerald is a politician whose career has been marked and defined by a commitment to supporting and protecting those who need support and protection.

I have seen her respond back to that as Minister for Children and I saw her respond back to that as Minister for Justice.

But Fianna Fails finance spokesman Michael McGrath told Independent.ie that Ms Fitgerald has a hugely important personal decision to make.

If the Taoiseach isnt going to ask her to resign, its a decision shell have to make herself and it will have national consequences.

Mr Donohoe said the accusations that the Tanaiste was complicit in trying to undermine Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe shows the level to which they [Fianna Fail] are now sinking to advance their own political agenda.

If I hear another reference to the Fianna Fail locker room at a time when our country is facing the kind of challenges that it is, it will only show again the motivations that are at play here, he said.

Mr Donohoe warned that potentially historic decisions will have to be made in the coming weeks.

I know the choices our country will have to make soon in terms of how we respond back to Brexit, how we approach challenges within the European Union.

What we need now is a government that is strong, that has the support of the Dail behind it, he said.

Meanwhile Fianna Fail TDs have begun sending text messages and emails to constituents to explain their side of the crisis.

A message sent by Offaly TD Barry Cowen reads: The Tanaiste and the Government stood idly by as the character and integrity of an innocent man was undermined.

That doesnt sit easily with me. I dont think the Irish people thank the likes of me for not holding that behaviour to account.

Leo Varadkars judgement, experience and leadership is now on trial between now and Tuesday, when our motion will considered and voted on by the Dail.

It is within his gift to avoid an election. He has a choice, whether to serve himself or common decency.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the country will go to the polls if the gulf between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail is not resolved

Leo Varadkar and Micheal Martin are to meet again tomorrow following talks in Government buildings this evening.

While both parties are keen to avoid a December election it is understood both retained their position in today's meeting.

Fianna Fail has repeated calls for Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald to step down but Fine Gael have made their support clear, with a number of ministers coming out to show their support of her in the past 24 hours.

After a long meeting, sources say there has been "no change" in the positions expressed. The pair are set to meet again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, an emergency meeting of the executive council of Fine Gael has been called for Saturday.

The council is responsible for organising selection conventions to select candidates for elections.

The party has continued to back Ms Fitzgerald despite two motions of no confidence in her.

Fianna Fail lodged a motion of no confidence in the embattled Tanaiste this morning before Mr Martin said the party "does not want a general election".

The Independent Alliance is also set to meet with Mr Varadkar this evening. Minister Shane Ross has called on Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to pull back from a costly and needless election.

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Sinn Fein has selected Mary Lou McDonald as its de facto leader in the event of a general election.

The partys finance spokesman said he does not envisage a special meeting of the membership being convened as Ms McDonald is already deputy leader of the party.

At last weeks Ard Fheis Gerry Adams announced that he will not contest the next election but would stay on as party President until some time next year.

Mr Doherty also said it was not Sinn Feins plan to go after Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan if Ms Fitzgerald resigns.

Government sources believe the Opposition party would simply move to looking for Mr Flanagan to step down over the Garda controversy if they allowed Ms Fitzgerald to fall of her own accord.

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Expand Close Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin Photo: Tony Gavin / Facebook

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As Fine Gael continues to double down on its support, Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty this morning said the controversy is no longer about Ms Fitzgerald.

She claimed she has been told by a senior Fianna Fail politician that the controversy was no longer about her.

"I havent met anybody who wants an election," she said.

Theres nobody in their right mind in this country who would think the people of this country want an election or deserve an election.

We all need to cop onto ourselves and get around the table and sort out this mess once and for all. Everything can be resolved through mediation... Frances Fitzgerald has done nothing wrong."

I believe the charges that have been made against her by Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein, theyre trumped up. Actually this is more about Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail than it is about Frances Fitzgerald.

A senior Fianna Fail politician told me this week it stopped being about Frances Fitzgerald last week. The country does not deserve an election. We do not need one, so lets make sure we dont have one.

Speaking on RTEs 'Today with Sean ORourke' earlier today, Mr Martin said his party is preparing for an immediate election before Christmas, adding that he does not have confidence in Ms Fitzgerald.

Do you not think there is something fundamentally wrong with the inability to tell a story straight?

Mr Martin said his patience has now been stretched to the limit and that Sgt McCabe was mistreated.

It is about something that is core to every citizen in this country. The rights of citizens must be protected, the Cork South Central TD said.

Mr Martin also ruled out the prospect of entering government with Sinn Fein. And he denied that his own position will be in jeopardy if he fails to emerge from the election with the largest number of Dail seats.

Earlier today, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said there is "no reason for Frances Fitzgerald to resign" and accused Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail of "trying to damage the government" by lodging the motion.

Speaking to RTE's Morning Ireland, Minister Coveney hit out at Fianna Fail and accused them of trying to bring down the government for "political party reasons".

"What we are dealing with today is Fianna Fail insisting on moving a motion of no confidence in a Tanaiste who is being accused of not protecting whistleblowers on the basis of facts that have not been established by a tribunal. We need to call this for what it is. This is reckless politics that is politically opportunistic to damage a Taoiseach who is doing a really good job and to a damage a government that is trying to move forward," he said.

The Fine Gael politician also insisted Leo Varadkar is "not going to abandon his Tanaiste".

"Leo Varadkar is not going to ask her to resign on the back of a case which Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein have made. We don't think this even stands up. We think it is a case built on sand.

"...This is because the Tanaiste didn't act on an email two years ago, despite the email making clear she had no business acting on it and subsequently we have set up a full tribunal to establish the facts. They don't want to wait for due process, instead they want to take a political opportunity to damage the Tanaiste and the government in a time when it is not in the national interest to do so."

Minister Coveney, who was involved in drafting the confidence and supply agreement, said he doesn't see how the government can function if the motion of no confidence is lodged.

"You can't have the main opposition deciding who should be a minister and who shouldn't and have a credible government," he said.

"Fianna Fail are saying she should have acted on an email two years ago despite being told clearly she should not. She has since got advice from the Attorney General that backs this up."

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said Ms Fitzgerald is a politician whose career has been marked and defined by a commitment to supporting and protecting those who need support and protection.

I have seen her respond back to that as Minister for Children and I saw her respond back to that as Minister for Justice.
Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty has said the country doesnt deserve or need an election.

And she has backed Frances Fitzgerald, claiming she has been told by a senior Fianna Fail politician that the controversy was no longer about her.

"I havent met anybody who wants an election," she said.

Theres nobody in their right mind in this country who would think the people of this country want an election or deserve an election.

We all need to cop onto ourselves and get around the table and sort out this mess once and for all. Everything can be resolved through mediation... Frances Fitzgerald has done nothing wrong."

Her comments follow the tabling of a motion of no confidence by Fianna Fail, meaning an election looks inevitable unless the Tanaiste steps aside.

I believe the charges that have been made against her by Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein, theyre trumped up. Actually this is more about Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail than it is about Frances Fitzgerald.

A senior Fianna Fail politician told me this week it stopped being about Frances Fitzgerald last week. The country does not deserve an election. We do not need one, so lets make sure we dont have one.

Fianna Fail claimed the motion loged this morning is over concerns about the way Ms Fitzgerald handled the whistleblower controversy during her time as Justice Minister, in particular her lack of response to an email outlining clashes between legal teams for An Garda Siochana and whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe in 2015.

It reads: "Dail Eireann no longer has confidence in the Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald TD."

Mr Martin said "the whole situation is unsatisfactory" and said "there has been a breakdown of trust" between the various parties.

Speaking on RTEs 'Today with Sean ORourke', Mr Martin said he had initiated contact with Mr Varadkar this week but he did not respond in a satisfactory manner.

He said his party is preparing for an immediate election before Christmas, adding that he does not have confidence in Ms Fitzgerald.

Do you not think there is something fundamentally wrong with the inability to tell a story straight?
As he raised estate tax rates to fund work programs during the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, The transmission from generation to generation of vast fortunes by will, inheritance or gift is not consistent with the ideals and sentiments of the American people.

Its plenty consistent with the ideals and sentiments of President Donald Trump, who began lying about the merits of an estate tax repeal on the day he began the tax overhaul effort.

To protect millions of small businesses and the American farmer, we are finally ending the crushing, the horrible, the unfair estate tax, or as it is often referred to, the death tax, Trump said in late September.

Congressional Republicans echoed Trumps whoppers.

You actually create jobs by getting rid of this death tax, said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville. Because you know what kills one family business from passing their business on to the next generation? The estate tax.

For too long, this tax has threatened family-owned businesses  including women- and minority-owned businesses  from being passed down to their children and grandchildren, said Rep. Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which produced the tax legislation.

Wrong, wrong and wrong. So who actually does pay the estate tax?

1. The top 0.2 percent. Some 11,300 American estates  about 0.2 percent  are estimated to be subject to the estate tax this year. The top tenth of income earners pay nearly 90 percent of estate taxes collected, and about one-fourth of that total is paid by the richest 0.1 percent. The tax itself has been whittled down significantly. Until 2001, it applied to inheritances starting at $650,000 for an individual. Today, an inheritance must be larger than $5.49 million for an individual or $10.98 million for a couple for their heirs to be liable for any estate tax at all. Opponents of the tax say it taxes earnings twice. But more than half of the biggest estates consist of unrealized capital gains  like stocks that have appreciated without being sold  that have never been previously taxed.

2. A few dozen farmers, and even fewer minority business owners. About 80 family farmers or small-business people would be subject to the estate tax this year, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center  a far cry from the millions Trump wrongly claims. The biggest winners in an estate tax repeal wouldnt be struggling ranchers, minority contractors or mom-and-pop grocers. Theyd be people like Trumps kids, unless theyre ...

3. Morons. Only morons pay the estate tax, Gary Cohn, Trumps chief economic adviser, told Senate Democrats, meaning, it was later explained, rich people with really bad tax planning. Many of the very wealthy use loopholes, like trusts, to avoid paying inheritance tax. We dont know where Trumps kids would stand because Trump has never fulfilled his promise to publicly release his tax information.

An estate tax repeal would provide a tax windfall of more than $3 million apiece for the top 0.2 percent of earners, and more than $20 million for the wealthiest Americans. It would cost $239 billion in revenue over a decade. It offers nothing for middle-class people, except more evidence of Trumps and Republicans bad faith.
A solicitor is facing trial accused of bringing cocaine into an inmate at Mountjoy Prison during a professional visit.

Aonghus McCarthy (32) faces a single count under Section 15c of the Misuse of Drugs Act for conveying a controlled drug into Mountjoy Prison or a person in the prison, on February 8 last, a charge he denies.

Cocaine worth 25 was allegedly found when his wallet was searched, a court heard today.

The solicitors practice is based at Conyngham Road, Dublin 8, directly across from the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) building where he appeared on Friday morning.

His law firm is also among the panel of solicitors on the free legal aid board assigned to represent clients unable to fund their defence. The firm also has a civil practice.

Mr McCarthy, represented by solicitor Michael Hanahoe, appeared before Judge Anthony Halpin at the Dublin District Court on Friday.

Mr McCarthy, from Co Cork, but who has an address at Wellington House, Clancy Quay, Dublin 8, stood silently during the brief hearing.

He had been charged within the last month and had been granted Garda station bail pending his appearance today.

Evidence of the arrest and charging procedure was outlined in a certificate furnished to the judge by court Garda sergeant Eimear Curran.

The sergeant told the Judge Halpin that the Director of Public Prosecutions has directed summary disposal meaning the case was suitable to be heard in the district court and not at circuit court level, which can impose lengthier sentences.

In a summary of the prosecution evidence, the sergeant told the court it would be alleged the defendant entered the prison for a professional visit with an inmate. He went through a search area where he put his belt and wallet on a conveyor belt to be scanned, it was alleged.

Gda Sergeant Curran alleged that as they passed though the scanner a prison officer observed a black object inside the wallet. The prison officer found a bag with a white powder substance inside.

It was suspected that it was a controlled drug and gardai were contacted, the court heard.

Gda Sergeant Curran said the accused agreed to be interviewed at Mountjoy Garda station where he denied having known possession of the suspected drug or that he intended to pass it to an inmate.

The substance was found to contain cocaine worth 25, the court heard.

Judge Halpin accepted jurisdiction for the case to remain in the district court.

Defence solicitor Michael Hanahoe said he was seeking a date for a hearing which he said would only take about 15 minutes. He said that there was a single issue which required his client to give evidence.

The court heard that there will also be two State witnesses giving evidence.

Judge Halpin ordered that the trial would take place on March 14 but he agreed to Mr Hanahoes request for the case to be listed for mention next Friday to see if an earlier trial date was available.

Mr McCarthy was excused from having to attend the case next week. Before his own hearing he had been acting for his clients in other court cases in the CCJ; afterwards he went back to work representing defendants in the district court.
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar is facing the biggest political question of his career: sack his Tanaiste or call an election.

With the confidence and supply agreement which underpins the Government now on life support, Mr Varadkar must decide whether to cave to Fianna Fail demands for Frances Fitzgerald to be ousted.

The Opposition party is to table a motion of no confidence in Mrs Fitzgerald today over her lack of response to an email outlining clashes between legal teams for An Garda Siochana and whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe in 2015.

Senior Government sources told the Irish Independent that Mr Varadkar is not prepared to back down in the row as Fianna Fails argument is based on sand.

He is set to cancel a scheduled visit to the Irish Defence troops in Mali and a meeting with EU Parliament President Jean-Claude Juncker in the Ivory Coast next week to deal with the crisis.

The Government is resolute. We do not want an election but Frances Fitzgerald has done nothing wrong. The confidence and supply agreement couldnt be clearer so Fianna Fail need to pull back, a source close to the Taoiseach said.

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However, Fianna Fail is adamant that Mrs Fitzgerald should resign in the national interest so as to avoid an election. If the Dail is dissolved in the coming days it is likely that a general election would be called at some point between December 15 and 23.

Mr Varadkar is due in Brussels on December 14 for a pivotal Brexit meeting to decide the future of the Northern Ireland Border. And if the Government collapses, tax cuts and social welfare hikes announced as part of last months Budget are unlikely to be passed in time for January.

There were cheers from Fianna Fail TDs in the Dail bar as their justice spokesman Jim OCallaghan appeared on RTEs Six One news to announce: She should go.

Asked whether his party was prepared for an election, he said if Mrs Fitzgerald refused to step aside then so be it.

A series of emergency meetings took place in Government Buildings after Mr OCallaghans appearance on television during which Mr Varadkar indicated he will fight an election if Fianna Fail do not back down.

I think were having an election. Genuinely there is no question of the Tanaiste being asked to resign. The Fianna Fail case is built on sand, said one Cabinet minister.

We wont allow a political execution to take place.

A spokesperson for the Independent Alliance members of Government said they still retain confidence in Mrs Fitzgerald. The chain of events was sparked by Sinn Feins decision to place a motion of no confidence in the Tanaiste for next Wednesday.

Fianna Fail refused to be outflanked by Gerry Adamss party and is in a position to table a similar motion for Tuesday.

Health Minister Simon Harris accused Sinn Fein of trying to turn the Dail into a Kangaroo court.

He said the email at the centre of the controversy has been handed over to the Charleton tribunal, which is probing allegations of a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe.

Mr Harris said: I think most citizens in this country respect the fact that when you ask a judge to set up a tribunal, you actually allow the judge to get on with his work.

Government sources have raised concerns that even if Mrs Fitzgerald stands down, attention may then turn to current Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan.

He is under pressure for not alerting the Taoiseach to the email even after Mr Varadkar told the Dail there was no evidence the Department of Justice was aware of attempts to discredit Sgt McCabe at the OHiggins Commission.
Outside in the bitter cold, Louise James told how her heart has been left shattered.

"There are simply no words capable of expressing my pain, my disbelief and indeed my anger over what happened on that fateful day. My heart is shattered.

"Every moment of every day is filled with thoughts of my beautiful boys Mark and Evan, my mother Ruth, my sister Jodie Lee and my partner Sean," the Derry woman said in a statement read by her solicitor as she stood by his side.

"The one ray of sunshine in my life is my beautiful daughter Riognach who survived this horrible tragedy.

"For that I must once again thank Davitt and all those others who helped to save her on that day," she said.

Verdicts of death by misadventure caused by drowning were reached by the jury in each of the separate inquests into the death of Sean McGrotty (49) and his sons Mark (12) and Evan (8), Ruth Daniels (58) and her daughter Jodie Lee Daniels (14) on March 20, 2016.

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The coroner Denis McCauley had earlier explained to the jury that misadventure meant that a risk had been associated with the events of the day and that someone had done something that increased the risk of the event happening, the coroner said.

The extended family had been for dinner in Buncrana and gone for a drive, when Mr McGrotty parked on a slipway on the pier at Lough Swilly before sunset.

The end of the pier was covered in thick algae and the Audi Q7 began to slip into the lake.

Local man Davitt Walsh swam out to the sinking SUV and managed to rescue the baby Rioghnach-Ann.

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Ms James had just flown back from a hen weekend to Liverpool when she learned of the incident.

Mr McGrotty was found in a post-mortem examination to have been three times the drink-driving limit.

Yesterday, Gerard Boyle of Audi Ireland told the inquest electrical components were not supposed to be submerged in water but he believed the doors should still have worked.

The locking mechanism was in the boot of the car and would stay in whatever position it had been before the water rose.

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Everybody should have been able to open the doors manually after the electrics failed, he said.

The firm had been testing cars under water for the past 10 years, but Mr McGrotty's car, built in 2006, pre-dated the testing.

Barrister Keith O'Grady for motor insurers Allianz, representing the driver Mr McGrotty, asked if it was Audi's position that "all that had to be done here was a button pressed" and the windows would have opened.

"I can't say if it was done or tried to be done but that is how the vehicle works," Mr Boyle said.

Mr McGrotty would have had to use "considerable force" to break the driver's window with his elbow, the inquest heard, because the car had been fitted with laminated safety glass.

RNLI volunteer diver John O'Raw gave evidence that he had been unable to open the doors while underwater and retrieved the bodies of Jodie Lee and Mark through the open tailgate.

One of the first on the scene, Garda Seamus Callaghan, told of how the water was searched and RNLI crew took Ruth Daniels from the water and performed CPR on her at the water's edge.

The slipway had thick algae on it and Gda Callaghan commented he could not stand up without almost slipping into the water and had to get down on his knees to assist with the resuscitation attempts.

He told how the area had been sealed off as CPR was performed without avail on the five bodies. They were all pronounced dead and covered with blankets and a local priest said prayers over them.

Irish Water Safety CEO John Leech told the inquest cars should be fitted with hammers because "we are an island nation" with many waterways.

Giving advice on how to escape a car in water, Mr Leech said the advice was to get out in under a minute by first taking or cutting seatbelts off and opening or breaking the windows. Older children should be taken out first and adults then exit with infant children. Meanwhile, he said it shouldn't be difficult to open a car door under water, "just slower".

Reaching verdicts of death by misadventure, the jury recommended that Irish Water Safety advise and work with all interested parties to ensure best international practice and standards at all slipways and piers nationally.

The coroner extended his sympathy to the family on their "unimaginable" loss and paid tribute to those who had assisted at the scene.

Afterwards, Ms James said there were no words capable of expressing her pain and disbelief and her anger over what happened.

"I firmly believe that the slipway should have been closed to the general public or else proper warning signs displayed as it was an accident waiting to happen."

"Hopefully, lessons will be learned and the recommendations made following this inquest will be implemented," she said.

"Notwithstanding" the evidence that has emerged, she said Mr McGrotty was "a wonderful partner to me and an adoring father to his children.

"He lived for them."

Additional reporting by Andrew Phelan
Flooding in Mountmellick, Co Laois, has caused hardship for businesses and residents Photo: Kevin Byrne

Retired mechanic Jim Culleton stood in shock amid the destroyed furniture stacked in his home in Moore Street in flood-hit Mountmellick.

"It happened so fast. I looked out onto the street and it was like a river flowing past," Mr Culleton (74) said. "It came through the back door first. By the time we had sandbags for the front door, it was too late."

Mr Culleton was among hundreds of people beginning the grim task of clearing their homes of furniture and floorings and cleaning up after a deluge "of Biblical proportions" swamped the Laois town on Wednesday.

"I have no insurance and I had only recently spent 13,000 getting the place done up, including a new floor. Now I'm going to have to start trying to tackle it a small bit at a time," he said.

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A Civil Defence amphibious vehicle set out at dawn to ferry isolated residents along flood-hit roads to shops and appointments.

Council workers, Civil Defence volunteers, fire brigade staff, gardai and 30 soldiers from the Curragh military camp were all on hand to help the local population start getting back to normal yesterday.

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A few doors away from Mr Culleton, the Gold Star Dry Cleaners was back open for business as owner Liam Brown (48) recalled the "scary" event.

"It was a flash flood. The water came in so fast," he said.

His main concern was saving the hundreds of dresses, suits and jackets entrusted to his dry cleaning company by the people of the town. "All the clothes were on hangers above the floor and were saved. We worked very fast to lift all the bags of laundry off the floor," he said. "I've been here 12 years and there was never any need to ask for flood insurance. We'll have to get all new carpets and just hope this flood is a one-off."

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An old converted mill restored and refurbished in Irishtown is a base for Mountmellick Development Association, a busy creche and restaurant. The creche was the scene of drama on Wednesday evening as the water approached.

Paul Dempsey, chairperson of the development association, said 80 children were evacuated "in the nick of time".

"We just managed to get all the children out when the water came in. It was eight inches high inside the creche within 10 minutes," he said.

The Hare's Corner restaurant was badly damaged by the flood waters raging from the Owenass River nearby. Dejected owner Declan Furlong (49) said: "The place is destroyed. We were about to celebrate our first anniversary in business. It's terrible. We have a staff of 14 people but I don't know when we can open.

"The flood happened so suddenly. Diners were here having lunch when the waters came in and everyone had to rush out.

"The waters rose about two feet in the restaurant. I'm concerned about all our regular elderly customers who depend on us. But there's a tremendous community spirit in Mountmellick. A lot of people have offered to help scrub the place out."

Manor Road was the worst affected part of the town. Houses in local estates were evacuated. In nearby Manor Court yesterday, Rosemary Whelan (34) said the waters flooded her home within minutes.

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"My fiance Michael O'Gorman and his father did their best and lifted some of the furniture but the water kept coming up through the floorboards.

"We've a big clean-up," said Ms Whelan, who works as a parliamentary assistant to Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, who has one of his constituency offices in the town.

Passing her home in the floodwaters was a Civil Defence all-weather, all-terrain vehicle with a crew who had travelled from Dublin.

They said one of their first missions of mercy was to bring a woman out of her home so that she could get to a hospital appointment.

Mr Flanagan visited a special incident centre. His own constituency office was flooded. "This was a catastrophic event of almost Biblical proportions," said the minister. He was joined by Minister Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, who is in charge of the national response to flooding.

The ministers met with local officials, householders and business people affected by the flood to see how the State could help those not covered by insurance.

Laois County Council director of services Kieran Kehoe said a scheme that would deal with waste water and sewage separately had been mandated for the town. Garda Chief Superintendent John Scanlan said a dozen Garda officers were sent to the town and Garda patrols would safeguard against looting empty houses.

By late afternoon, most of the roads around and through Mountmellick were passable and an air of normality had returned.

But for dozens of families, the hard work is just beginning.
There will be a General Election if the current impasse between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael is not resolved by Tuesday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

He also said that in the event of a snap election it should take place before Christmas, dismissing any suggestion the election could take place in the New Year.

In his first public comments since Fianna Fail tabled a motion of no confidence in Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald, Mr Varadkar said he will stand by her in the days ahead.

He accused Opposition TDs of trying to carry out a summary execution without knowing all the facts.

I dont believe the decapitation of the Tanaiste based on the trumped up charges is fair, he said.

Asked on RTEs Six One News why he wouldnt ask Ms Fitzgerald to step aside in the national interest, he said that would be him throwing a good woman under the bus for political expediency to save myself and my government.

He refused to be drawn on whether he would accept Ms Fitzgerald's resignation should she tender it, instead saying he did not believe such a situation would arise.

The Fine Gael leader also said that he would not be "rushing to the park" to dissolve the Dail over the weekend.

We still have opportunity for the next few days to avoid an election. Certainly I dont want there to be a general election, he said.

Mr Varadkar gave no indication that he would cede ground to Micheal Martin in the dispute.

I think fundamentally this had to be about truth, justice and fairness," he said.

He described the case against Frances Fitzgerald  that she didnt act on an email alerting her to legal rows at the OHiggins Commission  was flimsy.

If there is an election before Christmas itll be because Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein came together, the Taoiseach said.

On the issue of Brexit, Mr Varadkar said he would still be able to travel the EU Council meeting on December 14 even if it falls mid-election.

The future of the Irish border is due to be decided at that conference.
Black Friday is here, and a raft of last-minute deals has piled onto our travel desk. Here's the pick of the crop.

Flights from 9.99

Ryanair continues its week of Black Friday travel deals, with 20pc off five million seats until midnight tonight. Sale fares include 9.99 flights to the UK, Cologne and Munich from 16.99 and Barcelona from 19.99, for travel between December and April. ryanair.com.

Norwegian's 'Cyber Weekend' sale, launched just this morning, sees up to 30pc off European and 20pc off US routes using the discount code BLACKFRIDAY17. The offer is available today only for travel between December 4 and March 18. norwegian.com/ie.

Kick back in the Canaries from 199pp

Sunway has several Black Friday travel deals running to midnight Sunday, including December packages to Gran Canaria (2 star), Lanzarote (2 star) and Fuerteventura (3 star) from 199pp (saving up to 350pp). Flights, transfers, accommodation and 20kg checked bags are included in the prices. sunway.ie.

25pc off Royal Caribbean cruises

Royal Caribbean is offering 25pc off cruises, up to $1,000 onboard credit and free gratuities on select sailings on Symphony of the Seas and Independence of the Seas from the UK next year. Book by November 27 on royalcaribbean.ie.

Free admission to Holiday World

The 2018 Holiday World Show runs at Dublin's RDS from January 26-28, and you can nab free admission across all three days for two people (and two kids) by logging on to facebook.com/theholidayworldshow.com today. It usually costs 7pp.

100 off American Holidays

American Holidays is offering 100 off all multi-centre holidays booked this weekend. The deals include a four-night trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls from 695pp (Ref 1537505), and a 15-night Route 66 fly-drive from 1,999 (Ref. 1531803). americanholidays.com.

Up to 25pc off Irish hotel stays

Carton House (cartonhouse.com) has 25pc off deluxe rooms (select dates from December to February), Mulranny Park Hotel (mulrannyparkhotel.ie) has 20pc off stays and gift vouchers, and the Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa, Limerick is offering B&B and dinner from 99 for two people, valid for stays in December and January (call 061 456200 to book by midnight Monday).

Expedia.ie says it is offering up to 75pc off hotel stays for Black Friday.

NB: All deals subject to availability and T&Cs. Read these carefully before you book to ensure savings apply to your travel dates.

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David Meade has hit headlines this year for his apocalyptic predictions  and now hes calling for US president Donald Trump to take action.

He needs to appoint an independent commission to research the issue and discover the truth, Meade told the Press Association.

Meades predictions involve a celestial body in the solar system called Planet X, or Nibiru  with its meeting with Earth leading to our worlds end.

Through numeric interpretations of the Bible the American has predicted the beginning of the end of the world on a number of dates, with coverage of the predictions so widespread that Nasa has addressed the issue  publicly refuting the existence of Planet X numerous times.

We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference

Meades latest article questions whether President Trump knows about the planet, suggesting both that he is on a need-to know basis and that he needs to know  saying it is essential to the security of the United States.

In the article Meade points to a connection between fracking and pole shifts  the theory that movement of the location of the Earths poles can cause calamities such as earthquakes and floods  which he says may have made some underground bunkers uninhabitable for those seeking refuge.

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Asked whether he is suggesting the president should stop fracking in the US, Meade said: The damage has been done from fracking so the emphasis should shift to building deep underground military bases in Colorado and out west.

So how should people act upon Meades predictions?

Buy my new book  The End of Days  Planet X And Beyond  on Amazon  educate themselves  and prepare, said Meade.

It should perhaps be noted here that Meade has written a number of books on his apocalyptic topics, such as Planet X  The 2017 Arrival and The Pole Shift That Sank Atlantis.

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So, is the end of the world coming and should Trump be shaping up a crack team to research it? All thats certain is  David Meade would really like you to buy his book.

Its on Kindle too
CHICAGO  Though the Virginia governorship was the marquee race in this months elections, the Virginia House of Delegates produced the most surprising result. Democrats picked up at least 15 seats and reduced a 66 to 34 Republican advantage to, at most, 51 to 49. A gerrymandered chamber thought to be safely Republican suddenly became a toss-up  and may yet flip to Democratic control after all the recounts are completed.

This unexpected outcome raises the question: Can gerrymandering really be such a problem if a partys legislative edge can virtually disappear overnight? This question is especially important now, as the Supreme Court mulls over Gill vs. Whitford, a potentially historic case about redistricting in Wisconsin.

The question also has a clear answer: Of course gerrymandering is deeply troublesome even if it can be overcome, at least temporarily, by a wave election.

Consider the following facts about the Virginia House of Delegates: In three previous elections (2011, 2013 and 2015), Republicans won 66 or 67 out of 100 seats. Republicans maintained this supermajority even though Democrats narrowly won every statewide race over this period. To secure (roughly) half of the House seats this month, Democrats had to earn well over 50 percent of the statewide House vote. This was the Democrats best showing in more than 30 years. Had Republicans done as well, they would have won far more than 50 seats: close to 70, in fact.

The upshot of these statistics is that gerrymandering works. The Virginia district plan operated exactly as intended in prior elections, returning overwhelming Republican majorities even when voters slightly preferred Democratic statewide candidates. And while a Democratic tsunami hit Virginia this month, if it recedes even modestly, the map will revert to massively favoring Republicans.

A second crucial point is that, though no one can predict a wave with certainty, a plans performance if a wave arrives can be accurately forecast. In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton won 17 Virginia districts represented by Republican incumbents. So it was apparent ahead of time that if Democratic candidates could match her showing, they would flip a large number of seats. And it was unsurprising that when Democrats substantially improved on her numbers, they prevailed in the bulk of these vulnerable districts. In fact, 14 of the Democrats 15 pickups (so far) were in districts previously won by Clinton.

A final point is that not all maps are equally at risk if a Virginia-sized wave materializes. Take the Wisconsin Assembly redistricting plan at issue in Whitford. Its authors were not quite as greedy as those who drew the Virginia map. They were content for Republicans to win three-fifths (rather than two-thirds) of the seats in normal conditions. This somewhat less ambitious target let them sprinkle more Republican voters into each Republican district, yielding bigger margins and more leeway in the event of a Democratic groundswell.

Consequently, only three Wisconsin districts (out of 99) were won by Clinton but represented by Republicans. If Wisconsin Democrats do as well in 2018 as their Virginia counterparts did in 2017, they will likely flip just four seats. For Democrats to win a majority of the Wisconsin Assembly, they would need a further five-point boost  a 100-year flood rather than an ordinary wave.

Its true, then, that with enough wind at its back, its always possible for a party to earn a legislative majority. But enough is a relative term. A clever gerrymander can set the bar almost impossibly high, condemning a party to minority status in all but the most extreme circumstances.
A woman leaves with a child after saying she came to withdraw the child from the RYB kindergarten in Beijing (AP/Ng Han Guan)

Dozens of upset parents gathered Friday outside a nursery in Beijing to demand answers after reports alleged some children had been abused and molested.

The case has drawn widespread attention in China and triggered outrage over potential lapses in supervision in the booming private pre-school industry.

The scandal erupted after influential news magazine Caixin and other Chinese media quoted some parents as saying their children were molested, forced to strip as punishment, found with unexplained apparent needle marks on their bodies and made to take unidentified white pills.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Education said it would inspect other nurseries in the Chinese capital, while the company that runs the pre-school, Beijing-based RYB Education, said in a statement it has suspended three teachers.

It promised to co-operate with police in a thorough investigation and vowed "zero tolerance" for abusive staff.

It is the latest case involving schools to spark outrage in China.

"Laws must be enforced, supervision strengthened, teacher wages increased," an editorial by the official Xinhua News Agency said.

"The childcare industry cannot be allowed to grow in an uncivilised fashion."

Earlier this month, surveillance video emerged of abuse at a Shanghai daycare centre run by China's largest online travel company, Ctrip.

The video, uploaded by angry parents on Chinese social media, showed teachers slapping a crying girl, pushing a toddler to the ground, and force-feeding students a substance later confirmed to be wasabi.

In April, RYB Education suspended the headmaster and two teachers at another branch in Beijing after a video of a teacher kicking children was widely shared online.

On Friday morning, a group of parents waited for answers outside the Xintiandi school gate while other parents led their children past reporters and security agents to the doors.

"We need clarification. As parents, we have the right to question the school, don't we?" said a father who gave only his surname, Wang.

In its statement, RYB suggested it was the victim of false accusations by an "individual" and said it raised this with police.

Concern rippled beyond families at the school. Pictures of alleged injuries were widely shared by users of China's WeChat messaging service before the country's internet censors started deleting posts.

"This is quite terrifying," said Zhang Yang, a mother in Beijing whose children do not attend RYB schools. She said the allegations were alarming because they were being made against a well-known private institution.

"All my friends went home and asked their children if they've ever been given medications or injected," Ms Zhang said. "Mothers are at a loss for what to do."

RYB and its franchisees operate 1,300 daycare centres and nearly 500 nurseries in 300 Chinese cities, according to its website.

The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September, joining other Chinese providers capitalising on rising demand from the country's emerging middle class for educational services.

AP
Militants attacked a crowded mosque with explosives and gunfire during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula, killing more than 230 people in the deadliest attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt.

The attack targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of Islam's mystical movement, in the north Sinai town of Bir al-Abd. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State group, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith.

The startling bloodshed, which also wounded at least 109, was the latest sign of how more than three years of fighting in Sinai has been unable to crush an insurgency waged by the IS affiliate.

Seeking to spread the violence, the militants over the past year have carried out deadly bombings on churches in the capital, Cairo, and other cities, killing dozens of Christians. The affiliate is also believed to have been behind the 2016 downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed 226 people.

But this was the first major militant attack on a Muslim mosque, and it eclipsed any past attacks of its kind, even dating back to a previous Islamic militant insurgency in the 1990s.

The militants opened fire from four off-road vehicles on the hundreds of worshippers attending the sermon in the mosque.

They also blocked off escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the burning wrecks blocking the roads, three police officers on the scene said.

Dozens of bloodied bodies wrapped up in sheets were laid across the mosque floor, according to images circulating on social media. Relatives queuing up outside the hospital as ambulances raced back and forth.

Resident Ashraf el-Hefny said many of the victims were workers at a nearby salt factory who had come for Friday services at the mosque.

"Local people brought the wounded to hospital on their own cars and trucks," he said by telephone.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. But IS has targeted Sufis several times in the area in the past, notably beheading a leading Sufi religious figure, the blind sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz, last year and posting photos of the killing online.

Egypt's presidency declared a three-day mourning period, as President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi convened a high-level meeting of security officials.

In a statement afterwards, Mr el-Sissi said the attack "will not go unpunished" and that Egypt will persevere with its war on terrorism.

The suffering of the victims was not in vain, he added, and will only "add to our insistence" to combat extremists. Addressing the nation later on television, he repeated his view that Egypt fighting a battle against militancy on behalf of the rest of the world.

Cairo's international airport boosted security following the attack, with more forces patrolling passenger halls, conducting searches and manning checkpoints at airport approaches.

State condolences poured in for Egypt, including messages from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the US, Russia, France and Britain condemning the violence.

US President Donald Trump denounced what he called a "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenceless worshippers in Egypt."

"The world cannot tolerate terrorism" he said on Twitter, "we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!"

Islamic militants stepped up their campaign of violence in northern Sinai after the military ousted the Muslim Brotherhood from power in 2013.

The result has been a long, grinding conflict centred on el-Arish and nearby villages and desert mountains. The militants have been unable to control territory, but the military and security forces have also been unable to bring security, as the extremists continuously carry out attacks.

Largely the attacks have focused on military and police, killing hundreds, although exact numbers are unclear as journalists and independent investigators are banned from the area. But the militants have also assassinated individuals the group considers spies for the government or religious heretics.

Egypt has also faced attacks by militants in its Western Desert, including an attack last month that killed 16 police, according to an official tally issued by the Interior Ministry.

Security officials have told journalists that dozens more, including high-ranking counter-terrorism officers, perished in the October 20 attack some 84 miles south-west of the capital, Cairo.

AP
FTSE 100 insurer Aviva is offering equal parental leave for men and women, offering six months pay across the board in a move that is meant to eradicate career impediments for female staff.

Parents employed by Aviva will be offered the same benefit of up to a years leave with 26 weeks of basic full pay regardless of gender, sexual orientation or how they became a parent.

It opens the door for not only biological parents but those using a surrogate or opting for adoption.

The new policy is part of Avivas strategy to create a diverse and inclusive working culture in which barriers to career progression are removed, the company has said.

The move has been hailed by unions for helping progress equality and diversity in the workplace.

Andy Case, a regional officer for Unite the Union, said: Unite believes that the parental leave policy announced today is market leading and represents a significant and positive step forward for equality in the workplace.

We are keen to hear our members comments on this positive initiative which we will feed back to Aviva management as part of our ongoing dialogue on equality, diversity and inclusion.

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Aviva is launching the new policy in a handful of locations, including the UK, Ireland, France, Singapore and Canada, for those employees who became parents on or after November 19 and will be extended to its other businesses within the next year.

However, it said that the amount of time off and resulting pay could differ by country, saying it hopes to be the market leader for parental leave in each market.

UK staff will be offered up to 12 months off  half of which will be paid.

The policy will be available to any employee regardless of the amount of time they have worked at Aviva or how much they earn.

Part-time employees are also eligible, and there is no requirement to share leave between parents even if they both work for the insurer.

Aviva chief executive Mark Wilson said: I want to live in a world where the only criteria for success is someones talent, not their gender.

Treating parents equally will help make this happen.

We want Aviva to be a progressive, inclusive, welcoming place to work. Its good for our people and its also good business sense.
Argentina's president has said an international search will continue for a submarine carrying 44 crew members that has been lost in the South Atlantic for nine days and the vessel's disappearance will be investigated.

The Argentine navy said an explosion occurred near the time and place where the submarine went missing on November 15 as it was sailing from the extreme southern port of Ushuaia to the coastal city of Mar del Plata.

That has led some family members of the crew to give up hope of a rescue. Navy officials and outside experts also worry that even if the sub is intact but submerged, its crew may be running out of oxygen.

"The disappearance and current search of the ARA San Juan submarine has touched all Argentines. It's a difficult moment for all, but obviously, especially for the families of the 44 crew members," President Mauricio Macri said in his first public comments about the missing submarine at the navy's headquarters in Buenos Aires.

"I'm here to guarantee you that we will carry on with the search, especially now that we have the support of all the international community."

More than a dozen planes and ships have been participating in the multinational search across an area of some 185,000 square miles, which is roughly the size of Spain.

The Argentine navy said on Friday that Russia is sending an Antonov transport aircraft and a ship in the southern Patagonian port of Comodoro Rivadavia is being adapted to carry a US Navy submarine rescue chamber to the area.

The ARA San Juan, a German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine, was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refitted in 2014.

The sub was originally scheduled to arrive on Monday at a navy base in Mar del Plata, about 250 miles south east of Buenos Aires. Some relatives of the crew who have gathered at the base fear that their loved ones will no longer be rescued.

"Hope is the last thing you lose. I'm waiting for a surprise, but I'm not really counting on it," Luis Tagliapietra, father of 27-year-old crew member Alejandro Damian Tagliapietra, said.

"You go from denial to suffering, from optimism to pessimism," he said, holding back tears. When he found out about the explosion from his son's direct superior, he was told that there was a possibility there were no survivors.

"I asked them if they were all dead, and he said: 'Yes.'"

Some family members have denounced the navy's response to the disappearance and the condition of the 30-year-old vessel.

Although Mr Macri said that it is not the time to point fingers at anyone, he promised a probe of the sub's disappearance.

"This demands a serious, deep investigation," Mr Macri said. "We need to understand how a submarine that had undergone a mid-life refit, and that was in perfect conditions to sail, suffered this explosion."

AP
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, recently announced his potential opposition to the Senate tax reform bill, which threatens its passage. The failure to pass tax cuts would be a blow to small businesses in Wisconsin and across the country.

The current version of the Senate tax bill established a 17.4 percent tax deduction for all small businesses earning less than $500,000 year, which according to the Tax Foundation is 97 percent of all small businesses. This means for a business earning $200,000, the first $34,800 is tax-free.

These savings would be a tremendous improvement from the current small business tax burden, which can reach almost 40 percent at the federal level. Small businesses cannot wait another 30 years for tax relief.

If Republicans cant pass tax cuts, what can they do?

Devin Gatton, Milwaukee
A Rohingya man carries an elderly woman, after the wooden boat they were travelling on from Myanmar, which can be seen in the background, crashed into the shore and tipped everyone out in September in Dakhinpara, Bangladesh. Photo: Getty Images

The United States declared the violence and atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar to be a campaign of "ethnic cleansing," and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that US sanctions may be forthcoming.

Mr Tillerson blamed the Myanmar military and security forces as well as local vigilantes for what he called "horrendous atrocities" that have caused more than 600,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar's western Rakhine state for the safety of neighbouring Bangladesh. But he placed most of the criticism on the government, demanding the security forces respect human rights and punish the guilty.

Expand Close A Rohingya refugee woman walks with a child in her lap in Balukhali refugee camp in the Bangladeshi district of Ukhia yesterday / Facebook

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Whatsapp A Rohingya refugee woman walks with a child in her lap in Balukhali refugee camp in the Bangladeshi district of Ukhia yesterday

"Those responsible for these atrocities must be held accountable," he said in a statement, reiterating his call for an independent investigation into what has caused a refugee crisis in which Rohingya men have been executed, women raped and their babies murdered.

"The United States will also pursue accountability through US law, including possible targeted sanctions," he added, suggesting sanctions might be directed against specific Myanmar officials.

Many members of Congress and human rights groups had been urging Mr Tillerson for months to adopt the "ethnic cleansing" terminology.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres designated it as such in mid-September. French President Emmanuel Macron has called it genocide. Amnesty International has called the violence in Myanmar "dehumanising apartheid," and Human Rights Watch has termed it crimes against humanity.

Expand Close US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson / Facebook

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State Department officials noted that ethnic cleansing is not recognised inter-nationally as a crime and triggers no punitive measures against Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. But it sets the stage to exert more pressure on Myanmar officials if they fail to take actions such as giving humanitarian groups and the press access to Rakhine state and guaranteeing safety to those who voluntarily return home.

Mr Tillerson made a brief visit last week to Myanmar, where he talked with state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and the head of the armed forces.

The Myanmar military has denied committing atrocities during "clearance operations" to battle Muslim insurgents in the predominantly Buddhist nation. An internal investigation cleared the military of any wrongdoing.

Human rights groups applauded Mr Tillerson's decision to start using the term "ethnic cleansing", but they said more action was needed.

Eric Schwartz, president of Refugees International, said the move could be used by Washington to pressure other countries to take stronger measures, including a global arms embargo and the end of military-to-military relations.

"Secretary Tillerson's statement is a necessary first step," he said. "However, until the abuses against the Rohingya people end and full access is given to the international humanitarian aid and the UN fact-finding mission, such pressure and requisite actions will continue to be essential."

Joanne Lin, head of advocacy and government relations for Amnesty International USA, said Mr Tillerson's acknowledgment of ethnic cleansing set an example for how to respond.

"The time for outrage and condemnation has passed," she said. "The international community must impose a comprehensive arms embargo and targeted financial sanctions against senior Myanmar military officials responsible for crimes against humanity."

Ms Lin also urged the US to introduce a UN Security Council resolution calling for an embargo and sanctions, and to pressure Bangladesh to loosen its registration rules so humanitarian groups can get more aid workers on the ground.

The term "ethnic cleansing" is largely descriptive and dates from the conflict in the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia. At the time, a UN commission defined it as "rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove people of given groups from the area."

The timing of Mr Tillerson's statement was rife with symbolism. It coincided with the International Criminal Court's sentencing of former Bosnia Serb commander Ratko Mladic, who was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, to life in prison.

 The Washington Post
A wooden boat is seen at a marina, in Yurihonjo, Akita prefecture, northern Japan (AP)

Eight men found on Japan's northern coast are thought to be from North Korea and were apparently washed ashore after their boat broke down.

The fishermen want to return home and Japanese investigators believe the men are not defectors.

Akita prefectural police said on Friday they found the men late on Thursday after receiving a call about suspicious men standing around at the seaside in Yurihonjo town.

Police also found a wooden boat reportedly carrying squid at a nearby marina.

Police said the Korean-speaking men were in good health and identified themselves as North Koreans who were fishing before the boat broke down and washed ashore.

Wreckage believed to be from North Korean boats regularly washes ashore in northern Japan during winter due to seasonal winds.

AP
File photo of Oscar Pistorius, centre, arriving at the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2016 (AP)

Oscar Pistorius's prison sentence was more than doubled to 13 years and five months on Friday.

The extension was a surprisingly dramatic intervention by South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal in the Olympic athlete's fate after the murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

In an announcement that took a matter of minutes, Supreme Court Justice Willie Seriti said a panel of judges unanimously upheld an appeal by prosecutors against Pistorius's original six-year sentence for shooting Ms Steenkamp multiple times in his home in 2013.

Under that initial sentence, which the court called "shockingly lenient", the double-amputee runner could have been released on parole in mid-2019. Now, the earliest he'll be eligible for parole is 2023.

The ruling could finally bring an end to the near five-year legal saga surrounding Pistorius, a multiple Paralympic champion and record-breaker who was the first amputee to run at the Olympics and one of the most celebrated sportsmen in the world.

Ms Steenkamp's parents, Barry and June, were "emotional" as they watched Mr Seriti deliver the verdict live on television at their home, family lawyer Tania Koen said.

"They feel there has been justice for Reeva. She can now rest in peace," Ms Koen told The Associated Press. "But at the same time, people must realise that people think this is the end of the road for them ... the fact is they still live with Reeva's loss every day."

Pistorius killed Ms Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day 2013 after shooting four times through a closed toilet cubicle door with his 9 mm pistol. He claimed he mistook the 29-year-old model and reality TV star for an intruder and was initially convicted of manslaughter by trial judge Thokozile Masipa.

That conviction was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court in 2015. Pistorius was then sentenced to six years for murder by Ms Masipa, a decision also now rejected by the Supreme Court.

Prosecutors called the six-year sentence much too lenient and the Supreme Court agreed, saying in a full written ruling released later that "the sentence of six years' imprisonment is shockingly lenient to a point where it has the effect of trivialising this serious offence."

The Supreme Court said that Pistorius "displays a lack of remorse, and does not appreciate the gravity of his actions."

Pistorius' brother, Carl, wrote on Twitter: "Shattered. Heartbroken. Gutted."

Pistorius should have been sentenced to the prescribed minimum of 15 years for murder, Mr Seriti said, as he delivered the verdict of a panel of five judges at the Supreme Court in the central city of Bloemfontein. There is no death penalty in South Africa.

The new sentence of 13 years and five months took into account the one year and seven months Pistorius served in prison and under house arrest after his manslaughter conviction.

The new sentence was backdated to start on the day he began his murder sentence, on July 6 last year.

Supreme Court judges are generally reluctant to change sentences handed down by trial courts, and it is rare for them to change one so dramatically.

"I did not expect the Supreme Court of Appeal to hand down such a lengthy sentence of imprisonment," legal analyst Ulrich Roux said on the eNCA news channel. "But, if one looks at what the law states, and given the fact that murder does carry the minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, I think the decision could be vindicated."

Pistorius must serve at least half of the 13 years and five months - nearly seven years - before he can be considered for parole. He has served a year and five months of his murder sentence.

Pistorius, who turned 31 on Wednesday, is being held at the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre on the outskirts of the South African capital, Pretoria, and did not attend any of the appeal hearings.

Friday's decision also has possible consequences for where he is held for the remainder of his sentence. Pistorius was moved from the high security Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in central Pretoria to Atteridgeville, which houses prisoners sentenced to six years or less. Pistorius might now be moved back to a higher security facility.

Pistorius's lawyers have the option to appeal the new sentence at the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa.

Pistorius failed with an appeal to the Constitutional Court last year to challenge his murder conviction.

AP
Chennai, Nov 24 (IBNS): The poll in RK Nagar, a seat which fell vacant after the demise of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, will be held on Dec. 21, media reports said.

The votes will be counted on Dec. 24.

The Election Commission in early part of the year had postponed the poll over the alleged bribery charges in the process of the poll conduct.

The EC took the call to scrap the scheduled poll two days after the I-T Department raided the house of Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijayabaskar.

Among the 35 locations where searches were being conducted, 23 places are in Chennai.

The I-T sleuths also searched the residence of Dr S Geethalakshmi, the vice-chancellor of Dr MGR Medical University, Tamil Nadu.

Geetalakshmi had received the Dr BC Roy award, the most prestigious award for a medical professional in the country, from the President only a few days ago.
Gandhinagar, Nov 24 (IBNS): Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday will campaign in Gujarat for the upcoming state poll, media reports said.

However, Congress' ally partner Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel won't join Gandhi in the aforementioned campaign.

Patel on Wednesday declared that the PAAS is in pact with the Congress to fight the upcoming Gujarat Assembly election.

Days after the Congress released its first list of candidates, he held a press conference to confirm the deal.

Though the Congress' candidate list consists of names of few PAAS members, Patel said he did not ask for any seat.

The PAAS leader said their only demand was reservation for the Patidars which was accepted by the Congress.

"Our only agenda was reservation," Patel told media.

The PAAS and the BJP have been against each other regarding the reservation issue.

The Congress released its first list of candidates for the Gujarat Assembly election, scheduled to be held in December, on Sunday night, media reports said.

The first list consists of names of 77 candidates.

The names of senior Congress leaders like Arjun Modhwadia and Shaktisinh Gohil are present in the first list.

In the Congress' first list, three names of PAAS candidates are also included.

The poll in the state will take place in two phases on Dec.9 and Dec. 14. The counting of the votes will be held on Dec. 18.

The saffron brigade is in power in the state since 1995.
Image: twitter.com/FilmPadmavati

New Delhi/Jaipur, Nov 24 (IBNS) : The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a petition that sought setting up of a panel before ,the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Peadmavati to ensure that history is not distorted in the period piece featuring Deepika Padukone in the title role.

According to media reports, the HC said that the PIL against the release of the movie is misconceived and such pleas are encouraging people who are agitating against it.

According to the petition, Padmavati should first be screened in front of three prominent historians from top universities and a retired High Court judge, apart from the Censor Board.

The movie was to have released on December 1, but was postponed amid a bitter feud kicked up by different Rajput organisations, alleging that it has distorted history and has hurt the sentiment of the community by way of its presentation.

Meanwhile, a Jaipur report said that the body of a man was found hanging at the Nahargarh Fort on Friday.

While probing, the police also found a threat note on the rocks at the fort, which seem to suggested that the death was linked to the row over Padmavati.

We dont just hang effigies. Padmavati, said the message in Hindi,

However, the police is yet to know whether the death was an act of murder or suicide.

The deceased has been identified as Chetan Saini, a 40-year-old local man.

Image: twitter.com/FilmPadmavati
New Delhi, Nov 24 (IBNS): Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Ananthkumar, said that people of India strongly desire that Parliament should legislate on Triple Talaq and the National Commission for Backward Classes, and the Central government is committed to respond to this desire.

The Minister was speaking to the media on Friday after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) under the chairmanship of Union Minister for Home Affairs, Rajnath Singh.

CCPA has recommended that the Winter Session of Parliament be held from December 15, 2017 to January 5, 2018, subject to exigencies of government business..

Ananthkumar said that the ensuing Winter Session will have a total of 14 sittings over a duration of 22 days.

The legislative agenda for the coming session of Parliament was also discussed at the meeting.

Ananthkumar pointed out that it is not unprecedented that the schedule of the Parliament Session has been decided in a manner to avoid any overlap with the Assembly Elections in the states.

This practice has been followed on many occasions by different governments in the past, he said.

Ananthkumar appealed to all political parties for fruitful and constructive discussions on important Bills and ensure smooth functioning of both the Houses of the Parliament.

Three Bills are to be taken up in the coming Winter session to replace three Ordinances viz.,

1. The Goods & Services Tax (Compensation to States) Ordinance, 2017 (promulgated on 02.09.17)

2. Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017

3. Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017

Parliament will also discuss the Supplementary Demands for Grants in this Winter Session. the Minister informed.
. To do so, first type the original number into the text box. Then click on the "Scientific Notation" option located at the top of the floating window. Finally, click on the "Standard" button found beneath the text box to display your result. This program is useful for scientists and engineers working with decimal-based numbers. It provides easy access to those who need to convert those numbers into more compact forms without having to do heavy math calculations first.

Scientific notation is a way to express very large or very small numbers. It is used in physics, chemistry and other fields where large numbers are common. Those numbers are written as a power of 10 followed by a number with an exponent. For example, 1,000,000 (one million) is written as 1  103. The exponent shows how many zeros are after the first digit. For example, 1,000,001 is written as 1  102. Scientific notation is a useful tool for making calculations easier. You can use it to write down very big or very small numbers in one step instead of writing out both the large and small numbers separately. You can also use it to express large or small numbers in terms of other units like centimeters or millimeters.

Scientific notation solver is an online tool that can be used to convert any number into scientific notation. Simply enter any number to the left of the decimal point and it will automatically convert it into a scientific notation equivalent. This web tool can be very helpful when you need to convert a large number into scientific notation. However, please note that this online tool can only convert numbers that are in scientific format. For example, it cannot convert a non-scientific number like "1,085" into a scientific notation equivalent. It is also important to keep in mind that this web tool only works when converting numbers from one particular format to another. For example, if you want to change a non-scientific number like "1,085" into standard format, then you will have to use another online tool like NumberFormatting.com.
Kolkata, Nov 24 (IBNS): The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police on Friday morning arrested a 26-year-old man with suspected links to terrorist groups near Sealdah railway station in north part of the city, officials said.

According to reports, acting on a tip off, STF held a Bangladesh national, who has been identified as Sahadat Hossain alias Babu, in front of Jagat Talkies cinema hall in Kolkata's Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road area, metres away from Sealdah railway station.

"Last Tuesday, we arrested three persons, including two suspected terrorist linkmen and a firearms dealer, and based on their statements, we nabbed another suspect from Sealdah area on Friday," DC STF Murli Dhar Sharma told IBNS.

"Arrested man has been identified as Sahadat Hossain alias Babu (26) who is a resident of Bangladesh's Jessore district," Murli Dhar Sharma said.

Earlier on Tuesday, STF nabbed two Bangladesh nationals with suspected links to Al-Qaeda's front group in the Indian Subcontinent- Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) or Ansar Bangla, Samsad Mian and Riajul Islam, and a Bengal-based illegal firearms dealer, Monotosh Dey, from Kolkata railway station at Chitpur area.

The trio is in STF custody till Dec 5.

"After preliminary investigation, we have come to know that Bangladesh national Sahadat Hossain, who has been staying in India illegally, is a member of a terrorist organization's sleeper cell and he reportedly helped arrested ABT linkmen, Samsad Mian and Riazul Islam, in entering India illegally from Bangladesh," a senior official of Kolkata Police told IBNS.

"We have inputs that Sahadat also arranged jobs for two other Bangladeshis, Riazul and Samsad, in Hyderabad," the official added.

However, the arrested linkman, Sahadat Hossain, was produced in a city court on Friday and was sent to police (STF) custody till Dec 5.

"We are currently quizzing these four persons to bust the entire terror module and to identify and catch others," a senior STF official told IBNS.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)


Kolkata, Nov 24 (IBNS): The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police has identified two more men with suspected links to terrorist organizations, officials said on Friday.

According to reports, after interrogating three Bangladesh nationals, who were arrested earlier from Kolkata for suspected links with terrorist groups, police came to know about two more Bangladeshis, who have taken shelter in Kolkata or its neighbouring districts of West Bengal.

"Based on arrested suspects' statements, we have identified two more Bangladesh nationals- 26-year-old Shopon Biswas alias Sajol Ahmed alias Moon alias Tamim and 28 or 30-year-old Nayan Gazi alias Zafor alias Safik alias Saiful alias Ariful Gazi. They are the residents of Bangladesh's Khulna and Satkhira districts respectively," a senior official of Kolkata Police told IBNS.

"Months ago, they were staying in a lodge at Dubson Road area under Golabari Police Station limits in Kolkata's twin city Howrah and after examining the lodge's CCTV footage and records, we have identified them," the official said.

"During interrogation, arrested suspects named few other persons who have entered India from Bangladesh illegally. We are trying to identify them," the officer added.

The STF, however, has announced reward for information about these two wanted Bangladeshi suspects.

A source in the city police told IBNS that the arrested suspects were planning to kill at least 84 bloggers in Bangladesh and India.

"As many as 13 bloggers, who are based out of Kolkata and other parts of India, are among the 84 blog-writers who are there in the hit list of Al-Qaeda's front group in the Indian Subcontinent- Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) or Ansar Bangla," the source said.

The STF earlier arrested three Bangladesh nationals with suspected links to Bangladesh-based Islamic extremist group ABT, Samsad Mian, Riajul Islam and Md. Sahadat Hossain, and a Bengal-based illegal firearms dealer, Monotosh Dey, from Kolkata.

They all are in STF custody for further investigation till Dec 5.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)


New York, Nov 24(Just Earth News): Amid reports of an agreement between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar on return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, the United Nations refugee agency has underscored that the returns must be voluntary, and take place in safe and dignified conditions.

At present, conditions in Myanmar's Rakhine state are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns. Refugees are still fleeing, and many have suffered violence, rape, and deep psychological harm, Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told journalists at a regular media briefing in Geneva Friday.

It is critical that returns do not take place precipitously or prematurely, without the informed consent of refugees or the basic elements of lasting solutions in place, he stressed.

Over the past three months, widespread inter-communal violence in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state resulted in some 622,000 people fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh. Prior to this latest crisis, Bangladesh was already hosting well over 200,000 Rohingya refugees as a result of earlier displacements.

According to the UN refugee agency, some of those who fled witnessed the deaths of family and friends, and most have little or nothing to go back to with their homes and villages destroyed.

Deep divisions between communities remain unaddressed, added Edwards, underscoring that progress towards addressing the root causes of flight, including lack of citizenship for members of the Rohingya community, as recommended by the Rakhine Advisory Commission, will also be crucial.

Furthermore, humanitarian access in northern Rakhine state remains negligible.

At the briefing, the UNHCR spokesperson also noted that the UN agency looks forward to seeing details of the agreement between the two countries, and that it stands ready to help both governments work towards a solution for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh that meets international refugee and human rights standards.

Refugees have the right to return [and] a framework that enables them to exercise this right in line with international standards, will be welcome, he said.

UNICEF/LeMoyneSource: www.justearthnews.com
Image: Screengrab from YouTube

Islamabad, Nov 24 (IBNS): Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafeez Saeed, the leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), who walked free from house arrest, has promised to unite Pakistan for the independence of Kashmir from India, reports said.

Saeed was quoted in the media as saying, "I fight the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir. And we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom."

Saeed was placed under house arrest for 10 months.

According to him, it was under US' pressure that the Pakistani government obliged to place him under detention.

Saeed has also accused India of putting up baseless claims against him.

"I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir,"he said.

"... I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," Saeed told his supporters outside his residence.

"I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved three judges of the LHC ordered my release ...India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHC's review board decision has proved that I am innocent," he added.

meanwhile, reacting to Saeed's release, India on Thursday said the development indicates Pakistan's attempt to mainstream terrorism.

It is evident that Pakistan has not changed its policy of shielding and supporting non state actors, and its true face is visible for all to see, media reports quoted MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar as saying.

He also said the release of Saeed reflects the lack of seriousness on the part of Pakistan.

India is outraged that a self-confessed and UN-proscribed terrorist has been allowed to walk free. Pakistans lack of seriousness in bringing perpetrators of terror to justice is evident."



Image: Screengrab from YouTube
Peshawar Nov 24 (IBNS): A suicide blast in Pakistan's Peshawar city left at least one senior police official killed on Friday, media reports said.

A suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into their vehicle near Tatara Park, martyring Additional IG Headquarter Mohammad Ashraf Noor and his gunman, police informed, Geo News reported.

The blast left eight others injured.

According to reports, the injured people were taken to Hayatabad Medical Complex for treatment.

Official spokesperson of Pakistan Armed Forces Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor quoted COAS and tweeted: "Salute to supreme sacrifice of our Police comrade AIG Noor. Our determination remains undeterred against threats to our motherland."

Politician Imran Khan condemned the attack and tweeted: "Saddened to learn of the martyrdom of Additional IG KP, Ashraf Noor, in condemnable Peshawar blast. It will not deter the determination and dedication of KP police and PTI govt in their fight against terrorism."

Image: Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor Twitter page
Washington, Nov 24 (IBNS): The United States government on Friday said that Pakistan should 're-arrest' Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed.

Meanwhile, Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafeez Saeed, the leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), who walked free from house arrest, has promised to unite Pakistan for the independence of Kashmir from India, reports said.

The US has expressed 'deep concern' over the release of the JuD chief.

"The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens. The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes," read the US government statement.

"In May 2008, the United States Department of the Treasury designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224. Saeed was also individually designated by the United Nations under UNSCR 1267 in December 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people, including six American citizens, were killed. LeT and several of its front organizations, leaders, and operatives remain under both State Department and Treasury Department sanctions. Since 2012, the United States has offered a U.S. $10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice," it said.

Saeed was quoted in the media as saying, "I fight the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir. And we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom."

Saeed was placed under house arrest for 10 months.

According to him, it was under US' pressure that the Pakistani government obliged to place him under detention.

Saeed has also accused India of putting up baseless claims against him.

"I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir," he said.

"... I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," Saeed told his supporters outside his residence.

"I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved three judges of the LHC ordered my release ...India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHC's review board decision has proved that I am innocent," he added.

meanwhile, reacting to Saeed's release, India on Thursday said the development indicates Pakistan's attempt to mainstream terrorism.

It is evident that Pakistan has not changed its policy of shielding and supporting non state actors, and its true face is visible for all to see, media reports quoted MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar as saying.

He also said the release of Saeed reflects the lack of seriousness on the part of Pakistan.

India is outraged that a self-confessed and UN-proscribed terrorist has been allowed to walk free. Pakistans lack of seriousness in bringing perpetrators of terror to justice is evident."




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Britain's censor board recently cleared Padmavati with no cuts, which means it is likely to hit the screens on December 1 in the UK.

As the speculations about Padmavati releasing in the UK started doing the rounds, Karni Sena issued another threat. The Rajput organisation, yesterday, stated that it would burn the theatres in Britain as well, if the movie was released there.

Now, Rajput body of UK -- Rajput Samaj -- which defines its aim as instilling the cultural values of the Rajput people in the United Kingdom, has launched a boycott campaign against the release of the film. Furthermore, it has written to the BBFC to revoke its certification for the film to prevent its release in Britain.

(Also Read: After Britain Censor Board Clears Padmavati, Karni Sena Threatens To Burn Theatres In UK)

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"This film distorts our history, culture and traditions and when it has been boycotted by so many states in India, the filmmakers are trying to use a clever approach of getting the film released in the UK," said Mahendrasinh Jadeja, the president of Rajput Samaj of UK.

The Deepika Padukone- and Ranveer Singh-starrer, which has faced widespread protests in India forcing the producers to indefinitely delay a planned December 1 release date, was given a 12 A certificate for UK audiences on account of "moderate violence, injury detail" this week.

The board, which is yet to comment on the Rajput Samaj's boycott, describes the film as a "Hindi language epic drama in which a Sultan leads an invasion to capture a Rajput Queen" with a release date specified as December 1, 2017. However, the producers of the film, Viacom 18, have indicated that the release of the film in the UK will be "in line with the India release".

(Also Read: 'Padmavati' Row Takes A Chilling Turn! Dead Body Found Hanging At Jaipur Fort Along With Note)

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"How can we trust anything they say? They have already broken so many reassurances in the past," said Jadeja, who says his group is ready to march up to the UK Parliament in protest unless the film's release is blocked in the country.

Unlike in India, the BBFC is not a government-linked body and operates as an independent certification board with income derived solely from the fees it charges for its services, calculated by measuring the running time of films, DVDs and videos and other works submitted for classification

A 12A certificate in the UK refers to films that are not deemed suitable for children under the age of 12 and no one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult.

Reuters

It is among the common certificates awarded to Bollywood films besides U or Universal and suitable for audiences of all ages, and PG for films requiring Parental Guidance

"We are thrilled to be partnering with Viacom18 Motion Pictures on this exciting new release. 'Padmavati', has all the makings of a hit film and we are excited to bring Sanjay's incredible vision to audiences across the international marketplace," said Megan Colligan, spokesperson for Paramount Pictures, which has struck a partnership with Viacom 18 to distribute the film in all international markets

A number of Hindu and Rajput groups in India have been protesting over a rumoured dream sequence of romance between the Rajput queen, played by Padukone, and Muslim invader Alauddin Khilji, played by Singh.

(Also Read: Now Karni Sena Says PM Narendra Modi Played A Role In Padmavati's Delayed Release)
Delhi High Court dismissed a PIL which sought setting up of an expert committee of social activists and historians to examine Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati. The plea said that this would ensure that there were no "distortions" to the historical facts.

Rejecting the PIL, the court said that such pleas were "encouraging" those agitating against the release of the movie.

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The court said the plea against the release of the period drama was "hopeless and misconceived" and such pleas are "encouraging" people who are agitating against it.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by Akhand Rashtrawadi Party, which claims to be a political party, said the committee headed by a retired Delhi High Court Judge should include a Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) member and ensure that there were no "distortions" of historic facts in respect of Rani Padmavati of Chittorgarh, on whose story the film is based.

ALSO READ: Rajasthan Court Accepts Complaint Against Deepika, Ranveer, Shahid & SLB Over 'Padmavati' Row

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The committee should ensure that no sentiments are hurt with the release of the film, the plea said.

The plea also said the CBFC should examine/re-examine the movie's contents with the help of historians or authors with excellent knowledge of historic facts about Rani Padmavati, so that "wrong or fictitious" image of the 14th century queen should not go before the people worldwide and public sentiments are not hurt.

Reuters

The PIL, filed through lawyer Puneesh Grover, has made the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, producer Viacom18 Motion Pictures, director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali, movie's scriptwriter and the CBFC as respondents.
Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmavati has been embroiled in controversies for months. From Rajput organisations including Karni Sena calling out for a ban on the movie to issuing threats to mutilate and behead the ace filmmaker and actress Deepika Padukone, violence has been poured out from several organisations in the form of words many times.

However, the violence in words has invariably turned into violence in deeds now, as a dead body has been found hanging at the main gate of Jaipurs Nahargarh Fort along with a note that reads, We dont burn effigies, we kill.

#Rajasthan: Body found hanging at Nahargarh Fort in #Jaipur, threat note on rocks also seen #Padmavati pic.twitter.com/sSx9ONhF7D  ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017

Police are investigating the matter and the cause of death is yet to be found. The body has not been identified as of yet.

(Also Read: Now Karni Sena Says PM Narendra Modi Played A Role In Padmavati's Delayed Release)

FIRST ON CNN-NEWS18 | This could be a suicide. This is not our way of protest. We condemn this: Mahipal Singh Makrana, Karni Sena President pic.twitter.com/t7UMB1TZoe  News18 (@CNNnews18) November 24, 2017

Karni Sena has, however, condemned the incident. This is not the way to send a message. If anyone wants to send out a message of such sort, it is imparting a wrong message. Opposition to Padmavati is justified, but this is not justified, Karni Sena President was quoted as saying by News 18.

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The incident has sent shock waves around the nation.

The release date of the movie has already been pushed indefinitely, and its fate is hanging in the balance. Will the film ever release? Only time will tell.

(Also Read: In A Bid To Make Things Right, Simi Garewal Seeks Maharani Padmini Devi's Approval On Padmavati)
Perfection is an illusion. No person exists who has not made a mistake. While it's only human to err, some blunders completely changed the course of history. Some of them might have been intentional and others pure accidents, but they made it to the most important chapters in history.

Here are some of the most expensive mistakes that cost humanity a fortune:

1. Germany lost World War I because of a rumour

Reuters

In the first few weeks of the World War I, news about a million Cossack warriors rushing to attack the Western Front spread like wildfire. What is termed as the 'Russian Rumour' turned out be a series of misunderstandings on Germany's part. At one point, when soldiers, with their weird clothing and funny accents, said they were from Ross-shire, a German porter heard it as 'Russia' and spread the word that they had come to attack. The news provoked Germany to quickly change their strategy to stop the Allies from winning the war.

2. The sale of Alaska

Wikimedia Commons

150 years ago, Russia decided to sell the vast territory of Alaska to the United States on March 30, 1867, and the two countries signed a treaty to sell the land for a sum of $7.2 million for 1,518,800 square kilometres of land. Years after the bargain, Russians realised that it was a gigantic blunder, and that they had lost access to natural resources worth billions of dollars.

3. A key could have saved the Titanic from sinking

Reuters

Officers had no access to binoculars on the bridge or in the crows nest  and 1,517 people perished when the ship hit an iceberg on April 15, 1912. Things may have been different if a pair of binoculars that belonged to second officer David Blair had been on board. He had transferred from the ship just before its maiden voyage and had forgotten to hand it to his replacement.

4. The biggest wildfire in California

Reuters

A hunter lit a signal match flare, that triggered the biggest fire in Californias history. Over 300,000 acres of forest were destroyed, 2,322 homes lost and 14 people killed. The tragic incident cost a whopping $1.2 billion!

5. Piper bravo oil rig disaster

The Piper Alpha disaster that killed 167 workers on 6 July 1988 off the coast of Aberdeen is the world's deadliest ever oil rig accident. A worker forgot to screw a safety valve back on the ship which led to a gas leak leading to a huge explosion.

6. Tiger Woods' divorce settlement in 2010

Reuters

Tiger Woods cheated on his then-wife Elin Nordegren. The divorce settlement ended up costing him $750 million. But the total loss was even higher, that includes the loss of sponsor deals with Nike, Gatorade and others.

7. When a man threw away a $181 million lottery ticket

Reuters

The stars were shinning bright for a Brit lady, who owned a lottery ticket worth $181 million, until her husband binned the ticket. The winning ticket netted the biggest jackpot ever scooped up in a Europe-wide contest.

8. Skyscraper that melted cars

Reuters

A London skyscraper named "Walkie-Talkie melted cars by reflecting sunlight. The building with a concave design and mirrored glass sent 20 focused rays of light onto the street below. The glare ended up melting cars, and caused doormats is nearby shops to catch fire.

9. $225 million lost because of a misprint

Reuters

The Japanese company Mizuho Securities wanted to sell one share for 610,000 (about $5,000) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Yet it seems a stockbroker hadnt had enough sleep and made a little mistake when entering the data. He put up for sale 610,000 shares for only 1 each. Despite the companys protest, the Stock Exchange processed the order, which resulted in the loss of $225 million.

10. When NASA lost a $125 million orbiter in space

NASA

NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed Martin engineering team used English units of measurement while the agency's team used the more conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation. The orbiter was lost in space forever.

11. Nuclear chamber explosion

Reuters

In 1978, a chamber filled with water used to cool uranium at Three Mile Island exploded in the worst nuclear accident in America. The incident cost $836.9 million.
Freeing Tibet from the rule of China was one of the demands that made Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama the enemy of Beijing.

But in what came as a surprise to many including Tibetans, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 to escape persecution said Tibet did not seek independence from China but greater development.

Speaking at an interactive session hosted by the Indian Chamber of Commerce the Dalai Lama said, "We are not seeking independence... We want to stay with China. We want more development."

AP

He added, "Tibet has a different culture and a different script... The Chinese people love their own country. We love our own country."

He said, "From Yangtze to Sindhu rivers, major rivers ... come from Tibet. Billions of lives are involved. Taking care of the Tibetan plateau is not only good for Tibet but for billions of people."

He also lauded India's "spirit of religious tolerance", adding that there were "problems sometimes because of politicians trying to manipulate that".

ALSO READ: War Of Words Between China And Dalai Lama Intensifies, Beijing Calls Spiritual Leader 'A Liar'

AP

He took a dig at the average Indian's laziness as well  describing them as "lazier than the Chinese".

"I think Indian people are lazy but that may be due to the climate. But India is more stable and can play a role in the world stage," he added. "India has a tradition of living together. (It is) a living example of different traditions being carried together," the Buddhist monk said, adding: "I can proudly state the same about Tibetan culture."

Ever since he fled to India with his supporters, the Dalai Lama has been the head of a Tibetan government in exile, based out of Dharmashala until he relinquished political powers in 2011.

ALSO READ: Dalai Lama Calls For Peace Between India And China, Believes Dolkam Is Not A Very Serious Issue

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Many Tibetan youths, both living in Chinese controlled Tibet and living in India had in the past couple of years self immolated demanding freedom from Beijing.

ALSO READ: China Threatens World Leaders Against Meeting Dalai Lama, Says It Will Be Taken As Offence
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After reports of cheque books being the next BANNED product evoked substantial terror in the hearts of people just a year after demonetisation, the government has finally come clean. Read more

Here are more top news of the day:





1)) Andhra Assembly Is On 2 Days Break, Because Over 100 MLAs Are On Mass Leave To Attend Weddings!

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Close to 100 Andhra Pradesh MLAs have been granted mass leaves while the Assembly is in session. The reason - they have weddings to attend. Interestingly, the lawmakers are already in the middle of their extended four-day weekend. Read more

2) Terrorist Hafiz Saeed Walks Free In Pakistan Ahead Of 26/11 Anniversary, Promising To Fight For Kashmiri Cause

AFP

Just days to go for the 9th anniversary of 26/11, the biggest terror attack in India soil, our neighbour Pakistan has rubbed salt into the wound, by releasing Hafiz Saeed, the man India and the US accuse of masterminding the dastardly strike. Read more

3) After Fortis, Medanta Hospital Charges Rs 17 Lakh For 7-YO's Treatment Who Died After 22 Days

Even as the controversy around Fortis Hospital in Gurugram allegedly overcharging the family of a 7-year-old dengue patient refuses to die down, another similar case has surfaced. Read more

4) After Decades Of Free Tibet Campaign, Dalai Lama Now Says The Region Wants To Stay With China!

AP

But in what came as a surprise to many including Tibetans, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 to escape persecution said Tibet did not seek independence from China but greater development. Read more

5) No Country For Women: 11 Women Kidnapped Every Day In Delhi In 2016, Reveals RTI

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In its report on 'Status of Crime and Policing' in Delhi, Praja Foundation said more than 50 per cent of the cases of kidnapping and abduction registered in the city in 2016 involved women. Read more
An RTI query has revealed that 11 women, on an average, were kidnapped or abducted every day in Delhi in the last year.

In its report on 'Status of Crime and Policing' in Delhi, Praja Foundation said more than 50 per cent of the cases of kidnapping and abduction registered in the city in 2016 involved women.

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Of the 6,707 kidnapping and abduction cases registered last year, 4,101 cases had women victims. Besides, more than 75 per cent of the cases of abduction involved women, the NGO said.

"Out of 699 cases of abduction registered last year, 524 cases had women victims," said the report.

In 2015, 7,937 cases of kidnapping and abduction were registered in Delhi. Out of these, 792 cases were of abduction and 52.78 per cent of the total cases involved women victims, it added.
Delhi police have arrested two men who were allegedly trying to sell a minor girl to brothels in the red light area of Delhi's GB Road.

The duo, identified Amar and Ranjeet Shah, both hailing from Bihar's Supaul district were arrested by police on Wednesday by laying a trap, after the cops received an accidental tip off.

AP/ Representational Image

It all began with a phone call a couple of weeks ago when someone dialed the number of Kamla Market SHO Sunil Kumar offering to sell a trafficked minor girl for prostitution.

The arrested men confessed that they got the number from the internet and assumed that Kumar was delar in GB road.

Realising what they have stumbled upon, the cops decided to play along and expressed interest in buying the girl.

AFP/ Representational Image

The two men had initially demanded Rs 3.5 lakhs in exchange of the girl, but after days of negotiation settled for a price of Rs 2.3 lakhs.

DCP (central) MS Randhawa said cops in plain clothes laid a trap or the two men who said they will hand over the girl, but the accused later changed the time and venue.

On Wednesday they asked the cops to meet them outside New Delhi railway station in the evening.

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As promised the police team in plain clothes, pretending to be brothel owners went to the spot, where the two were waiting.

On a payment of Rs 20,000 in advance, one of the accused, Amar left the place and returned with the girl.

The police team wasted no time and took the duo into custody and rescued the girl. According to police, the minor girl was tricked by Amar to come to Delhi, pretending that he was in love with her and promising to get her a job.

Delhi's GB Road is one of the biggest red light areas in the country. It is home to an estimated over 1000 sex workers. Most of the sex workers here are trafficked or smuggled from other parts of the country, in most of the cases by people known to them who lure underprivileged girls with a promise of a better life. Despite various efforts to crackdown on the illegal business, it has always managed to get away and come back from time to time.
In a shocking incident near Mumbai, three persons have been booked by the police in neighbouring Palghar district for allegedly abducting and raping a 31-year-old married woman in Gujarat.

Two of the accused allegedly kidnapped the woman who is a resident of Vasai Phata in Palghar on the outskirts of Mumbai on October 3. They took her away under the pretext of showing her some temples and sites of pilgrimages, a police official said today.

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The same day, her family members filed a missing person's complaint with the Mumbai police, reported PTI. Reportedly, the accused men in the meanwhile took the woman to a locality in Gujarat's Kutch district where the third man accused allegedly raped her at his house.

The three accused also allegedly tried to sell the woman to a man for Rs 1.5 lakh and get her married to him. However, when she resisted their attempts, they beat her up, a police officialsaid quoting the woman's complaint.

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The woman managed to escape from the clutches of the accused and reached Mumbai on October 11 following which she lodged a complaint with the Kasturba Marg police in the metropolis. The complaint was later transferred to the Vasai police, he said.

Based on the complaint, the Waliv police in Vasai division last evening registered offences under IPC sections 376 (rape), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel her marriage), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and other relevant provisions. A search was on to nab the accused, the official said.
Just days to go for the 9th anniversary of 26/11, the biggest terror attack in India soil, our neighbour Pakistan has rubbed salt into the wound, by releasing Hafiz Saeed, the man India and the US accuse of masterminding the dastardly strike.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief who was taken into detention under the Anti-Terrorism Act 199 in January this year has been freed after his custody was extended twice since.

AFP

The Judicial Review Board of Punjab province comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had unanimously ordered Saeed's release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest.

"Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case," a top official said.

Upon his release, Saeed has gone back to doing what he does best, spewing venom against India.

AFP

"I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir," Saeed told his supporters.

The globally designated terrorist who has a US bounty of $10 million on his head went on to claim that,

"I fight the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir. And we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom."

AFP

Saeed's release, as expected has not gone down well in India.

The Indian Foreign ministry said the move was an "attempt by Pakistani system to mainstream proscribed terrorists". "It is evident that Pakistan has not changed its policy of shielding and supporting non-state actors and its true face is for all to see," the ministry said.

AFP

The US too, which has time and again reminded Pakistan about its lack of commitment and decisive action to fight terrorism is not pleased with the developments.

For Pakistan, the release of Saeed comes at a time when the new government led by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has assumed office and is yet to establish itself as an able administration.
In what could give a major boost to Make in India and a leg up to India's defence exports Russian made Kamov Ka-226T military helicopters assembled in India could be exported to third countries in future.

Under the Indo-Russian bilateral deal for 200 Kamov helicopters the first 60 will be manufactured in Russia & delivered to India and the remaining 140 will be assembled in India. Subsequently plans are in pipeline for additional Kamov helicopters in India and export to third countries, according to senior officials.

bharatshakti

A Indo-Russian joint venture has been set up to implement the project of the Ka-226T production in India. Further on, the JV will decide on the rate of production and the volume of deliveries and will look for new clients, officials indicated.

We have an order for 200 helicopters: the first 60 rotocraft will be manufactured in Russia and the subsequent 140 will be assembled in India at an increasing rate of local production. Further on, the sides may make a decision that the Ka-226Ts may be also assembled in India for third countries," Rostec Corporation Director for International Cooperation and Regional Policy Viktor Kladov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS earlier this week.

The joint venture has no limitations. They have a firm order from the Indian government but after fulfilling it they may supply these products to third countries and I hope that the market will be good, interesting and big," Kladov said.

The Indo-Russian agreement on cooperation in helicopter production was signed in 2015. In October 2016, the sides signed an agreement on establishing a joint venture on the Ka-226T production.

Youtube

The Russian-Indian joint venture on the production of Ka-226T helicopters was established in India in May 2017. The JV was founded by Indias Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Russian Helicopters Group and Russias state arms seller Rosoboronexport.

India and Russia are working on Request for Proposal (RFP) for Kamov helicopters. About a week ago, a meeting was held between India and Russia for the RFP. The RFP is likely to be issued within three to four months with deliberations between the army, IAF and MOD.

The Indian army will get about 130 to 140 of these helicopters to replace its ageing Cheetahs, while the Indian Air Force will get the remaining. Russia is also planning to build a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) plant for the Kamov helicopters in India.

The Indo-Russian Inter Governmental Agreement also mentions that the helicopters will be exported from India to third countries. But this will only happen after the first 200 helicopters are delivered to India. So it will take another eight to nine years to be able to export these platforms, explained officials.

Recently in what was a shot in arm for BrahMos jointly developed by India and Russia  Brazil, Kazakhstan and Indonesia showed interest to buy the missiles at the Dubai air show. The interest has primarily been in the air version of the Brahmos missile. The agreement between India and Russia for development of the advanced BrahMos system allows the use of the missile in both countries armed forces and export to other friendly countries. And on Wednesday the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was tested onboard Indian Air Force's (IAF) Sukhoi 30-MKI aircraft off the Bay of Bengal.
From the Archive Chinas Tug of War

The article, "Chinas Tug of War", as it appeared in The Irrawaddy Magazines May 2013 issue.

In this special report published in the May 2013 issue of The Irrawaddy magazine, Yun Sun wrote that China  at that time seemingly in danger of being frozen out of Myanmars economic opening  could take comfort in the knowledge that it can never be fully counted out of its neighbors affairs. In light of the fallout from the situation in Rakhine, the report seems especially prescient.

Burmas democratic reform has produced both winners and losers. The countrys transition to democracy has revitalized the government, opposition groups and civil society, and it has brought the people unprecedented development opportunities. On the other hand, some former military leaders and cronies have lost their previous political status and economic privileges.

Externally, the West has applauded democracys victory in Burma and eagerly embraced the countrys rich business potential. However, one of Burmas old patrons, China, has perhaps suffered most from the former pariah states unexpected waves of change.

Indeed, Burmas reform has unveiled tremendous challenges and unpleasant uncertainties for Chinas national interests. Suspension of the controversial Myitsone dam project in north Burma was seen as a slap in the face for China; the victory of the will of the people against the unpopular Chinese project encouraged broad scrutiny and criticism of other business ventures signed off by Beijing during the military government.

This anti-China criticism was particularly signified in the protests against Chinas joint venture in the Letpadaung copper mine near Monywa in northwestern Burma. Other protests have raised concerns about the future of a strategic Chinese project to build oil and gas pipelines across Burma. Both countries seem to recognize that the pipelines, expected to be completed in May, are too important to jeopardize, but as Burmas political, economic and social spheres continue evolving at dazzling speeds, uncertainty about the project has grown.

Politically, the preliminary success of Burmas democratic transition has raised questions about Chinas own political system and long-postponed reforms. Although official Chinese media have characterized Burmas reforms as too early to tell and untested by reality, academics and media commentators cite similarities between the former military government and Chinas authoritarian system, and they use Burmas smooth democratic transition to argue for the necessity and feasibility of Chinas own political reform. For the fifth generation of Chinese leaders stepping into their new positions, this is certainly not the most pleasant message.

In north Burma, the Kachin conflict has touched upon Chinas sensitive nerves on border stability. There may not have been a causal relationship between Burmas political reforms and the hostilities, which flared in June 2011, not long after President Thein Sein took office. However, there are rampant complaints from China about Thein Seins inability to control the military and stabilize the border.

This dissatisfaction directly resulted in Chinas open intervention in peace talks between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the Burmese government in Chinas Yunnan Province in February. In an unprecedented move, China assumed a mediation role in the internal conflict between the central government and a local rebel group in another sovereign nation. In this sense, China deviated from its traditional principle of non-intervention in other countries internal affairs, which has been the cornerstone of its foreign policy since the founding of the nation in 1949.

Yun Sun is a visiting fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution in Washington.Yun Sun is a visiting fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

The changing Burma has not been the best news for Chinas strategic landscape on the global stage either. The dissolution of Burmas international isolation and the countrys rapidly improving relations with the West have undermined Beijings original blueprint regarding the strategic utilities of Burma at regional forums to defend Chinas unpopular positions and in the Indian Ocean to advance Chinas strategic presence and national interests.

As Burma develops close ties with the West, China has seen rising competition with other powers inside the country for economic opportunities and strategic influence. This competition did not exist before the democratic reform. Among competing powers, the United States has been singled out as a main source of Chinas mishaps in Burma.

Eyes on America

The US government has taken exhaustive efforts to reassure Beijing that US engagement in Burma is not targeted at China in any sense. Instead, US policy makers say engagement has been motivated by Burmas democratic reform. According to an anonymous US diplomat, To think that all we have done in Myanmar [Burma] is because of China is delusional and only reflects Beijings paranoia about the US.

However, Beijing could not agree less. Chinese leaders firmly believe the US rebalancing to Asia is aimed at encircling China and curtailing Chinas regional influence. In this vein, they reason that US President Barack Obamas engagement with Burma, as a part of this rebalancing, must likewise be hostile to China. Leaked diplomatic cables about US government funding for anti-dam organizations before the suspension of Myitsone project have been cited as evidence of a US attempt to sabotage Chinese interests in Burma.

This antagonism has been reinforced by US actions that may remotely relate to China. American interest in the Kachin conflict and US Ambassador Derek Mitchells visit to Kachin State raised fears in China that the US would intervene and assert its presence right on the Chinese border. The United States has also invited Burma to observe the Cobra Gold joint military exercises in Thailand, leading to concern in Beijing that close US-Burma military ties might somehow threaten Chinas national security either in the near term or the long run.

Even if Washington did not originally intend to contain China through its engagement with Burma, some analysts argue that Chinese interests have nonetheless been damaged as a result. For Washington to deny responsibility in Chinas losses only reflects its lack of consideration and respect of Chinas national interests.

Therefore, at a US-China-Burma trilateral dialogue in Beijing in December, when discussing how the United States and China could cooperate in Burma, Song Qingrun from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a government think tank, openly urged the United States not to damage Chinas interests inside the country and to take concrete measure to strengthen the Sino-US strategic mutual trust on Myanmar.

Reacting to reform

In light of the perceived China-unfriendly changes in Burma, Beijing has not been slow to convey displeasure. Of the war in Kachin State, Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeatedly issued harsh statements about the escalating conflict and expressed its concern over border security.

Economically, China also dramatically reduced foreign direct investment (FDI) to Burma last year. According to Chinese official media, FDI to Burma dropped from US $8.5 billion in 2011 to $1.02 billion in the first 11 months of 2012.

Given that China provided the majority of FDI to Burma in 2011, the reduction of investment inflow represents a major policy shift. The cutback might be justified in that the anti-China sentiment in Burma has created major problems for Chinese investments, but in the long run, its impact on Burmas prospects for economic growth could be profound.

Official bilateral ties seem cordial to the public. Senior Burma leaders including Thein Sein and Shwe Mann, the speaker of Burmas lower house of Parliament, have both visited Beijing since the nominally civilian government came to power in 2011.

However, during the peak of reforms between April 2011 and September 2012, none of Chinas top leaders visited Burma. This constitutes a sharp comparison to three such visits before Burmas democratization from March 2009 to June 2010.

Meanwhile, China is seeking to diversify its relationships with different political forces in Burma, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party. Beijing has also launched a major public relations campaign to improve its image and relations with local communities in the country.

Despite prior losses, China remains hopefully about the future of Sino-Burmese relations. This confidence stems from a belief that regardless of Burmas political system or international status, China will always be its largest neighbor and Chinas political, economic and social influence will always persist.

As Western companies hesitate on the best timing to invest in the country, China believes its abundant foreign investment could encourage closer Sino-Burmese cooperation once Naypyidaw realizes its ties with the West are not bringing the desired economic growth.

China recognizes this relationship may not be as good as during the junta years. However, as it observes and adjusts, the Asian superpower hopes for new opportunities.
From the Archive The Road Past Mangshi

The article, "The Road Past Mangshi", as it appeared in The Irrawaddy Magazines May 2013 issue.

To remind readers of the shifting sands upon which regional and international relations are built, we revisit David I Steinbergs special report for The Irrawaddy magazines May 2013 issue on the state of Myanmar-China relations in 2013, a time when the government of then-President Thein Sein appeared to be seeking closer ties with the US at Chinas expense.

An impressive memorial to Sino-Burmese friendship in the Chinese town of Mangshi, Yunnan Province, commemorates the paukphaw (sibling) friendship that idealizes relations between these two countries.

This relationship was also captured in an emblematic Chinese poem from 1956 about the two peoples drinking the same river water, living by the rivers and climbing the mountains; they share everlasting happiness. A symbolic statue of two ethereal figures carrying water frames one of the border crossings, representing both countries. Zhou Enlai, the first prime minister of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, and U Nu, Burmas first prime minister under the 1947 Constitution, developed a close, warm relationship.

And yet, when the cultural revolution came to Rangoon a decade later with riots, the publics economic and political frustrations against Burmas government were redirected at the local Chinese population, leading to dozens of Chinese deaths and extensive looting. The Chinese privately deplored Gen Ne Wins Socialist ideology, known as the Burmese Way to Socialism, which they described as state capitalism and anti-Marxist despite official endorsement.

Following these riots, China actively supported Burmas Communist Party that sought to overthrow Ne Wins administration, reasoning that party-to-party relations were quite different from state-to-state relations. China did not criticize Burmas government for the repression of nationwide pro-democracy protests in 1988; the next year, Burma did not condemn China over the Tiananmen Square protests.

In the era of Burmas State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which later became the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), collaboration between both countries intensified to an unprecedented magnitude. China opened borders, increased trade and provided massive investment in military equipment and training, infrastructure and extractive industries. The illegal migration of about two million Chinese into Burma with their business acumen increased Chinas negative visibility. This relationship culminated in May 2011 when both countries signed a comprehensive strategic economic partnership.

Relations were, however, circumspect. To China, Burma was a beggar with a golden bowl, asking for aid despite extensive natural resources. The Burmese, always careful about their northern neighbor, developed a saying: When China spits, Burma swims.

To the West, especially in journalistic circles and even some governments, Burma was known as a client state of China. This was, however, a simplistic analysis, equating money and presence with dependence.

True, China was a protector of Burma in 2007 when it joined Russia in vetoing a US-introduced resolution that claimed the Southeast Asian pariah state was a threat to regional peace and security. Meanwhile, as a condition of Chinese diplomatic recognition, Burma stated from its inception that there was only one China, which included Taiwan.

David I. Steinberg is Distinguished Professor of Asian Studies at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

There were other mutual bonds. Burmas government wanted Chinese protection against what it anticipated might be a US invasion, with worries stemming from US policies of regime change, or recognition of the National League for Democracys sweep on the 1990 elections, under former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Although ludicrous to Americans, this was a palpable fear in Burma, perhaps providing a partial rationale for moving the capital from Rangoon to Naypyidaw, an air command from Mingaladon to Meikthila in central Burma, and a naval regional headquarters from Sittwe inland to An.

China wanted access to the Bay of Bengal and Burmas natural gas and hydroelectric power, along with the ability to bypass the vulnerable Malacca Strait, which is subject to bottleneck by any power attempting to contain China. A strong Chinese position in Burma might also strengthen Chinas claims to the disputed 96,000 square kilometer area of Arunachal Pradesh, occupied by India.

Although Burmas contemporary relations with China seem to mirror the traditional Confucian Sino-centric tribute system under which the court at Mandalay sent delegations to Beijing, there are significant differences. Other factors now play critical roles. Burma won the border dispute with China, whose Nationalist and Communist governments both claimed large areas of northern Burma as Chinese territory. In the settlement of 1960, negotiated by Ne Win but signed by U Nu, China wanted to show the international community that it was not a predatory state, and Burma was the easiest country with which to demonstrate this attitude.

Today, Chinese critical investment in Burma is not like that of a developed state seeking low-cost, labor-intensive sites for its industries; companies cannot quickly pull out their sewing machines or equipment and move to other, even lower-cost labor markets. Rather, major Chinese investments are permanent structures coordinated with Chinas national developmental plans and investment. The productivity and usefulness of these investments to China depend on good relations with Burma. Burma thus has a distinctly advantageous position; China needs it more than it needs China.

Because of the attempted isolation of Burma by the United States and the European Union through incremental sanctions policies, China assumed a far larger role than might otherwise have been the case, but the East Asian superpower never had a free hand in Burma.

Burmas government quietly vetoed a Chinese plan to turn the Irrawaddy River port of Bhamo, near the Chinese border, into a container site for shipments into the Bay of Bengal. More obvious was the example of President Thein Seins decision to stop construction of the Myitsone dam in 2011 on the basis that he was listening to negative public opinion. This $3.6 billion dam was intended to supply power to Yunnan Province, but public outcry on environmental and emotional grounds was too great.

China was disconcerted by that event, not believing public opinion in Burma could play an important role after some half-century of military control and repression. Beijing unofficially but authoritatively blamed the United States for fomenting anti-Chinese sentiment through Burmas NGOs. The level of trust between China and Burma seemed to have precipitously dropped after that time.

This distrust was exacerbated by Burma-US relations, which improved as Burmas government continued to liberalize, with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visiting the Southeast Asian country in December 2011 and President Barack Obama stopping by in November last year.

The Chinese formal response to these changed international relations have been judicious and moderate, but in the countrys controlled press, one paper said the Clinton trip was undermining the [Chinese] wall in Myanmar [Burma].

Considerable speculation exists as to why Thein Seins government has so assiduously endorsed improved relations with the United States. Many factors seem likely, but one relates to the Burma-China relationship, which some in Burma have regarded as too close. An improved US relationship not only brings US assistance, but more importantly opens lending by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. It also encourages large-scale assistance from Japan, which views too close a Burma-China relationship as inimical to its long-term interests by strengthening China in East Asia.

To the Chinese, US direct assistance cannot replace or even compete with Chinese support. One Chinese wrote that US aid was likely to be as beautiful moonlight on the river, nice to view but ephemeral and unsubstantial.

Burma had a tradition of neutralism that was important to its survival during the Cold War. Although the policy was anathema to both Chinas Chairman Mao and US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, it was a sound approach to, as they say, living in a dangerous neighborhood. Burma was always neutral, but in Chinas shadow.

The current movement toward the United States, which has resulted in the best US-Burma relations since independence in 1948, will likely evolve into a more balanced, more modern neutralist stance, although China continues to perceive US relations with Burma as part of a US containment policy.

Still, Chinas interests are partly served by the reforms on which improved US-Burma relations are based. China likely fears two potential events in Burma. The first is a general uprising along the lines of the failed peoples revolution in 1988. This chaos, whatever the result, would jeopardize Chinese infrastructure security, especially at two vital pipelines for offshore Burma gas and Middle Eastern and African crude oil. It would also limit the development of Yunnan Province, which is now effectively dependent on trade with Burma to improve low standards of living.

Although Burmas political and economic reforms have strongly reduced the possibility of a popular uprising, they are a double-edged sword: The reforms improve the business climate with positive impacts on the Chinese, but they will also increase international competition. More liberal censorship policies may placate the public, but they also allow freer expression of anti-Chinese sentiment.

The second issue is minority unrest and insurrections in Burma that directly affect important Chinese infrastructure. For example, fighting in Burmas Kachin State between armed rebel groups and the government army have caused instability along the Chinese border, with an influx of refugees and shells falling into Yunnan Province. The unrest has become a major hindrance to Chinese businesses.

A large percentage of the Yunnan population are also ethnic and linguistic cousins of the Kachin people; Beijing does not want the conflict to result in ethnic problems in China or the potential support of Jinghpaw (Kachin) people in Yunnan Province to their brethren in Burma.

So, despite Chinas continued insistence that it does not interfere in the internal affairs of neighboring states, it has moved somewhat uncomfortably to participate in the negotiating process (intervening but not interfering) between Kachin rebels and Burmas government. In addition to resolving a potential danger, perhaps China has gotten involved in negotiations in a bid to prevent the United States from doing so.

Burmas army, the Tatmadaw, is said to be highly nationalistic in Kachin State toward both the Kachin people and the Chinese. China may have a vested and economic interest in tranquility there, but they cannot be seen as weak or subservient to internal or external pressure.

Burma must obviously act gingerly with Beijing, as it has always done, but the strong nationalism of its diverse peoples will prevent it from becoming a pawn of any state, even one as powerful as China, the colossus looming over their northern frontier.
Burma Kachin Faithful Make Long Trip to Yangon to Welcome Pope Francis

Ethnic Kachins reach Mandalay Railway Station en route to Yangon to see Pope Francis. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

Thousands of ethnic Kachin from northern Myanmar are traveling to Yangon to welcome Pope Francis, who is scheduled to arrive in the country on Nov. 27.

U Naw, a Kachin religious leader, said there were about 7,000 Kachin Catholics in Myitkyina who would make the trip to Yangon to see Pope Francis.

The Irrawaddys Mandalay-based photographer interviewed the travellers from Kachin at the citys train station today as they made their way to Yangon.

We are Group 2 on our list. About 800 people are in our group, U Naw said, adding more followers would come over the next few days.

The elder expressed hope the popes visit would support the peace process in the country.

The Kachin region has been wracked by fighting between the Myanmar Army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) since 2011, when a 17-year-old ceasefire broke down. The fighting has forced more than 130,000 Kachin villagers to flee their homes.

A poster was erected at a Catholic church in Yangon to welcome Pope Francis with the words, A Heartiest Welcome to the Holy Father Pope Francis, Missionary of Love and Peace.

Pope Francis will visit Myanmar for four days during which time he will meet State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

This is the first time a pope has visited Myanmar and his trip comes when hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh following an anti-militant sweep by the Myanmar Army through Rakhine state. The Pope has faulted the Myanmar Aarmy for rights abuses allegedly carried out during the clearance operation.

Myanmars leaders have asked the pope not to use the word Rohingya during his visit so as to avoid inflaming local sensitivities.

Myanmar has about 700,000 people who profess to be Catholic and for many of them it is the first time they have had had a chance to see a pope in person. Members of other ethnic groups such as the Karen, Kayar and Chin are also expected to come to Yangon to witness Pope Franciss visit.

U Tangun, an ethnic Kachin man said, I came from Myitkyina. Many people have come for this. The train has 11 carriages and it was full with all of us.

The group left from Myitkyina at 10: 30 am yesterday, and reached Mandalay train station in this morning.

We have never heard of a pope visiting our country in our age. But, we heard that he has come to visit us this time. We are very pleased, and want to welcome him, said U Tangun.

The intention of our trip is to support peace and people living in harmony together in our country. Our Kachin region does not have peace. The pope is a respected person in the world, and we recognize him as a special person, he said.

The journey is a long one for the Kachin pilgrims, taking two days and two nights from Myitkyina to Yangon. But Tar Zwa Taung, an ethnic Kachin woman, said any discomfort was minor compared to the opportunity to meet the pope. I do not feel it was difficult to make the trip as I really wanted to come to see Pope Francis.

The pope will land at the airport in Yangon at 1 pm local time with a large crowed expected to be waiting to greet him. On Nov. 29, he will lead a public mass at Kyaik Ka San Stadium at 8:30 am.

On the completion of his trip to Myanmar, Francis will visit neighboring Bangladesh.
Burma Ko Pye Lives and Breathes Poetry

Ko Pye. / Dana Lixenberg

Ko Pye (b. 1965) lives and breathes poetry. In fact, he does nothing else  alongside Aung Cheimt the only full-time professional poet in this collection. Typical of many Burmese poets who disavow that their writing is political, above all because of a desire to not let art deteriorate into propaganda, his writing is scathingly critical of political reality, despite his protests to the contrary.

When did you start writing poetry?

I started when I quit mechanical engineering school in 1987. It was a dark period of political tumult. My family suffered much hardship. I did not have enough to eat and carried bags and cargo in the port for a living. During the 1988 uprising, a friend of mine got shot and died. I think these were the factors that drove me to become a poet. I was only 22 then.

When did you realize you wanted to become a professional poet?

I am like a billiard ball that doesnt know where it will be hit next. There have been years of darkness when I couldnt see. I was a man who was gradually losing everything bit by bit. In the end I had nothing except my heart. I even lost my guitar. I stopped singing, became silent

I didnt know it was a poem. It took me some time to realize that.

How do you write?

There is not a day I dont write poetry since about the year 2000. In my town where people are storing up gold like pirates, I am storing up poetry. Some of those who accidentally stumble upon my booty throw it away, others treasure it.

Sometimes I write four to five poems at a time, I never think they are worthless or no good. Its just like grapes that grow in a cluster from a single branch.

The poets who come into the field named poetry are like the visitors to a club. They may want to dance, drink, and have a good time. Although their intentions are the same, the reasons they have come to the club may differ.

In my case, society is constantly urging me on to write. A word, a situation, anything can become a poem. Especially, when it hurts me or makes me happy. I only need excitement from a word, a circumstance, a body gesture, or a sound. And then, I just have to ll the blank page before me.

Myanmar is changing, how does this affect your writing?

In our country a word like President is still very politicized. It is not yet easy to transform that word into a poem or a film. We are not that free yet. There are some people who wrote using that word. Some got into trouble. Some did not.

Poetry always strives to understand politics. But politics always tries to influence and use poetry. Some of us have become strong political poets. But freedom is more necessary in order to publish and exhibit work, not for the process of creating the work. Ive always written what I want to write. The changing nature of politics gives my mind a little bit more freedom.

Now under our democratic government, I have freedom of expression. But in reality, this is something that does not exist. During the censorship era, once they give your writings a pass, that was it. There were no repercussions after that. Now, you can write freely but they can arrest you for what you write.

Authors Note: These interviews are excerpted from Burma Storybook, a poetry and photography book inspired by the documentary film of the same name, produced by Corinne van Egeraat and directed by Petr Lom.

The English language hardcover edition of the book is for sale at Hla Day, Innwa Bookstore, Myanmar Book Center and the Strand Hotel.

A Burmese language-only paperback edition of the book is for sale through Yangon Book Plaza.

There will be a Free Open Air Screening of the Burma Storybook documentary film (82 min.) in Mahabandoola Park in Yangon on November 25 at 6 p.m.From Nov. 25 to Dec. 4, you can visit the interactive Burma Storybook Photo Exhibit at the Tourism Burma Building.

For more information: www.burmastorybook.com
Burma Local Media Furious After Being Barred From Repatriation Signing Ceremony

Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday for the return of Rohingya refugees. / Myanmar State Counselor Office / Facebook

YANGON  Local reporters expressed their anger about the governments limitations on access to information after they were banned from covering the signing of a bilateral agreement on the repatriation of refugees from Bangladesh on Thursday.

Amid mounting international pressure and concern over the Rakhine crisis, Myanmar reached an agreement with Bangladesh in Naypyitaw on Thursday for the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who had fled to Bangladesh.

Minister for the State Counselors Office U Kyaw Tint Swe and Bangladeshs Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali signed an Arrangement on the Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State, according to an announcement from the State Counselors Office released later in the day.

Only Bangladeshi reporters who accompanied the Bangladesh delegation and official Myanmar state media were allowed to cover the signing event.

Local reporters complained that they were bounced between the State Counselor Office, Ministry of Information and Ministry of Foreign Affairs while trying to get access to the event. They said officials diverted them from one ministry to another until the reporters finally learned they were banned from the event.

Ko Nyan Hlaing Lynn, Naypyitaw Bureau chief of Frontier Myanmar, said that the officials at first said they planned to have a joint press conference but later decided not to hold one. The local reporters were then left stranded outside the Office of State Counselors Ministry, where the signing ceremony was held.

As local reporters were denied access to the event, most Myanmar media, including The Irrawaddy Burmese Edition, had to translate the news from Bangladesh media organizations and wire agencies. Frontier Myanmar published translations of reports from the Dhaka Tribune and AFP, Ko Nyan Hlaing Lynn said.

The State Counselors Office issued a statement about the event but it included few details apart from old information that the arrangement was based on a 1992 agreement between the two countries and that it contained general guiding principles and policy arrangements to systematically verify and receive the displaced persons from Rakhine State.

Local reporters said they learned the repatriation would start within the next two months, and that a joint working group would be formed only after Bangladeshi papers reported the news.

Ko Nyan Hlaing Lynn noted the reporters also lost the opportunity to question Bangladeshi officials on their countrys stand on the issue.

I cant understand why they didnt allow us. They are under both local and international pressure over the repatriation issue. But the government lost a chance to explain about that (what and how they are going to carry out the repatriation), he said.

Ko Aung Htet, from The Voice Daily, said that because his organization was denied access to the event, it chose not report the signing of the agreement.

He said the limitations on news coverage have increased under the current government, citing several recent events at which local media were denied access and some events, where only selected media representatives were allowed to attend.

Even if the room is too small to allow all the press, they should have a pool system. Letting some media while blocking others is not a good idea.

U Myint Kyaw from the Myanmar Press Council said there was nothing that his organization could do in regard to the matter. But, the reporters could ask for greater access, he said.

Reporters based in Naypyitaw said that they considered boycotting a government press conference about the signing event.

It is old news now. Bangladesh media have already covered it. I decided I wont go even if they hold a press conference this late, Ko Aung Htet from The Voice Daily said.

The Frontier Myanmars Ko Nyan Hlaing Lynn said he would also join the protest.

I want to send a message to the government that their arrangements have a problem, he said.
Burma NLD Legislators Call for Punitive Action in MICA Graft Scandal

A contract-signing ceremony is held at MICA in February 2016. / Myanmar News Agency

NAYPYITAWNational League for Democracy (NLD) lawmakers have called for legal action against officials and businessmen who participated in corrupt transactions involving the Myanmar International Cooperation Agency (MICA)a quasi-governmental agency established by the U Thein Sein administration.

The agency was formed in 2012 as a unit of the former Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development and led by its minister, U Ohn Myint, alongside U Soe Thane, a former Presidents Office minister who is now a lawmaker in the Upper House.

At the time, the stated aim of the agency was to promote the meat and fish industry and to improve domestic food sufficiency. MICA was supposed to coordinate with local and foreign companies to develop underutilized assetsmainly farms, fisheries and factories.

In December last year, Dr. Arkar Moe, a lawmaker from Karen State, accused MICAs board of directors of lining their own pockets. After a parliamentary debate on the issue, the Upper House voted to abolish the agency in February this year.

The Presidents Office agreed with the abolition of MICA, U Hla Kyaw, the deputy minister for Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation, told Parliament at the time.

On Wednesday, the Parliaments Government Guarantees, Pledges and Undertakings Vetting Committee discussed an interim report on field surveys in the Yangon and Irrawaddy regions regarding the operations of MICA.

I would like to urge concerned ministries to think about what punitive actions to take against [corrupt] officials and businessmen, said lawmaker U Than Soe of Yangon Region (4), who is also a member of the committee.

While it operated, MICA took control of about 70 factories and enterprises and over 150 acres of land. It has not returned them to the government, according to the committee.

According to the committees report, while the Presidents Office has agreed to MICAs abolition, it has yet to set a timeframe. Furthermore, it has tasked the directors of MICA with implementing the decision. As MICAs work is intertwined with that of many other agencies, the task is a complicated one.

Citing the report, lawmaker Daw Shwe Shwe Sein Latt of Bago Region (3) said MICA had violated the law, misappropriated State property, and lacked transparency.

The agency barely bothered to inform the new chiefs of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation about its operations, and its contracts are vaguely worded, added lawmaker Dr Pyae Phyo of Irrawaddy Region (7).

U Thein Swe, chairman of the Government Guarantees, Pledges and Undertakings Vetting Committee, told reporters that the interim report had been submitted to the cabinet.

It is up to the concerned ministries to determine what actions to take, he said.

After the 2015 election results were released, and with a power transfer pending, the agency hastily signed at least 10 land lease deals with the private sector, with terms of 30 to 50 years. The land covered by these deals was leased out for shopping centers, markets and so on, rather than for activities supporting the countrys fish and meat sector.
Burma Pope Faces Diplomatic Dilemma in Myanmar Visit

A billboard welcoming the pope to Myanmar at the St Marys Church compound in Yangon. / Thet Htun Naing / The Irrawaddy

VATICAN CITY  Pope Francis visits Myanmar next week, a delicate trip for the worlds most senior Christian to a majority Buddhist country accused by Washington of the ethnic cleansing of Muslim Rohingya people.

He will also visit Bangladesh to where more than 600,000 people have fled from what Amnesty International called crimes against humanity including murder, rape torture and forcible displacement, allegations the Myanmar military denies.

The trip is so delicate that some of the popes advisors have warned him against even saying the word Rohingya, lest he set off a diplomatic incident that could turn the countrys military and government against minority Christians.

The most tense moments of the Nov. 26-Dec. 2 trip are likely to be private meetings with army head Sen.-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and, separately, civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens nor as a group with its own identity, posing a dilemma for Francis as he visits a country of 51 million people where only around 700,000 are Roman Catholics.

He risks either compromising his moral authority or putting in danger the Christians of that country, said Father Thomas Reese, a prominent American author and analyst at Religion News Service.

I have great admiration for the pope and his abilities, but someone should have talked him out of making this trip, he wrote.

Vatican sources say some in the Holy See believe the trip was decided too hastily after full diplomatic ties were established in May during a visit by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose global esteem as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been tarnished by expressing doubts about the rights abuse allegations and failing to condemn the military.

Pope Francis needs to be firm on all fronts. While the violence cannot stop without the cooperation of security forces, (Aung San) Suu Kyi should not be given a free pass either, said Lynn Kuok, a fellow of the Brookings Institutions Center for East Asia Policy Studies.

In a late addition to his itinerary, Francis will meet Rohingya refugees on the second leg of his trip in the Bangladesi capital Dhaka. His meeting with Sen.-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing was also a late addition following negotiations with the military by

Myanmars senior churchman, Cardinal Charles Bo.

In a video message sent to Myanmar last week, Francis said he wanted the trip to lead to reconciliation, forgiveness and peace, to further the Gospel values of dignity for every man and woman and encourage harmony and cooperation.

The pope has already used the word Rohingya in two appeals from the Vatican this year. Asked if he would say it in Myanmar, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said Francis was taking the advice he had been given seriously, but added: We will find out together during the trip  it is not a forbidden word.

Senior Vatican sources said the pope will be mindful of not doing anything that could imperil Myanmars transition to democracy.

The pope is one of the most respected moral voices in the world today, and for that reason his visit will be significant, said

Richard Horsey, a Yangon-based analyst and former senior United Nations official in Myanmar.

But he will be conscious of the fact that popular opinion in Myanmar is firmly behind the government and against the Rohingya, and that the intervention of a Christian leader on this religiously charged issue could inflame sentiments rather than encourage positive movement, Horsey said.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday called the operation against the Rohingya ethnic cleansing and threatened targeted sanctions for horrendous atrocities.

Amnesty International said the Rohingya and Muslims generally in Rakhine State had been subjected to systemic social and political exclusion for decades and accused the military of crimes against humanity in the last two years including murder, rape torture and forcible displacement.

Myanmars government has denied most of the claims, and the army has said its own probe found no evidence of wrongdoing by troops who say their actions were in response to militant attacks on 30 police posts and an army base.

The Vatican has little by way of carrots and sticks that can help, said Kuok, the Brookings fellow.

That said, the popes visit can help to raise awareness about the Rohingya community, which may then lead to indirect pressure on governments to do more about the situation there.
Burma Sue Yint, Buddhist Monk and Poet

Sue Yint. / Dana Lixenberg

Sue Yint (b. 1974) is a Buddhist monk and a poet. A combination that has an ancient pedigree in Myanmar, where some of the most famous poets in the countries were Buddhist monks.

How did you become a monk?

I was born in Sagaing Division, Thazin Town. My mother passed away when I was six. I went to a monastic school. I became a novice monk when I was thirteen. Its not usual for kids that age to enter a monastery as a novice. It was a fun experience. We were forty novices in the monastery in my hometown.

I then continued straight on into monkhood  without returning to lay life after being a novice as many do  at the age of fifteen. I am over forty now.

And poetry?

At the age of fifteen, I started writing some religious poems, then sonnets in the classical style. Around 1997, modernism arrived here. At first, I could not transition to the modern style easily. Rhymes were still stubbornly stuck in my head and I even thought modernism is not even poetry. I slowly learned to accept modern forms of poetry and started writing them myself at age seventeen. But I was not published back then yet.

How did you decide you wanted to be a monk forever?

I didnt  I just transitioned into monkhood and the years passed by as I continued to study. There were times I was tempted to quit. But I thought: what am I going to do as an occupation since I have no skill other than literature? How am I going to support a family if I get married? So, I decided to just enjoy this simple life with my literature and studies. I am used to a simple monastic life, free of trouble. I dont want to deal with a new environment and new experiences.

What is the biggest difficulty of being a monk?

I dont find it difficult. I have ready access to the four basic necessities: a robe to wear, meals to eat, a place to stay, and medicine. There are plenty of donors for our monastery. So I am contented, teaching and writing.

A monks life is stoic, full of strict codes to follow. A poets life is full of feeling and inspiration. How do you balance these two seemingly opposite disciplines?

A poet works his mind. A monk controls his mind. But even a poet or a layman needs to control his mind to a certain extent. He must, for example, avoid as many bad things as possible. But it is impossible to avoid every single small bad thing.

Inspiration can lead to fantasy and that is against the monks code. How do you deal with that?

Sometimes, Id get lost in romantic fantasies while composing poems about love. But I write them in a third person point of view, not in a first person point of view. Although I am a monk, I am also still human. So I do have human fantasy. But I think of the poetic inspiration as very minor transgression.

Layman poets can unleash their fantasies as much as they want. But you must always rein them in to not become excessive. Of course, I am not as free as a layman poet. But I take that limitation of freedom as a healthy challenge.

A monk cuts himself off from worldly things. Yet you still busy yourself with these very things as a poet. It is not easy dealing with these two values. Yet even Buddha himself composed his sermons as poetry, with strict adherence to composition and diction.

So you are not a monk who only reads religious scripture?

No. If I did that, I would be a scholar. To become a poet, I have to read outside literature that gets me to think, and gives me inspiration.

One of your poems is called Attachment. Can you explain the title?

Attachment  Than Yaw Zin  is a string attached to yourself and a particular subject. Its a form of bondage. If you can cut that bondage, you will become free. But if you become entangled in that web of attachment, you will never be free. You must cut yourself free from these things. They are basically strings youve attached to yourself.

That is the Buddhist concept  freeing oneself from attachment. But it is universally applicable to all human beings regardless of religion.

Last words?

I wish all my readers and viewers of this film to be healthy in mind and body. May you all reach the state of ever-lasting truth.

Authors Note: These interviews are excerpted from Burma Storybook, a poetry and photography book inspired by the documentary film of the same name, produced by Corinne van Egeraat and directed by Petr Lom.

The English language hardcover edition of the book is for sale at Hla Day, Innwa Bookstore, Myanmar Book Center and the Strand Hotel.

A Burmese language-only paperback edition of the book is for sale through Yangon Book Plaza.

There will be a Free Open Air Screening of the Burma Storybook documentary film (82 min.) in Mahabandoola Park in Yangon on November 25 at 6 p.m.From Nov. 25 to Dec. 4, you can visit the interactive Burma Storybook Photo Exhibit at the Tourism Burma Building.

For more information: www.burmastorybook.com
Burma Tussle over bank reform puts spotlight on debt pile

Cashiers are seen behind piles of kyat banknotes as they count it in a private bank in Yangon. / Reuters

NAYPYITAW  Myanmars central bank has backed off from a demand that the countrys private banks clear most of their loan books by January, averting a cliff-edge scenario that some bankers warned could have destabilized the financial system.

Myanmars central bank deputy governor, Soe Thein, told Reuters that three years  instead of the original deadline of six months  would be given to lenders to recover the mostly open-ended overdraft loans that make up the bulk of their lending.

The compromise ends a lengthy tussle over regulations introduced in July to bring the countrys banks closer to international standards. Reforming the banking sector is a key goal in leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyis plan to complete Myanmars democratic transition after decades of isolation under military rule.

They need reasonable time for the transitional period  Sometimes international practice cant work domestically. We are very aware of and careful about the situation, said Soe Thein in an interview.

The economy is not in a strong position, so we want the financial sector to be in a stable position. We have to establish an understanding between the banks and the central bank.

The new regulations also include stricter guidelines for bad loans  also known as non-performing loans (NPLs)  and an increase in the amount of capital banks are required to set aside to cover losses.

The central bank says it fears that the amount of bad debt on private lenders books is greater than has so far been declared to the authorities. But officials are also concerned that pushing too quickly on reform could trigger volatility in the financial system.

Its not easy, we agree, but we have to try, said Soe Thein, declining to provide an estimate of the scale of the problem because he said it was dangerous to try to estimate how much money the banks had lent in loans that are unlikely to be repaid.

Overdraft Loans

Officials and bankers say around 70 percent of Myanmars more than $9 billion lending pool is in the form of so-called overdraft or evergreen loans  typically made on preferential terms to lure customers and rolled over indefinitely.

The central bank moved in July to end such practices with the new regulations drafted with the help of the International Monetary Fund. The curbs would force the banks to end indefinite roll-overs of the loans, asking them to get the loans repaid for a period of two full weeks on an annual basis.

Banks complained they were being given only six months to fix years of junta-era mismanagement and to recover most of their loans amid a sluggish economy.

They (central bank) know whats going on in our books, but what they are asking for is almost impossible  All the local banks are in a difficult position, said Pyi Soe Htin, executive director of international banking for Yangon-based Asia Green Development Bank.

After at least three rounds of talks since July, Soe Thein told Reuters the central bank would in the next few days issue follow-up instructions, allowing the overdraft loans to be converted into regular, three-year loans  a compromise that offers breathing space to Myanmars 24 private banks.

The payment terms and conditions will be a bit relaxed, so the customers can be a little relaxed on the payment as well as the banks can get more collection from their customers, said Soe Thein.

He did not give details of the terms of those new loans.

Some in the fledgling financial sector said that attempting to get so much debt repaid by January could trigger a run on the banks, which are deeply entwined both with one another and with the conglomerates run by businessmen close to the former ruling elite that dominate key sectors from real estate to aviation.

This would create panic and we would have bank runs because our general public is very cautious, said Kim Chawsu, managing partner at Katalysts Investment Group and former chief financial officer of the parent company of Myanmars largest lender, Kanbawza Group.

If one of the banks fails, there will be a domino effect  you need to be careful on how strict you are.

The compromise by the central bank underlines the daunting challenge facing Aung San Suu Kyi, whose promise of a modern, reformist government that would end Western sanctions and attract investment is under threat.

The Rohingya crisis means some aid to Myanmar is being withheld, investors have turned wary and the country faces reinstatement of some of sanctions, making reforms more difficult.

Non-Performing Loans

Despite having one of the least developed financial sectors in the region, Myanmars banking assets have jumped to 55 percent of its GDP in 2016 from 15 percent in 2011, when the junta handed power to a semi-civilian government, according to German state development agency GIZ.

But even after widespread political and economic reforms began in 2011, bankers say the banks have continued to lend largely on preferential terms to a small group of well-connected customers.

These cronies, who have a lot of money, set up banks without experience or any knowledge of banking, said Sein Maung, chairman of Yangon-based First Private Bank, adding banks often lend money to people in their networks.

The new rules introduced in July, which also included stricter curbs on banks exposure to individual borrowers, were an attempt to change lending practices and force lenders to deal with riskier loans in a banking system that has remained poorly regulated.

Deputy governor Soe Thein said the central bank still needed to evaluate the real state of the banks and know the magnitude of the non-performing loans.

He said that, while major banks regularly report a healthy NPL ratio at 5-6 percent of total loans, that is lower than the real situation. He did not elaborate.

Than Lwin, former deputy central bank governor and senior adviser at Kanbawza Bank, said lenders and the central bank hold a different definition of what constitutes an NPL. He said banks evaluate loans based on the borrowers background and potential ability to repay, whereas the central bank  in line with international practice  judges them on number of days in arrears.

As part of Myanmars lending reforms, Soe Thein said the central bank was set to raise the maximum lending rate to 16 percent from 13 percent so that banks could generate capital by offering higher risk loans.

The central bank was also considering allowing non-collateral loans, Soe Thein said, ending a long-standing restriction that limits loan guarantees mainly to land and buildings. He did not elaborate on the timeframe.

With home prices in the commercial hub of Yangon dropping some 20 percent over the past three years, according to property consultancy Colliers, the move could help ease concerns about lenders over-exposure to higher-risk property.

Soe Thein said the central banks forthcoming follow-up directive would allow banks to convert overdraft facilities to loans with terms of three years from July this year, with the exception of those loans already declared by the banks as NPLs.

After that, he said, the central bank would request full disclosures on all loans from banks and enter into further, if necessary one-on-one, negotiations on how to clean up their balance sheets, starting with loans above 5 billion kyat ($3.67 million).

Some in the industry, however, have warned that if the central bank rows back on its hard line when negotiating with the banks it may jeopardize much-needed reforms.

They cant afford to delay the implementation because if they do that, they lose full leverage, said a financial professional involved in lending to local businesses, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Burma US Ethnic Cleansing Charge Wont Help Govt Solve Rakhine Issue, Presidents Office Says

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hold a joint press conference in Naypyitaw on Nov. 15. / State Counselors Office

NAYPYITAWThe US decision to label the Myanmar Armys counter-insurgency operation in northern Rakhine as ethnic cleansing is unhelpful for Myanmars efforts to bring about durable peace in the state, Presidents Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay said.

After avoiding the term during his visit to Myanmar last week, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday described the Myanmar Armys actions against Rohingya Muslims as ethnic cleansing.

The crisis developed after an Aug. 25 attack by Muslim militants against government security forces sparked a military clearance operation, which prompted over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee into Bangladesh amid allegations of human rights abuses.

The situation in northern Rakhine State constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, Tillerson said in a statement.

That statement is unhelpful for Myanmar [which is] trying to find long-term solutions. We found that the statement failed to mention the killings of Hindus and innocent civilians by ARSA, and its conclusions were reached without any proven facts, U Zaw Htay told The Irrawaddy.

Washington will also pursue accountability through U.S. law, including possible targeted sanctions against those responsible for the alleged abuses, which have driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh, according to the statement.

Journalist U Thiha Thway suggested that Tillerson released the statement after deciding during his visit that the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government and the Myanmar Army had different positions on the Rakhine issue.

The United States may have confidence that Daw Aung San Suu Kyis government will take action against wrongdoing in Rakhine and take responsibility. But perhaps it has decided to [release the statement] in order to find out whats really happening on the ground, he said.

The Myanmar government has repeatedly asked the international community to provide facts to back up allegations of human rights violations in Rakhine, but has received no meaningful facts to help with verification, he said.

So only the United States knows what the intention of that statement was, he said.

The Myanmar government will try to find a durable solution in northern Rakhine State based on Dr. Kofi Annans recommendations, he added.

In another international development related to the Rakhine issue, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Tuesday that he had received very troubling evidence that will be used to assess whether genocide has been committed against Rohingya Muslims.

Amid pressure from the international community, the Myanmar government entered into a repatriation agreement with Bangladesh on Thursday, Labor, Immigration and Population Minister U Thein Swe told The Irrawaddy.

The two countries will form joint committees within two weeks, and start the repatriation process in two months, he added.

However, Myanmar will only accept those who return voluntarily, and will take action against those who have violated laws in Myanmar, the minister said. The Myanmar government also plans to issue national verification cards (MVCs) on the spot to Rohingya Muslims at repatriation centers, he said.
Things started well when I got connected to the NBN and then I ran into a snag. But it wasn't what you're probably thinking.

The NBN connection described in part one of this series was fine for the first few days, but on 17 November I ran into a curious issue.

Aussie Broadband agreed to temporarily move me onto a 100/40 plan so I could tell you what speeds I actually experienced. Once the change had gone through, I used Speedtest to see how much difference the upgrade made. (In a comment on part one, a reader pointed out the shortcomings of using Speedtest.net, but Aussie Broadband has a private Speedtest server so I switched to that, eliminating potential issues outside the control of NBN Co and Aussie Broadband.)

You may have experienced the situation where a particular power circuit is operating at just below its maximum capacity, and when you plug in one more appliance the breaker trips. That's the best analogy I can offer for what I saw.

I had various devices connected to the Internet, and everything was working fine. The download part of the test showed higher speeds than I was getting on the 50/20 plan (more on that later), but a couple of seconds into the upload test all traffic stopped dead.

The lights on the HFC modem remained on, but all communication ceased.

Aussie Broadband's tech support agent was able to get things going, but the upload test killed it again. After various diagnostic procedures, he decided I needed a visit from an NBN Co technician.

This was no big deal, because my normal Internet use was unaffected as I had no large files to upload  I just avoided using Speedtest.

I also discovered that several Foxtel HD channels were degraded, some to the point of displaying the "no signal" error. That couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

Fortunately, the first available NBN Co appointment was on the morning of 21 November, so I didn't bother calling Foxtel at that stage.

The NBN tech arrived in the specified time window, checked signal levels at various points between the pole and the modem, and replaced the flyleads, splitter and some connectors.

That fixed the upload problem, but the speeds weren't very impressive and quite variable. In the space of about 15 minutes they ranged from 38.4 to 66.3Mbps down and 15.9 to 17.9Mpbs up.

Aussie Broadband did some internal checks on the capacity in my area at that time, and re-opened the issue with NBN Co. The first appointment available was on the morning of 23 November, i.e. two days later.

And since the Foxtel situation hadn't improved, I reported the fault and an appointment was made for the next morning (22 November), which was encouraging.

The Foxtel tech arrived  again, during the promised time window  and checked the signal levels again. The NBN frequencies were all OK, he said, but the numbers for some Foxtel channels weren't right. He knew there were similar issues in neighbouring suburbs, and said he would report my issue to the network group. So there was no improvement.

The next day, a different NBN technician knocked at my door. This must sound like a broken record, but once again his arrival was as scheduled.

He did what looked to me to be the same set of tests as his two colleagues and the Foxtel guy, but the results  or maybe his interpretation  were different. The signal was fine at the connection box on the outside wall, but substandard at the connector on the internal wall plate: only three of the four NBN upload channels were active.

So he removed the plate and found a nonstandard splitter and a kink in the cable inside the wall. Cutting off the kinked section and reconnecting the cable directly to the wall plate gave much better results. The Foxtel channels were restored to their normal quality, and the NBN connection stabilised at around 60 Mbps down and 37 Mbps up.

That left me wondering what suddenly made the cabling a problem. Did the kink in the co-ax finally degrade a few days after my NBN connection was installed? Or  as the NBN tech hinted  was it already marginal, and a change to the network in my neighbourhood pushed the situation over the edge? I'll probably never find out.

But I have to admit that what I assumed was an NBN problem (yes, I'm affected by all the bad news that circulates) was fixed by improving the wiring inside my house.

As for the Internet connection, the way I look at it, if I get within 10% of the nominal speed that's probably close enough. So the upload problem was fixed as far as I was concerned, but downloads weren't really up to scratch.

I got back to Aussie Broadband, and the tech checked the stats for my local PoI (point of interconnection), which showed the the service wasn't CVC-limited at the time I tested the speeds.

According to managing director Phillip Britt, "Aussie Broadband is constantly monitoring and upgrading our network to avoid peak hour congestion, even for customers whose lines are capable of the top speed tiers like 100/40.

"We back this with policies like not selling unlimited plans  which can lead to congestion  and stopping new connections in an area where we know there's a delay on a major bandwidth upgrade and the current customers' usage has hit 80% of available bandwidth."

In the next month or two, the company will start publishing graphs showing how much spare capacity there is at each PoI over time, helping customers and potential customers see whether it is living up to that policy.

Anyway, I'm happy that my 50/20 plan will deliver the expected speeds, and it should do what I need for the foreseeable future.

But what was limiting the download speed to around 60Mbps? That's still under investigation, and I'll report the outcome in a future instalment. (Part three has now been published.)
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency and TasNetworks will explore a more detailed feasibility and business case for a second Bass Strait interconnector connecting grids.

We're told a future second interconnector, after Basslink, would "allow Tasmania to expand the amount of electricity it could provide to the grid, allowing Tasmania to play a greater role in the National Electricity Market".

More importantly, it would also provide a back-up to ensure supply to Tasmania.

Being done on behalf of the Australian Government by ARENA, this more detailed feasibility and business case assessment "is expected to cost an estimated $20 million, to be funded by both ARENA and TasNetworks".

"The optimum capacity;

"The preferred route ;

"Technical specifications and supply arrangements for the cable, and grid interconnections ;

"Potential timing ;

"Detailed cost estimates ;

"Regulatory revenue investment test; and

"Financial and development models to implement the second interconnector

TasNetworks and ARENA state they're "defining the scope of the more detailed feasibility and business case assessment to be formally assessed by ARENA", and that "the business case for a second interconnector to link Tasmania and Victoria across the Bass Strait would consider":

ARENA advises it "has previously committed up to $2.5 million for Hydro Tasmania to undertake early stage feasibility studies as part of the Battery of the Nation project".

"This work includes upgrading of existing hydro power stations, identifying 15 high potential sites for pumped hydro and how wind power and hydro could help provide dispatchable, reliable power to other states.

"This more detailed feasibility and business case assessment will build upon the Tamblyn review and will be informed by the findings of the Battery of the Nation feasibility studies."

"The third of these studies currently underway considers how Tasmania can play an expanded role in the NEM through increased wind power and reconfiguring or expanding its hydro capacity, which would rely upon a second interconnector.

"Preliminary findings from that study indicate that the benefits of a second interconnector could outweigh the costs by $500 million."

ARENA chief executive Ivor Frischknecht said making the case for a second interconnector could enable Tasmania to act as a giant battery, providing large scale renewable energy generation and storage capacity.

Frischknecht said: Tasmania has some of Australias best wind resources, a large established hydro electric system and the potential to develop pumped hydro sites. To harness this potential, a second interconnector would need to be constructed to enable further generation and storage capacity to be delivered to the rest of the NEM.

With Hydro Tasmania, ARENA is already investigating the feasibility for new wind and pumped hydro, and this business case would be the next step.

TasNetworks chief executive Lance Balcombe said a more detailed feasibility and business case assessment would be a crucial step towards determining whether a second interconnector was viable, and how the project should proceed.

TasNetworks is excited to work with the Australian Government and ARENA to explore the potential for a second interconnector which could unlock huge potential for Tasmania to become a major energy exporter.

Here's the provided infographic:
Bennetts  a psychologist  joins Qualtrics from Chandler Macleod where he was the general manager for Innovation and Client Services and prior to that worked as a principal consultant at Sentis.

Bill McMurray, managing director, Asia Pacific and Japan, Qualtrics, said Bennetts had successfully led teams of psychologists and professionals focusing on positive client experiences and excellence in service delivery, and has more than 15 years experience in people analytics and building employee experience programs for some of the worlds largest brands.

I am delighted to have Steve join the Qualtrics team. We are seeing accelerating demand in this space, with many organisations now understanding the need to focus on employee experience as a key business strategy and competitive differentiator.

Steves extensive experience as a business psychologist and unique set of capabilities will help our customers become leaders in delivering world-class employee experiences.

Bennetts said experience management is critical for businesses to build phenomenal workplaces.

Employee experience programs help leaders stay connected to their employee, reduce unwanted attrition and improve engagement across the business. Im looking forward to leveraging my experience to help Qualtrics customers outperform their competitors by optimising those key moments across the employee life cycle.

Just last month Qualtrics appointed 20-year IT industry veteran Mark Vozzo as head of digital, Asia Pacific and Japan to lead marketing efforts across digital channels.

Based in Sydney, Vozzo  who previously worked for Google Cloud  is tasked with developing and designing marketing strategies and programmes to generate awareness of experience management  an emerging concept that Qualtrics says is fast gaining momentum among businesses in the region.
Outsourcing data storage has come back to bite the Department of Social Services, with the personal details of 8500 current and former employees being available on the Web between June 2016 and October 2017.

The error was put down to a third-party provider, Business Information Services, with the department's chief financial officer claiming the leak "is not a result of any of the departments internal systems.

The Guardian reported that the department had sent letters to the affected employees earlier this month, alerting them to the compromise within the credit card management system.

It said the data that was exposed included credit card details, names, usernames, work phone numbers, work emails, system passwords, Australian Government services numbers, public service classifications and organisation units.

The data covered the years from 2004 to 2015. The department was notified of the leak by the Australian Signals Directorate on 3 October. It took more than a month for the employees to be notified.

The newspaper quoted a spokesperson from BIS as saying there was no evidence of a cyber attack.

The information that leaked included partially anonymous work-related expenses. Also cost centres, corporate credit cards without CCV and expiry dates and passwords that were hashed and therefore not visible, were visible during the 16 months that the data was exposed.
Charges have been announced against an Iranian named Behzad Mesri over the hacking of HBO back in August and an attempt to extort the company to the tune of US$6 million.

The US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York announced seven criminal counts against Mesri over the hack which occurred in August.

Mesri is in Iran and is thus unlikely to be apprehended unless he happens to travel to a country which has an extradition treaty with the US.

Acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim said: Behzad Mesri, an Iranian national who had previously hacked computer systems for the Iranian military, allegedly infiltrated HBOs systems, stole proprietary data, including scripts and plot summaries for unaired episodes of Game of Thrones, and then sought to extort HBO of US$6 million in bitcoin.

"Mesri now stands charged with federal crimes, and although not arrested today, he will forever have to look over his shoulder until he is made to face justice.

"American ingenuity and creativity is to be cultivated and celebrated - not hacked, stolen, and held for ransom. For hackers who test our resolve in protecting our intellectual property  even those hiding behind keyboards in countries far away  eventually, winter will come.

At the time when the stolen files were leaked on the Web, the attackers also released details of how they had gained access.

The hackers claimed they had needed about six months to penetrate the HBO network and that they were paying about US$500,000 annually to buy zero-day exploits for software from Microsoft and other companies.

According to the indictment, "from approximately May 2017 to July 2017, Mesri successfully compromised multiple user accounts belonging to HBO employees and other authorised users, and used those accounts to repeatedly obtain unauthorised access to HBOs computer servers.

"Over the course of several months, Mesri used that unauthorised access to steal confidential and proprietary information belonging to HBO, which he then exfiltrated to servers under his control.

"Through the course of the intrusions into HBOs systems, Mesri was responsible for stealing confidential and proprietary data belonging to HBO, including, but not limited to: (a) confidential video files containing unaired episodes of original HBO television programmes, including episodes of Barry, Ballers, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Room 104, and The Deuce; (b) scripts and plot summaries for unaired programming, including but not limited to episodes of Game of Thrones; (c) confidential cast and crew contact lists; (d) emails belonging to at least one HBO employee; (e) financial documents; and (f) online credentials for HBO social media accounts."
Google has announced plans to block articles from Russian website Sputnik and the Russian television channel RT from appearing in its search results even as the search giant fights for net neutrality rules in the US not to be repealed.

The moves appear to contradict each other, seeking freedom of the Internet on one hand and cracking down on it at the same time.

Google said it would make changes in its algorithms to make it harder for articles from these Russian sources to appear in its search results.

The plans were described as direct censorship and a violation of the fundamental principles of freedom of speech, by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

She said such artificial ranking of search results if introduced, will contradict both common sense and the human right to free access to information on the Internet".

The move would also directly affect normal competition among the media, Zakharova added.

Google's move has come in the wake of an appearance by its representatives before a US Government panel inquiring into claims that the 2016 presidential elections were influenced by Russian sources.

Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google's parent company, Alphabet, has been quoted as saying the company is working to ferret out Russian propaganda from Google News.

Were well aware of this one, and were working on detecting this kind of scenario youre describing and deranking those kinds of sites, he said.

Its basically RT and Sputnik, he said. Were well aware and were trying to engineer the systems to prevent it.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Ret. 3-star general Michael Flynn, under investigation by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, has ceased sharing information on his case with the Trump white house. Analysts think that this move may be a sign that Flynn is turning states evidence and may provide information damning to Trump.

Flynn was a top Trump campaign official and then National Security Adviser to the president. He appears to have committed or planned several alleged crimes and if Trump was in the loop, he would be tarnished by Flynns rackets. (Not that Trump doesnt have his own tarnishing rackets). Remember, it isnt the crime that usually gets them but the cover-up.

1. In summer of 2016 and again in Dec., Flynn discussed with Turkish officials the possibility of kidnapping the Turkish Muslim religious leader Fethullah Gulen, whom some charge with running a cult. Gulen was given asylum in the US in the late 1990s. His Gulen or Hizmet movement was a partner with prime minister Tayyip Erdogan, until the two broke with one another a few years ago. Erdogan accuses Gulen of being behind the attempted coup of July 15, 2016. Flynn took money from a think tank close to a wealthy Turkish bussinessman who in turn is close to ERdogan, to do oppo reasearch on Gulen.

2. Flynn may have been offered millions of dollars to help free Reza Zarrab, a gold trader close to Erdogan,

3. Flynn declined to register as a foreign agent in connection with these activities or to report them as part of his security clearance at the NSA.

4. Flynn was fired for lying to VP Pence about his extensive contacts with the embassy of the Russian Federation in fall-winter 16. But did Trump know? I dont think theyre telling Pence very much.

It isnt a crime but it isnt a good look, either: Flynn went around saying the most horrible things about Muslims and even that he was afraid of them. Then it turns out he is working for them to the tune of $500k. The hypocrisy of the Flynn-Trump hate machine could eventually come back around and bite Trump on the ass. If you say you hate people, you attract a public invested in that hatred. But if you are actually doing business with and dancing before those very people, that could prove a problem for Trumps base.



Related video:

Wochit: Michael Flynn Now Co-Operating With Russia Investigation?
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Kamal al-Ayash. | Anbar | (Niqash.org) |  

Even before the extremists were in control in Anbar, selling alcohol was banned. During extremist control, selling liquor was punishable by death. But now liquor stores have become a sign of freedom.





Sign of hope? Beer on sale at a bar in Iraqi Kurdistan.

These days as you head into Karmah, one of the smaller cities in the central Anbar province, you may notice a small store on the way into town. Its not a big shop but its doors are wide open and it is selling alcohol. It is an unusual sight in this province, where conservative traditions and religious customs prevent the open sale and consumption of alcohol. But things have changed since the extremist group known as the Islamic State was in charge here.

While we were displaced we lived in both Baghdad and in northern Iraq, says Ahmad Abu Ali, a 44-year-old local; Karmah was part of the territory controlled by the extremist Islamic State, or IS, group and Abu Ali and his family fled their hometown. And we used to see a lot of these shops there, close to where we lived. To us, it was an indication that these cities were safe and secure.

Although the drinking of alcohol is against our religion, the shop is a good sign. It is proof that the militants who once had such a big role in this city, and those who supported the militants, no longer play a part here, Abu Ali explains. Each person can practice their own religion. And when we saw this [the alcohol store] it gave us hope.

Its not logical to describe the opening of these [liquor] stores as some sort of issue of personal freedom.

Although Abu Ali doesnt drink, his fellow townspeople who do are happy about the alcohol store for other, more obvious reasons.

In the past we used to have to go to Baghdad to buy spirits, Ibrahim Abdo, a 38-year-old local of Fallujah, told NIQASH. Abdo used to travel to the capital to buy enough alcohol to last a couple of weeks but he no longer has to do this. We used to hide the bottles in the car so that the police and people at checkpoints wouldnt harass us. They would destroy the drinks if they found them. Today I can just buy what I want even while the security forces are watching, he says, somewhat incredulous.

Abdo says he used to feel like some sort of smuggler even though Iraqi law doesnt prevent anyone from drinking or selling alcohol.

Selling alcohol is a fairly lucrative business in some parts of Iraq. A bottle of spirits can be sold for double the original price in areas where alcohol shops dont operate. A kind of network of contacts brings the spirits into those areas.

One local taxi driver, Yahya Darwish (not his real name), often takes passengers between Baghdad and Ramadi in Anbar. He got to know the soldiers deployed at checkpoints on the way between the two cities and was able to pass through with minimal inspection.

No beer here: A park in Ramadi.

At the beginning it was just one of my friends who asked me to bring back two bottles of spirits. When I got back, he was waiting for me and paid double what I had paid for the drinks, as well as the taxi fare, the 44-year-old says. After that I realized I could do good business with this trade and I started bringing back bottles to sell to friends and family.

Darwish says that he has since expanded the trade and that his income is now dependent on it. I know its a risky business but I now have customers of all kinds, from army officers to engineers and clerical staff, he says.

The demand is another reason why locals are starting to open alcohol shops in the aftermath of the extremists. Under the IS group, selling and consuming alcohol or cigarettes could see the perpetrator punished severely, perhaps even executed. Even before that, selling alcohol was seen as a sort of insult to local society here and to religious customs. Opening an alcohol store was a very risky business in the past. Even if one had a license, it could mean being harassed by locals and in some cases the presence of liquor stores have made people so angry that the shops have been blown up or vandalised and owners beaten or killed.

But now it has become possible to open a store selling beer and spirits. Anbars big cities such as Ramadi are seen as having particularly good potential.

Some of our customers came to Baghdad regularly and they encouraged us to open a store in Ramadi, explains Awat Haiwa, 54, a local from Baghdad who has just completed his application for a liquor license. His next step will be to find a suitable property in Ramadi where he can open the store. They encouraged us because the province is now free of extremists and the people are feeling free.

A lot of Haiwas customers come to his Baghdad premises from other parts of Iraq and take alcohol back to their home towns to sell. This has resulted in a lot of unlicensed vendors who are exploiting the buyers, charging at least double what the price really should be, he says. They also make for more competition for the licensed store owners such as himself, he notes.

Of course, not everyone in Anbar is happy about the new access to alcohol. One 48-year-old resident of Ramadi, Abdul Razak al-Fawhan, says he thinks this new trend aims to upset the local way of life and goes against religious, cultural, and tribal norms in Anbar.

It is an attempt to undermine our values, he told NIQASH. Of course, we know that a lot of people go to Baghdad or to other provinces to buy spirits but its not logical to describe the opening of these stores as some sort of issue of personal freedom. The opening of liquor stores is dangerous for locals. They are going to see what God has banned, out in the open, and that the government is supporting it. The locals themselves dont even get a say as to whether they want this or not, he concluded.

Via
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novo Resources Corp. (Novo or the Company) (TSX-V:NVO) (OTCQX:NSRPF) is pleased to provide an update on exploration activities at the Purdys Reward tenement, a key tenement within the farm-in and joint venture Novo has with ASX-listed Artemis Resources Limited (Artemis) and part of Novos greater Karratha gold project, Western Australia. In addition to this update, Novo wishes to advise that the Company has recently been notified by Artemis that the Western Australian Governments Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) has granted a 20,000 tonne excess tonnage permit for the extraction of a bulk sample from the Purdys Reward tenement.

Karratha Gold Project

Gold mineralization at Karratha is hosted by a sequence of conglomerate beds and fossil gravel horizons ranging from a few meters to approximately 20 meters thick comprising the base of a much thicker package of sedimentary and volcanic rocks called the Fortescue Group. Rocks of the Fortescue Group were deposited between 2.78 and 2.63 billion years ago upon 3.0 to 3.7 billion year old igneous and metamorphic rocks that make up the Pilbara craton. Gold-bearing conglomerates dip gently southeastward under cover at shallow angles of less than 10 degrees, and Novo believes that these rocks may underlie significant areas within the greater Fortescue basin.

Conglomerate-hosted gold mineralization at Karratha is extremely nuggety and requires exceptional exploration techniques for its evaluation. In the Companys news releases dated August 31 and September 21, 2017, Novo detailed its multi-pronged approach to exploration including: 1) scout diamond drilling for geological data, depth to target and thickness of conglomerates, 2) large diameter drilling for bulk sampling and 3) trenching for geological information and bulk sampling.

Trenching and Bulk Sampling

As discussed in the Companys news release dated November 2, 2017, trenching is proving invaluable for providing geologic data as well as bulk sample material. Therefore, Novo recently accelerated trenching and bulk sampling activities along the strike of the daylighting conglomerate package. A comprehensive overview of trenching activities will be provided by Novo approximately mid-December once this fieldwork is complete.

Nagrom Metallurgical Laboratory, Perth (Nagrom) has recently indicated to Novo that the first trench bulk sample grade results will be available in January. Processing of samples has been delayed while Nagrom has adjusted and optimized the sorting ability of its new Steinert sorting machine. In the meantime, Novo has been shipping bulk samples to Nagrom in preparation for processing.

Given the nuggety nature of gold mineralization at Karratha, Novo considers bulk sampling the best practical means of evaluating grade and potential viability of the deposit. Prior to signing definitive agreements with Novo in August, Artemis had filed an application with the DMIRS for a 20,000 tonne excess tonnage permit for extraction of bulk material from the Purdys Reward tenement. This application was recently approved. To move the project forward, Novo and Artemis are now working together on plans to utilize this permit to undertake systematic bulk sampling for grade purposes. Given what has been learned from recent trenches, Novo envisions collection of bulk material from multiple sites and positions within the conglomerate package at Purdys Reward to provide the greatest understanding of this unusual gold system.

Drilling

As of the date of this news release, sixty diamond core holes have been completed in a northeast-trending corridor approximately 1,000 m long and 100-400 m wide. As discussed in Novos news release dated October 17, 2017, diamond drill holes indicate strong continuity of the targeted conglomerate package (please refer to a plan map of drill sites and cross sections in the Companys news release dated October 17, 2017 for further details). Geologic logging of all backlogged core holes is ongoing and expected to be completed by approximately mid-December at which point data will be collated with trench data and used to generate a 3D model of the conglomerate package.

Over a three-week period, FORACO International SA experimented with various drill bit diameter sizes, drilling dry and wet, various sampling techniques, and a mix of sample collection tooling. Upon careful review of sample consistency, integrity and recovery, Novo has decided it is uncomfortable with the product and its use as bulk sample material for grade estimation. While disappointing, Novo is reviewing other potential options for collecting bulk samples from drilling. As discussed above, Novo is currently putting emphasis on collection of bulk samples from trenches.

Recent Geologic Findings

In the Companys news release dated October 17, 2017, Novo discussed that much of the historic prospecting activity at Purdys Reward and Comet Well focused on the lower, mafic igneous rock clast-rich conglomerate sequence. Recent observations in trenches continue to confirm this pattern. Novo personnel have noted metal detector strikes throughout this lower conglomerate sequence, however most occur near its base. Interestingly, black chlorite-rich shale fragments are commonly observed in areas with abundant visible nuggets. Such shale fragments are seen in proximity to gold nuggets in the second video linked to Novos July 12, 2017 news release announcing the discovery of gold nuggets at Purdys Reward. The geologic reason for the association between these shale fragments and gold nuggets has not yet been determined.

Scanning electron microscopy of cut slabs of gold-bearing conglomerate has yielded important information about the distribution of fine gold particles within the rock. Although a limited number of samples have been analyzed and more work is underway, current findings suggest most fine-grained gold occurs as halos of particles within a few millimeters of much coarser gold nuggets. Novo believes such fine-grained gold was remobilized and re-precipitated following burial and lithification of gold-bearing gravels. Novo believes it is possible that fine-grained gold observed in panning of weathered rock collected from trenches as well as the fine gold component observed in the first bulk sample (please refer to the Companys news release dated August 8, 2017 for further details) is derived from such halos of fine gold.

We were fully aware from day one that the Karratha gold project is a coarse gold system, commented Dr. Quinton Hennigh, President, Chairman and a director of Novo Resources Corp. The fact that numerous prospectors have been detecting gold here since its discovery is compelling evidence. While the ability to recover consistent, quality sample material using large diameter drilling has not yet been accomplished, trenching appears to yield acceptable bulk samples for test work. Bulk sampling at surface will be the most critical means of determining the grade, processing characteristics and viability of this deposit. We look forward to working with Artemis on ways to fast track a bulk sampling strategy at Purdys Reward.

Dr. Quinton Hennigh, the Companys, President and Chairman and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has approved the technical contents of this news release.

About Novo Resources Corp.

Novos focus is to explore and develop gold projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, and Novo has built up a significant land package covering approximately 12,000 sq km. Novo also currently controls a 100% interest in approximately 2 sq km covering much of the Tuscarora Au-Ag vein district, Nevada.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

This summer, the University of Reading Archaeology Field School excavated one of the most extraordinary sites we have ever had the pleasure of investigating. The site is an Early Neolithic long barrow known as "Cat's Brain" and is likely to date to around 3,800 BC. It lies in the heart of the lush Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, UK, halfway between the iconic monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury.

It has long been assumed that Neolithic long barrows are funerary monuments; often described as "houses of the dead" due to their similarity in shape to long houses. But the limited evidence for human remains from many of these monuments calls this interpretation into question, and suggests that there is still much to be learnt about them.

In fact, by referring to them as long barrows we may well be missing the main point. To illustrate this, our excavations at Cat's Brain failed to find any human remains, and instead of a tomb they revealed a timber hall, suggesting that it was very much a "house for the living." This provides an interesting opportunity to rethink these famous monuments.

The timber hall at Cat's Brain was surprisingly large, measuring almost 20 metres long and ten metres wide at the front. It was built using posts and beamslots, and some of these timbers were colossal with deep cut foundation trenches, so that it's general appearance is of a robust building with space for considerable numbers of people. The beamslots along the front of the building are substantially deeper than the others, suggesting that its frontage may have been impressively large, monumental in fact, and a break halfway along this line indicates the entrance way.

An ancient 'House Lannister'?

Timber halls such as these are an aspect of the earliest stages of the Neolithic period in Britain, and there seems little doubt that they were created by early pioneer Neolithic people. Frequently, they appear to have lasted only two or three generations before being deliberately destroyed or abandoned. These houses need not be dwellings, however, and given their size could have acted as large communal gathering places.

It is worth briefly pausing here and thinking of the image of a house  for the word "house" is often used as a metaphor for a wider social group (think of the House of York or Windsor, or  if you're a Game of Thrones fan like me  House Lannister or House Tyrell).

In this sense, these large timber halls could symbolise a collective identity, and their construction a mechanism through which the pioneering community first established that identity. We may imagine a variety of functions for this building, too, none of which are mutually exclusive: ceremonial houses or dwellings for the ancestors, for example, or storehouses for sacred heirlooms.

From this perspective, it is not a huge leap of the imagination to see them as containing, among other things, human remains. This does not make them funerary monuments, any more than churches represent funerary monuments to our community. They were not set apart and divided from buildings for the living, but represented a combination of the two  houses of the living in a world saturated with, and inseparable from, the ancestors.

These houses would have been replete with symbolism and meaning, and charged with spiritual energy; even the process of building them is likely to have taken on profound significance. In this light, then, it is interesting to note that towards the end of our excavations this summer, just as we were winding up, we uncovered two decorated chalk blocks that had been deposited into a posthole during the construction of the timber hall.

The decoration on these blocks comprises deliberately created depressions and incised lines, which have wider parallels at other early Neolithic sites, such as the flint mines of Sussex.

Controversy often surrounds decorated chalk pieces; chalk is soft and easily marked and some people suggest that they are "decorated" with nothing more than the scratchings of badgers. But there is no doubt that the Cats Brain marks are human workmanship and the discovery should spark a fresh investigation into decorated chalk plaques more widely.

Imbued with power

For the moment, the original purpose of the carvings remains obscure, but clearly they were of significance. They will have had meaning and potency to the people that created them, and by depositing them in a posthole the building itself may have been imbued with that power, as well as marking it with individual or community identity. The discovery adds to the way we understand these monuments and weight to the argument that these buildings represent more than just "houses of the dead."

Over time, deep ditches were dug either side of the timber hall at Cats Brain and the quarried chalk may have been piled over the crumbling building after it had gone out of use, closing it down and transforming the house from a wooden structure into a permanent earthen monument; the shape and symbolism of which will have been known to all who saw it. With this transformation, the identity of this early Neolithic group was finally and permanently inscribed upon the landscape.

Now, with this investigation, we have been granted a glimpse of the lives and beliefs of our ancestors nearly 6,000 years ago.

The excavations at Cat's Brain, including the decorated chalk blocks, will feature on Digging for Britain, to be screened on BBC4, at 9pm on Wednesday November 22.

Jim Leary, Director of Archaeology Field School, University of Reading

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. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

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With the Dec. 15 premiere of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" nearly upon us, there are lots of new items that tie in with this latest entry to the franchise, as well as plenty of toys, apparel and gadgets for classic "Star Wars" fans. Don't forget to check back here regularly. Some of the sales will last for only a few hours, or the item may sell out, so don't miss your chance to buy coveted items.

For more space gift ideas, check out our space gift guide and our space gift guide for kids. And don't forget to check out our Best Telescopes picks and Best Binoculars guide for your stargazing gifts.

litteBits Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit: This IS the droid STEM kit you're looking for! littleBits' Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit allows your little Jedi (or Sith, we don't want to presume) to create their own droid from a galaxy far, far away. The kit comes with everything from batteries to decorative stickers, and an app that lets kids control their droid creation and teach it moves like head spins and self navigation. The Amazon sale price of $79(down from $99.95) is the lowest the kit has sold far since its debut earlier this year.

Sphero R2-D2 App-Enabled Droid: Bring home your own little R2-D2! This adorable robot is controlled with a downloadable Sphero app via bluetooth, comes with several pre-set commands and can be programmed with custom codes. The sale price is $129 (with a $30 off coupon from Amazon), compared to a regular price of a regular price of $180.

Lego "Star Wars" VIII BB-8 Building Kit: Build your own personal replica of one of the most adorable robots in the "Star Wars" universe with this 1160-piece Lego BB-8. This droid is on sale for $80, compared to a regular price of $100.

Lego "Star Wars" Millennium Falcon Building Kit: Travel the galaxy with Han Solo, Chewbacca and others in the iconic Millennium Falcon! This building kit comes with 1,329 pieces, including six minifigures of the most beloved "Star Wars" characters. This building set is on sale for $111.99, compared to a regular price of $150.

Hot Wheels "Star Wars" Rey's Speeder Die-Cast Vehicle: Launch into hyperdrive with one of the most iconic starships from "Star Wars," Rey's Speeder. The vehicle comes with a stand that can be mounted onto a finger for easy play and display. The sale price is $7.10, compared to a regular price of $10. It is running out though, so if this is on your list, grab it quick!

Lego "Star Wars: Episode VIII" Kylo Ren's TIE Fighter Building Kit: Battle the Resistance with this 630-piece Lego rendition of Kylo Ren's TIE fighter. The sale price for this set is $64, compared to a regular price of $80.

Lego "Star Wars: Episode VIII" First Order Heavy Scout Walker Building Kit: Send General Hux and his crew into an epic Lego battle in this 554-piece armored First Order Heavy Scout Walker. The set is on sale for $40, compared to a regular price of $50.

Lego Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle Building Kit: Restore order to a galaxy far, far away by hunting down the enemy in Kylo Ren's command shuttle. This building kit comes with 1,005 pieces and includes six minifigures. The sale price is $80, marked down from a regular price of $120.

New Low Price! Chewbacca Electronic Mask: Step up your Chewbacca impressions with this electronic mask. Still haven't quite figured out how to growl like Chewbacca? No problem. Just open your mouth with this mask on, and this mask will make the sound effects for you. Now you can get your Wookiee hands on this mask for $12.74, compared to the usual price of $32!

"Star Wars" Furbacca: One of the hottest toys from the 1990s has made a comeback in the world of "Star Wars" merchandise. This cuddly, interactive Furby is a bit more high-tech than traditional Furbies. It can sing and dance  and speak Wookiee! Furbacca is currently on sale for $59, which is 25 percent off its regular price of $79.

New Low Price! "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" Hyperdrive BB-8: Your own personal BB-8, this little remote-controlled droid rolls around in all directions, makes expressive droid sounds and lights up as its adorable little robot head bobbles around. This BB-8 is now on sale for $66.29, compared to its regular price of $100.

Deal ended: Sphero BB-9E App-Enabled Droid: A new, high-tech "Star Wars" droid, the BB-9E by Sphero, can be controlled via bluetooth using a downloadable app. Or you can let BB-9E patrol your home on its own. Keep BB-9E sharp with the augmented-reality Droid Trainer app and explore holographic simulations from the "Star Wars" galaxy. The sale price is $130, compared to a regular price of $150. Ed. note: This item is no longer available from Amazon but is available from other sellers.

Darth Vader 12 oz. Self Stirring Travel Mug: Who needs spoons when you can use the Force? This incredible self-stirring mug will keep your beverages warm and thoroughly mixed with little to no effort on your part. The sale price is $20, or half off its regular price of $40.

Air Hogs "Star Wars" X-wing vs. Death Star Drones: There's currently a steep price discount on this "Star Wars"-themed drone set, which is going for $39.97. While you can typically find this dual set for around $80, it can run as high as $129.

There are also lots of Star Wars Lego action figures on sale today. Here are a few:

Chewbacca Action Figure (Episode VIII): It's everyone's favorite furry friend from the "Star Wars" universe. This Chewbacca action figure comes with a spring-loaded bow shooter. Currently $27.99 down from a typical price of $34.99.

Rey Action Figure: Bring home the heroine from "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" with this Lego action figure. Comes with a blue light saber and blaster. Currently $19.99 down from a typical price of $24.99.

Kylo Ren Action Figure: The raspy-voiced villain from "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is yours to bring home with this Lego action figure. Currently listed at $19.99 down from a list price of $29.99.

Elite Praetorian Guard Action Figure: From "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," this elite warrior stands over 9 inches tall, and comes with a doubled-handed staff that breaks into two weapons. Currently listed at $19.99, down from a regular price of $24.99.

First Order Storm Trooper Action Figure: From "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," this bulked-out Storm Trooper action figure features sleek armor and a spring-loaded shooter.

Star Wars Scout Trooper & Speeder Bike: This Lego set includes a 9-inch Storm Trooper action figure and a buildable speeder bike with spring-loaded shooter and movable flaps. (Note this is an Action Figure set, not a regular Lego brick set.) Currently $43.99 down from $54.99.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: November 24 2017

The seminar brought together county and state agencies, nonprofit organizations, advocates, veterans and their families to exchange information about how to access and manage available services, benefits and assistance.

Amityville, NY - November 24, 2017 - In an effort to ensure that veterans in the community are receiving all of the benefits they are deserving of and entitled to, Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory recently hosted his second annual Veterans Services Seminar at the In an effort to ensure that veterans in the community are receiving all of the benefits they are deserving of and entitled to, Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory recently hosted his second annual Veterans Services Seminar at the East Farmingdale Fire Department

The Nov. 17 seminar brought together county and state agencies, nonprofit organizations, advocates, veterans and their families to exchange information about how to access and manage available services, benefits and assistance. Presenters addressed a broad range of topics, including housing, financial services, education, employment, business development and legal services. Agencies networked and shared strategies amongst themselves and with the veterans in attendance.

The importance of making sure that those who protect our country are properly taken care of when they return home cannot be overstated, said Presiding Officer Gregory. Many veterans arent aware of the plethora of services that are available. Having all of these agencies together in one room was a great opportunity for them to easily connect, collaborate and ensure veterans can easily access the benefits available to them. I would like to thank all of the agencies that participated, and a special thanks to Brian Sapp of Gov. Andrew Cuomos office and the New York State Division of Veterans Affairs for helping to coordinate this event.
Robert Mugabes departure on Tuesday, 21 November as president of Zimbabwe, after 37 years in office, has sent ripples throughout the southern African region. In Uganda it has brought out many of the underlying tensions beneath the surface of society.

Mugabe was hated throughout Africa, not only because he was a brutal ruler, but because he belongs to a trend of similar totalitarians who have oppressed the African masses for decades. His fall was met with jubilation throughout the continent, where the masses are sick and tired of the rotten old regimes. In Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa there were scenes of wild celebrations in the big centres. In South Africa, which has a large Zimbabwean immigrant community, the Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow was turned into mini-Harare as thousands danced in the streets.

Robert Mugabe's resignation has sent shockwaves throughout southern Africa / Image: Jesse B. Awalt

Mugabe was not removed by the Zimbabwean masses. His removal came as a consequence of contradictions at the top of the regime, which have intensified over years, and finally erupted into an open split. The struggles for resources, influence and power grew more and more intense towards the end of the 93-year olds reign. These splits at the top ended in a coup. But in order to gain legitimacy for the the coup, the military clique then leaned on the mass movement of 18 November to push out the opposing faction and disguise their blatant power-grab.

However, having been called out on the streets, the masses are now venting years of frustration and anger. Celebrating the end of Mugabe, they will soon demand a reversal to years of corruption and oppression. In reality of course, nothing has fundamentally changed. Zimbabwe is still under the thumb of the old regime, which now continues without Mugabe.

The new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa is the other side of the coin to Mugabe. He has been a key player in Zimbabwean politics, at every turn during the last 40 years. Known as the crocodile he is nothing but a bad replica of Mugabe. Soon the masses will realise this and as the euphoria evaporates, it will be replaced with disillusionment and then further anger. The army tops realise this and they have been trying to lead the whole process down a constitutional channel. That is the basis for Mugabes farcical resignation. But no election or constitutional process can fill the stomachs of the people of Zimbabwe.

Emmerson Mnangagwa / Image: Jean Marc Ferre

The new regime will not be able to calmly stabilise their rule in the near term. The splits at the top of the regime, which culminated in Mugabes removal, have aroused the masses from below. In Zimbabwe, and in fact in the whole of the Southern African, region workers, peasants and people have suddenly come to political life and they are now keenly following every event. This is causing great nervousness among the elites in the region.

Panic

The clearest example at this stage is Zimbabwes East Africa neighbour, Uganda. The regime of Yoweri Museveni is showing open signs of panic. When the coup broke out, Museveni revealed his paranoia by blasting the Zimbabwe Defence Force, calling the coup unconstitutional. This is rich coming from somebody who rides roughshod over the Ugandan constitution.

Museveni has reason to worry. Mugabes fall is influencing events in Uganda where the masses now feel emboldened. The regime is clearly nervous about the events in Zimbabwe over the last few days and is moving to quell the mood on the streets.

One day after Mugabes resignation, Museveni promised housing and salary hikes for teachers, soldiers, healthcare workers and public servants. This announcement came as a shock to everyone. Earlier, Museveni stubbornly maintained that this was unaffordable due to the sluggish economy. Now, miraculously, the economic situation has improved to such an extent that he can start giving concessions! Of course, what he is trying to do is to make reforms from above, to avoid a revolution from below. But with the masses feeling stronger by the day, the reforms will only embolden them further.

Emboldened

Within hours of this announcement, other layers such as taxi drivers came out onto the streets. They have been waging a struggle against the Kampala Capital City Authority over the imposition of levies on taxi operators in the city. They blocked the road and even intercepted Musevenis motorcade, demanding that he address them on the matter.

After a tense standoff with the special forces, and with the fear that things might get out of hand, Museveni was forced to intervene and made a short speech. Standing through the sunroof of his presidential vehicle, he told the taxi drivers that he was not in favour of the imposition of the levies and promised to attend to the matter urgently. A great cheer broke out. Satisfied with the answer, the taxi drivers opened the road and let the convoy through.

This is unprecedented! The very idea that people can block the Ugandas presidential motorcade and make demands of the Ugandan strongman is unheard-of. It is an indication that the masses are now losing their fear of the regime and feel emboldened by the events in their neighbouring country. From the point of view of the regime, this is a very dangerous situation. Once the masses sense the fear of the regime and it starts making concessions, it will embolden the people to press forward their demands.

Hanging on

The regime is clearly terrified. Several ministers and key allies of Musevenis inner circle have warned the 73-year-old to abandon attempts to amend the constitution to abolish the age-limit of 75 years which barred him from extending his 31-year rule. Currently the age cap bars Museveni from standing in the countrys elections in 2021.

This issue has been simmering for months. It is deeply unpopular and is causing widespread resistance from ordinary Ugandans. A survey by Afrobarometer found that more than 60 percent is opposed the bill. To push the issue forward Museveni gave each Member of Parliament 8000 dollars to facilitate a consultation with their constituents on the bill.

This has sparked outrage among many working-class Ugandans. In a country where 27 percent of the people live on less than one dollar a day, this open corruption has caused furious scenes recently. There were several clashes with police when some MPs tried to promote the bill in their constituencies.

These pressures were felt in parliament. Some opposition MPs tried to block the tabling of the bill but were forcibly removed by a unit of the army. Although the issue is deeply unpopular, Museveni is ignoring his advisers and is plunging ahead stubbornly, calling MPs who opposed the bill parasites. Clearly these MPs are afraid of provoking the wrath of the masses, but backing down will leave Museveni humiliated. It would be the end of the strongman image he has cultivated over the last 30 years and it will give more confidence to the movement on the streets.

Falling popularity

All of this is coming at a time when the whole regime is tainted by rising poverty, corruption and collapsing public services. While the poor get poorer, the rich get richer. Recently Museveni opened the oil-rich country up to looting under the disguise of foreign investment. French and Chinese oil companies have won lucrative contracts to pump 6.5 billion barrels of oil through a 3.5 billion dollar pipeline.

This is causing deep frustration throughout the country. At the latest Independence Day celebrations, which Museveni held in his home region, only a handful of people attended the event. In fact his bodyguards seemed to outnumber the crowds! It is a sign of his waning popularity even in the rural parts of the country, which have traditionally formed Museveni's support base.

Ugandan military police / Image: Flickr, US Army Africa

As his popularity support is falling, he is relying more and more on the military: especially the Special Forces Command, which he has turned into his loyal personal bodyguard. The unit was built on ethnic lines, comprising mainly of Musevenis Hima ethnic group. The aim is clearly to sow ethnic divisions that he can use to stay in power. The unit is better paid than other army units, with better training and equipment. It was previously commanded by Musevenis son, who is now a presidential adviser. A recent spike in brutality perpetrated by the security services is also a source of increasing resentment towards Museveni.

As is the case elsewhere on the continent, Museveni removed the special forces from the ordinary chain of command and put them under his direct control. At the same time, he also purged the old guard of the guerilla army and has surrounded himself with younger, less competent generals in a move to eliminate competition. But even here, the Zimbabwean situation ruffled some feathers. Clearly influenced by the Zimbabwean coup, which was led by the top commander of the military, Museveni shocked his own military by making a complete overhaul of the top command structure. He fired his own leading general and made 300 promotions to the chain of command a day after the formal downfall of Mugabe in Harare. This reveals his level of paranoia. But at the same time, in a similar manner as in Zimbabwe, the beginnings of a purge could bring out tensions from within the regime and deepen the political crisis.

The looming battle

In the 1980s Museveni hypocritically wrote: The problems of Africa and Uganda in particular, are caused by leaders who overstay in power, which breeds impunity, promotes corruption and patronage. Now, after 31 years in charge, he is moving to change the constitution to cling to office!

This is a situation which persists throughout Africa, where the old leaderships of the liberation movements have turned into rotten dictatorial regimes. The main problem lies in the fact that they all ended short of overthrowing the capitalist system after formal independence was won. Instead of overthrowing the system they became its managers on behalf of their imperialist masters.

Today many of the countries in the region are more dependent on the imperialist powers than when they were under their direct rule during the colonial era. Instead of direct, bureaucratic-military rule, the imperialists are dominating the region through debt dependency and the mechanisms of world trade, and through propping up totalitarian regimes to carry out the dirty work of keeping the masses in check.

Yoweri Museveni with the Obamas / Image: Office of the White House, Amanda Lucidon

These regimes crystallized after the defeats and demoralisation of the 1980s and leaned on the weak economic booms of the 1990s and the 2000s. In the meantime, they have completely rotted from inside: sitting on power like a weak crust on a simmering volcano, never far from an eruption.

The parasitic Museveni regime is completely detached from the real society. Uganda has an extremely youthful population with an average age of 15 years. Most Ugandans were not even been born when Museveni came to power and they have no direct links to the liberation era.

There is also a huge difference between Museveni and his party, the NRM. Unlike ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe, the NRM does not have a big traditional social base. It hardly exists as an organisation and basically has no structures. It is really a machine that exists to keep Museveni and his cabal in power. The officials and the MPs are extremely dependent on patronage from Museveni himself.

The lack of political life in the party has resulted in the situation where it cannot produce a successor. Museveni is now faced with his own succession problem. He needs time to promote his son. This is why he is pushing for the constitutional amendment.

But Museveni is running out of time. After 31 years of corruption, looting and crumbling infrastructure, the youthful population has had enough of him. The extreme centralisation of power in his own hands means he is now has become a focal point of all the accumulated anger in society.

Uganda is now a powderkeg waiting to explode. Just like the other strongman, Mugabe, Museveni and his clique are bound to be swept aside sooner or later. But as long as the capitalist system remains their will be no solutions to the problems of land, housing, healthcare, education and employment. Only on the basis of abolishing the capitalist system and spreading revolution throughout the continent and can these basic problems begin to be addressed.
by Wayne Friedman , November 24, 2017

Two big cable TV network group stocks went in different directions on the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend: Viacom went lower and Discovery Communications moved higher.

Viacom was down nearly 2.2% to $26.67, while Discovery was 3.1% higher to $17.79 -- due to a couple of different recommendations: one for Discovery and another against Viacom on CNBCs Mad Money.

In addition, B. Riley FBR Inc. trimmed its price target for Viacom to $30.00 from $33.00.

We continue to see squishy trends in core TV, writes Barton Crockett, media analyst at B. Riley FBR, on Wednesday. He says some of this reflects a recent domestic affiliate deal with Charter Communications, which could put pressure on long-term affiliate revenues for Viacom.

The ad revenue outlook remains stubbornly sluggish, he adds.

Recently, Viacom has been a concern among some analysts, due to lower projections when it comes to traditional carriage fees.

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Media analysts have had concerns about both cable TV companies -- especially when it comes to deals made with new virtual/digital pay TV providers. TV networks with higher-value broadcast networks and cable channels are believed to have better leverage in make deals than those pure-play cable TV network groups.

MoffettNathanson Research recently said Viacom only averages a 19% share of its cable networks on new digital TV providers -- such as Sling TV, Hulu with Live TV, DirecTV Now and Youtube TV. Discovery is slightly better at 20%.
by Aaron Baar , November 24, 2017

Thanksgiving is a time of families taking time off to come together and be thankful for all that they have. In a one-time-only ad during NBCs coverage of the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade, Verizon is encouraging people to be thankful for the first responders working (even on Thanksgiving) to keep everyone else safe.

Verizon has been a proud supporter of public safety nationwide for decades, John Nitti, chief media officer for Verizon, tells Marketing Daily. This segment is a continuation of our commitment to first responders, giving them thanks for the work that they do everyday, but more so, on days like Thanksgiving, a holiday all about family and togetherness where many first responders spend working instead of with their loved ones. We want to use this holiday to thank those who keep us safe every day of the year.

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The spot, from Verizons agency, McCann, intercuts shots of people preparing their Thanksgiving meals with those of first responders doing their jobs. A voiceover encourages people to set an extra place at their holiday table in honor of all the first responders who dont get the day off and are giving their time on our behalf. The spot continues to give thanks for all those who give their days, and their nights, so that we may have ours. The spot notes that many first responders rely on Verizon for their communications, and thanks them for keeping everyone safe. It ends with the line, The strongest connection is the one between all of us.

First responders sacrifice so much, yet bring such passion and joy to their work. We wanted to capture that  so our tone is celebratory, Nitti says. The notion of symbolically setting an extra place helped us connect the traditional Thanksgiving meal with those who are on call, working to keep us safe.

Airing the one-time-only spot during the Thanksgiving Day Parade coverage was a way to reach a range of audiences across the country all at once, Nitti says. However, the company will be using the power of social media to spread the message wider.

Running the spot only once during the broadcast makes the moment it is on screen a special one and reinforces the message that were appreciative of the work first responders are doing, Nitti says. Since we want to be sure the message is shared widely, we'll also be sharing the spot on our social channels.




by Tanya Gazdik , November 24, 2017

For the first time in its 10-year partnership, the ASPCA will host Cat Friday today as a Subaru Share the Love fee-waived adoption event, in support of the ASPCA and the automakers longstanding commitment to help animals across the country.

As part of the 2017 Subaru Share the Love event, the ASPCA has provided grant funding to 90 animal welfare organizations across 36 states to support Share the Love fee-waived pet adoption events they co-host with their local Subaru retailer partners. Last year, the ASPCAs participation in the Share the Love event resulted in a donation from Subaru of more than $3.2 million. Since 2008, Subaru has donated over $16.5 million to the ASPCA. This helped support over 1,200 adoption events and impacted the rescue, transport, and adoption of nearly 40,000 animals nationwide.

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In addition to Share the Love, Subaru has supported the ASPCAs work including adoption, spay/neuter, micro-chipping, and transport efforts throughout a variety of programs.

During the 2017 Subaru Loves Pets initiative in October, the ASPCA provided grant funding to 110 animal welfare organizations across 35 states and Washington, D.C.., to host fee-waived adoption events in partnership with their local Subaru retailers, resulting in more than 2,900 adoptions. As part of the ASPCA and Subaru Loves Pets Rescue Ride grant program, the ASPCA has provided more than $500K in grant funding over the past four years to support animal transports, saving more than 20,000 animals as of 2016. Additionally, the Subaru VIP Program for ASPCA Guardians and Founders donates $100 to the ASPCA for every new vehicle purchased or leased through the VIP Program.

During this years Share the Love event running through Jan. 2, Subaru of America will donate $250 for every new Subaru vehicle purchased or leased to the customers choice of the four national charities. Along with the ASPCA, the three other charities are Make-A-Wish, Meals on Wheels America, and the National Park Foundation.

In addition, participating Subaru retailers can select one or two hometown charities from their local community in which customers can direct their support.

Subaru launched a campaign earlier this month supporting the effort.
by Kaila Colbin , Featured Contributor, November 24, 2017

Youve ingested the turkey and the tryptophan. Youve carefully avoided talking about politics. Youve given thanks for all your abundant blessings. And youre probably not even reading this column because youre out shopping. Happy Black Friday!

Rituals are wonderful things. They tie us to our history and reinforce our cultural narratives. But they also carry risks: of oversimplifying, of caricaturizing, of mistaking the map for the territory.

Many of us are aware of the dark underbelly of this particular celebration. Happy harvest festival notwithstanding, the Native American story is one of systematic slaughter by European settlers. On this holiday, many of us choose to focus instead on gratitude and on connectedness -- and its hard to focus on gratitude and connectedness when were thinking about genocide.

This week, the LA Times published an op-ed from Tommy Orange. Its a tough read.

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We -- you and I and everyone -- are still trying to absolve ourselves of history, he says. But we don't want to do it by talking about it. We don't want the taste of it in our mouths. We're devoted to keeping it under our place mats. Blackout Wednesday. Gorge Thursday. Get deals Friday. We hide the lie under the darkness of digestion.

The comments on the article are scathing. Sore losers are not attractive, says one, as if losing a war were equivalent to losing the Super Bowl.

Sounds like no one invited this grouch over for Thanksgiving dinner, says another -- the suggestion being that this holiday is only about happiness.

Its depressing to contemplate the totality of our complicity in the state of the world, and not just in the context of historical atrocities. Its depressing for me to consider my air travels impact on the planet, or the fact that some of my clothes were almost certainly made in sweatshops.

But if I want to have a hope of growing as a human, my first job is to see myself clearly and honestly -- just as, if we want to have a hope of becoming a more inclusive, more thoughtful, more compassionate society, our first job is to see ourselves unflinchingly.

Part of that unflinching assessment is embracing the yin/yang evident everywhere in society. Want artificial intelligence? Be prepared for biased algorithms. Want self-driving cars? Get ready for millions of drivers out of work.

Google has made San Francisco unaffordable. Apple generates mountains of e-waste. Facebook influenced the election. All too often, the individual choices we make have aggregated effects far beyond what we would imagine.

It feels somewhat satisfying to point fingers at those behemoths. They are large, and they can take it. But these companies would not be this large if we didnt, collectively, perceive great value in what they have to offer. We created the monsters ourselves. There is no us versus them. There is only us.

F. Scott Fitzgerald said, The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

Can we be grateful for what we have and still be mindful of what it took to get there? Can we give thanks for our blessings and still appreciate that those blessings may have come at a cost?

After all, how can we be truly thankful if were only seeing part of the picture?
Moving to a new place obviously costs a lot of money and is overall just an extremely expensive process. But, imagine if you got paid to change cities?

So, if you want to settle down in a tiny and beautiful mountain village, this can actually happen for you. A tiny picturesque town in the Swiss Alps, called Albinen, may soon be accepting applications for prospective residents, and the chosen ones would be paid 25,000 Swiss francs (which will be a little over Rs. 16 lakhs) per adult and 10,000 (or Rs. 6.5 lakhs) per child to live there.

 Saxifraga

Doesn't sound that bad of deal, right? But, there's a tiny little catch, like always.

If you want to move there, you first have to spend over 151,925 buying a house, and anyone who moves away after less than ten years will be forced to hand back the cash. But, living in a beautiful town for a decade sounds doable.

There are more requirements, because life isn't easy. The new residents must be 45 or under, and in order to qualify for the payment, they will be expected to learn German.

This new initiative aims to repopulate a community that has dwindled to just 240 residents. A lot of the previous residents with kids ended up moving out of the town, with the last three departures leading to the closure of Albinen's school, according to Swiss news agency ATS.

 Airbnb

But, it wasn't a dramatic decrease in the number of residents or anything  the town's highest ever number of inhabitants on record was 380, back in 1900. So not really a thriving neighbourhood. No wonder they have to pay people to move there.

The town's Mayor said, Second homes and large residential complexes of investor groups are out of the question. Anyone who moves away again ten years after the start of construction or after buying the house must repay the money.

 Switzerland Tourism

In a best-case scenario, even the village school will reopen, he added.

Well, the rules are kind of strict, but basically if you just want to leave everything behind and start over in a new place, here's your once in a lifetime chance. What are you waiting for?
By PTI: (Eds: Updating toll)

By Youssra El-Sharkawy

Cairo, Nov 24 (PTI) At least 200 worshippers were killed and 130 others injured when heavily-armed militants struck a mosque during Friday prayers in Egypts restive North Sinai region, in the deadliest terror attack in the country.

The militants launched a targeted bomb and gun attack on the al-Rowda mosque in Al-Arish city during the Friday prayers, the state-run MENA news agency reported.

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After the bomb ripped through the mosque, the gunmen on four off-road vehicles opened fire on the worshippers who tried to escape from the site after the explosion, it said.

At least 200 worshippers were killed and 130 others injured in the attack, Ahram Online said.

Pictures from the scene show rows of bloodied victims inside the mosque.

The blasts from improvised explosive devices caused considerable damage to the mosque, the website said.

Speaking to state-run Masriya TV station, Egyptian health ministry spokesman Khalid Mujahid described the incident as a "terrorist attack."

One report said the target appeared to be supporters of the security forces who were praying at the mosque.

Local people are also quoted as saying that followers of Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, regularly gathered at the mosque.

Islamist jihadist groups, including so-called Islamic State (IS), see Sufis as heretics.

About 50 ambulances were rushed to the attack site to shift the injured to hospitals.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack and there is no word yet on what happened to the militants involved. However, it bears the hallmarks of an attack by ISIS, reports said.

There have been regular attacks blamed on militants on the Sinai peninsula since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak, but this is the deadliest assault of its kind.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belonged to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

The Egypt government has announced three days of mourning, even as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi chaired an emergency meeting with officials to review security situation after the deadly attack.

Egypt has witnessed a series of terror attacks this year claiming scores of lives.

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On May 26, gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people and wounding 25 others.

On April 9, two suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services at churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta left 46 people dead. PTI YES AMS KIS AKJ NSA

--- ENDS ---
A friend's destination wedding in Jodhpur had just wrapped up. As guests began to leave, we friends hung around our hotel terrace, enjoying the beautiful view from the top, sipping onto steaming masala chai. Another friend brought out what looked like a bottle of moisturizer with OYO printed on it in bold orange letters and began dabbing the sweet-smelling liquid onto her hand in the pleasant winter sun. I love these complimentary cosmetics, man. Dibs on the pouch. Our host had booked OYO rooms for us and with its well-kept rooms and prompt service, it was just about perfect. The knowledge that our generous host did not have to lose a limb to afford the rooms let us enjoy the wedding guilt-free. Perhaps this is how Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of OYO, has called dibs on a huge section of tourists in the country.

High quality rooms, good service and affordable prices  just the perfect mix to win over a tourist. You'd think that for a company to cater so well to its customers, it must have been an old market player with a legacy of family-run businesses. It's not. The brain behind the company is 24-year-old Ritesh Agarwal who founded the company back in 2013 when he was only 19.

 BCCL

From a regular 17-year-old to the owner of a million-dollar company at the age of 22, Ritesh Agarwal's story is what fantasies are made of. Ritesh was born in a Marwari family in Bissamcuttack, a small town in Odisha. Even as a kid, he yearned to do his own thing. It was this love for entrepreneurial living that led to a 13-year-old Ritesh selling SIM cards.

"As a young kid (growing up in Rayagada in Odisha), I had the aspiration of doing something exceptionally different. A lot of people say if you have limited exposure, you're handicapped. But I got more opportunities when I grew up in that place because as a young kid, more often than not, people would compare you on the basis of age rather than skills," he said at the Odisha Investor Meet in Bengaluru.

Studying for his engineering entrance exams in Kota, Ritesh knew from the start that the conventional was not for him. More than his books, he was excited by the young and enterprising world around him. He would sneak out to Delhi from Kota every weekend to meet entrepreneurs.

 BCCL

At an age when most of us were busy securing admissions into colleges, some of us still confused about the career choices we were making, Ritesh Agarwal decided to listen to his heart. It was now or never. A good idea should never be made to wait.

Much has been talked about the fact that he did not complete his graduation and dropped out of college. Not many know that it was this very fact that made him eligible for the Peter Thiel fellowship, something that, in Ritesh's own admission, proved to be crucial in his journey as an entrepreneur. The acceptance rate is lower than the Ivys, but the catch is that you have to drop out of college,' he reminisced while speaking at the Techcircle Startup 2015 convention. Ritesh was the first Asian resident to have won the fellowship.

In an interview with Economic Times he talks about how the month-long fellowship at Stanford taught him to 'think big'. As part of the fellowship, he also received a grant of $100,000.

 BCCL

In 2011, at the age of 18, he founded Oravel, a platform for booking budget hotels, that later became OYO. How much experience and skill could an 18-year-old have? What he lacked in years, he compensated in experience and research. For months, Ritesh travelled across the northern part of the country, staying in budget hotels himself, doing first-hand research, talking to customers every single day to learn the problems and expectations of his customer base. Those who know him well know of his trademark backpack that he carried everywhere he went, even to investor meetings  it was his home in a bag; he wouldn't know where he would be spending the night each day.

He was spending his savings on room rent staying at bed n breakfast apartments. Not everybody let a young entrepreneur stay for free as part of market research for his venture. Speaking at the Techcircle Startup 2015 convention, Ritesh talked about how that was a huge learning experience for him and he knew he had to stay put despite his diminishing bank balance at that moment. My family was well-off and it's not like they couldn't have helped me, but the problem is if I had picked up the phone, being 18 years old, and told my family 'Guys I'm broke', the first thing they would've told me is to come back home. It was a choice he had to make  it was now or never.

The young man left no stone unturned in understanding the budget hotel industry and it finally, showed results. Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd. was scaled to OYO in 2013.

OYO, which is an acronym for 'On your Own', started with one hotel in Gurgaon in 2013. Today, the company has 8500 hotels in 230 cities across India and has even launched in Malaysia. In just 3 years, OYO has been named as India's largest budget hotel network.

Ritesh's incredible journey can be best understood in his own words: At the age of 19, I was clear about one thing  I did not want to build something that was another business. I wanted to create something that created a real impact. And if I lost, out, I would have great learning [] I will not build something that one thousand people kinda like, I will build something that 5 people will fall in love with.
Were excited to announce that metalbulletin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com.

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The Marlins have reached an agreement with infielder Yadiel Rivera, as Rivera himself announced via his Twitter feed that he is joining the organization. Rivera elected to become a free agent after he was outrighted off the Brewers 40-man roster in late September.

Rivera, 25, was a ninth-round pick for the Brewers in the 2010 amateur draft and he appeared in each of the last three big league seasons, posting just a .434 OPS over 88 career MLB plate appearances. Hitting has never been Riveras calling card, as he owns just a .240/.287/.344 slash line over 3433 career PA in the minors, though he rose to the majors due to his defensive versatility. Rivera has been a shortstop for the bulk of his career but also spent significant time at second and third base.

Miami is already short on infield depth both at the major and minor league levels, and things could get even thinner if trade chips Dee Gordon and Martin Prado are dealt this winter. Rivera will give the Marlins some extra depth at least the Triple-A level, with JT Riddle, Miguel Rojas, and Brian Anderson all in line to get extra duty in the bigs, especially if Gordon and/or Prado are no longer with the club.
Three of the finalists of this years Ghanas Most Beautiful show, Zeinab, Nana and Baaba have said that they are looking for love.

The three of them were speaking on 3FM.

They declared their statuses as single ladies who are ready to mingle.

I am single and expectant, Zeinab disclosed.

While Baaba stressed that she is very very single

Nana also declared her status as single and ready to be snatched.

Zeinab, full name Zeinab Abdul Mumin from the Northern Region was crowned the winner of the 2017 GMB beauty pageant.

For the prize, she took home an amount of GH12,000, a Kia Sportage, a fully sponsored trip to Dubai by Kenya Airways, souvenirs from sponsors and many more mouthwatering prizes.

She was seconded by Central Regions Baaba, full name Helena Baaba Botchway. She won for herself GH 8,000 cedis as well as souvenirs from sponsors.

The third position was grabbed by Dorcas Asante-Afful, also known as Nana from the Western region.

For her part, Nana won GH6,000 as cash prize plus souvienirs from sponsors.

Ghanas Most Beautiful is an annual beauty pageant introduced by TV3 Network.

Themed Redefining beauty to promote national unity, the reality show touches on tradition, culture, elegance and intelligence.
The World Bank Mid-Term Review Mission is currently reviewing Ghana's Public Financial Management Reform Project (PFMRP) in Accra.

The development objective of the PFMRP is to improve the budget management, financial control and reporting of the Government of Ghana.

The $45 million project, which started on May 15, 2015, is expected to be completed by June 30, 2019.

The project will also contribute to enhancing fiscal discipline, strategic allocation of resources and service delivery efficiency, through strengthened systems and procedures and targeted capacity building.

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, speaking at the opening of the week-long mid-term review programme said: 'The immense role of the various components in achieving the set targets pertaining to the entire Public Financial Management Reform agenda and ensuring the full engagement of public finance cannot be overemphasised.

'It is therefore, gratifying to have the World Bank Team here with us today to assess work done so far and to also plan for the future,' the Minister added.

He said the Ministry of Finance sees the PFMRP as a relevant tool to the achievement of fiscal discipline, efficient resource allocation and effective service delivery to the people.

Mr Ofori-Atta said the World Bank Mission would afford Ghana the opportunity to review the progress of the project at mid-term, decide on what had being done well and which aspect needed to be propped-up.

He said the Mission would also offer suggestions on the allocation of the $ 55 million Just-In-Time provision within the project.

'In offering these suggestions regards should be given to the need to target arrears within the budget such as the wage bill and debt management to enable us overcome the challenges in those areas,' the Minister stated.

Mr Henry Kerali, World Bank Regional Director for Africa, based in Accra, commended Ghana for the prudent financial management reforms it had embarked upon through the support of the PFMRP.

He noted that despite the successes chalked in the PFMRP project implementation in Ghana, there was still more room for improvement.

Mr Donald Mpande, the World Bank's Task Team Lead for the PFMRP, lauded the role of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) in the implementation of the PFMRP.

Dr Mohammed Sani Abdulai, Project Director, PFMRP, said so far, $21 million (49 per cent) of the PFMRP fund had been disbursed.

Dr Abdulai said the PFMRP sought to achieve improvement in budget management, financial control and reporting of the Government with the aim of enhancing fiscal discipline, strategic allocation of resources and service delivery efficiency, through strengthened systems and procedures and targeted capacity building.

He said the major challenge in the implementation of the PFMRP project was getting the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) connectivity across the nation.

The PFMRP comprised of four components; the objective of component one is to enhance budget component, to improve budget management and strengthen credibility of the national budget.

The objective of component two, public financial management systems and control component is to support the design, development, implementation and coverage of the Government's public financial management (PFM) systems and control; while the objective of component three is to reinforcing financial oversight and accountability.

Some of the projects under the PFMRP include the GIFMIS at the Controller and Accountant General's Department, the Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) of the Public Services Commission and the Audit Managing Information System of the Audit Service.

GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA
A group of Indian farmers say they woke up shocked to find that the train they were travelling on had sped 160km (99 miles) in the "wrong direction".

About 1,500 farmers were travelling overnight to the western state of Maharashtra after taking part in a protest rally in Delhi.

But several hours into their journey, the group realised that the chartered train was not following the agreed route.

The railway firm denies the allegation.

The farmers said that the train was due to reach Maharashtra via Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat states, but the route had been changed without their knowledge.

"We started the journey at 10pm on Tuesday and reached Mathura in Uttar Pradesh state past midnight. At around 4am, we realised that the train had reached the central state of Madhya Pradesh, which wasn't on our agreed route," Sagar Shambhushete, who was on the train, told the BBC.

Mr Shambhushete said they stopped the train and started protesting at a small station called Banmore in Madhya Pradesh.

"Our lives were at risk. The train was on a wrong route, an accident could have happened. We agreed to get back on the train after the railway authorities promised us that we were safe," he said.

But railway officials say the farmers' safety was never at risk.

"Special trains are run through a route which is conveniently available to the railway operation. The passengers might have felt confused because of the different route used in their return journey. There was no negligence and diversion," the railways said in a statement.

But this is not the only time Indian trains have ended up at unexpected destinations. Here are a few more instances. The engine that ran away

One railway engine made a break for it in the southern Indian state of Karnataka last week and managed to make it 13km (eight miles) before its panicked driver, who had been chasing it on a motorcycle, finally caught up with it.

Newspaper reports said that the "dramatic chase" ended when the train, which had been moving at a speed of about 30km/h finally slowed down.

It is unclear how the train started moving on its own, but reports said it had been uncoupled from a passenger train and had been stationary on the tracks when the driver got off. Fortunately an accident was averted thanks to quick thinking officials who notified stations ahead to stop trains coming in the opposite direction.

An inquiry has been ordered into the incident. Holy shock

A group of about 1,000 furious pilgrims, who were travelling to the northern Indian city of Varanasi from the southern city of Tirupati in 2011, suddenly found themselves at a station 260km away from where they were supposed to be.

Railway officials were only alerted to the error when the passengers stormed the station master's office in Kazipet in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, demanding an explanation.

The train was routed back to Vijayawada, where the mistake had taken place, so that it could be rerouted to its original path.

Passengers said that although the journey had been "harrowing" they were relieved that the train route was corrected, and they did not collide with any other trains while travelling for so long in the wrong direction.
By PTI: By Youssra EL-Sharkawy

Cairo, Nov 24 (PTI) A bomb explosion during Friday prayers near a mosque in the Egypts restive North Sinai injured at least 75 people, police said.

The bomb was planted near al-Rowda mosque in Al-Arish and went off during prayers.

The gunmen opened fire on worshippers during the Friday prayers and also on the people fleeing out from the mosque after the explosion, the sources said.

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Khaled Megahed, Health Ministry spokesperson said that 75 people were injured during the attack.

However, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Egypts North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January, 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belong to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip. PTI YES AMS AKJ AMS

--- ENDS ---
Member of Parliament for Bongo is alleging the much touted committee set up to investigate the BOST oil contamination saga never met.

Edward Bawa is convinced there is no report to submit despite promises by the Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko to submit same.

Speaking to Joy News Emefa Apawu Thursday, Mr Bawa said he will soon table a motion before Parliament to demand the elusive report from the Minister.

The eight member committee was set up in June to investigate the circumstances under which 5 million litres of oil was contaminated.

The committee which is made up of representatives from the National Petroleum Authority, Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, Tema Oil Refinery, Ghana Standards Authority, had terms of reference to, among others;

Determine the circumstances that created the off-spec product

Review the procedures undertaken by BOST to evacuate the product

Ascertain the quality and remaining quantity of the product

Determine if the product can be corrected, if not determine the alternative use for the product.

The committee was given at least two weeks to conclude its investigations and counsel the Minister on the next line of action.

It has been five months since the committee was constituted and the report is yet to be made public.

The Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko told Parliament Thursday, the committee set up to investigate the BOST fuel contamination saga is almost ready with its report.

BOST workers demonstrating during oil contamination saga

He said the government will soon issue a white paper on the report which will be made available to the public. He also noted the interim measures put in place to forestall future fuel contamination has helped to sanitise the system.

The report will not be a national secret to be protected. It will be a document that should instruct and inform all of us on how we conduct ourselves going forward, he said.

But the Minority is suspecting foul play. Bongo MP Edward Bawa said he is convinced the committee never met and has no report to issue.

From day one we knew the committee was a cover up. The committee was set up on July 4 and was given two weeks to do their work. Today is 23rd November," he stated.

He said given the delay in the release of the report he took steps to investigate if indeed the committee was meeting.

Edward Bawa

My information was that the committee was not meeting, he claimed, a development which prompted him to file a question on the floor of Parliament.

He said in the spirit of transparency he pinned the energy minister to provide details on when the report will be given but has yet to be given any credible

If they never met of course there will be no report, he stated, adding I know they didnt meet and there is no report.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah
The Minority in Parliament has predicted a collapse of the countrys Senior High School (SHS) education in five years if the challenges plaguing the sector under the free SHS policy is not fixed.

They say the challenges bedeviling SHS education under Akufo-Addo's flagship Free SHS policy are overwhelming and will cripple the schools soon.

Contributing to a debate on the floor of parliament on the 2018 budget statement, former Deputy Education Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said the 1.8 billion provision made for the policy in the 2018 budget is inadequate.

In 2018, we are talking about four terms, and yet you have provided for only 1.13 billion for free SHS; woefully inadequate.

"But Mr Speaker, what is more even troubling is that the whole of Ghana was expecting that the Budget under education would come with a Marshal Plan; a rescue package for the disaster, which this country is grappling with," he said.

Related: Free SHS challenges: Klo-Agogo students packed like sardines in dormitories

In September this year, government rolled out its lead campaign promise during the 2016 campaign.

A little over two months after the implementation of the policy, there has been a number of challenges being recorded at some of the schools.

Even though the free SHS policy increased school enrolment in all Schools across the country it came with its attendant infrastructural challenges.

Citing examples from various publications, the North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa mentioned the Majority leader as well as a leading member of the NPP, Dr Amoako Tuffuor as having complained about the challenges being faced by some students and school heads.

Related: SEND-Ghana takes on govt over unsustainable Free SHS funding

The Director of Ghana Education Service (GES) Prof. Opoku Amankwa, who is currently on a tour said This is the verdict, Free SHS faces serious challenge, the MP said.

But Deputy Education Minister, Dr Yaw Adutwum, has dismissed the Minority's concerns insisting the policy is working just fine.

He said page 143 of this budget statement, introduced Ghanaians to the Akufo-Addos Programme for Economic Transformation which will make the country better.

Deputy Education Minister, Dr Yaw Adutwum

Dr Yaw Adutwum said he is encouraged that Mr Ablakwa said the children were learning under challenging circumstance which is better than no learning at all.

Id rather have the children learning under trees than walking the streets and selling dog chains.

I would have rather have children eating under trees than going hungry Free SHS has become a reality and now the naysayers are coming out of the woodworks to attack the programme," he said.

According to him, free secondary education is a game changer to the country's industries which will turn around the fortunes of the country.

Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline.com |Abubakar Ibrahim |[email protected]
24.11.2017 LISTEN

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has begun a month-long tax education campaign in Tamale to create awareness on the need for all to honour their tax obligations.

The exercise, which began on Wednesday, is also to help widen the tax net and increase tax compliance in the areas of registration, filing of tax returns, and payment of taxes due for increased revenue to undertake development.

As part of the exercise, staffs of GRA have been deployed to the Tamale Central Business District amongst other business facilities in the metropolis to educate operators on the need to honour their tax obligations as well as register others to pay tax.

Mr Harruna Sachibu, Head of Tamale Medium Tax Office of GRA, who gave details of the exercise, warned those operating underground that the GRA would go all out to fish them out and invoke as well as impose the necessary penalties on them.

Statistics shows that out of the four million taxable populations, only two million honour their tax obligations.

Mr Sachibu said 'This situation is not only unfair but also against the directive principle of state policy of the Constitution, which requires every citizen to declare their income honestly and satisfy all tax obligations.'

He, therefore, appeals to all liable to pay taxes or from whom taxes were withheld at source by employers or agents through payroll deductions to collect Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN) to pay tax.

He said per the Revenue Administration Act, without TIN, 'One cannot carry out activities such as clearing goods in commercial quantities from the port or factory, registering any title to land, interest in land or any document affecting land, obtain tax clearance certificate, receive payment from the Controller and Accountant General or district assemblies.

He advised business operators to voluntarily register their operations to pay the due taxes to avoid penalties.

GNA

By Albert Futukpor, GNA
24.11.2017 LISTEN

Kenyasi, (B/A), Nov 23, GNA - Africa is one of the four operating regions of Newmont Mining Corporation, the world's second leading gold mining company.

Newmont Ahafo Mine, located at Kenyasi in the Asutifi North District of Brong-Ahafo Region is one of the gold mining operations of Newmont Ghana Gold Limited (NGGL).

Active mining began at Ahafo in June 2006, after the company had successfully resettled. Reserves stood at 9.3 million gold equivalent ounces as at December 2015 and in October 2016, the mine produced its 5,000,000th ounces of gold.

The Mine's operations affected 10 communities - Kenyasi number one, Kenyasi number two, Gyedu, Ntotroso and Wamahinso in Asutifi North as well as Terchire, Susuanso, Yamfo, Adrobaa and Afirisipakrom in the Tano North District.

At its plant site, the Ahafo Mine operates four open pits - surface mining and it's currently studying potential growth projects.

The Ghana Chamber of Mines named the Ahafo Mine as Ghana's mining company of the year in 2016.

As the Mine goes underground in June this year at its Subika Pit, it adds 150,000 to 200,000 ounces of gold to the company's annual production.

Currently, the Mine is producing between 315,000 and 345,000 ounces of gold annually, and production is expected to jump to around 550,000 and 600,000 ounces by 2018.

Close to US$200 million dollars was spent in the construction and development of the Subika underground pit, and commercial production at the pit is expected to commence by the second half of 2018.

Economic and Social Performance

In 2016, the Ahafo Mine generated US$1.03 billion proceeds and paid US$78 million, which is US$36 million and US$42 million dollars as royalties and taxes respectively to the government, while it spent US$363 million in the Ghanaian economy.

Providing jobs, paying taxes and royalties, sourcing with local businesses, investing in community programmes and infrastructure, and fostering mutually beneficial relationships remain crucial for the company's long term success and ability to be a catalyst for sustainable socio-economic development.

'Our ability to explore for, develop and operate mines near communities depends on our ability to do so in a manner that creates social and economic benefits in the surrounding communities', says Mr. Daniel Egya-Mensah, the Acting General Manager of the Ahafo Mine.

He said the company is committed to strong and good corporate governance, multi-stakeholder engagement, and transparency around payments to local and central governments in order to increase accountability, develop trust, create mutual value and reduce corruption.

'The jobs we generate, goods and services we procure, investments we make in community programmes and infrastructure, and taxes and royalties we pay to central and local governments can help catalyse socio-economic development, support essential government services and programmes, and raise the standard of living in host communities', Mr. Egya-Mensah added.

Local Content

In the mining sector, hiring and sourcing from local suppliers benefits host communities in many ways including reduced poverty, improved skills and the opportunity to achieve long-term growth and economic diversification.

Aligning local and indigenous employment with broader global inclusion and diversify strategy is a significant area of focus of the Ahafo Mine.

To that effect, at the end of 2016, local community members represented 39.2 per cent at the Ahafo Mine's total workforce (inclusive of contractors).

The mine's apprenticeship programme also offers skills, mechanical and electrical specialist training and graduates of the programme are offered employment in variety of roles including process operators, specialised trades and maintenance.

Out of a total of 182 graduates, since the programme began in 2005, the mine currently employs 128 of them.

Community Investments

The Ahafo Mine works with host communities to invest in education, health, local economic development, infrastructure improvements and capacity development programme.

These investments, is in diverse ways helping to address challenges, catalyse long-term development and minimise dependency on the mine during operations and closure.

In addition to direct investments, the Mine's operations make toward community infrastructure and social programmes, operations at the Ahafo Mine has established community foundation- the Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation (NADeF) that supports the community needs during the Mine's life and after operation had ceased.

NADeF remains the Company's flagship social responsibility fund set up to support development projects in the 10 communities affected by the Mine's operations.

The Mine has set aside US$1 per ounce of gold sold and one per cent of annual net profit to be channeled into the Foundation for sustainable development projects in the 10 host communities.

According to Mr. Kwame Agbeko Azumah, the Manager, Communications and External Relations of the Mine, last year the Mine contributed approximately US$935,000 to the NADeF.

The total contribution of the Company into the Foundation stands at US$24.5 million, since it was established in 2007.

Last year, NADeF in partnership with the Bright Generations Foundation established a bamboo bicycle manufacturing facility at Gyedu to train and employ the youth from Gyedu and Ntotroso.

The facility is expected to annually produce 375 bamboo bicycle frames for local and international markets.

So far, the mine has invested US$4.08 million in local communities in the country through monetary and in-kind support.

Safety

It is no doubt that the safety of the people and the local communities within the Ahafo Mine remains the Mine's top priority with the right to life and right to safe working conditions.

Mining involves hazards that include; working with mobile equipment, heavy machinery, explosives and electrical systems.

The Ahafo mine, however, strongly believe it is possible to effectively manage the risks associated with these hazards so that every employee returns home safe at the end of the day.

Its Health and Safety Policy details are commitment to protecting workers, business partners and visitors as well.

Critical to the company's efforts at preventing fatalities and serious injuries are rigour and discipline around identifying those risks that can lead to fatalities or serious injuries and implementing the appropriate systems, processes and controls.

To achieve its goals, the Mine focuses on fatality prevention, employee engagements and leadership and according to its 2016 Africa Sustainability Report, no fatalities has occurred at the Ahafo site since 2015.

'Our global Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR) of 0.32 remained unchanged compared to 2015.While this performance was among the best of all International Council of Mining and Metals (ICMM) member companies, we did not achieve our goal to reduce the rate by another 10 percent', the report added.

Besides, the Ahafo mine, has implemented several initiatives to engage employees and business partners in adopting safety standards and systems.

These initiatives contribute to the company's impressive safety records and journey towards its ultimate goal of zero harm.

Consequently, last year, the Minerals Commission voted the Ahafo mine operation as one of the safest Mine's in Ghana for the second consecutive year.

Environment

The Ahafo Mine currently adheres to the highest standards of internationally acceptable environmental best practices.

Its employees and business partners abide by standards that protect both human and the environment in which the Company operates.

The Mine has reclamation plans in place and is implementing concurrent reclamation to restore previously mined areas.

According to Mr. Derek Boateng, Senior Manager, Sustainability and External Affairs of the Mine, 125 hectares of land had so far been reclaimed with Odum, Oframa, Mahogany and other tree species since 2007.

The mine's operations also rely on access to water sources. With populations growing and climate change impacting the predictability of water suppliers, the company's water risks are becoming increasingly broad and complex.

In fact, the right to clean drinking water is one of the salient human rights abuses associated with mining.

The mine's commitment to create a positive water stewardship legacy is stated in its Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement Policy and guiding its approach to fulfilling this commitment is the company's Management Standard, which sets the minimum requirement to proactively plan, manage and monitor risks and performance throughout the Mine's life cycle to protect human health, environment and water resources.

In 2016 operations, the Mine continued work on the construction of a Reverse Osmosis (RO) water treatment plant and are working with the Environmental Protection Agency on permitting approvals.

To ensure water discharged from RO plant meets all standards, the Company intends to construct an additional treatment train - a sequence of treatment processes - for the brine from the RO.

The Mine has also built small potable water systems and formed Water and Sanitation Committee (WATSAN) - composed of trained committee members to develop the knowledge needed for community members to ultimately and independently manage their water systems.

In 2010, work started on the Kenyasi Water Project - an expansion and integration of water systems and today, there are three water systems serving the more than 50,000 residents, and activity is expected to continue with additional boreholes and construction of new overhead reservoir.

GNA
Bolgatanga, Nov 23, GNA - Established as a community owned financial institution in 1996 in the Upper East Region, the Builsa Community Bank Ltd (Bucobank) currently has four branches.

The branches are found in Sandema in the Builsa North as the Head Office, the Bolgatanga Municipal, Fumbisi in the Builsa South and Mampurugu-Moaduri Northern region.

The Bank which is regulated by the Bank of Ghana and supervised by the ARB Apex Bank Ltd has more than 1,000 shareholders made up of individuals, groups and associations.

The Bank is one of the rural and community Banks in the country that has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that it is committed to economic empowerment of women.

It is currently supporting over 30,000 women beneficiaries under its 'Credit with Education Scheme' to undertake small income earning activities in its operational areas.

INTERVENTIONS

Throwing more light on 'the economic empowerment women model' initiative introduced by the Bank, the General Manager of the Bank, Alhaji Awudu Hayatudeen, explained that the Bank in collaboration with UNICEF implemented the Credit with Education Scheme that targets small income earners.

The partnership helped in providing micro loans to women groups as well as educating them on health, nutrition, sanitation, and business among others. The financial support has greatly aided in transforming the lives of more than 20,000 women. The education aspect of the intervention also helped in the eradication of malnutrition of children in the Districts.

Also, under the 'Susu Deposit' linked with Micro insurance scheme recently introduced by the bank, about 2,000 women within the catchments of the Bank are benefitting from the product which has empowered majority of the women in these women's groups to engage in petty trading such as kenkey selling, vegetables, parboiling of rice among others to fend for themselves and their families.

Additionally, through the support for 'Women in Agriculture component', more than 7,000 women are currently benefitting from the product which had empowered many of the smallholder women to undertake farming activities in the areas of rice, maize and groundnut farming including animal rearing.

Another significant milestone adopted by the Bank to economically empower the women groups is in the area of capacity building training.

Literature from the Bank made available to the Ghana News Agency revealed that more than 10,000 women have been trained in their income and economic generating activities thereby boosting their economic status.

TESTIMONIES

Speaking to some of the leaders of the beneficiary women groups, they confirmed the gains made by associating with the Bank and indicated that apart from the financial support received from the Bank, they had received series of trainings including; capacity building from the Bank and its partners.

Madam Agnes Atayila, one of the leaders of the Women groups in Bolgatanga, mentioned some of the training components she and her group received to include; Basic record keeping, Financial Management, Good agronomic practices, Cash Flow Management, Security and Risk Management and Health and Nutrition.

Madam Atayaila stated that the outcome of the interventions particularly in the areas of capacity building had led to the economic growth of many of the women in the groups. Areas such as small and medium scale enterprises, vibrant formation of more economically active women groups, increase in the recovery of loans and advances to more women groups and increase in women participation in agribusinesses within the Bank's catchment areas.

The training component had also helped Improve the business knowledge and expertise of the women groups, increased the confidence of the groups in the banking system which has reduced the high rate of women who did not save with Banks generally in the catchment area. It has further empowered the groups in basic record keeping of their business which has helped in the management and sustainability of the groups businesses.

According to madam Atayela 'Unlike before, many of the women who have been supported to set up their own small and medium scale enterprises can now settle the medical bills and school fees of their children even up to the Senior High and Tertiary levels.

Madam Atayela who is a nutritionist, said Food security in most households of most of the women groups have improved because 'many of us can now use part of the profit we make from our businesses to buy foodstuff to supplement what we harvest during the rainy season which has improved our nutritional status'.

The General Manager of the Bank told the GNA that the Bank and its partners deliberately empowered the women economically instead of men, because they believe that if women are economically empowered, it would trickle down more at the household levels to benefit entire families particularly children and women.

He noted that apart from the Bank initiating some interventions to economically empower women, it has also introduced considerable numbers of innovations that makes it unique from other Rural and Community Banks in the Northern sector in particular and the country in general.

The Bank, he noted, since its inception has provided its clients with customised and easily accessible banking products and services.

'It is the first Rural and Community Bank to computerise its operations in the three regions of the north since 2010. The Bank has since leveraged on this technological platform to provide timely solutions that has been the major turnaround for the businesses of our clientele' he stressed.

He indicated that the Bank is currently the market leader in the Upper East Region with regards to the provision of e-zwich biometric card banking solutions and also has recently invested in ATM devices with the objective of providing 24 hour banking services to its cherished clients.

INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The Bank has also introduced a Mobile App solution called U-Connect. The App is available on Google and Apple Store and it offers customers the opportunity to check their balances, make transfers to other RCBs and other Commercial Banks, Bills Payment (Light Bills, Water Bills, DSTV, GoTV etc), and the purchasing of airtime across all mobile communication networks.

In conclusion, while commending the efforts of the Builsa Community Bank Ltd (Bucobank) for initiating the number of interventions to empower women economically, there is the urgent need for other Rural and Community Banks to follow up to help empower more women to reduce poverty and hunger.

When this is effectively done, the ripplling effects on sustained livelihoods and improved living conditions of many rural dwellers would significantly meet targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals.

GNA
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the French Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Francois Pujolas have jointly climaxed the week-long celebration of the Alliance Francaise's (AF) of Accra 60th anniversary.

A statement issued by the France Embassy and copied to the Ghana News Agency said President Akufo-Addo paid tribute to the institution, saying 'I would like to thank the institute (AF) for the inestimable role that it has played in the advancement of the learning of the French language and the appreciation of French culture in Ghana [] Our objective is to one day witness a Ghana where at least all the educated fluently speak both English and French and a population familiar with the French language'.

Mr Pujolas said: 'This year is highly significant in the strengthening of France's ties with Ghana because it also marks the celebration of 60years of diplomatic relations with this country, a relationship in which the Alliance FranAaise of Accra plays a crucial role'.

The statement said as the cultural branch of the French Embassy, the AF is a member of the 'France in Ghana' network that is made of seven agencies and institutions working on a daily basis with the French Embassy to foster closer bilateral ties with Ghana.

For his part, Mr FrAdAric Dart, Director of Alliance FranAaise, was full of gratitude, acknowledging the role played by past administrative boards, the French embassy, the Alliance FranAaise foundation, the teaching and non-teaching staff, partners, students and the general public, all of whom have in diverse ways contributed to this landmark achievement.

In conformity with its mission, the Alliance FranAaise (AF) of Accra, through its various services, has for 60 years been bridging the linguistic gap between Ghana and France, as well as other Francophone countries.

Founded in 1957, the Alliance FranAaise is an independent, non-profit association that is regulated by local law and based upon the initiative of civil society to exchange cultural and linguistic values.

The institution has over the years become one of the pioneers of the promotion of cultural diversity in Accra namely through cultural exchange initiatives which have immensely benefited both sides of the Franco-Ghanaian cultural divide.

The AF is part of an international network composed of 835 centres in 136 countries that are world-renowned for the quality of their French courses.

As an established leader in teaching French as a foreign language, the centre offers tailor-made training for all levels.

At the cultural level, the AF of Accra often holds events inviting young people to thrust themselves into the artistic limelight with their talents.

With about 85 events a year, welcoming more than 30,000 visitors, it remains one of the major cultural and artistic venues in Accra.

During this week of festivities running from 11th to 18th November, the Alliance FranAaise of Accra organised a number of activities reflecting its central theme: concerts, a fashion show, a food fair, quiz games, all with lots of prizes and giveaways.

These functions were largely attended by students, former students, clients, partners, musicians, ambassadors, state representatives, spectators and people from all walks of life. GNA
24.11.2017 LISTEN

The Pathologist Dr Lawrence Adusei, who conducted the autopsy on Major Maxwell Adam Mahatma's body has filed the autopsy report at the court registry.

The pathologist had at the last sitting blamed the police for the late releases of the report.

When the case was called on Thursday the presiding magistrate of the Accra Central District Court Mr Ebenezer Kweku Ansah informed the Prosecution that the report had been filed at the registry.

The Prosecution led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Mr George Amegah prayed the court to furnish his team with the report to allow them forward same to the Attorney General's office for advice.

The court then ordered same and adjourned the case to December 12.

At the previous sitting, the, Dr Adusei told the court that the police had made his work difficult hence the late release of the report, five months after the incident.

He told the court that the police had failed to provide all the adequate information required to facilitate his work and that investigators failed to meet him to furnish him with certain important information.

Major Mahama was on duty at Dankyira-Obuasi when on May 29, where he was lynched by some residents, who allegedly mistook him for an armed robber because he had a pistol in his back pocket.

The mob ignored his consistent plea that, he was an officer of the Ghana Armed Forces.

GNA

By Hafsa Obeng, GNA
24.11.2017 LISTEN

Bolgatanga, Nov 23, GNA - It is unfortunate but true that the three regions of the North continue to experience food insecurity and malnutrition. The Upper East Region for instance, remains the region with the highest proportion of food insecurity where 27 per cent of households are at risk of hunger according to World Food Programme 2015 report.

People in many communities in the region cannot afford three square meals, a day and children are the worst affected. Apart from food inadequacy, food combination is also a major concern.

Farmers are therefore relying heavily on one cropping season to produce food for the whole year. Farming is no more lucrative due to decreasing soil fertility and erratic rainfall pattern that seems never to please the farmer. The lack of resources for farmers to do large scale farming, coupled with the use of unapproved methods of farming largely account for the low yields - the effect of which are food insecurity and hunger.

Amidst these challenges, Ghana is expected to meet the Sustainable Development Goal two which aims at ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture. For this Goal, the country has targets to ensure that there is no hunger by 2030.

Planting for food and jobs

It is against this backdrop that the 'Planting for food and jobs' initiative started by the government this year, has restored the lost hopes of farmers in the Upper East region and the country at large. The initiative aims at increasing agriculture yields and ensuring sustainable supply of food at cheaper costs while creating jobs for Ghanaians.

Under the programme, farmers are being supported with improved seeds and fertilizers to help transform the country's agriculture sector. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo who launched the programme was optimistic that it will increase food production. The initiative will, in the long term, contribute to ending hunger and help Ghana to achieve SDG two.

Fall Armyworm invasion

However, the success of planting for food and jobs programme this farming season is threatened by the invasion of the Fall Armyworm. According to the Upper East Regional Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Officer, Mr Patrick Yensingit, over 11,000 hectares of farmlands in the region were affected by the pest but the harm it did was not enough to badly affect yield as the crops recovered well enough to produce a good yield.

Some farmers in the region said although the Fall Armyworm's havoc on crops and a short dry spell made them fear losing a lot of produce, the 'planting for food and jobs' programme could be a solution to reducing hunger in the Upper East Region this year.

The 1996 National Best Farmer, Mr George Stanley Alokodongo, who is also from the Upper East Region shares the same view, 'We would have had about 98 percent production, but the armyworm we might reduce the yield to about 90 or 85 per cent, regardless, we will still make a good harvest'

The 2016 Second National Best farmer, Mr Ariku Martin Akudugu, based in the Binduri District who also sounded optimistic said the region may record a good harvest irrespective of the erratic rainfall pattern.

Storage Facilities

One of the many factors that contribute to food insecurity is lack of storage facilities. Most farmers in the region resort to storing their farm produce in bans, and other traditional methods that expose their foodstuffs to pests.

It is against this backdrop that the planting for food and jobs programme, promised to construct 1,000 metric tonnes capacity warehouses in each of the 216 districts of the country. At the time of filing this report no single warehouse has been constructed in the Upper East Region. Farmers bemoan that the unavailability of enough storage facilities could contribute to post-harvest loses in the area.

'If we don't get very nice storage area then definitely weevils and other insects will attack our produce and we will go back to square one', says Mr George Stanley Alokodongo.

Another farmer, Bruce Akolgo said,'we have to sell most part of our produce as soon as we harvest and that is usually at very low prices because we do not have large storage facilities, so we leave just enough to fill our local barns'

But Ms Safia Yakubu, the Deputy Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in charge of the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme in the Region, said the few existing warehouses will be made available while plans would be made to renovate some abandoned structures that can store food.

Poor road network

The Upper East Region in 2016 recorded over 13,000 tonnes of maize losses being the second region to have recorded the highest post-harvest losses. Among factors that contributed to the losses included poor road networks linking farms to District Capitals in the Region. The Bongo District is one of the Districts in the Region that lack accessible road networks.

The District Chief Executive for Bongo, Mr Peter Ayinbisa, admitted that 'the road network in Bongo is nothing good to write home about and those roads lead to the farmlands. So the road network is going to hinder the transportation of farm produce from wherever they are being cultivated to the District Capital'

According to him plans are far advanced to expand feeder roads in the District to mitigate post-harvest losses.

Available Market

To ensure that farmers earn higher income from their produce, Ms Safia Yakubu, Deputy Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of Upper East Regional Department of Agriculture in charge of the 'Planting for Food and Jobs' Programme, allayed the fears of unavailable markets to consume the farm produce.

She said the Ghana School Feeding programme which promises to use locally produced food is ready to purchase foodstuff from the farmers.

Recommendations

In order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal two through the 'Planting for Food and Jobs' Programme, Government should begin to adopt measures to combat the fall armyworm in years to come, if there are more invasions.

The lack of adequate Agriculture Extension Officers and unavailable logistics to combat the worm also contributed to the destruction of farms by the pests. In this regard Government should consider lifting the ban on employment especially in the Agriculture Sector, while supplying logistics to the sector so that food security can be achieved and sustained.

Available storage facilities should be constructed to meet the demand of farmers in order to prevent post-harvest losses.

Government should provide accessible road networks linking farms to warehouses and market centres as well as ensure the availability of farm start-up capitals to make the agriculture sector attractive to the youth.

GNA
24.11.2017 LISTEN

The Osu Traditional Council will mark the 10 th anniversary of the celebration of the enstoolment of His Majesty D. F. Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, the Osu Mantse and the President of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs.

The celebrations, which is a week-long event, forms part of the initiative of the Council to recognize the tremendous achievements of the Osu Mantse.

A statement from the Traditional Council said ahead of the celebrations to herald a new chapter for the people of Osu, several events have been slated to ensure the active participation of all Ghanaians, who were expected to complement the roles of traditional leaders in the development agenda.

It said the highlights of the landmark event include the launch of His Majesty's Achievements Documentary and Special Awards Night Ceremony to be held at the Banquet Hall, State House - Accra on Wednesday, November 29.

The event is being held under the theme: 'Traditional Leaders, Key Partners in Development', and it will be chaired by Togbe Afede XIV, Agbogbomefia of Asogli Traditional Area and President of the National House of Chiefs.

The statement said in addition to showcasing the achievements of the Osu Mantse, as a key partner in development and also a traditional leader, there would also be the Osu Stool Awards Night with Citations to Honour some entrepreneurs from Osu, private organizations, politicians and indigenes, who have contributed significantly to the development of Osu and the nation.

It said under the reign of Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, the Osu Paramount Area, has witnessed a peaceful kingdom, which has fostered peace and unity for the socio-economic transformation of the Osu community as exemplified in the renovation of the Osu Mantse's White Palace.

It also gave a facelift to the Royal Mausoleum, construction of the Osu Community Library, construction of modern boreholes in four quarters of Kinkawe, Ashante, Alata and Anorhor.

It said Nii Dowuona VI has also taken bold steps to solicit the support of investors to leverage State assets in favour of his people and has also launched the Osu Mantse Community Development Initiative (OMANCODI).

OMANCOD is community-based initiative aimed at supporting the national government in the socio-economic improvement of the Osu State with the focus on Health, Education, Agriculture and Real Estate Development.

The statement said other achievements include the establishment of a Traditional Council, refurbishment of the Osu Mantse Palace and the establishment of the Osu Educational Fund and settling of the 60-year-old chieftaincy dispute in Osu, as well as organizing a befitting burial for five major late chiefs of Osu.

They are Nii Nortey Dowuona III (aka Mantse Nortey Kwashie 1916 - 1931), Mantse Nii Noi Owuo II - 1931 - 1949, Nii Noi Dowuona IV (aka Noi Roman - 1951 - 1962), Nii Narteh Dowuona V - 1963 - 1969; and Mantse Nii Nortei Owuo III - (aka Jonathan - 1970 - 1982).

It said under his reign, the Osu Stool was elevated to Paramount Status on the April, 27, 2012 and this brought Osu to greater prominence in the hierarchy of traditional areas in Ghana, and gave the Osu Traditional Area a greater say in its affairs.

'Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI has since been a Member of the National House of Chiefs,' the statement said.

It said Nii Kinka Dowuona VI received the Distinguished Fellow Award in recognition of his brilliance, leadership and his immense contribution to human, intellectual and cultural freedom and progress and by virtue of this Award, he has become a Member of the Distinguished Scholars of Africa.

He also received several citations including ones presented to him by Commandants, Senior Command and Staff Colleges of Uganda Peoples Defense Forces and Town Keys Storey Wall - Zimbabwe Staff College.

Having successfully completed a Chieftaincy Leadership Conference, the Cambridge Graduate University International, Boston- Massachusetts upon the recommendation of the Faculty, certified Nii Kinka Dowuona VI and awarded him Cambridge Graduate University International and Africa Chieftaincy Transformational Leadership Institute - Global Leaders and Global Impact Certificate.

The Osu Traditional Council, under the leadership of the Paramount Chief, has established a Welfare Fund to assist brilliant but needy children of the community and so far - over one hundred students of both sexes in Senior High School and at the tertiary levels have been beneficiaries.

GNA
The State Transport Corporation (STC) has signed a Local Purchase Order with Sadel, the local representative of Exol Lubricants Limited, United Kingdom, for the supply of lubricants (LDF3) to improve the efficiency of its buses.

The lubricants, manufactured by Exol, are the recommended engine oil for the STC's Scania buses to improve engine efficiency, enhance fuel economy and ensure value for money and optimise the performance of the buses.

Mr Paul Eastwood, the Exports Sales Manager of Exol Lubricants Limited, during an interaction with the technical team of the STC in Accra on Thursday, said the engine oil was specifically manufactured for Scania buses.

He said Exol products would improve the performance of STC Scania buses, prolong engine life span and reduce driver fatigue as well as cost of fuel consumption.

Mr Eastwood noted that the Corporation's products were international brand with low emission and patronised by many developed countries.

Mr John Awuku Dzuazah, the Deputy Managing Director of STC, said the transport firm initially tried 208 litres of the Exol's products two months ago and noticed their efficacy.

Therefore, he said, the Management of STC signed a Local Purchase Order with Sadel for the supply of nine drums of engine oil constituting 8,112 litres.

Mr Dzuazah noted that the testing of Exol's engine oil showed that the Scania buses could further travel a distance of 30,000 kilometres without changing the oil compared to 10,000 kilometres the buses formerly travelled.

In addition, he said, the Exol products could withstand high temperature without losing the quality of the ingredients used in manufacturing.

Mr Glory Bani, the Head of Technical Services at the STC, noted that the STC buses travelled to Senegal, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and other West African countries, therefore they required lubricants that could endure high temperatures and still maintain the viscosity and the ingredients in them.

'The LDF3 is doing well and still need the maintenance of the buses' engines since the frequent changing of oil at every 10,000 kilometres is more costly than 30,000,' he noted.

Mr Bani expressed optimism that the introduction of Exol products would save STC financial resources, which could be used to enhance the efficiency of the firm.

In October 2016, the Management of STC acquired 50 Scania buses to boost its operations and is expected to add more fleet of buses.
When the student's father objected to this draconian diktat, the principal reportedly in a written reply asked him to get his ward admitted to an Islamic school instead.

By Shivendra Srivastava: A missionary school in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district reportedly barred a Muslim student from wearing a headscarf while reasoning that it does not conform to the 'dress code'.

The incident took place in Anand Bhavan School in Nagar Kotwali area.

When the student's father objected to this diktat, school principal Archana Thomas in a written reply asked him to get his daughter admitted to an Islamic school if he can't abide by the rules laid by them.

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She also asked him to not question the school management's decision on this issue. Further, the student was asked not to wear the headscarf to school again.

The letter read, "It is to clarify to you that this is a minority school, but there are many communities in minority category, and one community cannot impose its rules on other communities."

The father of the student concerned, Mohammad R Rizvi, said that as per Islamic tradition, his daughter has to cover her hair after reaching the age of nine. Some reports claim that the student's scarf was also snatched away by the principal.

In addition, Rizvi met the District Magistrate regarding the school's order, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, the school principal clarified that she did not imply that the student concerned should seek admission particularly in an Islamic school.

"It said if they have a problem with the rules, they can admit their child in another school, not necessarily an Islamic school," Thomas said.

With inputs from ANI

--- ENDS ---
Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister of Health, has called on the leadership of the aggrieved staff of the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in the Central Region to use dialogue in resolving the outstanding issues.

He gave the assurance that he was committed to resolving the current impasse at the Psychiatric Hospital and other facilities across the country, adding that dialogue, rather than an industrial strike action, should be the way forward to ensuring amicable solutions to problems.

Mr Agyeman-Manu, whose comments during a media encounter at the Ministry of Information's Meet-the-Press series in Accra on Thursday, said he considered the reports of the Staff of the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital abandoning inmates at the facility, to begin a sit down strike, as unfortunate.

The staff of the facility were said to be furious over the refusal of the Health Minster to sack their Medical Director, Dr Eugene Dordoye, who was allegedly accused of being corrupt and having poor human relations and managerial skills.

To this end an ultimatum was given by the aggrieved staff after they rejected an apology from their boss.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said the leadership of the nurses had been invited for a meeting over the misunderstanding between the two factions, saying, 'This issue is seen as a personality clash but the Ministry will do everything possible to resolve it by Tuesday, November 28, 2017.

'I believe we can resolve these matters, it is not a matter of service conditions issues, it is a matter of personality clash with the Chief Executive of the place, we will meet with them and I believe we can resolve the matter,' he said.

The Sector Minister said the Ministry inherited several challenges, which included the dwindled budget allocation of only three million Ghana cedis to the entire health sector in 2016, leading to huge indebtedness to all psychiatric hospitals across the country.

He said this has, however, been increased currently to 80 million Ghana cedis in 2017 to allow for the settlement of those debts and to ensure quality services, drug availability and improved facilities at the service points.

Mr Agyeman-Manu pleaded with all the agencies under the Ministry to exercise patience and bear a little bit with the Government while things were put in place to address the problems in the health sector.

GNA

By Christabel Addo/Elsie Appiah-Osei, GNA
24.11.2017 LISTEN

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) says, henceforth, all unapproved and prohibited advertisements on the Authority's regulated products should not be aired.

FDA and its stakeholders say offenders who flout the law on alcoholic beverages, orthodox medicine, food supplements, cosmetics, medical device, and household chemicals among others should be punished.

This was in a joint Communique issued by the FDA and stakeholders on Product Advertisement in Accra.

It called for the creation of an intranet between the FDA, the Media and Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) to assess all FDA approved advertisements.

Stakeholders include the Ministry of Health, Ghana Medical Association, Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Consumer Protection Agency, Ghana Police Service, and Advertisers Association of Ghana.

According to the Communique, representatives at the meeting observed that most of those advertisements could directly or indirectly effect on the entire population.

It noted that most advertisements done on radio, television, print, bill board and social media did not conform to provisions of the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851).

FDA and its stakeholders further recommended that the Authority should liaise with the Police and Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to initiate actions for the prosecution of offenders.

Additionally, stakeholders also called for the establishment of special courts to ensure speedy trial of cases.

They stressed that the Chief Justice and the Attorney General should be consulted to facilitate the creation of the courts.

The Communique called for increased collaboration between stakeholders and the public on the need not to publish unauthorised advertisements.

'This will improve public information, education and communication on the law and regulation on advertising.'

The Communique appealed to the public to notify the FDA on any advertisement that violates the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851) through toll free number 0800151000 (Airtel and Vodafone), hotline -0299802932, 0299802933, SMS Short code 4015 to all networks except Glo, and Facebook: Food and Drugs Authority-Gh, with [email protected]

GNA

By Joyce Danso, GNA
24.11.2017 LISTEN

Over 8,000 students of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) will be graduating between 22 nd November to 30 th November on its various campuses throughout the country.

This was contained in a speech delivered by Reverend Professor Father Anthony Afful-Broni, Acting Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University at the initial graduation ceremony of the 22nd Congregation held at Winneba.

Prof Afful-Broni said a total of 4,882 students from eight faculties in Winneba and Ajumako campus who have fully met the graduation requirements will be amongst those graduating during the period.

He said 580 students of the College of Agriculture Education, Manpong-Ashanti will be graduated on 28th November whiles 2,732 students of the College of Technology Education, Kumasi campus would also partake in similar ceremonies on the 29th and 30th November, 2017.

Prof Afful-Broni said the categorization of the awards include 609 post-graduates students representing 7 percent, 6,846 bachelor's degrees representing 84 percent, 685 diplomas representing 8 percent and 54 certificates representing 1 percent of the graduates.

He urged the graduates to make meaningful contributions to Ghana's development agenda in all endeavours they find themselves.

The success they expect to achieve during their career would depend greatly on how they will apply the excellent theories, principles, techniques and skills at their various workplaces, hence the need to cultivate a spirit of determination and enthusiasm to achieve targets.

Prof Emmanuel N. Abakah, UEW Council Chairman, drew the attention of the graduates to social vices undermining the socio-economic, spiritual and culture development of the country and urged them to avoid such acts.

He said such vices include armed robbery, fraud, rape and various forms of vandalism.

'As the Governing Council of UEW, we assure all stakeholders of our commitment to do everything possible within our power to restore normalcy to the university administration', he said.

GNA
Accra, Nov. 13, GNA  The Union of African Shippers' Councils (UASCs) has urged African governments to create congenial environment for businesses to thrive by ensuring transparency of laws, rules and procedures and reduction of administrative constraints in transit trade.

Madam Benonita Bismarck, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Shippers' Authority (GSA), made the appeal at the opening of the Eight African Shippers' Day in Accra, on the theme: ''Trade Facilitation and its Impact on Africa's Industrialisation''.

The event aims at celebrating the efforts and achievements of importers and exporters in propelling trade and development in the West African Sub-region.

It created a platform for key players in international trade and transport chain including shippers, ship owners, port authorities, freight forwarders, customs, multimodal transport operators and other ancillary service providers to deliberate on pressing issues affecting the maritime trade and transport sectors. Participants from 18 African countries took part in the conference including Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso.

Others are Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Central African Republic, Angola and Guinea.

Madam Bismarck said the coming into force of the World Trade Organisation's Trade Facilitation Agreement, this year, had made it obligatory for governments to ensure fairness in border agency decisions, streamline clearance procedures, and reduce administrative constraints.

She said the challenges of the maritime industry were hydra-headed and, therefore, required concerted efforts, collaboration and commitment among key enablers and well-thought out strategies to deal with.

''An appropriate mix of a thriving international trade within a well-tuned economic policy framework will speed up the industrialisation process and consequently, the overall economic development of our countries.

''We are glad to note that the cause of the shippers is gaining currency worldwide as the realisation is dawning on all,'' she said.

She said without shippers there would be no need for merchant ships; therefore, issues affecting maritime industry should have the pride of place in trade facilitation and industrialisation discourse.

Madam Bismarck, therefore, urged the Union of African Shippers Councils to re-invigorate their efforts to adapt to the changing trends in the shipping and logistics sectors and the new threats that shippers face in the unfolding business environment.

Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, the Minister of Trade and Industry, in an address, said there was the urgent need for African countries to facilitate trade, industrialisation and diversify their economies.

He asked African countries to trade among themselves to derive benefits that would boost economic growth and development for the Continent.

African countries should pursue value addition to their exports and systematically reduce import dependency through import substitution, he said.

This, he said, would required structural reforms including trade facilitation measures that eliminate non-tariff barriers, reduce trade costs and ensure competiveness for shippers and manufacturers.

Mr Kyerematen commended importers and exporters who had, over the years, ensured the African Continent's participation in global redistribution of resources and kept their economies running.

GNA

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
A driver who allegedly broke into the house of a broadcast journalist at East Legon and made away with monies and personal effects has appeared before an Accra Circuit Court.

Michael Amock aka Asibi allegedly broke into the house of Barbara Gaisie and has been charged with unlawful entry and stealing.

Amock has pleaded not guilty.

The Court presided over by Mr Emmanuel Essandoh admitted Amock to bail in the sum of GHC8,000.00 with one surety.

The surety, according to the court, should be a public servant earning not less than GHC2,000.00.

The accused person is expected to reappear on November 27.

Prosecuting Francis Tassan said the complainant, Barbara Gaise resides at East Legon while the accused person live at American House.

On November 12, this year, prosecution said the complainant and her house help were out of the house, the accused managed to gain access into the house and forcibly opened a back door and entered the various rooms.

According to prosecution, Amock ransacked the rooms and stole cash in the sum of GHC3,600.00, 500 pounds sterling, and some jewellery all totalling GHC7,100.00.

Chief Inspector Tassan said Amock hid the jewellery in a house owned by one Alex Donkor, a witness in the case.

Prosecution said Amock had told Donkor to watch over the jewellery.

Investigations later led to the arrest of Amock and the jewellery was retrieved.

GNA

By Joyce Danso, GNA
Students from the Cape Coast School for the Deaf have appealed to Parliament to advocate on issues concerning People Living with Disabilities (PLWDs), which they claim have been neglected.

They said critical matters concerning PLWDs had been ignored by the state for years and that their inputs were not sought in the preparation of annual national budgets.

The students made the appeal when they interacted with the media in Parliament during a visit to the House on Thursday.

The visit was to enable the students to have first time exposure to the work of Parliament and advocate for their needs.

The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), a Non Governmental Organisation, sponsored the visit.

The students also urged Parliament to pass a law so that the Sign Language could be taught at the basic level to enable them to communicate with their counterparts.

They complained that most of the text books for the visually impaired students were in print and, therefore, appealed to the Government to convert them into brail.

They said most of the banks did not have interpreters and, as such, found it difficult to transact business with them.

They said most of public places and the roads in the country were not disability friendly.

Mr Fredrick Jojo Kwofie, the Programmes Officer of Youth Bridge Foundation, stated that prior to the trip the students were sensitised on their participation in local governance and helped to understand how the budget was prepared at the local level.

GNA

By Christopher Arko, GNA
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says government is putting in place the necessary policies and programmes to propel the country's ambition of developing beyond aid and promote trade and partnerships.

He said government had rolled out strategic policies to stabilise the macroeconomic environment and would offer assistance to the Danish Business Community that would express interest in investing in Ghana.

He said a 'Ghana beyond Aid' meant mobilising and leveraging domestic savings and revenue transparently, expanding financial inclusion with credit services and financing businesses through the local market using the local currency as well as ensuring transparent and accountable governance.

Vice President Bawumia said this at the Ghana-Denmark Business Conference in Accra on Thursday.

The event formed part of the Danish Queen's visit to Ghana, which attracted more than 90 businessmen and women and captains of industries.

Vice President Bawumia said a 'Ghana beyond Aid; Moving forward Together,' had gained prominence in the country's conversation with her development partners because the Government, led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, would like to change the status quo and mobilise domestic resources to engender growth.

''Ghana would like to build a country using our own resources and management to engineer social and economic growth, however challenging, however daunting, we must start now,'' he said.

Dr Bawumia said the country needed enabling business environment powered by good governance, sound economic policies, solid democratic institutions, rule of law and sound national strategy, which are the tenets of the Nana Addo Akufo-Addo led government.

He called on Ghanaians, home and abroad, to lead investors into the country to ensure sustainable development path.

The Vice President said in spite of government's resolve to depend on domestic resource, it would also partly source overseas aid towards development. Dr Bawumia said Ghana's ambition to develop beyond aid was reiterated by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, in the 2018 Budget and Economic Policy Statement, which demonstrated government's commitment to change the status quo.

The Vice President said financing the Sustainable Development Goals was enormous in view of the low financial inflows, therefore, it would required innovative and integrated policy framework to mobilise financial resources from public, domestic and external sources to implement development programmes.

GNA

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
Our attention has been drawn to a publication making round under the above headline and supposedly curled from Mr Kofi Anokyes speech at the just ended Ghana Property Awards.

We want to say that the angle of the news attributed to the Chairman of Ghana Property Awards isnt an accurate representation of the message conveyed and further shifts focus from the important issues raised in his speech.

According to the writer, Mr Anokye said that Ghanas Real Estate Sector is on the verge of collapse due to competition from foreigners.

We want to say emphatically that there was no point in Kofi Anokyes speech when he said the above. To make readers form their own judgement and also throw more light on the important issues raised to shape the sector, the full speech has been attached.

Acknowledging that many Ghanaian companies in general are struggling to keep pace with their local and foreign counterpart due to the absence of proper internal data system in the said organisations does not in any way imply that the entire construction sector is on the verge of collapse

In spite of the many challenges the sector has faced over the past years, the sector has remained competitive and remains one of the highest employment generators.

As someone with a company registered to build in the US and UK, the 2015 International Socrates Award will be the last person to cry over competition.

Ghanas Real Estate Industry has benefitted tremendously from external competition and collaboration with partners from around the world.

On the contrary, he believes that competition is good for the industry. With a housing deficit close to two million, more hands are needed to reduce the deficit.

If theres any sector resilient enough to stand in hard times, it is the Real Estate Sector because it has countless facets, and therefore no serious company will collapse in the face of competition.

What the sector wants are policies and government interventions that will reduce the cost of building in this country so that the average Ghanaian can get a place to lay his head and also drive employment.

Finally, we will call on our friends in the media to report accurately. We appreciate the role they play in building Ghana but believe that we will be better served if accuracy is placed over speed in the reportage and the needed quest for traffic is managed so that the temptation to be overly sensational is minimized.

Publications like the above have the potential of putting off investors and scaring financial institution from doing business with sector players and must therefore be guarded against

Isaac Kyei Andoh

PA- Kofi Anokye

The Full Speech

"EXPLOITING DATA TO BOND THE BRICK AND MORTAR TRADING"

Hon. Minister of works and housing, distinguished guest, fellow players in the industry, I welcome you all to tonight's awards and the lunching of the 10th anniversary celebration.

Reflecting on the theme for the celebration," exploiting data to bond the brick and mortar trading" couldn't have been chosen any better time than this because most businesses in Ghana are now struggling to withstand competitions both locally and internationally. The solution to this problem can only be found in this theme hence it recommendations.

The 21st century is regarded as the age of information technology and therefore the ability to use data and information in real time has become a key to success of every organization. Due to recent revolution in Internet technologies, the amount of information generated every second is numerous. Today no matter what business one is into, the critical parameter to make rational business decisions is nothing but access to quick information in other for the right business intelligence to be drawn out and our industry is not an exemption to this.

Exploiting the right kind of data for our business intelligence will puts us a little ahead of our competitors wherever we may find ourselves in view of the following advantages we stand to benefit:

1. Removing guess work: Businesses and for that matter our industry is hugely capital intensive and therefore taking business and financial decisions which are based on guess work will be a huge gamble to take as an organization. With the right kind of empirical data gathered with the modern I T system, these pieces of info which is described here as bricks and mortar can help us to eliminate any guess works in our decision making thereby reducing risk ultimately.

2. Gaining valuable insight into customer's behaviour: Customers like we all know are key to every business success. Exceeding customer's expectation is also paramount in the maintenance of profitable customers. To achieve these all important goals mean that businesses need to know and understand their customers in other to satisfy them. Hence effective data on customer's or consumers behaviour is paramount in every business if it is to succeed in today's global market place.

3. Helps to know about business' past, present and future: one of the biggest strength in data collection is to know about the business' stats over a period of time which may include information such as how much pieces of a certain product were sold, at what location the products are in high demands and which customer representative is the most successful. This data for sure will always help organizations to plan and for that matter our industry should not be left out if we are to survive in these turbulent seasons.

As I bring my message to an end, I would like to use the opportunity to draw our attention to the fact that we don't have to give up in our quest to succeed in this industry no matter the hardship. Quitting will not be the best of options available when the going gets tough. We can rather consider mergers with both local and foreign companies if the need be. Please join them if you can't beat them in the competition. You can also consider going public if the need be. But before then the data on your business cannot be compromised in any way because it becomes the mouth piece of the business upon which potential partners will have to listen to before any decision is made as where or not to accept your proposals.

To the government, my personal appeal is that he pays particular attention to the construction industry as a whole if he wants to genuinely reduce the unemployment situation in the country as promised in his campaign message. It is widely known that the rate at which a country is performing economically can be tied to the amount of construction works going on during that period of time. Therefore no country can boast of doing well economically when its construction industry is on a verge of collapse.

We have what it takes to reduce the unemployment situation by the very nature of our business operations. We employ all classes of people from the down trodden to the educated elite and this put our industries a little bit ahead of our colleagues in the other industries when it comes to offering employment. It is therefore our hope that our sector minister will be given the needed support and everything required to see this all important industry grow and make inroads internationally.

To my fellows developers my personal appeal to all is that let's build with the environment in mind first. Let's stop building in waterlogged areas. Let's stop cutting down trees unnecessarily in the name of building houses. Let's plant more trees within the environment we build. Let's all build a green environment which will go a long way to benefit us a people. For the last tree dies with the last man!

Finally to all contestants, I wish you the best of luck in tonight's awards.

Thank you and God bless us all.

Thank you.

Kofi Anokye

CEO of Koans Estate
The Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Mr. Emmanuel Kofi Nti has urged Ghanaians to honour their tax obligations regularly to enable the Government to generate enough revenue to sustain the free SHS policy.

Mr Nti expressed dismay about the way many Ghanaians viewed the activities of revenue collection agencies as nuisance and pointed out that this was rather unfortunate. He said the people should know that the most basic conditions upon which a modern state survives was by the payment and collection of taxes.

Speaking at a tax forum held in Kumasi on Wednesday, 22 November 2017 as part of the GRAs national tax campaign which was recently launched with the theme: "#OURTAXESOURFUTURE", Mr. Kofi Nti stated that, most Ghanaians apparently do not know the essence of paying taxes.

He lamented that many people evaded tax payment through several means such as under-invoicing among others and called for a change of attitude among Ghanaians to help the country to develop fast and also consolidate Free SHS policy.

It is an obligation of every eligible citizen to pay tax for national development and it is a punishable offence to under-declare tax returns he said.

According to Mr Nti, the free Senior High School policy being implemented by President Akufo Addo led NPP government aimed at building a better future for the Ghanaian people particularly, the upcoming generation and therefore appealed to all and sundry to contribute their quota to enable government generate more revenue to sustain the policy

He, therefore, appealed to all Ghanaians to help the Authority to mobilise enough revenue so that government can meet its part of the social contract through the provision of the much-needed infrastructure and other public goods as well as the maintenance of law and order as a prerequisite to carry on their business activities in peace.

He expressed worry over Ashanti Region's low tax revenue contribution to the nation's total tax revenue collection.

"One would have expected that as the region with the second-highest local government economy outside the Greater Accra region, the contribution to tax revenue would follow suit. However, available statistics show that the region's contribution to tax revenue is below four per cent," he said.

For her part, the Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon. Elizabeth Agyemeng urged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to institute measures to deal with illegal tax collectors.
24.11.2017 LISTEN

At its formation in 1963, it used to carry the name Organization of African Unity (OAU) but in the year 2002, the OAU gave way to African Union (AU). Although the AU launched some few changes after the adoption of the new name, the core mission/functions and the structure of the continental body did not undergo any significant transformation. The changes or the transition from OAU to AU, at best, can be described in the context of the proverbial leopard that falls in the stream with its body soaked wet but its spots still stay the same.

Obviously, the AU, like its ancestorOAUis woefully detached from reality. Painstaking dissection of the historical or genetic entrails of the African organization in generalwhether its predecessor or the current AUclearly reveals traces of dictatorial DNA everywhere. It is why the prehistoric label that disdainfully used to describe OAU as dictators club was a fitting description back then as it is true today with AU. Simply put, if there is any difference between OAU and AU, it exists only in the name change.

The leopard never changes its spots no matter how long it stays in water. In a shameful display of its dictatorial traits during an apparent military takeover to take down the dateless dictator Bob Mugabe, the AU led by its current President Mr. Alpha Conde of Guinea berated the Zimbabwean army for disrupting the so-called constitutional order in their country. So in response to the recent politico-military impasse in Zimbabwe, Mr. Conde thinks It is a shame that [President Mugabe] is leaving through the back door and that he is forsaken by the parliament. This is not true; rather, Mugabe has betrayed himself.

Why not back door exit for a liberation leader who has callously turned the once-promising southern African nation into an un-liberated land of penury? Given Zimbabwes sociopolitical or constitutional disorder created by dictator Mugabes misrule, it is hypocritical and disingenuous at this point to worry about which side is appropriate exit door for the shameless 93-year-old former freedom fighter to take into oblivion.

Like many entrenched life presidents still lurking and tormenting African continent, Mugabe doesnt deserve golden parachute to come down to earth in view of the messy mess he has left in Zimbabwe over the years. The AU is unapologetically out of touch with contemporary realities; and as usual, it is tacitly complicit in the dictatorial and blatant human rights abuses in countless African countries.

If the AU sincerely believe in true constitutional order based on the consent of the people, the organization would have long time ago reined in the human rights abusers and the one-party dictators such as Zimbabwes Mugabe, Uganda Museveni, Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, and many others. But all these aforementioned despots are unfortunately full members of AU. This means there are credibility/ethical issues here when the AU raises grave concerns or cries foul whenever there is a military coup against a dictatorial government in Africa. Recent example was the palace revolution that had taken place in dictator Mugabes Animal Farm in Zimbabwe.

Ironically, the AU prides itself as the leading intergovernmental institution in Africa whose primary missions, among others, are To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance and also To promote and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other relevant human rights instrument. (see: AU Charter). Yet, closely looking at the track records of many African leaders/members of the OAU/AU, it is quite daunting a task trying to make a constraining case in favor of the AUs guileless commitments toward a government anchored in genuine constitutional order.

It is an act of shame and self-centeredness for Mr. Conde, president of AU, to lead the pretentious effort as if the Union is unvarnished champion of constitutional democracy in the face of Zimbabwes military uprising. How does the AU promotes democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance and protects human rights and peoples rights? Certainly promoting democratic principles is not done through lip-service or high-sounding abstract concepts, but candid and pragmatic outreach effort. At any rate, AU is not morally credible continental body capable of standing up to the wiles of African dictators and other human rights offenders.

As we speak now, the Equatoguinean dictator Obiang Nguemas police has since September 16, 2017, arrested and detained without charge of a prominent journalist/cartoonist Ramon Esono Ebale. The main reason for the arrest is his critical cartoon depictions of the governments oppressive leadership. But according to many authoritative media sources, the government of Equatorial Guinea has planned to file counterfeiting and money laundering charges against Mr. Ebale in a cynical attempt to undercut any potential argument that dictator Nguema is suppressing freedom of speech. Mr. Nguemas abysmal record is legendary. The crucial question is where is the AU in all these human rights brutalities perpetuated by authoritarians in many African nations?

By virtue of their shared cultural/national backgrounds, African dictators have taken undue advantage of their own people for far too long. The AU scarcely makes any honest and practical effort to curb these human rights atrocities till when the military steps in to try to restore proper constitutional order as playing out in Zimbabwe. It does not matter what anyone says, Zimbabwe is now better off with dictator Mugabe gone than if he were to be around or succeeded in turning his country into a dynasty.

Let it be known that African military establishment has no business staging coup in freely elected constitutional democracies such as Ghana, South Africa, Benin, Botswana, Nigeria, Liberia, Senegal, Mauritius, and few others. If the AU is sincere and not out of touch with realities, the preceding open and competitive democracies are those that need attention and protection against military take-over at all cost. However, if a particular leader assumes political power in his/her country and turns the system into one-party constitutional order as Mr. Mugabe did, then the military has every right to come in to right the sinking ship before returning into barracks. Yes, Africa belongs to Africans, and each countrys armed forces are Africans, too. The Zimbabwe military has done the right thing; maybe it is a wake-up call to Nguema, Biya, Museveni, and many other authoritarian regimes in Africa.

Bernard Asubonteng is United States-based writer; send your comments to: [email protected]
By PTI: Muslim outfits

Lucknow, Nov 24 (PTI) Muslim organisations today reacted sharply to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwats strong pitch for building a Ram Temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, terming it as a direct challenge to the apex court before which the matter wass pending, and demanded action against him.

They also alleged that the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) chief was trying to help the BJP in the upcoming Gujarat elections by diverting the attention of voters from "real" issues with such statements.

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"The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has faith in the judiciary and will try to implement its order... by issuing this statement Mohan Bhagwat has taken law into his hands," the spokesman of the AIMPLB, Maulana Khaild Saifullah Rehmani, said.

He demanded that the government take action against "such people who are openly showing disrespect to the courts and taking law into their hands".

Bhagwat has issued "a one-sided statement that only a temple will be constructed at the site and this is unacceptable to us", Rehmani said, adding this amounts to showing disrespect to the court.

The convenor of Babri Masjid Action Committee and member of the Board, Zafaryab Jilani, alleged that such remarks "challenging" the apex court are a threat to democracy. Jilani, who is also a senior counsel, said that it appears that Bhagwat has tried to help the BJP in the Gujarat Assembly elections through his statement.

"Bhagwat has given an open challenge to the Supreme Court .... As per the Constitution, the apex court is supreme and its orders have to be implemented in the country ...it has asked for maintaining status quo on the site ...through this statement Bhagwat has given a direct challenge to the Supreme Court and this is also a threat for democracy," he said. The spokesman of All India Shia Personal Law Board, Maulana Yasoob Abbas, said "Sangh chief is not above the Supreme Court, he will also have to accept the court verdict". "Despite the issue pending in the court, Mohan Bhagwat has given this statement only to divert the attention of voters in Gujarat from real issues," Abbas said. Addressing the "Dharma Sansad", a congregation of 2,000 Hindu sages, mutt heads and VHP leaders from across the country in Udipi earlier today, Bhagwat said there should be no ambiguity that Ram Temple will be built at Ayodhya. "We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of our faith. It will not change," Bhagwat said.

The RSS chief said that after years of efforts and sacrifice, building the Ram temple seemed possible now, while also noting that the matter was in the court. "Ram Mandir only will be constructed and nothing else. It will be constructed there only," Bhagwat said. He said the temple would be constructed in the same grandeur as it existed before, using the "same stones" under the guidance of those who were the flag-bearers of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement for the last 25 years.

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The Supreme Court will on December 5 commence the final hearing on the cross-appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute.

The high court had ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acre area at Ayodhya among the parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla. PTI SAB RT

--- ENDS ---
A South African appeals court increased paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius' sentence for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to 13 years and five months on Friday.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein more than doubled his original sentence of six years after the state argued that it was unduly lenient.

Pistorius, 31, was not in court for the hearing.

Prosecutors argued earlier this month that Oscar Pistorius failed to show genuine remorse after killing his girlfriend.

"One of the essential ingredients of a balanced sentence is that it must reflect the seriousness of the offence," Andrea Johnson, of the National Prosecution Authority, had told the court.

Pistorius' lawyer Barry Roux mounted a strong defence of the judge who handed down the six-year sentence, saying she took into account his claim that he believed he was shooting an intruder.

The Paralympic athlete shot dead Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013 when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

Pistorius pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014, saying he mistook his girlfriend for a burglar.

He pleaded not guilty at his trial in 2014 and has always denied that he killed Steenkamp in a rage, saying he mistook her for a burglar.

In 2015, Pistorius was found guilty of murder and given less than half of the minimum 15 years in jail for that crime.

Pistorius was originally convicted of culpable homicide -- the equivalent of manslaughter -- but the appeal court upgraded his conviction.

'Justice has been served'

Nazreen Shaik Peremanov, a constitutional law expert at the University of South Africa's law school, told AFP that Pistorius could now appeal the latest sentence at the country's highest court -- the Constitutional Court.

But National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said he was pleased with the Supreme Court's ruling.

"We always maintained as an institution that this appeal is not about an individual. It has got everything to do with the proper administration of justice," he said.

"We hope the family will find closure knowing that justice has been served and the proper sentence has been handed out."

Oscar's brother Carl Pistorius tweeted that he was "Shattered. Heartbroken. Gutted" following the court's ruling.

"We have all suffered incomprehensible loss. The death of Reeva was and still is a great loss for our family too," he wrote.

Previously an ambassador for disabled people worldwide, Pistorius was released from jail in 2015 after serving one year of the initial five-year term for culpable homicide.

He returned behind bars after his conviction for murder.

The year before he killed Steenkamp, Pistorius became the first double-amputee to race at the Olympics when he competed at the London 2012 games.

In a television interview, he said he believed an intruder was in the house and "instant fear" drove him to grab his gun and walk on his stumps towards the bathroom.
Abubakar Atiku

24.11.2017 LISTEN

The former Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku is today one of the most interesting personalities on the Nigerian political pedestal. Interesting because as an elite and a member of the ruling class, a bonafide scion of the status quo, he seems to understand best the concept of enlightened self interest in comparison to the other contemporary members of the same ruling class.

Nigeria is a Capitalist State. The traditional systems, on which many of the ethnic nationalities that comprise Nigeria built their social, economic and political cultures are basically capitalistic in nature, sprinkled with light variations of what Marxist theorists would characterise as Communalism. To this extent, the emerged State, grandfathered by a capitalistic colonial master became essentially a Capitalist one.

But Nigeria's socio - economic and religio - political character that emerged, imbued with and by the traditional and cultural variables of its milieu, when properly dissected, is a perfect study of the crudest genre of Capitalism. Its crude form, as expected and as has been attested to historically in practice and theory, in other climes, is incubating antagonistic forces to its survival. It is nurturing self destructive internal contradictions.

While Capitalism is aimed at creating and accumulating wealth through profit making, it contextually engenders, as a matter of course, some of the ills average Nigerians are worried about and are complaining of today. These ills are encapsulated in the etimology of corruption. A study of this etimology reveals some variables that are conventional and universal in nature. It also reveals some unique characteristics to the Nigerian environment.

However, the ruling class in Nigeria, the primary beneficiary of the subsisting crude capitalism, is exuding dangerous indolence, digging deeper to further the depth of its deadly drony. It is slumbering, snoring sneeringly, in the comfort of incompetence, unperturbed by the searing concomitant degeneracy that is gradually readying to engulf the country.

This is where Abubakar Atiku, a cerebral politician, beneficiary of this crude capitalism, business man, a privileged member of this status quo comes in. He comes in with a clear understanding of this system, with an analytical approach grounded in selflessness imbued with self preservation to which his fellow members of the same class are oblivious.

He comes in with a reformative agenda to save the system from itself and possible collapse. He is not out to change the system and as such could not be characterised as a "revolutionary." But he wants to reform the system, make it more functional, fair, balanced, productive and regenerating of and to the people and all members of it's constituent units.

As a Yoruba Nationalist myself, I am enthused and enthralled by his grasp of the need to foster SELF DETERMINATION as an essential tool to rejuvenate a sense of social, political and economic justice among ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. He is genuinely concerned about the importance of sense of belonging as a basis of and for a renewed belief and faith in the Union of Nigeria.

Abubakar Atiku sees the European Union concept as being practicable in Nigerian context. It allows every ethnic nationality to be in control of its destiny while still being loyal and patriotic to the Nigerian State. He wants a stronger Nigeria built on freedom of individual expressed in the ability of its local community to determine its needs and act accordingly in the larger objective of strengthening Nigeria as a major player in international fora.

His position on RESTRUCTURING is unassailable. He has been on this concept for fourteen going to fifteen years. He is asking Nigeria to go to what brought this country together as negotiated between 1957 and 1959 with Federating Units having a range of autonomy within the Nigerian context with some limited variations. This was the Constitutional arrangement that Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello and Nnamdi Azikiwe agreed on before they proceeded on the 1960 Independence

Atiku believes that this is the quickest way to save Nigeria, move it closer to its peoples, meet their aspirations and make their hopes realizable. He believes this is the best way to meet the urgent need to sanitize this system, cleanse it of the debilitating corruption, make the hospitals work, revitalize the educational system, make the country economically viable and competitive within as well as socially stable.

Atiku is the right leader for today's Nigeria. He is bold, smart and intelligent. He listens and cares. He is selfless and humane. He respects the law and revere the courts. He is urbane and cosmopolitan. He is not shackled by any form of provincialism. He is a man of ideas. He is not a leader that could be held hostage because of limited intellectual endowment. He has a plan to bring Nigeria from the brink.

As a reformer, Atiku is straddling on the theoretical divide between the rulers and the ruled. He is offering hope to the disenfranchised and the disenchanted. At the same time, he is offering salvation to an inert, inept, inapt ruling class with a sense of invulnerability that is at best fake, by trying to reform the system, making it more functional, humane and fair.

The ruling class in Nigeria needs Atiku more than Atiku needs to be President. It would be in their best interest to rally round him in full appreciation of enlightened self interest. The first Law of Nature is self preservation. This is what Atiku is offering them. It would be wise on their part to take it.

Closely intertwined with this is the hopelessness on the Nigerian streets. The disenfranchised are frustrated, hungry and angry. Their impatience is already being permeated with volatility. They are exhausted by and tired of governance by mantra and propaganda. They have no use for further preachment. They want results in concrete terms.

Atiku is the man with the plan to turn things around. His leadership genre - informed, exposed, ready, experienced, competent, stable, fair and balanced - is what Nigeria needs now. His cosmopolitanism guarantees accommodation of all. He would not only bring the country together, he would heal it by putting it on the path of greatness through freedom and self determination of all ethnic nationalities in the context of Nigeria.

Yes, Atiku wants to be President. But Nigeria needs him now more than ever. He has a defined and clear vision. It is a vision from whence every societal stratum could derive a lasting benefit. Nigerians have a choice between total Balkanization of Nigeria with its Historical demise staring us all in the face or self determination of all ethnic nationalities in the context of Nigeria.

It is time to make a choice. It is time to choose Atiku.
Nicknamed "the Crocodile" for his ruthlessness, Emmerson Mnangagwa who took over Friday as Zimbabwe's president, is a hardliner with ties to the military who could prove as authoritarian as his mentor Robert Mugabe.

It was his driving ambition to take over as leader which set off a bitter succession battle with Mugabe's 52-year-old wife Grace, triggering the crisis that toppled the long-serving president, who resigned on Tuesday.

When Mnangagwa was dismissed as vice president by Mugabe on November 6, it initially looked like he'd been outfoxed by the first lady, forcing him to flee the country.

But the situation quickly turned on its head, with his dismissal triggering a military takeover and mass street protests, which ended with Mugabe's ouster and Mnangagwa catapulted to centre stage.

With the nation still reeling from Mugabe's lightning demise, the 75-year-old made a triumphant return home on Wednesday and was sworn in as president on Friday.

Climax of long feud

A former close Mugabe ally, Mnangagwa's initial fall from grace appears to have been engineered by the first lady, who lobbied her husband to back her own political ambitions.

It was the climax of a long feud between the pair over who would replace the ailing and increasingly frail 93-year-old leader.

But Mnangagwa's dismissal alarmed the army, with the generals quickly moving in, staging a military takeover which brought him down within days.

Enraging Grace? Zimbabwe's former first lady was locked in a bitter succession battle with vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa over who would succeed her husband

Mnangagwa's rise to the top comes after decades of experience under Mugabe since Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980.

In the early days, Mugabe appointed Mnangagwa, a young trainee lawyer, as Zimbabwe's first minister for national security.

After that, he held a host of different cabinet positions -- but relations between him and his political mentor were not always easy, and the younger man was no stranger to presidential purges.

In 2004, he lost his post as administrative secretary in the ruling ZANU-PF after being accused of openly angling for the post of vice president.

Violence and intimidation

But it was during the 2008 election that his fortunes really began to change, when he was serving as head of Mugabe's election campaign.

Mugabe lost the first round vote, and Mnangagwa allegedly supervised the wave of violence and intimidation that forced the opposition to pull out of the run-off vote.

In the same year, he took over as head of the Joint Operations Command, a committee of security chiefs which was accused by rights groups of organising violence to crush dissent.

He was targeted by EU and US sanctions imposed on Mugabe and his close allies over the elections and the ensuing violence but was promptly handed control of the powerful defence ministry.

A young fighter

Emmerson Mnangagwa was sacked as vice president on November 6, with Robert Mugabe accusing him of disloyalty

Born in the southwestern Zvishavane district on September 15, 1942, Mnangagwa completed his early education in Zimbabwe before his family relocated to neighbouring Zambia.

His grandfather was a traditional leader and his father a political agitator for the repeal of colonial laws that disadvantaged blacks.

In 1966, Mnangagwa joined the struggle for independence from Britain, becoming one of the young combatants who helped direct the war after undergoing training in China and Egypt.

He was arrested and sentenced to death but his sentence was later commuted to 10 years in prison because of his young age.

After independence in 1980, he directed a brutal crackdown on opposition supporters that claimed thousands of lives in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.

The Gukurahundi massacres remain the biggest scar on his reputation among many Zimbabweans.

He once remarked that he had been taught to "destroy and kill" -- although he later claimed to be a born-again Christian.
The Founder and president of the Concerned Voters Movement (CVM), Mr. Razak Kojo Opoku lauded the National Lottery Authority (NLA) for paying GHC19 million into the consolidated fund.

According to him, the Ministry of Finance confirmed that they have received payment for the money on September 29 2017. I verified it myself on Monday myself at the ministry of finance. The NLA has paid GH19 million into the consolidated fund. We need to commend the NLA and also laud CVM for doing what is right. he stated.

In a statement signed by Mr Razak Opoku also indicated that the NLA has given assurance that the supposed GHC15,000, 000 judgement debt would not be paid to MERLIN Gaming Limited as mentioned earlier. the NLA has assured us fully that they will do anything possible to make sure that they dont commit NLA funds to the Merlin Gaming Ghana Limited. This reason finally made us smoke the peace pipe with them. He added.

He however warned all police officers and NLA regional managers who take bribes from banker to banker operators to refrain from arresting or taking bribes from them adding that the police can cause their arrest based on the approval from the board or the Director General of NLA.

Read Full Statement

Mr. Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, Director-General and the Board of NLA constituted by President Akufo-Addo's Government have done so well within the few months in office to achieve a number of unprecedented reforms and great innovations at the NLA which honestly deserves commendations.

The *Unprecedented Reforms* at the NLA are as follows:

1. *Restoration of the 25% Commission to Lotto Marketing Companies (LMCs)*

Under the able leadership of Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, the Director-General and Board of NLA, the Government has abolished the 7.5% Income Tax on the Commission of the Lotto Marketing Companies. With the removal of the 7.5% Income Tax, Lotto Marketing Companies will now enjoy 25% Commission.

This will significantly improve the conditions of service for the Lotto Marketing Companies.

The restoration of the 25% Commission will equally compete fairly with the 30-35% Commission of the Banker-to-Banker Lottery bearing in mind the reliability and dependability of NLA as Government Institution.

2. *Removal of the 5% Withholding Tax on Lotto Prizes*

The imposition of the 5% Withholding Tax on Lotto Prizes has been totally removed by President Akufo-Addo's Government as contained in the 2018 Budget through the efforts of Kofi Osei-Ameyaw and the Board of NLA.

This laudable initiative will increase the patronage of Lotto Staking from the Lotto Marketing Companies.

3. *Maximizing Revenue for the Government Through the Registration and Licensing of Banker-to-Banker Lottery*

Since the passage into law the National Lotto Act,2006 (Act 722) and Lottery Regulation, 2008 (L.I. 1948), this is the first time since 2006 that the Board and Management of NLA led by Kofi Osei-Ameyaw have decided to *Register and License* the Operators, Agents, Sub-Agents and Writers of Banker-to-Banker Lottery under Public-Private Partnership Agreement so that they can operate legitimately and pay their taxes to Government in order to increase revenue mobilization for Government through Lottery as well as create jobs for people who are interested in Private Lottery.

This laudable initiative will help Government to join forces with the Licensed Banker-to-Banker Lotto Operations to identify and fight against money laundering and recalcitrant ones including foreigners who are doing Banker-to-Banker Lottery in the Country.

4. *Payments into the Consolidated Fund*

Within the few months in office, Kofi Osei-Ameyaw and the Board of NLA have paid over GHC 26 Million into the Consolidated Fund. This is unprecedented compared to the GHC 16 Million which was paid into the Consolidated Fund for the whole 2016.

The *Great Innovations* taking place at the NLA are as follows:

1. *Implementation of NLA owned self-regulated, self-monitored and self-controlled Platform*

As part of measures of maximizing revenue for the Government as well as cementing the 25% Commission to the Lotto Marketing Companies, the NLA will be launching its own Platform.

2. *Implementation of E-Kiosks powered by Solar Energy(Solar Power Systems)*

The 30, 000 modernised lotto kiosks known as *E-Kiosk* introduced by Kofi Osei-Ameyaw and the Board of NLA shall be a multi-purpose centre for the staking of Lotto and serves as the receiving point for the payment of Light Bills, Water Bills, GRA Revenue Collections as well as Banking Transactions.

3. *Creation of over 100, 000 Jobs in the Lottery Business*

As part of the NLA efforts of fulfilling the vision of President Akufo-Addo's Government, Kofi Osei-Ameyaw and the Board of NLA are going to create over 100, 000 jobs for Ghanaians through the following initiative:

a) *Recruitment of District Managers and Supporting Staff* to manage the 216 NLA District Offices across the Country.

b) *Recruitment of over 60, 000 Employees* to work in the NLA E-Kiosks across the Country.

c) *Recruitment of over 30, 000 Security Personnel* to provide security for the NLA E-Kiosks across the Country.

*Conclusion*

Mr. Kofi Osei-Ameyaw and the Board of NLA are really working diligently to change the face of Lottery Business in Ghana through contributing significantly to:

1. Revenue Mobilization

2. Revenue Maximization

3. Jobs Creation

4. All Inclusive with the registration and licensing of Banker-to-Banker Lottery

5. Top-notch delivery of Lottery Services in Ghana.

....Signed....

Razak Kojo Opoku

( Concerned Voters MovementFounder & President)
The youth wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) wishes to congratulate the entire body of Ghanaian students following a successful congress held in Accra today to elect a new set of leaders for National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS).

Particularly, we congratulate the newly elected President, Mr Frank Amoakohene and his newly elected executives.

The success of the congress comes to us as a welcome news because NUGS constitutes a critical ally in our fight for not only fairness and social justice in the leadership of the education sector but also for the creation of equal opportunities for every Ghanaian, regardless of location, tribe or religion. More so, at this critical time in the history of Ghana when our education sector is faced with major policy changes that have resulted in untold suffering on the Ghanaian Student.

The NDC youth wing are of the opinion that the new era in the leadership of NUGS comes with a renewed hope in the resolve of our fellow citizens on our campuses to unite behind a NUGS leadership that will fight for the collective cause of students and the youth of Ghana in general.

Ghana is at the crossroads of growing unemployment and policy impotence. While the government is struggling to give hope to the youth in terms of unemployment, it is also busy destroying our younger siblings at the Senior High School level with an unclear Free SHS policy which is manifesting terrible outcomes for our brothers, sisters and the parents across the country.

While we congratulate the new leadership of NUGS, we encourage them to confront the challenges of our time and be counted when necessary. We also call on the larger student body of Ghana to support their leaders through all the lawful means to realise the dreams of every Ghanaian Student. That includes the need for fellow citizens on our campuses to commend good leadership decisions when the need arises.

Long live Ghana.

Long live Ghana NUGS.

Long live NDC.

Signed:

Kobby Barlon,

Deputy National Youth Organiser, NDC
Sen. Bob Corker, who warned just a month ago that President Trump could be leading the nation toward World War III, said November 14th the time has come for Congress to review the realities of the presidents authority to order a nuclear attack.

To be clear, I would not support changes that could reduce our deterrence of adversaries or reassurance of allies, said Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at the opening of a hearing on the presidents powers to launch a nuclear strike.

But Corker the Tennessee Republican noted that it has been more than 40 years since a congressional committee has reviewed the presidents unchecked powers over the nations nuclear arsenal.

Making the decision to go to war of any sort is a heavy responsibility for our nations elected leaders, Corker said. And the decision to use nuclear weapons is the most consequential of all.

Congress needs to explore the realities of this system, he said.

Asked before the hearing if he was worried about Trump having access to the nations nuclear arsenal, Corker said, This (hearing) is not specific to anybody.

On November 14th hearing comes as Trump continues to trade insults with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and amid concerns by some members of Congress about the executive branchs authority to wage war, particularly with nuclear weapons.

The committee is clearly looking for remedies to ensure that a demented president could not unilaterally start a nuclear conflagration, said Bruce Blair, an expert on nuclear command and control and a research scholar at the Program of Science and Global Security at Princeton University.

As commander-in-chief, the president has the sole authority to order a nuclear a strike. While existing procedures call for the president to consult first with military and civilian leaders, the final decision rests with him.

No one can veto the presidents decision, said Blair, co-founder of Global Zero, an international movement for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Some members of Congress are pushing for a check on the presidents powers, particularly his ability to order a preemptive strike.

Bills filed in January by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., would prohibit the president from launching a preemptive nuclear strike without a declaration of war by Congress. Neither piece of legislation has gained any traction in the Republican-controlled Congress.

But Trumps aggressive approach toward North Korea continues to raise fears that his rhetoric might backfire and further inflame tensions. Trump threatened in August to unleash fire and fury like the world has never seen in response to reports that the communist regime had developed a warhead that could be mounted on a ballistic missile.

In an interview with The New York Times, Corker, Trumps most outspoken Republican critic in Congress, accused the president of undermining diplomacy efforts by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and warned that the presidents actions could set the nation on the path to World War III.

On November 14th hearing, senators were to hear from C. Robert Kehler, a retired Air Force general who served as commander of the United States Strategic Command; Peter D. Feaver, a political science and public policy professor at Duke University; and Brian McKeon, former acting under secretary for policy at the Defense Department.

The hearing is one in a series the committee is holding on war-making and foreign policy. Last month, the panel examined whether its time to update the resolution authorizing the president to order the use of military force in foreign countries.

Corker said afterward that he expects the committee to take up a new military-force authorization resolution fairly soon.

Simultaneously the U.S. government issued a technical alert about cyber attacks it said are sponsored by the North Korean government that have targeted the aerospace, telecommunications and financial industries since 2016.

The alert, from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security , said North Korean hackers were using a type of malware known as FALLCHILL to gain entry to computer systems and compromise network systems.

The FBI and DHS had issued a warning in June that squarely blamed the North Korean government for a raft of cyber attacks stretching back to 2009 targeting media, aerospace and financial sectors, as well as critical infrastructure, in the United States and globally.

Nonembers alert included the publication of IP addresses the FBI said were linked to the hacking campaign and was intended to help private industry guard against the attacks.

The FALLCHILL malware was described as providing hackers with wide latitude to monitor and disrupt infected systems. The malware typically gained access to systems as a file sent via other North Korean malware or when users unknowingly downloaded it by visiting sites compromised by the hackers.

The new alert coincides with increasing tensions between Washington and Pyongyang over North Koreas missile tests. The previous warning, in June, said that North Korea would continue to rely on cyber operations to advance its military and strategic objectives.

North Korea has routinely denied involvement in cyber attacks against other countries.

Is North Korea so reckless in dangerous game with America? Or does the United States need such a scarecrow to show its strength?
Former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken over as Zimbabwe's new leader, ending strongman Robert Mugabe's 37-year reign and the country's worst political crisis since independence.

Here is a snapshot of two weeks of turmoil, from a military takeover to mass street protests and an impeachment bid:

Vice president sacked

November 6: Mugabe fires Mnangagwa in an apparent bid to clear the way for his wife Grace, 52, to take over as president.

But the move angers the military, which has close ties to Mnangagwa.

Army takeover

November 14: In the evening, tanks move towards Harare, with gunfire heard around Mugabe's residence a day after a blunt warning from army chief General Constantino Chiwenga.

By the early hours, military vehicles are on the capital's streets, but the army denies staging a coup, giving a televised address saying the 93-year-old leader is safe and that they are "only targeting criminals around him".

November 15: South Africa says Mugabe has told its president, Jacob Zuma, by telephone that he is under house arrest but is "fine".

The European Union and former colonial power Britain urge a peaceful resolution of the crisis while South Africa warns against any "unconstitutional changes" of government.

Mugabe digs heels in

President Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe with a rod of iron since independence in 1980. But the gag on protest has now been lifted -- tens of thousands have taken to the streets to demand his departure

November 16: Mugabe refuses to step down during talks with generals, a source close to the army leadership says, in a move which enrages many Zimbabweans who see it as a bid to "buy time" to negotiate a favourable end to his 37-year reign.

A day later he appears at a university graduation ceremony, acting as if nothing has happened.

Meanwhile, opposition is gathering pace within his own ranks, with eight out of the 10 branches of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF taking to state television to demand he stand down.

Zimbabwe's influential war veterans association also demands he step down immediately, urging people to join huge street protests planned for the weekend.

Mass protests

November 18: Tens of thousands of people joyfully take to the streets across the country to demand Mugabe's departure and celebrate his apparently imminent demise in scenes of public euphoria not seen since independence in 1980.

The display of open defiance would have been unthinkable just a week earlier.

Ousted as party chief

Zimbabweans celebrate Mugabe's resignation

November 19: ZANU-PF sacks Mugabe as leader and demands he resign as head of state. It also expels his wife Grace and names ousted VP Mnangagwa as the new party chief.

Adding to its stunning reversal of allegiances, it threatens to impeach Mugabe if he does not resign by midday on November 20.

Mugabe meets with the army chiefs before making a defiant televised address in which he shows no sign of leaving, frustrating widespread hopes he would resign.

Endgame

November 21: After the previous day's deadline passes without Mugabe resigning, ZANU-PF says it will start impeachment proceedings on Tuesday.

Mugabe resigned after 37 years in power

Adding to the pressure from parliament, Mnangagwa issues a statement saying citizens had an "insatiable desire" for Mugabe to go, and the influential war veterans call for immediate protests.

He summoned a cabinet meeting but most ministers stayed away, state media reported.

Parliament passes a motion to begin a debate on impeaching him. The parliament speaker interrupts proceedings to read a letter from Mugabe in which he resigns, ending 37 years of often brutal rule.

Massive celebrations erupt across the country and the international community expresses hope that Zimbabwe will change for the better.

'Crocodile' Mnangagwa to return

November 22: As Zimbabwe wakes up to a future without Mugabe, Mnangagwa -- known as the "crocodile" for his ruthlessness -- flies back into the country and tells crowds of supporters they are witnessing "unfolding full democracy".

New era

November 24: Once one of Mugabe's closest allies, Mnangagwa officially becomes Zimbabwe's new president at an inauguration ceremony in Harare, amid tight security.

Both Mugabe and his wife Grace are expected to be given protection by the government.
Reader, I am not a pastor, but the tragic story of freshly resigned Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe can best be explained in Exodus, Chapter 1 verse 8:

NOW THERE AROSE IN EGYPT A NEW KING WHO DID NOT KNOW JOSEPH.

Time, truly, changes.

Reader, maybe, like most Zimbabweans, in 1980, you had not been born, but I was, then a young lieutenant in the Ghana Army, fresh from Sandhurst, UK.

In the years before 1980, back in Legon, radical student leaders, waxed eloquent about the nationalist struggle in Southern Africa.

Let me orientate you properly to the environment. The weather in Southern Africa is almost like Europe, with winter, spring, summer and autumn. The white colonial masters were content to exploit the land and treat the natives almost as animals. They settled there, seized the land by force and enjoyed the highest standard of living in the world.

With Kwame Nkrumah's freedom struggle in Ghana, the torch of freedom was lit all over Africa and nationalists rose up. In Northern Rhodesia, named after explorer Cecil Rhodes, Kenneth Kaunda led his people for ZAMBIA.

In Southern Rhodesia, capital Richmond, a white politician IAN SMITH UNILATERALY DECLARED INDEPENDENCE for Rhodesians as a white ruled country and broke off colonial ties with Britain.

Clearly, Ian Smith wanted another apartheid rule like South Africa next door to Rhodesia.

Several leaders rose up to challenge Ian Smith, but most of them were fifth columnists, like Joshua Nkomo, Rev Ndabaningi Sithole and others.

One of the genuine nationalists was young firebrand, ROBERT MUGABE who was incarcerated, almost like Nelson Mandela, broke jail and came to live in Ghana, seeking shelter under Kwame Nkrumah's freedom movement.

Mugabe, in the process, married a Ghanaian girl, Sarah, then, went to Mozambique and launched an armed struggle, through guerilla warfare.

The only language the white supremacists understood was VIOLENCE and Mugabe gave them no rest. The more the guerillas gained grounds, the more Ian Smith dined with quasi collaborators, until finally in a bold attempt to solve the problem, the British Government set up the Lancaster House Conference in London to bring all factions to the round table.

The talks led to peace, general elections and President Mugabe, the guerilla leader brought his lieutenants to the nation, called ZIMBABWE, and the capital renamed HARARE.

There is no doubt that in the early 1980's, President Robert Mugabe was one of the most popular African Leaders worldwide. With him in control of Zimbabwe, the last frontline remained apartheid South Africa, and the bell started tolling to the racist regime.

Nicole Machiavelli said it in his book The Prince that looking for power is very different from MANAGING power

As at the time of 1980 when Robert Mugabe took power, Zimbabwe was one of the most prosperous nations in Africa, of course, built with black almost slave labor. The currency was strong, food was no problem, and industry was booming.

Then the nationalists took over, at a time in the world era when communist rhetoric cum Marxist centralism was clearly failing in favor of market driven economic forces.

Were Mugabe and his ZANU  PF socialists? Or Communists? Or simply nationalists?

Professor Adu Boahen , as NPP Presidential Candidate, said something I always remember: The business of Government is GOVERNANCE, not business.

Allow market forces to dictate the pace of economic growth, tax the rich to raise funds to develop the countryside, ensure law and order to protect private property  reader with responsible governance, where leaders are accountable to the people, you will be on the high way to national development.

Not so, in Zimbabwe. Just rhetoric  seize the lands from the whites, seize the factories, let the state run the economy..and answer everything simply by saying we the blacks are now in power.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Robert Mugabe, almost a law unto himself, with his band of hard core guerilla commandos, amassed so much wealth by Iooting the state coffers.

The situation got so worse that today as I write, majority of the people of Zimbabwe live below the poverty datum line all due to nothing but BAD GOVERNANCE.

One man, increasingly getting older, in power for 37 years, not learning anything from Nelson Mandela who ruled for only four years and retired to live as a great respected statesman; Father of the Nation.

His Ghanaian wife Sarah died, and he married his one time secretary, Grace, who, like some wives, notably the legendary Cleopatra, wanted to be the Commander of Commanders. She used bedroom influence to get her husband to sack one of his long time guerilla allies, the Vice President, so that, with time, the wife can succeed him as new Vice President.

A calculation gone wrong.

The military, commanded by former guerilla leaders, could not bring themselves to stage a classic coup to kill off Mugabe and take power but they flexed their muscles in support of the sacked Vice President and set in vogue a trail of events leading to the forced shameful resignation of Robert Mugabe as President on Tuesday 21st November 2017.

The news of the fall of Mugabe rocked the streets of Harare. It awoke the nation, as if a new fresh air was blowing across Zimbabwe.

Look at the crowd on the streets  I bet all of them were born AFTER 1980. They did not see lan Smith and his UDI. They did not see guerrilla warfare. To them all that is romantic history.

What they see daily is suffering, shortages, hunger, unemployment..they are a generation who did not know Joseph.

I did history in sixth form, Achimota School, and our history master told us: The tragedy of history is that people do NOT learn from history.

Robert Mugabe did not learn anything from the crisis in Senegal, the forced escape of Blaise Compaore from power in Burkina Faso, the killing of Gaddafi in Libya. This is Zimbabwe. Here our story is different

I am sure Paul Biya in Cameroon is not bothered. Bongo in Gabon is not bothered. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe of Lome is not bothered

Who is reading me?

From Nkrabeah Effah Dartey
We hardly veer outside the country in our commentaries. Certain subjects though merit such efforts; the Zimbabwean development being one.

Ghanaians, literates and non-literates alike have never taken such an interest in a foreign issue as they did about Zimbabwe during the Southern African moments of political twists and turns. What arguably came close was the American polls.

The military's novelty, subtle coup, which they avoided labeling as such was so crafted that they confused the whole world as to exactly what was happening. Continuing to salute a nonagenarian they had dispossessed of power was indeed a subtle way of staging a coup but in the end it worked without spilling blood.

Today the man, Immerson Mnangagwa, whose dismissal by Robert Mugabe as his deputy started the beginning of the end of the anti-colonial war in Zimbabwe, as fate would have it, is going to be sworn in as President. By this action he is expected to serve the remaining term of Robert Mugabe which ends next year.

The people of this good-governance starved country were expectedly excited as they have never done before when it eventually became clear that Robert Mugabe has exited the helm of power.

A few persons warned though that the excitement should be measured especially since the future of politics could not be immediately determined. ZANU-PF has dominated the politics of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980  the party always managing to manouvre its way to power.

It would appear that such fears are hinged on good reason. The man who is due to be sworn in today has given credence to the challenges that lie ahead.

He let out his template rather carelessly when he said that the Zimbabwean opposition would languish in their place for long describing their remarks as noise from dogs. Nothing could have been more ominous and heart-wrenching in a country whose people should ordinarily continue relishing the newfound freedom.

For a man who it would appear enjoys being described as a 'Crocodile' to be so reckless presupposes the uncharted waters the country has found herself in.

The South African Development Community and the African Union must assist the people of Zimbabwe to organize a credible election in which the will of the people shall triumph.

The two organizations should not wait for things to fall apart before considering sending troops to the troubled country especially since funding for such operations come from taxpayers' monies.

The soldiers should not be seen to be supportive of ZANU-PF but rather the constitution of Zimbabwe. It is the political system in that country that needs overhauling not the ouster of a lone man at the helm. When a country is troubled politically in Africa, the repercussions are far-reaching indirectly affecting the other countries on the continent. Our heads of state through the commitment of the member countries must get busy sharing their times with the search for stability and normalcy in troubled countries. The time to ensure that the Crocodile behaves politically well is now not when he is allowed to entrench himself and goes the way of Mugabe.

We hereby condemn in no uncertain terms his description of his opponents as dogs. The people of Zimbabwe deserve better. If the ouster of his former boss does not offer him adequate lessons to conduct himself decently then the wrath of the people in the streets await him. Such reckless remarks would not endear him to the civilized world let alone attract the much needed economic support.
Local residents in the rural Zimbabwean village where Robert Mugabe was born, got married, and has a house say he was a great leader -- but express sorrowful acceptance rather than anger at his ousting.

Kutama, 55 miles (90 kilometres) outside the capital Harare, has been a heartland of deeply personal support for Mugabe for decades, benefiting from his patronage and much-criticised land reforms.

"When I heard the news (of his exit) and seeing what was now happening in the country, and things not going right, I thought, 'Well everything has to end, he has to rest'," Johannes Chikanya, Mugabe's second cousin and a close childhood friend, told AFP.

"Had it been me, I would have resigned while people still liked me," Chikanya said. "Now there are problems."

Mugabe was born in Kutama on February 21, 1924 -- with Chikanya born just three months later.

Chikanya fondly remembers how as a child he used to share a bed and blanket on the floor with Mugabe, and even eat from the same plate as they grew up together in the village.

Today Kutama, in contrast to many city streets or even highways, has smooth new roads, recently re-surfaced with fresh black tar.

'So grateful'

Some locals in Katuma benefited from Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms

"We are so grateful for what he has done, the way he has looked after us until today. We hope things will continue just as good," said Tobias Sowero, 40, sitting in front of a shop.

But in much of the country, years of economic decline under Mugabe have left Zimbabwe's infrastructure in ruins and almost no private-sector employment as agriculture collapsed and investors fled.

Some locals in Kutama benefited from Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms that is widely blamed for the economy's implosion as the sharp decline in production.

"Even if others are complaining that there are no jobs, I'm happy about the land we were given. We are able to farm and look after ourselves," said 22-year-old Theophilus Chimanga.

"I want to remember him for the land and the freedom he brought."

Unlike in Harare and second city Bulawayo, there were no wild scenes of street celebration in Kutama when news broke on Tuesday that Mugabe's reign was finally over after 37 years.

"No, there were no celebrations here, we just accepted it quietly," said one businessman, who declined to give his name, at the village's small shopping centre close to Mugabe's house.

In Kutama, in the district of Zvimba, the gates of Mugabe's usually heavily-guarded house were wide open, though AFP was denied access.

Lavish wedding

In 1996, the village hosted Mugabe's wedding to his second wife Grace, whose presidential ambitions triggered the intervention from the military chiefs who were determined to block her rise.

The wedding at a nearby catholic church was attended by Nelson Mandela with Joaquim Chissano, then president of Mozambique, serving as best man.

A lavish party, complete with beers brought in by the truckload, was held for thousands of guests at a thatched-roof property in the village.

Johannes Chikanya, a 93-year-old Zimbabwean, grew up with Mugabe in Kutama

Marjorie Masuwa, a 54-year-old shopkeeper, told AFP that she feared for the future under Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose inauguration as president was held on Friday.

"When I heard that (Mugabe) had stepped down, I didn't get emotional, but allow me to say that he was loving. I just wish the one who is replacing him is the same," she said.

"I urge him to seek advice from Mugabe, and to please not to give land back to the whites."
Bilkis Bano, who was 19 and pregnant in 2002, was gangraped in Randhikpur village near Dahod on March 3, 2002, after she and around a dozen family members were attacked by a mob during the Gujarat riots.

By Anusha Soni: The Supreme Court today gave the Gujarat government six weeks to let it know whether any disciplinary action has been initiated against policemen who were convicted in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case, one of the high profile 2002 Gujarat riots cases.

Bano, who was 19 and pregnant in 2002, was gangraped in Randhikpur village near Dahod on March 3, 2002, after she and around a dozen family members were attacked by a mob during the Gujarat riots.

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Only Bano and relatives Saddam and Husain survived the savagery. Her mother, sister, minor daughter and other relatives were killed.

Bano is seeking compensation and disciplinary action from the Supreme Court against the six police officials, who were found complicit by the Bombay High Court in her gangrape.

She had asked for an early hearing. As the Gujarat government sought yet more time, her lawyer asked: "In the age of Digital India, why does the state government need so long to file a response?"

On October 23, the Supreme Court had sought within four weeks a response from the Gujarat government to the departmental action taken against police personnel convicted in the gangrape case and their subsequent reinstatement.

Petitioner Bilkis Yakub Rasool alleged that policemen convicted by the Bombay High Court in her case, which was reported during the 2002 Gujarat riots, have been reinstated by the state government.

The matter will be next heard on January 1.

WATCH | Bilkis Bano to India Today: My kids want to become lawyers

--- ENDS ---
The driver who confessed to killing African-American women in Akwamufie in the Eastern Region has been sentenced to death by hanging by the Accra High Court.

The court presided over by Justice Merley Afua Wood, passed the death sentence last Wednesday after a seven-member jury unanimously found Yaw Anokye Frimpong, 22, guilty on two counts of murder.

"Yaw Anokye Frimpong, the men and woman elected to decide your trial, having found you guilty of murder, you are hereby sentenced to death by hanging and may God have mercy on your soul," Justice Wood said.

Sympathizers of Marnelina

Diop, 75, and Nzinga Jaana 69, the two women murdered by Frimpong, could not hold back their tears when the jury delivered its verdict and the presiding judge pronounced the death penalty.

It was an outburst of emotions characterized by hugs, wiping of tears and the shedding of more tears, with lots of gestures indicating joy in the midst of sadness.

In one instance, one of the sympathizers knelt in front of her seat, held the seat and started sobbing uncontrollably.

Mesdames Diop and Jaana were among a group of African- Americans who had acquired a vast tract of land in Akwamufie and later settled on it. The African-Americans named the community Fihankra.

On May 5, 2015, the two women were not seen around the community, compelling their neighbors to hire a carpenter to break into the apartment in which they lived.

The neighbors found a bloodstained club on the floor of Diops room and a rubber bag covered with bloodstains in a dustbin in the apartment.

A report on the disappearance of the women was later made to the police and a search led to the discovery of their bodies in a shallow grave on a farm in the community.

During investigations, it was found that Mesdames Diop and Jaana had been attacked and clubbed to death in their home about 10 p.m. on May 4, 2015.

Six persons, including Frimpong, were arrested as part of investigations into the murder. Frimpong is said to have confessed to killing the women during interrogations.

He was charged with murder, while the five other accused persons were charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

During the committal proceedings at the Accra Central District Court, Frimpong confessed to single-handedly clubbing the two women to death.

The five other accused persons were later discharged.

Frimpong repeated his confession at the Accra High Court during the trial but stated that it was never his intention to kill them but that his intention was to steal from them.

According to him, he killed for fear of being exposed when they found him stealing in Madam% Diop's room.

Per his testimony, Frimpong went to the apartment to steal, but in the course of the act, Madam Diop returned home and caught him in the act. Consequently, he struggled with her, overpowered her and tied her hands and also covered her mouth with a piece of cloth, after which he went home.

But out of fear of being exposed by his victim, he returned to the house with a club with the intention of killing her and met Madam Jaana in the apartment.

Frimpong told the court that he hit the two women repeatedly with the club and after killing them, he conveyed their bodies in a wheelbarrow to a nearby farm, dug a shallow grave and buried their bodies.

After the act, he stole GHC156 from Madam Diops room, went to town and drunk alcohol in order to forget about what happened.

After the jury's verdict last Wednesday, Frimpong was given an opportunity to make a statement before the court delivered its sentence.

He informed the court that he had committed other crimes which the police were currently investigating and said those crimes were haunting him.

"These crimes are haunting me because I know I committed them," he said.

He prayed the court to have mercy on him because he had not intentionally killed the two women.
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has reiterated its commitment to reducing lending rates for commercial banks to reduce the cost of doing business in the country.

First Deputy Governor of the BoG, Dr Maxwell Opoku Afari, said the decision would be implemented by gauging the prevailing conditions in order to accelerate economic growth.

The assurance by the BoG comes on the back of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which will culminate in an announcement of the new policy rate on Monday, 27 November 2017.

Speaking at the SME CEOs' Summit, the First Deputy Governor said: The Bank of Ghana's Monetary Policy Committee has lowered the policy rate by 450 basis points to 21 percent, and this week starting from Tuesday, it is meeting again to assess recent developments.

After the cumulative 450 basis points lowering, we have seen lending rates come down by some 150 basis points. This is not as much as we expected and more will be done to bring lending rates down.

Special Incentive

In a related development, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has said it will provide special incentives to banks that are giving credit facilities to businesses who are venturing into environmentally friendly projects.

Some of the incentives include a reduction in the cost of lending rates for the banks from the Central Bank.

The BoG is expected to assess the various environmentally friendly initiatives of the banks every six months, and will reward those that pass the assessment as part of the packages.

Dr Johnson Assiama, Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, said the Central Bank is working towards promoting sustainable banking practices among the commercial banks in the country.

The whole basis of their lending activities, so more or less it's not just about lending to the mining sectors it is about them looking at all the sectors, so if they are lending to agriculture, there has to be environmental considerations and so on.

We are also working on some specialized lending schemes which will be managed by the Central Bank, but then commercial banks can access this and these can be administered for businesses all in an attempt to put emphasis and in an attempt to provide for environmental risks.
GLICO, a leading insurance service provider, has won four awards at the recently held CFO awards.

The categories won were: The Chief Finance Officer of the Year (Insurance); the Chief Finance Officer of the Year (Pensions); Innovation in Insurance and a Special Recognition Award for the Executive Chairman of GLICO GROUP- Dr Kwame Achampong Kyei, for his outstanding contribution towards the development of insurance in Ghana.

Victor Owusu-Boakye received the Chief Finance Officer Insurance award.

Belinda Dede Tandoh received the Chief Finance Officer Pensions award, while the Group Head Corporate Affairs & Marketing, Nana Efua Rockson received the Insurance innovation and special recognition award for GLICO GROUP.

Receiving the award on behalf of GLICO, Nana Efua Rockson, said that we are delighted that our efforts as an organization in bringing insurance to the doorsteps of Ghanaians is being honoured. This is a feather in our cap and a challenge to continue to churn out quality and innovative products for our customers.

She also thanked the organizers of the awards, Instinctwave, for recognizing the contributions of Dr Kwame Achampong-Kyei towards the development of insurance in Ghana.

She stated that it feels humbling to be awarded for something one has dedicated his entire life for. It is indeed a spur-on to do more as long as God gives me strength.

The annual CFO awards recognize the accomplishments of senior finance executives and their contribution towards the growth and success of their organizations in the financial industry.

It is worthy to note that GLICO started operations as a life insurance company. Significantly, it has grown into a group with six subsidiaries namely: GLICO LIFE, GLICO HEALTHCARE, GLICO PROPERTIES, GLICO CAPITAL, GLICO GENERAL and GLICO PENSIONS.

The group provides innovative and quality insurance/ financial products and services to Ghanaians.
Financial institutions in Ghana and across the African sub-continent have been urged to take advantage of the investment opportunities in the green economy.

The call was made at a Green Finance conference organized by the African Guarantee Fund (AGF), International Trade Centre (ITC) and Nordic Development Fund (NDF) on November 21 in Accra.

The conference was aimed at highlighting the positive financial and environmental benefits to be gained in the Green Economy, said David Ekabouma, AGF's Head of Business Development.

The conference follows the 2016 launch of a green guarantee product by AGF and joint work by all three organizing institutions to expand access to finance for green growth-focused Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Africa.

Speaking at the forum, Managing Director of Nordic Development Fund (NDF), Pasi Hellman, explained that the green investment opportunities in Africa were real and growing, urging financial institutions to take advantage of the situation.

We are behind this event 100%. This green finance partnership with AGF and ITC sends a strong signal to the financial sector that the green investment opportunity in Africa is real and growing, said Hellman.

He added, We will continue to support this work, leveraging NDF's mix of financing instruments for maximum impact toward the growth of a vibrant green economy in the region.

The African Guarantee Fund is a pan-African non-bank financial institution established by the African Development Bank (AfDB), Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

It was later joined by the French Development Agency (AFD) and Nordic Development Fund (NDF).

AGF's primary mandate is to assist financial institutions in Africa to scale up their SME financing through the provision of partial loan guarantees and capacity development assistance.

In 2016, AGF launched a green guarantee facility aimed at unlocking finance for SMEs investing in low carbon, green growth and climate resilient development.

Nordic Development Fund established by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in 1989 is a joint Nordic finance institution focusing exclusively on climate change and development in low income countries.

It supports public and private sector led climate finance operations across Africa, Asia and Latin America and became an AGF shareholder in 2016 with the launch of the green guarantee facility.

International Trade Centre ITC is the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations.

ITC assists small and medium-sized enterprises in developing and transition economies to become more competitive in global markets, thereby contributing to sustainable economic development within the framework of the Aid-for-Trade agenda and the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
The Managing Director of Bosch Ghana, Emmanuel Agyei, says his outfit will partner government to effectively develop the country.

Speaking to journalists at its new offices and warehouse located near the airport in Accra, Mr Agyei indicated that Bosch Ghana is a member of the Bosch Group, which supplies quality products and solutions to consumers across four business sectors namely Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods and Energy and Building Technology.

According to the Managing Director, the delivery of machinery and products fall in line with the government's 'Planting for Food and Jobs,' and 'One District, One Factory (1D1F) policies.

Bosch Ghana, going by its catch phrase, 'Invented for Life, manufactures durable products which enhances the effectiveness of Ghanaian industries, he stated.

Within two years of the establishment of the company in Ghana, it has established foundations for the long-term growth of Ghana.

It has collaborated with technical universities to provide its flagship onsite solutions boxes powered by Bosch Power Tools.

It runs flagship programmes with various institutions, especially the Accra Technical Training Centre (ATTC) and a number of Artisans Groups and the Sokaban Wood Village to own their tools kits.

We teach our clients the best ways to handle the tools so that they last longer, he stated.

He added that clients can also make payments through Mobile Money or other channels while in school, adding that Bosch Ghana intends to reach out to more than 8,000 students or other organized groups by the close of 2018.

We are happy to state that through our efforts about 4,000 students in ATTC receive training every month, which to us, is a motivation that we are contributing to the economic empowerment of the people, he mentioned.
Stationery giant, Krif Ghana Limited and Stationary Depot, have dedicated the month of November to its loyal customers.

The month-long celebration will see KRIF Ghana Ltd reward its esteemed and loyal customers in a special way to show their appreciation.

Speaking at the launch, Executive Chairman at KRIF Ghana Limited, Rev Kennedy Okosun, said the customer experience month is being used to take customer experience to a new height.

According to him, The customer is the key point in our activities here at KRIF Ghana Limited.

The key objective of the customer experience month, among others, is to enhance customer satisfaction and increase rewards to our customers.

He added that this involves everybody, who is a customer at KRIF Ghana Limited and we also expect to delight our customers with our new products this month.

In the four weeks of the month of November, four lucky Krif Ghana loyalists will be adjudged the customers of the week based on the value of the business at the end of each week. Each lucky customer of week will walk away with a cash reward, according to him.

He added that at the end of the month, an overall customer of the month will be declared based on the cumulative value of business that customer has done over the duration of the customer experience month.

The company will also host a customer awards night to celebrate and reward all loyal customers to climax the month-long celebration.

The month-long celebration is under the theme, rewarding customer loyalty.

KRIF Ghana Limited is one of the leading dealers in superior office/school stationery, office equipment, and office consumables; Electronic Cash Registers (ECR's) and Money-handling machines in Ghana.

By Melvin Tarlue
Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo has denied reports by some National Democratic Congress (NDC) commentators that his office has been overstaffed.

The Minister condemned commentaries in mainstream and social media that his office has over 24 staff.

This cunning and misleading information has become part of some NDC commentators' spin, as they discuss the 2018 'Aduma Budget,' a statement signed by Seth Nketiah, Senior Financial Analyst, Office of the Senior Minister said.

The statement said that for the benefit of doubt, I wish to place on record that the Office of the Senior Minister has 10 staff, including the Senior Minister made up of three administrative staff, three technical officers for financial analysis, economic and research each, one technical adviser and two drivers.

It said as part of the President's agenda to drive economic growth on the wheels of effective partnership between the public and private sector actors, he (President) asked that the Public Sector Reform (PSR) Secretariat, which lost its steam during the NDC era, be placed under the Office of the Senior Minister for effective directives and responsibility, knowing very well that the PSR has a critical role in advancing his agenda.

It added that hence, today the Office of the Senior Minister includes the staff of PSR Secretariat that is why in the 2018 Budget under the Expenditure Allocation Schedule you do not see PSR as a spending unit but the Office of the Senior Minister.

I am happy to state that the PSR staff, who now report to the Senior Minister, through the Chief Director, were exactly the same in number and in persons since this government took over from the previous administration, the statement said.

It added apart from the newly created CEO for the PSR, not a single addition has been made to the staff there. It is therefore very unfortunate for any reasonable discussant worth his or her salt of such a policy document like the Budget of the State to divert attention from the core good news and hope that the budget aspires to bring to the good people of Ghana instead of professing a better alternative to enrich the discourse on the 2018 Budget.

The statement said much as the Office of the Senior Minister respects the free views and expressions by every Ghanaian citizen, it is important that they do so from a much informed position in order not to tarnish their own image in public service discourse.
Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has indicated that government is doing its best to ensure accessibility to healthcare for citizens despite the huge indebtedness the Akufo-Addo administration inherited.

Mr Agyeman-Manu, taking his turn at the Meet The Press Series in Accra, explained that government was working tirelessly to ensure debts owed to agencies and partners are cleared and funds mobilised to complete uncompleted health facility projects in the country.

There is nowhere in the ministry you open that you would not find indebtedness. But we are managing it because we have an obligation to make sure that people are receiving healthcare, he added.

Touching on some of the sectors' indebtedness, Mr Agyeman-Manu cited the GH1.2b debt the erstwhile administration owed providers and suppliers, which government has managed pay part.

The sector minister also added that government had to salvage the vaccine situation which put the lives of newborns in the country earlier this year at risk of contracting polio.

We do co-funding because they also contract providers. We refused as a country to pay for the entire 2016, by March 2017 we had to rush and pay GH10m the whole of 2017 because they said if you are able to pay the whole of 2017 we will allow you to owe the 2016, he said.

He, however, disclosed that the ministry will do everything possible to meet the payment deadline of December to ensure sustained supply of the vaccine in 2018.

Projects

Mr Agyeman-Manu said the total financial commitment on government for all the ongoing projects in the health sector was totalled at GH404,647,389 for the year, with a total amount of GH190,139,783 disbursed so far.

He said the ministry was also aggressively pursuing the completion of the suspended 1000-bed Mother & Child Block at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

The sector minister stated that there are hospital projects currently ongoing such as the Wa Regional Hospital, Tepa District Hospital, Nsawkaw District Hospital and Madina Municipal Hospital.

Value for money auditing has been completed and awaiting final report from Ministry of Finance, first 4 of the 8-hospitals are scheduled for completion in April 2018, he added.

Health Staff

Mr Agyeman-Manu explained that the ministry has so far recruited and deployed 16,602 health professionals this year, including 11,573 nurses, 247 medical officers, 1,883 support staff, 938 allied health staff and 106 others.

He said government has also delivered on its campaign promise and has restored allowance to nurses and other trainees in the Ministry of Health training institutions, with 58,000 benefiting.

The sector ministry pointed out that a committee has also been set up to review and advise on restructuring of the pre-service training in the health sector.

The committee has submitted its report and the recommendations are being implemented rationalisation of admissions to improve quality online admission process reduction of admission fees from GH160 to GH100, he added.

CMS Report

Mr Agyeman-Manu disclosed that the CMS fire investigation report has been submitted to the Auditor General upon his request.

The Auditor General is finalising due processes to conduct forensic audit of the incident construction of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital Phase II.

He, however, said funds were being sourced for the reconstruction of the Central Medical Store (CMS).

Assurance

The sector minister explained that geographical access to health services, especially Western, Volta and Northern Regions and inadequate funds and logistics to strengthen newly-created district health administrations inadequate staff, especially doctors and ageing fleet of vehicles which are expensive to maintain are major challenges facing the sector.

He, however, mentioned that the ministry was working towards a lasting solution by strengthening and increasing the workforce, intensify public education and strengthen inter-sectoral collaboration.

We are making good use of our limited resources, we believe together we can provide quality healthcare to all, he added.
Godfred Yeboah Dame, Deputy Attorney-General, has expressed worry about corruption in the church in recent times.

According to him, most churches have become theatres of corruption and various crimes play out there.

Addressing heads of churches, Christian groups, associations and members of legal associations during the Kingdom Equip Network (KEN) lecture series, dubbed Ekklesia Roundtable Series, he bemoaned embezzlement of church funds and swindling of rich members by pastors and elders.

The event, which was held at Fiesta Royal Hotel at Dzorwulu, Accra yesterday, was under the theme, The Legal Status of the Church in Ghana.

I will not be far from right to observe that the church has become the conduit for self-glorification and illicit wealth acquisition, such attitudes clearly will result in the church constantly having a brush with the law enforcement agencies of state and ultimately blight the significance of the church and state, he remarked.

The Deputy Attorney General, who commended the church for contributing towards the socio-economic development of the nation, stated that it was imperative for the churches to recapture their pride of place in state affairs.

The Deputy Attorney General averred that churches are meant to be Not for profit organizations.

He explained that churches usually register as incorporated trust and the companies limited by guarantee.

Traditionally, churches used to register as incorporated trusts, the Trustees (Incorporated) Act,1962 (Act 106) permitted trustees of voluntary associations and bodies for charity, he stated.

According to him, churches, especially those of the charismatic and Pentecostal, are registered as companies limited by guarantee under the Companies Law, (Act 179, 1963) in which case they are set up for charity and public service.

Rev Dr Emmanuel Ansah, Executive Director of Kingdom Equip Network (KEN), conveners of the event, averred that the Network is a coalition of individuals and organizations seeking to promote good governance among churches and para-church institutions.
The Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI), Kwame Asuah Takyi, has indicated his readiness to work with the rank and file to promote good governance in the Ghana Immigration Service.

He made the remark while addressing a durbar of senior officers at the service's headquarters on Wednesday.

The CGI said he would encourage strong administrative structures and undertake governance roles that include fair and equitable distribution of resources and strengthening of the human resource system that would help achieve the goals of the service.

He assured them that all anomalies in the promotion of personnel would be corrected and that there would be no more undue delays.

I will fix the human resource problems, he stressed.

He indicated that any institution with poor human resource system was doomed to fail, and that strong and effective human resource system is the building block of every viable institution.

Mr Kwame Asuah Takyi reiterated his commitment to building the capacity of personnel and intimated that unfairness, inequality and injustices would be a thing of the past.

He urged the senior officers to take charge of their command and control roles and be accountable, as well as transparent in their dealings.

He admonished the personnel to use in-house procedures to seek redress and not to take to the media issues of the Service, adding that it would only mar the image and hard-won reputation of the service.

He reminded them that his door and that of his three deputies were open to address pertinent issues of personnel.

The CGI congratulated all senior officers, who were recently promoted and called for responsible leadership and their active involvement in building a strong institution.
By PTI: Bhopal, Nov 24 (PTI) BSP president Mayawati claimed today that the BJP might make Hindutva its main plank in the next parliamentary election to cover up its "failures".

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also said the next Lok Sabha polls, scheduled for 2019, might be advanced, and alleged that central agencies are being misused to "finish" the opposition parties.

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"To cover up failures of its central and state governments, the BJP can make Hindutva the (main) plank in the general election and the work on building a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya would begin (ahead of polls)," she said.

Mayawati was addressing party workers from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh at a function here.

"This time around, there is a possibility that the Lok Sabha polls may be held early," the BSP chief told her partymen, who felicitated her by giving a silver sword and a gold crown on a silver plate.

The Dalit leader said the BJP can play "tricks" in the name of patriotism to win polls and weaken her party. "This party (the BJP) can play tricks in the name of patriotism to win elections and weaken the BSP."

Mayawati asked BSP workers to strengthen the party in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the BJP-ruled states where Assembly elections are due in 2018.

"Dont sit quietly. Go back home, start work and strengthen the party. The people of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have made up their mind to throw out the BJP governments, according to reports coming in," she said.

She said the people from disadvantaged sections of the society were reaping the benefit of reservation in jobs and education primarily due to Dalit icon B R Ambedkars efforts and not because of the Congress or the BJP.

"The political parties (averse to the BSP) are unhappy with the facilities you all are getting (due to quota). Now, these political parties, without extending reservation in the private sector, were outsourcing work of big ministries.

"(In this way), they are curtailing the reservation facility. Reservation in promotion has almost become minimal," the former chief minister said.

"Central agencies, especially the CBI, the Income Tax department and the ED, are being misused to weaken and finish the opposition and make the country opposition-free," Mayawati claimed.

"Besides, in the name of fighting black money and corruption, the leaders of opposition parties are being targeted. On the other hand, they are covering up allegations against their own people," she alleged, adding the "media has been made ineffective".

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Without naming the BJP, Mayawati alleged, "They have weakened democracy to a large extent. Their dictatorship...is prevailing in the entire country. They have gone far beyond the Congress partys 1975 Emergency." PTI LAL MAS RSY SMN

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The United Nation Children's Fund (UNICEF) together with its partners has commemorated World Children's Day with a youth takeover dialogue in Accra.

It was under the theme: African dialogue 2017: The Africa I want.

The dialogue brought together 10 boys and girls from Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo to deliver talks on issues affecting children and the youth on the African Continent.

The children spoke on issues of child neglect, hunger and malnutrition, child abuse and female genital mutilation and child denial to formal education, sanitation, child marriage and food security.

These issues they believe are quite prevalent in most of the member countries and suggested solutions to address the ills to safeguard their future and help them realize their full potential.

Jaden Michael, a 14-year old activist and UNICEF advocate said, World Children's Day is about listening to us and giving us a say in our future. And our message is clear, we need to speak up for ourselves, and when we do, the world must listen.

Speaking in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, Anne-Isabelle Lecercg Balde, UNICEF's Communication Specialist, West & Central Africa Regional Office, said there have been burning issues affecting children across the world which demand that they are given a platform to speak about them to help reduce their frustrations.

The time has come to motivate these children with the objective to talk about issues that are affecting them for solution, she said.

She explained that UNICEF provided the platform to encourage the children to make their case because it is their plight and they can express it better to draw the attention of the policy makers in their distinct countries.

A UNICEF survey conducted on children between ages 9-18 in 14 countries exposes various forms of unfair treatments that children are subjected to.

According to the report, children across the 14 countries expressed worry about the issue of terrorism, poor education, violence against children and poverty as their prevalent issues that they would like world leaders to address.

It said, migrant children in the various countries experienced all forms of unfair treatments where migrant children in Mexico, Brazil and Turkey experienced the heist form, a situation that all international treaties and protocols frown on but still persists.
The police at Kokrobitey have apprehended an 18 year old fisherman who after robbing a tourist at knifepoint was using the money to buy drinks for his friends at a drinking spot at Tsokome.

Suspect Komla Kpodo, according to information, was spotted with friends at the drinking bar making merry when he was picked up by the police upon a tip off.

Friends of suspect Kpodo, according to reports, went to his rescue and attempted to prevent the police from arresting him on the grounds that he was not an armed robber but when some of the robbed victim's items were was found on him, the friends quickly deserted him.

He has since been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment after making his first appearance in court.

Narrating the incident to DAILY GUIDE, the Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Efia Tenge said suspect was arrested on November 18, 2017, the same day he attacked the victim.

The victim is a Netherlands tourist who visited the country days ago.

On that fateful day around 11:30am, the victim who was lodging at Kokrobitey area decided to go for a walk along the Bojo Beach area.

On reaching a village called Tsokome, suspect Komla Kpodo who was hiding in a nearby bush emerged to attack the victim with a knife.

Suspect asked the victim to surrender a small bag strapped around him or he (suspect) will stab him.

For fear of being hurt, the victim surrendered the bag to suspect who immediately jumped into the bush and fled.

The bag contained the victim's passport, his driver's licence, a wrist watch, a bank card, an amount of GH350 and other personal items.

The victim after the attack reported the matter to the Kokrobitey police.

Police intelligence led to the arrest of the suspect that very evening at the drinking spot in Tsokome village making merry with friends.

When a search was conducted on him, the passport, driver's licence and other items were found on him except the money which he was suspected to have used to pay for the drinks.

He was sent to the station to assist in police investigations and was later put before court.

Suspect Kpodo confessed to the offence, and based on his own plea, the trial judge, Justice Aboagye Tano of an Accra Circuit Court sentenced him to ten years imprisonment.
A deputy Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has stated it is better to have children studying under trees under the free Senior High School (SHS) programme than be on the street.

Ill rather have children learning under trees than walking on the streets and selling dog chains. Ill rather have children eating under trees than going hungry, he declared in parliament Thursday.

Dr. Adutwums comments were in reaction to claims by the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa that the governments allocation for the programme in the 2018 budget is inadequate.

The government in the 2018 budget earmarked some GH1.2 billion to the implementation of the Free SHS programme in 2018. The amount is three times higher than the GH400 million that was allocated to the programme in its first year of implementation in 2017.

The amount is expected to benefit over 100,000 students compared to this year, when the GH400 million catered for the needs of some 424,092 students.

But the former deputy education Minister argued that the amount is woefully inadequate, calling for an upward revision. This, he said will help address the many challenges that have confronted the program since its roll out in September.

When we told our colleagues on the other side that the allocation of the GH400 million was inadequate they called us names, today the finance minister came to parliament and told us the allocation was inadequate they have done the same thing again in the 2018 budget, he stated.

The whole Ghana expected that this 2018 budget under education would have come with a marshal plan, a rescue package for the free SHS disaster but this budget has not made an allocation to address these challenges, he added.

In his defence, Dr. Adutwum, said the government knew from the beginning that the implementation of the policy will be met with a litany of challenges.

We did not go into the implementation of Free Senior High School with allusions that its all going to be hunky-dory but no child can wait their turn until everything is great in this country before they can have the opportunity for secondary education, he said.
Senior Law lecturer at the University of Ghana Law School Dr Raymond Atuguba has warned the free SHS policy introduced by President Akufo-Addo could collapse if it loses power.

This, according to him, is due to the absence of a legislation to make it binding on successive governments.

Speaking at a constitution review conference at Dodowa on Friday on retooling the constitution from a political to a developmental one, Dr Atuguiba who was also the Executive Secretary of the Constitutional review committee said such a legal instrument will be critical to all developmental projects.

Lets say that the NDC wins in 2020 or 2024, you know they can cancel free SHSwhat sense will that make, but right now without a binding national development plan, they can do that.

With a binding national development plan, once you put in the plan that every government must work progressively towards free SHS then no government can do otherwise, he added.

Related: Free SHS challenges: Klo-Agogo students packed like sardines in dormitories

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has implemented the free SHS policy in fulfilment of a campaign promise made in the course of the 2016 elections.

In September this year, students who passed their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) were admitted into public senior high schools for free.

But without a law to make the policy compulsory for all governments, Dr Atuguba worries that the policy might die off with the Akufo-Addo-led administration leaving government.

Related:SEND-Ghana takes on govt over unsustainable Free SHS funding

He said the Constitutional Review Committee has made the first set of recommendations in which long-term developmental projects will be made binding on successive governments.

And it is not binding in terms of if they say build five schools you build five schools, that is not what we are talking about. Binding at a certain level of governance where, for example, every government will say implement free SHS.

And we even added that when a government does that (goes against the plan), the citizens can go to the supreme court to stop them, he said.
Members of Parliament are set to drag the National Security Minister before the house to explain the circumstances under which a counter-terrorism simulation exercise has been sanctioned.

The MPs are demanding to know the reasons that have triggered such an exercise.

The demand follows a press conference said to have been organized by an official from the National Security Secretariat, COP George Asiamah, during which the impending anti-terrorism simulation exercise was announced.

North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who raised the issue on the floor of Parliament said as representatives of the people they must be informed about exercise and why it must be organized as quickly as possible.

The news about a simulation exercise comes at a time when some foreign missions have hinted of the possibility of terror attack on Ghana.

In its security alert to its citizens visiting Ghana, the Canadian Embassy, in August this year said, there is a threat of terrorism. Terrorist targets could include shopping malls, government buildings, public areas such as bars, restaurants, hotels and sites frequented by Westerners. Be aware of your surroundings in public places.

Around that same period, the UK Embassy in Ghana also stated terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in Ghana. While there have been no recent attacks in Ghana, terrorist groups in West Africa have demonstrated their capability and intent by mounting attacks in 2015 and 2016 in Cote dIvoire, Burkina Faso and Mali, targeting beach resorts, hotels, cafes and restaurants visited by foreigners.

But the government has been quick to discount any such threat of attack.

The Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid said the the alerts are only standard cautions given by the embassies to their citizens in Ghana and do not represent any specific known terrorism threats to the Nation.

He said the country will identify and caution the public on the possibility of a terror attack through its collaborative effort with International allies.

Through collaborative and intelligence sharing arrangements with International Allies, the nations security agencies will be aware if there is a known threat in the offing.

Despite the denial, the security agencies appear to be preparing ahead for a possible attack.

Joy News Parliamentary correspondent Joseph Opoku Gakpo reported the MPs in unison have agreed that the National Security Minister must appear before Parliament to explain what has necessitated an anti-terrorism simulation exercise.

It is not clear yet when the Minister, Albert Kan Dapaah will appear before the house.
24.11.2017 LISTEN

Reorientation of the mentality of the citizenry can assist Ghana as a nation to even overtake America and UK in terms of development, according to the vice president, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. I agree with the veep on this assertion but overtaking with bad drivers and vehicles in poor conditions on bad roads can be threatening and suicidal.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in his independence speech indicated this same point  ... from now on, today we must change our attitudes and our minds. He again said we as black people are capable of managing our own affairs.

Successive governments in Ghana either military or democratic, in one way or the other claimed to seek for the betterment of the nation and at a point asked for attitudinal change to achieve the long awaited development. It is no wonder that Dr. Bawumia also asked for change of mind and think of possibility during his address on the 18th congregation of the University of Development Studies (UDS) some few days ago.

What has happened to all these calls made by such state men and women, have they been fruitful? It seems every government that comes to power has good intentions and wants to achieve some development but why do they fail and at times leaves office in a worse state than they came to meet the nation?

Dr. Nkrumah once said freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own and none can keep from them. Let me paraphrase it to read as development is nothing that can be bestowed on an individual as a gift; you work towards it, claim it and none can keep it from you.

The point I want to make to you is that we are our own problem. You and I are the cause of the under development in our country. Yea, from the president to the vice president, parliamentarians to ministers of state, directors to the mangers, clerks to cleaners in the offices, the businessman to the vendor on the street, the clergy to congregation, we are all inclusive. We are responsible in the delay or the breakdown of the nations development.

In a nation where we have accepted corruption and made it part of us and any looter of state coffers hides behind a political flag to escape prosecution, where state looters cry out loudly of political witch hunting and institutions have failed to work. State institutions that were to speak and act on behalf of the ordinary man are now toothless or being manipulated by political parties. You touch a party foot soldier who offends the law and see your faith the next day as a civil servant.

This is a nation where elders in society, knowledgeable people and technocrats are afraid to give advice or criticise constructively for fear of them being aligned to party A or B. They are now dumb, deaf and blind to the rots happening; let me think of my family and myself is what they say. In such a nation, how do we overtake America or UK, is it feasible?

The Methuselahs in the various state institutions, those affected with this is how is done here syndrome and will sabotage any new person who attempts to bring change either to push him or her into ditch or cause a transfer for the change maker, these are the people who are filled in most of the state institutions offices. They have been there for ages and form a cartel to face any minister or director who dares to try a change, to block leakages and seal some gabs; you incur their wrath and they will definitely set you up. It is all over in the state owned institutions and most ministers and chief executives have been victims. How long will a minister be at one ministry? Hmmmm looting and stealing by mebaa ha akye [MBA] squad all the time yet fingers are pointed to government, you and I are part of such people. We need attitudinal change period!

A nation where becoming politician is to steal from the state coffers to the disadvantage of the taxpayer. A way to amass wealth than to serve, to dictate and manipulate the existing institutions to act in their favour, to create laws with loop holes to allow them to create, loot and share, how do we overtake? Where insulting of elders has been normalised all in the name of politics and indiscipline is on the rise. Civil servants see their work as for government, will not go to work on time, will be the first to leave, misuse assets of state, and will be the first to join protestors in asking for salary increase.

In a nation where citizens are not law abiding, will litter anywhere but will complain of bad sanitation. People in charge of revenue collection are pocketing most of collection, where law enforcers are the worst offenders, the judiciary is nothing to talk about, the legislature are only interested in passing laws that will increase their remunerations without seeing factions but in developmental issues there is always a split. In a state where religious body cannot preach behavioural change, because most of them are extorting money in their small paradise overtaking others in development is shaky.

National development is a collective responsibility and until we all decide to change our attitude and mindset to play our respective roles, it will still remain a mirage. Let us remember that we are citizens and must be responsible than to be called spectators. God bless our homeland Ghana.

By: Jonas Owusu Ohemeng

Development Communicator

Inspirational speaker

Security Analyst.



b[email protected]
First Lady Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo has commissioned the Association of Ghana Industry (AGI)'s first liaison office in Qingdao, China.

The opening of the AGI office which was facilitated by the Belt and Road Collaborative Innovative Centre (BRCIC) of China, is expected to boost Chinese investment in Ghana especially towards the One-District-One Factory (1D1F) programme.

In her remarks, the First Lady said the opening of the office was a testimony to the good relations between the two countries and she is confident the initiative would increase business corporation between Ghana and China.

She encouraged the business community in Ghana to take advantage of the new office assuring them she will always be available to provide the needed support to ensure that the initiative becomes successful.

The President of the AGI, Mr. James Asare Adjaye in his welcome address noted that opening of the liaison office is part of the association's efforts to support Ghanas Industrialization agenda.

He however stated that though the facility will be managed by AGI, it would be opened to all Ghanaian businesses, and trade associations, and state institutions.

Mr. Adjaye said that the AGI as well as the international business community especially BRCIC are enthusiastic about the 1D1F programme therefore opening of an office in China will help promote Chinese investment in Ghana.

He noted that currently the AGI with government's support has arranged a $2 billion turn key financial facility from the Chinese National Building Materials Company (CNBM) to support Ghanaian businesses that would operate under the 1D1F initiative.

The Chairperson of BRCIC, Ms. Zhang Lu commended Ghana for being the first country to open a liaison office under the initiative and pledged to support the office to be successful.

The First Lady is in China as part of an eight-day visit to various parts of the country together with female business entrepreneurs from the manufacturing, cosmetic, agriculture, garments and textile and construction industries.
24.11.2017 LISTEN

The Ashanti regional Minister, Hon. Simon Osei Mensah, has hinted that the construction of the regional hospital at Sewua in the Bosomtwe district will create more jobs for the people in the area and its neighboring towns.

He said aside the professional jobs such as that of Doctors, Nurses and others, all the non-professional jobs will be given to the local people. This he explained will help them generate income for themselves.

To this end, the government is speeding up the completion of the project.

Hon Simon Osei Mensah made this remarks on Thursday, November 23, 2017 when he paid a courtesy call on Sewuahene Amoako Sarkodie as part of his regional tour.

He said the construction of the regional hospital will also better the quality of health care in the region.

"It seems many people don't know the essence of construction the regional hospital but you have to know that if it is completed it will create more jobs and generate income for you," Hon. Osei Mensah assured.

"Aside the professional jobs such as Doctors, Nurses and others, all the rest of the non-professional jobs will be given to you, shop owners will generate more income, those who have lands will sell them for high prices and others," he noted.

He revealed the government is paying attention to the project because provision of the health care for the people is a priority of the government.

On 20th February 2015, the Minister of Health, Dr.Agyemang - Mensah handed over the site for the construction of a 250-bed Ashanti Regional Hospital to the contractor; Euroget.

The project, which is being financed by the government at a cost of $63 million, was expected to be completed within 20 months. It is sited on a 30 acre land at sewua in the Bosomtwe district of the Ashanti Region.

At a ceremony to hand the site to the contractor, Dr.Agyemang - Mensah said the project held lots of prospects for the region and the Sewua community and entreated the contractor to sublet some of the jobs to the local people to generate income.

The Former Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe constituency entreated the people to do all within their power to support the project to completion since many other people sought the project for their communities.

He revealed that plans are underway to create access roads to the project site.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, as part of his tour to the Bosomtwe district, also visited the Oyoko Community Day school, to get to know the challenges of the school.

The community school, one of the E- Block Community Day Schools built by the erstwhile NDC administration, had admitted students for the first time, and also under the free SHS POLICY currently introduced by the Nana Addo government.

Unfortunately, the students are battling to live a relatively decent school lives because the day school has to improvise to absorb student, especially, from outside the community into the school, as borders.

However brilliant the idea of absorbing students into the facility is, government does not recognize it to be a boarding facility. And, the regional minister suggests it's time to rapidly move to ensure the Oyoko day school, and many others with similar challenges are converted and recognized by government as boarding school.

The minister's visit to the school revealed a rather disturbing situations that both students and teachers face in acquiring and imparting quality education.

For instance, the school is not completely constructed as was made to believe by the NDC government. No electricity connection to the school, as boarders, particular, the girls had tough times during the nights with less supervision.

There is no kitchen even to provide the hot meal component of the free SHS policy, to the day students talk less of providing launch and supper for the boarders.

Food had to be prepared in town and then transported to the school before the students can eat.

The entire compound is not paved. One major thing that saddened the minister was the water they use to bath and therefore, had to rely on sachet water.
Five decapitated bodies have been found in a village of the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, a region which has been plagued by inter-ethnic violence, local authorities said Friday.

The bodies were found Thursday in Kibirizi, a village about 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of the provincial capital of Goma, in the Rutshuru region near the border with Uganda.

The area has seen frequent clashes between Hutus, often linked to the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and the Nande and Hunde groups, the village chief, Arnold Kakule, told AFP.

The victims, three Nande and two Hunde, were killed by machete, presumably by FDLR fighters, the government representative for North Kivu in the village of Deo Kamathe said.

Two other people have been missing since Thursday, the representative said.

Dozens of people have been killed in clashes between the three ethnic groups since the beginning of this year.

The Nande and Hunde consider Hutus in the DR Congo as foreigners, and accuse them of supporting the FDLR in an effort to take control of their territories.

The FDLR was created by Rwandan Hutus who sought refuge in the eastern DR Congo after the mass killings of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, and some of their leaders are thought to be subject of international warrants over their role in the genocide.

Hutus in the DR Congo have made no secret of their pursuit of agricultural land, and accuse the Nande of obstructing their constitutional right to freedom of settlement.

Eastern DR Congo has been the scene of inter-ethnic violence for the past 20 years, as groups clash for control of mining and other resources.
Mrs. Esi Ayenba Inkoom, the coordinator of the School Health Education Programme (SHEP) of Ghana Education Service (GES), has expressed worry over the increasing rate of mockery of adolescent girls over menstruation in the countrys schools.

Speaking at a days workshop for officers of SHEP, Mrs. Inkoom said many girls absented themselves from school during menstruation due to mockery from their male counterparts and that, We have had reports of some of our girls in menstruation missing school just because their male friends tease them when they get to know of it. This situation is not the best and I appeal to all of us to intervene and to make sure that every girl stays in school to learn.

In another development, Mrs. Felicia Boakye-Yiadom, the acting Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment of the Ministry of Education, has urged teachers and education workers to regularly update their knowledge and skills in order to meet the exigencies of the modern classroom situation.

Speaking recently at a review workshop in Accra on core skills for teaching, Mrs. Boakye-Yiadom said her outfit was reviewing the existing curriculum at the pre-tertiary level to conform to the demands of the modern times.

As we speak, the classroom is now a mini-global village, where digitisation and skill-based learning experiences are taking over mere acquisition of knowledge and manual ways of doing things. We are, therefore, in the process of restructuring the existing curriculum in order for it to be in tune with the demands of this new world and for our children to become more critical thinkers and for them to provide solutions to the problems that confront our society.
Calling the BJP and Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) a made for each other alliance, Sushil Modi dismissed speculations that such seat-sharing pact may upset the sitting BJP MPs who could be denied tickets.

By India Today Web Desk: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gears up for Lok Sabha election in 2019, senior party leader and Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi today hinted at an alliance with Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) in 2019 at the India Today Conclave East 2017.

"When the time comes, we will sit together and divide the seats," Sushil Modi said when asked if the BJP, which in alliance with the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) accounts for 31 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, may not feel the need for JD(U)'s support in the coming Lok Sabha election.

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Calling the BJP and Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) a made for each other alliance, Sushil Modi dismissed speculations that such seat-sharing pact may upset the sitting BJP MPs who could be denied tickets.

"Kya guarantee hai ki har MP ko dobara ticket mile (What is the guarantee that every MP will get the party ticket a second time)," the BJP leader asked.

ON LALU AND ALLIANCE WITH NITISH IN BIHAR

Hitting out at Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Sushil Modi said "no sharif aadmi (gentleman) can work with Lalu". "Lalu is chaotic, disorganised, irresponsible," he said, adding that the JD(U)'s alliance with the RJD was waiting to collapse.

"Nitish Kumar was with the BJP for 17 years, and again we have come together because it is a natural alliance," Sushil Modi said.

He said that it was impossible for Nitish Kumar to defend his Number 2 (Tejashwi Yadav) who is steeped in corruption.

Asked about what has changed in the Nitish-Sushil Modi 2.0, the Bihar deputy chief minister said there is now synergy between the Central and state governments.

During the previous tenure of the BJP-JD(U) government in Bihar, Modi said, the government at the Centre was not supportive of Bihar.

"The second tenure will see more development. Nitish ji made one call to Prime Minister and army was sent to Bihar during floods," Sushil Modi said.

SUSHIL MODI ON GST

Asked about the Congress' definition of GST as Gabbar Singh Tax, Sushil Modi, who is a member of the GST Council, said, "If it is Gabbar Singh Tax, then why did Congress ministers support it in Parliament, their ministers are part of the GST Council".

The BJP leader claimed that the best form of GST is being implemented in the country and added that any new reform will have some initial teething problems.

He said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is stabilising slowly. On GST being a major poll issue in Gujarat, Sushil Modi asked sceptics to wait for the election results.

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Here is the full coverage of India Today Conclave East 2017.

--- ENDS ---
National Coalition of Human Rights Defender  Kenya (NCHRD-K) on Friday 24 led by its Executive Director Kamau Ngugi, launched the coalitions elections findings regarding the risks that faces election monitors and journalists  during election period  at the Intercontinental Hotel.

The launch that featured journalists, Human Rights Defenders, state institutions like IPOA and KNCHR, and various representatives from across the East African region  Uganda and South Sudan, put forth findings that were collected during the election period. The findings are meant to curb the risks that faces election monitors and journalist during the risky period of elections, since this is the time when those who speak for the voiceless get targeted by selfish politicians who want to bury the truth about the outcome of the election.

Speaking at the event, Executive Director Kamau Ngugi said Every election period is the most risky period for Human Rights defenders (HRDs) and journalists, and with 52 cases of threats reported during this electioneering period, it high time the state and civil society protect the rights of human rights defenders and those of journalists with a lot of sympathy and plea.

The risks for election monitors and journalists is not only a Kenyan problem, but a problem for the East Africa region as attested by representatives from Uganda and South Sudan. In the just concluded elections, journalists and human rights defender had limited access to elections on goings, even in the most critical times when Kenyan citizens deserved to know the truth about the election outcomes. Something that should not have happened.

With those making a step to pursue the truth being intimidated, threatened and some even being killed.

According to NCHRD-K report, one hundred and two (102) election monitors were deployed across the country to monitor, document and report on the working environment for election monitors, journalists and HRDs; and human rights violations against the same in order to allow for timely intervention. That can show you how deep the coalition looked in to this matter of finding safety and the far it went with the experiment.

It is through this great step of assessment that NCHRD-K, through its three programmes  Protection, Advocacy and Capacity Building  that it was able to come up with findings that will help the coalition (and other relevant parties) perform its mandate for protecting human rights defenders. In order to strengthen their capacity to work effectively and without fear.

Also speaking at the event was a senior human rights defender Mr. Henry Maina, who raised issues of concern that he felt deeply should be put into consideration when it comes to protecting human rights defenders, and ensuring safety for journalists as they carry out their work. He said There should be proper measures put in place to ensure prevention, protection and prosecution of human rights defenders and journalist injustices. Some of the issues he raised are:

Condemnation of intimidations should be done equally without biasness.

Mapping of risky hotspots for human rights defender and journalists  and not only for national presidential elections but also for other elections as well.

Regular updates of journalists and human rights defender attacks.

Confidentiality of journalists and human rights defenders safety measures.

Recognition of the role Human Rights Defenders before, during and after the election period.

Training of human rights defender with the journalists on anonymity.

Adding to the event, Mr. Musau the person in charge of IPOA, asked the citizen to be patient with the institution as they seek justice. Seeing justice is a process that takes a lot of time to investigate and to bring the right people on board. The problem is that when something unjust has been done by the police, the victims wants justice there and then, which sometimes is very difficult Mr Musau said. He also called upon the civil society to join hands with IPOA so as to help the institution resolve the pending cases and any other time when they are called upon.

Another key issue that Mr Musau raised was that there should be an establishment of community based journalism that has its root deeply embedded on the community level. So as to avoid half-baked news stories that has dependable background.

The NCHRD-K closed the event by calling upon all the relevant institutions to stand firm their ground and pave way for justice to human rights defenders and journalists.

You can download the full NCHRD-K report that contains the exact dates and locations for the individuals that were harassed, intimidated and threatened from here (you can post the report here since we have it in soft copy)
Abidjan, Cote dIvoire, 24 November 2017  The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a US$ 15m equity participation in Africa Capital Works Fund.

The investment will finance Sub Saharan Africas mid-market companies in strategically selected sectors that offer the potential to be transformed into local and regional industry champions, over a longer than usual ownership period.

Launched by the independent alternative asset manager, Capitalworks Group, is a US$300m fund, targeting institutional and professional investors across the continent. The Fund, led by Joint Managing Partners, Beth Mandel and Nana Sao, will invest in financial services, agriculture, healthcare and manufacturing by deploying longer termed equity.

The general shallowness of African capital markets and the high cost of debt finance mean that Private Equity plays a central role in helping to unlock and grow the potential of individual companies and ecosystems. Furthermore, mid-sized African enterprises struggle to raise the long-term capital they need to grow through the multiple phases of value creation to achieve enterprise growth and jobs. The AfDB recognizes the significant imbalance between the supply of and demand for long-term capital in the rapidly growing and developing Sub-Sahara Africa economies and the mid-market companies within them and share ACWs thesis that longer-term capital offers a better way to address this imbalance.

The investment in Africa capital Works offers significant potential for development impact and helps advance the strategic agenda of the Banks High 5 priorities with regards to Industrialize Africa, Integrate Africa, Feed Africa and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. More specifically, the investment will support; the promotion of financial inclusion through offering affordable and improved financial services for the unbanked; gender and social benefits arising from support to smallholder farmers; private sector development through improved access to finance for mid-cap businesses; as well as enhance regional trade by investing in regional companies thereby facilitating their growth across countries and regions.

Africa Capital Works strategy is well aligned with the Banks Ten-Year Strategy (2013-2022) as it contributes directly to achieving the Banks inclusive growth vision. It promotes the Banks Private Sector Development Strategy (2013-2017) by developing growth oriented enterprises as well as the Banks Financial Sector Development Policy and Strategy (20142019) whose priority is to increase access to finance to the underserved and to deepen the financial market.
On Tuesday 12th September, 2017 at the West Africa Senior High School, the President, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the free senior high school education policy ushering the nation into an era where the age old creed of "education as a right not a privilege" assumes its true meaning. Indeed, this has been the dream of the forebears of our republic; a Ghana where our children will not be denied the opportunity of senior high school education because of the inability of their parents to support them financially.

H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of The Republic Ghana speaking at the launch of the policy.

It is indeed a fact, that many young people since independence have been denied the opportunity of secondary education mainly due to financial constraints, hence it therefore came as no surprise when Ghanaians all over the country received the news of the launch of this flagship policy with excitement. It was a dawn of a new era, an era that is not only bringing to our young people hope of a brighter future, a future with limitless and greater opportunities, but it also brings enormous financial relief to the overwhelming majority of parents who find it extremely hard to finance the education of their children. If free education means one thing, then it is the fact that the era where pupils dropped out from school for financial reasons, or had their education cut short has become a thing of the past. It therefore came as no surprise, that across the length and breadth of the country the news of the launch was received in most instance amidst the display of joy and celebrations in our streets.

A section of Ghanaians at the launch of the policy

Free SHS like any pro-poor policy or any policy intervention for that matter has its own challenges, it is however unfortunate that today even problems with SHS three students, their classrooms and any other problems in our high schools are attributed to the Free SHS and pupils benefiting from the intervention. So I want to ask, until the start of the Free SHS, were there no challenges in our schools already? Was it all rosy and glossy? Why is the NDC victimising pupils? Pupils whose only crime is that, they have chosen to go to school and their country has chosen to pay for it fully.

It is worth noting, that even before the implementation of the policy, the propaganda then, was that, government intended fidgeting and interfering with WAEC marking schemes so as many pupils would be affected and failed. This they claimed would affect enrollment causing a sharp reduction in enrollment figures so that government could fund the scheme for the few brilliant ones. It turned out cut-off points were lowered so every child could start SHS education. The effect--- enrollment figures have been astounding, unlike anything we've ever seen before.

Minister of Education - Ghana, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh

These deliberate propaganda still do exist but they now appear in different forms and seem to be aided for whatever reason by media some houses. For whatever it's worth, the forces against this policy seem unrelenting and even more belligerent in their endeavors. How has it become a crime to dedicate part of our resources towards ensuring every child receives free secondary education? Do we bastardise a policy because of some few problems. In lecture halls and auditoria in some of our universities, students stand to listen to lectures because of inadequate seats, others go to lab and only observe because of inadequate equipment and other essentials, you attend lectures and you don't hear anything because the PA System is faulty. In our halls of residence, we have people we refer to as 'perchers', a room for 4 people end up accommodating 10. In my room back in Katanga at KNUST, there were about 12 of us, in a cubicle meant for 4 people originally designed for one or two persons. Back then, one would hear stories about rooms that have never been locked, obviously because of the enormously high number of occupants. Did we condemn our universities over this? Were these problems also because of Free SHS?

You remember what they call 'the shit on shit' phenomenon? We went through these conditions and today our lives have seen tremendous improvements. Some of us have risen to greater heights, achieved greater feats and doing greater things. One man here who used to be my 'percher' rose through the ranks of one of the biggest banks in the world headquartered in New York, managing assets of multinational oil companies worth several billions of dollars.

I remember back then at Anglican secondary school in Kumasi several years ago, students from other schools used to come in to use our labs and other facilities, this was years before the idea of Free SHS was conceived. I remember a senior high school that had a spill over of SSCE candidates to other schools because they did not have enough facilities, some SHSs could not be approved WAEC centers because of inadequate infrastructure and facilities, this was aeons before Mr. President became a candidate for the first time. Clearly, these were no challenges arising as a result of Free SHS, they are challenges that come with our educational system as a developing country which governments over time have tried to address. Should we have condemned high school education then because of these challenges? Where would we be today?

Today, our lecture halls, auditoria and theaters have received tremendous boosts, fully furnished, some with functioning central air conditioning systems. The conditions under which we study have improved. Most schools have moved beyond the blackboard-white chalk system to a healthier whiteboard-marker system. More dormitories have been built over time, more halls of residence and many many others facilities to give our campuses a facelift and make them modern centers of learning. I remember the NPP's model school system and the infrastructure it came with.

Why do I even have a feeling that hypocrisy is ingrained in our body-polity and there is a deliberate attempt by some people to destroy the opportunities created by the Free SHS. Even as I write this, pupils in basic schools still study under trees and other dilapidated structures. Did these start today? Were these the doing of the Free SHS policy? Must we deny those pupils the ability to read and write because they have no classrooms?

The problems of our education system did not start with the opportunity created for every child to receive free secondary education and it certainty won't end here. And headmasters, crying about problems in their schools as though those challenges haven't persisted for years. Must we have shut down schools and stopped educating our children entirely because of challenges in our educational institutions?

Pupils studying under a tree, an existing problem before Free SHS

Must we have denied our children university education because of the challenges with facilities and infrastructure? Where would we be today? Ask yourself, those days you used to stand in the lecture hall, should government have revoked your admission or denied you admission on the basis of that alone, where would you be today? Or are the problems and challenges with infrastructure and facilities at our universities and basic schools also as a result of Free SHS?

A congested university lecture hall

With all the conditions and challenges that confronted us on all fronts in the education sector then, on no occasion did we see this level of bastardization and antagonism against university education or SHS. Because? It I makes no sense, and we couldn't refuse to educate ourselves on the basis of infrastructure and some challenges alone. These problems are solved over time and no country can claim anywhere that its education sector has no challenges. Today, democrats and republicans in congress are fighting each other because of budget cuts. Betsy Devos is always hot because these cuts are going to affect less endowed schools in deprived communities. But, education doesn't stop because of challenges. Because things get better over time.

Today, even problems with the grass on the pitch of a high school is attributed to Free SHS. Yes, government including all of us do admit that, Free SHS, just as any other policy intervention has challenges, but these policies also have their success stories. We have heard about those challenges and we are doing everything possible to address them.

I want to ask our media houses especially Citi 97.3 FM Starr1035FM Kasapa1025FM who seem to have a strong penchant for reporting only on the negatives of the policy, and who have carved an unpopular enviable niche for themselves in this business, that in their daily rounds, do they not see any positives of the Free SHS policy? Can they not see that, it has given opportunities to several thousands who hitherto would be loitering our streets? Have they not met people whose lives have been changed by the policy? Why do they find it extremely difficult to report on the glaring life changing testimonies of those affected by the policy. Must we destroy the policy because of some challenges in its first year of implementation? Even in their media houses, do they not have challenges? Do they detonate bombs to destroy their stations because of some challenges? Why do I sense that feeling that they have connived with the NDC and some misguided school heads, using propaganda, subterfuge, sabotage to paint a rather dark picture of an unprecedented policy initiative?

I have earlier on highlighted the challenges and circumstances under which most of us received our education, yet here we are today. We stand here today as doctors, as lawyers, as engineers, as economists, as policy makers as nurses, as teachers all products of a not-so-rosy education system. All products of an education system fraught from its basic level to its highest with deeper problems. At some point under Prof. Mills lecturers went on strike for seven weeks, disrupting the semester and throwing the academic calendar off balance, yet here we stand today. Here we stand today as professionals beaming with pride and doing what we can to contribute to the socio-economic development of this dear country. We sat through those challenges yet, we are able to compete with our colleagues anywhere on earth in fields of study or profession. What if we had been condemned because we sat under trees to study in primary school? What if we had been refused admission or our schools demonized because of inadequate facilities? What if someone had denied us university educating citing inadequate facilities?

A university hall of residence - situation in most universities in Ghana. Not from Free SHS

But today here we stand. As headmasters yes, the policy certainly severs an illegitimate source of income for us. So what? When the university placed a ban on the sale of handouts, yes I was affected, but it was the larger picture that mattered. Today I buy PDFs and I gladly share with my students on WhatsApp to support their research. Many of whom have gone to work with big oil companies contributing their quota to developing this country. What if I had decided to sabotage my own school and students? Then running around to the media to bemoan the falling standards in our education. Who'd be the beneficiary? To what end?

The Free SHS has challenges, but if we had set our priorities right from the onset, these problems would probably not be this common as we make it seem or be here with us in the first place. Free SHS has challenges but most of these challenges existed before the policy and it stopped no one from receiving education. Our senior high schools have problems and most have existed with us before the implementation of this policy. Free SHS came with its own challenges but it doesn't in any way warrant the campaign of negativity and bad publicity as championed by some media houses. Free SHS has its own challenges and these are problems government is working assiduously to ameliorate. If we can speak of the challenges of these few schools, creating the unfortunate impression as though those challenges only arose from the implementation of the policy and they are so rampant when they're but just some isolated cases, why can't we also write about those overwhelming majority of school where the policy is running without a scintilla of challenges?

Free SHS may have its challenges but it is it better stays. If we cannot write a line to thank the president for this enormous intervention that will go down in history as the greatest thing we have gifted to ourselves by ourselves, then we have no business joining the bandwagon of doom mongers, purveyors of shenanigans, despicable chicanes and ill-wishers of the republic. If someone would even condemn this policy, must it even be the NDC? Those who have presided over us for half the period since independence yet cannot boast of a single policy beyond the stealing, naked thievery, CLS, and rape of our republic from all sides. Today the NDC is talking about policy document? What policy document did they need to pay Woyome and all the fraudulent judgement debts? What policy document did they use to implement the bus branding and the fraudulent schemes?

The President and The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia with the Free SHS official logo

Thank you Mr. President, posterity never forgets and it certainly won't forget this honorable gesture. Thank you Mr. Vice President, the education minister and everyone supporting to make this policy a success. Ghana is grateful, her future is even more grateful. And if there is anything that threatens the success of the Free SHS, then it is the NDC and its continuous existence.

Mustapha Hameed

Lecturer, Department of Petroleum Engineering

4th Floor Office No. 426 Petroleum Building

College of Engineering

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology - KNUST, Kumasi

Ghana.

+233-205-832-581
I will begin this write up with the first two lines of William Shakespeares sonnet 66. Tired with all these, for restful death I cry [the poet was almost invariably exhausted to deal with social evil hinging on him]. As to behold desert a beggar born [an important person born into poverty: interwoven social evil]. The foregoing lines mirror a soliloquy (self-talking) in Shakespeares tragedy, Hamlet: To be, or not to be, that is the question. Are we not always shocked by the death of an enterprising young man? Every sentient creature fears to die, albeit a verse in the Bible that it is appointed to man to die once (Hebrews 9:27).

Thanatophobia is a psychological term implying the fear of death and necrophobia implies the fear of dead or a dying person. And where from this, Koo Nimo? Another colleague of the late journalist known as Vim Lady has alleged that Kaba was killed with black magic known in the popular parlance as juju  (Source: GHANAWEB.COM, November 23, 2017). What is the meaning of all these in the age of medical and scientific advancement? Cant we leave KABA alone?

We are all astounded by the death of Kwadwo Asare Baffour Acheampong, the host of the late afternoon political talk show program Ekosii Sen? on Accra-based Asempa FM. I am typically stunned by his demise because KABA and I were all products of Techiman Senior High School in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. I was leading him couple of years. It is only the spirit of Judas Iscariot that will compel an individual to pull down his/her own High School-mate or hometown fellow like KABA at the height of his impeccable career in broadcast journalism! I am not only proud of KABA but have a great deal of fondness for MultiMedia Group Limited subsidiary; Asempa FMs Ekosii Sen? program.

I started listening to the program from the days of Nana Kwabena Bobie Ansah. When KABA started, my favorite panelists were Nana Akomea and Lawyer Kakra Essamuah on Mondays. We are all going to miss KADA so let us spare his soul from broad daylight balderdash and magical and religious hocus-pocus. Ferreting out who might have juju KABA cannot bring him back to life. Social conflict is always concomitant with every social relation in places such as workplace.

Someone not on good terms with KABA did not mean that he/she is responsible for his death. We live in a hypocritical society in Africa where beautiful women are coerced to suppress their love feelings for their male co-workers. To add more injuries to their emotional woes, they are always directed to pray and dream about their would-be love ones! Besides, co-workers are expected to work as a team but not obliged to be friends. Needless to say spiritual attack on KABA cannot be totally ruled out only if not emanating from frustration aggression hypothesis.

I began this article with the two lines from Shakespeares fourteen line poem 66. Unlike the other Elizabethan sonnets characterized with rhyme and other techniques repetition, parallelism and synecdoche remained salient literary devices in the above sonnet. These techniques and the poem reveal the antithetical nature of human existence. My reference to the aforesaid sonnet reveals beyond plausible doubt that I believe in the possibility of the dark side and hypocrisy of human heart or the crazy nature of this world such as life uncertainties, jealousy, selfishness and pull him down syndrome.

The evil cocooning human society that could make KABA tired and be beckoning death at the peak of his career! Yes, black magic or JUJU is possible because where there is a competition, there is nothing like a fair play. I personally wrote articles about some individuals that mentioning their names could not be good for a platform like this. I had two dreams one sitting with me to explain himself and the other chasing me in the other dream. Since then, I will have to pray before I publish an article. We must also pray for our insightful journalists!

A journalist is always nudged by curiosity which makes him/her a whistle blower or a gossiper of a sort. The absence of the age-long right to information bill (RTI) compelled some journalists to be lurking around like a ghost looking for information for public consumption. No individual will welcome his/her dirty deals in the media without a heart-wrenching grief. Such griefs could culminate in either physical or spiritual attack on the media man.

An investigative journalist like Anas Aremeyaw Anas disguises himself physically? But is there any spiritual protection for him? I listened to Joy FMs investigative Journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni on Kofi TV as he narrated his experience in uncovering erstwhile President Mahamas Ford gift from a Burkinabe contractor. Manasseh narrated how he and his then would-be wife committed themselves into prayers before embarking on such a journey. So journalists must incorporate prayers into their safety measures. Not all human beings have a good spirit. Journalists must therefore pray and thrive on the mercy of their maker!

Apart from prayers, journalist must undergo stress management training. In psychological terms, a stress is any uneasy emotional feeling characterized with predictable, mental health and biochemical changes. There are two types of stress namely: negative stress otherwise known as distress and positive stress known as eustress. Psychotherapist and psychiatrist Alfred Adler believed that every individual is socially embedded which motivates him/her to strive from a perceived minus situation to a felt plus situation. Lack of social embeddedness conceptualized as social interest during this strive is harmful to our health.

A struggle between demanding social interest and lacking social interest could lead to unconscious shock which affects our whole being. For example, a journalist trying to please his listeners always is demanding social interest. The stress the journalist will have to experience before being furnished with a tip of the iceberg information place the journalist within the domain of lacking social interest. Thus, demanding social interest (getting right information) and lacking social interest (lacking right information) could unconsciously stress out the journalist. This could biologically increase the journalist blood pressure and other psychopathological complications. Stress, thus occurs when social interest is throttled.

Journalists and their employers must factor quarterly medical screening into their employment policies and procedures. Journalists must occasionally leave the suffocating city of Accra and cool themselves in quiet places. They can engage in exercise, fasting and prayers or speak with their love ones. They can have a good sex when applicable. Journalists can attend a good church, concert or other activities that could really lift the soul. Journalists must monitor their blood pressure, practice YOGA and mindfulness when applicable and eat healthily. They can visit some of the Catholic monasteries to have a chat about what lifts human souls.

Muslim journalists can talk with their Imams. Avoid churches that have treated you unfairly as this could trigger a further stress. Play guitar or piano when applicable. People pay money to attend Strip Clubs in Atlanta Georgia to reduce stress. Journalists can visit Volta Hall (UG), Adeshye Hall (UCC) or African Hall (KNUST) to interact with the bevy of ladies. All these are stress reduction plans by choice. Let us leave KABA alone with this Juju issues! We must rather take a practical lesson from his shocking demise. Let me express my heartfelt condolence to the family. KABA you really paid your dues to mother Ghana! We the Old Students of Techiman Senior High School are proud of you! R.I.P KABA!

By Nana Yaw Osei, Minnesota, USA. [email protected]
24.11.2017 LISTEN

The Akufo Addo led NPP government, in demonstrating its value for secondary education, declared a policy of FREE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL (SHS) education in the country which commenced in September this year. Barely three months since His Excellency Nana Akuffo-Addo, the President of Ghana officially launched the policy, divergent views have been expressed by some Ghanaians of which the National Union Of Ghana Students, NUGS is of no exception. Not loosing sight of the fact that the Motto of NUGS says "Education, A Right Not a Privilege"

Predominant of all the reactions since the commencement of the Free SHS Policy is the acknowledgement that the Free SHS policy is a laudable and unprecedented initiative which the government has boldly implementation regardless of the financial constraint battling the economy.

In this light, the bold step taken by His Excellency to scale up implementation of the Free SHS policy is highly commendable. Indeed, no one can deny the access expansion advantages associated with the removal of all fees and other related costs in the provision of senior high school education in Ghana.

Undoubtedly our checks with our regional and institutional blocs indicates that that Parents would be relieved the burden of paying school fees and no child would be sacked from school for non-payment of fees. But the questions that remain unanswered and which have been our focus as the ultimate mouthpiece of all students of Ghana are;

How do we ensure that quality is not compromised in the wholesale implementation of the Free SHS policy?how do we balance access and quality to make the Free SHS policy more meaningful to the Ghanaian child? How do we sensitize stakeholders, particularly parents against reneging on their fundamental shared responsibilities? These questions have been the parameters within which NUGS wishes to lay bear our contributions to the debate since the policy was rolled out.

We are calling on the Ministry of Education to prioritize strategies for mitigating these challenges in the Free SHS implementation process. Specifically, we suggest that the Ministry should consider the following factors before next year admission is done.

 Sensitizing parents and other stakeholders to enable them to understand the implications of the Free SHS policy for their shared responsibilities to schools.

 Initiate a process of revamping and equipping the science laboratories, Dinning halls of less endowed senior high schools.

Delays in the supply of foodstuffs from the buffer stock to the various must be looked at.

 putting in place strategies to ensure that remittances to schools are not unnecessarily delayed.

 Expanding of Dormitory facilities to meet the enrollment demands of less endowed Schools.

As a major stakeholder in the education dispensation, We humbly appeal to traditional authorities, clergy, Parents, Teachers, Civil society organisations and Non Governmental Organisations to support the Ministry of Education to strengthen the implementation of the Free SHS policy to ensure that quality is not compromised. stakeholders, particularly parents, must not renege on their shared commitment to supporting teaching and learning in secondary schools.

NUGS believes that in the interest of our dear nation and the fact that quality education cannot and should not be compromised in any way if we desire the best from the Free SHS policy,

The Ministry of Education should plan the implementation of the policy very well by prioritising quality issues to make the good intentions behind His Excellency President Nana Akuffo-Addos declaration of the Free SHS policy more meaningful to Ghanaians

In conclusion, We wish to appeal to the Minister of Education to operate all inclusive leadership style on policies which have direct bearing on students of Ghana; We humbly urge him embrace divergent ideas and comments made by Ghanaians especially NUGS and its constituents who are the direct beneficiaries of policies under his Ministry.

.........Signed

Elisha Oheneba Essumang

*NUGS PRESIDENT elect*

0244199288

.........Issued by

Dominic Kojo Blay

*Press and Information Secretary elect*

0275770400
Government is to establish a GHs 400 million fund toward agriculture financing and crop insurance schemes, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has indicated.

The Nana Akufo-Addo government also intends to support the development of agri-business start-ups through grants and provide specific technical assistance and tax incentives to support agro-processing, packaging, and market access to provide a boost to Ghanas agriculture sector.

As well, government intends to abolish duties on some agricultural produce processing equipment and machinery, launch a pension fund for cocoa farmers, develop modern storage facilities through the One-District, One Warehouse programme and open up key food basket zones through road construction and irrigation projects.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of an 8-day agricultural show leading up to the 33rd National Farmers Day, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said these measures, which are contained in the 2018 budget, form part of the Akufo-Addo governments programme to make agriculture and agri-business a major part of Ghanas economy and provide jobs for the youth.

Nana Chairman, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has a vision to modernize and transform agriculture in order to expand the opportunities for job creation, and to provide the basis for agro-processing industries. The vision is the outcome of careful assessment of the fundamental capacity of the Ghanaian economy and in line with our economic history. It is a history that tells us that massive and sustained investment in agriculture is the surest pathway to accelerated economic development.

In addition, Government realizes that its aim of promoting agro industries as a key strategy for achieving rapid industrialization, through the concept of One District, One Factory cannot be achieved without a solid agriculture base that thrives on agribusiness.

In a bid to reverse the decline in agriculture, government is developing a major intervention known as the Akufo-Addo Agricultural Plan for the modernization of agriculture in Ghana, Dr Bawumia disclosed.

Under the charge of the President, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in early November this year assembled a number of Ghanaian and foreign experts for a 2-day meeting to discuss the future of agriculture in this country. The outcome of the conference was fed into the 2018 Budget for our agricultural transformation strategy.

I wish to assure you therefore that our policies and strategies have prioritized agricultural development in Ghana and will do everything possible to meet the needs of the agricultural sector. Every effort is being made to make agriculture very attractive to our teeming youth, especially unemployed graduates the Vice President added.

According to the Vice President, critical issues such as financing and technical support are receiving serious attention with the assistance of Ghanas development partners to facilitate and sustain interest in agriculture.

Yes we know that the challenge is enormous, but there is nothing a determined people cannot do. I invite you all therefore to take an interest in the opportunities on offer, to help revolutionize Ghanas agriculture and make it a shining example to the world. The examples of countries like Japan, China, South Korea, Brazil, Israel and Thailand among others are there to inspire us. We have done it before and can surely do it again Dr Bawumia declared.

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia expressed special thanks to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, for granting a special dispensation for the celebration of the Farmers Day during a time of mourning for the late Asantehemaa.

All well-meaning Ghanaians owe the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and the entire Asanteman a great debt of gratitude for agreeing to host this years National Farmers Day under special circumstances.

For those who may not know, in an unusual break with tradition, the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II magnanimously agreed to host National Farmers Day during a period of mourning coming before the funeral of the Queen mother of Asanteman, the Late Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem. We are specially grateful because this is a period when all major activities and funerals are temporarily suspended in honour and respect for a loving and distinguished mother of Asanteman.

This remarkable gesture is not only the highest expression of selflessness and commitment to nation building, but a true mark of statesmanship consistent with the character and reign of Otumfuor Osei Tutu II.

Nana, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, we say thank you and we are very grateful.

The 2017 edition of the National Farmers Day will take place on Friday 1st December, 2017 in Kumasi. Unlike previous celebrations, the organisers have included an eight day national agricultural fair ahead of the Farmers day celebration. It is under the theme Farming for Food and Jobs.

Present at the launch was the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Akoto Afriyie; Minister for Aquaculture and Fisheries Hon Elizabeth Afoley-Quaye; Minister for the Interior Hon Ambrose Dery; Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Nurah Gyeile, Deputy Minister for Agriculture Hon Kennedy Osei Nyarko; and other senior government officials.

Nana Adu Gyamfi, Otumfuos Adontenhene, was chairman for the occasion.
The main opposition party in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Friday its secretary general was prevented from leaving the country by authorities and two activists were "kidnapped".

Jean-Marc Kabund of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) told AFP he was detained Wednesday by immigration services at Ndjili airport in capital Kinshasa, where his passport was confiscated by the Director-General of Migrations (DGM) "without just cause".

Kabund was headed to Spain for a Socialist International meeting.

His passport was not affected by the country's ban on non-biometric passports implemented earlier this year, he said, adding that he will file a complaint against DGM on Monday.

The party also accused Congolese authorities of arresting two of its members, James Katshingu, a member of UDPS leader Felix Tshisekedi's private cabinet and Christian Lumu Lukuasa with the UDPS Youth League.

They were arrested by security forces in Kinshasa's Limete neighbourhood, where the UDPS headquarters is located, according to Tshisekedi spokesman Abraham Luakabuanga.

Luakabuanga said police had confirmed elements of a report by news site actualite.cd.

Contacted by AFP, Congolese authorities said they would comment on the case later Friday.

The UDPS is the main party of an opposition coalition calling for President Joseph Kabila to resign by the end of the year.

The vast African country has seen an outbreak of anti-government demonstrations since Kabila refused to step down in December 2016 on the expiry of his second and final term in office. Elections are now planned for December 2018.

Kabila took office after his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001 at the height of the Second Congo War.
Four UN peacekeepers and a Malian soldier were killed in attacks in Mali on Friday, the UN's MINUSMA mission to the country said.

Twenty people, including another Malian soldier and several UN peacekeepers were injured in the attacks.

The first attack happened in the morning in the northeastern Menaka region and claimed the lives of three peacekeepers and a Malian soldier, MINUSMA said, adding that 16 other UN troops and a civilian were injured.

It did not give the nationalities of the UN forces involved but contingents from Togo and Nigeria are deployed in the area.

Several of the attackers were killed and others wounded, the UN force added.

The Malian army confirmed that one of their soldiers was killed and another wounded, and that three troops were killed on the MINUSMA side and 15 wounded.

"This operation to protect civilians in the region also aimed to bring medical assistance to people in need," the head of MINUSMA, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, said in the statement, condemning the attack.

He praised the "bravery" of the peacekeepers and soldiers who "neutralised several terrorists" and called for vigilance and unity in the face of "the cowardice of our adversaries," referring to jihadists groups in Mali's restive north.

The second attack targeted a MINUSMA convoy in the central Douentza area. One UN blue helmet was killed and three others seriously injured, according to the UN mission.

The MINUSCA troops gave chase against their attackers who used explosives and rocket-launchers.

On October 26, three Chadian peacekeepers in the UN force were killed when their vehicle hit a landmine and a fourth one later died of his injuries.

Mali's situation has been particularly volatile since 2012 when jihadist groups captured the entire north of the country, but were pushed back by a military intervention by France in 2013.

However, large swathes of the country remain outside the control of Malian and foreign forces.
Comic Nollywood actor, Ime Bishop better known as Okon Lagos, has just welcomed a baby girl with his wife, Idara.

The actor and his woman have done well by keeping the pregnancy off social media until the arrival of the baby girl.

Mother and child are said to be doing well and due to be discharged from the hospital soon after close monitoring by doctors.

Ime is already blessed with a daughter who is already grown and now she has a sister to play with in the home.
Popular Yoruba actress, Fausat Abeni Balogun, sure had a nice time during the just held thanksgiving that took place in the US.

The actress saw it as a day she could just have the best fun by requesting for a huge chicken to compliment the day.
Egypt government announced three days of mourning, even as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was set to hold an emergency meeting with officials to discuss the incident.

By India Today Web Desk: At least 184 people died and 125 were injured after suspected militants launched a bomb and gun attack on a mosque during Friday prayers in Egypt's restive North Sinai region.

The bomb, which was planted near al-Rowda mosque in Bir al-Abd city, went off during the Friday prayer, news agencies reported, citing security sources.

Earlier, the Associated Press quoted officials as saying that militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers during the sermon segment of Friday prayers.

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No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

The Egypt government has announced three days of mourning, even as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was set to hold an emergency meeting with officials to discuss the incident.

The AP reported that the mosque bombing was suspected to be handiwork of an Islamic State affiliate operating in Egypt.

According to the AP, today's attack was the largest single targeting of Egyptian civilians and the first on a large mosque congregation since an IS affiliate operating in the region began its campaign of violence against the state following the military's 2013 overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president.

Egypt's North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

Security forces have been battling militants in northern Sinai for years, but attacks to date have focused on military and police assets, although assassinations of individuals IS considers government spies or religious heretics are not uncommon.

Hundreds of soldiers and militants have been killed in the conflict, although exact numbers are unclear as journalists and independent investigators are banned from the area.

Egypt is also facing a growing number of attacks by militants in its Western Desert, including an attack last month that killed 16 police, according to an official tally issued by the Interior Ministry.

(With inputs from agencies)

--- ENDS ---
Wow, this is rather coming as a shock from the home of Nollywood actress, Mercy Johnson, as her hubby, Prince Odi Okojie, is just resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Prince Okojie tendered his resignation letter today, November, 24th, 2017, after having due consultations with some of his political associates.

This is rather coming as a shock because he was once the talk of the town after he showed his interest to run for political office in Edo state under the umbrella of the party but did not win.

He has not disclosed the party in which he will be joining as he has chosen to keep things in secret for now.

See a copy of his resignation letter below.


Australia is ahead of the herd in blockchain adoption.



This is the opinion of the Huffington Post.

And with good reason.

The World Economic Forum believes 10% of global GDP will be stored on blockchain by 2027.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has been upbeat since June. He argued that there will be

significant productivity, security and efficiency gains for the Australian economy.

Here are a few more recent examples of blockchain adoption.

October 2017: Australian university rewards students with ethereum for purchasing apps made on campus.

September 2017: Blockchain nominated as the tool most likely to support the digital economy.

August 2017: Three thousand bitcoin ATMs introduced to Australia.

July 2017: The Australian government ended the double taxation plan for bitcoin. Instead recognising bitcoin as a legitimate payment source.

ASX Also Leading the Way

Globally, the ASX is also leading the way in terms of its application to exchanges.

It will use the technology to settle equity trades almost instantly, instead of two days after the trade.

This is due before the end of the year.

But the most exciting Australian blockchain news came this week.

Two Australian blockchain projects are growing rapidly.

Power Ledger is one of them. And is up 792% this month alone.

The federal government pledged support to the tune of $8 million.

It aims to trade power peer-to-peer.

A world-first trial for 80 homes is about to commence in Fremantle.

Trading water and electricity home to home, without support from the major power grids.

The second project, Horizon State, has just completed a very successful ICO.

Its price is up 48% in the last three days.

Horizon State (HST) aims to redesign democracy.

The team have created a digital ballot box that can be used to conduct votes quickly, cheaply and securely.

Forbes had this to say in October;

This is set to be a global gamechanger and will soon be adopted by political parties, multinational enterprises, global NGOs and communities in developing countries.

The Commonwealth Bank is also searing a path for the worlds banks with blockchain adoption.

In 2016, the CBA conducted a world first experiment of blockchain smart contracts using physical commodities.

The experiment involved a container vessel carrying 88 bales of cotton between Houston and a port in Qingdao, China.

Bankers on two continents watched on closely.

The outcome of the test would concern many.

Smart-contracts are digital agreements. They ensure the conditions of the contract are met digitally before releasing funds.

They act as the middle man.

In fact, they replace the middle man.

In this instance, cotton bales were tracked from Houston to Qingdao.

As the port staff scanned the bales, the ownership of the goods was transferred and the payment released.

This might underwhelm you.

But the off-shoots of this experiment are the beginning of the end for many trust based industries.

No Intention to Ban the Bitcoin Economy

The main industries this technology will disrupt is banking, along with law, real estate, media and all intellectual property companies.

All industries that typically involve acting as the middlemen in matters of trust.

The take-away from all of this is that Australia has no intention to ban the bitcoin economy.

In fact, our government and institutions are leading the world in its commercial adoption.

Regards,

Dion Dalton-Bridges,

Junior Analyst, Money Morning

PS: To find out more about the secret world of bitcoin, click here.
What would a declining US mean for your investments?

How will our economy change as Chinas power grows? Not just Chinas economic power, but also political. And even military.

What would Aussie trade look like in a China-dominated Pacific?

The Federal Governments foreign policy White Paper arrived this week. This document will define Australias trade and international relations for years to come. Or so they tell us.

But the Department of Foreign Affairs is in a tough position. Uncertainty and potential for danger are on the rise in the Pacific. Australia has to step cautiously. Not least in a publicly available document like this.

Sure enough, the paper hedges its bets at every turn. For every opportunity, theres a danger. For everything we must do, theres a counterpoint.

Despite that caution, the paper quickly drew criticism from our Chinese neighbours. Which is already spilling over into the markets.

The White Paper argues that free trade is crucial to Australias success. We are an export nation. That wont change.

But economic protectionism is on the rise in Europe and the US. How can we rely on trade, if our trade partners are withdrawing?

The rise in US isolationism and nationalism, means less focus from them on the Pacific. Australia cant rely as much as they used to on our long-time ally and trade partner.

But the US alliance remains crucial to Australias security and position. It should be strengthened, but the paper doesnt supply much information on how this should be done. Perhaps we can reverse the direction of US foreign policy if we wish hard enough?

The White Paper states that Chinas rise in wealth and power will inevitably lead to friction. Australia and China have different interests, values and political and legal systems. Likely true. And the authors insist that Australia must work harder to engage with democracies in Asia and the Pacific.

That could include the Philippines, currently clashing with China over Chinas territorial claims near Philippines shores.

But the White Paper also claims we must strengthen and deepen ties with China, as well. How can we strengthen our ties with China, while also standing by the smaller nations whose sovereignty China is violating?

That last point is the one drawing criticism. Chinas government fired back quickly after the publication of the White Paper. The paper calls for China to uphold a rules based order, likely a reference to Chinas choosing to ignore an international court ruling last year against its island building program in the South China Sea.

The Chinese Foreign Ministrys spokesman Lu Kang said, Australia is not a party to the South China Sea issue, and that, Australia has claimed many times it does not take sides on the sovereignty issue of the South China Sea, so we urge Australia to keep its promise.

The Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party-owned newspaper, went much further. They called Australia ungrateful for its stance, accused us of becoming an anti-China propaganda outlet, and speculated that China could relegate ties with Australia to the back of the line, and ignore its immature outburst.

By Friday morning, diplomats and politicians were busy smoothing ruffled feathers. Plenty of mentions of respect and positive meetings from Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. But that wasnt enough to stop the ASX All Ordinaries from dropping sharply when it opened Friday. In just under the first hour of trading, it fell from 6067.6 to 6035.3. From there it recovered partially, to finish the day slightly down.

Our government and that of our largest trade partner are trading criticisms. The US, our biggest ally, is withdrawing from the region. With so much uncertainty in the halls of government, where are investors to turn?

As youll read below, your Money Morning editor Ryan Dinse sees a way. Because even while the governments of the world bare their teeth at one another, some sectors of the market are booming. Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology behind them, just keep rising.

Whats driving them to rise so fast, even in the face of global tensions? You can read Ryans latest research, here, to find out for yourself.

He believes this new wave of technology could see incredible returns, even as governments create chaos. Not least because of the alternatives cryptocurrency provide to national currencies. But its not just about an alternative financial system. Some of the biggest gains could be in tech stocks looking at whole new ways to use blockchain tech. Check out Ryans research to see why hes so excited about this tech revolution.

This week in Money Morning

Markets around the world continue to boom. As experts hotly debate where theyll head next, Ryan argued on Monday that prices dont lie. Theyre the one indicator you can rely on, whatever everyone is saying. And prices around the world are telling Ryan to be bullish. On shares, commodities and most of all, on cryptocurrencies.

That doesnt mean that things are perfect. In fact, there are plenty of dangers to markets, and reason they could fall. But it could take years for those falls to come. Ryan argued that you have to take the world as it is, and investwith an escape hatch ready. To read how, check out Mondays Money Morning here.

Ryan expanded on Mondays theme on Tuesday. He looked at one of those looming threats to Australias economy, and discussed when the bubble might finally pop. In the process, he discussed some uncomfortable truths about the Aussie economy.

This may not be the easiest read. Especially if youve personally benefited from this bubble. But good investing isnt about hearing just what we want to hear. Which is why you should read Ryans warning here.

One of the current criticisms of cryptocurrencies and blockchain is that, despite all the hype and promise, so far its all about the future. Very few retailers accept bitcoin today. And there are even fewer real-world applications for other, newer cryptos. While it may be true that blockchain will soon change the world, it hasnt yet.

Meaning that high and rising valuations are based on potential, not reality.

In at least one case, that could be about to change. In Wednesdays Money Morning, Ryan looked at an Australian city trialling a blockchain-based revolution in how electricity is distributed. If it works as expected, this could change the entire electricity industry. Australia wide  or even globally. And it could go some way towards moving blockchain out of the realm of theory and into the real world. To read what that could mean for investors, click here.

Theoretic economics are another field that often feels detached from reality. Thursdays Money Morning looked at how economics often break down when applied to real human decisions. But there is one field of economic theory where this isnt true. To read what it is, and what it can tell us about Australias economy, read the article here.

On Friday Ryan closed out the week with a look at how he would construct his perfect blockchain portfolio. You may be surprised to know that its not just cryptocurrencies. But Ryan explained that some stocks involved with blockchain could have as much or more potential than many cryptocurrencies.

To see blockchain technologys full potential, Ryan argues you have to look beyond just bitcoin. To read why, you can find Fridays article here.

Until next week,

Tyler Jefferson,

Editor, Money Weekend

Publishers Pick: Exponential Stock Investor. Think the recent boom in cryptocurrencies was breathtaking? Wait until you see the explosion in the technology behind cryptocurrencies in 2018. According to Ryan Dinse, its going to send the valuation levels of a clutch of unknown stocks soaringIn fact, these stock performances could matchor even OUTPACEthe very best technology stocks born in the 1960s and 1970s[more]

Aussie Dollar to US Dollar: 0.7625

Gold: US$1,293.06 (AU$1,695.66) per troy ounce

Silver: US$17.15 (AU$22.49) per troy ounce

Bitcoin: US$8,053.20 (AU$10,564.35)

West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil: US$58.02 per barrel (AU$76.09)

ASX 200: 5,980.90
Review of CI.133 will aid in ...
By PTI: By K J M Varma

Beijing, Nov 24 (PTI) China today denied reports that the closure of a key border bridge connecting it with North Korea was aimed at punishing the reclusive Communist state for its defiance over its nuclear programme.

"It was closed temporarily because the North Korean side needs to carry out some maintenance work on this bridge," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a media briefing here.

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It will be opened again for passage after repair and maintenance work, he said when asked whether the closure was aimed at punishing North Korea for continuing to pursue its nuclear programme in defiance of UN sanctions and international pressure.

Geng however did not give a time-line for its reopening.

"Just for recent days," Geng said when asked for how long it would be closed.

The 944-metre-long China-North Korea Friendship bridge over the Yalu river in Dandong, Liaoning province is a lifeline for North Korea as it facilitates all essential supplies from its big neighbour.

The river is the border between the two countries. It is the route of 80 per cent of trade and a large amount of personal travel between the neighbours. North Korea is virtually dependent on China for most of its essential goods.

The closure came in the immediate backdrop of the visit of President Xi Jinpings special envoy Song Tao to North Korea.

Reports said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un snubbed China by not meeting him leading to strained ties between the Communist neighbours.

North Korea, regarded as a close ally of China, was reportedly cut up with Beijing over the implementation of UN sanctions that increased pressure on Pyongyang which is not willing to give up its nuclear and missile programmes.

The closure came as relations were strained because of Chinas sanctions against North Koreas nuclear and missile programmes.

North Koreas recent missile and nuclear tests demonstrating its ability to launch long-range ballistic missiles have sparked fears that the regime is developing nuclear weapons faster than previously estimated by the US.

Regular joint US?South Korea military drills as well as US warnings to North Korea have also raised tensions recently in the region and beyond.

Both Beijing and Pyongyang have tried to put a positive spin on Songs trip but have remained tight-lipped about whether the Chinese envoy met the reclusive North Korean leader, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported earlier.

Although Song met Choe Ryong-hae, a vice-chairman of the Workers Party of Korea and Kims right-hand man, and Ri Su- yong, Pyongyangs top diplomat, analysts said his failure to meet Kim ? if confirmed ? was a deliberate snub to Xi and again showed Chinas limited influence over the unruly regime, it said.

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China is also increasingly coming under pressure from US President Donald Trump to use its influence over North Korea to curb Pyongyangs nuclear weapons programme. PTI KJV KUN

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: By Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Nov 24 (PTI) A Nepalese power company today signed a deal with three Chinese firms to develop hydropower projects in Nepal with an investment of up to USD 3 billion.

The joint venture was launched in the capital.

The three Chinese companies are Sichuan Provincial Investment Group (SCIG), Chengdu Xingcheng Investment Group (CXIG) and Qing Yuan Consulting Co (QYEC).

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The joint venture between Nepals Butwal Power Company (BPC) and its Chinese partners will begin with the Lower Manang Marsyangdi Hydroelectric Project located in Western Nepal that would generate over 100 MW of power.

The joint venture is aimed at developing hydro projects that will add up to 1,000 MW to Nepals electricity grid in the next five years with an investment of up to USD 3 billion, according to media reports here. PTI SBP KUN

--- ENDS ---
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

The day before Thanksgiving, November 23, the FCC dropped its proposal Restoring Internet Freedom, FAQ and Declaratory Ruling, Report and Order, and Order (PDF); they hope to schedule a vote on it for December 14. (Honestly. Why dont they just go whole hog and schedule the vote for December 24?) Let me start out by drawing attention to this remarkable passage in the FAQ:

What the Order Would Do:  Find that the public interest is not served by adding to the already-voluminous record in this proceeding additional materials, including confidential materials submitted in other proceedings.

What could those confidential materials submitted in other proceedings possibly be? Lets speculate. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman writes in an open letter to (former Verizon lawyer and) FCC chair Ajit Pai:

[F]or six months my office has been investigating who perpetrated a massive scheme to corrupt the FCCs notice and comment process through the misuse of enormous numbers of real New Yorkers and other Americans identities

Long story short: Bots[1] organized by some unknown entity filed enormous numbers of often identical comments on the proposal with the FCC. This matters, because as Schneiderman points out:

Federal law requires the FCC and all federal agencies to take public comments on proposed rules into account  so it is important that the public comment process actually enable the voices of the millions of individuals and businesses who will be affected to be heard.

Which is hard to do when the organic comments are drowned out. As a legal matter, Schneiderman seems concerned with the theft of the identities that putatively signed the comments, and to that end:

We made our request for logs and other records at least 9 times over 5 months: in June, July, August, September, October (three times), and November.

To which the FCC has so far been unresponsive. As Yves pointed out:

The Trump Administration says it plans to ignore public comments, which would seem to open up the ruling to a procedural challenge by anyone who had standing.

And what I would speculate is that the confidential materials submitted in other proceedings bear on Schneidermans request, which the FCC intends to stiff, since not taking pubic comments into account would certainly open the FCC to procedural challenge.

With that detour into the weeds out of the way, in this post I will answer the following questions:

1) What is Net Neutrality?

2) What would a Packaged Internet look like? (I needed a phrase that implies the opposite of Net Neutrality, which Packaged Internet seems to do. Rigged Internet, my second choice, didnt incorporate the cable-like package business model; see below.)

3) What are the real and theoretical harms of a Packaged Internet?

And Ill conclude with some thoughts on action to secure net neutrality, past and present. (I will also add an Appendix on how the Democrats helped create this mess, because of course they did.)

What is Net Neutrality?

In the shortest posssible form: You are surfing the net at your browser, and your ISP is delivering bits that build the pages that you read (or watch (or listen to)). All bits are treated equally, no matter what (neutrality). The ISP must treat the bits that build this page at Naked Capitalism exactly as it treats the bits that build the Google search page or the Washington Post front page or whatever. So they cant cripple us to boost WaPo.

In somewhat longer form, FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel writes in the Los Angeles Times:

Net neutrality is the right to go where you want and do what you want on the internet without your broadband provider getting in the way. It means your broadband provider cant block websites, throttle services or charge you premiums if you want to reach certain online content. Without it, your broadband provider could carve internet access into fast and slow lanes, favoring the traffic of online platforms that have made special payments and consigning all others to a bumpy road. Your provider would have the power to choose which voices online to amplify and which to censor. The move could affect everything online, including the connections we make and the communities we create.

And in long form, as I wrote earlier this year:

Although the Obama administration initially set the table for net neutralitys abolition  its choice for FCC Commissioner, Tom Wheeler, was a tube cable lobbyist  a successful grassroots campaign  which, besides online activists, also included corporate heavweights that benefit from net neutrality, like Google  ultimately led in 2015 to net neutralitys adoption, as the FCC decided to regulate ISPs under Title II of the Communications Act as common carriers. (This is like treating ISPs as public utilities, and the issue is often framed that way, but the two are not identical in function or law). Tim Wu explains common carrier: The concept of a common carrier, dating from 16th century English common law, captures many similar concepts [to open access and anti-discrimination remedies for threats to the end-to-end nature of the Internet]. A common carrier, in its original meaning, is a private entity that performs a public function (the law was first developed around port authorities). Taxis, for example, are common carriers.

So, if taxis were no longer common carriers, but worked the way Ajit Pay  sorry, Pai  wants the Internet to work (and incorporating Rosenworcels verbiage), taxis wouldnt have to pick you up if they didnt want to (choose which voices), wouldnt have to take you where you asked to go if they didnt want to (blocking), could take the slow route to the airport unless you offered to pay extra (throttling), could charge you a fee to turn off the sound for that [family blogg]ing TV on the back of the drivers seat (charge you premiums), or even charge you extra for picking you up at Penn Station as opposed to the Port Authority (favoring the traffic of online platforms). The taxi companies would love this. Nobody else would. ISPs would love a Packaged Internet. Nobody else would.

What Would a Packaged Internet Look Like?

In short form, the Packaged Internet would look like cable[2]. Ro Khanna tweets:

The FCC is getting ready to overturn #NetNeutrality. If they succeed, ISPs will be able to split the net into packages. This means that you will no longer be able to pay one price to access any site you want. pic.twitter.com/vEkNxPmVlu  Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) November 21, 2017

A more concrete portrayal:

Here's the man directly responsible for killing #NetNeutrality , Ajit Pai @AjitPaiFCC Soon the net will become a #CableTV like money-pit for consumers. Where providers like @verizon @ATandT and @comcast will charge consumers with high prices to visit their favorite websites. pic.twitter.com/bC5ysWgaoZ  Godfather of Soul (@Pikminister) November 21, 2017



And good luck trying to change the terms of your package:

ME: Id like to negotiate this term of your boilerplate service contract

ISP: Why certainly, let me get our counsel on the line. We are, after all, equally powerful bargaining partners  Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) November 21, 2017

What Are the Real and Theoretical Harms of a Packaged Internet?

The ISPs say theyll behave:

We do not and will not block, throttle, or discriminate against lawful content. We will continue to make sure that our policies are clear and transparent for consumers, and we will not change our commitment to these principles. pic.twitter.com/YHDADvFqau  Comcast (@comcast) November 22, 2017

Too funny. The Rice-Davies Rule applies to what they say: They would, wouldnt they?

And the FCC agrees with the ISPs. From the Order:

Because of the paucity of concrete evidence of harms to the openness of the Internet, the Title II Order and its proponents have heavily relied on purely speculative threats. We do not believe hypothetical harms, unsupported by empirical data, economic theory, or even recent anecdotes, provide a basis for public-utility regulation of ISPs.428 Indeed, economic theory demonstrates[3] that many of the practices prohibited by the Title II Order can sometimes harm consumers and sometimes benefit consumers; therefore, it is not accurate to presume that all hypothetical effects are harmful.

The ISPs are lying, and the Ajit Pai is lying. Stanfords Barbara van Schewick has a long list of the legal maneuvers the ISPs have deployed to circumvent net neutrality. And Techdirt has an excellent compilation of real harms where ISPs blocked, throttled, and generally gamed the net to their advantage.

We do not and will not block, throttle, or discriminate against lawful content my sweet Aunt Fanny.

And here is a list of theoretical harms that a cursory survey of the Twitter provides:

Bitcoin throttling: Loss of Net Neutrality means US government will be able to throttle traffic to #Bitcoin exchanges (presumably by asking the ISPs to do so)

Search engine packaging: If FCC dismantles [net neutrality], and you get internet from Verizon, they may force you to use Yahoo as your search engine (because they own it), but PAY to use GOOGLE.

Free speech suppression: From The Nation: [The FCC proposal] would rig the internet, according to Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Raul Grijalva of Arizona, who say, If [Pai] is successful, Chairman Pai will hand the keys to our open internet to major corporations to charge more for a tiered system where wealthy and powerful websites can pay to have their content delivered faster to consumers. This leaves smaller, independent websites with slower load times and consumers with obstructed access to the interneta particularly harmful decision for communities of color, students, and online activists. This is an assault on the freedom of speech and therefore our democracy.

Crippled activism: From Tim Karr of Free Press on Democracy Now:

The Internet was created as this network where, where there were no gatekeepers. Essentially, anyone who goes online can connect with everyone else online. And thats given rise to all sorts of innovation, its allowed political organizers, and racial justice advocates to use this tool to contact people, to organize, to get their message out.

Conclusion

Net Neutrality is important to Naked Capitalism. As I wrote:

Naked Capitalism is a small blog. Its in our interest  and we like to think its in your interest too, dear readers, and in the public interest as well  to be just as accessible to the public on the Internet as a giant site like the Washington Post or the New York Times (or Facebook). If you agree, please support Naked Capitalism and all small blogs by vociferously supporting network neutrality in every venue available to you. Help Naked Capitalism stay unthrottled!

(And if you think the battle is hopeless, see this must-read by Matt Stoller on the fight that got the FCC to treat the Internet as a common carrier in the first place.) The Verge has an excellent article on all the venues where Net Neutrality is being supported; the tactic that particularly appeals to me is protests at stores also owned by Ajit Pais owner: Verizon. And, as ever, I recomment a Letter to the Editor in your local newspaper.

NOTES

[1] Via Motherboard:
Civil servants from the Office of the National Security Council and Classified Information Protection of the government of Serbia were trained to deal with information systems security (INFOSEC) in real life situations. The training took place in Belgrade and Tallinn from 30 October until 10 November 2017 as part of NATOs Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme.

INFOSEC policy is very important for any organisation as it can provide an additional tool to deal with cyber threats. The SPS advanced training course offered a combination of theoretical and practical sessions designed to respond to real life situations that could potentially be encountered by the 12 participants, with a focus on the actual INFOSEC implementation within their respective organisations.

The course addressed specific cyber security concerns, such as crisis management and protection of classified information that the participants have encountered or are currently dealing with. They learned how to develop and implement specific toolkits and roadmaps to address INFOSEC policies within an institutional framework. The participants also learned best practice approaches that help managers to track, plan and monitor activities in implementing INFOSEC within their organisations.

It was an excellent opportunity for us to enhance the cooperation between NATO and Serbia in the field of information security. We would like to emphasise the high motivation and good spirit of the group that made the event a success, said Major General (Ret.) Vello Loemaa of the European Cyber Security Initiative in Estonia, which is the institution that organised the training in coordination with Serbias Office of the National Security Council and Classified Information Protection. We are looking forward to continue the cooperation for secure cyberspace, he added.

Over the last years, Serbia has become increasingly active within the framework of the SPS Programme. Leading areas of cooperation include cyber defence, defence against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) agents, counter-terrorism, the Women, Peace and Security agenda, energy, and environmental security.
The Albanian Navys ALS ORIKU patrol boat on Wednesday (22 November 2017) wrapped up a full year of operations with NATOs Standing Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2), marking a major milestone in the Albanian Navys first ever NATO deployment. Joining NATOs Aegean mission in November 2016, the ALS ORIKU monitored and patrolled the waters between Turkey and Greece, supporting international efforts aimed at curbing human trafficking.

ALS ORIKU is an Iliria-class patrol boat manned by 21 crew members who rotated every two months throughout the year. During its NATO deployment, the Albanian patrol boat worked with navies from across the Alliance, including Germany, Greece and Turkey. Albanias contribution to NATOs Aegean mission will continue and at the end of November, ORIKUS sister ship ALS BUTRINTI is set to join the NATO fleet.

NATO launched its mission in the Aegean Sea in February 2016 to help international efforts to stop human traffickers. Since the start of the mission, the number of illegal crossings has been substantially reduced.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met on Friday (24 November 2017) to discuss ongoing security challenges in Ukraine, international efforts to find a settlement to the crisis, and the partnership between the Alliance and Kyiv. Mr. Stoltenberg reaffirmed NATOs strong political and practical support for Ukraine.

The Secretary General stressed that NATO Allies remain concerned by the ongoing violence in eastern Ukraine, including recent incidents in Luhansk. NATO calls on all parties to honour their commitments under the Minsk Agreements, and Russia has a special responsibility in that regard.

Mr. Stoltenberg also encouraged Ukraine to continue implementing key reforms, including in the defence and security sector. He stressed that NATO Trust Funds are helping to modernise Ukraines defence sector, as part of the Alliance's strong support to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid to NATO Headquarters on Thursday (23 November 2017). The two leaders met to discuss NATOs continuing adaptation to the security situation in Europe. The Secretary General praised Estonias contributions to NATO missions, its leadership on defence spending, and support for NATO-EU cooperation. He also welcomed that Tallinn will be hosting NATOs flagship cyber exercise, Cyber Coalition, next week, underlining Estonias expertise in cyber defence.

Read NATO Secretary General's remarks at the joint press point here
(Natural News) Medical marijuana use seems to be on the rise around the world. While there is no shortage of controversy when it comes to the medicinal value of cannabis, the number of people turning to this plant medicine for relief continues to grow  especially in the United Kingdom. Across the pond, some 250,000 people are using cannabis oil to treat what ails them. And if that figure isnt impressive enough, trade regulatory group Cannabis Trades Association UK says that the number of cannabis oil users has doubled in the span of just a single year.

In the UK, both England and Wales legalized the sale of CBD oil last fall  after conceding that the plant did offer restoring, correcting or modifying effects. While a license is necessary for retailers looking to sell CBD oil as a medicine, those who offer it as a  food supplement are able to skirt around the rules and circumvent the arduous licensing process. While the debate over the cannabis plants medicinal benefits continues to rage on, its clear that CBD oil is an increasingly hot commodity.

CBD oil popularity soars

The trade association says that around this time last year, their figures showed there were around 125,000 cannabis oil users in the UK. Now, Cannabis Trades Association UK (CTA UK) reports, theres an average of approximately 1,000 new cannabis oil users every month.

Patients are turning to cannabis oil for a variety of different conditions; whether it be seizure disorders like Dravet syndrome or epilepsy, chronic pain, anxiety or depression, people are looking for a more natural form of medicine. And clearly, cannabis oil must be fitting the bill.

Estimates from CTA UK suggest that approximately 65 percent of CBD oil users are women looking to relieve pain, anxiety or depression.

CBD oil, or cannabidiol, does not contain THC, which is the cannabinoid compound in marijuana that produces the infamous high. CBD and THC are two of the plants most widely recognized compounds, but there are actually over one hundred cannabinoids found in cannabis. CBD is now often regarded as cannabiss medicinal compound. In addition to being known for its lack of side effects, CBD is revered for its influence on serotonin and dopamine release and reception.

Its surge in popularity overseas is no surprise: The government did make purchasing this plant medicine legal last year. Sadly, the United States continues to lag behind.

Plant medicine still illegal in U.S., despite clear benefits

In the U.S., plant medicines like CBD oil (or just cannabis in general) remain highly illegal, at least at the federal level. Research has consistently shown that many different maladies can be helped with cannabis  including the scourge of the nation, opioid addiction. Indeed, research has indicated that the medicinal use of cannabis can help prevent and treat addictions to Big Pharmas most deadly cocktails. Naturally, the pharmaceutical industry has played a primary role in keeping cannabis illegal.

In spite of the federal governments reluctance, many states have taken matters into their own hands, legalizing cannabis for medicinal or recreational purposes (or both). In 2014, it was reported that over the course of just eight months, over 100 families had moved to Colorado, just so they could obtain legal cannabis treatment for their sick children.

While the number of people turning to cannabis for medicinal reasons continues to grow, the US governments failure to meaningfully address the issue of cannabis legalization is shameful. [Related: Read more stories about cannabiss medicinal compounds at CBDs.news]

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

CNN.com
In January 2018, the Indian navy's Mumbai-based western fleet is to start a series of annual theatre-level naval exercises. Manoeuvres lasting over a month where aircraft, surface warships and submarines, divided into red and blue forces, will simulate naval war games, refine tactics while bringing their platforms into a high state of operational readiness. Nothing unusual except that less than a month later these exercises will be replicated on the east coast, off Visakhapatnam, by the eastern fleet's warships, aircraft and submarines operating from the mainland up to the Andaman & Nicobar islands and Malacca Straits. This is the first time in recent years the navy is activating both commands. Earlier, it combined both and exercised on one coast, once a year. From next year, naval officials say, simultaneous twin-front maritime war games will be the norm.

Naval officials call the theatre-level exercises a direct response to China's ramped-up naval presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR); 17 Chinese warships were deployed here this year, the largest in recent years. On August 1, China unveiled a $590 million (Rs 3,831 crore) base and dockyard in Djibouti near the Horn of Africa, which will house PLA troops and allow China to replenish ships and submarines. These events, seen together with China's 2013 acquisition of Gwadar port, blur the distinctions between the navy's Pakistan-focused western naval command and its China-focused eastern naval command.

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China completed a seventh submarine deployment in the IOR this September in addition to completing the deployment of its 27th anti-piracy force this year. Analysts say an eighth submarine deployment, most likely of an SSN (nuclear-powered attack submarine), is due in early 2018. Through these deployments in India's backyard, China has demonstrated its ability to project maritime power far from its shores. "India has never claimed the Indian Ocean as 'India's Ocean', but China has claimed the bulk of South China Sea as 'China's Sea', and now has a full-fledged military base in Djibouti and is significantly strengthening Pakistan's navy with eight submarines," says G Parthasarathy, former Indian high commissioner to Islamabad. A message that has not been lost on Indian naval planners. "If push comes to shove, we've got to be prepared," a senior naval official says. These developments follow tectonic geopolitical moves in the two months since the Indian and Chinese militaries climbed down from a 71-day faceoff at Doklam, Bhutan, on August 28.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was anointed "core leader" on October 18, and outlined a 30-year vision for his military-mechanisation, information technology and strategic ability by 2020, modernisation by 2035 and a world-class one by 2050. The developments have enormous military consequences for India, which shares a 4,000 km unsettled border.

New Delhi shed its reticence and moved into a quadrilateral grouping with three other maritime democracies-the United States, Australia and Japan. On November 12, officials of the four 'Quad' nations met on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Manila and called for a 'free and open Indo-Pacific', a veiled reference to China, which claims all of the South China Sea. Analysts say Doklam confirmed for New Delhi the turbulent future of Sino-Indian relations. Chinese policy towards India over the last decade and New Delhi's objections to the $1 trillion (Rs 65 lakh crore) Belt and Road Initiative are seen as major reasons for India shedding its reticence about the quadrilateral initiative.

Contingency preparations for a two-front war with China and Pakistan are no longer the figment of a military planner's imagination. They have explicit government sanction because they are, as a top official explains, a credible worst case scenario. "The country's defence preparedness should be adequate to meet the worst case scenario."

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The three services are validating new war plans and accelerating their short and medium term defence plans to enhance the 'dissuasive' posture against China, first enunciated in the Raksha Mantri's Operational Directives in 2010. The armed forces, particularly the army, have been directed to replenish critical ammunition deficiencies by 2018.

The looming Chinese threat was the point of discussion at the commanders' conferences of the navy, army and air force held separately between September and October this year, where the services lay out their annual priorities. The navy rolled out its new Mission Based Deployments (MBD) for its warships; the army, a plan to speed up border road construction and link up mountain passes.

"The Indian military is gearing up to face the Chinese challenge in the coming years," says Harsh V. Pant, head of the Observer Research Foundation's Strategic Studies Programme. "More than its predecessors, the Modi government seems to have no hesitation in standing up to China, so the civilians and the military in India now seem to be on the same page. India's role in the Quad will only be credible if its own posture towards regional security has some credibility."

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The IAF is addressing vulnerabilities, such as the lack of modern airfields from which to operate its fighter aircraft, and also reactivating disused airfields near the China borders to resupply troops posted along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Nyoma, an airfield in Ladakh, abandoned after the 1962 war, is likely to be reactivated as a forward airbase. Seven advance landing grounds in Arunachal Pradesh are being activated. The MoD will shortly award contracts worth nearly Rs 1,800 crore for upgrading 30 airfields of the IAF, Navy, Coast Guard and R&AW's Aviation Research Centre under the Modernisation of Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI Phase 2). This follows the completion of the first batch of 30 airfields under the Rs 1,200 crore MAFI-1 last year. The MoD shaved two years off the contract time by giving the project a Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) clearance after bypassing the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage. The project is to be completed within the next three years, and officials familiar with the project call it more complicated than the first as it has 15 remote high-altitude airfields and remote marine airfields where access of men, construction material and equipment will be difficult.

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The IAF's entire airfield infrastructure is within the range of China's highly potent Rocket Force comprising over 1,200 intermediate range ballistic missiles. This is the reason for the unusual military manoeuvres on October 24 of 20 IAF airplanes, including C-130J transports and Su-30MKI fighters, landing and taking off on the Agra expressway. The IAF has already identified 12 other highways in the country which could be used as emergency landing strips in case military airbases are knocked out in a surprise attack.

Last October, India signed an agreement with Russia to purchase five S-400 'Triumf' long-range surface-to-air missiles that can shoot down cruise, ballistic missiles and aircraft 400 km away. "We need a combination of such long-range missiles, radars and surveillance systems that can monitor military activity far behind the borders," says Air Marshal P.S. Ahluwalia, former western air commander.

In 1962, China swiftly built a road that brought in men and material, leading to the defeat of the Indian army in the northeast. In 2017, it is the absence of roads that is hampering the army's offensive and defensive war plans. Only 22 of the 61 Indo-China Border Roads (ICBRs) of 3,409 km, costing Rs 4,644 crore and identified by the government in 2006 as priority projects and handed over to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), were completed as of 2016. The new target is for all 73 roads to be done by 2022. These will not only allow the speedy movement of troops and equipment in times of war but also facilitate peacetime patrolling.

Click here to Enlarge Graphic by Tanmoy Chakraborty

The army commanders' conference held in New Delhi between October 9 and 15 aimed for a concerted heft towards road-building activities in the northern and central sectors of the LAC facing China. The army has decided to connect the four Himalayan passes at Niti, Lipulekh, Thangla 1 and Tsangchokla by 2020 on priority. This is to allow lateral movement of troops and equipment between various sectors in wartime.

Naval officials say the Quad is making its presence felt most acutely in the maritime domain. The trilateral Malabar naval exercises, involving the US, Japan and India, in the Bay of Bengal this July were followed by a smaller one in October at Goa, involving Japanese and Indian naval anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

In June this year, it unveiled MBD, an ambitious plan to counter China's maritime presence in the IOR. Unveiled soon after the naval commanders' conference, in October, MBD will see an Indian warship or aircraft present at every point of the IOR-an area over five times India's 2.3 million square kilometres.

Since June, warships have been continuously deployed in the Malacca Straits, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf and Northern Bay of Bengal, becoming the first responders in many crises, such as the flooding in Sri Lanka, cyclone Mora in Bangladesh and Myanmar, thus ensuring the navy remains a net provider of security and humanitarian assistance in the IOR. MBD efforts are synergised between the MoD, MEA and navy, with deployments to be extended in the coming months to the south of Sri Lanka and the southern IOR covering Mauritius, Seychelles and the East Coast of Africa. A senior naval official explains the MBD logic. "We want to be present near the chokepoints. We want to know who is entering and exiting."

There is also a subtle signalling on China's vulnerabilities. China consumes over 13 million barrels of oil each day, over half of which is imported from West Asia. While it is trying to cut back on this through the use of renewables and overland through Central Asia, the dependence will continue for some decades.

The tri-services' 'Mission China', however, runs the risk of delays and falling short of its ambitious objectives. Chief among these concerns is the lack of Indian military reform. In the likely absence of a major uptick in defence spend, these reforms could deliver more bang for a shrinking budgetary buck. Key recommendations of the Lt General D.B. Shekatkar committee report, submitted in December 2016, for the post of a single-point military advisor, a chief of defence staff and theatre commands integrating the three services to fight wars jointly are yet to receive political clearance. There are shortfalls of military hardware, which will take years to replenish.

The IAF remains beguiled by its shrinking fighter squadrons. It has only 32 squadrons as against an authorisation of 42 because retiring aircraft are not being replaced swiftly. These will be addressed in the short term by the acquisition of 36 Rafale fighters from France. The acquisition of 123 LCA Tejas and a yet-to-be-decided single-engine fighter under the MoD's Strategic Partnership Policy are at least five years away.

Army officials, meanwhile, are sceptical of being able to complete all their mountain road projects within the revised deadline of 2022. This is because of the small construction window of less than six months a year in the mountains due to rain and snow and the enormous investments in machinery, helicopters and specialised tunnelling equipment these projects will entail. Clearly, when it comes to China, nothing short of work on a war footing will do.

--- ENDS ---
(Natural News) A new jelly-like implant filled with pure alcohol may show potential in addressing tumor growth and subsequent cancer onset, a study reveals. A team of researchers at the Duke University in North Carolina have developed the new implant in hopes of confining cancer cells by exposing them to pure alcohol. The scientific community believes that doing so is an effective way of eliminating cancer cells, but has previously cautioned that alcohol exposure may also inadvertently affect healthy tissues.

The research team has engineered the implant by mixing ethanol with ethyl cellulose. The experts explain that ethanol is a form of pure alcohol that makes up 12 to 14 percent of wine, while ethyl cellulose is a substance made from wood pulp or cotton and is commonly used as a thickening agent in both the food and pharmaceutical industries. The resulting mixture forms the jelly-like implant, which readily dissolves inside the body.

The scientists then implanted the gel into seven mice with malignant tumors in the mouth to examine its efficacy. The tumor size is subsequently measured after eight days. The results show that all the malignant tumors in mice disappeared. In contrast, only four out of seven mice that received alcohol injections alone have shown clinically significant improvements. According to the research team, the new implant works by slowly releasing small amounts of ethanol into the area of the tumor instead of flooding the site with alcohol.

Overall, our results suggest that this enhanced version of ethanol ablation could be useful in the treatment of a number of malignancies. Notably, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in low-income countriesGiven the general lack of accessibility to surgery or alternative tumor treatments in developing countries and the promising results presented in this study, enhanced ethanol ablation is a promising method to meet the unmet clinical need of rising cancer mortality that challenges healthcare systems in developing countries, the researchers report online in the Scientific Reports journal.

However, the research team is quick to point out the limitations of the study and has highlighted the need for further research to better investigate the implants potential.

Although we have demonstrated the efficacy of enhanced ethanol ablation in the treatment of squamous cell carcinomas in the hamster cheek pouch, there are several limitations to this study. First, the use of a chemically-induced tumor modelprecluded the possibility of any long-term monitoring of tumor recurrence. Second, a single animal tumor model was utilized. Further study in other tumor models is needed to investigate such recurrence, and demonstrate therapeutic efficacy more broadly, the researchers add.

Study explains how red wine can stem cancer cells

A 2014 study supports the potential of red wine in boosting cancer treatment and preventing the onset of both head and neck cancer. A team of health experts at the University of Colorado has examined the correlation between alcohol intake and increased cancer risk in people with a rare genetic disease called Fanconi anemia. According to the experts, people with the genetic disorder are born without the ability to repair DNA cross links and are therefore more susceptible to DNA damage and cancer. (Related: Resveratrol compound in grapes found to kill cancer stem cells)

The research team has observed that a genetic facilitator of cancer onset in patients is basically similar to the cancer-causing mechanism of alcohol. According to the researchers, partially-metabolized alcohol is to blame for the increased risk of cancer in patients. The health experts note that drinking hard alcohol is a surefire way to increase the risk as it often remains in the body and produces partially-metabolized alcohol.

However, the scientists note that the lowest cancer incidence are seen in those who regularly drank red wine. In red wine, theres something thats blocking the cancer-causing effect of alcohol resveratrol takes out the cells with the most damage  the cells that have the highest probability of being able to cause cancer, researcher Robert Sclafani told Science Daily online.

Follow more news on science and medicine discoveries at Discoveries.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Nature.com

ScienceDaily.com
(Natural News) A study published online in the journal Dreaming has revealed that a combination of several techniques may help increase the likelihood of experiencing lucid dreams. Lucid dreaming is defined as the capacity to remain aware while a dream is occurring and being able to control the experience. A team of researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia have recruited up to 169 volunteers as part of the study. The participants have been instructed to perform three lucid dreaming techniques: reality testing, wake back to bed and mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD).

The reality testing technique has prompted participants to check their environment several times daily to see whether or not a dream has occurred. On the other hand, the wake back to bed approach entails waking up five hours after sleeping, staying awake for a few minutes and then going back to sleep in order to enter a rapid eye movement (REM) sleep period. Dreams are more likely to occur during the REM period, the experts say. In addition, the MILD technique involves waking up five hours after sleeping and repeating the phrase The next time Im dreaming, I will remember that Im dreaming before going back to sleep. The research team has also given the participants a questionnaire and a logbook to keep track of their dream experiences for a week.

Reality testing is practiced throughout the day, and even though youre forming that intention, when you go to sleep theres still a gap between when you last do a reality test. Lucid dreaming tends to happen in the last couple of hours of sleep. Hence waking up after five hours to do the MILD technique, youll have a very strong intention directly before your most intense dreaming period, the expert has stated in a Mashable.com entry.

The MILD technique works on what we call prospective memory  that is, your ability to remember to do things in the future. By repeating a phrase that you will remember youre dreaming, it forms an intention in your mind that you will, in fact, remember that you are dreaming, leading to a lucid dream, lead researcher Dr Denholm Aspy has told Science Alert online.

Researchers observe interesting study results

The studys findings have shown that participants who combined all three techniques have exhibited a 17 percent success rate in experiencing lucid dreams within a period of only one week. This has been significantly higher compared with a baseline week when the participants did not adopt the techniques. The research team has also observed that the success rate has risen to as much as 46 percent among participants who were able to go back to sleep within the first five minutes of completing the MILD technique. (Related: Four ways to vastly improve your sleeping quality and dream life.)

Participants who experienced lucid dreaming are also less likely to lack sleep, the experts have reported in a Daily Mail article. According to the scientists, the results suggest that lucid dreaming does not have an adverse effect on the bodys overall health and wellness. The research team adds that the findings not only provide an insight on the mechanics of lucid dreaming, but may also show potential implications in the development of various disease treatments.

Importantly, those who reported success using the MILD technique were significantly less sleep deprived the next day, indicating that lucid dreaming did not have any negative effect on sleep quality. These results take us one step closer to developing highly effective lucid dream induction techniques that will allow us to study the many potential benefits of lucid dreaming such as treatment for nightmares and improvement of physical skills and abilities through rehearsal in the lucid dream environment, a university release reads.

Sources include:

Adelaide.edu.au

ScienceAlert.com

Mashable.com

DailyMail.co.uk
As evidence that the influence of Burning Mans annual soiree in Nevadas Black Rock Desert has stretched its artistic tentacles well beyond the dusty Playa, the Smithsonian Art Museum will pay tribute to the art of Burning Man in an upcoming major exhibition.

The exhibition titled No Spectators; The Art of Burning Man opens March 30th in the Smithsonians Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C., featuring works by many of the Bay Area artists who have provided the artistic core of the annual festival, which draws 70,000 participants who form a week-long metropolis in the harsh desert.

They give a palette for people to come build massive cathedrals or temples, Petaluma artist Michael Garlington said of the Burning Man organization.

Garlington is one of three Bay Area artists commissioned by the museum to create new installations specially for the exhibit. More than a dozen other artists will contribute pieces.

Inside of his Petaluma studio, surrounded by grain silos, Garlington is creating a 20-foot archway papered with his own macabre black-and-white photography. The arch will appear to deconstruct into the gallery ceiling.

Garlington, who began his art career as a photographer, has created several 60-foot photo temples for the desert festival  which challenges creators to possess not only hardy doses of creativity and ingenuity  but straight-up survivorship in the cruel desert conditions.

You have this place that allows you to build massive visions of grandeur, Garlington said, as rain tapped rudiments on his shops tin roof. Burning Man, I owe them everything.

The annual festival began in 1986 on San Franciscos Baker Beach and relocated to the desert several years later. In its location inside the Black Rock Deserts sprawling dry alkali lake bed, artists have been free to build projects as large and wondrous as imagination and means will allow.

Frequent dust storms and blistering heat make the festival perhaps the worlds most punishing art gallery. The Smithsonian exhibition will occupy the entire Renwick building  and will be decidedly less dusty.

This exhibition transports the art of Burning Man to a museum setting, so that audiences who cannot visit Black Rock City can encounter the cutting-edge work being created at this transformative annual event, said Stephanie Stebich, Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery.

Artist David Best who for years built the Burning Mans annual temple, where visitors leave photos and mementoes to remember loved ones lost, will create one of his signature pieces for the exhibition.

Oakland artists Bree Hyklema and Sean Orlando of the art group Five Ton Crane are constructing a version of one of the festivals ubiquitous mutant vehicle that will mimic a mobile Art Deco movie theater, complete with homemade silent films projected onto a screen.

The art you see at Burning Man is unlike any art youll see anywhere else in the world, Orlando said in his Oakland studio. I think that is very appealing to people.

The exhibit will run through September 16th, 2018  ending just a week after the actual festival concludes its week-long run over the Labor Day holiday.

Inside his studio, Garlington paused to look up at his arch, which was beginning to take shape beneath a cloak of black and white photo decor. A photo of Susan Sarandon wearing a paper dress Garlington created for a portrait shoot of the actress, was affixed to a beam framed by a border of black and white eyes.

It is kind of strange that this piece in Petaluma, California, Garlington marveled, will be standing in Washington D.C. in a matter of months.
Colin Kaepernick made a surprise appearance at the annual Alcatraz Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Gathering event on Thursday morning.

Kaepernick posted a video to his twitter as Fred Short, a spiritual leader of the American Indian movement, presented him with eagle feathers  one of the highest honors among Native American people. In a short speech, he said Kaepernick was being recognized for his efforts to highlight the inequality in America.

I realize our fight is the same fight, said Kaepernick. Were all fighting for our Justice, for our Freedom. And realizing that were all in this fight together makes us all more powerful.

On Thanksgiving Day, Alcatraz Island is usually closed to visitors, but each year, Native American activists commemorate their occupation of the island in 1969.
San Francisco has officially accepted to support the comfort women statue - representing the women forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War Two  and the Mayor of Osaka, Japan says he no longer wants to have a sister city relationship.

The Comfort Women Justice Association are hoping the statue will help remind people of the thousands of Asian women forced into sex slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during the war.

The statue was unveiled at San Franciscos St. Marys Park Plaza in September depicting three young women from Korea, China, and Philippines holding hands while standing in a circle.

Its really one of the worst atrocities that happened to women in modern history, said a member of the Comfort Women Justice Association.

Despite the symbolic importance of the statue, the Mayor of Osaka, Japan is opposed to the monument and even plans to end the sister city relationship with San Francisco, which was established in 1957.

The Mayor of Osaka, Japan is not the only one opposed to the statue, in fact in a letter sent to the board of supervisors Dana Sack asked, Why single out the Japanese living today for conduct by people long dead, and a government conquered, its leaders imprisoned and executed.

Several supporters of the monument say city leaders should stand with the comfort women statue and all victims of sexual violence.
Uma Thurman is finally speaking out against Harvey Weinstein.

The "Kill Bill" actress took to Instagram Thursday to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving Day, except, Weinstein.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators  Im glad its going slowly  you dont deserve a bullet,) wrote Thurman on Instagram.

Although she didnt make any specific accusations against Weinstein, she did explain that its important to take your time, be fair, be exact. 

The Instagram post also became a way for her to reveal her own #MeToo experience.

I said I was angry recently, and I have few reasons, #metoo, in case you couldnt tell by the look on my face, wrote Thurman.

The #MeToo post comes a month after she chose to remain silent on the topic of sexual harassment in Hollywood during an interview with Access Hollywood at the premiere of the Parisian Woman.

I dont have a tidy sound bite for you, said Thurman to Access Hollywood. Because I am not a child and I have learned that when I have spoken in anger, I usually regret the way I express myself. So Ive been waiting to feel less angry, and when Im ready, Ill say what I have to say.

Thurman previously worked alongside Weinstein on several films like the Kill Bill series and Pulp Fiction.

Weinstein has been accused of sexual assault in Los Angeles, New York and London and is currently being investigated for misconduct. Weinstein has denied all allegations.
In the deadliest-ever attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt, militants assaulted a crowded mosque Friday during prayers, blasting helpless worshippers with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades and blocking their escape routes. At least 235 people were killed before the assailants got away.

The attack in the troubled northern part of the Sinai Peninsula targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of a mystic movement within Islam. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State group, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith.

The startling bloodshed in the town of Bir al-Abd also wounded at least 109, according to the state news agency. It offered the latest sign that, despite more than three years of fighting in Sinai, the Egyptian government has failed to deter an IS-led insurgency.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi vowed that the attack "will not go unpunished" and that Egypt would persevere with its war on terrorism. But he did not specify what new steps might be taken.

The military and security forces have already been waging a tough campaign against militants in the towns, villages and desert mountains of Sinai, and Egypt has been in a state of emergency for months. Across the country, thousands have been arrested in a crackdown on suspected Islamists as well as against other dissenters and critics, raising concern about human rights violations.

Seeking to spread the violence, militants over the past year have carried out deadly bombings on churches in the capital of Cairo and other cities, killing dozens of Christians. The IS affiliate is also believed to be behind the 2016 downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed 226 people.

Friday's assault was the first major militant attack on a Muslim congregation, and it eclipsed past attacks, even dating back to a previous Islamic militant insurgency in the 1990s.

The militants descended on the al-Rouda mosque in four off-road vehicles as hundreds worshipped inside. At least a dozen attackers charged in, opening fire randomly, the main cleric at the mosque, Sheikh Mohamed Abdel Fatah Zowraiq told The Associated Press by phone from a Nile Delta town where he was recuperating from bruises and scratches suffered in the attack.

He said there were explosions as well. Officials cited by the state news agency MENA said the attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades and shot men as they tried to run from the building. The militants blocked off escape routes with burning cars, three police officers on the scene told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Abdullah Abdel-Nasser, 14, who was attending prayers with his father, said the shooting began just as the cleric was about to start his sermon, sending panicked worshippers rushing to hide behind concrete columns or whatever shelter they could find. At one point, a militant shouted for children to leave, so Abdel-Nasser said he rushed out, though he was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel and a bullet.

"I saw many people on the floor, many dead. I don't think anyone survived," he said at a hospital in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, where around 40 of the wounded were taken, including many children.

Mohammed Ali said 18 members of his extended family were killed in the attack. The mosque belonged to a local clan, the Jreer, so many of its members worshipped there.

"Where was the army? It's only a few kilometers away. This is the question we cannot find an answer to," he said.

The attackers escaped, apparently before security forces could confront them.

Afterward, dozens of bloodied bodies wrapped in sheets were laid across the mosque floor, according to images circulating on social media. Relatives lined up outside a nearby hospital as ambulances raced back and forth. The state news agency MENA put the death toll at 235.

Resident Ashraf el-Hefny said many of the victims were workers at a nearby salt mine who had come for Friday services at the mosque.

"Local people brought the wounded to hospital on their own cars and trucks," he said by telephone.

No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack. But the IS group affiliate has targeted Sufis in the past. Last year, the militants beheaded a leading local Sufi religious figure, the blind sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz, and posted photos of the killing online.

Islamic State group propaganda often denounces Sufis. In the January edition of an IS online magazine, a figure purporting to be a high level official in the Sinai affiliate of the group vowed to target Sufis, accusing them of idolatry and heretical "innovation" in religion and warning that the group will "not permit (their) presence" in Sinai or Egypt.

Millions of Egyptians belong to Sufi orders, which hold sessions of chanting and poetry meant to draw the faithful closer to God. Sufis also hold shrines containing the tombs of holy men in particular reverence.

Islamic hardliners view such practices as improper, even heretical, and militants across the region often destroy Sufi shrines, saying they encourage idolatry because people pray to the figures buried there for intercession.

El-Sissi convened a high-level meeting of security officials as his office declared a three-day mourning period.

In a statement, he said the attack would only "add to our insistence" on combatting extremists. Addressing the nation later on television, he said Egypt is waging a battle against militancy on behalf of the rest of the world, a declaration he has often made in seeking international support for the fight.

President Donald Trump denounced what he called a "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers."

"The world cannot tolerate terrorism" he said on Twitter, "we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!" He later tweeted that he would call el-Sissi and said the attack showed the need to get "tougher and smarter," including by building the wall he has promised along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Islamic militants stepped up their campaign of violence in northern Sinai after the military ousted the elected but divisive Islamist Mohammed Morsi from power in 2013 and launched a fierce crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group.

The result has been a long, grinding conflict centered on el-Arish and nearby villages. The militants have been unable to control territory, but the military and security forces have also been unable to bring security, as the extremists continuously carry out attacks.

The attacks have largely focused on military and police, killing hundreds, although exact numbers are unclear as journalists and independent investigators are banned from the area. The militants have also assassinated individuals the group considers spies for the government or religious heretics.

Egypt has also faced attacks by militants in its Western Desert.

___

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Ismailia and Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish contributed to this report.
Six families were left homeless and multiple people injured after a two-alarm fire in Manchester, New Hampshire.

The Manchester Fire Department received multiple calls Thursday night for a fire in a multi-family dwelling with people trapped.

According to the Manchester Fire Department, the fire started due to careless disposal of smoking materials in one of the apartments.

The occupant of the apartment where the fire started was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Two firefighters sustained injures while fighting the blaze. One firefighter sustained superficial burns and a lieutenant suffered a shoulder injury. Neither were transported to the hospital as a result of their injuries.

Most occupants evacuated themselves from the building. Firefighters led several to safety.

While searching the flaming building, firefighters rescued several pets. Four dogs and one rabbit were removed from harm's way and reunited with their owners, says the Manchester Fire Department. The animals suffered from smoke inhalation but will survive.

According to the fire department, the building's old balloon-frame style of construction allowed the fire to travel quickly up the walls and into a large, open attic space.

Many families lost possessions in the fire. According to fire officials, the estimated damage due to the fire is $150,000.

The Red Cross assisted the six displaced families with temporary housing and other needs.
A lot of retailers started sales before Thanksgiving, but people are still out in full force on Black Friday. Shoppers were up early at the South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Massachusetts.

After a midnight rush, there was a steady stream of shoppers early Friday morning. Shoppers we spoke with called it "a sea of humanity."

South Shore Plaza General Manager Rick Tonzi said it was extremely busy when they opened the doors at 10:30 p.m. Thanksgiving night allowing people to line up in front of their favorite stores as opposed to waiting outside.

Tonzi said it seemed busier than last year, although it was a slightly slower start, which could possibly be attributed to Target opening up at 6 a.m. as opposed to midnight.

One of the longer lines was at the malls Dunkin' Donuts kiosks of shoppers looking for a pick-me-up after all of that shopping.

A young girl and her grandpa were among those out at the South Shore Plaza on Friday.

The young girl said it was hard waking up but she got up and did it anyway.

"She wanted to try it," her grandpa said. "It's her first time. Something she had to do, and she's enjoying herself."

Target at South Shore Plaza opened at 6 a.m. Friday, and there was a long line of people, who appeared to be all smiles as they waited to get their hands on some deals.
The Agra-based elite 50-Parachute Brigade of the Indian Army was moved specially for this exercise.

By Sudhi Ranjan Sen: In a first, the three defence services - Navy, Air Force and Army - carried out an exercise simulating a scenario of recapturing island chain of Andaman and Nicobar.

The 572-odd Andaman and Nicobar island chain is largely inhabited but it straddles the crucial Malacca Strait - the narrow water channel that acts as gateway connecting the Indian Ocean Region to the South China Sea.

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Majority of the trade moving from west to east, including Chinese energy supplies, move through these narrow waters. China has already claimed large parts of the Spratly Island - an archipelago in the South China Sea.

The exercise is of great significance. Since 2013, Chinese warships are being increasingly visible in the Indian Ocean region. And, 2017 saw the highest ever deployment of People's Liberation Army Navy in these waters.

At least one nuclear submarine and 13 warships prowled the area showcasing their power presence.

The contest between India and China to dominate the vast waters of the Indian Ocean is growing. Recently, the Indian Navy decided to permanently position its warships in the Malacca and Sunda Strait.

And, in a clear message to China, the United States of America, Japan, Australia and India have recently agreed to form a "Quadrilateral" to police the Indo-Pacific region.

To draw a parallel from the past, the exercise conducted by the Indian forces resemble the Normandy Beach landings of the Allied Forces in 1945 against the Nazi Germany to liberate France and Western Europe.

The first of its kind exercise called - 'Defence of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Exercise' or DANX - involved special forces of the Indian Army and marine commandos, the British made deep penetration strike bombers - Jaguars Bombers, amphibious ships or landing ship tanks, heavy transporters like the US made C-130J and missile frigates and corvettes.

The Agra-based elite 50-Parachute Brigade of the Indian Army was moved specially for this exercise.

"Imagine a situation where a portion of the island has been taken over. How will the Indian forces move to reclaim and liberate it? Such exercises test the ability of the forces to act jointly," a senior defence ministry official said.

The Modi-led NDA government has been keen to exploit the strategic potential of the Andaman Island chain.

It wants to build jetties, airstrips to hold warships, surveillance aircraft there.

--- ENDS ---
Donna Hart didnt know shed have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving just days after she was held up at gunpoint outside of her familys home.

Hart drove in from Minnesota and on Tuesday, when she went to grab some of her belongings from her car in Chatham, two men approached her with a gun.

They demanded her keys and purse. She tried her best not to panic.

I had to stay calm because I didnt want to be killed over a car, she said.

She did just that as she walked back into the home on South Wabash.

My whole focus was, theyre not going in this house," Hart said. "I didnt want them in the house to hurt my family, so whatever they was going to do, they was going to do to me.

Police found the car and it now sits in an impound lot.

Hart doesnt have her keys, she says, and it will cost $300 to get in to the car.

But, thats where some kind-hearted Chicagoans come in.

Activists Dawn Valenti and Andrew Holmes chipped in a complete stranger, Chris Harris also stepped forward to help.

His daughter was carjacked last year.

"I just hope that she realizes that she can come home and she can be happy, he told NBC 5.

I wanted her to know that this city does care and that theres still some good in this city, Valenti said.

While holding a press conference, a woman passed by and had to stop.

Antoinette bradley- passerby donated to victim

Leaving church, took a little turn down this road, never turned down this road and here you guys were standing with the young lady I wanted to bless," passerby Antoinette Bradley said. "So, I have $200 here and I wanted to just bless you with this because it hurts my heart.

Strangers helping strangers, a true display of giving thanks.

A GoFundMe has been set up to continue helping Hart.
A man is dead and three other people had to be rescued by firefighters after a fire at a home in Enfield Friday morning.

Officials said just before 2 a.m. flames broke out at 11 Alden Avenue on the second floor back porch of the two-family home.

"I saw the flames going off, and I went to the neighbors house," said neighbor Doug Worthington. "I ran back in the house to get the phone, and I called 911."

Fire officials said five people were inside the home at the time. Firefighters rescued two women and a child, who were all rushed to the hospital. The man was found dead inside the home.



A fifth person was able to self-evacuate from the first floor.

One of the female victims was taken to Springfield Hospital then airlifted to Boston for further treatment. The other woman is currently in stable condition at Springfield hospital.



The child continues to receive care at an area hospital. The child's condition was not released.



None of the victims have been publicly identified at this time.

The state fire marshal's office and the Connecticut State Police Fire Explosion Unit are assisting with the investigation into the cause.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Editor's Note: Firefighters initially identified the home as being 11 Windsor Street. It is actually 11 Alden Avenue. The story above has been updated to reflect this information.
While more Americans than ever before have indicated theyll let their fingertips do the shopping online this year, many people still waited in line on Thanksgiving Day to grab a good deal.

The doors to Westfarms in West Hartford opened at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving day and stayed open until 2 a.m. Friday. The doors reopened at 8 a.m. Friday.

People were ready to burn off some of that Turkey dinner theyd had earlier in the day. Thousands of people packed the place looking for doorbuster deals.

It was a similar scene at Best Buy in Corbins Corner, where people got in line the day before in hopes of getting a good deal on electronics.

Deal hunters stormed nearby Best Buy at 5 p.m. after some camped out for 24 hours.

"Friends would bring coffees, hot foods and soups and they were my support group they kept me going," Frankie Bones of New Britain, said.

Fueled also by the lure of savings people checked out the specials at Toys R Us in Manchester Thursday night.

"I just want to look for toys that I want for Christmas," Navian Talbot of Stafford Springs, said.

While more millennials are shopping online NBC Connecticut found a few teens who dont mind standing in line this holiday season.

"Its a lot easier, and you can do it from home and you dont have to come out in the cold, but I come Black Friday shopping for the experience," Ryan Tarko said.

According to the National Retail Federation, shoppers will spend an average of $967 this year. Thats slightly more than last year.
North Korea's latest defector, a young soldier known only by his family name Oh, is a quiet, pleasant man who has nightmares about being returned to the North, his surgeon said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

"He's a pretty nice guy," said lead surgeon John Cook-Jong Lee, who has been operating and caring for the 24-year-old. Oh has become a focus of worldwide attention after he was badly wounded by fellow North Korean soldiers as he scrambled across the border in the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South on Nov. 13.

Video of Oh's escape released on Wednesday showed him stumbling over the border and being dragged unconscious through the undergrowth by South Korean troops.

Lee has been almost the only person to speak with Oh since he arrived at the hospital, he told Reuters in an interview at his office at Ajou University Hospital, just a few floors away from where the defector lies guarded by South Korean special forces and intelligence officers.
A Southern California man shot in the back during the Las Vegas massacre last month was reunited with the heroic off-duty firefighter who helped save his life.

Zack Mesker is out of the Intensive Care Unit at a hospital after he was injured in the Las Vegas shooting. On Sunday, Mesker and his girlfriend were surprised by a visit from Jason Aldean and his wife. NBC 7's Rory Devine reports.

Zack Mesker, 21, of San Marcos, was one of hundreds of victims shot at the outdoor Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 1. Gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire from his hotel room on the 32nd floor of The Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, raining down bullets on the crowd of 22,000 concertgoers. Fifty-eight people were killed and more than 500 were wounded.

Mesker's mom, Lorraine Mesker, told NBC 7 she got a call from her son's girlfriend, Lauren Kyander, that night.

Family photo

"I got a call about what had happened at the concert and that Zack had been hit," Mesker said. "He was in triage and they were asking her to run and leave the scene."

Kyander posted on Facebook that Meske had collapsed near the Tropicana hotel.

There, a hero stepped in to help him.

"When Zack collapsed, an off-duty firefighter helped him and never left his side until he got an ambulance," Kyander wrote on Facebook.

Cal Fire firefighter Chris Wetzel, of the Riverside County Fire Department, was at the concert that night. Wetzel, who lost a friend during the shooting, was off-duty at the time.

He told NBC 7 he does not consider himself a hero.

"I just saw people suffering and in pain, and it's all I could do," Wetzel wrote to NBC 7.

On Sunday, Wetzel and Mesker finally had the chance to reunite.

During the shooting, Mesker told Wetzel he was worried about losing his flip-flop. Wetzel brought him a new pair.

The father of a 21-year-old San Marcos man said his son called him and said he had been shot and then the line went dead. NBC 7s Rory Devine has the story.

"He had lost a flip-flop when I was helping out and he said to me 'Wait my flip- flop,'" Wetzel wrote. "I told him 'Don't worry about the flip-flop, we gotta get you out of here.'"

Wetzel also said he wasn't sure how important the flip-flops were to Mesker, but he told himself if he ever reunited with Zack, he would get him another pair.

Mesker spent three weeks in a Las Vegas hospital before coming back home to San Diego County. He is currently back in San Marcos, recovering with his family and girlfriend.
What to Know A local official in New Windsor said two explosions rocked Verla International in Orange County on Monday

Thirty-three people were hurt, including firefighters; one worker at Verla International was later found dead inside

The company produces nail polish and cosmetics, among other beauty products, according to its website

Fire officials say they believe an accident caused the explosions at an Upstate cosmetics factory that killed one man and injured more than 125 people Monday morning.

The Vails Gate Fire Department said Friday morning that an investigation is ongoing, but the cause of the explosions and fire is believed to be accidental.

Orange County fire investigators have been looking for clues to what touched off two explosions about 25 minutes apart at Verla International in New Windsor, 55 miles north of New York City. Some of the cosmetics manufacturer's approximately 250 employees lined up outside the fire-damaged plant to pick up personal belongings left behind when they scrambled to get out after the first blast erupted around 10:15 a.m.

Firefighters from nearby Newburgh responded, and several were inside the facility when the second explosion ripped through part of the complex. Officials initially said up to 35 people were injured, including seven firefighters, and one person was unaccounted for.

Kate Dabroski, a spokeswoman for St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital, said Tuesday that the number of people treated increased substantially later Monday, with more than 125 people reporting injuries. Most were treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released.

Also on Tuesday officials identified the deceased worker as William Huntington, 57, of Newburgh. Firefighters found his body inside the building about nine hours after the explosions, police said.

"Bill was a valued employee and we at Verla are sorry to his friends and his family for their loss," the company said.

A co-worker, Juan Pablo Marcos, told The Associated Press that Huntington had gone back inside after the first explosion to make sure everyone had gotten out safely. Huntington was still inside when the second blast occurred, Marcos said.

"That guy is like a hero," said Marcos, employed in the shipping department for about a month. "He entered again to make sure no more ladies were in the building."

The explosions sent thick black smoke spewing into the air while flames shot out of the damaged section of the factory's roof. More than 100 firefighters from across the county and from neighboring counties fought the blaze, and authorities said their efforts continued until just after midnight Monday.

Police kept non-employees away from the factory Tuesday while utility crews worked on the property.

The 37-year-old company's website says it manufactures and packages nail polish, cosmetics, personal care, lotions and fragrances. Earlier this year, Verla was cited for nine occupational safety violations, according to records on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's website. One was related to problems with the handling of flammable and combustible liquids.

The federal agency also cited inadequacies relating to respirator protection for workers and the maintenance of exit routes. The company agreed to pay $41,000 in penalties.

In late September 2005, a worker who had been fired a year earlier after being found with child pornography on his company computer entered the factory and fatally shot the office manager and wounded co-owners Mario Maffei and Robert Roth. The gunman then killed himself.

A woman answering the phone at Maffei's Greenwich, Connecticut, home said he wasn't available. A voice message left at a number listed for Roth wasn't returned.
The suspect accused in the killing of Ollie the pit bull has a history of targeting animals and his apartment had gruesome evidence of cruelty, according to a Hollywood Police Department report.



The HPD said it made the arrest on Wednesday in the animal cruelty case related to Ollie, who died days after being found beaten, stabbed and stuffed in a suitcase.

In a statement, HPD said 31-year-old Hollywood resident Brendan Evans was arrested following an investigation in which it executed a search warrant at his residence on Nov. 14.

Evans, whose DNA was found on the suitcase in which Ollie was found, is charged with aggravated animal cruelty, police said.

The investigation into Evans, who police noted had a dog tooth in his wallet, revealed a criminal history, police said. He was arrested by the Broward County Sheriff's Office in 2012 for domestic battery and he is currently on probation for a bank robbery in Hernando County.

"Evans' fingerprints were also found to be linked to a residential burglary in the City of Hollywood," HPD said in a statement. "He was taken into custody for the burglary and violation of probation."



Ollie's case drew national attention after a couple found the dog in the early hours of Oct. 10. He was rushed to a veterinarian but died days later.

We will not tolerate any form of animal cruelty or violence in our city," HPD Acting Police Chief Chris O'Brien said in a statement. "Each reported case of animal cruelty, be it physical abuse or neglect, is disturbing, and this case is particularly heartbreaking. We were all pulling for Ollie to survive, but unfortunately, he didn't make it. However, due to our investigation, we are now able to provide justice for Ollie."

Dr. Nicole Patterson, the associate veterinarian who treated Ollie at the VCA Hollywood Animal Hospital, said the animal cruelty Ollie sustained was "probably one of the worst abuse cases I've ever seen."

The investigation revealed Evans' disturbing, gruesome history with animal cruelty, according to a police report.

The detectives on the case first made note of Evans' "cold" demeanor during an initial visit to his residence.

"Opposed to the numerous people we had come into contact with, Brendan Evans never made note of how egregious of an act that occurred, nor did he seem concerned this incident occurred so close to where he lived," the HPD detective wrote, adding that he and his partner "noted [Evans'] extremely cold yet nervous demeanor."

A report by a Delray Beach police officer from June shows that a man filed a complaint after Evans bought two kittens and called days later requesting for more kittens. The seller of the kittens, who questioned Evans' intentions, called police after becoming suspicious.

In a Fort Lauderdale Police Department report filed in February, Evans was reported as attempting to kick a mother duck and her ducklings.

When an FLPD officer questioned him, Evans said he wanted to kill the duck because it was his religious right as he practices voodoo.

Police further saw evidence of animal cruelty when executing the search warrant.

"In the freezer's top shelf, several frozen rats were observed. The first white rat appeared to have had its legs removed and a circular piece of scalp was removed from the top of its head," the report reads. "A second dead white rat with a severed tail was located on the top level with white wax attached to its body."

Another rat was decapitated, according to the report, which adds that police also found what appeared to be two cat paws in the freezer.

"It appeared that something within the stove was bleeding and struggling inside the oven, smearing suspect blood while the oven door was closed. Small tufts of suspect fur were visible to the eye on the oven grate," the report adds.

Officers also found a bloodied one-and-a-half-foot machete and on top of Evans' dresser, a shrine  made up of candles, melted wax, blood and fur.

On the shrine, between two candles, police found a Crime Stoppers flyer of Ollie the pit bull  ripped in half.
America's top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, told NBC News Thursday that the war here remains in a "stalemate," but that President Donald Trump's new strategy has reversed a decline in the U.S. position.

"We are still in a stalemate," Nicholson, a four-star Army general said in an exclusive interview with NBC News. "We are only 90 days into this new policy, but with the U.S. forces that will be arriving, with the new authority that we have been given, put the pressure on external enablers, with the fact that we are condition based and not time based, we've set all the conditions to win."

His comments largely tracked with a more upbeat-sounding assessment Trump gave in a video conference Thursday morning with members of the Army's 82nd Airborne First Brigade Combat Team here.

"I have to say just directly to the folks in Afghanistan: Everybodys talking about the progress youve made in the last few months since I opened it up," Trump said. "We opened it up, we said go ahead, were going to fight to win. Were not fighting anymore to just walk around; were fighting to win, and you people are really  youve turned it around over the last three to four months like nobodys seen."
A rookie D.C. firefighter critically injured at the scene of a fire last summer is thankful to be alive and with his family this Thanksgiving.

"When something like this happens, you definitely look at things differently, DJ Smothers Jr. said. Just being thankful for life."

Smothers said he was getting a hose at row house fire on Capitol Hill in August when a fire truck hit him. He had a lung removed. He had surgery on his spinal chord. The side of his skull was crushed and his ribs were broken.

He spent three months in the hospital and underwent nine surgeries.

"I woke up this morning, Smothers said Thursday. I got to see my family again."

This year, hes spending the holiday at the Upper Marlboro, Maryland, home of his uncle, who is also a firefighter. The two took a picture together just hours before Smothers was hurt.

His father says the family has rallied.

"We had just made it a point that every time he opened his eyes, somebody's going to be there," Dane Smothers said.

"All of the things that I would probably be thankful for normally does not compare to his life," he said.

While DJ Smothers is thankful to be alive, he said hes also thankful for his father.

"He makes being thankful not enough," he said.

The permanent scars are nothing, he said. He's been out of the hospital for a month and is in physical therapy, working hard to get back to fighting fires.

They are the neighborhood heroes, he said. They are who people look to. I want to have that impact on people."

DJ Smothers Jr. had only been on the job for three months when he got hurt.
A pedestrian was struck and killed by two vehicles in Adelphi, Maryland, Thanksgiving evening.

Prince George's County police went to the scene at the intersection of Metzerott Road and New Hampshire Avenue about 7:30 p.m. and found an unresponsive man. Serge Deumeni, 40, of Bowie, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Deumeni was attempting to cross New Hampshire Avenue when he was struck by two vehicles.

The driver of the first vehicle stayed at the scene and is cooperating with police.

A second driver in a small sedan did not stay at the scene but may not have realized they struck Deumeni as he already was on the ground.

Southbound New Hampshire Avenue was closed for hours for the investigation.
By PTI: charge

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) Claiming conflict of interest, the Congress today alleged a company floated by Nitin Gadkaris private secretary has been receiving government funds, and demanded that the Union minister come clean about it.

The BJP, however, rubbished the allegations against Vaibhav Dange as "baseless". It said the Congress charge stemmed from Prime Minister Narendra Modis "rising popularity and spotlessly clean" governance which has left the opposition party "rattled".

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Senior Congress MP Jairam Ramesh listed the alleged "scam" by Dange in a series of alleged irregularities by BJP leaders and their relatives, including its president Amit Shahs son Jay. He also referred to alleged irregularities and conflict of interest in the running of India Foundation of Shaurya Doval, son of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

News portal The Wire had published two articles recently about the turnover of a company run by Jay Shah growing manifold after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014, and several Union ministers being directors of India Foundation of Shaurya Doval.

Jay Shah has dragged The Wire to court, filing criminal and civil defamation cases against the portal, while Shaurya Doval rejected the charge that there was any conflict of interest in ministers being directors of India Foundation.

Ramesh said Dange and a man named Motiram Kisanrao Patil floated a company-- Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE)-- on October 9, 2014 with a paid up capital of Rs 1 lakh. The IFGE, Ramesh alleged, received Rs 1.5 crore since its inception.

"...and the money came from the ministries controlled by Gadkari. IFGE organises conclaves and programmes with ministries and PSUs, and receives financial contributions.

"It receives contributions also from corporate entities and persons who deal with the ministries," Ramesh told reporters here.

The Congress leader claimed his allegation was based on information available with the Registrar of Companies.

He said it was "unacceptable" that the minister was unaware of the money being received by Danges firm.

Ramesh claimed Danges firm also had the patronage of Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Piyush Goyal but without much elaboration. He only said the companys website had Prabhus photograph and that the ministry of new and renewable energy supported IFGE when Goyal headed it.

The former Union minister said Dange had violated the Central Civil Service (conduct) Rules that prohibit a public servant from accepting contributions or raising funds.

Ramesh said, according to a corporate filing by the IFGE, its office is at Rohit House on Tolstoy Marg in the national capital. The office, he claimed, is owned by IFGEs national executive member Ravi Boratkar, who is also a director of Purti Power and Sugar Limited owned by the Gadkari family.

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"So, Gadkari cannot say he is not aware of the dealings of his private secretarys company...Gadkari should come clear about it...Dange has to resign immediately," the Congress leader demanded.

"This is a quintessential case of conflict of interest... Will the prime minister speak up, act now?" Ramesh asked.

Responding to Rameshs allegations, BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao said the were "baseless" and aimed at sullying the governments image.

"The Congress partys allegations against Mr Vaibhav Dange are much noise about nothing. Vaibhav himself has refuted these allegations in a written statement," Rao told PTI.

He said the Congress was repeatedly making such allegations hoping "in desperation that something would stick". The only effect of such "flimsy" charges is "erosion" of the Congress credibility, he said.

"The Modi government is spotlessly clean and a corrupt All India Corrupt Congress can never challenge the BJPs integrity. The Congress would be fooling itself and nobody else by its petty and pointless allegations," he said. PTI ENM/KR SK SK

--- ENDS ---

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A Baltimore detective killed by a gunman last week was slain a day before he was set to testify in a corruption probe into activities of indicted officers, the city's police commissioner confirmed Wednesday.

Commissioner Kevin Davis announced the news to reporters a week after the detective was shot in the head in a West Baltimore vacant lot. Rumors have been running rampant about the unsolved slaying of Detective Sean Suiter.

The police commissioner's latest revelation will do little to quell speculation. Davis emphasized that Suiter was not the target of any criminal investigation, but he was scheduled to testify before a grand jury "the day after he was murdered."

The Baltimore police and the FBI do not have any evidence to suggest that Suiter's slaying is "part of any conspiracy," according to Davis. But he added "there's nothing we won't consider" and said he understands why there is speculation.

"It certainly makes for great theater," Davis said.

The federal grand jury is investigating a group of Baltimore officers who worked together on a firearms crime task force and have been charged with stealing money, property and narcotics from people over two years. An indictment has described the members of the Gun Trace Task Force, a small unit dedicated to getting illegal guns off Baltimore's streets, as using their position to allegedly threaten the innocent, detain people on false pretenses and steal their money. They are also accused of faking police reports, lying to investigators and defrauding their department.

Davis emphasized that the evidence collected in Suiter's unsolved killing points to a "spontaneous encounter" the homicide detective had with a suspicious man he observed while working in a high-crime neighborhood with his partner. Evidence indicates a violent struggle, Davis said, including a roughly three-second-long radio transmission in which what seem to be gunshots are heard and Suiter appears to be in distress.

Investigators have recovered the detective's gun from the gritty lot where he was shot and have determined that the 18-year veteran of the department was shot with his own weapon. Ballistic tests show that recovered shell casings were matched to the recovered firearm.

An autopsy conducted four days after the attack showed that the gunshot was fired in "close contact" to Suiter's head, Davis said.

Davis knocked down speculation that Suiter's partner might have somehow been involved.

"The fact that we have not yet made an arrest creates an environment for rumors to flourish," he said, adding that "many people" have been interviewed and interrogated.

A reward of $215,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the person who killed Suiter.

Suiter was an 18-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department. The 43-year-old died surrounded by his family, including his wife and five children.

Officials said Suiter was a Washington, D.C, native who lived with his family in York, Pennsylvania, about an hour's commute from Baltimore.

Before the shooting, Suiter was investigating a 2016 homicide with a partner in the Bennett Street area, dressed in a typical detective's uniform: a suit with a tie and clearly displayed badge, police said.

The detective approached a man who was acting suspicious and started talking to him, police said. A confrontation ensued, and the shooter fired at Suiter, hitting him in the head, police said.
A woman who died after a house fire in Capitol Heights, Maryland, early Friday morning had been mourning her husband, who died two weeks earlier.

Elaine James, 80, and her adult son were inside their home on the 6800 block of Wilburn Drive when the fire started about 3:15 a.m. James' son was able to get out of the house on his own, but the woman was trapped in an upper floor bedroom.

When firefighters arrived, they searched for James and found her unconscious.

"We had to deal with some bars on the windows and doors, and because of the heavy fire conditions and the report of somebody trapped, we sent firefighters in, said Mark Brady, of Prince George's County Fire and EMS.



She was taken to the hospital in critical condition and died a short time later, fire officials said.

Elaine and Lawrence James lived in the house together for more than 35 years until he recently died of an illness.

James' son, who is in his 50s, was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.

"I feel so bad for him because he just lost his father, now he's got to turn around and bury his mother," neighbor Lon Johnson said.



An injured firefighter is recovering at a burn unit.

Fire officials said there were no working smoke detectors in the home. The fire began in the area of the stove and has been deemed accidental in nature.

Anyone in the county who cannot their own smoke alarm is urged to call 311 and ask about the fire department's smoke alarm program. A firefighter will come to your home and install a smoke detector for free.
Pakistani authorities acting on a court order released a U.S.-wanted militant Friday who allegedly founded a banned group linked to the 2008 Mumbai, India attack that killed 168 people, his spokesman and officials said.

Hafiz Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department and has a $10 million bounty on his head, was released before dawn after the court this week ended his detention in the eastern city of Lahore.

The move outraged Indian authorities, but Saeed's spokesman Yahya Mujahid confirmed his release, calling it a "victory of truth."

"Hafiz Saeed was under house arrest on baseless allegations and jail officials came to his home last night and told him that he is now free," he said.

Saeed ran the Jamaat-ud-Dawa organization, widely believed to be a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, which India believes was behind the deadly attack in Mumbai.

Pakistan has been detaining and freeing Saeed off and on since the attack and he and four of his aides were put under house arrest in Lahore in January under a vague law known as Maintenance of Public Order. His release came after a three-judge panel dismissed the government's plea to continue his house arrest, which ended Thursday. His aides had been released earlier.

Saeed is known for publicly supporting militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, which is split between Pakistan and India and is claimed by both. Many in the Indian-controlled portion favor independence or a merger with Pakistan and violence has increased in Indian-controlled Kashmir in recent years.

In recent years Saeed often addressed protest rallies, asking the world community to pressure India to give the right of self-determination to the people in Kashmir.

Hours after his release, he addressed a congregation of thousands of followers at a sprawling mosque in Lahore and asked Islamabad not to hold talks with India unless New Delhi agrees to a troop withdrawal from Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Saeed said he was detained for highlighting the Indian atrocities in Kashmir, but Pakistan's independent judiciary freed him because allegations against him were baseless.

"I am not struggling for any personal gains. My struggle is aimed at safeguarding the interests of Pakistan. I want Kashmir's freedom from India and this is my crime. I was arrested for it," he told worshippers, who chanted "God is Great."

In an emotional speech, Saeed said Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted from power for his "betrayal" of the Kashmiri people. He did not explain, but Sharif was removed from office in July for alleged corruption.

Earlier, supporters welcome Saeed on his arrival at the mosque by showering him with rose petals.

Saeed's release angered neighboring India, which for years has asked Pakistan to take action against all those linked to the Mumbai attack. It is widely believed that Pakistan has long tolerated banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and other Islamic militant groups.

India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar in a statement expressed outrage that a "self-confessed and UN proscribed terrorist was being allowed to walk free and continue with his evil agenda."

"He was not only the Mastermind, he was the prime organizer of the Mumbai Terror Attacks in which many innocent Indians and many people from other nationalities were killed," the statement said.

Kumar said Saeed's "release confirms once again the lack of seriousness on the part of Pakistani government in bringing to justice perpetrators of heinous acts of terrorism."

India has said it has evidence that Saeed was involved in the Mumbai attack, but Islamabad has long said sufficient evidence is not available to charge him. India claims the attackers were in contact with people in Pakistan when the assault was underway.

Relations between Pakistan and India were strained after the attack on India's financial hub. Indian authorities detained one of the assailants, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, who was sentenced to death and later hanged in the city of Pune in India. While in custody, Kasab confessed that Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the attack, which shocked the international community.

Kasab was the only surviving gunman from the coordinated three-day attack, which targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center, a tourist restaurant and a crowded train station. Nine other gunmen were killed during the siege.

India has said the attackers entered Mumbai by boat carrying cellphones, grenades and automatic weapons. The attack was broadcast live on television.

Pakistan often says India is violating human rights in Kashmir, where security forces have killed or wounded dozens of protesters at anti-India rallies in recent months.

Associated Press writer Ashok Sharma contributed to this report.
Boston police have made an arrest in connection with a homicide Sunday in West Roxbury.

Nathurlon Munnerlyn, 39, is charged with murder for his role in the death of 40-year-old Brian M. Sweeney.

Sweeney was found inside a Temple Street apartment by police at about 6:20 a.m. on Sunday. First responders determined that Sweeney was suffering from "undetermined traumatic injuries, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Three days later, police identified and arrested Munnerlyn.

"I'm always concerned when there is a homicide in Boston; even one is too many," said Police Commissioner William Evans, "Although I realize nothing can bring these victims back, I hope, especially going into this holiday season, these arrests can bring some solace and peace to the victims' families."

Munnerlyn is scheduled to be arraigned in West Roxbury District Court.
This Thanksgiving, a man injured by a falling tree in Vermonts Franklin County is thankful to be alive.

From the amount of damage I had to my body, I was lucky Im still here, and still in one piece, D. Jay Leach told necn.

Leach and his family ate their holiday meal inside the University of Vermonts physical rehab center in Colchester.

Every days an uphill battle, Leach said. Nobody has a crystal ball to see whats going to happen, but were hoping for the best.

In late October, Leach was injured when a wind-damaged tree suddenly snapped, in what coworkers called a freak accident.

The longtime town of Fairfax highway foreman was on the job clearing a blocked road, following a violent storm that brought down countless trees and power lines across Vermont.

The lifelong Fairfax resident underwent emergency procedures at the UVM Medical Center in Burlington, including a spinal fusion. Hes now using a wheel chair as he works hard to try to regain his mobility.

Im going to keep going until I can get mobility enough to do things, Leach said. I dont want to just sit down. Ive always been activeI want to stay that way.

D. Jays wife, Kathy, sent her appreciation to everyone who assisted her and her husband in their time of need, especially the people of Fairfax and other town employees.

The love and the support is overwhelming, she said.

Leachs loved ones are now displaying large signs in Fairfax, with painted red hearts that tell their neighbors thank you: thanks to the firefighters and EMTs who got D. Jay to the hospital; thanks to friends for their cards, prayers, fundraisers, and donations; and thanks to UVMs doctors, nurses, and physical therapists.

Im thankful hes alive, Kathy Leach told necn. Weve been together 47 years, and I love him more than anything else in the world.

D. Jay Leach said he knows he has a long road ahead of him, but hes determined to walk again. That would be something to be truly thankful for, he said.

Always look up, dont look back  look to the future, D. Jay Leach told.
A Massachusetts man was ordered held without bail Friday in connection with the stabbing death of a man in West Roxbury Sunday morning.

Nathurlon Munnerlyn, 39, was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital at his arraignment in West Roxbury Municipal Court. This came after a court clinician said there were questions about Munnerlyn's competency to stand trial.

Munnerlyn was arrested Wednesday after police allege he made incriminating statements to them.

Authorities say a white powdery substance believed to be drugs was found in a baggie inside the Temple Street apartment where the murder of 40-year-old Brian Sweeney happened.

"It is difficult to have a rational conversation with Mr. Munnerlyn," Assistant District Attorney Tim Bradl said.

A court clinician tried to evaluate Munnerlyn but said he refused  making faces, shaking his head, and appearing to talk to himself throughout the arraignment.

She said Munnerlyn receives services through Mass Mental Health and she questioned his competency to stand trial.

"I dont trust him, I do not trust him," Munnerlyn said.

At one point, Munnerlyn even interrupted the judge complaining about his court-appointed attorney.

"I dont know this attorney and he claims he was appointed by another. I guess the legal system in Boston, Massachusetts, I dont trust him and I would like to be appointed another attorney," Munnerlyn said.

Authorities did not initially say how Sweeney died, only that he suffered from "undetermined traumatic injuries." In court Friday, prosecutors said he had been fatally stabbed.

Sweeneys relatives were in court Friday but declined to talk.



A motive for the stabbing is unclear.

Munnerlyn is due back in court on Dec. 11.
Police in Manchester, New Hampshire are investigating a shooting that left one person injured on Thanksgiving Day.

According to police, the shooting was first reported just before 3 p.m. on Thursday. Police responded to 406 Brown Ave., where they interviewed several witnesses and an involved party.

While officers were on the scene, a female victim of the shooting arrived at an area hospital, police said. She had several gun shot wounds to her chest.

The victim's name is not known at this time.

Police are investigating the cause of the shooting. A suspect has not been named, but police are saying that there does not appear to be any further risk to the public as a result of the incident.

Anyone with information regarding the shooting is asked to contact Manchester Police at (603) 668-8711.
Prison fellowship fundraising lunch in Sheringham



Prison Fellowship is a national charity which supports prisoners in the UK with a restorative justice and victim awareness programme called Sycamore Tree. The charity also supports families with its Angel Tree scheme, whereby the children of prisoners receive a Christmas present from their parent(s) in prison, and on Mothers Day a gift is sent to the mothers of young offenders.



Regional prayer groups meet regularly for prayer to support local prisons and help with bible studies and chapel services, and to volunteer with the chaplaincy in a wide variety of ways.







The Cromer & Sheringham group supports Norwich Prison (right) and Bure Prison and is actively involved in both, with three volunteers who regularly visit prisoners as Prison Visitors and two who are letter-writers to prisoners. The group meets on the 2nd Tuesday of each month for prayer.



They are holding a Soup and Dessert event from 11.30am to 2pm on Saturday November 25 at St Andrews Methodist Church Hall in Sheringham. This event will raise funds for the Spurgeons Childcare, which supports families of prisoners in East Anglia by providing help for families on visiting days, and Storybook-Dads CDs to prisoners children.



Homemade soup, dessert and tea/coffee will be served. This is a free event but donations will be welcome. St Andrews Methodist Church is on Cromer Road in Sheringham; NR26 8SA.



170,000 children have either one or both parents in prison, with many of those children eventually going go on to serve prison sentences themselves, so anything that helps to keep the parent/child relationship together is very beneficial.



More information about Prison Fellowship can be found at www.prisonfellowship.org.uk





Enquiries about the Cromer and Sheringham group can be referred to Josie Greenfield at rcgreenfield@greenbee.net







Do you have a news story or forthcoming event relating to Christians or a church in North Norfolk?
Judges say 21 years in prison is "fully justified" for man who raped and abused boys

A PAEDOPHILE schoolteacher who raped and abused boy pupils has had his appeal against the severity of his sentence rejected.

Senior judges said that Robert Alan' Neills appalling crimes fully justified the lengthy jail term imposed on him.

Neill, a former head of house at Kennet School, Thatcham, was jailed for 21 years at Reading Crown Court in March last year.

The sexual predators jaw briefly dropped as the sentence was passed by Judge Angela Morris.

A jury had unanimously convicted the 64-year-old, who taught at Kennet School between 1985 and 2007, of a string of depraved assaults on boys as young as 11, which culminated in a rape.

During the trial Neill, who lived at Park Lane, Thatcham, had branded his victims liars and fantasists as he denied five charges of indecent assault, four of indecency with a child and one of rape involving five young boys between 1986 and 2003.

Despite being a respected head of house, Neills true nature was laid bare as victim after victim told similar, horrific tales.

But, on Tuesday, Neill sought to have his sentence reduced at Londons Appeal Court.

His lawyers argued that 21 years was not merely too long but represented a vast sentence.

Pleading for a reduction in the term, they pointed to Neills age and previous good character.

But Sir John Royce told the appeal court judges how Neill had abused his position to single out the boys, with his crimes escalating in seriousness as time went on.

He said Neill's worst crimes were against a pupil aged just 11 or 12.

He fondled him, performed a sex act on him and then made the boy do the same to him before raping him.

Sir John, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde and Judge Jeremy Carey, said Neills crimes involved a gross breach of trust and were predatory.

He added: He appears to have selected boys who were young and vulnerable.

The total sentence of 21 years was fully justified in the appalling circumstances of this offending.
By PTI: Ahmedabad, Nov 24 (PTI) Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today attacked the Congress, saying the party regularly makes statements that seek to "break the Armys morale and reduce its stature".

She rued leaders of the Sonia Gandhi-led party often speak the language of separatists and support those who talk about dividing the nation.

Talking to reporters here, the minister also slammed the opposition party over the "chai-wala" meme directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying it has failed to learn from its past mistakes.

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"Today, the Congress talks in separatists voice and enthusiastically joins them. The Congress vice president supports those misdirected youths of the JNU who talk about break-up of the country (desh ke tukde karenge)," she said.

"A senior Congress leader advocates autonomy (for Jammu & Kashmir) and says separatists talk about autonomy and not independence. He gives different definitions of azadi. When he was the home minister (in the Congress-led UPA government), he said the Army is against peace process," she said, referring to reported statements of Congress leader P Chidambaram.

"A Congress leader (Sandeep Dikshit) likened the Army chief to a goon on the street. The Congress is always ready to break the morale of the Army and reduce the Armys stature," she said.

Sitharaman said Modi is needlessly targeted by the main opposition party. "Our prime minister, who works for the benefit of the country, was accused of khoon ki dalali and described as a chai-wala (tea seller)."

The Congress has damaged itself with such statements, Sitharaman, here to campaign for the BJP in the Gujarat assembly polls, said.

"Before every election, the Congress has the habit of inflicting damage to itself (by making statements against Modi)," the Union minister said.

She referred to Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyars "chai-wala" remark and said his jibe against Modi ahead of the 2014 polls "changed the course of election".

"Who had said Modiji, I will offer you a stall to sell tea?...The Congress is again daring to insult the prime minister with tu chai bech (go sell tea) meme," she said.

The Congress comes up with such select comments before every election and does not even learn from its mistakes, she said, adding the party did not even spare the Army.

"They (Congress leaders) said surgical strike was khoon ki dalali. The party should introspect before making such comments," Sitharaman added, referring to the Armys surgical strike on terrorist launchpads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. PT KA PD RSY SMN

--- ENDS ---
Killer bacteria  ones that have out-evolved our best antibiotics -- may not go away anytime soon. But a new approach to tracking their spread could eventually give us a fighting chance to keep their death toll down.

Using data from a 2008 outbreak of one of the most-feared "superbugs," and modern genetic sequencing techniques, a team has successfully modeled, and predicted, the way the organism spread between and within dozens of healthcare facilities.

The approach can tell if the bug is spreading within a hospital, nursing home or long-term acute care hospital  or if a new patient transferred from another facility has brought it there.

In other words, if fighting superbugs is like a horror movie, the approach can tell if the call is coming from inside the house, or if the killer is lurking outside and about to barge through the door.

And just like in a horror movie, getting an answer quickly can guide what kinds of barricades and weapons health professionals should use against the villain.

The approach, published in Science Translational Medicine, combines current epidemiological approaches with whole-genome sequencing  spelling out the entire DNA sequence of bacteria from each infected patient.

This makes it possible to use the tiny changes in superbug DNA  the kind of mutations that happen naturally over time -- to track their spread within and between healthcare facilities.

The approach was developed by teams from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and the University of Michigan Medical School, with funding from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Prevention Epicenters Program. The teams used data on a 2008 outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumonia (CRKP) in the upper Midwest.

"These organisms permeate regions, but it hasn't been understood in detail how that happens  why they spread like wildfire in one region and don't make headway in another," says Evan Snitkin, Ph.D., a U-M assistant professor specializing in bioinformatics and systems biology. "Because this was the first outbreak of CRKP in the Chicago region, we decided to try to trace its initial movements based on patient transfers and whole-genome sequencing of samples. If we can understand what drives transmission in a region, we hope to be able to intervene to prevent further spread."

Back in time

Rush's hospital identified the second case of CRKP in the region. The hospital team identified the outbreak after a patient arrived at their emergency department in a transfer from an acute care hospital in Indiana.

A team led by Mary K. Hayden, M.D., an infectious diseases physician who also directs Rush's Division of Clinical Microbiology, conducted and published its own investigation of the outbreak, using the best techniques available at the time. They concluded that the bug had spread from a single patient in mid-2007, and eventually infected 42 people treated in 14 acute care hospitals, two LTACHs, and 10 nursing homes.

Transfers of patients among these facilities  for example, from an LTACH or nursing to a hospital for short-term acute care, and then back again  was identified as a major driver of spread. A single LTACH was identified as a key hub for transmission.

In this outbreak, many patients died. Nationwide, death rates for CRKP are even higher, and it tends to prey upon the sickest, most vulnerable patients.

Old samples, new analysis

Back in 2008, whole-genome sequencing of this many samples was not feasible.

"Although our research fellow at the time, Dr. Sarah Won, conducted an exhaustive outbreak investigation, the molecular epidemiologic tools available in 2008 did not allow us to determine timing and direction of spread for many cases," says Hayden. "We saved the isolates with the hope that more discriminating techniques would be available in the future. We were very excited when the future arrived!"

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

The Rush team brought the samples to U-M's Center for Microbial Systems for sequencing, and Snitkin's team started to put the genome data together with what Hayden's team had found out about the outbreak. This included something that hadn't been available before the original outbreak report: clinical data on 'patient zero,' the person whose infection with CRKP dated back to mid-2007, and who Hayden's team had previously identified as the origin of the outbreak.

This allowed the team to create a 'family tree' of the CRKP outbreak, back to that first patient on the trunk. They mapped the spread from patient to patient, and facility to facility, based on both the sleuthwork Hayden's team had done and the new genomic sequence information.

They could see which cases had resulted from transmission within the facility  because of practices that allowed bacteria from the infected patient to reach others  and which had been introduced because a patient was transferred with the bacteria already inside them.

Then, they tested the approach by trying to predict which facility each patient's CRKP infection had come from, using only the genomes of the other patients already treated in the outbreak  and none of the information from patients treated later.

This real-time analysis, similar to what might happen in a real outbreak, successfully pinpointed the facility where the infection came from for every patient.

"The genome sequence is powerful for finding pathways, but having epidemiological data about exposures and movement between facilities makes everything make sense," says Snitkin, who holds positions in the U-M Medical School's departments of Microbiology & Immunology and Internal Medicine. "We envision that we will be able to use this same approach on other organisms, too, though efficacy will vary."

Adds Hayden, "This approach might be particularly useful in identifying pathways of transmission soon after emergence of a superbug in a region. The earlier we can intervene to contain an outbreak, the more likely it is that we can eradicate it."

The complementary expertise of the Michigan and Rush teams made the project possible, he adds. Going forward, the team hopes to test the approach in other settings, to see if they can find the hubs of antibiotic-resistant bacteria development and transmission.

They also will test the approach for its ability to trace the origin of transmission for an organism that's already present in an area. This could be much harder than tracking a newly introduced type of infection that has just entered a region.

The role of LTACH's, where patients may live for months at a time receiving hospital-level care such as constant ventilation, is one they also hope to explore further. Such facilities may be especially prone to the development of antibiotic-resistant organisms simply because of the kind of care they provide to a very vulnerable and immobile population with weak immune systems.

In the long run, the researchers hope their approach could be adapted broadly by public health authorities and infection control specialists in healthcare facilities  and used to steer interventions very early in an outbreak to prevent transmission across broad networks.

To get to that point will require the development of public-domain software for public health disease detectives to use routinely, or even to automate the process.
Researchers from UK have studied different properties of various types of alcohol and found that while a glass of wine could help relax, some spirits can make one feel more confident and sexier. Theirs was the first study to look at emotional responses to different types of alcoholic beverages.

Their data comes from nearly 30,000 people who participated in the Global Drug Survey. The results of the study titled, Do emotions related to alcohol consumption differ by alcohol type? An international cross-sectional survey of emotions associated with alcohol consumption and influence on drink choice in different settings was published in the November issue of the British Medical Journal.

Image Credit: Christian Draghici / Shutterstock

The Global Drug Survey or the International cross-sectional opportunistic survey is an annual international poll that asks participants about their drugs and alcohol usage. The participants took an online anonymous questionnaire survey that was offered in 11 different languages. The advertisements for participating in the survey came up in the media including newspapers, magazines and social media. The survey was conducted between November 2015 and January 2016. The participants were aged between 18 and 34 years and they all recorded their consumption of spirits, beer, red and white wine over the last one year. A total of 29,836 participants took part in the survey from 21 different countries. The respondents were asked to report about how they felt after their drinks. These were positive and negative emotions listed in the study such as energized, relaxed, sexy, confident, tired, aggressive, ill, restless and tearful.

The survey results found that hard spirits such as vodka, gin and whiskey are associated with stronger feelings and more aggressive negative feelings. Results revealed that these drinks lead to aggression in 29.8 percent individuals, restlessness in 28 percent individuals and tearfulness in 22 percent individuals. Red wine caused aggressive feelings in only 7.1 percent individuals. However the positive emotions that these drinks brought about were also significant. They caused feelings of being energized in 58 percent, feeling confident in 59 percent and feeling sexier in 42 percent. Some other varieties of alcohol such as beer and red wine led to feeling relaxed in 50 and 53 percent individuals respectively. Red wine caused feelings of fatigue in 60 percent individuals and this was more common with red wine than with white wine.

The researchers write that the differences in the emotions reported after consumption of these beverages is mainly due to the differences in the alcohol content and ingredients in the drinks. Another reason why some specific emotions are attached to specific beverages is due to the cultural implications and media advertising around those drinks, they explain. Except for aggressive feelings, all of the other emotions reported came from women rather than from men. Further younger drinkers such as those between ages 18 and 24 who drank more frequently, also reported more emotions than more mature drinkers. Geographical areas and socioeconomic status also had an influence on reports about emotions felt after drinking.

The researchers concluded that most people may be choosing their drinks based on their emotional states as well as how they wish to feel after a drink rather than for pleasure alone. They wrote, These findings suggest that individuals inadvertently select drinks which are known to elicit negative emotions because they crave the positive emotions that go with them and link with existing evidence that those dependent on alcohol drink alcohol as a coping mechanism rather than drinking for pleasure.
Echo, the company who created the first-ever hybrid microscope, announced today the completion of $7.5 million in Series A funding. The capital investment, co-led by Dolby Family Ventures and Tech Coast Angels (TCA), will support Echo in scaling manufacturing, strengthening the companys sales infrastructure, and developing future technologies.

Echo's marquee microscope, Revolve, easily transforms between upright and inverted configurations to offer two microscopes in one. Photo by Jason San Agustin.

Echo, formerly Echo Laboratories, is setting a new precedent in microscope usability and design. The companys hybrid microscope, Revolve, combines the functionality of both upright and inverted microscopes to significantly reduce costs, while freeing up valuable laboratory space. Revolve also leverages tablet and cloud-based technologies to capture and manage image data while delivering a modern, seamless approach to data management and hardware integration.

The science communitys response to Echo has exceeded anything we could have predicted, said Eugene Cho, CEO and founder of Echo. This investment enables us to continue scaling and meet the growing demands of our customers, while also developing future cutting edge products.

The global microscopy market is expected to reach over $6 billion by 2021 (MarketsandMarkets Research), yet new technology has been slow to evolve. The Revolves capitalization of this opportunity through its usability and versatility has been early adopted in top institutions such as Stanford University; University of California, San Francisco; Harvard University; Yale University; 23andME; Pfizer; and the National Institutes of Health. Echos future products will include a higher end model with automation, designed for those in biotech and pharma, as well as an entry-level model for students, educators and those focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Echo previously raised $5 million from angel investors, including TCA. Echo won TCA San Diegos Quick Pitch contest in 2016, beating 146 competitors for the $15,000 first-place prize. Echo was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in San Diego.
A new study published yesterday in the journal Nature Communications suggests that fats released into the atmosphere from cookers like deep fat fryers may enhance cloud formation, resulting in a major cooling effect on the earth.

Credit: Kaiskynet Studio/ Shutterstock.com

In this study, the scientists explained that fatty acid molecules released while cooking can form complex 3D structures spontaneously in atmospheric aerosol droplets. According to the team, these well-ordered structural formations may extend the atmospheric lifetimes of these molecules and thereby affect cloud formation.

Dr. Christian Pfrang, a lead author and Associate Professor of Physical & Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Reading, said that even though the impact of fatty acid molecules coating the surface of aerosol particles in the atmosphere on the ability of aerosols to seed formation of clouds was already known, this is the first study to consider what these molecules do inside of the aerosol droplet.

The full impact of the surprisingly complex molecular arrangements of these fatty acid molecules in the environment is hard to quantify at this stage since these structures have not previously been considered by the atmospheric science community: there is no reliable estimate available yet how much organic material shows such complex self-assembly in the atmosphere and further research is urgently needed Dr. Pfrang, University of Reading

Yet, according to him, there are possibilities for these structures to have a vital impact on water uptake of droplets in the atmosphere, extend lifetimes of reactive molecules, as well as slow down transport inside the droplets, which can have unexplored consequences.

Dr. Adam Squires, co-author and Associate Professor of Biophysics and Materials at the University of Bath, explained that complex structures are formed by similar fatty acid molecules such as soap in water, where they possess a dramatic impact on whether the mixture is liquid or solid, transparent or cloudy, and the amount of moisture it absorbs from the atmosphere in a lab.

Dr. Squires also commented on the challenges in understanding the effect of these cooking fats on the world around us. The team also studied a model system in order to represent atmospheric aerosol that consists of individually levitated droplets of mixtures of brine and oleic acid. Oleic acid is a fatty acid related with cooking emissions and its contribution to the urban load of fine particulate matter in London is nearly 10%.

The findings indicated that the fat molecules accumulated to form highly ordered, crystal-like lattices of cylinders or spheres known as lyotropic phases which are known to greatly affect uptake of water from the surrounding environment, a vital step in cloud nucleation, as well as viscosity, which affects the rate of chemical reaction.

Additional trials suggested the increased resistance of fatty acids to ozone chemical attacks, which enables these complex structures to survive longer and travel further in the atmosphere, facilitating droplet growth and cloud formation.

The scientists anticipate that the findings may inspire other researchers to study the actual effect of complex self-assembly in the atmosphere.
Hafiz Saeed's release shows 'true face' of Pakistan: India

Islamabad : The decision to set free Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai massacre, shows Pakistan's "true face", the Indian government said on Thursday.

"His (imminent) release confirms once again the lack of seriousness on the part of Pakistani government in bringing to justice perpetrators of heinous acts of terrorism including by individuals and entities designated by the UN," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar told reporters.

"It is evident that Pakistan has not changed its policy of shielding and supporting non-state actors and its true face is visible for all to see.

"It is the responsibility of the Pakistani government to fulfil its international obligations and take credible and effective action against terrorists like Hafiz Saeed," Kumar said.

The Indian reaction came a day after the Lahore High Court ordered Saeed to be freed after about 10 months of house arrest, citing lack of evidence against him.

Kumar said the release of Saeed appeared to be an attempt by the Pakistani system to mainstream proscribed terrorists.

Kumar said Saeed was not only the "mastermind" of the Mumbai terror attack that killed 166 Indians and foreigners but also the "prime organiser" behind the horror. India also blamed him for unleashing terror attacks against Pakistan's neighbours.

Kumar said India and the entire international community was outraged that a self-confessed and UN proscribed terrorist was allowed to "walk free" and continue with his "evil agenda".

Saeed and his four aides -- Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal Shahbaz, Abdur Rehman and Qazi Kashif Hussain -- have been under house arrest since January under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
China may be considering sharing its J-20 fifth generation stealth fighter jet technologies with allies such as Pakistan. Sino-Indian ties following a stiff face-off since June on the Doklam Plateau, a border area claimed by both Beijing and New Delhi.

Beijing may invest for a stake in Russias Su-57 program. The Russian stealth fighter program is now running on a shoestring budget. China could then merge Russian technology at a cheap price.

China is trying to integrate its advanced civilian technology with its military technology to move from being a low cost weapons supplier to compete for high end markets.

China is using Belt and Road infrastructure development and low costs loans to gain influence and increase trade.
Award ceremony speech

Presentation Speech by Professor O.B. Klein, member of the Nobel Committee for Physics

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen.

The Nobel Prize in Physics to Professor Tsung Dao Lee and Professor Chen Ning Yang for this year is concerned with some of the fundamental physical principles, the so-called parity laws  in the first place the symmetry of Nature with respect to right and left  in their application to elementary particles and their reactions.

When during this century the old dream about atoms came true, it soon became clear not only that reality is by far richer than was the dream but also considerably different from it. The atoms that were found and which one learnt to count and to measure did by no means correspond to the ideal of indivisibility and unchangeability of the old atomists. But instead, there appeared a hitherto unknown, strangely unvisualizable feature of indivisibility in all atomic processes and therefore also behind all usual physical events, without which everything in the world would be in flux. The new edifice of laws, which was the consequence of these discoveries  it is called quantum theory  contains the laws of earlier physics as a correct but greatly simplified limiting case. They have a similar relationship to the laws of atomic physics as an airphoto to a near-picture of the same landscape.

The lesson learnt from quantum theory made that the literally unchangeable atoms of the old philosophers were hardly seriously sought in those particles-electrons, protons, and neutrons  from which atoms are made. As the name elementary particles under which they are summarized would seem to indicate, there was nevertheless a certain inclination towards this direction. But already the ordinary elementary particles are by no means unchangeable, which is still more strongly the case with the lot of new, similar particles discovered during later years, the transformations of which now stand at the centre of interest of atomic physicists. In our attempts to find a theory which comprehends all the new facts concerning old and new elementary particles, certain wittingly unreal, symbolic particles appear in our equations, which with a little good will could be regarded as the eternally immutable atoms of philosophers. Of the real elementary particles we could then, following Lao-tse, the old Chinese thinker, say: The elementary particles, which could be defined, are not the eternal elementary particles. Lao-tse did not talk of elementary particles, of course, but of Tao, the deepest principle of life. And physics is certainly considerably simpler than human life. And there we have powerful auxiliaries in the art of experimentation and mathematics.

As to mathematics and elementary particles it has, in the first place, led to two theories, each of which has been developed by a Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Dirac and Fermi. Hereby the former theory is the outermost wing of the edifice of quantum mechanics, while the latter may be regarded as the first, still unfinished room in the new edifice of elementary particle laws. But they are both concerned with electrons and thus border on one another.

But what has the question of right and left to do with elementary particle physics? Well, in the first place only in a negative way, in that it was assumed almost tacitly, that elementary particle reactions are symmetric with respect to right and left. This assumption was to play an important part in the elaboration of Fermis theory. That this assumption was made was very natural, not least in view of the mentioned theory of Dirac, according to which it looked as if the electrons, the best known elementary particles, possessed no feature which would permit a distinction between right and left. In fact, most of us were inclined to regard the symmetry of elementary particles with respect to right and left as a necessary consequence of the general principle of right-left symmetry of Nature. Thanks to Lee and Yang and the experimental discoveries inspired by them we now know that this was a mistake.

The starting-point of Lee and Yang in their revision of the whole question of right-left symmetry in elementary particle reactions were certain strange observations concerning a kind of new particles called K mesons, which looked as if they were in contrast with the assumption mentioned. Even if these observations puzzled greatly many physicists, it was only Lee and Yang who seriously took the consequences of them, in that they asked themselves what kind of experimental support there was for the assumption that all elementary particle processes are symmetric with respect to right and left. The result of their investigation was unexpected, namely that the validity of the symmetry assumption even in the best known processes had no experimental support whatsoever, the reason being that all experiments had been so arranged as to give the same result whether the assumption was valid or not. As if one had thought that Olav Tryggveson had his heart in the middle of the body because he was equally skilled with the left as with the right hand. Lee and Yang did not confine themselves to this negative statement but devised a number of experiments which would make it possible to test the right-left symmetry in different elementary particle transformations, and proposed them to their experimental colleagues. The first of these experiments was carried out by the Chinese physicist, Mrs. C.S. Wu and her collaborators. Very schematically it consisted in the following. Atomic nuclei of a radioactive isotope of the metal cobalt were exposed at very low temperature to a magnetic field  they are themselves small magnets  whereby they became directed just like compass needles. The distribution as to direction of the electrons due to radioactivity was then investigated.

Let us assume that the magnetic field is created by means of a coil placed like a spool of thread on a table, and that the electric current is flowing counterclockwise in the wire. Then the north poles of the cobalt nuclei will be directed upwards. The experiment, now, gave the result that the electrons from the radioactive process with this arrangement were preferentially thrown downwards towards the floor. From this it follows unambiguously that the process lacks that right-left symmetry, which one had earlier assumed. Thus, by means of this experiment it could be explained to a person, who did not know it  let us say an inhabitant of a distant stellar system  what we mean by right and left. In fact, it would be sufficient to ask him to arrange the experiment so as to make the preferential direction of the electrons point downwards. The current will then have the same direction as that in which he has to turn at the command left face.

However  and this is a thing of the utmost importance for the incorporation of the new discoveries into our edifice of physical laws  the person on the distant planet will be able to follow our prescriptions only if he knows what we mean by the direction of an electric current. And to know this he must know that our atoms and his are made up of the same elementary particles. We know, however, that not only are there double sets of electrons  positive and negative  but that the same holds for protons and neutrons, the building stones of atomic nuclei. It is therefore possible that his atoms contrary to ours would consist of positive electrons and negative nuclei. If they did, he would judge the direction of the current opposite to what we would do, with the result that he would call right left and left right. In stating this we have tacitly made an assumption which is not quite confirmed as yet but which, as far as the experiments go, seems probable, namely that the results of all experiments performed with the opposite kind of elementary particles would be just such as to reestablish the right-left symmetry. With other words, one should be able to regard the antiparticles not only as the electric opposites of the particles but also as their mirror images.

Professor Lee and Professor Yang. In the very incomplete sketch of your new work I have just made in Swedish, time has not allowed me to mention the many other beautiful contributions to theoretical physics made by each one of you, nor could I at all do justice to the enthusiasm your new achievement has aroused among physicists. Through your consistent and unprejudiced thinking you have been able to break a most puzzling deadlock in the field of elementary particle physics where now experimental and theoretical work is pouring forth as the result of your brilliant achievement.

It is with great satisfaction, therefore, that The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award you this years Nobel Prize for Physics for your fundamental contributions to this branch of science.

On behalf of the Academy I wish to extend to you our heartiest congratulations and now ask you to receive from the hands of His Majesty the King the Nobel Prize for Physics for the year 1957.

From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1942-1962, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1964

Copyright  The Nobel Foundation 1957

To cite this section

MLA style: Award ceremony speech. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Thu. 17 Nov 2022. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1957/ceremony-speech/>
By Chayyanika Nigam: Mistaken identity proved lucky for a 17-year-old girl who was on the verge of being sold off to a brothel owner. Mistaking the SHO of Kamla Market for the owner of one of the brothels on GB Road, Gurgaon residents Amar and Ranjeet tried to sell the girl off to him.

Thanks to the smartness of the SHO, who immediately posed as the owner of the brothel and laid a trap, the accused were nabbed and the minor girl was rescued.

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From the past one-and-a-half month, inspector Sunil Kumar, the SHO of Kamla Market, was receiving random calls on his official number, wherein the callers would assume him to be either a pimp or a brothel owner.

Speaking to Mail Today, Kumar said: "In early November, I received a call from Amar, who asked me about the availability of girls on GB Road. As I was already receiving such calls, I pretended to be associated with GB Road. I gave him a few offers. After I gained their faith, they told me they want to sell a girl."

The duo got SHO's official number from a video clip on the GB Road that is uploaded on YouTube. The clip stops at a place that shows the contact number of the SHO written on a wall. The two men thought that the number belongs to a brothel owner.

But in reality, the numbers of some of the cops were placed on the walls by the SHO himself so that the victims could contact them when in need.

"I immediately told them that there is a need of minor girls in the brothel. The whole conversation that includes calls and chats over WhatsApp lasted for around 25 days. Finally, the deal was made and a trap was set up to rescue the girl and to arrest the traffickers," Kumar added.

On the scheduled date and time, a meeting was held between the decoy customers and Amar outside New Delhi Railway Station. Amar demanded Rs 3.5 lakh for the girl and the deal was finalised for Rs 2.3 lakh.

On November 22, the accused promised to hand over the girl outside New Delhi Railway Station in the evening. At about 5:30 pm, Amar came there and the decoy customer gave him Rs 20,000 as advance payment.

He returned after a few minutes later along with Ranjeet and the girl again. The police team then apprehended both of them and the minor girl was also rescued safely.

During interrogation, the men, in their early twenties, confessed that Amar lured the girl on the pretext of marriage. She ran away from her home in Bihar and came to Gurugram, and the two allegedly got married in front of four persons in a locked room in October.

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But later, Amar who is already married started looking for a client to sell her off. It has been learned that the men are first-timers and had trapped the girl in a bid to earn easy money. They don't have previous crime record.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: unite: Mamata

(Eds: Updating)

Kolkata, Nov 24 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said there is a "super emergency" in the country and democracy is under threat as she called upon Opposition parties to unite to oust the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.

She also accused the NDA government of trying to halt the developmental process in her state.

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"Democracy is under threat in this country under the present central government. It is a super emergency that is going on in the country. I have been an MP for nearly two decades but I have never seen such a government at the Centre," she said at the India Today Conclave East here.

"I believe in collective leadership... At present all are working together and that is the best policy. Let us work together," Banerjee said about the Opposition, adding she shares good relations with the DMK, the SP, the BSP and the BJD and is working with the Congress inside Parliament on various issues.

When asked whether she is hinting at a broader opposition coalition with the Congress before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, she said, "In Bengal, the Congress and the Left are working with the BJP at the state level. But at the national level for greater interests I think we should work together."

To a question whether the country would see a grand opposition coalition ahead of 2019, she said, "It depends. We are working together in Parliament. I went to (RJD chief) Lalu Prasadjis programme in Patna."

Banerjee said, "I have good relationship with (Samajwadi Party chief) Akhilesh ji and (BSP chief) Mayawati ji in Uttar Pradesh, with Stalin ji (DMK), Naveen ji (BJD)... I maintain the best of relations with so many other people. Even, within the BJP I maintain good relation with some people, but not with all."

Bengal will never accept divide and rule politics of the BJP, she asserted and dismissed that it was a challenger to the ruling (TMC) Trinamool Congress government.

"The BJP is nowhere in Bengal but only on media and social media. They only shout. Let the BJP shout along with their bike vahini, but they cannot do anything in Bengal," Banerjee said.

The BJP is trying to position itself as the main opposition in the state. PTI PNT KK ZMN 11241724 ZMN

--- ENDS ---
RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group chairman Sanjiv Goenka said Modi has taken efforts to bring a change in the way business was done in the country but a lot needs to be done.

By India Today Web Desk: The economic reforms brought by the Narendra Modi may take another 18-24 months before the accompanying investments led to creation of jobs. This is the sense of the industrialists, who debated the questions that the India's economy is facing.

Participating in a panel discussion on "Made in India: Ready for the World" at the India Today Conclave East 2017, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group chairman Sanjiv Goenka said Narendra Modi has taken efforts to bring a change in the way business was done in the country but still a lot needed to be done.

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"A lot of measures have been taken by the government and that is being reflected in the confidence shown by the international agencies. Investment is coming but there is a time-lag between investment and investment showing results in terms of job creation," Goenka said.

Responding to a query about the change in working style of the current government over the previous one, Goenka said, "It is difficult to say but things are moving faster. Regulatory processes have got reduced. GST makes trade boundary-less."

"Things are getting faster. Investment will begin to happen soon. But for investment to lead to creation of jobs will still take 18-24 months," Goenka said.

Participating in the discussion, ITC chief executive officer Sanjiv Puri said that backlogs were accumulating 6-8 years ago and various projects were held up for various reasons while "now things are moving faster".

Puri also said that the ITC has set up three food processing units in Kolkata in recent times while another is being worked upon. "It is getting easier to do business now," Puri said.

Goenka further said that contrary to belief that large projects bring more jobs, it is smaller investments that employ more people. "We have an investment of Rs 6,000 crore where only 400 people are employed. Much more people are employed in smaller investment projects," Goenka said.

WHAT ELSE THEY SAID: THINGS TO KNOW

Responding to a query about Indian businessmen preferring investment abroad to India, Goenka said, "You need to be globally competitive. Investments are made considering higher returns."

On the question of land acquisition for industry both Puri and Goenka said that the governments should involve in resolving wherever there is an issue. "Several issues have been resolved but still few things need to be sorted out. For a large project, it is difficult for industry to procure land, say, 100 hectares or 500 hectares or 1000 hectares. The government should help," Goenka said.

"Divorce the politics from economics. If we don't do it, it would be difficult to do it to do (development that political parties promise," Goenka said in response to a query about the politics over land acquisition which makes the ruling party skeptical about interfering with the process of land acquisition.

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Puri said that more state governments have now become involved in land acquisition as they understand the significance of large business projects. He said that many states have come up with the idea of land pooling for industry, which has worked well.

Both Puri and Goenka stated that GST was a right step in right direction. "Any tax that unifies the country and removes boundaries is good. I think GST is one such thing," Goenka said on a question of about Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's criticism of GST calling it Gabbar Singh Tax.

"It is still early days and there are teething problems. If 3-4 more months are given, things will iron out with regard to GST," Goenka said.

Puri said that he expected more pain from GST rollout. "Compared to the pain that I thought we would go through for such a large tax change, the GST rollout was smoother. Over time, the GST Council has brought necessary changes. We need to educate people. Mindset needs to be created for GST," Puri said.

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On the issue of GST compliance, Puri said, "At the end of the day, we have to decide if we have to get to the formal economy from informal economy or not. We have to educate people that this is the only way we have to do business in future. I see no alternative to that."

Here is the full coverage of India Today Conclave East 2017.

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WATCH | India Today Conclave East 2017: Govt has taken lot of measures to ensure ease of doing business, says Sanjiv Goenka

--- ENDS ---
TOKYO  The president of Mitsubishi Materials apologized on Friday for the latest breach of quality standards to rattle corporate Japan after the company said it had falsified inspection data for components it sold to manufacturers of cars, aircraft and industrial equipment.

I deeply apologize for causing great trouble to many customers and shareholders, the president, Akira Takeuchi, said at a news conference, bowing deeply alongside other executives.

Mitsubishi Materials said the components it sold, including rubber seals used in aircraft and automobiles, met legally mandated safety standards and were therefore not dangerous. Still, the revelation is a fresh blow to Japans reputation for scrupulous high-quality manufacturing, following admissions of similarly deceptive practices at Kobe Steel.

Mitsubishi Materials faces additional scrutiny over the timing of its disclosure. The company said managers at one of three subsidiaries where the deception occurred became aware of the data falsification in February after an internal inspection, but they did not report the issue to superiors at the parent company until October. It took another month for Mitsubishi Materials to acknowledge the problem publicly.
In February 2016, Anita Johnson met a woman in Milwaukee fretting that, although she had voted faithfully for decades, she would be unable to cast a ballot in the presidential election.

Her Wisconsin drivers license was about to expire, and since she was 90 and no longer drove, she wouldnt renew it. But she had heard about the states strict new voter ID law, requiring official photo identification.

Without a license, she worried she was out of luck. Maybe not, said Ms. Johnson.

The state coordinator for VoteRiders, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps citizens vote, Ms. Johnson pointed out that the state Department of Motor Vehicles could issue a photo ID. Poll workers would accept that as proof of identity.

On the very last day the would-be voter had a valid license, Ms. Johnson drove her to the agency, which issued the necessary state card.
So why, in an age of information overload and in a news-saturated city like New York, are written horoscopes still so popular?

One appeal is that they offer some order in an otherwise chaotic city and volatile world, said Galit Atlas, a clinical assistant professor in New York Universitys postdoctoral program in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.

What makes us feel safe in the world is order, boundaries and sequence, and those three things are things that astrology can give us, Ms. Atlas said. Especially in a time when the world doesnt feel safe, we tend to search for an order that makes sense.

Thats not a negative thing, she added. The more secure we feel in the world, the more were able to be productive  to live fully, to love and to work.

Astrology is believed to have first appeared in ancient Babylon some 4,000 years ago. But as a written art in newspapers and magazines, the practice is comparatively new  about a century old. (The first horoscope column in a major newspaper graced the pages of The Sunday Express in London in 1930.)
Militants opened fire on hundreds of worshipers attending the Friday sermon in the mosque, they also blocked escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the burning wrecks to block the roads.

The exterior of Al Rawdah mosque is seen in Bir Al-Abed, Egypt November 24, 2017 in this still taken from video. REUTERS TV/ via REUTERS

By India Today Web Desk: 235 people have reportedly died in, what is being called as, the deadliest attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt. Militants attacked a crowded mosque during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula.

According to news agency AP, the attack targeted a mosque that was frequented by Sufis. Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic State group, consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith, the AP reported.

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Militants opened fire on hundreds of worshipers attending the Friday sermon in the mosque, they also blocked escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the burning wrecks to block the roads.

The attack is being called the first major attack on a Muslim mosque, eclipsing previous attacks of its kind.

Dozens of bloodied bodies wrapped up in sheets were laid across the mosque floor, according to images circulating on social media. Relatives queuing up outside the hospital as ambulances raced back and forth.

The state news agency MENA put the death toll at 235.

Though no terrorist group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, ISIS has been previously known to target Sufis several times. Last year, ISIS beheaded a leading Sufi religious figure, Sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz, from the same region and posted photos of the killing online.

Egypt has declared a three-day mourning period in the state, while President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called a high level meeting to discuss the security concerns.

The UN Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attacks on the mosque in Egypt and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. The statement released by the Security Council called the atatck a "heinous and cowardly terrorist attack".

Security Council members, including Egypt which is serving a two-year term, "reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security."

State leaders including US, India, France, Russia, UAE, Israel and Britain condemned the attack.

(With inputs from The Associated Press)

--- ENDS ---
Could you spot the Trump supporter at the Thanksgiving dinner table? Maybe you were expecting a grump in a MAGA cap, obsessed with white meat. Or someone who started in with whataboutism and the Clintons once the Russian connection came up.

More likely, it was the silent pessimist stewing across from the sweet potatoes, part of the large majority of Donald Trump followers who believe life is worse today than it was 50 years ago. They are also more likely to think that the country cant solve its problems  that were all doomed to a tribal apocalypse.

We knew this profile going into the election, thanks to a number of surveys showing that Trump Republicans had thrown in the towel on the big issues of the day. They dont trust diplomacy to ensure peace, nor do they believe more ethnic diversity is a good thing. In those two areas, thankfully, they are also out of step with majority sentiment.

Still, its a wonder were even talking. Contempt is mutual. A Pew survey from last year found that 45 percent of Republicans think Democrats are a threat to the nations well-being. And a majority of Democrats say Republicans make them feel afraid.
By PTI: by UNEP

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) Two Indians -- ex-environment minister Anil Madhav Dave and deputy director of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Chandra Bhushan -- have been honoured with ozone awards by the UN Environment Programme.

Dave, who died in May this year, was posthumously given the Political Leadership Award in recognition of his leadership role in getting the Kigali Amendment signed in October 2016.

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Bhushan was given the Partnership Award for providing the policy and research support to the negotiations for the Kigali Amendment.

CSEs Down To Earth magazine also got the the Best Media Coverage Award.

The ceremony was held in Canada to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol.

Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Twitter said, "Matter of great pride for India as Late Shri Anil Madhav Dave, the then Honble Minister of State (independent charge) environment, forest and climate change, GoI, was given the Ozone Award posthumously."

He said, "On behalf of India, the award was received by Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change and was handed over by Ms Catherine Mckenna, Minister of Environment, Government of Canada, at a glittering #OzoneAwards Ceremony."

These awards recognise the achievements of individuals, groups and organisations that have demonstrated extraordinary contribution to progress of the protocol in the last 10 years, he said.

"Untimely demise of Late Shri Anil Madhav Dave has been a great loss to the nation. This award is yet another testimony to his dedication to environment, his work wont go in vein," Harsh Vardhan said.

To combat climate change, about 200 nations, including India, had last year in Kigali , Rawanda, struck a legally- binding deal after intense negotiations to phase down climate-damaging HFCs that have global warming potential thousand times more than carbon dioxide.

HFCs are used as a refrigerant in refrigeration and air conditioning sectors.

It is a super greenhouse gas with global warming potential thousands of times higher than Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is considered as the most successful international environmental treaty. PTI TDS ASK ASK

--- ENDS ---
CAIRO  Militants detonated a bomb inside a crowded mosque in the Sinai Peninsula on Friday and then sprayed gunfire on panicked worshipers as they fled, killing at least 305 people and wounding at least 128 others. Officials called it the deadliest terrorist attack in Egypts modern history.

The scale and ruthlessness of the assault, in an area racked by an Islamist insurgency, sent shock waves across the nation  not just for the number of deaths but also for the choice of target. Attacks on mosques are rare in Egypt, where the Islamic State has targeted Coptic Christian churches and pilgrims but avoided Muslim places of worship.

The attack injected a new element into Egypts struggle with militants because most of the victims were Sufi Muslims, who practice a mystical form of Islam that the Islamic State and other Sunni extremist groups deem heretical. And it underscored the failure of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has justified his harsh crackdown on political freedom in the name of crushing Islamic militancy, to deliver on his promises of security.

The scene was horrific, said Ibrahim Sheteewi, a resident of Bir al-Abed, the small north Sinai town where the attack took place. The bodies were scattered on the ground outside the mosque. I hope God punishes them for this.
While it is sometimes misunderstood as a sect of Islam, it is actually a broader style of worship that transcends sects, directing followers attention inward. Sufi practice focuses on the renunciation of worldly things, purification of the soul and the mystical contemplation of Gods nature. Followers try to get closer to God by seeking spiritual learning known as tariqa.

Confusion about Sufism is common, even among Muslims, according to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, an American Sufi cleric of Egyptian descent who preached in New York City for many years and founded the Cordoba House, which promotes a moderate image of Islam in the West.

It is nothing more than the spiritual dimension of Islam, the cleric, who goes by Imam Feisal, said in a phone interview. It is Islam, but we focus on meditation, on chanting sessions, which enable the Muslim to have his or her heart open. The myths people have about Sufis are analogous to the myths people have about Muslims.

For a time, beginning in the 12th century, Sufism was a mainstay of the social order for Islamic civilization, and since that time it has spread throughout the Muslim world, and to China, West Africa and the United States. As Sufism spread, it adapted elements of local culture and belief, making it a popular practice.

Alexander D. Knysh, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Michigan and expert in modern Sufism, describes it as a very wide, amorphous movement practiced within both the Sunni and Shiite traditions.
Deliberate delay

The assurance to increase the salary was given to the CG employees 18 months back. There was no reason for the government to delay the pay hike. However reports state that there was a deliberate attempt made by the government to delay the pay hike as it saved several 1000 crores. The approximate amount that the government saved was Rs 26,000 crores.

Will NAC report be positive

At every meeting, it was indicated that the NAC would submit a positive report. However with the latest turn of events, the suspense has been built up further. Recently the government said that fitment factor and pay hike is not an anomaly. This has led to anxiety among the CG employees and they are asking whether a pay hike would be implemented at all.

Expect further delay

At first sources confirmed that the pay hike would come in January 2018. Then they said that there would be some more delay and it would be implemented in April. Now with the latest turn of events, sources say that there is every likelihood of a further delay. The salary revision of judges is what may have contributed to the issue being delayed further.

BSNL employees want 15 per cent fitment factor under 7th Pay Commission

In a letter, the BSNL officers' association has written at the outset, we are thankful for your reported inclination towards implementing revised pay scales with 25% fitment benefit in respect of BSNL executives, even though BSNL does not fully meet the affordability condition stipulated by the 3rd PRC but BSNL is already on revival path and reporting operational profit for last few years. In this regard, we would like to draw your kind attention to the fact that MTNL employees were allowed pay revision as recommended by 2nd PRC w.e.f. 1.1.2007 with the highest 30% fitment benefit although the affordability clause existed then and MTNL was incurring loss for consecutive years.
Before switching sides, this is what BJP ex-mantri Yashwant Sinha said in the past

BJP 'rebels' Yashwant, Shatrughan attack Modi govt over GST, demonetisation, again

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

New Delhi, Nov 24: Call it election-induced verbal diarrhea or never-ending rants of rebels, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) needs to quickly "fix" its senior leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha before things get out of hand for the saffron party.

Once again both the Sinhas have attacked the Narendra Modi government over the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation.

Delivering a lecture on the GST and demonetisaton in Pune, Maharashtra, on Thursday, former finance minister Yashwant said the implementation of the GST in India was a "textbook example" of how it should not be introduced.

"The GST is the best indirect tax regime globally and there is no doubt about it and that is why it is adopted in most of the countries. But the way GST was implemented in India is a textbook example of how the tax reform should not be implemented anywhere. It should be a case study at Harvard and other universities."

On Thursday, Shatrughan, the BJP leader and Lok Sabha MP, said that the atmosphere in the country is vitiated to an extent that "you're either with me (the government) or you're an anti-national".

He added that the demonetisation and GST have proved to be "neem ke upar karela (bitter gourd over neem)".

The BJP leader lamented that because of the Modi government's economic policies lakhs of youth have lost their jobs in the country.

Replying to the criticism against him for speaking on economic decisions of the government, the actor-turned-politician said that the current Modi cabinet has "a television actress who is an HRD minister and a lawyer who is a Finance Minister".

"Recently, I had gone to attend a book release function organised by Congress leader Manish Tiwari, where people asked me how could I be speaking on the economy being a film star," he said during the book release function of the Rajya Sabha MP and rebel JD (U) leader Ali Anwar in Delhi.

"I don't say that (winning) 2019 (Lok Sabha elections) for the BJP will be impossible, but it could be difficult if warnings of Yashwant Sinha are not heeded to," he added.

Both the veteran leaders and former Union ministers have been continuously attacking the Modi government, especially on its failure on economic policies.

Critics of both the Sinhas say that since they are denied any ministerial berth in the Modi cabinet thus they are angry and venting out their frustration by attacking the Centre.

Many also say that since the Gujarat Assembly elections are going to be held soon, thus both the Sinhas are aggressively criticising the ruling BJP to tarnish its image. The polls in Gujarat will take place on December 9 and 14.

OneIndia
Delhi HC dismisses plea seeking expert panel to review 'Padmavati'

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed petition seeking to screen of 'Padmavati' movie in front of three prominent historians from top universities and a retired High Court judge, apart from the Censor Board.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by Akhand Rashtrawadi Party, saying the committee headed by a retired Delhi High Court Judge should include a Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) member and ensure there were no "distortions" in historic facts in respect of Rani Padmavati of Chittorgarh.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali has been facing trouble since he started shooting for the movie. The set of the movie was vandalised twice -- in Jaipur and Kolhapur -- and the director was roughed up by members of Karni Sena during the Jaipur schedule of the film earlier this year.

Rajput groups and some BJP members have accused Bhansali of distorting facts in the movie, starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, and Ranveer Singh. The film was scheduled to be released on December 1, later postponed to January 2018.

OneIndia News
Free from jail, 10 million bounty man Hafiz Saeed back in business

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Hafiz Saeed, the man with a 10 million bounty as expected put out a grand show of strength after he was released from house arrest. Oblivious to the fact that he was the one who masterminded the Mumbai 26/11 attack and also the US has declared him a terrorist, Saeed was greeted by thousands of his followers.

The cause of Kashmir is my top priority he said. I will make Kashmir free, he also said. "I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir," Saeed told his supporters who gathered outside his residence to celebrate his release.

The Judicial Review Board of Punjab province comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had unanimously ordered Saeed's release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest which expired tonight.

"I fight the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir. And we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom."

Saeed said he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris this January. He used the release order to buttress his claims of "innocence".

"I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release ...India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHC's review board decision has proved that I am innocent," Saeed said.

The JuD chief said that the US, on India's request, pressured Pakistan to detain him.

"I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," he claimed.

Several JuD activists gathered outside Saeed's residence in Jauhar town in Lahore to celebrate his release.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, November 24, 2017, 7:01 [IST]
No decision yet on joining BJP or AAP, says Hardik; hails saffron party over Ayodhya issue, Article 370

Is Hardik Patel joining BJP today? This is what he says

Gujarat: Hardik Patel given Y category security

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Gujarat's Patidar leader, Hardik Patel has been accorded the 'Y' category security by the Centre.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has been entrusted with the task of safeguarding the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader, they said.

Elections in Gujarat will be held on December 9 and 14.

"A contingent of armed CISF commandos will take charge of the new protected very soon. Patel will have about eight commandos with him, whenever he travels in Gujarat," a senior official said.

He said a threat analysis report, prepared by central intelligence and security agencies, favoured granting of such a cover to Patel.

There is a potential threat to his security and hence he needs an armed cover, they said.

The CISF has a special VIP security wing and it secures around 60 dignitaries like National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat.

The 24-year-old Patel had on Wednesday declared the support of PAAS for the Congress in the Gujarat assembly elections next month after the latter accepted its demand for reservation for the Patel community.

OneIndia News
Students flock to job fair in Beijing in hopes of taking advantage of the opportunities being presented by businesses going global

"Do you hire students from Ghana?"

Ebenezer Yeboah, a Ghanaian who is now in his final year of a master's degree in financial accounting program at Hubei University of Technology, posed this question in his not-so-fluent Chinese during a job fair in Beijing on Nov 15.

An African studying in China talks with a Chinese employer at the job fair in Beijing on Nov 15. Pan Mengqi / China Daily

Nearly 400 Africans studying in China attended the fair. Beforehand, about 1,000 students from 52 African countries had submitted their resumes online. They were competing for nearly 500 jobs with 66 State-owned, local and privately owned Chinese enterprises, most of them with branches or business offices in Africa.

The job fair was for African students studying in China. It was organized by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the University of International Business and Economics.

For Yeboah, an ideal job would be related to his major. He took a high-speed train from Wuhan, where he is studying, to Beijing to attend the fair in order not to miss any opportunities.

"China's economy is important," Yeboah says, explaining why he wants to find a job with a Chinese company. He believes that working for such a company will help him gain valuable experience from the world's fastest-growing economy. For students whose majors are in the fields of economics and finance, China offers the "best practical course", he says.

Munyemana Jean de Dieu, who is studying computer science at Northeast Electric Power University in Jilin province, also wants to find a job with a Chinese company, since many of them have expanded their business into his home country of Rwanda. He says he hopes to find a job there.

Jean de Dieu has already sent his resume to 10 companies that took part in the fair. One is China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, which has a branch office in Rwanda.

Wang Liujie, a business manager at CNHDT's African office, says: "Our company produces half of the heavy trucks exported from China to Africa. More than 70,000 have been exported there for seven consecutive years."

According to Wang, the Belt and Road Initiative has helped many companies, including CNHDT, to do business in Africa. Thus, employees who know local languages and cultural habits are "extremely welcome".

"Exploring a new market is the first thing we do, so understanding the local language, culture and habits is very important. Chinese employees have no advantage in these fields, and they will be treated as outsiders," Wang says. "In the past, we hired African employees in Africa, mostly for the most basic and low-level jobs. This is the first time we have attended a job fair for African students in China. We want to hire high-level employees with skills in language and business negotiations, and a knowledge of both China and their home country."

Language and cultural familiarity were appreciated by many companies at the fair. Gong Qian, head of the international liaison office at China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group, says interviewers first chat with the students in Chinese to test their basic knowledge of the language, then read their resume and learn about their experience.

"If Chinese enterprises want better access to overseas markets, including Africa, they must employ local employees, and foreign students in China are the best source, since they have knowledge and links to both sides," says Gong.

Linda Tefa, an African employee of Chao Wei Energy, based in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, says, "The best way for a Chinese company to get to Africa is to recruit Africans."

Tefa has worked for the company for less than a year. However, she has often visited Africa in that time, since she is a local employee who "knows the country, knows the people and knows the culture."

Tefa went to the job fair as part of the company's recruiting team, responsible for communicating with African students who could not speak Chinese.

Lin Guijun, deputy principal of UIBE, says that the Belt and Road Initiative has prompted more Chinese-funded enterprises to enter the African market and has increased the number of overseas students in China.

Lin says that hiring Africans studying in China will play an important role in promoting the localization of Chinese-funded enterprises and helping employ young Africans in China.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, China's nonfinancial direct investment in Africa was $3.3 billion in 2016, covering construction, leasing and commercial services, mining, manufacturing, wholesale, retail and other fields. The stock of various types of investments in Africa has exceeded $100 billion as the continent becomes an important destination for Chinese enterprises going global.

"Therefore, our association has built a bridge to give 60,000 African students who studied in China the opportunity to work and to give more than 3,000 Chinese enterprises that invest in Africa the opportunity to recruit local students in Africa," says Lin Yi, deputy president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

"I hope these students will take back to Africa not only the knowledge and skills they have learned in China, but also the Chinese people's warm and deep-seated friendship with the African people, so that they can build a solid foundation for future cooperation."

According to a report released by the United Nations, Africa currently has a total population of about 1.2 billion, which is increasing yearly. In southeastern Africa, people between the ages of 10 and 24 account for 33 percent of the total population, and by 2025 Africa will account for one-fourth of the world's youth population.

He Wenping, chief researcher at the Institute of West Asia and Africa Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, thinks that relying solely on education cannot solve the employment problem for many young Africans.

"The key is to create more jobs," she says.

She adds that, under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese-funded enterprises have provided more job opportunities in Africa.

"Education is one important aspect. In addition, companies must export technologies, projects and business in order to create jobs," she says.

At the job fair, the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and UIBE signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Both sides will work together in the future to promote educational exchanges and youth development, at home and abroad, within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

panmengqi@chinadaily.com.cn
Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said the new tax regime, rolled out from July 1, will stabilise in the next six to nine months and become a "model" for other countries.

By PTI: Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian said Friday that going forward, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) may "probably" have fewer rates by "collapsing" 12 per cent and 18 per cent tax slabs into one.

He said the new tax regime, rolled out from July 1, will stabilise in the next six to nine months and become a "model" for other countries.

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"I am confident that over the next six to nine months the system will stabilise. It will also be a model for other countries to emulate."

"Then over time, the 12 per cent and 18 per cent rate can probably be collapsed into one rate. So over time we will see fewer rates. We would not ever have one rate because that is too difficult to achieve," he said.

The CEA was delivering a lecture at the ICFAI Institute of Higher Learning here.

'COMPLICATED' SYSTEM

Admitting there were some technical glitches in the filing systems under the regime, Arvind Subramanian said the new system is a bit "complicated" as states have different IT systems and these issues are being addressed by the GST Council.

Subramanian described the GST implementation as a "transformational fiscal reform" that the country had not seen in the past.

"The Centre and every state has its own tax officials and own IT system. I cant tell you how complicated the system is. So the fact is the transitional glitches, I think, is not surprising. Perhaps I think we could have done better."

"But the most important thing for the GST Council is to decide all these things and take corrective action," he said, when asked about technical glitches the taxpayers were facing.

WATCH | Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announces GST tax revision on a host of consumer items

--- ENDS ---
Cong for Muslims, BJP for Hindus: Did Rahuls temple visits in Guj help to bust the myth?

Gujarat poll drama: Did BJP circulate fake resignation letter of Congress chief on social media?

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Gandhinagar, Nov 24: "Fake" is the "real" news in poll-bound Gujarat.

Days after a fake candidates' list of the Congress went viral on social media in poll-bound Gujarat, one more "fake" piece of information regarding the grand old party in the state created a political storm on Thursday.

The resignation letter of Congress chief of Gujarat, Bharatsinh Solanki, which was doing the rounds on social media, has been dubbed as "fake" by the party and the politician himself.

The Congress, once again, blamed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the mischief.

On Sunday night, just an hour before the Congress announced its first "official" list of candidates for the state elections, a "fake" list of the party's candidates went viral on social media.

The Congress had blamed the BJP for spreading lies against the party. Both the "fake" news regarding the Congress just two weeks before the Assembly polls are creating a mini-storm in Gujarat.

The state is going to polls on December 9 and December 14. The counting of the votes will take place on December 18.

Issuing a clarification regarding his "fake" resignation letter, Solanki told ANI, "A fake resignation letter is doing the rounds on social media with my signature, claiming that I have resigned from the presidentship of the Gujarat Congress. It is completely fake, and I have issued no such letter."

A fake resignation letter is going around on Social Media with my signature, claiming that I have resigned from the Presidentship of #Gujarat Congress. It is completely fake & I have issued no such letter: Bharatsinh Solanki,Congress pic.twitter.com/zZuwYWXQyJ  ANI (@ANI) November 23, 2017

The Congress is planning to approach the Election Commission (EC) in this regard. "The BJP is nervous and rattled by the surging popularity of the Congress in Gujarat. We will meet the officials of the EC on Friday regarding this issue and lodge a complaint," Solanki added.

The letter, which purportedly bore Solanki's signature, is addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Solanki is resigning from the post of state president being aggrieved by certain decisions taken by the party, including distribution of tickets, the letter says.

He is aggrieved because tickets were sold to undeserving candidates, the letter has Solanki saying.

"The letter is fake and is a mischief played on the Congress party. We will register a complaint before the EC against this," Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

Solanki told PTI that his family is wedded to the Congress ideology for four generations, so the question of resigning does not arise.

"I am loyal to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and the question of my resignation does not arise," he said. Solanki came down heavily on the BJP for spreading lies and said it was a conspiracy as the ruling party has realised that the Congress is coming to power in the next month's Assembly elections.

"The writing on the wall is very clear as 22 years of the BJP's misrule has disappointed all sections of society as wrong claims of development have failed to convince the people of Gujarat," Solanki said.

Solanki also took to Twitter to clarify that the letter was fake, and blamed the ruling BJP for "spreading lies on social media".

In fact, Solanki, a few days ago, told the media that he was not contesting elections this time. In the same news briefing, Solanki clarified that his decision to not contest polls is not because he was upset with the party leadership as indicated by various reports.

Meanwhile, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will visit Gujarat on Friday as a part of his two-day election campaign in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will start his official campaign for the BJP in Gujarat from November 27.

OneIndia News
Do RAW, others get a raw deal in the name of 'intelligence failure'?

Keep it clean, keep it safe: How the federal agencies raided the PFI

IB declares high alert following Hafiz Saeeds release

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A high alert has been declared in Jammu and Kashmir following the release of Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief, Hafiz Saeed. Saeed walked free from house arrest on Wednesday and addressed a huge gathering of his supporters.

Intelligence Bureau officials say that with Saeed walking free, the cadres would be motivated. Moreover, with him overseeing the operations personally, there is a high chance of an attack being carried out on a very large scale.

The IB says that with him being released and the ISI trying to push more terrorists before the winter, a high state of alert needs to be maintained. The IB alert states that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba cadres present in Jammu and Kashmir will try and launch an attack. The alert also advises security forces to keep a close vigil along the border areas where the terrorists would be pushed.

Saeed after being freed promised that he would fight for the cause of Kashmir. He also said that he would ensure that the people of Kashmir are free.

OneIndia News
UGC NET Phase-2 Admit Card to be out on September 16: Check steps to download

ICAI CPT December 2017 Exam Admit Cards released, how to download

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The ICAI CPT December 2017 Exam Admit Cards have been released. The admit cards are available on the official website.

In terms of the decision of the Examination Committee of the ICAI Institute, the practice of sending physical admit cards by post is discontinued with effect from May 2017 examination onwards. Online registration for ICAI CPT December 2017 was held till 25 October 2017 (11.59 pm). The ICAI CPT exam will be held on 17 December 2017 (Sunday) in two sessions (10.30 am to 12.30 pm and 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm).

The exam will be held at 191 cities in the country along with centres at Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Kathmandu and Muscat.

According to ICAI, no physical admit cards of this CPT December will be sent to any candidate.

Candidates who are appearing for ICAI CPT December 2017 are required to download and print their admit cards from the website. The same can be found on icaiexam.icai.org.

How to download ICAI CPT December 2017 Exam Admit Cards:

Go to icaiexam.icai.org

Login using your Login ID (i.e. Registration Number) and password

Click on link in front of Admit Card

Download admit card

Take a printout

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Story first published: Friday, November 24, 2017, 8:01 [IST]
J&K: Security forces gun down two LeT terrorists is Anantnag

Pak arrests 4 top leaders of banned JuD, LeT on charges of terror funding

LeT guide trained by Pak Army arrested along LoC in J-K's Rajouri

J&K: LeT terrorist arrested in Kupwara district, says Army

India

pti-PTI

Srinagar, Nov 24: Security forces today arrested a Pakistani militant belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) from a forest area in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, an Army official said.

"A Pakistani LeT terrorist was arrested during a joint search operation by the Army and the police in Magam area," he said. The official said that the arrested militant, whose identity has not been disclosed, is being interrogated.

Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in the same area on Tuesday.

PTI
From using Bhagwad Gita to local rowdies, Christian missionaries are on overdrive mode in Karnataka

Ram temple must be built at the Ram Janmabhoomi site, says RSS chief

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The three-day 'Dharm Sansad' organised by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was inaugurated in Udupi on Friday (November 24). The Hindu right-wing gathering is centered around the construction of Ram temple, prevention of religious conversions, and cow protection.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in his keynote address said, "Ram temple must be built at the Ram Janmabhoomi site; No other structure must come up there. The day is not far when a saffron flag will fly atop the Ram mandir."

"We have to actively safeguard our cows. If there is no ban on cow slaughter, we cannot live in peace," he said.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad International President, Praveen Bhai Togadia, in his keynote address said, " Construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya should take place under the guidance of Udupi-based Pejawar mutt seer Sri Vishwesha Theertha Swami."

Togadia said the administration of Hindu temples by governments is in violation of Constitutional provisions.

He said, "Untouchability has no place in Hinduism. Hindu religion is fractured on the basis of caste and creed. The government should take steps to completely ban cow slaughter in the country."

In the name of religion, those who are distressing society must overcome.

Shivaratri Deshikendra Swamiji of Sutur Mutt warned that there is a danger to Hinduism. Swamiji said, " Hindus should introspect incidents on cow-vigilantes and moral-policing."

Dharmasthala Dharamadhikari Veerendra Heggade is the vice chairman of the reception committee and scion of the royal family of Mysore Yaduveer Krishan Datta Chamaraja Wodeyar the patron. Saffron banners and buntings adorn the main streets of this temple town.

A convention of the Samaj Pramukhs or heads of communities of different districts of the state would be held on November 26. The Dharma Sansad would adopt resolutions on November 26. The participating saints would take out a Shobha Yatre procession the same day.

OneIndia News
'Medicine can also be studied in Tamil medium!' - CM Stalin's efforts are getting a growing response

Mayor Priya is not the puppet but the savior - How did Chennai recover from the floods?

US, Indian companies driving technological innovation to new heights: US Consul General Chennai Judith Ravin

R K Nagar by-poll to be held on December 21

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The by-election for the Radhakrishnan Nagar (R K Nagar) assembly constituency in Chennai will be held on December 21. The counting of votes would be held on December 24.

The RK Nagar seat fell vacant following the death of former chief minister of Tamil Nadu and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa in December last year.

The by-polls for Sikandra in UP, Sabang in West Bengal, Pakke-Kasang and Likabali in Arunachal Pradesh would also be held on December 21, said reports.

The two warring factions of the AIADMK had decided to go their separate ways in the R K Nagar bypoll with the party's symbol and name, which were then frozen by the Election Commission.

The EC, however, on Thursday allowed the original AIADMK two leaves symbol to OPS-EPS faction.

[BJP distances itself from AIADMK symbol row, dubs Dinakaran's allegation 'laughable']

The by-election was originally scheduled for April 12 in RK Nagar but was canceled by the EC following allegations of distribution of cash to voters.

The Election Commission had on October 12 said that the by-election to Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar (R K Nagar) assembly constituency will be held before December 31.

OneIndia News
R K Nagar by-poll date a day after Two Leaves verdict: Coincidence?

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The dates of the R K Nagar by-election have been announced. The seat fell vacant following the death of Jayalalithaa. What is interesting is that the date of elections on December 21 was announced just a day after the Two Leaves symbol verdict was delivered by the Election Commission of India.

There are some murmurs whether this was purely a coincidence or a natural process.

The Two Leaves symbol is extremely crucial for the party. Without the symbol and Jayalalithaa, it is next to impossible to win an election in Tamil Nadu for any faction of the AIADMK.

For either faction of the AIADMK, the symbol is extremely crucial. The people are going to vote for that symbol and not the candidate in the absence of Jayalalithaa.

Sources say that this was not a planned decision to announce the election dates just a day after the EC ruling. The Madras High Court had directed the EC to comply with its order and complete the R K Nagar by-poll before December 31. The Bench had sought to know why the constituency had been lying vacant for nearly a year.

The polls were scheduled to be held much earlier. However, it was countermanded in the wake of allegations of corruption. Had the election gone through at that time, both parties would have had to fight without the Two Leaves symbol. The EC had frozen that symbol as there was a dispute between the two camps in the party. Both parties had been allotted fresh symbols.

The countermanding of the elections would have come as a major relief for both parties in the absence of the two leaves symbol. There was a clear advantage to the DMK at that time. Sources in the EC say that they had time until December 31 as per the order of the Madras HC.

They also said that they wanted the order to be passed before announcing the dates.

Moreover, the R K Nagar by-poll was not the election date they announced. Four more Assembly constituencies in three States - Uttar Pradesh (Sikandra constituency), Arunachal Pradesh (Pakke-Kasang and Likbali) and West Bengal (Sabang) would also be held on the same day, the source pointed out.

OneIndia News
Radicalised before joining ISIS: SC to hear mothers plea in 2 weeks

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition by a mother who has alleged that her daughter was radicalised before she joined the ISIS. The petitioner sought an NIA probe into the alleged forced conversion of their daughter. The petition states that the girl was forcibly converted through Love Jihad and was being lured into joining the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

The petitioner Bindu Sampath said that her daughter had fallen trap to Love Jihad and this had wrecked havoc in their lives. The petitioner said that when the girl was studying in a dental college, she fell trap to a sinister radical Islamic design.

The court said that it would hear the matter after two weeks. Meanwhile, the court is set to hear a petition in the Hadiya case on November 27. She has been summoned to the court, but the girl's father had sought that the proceedings be held in-camera.

It may be recalled that the Kerala High Court had annulled Hadiya's marriage. The SC on the last date of hearing sought to know how a marriage between two consenting adults could have been annulled.

OneIndia News
Rajputs protest in Delhi against Padmavati

India

oi-Shreya

By Shreya

The Rajput community on November 24 protested against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Padmavati in the national capital's Azadpur Metro.

The ruckus surrounding the film has been going on for a long time ever since the shoot began - the sets of the film were damaged more than once and Bhansali himself was attacked.

The Rajput community claimed that the film diminishes the pride and honour of Rani Padmavati and hence hurts the Rajput community. They even went ahead in placing a bounty of Deepika Padukone who played the titular role in the movie.

States like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh have already banned the movie and the release has been stalled for the violence by the Karni Sena. The Karni Sena has also given threats to burn down theatres that will screen Padmavati, including the one in the UK.

In spite of Bhansali stating that there is nothing in the film that will hurt the so-called pride of the Rajput community, the Karni Sena refuses to budge.

OneIndia News
Rs 1.6 lakh worth of new projects for northeast region announced by Nitin Gadkari

Surplus water from Godavari will be transferred to Cauvery: Centre

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Recommended Video

Modi government evolves plan to end Cauvery water crisis soon | Oneindia News

The Union Government has decided to evolve a plan to transfer excess waters of the Godavari to Cauvery in a bid to address the water scarcity in South India.

Announcing this, Union water resources minister Nitin Gadkari said his ministry was working on two river linking projects that would provide water to water-scarce states as the country's agriculture was dependent on monsoon seasons.

"My ministry has decided to transfer surplus water from Godavari river to Krishna, to Pennar river (Karnataka) and finally to Cauvery," he said.

The ministry is discussing the details with the states concerned, he said, adding "in near future, we will come up with a concrete action plan."

Gadkari said 3,000 TMC of water from the Godavari goes waste into the sea.

"I am going to call a meeting of chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and with their approval, we will finalise the plan," the minister said.

"We will treat these projects as national projects because this is a river connectivity project," he said, Gadkari said 90 percent of the cost will be borne by Government of India and 10 percent by state governments.

"This can be a game-changer," he said.

Elaborating on the first project, Gadkari said initially 300TMC would be transferred from the Godavari to the Polavaram project (in Andhra Pradesh) through Nagarjuna Sagar Dam and to river Krishna.

After that water will be taken to Somasila dam on the Pennar and from there it will be taken to the Grand Anaicut on river Cauvery, he said.

"We will be taking the water through steel pipes and not by the canal," he said.

Through this initiative, he said, around 100TMC can be carried to the Cauvery thereby making available ample water to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana will benefit from this project, he said.

On the second project, he said water from Indravati river (Central India) will be taken to Nagarjuna Sagar dam.

"Again it will come to Somasila project and from Somasila it will come to Cauvery without the Karnataka connectivity."

He said the initiative would solve the water problems in different parts of Tamil Nadu.

OneIndia News
Nitish Kumar had launched a state-wide awareness campaign against dowry and child marriage on October 2, following which several cases were reported that families who had taken dowry returned them

By Rohit Kumar Singh: They say that there are some things money can't buy and a couple in Bihar got the most unconventional gift for their wedding for following chief minister Nitish Kumar's ambitious campaign against dowry.

Sanjit Kumar and Juhi Kumari, who tied the knot on November 19, got the surprise of their lives after the chief minister visited the couple on Wednesday and blessed them. He was apparently encouraged by the fact that the inter-caste wedding was a no-dowry affair.

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Nitish on Wednesday went to the couple's house in Patna and blessed them. Sanjit Kumar is posted as an executive engineer in the electricity department while Juhi works as a junior engineer in South Bihar Power Distribution Corporation Limited in the Bihar government. After meeting the couple, the chief minister congratulated them for getting married without any dowry and wished them well for their future.

Nitish had launched a state-wide awareness campaign against dowry and child marriage on October 2, following which several cases were reported that families who had taken dowry returned them. One such case was a teacher in Bhojpur, Hridyanath Singh, who returned Rs 4 lakh dowry to the bride's family.

There has been a spurt in no-dowry marriages taking place in the state in the last few weeks. The chief minister had in October met Prakash Sah, a native of Chaturbhuji Baraon village in Bhojpur district and Puja Kumar from Sikarhata village in the same district got married. Nitish had invited them to his residence to bless them.

--- ENDS ---
Two Leaves battle: AIADMK files caveat in SC

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The AIADMK which won the Two Leaves symbol has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court. A caveat is filed so that the party is heard before any order is passed. No interim order ex-parte shall be passed without hearing both parties when a caveat is filed.

The OPS-EPS camp which won the battle before the Election Commission of India has filed the caveat in the Supreme Court. The move comes in the wake of the losing T T V Dhinakaran group contemplating challenging the order of the EC before the Supreme Court.

Earlier it was said that the TTV camp would move the Delhi High Court against the order.

However, it was later decided that they would either approach the Madras High Court or Supreme Court in this regard.

OneIndia News
Madrasa survey in UP complete, next up is meeting with government: Minister

Forcible conversion: 19 year old Nidhi pushed to death by Mohammad Sufiyan in UP

Uttar Pradesh: School in Barabanki bans 'hijab'

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

A school in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki has banned Muslim students from wearing 'hijab'- headscarves-to class, citing that they don't go with the dress code of the school.

Anand Bhawan School, a missionary school, raised an objection to one of its Muslim students wearing a headscarf to school.

When the student's father asked permission for the same in a written application to the principal.

Speaking to ANI, father of the concerned student, Mohammad R. Rizvi, said that his daughter had been studying in the school since kindergarten, and as per Islam tradition, had to cover her hair after reaching the age of nine.

"It is to clarify you that this is a minority school, but there are many communities in minority category, and one community cannot impose its rules on other communities," the letter read, and further said, "The school will not be able to provide an exemption to its rules."

#UttarPradesh My daughter was asked not to wear headscarf to school, another girl was made to remove it as well. In a letter, we were even advised by the school to leave the school and shift to an Islamic Institute if we have problem with this direction: Mohd R Rizvi #Barabanki pic.twitter.com/Qjxq2nJBuL  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) November 23, 2017

Principal Archana Thomas also asked him to not "disrupt the school's functioning by asking unnecessary questions." "If you face any inconvenience, you can admit your ward in an Islamic school," she added.

The incident is reported after a police asked a woman to remove her 'burqa' at a rally attended by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh's Ballia on Tuesday. Zee News reported that the woman was a BJP worker.

OneIndia News
40 down and counting: Forces on the verge of wiping out Pakistani terrorists in Valley

Mubin did it in Coimbatore: Why do Islamist terrorists shave their body before a suicide mission

Why did the 2 terrorists arrested in Bengal visit South India

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The two terrorists arrested in West Bengal had visited South India. It is not clear why they paid a visit to a southern state and this has now formed part of the investigation.

Samsad Mia and Riazul Islam, members of the dreaded Ansar-ul Bangla Team were arrested in West Bengal earlier this week. They have proven to be tough nuts to crack. In a bid to get them to elicit information, teams of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, Hyderabad, National Investigation Agency and the Border Security Force have begun questioning them.

The ATS unit from Hyderabad grilled the two terrorists to ascertain why they visited the south Indian city.

"The officers of the Hyderabad ATS are trying to find out what actual connection they had with the city and what they had done or with whom they had met during their visit there," the officer said.

Elaborating on their investigation into the matter, another officer described the terrorists as "hardcore" and "tough nuts to crack".

"They are quite hardcore and are not speaking during the grilling sessions. We have to follow strategies to make them speak," he said.

According to a Kolkata Police source, both terrorists had rejected the arms brought in by arms dealer Manotosh Dey during their meeting at the Kolkata Railway Station on Tuesday.

"They were looking for more sophisticated arms and had rejected the arms Monotosh had bought at the Kolkata station on Tuesday. The duo had asked Monotosh for rifles of the AK series," the officer said.

During the probe, it surfaced that Monotosh had been involved in arms smuggling for years and was arrested earlier this year after a huge cache of arms was seized from his possession, the Kolkata Police official said.

Further probe revealed that Monotoshs father worked with the rifle factory at Ichhapur in North 24 Parganas district. The sleuths were trying to find out whether he had any "links" to the unit or not.

"Monotosh has a long history in arms dealing. We need to check how he got in touch with terrorist outfits and what kind of role he had been playing apart from supplying arms and ammunition," the officer said.

On Tuesday, the Special Task Force (STF) unit of Kolkata Police had arrested the two belonging to the banned Bangladeshi terror outfit along with Monotosh and seized several fake documents and arms from them.

OneIndia News
Parliament roundup: LS and RS adjourned sine die; productivity of Winter Session & more

Agreements, disagreements should reflect in debates not in disruptions: Om Birla

Winter session: Eight members stay away from Lok Sabha citing wedding, jail term, illness

Bill to merge 3 MCD polls into one to be introduced in Lok Sabha today

Parliament roundup: Both houses adjourned sine die, RS bids farewell to Naidu & more

Winter session may be held in new Parliament building

Winter Session of Parliament to be held from Dec 15 to Jan 5

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs on Friday finalised the dates of Winter Session of Parliament. The session will be held from December 15 to January 5.

CCPA met in the Parliament and finalised the schedule and agenda of the winter session.

Ananth Kumar, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said, " This will be a 14-day session, 25th and 26th December will be Christmas holidays.

This will be a 14 day session, 25th and 26th December will be Christmas holidays: Ananth Kumar, Parliamentary Affairs Minister on Parliament's winter session pic.twitter.com/ABV2fSnWGa  ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017

Ananth Kumar requested political parties to cooperate and make the winter session successful and fruitful.

"We expect that we will have attendance on all 14 days, including the New Year's day," he said.

Mallikarjun Kharge, senior Congress leader, said, "Will decide on issues to be raised; there are issues like GST, demonetisation, J&K, terrorism, Hafiz Saeed set free by Pak court. Will raise important issues."

Early this week, the Congress party stepped up its attack on the delay in convening the Winter Session of Parliament, accusing the government of betraying the Constitutional mandate of subjecting itself to Parliamentary oversight.

The winter session is traditionally convened in the third week of November and lasts until the third week of December.

OneIndia News
Who is Dr Anantha Nageswaran? All you need to know about the new chief economic advisor

Wont ban cheque books says FinMin

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Finance Ministry has clarified that there was no proposal to ban cheque books. The ministry said that the "Government of India has reaffirmed that there is no proposal under consideration to withdraw the cheque book facility," said the finance ministry in a Tweet.

It had appeared in a certain section of media that there is a possibility that the Central government may withdraw bank cheque book facility in the near future, with an intent to encourage digital transactions. This has been denied by the government and reaffirmed that there's no such proposal," said the finance ministry also said.

OneIndia News
Mugabe wouldn't face prosecution, assures ruling party

International

pti-PTI

Harare, November 24: As Zimbabwe is prepared to move on, the ruling ZANU-PF assured outgoing President Robert Mugabe that he wouldn't be prosecuted if he resigned, a party official said on Friday.

"Prosecuting him was never part of the plan," ZANU-PF chief whip Lovemore Matuke told The Associated Press. "He is safe, his family is safe and his status as a hero of his country is assured. All we were saying is resign or face impeachment."

As Zimbabwe prepared to witness the swearing-in of new president Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday, its citizens circulated on social media a new photo showing what appeared to be Mugabe at the end of his 37-year rule. Mugabe and his wife are shown sitting on a sofa with advisers standing behind them.

A dejected-looking Grace Mugabe, who just days ago had been poised to replace Mnangagwa after his firing as vice president and even succeed her husband, looks off camera. A listing Robert Mugabe's eyes are closed.

The photo could not immediately be verified. Mugabe, who resigned on Tuesday as lawmakers began impeaching him, has not spoken publicly since his stunning speech on Sunday defying calls from the military, ruling party and the people to step down. But it appears he and his wife will remain in the capital, Harare.

According to protocol, Mugabe could even be present at the 75-year-old Mnangagwa's swearing-in today at a 60,000-seat stadium after making a triumphant return to the country.

He fled shortly after his firing, claiming threats to his life. Mnangagwa's speech upon his return last night outside ruling party headquarters promised "a new, unfolding democracy" and efforts to rebuild a shattered economy. But he also recited slogans from the ruling ZANU-PF party, unlikely to reassure the opposition.

The opposition party MDC-T, which supported Mugabe's removal, said it had not been invited to the inauguration. Spokesman Obert Guru said the party was closely watching Mnangagwa's next moves, "particularly regarding the dismantling of all the oppressive pillars of repression."

In a new statement today, Mnangagwa urged Zimbabweans against "vengeful retribution." The pastor who led large anti-government protests last year, Evan Mawarire, says Zimbabweans should let Mnangagwa know that the country should be for everyone and not just the ruling party.

Mnangagwa, a former justice and defence minister with close ties to the military who served for decades as Mugabe's enforcer, remains on a US sanctions list over allegations of violently cracking down on opponents.

He fled Zimbabwe after being fired on November 6 and was in hiding during the week-long political drama that led to Mugabe's resignation.

His appearance on Wednesday, flanked by heavy security, delighted supporters who hope he can guide Zimbabwe out of political and economic turmoil. Mnangagwa will serve Mugabe's remaining term until elections at some point next year.

Opposition lawmakers who have alleged vote-rigging in the past say balloting must be free and fair, a call the United States and others have echoed.

PTI
India's stand on Rohingyas gracious so far but housing them would be risky

The Rohingya influx continues as Tripura police nets seven of them

Myanmar, Bangladesh sign Rohingya repatriation deal: Is the refugee crisis ending soon?

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Dhaka, Nov 24: After months of heart-wrenching stories regarding the Rohingya refugees, here comes some good news about the "world's most persecuted minority community".

If all goes well, the refugees from Myanmar, currently taking shelter in Bangladesh, could go back to their homeland soon.

According to reports, Myanmar on Thursday agreed to take back tens of thousands of Rohingyas who fled the country to Bangladesh following a military crackdown that has been dubbed as "ethnic cleansing" by the United States (US).

Till date, more than 622,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state to neighbouring Bangladesh since August 25, when the military intensified crackdown against alleged militant outfits of Rohingya Muslims.

The decision of the Myanmar government to take back Rohingyas came after months of negotiations between the Bangladesh and Myanmar governments with apt support from several other countries.

The two neighbours signed an arrangement on the return of displaced Myanmar persons sheltered in Bangladesh, a foreign office statement said in Dhaka.

Bangladesh's foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali and Myanmar's union minister U Kyaw Tint Swe signed the agreement in Naypyidaw, the capital city of Myanmar.

The "arrangement", the statement said, stipulated that "the return (of Rohingyas) shall commence within two months" while a joint working group would be established within the next three weeks and a "specific bilateral instrument (physical arrangement) for repatriation will be concluded in a speedy manner".

Bangladeshi officials familiar with the development said the agreement was being negotiated with Myanmar for the past few months while it was nearly finalised on Wednesday at Naypyidaw by senior officials of the two countries.

Putting pressure on Myanmar, the US on Wednesday declared as "ethnic cleansing" the violence against Rohingya Muslims in the country and warned that the Donald Trump administration could impose new penalties on the Buddhist-majority country.

Also, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi travelled to both Bangladesh and Myanmar this week and held talks with their top leadership to resolve the Rohingya crisis, one of the world's most dire refugee crisis.

Wang had proposed initiatives including three-phased solution so as to fundamentally resolve the Rohingya crisis. Bangladesh and Myanmar had agreed to his proposal.

The statement said the foreign minister earlier on Thursday called on state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and discussed issues of mutual cooperation in areas of trade, energy and connectivity under Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM).

In brief comments to the media, Ali described the deal as the "first step" while Myanmar said it was ready to receive the Rohingya "as soon as possible".

"We are ready to take them back as soon as possible after Bangladesh sends the forms back to us," foreign news agencies said quoting Myint Kyaing, a permanent secretary at Myanmar's ministry of labour, immigration, and population.

Ali also handed over three ambulances for Rakhine State, the scene of atrocities, as "gift from the government of Bangladesh" to Myanmar.

In spite of the positive development that took place on Thursday, experts fear that the process of repatriation of Rohingyas is going to be a long-drawn one as several issues still remained unresolved.

Moreover, the Myanmar government is surely going to face massive protests from Buddhist groups for taking back the Rohingyas.

OneIndia
Nigeria: Suspected Boko Haram terrorists gun down 7 workers

International

pti-PTI

Kano (Nigeria), Nov 24: Days after 50 people were killed in an attack in a Mosque, gunmen suspected of being Boko Haram jihadists have shot dead seven men working on a farm in northeast Nigeria's Adamawa state.

The gunmen disguised as security personnel attacked the men around 3:00 am (local time) while they were sleeping at a farm in the village of Sabon Gari in the Gombi district. The victims were shot at close range with their hands tied behind their backs.

"The gunmen killed seven of the eight men who went to work on my farm. Only one escaped," said farmer owner Yakubu Sarkin-Baka, also head of the local hunters' union.

The victims were all members of the hunters union in Gombi, 140 kilometres from the state capital Yola, who went to Sarkin-Baka's farm earlier in the day to harvest corn and decided to stay the night and finish the work the following morning, he said.

"They were found with their hands tied behind their back and bullet holes in their heads," Sarkin-Baka said.

"The only survivor told us they mistook the attackers for security men," he added.

Sarkin-Baka declined to say who was behind the attack but an uncle of one of the victims put the blame on Boko Haram jihadists.

"It is clearly the work of Boko Haram on a revenge mission," Usman Zakari said. "No one would shoot dead seven people in such a cruel manner except Boko Haram."

He said Sarkin-Baka and his group of hunters had been effectively fighting Boko Haram alongside the Nigerian military which prevented the jihadists from establishing a foothold in the area. In November 2014 Boko Haram fighters briefly seized Gombi but were repelled by the military with the aid of local hunters from the town.

The Islamists made a failed attempt to retake the town two months later but were pushed back by troops and hunters who launched an extensive manhunt and forced Boko Haram to pull out of the area.

On Tuesday at least 50 worshippers were killed when a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque during morning prayers in the town of Mubi, 59 kilometres away. In January last year a suicide attack on a grain market in Gombi, also blamed on Boko Haram, left eight people dead. Boko Haram was also suspected in that attack. The Islamist militants have been waging an insurgency in northern Nigeria since 2009 which has left at least 20,000 people dead and more than 2.6 million others homeless.

PTI
US calls for Pakistan to arrest, charge Hafiz Saeed

International

pti-PTI

Washington, Nov 24: The US asked the Pakistan government to make sure that Hafiz Saeed is arrested and charged for his crimes, following the release of the 26/11 mastermind and JuD chief from house arrest.

Pakistan today freed Saeed, the LeT founder, who immediately launched his anti-India rhetoric and vowed to mobilise people for the "cause of Kashmir". "The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan.

LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens," state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said. "The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes," Nauert said in a statement after the release of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief.

The JuD leader, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free after his 10- month detention as the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case, in a setback to India's efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack.

In May 2008, the US Department of the Treasury had designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224. Saeed was also individually designated by the UN under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December, 2008 following the November 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people, including six American citizens, were killed, Nauert said.

LeT and several of its front organisations, leaders, and operatives remain under both state department and Treasury department sanctions. Since 2012, the US has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice, she said.

PTI
US terror listing of North Korea may lead to 'catastrophe':Russia

International

pti-PTI

Russia Moscow, November 23: Russia on Friday said that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a "PR move" that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global "catastrophe".

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called US President Donald Trump's move to place North Korea on the list of state sponsors of terrorism "another scaremongering act and PR move" that would not reduce tensions on the ground.

"The answer to the question whether such actions help in lessening the tensions is clear: no, they do not." "These sorts of actions push the situation (around North Korea) to the extreme, this can end with a big catastrophe not only of a regional but also of global scale," Zakharova told journalists in Moscow.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will discuss the North Korea crisis with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono during his visit to Russia tomorrow, Zakharova said.

"They will concentrate on bilateral relations but the international situation will be discussed, including the situation in the Korean peninsula as well as the Syrian question," Zakharova said.

PTI
The Pakistani government should make sure that Hafiz Saeed is arrested and charged for his crimes, the US said.

By India Today Web Desk: Hours after Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed was freed from house arrest, the United States (US) has called for Pakistan to arrest and charge him for his crimes.

US Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert said, "The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Seed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated foreign terrorist organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens".

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The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes, he said.

Earlier, Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed attacked India in a speech in Lahore, blaming New Delhi for "spreading terror in Pakistan" and claiming the reason he was detained in the first place was that he "spoke for the people of Kashmir".

Saeed, who is accused of masterminding the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, was addressing a Friday prayer crowd in Lahore after being the Pakistani government, in compliance with a court order, withdrew the orders under which the terrorist chief had been detained.

"I am fighting the case of Kashmiris in Pakistan," Saeed said in Lahore, "There should be no dialogue with India until they take their forces out of Kashmir." Accusing former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff of 'betrayal', Saeed said, "Nawaz Sharif proved to be a traitor to the people of Kashmir, that's why he got kicked out of power."

"The government of Pakistan needs to take their own decisions and stop getting dictation (sic) from outside," the Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder went on to say in a possible reference to the United States of America, which, under the Donald Trump administration, has been steadily increasing pressure on Islamabad to act against terrorist groups operating in and around Pakistan.

"India is involved in spreading terror across Pakistan," Saeed also said, adding, "Till the time people like Kulbashan (sic) will keep entering Pakistan, unrest will prevail." Saeed was talking about Kulbushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer whom Pakistan has accused of espionage.

A military court in Pakistan convicted and sentenced Jadhav to death on charges of spying and terrorism. India has contested the military court's decision at the International Court of Justice.

Saeed was released from house arrest midnight Thursday after a Lahore High Court panel rejected the Pakistani government's request to keep the JuD chief detained. According to a dispatch from news agency IANS, the government's request contended Saeed was a threat to public safety, but the court turned it down citing a lack of evidence.

According to IANS, Saeed who carries a $10 million bounty announced by the US for his role in terrorist activities and first placed under house arrest on January 30 this year.

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The US and the UN classify JuD as a terrorist group and it is alleged to be a front organization for the terror outfit LeT, whose attack on Mumbai led to the death of 166 Indians and foreigners and almost brought India and Pakistan to war.

New Delhi also accuses the LeT of carrying out terror attacks in other parts of India, including Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist campaign backed by Pakistan and raging since 1989 has left thousands dead.

India had earlier denounced the Pakistani court's decision to free Saeed, saying it "confirms once again the lack of seriousness on the part of the Pakistani government in bringing to justice the perpetrators of heinous acts of terrorism".

(With inputs from IANS)

--- ENDS ---
Saeed, who has been in detention since January, was freed after the government decided not to keep him detained under any case

By PTI, India Today Web Desk: Hafiz Saeed, Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief and mastermind of the 265/11 Mubai attack, was released from house arrest today. With an aim to help Kashmiris get their "destination of freedom" Saeed said he will gather supporters from Pakistan for the "cause of Kashmir".

The JuD chief, whose head carries a reward of $10 million for his role in terrorist activity, was set free as the government decided not to detain him anymore in any case. He has been in detention since January. "I was detained for 10 months only to stop my voice for Kashmir," Saeed told his supporters gathered outside his residence to celebrate his release."I fight for the case of Kashmiris. I will gather the people from across the country for the cause of Kashmir and we will try to help Kashmiris get their destination of freedom," he said upon his release.

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Punjab provinces Judicial Review Board comprising judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday unanimously ordered Saeeds release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest which expired last night.Saeed said that he was detained when he announced a month of solidarity for Kashmiris in January.

Using the release order to buttress his claim of "innocence", Saeed said: "I am very happy that none of the allegations against me proved as three judges of the LHC ordered my release... India had levelled baseless allegations against me. The LHCs review board decision has proved that I am innocent".The JuD chief said that the US, on Indias request, pressured Pakistan to detain him."I was detained on the pressure of the US on the Pakistani government. The US did so on the request of India," he claimed.Several JuD supporters, gathered outside Saeeds house in Lahores Jauhar town to celebrate his release, shouted anti- India slogans and described their leader as "a hope for the Kashmiri people".

"We are happy to see our leader free. Hafiz sahib received his release order from the jail officials. Now he is a free man," JuD spokesman Ahmad Nadim said."Saeed has been freed as the Punjab government decided not to detain him further in any other case," a top government official said.

He said that after a long deliberation, it has been decided to follow the review boards decision.Saeeds release would invite strong criticism from India and the US, official sources said."It remains to be seen as how would the PML-N government handle the foreign pressure to again detain Saeed," they said.Punjab Assistant Advocate General Sattar Sahil said the government law officer had presented "some important evidence" to justify Saeeds detention, but all three members of the board unanimously rejected it and ordered his release.On January 31, Saeed and his four aides Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti- Terrorism Act 1997. The last two extensions were made on the public safety law.The board refused to give further extension to the detention of Saeeds aides.

They were set free last month.According to the rules, the government could detain a person for up to three months under different charges, but for extension, it needs approval from a judicial review board.The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai attack in November 2008 but he was freed by a court in 2009.India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and demanded trial of Saeed and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi in the light of evidence it had provided to Islamabad.Ten LeT militants had killed 166 people and wounded dozens in Mumbai in November, 2008.

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Nine of the attackers were killed by police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught and executed after a court found him guilty.Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN after the Mumbai attack.

(With PTI inputs)

Watch: Hafiz Saeed's lawyer AK Dogar: Pakistan govt did not produce Indian dossiers in court

--- ENDS ---
From Gush Shalom

SUDDENLY, A terrible thought struck me. What if Avi Gabbay really believes what he is saying?

Impossible. He cannot really believe all those things. No, no.

But if he does? Where does that leave us?

AVI GABBAY is the new leader of the Israeli Labor Party. Until recently, he was a founding member of a moderate right-wing party, Kulanu ("We all"). Without ever being elected to the Knesset, he served as a junior minister. He resigned when Avigdor Lieberman, considered by many as a semi-fascist (and the "semi" is far from certain), was allowed to join the government as Minister of Defense, the second most important post.

In a bold move, Gabbay left Kulanu and joined the Labor Party (also known as "the Zionist Camp") and was soon elected its chairman. However, he did not become the official "Leader of the Opposition," because he was not a member of the Knesset. (The formal title remained with his predecessor, the very nice but rather insignificant Yitzhak Herzog.)

One of Gabbay's outstanding qualities is the fact that he is "Oriental," an Eastern Jew. He is the seventh of eight children in a family that immigrated from Morocco in 1964, just three years before his birth.

This is very important. The Labor Party is decried as "Western" (or Ashkenazi), the party of the social elites, estranged from the mass of the Orientals. It must overcome this characterization if it ever wants to attain power again.

In the Likud Party, the situation is the exact opposite. The mass of Likud voters are Orientals, but Binyamin Netanyahu is as Ashkenazi as you can get. The Orientals adore him, as they have never adored any Oriental leader.

BUT GABBAY'S origin is not his only attribute. From his humble beginnings he climbed the heights of economic success. He became the CEO of one of Israel's most important corporations, amassing a personal fortune on the way.

He is not a charismatic leader, not a person to arouse the masses. Indeed, his face is easily forgotten. But he took with him from the business world a sound, logical way of thinking. In politics, logic is a rare commodity. It can be obstructive.

The question now is: where does logic take him?

DURING HIS few months as leader of the Labor Party, Gabbay has deeply shocked many party members. Shocked them to the core.

About once a week, usually on Shabbat, Gabbay lets loose a statement that seemingly contradicts everything the party has stood for during its more than 100 years of existence.

He once declared that peace does not mean that any of the many dozens of settlements in the occupied territories must be removed. Until then, the party line was that only the "settlement blocs" -- located hard on the Green line - could remain, within the framework of an agreed exchange of territories, and that all the others must be removed. Gabbay's announcement caused quite a stir, since it probably makes the "Two-State solution" impossible.

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IMG_0832 | Activists have been relabelling bottles of Monsan. | Flickr765 -- 1024 - 312k - jpg

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[Note from Stephen Fox: This is all very important to me as an activist because later than the mandatory labeling on Roundup, were discussions and hearings on requiring similar labels on aspartame products, potentially a far more far-reaching decision affecting 12,000 food products and 6000 Medications, and carcinogenic. Monsanto now, Ajinomoto will be next (the world's largest maker of both Aspartame and Monosodium Glutamate). Their legal arguments will be just as specious, as absurd, as judicially rejectable, and as contemptible as Monsanto's and their Agribusiness hacks and phonies, as spelled out in this article~~~~~mark my word, on Thanksgiving 2017!]

>>>>>>>

Human Background :

Teri McCall was one of many California residents to cheer all of the rulings against Monsanto. Her husband, Jack, sprayed Roundup on the family's California farm for nearly 30 years. In September 2015, Jack went to see a doctor to treat swollen lymph nodes in his neck. That day in the hospital, he learned that the swelling was caused by anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), a rare and aggressive version of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Three months later, Jack suffered a severe stroke due to complications with his cancer treatment. He died on Dec. 26, 2015.

In the wake of her husband's death, Teri McCall filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Monsanto, alleging the company knew about the link between Roundup and cancer, but failed to warn the public about the risk.

"My husband Jack was very conscious of the dangers of chemicals, and his misfortune was taking Monsanto's word that Roundup was safe," said McCall at a press conference held on January 27 in Fresno following Judge Kapetan's tentative ruling.

"I don't want to see any more unsuspecting people die from cancer because they didn't know of the danger to their health from exposure to Roundup. Glyphosate in Roundup needs to be on the list of Prop 65 chemicals that are dangerous to our health so that people can make informed decisions for themselves about the risks they are willing to take. I don't believe my husband would have been willing to take that risk," McCall said.

McCall is represented in her Roundup cancer lawsuit by Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.





>>>>>> Legal Background :

In 1986, California voters approved Proposition 65 to address concerns about exposure to toxic chemicals. Prop 65 requires California to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.

The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment made its decision in July 2015. The agency maintains that it followed proper procedures in listing the herbicide and "stands by its decision."



OEHHA is the administrator for the Proposition 65 program and determines in many cases whether chemicals or other substances meet the scientific and legal requirements to be placed on the Proposition 65 list. The agency uses a "Labor Code" listing mechanism, which directs the OEHHA to add chemicals or substances to the Prop 65 list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer if they meet certain classifications by the IARC.

Glyphosate is a key ingredient in Monsanto's top-selling weedkiller Roundup, and the lawsuit said 250 crops are grown using glyphosate.

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From Consortium News



ran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei visiting the holy city of Qom in January 2013.

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For many years, major U.S. institutions ranging from the Pentagon to the 9/11 Commission have been pushing the line that Iran secretly cooperated with Al Qaeda both before and after the 9/11 terror attacks. But the evidence for those claims remained either secret or sketchy, and always highly questionable.

In early November, however, the mainstream media claimed to have its "smoking gun" -- a CIA document written by an unidentified Al Qaeda official and released in conjunction with 47,000 never-before-seen documents seized from Osama bin Laden's house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The Associated Press reported that the Al Qaeda document "appears to bolster U.S. claims that Iran supported the extremist network leading up to the September 11 terror attacks." The Wall Street Journal said the document "provides new insights into Al Qaeda's relationship with Iran, suggesting a pragmatic alliance that emerged out of shared hatred of the United States and Saudi Arabia."

NBC News wrote that the document reveals that, "at various points in the relationship ... Iran offered Al Qaeda help in the form of 'money, arms' and 'training in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon in exchange for striking American interests in the Gulf,'" implying that Al Qaeda had declined the offer.

Former Obama National Security Council spokesman Ned Price, writing for The Atlantic, went even further, asserting that the document includes an account of "a deal with Iranian authorities to host and train Saudi-Al Qaeda members as long as they have agreed to plot against their common enemy, American interests in the Gulf region."

But none of those media reports were based on any careful reading of the document's contents. The 19-page Arabic-language document, which was translated in full for The American Conservative, doesn't support the media narrative of new evidence of Iran-Al Qaeda cooperation, either before or after 9/11, at all.

It provides no evidence whatsoever of tangible Iranian assistance to Al Qaeda. On the contrary, it confirms previous evidence that Iranian authorities quickly rounded up those Al Qaeda operatives living in the country when they were able to track them down, and held them in isolation to prevent any further contact with Al Qaeda units outside Iran.

Taken by Surprise

What it shows is that the Al Qaeda operatives were led to believe Iran was friendly to their cause and were quite taken by surprise when their people were arrested in two waves in late 2002. It suggests that Iran had played them, gaining the fighters' trust while maximizing intelligence regarding Al Qaeda's presence in Iran.

Nevertheless, this account, which appears to have been written by a mid-level Al Qaeda cadre in 2007, appears to bolster an internal Al Qaeda narrative that the terror group rejected Iranian blandishments and were wary of what they saw as untrustworthiness on the part of the Iranians. The author asserts the Iranians offered Saudi Al Qaeda members who had entered the country "money and arms, anything they need, and training with Hezbollah in exchange for hitting American interests in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf."

But there is no word about whether any Iranian arms or money were ever actually given to Al Qaeda fighters. And the author acknowledges that the Saudis in question were among those who had been deported during sweeping arrests, casting doubt over whether there was ever any deal in the offing.

The author suggests Al Qaeda rejected Iranian assistance on principle. "We don't need them," he insisted. "Thanks to God, we can do without them, and nothing can come from them but evil."

That theme is obviously important to maintaining organizational identity and morale. But later in the document, the author expresses deep bitterness about what they obviously felt was Iranian double-dealing in 2002 to 2003.

"They are ready to play-act," he writes of the Iranians. "Their religion is lies and keeping quiet. And usually they show what is contrary to what is in their mind ... It is hereditary with them, deep in their character."

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Putin

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his Iranian and Turkish counterparts have supported a proposal to hold a "Syrian people's congress" that will bring together government and opposition figures.

The Russian President on Wednesday (November 22) hosted Hassan Rouhani and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, just as some Syrian opposition groups met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital, before United Nations-sponsored talks in Geneva.

"The congress will look at the key questions on Syria's national agenda," Putin told reporters at the summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, sitting alongside Rouhani and Erdogan.

"First of all, that is the drawing-up of a framework for the future structure of the state, the adoption of a new constitution, and, on the basis of that, the holding of elections under United Nations supervision," he said.

The congress is expected to also take place in Sochi before the next round of Geneva talks on November 28. However, no details about the exact date or who will be invited to attend were released.

In a joint statement, the three leaders underlined the need for all warring sides to release all prisoners and hostages, hand over bodies and create the conditions for a lasting truce.

They also urged the international community to provide humanitarian aid, clear Syrian territory of mines and restore infrastructure wrecked by the long-running conflict.

Now in its seventh year, the war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced more than 12 million.

Syrian opposition in Riyadh says Assad has to go

Syrian opposition groups meeting in Saudi Arabia have renewed their demand for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad in a draft resolution obtained by Al Jazeera.

The groups said that a solution to the war in Syria can only be achieved with the departure of Assad at the start of the transitional period - a position held by the Syrian opposition since the start of the war, now in its seventh year.

"The participants agreed that the goal of the political settlement is to establish a state based on the principle of citizenship, which enables the Syrians to draft their constitution without interference and to choose their leaders through free, fair and transparent elections in which the Syrians participate inside and outside Syria under the supervision of the United Nations," the draft resolution reads.

The communique stipulates that a transitional governing body "could include members of the present government and the opposition and other groups and shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent", but does not make any specific mention as to who exactly from the current government should stay on.

The 'slow-motion slaughter' of Syrian civilians

As the Syrian conflict entered its seventh year, about one million children have been orphaned by the war in Syria which is in its sixth year, according to an Aljazeera report.

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From Smirking Chimp



Iraqi children gather around as U.S. Army sergeants patrol the streets of Al Asiriyah, Iraq.

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During the spring of 1999, as part of Voices in the Wilderness's campaign to end indiscriminately lethal U.S./U.N. economic sanctions against Iraq, the Fellowship of Reconciliation arranged for two Nobel Peace laureates, Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Mairead Maguire, to visit the country. Before their travel, Voices activists helped organize meetings for them with a range of ordinary Iraqis affected by an economic warfare targeting the most vulnerable: the elderly, the sick, and most tragically of all, the children.

Perez Esquivel studied the itinerary. His voice and face showed clear disappointment. "Yes," he said, shaking his head, "but when do we meet with the teenagers?" He advised to always learn from a region's young people, and seek clear, inquisitive views not yet hardened by propaganda. We quickly arranged for Maguire and Perez Esquivel to meet with young women at Baghdad's Dijla Secondary School for Girls.

It was the spring of 1999. After eight years of deadly economic sanctions, the 2003 U.S. invasion was still the haziest of looming future threats. I was there with them at the school, and I remember Layla standing up and raising her voice. "You come and you say, you will do, you will do. But nothing changes. Me, I am sixteen. Can you tell me, what is the difference between me, I am sixteen, and someone who is sixteen in your country? I'll tell you. Our emotions are frozen. We cannot feel." But then she sat down and cried.

Other Iraqi students wondered what their country had done to deserve this treatment. What would happen to them if the UN said Iraq's foreign policy directly contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children, in another country, under age five? "Who are the criminals?" they asked.

In 1999, young Layla's voice was both pleading and accusing when she said, "Nothing changes." A change did occur in 2003. The 13-year economic war turned into a fierce bombing and invasion called "Shock and Awe." U.S.-led foreign troops battered the nation. With its cities and reservoirs wrecked, its power lines downed, and its police and economy abolished, chaos broke out. Occupying troops watched the country convulse into escalating violence, replicable anywhere. The long smother of the sanctions was lifted from the crushed windpipe of a nation struggling even harder to breathe, its desperate flailing summoning ever more violent responses. The young people's question, then, should persist: "Who are the criminals?"

As they do each month, my young friends in Kabul, Afghanistan, hosted a three-hour international internet call on November 21st, 2017, focused on ways to survive the psychological traumas inflicted on people living in a war zone. They spoke about how war causes mistrust, fear and a constant anxiety because there is no safe space. They said what they most need are relationships. Trauma destroys connections, makes people feel alone and isolated. Healing involves connection.

Through self-education, they've learned to connect and care deeply about people in Yemen where seven million people, according to CBS's 60 Minutes, face famine. Meanwhile, a Saudi-led coalition, backed and joined by the U.S., continues blockading and bombing civilians. Despite their own destitution, the Afghan Peace Volunteers collected what they could for relief efforts in Yemen, raising about $48.00.

"The quality of mercy is strained in the Middle East," reads a New York Times op-ed from mid-November, 2017, turning to literature to point out the unspeakably brutal throttling of Yemen where, according to the NYT op-ed, "Saudi Arabia closed off the highways, sea routes and airports in war-torn Yemen, forbidding humanitarian groups from even shipping chlorine tablets for the Yemenis suffering from a cholera epidemic...The International Red Cross expects about a million people to be infected by cholera in Yemen by December." The op-ed clearly links the epidemic to U.S. policy and emphasizes the Saudi-led campaign's dependence on military assistance from the U.S.

Mark Weisbrot, an analyst with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, urges ordinary U.S. people to speak up about Yemen, "because this is the world's best chance of ending what UN aid chief Mark Lowcock called 'the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims.'"

Last week, 120,000 people watched a brief video of Code Pink's Medea Benjamin risking arrest to protest U.S. participation in Saudi war crimes. Now, as local groups in the U.S. and other countries plan vigils, legislative action, civil disobedience and education campaigns, we have a chance to end the nightmare fears of Yemenis facing starvation, disease, and war.

As I watched in 1999, Layla stood before her class to ask two renowned peacemakers what difference there was between her and a 16-year-old living in a more secure part of the world. The answer, in terms of her basic human rights and her irreplaceable human value, should be manifestly clear: there is no difference whatsoever.

And yet, while U.S. warlords and military contractors collude with their counterparts in other lands, they earn former president Dwight Eisenhower's blistering evaluation. This world in arms "is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists and the hopes of its children." Among the most vulnerable children sacrificed are those forced into poverty by military blockade and military occupation, who steel themselves as the bombs tear through their towns and their neighborhoods and their neighbors, through their traumatized memories, and through their prospective futures when they dare to hope for one.

The comfortable nations often authorize the worst atrocities overseas through fear for their own safety, imagining themselves the victims to be protected from crime at all costs. Such attitudes entitle people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen to look in our direction when they ask, "Who are the criminals?" They will be looking at us when they ask that, until we at last exert our historically unprecedented economic and political ability to turn our imperial nations away from ruinous war, and earn our talk of mercy.

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From Moyers & Company

"Everything the Trump campaign told you about the connections between Trump and Russia was a lie."

Editor's Note: The news is coming so fast and furious, from so many sources and in so many fragments, that it takes more than a scorecard to keep up with the Trump-Russia connection. It takes a timeline -- a "map," if you will, of where events and names and dates and deeds converge into a story that makes sense of the incredible scandal of the 2016 election and now of the Trump Administration.

For years Steve Harper produced timelines for the cases he argued or defended in court as a successful litigator. Retired now from practicing law, Harper has turned his experience, talent, and curiosity to monitoring for BillMoyers.com the bizarre and entangled ties between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump and the murky world of Russian oligarchs, state officials, hackers, spies, and Republican operatives. You can check out the over 700 entries right here. But for an overview -- and some specifics -- of recent developments, I called up Steve to give us a sense of the emerging story. -- Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers: You're the consummate trial lawyer with a celebrated reputation for summing up the closing argument for the jury, but from our work together on the timeline I know you also have the instincts of a journalist. So write the lede to the story this far: What's the most important thing for us to know about the Trump/Russia connection as of today?

Steven Harper: Everything the Trump campaign told you about the connections between Trump and Russia was a lie.

Moyers: Go on.

Harper: Well, there are a number of different dimensions to the issue, but let's just take the easiest one. The other day The Washington Post published a very good article that said for all of Trump's denials during the campaign of any connections between him, his campaign and Russia, it turns out there were 31 interactions. And there were 19 meetings. Furthermore, what Trump and his people have been doing since then is everything they can to keep the public from being aware of the truth. And this feeds into the obstruction story.

Moyers: How so?

Harper: Up to and including the firing of James Comey, Trump did everything he could to try to shut down, slow down or stop the investigation. First, he tried to shut down the investigation of Mike Flynn. Then it turned out that Mike Flynn is probably just a piece of a much larger problem, which is Russia. Trump admitted to the Russian ambassador and to the Russian foreign minister shortly after he fired Comey that now he's got some relief from the Russia problem -- in other words, Comey's gone! But what's happened since then is the continuing effort to interfere with the investigation, even in the form of tweets -- all of which sure look a lot to me like witness intimidation for some of the key players in the saga.

And then there's a third component, which is in a way the most insidious -- the willingness of the congressional GOP to be complicit in all of this. We're talking now about a prescription for disaster for democracy. It's all part of the same story. If you think about it, every single person who has said something about there being no connection between Trump and Russia during the campaign has been caught in a lie about it. Even with this fellow George Papadopoulos, the talking point immediately became, "Well, he didn't get in trouble for anything that he did, he got in trouble for lying to federal investigators." Sure, and what was he lying to federal investigators about? About whether or not there were any contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. And that's the part that everybody glosses over in terms of the talking points on the Republican side.

Moyers: George Papadopoulos was the youngest of Trump's foreign policy team and not a prominent public figure. Now Trump loyalists say he wasn't taken all that seriously by the campaign.

Harper: That's another remarkable thing, of course -- all the policy advisers all of a sudden are relegated to the status of low-level, unpaid volunteers, even though they sat in a meeting of foreign policy advisers with the presidential candidate himself early on. When they turn out to be suspects in this investigation, they all drop to the bottom of the heap, and it's as if Trump had never heard of any of them.

Moyers: It's usual in a case like this to move the paramount figures to the expendable list, no?

Harper: Oh sure, absolutely, and I fully expect before this is over, you're going to get to a point where Donald Trump will say, "Oh, yeah, Donald Jr. -- you know he was only my son for a very limited period of time." It's absurd. And it started with Paul Manafort -- the same Manafort who actually delivered decisive delegates to Trump during a crucial period of the campaign. When the heat was turned on Manafort, they all said: "Oh, well, he played a limited role for a limited period of time." Yeah, he was only manager of the campaign, how about that?

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Can anyone still doubt that access to a relatively free and open internet is rapidly coming to an end in the west? In China and other autocratic regimes, leaders have simply bent the internet to their will, censoring content that threatens their rule. But in the "democratic" west, it is being done differently. The state does not have to interfere directly -- it outsources its dirty work to corporations.

As soon as next month, the net could become the exclusive plaything of the biggest such corporations, determined to squeeze as much profit as possible out of bandwidth. Meanwhile, the tools to help us engage in critical thinking, dissent and social mobilization will be taken away as "net neutrality" becomes a historical footnote, a teething phase, in the "maturing" of the internet.

In December the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to repeal already compromised regulations that are in place to maintain a semblance of "net neutrality." Its chairman, Ajit Pai, and the corporations that are internet service providers want to sweep away these rules, just like the banking sector got rid of financial regulations so it could inflate our economies into giant ponzi schemes.

That could serve as the final blow to the left and its ability to make its voice heard in the public square.

It was political leaders -- aided by the corporate media -- who paved the way to this with their fomenting of a self-serving moral panic about "fake news." Fake news, they argued, appeared only online, not in the pages of the corporate media -- the same media that sold us the myth of WMD in Iraq, and has so effectively preserved a single party system with two faces. The public, it seems, needs to be protected only from bloggers and websites.

The social media giants soon responded. It is becoming ever clearer that Facebook is interfering as a platform for the dissemination of information for progressive activists. It is already shutting down accounts, and limiting their reach. These trends will only accelerate.

Google has changed its algorithms in ways that have ensured the search engine rankings of prominent leftwing sites are falling through the floor . It is becoming harder and harder to find alternative sources of news because they are being actively hidden from view.

Google stepped up that process this week by "deranking" RT and Sputnik, two Russian news sites that provide an important counterweight -- even if one skewed in its pro-Russia agenda -- to the anti-Russia propaganda spouted by western corporate media. The two sites will be as good as censored on the internet for the vast majority of users.

RT is far from a perfect source of news -- no state or corporate media is -- but it is a vital voice to have online. It has become a sanctuary for many seeking alternative, and often far more honest, critiques both of western domestic policy and of western interference in far-off lands. It has its own political agenda, of course, but, despite the assumption of many western liberals, it provides a far more accurate picture of the world than the western corporate media on a vast range of issues.

That is for good reason. Western corporate media is there to shore up prejudices that have been inculcated in western audiences over a lifetime -- the chief one being that western states rightfully act as well-meaning, if occasionally bumbling, policemen trying to keep order among other, unruly or outright evil states around the globe.

The media and political class can easily tap into these prejudices to persuade us of all sorts of untruths that advance western interests. To take just one example -- Iraq. We were told Saddam Hussein had ties to al-Qaeda (he didn't and could not have had); that Iraq was armed with WMD (it wasn't, as UN arms inspectors tried to tell us); and that the US and UK wanted to promote democracy in Iraq (but not before they had stolen its oil). There may have been opposition in the west to the invasion of Iraq, but little of it was driven by an appreciation that these elements of the official narrative were all easily verified as lies.

RT and other non-western news sources in English provide a different lens through which we can view such important events, perspectives unclouded by a western patrician agenda.

They and progressive sites are being gradually silenced and blacklisted, herding us back into the arms of the corporate propagandists. Few liberals have been prepared to raise their voices on behalf of RT, forgetting warnings from history, such as Martin Niemoller's anti-Nazi poem, "First they came for the socialists."

The existing rules of "net neutrality" are already failing progressives and dissidents, as the developments I have outlined above make clear. But without them, things will get even worse. If the changes are approved next month, internet service providers (ISPs), the corporations that plug us into the internet, will also be able to decide what we should see and what will be out of reach.

Much of the debate has focused on the impact of ending the rules on online commercial ventures. That is why Amazon and porn sites like Pornhub have been leading the opposition. But that is overshadowing the more significant threat to progressive sites and already-embattled principles of free speech.

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By PTI: New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) The Delhi High Court today dismissed a PIL questioning the powers of the censor board to recertify a film after it has undergone changes, saying the plea was "entirely misconceived".

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said the petition was based on a "complete misconception, bordering on ignorance, of the manner in which the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) functions" and imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the petitioner "for wasting judicial time".

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The petition claimed that the CBFC did not have to power to recertify a film even if it undergoes changes later for screening on television channels.

However, the court refused to accept this contention, saying once a film has been modified, it ceases to be the original movie as far as certification by CBFC is concerned. "It would be deemed to be a fresh film," the court said.

The plea, filed through advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, contended that movies with adult certification are recertified for public viewing, including children, on TV with hardly any changes made in them.

It said that such recertification and screening of the film on TV was a violation of the Cinematograph Act and the Cable TV Network Act.

However, on being asked by the bench, the lawyer could neither orally, nor in the petition point out such instances when unmodified adult-rated movies were shown on TV during timings when even children are watching.

The court said when allegations of violation of statutory provisions are made, instances of such violations must be pointed out.

It said the courts ought to "deprecate" the practice of filing of PILs by merely relying on the statutory provision and not pointing out the violations, as was done in the instant case.

As the petitioner was not able to point out the instances of violations, the court slapped him with the cost of Rs 50,000, half of which has to be deposited with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The remaining amount has to be deposited with the advocates welfare fund, the bench said. PTI HMP PPS SKV ARC

--- ENDS ---


White Helmets, real or staged?

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Inside Syria Media Center in coordination with Tim Anderson, an academic expert in economics and international politics from the University of Sydney have investigated the United States' role in the bloodshed in Syria. Tim Anderson's associates also investigated the famous or infamous, depending on one's perspective of the White Helmets phenomenon.

The official name of the White Helmets is the Syrian Civil Defense. They were founded in 2013 with the stated goal of saving lives on all sides of the conflict. They say they are just ordinary people "bakers, tailors, engineers, pharmacists, painters, carpenters, students and volunteers from all walks of life". They pledge commitment to the principles of "Humanity, Solidarity, and Impartiality".

The White Helmets have been lauded by the U.S. media as heroes and have been used to demonize the Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian government. This campaign has been incredibly effective, with the White Helmets being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and a documentary about them that won an Oscar. The White Helmets have achieved worldwide publicity in what others claim are obviously staged photos and videos. The White Helmets have provided invaluable anti-Assad propaganda, which fits in with the US stated agenda of regime change: "Assad must go".

Somehow the White Helmets are able to operate in terrorist infested areas without losing their heads (literally), areas where even children cannot step outside their homes without being shot by snippers. Since the White Helmets say they operate in terrorist held territory, it only follows that they also say they "mostly deal with the aftermath of government air attacks---barrel bombs and even chemical weapons", they say. They also say they "risk their lives to rescue the bodies of government soldiers to give them a proper burial".

Once again, Inside Syria Media Center has investigated the "White Helmets". This time we looked into the Facebook accounts of individual "White Helmets" to see what else they self-posted about themselves on their individual Facebook accounts. What we found was that many of them, about 60 that we investigated, revealed a lot more than humanitarian lifesaving about their activities. Nor did we find any of them presiding over proper respectful burials of government soldiers, quite the opposite they often seemed proud of trophy pictures of themselves with the mutilated and tortured bodies of government soldiers. White Helmets posed holding AK-47's, rocket propelled grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, bandoleers wrapped around their torsos and even pictures with smiling child soldiers.

Evidence has emerged in the past that has shown that the White Helmets have connections to extremist groups. It is widely suspected that their major funding comes from the US. Despite this, western media continues to discount any evidence and call anyone sharing it a conspiracy theorist. The New York Times, Huffington Post, Business Insider and the Daily Beast, among others call debunking of the White Helmets fake news.

The public Facebook profiles of individual White Helmets members tells a different story. Many White Helmets sans White Helmet have selfies showing what certainly look like not only connections to extremist groups, but being pals and sympathizers with them. This is not the first time that such Facebook pages have been revealed, but I have discovered many more.

A total of 65 White Helmet Facebook profiles are documented at Inside Syria Media Watch . Their Facebook pages show White Helmets praising suicide bombers, alongside of photos of Bin Laden and displaying ISIS flags.

The original of this article, the Facebook pages mentioned and other articles debunking the White Helmets can be found at Inside Syria Media Center.
See original here

By Yahzi



Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)

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There is a fundamental difference between Al Franken and every other case currently being discussed. This difference has been ignored or glossed over, but it is absolutely critical.

The difference is power.

Franken's alleged crimes were not abuses of power. They were (at worst) abuses of consent. Tweeden consented to a kiss, even if she didn't like the way he did it. All three women accusing him of grabbing their butts consented to a hug -- they asked him for a selfie, they invited him to put his arm around them. They may not have liked how he did it, but he had their consent first.

This is fundamentally different from every other case. Franken is not using his power to compel or coerce. He has no power over these women. He is not pushing interns into the closet or rubbing up against women in the elevator. He is not using his position as an adult to manipulate teenagers. There is no fear here. In every single case, the physical contact was consensual.

Perhaps it is true that he used their consent in unwanted ways and made them uncomfortable. But that is fundamentally different than making them afraid.

Franken could not destroy their careers. He did not and could not threaten them physically. In every instance, he was interacting with a peer who had as much power over the situation as he did. When people interact as peers, there will be mistakes. But making people uncomfortable is categorically different than making them afraid.

We can and should expect women to stand up for themselves when they are uncomfortable. We do not expect them to stand up for themselves when they are afraid.

If we turn this movement against being afraid into a movement against being uncomfortable, the movement will die. Because discomfort is a part of adult life. It is fear that we are fighting against; it is abuse of power that is the problem, not rudeness. It is assault and harassment that we hope to stop, not unwanted expressions of sexual interest. The idea that we will remake society into a world where no one is ever exposed to a sexual proposition they don't want is simply childish. It would also be sexless, because neither gender is equipped with mind-reading abilities. If people are going to make offers, sometimes they will be rejected. That's just statistics.

As someone else said in a different context, prison should be for people who make us afraid, not for people we don't like. You don't have to like Franken's grabby hands. Fine! Don't ask him to touch you, and he won't. What more can you ask for?

Nothing. The answer is nothing, because if you demand perfection, you will get nothing. The target of this attack is not Al Franken. It is the movement itself. It is outrage over sexual misconduct they want to disgrace and destroy, by making fear equivalent to discomfort, thus discrediting every case as snowflake fee fees. Franken is just a bonus.

We must recognize and defend the difference. People have a right to make you uncomfortable. They do not have a right to make you afraid.
Most of us learned long ago to tape over the camera eye on our laptops. We know that we are being spied on, although not necessarily who is doing the spying. Is it twitter, facebook, amazon, google, apple, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Microsoft, ? Samsung, Sony, Vizio ? the NSA, the CIA, the FBI - the US versions of the KGB? Likely all of the above and all at once. Any email message or text typed in from a laptop or phone gets instant advertising from any company mentioned in the message. That was bad enough. Now it's worse. Much worse.

Say you are in a cafe having lunch with a friend. You mention that your Ford Escort needs a transmission and it is going to cost you a bundle. You don't know how to manage the costs. Your smart phone is in your purse, on the floor under your feet. A few minutes later ads appear on your phone - from Ford dealers, cut-rate auto repair shops, banks offering auto loans, attorneys offering lawsuits against companies. How did that happen. You never wrote anything about that on the internet or in an email or a text. How?

The microphone on your smart phone is the new spy camera, listening to and recording every word you say, even when your phone is shut off. It has a wide range and can record your voice from a considerable distance. The evidence is here is this article: Your phone is listening to you - all the time.Some of you may already be aware of this, as the article is not that recent. But it was news to me. And that is only the most innocuous result of such spying. What if in a fit of anger you said you wanted to strangle Ajit Pai for killing the internet. How long would it take the cops to show up at your door, or the FBI to interrogate you and place you on a terrorist watch list. So much for freedom of speech.

A man I know whose private company is heavily involved in developing the "internet of things" - i.e., robot technology and the micro-chipping of people - recently wrote this:

"I think we're setting up for a future of 'chipped' humans, where there is no escape from monitoring... and that means globally...basically all the technology is in place to create it.



"...but first they will have to scare the sh*t out of everyone to get 'compliance'..."

He cites a primitive technology from a company called Dexcom that makes sub-cutaneous microchips that monitor glucose levels here.

What more can we do ? A lot. First off, if you are using google chrome as a browser, switch to mozilla firefox or slimjet. If you don't mind a slower speed, switch to Tor, which is encrypted. A reader here recommends Duckduckgo and Yandex. Bear in mind that the google search engine is now scrubbed, meaning heavily censored. Your favorite independent news sites and free-thinking writers will not turn up on a google search - much less the World Socialist website. If you are on gmail, get another mail account; Mozilla has one called Thunderbird that offers encrypted options.

Second, the prime spy agencies listed above can all be boycotted. That may be a challenge as holiday shopping bears down on us - but try. Patronize all of your local independently owned shops. Resolve not to purchase a single thing from a big-box store or online retailer. Boycott Google, close out your accounts on facebook, twitter and yahoo. Get a landline phone and connect with your friends only on that device. Support small local businesses and farmers' markets. All of the above-named spy agencies have stocks for sale in the rigged joke we call the "stock market" - all of them overvalued by roughly 10,000 percent: Price-to-earnings ratios around 300 when 15 is normal; stock prices ranging from 300 to 1200 dollars per share. Shut them down. Bankrupt them. We can do it. Just get all of them out of your life. as much as possible.

Third, never never never buy an appliance or security system connected to the internet. It is only there to spy on you and ultimately to control every aspect of your life - without your consent.

"But but but .....I can't live without my smart phone!" I hear you all cry. Well you can, in fact, but ultimately, given the internet dependence of the world, ---since they have already hijacked "our internet" it is up to the geeks to design and build a new private internet that operates by subscription only and allows no advertising at all. It will have no use to the above spy agencies since they would not be permitted to sell anything. Get to it, geeks. In the meantime, do not support the spy agencies. Ditch your phone.

I have never owned a smart phone - only a very basic flip phone that has no internet access, one I only use when I travel and cannot find a payphone to call a taxi. Unless and until the global public gets that smart phones and connected computers are primarily spy engines, designed to control our every move, there is no hope of avoiding life under a fascist, authoritarian regime. The only power we have is to say "no". Throw your smart phone in the trash. Go back to a non-internet landline. The world survived before these monsters entered out lives. I actually long for the life we had before there were personal computers. We all used to talk to each other while walking down the street. It was way better.

Edit: If you skipped the comments there are links to two more articles on this subject :

here: .laprogressive.com/cell-phone-madness/

and here: .moonofalabama.org/2017/11/google-does-evil.html

(Article changed on November 25, 2017 at 02:26)
Automotive Test Equipment Market Research Study for the Period 2015 - 2025

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Automotive test equipment is primarily used for adjustment of vehicle performance and executing the quality tests on the vehicle. Automotive test equipment are used for measuring the engine wear, lubricant aeration, engine oil consumption, fuel dilution and evaporation and clogging of after-treatment systems. These test equipment are also used for testing the impact on engine oil consumption, hand brake tension and for interaction between fuel and lubricant. The examples of automotive test equipment are used as engine dynamometer, vehicle emission test system, wheel alignment tester, chassis dynamometer, fatigue testing, impact testers, tire plunger testers, fogging testers, etc.Automotive test equipment are providing control over the stability of the vehicle and excelling the riding comfort, these advantages are fuelling the market for automotive test equipment.Request For Report Sample:Automotive Test Equipment Market: Drivers and ChallengesExpected growth in automotive industry is projected to fuel the growth in automotive test equipment market during the forecast period. As original equipment manufacturers are technologically advancing the automotive test equipment, the global automotive test equipment industry is expected to experience a growth during the forecast period. The growing demand for automotive test equipment from Asia Pacific and Middle East is fuelling the growth of the global automotive test equipment market. Stringent emission regulations regarding CO2 and NOX are boosting the demand for automotive test equipment globally.Automotive test equipment market is facing a challenge of market maturity in the developed economies such as U.S.A., Canada, etc.Automotive Test Equipment Market: OverviewThe global automotive test equipment market is expected to expand at a CAGR of around 4-7% during the forecast period (2016-2025), due to stringent government emission regulations (CO2 and NOX) and technological advancements.Automotive Test Equipment Market: SegmentationThe global automotive test equipment market can be segmented on the basis of type of vehicle, type of product and by regions.Based on type of vehicle, the global automotive test equipment market is segmented as:Passenger VehiclesCommercial VehiclesBased on type of product, the global automotive test equipment market is segmented as:Vehicle emission test systemWheel alignment testerChassis dynamometerEngine dynamometerAutomotive Test Equipment Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global automotive test equipment market is expected to register a single-digit CAGR for the forecast period. Depending on geographic regions, global automotive test equipment market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. In terms of market revenue, Asia Pacific automotive test equipment market is projected to register a fastest CAGR during the forecast period. Many automotive original equipment manufacturers are shifting their manufacturing base to Asia Pacific, as the region is considered to be the low cost production destination. Due to the increased presence of manufacturing plants in Asia Pacific, the demand for automotive test equipment is growing in the region. North America & Western Europe are the matured markets for automotive test equipment and they are projected to register a single-digit CAGR of 4-5% during the forecast period.Asia Pacific is forecast to register a fastest CAGR during the forecast period, due to the high demand for automotive test equipment from countries such as India and China. Expected growth in the automotive production is also going to fuel the demand for automotive test equipment in Asia Pacific.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Automotive Test Equipment Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market participants in global automotive test equipment market are Robert Bosch gmbh, Siemens AG, Honeywell Industrial Inc., ABB Ltd, Delphi Automotive PLC, Actia S.A., etc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market InsightsAbhishek Bhudoliya616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Automotive Piston System Market: Challenges and Opportunities Report 2015 - 2025

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The increasing demand for automobile, especially in emerging economies, is expected to drive the global Automotive Piston Systems Market in the coming decade. As a piston is an essential part of an internal combustion engine, the demand for pistons is directly coupled with the automobile production. Owing to the continuous developments, the automobile sector is witnessing increased demand for lightweight pistons, which is expected to result in push for the global automotive piston system market.A piston is a key component of automobile internal combustion engine, which reciprocates within the cylinder, delivering energy to the crankshaft after each power stroke during an engine cycle.Request For Report Sample:Automotive Piston System Market: Drivers & ConstraintsThe global automotive piston system market is expected to grow on account of increasing sales of automobiles across various segments such as two wheelers, four wheeler, and other automobile segments. With increasing demand for automobiles, especially two wheeler segment in emerging economies such as India, demand for pistons is expected to increase further thereby positively impacting the global automotive piston system market.Furthermore, the two wheelers is increasingly moving towards double cylinder engines as opposed to conventional single cylinder engines, particularly in the high end bikes segment. A double engine cylinder requires two pistons as compared to a single cylinder, wherein only one piston is used, hence with increasing production of high end bikes, the global automotive piston system market is expected to grow as well. Demand for passenger car, light & heavy commercial vehicle is also expected to contribute towards the growth in global automotive piston system market in coming years.Additionally, due to burgeoning fuel costs across the globe, the automobile industry is in continuous phase of research & development in order to increase fuel efficiency. The global automotive piston system market is hence witnessing an increased demand for light weight pistons across the globe.One of the key constraints for the global automotive piston market can be attributed to the increasing penetration of electric vehicles, which do not use pistons. Yet another constraint in the global automotive piston system market is the downsizing of engines in order to reduce weight and fuel increase efficiency. Using technologies such as turbocharger, automobile manufacturers have been able to downsize engines by reducing number of cylinders, without compromising on power of the engine.Automotive Piston System Market: SegmentationThe automotive piston system market has been segmented on the basis of types of vehicle such as two wheelers, passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, and heavy commercial vehicles. On the basis of piston material, the market has been segment as aluminium & steel piston. Increasing demand for lightweight aluminium piston is expected to have a positive impact on the global automotive piston system market in coming years.In terms of geography, the global automotive piston system has been divided in to seven key regions including North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa and Japan. Within these regions, the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) and Japan can be attributed as the largest contributing regions towards the global automotive piston system market, in terms of volume. The North American region is follows the aforementioned regions in the global automotive piston system market.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Automotive Piston System Market: Key PlayersThe global automotive piston system witnesses key players such as Rheinmetall AG, Aisin-Seiki Co. Ltd., Mahle GmbH, Federal-Mogul Corporation, and Hitachi Ltd.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market InsightsAbhishek Bhudoliya616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Naac Market To Grow Owing To Rising Demand For Food Leather Tanning, Medical And Pharmaceuticals Applications Till 2021 | Million Insights

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Global NaAc is segmented on the basis of end-users and geographical segmentation and is expected to grow at a higher CAGR in the forecast period. Sodium acetate (NaAc), also known as Sodium ethanoate, can be synthesized by reaction of acetic acid with sodium carbonate or sodium hydroxide. Sodium acetate trihydrate is a granular, crystalline powder with acetic odor, while sodium acetate anhydrous is a granular, hygroscopic powder. NaAc Market is segmented by product Type into NaAc Anhydrous, NaAc Trihydrate.The growing command for both - the trihydrate and anhydrous forms of sodium acetate in a variety of end user industries across the globe is driving market growth. Food leather tanning and medical and pharmaceuticals are amongst the major applications of sodium acetate trihydarte and sodium acetate anhydrous. Accessibility of huge numeral of substitutes, particularly for food and pharmaceuticals applications, is probable to hinder market growth. NaAc Market is segmented by Application into Industrial Consumption, Food Consumption, and Pharmaceutical Consumption, Leather and Textile Industry, and others (Such as Photography, detergents, Agriculture).Full Research Report On Global NaAc Market Analysis available at:The pharmaceuticals industry is measured as one of the main application segments on the basis of expenditure of sodium acetate and expected to grow considerably up to2021. The pharmaceuticals industry makes use of sodium acetate rehydrate in mineral drinks as an electrolyte and also in dialysis. It is also used as a stage transform constituent in heating pads. In case of sodium anhydrous market, the pharmaceuticals industry held a high market share in 2014 and is measured as the second largest end-use industry. It is used in the procedure of drug formulations and intravenous fluids.In food industry, the use of sodium acetate trihydrate is quite low, thereby left to the extensive variety of substitutes eagerly obtainable in the market. Due to this, the sodium acetate trihydate market is experiencing a drastic fall from the food industry. In 2013, the sodium acetate trihydrate and sodium anhydrous market was in great demand from the leather textiles market. Sodium acetate trihydrate is widely used as a pickling and buffering agent in the leather tanning industry and also as a mordant in the process of dyeing of textiles.Asia Pacific conquered the global market, accounting for the largest share in terms of application and consumption. North America followed Asia Pacific in the global market hierarchy. NaAc Market is segmented by End User by photography, electronics, Galvanization, animal feeds, laboratories and chemical agents, detergents. NaAc Market is segmented by Geographical Region into North America, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia.Asia-Pacific emerged as the major consumer of the sodium acetate anhydrous in 2013. North America followed Asia Pacific in terms of consumption from dissimilar applications with market share of high in 2013. High per capita spending on healthcare and consciousness in consumer groups is driving the medical & Pharmaceuticals end use industry expenditure of sodium acetate anhydrous market in the region. The regional markets of Europe and Rest of the world are expected to grow at a considerabl elevated rate during the forecast period.The Key Players in the NaAc market include Niacet, Nippon Synthetic Chemical, Nankai Chemical, Jost Chemical, Shanxi Zhaoyi Chemical, Zhongwang, Shanxi Fanrongfu Chemical, Wuxi Yangshan Biochemical, Runhong, Tongyuan Chemical, Hangzhou Chemical, and Changshu Nanhu Chemical.Request for Free Sample Copy:This report studies NaAc in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering Niacet Nippon Synthetic Chemical Nankai Chemical Jost Chemical Shanxi Zhaoyi Chemical Zhongwang Shanxi Fanrongfu Chemical Wuxi Yangshan Biochemical Runhong Tongyuan Chemical Hangzhou Keyu Haosheng Chemical Changshu Nanhu Chemical SanweiMarket Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Region, with production, consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate of NaAc in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), like North America China Europe Japan India Southeast AsiaSplit by product type, with production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided into NaAc Anhydrous NaAc Trihydrate Type IIISplit by application, this report focuses on consumption, market share and growth rate of NaAc in each application, can be divided into Industrial Consumption Food Consumption Pharmaceutical ConsumptionRelated Reports of this Category available at Million Insights:Million Insights, is a distributor of market research reports, published by premium publishers only. We have a comprehensive market place that will enable you to compare data points, before you make a purchase. Enabling informed buying is our motto and we strive hard to ensure that our clients get to browse through multiple samples, prior to an investment. Service flexibility & the fastest response time are two pillars, on which our business model is founded. Our market research report store, includes in-depth reports, from across various industry verticals, such as healthcare, technology, chemicals, food & beverages, consumer goods, material science & automotive.Office No. 302, 3rd Floor, Manikchand Galleria,Model Colony, Shivaji Nagar, Pune, MH, 411016 IndiaPhone: 91-20-65300184Email: sales@millioninsights.com
Iridescent Pigments Market: Trends and Opportunities for the Industry by 2017 - 2025

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Iridescence, also referred to as goniochromism, is the phenomenon in which the color of a substance or surface of the film gradually changes color as the angle of illumination or angle of view changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, butterfly wings, sea shells, as well as certain minerals. It occurs when microstructures interfere with light structural coloration. Iridescent pigments are employed in a variety of the applications such as paints &coatings, automotive, cosmetics, textile, personal care, inks, and playing surface of compact discs. Iridescent pigments find wide application due to their luster.In terms of chemical composition, iridescent pigments can be segmented into three groups: iridescent mediums all interference colors, iridescent pearl, and silver. These colors are derived from mica platelets that are coated with a thin layer of titanium dioxide. Refraction and reflection takes place on this layer of titanium dioxide to produce various colors and iridescent effects. Iridescent gold, copper, and copper light make up the second group. These colors are derived from mica platelets, but an iron oxide coating is present either in place of, or in combination with, a titanium dioxide coating. The iron oxide coating results in pigments, which possess hues as well as pearlescent qualities. A third group consists of colors derived from highly reflective metallic pigments. This includes stainless steel (coarse & fine), as well as, micaceous iron oxide. The pigments in the first two groups are non-metallic and composed of very thin, highly reflective and transparent platelet-shaped. Pigments can be easily oriented into parallel layers within the transparent medium due to the plate-like shape. When viewed, a portion of the incident light will be reflected by the uppermost layer of pigments, while the remainder of the light will be transmitted and subsequently reflected by lower layers. It is this multiple reflection of light from many microscopic layers that produces the observed shimmering luster or iridescence effect.Request For Report Sample:Increased consumption of paints and coatings is the main driver of the iridescent pigments market. The paints & coating industry is an emerging industry, which includes the decoration and the protection of infrastructure. Regions such as India, China, and GCC are major consumers of paints, hence, the market of pigments is likely to expand in these regions. Plastics industry is one of the major consumer and therefore a driver of iridescent pigments. Pigments are employed as coloring substances in plastics. Besides acting as colorant, pigments provide stability. Additionally, the textile and cosmetic industries are also propelling the iridescent pigment market. Change in lifestyle, pattern, color of textiles and cosmetics are giving a platform to the iridescent pigment industry.A major restraint for the iridescent pigments market is the implementation of the various government regulations. The production of the iridescent pigments releases a large amount of the pollutants, which degrade the environment.The global iridescent pigments market can be segmented on the basis of the application and the geography. In terms of application, the global iridescent pigments market can be segment into paper, paints and coats, plastics, construction, leather, and printing inks. The textile industry of the iridescent pigments market is anticipated to expand during the forecast period. In terms of geography, the iridescent pigments market can be segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is a prominent market for iridescent pigments. Rising population is a key factor driving the demand for iridescent pigments in the region. The Latin America iridescent pigments market is projected to expand due to the rapid expansion of the textile industry in the region. Countries such as the U.S., Germany, Italy, the U.K., France, Spain, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa are the major countries of iridescent pigment market. Key players operating in the iridescent market include Aron Universal Ltd, FX Pigments Pvt. Ltd., and BASF.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):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.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Magnetic Refrigeration Market: Future market projections for forthcoming years

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Magnetic refrigeration is a cooling technology based upon the magnetocaloric effect. The technique can be used to attain extremely low temperatures. Magneto caloric effect (MCE) is a phenomenon, wherein temperature change of the magneto caloric material (MCM) is caused by exposing the material to a changing magnetic field. The temperature of MCMs increases when exposed to magnetic field and decreases when removed from it. The effect is reversible and instantaneous. Under the magnetic refrigeration system, a controlled magnetic field applies a series of magnetization & demagnetization cycles to the magnetocaloric alloys. Each of these cycles creates a temperature gradient in the MCE material. A rapid succession of these cycles produces the final and stabilized hot and cold temperatures in the refrigerated system. The magnetic refrigeration system involves components such as magnetic materials, regenerators, superconducting magnets, and active magnet regenerator.Gas is used in conventional refrigeration systems for the cooling effect. Magnets used in the magnetic refrigeration systems are permanent and do not require any external energy. Furthermore, the magnetic refrigeration system does not utilize any gas for the cooling function; thus, it is a low maintenance and environmentally-friendly technology. Refrigeration systems using the magnetic refrigeration technology tend to be quieter and energy efficient. Based on type, the magnetic refrigeration technology can be segmented into refrigeration systems, air conditioning systems, and heat pumps. Refrigeration systems consist of refrigerators, cabinet displays, freezers, ice-cream cabinets, and beverage coolers. The magnetic refrigeration technology can also be used in air conditioning systems. It can also be employed in heat pumps. Magnetic refrigeration systems are widely used in domestic, industrial, and transportation & commercial segments.Request For Report Sample:Increase in awareness about global warming is the major driver of the magnetic refrigeration market. Conventional cooling or refrigeration systems make use of gases such as Co2, CFC, and liquid nitrogen. These toxic substances are harmful for the environment and cause ozone depletion. The usage of air conditioning and other refrigeration systems for food preservation and other use is rising. Thus, refrigeration and air cooling systems are estimated to account for 13% share of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission by 2030. The magnetic refrigeration technology is free of gas; thus, it is environmentally-friendly. Less energy consumption is another driver of the magnetic refrigeration market.In terms of region, the magnetic refrigeration market in Europe is expected to expand significantly owing to the large presence of players dealing in the magnetic refrigeration technology. Some companies in countries such as France and Germany are carrying out extensive research in the technology of MCE materials and magnetic refrigeration. Governments of countries in Europe are also encouraging research associated with refrigeration to minimize global warming and ozone layer depletion. The magnetic refrigeration market in Asia Pacific is also anticipated to exhibit strong growth due to the rise in population in the region. Increase in population is estimated to result in higher demand for domestic and industrial food preservation cooling technology. This provides an opportunity for the magnetic refrigeration market. Food preservation industry, beverage industry in North America are vast. This is projected to propel the magnetic refrigeration market in the region.Prominent players operating in the magnetic refrigeration market are Cooltech Applications, Camfridge, BASF SE, Fujikura Ltd., TOSHIBA MATERIALS CO., LTD., GE Electric Co., Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC., Astronautics Corporation of America, Whirlpool Corporation, and VACUUMSCHMELZE GmbH & Co. KG.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):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.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Coated Fabrics Market Research Report by Key Players Analysis 2025

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Coated fabrics are fabrics that are coated, covered, or treated with various substances such as varnish, rubber, lacquer, and thermoplastic coatings to make the material last longer and be impervious to water, dust, oil, and other liquids. Coated fabrics are produced from smooth and pile fabrics. These fabrics are sometimes combined with porolon to make them softer.Based on product type, the coated fabric market can be segmented into polymer, rubber, and fabric backed wall coverings. The polymer segment held the major share of the global market in 2016. The segment is anticipated to expand at a faster CAGR compared to the other segments. Polymer coated fabrics are highly resistant to fire, water, and abrasion. They are relatively cheaper compared to other product types. Therefore, demand for these coatings is higher compared to others. Factors such as rise in demand from transportation, protective clothing, and industrial applications; increase in safety concerns; and implementation of stringent government regulations requiring the provision of safety to workers are expected to drive the global polymer coated fabrics market across the globe. Nylon is the widely used coated fabric substrate compared to its counterparts such as polyester due to its light weight and amenability to a variety of coatings.Request For Report Sample:In terms of application, the coated fabric market can be segmented into transportation, protective clothing, industrial, furniture, and others. The transportation segment accounted for the major share of the market in 2016. Its share share is projected to rise further in the next few years. The transportation segment is expected to expand during the forecast period, owing to the rising demand for coated fabrics in automobile, aircraft, railways, and marine applications. There exists high demand for coated fabric in the transportation segment, as the product is rot-proof, dirt & oil-repellent, mildew resistant, water resistant, and UV resistant. The others segment also constituted average share of the market in 2016. It comprises protective coatings, industrial, and furniture. Under the industrial segment, the product is used in the manufacture of industrial uniforms, masks, hand gloves, etc. Industrial workers work in extreme conditions; therefore, the uniform worn by them needs to be fire proof, oil repellent, water repellent, and repellent to other harmful products. Therefore, coated fabrics are used in industrial fabrics.Asia Pacific accounted for the major share of the coated fabrics market in 2016 across the globe, followed by North America and Europe. Demand for coated fabrics in the region is driven by the growth in industries in developing countries such as China and India. High economic growth and significant investments in industries such as oil & gas, automotive, and construction are expected to boost the coated fabric market in the region. Increase in automobile sales and rise in government regulations requiring the implementation of safety measures are also driving the coated fabrics market in Asia Pacific region. The coated fabric market in Middle East & Africa is projected to expand at a faster rate. Demand for coated fabric is expected to rise in the region due to the growth in construction and other industries. Latin America held low share of the market in 2016.Key manufacturers operating in the global coated fabrics market include Omnova Solutions, Takata Corporation, Saint-Gobain, Canadian General Tower, Bo-Tex Sales Co., Mauritzon Inc., ContiTech AG, Isotex S.p.A., and Graniteville Specialty Fabrics.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):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.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
By PTI: New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) India can easily achieve 200 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 as against the "conservative target" of 175 GW, Power Minister R K Singh said today while unveiling the roadmap for clean energy.

Buoyed by the success of reverse auction of renewables, which resulted in tariffs dropping to all time low rates, Singh also unveiled the plan to auction up to 21 GW solar and wind capacity by March 2018.

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On the RE capacity addition, he said: "175 GW of Renewable Energy by 2022 is a very conservative target. India can easily achieve 200 GW of renewable capacity by 2022."

There was a long pending demand from the industry to declare the renewable energy roadmap, he said at a press conference to unveil solar and wind energy capacity addition plan of the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE).

"Hence, today, with the declaration of this trajectory, the government has clearly spelt out its plan of speeding up of RE installation in country and strengthening the RE manufacturing base in India," he added.

Singh said that in order to encourage Make in India in the RE sector, the MNRE is working on a scheme and will issue Expression of Interest (EoI) for establishing domestic manufacturing facilities for up to 20 GW.

He further said that MNRE is exploring innovative ways to achieve additional installed RE capacity through floating solar power plants (FSPP) over dams, offshore wind energy systems (OWES) and hybrid solar-wind power systems (HSWPS), which may provide over 10GW additional capacity.

The MNRE team of experts has already surveyed the Bhakra Nangal dam for FSPPs and Gujarat and Tamil Nadu for wind power plants, Singh said.

Talking about the issues in Power Purchase Agreements, he said the sanctity of the PPAs have to be ensured and they would have to be mandatorily honoured.

The ministry is in constant discussions with state governments, including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, to ensure that, he said.

Talking about the Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPOs), the minister said that these obligations are mandatory and need to be adhered to strictly.

Elaborating the RE Development road map , MNRE Secretary Anand Kumar said that for achieving 100 GW solar power target by 2022, the ministry, along with states, would lay out bids for ground mounted solar parks for 20 GW in 2017-18, of which 3.6 GW has already been bid out.

He said 3GW of solar energy capacities will be bid out next month, 3 GW in January, 5 GW in February and 6 GW in March.

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As much as 30 GW each will be bid out in 2018-19 and 2019-20 to add 60 GW solar capacities.

Kumar said that as against the target of 60 GW for wind power, 32 GW has already been commissioned.

The central government, along with states, intends to issue bids of cumulative capacity of about 8 GW of wind capacities this year. Of this, 5 GW (including present 2 GW) has already been bid out and 1,500 to 2,000 MW will be bid out in January and as much in March.

He also informed that 10 GW will be bid out each fiscal in 2018-19 and 10 GW in 2019-20, leaving a margin of 2 years for commissioning of projects.

Kumar said that the ministry soon issue the Wind Bidding Guidelines.

He also said that with wind power tariffs becoming competitive and state DISCOMs encouraged to buy more of RE, the government has doubled the auction capacity for the third national level wind auction from 4GW last year to around 9GW in this year.

Regarding clarity on GST rates on Solar panels, Kumar said that the MNRE is in talks with the Ministry of Finance and in the next 7-10 days all the issues would be resolved.

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On the occasion, Power Sale Agreements (PSA) under second wind auction were also signed between states, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and utilities of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Punjab, Goa and Odisha.

The last reverse auction for SECI-II wind bid was conducted on October 4, which resulted in very competitive tariff of Rs 2.64/2.65 per unit. PTI KKS SA

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Cryogenic Processing Facilities Market Research Report by Geographical Analysis and Forecast to 2025

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A cryogenic processing facility or plant is a system where natural gas flowing from a well is cooled to subzero temperatures in order to condensate the liquids or natural gas liquids (NGL). Unlike the natural gas used by consumers, gas produced from oil well, gas well or condensate wells holds a number of gas liquids, apart from methane as a main constituent. NGLs include butane, ethane, and propane. Ethane and propane are the heaviest among these gases, and they require cryogenic processes for its separation form the natural gas. NGLs finds usage in refineries or in petrochemical plants, primarily as fuels or feedstock. The methane gas that remains after the removal of NGLs is transported to the end-user via a pipeline. Cryogenic systems finds application in basic research, high tech and medical equipments & in the industry. In industry these systems are mainly used for obtaining desired gas products or liquid products by cryogenic separation. Apart from these NGLs, oxygen is also an important industrial gas. Oxygen cryogenic plants provide oxygen not only to industries but also to medical facilities. However, the major application of cryogenic processing facilities remains in the oil & gas industry (midstream), where the plant is installed at the well site, the NGLs are separated on-site and then transported to consumers. A cryogenic processing plant separates the NGLs from natural gas by chilling the incoming gas stream from well to -120 degrees Fahrenheit. This reduced temperature allows a blended liquid hydrocarbon mixture to be collected, which later is fed into a fractionation plant. This fractionation plant finishes processing the liquid hydrocarbon into high purity of butane, propane, ethane, and natural gas.Request For Report Sample:The major driver for the market of cryogenic processing facilities is the increased usage of natural gas as fuel. The natural gas as compared to the conventional fossil fuel (oil) causes less carbon emission, proving to be a more mature and environment-friendly energy. The natural gas being produced from the subsurface is not pure and contains other heavy gas liquids. It is of prime importance to separate and recover the NGLs, as they find application in industrial uses. A cryogenic processing facility allows the processing and recovery of heavy gases on-site. This makes the transportation of NGLs and natural gas easier. Another driver for this market is that the cryogenic facility increases the profitability of the conventional oil and gas operations. The NGLs separated are further treated and sold to end-users. Increased usage of NGV (natural gas vehicles) in developed as well as developing countries is another driver for the cryogenic processing facilities market. A major restraint for the cryogenic processing facilities market is the increasing usage of renewable energy resources. Another restraint is likely to be the cost involved in the installation of the plant or facility.Demand for cryogenic processing facilities is estimated to rise, especially in North America. Recent development of shale oil and shale gas in the U.S. has increased the share of North America in the export of fossil fuels. In Middle East & Africa, cryogenic processing facilities are estimated to witness increased demand, especially in Qatar, due to the fact that the country holds a prominent deposit of natural gas. The cryogenic processing facilities market is likely to expand consistently in Asia Pacific and Europe due to increased usage of natural gas in the region.Key players operating in the global cryogenic processing facilities market include ENERFLEX LTD, Honeywell International Inc., Joule Processing, SNC-Lavalin, Schlumberger Limited, Gas Liquids Engineering Ltd., GEA Group, Ross Group, and S-CON Inc.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):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.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Cyclic Olefin Copolymers Market Research Report Forecast to 2025

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Cyclic olefin copolymers (COCs) are formed by chain copolymerization of cyclic monomers with ethene. COCs exhibit remarkable optical properties, which are similar to that of glass. These materials can resist high temperature and offer excellent transparency with low bi- refractivity. The monomer content in the COC affects its properties such as stiffness, viscosity, and glass transition temperature.Monomers in a COC chain can be of two types, based on which COCs are classified into two groups: cyclic olefin copolymer (having different types of monomers) and cyclic olefin polymer (having a single type of monomer). However, they are termed together, due to their similar amorphous thermoplastic polymer properties. Standard polymer processing techniques that are suitable for COCs include extrusion coating, compression molding, thermoforming, injection molding, single-screw and twin-screw extrusion, injection and stretch blow molding (ISBM), and biaxial orientation.Request For Report Sample:In order to achieve cost-effectiveness, the COC is used as a modifier for the base resin in either single-layer films or multilayer films. This provides the added properties of COCs to packaging films in addition to that of base resin (for example, polyethylene). Films made from different COC grades, which are based on ethylene and polyethylene, are employed in consumer applications such as pharmaceutical and food packaging applications.Advanced compositions of COCs with higher purity are light in weight, break resistant, and with excellent barrier properties, lower particle level than glass, and glass-like transparency. These factors enable their usage in short-term as well as long-term pharmaceutical containers.Popular applications of COCs include labels, shrink films, twist films, forming films, and bubble (or protective) packaging. Pharmaceutical blister packaging is one of the applications, wherein demand for COCs in the end-product is high.Along with the major use of COCs in pharmaceutical containers, it is also applied in blister packs, syringes, and forming webs. Second only to PAN in terms of chemical resistance, adsorption rate, and low permeation and migration of medical-grade chemical contents; COCs offer good results in aforementioned applications. For instance, adsorption of nicotine by COCs is less than that of glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETG) and Ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH). Also, resistance of COC against methyl salicylate is higher than that of PETG, and is in the same levels as that of PAN. Yet another feature of the COC that enables its effective use in pharmaceutical applications is alcohol resistance. For instance, COCs are used in multilayered blends with polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), or glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETG) in order to provide moisture barriers to blister packs.For COCs to be employed in pharmaceutical packaging, an approval is required from the U.S. and the EU Pharmacopoeia. The major characteristics of COC that are considered while utilizing it include heat resistance, processing parameters, and cost. In terms of strength for containers, COCs generally offer exceptional breakage resistance as compared to glass. Furthermore, they weigh much less and they have greater design flexibility.Based on form, the cyclic olefin copolymers market for pharmaceutical packaging can be divided into pellets, resins, and others. Based on application, the market can be segmented into wraps, labels, films, protective packaging, syringes, vials, wearables, and others.In terms of geography, the market can be segregated into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is one of the key producers of COCs in the world, due to presence of several COC manufacturers in the region. Countries such as Germany, Russia, and the U.K. are among the major producers of COCs in Europe. Based on consumption, North America and Europe are the key markets. In terms of consumption, the market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand during the forecast period, although at a sluggish pace compared to North America and Europe.Key players operating in the cyclic olefin copolymers market for pharmaceutical packaging include Entec Polymers, Topas Advanced Polymers Inc., SCHOTT North America Inc., IDEX Corporation, Zeon Corporation, Celanese Corporation, JSR Corporation, and Mitsui Chemicals Inc.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):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.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Automotive Haptic Accelerator Pedal Market: Challenges and Opportunities Report 2025

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Haptic communication essentially regenerates the feeling of touch by virtue of applying forces, motions, or vibrations to the user. The technology is gaining momentum in the automobile industry over the recent past, especially in the areas of infotainment and safety. The haptic accelerator pedal is an application area of hepatic communication technology. In this technology sensors are there in the gas pedal of the vehicle. These can determine the exact amount of force needed and specifies the driver if surplus pressure is applied. This technology is an emerging technology and has proved to be influential for increasing the fuel efficiency as well. Additionally, haptic gas pedal technology increases the safety of the driver as it introduces vibration or counterforce in the gas pedal. By embedding hepatic sensors in an accelerator pedal, it is perceived to be the next step in the establishment of driver-controlled fuel efficiency. By the help of this technology, the driver and the vehicle can work in tandem so that less fuel is used.The global automotive haptic accelerator pedal market is likely to experience a double digit growth during the forecast period. Over speeding is one of the main causes for road fatalities. The use of haptic accelerators assist drivers to curb unnecessary speed, thereby curtailing road accidents. The United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development set a target to decrease the number of injuries and deaths from road traffic by fifty percent by the year 2020. If automotive haptic accelerator is integrated with efficient ADAS systems including anti-collision systems, they will have the ability to curb road accidents by limiting vehicle speeds. This will, in turn, boost the growth of the automotive haptic accelerator pedal market during 2016 to 2025.Request For Report Sample:In the present era, there has been a rise in infotainment system complexities. This has led the OEMs to simplify the same and reduce driver distractions. Infotainment systems are being upgraded. These upgrades are meant to keep the drivers attention off the infotainment console thereby reducing the glance time. The implementation of haptic technologies in the infotainment electronic devices would be able to return suitable feedback to the driver by the means of vibrations. Companies such as Bosch and Continental have introduced their user interfaces and advanced infotainment products that use haptic feedback mechanisms. Moreover, miniaturizations in electronics will lead to the demand of smaller sized haptic technology systems. The haptic feedback technology units are constantly becoming compact. Hence, it is likely that haptic technology will be used in various application areas including consumer electronics, wearables, and smartphones. This extension in the application areas as well as amalgamation of hepatic systems in tandem with the infotainment systems are likely to increase the global demand for automotive haptic accelerator pedal during the forecast period.The global automotive haptic accelerator pedal market can be segmented by end-user and region. In terms of end-user, the global market can be segregated into OEMs and aftermarket. The OEMs are likely to capture a major share of the market in the coming years. Increasing vehicle production and rising demand from OEMs is anticipated to fuel the expansion of the segment during the forecast period. In terms of geography, the global automotive hepatic accelerator pedal market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Europe is likely to dominate the global market due to increasing demand for luxury cars in the region, progress in the economic conditions, and presence of a large number of OEMS in the region. Some of the major companies operating in the global automotive haptic accelerator pedal market are CTS, Bosch, Continental, Hella, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, and Nissan.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):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.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Internet of Things (IoT) Testing Market 2017 Growth Rate with 33% of CAGR and Key Players: Cognizant, Infosys, HCL, Capgemini, TCS, Rapid7, Happiest Minds

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Market Research Future published a research report on Internet of Things (IoT) Testing Market Research Report- Forecast to 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2022.Market Scenario:Internet of things is a network of devices/objects which are embedded with network connectivity, sensors, software to collect and exchanges data. The Internet of Things (IoT) market is showing rapid growth. Thus demand for managing advanced IoT applications is increasing rapidly. Internet of Things (IoT) Testing provides different types of testing depending on the requirement. Internet of things testing is mainly based on the architecture involved.In Internet of Things (Iot) Testing Market the growing need for Internet Protocol (IP) testing of the increasing number of IoT devices and the need for testing of IoT applications and the rising importance of DevOps are some of the factors which are driving the market. The study indicates that internet of things testing experience many challenges such as hardware-software mesh, dynamic environment, real-time complexity, and scalability of system, safety concerns, privacy issues, hardware quality, network availability, complex use cases and others.Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market is segmented on the basis of Testing Type, Testing tools and applications. The testing tools are classified into two types as software testing tools and hardware testing tools. Depending on the testing types internet of things testing includes upgrade testing, regulatory testing, pilot testing, compatibility testing, performance testing, network connectivity testing, usability testing and others.The global industrial automation market is expected to grow at USD ~1708 Million by 2022, at ~33% of CAGR between 2016 and 2022.Get Sample of Report @Key PlayersThe prominent players in the Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market are Cognizant (U.S.), Keysight technologies (U.S.), Infosys (India), HCL Technologies (India), Capgemini (France), TCS (India), Happiest Minds Technologies (India), AFour Technologies (U.S.), SmartBear Software (U.S.), Rapid Value Solutions (U.S.), and Rapid7 (U.S.) among othersRegional Analysis:Geographically, North America is expected to dominate the Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market during the forecast period 2016-2022 followed by Europe. The North America market further classified into its major countries U.S., Canada and Mexico. The companies in the region is focusing in increasing their production and improving their distribution network. Also, increasing demand of handheld devices in smart control system of factory automation is expected to propel the market growth of Internet of Things (IoT) Testing in the region. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market in Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market due to growing demand of Internet of Things (IoT) Testings in oil& gas and construction industry in the region. Also, rising need of handheld devices and electronic systems is expected to fuel the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market in the region by the end of 2022.Study Objectives of Internet of Things (IoT) Testing Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market based porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segment on the basis of type, application, end -users and region. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Internet of Things (IoT) Testing.Market Segments:Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market is segmented on the basis of Testing Type, Testing tools and applications.Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market by Testing Type: Upgrade testing Regulatory Testing Pilot Testing Compatibility Testing Performance Testing Network connectivity Testing Usability Testing OthersInternet of Things (IoT) Testing market by Testing tools:Software Tools Wireshark TcpdumpHardware Tools JTAG Dongle Digital Storage Oscilloscope Software Defined RadioInternet of Things (IoT) Testing market by Applications: Smart appliances Smart energy meters Wearable devices Connected cars Smart healthcare devicesGet complete Report @Regional Analysis:The regional analysis of Internet of Things (IoT) Testing is being studied for region such as Asia pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. It has been observed that North America is dominating the Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market owing to many factors as, presence of developed economies such as United States, Canada, high investing power, high adoption of internet of things (IoT). Apart from it, development of new technologies such as IoT, Big data and others by many organization will have positive impact on market of Internet of Things (IoT) Testing in this region. The Internet of Things (IoT) Testing market shows a steady and considerable growth in Asia-Pacific region, owing to factors such as rising internet of things penetration and larger investments by communication service providers and cloud service providers.Intended Audience Technology investors Key market innovators Hardware vendors Regulatory agencies IoT testing providers IoT service providers Communication service providers Quality assurance providers IoT platform providers Third-party system integrators Application providers Research/Consultancy firmsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Airport Management Market 2017 Historical Analysis and Key Players: IBM, Cisco Systems, Siemens AG, Raytheon, Amadeus IT Group, SITA, Rockwell Collins

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Market Research Future published a research report on Airport Management Market Research Report - Global Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market HighlightsIn this rapidly changing world of technology, airport management market is projected to show major growth prospects during the forecast period. Major factor driving the airport management market is the increasing adoption of self service solutions at airports in order to enhance customer experience. Growing demand for automated and self-service applications is one major factor fueling the growth of airport management market.The global Airport Management Market, by geography, has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World. As compared to other regions, the airport management market in North America is expected to witness significant growth and hold the largest market share during the forecast period. U.S and Canada are anticipated to drive the growth of airport management market. This is owing to the presence of large number of established key players investing into the airport management market like IBM Corporation and Cisco Systems in that region. In addition to this, the region also has a well-established infrastructure which allows higher penetration of devices and ultimately provides better connectivity. This is expected to be a major factor for the growth of airport management market. Technological advancements in the management field is another major factor driving the growth of airport management market in the region.Get Sample of Report @The airport management market is growing rapidly over 10% of CAGR and is expected to reach at approx. USD 15.5 Billion by the end of forecast period.Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 30 market data tables and figures spread over 100 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on Airport Management Market Research Report-Forecast to 2023.Key PlayersThe prominent players in airport management market are  IBM Corporation (U.S.), Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), Siemens AG (Germany), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.), Raytheon (U.S.), QinetiQ (U.K.), Amadeus IT Group (Spain), SITA (Switzerland), Rockwell Collins, Inc. (U.S.), Inform GmbH (Germany) and others.Market Research Analysis:It has been observed that North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the market, whereas Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. The major growth in airport management market in North America is attributed to technical advancements and increasing use of mobile devices, tablets and smartphones in that region. The major factor driving the growth of airport management market in North America region is the increasing need for automated and self-service processes.Airport Management Market SegmentationThe airport management market has been segmented on the basis of display component, airport size and application. The component segment is bifurcated into software and services. The software segment is further bifurcated into passenger systems and non-passenger systems. Out of which, the passenger systems sub segment enables proper maintaining of data about the passengers and providing them with better travel experience.Get complete Report @Intended Audience Technology Investors Research/Consultancy Firms Infrastructure Providers Chip designers and fabricators Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) OEM technology solution providersAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Next Generation Integrated Circuit Market 2017 Growth Rate with 27% of CAGR and Key Players: Intel, Qualcomm, Analog Devices, NXP Semiconductor, Atmel, Boeing

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Market Research Future published a research report on Next Generation Integrated Circuit Market Research Report - Global Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market ScenarioMajor giants like Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Intel Corporation and ON Semiconductors are the major players in the semiconductors manufacturing market. Increasing adoption of smartphones is one major factor fueling the growth of next generation integrated circuit market. Data center and network service providers along with cloud service providers are also expected to drive the next generation integrated circuits market.Next generation integrated circuits for space way satellite payloads are being designed by Boeing and built by IBM Corporation. Boeing has completed integration of nine types of application specific integrated circuits are being used by IBM to build integrated circuits that improve the processing capability of current generation chips by reducing the power usage.Get Sample of Report @North America region holds the largest market share of global next generation integrated circuit market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific regions. The growth is North America region is mainly dominated by U.S. and Canada and is attributed to the increasing demand for mobile communication and consumer electronics in the region. The region also has a well-established infrastructure which allows implementation of advanced technologies. The presence of established key players offers a large manufacturing base and this is another major factor for the growth of next generation integrated circuits market in the North America region.Next Generation Integrated Circuit Market has been segmented on the basis of technology, component, type of integration and vertical. The type of integration segment is further bifurcated into hybrid, monolithic and module. Currently, hybrid and module integration techniques hold the largest market share whereas, in future, monolithic integration technique is expected to show major growth potential during the forecast period. Monolithic integration techniques offers reduction in size of the device, weight and power too.Major factor driving the growth of next generation integrated circuit market is the increasing demand from various industry verticals. Growing demand for vehicle automation and increasing adoption of smartphones are major factors driving the growth of next generation integrated circuits market.The global next generation integrated circuit market is expected to grow at approx. USD 1,637 Million by 2023, at 27% of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.Key PlayersThe prominent players in next generation integrated circuit market are  Intel Corporation (U.S.), Qualcomm (U.S.), Analog Devices (U.S.), Texas Instruments (U.S.), ON Semiconductors (U.S.), NXP Semiconductor (U.S.), Atmel Corporation (U.S.), Boeing (U.S.), STMicroelectronics (U.S.), NEC Corporation (Japan) and others.Next Generation Integrated Circuit Market SegmentationThe next generation integrated circuit market has been segmented on the basis of technology, component, type of integration and vertical. The technology segment is further bifurcated into analog and digital. Digital integrated circuits only deal with logic data inputs and outputs and are more popular than analog integrated circuits. Analog integrated circuits require external components for its functioning, owing to this, digital integrated circuits are more popular and hold the largest market share in the next generation integrated circuits market.Regional Analysis:The regional analysis of next generation integrated circuit market is being studied for regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. It has been observed that North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the market, whereas Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. The major growth in next generation integrated circuit market in North America is attributed to technical advancements and increasing use of mobile devices, tablets and smartphones in that region.Get Complete Report @Intended Audience Technology Investors Research/Consultancy Firms Infrastructure Providers Chip designers and fabricators Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) OEM technology solution providers Integrated Circuit Manufacturers Technology ProvidersAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Mechanical Ventilators Market is Poised to Reach a Value of US$ 1.8 Billion by 2024

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Transparency Market Research finds that the global mechanical ventilators market is characterized by the strong presence of a number of local and regional players. These companies are just as capable as global players in efficiently catering to the changing consumer needs and entering neighboring markets. However, regulatory requirements differing from country to country tend to restrict the entry of these players in several national markets. Nevertheless, large multinational players are entering into strategic partnerships or acquiring small start-up companies in order to match the competition in local markets for mechanical ventilators.The global market for mechanical ventilators was worth US$1.1 bn in 2015 and is poised to reach a value of US$1.8 bn by 2024, registering a 4.8% CAGR therein. In terms of volume, the mechanical ventilators market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period.Read Report Overview @By type of product, critical care mechanical ventilators contributed the most toward the global market. In terms of percentage share contribution, the segment is anticipated to account for a 48.2% share by 2024. The portable mechanical ventilators segment is expected to exhibit the strongest CAGR of 7.6% from 2016 to 2024 by value.Based on mode, invasive mechanical ventilators presently form the leading segment of the global market. However, registering a rapid growth rate through 2024, the non-invasive mode segment is expected to reflect a gain in market share by the end of the forecast period. On the basis of end use, hospitals account for the major share in the global mechanical ventilators market in terms of revenue. Home healthcare, on the other hand, is forecast to register the highest growth rate by 2024.From a geographical standpoint, North America is expected to account for a 39.7% share in the global mechanical ventilators market by 2024 and will continue its dominance during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is the most attractive market and is slated to expand at a CAGR of 5.5% from 2016 to 2024.The World Health Organization reports that more than five million deaths are reported every year owing to chronic respiratory diseases. The deteriorating quality of air, particularly in countries where the economy is largely dependent on pollution-intensive industries, is one of the chief causes of the alarming spike in the prevalence of respiratory diseases, especially chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This translates into an increased demand for medical devices, one of which is mechanical ventilators.Request Sample Report @On the backdrop of the constantly growing incidence of reported respiratory diseases, the demand for mechanical ventilators in hospitals and trauma centers has increased and, in recent times, catalyzed the sales of the same, the author of the report states.In contrast, the shrinking profit margins of manufacturers, intensive competitive rivalry, budgetary constraints faced by small healthcare facilities, and injuries associated with the prolonged use of ventilators threaten the growth of the global mechanical ventilators market.About TMRTransparency 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:
Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market to Register Substantial Expansion by 2027

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Wireless Synchronized Clocks are the technology extension of the common clock, apart from displaying time, this clock offer technological benefits such as the wireless audio player, and others. Wireless synchronized clocks offer high reliability and assist in maintaining time symmetry all across the organization.Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market: Drivers and RestraintsTime management is the crucial parameter in every industry & sector, which is attributing to spur the demand for wireless synchronized clocks. Apart from serving general benefits of the clock, wireless synchronized offers the wireless audio player for periodic audio announcements, alarm schedule software, and others. These technical benefits are the key driver piloting the growth of the respective industry over the forthcoming years.Replacement of old clock system in airline, railways and other industrial applications is the other factor responsible for the global wireless synchronized clocks market growth. Further, to facilitate technology infrastructure, the demand for GPRS inbuilt Clock system is creating new opportunities for the respective industry to exhibit positive growth rate in the nearer future.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Also, development of new infrastructure with advanced technology devices inbuilt are also attributing to fuel the demand for the wireless synchronized clock. Wherein, the complexity to configure and required skilled staff to operate are coupled together to obstruct the growth of the market over the forecast period.Global Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market: Market SegmentationGlobal Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market can be divided into four segments, based on Solutions, Product Type Application, and Region.Segmentation on the basis of Solutions for Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market:The major segments of Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market on the basis of the Solutions include:Indoor ClocksOutdoor ClocksSegmentation on the basis of Product Type for Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market:The major segments of Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market on the basis of the Product Type include:Analog Synchronized ClockDigital Synchronized ClockSegmentation on the basis of Application for Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market:The major segments of Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market on the basis of the Application include:RailwaysAirlinesTransportation ServicesOrganization and Hospitality ManagementMedical & HealthcareGovernmentFinancial InstituteEducationMilitary FacilitiesManufacturing PlantsTime and AttendanceRemote Buildings and OfficesSegmentation on the basis of Region for Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market:The major segments of Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market on the basis of Region include:Asia-Pacific excluding JapanThe Middle East and AfricaWestern EuropeNorth AmericaEastern EuropeLatin AmericaJapanGlobal Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market: Regional TrendNorth America is expected to dominate the global wireless synchronized clocks market regarding revenue, owing to increasing vertical application of wireless synchronized clocks, considering same the industry is anticipated to reflect positive growth during the forecast period.Asia-Pacific region is projected to emerge as the fastest growing wireless synchronized clocks market, due to increasing inclination towards the smart product in industrial sectors to facilitate ease in carrying out daily activities such as attendance.A sample of this report is available upon request @Global Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the prominent players in the Wireless Synchronized Clocks Market includes Pyramid Time Systems, Primex, Inc., Innovation Wireless, BRG Precision Products, Owl Time Clock Inc., American Time & Signal, Franklin Instrument Company, Inc., Spectracom Corp, Simplex Time, Syracuse Time & Alarm Co., Inc., TeleScience Singapore Pte Ltd. and Canadian Time Systems.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
U.S. and China Asthma and COPD Drugs Market is Rising to a Valuation of US$ 18.7 Billion by 2024

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According to Transparency Market Research, the opportunity in the U.S. and China asthma and COPD drugs market is slated to rise from a valuation of US$13.0 bn in 2015 to be worth US$18.7 bn by 2024. If these values hold true, the market is likely to expand at a modest CAGR of 4.1% therein.On the basis of drug class, the combination drugs segment is projected to account for a 55.4% share by 2024. This is attributed to the steadily rising preference for combination therapies as prescribed by doctors and the launch of new triple combination therapies during the forecast period. Expanding at the highest CAGR of 4.4% from 2016 to 2024, this segment offers immense scope for growth.Read Report Overview @Combination drugs are analyzed to be the most lucrative segment of the asthma and COPD drugs market, with a high attractiveness index. This is clearly evident from the increased sales of this class of drugs in 2015, the author of the report states.In terms of indication, asthma is projected to account for a higher share as compared to COPD during the forecast period. This is due to the increasing adoption of asthma drugs driven by higher diagnosis rates. Asthma is also evaluated to be the most lucrative segment of the asthma and COPD drugs market.From a geographical standpoint, the U.S. is the dominant segment of the asthma and COPD drugs the market owing to greater awareness among patients and higher prices of these drugs. Although the country accounted for a whopping 81.4% share in 2015, it is estimated to lose market share by the end of the forecast period. On the other hand, China is poised to witness strong growth in the coming years, registering a 10.0% CAGR from 2016 to 2024.One of the most prominent factors driving the asthma and COPD drugs market in the U.S. and China, and one that is likely to have a significant impact throughout the forecast period, is the growing prevalence of asthma and COPD in these two countries, especially in the last decade, the author of the study observes.Statistics show that the prevalence of asthma across China is 1% to 2%, while it is well over 10% in some cities. Shanghai recorded a whopping 190% increase in the prevalence of asthma over the last decade. The U.S. has also seen an upsurge in asthma cases in the recent past. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that around one in 12 people in the U.S. are living with asthma, which translates to around 25 million people in the country.Another factor driving the market for asthma and COPD drugs in China and the U.S. is the growing usage of biologics in asthma, which is a relatively new method of treatment. Noteworthy advances have been made in the recent past, particularly for patients with severe disease symptoms. Ongoing developments by companies such as AstraZeneca and Roche are projected to provide a strong impetus to the asthma and COPD drugs market.Request Sample Report @Contrary to this, patent expiry of blockbuster brands and frequent product recalls threaten to deter the growth of this market.The top five companies in the U.S. and China asthma and COPD drugs market accounted for just under 64.0% in 2015, hinting at not just the consolidated nature of this industry but also at the immense competition among players. GlaxoSmithKline plc, Astrazeneca plc, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck & Co. Inc., and Novartis AG currently enjoy the leading spots in the asthma and COPD drugs market.About TMRTransparency 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:
Allergy Diagnostics Market is Projected to be Worth US$ 3.8 Billion by 2024

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The opportunity presented by the global market was pegged at US$1.3 bn in 2015 and is projected to be worth US$3.8 bn by 2024, expanding at a strong CAGR of 12.8% therein.The consumables segment accounted for the major share in the allergy diagnostics market. The segment is projected to present a 50.1% share by 2024, registering the highest CAGR of 13.6% during the forecast period. The instruments segment, on the other hand, is projected to witness sluggish growth through 2024. By allergen type, the inhaled allergens segment accounted for the dominant share in the allergy diagnostics market, with the food allergens segment expected to register a high CAGR from 2016 to 2024.Read Report Overview @Based on test, in vivo tests led the market while in vitro tests present the most attractive growth opportunities. Diagnostic laboratories are the leading end users of allergy diagnostics and are also likely to exhibit the strongest growth during the course of the forecast period.Taking the lead from a geographical standpoint, North America is forecast to account for 39.9% of the global allergy diagnostics market by 2024. On the other hand, Asia Pacific will register the most promising CAGR of 13.6% during the forecast period.Apart from the growing prevalence of allergies across the globe, the allergy diagnostics market is fueled by a number of genetic, geographical, social, and economic factors.A theory key to the development of the allergy diagnostics market is the hygiene hypothesis. This hypothesis states that the lack of early exposure to infectious agents and microorganisms increases the susceptibility of a person to allergies, by restricting the early development of the immune system. According to the theory, the urban and western lifestyle, with its limited exposure to infectious agents in childhood, is highly responsible for the increased prevalence of allergies in countries in the West. Supporting this theory are statistics revealed by the Global Burden of Asthma. In 2013, figures showed that the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. had a 20 times higher prevalence of allergies than other countries. This, in turn, has been driving the demand for allergy diagnostics in these countries.An alarming rise in pollution levels, genetic factors responsible for the proneness to allergies, the availability of advanced technologies for allergy diagnostics, and increased healthcare expenditure worldwide are also contributing toward the growth of the allergy diagnostics market.The global allergy diagnostics market is immensely consolidated, with the top five players accounting for around 73.0% in 2015. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Quest Diagnostics, Inc., BioMerieux, Omega Diagnostics Group Plc., and Stallergenes Greer dominated the global market that year. Transparency Market Research notes that the market for allergy diagnostics displays intense rivalry among existing players owing to the presence of several large global players and a few local companies.Request Sample Report @Collaborations with leading firms to enter new markets has been noted to be a successful growth strategy adopted by dominant players. A case in point would be Quest Diagnostics. Given the role of genetics in developing allergies, the company collaborated with AncestryDNA in August 2016 to help meet the rapidly growing consumer demand for genetic tests. This collaboration is likely to allow Quest Diagnostics to expand its product portfolio in the in-vitro testing segment.About TMRTransparency 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:
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with MEAs statement)

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) India and Finland today resolved to boost cooperation in a range of areas, including trade and investment, energy and information technology, during talks between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Finnish counterpart Timo Soini.

The two ministers reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and agreed to ramp up cooperation in trade, holding that there is huge scope for its expansion.

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External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said Swaraj and Soini agreed to deepen cooperation in mutually beneficial spheres like trade and investment, IT, new and renewable energy, science and technology, culture and people- to-people contact.

"The two Ministers held discussions on various aspects of bilateral ties as well as important regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest," the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

It said the discussions focused on building cooperation in the areas of trade and investment, vocational education, science and technology, renewable energy, culture and tourism.

Trade ties between the two countries are on an upswing and volume of bilateral trade has crossed over USD 1 billion.

Around 30 Indian companies have invested in Finland in IT, healthcare, hospitality and automotive sectors while over 100 Finnish companies have operations in India in energy, textiles, power plants and electronics sectors.

In 2016, Finland was Indias 60th largest trading partner globally, and the 10th largest within the EU. Similarly, in 2016, India was Finlands 23rd largest trading partner globally, and the fifth largest within Asia.

According to official figures, Finnish companies invested USD 419 million between April 2000 and July 2017.

Large Finnish manufacturers like Kone, Huhtamaki, Salcomp, Ahlstrom have set up manufacturing facilities in different parts of India.

Soini also delivered a lecture at the Global Conference on Cyber Space here. PTI MPB ASK ASK

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Human Vaccines Market is Estimated to Reach US$ 72.5 Billion by 2024

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The global human vaccines market was valued at US$28.3 bn in 2015 and is estimated to reach US$72.5 bn by 2024, registering an 11.2% CAGR during the forecast period.By age group, pediatric vaccines accounted for a 57.5% share in the global human vaccines market in 2015. Adult vaccines, on the other hand, are expected to expand at a 13.2% CAGR from 2016 to 2024. Based on product, the pneumococcal segment accounted for the majority share in in 2015, with the hepatitis segment exhibiting strong growth during the forecast period.Read Report Overview @On basis of vaccine type, the conjugate vaccines segment accounted for the majority share in the global human vaccines market in 2015. On the other hand, the combination vaccines segment is expected to expand at an outstanding CAGR from 2016 to 2024. By distribution channel, the hospital pharmacies segment led the global human vaccines market. However, the drugstores segment is projected to expand at a considerable pace through 2024.Geographically, North America dominates the global human vaccines market and is estimated to reach a value of US$28.0 bn by 2024. Asia Pacific is the most promising market for human vaccines and is expected to expand at a high CAGR of 12.5% during the forecast period.An extremely low risk of serious and fatal side effects associated with vaccines is one of the primary factors driving the market for human vaccines around the world. Similar to other drugs, vaccines are associated with a few side effects; however, most of the times, these are rather mild. Soreness, swelling, redness at the site of injection, fever, rash, or itchiness are the most common side effects of vaccines. Several healthcare organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US FDA, the American Medical Association (AMA), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend the use of vaccines owing to their safety.Complementing this factor is the growing awareness among patients and the general population regarding the benefits of vaccination. This can be attributed to a rise in awareness programs by government, private, and not-for-profit organizations. The celebration of the National Immunization Awareness Month in the month of August in the U.S., for instance, is a great way of spreading awareness and getting more people to opt for vaccination, the author of the report states.Strict regulatory requirements is a major hurdle for most players in the global human vaccines market. In addition to this, high costs pose a significant challenge. The discovery and development of new vaccines require immense capital. Moreover, the transportation, storage, and handling of vaccines can also be extremely heavy on the pocket, the TMR analyst reports. Apart from this, the containment of technical expertise in the hands of a few major players also acts as a deterrent on the growth of the human vaccines market.Request Sample Report @The global human vaccines market is dominated by GlaxoSmithKline plc., Sanofi, Pfizer, Inc., and Merck & Co, Inc. These players collectively accounted for over 70% of the market in terms of revenue in 2015. Analysts at Transparency Market Research have identified some of the key strategies adopted by players in the human vaccines market in order to gain a competitive edge over the rest. These include mergers and acquisitions, collaborations and acquisitions for market penetration, the establishment of local production sites, the expansion of product portfolios, and expansion activities in regions with high growth potential.A focus on research and development is also a successful growth strategy, TMR finds. For instance, Pfizer, Inc. has always focused on R&D in order to improve innovation and productivity. It is presently working on various pipeline products for different therapies and innovating new capabilities that can position it for long-term leadership across the globe.About TMRTransparency 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:
Thermoelectric Generator Market Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunities Forecast to 2022

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https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/thermoelectric-generator-market

Scope of the reportThis study provides an overview of the Global Thermoelectric Generator Industry, tracking market segments across the categorized four geographic regions. The report provides a five-year forecast for the market size in terms of value for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the world. The scope of the study segments the global thermoelectric generator market based on Source, material, power, temperature and end user.North American region held the largest share of the global thermoelectric generator, followed by the Asia-Pacific. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at highest CAGR for the thermoelectric generator market. Increased demand of thermoelectric generators by automotive industries to increase the fuel efficiency and increased industrialization in the region is expected to drive the thermoelectric generator market.Thermoelectric generator converts the heat into electrical energy. Increasing demand for fuel efficiency and stringent emission regarding carbon from the government has boosted the market for thermoelectric generator. Automotive segment has largest share in the thermoelectric generator market, due to increase in the automotive manufacturing across the globe. The growth in global thermoelectric generators market is likely to be challenged by factors such as high price and low efficiency of the thermoelectric generator. The global thermoelectric generator market is expected to show a growth at CAGR of about 14% from 2016 to 2022.Global Thermoelectric Generator Market to grow at 14% CAGR in the next five yearsRequest a Sample Copy @Key PlayersThe key players of Global Thermoelectric generator Market report include- Gentherm, Inc., II-VI Incorporated, Ferrotec Corporation, Laird PLC, Komatsu Limited, Yamaha Corporation, Evident Thermoelectrics, Tecteg, Alphabet Energy, and Tellurex Corporation.Asia-Pacific will be the fastest growing marketNorth American region held the largest share of the global thermoelectric generator, followed by the Asia-Pacific. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at highest CAGR for the thermoelectric generator market. Increased demand of thermoelectric generators by automotive industries to increase the fuel efficiency and increased industrialization in the region is expected to drive the thermoelectric generator market.Scope of the reportThis study provides an overview of the global thermoelectric generator industry, tracking market segments across the categorized four geographic regions. The report provides a five-year forecast for the market size in terms of value for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the world. The scope of the study segments the global thermoelectric generator market based on Source, material, power, temperature and end user.Enquire about this Report @Table of Content1. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1. Definition2.2. Scope Of The Study2.2.1. Research Objective2.2.2. Assumptions2.2.3. Limitations2.3. Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1. Research Process3.2. Primary Research3.3. Secondary Research3.4. Market Size Estimation3.5. Forecast Model4. Market Dynamics4.1. Drivers & Opportunities4.2. Challenges & Restraints4.3. Value Chain Analysis4.4. Porters Five Forces Analysis5. Thermoelectric Generator Market, By Source5.1. Introduction5.2. Waste Heat Recovery5.3. Energy Harvesting5.4. Direct Power Generation5.5. Co-Generation6. Thermoelectric Generator Market, By Material6.1. Introduction6.2. Bi-Te6.3. Pb-Te6.4. Others7. Thermoelectric Generator Market, By PowerContinue.Browse Full Report Details @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Cloud Analytics 2017 global market is expected to grow 21% CAGR and forecast to 2021

Cloud Analytics Market 2017

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Market research analysts predict cloud market analysts to grow at a CAGR of approximately 21% until 2020.The cloud of the market analyst is rapidly expanding as he finds utility in many industries. The emergence of easy implementation of cloud technology and its integration with Google analytics and BI tools drives this market.To improve the user experience, it is important for organizations to analyze large amounts of data created from social media, television and connected devices. In this way, organizations are looking for cloud solutions that offer real-time analysis of unstructured data to help them make decisions.What is cloud analytics and how is it useful?Cloud analytics is a service model in which one or more key data elements of analytics are provided through a public, private or hybrid cloud. Cloud analysts offer high-quality analysis of data stored in the cloud. Several factors, including the continued growth of structured and unstructured data needs to deploy cloud analytics.Organizations are moving to cloud-based analytical solutions as they provide better visibility beyond regular monitoring of Internet traffic and the overall presence of the end user organization. Cloud analytics also offers great profitability for tracking incoming and outgoing marketing campaigns.Market segmentation market analysts global cloud applicationAnalyticsBIDWEPMRequesting a sample report @Further segmentation and analysis of the global market analystGlobal market analysts are projected to grow at CAGR by more than 25% over the next four years. The use of social media for conversations and the increasing availability of cloud technologies are largely the drive of global market analysts.Predictive analytics AnalysttextWeb analyticsVideo analyticsSpeech analysisGeographic segmentation of the market analytics global cloudASIA AND PACIFIC REGIONAmericaEMEACloud analytics in the EMEA region is undergoing significant transformation as a result of changing attitudes towards cloud services in the Middle East. EMEA region accounts for about 26% of this market, and it will continue to grow over the forecast period.Supplier Analysis Global Cloud Market AnalystHPIBMMicrosoftOracleSAPMarket Analysts The global cloud is witnessing the entry of many cloud computing and large data analytics vendors that compete with traditional and local vendors in the market. The core of cloud computing vendors on the market will seek to expand their reach with a lot of mergers and acquisitions during the forecast period.Other well-known manufacturers of this market include Actuate, adaptive ideas, BIME, Birst, Cloud9, Exafort, GoodData, Google, host analytics, Indicee, Infor, Informatica, information builders, Jaspersoft, Kognitio, MicroStrategy, Newvem, Panorama software, PivotLink, Qlik technology, Rackspace hosting, Razorsight, SAS Institute, Tableau software, Teradata, Tibco Software and VMware.The report answers the key questionsWhat are the key drivers driving global market analysts?What are the main market trends affecting the growth of global market analysts?What are the various opportunities and threats faced by suppliers in the global analytics market?The stock market for APAC, North and South America and EBVA?The main results of the five forces of analysis in the global analytics market?Forecast growth of global market analytics?Any query ?, submit here @Table of contentsPART 01: Summary HighlightsPART 02: Scope of the Report Market Overview Top Suggestion ProviderPART 03: MarketResearch Methodology Research Methodology  Economic IndicatorsPART 04: Introduction Key to the market highlightsPART 05: Market description Technologies for changing business prospects Advantages of cloud analyticsPART 06: Market landscape Market overview Global cloud market analyst Analysis of five forcesPART 07: Application Market Segmentation Global Market Analytics Business Intelligence Market in the Cloud Market Data Storage in the Cloud Market Management Enterprise Performance in the CloudPart 08: Market segmentation by model deploymentPart 09: End-user market segmentationPART 10: Geographic segmentationPART 11: Market driversPART 12: Drivers influencePART 13: Market challengesPART 14: Drivers influence and challengesPART 15: Market trends.. .. .. ContinuationABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Address:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
North America Ventricular Assist Device Market is rising to a valuation of US$ 1.07 Billion by 2024

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According to TMR, the opportunity in the North America market for VADs, which stood at US$0.4 bn in 2015, is likely to expand at a healthy CAGR of 9.20% between 2016 and 2024 and increase to US$1.07 bn by the end of the forecast period. The destination therapy (DT) segment has been reporting a greater application of VADs than the other two indication segments. It is expected to remain the leader with its share rising to 66.7% in the overall market by 2024, states the report.A geographical analysis of the North America VAD market has also been offered in this research report. As per the study, the U.S. and Canada are the prime domestic markets for ventricular assist devices in this region. Among the two, the U.S. has emerged as the leading contributor to the overall market, thanks to the rise in the awareness level among consumers regarding the benefits offered by VADs.Read Report Overview @Expanding at a CAGR of 9.70%, this domestic market is anticipated to remain leading throughout the forecast period. The significant increase in patient assistance and clinical research is likely to act as the key driving factor behind the growth of this market over the next few years, notes the research study.Cardiovascular disorders have been a cause of concerns among people in North America since the last few years. As per the American Heart Association, nearly 70% of the geriatric population with diabetes die from heart disorders and almost 16% pass away from strokes in North America. Most of the advanced heart failures in humans are caused by left ventricular dysfunction, resulting in the increased application of LVADs, which eventually, is adding substantially to the overall demand for VADs in North America, says the author of this study.Other prominent factors, fueling the demand for VADs in North America are the limited number of heart donors and the growing awareness among consumers regarding the benefits of VADs, states the market report.While the North America market for ventricular assist devices looks thriving currently, the overall cost incurred in the treatment may create obstructions in the growth trajectory of this market over the forthcoming years. The increasing incidence of device malfunctioning and product recalls is also projected to restrict the progression of this market in the near future, notes the research study.Request Sample Report @With a large number of well-established players, such as Berlin Heart, SynCardia Systems, Sunshine Heart, St. Jude Medical, Heart Ware International, and Abiomed, the market for ventricular assist devices (VADs) in North America demonstrates a fiercely competitive landscape, finds a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR).Most of the leading companies rely on innovation and technological advancements for business development. However, in the coming years, their focus is projected to shift towards strategic collaborations in order to curtail the competition within the market.About TMRTransparency 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:
Calcium Tablets Market to Witness Unprecedented Growth In Coming Years

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https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/report/china-calcium-tablets-market-research-report-2017-d-3

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This report studies the Calcium Tablets 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 Calcium Tablets market by product type and applications.In the last several years, China market of Calcium Tablets developed rapidly, with an average growth rate of 14%. In 2016, China revenue of Calcium Tablets is nearly 600 million USD and the sales is about 5700 million pcs.Get Sample Copy of this Report @The major players in global Calcium Tablets market includePfizerA&Z PharmaceuticalZhendong GroupHPGCBy-healthOsteoformAmwayGeographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with sales, revenue, Market Share (%) and Growth Rate (%) of Calcium Tablets in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth ChinaEast ChinaSouth ChinaNortheastOtherOn the basis of product, the Calcium Tablets market is primarily split intoChildrenAdultThe AgedOn the basis on the end applications, this report coversPharmacyHospitalOnlineOtherBrowse More Insight @Some points from TOC:-1 Calcium Tablets Overview 11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Calcium Tablets 11.2 Classification of Calcium Tablets by Product Category 21.2.1 China Calcium Tablets Sales Comparison by Types (2012-2022) 21.2.2 China Calcium Tablets Sales Market Share by Types in 2016 21.2.3 Children 31.2.4 Adult 31.2.5 The Aged 41.3 China Calcium Tablets Market by Applications/End Users 41.3.1 China Calcium Tablets Sales and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2012-2022) 41.3.2 Pharmacy 51.3.3 Hospital 61.3.4 Online 61.4 China Calcium Tablets Market by Regions 71.4.1 China Calcium Tablets Market Size Comparison by Regions (2012-2022) 71.4.2 North China Calcium Tablets Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 81.4.3 East China Calcium Tablets Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 91.4.4 South China Calcium Tablets Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 101.4.5 Northeast Calcium Tablets Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 111.5 China Market Size (Sales and Revenue) of Calcium Tablets (2012-2022) 121.5.1 China Calcium Tablets Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022) 121.5.2 China Calcium Tablets Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022) 13Download PDF Report:About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on Global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:Email- sales@qyresearchgroups.comWebsite-
Diamond Wire Sales Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth and Forecast Report To 2022

https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/618263

https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/report/global-diamond-wire-sales-market-report-2017-d-10

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The Global Diamond Wire Market Research Report 2017 renders deep perception of the key regional market status of the Diamond Wire Industry on a global level that primarily aims the core regions which comprises of continents like Europe, North America, and Asia and the key countries such as United States, Germany, China and Japan.The report on Global Diamond Wire Market is a professional report which provides thorough knowledge along with complete information pertaining to the Diamond Wire industry a propos classification, definitions, applications, industry chain summary, industry policies in addition to plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, etc.Get Sample Copy of this Report @The potential of this industry segment has been rigorously investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. The present market condition and future prospects of the segment has also been examined. Moreover, key strategies in the market that includes product developments, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, etc., are discussed. Besides, upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also conducted.Report Includes:-The report cloaks the market analysis and projection of Diamond Wire Market on a regional as well as global level. The report constitutes qualitative and quantitative valuation by industry analysts, first-hand data, assistance from industry experts along with their most recent verbatim and each industry manufacturers via the market value chain. The research experts have additionally assessed the in general sales and revenue generation of this particular market. In addition, this report also delivers widespread analysis of root market trends, several governing elements and macro-economic indicators, coupled with market improvements as per every segment. Furthermore, the report contains diverse profiles of primary market players of Diamond Wire Market.The report is generically segmented into six parts and every part aims on the overview of the Diamond Wire industry, present condition of the market, feasibleness of the investment along with several strategies and policies. Apart from the definition and classification, the report also discusses the analysis of import and export and describes a comparison of the market that is focused on the trends and development. Along with entire framework in addition to in-depth details, one can prepare and stay ahead of the competitors across the targeted locations. The fact that this market report renders details about the major market players along with their product development and current trends proves to be very beneficial for fresh entrants to comprehend and recognize the industry in an improved manner. The report also enlightens the productions, sales, supply, market condition, demand, growth, and forecast of the Diamond Wire industry in the global markets.Browse More Insight @Every regions market has been studied thoroughly in this report which deals with the precise information pertaining to the Marketing Channels and novel project investments so that the new entrants as well as the established market players conduct intricate research of trends and analysis in these regional markets. Acknowledging the status of the environment and products up gradation, the market report foretells each and every detail.So as to fabricate this report, complete key details, strategies and variables are examined so that entire useful information is amalgamated together for the understanding and studying the key facts pertaining the global Diamond Wire Industry. The production value and market share in conjunction with the SWOT analysis everything is integrated in this report.Some points from TOC:-1 Diamond Wire Market Overview 11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Diamond Wire 11.2 Diamond Wire Segment by Types (Product Category) 21.2.1 Global Diamond Wire Sales and Growth Rate Comparison by Types (2012-2022) 21.2.2 Global Diamond Wire Sales Market Share (%) by Types in 2016 21.2.3 Electroplated Diamond Wire 31.2.4 Resin Diamond Wire 31.3 Global Diamond Wire Segment by Applications 41.3.1 Global Diamond Wire Sales (K Km) Comparison by Applications (2012-2022) 41.3.2 Solar Silicon Cutting 41.3.3 LED Sapphire Cutting 51.3.4 Other 61.4 Global Diamond Wire Market by Regions 71.4.1 Global Diamond Wire Revenue (M USD) Comparison by Regions 2016 71.4.2 North America Diamond Wire Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 81.4.3 China Diamond Wire Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 91.4.4 Europe Diamond Wire Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 91.4.5 Japan Diamond Wire Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 101.4.6 Southeast Asia Diamond Wire Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 111.5 Global Diamond Wire Sales and Revenue (2012-2022) 121.5.1 Global Diamond Wire Sales (K Km) and Growth Rate (%) (2012-2022) 121.5.2 Global Diamond Wire Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022) 13Download PDF Report:About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on Global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:Email- sales@qyresearchgroups.comWebsite-
Mauritius Telecom Service Market 2017  By Analyzing the Performance of Various Competitors 2022

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SUMMARYWiseGuyReports published new report, titled Mauritius: Country Intelligence Report"Mauritius: Country Intelligence Report", a new Country Intelligence Report by provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Mauritius today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2022. Published annually, the report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony, broadband and mobile, as well as a review of key regulatory trends.Telecom service revenue in Mauritius will rise from an estimated $282.4m in 2017 to $316.7m by 2022 at a CAGR of 2.3%. Growth in the market will be primarily driven by growing demand for fixed broadband and mobile data services. Mobile voice will be the largest revenue-generating segment in 2017 with 40.4% of the total service revenue for the year. Mobile data will be the fastest-growing segment with revenue to increase at a CAGR of 9.8% over the 2017-2022 period. Growing smartphone subscriptions and rising adoption of relatively higher-value 3G/4G services will drive growth in mobile data revenue going forward.The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following - Demographic and macroeconomic context in Mauritius.- 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, tariff regulation and more.- Telecom services market outlook: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data markets.- The competitive landscape: an examination of the positioning of leading players in the telecom service market as well as subscription market shares across segments.- Company snapshots: analysis of the financial position of leading service providers in the telecommunications markets.- Underlying assumptions behind our published base-case forecasts, as well as potential market developments that would alter, either positively or negatively, our base-case outlook.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Scope- The overall telecom service revenue in Mauritius will grow at a CAGR of 2.3% during 2017-2022.- Mobile voice services, which will account for a majority 40.4% of total mobile revenue in 2017, will see its share fall to about 29.9% by 2022.- Orange Mauritius will account for 54.0% of total mobile subscriptions by the end of 2017. The operator will remain the largest player through the forecast period banking on its highly reliable 4G network.Key points to buy- This Country Intelligence Report offers a thorough, forward-looking analysis of Mauritiuss telecommunications markets, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format to help executives build proactive and profitable growth strategies.- Accompanying Forecast products, the report examines the assumptions and drivers behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Mauritiuss mobile communications, fixed telephony, and broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares.- With more than 20 charts and tables, the report is designed for an executive-level audience, boasting presentation quality.- The report provides an easily digestible market assessment for decision-makers built around in-depth information gathered from local market players, which enables executives to quickly get up to speed with the current and emerging trends in Mauritiuss telecommunications markets.- The broad perspective of the report coupled with comprehensive, actionable detail will help operators, equipment vendors and other telecom industry players succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Mauritius.Table of ContentsTable of contentsMarket highlightsDemographic, macroeconomic and regulatory contextDemographic and macroeconomic contextRegulatory contextTelecom services market outlookTotal telecom service revenueMobile services marketFixed services marketCompetitive landscape and company snapshots..CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially checkFor updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially checkWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Global Body Oil Market Research & Development 2017 - 2022

Body Oil Market

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A complete overview of the Body Oil MarketGlobal Body Oil Market report provides key statistics on the market status of the Body Oil Market and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the Body Oil Market.This report studies Body Oil in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions and forecast to 2022.Ask for Sample Copy of Body Oil Market Report @A competitive analysis of this global market has also been presented, wherein key market players have been thoroughly reviewed to determine the markets grading. The major players upgrading the global Body Oil market for the growth of consumers is mentioned in this study.Developed regions are anticipated to witness progress in the global Body Oil Market. This market reports also offers dynamic key features of the opportunities that can gear up the demand in the market.Body Oil Market Report focuses on top leading players:P&G, Avon, L'Occitane, Clarins, Unilever, Aveda, Neutrogena, Suki, Desert Essence, E.T.Browne DrugBody Oil Market Report On the basis of product:Natural, SynthesisBody Oil Market Report by Application:Exclusive Agency, Online Store, SupermarketThe examination research overall Body Oil grandstand covers key cash related view points, thing portfolios, association graph, SWOT examination, key headways and improvements, frameworks of key players drew in with the market. The information on the level associations is mined with the help of a strong research process took after at Reports Monitor Market Research which covers the entire demand and supply condition identifying with the assorted areas analyzed already.Table of ContentsGlobal Body Oil Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Body Oil2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Body Oil3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Body Oil4 Global Body Oil Overall Market Overview5 Body Oil Regional Market AnalysisContinuedBrowse Full Report of Body Oil with TOC @We at Reports Monitor provide an in-depth analysis and key data on the specific Body Oil Market you are looking for. Our Reports are thoroughly researched and a valuable source of guidance for companies and individuals looking for information for the same.About UsReports Monitor (ReportsMonitor.com) is a platform to meet the market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Contact UsJay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911Email: sales@reportsmonitor.comWebsite:
Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth and Forecast Report To 2022

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The Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Market Research Report 2017 renders deep perception of the key regional market status of the Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Industry on a global level that primarily aims the core regions which comprises of continents like Europe, North America, and Asia and the key countries such as United States, Germany, China and Japan.The report on Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Market is a professional report which provides thorough knowledge along with complete information pertaining to the Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte industry a propos classification, definitions, applications, industry chain summary, industry policies in addition to plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, etc.Get Sample Copy of this Report @The potential of this industry segment has been rigorously investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. The present market condition and future prospects of the segment has also been examined. Moreover, key strategies in the market that includes product developments, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, etc., are discussed. Besides, upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also conducted.Report Includes:-The report cloaks the market analysis and projection of Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Market on a regional as well as global level. The report constitutes qualitative and quantitative valuation by industry analysts, first-hand data, assistance from industry experts along with their most recent verbatim and each industry manufacturers via the market value chain. The research experts have additionally assessed the in general sales and revenue generation of this particular market. In addition, this report also delivers widespread analysis of root market trends, several governing elements and macro-economic indicators, coupled with market improvements as per every segment. Furthermore, the report contains diverse profiles of primary market players of Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Market.The report is generically segmented into six parts and every part aims on the overview of the Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte industry, present condition of the market, feasibleness of the investment along with several strategies and policies. Apart from the definition and classification, the report also discusses the analysis of import and export and describes a comparison of the market that is focused on the trends and development. Along with entire framework in addition to in-depth details, one can prepare and stay ahead of the competitors across the targeted locations. The fact that this market report renders details about the major market players along with their product development and current trends proves to be very beneficial for fresh entrants to comprehend and recognize the industry in an improved manner. The report also enlightens the productions, sales, supply, market condition, demand, growth, and forecast of the Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte industry in the global markets.Browse More Insight @Every regions market has been studied thoroughly in this report which deals with the precise information pertaining to the Marketing Channels and novel project investments so that the new entrants as well as the established market players conduct intricate research of trends and analysis in these regional markets. 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The production value and market share in conjunction with the SWOT analysis everything is integrated in this report.Some points from TOC:-1 Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Market Overview 11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte 11.2 Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Segment by Types (Product Category) 21.2.1 Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Production and Growth Rate (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022) 21.2.2 Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Production Market Share (%) by Types (Product Category) in 2016 31.2.3 Liquid Electrolyte 31.2.4 Solid Electrolyte 41.3 Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Segment by Applications 51.3.1 Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Consumption (Tons) Comparison by Applications (2012-2022) 51.3.2 Consumer Electronics 61.3.3 Electric Vehicle 71.3.4 Others 71.4 Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Market by Regions (2012-2022) 91.4.1 Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Market Size (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2012-2022) 91.4.2 North America Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 101.4.3 China Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 111.4.4 Europe Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 121.4.5 Japan Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 131.4.6 Korea Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Status and Prospect (2012-2022) 141.5 Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Market Size (2012-2022) 151.5.1 Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022) 151.5.2 Global Lithium ion Battery Electrolyte Capacity, Production (Tons) Status and Outlook (2012-2022) 16Download PDF Report:About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on Global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:Email- sales@qyresearchgroups.comWebsite-
Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market 2022 - Industry Survey, Market Size, Competitive Trends, Outlook and Forecasts

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The Global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market Research Report 2017 renders deep perception of the key regional market status of the Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Industry on a global level that primarily aims the core regions which comprises of continents like Europe, North America, and Asia and the key countries such as United States, Germany, China and Japan.The report on Global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market is a professional report which provides thorough knowledge along with complete information pertaining to the Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant industry a propos classification, definitions, applications, industry chain summary, industry policies in addition to plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, etc.Get Sample Copy of this Report @The potential of this industry segment has been rigorously investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. 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In addition, this report also delivers widespread analysis of root market trends, several governing elements and macro-economic indicators, coupled with market improvements as per every segment. Furthermore, the report contains diverse profiles of primary market players of Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market.The report is generically segmented into six parts and every part aims on the overview of the Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant industry, present condition of the market, feasibleness of the investment along with several strategies and policies. Apart from the definition and classification, the report also discusses the analysis of import and export and describes a comparison of the market that is focused on the trends and development. Along with entire framework in addition to in-depth details, one can prepare and stay ahead of the competitors across the targeted locations. 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Acknowledging the status of the environment and products up gradation, the market report foretells each and every detail.So as to fabricate this report, complete key details, strategies and variables are examined so that entire useful information is amalgamated together for the understanding and studying the key facts pertaining the global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Industry. The production value and market share in conjunction with the SWOT analysis everything is integrated in this report.Some points from TOC:-Global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market Research Report 20171 Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant1.2 Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Additive Type1.2.4 Reactive Type1.3 Global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Segment by Application1.3.1 Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Industrial1.3.3 Commercial1.4 Global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant 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)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Organo-Phosphorus Flame Retardant Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Download PDF Report:About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on Global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:Email- sales@qyresearchgroups.comWebsite-
Top scientists from the eastern part of country talked about the problems that bog down the scientific research in the country at the "Scientific Spirit: Lessons from the East" discussion at India Today Conclave East 2017 edition in Kolkata today.

By India Today Web Desk: Nobel Prize has not been a dream for Indians. It has been coming to the country with increasing frequency.

But, despite having emerged as the information technology powerhouse and a beeline of reputed IITs, India has failed to produce a scientist receiving the coveted prize for working on a project in India for decades.

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Top scientists from the eastern part of country talked about the problems that bog down the scientific research in the country at the "Scientific Spirit: Lessons from the East" discussion at India Today Conclave East 2017 edition in Kolkata today.

Renowned molecular parasitologist and vice-chancellor of the Presidency University Anuradha Lohia blamed it on less remunerative money that the Indian scientific research conditions offer today for the scientists from the country not being in race for the Nobel Prize.

She said, "It comes from society. None of the scientists are encouraged to become entrepreneurs, Scientists are not to be the poor people who can't think money," adding, "We don't have the breed of people who are not able to translate, say, what I am talking about microbiology into money."

She asserted that science research has to be made lucrative. Science teaching has to be made more remunerative, Lohia added. "Let's think money for science research," was Lohia's dominant refrain during the panel discussion.

Other panelists were renowned nuclear physicist from the northeast Jitendra Nath Goswami (former Director, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad), Director of Kolkata's Birla Planetarium DP Duari and Sukalyan Chattopadhyay, Senior Professor, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics.

WHAT IMPEDES INDIA'S SCIENCE RESEARCH?

DP Duari and Sukalyan Chattopadhyay highlighted the problem with science research at the grassroot level and attributed the part of problem to a kind of "anti-science movement" participated in by some people out of ignorance.

Duari said, if a person sitting in a high office of a head of an educational institution or in government says that India had invented missiles or rocket during the times of Mahabharata or Ramayana, such statements cause more damage to science than those who don't know the actual thing. Duari, however, said that things have started moving in right direction. He cited the launch of technology mission 2035 as an example.

He said, at the national level policy like technology mission, launched by PM Narendra Modi last year, is welcome move. He said, we are still finalising the framework of the technology mission to give it a shape so that we grow in a meaning and innovative way and the celebration of mediocrity in science will be done away with.

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Jitendra Nath Goswami refuted the notion that Indian are not working for innovative science and technology. He said, "If all the young Indian people working at Google or Facebook stop working for a day, these companies will stop working." They all agreed on the paucity of funds and lack of proper channelising of funds meant for research. Universities are not getting enough funds for research, they concurred.

WHEN AN INDIAN WILL WIN NOBEL IN SCIENCE?

Responding to a question about when an Indian can win Nobel Prize in science, Goswami said, "There should be one in next 10 years, I will expect in 5 years, though."

Duari was a bit more circumspect saying that one can win while working in Stanford and that would still be an India. But, working in India, it is right now difficult, he said, adding, in some fields like pharmaceuticals, India would soon be among top 3 to 5 countries.

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Answering the same question, Chattopadhyay said that a science Nobel by an Indian can happen one year's time but one has to build on an idea that can work. Microbiologist Lohia, also expressed hope that an Indian scientist working in India will soon get a Nobel Prize in science. "It will happen like a big bang when it happens, it will happen very soon," she said.

Here is the full coverage of India Today Conclave East 2017.

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WATCH | India Today Conclave East 2017: Science research has to be made lucrative, says Anuradha Lohia

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Gelcoats Market Share, Revenue, Price, Gross Margin Analysis and Industry Size is expected to grow at ~1,450 million by 2022

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Market HighlightsCommenting on this report, an analyst from Market Research Future (MRFR)s team said, Global Gelcoat Market Size is expected to grow at ~1,450 million by 2022. The market witnessed a significant growth owing to use of composite materials in various end user industries across different regions. Gelcoat material are formulated into mold surface coatings to provide protection from diverse conditions. It also provides aesthetic look along with properties as UV degradation, strong resistance from corrosion and water absorption. Gelcoat is available in brush and spray form to provide appropriate thickness so that the part substrate is not prone to damage in diverse conditions.The global gelcoat market is growing at rapid pace owing to high demand from end user industries. On basis of resins type, polyester holds a strong market owing to use in marine and transportation industry. Growing demand of polyester resin in marine, wind, construction and transportation owing to strong UV degradation compared to epoxy resin and vinyl ester resin has driven the demand for polyester resin in forecasted period. These is followed by epoxy resin and vinyl ester resin. Vinyl ester resins holds a considerable market share. North America and Europe witnessed strong growth in gelcoat market owing to vinyl ester resin used in marine and transportation industry. Epoxy resin is expected to grow moderately owing to use in wind and transportation industry..Request a Sample Copy @Key Players HK Research Corporation (U.S.), Ashland Inc. (U.S.), Bufa Composite Systems GmbH & Co. KG. (Germany), Interplastic Corporation (U.S.), Scott Bader Company Limited (U.K.), Polynt S.p.A (Europe), Reichhold LLC (U.S.), Synergys Technologies (France), Fibre Glass Development Corporation (U.S), Bang & Bonsomer Group Ab ( Europe) OthersRegional InsightsThe market is classified and analyzed on the basis of various geographic segmentation which includes; Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Out of all, North America holds a strong market position in global gelcoat market. U.S is largest producer of boats owing to growing marine and transportation industry.Europe is second largest region in gelcoat market. Europe being largest producer of automobile, consumes larger amount of gelcoat to increase the vehicles fuel efficiency. Asia-Pacific region represents moderate market share in the global gelcoat market. Rise in population drive construction and transportation industry which further drives the gelcoat market in emerging economies.The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to a SWOT analysis of key vendors.End-User Industry analysis:On basis of end user industry, gelcoat market is segmented into construction, wind, marine, transportation, others. Marine dominates the market share in gelcoat market. Gelcoats are highly used in marine applications such as decks, ship hulls, motor yachts and power boats. Growing usage of power boats especially for racing purpose and production of leisure boats has driven the market demand. More companies are looking out for fuel efficient vehicles with light weight composites. Thus, increasing the demand for light weight composites in transportation and leisure vehicles are driving the market demand of gelcoats in coming years. Emerging economies like China and India are focusing more on gelcoats owing to growing population leading to rise in gelcoats in transportation and construction industry.Enquire about this Report @Table of Content1 Executive Summary2 Scope of The Report2.1 Market Definition2.2 Scope of The Study2.2.1 Research Objectives2.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations2.3 Markets Structure3 Market Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Secondary Research3.3 Primary Research3.4 Forecast Model4 Market Landscape4.1 Five Forces Analysis4.1.1 Threat of New Entrants4.1.2 Bargaining power of buyers4.1.3 Threat of substitutes4.1.4 Segment rivalry4.2 Value Chain/Supply Chain of Global Gelcoat Market5 Industry Overview of Global Gelcoat MarketContinueList of TablesTable 1 World Population by Major Regions (2015 To 2030) (Million)Table 2 Global Gelcoat Market: By Region, 2014-2022 (USD Million)Table 3 North America Gelcoat Market: By Country, 2014-2022 (USD Million)Table 4 Europe Gelcoat Market: By Country, 2014-2022 (USD Million)Table 5 Asia-Pacific Gelcoat Market: By Country, 2014-2022 (USD Million)Continue..Browse Full Report Details @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Worldwide Vessel Traffic Management Services Market 2022 Overview, Services and Key Players(Lms Technologies, Transas, Leonardo, A.Marine (THAI) Co, Vissim AS, ARLO MARITIME AS, Israel Aerospace Industries, Indra and Saab AB)

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Global Vessel Traffic Management Services Market Size Status and Forecast 2022 newly adds in ReportsWeb.com database. This report covers leading key company profiles with information such as business overview, regional analysis, consumption, revenue and specification.This report studies the global Vessel Traffic Management Services (VTMS) market, analyzes and researches the Vessel Traffic Management Services (VTMS) development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, like Lms Technologies, Transas, Leonardo, A.Marine (THAI) Co, Vissim AS, ARLO MARITIME AS,Israel Aerospace Industries, Indra and Saab AB.Get FREE Sample Copy of this report atMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. Market segment by Type, Vessel Traffic Management Services (VTMS) can be split into Surveilled and Non Surveilled. Market segment by Application, Vessel Traffic Management Services (VTMS) can be split into Offshore Platforms, Ports and coastal Traffic, Coastguard search and rescue and Others.Access Report Details atTable of Content1 Industry Overview of Vessel Traffic Management Services2 Global Vessel Traffic Management Services Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Lms Technologies3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Vessel Traffic Management Services (VTMS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Transas3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Vessel Traffic Management Services (VTMS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Leonardo3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Vessel Traffic Management Services (VTMS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 A.Marine (THAI) Co3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Vessel Traffic Management Services (VTMS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments4 Global Vessel Traffic Management Services Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)5 United States Vessel Traffic Management Services Development Status and Outlook6 EU Vessel Traffic Management Services Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Vessel Traffic Management Services Development Status and Outlook8 China Vessel Traffic Management Services Development Status and Outlook9 India Vessel Traffic Management Services Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Vessel Traffic Management Services Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2017-2022)12 Vessel Traffic Management Services Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors AnalysisPurchase complete report atContact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.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.533, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Nov, 24 2017: Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market Forecast 2023 Illumina, Novartis, Becton, bioMerieux

Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing

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Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market Research 2017A market study "Global Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market" examines the performance of the Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market 2017 report includes Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing market Revenue, market Share, Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing industry volume, market Trends, Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market 2017 : F. Hoffmann-La Roche Becton Dickinson and Company Beckman Coulter Abbott Laboratories Illumina Siemens Healthineers bioMerieux Novartis Bio-Rad LaboratoriesNucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market : By Application Infectious Diseases Cancer Personalized Medicine Genetic and Mitochondrial DisordersNucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market : By Type Target Amplification Systems Probe Amplification Systems Signal AmplificationFirstly, the report covers the top Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing industry, Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing 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 Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing market revenue worldwide.Finally, Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing 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, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com
Global Ethernet Cables Market Research Report 2017 : Belden Inc, Anixter Inc, Nexans

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Ethernet Cables Market Research Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.This report on the global Ethernet Cables market, compiled by a group of professional market research analysts, aspires to serve as a credible business tool for the stockholders, representing the current scenario of the market as well as future prospects. The report has been produced using proven research methodologies and offers qualitative and quantitative analysis of all major factors that may influence the demand in the global Ethernet Cables market. To gauge the potential of smaller aspects of the Ethernet Cables market, the report has segmented it on the basis of application, end users, products, services, types, and others, whichever applicable. It also takes stock of the prospects of Ethernet Cables market in all important regions across the globe, such as North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). For each region, the report presents the potential of the Ethernet Cables market by assessing their demand percentage, growth prospects, and related government policies.To present a clear study of the revenue available in the global Ethernet Cables market, the report carefully segments it into smaller yet significant chunks, such geographically, product type, services and others. The report also provides the values of each of these segments and individual growth rates during the forecast period. The dominant as well as emerging trends have been picked out. With handful of tables, charts, and graphs, the report carries extensive pictorial representation to support its findings.Get Research Summary Of The Report:Global Ethernet Cables market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingBelden IncGeneral CableNexansAnixter IncSiemens AGHitachi CableSchneider ElectricRockwell AutomationOne of the noteworthy feature of the report is the chapter on company profiles, wherein a number of leading vendors have been analyzed in order to understand the competitive landscape existing in the global Ethernet Cables market, as well as detect the chances of entry for the new players. In this section, the report picks out the top three and top five companies in Ethernet Cables market, and analyzes their recent strategic decisions such as mergers and acquisitions, collaborations, new product announcements, and investment in research and development. For each company, the report provides information such as business sales price, margin, and market share.Table of Contents1 Ethernet Cables Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Ethernet Cables1.2 Ethernet Cables Segment by Type (Product Category)1.3 Global Ethernet Cables Segment by Application1.4 Global Ethernet Cables Market by Region (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Ethernet Cables (2012-2022)2 Global Ethernet Cables Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Ethernet Cables Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Ethernet Cables Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Ethernet Cables Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Ethernet Cables Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Ethernet Cables Market Competitive Situation and TrendsView TOC (table of content) of the Report:7 Global Ethernet Cables Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Belden Inc7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Ethernet Cables Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.3 Belden Inc Ethernet Cables Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 General Cable7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Ethernet Cables Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.3 General Cable Ethernet Cables Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business OverviewList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Ethernet CablesFigure Global Ethernet Cables Production (K Meters) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022)Figure Global Ethernet Cables Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2016Figure Global Ethernet Cables Consumption (K Meters) by Applications (2012-2022)Figure Global Ethernet Cables Consumption Market Share by Applications in 2016Figure Global Ethernet Cables Market Size (Million USD), Comparison (K Meters) and CAGR (%) by Regions (2012-2022)Figure Global Ethernet Cables Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Ethernet Cables Capacity, Production (K Meters) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. 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Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Market Research Report 2017 : Accor, Allergan

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Market Research Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The global market for Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products is discussed in detail within a new research study added recently to QYResearchReports.com. The report has been carefully examined both qualitatively and quantitatively and the results are revealed in the research report for the forecast period of 2017 to 2022. In addition to this, the various drivers and restraints, regulatory conditions, and the segmentation of this global market have also been included in the study. All data is supported by primary and secondary research methodologies. Expert analysts from the industry have also expressed their opinions on the industrial and economic scenario, creating the report as an authentic guide to the global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products market.The research report makes use of various market-tested analytical tools such as market attractiveness readings, SWOT analysis, and Porters Five Forces analysis in order to provide readers a qualitative as well as quantitative overview of the Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products market. The information garnered from these research procedures is further investigated by seasoned industry analysts, who have made their contributions in the form of invaluable market insights on the workings of the global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products market.Enter your information below to receive a free sample copy of this report @This report studies Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringAccorAllerganStarwoodReynolds AmericanProcter & Gamble3MColgate-PalmoliveDuPont Medical ChemicalDaley InternationalThe biggest and the highly influential regions in the global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products market are determined and assessed in detail within the research report. The economic factors influencing the global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products market are stated, along with a 360-degree overview of the current conditions that are influencing the direction and expansion rate of the market and the key operations in its various regional segments. Top market trends are analyzed to offer clients appropriate guidance in compiling their own market strategies for their and the global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products markets growth trajectory. The report thus provides existing and established companies as well as new entrants all the relevant data they need to create business opportunities in lucrative and thriving economies. The report helps companies of any size and caliber establish a stronger foothold in the global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products market.Table of Contents1 Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products1.2 Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Segment by Type1.3 Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Segment by Application1.4 Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Market by Region1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products (2012-2022)2 Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Market Competitive Situation and TrendsRead Complete Table of Content @7 Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Accor7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Its Competitors7.1.2 Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Product Type, Application and Specification7.1.3 Accor Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Allergan7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Its Competitors7.2.2 Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Product Type, Application and Specification7.2.3 Allergan Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)7.2.4 Main Business/Business OverviewList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Antiseptic and Disinfectant ProductsFigure Global Production Market Share of Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products by Type in 2015Table Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Consumption Market Share by Application in 2015Figure Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Revenue (Million UDS) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Table Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Production of Key Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)Table Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Production Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)Table Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Revenue (Million USD) by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)Table Global Antiseptic and Disinfectant Products Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Nov, 24 2017: Non Clinical Information System Market Forecast 2023 Athenahealth, Allscripts, eClinicalWorks

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Non Clinical Information System Market Research 2017A market study "Global Non Clinical Information System Market" examines the performance of the Non Clinical Information System market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Non Clinical Information System market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Non Clinical Information System market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Non Clinical Information System Market 2017 report includes Non Clinical Information System market Revenue, market Share, Non Clinical Information System industry volume, market Trends, Non Clinical Information System Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Non Clinical Information System Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Non Clinical Information System Market 2017 : Quest Diagnostics CareCloud Corporation McKesson Corporation Kareo, Cerner Corporation Athenahealth eClinicalWorks General Electric Company SSI Group, Inc. AllscriptsNon Clinical Information System Market : By Application Hospitals Clinics Laboratories Ambulatory Care SolutionsNon Clinical Information System Market : By Type Web-based Cloud-based On-premiseFirstly, the report covers the top Non Clinical Information System manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Non Clinical Information System report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Non Clinical Information System industry, Non Clinical Information System industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Non Clinical Information System Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Non Clinical Information System 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 Non Clinical Information System market revenue worldwide.Finally, Non Clinical Information System 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, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com
Animation Global Market 2017: Key Players  3D Imaging, 3 Bear Animations, 3dmx, 2dlab, 422 South

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Animation IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Animation -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecast To 2022 To Its Research DatabaseAccording to Stratistics MRC, the Global Animation market is expected to grow from $XX million in 2016 to reach $XX million by 2023 with a CAGR of XX%. The demand for animation industry is growing rapidly due to the increasing number of multinational studios, cable channel companies and TV broadcast companies. Factors such as favorable government regulations, multi-industrial applications, improvements in animation technologies and enhanced broadcasting hours from cable operators are propelling the market growth. Outsourced computer animation production market is progressively being utilized by European and North America film and television program producers.Convergence of technical and animation industry has yielded significant advances across various industry verticals. Co-production has increased the demand for studios in China as it gives flexibility and brings new creativity to small studios compared to other regions.Some of the key players in global Animation market include 3D Imaging, 3 Bear Animations, 3dmx, 2dlab, 422 South, 10 + 1 Medias, 3da2 Animation Studios, 20th Century Fox Animation, 2 Minutes Studio, 3 Eye Group, 3DVision, 44 Toons, 3-D Revolution Productions, 3d Canvas and 3Dimension.Applications Covered: Motion Capture Stop Motion 3D Animation MoviesRequest for Sample Report @Types Covered: Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) Web Animation 2D Animation Corporate Services Visual EffectsRegions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo UKo Italyo Franceo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando South Koreao Rest of Asia Pacific South Americao Argentinao Brazilo Chileo Rest of South America Middle East & Africao Saudi Arabiao UAEo Qataro South Africao Rest of Middle East & AfricaWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsLeave a Query @Table of ContentExecutive Summary2 Preface2.1 Abstract2.2 Stake Holders2.3 Research Scope2.4 Research Methodology2.4.1 Data Mining2.4.2 Data Analysis2.4.3 Data Validation2.4.4 Research Approach2.5 Research Sources2.5.1 Primary Research Sources2.5.2 Secondary Research Sources2.5.3 Assumptions....8 Key Developments8.1 Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures8.2 Acquisitions & Mergers8.3 New Product Launch8.4 Expansions8.5 Other Key Strategies9 Company Profiling9.1 3D Imaging9.2 3 Bear Animations9.3 3dmx9.4 2dlab9.5 422 South9.6 10 + 1 Medias9.7 3da2 Animation Studios9.8 20th Century Fox Animation9.9 2 Minutes Studio9.10 3 Eye Group9.11 3DVision9.12 44 Toons9.13 3-D Revolution Productions9.14 3d Canvas9.15 3DimensionBuy Now @Continued...Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (Us) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune  411028Maharashtra, GlobalPh: +91 841 198 5042
Global Audio Endpoints for Conferencing Market Professional Report 2017 : PHILIPS, Sony

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Audio Endpoints for Conferencing Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.This report on the global Audio Endpoints for Conferencing market is a business tool aspiring to aid its targeted audiences, stockholders of this market, by providing information for better decision making. Developed by a group of professional and experienced research analysts, the report has followed all proven research methodologies to come up with evaluations and forecasts of the global Audio Endpoints for Conferencing market.The report starts off with an elaborated overview of the current scenario of the global Audio Endpoints for Conferencing market, providing evaluations of how it has flourished in the recent past. Then, it dives into exploring important market dynamics such as trends, drivers, restraints, and opportunities on which the demand for Audio Endpoints for Conferencing will depend in the near future. Following that, the report breaks the market into smaller segments in order to represent the profitability of every aspect.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringFrost & SullivanPHILIPSSonyVideonationsCiscoPolycomADDCOMYealinkFill the form for an exclusive free sample of this report @The analysts of the report have also realized the importance of not every buyer may be foraying in every region or country, and hence have divided the market into various important parts such as such as North America including the U.S. and Canada, Europe including Germany, France, Russia, the U.K., and Italy, Asia Pacific (APAC) including India, China, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. For each of these areas, the report gauges the potential of every segment and provides forecasts depending on buying ability of the consumers, government regulations, adoptability of new technology, and population.The report has given strong importance to the competitive landscape of the global Audio Endpoints for Conferencing market. In this section, a number of leading companies have been profiled for the product portfolio, geographical presence, and recent strategic decisions that will help them gain shares in the near future.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing1.1 Definition and Specifications of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing1.1.1 Definition of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing1.1.2 Specifications of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing1.2 Classification of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing1.3 Applications of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Audio Endpoints for ConferencingAccess the Report and full TOC @8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing8.1 Frost & Sullivan8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.3 Frost & Sullivan 2016 Audio Endpoints for Conferencing Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Frost & Sullivan 2016 Audio Endpoints for Conferencing Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 PHILIPS8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.3 PHILIPS 2016 Audio Endpoints for Conferencing Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 PHILIPS 2016 Audio Endpoints for Conferencing Business Region Distribution AnalysisList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Audio Endpoints for ConferencingTable Product Specifications of Audio Endpoints for ConferencingTable Classification of Audio Endpoints for ConferencingFigure Global Production Market Share of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing by Type in 2016Figure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Audio Endpoints for Conferencing by Application in 2016Table Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Audio Endpoints for Conferencing Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Audio Endpoints for Conferencing Major Manufacturers in 2016Table R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Audio Endpoints for Conferencing Major Manufacturers in 2016About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Nov, 24 2017: Oxygen Measuring Instrument Market Forecast 2023 Covidien, Boston Scientific, Johnson & Johnson

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Oxygen Measuring Instrument Market Research 2017A market study "Global Oxygen Measuring Instrument Market" examines the performance of the Oxygen Measuring Instrument market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Oxygen Measuring Instrument market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Oxygen Measuring Instrument market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Oxygen Measuring Instrument Market 2017 report includes Oxygen Measuring Instrument market Revenue, market Share, Oxygen Measuring Instrument industry volume, market Trends, Oxygen Measuring Instrument Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Oxygen Measuring Instrument Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Oxygen Measuring Instrument Market 2017 : Johnson & Johnson Medtronic Boston Scientific Covidien Edwards LifesciencesFirstly, the report covers the top Oxygen Measuring Instrument manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Oxygen Measuring Instrument report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Oxygen Measuring Instrument industry, Oxygen Measuring Instrument industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Oxygen Measuring Instrument Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Oxygen Measuring Instrument 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 Oxygen Measuring Instrument market revenue worldwide.Finally, Oxygen Measuring Instrument 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, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com
Global Instaprint Camera Market Professional Survey Report 2017 : Canon, PICKIT, RICOH

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Instaprint Camera Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.This report on the global Instaprint Camera market has been developed by a selected group of professional market research analysts, with a solitary goal to present the current scenario of the market for Instaprint Camera and throw light on its growth prospects. The report targets audiences such as manufacturers of Instaprint Camera, government agencies, and other research consultancy services. The report presents comprehensive assessment of the major factors that may impact the demand in the global Instaprint Camera market, analyzes the challenges or pitfalls, and catches the latest trends, which the existing vendors must take a note of in order to stay ahead of the competition.To present a clear study of the revenue available in the global Instaprint Camera market, the report carefully segments it into smaller yet significant chunks, such geographically, product type, services and others. The report also provides the values of each of these segments and individual growth rates during the forecast period. The dominant as well as emerging trends have been picked out. With handful of tables, charts, and graphs, the report carries extensive pictorial representation to support its findings.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringPolaroid CorporationCanonPICKITRICOHFujifilm Holdings CorporationLomographische AGLGSamsungLotteGet Complimentary Research Summary Of The Report:This report on the global Instaprint Camera market provides estimations regarding the market size in terms of value (USD million). It includes both top-down and bottom-up views in order to estimate and validate the size of the Instaprint Camera market and of several other related submarkets in the overall global market. The opportunities open in the market for Instaprint Camera by manufacturing countries type and application, and presents forecast for the duration of 2017-2022 has also been discussed extensively in this research report.As this report targets the stockholders of the global Instaprint Camera market, some of the leading companies currently in this market are profiled in order to represent their market share, product portfolio, and recent strategic decisions. Leading players in the global Instaprint Camera market have been detected via secondary research, and their dominance in respective regions have been evaluated through rigorous primary as well as secondary research.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Instaprint Camera1.1 Definition and Specifications of Instaprint Camera1.1.1 Definition of Instaprint Camera1.1.2 Specifications of Instaprint Camera1.2 Classification of Instaprint Camera1.3 Applications of Instaprint Camera1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Instaprint Camera2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Instaprint Camera2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Instaprint Camera2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Instaprint CameraObtain Table of Content @8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Instaprint Camera8.1 Polaroid Corporation8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.3 Polaroid Corporation 2016 Instaprint Camera Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Polaroid Corporation 2016 Instaprint Camera Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Canon8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.3 Canon 2016 Instaprint Camera Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Canon 2016 Instaprint Camera Business Region Distribution AnalysisList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Instaprint CameraTable Product Specifications of Instaprint CameraTable Classification of Instaprint CameraFigure Global Production Market Share of Instaprint Camera by Type in 2016Figure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Instaprint Camera by Application in 2016Table Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Instaprint Camera Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Instaprint Camera Major Manufacturers in 2016Table R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Instaprint Camera Major Manufacturers in 2016About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
By India Today Web Desk: The final session of Day 1 of India Today Conclave East 2017 was all about The Power of Music: Language Beyond Boundaries. Award-winning concert pianist and founder of the Shillong Chamber Choir (SCC), Padma Shri Neil Nongkynrih, was the honoured speaker for the session, with celebrated Indian television producer-director, Siddhartha Basu, chairing it.

Talking about the initial stages of success of the choir, Neil told Basu, "We broke through television, which we didn't think of. Bollywood made me write stuff I didn't know of. It gave me bread and butter. India's Got Talent, 2010 made it happen. We had to blend East and West.

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On being asked about what inspired his breakthrough, Neil added, "My journey has been organic, I had done some Bollywood music. I was only in classical. Bollywood made me realise that we have to go with the flow."

Talking about his tryst with Bollywood music, he recalled, "We come from a region where they don't watch Bollywood films. I grew up on basically three songs: Ye Dosti, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Ajeeb Dastan. As the years progressed, I realised my interest, I could mix jazz and Ajeeb Dastan, which Lata didi once hummed in my ear."

Neil also shed light on his reception after winning the television reality show, and said, "I didn't want to do cover versions, it would make me feel like I had lost my soul. I wanted to be a part of it myself. They suddenly loved it. Shillong became the Bollywood capital of North-East. No PM or President has ever had the same reception like me in the choir. The region of North-East needed a morale boost. I made music from my heart. I do things with simplicity, the results are beyond my expectation. There were lakhs of people. It took us three hours to get through the queue, and there was just peace. I wish the world was like that."

Talking about his childhood and the start of his musical journey, he said, "I grew up in Shillong, and like any other family, my father wanted me to be a doctor. When I told him that I wanted to be a musician, he flipped. I went to St. Columbus in Delhi. It's funny how people welcomed me because they thought I was Rahul Gandhi. Once I told them the truth, they disappeared. I went to England after Class 10 to learn music. I was supposed to come back, because we didn't have money. I told my mother to sell the house, because I was so confident, but she didn't. Miraculously, a very kind lady decided to be my fairy Godmother, and benefactors."

Neil explained how things unfolded for him, and how the choir was formed, "People think I am very noble to come back to the East, but I only came back because I needed a break. I had back issues, and wanted to recover, but then I realised I wanted to stay back, and it looked like career-suicide. I started the choir casually, not with the intention of making it professional or winning a television reality show."

Talking about the Shillong Chamber Choir, he said, "I think one has to set priorities right, my main priority was character, it was humility and unity. Music wasn't a priority. We stick together. A lot of people tell me that they want to sing with me, but that's only 10 percent. If you want to give all of it then you're welcome. Like Nicole Kidman once said, "It's 99 percent hard work, but 1 per cent glamour.""

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The musician shared one of his favourite memories from a concert, and said, "People expect me to talk about shows in London, but my favourite has been Patna. It was touching to see rickshaw-wallahs be stunned listening to a German song composed by Mozart."

Talking about his future plans, he said, "At first I thought I'll end it with choir. But on the insistence of a close friend, I've started an informal school where we teach kids everything, from drama to music. I'd love food, and I'd love to have something, like a farm-to-table thing. I don't know about a film, I have a script. Let's see what happens.

"I am not going to play Simi Garewal, because I don't have a white suit", he chuckled, on being insisted to mimic popular talk show host Simi Garewal.

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And the first day of India Today Conclave East 2017 was closed, with the enthralling melodies presented by the Shillong Chamber Choir, including Freddie Mercury's Barcelona, Yeh Dosti, Tagore's Ekla Cholo Re, and finally Vande Mataram.

WATCH | India Today Conclave East 2017: Neil Nongkynrih talks about the power of music

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Nov, 24 2017: Oxygen-Free Copper Market Forecast 2023 Luvata, Watteredge, Cupori Oy, Citizen Metalloys

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Oxygen-Free Copper Market Research 2017A market study "Global Oxygen-Free Copper Market" examines the performance of the Oxygen-Free Copper market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Oxygen-Free Copper market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Oxygen-Free Copper market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Oxygen-Free Copper Market 2017 report includes Oxygen-Free Copper market Revenue, market Share, Oxygen-Free Copper industry volume, market Trends, Oxygen-Free Copper Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Oxygen-Free Copper Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Oxygen-Free Copper Market 2017 : KGHM Polska Miedz SA Sh Copper Products Co., Ltd. Mitsubishi Materials Corporation Luvata National Bronze & Metals, Inc. SAM Dong America Citizen Metalloys Limited Freeport-Mcmoran Inc. Metrod Holdings Berhad Zhejiang Libo Holding Group Co., Ltd. Pan Pacific Copper Co., Ltd. Watteredge LLC KME Germany GmbH & Co Kg Wieland-Werke AG Cupori OyOxygen-Free Copper Market : By Application Electronics & Electrical TransportationOxygen-Free Copper Market : By Type Oxygen-Free Electronic (Cu-OFE) Oxygen-Free (Cu-OF)Firstly, the report covers the top Oxygen-Free Copper manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Oxygen-Free Copper report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Oxygen-Free Copper industry, Oxygen-Free Copper industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Oxygen-Free Copper Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Oxygen-Free Copper 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 Oxygen-Free Copper market revenue worldwide.Finally, Oxygen-Free Copper 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, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com
Nov 24, 2017: Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors Market Forecast 2023 Vishay, Murata

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Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors Market Research 2017A market study  Global Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors Market  examines the performance of the Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors Market 2017 report includes Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors market Revenue, market Share, Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors industry volume, market Trends, Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors Market 2017 : Vishay Murata US Sensor AVX Honeywell Amphenol EPCOS/TDK KOA Speer AMWEI Thermistor Sensor Nichicon NXP TE Connectivity Abracon Walsin Qti Sensing SolutionsFirstly, the report covers the top Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors industry, Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors 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 Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors market revenue worldwide.Finally, Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors 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, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com
Electric Vehicle Transmissions Global Market 2017: Key Players Jatco, GKN, ZF, Antonov

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In this report, the global Electric Vehicle Transmissions market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Electric Vehicle Transmissions for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGET SAMPLE REPORT @Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Electric Vehicle Transmissions sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingAisin SeikiBorgWarnerGETRAG CorporateJatcoGKNZFAntonovFordChryslerGeneral MotorsMitsubishiRenault S.A.VolkswagenHondaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoSingle-Gear TransmissionMulti-Gear TransmissionOn 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 for each application, includingPassenger VehiclesLight Commercial VehiclesTable of Content: Key PointsGlobal Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales Market Report 20171 Electric Vehicle Transmissions Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Electric Vehicle Transmissions1.2 Classification of Electric Vehicle Transmissions by Product Category1.2.1 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Single-Gear Transmission1.2.4 Multi-Gear Transmission1.3 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Passenger Vehicles1.3.3 Light Commercial Vehicles1.4 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Market by Region1.4.1 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Electric Vehicle Transmissions Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Electric Vehicle Transmissions Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Electric Vehicle Transmissions Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Electric Vehicle Transmissions Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Electric Vehicle Transmissions Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Electric Vehicle Transmissions Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Electric Vehicle Transmissions (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions (Volume) by Application9 Global Electric Vehicle Transmissions Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data9.1 Aisin Seiki9.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.1.2 Electric Vehicle Transmissions Product Category, Application and Specification9.1.2.1 Product A9.1.2.2 Product B9.1.3 Aisin Seiki Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.2 BorgWarner9.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.2.2 Electric Vehicle Transmissions Product Category, Application and Specification9.2.2.1 Product A9.2.2.2 Product B9.2.3 BorgWarner Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.3 GETRAG Corporate9.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.3.2 Electric Vehicle Transmissions Product Category, Application and Specification9.3.2.1 Product A9.3.2.2 Product B9.3.3 GETRAG Corporate Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.4 Jatco9.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.4.2 Electric Vehicle Transmissions Product Category, Application and Specification9.4.2.1 Product A9.4.2.2 Product B9.4.3 Jatco Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.5 GKN9.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.5.2 Electric Vehicle Transmissions Product Category, Application and Specification9.5.2.1 Product A9.5.2.2 Product B9.5.3 GKN Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.6 ZF9.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.6.2 Electric Vehicle Transmissions Product Category, Application and Specification9.6.2.1 Product A9.6.2.2 Product B9.6.3 ZF Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.7 Antonov9.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.7.2 Electric Vehicle Transmissions Product Category, Application and Specification9.7.2.1 Product A9.7.2.2 Product B9.7.3 Antonov Electric Vehicle Transmissions Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.8 FordContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Nov 24, 2017: Potentiometers Market Forecast 2023 ABB, Siemens, ALPS

Potentiometers Market

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Potentiometers Market Research 2017A market study  Global Potentiometers Market  examines the performance of the Potentiometers market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Potentiometers market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Potentiometers market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Potentiometers Market 2017 report includes Potentiometers market Revenue, market Share, Potentiometers industry volume, market Trends, Potentiometers Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Potentiometers Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Potentiometers Market 2017 : ABB Siemens ALPS TOCOS NOBLE BOURNS Panasonic BAOSHI COPAL BItechnologies CONTELECFirstly, the report covers the top Potentiometers manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Potentiometers report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Potentiometers industry, Potentiometers industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Potentiometers Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Potentiometers 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 Potentiometers market revenue worldwide.Finally, Potentiometers 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, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com
Nov 24, 2017: Powder-actuated Tool Market Forecast 2023 Robert Bosch GmbH, Hilti Corporation

Powder-actuated Tool Market

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Powder-actuated Tool Market Research 2017A market study  Global Powder-actuated Tool Market  examines the performance of the Powder-actuated Tool market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Powder-actuated Tool market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Powder-actuated Tool market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Powder-actuated Tool Market 2017 report includes Powder-actuated Tool market Revenue, market Share, Powder-actuated Tool industry volume, market Trends, Powder-actuated Tool Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Powder-actuated Tool Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Powder-actuated Tool Market 2017 : Robert Bosch GmbH Hilti Corporation Stanley Black&Decker Makita Corporation Actuant Corporation Techtronic Industries Danaher CorporationFirstly, the report covers the top Powder-actuated Tool manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Powder-actuated Tool report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Powder-actuated Tool industry, Powder-actuated Tool industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Powder-actuated Tool Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Powder-actuated Tool 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 Powder-actuated Tool market revenue worldwide.Finally, Powder-actuated Tool 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, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com
Nov 23, 2017: Power Chokes Market Forecast 2023 API Technologies, Vishay, Panasonic

Power Chokes Market

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Power Chokes Market Research 2017A market study  Global Power Chokes Market  examines the performance of the Power Chokes market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Power Chokes market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Power Chokes market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Power Chokes Market 2017 report includes Power Chokes market Revenue, market Share, Power Chokes industry volume, market Trends, Power Chokes Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Power Chokes Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Power Chokes Market 2017 : API Technologies Vishay Panasonic Schurter TDK TE Connectivity NXP Bourns LCR Electronics Hammond Eaton Murata Phoenix Contract RECOM Datatronic Qorvo Abracon TRACO Power Wurth Electronics Triad Magnetics Pulse Taiyo Yuden EPCOS ICE Components HALO Electronics Laird TechnologiesFirstly, the report covers the top Power Chokes manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Power Chokes report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Power Chokes industry, Power Chokes industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Power Chokes Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Power Chokes 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 Power Chokes market revenue worldwide.Finally, Power Chokes 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, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com
Surge Protection Devices Market Will Rise At CAGR 7.8% By 2027

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Surge Protection Devices Market: North America Regional Market to Increase 2.1X During the Forecast Period: Global Industry Analysis (2012 - 2016) & Opportunity Assessment (2017 - 2027).Future Market Insights offers a 10-year forecast for the surge protection devices market between 2017 and 2027. This study demonstrates the market dynamics and trends globally across regions North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan and Middle East and Africa which influence the current nature and future status of the surge protection devices market over the forecast period.Click here For Free Sample Report @Report DescriptionThis research report provides a detailed analysis of the surge protection devices market and offers insights on the various factors such as driving factors and challenges to the market in the near future with recommendations for device manufacturers aimed at increasing the demand for surge protection devices in the market. The market study provides comprehensive assessment of key stakeholder strategies and imperatives for succeeding in the business. The report segregates the market based on type and end-user across different regions globally. The report starts with an overview of the global surge protection devices market in terms of value. In addition, this section includes analysis of key trends, drivers and restraints influencing the surge protection devices market. Impact analysis of key growth drivers and restraints are included in this report to facilitate clients with crystal clear decision-making insights.The global surge protection devices market is categorized on the basis of type, end-user and region. A detailed analysis has been provided for every segment in terms of market size analysis for surge protection devices across the different regions. The next section presents a detailed analysis of the surge protection devices market across various countries in the region. It provides a market outlook for 20172027 and sets the forecast within the context of the surge protection devices market including latest technological developments as well as service offerings in the market. This study discusses key trends within countries contributing to the growth of the market, as well as analyses the degree at which drivers are influencing this market in each region.This report evaluates the present scenario and the growth prospects of the surge protection devices market across various regions globally for the period 2017 2027. We have considered 2016 as the base year and provide data for the trailing 12 months. The forecast presented here assesses the total revenue by value across the market. In order to offer an accurate forecast, we have started by sizing the current market, which forms the basis of how the surge protection devices market will develop in the future. Given the characteristics of the market, we have triangulated the outcome of different services and component and analyses, based on the technology trends. In addition, it is imperative to note that in an ever-fluctuating global economy, we not only conduct forecasts in terms of CAGR, but also analyse the market on the basis of key parameters such as year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth to understand the predictability of the market and to identify the right opportunities across the market.Browse Full Report With TOC @In the final section of the report, we include a competitive landscape to provide clients with a dashboard view based on categories of providers in the value chain, presence in the surge protection devices market and key differentiators. This section is primarily designed to provide clients with an objective and detailed comparative assessment of key providers specific to a market segment in the surge protection devices value chain and the potential players for the same. Report audiences can gain segment-specific vendor insights to identify and evaluate key competitors based on in-depth assessment of capabilities and success in the marketplace. Detailed profiles of providers are also included in the scope of the report to evaluate their long-term and short-term strategies, key offerings and recent developments in the surge protection devices market.Key Segments CoveredBy TypeType 1Type 2Type 3By End-UserIndustrialCommercialResidentialKey Regions CoveredNorth AmericaS.CanadaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaWestern EuropeGermanyUKFranceItalySpainRest of Western EuropeEastern EuropeRussiaPolandAsia Pacific excluding JapanChinaIndiaASEANA&NZRest of Asia PacificJapanMiddle East & AfricaNorth AfricaSouth AfricaGCCTurkeyRest of Middle East & AfricaMake An Enquiry @About UsMarket Research Reports Search Engine(MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.ContactState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United StatesTelephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite :Read More Industry News At:
North America Europe Farm Tractor Market: Advanced Technologies & Growth Opportunities in Global Industry

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The top three players in the North America and Europe farm tractor market  Deere and Company, CNH (Case New Holland) Industrial, and AGCO Corporation  accounted for a share of just under 70.0% in 2015, hinting at the rather consolidated nature of the competitive landscape. Among these, Deere and Company alone held a share of over 35% that year, emerging as the clear leader. Transparency Market Research finds that the degree of rivalry among players in the North America and Europe farm tractor market is quite high owing to the strong presence of large and established companies.Enhancing product portfolio, investing in innovations, and forming strategic alliances are some of the key growth tactics employed by players in this market. In September 2016, market leader John Deere launched a new 450 HP tractor that is specially designed to achieve reduction in fuel consumption. This has enabled the company to reinforce its strategic plan of focusing on innovation.Obtain Report Details @By revenue, the North America and Europe farm tractors market is projected to expand from US$13.6 bn in 2015 to US$17.23 bn by 2024, with North America registering a 3.0% CAGR and Europe exhibiting a 5.4% CAGR therein. By volume, the farm tractors market in North America and Europe is projected to witness a 5.1% CAGR during the forecast period.The North America farm tractor market was pegged at around 245 thousand units in 2015. Despite a declining sales volume across the higher horsepower segment, the market exhibited marginal volume growth from the previous year owing to the rise in demand for tractors below 40 HP. While the sales of farm tractors will continue a positive trend in the U.S., the sales in Canada have been witnessing a downward trend owing to a weak dollar and higher prices of the tractors.Obtain Brochure Of Report @In 2015, the Europe farm tractor market volume was pegged at around 153 thousand units. The market has been recording a decline in year-on-year growth in terms of volume over the last two years owing to a low demand from several European countries, including Germany, France, Turkey, the U.K., and Italy. However, the trend is likely to change in 2017, TMR predicts. Tractor manufacturers are poised to lower the prices across different horsepower segments so as to attract more sales and recover from the sluggish demand, the lead analyst states.There has been a growing trend of farm mechanization across North America and Europe owing to the numerous benefits offered, including considerable savings in terms of time and resources, improved efficiency, and increased production. In addition to this, precision farming has driven the need for mechanization among various farm practices, thereby fueling the demand for farm tractors. The shortage of farm laborers in these regions has also propelled the use of mechanized farming techniques and equipment such as farm tractors.Get Sample Of Report @Another significant factor that has boosted the adoption of farm tractors across Europe and North America is the growing demand for agricultural products, brought on by the rising population. In view of this, governments in these regions have focused their attention on encouraging the usage of mechanized farming techniques by offering subsidies and easy access to credit to farmers, the author of the study notes.What poses a challenge to the North America and Europe farm tractors market is the implementation of strict emission norms in most developed countries. Regulatory bodies such as the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) have imposed stringent regulations pertaining to the use of diesel engines, particularly in off-road vehicles. Tractor manufacturers are, therefore, forced to incur additional costs to adhere to these norms, thereby restricting the uptake of farm tractors.This review is based on the findings of a TMR report titled Farm Tractor Market - North America and Europe Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024.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:
Dissolved Gas Analyzer Market: An Array of Graphics and Analysis of Major Industry Segments

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According to a recent report released by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global dissolved gas analyzer market, which stood at US$277.0 mn in 2013, is anticipated to reach US$538.3 mn in 2020, exhibiting a promising CAGR of 11.70% between 2014 and 2020. The report is titled Dissolved Gas Analyzer Market - Global Industry Analysis Size Share Growth Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020 and is available on the company website for sale.Browse the full Dissolved Gas Analyzer Market - Global Industry Analysis Size Share Growth Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020 report atPower transformers and oilfield equipment often generate dissolved gases with complex chemical components and significant amounts of hydrocarbons. These gases are generated during power transformer operations and they get dissolved in the mineral oils used by the transformers. To identify the level of gas generated by these equipment, dissolved gas analyzers are used. Dissolved gas analysis helps diagnose the presence of these gases, thereby revealing the probability and nature of faults in power transformers.The demand for dissolved gas analysis has increased over the years as a part of the monitoring process of power transformers. This rise in demand is fuelled by several factors such as growing awareness regarding the fault probability of high voltage transformers and the high cost of replacing depreciating transformers. Using dissolved gas analyzers enables companies to detect faults in the power transformers deployed at an early stage. Such early diagnosis allows companies to deploy maintenance programs to repair and prevent faults and extend the longevity of power transformers.Obtain Brochure Of Report @Policies adopted by governments around the world also play a critical role in determining the future of the global dissolved gas analyzer market. For instance, with stringent safety and efficiency regulations being imposed, the majority of power transformer users are left with no option but to adopt dissolved gas analysis.Furthermore, in emerging economies such as India, China, and Indonesia, governments are increasingly investing in infrastructure projects to extend the power capacity of transformers to meet the mounting electricity needs. Hence, emerging economies are likely to deploy dissolved gas analyzers in their power transformers to ensure early diagnosis of their faults and ensure better safety.Get Sample Of Report @In terms of analysis type, the global dissolved gas analyzer market is segmented in smoke alarms, DGA (dissolved gas analysis) monitoring, database software, comprehensive DGA monitoring, portable DGA, and laboratory services. Of these, the laboratory services segment held the largest share in the market in 2013, accounting for 39.2%. The regional segments of the global dissolved gas analyzer market include Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Rest of the World.To present a holistic overview of the global market for dissolved gas analyzers, the report also studies its competitive landscape. For the purpose of the study, the report profiles the leading market players, including Morgan Schaffer Corporation (Canada), LumaSense Technologies (U.S.), Gatron GmbH (Germany), Weidmann (U.S.), OELCHECK GmbH (Germany), General Electric (U.S.), EMH (Germany), ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), SD Myers, Inc. (U.S.), Doble Engineering (U.S.), Qualitrol LLC (U.S.), and Sieyuan Electric Co., Ltd. (China).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:
Smart Lighting Market: Influential Factors Determining the Trajectory of the Market

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The global smart lighting market is fueled by the development of sensor and wireless technology, growing demand for energy-efficient lighting systems, and the replacement of incandescent lamps with LEDs, states Transparency Market Research in its latest report. The market study, titled Smart Lighting Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020, finds that that market is expanding at an impressive CAGR of 15.90% from 2014 to 2020, rising from a value of US$21 bn in 2013 to US$56.6 bn in 2020.Browse the full Smart Lighting Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020 report atBy components, the smart lighting market is segmented into controllable breakers, switch actuators, relays, sensors, dimmer actuators, and others. In 2014, controllable breakers held the largest share of the smart lighting market in terms of revenue and are estimated to retain their lead through 2020. Dimmer actuators and sensors, on the other hand, are anticipated to witness the strongest growth during the forecast period owing to the rising demand for automated lighting systems and better lighting experience.By lighting type, the smart lighting market is categorized into fluorescent lamps, high intensity discharge lamps, LED lamps, compact fluorescent lamps, and others. Even though compact fluorescent lamps enjoyed the largest share of the overall market in 2014, the demand for LED lamps is projected to soar in the coming years.Obtain Brochure Of Report @By application, the smart lighting market is fragmented into residential, public and government buildings, commercial and industrial, outdoor lighting, and others. In terms of revenue the industrial and commercial sector dominate the smart lighting market. However, the demand for smart lighting in the residential sector is anticipated to rise at the highest rate during the forecast period.The smart lighting market is geographically divided into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Europe dominates the global market and is anticipated to retain its lead throughout the forecast period. The market in this region is driven by the growing adoption of smart lighting systems as the energy-efficient lighting solution of choice.Get Sample Of Report @Accounting for a 35.0% share in the smart lighting market, North America comes in second after Europe. Asia Pacific and Rest of the World, though niche markets at present, are two of the most lucrative regional segments and are projected to witness strong growth in the coming years.The global smart lighting market is dominated by leading players such as Digital Lumens, Inc., Osram Licht AG, Encelium Technologies, Inc., Royal Phillips N. V, Legrand SA, Acuity Brands, Inc., Zumtobel Group AG, Lutron Electronics, Company, Inc., Honeywell International Inc., and Streetlight Vision. The research report on the smart lighting market studies and analyzes the performance and contribution of these companies on the basis of aspects such as business and financial overview, recent developments, business strategies, and product portfolio.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:
By PTI: New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) An Indian Navy ship has helped a vessel from Cyprus with 27 Indian crew members after it was chased by three skiffs 70 nautical miles off Muscat.

Navy spokesperson Captain D K Sharma said Indian Navy ship Trikand rescued MV Kamlesh after it was chased by the skiffs at around 0230 hours yesterday.

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INS Trikand, deployed as part of the mission-based deployment in the Gulf of Oman, also rendered assistance to an Iranian trawler.

Captain Sharma said the trawler had 20 crew onboard and seven was adrift for last five days due engine failure.

He said INS Trikand on receipt of a distress call from the trawler in the Gulf of Oman sent technical team by boat and repaired the trawler after which it resumed its passage. PTI MPB SMN

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Field Programmable Gate Array: Industry Outlook, Growth Prospects and Key Opportunities

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The growing penetration of smartphones across the world translates to a positive outlook for the global field programmable gate array (FPGA) market. Transparency Market Researchs latest report states that the global FPGA market will report promising expansion with a CAGR of 8.6% between 2014 and 2020.TMRs analysis puts the value of the global FPGA market at US$5,487.2 million as of 2013, and pegs the market to stand at US$9,734.4 million by 2020. The report published by TMR is titled FPGA Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 20142020.Traditionally, the design of FPGAs was not heavily determined by the price of smartphones or the amount of power they consume.Browse the full FPGA Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2014 - 2020 report atThe competitive electronics market has changed that. Smartphones, one of the fastest-growing markets in the consumer electronics industry, need to be feature-packed without guzzling power. At the same time, the cost factor is a crucial aspect that influences purchase decisions in the market. Consequently, FPGAs are now targeted toward inexpensive and power-sensitive handheld devices and smartphones.Based on recent trends, TMR analysts predict that smartphones will play a central role in the global FPGA market. FPGAs, thanks to their built-in RAM, are able to perform functions such as image enhancements and signal processing  these are collectively referred to as digital signal processing (DSP) functions.As people consume more digital content, the demand for bandwidth has reported an unprecedented increase.Obtain Brochure Of Report @This is yet another factor that will have a positive bearing on the growth of the global FPGA market. Higher the demand for faster processing speed in the smartphone and tablets markets, the greater will be the scope for the expansion of the FPGA market.The report segments the global FPGA market based on technology as: Flash-based, static random-access memory (SRAM), and antifuse. In 2013, the largest share of the FPGA market was held by SRAM. This segment is projected to stay firmly in the leading position to 2020. The preference for SRAM-based FPGA arises due to its rapid in-circuit reconfiguration.Get Sample Of Report @FPGAs based on SRAM also show higher tolerance to radiation  an attribute that makes them highly suited in aerospace applications. Aerospace and ancillary industries are predicted to make extensive use of FPGAs for imaging and in wireless sensors.For a clear picture of the regional markets and their performance over the next five years, the report segments the global FPGA market into: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. In 2013, Asia Pacific was seen as the most dominant region in the global FPGA market.The dominance of the Asia Pacific region can be ascribed to the strong electronics industry in countries such as South Korea, China, and India. The report also carries a Company Profiles section that features leading FPGA market players such as Tabula, Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, Xilinix, Microsemi Corporation, Altera Corporation, and others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. 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:
Compound Feed Market Analysis Report by Market Data Forecast

Compound Feed Market Research Report by Market Data Forecast

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Compound feed is a combination of raw materials and supplements, derived from plants or animals, and fed to the livestock orally. Most frequently used raw materials include soybean, corn, barley, wheat and sorghum. Minerals, amino acids, antibiotics, and colorants are the most frequently used additives. Compound feed has become a vital part of the growing livestock industry and meat production industry. The end consumers of the compound feed are poultry, pig, ruminants, fish etc.Compound Feed Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe growth of the Global Compound feed market is majorly driven by factors such as the growth in global meat consumption, increase in awareness towards meat quality and safety, increase in mass production of meat, and recent livestock disease outbreaks. The increasing global population is also supporting the growth of the world meat market, ultimately increasing the demand for compound feed. The growing awareness among consumers regarding benefits of organic food and meat has led to an increase in the consumption which in turn led to increase in demand for organic feed.Different regulatory structures, volatile economies, and increasing cost of operations are the major restraining factors for the market. And, an increase in the cost of raw materials is also a key challenge for the companies in the market.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Compound Feed Market. Request a sample to stay up-to-date on the main trends affecting this market:Compound Feed Market: SegmentationBy Ingredients Cereals Cereals by-Product Oilseed Meal Oil Molasses Supplements OthersBy Supplements Vitamins Antibiotics Antioxidants Amino Acids Feed Enzymes Feed Acidifiers OthersBy Animal type Ruminant Swine Poultry Aquaculture OthersBy Geography North Americao United Stateso Canada Europeo U.Ko Spaino Germanyo Italyo France Asia-Pacifico Chinao Indiao Japano Australiao South Korea Latin Americao Brazilo Argentinao Mexicoo Rest of Latin America Middle East & Africao Middle-Easto AfricaCompound Feed Market: OverviewPoultry, pork, and cattle are the largest consumers of compound feed globally accounting for the major share of the overall compound feed market. Cereals are the most commonly used ingredients in compound feed whereas Vitamins are the most widely used additives.The poultry segment is developing as a leading livestock segment for consumption, trailed by swine and cattle, because of the increase in demand for poultry meat, consumer taste predilections, and rise in disposable incomes in developing economies, primarily in China and India. Hence there is a growing need for steady and reliable animal feed. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This can be attributed to the considerable increase in feed production and increasing awareness among the consumers about the quality of meat, and dairy and related products.Compound Feed Market: Key PlayersSome of the major companies dominating this market are Cargill Inc., Charoen Pokphand Foods, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Land o Lakes Inc., Sodrugestvo Group S.A., DeKalb Feeds, Inc., De Heus B.V, Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd., J.D. Heiskell & CO, Kent Feeds, Weston Milling Animal Nutrition, Nutreco, ALLTECH, INC, New Hope Group Co. Ltd, Wens Group, ForFarmers B.V., Agribusiness Holding Miratorg, Kyodo Shiryo Company, and EWOS GROUP.About Market Data Forecast:Market Data Forecast is a firm working in the area of market research and business intelligence. With rich experience in research across various business domains, they cater to the needs of both individual and corporate clients. From all-encompassing umbrella markets to extremely specific niche markets covering all the major regions across the globe as part of the research scope, their research services offer one of a kind speciality with competitive pricing options. For more information, kindly visit,Contact:Abhishek ShuklaSales Manager (International Business Development)Market Data ForecastDirect Line: +1-888-702-9626Mobile: +91 998 555 0206Mail: abhishek@marketdataforecast.com
Tea Market - Industry Study, Opportunities, Strategic Assessment, Forecast 2017  2025

Tea Market

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Progressive Markets added a report, "Global Tea Market - Size, Trend, Share, Opportunity Analysis, and Forecast, 2014-2025", which says that the global tea market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.0% from 2017 to 2025.Visit:An aromatic beverage, tea is prepared from the leaves of Camellia Sinensis, an Asian shrub. It is the second most consumed beverage after water. It is available in a variety of forms such as black tea, green tea, oolong tea, and white tea. Though there are many varieties of tea, all of them come from the same plant. It is the method of processing that differs. The countries that are the highest producers of tea globally are India and China. The drink is popular among all age groups. Tea also offers several health benefits due to the presence of antioxidants, flavanols, tannins, and other ingredients in it. Its consumption on a limited and daily basis has proven to reduce the chances of several health issues such as heart attacks and blood pressure fluctuations. Tea also helps in improving the overall immune system of the body.Do Inquiry for Sample Report@Market Drivers and RestraintsThe market for tea is experiencing a swift growth over the years. The main growth drivers include the increase in awareness of the health benefits associated with the consumption of tea, increase in consumer base globally, low cost of tea as compared to other beverages, easy availability of tea, and new innovations resulting in new varieties and flavors of tea. On the other hand, the side effects associated with excess tea consumption is likely to reduce the demand for tea, causing the market to slow down.Tea Market Key SegmentationThe tea industry analysis report encompasses the market segmentation by type, distribution channel, and geography. Based on the type, the market is classified as CTC tea (Crush, Tear and Curl) and leaf tea. The leaf tea segment is further divided into black tea, green tea, and oolong tea. Based on the distribution channel, the market is divided into supermarkets & hypermarkets, convenience stores, independent retailers, and specialist retailers. Based on geography, the tea industry report studies the market across North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and LAMEA. The market in the North-American region covers Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. The market in the Asia-Pacific region has been analyzed across South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, India, and the other parts of Asia-Pacific. The market in European region has been studied in Germany, UK, Spain, France, Italy, and the other parts of Europe. In the LAMEA region, the market has been studied across Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of LAMEA.Key Market PlayersThe key players participating in the global tea market include Tata Global Beverages, Unilever, Nestle S.A., Associated British Foods, Starbucks Corporation, DAVIDs TEA, The Republic of Tea, Akbar Brothers Ltd., Harney and Sons, and Apeejay Tea.Key BenefitsThe tea market analysis report presents an in-depth study of the overall market, which includes the tea market size, tea market share analysis (2014-2025), tea market forecast, scope and definitions, market dynamics, research methodology, market attractiveness and trends analysis, Porter's Five Forces Analysis, industry segmentation, and emerging players providing solutions in the field. The report is a useful tool for industry players, investors, and new entrants who look to initiate or grow their businesses. The market size and share analysis help understand the market status at present and where it is going. The market drivers and restraints are the factors that lead to the growth and slow-down of the tea industry.Do Enquiry before purchasing Report@The research methodology in the tea market analysis report refers to the primary and secondary means of research used for extracting the information in the report. The current and emerging trends help businesses plan for changes and take advantage of the positive changes in the tea industry. The market size and forecast are included in the tea industry analysis report for each segment and region. This involves analyzing the market and the current trends to help businesses prepare for the future. Quantitative analysis of the tea market assists in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the market and make better business decisions. Details about the emerging market players such as the marketing strategies adopted by them help new entrants gain insights on the tea industry and plan their business ventures according to their needs.About ProgressiveThe company makes use of primary corporate research and secondary inputs from trusted sources to build its own reference base. It maintains consistency in quality as it keeps itself updated with changes in market dynamics and gauging its net effect on global business trends.Reach UsMr. Shriram Dighe4th Floor, Unit 12, Marisoft III,West Wing, Marigold IT Park,Kalyani Nagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411014,India: +91 20 66346040Toll Free: + 1-888-906-9222help@progressivemarkets.com
Remote Diagnostic Market to Garner Brimming Revenues by 2022

Remote Diagnostic Market Research Report

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Global Remote Diagnostic Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 is latest research study released by HTF MI evaluating the market, highlighting opportunities, risk side analysis, and leveraged with strategic and tactical decision-making support. The study provides information on market trends and development, drivers, capacities, technologies, and on the changing capital structure of the Global Remote Diagnostic Market.Get Access to sample pages @Global Remote Diagnostic market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includes Siemens, SKF, IBM, Deere & Company, Wolf Maschinenbau AG, LECO Corporation, ABB, Philips, Volvo, Vernacare, Balance Technology Inc & LuxoftThe research study is segmented by Application such as Medical use, Telephone systems & Auto industry with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Global Remote Diagnostic (Thousands Units) by Application (2017-2022)Market Segment by Application 2012 2017 2022 Market Share (%)2022 CAGR (%)(2017-2022)Medical use xx xx xx xx% xx%Telephone systems xx xx xx xx% xx%Auto industry xx xx xx xx% xx%Total xx xx xx 100% xx%Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Remote Diagnostic in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringMarket Segment by Regions 2012 2017 2022 Share (%) CAGR (2017-2022)United States xx xx xx xx% xx%EU xx xx xx xx% xx%Japan xx xx xx xx% xx%China xx xx xx xx% xx%India xx xx xx xx% xx%Southeast Asia xx xx xx xx% xx%Total xx xx xx xx% xx%This independent 100 page research with title Global Remote Diagnostic Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 covers geographic analysis that includes regions/countries like United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia and important players/vendors such as Siemens, SKF, IBM, Deere & Company, Wolf Maschinenbau AG, LECO Corporation, ABB, Philips, Volvo, Vernacare, Balance Technology Inc & Luxoft. With n-number of tables and figures examining the Remote Diagnostic , the research gives you a perfect visual, products, submarkets and market leaders revenue forecasts as well as analysis to 2022Each player highlighted in the research study contains companies Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors, in-depth business overview, geographic footprint and contact information. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to SWOT Analysis.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @This study is the collection of primary and secondary data including valuable information from major vendors in the market and the projections are derived on data from 2012 to current date and projected forecasts till 2022 which makes the research study a valuable resource for industry personnel, and other people looking for key industry related data in readily accessible documents with easy to analyze graphs and tables. The report is a perfect answer to future development roadmap of Remote Diagnostic based on ongoing outlook to assist industry player understand the development journey of Remote Diagnostic Market.Key questions answered in this report - Global Remote Diagnostic Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022What will the market size be in 2022 and what will the growth rate beWhat are the key market trendsWhat is driving Global Remote Diagnostic marketWhat are the challenges to market growthWho are the key vendors in Global Remote Diagnostic market spaceBuy this research report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Remote Diagnostic market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Remote Diagnostic , Applications of Remote Diagnostic , Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of , Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia, Remote Diagnostic Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Remote Diagnostic Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of ;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [], Market Trend by Application [Medical use, Telephone systems & Auto industry];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of ;Chapter 12, to describe Remote Diagnostic Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Remote Diagnostic sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Get customization & check discount for report @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.Connect with us atHTF 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, NJ USA - 08837sales@htfmarketreport.comPh: +1 (206) 317 1218
Spare Parts Logistics Market Trends,Size, Status and Forecast 2022

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Research Beam has added a report on Global Spare Parts Logistics Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022Spare Parts Logistics Market is provided in the report based on product scope and market status & outlook. The market is segmented on the basis of type, end-users/application, and geography. The report provides information about the production, price, revenue, market share, and growth rate of each type. Geographically, the market has been analyzed across North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. The status and prospect through 2012-2022 for each of these regions are listed in the report.Get Sample@The report entails the qualitative and quantitative analysis of current and future market estimations. It also divulges details about the mode of research methodology used for the study. It includes data from primary as well as secondary resources. The report is a useful resource for industry players, new entrants in the marketplace, and investors as it helps them plan their business to gain fruitful and meaningful outcomes. It makes them aware of the production, capacity, revenue, supply, consumption, export, import, the challenges and risks associated with the industry, and much more. Factors that drive the growth of the market are detailed in the study. Key players are profiled in the report and their developments in recent years are mentioned, which helps in understanding the competitive outlook of the Spare Parts Logistics MarketGet 15% discount on this report @The Spare Parts Logistics Market is report has a mention of the industrial chain, sourcing strategy, and downstream buyers. This incorporates the overall industrial chain analysis, upstream raw materials sourcing, raw materials sources of the product major manufacturers in 2015, and downstream buyers.The report also throws light on the marketing strategy used for the study. It includes marketing channel (direct marketing, indirect marketing, and marketing channel development trend) and market positioning (pricing strategy, brand strategy, and target client).The Spare Parts Logistics Market is report also covers an analysis of the market effect factors. This includes the technology progress/risk (substitutes/threat and technology progress in the related industry), consumer needs/customer preference change, and economic/political environmentalThe key players which provide solutions in the Spare Parts Logistics Market is CEVA Logistics DB Schenker Deutsche Post DHL Kuehne + Nagel UPS Broekman logistics Beumer Group FedEx SupplyChain Kerry LogisticsCheck Full Report With TOC@About Us:Research Beams uniqueness lies in its highly ethical reports at economical rates because we value your relationship and growth more than money. Your growth is our aim. With the arsenal of different search reports, we help you here to look and buy research reports that will be helpful to you and your organization. Our research reports have the capability and authenticity to support your organization for growth and consistency.Contact Us:Global Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United Statesphone+1 (800) 910-6452mail help@researchbeam.com
Global Server Cabinet market 2017 - Knurr USA, CyberPower, Crenl, Belden, Pentair, IStarUSA Inc.

Global Server Cabinet market

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Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Server Cabinet Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Server Cabinet Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Server Cabinet industry, and estimates the future trend of Server Cabinet market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Server Cabinet Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportTripp LiteEatonBLACKBOXAPCMiddle Atlantic ProductsKnurr USACyberPowerCrenlBeldenPentairIStarUSA Inc.The market research report explores the Server Cabinet market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Server Cabinet Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Server Cabinet market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Server Cabinet. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Server Cabinet market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Server Cabinet is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Server Cabinet market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Server Cabinet market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The global Server Cabinet market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Server Cabinet production volume, data pertaining to demand and Server Cabinet supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Server Cabinet along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Server Cabinet across the world.About UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -
Inflight Catering Market 2017 Share, Trend, Segmentation and Forecast to 2022

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In this report, the global Inflight Catering market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Inflight Catering in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaRequest a Sample Report @Global Inflight Catering market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingGate GourmetCathay Pacific CateringLSG Sky ChefsFlying Food GroupDnataNewrest International GroupSATS LtdEmirates Flight CateringOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoMealsBakery and ConfectionaryBeveragesOtherOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Inflight Catering for each application, includingEconomy ClassBusiness ClassFirst ClassOtherMake an enquiry of this Report @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of ContentsGlobal Inflight Catering Market Research Report 20171 Inflight Catering Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Inflight Catering1.2 Inflight Catering Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Inflight Catering Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Inflight Catering Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Meals1.2.4 Bakery and Confectionary1.2.5 Beverages1.2.6 Other1.3 Global Inflight Catering Segment by Application1.3.1 Inflight Catering Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Economy Class1.3.3 Business Class1.3.4 First Class1.3.5 Other1.4 Global Inflight Catering Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Inflight Catering 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)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Inflight Catering (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Inflight Catering Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Inflight Catering Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Inflight Catering Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Inflight Catering Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Inflight Catering Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Inflight Catering Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Inflight Catering Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Inflight Catering Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Inflight Catering Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Inflight Catering Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Inflight Catering Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Inflight Catering Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Inflight Catering Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Inflight Catering Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Inflight Catering Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Inflight Catering Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Inflight Catering Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Inflight Catering Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Inflight Catering Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Inflight Catering Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Inflight Catering Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Inflight Catering Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Inflight Catering Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Inflight Catering Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Inflight Catering Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Inflight Catering Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Inflight Catering Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Inflight Catering Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Inflight Catering Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Inflight Catering Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Inflight Catering Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Inflight Catering Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Inflight Catering Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Inflight Catering Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Inflight Catering Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Inflight Catering Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Inflight Catering Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Inflight Catering Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Inflight Catering Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesContinuedPurchase Report @ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Global Tea Industry : Market Share, Trends, Insight and Application 2017

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Albany, NY, 24th November : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Tea Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" globally.This report covers the analysis and forecast of the tea market on a global, regional and country level. The study provides historic data of the years 2005 to 2016 along with forecast for the period between 2017 and 2025 based on volume (kilo tons) and value (US$ Mn).Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @It provides a decisive view of the tea market by segmenting it based on product, type, and regional demand. Application segments have been analyzed based on current trends and future potential.The market has been estimated from 2017 to 2025 in terms of volume (kilo tons) and value (US$ Mn). Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East and Africa. These have been further sub-segmented into countries and regions with relevance to the market.Global Tea Market: Scope of the StudyThe study covers the drivers and restraints governing the dynamics of the tea market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. Additionally, the report includes potential opportunities in the tea market on the global, regional and country level. The global tea market has been forecasted based on constant currency rates. Prices of tea vary in each region and country as a result of the demand-supply scenario in the particular region and the country. Hence, a similar volume-to value ratio does not follow for each individual region and country. Individual pricing of tea for each application has been taken into account while estimating and forecasting market value on a global basis. Regional average price has been considered while breaking down the market into segments in each region.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @The report provides the size of the tea market in 2005 and the forecast for the next twenty years up to 2025. The size of the global tea market is provided in terms of both volume and value. Market volume is defined in kilo tons, while market value for regions is in US$ Mn. The market size and forecast for each product segment is provided in the context of global and regional markets. Market estimates for this study have been based on volume, with value being derived through regional pricing trends. The price for commonly utilized type of tea in each region has been considered, and customized product pricing has not been included. Demand for tea has been derived by analyzing the global and regional demand for tea.Global Tea Market: SegmentationThe product type split of the market has been derived using a top-down approach for each regional market separately, with the global product type segment split being an integration of regional estimates. Companies have been considered based on their product portfolio, revenue, and manufacturing capacity. In the absence of specific data related to the sales of tea of several privately held companies, calculated assumptions have been made in view of the companys product portfolio and regional presence along with the demand for products in its portfolio.The global tea market has been analyzed based on expected demand. Market data for each segment is based on volume and corresponding value. Prices considered for calculation of value are average regional prices obtained through primary quotes from numerous regional suppliers, distributors, and direct selling regional producers based on manufacturers feedback. Forecasts have been based on the expected demand from tea. We have used the top-down approach to estimate the global tea market, split into regions and countries.Companies Mentioned in the ReportThe report covers a detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and company profiles of key players operating in the global market. Some of the leading market players in the tea market are Kusmi Tea (France), Tata Global Beverages (India), Davids Tea (Canada), Unilever Plc. (U.K.), Tea Forte (United States), Starbucks (United States), Associated British Foods Plc. (Twinings) (U.K.), and Peets Coffee & Tea (United States) among others.The global tea Market has been segmented into:By ProductLeaf TeaCTC TeaBy TypePremium/Specialty TeaMass TeaBy GeographyNorth AmericaThe U.S.CanadaEuropeSpainItalyFranceBelgiumGermanyU.K.NetherlandsRest of EuropeAsia PacificIndiaChinaHong KongSingaporeJapanThailandAustraliaRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & Africa (MEA)Browse Report @Saudi ArabiaUAESouth AfricaRest of MEASouth AmericaBrazilRest of South AmericaResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on :
Air Source Heat Pump Market 2017 Trend, Analysis and Forecast to 2021

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About Air Source Heat PumpAir source heat pumps are heat pumps that derive heat energy from the air and transfer it indoors for heating or cooling applications.Publisher's analysts forecast the global air source heat pump market to grow at a CAGR of 10.56% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global air source heat pump market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the retail selling price as the average selling price of the product.For more information about this report:The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAPublisher's report, Global Air Source Heat Pump 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- Carrier- Daikin Industries- Danfoss- Mitsubishi Electric- NIBERequest Sample Copy atOther prominent vendors- Airwell- O. Smith- BDR Thermea Group- Bosch Thermotechnik- Bryant Heating & Cooling Systems- Climaveneta- China Yangzi Group- Colmac- Dimplex- Emerson Climate Technologies- Fujitsu General- Grant- Haier- Hitachi Appliances- Ingersoll-Rand- Johnson Controls- LG Electronics- Panasonic- Samsung Electronics- Swegon- Toshiba- Thermia Heat Pumps- Vaillant- ViessmannInquire 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
Technology Spending Administration Healthcare Market: Evolving Technology, Trends and Industry Analysis

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The field of core administration solutions for the healthcare industry is highly fragmented owing to the presence of a large number of established players offering hardware, software, and services, says Transparency Market Research in a recent report. Considering the vast growth opportunities in developing regions such as India, Brazil, and China, players are focusing on diversification opportunities across these countries through mergers, acquisitions, and consolidation practices.To encash the vast growth opportunities in the core administration segment in the healthcare industry, owing to various government norms like Obamacare or Affordable Care Act (ACA), competitors are also focusing on extensive product development to offer differentiated services.Obtain Report Details @According to Transparency Market Research, the global technology spending on core administration in healthcare market sector will exhibit a 5.7% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024, rising from US$25,900 mn in 2015 to US$42,317 mn by 2024.Of the key end users of core administration solutions in the healthcare industry, the payers segment accounted for over 88% of the overall market in 2015 and is expected to remain the key driver of technology spending on core administration in the healthcare industry throughout the forecast period. Geographically, North America dominated, accounted for over 50% of the overall funds spent on enabling technologically advanced core administration solutions in the healthcare industry in 2015. The trend is expected to remain strong over the forecast period as well.Obtain Brochure Of Report @Rising convergence of a variety of digital platforms for managing and processing the ever-expanding healthcare data, continuously changing healthcare reimbursement reforms and regulations, and digitally empowered consumers are collectively making the healthcare administration space increasingly complex. While at one point cost competition is at the peak in the healthcare industry, payers (insurance agencies) are pressing healthcare providers to switch from a volume-based (payment for service) to a value-based reimbursement module (payment for value).By requiring that healthcare providers deliver services at lowest costs to patients, value-based reimbursement modules entail more financial risks for providers and critically necessitate the effective management of core administrative processes to cut costs. The situation demands a robust IT infrastructure and an integrated platform wherein the payers can streamline workflows for provider contracting and engagement. In the next few years, the increased need for such platforms will emerge as one of the key drivers of technology spending on core administration in the healthcare sector.Request A Sample Of Report @However, the overall global spending on technology for core administration in the healthcare sector is expected to be negatively impacted due to factors such as the presence of outdated technology and applications across several data collection and delivery nodes, continuously changing healthcare reforms, and ever-changing ways of financial transactions.The inability of healthcare professionals in using complex or time-consuming features in technologically advanced digital healthcare applications is another key factor deterring the adoption of IT solutions for managing core administrative processes in the healthcare sector. The use of IT solutions by health professionals is growing at a steady pace globally, but it is not uniform. A substantial gap exists between the numbers of providers, which is relatively small presently, the number of consumers who actively use the Internet for any purpose, which is on rise at a rapid pace, and the much larger group of patients and healthcare providers that has not used it or cannot use it.This review of the present and future scope of technology spending on core administration in healthcare is based on a recent report by Transparency Market Research, titled Technology Spending on Core Administration in Healthcare Market - Global Industry, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024.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:
By PTI: New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) Cybersecurity has taken centrestage of discussion at global forums as the borderless nature of internet and anonymity of threat actors has heightened the need for closer cooperation among nations, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said today.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Global Conference on Cyberspace 2017, the minister said internet has not only expedited the pace of political, social and economic growth, but also thrown up new set of challenges for which there are "no preset solutions".

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"The lack of borders in cyberspace and the anonymity of the actors has ensured that the traditional concepts of sovereignty, jurisdiction and privacy are challenged...The global community -- which has so far benefited from cyberspace -- is beginning to wake up to its threats," she said.

Swaraj asserted that India is committed to an open, safe, inclusive and democratic internet that responds swiftly to challenges.

Highlighting the growing concerns around cybersecurity globally, she said there is hardly a meeting between the heads of states where discussions on such issues do not figure.

"It points to the growing penetration, significance of internet on the social, economic and cultural lives of the nations. The linking of devices and growing Internet of Things (IoT) has made cyber issues a critical aspect of cybersecurity and development politics," she added.

While "peaceful" uses of technology have fuelled growth of economies and connected citizens globally, cyberspace is also infiltrated by malicious actors looking out for opportunities to exploit the vulnerabilities, Swaraj cautioned.

"The anonymity, borderless spaces and speed has helped these elements to carry out nefarious activities ranging from cyber espionage, concerted attacks on networks, data theft, infringement of privacy, extremist propaganda to name a few," she pointed out.

Crime syndicates and terrorist organisations are leveraging malicious tools in cyberspace to carry out complex crimes, posing considerable challenge to the law enforcement agencies, she said, urging nations to come together to counter this growing threat.

Swaraj said there is a greater need for countries to enter into agreements and arrangements for cooperation at various levels.

Speaking at a previous session, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval urged global security organisations to enhance cooperation and look at evolving cyber-related security structure to counter the threats in cyberspace.

He warned that advent of new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics could compound the complexities of cyber threats.

"It may also be necessary that security organisations of the world will need much greater cooperation and specific cyber-related security structure for fast sharing of information, identifying defaulters, proceeding against them and supporting to law enforcing agencies," he added. PTI SR MBI ABM

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Global Blister Packaging Market is Supposed to Reach US$ 27.50 Billion By 2022

Global Blister Packaging Market

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Market Research Engine has published a new report titled as Blister Packaging Market By Type Analysis (Carded, Clamshell); By Technology Analysis (Thermoforming, Cold forming); By Material Analysis (Plastic films, Paper & paperboard, Aluminum); By End Users Analysis (Healthcare, Consumer goods, Industrial goods, Food) and By Regional Analysis  Global Forecast by 2016 - 2022.It is preformed plastic that is utilized to pack small buyer merchandise, sustenance and drugs. The item more often than not has a move down of paperboard, or a lidding front of aluminum foil or plastic. Blister packaging is used to protect packaged product against external factors such as contamination, humidity and light sensitive products from UV rays. It is generally used to wrap items including tablets, electronic, toy and toothbrush. Rankle packaging market inventory network starts from providers of crude material. After crude material acquirement, organizations fabricate the item through thermoforming and cold framing forms. It is then stuffed in various plans and is transported to different area for utilization. End clients of the items are drugs, small consumable merchandise and beauty care products.The Global Blister Packaging Market is expected to exceed more than US$ 27.78 Billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 7.2% in the given forecast period.You Can Browse Full Report:The major driving factors of Global Blister Packaging Market are as follows: Disposable income is rising Demand from end user industry is growing High growth potential is offered by developing economies R&D activities investments For Product Protection Tamper-Evident Design and convenient packagingThe restraining factors of Global Blister Packaging Market are as follows: Tough competition from pre-fillable syringes Stringent Regulation For packing heavy items it is not suitableThe Global Blister Packaging Market is segmented on the lines of its product, application, end user and regional. Based on Type segmentation it covers carded and clamshell. Based on technology it covers thermoforming and cold forming. By materials it covers plastic, paper and paperboards and aluminum. By end users it includes healthcare, consumer goods, industrial goods and food. The Global Blister Packaging Market on geographic segmentation covers various regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. Each geographic market is further segmented to provide market revenue for select countries such as the U.S., Canada, U.K. Germany, China, Japan, India, Brazil, and GCC countries.This report provides:1) An overview of the global market for Global Blister Packaging Market and related technologies.2) Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2013, estimates for 2014 and 2015, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2022.3) Identifications of new market opportunities and targeted promotional plans for Global Blister Packaging Market4) Discussion of research and development, and the demand for new products and new applications.5) Comprehensive company profiles of major players in the industry.REPORT SCOPE:The scope of the report includes a detailed study of global and regional markets on Global Blister Packaging Market with the reasons given for variations in the growth of the industry in certain regions.The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report includeThe Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), WestRock Company (U.S.), Bemis Company, Inc. (U.S.), and Sonoco Products Company (U.S.), Amcor Limited (Australia), Klockner Pentaplast Group (Germany),Pharma Packaging Solutions (U.S.), E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Honeywell International (U.S.), Display Pack, Inc. (U.S.), Tekni-Plex, Inc. (U.S.), and Constantia Flexibles (Austria). Company profile includes assign such as company summary, financial summary, business strategy and planning, SWOT analysis and current developments.The Global Blister Packaging Market has been segmented as below:By Type Analysis: Carded ClamshellBy Technology Analysis: Thermoforming Cold formingBy Material Analysis: Plastic films Paper & paperboard AluminumBy End Users Analysis: Healthcare Consumer goods Industrial goods FoodBy Regional Analysis: North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the WorldRequest Sample Report:Table of Contents1 INTRODUCTION2 Research Methodology3 Executive Summary4 Premium Insights5 Market Overview6 Blister Packaging Market, By Technology7 Blister Packaging Market, By Type8 Blister Packaging Market, By Material9 Blister Packaging Market, By End-Use Sector10 Macro Economic Overview11 Blister Packaging, By Region12 Competitive Landscape13 Company Profiles13.1 Amcor Limited13.2 Bemis Company, Inc.13.3 The DOW Checmical Company13.4 Westrock Company13.5 Sonoco Products Company13.6 Constantia Flexibles GmbH13.7 Klockner Pentaplast Group13.8 E.I.Du Pont De Nemours and Company.13.9 Honeywell International Inc.13.10 Tekni-Plex, Inc.13.11 Display Pack, Inc.13.12 Pharma Packaging Solutions13.13 Additional CompaniesAbout MarketResearchEngineMarket Research Engine is a global market research and consulting organization. We provide market intelligence in emerging, niche technologies and markets. Our market analysis powered by rigorous methodology and quality metrics provide information and forecasts across emerging markets, emerging technologies and emerging business models. Our deep focus on industry verticals and country reports help our clients to identify opportunities and develop business strategies.Media ContactContact Person: John BayEmail: john@marketresearchengine.comPhone: +1-855-984-1862Country: United StatesWebsite:Address: 3422 SW 15 Street, Suite #8942, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442, United States
Asia Pacific Corporate Wellness Market: Applications and Global Markets

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The corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific is led by a slew of global and local companies, such as Central Corporate Wellness, ComPsych Corporation, Optum, Inc., JLT Australia (Recovre Group), Truworth Wellness, SOL Wellness, Sodexo, ConneXions Asia, and Bupa Wellness Pty Ltd. Transparency Market Research has observed that the number of companies venturing into this avenue has been steadily rising owing to the growing presence of MNCs in several developing countries.Obtain Report Details @The opportunity in the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific was pegged at US$3.4 bn in 2015 and is expected to be worth US$7.4 bn by the end of 2024 at a strong CAGR of 9.0%. Geographical expansions, expansion of product portfolio, mergers and acquisitions, and investing in extensive wellness programs are some of the key growth strategies adopted by the leading players in the Asia Pacific. For instance, in March 2016, Sodexo signed a 10-year contract with Rio Tinto to expand its operations in Australia.The prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer has increased significantly in Asia Pacific in recent years. The report has found that these diseases account for at least 8.5 million deaths in Southeast Asia each year. Employers are, as a result, driven to promote as well as maintain the health and well-being of their employees and offering corporate wellness programs and services has turned out to be the most effective method of doing so, the lead analyst states. These services not only boost productivity but also reduce overall medical costs.Obtain Brochure Of Report @The corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific is also fueled by government support and initiatives, the rising number of white-collar employees, the willingness of employers to invest in wellness programs, and growing health consciousness among the population.Implementing corporate wellness programs in organizations is a costly affair and companies need to utilize a certain portion of their budget from the revenue generated, the author of the study comments. Services such as fitness and health risk assessment need high investments and as a result, are cut down by the companies. This restricts the growth of the corporate wellness market.In addition, the inefficient execution of corporate wellness services is a major restraint to the market and is likely to increase costs for the companies.Get A Sample Report @By type of service, the fitness segment led the overall corporate wellness market, accounting for a 38.6% share in 2015, reaching US$2,793.5 mn by 2024. The smoking cessation segment, although the smallest in terms of revenue in 2015, is anticipated to register a strong CAGR of 9.6% during the forecast period. By country, China emerged as the leading revenue generator in 2015 and is projected to retain its position throughout the forecast period. India, on the other hand, is expected to expand at the fastest pace by 2024.This review is based on the findings of a TMR report titled Corporate Wellness Market - Asia Pacific Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024.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:
Healthcare Api Market: Worldwide Industry Analysis and New Market Opportunities Explored

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The leading players in the global healthcare API market, namely Mulesoft Inc., Apple Inc., Microsoft Corporation, GE Healthcare, Epic Systems Corporation, and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. held a cumulative share of approximately 67% in the global healthcare API market revenue in 2015. Transparency Market Research has observed that these players have been focused on creating value with acquisitions. Strengthening their presence in the healthcare API market and at the same time, offering innovative solutions to cater to the needs of their customers has been the key growth strategy for most companies.Large players have also been partnering with various healthcare facilities and healthcare technology providers to reach out to more customers, the lead author of the study finds. For instance, in June 2014, Apple Inc. made its first big move in mobile health by partnering with market-leading hospital software firm Epic Systems and renowned healthcare provider Mayo Clinic to develop HealthKit, a health app platform.Obtain Report Details @An increase in the initiatives by electronic health record (EHR) vendors and healthcare IT startups has resulted in an immense growth in healthcare IT solutions, including application programming interfaces. The adoption of API-integrated EHR has risen rapidly in the recent past thanks to the ease of data accessibility and this, in turn, has boosted the market for healthcare API.Leading vendors such as GE Healthcare, Mulesoft, Practise Fusion, and Practo Technologies have been focused on making sure their solutions are compatible with the latest healthcare apps. This is also projected to benefit the healthcare API market.Obtain Brochure Of Report @Considering that the need for frequent upgrades in the overall healthcare API market will arise in the near future, the impact of this driver will remain moderate in the coming years, the analyst predicts.However, concerns regarding privacy breaches and the loss as well as manipulation of important patient information pose a key challenge for the growth of the healthcare API market. Open-source APIs are increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks and considering that the usage of APIs cannot be restrained, the privacy and security of patients becomes a major issue, the author of the study states. Developers have, therefore, been focused on eliminating the risk of data theft by developing more secure platforms.Request A Sample Of Report @The global revenue of the healthcare API market stood at US$162.4 mn in 2015 and is expected to reach US$234.2 mn by 2024 expanding at a 4.2% CAGR therein. The appointment segment led the global healthcare API market by services, rising from a value of US$43.1 mn in 2015 to US$62.9 mn by the end of the forecast period. The segment is also anticipated to expand at the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2024.By deployment model, on-premise healthcare API solutions emerged as the leading segment while cloud-based API solutions are likely to grow at the fastest pace during the forecast period. Healthcare providers are the leading end users of healthcare API services and the segment is projected to register the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2024. While North America emerged as the key revenue contributor in the global healthcare API market, Asia Pacific is likely to be the fastest growing regional segment.This review is based on the findings of a TMR report titled Healthcare API Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024.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:
Membrane Separation Market: Worldwide Industry Analysis and New Market Opportunities Explored

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According to a market research report published by Transparency Market Research, the global membrane separation market is estimated to expand positively at a CAGR of 10.8% during the period between 2013 and 2019. The report, titled Membrane Separation Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 - 2019, projects the global membrane separation market to be worth US$39.2 bn by the end of 2019. The overall market stood at a valuation of US$19.0 bn in 2012.Browse the full Membrane Separation Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2013 - 2019 report atIn the membrane separation technology, a semipermeable barrier controls the rate of movement of various molecules between two gaseous phases or two liquid phases or a gas and a liquid phase. The widely used membrane separation processes include ultrafiltration, microfiltration, reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, dialysis, electrolysis, membrane distillation, and others. In the recent times, the membrane separation technology has gained popularity amid rapid industrialization and water pollution.The report points out that the growing demand for clean water from the municipal sector is driving the growth of the global membrane separation market. The rising interest in water reuse and wastewater treatment, coupled with stringent environmental regulations regarding water pollution, has boosted the demand for membrane separation.Get A Brochure Of Report @The rapid industrialization across the developing economies and the growing population in water stressed areas are expected to augment the growth of the market during the forecast horizon. However, high operational and installation costs and the lack of funds in the developing countries will restrict the growth of the market. Nevertheless, the global membrane separation market has a huge opportunity to grow with the shift towards chemical free water treatment process across industries.In terms of process, the report broadly segments the global membrane separation market into microfiltration, reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, and ultrafiltration. Microfiltration holds more than 35% of the market. On the basis of end users, the report categorizes the market into industrial, healthcare, and water and wastewater treatment. Water and wastewater treatment is the largest end user segment and accounts for over 36% of the market.Make An Enquiry @The report studies the membrane separation market across four key regions: Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World. Owing to the growing demand from countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, India, and China, Asia Pacific is expected to contribute significantly towards the growth of the global market for membrane separation during the forecast horizon.The growth of the market in this region can be attributed to the rapid industrialization which is leading to water pollution. The increasing population in Asia Pacific and growing scarcity of potable water have compelled authorities to focus on waste water treatment measures.Describing the competitive landscape, the report profiles some of the key players in the global membrane separation market such as Hyflux, Kubota, Asahi Kasei Corporation, Pentair X-Flow, Pall Corporation, Evoqua Water Technologies LLC, GE Water & Process Technologies, IDE Technologies, TriSep Corporation, 3M Company, The Dow Chemical Company, Koch Membrane Systems Inc., and Sartorius AG. The report further provides insightful information about the key players including their product segments, financial performance, and strategic developments.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:
Asia-Pacific Facial Care Market: Industry Outlook, Growth Prospects and Key Opportunities

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Transparency Market Research, in a report titled Facial Care Market - Asia-Pacific Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2013 - 2019, states that the Asia Pacific facial care market is poised to expand at a 6.90% CAGR from 2013 to 2019, rising to a value of US$39.7 bn by the end of the forecast period.Browse the full Facial Care Market (By Product Type - Skin Whitening/ Lightening and Anti-Ageing, Facial Creams, Face Wash, Cleansing Wipes, Serums and Masks and Others (fade creams, pore strips and toners)- Asia-Pacific Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2013 - 2019 report atThe facial care market comprises cosmetic products used to retain youthful appearance, beauty, and health of the lips, skin, eyes, and other features of the face. The facial care market is a part of the skincare market and has been witnessing rapid growth in Asia Pacific thanks to the rising popularity of multifunctional products and the widening scope of distribution channels.On the basis of product, the Asia Pacific facial care market is segmented into facial creams, cleansing wipes, skin lightening/whitening and anti-aging creams, face wash, masks and serums, and others such as toners, fade creams, and pore strips. In 2012, the skin whitening/lightening and anti-aging creams segment held the largest share of 35.70% in terms of revenue.Get A Brochure Of Report @The surging demand for anti-aging and skin whitening creams over the years, the greater penetration of the media and aggressive advertising, and the increase in disposable income have contributed towards the growth of this product segment. Organized retailing and the rising demand for mens skincare products have also fueled the skin lightening/whitening and anti-aging creams segment.By consumer group, the facial care market in Asia Pacific is divided into men and women. Even though the womens segment dominates the overall market, the mens segment is anticipated to gain rapid momentum by 2019 thanks to the rising trend of men becoming more conscious of their skin and overall looks.On the basis of retail distribution, the Asia Pacific facial care market is bifurcated into non-store-based sales and store-based sales. The non-store-based segment is projected to expand at the highest CAGR from 2013 to 2019 owing to the rising internet penetration around the world and the soaring popularity of social networking sites, where manufacturers can place their product advertisements.Make An Enquiry @The Asia Pacific facial care market comprises Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, China, India, Malaysia, South Korea, and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). Of these, China dominates the overall market, with Japan and India following suit. Consumers in these countries prefer Western luxury brands and the consumer base here is significantly driven by the need to look young and beautiful. These factors have greatly fueled the Asia Pacific facial care market.The competitive landscape of the Asia Pacific facial care market is characterized by the presence of several large multinational companies. Players such as Estee Lauder Companies Inc., Johnson and Johnson Limited, Shiseido Co. Ltd., Kao Corporation, Procter and Gamble Company (P&G), Kose Corporation, LOreal S.A., and The Unilever Plc. have been participating in mergers and acquisitions so as to strengthen and maintain their position in the Asia Pacific facial care market.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:
Refrigerated Display Cases Market: Key Players and Production Information analysis

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A new research report published by Transparency Market Research states that the global refrigerated display cases market is expected to grow at a rapid pace due to technological developments in advanced refrigerators with unique temperature control features. The report, titled Refrigerated Display Cases Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2013 - 2019, discusses the various types of refrigerators in the market and explains in detail the reasons supporting the growth of this market.Browse the full Refrigerated Display Cases Market (Plug-in and Remote) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2013 - 2019 report atAccording to the research report, the global refrigerated display cases market was valued at US$8.8 bn in 2013 and is expected to reach US$16.3 bn by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 9.60% from 2013 to 2019. Refrigerated display cases or cabinets are mainly used for storing food products and other products that have to be kept or preserved at low temperatures.Furthermore, the sudden increase in the number of cafes, restaurants, bakeries, and retail stores has given an impetus to the global refrigerated display cases market. The growth of this market is also being encouraged by changes in the eating habits of people, which are shifting towards frozen or chilled food items. The rising disposable incomes of consumers are also expected to augment the demand for refrigerated display cases market across the globe.Obtain Brochure Of Report @The global refrigerated display cases market is segmented on the basis of type of product, design, and geography. The types of products in the global refrigerated display cases market are plug-in (self-contained) and remote. In terms of design, this market is segmented into vertical  front open and horizontal  top open, and others such as hybrid or semivertical. Geographically, this market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World.Analysts predict that the demand for medium-sized and small stores will trigger the demand for plug-in refrigerated display cases, as they fit the constraints of a small budget, limited floor space, and power consumption. This trend will also be supported by the low installation time these units take and the ease of portability they offer. These reasons are making plug-in refrigerated display cases popular amongst store owners.Get A Sample Report @Geographically, Asia Pacific holds a major share in the global refrigerated display cases market due to the contribution of emerging economies. The growth of the commercial sector with respect to restaurants, hotels, the catering industry, and the retail sector is fueling the demand for refrigerated display cases.Some of the important players in the global refrigerated display cases market are United Technologies Corporation  Climate, Metalfrio Solutions S.A., Daikin Industries, Ltd., Beverage-Air Corporation, Epta S.p.A., Dover Corporation, Illinois Tool Works, Inc., Controls & Security Unit (Carrier), Hussmann International, Inc., AHT Cooling Systems GmbH, Lennox International, Inc., and Blue Star Ltd. The report explains the competitive landscape of the global refrigerated display cases market along with sharing details pertaining to the financial overview, research and development activities, and investment outlook of key companies for the coming years.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:
Get to Know the ins and Outs of the New Hospital Workforce Management Software Industry

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Hospital Workforce Management Software to its huge collection of research reports.The thorough report here assembles different perspectives having a place with the general Hospital Workforce Management Software market which verbalizes the present-day data and future exposures with reference to the dynamic powers at play. The prime reason for the examination report is to offer the endorser with an extensive format and make accessible the helpful realities and records. The quantifiable and testing elucidations behind the examination other than executes data on issues, for example, drivers, shackles, and projections to gage the deferred outcome of the general Hospital Workforce Management Software market through the cross of the said gage period in the examination report. The report in like course passes on a brief and world class record of the predefined market follows, which joins a couple of occasions of the veritable fixations at work which are concentrated to trigger change in the market or may cause any negative effect.This report other than stations into the general Hospital Workforce Management Software market by in a general sense examining the thing and industrialized chain of the market. This is required to in like manner help in passing on honest to goodness information and data on compound parts of the fitting market, for example, material relating to systems for the regulating body in the standard and general strata, transport and transmission structure, goals, and explanations behind premium got for the contributed mean.Get free sample report of the research study at:The report utilizes a couple of showed industry examination and whole contraptions. They permit the examination collect pass on an uncovered fundamental assessment of the general Hospital Workforce Management Software market and help endorser and market troupes to be counseled with respect to speculation and business judgments. The wide thinking of the examination gives a market position on an obvious and minute scale. It collects crucial and optional research structures thusly. The administrators have figured the recorded encounters and rose it from the forward and thusly around change the circumstance to plan a structure for the general Hospital Workforce Management Software market in the years ahead.This report studies the global Hospital Workforce Management Software market, analyzes and researches the Hospital Workforce Management Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeMcKesson Medical-Surgical Inc.Kronos IncorporatedInforADP, LLCATOSS Software AGIBMCornerstone Ondemand, Inc.Ultimate SoftwareGE HealthcareOracleWorkForce Software, LLCRead Complete Table of Content of the Report at:Table of ContentsGlobal Hospital Workforce Management Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Hospital Workforce Management Software1.1 Hospital Workforce Management Software Market Overview1.1.1 Hospital Workforce Management Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Hospital Workforce Management Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Hospital Workforce Management Software Market by Type1.3.1 By Software Type1.3.2 By Service1.3.3 By Mode of Delivery1.4 Hospital Workforce Management Software Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Hospital1.4.2 Healthcare Institutions1.4.3 Long Term Care2 Global Hospital Workforce Management Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Hospital Workforce Management Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc.3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Hospital Workforce Management Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Kronos Incorporated3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Hospital Workforce Management Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Infor3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Hospital Workforce Management Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 ADP, LLC3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions...About QYReseachReports.comQYReseachReports.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 US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
North America Maternity Wear Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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"The Report North America Maternity Wear Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Maternity wear is worn by women in some cultures as an adaptation to changes in body size during pregnancy. It is designed with a loose, comfortable cut which will expand as the woman's belly grows. Most designs also include elastic, tabs, and other methods of expansion which allow shirts and pants to be let out. Many women also wear maternity clothes after their pregnancies, until they have lost the pregnancy weight and they can fit into normal clothing again.View Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Maternity Wear in North America market, especially in United States, Canada and Mexico. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversDestination MaternityH&MGapMothercareThyme MaternityOCTmamiJoJo Maman BbSeraphineHappy HouseHubo MotherLiz LangeTianxiangGennie's MaternityMamas & PapasAngeliebeRipe MaternityAmoraliaRosemadameEnvie de FraisesIngrid & IsabelIsabella OliverGet Sample Copy Of This Report @Market Segment by Countries, coveringUnited StatesCanadaMexicoMarket Segment by Type, coversDressesTopsBottomsLingerieMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoSupermarket & MallBrand StoreMaternity & Baby StoreOnlineSend An Enquiry Request @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Maternity Wear market.Chapter 1, to describe Maternity Wear Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by countries, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Maternity Wear, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the North America market by countries, covering United States, Canada and Mexico, with sales, revenue and market share of Maternity Wear, for each country, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the segment market in United States, Canada and Mexico, by manufacturers, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and market share by manufacturers, types and applications;Chapter 10, Maternity Wear market forecast, by countries, type and application, with sales, price and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 12, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 13, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 14 and 15, to describe Maternity Wear Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data sourceTable of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Maternity Wear Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Dresses1.2.2 Tops1.2.3 Bottoms1.2.4 Lingerie1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Supermarket & Mall1.3.2 Brand Store1.3.3 Maternity & Baby Store1.3.4 Online1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Mexico Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Canada Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Destination Maternity2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Destination Maternity Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 Destination Maternity News2.2 H&M2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 H&M Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.4 Business Overview2.2.5 H&M News2.3 Gap2.3.1 Profile2.3.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Gap Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3.4 Business Overview2.3.5 Gap News2.4 Mothercare2.4.1 Profile2.4.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Mothercare Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4.4 Business Overview2.4.5 Mothercare News2.5 Thyme Maternity2.5.1 Profile2.5.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Thyme Maternity Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5.4 Business Overview2.5.5 Thyme Maternity News2.6 OCTmami2.6.1 Profile2.6.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 OCTmami Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6.4 Business Overview2.6.5 OCTmami News2.7 JoJo Maman Bb2.7.1 Profile2.7.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 JoJo Maman Bb Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7.4 Business Overview2.7.5 JoJo Maman Bb News2.8 Seraphine2.8.1 Profile2.8.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Seraphine Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8.4 Business Overview2.8.5 Seraphine News2.9 Happy House2.9.1 Profile2.9.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 Happy House Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9.4 Business Overview2.9.5 Happy House News2.10 Hubo Mother2.10.1 Profile2.10.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 Hubo Mother Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10.4 Business Overview2.10.5 Hubo Mother News2.11 Liz Lange2.11.1 Profile2.11.2 Maternity Wear Type and Applications2.11.2.1 Type 12.11.2.2 Type 22.11.3 Liz Lange Maternity Wear Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.11.4 Business OverviewAbout 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.ContactMr. NachiketaState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) PAD Medical Device Market Report : Share, Growth, Revenue, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022

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Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently added a new report to its vast online database. This research study is titled as PAD Medical Device Market 2017 which presents an in-depth study about the production, consumption, market volume, revenue (million USD) and market share across different geographical regions.Request For Free Sample -The market for Emea europe middle east and africa pad medical device market report 2017 has been undergoing a transitional phase over the recent past. The continual advancements in technologies and the swift increase in infrastructural development projects have influenced the demand for Emea europe middle east and africa pad medical device market report 2017 substantially over the past few years. The swift rise in urbanization and the significant increase in the disposable income of people are likely to maintain the demand pace of Emea europe middle east and africa pad medical device market report 2017 in the near future. The augmenting interest of investors, government funding, and the rising trend of automation are also projected to reflect positively on this market in the years to come.Geographically, this report split EMEA into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, With sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of PAD Medical Device 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 PAD Medical Device market competition by top manufacturers/players, with PAD Medical Device sales volume (K Units), price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingGoreBoston ScientificFierceBiotechMedtronicC.R.BardJohnson & JohnsonAbbott LaboratoriesAngioscore Inc.Edward Lifesciences CorporationTeleflex MedicalSt. Jude MedicalVolcano CorporationCook Group Inc.Cordis CorporationBayerEndologixOn 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 intoPeripheral vascular stentsPeripheral transluminal angioplasty balloon cathetersPTA guidewiresAtherectomy devicesChronic total occlusion devicesAortic stentsSynthetic surgical graftsEmbolic protection deviceInferior vena cava filtersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume (K Units), market share and growth rate of PAD Medical Device for each application, includingApplication 1Application 2Application 3Browse Full Report With TOC -Table of ContentsEMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) PAD Medical Device Market Report 20171 PAD Medical Device Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of PAD Medical Device1.2 Classification of PAD Medical Device1.2.1 EMEA PAD Medical Device Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 EMEA PAD Medical Device Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Peripheral vascular stents1.2.4 Peripheral transluminal angioplasty balloon catheters1.2.5 PTA guidewires1.2.6 Atherectomy devices1.2.7 Chronic total occlusion devices1.2.8 Aortic stents1.2.9 Synthetic surgical grafts1.2.10 Embolic protection device1.2.11 Inferior vena cava filters1.3 EMEA PAD Medical Device Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 EMEA PAD Medical Device Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-20221.3.2 Application 11.3.3 Application 21.3.4 Application 31.4 EMEA PAD Medical Device Market by Region1.4.1 EMEA PAD Medical Device Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Middle East Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Africa Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 EMEA Market Size (Value and Volume) of PAD Medical Device (2012-2022)1.5.1 EMEA PAD Medical Device Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 EMEA PAD Medical Device Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 EMEA PAD Medical Device Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application2.1 EMEA PAD Medical Device Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers2.1.1 EMEA PAD Medical Device Sales Volume and Market Share of Major Players (2012-2017)2.1.2 EMEA PAD Medical Device Revenue and Share by Players (2012-2017)2.1.3 EMEA PAD Medical Device Sale Price by Players (2012-2017)2.2 EMEA PAD Medical Device (Volume and Value) by Type/Product Category2.2.1 EMEA PAD Medical Device Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 EMEA PAD Medical Device Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.3 EMEA PAD Medical Device Sale Price by Type (2012-2017)2.3 EMEA PAD Medical Device (Volume) by Application2.4 EMEA PAD Medical Device (Volume and Value) by Region2.4.1 EMEA PAD Medical Device Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.2 EMEA PAD Medical Device Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.3 EMEA PAD Medical Device Sales Price by Region (2012-2017)3 Europe PAD Medical Device (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application3.1 Europe PAD Medical Device Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 Europe PAD Medical Device Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 Europe PAD Medical Device Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.2 Europe PAD Medical Device Sales and Market Share by Type3.3 Europe PAD Medical Device Sales and Market Share by Application3.4 Europe PAD Medical Device Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries3.4.1 Europe PAD Medical Device Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.2 Europe PAD Medical Device Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.3 Germany PAD Medical Device Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.4 France PAD Medical Device Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.5 UK PAD Medical Device Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.6 Russia PAD Medical Device Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.7 Italy PAD Medical Device Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.8 Benelux PAD Medical Device Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)ContinueEnquire About this Report -About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Details:90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free : 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email : press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite :Read Industry News at -
Pop Corn Market Research Report 2017 : Segmentation, Regional Outlook, Growth Drivers And Key Players

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Pop Corn Market research report helps to get access to industry data and upcoming trends which will give you avenues to know about the market. This report gives opportunities to go through with industry analysis, share and forecast, Providing brief description about the market size its competitors and product identification.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Pop Corn in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaRequest For Free Sample Of The Report @Global Pop Corn market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingConAgraWeaver PopcornPepsiCoAmplifySnyder's-LanceButterkistAmerican PopcornAngie's Artisan TreatsBorgesChamerfoodGarrett Popcorn ShopsNewman's OwnAramidth InternationalJoe and SephMage'sInter-GrainQuinnOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoReady-To-Eat PopcornMicrowave PopcornObtain Report Details @On the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingHouseholdCommercialIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About UsAlltake Market Research is division of the Alltake LLC. that offers premium quality market intelligence, market research, industry analysis reports & forecast data for different domains across the business industry.Alltake Market Research understands the importance of market analysis for any strategy that is implemented in any organization or association. In order to provide the best solution, Alltake Market Research have associated with major organizations within market research and consultancy firm. This portfolio offers market analysis report at one place for different business verticals. Alltake Market Research ensures to offer you with the most reliable and quality market research available.Contact UsAlltake Market Research16192, Coastal Highway Lewes,DE 19958, United StatesUS - 188 8587 9717UK - 4480 0680 0195Email sales@alltakemarketresearch.com
Tihar assault cases have also come to the Delhi High Court notice.

By Sneha Agrawal: Suspected ISIS operatives lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail are apparently living in terror . The high-risk ward inmates have moved court through their counsel MS Khan, seeking action after allegedly being thrashed by the prison staff.

The application mentions that on the night of November 21, the jail personnel had beaten them without any reason and caused injuries, while they have not even been provided adequate medical treatment after that.

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Speaking to Mail Today, the counsel said the 26 accused facing terror charges have reported violence and inhuman treatment inside the prison.

"Since the time inmates have started protesting and complaining of the inadequate facilities in the central jail, the authorities have begun issuing punishment tickets to them as a means of revenge."

While hearing the application, the Delhi court on Thursday directed Tihar Jail authorities to take appropriate action in an alleged incident of violence against suspected ISIS operatives and other inmates.

District judge Poonam Bamba passed the directions while disposing of a plea filed by three people - Suhail Ahmed, Mohd Obaidullah Khan and Imran - who are lodged in a high-risk ward of the central jail on charges of recruiting and financing people to join Islamic State.

The applicants have also alleged that every time they report an incident of harassment against the jail officials and demand CCTV footage, the authorities come up with the excuse of non-functional cameras.

With several incidents of physical assault being reported from the prison, it has also caught the attention of the Delhi High Court.

In the first week of November, justices S Muralidhar and IS Mehta directed the secretary of the home ministry to constitute a high-level committee to examine why CCTV cameras were not working at jail number 3, where 47 inmates were allegedly assaulted on September 14.

The court said the panel would also suggest state-of-the-art security measures, and comprise three members: a retired district judge, a senior officer of the National Informatics Centre or a government body with expertise in examining CCTVs, and an officer of the Delhi Police of the rank of DCP or above.

The court pulled up jail authorities and the Delhi government, saying that a functional CCTV camera in Tihar is a "non-compromisable imperative".

The court noted that Tihar Jail is "a high-security zone" with an inmate population of over 14,500, much higher than the sanctioned capacity of 6,000, but despite the overcrowding, it is sought to be projected as a "model jail".

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In another matter, 27-year-old Shamiun Rahman, a British national of Bangladeshi origin arrested for allegedly recruiting Rohingya youths for al-Qaeda to carry out terror activities, had also moved court, alleging sexual and physical harassment inside the jail.

The court in September had also sought a response from the jail authorities on a plea seeking action against erring prison staff for allegedly assaulting a close aide of gangster Neeraj Bawana and other inmates.

Khan said that there have been incidents where the inmates have been left paralysed and seriously injured and even got their bones fractured due to apathetic attitude of the authorities.

"Every accused lodged in the jail deserves to be treated with dignity and not like an animal. The jail authority is only the custodian and not their masters.

"They are duty bound to ensure safety and security of the accused," the application said.

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Global Testing, Inspection and Certification Industry 2017 Research Report with an Average Growth Rate of 4.86%

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Testing, Inspection and Certification Market 2017 Industry Research Report" to its huge collection of research reports.The thorough report here assembles different perspectives having a place with the general Testing, Inspection and Certification market which verbalizes the present-day data and future exposures with reference to the dynamic powers at play. The prime reason for the examination report is to offer the endorser with an extensive format and make accessible the helpful realities and records. The quantifiable and testing elucidations behind the examination other than executes data on issues, for example, drivers, shackles, and projections to gage the deferred outcome of the general Testing, Inspection and Certification market through the cross of the said gage period in the examination report. The report in like course passes on a brief and world class record of the predefined market follows, which joins a couple of occasions of the veritable fixations at work which are concentrated to trigger change in the market or may cause any negative effect.This report other than stations into the general Testing, Inspection and Certification market by in a general sense examining the thing and industrialized chain of the market. This is required to in like manner help in passing on honest to goodness information and data on compound parts of the fitting market, for example, material relating to systems for the regulating body in the standard and general strata, transport and transmission structure, goals, and explanations behind premium got for the contributed mean.Interpret a Competitive Analysis Report with Free PDF Sample :The major players in global market includeSGS GroupBureau VeritasDekra CertificationIntertekTUV SUDEurofins ScientificDNVTUV RheinlandThe report utilizes a couple of showed industry examination and whole contraptions. They permit the examination collect pass on an uncovered fundamental assessment of the general Testing, Inspection and Certification market and help endorser and market troupes to be counseled with respect to speculation and business judgments. The wide thinking of the examination gives a market position on an obvious and minute scale. It collects crucial and optional research structures thusly. The administrators have figured the recorded encounters and rose it from the forward and thusly around change the circumstance to plan a structure for the general Testing, Inspection and Certification market in the years ahead.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview11.1 Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Overview11.1.1 Testing, Inspection and Certification Product Scope11.1.2 Market Status and Outlook11.2 Global Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2012-2017)31.3 Testing, Inspection and Certification Market by End Users/Application102 Global Testing, Inspection and Certification Competition Analysis by Players162.1 Global Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Size by Players (2012-2017)162.2 Competitive Status and Trend192.2.1 Market Concentration Rate192.2.2 New Entrants19To Browse a Complete Report with TOC Visit @3 Analysis of Testing, Inspection and Certification Industry Key Manufacturers213.1 SGS Group213.1.1 Company Profile213.1.2 Product Information223.1.3 Testing, Inspection and Certification Revenue and Gross Margin223.2 Bureau Veritas243.2.1 Company Profile243.2.2 Product Information253.2.3 Testing, Inspection and Certification Revenue and Gross Margin253.3 Dekra Certification273.3.1 Company Profile273.3.2 Product Information283.3.3 Testing, Inspection and Certification Revenue and Gross Margin28List of Tables and FiguresGlobal Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Size Share by Players in 20161Figure Global Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Size (M USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2Figure Global Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)3Figure United States Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Size (M USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4Figure EU Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Size (M USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5Figure Japan Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Size (M USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6Figure China Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Size (M USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)7Figure Global Testing, Inspection and Certification Market Share by Application in 201611About 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 US:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Textile Chemicals Market - Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2023

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Textile Chemicals are an integral part of various commercial and industrial sectors, where any sort of fabric is used in operation. The textile chemicals are in huge demand owing to the enormous growing production of apparels and rising demand for home furnishings, floor coverings and smart textiles globally. With new and innovative textile and fabrics being developed and are becoming commercially available, the textile chemical manufacturers globally are manufacturing products for the future fabrics used specially for medical, construction, automotive and functional interior textiles. With the textile industry joining hands to produce and process sustainable and environment-friendly products, the prospects of bio-based chemicals are gradually growing within the textiles chemicals market, which in turn, is creating opportunity for the investors.Request For Sample Pages:The global textile chemicals market is expected to showcase a stable growth during the forecast period (2017-2023). The growing demand for apparels in emerging economies and the increasing middle-class income are the driving force for the growth of the textiles chemicals market. With textiles being used in various fields such as medicine, construction and architecture the need to develop multi-functional smart textile products to achieve such results is increasing the potential of the textile chemicals market globally. With help from innovation and ongoing research and developments, manufacturers are coming up with finishes such as anti-microbial textiles, wrinkle-resistant textiles and stain resistant textiles which in turn, is further creating scope for growth in the textile chemicals market.The textile chemicals market on the basis of application is segmented as apparels, automotive textiles, geo-textiles, home furnishing, industrial textiles, smart textiles and others. The home furnishing application dominated the segment, the growth of the home furnishing segment will be attributed to the remarkable growth of the construction industry in the developing economies. The various items under this segment includes curtains, toilet linen, coverings, kitchen linens, rugs, carpets and textile floors.To Browse Full Report Visit Here:The major restraints observed in the study includes increasing popularity for bio-based textiles, increasing labour cost in emerging economies and rising environmental concerns for the use of textile chemicals in developed countries. All of these factors are expected to hinder the swift flow of the global textile chemicals market during the forecast period.The major players in the global textile chemicals market are adopting significant competitive strategies such as merger, acquisitions and joint ventures to hold a competitive stance in the global market. Manufactures in the industry are undergoing continuous R&D to come up with cutting-edge advancement in the industry. Some of the key players in the global market include OMNOVA Solutions Inc., The DyStar Group, The Dow Chemical Company and Kiri Industries Limited.P&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.Contact:AbhishekManager  Client Partner347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:
Machine Condition Monitoring Market Research Depth Study with Opportunity Assessment, Developments, Future Estimations and Trends by Forecast 2023

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Market Research Future published a research report on Global Machine Condition Monitoring Market Research Report- Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market Synopsis of Machine Condition Monitoring MarketMarket ScenarioDuring the course of the 20th century, maintenance strategies have gone through many changes. Currently, predictive and proactive strategies present the maximum benefits at minimum expenditure. However, the preventive or scheduled maintenance approach is the most widely used strategy, particularly among the SMEs. This is mainly due to their reluctance to shift from a maintenance strategy that they have adapted over the years and the misconception that predictive and proactive strategies are expensive. With increased awareness, we expect the predictive and proactive approach to gain considerable momentum in the coming years.Get Sample of Report @Machine condition monitoring is the process of monitoring the condition of a machine with the commitment to predict mechanical wear and tear. Vibration, noise, and temperature measurements are often used as key indicators of the state of the machine. Trends in the data provide health information about the machine and help to detect machine faults early, which prevents unexpected failure and costly repair. It has been observed that an increase in need for reduced maintenance cost is boosting the machine condition monitoring market.The global Machine Condition Monitoring Market is expected to reach USD 2.91 billion by the end of 2023 with 5.55% CAGR during forecast period 2017-2023.Key Players:The prominent players in the market of Machine Condition Monitoring market are  Emerson Electric (U.S.), General Electric (U.S.), Rockwell Automation (U.S.), Timken (U.S.), FLIR Systems (U.S.), SKF (Swedan), NSK (Japan), Parker-Hannifin (U.S.), PCB Piezotronics (U.S.) among others.Global Machine Condition Monitoring Market StructureBy End Users Power Oil and Gas Chemical and Petrochemical Pulp and Paper Cement Steel and Metal Pharmaceutical Automotive Food and BeverageBy Region North America Europe Asia Pacific RowRegional Analysis:The global Machine Condition Monitoring market is estimated to grow at a promising rate in upcoming years. The global machine condition monitoring market is segmented on the basis of geography into regions as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of world. Globally, North America Machine Condition Monitoring market has been valued at USD 754.77 million in 2016. Europe and Asia Pacific is estimated to grow at promising rate during the forecast period.Get Complete Report @Intended Audience Machine Condition Monitoring Equipment Manufactures Technology Providers Distributors Research firms Consultancy firms Semiconductor Manufacturers Stakeholders End-user sectors Technology InvestorsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
KINGSBRIDGE WELCOMES GOVERNMENT PLEDGE TO CAREFULLY CONSULT ON IR35 PRIVATE SECTOR REFORM

Extension of public sector IR35 changes to the private sector in some shape or form now appears inevitable. Kingsbridge, one of the UKs leading providers of insurance to the contractor and freelancer industry, welcomes the governments commitment for consultation and analysis of the true impact of the public sector reforms, before introducing any further measures.While no announcement was made on the podium about IR35, the industry has been quick to spot two announcements hidden in the small print.3.7 Off-payroll working in the private sector  The government reformed the off-payroll working rules (known as IR35) for engagements in the public sector in April 2017. Early indications are that public sector compliance is increasing as a result, and therefore a possible next step would be to extend the reforms to the private sector, to ensure individuals who effectively work as employees are taxed as employees even if they choose to structure their work through a company. It is right that the government take account of the needs of businesses and individuals who would implement any change. Therefore the government will carefully consult on how to tackle non-compliance in the private sector, drawing on the experience of the public sector reforms, including through external research already commissioned by the government and due to be published in 2018.This pledge, to learn from the public sector IR35 reform and take time to consult on the changes, sends a clear message that a reform to IR35 regulations in the private sector is still firmly on the agenda. Questions remain around when and how, but not if it will happen.Its a move that will undeniably create extra compliance hurdles across the board. Using the public-sector movement as an example, we can expect to see more stringent compliance checks from both employers and fee payers, which could lead to an unfortunate but unsurprising reduction in the hiring of the flexible workforce.While an IR35 reform would be frustrating for the private sector, its good that the government are taking the time to consult. The biggest learning to take from the public-sector changes, is to avoid knee jerk-reactions.Following the April 2017 changes, we witnessed several end clients and recruiters look to impose blanket bans on engaging contractors alongside other steps, only to have to very quickly unwind these measures and take a more considered approach..We work as a compliance partner to hundreds of agencies and while they understand the need for better compliance practices, they still require support, guidance and time to adapt to the changes. We wouldnt expect to see any changes come into effect until at least April 2019, giving the market time to effectively plan for the change.Kingsbridge are an insurance provider to more than 35,000 limited company contractors and compliance partner to more than 500 recruitment agencies and contractor accountancy partners. Established for over 17 years, the Kingsbridge Group is ranked in the UKs top 50 independent insurance brokers.Kingsbridge Risk Solutions Ltd9 Miller CourtTewkesburyGloucestershireGL20 8DNUKFor press enquiries, contact:Samantha Magee - Marketing Managermobile: 07483300861email: samantha@kingsbridge.co.uk
Hardware Security Module Market Estimated to become worth US$40.43 Bn by 2025

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The future of the worldwide market for hardware security module is sound, with the demand predicted to increment at a healthy 11.6% CAGR over the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. At the forefront of driving the hardware security module (HSM) market is the increasing security concerns among data-sensitive companies across the world.To address this, enterprises are investing in cyber-security infrastructure, which in turn will drive the demand for hardware security module. Several governments are participating by laying stringent regulatory standards for vendors to adhere to the requisite cryptographic module.On the other hand, the high cost of implementation of HSM continues to be the most glaring challenge for the growth of this market. Considering all the dynamics, the global hardware security module market is estimated to be worth US$40.43 bn by the end of 2025.Obtain Report Details @Automobile and Transportation to Emerge as Profitable Industry Vertical SegmentOn the basis of type, the global hardware security module has been segmented into local interface, remote interface, USB token, and smart cards in this report. In 2015, remote interface HSM segment displayed the leading demand holding the leading revenue in the overall market. The segment was followed by local interface HSM type in terms of revenue share. Going forward, smart cards and USB tokens are anticipated to display robust growth on the back of the embedded features that these HSMs possess.Application-wise, the global hardware security module market has been bifurcated into authentication, database encryption, document signing, secure socket layer, code signing, PKI/credential management, payment processing, and application level encryption.At present, authentication and secure socket layer are posing more demand than other application segments; however, payment processing application segment is expected to gain significantly followed by credential and PKI management.Based on industry vertical, the market has been categorized into BFSI, government, technology and communication, industrial and manufacturing, energy and utility, retail and consumer products, healthcare and life sciences, and others. The other segment includes automobile, hospitality, and transportation.Request Sample @Asia Pacific to Clock Robust CAGR through 2025Region-wise, this report takes stock of the potential of hardware security module market in the regions of North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, South America, and the Middle East and Africa. Among these, North America hardware security module market is currently most profitable to serve a demand worth US$7.91 bn in 2017, and expanding at a CAGR of 11.0% for the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.On the other hand, powered by Japan, the demand in Asia Pacific hardware security module market will increase from 0.98bn in 2017 to 2.88 bn by 2025 at 14.4% CAGR for the period. While countries such as Australia have displayed relatively slow deployment of HSM, the growing need to protect the cryptographic key from malicious attacks will generally increase the pace of deployment of HSM in the region over the forecast period.Ultimaco GmbH, Thales e-Security Inc., Futurex, Gemalto NV, IBM Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development L.P., Yubico, Ultra Electronics, and SWIFT are the leading companies operating in the global HSM market.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:
Global Aromatic Solvents Market Expected To Reach At A CAGR Of 3.03% Throughout The Forecast Period 2017 - 2021

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Aromatic Solvents Market Expected To Reach At A CAGR Of 3.03% Throughout The Forecast Period 2017 - 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.Solvents are used to dissolve the solute, to form a solution. Water is the most common example of a solvent. The solvents bring out the properties of certain substances. Aromatic solvents are cyclic hydrocarbons containing an aromatic hydrocarbon. These are generally obtained by the distillation of crude petroleum stock in oil refining industries. They have strict regulations because of their impact on health and environment.Technavios analysts forecast the global aromatic solvents market to grow at a CAGR of 3.03% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global aromatic solvents market for 2017-2021. The report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:APACEuropeNorth AmericaROWTechnavio's report, Global Aromatic Solvents 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.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Key vendorsExxon MobilPampa EnergaReliance IndustriesShell InternationalSK global chemicalTotalOther prominent vendorsArham PetrochemChevron Phillips Chemicals CompanyDEZAEastman Chemical CompanyGalp EnergiaGanga RasayanieHanwha GroupJiangsu HualunKandla Energy & ChemicalsKorea Petrochemical IndMonument ChemicalS-OIL CORPORATIONVIRENTBrowse TOC @Market driverDemand and exports from APACFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeVOC and HAP regulationsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendEnvironment-friendly solventsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Frozen Seafoods Market Details that Becuase of Growth in Demand for Frozen Seafood Snacks driving its Market Growth

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Frozen Seafoods Market by Global Brands, Countries, Type and Applications 2017 updated report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Frozen Seafoods market focusing on the market size and trends with industry structure reviewThis report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringAquaChileClearwater SeafoodHigh Liner FoodsIglo GroupLeroy SeafoodMarine HarvestAustevoll SeafoodToyo Suisan KaishaLyons SeafoodsSajo IndustriesMarine InternationalSurapon Foods PublicTassal GroupTri Marine InternationalCollins SeafoodsRequest a Sample on Frozen Seafoods Market atOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoFishShellfishShrimpOtherBy Application, the market can be split intoSupermarkets and HypermarketsSeafood Specialist RetailersOtherBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaBrowse Complete Report on Frozen Seafoods Market atKey Point from Table of Contents:1 Industry Overview of Frozen Seafoods2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Frozen Seafoods3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Frozen Seafoods4 Global Frozen Seafoods Overall Market Overview5 Frozen Seafoods Regional Market Analysis6 Global 2012-2017E Frozen Seafoods Segment Market Analysis-by Type)7 Global 2012-2017E Frozen Seafoods Segment Market Analysis-by Application)8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Frozen Seafoods9 Development Trend of Analysis of Frozen Seafoods Market10 Frozen Seafoods Marketing Type Analysis11 Consumers Analysis of Frozen Seafoods12 Conclusion of the Global Frozen Seafoods Market Professional Survey Report 2017Purchase 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. 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
Canada Beer and Cider Market 2017: Key Players  Labatt, Big Rock Brewery, Carlsberg Canada, Molson Coors Brewing Company

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SUMMARYWiseGuyReports published new report, titled Canada Beer and Cider Market InsightsCanada Beer and Cider Market Insights 2017 report provides a complete overview of the Canada beer and cider industry structure offering a comprehensive insight into historical background trends, 2016 performance and 2017 outlook.GET SAMPLE REPORT @ScopeCovering total market (on and off-premise) the report details - 2011-2016 actual detailed beer consumption volume data by segment, brand, brewer, packaging and distribution (on-/off-premise), with 2017 forecasts.- Value by distribution channel 2011-2016, with 2017 forecasts.- Overview of the competitive landscape in the beer and cider market, with analysis of key company performance.- Insightful and valuable analysis of the drivers behind both current and emerging trends in the beer and cider market.Key points to buy- Gain an in-depth understanding of the dynamics and structure of the Canada beer and cider industry, from the latest competitive intelligence of both historical and forecast trends to enhance your corporate strategic planning.- Evaluate the current emerging trends and future growth opportunities in the Canada beer and cider market to support your brand development and marketing initiatives.- Understand volume vs. value trends and identify the key growth opportunities across the super-premium, premium, mainstream and discount segments to best target profitability.- Analyze domestic and imported beer brand performance and determine the key trends driving consumption preference to develop a competitive advantage.- Interrogate the unique granularity of our data to analyze the market on a variety of levels to make well-informed decisions on future threats and growth prospects in the marketplace for your company.Table of Contents1. Executive Summary2. Market Context3. Emerging Trends4. Brands and Private Label5. Market Share by Brewer6. Packaging Trends7. Channel and Pricing Trends8. Marketing and Innovation9. Outlook10. Appendix11. Methodology12. Product Definitions..CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially checkFor updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially checkWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Carotid Stents Market Detailed Study on Size, Status & Leading Key Players

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HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Carotid Stents market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global Carotid Stents market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people get ready-to-access and self-analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges. The study is segmented by Application/ end users [Vascular Surgery, Neurosurgery & Cardiology], products type [PTA, CAS & CEA] and various important geographies like United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global Carotid Stents market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers such as Abbott Vascular, Boston Scientific, Covidien, Gore Medical, InspireMD, Medtronic, Terumo, Optimed & Cardinal Health. The in-depth information by segments of Carotid Stents market helps monitor future profitability & to make critical decisions for growth. The information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Global Carotid Stents Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global Carotid Stents Market, some of them listed here are Abbott Vascular, Boston Scientific, Covidien, Gore Medical, InspireMD, Medtronic, Terumo, Optimed & Cardinal Health. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Get customization & check discount for report @Global Carotid Stents (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as PTA, CAS & CEA. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Vascular Surgery, Neurosurgery & Cardiology with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Carotid Stents in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022.What this Research Study Offers:Global Carotid Stents Market share assessments for the regional and country level segmentsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersStrategic recommendations for the new entrantsMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional marketsMarket Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsCompetitive landscaping mapping the key common trendsCompany profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developmentsSupply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsBuy this research report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Carotid Stents market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Carotid Stents , Applications of Carotid Stents , Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Carotid Stents , Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia, Carotid Stents Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Carotid Stents Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Carotid Stents ;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [PTA, CAS & CEA], Market Trend by Application [Vascular Surgery, Neurosurgery & Cardiology];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Carotid Stents ;Chapter 12, to describe Carotid Stents Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Carotid Stents sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or AsiaHTF 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 Corrugated Boxes Market is Projected to Increase Further to US$115.15 bn by the End of 2022

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A new report added to the repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine Corrugated Boxes Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022 is a comprehensive repository of information, providing market share, size, and forecastRequest for Sample Report @Global Corrugated Boxes Market: OverviewOf late, the global market for corrugated boxes has been witnessing a surge in the valuation and is expected to remain observing so over the next few years. In this research report, an in-depth and strategic analysis and the growth forecast of the worldwide corrugated boxes market for the period between 2017 and 2022 is offered to readers. Under the scope of this research study, the assessments of various segments in this market that are differentiated on the basis of the efficiency, sector, capacity, and the geography, are included.The report, further, provides a comprehensive assessment of several factors, such as the driving factors and limiting forces, as well as lucrative opportunities, which will influence the growth of this market in the near future. Apart from all these factors, the key trends, which impact the overall growth of this market have been identified in this study. Furthermore, an exhaustive assessment of this market, together with the estimations regarding its growth during the forecast period has also been discussed at length in research report. Together with this, it also concentrates on the rise in the demand for various corrugated boxes across the world in the years to come.Global Corrugated Boxes Market: SegmentationThe report consists of in-depth evaluation of the performance of various segments in the global market for corrugated boxes, analyzed on the basis of the source of the material, end user, packaging form, and the type of board. Based on the source of the material, the market has been classified into virgin fiber and recycled fiber.By the end user, the market has been categorized into the food, beverages, tobacco, healthcare, personal care and cosmetics, homecare and toiletries, electronic and consumer durables, e-commerce, and chemical and fertilizers. In terms of the packaging form, the market has been bifurcated into primary packaging and secondary packaging. Based on the type of board, the market is divided into single wall, double wall, and triple wall.Global Corrugated Boxes Market: Geographical OutlookOn the basis of geography, the worldwide market for corrugated boxes has been segmented into Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Latin America, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), North America, and Japan. Moreover, the analysis of the performance for the key countries, such as Canada and the U.S. (North America), Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina (Latin America), Italy, Germany, the U.K., France, and Spain (Europe), India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, and the Rest of APEJ (APEJ), GCC countries, South Africa, Israel, and the Rest of MEA (MEA), and Japan have also been presented in this research report.Further, the research study presents a qualitative assessment of the factors responsible for driving as well as restraining the growth of the global corrugated boxes market in each of these regions. It also discusses the regional or country specific trends, which influence the overall market globally.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Global Corrugated Boxes Market: Competitive AnalysisFor better decision making, the competitive evaluation and the profile reviews of the key players in this market have been covered within the scope of this research study. Along with this, the respective market share, prominent developments, and key business strategies, adopted by the key participants for the progress of their businesses have also been studied thoroughly in this research report.Stora Enso Oyj., International Paper Co., Smurfit Kappa Group Plc., Pratt Industries Inc., Sonoco Products Co., Huhtamaki Oyj, WestRock Co., KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp., DS Smith Plc., and Georgia Pacific LLC are some of the key vendors of corrugated boxes in the global market.Send an Enquiry @Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
By Indo-Asian News Service: Across eight major cities in India, Jaipur emerged as the most expensive three-day break destination for December at Rs 45,351 while Pune was the cheapest at Rs 34,704, a survey said on Thursday.

The study, which compared the cost of a three-day break for December in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune and Jaipur, found that the average price for a short break was Rs 39,693 (excluding flights), with prices varying significantly from the least to the most expensive.

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Travel site TripAdvisor's seventh edition of its annual "TripIndex Cities" took into account typical in-destination costs for two people which included a four-star hotel for three nights, a visit to five attractions, lunch each day, a taxi to and from dinner each day including the cost of dinner.

"TripAdvisor's Tripindex Cities report is a great indicator of the costs involved for a short stay during this period and helps travellers to assess the various aspects of their travel so they can feel confident of their choices and of making the absolute most of their trip," said Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India.

Also Read:5 exciting things to do in the royal Pink City

The survey highlighted that for eating out, travellers could get the best value for lunch and dinner in Kolkata at Rs 2,730 and Rs 8,325 respectively while Chennai was the most expensive for dinner at Rs 13,326 and New Delhi for lunch at Rs 4,188.

"Three taxi journeys of six kilometre each in New Delhi can set you back by Rs 1,440 while the same distance in Pune, Jaipur, Bangalore and Hyderabad are almost half at Rs 756, Rs 708, Rs 696 and Rs 636 respectively," said the study.

The Tripindex Cities report revealed that prices to visitor attractions varied significantly.

"With some destinations predominantly offering free or low entrance fee such as Pune and Chennai as compared with other destinations where attractions are a key part of the overall cost like Hyderabad and Bangalore," it added.

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Global Raw Steel Market by Software Applications, by Hardware Type, and by Service Type  Forecast to 2022

Global Raw Steel Market by Software Applications, by Hardware Type, and by Service Type  Forecast to 2022

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ReportsMonitor.com has added Global Raw Steel Market Research Report 2017.The research article entitled Worldwide Raw Steel Market offers very useful reviews into the generic market trends and also the features that propel this Universal market place. This sector analyse deeply covers the main features of the Global Raw Steel Market about the Industry structure including landscaping plan, the issues, require opportunities, including the anticipated industry success.Scope Of The Report:This report focuses on the Raw Steel in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Middle East & Africa, India, South America, Others. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Top Key manufactures of Raw Steel Market are ArcelorMittal, Hesteel Group, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, POSCO, Baosteel Group, Jiangsu Shagang, Ansteel Group, JFE, Shougang, Tata Steel, Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation, Shandong Iron and Steel Group, Hyundai Steel, Nucor Corporation, Maanshan Iron and Steel Company.Get Sample PDF of Raw Steel Market Report@Raw Steel Market Segment by Type covers: Non-alloy Steel, Low-alloy Steel, Alloy Steel, Stainless Steel.Raw Steel Market Segment by Application covers: Construction, Transport, Energy Infrastructures, Packaging, Appliances and Industry.The Raw Steel Market, presents critical information and factual data about the global Raw Steel Market, providing an overall statistical study of this market on the basis of market drivers, market limitations, and its future prospects. The widespread global Raw Steel opportunities and trends are also taken into consideration in Raw Steel industry.Check Discount on this report@Some points from TOC:1 Global Raw Steel Market Size (Sales Volume) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)2 Global Raw Steel Market Size (Sales Volume) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20163 Global Raw Steel Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)4 Global Raw Steel Market Competition by Players/Suppliers5 Global Raw Steel Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Type (Product Category) (2012-2017)6 Global Raw Steel Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data7 Raw Steel Manufacturing Cost Analysis8 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers9 Global Raw Steel Market Size (Value and Volume) Forecast (2017-2022)Pre Order Enquiry for Raw Steel Market report @All aspects of the Raw Steel industry report are quantitatively as well as qualitatively assessed to study the global as well as regional market comparatively. The basic information such as the definition, prevalent chain and the government regulations pertaining to the Raw Steel market are also discussed in the report.About UsReports Monitor (ReportsMonitor.com) is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. The prime focus is to get reliable data, Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Contact UsJay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911Email: sales@reportsmonitor.comWebsite:
Market For Orthopedic Surgical Robots and Surgical Robotic Assist Robots: Shares, Strategy, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2016 to 2022

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Market For Orthopedic Surgical Robots and Surgical Robotic Assist Robots: Shares, Strategy, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2016 to 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.The accuracy provided by the robot is not reproducible by the human surgeon, so ultimately all surgeons will want to perform the orthopedic implants using this technology.Robot assisted medial knee arthroplasty: orthopedic surgical robots are poised to take knee and hip surgery quality far beyond what has previously been available. The quality of knee arthroplasty is improved with robotic capability. All the advantages of surgical robots carry into the Stryker Mako orthopedic reconstruction surgical products. When the knee and hip surgical robots are used, patients have less bleeding, reduction of post-operative pain, fewer re-admissions to hospital and faster recovery. Robots support high-precision surgery. A clinic in Switzerland, La Source, has reported a reduction in the average days of hospitalization from 10 to 6.Surgical robots provide consistent reproducible precision. This capability is so significant for implant surgery that the robots are positioned to become the defacto standard of care for knee and hip surgery within five years. Any one getting a knee or hip replaced will demand clinician attention to quality of life, to maintenance of lifestyle provided by a robot when they have a joint replacement.As next generation systems, hip and knee robotic units provide a way to improve traditional orthopedic hip and knee replacement surgery. Total hip replacement surgery has evolved dramatically as advances in technology have brought improved surgical techniques. Surgical robots and robotic assist devices are a significant part of that advance.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Once, the penetration achieves a 35% level, all orthopedic surgeons will demand that hospitals offer robotic orthopedic surgical capability because the outcomes are more predictable and better. If the hospital does not offer the robot, the surgeon will move to a more modern facility. Once some hospitals are offering superior outcomes, all hospitals must come up tot that standard, the good physicians will migrate to the good technology and the patients will follow. This market has exceeded the threshold of 100 paid successful installations, that is the watermark for strong technology growth.Knee and hip surgical robot procedures and robotically assisted surgeries have been impacted by the reduction in insurance payments. Payment reductions have forced hospitals to start acting as businesses. The cost of delivering care has become as much a factor as providing quality care when making decisions about patient improvement in condition. Cost-cutting has been made in the supply chain. Suppliers were examined closely for quality and cost.The number of suppliers is reduced to put pressure on the ones that remain. Those remaining are pressured to improve prices and efficiencies. Hospitals, physicians, and care providers have been financially incentivized to create accountable care organizations (ACOs). Coordinated patient care plans and value-based purchasing were rewarded. The med device buyer shifted from physicians to the ACOs and smart buying groups.Browse TOC @Stryker has thrived in this cost efficient environment with a surgical robot that permits faster surgeries, more cost efficient surgeries. In addition, Stryker offers an integrated system. The ability to include a Mako total knee application with Stryker Triathlon total knee system is anticipated to increase market share for Stryker. Stryker market leading Triathlon total knee system is helped in the market by the robot simply by the improved surgical technique possible. Surgical robots are proving themselves in a variety of disciplines, lending credibility to the Stryker robotic initiative.According to Susan Eustis, lead author of the study, Use of the robot with the orthopedic implant represents a key milestone in reconstructive surgery. Robots provide an opportunity to transform orthopedics. By furthering the growth of robotic-arm assisted surgery, patients can get better treatment. By enhancing the surgeon and patient experience is is likely that the entire orthopedics implant market will grow more rapidly than it would otherwise.Stryker uses the Mako to perform partial knee resurfacing and is happy to add robotic capability to total knee resurfacing. Technology is enhancing a wide variety of procedures in many surgical specialties. Omni has had remarkable success with its robotic assist device. Joint stiffness and joint instability are eliminated with the use of the Omni device.The aging US population has supported demand, since the occurrence of health issues that require medical devices is higher in the elderly population. Buoyed by strong demand and sales, industry profit margins have increased considerably during the past five years. The aging of the population worldwide is anticipated to trigger further growth of these markets.Hospitals are adopting robotic surgical devices to improve their outcomes numbers. Hospitals are measured on outcomes, robots for surgery, when used by a trained physician are improving outcomes significantly. Hundreds of universities worldwide have research programs in robotics and many are awarding degrees in robotics. These roboticists are increasingly being hired by Global 2000 organizations to link mobile robots (mobile computers) into existing IT systems.Robot-assisted surgery gives the surgeon better control over the surgical instruments and a better view of the surgical site.Hip and knee orthopedic surgical robot device markets at $222 million in 2015 are anticipated to reach $5 billion by 2022 as next generation robotic devices, systems, and instruments are introduced to manage surgery.The complete report provides a comprehensive analysis including procedure numbers, units sold, market value, forecasts, as well as a detailed competitive market shares and analysis of major players success, challenges, and strategies in each segment and sub-segment. The reports cover markets for knee and hip robotic orthopedic surgery medical specialties and sub-specialties.WinterGreen Research is an independent research organization funded by the sale of market research studies all over the world and by the implementation of ROI models that are used to calculate the total cost of ownership of equipment, services, and software. The company has 35 distributors worldwide, including Global Information Info Shop, Market Research.com, Research and Markets, Bloomberg, and Thompson Financial. It conducts its business with integrity.WinterGreen Research is an independent research organization funded by the sale of market research studies all over the world and by the implementation of ROI models that are used to calculate the total cost of ownership of equipment, services, and software. The company has 35 distributors worldwide, including Global Information Info Shop, Market Research.com, Research and Markets, and Thompson Financial. WinterGreen Research is positioned to help customers facing challenges that define the modern enterprises. The increasingly global nature of science, technology and engineering is a reflection of the implementation of the globally integrated enterprise. Customers trust wintergreen research to work alongside them to ensure the success of the participation in a particular market segment.WinterGreen Research supports various market segment programs; provides trusted technical services to the marketing departments. It carries out accurate market share and forecast analysis services for a range of commercial and government customers globally. These are all vital market research support solutions requiring trust and integrity.Companies ProfiledMarket LeadersStryker / MakoOmniSmith & NephewMarket ParticipantsJohnson & Johnson / DePuy SynthesShenzhen Advanced Institute Spinal Surgical RobotSmith & NephewStryker / MakoTHINK SurgicalWright Medical TechnologyZimmer BiometKey TopicsJoint Surgical RoboticsKnee Surgical RoboticsHip Surgical RoboticsOrthopedic Surgical RoboticsRobotic surgerySmart InstrumentsMedical DevicesHealthcare RoboticsEnabling TechnologyRobotic-Assisted Minimally Invasive SurgeryRobotic Surgical SystemRobotic Surgery EquipmentAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Recruitment Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Recruitment Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast" to its huge collection of research reports.Recruitment is the process of attracting, screening, and selecting a qualified person (from within or outside of an organization) for a job opening. The global recruitment/staffing industry comprises of recruitment or employment agencies providing for services of recruiting staff/employees for various business enterprises in different sectors. Such companies hire these employment agencies to recruit personnel to carry out their business operations. The recruitment market can be segmented into temporary and permanent staffing markets on the basis of job duration.The temporary staffing market is cyclical in nature and establishes high correlation with the global GDP. Permanent staffing market also maintains a positive relation with economic conditions. Both permanent and temporary staffing markets have a positive relation with the deregulation of labor market. The staffing market varies considerably from one country to another with the U.S., Japan and the UK showing the highest degree of fragmentation. North America represented the single largest market measured in terms of revenues followed by Japan, the UK, France and Germany.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The EU region continues to struggle with its economic revival, especially France, Spain, Greece, among others. Income growth has also come under pressure from rising unemployment, putting downward pressure on real wages in many advanced economies. With the economic revival in the coming years, sources of new employment opportunities can be expected; however, the continuing challenge in overcoming the problem of skill gap in both advanced and emerging economies will continue to affect the revenue growth of the staffing industry.Most of the mergers and acquisitions that took place in the IT & Healthcare segment and involved middle sized staffing firms as they proved to be attractive acquisition targets, offering geographic coverage and differentiated services. The staffing industry acquisition activities remain primarily driven by privately held strategic buyers, as the larger and better known public staffing companies.Browse TOC @Table of Content1. Market Overview1.1 Recruitment1.2 Types of Recruitment1.3 Recruitment Strategies1.4 Industry Definition2. Global Recruitment Market2.1 Global Recruitment Market by Value2.2 Global Recruitment Market by Regions2.3 Global Recruitment Market by Services2.4 Global Recruitment Market by Employment Type2.5 Global Temporary Recruitment Market by Value2.6 Global Temporary Recruitment Market by Regions3. North American Recruitment Market3.1 The U.S. Recruitment/Staffing Market by Value3.2 The U.S. Staffing Market by Segments3.3 The U.S. Temporary Staffing Market3.1.1 The U.S. Temporary Staffing Market by Value3.3.2 The U.S. Temporary & Contract Staffing Market by Volume3.3.3 The U.S. Temporary Staffing Market by Segments3.4 The U.S. Permanent Staffing Market3.4.1 The U.S. Permanent Staffing Market by ValueAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Latest News About Global Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Market: Research, Technology Growth and Demand

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Latest News About Global Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Market: Research, Technology Growth and Demand" to its huge collection of research reports.Cardiac rhythm management (CRM) is a well-established segment of the cardiology devices market. CRM majorly consists of devices such as implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD), implantable pacemakers, and other CRM monitoring devices. Cardiac rhythm management devices are commonly used for the treatment of arrhythmias specifically superventricular arrhythmias (SVA) and ventricular arrhythmias (VA) and heart failure. CRM devices can be very efficient in decreasing the number of Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD). SCD is an unexpected death due to cardiac causes occurring in a short time period (generally within 1 hour of symptom onset) in a person with known or unknown cardiac disease.The emerging markets are offering significant potential for companies able to establish distribution channels in the region. However, low reimbursement and costs of living provide intense pricing pressure for market entrants. With limited financial resources available, current devices are largely unaffordable in developing countries, and significant reductions are expected in future as manufacturing operations improve and distribution becomes more global. In response to significant cost concerns, there are many companies which are developing value-tier platforms that enable the sale of lower-cost devices. As physician use and adoption continues to increase in these regions, significant market expansion is expected.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report provides a comprehensive study of global cardiac rhythm management (CRM) market and also the regional markets. The competition in the global CRM market is intense among large players like Medtronic, St. Jude Medical and Boston Scientific. All these companies have been profiled in the present report highlighting their key financials and business strategies for growth.The key factors driving the growth of the CRM market are growing consumption of tobacco and alcohol, rising global population, rising healthcare expenditure, the rise of irrigated RF ablation catheter device, expansion in emerging markets and increasing prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias. Some of the noteworthy trends and developments of this industry are new product launch, rising demand of leadless pacemaker, ICD procedure growth trend, increased adoption of subcutaneous ICD, introduction of quadripolar lead devices. However, the expansion of market is hindered by regulatory and environment issues.Browse TOC @Table of Content1. Market Overview1.1 Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices1.2 Types of Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices1.2.1 Catheter Ablation1.2.2 Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT)1.2.3 Implantable CardioverterDefibrillator (ICD)1.2.4 Pacemakers2. Cardiac Rhythm Management Analysis2.1 Global CRM MarketAnnual Market ValueQuarterly Market ValueGrowth Rate2.1.1 Global ICD MarketAnnual Market ValueQuarterly Market ValueGrowth Rate2.1.2 Global Pacemaker MarketAnnual Market ValueQuarterly Market ValueGrowth RateAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Synthetic Paper Market: Global Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2017-2022

Synthetic Paper Market 2017 Global Market analysis and Industry Forecast

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ReportsMonitor.com has added Global Synthetic Paper Market Research Report 2017.The research article entitled Worldwide Synthetic Paper Market offers very useful reviews into the generic market trends and also the features that propel this Universal market place. This sector analyse deeply covers the main features of the Global Synthetic Paper Market about the Industry structure including landscaping plan, the issues, require opportunities, including the anticipated industry success.Scope Of The Report:This report focuses on the Synthetic Paper in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Middle East & Africa, India, South America, Others. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Top Key manufactures of Synthetic Paper Market are Yupo, Nan Ya Plastics, Arjobex, Treofan Group, Dupont Tyvek, PPG Industries, HOP Industries, American Profol, Taghleef Industries.Get Sample PDF of Synthetic Paper Market Report@Synthetic Paper Market Segment by Type covers: BOPP, HDPE, Other.Synthetic Paper Market Segment by Application covers: Label, Non-Label.The Synthetic Paper Market, presents critical information and factual data about the global Synthetic Paper Market, providing an overall statistical study of this market on the basis of market drivers, market limitations, and its future prospects. The widespread global Synthetic Paper opportunities and trends are also taken into consideration in Synthetic Paper industry.Check Discount on this report@Some points from TOC:1 Global Synthetic Paper Market Size (Sales Volume) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)2 Global Synthetic Paper Market Size (Sales Volume) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20163 Global Synthetic Paper Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)4 Global Synthetic Paper Market Competition by Players/Suppliers5 Global Synthetic Paper Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Type (Product Category) (2012-2017)6 Global Synthetic Paper Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data7 Synthetic Paper Manufacturing Cost Analysis8 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers9 Global Synthetic Paper Market Size (Value and Volume) Forecast (2017-2022)Pre Order Enquiry for Synthetic Paper Market report @All aspects of the Synthetic Paper industry report are quantitatively as well as qualitatively assessed to study the global as well as regional market comparatively. The basic information such as the definition, prevalent chain and the government regulations pertaining to the Synthetic Paper market are also discussed in the report.About UsReports Monitor (ReportsMonitor.com) is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. The prime focus is to get reliable data, Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Contact UsJay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911Email: sales@reportsmonitor.comWebsite:
Global Smart Baggage Handling System Market: Players Seek Collaborations to Accelerate Growth

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In a competitive global smart baggage handling system market, keen players are hard-focused on collaborations to expand their outreach and to accelerate their pace of gains. In matters of competition, the global smart baggage handling system market is expected to witness the entry of small-sized players that will further intensify competition in this market.Some of the key growth drivers of the global smart baggage handling system market are a modernization of existing airports, growth in the number of airports and air travelers, and adoption of systems with improved accuracy for baggage handling and baggage tracking.In emerging economies, construction of new airports that are equipped with state-of-the-art technology is benefiting the smart baggage handling system market. The installation of these systems enable easy tracking and handling a large volume of baggage which is critical to the growing air traffic in these regions.Obtain Report Details @As per estimates of a report by Transparency Market Research, the global smart baggage handling system market will clock an impressive 19.3% CAGR from 2017 to 2025. If the figure holds true, the markets valuation of US$1,508.6 mn in 2106 will become US$7,210.8 mn by the end of 2025.Radio Frequency Identification Scanning Technology Preferred due Virtues of ReliabilityThe report studies the global smart baggage handling system market on the basis of mode of transportation, technology, solution, and region. In terms of airport, the market is segmented into airport and railway station. The segments of the global smart baggage handling system market based on technology are radio frequency identification system (RFID) and barcode system.On the basis of mode of transportation, the global smart baggage handling system market is divided into airport and railway station. The segment of airport is further sub-segmented into international and domestic. The international airport segment is expected to represent a sizeable share of the overall market over the forecast period.The segments of the market depending upon solution are sorting, conveying, tracking and tracing, diverting, and others.Request Sample @Powered by the U.S., North America to Display Robust CAGR through 2025Geography-wise, the report studies the growth prospects of the global smart baggage handling system market across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and South America. North America is the key region for smart baggage handling systems due to a significant growth in the construction of new airports in the last couple of years.The North America smart baggage handling system market is anticipated to display a phenomenal 20.5% CAGR over the forecast period between 2017 and 2025. The U.S. currently accounts for the leading revenue contribution to the region and going forward the U.S. is estimated to rise at a significant CAGR over the forecast period.Prominent participants in the global smart baggage handling system market include Daifuku Web Siemens Group, Pteris Global Limited, Fives Group, G&S Airport Conveyor, Vanderlande Industries, Alstef Automation S.A., SITA, Beumer Group, and Scarabee Systems & Technology B.V.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:
Switzerland Beer and Cider Market 2017: Key Players  FeldschlOsschen, Heineken Switzerland, Schutzengarten, Rugenbrau

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SUMMARYWiseGuyReports published new report, titled Switzerland Beer and Cider Market InsightsSwitzerland Beer and Cider Market Insights 2017 report provides a complete overview of the Switzerland beer and cider industry structure offering a comprehensive insight into historical background trends, 2016 performance and 2017 outlook.GET SAMPLE REPORT @ScopeCovering total market (on and off-premise) the report details -- 2011-2016 actual detailed beer consumption volume data by segment, brand, brewer, packaging and distribution (on-/off-premise), with 2017 forecasts.- Value by distribution channel 2011-2016, with 2017 forecasts.- Overview of the competitive landscape in the beer and cider market, with analysis of key company performance.- Insightful and valuable analysis of the drivers behind both current and emerging trends in the beer and cider market.Key points to buy- Gain an in-depth understanding of the dynamics and structure of the Switzerland beer and cider industry, from the latest competitive intelligence of both historical and forecast trends to enhance your corporate strategic planning.- Evaluate the current emerging trends and future growth opportunities in the Switzerland beer and cider market to support your brand development and marketing initiatives.- Understand volume vs. value trends and identify the key growth opportunities across the super-premium, premium, mainstream and discount segments to best target profitability.- Analyze domestic and imported beer brand performance and determine the key trends driving consumption preference to develop a competitive advantage.- Interrogate the unique granularity of our data to analyze the market on a variety of levels to make well-informed decisions on future threats and growth prospects in the marketplace for your company.Table of Contents1. Executive Summary2. Market Context3. Emerging Trends4. Brands and Private Label5. Market Share by Brewer6. Packaging Trends7. Channel and Pricing Trends8. Marketing and Innovation9. Outlook10. Appendix11. Methodology12. Product Definitions..CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially checkFor updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially checkWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Automotive Wire Market 2022: Import-Export, Industry Chain Structure and Development Opportunities

Automotive Wire Market

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In-depth analysis of Automotive Wire Market presents volume and value of market share, also it covers a top to bottom Research of the Automotive Wire Market showcase state and the focused scene all inclusive. This report breaks down the capability of market in the present and the future prospects from different edges in detail.Automotive wire is an important part of automotive electronic control system. It is bonded, twisted, or braided together to form a single assembly as the circuit in an automotive. Automotive wires are used to transmit electric power, data and other signals as voice in the vehicles. The working environment required the wire to have characteristics like high temperature resistant.Get Sample PDF of the Report@Automotive Wire Market Segment by Manufacturers includes Yazaki, Sumitomo Electric, Delphi, LEONI, Lear, Yura, Furukawa Electric, Coficab, PKC Group, Kyungshin, Beijing Force, Fujikura, Coroplast, General Cable, Shanghai Shenglong, Beijing S.P.L.This report categorize based on analysis of definitions, classifications, applications, types, share and industry chain structure.Automotive Wire Market Segment by Type includes Cooper Core, Aluminum Core, Others.Automotive Wire Market Segment by Applications includes Body, Chassis, Engine, HVAC, Speed Sensors, Other.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Automotive Wire in Asia-Pacific market, especially in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, India and Australia. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries/Regions, type and application.Get Discount in this report @There are 19 Chapters to deeply display the Asia-Pacific Automotive Wire market.Chapter 1, to describe Automotive Wire Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by countries, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Automotive Wire, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the Asia-Pacific market by countries, covering China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, India and Australia, with sales, price, revenue and market share of Automotive Wire, for each country, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 to analyze the key countries by manufacturers, Type and Application,covering China,Japan,Korea,Southeast Asia, Taiwan, India and Australia,with sales,revenue and market share by manufacturers,types and application;Chapter 14, Automotive Wire market forecast, by countries, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 15, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 16, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers).About UsReports Monitor (ReportsMonitor.com) is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. The prime focus is to get reliable data, Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Contact UsJay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911Email: sales@reportsmonitor.comWebsite:
Colocation Market Pegged for Robust Expansion During 2017-22

Colocation Market

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HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Colocation market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global Colocation market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people get ready-to-access and self-analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges. The study is segmented by Application/ end users [Banking, Financial and Insurance, Government & Public, Telecom & IT, Energy & Others], products type [Retail Colocation & Wholesale Colocation] and various important geographies like United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global Colocation market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers such as Equinix, Digital Realty, NTT Communications, CenturyLink, Interxion, Verizon Enterprise, Telehouse, AT&T, DFT, Rackspace, Navisite, Colt, Coresite, SunGard Availability Services, I/O Data Centers, Internap, Level 3 Communications, Peer 1 Hosting, QTS, TeraGo Networks, Windstream, Global Switch, Cyrusone, 21Vianet, ChinaCache, ChinaNetCenter, Netbank & 51IDC. The in-depth information by segments of Colocation market helps monitor future profitability & to make critical decisions for growth. The information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Global Colocation Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global Colocation Market, some of them listed here are Equinix, Digital Realty, NTT Communications, CenturyLink, Interxion, Verizon Enterprise, Telehouse, AT&T, DFT, Rackspace, Navisite, Colt, Coresite, SunGard Availability Services, I/O Data Centers, Internap, Level 3 Communications, Peer 1 Hosting, QTS, TeraGo Networks, Windstream, Global Switch, Cyrusone, 21Vianet, ChinaCache, ChinaNetCenter, Netbank & 51IDC. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Global Colocation (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Retail Colocation & Wholesale Colocation. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Banking, Financial and Insurance, Government & Public, Telecom & IT, Energy & Others with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Colocation in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @What this Research Study Offers:Global Colocation Market share assessments for the regional and country level segmentsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersStrategic recommendations for the new entrantsMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional marketsMarket Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsCompetitive landscaping mapping the key common trendsCompany profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developmentsSupply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsBuy this research report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Colocation market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Colocation , Applications of Colocation , Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Colocation , Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia, Colocation Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Colocation Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Colocation ;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Retail Colocation & Wholesale Colocation], Market Trend by Application [Banking, Financial and Insurance, Government & Public, Telecom & IT, Energy & Others];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Colocation ;Chapter 12, to describe Colocation Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Colocation sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Get customization & check discount for report @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
Connect complex infrastructures even easier

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As the size of IT installations grows, the demands on the flexibility and integration capability of systems increase as well. Ensuring a sufficient interconnection between high-performance systems also increases the cabling effort.The KVM Matrix-Grid, a feature of the digital KVM matrix switches from Guntermann und Drunck GmbH, helps users implement even more complex and powerful IT installations. The matrix grid establishes bidirectional communication between individual matrix switches. Now it is even easier to interconnect systems and facilitate larger installations. Thus, users are able to operate the system bidirectionally at multiple locations and access the remote IT systems of the remote matrix. The individual matrix systems are connected via gridlines, which are direct connections of the I/O ports from one system to another. But what about the cabling effort and how can it be reduced without compromising the performance of the systems?Reducing the number of grid lines with the I/O-Card-Trunk4G&D's I/O Card Trunk4, which can be placed in one of the I/O slots of the ControlCenter-Digital matrix system, provides an answer to this question. The I/O-Card-Trunk4 reduces the grid lines required for a matrix grid by combining 4 of the 16 channels on one line. For transmission between two matrices, the four ports of an I/O-Card-Trunk4 can be configured independently for a 1:1 direct connection. Transmission between two I/O-Card-Trunk is carried by even more powerful components compared to the standard. These components let you use the fourfold of the bandwidth at the same time  thus saving you three fourth of cabling efforts.Reducing cabling efforts even further?In addition, the I/O-Card-Trunk4 supports a connection over a 10 Gbit/s Ethernet network (layer 2). The transmission mode (G&D protocol or Ethernet) can be set individually for each of the four transmission ports. This means that efficient network infrastructures can also be used, and the cabling does not necessarily have to be done in a dedicated manner. Matrix grid installations can even be set up across locations if suitable connections are available. This way, long distances can be bridged and even studio locations can be connected with each other. The KVM Matrix-Grid over Ethernet does not only make it easy for admins to access the system, but also allows access to multiple users from different locations.With the I/O Card Trunk4, G&D provide their customers with a powerful tool to implement complex, bi-directional matrix grid installations even easier. By bundling four channels on one line, the cabling effort is significantly reduced. Thanks to the Ethernet capability of the I/O-Card-Trunk4, even existing infrastructures can be used. For more information on the I/O-Card-Trunk4, please visitGuntermann & Drunck is regarded as one of the leading manufacturers of digital and analogue KVM products for control rooms in air traffic control centers, broadcast studios, industrial process control, marine and other sectors such as telecommunications and finances. With a broad portfolio of powerful products to extend, switch and distribute keyboard, video and mouse signals and many years of experience when it comes to installing KVM systems, G&D offers its users the broadest KVM portfolio available at the market. Of course, all devices are compatible and can be combined.G&Ds KVM products optimise the application of IT equipment and improve the working conditions for humans and computers. KVM devices are reliable and powerful hidden champions running in the background always ready to be operated. By short lines of communication, and the entire core competencies such as development, sales, marketing and production under one roof, G&D supports its customers from initial technical advice through to on-site and after-sales support  all from one single source.Guntermann & Drunck GmbHObere Leimbach 9D-57074 SiegenGermanyPhone: +49 (0) 271 / 2 38 72 - 100
By Suhani Singh: Climate change is not a hoax and nobody is spared from its devastating blow, be it the struggling farmer or the bank-designated debt recovery agent in Kadvi Hawa.

Hedu (Sanjai Mishra) may be blind and old but his experience and strong olfactory sense gives him insight on how weather conditions are unlikely to improve in his village. The air, he tells his granddaughter, now doesn't have the sweetness it once carried. Hence the title. Worried about his farmer son's mounting debt, he decides to take matters into his own hands. Only, his move to give Gunu (Ranvir Shorey), the debt collector, tips on other defaulters in the village makes him as cold-hearted and exploitative as Yamdoot, the moniker given to Gunu by the villagers. Their backgrounds may be different but there is one thing that binds them - both are suffering from the effects of Mother Nature in varying ways. Hedu with drought in Bihar, Gunu with cyclone in Odisha.

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Using the parched and barren landscape to maximum effect, Panda highlights the desperate conditions of farmers who have little alternative but to turn to other jobs, sell their possessions or are pushed to kill themselves. The psychological impact of this is best evident in the defeated demeanour and silence of Hedu's son Mukund (Bhupesh Singh) as he struggles to pay off the loan.

There are no bad guys in Kadvi Hawa, for each man fends for his family in this dog-eat-dog world. Even Shorey's loud and ruthless Gunu has his troubled story that compels him to set his humanity aside and chase people, however impoverished they may be. But most of the heavy lifting here is done by Mishra as the concerned father and doting grandfather who soon questions the morality of his actions. In his body language and delivery, one sees the plight of the farmer as well as a indebted family.

Despite a running time of 95 minutes, Kadvi Hawa still feels a laboured watch. Nitin Dixit's screenplay trudges along, not digging deep into what has created the harsh landscape that has made the farmer woes from bad to worse. It doesn't help that Panda relies on far too many long sequences in which little of consequence happens. But it's also one of the few films to highlight the disturbing reality of agrarian India where farmers are battling both man and nature to survive. It is also a reminder of how we neglect the hands that put food on our plates such as when Gunu equates indebted farmers to "rats" who scatter about and hide. In this stark analogy, Kadi Hawa speaks volumes of the deteriorating humanity.

ALSO WATCH: News of farmer suicides moved me, says Nana Patekar

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Consumer Floriculture 2017 Global Key Players  Dummen Orange, Syngenta Flowers, Finlays, Beekenkamp, Karuturi, Carzan Flowers Market Analysis And Forecast To 2022

Consumer Floriculture Market 2017

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Consumer Floriculture Market 2017Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Consumer Floriculture -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Description:This report studies Consumer Floriculture 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, coveringDummen OrangeSyngenta FlowersFinlaysBeekenkampKaruturiOserianSelecta OneWashington BulbArcangeli Giovanni & FiglioCarzan FlowersRosebudKarikiMultifloraKaren RosesHarvest FlowerQueens GroupBall HorticulturalRequest for Sample Report@On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoCut FlowersBedding PlantsPotted PlantsOtherBy Application, the market can be split intoPersonal UseGiftConference & ActivitiesOtherBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents:Global Consumer Floriculture Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Consumer Floriculture1.1 Definition and Specifications of Consumer Floriculture1.1.1 Definition of Consumer Floriculture1.1.2 Specifications of Consumer Floriculture1.2 Classification of Consumer Floriculture1.2.1 Cut Flowers1.2.2 Bedding Plants1.2.3 Potted Plants1.2.4 Other1.3 Applications of Consumer Floriculture1.3.1 Personal Use1.3.2 Gift1.3.3 Conference & Activities1.3.4 Other1.4 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 Consumer Floriculture2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Consumer Floriculture2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Consumer Floriculture2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Consumer Floriculture.8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Consumer Floriculture8.1 Dummen Orange8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Dummen Orange 2016 Consumer Floriculture Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Dummen Orange 2016 Consumer Floriculture Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Syngenta Flowers8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Syngenta Flowers 2016 Consumer Floriculture Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Syngenta Flowers 2016 Consumer Floriculture Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Finlays8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Finlays 2016 Consumer Floriculture Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Finlays 2016 Consumer Floriculture Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Beekenkamp8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Beekenkamp 2016 Consumer Floriculture Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Beekenkamp 2016 Consumer Floriculture Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Karuturi8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Karuturi 2016 Consumer Floriculture Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Karuturi 2016 Consumer Floriculture Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 Oserian8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 Oserian 2016 Consumer Floriculture Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 Oserian 2016 Consumer Floriculture Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Selecta One8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Selecta One 2016 Consumer Floriculture Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Selecta One 2016 Consumer Floriculture Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 Washington Bulb8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 Washington Bulb 2016 Consumer Floriculture Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 Washington Bulb 2016 Consumer Floriculture Business Region Distribution Analysis8.9 Arcangeli Giovanni & Figlio8.9.1 Company Profile8.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.9.2.1 Product A8.9.2.2 Product B8.9.3 Arcangeli Giovanni & Figlio 2016 Consumer Floriculture Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.9.4 Arcangeli Giovanni & Figlio 2016 Consumer Floriculture Business Region Distribution Analysis8.10 Carzan Flowers8.10.1 Company Profile8.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.10.2.1 Product A8.10.2.2 Product B8.10.3 Carzan Flowers 2016 Consumer Floriculture Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.10.4 Carzan Flowers 2016 Consumer Floriculture Business Region Distribution Analysis8.11 Rosebud8.12 Kariki8.13 Multiflora8.14 Karen Roses8.15 Harvest Flower8.16 Queens Group8.17 Ball HorticulturalContinued..Buy now @Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Global Massage Oil Market 2017 Key Players -Bon Vital, The Body Shop, Biotone, Bath & Body Works, Aura Cacia, Master Massage,..

Massage Oil Market

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Massage Oil Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Massage Oil Market 2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.Executive SummaryGeographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Massage Oil in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Massage Oil market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingBon VitalThe Body ShopBiotoneBath & Body WorksAura CaciaMaster MassageAmberThe Himalaya DrugKeyano AromaticsNatural Bath and Body ProductsRaven Moonlight BotanicalsKneippNature's AlchemyScandle CandleFabulous FrannieRequest Sample Report @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoOlive OilAlmond OilCoconut OilCitrus OilOtherOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingSpa and Wellness CentersMedical TherapeuticsHome CareOtherIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.For further information on this report, visit -Table of ContentsGlobal Massage Oil Market Research Report 20171 Massage Oil Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Massage Oil1.2 Massage Oil Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Massage Oil Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Massage Oil Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Olive Oil1.2.4 Almond Oil1.2.5 Coconut Oil1.2.6 Citrus Oil1.2.7 Other1.3 Global Massage Oil Segment by Application1.3.1 Massage Oil Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Spa and Wellness Centers1.3.3 Medical Therapeutics1.3.4 Home Care1.3.5 Other1.4 Global Massage Oil Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Massage Oil 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)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Massage Oil (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Massage Oil Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Massage Oil Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Massage Oil Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Massage Oil Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Massage Oil Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Massage Oil Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Massage Oil Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Massage Oil Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Massage Oil Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Massage Oil Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Massage Oil Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Massage Oil Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Massage Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Massage Oil Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Massage Oil Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Massage Oil Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Massage Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Massage Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Massage Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Massage Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Massage Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Massage Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Massage Oil Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Massage Oil Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Massage Oil Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Massage Oil Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Massage Oil Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Massage Oil Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Massage Oil Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Massage Oil Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Massage Oil Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Massage Oil Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Massage Oil Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Massage Oil Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Massage Oil Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Massage Oil Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Massage Oil Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Massage Oil Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Massage Oil Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesContinuousBuy this Report @Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042
Specialty Printing Consumables Market to Digital Printing Inevitable for Sustainable Returns

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In the highly competitive and fragmented Europe specialty printing consumables market, a notable transformation has been observed from focus on traditional printing technologies such as lithographic and offset printing to digital ones such as laser printing in the past few years, observes a recent report by Transparency Market Research.This trend is expected to gain strength with time and an increasing number of companies operating in the specialty printing consumables market are expected to venture into the field of digital printing in the near future.Many companies, such as Electronics for Imaging, Inc., which acquired Reggiani Machine in 2015, a leader in digital textile printing machines, are already making their move into the world of digital printing.Obtain Report Details:TMR estimates that the Europe specialty printing consumables market will exhibit a 3.7% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024. As a result, the market, which had a valuation of US$20.22 bn in 2015, is expected to reach US$28.21 bn by 2024.In terms of product variety, the segment of toners, which occupied nearly 51% of the market in terms of revenue, dominated in 2015. The segment is also expected to retain its dominance over the forecast period.In terms of geography, the market in Germany emerged as the most prominent consumer of specialty printing consumables in 2015. The market in Germany accounted for over 31% of the Europe market in the said year.Rising Adoption of Advanced Technologies to Bolster Markets Growth ProspectsMake Enquiry @The Europe market for specialty printing consumables is chiefly driven by the rising use across the textile industry for textile printing applications, availability of effective technologies for printing processes, and rising applications in the packaging industry.Rising applications in the form of packaging printing and label printing are expected to make the packaging industry one of the key growth drivers of the Europe specialty printing consumables market in the near future. The growing volume of exports and online orders for products through e-commerce websites will add to the rising demand for printing consumables in the packaging and labelling sector in Europe.Availability of cost effective and less time consuming printing techniques such as 3D printing are becoming a growing trend in the Europe specialty printing industry. The rising adoption of such technologies is opening new and diverse growth avenues for manufacturers of specialty printing consumables in the Europe specialty printing consumables market.In addition to this, the increasing adoption of technologies such as mobile and cloud printing are also expected to lead to growth opportunities for new players in the market in the next few years.Low-cost Printing Services from Asia Pacific to Restrain MarketSpecialty printing consumables companies in Europe are expected to bear the brunt of the cheaper printing services provided by countries in the Asia Pacific region.Vast investments in the printing industry in Japan and China, especially in the 3D printing sector, have helped the Asia printing industry become one of the most promising regional markets in the global printing industry of late.In addition to this, the availability of cheap labor and advanced technologies enable these countries to meet quality demands of the European consumer at a fairly lower cost as compared to European service providers. The European commission has stated that printing exports from China to Europe have increased by about four times over the past decade.The Europe market for specialty printing consumables is also expected to be restrained owing to the increasing rate of digitization, which is resulting in the rising preference of businesses to conducting their work online and using digital media substitutes instead of papers. This factors is expected to lead to a significant decline in the specialty printing consumables demand in the region in the next few years.Get TOC @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:
Solar Battery 2017 Global Key Players  East Penn Manufacturing(US), Exide Technologies(US), GS Yuasa(JP), LG(Korea), Samsung SDI(Korea), A123 Systems(US) Market Analysis And Forecast To 2022

Solar Battery Market 2017

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Solar Battery Market 2017Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Solar Battery -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Description:This report studies Solar Battery 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, coveringEast Penn Manufacturing(US)Exide Technologies(US)GS Yuasa(JP)LG(Korea)Samsung SDI(Korea)A123 Systems(US)First Solar(US)Bosch Solar Energy(GE)Panasonic(JP)Sanyo Solar(JP)TSMC(Taiwan)Yingli(CN)Canadian Solar(Canada)Alpha Technologies(US)BAE Batterien(GE)BYD(CN)Manz(GE)Sharp(JP)Kyocera(JP)Suniva(US)Honda(JP)Ascent Solar(US)AUO(Taiwan)EnerSys(US)EverExceed Industrial(CN)FIAMM(Italia)Hoppecke Batterien(GE)SAFT(France)Request for Sample Report@On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoLi-Ion Solar BatteryLead-Acid Solar BatterySodium-Based Solar BatteryOtherBy Application, the market can be split intoUser Solar PowerPhotovoltaic Power StationTransportation FieldCommunication FieldAerospace & Defense FieldMeteorological FieldOtherBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents:Global Solar Battery Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Solar Battery1.1 Definition and Specifications of Solar Battery1.1.1 Definition of Solar Battery1.1.2 Specifications of Solar Battery1.2 Classification of Solar Battery1.2.1 Li-Ion Solar Battery1.2.2 Lead-Acid Solar Battery1.2.3 Sodium-Based Solar Battery1.2.4 Other1.3 Applications of Solar Battery1.3.1 User Solar Power1.3.2 Photovoltaic Power Station1.3.3 Transportation Field1.3.4 Communication Field1.3.5 Aerospace & Defense Field1.3.6 Meteorological Field1.3.7 Other1.4 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 Solar Battery2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Solar Battery2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Solar Battery2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Solar Battery.8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Solar Battery8.1 East Penn Manufacturing(US)8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 East Penn Manufacturing(US) 2016 Solar Battery Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 East Penn Manufacturing(US) 2016 Solar Battery Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Exide Technologies(US)8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Exide Technologies(US) 2016 Solar Battery Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Exide Technologies(US) 2016 Solar Battery Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 GS Yuasa(JP)8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 GS Yuasa(JP) 2016 Solar Battery Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 GS Yuasa(JP) 2016 Solar Battery Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 LG(Korea)8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 LG(Korea) 2016 Solar Battery Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 LG(Korea) 2016 Solar Battery Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Samsung SDI(Korea)8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Samsung SDI(Korea) 2016 Solar Battery Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Samsung SDI(Korea) 2016 Solar Battery Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 A123 Systems(US)8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 A123 Systems(US) 2016 Solar Battery Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 A123 Systems(US) 2016 Solar Battery Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 First Solar(US)8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 First Solar(US) 2016 Solar Battery Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 First Solar(US) 2016 Solar Battery Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 Bosch Solar Energy(GE)8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 Bosch Solar Energy(GE) 2016 Solar Battery Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 Bosch Solar Energy(GE) 2016 Solar Battery Business Region Distribution Analysis8.9 Panasonic(JP)8.9.1 Company Profile8.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.9.2.1 Product A8.9.2.2 Product B8.9.3 Panasonic(JP) 2016 Solar Battery Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.9.4 Panasonic(JP) 2016 Solar Battery Business Region Distribution Analysis8.10 Sanyo Solar(JP)8.10.1 Company Profile8.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.10.2.1 Product A8.10.2.2 Product B8.10.3 Sanyo Solar(JP) 2016 Solar Battery Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.10.4 Sanyo Solar(JP) 2016 Solar Battery Business Region Distribution Analysis8.11 TSMC(Taiwan)8.12 Yingli(CN)8.13 Canadian Solar(Canada)8.14 Alpha Technologies(US)8.15 BAE Batterien(GE)8.16 BYD(CN)8.17 Manz(GE)8.18 Sharp(JP)8.19 Kyocera(JP)8.20 Suniva(US)8.21 Honda(JP)8.22 Ascent Solar(US)8.23 AUO(Taiwan)8.24 EnerSys(US)8.25 EverExceed Industrial(CN)8.26 FIAMM(Italia)8.27 Hoppecke Batterien(GE)8.28 SAFT(France)Continued..Buy now @Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Cannabis Packaging Market in North America to grow at a CAGR of 10.40% during the period 2017-2021

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"The Report Cannabis Packaging Market in North America 2017-2021 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global "Cannabis Packaging" market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of This Report @About Cannabis PackagingThe cannabis industry in North America is like other legal consumer goods industries, such as food, tobacco or alcohol. Some cannabis-infused products already look strikingly similar to existing consumer products. In addition to 'flower' which is the smokable leaf that most people usually associate with cannabis, there are many cannabis-infused products that range from edibles such as snacks and meals, to concentrates such as pills and oils, and beverages.The cannabis packaging market in North America has undergone significant growth, and various companies have recently launched recyclable packaging solutions such as compostable cellophane bags, metal cans, and compostable pouches. Product marketing through packaging is a focus area for packaging companies, but meeting local and federal laws is critical for success.Technavios analysts forecast the cannabis packaging market in North America to grow at a CAGR of 10.40% during the period 2017-2021 .Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the cannabis packaging market in North America for 2017-2021 . To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of cannabis packaging.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:CanadaMexicoThe USTechnavio's report, Cannabis Packaging Market in North America 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.View Report @ Key vendorsKush BottlesLaguna BlendsMaple Leaf Green WorldJ.L.ClarkOther prominent vendorsKAYA CANNABISLexaria BioscienceLifeLoc TechnologiesMarket driverGrowing cannabis sales marketFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeUnpredictable market conditionsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportRequest For Enquiry @ Market trendGrowing popularity toward sustainable packagingFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?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 usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Network Optimization Services Market 2017 Share, Trend, Segmentation and Forecast to 2022

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This report studies the global Network Optimization Services market, analyzes and researches the Network Optimization Services development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeRiverbed TechnologySolarwindsCisco SystemsHuaweiNokia CorporationZTEInfovistaCitrixCircadenceFatpipe NetworksNetscout SystemsSilver PeakArray NetworksRequest a Sample Report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Network Optimization Services can be split intoImplementationConsultingSupport and maintenanceMarket segment by Application, Network Optimization Services can be split intoLocal networks optimizationWAN optimizationRAN optimizationData center optimizationMake an enquiry of this Report @Table of ContentsGlobal Network Optimization Services Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Network Optimization Services1.1 Network Optimization Services Market Overview1.1.1 Network Optimization Services Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Network Optimization Services Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Network Optimization Services Market by Type1.3.1 Implementation1.3.2 Consulting1.3.3 Support and maintenance1.4 Network Optimization Services Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Local networks optimization1.4.2 WAN optimization1.4.3 RAN optimization1.4.4 Data center optimization2 Global Network Optimization Services Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Network Optimization Services Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Riverbed Technology3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Network Optimization Services Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Solarwinds3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Network Optimization Services Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Cisco Systems3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Network Optimization Services Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Huawei3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Network Optimization Services Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 Nokia Corporation3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Network Optimization Services Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 ZTE3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Network Optimization Services Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Infovista3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Network Optimization Services Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Citrix3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Network Optimization Services Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 Circadence3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Network Optimization Services Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Fatpipe Networks3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Network Optimization Services Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.10.5 Recent Developments3.11 Netscout Systems3.12 Silver Peak3.13 Array Networks4 Global Network Optimization Services Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Network Optimization Services Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Network Optimization Services Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Network Optimization Services in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Network Optimization Services5 United States Network Optimization Services Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Network Optimization Services Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Network Optimization Services Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)6 EU Network Optimization Services Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Network Optimization Services Market Size (2012-2017)6.2 EU Network Optimization Services Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)ContinuedPurchase Report @Contact Us:Norah TrentPartner Relations & Marketing ManagerSales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Flour Market Key Players, Growth, Analysis, 2014  2020

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Global Flour Market: SnapshotFlour consumption is witnessing a steady growth across the globe owing to the rising demand for bakery and fast food products among different classes of consumers. The increasing number of cafes and fast food restaurants worldwide is driving the flour market. Moreover, the development of flour milling industry in the developing regions such as Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa is working in favor of the growth of the market. The growing population and decreasing flour prices along with the establishment of new flour mills are supporting the demand for flour in these regions, which in turn is fuelling the overall market.Download exclusive Sample of this report:However, the market is adversely affected by the rising awareness regarding the health hazards of gluten. Due to high gluten content in wheat flour, consumers are shifting to its substitutes. The opportunity in the global flour market was pegged at US$198.57 bn in 2015 and is poised to reach US$254.82 bn by 2020, rising at a CAGR of 4.3% from 2014 to 2020.Growing Uptake of Bread-based Fast Foods to Fuel Growth of Bread and Bakery Products SegmentBased on application, the bread and bakery products segment will continue to dominate until 2020, accounting for 37.77% of the overall market revenue. The increasing consumption of bread-based fast foods in emerging countries is augmenting the growth of the segment. The rising health awareness among people in different countries is leading to the increased demand for gluten-free brown bread flours, thereby contributing to the growth of the segment. On the other hand, the non-food application segment is anticipated to expand at a CAGR higher than any other segment during the forecast period.Obtain Report Details @On the basis of technology, dry milling will continue to command the leading share, representing 92.90% of the overall market revenue. Wide applications of dry technology among flour millers is driven by multiple factors, including less complex milling process, low-cost advantage, and compatibility with wheat flour milling process. The growing acceptance of non-gelatinized flour is also driving the adoption of dry technology among flour millers globally. The wet drilling technology will expand at a CAGR of 6.4% during the same period.Europe to Lead Revenue Generation through 2020 Owing to Evolution of Value-added Processed Bakery IndustryWhile Europe will be the dominant regional market in terms of revenue throughout the forecast period, Asia Pacific will continue to be the leading volume contributor. In countries such as the U.K. and Germany, increase in domestic production of wheat for making bread has triggered the growth of the flour market in Europe. Evolution of the value-added processed bakery industry in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and France among others is estimated to drive future growth of the region.In Asia Pacific, the flour consumption is driven by the growing population, increasing consumer expenditure on staple food, rising disposable income, and the growing demand for fast food. Moreover, the increasing consumption of flour based noodles, breads, and other products is providing significant boost to the growth of the region. The Rest of the World market for flour is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 5.2% during the same period. The development of the retail bakery market in the Middle East is assisting the growth of the market. Moreover, the increasing wheat planting in Chile and other Latin American countries is leading to the rise in domestic wheat flour production output in this region.Some of the leading players in the market are Archer Daniels Midland Company, Ardent Mills Canada, Associated British Foods plc, ConAgra Foods Inc., Hindustan Unilever Limited, General Mills Inc, Hodgson Mill., ITC Limited., White Wings, King Arthur Flour Company Inc., and Wilmar International Limited.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Solar Home Lightings 2017 Global Key Players Panasonic, Tata Power Solar Systems, GE Renewable Energy, Sanyo Solar, Ascent Solar, Shenzhen Yingli New Energy Resources Market Analysis And Forecast To 2022

Solar Home Lightings Market

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Solar Home Lightings Market 2017Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Solar Home Lightings -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Description:This report studies Solar Home Lightings 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, coveringPanasonicTata Power Solar SystemsGE Renewable EnergySanyo SolarAscent SolarPhillipsSharpSu-KamAUOSolarcenturyShenzhen Yingli New Energy ResourcesRequest for Sample Report@On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoOff-grid SolarGrid-tied SolarBy Application, the market can be split intoCityCountrysideBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents:Global Solar Home Lightings Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Solar Home Lightings1.1 Definition and Specifications of Solar Home Lightings1.1.1 Definition of Solar Home Lightings1.1.2 Specifications of Solar Home Lightings1.2 Classification of Solar Home Lightings1.2.1 Off-grid Solar1.2.2 Grid-tied Solar1.3 Applications of Solar Home Lightings1.3.1 City1.3.2 Countryside1.3.3 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 Solar Home Lightings2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Solar Home Lightings2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Solar Home Lightings2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Solar Home Lightings.8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Solar Home Lightings8.1 Panasonic8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Panasonic 2016 Solar Home Lightings Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Panasonic 2016 Solar Home Lightings Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Tata Power Solar Systems8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Tata Power Solar Systems 2016 Solar Home Lightings Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Tata Power Solar Systems 2016 Solar Home Lightings Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 GE Renewable Energy8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 GE Renewable Energy 2016 Solar Home Lightings Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 GE Renewable Energy 2016 Solar Home Lightings Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Sanyo Solar8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Sanyo Solar 2016 Solar Home Lightings Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Sanyo Solar 2016 Solar Home Lightings Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Ascent Solar8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Ascent Solar 2016 Solar Home Lightings Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Ascent Solar 2016 Solar Home Lightings Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 Phillips8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 Phillips 2016 Solar Home Lightings Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 Phillips 2016 Solar Home Lightings Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Sharp8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Sharp 2016 Solar Home Lightings Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Sharp 2016 Solar Home Lightings Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 Su-Kam8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 Su-Kam 2016 Solar Home Lightings Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 Su-Kam 2016 Solar Home Lightings Business Region Distribution Analysis8.9 AUO8.9.1 Company Profile8.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.9.2.1 Product A8.9.2.2 Product B8.9.3 AUO 2016 Solar Home Lightings Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.9.4 AUO 2016 Solar Home Lightings Business Region Distribution Analysis8.10 Solarcentury8.10.1 Company Profile8.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.10.2.1 Product A8.10.2.2 Product B8.10.3 Solarcentury 2016 Solar Home Lightings Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.10.4 Solarcentury 2016 Solar Home Lightings Business Region Distribution Analysis8.11 Shenzhen Yingli New Energy ResourcesContinued..Buy now @Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Global Cardiovascular Medical Devices Market Growth Opportunities, Size & Forecast

Cardiovascular Medical Devices Market

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HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Cardiovascular Medical Devices market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global Cardiovascular Medical Devices market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people get ready-to-access and self-analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges. The study is segmented by Application/ end users [Hospitals, Clinics & Others], products type [Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices, Interventional Cardiac Devices, Cardiac Prosthetic Devices & Others] and various important geographies like United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global Cardiovascular Medical Devices market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers such as Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, Boston Scientific, Biotronik, Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Edwards Lifesciences, Terumo, Ivanova, CR Bard & Integer Holdings. The in-depth information by segments of Cardiovascular Medical Devices market helps monitor future profitability & to make critical decisions for growth. The information on trends and developments focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Global Cardiovascular Medical Devices Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global Cardiovascular Medical Devices Market, some of them listed here are Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, Boston Scientific, Biotronik, Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Edwards Lifesciences, Terumo, Ivanova, CR Bard & Integer Holdings. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with the rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Global Cardiovascular Medical Devices (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices, Interventional Cardiac Devices, Cardiac Prosthetic Devices & Others. Further, the research study is segmented by Application such as Hospitals, Clinics & Others with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Cardiovascular Medical Devices in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @What this Research Study Offers:Global Cardiovascular Medical Devices Market share assessments for the regional and country level segmentsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersStrategic recommendations for the new entrantsMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub-segments, and the regional marketsMarket Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsCompetitive landscaping mapping the key common trendsCompany profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developmentsSupply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsBuy this research report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Cardiovascular Medical Devices market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications, and Classification of Cardiovascular Medical Devices, Applications of Cardiovascular Medical Devices, Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material, and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Cardiovascular Medical Devices, Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia, Cardiovascular Medical Devices Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Cardiovascular Medical Devices Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Cardiovascular Medical Devices ;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices, Interventional Cardiac Devices, Cardiac Prosthetic Devices & Others], Market Trend by Application [Hospitals, Clinics & Others];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Cardiovascular Medical Devices ;Chapter 12, to describe Cardiovascular Medical Devices Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Cardiovascular Medical Devices sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Get customization & check discount for report @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version of North America, Europe or Asia.Connect with us atHTF 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 Tissue Products Market is estimated to rise at a CAGR of 4.2% bY 2022

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The report on the global away from home tissue products market provides an elaborate assessment of key growth drivers, restraining factors and notable challenges hampering the demand, factors affecting the adoption of various hygiene products across major end users. The study offers local and global insights into the supply chain dynamics, pricing strategies of various players, and cost structure and raw material sourcing analysis. It offers revenue size of various regions and the key factors influencing these figures during the forecast period of 20172022. The market share and size of various product types, end-use segments, material types, and application segments is evaluated during the historical period of 20122016. Furthermore, the market presence of key participants is analyzed by offering an intensity map. The report, prepared with the help of extensive research and a wide spectrum of secondary analyses, offers insights for an effective strategy formulation.Click here For Free Sample Report @The global away from home tissue products market was valued at US$24,610.0 Mn in 2016 and is estimated to be worth US$31,449.9 Mn by the end of the assessment period. The market is projected to register a CAGR of 4.2% during 20172022.Global Away from Home Tissue Products Market: DynamicsThe global away from home tissue products market report offers an in-depth analysis of key drivers and challenges, notable trends and emerging opportunities, regulatory landscape, share and size of key segments, and competitive landscape. A comparative analysis of the growth of the various segments by capturing year-over-year (YoY) growth statistics during the historical period of 20122017, which helps in making reliable projections during the forecast period.The global away from home tissue products market is primarily driven by the rising demand for better hygiene and sanitation products among various end users such as hotels and restaurants, healthcare institutions, businesses and commercial institutions, educational institutes, and public places. The sustained focus on hand washing and drying for sanitation purpose in commercial environments and offices is a notable factor stoking the demand for napkins and toweling. The advent of tissue products in various rolls and folds made with high-quality recyclable paper materials is expected to boost the market. The growing significance of these products in preventing contagious diseases in various parts of the world is a crucial trend accentuating the market over the forecast period.Browse Full Report With TOC @Global Away from Home Tissue Products Market: SegmentationThe report segments the global away from home tissue products market on the basis of product type, end use, material type, application, and region. The study offers share and size of segments across various regions and highlights the key factors influencing the growth of these over the forecast period.On the basis of product type, the report segments the market into napkins, towelling, toilet tissues, facial tissues, and sanitary and others. Of these, towelling is the most attractive segment holding the major revenue in 2017. The segment is anticipated to retain its lead throughout the forecast period.Based on end use, the report segments the market into hotels and foodservices, businesses and commercial institutions, healthcare institutions, and others, including educational institutes and public places. Based on material type used in making away from home tissue products, the research segments the market into woodfree/ chemical pulp, wood-containing/ mechanical pulp, and recovered paper.On the basis of application, the report bifurcates the market into hygiene and catering. Regionally, the report segments the overall market into Latin America, North America, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), and Japan. Of these, currently North America is the leading regional market, vis-a-vis revenue. However, over the years, APEJ is projected to hold the dominant share of the global market by the end of the forecast period, rising at leading CAGR therein.Companies profiled in the report are:The research provides a detailed insight into the profile of various players, analyzes the factors driving their prominence, and the strategies adopted by them to gain a better foothold in the market. Some of the leading players profiled in the report are Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Georgia-Pacific LLC, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA, Cascades Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., Sofidel Group, Weifang Lancel Hygiene Products LTD, Asia Pulp and Paper, Kruger Inc., and MPI Papermills.Make An Enquiry @About UsMarket Research Reports Search Engine(MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.ContactState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United StatesTelephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite :Read More Industry News At:
Two regional tabloid editors were sentenced to a year in prison and fined Rs 10,000 by the Karnataka Assembly, which later rejected a "reconsideration proposal."

By Nagarjun Dwarakanath: Two regional tabloid editors who were sentenced to a year in prison and fined Rs 10,000 by the Karnataka Assembly, have decided to ask the Karnataka High Court for a stay.

During its Winter Session, the Assembly had rejected a "reconsideration proposal." In June, it had adopted recommendations of the Committee of Privileges, which suggested a jail term for Ravi Belegere and Anil R.

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The committee went through the alleged defamatory articles against a few MLAs. Its recommendations were approved by Speaker K B Koliwad.

Bengaluru Police sources confirmed that they had received instructions to form a special team to go ahead with arrest procedures.

However, the advocate representing the journalists called the conviction a witch-hunt.

"The speaker has taken the issue personally and because of his ego he has ordered the conviction," Advocate Shankarappa said.

"We will seek a stay in the High Court, we were not given a chance to represent ourselves in the recent assembly session. How can you convict someone without hearing their side of the story?"

He added that the journalists haven't been absconding, but are waiting for the High Court's order.

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Food Service Market in APAC to grow at a CAGR of 4.98% during the period 2017-2021

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"The Report Food Service Market in APAC 2017-2021 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global "Food Service" market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of This Report @About Food ServiceFoodservice refers to the sale of food and beverages that is prepared out-of-home for immediate consumption either on the premises from where they are purchased or for takeaway and home delivery. The foodservice industry offers its services to cafeterias, hospitals, cafs, pubs, nightclubs, bars, and hotels. Foodservice outlets are one-stop shop for household consumers that deliver foods of consumers' choice right at their doorstep. The working population, being time-pressed to prepare food, demands foods that are ready-to-eat or take very little effort to dish out. This has led to the adoption of a variety of food products from foodservice providers. Furthermore, trends like self-service, family oriented dining, and cafeteria are on the rise.Technavios analysts forecast the food service market in APAC to grow at a CAGR of 4.98% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the food service market in APAC for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the sales, volume, and value.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavio's report, Food Service Market in APAC 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.View Report @Key vendorsMcDonaldsRestaurant Brands InternationalSeven & i HoldingsStarbucksYum China HoldingsOther prominent vendorsBarista CoffeeCoffee BeaneryCoffee Day EnterprisesDicosDominos PizzaDoutor Coffee ShopEdiya CoffeeGloria Jeans CoffeesJollibee FoodsJ.CO DONUTS & COFFEEKrispy Kreme DoughnutsMad Over DonutsMister DonutMOS Food ServicesMr. LeeSpeciality RestaurantsSubwayTullys CoffeeYum! BrandsMarket driverChanging lifestyles and rise in demand for convenient foodFor a full, detailed list, view our reportRequest For Enquiry @ Market challengeFluctuating raw material pricesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendRising popularity of cafsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?Check Discount @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 usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Foodservice Market in the US to grow at a CAGR of 5.56% during the period 2017-2021

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"The Report Foodservice Market in the US 2017-2021 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global "Foodservice" market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of This Report @About FoodserviceFoodservice refers to the sales of food and beverages that have been prepared out-of-home for immediate consumption and distributed either through the foodservice outlet or through take away/home delivery. The foodservice sector offers its services to cafeterias, hospitals, cafs, pubs, nightclubs, bars, and hotels. Foodservice market is also booming in educational institutions and office complexes, as students and employees are increasingly buying lunches and snacks instead of bringing home-cooked food.Technavios analysts forecast the foodservice market in the US to grow at a CAGR of 5.56% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the foodservice market in the US for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the sales, volume, and value.Technavio's report, Foodservice Market in the US 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 vendorsDunkin Brands GroupMcDonaldsRestaurant Brands InternationalStarbucksYum BrandsView Report @ Other prominent vendorsChick-fil-ACoffee BeaneryDominos PizzaGloria Jeans CoffeesJersey Mike's SubKrispy Kreme DoughnutsMarco's PizzaRaising Cane'sSubwayTullys Coffee CorpWingstopMarket driverEffective marketing campaignsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeFluctuating raw material pricesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportRequest For Enquiry @Market trendIncreasing popularity of food trucksFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?Check Discount @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 usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Back Actor Market Dynamics 2017: Opportunities, Risks and Driving Factors to 2022

Back Actor Market

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This report covers the global Back Actor market various parameters and the growth prospects. It covers the overall market scenario and gives an in-depth analysis of the various competitors and the market value.The Back Actor Industry split has been done according to the production, distribution, revenue and market share and the overall growth rate of Facial Surgery Equipment Package.Ask for Sample @The top competitors of Back Actor market along with the different parameters are production, price, revenue, market share for each manufacture are Case CE/Netherlands, Caterpillar Inc., Cukurova, Deere & Company, Ford Motor Company, Hitachi, Hydrema, JCB, Komatsu, Kubota, LiuGong, Massey Ferguson/AGCO, New Holland Construction, Terex, Volvo Construction Equipment, XCMG.The geographical split of this Industry is divided into the following with several key regions such as North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India.On the basis of product, this Back Actor industry report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each Type, primarily split into Center Mount Backhoe, Sideshift Backhoe.Major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Back Actor Market for each application, including General Construction, Agricultural, Industrials, Others.Have A Query On This Report? @Some Points from TOC:1 Back Actor Manufacturing Cost Analysis1.1 Back Actor Key Raw Materials Analysis1.2 Key Raw Materials1.2.1 Price Trend of Key Raw Materials1.2.2 Key Suppliers of Raw Materials1.3 Market Concentration Rate of Raw Materials1.3.1 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers1.4 Back Actor Industrial Chain Analysis1.4.1 Raw Materials Sources of Back Actor Major Manufacturers in 20161.4.2 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders.Check Discount on this report@We at Reports Monitor provide a comprehensive analysis by providing in-depth reports of the various market verticals. Our Mission is to provide a detailed analysis of the vast markets worldwide, backed by rich data. Decision makers can now rely on our well-defined data gathering methods to get the correct and accurate market forecasting along with detailed analysis.About UsReports Monitor (ReportsMonitor.com) is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. The prime focus is to get reliable data, Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Contact Us:Office C & D - 4th Floor,Siddhi Towers,Above Rupee Bank,Kondhwa Road,Pune 4492471048,Maharashtra,IndiaIndia: +91 2069535353Jay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-59492471Email: sales@reportsmonitor.comWebsite:
Cast Film Machine Market Report provides Company and Distribution Shares & Market Outlook to 2022

Cast Film Machine Market

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This report covers the global Cast Film Machine market various parameters and the growth prospects. It covers the overall market scenario and gives an in-depth analysis of the various competitors and the market value.The Cast Film Machine Industry split has been done according to the production, distribution, revenue and market share and the overall growth rate of Facial Surgery Equipment Package.Ask for Sample @The top competitors of Cast Film Machine market along with the different parameters are production, price, revenue, market share for each manufacture are Reifenhauser, W&H, Colines, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Amut Dolci Bielloni, Xinle Huabao, Changlongxing, SIMCHENG, Torninova, Chyi Yang Industrial.The geographical split of this Industry is divided into the following with several key regions such as North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India.On the basis of product, this Cast Film Machine industry report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each Type, primarily split into 5 Layers, 3 Layers, 7 Layers, Other.Major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Cast Film Machine Market for each application, including Agriculture, Food & Beverages, Storage & Distribution, Healthcare, Others.Have A Query On This Report? @Some Points from TOC:1 Cast Film Machine Manufacturing Cost Analysis1.1 Cast Film Machine Key Raw Materials Analysis1.2 Key Raw Materials1.2.1 Price Trend of Key Raw Materials1.2.2 Key Suppliers of Raw Materials1.3 Market Concentration Rate of Raw Materials1.3.1 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers1.4 Cast Film Machine Industrial Chain Analysis1.4.1 Raw Materials Sources of Cast Film Machine Major Manufacturers in 20161.4.2 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders.Check Discount on this report@We at Reports Monitor provide a comprehensive analysis by providing in-depth reports of the various market verticals. Our Mission is to provide a detailed analysis of the vast markets worldwide, backed by rich data. Decision makers can now rely on our well-defined data gathering methods to get the correct and accurate market forecasting along with detailed analysis.About UsReports Monitor (ReportsMonitor.com) is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. The prime focus is to get reliable data, Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Contact Us:Office C & D - 4th Floor,Siddhi Towers,Above Rupee Bank,Kondhwa Road,Pune 4492486048,Maharashtra,IndiaIndia: +91 2069535353Jay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-59492486Email: sales@reportsmonitor.com
Aviation Cyber Security Market - Explores New Growth Opportunities By 2025

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Aviation cyber security solutions are software suites designed to defend aviation networks, computers, and databases from cyber-attacks and unauthorized access. As the burgeoning global aviation industry becomes more dependent on information technology (IT) solutions and digital technologies to meet the continuously rising consumer base and changes in consumer preferences, cyber security has become a serious and urgent concern. Cyber-attackers are becoming more sophisticated in the ways they attack aviation systems and companies in the aviation market are leaving no stone unturned to make their systems comprehensively secured to ensure smooth operations and high-quality services to their consumers.An increasing number of airport and airline operators are deploying effective security systems and solutions to protect their IT systems and infrastructure from cyber-attacks. These solution help in protecting the critical infrastructures and reducing the severity of cyber-threats, which can otherwise cause heavy financial losses and disruptions in the worldwide transportation network. The demand for better aviation cyber security solutions such as unified threat management, identity and access management, risk and compliance management, and vulnerability management for the aviation sector are expected to significantly drive the global aviation cyber security market over the forecast period.Transparency Market Research states that the revenue valuation of the global aviation cyber security market stood at US$2,545.2 mn in 2016. The market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 7.4% from 2017 to 2025 and reach US$4,759.3 mn by 2025.Get an exclusive sample of this report @Managed Security Services to Continue to Witness Strong GrowthIn terms of services, the global market for aviation cyber security is segmented in the report into managed security solution, training, and consulting. Of these, the segment of managed security solutions presently accounts for a massive chunk of revenue in the global market and is expected to hold over 73% of the global market by the end of the reports forecast period. The segment will significantly benefit from the increasing adoption of outsourced monitoring and management solutions in the aviation industries across regions such as North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The segment is expected to expand at a promising 7.4% CAGR from 2017 to 2025.However, the segment of training services is expected to lead in terms of growth rate over the forecast period. The demand for training services in the global aviation cyber security market is expected to exhibit a 7.9% CAGR from 2017 to 2025.Browse Research Report @Despite Small Share in Global Market, South America to Present Most Lucrative Growth OpportunitiesFrom a geographical perspective, the North America market for aviation cyber security dominated the global market in terms of revenue contribution in 2016. The region accounted for over 36% of the market in the said year. The leading position of North America in the global aviation cyber security market is chiefly attributed to the presence of large airline operators and airports. Same applies to Europe, which is another leading contributor of revenue to the global aviation cyber security market. However, the growing number of medium and small airline operators in other regions is expected to impact the market share of North America and Europe in the coming years.Asia Pacific is anticipated to contribute significant chunk of revenue to the global market over the reports forecast period owing to the thriving aviation industry. Due to the severity of rising cyber-threats and introduction of new airline services, Middle East & Africa (MEA) is expected to emerge as one of the key regional markets for aviation cyber security solutions in the coming years. Furthermore, South America is expected to register the highest CAGR growth over the forecast period owing to the introduction of many new low cost carrier airline services.Some of the leading players operating in the global aviation cyber security market are Airbus Defence and Space SA, BAE Systems, Inc., Computer Sciences Corporation, General Electric Company, General Dynamics Corporation, Harris Corporation, BluVector Inc., Palo Alto Networks, Inc., root9B Holdings Inc., Rockwell Collins, Inc., Raytheon Company, Thales S.A. and Unisys Corporation.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:
Global Market for Organic Solar Cells was Valued at US$25.5 Mn

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A new report added to the repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine Organic Solar Cell Market is a comprehensive repository of information, providing market share, size, and forecast.Get Free Sample Report @This research study analyzes the market size of organic solar cells, in terms of volume (KW) and revenue (USD Thousand). Organic solar cells have been segmented on the basis of applications and geography, in order to provide a holistic view of the market. Market data for all the segments has been provided on a regional level for the period 2012 to 2020. A comprehensive competitive landscape including company market share analysis has also been provided in this report.Key application segments in this study include: Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV), mobile applications, conventional solar applications and defense or military based applications. The Building integrated Photovoltaic industry in particular has been benefited by the increase in the number of residential and non residential buildings and is expected to do well in near future. The easy incorporation of organic materials in the Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) industry has increased the demand for the organic solar cells in these applications. Regional data has been provided for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW). Among these, the Rest of World includes the countries from Africa, Middle East and South America. The regional segmentation provides the detailed analysis of the region in terms of revenue (USD Thousand) and volume (KW).Browse Complete Report with TOC @The major countries that are dominating the organic solar cells market include Germany, Japan, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Germany includes the companies such as Heliatek GmbH and BASF SE that are doing exceptionally well in the organic solar cell development. Heliatek GmbH has even formed collaboration with different companies at each and every step of value chain that has enabled it to capitalize the organic solar cell market. The Japanese market consists of some large players such as Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd that has diversified from their main business to reap the benefits of lucrative organic solar industry.This report also includes Porters five forces model and value chain analysis. The Porters five forces model and the value chain analysis helps the reader to get an idea of overall market scenario by knowing each and every player involved at different steps of the market. Some of the key market participants that deal in organic solar cells manufacturing include Heliatek GmbH, Solarmer Energy, Inc., BELECTRIC OPV GmbH, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., Disa Solar, New Energy Technologies, Inc. and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. The report provides an overview of these companies followed by their product segmentation, financial revenue (if available), business strategies, and recent developments. The companies involved in the company profile section involve all the leading players in the organic solar cell market. The report has provided the financial revenue for these companies in terms of USD million.The report also provides the market attractiveness and the company market share analysis. The market share analysis contains all the major companies involved in the manufacturing of the organic solar cells. The report has divided the market share on the basis of volume. The report also provides the market attractiveness for the organic solar cell market that helps to ascertain the profitable segments of the organic solar cell applications.The report includes each and every aspect that is needed to be considered while investing in the organic solar cells market. The market for the organic solar cells is still in development phase, however the research and development activities in the field of the organic solar cell technology has resulted in the commercialization. The companies from various regions are investing heavily into this new market to gain the first mover advantage. The reasonable amount of research and development has resulted in improved efficiency and lifespan for the organic solar cells.Send an Enquiry @The research provides detailed analysis of companies dealing in power rental systems, trend analysis and demand forecast by geography. The value chain for power rental systems study encompasses all the stages of setting up the systems and its applications. The study presents a comprehensive assessment of the stakeholder strategies, winning imperatives for them by segmenting the power rental market as below:Organic solar cell market: Application analysisBuilding Integrated PhotovoltaicsMobile applications (Portable devices and vehicles)Conventional solar applicationsDefense or military based applicationsOrganic solar cell market: Regional analysisNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRoW (Rest of the World)Check Discount @About MRRSEMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
High Performance Computing (HPC) Market: Cisco Systems, Oracle, IBM, HP, Intel, Dell, Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices, Fujitsu, Hitachi Data System

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High Performance Computing Market, By Component (Software, Network Devices) By Deployment (Cloud, On-Premise) By Vertical (Retail, Manufacturing) - Forecast 2022Market HighlightsThe growing adoption of cloud services and internet of things is driving the market of high performance computing. The Asia-Pacific region is estimated to be one of the fastest growing region in this technology. This is mainly because of the increasing focus of the market players is dwelling the demands of higher processing power with reliable and quicker response time. HPC servers market is estimated to contribute the largest market share in terms of components type. Storage, networking devices, and software solutions are also seen with higher prospects in coming years.The High Performance Computing Market is growing rapidly at approx. 5% CAGR and is expected to reach approximately USD 33 Billion by the end of forecast period.HPC Market Players: IBM Corporation (U.S.) Hewlett-Packard Company (U.S.) Intel Corporation (U.S.) Microsoft Corporation (U.S.) Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.) Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (U.S.) Fujitsu Ltd (Japan) Oracle Corporation (U.S.) Dell Inc. (U.S.) Hitachi Data System Corporation (U.S.)Request a Sample Report @HPC Market SegmentationThe high performance computing market has been segmented on the basis of type of component, deployment and vertical. On basis of deployment the market is segmented into on-premise and cloud. The cloud deployment is driving the high performance computing market as it possess efficiency across organizations, business continuity or disaster recovery, overcoming resource shortages, campaign, special event or seasonality, vertical upgrades or performance issues, eliminate hardware ownership, coping with uncertainty and change.Market Research Analysis:Market Research Future Analysis shows that new adoptions of smart technologies, revolution in IT infrastructure is driving the high performance computing market. Regional analysis for high performance computing market is studied in different geographic regions as Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of world. Asia-Pacific region is estimated to be the leader in high performance computing market followed by North America and Europe. The Asia-Pacific region is fastest growing because of the huge investment by the government and private sectors into the emergence of big data has increased the demand for systems that can handle a more data-intensive workload. HPC clusters are systems that can easily handle vast amount of data and extensively support high-performance data analysis. The improved data collection technology provides lively images for simulations, medical, life science, video rendering, and other verticals. Also because of the presence of leading technology players in that region. Japan is developing a new supercomputer that could be among the world's fastest systems.Get Discount on this Report @Intended Audience Research/Consultancy firms Original Equipment Manufacturers High Performance Computing Technology Users. Government Organizations Technology Providers Financial Investors Telecom OperatorsAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Global High Drain EMD Market 2018 World Analysis and Forecast to 2023

High Drain EMD

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Market Research Explore recently announces that, research report Global High Drain EMD Market 2017 analyses the crucial factors of the High Drain EMD market based on present industry situations, market demands, business strategies adopted by High Drain EMD market players and their growth scenario. This report isolates the High Drain EMD market based on the key players, Type, Application and Regions.Get Sample Research Report :The global High Drain EMD market will reach xxx Million USD in 2017 and CAGR xx% 2011-2017. The report begins from overview of Industry Chain structure, and describes industry environment, then analyses market size and forecast of High Drain EMD by product, region and application, in addition, this report introduces market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, besides, market price analysis and value chain features are covered in this report.The High Drain EMD market research report mainly focuses on High Drain EMD industry in global market. The major regions which contribute to the development of High Drain EMD market mainly cover High Drain EMD market in various regions including North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and Middle East & Africa.The High Drain EMD report provides the industry environment covering High Drain EMD policy, High Drain EMD economics, High Drain EMD sociology and High Drain EMD technology. Furthermore, the opportunities and the threats to the development of High Drain EMD market are also covered at depth in this research document.Top Manufacturers Covered in this Analysis report :TronoxMesa Minerals LimitedApplication Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Different Demand Market by Region, Main Consumer Profile etc.):Battery IndustryFine Chemical IndustryOthersInitially, the High Drain EMD manufacturing analysis of the major industry players based on their company profiles, annual revenue, demand, sales margin, growth aspects is also covered in this report, which will help other High Drain EMD market players in driving business insights.Get Full Report with TOC :Table of Content1 Industry Overview2 Industry Environment3 High Drain EMD Market by Type4 Major Companies List5 Market Competition6 Market Demand7 Region Operation8 Marketing & Price9 Research ConclusionKey Highlights Of The High Drain EMD Market :The fundamental details related to High Drain EMD industry like the product definition, product segmentation, price, variety of applications, demand and supply statistics are covered in this report.The comprehensive study of High Drain EMD market based on development opportunities, growth limiting factors and feasibility of investment will forecast the market growth.The study of emerging High Drain EMD market segments and the existing market segments will help the readers in planning the business strategies.Finally, the report Global High Drain EMD Market 2017 describes High Drain EMD industry expansion game plan, the High Drain EMD industry knowledge supply, appendix, analysis findings and the conclusion.About Us:MARKET RESEARCH EXPLORE is a huge market research platform which provides market intelligence reports and consulting services. It includes latest industrial reports by reputed publishers. MRE covers public and private industries such as chemicals & materials, technology, food & beverages, consumer goods, electronics, pharmaceutical, healthcare and others. We have market research reports from number of leading publishers and we daily update our database to provide updated reports to our clients. MRE continuously track emerging trends and events to fulfill clients needs.Steel EnidSales ManagerChicago, IL United StateEmail @: sales@marketresearchexplore.com
Global Synthetic Diamond Market Outlook, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023

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This report analyzes and forecasts the market for Synthetic Diamond at the global and regional level. The market has been forecast based on volume (million carats) and revenue (US$ Mn) from 2015 to 2023. The study includes drivers and restraints of the global synthetic diamond market. It also covers the impact of these drivers and restraints on demand for synthetic diamond during the forecast period. The report also highlights opportunities in the synthetic diamond market at the global and regional level.Get Free Sample Report @The report includes a detailed value chain analysis, which provides a comprehensive view of the global synthetic diamond market. Porters Five Forces Model for the synthetic diamond market has also been included to help understand the competitive landscape in the market. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, wherein end-users are benchmarked based on market size, growth rate, and general attractiveness.The study provides a decisive view of the global synthetic diamond market by segmenting it in terms of products, type, manufacturing process, and end-users. These segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends. Regional segmentation includes current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The report also covers demand for individual products, type, manufacturing process, and end-user segments in all regions.The study includes profiles of major companies operating in the global synthetic diamond market. Key players profiled in the report include Element Six, Applied Diamond Inc., Scio Diamond Technology Corporation, Tomei Diamond Co., Ltd., Pure Grown Diamonds, New Diamond Technology, LLC, Washington Diamonds Corporation, Centaurus Technologies, Inc., Crystallume, Sandvik AB, and ILJIN. Market players are profiled in terms of attributes such as company overview, financial overview, business strategies, and recent developments.Browse Full Report with TOC @The report provides the estimated market size of synthetic diamond for 2015 and forecast for the next eight years. The global market size of synthetic diamond is provided in terms of both volume and revenue. Market volume is defined in million carats, while market revenue is in US$ Mn. Market numbers are estimated based on key products, type, manufacturing process, and end-users of synthetic diamond. Market size and forecast for each major product, type, manufacturing process, and end-users are provided in terms of global and regional markets.In order to compile the research report, we conducted in-depth interviews and discussions with a number of key industry participants and opinion leaders. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. Secondary research includes a search of recent trade, technical writing, Internet sources, and statistical data from government websites, trade associations, and agencies. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights, and recognizing business opportunities.Secondary research sources that are typically referred to include, but are not limited to company websites, annual reports, financial reports, broker reports, investor presentations, SEC filings, Plastemart magazine, TPE magazine, internal and external proprietary databases, and relevant patent and regulatory databases such as ICIS, Hoovers, oneSOURCE, Factiva, and Bloomberg, national government documents, statistical databases, trade journals, market reports, news articles, press releases, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market.Check Discount @Primary research involves e-mail interactions, telephonic interviews, and face-to-face interviews for each market, category, segment, and sub-segment across geographies. We conduct primary interviews on an ongoing basis with industry participants and commentators to validate data and analysis. Primary interviews provide first-hand information on market size, market trends, growth trends, competitive landscape, outlook, etc. These help validate and strengthen secondary research findings. These also help develop the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.The report segments the global synthetic diamond market as follows:Synthetic Diamond Market: Manufacturing Process AnalysisHigh Pressure High Temperature (HPHT)Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)Synthetic Diamond Market: Type AnalysisPolishedRoughSynthetic Diamond Market: Product Segment AnalysisBortDustGritPowderStoneSynthetic Diamond Market: End-user AnalysisConstruction and MiningElectronicsJewelryHealthcareOthersSynthetic Diamond Market: Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaS.Rest of North AmericaEuropeFranceK.SpainGermanyItalyRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanASEANRest of Asia PacificLatin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaMiddle East & Africa (MEA)GCCSouth AfricaRest of MEAEnquire about this Report @About MRRSEMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.ContactState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Global 3D Bioprinter Sales Market 2017 : Business Rising Awareness, Financial Plan to 2021

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global 3D Bioprinter Sales Market Report 2017 to its huge collection of research reports.This report on the global 3D Bioprinter market has been developed by a selected group of professional market research analysts, with a solitary goal to present the current scenario of the market for 3D Bioprinter and throw light on its growth prospects. The report targets audiences such as manufacturers of 3D Bioprinter, government agencies, and other research consultancy services. The report presents comprehensive assessment of the major factors that may impact the demand in the global 3D Bioprinter market, analyzes the challenges or pitfalls, and catches the latest trends, which the existing vendors must take a note of in order to stay ahead of the competition.To present a clear study of the revenue available in the global 3D Bioprinter market, the report carefully segments it into smaller yet significant chunks, such geographically, product type, services and others. The report also provides the values of each of these segments and individual growth rates during the forecast period. The dominant as well as emerging trends have been picked out. With handful of tables, charts, and graphs, the report carries extensive pictorial representation to support its findings.Get Complimentary Research Summary Of The Report:This report on the global 3D Bioprinter market provides estimations regarding the market size in terms of value (USD million). It includes both top-down and bottom-up views in order to estimate and validate the size of the 3D Bioprinter market and of several other related submarkets in the overall global market. The opportunities open in the market for 3D Bioprinter by manufacturing countries type and application, and presents forecast for the duration of 2017-2022 has also been discussed extensively in this research report.As this report targets the stockholders of the global 3D Bioprinter market, some of the leading companies currently in this market are profiled in order to represent their market share, product portfolio, and recent strategic decisions. Leading players in the global 3D Bioprinter market have been detected via secondary research, and their dominance in respective regions have been evaluated through rigorous primary as well as secondary research.Table of ContentsGlobal 3D Bioprinter Sales Market Report 20171 3D Bioprinter Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of 3D Bioprinter1.2 Classification of 3D Bioprinter by Product Category1.2.1 Global 3D Bioprinter Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global 3D Bioprinter Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Magnetic 3D Bio-printer1.2.4 Laser-assisted 3D Bio-printer1.2.5 Inkjet 3D Bio-printer1.2.6 Microextrusion 3D Bio-printer1.3 Global 3D Bioprinter Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global 3D Bioprinter Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Medical Devices1.3.3 Tissue-engineered Scaffold1.3.4 Tissue and Organ1.4 Global 3D Bioprinter Market by Region1.4.1 Global 3D Bioprinter Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States 3D Bioprinter Status and Prospect (2012-2022)Obtain Table of Content @2 Global 3D Bioprinter Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global 3D Bioprinter Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global 3D Bioprinter Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global 3D Bioprinter Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global 3D Bioprinter (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global 3D Bioprinter Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global 3D Bioprinter Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global 3D Bioprinter (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global 3D Bioprinter Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global 3D Bioprinter Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global 3D Bioprinter (Volume) by Application3 United States 3D Bioprinter (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States 3D Bioprinter Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States 3D Bioprinter Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States 3D Bioprinter Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States 3D Bioprinter Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States 3D Bioprinter Sales Volume and Market Share by Players3.3 United States 3D Bioprinter Sales Volume and Market Share by Type3.4 United States 3D Bioprinter Sales Volume and Market Share by Application4 China 3D Bioprinter (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China 3D Bioprinter Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China 3D Bioprinter Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China 3D Bioprinter Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China 3D Bioprinter Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China 3D Bioprinter Sales Volume and Market Share by Players4.3 China 3D Bioprinter Sales Volume and Market Share by Type4.4 China 3D Bioprinter Sales Volume and Market Share by Application5 Europe 3D Bioprinter (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe 3D Bioprinter Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe 3D Bioprinter Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe 3D Bioprinter Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe 3D Bioprinter Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe 3D Bioprinter Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5.3 Europe 3D Bioprinter Sales Volume and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe 3D Bioprinter Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Justice G Sivarajan Commission indicts former CM Oommen Chandy, other state Congressmen, in solar scam. Is the endgame near for the party in Kerala?

Former Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and several of his colleagues in Kerala's former United Democratic Front government are in trouble, with the Justice G Sivarajan Commission handing down a damning verdict against them.

Instituted by Chandy himself in 2013 to probe the infamous 'Solar Scam', the commission has relied rather heavily on the testimonies of Saritha S Nair, a con woman facing 33 cases of cheating, and her partner Biju Radhakrishnan. The 'entrepreneurs' had duped scores of potential investors through Team Solar, their energy firm.

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In four volumes adding up to 1,073 pages, the 75-year-old former high court judge has put together a vivid description of the systemic failures in Chandy's government and the cover-up by the state police. Besides Nair's deposition, Sivarajan based his findings on 214 witness statements and 812 documents.

Promptly tabling the report in the state assembly on November 9, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the ruling Left Democratic Front evidently hope to put the rival UDF on the mat. On another plane, analysts see this as Vijayan's opportunity to pay back Chandy, who had recommended a CBI probe against him in 2006 in the SNC Lavalin affair.

Although the former CM, who was examined by the commission for 53 hours, has denied all charges, the report squarely indicts the septuagenarian, saying he not only got Rs 2.16 crore as bribe but also received sexual favours from Nair. The judge notes that Chandy assured Nair of subsidies to set up solar projects under the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation and demanded 10 per cent in kickbacks from any business done by Team Solar.

Besides Chandy, the commission has also indicted his cabinet mates Aryadan Mohammed, AP Anil Kumar and Adoor Prakash, former Union ministers KC Venugopal and SS Palanimanickam, MP Jose K. Mani, two MLAs -- Hybi Eden and PC Vishnunath -- besides senior police officers K Padmakumar and MT Ajith Kumar. Nair has apparently submitted supporting evidence in the form of pen drives and CDs.

Conscious of the major political opportunity at hand, CM Vijayan has now constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to lead the investigation.

Meanwhile, riven by dissent, the Congress is in a quandary. Chandy detractors like V.M. Sudheeran and Ramesh Chennithala are said to be having a bit of a chuckle at his troubles. It's the end of the road for the ex-CM, they're privately saying.

For the moment, though, besides the ruling LDF, which is hoping to take over the political space freed by the Congress's fall from grace, even the BJP is looking to use this turn to expand its influence in the state.

--- ENDS ---
Global Apron Bus Market 2017 Key Players -Aeromobiles, Bradshaw Electric Vehicles, Cobus Industries, Kiitokori, Navya, Power Force Technologies, Proterra, TAM,..

Apron Bus Market

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Apron Bus Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Apron Bus Market 2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.Executive SummaryThis report studies Apron Bus 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, coveringAeromobilesBradshaw Electric VehiclesCobus IndustriesKiitokoriNavyaPower Force TechnologiesProterraTAMWeihai Guangtai Airport EquipmentZhengzhou YuTong BusRequest Sample Report @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoElectricGeneralBy Application, the market can be split intoPublic TransportGroup TrafficBy 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.For further information on this report, visit -Table of ContentsGlobal Apron Bus Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Apron Bus1.1 Definition and Specifications of Apron Bus1.1.1 Definition of Apron Bus1.1.2 Specifications of Apron Bus1.2 Classification of Apron Bus1.2.1 Electric1.2.2 General1.3 Applications of Apron Bus1.3.1 Public Transport1.3.2 Group Traffic1.3.3 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 Apron Bus2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Apron Bus2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Apron Bus2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Apron Bus3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Apron Bus3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Apron Bus Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Apron Bus Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Apron Bus Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Apron Bus Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Apron Bus Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Apron Bus Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Apron Bus Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Apron Bus Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Apron Bus Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Apron Bus Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Apron Bus Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)5 Apron Bus Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Apron Bus Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Apron Bus Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2012-2017E Apron Bus Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2012-2017E Apron Bus Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2016 Apron Bus Market Share Analysis5.2 China Apron Bus Market Analysis5.2.1 China Apron Bus Market Overview5.2.2 China 2012-2017E Apron Bus Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2012-2017E Apron Bus Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2016 Apron Bus Market Share Analysis5.3 Europe Apron Bus Market Analysis5.3.1 Europe Apron Bus Market Overview5.3.2 Europe 2012-2017E Apron Bus Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.3.3 Europe 2012-2017E Apron Bus Sales Price Analysis5.3.4 Europe 2016 Apron Bus Market Share Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Apron Bus Market Analysis5.4.1 Southeast Asia Apron Bus Market Overview5.4.2 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Apron Bus Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.4.3 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Apron Bus Sales Price Analysis5.4.4 Southeast Asia 2016 Apron Bus Market Share Analysis5.5 Japan Apron Bus Market Analysis5.5.1 Japan Apron Bus Market Overview5.5.2 Japan 2012-2017E Apron Bus Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.5.3 Japan 2012-2017E Apron Bus Sales Price Analysis5.5.4 Japan 2016 Apron Bus Market Share Analysis5.6 India Apron Bus Market Analysis5.6.1 India Apron Bus Market Overview5.6.2 India 2012-2017E Apron Bus Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.6.3 India 2012-2017E Apron Bus Sales Price Analysis5.6.4 India 2016 Apron Bus Market Share Analysis6 Global 2012-2017E Apron Bus Segment Market Analysis (by Type)6.1 Global 2012-2017E Apron Bus Sales by Type6.2 Different Types of Apron Bus Product Interview Price Analysis6.3 Different Types of Apron Bus Product Driving Factors Analysis6.3.1 Electric of Apron Bus Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.2 General of Apron Bus Growth Driving Factor Analysis7 Global 2012-2017E Apron Bus Segment Market Analysis (by Application)7.1 Global 2012-2017E Apron Bus Consumption by Application7.2 Different Application of Apron Bus Product Interview Price Analysis7.3 Different Application of Apron Bus Product Driving Factors Analysis7.3.1 Public Transport of Apron Bus Growth Driving Factor Analysis7.3.2 Group Traffic of Apron Bus Growth Driving Factor AnalysisContinuousBuy this Report @Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042
Subsea Well Access System Market : Manufactures and Key Statistics Analysis 2017 - 2025

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Global Subsea Well Access System Market: SnapshotSubsea well access system are critical equipment employed for carrying out subsea drilling and production operations successfully. The safety and reliability of subsea equipment is critical for the development of subsea oil and gas field.In the life of a field, interventions and workovers are needed to improve and optimize field recovery. This requires scientific technologies for facing challenges pertaining to augmenting oil recovery from subsea wells. This includes Riserless Light Well Intervention that enables cost-effective intervention operations in existing subsea wells, which results in additional output from mature subsea fields.The use of subsea well access system enhances production efficiency and safety measures. Subsea well access systems are available in a number of configurations. For instance, Slimbore subsea well access system provide smaller bore diameter for slender well designs. Slimbore wellhead allows the use of diameter riser systems of reduced size for drilling and production operations. Thus, early generation drilling vessels can drill in deep water and floating production facilities can augment the quantity of production risers held back to the host platform.Request Sample Copy of the Report@Subsea well access system are primarily of two types, viz. rig based well access system and vessel based well access system. The former is used for subsea tree installation and for well completion and for heavy well intervention activities. Moreover, rig based well access system are also used for providing open water tree on wire installation along with intervention workover control and support services for Well Plug and Abandonment for deep as well as shallow waters. Vessel based well access systems is one of the most cost-effective intervention techniques.Global Subsea Well Access Systems Market: OverviewThe worldwide market for subsea well access systems is growing at a healthy rate while riding on the advantage that the systems provide with regard to the relatively easy and efficient execution of subsea activities. This aids in attaining maximum safety and reliability, which in turn promises maximum output during production. The global market is gaining a strong foothold at a significantly rapid pace because of the heavy investments by exploration and production companies with a view to minimize capital and operational expenditures.Request TOC of the Report @Global Subsea Well Access Systems Market: Trends and SegmentationOn account of the competitive characteristic of the oil and gas industry, there has been a bright focus on the improvement of production efficiency. Out of all the primary drivers of the world subsea well access systems market, rising safety concerns and improvised production efficient equipment as a requisite have topped the list. The global market has a couple of restraints, i.e. lack of technical expertise and high installation and operational costs, which could hamper its growth. Howbeit, the adoption of subsea well access systems has elevated considerably in the event of strict safety regulations and penalties for non-compliance implemented across the industry. The market growth is expected to be enhanced by the need to maintain and surge recovery rates.On the basis of technology, the global subsea well access systems market could be classified into rig-based intervention and vessel-based intervention. Rig-based systems which are used for heavy intervention may be segmented into completion workover riser system and landing string system. Vessel-based intervention, also known as riserless light well intervention, is mainly used for medium to light intervention.Get Discount @The growth rate for rig-based intervention systems is predicted to decline due to their cost and time-consuming attribute. Contrastingly, the adoption of riserless light well intervention is foretold to increase exponentially.Global Subsea Well Access Systems Market: Geographical StudyWith the continued advancement of the exploration of reserves by oil and gas operators in deep water areas, the international subsea well access systems market is progressing at a rapid pace. Europe and South America, in particular, have expressed their rising requirement for intervention in subsea wells. This has further stimulated the adoption of subsea well access systems. On the back of a massive number of wells existing historically, which require significant overhaul, Europe has been the leader in the global subsea well access systems market. Furthermore, the market in the Europe region is anticipated to spread its wings even more expansively, especially in the U.K. and Norway.The demand in Asia Pacific and Africa regions is predicted to augment with the boosting amount of deep water discoveries in emerging countries. Likewise, subsea well access systems are likely to find application in the deep water discoveries of South and Central America.Some of the important players existing in the global subsea well access systems market are Weatherford Solutions, FMC Technologies, UZTEL Ltd., National Oilwell Varco, Proserv, Tenaris, Cameron International, Schlumberger, and Aker Solutions.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Flavors 2017 Global Key Players  Givaudan, Firmenich, IFF, Symrise, Takasago, Sensient Flavors Market Analysis And Forecast To 2022

Flavors Market 2017

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Flavors Market 2017Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Flavors -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Description:This report studies Flavors 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, coveringGivaudanFirmenichIFFSymriseTakasagoSensient FlavorsMane SAT.HasegawaFrutaromRobertet SAWILDMcCormickSynergy FlavorProvaApple F&FCFF-BotonHuabao GroupBairun F&FChunfa Bio-TechTianning F&FArtsci BioBaihua F&FHangmanHodia FlavorWincom F$FHuayang Flavour and FragranceMeiyi F&FTianlihai ChemRequest for Sample Report@On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoNatural Flavoring SubstancesNature-Identical Flavoring SubstancesArtificial Flavoring SubstancesBy Application, the market can be split intoBeveragesCosmeticsCookies and Other Baked GoodsOthersBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents:Global Flavors Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Flavors1.1 Definition and Specifications of Flavors1.1.1 Definition of Flavors1.1.2 Specifications of Flavors1.2 Classification of Flavors1.2.1 Natural Flavoring Substances1.2.2 Nature-Identical Flavoring Substances1.2.3 Artificial Flavoring Substances1.3 Applications of Flavors1.3.1 Beverages1.3.2 Cosmetics1.3.3 Cookies and Other Baked Goods1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Flavors2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Flavors2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Flavors2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Flavors..8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Flavors8.1 Givaudan8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Givaudan 2016 Flavors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Givaudan 2016 Flavors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Firmenich8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Firmenich 2016 Flavors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Firmenich 2016 Flavors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 IFF8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 IFF 2016 Flavors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 IFF 2016 Flavors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Symrise8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Symrise 2016 Flavors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Symrise 2016 Flavors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Takasago8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Takasago 2016 Flavors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Takasago 2016 Flavors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 Sensient Flavors8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 Sensient Flavors 2016 Flavors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 Sensient Flavors 2016 Flavors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Mane SA8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Mane SA 2016 Flavors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Mane SA 2016 Flavors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 T.Hasegawa8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 T.Hasegawa 2016 Flavors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 T.Hasegawa 2016 Flavors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.9 Frutarom8.9.1 Company Profile8.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.9.2.1 Product A8.9.2.2 Product B8.9.3 Frutarom 2016 Flavors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.9.4 Frutarom 2016 Flavors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.10 Robertet SA8.10.1 Company Profile8.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.10.2.1 Product A8.10.2.2 Product B8.10.3 Robertet SA 2016 Flavors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.10.4 Robertet SA 2016 Flavors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.11 WILD8.12 McCormick8.13 Synergy Flavor8.14 Prova8.15 Apple F&F8.16 CFF-Boton8.17 Huabao Group8.18 Bairun F&F8.19 Chunfa Bio-Tech8.20 Tianning F&F8.21 Artsci Bio8.22 Baihua F&F8.23 Hangman8.24 Hodia Flavor8.25 Wincom F$F8.26 Huayang Flavour and Fragrance8.27 Meiyi F&F8.28 Tianlihai ChemContinued..Buy now @Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Polyolefin Resin Market : Application and Development Trends 2017 - 2025

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Global Polyolefin Resin Market: SnapshotThe polyolefin resin market is likely to rise at a steady rate in the coming years due to their rising use as a replacement to a large number of polymers in applications varying from the automotive industry to the paints and coatings and construction sectors. Polyolefins are unreactive to most chemicals at room temperature, which makes them perfect for use in a large number of applications. Rising awareness regarding the environmental unviability of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) has been a major driver for the global polyolefin resin market, as it has driven the demand for polyolefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene.The booming automotive industry has become a key consumer in the global polyolefin market in recent years due to the structural advantages provided by polyolefin in automotive interiors. Automotive interiors need to be resistant to moderate physical impact as well as significant amounts of everyday chemicals, a task at which polyolefins excel. Their cost-efficient physical properties have been a prime factor driving demand from the global polyolefin market from the automotive industry. The light weight of polyolefin resins also makes them important for the automotive industry due to the growing acknowledgment of the importance of the weight of a vehicle in its emissions.Request Sample Copy of the Report@Emerging countries in Asia Pacific are likely to be important to the global polyolefin resin market in the coming years due to their steady demand for cheap passenger cars. Countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea also house flourishing automotive sectors that have played pioneering roles in the global automotive industry, which is another key driver for the global polyolefin resin market. The booming consumer electronics industry in the region is also likely to present promising opportunities to the Asia Pacific polyolefin resin market.Global Polyolefin Resin Market: OverviewPolymers containing one or more olefinic groups are called polyolefin resins. These high molecular weight hydrocarbons are renowned for their ability to withstand exposure to a wide range of chemicals at the room temperature. These hydrocarbons are also known to be highly adaptable to a variety of fabrication mechanisms and usable across a number of applications. Also less expensive than a vast range of polymers, polyolefin resins find extensive usage across industries such as automotive, construction, paints and coatings, medical, and packaging.Request TOC of the Report @Of the variety of thermoplastics used in the industrial sector, polyolefins are the largest product segment. Although in the market for several decades, polyolefin resins have started gaining increased attention in the past few years owing to the trend of replacing polyvinyl chloride with polyolefins across several applications owing to the latters relatively less taxing impact on the environment and human health. Although PVC continues to be the preferred material for a plethora of applications in the industrial sector, stringent government regulations advocating the limited use of PVC could lead to vast growth opportunities for the polyolefin market.Global Polyolefin Resin Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe polyolefins market will be chiefly driven due to the increased rate of replacement of PVC with the material as well as its rubber like features, making it suitable for a variety of high-performance industrial applications. The low cost and the capability of being manufactured with the help of a number of modern technologies such as blow molding, extrusion, injection molding, and calendaring will also benefit the market in the next few years. Non-polyolefin resins manufactured from elastomers can also substitute polyolefin resins. However due to the higher production cost of non-polyolefin resins prevents the entry of substitutes in the global market.Get Discount @Global Polyolefin Resin Market: Geographical and Competitive DynamicsAsia Pacific is presently the leading regional market for polyolefin resins, chiefly owing to the presence of some of the worlds largest manufacturers of the compound. The region also leads the global polyolefin resins market as China is the worlds largest manufacturer of the compound and production capacities of other Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, and Malaysia are also rising. Automobile industry, the largest end user of this product, is growing rapidly in developing economies in the region such as China and India, which has further fuelled the overall consumption of polyolefin resins.Owing to the easy availability of low cost raw materials, several European and North American companies entering Asia Pacific by setting up production sites in the region. North America is also one of the leading markets for polyolefin resins, but the demand for the compound in the region is mostly fulfilled by imports from Asia Pacific. However, owing to the recent rise in production of shale gas has allowed the easy availability of cheap raw materials, which is expected to fuel the production of the polyolefin resins in the region in the next few years.Some of the key vendors operating in the global polyolefin resins market are Dupont, China National Petroleum Corporation, LyondellBasell Industries NV, The Dow Chemical Company, and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Agriculture Equipment Market Growing $200 Billion By 2022

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Agriculture equipment are used for assistance in agriculture activities. Agriculture equipment comprise a wide range of equipment such as tractors, plough, cultivation equipment, and harvesters. The market is anticipated to grow at a moderate pace, with a CAGR of 5.9% from 2016 - 2022, to garner over $200 billion revenue by 2022. Major factors that drive the growth of the agriculture equipment market are increasing adoption of technology driven agriculture equipment and escalating demand for food due to growing population. Global market players are continuously launching new and innovative products to sustain their market position and offer technologically advanced equipment.For More Info, Get Sample :The market is segmented on the basis of product type namely agriculture tractors, harvesters, soil preparation and cultivation equipment, irrigation & crop processing equipment, agriculture spraying equipment, hay and forage equipment, and other agriculture equipment. The tractors segment is the major revenue contributor in the market, accounting for around 34% of the revenue in 2015, whereas the harvester segment is anticipated to witness substantial growth during the forecast period. Farmers are opting for technically advanced harvesters to increase production and to limit the dependency on farm labors. Soil preparation and cultivation equipment are also expected to witness notable growth, driven by the government initiatives to increase farm production and to make the soil preparation and cultivating process faster and efficient.The report provides an in-depth analysis of the world agriculture equipment market in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. In the year 2015, the Asia-Pacific region generated the highest revenue in the market. North America and Europe are likely to witness slow growth during the forecast period owing to the already high mechanization rate in agriculture industry. The regions are further bifurcated into different countries: U.S., Canada, and Mexico in North America; Germany, U.K, France, and Rest of Europe in Europe; India, China, Japan and Rest of Asia-Pacific in Asia-Pacific; and Latin America, Africa, and Middle East in LAMEA. In Asia-Pacific, India and China are estimated to exhibit a high growth rate. Low rate of mechanization in agriculture sector, is likely to create opportunities for adoption of mechanized farming practices in the region, which would consequentially lead to prominent market growth.KEY BENEFITS: A comprehensive analysis of the current trends and future estimations in the world agriculture equipment market is provided. This report presents information about key drivers, restraints, and opportunities along with a detailed impact analysis from 2016 to 2022. Porters Five Forces model and SWOT analysis of the industry illustrate the potency of the buyers and suppliers. A quantitative analysis of the current scenario and the forecast period highlights the financial competency of the market. This report provides a detailed analysis of the world agriculture equipment market with respect to product type and geography to enable stakeholders to take appropriate investment decisions. Value chain analysis provides a clear understanding on the role of stakeholders involved.Enquire About Report :Prominent companies in the market have adopted product launch and acquisition as their key growth strategies to sustain the intense market competition. In the year 2015, AGCO Corporations transverse rotary combine brand, Gleaner, launched the Gleaner S9 Series Combines. With this launch, the company aims to provide its consumers with efficient and technology-driven means of harvesting their crops. The key companies profiled include Deere & Company, Mahindra Group, AGCO Corporation, Agrostroj Pelhrimov A.s, Concern Tractor Plants, Escorts Limited, China National Machinery Industry Corporation, Valmont Industries Incorporated., Weifang Euroking Machinery, and Same Deutz-Fahr Group (SDF).AGRICULTURE EQUIPMENT MARKET KEY SEGMENTS: The market is segmented on the basis of product type and geography: Market- By Product Type Agriculture tractors Harvesters Soil preparation & cultivation equipment Irrigation & crop processing equipment Agriculture spraying equipment Hay & forage equipment Other agriculture equipment Market - By Geography North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe France Germany U.K.Also Request For Discount : Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific India China Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific LAMEA Latin America Africa Middle EastKEY PLAYERS: Deere & Company Mahindra Group AGCO Corporation Agrostroj Pelhrimov A.s Concern Tractor Plants Escorts Limited China National Machinery Industry Corporation Valmont Industries Incorporated. Weifang Euroking Machinery Same Deutz-Fahr Group (SDF)Table Of Content CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 3 MARKET OVERVIEW CHAPTER 4 WORLD AGRICULTURE EQUIPMENT MARKET, BY PRODUCT TYPE CHAPTER 5 WORLD AGRICULTURE EQUIPMENT MARKET BY GEOGRAPHY CHAPTER 6 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
U.S. Bare Printed Circuit Board Market - Analysis, Trends & Forecasts to 2025

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IndexBox has just published a new report "U.S. Bare Printed Circuit Board Market. Analysis And Forecast to 2025" ().This report is best suitable for you if you: Are planning to enter a new geographical market and wish to know which one is best for your product Are planning to enter a new product market and want to have a detailed overview of the market before entering Already work in a given market and want to update your knowledge on the topic Are developing/reviewing your company strategy and wish to know the existing trends in the market Want to find the best country to import a product from Are consulting a client in the given industry and wish to get a deep understanding of the situation in the market Are planning to open new production facilities and wish to choose the best location.The report serves the above mentioned purposes by providing a deep study of the key indicators of the bare printed circuit board market. It includes a market overview, which consolidates the key conclusions made from the analysis of the market study, giving insights on the most valuable markets based on the comparative analysis. The report also provides a outlook of how the market is expected to change in the coming years, based on historical trends, external and internal factors, and the main drivers changing the market. Each section contains a a detailed survey of the data provided. Specifically, the report depicts the historical developments and relevant prospects of bare printed circuit board production volumes, consumption data, as well as producer prices.The trade section provides crucial data, such as historical data on imports/exports, changes in the direction of trade, as well as import/export prices. Analysis of bare printed circuit board trade shows the opportunities that are opening before producers and suppliers in a changing market.Product coverage: Bare printed circuit boards.Countries coverage: the U.S.Abstract:In 2015, the value of bare printed circuit board production in the U.S. amounted to $4.2B, increasing by +1.9% against the previous year level. Overall, the U.S. bare printed circuit board output pursued a prominent decline from 2007 to 2015. The total output figures decreased at an average annual rate of -4.0%. The trend pattern, however, indicated some noticable fluctuations throughout the analyzed period. The growth pace was the most rapid in 2010, when the output figure increased by +15% from the previous year level. Over the period under review, the total value of bare printed circuit board shipments in the United States attained its maximum level of $5.6B in 2008. Afterwards, the growth in terms of the bare printed circuit board production failed to regain its strength through to 2015.Data coverage: Bare printed circuit board market value and size; Major trends in the bare printed circuit board market; Forecast of the market dynamics in the medium term; Exports, imports and trade balance; Import and export prices; Life cycle of the bare printed circuit board industry; Number of establishments and their locations; Bare printed circuit board industry productivity. Key market players and their profiles.Methodology:Our methodology consists of obtaining information from various trusted sources (both paid and open), which include, but are not limited to: International official statistical agencies Governmental statistical agencies Official trade statistics Paid trade databases Industrial associations Company reports Industry experts.Companies mentioned:Basler Electric Company,Viasystems Group,All Flex Flexible Circuits,Variosystems,Zollner Electronics Inc.,Sparton Onyx,Profab Electronics,Cal-Comp USA (indiana),Applicad,Hi-Tech Electronic Manufacturing Corporation,Qual-Pro Corporation,Nebraska Electronics,Jay & Associates,Agility Mfg,Brundidge Electronics Corp,Precision Graphics,Kesu Systems & Service,General Electronics Assembly,Smart Electronics and Assembly,Eagle Circuits,Altaflex,California Integration Coordinators,Orca Systems,Global Manufacturing Services,Strategic Manufacturing Technologies,Computrol Orem,Aw-Tronics,Star Electronics Corp,Staci Corp.,Surface Mount Technologies,Kes Usa,Dynalyst Corporation,TCS ElectronicsOur research team compare the information gathered, confirm it with sources when required, and analyze the collected data, developing a full clear picture of the market and coming up with the final numbers. It is crucial to understand the trends of the market, for which we do provide study, taking into account events in the market, in adjacent and related markets, raw material markets, and markets, which are the main demand creators for the product under research. As for the forecast, it is conducted using analytical models of data on consumption, production, exports, imports, prices, as well as the industry trends, economic trends, consumption trends, possible political and technological trends.Source:IndexBox is a leading market research publisher in the world. You can find more than 25,000 research reports in our web store, which cover global industries and regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.Company Name: IndexBoxContact Person: Kirill BezverhiEmail: kirill.bezverhi@indexbox.co.ukPhone: +44 20 3239 3063Adress: United Kingdom, 44 Main Street, Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, ML11 0QW
PayStream Advisors Survey Shows that North American Firms Still Struggle with Manual Accounts Payable Processes

http://www.artsyltech.com

ONTARIO, CANADA (November 27th, 2017)  Artsyl Technologies, Inc., a leading global provider of digital transformation technology for intelligent data capture and document workflow processing, today announced its sponsorship of a new survey released by PayStream Advisors, focused on Invoice Workflow Automation best practices among North American enterprises. The report, sponsored by Artsyl Technologies, is based upon a survey of 400 back-office employees across multiple industries and market segments.PayStream Advisors continues to publish insights and opinions that reflect the goals, interests and challenges of companies seeking to transform their operations through digitization and automation, said Jeff Moore, Chief Sales Officer of Artsyl Technologies. We are proud to continue to sponsor PayStreams research and analysis, in the interest of helping firms of all sizes to achieve greater process efficiency, control and excellence.The State of AP in North AmericaThe Paystream study examines the top pain points for North American organizations by size. Results show that a majority of companies (55%), regardless of size, expressed that manual data entry and inefficient processes were a common source of process pain. This was particularly true for large enterprises, 63% of which cited manual data entry as one of their top three pain points.Small to medium-sized firms, in contrast, still struggle with paper invoices, compared to their larger counterparts. Sixty-two percent of small/medium enterprises indicated that a majority of invoices were received as paper, compared to an average of 40% for all firms.Things to Consider When Automating APTo help companies to identify the best solutions to overcome their AP process challenges, the PayStream report includes a detailed set of questions for AP teams to answer in order to help define KPIs for their current processes and establish measurable goals for process improvement.Questions, along with detailed context, include: How many invoices a year does the organization process? How many of each type? What are the percentages of invoice receipt types? How many suppliers does the organization have? How many official AP approvers are responsible for invoice review and approvals? How many touches outside of AP are typically involved per invoice?Additional questions and considerations for identifying an automated workflow solution and establishing key performance indicators included in the report are designed for companies of all sizes and industries to better define a solution and select a technology partner.Artsyl Technologies, Inc. is the innovative company behind the docAlpha Smart Process Platform. For over 10 years Artsyl has been designing, building and innovating technology used by companies globally to reduce their document processing burdens. Whether you have Accounts Payable Invoices, Sales Orders or Remittances docAlpha is designed to make their processing easy. docAlpha can be used in any business process to automate the classification, data extraction, validation and routing of mission critical information to its proper line-of-business application. docAlpha is a state-of-the-art IDR platform designed using Microsoft .NET and a Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) which allows it to scale up for Enterprise level On-Premise deployment or be used as a CLOUD based SaaS solution. docAlpha is sold through distributors and VARs globally. Visitfor more information.10-8707 Dufferin Street, Suite # 111, Vaughan, ON L4J 0A6 Canada9053260676nastya_s@artsyltech.com
Welding Consumables Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast

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A new report added to the repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine Welding Consumables Market is a comprehensive repository of information, providing market share, size, and forecast.Get Free Sample Report@The welding industry comprises welding equipment, welding consumables and welding services. Welding consumables account for a significant share of the welding industry compared to welding equipment and welding services. The welding consumables industry has been experiencing a shift from electrodes towards solid wires and flux-cored wires, due to higher production efficiency of the latter. Advantages such as high deposition rates are likely to boost demand for flux-cored wires, especially in Europe.The research study analyzes, estimates and forecasts the welding consumables market in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Estimates and forecasts of the welding consumables market are provided in terms of volume (Kilo Tons) and revenue (US$ Mn). The study segments the welding consumables market based on product type, applications and key regions. Major product types included are stick electrodes, solid wires, magnesium, flux-cored wires, SAW wires & fluxes, and others such as gases. Key application segments included in the welding consumables study are automobile & transportation, building & construction, marine applications and other applications such as repair & maintenance and pipelines. Product and application segments are further provided for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Industry analysis in the research study provides a comprehensive understanding of each player in the value chain of the welding consumables market. The study focuses on key driving and restraining factors in the welding consumables market, with impact analysis of each factor. Industry analysis also provides opportunities for the welding consumables market in the near future. The research study analyzes competition in the welding consumables market with the help of Porters Five Forces analysis model. Industry analysis also provides production capacities of various manufacturers of welding consumables in EMEA.The report profiles key companies in the welding consumables market such as ESAB, Lincoln Electric, Voestalpine AG, Illinois Tool Works, Air Liquide, Welding Alloys Ltd, Castolin Eutectic, AFROX, Tianjin Golden Bridge Welding Materials Group Co., Ltd, Vorarc Welding CC, Promax Welding Consumables (PTY) Ltd., Kobe Steel, Ltd., IASF S.p.A., Arcsel LLC and Corodur Fulldraht GmbH. Company profiles include parameters such as company overview, company headquarters, key competitors, product portfolio, key end-users, financial overview, business strategies and recent developments.Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by an extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. Secondary research also includes a search of recent trade, technical writing, internet sources, and statistical data from government websites, trade associations and agencies. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights and recognizing business opportunities. Secondary research sources that are typically referred to include company websites, annual reports, financial reports, broker reports, investor presentations and SEC filings, internal and external proprietary databases, and relevant patent, regulatory databases, national government documents, statistical databases and market reports, news articles, press releases and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market. Secondary research sources referred for the study of welding consumables are Welding Design website, Total Materia, company websites, investor presentations and annual reports of companies.Send and Enquiry @The report segments the welding consumables market in EMEA as:Welding Consumables Market - Product Segment AnalysisStick electrodesSolid wiresFlux-cored wiresSAW wires and fluxesOthers (Including gases, etc.)Welding Consumables Market - Application AnalysisAutomobile & transportationBuilding & constructionMarineOthers (Including repair and maintenance, etc.)Welding Consumables Market - Regional AnalysisEuropeThe Middle EastAfricaCheck Discount @About MRRSEMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
U.S. Printed Circuit Assembly Market - Analysis, Trends & Forecasts to 2025

http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/us-printed-circuit-assembly-electronic-assembly-market-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020?utm_source=opr

http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/us-printed-circuit-assembly-electronic-assembly-market-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020?utm_source=opr

IndexBox has just published a new report "U.S. Printed Circuit Assembly (Electronic Assembly) Market. Analysis And Forecast to 2025" ().This report is best suitable for you if you: Are planning to enter a new geographical market and wish to know which one is best for your product Are planning to enter a new product market and want to have a detailed overview of the market before entering Already work in a given market and want to update your knowledge on the topic Are developing/reviewing your company strategy and wish to know the existing trends in the market Want to find the best country to import a product from Are consulting a client in the given industry and wish to get a deep understanding of the situation in the market Are planning to open new production facilities and wish to choose the best location.The report serves the above mentioned purposes by providing a deep survey of the key indicators of the printed circuit assembly market. It includes a market overview, which consolidates the key conclusions made from the analysis of the market survey, giving insights on the most meaningful markets based on the comparative analysis. The report also provides a outlook of how the market is expected to change in the coming years, based on historical trends, external and internal factors, and the main drivers changing the market. Each section contains a a detailed survey of the data provided. Specifically, the report covers the historical developments and current projections of printed circuit assembly production volumes, consumption data, as well as producer prices.The trade section provides crucial data, such as historical data on imports/exports, changes in the direction of trade, as well as import/export prices. Analysis of printed circuit assembly trade shows the opportunities that are opening before producers and suppliers in a changing market.Product coverage: External modems, consumer; Printed circuit assemblies, loaded boards and modules (printed circuit boards with inserted electronic components); Printed circuit assembly (electronic assembly) manufacturing, nsk, total.Countries coverage: the U.S.Abstract:In 2015, the value of printed circuit assembly production in the U.S. amounted to $16.8B, surging by +5.9% against the previous year level. Overall, the U.S. printed circuit assembly output pursued a significant decline from 2007 to 2015. The total output figures decreased at an average annual rate of -3.7%. The trend pattern, however, indicated some noticable fluctuations throughout the analyzed period. The growth pace was the most rapid in 2010, when the output figure increased by +11% from the previous year level. Over the period under review, the total value of printed circuit assembly shipments in the United States attained its maximum level of $22.0B in 2008. Afterwards, the growth in terms of the printed circuit assembly production failed to regain its strength through to 2015.Printed circuit assemblies, loaded boards and modules (printed circuit boards with inserted electronic components) was the major product category in the U.S. printed circuit assembly manufacturing, with a share in total output standing near 94% in 2015. Printed circuit assembly (electronic assembly) manufacturing, nsk, total lagged far behing, accounting for only the 6% share. The other related products together comprised a fairly negligible share in the total output of the total output.Data coverage: Printed circuit assembly market value and size; Major trends in the printed circuit assembly market; Forecast of the market dynamics in the medium term; Exports, imports and trade balance; Import and export prices; Life cycle of the printed circuit assembly industry; Number of establishments and their locations; Printed circuit assembly industry productivity. Key market players and their profiles.Methodology:Our methodology consists of obtaining information from various trusted sources (both paid and open), which include, but are not limited to: International official statistical agencies Governmental statistical agencies Official trade statistics Paid trade databases Industrial associations Company reports Industry experts.Companies mentioned:Sanmina Corporation,Jabil Circuit,Xilinx,Flextronics International Usa,Electronic Assembly Corporation,Mercury Systems,Ttm Technologies,Benchmark Electronics,Jabil Circuit,IEC Electronics Corp.,Sypris Solutions,Flextronics America,Plexus Corp.,M C Test Service,Express Manufacturing,American Technical Ceramics Corp,Sigmatron International,Magna Electronics,Park Electrochemical Corp.,Creation Technologies Wisconsin,Diamond Multimedia Systems,Viasystems Technologies Corp,Mid-South Industries,Hadco Corporation,Kimball Electronics,Smtc Manufacturing Corporation of California,Flextronics Holding Usa,Logic Pd,ViasystemsOur research team compare the information gathered, confirm it with sources when required, and analyze the collected data, developing a full clear picture of the market and coming up with the final numbers. It is crucial to understand the trends of the market, for which we do provide study, taking into account events in the market, in adjacent and related markets, raw material markets, and markets, which are the main demand creators for the product under research. As for the forecast, it is conducted using analytical models of data on consumption, production, exports, imports, prices, as well as the industry trends, economic trends, consumption trends, possible political and technological trends.Source:IndexBox is a leading market research publisher in the world. You can find more than 25,000 research reports in our web store, which cover global industries and regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.Company Name: IndexBoxContact Person: Kirill BezverhiEmail: kirill.bezverhi@indexbox.co.ukPhone: +44 20 3239 3063Adress: United Kingdom, 44 Main Street, Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, ML11 0QW
US Automatic Environmental Control Market Analysis 2017 - Forecast to 2025

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IndexBox has just published a new report "U.S. Automatic Environmental Control For Residential, Commercial, And Appliance Use Market. Analysis And Forecast to 2025" ().This report is best suitable for you if you: Are planning to enter a new geographical market and wish to know which one is best for your product Are planning to enter a new product market and want to have a detailed overview of the market before entering Already work in a given market and want to update your knowledge on the topic Are developing/reviewing your company strategy and wish to know the existing trends in the market Want to find the best country to import a product from Are consulting a client in the given industry and wish to get a deep understanding of the situation in the market Are planning to open new production facilities and wish to choose the best location.The report serves the above mentioned purposes by providing a deep study of the key indicators of the automatic environmental control market. It includes a market overview, which consolidates the key conclusions made from the analysis of the market survey, giving insights on the most important markets based on the comparative analysis. The report also provides a outlook of how the market is expected to change in the coming years, based on historical trends, external and internal factors, and the main drivers changing the market. Each section contains a a comprehensive survey of the data provided. Specifically, the report outlines the historical developments and actual prospects of automatic environmental control production volumes, consumption data, as well as producer prices.The trade section provides crucial data, such as historical data on imports/exports, changes in the direction of trade, as well as import/export prices. Analysis of automatic environmental control trade shows the opportunities that are opening before producers and suppliers in a changing market.Product coverage: Automatic environmental controls for monitoring residential, commercial, and appliance use.Countries coverage: the U.S.Abstract:In 2015, the value of automatic environmental control production in the U.S. amounted to $2.3B, dropping by -14.1% against the previous year level. Overall, the U.S. automatic environmental control output pursued a prominent decline from 2007 to 2015. The total output figures decreased at an average annual rate of -2.7%. The trend pattern, however, indicated some noticable fluctuations throughout the analyzed period. The growth pace was the most rapid in 2010, when the output figure increased by +13% from the previous year level. Over the period under review, the total value of automatic environmental control shipments in the United States attained its maximum level of $2.8B in 2011. Afterwards, the growth in terms of the automatic environmental control production failed to regain its strength through to 2015.Data coverage: Automatic environmental control market value and size; Major trends in the automatic environmental control market; Forecast of the market dynamics in the medium term; Exports, imports and trade balance; Import and export prices; Life cycle of the automatic environmental control industry; Number of establishments and their locations; Automatic environmental control industry productivity. Key market players and their profiles.Methodology:Our methodology consists of obtaining information from various trusted sources (both paid and open), which include, but are not limited to: International official statistical agencies Governmental statistical agencies Official trade statistics Paid trade databases Industrial associations Company reports Industry experts.Companies mentioned:Siemens Industry,Megtec Systems,Automated Logic Corporation,Schneider Electric Buildings,Therm-O-Disc,Hart & Cooley,Phoenix Controls Corporation,Comverge, Schneider Automation,Ascent Capital Group,Pentair Thermal Management,LSB Industries,Flare Industries,Nailor Industries of Texas,Vanguard Energy Services,Tac,ABB Automation,Southern Environmental,Ruskin Company,United Technologies Electronic Controls,Robertshaw Controls Company,Stulz Investment Corporation of America,Carnes Company,Invensys Processs Systems,Bitzer Scroll Inc.,Robertshaw Holdings Corp,Schneider Electric Buildings Americas,First Quality Retail Services,Amtrol Holdings,Global Energy & Environmental SolutionsOur research team compare the information gathered, confirm it with sources when required, and analyze the collected data, developing a full clear picture of the market and coming up with the final numbers. It is crucial to understand the trends of the market, for which we do provide study, taking into account events in the market, in adjacent and related markets, raw material markets, and markets, which are the main demand creators for the product under research. As for the forecast, it is conducted using analytical models of data on consumption, production, exports, imports, prices, as well as the industry trends, economic trends, consumption trends, possible political and technological trends.Source:IndexBox is a leading market research publisher in the world. You can find more than 25,000 research reports in our web store, which cover global industries and regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.Company Name: IndexBoxContact Person: Kirill BezverhiEmail: kirill.bezverhi@indexbox.co.ukPhone: +44 20 3239 3063Adress: United Kingdom, 44 Main Street, Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, ML11 0QW
According to resort authorities, five villas were totally destroyed in the attack.

By P S Gopikrishnan Unnithan: A group of over 10 DYFI workers have allegedly attacked the NIRAMAYA resort in Kumarakom over river encroachment allegations.

The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) is the CPI(M)'s youth wing.

A DYFI protest march against the resort turned violent, and the protesters stormed into the resort. According to resort authorities, five villas were totally destroyed in the attack.

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DYFI alleges that the resort was constructed on government land and has violated land regulation rules.

Kumarakom police have registered a case against 10 people in connection with the attack

The state's revenue department will conduct a re-survey at the property over allegations of land encroachment.

WATCH | TO THE POINT | RSS-CPI(M) letting Kerala down with constant bloodletting?

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Smart Building Global Market 2017: Key Players  ABB Group, Accenture, Buildingiq, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Delta Controls, Emerson Electric

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Smart Building IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Smart Building -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecast To 2022 To Its Research DatabaseAccording to Stratistics MRC, the Global Smart Building market is expected to grow from $6.46 billion in 2015 to reach $43.96 billion by 2022 with a CAGR of 31.5%. Growing safety and security concerns, increasing adoption of energy saving technologies, raising government investments on smart buildings are the major factors propelling the market growth. In addition, compounding global population, rapid urbanization in emerging countries are some of the other factors bolstering the market growth. However, expensive set up costs, lack of skilled labour are the constraints limiting the market growth.North America accounted for the largest market share, led by the maximum adoption of smart building systems. The U.S. is likely to remain as the key market for smart buildings throughout the forecast period driven by its high adoption rate and development. The Asia Pacific smart buildings market is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR amongst all regions, backed by its resilient GDP growth and the growing real estate market.Some of the key players in global smart building market include ABB Group, Accenture, Buildingiq, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Delta Controls, Emerson Electric, Flamencotech, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell International Inc., IBM Corporation, Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, Johnson Controls, Inc., Schneider Electric SE, Siemens AG, TYCO International, and United Technologies Corporation.Request for Sample Report @...Building Types Covered: Government and public infrastructure facilities Residential buildings University, school campuses, and hospital buildings Manufacturing facilities Commercial buildings Other Building TypesSystems Covered: Network and communication management systems Infrastructure managemento Elevators and escalators management systemo Plumbing and water management systemo Parking management systemo Smart water management Intelligent security systemo Emergency management systemo Video surveillance systemo Access control system Building energy management systemo Lighting control systemo Energy Management Platformo HVAC control systemServices Covered: Managed services Professional serviceso Support and maintenanceo Consulting serviceso System integration and deploymentRegions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsLeave a Query @...Table of Content1 Executive Summary2 Preface2.1 Abstract2.2 Stake Holders2.3 Research Scope2.4 Research Methodology2.4.1 Data Mining2.4.2 Data Analysis2.4.3 Data Validation2.4.4 Research Approach2.5 Research Sources2.5.1 Primary Research Sources2.5.2 Secondary Research Sources2.5.3 Assumptions3 Market Trend Analysis3.1 Introduction3.2 Drivers3.3 Restraints3.4 Opportunities3.5 Threats3.6 Product Analysis3.7 Emerging Markets3.8 Futuristic Market Scenario4 Porters Five Force Analysis4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers4.2 Bargaining power of buyers4.3 Threat of substitutes4.4 Threat of new entrants4.5 Competitive rivalry5 Global Smart Building Market, By Building Type5.1 Introduction5.2 Government and public infrastructure facilities5.3 Residential buildings5.4 University, school campuses, and hospital buildings5.5 Manufacturing facilities5.6 Commercial buildings5.7 Other Building Types.....9 Key Developments9.1 Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures9.2 Acquisitions & Mergers9.3 New Product Launch9.4 Expansions9.5 Other Key Strategies10 Company Profiling10.1 ABB Group10.2 Accenture10.3 Buildingiq, Inc.10.4 Cisco Systems, Inc.10.5 Delta Controls10.6 Emerson Electric10.7 Flamencotech10.8 General Electric10.9 Hewlett-Packard10.10 Honeywell International Inc.10.11 IBM Corporation10.12 Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies10.13 Johnson Controls, Inc.10.14 Schneider Electric SE10.15 Siemens AG10.16 TYCO International10.17 United Technologies CorporationBuy Now @...Continued...Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (Us) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune  411028Maharashtra, GlobalPh: +91 841 198 5042
U.S. Residential Electric Lighting Fixture Market Report, 2017-2025

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IndexBox has just published a new report "U.S. Residential Electric Lighting Fixture Market. Analysis And Forecast to 2025" ().This report is best suitable for you if you: Are planning to enter a new geographical market and wish to know which one is best for your product Are planning to enter a new product market and want to have a detailed overview of the market before entering Already work in a given market and want to update your knowledge on the topic Are developing/reviewing your company strategy and wish to know the existing trends in the market Want to find the best country to import a product from Are consulting a client in the given industry and wish to get a deep understanding of the situation in the market Are planning to open new production facilities and wish to choose the best location.The report serves the above mentioned purposes by providing a deep analysis of the key indicators of the residential electric lighting fixture market. It includes a market overview, which consolidates the key conclusions made from the analysis of the market survey, giving insights on the most significant markets based on the comparative analysis. The report also provides a forecast of how the market is expected to change in the coming years, based on historical trends, external and internal factors, and the main drivers changing the market. Each section contains a a comprehensive analysis of the data provided. Specifically, the report outlines the historical developments and actual prospects of residential electric lighting fixture production volumes, consumption data, as well as producer prices.The trade section provides crucial data, such as historical data on imports/exports, changes in the direction of trade, as well as import/export prices. Analysis of residential electric lighting fixture trade shows the opportunities that are opening before producers and suppliers in a changing market.Product coverage: Residential-type electric lighting fixtures (excluding portable), including parts and accessories; Residential-type portable lighting fixtures, including parts and accessories; Residential electric lighting fixture manufacturing, nsk, total.Countries coverage: the U.S.Abstract:In 2015, the value of residential electric lighting fixture production in the U.S. amounted to $1.5B, jumping by +4.4% against the previous year level. Overall, the U.S. residential electric lighting fixture output pursued a prominent decline from 2007 to 2015. The total output figures decreased at an average annual rate of -5.4%. The trend pattern, however, indicated some noticable fluctuations throughout the analyzed period. The growth pace was the most rapid in 2014, when the output figure increased by +13% from the previous year level. Over the period under review, the total value of residential electric lighting fixture shipments in the United States attained its maximum level of $2.2B in 2008. Afterwards, the growth in terms of the residential electric lighting fixture production failed to regain its strength through to 2015.Residential-type electric lighting fixtures (excluding portable), including parts and accessories accounted for the highest share (58% in 2015) of U.S. residential electric lighting fixture manufacturing, leaving a considerable room for residential-type portable lighting fixtures, including parts and accessories (32%). The other related products with less notable individual shares together comprised approx. 10% of the total output.Data coverage: Residential electric lighting fixture market value and size; Major trends in the residential electric lighting fixture market; Forecast of the market dynamics in the medium term; Exports, imports and trade balance; Import and export prices; Life cycle of the residential electric lighting fixture industry; Number of establishments and their locations; Residential electric lighting fixture industry productivity. Key market players and their profiles.Methodology:Our methodology consists of obtaining information from various trusted sources (both paid and open), which include, but are not limited to: International official statistical agencies Governmental statistical agencies Official trade statistics Paid trade databases Industrial associations Company reports Industry experts.Companies mentioned:The L D Kichler Co,Feit Electric Company,Swarovski Lighting,Insight Lighting,Louis Poulsen USA Inc.,Evolution Lighting,B-K Lighting,Sea Gull Lighting Products,Premier Manufacturing Group,Hubbardton Forge,Afx,Visual Comfort of America,Lights of America,Maxim Lighting International,Stylecraft Home Collection,The Richard John Collection,Atlas Lighting Products,Blumberg Industries,Robert Abbey,Lava Lite,Mario Industries of Virginia,American Lighting Fixture Corp.,Washoe Equipment,Progress Lighting,Vestor Partners,Nulco Mfg. Corp.,Troy-Csl Lighting,Jimco Lamp & Manufacturing Co,Quality Home Brands Holdings,Maxim Lighting,Austin Lighting Products,Lampcrafters,Stein World Operating CompanyOur research team compare the information gathered, confirm it with sources when required, and analyze the collected data, developing a full clear picture of the market and coming up with the final numbers. It is crucial to understand the trends of the market, for which we do provide study, taking into account events in the market, in adjacent and related markets, raw material markets, and markets, which are the main demand creators for the product under research. As for the forecast, it is conducted using analytical models of data on consumption, production, exports, imports, prices, as well as the industry trends, economic trends, consumption trends, possible political and technological trends.Source:IndexBox is a leading market research publisher in the world. You can find more than 25,000 research reports in our web store, which cover global industries and regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.Company Name: IndexBoxContact Person: Kirill BezverhiEmail: kirill.bezverhi@indexbox.co.ukPhone: +44 20 3239 3063Adress: United Kingdom, 44 Main Street, Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, ML11 0QW
Bakery Processing Equipment Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Welbilt, ITW Food Equipment Group, WP Bakery, Buhler, RATIONAL, Middleby Corporation and Others

Bakery Processing Equipment Market

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Global Bakery Processing Equipment market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Wiesheu, WP Bakery, Buhler, RATIONAL, GEA Group, Ali Group, Rademaker, Middleby Corporation, Welbilt, ITW Food Equipment Group, Markel Food Group, JBT Corporation, Rheon, MIWE, Sinmag and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.The amorphous alloy is a non-crystal substance created by rapidly freezing liquids of high temperature. Because there is no rule of atomic arrangement, the energy loss (hysteresis loss) is small when the flux of magnetic induction passes through the iron core. In addition, eddy current loss is decreased because the thickness is approximately 0.03 mm, which is about 1/10 compared with silicon steel. Therefore, the no load loss (eddy current loss and hysteresis loss) can be decreased to about 1/5 of silicon steels.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Bakery Processing Equipment Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Middleby CorporationWelbiltITW Food Equipment GroupMarkel Food GroupJBT CorporationRheonMIWESinmagWiesheuWP BakeryBuhlerRATIONALGEA GroupAli GroupRademakerOthersGlobal Bakery Processing Equipment Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Bakery Processing Equipment Market: Key Application TypeBreadCakes & PastriesPizza CrustsCookies & BiscuitsOthersGlobal Bakery Processing Equipment Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Bakery Processing Equipment Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Bakery Processing Equipment Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Bakery Processing Equipment Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market2.1 Regional Production2.2 Regional Demand2.3 Regional Trade........................Continue (Global Bakery Processing Equipment Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Market Report 2017 - Daimler, Audi, BMW, Nio, Porsche

Autonomous Vehicle Market

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QY Research Groups analysts estimate the Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Market to grow at a substantial CAGR during the forecast period 2017 to 2022.The report Autonomous Vehicle Market Research Report 2017 highlights key dynamics of Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle sector. The potential of the sector has been investigated along with the key challenges. The current market scenario and future prospects of the sector has also been studied. Additionally, prime strategically activities in the market which includes product developments, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, etc., are discussed.For Requesting a Sample Copy of This Report, Please Visit:Geographically, this report split Asia-Pacific into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Autonomous Vehicle for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), including:ChinaJapanSouth KoreaTaiwanIndiaSoutheast AsiaAustraliaAsia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Autonomous Vehicle sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingDaimlerAudiBMWNioPorscheTeslaFaraday & FutureBYDChangan AutomobileSaic Motor CorporationBaiduBaic MotorWaymoGoogleVolvoTo Browse the Entire Report, Visit:On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volum, revenue, product price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoBy Fuel TypeBattery Electric Vehicle (BEV)Hybrid Vehicle (HEV & PHEV)Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV)By Body TypeSedan/HatchbackSuv (Sport Utility Vehicle)On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, includingPersonal MobilityCar SharingMake An Enquiry:Table of ContentsAsia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Market Report 20171 Autonomous Vehicle Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Autonomous Vehicle1.2 Classification of Autonomous Vehicle by Product Category1.2.1 Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Types (2012-2022)1.2.2 Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)1.2.4 Hybrid Vehicle (HEV & PHEV)1.2.5 Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)1.2.6 Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV)1.3 Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)1.3.2 Personal Mobility1.3.3 Car Sharing1.4 Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Market by Region1.4.1 Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 South Korea Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.8 Australia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Asia-Pacific Market Size (Value and Volume) of Autonomous Vehicle (2012-2022)1.5.1 Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)10 Asia-Pacific Autonomous Vehicle Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data10.1 Daimler10.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors10.1.2 Autonomous Vehicle Product Category, Application and Specification10.1.2.1 Product A10.1.2.2 Product B10.1.3 Daimler Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)10.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview10.2 Audi10.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors10.2.2 Autonomous Vehicle Product Category, Application and Specification10.2.2.1 Product A10.2.2.2 Product B10.2.3 Audi Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)10.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview10.3 BMW10.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors10.3.2 Autonomous Vehicle Product Category, Application and Specification10.3.2.1 Product A10.3.2.2 Product B10.3.3 BMW Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)10.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview10.4 Nio10.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors10.4.2 Autonomous Vehicle Product Category, Application and Specification10.4.2.1 Product A10.4.2.2 Product B10.4.3 Nio Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)10.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview10.5 Porsche10.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors10.5.2 Autonomous Vehicle Product Category, Application and Specification10.5.2.1 Product A10.5.2.2 Product B10.5.3 Porsche Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)10.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview10.6 Tesla10.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors10.6.2 Autonomous Vehicle Product Category, Application and Specification10.6.2.1 Product A10.6.2.2 Product B10.6.3 Tesla Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)10.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview10.7 Faraday & Future10.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors10.7.2 Autonomous Vehicle Product Category, Application and Specification10.7.2.1 Product A10.7.2.2 Product B10.7.3 Faraday & Future Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)10.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview10.8 BYD10.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors10.8.2 Autonomous Vehicle Product Category, Application and Specification10.8.2.1 Product A10.8.2.2 Product B10.8.3 BYD Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)10.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview10.9 Changan Automobile10.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors10.9.2 Autonomous Vehicle Product Category, Application and Specification10.9.2.1 Product A10.9.2.2 Product B10.9.3 Changan Automobile Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)10.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview10.10 Saic Motor Corporation10.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors10.10.2 Autonomous Vehicle Product Category, Application and Specification10.10.2.1 Product A10.10.2.2 Product B10.10.3 Saic Motor Corporation Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)10.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview10.11 Baidu10.12 Baic Motor10.13 Waymo10.14 Google10.15 Volvo...About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the worlds most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:Email- sales@qyresearchgroups.comWeb-
Photonic IC Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 NeoPhotonics, HUAWEI, Cisco, Finisar, Luxtera, Mellanox, Alcatel-Lucent and Others

Photonic IC Market

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Global Photonic IC market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Intel, Oclaro, JDS Uniphase, Finisar, Luxtera, Mellanox, OneChip, Alcatel-Lucent, Infinera, Avago, NeoPhotonics, HUAWEI, Cisco, Ciena and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) or integrated optical circuit is a device that integrates multiple (at least two) photonic functions and as such is similar to an electronic integrated circuit. The major difference between the two is that a photonic integrated circuit provides functions for information signals imposed on optical wavelengths typically in the visible spectrum or near infrared 850 nm-1650 nm.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Photonic IC Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Alcatel-LucentInfineraAvagoNeoPhotonicsHUAWEICiscoCienaIntelOclaroJDS UniphaseFinisarLuxteraMellanoxOneChipOthersGlobal Photonic IC Market: Key Product TypeMonolithic IntegrationHybrid IntegrationModule IntegrationOthersGlobal Photonic IC Market: Key Application TypeOptical CommunicationSensingBiophotonicsOthersGlobal Photonic IC Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Photonic IC Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Photonic IC Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Photonic IC Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Market Segment Overview1.1.1 Product Definition1.1.2 Market by Type1.1.2.1 Monolithic Integration1.1.2.2 Hybrid Integration1.1.2.3 Module Integration1.1.3 Market by Application1.1.3.1 Optical Communication1.1.3.2 Sensing1.1.3.3 Biophotonics1.1.3.4 Others........................Continue (Global Photonic IC Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Chromatography Syringes Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Thermo Scientific, ILS, Agilent, Ace Glass, Spectrum Chromatography, MP Biomedicals, hanghai Jiaan and Others

Chromatography Syringes Market

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Global Chromatography Syringes market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely PerkinElmer, Spectrum Chromatography, MP Biomedicals, Shanghai Jiaan, Shanghai Gaoge, Hamilton Company, SGE, Thermo Scientific, ILS, Agilent, ITO, Ace Glass and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.In liquid chromatography, the syringe functions primarily as a pipette or liquid-transfer device that loads a sample loop. The same largely holds true for gas chromatography. The syringe generally does not take an active role in injection, which occurs only after the sample has been displaced from the syringe. Syringes are gas-tight and leak-proof.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Chromatography Syringes Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Hamilton CompanySGEThermo ScientificILSAgilentITOAce GlassPerkinElmerSpectrum ChromatographyMP BiomedicalsShanghai JiaanShanghai GaogeOthersGlobal Chromatography Syringes Market: Key Product TypeGC SyringesHPLC SyringesTLC SyringesOther Chromatography SyringesGlobal Chromatography Syringes Market: Key Application TypeFoodCosmeticMedicalOthersGlobal Chromatography Syringes Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Chromatography Syringes Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Chromatography Syringes Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Chromatography Syringes Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Objectives of Research1.1.1 Definition1.1.2 Specifications1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 by Type1.2.1.1 Autosampler Syringes1.2.1.2 Manual Syringes1.2.2 by Application1.2.2.1 GC Syringes1.2.2.2 HPLC Syringes1.2.2.3 TLC Syringes........................Continue (Global Chromatography Syringes Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Sputter Coating Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Materion, ULVAC, Entret Coating Technology, Soleras Advanced Coatings, China Rare Metal Material, GRIKIN and Others

Sputter Coating Market

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Global Sputter Coating market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Tosoh SMD, Soleras Advanced Coatings, China Rare Metal Material, Jiangyin Entret Coating Technology, GRIKIN, Hitachi Metals, Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Materion, ULVAC, JX Nippon Mining & Metal, Heraeus, Honeywell, Umicore, Praxair and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Sputter Coating Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:MaterionULVACJX Nippon Mining & MetalHeraeusHoneywellUmicorePraxairTosoh SMDSoleras Advanced CoatingsChina Rare Metal MaterialJiangyin Entret Coating TechnologyGRIKINHitachi MetalsMitsui Mining & SmeltingOthersGlobal Sputter Coating Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Sputter Coating Market: Key Application TypeFlat Panel DisplaySolar PanelArchitectural GlassSemiconductorsOthersGlobal Sputter Coating Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Sputter Coating Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Sputter Coating Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Sputter Coating Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market2.1 Regional Production2.2 Regional Demand2.3 Regional Trade3 Key Manufacturers3.1 Materion........................Continue (Global Sputter Coating Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
US Carbon and Graphite Products Market Report 2017 - Trends & Analysis

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IndexBox has just published a new report "U.S. Carbon And Graphite Products Market. Analysis And Forecast to 2025" ().This report is best suitable for you if you: Are planning to enter a new geographical market and wish to know which one is best for your product Are planning to enter a new product market and want to have a detailed overview of the market before entering Already work in a given market and want to update your knowledge on the topic Are developing/reviewing your company strategy and wish to know the existing trends in the market Want to find the best country to import a product from Are consulting a client in the given industry and wish to get a deep understanding of the situation in the market Are planning to open new production facilities and wish to choose the best location.The report serves the above mentioned purposes by providing a deep analysis of the key indicators of the carbon and graphite products market. It includes a market overview, which consolidates the key conclusions made from the analysis of the market survey, giving insights on the most meaningful markets based on the comparative analysis. The report also provides a outlook of how the market is expected to change in the coming years, based on historical trends, external and internal factors, and the main drivers changing the market. Each section contains a a comprehensive analysis of the data provided. Specifically, the report indicates the historical developments and actual perspectives of carbon and graphite products production volumes, consumption data, as well as producer prices.The trade section provides crucial data, such as historical data on imports/exports, changes in the direction of trade, as well as import/export prices. Analysis of carbon and graphite products trade shows the opportunities that are opening before producers and suppliers in a changing market.Product coverage: Carbon and graphite electrodes for electric furnaces and electrolytic cell use; All other carbon and graphite products, including carbon and graphite fibers, brushes, brush plates, contacts, excluding refractories; Carbon and graphite product manufacturing, nsk, total.Countries coverage: the U.S.Abstract:In 2015, the value of carbon and graphite products production in the U.S. amounted to $3.1B, stabilizing at the previous year level.Overall, the U.S. carbon and graphite products output pursued a modest growth from 2007 to 2015. The total output figures increased at an average annual rate of +1.8%. The trend pattern, however, indicated some noticable fluctuations throughout the analyzed period. The growth pace was the most rapid in 2010, when the output figure increased by +40% from the previous year level. Over the period under review, the total value of carbon and graphite products shipments in the United States attained its maximum level of $3.2B in 2013. Afterwards, the growth in terms of the carbon and graphite products production failed to regain its strength through to 2015.All other carbon and graphite products, including carbon and graphite fibers, brushes, brush plates, contacts, excluding refractories accounted for the highest share (60% in 2015) of U.S. carbon and graphite products manufacturing, leaving a considerable room for carbon and graphite electrodes for electric furnaces and electrolytic cell use (37%). The other related products with less notable individual shares together comprised approx. 3% of the total output.Data coverage: Carbon and graphite products market value and size; Major trends in the carbon and graphite products market; Forecast of the market dynamics in the medium term; Exports, imports and trade balance; Import and export prices; Life cycle of the carbon and graphite products industry; Number of establishments and their locations; Carbon and graphite products industry productivity. Key market players and their profiles.Methodology:Our methodology consists of obtaining information from various trusted sources (both paid and open), which include, but are not limited to: International official statistical agencies Governmental statistical agencies Official trade statistics Paid trade databases Industrial associations Company reports Industry experts.Companies mentioned:Graftech International Holdings,Toray Composites (america),Showa Denko Carbon,Cobham Composite Products,Helwig Carbon Products,Poco Graphite,Zoltek Companies,Toyo Tanso Usa,National Electrical Carbon Products,Toho Tenax America,Quatro Composites,De Nora Tech,Graftech Usa,Mersen USA Bn Corp.,Mitsubishi Rayon Carbon Fiber and Composites,Graphite Metallizing Corp,Cytec Carbon Fibers,Graphite Machining,Sigmatex High Technology Fabrics,Sgl Carbon, Toray Carbon Fibers America,Morgan Advanced Materials and Technology,Graftech International,Mersen USA Greenville-Mi Corp,The Carbide/Graphite Group,Hh Liquidating Corp,Mersen USA St Marys-PA Corp.,Schunk of North America,Poco Graphite Holdings,Asbury Louisiana,Alliance Spacesystems,Spacesystems HoldingsOur research team compare the information gathered, confirm it with sources when required, and analyze the collected data, developing a full clear picture of the market and coming up with the final numbers. It is crucial to understand the trends of the market, for which we do provide study, taking into account events in the market, in adjacent and related markets, raw material markets, and markets, which are the main demand creators for the product under research. As for the forecast, it is conducted using analytical models of data on consumption, production, exports, imports, prices, as well as the industry trends, economic trends, consumption trends, possible political and technological trends.Source:IndexBox is a leading market research publisher in the world. You can find more than 25,000 research reports in our web store, which cover global industries and regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.Company Name: IndexBoxContact Person: Kirill BezverhiEmail: kirill.bezverhi@indexbox.co.ukPhone: +44 20 3239 3063Adress: United Kingdom, 44 Main Street, Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, ML11 0QW
Catamaran Market Report for Period 2011 till 2023 Pedigree Cats Catamaran, Defline, Farrier Marine, Matrix Yachts, Voyage, TomCat Boats, Lagoon Catamaran, World Cat, Outremer Yachting and Others

Catamaran Market

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Global Catamaran market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Gemini Catamarans, World Cat, Outremer Yachting, Scape Yachts, Seawind Caramarans, Pedigree Cats Catamaran, Defline, Farrier Marine, CATATHAI, African Cats, Sunreef Yachts, Spirited Designs, Lagoon Catamaran, Fountaine Pajot Catamarans, Matrix Yachts, Voyage, TomCat Boats, Alibi Robertson and Caine and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.A catamaran is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stabilized craft, deriving its stability from its wide beam, rather than from a ballasted keel as with a monohull sailboat. Being ballast-free and therefore lighter than a monohull, catamarans often have a shallower draft (draught) than comparably-sized monohulls. The two hulls combined also often have a smaller hydrodynamic resistance than comparable monohulls, requiring less propulsive power from either sails or motors. The catamarans wider stance on the water can reduce both heeling and wave-induced motion, as compared with a monohull.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Catamaran Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Sunreef YachtsSpirited DesignsLagoon CatamaranFountaine Pajot CatamaransMatrix YachtsVoyageTomCat BoatsAlibiRobertson and CaineGemini CatamaransWorld CatOutremer YachtingScape YachtsSeawind CaramaransPedigree Cats CatamaranDeflineFarrier MarineCATATHAIAfrican CatsOthersGlobal Catamaran Market: Key Product TypeSailing catamaransPowered catamaransOthersGlobal Catamaran Market: Key Application TypeSportCruisingOcean racingPassenger transportOther ApplicationsGlobal Catamaran Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Catamaran Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Catamaran Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Catamaran Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Objectives of Research1.1.1 Definition1.1.2 Specifications1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 by Type1.2.1.1 Sailing catamarans1.2.1.2 Powered catamarans1.2.2 by Application1.2.2.1 Sport1.2.2.2 Cruising1.2.2.3 Ocean racing1.2.2.4 Passenger transport1.2.2.5 Other Applications1.2.3 by Regions........................Continue (Global Catamaran Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Business Opportunities in India ABS Market

India ABS demand-supply, Kilotons (2011-2016)

Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) is the most widely used engineering plastic finding its applications in automotive, electrical & electronics, industrial and consumer products sector. The Indian ABS market has emerged stronger than expected registering a growth of 9.7% in 2016-17 and now accounts for around 1.5% of the global demand. The capacity utilization has averaged around 77% during 2011-2016 decreasing from 98% in 2011 to 65% in 2016.India has been a net importer of ABS. The imports from 2011 onwards have averaged around 70 kilo tons. Bhansali Engineering Polymers Ltd. and INEOS Styrolution India Ltd. together account for 62% of Indias ABS demand, rest is met by imports mostly from South Korea.Prismane Consulting estimates a high growth of over 9% for ABS in India from 2017 to 2025 on account of increasing demand from middle income group for refrigerators, washing machines, two wheelers, and mobile phones.Prismane Consulting is a unique global boutique consulting firm with an Indian origin. We present ourselves to the world outside providing management, economic and technical expertise to improve customer engagement, boost operational efficiency, reduce costs and achieve superior business results. Prismane Consulting serves leading businesses in the field of Chemicals, Petrochemicals, Polymers, Materials, Environment and Energy. We have been advising clients on their key strategic issues solving their toughest and most critical business problems.For a detailed supply-demand, pricing analysis and cash-cost of production of ABS contact Prismane Consulting at sales@prismaneconsulting.comPrismane ConsultingOffice #519, Amanora Chambers, Amanora Park Town,Hadapsar-Magarpatta Road,Pune 411028India
The vaccination drive is being held across Kerala upto the age of 15 years against Measles and Rubella.

By P S Gopikrishnan Unnithan: Three men have been arrested in connection with the attack on a public health nurse in Malappuram. She was allegedly attacked during a measles and rubella vaccination drive in the disrict.

The nurse, Shyamala B's, hand was twisted and her colleagues were attacked by the gang at the venue, GLP school in Edavoor.

Attackers were all residents of the same area.

advertisement

Kerala Health Minister, KK Shailaja, has condemned the incident.

"Strict action will be taken in such cases. But these should be seen in isolation with no support from from public at large", she said.

The vaccination drive is being held across Kerala upto the age of 15 years against Measles and Rubella.

Some groups in Malappuram, traditionally, have been resistant to vaccinations in general.

But according to medical officers, the resistance has dramatically reduced in last few years, with schools and institutions voluntarily opening their doors to the current vaccination drive.

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Oil Free Air Compressor Market Report for Period 2011 till 2023 Fusheng, Kobelco, Atlas Copco, Atlas Copco, Ingersoll Rand and Others

Oil Free Air Compressor Market

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Global Oil Free Air Compressor market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely KAESER, Gardner Denver, Fusheng, Kobelco, Atlas Copco, Ingersoll Rand, Sullair, Atlas Copco, Ingersoll Rand, Sullair and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.An oil-free compressor is only one of several types of compressors available. It works the same way as a standard air compressor, and may even look very similar on the outside internally, however, it contains special seals designed to keep the crucial lubricating oil away from the compressed air. The moving parts inside the compressor require lubrication to reduce the friction. Lubrication is essential in adequate amounts, regardless of the type of compressor, in order to prevent failure of the parts. The term oil-free refers to the air that the compressor produces, not the machine itself.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Oil Free Air Compressor Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Atlas CopcoIngersoll RandSullairKAESERGardner DenverFushengKobelcoOthersGlobal Oil Free Air Compressor Market: Key Product TypeBelow 50 HP50-100 HPAbove 100OthersGlobal Oil Free Air Compressor Market: Key Application TypeFood & BeverageElectronicsPharmaceuticalsOil & GasOthersGlobal Oil Free Air Compressor Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Oil Free Air Compressor Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Oil Free Air Compressor Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Oil Free Air Compressor Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Objectives of Research1.1.1 Definition1.1.2 Specifications1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 by Type1.2.1.1 Below 50 HP1.2.1.2 50-100 HP1.2.1.3 Above 1001.2.2 by Application1.2.2.1 Food & Beverage1.2.2.2 Electronics1.2.2.3 Pharmaceuticals1.2.2.4 Oil & Gas1.2.2.5 Others........................Continue (Global Oil Free Air Compressor Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Cockpit Display Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Alpine Electronics, AU Optronics Corp, Continental AG, Innolux Corporation, Japan Display, Continental AG, Esterline technologies Corporation and Others

Cockpit Display Market

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Global Cockpit Display market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely General Dynamics Canada Ltd., Innolux Corporation, Japan Display, Rockwell Collins Inc., Texas Instruments Inc., Alpine Electronics, AU Optronics Corp, Continental AG, Esterline technologies Corporation, Garmin Ltd. and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Cockpit Display Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Alpine ElectronicsAU Optronics CorpContinental AGEsterline technologies CorporationGarmin Ltd.General Dynamics Canada Ltd.Innolux CorporationJapan DisplayRockwell Collins Inc.Texas Instruments Inc.OthersGlobal Cockpit Display Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Cockpit Display Market: Key Application TypeCommercial automobilesTactical vehiclesTrainsOthersGlobal Cockpit Display Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Cockpit Display Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Cockpit Display Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Cockpit Display Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Objectives of Research1.1.1 Definition1.1.2 Specifications1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 by Type1.2.1.1 Hass1.2.1.2 Others1.2.2 by Application1.2.2.1 Food1.2.2.2 Cosmetic1.2.2.3 Medical1.2.2.4 Others........................Continue (Global Cockpit Display Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Gaucher Disease Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Pfizer, Shire, Sanofi and Others

Gaucher Disease Market

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Global Gaucher Disease market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Actelion Pharma, Pfizer, Sanofi, Shire and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Gaucher disease is an inherited disorder that affects many of the bodys organs and tissues. The signs and symptoms of this condition vary widely among affected individuals.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Gaucher Disease Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:SanofiShireActelion PharmaPfizerOthersGlobal Gaucher Disease Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Gaucher Disease Market: Key Application TypeNon-neuronopathic Gaucher diseaseNeuronopathic Gaucher diseaseOthersGlobal Gaucher Disease Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Gaucher Disease Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Gaucher Disease Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Gaucher Disease Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market2.1 Regional Production2.2 Regional Demand2.3 Regional Trade3 Key Manufacturers3.1 Sanofi........................Continue (Global Gaucher Disease Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Algae Products Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Taiwan Chlorella Manufacturing Company, Sapphire, Solazyme, Algae Farms, Gather Great Ocean Algae, Alltech, FEBICO and Others

Algae Products Market

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Global Algae Products market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely PT. Indonusa Algaemas Prima, PT. Agarindo Bogatama, Karagen Indonesia, TAAU Australia, Algatechologies, FEBICO, Taiwan Chlorella Manufacturing Company, Everyone Excellent Algae, Gather Great Ocean Algae, Alltech, Cyanotech, DIC Corporation, Seaweed Energy Solutions, Sapphire, Solazyme, Algae Farms and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Algae Products are simple plants that can range from the microscopic (microalgae), to large seaweeds (macroalgae), such as giant kelp more than one hundred feet in length. Microalgae include both cyanobacteria, (similar to bacteria, and formerly called blue-green algae) as well as green, brown and red algae. (There are more varieties of microalgae, but these are the main ones.)Algae products can be grown using water resources such as brackish-, sea-, and wastewater unsuitable for cultivating agricultural crops. When using wastewater, such as municipal, animal and even some industrial runoff, they can help in its treatment and purification, while benefiting from using the nutrients present.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Algae Products Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:AlltechCyanotechDIC CorporationSeaweed Energy SolutionsSapphireSolazymeAlgae FarmsPT. Indonusa Algaemas PrimaPT. Agarindo BogatamaKaragen IndonesiaTAAU AustraliaAlgatechologiesFEBICOTaiwan Chlorella Manufacturing CompanyEveryone Excellent AlgaeGather Great Ocean AlgaeOthersGlobal Algae Products Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Algae Products Market: Key Application TypeAnimal & Aquaculture FeedBiofuels & BioenergyFoodChemicalsOthersGlobal Algae Products Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Algae Products Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Algae Products Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Algae Products Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market2.1 Regional Production2.2 Regional Demand2.3 Regional Trade3 Key Manufacturers3.1 Alltech........................Continue (Global Algae Products Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Grain Oriented Electrical Steel Market Report for Period 2011 till 2022 Posco, JFE Steel, NLMK Group, Stalprodukt S.A., AK Steel, Cogent(Tata Steel), ATI, WISCO, Ansteel and Others

Grain Oriented Electrical Steel Market

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Global Grain Oriented Electrical Steel market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely ArcelorMittal, Stalprodukt S.A., ATI, WISCO, Baosteel, Shougang, Ansteel, NSSMC, Posco, JFE Steel, NLMK Group, ThyssenKrupp, AK Steel, Cogent(Tata Steel) and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Grain oriented electrical steels are iron-silicon magnetic alloys. These alloys are used to construct the cores of highly-efficient electric transformers due to their unique magnetic properties. Available in grades M-2, M-3, M-4, M-5 and M-6, with superior magnetic properties in the rolling direction, oriented steels are used in transformer cores. They are used in large generators and other apparatus when the design permits the directional magnetic characteristics to be used efficiently.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Grain Oriented Electrical Steel Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:NSSMCPoscoJFE SteelNLMK GroupThyssenKruppAK SteelCogent(Tata Steel)ArcelorMittalStalprodukt S.A.ATIWISCOBaosteelShougangAnsteelOthersGlobal Grain Oriented Electrical Steel Market: Key Product TypeGeneral/Conventional Grain- Oriented Electrical SteelHighly Permeable Grain-Oriented SteelDomain Refined Grain-Oriented Electrical SteelOthersGlobal Grain Oriented Electrical Steel Market: Key Application TypeTransformerPower GeneratorElectric MotorOthersGlobal Grain Oriented Electrical Steel Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Grain Oriented Electrical Steel Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Grain Oriented Electrical Steel Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Grain Oriented Electrical Steel Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Objectives of Research1.1.1 Definition1.1.2 Specifications1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 by Type1.2.1.1 General/Conventional Grain- Oriented Electrical Steel1.2.1.2 Highly Permeable Grain-Oriented Steel1.2.1.3 Domain Refined Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel1.2.2 by Application1.2.2.1 Transformer1.2.2.2 Power Generator1.2.2.3 Electric Motor1.2.3 by Regions........................Continue (Global Grain Oriented Electrical Steel Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Flat Glass Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Taiwan Glass, China Southern Sisecam, Xinyi, Qibing, Central, AGC, Saint-Gobain, Guardian and Others

Flat Glass Market

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Global Flat Glass market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Cardinal, Euroglas, Xinyi, Qibing, Central, SPY, NSG, AGC, Saint-Gobain, Guardian, Taiwan Glass, China Southern Sisecam, PPG and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Flat glass is also called net white piece of glass or glass, is melting, cooling and solidification of non-crystalline inorganic matter, has pervious to light, transparent, heat preservation, sound insulation, wear-resistant, resistant to climate change and other performance. Manufacture of flat glass raw material is rich, the price is low, so has been extremely widespread application.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Flat Glass Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:NSGAGCSaint-GobainGuardianTaiwan GlassChina SouthernSisecamPPGCardinalEuroglasXinyiQibingCentralSPYOthersGlobal Flat Glass Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Flat Glass Market: Key Application TypeAchitechive(Building Products)AutomobileOther fieldsOthersGlobal Flat Glass Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Flat Glass Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Flat Glass Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Flat Glass Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market2.1 Regional Production2.2 Regional Demand2.3 Regional Trade3 Key Manufacturers3.1 NSG........................Continue (Global Flat Glass Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Aluminum Sulfate Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 General Chemical, Chemtrade Logistics, Sierra Chemical, GAC Chemical, Holland Company, USALCO, Solvay Rhodia and Others

Aluminum Sulfate Market

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Global Aluminum Sulfate market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Affinity Chemical, Kemira, GAC Chemical, Holland Company, Sierra Chemical, Southern Ionics, General Chemical, Chemtrade Logistics, GEO, C&S Chemical, USALCO, Solvay Rhodia and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Aluminum Sulfate is a chemical compound with the formula Al2(SO4)3.It is soluble in water and is mainly used as a flocculating agent in the purification of drinking water and waste water treatment plants, and also in paper manufacturing.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Aluminum Sulfate Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:General ChemicalChemtrade LogisticsGEOC&S ChemicalUSALCOSolvay RhodiaAffinity ChemicalKemiraGAC ChemicalHolland CompanySierra ChemicalSouthern IonicsOthersGlobal Aluminum Sulfate Market: Key Product TypeIndustrial GradeFood GradePharmaceutical GradeOthersGlobal Aluminum Sulfate Market: Key Application TypePulp and PaperWater TreatmentOthersGlobal Aluminum Sulfate Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Aluminum Sulfate Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Aluminum Sulfate Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Aluminum Sulfate Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Market Segment Overview1.1.1 Product Definition1.1.2 Market by Type1.1.2.1 Industrial Grade1.1.2.2 Food Grade1.1.2.3 Pharmaceutical Grade1.1.3 Market by Application1.1.3.1 Pulp and Paper1.1.3.2 Water Treatment1.1.3.3 Others Application........................Continue (Global Aluminum Sulfate Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Network-as-a-Service Global Market 2017: Key Players  Ciena Corporation, Alcatel Lucent, Aryaka Networks, Inc, NEC Corporation, Juniper Networks

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Network-as-a-Service IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Network-as-a-Service -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis of Top Key Player Forecast To 2022 To Its Research DatabaseAccording to Stratistics MRC, the Global Network-as-a-Service Market is accounted for $1.85 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $22.50 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 51.6% from 2016 to 2022. Growing requirement for subscription (pay per use) business model, huge development in network virtualization, cloud computing, software defined networking (SDN), enlarging need for global connectivity and escalating awareness about the economic benefits of (NaaS) are some of the drivers which in turn empowered the growth of this market. However, privacy concerns and information security are some factors which are anticipated to decrease the market size. Moreover, the market has tremendous growing trend which is enterprises shifting there IT investment from capital expenses to operating outflow business model.By end user, BFSI segment is expected to account for the largest market share in the global market due to constant adjustment for cost effective IT infrastructure operation and growing applications. Asia Pacific region is likely to exhibit highest growth rate due to major committal in IT infrastructure projects and continuous expansion in telecommunication networks.Request for Sample Report @Some of the key players in this market includeCiena Corporation, Alcatel Lucent, Aryaka Networks, Inc, NEC Corporation, Juniper Networks, Inc, Brocade Communication Systems, Inc, AT&T, Inc , Vmware, IBM Corporation, Cisco Systems Inc, Akamai Technologies, CloudGenix, Intellipath, Silver Peak Systems, VeloCloud, Aerohive Networks, Netcraftsmen, Fatpipe Networks, Talari Networks and Viptela.Types Covered: WAN as a Service LAN as a ServiceComponents Covered: Technology Service InfrastructureApplications Covered: Integrated Network Security as a Service Network Function Virtualization V-CPE Bandwidth on Demand Other ApplicationsEnd Users Covered: Healthcare Retail IT and Telecom Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance Manufacturing Government Transportation and Logistics Other End UsersLeave a Query @Regions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developmentsBuy Now @Table of Content1 Executive Summary2 Preface2.1 Abstract2.2 Stake Holders2.3 Research Scope2.4 Research Methodology2.4.1 Data Mining2.4.2 Data Analysis2.4.3 Data Validation2.4.4 Research Approach2.5 Research Sources2.5.1 Primary Research Sources2.5.2 Secondary Research Sources2.5.3 Assumptions3 Market Trend Analysis3.1 Introduction3.2 Drivers3.3 Restraints3.4 Opportunities3.5 Threats3.6 Product Analysis3.7 Application Analysis3.8 End User Analysis3.9 Emerging Markets3.10 Futuristic Market Scenario4 Porters Five Force Analysis4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers4.2 Bargaining power of buyers4.3 Threat of substitutes4.4 Threat of new entrants4.5 Competitive rivalry5 Global Network-as-a-Service Market, By Type5.1 Introduction5.2 WAN as a Service5.3 LAN as a Service6 Global Network-as-a-Service Market, By Component6.1 Introduction6.2 Technology Service6.3 Infrastructure7 Global Network-as-a-Service Market, By Application7.1 Introduction7.2 Integrated Network Security as a Service7.3 Network Function Virtualization7.4 V-CPE7.5 Bandwidth on Demand7.6 Other Applications8 Global Network-as-a-Service Market, By End User8.1 Introduction8.2 Healthcare8.3 Retail8.4 IT and Telecom8.5 Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance8.6 Manufacturing8.7 Government8.8 Transportation and Logistics8.9 Other End Users...Continued...Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (Us) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune  411028Maharashtra, GlobalPh: +91 841 198 5042
Car Navigation Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Sony, Panasonic, Bosch, Pioneer, Alpine, Hangsheng and Others

Car Navigation Market 2017

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Global Car Navigation market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Kenwood, Sony, Clarion, Garmin, Panasonic, Hangsheng, Coagent, ADAYO, Bosch, Denso, Pioneer, Alpine, Aisin, Continental and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.A car navigation system is part of the automobile controls or a third party add-on used to find direction in an automobile. It typically uses a satellite navigation device to get its position data which is then correlated to a position on a road. When directions are needed routing can be calculated. On the fly traffic information can be used to adjust the route. Dead reckoning using distance data from sensors attached to the drivetrain, a gyroscope and an accelerometer can be used for greater reliability, as GPS signal loss and/or multipath can occur due to urban canyons or tunnels.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Car Navigation Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:BoschDensoPioneerAlpineAisinContinentalKenwoodSonyClarionGarminPanasonicHangshengCoagentADAYOOthersGlobal Car Navigation Market: Key Product TypeWinCE PlatformAndroid PlatformOthersGlobal Car Navigation Market: Key Application TypeOEMAftermarketOthersGlobal Car Navigation Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Car Navigation Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Car Navigation Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Car Navigation Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Market Segment Overview1.1.1 Product Definition1.1.2 Market by Type1.1.2.1 WinCE Platform1.1.2.2 Android Platform1.1.3 Market by Application1.1.3.1 OEM1.1.3.2 Aftermarket........................Continue (Global Car Navigation Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Special Steel Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Hyundai, Sandvik, Voestalpine, Sanyo, Arcelor Mittal, Timken Steel, Ovako, POSCO and Others

Special Steel Market Research

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Global Special Steel market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely DAIDO Steel, Aichi Steel, Sandvik, SSAB, Sanyo, Timken Steel, Ovako, Nippon Koshuha, Arcelor Mittal, NSSMC, JFE, POSCO, ThyssenKrupp AG, Hyundai, Voestalpine, U. S. Steel and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Special Steel Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Arcelor MittalNSSMCJFEPOSCOThyssenKrupp AGHyundaiVoestalpineU. S. SteelDAIDO SteelAichi SteelSandvikSSABSanyoTimken SteelOvakoNippon KoshuhaOthersGlobal Special Steel Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Special Steel Market: Key Application TypeAuto IndustryMachinery IndustryPetrochemicals & Energy IndustryOthersGlobal Special Steel Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Special Steel Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Special Steel Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Special Steel Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market2.1 Regional Production2.2 Regional Demand2.3 Regional Trade........................Continue (Global Special Steel Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Witnesses on social media reported people running into nearby shops and pubs for shelter.

Witnesses on social media reported people running into nearby shops and pubs for shelter. (Photo: @Salman_BBC)

By AP: British police flooded London's busy Oxford Circus area Friday after receiving multiple reports of "shots fired." They have not located any casualties.

Armed and unarmed officers rushed to the shopping district, and police said they were responding "as if the incident is terrorist related." They did not, however, confirm that it was.

If you are on Oxford Street go into a building. Officers are on scene and dealing. More info when we can&; Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) November 24, 2017

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Witnesses on social media reported people running into nearby shops and pubs for shelter.

We were called at 1643 to an incident at Oxford Circus tube. Three fire engines & 15 firefighters are in attendance. Please avoid the area. Follow @BTP & @metpoliceuk for more information #OxfordStreet- London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) November 24, 2017

Transit authorities say the station has been evacuated and trains are not stopping there.

BREAKING NEWS: POSSIBLE SHOOTING AT OXFORD CIRCUS METRO STATION IN CENTRAL LONDON, LOTS OF PANIC, STAY AWAY FROM THE AREA. pic.twitter.com/kvg0SJmUuA&; BNL NEWS (@BreakingNLive) November 24, 2017

The busy Oxford Circus subway station was closed and police have told people in the area to take shelter in nearby stores. Witnesses on social media reported people running into nearby shops and pubs for shelter.

The Metropolitan Police force said officers were called just after 4.30 pm to "a number of reports of shots fired on Oxford Street and underground at Oxford Circus tube station."

Police said officers have not found any casualties.

Police advised people to avoid the area, which was packed with commuters and shoppers at the end of the working week and amid Black Friday sales.

More details awaited

WATCH: Multiple shots fired in London's Oxford Circus area

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Natural Language Processing Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Apple Incorporation, IBM Incorporation, NetBase Solutions, Google, Microsoft Corporation, HP and Others

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Global Natural Language Processing market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely 3M, IBM Incorporation, NetBase Solutions, SAS Institute Inc, HP, Apple Incorporation, Dolbey Systems, Google, Microsoft Corporation, Verint Systems and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Natural language processing (NLP) is the ability of a computer program to understand human speech as it is spoken. NLP is a component of artificial intelligence (AI).Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Natural Language Processing Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Apple IncorporationDolbey SystemsGoogleMicrosoft CorporationVerint Systems3MIBM IncorporationNetBase SolutionsSAS Institute IncHPOthersGlobal Natural Language Processing Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Natural Language Processing Market: Key Application TypeWeb SearchLanguage TranslationCustomer ServiceOthersGlobal Natural Language Processing Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Natural Language Processing Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Natural Language Processing Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Natural Language Processing Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market........................Continue (Global Natural Language Processing Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Chitosan Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Novamatrix, Dainichiseika Color & Chemicals, Haizhiyuan, Haidebei Marine, Bioline, Fuda, Primex, Agratech and Others

Chitosan Market

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Global Chitosan market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Fengrun, Golden Shell, Huashan, Haixin, Haizhiyuan, Haidebei Marine, Yunzhou, Hecreat, Primex, Agratech, ADVANCED BIOPOLYMERS, Novamatrix, Dainichiseika Color & Chemicals, Bioline, Fuda and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Chitosan Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:PrimexAgratechADVANCED BIOPOLYMERSNovamatrixDainichiseika Color & ChemicalsBiolineFudaFengrunGolden ShellHuashanHaixinHaizhiyuanHaidebei MarineYunzhouHecreatOthersGlobal Chitosan Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Chitosan Market: Key Application TypeWater TreatmentPharmaceutical & biomedicalCosmeticsFood & beverageOthersGlobal Chitosan Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Chitosan Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Chitosan Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Chitosan Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market2.1 Regional Production2.2 Regional Demand2.3 Regional Trade........................Continue (Global Chitosan Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Global and China Biomedicine Market 2012-2020: Market Size, Structure, Trends, Analysis and Forecast

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ReportsWeb.com published Biomedicine 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.The annual growth rate of world biomedicine market has been outpacing that of the overall pharmaceutical market in recent years and this trend will continue in the coming years with a steady 10.4% growth per annum by 2020. In particular, China's biomedicine market is expected to grow at an even higher rate (15% annually) over the forecast 2015-2020 period, driven by increasing and aging population, government initiatives and favorable policies, improving level of biotech and innovation, and increasing urbanization as well as household income in China.Global and China Biomedicine Market 2012-2020: Market Size, Structure, Trends, Analysis and Forecast reviews the worldwide market of biological medicines and reagents with Chinese biomedicine market examined in detail specifically. With global economic, demographic, and healthcare profiles reviewed as market environments, this report provides market trend of world biomedicines for 2012-2020, market structure of product segments (Therapeutic Protein, Antibody, Vaccines, Blood Products, and Diagnostic Reagent), dynamics of biosimilar segment, geographic spread (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific region, Latin America and the rest of world), development highlights in global biomedicines market, and 20 profiled leading biomedicine manufacturers in the world.Request a Sample Report@Qualitative market analyses for Chinese biomedicine market include market growth drivers, restraints and challenges, emerging market opportunities, and competitive landscape. Based on biomedicine type, China's biomedicine market is segmented into Therapeutic Protein, Antibody, Vaccines, Blood Products, and Diagnostic Reagent, with the fast-growing generic biomedicines highlighted in particular. The nation's market is also analyzed by marketing channel and by region. The historic performance and benchmarked outlook for China's biomedicine imports, exports, and manufacturing industry are also provided with data available for 2010-2020 period. The major biological bases and clusters in China are revealed and 32 Chinese key biomedicine producers are profiled.Table of Content:1 Introduction1.1 Industry Definition and Scope1.2 Research Methodology1.3 Executive Summary2 Market Environment2.1 Recent Trends and Outlook of Global Economy2.2 World Demographic Profile and Trends2.3 Global Healthcare Landscape2.4 China's Healthcare and Regulation System3 Overview of Global Biomedicine Market3.1 World Biomedicine Market 2012-20203.2 Distribution of World Biomedicine Market by Region3.3 Development Trends of Global Biomedical Industry4 Qualitative Analysis of China's Biomedicine Market4.1 Value Chain Analysis4.2 Major Growth Drivers4.3 Market Restraints and Challenges4.4 Emerging Opportunities4.5 Key M&A, VCI, and IPO Trends5 Structure and Trend of China Biomedicine Market5.1 Overview of Biomedicine Market in China 2014-20205.2 Therapeutic Protein5.3 Antibody5.4 Vaccines5.5 Blood Products5.6 Diagnostic Reagent5.7 China's Biomedicine Market by Marketing Channel5.8 China's Biomedical Market by Region6 Import and Export of Chinese Biomedicines6.1 China's Biomedicine Exports6.2 China's Biomedicine Imports7 Major Biomedicine Manufacturers7.1 Overview of Chinese Biomedicine Production7.2 Geographic Spread of Biomedicine Industry in China7.3 Company Profiles (20 Global Manufacturers and 32 Chinese Producers)Inquire Before Buying@About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.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.Contact Us:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Phone : +91-20-67278686E-Mail : info@reportsweb.com
Cumene Market Report for Period 2017 till 2023 Taiwan Cement, Royal Dutch Shell, Sumitomo Chemical, Axiall, Chang Chun Plastics, KenolKobil, CPCC, KMG Chemicals and Others

Cumene Market

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Global Cumene market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely JX Nippon Oil, CPCC, KMG Chemicals, CNPC, Chang Chun Plastics, KenolKobil, Formosa Plastics, Taiwan Cement, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Total, BP, Sumitomo Chemical, Axiall, SABIC, BASF, The Dow Chemical and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Cumene Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Royal Dutch ShellExxon MobilTotalBPSumitomo ChemicalAxiallSABICBASFThe Dow ChemicalJX Nippon OilCPCCKMG ChemicalsCNPCChang Chun PlasticsKenolKobilFormosa PlasticsTaiwan CementOthersGlobal Cumene Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Cumene Market: Key Application TypeProduction of Phenol and AcetoneChromatographyOthersGlobal Cumene Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Cumene Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Cumene Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Cumene Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market2.1 Regional Production2.2 Regional Demand2.3 Regional Trade........................Continue (Global Cumene Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Automotive Turbocharger Market Is Predicted To Reach USD 24,223.3 Million By 2023

Automotive Turbocharger Market

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Market Highlights:Automotive turbocharger is a turbine, which is driven by the energy of exhaust gas generated by the internal combustion engine. Typically, a turbocharger consists of two parts and they are a turbine and a compressor, which run parallel with the help of a shared shaft. A turbocharger improves the fuel efficiency of the engine by pushing more clean air in the engines to burn fuel and deliver greater power. The factor that are responsible for the growth of automotive turbocharger market are continuous growth in global automotive industry and stringent vehicle emission regulations.With the global economy undergoing an unprecedented level shift, major emerging countries such as China, India, Thailand, and Indonesia, are becoming manufacturing hubs for global automotive players. The total vehicle sales for the year 2015 was almost 90 million units and is expected to witness further boost and reach more than 100 million units by the year 2023. Another factor responsible for the increase in vehicle sales, is the macroeconomic development and the rise in the global middle class consumers. According to OICA, the sales of new vehicles have been increased from 2013 to 2016. In 2013, the number of vehicle sold were 85.6 million while in 2016 it was 93.8 million.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players of Automotive Turbocharger Market: Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.) BorgWarner Inc. (U.S) Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd (Japan) IHI Corporation (Japan) Continental AG (Germany) Cummins, Inc.( U.S.) Bosch Mahle (Germany) Bullseye Power, LLC (U.S.) Precision Turbo and Engine(U.S.) Fengcheng Xindongli Turbocharger Co., Ltd.( China)Market Research Analysis:Asia-Pacific region is expected to dominate the automotive turbocharger market due to the increase in the production of vehicles in emerging countries such as India and China. The growing vehicle production will indirectly boost the demand for turbocharger. Other factors that are responsible for the growth of Asia-Pacific region are large population base, growing demand for diesel vehicles, upcoming emission norms, and economic shifts. Asia-Pacific accounted for the largest market share of 40.75% in 2016 and is projected to grow at CAGR 9.16% during the forecast period. North America accounted for the second largest region in the automotive turbocharger market due to growing demand for new vehicles.Scope of the Report:This study provides an overview of the global automotive turbocharger market, tracking two market segments across four geographic regions. The report studies key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Rest of the World (ROW). The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region. The scope of the study segments the global automotive turbocharger market by its type, application, and by region.By Type Gasoline Engine Diesel Engine New Energy EngineBy Application Passenger Vehicle Commercial Vehicle OthersBy Region North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of the WorldBrowse Full Report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Kingsley Hamilton Estates opens its first office in Beijing, strengthening connections with Chinese property investors

18th November 2017, Beijing - Kingsley Hamilton Estates, a UK-based real estate agency, just announced the opening of an office in Beijing. The move is to strengthen their relationship with Chinese buyers, underlining Chinas growing interest in property investments in the UK.The announcement took place on the 18th of November during the Goodmans Fields launch event in Beijing in partnership with Berkeley Group and HSBC. The event was a great opportunity for Chinese investors to learn more about the property prospects that are available to them in this new luxurious development located in London. During the event, Reese Ye, Head of China Desk at Kingsley Hamilton Estates and Yinuo Sun, Sales Consultant at Berkeley Group discussed the need to maintain good relationships with Chinese buyers interested in UK properties.This will mark Kingsley Hamilton Estates first office in China, and comes as an answer to investors demand in the rapidly growing region of the country. The Kingsley Hamilton Estates office in Beijing is comprised of internationally focused property experts with extensive knowledge in the UK property market, ready to advise Chinese investors.The opening of our Beijing office is testament to our strategy to provide our Chinese customers with world-class real estate services. Our Beijing office will complement our China Desk platform in London, and our local presence in Beijing will allow us to be well positioned to assist our clients based in China. The property sector is changing rapidly and we believe that our expertise will allow us to help our clients capitalise on the numerous investment opportunities that are available to them in the UK, said Stan Tonchev, Associate Director at Kingsley Hamilton Estates.Beijing is amongst the most developed cities in China and in recent years, Chinese consumers have shown an increasing appetite for luxury homes across the UK. Luxury properties combined with the high level of education the UK offers is attracting Chinese investors, making property investments in the UK second to none. And with the strengthening of the northern powerhouse economy, many Chinese investors are also directing their capital out of London, to the northern cities.Reese Ye, Head of China Desk at Kingsley Hamilton Estates commented: despite the political uncertainty in the UK and the restrictions announced earlier in August by the Chinese government, Chinese property investors are still eager to buy residential properties throughout the UK as it remains a top destination for them!In addition to Beijing, Kingsley Hamilton Estates has offices in London, Liverpool and Manchester.About Kingsley Hamilton Estates:Kingsley Hamilton Estates is a UK-based real estate agency. Headquartered in One Canada Square, in the heart of Canary Wharf, Kingsley Hamilton Estates focuses on the UK residential market, providing property consultancy, sales, lettings and full management services. Combining customer care, personal service with expert knowledge, Kingsley Hamilton Estates mission is to make it easier for investors, buyers, and tenants to find their perfect property.Kingsley Hamilton Estates!0th floor, 1 Canada Square, Canary WharfLucie Kbidy - lucie@kh-estates.com
Coastal Surveillance Market is Worth US$ 35.50 Billion By 2022

Coastal Surveillance Market

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Market Research Engine has published a new report titled as Coastal Surveillance Market By Application Analysis (Command and Control Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Electronic Warfare); By End-User Analysis (Naval, Coast Guard); By Structure Analysis (National, Regional, Port); By Scale Analysis (Large Scale Surveillance, Moderate Scale Surveillance) and By Regional Analysis  Global Forecast by 2016  2022.A coastline is the region where the land connects the ocean & sea, or a line that structures the points of confinement between the land and the ocean or a lake. Beach front observation is utilized by governments for insight assembling, to avoid malpractices, the insurance of a procedure, individual, gathering or protest, or the observation of malpractices. It is a coordinated framework that contains of one or many summon and control focuses, cameras, an arrangement of sensor stations shaping a various leveled engineering and others. The sensor stations are conveyed over the observation zone and can be secure or portable stations. The systems give a virtual fence over the water as they naturally distinguish detect intruders from the sea before they reach the designated position. The affirmation, recognizable proof and following of interlopers are critical to insurance and managing of security strengths to the correct area. The discovery of interlopers via arrive, the frameworks are demonstrated to give a definitive reaction to beach front security.The Coastal Surveillance Market is expected to exceed more than US$ 35.50 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 3.38% in the given forecast period.Browse Full Report:The major driving factors of Coastal Surveillance Market are as follows: Growth in situational knowledge to drive operations Rising in asymmetric warfare Globally demand for shortening mission cycle time Demand for maritime traffic control globally is increasing Widening the illegal coastal activities such as smuggling and illegal tradesThe restraining factors of Coastal Surveillance Market are as follows: Rise of Stealth Technology Lack of resources to manage the changing technological environment Decrease in defense budget in developing economies globally Higher target tracking and more desirable steerage paradigms in the surveillance radar structuresThe Coastal Surveillance Market is segmented on the lines of its structure, end-user, scale, application and regional. Based on structure segmentation it covers national, regional, port. Based on end-user segmentation it covers naval, coast guard, others. Based on scale segmentation it covers large scale surveillance, moderate scale surveillance. Based on application segmentation it covers command and control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, electronic warfare. The Coastal Surveillance Market on geographic segmentation covers various regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. Each geographic market is further segmented to provide market revenue for select countries such as the U.S., Canada, U.K. Germany, China, Japan, India, Brazil, and GCC countries.This report provides:1) An overview of the global market for Coastal Surveillance Market and related technologies.2) Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2013, estimates for 2014 and 2015, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2022.3) Identifications of new market opportunities and targeted promotional plans for Coastal Surveillance Market.4) Discussion of research and development, and the demand for new products and new applications.5) Comprehensive company profiles of major players in the industry.REPORT SCOPE:The scope of the report includes a detailed study of global and regional markets on Coastal Surveillance Market with the reasons given for variations in the growth of the industry in certain regions.Sample Report:The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include Thales Group (France), Northrop Grumman Corporation (U.S.), Indra Sistemas S A, (Spain) Kongsberg Gruppen (U.K.), SAAB AB (Sweden), Elbit Systems Ltd. (Israel), and Terma A/S (Denmark). Company profile includes assign such as company summary, financial summary, business strategy and planning, SWOT analysis and current developments.The Coastal Surveillance Market has been segmented as below:By Application Analysis: Command and Control Communications Computers Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Electronic WarfareBy End-User Analysis: Naval Coast Guard OthersBy Structure Analysis: National Regional PortBy Scale Analysis: Large Scale Surveillance Moderate Scale SurveillanceBy Regional Analysis:North AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificRest of the WorldAbout MarketResearchEngine.comMarket Research Engine is a global market research and consulting organization. We provide market intelligence in emerging, niche technologies and markets. Our market analysis powered by rigorous methodology and quality metrics provide information and forecasts across emerging markets, emerging technologies and emerging business models. Our deep focus on industry verticals and country reports help our clients to identify opportunities and develop business strategies.Media ContactCompany Name: Market Research EngineContact Person: John BayEmail: john@marketresearchengine.comPhone: +1-855-984-1862Country: United StatesWebsite:Address: 3422 SW 15 Street, Suite #8942, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442, United States
Submarine Combat Systems Market is Worth US$ 11.67 Billion By 2022

Submarine Combat Systems Market

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Market Research Engine has published a new report titled as Submarine Combat Systems Market By System Analysis (Sensors, Electronic Support Measures (ESM), Armaments); By Submarine Type Analysis (Ship Submersible Hunter Killer (SSK), Ship Submersible Nuclear (SSN), Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear (SSBN)) and By Regional Analysis  Global Forecast by 2016 - 2022.The frosty war time frame saw tremendous interests in submarine stages. After the finish of the chilly war, submarines presented in late 1990's are relied upon to experience midlife redesigns. Russia is required to be the primary giver to the submarine battle frameworks advertise amid the conjecture time frame. The more established submarines are probably going to go experience up degree projects and subsequently drive the retrofit market of submarine battle systems. Enhancement in sensors and combat hardware innovations have brought about better hostile to submarine fighting advancements. Electronic bolster measures frameworks are required for cautious measures and secure correspondences for submarines. These frameworks utilize distinctive advancements to build submarine abilities in survivability and stealth by decreasing the odds of identification by foe stages, and evasion of approaching dangers.The Submarine Combat System Market is expected to exceed more than US$ 11.67 Billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 15.3% in the given forecast period.Browse Full Report:The major driving factors of Submarine Combat Systems Market are as follows: Increase oceanic security, submarine up gradation programs Importance of submarines in navel welfare is increasing Globally increase in requirement of advanced integrated combat systems in naval forces Application of electronic support measures systems in submarines is growingThe restraining factors of Submarine Combat Systems Market are as follows: Developed economics are declining their budgets on defense High maintenance and up gradation costs of Submarine combat system Technological problems faced in implementation of integrated combat system in SubmarinesThe Submarine Combat System Market is segmented on the lines of its system, submarine type and regional. Based on system segmentation it covers sensors, electronic support measures, armaments. Based on submarine type segmentation it covers ship submersible hunter killer (SSK), ship submersible nuclear (SSN), ship submersible ballistic nuclear (SSBN). The Submarine Combat System Market on geographic segmentation covers various regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. Each geographic market is further segmented to provide market revenue for select countries such as the U.S., Canada, U.K. Germany, China, Japan, India, Brazil, and GCC countries.This report provides:1) An overview of the global market for Submarine Combat System Market and related technologies.2) Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2013, estimates for 2014 and 2015, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2022.3) Identifications of new market opportunities and targeted promotional plans for Submarine Combat System Market.4) Discussion of research and development, and the demand for new products and new applications.5) Comprehensive company profiles of major players in the industry.REPORT SCOPE:The scope of the report includes a detailed study of global and regional markets on Submarine Combat System Market with the reasons given for variations in the growth of the industry in certain regions.Sample Report:The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include SAAB AB (Sweden), Lockheed Martin Corporation (U.S.), Atlas Elektronik GmbH (Germany) Kongsberg Gruppen ASA (Norway), General Dynamics Corporation (U.S.). Company profile includes assign such as company summary, financial summary, business strategy and planning, SWOT analysis and current developments.The Top Companies Report is intended to provide our buyers with a snapshot of the industrys most influential players.The Submarine Combat Systems Market has been segmented as below:By System Analysis: Sensors Electronic Support Measures (ESM) ArmamentsBy Submarine Type Analysis: Ship Submersible Hunter Killer (SSK) Ship Submersible Nuclear (SSN) Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear (SSBN)By Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificRest of the WorldAbout MarketResearchEngine.comMarket Research Engine is a global market research and consulting organization. We provide market intelligence in emerging, niche technologies and markets. Our market analysis powered by rigorous methodology and quality metrics provide information and forecasts across emerging markets, emerging technologies and emerging business models. Our deep focus on industry verticals and country reports help our clients to identify opportunities and develop business strategies.Media ContactCompany Name: Market Research EngineContact Person: John BayEmail: john@marketresearchengine.comPhone: +1-855-984-1862Country: United StatesWebsite:Address: 3422 SW 15 Street, Suite #8942, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442, United States
PoE Injector Market: Industry Analysis And Detailed Profiles Of Top Industry Players

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The global Power Over Ethernet (PoE) Injector Market is envisioned to garner a colossal growth from connectivity applications with the soaring usage of the PoE technology and solutions. The PoE technology could be used to power PoE compatible devices such as wireless access points and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phones. Thus, with the growing usage of such devices, the demand for PoE injector is foretold to increase correspondingly. Wireless access points could find growth due to the mushrooming popularity of internet of things (IoT). The deployment of VoIP phones could witness a heightened increase in view of their benefits such as ease of installation and maintenance and low communication cost.The global PoE injector market is forecasted to attain a revenue valuation of US$762.2 mn by 2022 at a 12.5% CAGR between 2017 and 2022. In 2017, the market was valued at a US$423.4 mn.Sample With Latest Advancements @Global PoE Injector Market: Major InsightsA noteworthy trend predicted to take shape in the world PoE injector market could be the healthcare sector attracting a high attention since the last few years. Surging investments in research and development and snowballing usage of technologies and innovations in healthcare are foreseen to be a critical trigger of the demand in the market. The growth of PoE injector in the healthcare sector could also be attributed to the rise of diseases and elevating health concerns.Players operating in the world PoE injector market are prophesied to find favorable prospects because of the success of multi-port midspan, which could rise at a 14.4% CAGR. It could be a larger market by type and grab a handsome share of 67.4% by the end of 2022. By end use, there could be opportunities prevailing on the back of corporate offices, healthcare facilities, retail, telecommunication, other industrial sectors, and residential markets. In view of application, players could find new avenues opened up in key markets such as connectivity, security and access control, lighting control, and infotainment.Browse Our Press Releases For More Information @Regionally, the market is anticipated to offer a wide room for growth while riding on the expected dominance of Asia Pacific except Japan (APEJ) in terms of revenue. Prognosticated to be an attractive market for PoE injector, APEJ could expand at a 15.1% CAGR. Another major revenue getter of the market could be North America with a US$156.5 mn envisaged to be earned by 2022. However, other geographies such as Europe and Japan could also be worth to keep an eye on.Browse Our Table of Content @Global PoE Injector Market: Vendor LandscapeThe international PoE injector market could be marked by the inclusion of several local, regional, and global vendors. A variety of end users are expected to be served with various application products offered by more than a few local and regional vendors. In the future, the competition could aggravate owing to increasing mergers and acquisitions and technological innovation. New entrants in the market could find it a challenging ground to compete against global vendors in respect of innovation, reliability, and quality. Some of the leading companies in the market could be Microsemi Corp., L-Com, Inc., Sixnet Holding LLC, ICP DAS Co., Ltd., and N-TORN Corp.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:
Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) Market : Industry Analysis And Detailed Profiles Of Top Industry Players

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A fresh market intelligence study by Transparency Market Research (TMR) detects the global terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) market is largely a concentrated one with key market share held by a few dominant players that operate globally as well in regional markets. In a highly competitive business landscape, prominent companies are striving to stay ahead by providing differentiator services such as in public safety and critical communication spaces. This is also helping these companies to expand their geographical outreach. For instance, in May 2017, Hytera Communications acquired Sepura Gropup Plc. to expand their services in the European region.Key players that operate in the global TETRA market include Motorola Solutions, ROHILL Engineering B.V., Damm Cellular Systems A/S, Airbus Defense and Space Oy, Rolta India Limited, Simoco Wireless Solutions, Cobham plc, JVCKENWOOD Corporation, Hytera Communications, and Leonardo among others.Sample With Latest Advancements @As per the TMR report, the global TETRA market is likely to expand at a healthy 11.97% CAGR during the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. At this pace, the market will become worth US$12,166.7 mn by the end of 2025.The application segments of the global TETRA market include transportation and logistics, aviation, oil & gas, public safety, and others. Of them, the public safety segment is anticipated to account for the leading revenue contribution to the overall market over the forecast period. Among the key component types, hardware is likely to occupy for the leading 43.9% revenue contribution to the TETRA market by 2025. Geography-wise, Asia Pacific TETRA market is a significant one mainly due to the adoption of TETRA in a host of service areas.Browse Our Press Releases For More Information @Foolproof Communication Needs of Public Safety Agencies Boosts AdoptionFirst and foremost, the rising need to provide foolproof mission-control critical communication system for homeland security of nations is primarily driving the TETRA market. Further, the need to serve communication needs of various public safety agencies such as fire department, police, utility companies, and other services is also stoking the markets growth. These agencies handle critical information that needs to be transmitted in a timely manner.TERA is a set of standards developed by the European Telecommunications Standardization Institute. The standard is developed to serve the mobile radio needs of various public safety agencies that handle critical data.View Report @Need for Secure Communication Drives Deployment at Global Public SpectaclesFurther, several governments in the world are deploying TETRA network for mission critical communication needs. For example, in 2015, the office of the public security secretary in Rio de Janeiro engaged a company called Teltronic to provide secure communications for the 2016 Rio Olympics. As per the contract, Teltronic provided TETRA network provided TETRA network across the region to be connected with approximately 18,000 police radios.In addition, TETRA has been deployed to provide secure foolproof communication for many global events. For example, in February 2017, Hytera bagged the contract for deploying TETRA systems for mobile radio needs of 2017 FIFA Confederation Cup.The increasing use of TETRA radios and base stations is also acting in favor of TETRA market. For example, in October 2017, Airbus S.A.S deployed TETRA base station for improved radio communication by a public telecommunication company based in Middle East.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:
A new temple in Gwalior with Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse as the presiding deity has predictably kicked up a political storm.

The 'shrine', located in the Hindu Mahasabha's Daulatganj office premises, opened on November 15, which the rightwing outfit observes as 'Balidan Diwas (sacrifice day)'. Godse was hanged on the day in 1949. Hindu priests blessed Godse's idol before it was installed. While Congress leaders were quick to launch protests across the state to demand that sedition charges be brought against Hindu Mahasabha functionaries, the ruling BJP finds itself in a bit of a quandary.

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Vociferous in his condemnation of the Godse temple, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia demanded that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan take a clear position on the controversial shrine. Pointing to attempts by BJP governments across the country to appropriate Gandhi, Scindia also cited CM Chouhan's recent Gandhi-style satyagraha in June against violence by the state's farmers.

The state government's response has been decidedly feeble: Gwalior's additional district magistrate issued a notice soliciting information from the Hindu Mahasabha on how the Godse temple was established without permission. Evidently unfazed, Hindu Mahasabha national vice-president Jaiveer Bhardwaj says, "The temple was established to strengthen the ideal of Akhand Bharat (one India), of which Godse was a strong votary." He says Gandhi's assassination was "retribution for breaking up India". Proudly elaborating on Godse's Gwalior connect, Bhardwaj says that before assassinating Gandhi, Godse stayed on the very premises where the temple now stands. "The weapon he used was also from Gwalior," he gushes.

But the BJP is clearly not happy with the Hindu Mahasabha's move. "The BJP does not support the glorification of any murderer. Our governments at the Centre and states are working along Gandhiji's ideals, be it cleanliness or promotion of khadi," says BJP spokesperson Rahul Kothari.

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Food Service Equipment (Commercial Refrigeration) Market: Industry Analysis And Detailed Profiles Of Top Industry Players

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Transparency Market Research has published a report on the global Food Service Equipment (commercial Refrigeration) Market. As per the report, the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market is expected to expand at a 4.80% CAGR during the period between 2014 and 2020. The report, titled Food Service Equipment Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020, states that the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market was valued at US$31.5 bn in 2013 and is predicted to reach US$44.3 bn by 2020.Browse the full Food Service Equipment (Commercial Refrigeration) Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020 report atSample With Latest Advancements @Constant developments in refrigeration technologies and increasing availability of large refrigerators has helped the growth of the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market in the recent past. Rapid growth of the hospitality industry is expected to be the major driver of the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market till 2020. Busy lifestyles have led to changes in the eating habits of the majority of the global population. Changes in eating habits have led to increasing demand for ready-to-eat-food products, thus fuelling the demand for refrigeration systems. Increase in the number of food outlets, restaurants, and hotels is expected to generate more opportunities for the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market during the forecast period.The global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market is segmented on the basis of product type and geography. Based on geography, the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market is divided into East Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, North West Europe, South West Europe, Russia, and Central Europe. In 2014, the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market was dominated by North America.Browse Our Press Releases For More Information @Growth of the North America market is driven by an increase in the activity of the hospitality industry and advancements in food refrigeration procedures. With recent developments, the leading players in the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market are expected to give tough competition to the new entrants. Some of the leading players in the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market are Ali Group, Hobart Corporation, Meiko, Manitowoc Company Inc., Cambro Manufacturing Company Inc., Hoshizaki Electric Co. Ltd., and Dover Corporation.Browse Our Table of Content @By product type, the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market is classified into ice machines, refrigerated vending machines, beverage dispensers, glass door merchandisers (GDMs), commercial fridges/freezers, blast freezers, ice cream machines, ice cream cabinets, walk ins, and others. In 2014, the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market was led by the walk ins segment; this segment registered the largest revenue, of close to US$5.3 bn, and is predicted to maintain its dominant position till 2020. In 2014, the walk ins segment registered sales of 990,790 units owing to the rising number of luxury hotels and restaurants in the hospitality sector. The beverage dispensers segment has the highest growth potential in the years to come. Advancements in cooling and refrigerating systems are expected to foster increased demand for better refrigeration systems, especially in the hospitality sector. Availability of commercial refrigerators in various sizes and with various capacities is expected to boost the global food service equipment (commercial refrigeration) market during the forecast period.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. 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:
Optocouplers Market: Industry Analysis And Detailed Profiles Of Top Industry Players

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Transparency Market Research announces the release of a new research report titled Optocouplers Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2021. The report is available for sale on the company website. According to the publication, the global Optocouplers Market is anticipated to grow from a value of US$1.8 Bn in 2014 to US$3.2 Bn by 2021. If these values hold true, then analysts indicate that the optocouplers market will expand at a healthy CAGR of 8.20% from 2015 to 2021.The report identifies and analyzes the various factors that impact the growth of the optocouplers market. According to the study, the optocouplers market is driven by rising demand for hybrid electric vehicles and industry automation, advanced isolation technologies, and economic growth in developing countries. While replacement of relays with optocouplers and the strengthening purchasing power of consumers are anticipated to boost the demand for optocouplers in the near future, intrinsic wear-out, low data rate, and increased power consumption are likely to challenge the growth of the optocouplers market.Sample With Latest Advancements @By product type, the optocouplers market is divided into 6 pin optocoupler, 4 pin optocoupler, IGBT gate driver, high-speed optocoupler, isolation amplifier, and others. Making up for 53.10% of the total market, the isolation amplifiers segment dominates the optocouplers market.On the basis of application, the optocouplers market is categorized into printer and imaging devices, communication, industrial, automotive, signage, commercial, and others. Among these, the industrial sector held 37.95% of the overall optocouplers market in 2014, making it the leading application segment in terms of value.Browse Our Press Releases For More Information @Geographically, the global optocouplers market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. In 2014, Europe accounted for 35.1% of the global market, making it the largest regional segment in terms of revenue. This optocouplers market is driven by rising demand from the automotive and industrial sector, rising demand for automation in the manufacturing sector, increased demand for hybrid electric vehicles, and growing applications in the communication sector. Asia Pacific held almost 31.50% of the global optocouplers market in 2014, making the second-largest regional segment. This market is also fueled by growth of the automotive, communication, and industrial sector.View Report @A key feature of the research report on the optocouplers market is the assessment of the competitive landscape. Leading vendors are identified and profiled in the optocouplers market on the basis of aspects such as company and financial overview, recent developments, product portfolio, and business strategies. The most prominent players functioning in the global optocouplers market include Toshiba Corporation, Maxwell Technologies, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Inc., Renesas Electronics, Isocom Limited, Silicon Laboratories, Inc., Vishay Intertechnology, Avago Technologies, and Fairchild Semiconductor.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:
Visible Light Communication Market: Industry Analysis And Detailed Profiles Of Top Industry Players

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The players in the global Visible Light Communication Market are expected to make revolutionary changes with focus on developing hybrid VLC systems that negate the inherent VLC technology issues for seamless transmission of data.Some of the key players operating the global visible light communication market are PureLiFi, Ltd, Axrtek Outstanding Technology, Co., General Electric Company Nakagawa Laboratories, Inc., and LVX System, observes Transparency Market Research in its latest publication.The report states that the global visible light communication market is expected to represent an opportunity worth US$113.27 bn by 2022, rising remarkably from its 2014 valuation of US$267.6 mn. Between 2015 and 2022, the global visible light communication market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 109.2%. Amongst various end users, the retail indoor positioning segment held the leading position in the overall market and is expected to surge at a CAGR of 93.82% from 2015 and 2022.Sample With Latest Advancements @The demand for retail indoor positioning segment will grow as it provides exact and accurate locations. Furthermore, widespread adoption of LEDs for energy efficiency, cost saving in retail outlets, and longer lifetime have been fuelling the visible light communication market in the retail industry.North America Leads the Way with Strong Presence of VLC PlayersGeographically, the global visible light communication market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. Out of these, the North America visible light communication market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 108.65% between 2015 and 2022. The presence of leading players who are working towards high product innovation has resulted in the growth of this regional market in recent years. By the end of 2022, the North America visible light communication market is expected to reach US$47.88 bn.Browse Our Press Releases For More Information @Benefits of Visible Light Communication over Wi-Fi Drive Global MarketThe rise of the retail indoor positioning market due to high traffic from the occupants and better illumination has paved the way of growth of the visible light communication market. The benefits of visible light communication over Wi-Fi, such as no additional infrastructure and higher accuracy, are also augmenting the growth of this market. The demand by retailers to send instant notifications to customers to enhance the shopping experience and increase sales is also anticipated to boost this market. This trend will lead to an uptake of retail indoor positioning, thereby encouraging the growth of the global visible light communication market.The increasing investments in the research and development of new products have also bolstered the global market in the recent years. These efforts have introduced products that overcome the challenges of VLC technology and promoted commercialization. The emergence of visible light communication start-ups has also given this market a significant momentum.View Report @Poor Infrastructure for Seamless Adoption of VLC Hampers MarketThe strong presence of alternative technologies such as sensor fusion, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and LTE-direct are the biggest challenges for visible light communication technology. Furthermore, the existing infrastructure will have to be revamped for seamless usage of VLC in sectors such as healthcare, transport, and retail, which has also had a negative impact on the overall market. The inability of VLC to work due to external factors such as smog, fog, pollution, and weather changes has also hampered the global market to a large extent.Strategic partnerships and acquisitions will remain the highlight of the intensely competitive visible light communication market in the coming years, states the lead author of this research report. Big players must look at funding VLC start-ups to profit from their research and development activities in the long term.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:
Reciprocating Compressors Market: Industry Analysis And Detailed Profiles Of Top Industry Players

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The leading players operating in the China Reciprocating Compressors Market are Wuxi Compressor Co., Ltd., Shenyang Yuanda Compressor Co., Ltd., Shenyang Blower Works Group Corporation, and Zigong Tongda Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., observes Transparency Market Research in its latest publication. The highly competitive market is witnessing a rise in the presence of local manufacturers and an influx of multinational manufacturers as well. Research suggests that local manufacturers should join hands with foreign investors to gain a competitive edge in the long run.According to the research report, the opportunity in the China reciprocating compressors market was worth US$771.1 mn in 2014 and is anticipated to reach US$1,178.9 mn by 2022. Between the forecast period of 2015 and 2022, the overall market is expected to rise at a CAGR of 5.3%. The industrial process gas reciprocating compressors segment is anticipated to lead the overall market by the end of 2022, earning a revenue worth US$351.3 mn.Sample With Latest Advancements @Industrial Process Gas Reciprocating Compressors Remain Preferred Choice of CompressorsThe demand for industrial process gas reciprocating compressors will surge as manufacturers are changing their processes from being labor-intensive to technology-oriented. The demand for industrial process gas reciprocating compressors will continue to surge across China as they are highly cost-effective. The oil-free reciprocating compressors segment is also expected to present immense opportunities as end users are trying to comply with regulatory reforms. Owing to this reason, the installation of oil-free reciprocating compressors will be high in industries such as food and beverage, electronics, pharmaceutical, and textiles during the forecast period.Sustained Industrial Development to Raise Demand for CompressorsThe World Bank estimates suggest that Chinas economy is expected to dip by 0.2% by 2017. Despite the slight decline, the industrial production is expected to grow at a sustained pace as the country largely depends on manufacturing. Furthermore, increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) and the abundance of cheap and affordable labor will keep the industrial sector going at a steady rate. Owing to these reasons, the demand for industrial production will remain persistent during the forecast period, the research report predicts.Browse Our Press Releases For More Information @The overall market is also being driven by efforts put in by local manufacturers to competitively price the products, introduce improvements in the overall design of the compressors, and offer value-added services and after-sales services. Furthermore, catering to target-specific segments with integrated solutions is anticipated to drive the China reciprocating compressors market in the near future. A shifting focus towards diversification of portfolio and increasing investment in nitrogen compression technologies is also anticipated to open up new opportunities for players.Fraudulent Imitation of Compressors Restrains Market GrowthThe China reciprocating compressors market is being restrained by the fraudulent imitation of compressor designs. The intense price competition is also hampering the profitability of compressor vendors in the overall market. In the oil-free reciprocating compressors segment, the demand for compressors is suffering as the cost of the disposal of waste oil is considerably high and the emergence of oil-free rotary screw compressors is significantly providing a better alternative to the end users.View Report @End users of reciprocating compressors in China should focus on delivering reliable compressors to match international standards and compete with foreign companies, states the lead author of this research report. This will help vendors materialize the efforts put in by the government to promote local products.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:
Automotive Remote Diagnostics Market Is Expected To Grow At A CAGR Of 16.90% By 2022

Automotive Remote diagnostics Market

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Market Scenario:Automotive remote diagnostics is a solution to monitor the health of a vehicle, figures the root cause of the issues and also enables the customer to access information about the vehicle. The awareness regarding vehicle diagnostics, the rising demand regarding safety and security of vehicles, and the growing inclination towards premium vehicles are some factors expected to drive the market. In connectivity segment, bluetooth is expected to have largest share in the automotive remote diagnostics market. As bluetooth offers various features and one of them is it connects the vehicle to the internet via smart phone to transfer data from and with server. There are various trends in the market such as integration of mobile phones with telematics systems and vehicle diagnostic-based insurance programs. The global Automotive Remote diagnostics market is expected to show a growth at CAGR of about 16.90% from 2016 to 2022.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players of Automotive Remote Diagnostics Market: Robert Bosch GmbH Continental AG Delphi Automotive PLC Onstar LLC Snap-On Inc. Magneti Marelli Softing AG VOXX International Corporation Vector Informatik Vidiwave Ltd.Regional Analysis of Global Automotive Remote diagnostics Market:The North America region has a largest share in the automotive remote diagnostics market. Also, Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This region is led by China and India due to increasing population, increasing per capita income, improving living standards, and hence increasing demand for purchase of high end vehicles. And this will significantly drive the market of automotive remote diagnostics.Browse Full Report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Electric Steering Market Is Expected To Grow At A CAGR Of 15% CAGR By 2022

Electric Steering Market

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Market Highlights:Electric steering is increasing replacing hydraulic steerings in the automotive industry. Usage of electric steering will improve the fuel economy because electric steering uses around 8-10 horsepower under load. Electric powered steering uses electric motor instead and provides increased steering capabilities with less effort, as it removes hose, fluid, drive belt, pulley, and pump. Growth in the improved steering & reliability, and high fuel efficiency of electric steering over hydraulic steering systems is expected to drive the market of electric steering. The global electric steering market is expected to show a growth at CAGR of about 15% from 2016 to 2022.Asia-Pacific has emerged to be fastest growing market for electric steering market. This region has largest vehicle production due to increasing population and increasing disposable income. Increasing population, improving per capita income, and improving living standards are driving the market for automotive industries and hence expected to drive the market for electric steering.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players of Electric Steering Market: JTEKT Corporation Robert Bosch Automotive Steering GmbH ZF TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. NSK Ltd. Nexteer Automotive Group Limited Mando Corporation ThyssenKrupp Ag Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd. Showa Corporation China Automotive Systems Inc.Brief TOC:1. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1. Definition2.2. Scope of the Study2.2.1. Research Objective2.2.2. Assumptions2.2.3. Limitations2.3. Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1. Research Process3.2. Primary Research3.3. Secondary Research3.4. Market Size Estimation3.5. Forecast Model4. Market Dynamics4.1. Drivers & Opportunities4.2. Challenges & Restraints4.3. Value Chain Analysis4.4. Porters Five Forces AnalysisContinueAccess Report Details @Scope of the Report:This study provides an overview of the global electric steering industry, tracking market segments across the categorized four geographic regions. The report provides a five-year forecast for the market size in terms of value for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the world. The scope of the study segments the global electric steering market based on type and vehicle type.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Locomotive Market - Evolving Industry Trends & Insights 2022

Locomotive Market

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https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/locomotive-market

Market Scenario:Increasing rate of urbanization has been contributing towards the growing popularity of locomotive among the general public. Expansion of rail networks in majority of developed as well as developing nations as well as growing concern among the individuals regarding environmental sustainability has had a positive impact on the global locomotives market. Significant investment by authorities across the globe in development of railway infrastructure for freight and high speed trains has also resulted in the growth of global locomotive market.Key Players of Locomotive Market: Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited Berliner Maschinenbau Lokomo China Northern Rail Corporation Limited Bombardier Transportation Brookville Equipment Corporation GE Transportation Alstom Ferroviaria S.p.ARequest for a Sample Copy @Segments:The Automotive Position Sensor market has been segmented on the basis of technology as conventional locomotive, turbocharged and MAGLEVS. One the basis of application the market has been segmented as Passenger and Freight.Brief TOC:1. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1. Definition2.2. Scope of the Study2.2.1. Research Objective2.2.2. Assumptions2.2.3. Limitations2.3. Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1. Research Process3.2. Primary Research3.3. Secondary Research3.4. Market Size Estimation3.5. Forecast ModelContinueBrowse Full Report @Regional Analysis of Locomotive:Asia-Pacific region is expected to dominate the global locomotive market mainly due to the existing infrastructure proving to be insufficient to cope with the increasing population. Europe is expected to hold the second largest share in the global locomotive market mainly due to the largest market for rail products, of which major share is acquired by locomotives.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Micro Motors Market - Evolving Industry Trends & Insights 2022

Micro Motors Market

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Market Scenario:The Micro Motors market has registered high growth in recent times on account of growing demand from the Automotive, home appliance, and medical equipment industries among others. Specifically the micro motors market is witnessing increasing demand from the automotive industry. With recent technological developments, high quality micro motors are finding rapid integration in various industries, thus resulting in increasing demand in the micro motors market. With new markets such as electronic information and 3D printing also increasing adopting micro motors the market is expected to register high growth in the forecast period.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players:Some of the key players in the Automotive Position sensor market are Mitsuba Corporation, Nidec Corporation, Johnson Electric Holdings Limited, Mabuchi Motors, Abb Ltd, Wellings Holdings Ltd, Asmo Co Ltd., Constar, Maxon Motors Ag, Buhler Motors Gmbh.Segments:The Automotive Position Sensor market has been segmented on the basis of application as automotive, medical equipment, industrial automation and others. On the basis of technology the market has been segmented as brushed and brushless. On the basis of power consumption the market has been segmented as >11v, 12v-24v, 25v-48v,About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Beer Industry 2017 Global Production,Supply,Sales and Future Demand Market Research Report to 2023

Beer Market 2017

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On - Beer Industry 2017 Global Production,Supply,Sales and Future Demand Market Research Report to 2023.Beer-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Beer industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information.Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Beer 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Beer worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Beer marketMarket status and development trend of Beer by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Beer, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesGet a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe report segments the global Beer market as:Global Beer Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Beer Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):TwopennyBrown BeersDark BeerOtherGlobal Beer Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)HouseholdThe HotelKTVOtherGlobal Beer Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Beer Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):TsingTaoINDIOHeinekenCoors LightBrahmaHardinYanjingSkolBudweiserBud LightSnowKindfisherSTROHSTECATEMGDAsk Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsChapter 1 Overview of Beer1.1 Definition of Beer in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Beer1.2.1 Twopenny1.2.2 Brown Beers1.2.3 Dark Beer1.2.4 Other1.3 Downstream Application of Beer1.3.1 Household1.3.2 The Hotel1.3.3 KTV1.3.4 Other1.4 Development History of Beer1.5 Market Status and Trend of Beer 2013-20231.5.1 Global Beer Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Beer Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Beer 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Beer by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Beer by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Beer by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Beer by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Beer by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Beer by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Beer by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Beer by Types3.2 Production Value of Beer by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Beer by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Beer by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Beer by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Beer5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Beer Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Beer Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Beer by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Beer by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Beer by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Beer Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Beer Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Beer Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 TsingTao7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Beer Product7.1.3 Beer Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of TsingTao7.2 INDIO7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Beer Product7.2.3 Beer Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of INDIO7.3 Heineken7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Beer Product7.3.3 Beer Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Heineken7.4 Coors Light7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Beer Product7.4.3 Beer Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Coors Light7.5 Brahma7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Beer Product7.5.3 Beer Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Brahma7.6 Hardin7.6.1 Company profile7.6.2 Representative Beer Product7.6.3 Beer Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Hardin7.7 Yanjing7.7.1 Company profile7.7.2 Representative Beer Product7.7.3 Beer Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Yanjing7.8 Skol7.8.1 Company profile7.8.2 Representative Beer Product7.8.3 Beer Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of SkolContinue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market 20172023 : Global Drivers, Opportunities, Trends, and Forecasts

Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On - Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market 20172023 : Global Drivers, Opportunities, Trends, and Forecasts.Military Simulation and Virtual Training-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Military Simulation and Virtual Training industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information.Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Military Simulation and Virtual Training 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Military Simulation and Virtual Training worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Military Simulation and Virtual Training marketMarket status and development trend of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Military Simulation and Virtual Training, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesGet a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe report segments the global Military Simulation and Virtual Training market as:Global Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):Flight SimulationVehicle SimulationBattlefield SimulationVirtual Boot CampGlobal Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)AirborneGround BasedNavalGlobal Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Military Simulation and Virtual Training Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):Bohemia Interactive SimulationsGeneral Dynamics Information TechnologyNorthrop GrummanKratos DefenseMeggitt Training SystemsThe Boeing CompanyCombat Training Solutions IncIsrael Aerospace IndustriesRheinmetall DefenceBae SystemsAsk Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsChapter 1 Overview of Military Simulation and Virtual Training1.1 Definition of Military Simulation and Virtual Training in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Military Simulation and Virtual Training1.2.1 Flight Simulation1.2.2 Vehicle Simulation1.2.3 Battlefield Simulation1.2.4 Virtual Boot Camp1.3 Downstream Application of Military Simulation and Virtual Training1.3.1 Airborne1.3.2 Ground Based1.3.3 Naval1.4 Development History of Military Simulation and Virtual Training1.5 Market Status and Trend of Military Simulation and Virtual Training 2013-20231.5.1 Global Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Military Simulation and Virtual Training 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Types3.2 Production Value of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Military Simulation and Virtual Training5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Military Simulation and Virtual Training by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Military Simulation and Virtual Training Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Military Simulation and Virtual Training Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 Bohemia Interactive Simulations7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Military Simulation and Virtual Training Product7.1.3 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Bohemia Interactive Simulations7.2 General Dynamics Information Technology7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Military Simulation and Virtual Training Product7.2.3 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of General Dynamics Information Technology7.3 Northrop Grumman7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Military Simulation and Virtual Training Product7.3.3 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Northrop Grumman7.4 Kratos Defense7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Military Simulation and Virtual Training Product7.4.3 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Kratos Defense7.5 Meggitt Training Systems7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Military Simulation and Virtual Training Product7.5.3 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Meggitt Training Systems7.6 The Boeing Company7.6.1 Company profile7.6.2 Representative Military Simulation and Virtual Training Product7.6.3 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of The Boeing Company7.7 Combat Training Solutions Inc7.7.1 Company profile7.7.2 Representative Military Simulation and Virtual Training Product7.7.3 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Combat Training Solutions Inc7.8 Israel Aerospace Industries7.8.1 Company profile7.8.2 Representative Military Simulation and Virtual Training Product7.8.3 Military Simulation and Virtual Training Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Israel Aerospace IndustriesContinue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Speaking at the India Today Conclave, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dismissed the BJP as a challenger to her Trinamool Congress government.

By India Today Web Desk: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today dismissed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a challenger to the ruling (TMC) Trinamool Congress government.

"They only shout," Mamata Banerjee said when asked if BJP has grown as the principal challenger to the TMC in West Bengal.

"Let the BJP shout along with their bike vahini, but they cannot do anything in Bengal," the Trinamool Congress chief said at the India Today Conclave East 2017 .

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Confident of the Trinamool Congress' popularity in the state, the West Bengal Chief Minister said, "Bengal will never accept divide and rule".

"BJP does a Hindu-Muslim dance all the time. That's their only strategy," the West Bengal chief minister said.

Mamata accused the BJP of running a "sponsored propaganda machinery" and called it a "danga (riot)-oriented political party".

"BJP cannot compete with me politically so they try to set off riots in West Bengal," Mamata said, adding that the saffron party is nowhere in Bengal, but "only on media and social media, which they have bought".

Mamata's comments come at a time when the BJP, led by Amit Shah, have been campaigning aggressively in West Bengal ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

During her nearly 1-hour session at the India Today Conclave, the Trinamool Congress chief accused the Centre of discrimination against the East.

"In one state (Maharashtra) you have 47 ports, in another (West Bengal) you have only two," she said, adding that successive governments at the Centre have given importance to developing the western parts of the country.

Mamata said that no such thing as "cooperative federalism" exists, and accused the BJP-led Centre of "telling industries not to go to Bengal".

Here is the full coverage of India Today Conclave East 2017.

WATCH | India Today Conclave East 2017: Mamata Banerjee lashes out at PM Modi, calls him Tughlaq

--- ENDS ---
You can install a gap between Denzel Washingtons two front teeth. You can dress him in baggy suits that make Donald Trumps wardrobe look well-proportioned. You can pretend hes pear-shaped, require he speak in vocal-fried monotone, demand he deny his costars eye contactand if you do all of this, hell still be Denzel Washington, always and forever. The proof is in his latest, Roman J. Israel, Esq., the new film from writer-director Dan Gilroy, last meaningfully heard from in his 2014 directorial debut, Nightcrawler.

Considerably less time has passed since we last heard from Washington, who released his third effort as director, Fences, around this time in 2016. The post-Fences path that led him through Hollywood into Gilroys employ must have been serpentine, though it isnt hard to imagine Washington finding the appeal in making the leap from August Wilson to Lou Bloom. Nightcrawler is the same circus amorality Denzel has gravitated towards, off and on, since Training Day, and while their specifics vary, you can spot the family resemblance if you squint: Theyre both set in the sweaty, abandoned world of Los Angeles, they both fixate on men lacking in scruples and they both hinge on reinvention of their leading men.

Think of Roman J. Israel, Esq. as a bridge joining Nightcrawler and Training Day, without much of the edge of either. A Gilroy movie should fall well within Washingtons wheelhouse, and Roman J. Israel, Esq. suits him, but one senses the film mayve lost its teeth somewhere in the transition from page to screen. Like Nightcrawlers, its protagonist is a relentless advocate, but unlike Nightcrawlers, the title character in Roman J. Israel, Esq. advocates for others and not for himself, at least in the beginning. The film emphasizes a social consciousness that Nightcrawler necessarily ignores, understanding that people in bad legal circumstances are there in part because of the choices they make, but also because they have limited choices to make in the first place. Each of us, Roman opines at one point, is greater than the worst thing weve ever done.

Romans choices are similarly narrow. Hes also greater than the worst thing he does in the film, which admittedly is pretty bad. Roman is the proverbial man behind the curtain at his law firm, a two-man outfit focused on civil rights litigation. When his partner, former law professor William Henry Jackson, has a sudden stroke, Roman is forced, for the first time in decades, to leave the comfort of his office, where he spends his days corralled in by towering stacks of paperwork, and set foot in front of a judge. He isnt much for social interaction, though, and no sooner does he step out than he is hit with a hefty fine for contempt. Things go downhill from there: George Pierce (Colin Farrell), Jacksons old student turned hotshot lawyer, is brought aboard to help shutter their firm, leaving Roman without a paycheck and without a sense of personal identity.

George offers Roman a job at his own firm, and Roman proves a poor fit, bungling cases against Georges advice and butting heads with his co-workers. Maybe around an hour in, Roman sells out, turning his back on his principles to catch up with the modern world. This change of heart is predicated on a twist thats wholly out of Romans character, except that the film confronts him with the temptation of trading on his beliefs and exiting the arena in which hes fought his entire career in exchange for the finer things. Gilroy argues there isnt room for personal gain in the world of legal activism, but realizing this is too obvious a point on which to hang a movie, he buttresses Romans existential crisis with personal relationships, such as his professional to amicable bond with George, or his kinship with Maya (Carmen Ejogo), a lawyer working for a nonprofit advocacy outfit.

These people are caught in Romans idiosyncratic orbit, puzzled by his quirks, moved by his profound selflessness, this man whod rather risk a beating by the cops than let a dead homeless man end up anonymously incinerated with the rest of L.A.s deceased vagrants. Thats no small thing. The problem Roman J. Israel, Esq. runs into, though, is constriction. The film has no room to breathe. Gilroy invests too much in Romans connection to George and to Maya, and neither can cohere as either foils or as characters. After premiering at this years Toronto International Film Festival, Gilroy trimmed around twelve minutes of footage and shuffled a few scenes to give the story momentum. But clocking in at two hours, Roman J. Israel, Esq. couldve been better as a half an hour shorter or a half an hour longer.

Georges slick persona belies a latent longing to fight the good fight as Roman does; Maya both empathizes with and admires him. Neither of their feelings for Roman are fleshed out enough to give their subplots proper ballast, which is bizarre, because both characters could make for fine shells for containing Romans moral dilemma. (Picturing a version of the film where George plays Felix to Romans Oscar as they battle systemic inequality in the courts is frustratingly easy.) Nightcrawler felt dangerous. Roman J. Israel, Esq. feels conventional by comparison. Gilroy isnt a drudge, of course, and Washington is Washington. If nothing else, the film rides on his mesmerizing performance and on Gilroys talent for character study. But after Nightcrawler, seeing Roman J. Israel, Esq. coast on craft rather than on transgression is nothing short of a letdown.

Director: Dan Gilroy

Writer: Dan Gilroy

Starring: Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo, Nazneen Contractor, DeRon Horton, Joseph David-Jones

Release Date: November 17, 2017

Boston-based pop culture critic Andy Crump has been writing about film and television online since 2009, and has been contributing to Paste since 2013. He also writes words for The Playlist, WBURs The ARTery, Slant Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Polygon, Thrillist, 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.
West, northern Michigan brace for storm that could bring foot of snow
Day 1b of the 2017 PokerStars Festival Hamburg 1,100 Main Event is in the books and the tournament is well on the way to reach and surpass the guarantee of 500,000. After 118 entries for the first starting day, the cap of 200 entries was reached this time around and further 201 players took to the felt at Casino Schenefeld to boost the attendance to 319 entries in total.

Once the 12 levels were done and dusted, it was Matthias Rauscher who emerged at the top of the counts with 241,000. On the way to the lead, Rauscher scored a big pot with pocket aces against the ace-queen of Jamila von Perger, who busted right after, and won another big pot with a straight against two pair. The 38-year old hotel director from Munich, who currently lives in Hamburg, shot to the top of the counts in the last levels of the night and narrowly missed out on taking the overall lead after two of the four starting days.

An additional 63 players advanced to Day 2 and other big stacks and notables that bagged up today include [Removed:321] Qasim (232,700), Michal Lubas (222,000), Giuseppe Caridi (195,000), Johannes Wassmuth (180,500), Roberto Manfredi (157,000), Ali Sameeian (145,500), WSOP bracelet winner Adrian Apmann (136,700), 2,200 High Roller runner-up De-Han Kim (125,700) and Jesper Hansen (92,700).

A host of familiar faces that failed to bag up and will have to re-enter on Day 1d include 2,200 High Roller champion Andre Haneberg and third-place finisher Martin Wendt, Hans Kersebom, Waldemar Kopyl, Bahadir Kilickeser, Jay Tse, Aleksandar Tomovic, Mick Graydon, Jan Timo Jobmann and Florian Fuchs.

Graydon was among the first casualties of the day when his flopped set of deuces ended up second-best to the set of nines by Tim Becker. Jobmann lost his entire stack within two hands against Walid Abdi Ali and Kopyl was ousted in a three-way all in with pocket sevens against the ace-four suited of Dalius Balciunas and the pocket jacks of Glaeser. However, Glaeser also failed to make it through the day and busted in the last level of the night.

On the way to bagging up a top ten stack, Johannes Wassmuth cracked pocket aces with six-five suited after flopping trips sixes. Mike Teske check-called two barrels and shoved the river to bow out. The very same table provided further fireworks soon after when Michal Lubas was all but gone, getting his stack in with pocket jacks versus pocker aces. However, the Pole got there on the flop and Aleksandr Skryabin went from hero to almost zero, busting a few hands later.

With the satellite kicking off simultaneously and awarding 13 seats, all tables were in use and the casino was buzzing, giving everyone a taste of what is to expect tomorrow when Day 1b with levels of 30 minutes kicks off at 1 p.m. and the turbo re-entry heat 1d starts at 8 p.m. local time. Only those unfortunate enough to have busted in one of the three previous flights are allowed to fire the optional second bullet.

The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action until a winner is crowned, so make sure to tune back in regularly.
Asia Pacific pre-harvest market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-11-24 06:54:03

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Market data forecast

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The Asia Pacific pre-harvest market was estimated to be worth around USD 7.84 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach USD 11.48 billion by 2021, growing at the CAGR of 7.92% from 2016 to 2021. Farm operations are timely performed and the quality of agricultural commodities produced by the use of machinery is better. Further, the workload is reduced and also it brings about a change in the characteristics of agricultural practicesThe Agriculture industry is presently facing many challenges: producing more food to feed the rapidly growing population with a waning labour force. Without the use of agricultural equipment, it is likely to become very difficult to sustain the needs of this growing population. However, lately there was innovation in chemicals, fertilizers, and seeds which empowered the agricultural producers to try to meet the steadily rising demands of the world population. The use of pre-harvest equipment is likely to help the farmers in improving their production capacities to reduce the widening gap between demand and supply of agricultural produce. But in spite of such innovations in agricultural productivity, the challenges for the agricultural industry to supply the growing global economy with adequate supplies of agriculture are greater than ever before.View full report @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/asia-pacific-pre-harvest-equipment-market-3278/ The tillage and planting equipment are the major segments capturing nearly 60% of the total market share. The production of self-propelled equipment has shown incredible growth in the last two decades because of its increased use by the farmers, facilitated by simplicity in the application.The Planting Equipment accounts for 30% of the total market. India and China lead the pre-harvest agricultural equipment markets because of lower level of farm mechanization and existence of inefficient farm equipment.Steadily increasing use of pre-harvest equipment in order to increase production capacity and efficiency is the cause of the observed market growth. Moreover, increasing awareness among farmers and several government initiatives especially in developing economies is anticipated to increase the demand for market in the coming few years.The Asia-Pacific Pre-Harvest Market is driven by the linked advantages such as enhanced farm yield and lessening in labour requirement. Other factors propelling the demand of the industry include increased consumption of food due to the population growth, augmented farm mechanization level and rising income of middle class farmers in developing nations. Additionally, several government initiatives and subsidiaries provided by them, especially in developing economies are projected to augment Asia-Pacific pre-harvest market throughout the forecast period. But still, the lack of awareness and hefty cost of farm equipment, are the major challenges in the growth of the market. Primary restraining factors for agricultural equipment market are the small and fragmented land holdings in various parts of the Asia-pacific.Download free sample @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/asia-pacific-pre-harvest-equipment-market-3278/request-sample The Asia-Pacific Pre-Harvest Equipment market is segmented into two broad categories: type and geography. Type majorly covers the various kinds of equipments that are available in the market. Following are the major equipments that have been covered in this report - Primary Tillage Equipment, Secondary Tillage Equipment, Planting Equipment, Irrigation Equipment, Plant Protection & Fertilizing, seed drills, planters, air seeders, and others.The Asia-Pacific region is geographically segmented into China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. It is the leading consumer of pre-harvest agricultural equipment accounting for more than 60% (data coupled with Europe) of the consumption on a global scale. It is estimated to be the fastest growing region in terms of revenue. Growth is especially high in countries such as China, India, Japan, Turkey, and Thailand.Major industry players are taking initiatives in new product launches and collaborations to penetrate the untapped markets of Asia. They are focusing on launching of new products for expansion of business in the Asia-Pacific markets. Substantial investments were made by companies in the local market to cater to the domestic demand. New products were launched by manufacturers to provide customized solutions to the farmers. Another area of focus was launching of crop specific agricultural equipment. Collaborations were made with distributors in foreign market to guarantee a continuous supply of the products and implements. Thus, from 2010 to 2013, new products launch, and collaborations were the leading growth strategies for pre-harvest agri equipment, together accounting for a 63% of the total developments.The Asia-Paicific pre-harvest equipment market industry is highly consolidated with few companies manufacturing most of the products, and rest of the market share is divided into small companies. Deere & Company (U.S.), CNH Global (The Netherlands), and AGCO Corp (U.S.). are the market leaders with a combined share of about 60%. The other players include Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (India), Valmont Industries Inc.(U.S.) , Iseki & Company Ltd(Japan), etc. Deere & Company is the market leader with 38% in 2012. In order to expand its product lines, John Deere has introduced various equipment. The company also adopted expansion and investments as its strategies for expanding its market globally. It invested around USD 58 million in its John Deere Seeding manufacturing plant in Moline to enhance its operations.Inquire before buying @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/asia-pacific-pre-harvest-equipment-market-3278/inquire Market Segmentation1)Introduction2)Primary Tillage Equipment Moldboard Plough Disc Plough Chisel Plough Rotary Ploughs3)Secondary Tillage Equipment Harrows Disc Harrow Off-Set Disc Harrow Cultivators Rollers & Pulverizers4)Planting Equipment Seed Drills Planters Transplanters Airseeders5)Irrigation Equipment Pumps Filters Pipes Valves Emmiters6)Plant Protection Equipment Hand Operated Sprayers Motorized Sprayers Boom Sprayers Airblast Sprayers Granular Applicators Aerial Applicators7)Other Equipment8)Y-o-Y Growth Analysis, By Type9)Market Attractiveness Analysis, By Type10)Market Share Analysis, By TypeAbout Us Market Data Forecast is a firm working in the areas of market research, business intelligence and consulting. We have rich experience in research and consulting for various business domains to cater to the needs of both individual and corporate clients. A few key business areas that we handle with excellence include business process improvement, corporate financing and decision making based on market research, assisting in developing appropriate strategy and providing consultancy based on extensive research.Contact us Abhishek Shukla Sales Manager (International Business Development) Market Data Forecast Direct Line: +1-888-702-9626 Mobile: +91 998 555 0206 Mail: abhishek@ marketdataforecast.com  Visit Market Data Forecast Blog @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/blog/  View latest Press Releases of MDF @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/press-releases
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Astorius Resources Ltd.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Astorius Resources Ltd. (TSX Venture:ASQ). has issued a press release with the following headline:Astorius to Initiate Exploration in Taca Taca District, Salta, Argentina.To view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Astorius Resources Ltd., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Astorius Resources Ltd.Source: Astorius Resources Ltd. (TSX Venture: ASQ)Date: November 24, 2017Time: 2:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Astorius Resources Ltd. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for SolGold plc--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Bishopsgate, London (FSCWire) - SolGold plc (TSX:SOLG). has issued a press release with the following headline:Cascabel Exploration UpdateTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on SolGold plc, or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/SolGold plcSource: SolGold plc (TSX: SOLG, AIM: SOLG, OTC Bulletin Board: SLGGF)Date: November 24, 2017Time: 2:22 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of SolGold plc and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
Babul Supriyo slammed Mamata Banerjee after she attacked the Central government for allegedly scaring away industrialists from investing in West Bengal.

By Poulomi Saha: Union Minister Babul Supriyo hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after she attacked the Central government for allegedly scaring away industrialists from investing in the state.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave East 2017 in Kolkata today, Mamata Banerjee said, "You (the Centre) tell companies not to invest in West Bengal. They say not to go to Bengal. Our projects are pending. Why are these projects not being cleared?"

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Mamata added there is a "super emergency" in the country and every industrialist was under the scanner.

Speaking to India Today, Babul Supriyo accused Mamata Banerjee of being responsible herself for industries turning away from the state.

"She is holding on to her vote-bank politics by creating utter confusion around land acquisition. West Bengal probably is the only state with no clarity on how land can be acquired by industrialists. She insists industrialists have to purchase land from individual land-owners," the minister said.

Supriyo added that Mamata Banerjee's lies stand exposed now, since she earlier claimed that State Finance Minister Dr Amit Mitra had secured Rs 2 lakh crore investments for the state.

At the India Today Conclave, Mamata Banerjee accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being Tughlaq-like and said an ill-prepared GST law was thrust upon the country.

"Amit Mitra is only one person. He cannot do much. GST was passed with voice vote in Parliament. We just said don't pass the GST in a hurry. Are you Mohammad bin Tughlaq? Can you do whatever you like?" Mamata asked of the Centre.

Babul Supriyo dismissed it as Mamata's political frustration, who he said was unable to stitch together a Third Front in opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party despite doing the rounds of Lucknow, Patna and even Mumbai to meet the Thackerays.

"It's very easy to react to these things but by making such statements, she is tarnishing her own long political career," quipped Supriyo.

--- ENDS ---
The Latin America Aptamers Market is poised to reach $ 34.27 million market by 2021  135 pages report by Market Data Forecast

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The Latin America Aptamers Market was worth $ 15.30 million in 2016 and estimated to reach $ 34.27 million by the end of 2021 with a growing potential of 17.50 %. Increasing usage of aptamers is the major factor that driving the growth Latin America region.Browse market data tables and in-depth TOC of the Latin America Aptamers Market to 2021 @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/latin-america-aptamers-market-1138/ Aptamers are used for used for clinical trials, new drug discovery which will bind to protein of interest as that of antibodies. They bind to target cells such as cancer cells and bacteria and make them inactive. Aptamers doesnt cause any immunological reactions and were easy to produce. They are used as therapeutic tools and biosensors. Aptamers are used for multipurpose and of low cost which offer alternative solutions to the antibodies. Aptamers reveal vital advantages relative to protein therapeutics in terms of synthetic accessibility and modification by medicinal chemistry.The Latin America market is driven by advanced technologies, increasing R&D investments in pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, low cost and high efficacy of aptamers in binding. The restraints that are hindering the growth of the market are Ethical issues for the aptamers that are obtained from animals, Stringent regulations in use of aptamers.Free sample of the report is available @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/latin-america-aptamers-market-1138/request-sample The Latin America Aptamers Market is broadly categorized by type into Peptide aptamers, Nucleic Acid aptamers. Nucleic Acid aptamers are further categorized into DNA-Based Aptamers, RNA-Based Aptamers, and XNA-Based Aptamers.Based on Application the market is categorized into Therapeutics Development, Diagnostics, Research and Development and on the basis of end users the market is segmented into Pharmaceutical Companies, Bio-Pharmaceutical companies, Academic and Research Centres.Inquire before buying @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/latin-america-aptamers-market-1138/inquire Latin America Aptamers Market Geographical Analysis Brazil Mexico Rest of Latin AmericaLatin America Aptamers Market Leaders' Analysis AM Biotechnologies Aptagen Aptamer Sciences Inc. Aptamer Solutions Ltd Aptus Biotech S.L. Base Pair Biotechnologies Inc NeoVentures Biotechnology Inc. SomaLogic Inc TriLink BioTechnologies Inc Vivonics, IncAvail discount @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/latin-america-aptamers-market-1138/request-discount About Us:Market Data Forecast is a firm working in the area of market research and business intelligence. With rich experience in research across various business domains, we cater to the needs of both individual and corporate clients. Our analyst team comprises expert professionals in market research, who with their collective knowledge and skillset dedicatedly serve clients from various industries and regions.Contact:Abhishek ShuklaSales Manager (International Business Development)Market Data ForecastDirect Line: +1-888-702-9626Mobile: +91 998 555 0206Mail:abhishek@ marketdataforecast.com Visit MarketDataForecast Blog @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/blog/ View latest Press Releases of MDF @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/press-releases
Latin America Diagnostic Imaging Market is poised to reach $2.64 billion by 2021  132 pages report by Market Data Forecast

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The Latin America Diagnostic Imaging Market was worth $1.94 billion in 2016 and estimated to be growing at a CAGR of 6.30%, to reach $2.64 billion by 2021. Medical imaging is the method of making a visual image of the inside of the body for medical intervention. These devices aid in creating a databank of normal anatomy and physiology of internal organs so that any irregularity can be observed immediately.Browse market data tables and in-depth TOC of the Latin America Diagnostic Imaging Market to 2021 @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/latin-america-diagnostic-imaging-market-662/ The capability to generate pictures of a patients internal anatomy and alter them to film through diagnostic imaging has transformed the way many diseases and injuries are spotted, diagnosed, and treated. This market has applications in several medical arenas like cardiology, neurology, and orthopaedics.The growth of the Latin America Diagnostic Imaging Market is mainly driven by factors such as rise in aging population, increasing prevalence of cancer and cardiac, neurological, and musculoskeletal disorders, and rising number of diagnostic imaging techniques. However, factors such as high costs of medical procedures and poor accessibility of proper health care in this part of the world are hindering the growth of the market.Free sample of the report is available @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/latin-america-diagnostic-imaging-market-662/request-sample The Latin America Diagnostic Imaging market is segmented based on Type and Application. The market for Diagnostic Imaging, on the basis of type is segmented into X-Rays, Nuclear Medicine, Ultrasound, MRI, Tomography, Photoacoustic Imaging, Thermography, Tactile Imaging, Elastography, Functional near infrared spectroscopy, Echocardiography. Each modality is further separated into sub segments. The X-ray and ultrasound systems market is segmented on the basis of technology and portability respectively. The nuclear imaging systems market is characterised into Scintigraphy, PET Imaging, and SPECT Imaging. On the basis of Application, the Diagnostic Imaging market is segmented into Cardiology, Oncology, Neurology, Orthopaedics, Gastroenterology, Gynaecology, and Others. Tomography is a widely used method as it increases the chances of cancer discovery and decreases the cases of the patient being called for further tests. 3D imaging is anticipated to grow in all markets during the forecast period.Avail discount @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/latin-america-diagnostic-imaging-market-662/request-discount Latin America Diagnostic Imaging Market Geographical Analysis Brazil Mexico Rest of Latin AmericaLatin America Diagnostic Imaging Market Leaders' Analysis GE Healthcare Siemens Healthcare Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation Hitachi Medical Corporation Hologic Inc. Fujifilm Corporation Shimadzu CorporationInquire before buying @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/latin-america-diagnostic-imaging-market-662/inquire About Us:Market Data Forecast is a firm working in the area of market research and business intelligence. With rich experience in research across various business domains, we cater to the needs of both individual and corporate clients. Our analyst team comprises expert professionals in market research, who with their collective knowledge and skillset dedicatedly serve clients from various industries and regions.Contact:Abhishek ShuklaSales Manager (International Business Development)Market Data ForecastDirect Line: +1-888-702-9626Mobile: +91 998 555 0206Mail:abhishek@ marketdataforecast.com Visit MarketDataForecast Blog @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/blog/ View latest Press Releases of MDF @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/press-releases
MEA Hydroponics market

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The Middle East and Africa Hydroponics market is estimated to reach USD 61.3 million by 2021 from a market value of USD 27.6 million in 2016 at a CAGR of 15.5%.Browse details of 190 pages research report on Middle East and Africa Hydroponics market @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/middle-east-and-africa-hydroponics-market-2121/ Market Conditions:Hydroponics is a soilless cultivating technique used to create high return crops. It is a part of hydroculture, which utilizes mineral arrangements and supplements to develop different plants. Hydroponics utilizes two fundamental mediums to develop crops and they are selection culture and strong medium culture. This strategy is a compelling substitute, which defeats the defects of typical agribusiness method to a superior degree.One of the important drivers is that hydroponics gives higher yield compared with conventional agricultural techniques. It additionally gives farmers the capacity to develop crops in regions that can't support crops in soil. Moreover, hydroponics removes the use of counterfeit maturing operators and pesticides, which helps in making nutritiously superior vegetable items. Lack of awareness about the hydroponic agriculture system and high investment are some of the factors restraining the market growth to an extent.Avail Sample Market Brochure of the report for more information, Get a Copy @Middle East and Africa Hydroponics market Segmentation: By Equipment: Introduction, HVAC, LED Grow Light, Communication Technology, Irrigation Systems, Material Handling and Control Systems By Type: Introduction, Aggregate and Liquid By Crop Type: Introduction By Input Type: Introduction By Geography: Introduction, Middle East and AfricaSome of the major companies operating in Middle East and Africa Hydroponics market: Argus Control Systems Koninklijke Philips NV Greentech Agro LLC Logiqs B.V. Lumigrow, Inc.Inquiry before buying @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/middle-east-and-africa-hydroponics-market-2121/inquire About Us:Market Data Forecast is a firm working in the area of market research and business intelligence. With rich experience in research across various business domains, we cater to the needs of both individual and corporate clients. Our analyst team comprises expert professionals in market research, who with their collective knowledge and skillset dedicatedly serve clients from various industries and regions.Media Contact:Abhishek ShuklaInternational Business Development ManagerMarket Data ForecastDirect Line: +1-888-702-9626; Mobile: +91 998 555 0206Mail: abhishek@ marketdataforecast.com Visit MarketDataForecast Blog @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/blog/
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Metron Capital Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, BC (FSCWire) - Metron Capital Corp. (TSX Venture:MCN). has issued a press release with the following headline:Metron Announces Private PlacementTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Metron Capital Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Metron Capital Corp.Source: Metron Capital Corp. (TSX Venture: MCN)Date: November 23, 2017Time: 9:00 PM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Metron Capital Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Kebbi State Government to build an 84 million-litres per annum capacity ethanol fuel factory.

This was disclosed, Thursday, via a statement signed by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, published on the corporations website.

The MoU was signed at the NNPC Towers in Abuja on Thursday, the statement adds.

According to the statement, the agreement is aimed at transforming the corporation into an integrated energy company as it would commence the practical implementation of the NNPC Fuel-Ethanol Projects in Kalgo and Koko Besse local government areas of Kebbi State.

NNPCS Group Managing Director, Baru Maikanti, was quoted as saying the occasion was a milestone in the drive by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to diversify the economy.

Mr. Baru said that the sugarcane and cassava-fuel ethanol project in Kebbi state would involve the development of 20,000 hectares of an integrated plantation and plant complex.

Let me use this opportunity to convey my sincere appreciation to the Government of Kebbi State on her interest to partner NNPC in achieving the Federal Governments mandate on automotive biofuels production in Nigeria. Today is a watershed in the life of Kebbi State prime position as the food basket and feeder of the nation. The MoU today will move you to the next level of not just a feeder of the nation, but one which also provides fuel for the nation. We hope that very soon, you will invite President Muhammadu Buhari for the ground-breaking of the project, he was quoted as saying.

The NNPC boss also listed some benefits of the project.

This included, creation of rural wealth, generation of a million direct and indirect jobs, co-generation of about 64 megawatts of bio-electricity to power the plant, lighting up the surrounding communities, effecting reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, production of refined sugar and industrial starch as well as production of animal feeds.

The GMD also said the potentials for biofuels in Nigeria and for export were enormous adding that the NNPC was willing to offer an opportunity for investment in the project by citizens of the state.

The Governor of Kebbi State, Abubakar Bagudu, who led a delegation representing every part of the state, congratulated the President and the GMD for the vision.

Mr. Bagudu also quoted as expressing gratitude noting that his state was thankful for the opportunity to partner with the NNPC on the biofuels project.

The GMD and top management of the NNPC, we in Kebbi State will do our utmost best to make sure that the objective of the biofuel project is realised, the statement quoted Mr. Bagudu as saying.
Today, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar announced his exit from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), saying the party has failed and continues to fail our people. He also accused the party of arbitrariness, unconstitutionality, and disregard for party stalwarts.

He further lambasted the fold for instituting a regime of draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced.

Atikus lamentation, contained in a 15-paragraph statement his office emailed to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday morning, is similar to the complaints he made before fleeing the PDP for the APC on February 2, 2014.

Read his todays press statement HERE.

Below is the full text of what the politician said in 2014 before embracing the APC.

Press Statement by Atiku Abubakar, GCON, Turaki Adamawa and former Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria on his Resignation from the PDP and his Joining the APC.

In 2006, as a result of my firm stand in defence of our constitution and our democracy, my supporters and I were pushed out of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party, a party that we worked tirelessly with other compatriots to build as a vehicle to restore democracy to our country.

We later returned to that party in 2009 when a new leadership of the party and the country promised a new direction, a direction of inclusiveness, of internal democracy, of an end to impunity, adherence to the rule of law and respect for the dignity of members and Nigerians.

Sadly, however, those promises have not been kept. In addition, the PDP continues to be beset with many crises, mostly leadership-induced crises. It has since lost touch with Nigerians and efforts made by many well-meaning members and stakeholders to bring it back to the vision of the founders have been rebuffed.

To demonstrate the seriousness of the challenges and bring public attention to it I and some other leaders and stakeholders staged a walkout during the partys last convention in Abuja.

As I speak, most of the issues that led to that walk-out are yet to be addressed. Many founding members of the PDP, I included, continue to be marginalized and excluded from the affairs of the party. For instance as a former Vice President, I am by virtue of the PDP constitution, a member of the partys Board of Trustees and its National Executive Committee. However, I am not invited to the meetings of those organs nor consulted on their decisions, apparently because I dared to exercise my right to contest in the partys primary election for a chance to be its flag-bearer in the 2011 elections. We have, therefore, concluded that that party cannot be redeemed. In short the PDP has abandoned Nigerians, the very people who gave it life and many electoral victories.

More worrisome though is the danger posed to the continued existence of this country by this culture of impunity and arbitrariness. We continue to have threats from officially protected political extremists. Increasingly our people are recklessly being divided along the lines of religion, ethnicity and region for political gains. Our history and that of many other countries in Africa and Eastern Europe ought to teach us that this is very dangerous and must stop.

We can and we must do better. Our people deserve better.

It is against this background that we should understand the visit by the leaders of the APC and their invitation to me to join hands with them to save the country. Consequently, I have been consulting my supporters and associates, my family and friends for the past few weeks. My decision may not satisfy some of my friends and associates. In the end, however, I have to put the interest of our country first. This country has done so much for me personally and it deserves all that we can do to help rebuild it and serve our people better.

Following this extensive consultative process, I have, therefore, decided to cast my lot with the APC, a party of change committed to the improvement of the lives of our people and to the continued existence and development of Nigeria as one indivisible country. My resignation letter as a member of the PDP will be delivered to the party tomorrow.

This is the right decision. As in 2006 it is the struggle for democracy and constitutionalism and service to my country and my people that are driving my choice and my decision. Let me emphasize that this is not about me. We have to have a country before people can aspire to lead it, but as it is today we may be losing this country. That is not acceptable.

I encourage my political associates and friends to register andjoin the APC once the registration exercise commences, so that together we can change this country for the better.

The process of building a nation, of securing and deepening democracy is indeed difficult. And it is not a lineal process. There would be alignment and realignment of political forces. There would be ups and downs and zig-zags, triumphs and challenges. Amidst all that, patriots must remain focused and do what has to be done to save and build the country and serve our people better.

That is what I have decided to do. I will do all within my God-given powers to help the APC win elections all over Nigeria and bring true change to our country and its long-suffering people.

Thank you and God bless Nigeria.

Atiku Abubakar, GCON

(Turaki Adamawa)

Former Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the release of N800 million for each of the 36 states of the federation as part of the Budget Support Loan Facility.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udoma, stated this when he briefed State House correspondents, alongside Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo, on the outcome of the meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.

Mr. Udoma said the Accountant General of the Federation reported to the Council that approval for the payment of the amount had been received by his office and the Central Bank of Nigeria had been directed to pay the money to the states.

Governors expressed appreciation to the federal government for the restoration of the Budget Support Loan Facility for July and August 2017, he said.

He said the Accountant General also informed the Council that the balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) as at Novemver 17 stood at $2,309,693,583.35 ($2.3 billion)

He said the Council was also updated on the balance of the Stabilisation Fund Account (SFA), which, as at November 17 stood at N6,689,072,836.11 (N6.7 billion).

The minister said the balance of the Natural Resources Development Fund Account stood at N100, 314, 169, 190.23 (N100 billion) as at November 17.

Mr. Akeredolu told the correspondents that the Council received the report of the NEC ad-hoc committee on Export Promotion.

The committee was set up in September.

The report dwelt extensively on an export promotion plan geared towards achieving governments policy on the zero oil Plan.

The committee recommended, among other things, the establishment of a National Committee on Export Promotion, chaired at the presidency level.

It also recommended the setting up of a Technical Committee involving federal and states MDAs to help provide technical information and direction to the proposed committee.

The ad-hoc committee further recommended that export procedures and documentation be streamlined with the identification of existing domestic investors and engagement plan for output expansion.

He said the committee also recommended the establishment of more laboratories and testing centres to help improve quality and standard of export and the domestication of the Office of Technical Regulation (OTR) as recommended by UNIDO.

On market for Nigerias products, he said the committee recommended the deepening of commercial diplomacy, one-stop shops for export and a National Export Portal to generate global orders to link suppliers to buyers

On Value Chain Development, the Committee recommended the development of clusters along product value chain, market driven research and development and the provision of seeds and seedlings.

The committee recommended the recapitalisation of NEXlM Bank, the provision of Export Development Fund in line with NEPC Act, a five-year financial window on export expansion grant and funding scheme for exporters similar to the CBN Anchor Borrowers programme.

(NAN)
Anambra is synonymous with political godfatherism. The reputation was gained from a trend that started from the first governorship election in 1999. But on Saturday, the tides turned as a virtual orphan carried the day in a manner that left nothing to dispute.

The old trend had led to recurrent instability in the state. As soon as an election is over, the godfather and the godson begin an unending battle for supremacy at the expense of the people.

The political godfather usually brings the godson to the limelight of politics and introduces the latter to the people that matter. However, the godson having clinched the seat with the support of the godfather both financially and otherwise, seeks to sideline the sponsor and renege on their agreements. This may be as a result of over-lordship by the godfather wanting to dominate the government, giving directives and controlling the administration.

In fact, for each electoral cycle in Anambra, there was a godfather.

1999-2003: CHINWOKE MBADINUJU AND EMEKA OFFOR

After the return to democracy in 1998, Chinwoke Mbadinuju became the Peoples Democratic Party candidate for Anambra State governorship after a stiff competition with A. B. C. Nwosu, a professor who later became Minister of Health under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Mr. Mbadinuju was elected governor in April 1999 and is still derided as posting the worst performance in the office since the creation of the state in 1991.

Mr. Mbadinujus campaign was bankrolled by Emeka Offor, a businessman. After a fallout between godson and godfather, the face-off between the two men crippled the machinery of government in the state. By September 2002, unpaid teachers had been on strike for a year and civil servants and court workers had been on strike for months.

2003- 2006: CHRIS NGIGE AND CHRIS UBA

Among the politicians Chris Uba, another businessman, sponsored in 2003 was PDP gubernatorial candidate, Chris Ngige. The terms of their relationship were spelled out in remarkably explicit fashion in a written contract and declaration of loyalty that Mr. Ngige signed prior to the election. It is widely believed that a copy of the contract was authenticated at the infamous Okija shrine.

Relations between Mr. Ngige and Mr. Uba deteriorated rapidly after the polls. In July 2003, Governor Ngige after rejecting some of Mr. Ubas demands, was kidnapped by armed police officers and forced at gunpoint to sign a letter of resignation. Mr. Ngige earned the unenviable reputation of being the first governor in Nigerias Fourth Republic to be kidnapped from the Government House.

2006-2014: PETER OBI AND EMEKA OJUKWU

Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the late Biafra warlord, was one of the most revered Igbo leaders. He led his people into the civil war in 1967.

Although he did not go far in his own presidential bid in 2003, there is no doubt that his influence helped the then relatively unknown Peter Obi to win the governorship contest in Anambra State in 2003. That victory was not upheld until the court ruled that the election was won by the candidate of Mr. Ojukwus All Progressives Grand Alliance.

Mr. Ojukwus name and image became even more iconic as Mr. Obi sought re-election in 2010. Vote him, this is my last wish, the aged Mr. Ojukwu pleaded with the voters of Anambra on behalf of Mr. Obi who was re-elected despite the strong financial and political forces marshalled by his challengers.

2015-2017: WILLIE OBIANO AND PETER OBI

Willie Obiano who left the banking sector to join politics in 2013 was no doubt a novice on the political terrain and unarguably a new name to the people. Just like in the other cases, Governor Obi, who was about to leave office, handpicked and introduced Mr. Obiano to the states electorate after helping him to secure the APGA governorship ticket. He won the election and was sworn in on March 17, 2014 to succeed Mr. Obi.

However, as usual, trouble broke out between the two shortly after Governor Obianos inauguration. Mr. Obi claimed he left N75 billion in the governments coffers but Mr. Obiano said he only met N35.5 billion. Mr. Obi left APGA after an internal crisis hit the party and joined the PDP, which was at the time in power at the federal level.

SATURDAYS ELECTION

It was not surprising that analysts had the foregoing at the back of their minds while predicting the outcome of Saturdays election.

In all the previous governorship elections in the state, a godfather and his godson had manoeuvred their way into office. That changed on Saturday.

The squaring up in the build up to the election was quite spectacular. Mr. Obi, already a kingmaker, anointed Oseloka Obaze, the PDP candidate whose emergence left many stalwarts of the party disgruntled. Mr. Obis main aim was to unseat the incumbent governor who, according to him, had not performed well. Many viewed Mr. Obis move as political vendetta at the expense of the people of Anambra.

We finally broke the jinx of godfatherism, which has been existing in the state from the beginning, Allison Onyeji, the traditional prime minister of Ufuma community in Anambra said after the poll.

Mr. Onyeji explained to PREMIUM TIMES that Mr. Obi was the godfather of Mr. Obaze, the PDP candidate, while Arthur Eze sponsored the APC candidate, Tony Nwoye. He said Mr. Obiano was on his own.

The only godfather I will say he has is the people and so we voted him according to our wish. Even though many collected money, after collecting they still voted their conscience, Mr. Onyeji added.

What we decided was that we dont need anybody to show us a good leader. We the people have eyes to assess you and if we see you have performed well and is equal to the task, we will vote you and that is what happened on Saturday, Mr. Onyeji said.

Another governorship aspirant in the state who backed Mr. Obiano in this election told PREMIUM TIMES about how the campaign success was achieved.

First we let the people know that APGA is our (Igbos) own, he said. Then we spread the slogan that if its not broken, why change it especially as everybody knew Obiano was performing well, the source, who asked not to be named, said.

The source, a core supporter of the governor, explained that long before the day of the election, Mr. Obiano had penetrated 98 per cent of churches market unions and town union.

We knew there was no way we would lose, he said.

THE PEOPLE SPOKE THROUGH THE BALLOT

Out of the 422,314 valid votes, Mr. Obiano won in all the 21 local government areas of the state to poll 234,071 votes.

Mr. Obiano was followed from a distance by the APC candidate, Mr. Nwoye, who polled 98,752 votes.

Mr. Obaze of the PDP returned third with 70,293 votes, while Osita Chidoka of United Progressives Party, UPP, came a distant fourth after garnering 7,903 votes.

This shows that Governor Obiano trumped all his opponents and their sponsors in their various local government areas.
The controversy over the recall of former head of Presidential Task Force on Pension Reform, Abdulrasheed Maina, into service rumbled on on Thursday.

At a hearing by the adhoc committee set up by the House of Representatives to probe the matter, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, and the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Joseph Akande, frontally controverted the account by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, of his role in the matter.

Official correspondences published by PREMIUM TIMES show that Mr. Malami initiated and authorised the recall.

Yet, on Thursday, asked by the committee to give a direct answer as to whether the letter requesting Mr. Mainas reinstatement came from him, Mr. Malami claimed it did not.

He said the last letter he remembered to have written on the issue was dated January 19, 2017 and was meant to bring attention to all that was happening to Mr Maina.

He then claimed that Mr. Maina had not resumed when PREMIUM TIMES exposed his recall.

Mr. Malami said: As at 5th October, Mainas issue in my office was a work in progress and not yet concluded and that can be associated with previous dealings in February, April and October so the letter giving specific and clear directives couldnt have genuinely emanated from my office.

I received letters from Attorney General  Oyo-Ita

However, the Head of Service, Mrs. Oyo-Ita, faulted the account of Mr. Malami as she stated that she received letters from the office of the Attorney General demanding the reinstatement of Mr. Maina.

Mrs. Oyo-Ita said Mr. Malamis office wrote a series of letters to her office to press for the reinstatement.

She said: Maina, from records available to us, was dismissed in the year 2013 from the Federal Civil Service for absconding from duty.

From the beginning of this year, we started receiving series of letters written by the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, addressed to the chairman Federal Civil Service Commission and copied to the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

As those letters came in, the Federal Civil Service Commission wrote to my office, directing us to request the Ministry of Interior to set up a Senior Staff Committee to review the directives from the Attorney General.

She expressed surprise that Mr. Maina was finally reinstated without the assent of her office.

When I got hold of that letter of reinstatement, I held on to the letter because I needed more clarification of that letter, so I was surprised to find out that without officially conveying the letter of his reinstatement or any letter of posting whatsoever, the said Mr Maina was absorbed into the Ministry of Interior which I learnt through the media.

I want to place on record here that I still have the original letters here with me. My office will never convey such reinstatement letter to Mr. Maina, so there is no way he could have resumed work at the Ministry of Interior if he had not being officially notified of doing so by the office of the head of civil service commission.

We received 3 letters from AGF before approving Mainas reinstatement  FCSC

The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service, Mr. Akande, also told the committee that the letter requesting the reinstatement of Mr. Maina emanated from the office of the AGF.

Maina was declared absent from duty in 2013 and attempt to locate him proved abortive so the ministry informed the head of service and the head of service informed the commission and ordered that a query be given to Maina to explain why he has been absent from duty.

Ministry of Interior gave the query and set up an investigative panel to hear the other side of the case but they were unable to locate him.

When Maina was unable to respond to the query or attend the investigative panel, the SSC (Senior Staff Committee) of the ministry was conveyed to consider his case and after discussion and deliberation, the SSC recommended that Maina be dismissed. When the letter was sent to us from the HoS, we sat on it and the commission agreed with the recommendation and Maina was so dismissed.

Sometimes in 2014, Maina wrote to the commission appealing that they reconsider their decision and that they review the dismissal given to him.

Mr. Akande said the commission started receiving letters from the AGF from early 2017.

In 2017, the commission received a letter from the Attorney General dated 19th January 22017 demanding the reinstatement of Maina.

Again, the AGF sent another letter to us 27th April. The third letter informing us that he is the chief legal officer of the country and that the basis of our dismissing Maina cannot stand because judge of High Court in Abuja has paused the warrant of arrest and therefore directed.

The ministry of interior met through their SSC and recommended that he be reinstated. When we looked at it, we approved that he be reinstated.

No officer assigned to guard Maina  Police

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police denied assigning officers to guard Mr. Maina, at any period of his service as head of the presidential task force on pension reform.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Research and Planning, Valentine Ntomchukwu, told the committee that the force had no record of any police officer protecting the ex-pension boss at any time.

Ayo Omidiran, Osun-APC, questioned Mr. Ntomchukwu on the role of Nigeria Police in providing security for the fugitive civil servant.

We all know that he had not less than 10 police officers guarding him during that time (When he was declared wanted). So, to say that police have nothing to do with him is not correct sir, Mrs. Omidiran questioned after the DIGP read a report on the role of the Police Force in relation to Maina.

In response, Mr. Ntomchukwu said the police had no record of any officer attached to Maina.

We dont have any record of any police officer guarding Maina. There is no record of that. If there is any record or the names of any officer attached to Maina, please let us know.

Secondly, when there is a warrant, Police acted on the warrant issued for the arrest of Mr. Maina from the Senate and we declared him wanted based on the warrant. When we could not find him on the address by the agencies that went to look for him, we now declared him wanted. And in all the processes with the INTERPOL, there was a red alert. A red alert means that he is declared wanted. And so, we are still looking for him, Mr. Ntomchukwu replied to another question on what the police have done in tracking down Maina.

Senate committee gives damning update

In a separate but dramatic development, the Senate committee investigating the same matter reported that the task force headed by Mr. Maina recovered about 222 houses and investments from pension suspects in Abuja and other major cities across the country, and asked for more time to complete its probe.

The chairman of the committee, Emmanuel Paulker (PDP-Delta), said the committee was unable to tender a report due to complexities involved in the issue and fresh revelations which emanated in the course of the investigation.

Mr. Paulker said the committee discovered some issues which are beyond its mandate and thus, requires the leave of the Senate to cover them.

During the investigation, certain issues arose that this mandate of the senate did not cover. Mr. President, suffice it to note that it was revealed during the investigation that some estate properties were recovered during the Maina investigation into pension fraud.

And since this mandate did not cover that aspect of resolution, I want to come under order 42 and 52 so that the standing committee can now come up with a motion that Senate can now empower them to expand her mandate to cover this.

Mr. Paulker said the presidential task force headed by Mr. Maina recovered about 222 houses and investments from pension suspects in Abuja and other major cities across the country.

The reform Maina led recovered assets from pension looters working with the EFCC, ICPC, DSS, police and paramilitary agency staff and then EFCC took charge of the recovered assets, he said.

The total recovered assets seized from allegedly pension thieves were reported to have been allegedly shared by some interest groups. The committee equally received a petition in respect of the recovered properties by the task force.

The Senate empowered the committee to further investigate the circumstances surrounding the properties recovered by the defunct pension task force and report in four weeks.

The Senate also mandated the committee to report its findings on circumstances surrounding his reinstatement and promotion in two weeks.
A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has dumped Nigerias ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Mr. Abubakar in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES narrated his reasons for leaving the party.

The former vice president who challenged President Muhammadu Buhari for the APC ticket in the build up to the 2015 elections did not indicate the new party he would join.

Many members of the main opposition PDP, a party Mr. Abubakar helped form, have, however been asking him to rejoin the party.

Read Mr. Abubakars full statement below.

On the 19th of December, 2013, I received members of the All Progressives Congress at my house in Abuja. They had come to appeal to me to join their party after my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, had become factionalized as a result of the special convention of August 31, 2013.

The fractionalization of the Peoples Democratic Party on August 31, 2013 had left me in a situation where I was, with several other loyal party members, in limbo, not knowing which of the parallel executives of the party was the legitimate leadership.

It was under this cloud that members of the APC made the appeal to me to join their party, with the promise that the injustices and failure to abide by its own constitution which had dogged the then PDP, would not be replicated in the APC and with the assurance that the vision other founding fathers and I had for the PDP could be actualized through the All Progressives Congress.

It was on the basis of this invitation and the assurances made to me that I, being party-less at that time, due to the fractionalization of my party, accepted on February 2, 2014, the hand of fellowship given to me by the All Progressives Congress.

On that day, I said it is the struggle for democracy and constitutionalism and service to my country and my people that are driving my choice and my decision to accept the invitation to join the All Progressives Congress.

Like you, I said that because I believed that we had finally seen the beginnings of the rebirth of the new Nigeria of our dreams which would work for all of us, old and young.

However, events of the intervening years have shown that like any other human and like many other Nigerians, I was fallible.

While other parties have purged themselves of the arbitrariness and unconstitutionality that led to fractionalization, the All Progressives Congress has adopted those same practices and even gone beyond them to institute a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced.

Only last year, a governor produced by the party wrote a secret memorandum to the president which ended up being leaked. In that memo, he admitted that the All Progressives Congress had not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight change but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance.

Of the party itself, that same governor said Mr. President, Sir Your relationship with the national leadership of the party, both the formal (NWC) and informal (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso), and former Governors of ANPP, PDP (that joined us) and ACN, is perceived by most observers to be at best frosty. Many of them are aggrieved due to what they consider total absence of consultations with them on your part and those you have assigned such duties.

Since that memorandum was written up until today, nothing has been done to reverse the treatment meted out to those of us invited to join the All Progressives Congress on the strength of a promise that has proven to be false. If anything, those behaviours have actually worsened.

But more importantly, the party we put in place has failed and continues to fail our people, especially our young people. How can we have a federal cabinet without even one single youth.

A party that does not take the youth into account is a dying party. The future belongs to young people.

I admit that I and others who accepted the invitation to join the APC were eager to make positive changes for our country that we fell for a mirage. Can you blame us for wanting to put a speedy end to the sufferings of the masses of our people?

Be that as it may be, after due consultation with my God, my family, my supporters and the Nigerian people whom I meet in all walks of life, I, Atiku Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa, hereby tender my resignation from the All Progressives Congress while I take time to ponder my future.

May God bless you and may God bless Nigeria.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Day 1 of the India Today Conclave East 2017 that she wants to arrange for the Padmavati premiere in Kolkata.

By India Today Web Desk: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today announced that she would welcome Sanjay Leela Bhansali and the team of Padmavati with open arms and would make special arrangements for the same.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave East 2017, Mamata said, "If they cannot release it in any other state, we will give special arrangement for Padmavati. Bengal will be very happy and Bengal will be proud to do that."

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The Padmavati row is increasingly seeing politicians divided over it. While Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called for a ban on the film in his state even if it is cleared by the censor board, Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh said that 'nobody will tolerate distortion of history'.

Mamata, a few days ago, found herself on the other side of the raging Padmavati debate. She condemned the ongoing controversy over the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film, labelling it as "unfortunate" and a "calculated plan" to destroy freedom of expression.

"The #Padmavati controversy is not only unfortunate but also a calculated plan of a political party to destroy the freedom to express ourselves. We condemn this super emergency," Banerjee had tweeted.

The Trinamool Congress supremo exhorted the film industry to protest in unison. "All in the film industry must come together and protest in one voice."

The #Padmavati controversy is not only unfortunate but also a calculated plan of a political party to destroy the freedom to express ourselves. We condemn this super emergency. All in the film industry must come together and protest in one voice- Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) November 20, 2017

The film has been mired in controversy over conjectures that it "distorts history" regarding Rajput queen Padmavati, a contention that Bhansali has repeatedly denied. Rumours that a dream sequence featuring Turk emperor Alauddin Khilji and Rajput queen Rani Padmavati were the beginning of the attacks on Bhansali and vandalising of Padmavati sets.

However, the Padmavati team has time and again clarified that let alone a dream sequence featuring Alauddin Khilji and Rani Padmini romancing, Deepika (who plays Padmavati) and Ranveer (who plays Khilji) don't even share screen space in the film.

The release of the film has been "voluntarily" deferred from its scheduled date of December 1.

Some Hindu groups have been protesting against the movie's release while some political outfits have demanded that its release be deferred in view of the Gujarat Assembly elections.

The makers have also not got clearance yet from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which said the application from the makers was "incomplete".

Here is the full coverage of India Today Conclave East 2017.

ALSO WATCH | Exposed: Karni Sena holding Padmavati hostage

--- ENDS ---
The governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, on Friday said not one governor from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, would decamp with the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, who just exited the party.

He was reacting to the exit of Mr. Abubakar from Nigerias ruling party on Friday.

Mr. El-Rufai, a prominent leader of the APC, who has had pitched battles with Mr. Abubakar in the past over political issues, was responding to questions from journalists after the Friday Jumat prayer at the mosque in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Mr. Abubakars withdrawal from the APC has drawn mixed reactions from Nigerians.

He has not indicated the party he is going to join, although he is expected to run for president on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Although, Mr. Atiku has not openly declared his interest to run, pundits believe some key officials in the Muhammadu Buhari administration will support him when he eventually declares.

The Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, is among those that have endorsed the former vice president for the 2019 presidential election.

However, Mr. El-Rufai on Friday insisted that all APC governors will not follow the footsteps of Atiku by leaving the party.

That I am sure of. I can speak authoritatively about it because Im in touch with my colleagues, he noted.

The only governor that he would think will go with him, the governor of Adamawa State has already endorsed President Buhari for the 2019 elections. And there are many governors, I will not mention the number but a majority of the APC governors have already taken the position that the president should run for a second term in office.

The Adamawa State Governor, Jibrilla Bindow, had previously declared his support for Mr. Abubakar whom he acknowledged as the sponsor of his governorship election.

The governor in December 2015 disclosed that Mr. Abubakar gave him N500 million for his campaign.

However, a month before Mr. Abubakar dumped the ruling party, the Adamawa state chapter of the APC pledged support for President Buhari if he declares to run in 2019.

Meanwhile, Mr. El-Rufai also said, Atiku is not and has never been a threat to Buhari.

we are confident that the way to preserve our party and preserve and advance the interest of Nigeria is for Mr. President to run for a second term. Im curious to see which APC governor will go with Atiku, he said.

Mr. Abubakar, who is from Adamawa State, has made past bids for the presidential slot. He challenged President Muhammadu Buhari for the APC presidential ticket prior to 2015 election.
A coalition of Northern civil society groups has declared support for the war against corruption by President Muhammadu Buharis administration. It also said it plans to organise a one million-man march for the president.

Rising from a meeting in Kaduna on Thursday, the group also described the acting Chairman of the Economic and financial Crimes commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu as one of the most fiery, fearless and most daring anti-corruption czar in Africa.

The convener of the coalition and Chairman of Arewa Transparency Champions, ATC, Bashir Ibrahim, noted that the auspicious moment has come for all Nigerian men and women of goodwill to extend all the necessary support to President Buhari and EFCCs Magu to deliver on this important pillar of the APC governments 2015 campaign promise.

Also, while speaking to PREMIUM TIMES, Abdulrahman Danbatta, one of the coordinators of the meeting, said that with the powerful integrity credentials of President Buhari and a fearless and dogged anti-corruption fighter like Magu, Nigeria is indeed luckier at this point in the nations history.

The coalition called on all patriotic Nigerian stakeholders to sustain the fierce war on corruption by giving their unflinching support to President Buhari and the EFCC as an institution of public service.

It also said it plans to organise a one million man march soon, in solidarity with the president and the EFCC, during which we shall present a special medal of honour to the chairman and operatives of the EFCC in Abuja.

Northern groups members that attended the meeting include, Daniel Magaji of Northern Accountability Front, Hadiza Bukar of Arewa Gender Promotion Campaign, Sani Idris of United Front Against Corrupt Practices and Reuben Magaji of Youth for Transparency Initiative.
The absence of the defence counsel on Friday stalled the arraignment, on fresh charges, of suspected kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike (a.k.a Evans) before an Igbosere High Court in Lagos.

The Lagos State Government had brought a fresh five-count charge bordering on conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping and attempted murder against Evans and three others.

The case is before Justice Adedayo Akintoye.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the arraignment was first stalled on November 13 because Evanss counsel was not served with the fresh information.

Also, one of the three persons charged along with Evans had no legal representation.

The three people are Emeka Joseph, Linus Okpara and Victor Aduba.

When the case came up on Friday, the prosecution counsel, Titilayo Shitta-Bey, prayed for an adjournment.

This matter is for arraignment of the defendants; unfortunately due to the absence of Evans counsel, Mr. Olukoya Ogungbeje, I dont think it will be possible.

Ogungbeje just brought a letter to the court this morning stating that he is at the Court of Appeal and asking for a stand-down of the matter till noon.

We dont know when he will be here; even when he comes, the third defendants counsel, Mr. Jude Igbanoi, is new to this matter and will need time to familiarise himself with the proof of evidence.

I, therefore, ask the court for a short adjournment, Ms. Shitta-Bey said.

All the defendants counsel did not object to the application for adjournment.

Igbanoi, who is representing the third defendant, Okpara, had earlier informed the court that he was new to the case and would need time to familiarise himself with the proof of evidence.

The judge adjourned the case to January 22, 2018 for hearing.

The alleged kidnap kingpin was arrested on June 10.

Evans was in August arraigned before Justice Hakeem Oshodi at an Ikeja High Court over kidnapping.

He has also been arraigned before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of Igbosere High Court, Lagos.

(NAN)
The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, on Friday warned drivers, especially commercial drivers, against night journeys due to its grievous consequences, if anything goes wrong.

The FRSC Commander for Ozalla Unit Command in Enugu State, Austin Ekele, gave the advice while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu.

Mr. Ekele was speaking on the sidelines of the Ember months rush, during which most commercial bus drivers exploit passengers to make more money.

He noted that if a vehicle develops a fault or an accident occurs at night, it would be difficult to get immediate help to rescue the situation, unlike the quick response that could be available during the day time.

The unit commander emphasised that there should be no compromise on the use of quality tyres, saying that the lifespan of any tyre was four years, whether in use or not.

So, drivers, especially commercial drivers, should assist us by ensuring that they buy genuine and usable tyres, in order to stem tyre bursts and the accompanying accidents, he said.

The commander also advised commercial drivers not to be in a hurry while making any journey, cautioning that: Do not allow passengers to push you to be in a hurry or drive speedily.

As a driver, you have your family, relatives and friends awaiting your return at the end of the day..

According to him, drivers should take time to rest and recover from an extensive driving period, before hitting the road again.

Commercial drivers should desist from taking stimulants while driving but learn to park and either rest or sleep, if they felt tired while on a journey, he said.

On developments in his unit, Mr. Ekele said the unit command had been organising proactive sensitisations against reckless driving, ahead of the ember months.

Before now, we have taken sensitization to a lot of motor parks, churches and communities in our jurisdiction, which has helped to reduce incidences of road accidents in the area.

I appeal to drivers, especially commercial drivers, plying the Enugu  Port Harcourt Road to co-operate with FRSC personnel, as they carry out enforcement meant to make the road safe and secure during the ember months, he added.

(NAN)
A former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has congratulated the newly sworn-in president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mr. Obasanjo, in a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday, said he has no doubt that the new president will execute the responsibilities of office with the great political acumen that he is noted for.

Your world-acclaimed experience in business and legal profession, I am convinced, will be an asset to be utilised effectively and efficiently to take Zimbabwe out of political and economic doldrums that have imposed a heavy toll on the Southern African nation of 16 million and thus bring about an accelerated development of Zimbabwes economy and global economy at large, Mr Obasanjo wrote.

At the moment, Zimbabwe needs the cooperation of the continent of Africa and cooperation of her friends outside the continent for the advancement of the economic fortunes of your great people and country.

I am, therefore, of the strong conviction that the excellent relations between Nigeria and Zimbabwe will also benefit and blossom under your leadership.

The South African President, Jacob Zuma, has also congratulated Mr. Mnangagwa.

Mr. Zuma said that he hoped Mr. Mnangagwa would steer his country successfully through the transition from Robert Mugabes rule.

Mr. Zumas comments were the first he has made in public since Mr. Mnangagwa emerged as the new leader of Zimbabwe following a military intervention against Mugabe.

He made them at talks with Angolan President Joao Lourenco in South Africas capital Pretoria.

Mr. Lourenco was paying a state visit to South Africa that had been previously scheduled. The two leaders did not attend Mr. Mnangagwas inauguration in Harare.

Also, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), an intergovernmental organisation, said on Friday that it was ready to work closely with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government.

SADC is a 16-country intergovernmental organisation which is currently chaired by Mr. Zuma.

Mr. Mnangagwa was sworn in as Zimbabwe president amidst cheers by thousands who gathered at the stadium on Friday.

The former president, Robert Mugabe, resigned on Tuesday, ending a 37-year rule that was characterised by political and economic chaos.

Mr. Mnangagwa, who was vice president, was earlier sacked by Mr. Mugabe early November for being disloyal.

Mr. Mugabe was removed from office following a dramatic chain of events that began on November 15 when military chiefs took control of state television to announce their intervention in the political crisis that had engulfed the ruling Zanu-PF.

Mr. Mugabe, 93, who has asked to be allowed to die peacefully in Zimbabwe, was absent at Fridays inauguration.
Top members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have reacted to the news of former Vice President Atiku Abubakars exit from the All Progressive Congress, APC.

Mr. Abubakar, a founding member of the PDP in 1998, defected from APC on Friday.

In a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday, Mr. Abubakar who gave reasons for his action, stated that the split of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, into factions served as the major reason for his exit from the then ruling party.

REACTIONS:

In his reaction, a former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, congratulated Mr. Abubakar.

Congrats to @atiku for dumping the plague called APC and coming back home to the PDP family. It took courage to take that bold step and I commend him for it, the Osun-born PDP politician said on Twitter,

For Reno Omokri, an aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Abubakars exit from the ruling party was already causing jitters.

On the same day that @Atiku resigned from the APC, President Buhari sets up a committee to increase the minimum wage. Coincidence or signs that the President is jittery over his impending 2019 defeat and wants to bribe Nigerians with a salary increase? Mr. Omokri said on his Twitter handle.

For PDP senator, Ben Bruce, Mr. Abubakars decision was a courageous one.

I congratulate @Atiku for leaving the APC. It took courage especially as he has wide business investments that are already targets and could be further targeted. I, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, now appeal to Waziri Adamawa, to return to the house he helped build, the PDP, he said on his official Twitter handle.

Congrats to @atiku for dumping the plague called APC and coming back home to the PDP family. It took courage to take that bold step and I commend him for it.  Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) November 24, 2017

On the same day that @Atiku resigned from the APC, President Buhari sets up a committee to increase the minimum wage. Coincidence or signs that the President is jittery over his impending 2019 defeat and wants to bribe Nigerians with a salary increase?  Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) November 24, 2017

I congratulate @Atiku for leaving the APC. It took courage especially as he has wide business investments that are already targets and could be further targeted. I, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, now appeal to Waziri Adamawa, to return to the house he helped build, the PDP.  Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) November 24, 2017
President Muhammadu Buhari has urged religious movements to assist African countries rid themselves of the scourge of corruption.

Speaking at the State House on Friday while receiving the Grand Khalifa of Tijjaniyya Islamic Movement Worldwide, Muhammadul-Kabir, the President also enjoined such movements to work for the cementing of our continental relationships and peaceful coexistence.

Mr. Buhari commended the movements commitment to spiritual cleansing.

According to him, while the evil of material corruption seeks to undermine the dignity and worldly existence of man, moral and spiritual corruption seek to destroy man and condemn him to perpetual punishment by his Creator.
A professor of Law at the University of Lagos, Ayodele Atsenuwa, has said that most of the funds allegedly stolen under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan were money recovered from late Nigerias dictator, Sani Abacha.

Speaking Friday in Abuja at a conference on Tracking Noxious Funds organised by the MacArthur Foundation and Kent Law School, Mrs. Atsenuwa advocated a more transparent way in handling loots recovered from corrupt Nigerians.

From what we are seeing now, adequate steps need to be taken to address the issue of top government officials re-looting recovered loots, she said.

The senate ad-hoc committee set up to investigate the controversial reinstatement of former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdul-Rasheed Maina, had on Thursday accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of allegedly sharing 222 houses recovered by the pension reform team headed by Mr. Maina.

Mrs. Atsenuwa added that Nigerian law is against the whistle blower policy initiated by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The Nigerian law is against paying someone who blows whistle, she said.

Speaking earlier at the opening ceremony of the conference on Thursday, the Executive Secretary of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, Bolaji Owasanoye, said as at October 2017, over 5000 whistles had been blown since the introduction of the whistle blower initiative in the country.

Speaking on a topic: Law and Practice of the Whistle Blower Policy of Nigeria; Scope of Citizens Participation, he said citizens have the responsibility to ensure that governments act rightly.

Mr. Owasanoye said the whistle blower initiative was also designed to improve government revenues, adding that officials of the government agencies involved in the implementation of the policy would not benefit from the reward for the whistle blowers to encourage the citizens.

Also at the event, acting EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, expressed hope that the conference would come up with more ideas that would aid the fight against corruption.

Also speaking at the opening ceremony, human rights activist, Femi Falana, said failure on the part of government to arrest the former Director-General of State Security Service, Ita Ekpeyong, and a former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke, who had refused to report for questioning over corruption allegations, would send a wrong signal.

Mr. Falana said the two ex-government officials could be prosecuted for resisting arrest after the anti-graft body had obtained a warrant of arrest, citing the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act which barred any move to frustrate the rule of law.

The SSS last week prevented the EFCC from arresting Mr. Ekpeyong, and the NIA also protected Mr. Oke.

While Mr. Ekpenyong was invited by the EFCC about two weeks ago in respect of an investigation into the procurement of arms and equipment by the agency he once headed, Mr. Oke was invited for questioning in connection to the $43.4 million found in an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos.

The EFCC and the SSS have been at loggerheads on various fronts since the inception of the Buhari administration.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court on Friday ordered the remand of the daughter-in-law of a former Peoples Democratic Party chairman, Haliru Bello, for allegedly killing her husband.

The court said Maryam Sanda, who had been in police custody since the deadly stabbing of her husband on Sunday, be transferred to a prison custody.

Bilyaminu Haliru-Bello died shortly after the attack, police said.

Police filed a two-count charge of murder against Mrs. Sanda, making a case for the death penalty.

On Friday, Mrs. Sanda was arraigned before Justice Yusuf Halilu, who refused an oral application for bail by her lawyer, Husseini Musa.

The case was adjourned till December 7 for further hearing.

Mrs. Sanda, the daughter of a former Aso Savings boss, Maimuna Aliyu, had been married to Mr. Haliru-Bello, whose father is also a former minister, two years before the attack.

The charges against her as follows:

That you Maryam Sanda: female adult of number 4 pakali close wuse 2 Abuja on or about 19/11/2017 at about 03: 50 hours, within the Abuja Judicial Division did commit the offence of culpable homicide: punishable with death. In that you caused the death of one Bilyaminu Bello Haliru: male adult of number 4 Pakali Close wuse Zone 2 Abuja by stabbing him on the chest with a broken bottle, which eventually led to his death: and you did so with the knowledge that your act is likely to course his death, you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 221 of the penal code law.

That you Maryam Sanda female, adult of number 4 Pakali Close Wuse 2 Abuja, on or about 19/11/2017 at about 03:50 hours, within the Abuja Judicial Division did commit the offence of causing grievous hurt. In that you stabbed one Bilyaminu Bello Haliru, male adult of number 4 pakali close wuse zone 2 Abuja, with a broken bottle on the neck, thereby endangering his life. You thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 240 and punishable under section 247 of the Penal code law.
A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim, is still in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, his lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, said on Friday.

Mr. Ozekhome in a statement said media reports that his client has been released by the anti-graft agency is false as EFCC still kept him in detention despite meeting bail conditions.

The former Senate President was brought in by for questioning by EFCC on November 16 for his role in the alleged mismanagement of ecological fund while serving as SGF.

One week after his arrest, there were reports that Mr. Anyim has been released on the condition that he reports to EFCC every two weeks after meeting his bail conditions.

Mr. Ozekhome however faulted the media reports on Friday saying they were pushed out to deceive the world.

We are solicitors to Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, former Secretary to the Government of the federation, who was detained by EFCC and has since been kept in its gulag for about nine days, Mr. Ozekhome said.

Our attention has been drawn to the carefully planted false and misleading reports published in various online and newsprint media to the effect that Anyim has since Wednesday, 22nd November, 2017, been released by the commission on administrative bail. This is a blunt lie from the pit of hell. Those reports which credit their source on unnamed sources which EFCC have incessantly used to circulate fake news Thursday and Friday, with the intention to deceive the world and divert its attention from the gross abuse of the fundamental rights of the former SGF who has been kept under inhuman and degrading conditions for this unconstitutionally length period.

The lawyer urged the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to prevail on EFFC, which is yet to officially speak on the arrest, to effect the release of Mr. Anyim.

The truth is that Anyim is still being held in EFCC custody till this moment, in spite of fulfilling all administrative bail conditions laid out for him, including deposit of his international passport and being compelled, under duress and undue influence to sign all manners of self-incriminating and property stripping documents against his will.

In spite of this and the clear provisions of section 35 and 36 of the Nigerian constitution and the Administration of Criminal justice act (ACJA), the EFCC has bluntly refused to release Anyim to go and attend to his very poor health over which he was receiving treatment before he was forcefully taken away from his home. We therefore call upon the Attorney-General of the federation and Minister of justice to prevail on EFCC (and law enforcement agencies), to respect the rule of law and the constitution they have sworn to protect and defend by promptly ordering Anyims release, since no charges have been levelled against him and since he has fulfilled all administrative bail conditions.

The EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, could not been reached as at press time as calls put through his line went unanswered.
Here are the highlights from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's question-and-answer session with Rajdeep Sardesai at the India Today Conclave East 2017.

By Malini Banerjee: Day 1 of India Today East's Conclave saw a riveting Q&A with West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai.

Highlights from the session:

Bengal's been ranked third in the ease of doing business and the Kanyasree scheme has been feted worldwide. Is there such a thing as the Bengal model for development? Then how come people only talk about Gujarat?

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That's politics for you. Don't do politics here. Gujarat has its own sociological, political, geographical, economic history. They have a lower population and a higher area. Bengal is a geographical gateway to all of the east but it has been neglected from the beginning. Gujarat has 42 ports we have two and we cant even as for one more. Array haq humara bhi hai. Bengal is the cultural capital. Bengal started the renaissance.

But the current government is stressing on corporate federalism....

There is no corporate federalism. In fact they are actually asking the industrialists to not to go to Bengal. But they are coming because every industrialist is under threat. Everyone is under the scanner. All media is under scanner. Most media cannot raise its voice. I have never seen this kind of attitude and arrogance in my 23 years in parliament. They dare question me also and ask me why said xyz. I said its my political right.

But you're speaking without restriction here and it's being aired...

They don't know what I will say here says with a smile (applause)

On Narendra Modi

Sometimes I think he has no courtesy. On stage with Sheikh Hasina he did not even smile. I don't know, maybe he's reserved.

Are you the principal opponent to Modi?

No we raise our voice for people. I protest on issues that affect the common people.

Is the enemy's enemy your friend. As the voice of secularism in Bengal you met Udham Parekh of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra...

I keep good relation everywhere. Even when they were with the BJP they were with me when we were protesting the demonetisation. That's why I remembered them.

Whether BJP is her main adversary, regionally

Bengal is my homeland. I was born here and I will die here. They have one seat against our 99. They believe in danga badi. But divide and rule doesn't work here in this land of Vivekananda and Tagore.

On criticism for minority appeasement

Ask the audience here if I promote the cause of one community over the other. (show of hands and there are rousing cheers) We don't set the dates for the programmes. It's decided according to the cycles of the moon. If we Ganpati immersion and muharram on the same day I can guarantee Mumbai will not be able to handle it. I am very proud that in Kolkata we can because our people are tolerant. How can I care for my brothers and not my sister? I am here for everyone and not just individuals.

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On West Bengal's debt

I believe we will manage. We have a huge legacy of debt thanks to CPM misrule. But there is hope. We have doubled our earnings. We will manage. I have requested restructure so many times. We have introduced so many schemes like Kanyasree and tree plantation scheme for newborns where once your child is grown you get the worth of a tree. That's almost 4 lakhs.

On her favourite inspirational characters from Bengal

Netaji's Taruner Sapno and Vivekananda's Call To The Nation

Complete India Today Conclave East 2017 coverage

WATCH | India Today Conclave East 2017: Mamata Banerjee lashes out at PM Modi, calls him Tughlaq

--- ENDS ---
The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, on Friday reacted to the exit of former vice president Atiku Abubakar from Nigerias ruling party, APC.

Mr. El-Rufai, a leader of the APC, spoke after the Friday Jumat prayer at the mosque in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Mr. Abubakar on Friday announced that he was leaving the APC. He did not say the party he was going to join, although he is expected to run for president on the platform of the opposition PDP.

The former vice president and Mr. El-Rufai have in the past had a public spat over issues of corruption and loyalty.

While answering reporters questions on Friday, Mr. El-Rufai said Mr. Abubakar was not driven out of the APC.

Read the full details of questions asked Mr. El-Rufai and his answers below.

Q: How do you feel that Atiku has left the party that you are in together?

El-Rufai: Well, I wont even say we were in the APC together. Some of us formed the APC, some of them joined because they thought that the APC was a platform for which they will contest election but when they didnt get the opportunity they started looking around.

I have heard about what the former Vice President said about leaving the APC. We knew he was going to leave in December but he has left in November which is good because the earlier he leaves for where he belongs, the better. He has changed political parties a few times, there is nothing surprising. Before the 2019 elections if situation changes and he thinks he can get the ticket in 2019 he will come back. That is what he has done a few times.

Q: Some are saying you people have driven him out of the party?

El-Rufai: No one has driven him out of the party, the APC is an equal opportunity platform for everyone. He has in his statement of leaving the party made reference to the memo I wrote to Mr. President in September 2016, where I was calling on the President to reach out to party leaders that feel aggrieved and I mentioned him, the Asiwaju and many others. The others are still in the APC because they believe in the direction of the party, they believe we have come to save the country from a very bad situation. But the former Vice President is always looking for an opportunity to contest. He is a serial contestant and we wish him luck.

Q: Some Nigerians are saying that some members of your party loyal to him might go with him. How do you react?

El-Rufai: I dont know about the loyalists in the APC that will go with him but I want to assure you that there is no one governor in the APC that is going to go with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The only governor that he would think will go with him, the governor of Adamawa State has already endorsed President Buhari for the 2019 elections. And there are many governors I will not mention the number but a majority of the APC governors have already taken the position that the president should run for a second term in office. And we are grateful to the Almighty God that the question marks about his health have been put to rest, he is getting better every day and we are confident that the way to preserve our party and preserve and advance the interest of Nigeria is for Mr. President to run for a second term. Im curious to see which APC governor will go with Atiku. As for party loyalists it depends on what you defend as loyalists. We will wait and see how that evolves.

But as a governor I want to assure you that not one governor is going to leave the party to go with the former Vice President. That I am sure of. I can speak authoritatively about it because Im in touch with my colleagues.

Q: Dont you see him as a threat in the event the PDP gives him the ticket and he runs against the President?

El-Rufai: He has never been and will never be a threat to President Buhari. Let me say this very clearly, and I have said this to the former Vice President in 2014 Dubai when we met. Because before joining the APC, he sent for me. He told me of his intentions and I welcomed it because politics is a game of addition not subtraction. So the more you have the merrier.

However, I told him not to run for the presidency because I believe very strongly this is Buharis era. As long as President Muhammadu Buhari is in politics I do not see any Nigerian from the northern part of the country that will be able to match him in popularity. The people of the 19 northern states and Nigeria have decided because of the presidents past history of Integrity and good governance they are committed to him. Anyone standing up to challenge him is wasting his time. God has decreed that this is Buharis time and we are waiting for the PDP to give Atiku Abubakar the ticket and we will face him on the field. But I have no doubt that I will not lose any sleep about it.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, has reacted to Atiku Abubakars decision to leave the party. The ruling party said Mr. Abubakars exit was informed by his personal political interest, a calculation the party understands.

The former vice president found that his interests would be better served elsewhere and he decided based on that, partys spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Friday afternoon.

Mr. Abubakar, vice president from 1999-2007, announced his exit from the APC Friday morning, railing against what he described as the partys shortcomings in the area of internal democracy and social co-existence.

He said the APC has failed to deliver on its promises to Nigerians who have long been desperate for improved economic interventions.

Mr. Abubakar, a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party, joined the APC in early 2014, barely a few months after the party was established to challenge the then ruling PDP.

On Friday, he did not immediately say which party hell move to next, but suggestions are rife that he has concluded plans to join the PDP.

Mr. Abubakars move has drawn mixed reactions from Nigerians.

The APC welcomed the development, although the party lamented the loss of one of its most formidable political heavyweights.

No party would be happy to see its leaders depart, but politics is all about interest, Mr. Abdullahi said.

The APC said the development calls for some reflections.

While it is true that weve lost some politicians, weve also been having incomers, Mr. Abdullahi said. But it would help us to look internally and address areas that require attention.
The Wole Soyinka Centre For Investigative Journalism, WSCIJ, on Friday honoured female journalists who were part of its Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship Programme.

The award and appreciation programme, which saw the best three fellows receive special prizes, held at the Central Business District, CBD, GRA, Ikeja.

The Leadership Fellowship, supported by the Free Press Unlimited, was designed to empower female journalists with the skills, finesse, support and tools to take bold steps that help position them for the highest leadership roles in their various media houses.

According to the organisation, the initiative, which is a part of the WSCIJ Report Women programme, is helping to mobilise a network of female journalists that are oriented for leadership as well as create a train-the-trainer team who better appreciate the importance of mainstreaming gender in news.

The pilot exposure included a three-day training, three-month mentorship, a fair-share as well as leadership and story fellowship projects for 15 fellows spanning over six months.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Motunrayo Alaka, the programme director at the centre, explained that the media is like a magic mirror which reflects the society. Mrs. Alaka explained that the media also has the capacity to go into that mirror and make changes as it can set agenda, narratives and frame perspectives.

The media itself has its own challenges and one of those things is the gender issues, she explained.

In management position, it is a 9-1 ratio in many media houses; many media houses dont have women in their management (cadre). So how does the media set agenda for gender balance when it does not live gender balance?

The programme is meant to help the media become what it wants the society to become. The media must be able to walk the path that they are preaching and we want to help the media set the agenda. There is an imbalance in leadership, she said.

She, however, added that the project was not meant to promote matriarchy but to sensitise the media on imbalance in the different structures across newsrooms.

This is not a women-take-over initiative; not a move from patriarchy to matriarchy but to address the imbalance in leadership in the media (but) to address how the media write stories  political and social  to reflect society and shape the narrative, she reiterated.

The highlight of the event was the presentation of certificates to the participants, including awards to three of them.

Meanwhile, Bunmi Yekinni, a reporter with Radio 1, emerged second runner-up in the programme. She was awarded a cash prize of N100,000. Juliana Francis, a crime reporter with New Telegraph newspapers emerged the runner-up and was awarded a cash prize of N150,000 while Olufunke Fayemi of Voice of Nigeria, VON, emerged overall winner and was awarded a cash prize of N200,000. All of the three outstanding fellows were given a laptop computer each.

In her remarks, veteran broadcaster, Bimbo Oloyede, advised the fellows to remain outstanding journalists and role models to young females in their respective capacities.

Similarly, the resource persons who took the fellows through the three-month programme  Lekan Otufodunrin, Online Editor at The Nation Newspapers; Nneka Okekearu of Pan-Atlantic University; and Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi also admonished the participants to maximize the opportunity offered them by the centre through the training.
On November 1 in Halifax, Canada, renowned Premium Times Columnist, Pius Adesanmi, was officially awarded the 2017 Board of Directors Leadership Award of the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE).

The High Commissioners of Nigeria and South Africa to Canada were in Halifax to share the professors moment.

The award ceremony was the highpoint of the CBIEs 2017 Annual Conference and was attended by close to 1000 delegates from Canadian Universities and other higher education stakeholder sectors. Mr. Adesanmis award is in recognition of the impact of his work in postgraduate research capacity development in African Universities, notably in Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa.

For nearly a decade, Mr. Adesanmi has worked in African countries to groom the next generation of researchers in the humanities and the social sciences by training PhDs, postdocs, and early-career lecturers in interdisciplinary conversations and methodology. He has served for five years as faculty and consultant to the University of Ghanas Pan-African Doctoral Academy, an annual summer school for doctoral students from the West and East African subregions.

During his sabbatical in Ghana in 2013-2014, he designed a brand new PhD programme in African Thought for the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. He is also the Associate Director of the Abiola Irele School of Theory and Criticism, an annual summer training school for Nigerian lecturers at the Kwara State University. In South Africa, he works with the University of Johannesburg and Wits University to train and mentor doctoral and postdoctoral students in interdisciplinary research methods.

In 2010, Mr. Adesanmi won the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing with his book, Youre Not a Country, Africa. The Penguin Prize was initiated by Penguin Books in conjunction with Chinua Achebe. Mr. Adesanmi is the Director of Carleton Universitys Institute of African Studies, the only such Institute in any Canadian University.

See photos below:
Some hunters from Gur village in Biu Local Government Area of Borno in conjunction with hunters from Damaturu on Thursday intercepted suspected Boko Haram cattle rustlers and killed one of them.

The Army spokesman, Sani Usman, said in a statement on Friday that the encounter took place at Burashika village in Biu.

Mr. Usman said the hunters recovered one AK-47 rifle mounted with magazine of two rounds and 48 cows, 58 goats, 36 sheep and 12 donkeys.

He added that the recovered livestock had been handed over to security operatives in Gur village, pending identification by their rightful owners and handover.

(NAN)
Three officers of the Nigerian Customs Service in Ogun State were on Thursday taken to a hospital with injuries after an attack by suspected smugglers.

The Area Commander of the service in the state, Sanni Madugu, made this known to journalists at the Idiroko headquarters of the command. He said the wounded officers were still on admittance in the hospital at the time of this report.

Mr. Madugu said the smugglers were attempting to evade arrest after being caught with smuggled goods along the Idiroko border town.

He, however, declared that in spite of the resistance of the smugglers, a number of the goods were seized.

They were using stones to attack us and we didnt want to engage them with gun, to avoid casualty of innocent people. They broke the windscreen, damaged our vehicles and wounded our officers, Mr. Magudu narrated

He said the goods seized from the smugglers include seven vehicles, among which was a brand new Toyota Hilux pick up van he said was hidden in a bush to avoid seizure.

The customs boss added that 1,500 bags of rice were also seized, stating that about nine vehicles were used to smuggle the items.
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 PTI: eastern coastline

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) A first-of-its-kind multi-state mega mock exercise on tsunami preparedness was carried out today along the entire eastern coastline of India.

The simulation exercises were conducted in 35 coastal districts of West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry to assess and improve the early warning and response mechanism to mitigate the impact of a high-intensity tsunami, a home ministry statement said.

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Representatives from 11 Pacific Island countries observed the exercise for key lessons and best practices to be adopted while preparing for and responding to a disaster situation.

The exercise was conducted by the home ministry through National Disaster Management Authority and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services.

The exercise scenario depicted a high intensity quake near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at around 0930 hours and within moments, the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), INCOIS, issued a massive tsunami threat notification for the eastern coast through e-mails, fax and SMSs.

It also put out detailed bulletins on its website as part of the mock exercise.

A two-hour reaction time was notified within which the entire state machinery needed to be mobilised so as to efficiently respond to the situation in a manner which reduces the impact of the tsunami.

As part of the exercise, in less than half an hour, the state emergency operation centres (SEOCs) were activated.

Besides mobilising the state machinery to respond and public warnings were sent out to the communities. Evacuation instructions were issued, rescue teams were formed under incident commanders and kept at standby in the staging areas, the statement said.

The evacuation drills were conducted in coordination with various agencies, such as traffic control, fire fighting department, ambulances, police, coast guards, civil defence and community stakeholders.

Post the simulated landfall of the tsunami, damage assessment was carried out at the SEOCs on the basis of information received from affected districts and first-hand information by air sorties, both fixed wings and helicopters.

This helped the administration in prioritising the response and dispatching the appropriate task forces to the affected sites.

Their participation was part of a training programme meant for enhancing their ability to improve the preparedness of their organisations to reduce disaster risks, especially for tsunami, it said. PTI ACB ASK ASK MVV

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TORONTO, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Graham G. Clow, Chairman, is pleased to announce the appointment of Arthur G. Graham, MBA, P.Eng., as Vice President, Corporate Development (New York), Avakash Patel, P.Eng., as Vice President, Metallurgy (Toronto), and Grant Malensek, P.Eng./P.Geo., as Principal Engineer  Valuations (Denver).

With over 37 years of experience as a financial institution mining expert with experience in operations, project development and business development, Art Graham will lead the continued growth of RPA's New York office. Prior to joining RPA, Mr. Graham was the Managing Director of Kingsteps Mining Advisory, LLC (Kingsteps) where he provided risk assessment and project evaluation services to capital providers and financing advice and corporate development guidance to companies in the mining sector. Prior to joining Kingsteps, Mr. Graham held senior mining finance positions with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Citigroup, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Behre Dolbear Capital, Bankers Trust, and the Bank of Nova Scotia. Mr. Graham's project evaluation experience includes over 150 projects and mine sites covering 15 different commodities in 20 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Australasia and central Asia.

Avakash (Akoo) Patel joins RPA with over 24 years of senior professional experience, including 15 years in operations and nine years in consulting and construction. Prior to joining RPA, Mr. Patel was Corporate Manager  Mineral Processing and Metallurgy for Kinross Gold Corporation (Kinross) where he was responsible for process leadership on operations and capital projects from scoping studies, testing programs, feasibility studies, to construction and EPCM projects. Prior to joining Kinross, Mr. Patel held senior positions with two large engineering firms. Mr. Patel's experience includes project management, mineral processing, extractive, hydro, and pyrometallurgy, capital projects, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate development. Mr. Patel will be based in RPA's Toronto office.

Grant Malensek is a Geological Engineer with over 20 years' experience preparing project finance models, mineral property valuations, and valuations for the international arbitrations in the mining industry. Prior to joining RPA, Mr. Malensek was a Mineral Project Evaluation Consultant for a consulting firm where he carried out fatal flaw, due diligence and Independent Engineer reviews for equity and project financings. Earlier in his career, Mr. Malensek spent 10 years as a mineral exploration/development geologist for several major mining firms in Canada, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, USA, and Peru. Mr. Malensek's consulting experience includes scoping level to feasibility studies, capital cost estimates and reviews, mine strategy, and options analysis and project evaluations in connection with mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Malensek will be based in RPA's Denver office.

RPA has been providing independent geological and mining consulting services to the international minerals industry for over 30 years from offices in Toronto, London, New York, Denver, Vancouver, and Quebec City. The company recently celebrated 10 years of serving the UK and European markets from its City of London office.

Through the strength and experience of its team, RPA has gained a worldwide reputation for independent, innovative, and practical advice on investments, project development, and operations at all stages, in all mineral commodities.

www.rpacan.com

SOURCE Roscoe Postle Associates Inc.
SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Huntkey, a leading global power solution's provider, will have the craziest deals on Amazon in 2017 for Black Friday.

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https://en.huntkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/SMD307.jpg

About Huntkey

Huntkey, founded in 1995 and headquartered in Shenzhen, is a member of The International Power Supply Manufacturer's Association (PSMA) and a member of The China Power Supply Society (CPSS). With branch companies in the USA, Japan and other areas, and cooperating factories in Brazil, Argentina, India and other countries, Huntkey has specialized in the development, design, and manufacturing of PC power supplies, industrial power supplies, surge protectors, adapters and chargers for many years. With its own technologies and manufacturing strength, Huntkey has served Lenovo, Huawei, Haier, DELL, ZTE, Bestbuy and many other large enterprises for years, and has received unanimous recognition and trust from most of its customers.

For more information about Huntkey, please visit:

http://en.huntkey.com/

http://www.facebook.com/HuntkeyDIY/

Contact:

Ferris Liao

+86-755-8960-6658

[email protected]

SOURCE Huntkey

Related Links

http://en.huntkey.com


By PTI: hearts: Rahul

Sanand, Nov 24 (PTI) Slamming Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani for reportedly not accepting a giant tricolour made by Dalits citing lack of space, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today said he would have accepted even a 50,000 km-long national flag even if he had little space to keep it.

The Congress vice president also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rupani have space in their hearts only for a few industrialists, but not Dalits, farmers and poor.

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Gandhi was addressing a gathering of Dalits at Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), a vocational training institute near Sanand town in Ahmedabad district, where he accepted a 125 x 83.3 feet tricolour weighing 240 kg.

The national flag was earlier meant to be presented to Rupani. In August, the DSK had even carried the tricolour to Gandhinagar. However, officials at the collectorate had allegedly refused to accept it citing lack of space.

"This flag is not yours alone, but belongs to the entire country. He (Rupani) said he has no place to keep the flag. Even if you gave me a 15 km or 50,000 km-long flag, and even if I had one inch space to keep it, I would have taken it," Gandhi said.

"Like you, I have a huge space in my heart for this flag. It is the mindset of the BJP chief ministers or the prime minister that they have no space for this flag or your hard work. But they have the entire Gujarat for 5-10 industrialists, who can get any amount of space they want in Gujarat or across India," Gandhi said.

He said the prime minister or Gujarat chief minister had no space for Dalits, farmers, poor and small businessmen.

Gandhi attacked Modi and Rupani over the Una Dalit flogging incident. He also assailed the prime minister over the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula at the University of Hyderabad (UoH).

On the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit organsied by the state government, he said the state is vibrant only for "5-7 industrialists of Modiji" and not farmers, tribals, poor, or Dalits.

He said the Congress wants to eradicate untouchability from not just one village, but from the mind of every Indian. Gandhi said that was also the goal of B R Ambedkar.

The members of DSK said the tricolour was made by Dalits, who also donated money to raise Rs 54,000 for it.

They said Gandhi wants the national flag gifted to him to be kept at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum in New Delhi. PTI KA PD NP SK

--- ENDS ---
As part of its market preparation measures, Borgward Group AG cooperated with TUV Rheinland to have a crash test conducted today at an NCAP-certified crash lab. In an offset frontal crash that was conducted according to Euro NCAP requirements, the premiere model for the German market did well across the board as it sped at 64 km/h into a deformable barrier with a 40 percent overlap. The deceleration values for the two adult dummies (in the driver's and front passenger seats) and for the two child dummies on the rear bench seat were mostly in the non-critical range. The interaction between the front deformation zone with its three load paths on driver and co-driver side, on the one hand, and the high stability of the passenger compartment and the passive restraint systems, on the other, ensures a high level of safety and keeps the risk of injury for all of the vehicle's occupants low. Commenting on the crash tests, Dr. Tilo Schweers, Chief Developer of Borgward Group AG, emphasized the effectiveness of the comprehensive Borgward B-Safe safety system. "Occupant protection has top priority during the development of our vehicles such as the BX7," he said. "The results of the first crash test in a neutral, certified lab in Europe demonstrate that we are on the right track in this area. This positive impression will be confirmed by the additional crash tests we have planned."

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/610199/Borgward_Group_BX7.jpg )



At the end of 2017, Borgward Group AG will enter the German market, where it will initially offer a limited-edition vehicle series. The series will not be subject to the full Euro NCAP crash testing program with its star ratings, because the Brussels-based Euro NCAP agency conducts this program only for model series that are produced in unlimited numbers.

B-Safe for maximum safety

Thanks to its comprehensive B-Safe safety concept, the Borgward BX7 meets all the requirements for providing its occupants with the highest possible level of safety. Active safety systems can help to prevent accidents by detecting potential dangers in advance. Moreover, thanks to the vehicle's structure and the restraint systems, the SUV has the potential to achieve outstanding results in international crash ratings.

The body contains a very stable passenger compartment and defined deformation zones at the front and rear that form a reliable basis for a high level of occupant protection. In addition, critical body segments are reinforced with high-strength, ultra-high-strength or hot-formed steel. Multiple load paths distribute impact energy in the event of a frontal, side or rear collision, thus ensuring that the deceleration values-to which the passive safety systems are precisely matched-are as evenly balanced as possible.

The passive safety systems provide maximum protection for the vehicle occupants. To respond to the various types of crashes (front, side, and rear collisions), the vehicle is equipped with seatbelt systems and a range of additional features including six airbags, which are activated in accordance with the severity of an accident and can comprehensively mitigate the effects of a crash on the occupants. The vehicle has airbags for the driver and the front passenger, side airbags for the driver and the front passenger, and curtain airbags. To ensure that these passive safety systems are only activated when absolutely necessary, the B-Safe concept of the Borgward BX7 encompasses many preventive driver assistance systems for avoiding accidents. These systems include a blind spot warning system and a fatigue warning system.

Other systems such as the 360 omnidirectional camera make handling the Borgward BX7 even more comfortable and help to prevent minor accidents, especially in complex situations. They make parallel and perpendicular parking a breeze and enable drivers to maneuver with great precision through tight parking garages and low-visibility terrain.



Further information

BORGWARD GROUP AG

Axel Lengert

Director of Product Communication

Tel.: +49(0)711-36510-1045

e-mail: [email protected]

http://www.borgward.com

SOURCE Borgward Group AG
MIAMI, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Chappaquiddick Speaks by Bill Pinney, an in-depth study of all old and new evidence in the tragic 1969 incident involving Senator Edward Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne is now available through all online booksellers, Barnes & Noble, independent bookstores and public libraries everywhere.

ISBN: 9780692943762  Paperback List Retail: $19.95

Cover image

ISBN: 9780692981719  Enhanced e-book List Retail: $14.99

About the book:

The Chappaquiddick incident of 1969 has been called "the most discussed traffic accident in history" and "the most brilliant cover-up ever achieved in a nation where investigative procedures are well-developed and where the principles of equal justice prevail." It is considered one of the great, unsolved mysteries of 20th century America.

There appear to be enthusiastic attempts to resurrect Edward Kennedy's image. A new Kennedy museum at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port has a special room dedicated to Ted, our Democratic Party lauds his legacy and a new political thriller movie is in the works showing what Ted Kennedy "had to go through" in 1969. The theory these days, accepted by most, is that Kennedy was innocent of any serious wrongdoing. Either he was suffering from shock and should not be accountable for his actions, or Mary Jo drove off the bridge alone, or there was a real companion that Kennedy, his cousin, and a school friend were attempting to protect all these years through some sense of old-fashioned chivalry, to the detriment of their reputations and careers. The public indignation to the Chappaquiddick scandal, so passionate in 1969 and for a quarter century longer, seems to have all but disappeared.

Many friends implored Pinney not to write this book because of what it might do to the memory of a Great Man. "What's the point?" they asked. "Think of all the good things he did. It was just an unfortunate mistake. No one cares about Chappaquiddick now. There won't be any interest. You're a Democrat, for God's sake!" Before Bill put pen to paper, he assured family and friends that if the science did not back up the new witness' sighting, and what that sighting implied, he would abandon the effort. Bill had no wish to malign anyone's reputation if the evidence did not back up the accusation. But the forensic science and medical evidenceback up the theory most strongly.

The Chappaquiddick incident is history, and, these days, attempts to ignore the historical record, or rewrite it, rarely succeed for long. Pinney was led, by the evidence, to accept that the underlying theory as set out in this book is true. As such, the truth has merit and should be told.

About the author:

Bill Pinney was raised on Chappaquiddick and in Edgartown. He attended Columbia University in New York, graduating with a degree in philosophy in 1968. He was Editor/Publisher of The Andean Times, the English-language newspaper of Colombia, South America; Editor/Publisher of This is Ontario magazine in Canada; and a South American investigative reporter for The Sunday Times of London. His consuming interest is medieval history, with several books in the works since 1995. Bill has circumnavigated the world on his schooner, Rachel J. Slocum, and with his wife Raquel, divides his time between his boat on the high seas, historical research in England, France and home on Chappaquiddick.

Praise for Chappaquiddick Speaks

"This book is clear, compelling, and often eloquent. Bill Pinney presents a rational case, with massive amounts of evidence, in support of a little-known theory of what happened on Chappaquiddick on July 18, 1969. The book's carefully researched technical detail, excellent graphics, and lucid organization make it all the more persuasive, as does its willingness to provide both arguments and counterarguments for all theories  including its own. You will not find a more credible examination of what happened on that night."  Ed Weathers, former Senior Editor, The New York Times Magazine Group

"Dr. Rod Cross of the University of Sydney did a yeoman's job on the physics, meticulously examining the available evidence and reconstructing plausible dynamical arguments for every physical aspect of the tragic accident."  Edward S. Ginsberg, Department of Physics, UMass, Boston

"As foreman of the Dukes Grand Jury on Martha's Vineyard at the time of the 'accident,' I have read most of the books and am well-acquainted with every theory. I am familiar with the people involved. I have also experienced firsthand the cover-up that ensued. Kennedy's account was implausible, and his actions perhaps criminal. Mr. Pinney has done an admirable job researching all the evidence. His connection with Chappaquiddick has enabled him to uncover new evidence, and he has enlisted experts to examine that evidence scientifically. I find this conclusion well thought out, unbiased, plausible, and, to my mind, likely to be close to what actually occurred."  Leslie H. Leland

Media Contact:

David Ivester

Phone: 941.321.8570

Email: [email protected]

Related Files

Chappaquiddick Speaks - Sell Sheet.pdf

Related Images

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Chappaquiddick Speaks by Bill Pinney

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Author Bill Pinney

Related Links

Chappaquiddick Speaks  The Movie

SOURCE Bill Pinney
STOCKHOLM, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MeaWallet A/S ("MeaWallet"), part of Seamless Distribution AB ("Seamless"), has signed an agreement with First Investment Bank AD in Bulgaria for delivery of the Mea Token Platform.

In the spring of 2016, First Investment Bank AD was the first Bulgarian bank to launch a mobile HCE payment solution using the MeaWallet Cloud-Based Payments Platform. The bank has now decided to replace this solution with the newer and more versatile Mea Token Platform, bringing its existing banking customers even more value.

The order value of the contract is 300,000 Euro over a five-year period.

Mea Token Platform aims to be one of the most versatile platforms for mobile payments, by offering banks and other issuers a single point of integration towards multiple payment schemes (Mastercard, Visa and American Express). At the front-end the SDK can enable mobile payments in the bank's banking application, mobile wallet or other wallets like OEM Pay such as Android Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay.

Lars Sandtorv, Head of MeaWallet is both grateful and humbled as he states: "When customers return and decide to embark on another journey with us, this shows a genuine brand and product trust in addition to confidence in MeaWallet".

The Mea Token Platform provides a single API-based connection to network token service providers (such as MDES from Mastercard and VTS from Visa), and an easy-to implement mobile SDK. Mastercard has certified the MeaWallet product suite to gold level, a certification level awarded to only fifteen other companies world-wide.

This single integration point enables in-store, in-app and eCommerce payments with a smartphone, and will reduce the total cost of ownership for maintenance.

"For Fibank a versatile and open solution with which we can grow and continuously add additional functionallities for our customers is of great value. We are implementing the new product, Mea Token Platform for MDES from Mastercard and VTS from Visa, but can at a later stage expand to other areas as well. The single integration point can allow connection to areas like Masterpass for eCommerce, OEM pay and the use of wearables for payments may also be interesting possibilities in the future," says Svetoslav Moldovansky, Executive Director at Fibank.

First Investment Bank (Fibank) is one of the largest banks in Bulgaria, developing and strengthening its position as a financial group. Carrying out its main business in the Republic of Bulgaria and with regional presence through foreign operations in Cyprus and Albania. Fibank is an innovative and customer-oriented credit institution, offering a diverse range of products and services for individual and corporate clients. First Investment Bank is among the leading institutions in the Bulgaria in card business and international payments. The Bank offers its customers advanced solutions and modern banking (www.fibank.bg).

For more information, please contact:

Martin Schedin

CFO

[email protected]

+46-8-564-878 00

Lars Sandtorv

Head of MeaWallet

[email protected]

+47-909-55-111

This information is information that Seamless Distribution AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 8:50 a.m. CET on November 24, 2017.

About Seamless

Since 2001 Seamless has been providing its proprietary solutions and systems for mobile phone transactions. Seamless operates in two main business areas; mobile phone payment solutions, provided through the brand MeaWallet, and distribution of e-products. www.seamless.se

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/seamless-distribution-ab/r/fibank-implements-the-second-technology-wave-with-mea-token-platform,c2399205

The following files are available for download:

http://mb.cision.com/Main/4815/2399205/756976.pdf Press release (PDF)

SOURCE Seamless Distribution AB

Related Links

http://www.seamless.se


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, the Honduran Supreme Electoral Tribunal announced that the National Inter-Agency Security Force is on schedule to deliver all ballots for the November 26 election to their respective polling stations by voting day.

As of November 22, more than three-quarters of voting departments throughout Honduras had received election materials.

Republic of Honduras

The National Inter-Agency Security Force, or FUSINA, is using several different modes of transport to deliver ballots, depending on the local terrain. In total, 13 aircraft, 930 motor vehicles, and 25 ships will transport ballots to every polling station in Honduras.

Authorities loaded a Honduran Air Force plane with over 260 cases of election materials and 43 technological kits and sent them to Islas de la Bahia and Gracias a Dios in Honduras, two remote Honduran voting areas inaccessible by land.

FUSINA and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, or TSE, have also sent 25 cases of election materials to Miami, New York, Washington, Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans, and Los Angeles for eligible Honduran voters that reside in the United States.

The efforts by the two entities to securely deliver election materials are part of Operation Peace and Democracy II.

FUSINA will help safeguard polling stations before, during, and after voting. According to Luis Suazo, Honduras's Vice Minister of Security, more than 35,000 members of the Honduran armed forces and national police will assist with the voting process.

Media Contact:

Andrew Grafton

[email protected]

(202)-471-4228 ext. 119

www.keybridgecommunications.com

SOURCE Republic of Honduras
The next decade will be a new era of 5G featuring the rapid development of new services and requirements in the wireless communications industry. Edward Deng believes that operators' top priority is to build a single mobile network that meets the demands of a super connected society and industry development. This requires the fostering of three key capabilities:

Powerful network capability to meet divergent requirements for capacity, coverage, and latency of a wide range of services

An agile and flexible network architecture to improve the efficiency of multi-service connections

Intelligent network management to provide efficient network O&M and optimization of diversified service experience

Powerful Network Capability: 5G Era SingleRAN Provides Full Support for Diverse Services on a Single Network

The diversity of IoT applications and scenarios poses high and divergent requirements for network capabilities. Capacity must be improved from single to double digit Gbps data rates for the upcoming 5G era. Similarly, population coverage must be expanded to cater for geographical coverage, while reducing latency from 10 ms to ms level.

At the Global MBBF, Huawei released the portfolios of 5G Era SingleRAN that boast higher capacity, wider coverage, and low latency with high reliability. This solution will enable operators to offer diverse services on a single network. This solution adopts simple and highly integrated 5G sites to deliver ultra-high capacity. A series of low-cost innovative sites can be used to improve the depth and width of scenario-specific network coverage, while supporting the latest protocol and architecture to support ms level latency. Edward Deng indicated that, "5G Era SingleRAN can maximize the value of existing networks and promote a smooth evolution to 5G. Enhanced capabilities help enable a mobile network to support a multitude of services."

Agile Network Architecture: Mobile Cloud Supports Flexible Deployment and Agile Provisioning of Diverse Services on a Single Network

At the Global MBBF 2016 held in Tokyo, Huawei released the Mobile Cloud solution, which includes CloudEdge, CloudAIR, and CloudRAN. These solutions help to usher in a new era of mobile cloud. Edward Deng emphasized that, "Mobile Cloud can maximize the value of operator assets to enable efficient resource utilization, on-demand deployment, and agile service provisioning. This solution allows operators to build mobile networks for all industries."

CloudAIR cloudifies an air interface to efficiently share spectrum, power, and channel resources. This innovation can enhance air interface utilization, while allowing for flexible network deployment and improving user experience. Over the past year, over 30 networks have commercially launched CloudAIR. And by the end of 2018, over 100 networks will use this cutting-edge solution. "Huawei is dedicated to constant innovation and CloudAIR will continue to pursue better performance." Edward Deng announced the debut of CloudAIR 2.0, which at least doubles GUL spectrum sharing efficiency. LTE and 5G NR can share the spectrum in both time and frequency domains to achieve more flexible and higher proportion of resource sharing. CloudAIR is set to help operators upgrade spectrum efficiency and accelerate the deployment of 5G networks.

Efficient Network Management: Wireless Intelligence Allows Low-cost Deployment of New Services on a Single Network with Reduced OPEX

In the 2020-oriented 5G era, the complexity of mobile networks will far exceed current networks. Traditional methods and tools will struggle to meet new business requirements. Wireless intelligence emerges as an exemplary solution. Edward Deng highlighted that, "Wireless intelligence and mobile networks have already revolutionized the world and will further reshape the future. In the best era soon to arrive, these two technologies are poised to meet and combine to offer more innovations."

Wireless intelligence serves as a smart brain to create three customer values:

Enable automatic and smart O&M to make things simple.

Inspire network potential to achieve the best network performance and empower new capabilities.

Make the impossible possible and provide automation solutions to issues that cannot be resolved by onsite personnel.

In partnership with top global operators, Huawei has achieved remarkable progress in discussions and joint tests on related use cases.

For example, Massive MIMO is the most important technology of high-capacity 5G base stations and applies to complex scenarios with dynamic traffic scenarios. However, the configuration and optimization of multi-antenna beam parameters prove to be an obstacle. SoftBank and Huawei launched the wireless intelligence based adaptive solution for Massive MIMO. This solution can automatically select the best parameter combination from nearly 300 options to achieve dynamic coverage based on user distribution and scenario. This adaptation can also help to considerably improve cell capacity and user experience.

Another innovation of wireless intelligence is splitting each cell into thousands of virtual grids. Each grid can collect a large amount of data to perform intelligent training and maximize the value of network optimization in a smaller scale. Wireless networks perform structured processing on real-time and historical data stored in virtual grids and then generate a "network fingerprint". With the machine learning algorithm, wireless networks can implement refined and intelligent scheduling of radio resources. For example, grid-level historical data helps determine signal quality of each carrier. The intelligent scheduling algorithm ensures that a device is always running on the best carriers and therefore can deliver the best user experience.

5G Era SingleRAN, Mobile Cloud, and Wireless Intelligence are the most important elements of the future network. They will collectively help operators build 2020-oriented mobile networks for diverse services and quickly seize new business opportunities at low costs. Edward Deng concluded his speech with a promising vision. Looking forward to the 2020s, Huawei plans to work with more operators and industry partners to promote the prosperity of the mobile industry and realize "Everyone on Mobile, Everything with Wireless, and Every Industry plus Wireless".

About Huawei

Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Our aim is to enrich life and improve efficiency through a better connected world, acting as a responsible corporate citizen, innovative enabler for the information society, and collaborative contributor to the industry. Driven by customer-centric innovation and open partnerships, Huawei has established an end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing. Huawei's 180,000 employees worldwide are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers. Our innovative ICT solutions, products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world's population. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees.

For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com.

SOURCE Huawei

Related Links

http://www.huawei.com


NEW YORK, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Levi & Korsinsky announces it has commenced an investigation into Tezos concerning possible violations of federal securities laws in relation to Tezos' Initial Coin Offering (ICO).

Recent reports note a significant falling out between Tezos's co-founders, Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, and Johann Gevers, president of the Tezos Foundation, a Swiss non-profit foundation with significant control over Tezos' operations.

Following this news, the value of Tezos Tokens futures contracts dropped as much as 60%, according to the futures/derivatives markets which track their value. To obtain additional information, go to:

http://www.zlk.com/pslra-sbm-cc/tezos

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.

CONTACT:

Levi & Korsinsky, LLP

Eduard Korsinsky, Esq.

30 Broad Street - 24th Floor

New York, NY 10004

Tel: (212) 363-7500

Toll Free: (877) 363-5972

Fax: (212) 363-7171

www.zlk.com

SOURCE Levi & Korsinsky, LLP

Related Links

http://www.zlk.com


KELOWNA, British Columbia, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Marapharm Ventures Inc. (OTCQB: MRPHF) (CSE: MDM.CN) (FSE: 2M0) ("Marapharm" or the " Company") (http://www.marapharm.com/) "Marapharm" says that their annual AGM (Annual General Meeting) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 17, 2017, was well attended and successful.

The open house that followed was held at the Marapharm facility in Las Vegas, and showcased Marapharm's successes thus far as well as allowed for those driving that success to show their appreciation.

This event was attended by more than 300 shareholders, investors, and industry leaders who travelled from Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, England, and all over the United States to celebrate Marapharm's exponential growth in such a dynamic and rapidly expanding industry.

''The corporate strategy was reaffirmed at the AGM and we are looking forward to a great 2018. The open house was fantastic! So many people attended! Marapharm's president, Brian Lovig, was joined by Councilman Isaac Barron and Councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown for the ground breaking for the third building which is a 65,635 square foot cultivation building." Linda Sampson, Marapharm CEO.

Photographs of the event are being posted daily on our website.

EVALUATION

Marapharm engaged Kurt Keating to do the evaluation of the 65,635 square foot facility located in Las Vegas. Kurt won 2 High Times Cannabis Cups in 2014 while cultivating medical cannabis and he has been consulting, evaluating and growing cannabis for several years. The market price for this type of marijuana at present is approximately $2300 wholesale per pound in Nevada. The evaluation for the three floors is 22,600 pounds per year. Current pricing and comparable facilities in Nevada indicate that revenue from the new 3 story building could potentially be $50 million gross and $30 million net, after operating costs, for the first year of production which is expected to begin in 2018. (source Kurt Keating).

OTHER NEWS

The Marijuana Business Conference and Expo, the industry's largest annual gathering, was held in Las Vegas the week of Marapharm's AGM and Open House.

18,000 cannabis business leaders and investors attended the conference to listen to the 110+ speakers and interact with the 678 exhibitors that took over 300k square feet of Expo Hall space. Marapharm partners and employees were among the forward thinking visionaries who were excited to witness the progression of our industry.

ABOUT MARAPHARM VENTURES INC.

Marapharm is a publicly traded company primarily investing in the medical and recreational cannabis space, with corporate operations based in British Columbia, Canada. Since 2016 they have rapidly expanded their footprint to include production locations in the key North American states of Washington, Nevada, and California. They actively seek expansion opportunities worldwide.

www.marapharm.com

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Facebook: facebook.com/marapharm

Twitter: twitter.com/marapharm

Web Program: marapharm.tv

STOCK EXCHANGES:

Marapharm trades in Canada, ticker symbol MDM on the CSE, in the United States, ticker symbol MRPHF on the OTCQB, and in Europe, ticker symbol 2Mo on the FSE. Marapharm also trades on other recognized platforms in Europe including Stuttgart, Tradegate, L & S, Quotnx, Dusseldorf, Munich, and Berlin.

Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB has approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

MARIJUANA INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT:

Canadian listings (CSE) will remain in good standing as long as they provide the disclosure that is rightly required by regulators and complying with applicable licensing requirements and the regulatory framework enacted by the applicable state in which they operate.

Marapharm owns marijuana licenses in California and Nevada. Marijuana is legal in each state however marijuana remains illegal under US federal law and the approach to enforcement of US federal law against marijuana is subject to change. Shareholders and investors need to be aware that adverse enforcement actions could affect their investments and that Marapharm's ability to access private and public capital could be affected and or could not be available to support continuing operations. Marapharm's business is conducted in a manner consistent with state law and is in compliance with licensing requirements.

Copies of licenses are posted on Marapharm's website. Marapharm has internal compliance procedures in place and has compliance focused attorneys engaged in jurisdictions to monitor changes in laws for compliance with US federal and state law on an ongoing basis. These law firms inform any necessary changes to our policies and procedures for compliance in Canada and the US.

FORWARD - LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", 'may", "will", "project", "should", 'believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumption but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and the forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Linda Sampson

CEO +1-778-583-4476

email [email protected]

www.marapharm.com

SOURCE Marapharm Ventures Inc.

Related Links

http://www.marapharm.com


TOKYO, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The 6th WCO Technology & Innovation Forum was held in Tokyo, Japan, from October, 31st to November 2, 2017. The forum is a high-level industrial meeting co-held biennially by WCO (World Customs Organization) and local customs. Representatives from customs, law enforcement agencies, governments and business communities would come to discuss innovative solutions supporting global supply chain security and trade facilitation, exchange ideas on customs law enforcement, evolving challenges, innovative applications on detection and surveillance technology, and explore utilization potentiality of opening resources.

On behalf of Nuctech, Mr. Wang Yonggang delivered a keynote speech entitled as Leveraging SMART technologies to build efficient Customs inspection management, introducing Nuctech's innovations in terms of security technology, processing construction, and capacity building on supervision strategies changing customs in the current legal environment, security situations, and new challenges. The speech gave a special promotion to the newly developed wise security solution WiScan based on big data and machine learning technologies, and suggested to use CT parcel/baggage inspection systems to cope with the customs' new challenge brought by e-business

Dr. Wang Weizhen also made a technical report entitled as One Small Step in Artificial Intelligence, introducing the framework of a wise assistance inspection system based on AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology, the experience on using this system in customs, and a complete security solution for the customs clearance based on big data. Both speeches received positive responses, attracted customs representatives and industrial professionals, and earned extensive praise in the community.

During the Forum, Nuctech welcomed the custom representatives from Japan, UAE, Uganda, Tunisia, Kenya, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries. In the future, Nuctech hopes to provide comprehensive security solutions to help our global customers not only in security capability, security inspection efficiency and passenger experience enhancement, but also in anti-terrorism, smuggling combating, trade facilitating, and border security protecting.

About Nuctech:

Nuctech is an advanced security & inspection solution and service supplier in the world, and provides the most advanced technology, superb products and integrated solutions to our customers for more than 150 countries and areas in the globe. Following the latest international technical development frontier, Nuctech integrates cloud computing and big data with security technology and products on the platform of internet and information & communication technology.

SOURCE Nuctech Company Limited
MARIETTA, Ga., Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Chief Operating Officer and Owner of Sellect Realty, Chris Lazarus, has been accepted into the Forbes Real Estate Council, an invitation-only community for executives in the real estate industry.

Chris Lazarus joins other Forbes Real Estate Council members, who are hand-selected, to become part of a curated network of successful peers and get access to a variety of exclusive benefits and resources, including the opportunity to submit thought leadership articles and short tips on industry-related topics for publishing on Forbes.com.

Forbes Councils combines an innovative, high-touch approach to community management perfected by the team behind Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) with the extensive resources and global reach of Forbes. As a result, Forbes Council members get access to the people, benefits and expertise they need to grow their businesses  and a dedicated member concierge who acts as an extension of their own team, providing personalized one-on-one support.

When asked about the recent induction to the Forbes Real Estate Council, Chris said, "I am delighted to contribute to this incredible network of real estate experts. We train our agents to think and act globally in our hyper-local market, so there is a natural attraction with the Council for our company. Our membership in the Forbes Real Estate Council will help cement our initiatives within our industry, and will continue to deliver quality to our clients and community."



Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, says, "We are honored to welcome Sellect Realty into the community. Our mission with Forbes Councils is to curate successful professionals from every industry, creating a vetted, social capital-driven network that helps every member make an even greater impact on the business world."

Sellect Realty is a family owned, independent real estate brokerage based in Marietta that specializes in buying, selling, investing, and client education. They are regarded as a leading brokerage on industry thought and professionalism in the Metro-Atlanta market. Sellect Realty is headquartered at 1855 Piedmont Road, Suite 200, Marietta, GA 30066. They have been an integral part of the Cobb County landscape for the last decade and will continue to serve and contribute to the growth and development of the Metro-Atlanta housing market. For more information, visit www.sellectrealty.com.

About Forbes Councils

Forbes partnered with the founders of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to launch Forbes Councils, invitation-only communities for world-class business professionals in a variety of industries. Members, who are hand-selected by each Council's community team, receive personalized introductions to each other based on their specific needs and gain access to a wide range of business benefits and services, including best-in-class concierge teams, personalized connections, peer-to-peer learning, a business services marketplace, and the opportunity to share thought leadership content on Forbes.com. For more information about Forbes Real Estate Council, visit https://forbesrealestatecouncil.com/. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com.

SOURCE Sellect Realty

Related Links

http://www.sellectrealty.com


SYDNEY, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Speedcast International Limited (ASX: SDA), the world's most trusted provider of highly-reliable, fully-managed, remote communication and IT solutions, today announced that the company has finalized upgrades to its global network in coverage and ground infrastructure, providing the most robust network serving the Maritime and Offshore industry today.

Enhanced Global Ku- band Network

Achieved by investments in Ku-band infrastructure and merging of network assets from previous acquisitions, Speedcast's new Ku-band network provides vessels and offshore assets access to the largest global system of satellites available, combining wide beam satellites for coverage and narrower higher throughput beams for better efficiency and bigger bandwidth. The enhanced redundancy of multiple satellites covering key maritime and offshore regions ensures service delivery to customers is of the highest quality to meet demanding bandwidth and reliability requirements anywhere in the world.

Flexibility and Redundancy

The size of the new Speedcast network with over 25 satellites and many more beams enables customers with increased bandwidth needs to significantly upgrade their dedicated or shared bandwidth on a short-term basis. This flexibility allows customers to meet their dynamic business needs and the redundancy of beams guarantees the user experience is consistent globally.

Upgraded Security and Firewalls

Speedcast's cyber security and firewall infrastructure has been upgraded to offer the most secure services of its kind through consistent testing and compliance requirement checks. The company has deployed the next generation of software within its global network to enable full management of content and application filtering requirements. Customers are able to block access to specified websites while onboard and prevent unauthorized access to business networks across entire fleets. Speedcast was the first satellite provider to obtain the cyber security certification from the Global VSAT Forum and performs regular testing, ensuring the security and full compliance of its global network.

Fully-managed MPLS network

Speedcast has implemented its own fully managed MPLS Network to deliver all traffic, independent of third parties, and allowing for full control over key performance indicators such as latency and jitter. This ensures the highest rate of delivery and the greatest assurance of quality and SLAs.

Flexible VPN

Speedcast provides more flexibility with routing protocols and lesser restrictions on IP configuration to create a connection between vessels, offshore assets and company headquarters that acts just like an extension of the company's network.

Most Local Points of Presence (POPs) and Voice Platform

Speedcast now provides the most local break out points globally, allowing for local IP addressing and regional redundancy, bringing the user experience closer to home. Speedcast has also deployed a carrier-grade platform on its core voice network, providing local phone numbers from over 60 countries, toll-free access, voice mail, call forwarding and other features, all while reducing latency and avoiding down time during security and maintenance checks.

"I am proud to see Speedcast deliver this industry-leading network to our customers in Maritime and Energy," says Speedcast CEO PJ Beylier. "We have worked diligently to merge the infrastructures from our previously acquired companies and make the necessary improvements to supply our customers with one truly global network providing seamless, secure connectivity for any requirement. Customers can now enjoy the largest and most redundant single network available today, one that is ready to scale with their businesses."

The new Speedcast network is available immediately and will service all offshore, yachting, and fishing regions, as well as shipping and cruise routes.

About Speedcast International Limited

Speedcast International Ltd (ASX: SDA) is the world's most trusted provider of highly-reliable, fully-managed, end-to-end remote communication and IT solutions. The company utilizes an extensive worldwide footprint of local support, infrastructure and coverage to design, integrate, secure and optimize networks tailored to customer needs. With differentiated technology, an intense customer focus and a strong safety culture, Speedcast serves more than 2,000 customers in over 140 countries via 39 teleports, including offshore rigs and cruise ships, 10,000+ maritime vessels and 4,500+ terrestrial sites. Speedcast supports mission-critical applications in industries such as maritime, oil and gas, enterprise, media, cruise and government. Learn more at www.Speedcast.com.

Social Media: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

Speedcast is a trademark and registered trademark of Speedcast International Limited. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective owners.

 2017 Speedcast International Limited. All rights reserved.

Contact Information:

Toni Lee Rudnicki

Vice President, Global Marketing

Speedcast International Ltd

[email protected]

+1-832-668-2634

SOURCE Speedcast International Ltd

Related Links

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Nepal is holding provincial and parliamentary elections in two phases on November 26 and December 7.

By India Today Web Desk: On Friday, neighbouring country Nepal closed its border with India and China as it prepares for the historic round of provincial and parliamentary polls, 11 years after Nepal began its journey towards democracy, that several hope will bring much-needed political stability to the Himalayan nation.

Land-locked Nepal is holding provincial and parliamentary elections in two phases on November 26 and December 7.

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The elections are being seen as the final step in Nepal's transition to a federal democracy following a decade-long civil war till 2006 that claimed more than 16,000 lives.

More than 3,00,000 members of the security forces will be deployed for the two-stage election, with northern provinces voting on Sunday and southern areas and Kathmandu going to the polls on December 7.

Results are expected a few days after the second vote.

While many hope Nepal's first state elections will hasten regional development, others fear they will spark a fresh wave of violence.

In 2015, when Nepal adopted a new Constitution that split it into seven states, dozens of people were killed in ethnic clashes over territory and rights.

"We created the Constitution after years of struggle, but that is not enough," said Nabindra Raj Joshi, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress, the country's largest political party.

"The most important part is implementation. This election will launch the provincial administration that will turn our achievements into reality."

Following the adoption of the new Constitution in 2015, the ethnic Madhesi group, mostly of Indian-origin, protested for months, saying they were not getting enough territory in one of the states and were also facing discrimination.

Violent clashes not only left more than 50 people dead, but also left the country with severe shortages of fuel and medicine because protesters blocked the borders with India.

The protesters finally agreed to the elections after some amendments were made to the constitution.

According to officials, the crossing points with India will be sealed from Friday till the evening of Sunday.

Nepal-China border crossing at Rasuwagadhi and Kimathanka have been closed for 72 hours from midnight, ahead of the first phase of elections scheduled for November 26.

According to Rasuwa Chief District Officer Chomendra Neupane, the move is in line with the mandatory requirement to seal international borders ahead of the elections. The borders will remain shut till Sunday midnight.

Navaraj Dhakal, an official with the Election Commission, said there have been some incidents where candidates and their supporters have been attacked during the campaign. He said the federal government and security forces have a plan to ensure voting remains peaceful, The Himalayan Times reported.

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The Election Commission has said no political party, candidates, party office bearers, independents, civil society, voters and mass media can be involved in publicity for the polls.

The EC has urged the media not to violate the election code of conduct during the silence period as that would influence voters of the first-phase polls even though campaigns for the second phase vote scheduled for December 7 continue in the remaining 45 districts.

In the first phase, 3,191,945 voters are eligible to caste their ballot from 4,465 polling centres. As many as 702 candidates--including 282 (266 male and 16 female) for federal parliament and 420 (400 male and 20 female) for the provincial assemblies--are contesting for 37 federal and 74 provincial seats, according to election officials.

With stiff competition expected from the UML-Maoist alliance in the polls, the Nepali Congress (NC) and Madhes- based parties are under pressure to forge electoral alliances across the Madhes districts neighbouring India even at the eleventh hour, according to political observers.

Party insiders said there was mounting pressure from local level leaders and cadres in various districts to work further on the electoral alliance.

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Earlier, the Nepali Congress and the two Madhes-based parties had been engaged in negotiations but could not forge and electoral alliance.

The election campaign will end on Friday mid-night which is 48 hours ahead of the polls.

A new Constitution was passed by lawmakers in September 2015 and polls are taking place under that as part of a peace process that began with the end of a decade-long civil war.

The polls in Nepal come as a major step towards implementing the new Constitution.

--- ENDS ---
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, November 21, 2017, Bobby Saadian and Colin Jones of Wilshire Law Firm filed a proposed class action lawsuit in federal court, on behalf of their client, Flores, against Uber Technologies, Inc. and its subsidiaries Rasier, LLC and Rasier-CA, LLC.

The complaint alleges that Uber violated California constitutional laws, unfair competition laws; that Uber engaged in fraudulent, deceptive business practices, constitutional invasion of privacy, and other violations. Uber acted negligently, when it failed to protect personal and financial data, from drivers and passengers, resulting in a data breach, which started back in October 2016.

Reportedly, the information stolen by hackers ended up on the black market, while Uber kept quiet about the facts. Therefore, putting the app users at a greater risk of identity theft, fraud, and all the long-term negative consequences associated with being the victim of a data breach.

The proposed class action has been filed to put an end to Uber's misconduct, and to obtain fair compensation for those, whose privacy rights have been violated, as a result of Uber's negligence.

Uber had a duty to protect personal and financial information from drivers and passengers. As well, a responsibility to implement security protocols to prevent hackers from stealing this information. Wilshire Law Firm has received several complaints against Uber regarding this data breach.

Wilshire Law Firm was founded in 2007 by Bobby Saadian, Esq. The firm represents victims in class action lawsuits and mass torts cases against negligent corporations and big business; as well, victims of catastrophic accidents, environmental contamination, dangerous pharmaceuticals and defective products. Wilshire Law Firm also fights for employee rights and equality in the workplace. https://wilshirelawfirm.com/

Case Filing Number: 2:17-cv-8503 / PDF copy of the class action available upon request.

SOURCE Wilshire Law Firm

Related Links

http://wilshirelawfirm.com


BEIJING, Nov. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Yirendai Ltd. (NYSE: YRD) ("Yirendai" or the "Company"), a leading fintech company in China, today announced that it will hold its 2017 annual general meeting of shareholders at 10/F, Tower B, Gemdale Plaza, 91 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100022, the People's Republic of China on December 15, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. (Beijing time). Holders of common shares of the Company whose names are on the register of members of the Company at the close of business on December 1, 2017 are entitled to receive notice of the annual general meeting or any adjournment or postponement thereof. Beneficial owners of the Company's American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") are welcome to attend the annual general meeting in person.

No proposal will be submitted for shareholder approval at the annual general meeting. Instead, the annual general meeting will serve as an open forum for shareholders and beneficial owners of the Company's ADSs to discuss Company affairs with management.

The notice of the annual general meeting is available on the Company's website at http://yirendai.investorroom.com/. Yirendai has filed its annual report on Form 20-F, including its audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Yirendai's Form 20-F can be accessed on the above-mentioned Company website, as well as on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.

Shareholders may request a hard copy of the Company's annual report on Form 20-F, free of charge, by contacting Yirendai at [email protected], or by writing to Yirendai at 10/F, Building 9, 91 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100022, the People's Republic of China, telephone: +86 10 5395-3680.

About Yirendai Ltd.

Yirendai Ltd. (NYSE: YRD) is a leading fintech company in China connecting investors and individual borrowers. The Company provides an effective solution to address largely underserved investor and individual borrower demand in China through an online platform that automates key aspects of its operations to efficiently match borrowers with investors and execute loan transactions. Yirendai deploys a proprietary risk management system, which enables the Company to effectively assess the creditworthiness of borrowers, appropriately price the risks associated with borrowers, and offer quality loan investment opportunities to investors. Yirendai's online marketplace provides borrowers with quick and convenient access to consumer credit at competitive prices and investors with easy and quick access to an alternative asset class with attractive returns. For more information, please visit yirendai.investorroom.com.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Yirendai

Hui (Matthew) Li

Director of Investor Relations

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Yirendai Ltd.
The Seventh day Sabbath is an everlasting Covenant to meet with Yahweh, the Creator, eternally; yet, the Roman Catholic Church rejected it.

Yisrayl says it's not the people's fault they believe Sunday practice is okay. He said it has been taught to them as not only acceptable, but expected. Yisrayl says there is much deception behind changing the Sabbath. It has taken many generations of subtle changes in order to hide the truth from society, so they would not know any better.

"Open your bible and read for yourself that the Sabbath is the Seventh day of the week. Read what your bible says should be done on the Sabbath. We have free information all about this subject," Yisrayl adds.

Yisrayl says not keeping the Sabbath day properly is keeping people from answered prayers and ultimately from obtaining Salvation. Yisrayl wants the complete truth known, the deception exposed and the false teachers revealed. He says he wants every individual to be able to have his or her prayers answered, and keeping the Sabbath properly is a great start.

To read this post, go to http://yahwehsbranch.com.

About Us

The House of Yahweh, fully recognized in 1983 as a non-profit organization in the United States of America, continues to this present day to fulfill its commissioned work of preaching and publishing the True Message of Salvation.

The House of Yahweh has correctly restored the Heavenly Father's Name and the Savior's True Name in the translation named in Scripture as The Book of Yahweh.

SOURCE The House of Yahweh

Related Links

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2018 Dakar: X-raid launches second drive concept

Now with two-wheel drive too: MINI John Cooper Works Buggy

MINI John Cooper Works Rally improved

In the 2018 Dakar Rally, X-raid dares to make the first steps into a new era by presenting the MINI John Cooper Works Buggy! In the past 15 years, the Trebur based team fully focused on four-wheel drive vehicles but in the 2018 Dakar that will start in early January at Lima, Peru, it will enter  for the first time  a X-raid designed two-wheel drive desert racer! We are absolutely delighted with having the opportunity to present our buggy today, a vehicle our entire team worked really hard on, in the past months, said X-raid Team Principal Sven Quandt. This development is unique in the X-raid history as never before so many engineers were involved in the development of an X-raid vehicle. Although investing a lot of time in the development of the buggy, the MINI John Cooper Works Rally was also improved in many areas and drastically redesigned whilst keeping its proven reliability.

MINI John Cooper Works Buggy

Due to the regulation advantages, we came up with the idea of building a buggy for quite a while, Quandt revealed. And in late 2016 the idea began to take shape. The work on the project began February 2017. Altogether, more than 45 engineers of X-raid and numerous partners worked on the new buggy. The aero package was of major importance and was enhanced together with KLK Motorsport in many simulations, says Quandt, And the final looks of the vehicle was created in cooperation with MINI design. BMW Steyr designed  within the framework of the regulations  a completely new engine, based on the well-known BMW six-cylinder power unit. And it goes without saying that long-term partners, such as BMW Motorsport, Magna, Heggemann, CP Autosport and Faster, also were involved. It was the very first buggy designed and built by us but we could hark back to our cross-country experience

Bringing together on site all those engineers involved would not only have resulted in high costs but also would have been virtually impossible, time-wise. So, it was decided to hold Webex conferences. These conferences dictated our lives for four months, adds Sven Quandt. But they offered us the opportunity to not only discuss small details quickly and in-depth but also take a close look at them and adapt them.

In early September, the MINI John Cooper Works Buggy covered its first kilometres during the roll-out at the X-raid headquarters in Trebur. And just a few days later it went out for its first off-road test in Hungary. Prior to this test we were really excited, reveals Sven Quandt, But everything went fine and the buggy completed the tests without encountering any major problems. Consequently, the team could send it to difficult terrain and the buggy was put through its paces for three weeks in Morocco. Of course we detected several things that could be improved but throughout the three weeks of testing the buggy never was stopped by a technical problem  and thats really remarkable. The biggest challenge was to manage this project and without losing track of any detail.

In further tests, the team continued the preparations of the MINI John Cooper Works Buggy for the big challenge represented by the Dakar Rally. We are well aware of the fact that contesting an event with an all new vehicle can be risky, admits Sven Quandt. But we and the buggy are prepared for challenges and strains in South America as well as possible for the time which has been available.

Enhancement of the MINI John Cooper Works Rally

At the same time, the MINI John Cooper Works Rally also was refined in many areas. Despite all the euphoria you definitely should not forget the 44, underlined Sven Quandt. There are routes and terrains where the all-wheel drive definitely represents an advantage. Furthermore, our car is extremely reliable and it was the cars reliability that helped us claiming numerous successes. Not only the new technical regulation but also the new engine designed for the MINI John Cooper Works Buggy allowed for a significant improvement of the four-wheel drive MINI John Cooper Works Rally. The main improvements resulting from the new regulations are the increased spring travel (from 250 to 280mm) and the reduction of the total minimum weight from 1952 to 1850kg.

We succeeded in achieving the new minimum weight, added Sven Quandt. We attended to absolutely every component. So, the thickness of the carbon-fibre body and the weight of the frame were reduced. We also checked all the screws what helped us to save another three to four kilograms. This demonstrates that reducing the cars weight really was an in-depth effort.

Its our goal to make it to the podium, concluded Sven Quandt. No matter if with the MINI John Cooper Works Buggy or the MINI John Cooper Works Rally. There are many variables we cant control, such as the routing, the weather and  of course  a dose of luck. Something you definitely also need if you want to succeed in the Dakar.

Miko Hirvonen, driver John Cooper Works Buggy

How does it feel to drive the new MINI John Cooper Works Buggy?

Getting behind the wheel of an all new car always is exciting. We covered a lot of kilometres with it and driving it feels extremely good. What impressed me the most was its handling on bumpy terrain. The buggy is a lightweight vehicle and features a bigger spring travel than any car I have driven to date. Therefore, it has got what it takes to also cope with these sections without problems. And it also is physically less demanding. Of course there still are lot of things to be learned but we are heading in the right direction.

Could you please describe how it felt to switch from 44 to the buggy?

There are a lot of things you have to accustom to. On nearly every terrain, the buggy must be driven in a different way than the 44. On bumpy roads we can drive much faster and it will take us some time to find the limit. The speed you can drive at over bumps is just incredible. In winding sections that resemble WRC stages, however, the buggy is somewhat less precise than the 44. In addition, the rear wheel drive makes you slide more. But I think that we have found a good balance. In the dunes the difference is big and at the beginning I found driving over the big dunes more difficult. That could be a special challenge in the Dakar.

What is your goal for the 2018 Dakar?

Despite the new vehicle and although it looks as if we will spend more time in the dunes, this year, I want to fight for a podium finish at least. Andi and I are a good pairing and he is extremely experienced.

Orlando Terranova, driver MINI John Cooper Works Rally

How do you assess the enhanced MINI John Cooper Works Rally?

I am really delighted about the enhanced MINI as we made a real step forward. When I drove the car with the bigger spring travel and the lower weight for the first time it was a good feeling right away. The reliability is still there but the handling and the brake performance have been improved. The new suspension allows us to go faster on bumpy terrain and it also improves the ride comfort. A true advantage if you are getting a good shaking while sitting in the car for many hours.

What is your goal for the 2018 Dakar?

We want to fight for a podium. To achieve this goal we have to be absolutely focused throughout the event and must avoid making any mistakes. This applies to both the driving and the navigating. Making it to the top three is my goal and my dream but we will have to fight hard to make this dream come true

Crews Dakar Rally 2018

MINI John Cooper Works Buggy

Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) / Andreas Schulz (GER)

Bryce Menzies (USA) / Pete Mortensen (USA)

Yazeed-Al Rajhi (KSA) / Timo Gottschalk (GER)

MINI John Cooper Works Rally

Orlando Terranova (ARG) / Ronnie Graue (ARG)

Nani Roma (ESP) / Alex Haro (ESP)

Jakub Przygonski (POL) / Tom Colsoul (BEL)

Boris Garafulic (CHI) / Filipe Palmeiro (POR)
Two new BBC titles will join Telefonicas pay-TV catalogue in Spain next month, adding to the large list of British content broadcast by Movistar+.





Following its extended partnership with the UK public broadcaster, Movistar+ will premiere Broken and Born to Kill on Movistar Series and Movistar Series Xtra, respectively. The same agreement has enabled the Telefonica platform to exclusively premiere Blue Planet II for Spanish audiences.Broken and Born to Kill will join other British titles aired by Movistar+ and available on-demand, including Line of Duty, Downton Abbey, Tin Star, The Tunnel, The Honourable Woman, The Missing and Grantchester.Starring Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones) and created by Jimmy McGovern, Broken tells the story of a catholic priest dealing with the daily issues of a small community in Northern England.The four-episode show Born to Kill will initially premiere on the linear platform and will then be available on-demand from 16 December. Starring Jack Rowan (Beowulf) and Romola Garai (The Miniaturist), the mini-series has been the second most watched programme in the UK so far this year, with an average of 2.6 million viewers.
Thunderbirds fans are being given a rare opportunity to bid on a Lady Penelope puppet in a charity auction in aid of London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for children next month.

The limited edition, studio-scale puppet was specially commissioned for Thunderbirds creator Sylvia Anderson and was kept in her private collection until her death aged 88 in 2016.Now her daughter, Dee Anderson, has agreed to put the much-loved family heirloom up for auction at an event organised by her company, Glotime TV Dee said: This is a truly once-in-a-lifetime chance to own one of the most iconic TV characters of all time, owned by my mother. Sylvia loved Lady Penelope and this model was created wearing the blue dress that was her favourite outfit for her. My mum even had that dress recreated in full size back in the 1960s when the original puppet was created, so that she could wear it.This model is full studio scale, and was cast from an original Lady Penelope head. Its a beautiful piece of memorabilia and we hope shell help us raise much-needed money for Great Ormond Street before Christmas.The puppet - lovingly called Penny by Sylvia who created the character and co-created Thunderbirds in the 1960s with her husband Gerry - will be auctioned at The Sylvia Anderson Awards at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire on 7 December.Thunderbirds first aired in 1965 and followed the escapades of the Tracy family, headed by ex-astronaut turned multi-millionaire philanthropist Jeff Tracy. Using five futuristic space rockets, the Tracy family performed heroic rescues of civilians before returning to their hidden base inside Tracy Island.
Leftovers: the unsung hero of the days following the Thanksgiving Day feast. Before throwing out any food, check out these recipe ideas for meals that are sure to taste like new, even though you ate the same thing the day before.
Martinsville is building a new police station. What you need to know.
By PTI: terrorists

Kolkata, Nov 23 (PTI) Sleuths from the National Investigation Agency, Hyderabad Anti-Terrorism Squad and BSF Intelligence unit today grilled Ansarullah Bangla Team terrorists along with an Indian arms dealer, who were recently arrested by the Kolkata Police.

According to the police, the two are "hardcore" terrorists and have not opened up at all, despite day-long qrilling.

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"Officers from the NIA, ATS and BSFs intelligence unit today interrogated the two terrorists and the arms dealer whom we had arrested on Tuesday," a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.

The ATS unit from Hyderabad grilled the two terrorists -- Samsad Mia alias Tanvir Saiful and Rizaul Islam -- to ascertain why they visited the south Indian city.

"The officers of the Hyderabad ATS are trying to find out what actual connection they had with the city and what they had done or with whom they had met during their visit there," the officer said.

Elaborating on their investigation into the matter, another officer described the terrorists as "hardcore" and "tough nuts to crack".

"They are quite hardcore and are not speaking during the grilling sessions. We have to follow strategies to make them speak," he said.

According to a Kolkata Police source, both terrorists had rejected the arms brought in by arms dealer Manotosh Dey during their meeting at the Kolkata Railway Station on Tuesday.

"They were looking for more sophisticated arms and had rejected the arms Monotosh had brought at the the Kolkata station on Tuesday. The duo had asked Monotosh for rifles of the AK series," the officer said.

During the probe, it surfaced that Monotosh had been involved in arms smuggling for years and was arrested earlier this year after a huge cache of arms was seized from his possession, the Kolkata Police official said.

Further probe revealed that Monotoshs father worked with the a rifle factory at Ichhapur in North 24 Parganas district. The sleuths were trying to find out whether he had any "links" with the unit or not.

"Monotosh has a long history in arms dealing. We need to check how he got in touch with terrorist outfits and what kind of role he had been playing apart from supplying arms and ammunitions," the officer said.

On Tuesday, the Special Task Force (STF) unit of Kolkata Police had arrested the two belonging to the banned Bangladeshi terror outfit along with Monotosh, and seized several fake documents and arms from them. PTI SCH JM SRY

--- ENDS ---

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Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian brushed aside concerns that Azerbaijan could complicate agreement on the wording of the final communique at the European Union Eastern Partnership summit. He told RFE/RL on November 23 that the summit was not the place to discuss the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which both countries lay claim to.
WASHINGTON -- An American stockbroker who made a fortune in the Russian market in the 1990s and 2000s and later co-founded a posh Moscow nightclub before leaving the country died of blunt force injuries suffered as a result of a fall from a Washington, D.C. building.

The findings, released on November 16 by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), confirm that Dan Rapoport died on August 14 after falling from a height, but do not conclusively explain the circumstances leading up to his death.



Washington police told RFE/RL that an investigation into his death had ended and declined further comment. Earlier this year, a police spokeswoman told RFE/RL that foul play was not suspected, but that final conclusions were pending the autopsy.



Washington metropolitan police found Rapoports body on August 14 on the sidewalk outside 2400 M Street, a nine-story apartment building in the northwest part of the city.



The medical examiner's report said Rapoport, 52, died of multiple blunt force injuries due to fall from height and described the death as sudden/unexplained. The report also said the manner of his death was undetermined.



The OCME said no other information would be immediately released.



A preliminary police report said officers responded to a report of a jumper on the evening of August 14, and the man, later identified as Rapoport, was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead.



The apartment building has an open rooftop with a pool, running track, and seating area for residents.

The police report said officers found $2,620 in cash on Rapoport when they discovered his body on the sidewalk, along with headphones, a cracked cell phone, a Florida drivers license, and other items.



He was wearing flip-flops, perhaps indicating he had been at the pool on the roof prior to falling.



Brianna Burch, a police spokesperson, told RFE/RL in August that there did not appear to be anyone with Rapoport at the time and there were no listed witnesses. In follow-up correspondences with RFE/RL through early November, the police continued to say they did not suspect foul play.



Rapoport had recently moved back to Washington after spending several years working in finance in Ukraine.



While some friends said they did not believe he would have committed suicide, others said he had appeared depressed.



Go-To Location



A native of Latvia and a fluent Russian speaker, Rapoport emigrated with his family to the United States in 1980. After graduating from a U.S. university, he moved to Russia in the early 1990s as a wave of privatizations swept across the country.



The sale of former state-owned companies created a booming stock market, minting a new generation of millionaires, Russian and foreign.



Rapoport was respected within Russian financial circles, where he worked for more than a decade at a local brokerage called CenterInvest, making his way up to managing partner. He claimed his clients included some of the nation's wealthiest tycoons.

In 2007, he opened a swanky nightclub in downtown Moscow called Soho Rooms, which became the go-to location for Moscows elite.



In 2012, he left Russia and returned to the United States, saying the stock brokerage industry that had made him a fortune "had died" as commission fees shrunk with improvements in technology.



But in a media interview prior to his departure, he also criticized the direction Russia had taken and expressed support for Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, who was jailed last year.



"Our flight to Washington is in 12 hours. It's sad to leave Russia, but for thoughtful people, living here has become unbearable and disgusting," Rapoport wrote on his Facebook page on June 13, 2012.



He moved to Washington, where he said his parents lived, and set up a company called Rapoport Capital to advise and assist technology start-ups as well as venture capital funds on fundraising options.



In 2016, four years after leaving Russia, Rapaport set up an office in Kyiv and opened a private equity fund. In social media posts, he was a vocal supporter of Ukraine, and an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.



Rapoport gained a degree of publicity in January 2017, after The New York Times reported that the daughter and son-in-law of the then newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump had purchased a mansion owned by him and his first wife. The mansion was located in an exclusive neighborhood of the U.S. capital.



Later that same month, Raporport's co-founder of the Soho Rooms nightclub, Sergei Tkachenko, was found dead outside a Moscow building. Investigators said Tkachenko's body was found on a building awning with injuries typical of a fall from a great height.



In 2018, the open-source investigative organization Bellingcat reported that Rapoport had been the creator of a fictional persona named David Jewberg, who was frequently quoted in Ukrainian media as a senior Pentagon analyst.

With reporting by Todd Prince in Washington, D.C. and Mike Eckel in Prague.
Pakistani authorities acting on a court order have released a U.S.-wanted militant who allegedly founded a banned group linked to the 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people were killed.

Hafiz Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department, was released before dawn on November 24.

Saeed's spokesman, Yahya Mujahid, confirmed his release.

Saeed's release from house arrest came after a court on November 22 rejected the provincial government's request for a 60-day extension to his detention.

The move is likely to anger U.S. and Indian officials, who have accused Saeed of helping plan the Mumbai attacks in which 10 gunmen rampaged through India's largest city, shooting up two luxury hotels, a Jewish center, and a train station during a siege that lasted several days.

India accused Pakistan of helping organize the attacks in cooperation with Saeed, who is head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) charity, which U.S. officials say is a front for the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e Taiba militant group.

The United States had offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Saeed and has accused Pakistan of offering a safe haven for insurgents operating in neighboring countries.

Pakistan and the JuD have denied involvement in the Mumbai attack.

Based on reporting by AP and The New York Times
You could say Gurbanbibi Atajanova was born with a set of jailer's keys in her hand.

She served as the country's prosecutor-general for an astonishing 10 years under Turkmenistan's first president, Saparmurat Niyazov, a leader known for constantly shuffling officials.

If you were accused of crimes and were brought before Atajanova, your life was about to take a serious turn for the worse.

She wore a dark-blue uniform with golden epaulettes, a blue cap with a gold badge and gold trim, and seemed to always have a sour expression on her face.

Atajanova was already an employee of the Prosecutor-General's Office when the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991. She was promoted to assistant prosecutor-general right after Turkmenistan became independent, and was named prosecutor-general on April 3, 1995.

Atajanova spearheaded the Turkmen government's efforts to root out corruption for 10 years. She sent thousands of people to prison, among them scores of officials convicted of corruption.

Charging officials with corruption was one of the ways Niyazov perpetuated a turnstile policy when it came to officials, an approach many believe was used to prevent any one person from becoming too powerful or too popular.

State TV often showed Atajanova speaking to fallen, disgraced officials charged with crimes, usually some form of corruption. Atajanova coldly listed the state's charges against the accused or just as coldly recounted punishments already meted out to the guilty -- including confiscation of all property, prison, or internal exile to remote areas of Turkmenistan.

After the reported November 25, 2002, attempt on President Niyazov's life, Atajanova led the investigation, rounding up not only suspects but their family members as well.

Simultaneously, Atajanova went after government officials. In March 2003, Atajanova announced that 34 former government officials, including two deputy prime ministers, a defense minister, and an energy minister and his deputies were found guilty of corruption and embezzlement and sent to internal exile in remote settlements.

30,000 Buckets?

There were rumors in December 2003 that Atajanova herself had been placed under house arrest for involvement in illegal narcotics trafficking, but at the end of that month she appeared on state television attending a cabinet meeting. However, there was some truth to the rumors.

At the end of 2005, Atajanova retired at age 58. Shortly after, the tables turned.

She was taken into custody in April 2006 and charged with involvement in the illegal narcotics trade. Soon after the authorities said they had seized from Atajanova 13 homes, a brick factory, a rice mill, five cars, three tractors, a bulldozer, two construction cranes, 40 hectares of land, more than $6 million, more than 2,000 cattle, and, mysteriously, more than 30,000 buckets.

I know. That last one is really strange. Even President Niyazov made a point of mentioning the buckets when Atajanova appeared before him, weeping and begging for mercy. Niyazov asked, "For what reason did you steal 30,000 buckets?"

The reason for the buckets was never explained, but they sparked some interesting rumors about their purpose, including that they were filled with gold, or heroin.

Atajanova was taken into custody and quickly tried and convicted.

But the story was not over.

Nikolai Gavrilov was a senior employee in the National Security Committee's counternarcotics department. He is believed to be the person who discovered and reported Atajanova's involvement in the illegal trafficking of narcotics.

Gavrilov and his wife were killed in Ashgabat on November 8, 2006. The perpetrators have never been caught.

Gurbanbibi Atajanova's case says much about fighting corruption in Central Asia. She supposedly led the fight against corruption, helping to imprison scores of officials on corruption charges. But even the partial list of Atajanova's seized assets shows she accumulated her wealth over many years; some of it apparently was taken from people she helped send to prison.

It is doubtful no one noticed what Atajanova was doing.

The December 2003 rumor of Atajanova's house arrest was not true, but it appears that her brother and adopted son were apprehended at that time for drug smuggling.

When Atajanova was finally sent to prison, most of her family, including her brother and adopted son, seem to have been imprisoned also.

Atajanova was incarcerated in the women's prison in Dashoguz in 2006. That was the last credible information about Turkmenistan's Iron Lady.

RFE/RL's Turkmen Service contributed to this report. The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL
PRAGUE -- A Czech court has ruled that a suspected Russian hacker at the center of a tug-of-war between Washington and Moscow can be extradited to the United States.

Prague's High Court on November 24 upheld a lower court's ruling allowing the extradition of Yevgeny Nikulin, whom the United States accuses of hacking computers and stealing information from major Internet companies including LinkedIn and Dropbox.

Moscow, which has repeatedly denounced U.S. efforts to extradite its citizens from third countries, has sought Nikulin's extradition on separate Internet-theft charges.

A final decision will be in the hands of the Czech justice minister, who can approve extradition to one country and block the other.

Nikulin initially appealed his extradition to both the United States and Russia, but later withdrew the appeal against extradition to his homeland.

Nikulin was arrested by Czech authorities in October 2016 based on an Interpol warrant requested by the U.S. government.

The latest ruling on his extradition comes amid ongoing U.S. investigations into an alleged Russian campaign to influence last year's presidential election.

U.S. intelligence has concluded that Russia used computer hacking, e-mail leaks, and propaganda in an effort to influence the November 2016 presidential election that swept President Donald Trump into the White House. Moscow rejects the allegation.

A lawyer for Nikulin claimed earlier this year that FBI agents tried to get his client to confess to hacking the U.S. Democratic Party before the election.

The issue came up briefly during the May 30 hearing at the Prague Municipal Court, which ruled that Nikulin could be extradited either to Russia or the United States.

Nikulin said during that hearing that he was not involved in cyberattacks targeting the Democratic Party, and he has insisted he is innocent of the charges he faces in the United States.

With reporting by Oksana Kapinos of Current Time TV in Prague, AP, Reuters, and Lidovky.cz
Igor Sechin, CEO of the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft, has told investigators that then-Economy Minister Aleksei Ulyukayev asked him for a $2 million bribe during a BRICS summit in Goa, India, in October 2016, the BBC has reported.

The British broadcaster reported on November 23 that it had obtained copies of the protocols of Sechin's three interviews with prosecutors in the investigation leading up to corruption charges being filed against Ulyukayev.

According to the documents, Sechin stressed that no one besides himself heard Ulyukayev name the figure.

Sechin also reportedly told investigators the Ulyukayev telephoned him and asked for a meeting at Rosneft's offices on November 14, 2016. However, that testimony appears to contradict a leaked recording of the telephone call that emerged earlier this month, in which Sechin can be heard inviting Ulyukayev to that meeting.

Sechin has ignored three summonses to testify at Ulyukayev's trial, most recently failing to show up on November 22. At that hearing, his lawyer read a statement suggesting that Sechin's interviews with investigators could be read in court in lieu of his personal testimony.

The court rejected that suggestion and issued a fourth summons ordering Sechin to appear on November 27.

Ulyukayev is charged with extorting $2 million from Rosneft in exchange for government approval of Rosneft's acquisition of the Bashneft oil company.

He was arrested on November 14, 2016, after allegedly accepting the bribe in Sechin's office. He has denied the charges and said he believed the box with the money contained wine.

He has said the case against him was a provocation perpetrated by Sechin and his allies in the Federal Security Service (FSB).

According to the documents obtained by the BBC, Sechin was questioned on November 15, 2016 and on January 17 and May 31, 2017.

The BBC reported that Sechin's spokesman, Mikhail Leontiyev, declined to comment on the leaked protocols.

With reporting by BBC
Igor Plotnitsky, the separatist leader in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region, has resigned amid a fierce power struggle among the Russia-backed separatists that has unfolded over the last several days.

The website of the Luhansk-based separatists announced on November 24 that Plotnitsky had resigned for health reasons.

The website also said Leonid Pasechnik, the self-proclaimed security minister of the separatist formation, had been named acting leader "until the next elections."

Shortly afterward, the same website announced that Plotnitsky had been named the separatist's representative to the Minsk process, aimed at resolving the conflict.

On November 21, armed men in unmarked uniforms took up positions in the center of the provincial capital, Luhansk, in what appeared to be part of a power struggle among the separatists.

Shortly after annexing the Ukrainian region of Crimea in March 2014, Moscow began fomenting unrest in parts of eastern Ukraine. Moscow provided political, military, and economic support to separatists who gained control over parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk, sparking a war that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.

Moscow denies involvement in Ukraine's internal affairs, despite compelling evidence to the contrary.

Luhansk has been under the control of Russia-backed separatists since spring 2014. Very few outsiders and journalists have been allowed access since autumn 2015. No independent, objective media exists within the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk areas.

Russian reporters are granted access more frequently, but they often work for Russia's state-run or pro-Kremlin media and provide a restricted view of events.

With reporting by Gazeta.ru, RIA Novosti, and TASS
The Karni Sena was founded in 2006 by Lokendra Singh Kalvi, son of the late Kalyan Singh Kalvi, the former Union cabinet minister who led a massive Rajput agitation against the Sati ban following the Roop Kanwar episode in 1987. Lokendra, however, has failed to match his father's stature. He tried his luck in politics but lost elections twice, and has been in and out of the BJP and Congress. He is now with the BJP although he had once led a violent agitation against Vasundhara Raje in 2003.

The 62-year-old spent a few years in the wilderness in the late '90s and early 2000s when he launched, along with Devi Singh Bhatti, a powerful BJP MLA and Rajput leader from Bikaner, a pro-reservation agitation for the economically weak of all castes. Their rallies got good support and, encouraged by it, both left the BJP and floated a party, the Social Justice Front, which contested the 2003 assembly polls in over 60 seats. But only Bhatti won, which later led to the disbanding of the party and both of them returning to the BJP.

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When the reservation issue failed to have any impact on the governments in power, he set up the Karni Sena in 2006 to bring an element of aggression among the Rajput youth. Now, with the Padmavati issue, it has seen it grow "across India" as a Hindu hardliner group "that fights for national pride". "We resort to aggression only when our peaceful overtures fall on deaf ears,'' says Kalvi. The Karni Sena began to get noticed around 2008 when it opposed Ashutosh Gowariker's Jodhaa Akbar for claiming that Jodhaa was actually Jehangir's wife.

Around that time, he had quit the BJP and joined the Congress. In 2014, he again returned to the BJP.

In July this year, a hundred thousand Rajputs marched in Sanward village in Nagaur district to protest against the encounter killing of Anand Pal Singh, a Rajput brigand. They attacked police officers and women, and the government had a tough time pacifying them. Anand Pal was viewed as the Rajput answer to Jat aggression and his rise coincided with the grant of OBC status to Jats which has benefitted the caste tremendously in panchayati raj and local bodies polls and in jobs, at the cost of the Rajputs-or so they believe.

The pan-India response that Kalvi has got with his protests against Padmavati should help raise his stature as a Rajput leader. The BJP may even reward him by making him a party office-bearer, to cash in on his appeal among Rajputs. Kalvi is a hardworking leader but given his poor political skills and emotional nature, he will be unable to translate it into votes for himself. One reason for this is also that there are very few seats in the assembly and none in Parliament that can be considered a safe seat for Rajputs.

--- ENDS ---
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said the Minsk process for resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine has failed to produce results and needs to be accompanied by a parallel peace process based on the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.



In an interview in Brussels with RFE/RL, Tymoshenko said the Budapest document -- under which Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom guaranteed Ukraine's territorial integrity in exchange for Kyiv's renunciation of nuclear weapons -- should be "the basis of diplomatic negotiations on the establishment of peace in Ukraine."



She criticized the government of President Petro Poroshenko for "forgetting" about the existence of that document.



Tymoshenko, who heads one of Ukraine's largest opposition parties and who is currently nearly even with Poroshenko in public-opinion polls for the 2019 presidential election, emphasized that "Ukraine and Russia are warring countries today" and "Russia is in a state of war against Ukraine."



After Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in March 2014, Moscow began fomenting unrest in regions of eastern Ukraine. Since then, Russia has provided military, political, and economic support to separatists in parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.



Moscow denies interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs, despite compelling evidence to the contrary.



Tymoshenko told RFE/RL that "the path to peace" lies through establishing a "completely different negotiation format" involving all the Budapest Memorandum signatories. There is no point, she said, in negotiating with the leaders of the Russia-backed separatist units, because "they are absolute marionettes."



At the same time, Tymoshenko said, Ukraine must step up its military response to Russian aggression "by every minute and every second strengthening our army."



She urged the United States to "enable Ukraine to acquire" high-tech defensive weapons.



Tymoshenko confirmed that her Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party intends to contest both the parliamentary and the presidential elections scheduled for 2019.



According to a poll conducted this month, Tymoshenko had 14.4 percent support, compared to 16.1 percent for Poroshenko.
Ukraine's military says that five of its soldiers have been killed and four wounded in clashes with Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country.

The military said in a November 24 statement that four of the soldiers were killed in a gunfight the previous day near the village of Krymske that lasted around eight hours.

Krymske lies around 30 kilometers west of Luhansk, where tensions have escalated this week between separatist factions that control the city.

A total of four Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in clashes with separatists on November 23, the military said. It said eight separatists were killed and nine were injured.

"Five of our soldiers have died over the past 24 hours," Oleksandr Turchynov, chief of the National Security and Defense Council, said in televised remarks on November 24. "It is a very serious problem for us."

He added that "a conflict situation is under way between various criminal groups that make up the occupational administration on the occupied territories."

Fighting between Kyiv's forces and the Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.

Moscow denies involvement in the conflict, despite compelling evidence to the contrary. Moscow also says it respects Ukraine's territorial integrity although it annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in March 2014 and controls part of Ukraine's border over Kyiv's objections.

Several cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed to resolve the conflict -- have failed to hold.

The latest cease-fire was agreed on August 22 in a phone call between the leaders of Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine. Kyiv and the separatists regularly trade accusations of cease-fire violations.

The spike in violence overnight comes amid an apparent power struggle among Russia-backed separatists in Luhansk. Rumors have swirled for days that the separatist leader in the region, Igor Plotnitsky, has fled to Russia.

Plotnitsky had previously fired the region's so-called interior minister, Igor Kornet, and then accused him of organizing a coup against the separatist leadership.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on November 22 that Russia was closely following the situation in Luhansk, where armed men in unmarked uniforms have taken up positions in recent days.

But Peskov declined to comment on Plotnitsky's whereabouts on November 24, saying that "this is not an issue that the presidential administration deals with," Russia's state-run TASS news agency reported.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and TASS
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said that European partners are disappointed with the pace of reforms in Ukraine, and the current leaders in Kyiv are "part of the corruption" in the country. In an interview in Brussels with RFE/RL on the sidelines of the EU Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels on November 23, Tymoshenko said the current Ukrainian government had to do more to live up to "European values." (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Prosecutors argued earlier this month that Oscar Pistorius failed to show genuine remorse after killing his girlfriend. The decision by the five judges was unanimous. The Paralympic athlete shot dead Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentines Day in 2013 when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet. He claimed all the time that he believed he was shooting an intruder. He pleaded not guilty.



Pistorius in Court  old photo

Nazreen Shaik Peremanov, a constitutional law expert at the University of South Africas law school, told AFP that Pistorius could now appeal the latest sentence at the countrys highest court  the Constitutional Court bur But National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson sustains we always maintained as an institution that this appeal is not about an individual. It has got everything to do with the proper administration of justice. The year before he killed Steenkamp, Pistorius became the first double-amputee to race at the Olympics when he competed at the London 2012 games. He also was an ambassador for disabled people worldwide. Pistorius brother, Carl, wrote now on Twitter: Shattered. Heartbroken. Gutted.
Notes: What if Navy blitz becomes blueprint? Notre Dame 'would welcome that'
Malik Muhammad Jayasi sure composed his magnum opus Padmavat, glorifying a Rajput legend of valour, and casting one of the most powerful, competent Muslim kings as the villain of his narrative. Why is there an issue with Padmavati despite Sanjay Leela Bhansali reiterating that his movie is based on Jayasi's work?

Malik Muhammad Jayasi belonged to the Chishtia order of Sufis. His miracle-legends have been part of popular memory. The most stunning miracle he performed -- the Padmawat -- has been around physically for five centuries. Jayasi composed his magnum opus in 1540 in Awadhi, its manuscripts were mostly found written in the Persian script. Taking the legend of Padmini from the oral traditions of Rajputana, Jayasi created a fascinating texture of legend, history and mythology (Hindu as well as Islamic), drawing liberally from his vast knowledge and life experiences. Padmawat was apparently an instant hit in the literary circles of north India, and was also translated into Bengali in the sixteenth century itself. Thus, to Jayasi goes the credit of taking the Padmawati legend to Bengal; wherefrom a number of novels, plays and poems glorifying the Rajputs were to emanate in the nineteenth century.

Ever since Ramchandra Shukla, the most influential historian of Hindi literature, published his edition of Padmawat (1924), its excerpts have inevitably been included in Hindi syllabuses, from schools to post-graduate programmes. Shukla situated the text in a historical context in which after initial conflicts, Hindus and Muslims were coming to terms with each other: "A century ago, Kabir had already castigated bigotry of every kind. One is not sure of the pundits and mullas, but ordinary people had recognised the unity of Ram and Rahim...only those sadhus and fakirs could hope to win popular admiration who seemed beyond discriminating on religious lines... For Hindus and Muslims alike, it was time to open up to each other. People were tending towards sharing rather than distancing. Muslims were willing to listen to the Ram story of the Hindus and Hindus were ready to hear the Dastan of Hamza... and sometimes both tried to explore pathways to God together."

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To Shukla, Padmawat was a luminous signpost of this shared search of the pathway to God. He wrote about Padmawat with as great a passion and critical acumen as he did about his most favourite poet - Tulsidas. Taking a cue from the "last stanzas" of the epic, which supposedly "hold the key" to Sufi content "hidden" in the text, he thought it was an allegory of Sufi spiritual practice. But, Mata Prasad Gupta, the great text-critic and scholar of the early modern vernacular literature of north India, in his edition of Padmawat (1963), based on a comparative study of sixteen manuscripts of different periods, comes to the convincing conclusion that the so-called 'key stanzas' were "added to the text much later." He concludes that far from an allegory of any kind, Jayasi was, in fact, composing a richly layered poem of human desire and love.

PARROT Illustrated manuscript of Jayasi's Padmawat, circa 1750

Jayasi was a practising Sufi, but he did not compose Padmawat to propagate or preach Sufism or any other edition of Islam. He wrote it to celebrate human love, luxuriating in all its aspects - desire, wandering, coupling (described in uninhibited, moving erotica), jealousy, separation, struggle, suffering and sacrifice. If at all he wished to preach anything, it was human, carnal love, which in its deep reaches becomes sublime and transforms the mortal human into the immortal and divine ('manush prem bhayau baikunthi'). At the end of his epic, he is confident that 'anybody listening to this poem, written in blood and tears, is bound to feel-and sing-the pain of love him/herself'. He writes of the inevitability of death and identifies with the universal human desire to leave behind memories: "Who in this world does not long for abiding fame? / I hope the readers of this story also remember my name."

His hope did bear fruit. Even if he is not as popular among the masses as Kabir, Tulsi, Mira or Surdas, his Padmawat fired the imagination of scholars of both literature and history. Apart from Shukla and Gupta mentioned here earlier, the two most important works are: a fascinating Bhashya (a scholarly commentary) on Padmawat by Indologist Vasudeva Sharan Agrawal and a thought-provoking monograph by eminent poet, critic and Lohia acolyte Vijay Dev Narain Sahi.

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It is important to internalise all this to see the current controversy in perspective. Please note that Jayasi glorified a Rajput legend of valour, and in the process cast one of the most powerful and competent Muslim kings as the anti-hero of his narrative. But, he was not penalised by his Muslim peers or benefactors. He presented a brahmin Raghava Chetan as the real villain of the piece, and brahmin sentiments were not hurt. He described with abandon the beauty of Padmini and her love-making with Ratansen, he did not hesitate to describe the jealous fights between Padmawati and Nagmati (Ratansen's first wife) and Rajput modesty was not outraged.

As is expected of a great poet, Jayasi put love and life in the ultimate existential perspective of transience in the face of impending death. In a poignant poetic move, at the end of his saga, Jayasi makes victorious Alauddin reflect not only on his pyrrhic victory (duly noted in the ironic manner he talks of how 'Chittor was taken over by Islam') but also on the nature of insatiable desire. He picks up Ratansen's ashes from his pyre (also the pyre of his two wives) lamenting: 'I actually wanted to avoid this' and continues, 'Desire is insatiable, permanent / but this world is illusory and transient / Insatiable desire man continues to have/ Till life is over and he reaches his grave.'

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Contrast this poignancy with the absurd theatre playing out around a film that in all likelihood will only reiterate smug, self-satisfied stereotypes of Rajput 'valour'. The 'warriors' are announcing rewards for chopping off a woman's nose ostensibly in defence of the honour of another. It's not really about the honour of a woman, but an unmitigated male chauvinist fantasy that denies the woman any individuality, a chauvinism that finds expression in a woman self-immolating or in widow-burning. The glorification of this medieval fantasy continues unfortunately, in subtle and not so subtle ways. Bhansali's film is going to contribute to this glorification. This is the sub-text of claims that the film actually upholds Rajput 'honour'.

Personally speaking, I just detest Bhansali's obsession with vulgar opulence and cannot forgive him for massacring the beautiful self-destructive tragedy of Devdas. But criticising someone for lack of subtlety or genuine understanding of a subject is one thing and issuing death threats is quite another. It is no surprise that many BJP leaders are implicitly or explicitly endorsing such threats. Of late, the Congress chief minister of Punjab has also endorsed the 'right to nurture hurt sentiment'. The violence of 'hurt sentiments' persists despite the 'No Objection' certificates issued by journalists Ved Pratap Vaidik, Arnab Goswami and Rajat Sharma, none of whom can be 'accused' of being left-liberal or 'sickular'.

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It's true that 'freedom of expression' is not limitless, but the limits are set by law, not by armed mobs invoking hurt sentiment. Also, irrespective of the historicity or otherwise of the persona of Padmawati, even an artist as uninspiring as Bhansali has a right to poetic licence. Given the present state of historical knowledge, the character of Padmawati can only be described as legend, and legends happen to be more deeply entrenched in the cultural memory of a people.

This begs the question: what makes your memory or sentiments so brittle? Even if someone has a different take on a shared memory, why should it bother you if you are so attached to it? Asking this question will take the wind out of the politics of hurt sentiment, and put the matter in the realm of rational enquiry which, of course, is anathema to all warriors of hurt sentiments.

Finally, the absence of rational argument doesn't by any means indicate the absence of calculation. There is nothing 'spontaneous' about organised, aggressive display of hurt sentiment of any kind. It is always politically motivated, the gist of which comes out clearly if the right questions are asked. So, ask why there is no outrage against the boss of the production house. Ask if it's mere coincidence that just before the Gujarat elections, the electronic media is obsessing about this 'burning' issue while ignoring seemingly 'mundane' issues like the Rafale deal, the plight of farmers and the bloodshed on the jobs front.

Among all bhakta and sufi poets, Jayasi was the most insistent on his poetic persona. He was also painfully conscious of his 'ugly' appearance and bodily deformities, and confronted them with confidence in the power of his poetry: "Muhammad, poet of love, ugly and frail, causes laughs and jeers / but hearing his verses, nobody can hold back tears."

The poet was conscious of his bodily deformities and could use his poetry as an antidote. Are we willing to face the deformities of our souls, our minds? Are we blessed with an antidote, or just condemned to inch towards a fractured social psyche, a violent society and a dysfunctional state?

(The author is a leading scholar of early modern vernacular literature, a novelist and public intellectual)

--- ENDS ---
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Mountains. Whales. The distant stars. All these things exist in space, and so do we. Our bodies take up a certain amount of space. When we walk to work, we are moving through space. But what is space? Is it even an actual, physical entity? In 1717, a battle was waged over this question. Exactly 300 years later, it continues.

You might think physicists have "solved" the problem of space. The likes of mathematician Hermann Minkowski and physicist Albert Einstein taught us to conceive space and time as a unified continuum, helping us to understand how very large and very little things such as individual atoms move. Nonetheless, we haven't solved the question of what space is. If you sucked all the matter out of the universe, would space be left behind?

Twenty-first century physics is arguably compatible with two very different accounts of space: "relationism" and "absolutism." Both these views owe their popularity to Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), a German-born Queen of Great Britain, who stuck her oar into the philosophical currents swirling around her.

Caroline was a keen philosopher, and in the early 18th century she schemed to pit the leading philosophies of her period against each other. On the continent, philosophers were stuck in "rationalism," spinning world theories from armchairs. Meanwhile, British philosophers were developing science-inspired "empiricism"  theories built on observations. They were worshipping scientists such as Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton.

Caroline asked two philosophers to exchange letters. One was the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, rationalist par excellence. The other was the English philosopher Samuel Clarke, a close friend of Newton. The two men agreed, and their exchange was published in 1717 as A Collection of Papers. The dull title doesn't sound like much, but these papers were revolutionary. And one of their central issues was the nature of space.

Everything or nothing?

Is there space between the stars? The relationist Leibniz argued that space is the spatial relations between things. Australia is "south of" Singapore. The tree is "three meters left of" the bush. Sean Spicer is "behind" the bush. That means space would not exist independently of the things it connects. For Leibniz, if nothing existed, there couldn't be any spatial relations. If our universe were destroyed, space would not exist.

In contrast, the absolutist Clarke argued that space is a sort of substance that is everywhere. Space is a giant container, containing all the things in the universe: stars, planets, us. Space allows us to make sense of how things move from one place to another, of how our entire material universe could move through space. What's more, Clarke argued that space is divine: space is God's presence in the world. In a way, space is God. For Clarke, if our universe were destroyed, space would be left behind. Just as you can't delete God, you can't delete space.

The Leibniz-Clarke letters exploded early 18th century thought. Thinkers like Newton, who were already involved in the debate, were dragged deeper in. Newton argued that space was more than the relations between material objects. He argued it was an absolute entity, that everything moves in relation to it. This led to the distinction between "relative" and "absolute" motion. The Earth moves relative to other material things, such as the sun, but it also moves absolutely  with regard to space.

Others joined the party later, like Immanuel Kant. He believed space is just a concept humans use to make sense of the world, rather than a real entity. It wasn't just philosophers and physicists who had views on space either. All sorts of people had their say, from stocking makers to tenant farmers. One especially unlikely discussion of space turns up in Thomas Amory's 1755 Memoirs: Containing the Lives of Several Ladies of Great Britain.

The problem with God

People were especially edgy about Clarke's view that space is God. Does that mean we're moving through God all the time? God doesn't just see everything, he is everywhere? They also became worried about Big Things. As a whale takes up more space than a holy man, is a whale holier? As mountains are so large, are they like God?

The 20th century philosopher Bertrand Russell once argued we shouldn't worship mere size. "Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less than the larger beast," he wrote. Some 18th century thinkers would have disagreed  they were worried they should be worshipping a hippopotamus over Newton.

Today, the concept of God is disappearing from the debate. Yet some contemporary philosophers, such as Tim Maudlin and Graham Nerlich think that current theories in physics do support Clarke's view (minus the religious parts). Spacetime is one big container, and all of us move around in it.

Other philosophers, such as Kenneth Manders and Julian Barbour, think our best physics is compatible with both views, and there are other reasons to believe Leibniz's theory was right. If the physics really is compatible with absolutism or relationism, then perhaps we should prefer relationism as the simpler theory? After all, why posit a giant entity that acts like a container if we don't have to?

As a historian of space and time, I'm fascinated by how the debate has evolved, how something that started 300 years ago has unfurled and grown. Clearly, though the Leibniz-Clarke papers are not well known outside of philosophy, the debate they started continues. Caroline of Ansbach has a lot to answer for.

Emily Thomas, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Durham 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. This version of the article was originally published on Space.com.
The James Webb Space Telescope sits in NASA's immense Chamber A at Johnson Space Center after completing its final series of tests in the frigid, airless room.

The James Webb Space Telescope has just emerged into the light after more than 90 days sealed in NASA's giant cryogenic vacuum chamber. The test is crucial to ensuring the next-generation telescope is space-ready before its launch, which is currently scheduled for mid-2019.

James Webb is often touted as Hubble's cosmic successor. The two telescopes have similar mission profiles and overlap in the wavelengths of light they detect. But Webb's main mirror is more than six times the size of Hubble's. It's so large, that engineers had to constructed it out of 18 individual segments, which will unfold and align once it reaches its destination.

The mirror alignment was one of the systems that NASA tested inside Chamber A, the cavernous cryogenic vacuum chamber at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The team placed Webb's optical telescope and integrated science instrument module (OTIS) through many tests in the chamber, according to a statement the agency released on Monday (Nov. 20). Engineers monitored the telescope during testing with thermal sensors and specialized cameras. [NASA Upgrades Historic Giant Vacuum Chamber for Space Telescope]

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is an $8.8 billion space observatory built to observe the infrared universe like never before. See how NASA's James Webb Space Telescope works in this Space.com infographic (Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Infographics Artist)

These vacuum tests require precision preparation. Material can vaporize in the low pressures inside the chamber and subsequently condense on the telescope's cold surfaces, damaging its components. Cleaning the chamber was no small task  check out the video above to see how NASA did it.

Once the chamber was spotless, the team could begin gradually cooling it over the course of a month. The chamber sits within two shrouds Russian-doll-style: The outer one contains liquid nitrogen and the inner one cold gaseous helium. The telescope's operating temperature is a frigid 40 Kelvin (about minus 387 Fahrenheit / minus 233 Celsius). In space, a giant sun shield will protect the telescope from heat and radiation, according to NASA.

The cryo-tests required the whole team. "This test team spanned nearly every engineering discipline we have on Webb," Lee Feinberg, Webb's optical telescope element manager, said in the NASA statement. Testing continued in the serenity of Chamber A even as Hurricane Harvey slammed Johnson Space Center and wrecked the greater Houston area.

"After 15 years of planning, chamber refurbishment, hundreds of hours of risk-reduction testing, the dedication of more than 100 individuals through more than 90 days of testing, and surviving Hurricane Harvey, the OTIS cryogenic test has been an outstanding success," Bill Ochs, project manager for the James Webb Space Telescope said in the statement.

James Webb's optical telescope and science instruments will next travel to Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, Calif., where they will be combined with Webb's spacecraft element. The entire observatory will undergo more testing before it's finally launched in 2019.

Email Harrison Tasoff at htasoff@space.com or follow him @harrisontasoff. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
It's Black Friday and if you're a space fan looking to escape from shopping madness, NASA has what you need: #BlackHoleFriday.

For the fifth year in a row, NASA is showcasing its latest and greatest black hole discoveries with a cosmic takeover of the space agency's homepage and social media channels.

"It may be the Black Friday shopping holiday, but for us, it's the space version - the fifth annual #BlackHoleFriday," NASA officials wrote in a statement. "Today, NASA's social media accounts and website will post pictures and share information about black holes, regions in space where the pulling force of gravity is so strong that light is not able to escape. In recent years, NASA instruments have painted a new picture of these strange objects that are, to many, the most fascinating objects in space."

You can make the most of your #BlackHoleFriday at NASA.gov here. And if you're looking for space-age swag, the European Space Agency's store is hosting an actual Black Hole Friday Sale online. You can see what's available at the ESAshop here.

But if you truly must shop, Space.com has you covered too. Check out our Black Friday and gift guides for kids and adults here:
I f you asked him, the fast-talking man who runs the UKs second biggest airport  a trained electrician  could rewire your house. But Stewart Wingate, the chief executive of Gatwick, has had less success rewiring the Governments thinking over its biggest aviation decision of the decade.

Wingates slogan was Gatwick, Obviously but the Airports Commission thought differently: it went for a third runway at Heathrow in 2015 after a ding-dong battle between the nations biggest airports.

The ferocity of the debate was such that the 46-year-old native of County Durham earned himself a rebuke from the Commissions chairman Sir Howard Davies for colourful language which does him and his company no credit.

Sitting in his functional office above the South Terminal decked out in the corporate teal, Wingate is unapologetic for stating his case forcibly. And results this week added weight to his claim over the need for expansion at the West Sussex airport.

Gatwick will handle nearly 46 million passengers this year  four million more than the commission reckoned it would see more than a decade hence in 2030. And it isnt just the short-haul holiday flights to the sun either: Gatwick is the busiest single-airport runway in the world with more than 60 long-haul routes, and a host of contenders with their eyes on the valuable slots left by the demise of Monarch two months ago.

Wingate  grey-haired and tieless in a metallic-blue shirt  is keen to put the Punch and Judy show of the past few years behind him. But updated reports published last month by the Department for Transport on the impact of airport expansion in the South-East have opened the door a chink. They put the economic benefit of expanding Gatwick marginally ahead of Heathrow for the first time.

So its no wonder the Gatwick boss still wants his runway, although for him its not an either/or decision. He says the offers on the table for a 7.8 billion privately financed strip, on land safeguarded for such an eventuality since the Seventies. No matter what happens at Heathrow, whether they build a runway or they dont  we revert back to ourselves. Undoubtedly, the thing that has happened to us over the last seven or eight years is that weve grown significantly and were now full so we need a new runway.

The growth has been rapid since Global Infrastructure Partners  a fund set up by US industrial giant General Electric and Credit Suisse  bought it for 1.5 billion in 2009 on the break-up of former owner BAA.

GIP has 42%, with major pension funds owning the remainder. Passenger numbers will hit 50 million in the years ahead, and Gatwicks potential has been continually underestimated, he claims.

One of the challenges of the Airports Commission was that they configured the debate as should it be one at Heathrow or one at Gatwick  and that led to this big public spat and Punch and Judy show between the countrys two biggest airports. Id argue that wasnt really such a wise outcome Surely we should push on and do one at both.

Anti-expansion campaigners take a different view. Sally Pavey, chairman of Communities Against Gatwick Noise and Emissions, calls Wingate a jolly chap and a very good salesman but maintains: Our roads are becoming increasingly congested because there is only one rail link and one access road. Realistically the only way to get to Gatwick airport is by car. Its not just suffering aircraft noise but also the choking of roads and investment in our infrastructure. For all those increases in freight and passengers there is a price and communities are paying the price.

Wingate points to the 30 million Gatwick spent on improvements to the railway station, increased links to north London and beyond and a doubling of seat capacity with new 12-carriage trains (although on a day where glitches on the snazzy new Gatwick Express trains have made me half an hour late for the interview, that grates slightly). Road links around the airport from the M23 will also be improved  if it gets the go-ahead for the runway.

That project would dwarf the 1.7 billion already spent in the past eight years on Gatwick, which started life as the Surrey Aero Club back in 1930. But hes been no stranger to grands projets from early in his career.

The Bishop Auckland-born son of an electrical engineer  a staunch Newcastle United fan and comprehensive-school boy made good  surprised his teachers by quitting school at 16 to take an apprenticeship with US power tools maker Black & Decker. It was a time when the North-East was in transition from heavy mining, steelworks and shipbuilding towards lighter manufacturing.

He combined shopfloor experience with studies at college, eventually winning a first-class degree in electrical and electronic engineering. You got your hands dirty and you learned these life skills, he says. (He still surprises engineering teams at Gatwick occasionally with his torque wrench handiwork.)

At Black & Decker, advancement came fast: he was sent to Germany for 18 months and then  only in his late twenties  moved a young family to the Czech Republic to set up a brand new factory in Usti nad Labem, near the German border.

Worries over uprooting his family put him off the next move to China or the US. So the shift into airports came in 2004 when Stephen Baxter  a friend from his B&D days and then running Glasgow Airport  heard he was looking around and offered him the job of chief operating officer; once there, his experience in eastern Europe flagged him up to BAAs chief executive Mike Clasper, who sent him to Budapest to run its newly bought airport.

Ferrovials 10.3 billion takeover of BAA in 2006 quickly ended the Hungarian adventure as the airport was first on Ferrovials for sale list before the credit crunch (although we got out with our shirt on our back). So in 2007 he was back in the UK running Stansted, which welcomed Barack Obama and other world leaders for the G20 summit in 2009 and generated some interesting memorabilia for his two girls (presidential M&Ms from Air Force One, no less). In 2009, he moved to Gatwick after GIP bought the airport, and pitched into the runway debate.

Second runway or no, Wingate will be a wealthy man when GIP sells up, with a bonus of up to 5 million potentially coming his way. That day is nearing as GIPs fund has a 10-year life, so some deal should be done over the next two or three years. The other investors  Abu Dhabis sovereign wealth fund, and pension funds from South Korea, Australia and the US  are likely to take a bigger stake, with the financial firepower to back any development.

He wont say how much he thinks the airports worth, but points out that profits were 170 million when GIP bought the airport: theyve more than doubled since then. One analyst reckons the price tag when Gatwick is eventually sold could be as high as 3.7 billion.

Evidence of the demand is the bunfight for the 22 Monarch slots at Gatwick after the airlines collapse into administration in October. BAs new low-cost long-haul carrier Level is said to be in the hunt with rivals such as Canadas WestJet, Thomas Cook and Norwegian Airlines. The rise of the disrupters whove captured the imagination with cheap long-haul fares has left the slots six times oversubscribed.

The major turbulence ahead, though, is Brexit, and the lack of a deal to replace the Open Skies agreement with the EU, which has the potential to ground flights.

But Wingate again turns that around as another plank in his case for expanding Gatwick capacity, which will be incredibly important after we leave. Political pressure will keep the planes in the air when post-Brexit tickets go on sale, he reckons. Im quietly confident that sanity will prevail on at least that particular issue.

Fingers crossed hes right  even if hell have to wait a bit longer yet for his runway.
A lthough skulking around the world of politics is my day job, over the past week I have been forced into a bit of agonised rethinking by two political dramas, one on the stage, one on TV. The first came when I interviewed Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig, stars of James Grahams Labour of Love, currently playing at the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End; the second was watching David Modells documentary, also about Labour, in the run-up to the recent election.

Both the play and the documentary focus on part of a politicians life that is central but hardly ever discussed  still less filmed or dramatised. That is, the constituency office. Labour of Love spans 25 years of politics, seen through the relationship between a local agent  Greig  and her MP, Freeman/James Lyons, all played out against a backdrop of his office in a struggling, economically depressed northern English constituency. I dont want you to think its worthy: its very funny indeed.

Modells BBC documentary The Summer That Changed Everything followed Labour MPs Stephen Kinnock, Sarah Champion, Ruth Cadbury and Lucy Powell from before the election  when they expected humiliation  through the Corbyn surge, to their reflections afterwards. Had they got Jeremy wrong? But again, it was essentially based in their constituencies, from Wales to Manchester, Rotherham to Brentford.

When I spoke to Freeman (you know, Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit; Dr Watson to Benedict Cumberbatchs Sherlock Holmes, Tim in The Office) I found him passionately eloquent, even agitated, about the tough life MPs actually live.

Freeman had made himself a kind of spokesman for Labour but his argument was non-partisan. It was that given what we ask of them  the long hours and the pressures of Westminster  and the abuse we hurl at them, its astonishing that anyone sane goes into politics.

Danish PM schools husband Labour MP Stephen Kinnock

This is the kind of argument often made by politicians while the rest of us snicker and shrug. But when a bright outsider says the same thing, perhaps its time to listen. Also, I think sane people in politics is quite a good idea.

Modell was making subtly different points in his BBC documentary. It was more about the effect of the Corbyn revolution on the Labour Party. And yet, watching harassed politicians and their helpers scurry from door to unwelcoming door, hammer unresponsive phones and plead with derisive voters, it was hard not to feel a twinge of sympathy. A glamorous life, this is not.

In particular, the plight of Ruth Cadbury, the MP for Brentford and Isleworth, was almost heartbreaking. She was seen, clearly nervous, with an unhappy smile, trying to hand out leaflets to commuters, most of them violently rude to her. One attacked her for not answering an email, which turned out to have been sent years before to the previous MP  and then dismissed her as crap anyway. Next we saw Cadbury crouched in a tiny, bleak office pleading with people to vote for her  and wearily putting the phone down on yet another conversation. Then, there she was again, sprinting along wet streets, thrusting leaflets into doors and begging for support. She thought she was going to lose. In fact, thanks in part to Momentum activists, she won. But my heart went out to her.

And it isnt good enough to say: Well, they chose to do it. The personal abuse that MPs get online, by letter and face-to-face, as well as the hard work that good MPs do for their constituents, must surely now put off uncountable numbers of talented, quietly decent people. If the only ones who go into politics are the ideology-fixated and power-crazed folk determined to become Prime Minister, then our democracy is doomed to continue to come apart at the edges.

There are some obvious answers. The main parties must spend more time working out how to support MPs at local level  better computers, better security and some system of passing best practice on that doesnt rely on random conversations in a Commons coffee bar. How do you make sure all your letters get answered within a fortnight? How do you deal with people who persistently turn up at an MPs house and are abusive yet never quite threatening enough to involve the police?

A good MP not only has to be a brilliant administrator and office manager, and an advocate for the poor and powerless, but has to be a media-savvy communicator, a parliamentary operator and be able to absorb and understand complex policy questions. Its the difference between being a decent amateur sprinter and competing in a national decathlon. Some people are good at some bits; few are good at all of it.

We educate and train people to do almost everything, except politics. Shouldnt some college or university open an MA course on practical politics?

Heres my suggestion. We educate and train people to do almost everything, except politics. Apart from poncing about at the Oxford Union pretending youre Benjamin Disraeli, or grinding away in a trade union research department, there is no training. Thats why more people try to become research assistants or bag-carriers to MPs  thus, of course, missing out on real-world experiences that would make them savvy if they ever did the job.

Shouldnt some college or university open an MA course on practical politics? Former MPs, constituency agents, number-crunchers and even journalists could turn up to offer advice.

The Institute for Government sometimes comes close to this, but its more focused on ministers and top civil servants than the poor bloody infantry of Parliament. In the end, political parties would still select the candidates they wanted, but perhaps people who already knew the best way of helping constituents effectively, and had thought seriously about how to combine that with the demands of law-making, would be more appealing to them?

Perhaps its a mad thought. It would certainly be widely mocked. But what politicians do matters a lot to the rest of us. Getting even slightly better prepared and more effective MPs would be as big an advance for Britain as a productivity revolution in engineering, or EU negotiator Michel Barnier deciding that he wanted to give us a brilliant deal.

So thanks to the team behind Labour of Love and thanks, David Modell: you really made me think.
T he Evening Standard's special investigation into modern slavery concludes today.

It has thrown light on the people in the shadows, the men and women in modern London who are in effect the chattels of their taskmasters, who have no liberty to leave them, who are worked mercilessly for the profit of others and whose passports are often in the hands of their controllers.

Many are employed in the sex trade but our investigation has made clear the problem is multifaceted: modern slaves can work in car washes or in nail parlours, in places where they have first-hand contact with the public, as well as out of sight, further back in the supply chains in our economy or in domestic servitude.

The Governments anti-modern slavery commissioner, Kevin Hyland, has commended the Standard for raising awareness of the issue, as has the Met chief with responsibility for the problem.

Hearteningly, since our investigation started, reporting rates have risen.

The grim truth is that London is a hub of modern slavery, where many trafficked individuals end up.

One critical facet of the investigation has been to engage the support of business, from retailers such as Marks & Spencer and Waitrose, to corporate lawyers such as Norton Rose Fulbright with the campaign.

These go out of their way to identify slavery in their supply chain and help others do so. That is often where the problem lies.

But crucially, modern slavery must be addressed in trafficked peoples country of origin.

The Standard's proprietor, Evgeny Lebedev, writes today on Ethiopias efforts to combat the trafficking of its people and on the efforts of the British Government to help it do so: it funds a refuge for former child slaves outside the capital, run by the charity Retrak and supported by this paper.

The Prime Minister has been exemplary on this issue. Modern slavery has to be addressed at source.

The fight goes further. Early next year, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who chaired a round table assembled by this paper on ways to tackle modern slavery, will take its findings to the Vatican, where the Santa Marta group is convening police, government authorities and charities to find a way to tackle modern slavery decisively.

It will be addressed by Pope Francis, who takes a keen interest in the issue.

The struggle against modern slavery goes on, but the readers and businesses that supported our investigation have already made a real difference.

Robot surgeons

The march of the robots isnt all bad news. They can save lives.

Robot machines costing 1 million have treated more than 500 men with advanced prostate cancer this year at University College Hospital.

That number may exceed 600 by the end of the year, and is the most ever performed by an NHS hospital in a year. Surgeons say the centralisation of services means robot-assisted surgery is being offered to more men with the disease.

And although we still value human skill and experience, robot surgery is quicker, safer and has fewer side-effects. This is the future of medicine: human ingenuity and robot-enabled expertise. And London is at its cutting edge.

Not so Black Friday

Black Friday has not, thank goodness, seen anything like the carnage that featured in previous years when bargain-hunting descended into near-riots.

At its best, today means more people are drawn into the high street, where shops have suffered from the move to buying online and the Brexit-related purchasing slump.

Some of todays purchases will be made online but there is no substitute for real shopping, especially at Christmas.
One year on from making their relationship public, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement this morning.

Since making their first official appearance together at September's Invictus Games speculation surrounding an imminent engagement between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry has been rife.

There was the unashamed hand-holding, the 'H' ring and the intriguingly-titled 'husband shirt' Markle wore for said first meeting.

But after an apparent afternoon tea introduction with the Queen at Buckingham Palace out of the way, official confirmation of an engagement seemed inevitable.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to marry

And with the news finally confirmed, we're all obsessing over what Markle's wedding dress might look like.

But while she is a loyal fan of British designers Victoria Beckham and Burberry, it is unlikely that Markle will plump for either brand as their strengths lie in ready-to-wear.

Meghan Markle: The Duchess of Sussex - style file 1 /146 Meghan Markle: The Duchess of Sussex - style file October 25, 2018 Meghan Markle in Nadi, Fiji on October 25, 2018 Getty Images May 8, 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with their baby son PA June 8, 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Trooping of the Colour PA November 11, 2019 The Duchess of Sussex wore a 1,500 Stella McCartney coat at the annual Remembrance Sunday memorial Getty Images March 2021 Harpo Productions January 07, 2020 The Duke And Duchess Of Sussex Visit Canada House, where the Duchess wore a Massimo Dutti slip skirt in an all-brown outfit Getty Images November 9, 2019 Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, arrived in bespoke Erdem Getty Images November 7, 2019 Prince Harry and Duchess of Sussex at The Fields of Remembrance in Westminster Abbey Jeremy Selwyn October 25, 2019 Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend a roundtable discussion on gender equality with The Queens Commonwealth Trust (QCT) and One Young World at Windsor Castle Jeremy Selwyn October 22, 2019 Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends the One Young World Summit Opening Ceremony at Royal Albert Hall Getty Images October 2, 2019 Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits a township with Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex to learn about Youth Employment Services Getty Images October 1, 2019 The Duchess of Sussex visiting Action Aid, a gender based violence education club in Johannesbur PA October 1, 2019 Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, arrives to meet academics and students during a roundtable discussion on female access to higher education with the Association of Commonwealth Universities, at the University of Johannesburg Reuters September 25, 2019 Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits Woodstock Exchange, a women founders/social entrepreneurs event during her royal tour of South Africa with Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Getty Images September 25, 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex along with their son Archie meet with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mrs Tutu at their legacy foundation in Cape Town PA September 24, 2019 Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits Waves for Change, an NGO supporting local surf mentors to provide mental health services to vulnerable young people living in under resourced communities, with Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (not pictured) at Monwabisi Beach, in Cape Town, South Africa Reuters September 24, 2019 Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, attends a reception for young people, community and civil society leaders at the Residence of the British High Commissioner in Cape Town, South Afric Reuters September 23, 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, visit Nyanga township, on the first day of their African tour in Cape Town, South Africa Reuters September 12, 2019 Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrives to launch the Smart Works capsule collection Getty Images September 07, 2019 Meghan (R), Duchess of Sussex attends the Women's Singles final match between Serena Williams of the United States and Bianca Andreescu of Canada on day thirteen of the 2019 US Open Getty Images July 7, 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the christening of their son Archie Chris Allerton July 4, 2019 The Duchess of Sussex at Wimbledon Championships PA June 29, 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the New York Yankees vs Boston Red Sox baseball game PA March 11, 2019 At a Commonwealth Day Youth Event Getty Images March 11, 2019 At the Commonwealth Service Getty Images March 8, 2019 Attending the Queen's Commonwealth Trust Getty Images March 5, 2019 At the fiftieth anniversary of the investiture of the Prince of Wales Getty Images February 25, 2019 At a reception with King Mohammed VI of Morocco Getty Images February 24, 2019 At a reception hosted by the British Ambassador to Morocco Getty Images February 23, 2019 At Casablanca Airport in Morocco Getty Images January 30, 2019 At the National Theatre Getty Images January 16, 2019 At Cirque du Soleil Getty Images January 16, 2019 During a visit to the Mayhew Getty Images January 14, 2019 During a visit to Birkenhead Town Hall Getty Images December 25, 2018 At the Christmas Day Church service Getty Images December 10, 2018 At the British Fashion Awards Getty Images October 26, 2018 At the Australian Geographic Society Awards Getty Images October 25, 2018 Meghan and Prince Harry attend a state dinner in Tonga Getty Images October 23, 2018 Meghan and Harry in Fiji Getty Images October 28, 2018 Meghan and Harry attending an evening reception at Government House in Wellington Getty Images October 27, 2018 At the Invictus Games Sydney Getty Images October 23, 2018 Attending a state dinner in Fiji Getty Images October 24, 2018 Meghan visits the University of the South Pacific Getty Images October 19, 2018 Meghan and Harry visit Bondi Beach Getty Images October 16, 2018 On the couple's royal tour of Sydney Getty Images October 12, 2018 At the wedding of Princess Eugenie of York to Jack Brooksbank Getty Images July 11, 2018 Visiting Croke Park, Ireland Getty Images July 10, 2018 During a royal tour of Ireland PA July 10, 2018 At the RAF centenary service PA July 9, 2018 At the christening of Prince Louis PA July 5, 2018 At Your Commonwealth Youth Challenge reception Getty Images June 26, 2018 At the Queen's Young Leaders Awards Ceremony Getty Images June 19, 2018 At day one of Royal Ascot Getty Images June 14, 2018 During her first engagement to Cheshire with Her Majesty The Queen Getty Images May 22, 2018 At The Prince of Wales' 70th Birthday Patronage Celebration wearing the Goat Flavia Dress Getty Images May 19, 2018 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attend an evening reception at their wedding Getty Images April 23, 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at a memorial service at St Martin-in-the-Fields PA April 21, 2018 The couple attend a reception for Invictus Games at Australia House AFP/Getty Images April 21, 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at the Royal Albert Hall to attend a star-studded concert to celebrate the Queen's 92nd birthday Getty Images April 19, 2018 At a Women's Empowerment reception at the Royal Aeronautical Society Getty Images April 18, 2018 At a reception with delegates from the Commonwealth Youth Forum during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre Getty Images April 6, 2018 At the team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath Sports Training Village in Bath Reuters March 23, 2018 Visiting the Titanic Belfast Getty March 23, 2018 Attending an event to mark the second year of youth-led peace-building initiative Amazing the Space PA March 12, 2018 At a Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey AFP/Getty Images March 8, 2018 At an International Women's Day event at Millennium Point in Birmingham PA March 8, 2018 At an International Women's Day event at Millennium Point in Birmingham PA February 13, 2018 At Edinburgh Castle, during a visit to Scotland AFP/Getty Images February 13, 2018 With Prince Harry during their visit to Scotland AFP/Getty Images February 1, 2018 Attending the Endeavour Fund Awards ceremony Getty Images January 18, 2018 At Cardiff Castle during a visit to Wales Getty Images January 9, 2018 Arriving to visit Reprezent Radio AFP/Getty Images December 25, 2017 At the royals Christmas Day Church service Getty Images December 1, 2017 On an official visit to Nottingham with Prince Harry Getty Images November 27, 2017 With Prince Harry at the official photocall to announce the engagement Getty Images September 25, 2017 With Prince Harry at a Wheelchair Tennis match during the Invictus Games Getty Images September 23, 2017 At the Opening Ceremony of the 2017 Invictus Games PA July 14, 2016 At the 'Today' show in New York MediaPunch/Rex Features May 20, 2016 At the pARTy! - celebrating 25 years of P.S. ARTS Getty Images April 27, 2016 At Glamour's Women Of The Year awards in New York Getty Images March 17, 2016 At AOL Build Speaker Series Startraks Photo/Rex Features November 2, 2015 At the 12th annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards Getty Images June 24, 2015 At NBC Universal Summer Press day MediaPunch/Rex Features May 14, 2015 At the 2015 NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Upfront Getty Images March 10, 2015 At the Step It Up For Gender Equality event Getty Images February 13, 2015 On her way to MADE Fashion Week Rex Features February 13, 2015 At the Wes Gordon runway show during MADE Fashion Week Getty Images October 28, 2014 At the Elton John AIDS Foundation gala Getty Images October 1, 2014 At RELAIS & CHATEAUX 60th Anniversary Guest Chef Dinner Launch Getty Images September 5, 2014 At an exclusive preview of the Marchesa Voyage for ShopStyle collection Getty Images February 8, 2014 At the Herve Leger By Max Azria fashion show during New York Fashion Week Getty Images January 22, 2014 At ELLE's Annual Women in Television Celebration Getty Images November 19, 2013 At the London Global Gift Gala at ME Hotel Getty Images November 11, 2013 At the world premier of 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' in Leicester Square AFP/Getty Images October 2, 2013 At the Gala Tribute for Cate Blanchett during the 51st New York Film Festival Getty Images September 11, 2013 At the Annual Charity Day Hosted By Cantor Fitzgerald And BGC Getty Images September 10, 2013 At the Novak Djokovic Foundation New York dinner Getty Images September 10, 2013 At the Tory Burch fashion show during New York Fashion Week Getty Images September 8, 2013 At the Tracy Reese show during New York Fashion Week MediaPunch/Rex Features September 7, 2013 At the Herve Leger By Max Azria fashion show during New York Fashion Week Getty Images June 16, 2013 At the 2013 MuchMusic Video Awards Getty Images May 16, 2013 At the USA Network 2013 Upfront Event Getty Images January 26, 2013 At the Entertainment Weekly Pre-SAG party Getty Images January 24, 2013 At the ELLE's Women in Television Celebration Getty Images January 13, 2013 At NBC Universal's 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards after party Getty Images September 11, 2012 At the FINCA Canada Fundraiser At TIFF 2012 during the Toronto International Film Festival Getty Images September 5, 2012 At the Rising Stars: 2012 Producers Ball during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival Getty Images February 15, 2012 At the USA Network's and The Moth's Storytelling Tour Getty Images August 26, 2010 At the Some Kind-a Gorgeous Style and Beauty Lounge at the Chateau Marmont Getty Images September 18, 2009 At the DPA pre-Emmy Gift Lounge at the Peninsula Hotel Getty Images

With Markle no doubt looking to established wedding dress designers Jenny Packham and Elie Saab alongside her personal favourites Erdem and Berardi for inspiration, we round up the dresses we'd most like to see the actress wear for the most-talked-about royal wedding of the year.

1. A Simple slip by Antonio Berardi

Since being photographed wearing a navy blue dress from Berardi's 2017 resort collection at the Polo in May, the fashion world have been wondering whether Markle could opt for the ready-to-wear designer for her big day. This elegant slip from the brand's SS17 line with rough hems and tie-shoulders may not be as traditional as is typical of a royal wedding, but it gets our vote.

Tim P. Whitby/Getty

2. Fancy frills by Erdem

Another of her favourite designers, Erdem is a popular choice in the wardrobes of our British royals. A regular choice of the Duchess of Cambridge's, the designer's ability to balance antiquity with modernity in his lace and frills could prove the perfect balance for a contemporary couple's royal wedding.

Getty Images

3. Timeless elegance by Jenny Packham

Another favourite of Kate Middleton's, Jenny Packham would be a safe choice for Markle. Timeless in its elegance with ornate detailing and feminine shape, this dress with capped sleeves and pearl-encrusted sheer neckline would prove a simple but effective option.

Rex Features

4. Modern but modest by Lela Rose

If she's feeling the pressure of such a high-profile wedding, it would be wise to opt for something a little more modest. The lack of sheer fabric or lace on this Lela Rose number renders it perfectly Granny-in-law-is-the-Queen appropriate, while its loose capped sleeves and centre-bodice fastening provide a more contemporary feel.

Getty Images for Kenra Professio

5. Statement shoulders by Marchesa

Despite the contention surrounding Georgina Chapman's brand - her now ex-husband is Harvey Weinstein - it is her wedding dresses that have garnered Marchesa's cult following. This fishtail dress with Bardot sleeves and exaggerated bows would add a welcome surprise to the otherwise presumably rigid and predictable details of the day.

6. Floral embroidery by Elie Saab

Markle's love for a simple aesthetic will likely see her plump for a more basic fabric, but by keeping the shape modest and the sleeves full-length she may feel excited by the prospect of a little embroidery.

7. Frothy frou-frou by Oscar de la Renta

While this heavily-layered tulle dress is no doubt too fussy for Markle, we'd like to throw it out there as an option as it's too delicious to ignore. Meghan, if you're listening, it's never too much.

Getty Images for Kenra Professio

Click here to take a look back over Meghan Markle's fashion history
Today marks the start of a new era for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, as they withdraw from royal life, relinquishing both their duties and their titles.

The couple made their final appearances at a series of events in London at the start of this month, for which Markle chose largely to wear British designers.

From the baby blue Victoria Beckham midi she sported to the Endeavour Awards to the stunning Emilia Wickstead ensemble she wore for her final appearance as a senior royal, the outgoing Duchess demonstrated not only her affinity for block colour, but also her abilities in sartorial diplomacy.

As she now ventures into unchartered territory - it's been confirmed that her first stop post-royal will be providing the voiceover for a Disney+ documentary about elephants - it will be intriguing to see which brands Markle chooses to support.

On becoming a part of the royal family, Meghan was required to transform her relaxed Californian wardrobe overnight. Glossy blowouts replaced her signature messy bun, nude nails replaced colourful polish, and her beloved cross-body bags were, as royal etiquette dictates, swapped for clutch bags.

Tending to stick to a palette of plain colours and neutral hues, Meghans royal wardrobe was elegant and formal, if noticeably heavier on expensive designer brands than her sister-in-law Kates.

On cutting her royal ties, Meghan will once again be able to wear whatever she likes. She will no longer be required to wear tights in public, or formal hats at events, can carry any sort of handbag and paint her nails whatever colour she pleases.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex departs Canada House on January 07, 2020 (Getty Images ) / Getty Images

She will also, interestingly, be able once again to accept free clothes from her network of fashion industry contacts (something that is prohibited for members of the royal family), among them her good friend Misha Nonoo and Givenchys Claire Weight Keller who designed her wedding dress.

In addition to whatever money they make from their upcoming projects, Harry and Meghan, the soon-to-be members of the public, will also continue to receive a steady income from Prince Charles' private Duchy of Cornwall estate, which will also go some way to cover Meghans high end fashion purchases.

While the newfound free reign might mean Meghan embraces an edgier, more high-fashion approach than during her royal years, her recent outings in Canada might suggest Meghans post-royal wardrobe will be more relaxed and down to earth.

Just days after the Sussexes announced that they were stepping down, Meghan visited two Vancouver women's charities in one day for which she wore a cable knit by The Row recycled from her Suits days with jeans and weatherproof boots. And then again a few weeks ago she was spotted getting off a commercial flight in Canadas Victoria International Airport wearing a super casual outfit of jeans, shirt and flats that championed sustainable brands.

Perhaps Meghan will use her newfound position to champion ethical fashion start-ups? Or maybe she will give us a dose of her Suits days glamour with a magazine cover-worthy wardrobe (shes bound to grace the cover of Vogues September issue no?). We wait with bated breath.

Scroll through the gallery above to take a look at Meghan's sartorial highlights over the years.
We behave rather strangely for a country acclaimed as the world's largest democracy. We ban books and films before even reading or seeing them. In October 1988, India became the first country in the world to ban the import of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, within nine days of its release in the UK and much before the rest of the world woke up to the perceived slight to Muslims for what they considered to be blasphemous references. We had, unfortunately, a role to play in it, carrying an exclusive interview with Rushdie and some excerpts from his book in the September 15, 1998, issue of India Today. The initial attacks on the book came from the late Janata Party MP Syed Shahabuddin who alleged that the book was "a deliberate insult to Islam" while admitting that he had not read the book, only the review. Subsequently, there was a fatwa demanding Rusdhie's head by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, which forced the writer into hiding for nine years.

That drama has been replayed in India again and again attacking a variety of art and literature, from Wendy Doniger's books to Bollywood films ranging from Jodhaa Akbar to Udta Punjab. With Padmavati, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus dedicated to the mythical Rani Padmini, the politics has hit a new low. Since work on the film started late last year, Bhansali has been slapped and shoved, threats have been issued to mutilate leading lady Deepika Padukone, and a bounty has been placed on both the director and actor's heads. Powerful chief ministers of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab have banned the release of the film in their states. Meanwhile, a little-known group, calling itself the Karni Sena, led by a former Union minister's son, Lokendra Nath Kalvi, is making political capital from the so-called insult to Rajputs. Not a single one of them has seen the film.

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India has become a republic of "offended sentiments" in which one person's freedom of expression ends where another person's perceived honour begins. The postponement of Padmavati's release underlines several disturbing trends. The most important is the absence of the rule of law. The state did nothing to book Kalvi for hate speech or to ensure that the Central Board of Film Certification completes due process for its timely release. Then there is the question of artistic licence. The world over, filmmakers are making movies and TV series on living figures, such as Netflix's The Queen, and recent history, such as Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk. Most of all, the politics of Padmavati has exposed the rampant desire under way in some quarters to reimagine our history in simplistic terms as valorous Hindus versus evil Islamic invaders. In such a charged environment, facts don't matter, emotions do. So it doesn't matter that Bhansali's film is based on a poem, Malik Muhammad Jayasi's Padmavat, written in 1540, more than 200 years after Rani Padmini of Chittor is said to have immolated herself to defend her honour against Alauddin Khilji. Based on the historical record, there is no evidence that Khilji attacked Chittor for Padmini rather than the mundane reasons of territorial conquest. Or indeed whether Padmini existed. But none of that matters to those who cannot see beyond their own agenda.

Senior Associate Editor Suhani Singh who reported this story believes the postponement of Padmavati and Kalvi's threat that he'll ensure it remains in cold storage is a blow to filmdom. It'll make filmmakers think twice before tackling subjects out of the ordinary. There's also deafening silence from some of the most powerful people in the industry amidst a culture of fear. "All their muscle-flexing is restricted to the screen," says Suhani.

The fundamental problem is that we still think in terms of caste and community and how we can further our self-interest. In a country beset with such serious problems as a slowing economy, crumbling infrastructure, suffocating pollution, ailing healthcare and a pathetic education system, the national conversation is dominated by a mythical character. It doesn't reflect well on us as a nation with claims to modernity and democracy.

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W olf Alice

Nov 24, Alexandra Palace, N22 (0870 444 5556, alexandrapalace.com)

While indie rock is supposed to be in the doldrums, this London band are doing very nicely. Their second album, Visions of a Life, went to number two last month and now they play their biggest hometown show.

Black Lips

Nov 24, Coronet, SE1 (0871 230 6230, coronettheatre.co.uk)

The Coronet in Elephant & Castle is doomed for redevelopment and doesnt have many events left in its calendar. This party starring Atlantas Black Lips, as well as Future of the Left and Madonnatron, is billed as the venues final rock concert.

Little Mix

Nov 25-26, O2 Arena, SE10 (0844 824 4824, the02.co.uk)

A year since their fourth album became their first UK number one, the girl group arrive at the O2 to romp through one of the decades more impressive collections of hit singles.

The Killers

Nov 27-28, O2 Arena, SE10 (0844 824 4824, the02.co.uk)

Theyve played a massive Hyde Park and smaller Brixton show already this year, but that doesnt seem to have dampened desire for two more opportunities to try the Killers live experience.

Spotify presents: Who We Be Live

Nov 30, Alexandra Palace, N22 (0870 444 5556, alexandrapalace.com)

Spotify moves into the concert arena by bringing one of its most popular playlists to life as an urban music showcase featuring appearances from Dizzee Rascal, Bugzy Malone, J Hus and Giggs.
s Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat  and now is the optimum time to book tickets for one of the many festive hows to which London will play host this year.

As ever, theres a bumper range of pantos on offer  oh yes, there is  and ballet-lovers can choose between two different versions of The Nutcracker. There are Christmas-themed plays for audience members of all ages at venues big and small, as well as new musical productions. Here are our juiciest selections of the season. Enjoy!

Barnum

The Meniers winter-time musicals have long been something to savour and tuneful, circus-themed Barnum promises to be another treat. Comedian Marcus Brigstocke is impresario PT Barnum, the greatest showman on Earth, alongside musical theatre star Laura Pitt-Pulford as his loyal wife Charity.

Menier Chocolate Factory, SE1, tomorrow until Mar 3; menierchocolatefactory.com

The Box of Delights

Poet Laureate John Masefields beautiful Christmas-themed book from 1935, with its young orphan hero Kay Harker and haunting refrain When the wolves were running, has delighted generations of children and grown-ups. Now at last it is brought to the stage for the first time by a talented creative team; Matthew Kelly stars.

Wiltons Music Hall, E1, Dec 1-Jan 6; wiltons.org.uk

Cinderella

Writer/director Susie McKenna and her crack team of Christmas theatre elves have long made Hackney the capitals go-to panto destination, a home of quality and originality. Its not a title theyll want to relinquish.

Hackney Empire, E8, until Dec 31; hackneyempire.co.uk

A Christmas Carol

If ever a theatre doesnt want to dwell on the ghosts of Christmas Past this year, its surely The Old Vic. Hopefully Harry Potter playwriting wizard Jack Thorne will cast the right sort of spell with his new version of the Dickens classic, starring the charismatic Rhys Ifans as Scrooge.

The Old Vic, SE1, until Jan 20; oldvictheatre.com

Dear Brutus

This year marks the centenary of Peter Pan genius JM Barries rarely performed play for adults, in which rumours abound of an enchanted wood in a remote English village and a group of strangers gathers.

Southwark Playhouse, SE1, Nov 29-Dec 30; southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

Cinderella

Matthew Bourne and his groundbreaking New Adventures company returns with one of its best-loved dance shows, which audaciously transposes the Cinderella story to London in the Blitz. Cinderellas love interest is now a dashing RAF pilot.

Sadlers Wells, EC1, Dec 9-Jan 27; sadlerswells.com

Dick Whittington

Expect dick jokes galore as Julian Clary unleashes his waspish tongue on West End panto once more. Clary plays Spirit of the Bells, Elaine Paige is Queen Rat and lovable Charlie Stemp from Half a Sixpence is young master Whittington.

London Palladium, W1, Dec 9-Jan 14; dickwhittingtonpalladium.com

The Fitzrovia Radio Hours A Christmas Carol

Those crystalline 1940s voices from comedy troupe The Fitzrovia Radio Hour turn their mischief as well as their RP to Dickens, reimagining the classic story as a 1940s radio broadcast.

Paradiso Spiegeltent, WC2, Dec 8-30; christmasinleicestersquare.com

Hamilton

Its nearly time! Lin-Manuel Mirandas multi-award-winning, box-office-busting American musical smash hit, about American founding father and West Indian immigrant Alexander Hamilton, is almost upon us.

Victoria Palace, SW1, from Dec 6; hamiltonthemusical.co.uk

Jack and the Beanstalk

Wimbledon is one of the capitals few long-standing purveyors of commercial panto, and this year it has scored a coup in snaffling former Hackney Empire favourite Clive Rowe to play Jacks mother Dame Trot. Comedian Al Murray, of Pub Landlord fame, joins in the fun as Jacks brother Idle Al.

New Wimbledon, SW19, Dec 9-Jan 14; atgtickets.com

The Jungle

Those who believe Christmas is a time for checking their privilege should head south of the river, where Stephen Daldry co-directs this piece about Europes largest unofficial refugee camp, the Calais Jungle. Among the cast are some performers with direct experience of life in the camp.

Young Vic, SE1, Dec 7-Jan 6; youngvic.org

Nativity! The Musical

Debbie Isitt adapts for the theatre her hit Brit films about a primary school staging its annual nativity play. The X Factors Louis Walsh makes his stage debut in the role of Hollywood producer. Might stardom beckon for the youngsters?

Eventim Apollo, W6, Dec 13-17; eventimapollo.co.uk

Jack and the Beanstalk

Tristram Kenton

The Lyric certainly knows how to do Christmas, welcoming in family audiences aplenty with its annual panto knees-up. Comedian Vikki Stone, such a joyous baddie last year, returns as the evil beanstalk-topping giant Fleshcreep.

Lyric Hammersmith, W6, until Jan 6; lyric.co.uk

The Nutcracker

Ballet-lovers of all ages thrill to the sugar-plum-packed annual seasonal treat that The Nutcracker offers. Londons two premiere ballet companies, the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet, are both taking up a long residency in Nutcracker land and showing off some of their finest dancers.

ENB: London Coliseum, WC2, Dec 13-Jan 6; ballet.org.uk

Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House, WC2, Dec 5-Jan 10; roh.org.uk

Pinocchio

John Tiffany, the ever-inventive director who waved his magic wand over Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Dennis Kelly, writer of Matilda the Musical, turn their attention to the little wooden puppet in a new adaptation that includes songs from the Disney film. Give a Little Whistle

Nationals Lyttelton, SE1, Dec 1-Apr 10; nationaltheatre.org.uk

The Snow Queen

Polka, one of the countrys leading theatre venues specifically for children, presents a new version of the Hans Christian Andersen story.

Polka, SW19, until Feb 4; polkatheatre.com

Snow White & Rose Red

The acclaimed RashDash company uses the Brothers Grimm fairy tale to present a refreshingly female-slanted show  no droopy heroines hanging around and awaiting rescue here  for ages five up.

Battersea Arts Centre, SW11, Nov 29-Dec 30; bac.org.uk

The Twilight Zone

Fans of the classic black-and-white Sixties CBS television series are in for a treat, as an adaptation of the sci-fi stories lands on stage for the first time. The Almeida, one of the capitals classiest theatres, is sure to treat the stories well, and inventively.

Almeida, N1, Dec 5-Jan 27; almeida.co.uk

Wilde Creatures

The West Ends current year-long celebration of Oscar Wilde offers something for younger folk at Christmas with this hour-long musical adventure based on his fairy tales. Expect characters from The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose and The Birthday of the Infanta. Tall Stories, the company behind the hugely successful stage adaptation of The Gruffalo, masterminds the fun.

Vaudeville, WC2, Dec 15-31, wildecreatures.com
T he family of an 18-year-old apprentice carpenter stabbed to death in an apparently unprovoked attack in north London have said knife crime is "out of control" in the capital.

Jason Isaacs was on a night out with friends in Northolt on Saturday when they were targeted by balaclava-clad attackers on mopeds in a "pre-planned attack".

The group fled for their lives, but the teenager became separated before being stabbed multiple times with a large knife.

Critically injured, Mr Isaacs was rushed to hospital where he died on Tuesday.

Police at the scene of the stabbing in Northolt / Nigel Howard

There have been a total of 18 fatal stabbings involving teenagers in London this year.

The Metropolitan Police has announced a 20,000 reward for information that leads to the identification, arrest and prosecution of those responsible for Mr Isaacs' "truly horrific" death.

Talented footballer Kacem Mokran died two days after being stabbed in Walthamstow

In a statement issued with the appeal, the teenager's family called for more to be done to stop knife crime.

"We feel that knife crime in this area, and in London, is out of control and it must be stopped before another young life is taken, and another family has to suffer what we are suffering now," they said.

"We need to educate young people early on around the dangers of carrying knives in public places."

Mr Isaacs is the 23rd teenager to be violently killed in London this year. The 24th was Kacem Mokrane, also 18.

Eighteen of these violent killings were stabbings. The number of teenagers slain in the capital is now double the figure of 12 in the whole of last year.

Mr Isaacs was fatally wounded after being ambushed by a gang on two scooters and stabbed multiple times in what police described as a pre-planned attack by youths armed with a large knife.

The assailants returned to their scooters and fled following the attack at 10.30pm on Saturday in Newnham Close  the same street where Mr Isaacs close friend Abdullahi Tarabi, 19, was stabbed to death in April.

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the attack and bailed pending further investigation.
A man groped two women after repeatedly grabbing the bottom of a City worker on the Tube, a court heard.

The woman said she felt Mohammed Osmani, 36, touch her as they stood next to each other on the busy rush-hour Metropolitan line train.

She texted friends to say Im pretty sure someone is touching me on the train as Osmani repeatedly put his hand on her bottom, it was alleged.

When the woman got out at Liverpool Street she said she found herself walking behind Osmani. I saw him walking very closely behind a woman, and accidentally-on-purpose he tripped over to have to hold her by the waist, she told Blackfriars crown court.

It seemed to me to be fairly orchestrated. He was trying to use his fingers to make contact with her bottom in a flicking motion.

She said she saw Osmani again flicking towards a third womans bottom as he left the station. He was making the same motion several times over, but I dont believe it was forceful enough to have had a significant effect or alert this woman to it.

Describing her experience on October 24 last year, she said she initially thought the contact was accidental as they were squashed into the carriage but realised it was intentional when it happened several times. She took a picture of the man when she saw him trying to grab the third womans bottom.

Prosecutor Patricia Deighan told the court Osmani, of North Harrow, accepts he was the man but he denies sexual assault. The trial continues.

Update: Mohammed Osmani was acquitted at the end of the trial - to see the Standard's report click here. 28/11/17
F ormer AC Milan and Manchester City striker Robinho has been sentenced to nine years in jail by a court in Milan on charges of sexual assault.

Robinho's lawyer said the 33-year-old, who is currently playing for Atletico Mineiro in his native Brazil, denied the charges and will appeal against the court's decision.

News agency ANSA reported that five other men were also accused of violently sexually assaulting an Albanian woman and that another member of the group, Ricardo Falco, was also sentenced to nine years in jail.

The other four men had not been found by Italian police, ANSA said.

Robinho's lawyer Marisa Alija said: "We clarify that he has already defended himself from these allegations, and insist he had no participation in that episode."

Brazil does not extradite its own citizens when they are sentenced in other countries.

Robinho began his career with Santos before leaving Brazil in 2005 for a three-year spell with Real Madrid.

He then joined Manchester City and moved to AC Milan in 2010, spending five years under contract with the Serie A club. After a brief stay at Chinese team, Guangzhou Evergrande, he joined Atletico Mineiro last year.

He has made 100 international appearances for Brazil.
P olice have launched an armed response to reports of gunfire as Oxford Street was placed on lock down on one of the busiest shopping nights of the year.

Oxford Circus Tube station was evacuated and shoppers were told to stay indoors as emergency services swarmed the capital's busiest shopping street.

Scotland Yard has warned tourists and shoppers at the scene to go into a building and stay inside.

Police were called to reports of shots fired on Oxford Street and at the Tube station shortly after 4.30pm.

FOLLOW OUR LIVE COVERAGE HERE.

Oxford Street false terror alert 1 /18 Oxford Street false terror alert The scene in Oxford Street in London after police responded to a number of reports of shots being fired PA People run down Oxford Street following reports of shots being fired REUTERS People run down Oxford Street following reports of shots being fired REUTERS Armed London police officers react to the incident EPA Armed police officers stand on Oxford Street REUTERS Pedestrians react and rush from the scene during the incident EPA The scene in Oxford Street after police responded to the false alarm PA Pedestrians react near Oxford Circus tube station EPA Armed London police officers at the scene in Oxford Street EPA Met Police officers move people away from Oxford Street EPA Met Police officers react to the incident EPA Armed police patrol near Oxford street as they respond to the incident AFP/Getty Images Armed police patrol along Oxford street AFP/Getty Images Met Police officers at the scene EPA

A spokesman said: "Police have responded as if the incident is terrorist related. Armed and unarmed officers are on scene and dealing along with colleagues from British Transport Police."

Oxford circus incident - crowds leave department store

The spokesman later added: "To date police have not located any trace of any suspects, evidence of shots fired or casualties. Updates will be provided as soon as we have them."

Witnesses reported being locked inside shops including Zara and Urban Outfitters.

Other panicked shoppers began screaming and running amid the large police presence in the area.

Witness Lilly Steger told the Standard: "There were screams and then everybody started running. I thought originally it was a car driving into traffic but then we heard gunshots. Everybody ran into stores or hotels.

Armed police officers direct shoppers in an Oxford Street / REUTERS

"A window shattered in front of us at Debenhams but Im not sure if it was a gun or somebody in a panic trying to get it.

"We ran in a hotel. police arent letting anyone outside yet."

American Laila Harilela told CNN: I was on the corner of Oxford and Poland when there was a big scream from a stampede of people rushing towards myself and maybe four or five other people.

None of us knew what to do so we ran with the stampede and tried to get into any shops and EE was very kind enough to allow ten of us in.

It was a whole stampede that pushed us through on Oxford Street and as we were on the ground floor of EE we heard little pops

Now weve been pushed up to a higher level to keep us safe.

The scene in Oxford Street in London after police responded to a number of reports of shots being fired / PA

Special effects worker Ellis Parry was near the scene.

He said: I was with colleagues and we were walking back to the office at the time and we heard sirens going. We were told by work to get back to the office.

"People were running everywhere. Police told us to go inside. We are now inside and dont know whats going on.

One person wrote on Twitter: "Everyone sprinting off Oxford Street after loads of sirens what has happened?"

Another witness named Caroline Rigby said: "Loads of people running. Now locked in building with street in lockdown."
N ine people were taken to hospital after a terror scare sparked mass panic on Londons busiest shopping street.

Armed police raced to Oxford Circus Tube station and Oxford Street after receiving 999 calls reporting that shots had been fired.

But around 90 minutes after responding, police said there was no evidence of any shots, casualties or suspects.

London Ambulance Service said the casualties were hurt while fleeing shops and the Tube station as chaos erupted.

Stuart Crichton, London Ambulance Service assistant director of operations, said: "We checked over and treated several patients who sustained injuries while leaving the Oxford Circus area.

"We discharged seven patients at the scene and took eight patients to two central London hospitals for minor injuries.

Oxford Street false terror alert 1 /18 Oxford Street false terror alert The scene in Oxford Street in London after police responded to a number of reports of shots being fired PA People run down Oxford Street following reports of shots being fired REUTERS People run down Oxford Street following reports of shots being fired REUTERS Armed London police officers react to the incident EPA Armed police officers stand on Oxford Street REUTERS Pedestrians react and rush from the scene during the incident EPA The scene in Oxford Street after police responded to the false alarm PA Pedestrians react near Oxford Circus tube station EPA Armed London police officers at the scene in Oxford Street EPA Met Police officers move people away from Oxford Street EPA Met Police officers react to the incident EPA Armed police patrol near Oxford street as they respond to the incident AFP/Getty Images Armed police patrol along Oxford street AFP/Getty Images Met Police officers at the scene EPA

"We also took one patient to a major trauma centre for leg injuries."

There was panic among rush-hour commuters and Black Friday shoppers in central London on Friday, with hundreds of people fleeing the scene.

Oxford Circus Tube and Bond Street stations have reopened, cordons have been removed and the area has returned to normal.

This includes the Royal Variety Performance at the nearby London Palladium going ahead as planned, although the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge was delayed.

British Transport Police (BTP) received reports at 4.37pm of gunfire on the westbound Central Line platform. Shortly afterwards the Metropolitan Police also took similar calls.

Oxford Circus and surrounding area evacuated after gun fired

BTP said there was "a significant level of panic", adding it was "examining the circumstances of the incident which resulted in the station being evacuated".

Describing the panic, BBC producer Helen Bushby said: "I was just walking down from the BBC towards the Tube and there was a mass stampede away from the Tube as fast as they could.

"They were crying, they were screaming, they were dropping their shopping bags. It was a very panicked scene.

"People said they heard a gunshot and panic was just spreading."

Armed police officers direct shoppers in an Oxford Street / REUTERS

Jace Tyrrell, of the New West End Company, said it was a relief once it was confirmed to be a false alarm.

He added: "The police service acted extremely quickly and efficiently to secure and lockdown the area, demonstrating how incredibly well prepared they are to respond.

"Retailers, restaurants and businesses also came together to protect the public and their staff.

"This is a very high footfall area and safety and security are number one priorities for everyone working in the district.

"A police presence remains in the area to support the public."

The scene in Oxford Street in London after police responded to a number of reports of shots being fired / PA

Witnesses reported being locked inside shops including Zara and Urban Outfitters.

Other panicked shoppers began screaming and running in a stampede amid the large police presence in the area.

Witness Lilly Steger told the Standard: "There were screams and then everybody started running. I thought originally it was a car driving into traffic. Everybody ran into stores or hotels.

"A window shattered in front of us at Debenhams. We ran in a hotel."

A police cordon on Oxford Street / PA

American Laila Harilela told CNN: I was on the corner of Oxford and Poland when there was a big scream from a stampede of people rushing towards myself and maybe four or five other people.

None of us knew what to do so we ran with the stampede and tried to get into any shops and EE was very kind enough to allow ten of us in.It was a whole stampede that pushed us through on Oxford Street and as we were on the ground floor of EE we heard little pops."

He said: I was with colleagues and we were walking back to the office at the time and we heard sirens going. We were told by work to get back to the office. "People were running everywhere. Police told us to go inside."

Additional reporting by Press Association.
T he entrance to Lydia House, on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, is marked by two red buckets filled with flowers. A metal gate opens onto a courtyard, where girls, some as young as eight, are waiting happily for a turn on the ping pong table that sits in the shade of a tall tree.

There is no hint of the miseries these brave children have endured. Yet this is one of the centres run by the charity Retrak, which provides support for trafficked children. Here, with the help of British funding and expertise and with the backing of the Evening Standards anti-modern slavery initiative, some of Ethiopias most vulnerable children are being given a fresh chance. As our special investigation comes to an end, I wanted to see their work for myself.

When these young girls are picked up, from houses where they are working or on smuggling routes, often by the police, they can be referred here, where they will be safe from traffickers and taught the skills they need to reintegrate into society.

Evening Standard proprietor Evgeny Lebedev poses for a selfie with children (Evening Standard)

When we ask the children to draw a picture of their life, the first one they draw is nearly always of them cowering while a man beats them with a stick, Lynnette Kay, the Australian who manages Retraks operations in Ethiopia, told me.

Most have been brought from rural communities by extended family, with the promise of work in Addis Ababa. Then they are sold to another family, and trapped in the house, not allowed to leave, harassed by male bosses and working 10-12 hours a day. From there they can be trafficked on further: to the Middle East, Europe, and even the UK.

The latest research says 46 per cent of trafficked Ethiopians originate in rural areas. Despite the remarkable economic strides the country has made in recent years, parts of rural Ethiopia remain among the worlds poorest, and for many families the lure of money from more prosperous cities or countries is a powerful incentive. Yet too often, I learnt, children end up in the hands of exploitative and abusive criminals.

Over the past two months the Evening Standards special investigation into modern slavery has shown how the UK, and London in particular, is a hub for trafficking from all over the world. We have encouraged corporate leaders to pledge diligence over their supply chains, and highlighted the challenges facing support providers and law enforcement agencies.

Im delighted that in the new year our think tank will present recommendations at the Santa Marta conference in Rome, one of the worlds leading forums on this terrible crime.

Any effort to support victims and improve law enforcement in the UK counts for little without an equal effort in source countries to prevent these young people from being trafficked in the first place. Impressively, Retraks work is being funded in part by the Modern Slavery Innovation Fund originally established by Theresa May when she was at the Home Office, which is providing 780,000. Its not the only assistance provided. The Ethiopian government, led by the First Lady, has been seeking to help abused children. Furthermore, every year a delegation of volunteers from Greater Manchester Police comes out to help the charity. British officers visiting last week found the local law admirably rigorous at clamping down on trafficking. Domestic work is another matter. The use of children is so widespread that, despite the government seeking to crack down, often no prosecutions are brought.

Emenet Tadesse, one of the counsellors, whos from Addis Ababa and has worked here since 2011, tells me that despite Retraks efforts the situation is deteriorating, mainly due to the poverty in the Ethiopian countryside. The UK people are doing their best to support the life of these children to improve their lives as this problem is getting worse. We appreciate it  and long may it continue  but while its a significant help its not enough. In just one district of Addis Ababa, there are 1,000 children living as domestic workers.

Yet from what I saw at this wonderful centre, I am more committed than ever to our cause. Modern slavery, in all its forms, is a horrendous crime which has no place in our world. Wherever we see it, we must stamp it out, and do what we can to support the victims. Hopefully the work this paper has done over the past few months will help that process. While at the centre I saw a picture drawn by a girl who had been helped there. It showed her life before and after her arrival at Retrak. The old life drawing shows a figure cowering under a beating, sweeping floors, cooking and washing and in tears. In the picture of her life at Retrak, she is playing with her friends, reading a book, and walking to school. This time theres a smile on her face. I am proud that Britain, and all of us here in London, have been able to support such work.
J ohn McDonnell accused the Tories of subjecting gentle Jeremy Corbyn to "derision" and "abuse" after Philip Hammond's Budget speech.

Speaking at a Labour rally in the West Midlands, the shadow chancellor referred to what Mr Corbyn joked was a "mauling" in Parliament at the hands of Tory MPs after Mr Hammond announced the Budget.

He said of his party leader: "He is one of the mildest people I know, one of the most gentle and kindest people I know.

"But I am so glad yesterday he expressed anger at their behaviour."

"They shouted, they screamed and they abused," Mr McDonnell said of Tory MPs.

"They tried to shout him down at that part of the speech when he exposed in this Budget that there was no money for social care put aside ... and the suffering and anguish that that would cause older people and their families.

"And all he got in return from Tory MPs was derision and abuse - they showed their real face yesterday.

"They showed it in the Budget overall - they showed they're completely out of touch. Out of touch with the real world economy and out of touch with the real world all the rest of us live in."

Mr Corbyn reacted furiously in Parliament on Wednesday after he was heckled while speaking about elderly care during his Budget response.

Labour MPs claimed on Twitter that an "ageist" and "inappropriate" joke was aimed at Mr Corbyn by a Tory MP.

Mr Corbyn, after hearing the remark, directed his anger at the Tory benches, saying: "Over 6 billion would have been cut from social care budgets by next March.

"I hope the honourable member begins to understand what it's like to wait for social care stuck in a hospital bed while other people are having to give up their work to care for them.

"The uncaring, uncouth attitude of certain members opposite needs to be called out."
T he Prime Minister will today hold fresh talks with with European Council president Donald Tusk amid growing pressure from EU leaders to be clear on how she intends to settle the Brexit "divorce bill".

Theresa May is expected to reaffirm Britain's ongoing commitment to European security during a summit in Brussels on Friday between the EU and former Soviet bloc "partner" states.

She was warned last week by Mr Tusk the EU needed greater clarity on the terms of Britain's withdrawal - including the financial settlement - by early December if there was to be any chance of leaders giving the go ahead for phase two of the Brexit negotiations to start at their next summit later in the month.

Mrs May is due to travel to the Belgian capital again on December 4 to meet European Commision president Jean-Claude Juncker in what is being seen as a final opportunity to meet Mr Tusk's deadline.

Theresa May's Brexit in her own words

Mr Juncker said on Thursday that he was not yet in a position to say that sufficient progress had been made for a breakthrough at the European Council summit on December 14-15, but was hoping the process would "move forward" when he met Mrs May.

The Commission president said he was "not crazy enough" to be drawn on whether a 38 billion "divorce bill" offer expected from the PM would be acceptable to the 27 remaining EU states.

The Sun reported that Mrs May will demand a very swift agreement on a transition period after the date of Brexit in 2019 in return for the sum. And the paper reported that leading Brexiteers Michael Gove and Boris Johnson now believe that she will insist on the UK diverging from EU "regulatory harmonisation" after withdrawal.

Mrs May is also facing a demand from Irish premier Leo Varadkar for a written guarantee there will be no return to the "hard border" of the past between Northern Ireland and the Republic as the price of his support for the second phase of the negotiations to begin.

Key Brexit Players - In pictures 1 /8 Key Brexit Players - In pictures David Davis Reuters Michel Barnier AP Tim Barrow AFP/Getty Images Oliver Robbins Sabine Weyand Didier Seeuws AFP/Getty Images

Since last week's EU gathering in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Cabinet has met to discuss what they would be prepared to pay to settle the "divorce bill", with ministers reportedly agreeing to double the sum originally put on the table by Mrs May to around 40 billion.

But it is thought she does not want to name a precise figure until she has a clear idea of what kind of trade deal is available with the remaining EU member states in the phase two negotiations.

Theresa May on Brexit divorce bill and Irish border

Speaking ahead of Mrs May's talks with Mr Tusk, the Prime Minister's official spokesman played down suggestions it was a meeting to set out the divorce bill.

"I would not characterise it in that way," the spokesman said.

"We saw from his comments at the end of the press conference in Gothenburg that he (Mr Tusk) was hoping to meet the PM this week.

"They will be discussing progress towards the December council.

"There are a number of issues which I'm sure they will want to discuss - the financial settlement, that will be one of them, also of course Northern Ireland and citizens' rights."

With leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine also due in Brussels on Friday, Mrs May will take the opportunity to highlight Britain's continued support for the region in the face of the threat from a resurgent Russia.

She is expect to point to the 50 million the UK is providing this year to the region to support projects like tax reform in Moldova and de-mining in Ukraine, with a further 100 million over the next five years to counter "disinformation".

"From agriculture in Ukraine to the tech sector in Belarus, there is a huge amount of potential in the Eastern neighbourhood that we should nurture and develop," she is expected to say.

"But we must also be open-eyed to the actions of hostile states like Russia which threaten this potential and attempt to tear our collective strength apart.

"This summit highlights the crucial importance of the European countries working together to protect our shared values and ideals.

"The UK may be leaving the EU but we are not leaving Europe, and we are unconditionally committed to maintaining Europe's security."

Additional reporting by Press Association.
The Padmavati protests took an ugly turn with the body of a youth found hanging off the parapet of the Nahargarh fort in Jaipur.

By India Today Web Desk: A young man was found hanging off the parkot (parapet) of Jaipur's famous Nahargarh fort. The death is being linked to the protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed film Padmavati.

#Rajasthan: Body found hanging at Nahargarh Fort in #Jaipur, threat note on rocks also seen #Padmavati pic.twitter.com/sSx9ONhF7D- ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2017

This is because a charcoal graffiti on the wall next to the lifeless body said, "Padmavati, hum sirf putle nahi latkate (Padmavati, we hang not just effigies)." The words "Padmavati ka virodh (Protest against Padmavati)" were also found next to the body.

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The Jaipur Police is investigating the case. It's not clear whether it was a murder or a suicide. (ALSO READ: Nahargarh Fort hanging is murder, not anti-Padmavati but attempt to trigger Hindu-Muslim divide)

Jaipur Police's forensic team is at the spot. The way the body was found hanging, it could not have been a suicide, police sources told India Today. A police officer claimed this may be the work of anti-social elements who hanged Chetan Kumar, the 23-year-old from Jaipur.

"It doesn't look like he was alone. It would take more than one person to tie the rope around the fort parapet and the embrasure," the source added.

The man has been identified as Chetan Kumar, a resident of Jaipur.

The body that was found hanging at the Nahargarh fort in Jaipur The body that was found hanging at the Nahargarh fort in Jaipur

The Shri Rajput Karni Sena's chief, Lokendra Singh Kalvi told India Today that the group condemned the incident.

The protests against the film Padmavati were dying down after the producers postponed the film's release. The film was scheduled for a December 1 release, but has now been pushed indefinitely. A certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is also due.

The Shri Rajput Karni Sena, the outfit spearheading the protests, has said that if the family of the erstwhile Chittor royalty approve of the film, it will withdraw its plan to forcibly stop the exhibition of Padmavati.

The film Padmavati, based on Malik Mohammed Jayasi's 16th Century epic poem Padmavat, has triggered widespread anger across the country.

The Rajput community is protesting the film because they claim it denigrates Rani Padmini of Chittor, a revered icon in Rajput folklore, and glamourises Alauddin Khilji, then ruler of India who presided over one of the worst mass slaughters of Rajputs in Indian history during his raid on Chittor.

Padmavati, starring Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor, has been facing the wrath of political groups ever since the team started shooting. There have been protests against the film in different states of India. The film has been banned in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

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The release in India has been postponed indefinitely from December 1. While it still awaits certification from the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) in India, Britain's censor board recently cleared the film without any cuts.

The British Board of Film Certification tweeted:

PADMAVATI (12A) moderate violence, injury detail https://t.co/2S1pF33WVN- BBFC (@BBFC) November 22, 2017

Producers of Padmavati, Viacom18 said in a statement, "We will await the Indian censor board's clearance and then release the film."

JAUHAR KI JWALA

But that doesn't seem to have cut any ice with the Shri Rajput Karni Sena. A fuming Lokendra Singh Kalvi, Karni Sena chief, said in a press conference in Hyderabad yesterday that any promotions of Padmavati before the CBFC verdict will lead to the group filing a criminal case against them.

He reiterated that 'jauhar ki jwala hai, bahut kuch jalega,' indicating that Padmavati will burn in the fire of jauhar if Sanjay Leela Bhansali doesn't oblige their wishes.

BAN IN STATES: GUJARAT

Meanwhile, the Gujarat government decided that Padmavati will not be screened in the state till the Assembly elections. Gujarat goes to poll on December 9 and 14, and the counting is to take place on December 18.

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In a press conference on Wednesday, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that apart from the Kshatriya Samaaj, other communities have also expressed apprehension about the release of the film.

"Till the issues are resolved, Padmavati will not be screened in Gujarat," said Rupani.

"Such issues spoil the environment. The threat of violence can spoil the environment during elections. Keeping law and order issues in mind, Padmavati will not be released in Gujarat. The Home department has initiated the process to look into the matter," said Rupani.

He also tweeted, "The Government of Gujarat will not allow #Padmavati - a movie hurting sentiments of Rajputs - to get released in the State. We can't allow our history to be distorted. We believe in freedom of speech & expression but any foul play with our great culture is not tolerated. (sic)"

The Government of Gujarat will not allow #Padmavati - a movie hurting sentiments of Rajputs - to get released in the State. We cant allow our history to be distorted. We believe in freedom of speech & expression but any foul play with our great culture is not tolerated.- Vijay Rupani (@vijayrupanibjp) November 22, 2017

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The controversial period drama, Padmavati, has been in dire straits for a while now. Several right-wing groups have been vehemently opposing the film on the grounds that it supposedly degrades the honour of the Rajput queen, Rani Padmini.

IN HARYANA

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also said yesterday that he would take a decision on whether Padmavati will be released in the state only after the film is cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

"We will not allow anyone's sentiments to be hurt. We don't think it is right to ban (a film) before censor board's decision," he told ANI.

Incidentally, the CBFC delayed the certification of Padmavati after the makers failed to submit all the documents required. The release of the film has now been pushed indefinitely.

"This might be his personal opinion; the government has nothing to do with it. We have issued him a show cause notice," Manohar Lal Khattar said, when prodded about Haryana BJP's (Bharatiya Janta Party) chief media coordinator Suraj Pal Singh Amu, who was booked by the Gurgaon Police on Tuesday.

Suraj Pal Amu was vocal in his support of the bounty of Rs 5 crore announced by the Meerut Kshatriya Samaj on the heads of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Deepika Padukone. When a complaint was lodged against him, he declared that his voice will not be subdued and threatened to "set fire to each screen in the country".

IN PUNJAB

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh maintained a somewhat neutral stand on Padmavati. While he is strictly opposed to violence and threats issued by some agitated protesters, he told IANS that anyone whose sentiments were hurt by the distortion of historical facts had the right to protest. He emphasised that protests and threats were not the same thing.

IN MADHYA PRADESH

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has voiced his support for the protestors and said that Padmavati will not be allowed to release in the state even if it is cleared by the censor board.

IN UTTAR PRADESH

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday that if action is being taken against the people issuing threats against Sanjay Leela Bhansali, action should be taken against the director as well for hurting sentiments.

IN WEST BENGAL

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, took the opposite route and said that she condemned this 'attack on freedom' and that it was 'super emergency'.

Padmavati stars Deepika Padukone in the titular role, Shahid Kapoor as her husband, Maharawal Ratan Singh, and Ranveer Singh as Alauddin Khilji.

ALSO WATCH | Padmavati row: Yogi Adityanath justifies threats against Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Deepika Padukone

--- ENDS ---
S cottish airline Loganair reunited a girl and her lost teddy bear after she left it Edinburgh airport.

Four-year old Summer from Orkney forgot to put her teddy back in her bag when going through security.

When the family realised that the bear was missing, Mum Donna posted a plea on Facebook to find it.

Loganair cabin crew member, Kirsty Walter, spotted the post on Facebook and asked her colleagues to look for the bear in lost property.

Cabin crew member, Kirsty Walter reunited Summer with her bear / The Big Partnership

Fortunately they found the teddy and it was then flown over 200 miles to be reunited with Summer in Kirkwall.

On its flight home, the bear was given its own seat and was given a tour of the flight deck.

The crew took the bear on a tour of the plane / The Big Partnership

Miss Walter said: Its always a shame to see a little girl who has lost her best friend, especially when travelling through Scotlands biggest airport and there was a real risk it might be gone forever.

As soon as I spotted the plea on social media I thought it would be easy for the airline to try and help. It was a heart-warming moment to be there for Summer and Teddys reunion

It definitely brought a little tear to my eye and was a lovely way to end the week. Its up there with one of the more memorable flights Ive been on and shows the airlines commitment to the communities we serve.
E U Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker today raised hopes of progress in stalled Brexit talks as Theresa May prepared to offer billions more of taxpayers cash to break the deadlock.

The Prime Minister is seeking co- ordinated moves to pave the way, at an EU summit in December, for the start of talks on a free trade deal.

But negotiations are being overshadowed by the risk that two key governments, in Germany and Ireland, could collapse, leading to new elections.

Arriving at an EU Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels today, Commission president Mr Juncker offered a hint of optimism, saying of the Brexit talks: They are making progress.

Theresa May dodges questions on Brexit bill in Brussels

Ahead of a meeting with European Council president Donald Tusk, Mrs May said: We must step forward together. This is for both the UK and the European Union to move onto the next stage.

This week the Cabinet agreed for the Prime Minister to make clear that Britain is ready to up its divorce bill offer from about 18 billion  with some reports saying the amount could be doubled, and then rise even further.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson are said to have insisted the extra cash can only be offered on condition of getting a good trade deal, and Mrs May was not expected to give a figure today on how much Britain could pay.

However, Brussels chiefs were reported to be demanding a written guarantee that the pledge of extra billions will be paid.

Mr Juncker is due to meet Mrs May on December 4 to discuss progress before the next leaders summit. Today Austrian chancellor Christian Kern, asked by British reporters whether the UK should pay more, said: Yes of course you should, its an easy answer.

A bigger hurdle appeared to be finding a solution to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after Brexit.

Theresa May on Brexit divorce bill and Irish border

The Irish government is sticking to its demand for more guarantees on the border before moving talks on.

Democratic Unionist MPs believe Dublin and Brussels are seeking to force Northern Ireland, or the UK as a whole, to stay in the customs union.

However, Irelands foreign minister Simon Coveney again threatened to block trade talks unless the UK offered more clarity and credibility on how to avoid border checks. What were seeing at the moment is a negotiation which is coming to a head on these issues, hopefully before the leaders summit in December, he said.

Meanwhile the Irish government risks collapse over a police whistleblower scandal involving the Tanaiste  Irelands deputy prime minister. Mr Coveney warned that moves by opposition parties Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein to table a no-confidence motion against Frances Fitzgerald could bring down Leo Varadkars minority government.

Referring to Fianna Fails confidence and supply deal to support the government, Mr Coveney said: If they move ahead with the motion of no confidence, the confidence and supply is over ... then I dont see how we can have a government that can function.

In Germany, the Social Democrats said they were ready to hold talks with other parties on breaking the deadlock created by Chancellor Angela Merkels failure to form a new coalition. The SPD has so far refused another deal with Ms Merkels Christian Democrats, after heavy losses in Septembers election.

But SPD general secretary Hubertus Heil said today: The SPD will not say no to discussions. It raised hopes that new elections might be avoided.
L ondon has more than three times the number of millionaires under the age of 35 than most major cities in the world outside of the US, according to new research.

The research shows that a whopping 20,000 millennials currently living in the capital have over 1 million to their name.

The majority have made their fortune through starting businesses, inheriting their wealth, or by being a famous pop star or footballer.

Other capital cities with large numbers of millionaires are Los Angeles and New York, who had a similar number - according to the research by analysts Verdict and GlobalData Wealth Insight.

The world's 20 best cities for millennials to live in

Los Angeles is home to 25,249 young millionaires and New York has 19,966. Shanghai has a smaller number of wealthy individuals with only 6,111 young people with more than 1 million in their bank.

The new figures reflect changing trends when it comes to wealth. In the past it would have been unusual to see so many wealthy people under the age of 35.

However it seems that more younger people are raking in the cash especially in the UK and the US.

In the US, seven cities made the top ten for being home to young people with huge amounts of cash.

Six things millennials should be giving up to buy a house

This was due was due to the rise of tech companies in places such San Jose at the centre of Silicon Valley which came in at number nine on the list.

Tokyo did not make the top ten for wealthy millennials which is surprising considering it has the most millionaires in the world in general.

The table only included individuals with a net worth over 1 million, excluding their main home.

WealthInsight head of research, Oliver Williams to the Daily Mail: 'London is home to far more millennial millionaires than its European rivals Paris and Rome.

"This is as much down to its entrepreneurial economy as the City's financial clout. Its nearest rival, Shanghai, has less than a third of London's millennial millionaires, affirming position of these top three cities for years to come."

He predicted: "Riyadh and Mumbai are financial capitals of countries with extremely young populations so we can expect to see them climb the ranks as more millennials earn their millions.

It appears that the world needs to make way for more millennials rising in the ranks when it comes to wealth as they don't show any signs of slowing down any time soon.
B argain hunters have turned their backs on the annual Black Friday overnight spending frenzy as the discount season lengthens into much of November.

Online sales last night were well down on last year and shopping centres were largely empty at opening time, in stark contrast to the plasma TV riots of previous years.

Transactions were down 24 per cent between midnight and 7am compared with last year although it is well up over the week as a whole, according to analysts PCA Predict.

The biggest fall was between midnight and 1am when transactions were down almost a third on 2016.

FOLLOW OUR BLACK FRIDAY LIVE COVERAGE HERE.

PCA head of marketing Chris Boaz said: As of this morning, online sales are actually down compared to last year when many consumers shopped from midnight to 7am to bag a bargain.

What is Black Friday?

One of the primary reasons for this is due to the extended sales in the run up to Black Friday itself, which showed an increase of 11 per cent meaning consumers arent as pressed as they once were to shop on the day.

Black Friday effective started in mid November this year when online retailer Amazon launched its promotion.

Jace Tyrrell, chief executive at New West End Company, said: The days figures are still coming in but this year till receipts are expected to hit 154m - a significant 8 per cent increase on 2016.

The Black Friday phenomenon has been so interesting to watch, and in recent years weve seen shoppers coming out a little later in the day to bag the bargains without the early morning wake up call. The huge morning queues seen in 2015 have started changing. We now see full days out starting a little later in the day, extended lunch times and Friday evening shopping expeditions, which spreads the spending out across the whole day.

This is turbo boosted by domestic visitors making the most of the discounts at the end of a tough year and savvy international tourists getting the added benefit of the devalued pound. International spend is expected to make up a third of the overall spend in the West End today.

Oxford Street was quiet on the morning of Black Friday (Rex ) / Rex

There were very few shoppers on Oxford Street in the morning with images showing the pavements looking deserted.

Meanwhile store workers at Westfield Stratford City described Black Friday as the quietest ever.

In Argos, a worker said: It was busier last year. There were massive queues. There may be a rush later but its very quiet so far, the quietest yet. Some people are using online though with our click and collect service.

One customer who did arrive early for the bargains was Tanya Shipley, 22, who brought a smartphone at Argos.

Shoppers at the Westfield centre in Stratford / PA

She said: I got up early to snap it up before work. Its worth the effort there was a big discount on it. I was really surprised not to see more people though. A couple of years I tried to buy a TV with my boyfriend at another and it was carnage.

It was a similar story at Carphone Warehouse where only a handful of customers showed up early.

Currys PC World was seeing steady trade but the store said it had plenty of stock and had not experienced an early rush.

The manager said he expected steady business throughout the day rather than an invasion.

However, it was a different story in Brazil where there were manic scenes as hundreds of people fought each other to get their hands on heavily discounted televisions.

Huge crowds swarmed a stack of Samsung Smart TVs and carried them away in a department store in Sao Paulo.

A London internet entrepreneur was marking Black Friday by handing out free money to everyone who signs up to his FreePostcodeLottery.com 1.

Chris Holbrook, of Finsbury Park in North London, has been running the website since 2011. Users enter their email, their postcode and get a daily letter asking them to check if their postcode has been drawn.

Prizes of more than 1,000 a day are paid.

So far, FreePostcodeLottery.com has given away nearly 500,000.

Mr Holbrook, 38, said the Black Friday giveaways have made it difficult for smaller firms to attract attention at this time of year.

He was handing out 1 coins at Angel Central, Islington between 10am and midday on Black Friday  near retailers such as Gap, Sainsbury, Marks & Spencer, Next and Boots.

Mr Holbrook said: Each year shops do this crazy thing where they sell stuff for less than it cost, just to get people in the stores. Since we are already free, we cant do that, so weve decided to go one better. I might be mad. It might cost me a fortune. But just once Im going to try it.
C hristmas has come early for the royal family as staff adorned a huge 20ft Christmas tree with dazzling gold baubles at Windsor Castle.

Halls at the Queen's residence in Berkshire have been decked a month ahead of the festive period.

Stunning images showed the enormous 20ft Nordmann Fir erected in St Georges Hall at the estate.

The tree was sourced from nearby Great Windsor Park.

Staff decorate the tree at Windsor Castle / PA

Decorations appear to follow a royal gold-and-red theme this year, with some baubles shaped like crowns.

The incredible tree is covered in sparkling gold tinsel, twinkling white fairy lights and huge velvet bows.

A member of Royal Collection Trust staff applies the finishing touches to the table in the State Dining Room / PA

Spectacular images showed the castle's State Dining Table set with silver guilt pieces from the Monarchs Grand Service.

The table has been decorated with festive gold creations.

A second 15ft tree, clad in red decorations, was put up in the Crimson Drawing Room.

A 15ft tree in the Crimson Drawing Room / PA

Queen Elizabeth II is expected to spend Christmas Day surrounded by her family at Sandringham Palace.

The nation will tune in to watch her annual Christmas speech in what has been an exciting year for the royals.

The images emerged as the UK waited with baited breath for a rumoured announcement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's engagement.

A 20ft Nordmann fir was put up in St George's Hall, Windsor Castle / PA

Bookmakers today suspended betting on another royal wedding amid rumours that Harry is expected to announce his engagement to the 36-year-old actress imminently.

Speculation over the couples potential impending marriage has been ramped up in recent weeks with the BBC reportedly primed for a Royal announcement.

Ladbrokes closed betting that Harry and Meghan would marry next year at odds of 4/6.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex: Prince Harry & Meghan Markle 1 /108 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex: Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex leaves after attending a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Pauls Cathedral AP Freedom Gala AP Christmas 2021 Alexi Lubomirski Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend The Endeavour Fund Awards at Mansion House Samir Hussein/WireImage Oprah Winfrey interviews Duke and Duchess of Sussex PA Media Misan Harriman Prince Harry and Meghan Markle kiss on the steps of St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle after their wedding in St George's Chapel PA Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, pose with their newborn son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle Getty Images The Duke and Duchess of Sussex holding their son Archie during a meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mrs Tutu at their legacy foundation in cape Town, on day three of their tour of Africa PA Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle announce their engagement in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace Jeremy Selwyn Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a Wheelchair Tennis match during the Invictus Games 2017 Reuters Prince Harry and Meghan Markle embrace following the polo at Coworth Park on 7 May 2017 Rex Features Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle announce their engagement in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace EPA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during a walkabout on the esplanade at Edinburgh Castle PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle meet Pony Major Mark Wilkinson and regimental mascot Cruachan IV during a walkabout on the esplanade at Edinburgh Castle Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a Wheelchair Tennis match during the Invictus Games 2017 at Nathan Philips Square on 25 September 2017 in Toronto, Canada Reuters Prince Harry with girlfriend Meghan Markle at the Invictus Games in Toronto PA Prince Harry with girlfriend Meghan Markle at the Invictus Games in Toronto Getty Images Prince Harry arrives with girlfriend actress Meghan Markle at the wheelchair tennis event during the Invictus Games in Toronto Reuters Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a Wheelchair Tennis match during the Invictus Games 2017 at Nathan Philips Square on 25 September 2017 in Toronto, Canada Getty Images Prince Harry with girlfriend Meghan Markle at the Invictus Games in Toronto Getty Images Meghan Markle at the Invictus Games in Toronto Karwai Tang/WireImage Prince Harry arrives with girlfriend actress Meghan Markle at the wheelchair tennis event during the Invictus Games in Toronto, Ontario Reuters Meghan Markle attends the Opening Ceremony of the 2017 Invictus Games at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada PA Meghan Markle on the cover of Vanity Fair Peter Lindbergh exclusively for Vanity Fair Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a Wheelchair Tennis match during the Invictus Games 2017 Getty Images Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle announce their engagement in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace Jeremy Selwyn Larking around: Harry and Meghan pull faces in footage not shown in the BBC engagement interview BBC Meghan Markle visits Nottingham for her first official public engagement with fiancee Prince Harry Jeremy Selwyn Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at the Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham, to attend a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair on their first official engagement together PA Meghan Markle arrives at the Terrance Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair at Nottingham Contemporary Getty Images The royal brothers and their partners on Christmas Day. AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle listen to a broadcast through headphones during a visit to youth-orientated radio station, Reprezent FM, in Brixton PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive in Brixton EPA Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle visit Reprezent 107.3FM in Brixton Getty Images Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle visit Reprezent 107.3FM in Brixton Getty Images Loved up: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit Cardiff Castle EPA Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle attend a street dance class during their visit to Star Hub in during their visit to Star Hub on January 18, 2018 in Cardiff, Wales. Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will visit the people of Edinburgh Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive to attend the annual Endeavour Fund Awards PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive to attend the annual Endeavour Fund Awards Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a reception for young people at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh AFP/Getty Images rince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle meet a Shetland Pony as they arrive at Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, Frank Augstein/AP Meghan Markle during a walkabout on the esplanade at Edinburgh Castle PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle speak with patrons at the Social Bite in Edinburgh AP Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on a walkabout during a visit to Millennium Point in Birmingham PA Meghan Markle arrives for a visit in Birmingham on International Women's Day PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on a walkabout during a visit to Millennium Point in Birmingham Splash News Prince Harry and Meghan Markle meet members of the public on a walkabout during a visit to Millennium Point in Birmingham PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle meet members of the public on a walkabout during a visit to Millennium Point in Birmingham PA The Reverend Canon David Stanton, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle leave after attending a Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbet AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a reception with delegates from the Commonwealth Youth Forum at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ride in an Ascot Landau along the Long Walk after their wedding PA Meghan Markle walks down the aisle in St George's Chapel PA Harry and Meghan leaving Windsor Castle for the glamorous evening reception PA Harry and Meghan leaving Windsor Castle for the glamorous evening reception PA Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex head back down the Mall to Buckingham Palace during Trooping The Colour on June 9, 2018 Getty Images Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex talk to members of OneWave, an awareness group for mental health and wellbeing at South Bondi Beach on October 19, 2018 in Sydney, Australia. Getty Images Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex are seen during the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in Sydney, Australia, 27 October 2018 EPA Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits the Hubb Community Kitchen to see how funds raised by the 'Together: Our Community' Cookbook are making a difference at Al Manaar, North Kensington on November 21, 2018 in London Getty Images Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Britain's Prince Harry unveil a plaque to officially open Number 7, a 'Feeding Birkenhead' citizens supermarket and community cafe, at Pyramids Shopping Centre, as part of a visit to Birkenhead, northwest England, Monday Jan. 14, 2019 AP Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits the National theatre in central London on January 30, 2019 AFP/Getty Images The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive for a visit to the Bristol Old Vic theatre, which is undergoing a multimillion-pound restoration PA Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (L) and Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, reacts as they visit Bristol Old Vic theatre in Bristol, south-west England on February 1, 2019 AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (R) and Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (C) help volunteers in the kitchen as they pack food parcels to go in the charity outreach van during a visit to One25 charity in Bristol, south west England on February 1, 2019 AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive to attend the annual Endeavour Fund Awards at Drapers Hall in London on February 7, 2019 AFP/Getty Images The Duke and Duchess of Sussex try some food during a cooking school demonstration at Villa des Ambassadors in Rabat on the third day of their tour of Morocco PA Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duke & Duchess of Sussex, pet a horse at the Moroccan Royal Federation of Equestrian Sports in Rabat on February 25, 2019 AFP/Getty Images Meghan Markle wearing a short Reiss dress on International Women's Day AFP/Getty Images Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend a Commonwealth Day Youth Event at Canada House, where they meet young people who demonstrate a Canadian spring tradition of making maple taffy (maple syrup cooled on snow to make sweets) on March 11, 2019 in London Getty Images The Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave following a Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, London PA Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess Of Sussex attend a Commonwealth Day Youth Event at Canada House on March 11, 2019 in London WireImage Members of Britain's Royal family leave after attending the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey AP The Duchess of Cambridge (left) talks with the Duchess of Sussex (right) as they attend the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, Richard Pohle/The Times/PA Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex hold their baby son in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle, Berkshire on 8 May 2019 REUTERS Archbishop Desmond Tutu kisses the forehead of baby Archie as his mother smiles on warmly Reuters The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive for a visit to the Auwal Mosque, the oldest mosque in South Africa, on day two of their tour of Africa. PA Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend a roundtable discussion on gender equality with The Queens Commonwealth Trust (QCT) and One Young World at Windsor Castle Jeremy Selwyn Prince Harry and Duchess of Sussex at The Fields of Remembrance in Westminster Abbey Jeremy Selwyn pixel8000

Spokeswoman Jessica Bridge told the Standard: All bets are off when it comes to Harry and Meghan walking down the aisle next year.

Last week, the Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in Windsor.

More than 100 guests gathered in the State Apartments to toast the royal couple, who wed 70 years ago in Westminster Abbey.

The Queen and Prince Philip - In pictures 1 /93 The Queen and Prince Philip - In pictures 1953 The Queen wearing the Imperial State Crown and the Duke of Edinburgh, in the uniform of Admiral of the Fleet, waving from the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the Queen's Coronation PA 1947 Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh leave Westminster Abbey after their wedding ceremony PA 1948 Princess Elizabeth cradles Charles after his christening at Buckingham Palace, joined by her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth alongside Philip PA 1950 Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh with their daughter Princess Anne after her christening at Buckingham Palace PA 1949 Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh looking across Valletta from the roof of the Villa Guardamangia, Malta PA 1951 Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh at Riverdale Park, Toronto, during their tour of Canada PA 1952 The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace after her first State Opening of Parliament PA 1954 The Royal couple at Prince's Pier in Hobart, Tasmania PA 1955 The Duke pushes Prince Charles and Princess Anne on a swing at Balmoral, watched by the Queen PA 1956 The Queen, with one of her Corgis in tow, chats with the Duke as he plays polo at Smith's Lawn, Windsor Great Park PA 1957 Jersey Royals: The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh tour Springfield, the showground of the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society PA 1958 The Queen delivers her speech from the throne in the House of Lords chamber at the State Opening of Parliament PA 1959 Thousands gather to welcome the Royal couple as the Royal Yacht Britannia arrives in Canada PA 1960 President Charles de Gaulle of France and Madame de Gaulle visit Buckingham Palace PA 1961 President John F Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline at Buckingham Palace PA 1962 The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are greeted by a group of youngsters during a visit to Hove Stadium, East Sussex PA 1963 The Queen presents the Royal Windsor Horse Show Cup to the winning captain, the Duke of Edinburgh at Smith's Lawn, Windsor Great Park PA 1964 The Queen, accompanied by the Duke, takes the salute outside Buckingham Palace at the conclusion of the Trooping the Colour ceremony PA 1965 The Queen surrounded by her family as she celebrates her 39th birthday, with Prince Edward in her arms. PA 1966 The Queen and Duke visit Aberfan in South Wales, after a coal-tip avalanche killed 144 people PA 1967 The Royal couple leave Heathrow for a four-day visit to Malta PA 1968 The Duke of Edinburgh climbs onto the roof of a Land Rover to get a better view of the Horse Trials at Badminton, accompanied by the Queen PA 1969 The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh with the Prince of Wales during his investiture at Caernarfon Castle PA 1970 The Queen and the Duke arrive in Sydney during the royal tour of Australasia PA 1971 The Queen and Duke of arrive back at Heathrow PA 1972 The Royal couple celebrating their Silver Wedding Anniversary in the Belgian suite in Buckingham Palace PA 1973 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in the procession to St George's Chapel, Windsor, for the Service of Thanksgiving for the Most Noble Order of the Garter PA 1974 Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik of Denmark are welcomed at Windsor Castle PA 1975 The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh parade in an open top car during their State visit to Japan PA 1976 The Royal couple during their traditional summer break at Balmoral PA 1977 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh kneeling in St Paul's Cathedral during the special thanksgiving service to mark her Silver Jubilee PA 1978 The Queen and Duke on the jetty at Maseline harbour during their visit to the Channel Island of Sark PA 1979 Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Edinburgh, The Queen and Prince Andrew PA 1980 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh seated in a haulage truck to go down to the lower level of the Geevor tin mine at Pendeen, Cornwall PA 1981 Duke of Edinburgh watching The Queen and their son-in-law Captain Mark Phillips at the presentation ceremony, after Phillips won the Badminton Horse Trials for the fourth time PA 1982 The Queen taking a photograph when she and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the South Sea Islands of Tuvalu PA 1983 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh during the Remembrance Day ceremony at Nairobi's Commonwealth Cemeter PA 1984 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visiting Prince Edward at Jesus College, during an official visit to Cambridge PA 1985 The Duke of Edinburgh and The Queen with three of their grandchildren (left to right) Zara Phillips, Prince William and Peter Phillips, on board Britannia at Southampton docks PA 1986 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on the Great Wall of China at the Bedaling Pass, 50 miles north-west of Beijing, on the third day of their State Visit to the country PA 1987 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in the Belgian suite at Buckingham Palace, with messages of congratulations on their Silver Wedding anniversary PA 1988 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Port Sunlight in Wirral, opening the 12m Lever Brothers soap-making plant PA 1989 US President George Bush, his wife Barbara, the Duke of Edinburgh and The Queen , in the Picture Room at Buckingham Palace PA 1990 Duke of Edinburgh, Peter Phillips, Viscount David Linley, the Princess Royal, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, The Queen, Prince Edward, Diana, Princess of Wales, the Prince of Wales, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret at Clarence House for the Queen Mother's 90th birthday PA 1991 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh with the Duke and Duchess of York on board HMS Campbeltown at Portsmouth Harbour PA 1992 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at an event celebrating the 40th anniversary of her accession to the thron PA 1993 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh share an umbrella whilst enjoying a horse-drawn carriage ride at Bugacs, on the Hungarian Plain during a State Visit to Hungary PA 1994 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh travelling on the new Eurostar train PA 1995 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh riding down the course at Ascot PA 1996 The Queen accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, laying a wreath on the newly-unveiled memorial to all innocent civilian victims across the world, sited near to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, during a ceremony PA 1997 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh viewing the floral tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales, at Buckingham Palace PA 1998 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh descending the steps of Buckingham Palace at a garden party PA 1999 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arriving at the Birmingham Hippodrome for the 1999 Royal Variety Performance PA 2000 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh raising their glasses as midnight strikes during the Opening Celebrations at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich PA 2001 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrive for the Royal Variety Performance, at the Dominion Theatre in Londo PA 2002 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh during a musical performance in the Abbey Gardens, Bury St Edmunds PA 2003 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle PA 2005 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh wearing safety glasses during a laser surgery demonstration at the University College Hospital, London PA 2006 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the unveiling of a garden dedicated to the late Queen Mother at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh PA 2007 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in the grounds of Broadlands on their Diamond wedding anniversary PA 2008 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attend a lecture during a visit to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), to open the eight-storey New Academic Building PA 2009 US President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, talk with The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh during an audience at Buckingham Palace PA 2010 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh welcoming the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani (left) to Windsor Castle, Berkshire, during his state visit to the UK PA 2011 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attending the traditional Royal Maundy Service at Westminster Abbey on her 85th birthday PA 2012 The Queen receives a trophy from the Duke of Edinburgh after her horse Estimate won the Queen's Vase during day four of the 2012 Royal Ascot meeting at Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire PA 2013 The Queen leaves after delivering her speech at the State Opening of Parliament, in central London, alongside the Duke of Edinburgh PA 2014 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visit the Tower of London's Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation PA 2015 The Duke of Edinburgh and The Queen during the Braemar Royal Highland Gathering, held a short distance from the Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire PA 2016 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh make their way down The Mall in an open-topped Range Rover, during the Patron's Lunch in central London in honour of the Queen's 90th birthday PA 2017 Prince of Wales, Princess Eugenie,The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and the Duke of Cambridge on the balcony of Buckingham Palace PA

The monarch and Philip's eldest son, the Prince of Wales and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall were among those present, as were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are expecting their third child, and Prince Harry.

Pregnant Kate was wearing a black lace dress, and the Queen's Four Row Japanese Pearl Choker, while William and Harry were in smart black tuxedos and bow ties.

The Castle's opulent State Apartments were closed to visitors during the day as preparations were put in place for the special black tie reception and dinner to mark the milestone.

And, in September, Britain celebrated as Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge announced they were expecting their third child.

The pair are already parents to George, born in 2013, and Charlotte, born in 2015.

They are expecting the new arrival in April next year.
A ll 44 crew members on the missing Argentine submarine are feared dead after the navy confirmed an explosion had been detected on the day the vessel disappeared.

Relatives of the crew burst into tears, and some said they had lost all hope of rescue, after they were told about the suspected explosion.

Spokesman Enrique Balbi said the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan.

He said evidence showed "an anomalous event that was singular, short, violent and non-nuclear that was consistent with an explosion".

"According to this report, there was an explosion," Mr Balbi said. "We don't know what caused an explosion of these characteristics at this site on this date."

US and specialist agencies said the "hydro-acoustic anomaly" was produced just hours after the navy lost contact with the submarine on November 15.

The sub was originally scheduled to arrive on Monday at the Mar del Plata Navy Base, about 250 miles south-east of Buenos Aires. Relatives of the crew who have gathered at the base to receive psychological counselling broke into tears and hugged each other after they received the news.

Relatives have been waiting for news at the vessel's base in Mar del Plata / Reuters

Some clung to a fence crowded with blue-and-white Argentine flags, rosary beads and messages of support. Some declined to speak, while others lashed out in anger at the navy's response.

"They sent a piece of crap to sail," said Itati Leguizamon, wife of submarine crew member German Suarez. "They inaugurated a submarine with a coat of paint and a flag in 2014, but without any equipment inside. The navy is to blame for its 15 years of abandonment."

People pray outside the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata / AFP/Getty Images

The German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refit in 2014.

During the 12 million US dollar retrofitting, the vessel was cut in half and had its engines and batteries replaced.

Search for missing submarine ARA San Juan - In pictures 1 /36 Search for missing submarine ARA San Juan - In pictures Relatives of a missing submarine crew member react to news of the explosion AP US Navy flight officers fly over the south Atlantic. Reuters Aircraft circle above the spot where the submarine was last seen. Reuters View of a support message that reads 'God save you. The Lord and all the Argentinian are beside you' in front of the Submarine Operations Base in Mar de Plata, Buenos Aires province, Argentina EPA Captain Enrique Balbi, spokesman for the naval force, gives a statement to the media at the Argentine Army headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina EPA This Google Earth image provided by CTBTO shows a visualization of the hydro-acoustic anomaly 'consistent' with an 'explosion' that was recorded near the time and place of the disappearance of the submarine ARA San Juan AP Sergio Zelaya, friend of the crew member Fernando Ariel Mendoza, speaks to the media in front of the Submarine Operations Base in Mar de Plata, Buenos Aires province, Argentina EPA A child's drawing with the Spanish "Find them, we wait for them," referring to the crew of a missing submarine, hangs on a fence at the naval base in Mar del Plata, Argentina AP A man reacts in front of signs and messages in support of the 44 crew members of the missing at sea ARA San Juan submarine on a fence at an Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata, Argentina Reuters View of the U.S. Navy deep diving rescue vehicle, the Pressurized Rescue Module (PRM), mobilized to support the Argentine government's search and rescue efforts for the missing Argentine submarine ARA San Juan before being installed in Comodoro Rivadavia AFP/Getty Images Members of the Navy and relatives of the 44 crew members of the missing at sea ARA San Juan submarine react at an Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata, Argentina Reuters Relatives of 44 crew members of Argentine missing submarine, are escorted as they arrive at Argentina's Navy base in Mar del Plata, on the Atlantic coast south of Buenos Aires AFP/Getty Images View of a support message that reads 'ARA SAN JUAN. Be strong. We are with you!!' in front of the Submarine Operations Base in Mar de Plata, Buenos Aires province, Argentina EPA A woman reacts as people gather to pray for the 44 crew members of the missing at sea ARA San Juan submarine, at the entrance of an Argentine Naval Base in Mar del Plata, Argentina Reuters Members of the Argentine Air Force search for the missing submarine. AP People gather to pray for the 44 crew members of the missing at sea ARA San Juan submarine, at the entrance of an Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata, Argentina Reuters Naval force spokesman Captain Enrique Balbi delivering an update. EPA People pray outside Argentina's Navy base in Mar del Plata. AFP/Getty Images A crew member wears emergency gear during a presentation to the press inside the Brazilian submarine Timbira, which takes part in the international search mission for the missing Argentine submarine ARA San Juan, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil AFP/Getty Images Elena Alfaro, the sister of submarine crew member Federico Ibanez, is comforted outside the Naval base, as she waits for news in Mar del Plata, Argentina AP Navy crew look down at the sea from an airplane during a flight to search for the ARA San Juan. Reuters An Argentine Navy airplane flies over the Atlantic. Reuters People pray outside the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata AFP/Getty Images Argentina's President Mauricio Macri (left) talks to navy chiefs about the search operation Reuters Members of the Argentine Navy look down from an airplane in search of the submarine Reuters Signs in support of the submarine's crew at the naval base in Mar del Plata AP The ARA San Juan submarine disappeared on Wednesday while returning to its base in Mar del Plata EPA

Experts say that refits can be difficult because they involve integrating systems produced by different manufacturers and even the smallest mistake during the cutting phase of the operation can put the safety of the ship and the crew at risk.

The Argentine navy and outside experts have said that even if the ARA San Juan is intact, its crew might have only enough oxygen to be submerged seven to 10 days.

Members of the Argentine Navy look down from an airplane in search of the submarine / Reuters

Authorities said late on Wednesday that Argentine navy ships as well a US P-8 Poseidon aircraft and a Brazilian air force plane would return to the area to check out the abnormal sound, which originated about 30 miles north of the submarine's last registered position.

The search location straddles the edge of the continental shelf, with widely varying ocean depths, some as great as 10,000 feet. Experts say the submarine could not have supported pressures that far down.

"If a submarine goes below its crush-depth, it would implode, it would just collapse," said James H Patton Jr a retired Navy captain.

"It would sound like a very, very big explosion to any listening device."

A major search has been taking place since the sub vanished last Wednesday / AFP/Getty Images

Whatever it was, US Navy Lieutenant Lily Hinz said the sound detected "was not a whale, and it is not a regularly occurring sound".

The San Juan lost contact as it was sailing from the extreme southern port of Ushuaia. The submarine's captain had reported a battery failure.

More than a dozen planes and ships have been participating in the multinational search despite stormy weather that has caused waves of more than 20 feet. Search teams are combing an area of some 185,000 square miles, which is roughly the size of Spain.

The US government has sent two P-8 Poseidons, a naval research ship, a submarine rescue chamber and sonar-equipped underwater vehicles. US Navy sailors from the San Diego-based Undersea Rescue Command are also helping with the search.

The UK's Ministry of Defence sent a special airplane with emergency life support pods to join the hunt that includes planes and ships from a dozen nations.

Hopes were buoyed after brief satellite calls were received and when sounds were detected deep in the South Atlantic. But experts later determined that neither was from the missing sub.

"They haven't come back and they will never come back," said Jesica Gopar, wife of submarine officer Fernando Santilli, choking back tears. "I had a bad feeling about this and now it has been confirmed."
T he first pictures have emerged of crew members feared dead after an explosion was detected near to where the Argentine submarine disappeared.

The ARA San Juan and its crew of 44 have been missing since last Wednesday after vanishing about 300 miles from Argentina's southern coast.

Argentina's first woman submarine officer, a naval officer due to be married next month and an experienced commander are among those who were on board.

As hopes of finding the missing submarine plummeted on Thursday after Argentina's navy announced a sound thought to be an explosion were detected, the first images of those missing began to emerge.

Maria Krawczyk is one of the 44 missing crew members feared dead after the submarine ARA San Juan went missing last week / REUTERS

Lieutenant Eliana Maria Krawczyk, 35, Argentina's first female submarine officer, is among those missing, according to Reuters.

Nicknamed "Queen of the Sea", she joined the navy in 2004 and rose to become master-at-arms.

She grew up in Misiones province, near the borders with Paraguay and Brazil, around 1,000 kilometres from sea.

Renzo Martin Silva is due to be married next year / Youtube

Lieutenant Renzo Martin Silva, 32, who joined the navy when he was 18, is also feared dead, Straits Times reported. He grew up in the foothills of the Andes in the Argentine province of San Juan.

He reportedly planned to marry his girlfriend, a soldier, in 2018.

Fernando Santilli pictured with his wife, Jessica Gopar, and child / Jessica Gopar

Father Fernando Santilli, 35, who became a submariner seven years ago, was also on board, Straits Times reported.

His wife, Jessica Gopar, shared her distress on Facebook on Tuesday.

She wrote: "Every day is harder. There are moments of hope, others of great distress. You cannot imagine how many people are praying for you."

She added: Mr... Commander, I beg you, I implore you to do the impossible because you go to surface. There are 44 lives in your hands, you decide."

All 44 crew members feared dead after navy reveals Argentine submarine could have 'exploded'

The commander of the San Juan is also missing. Captain Pedro Martin Fernandez, 45, has been commander since 2015. He is married with three teenage children, according to Straits Times.

He has reportedly travelled the world in two decades of missions, living for 10 years in Mar del Plata, home port of the navy's two operational submarines.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan, despite the evidence of an explosion and with more than a week having passed since the submarine disappeared.

It was originally scheduled to arrive Monday at Argentina's Mar del Plata Navy Base.

Search for missing submarine ARA San Juan - In pictures 1 /36 Search for missing submarine ARA San Juan - In pictures Relatives of a missing submarine crew member react to news of the explosion AP US Navy flight officers fly over the south Atlantic. Reuters Aircraft circle above the spot where the submarine was last seen. Reuters View of a support message that reads 'God save you. The Lord and all the Argentinian are beside you' in front of the Submarine Operations Base in Mar de Plata, Buenos Aires province, Argentina EPA Captain Enrique Balbi, spokesman for the naval force, gives a statement to the media at the Argentine Army headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina EPA This Google Earth image provided by CTBTO shows a visualization of the hydro-acoustic anomaly 'consistent' with an 'explosion' that was recorded near the time and place of the disappearance of the submarine ARA San Juan AP Sergio Zelaya, friend of the crew member Fernando Ariel Mendoza, speaks to the media in front of the Submarine Operations Base in Mar de Plata, Buenos Aires province, Argentina EPA A child's drawing with the Spanish "Find them, we wait for them," referring to the crew of a missing submarine, hangs on a fence at the naval base in Mar del Plata, Argentina AP A man reacts in front of signs and messages in support of the 44 crew members of the missing at sea ARA San Juan submarine on a fence at an Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata, Argentina Reuters View of the U.S. Navy deep diving rescue vehicle, the Pressurized Rescue Module (PRM), mobilized to support the Argentine government's search and rescue efforts for the missing Argentine submarine ARA San Juan before being installed in Comodoro Rivadavia AFP/Getty Images Members of the Navy and relatives of the 44 crew members of the missing at sea ARA San Juan submarine react at an Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata, Argentina Reuters Relatives of 44 crew members of Argentine missing submarine, are escorted as they arrive at Argentina's Navy base in Mar del Plata, on the Atlantic coast south of Buenos Aires AFP/Getty Images View of a support message that reads 'ARA SAN JUAN. Be strong. We are with you!!' in front of the Submarine Operations Base in Mar de Plata, Buenos Aires province, Argentina EPA A woman reacts as people gather to pray for the 44 crew members of the missing at sea ARA San Juan submarine, at the entrance of an Argentine Naval Base in Mar del Plata, Argentina Reuters Members of the Argentine Air Force search for the missing submarine. AP People gather to pray for the 44 crew members of the missing at sea ARA San Juan submarine, at the entrance of an Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata, Argentina Reuters Naval force spokesman Captain Enrique Balbi delivering an update. EPA People pray outside Argentina's Navy base in Mar del Plata. AFP/Getty Images A crew member wears emergency gear during a presentation to the press inside the Brazilian submarine Timbira, which takes part in the international search mission for the missing Argentine submarine ARA San Juan, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil AFP/Getty Images Elena Alfaro, the sister of submarine crew member Federico Ibanez, is comforted outside the Naval base, as she waits for news in Mar del Plata, Argentina AP Navy crew look down at the sea from an airplane during a flight to search for the ARA San Juan. Reuters An Argentine Navy airplane flies over the Atlantic. Reuters People pray outside the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata AFP/Getty Images Argentina's President Mauricio Macri (left) talks to navy chiefs about the search operation Reuters Members of the Argentine Navy look down from an airplane in search of the submarine Reuters Signs in support of the submarine's crew at the naval base in Mar del Plata AP The ARA San Juan submarine disappeared on Wednesday while returning to its base in Mar del Plata EPA

The US Navy and an international nuclear test-ban monitoring organization said a "hydro-acoustic anomaly" was produced just hours after the navy lost contact with the sub on November 15.

It was near the submarine's last known location.

"According to this report, there was an explosion," Balbi told reporters. "We don't know what caused an explosion of these characteristics at this site on this date."

The navy spokesman described the "anomaly" as "singular, short, violent and non-nuclear."

Relatives of the crew who had gathered at the Mar del Plata base broke into tears and hugged each other after they received the news.

More than a dozen airplanes and ships have been participating in the multinational search.

"They haven't come back and they will never come back," said Ms Gopar. "I had a bad feeling about this and now it has been confirmed."
E urope's most senior terrorism expert has warned Isis extremists could soon turn to biological warfare, using drones to spread lethal viruses.

Speaking at a conference in London, Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's counterterrorism co-ordinator, said terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and Isis will soon turn to constructing biological weapons in their own homes.

The Times reports Mr Kerchove told the Royal United Services Institute that the first edition of Inspire, al-Qaeda's online magazine, had an article on "how to make a bomb in your mum's kitchen".

He claimed the next step could be "a similar article on how to process a virus in your mum's kitchen". He also warned the terrorists could use drones to spread such infections.

EU counterterrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove issued the warning / AFP/Getty Images

Underlining the threat of Isis's online presence, Theresa May's deputy national security adviser, Patrick McGuinness, told the conference: The online space is the frontline.

"Until Isis cannot occupy space online freely, we will not be safe...The speed with which people are brought to violence is almost too fast to catch."

Mr McGuinness said major social media companies - such as Twitter and Facebook - were co-operating to take down extremists but he was "not convinced" they were doing everything they could.

"These companies have got it in them to resolve this issue very substantially and free us largely in this space."
O scar Pistorius' prison sentence has been increased to 13 years and five months.

The South African appeals court has more than doubled the former sprinter's jail term for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Judges ruled his sentence will now be 13 years and five months, up from six years.

It comes as the state argued that his original sentence of six years was "shockingly lenient". His backers maintain that he did not intend to kill Steenkamp.

Oscar Pistorius sentenced to six years for Reeva Steenkamp murder

Pistorius had already served a year in jail for manslaughter, before his "flawed" conviction was changed to murder by South Africa's Supreme Court in 2015.

Onlookers speculated the South African faced a possible 15-year jail term for the killing on Valentine's Day in 2013.

The paralympian, who had the lower part of his legs amputated when he was a baby, claims he fired four shots into the toilet door at his luxury Pretoria home in the mistaken belief that an intruder was hiding behind it.

In 2014, judge Thokozile Masipa ruled the state failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Pistorius was guilty of premeditated murder, but may still be guilty of culpable homicide - the equivalent to the UK crime of manslaughter.

Oscar Pistorius Trial - In pictures 1 /31 Oscar Pistorius Trial - In pictures Oscar Pistorius arrives outside the court in Pretoria, South Africa on 21 October 2014 AP Oscar Pistorius' prosthetics lie on the floor as he walks on his amputated legs during argument in mitigation of sentence by his defense attorney Barry Roux in the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa AP South African Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius holds his sister Aimee Pistorius (3rd R) as he leaves the High Court in Pretoria on 6 July 2016 AFP/Getty Images South African Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius leaves the High Court in Pretoria on 6 July 2016 after beeing sentenced to six years in jail for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp AFP/Getty Images Oscar Pistorius gives his first media interview after the killing of Reeva Steenkamp ITV Oscar Pistorius reaches out to Barry Steenkamp during the third day of Oscar's hearing for a resentence at Pretoria High Court on 15 June 2016 Getty Images South African Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius leaves the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on 18 April 2016 Reuters Judge Thokozile Masipa reads her sentence of South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius on day six of sentencing procedures at the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa on 21 October 2014 EPA Oscar Pistorius cries in the dock in Pretoria during his trial on 11 September 2014 AP Oscar Pistorius competes in the Men's 200m during the London 2012 Paralympic Games Oscar Pistorius leaves court in Pretoria on 7 July 2014 AP June Steenkamp with her husband Barry, parents of Reevaa Steenkamp, look on as South African Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius enters a court in Pretoria on 8 August 2014 Reuters South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock during his ongoing murder trial, in Pretoria on 12 May 2014 AFP/Getty Images Oscar Pistorius arrives at the high court in Pretoria, South Africa on 10 April 2014 AP South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius leaves court after breaking down in the dock during his ongoing murder trial, Pretoria, South Africa on 08 April 2014 EPA Oscar Pistorius Trial South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius speaks with a member of his legal team ahead of his trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on 6 March 2014 AFP/Getty Images Oscar Pistorius Trial CCTV footage of Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp flirting and kissing, just days before he killed her Oscar Pistorius Trial Oscar Pistorius covers his head with his hands and a notebook as he listens to forensic evidence during his trial in court on 13 March 2014 AP Oscar Pistorius Trial A policeman demonstrates the effect of hitting a bathroom door with a cricket bat on 12 March 2014 Reuters Oscar Pistorius Trial Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock ahead of the second day of the trial on 4 March 2014 Reuters Oscar Pistorius Trial Shot three times: Reeva Steenkamp Oscar Pistorius Trial Reeva Steenkamp, 29 Oscar Pistorius Trial Oscar Pistorius escorted out of the high court after the first day of his trial in Pretoria, South Africa on 3 March 2014 AP Oscar Pistorius Trial Relatives of Oscar Pistorius wait inside the high court prior to the start of his trial in Pretoria, South Africa on 3 March 2014 AP Oscar Pistorius Trial June Steenkamp, the mother of as Reeva Steenkamp, arrives at the high court for the start of the trial of Oscar Pistorius in Pretoria, South Africa on 3 March 2014 AP Oscar Pistorius Trial South Africa's Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius hides his face in his hands in the court room during his hearing on charge of murdering his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day on 15 February 2013 AFP/Getty Images Oscar Pistorius Trial Oscar Pistorius enters the dock before court proceedings at the in his first formal appearance since his release on bail Reuters Oscar Pistorius Trial Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius leaves the Boschkop police station, east of Pretoria Oscar Pistorius Trial South Africa's Oscar Pistorius gives the thumbs up sign after finishing his men's 400m heats at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium Reuters Oscar Pistorius Trial South Africa's Oscar Pistorius crosses the line with his arms raised as he wins gold in the Men's 400m T44 Final in the Olympic Stadium Getty Images Oscar Pistorius at his house in Pretoria in February 2012

More to follow
 Saudia Arabia is set to introduce tourist visas to attract more visitors from next year.

The country already welcomes millions of Muslims on pilgrimage to Mecca each year, however the country is now looking to attract a wider range of tourists, officials have said.

Visas have previously been restricted to people travelling to the country for work or for religious reasons.

However, Prince Sultan Bin Salman told CNN that the country plans to issue tourist visas in the next 12 months.

He said: The targets are people who want to literally experience this country and the grandness of this country."

The move to up its tourism levels comes as the country plans to reduce its reliance on oil.

It aims to have 30 million visitors per year by 2030 compared to the 18 million recorded in 2016.

The country hopes that by 2020 tourist spending will hit $47 billion, CNN reported.

The economic overhaul is being driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who unveiled plans for a $500 billion metropolis that will extend across Saudi Arabias borders to Egypt and Jordan.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that the government also wishes to increase domestic tourism / AP

However, Saudi Arabia faces obstacles in the form of security issues which were highlighted in the US State Departments travel warning on Tuesday.

The warning said that Americans should carefully consider the risks of travel to Saudi Arabia," citing threats from terrorist groups such as ISIS and missile attacks from Yemeni rebels on civilian targets.

"Terrorist threats persist throughout Saudi Arabia, including in major cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dhahran, and attacks can occur without warning anywhere in the country," it said.

The Crown Prince said that the government is looking to increase domestic tourism.

Prince Sultan told CNN: Saudi tourists, who are seeping outside the country, are the biggest target for us".

Over 1.2 million Saudis have visited Dubai this year.

Prince Sultan said: We were late, decisions were late, funding was late and other countries, especially in the Gulf, have risen to the challenge and started attracting more people from Saudi Arabia".
By PTI: (Eds: Adding details)

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) The Winter Session of Parliament will commence from December 15, a day after the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections, and conclude on January 5.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh today met here to decide the dates of the Winter Session.

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The CCPA recommended that the session be held from December 15 to January 5, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters here.

According to procedure, the CCPAs recommendation would be forwarded to the president.

Justifying the governments decision to call the Winter Session after the assembly polls, Kumar said it was also done by governments in the past, including Congress dispensations headed by Indira Gandhi, P V Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.

"We request and seek cooperation from all parties, including the opposition, for smooth functioning of both Houses to make this session fruitful," he said.

Sources cited several instances where the session dates were changed so that they did not overlap with elections, including the 2011 Budget Session in the UPA II tenure when polls were underway in five states.

Similarly in 2008, under the UPA I the session was divided in two parts as assembly elections were going on in five states in October, they said.

It is not a new practice to adjust the session dates while keeping in mind the election schedule and it has been done by various governments, they claimed.

When asked whether MPs would be asked to be present on January 1, Kumar said parliamentarians were supposed to be present on all working days, including on new years day.

Some very important bills are expected to be introduced in the session, including one on triple talaq, NCBC and few others.

The session will have 14 working days. PTI JTR AAR

--- ENDS ---
H air-raising CCTV footage has emerged of a woman being rescued from the path of an oncoming train moments before it pulled into the station.

The woman was seen stumbling across the tracks at a station in Melbourne in the footage.

As she struggled to climb back onto the platform, a man came over to help her.

But an oncoming train quickly hurtled towards her, leading to three police officers rushing to the rescue.

Three officers dragged the woman from the tracks moments before a train arrived

The shocking clip has led to calls for screen doors, which separate the platform from the train, to be fitted at Australian stations.

Daniel Bowen, from Public Transport Users Association, told news.com.au: A platform screen could act like a wall along the platform with doors, so it would greatly reduce incidents like this happening.

He added that there had been many similar incidents, including involving children's prams rolling on to the track, across the country.

A Victoria police spokesperson said that the women would have been killed if not for the quick action of the officers, it was reported.

The driver of the train saw the woman and applied the emergency brakes, he told local TV station Channel 7.

However, the train would not have stopped in time due to its weight and size.

In August, a video emerged of the moment a mother lost grip of her pram, allowing it to tumble on to the tracks at a Sydney station.
A fireworks shop worker has been accused of trying to assassinate Barack Obama by sending him a package rigged with explosive powder.

Julia Poff, 46, was charged after her cats hair was found on the label on the former presidents parcel  which never made it past security.

She is also charged with sending a similar booby-trapped package to Texas governor Greg Abbott, who opened his but it failed to explode.

US Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy said Poff presents a real safety risk to witnesses and others in the community.

Barack Obama's parcel did not make it past security / Getty Images

Poff is said to have expressed dislike for democrat Obama, who was president from 2009 to 2017.

The judge's detention order said Poff was upset with Abbott because she believed that in his previous role as state attorney general, he played a part in her inability to receive support from her ex-husband.

The packages contained pyrotechnic powder, and investigators found a large amount of fireworks at Poff's home in Brookshire, west of Houston, the court order said.

She is scheduled to appear in court for a hearing on Jan. 2.
Z imbabwe's recently fired vice president has been sworn in as leader after more than a week of political turmoil which saw despot Robert Mugabe ousted from power.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, who recently fled the country in fear of his life, made a triumphant return on Wednesday in advance of his inauguration as president on Friday.

The ceremony brought an end to Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule.

Mr Mugabe, 93, who had led Zimbabwe from independence in 1980, stepped down on Tuesday after the army seized power and the ruling party ZANU-PF turned against him.

Emmerson Mnangagwa Inauguration - In pictures 1 /20 Emmerson Mnangagwa Inauguration - In pictures Newly sworn in Zimbabwe's president Emmerson Mnangagwa walks after taking the oath of office at the national sports stadium AFP/Getty Images Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia arrive at the presidential inauguration ceremony in the capital Harare, Zimbabwe AP Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as Zimbabwe's president in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as the new Zimbabwe's president in Harare AFP/Getty Images Emmerson Mnangagwa takes his seat at his presidential inauguration ceremony in Harare, Zimbabwe, AP The crowd cheers and dances at the presidential inauguration ceremony of Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Women hold portraits of Emmerson Mnangagwa at his presidential inauguration ceremony in Harare, Zimbabwe AP President elect Emmerson Mnangagwa gestures as he arrives with his wife Auxilia at the National Sport Stadium in Harare, AFP/Getty Images Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia arrive at the presidential inauguration ceremony in the capital Harare, Zimbabwe AP The military parade at the presidential inauguration ceremony of Emmerson Mnangagwa in the capital Harare, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabwean judges arrive for Emmerson Mnangagwa's presidential inauguration ceremony in the capital Harare, Zimbabwe AP Army General Constantino Chiwenga, center, arrives with his wife Mary at the presidential inauguration ceremony of Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare, Zimbabwe AP An honor guard marches on to the field for Emmerson Mnangagwa's presidential inauguration ceremony in the capital Harare, Zimbabwe AP The crowd cheers and dances at the presidential inauguration ceremony of Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives at the presidential inauguration ceremony in the capital Harare, Zimbabwe AP

The former president resigned on Tuesday as parliament began a process to impeach him, sparking scenes of jubilation across Zimbabwe.

This blog is currently paused, but check back soon for further updates on the situation in Zimbabwe.
B lack Friday has arrived - the time has come! Retailers all over the country are offering fantastic discounts on your favourite items.

Last year, shoppers in the UK spent 5.8bn during the mega-sales weekend  up a staggering 15 per cent from 3.3bn on 2015. This year Brits are set to spend 8bn on deals.

But what is Black Friday? And where can you actually get the best deals? Here's a handy guide on everything you need to know.

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is the annual shopping extravaganza that first started in America and is the day after Thanksgiving, when retailers would unveil whopping reductions on products ahead of the Christmas period.

Though it was originally a one day event, thanks to the huge success of recent years, many retailers offer sales and deals over the week leading up to it.

Nowadays, customers scrounge both in stores and online to take advantage of the bargains, hence the lengthy queues outside shops and high quantities of traffic on websites.

Shoppers in the UK spent 5.8bn on the 2016 Black Friday sales  an increase of 15 per cent on 2015.

When is Black Friday 2017?

This year, Black Friday will fall on Friday November 24, however Amazon announced that it would be rolling out 10 days of deals as well as a Home of Black Friday Pop Up' in London in aid of the event. Several other retailers have also already announced deals, including Currys PC World and Argos as well as many fashion brands, so there are plenty of bargains to pick up for Christmas already.

Many websites are revealing their Black Friday sales in the lead up before the event date  so keep your eyes peeled.

What is Black Friday?

What time does it kick off?

If youre shopping online, you can expect most bargains to appear on major retail websites at midnight, while a majority of the UKs high street retailers will open at 6am to reveal their discounted products. There are, however already plenty of live deals, so make sure you keep an eye on retailers such as Amazon, Argos and Currys for deals as they trickle in.

Where can I shop the best deals?

For many shoppers, online giant Amazon will be the first port of call for some killer deals. The websites Black Friday 2016 sale  which began 12 days before the official day  featured discounts of up to 87 percent, with double the amount of deals compared to 2015.

John Lewis, Currys and Argos are all amongst retailers expected to be more competitive on prices this year than ever.

Black Friday 2017 in the United Kingdom - In pictures 1 /16 Black Friday 2017 in the United Kingdom - In pictures Shoppers on Oxford Street on Black Friday Rex Oxford Street on the morning of Black Friday Rex Oxford Street on the morning of Black Friday Rex Oxford Street on the morning of Black Friday Rex An empty House of Fraser on Oxford Street during the morning of Black Friday John Mercer via PA John Lewis at Brent Cross on the morning of Black Friday Shoppers carry their new Black Friday TV purchase at Tesco Extra in Neasdon on Black Friday Jeremy Selwyn Shoppers wait outside the entrance to leading games retailer GAME in Westfield shopping centre in Stratford ahead of a Black Friday event PA Shoppers on Oxford Street in London for Black Friday REUTERS Stickers used for sale prices await to be used PA Shoppers pack into games retailer GAME in Westfield shopping centre in Stratford for a Black Friday event. PA Shoppers wait outside the entrance to leading games retailer GAME in Westfield shopping centre in Stratford ahead of a Black Friday PA

Last year, Argoss BF sales on household appliances were particularly eye-watering. Among the products were a Rangemaster Arleston Ceremic Cooker, built with two separate ovens, down from 699.99 to 499.99 and a Dyson V6 Flexi Cordless Handstick Vacuum Cleaner reduced to 229.99.

If you want to snap up some great gadget bargains, then John Lewis is a no-brainer. The department stores last Black Friday offerings included the Google Home Smart Speaker, reduced from 127.50 to 77.50.

Hoping to save on toys for Christmas ? Amazon, which reportedly sold 100,000 toys in just the first few hours of Black Friday 2016, should have you covered with deals on popular toy brands like VTech and Fisher Price.

Be prepared

Our final tip is to prepare for a long day. Get a good nights rest, have your alarm set and fuel up with a hearty breakfast  Black Friday shopping isnt for the faint-hearted.
R eality TV star Gemma Collins has reportedly collapsed in a bathroom after suffering agonising stomach pain.

The TOWIE regular is thought to have been found by her make-up artist who immediately called for help after the health scare on Friday morning.

It is feared she may have kidney stones after suffering from symptoms in recent weeks.

Gemma had filming commitments this morning but everything has ground to a halt following her shock collapse, a source told The Sun.

Concerned: Gemma Collins was forced to miss TOWIE filming / Getty Images

She was getting ready for the day at her makeup artist Lisa's home and then nipped to the bathroom.

The next thing Lisa knew was that Gemma had fallen to the floor  so she called for immediate medical attention and may now need to go to hospital."

The insider added: Family and friends are hoping that she will make a rapid recovery but for now Towie filming has been put on hold.

Gemma Collins - In pictures 1 /41 Gemma Collins - In pictures PA Gemma Collins on Instagram @gemmacollins1 Gemma Collins on'Celebs Go Dating' Channel 4 Gemma Collins on 'The Only Way is Essex' ITV Gemma Collins on 'I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!' in 2014 ITV/Rex Gemma Collins on'Celebs Go Dating' Channel 4 Gemma Collins on'Celebs Go Dating' Channel 4 Gemma Collins on 'I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!' in 2014 Rex Features Nominated: Gemma Collins and Danniella Westbrook are up for Tuesday's eviction along with Stephanie Davis Channel 5 Gemma Collins appearing on Celebrity Big Brother Channel 5 Gemma Collins arriving at the ITV Gala 2017 held at the London Palladium Getty Images Gemma Collins makes US TV on Wendy Williams after her Radio 1 Teen 2017 Awards fall Gemma Collins is helped by Amber Davies, Jamie Jewitt and Marcel Somerville as she falls on stage during the BBC Radio 1 Teen Awards 2017 at Wembley Arena Getty Images Gemma Collins makes fun of her Radio 1 Teen 2017 Awards fall on Instagram @gemmacollins1 Gemma Collins attending BBC Radio 1's Teen Awards 2017 PA Gemma Collins attending the European premiere of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets at Cineworld in Leicester Square in 2017 PA Gemma Collins appearing on Celebrity Big Brother Channel 5 Gemma Collins.in 'Sugar Free' ITV Gemma Collins on 'I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!' in 2014 ITV Gemma Collins on 'The Only Way is Essex' ITV Getty Images Exciting: the GC teased new plans for a trip to Los Angeles Getty Images 'Standing on ice': Gemma Collins was mocked by viewers ITV Rex Features ames Argent with Gemma Collins PA Channel 4 @gemmacollins1 @gemmacollins1 @gemmacollins1 @gemmacollins1 @gemmacollins1

Collins has forced to pull out of several club appearances in recent weeks over concerns for her health.

She cancelled a date in Sheffield after being struck down with cystitis before pulling out of another in Brighton.

Breaking the news to fans in a Twitter video she said: Ive got to stay in bed. I have got a water infection. Im not feeling that great. I didnt want to let anyone down but Im not well.

Im so sorry guys, these things happen though. Im sorry if anyone is upset, I love you all, dont think I'm turning my back on you because Im not. I feel just not myself.

Standard Online has contacted a representative for Collins for comment.
V ictoria Beckham proved she has a sense of humour after dressing up as a turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The fashion designer, 43, photoshopped a feathered bodysuit onto herself as she got into the festive spirit to mark the annual holiday.

Beckham posted a picture of herself perched on the floor with a trail of feathers behind her.

She captioned the shot: Happy Thanksgiving VB X.

Ruffling feathers: Victoria Beckham dressed as a turkey / Instagram/ Victoria Beckham

The mother-of-four celebrated in London with a trip to the Basquiat: Boom for Real exhibition at the Barbican with her team.

Beckham has had plenty to be thankful for this year after reaching her 18th wedding anniversary with husband David and celebrating eldest son Brooklyns move to New York to study photography.

She recently opened up about how aware her six-year-old daughter Harper is of being very blessed.

chloe moretz instagram story

Speaking on This Morning she said: Harper knows that Mummy and Daddy, and Auntie Eva do things to help other people, and she wants to do that as well.

She understands, even at six, that she is very blessed. Shes very lucky to have what she has.

The Beckham brood were split up for Thanksgiving as Brooklyn, 18, opted to spend the holiday with his girlfriend Chloe Moretz in Los Angeles.

The Kick Ass actress posted a video of the budding photographer food shopping with her and her mother in Beverley Hills earlier this week.
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By PTI: (Eds: Adding details of bills to be taken up in session)

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) The Winter Session of Parliament will commence from December 15, a day after the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections, and conclude on January 5.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh today met here to decide the dates of the Winter Session.

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The CCPA recommended that the session be held from December 15 to January 5, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters here.

According to procedure, the CCPAs recommendation would be forwarded to the president.

Justifying the governments decision to call the Winter Session after the assembly polls, Kumar said it was also done by governments in the past, including Congress dispensations headed by Indira Gandhi, P V Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.

"We request and seek cooperation from all parties, including the opposition, for smooth functioning of both Houses to make this session fruitful," he said.

Sources cited several instances where the session dates were changed so that they did not overlap with elections, including the 2011 Budget Session in the UPA II tenure when polls were underway in five states.

Similarly in 2008, under the UPA I the session was divided in two parts as assembly elections were going on in five states in October, they said.

It is not a new practice to adjust the session dates while keeping in mind the election schedule and it has been done by various governments, they claimed.

When asked whether MPs would be asked to be present on January 1, Kumar said parliamentarians were supposed to be present on all working days, including on new years day.

Some important bills are expected to be introduced in the session, including one on triple talaq, and the NCBC, Kumar said, adding that there was a strong desire of the people that Parliament should legislate on these issues.

Three bills that will be taken up in the upcoming session to replace ordinances are--The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States), 2017, The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) and The Indian Forest (Amendment), he added.

The session will have 14 working days. PTI JTR AAR

--- ENDS ---
According to the President of the National Institute of Civil Aeronautics (INAC), twelve airlines have requested to operate with Venezuela. | Read More
By PTI: Hyderabad, Nov 24 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Hyderabad Metro Rail project on November 28, according to the Telangana government.

Telangana Chief Secretary S P Singh held a meeting with senior officials on the arrangements for the prime ministers visit to Hyderabad on November 28, an official release issued last night said.

The prime minister would inaugurate the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project on November 28 afternoon and proceed to the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), it said.

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US President Donald Trumps daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump would also attend the summit.

Singh instructed that a fool-proof plan should be prepared to transport delegates from HICC to the Falaknuma Palace where the Prime Minister would host a reception, it added. PTI SJR NRB DV

--- ENDS ---
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has reached Porbandar for the fifth-leg of his Gujarat campaign. He will accept a giant Indian flag made by Dalits today later in the day.

By India Today Web Desk: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi reached poll-bound Gujarat's Porbandar today, his fifth visit after the two-phase Assembly elections were announced in the state beginning December 9.

The 47-year-old leader, who is set to take over Congress' mantle next month, first visited Kirti Mandir in Porbandar, which is the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi. Later today, he will accept a giant tricolour made by the Dalits.

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WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR:

1. The national flag to be accepted by Rahul today was originally to be presented to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani a few months ago, but officials in the state capital had reportedly refused to accept it citing lack of space.

2. The highlight of Rahul's two-day tour is the visit to the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), a vocational training institute run by Dalit activists, near Sanand town of Ahmedabad district.

3. "During his visit, Rahulji will accept a giant national flag, measuring 125 feet in length and 83 feet in height, from Dalit students of the Kendra. He will also address locals and Dalits of surrounding areas at the centre," Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

4. "This is the largest national flag ever made. Though it was meant to be presented to Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani, he had refused to accept it when Dalits went to Gandhinagar in August. When Rahulji learned about it, he conveyed his desire to accept the flag with full honour," Doshi added.

5. According to DSK founder Martin Macwan, the giant flag was made as part of their movement to end untouchability in the country.

6. Apart from interacting with Dalits in Sanand, Gandhi would interact with fishermen, doctors, teachers and villagers on his route covering Porbandar, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mahisagar and Dahod district during his two-day visit.

7. In the evening, he will meet with the teaching community -- university professors, primary teachers and ad hock teachers. He will wrap up the day's programme by addressing a public gathering at Bhakti ground in the Patidar-dominated area of Nikol, Naroda.

8. On Saturday, Gandhi will visit Dehgam in Gandhinagar district and then leave for Aravalli's Bayad region for a corner meeting. He will have another meeting in Lunawada in the newly-formed Mahisagar district and yet one more at Santrampur.

9. Polling for the two-phase elections in the state, having total 182 seats, will take place on December 9 and 14 and votes will be counted on December 18.

10. Eighty nine seats of the Saurashtra and South Gujarat region are going to polls in the first phase, while the remaining 93 seats in the central and northern regions would go to polls in the second phase.

--- ENDS ---

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AUTO LAB TALK RADIO LIVE FROM NYC SATURDAY MORNING! 7-9 AM November 25, 2017







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The Auto Lab Radio Show LIVE every Saturday 7 to 9 AM On New York City's WNYM Radio AM 970 and Streamed Worldwide On The Auto Channel

This Weeks Show Broadcast Date: November 25, 2017

Car Question or Concern? Call Toll Free 888-692-7234

Auto Lab is a 28 year old interactive automotive-focused New York area radio call-in show hosted by Professor Harold Wolchok. Each week a cadre of experienced hands-on automotive experts are in-studio with advice for the New York area's 12 million people, providing listeners with honest, practical and street-smart car repair and buying advice.

Auto Lab is also about the automotive industry, its history, and its culture, presenting the ideas and advice of leading college faculty, authors, and automotive practitioners in a relaxed, conversational interactive format.

Listeners can hear the past 18 years of archived Auto Lab shows as simulcast on www.theautochannel.com.

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This Weeks Show: November 25, 2017

IN STUDIO: Auto Lab's Real World Experts Answer Your Questions; Discuss: Repairs, Second Opinions, Regular Maintenance, How To's, Safety, Used and New Car Buying, Ombudsmen Suggestions

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Broadcast Date: November 25, 2017;

Auto Lab Correspondents Remote Interviews: Featuring Auto Safety News, New Car Reviews, Technology and Latest Auto World Information That Will Effect You!

Robert Erskine, Senior European Correspondent, Suffolk England < br>EUROPEAN SEDANS OUT, PREMIUM SUV'S IN

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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/11/2017 (1818 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Steinbach RCMP yesterday located a father and son from Mitchell who became lost for several hours while hunting in a wilderness area northeast of Marchand.

The pair were found healthy and uninjured yesterday evening after three hours of tracking by the detachments police dog services unit, Manitoba RCMP said in a press release.

The father and 12-year-old boy had struck out on a hunting expedition in the RM of Reynolds earlier that day. They carried a charged cellular phone as they left their vehicle on a side road and walked into the woods.

Around 4 p.m., after wandering lost for several hours, they phoned Steinbach RCMP. Officers located the parked vehicle and nearby tracks, and called for assistance from the police dog services unit.

After locating the duo, the group completed a two-hour hike back to safety.

Thankfully, situation ended well. The hunters were prepared and able to call for assistance, Manitoba RCMP media relations officer Tara Seel remarked.

Before heading out into wilderness areas, RCMP remind the public to inform others of arrival and departure times, dress for the weather, carry fire-starting gear and a trail map, and pay attention to specific landmarks.

If calling for assistance, RCMP ask individuals stay in one location and carry a charged cellular phone, which may help officers determine location even in areas with poor network coverage.
86-Year-Old Woman With Walker Charged With Armed Bank Robbery

Emily Coakley strolled into a TD Bank with her walker, went up to a teller, pulled out a revolver and demanded $400, police say. She is 86 years old.

Coakley told University of Pennsylvania police that she believed the bank had shorted her when she withdrew money on Monday, Nov. 20, so she returned to the bank on Tuesday, to demand the cash.

The octogenarian was charged with aggravated assault, robbery, violation of the Uniform Firearms Act, terroristic threats, and related offenses, Fox 29 reported, citing police sources.

.@FOX29philly Police say Emily Coakley entered bank,pulled gun & demanded $400 she thought Bank owed her.#fox29 pic.twitter.com/AfSUodPLjO  Dave Schratwieser (@DSchratwieser) November 22, 2017

Thats pretty unusual. I never heard of a bank robber that age and armed, John McDonald, a passerby, told Fox 29. I doubt this is going to be a repeat event.

Coakley walked into the TD Bank on Walnut Street and Market Street in West Philadephias University City just past 2 p.m. and demanded the cash. The teller handed it to her and called the police. Officers arrived before she left the premises and arrested her.

Im concerned. I mean 86 or 26, she had a gun, Will Duggan, a bank customer, told Fox 29. Someone could have got shot even accidentally. You have to have concerns. People bring their kids here.

Coakleys family came to the bank while police investigated the incident and were seen consoling her.

FBI recovered the revolver from the scene. The weapon was not loaded, but Coakley had bullets in her bag. Investigators also recovered the ill-gotten $400.

Authorities led Coakley out of the bank in handcuffs just before 6 p.m.

She was later released on $100,000 unsecured bail, Patch Philadelphia reported.

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After DNA Test, California Man Freed From Prison in 1978 Double-Murder

LOS ANGELES  A man wrongfully convicted in California of the 1978 double-murder of a woman and her child is spending his first Thanksgiving Day as a free man in 39 years, after being released on the basis of DNA evidence.

California Governor Jerry Brown pardoned 70-year-old Craig Coley on Wednesday and prison officials quickly set him free, according to prosecutors and police in Simi Valley, where the double-slaying occurred.

Local authorities in Simi Valley, a community just outside Los Angeles, supported the governors decision.

The grace with which Mr. Coley has endured his lengthy and unjust incarceration is extraordinary, Brown wrote in the two-page document ordering Coleys release. I grant this pardon because Mr. Coley did not commit these crimes.

Just in time for Thanksgiving: Gov. Brown granted a full and unconditional pardon to Craig Coley, 70, who spent 39 years in prison after he was convicted of killing a Simi woman and child. A new investigation initiated by Simi Police Chief Livingstone has cleared him. pic.twitter.com/nODDC8midF  Simi Valley Acorn (@SVAcorn) November 23, 2017

More than 350 people have been exonerated by DNA testing in the United States since 1989, according to New York-based The Innocence Project, which helps people who were wrongfully convicted. On average, convicts who were freed had served 14 years in prison when exonerated.

Coley was convicted in the 1978 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Rhonda Wicht, and her 4-year-old son, Donald, at the apartment where the mother and child lived.

Wicht was beaten and strangled and the boy was smothered to death, Simi Valley police said in a statement on Monday. Coley, who had recently broken up with Wicht, was arrested the day the bodies were discovered.

(Simi Valley Police Department)

Coley, who had no criminal history, may have been framed, Brown wrote in the pardon.

In 1980, Coley was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

He always maintained his innocence. After he appealed to Brown for clemency, the governor ordered a review in 2015.

Ventura County District Attorney Gregory Totten announced the support of the clemency petition of Craig Coley who was found guilty of a double murder that happened in 1978. Coley has spent 38 years locked up for a crime he appears to be innocent. pic.twitter.com/3XVn17V0kp  Richard Gillard (@acornrichard) November 21, 2017

Biological samples once thought to be lost or destroyed were discovered at a private laboratory, Simi Valley police said, and investigators analyzed a key piece of evidence.

It showed Coleys DNA was not present in the sample. Instead, it bore traces of other peoples DNA.

The statement from Simi Valley police did not describe the object, saying only that technology for testing the item was not available when Coley was convicted.

Reviewing the case in light of the new evidence, we no longer have confidence in the weight of the evidence used to convict Mr. Coley, Simi Valley police and Ventura County prosecutors said in a joint statement earlier this week.

They called the case tragic and pledged to continue reviewing it to determine if they can establish who killed the mother and child 39 years ago.
An employee prepares to open the shop doors in a Currys store on 'Black Friday' in the West End shopping district of London, England, Nov. 24, 2017. (Reuters/Simon Dawson)

Black Friday in the UK Is Very Different Than in the US

In the U.S. Black Friday is a big deal, with shoppers notoriously fighting over discounted televisions, stereos, and fridges.

In the UK  not so much.

The concept of the day was imported to the UK in 2010, but it hasnt quite caught on yet.

A video posted on Friday, Nov. 24 shows electronics retailer Currys PC World opening the doors of its central London store to let in what they hoped would be throngs of customers.

Just one man can be strolling through the doors when they opened two hours early at 7 a.m. And that was to pick up a laptop he had pre-ordered.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. every year there are reports of brawls over heavily discounted items.

That said, this year, some of the conflicts reported appear to be more of a personal nature than over sales.

In Missouri, a 19-year-old was seriously injured when a man allegedly fired his gun after attempting to place it in his holster. It wasnt clear if the shooting was accidental or deliberate.

And in Birmingham, Al. there were reports of fights between girls in the Riverchase Galleria, reported al.com. The fights were personal, according to officers at the scene.

In the UK, some retailers are ambivalent about the benefits of Black Friday.

Anthony Thompson, chief executive of clothing brand Fat Face, told the BBC its stores would not be taking part.

Its bad for customers, its bad for business, its bad for UK retail, he said.

What customers are looking for at Christmas is great value for money, not make-believe promotions and fake prices, and thats often what they get on Black Friday.

All its doing is moving sales from December into November. Its not growing the market and everyone is having to sell things at reduced margins.

And Steve Rowe, chief executive of Marks and Spencer, also said its stores wouldnt be offering Black Friday deals.

I bet most retailers wish it was an American import that never arrived, he said.

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People line up for Black Friday sales outside the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, before it opens on Nov. 24, 2017. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Brawl Shuts Down Alabamas Largest Mall on Thanksgiving Night

A fight during Black Friday sales at a shopping center caused Alabamas largest mall to close 40 minutes early on Thanksgiving night.

Police and firefighters responded to a report of two young women engaged in a fight at Riverchase Galleria with a group of bystanders watching after 11 p.m., according to a statement on Nov. 24.

The pair was separated and treated by paramedics for minor injuries.

According to the police, the fight was not related to Black Friday sales and no arrests were made in this incident.

Earlier in the night, police received another report of shots being fired outside the same mall. Lt. Keith Czeskleba said they did receive calls reporting gunfire, but responding officers believe it was someone shooting off fireworks, reported AL.com.

Videos of the fight have been posted on social media, showing police responding to the incident.

JUST IN: @HooverPD say they responded to several reports of fights at the Galleria Thursday night. Here's video of one incident outside the Buckle store. More on @WBRCnews this morning. pic.twitter.com/UZEZQGykGE  Clare Huddleston (@Fox6Clare) November 24, 2017

Hoover police said they will have extra officers patrolling during the holiday season to ensure the safety of customers at shopping centers.

Other locations also faced similar incidents during the Black Friday sales. A video was posted on social media showing four grown men fighting over a toy during sales at Walmart.

The Galleria reopened to shoppers at 6 a.m. Black Friday morning and will close at 10 p.m.

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Trucks wait in the Chinese border city of Dandong, in China's northeast Liaoning Province, before crossing the Friendship Bridge to the North Korean town of Sinuiju on Sept. 5, 2017. On Nov. 24, China announced it was temporarily closing the bridge. (GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images)

China Closes Bridge to North Korea After Cancelling ChinaN. Korea Flights Days Earlier

China has closed a key bridge to North Korea days after its envoy returned from Pyongyang without meeting Kim Jong Un.

A Chinese official said the bridge from Dandong city was being closed temporarily while North Korea made repairs to the road on its side of the bridge.

Sino-North Korean Friendship Bridge will be closed temporarily, and the bridge will be open to traffic after maintenance work is finished, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters on Nov. 24.

The bridge is a major conduit for trade and people between Dandong, China, and Sinuiju, North Korea. In Dandong, many Chinese businesses have thrived through trade with the North Korean communist regime.

That boom, however, has begun to face severe restrictions. Chinese companies targeted by new U.S. unilateral sanctions are nearly all based in Dandong.

The timing of the closure is suspect given other recent developments between the communist neighbors.

On Tuesday, Chinas special envoy to North Korea, Song Tao, the head of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) International Liaison Department, returned from a four-day trip to Pyongyang with no reports of him meeting with the North Korean dictator.

Chinas state-owned airline suspended flights between Beijing and North Korea that same day, claiming the route cancellation was due to a lack of demand.

The closures come as North Korea faces additional sanctions following President Donald Trumps announcement that the regime would be re-designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Following the designation, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned several Chinese and North Korean entities on Nov. 21 for their role fueling trade with the Kim regime. Four Chinese companies based in Dandong were among those sanctioned.

Some North Korean companies were taking inventive measures to circumvent the more overarching U.N. sanctions that have limited international trade with the regime.

Those include hiding prohibited goods under allowed cargo in ships and transferring cargo from one ship to another while out at sea in an effort to throw off inspectors.

North Korea truck drivers crossing the Friendship bridge into Dandong have also come up with a way to get more fuel, a critical commodity, into North Korea.

North Korean truck drivers have taken to driving into China on empty tanks, filling up with gas in China, and then driving back and emptying that fuel, reports Daily NK, a news site that specializes in getting information from inside North Korea.

At first, truckers were driving empty trucks to Dandong, but after Chinese customs agents figured out what they were doing and began restricting such crossings, the drivers began delivering small amounts of goods.

The scheme appears to be working, as Chinese customs are not restricting these trucks ferrying clothing and foodstuffs, reports Daily NK.

Sanctions have begun changing the nature of business between North Korean and Chinese firms, with North Korean exports relying more on smaller Chinese merchants, a source in China told Daily NK.

North Korean trading companies are working less on big operations with Chinese trading companies these days and more with merchants and market financiers connected to the markets.

This year, North Korean trading companies were not able to export even half of their projected amounts of coal and minerals due to the sanctions, said the source.

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Sambit Patra said that about 16,000 Rohingya Muslims are living in the country with proper documents and the government does not have any problem with them.

By Prabhash K Dutta: The BJP today reasserted its opposition to the continued stay of over 40,000 Rohingya people in the country. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said those Rohingya having entered into Indian territories illegally would be detected as per law and deported.

On the other hand, Congress leader Sushmita Dev said that the government must consider the case of Rohingya Muslims on the grounds of humanity and in accordance with international law on refugees. Sushmita Dev cited Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution to suggest that the Rohingya Muslims have a right to get protection from the Centre.

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Taking part in a discussion on "How to Be Good Neighbours: Whose Refugees Are They Anyway?" at the India Today Conclave East 2017, Sambit Patra rejected the suggestion of the Congress's Lok Sabha MP saying that the reports by the intelligence agencies and the home ministry officials have raised serious issues of national security with the illegal stay of Rohingya in the country.

"There are four aspects involved with the Rohingya in India. These are legal aspect, security, strategic and humanitarian one. The government cannot compromise on the security question," Patra said.

Patra claimed that the investigation agencies suspect that illegal Rohingya could be behind the Bodhgaya terror blast in Bihar a couple of years ago. However, it has not been proved yet.

Sushmita Dev contended saying that Rohingya are persecuted in Myanmar because of their religious identity and under the refoulement clause, India under Article 51 of its Constitution is "bound to consider" the case of the fleeing Muslims from the neighbouring country.

Sushmita Dev also alleged that the Citizenship Amendment Act, currently under study of the select committee of Parliament, is discriminatory as it decriminalises an illegal Sikh, Buddhist or Hindu migrant from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka but the same principle is not considered for a Muslim immigrant.

Sambit Patra refuted the charge saying that an illegal immigrant is the person who enters the country "in the darkness and spreads to different parts" without getting identified. He further said, if a person gets his or her document certified by the UN, he or she can apply for a stay in India.

Patra said that about 16,000 Rohingya Muslims are living in the country with proper documents and the government does not have any problem with them. But, the rest are not carrying any document and have spread all across the country with greater concentration in Jammu and Kashmir.

Patra also claimed that Rohingya settlements face greater threat of being infiltrated by terror groups. He cited the statements by terrorists like Zakir Musa in Kashmir Valley and Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan supporting Rohingya Muslims to back the claim that the illegal migrants could pose a serious security threat.

Here is the full coverage of India Today Conclave East 2017.

--- ENDS ---

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Dad Accidentally Kills 2-Year-Old Son on Thanksgiving

A Texas familys Thanksgiving holiday turned into tragedy after they lost their 2-year-old son in a freak accident on Thursday morning, Nov. 23.

The incident occurred when the toddlers father was pulling out of their driveway on Hermosa Valley in Altacosta, Texas, without realizing that his son was behind him.

Zachariah Rodriguez was struck by the vehicle.

The grandfather of the toddler, Paul Soto, told KENS5 he is still coming to terms with what took place.

Its hard to celebrate Thanksgiving now, Soto told the CBS affiliate. But I know where my grandson is now and I know someday were all going to go see him again.

He said he had a special bond with his grandson.

He was always making you smilehe would dress himself, put his clothes on backwards, [he was] always playing with my tools, Soto told KENS5. I guess he wanted to be like grandpa.

According to KSAT, the boy was transported by air to University Hospital in San Antonio, where he later died from his injuries. Zachariah had severe head trauma.

Soto said that the accident should serve as a warning to other parents to not make the same mistake and to always keep alert around their children.

We need to watch our children, keep an eye on them at all times, especially the little ones, he told KENS5.

Soto told the network that he will never forget his grandson and the moments they shared with each other.

What Ill miss most are his kisses, his goodnight kisses, Soto, in tears, told KENS5.

A GoFundMe page was set up on behalf of the boys family to help with medical and funeral expenses. As of writing on Friday, Nov. 24, the page has garnered nearly half of its $5,000 goal.

Please help us raise funds for our loved one Zachariah Rodriguez, due to a sudden tragic loss. Any help, donations for funeral expenses will be much appreciated! Thank you in advance and God bless you and your family! the description on the page says.

KENS5 reports that funeral arrangments for Zachariah have not yet been finalized.

Watch the full interview below:

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A police officer outside a perimeter surrounding The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills on Sept. 13, 2017. In total, 14 people from the nursing home died following Hurricane Irma. (Angel Valentin/Getty Images)

Florida Nursing Home Deaths Declared Homicide

The deaths of 12 elderly people who perished in September due to heat exposure in a nursing home in Florida after the state was hit by Hurricane Irma has been ruled as homicide.

The medical examiners office ruled the manner of death of 12 patients from The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills as homicide with the cause of death attributed to environmental heat exposure, read a media release put out by the Hollywood Police Department.

Police said it is possible that somebody may be charged over the deaths that occurred following the nursing home losing power on Sept. 10 after Hurricane Irma pummeled the state, reported the Sun Sentinel.

Who gets charged is part of the continuing investigation, said police spokesperson Miranda Grossman reported the south Florida daily newspaper. We dont have a timeline of when there would be charges at this point.

The sweltering nursing home was evacuated Sept. 13 after which eight elderly residents died in quick succession due to heat exposure when central air conditioning was lost on Sept. 10.

A further six people from the nursing home died in the weeks to come.

Police tape around the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, where 8 seniors died yesterday. Mobile command center set up next door. pic.twitter.com/Cm3ID1zhSj  Travis Waldron (@Travis_Waldron) September 14, 2017

Two of those who diedAlice Thomas, 94, and Francisca Antonia Castro Andrade, 95 are no longer included in ongoing criminal investigations.Their deaths were found to be unrelated to the air conditioning going down, the police said.

Among the 12 others who died, 99-year-old Albertina Vega was the oldest while Dolores Biamonte was the youngestaged 57.

Erika Navarro told the Sun Sentinel that two of the 12 who perished were her grandparents, Cecilia Franco, 90, and Miguel Antonio Franco, 92.

Navarro said that the medical examiners decision that they died from heat exposure settles what she already suspected.

The next steps are the more important ones: Who is going to be held accountable? Are they going to go to jail? Are they just going to get a free pass and just pay money, and nothing else happens? she asked. To me, thats more important, that people are held accountable and they actually go to jail.

Navarro, who lives in California, said her Thanksgiving will be spent in Florida where she will quietly commemorate the loss of her grandparents. She wont return to her home state until after Christmas.

Im going to stay here and have that time to really acknowledge the occasion, which is being thankful for the time that they spent with me, for having them, and just remembering all of that, she said.

3 weeks after Hurricane #Irma, cops have taken down the crime scene tape at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills. 12 residents died. pic.twitter.com/slWXahhs8R  Madeleine Wright (@MWrightReports) September 30, 2017

The for-profit Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills is no longer operating and state regulators are seeking to rescind its license. The nursing home is disputing the closure and its attorney, Geoffrey D. Smith, said that its employees followed proper procedures following the loss of power, reported NBC.

We believe that there were multiple system failures that need to be considered and investigated before casting blame on persons who risked their own well-being to care for others during this natural disaster, Smith wrote in a letter released Nov. 20.

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A mystery object that NASA says is "potentially hazardous" will be close to Earth around Christmas. (NASA/modified by Tom Ozimek/Epoch Times)

Giant Mystery Space Object Phaethon to Skim Earth Before Christmas

An asteroid considered potentially hazardous by NASA, about half the size of the one that allegedly wiped out the dinosaurs, is expected to skim the Earths atmosphere about a week before Christmas.

Named Phaethon after the Greek god who nearly destroyed the world, the giant rock careening through space is a potentially hazardous asteroid whose path misses Earths orbit by only two million miles, says NASA.

It measures 5 km wide, about half the size of the asteroid or comet that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, writes Dr. Tony Phillips, production editor of NASA Science.

For NASA to classify a space rock as hazardous, it must not only have the potential to make close approaches to Earth, but cause serious damage in the event of impact.

A meteor that didnt make landfall but merely exploded in the atmosphere 18.6 miles (30 km) above Russias Chelyabinsk region in 2013, caused over 1,000 injuries and extensive damage to property, reports NTD.

The force of the explosion of the Chelyabinsk meteor is said to have been about 400  600 kilotonnes of TNT, so about 30 times greater than Little Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, according to National Geographic.

Hubert Foy of Space Safety Magazine estimates that if a meteor the size of the Chelyabinsk one were to strike a populated city, the devastation would be horrific.

The blast waves and sonic boom could have instantly destroyed roughly 9,000 of 13,000 buildings, killed and injured around 5 million of the 8 million people in New York City. That would be a natural disaster of epic proportion, and the Russian meteor event demonstrates that such a disaster is real and it could one day occur in any city on Earth.

Russian astronomers are keeping a close eye on Phaethons orbit. Scientists from the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University have published a video which tracks the asteroids travel path.

NASA also monitors objects that could come perilously close to Earth through its Near Earth Object Program. New PHAs are being discovered every month and still, there are tens of thousands of uncharted PHAs of significant size, according to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) project. Best estimates are that there are 10,000 to 20,000 PHAs larger than 100 m (328 feet).

But Phaethon is also noteworthy for the unsolved mystery around what it actually is. According to NASA, its technically defined as an asteroid, in fact the first ever to be discovered by satellite. But its also the parent object that produced a unique meteor shower called the Geminids, something asteroids are incapable of producing. Other theories say that its a dead comet, or a rock comet.

So what it comes down to is that the Geminid parent object is a mystery, says NASAs Marshall Space Flight Centers fact sheet.

Whatever Phaethon is, NASA says it will pass a safe distance away from Earth. In fact, the agency is quick to point out that none of the PHAs on NASAs threat watch list, called the Sentry Risk Chart, are currently worrisome, according to NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

But that assurance may not be much consolation, says Alex Filippenko, astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, in an interview with Discovery (see video below).

The kinds of asteroids that can extinguish much of the life on Earth and most of the species, come around every 100 million years or so. And its not a periodic phenomenon, it doesnt happen every 100 million years. It could happen at any time. Just on average, roughly every 100 million years. So its not a question of if it will happen, its a question of when it will happen.

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People look at a damaged bus after a suicide attack in Jalalabad city, Afghanistan November 23, 2017. In a separate incident, ISIS terrorists in the region beheaded 15 of their own (Reuters/Parwiz)

ISIS Beheads 15 of Its Own Members: Afghan Official

JALALABAD, AfghanistanISIS beheaded 15 of its own members due to infighting in Afghanistans eastern province of Nangarhar, officials said, while a separate suicide attack on Thursday tore into a crowd in the provincial capital, Jalalabad, killing at least eight.

The two incidents underline the insecurity and lawlessness across Afghanistan, where thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded this year amid unrelenting violence involving militant groups including ISIS and the Taliban.

In a bloody day for the province, a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing at least eight people at a meeting of supporters of a police commander who was sacked for illegal land grabbing.

There was no claim of responsibility and no immediate indication of who was behind the attack on the crowd in Jalalabad, which had gathered to demand the reinstatement of the commander, who survived the attack.

A spokesman for the Jalalabad hospital confirmed eight people had been killed and 15 wounded.

Nangarhar, on the porous border with Pakistan, has become a stronghold for ISIS, generally known as Daesh in Afghanistan, which has grown to become one of the countrys most dangerous militant groups since it appeared around the start of 2015.

Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial governors spokesman, said the 15 ISIS terrorists were executed after a bout of infighting in the group, which has become notorious for its brutality. The killings occurred in the Surkh Ab bazaar of Achin district.

Further details were not available and there was no confirmation from ISIS whose local branch is known as Islamic State in Khorasan, an old name for the area that includes modern Afghanistan.

The Taliban and ISIS have frequently fought each other in Nangarhar and both have been targeted by sustained U.S. air strikes.

But the exact nature of the relationship between the two groups is little understood. There have been isolated incidents in Afghanistan in which the fighters of both appear to have cooperated.

Afghan intelligence documents reviewed by Reuters this year showed security officials believe ISIS is present in nine provinces, from Nangarhar and Kunar in the east to Jawzjan, Faryab and Badakhshan in the north and Ghor in the central west.
Man Calling Himself Voodoo Priest Arrested in Dogs Death

A man who has called himself a voodoo priest was charged in the death of a pit bull, it was reported.

Brendan Evans, 31, faces as many as five years in prison as well as a $10,000 fine if convicted, Fox News reported.

He was accused of beating and stabbing a pit bull, named Ollie in Florida. The animal was found inside a blue suitcase in an alley on Oct. 10 after officers heard the animal.

The dog died at an animal hospital two days later, and his story led to adoption calls from around the United States.

Hollywood detectives and officers have seen and investigated animal cruelty cases before, but none as horrific as what weve seen in the case of Ollie, said police spokeswoman Miranda Grossman, Fox reported.

We will not tolerate any form of animal cruelty or violence in our city, Police Chief Chris OBrien said in a statement. Each reported case of animal cruelty, be it physical abuse or neglect, is disturbing, and this case is particularly heartbreaking. We were all pulling for Ollie to survive, but unfortunately, he didnt make it.

However, due to our investigation, we are now able to provide justice for Ollie, OBrien said.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, officers searching Evanss apartment found notes.

Make the entire pit bull investigation go away. Return all curses placed on Brendan to their sender. Give Brendan peace of mind, one read. The paper reported that Evans said on Facebook that he was a voodoo priest.

Its scary. I knew it was somebody in the area, you know. I just didnt know it was this close to home, right across the street, said neighbor Christine Baker, WSVN reported.

Police said they also found other dead animals inside his home when they searched it.

Thats horrifying. I cant even believe it, said Baker.

Evans apparently told Fort Lauderdale Police in February that he wanted to kill a duck because of his religion, saying it was his right.
Man Mistakes NY Woman as Deer, Shoots Her: Police

A New York woman was shot and killed by a hunter, who apparently thought she was a deer, according to reports.

Rosemary Billquist, 43, killed by a single shot as she walked her dogs in Chautauqua County, located in Western New York near the Pennsylvania border.

Officials said that Thomas Jadlowski, 34, thought he saw a deer in a field 200 yards away when he opened fire, the New York Post reported.

Jadlowski heard a scream and rushed to her before calling 911 and applying pressure to her wound, the office said.

No charges were filed against him. An investigation is ongoing, according to the New York Post.

Officials, however, said the shooting took place about 40 minutes after sunset, which is illegal, NBC New York reported.

He was also using a pistol.

Billquist was taken to the hospital on Wednesday in Erie and later died of her injuries, the Chautauqua County Sheriffs Office confirmed.

I know shes touched so many lives with her kindness and would help anyone no matter what, Billquists husband wrote on Facebook Thursday. Plz everyone have thanksgiving with your familys and enjoy those moments they are precious.

I will miss you and love you forever and I know you dancing in heaven with your momma and all of our friends and family that we have lost, he added.

The Buffalo News wrote more on the case:

[Husband] Jamie Billquist was watching TV at his home on Armenian Road in Sherman Wednesday night when he heard his dogs barking. His wife, Rosemary, had just taken their Labs, Sugar and Stella, out for a walk in the field behind their house after getting home from work. He went outside to see why the dogs were barking and saw an ambulance pull into his driveway. Jamie, weve got a gunshot wound, an EMT who happened to be a friend of Billquists said to him as he rushed into the field. The victim was Rosemary. He rode with her in the ambulance to UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa., where she was pronounced dead.

Jadlowski was identified as a neighbor of Billquist, according to the newspaper.

They tried saving her, her husband said Friday. It was just too bad.  Its horrific. It will be with me the rest of my life.

He used a high-powered, single shot handgun thats used for hunting deer, Sheriff Joe Gerace said.

This is a horrific incident, Gerace said. .This destroyed two lives.

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Moment Dying Woman Fulfills Wish to See Ocean Again

A photo of an Australian paramedic helping a dying woman fulfill her wish to see the ocean one last time has touched peoples hearts around the world.

The grainy photo of paramedic Graeme Cooper looking out over the Coral Sea doesnt look like much at first glance. But in just one day it had been shared by tens of thousands of people around the world who were touched by the kind gesture it captures.

In the picture, Cooper stands next to a stretcher on the beach at Hervey Bay, Queensland. On that stretcher, hidden from view, is an elderly patient who he had been taking to palliative careuntil she started talking about how she wished she could see the beach again.

The ambulance crew decided to fulfill her wish, taking a diversion to Hervey Bay, where they took the stretcher as close as they dared to the waters edge.

Tears were shed and the patient felt very happy, wrote the Queensland Ambulance Service on their Facebook page. Sometimes it is not the drugs/trainingsometimes all you need is empathy to make a difference!

The moment was captured by Danielle Kellan, the other member of the crew. After her photo was posted online on Facebook, it rapidly spread, shared over 19,000 times in 36 hours, with over 59,000 likes.

Cooper said: She was saying how she moved to Hervey Bay with her husband on the spur of the moment and theyve been here ever since, he told ABC.

She said she loved the esplanade and the beach and we said, well, do you want us to take you down by the esplanade and pop you out of the truck and give you a look at the ocean?

She was just ecstatic.

Kellan told the Telegraph she asked the patient what she was thinking. And she said: Im at peace, everything is right.

The patient, who has not been named, wanted to feel the salt water on her skin according to Cooper.

I thought if all these rocks werent here I would get down to my jocks [underwear] and take you into the ocean, he said.

Instead he scooped up some water in her sick bag so she could put her arms in it.

Social media comments heaped praise on the crew and shared similar touching stories.

This is one of those moments in life that totally send every emotion into overdrive ! Words arent enough. I hope it gave peace and calm to a the patient in care. She had her guardian angels with her.hervey bay ambulance service xx https://t.co/xL1v4bBiWG  Rachel (@RachelLaw13) November 24, 2017

Tracey Hayes wrote on Facebook: This is a beautiful sentiment and shows that you are definitely the right people for the job you are in, never ever lose your compassion, empathy or kindness.

This is humanity, compassion and doing more for someone than your job requires.

Take noteevery single person that reads this.#HerveyBay  https://t.co/dmN4eGyEjj  Dawn Young-McDaniel (@justdawn_) November 24, 2017

My mum is also in Hervey bay, wrote Michael Murphy on Facebook. They did this for her a couple of weeks ago too. She has terminal cancer and is in palliative care with not long to live. It made her so happy and I was in tears when she told me about it.

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Baltimore Police Department Detective Sean Suiter was killed with his own gun while investigating a suspicious person. (Baltimore Police Department)

Murdered Baltimore Detective Was Due to Testify Against Cops the Next Day

The investigation into the murder of a Baltimore police detective has taken on a new layer of complexity with police reporting that the slain officer was scheduled to testify before a grand jury the next dayagainst allegedly corrupt cops.

Detective Sean Suiter, 43, and his partner were searching through the dangerous Harlem Park neighborhood of west Baltimore for a witness to an unsolved 2016 triple homicide on Nov. 15 when the pair spotted a man acting in a suspicious manner.

Suiters partner reported that Suiter approached a black man wearing a black jacket with a white stripe. What happened next is still unclear. Somehow Suiter and the suspect got into a struggle, and Suiters service weapon was fired at least three times.

Suiter was shot at very close range by his own gun. He died the next day.

Detective Sean Suiter latest:

He was scheduled to testify in police corruption trial the day after he was killed He was shot w/his own gunCall from his radio indicates struggle with killer. Im live w/more @ 11. @wbaltv11 #wbal  Kai Reed (@KaiWBAL) November 23, 2017

At a press conference on Nov. 22, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said that Detective Suiter made a radio call in which he can be heard struggling. Then gunshots can be heard. Footage from police officers body cameras show Suiter still had the radio in his hand when his body was found, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Commissioner Davis says the tape of the radio call is unintelligible. We dont know exactly what he said, but he was clearly in distress.

Surveillance video shows Suiters partner ducking for cover when he heard the shots and calling for assistance. He appeared not to know where the shots came from.

Upon the sound of gunfire, the partner sought cover across the street and immediately called 911. We know this because it is captured on private surveillance video that we have recovered, Davis said.

Today.com has audio recording from the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) dispatcher saying, We do not know where these shots came from. We have officers in bad locations. Lets everybody take cover somewhere, OK?

So far the Baltimore Police have no solid leads. A reward of $215,000 is offered to anyone with information leading to the arrest of Detective Suiters killer.

Impending Testimony Creates Conspiracy Suspicion

Rumors began flying across social media when it was revealed that Suiter was due to testify in a police corruption case on Nov. 16.

In course of his career w/BPD, Det Sean Suiter worked cases with 2 members of Gun Task Forceat least 25 cases, mostly drug cases  Jayne Miller (@jemillerwbal) November 22, 2017

Martina Williams posted on the Baltimore Police Department Facebook page, So he gets murdered the day before he was scheduled to give his testimony before the federal grand jury against fellow ex officers????

Charmayne Allen agreed. So hes killed right before he testifies against other detectives who were indicted years agoThis definitely seems like he was set up

Raymond Brice was even more blunt. When homicide detectives start worrying about suspicious activity. They dont even worry about that unless they going to serve a apprehension warrant.. cut it out! He got shot for snitching! Brice posted on Facebook.

Commissioner Davis made it very clear that there was no evidence linking Suiters status as a federal witness to his murder.

I am now aware of Detective Suiters pending federal grand jury testimony surrounding an incident that occurred several years ago with BPD police officers who are federally indicted in March of this year, Davis said at a Nov. 22 press conference.

Detective Suiter was not the target of any ongoing criminal investigation, Davis added.

The Commissioner also addressed the conspiracy rumors at the press conference on the night of Nov. 22.

The BPD and FBI do not possess any information that this incident  is part of any conspiracy, Davis said.

I understand the speculation that exists I understand the emotions that exist, and I understand the damage that that group of Baltimore police officers that were federally indicted back in March continues to do to the reputation of the Baltimore Police department, Davis continued.

The evidence refutes the notion that detective Suiters partner was anything but just thathis partner.

Detective Suiters partner has been talking to the homicide detectives nonstop since this incident. You can imagine the trauma that hes experiencing right now.

I understand the wild possibilities that go through peoples minds when we all want answers, I just am determined to keep following the evidence. Theres nothing that we wont consider, theres no path that we wont go down, Davis said at the press conference.

Suiter Had History With the Gun Trace Task Force

Suiter had worked numerous cases with members of the Gun Trace Task Force, a special unit created to get guns out of the hands of criminals. The task force was a key element in Commissioner Kevin Davis plan to fight crime in a city which has seen 300 murders three years in a row.



Latest: BPD Homicide Det. Sean Suiter was also federal witness against other cops. Killed by someone who fired Suiter's weapon. More pic.twitter.com/h69qHc7vN8  Jayne Miller (@jemillerwbal) November 23, 2017

Eight members of the task force have been indicted on a variety of charges including racketeering, stealing cash and drugs, extortion, and filing false reports, among other charges. Former Baltimore police officer Eric Troy Snell, now a Philadelphia police officer, has been indicted for allegedly helping the eight Baltimore officers sell stolen drugs.

Four of the indicted officers have pleaded guilty and at least two are cooperating with police. The other four are scheduled for trial in January 2018.

The task force was dissolved in March when the first indictments were filed.

Detective Suiter worked at least 25 cases with three of the indicted officers between 2007 and 2010Detective Maurice Ward, Detective Momodu Gondo, and Task Force Supervisor Sgt. Wayne Jenkins.

It is not known if Suiters grand jury testimony would have helped or hurt the indicted officers.

A Wonderful Detective, Husband, Father, and Friend

Detective Sean Suiter was an 18-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department. He was promoted to Homicide Detective in 2015.

Before joining BPD, Suiter had served a stint in the military.

He was married and the father of five children.

We remain dedicated and committed to finding the person who ended such a beautiful life, such a wonderful detective, husband, father, and friend, Commissioner Davis told reporters after the shooting. We will find the person responsible for this ridiculous, absurd, unnecessary loss of life.

Detective Suiters daughter Damira has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to help her mother to support the family.

From NTD.tv

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Marines Conduct Training in Protective Gear Against Potential Chemical, Biological, or Nuclear Attack

U.S. Marines in Japan recently trained to keep their F-35B fighter jets running in simulated hazardous conditions like those that could arise during a nuclear war.

The exercises, conducted at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, required soldiers in Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 to don special suits worn to protect soldiers from chemical and biological hazards.

The hot refueling exercise took place Nov. 15 with marines refueling F-35B Lightning II strike fighters while wearing level 4 Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP4).

There are five levels of MOPP gear, ranging from MOPP0, which is used when there is just a threat of chemical or biological hazards to MOPP4, which includes much more gear and is worn during and after an actual attack.

The exercise let Marines refine their procedures and get familiar with working in the bulky suits.

Its important to practice in MOPP gear because the Marines dont get many opportunities to wear this on a daily basis, so in the instance where they do have to wear MOPP gear in a real-life scenario, its not going to be a shock or surprise to them of how they are going to operate, U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Martin Aldrete said in the release.

According to the Pacific Command, it is essential for troops to train for scenarios where lethal agents such as chemical, biological or radiological weapons could be involved.

One such scenario would be a nuclear war, where aircraft are scrambling to counteract enemy aircraft or attack ground forces threatening civilian populations.

One technique the military uses to keep jets in the air as much as possible is the hot refuel.

This fast-paced refueling method allows the pilot to refuel with the engine still running, allowing them to get them back into the fight more quickly.

For the Marine Corps, being faster than the enemy is seen as vital, as is working quickly no matter the environment, said the release.

Its important to be proficient with this because on the battlefield theres not much time to put aircraft in the air, said U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Michael Jones,

Every second that we can save on that is possibly saving someones life.

The exercise was conducted on the same day that the squadron got the last F-35Bs needed to complete their squadron.

MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, is now home to the world first operational squadron of the stealth fighter jet.

The jets are part of the U.S. military presence in Japan, a long-standing alliance that the Pentagon routinely describes as the bedrock of security and stability in the Asia Pacific.

The U.S. Pacific Command conducts frequent training exercises with Japan Self-Defence Forces, most recently sending an Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship to join Japanese ships in an annual mine countermeasures operation on Nov. 21.

By working together, it helps ensure our two nations are jointly postured to maintain peace and stability for Japan and throughout the region, said Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crayton, Chief executive officer in a statement.

Japan is also an F-35 operator, with plans to build around 40 of the air force variant of the jet in Japan. The first Japanese built F-35A recently crossed the Pacific for testing in the United States.

After testing, Japan can move forward with building the rest of its F35As.

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North Koreans listen to a television broadcast of a statement by communist dictator Kim Jong-Un, in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sept. 22, 2017. (ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images)

North Korea Increasingly Worried About U.S. Military Build-up

In an unusual move for the North Korean regime, it raised concerns about the U.S. moving more strategic military assets into the region.

For months the North Korean regime has threatened to attack the U.S. mainland as well as Japan and South Korea with nuclear weapons.

But after President Donald Trumps forceful response, including a threat to use military force if needed, the regime in Pyongyang appears increasingly worried about the potential of an armed conflict.

A commentary published by the Korean Central News Agency on Friday talks about the danger of the U.S. move to send its strategic assets towards the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. military has sharply increased its assets in the region.

South Koreas F-15K fighter jets and U.S. marines F-35B fly over the Korean Peninsula during a training on August 31, 2017 in Gangwon-do, South Korea. (Handout/South Korean Defense Ministry via Getty Images)

Just last week the U.S. Marine Corps announced it had finished deploying a squadron of the highly advanced F-35B fighter jets to Japan.

The fighter jets use a unique combination of stealth, cutting-edge radar and sensor technology, and electronic warfare systems, according to the U.S. Marine Corps.

The U.S. also deployed three Aircraft carriers and accompanying strike groups to the Western Pacific. One of the carriers, the USS Nimitz, is now on its way back to its homeport in Bremerton, Washington, after participating in massive naval drills.

The North Korean regime said in the commentary that the U.S. strategic assets had gotten increasingly dangerous in the estimation of its round, size and content than before.

No one can vouch that the U.S. moves will not lead to a preemptive nuclear attack and total war against the DPRK any moment, it said.

Bombs hit mock target at the Pilseung Firing Range in Gangwon-do, South Korea, on Aug. 31, 2017. (Handout/South Korean Defense Ministry via Getty Images)

A viable military threat has been a key part of Trumps strategy in dealing with North Korea. Trump has demanded the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which he hopes to achieve through talks with the regime.

However, pointing to decades of failed attempts by previous U.S. administrations to reach such an agreement, Trump is using the threat of military force to get North Korea to the negotiating table.

And while North Korea has not shown a willingness yet to negotiate its nuclear program, the regime has not launched a ballistic missile since September 15, after having conducted over 80 such tests since 2011.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un and other communist officials at an undisclosed location in North Korea in this picture released by North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency)

Trump has also vowed to improve Americas military. Defense Secretary James Mattis testified before congress in June that the sequestration of the military had done more harm to the military than its enemies.

No enemy in the field has done more to harm the combat readiness of our military than sequestration, Mattis said.

Under pressure from Trump, the House passed a nearly $700 billion defense authorization bill on Nov. 14.

A B-1B long range strategic bomber in a file photo. (Courtesy USAF/Getty Images)

The U.S. has also stepped up its military drills in the region. Earlier this month, the US Air Force flew two B-1B supersonic bombers, accompanied by South Korean fighter jets, over the Korean peninsula.

Speaking in South Korea on Nov. 8, Trump sent a personal message to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, offering his country a better way forward.

North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned. It is a hell that no person deserves, Trumps said.

Yet, despite every crime you have committed against God and man, were ready to offer, and we will do thatwe will offer a path to a much better future.

Trump said that the first steps North Korea would need to take towards a better future is to stop its development of ballistic missiles and to completely denuclearize.

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By PTI: A A

By G Manjusainath

(Updates with details)A A A

Udupi (Ktaka), Nov 24 (PTI) RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat today made a strong pitch for building the Ram Temple on the disputed site at Ayodhya, saying only the mandir would come up there and not any other structure. Addressing the "Dharma Sansad", a congregation of 2,000 Hindu saints, mutt heads and VHP leaders from across the country at this small temple town here, he said there should be no ambiguity that Ram Temple will be built at Ayodhya. "We will construct it. It is not a populist declaration but a matter of our faith. It will not change," Bhagwat said.

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The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh(RSS) chief said that after years of efforts and sacrifice, it (building the Ram temple) seemed possible now, while also noting that the matter was in the court.

"Ram Mandir only will be constructed and nothing else. It will be constructed there only" (what is believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram), Bhagwat said.

He said the temple would be constructed in the same grandeur as it existed before, using the "same stones" under the guidance of those who were the flag-bearers of the Ram janmabhoomi movement for the last 25 years. But prior to it (building the temple), public awareness was essential, he said. "We are close to achieving our goal but at this juncture, we should be extra cautious," he said. Construction of the Ram temple, prevention of religious conversions and cow protection are among the key issues to be discussed at VHPs three-day Dharma Sansad. The meet will also discuss issues of discrimination on the basis of caste and gender and explore ways to ensure harmony within Hindu society, the organisers said. The RSS chief also said the seers and Hindus gathered in huge numbers at the meet need to ponder over the conducive atmosphere prevailing in the country and elsewhere.

He cautioned the people against the forces which divide the society and asked them to remain alert.

The RSS supremo also spoke about religious conversion and the need to reach out to those who are prone to it.

"The strength of the society lies in its unity. When it is destroyed, anti-national forces gain foothold. We need to understand the consequences of religious conversion. We need to reach out to those who are prone to conversion," Bhagwat said. He reminded the meet about the duty of seers and members of upper caste towards Dalits and other backward communities. "The need for equality is still elusive in our deeds and practises though we all understand its significance." "We should rise above the barriers of caste, creed and religion in our speech and action while treating people and embrace everybody wholeheartedly. There should not be any discrimination on the issues of sharing water, religious places and cremation grounds," said Bhagwat.

On cow-vigilantism, Bhagwat said people know what happens to the cows when they are sold to butchers.

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He said cow protectors surface due to the callousness of society.

"Society is careless about the status of cows. Those who have concern for the cows stand up to protect the cattle. This leads to conflict in the society resulting in bad name to the cow protectors," said Bhagwat. Vishvesha Teertha Swamiji of Pejavar Math of Udupi, who chairs the reception committee, said the Ram Temple would be built in a year, well before 2019. The octogenarian seer with a huge following in Karnataka and elsewhere, demanded that the government amend the Constitution to do away with special provisions for minorities in order for equality in the society. Addressing the meet earlier, VHP leader Pravin Togadia set the tone for the issues to be discussed in the Dharma Sansad in the next three days. He reiterated VHPs affirmation to build the Ram Temple and a ban on cow slaughter. Togadia also demanded that the government should not regulate Hindu temples.

"If the Indian Constitution is secular, why are governments regulating Hindu temples? Are there any instances of government controlling any mosque or church? If not, then why is this discrimination only with Hindu temples. "Let Hindus manage their temples," he said. Located in the coastal area, Udupi is famous for the Krishna temple with the idol believed to have been discovered by 13th century Vaishnavite saint Madhwacharya, who founded the Dwaitha school of philosophy.

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While ochre colour festoons and flags dotted every part of Udupi and neighbouring towns such as Manipal, the attire of the participants and the marquee has filled in the atmosphere with Hindutva flavour. Elaborate security has been made for the Dharma Sansad. The Udupi event is significant as the first formal announcement for Ram Temple at Rama Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya was made here in 1985 and a year later, the doors of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya were open to the public for darshan. PTI GMS RA APR GSN GSN

--- ENDS ---
Papua New Guinea Police Evict Remaining Asylum-Seekers From Australian-Run Detention Camp

SYDNEYPapua New Guinean police cleared the remaining asylum-seekers from a shuttered Australian-run detention complex on Friday, ending a three-week protest which started with some 600 people surviving on rain water and smuggled food and supplies.

Australia closed the Manus Island detention center on Oct. 31, after it was declared illegal by a Papua New Guinea court, but the asylum seekers refused to leave to transit centers saying they feared for their safety.

Despite the unsanitary conditions and lack of adequate food and fresh water, about 300 remained when Papua New Guinea police started removing people on Thursday and Friday.

The refugees are leaving the prison camp, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani told Reuters in a text message on Friday. We did our best to send out our voice but the government does not care.

Australias Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement on Friday that all of the asylum seekers had now departed for alternative accommodation.

Advocates should now desist from holding out false hope to these men that they will ever be brought to Australia, Dutton said.

The fate of the asylum seekers, some of whom have been detained for years and come mostly from Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Syria, remains unclear.

Australia steadfastly refuses to allow them entry under its strict sovereign borders policy and the asylum seekers have refused to resettle in Papua New Guinea.

Australia and Papua New Guinea both say the asylum seekers are now the others responsibility, although the Australian government said it had spent A$10 million ($7.6 million) on the transit facility and it wanted the men to move there.

Under Australias sovereign borders policy asylum seekers trying to reach its shores by boat are intercepted and detained in either Papua New Guinea or Nauru in the South Pacific.

The United Nations and human rights groups have for years criticized Australias policy, citing human rights abuses in the offshore detention centers and called for their closure.

Papua New Guinea intensified efforts to clear the Manus facility on Thursday by bringing in buses to start moving the men and cutting off routes previously used to deliver smuggled supplies, said Christian pastor Jarrod McKenna, who was at the shuttered center earlier this week helping the refugees.

Pictures sent to Reuters by an asylum-seeker showed Papua New Guinean officials wearing army fatigues inside the camp on Friday, and a video distributed by advocacy group GetUp showed police armed with sticks pulling an asylum seeker to his feet.

Buses are waiting for you, trucks are waiting for youyou will get on to them and you will move to your new location, you will not stay here, a man who identified himself as a police commander told the asylum seekers in a video posted to Facebook by Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz.

Papua New Guinea immigration and police officials did not return telephone calls from Reuters to seek comment.

By Tom Westbrook and Jonathan Barrett
Russia Tests New Anti-Ballistic Missile

Russia has test-fired a new anti-ballistic missile, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

According to state-backed RT, the Russian Air Force test-fired a likely new version of the 53T6 anti-ballistic missile on the Sary-Shagan testing range in Kazakhstan.

The anti-ballistic missile followed the flight plan and successfully hit a mock target, said Colonel Andrey Prikhodko of the Russian Aerospace Forces, according to the defense ministry. The officer did not elaborate on the test, but said all its objectives had been completed in full.

The ministry released a video showing the missile being transported on a container via a heavy truck. It was then loaded onto a silo and fired.

The ministry says it will protect Moscow from a potential attack.

A statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense read: At the Sary-Shagan training ground, by the combat calculation of the anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense forces, a new upgraded missile of the Russian missile defense (ABM) system was successfully launched.

The missile defense system is based on the aerospace force and is designed to protect the city of Moscow from air and space attack strikes, as well as to perform tasks in the interests of missile attack warning systems and space control.

It comes after Russian officials complained about U.S. missile defense systems in Japan and South Korea.

We are expressing deep concern, with facts to back it up, that Japan, along with South Korea, is becoming a territory for the deployment of elements of the U.S. global missile defense system which is being rolled out in that region under the pretext of the North Korea threat, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said, according to The Independent.

We have no problems directly with Japan, we do not see risks there. We see risks because of the proliferation of a global U.S. missile defense system on the territory of countries that neighbor Russia, including Japan.

Japans foreign minister, Taro Kono, responded saying that because Pyongyang fired missiles over Japanese territory, it needs to take measures to protect itself.

This is unprecedented, the most important and most pressing threat, not just to Japan and Russia, but to the international community as a whole. Its absolutely unacceptable, Kono said of Pyongyangs missiles launches and nuclear bomb tests.

We believe its necessary to use all possible means and to increase the pressure on North Korea as much as possible to stop its nuclear program and the rocket launches, he added.

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A C-2A Greyhound assigned to Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 30 launches from the flight deck of the Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) on Nov. 17, 2017 in the Philippine Sea. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Eduardo Otero/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

Search Continues for Three US Sailors Missing After Airplane Crash

Ships and aircraft from both the United States and Japan are combing the Philippine Sea for the remaining passengers from a U.S. Navy transport plane that crashed Nov. 22.

The plane, a C-2A Greyhound twin-propeller transport, was ferrying 11 people and some cargo from Japan to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, on a routine mission.

Eight of the 11 passengers were rescued about 40 minutes after the crash, according to a U.S. Navy statement.

The plane was on its approach to the Ronald Reagan when it crashed about 575 miles southeast of Okinawa. It is not known how close the plane was to the carrier, when it went down at about 2:45 p.m. local time.

The families of the three crew members have been notified that their relatives whereabouts are unknown. The names of the three missing will not be released until they are found or until 72 hours have passed as per Navy policy.

Our entire focus is on finding all of our sailors, Navy Rear Adm. Marc H. Dalton told CNN.

U.S. and Japanese ships and aircraft are searching the area of the crash, and we will be relentless in our efforts.

Engine Failure Possible

No solid information about the cause of the crash has been released. However, Japans Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters Nov. 22, I have been informed from the U.S. military that engine trouble may have caused [the crash].

Japans Defense Ministry said the crash site is about 90 miles northwest of the Japanese atoll of Okinotorishima. This would put it about 900 miles southeast of Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, where the flight originated.

The transport plane was assigned to Fleet Logistics Support Squadron Three Zero, Detachment Five, (VRC-30Det5) based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, about 30 miles southwest of Tokyo on the Japanese island of Honshu.

The actual flight originated from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, an airbase on the southwest tip of Honshu, about 350 miles further southwest than NAF Atsugi.

VRC-30Det5 is tasked with the transport of high-priority cargo, mail, duty passengers, and Distinguished Visitors between the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and shore bases throughout the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia theaters, according to the units web page.

The USS Ronald Reagan was in the area after participating in Annual Exercise 2017 (AE17), a joint U.S.-Japan training exercise conducted in waters off Japan from Nov. 16 to 26.

Two other carriers, the USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt, are taking part in exercises designed in part to show North Korea what kind of forces the U.S. and its allies have at hand, ABC News reports.

The C2-A Greyhounds are fairly old planes. Many have been in service for five decades. The aircraft are being phased out in favor of the long-range tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey aircraft, Reuters reports.

Long List of Mishaps

The U.S. Seventh fleet has been involved in a long list of mishaps this year.

One of the worst incidents was the collision between the guided missile destroyer USS McCain and an oil tanker east of Singapore before dawn on Aug. 21. The collision tore a hole beneath the waterline and flooded compartments that include a crew sleeping area. Ten sailors perished.

Next in severity was the collision between another guided missile destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, with a Philippine-flagged container ship. Seven sailors died in that incident.

Those two collisions were found to have been avoidable, leading the Navy to remove Seventh Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command.

Another guided missile destroyer, the USS Benfold, sustained slight damage when a Japanese tug drifted into it during a towing exercise off central Japan on Nov. 18.

After the Benfold collision, the U.S. Navy announced a series of reforms aimed at restoring basic naval skills and alertness at sea after a review of deadly ship collisions in the Asia-Pacific region showed sailors were under-trained and over-worked.

In January, the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam ran aground off the coast of Japan, damaging its propellers and leaking oil into the ocean.

In another incident in the region, the USS Lake Champlain, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser attached to the 3rd Fleet, collided with a 70-foot-long South Korean fishing boat, CNN reports.

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The now extinct Stellers sea cow once inhabited the shallow waters around the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea. (Courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library (CC BY), Creative Commons)

Skeleton of Long-Vanished Sea Cow Discovered on Remote Island

A researcher in Russias Far East recently stumbled upon the skeletal remains of a Stellers sea cow, a massive mammal hunted to extinction only several decades after it was first discovered by Europeans in 1741.

Marina Shitova, from the Commander Islands Nature and Biosphere Reserve, recently found the skeleton while she was monitoring the coastline of Bering Island.

According to the reserves website, Shitova first noticed the long-dead herbivorous mammals ribs sticking up out of the ground like a fence.

Several days later, a team of eight people from the reserve came back to the site to uncover the remains of the animal, which counts as a relative of the manatee and dugong.

The team dug for four hours and collected the remains which included 45 spinal bones, 27 ribs, a left shoulder blade, shoulder and forearm bones and several wrist bones.

However, the team found some bones missing such as its skull, the cervical spine, several dorsal vertebrae and phalangeal bones of the left limb.

From the remains, they later estimated this particular sea cow was around six meters long before it died. According to some sources, sea cows could have grown to be as long as 10 meters in length.

The reserve plans to preserve the remains and put it on display at an upcoming Commander Islands Nature and Biosphere Reserve Visitor Center.

Another skeleton of the extinct Steller seacow has just been discovered:https://t.co/1mwt6CVOHx pic.twitter.com/C5ZbEpacKF  Save the Manatee (@savethemanatee) November 21, 2017

Hunted into Oblivion

Sea cows were found in the shallow waters around Commander Islands in 1741 where they were once considered an endemic species. German naturalist Georg Steller has been attributed to discovering them after he was shipwrecked on Bering Islandone of the Commander Islands.

According to an article in The Atlantic, Steller observed that these gentle giants had an uncommon love for one another, which even extended so far that, when one of them was hooked, all the others were intent upon saving him.

However, it wasnt long until the slow-moving sea cow was hunted into extinction for its meat, fat, and hide. Fur hunters saw the last recorded sighting of a living sea cow in 1768, a mere 27 years after Steller had discovered them.

The Commander Islands are between Alaska and Russia.

Steller's Sea Cow was a huge, plant-eating, sea mammal.It was discovered by Georg Wilhelm Steller and became extinct in 1768. pic.twitter.com/ENjMQsu1Cl  Strange Animals (@StrangeAndLost1) November 21, 2017

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Teacher Arrested After Students Record Her Allegedly Snorting Drugs

An Indiana high school English teacher was arrested on Wednesday, Nov. 22, after a student filmed her allegedly snorting drugs in a classroom.

Shes in the corner, hiding with a chair and a book and what appears to be cocaine, putting it into lines, Will Rogers, a junior at the school who filmed the video through a window of a locked classroom door, told WGN-TV.

The video was taken at Lake Central High School in St. John, Indiana, at about 10:30 a.m.

Rogers said it wasnt clear what the teacher was doing at first.

When I actually watched the footage again and again and I just realized that my English teacher just did cocaine, Rogers told the station.

Within an hour, the video spread among the students at the school and reached school officials, who called police at around 11:30 a.m.

Officers led Samantha Cox, 24, out of the school in handcuffs. She is facing charges of possessing a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.

Students said Cox, who was in her second year at the school, was quite popular, WGN-TV reported.

Cox is being held at Lake County Jail, pending charges.

School officials and police want to recognize and praise the student witnesses that brought this information to the attention of the Principal very quickly, the St. John Police Department said in a statement. Their actions showed a tremendous amount of fortitude and integrity and enabled staff to address this situation quickly.

The St. John Police Department brought in a drug-sniffing dog from the Dyer Police Department to aid in the investigation, the Dyer Police Department said.

Dyer Police Chief James Kveton said that based on very preliminary information, Cox may have been snorting a mixture of cocaine and heroin, the Times of Northwest Indiana reports.

School authorities contacted all of the parents via a recorded message from Lake Central Superintendent Larry Veracco letting them know about the incident.

Earlier today, lake central administration was made aware of a situation regarding a teacher at Lake Central High School. Swift and forceful action was taken, Veracco said in the recording, according to WGN-TV.

Im grateful that they found out when they did and they were quick-acting, Shannon McGrath, a parent at the school, told WGN-TV.

Youre told as a child to listen to them, respect them and stuff like that But its kinda hard to respect somebody who does cocaine in a classroom, Anthony Rios, a junior at the school, told WGN-TV.

Police are still investigating the incident.

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Intersection of Route 72 and Route 31 where the incident occurred. (Screenshot via Google Maps)

Three Teens Heroically Saved Baby Who Fell out of Moving Car

Three Illinois teens were hailed as heroes after they saved a 1-year-old who fell out of a moving car in West Dundee late October this year.

Police Chief Andrew Wieteska presented Jonathan Padilla, 17, of Carpentersville, and Matthew Gillespie, 17, and Anthony Arroyo, 18, of Sleepy Hollow with the West Dundees Lamplighter Special Commendation Award for their heroism at West Dundee City Hall, according to the Daily Herald.

The trio was turning onto Route 72 from Route 31 when the door of the car in front of them opened, and a baby tumbled out onto the road.

After overcoming their initial shock, the teens abruptly stopped the car and got out to protect the baby. One of the teens called 911 and directed emergency services to their location. The audio file of the teens call was presented at the West Dundee village board meeting on Nov. 20 where they received their awards.

Wieteska said the teens responded quickly and remained calm throughout the whole saga. He praised the teens and suggested that their selfless actions had saved the child.

This night could have ended tragically if they had not taken the time to stop their car and protect this helpless baby from additional injuries or death, he told the Daily Herald. They went above and beyond what is expected of a citizen.

The police chief said the baby was injured and bleeding from the fall but was treated by police and paramedics a short while later, and taken to Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin. He added that the baby was safe and doing well.

After realizing what happened, the driver and passengers from the other car returned to the scene, grabbed the baby from the ground and drove off, according to the Daily Herald citing village documents.

The driver, who was also the babys mother, was charged with failure to secure a child in a safety seat, consumption of alcohol by a minor and a zero-tolerance DUI, the police chief said. The Department of Children and Family Services is now also involved.

Village President Chris Nelson also complimented the teens for their bravery and quick reactions.

You put yourselves at risk, not only to grab the baby but also to follow the car and to make sure the child was ultimately receiving care, Nelson said to the teens, reported the newspaper.

It was a very special thing that you did, he added.

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Tiger Gets Loose on Paris Streets, Is Shot Dead

A tiger broke free from a Paris circus and roamed the streets south of the Eiffel Tower before it was shot and killed by circus workers, the BBC reported.

Paris Police tweeted that a tiger had escaped at around 6 p.m. local time in the citys 15th district. It, however, added that the danger was eliminated.

Voila la photo du tigre prise par Ralph dune fenetre de FranceTv pic.twitter.com/vsqcFSxc1P  MargauxDuguet (@MargauxDuguet) November 24, 2017

Tiger shot dead after roaming streets of Paris for 'some time' after circus escapehttps://t.co/FCDMXqotrG pic.twitter.com/aZMt2hGdL9  ITV News (@itvnews) November 24, 2017

No one was injured by the 600-pound animal.

It was a very big tiger, a witness named just Ralph was quoted by the BBC as saying. We heard two or three shots and saw police going down towards the tracks.

#UPDATE @AFP Tiger that escaped from a circus in Paris was shot dead by the owner say police https://t.co/EbNqxY8JLk pic.twitter.com/xEIvtFPesn  John Zuchelli (@tvzuke) November 24, 2017

A fire department spokesman confirmed the animal was killed in an alley. The owner brought it down with a shotgun, AFP reported.

An investigation into the tigers escape and shooting has been launched.

Tiger shot dead in Paris train station after escaping zoo https://t.co/FBAbsuuPIE  DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) November 24, 2017

According to the Daily Mail, witnesses were told by an announcer inside a train station that a tiger is on the loose, please vacate the station.

There were people running and screaming. It was a very big, fierce-looking animal, a witness said.

He had entered a railway station, leading to its closure, a witness added. There were fears that the tiger would hurt railway passengers around the Garigliano Bridge. Thats where he was cornered and then shot dead.

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Charles Manson in March of 2009. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Getty Images)

TMZ: Charles Manson Leaves Estate to Pen Pal

Charles Manson reportedly left his estate to his pen pal, and it might actually be valuable.

TMZ reported that the unnamed pen pal began writing Manson in the 90s and the 2 exchanged letters and phone calls for 2 decades, and he even visited Manson in prison from time to time.

Charles Manson Will, Leaves Entire Estate to Pen Pal https://t.co/fIvOl0ja7C via @TMZ  Iveygirl08 (@iveygirl08) November 24, 2017

A copy of Mansons will was left behind. The will was typed but some parts were written by hand. We checked the handwriting in the will against Mansons known handwriting, and they appear very similar, TMZ reported.

The will was dated February 14, 2002, and it leaves all of the killers personal belongings, including cash, image rights, and clothing to the pen pal. It also leaves behind his music catalog to the man.

The will also stipulates that his body should be turned over to the pen pal, and he has 10 days after his death to handle it, according to California state law. If he doesnt act within the 10-day period, the state will hire an undertaker and cremate him.

According to TMZ, Manson specifically disinherited his known children, ex-wives, in-laws, lawyers, friends, prisoners, inmates, cops, guards, and the State of California.

The pen pal, who asked not to be named, told TMZ he began writing to Manson in the 1990s out of curiosity. After more than 50 letters, Manson finally wrote back in 1997. Later, they spoke over the phone and the two met in 2002the same year the will was created.

The man said that he visited Manson on Oct. 21just about a month before his death at age 83.

The will includes a note from the killer, which says, Im not in the best spot to rest in peace. It also contains his signature.

There are several men who claim to be the grandsons or sons of Manson. According to the will, he didnt leave anything to them.

Manson died of natural causes on Nov. 19 at a Kern County hospital. A statement by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation gave no further details of the circumstances surrounding his death.

He had been serving a life sentence at the nearby Corcoran State Prison for ordering the murders of nine people, including actress Sharon Tate.

Later, Manson seemed resigned to a life of incarceration, ceasing to even attend his parole review hearings after 1997.

What would I want out for? he said in a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times. This beats an old folks home.

In April 2012, Manson was quoted by parole officials as having told a prison psychologist the previous fall: I have put five people in the grave. Ive been in prison most of my life. Im a very dangerous man.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Trucker Saves Girl From Abduction, Now Teaches Other Truckers How to Help Too

Trucker Kevin Kimmel noticed something odd when he parked his vehicle at a truck stop in New Kent County, Virginia.

When he was sitting in his semi, he saw an RV with black drapes covering the windows.

Pilot in New Kent, VA (Google Street View)

After that, he saw a man knock on the door of the RV.

I saw a middle-aged man walking to the RV, Kimmel wrote in a blog post to other truckers. Next I see him exit the vehicle and head into the truck stop, only to return a couple minutes later to knock again for entry. A few minutes later the RV was rocking.

He got a bad vibe from the whole thing and kept watch.

Then I saw what looked like a young lady peering out from the blackout shade, only to be quickly pulled back and the shade recovered the window.

I could act on my gut feeling or write it off. Thats when I got out my smart phone and googled local police, made the call and told the dispatcher what I had seen, he wrote.

He stayed long enough to see four troopers arrive, then an ambulance.

I witnessed a female trooper walking toward her car with an extremely disheveled young lady, who was not handcuffed, and placed her in the front seat of her cruiser.  They said that I probably saved that girls life.

He learned later that the 20-year-old in the RV was being held as a slave. She had been captured on Christmas eve and was forced into prostitution on a trip from Iowa to Virginia. Her captors threatened to kill her family, according to The News & Advance.

When I saw the young girls face, I said thats not going to happen, Ive got daughters and granddaughters, Kimmel told WTVR.

A few days later, the victim called Kimmel to thank him personally, calling him a hero and her guardian angel.

I told her thank you, and that my wish for her was that she find a way to get through this nightmare and go on to live a happy and healthy life, Kimmel wrote.

His actions led to the conviction of two human sex traffickers. They got 41 and 40 years respectively.

That was back in January 2015. Now Kimmel belongs to an organization called Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT). His actions that day earned him the Harriet Tubman Award for courage, worth $2,500. Tubman was an abolitionist who helped transport hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad to freedom.

Kimmel also speaks to other truckers about how they can help too. TAT tells truckers that as the eyes and ears of the nations highways, they are in a unique position to make a difference and close loopholes to traffickers who seek to exploit our transportation system.

Truckers Against Trafficking Training Video (full version 26min v2) from iEmpathize on Vimeo.

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Trump Responds to Egypt Terror Attack That Killed Over 230 People

President Donald Trump spoke out forcefully against a terror attack on a Mosque in Egypt on Friday.

At least 230 people were killed when terrorists detonated a bomb and gunned down worshippers in the North Sinai region.

Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt, Trump wrote on Twitter.

The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!, he wrote.

Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt. The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017

Since coming to office in January, Trump has taken a strong stance against extremists and terrorism.

In response to the most recent terror attack on U.S. soil, in New York on Oct. 31, Trump said that: Were so politically correct that were afraid to do anything.

We have to get tough, we have to get smart, we have to do whats right to protect our citizens, he said on Nov. 1.

Egyptians gather around bodies following a gun and bombing attack at the Rawda mosque in North Sinai, Egypt, on Nov. 24, 2017. (STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, in a statement following the attack in Egypt, called on the international community to strengthen its efforts to defeat terrorist groups.

There can be no tolerance for barbaric groups that claim to act in the name of a faith but attack houses of worship and murder the innocent and defenseless while at prayer, she said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Egypt, but since 2013 security forces there have battled a stubborn ISIS affiliate in the mainly-desert region of Sinai. The militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers.

Worshippers were finishing Friday prayers at the mosque when a bomb exploded, witnesses said. Around 40 gunmen set up positions outside the mosque with jeeps and opened fire from different directions as people tried to escape.

State media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of El Arish, the main city in North Sinai.

The public prosecutors office said in a statement that 235 people had been killed and 109 more wounded.

View of the Rawda mosque after a gun and bombing attack on Nov. 24, 2017. (STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)

Hours after the attack, Egypts military launched air strikes on targets in mountainous areas around Bir al-Abed, security sources and witnesses said.

What is happening is an attempt to stop us from our efforts in the fight against terrorism, to destroy our efforts to stop the terrible criminal plan that aims to destroy what is left of our region, Egypts President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said.

Arabiya news channel and some local sources said some of the worshippers were Sufis, who groups such as ISIS consider targets because they revere saints and shrines, which for Islamists is tantamount to idolatry.

The jihadists have also attacked local tribes and their militias, branding them traitors for working with the army and police.

Egypts President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at a press conference in Paris on Oct. 24, 2017. (PHILIPPE WOJAZER/AFP/Getty Images)

The Sinai branch is one of ISISs surviving arms following the collapse of its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq after military defeats by U.S.-backed forces.

Sisi, a former armed forces commander who presents himself as a bulwark against Islamic terrorism, convened an emergency meeting with hisdefensee and interior ministers and intelligence chief soon after the attack.

Security has long been one of the key sources of public support for the former general, who is expected to run for re-election for another four-year term early next year.

Reuters contributed to this report

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By PTI: New Delhi, Nov 23 (PTI) The Congress today accused Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of abusing cancer patients with his remark that life-threatening diseases were a result of past sins and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi when will he be sacked.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala also charged Modi with tacitly supporting "lampooning" of the brave hearts who fight cancer.

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"#SerialAbuserBJP Now, BJP Minister & Convenor abuses Indias cancer patients & their families. Mr. PM, as you tacitly support such lampooning of the brave hearts who fight cancer every second of their life, when will you act and sack such elements?" Surjewala posted on Twitter.

Addressing a function where appointment letters were distributed to teachers here yesterday, Sarma had said, "God makes us suffer when we sin. Sometimes we come across young men getting inflicted with cancer or young men meeting with accidents. If you observe the background you will come to know that its divine justice. Nothing else. We have to suffer that divine justice."

However, earlier today Sarma said he was quoted out of context and apologised to those hurt by the "absolutely mindless controversy triggered by few political desperados". PTI ENM KIS

--- ENDS ---
Westland Mall in Florida Put on Lockdown After Reports of Shooter

Westland Mall in Hialeah, Florida, was placed on lockdown Friday, Nov. 24, after there were unconfirmed reports of a shooter. It turned out to be a false alarm.

#DEVELOPING  Hialeah police investigating reports of gunfire at the Westland Mall. https://t.co/BsXsdN7wxi  CBS4 Miami (@CBSMiami) November 24, 2017

#BREAKING #Hialeah #WestlandMall evacuated after people heard what they thought were gunshots  no shooter has been found and there are no reported injuries @Telemundo51 pic.twitter.com/dThRd1UFME  JRodriguez (@JRodzMIA) November 24, 2017

According to the Miami Herald, Black Friday shoppers in the mall were put on lockdown while police investigated a call about a shooting in the shopping center.

Police said they could not confirm that any shots were fired.

Officers canvassed and searched the mall and did not locate any suspects or victims, Hialeah police spokesman Eddie Rodriguez told the Herald. We have not been able to confirm any shots being fired nor anyone who witnessed anyone shooting. We will begin our investigation, as to where the call originated from.

False Alarm. Something fell in the mall and made a loud noise. Someone pulled the fire alarm and people rushed out. Everyone is going back inside now. No one was injured. #WestlandMall https://t.co/wjdEBauq05  Victor Oquendo (@VictorOquendo) November 24, 2017

False alarm at #WestlandMall in #Hialeah. Police got reports of shots fired, evacuated shoppers, searched the building, & determined there was no threat. Apparently someone heard something really loud, got scared and pulled the fire alarm.(? v @JRodzMIA) pic.twitter.com/VTJCmw4zMr  Kevin Rincon (@KevRincon) November 24, 2017

Local10 reported that a loud noise at the mall prompted an evacuation.

Security at the mall reported someone decided to pull the fire alarm after something fell and caused a loud noise, according to Local10.

The mall reopened by about 2:30 p.m.

Westland Mall reopened after a loud noise prompted an evacuation and a police investigation on "shots fired" during a busy Black Friday https://t.co/l9vxlyvEOK pic.twitter.com/HxnL4xPxHU  WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) November 24, 2017

Live: Police activity at Westland Mall in Hialeah. https://t.co/JGusDKO2fx  WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) November 24, 2017

BREAKING: Westland Mall on lockdown amid unconfirmed reports of a shooter https://t.co/uJSxOb7Ciq pic.twitter.com/aOaVj1PoS2  Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) November 24, 2017

There were no reported injuries.

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The Argentine military submarine ARA San Juan and crew are seen leaving the port of Buenos Aires, Argentina June 2, 2014. Picture taken on June 2, 2014. (Armada Argentina/Handout via REUTERS)

Wife of Missing Submarine Crew Member Calls Vessel a Piece of Junk

The wife of a crew member onboard the missing Argentine submarine and others slammed the quality of the vessel.

They sent a piece of crap to sail, Itati Leguizamon, wife of submarine crew member German Suarez, was quoted by media outlets saying

'I had a bad feeling': Devastated family of submarine crew hit out at navy after told of 'explosion' https://t.co/eWLM0fZjeP #7News pic.twitter.com/33BRQ3HbSb  7News Yahoo7 (@Y7News) November 23, 2017

The submarine has been missing for more than a week. Officials said that an apparent explosion occurred about the same time the submarine went missing, according to the countrys Navy.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi maintained that the search for the missing submarine will continue. It disappeared hundreds of miles from Argentinas east coast before contact was lost.

According to a Spanish media report, she said: They didnt tell [us] that they are dead  but what can you expect if they tell you that there was an explosion that caused them to fall below 3,000 meters (10,000 feet).

They lied to us  they have been dead for a while, and they had us here a week ago, she said, adding that they are angry with the Navys alleged lack of transparency.

She also placed the blame of the submarines poor quality on the previous government and of the current one.

Distraught family members could be seen crying after officials told them of the explosion. According to this report, there was an explosion, Balbi said. We dont know what caused an explosion of these characteristics at this site on this date.

They inaugurated a submarine with a coat of paint and a flag in 2014, but without any equipment inside, Leguizamon added, Yahoo News reported. The navy is to blame for its 15 years of abandonment.

The search for the submarine has prompted an international search-and-rescue mission.

They havent come back and they will never come back, said Jesica Gopar, the wife of submarine officer, Fernando Santilli. I had a bad feeling about this and now it has been confirmed.

The German-built submarine was commissioned in 1985, but it got a $12 million retrofitting in 2014.

On Thursday, officials said a U.S. plane found an unidentified object in the water where it went missing.

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Woman Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner Becomes Victim of Drive-By Shooting

A woman was preparing a bowl of macaroni and cheese at her boyfriends uncles home in Columbus, Ohio, when a hail of bullets tore through the house, leaving her dead.

Adrian Scott, 34, was helping prepare Thanksgiving dinner, laughing and jokingnobody in the home had any reason to expect lethal violence to strike.

The shooting occurred just before 1 p.m. at the house in the Greenview Estates neighborhood. Greenview Estates was built in 2008 as the citys first energy-efficient, affordable housing neighborhood.

Scott and her boyfriend were spending the holiday at the home of her boyfriends uncle, who declined to give his name.

Next thing you know, all we hear is shots ring out. We all dived to the ground and she fell backwardsshe had that glaze in her eyes, the homeowner told local NBC affiliate WCMH-TV.

I told my nephew to put compression to the wound, and we kept talking to her so she wouldnt go into shock.

His efforts were not able to save her, however. Scott was later pronounced dead at the Ohio Health Grant Medical Center, the Daily News reports.

The homeowner said there were five people in the house at the time of the assault. Multiple shots were fired. A neighbors house was also struck, as was one of the cars parked in front of the house.

Its just a bad day for the family on any day, Sgt. Stan Latta, of the Columbus police homicide unit, told the Columbus Dispatch. The only thing I would think is every Thanksgiving theyll probably think about this.

So far the police have not released any information about the type of car used in the shooting, or any possible motive. However, the homeowner said, when he declined to give his name, that he did so out of fear of retribution.

People with any information about the crime are encouraged to call the Columbus police homicide unit at (614) 645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at (614) 461-TIPS (8477).

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Woman Who Stole MAGA Hat Could Face Jail Time, Official Says

A woman who is accused of stealing a Make America Great Again hat could face as long as one year in jail.

Riverside Country District Attorneys Office filed a theft charge against University of California student Edith Macias. She was filmed with the red, pro-President Donald Trump cap before going on a profanity-laced tirade.

Im very excited that the DAs office took it seriously, fellow student Matthew Vitale told Fox News. We cant thank UCPD enough. Vitale captured the incident on camera.

Woman facing jail after stealing 'Make America Great Again' hat from fellow student https://t.co/vqvvY6mh2f  The Independent (@Independent) November 23, 2017

Vitale is a member of the University of California Riverside Republicans. He pressed charges against her after the incident, saying she stole his red hat during a meeting and wouldnt give it back before two officers came on the scene.

Macias, according to the criminal complaint, is being charged with a misdemeanor offense of petty theft in the Sept. 27 incident. Her next court date is in March.

Macias said in the video that she wanted to burn the hat because it represented the genocide of a bunch of people.

.Edith Macias, University of California ethnic studies student

Forever Remembered holding

"Make America Great Again" Hat.

? #MAGA pic.twitter.com/rtefxly8Y5  just_kath (@amagrammie) November 22, 2017

Officers reviewed footage showing her removing the hat from Vitales head and running off with it. Later, he got it back.

University Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox sent out a statement about the matter, saying that, coequal to our dedication to mutual respect, is our commitment to free speech and the free exchange of ideas.

I get the feeling that the school didnt take it very seriously, Vitale said after Wilcoxs statement was issued.

Remember Edith Marcias; the UC Riverside student who stole a #MAGA hat from another student while whining about genocide? She's been charged and could face 1 year in jail. The tide is turning. Obama's legacy is fading. God bless America | #RedNationRising pic.twitter.com/zwf0BizyF9  Red Nation Rising (@RedNationRising) November 22, 2017

A statement released by the university, according to Yahoo, said: Federal privacy laws prevent the university from commenting on student conduct matters, but UC Riverside stands by its deep commitment to freedom of expression, civil discourse, and respectful interactions within our community.

Im not doing this to be punitive or see her rot in jail, Vitale said. I want people my age to realize that things like this arent tolerated in America. We just want to have our rights guaranteed and thats what its all about.

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By PTI: New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) The Supreme Court today agreed to examine a plea questioning the validity of provisions of the pre-independence era Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act and said it wanted to know the Centres stand on the issue.

A bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Amitava Roy asked the petitioner to serve a copy of the plea to the Additional Solicitor General and fixed the matter for hearing next week.

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"Lets seek the view of the Government of India. We want to have the view of the government," the apex court said while hearing the plea filed by a Parsi woman.

The lawyer for the woman told the bench that they have challenged the provision of the Parsi Marriage And Divorce Act, 1936 which was akin to "jury system" in divorce matter which would have a pan-India effect.

The lawyer referred to the apex courts decision holding the practice of divorce through instant triple talaq among Muslims as illegal, void and unconstitutional, and said that this issue among Parsi has also to be considered.

During the brief hearing, the bench asked the petitioner that this provision under the Act was followed since 1936 and nobody has challenged it yet.

Responding to this, the counsel said, "yes. Nobody has challenged it. Today, there are family courts covering all such matters except this issue. This has to be considered by this court." PTI ABA MNL SJK ARC

--- ENDS ---
It was alleged that the victim and the students got into an altercation after he accused them of stealing his phone

By India Today Web Desk: A group of four or five school students killed a 25-year-old man in Delhi over a row over a stolen mobile phone, police said on Friday.

The incident took place on Thursday around 3:30 pm on a bus plying from Punjabi Bagh to Badarpur border.

"According to witnesses, the unidentified victim boarded the bus at Lajpat Nagar. When the bus reached Ashram Chowk, the teenagers, aged between 13 and 16 and in school uniform, got in," Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baaniya said.

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"It is alleged that the victim's mobile phone was stolen by the teenagers, leading to an altercation following which one boy slit the man's throat. They escaped after threatening the driver. The man received a single wound and was declared brought dead at a hospital," Baaniya added.

"Police teams are investigating over 15 government schools located between Lajpat Nagar and Mathura Road to identify the teenagers. Student records are being checked," a senior officer said.

(With IANS inputs)

--- ENDS ---
By Shivani Chhabra: With the setting sun, another eventful week has come to an end, leaving with us some fashionable moments to cherish for a long time. From glitzy galas to innumerable celebrities spotted at the airport, we were high on fashion throughout the week, and how. While most tinsel-towners were at the top of their fashion game, some left us baffled with their dud appearances.

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Here's how the week gone by looked on our fashion radar:

BEST DRESSED WOMAN: JANHVI KAPOOR

One of the most popular star-kids on the block, Janhvi Kapoor has the potential to be the next influential fashionista of the industry, like her cousin Sonam Kapoor. While this young diva is still shooting for her debut film, she's garnered a massive fan-following already, thanks to her high-end taste in fashion and looks to kills for. Recently, she made a stunning appearance at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), and stole the show in her black, Indo-western outfit. Donning a sheer black outfit adorned with soft-pink, floral motifs, Jahnvi slayed the event. While the floral embroidery gave the flowy ensemble an ethnic vibe, the designing of the outfit had a fresh, western look to it too. With minimal makeup, and a simple hairdo, Janhvi finished the look, and stunned the onlookers.

Photo: Yogen Shah

BEST DRESSED MAN: SHAH RUKH KHAN

Doing what he does best, Shah Rukh Khan ruffled our hearts with this youthful, casual look at an event. The actor was dressed to the T, in a pair of navy-blue, cargo pants which he teamed with a well-matched, blue tee. He had thrown over a white, denim jacket that looked just so stylish. SRK finished the look with a pair of silver, metallic, high-top sneakers, and pulled off this trendy look like a total boss.

Photo: Yogen Shah Photo: Yogen Shah

WORST DRESSED WOMAN: SRIDEVI

It's ironic how Sridevi has graced the spot of the worst-dressed celebrity the same week when her daughter Janhvi is ruling the spot of the best-dressed celebrity. While Janhvi was at the top of her fashion game this week, Sridevi showed up in a tacky Iehenga. The black-gold lehenga looked just so sorry, thanks to the not-so-pleasant bling, and cheap-looking geometric print. The shimmery, potli bag she accessorised her look with was equally ugly, and Sri simply failed to impress us.

Photo: Yogen Shah

WORST DRESSED MAN: GOVINDA

Teaming a smart, navy-blue, varsity jacket with a pair of self-striped pants, Govinda broke a cardinal fashion rule, and landed on the list as the worst-dressed man, this week. He further ruined the look by teaming a pair of black, Oxford shoes, which didn't fit well with the colour-coding of the ensemble.

Photo: Yogen Shah Photo: Yogen Shah

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The BJP has chosen to ignore yet again the first of its kind no-holds-barred attack by Sinha on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 23.

By Kumar Shakti Shekhar: The BJP may consider taking any action against rebel party MP from Patna Sahib in Bihar, Shatrughan Sinha, only after December 18, the day results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly election would be declared.

The BJP has chosen to ignore yet again the first of its kind no-holds-barred attack by Sinha on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 23.

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BJP's Disciplinary Committee chief Ganeshi Lal told India Today that senior party leaders are busy in Gujarat elections. "The matter may come up for consideration only after the Gujarat Assembly election results are declared on December 18," he said.

LONG ROPE

Sources in the BJP said the party will first wait for a formal complaint from party's Bihar president Nityanand Rai. This would be taken up by the disciplinary committee which, in turn, would submit its recommendation to party president Amit Shah.

Sinha launched a frontal attack on Modi besides Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani. However, he did not name any of them.

While taking part in a book launch of Ali Anwar, the suspended Rajya Sabha MP of JD(U), Sinha made the 'chaiwala' jibe against the prime minister.

In the presence of rebel JD(U) MP Sharad Yadav and senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury in the capital's Constitution Club, Sinha said if a lawyer can speak on financial matters, a TV actress can become HRD minister and a 'chaiwala', by selling tea, can achieve the greatest heights, an actor like him can surely speak on demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Sinha also mocked Modi's monthly radio programme 'Mann ki Baat' and said since it PM had a copyright over it, he would call his speech 'Dil ki Baat'.

According to the sources, the BJP has taken cognisance of all the actions and words of the actor-turned-politician in the recent past. However, it is still hopeful that will mend his ways and stop attacking the senior party leaders.

"It takes a lot of effort to prepare a leader. But it does not take even a second to remove the person from the party. Whether or not the leader suffers, the party certainly loses," the sources said, adding, "we will wait and watch".

MODI AND SINHA

Sinha has been a Modi-baiter much before the latter became the BJP's prime ministerial candidate on September 13, 2013. A month before that, Sinha had supported senior party leader LK Advani for the PM's post.

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Sinha did not stop at attempts to undermine Modi even after the latter had become the BJP's PM face. He quipped if popularity was the criterion, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan was the most suitable candidate for the top job. He went to the extent of endorsing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's name, saying he is a "PM material".

After Modi became the prime minister, the actor-politician sought to embarrass him by praising and hobnobbing with leaders of BJP's rival parties such as RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Kumar [when his JD(U) was part of the previous Mahagathbandhan government in the state]. After the BJP suffered defeat in Bihar, which Modi had made a prestige battle, Sinha congratulated both Prasad and Kumar for defeating his own party.

Recently, he came in support of former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha who launched a scathing attack on Modi's flagship economic steps - demonetisation and GST. He said the former finance minister was a true statesman and that his comments were in the interest of both the party and the nation.

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Sinha even requested Modi to appear before the press and answer real questions.

ALSO READ: Yashwant Sinha is not the only one, these 7 BJP leaders have also attacked Modi govt

ALSO WATCH: Shatrughan Sinha questions PM Narendra Modi's survey on demonetisation

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Noem tells NYT former President Trump doesn't offer 'best chance' for GOP

In an interview with The New York Times, Gov. Kristi Noem spoke about her reservations about former President Donald Trump announcing his bid for re-election.
BERLINWorkers at a half dozen Amazon distribution centres in Germany and one in Italy walked off the job Friday, in a protest timed to coincide with Black Friday to demand better wages from the American online giant.

In Germany, Ver.di union spokesperson Thomas Voss said some 2,500 workers were on strike at Amazon facilities in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben and Koblenz. In a warehouse near Piacenza, in northern Italy, some workers walked off the job to demand dignified salaries.

The German union has been leading a push since 2013 for higher pay for some 12,000 workers in Germany, arguing Amazon employees receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centres and employees earn relatively high wages for that industry.

Read more:

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Smart Shopper: Shopping goes high-tech

The strikes in Germany are expected to end Saturday.

Amazon Germany defended its position, saying it was a fair and responsible employer that offers attractive jobs.

The strikes will not affect us keeping our word to our customers, as the overwhelming majority of our workers are continuing their normal work, the company told The Associated Press.

The Italian action, a one-day strike, was hailed by one of the nations umbrella union leaders, the UILs Carmelo Barbagallo, as having enormous symbolic value because its clear that progress, innovation and modernity cant come at the expense and the interests of workers.

The chief of the CISL umbrella labour syndicate, Annamaria Furlan, called on Amazon to work with unions for proper industrial relations, employment stability and dignified salaries.

The Italian strike at the facility near Piacenza was called for permanent workers. The unions advised workers who are on short-term, work-on-demand contracts to stay on the job, so they wouldnt risk losing future gigs.

Amazon says it has created 2,000 full-time jobs in Italy, where unemployment remains stubbornly high.

Amazons head of personnel at the Piacenza-area centre, Salvatore Iorio, told Italys Sky TG24 TV on Friday that despite the strike, the facility was keeping our commitment to serve our clients.

Asked about union complaints that workers there did repetitive physical tasks to the point of experiencing health problems, Iorio said the company balances positions at work areas to avoid any such problems.

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The morning after Michael Redhill won the Scotiabank Giller Prize  Canadas most lucrative award for literature  he had just over $400 in his bank account.

On Tuesday, he walked into an RBC branch to cash a $100,000 cheque.

They were sort of taken aback by it because, you know, people dont walk in with cheques written out for that amount that often, Redhill said of the bank staffer who handled the deposit. And when she handed me the deposit slip, I just had to laugh.

He posted two photos on Twitter with the caption, Two curious incarnations of Bellevue Square on November 23rd, 2017. One of those photos shows the Kensington Market park, now under construction, after which his literary thriller is named. The other shows his bank deposit slip, telling Redhill his balance now stood at $100,411.46.

Winning the Giller Prize, Redhill says, means recognition. It means standing among the literary ranks of previous winners including Michael Ondaatje, Alice Munroe and Margaret Atwood to deliver a live, tearful address to the nation on Monday nights CBC broadcast. It means a surge of sales, thanks to the shiny sticker on future editions of Bellevue Square telling everyone hes a winner.

First and foremost, however, the prize will help settle his debts. Credit card bills, loans from friends: expenses incurred as he did his best to treat his writing as a full-time job.

Its going to be really quite a relief to wipe those things out. Visa is very happy, Im sure, that I won this prize, he said with a laugh.

Itll also give him room to work on his own writing without leaning as much on freelance editing work, sessional teaching at the University of Toronto and York University, and even  in times of great need  selling collectibles online to make ends meet.

I didnt ever get a job at Starbucks, but I thought about it, Redhill said.

Itll even give him the chance to be less stressed out at home with his 16- and 19-year-old sons. While he is at home a lot, the prize money will mean he isnt as frantic about how to make rent, feed his family and pay the bills.

Im sure theyre going to appreciate the reduction in that stress, Redhill said.

At one point, last May  while he was still working on revisions of Bellevue Square  Redhill said he showed up at an employment centre to try and pick up a part-time job. The interest payments on his credit cards were more than he could afford. Reducing his bill simply wasnt possible because he couldnt wipe it all out.

That was very scary, he said.

Of course, the shadow of poverty is far from unknown for career writers. Many try and cram writing between family and whatever part-time jobs or gigs they need to make rent. Not everyone will win a Giller  and not everyone can handle the crunch of a writers life.

What happened to me on Monday night is not something you can really dream of, because it seems foolish to dream of it, he said.

Despite the Giller Prize money, he said hell still keep some of his side jobs.

I mean, lets face it  $100,000 is a lot of money all at once, but if you live in Toronto and you pay rent or a mortgage, you know, its not a lifetime of fun. I have to keep working. And I intend to.

Bellevue Square is a literary thriller about a woman whos terrified of running into her doppelganger in Kensington Market  someone shes never known, but who everyone around her swears to have seen.

Redhill is working on a follow-up, the second in a planned trilogy called Mason of Tunica, due out in 2019. Freelance editing gigs will still be on his radar.

What did keep him going, Redhill said, was the community of writers that spurred him on. In his acceptance speech Monday night, he thanked Michael Ondaatje and Linda Spalding in particular because they . . .opened their door to me, and Im grateful for the enthusiasm and encouragement they brought to my life.

These friends werent necessarily able to pay Redhills bills, but they could offer support  emotionally, artistically, commiseratively.

Nobody has said, Look, you cant make it work. Maybe you need to think about doing something else, Redhill said. All of your writer friends are the ones who say, Yeah, its horrible being poor. Keep writing.

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NORTHERN IRELAND-The diverse and spectacular landscape here lends itself to a never-ending supply of amazing outdoor adventures. From treetops and cliff edges, to windy pastures and the open surf, get out there and enjoy it all. Here are eight things I did.

The Gobbins: Exploring the Gobbins cliffs on the edge of the Irish Sea is not your average stroll through the park. The 2.5-hour walk will take you down a narrow path that hugs the dramatic cliff face along the famous Causeway coastal route, taking you both under a waterfall and directly over a turbulent water world that dolphins, whales and puffins call home. This trek is extremely popular with visitors to Northern Ireland so make sure to reserve a spot well in advance of your trip.

The Dark Hedges: Made famous by its appearance in the second season of Game of Thrones, the Dark Hedges roadway in Ballymoneys county of Antrim is lined by an unending row of massive beech trees that create a haunting, natural canopy over visitors. Planted by the Stuart family in the 18th century as an awe-inspiring entrance to their estate, the road is now best visited on weekdays or in the early hours of the morning to avoid mass tourist traffic.

Troggs Surf School: The ultra-patient and helpful young instructors at Troggs Surf School on the picturesque beaches of Portrush will prove to you that riding the waves isnt an activity reserved only for tropical climates. Here youll shimmy into a provided wetsuit and take a two-hour lesson via the only certified Quicksilver school in Northern Ireland. Even first-timers who dont successfully manage to Hang Ten are guaranteed to be swept up in the excitement of being tossed around by the tide.

Rathlin Island RSPB Seabird Centre: Take a scenic ferry from Ballycastle to beautiful Rathlin Island and hop on a local Puffin Bus to this expansive, cliffside bird sanctuary, where you will be overwhelmed to see tens of thousands of puffins, guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes crowding the reserve. The centres ornithology experts are available to answer your questions and complimentary binoculars are on hand for easy viewing. While in the area, check out the fascinating lighthouse museum and ask locals to tell you about the areas colourful shipwreck history.

Hovercrafing at Foylehov: Experience the thrill of sailing solo over both land and water on a cushion of air at up to 60 km/h, courtesy of Foylehov Activity Centre in Londonderry. This converted farm has become a sanctuary for fun-seekers who want to spend an unforgettable afternoon competing with friends for the quickest time hovering their way through a grass course complete with water hazards and tricky hairpin turns. Thorough instruction and many fun-filled practice rounds are included before the final race.

Giants Causeway: No trip to Northern Ireland would be complete without a visit to Giants Causeway, a strange and stunning landscape of 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns formed more than 60 million years ago when molten lava cooled suddenly as it made contact with water. Visitors who take the ultra-scenic 2-kilometre Causeway walk, which includes a cliffside staircase down to the sea, might recognize the site from the cover of Led Zeppelins fifth studio album, Houses of the Holy.

The Jungle NI: With no end of activities on offer for the adrenalin junkie, the expansive Jungle Northern Ireland compound in Londonderry offers zorbing, clay pigeon shooting, paintball and perhaps most famously, Irelands first high-wire tree-top adventure course. The experience includes Tarzan swings, rope bridges at 70 feet above the ground, a zipline and a stomach-turning freefall from a treetop platform. Thrill-seekers can spend an entire day here navigating the massive countryside centre, also known for its big Halloween and Christmas parties.

Thermal Village and Spa at Galgorm: Youve had a busy go of it in Northern Ireland and now its time to relax at the Galgorm Resorts thermal village and spa. This opulent offering in Antrim County boasts a traditional Celtic sauna, hydrotherapy pools, an aroma grotto sauna and plenty of day spa packages for those looking to take a luxurious load off. The unending supply of saunas and chill-out chambers, which are open to hotel residents and day visitors alike, are all located in the idyllic woodland setting of the river Maine.

Liz Beddall was hosted by Tourism Northern Ireland, which did not review or approve this story.

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PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELANDNo catch, no breakfast, announces tour operator Wendy Gallagher as our charter boat disengages from the harbour into the chilled, 6 a.m. water world of the North Atlantic. Below us, were told, are plenty of fish, including flounder, colley, red gurnard and mackerel. And with daylight flash lures and 6-inch standard rods at the ready, its up to us to find them.

Happy fishing and fingers crossed, yells Gallagher, ducking into the wheelhouse to start up a tea kettle as we pick up speed.

Our Causeway Coast Foodie Tours guide out on the water is a colourful veteran of the sea by the name of Charlie Adjey who begins by telling us the days stats: the wind force is at 10 knots, pressure is at 116 and visibility is nine miles. He advises that we keep our eyes peeled for marine life as we head further away from the coastline aboard the Causeway Lass.

There are no guarantees  we may see dolphins, we may see basking sharks, there may be an emergency rescue, we dont know, he chuckles, pointing to a gang of sleepy seals, lying lazily on a nearby islet.

The surrounding scenery along the Causeway coast speaks to Northern Ireland at its most stereotypically enchanting  complete with ghostly fog, rocky cliffs, lush landscapes and crumbling fortresses of the past. And it seems only fitting that far out into the water, within view of the ruins of Dunluce Castle along the edge of a basalt wall, is where we drop our first lines of the day.

Most local people we have come on this tour, have never done this trip. Theyve never seen their coastline from the sea, says Wendy Gallagher, who has recently re-emerged with a small tray of handmade griddle breads to tide us over until breakfast. Its gorgeous to see their reaction. You expect a visitor to be wowed by it, but to be honest I get a real buzz when a local person is blown away.

With one year of operation down, Gallaghers Catch and Sea tours have been running in tandem with local merchants such as Portrush artisanal cafe Babushka with the intention of promoting sustainable tourism and celebrating the traditions of coastal Northern Ireland.

We always spent our summers around the harbour, says Gallagher, who grew up in the tiny village of Ballintra, which in Gaelic means road to the beach.

In the village, there were lots of the granddads of friends who would teach us how to fish and show us the best places to go to find the fish. I have memories of jumping into the harbour. It was just blissful.

At the guidance of Charlie Adjey, we let our bait-free lines drop down to a depth of almost 20 metres until a slackening on the ocean floor alerts us to reel back again. At first, the nibbles are few and far between and our attention is paid mostly to the jellyfish undulating below, the securing of our raincoats against the wind and the urgent calls of 100 seabirds overhead.

But then 15 minutes in, as if on cue, the boat transforms into a frenzied circus of marine life. Adjey, Gallagher, and skipper Richard Connor hustle to answer a chorus of animated yelps as we reel our tugged-on lines madly inward. Within moments, multiple mackerel have joined us on the Causeway Lass, and the lot of us are ecstatic.

Im overwhelmed by the excitement people get from catching a fish, says Gallagher, handing my catch to Adjey for a cleaning and filleting demonstration. Any fish we catch we use, either for bait, for breakfast, or we get together with partners to smoke it  theres no waste at all.

Weve done well, proclaims Adjey, eyeing the bounty of his amateur crew and prompting the skipper to head further east for another round. Lets get on our way.

An hour and several casts later, chilled from the sea breeze and feeling the flutterings of morning hunger, we find ourselves on land at the cosy Babushka cafe, which overlooks the West Strand beach in Portrush. Chef George Nelson shows why hes long lured in locals with his in-depth knowledge of artisanal coffees and a menu that includes such belly-pleasing courses as smoky beans, onion marmalade and courgette and basil soup.

Today, with the bounty weve brought him, he prepares us each the mackerel surprise, consisting of our fresh catch grilled and served on local Ursa Minor sourdough bread, topped with a free range poached egg, goat bacon sprinkle and a drizzle of rapeseed oil produced in the nearby town of Limivady.

We want to educate people now that they dont have to consume so much processed food, says Gallagher. We have got lovely seafood and farmers in our own backyard. Over 1000 years ago, people were able to live off this land. We want to celebrate that.

Chowing down on our piping hot breakfast, amidst the quiet of the cafe, Gallagher speaks to the history of Northern Irelands waters.

The River Bann flows into the sea, and theres heritage there that dates over 10,000 years, she says. They found evidence at a place called Mount Sandel  all kinds of implements and signs of people living there  this was the site of the first settlers. And one of the reasons that they feel that those settlers chose Mount Sandel is because of the river was an amazing source of food for them.

We fresh coffee in hand, we cheer to Northern Irelands ancient fisherfolk, and to the modern fisherfolk we have found ourselves to be today.

We have got to appreciate our produce and be really proud of it, and shout about it, says Gallagher, finishing her last bites as Babushka begins to fill up with the morning rush of hungry locals.

If it was good enough for the first settlers I think its good enough for us.

Liz Beddall was hosted by Tourism Northern Ireland, which did not review or approve this story.

When you go:

Get there: I flew direct from Toronto to Dublin via Aer Lingus, and used Value Cabs car service to make the 1 hour and 45 minute trip to Belfast, which was the starting point of my journey through Northern Ireland.

Fish for your breakfast: Experience the thrill of the catch and the delight of the dine via Causeway Coast Foodie Tours and the Catch and Sea Breakfast Foodie Tour. The experience, which includes fishing instruction, the necessary equipment and a meal, is offered at a cost of 50 pounds with a maximum of 12 guests welcome on board.

Stay: Using Belfast as a jumping off point to the rest of the country, I stayed at the Fitzwilliam Hotel, in the downtown core. The hotel is literally steps from City Hall which houses a fascinating local history museum. In Portrush I stayed at the Portrush Atlantic Hotel, which is adjacent to the towns spectacular waterfront.

Eat: In Belfast, make sure to stop by the Harlem Cafe for brunch. Aside from its delicious Irish breakfast  think blood pudding, eggs and sausage  youll be charmed by the venues kitschy decor and cosy atmosphere.

Dont miss: In Belfast visit the Titanic Belfast, a monument and fascinating museum at the site of Belfasts historic shipyard, where the ill-fated Titanic was built.

Do your research: discovernorthernireland.com, ireland.com

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OTTAWAThe Liberal slogan about promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls around the world is lofty talk, for sure.

But what does it look like in action, and more important, does the world care?

This week, some of the answers to those questions came into clearer focus.

As International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau toured the crisis border regions in Bangladesh, her parliamentary secretary announced in Ottawa the government will direct $50 million of its foreign aid over the next five years to pay for simple school meal programs in four troubled countries: Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon and Syria.

The announcement was low-key. The money isnt new, but comes from existing departmental funds, and will go to the United Nations World Food Program which provides nutritious school meals.

And yet, the decision to spend $50 million on school lunches seems curious, especially given the massive needs in Bangladesh where 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have flooded across the border. Or the needs in Yemen where widespread hunger and malnutrition is the direct result of a Saudi blockade in retaliation against Houthi rebel strikes. Or, for that matter, the needs in South Sudan where a girl is more likely to die in childbirth than to finish a primary school education.

Yet Amir Abdulla, deputy executive director of the UNs World Food Program, hailed the move and hopes Canada will urge its global allies to follow suit, especially in a year it chairs the G7 group of top world economies.

In an interview with the Star, Abdulla acknowledged the needs are great in many regions. He oversees all emergency operations for the WFP, including the crisis in Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and Bangladesh.

The mass exodus of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar caught us all off guard in late summer, he said, and now one in four Rohingya children are suffering from malnutrition. Abdulla says the Saudi blockade of Yemen will be felt by a generation of children suffering from widespread malnutrition as a result.

Still, Abdulla says Canadians should understand the Liberal governments contribution to school meals will translate into improving the nutrition, health and education prospects for tens of thousands of girls and boys over a long period, he said.

Whilst it might not seem like a huge sum of money, school meal programs offer a great way of reaching children who are among the most vulnerable, he said.

Consider, he says, that generally we can do three to four school meals for one U.S. dollar, thats how efficient those programs are. They are also targeted at ensuring theyre highly nutritious meals.

Abdulla said its a concrete way to aid Syrian refugees in Lebanon, where the government has allowed Syrian refugee children to go to school; allowed Syrian curriculum to be taught by Syrian teachers; and where some schools are running two or three school shifts daily to accommodate refugee students. In many cases, they are coming to school in the evening and theyre not getting fed at home and need to eat, so theyre running school meals programs, and thats what this funding will be used for.

Whilst it might not seem like a huge sum of money, school meal programs offer a great way of reaching children who are among the most vulnerable; they are a good distribution mechanism, because you have a controlled environment, he said.

There are other clear benefits beyond nutrition, health and education, he adds.

Girls are safer while theyre in school, he said. They learn about their own rights, and they may avoid early and forced marriage or teenage pregnancy.

Youre really getting three or four different outcomes.

It was an announcement International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau was supposed to have made. But she was travelling for three days this week in Bangladesh to the crisis region to see for herself.

On Thursday, she spoke to reporters after meetings with Rohingya refugees, Bangladeshi government officials, Red Cross, UNHCR and other NGOs trying to deliver aid to the region.

Again, curiously, Bibeau announced the Liberal government would spend $35 million over five years on improving sexual and reproductive health, and maternal health services in five of the poorest regions of Bangladesh. It was a program that was underway before the Rohingya crisis erupted in late August. It does not specifically aim relief at the refugees, Bibeau said.

Yet she acknowledged the needs are great in overcrowded refugee camps, where traumatized women often stop eating in the afternoon because they fear going to the bathroom at night. We are finding it difficult to reach the young mothers, she said, adding that what she witnessed confirmed the importance of our feminist policy because it is very important to take into consideration the needs of women.

The Liberal government has so far committed $25 million to the urgent humanitarian needs of the Rohingya, said Bibeaus office.

It has also set up the Myanmar Crisis Relief Fund, which will see the government match Canadians donations to registered Canadian charities between Aug. 25 and Nov. 28. That number will not be known until after the final tally comes in.

Beyond immediate relief, Bibeau said the Canadian government wants the Rohingya to be able to return to Myanmar with full citizenship rights, yet withheld comment when asked if Canada would employ sanctions against those responsible for the violence that drove them out.

We all agree that its ethnic cleansing and the actions that have been taken by the military are just not acceptable, said Bibeau, but she downplayed the likelihood of sanctions, saying it would require crimes to be well-documented.

Bibeau was likewise reluctant to comment on the agreement reached Thursday between Bangladesh and Myanmar to return the refugees, saying only she hoped it would respect their need for full citizenship rights.

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Leaving the house daily is linked with a lower risk of dying, says study.

By Asian News International: Turns out, adding more years to your life is as simple as leaving the house every day.

In a study of community-dwelling individuals aged 70 to 90 years who were participating in the Jerusalem Longitudinal Study, leaving the house daily was linked with a lower risk of dying over an extended follow-up period, independent of social, functional, or medical factors.

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The study's investigators noted that getting outside of one's home provides numerous opportunities for engagement with the world outside, and may facilitate exposure to a variety of beneficial experiences.

Also Read:Your walking speed might decline if your heart is weak, says study

"What is interesting is that the improved survival associated with getting out of the house frequently was also observed among people with low levels of physical activity, and even those with impaired mobility," said lead author Jeremy Jacobs, of the Hadassah Hebrew-University Medical Center, in Jerusalem. "Resilient individuals remain engaged, irrespective of their physical limitations."

The study appears in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

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Quebecs premier has criticized the manager of an Adidas store who reportedly told a Montreal crowd he would say a few words in French at an event to accommodate the citys francophone media.

The managers statements, if true, are unacceptable and regrettable in a French-speaking province, Philippe Couillard said in the national assembly Thursday.

I will say very firmly that if the words we read this morning were pronounced, they are unacceptable, he said during question period.

The signal from business leaders must be clear. The workplace language in Quebec is French.

Couillards response was the latest in a flood of reaction to the comments since Le Journal de Montreal first reported them Wednesday.

The newspaper said Alexandre Des Roches told the crowd at a store launch event he would begin his speech with a few words in French to accommodate the City of Montreal and the francophone media.

He then switched to English, Le Journal reported.

During question period, Parti Quebecois Leader Jean-Francois Lisee blamed Couillard for the incident, accusing him of having promoted the use of English in the workplace.

This is the result of four years of signals from the premier which said: The important thing, its that everyone in a factory speaks English in case someone asks a question, Lisee said.

Couillard replied that while English speakers are an important part of Quebec society, the language of the workplace is French.

Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante also reacted to the managers comments, calling them a blatant lack of sensitivity.

(Its a lack of) respect toward the fact were in a French province, and the metropolis is also francophone, she said at a news conference with Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume.

Labeaume was more blunt in his comments

I find it scandalous, especially since (Des Roches) is a francophone, he said.

I cant believe it, he must really be colonized, he said, adding he would never shop at the store.

The linguistic spat also drew a wave of responses on social media, with some, including TV personality Guy A. Lepage and former PQ leadership candidate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, vowing to boycott the activewear company and urging others to do the same.

Adidas did not respond to a request for comment.

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OTTAWAMuch as hed done throughout his two-month trial, Basil Borutski betrayed little emotion Friday as a jury found him guilty in the deaths of three former partners who were brutally killed two years ago during an hour-long, revenge-fuelled rampage across the Ottawa Valley.

Borutski, 60, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the point-blank shotgun killings of 36-year-old Anastasia Kuzyk and 48-year-old Nathalie Warmerdam, and guilty of a lesser second-degree murder charge in the strangling death of Carol Culleton, 66.

All three murders took place on Sept. 22, 2015, in the space of less than an hour. They left advocates denouncing the justice system and urging politicians to go beyond rhetoric on violence against women, given Borutskis well-known reputation among locals in the community for threats and a propensity toward violence.

Read more:

Accused killer Basil Borutski acted out of revenge in killing three friends, Crown argues

Increase in self-representation in court points to systemic issues, experts say

On police video, Basil Borutski says he feels sorry after Ottawa Valley killings

Clad in a grey shirt and slacks, black Croc sandals and leg chains, Borutski remained expressionless and stared straight ahead throughout the verdict, which it took the jury some 14 hours to reach. When it was over, police ushered him out of the prisoners box by police.

A murder conviction carries an automatic life prison sentence. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 5 in Pembroke, Ont., to determine the specifics around when he might become eligible for parole.

Federal legislation was passed in 2011 that allows judges to impose consecutive 25-year periods of parole ineligibility in cases that involve multiple murder convictions. Judges can consider factors such as the offenders character, the circumstances of the offence and any recommendations from the jury.

Prior to the murders, Borutski  who chose to forgo having a lawyer during the trial, but barely said a word during the proceedings  had twice spent time in jail after two of the women accused him of assault and uttering threats.

Ontario police Det. Insp. Mark Zulinski, who served as case manager for the incidents, said outside the courthouse Friday that the Ontario Provincial Police respect the jurys findings and appreciate the work of the courts.

He also expressed sympathy for the victims families, their close friends and the members of their community.

I hope ... by the conclusion of these proceedings that these people could move forward in their healing processes and move on with their lives, Zulinski said.

Leighann Burns, executive director of Ottawa-based womens shelter Harmony House, said Borutskis reputation as a violent and dangerous person had been well-known in and around the Ontario community of Wilno, not far from where the three women lived.

She called the verdict a condemnation of the response to violence against women in Ontario and throughout Canada.

If we couldnt stop someone who was so visible and so dangerous, really, what does this say about this system? Burns said outside the doors of the Ottawa courthouse.

These women were clearly living in fear and it was known he that posed a real risk to them.

Its high time the rhetoric about violence against women was turned into action, she added.

What are we going to do to make things different for all the other women that come forward and disclose the violence in their lives? Burns said. How will we keep them safe? How will we keep them alive?

Because Wilno, a victims rights group formed in the aftermath of the killings, also issued a statement on Friday urging lawmakers to do more to combat domestic violence.

For too long, Canadians have looked away from violence in our homes that predominantly harms women and children in every neighbourhood, district, municipal ward and constituency of this country, said the statement, which accused the justice system of failing Borutskis victims.

In a videotaped interview played at trial, Borutski expressed a degree of remorse for his actions, which he said were fuelled by rage at what he considered to be the lies and betrayals of his victims.

In the video, he described how he was acting like a zombie on the day in question, saying hed originally planned to take his own life, but decided against it because he believed it was wrong to take an innocent life.

I killed them because they were not innocent, Borutski says in the video. They were guilty. I was innocent. Ive done nothing wrong.

In his opening statement, Crown attorney Jeffery Richardson told the jury the trial was not a case of whodunit.

The evidence is overwhelming that Basil Borutski murdered Carol, Anastasia and Nathalie, Richardson said. Borutski even told police the murders were his kind of justice, he added.

He thought about it before he did it, and then he executed his plan perfectly.

Richardson did not comment following Fridays verdict.

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A major Jewish advocacy group in Canada has stepped up efforts to help some residents of an Ontario town convince local politicians to rename a street currently called Swastika Trail.

Bnai Brith Canada started an online petition Thursday calling on Puslinch Township, about 75 kilometres west of Toronto, to change the street name.

The group plans to present the petition to the township council when it discusses the issue of renaming the private road next month, Aidan Fishman, advocacy director for Bnai Brith Canada, said in an interview Friday.

We first became aware of this in October when a group of local residents  some of whom actually live on Swastika Trail and are very upset about the name and want it changed  were encountering some local resistance and contacted us for advice, Fishman said.

Fishman said his organization has been working with the residents behind the scenes since then, but decided to have members of the public outside the area weigh in on whether this is an appropriate name for a street in Canada in 2017.

Swastika Trail was named in the 1920s before the rise of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, local residents said. Those in support of keeping the name have argued the symbol has a long history before the Second World War, but others argue the name is associated with hate and genocide.

Puslinch Township Mayor Dennis Lever was not immediately available for comment and a township official declined a request for an interview Friday.

Fishman said the residents living on Swastika Trail who are embarrassed and offended by the streets name should not be forced to use it on their drivers licences or other government documents.

We also think that maintaining this street name  nevermind for the people who live there  really demonstrates a sort of unwelcoming attitude, whether intentionally or unintentionally, towards people from the outside who may want to visit their own property there, towards Holocaust survivors and their descendents, towards Canadian veterans of the Second World War and their descendents, Fishman said.

Even though the swastika originally had a different meaning ... today in Canada if you mention swastika  or to virtually to anyone in the western world  it is a symbol of the horrors of Nazism, and the town and its residents cant ignore that.

Residents of the street advocating for the name change agree.

Having the word swastika on my provincially issued drivers licence and my federally issued mailing address associates me with bigotry, intolerance and anti-Semitism, said Jennifer Horton. Thats not who I am and thats not how I want to present myself.

Audrey Guzar, another resident, said you dont realize how often you have to give out your address until you are embarrassed about your street. She said she is usually met with looks of horror and disbelief, often leaving her to explain that she is not a Nazi sympathizer.

The two women and their husbands contacted Bnai Brith Canada for help after other attempts to get action on the issue.

Horton said local residents on the street voted on the issue earlier this month among themselves, with a slight majority in favour of keeping the name.

That statistic is not significant enough to sway the council into making a decision, Horton said. In addition to that, as weve said many times, this is an issue that is not only affecting our street  this is an issue that affects our entire community, our whole country, so its not a matter of 50 people on a street having a vote.

She added that the street name is also problematic because the swastika is still used as a symbol of hate by white-supremacist groups.

Fishman said Bnai Brith Canada is also aware of a town in northern Ontario called Swastika, which was named in the early 1900s, but noted that he wasnt aware of any residents in that community reaching out to his group for help changing the towns name.

We still think its inappropriate, but we prioritize the Swastika Trail in Puslinch, because there are local residents who have reached out and said, we want you help in changing the name, he said. Thats why we feel we really have a duty to speak up on this issue.

Carolyn ONeil, a local historian in Swastika, Ont., said the town was named in the early 1900s after a local gold mine that used the symbol as one signifying good luck.

We cant destroy our history, she said, noting that the town has never had any association with Nazism.

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OTTAWA  The Trudeau government is facing calls to produce its long-awaited plan to help homeless veterans in Canada, after their plight received only a passing mention in the Liberals new national housing strategy.

The government has been working for more than a year on a plan to support homeless veterans and those at risk of becoming homeless, who advocates say need and deserve extra attention after serving in uniform.

The national housing strategy released by the Liberals this week did include a specific recognition that veteran homelessness is unacceptable, and that one homeless veteran is one too many.

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But it was otherwise vague on plans to address the problem, stating without any specifics that it was expanding veterans access to affordable housing and working with other levels of government and civil society.

Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told The Canadian Press that Veterans Affairs Canada is continuing to work on measures to help veterans in need, but didnt offer any additional details.

Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Emily Gauthier said the department expects to release the plan this fall.

This strategy will identify gaps in existing policies and programs and propose evidence-based initiatives that will focus on the prevention and elimination of veteran homelessness, Gauthier said in an email.

The plan is to develop, achieve and sustain a well-co-ordinated and efficient system that assures homelessness is rare, brief or non-occurring and no veteran is forced to live on the street.

Still, those who interact with homeless veterans are questioning why it is taking the government so long to unveil its plan given that hundreds, if not thousands, of veterans are currently at risk.

I hope to see something coming in the very near future associated with a specific focus on veterans, said retired navy captain Mark Eldridge, who works with the Ottawa-based group Soldiers Helping Soldiers.

The existence of these guys on the street is a disappointment to us, it should be an embarrassment to the government and it is a reality that 85 people per night are suffering in the National Capital Region right now.

The exact number of homeless veterans is unclear. Veterans Affairs Canada says it has 785 in its client database, but past surveys and studies have pegged the actual number at closer to 3,000  if not much more.

And there are concerns that the numbers are growing due to late-onset post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological trauma, and longer delays in processing pensions and disability benefits to hurt soldiers.

I dont know what happened this year, said Debbie Lowther, chair and co-founder of VETS Canada, which helps homeless veterans in different cities.

Normally the summer is a little bit slower but in August we cracked the 200 mark and we havent looked back since then. That includes homeless veterans and those at risk. So our numbers are climbing, for sure.

A draft version of the governments plan for homeless veterans, prepared in October 2016 and obtained by The Canadian Press, showed a heavy focus on providing veterans in crisis with help paying the rent or mortgage.

Advocates say more money is certainly required, but there also needs to be a concerted effort to bring together the various groups focused specifically on homeless veterans to close any gaps and share lessons learned.

They would also like to see shelters and other support groups better informed of veterans unique needs, improved followup from Veterans Affairs, and an end to the long waits for pensions and disability benefits.

When it comes to the men and women of the military, theres a whole variety of reasons as to why they become homeless, said Peter Stoffer, a former New Democrat MP and long-time veterans advocate.

And a lot of that can be stopped by making sure they get the right medical and professional and pharmaceutical help that they require in order for them to stay in their own homes longer.

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GOOSE BAY, N.L.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has humbly apologized for abuse and cultural losses at residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador, saying the gesture is part of recognizing hard truths Canada must confront as a society.

Speaking at a ceremony with former students in Goose Bay, Trudeau apologized on behalf of the government of Canada and all Canadians to former students at five schools in the province.

He said their parents were promised their children would be cared and provided for and would be safe.

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However, we know today that this colonial way of thinking led to practices that led to deep harm, Trudeau said.

He said the children were isolated from their families, uprooted from their communities and stripped of their identity. They were made to feel irrelevant and inferior and taught to be ashamed of who they were and where they were from.

I humbly stand before you to offer a long-overdue apology ... on behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, said a visibly moved Trudeau. To all of you we are sorry.

The kind of thinking that led to the establishment of the residential school system and left deep scars for so many has no place in our society. It was unacceptable then and it is unacceptable now.

The former students were left out of a compensation package and national apology in 2008 by former prime minister Stephen Harper. His Conservative government argued that Ottawa didnt oversee those schools, but the Liberal government offered last year to settle a class-action lawsuit for $50 million.

The crowd gathered Friday at an auditorium in Goose Bay cheered both Trudeau and Toby Obed, who accepted the prime ministers apology on behalf of school survivors.

Obed approached the stage with his arms raised in triumph and became overcome with emotion as he spoke.

Because I come from a patient and forgiving culture I think it is proper for us to accept an apology from the Government of Canada, Obed said.

This apology is an important part of the healing. Today the survivors in Newfoundland and Labrador we can finally feel a part of the community of survivors nation-wide across Canada. We have connected with the rest of Canada  we got our apology.

Obed thanked Trudeau and the minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, Carolyn Bennett, for coming to Labrador and giving an apology we deserve.

And its in person, it was not on the news. We didnt have to go out to them, they came to us, Obed said to applause.

Innu leaders boycotted event and wont accept the apology, saying Innu children suffered in other places besides residential schools.

The leaders issued a statement saying they met with members of their community on Thursday and received a clear message.

The response from members of our community has been quite emotional, it is clear that Innu need apologies for more than the experience in the International Grenfell Association run residential school dormitories, Grand Chief Gregory Rich said in the statement.

Im not satisfied that Canada understands yet what it has done to Innu and what it is still doing.

The statement says Innu children were abused in Roman Catholic schools and in the homes of teachers and missionaries in the communities of Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet. It said governments havent recognized that.

The truth of what happened to the past generations of Innu has never been fully documented and we cant deal with this in bits and pieces, said Chief Eugene Hart of the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation.

There were stacked boxes of tissue leading into the auditorium where Trudeau arrived early Friday.

Hundreds of former residential school students, many of them in ceremonial Inuit and Innu dress, hugged each other as they waited for the event to begin.

Miriam Saunders of Goose Bay, whose daughter Loretta was murdered in Halifax in 2014 by a man she had sublet her apartment to, said abuse and cultural losses at residential schools had ripple effects.

I didnt want to come here, she said Friday outside the auditorium.

Saunders said the scope of the class-action settlement caused confusion and deep hurt because of those it left out.

Saunders attended the residential school in North West River near Goose Bay from 1971 to 1974. She was 12 when she first arrived.

Saunders said she was sexually abused by a female and a male staff member. Still, she considers those years among the happiest of her life.

I wanted to get married and live in North West River.

Saunders received both general and abuse compensation. But she said it was her father and others who attended the schools before 1949 who suffered far worse.

He was beaten, she said of her father, who went to the Makkovik school and later refused to teach her Inuktitut to spare her a similar fate.

The $50-million class-action settlement reached with Ottawa last year did not include students who attended before Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1949. Before then, it was a separate dominion.

The British government should be apologizing, Saunders said.

Several health workers were on hand Friday to offer emotional support.

Memorial candles were lit in honour of more than 120 former students who died waiting for a resolution to the almost decade-long legal fight.

A striking seal skin backdrop on the auditorium depicted a broken red heart rising to a healed heart on a silver grey seal skin.

It is a piece called The Healing by Rigolet artist Inez Shiwak, designed with her father, Jack.

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Peel Regional Police have identified a victim who died in hospital following a triple stabbing in Mississauga on Wednesday night.

Police responded to reports of a fight around 7:30 p.m. at Meadowvale Town Centre on Winston Churchill Rd. and Derry Rd. When officers arrived on scene they found three male victims with stab wounds.

Heidrah Shraim, 22, of Mississauga was stabbed in the chest and he taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. This is Peel regions 15th homicide of the year.

The other males, a 33-year-old and an 18-year-old, suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

Const. Harinder Sohi said there is no information on the circumstances of the fight.

Police are still looking for a group of about three to five men.

Investigators from the homicide-and-missing-persons bureau are looking to speak to anyone who was in the area at the time of the incident. They are also asking the public for any surveillance video or dash-cam video.

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Hundreds of police and community members gave a standing ovation to Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders and his wife, Stacey Saunders, Thursday evening at the annual Chiefs Gala in support of Victim Services Toronto.

The fundraiser was the couples first public appearance since his Oct. 2 transplant, when Saunders received a kidney donated by his wife.

The chief addressed the crowd at the end of the evening, thanking Victim Services, the organizers, sponsors, his force, and my lovely wife for giving me a kidney.

Saunders said Stacey has always been my rock to CTV news prior to the surgery, at which time she said I was so happy to be his donor, I did put my hand up right away.

Mayor John Tory told reporters before the dinner Thursday that he was so thrilled to see (Saunders) back, and called him a man of complete integrity.

The courage he had, and his wife Stacey, to go through major surgery . . . and be back looking fit as a fiddle I think is fantastic for them both, Tory said.

The mayor said he was looking forward to seeing Saunders back in his role very soon.

The chief spent the early part of the evening mingling with guests, stopping to pose with the Victim Services Toronto Trauma dog, Dandy, and community members.

Victim Services case co-ordinator Ambreen Akbar spoke on behalf of the organization, and as someone who benefited from their services earlier in her life after she experienced domestic violence.

I lived in fear of losing my life or one of my childrens lives, Akbar said. I am alive, here in front of you, because of Victim Services Toronto.

Saunders said the reason he wanted this event to be his first appearance back was because he truly believes in the work Victim Services does.

There is no bravado in helping people, he said. Its about making us community-centred again . . . (Akbars) speech really resonated.

The Chiefs Gala has raised $1.5 million since 2008.

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The 30 ducks found dead at Woodbine Beach earlier this month likely died of Type E botulism, the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative reports.

On Nov. 5, the 30 ducks and one heron found dead on Woodbine Beach led the city to warn dog owners to keep their pets leashed at the park.

In an emailed statement, Toronto Animal Services said the risk to humans or dogs at Woodbine Beach is low, but it is recommended that people do not handle dead birds and dogs be monitored at all times.

Type E botulism is a type of food poisoning that occurs when animals ingest toxin, the statement said.

There are eight different strains of C. botulinum, each associated with different ecological circumstances. Type E is a strain closely associated with freshwater and marine environments, and has been a cause of death primarily in fish-eating birds.

Doug Campbell, pathologist at the CWHC, told the Star earlier this month that the wildlifes cause of death was likely botulism.

We see Type E botulism on the Lower Great Lakes most years, Campbell said. And typically, it occurs from late summer through the fall, and often the biggest die-offs occur during the late fall.

Campbell said that since 1998, botulism has been pretty much an annual occurrence on the Lower Great Lakes, in one place or another.

He added that there have been multiple bird deaths from botulism in recent years between Toronto and Prince Edward County.

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In the wake of the longest labour disruption Ontario colleges have ever seen, thousands of students paying some of the highest tuition fees in the province are finding themselves hard-pressed to get full value.

International students are facing a choice between continuing their studies on condensed schedules with the option to apply for $500 in hardship relief, or withdrawing for a refund and potentially jeopardizing their study permits and future immigration prospects.

You came, you made a long-term plan, you forecast your expenses and your time. I think the international students are the ones who are most affected, said Silvia Sansoni, a Humber College student from Brazil.

Classes resumed Tuesday for 500,000 students after a five-week labour dispute between college instructors and their employers. Upon their return, all students were given revised class schedules, and two options: stay in class with the option to apply for $500 in hardship compensation from the college, or withdraw for a full refund and start the semester over again at a later date.

Some domestic students were eager to accept one of the two options and move on after the long disruption. But for those who came from other countries to study, often paying several times the domestic tuition rate to do so, the options may seem meagre at best.

Sansoni, who studies alternative dispute resolution at Humber College, enrolled in the two-semester program at a rate of about $7,800 per semester, almost triple the rate domestic students pay for the same program.

I really support the desire of the professors and the faculty, she said, but students are paying the price, especially international students.

Sansoni said she appreciates that Humber College is offering to try to compensate students for the lost time, but she thinks $500 is not sufficient given the high rate she paid.

They are compressing some weeks and I didnt pay for compressed weeks, she said.

Meanwhile, the option to withdraw may not be available to international students because study permits require them to be enrolled in school full-time to stay in Canada.

Some international students at Humber were taken aback after receiving an email that advised them to leave Canada should they take the option to withdraw.

We appreciate this concern being raised and regret any confusion the language may have caused our international students, said college spokesperson Andrew Leopold.

He said the emails were meant to help international students understand what their options were, and that all students considering withdrawal due to the strike should speak with an adviser before doing so.

A followup email Thursday from Humbers international dean, Andrew Ness, reiterated that the school hopes students will choose to remain enrolled, and that they should seek advice about their study permits.

It is important that you speak with one of the trained and certified professionals in the International Centre regarding the implications of withdrawal on your study permit, residency in Canada and future aspirations to stay and work in Canada, Ness wrote.

Immigration lawyer Sergio Karas said even though the circumstances following a five-week strike might be difficult for international students, the advice he would give them is clear.

If an international student came to see me, I would advise them to remain a full-time student  dont withdraw, Karas said. In terms of immigration its very, very important for students not to withdraw from their program.

Of course it goes without saying that perhaps students will be disappointed with the lack of quality of their studies. Thats a different story, he said.

Karas said the Immigration Department could implement a blanket policy to accommodate international students affected by the strike, but he said he has not heard of such a measure being taken in the past.

Sansoni said the strike has had a huge impact on her. I cannot just withdraw and come back, she said.

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Parents with children in licensed child care will be shielded from fee increases when Ontarios minimum wage rises to $14 in January, the Star has learned.

In a letter to municipalities last week, education ministry officials confirmed $12.7 million in new funding will be available to help licensed child-care centres and home child-care agencies cover added costs related to the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act.

It means daycares wont have to pass on those costs to parents and risk further destabilizing cash-strapped programs.

The new workplace law, passed this week, will boost the minimum wage from $11.60 to $14 on Jan. 1, and to $15 the following year. It will also provide two paid, job-protected sick days for all workers and increase holiday entitlement, among other improvements.

We know there are going to be increasing operating pressures on child-care operators, said Indira Naidoo-Harris, the minister responsible for child care who last summer vowed to transform the system by making it more affordable and accessible for parents.

We recognize (new workplace legislation) could lead to increases in fees, she said in an interview. We want to put in place some pieces that will support improving wages, affordability and address those potential fee increases.

The funding will help support workers in licensed child-care programs currently making less than $14 an hour, Naidoo-Harris said. It is in addition to the $2-per-hour wage-enhancement grant and home child-care grant and will be available to all licensed child-care operators and licensed home child-care agencies, she added.

This fund is totally necessary, said Lyndsay Macdonald of the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario. We dont want to see centres close and we dont want to see parent fees go even higher.

Almost one-quarter of registered early childhood educators working in licensed daycares currently earn less than $15 an hour, she noted.

Parent fees in Ontario are among the highest in the country with median monthly fees in Toronto topping $1,649 for infants, $1,375 for toddlers and $1,150 for preschoolers.

Its good use of public funds. And it signals the current government is very committed to their renewed policy framework and to meeting its transformative goals, Macdonald said.

Toronto parent and early childhood educator Munizah Salman also welcomed the new provincial cash.

Parents cant afford higher fees, she said. So this is good for parents.

Salman, who is studying for a Masters degree in early childhood, said the increased minimum wage is also a boon to child-care workers.

Earlier this week, parents rallied at Queens Park to demand a $10 cap on daily daycare fees. Advocacy group ACORN Canada, which organized the protest, says affordable child care is key to reducing poverty in Ontario.

Other caring fields dominated by low-wage female workers have not received the same financial help from Queens Park.

Cathy Taylor of the Ontario Non-profit Network, said her group supports the new legislation and the decent work practices it embraces.

But the sector, which employs more than one million people and forms the backbone of the provinces social infrastructure, is concerned about the economic impact of implementing the changes at a time when many agencies have had budgets flat-lined for more than a decade, she said.

In his recent economic update, Finance Minister Charles Sousas committed to work with those in the broader public sector and the not-for-profit sector, to help ensure they successfully manage the transition.

However Taylor said she has yet to see any action.

We are counting on our funders and on government to think about how they can support those costs, she said.

Individuals with developmental disabilities and their families who receive provincial funding to hire support workers to provide respite or accompany loved ones to community activities are also looking for help from Queens Park.

Families who hire workers at the minimum wage will be required to pay them $14 per hour come Jan. 1, noted Chris Beesley, of Community Living Ontario, which helps more than 12,000 individuals and their families.

There will be a jarring realization for many parents who are already in crisis and who rely on government funding, he said.

In a few weeks time, they will see a 25 per cent reduction in the number of hours of support for their sons and daughters due to the increases to minimum wage, public holiday and vacation pay, and other changes they may not be aware of, Beesley said in a statement.

About 3 per cent of staff working for developmental service agencies make below $15 an hour, according to the ministry of community and social services.

We appreciate that (the legislations) significant benefits are also not without some associated costs, said ministry spokesman Graeme Dempster.

We are committed to working with our delivery partners and families to help ensure they successfully manage the transition, he added.

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Sushmita Sen and rumoured boyfriend Ritik Bhasin have broken up after dating for four years.

By India Today Web Desk: Sushmita Sen's love life is once again in headlines, courtesy her break-up. The 42-year-old actor, who was rumoured to be dating restaurateur boyfriend Ritik Bhasin, has called it quits. According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, Sushmita and Ritik, who dated for almost four years, are no more together.

The report suggests that two years ago, there were rumours of the two tying the knot and buying a house together. But if their friends are to be believed, the ex-lovers haven't met each other in the last six months.

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Though the two have had lovers tiff in the past, but this is the longest time that they not spoken to each other.

The report states that their friends added that the two have met once or twice but only as friends, and doubt that they will reconcile as lovers.

However, it was in September this year that Sushmita posted a few cryptic posts of social media which made many believe that she has found new love.

On professional front, Sushmita was last seen on the big screen in 2010 in No Problem.

ALSO WATCH | Sushmita Sen gets candid about marriage

--- ENDS ---
WASHINGTONLawyers for Michael Flynn, President Donald Trumps former national security adviser, notified the presidents legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the special counsels investigation, according to four people involved in the case, an indication that Flynn is co-operating with prosecutors or negotiating a deal.

Flynns lawyers had been sharing information with Trumps lawyers about the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is examining whether anyone around Trump was involved in Russian efforts to undermine Hillary Clintons presidential campaign.

That agreement has been terminated, the four people said. Defence lawyers frequently share information during investigations, but they must stop when doing so would pose a conflict of interest. It is unethical for lawyers to work together when one client is co-operating with prosecutors and another is still under investigation.

The notification alone does not prove that Flynn is co-operating with Mueller. Some lawyers withdraw from information-sharing arrangements as soon as they begin negotiating with prosecutors. And such negotiations sometimes fall apart.

Still, the notification led Trumps lawyers to believe that Flynn  who, along with his son, is seen as having significant criminal exposure  has, at the least, begun discussions with Mueller about co-operating.

Lawyers for Flynn and Trump declined to comment. The four people briefed on the matter spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

A deal with Flynn would give Mueller a behind-the-scenes look at the Trump campaign and the early weeks of the administration. Flynn was an early and important adviser to Trump, an architect of Trumps populist America first platform and an advocate of closer ties with Russia.

His ties to Russia predated the campaign  he sat with President Vladimir Putin at a 2015 event in Moscow  and he was a point person on the transition team for dealing with Russia.

The White House had been bracing for charges against Flynn in recent weeks, particularly after charges were filed against three other former Trump associates: Paul Manafort, his campaign chairman; Rick Gates, a campaign aide; and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser.

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PARISPolice in five African countries arrested 40 suspected human traffickers and rescued hundreds of victims  including 236 minors  in an exceptionally large-scale Interpol-led operation.

Unusually, most of the suspects are women.

The traffickers lured vulnerable girls and young women into prostitution networks. Other victims were impoverished children whose parents handed them over to people promising them a better life. Instead, they were forced to beg in the streets and deprived of food or clean water or otherwise abused if they didnt bring in enough money, Interpol said.

When they were rescued, some hadnt taken a shower for two months, Interpol criminal intelligence officer Innocentia Apovo, who co-ordinated the operation, told The Associated Press.

The suspected traffickers had little to no regard for working conditions or human life, France-based Interpol said in a statement.

The police operation Nov. 6-10 was carried out simultaneously in Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.

The victims came from several countries around Africa. The traffickers were from the five countries targeted in the police operation plus Nigeria.

The 40 suspects will face prosecution in the countries where they were arrested, on charges including human trafficking, forced labour and child exploitation.

Aid groups and the International Organization for Migration are working to care for the victims.

One was a 16-year old Nigerian girl seeking work to earn money to care for her family. She was taken on by a sponsor in Mali who then forced her into prostitution to reimburse her travel costs, Interpol said.

Seven Nigerian girls saved from traffickers in Mali begged to be sent home after their rescue.

They didnt want to spend a single day further in Mali, given the ordeal they suffered, Apovo said.

The operation was part of the German government-funded Sahel Project, which targets human trafficking in the region.

Interpol said officials from across the region met after the operation to discuss next steps for the victims and cross-border efforts against trafficking.

The operation allowed police to identify other possible suspects involved in trafficking networks.

I think they are not far, and we will get to them too, Apovo said.

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WHITEHALL, N.Y.Authorities say an 8-year-old child is hospitalized with serious injuries after a car crashed as the child steered the vehicle while sitting on a New York mans lap.

State police say 36-year-old Brett Reynolds, of Whitehall, took his mothers car late Tuesday and allowed the child to steer while Reynolds worked the pedals.

Troopers say the child suffered a fractured arm and rib, a punctured lung and head injuries when the car hit an embankment and then a tree.

Police say Reynolds left the child crying outside of a home before fleeing the scene. Troopers arent releasing the childs relationship to Reynolds.

Reynolds was arrested the next day at a hospital where he was being treated.

Hes being held in jail without bail. Prosecutors dont know if he has a lawyer.

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LAHORE, PAKISTANPakistani authorities acting on a court order released a U.S.-wanted militant Friday who allegedly founded a banned group linked to the 2008 Mumbai, India attack that killed 168 people, his spokesperson and officials said.

Hafiz Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department and has a $10 million bounty on his head, was released before dawn after the court this week ended his detention in the eastern city of Lahore.

The move outraged the U.S. and Indian authorities, but Saeeds spokesperson Yahya Mujahid confirmed his release, calling it a victory of truth.

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Hafiz Saeed was under house arrest on baseless allegations and jail officials came to his home last night and told him that he is now free, he said.

Saeed ran the Jamaat-ud-Dawa organization, widely believed to be a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, which India believes was behind the deadly attack in Mumbai.

As expected, the U.S. State Department expressed deep concern over Saeeds release from house arrest.

In a statement, the State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said the Lashkar-e-Taiba group was a designated foreign terrorist organization responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens.

The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes, she said.

Pakistan has been detaining and freeing Saeed off and on since the attack and he and four of his aides were put under house arrest in Lahore in January under a vague law known as Maintenance of Public Order. His release came after a three-judge panel dismissed the governments plea to continue his house arrest, which ended Thursday. His aides had been released earlier.

Saeed is known for publicly supporting militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, which is split between Pakistan and India and is claimed by both. Many in the Indian-controlled portion favour independence or a merger with Pakistan and violence has increased in Indian-controlled Kashmir in recent years.

In recent years Saeed often addressed protest rallies, asking the world community to pressure India to give the right of self-determination to the people in Kashmir.

Hours after his release, he addressed a congregation of thousands of followers at a sprawling mosque in Lahore and asked Islamabad not to hold talks with India unless New Delhi agrees to a troop withdrawal from Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Saeed said he was detained for highlighting the Indian atrocities in Kashmir, but Pakistans independent judiciary freed him because allegations against him were baseless.

I am not struggling for any personal gains. My struggle is aimed at safeguarding the interests of Pakistan. I want Kashmirs freedom from India and this is my crime. I was arrested for it, he told worshippers, who chanted God is Great.

In an emotional speech, Saeed said Pakistans former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted from power for his betrayal of the Kashmiri people. He did not explain, but Sharif was removed from office in July for alleged corruption.

Earlier, supporters welcome Saeed on his arrival at the mosque by showering him with rose petals.

Saeeds release angered neighbouring India, which for years has asked Pakistan to take action against all those linked to the Mumbai attack. It is widely believed that Pakistan has long tolerated banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and other Islamic militant groups.

Indias External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar in a statement expressed outrage that a self-confessed and UN proscribed terrorist was being allowed to walk free and continue with his evil agenda.

He was not only the Mastermind, he was the prime organizer of the Mumbai Terror Attacks in which many innocent Indians and many people from other nationalities were killed, the statement said.

Kumar said Saeeds release confirms once again the lack of seriousness on the part of Pakistani government in bringing to justice perpetrators of heinous acts of terrorism.

India has said it has evidence that Saeed was involved in the Mumbai attack, but Islamabad has long said sufficient evidence is not available to charge him. India claims the attackers were in contact with people in Pakistan when the assault was underway.

Relations between Pakistan and India were strained after the attack on Indias financial hub. Indian authorities detained one of the assailants, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, who was sentenced to death and later hanged in the city of Pune in India. While in custody, Kasab confessed that Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the attack, which shocked the international community.

Kasab was the only surviving gunman from the co-ordinated three-day attack, which targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre, a tourist restaurant and a crowded train station. Nine other gunmen were killed during the siege.

India has said the attackers entered Mumbai by boat carrying cellphones, grenades and automatic weapons. The attack was broadcast live on television.

Pakistan often says India is violating human rights in Kashmir, where security forces have killed or wounded dozens of protesters at anti-India rallies in recent months.

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LONDONDuring a fretful hour Friday afternoon, Londoners braced for confirmation of yet another attack, something that has become familiar in the British capital this year. Amid rumors of gunshots, shoppers fled down Oxford Street, one of the busiest retail districts in the world on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

In the end, it appeared to be a false alarm. Londons Metropolitan Police said they could not find evidence of shots fired or casualties.

The police said that at 4:38 p.m., they received several calls reporting gunshots in the area.

Given the nature of the info received we responded as if the incident was terrorism, the police said in a tweet. Armed officers poured into the crowded Oxford St. area in the heart of London and ordered people to take shelter.

The scenes in the ensuing hour were ones of panic. Video from Oxford Circus uploaded to social media showed pedestrians fleeing the area as armed police officers arrived. Many people jumped on Twitter and other social media sites to say that they were holed up in nearby department stores and offices.

Emily Hooper, 39, was one of hundreds of people who work in the area whose offices were in lockdown as police scrambled to figure out what was happening.

We heard so many different stories  its quite frustrating, she said minutes after she was let out of her building. She said there were rumours of gunshots and of a truck mowing down pedestrians. Its just madness that people say that kind of stuff when its not actually happening. It fuels the frenzy and fear and stampede that follows.

After a little more than an hour of instructing Londoners to stay inside, police gave an all-clear signal.

Several attacks this year have put Englands capital city on edge. In September, a homemade bomb was detonated on a subway car at the Parsons Green station, injuring nearly 30 commuters. Three vehicle attacks, one in March and two in June, left 12 people dead and dozens others wounded.

Minutes after the police lifted the cordon around Oxford St., normal life resumed. The parked double-decker buses started up their engines. Some storekeepers opened their shops. Thousands of people carrying shopping bags flooded back into the area to seek out Black Friday sales.

But there were still signs of the panic that gripped the area earlier. At H&M, for instance, the doors remained locked as staff swept up broken glass that covered the floor. Another store also remained closed as staff cleaned up plant vases that had been smashed. Outside, a pair of shoes was abandoned on the sidewalk.

Hopper acknowledged that the city felt jittery even before the incident Friday. But at the end of the day, she said, Londoners just get on with daily life: You just have to keep carrying on. You cant not live.

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Argentina is continuing its search for a submarine that has been missing for nine days as relatives of the missing sailors fear the worst.

In the clearest sign of what may have happened to the ARA San Juan, which vanished a week ago off the coast of Patagonia, officials said a sound detected near the last known location of the submarine carrying 44 crew members is believed to have come from an explosion.

Enrique Balbi, spokesman for the Argentine navy, told reporters at a news conference Thursday that officials have found evidence showing that the abnormal sound, which was detected about 50 kilometres north of the submarines last-known location, was singular, short, violent and non-nuclear and consistent with an explosion, the Associated Press reported.

Balbi also said that officials do not know what caused the suspected explosion and that there is no evidence the vessel was attacked.

If the vessel remained intact, its crew would have only enough oxygen to survive submerged for a little more than a week. The submarine was supposed to arrive Monday at the Mar del Plata naval base, about 400 kilometres southeast of Buenos Aires.

Some family members of the lost sailors have already begun mourning.

At this point, the truth is I have no hope that they will come back, Maria Villareal, mother of one crew member, told local television on Friday morning, according to Reuters.

Itati Leguizamon, whose husband is among the missing, told reporters, They did not tell us they were dead, but that is the logical conclusion.

The United States, Britain, Brazil and Chile have sent teams of searchers to try to locate the vessel. The U.S. navy has put more advanced resources into the Atlantic Ocean, including two unmanned underwater vehicles that use side-scan sonar to create images of large areas of the sea floor.

But the search has been stymied by six-metre waves and winds near 80 km/h, according to NPR.

Balbi told reporters Thursday that six teams were continuing to look for the missing submarine near the San Jorge Gulf, about 430 kilometres from the Argentine coast, CNN reported.

Earlier, officials were working to determine whether phone calls recorded from the area near the San Juans last known location may have come from the vessel, the New York Times reported. But the Argentine defence minister later said the calls did not come from the submarine.

Argentine officials first learned about the noise Wednesday, Balbi told reporters. Argentine navy ships and aircraft from the United States and Brazil were then sent to check out the sound.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, based in Vienna, also said Thursday that two of its hydroacoustic stations detected an unusual signal near the submarines last known location.

The signal was detected at 1:51 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (8:51 a.m. Eastern) on Nov. 15, when Argentine officials lost contact with the San Juan, the organization said.

Hydroacoustic stations are part of the organizations monitoring system that keeps track of signs of nuclear explosions around the globe.

The news of a possible explosion drove some family members at the base to tears, according to the AP. Photos show relatives of crew members hugging and consoling each other. Some can be seen collapsing to the ground.

Others responded with anger.

They sent a piece of crap to sail, Leguizamon, the wife of submarine crew member German Suarez, told the AP. They inaugurated a submarine with a coat of paint and a flag in 2014, but without any equipment inside. The navy is to blame for its 15 years of abandonment.

The German-built diesel-electric submarine joined the Argentine navy fleet in 1985 and was upgraded a few years ago.

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WASHINGTONThe juiciest possible meaning of a decision by Michael Flynns legal team to cut off communication with President Trumps team is that Flynn, the former White House national security adviser, is about to roll over and provide incriminating information about Trump or members of his inner circle to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that the notification led Mr. Trumps lawyers to believe that Mr. Flynn  who, along with his son, is seen as having significant criminal exposure  has, at the least, begun discussions with Mr. Mueller about co-operating. Thats a logical conclusion because, as the Timess Michael S. Schmidt, Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman explained, it is unethical for lawyers to work together when one client is co-operating with prosecutors and another is still under investigation.

Norman Eisen  president Barack Obamas White House ethics czar, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution  tweeted that personal experience with Mueller leads him to believe that Flynn could implicate Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner or even the president himself.

Trump should be nervous, but he need not hit the panic button yet. Heres why:

As The Washington Posts Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman pointed out in their report on Flynns move, even if Flynn has begun discussions with Muellers office, there is no guarantee he will ultimately reach a deal with prosecutors. Mueller might demand more information than Flynn is willing to give or Flynns knowledge might prove unworthy of favourable treatment by Mueller. Its hard to know whether a deal involving Flynn could hurt Trump when we dont know whether there will be a deal at all.

Could Flynn merely offer incriminating information about himself, in an effort to protect his son? Not likely, said Jeffrey S. Jacobovitz, a partner at Arnall Golden Gregory in Washington who specializes in white-collar criminal defence.

I dont think Mueller would offer him a deal, if that were the case, Jacobovitz told me. I think it would have to be some higher-ups that Flynn would be able to provide information about.

Someone higher up does not necessarily mean the president or a member of his family, however. An alternative target: Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, against whom Mueller already has secured an indictment.

Just six days into his presidency, Donald Trump was informed his national security adviser had misled his vice-president about contacts with Russia. Michael Flynn resigned as Trump's National Security Adviser on February 13.

That would be valuable because Manafort, at this point, is still going to trial, Jacobovitz said, adding that Mueller would take all the help he can get in that case.

Trump has effectively turned his back on Manafort. On the day Mueller announced charges against the man who once headed Trumps campaign, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that the indictment has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the presidents campaign or campaign activity.

Dont expect the president to feel too bad if the result of Flynns possible co-operation with Mueller is more trouble for Manafort.

It also is possible that Flynn could spill damaging information about Trump that is unrelated to collusion with Russia.

It could be related to obstruction, Jacobovitz told me, pointing to James B. Comeys claim that Trump asked the then-director of the FBI to drop its investigation of Flynn.

That would be bad for the president, but it would not indicate that his campaign aided Russias effort to meddle in the presidential election. It would not, in other words, undermine the validity of Trumps victory, which seems to be Trumps primary concern about Muellers probe.

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As dogs lunged at children and fire hoses knocked protesters to the pavement in the 1963 battle for civil rights, the Birmingham News splashed a plea to President John F. Kennedy across its front page:

Dear Mr. President: Negroes are gathered, are excited by speeches, and then are sent boldly into the streets where they openly taunt police and provoke not only the white community but the very law itself . . . we ask you to . . . end this open law violation and provocation.

In an American city with apartheid laws, Alabamas biggest news organization stood on the wrong side of history.

Today, were the states largest media company, reaching more than 10 million people a month through our website and social media. We still publish the Birmingham News, and papers in Mobile and Huntsville, the states three largest. We can no longer stand quietly in the face of ongoing efforts to divide Alabamians, by those who want to control or punish us for our bodies, how we worship, who we marry, where we were born. We cant be silent as a man who preyed upon children seeks election to the United States Senate.

Roy Moore was unqualified for the Senate before we learned he had undressed and groped a girl of 14, before a long line of women told their stories of abuse at his hands. He has said Muslims shouldnt hold elected office, gay love should be illegal, 9/11 might have been punishment for America straying from God. He has been removed from the bench for defying the law. Twice.

This week he boasted that his followers stand up for their rights as Alabamians did in the Civil War. (That war about the rights of what was then half the states population  Alabama didnt stand up for them, it enslaved them.)

Last Sunday, we stripped another editorial across our front pages: STAND FOR DECENCY, REJECT ROY MOORE.

We wrote: This election is a turning point for women in Alabama. A chance to make their voices heard in a state that has silenced them for too long.

Every day, new allegations arise that illustrate a pattern of a man in his 30s strutting through town like the cock of the walk . . . preying on young women and girls. A vote for Roy Moore sends the worst kind of message to Alabamians struggling with abuse: If you ever do tell your story, Alabama wont believe you. Or worse, well believe you, but we just wont care.

We have been asked how difficult it is to take this position in a conservative state, where almost two-thirds voted for Donald Trump (with his own long record of abuse of women.) Its not difficult. We dont decide right and wrong based on elections or polls. We will not be on the wrong side this time.

We have faced rancor from the right (and left) on other stories this year. We led in reporting misconduct of Gov. Robert Bentley, who resigned in disgrace in April. We led the charge against Bentleys appointment to the Senate of Luther Strange, the attorney general who was supposed to investigate Bentley (ironically, thats why there is a Dec. 12 special election, with Moore having defeated Strange in the Republican primary.) We led in reporting events that saw the former Speaker of the legislature convicted, and a Birmingham member of the legislature, too.

It would be easy to focus only on divisiveness. But were committed to building bridges, too. In a months-long project, we brought together 25 female Alabama Trump voters with 25 Hillary Clinton voters from the San Francisco area for a private Facebook conversation. It showed that people can have civil conversations across big divisions of culture and geography.

Those womens cross-country relationships remain alive; they have created their own online space, full of dialogue and debate, frustration and respect. Were collaborating with Politifact on fact-checking this campaign, with special emphasis on conservative news consumers.

Roy Moores camp has told the media, Yall can quit asking questions now, we arent going to answer. We will keep asking. Our job is to reflect the truth in Alabama  for Alabamians and people across the world who rely on an independent free press to stand for freedom in threatening times.

Michelle Holmes is vice-president, content, Alabama Media Group.

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At what point do measures to protect a democratic institution undermine its very purpose as a place for public gatherings, open government and active participation in debates?

Thats the thorny question that will be before Mayor John Torys executive committee next week as it debates a mostly secret report on increasing security measures at Toronto city hall.

The mayor and councillors must ensure they strike the right balance between security and open access as they consider the proposals from Toronto Police and Public Safety Canada. They should resist the temptation to go overboard and barricade what is now a welcoming, bustling building that by its very nature encourages democratic participation.

Still, councillors must also face reality. The report warns that city hall is a target for serious threats from lone wolf terrorists, organized terror groups, and other individuals with grievances.

Right now the building could certainly be perceived as vulnerable. Visitors are free to roam the atrium and offices that serve the public while those who want to watch committee meetings are not screened. Only those who want to enter the council chamber must open their bags for inspection.

Indeed, the only visible changes to security since the 2014 attack on Parliament Hill is that additional contracted security officers watch over secondary doors now restricted to city staff and others with access passes.

That would change dramatically if council adopts all the recommendations in the report.

First, visitors would be screened by metal detectors and their bags would be inspected.

Second, Nathan Phillips Square would be protected from vehicle attacks, like those that have become all too common in Europe, with new barriers.

And, most controversially, the report recommends that the waist-high glass wall that separates the public gallery from councillors seats should be made up to 30 centimetres taller.

That would be a step too far. There is no such barrier separating the public from politicians in either the House of Commons or the provincial legislature. Citizens who simply want to see their representatives in action shouldnt be walled off from them (especially if theyve already been checked before they go into the chamber.)

Happily, the recommendations are already stirring heated debate at city hall  as they should.

Some, like councillor Jim Karygiannis, worry that things are now too open. Were sitting ducks, he says. Others, including councillor Gord Perks, understandably fear limiting access by the public. The accessibility of city hall should be the same as the accessibility of the sidewalk, he argues.

Its all very well to make that type of argument; in an ideal world city hall would have no more security than your own home. But it would take just one bad incident to make that position look ridiculous. City hall should take sensible precautions.

Toronto wont be alone if it does adopt enhanced security measures. Edmonton city hall, for example, has metal detectors and bag searches for people attending both committee and council meetings, as well as a glass partition between visitors and councillors.

In these troubled times its tempting to double-down on security precautions  just in case. But that urge must be measured against the imperative of making sure city hall remains open and accessible. The public should never feel intimidated or unwanted.

Its a fine balance. For the sake of democracy, council must find it.

Correction  November 24, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Mayor John Torys office supports the recommendations of the report by Toronto Police and Public Safety Canada. In fact, the mayors office has not said he will support all the recommendations, but wants to hear from the public on the issue.

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Enter the Crocodile. Nov. 22

I certainly hope that Zimbabwes new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has softened over the decades. In January 1983, I was teaching at the Medical School in Harare when the Zimbabwe armys notorious 5th Brigade swept through Matabeleland, slaughtering as they went. In addition to simply shooting Ndebele at random, they were also known to lock them up in buildings and then set fire to them.

I am not certain whether the term Gukurahundi (rain that sweeps everything before it) referred to the 5th Brigade or to the murderous operation they mounted against the Ndebele. Either way, about 20,000 people were killed largely because they had supported Joshua Nkomo for president.

Mnangagwa was the minister of state security at the time. Did he order the slaughter himself? Was he forced to do it by Mugabe? Either way, his inability or unwillingness to prevent it doesnt bode well for Zimbabwes future.

Of course nobody can know whether Nkomo would have delivered better government to Zimbabwe than Mugabes sorry performance. But I have four banknotes in denominations from Z$200million to Z$5billion that offer mute testament to the pain of Zimbabwes people. I purchased them in a Victoria Falls street market on a visit five years ago. I paid $5 (U.S.)  far more than they were worth.

Peter Bursztyn, Barrie, Ont.

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Uma Thurman took to Instagram and posted a chilling message for Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of assaulting over 80 actresses.

By India Today Web Desk: Uma Thurman took a swipe at Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexually harassing over 80 actresses, including Angelina Jolie, Lena Headey, Ashley Judd, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Following these allegations, a campaign called #metoo took off, where women all over the world came forward and shared their stories of sexual harassment.

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The actress took to Instagram, and expressed her thoughts in a Thanksgiving wish, along with a still from her film Kill Bill, which had been produced by Harvey Weinstein.

She captioned the photo, "I am grateful today, to be alive, for all those I love, and for all those who have the courage to stand up for others. I said I was angry recently, and I have a few reasons, #metoo, in case you couldn't tell by the look on my face. I feel it's important to take your time, be fair, be exact, so... Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators - I'm glad it's going slowly - you don't deserve a bullet) -stay tuned Uma Thurman." (sic).

Uma has worked several times with Weinstein, including on her Oscar-nominated breakout role in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction.

ALSO WATCH: Harvey Weinstein to Kevin Spacey, Hollwyood's dirty secret is exposed

--- ENDS ---
Destroy these letters.

But she didnt.

And mere days after police executed a search warrant at the Etobicoke home of Christina Noudga, retrieving 65 letters  from inside the night table drawer and on top of the bedroom desk  Dellen Millard was charged with murdering 23-year-old Laura Babcock.

Letters from Dellen. Part billet-doux and part instruction, the correspondence  specifically, seven of the missives  was filed in court on Thursday, the concluding act of the prosecution evidence against Millard and co-defendant Mark Smich. At precisely 12:57 p.m., Jill Cameron closed the Crown case.

So far Ive done what I can to separate you from this mess, wrote Millard. But it is a very real possibility that you will be called as a witness. Whatever you may believe, it needs to be put aside. This is what happened.

The night Laura disappeared, I came over to your place early in the morning. I did not text or call, it was a surprise.

Tapped on her window, he says, and took Noudga back to his Maple Gate Court residence.

I told you Laura was over, doing coke with Mark in the basement. We went to say goodnight. You saw her alive, with Mark, and there was coke on the bar. (Maybe they were getting ready to leave, to go somewhere else, to get more.) You and I dont like coke. We went back to my room. We vaporized. We f---ed. We took a bath. We slept a little.

I drove you home, early in the morning. We did not go to see if they were still over. Later, when she was reported missing, you asked me if I knew anything. I told you that Mark had told me that she had ODd. Probably from mixing her prescriptions with Marks coke.

Smich, Millard continued, couldnt report the death to police because he might be charged with trafficking or worse. And Millard said he agreed to stay quiet in exchange for Smichs promise that he would cease selling cocaine.

In the past five weeks, the jury has seen hundreds of texts retrieved from Millards phone and computer, documenting the day-to-day melodramas swirling around all the principle players and their coterie of friends, acquaintances and hangers-on.

Babcock, who was last seen alive around Canada Day, 2012, had been leading a peripatetic existence, couch-surfing for months after leaving her parents house, sick to death of what she considered their unreasonable restrictions. Shed recently begun working for an escort agency. But for nearly a year previous to vanishing, Babcock had been struggling with undefined  or at least contradicting  mental illness diagnoses.

In the distant past, Millard and Babcock had briefly dated. In the recent past, they had purportedly hooked up again, though Millard was by then romantically involved with Noudga.

Provoked by a nasty email from Noudga, Babcock had boasted to the woman about continuing to have sex with Millard. It was this development, the prosecution maintains, which triggered murder  Millard allegedly determining he had to rid himself and Noudga of the thorn in their side.

Court has heard Babcock was killed on July 3-4, her body cremated in an animal carcass incinerator July 23. Her remains have never been found.

The search of Noudgas house  so cluttered and messy it looks, in police photos, as if the place had been ransacked before the cops got there  was conducted April 10, 2014.

In his own written exposition of events, Millard tells Noudga that he supported Smich financially, treated him like a brother . . . protected him.

Adding, in the postscript: Reread this a couple of times then DESTROY IT IMMEDIATELY.

Millard, scion of a wealthy aviation industry family, is defending himself at trial. He has repeatedly portrayed himself as an unfaithful heel, untroubled by hostility between girlfriend past and girlfriend then-present. The clear implication is that there was no motive to murder Babcock. Further, later texts from Millard to other friends suggest he had cooled to Noudga anyway.

Though he certainly sounds full of ardour still when these letters were written.

Hello my love. More than any thought I most want to express how much I feel in love with you. Before we met, I had had repeated and powerful negative experiences with romance . . . In an emotional, metaphorical sense, I was mangled and full of shrapnel. The flesh of my bleeding heart grew back. I have a fabulous ability to heal. But the shrapnel remained. Ive resisted loving you, because I was scared of being injured again. I was scared, because I was still full of grenade shard. Despite my resistance, despite emotional shrapnel, I still fell in love with you. Im a little ashamed to admit it. Loving you was scary. (But worth it!)

Some of the more erotic passages  sexual fantasies as Cameron described them  were blacked out before the letters were formally entered as evidence.

The author asks Noudga for feedback and to suggest revisions.

Were dealing with a lay charges first, investigate later police force. Only the craftiest of coyotes will be able to avoid charges like perjury.

Whats starkly evident is that Millard was pulling Noudga into his web as an ally.

You said you wanted to be a secret agent. Be mine? Life has a funny way of giving us exactly what we wish for. Heres your chance to be a covert operative.

Help could be testimony. Help could be other things . . . like secretly delivering a message . . . just staying quiet has been an immense help already.

Noudga was not called as a witness by the Crown. It is unclear whether she will be summoned by the defence, or if any defence will be put forward at all. Neither Millard nor Smich are compelled to testify on their own behalf.

On the final day of the Crowns case, following more than two hours of legal arguments, the jurors filed back into the courtroom, probably surprised to see Matthew Ward-Jackson back in the witness stand since he appeared to have finished testifying  cross included  on Wednesday.

The heavily tattooed Ward-Jackson  ink stretching across his scalp, neck and cheeks  had told court he sold a gun to Millard in early July, 2012, later pleading guilty to the transaction. His testimony here was confusing and conflicting, claiming first that Millard showed interest in a gun which had come into his, the witnesss, possession, but later stating he figured Millard would want a gun because he was a manly man, interested in cars, girls, maybe firearms.

Ward-Jackson insisted he had no memory of numerous calls and text exchanges with Millard about the weapon, including the text from July 1 in which he described the .32 calibre gun as a really nice nice compact piece.

In his encore appearance, Ward-Jackson  who also goes by the rapper name Ish  was asked only one question by Cameron.

Yesterday you told this jury that prior to June 30, 2012, Mr. Millard had never shown any previous interest in acquiring a firearm from you. Prior to June 30, 2012, had Mr. Millard ever shown an interest in acquiring firearms from you?

Ward-Jackson: Yes, weve had previous discussions.

And then he was gone.

Millard, writing to Nougda in October, 2013:

So until I do hear from you, I am going to continue writing as if your response is a resounding Yes! That you will be my secret agent; effectively my saviour.

On November 14, 2013:

Destroy this letter  to protect me.

But she didnt.

Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

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This week, the government is expected to send Bill C-59, their massive new set of national security reforms, to committee before second reading. This is an unprecedented opportunity to fix Canadas national security framework.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has stated that government has taken this step to allow for a broader scope of discussion and consideration, and possible amendment of the bill in the committee when that deliberation begins. In other words, change is possible. And this is good news, because there are definitely things about C-59 that need to change.

This government campaigned on an election promise to correct the unconstitutional and problematic aspects of Bill C-51, the former governments notorious anti-terrorism bill. As the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and 40 other organizations wrote in an open letter to the government this September, while Bill C-59 fixes certain issues created by C-51, it fails to fix many others and creates a host of new problems. Here are some critical questions we hope parliamentarians and Canadians will ask as this bill undergoes review.

1. Why isnt the no-fly list being fixed?

As it stands, the Passenger Protect Program (a.k.a. the governments secretive no-fly list) is broken and unconstitutional. Its far too easy for innocent people to be placed on the list, its extremely difficult to get off, and proposed redress mechanisms remain both underfunded and inadequate. A flawed system fails to take basic measures to reduce false positives, which arbitrarily impact the rights of both adults and children, rendering its security value questionable. Bill C-59 introduces cosmetic changes, but doesnt solve these larger problems.

2. Why havent the due process flaws in the security certificate process been addressed?

Security certificates are a problematic mechanism that can be used in some circumstances to detain and deport foreign individuals from Canada. In these secretive legal proceedings, named individuals have a right to a special advocate, an independent, security cleared lawyer able to review secret evidence and advocate on their behalf. Bill C-51 exacerbated longstanding issues with the security certificate system by permitting the government to selectively withhold information, even from special advocates. Despite clear direction from the Supreme Court on the need for due process in security certificate proceedings, the lack of full disclosure  and other important civil liberties issues  have not been addressed in Bill C-59. Why not?

3. What is the justification for maintaining controversial threat reduction powers for CSIS?

Bill C-51 had introduced threat reduction (or disruption) powers for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), allowing the spy agency to respond to security threats by engaging in covert measures that may be illegal or even violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms  from impersonating journalists to taking down communications platforms. Not only was this unconstitutional, but it undid the longstanding separation between intelligence and law enforcement, a key distinction introduced in the 1970s to end the serious abuses that took place when these roles were combined. While C-59 may constrain and soften the disruption powers, it fails to address the real question: why does CSIS need this power in the first place?

4. What are the human rights implications of giving the Communications Security Establishment unchecked hacking powers?

Bill C-59 creates a new Act for the CSE, Canadas signals intelligence and cybersecurity agency, and explicitly expands CSEs mandate to include both active and defensive cyber operations. In other words, the bill grants CSE the power to conduct secret, state-sponsored hacking, with few hard limits on how far they can go. As weve seen abroad, these kinds of powers are ripe for abuse, and may provide a green light for spy agencies to interfere with rights-protecting communication technologies. This is a step backwards for security, both at home and abroad. Have we actually thought this through?

5. Why do exceptions allow CSIS and CSE to engage in mass collection of Canadian data?

Canadas intelligence agencies are generally prevented from directing mass data collection activities at Canadians and people in Canada. Yet Bill C-59 creates expansive new frameworks for mass data collection with exceptions that let both CSE and CSIS collect and use information about Canadians and others in Canada as long as that data is publicly available. This sweeping exception includes anything ever published or publicly broadcast, anything that can be accessed by the public, and anything that can be acquired on request, by subscription or by purchase. Such an expansive definition could plausibly include even information purchased on the black market, including data acquired through hacking and breaches. And yet there has been no convincing explanation from government about how this kind of mass collection could ever be necessary or proportionate. With all these activities conducted in secret, how does the government credibly plan to protect our privacy rights?

National security is critical, and there is a great deal at stake. We hope these questions  and many more  will help spark the kind of debate our representatives need to have. This time, we need to get it right on national security.

Brenda McPhail is the director of the Privacy, Technology and Surveillance Project and Lex Gill is the advocate for the National Security Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

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Its goal is to provide all students at the Toronto District School Board with access to the programs and supports they need in order to learn.

But some parents fear the TDSBs enhancing equity task force could do the opposite for pupils who have learning disabilities, are in gifted programs or have special needs.

A draft report from the task force released quietly last month provoked early backlash because of a proposal to phase out arts-based specialty schools and in turn boost arts and other enriched programs throughout the city.

In the last few weeks, recommendations have also raised the hackles of families with children in gifted and other special education programs.

We are shocked by the recommendations, says Shellie Suter, chair of the learning disabilities parent group at Northern Secondary School, one of the citys largest high schools, which has about 400 students in its gifted program and another 400 with learning disabilities.

Those programs have created equity for learning to occur across diverse student populations, says Suter, who has a son in Grade 11.

Parents didnt think the TDSBs push toward more equity would remove it from certain groups of students.

Concerns from Suter and other Northern Secondary parents were among the 5,000 submissions received by the TDSB in the last few weeks about the draft equity report, written by an outside consultant following a year of discussions with students, staff, parents and the community. The goal of the task force is to dismantle barriers for students regardless of race, socio-economic background or special needs and ensure they have equal access to programs. The deadline for online comments was Monday.

A final report that will incorporate the feedback is now in the works and will be presented to trustees on Dec. 13. The board wont start making decisions on whether to adopt it until the new year, when parents will have more opportunities to weigh in.

But in a news release this week, the worried Northern parents said initial proposals discriminate against groups of students with specific learning needs and argue that key elements  from plans to integrate special education students into regular classrooms to ending academic streaming  will do more harm than good and have far-reaching implications.

The concerns, also circulating on social media and in an online petition, prompted the TDSB to publish clarifications on its website after the deadline for public comments.

Among them, the board reiterated TDSB director John Malloys earlier promise that specialty arts-based schools and specialized programs such as the TOPS science program or international baccalaureate will not be closed.

The website also said special education and gifted programs will continue to be offered, and that eliminating the applied stream in Grade 9 would not impact those students, who would receive additional support in academic classes.

In an interview with the Star earlier this month, Malloy stressed the board is committed to offering families choices. That includes a range of options, from integrated classes with extra supports to special education classrooms and schools for parents who feel their children do better in those environments.

We are not interested in an either-or approach, Malloy told the Star. Instead, there has to be both.

The word inclusive, to me, means we are providing the best place possible for the student, he said, along with the opportunity for more students to get what they need from their community schools.

I would like to engage families differently and allow them to have a say in what that is.

The worries expressed by many parents also reflect a larger debate underway as schools across the country move towards an inclusive education model that includes learners of all kinds in regular classrooms.

While plenty of parents and educators agree with the principle of inclusion, many in Toronto and elsewhere complain the reality has been children being integrated into mainstream classes without the resources they need to learn, putting them at risk.

That concern, and suspicion that school boards see inclusive education as a way to cut costs, have made it a hot-button issue.

Malloy says the TDSB has no plans to decrease supports.

No dollars will be taken away from students with special needs based on our trying to be more inclusive, he said. However, it means using our resources differently.

Diana Goldie says she worries the needs of her daughter Elizabeth, in Grade 9 at Northern Secondary, would be lost if she moved to a regular classroom from her small class of 15 students with learning disabilities who get extra support in core subjects.

You cant cookie-cutter our children into learning, she said.

Elizabeth, 14, says shes also apprehensive and uncertain about changes proposed in the draft.

I need extra help in most of my classes and if I dont get the help I need, I worry Im not going to be successful, she says.

Parent Helen Aubrey says her son attends Northern for the same program, and she worries that without that option he will have to return to his home school. It would mean a difficult transition and a lot of anxiety for a student who already struggles, she said.

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Benchmark oil prices headed in opposite directions Friday as supply issues pushed the U.S.'s West Texas Intermediate sharply higher, while international benchmark Brent Crude dipped as traders nervously eyed next week's crucial OPEC meeting.

WTI futures for delivery in January traded Friday morning in Europe at $58.63 a barrel, up 1.05% or $0.61, leaving the U.S. benchmark at its highest point since June 2015 and on track for its biggest weekly gain in a month. Brent crude futures for January lost 0.2% to $63.54, leaving them $0.73 lower than their early November high.

Ongoing supply disruptions due to a leak on the Keystone pipeline underpinned the U.S. benchmark gains. The pipe's operator Transcanada Corp. TRP expects shipments along the pipeline, which transports oil to the U.S. from Canada, will be down about 85% over November.

Hopes of a quick recovery were dealt a blow Wednesday, when Transcanada said it could take weeks to bring the pipeline back online. Phillips 66 PSX, which receives oil from the pipeline, said it expected a four-week outage.

The news pushed one-month U.S. WTI futures higher than their two-month counterparts, a state known as backwardation, for the first time since 2014. Backwardation tends to reflect tight supply in the oil market.

Brent crude's modest gain came as traders paused ahead of next week's crucial OPEC-led meeting of oil exporters. The get together is widely expected to result in the announcement of an extension to production caps that have removed about 1.8 million of production per day since January and which are due to expire in March.

Much of the attention in the lead up to the November 30 meeting has focused on Russia, which has wavered between supporting the extension and grumbling that the caps were damaging its economy.

Russia's economy minister, Maxim Oreshkin, said Thursday that the production caps had damaged the Russian economy, contributing to a slowdown in economic growth, which fell to 1.8% in the third quarter of 2017, from 2.5% in the second quarter.

"Because of the OPEC deal we have a negative direct impact from oil production, as well as indirect effects related to low investment activity," Oreshkin told reporters.

Analysts have warned that markets have already priced in an extension to the production caps and that failure to announce an extension to the agreement could lead to a sharp dip in oil prices.

Goldman Sachs noted Friday that domestic pressure on Russia to support OPEC's production cuts had eased. "Fiscal strain in Saudi and consumer pressures in Russia in 2016 helped bring OPEC and Russia together," wrote Goldman analysts. "As consumer pressures in Russia are now easing, incentives to maintain the cuts might be stronger in GCC (Saudi) than in Russia."

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Germany's two-month political deadlock may be on the verge of a breakthrough after the country's No.2 party, the Social Democrats, said for the first time it could enter coalition talks with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.

"The SPD will not say no to discussions," Social Democrat General Secretary Hubertus Heil told reporters on Friday following meetings amongst his party's senior members.

The comments come amid mounting pressure on the SPD to reverse a pledge to go into opposition following its worst result in decades in September's election. That commitment threatens to leave Germany with a weak minority government, or facing new elections, after Merkel on the weekend admitted failure in her efforts to strike a complicated three-way coalition agreement with Germany's Green's and the pro-business Free Democrats.

A coalition between Merkel's CDU/CSU and the SDP would mark a return to the arrangement ahead of September's vote.

A deal would be welcomed by other EU nations, which have looked on with concern at the prospect of German political gridlock during a period when the trading and political union is negotiating the exit of Britain and is under pressure to pursue radical reform from France's new President Emmanuel Macron.

Merkel, Germany and the EU are not out of the woods just yet.

Heil's comments fall well short of a commitment to enter government as a junior coalition member. The SDP secretary notably didn't say who his party would be willing to negotiate with and leaves the door open to an informal commitment to support the CDU/CSU rather than a more formal coalition deal.

Heil said his party would wait to hear the outcome of talks between Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeir and the leaders of other parties before commenting further.

Steinmeir, who served two stints as foreign minister while part of the SDP, has urged his former party to abandon its opposition to talks, claiming that the ongoing failure to form a government was Germany's biggest political crisis since World War Two and a sign that politicians had failed to "live up to their responsibilities."

German's stock markets seemed unimpressed by the possibility of a political breakthrough. The country's benchmark DAX share index, was largely unchanged Friday at 13016.64, up a slim 0.06%. German 10-year Bond yields climbed to 0.366%, up 0.018 or just over 5%, as they reacted to news that the European Central Bank was considering ending bond purchases next year. Bond yields move inversely to bond prices, with higher yields suggesting greater risk.
A Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's engagement announcement is "imminent", according to reports.

The 33-year-old prince has been dating the American actress for 16 months and, although they've remained coy on whether or not they're set to walk down the aisle, it's believed they're planning to share the news around the festive period.

Expand Close Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle watch the wheelchair tennis event during the Invictus Games in Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Mark Blinch / Facebook

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Whatsapp Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle watch the wheelchair tennis event during the Invictus Games in Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

A spokesman for Ladbrokes - the British-based betting and gambling company - told MailOnline: "Royal watchers would love a Christmas engagement announcement, and as far as we're concerned it's coming imminently. Meghan has met her prince charming and it looks like this fairytale is going to end happy ever after."

Things have got increasingly more serious between the pair in recent months, with Meghan, 36, reportedly set to quit working on her legal drama 'Suits' in favour of a life in the UK with Harry, where she has also reportedly relocated her pet dogs.

Expand Close Meghan Markle attending the Eva Longoria Global Gift Gala at ME London in central London. / Facebook

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Speaking about her pooches, a source said: "She is very close to those two dogs. She lets them sleep on her bed and they eat only the highest quality organic food.

"She misses them when she is away and will even get someone to FaceTime her with them. The fact she's started the process of moving them to England is the clearest hint yet that she sees her future living in London with Harry."

And if re-homing her mutts wasn't sign enough that the pair are nearing an engagement, last month saw Meghan invited to Buckingham Palace for tea with Queen Elizabeth, who is Prince Harry's grandmother.

One source said of the meeting: "The couple arrived in time for tea at around 5pm. It is the queen's favourite part of the day and she loves it when her grandchildren are able to join her. She normally sits for half an hour eating from a selection of sandwiches, fruit or plain scones and cake. It is served with her own blend of Darjeeling and Assam tea, known as Queen Mary's blend."
New York Community Bancorp, Inc. is the bank holding company for New York Community Bank. New York Community Bank is the nations 47th-largest financial institution and its largest thrift. As a thrift, the bank specializes in real estate and consumer accounts specifically real estate loans and savings accounts and has limited exposure to other forms of business banking. Among the benefits to consumers are interest-bearing checking and saving accounts that come with higher-than-average interest rates.

New York Community Bank was founded in 1859 to serve Queens County, New York. It operated under that name, growing all the while, until 2000 when it changed its name to better reflect the business. The company IPOd in 1993 and has made multiple acquisitions in the time since. As of 6/30/2022, the bank had $63.1 billion in assets and $41.2 billion in deposits.

New York Community Bank operates in greater New York City, New Jersey, Ohio, Florida, and Arizona. The company provides deposit products ranging from interest-bearing checking and money market accounts to savings accounts, IRAs, and CDs. Brands under the companys umbrella include AmTrust in Florida and Arizona, Ohio Savings Bank, Garden State Savings Bank, and Atlantic Bank.

The bank offers a wide range of real-estate-related loans including but not limited to multi-family loans, commercial real estate loans, construction loans, and consumer loans and mortgages. Investment products include annuities, mutual funds, and life insurance. Customers include individuals, small businesses, and organizations and are served through a network of more than 230 branches, and 300 ATMs, online, mobile, and by phone. Many of the locations are open 24 hours and 6 days a week although those hours are not available at all branches. Clients can access their accounts digitally 24/7.

New York Community Bancorp and its underlying business carry investment-grade credit ratings from all the major rating agencies. The credit outlook in the 4th quarter of 2022 was stable as it had been for some time. In New York, it is a leader in the multi-family market specializing in lower-cost housing in rent-controlled areas. As of June 30, 2022, the multi-family loan portfolio accounted for more than 75% of all investments. The company has a stock purchase and dividend reinvestment plan that help to sustain a high level of ownership.






By Siraj Qureshi: With the second phase of UP Municipal elections to be held soon, the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is sparing no efforts to target Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.

Addressing an electoral meeting in Firozabad, Yogi Adityanath said that in the Samajwadi Party rule, the Municipal Corporations of UP had become bases of corruption. Now these industries of corruption, Gundaraj, anarchy and kidnappings won't function.

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He said that the SP and BSP misused the power they had been entrusted with and illegally acquired land and religious sites. Now the Anti Bhoo-Mafia Task Force has been established and 1,63,000 cases have been registered under this task force on which action will be taken after the Municipal elections. Not only the Mafias will be forced to vacate the land, but the expense of this action will be also taken from them.

CM Yogi told India Today that the BJP has governments in the centre and the state and if the BJP also wins the seats of Mayor, Corporator and Municipal Council Chairmans, the funds allocated for city development will be used judiciously and there will be no friction between the Mayors and Corporators. He said that if the entire Municipal board is formed of BJP supporters, the development will be on a fast-track.

Yogi said that Firozabad will be going into Municipal Corporation elections for the first time and every vote will be instrumental in changing the destiny of Firozabad. If the BJP forms the local government of UP cities, then every city will celebrate this win like the Diwali celebrated in Ayodhya.

Answering a question, he said that he had inherited a dying economy in UP. His government waived off farming loans of 46 lakh farmers as soon as they formed a government, which cost the exchequer 36 thousand crores. He said that in 2022 everyone in UP will have a personal residence. His government is forming a street vending policy in UP.

Commenting on Yogi's electoral campaign senior Congress leader from Firozabad Saeed Patel said that it is surprising how the Chief Minister is using the state's resources for the campaigning of his party candidates in municipal elections whereas earlier, senior leaders of the state did not campaign in municipal elections. Patel said that senior politicians should not interfere in the local governance issues. He said that in 2019, the voters will bring the BJP down on the streets with the first blow being dealt on 1st December, when the Municipal results are announced in UP.

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ALSO WATCH: Padmavati row: Yogi Adityanath justifies threats against Bhansali and Deepika Padukone

--- ENDS ---
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, a technology company, focuses in the areas of automation and digitalization in Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. It operates through Digital Industries, Smart Infrastructure, Mobility, Siemens Healthineers, and Siemens Financial Services segments. The Digital Industries segment offers automation systems and software for factories, numerical control systems, motors, drives and inverters, and integrated automation systems for machine tools and production machines; process control systems, machine-to-machine communication products, sensors and radio frequency identification systems; software for production and product lifecycle management, and simulation and testing of mechatronic systems; and cloud-based industrial Internet of Things operating systems. The Smart Infrastructure segment offers products, systems, solutions, services, and software to support sustainable transition in energy generation from fossil and renewable sources; sustainable buildings and communities; and buildings, electrification, and electrical products. The Mobility segment provides passenger and freight transportation, such as vehicles, trams and light rail, and commuter trains, as well as trains and passenger coaches; locomotives for freight or passenger transport and solutions for automated transportation; products and solutions for rail automation; electrification products; and intermodal solutions. The Siemens Healthineers segment develops, manufactures, and sells various diagnostic and therapeutic products and services; and provides clinical consulting services. The Siemens Financial Services segment offers debt and equity investments; leasing, lending, and working capital financing solutions; and equipment, project, and structured financing solutions. Siemens Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Munich, Germany.
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Aggreko Plc supplies modular, mobile power, heating, cooling, and related services in North America, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia Pacific, and Latin America. The company operates in three segments: Rental Solutions, Power Solutions Industrial, and Power Solutions Utility. It offers power generation products, including diesel generators, G3+ generators, and gas generators, as well as heavy fuel oil and hybrid power plants; cooling systems, such as cooling towers, chillers, heat exchangers, and air handlers and conditioners; and desiccant and refrigerated dehumidifiers to prevent metal corrosion, aid processes, preserve equipment on cold stacked offshore rigs, reduce mold and mildew growth during production processes, and dry out water-damaged buildings, as well as to reduce drying times for concrete, insulation, and fireproofing. The company also provides electric heaters, indirect fired heaters, and heat exchangers; and load banks that are used to test generators and turbines, uninterrupted power systems, electrical distribution panels and systems, data center power systems, combined heat and power systems, and simulation of heat loads. In addition, it offers battery storage solutions; and power to national utility customers. The company operates 182 sales and service centers. It serves the agriculture, construction, contracting, data centers, event power, facilities management, food and beverage, government, manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, petrochemical and refining, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, shipping, telecommunications, and utility power sectors. Aggreko Plc was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Glasgow, the United Kingdom.
By India Today Web Desk: NO-MOSH-KAR and welcome ladies and gentlemen, Kolkata was once the city where revolutions were born and dreams came to die. Once the capital of Imperial England, it is a city that is almost a metaphor, for extremes of the human condition. For the poverty on its streets as much as the nobility of its spirit. No longer. A drive from the airport to this very hotel will dispel that notion-the tenements of squalor have been replaced by the high-rises of hope and flyovers of the future.

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But deeper than that, a transformation has occurred from within. Always the intellectual capital of the nation, Kolkata is on the way to becoming an economic powerhouse. And also renewing its cultural credentials. The old Calcutta of laidback ways and lazy days is giving way to an emerging middle class that works hard to create capital for a new Kolkata and for the state.

It has put the dark days of load shedding and flooding behind it.I am delighted to bring the India Today Conclave to this city of astonishing vitality. India Today East is our tribute to the 12 Eastern states, the artistic and cultural hub as it is to account for over a quarter of the national GDP by 2035. India Today has always believed in the power of states, as evidenced by the State of States survey we commissioned as far back as in 2003. We know the future of India lies in its states, and West Bengal is a shining example of that.

The GDP of the state has more than doubled between 2011 and 2016. We also know the growth of West Bengal is important for the states of Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and the eight North-Eastern states. The eight north-eastern states are too growing fast, educating their people at a rate much faster than the rest of India, reducing their dependence on agriculture, and generally prospering. Bengal currently contributes 40 per cent of the region's GDP. Home to 27 per cent of the country's population, the eastern region contributes 16.5 per cent to the nation's GDP. If the East has to rise, Bengal has to rise faster.

What Bengal does today will truly determine the India of tomorrow. With more than 200 ethnic groups and dialects, the region, with its dynamic chief ministers, many of whom you will listen to over the next two days, is also one of the most culturally diverse in the world. The region shares 5,300 km of its borders with neighbouring countries. Its relationship with Bangladesh is setting a new benchmark for bilateral ties. The Northeast is the pivot of the Central government's Act East policy--Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often emphasised the significance of the development of Northeast and how it can emerge as a trade corridor for the entire country.

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Not many are aware that he spent several of his formative years travelling around the region.The East's handling of minorities is safeguarding our secular fabric. Its promotion of artistic endeavour is creating a new aesthetic that the rest of India wants to buy--whether it is the latest Sabyasachi sari or remake of the newest Tollywood film.Variety is indeed the spice of life here: From the green state of Sikkim to the rich mining wealth of Jharkhand, from the anti-poverty experiments of Odisha to the development ambitions of Bihar, the Eastern states prove that diversity works for India. And more than anything else, despite provocation, Bengal has always stood as one, regardless of religion, caste, creed or class.We are proud to bring the summit here with its debates and discussions.

From your brave and brilliant chief minister to the strongman of Assam; from your captain who taught Team India confidence to your actors who show us the highs and lows of emotion; from Union ministers who understand the importance of acting east to industrialists who are transforming its economic fabric; from a designer who weaves magic with his clothes to musicians who spread joy with their artistry, we expect two days of illumination, inspiration and intellectual stimulation.Inspite of all the problems it has encountered. I've always marvelled at and revelled in the joyful warmth and hospitality of the people of this city.

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It is my pleasure and our privilege to be here.Enjoy the Conclave.ONEK DHAN-NO-BAD

Here is the full coverage of India Today Conclave East 2017.

Watch: Aroon Purie speaks at India Today Conclave East 2017

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National Bank of Canada provides various financial products and services to retail, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients in Canada and internationally. It operates through four segments: Personal and Commercial, Wealth Management, Financial Markets, and U.S. Specialty Finance and International. The Personal and Commercial segment offers personal banking services, including transaction solutions, mortgage loans and home equity lines of credit, consumer loans, payment solutions, and savings and investment solutions; various insurance products; and commercial banking services comprise credit, and deposit and investment solutions, as well as international trade, foreign exchange transactions, payroll, cash management, insurance, electronic transactions, and complimentary services. The Wealth Management segment comprises investment solutions, trust services, banking services, lending services, and other wealth management solutions. The Financial Markets segment offers corporate banking, advisory, and capital markets services; and project financing, debt, and equity underwriting; advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, and financing. The U.S. Specialty Finance and International segment provides specialty finance products; financial products and services to individuals and businesses in Cambodia; and investment solutions, guaranteed investment certificates, mutual funds, notes, structured products, and monetization. It provides its services through a network of 384 branches and 927 banking machines. National Bank of Canada was founded in 1859 and is based in Montreal, Canada.
By PTI: Kolkata, Nov 24 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said she would welcome "Padmavati" director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his team to the state and make special arrangements for the films premiere and release.

Banerjees statement comes just days after she tweeted that the row over the film was a "calculated plan" to destroy freedom of expression in the country.

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"If they (Bhansali and producer) cannot release Padmavati in any other state, we will make special arrangements for it in our state. Bengal will be very happy and Bengal will be proud to do that. We will take care of it.Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his Padmavati team are welcome in our state," she said at the India Today Conclave East, 2017.

On November 20, the chief minister had tweeted, "The Padmavati controversy is not only unfortunate but also a calculated plan of a political party to destroy the freedom to express ourselves".

"We condemn this super emergency. All in the film industry must come together and protest in one voice," Banerjee had added.

The release of the film, which has been directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and stars Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor, has been deferred indefinitely by its producers, Viacom 18. It was initially slated to release on December 1.

The film, which is based on the story of Rajput queen, is mired in controversy with right-wing groups across the country claiming it distorts history.

The film has been facing controversy since Bhansali started its shooting earlier this year.

The director was roughed up by members of the fringe group Rajput Karni Sena in Jaipur. Its elaborate sets were also vandalised during shooting schedules in Jaipur and Kolhapur.

The first poster of the movie was released in October this year and triggered a storm with various Rajput groups and others alleging that the director had "distorted" historical facts. PTI PNT KK DV

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Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc., an offshore energy services company, provides specialty services to the offshore energy industry primarily in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, the Asia Pacific, and West Africa regions. The company operates through three segments: Well Intervention, Robotics, and Production Facilities. It engages in the installation of flowlines, control umbilicals, and manifold assemblies and risers; trenching and burial of pipelines; installation and tie-in of riser and manifold assembly; commissioning, testing, and inspection activities; and provision of cable and umbilical lay, and connection services. The company also provides well intervention, intervention engineering, and production enhancement services; inspection, repair, and maintenance of production structures, trees, jumpers, risers, pipelines, and subsea equipment; and related support services. In addition, it offers reclamation and remediation services; well plug and abandonment services; pipeline abandonment services; and site inspections. Additionally, the company offers oil and natural gas processing facilities and services; and fast response system, as well as site clearance and subsea support services. It serves independent oil and gas producers and suppliers, pipeline transmission companies, renewable energy companies, and offshore engineering and construction firms. The company was formerly known as Cal Dive International, Inc. and changed its name to Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. in March 2006. Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Helping the hungry: Food boxes distributed at Bedford church

The fourth Tuesday of each month, food boxes are given away at the Bedford Sherwood Oaks Christian Church.
By PTI: By K J M Varma

Beijing, Nov 24 (PTI) China pays great attention to the peace process in Myanmar and is willing to play a constructive role in it for the security and stability of the border areas, President Xi Jinping said today, amid the Rohingya refugee crisis in the neighbouring country.

Xis remarks came as Myanmars military chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing called on him.

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During their meeting, Xi said the recent Congress of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has adopted a blueprint for Chinas economic and social reform and development for the years to come.

"It will not only inject great vitality into Chinas own development, but also bring new opportunities for various countries, including Myanmar, in their cooperation with China," he said.

China pays great attention to the peace process in Myanmar, and is willing to play a constructive role in this regard for the security and stability in their border areas, he said.

Hailing the "profound bilateral friendship", Xi called on the two countries to "strengthen strategic communication and accommodate each others concerns".

Hlaing congratulated Xi on his re-election as the general secretary of the CPC and on the success of the National Congress.

Calling the two countries close neighbours, he said Myanmar appreciates Chinas help for its national construction and military building over the years, as well as support for its peace process.

Myanmar expects to actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and cement exchanges and cooperation with China in various fields, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

China in the past has provided unwavering support for Myanmar?s military junta over two decades. China also built a USD 7.3 billion deep-water port in Rakhine, which plays a pivotal role in Beijing?s belt and road trade initiative.

Meanwhile, China also welcomed a pact between Myanmar and Bangladesh to repatriate over six lakh Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar violence hit Rakhine state since August when the military intensified crackdown against alleged militant outfits. "China always supports Myanmar and Bangladesh in properly resolving the issue through dialogue and consultation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told the media.

The situation in Rakhine state in Myanmar from where the refugees fled is "clearly alleviating", Geng said. PTI KJV NSA

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Bahrain has awarded a major contract to Tilke, a global engineering and architecture company based in Germany, to provide consultancy services for its new exhibition and conference centre coming up next to the Bahrain International Circuit on a 308,000-sq-m area in Sakhir.



With a built-up area of 149,000 sq m, the project will boast 10 exhibition halls with a total area of 95,000 sq m along with all the necessary services in addition to areas dedicated for retail and events.



Minister of Works, Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning Essam bin Abdulla Al Khalaf signed the agreement with Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority CEO Shaikh Khalid bin Humood Al Khalifa and Hermann Tilke, representing the project's consulting firm in the presence of Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani.



Lauding the project, Al Zayani said the exhibition and conference centre will help attract and develop the international exhibitions industry in Bahrain as per the latest technologies and technical specifications that will further drive the growth of this robust sector in the kingdom.



Al Khalaf said the giant facility will include a 4,500-sq-m conference hall which will be divided into three separate hi-tech rooms. It will also include 27 small and medium conference and meeting rooms with a total area of about 1,700 sq m.



The signing ceremony was attended by leading officials of the Ministry for Works, Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning including undersecretary Ahmed Abdulaziz Al Khayat, the assistant undersecretary for Joint Municipal Services and acting assistant undersecretary for construction and maintenance projects Raed Mohammed Al Salah as well as the director of strategic projects Shaikh Mishal bin Mohammed Al Khalifa.-TradeArabia News Service
As trade talks in Geneva enter the final stretch, WTO negotiators have tabled new proposals on agriculture for the Buenos Aires ministerial that begins in just over two weeks. They have also put forward suggestions for a work programme to deal with unresolved topics after the conference takes place.

A new paper from Mexico has put forward proposals for a limit on trade-distorting farm support, while Norway and Singapore have tabled a draft ministerial decision on public stockholding for food security purposes. These two subject areas have dominated the WTOs agricultural talks in recent years, including this one.

Two other proposals seek to spell out in more detail how WTO members would continue negotiations after Buenos Aires on topics that are not seen as top of the agenda for the ministerial.

While some negotiators told Bridges that they were not optimistic about the prospects for achieving an outcome on agricultural trade issues at the ministerial, others said they believed that progress was possible if ministers could reach agreement on a package of measures to adopt at the conference.

Mexico: cap trade-distorting support

The proposal from Mexico calls for a new ceiling on the overall amount of trade-distorting support which WTO members will be allowed to provide.

This would be composed of subsidies classified as highly trade-distorting amber box support, as well as de minimis payments, a WTO category of trade-distorting support that falls below a set share of the value of agricultural production.

The Mexican proposal comes after several other countries or groups have put forward their own submissions in recent months to establish a new limit on trade-distorting domestic support.

However, the Mexican proposal argues in favour of special treatment for those developing countries that have committed not to exceed a ceiling on amber box payments at the global trade body. While most developing countries do not have entitlements to amber box support, Mexico is among over a dozen members that do, in a reflection of historical patterns of subsidy provision at the time the Uruguay Round of global trade talks was concluded over two decades ago.

Other developing countries with these entitlements include Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Tajikistan, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Three categories of countries

Mexico is proposing three categories of countries, each of which would take on different reduction commitments. One category would cover developed countries. Another would cover those developing countries that do not have amber box commitments, while a third would cover those that do have them.

In calculating their level of cuts, developed countries would first take twice their permitted de minimis support during a historical base period, which Mexico proposes should be 2011-15, and add this to their existing WTO commitment on amber box support. The resulting figure would be cut by a percentage, which members would need to negotiate.

Developing countries without amber box commitments would also take twice their de minimis support levels in the same base period, and subject this to a different percentage cut, which again would have to be negotiated.

Developing countries which do have amber box commitments would cut the sum of their amber box and de minimis support, by applying the same cut as other developing countries plus an additional contribution if their total amber box commitments exceed US$500 million, a figure which again would be negotiated by members.

Developed countries would have to implement the new limit as soon as WTO members adopt the relevant decision, while developing countries would have two extra years. Least developed countries would not be required to make any domestic support commitments.

Other unresolved domestic support topics would be addressed as part of a work programme for after the Buenos Aires conference, the proposal says.



Public stockholding

A new submission from Norway and Singapore sets out a draft ministerial decision on public stockholding for food security purposes, building on the structure of an agreement reached on this topic at the WTOs Bali ministerial conference in 2013.

India, China, Indonesia, and other developing countries in the G-33 coalition have long argued in favour of greater flexibility for developing countries that buy food at minimum prices as part of their public food stockholding schemes. However, exporting countries have also expressed concern that exempting these purchases from WTO disciplines could distort trade and undermine food security elsewhere.

The proposal follows shortly after Paraguay and Russia tabled a separate submission on the same topic, which also seeks to build on the Bali deal. Under the latter, WTO members agreed not to challenge the legality of developing countries public food stockholding programmes, under certain conditions  such as more transparency about how the schemes function.

A new footnote in the Norway-Singapore proposal would grant extra flexibility to new programmes, so long as these did not involve procuring more than 15 percent of the domestic crop in question. The Bali deal was limited to programmes that existed at the date it was adopted by WTO members.



Market access and export competition: revitalising talks

Argentina and four other agricultural exporting countries have tabled a draft decision which would commit ministers to reinvigorate talks on market access for farm goods. The decision specifies that talks would take place in dedicated sessions of the global trade bodys committee on agriculture, with a view to achieving tangible market access outcomes at the twelfth WTO ministerial, which is due to be held in 2019.

In addition to Argentina, the paper was co-sponsored by Brazil, Paraguay, Thailand, and Uruguay. All of those countries, except Peru, are part of the South American economic bloc Mercosur. In May, Paraguay and Peru had put forward a detailed proposal on agricultural market access, with a two-step process for simplifying and reducing trade barriers.

While there has been little enthusiasm among most countries for addressing market access at the WTO ahead of the Buenos Aires conference, a number of agricultural exporting countries are eager to ensure the issue remains on the negotiating table after the ministerial.

A separate negotiating submission, backed by Canada, Chile, and Switzerland, would have trade ministers agree to continue talks on agricultural export competition, building on the decision on export subsidies and related areas that was agreed at the Nairobi ministerial conference two years ago.



Export prohibitions and restrictions

A revised proposal from Singapore seeks to improve transparency when WTO members impose temporary export prohibitions or restrictions. The paper reflects the results of consultations with other WTO members since an earlier version of the proposal was put forward in May.

The decision would now also commit members to continuing talks on this area after the Buenos Aires ministerial. It also includes clauses requiring countries to provide more information to the WTO about measures they have introduced, and exempting humanitarian food aid purchased by the World Food Programme from constraints affecting exports.

Data released earlier this month by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows that although food prices are now higher than in the last two years, they are still below the peaks they reached in 2008 and 2011. Export restrictions were among the measures that are believed to have exacerbated price spikes at that time, causing food import bills to rise sharply for net food-importing developing countries.

Final consultations in Geneva

Following small group meetings this week in Geneva, Kenyan Ambassador Stephen Karau, who chairs the WTO agriculture negotiations, is expected to convene an informal negotiating session on Monday to report back to the whole membership on the state of the talks.

The WTOs top decision-making body outside of the ministerial conference, the General Council, is then due to meet from 30 November-1 December.

Trade officials who spoke to Bridges were divided over the prospects for progress on agriculture in Buenos Aires. Several delegates noted that the US in particular is sceptical about whether an outcome can be achieved, a sentiment which it has expressed in other WTO negotiating contexts, citing time constraints and the diverging views among members.

Other officials expressed cautious optimism, with some suggesting that the publishing of various proposals in recent weeks now meant that negotiators were able to discern approximate landing zones in some areas of the talks.

One source cautioned that political leaders could still spring surprises in Buenos Aires, even if the outline of a deal were to emerge from the Geneva process.
Many positive changes such as rapid economic progress, the strengthening of institutions and rule of law have taken place on the African continent over the last two decades. At the same time, challenges remain linked to security deficiencies, including terrorism, climate change, desertification and environmental degradation, the outbreak of famine, poverty and unemployment, all of which cause migration flows.

The dynamic demographic trend that will make Africa the youngest and most populous continent in the world with 2.5 billion inhabitants by 2050 is both a challenge and an opportunity.

Taking Africa forward is a shared goal. The continent needs to be stabilised and attract major investment through economic diplomacy crafted to develop an industrial base, improve skills and create jobs that will enable young Africans to build a future in their own countries. The European Union should be at the forefront of this effort as we share common values and interests with Africa.

As we celebrate ten years since the adoption of the joint Africa-EU strategy, 2017 is proving to be crucial in our relationship as many political and legislative measures taken at EU level will strengthen our ties. In May, the High Representative and the European Commission issued a joint communication for a renewed impetus of the Africa-EU Partnership. In June, the European Consensus on Development was signed and the Council adopted conclusions stressing the EUs strategic interest in deepening its longstanding partnership with Africa. In September, the European Parliament and the Council adopted the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD), the centerpiece of the EUs new External Investment Plan.

In addition to legislative and democratic support, the European Parliament has had a defining role in strengthening political and economic ties with Africa by inviting both the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and the President of Cote dIvoire, to address the plenary in Strasbourg.

The European Parliament is therefore taking the lead in encouraging other EU institutions and Member States to be more ambitious, going beyond the existing partnership and financial instruments. Our priority must be an Investment Plan for Africa. The EFSD is a step in the right direction but its means remain limited if we want it to be a game changer. New economic and academic diplomacy is needed that focuses on infrastructure, technology transfers, resource efficiency, vocational training and a conducive environment for private sector growth. The EU should promote legal migration while cooperating with third countries on fighting irregular migration. Finally, further support for scholarships for African students under the Erasmus+ programme and extending cross-border exchange programmes for young entrepreneurs to African countries would also be invaluable.

The aim of the high-level conference was to continue to raise the visibility and importance of our partnership, to open a debate on the need to maximise existing instruments and resources in view of discussing the post-2020 EU budget. It also comes at the right time: one week before the fifth African Union-European Union summit that will take place in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire.

This year, the focus of the summit was on Investing in youth, a key priority for both Europe and Africa. Other priorities of the partnership that will be tackled include peace and security, governance including democracy, human rights, migration and mobility, investment and trade, environmental preservation and climate change, skills development and job creation.

The conference was organised in conjunction and with the participation of key parliamentary committees and Members of the European Parliament  in particular with rapporteurs on critical files and stakeholders.

Opening speech by Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, at the High-Level Conference: A new partnership between the European Union and Africa

It is a real pleasure to see this Chamber full to the rafters to discuss the major issue of our partnership with our African friends.

I will straightaway say that that Summit must be different from the others, and must yield tangible results and a clear and precise roadmap.

For many years, the Union failed to give Africa the attention it deserves. Often we looked the other way, heedless of the emergencies  humanitarian or linked to climate, security or stability  which Africans have to deal with every day. We failed to recognise that we have an overriding strategic interest in what happens in Africa.

Europes approach was a piecemeal one, with individual countries falling over one another in pursuit of their own interests and agendas. The result was a road paved with good intentions, but there were many missed opportunities and few successes along the way. We failed to exert any real political and economic influence on the future of Africa.

Globalisation and migration have shown that building walls or putting up barriers is not the solution. Africas problems are Europes problems too.

It is time to put our relations on a new footing, before its too late. Our links go beyond mere geographical proximity. We have common interests and face common challenges.

By 2050, the population of Africa will double, to more than 2.5 billion. This population explosion may be a problem, but it may also be an opportunity.

Desertification, famine, pandemics, terrorism, unemployment and bad governance are exacerbating instability and contributing to uncontrolled immigration.

Without determined action to tackle these phenomena, new generations will continue to set out for Europe in search of hope and a future. They may be attracted by images on television or on the internet depicting what seems to them to be a land of milk and honey. We urgently need to offer them real prospects in their home countries, so that they stay and help to revitalise them.

The challenges facing Africa

Supporting Africa is not only a duty. It is clearly also in our shared economic and political interest.

Many African countries are already showing that their continent offers genuine opportunities: in 2016, five African economies were among the top ten in the world in terms of growth, with rates of more than 7%.

Africa has critical raw materials essential for our industries: 64% of the worlds cobalt, without which batteries for electric cars cannot be made, comes from Congo; tantalum, which is used in solar panels, comes from Rwanda; platinum, which is used to limit harmful emissions from cars, comes from South Africa.

These raw materials are also of interest to our competitors, starting with China, which is seeking to establish a dominant position in order to boost its own industries.

There is also a problem of environmental sustainability. In the context of the Raw Materials Partnership, which I promoted when I was Industry Commissioner in 2012, cooperation developed between EU and African geological surveys which has led to innovation and greater awareness of the need to protect the environment.

There are many other good examples of our work with Africa. To start with, there is the integration of markets, under the Lome Conventions and the current Cotonou Agreement. These agreements have granted free access to the European market for 99.5 % of African products.

Discussions on the post-Cotonou settlement are continuing. I should like to thank Parliaments rapporteurs for their contribution.

Despite these efforts and the tens of billions that have been invested, there is still a long way to go if we are to guarantee decent living conditions and greater security for people in Africa.

We are far from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN with a view to reducing poverty: one-third of Africans live below the poverty line; one-sixth of them need humanitarian aid to survive; in rural areas, 60% of people have less than one euro a day to live on.

Farming and raw materials, including energy, are the main sources of revenue, whilst the level of industrialisation is extremely low.

Last Monday was Africa Industrialisation Day, which provided an opportunity to emphasise once again that developing a manufacturing base is fundamental to growth and employment.

Only 15% of Africans have the internet at home. Barely one person in three has electricity.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the worlds highest illiteracy rates: one child in every five does not go to school, and almost 60% of young people are not undergoing training of any kind.

Is it any surprise, therefore, that young Africans should believe that they have nothing to lose; that they should decide to risk their lives to come to Europe; or that they should be seduced by people who preach violence in Gods name.

Many problems could be solved by means of greater investment in education, infrastructure, industry and modern farming techniques. Africa, however, is the continent which attracts by far the lowest volume of foreign investment: barely more than EUR 80 billion a year, only 3% of African GDP. China is the country whose investments are increasing the most in proportional terms.

Africas destiny must be put back in the hands of Africans. But Europe must play its part as well.

We must work together with Africa, as equals, and make available the fruits of our leadership in the areas of technology, quality, industrial know-how and training.

Ten years have passed since the EU-Africa strategy was adopted. In that time many hopes have been dashed. Europe has lacked the courage to develop truly effective instruments.

Instead of consolidating our position as Africas main partner, we are losing ground. Not only China but other emerging investors as well, such as Turkey, India and Singapore, are gaining in influence.

A Marshall Plan for Africa

The fifth African Union-European Union Summit, which will be held on 29 and 30 November in Abidjan and bring together more than 80 heads of state, comes at a crucial time.

We must send out a clear signal that we are determined to relaunch and strengthen our partnership, and speak with a single, strong voice.

The focus of all our efforts must be young people: they hold the key to a more stable, prosperous and modern Africa.

The EUR 3.4 billion investment plan for Africa is an important step in the right direction. But it is nowhere near enough.

We must support the efforts Africans themselves are making to establish a sustainable manufacturing base and develop efficient farming, renewable energy sources and proper water, energy, mobility, logistical and digital infrastructure, by drawing up a real Marshall Plan for Africa. By doing so we will strengthen governance and the rule of law, step up the fight against corruption and foster the emancipation of women and education.

We must work to ensure that under the next EU multiannual budget at least EUR 40 billion is earmarked for the investment fund for Africa. The leverage effect and synergies generated with the funding provided by the European Investment Bank could make it possible to mobilise some EUR 500 billion in public and private investment.

On that basis, we can continue to conduct effective economic diplomacy which promotes the integration of markets, the transfer of technology and industrial know-how, sustainability and training.

The aim must be to establish an environment conducive to the development of a manufacturing base and entrepreneurship and the creation of SMIs and jobs for young people. For that we also need instruments such as Erasmus for young entrepreneurs, which should be extended to cover Africa.

At the same time, legal immigrants from Africa can meet the demand for workers in some sectors of the economy in the EU and acquire professional skills which they can then use to create businesses in Europe.

We also need academic and cultural diplomacy which, by expanding Erasmus+ and stepping up cooperation between universities on research and mobility projects, makes it possible for more Africans to study in Europe.

Conclusions

More resources are not in themselves the answer. Already today we are investing EUR 33 billion from the EU budget alone, not counting the bilateral aid provided by individual Member States.

If our taxpayers generosity has failed to produce the hoped-for results, we must ask ourselves whether the current development cooperation model is the right one.

Carrying on as we have always done would be a serious mistake. Our citizens are calling for a political Europe which is capable of making brave choices. Starting with the budget; more of the same is not acceptable, and the budget must reflect the priorities of the peoples of Europe,

The proposed sum of EUR 40 billion  12 times more than the current budget for the Investment Plan  is needed to generate an impact commensurate with our objectives. This is a critical mass large enough to attract European private and public investment.

It is not a Utopian idea. If the political will is there, resources can be found, partly by using the funds already earmarked for Africa more effectively, partly by providing guarantees under the EU budget, and partly by identifying new sources of funding.

It is for just that reason that I have proposed an increase in the next budget. Making new resources available must not serve to impose a burden on citizens or SMIs. Instead, we must use new own resources for this purpose, by collecting taxes from those who currently dont pay them and reducing taxes on those who do pay them.

I am thinking of tax havens, the internet giants and speculative financial transactions of all kinds.

Today, the European Parliament is committing itself to playing a central role in a new Partnership with Africa. Our debate, involving young people, political leaders, experts and investors from Europe and Africa, must serve as preparation for the new start we will make in Abidjan.

This conference must be more than a formal event at which we read out speeches  rather, we must take the opportunity it offers to relaunch our partnership.

If our partnership really is a priority, then we must meet more regularly  every two years.

Follow-up meetings should be held at multiple levels on a regular basis, including between the representatives of civil society, business and commerce and the young.

Abidjan must mark a new beginning in our relations.

Read the full speech here.

Speech by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini at the opening session of the High-level conference

So I would like to discuss some of the priorities that we constantly hear from our African friends, which have become now our shared priorities.

First, one of the great urgencies of our times. And I would start from this, not because it would be at the centre of our summit in Abidjan, but because, as my friend, the Foreign Minister of Mali mentioned, this is a top priority for all of us as human beings. We cannot ignore the reports on the inhuman treatment of migrants in Libya. Let me tell you that unfortunately, this is not new, and as an Italian  and I know, Antonio [Tajani, President of the European Parliament] has experienced the same  we have heard so many stories of migrants, and especially women arriving on the coast of Lampedusa telling us stories of slavery. And, it has been years that we have said as Europeans  first I have to say more as Italians  we have to face the dramatic situation of our African brothers and sisters that are in slavery in those centres. And this is why, it has been years that we have worked hard to try to save lives, protect people, dismantle criminal networks. But, everytime that we have new waves of news, new waves of reports coming out, it is a sad moment.

But, it is also a window of opportunity for us to join forces, politically and with our societies, to put pressure and face the situation as it is, and try to find the solutions. And, this is why I was in touch immediately after this new report came out with President of the African Union, Alpha Conde, and we agreed that our cooperation  Europe and Africa  is even more needed today. And it is going to increase exactly on how to tackle this situation in more concrete terms.

Our development policy makes us collectively, as European Union and Member States, the largest donor by far, not only in Africa but also in all the rest of the world. But for Africa, let me mention one data that is often forgotten: we invest in Africa 20 billion every year. Antonio [Tajani, President of the European Parliament] often refers to a Marshall Plan for Africa. If we put together all that we are doing, we have a Marshall Plan for Africa. The question Antonio [Tajani] put, how do we use this money, how do we make sure together  Africans and Europeans  that this has the maximum impact on societies. And, when I talk with our African partners about the future, it is not development that comes up more often, it is other two words: investment and security. And you have heard this today from our two friends.

We need to do better and I believe that over the past three years, we, the European Union, have come up with new initiatives and innovative tools to deliver on these two priorities.

On investment, first of all. Today, only four per cent of global foreign direct investment goes to Africa. That's about 50 billion per year, and it only goes to certain parts of Africa  and let me tell you  not necessarily to those that needed the most.

So, with the European External Investment Plan that we have just launched, we can raise at least 44 billion  to start with, then I am open to consider expansion  in private investment by 2020.

This is the largest ever investment programme for Africa. I hope and I expect that others will join this effort. For instance, I hope that our Member States  and I know, here, I speak with different hats  will put adequate resources into this, to make this major investment plan even bigger.

This will try to focus private sector investment first of all in the areas that need it the most, which means the fragile parts of the continent, and to invest this money to create good jobs, particularly with micro, small and medium enterprises and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, for instance upgrading African connectivity, investing in renewable energy and in digital solutions.

And, you may be surprised that I have not yet mentioned the main issue, the main theme of our Summit in Abidjan  that is, the youth, girls and boys of our continents. And, let me stress girls, because sometimes we only focus on boys. Girls and young women, and women in general, are the beating heart of Africa, and I think also of Europe. But, actually, I have mentioned youth, because everything we do, it is with and for our young people.

It is not just one issue among others. This is not just one priority among others. It is the centre, the lens through which we see all the different initiatives we are taking. So, when we work on investments, on job creation, on migration, on e-governance, on climate change action, this is the work we do with and for our youth.

Half of the African population is under twenty. So, it is simply impossible to find the right answers  not only for the future, but also for the present  if we don't work for the African youth but mainly with the African youth.

This is why I am glad that young Africans from different parts of the continent together with young Europeans and including the diaspora of young Africans in Europe have been working in the last weeks in Africa and in Europe to prepare the Summit. They will give an input to the Summit. I met them a few weeks ago, here, in Brussels. Moussa Faki [Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission] met them a few weeks ago in Addis [Addis-Ababa]. And they will have a key role in the Summit next week with concrete ideas of how we can make policies effective for them, which means, for the present of the two continents.

And, we are working with our youth, not just for them, as we are working with Africa, and not just for Africa. And this is why our Summit next week will be different.

So, to conclude, we go to Abidjan with new ideas, with new initiatives  with an unprecedented investment plan, with our migration work that for the first time ever has turned into a real partnership, which is  I believe  the key to manage this phenomenon effectively, and with all our common work and support for peace and security.

We go to Abidjan together with the United Nations. And let me say that we will have, there, further step in something unique we have started  a trilateral cooperation between the European Union, the African Union and the United Nations. Because together we can push forward so much of the global agenda that the world and not only our two continents need. On different issues, peacekeeping, economic and governance reform, investment, sustainable development, action on climate change: all of this, if led together by Europe and Africa with the United Nations, can really change, not only  again as I said  our two continents, but the rest of the world.

So, we go to Abidjan, probably for the first time ever, as partners, as political partners, overcoming the donor-recipient kind of relationship, that belongs to the past. We are starting a new page, a page of political partnership, which means that we set our direction together, and each of us accepts the responsibility to contribute its own way on all the priorities.

We are doing something new. It is a new kind of partnership we start not only for our people, but for the entire world. And I believe, here, we share a responsibility to humanity. And I believe we can honour this task, that indeed is heavy, but I think that our continents are able to carry this responsibility on our shoulders. So, I thank you very much. And the summit is not the end of it. The Summit is the beginning of it. We will continue our work from the day after.

So  to take the words of a colleague, that has intervened before  thank you, vive lAfrique, vive lEurope.

Read the full speech here.
By PTI: Kolkata, Nov 24 (PTI) A 38-year-old woman with pulmonary fibriosis has got a new lease of life after a successful lung transplant surgery.

At a press meet here yesterday, Dr Sandeep Attawar, who performed the six-hour-long surgery on her at a Chennai hospital said, the woman is now as good as any healthy woman of her age walking, jogging, running and dancing.

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Pulmonary fibrosis is a disease of the lung when its tissues are damaged with irreversible scarring resulting in reduced oxygen supply in the blood.

Her husband, Rajesh Agarwal, a plywood manufacturer from Jalpaiguri, said that the lung transplant surgery took place in July this year and she was now leading a normal life.

The woman, a mother of two, was operated upon at the Heart and Lung Transplant Centre of Excellence at Gleneagles Global Health City in Chennai.

Agarwal said his wife had developed breathlessness in 2011 and soon her condition aggravated with severe bouts of coughing. Doctors had then said that she would not survive without the support of artificial oxygen supply.

"Her daily oxygen intake had increased from two litres to eight litres and her condition started deteriorating. The hospitals said her condition to be a no cure stage," he said.

"That was when I started searching on the internet and stumbled upon the possibility of a lung transplant," Agarwal said.

Dr Attawar said the patients name was on the wait-list in the state organ sharing registry for donor lungs.

In June she was allocated a pair of donor lungs and a bilateral lung transplant surgery was performed on her.

"She was discharged three weeks after the operation in a fully fit condition. She is as good as any healthy woman of her age walking, jogging, running and dancing," Dr Attawar said.

A total of Rs 35 lakh was spent for her treatment and surgery.

The woman was also present at the press meet. PTI SCH KK MM

--- ENDS ---
Arrived home yesterday evening from a wonderful cruise. No problem with visa's in UAE or Oman for UK passport holders. I am sure the same applied to USA citizens by cruise ship. Celebrity cruises issued a free 48hour visa card (same size as credit card) for Oman. In UAE we had to present ourselves with passport for an eye scan at the immigration point in the cruise terminal on the first entry. Free access was then allowed and I think it covered 30 days. You would have thought the Cruise lines could give this information to passengers rather than send a rather worrying email just a week before we were due to travel!

The Grand Mosque at Abu Dhabi is a must see. DougoOz is right. Women have to be totally covered and appropriate clothing was provided free of charge at the point of entry. Shoes have to be removed but socks are permitted.

We took a taxi from the Mosque to the Emirates palace (46dirhams + tip). The taxi driver possibly assumed we were staying there as she drove through the security gate to the main entrance, the taxi door was opened for us and we walked into the hotel - no questions asked! Very impressive.

In Dubai we made full use of the brilliant metro and tram system. So easy to use and unbelievably cheap. 22 Dirhams (about 5) buys you a full day pass for Metro/trams/buses. Everything is in Arabic and English, including on board announcements of stations. You really cant go wrong and it is fun travelling with the locals - everyone is so friendly.

Have a great cruise Jared H. Best. Ray

PS. Post again if you need further info.
hello

I am taking my bf to Costa Rica in January as a surprise.

we arrive in at Liberia airport at 10pm at night. so I therefore don't want to travel for a long time I'm looking no more than an hour. can someone recommend a coast line along the Pacific side for accomodation and beach.

I've been looking at playa hermosa but there's so many mixed reviews. just would like our first 2 nights to be special and worth going to the beach!

thank you
crfan, I beg to differ. The roads on the southern part of the Nicoya Peninsula are mostly paved.

All of the main routes are paved except for a small section of road from Naranjo to Paquera.

The road from Paquera to Cobano is paved and there is more pavement than dirt road between Cobano and Santa Teresa. A section of road between Cobano and Montezuma is dirt.

All the dirt roads are being repaired now in preparation for the high season.

If you travel down the peninsula after leaving Arenal, just the drive from Arenal to Santa Teresa will take you approximately 6 hours. You may want to break up your time and stay somewhere for a night. (Paquera?)

Just to drive down to Naranjo or Paquera to catch the ferry in one day makes for an extremely long day, with kids, I would not even bother unless you are planning on staying on the peninsula for a few days.

You could include Santa Teresa in your schedule for a couple of days before continuing to Manuel Antonio.

Another option would be to drive all the way to Samara and stay there a night, then drive down the coast route to Santa Teresa (which is all dirt road but is way more fun and interesting than the main paved road), then stay in Santa Teresa and catch the ferry and continue on to MA.
I'm from Los Angeles, and I will be going to Vietnam at the beginning of January. I will be flying in from Thailand to Vietnam, since I will be visiting Thailand first. I'm just a bit confused about the whole visa process. From what I understand, these are the main methods, AND PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG ABOUT SOMETHING:

1) Visit the Vietnam Embassy (in San Francisco or Washington DC) in person to get the visa, or mail in an application to the embassy with my passport and application

2) Visa on Arrival: Go through an online agency, fill out some information and pick up the visa when I arrive in Vietnam. From what I understand, I will not have to part with my passport, however, I cannot get the Visa on Arrival through the embassy.

3) E-visa: Get a printed visa from online, this method is fairly new. This way, I will not have to part with my passport.

I would prefer to not send in my passport anywhere, and living in Los Angeles, I can't go to visit the embassies. I originally wanted to do Visa on Arrival, but I was reading on a website that leisure tourism is not allowed under Visa on Arrival. I also read that some websites for Visa on Arrival are scams. Maybe the E-visa is a good option.

- Anyways, I'm just wondering, what is the most recommended method?

- Can you recommend non-scam sites for Visa on Arrival and E-visa?

Any other input is gladly appreciated.

Thank You.
The roaming deer all wear coarse black winter coats/fur, so compared to their luxurious brunette in summer they don't look picture-perfect, come Nov. But when they wear silver fur on a snowy day, utterly gorgeous! Yes, that's rare. But who knows? With all of that said, reward is big, Imo, when you can aim your camera at one facing toward you in a backlit silhouette, preferably a big male with antlers. Most if not all males' are cut off by then though... Yes, I saw it online, a really nice photo. Just imagine an awesome figure erecting his neck, staying on the grass with full of dew drops, looking at you, his wet fur reflecing morning sunlight! Yes, that's my *dream* shot. ;)

At any event, I suggest you get up in dawn's early lights and be ready to roll. My favorite dawn object is Ukimido. You'll know why if you follow my tip. Have a blast!
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Several women on social media are posting pictures of themselves where they are seen aping the manspreading posture.

By India Today Web Desk: Right from the growing up years, most women are tutored into adopting the ''right'' sitting posture, which would mean, sitting with their legs crossed or at least keeping them closer.

Sitting in a certain way is what defines a woman's modesty, among other such attributes that are ingrained into her way of life by the society.

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However, this has made a lot of women juxtapose their practised way of sitting to that of men, thus questioning their casual way of sitting with legs spread apart. This, in turn, sparked off debates about the right to space, with most men occupying more area, especially in public transports, as compared to women.

In one of their latest endeavours, a lot of women have taken to social media to post pictures of themselves where they are found sitting with their legs spread wide open. The pictures are being posted with the hashtag ''womanspreading'', as a fitting retort to men's way of sitting or what is popularly called manspreading.

Also Read:Kim Kardashian reveals how body-shaming is affecting her mentally, and she's not the only one

The word ''manspreading'' was officially added to Oxford English Dictionary in 2015 to define a form of encroachment. It reads as, ''The practice whereby a man, especially one travelling on public transport, adopts a sitting position with his legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat or seats.''

Grateful for #womanspreading, triumphs and failures, family and friends, and these spandex pants that will be working overtime today. Happy Thanksgiving, yall! ??? A post shared by Alexandra Bigley (@sfshopgirl) on Nov 23, 2017 at 12:29pm PST

My @beautycon look ?????????? A post shared by Shan Boodram (@shanboody) on Aug 14, 2017 at 10:22am PDT

The act of manspreading has been criticised by many as a patriarchal assertion of authority, leading to organised anti-manspeading campaigns by people across the world. Manspreading on public transports was officially banned in Madrid this year, in June.

On the other hand, many have also ridiculed the use of the word, including feminists like Cathy Young who have called it an act of ''pseudo-feminism.'' Others have reasoned that it is a man's intrinsic need to spread to accommodate his genitals.

While the debate continues, women on social media seem to be going strong with their act of ''womanspreading''. While some pictures seem to poke fun at the traditional manspreading pose, others seem to portray positions of power in various settings.

These boots. Bye??? A post shared by elsa hosk (@hoskelsa) on Jun 10, 2017 at 2:54pm PDT

The trend is catching on, with a lot of celebrities like Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, Chrissy Teigen, and Elsa Hosk also having joined the group.

We are not sure if this new viral trend on social media is quite an apt response for manspreading, but such blatant disregard of the ''womanly'' posture is sure to throw a few off guard.

--- ENDS ---

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The man was stripped, tied to a tree and lynched by the husband of the woman he was believed to be having an affair with.

By Nolan Pinto: In a horrific incident reported from Yadgiri district, a man was stripped, tied to a tree and beaten to death for having a love affair with a married woman.

According to some reports, the woman (Nirmala) was also tied to a tree and brutally thrashed.

Her husband along with his friends reportedly assaulted the man, that eventually led to his death.

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Meanwhile, the woman has been rushed to a hospital.

All the accused are currently absconding.

More details awaited.

--- ENDS ---
-National Super Alliance (NASA) is pushing for the establishment of People's Assemblies across the country to drive the reform agenda

-Several County Assemblies have passed bills establishing the assemblies as part of NASA's resistance crusade

-Majority Leader in the National Assembly Aden Duale claimed NASA leader was demading KSh 50 million from each opposition controlled county

The government now wants Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) who passed Raila Odinga's People's Assembly motion surcharged.

Government spokesperson Eric Kiraithe on Thursday, November 23 said during his weekly briefing that some counties were using public money to finance the motions.

READ ALSO: Mkutano wa Raila na Magufuli walipua wasiwasi mwingi kambi ya Uhuru

The National Super Alliance (NASA) has absolute control on 19 counties and already, over eight of them have already passsed the motions supporting creation of the assemblies.

Government spokesperson Eric Kiraithe speaks during a past media briefing. Photo: Nation

READ ALSO: You can go ahead and swear in Raila Odinga-Govt tells NASA

Already, the leader of majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale has written to the controller of budget Agnes Adhiambo claiming that Raila was demanding to be paid about Ksh 50 million by each of the NASA counties.

In a letter seen by TUKO.co.ke, Duale alleged that the People's Assemblies are not protected by the Constitution and thus were illegal.

To support the said bid, county governments in the aforementioned strongholds have been required to support the initiative and have been given monetary targets of at least KSh 50 million per county to finance activities related to the Peoples Assembly initiative, Duale said in his letter.

READ ALSO: TV queen Lilian Muli returns fire for fire after claims she asked top KCPE student a silly question

NASA has since said it will frustrate the Jubilee administration and it does not recognise the reelection of president Uhuru Kenyatta in the October 26 repeat poll.

Besides forming the People's Assemblies, NASA called on its supporters to boycott product and services offered by certain companies on claims that the firms aided in rigging the August 8 elections.

Millie Odhiambo warns Mike Sonko - on TUKO TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- President Uhuru Kenyatta has faulted Kenyan political analysts who have been on his neck in the past

- The president was speaking at Kirinyaga University where he officiated the ground-breaking of Thiba dam

- Uhuru said that everyone in Kenya has now become an analyst instead of focusing on development agendas

President Uhuru Kenyatta has hit out at political analysts whom he said have continued to dwell on politics yet elections are now over.

Uhuru said he was tired of watching local television where everybody is now an analyst.

Hata nimechoka kuona TV kila wakati siasa ati analysts, kila mtu ati ni analyst. What is it you are analysing exactly na siasa imeisha(Im tired of watching TV due to politics and analysts. Everyone is now an analyst, what exactly are you analysing yet campaigns are long gone?he posed on Thursday,November 23.

READ ALSO: Mkutano wa Raila na Magufuli walipua wasiwasi mwingi kambi ya Uhuru

READ ALSO: What Kenyans should expect during Uhuru's swearing in ceremony

Uhuru was speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony of Thiba dam in Kirinyaga County.

Analysts have been hard on Uhuru following sharp political differences between him and NASA leader Raila Odinga.

Raila has said he will not accept the legitimacy of Uhurus presidency despite the Supreme Court declaring he was elected according to the law during the repeat election.

He is also leading Opposition controlled counties for a secession journey and one of his MPs has drafted a bill to that effect.

READ ALSO: We will deal with you harshly - Uhuru's govt warns NASA

READ ALSO: NASA is a family affair - Murkomen in Twitter fight with NASA die hard

Analysts have urged the two leaders to dialogue and find a lasting solution to the political heat in the country.

Uhuru who was accompanied by his Deputy William Ruto and Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru during the launch of the dam construction also called for an end to unhealthy competition between governors and called on them to work with him.

READ ALSO: Foreign Ministry dismisses claims that Jubilee government solicited for congratulatory messages

Ruto said that upon completion, the dam will enable rice farmers to double their acreage under irrigation thus improving crop production within the region.

It will also increase the number of households with access to clean water.

Maraga rules in favour of Uhuru Kenyatta

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- NASA will sue the government following deaths of its supporters following clashes with the police upon his return from a tour of US-UK

- The coalition leader Raila Odinga will also hold a harambee to raise money to facilitate the burial for the 18 supporters who died

- The postmortem of the victims has already been done with a report showing a majority died of bullet wounds

- Ten bodies had bullet wounds while 8 others are of people who died as a result of body trauma - cut by a sharp object/or hit with a blunt object

- Police had initially said only 5 people died and no live bullets were fired

- The NASA supporters clashed with police officers on Friday,November 17 when they came out to welcome Raila from a trip in the US

Opposition leader Raila Odinga will lead the NASA fraternity in raising funds to facilitate the burial of his supporters who died during confrontations with the police upon his return from the US.

The coalition said it will also seek legal redress for those who died during running battles with the law enforcers.

In a statement sent to newsrooms, the Opposition coalition has said the government must take full responsibility for the deaths of the 18 victims.

READ ALSO: Raila Odinga lands as welcome party turns chaotic

Raila will hold a fundraising for NASA supporters killed during running battles with the police.Photo:BBC.

READ ALSO: What Kenyans should expect during Uhuru's swearing in ceremony

Initially, National Police Service denied claims it used live bullets in neutralising NASA procession as Raila returned to the country.

According to the statement by ODM Director of Communications Philip Etale and seen by TUKO.co.ke,the fundraiser will be held Friday, November 24 at the Laico Regency hotel in Nairobi.

The event which begins at 6 pm, will be attended by NASA leader Raila Odinga and Co-principals Moses Wetang'ula and Musalia Mudavadi, said Etale.

READ ALSO: Police looking for Orengo, Muthama and Khalwale after they manipulated law enforcement

The NASA statement claimed that according to Johansen Oduor, ten bodies had bullets wounds while 8 died as a result of body trauma (cut by a sharp object/or hit with a blunt object).

He said postmortem for the 18 victims was conducted by government pathologist Johansen Oduor on Thursday, November 23 and was witnessed by officers from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA).

READ ALSO: We will deal with you harshly - Uhuru's govt warns NASA

Friends and families of the dead were also present during the autopsy at the City Mortuary.

Ten bodies had bullets wounds while eight died as a result of body trauma (cut by a sharp object/or hit with a blunt object), added Etale.

Three bodies, two with bullet wounds, are lying at Chiromo Mortuary, one at Nairobi Women's Hospital mortuary and another at the Kenyatta University Hospital Mortuary.

READ ALSO: Foreign Ministry dismisses claims that Jubilee government solicited for congratulatory messages

The government should take full responsibility for the deaths. The use of excessive force by police is prohibited and therefore, the NASA coalition will seek legal redress both locally and internationally to ensure justice for the victims. Upon investigations by the IPOA and KNCHR, individual charges will be preferred on police officers who will be found culpable, he said.

The NASA supporters clashed with the police on Friday, November 17 when they came out to welcome Raila from a 10 day trip in the US.

NASA women leaders and victims of police brutality

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Aksar 2 stylist Shaahid Amir supports Zareen Khan, and says that after being told that the film would be a clean one, the makers changed their minds halfway, and she was told to expose more.

By India Today Web Desk: The war rages on between Zareen Khan and Aksar 2 makers.

In an earlier interview to SpotboyE, Zareen had said that the makers had told her that Aksar 2 would be a clean film. Instead, they seemingly changed their minds, and asked her to expose more, and wear minimal clothes. She said that director Ananth Mahadevan was "clueless" about how to do the film. "They wanted me to wear minimal clothes in every frame. Of course I will raise questions and put my foot down na? Why was this masala being added? Were they not confident about what they had made till then?"

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Zareen was also upset with how certain scenes were shot, as they crossed the line from sensuous to vulgar.

Producer Narendra Bajaj even considered to slap a legal case on Zareen, after her comments. "A bound script was given to her and nothing since has changed. As for the clothes, she tried everything in Mumbai before we left for the schedule in Mauritius and all the clothes were approved by her. So, I don't understand her comments," he said.

Ananth responded to the allegations and said that Zareen was in the loop about everything, and it was a film driven by her. "Nobody is more prepared than me in the industry. People come to me for low-budget films with clarity and planning. I found it amusing to read allegations of confusion, extra shots, etc. I rehearse like a play. Every shot was explained during rehearsals."

He added, "Zareen may not have been used to that kind of filming. As for the smooches, I have repeatedly said that a few kisses do not make a film erotic. These days every other film has smooches - even a Karan Johar movie has them. In fact, we have shot longer kisses, but we didn't want an 'A' certificate because we wanted women to see the film and so edited them."

Now, Zareen's stylist, Shaahid Amir has backed her up on her statements. In an interview to SpotBoyE, Shaahid confirmed her story. "We were told it will be a clean film, but suddenly the strategy changed after the makers tied up with someone."

This is not the first time that Shaahid has worked with Ananth Mahadevan. However, he said that he hadn't experienced this kind of behaviour before. "Zareen eventually wore what she wanted but not before there was a lot of confusion on the sets," added the stylist.

Shaahid is a senior stylist who has worked on films like Singh Is Kinng (2008), Sarbjit (2016), Dil Se (1998), Omkara (2006) and many more. He further said," I won't get into the details, but whatever Zareen has said is absolutely true. We were clearly told that Aksar 2 is not Hate Story franchise. We were even told that there will be no focus on Zareen's body. But soon, everything was about exposure and exposing."

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Aksar 2 , stars Zareen Khan, Gautam Rode, and Abhinav Shukla. The film released on November 17.

ALSO WATCH| Comedy Dangal: Gautam Rode, Abhinav Shukla, Zareen Khan promote Aksar 2

--- ENDS ---
- British citizens have been warned of possible violence in Kenya on during the inauguration of Uhuru Kenyatta

- The UK said violence could probably erupt across the country on Tuesday, November 28

- NASA is expected to hold a parallel swearing in ceremony and a major rally on the same day Uhuru will be sworn in

The British government has cautioned its citizens travelling and residing in Kenya of possible violence days to the swearing in of president Uhuru Kenyatta.

The United Kingdom on Friday, November 24 warned of possible violence on Tuesday, November 28 in parts of the country.

Britain issues travel warning on Kenya over possible violence

However, in a Twitter post, the embassy denied it had issued a travel advisory saying the reports were false.

Kenya has been rocked by a spate of violence recently with opposition supporters clashing with police on various occasions leading to deaths, injuries and destruction of property.

British High Commissioner to Kenya, Nic Hailey with President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House in Nairobi. Photo: PSCU

READ ALSO: Former President Moi's message to Uhuru ahead of swearing-in

Uhuru is expected to take oath of office as he starts his second and final term in office as president following his disputed win in the October 26 repeat poll.

The National Super Alliance (NASA) has maintained it would be holding a parallel swearing in of it leader Raila Odinga as it believes he won the August 8 elections.

NASA leader Raila Odinga after a past meeting with British High Commissioner Nic Hailey. Photo: NASA

READ ALSO: Flaws detected in 2017 KCPE results released by Matiang'i

NASA has as well said it would hold a major rally at the historic Uhuru Park grounds on the same day Uhuru will be taking oath of office.

The government is on record as having said that NASA could as well go ahead and swear in Raila as reported earlier by TUKO.co.ke, but warned it should not cause chaos.

NASA women leaders and victims of police brutality - on TUKO TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
-Kisumu county governor, Anyang Nyong'o has dismissed claims that he had banned National Super Alliance (NASA) protests in the county

-The governor had been quoted condemning riotous youth in Kisumu who have been taking advantage of demos to loot

- He also said that future NASA protests would only be held in Nairobi

- Nairobi county Governor, Mike Sonko however fired back and asked him to apologise to Nairobi residents

Kisumu Governor, Anyango Nyongo on Friday, November 24 refuted claims that he had called off demonstrations in Kisumu county.

The governor through a Facebook post seen by TUKO.co.ke, dismissed the claims urging their loyal supporters to disregard the rumours.

READ ALSO: Mwanawe Uhuru - Daniel Owira - amekua na kubadilika mno (picha)

Kisumu County Governor, Anyang Nyong'o at a previous function. Photo: Anyang Nyong'o/ Facebook

READ ALSO: MCA's in NASA zones to be fined for passing Raila's People's Assembly motion

The governor instead said that henceforth all NASA sanctioned demonstrations shall be held in strict conformity to the law.

Anybody found engaging in any acts of lawlessness or criminality will be subjected to the full force of the law.

"The Governor stated clearly that henceforth all NASA sanctioned demonstrations shall be held in strict conformity to the law, anybody found engaging in any acts of lawlessness or criminality will be subjected to the full force of the law." read the Facebook post

READ ALSO: You can go ahead and swear in Raila Odinga-Govt tells NASA

In prior reports by TUKO.co.ke, Nyon'go had said that Raila Odinga has restricted future NASA demonstrations to Nairobi only.

Nyong'o also asked the Opposition supporters in Kisumu to refrain from holding demonstrations following massive loss of life and property witnessed in the recent days.

The announcement did not go down well with his Nairobi counterpart, Mike Sonko who fired back and demanded that Nyong'o should apologise to Nairobi residents.

NASA said it will continue with civil disobedience as one of the ways of resisting the presidency of Uhuru Kenyatta.

ALSO WATCH: Millie Odhiambo warns Mike Sonko

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Russian-backed militants violated ceasefire 7 times in ATO area in Donbas in last day.

This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.

The tensest situation was observed in Luhansk direction, where a military clash lasted for almost eight hours near Krymske (42.5km north-west of Luhansk). As a result, four Ukrainian soldiers were killed and two more were wounded. In addition, Russian-backed militants shelled Ukrainian strongholds outside Krymske, using 82mm mortars and infantry weapons. ATO troops near Novooleksandrivka (65km west of Luhansk) came under small arms and heavy machine gun fire. The defenders of Luhanske (59km north-east of Donetsk) came under grenade launcher fire.

In Donetsk direction, illegal armed formations fired weapons on infantry combat vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms near Pavlopol (30 km northeast of Mariupol). Militants also shelled Ukrainian positions in Vodiane (16km north-west of Donetsk), using grenade launchers and heavy machine guns.

A total of five Ukrainian servicemen were killed, and another four soldiers were wounded in the ATO area in last day, the ATO Headquarters press center reports.

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has discussed with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev the issue of Ukrainian-Azerbaijani strategic partnership, in particular political and economic cooperation.

According to a statement posted on the official website of the Ukrainian president, the meeting took place as part of Poroshenko's working visit to Brussels.

"The heads of state discussed a wide range of issues on the agenda of the Ukrainian-Azerbaijani strategic partnership. The Ukrainian president praised the progress in the implementation of the agreements reached at the level of the leaders of the countries, in particular, the positive level of bilateral cooperation in the energy sector," the statement reads.

It also notes that Poroshenko emphasized the importance of Ukrainian-Azerbaijani cooperation in infrastructure projects, mutual support for investment, as well as cooperation on privatization issues.

"The interlocutors discussed political cooperation, directions of the development of economic cooperation between the two countries, as well as cooperation within international organizations. The leaders of both countries agreed on the need to expand trade and economic cooperation between the states," the statement reads.

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President Petro Poroshenko thanked Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili for assistance in the rehabilitation of Ukrainian children and wounded servicemen, the presidents press service reported on Thursday.

The meeting was held in scope of the presidents visit to Brussels to attend the Fifth Eastern Partnership Summit.

President Petro Poroshenko thanked the Georgian side for facilitating the rehabilitation of Ukrainian children and wounded servicemen in the territory of Georgia. In the context of the discussion of sectoral cooperation between the two countries, the parties discussed positive dynamics in bilateral trade, as well as prospects of cooperation in the transport sphere with the maximum use of the transit potential of Ukraine and Georgia, reads the report.

The interlocutors also noted significant intensification of the political dialogue following the visit of President Poroshenko to Georgia in July 2017.

The parties also confirmed mutual support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both countries and emphasized the importance of further strengthening of cooperation in the framework of international and regional organizations.

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There is currently no consensus in the European Union regarding the official acknowledgement of the aspirations of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova to become future EU members.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said this on the sidelines of the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels on Friday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I understand our friends who want to get membership prospects with a concrete date. But no one in the EU, like the eastern partners, is ready to declare today that they are ready to become candidates," the Latvian minister said.

Rinkevics noted that some EU countries would like to speed up the progress of the eastern partners on the right path, but there is no unity among all 28 EU members.

"So, those who expect the acknowledgement of European prospects [at the Eastern Partnership summit] will be disappointed," he said.

At the same time, he said that no one at the geopolitical level could block the future membership of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova of the European Union, but this was largely dependent on the countries themselves.

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President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has discussed with Prime Minister of Finland Juha Sipila sanctions against Russia, deployment of the UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas, Nord Stream 2 project and the economic cooperation between the countries.

The leaders met within the framework of the Fifth Eastern Partnership Summit, the presidential press service reports.

It is noted that the interlocutors discussed the priority issues of Ukraine-EU interaction, in particular in the context of the initiatives of the President of Ukraine aimed at further rapprochement of our state with the European Union as well as extending EU economic sanctions against Russia at the December European Council meeting.

"The Finnish Prime Minister has emphasized the support of sanctions against Russia until it implements the Minsk agreements. The parties also discussed prospects for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation in the occupied part of Donbas," the statement reads.

In addition, the parties welcomed the positive dynamics of bilateral trade turnover growth. It was agreed to prepare for the meeting of the Intergovernmental Ukrainian-Finnish Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation that may take place in the beginning of the next year in Kyiv.

Poroshenko also stressed the unchanging position of Ukraine regarding the Nord Stream 2 project and urged the Finnish side to take a balanced approach to further consideration of this issue in the framework of the EU.

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Ukraine currently aims to join the EUs Energy Union, Digital Single Market, Customs Union and association with the Schengen area.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said this while delivering a speech at the plenary session of the Eastern Partnership Summit, the press service of the Head of State reports.

"[Ukraine] is looking (first and foremost) at so-called Four Unions  Energy Union; Digital Single Market; Customs Union and association with the Schengen area. We want more Europe in Ukraine. These four paths seem to be the right way for now," Poroshenko said

The President stressed that the Eastern Partnership should not be considered a way to prevent the countries of the region from aspiring EU membership.

According to Poroshenko, as long as the EU is an etalon of success  nations will want to be a part of it.

"The European Union should defend itself from those who defy it  not from those who look at it with hope and admiration," the President of Ukraine said.

In this regard, he called on the leaders of the EU member states to build the EU-Ukraine partnership on the basis of "smart differentiation, not rigid uniformity; common values, not technocratic short-sightedness; and brave ambitions, not clumsy excuses."

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Russia forcibly changes the demographic situation in the occupied Crimea. About 250,000 people from the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and 300,000 Russians have been delivered to Crimea.

Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Crimean Tatar People Mustafa Dzhemilev said this in an interview with Channel 5.

"Russia is grossly violating the Geneva Conventions on the inadmissibility of the forcible change in the demographic situation in the occupied territory by making the indigenous people flee the peninsula and populating it with the people loyal to Russian authorities. About 250,000 pro-Russian residents of the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions have been delivered to Crimea. Many of them are criminals. In addition, at least 250,000 people, or even 300,000  400,000 people, according to various estimates, have been delivered to the occupied Crimea from the Russian Federation," Dzhemilev said.

He stressed that such actions directly contradicted the requirements of the Geneva Conventions and were classified as the war crime.

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Charge d Affaires, a.i., to the U.S. Mission to the OSCE Harry Kamian delivered his speech at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday, stressing unjustified accusations made by the Russian Federation against Ukrinform journalist Roman Sushchenko and urging Moscow to immediately release the Ukrainian journalist, according to his statement posted on the official website of the U.S. Mission to the OSCE.

"Russia has detained dozens of Ukrainians on a variety of baseless pretexts. The United States is deeply concerned that a Moscow court may sentence journalist Roman Sushchenko to up to 20 years imprisonment on fabricated charges of espionage. We call on Russia to drop these charges," Kamian said.

He noted that the United States was also following the cases of Mykola Karpiuk and Stanislav Klykh, who were convicted in May 2016 on bogus "terrorism" charges. "We call on Russia to return both men to Ukraine," the U.S. diplomat said.

At the same time, he drew attention to the politically motivated targeting of Crimean Tatars and others opposed to Russia's occupation of Crimea. In this regard, the head of the U.S. Mission to the OSCE mentioned the conviction on the peninsula of academic Dmytro Shtyblykov on allegations of sabotage.

"The United States calls on Russia to abide by its international commitments, including its OSCE commitments, and to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," Kamian said.

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Patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) have poorer prognoses if cancer has metastasized to the lymph nodes. Genomic markers of lymph node involvement (LNI) would be useful for treatment planning, especially if measured at the biopsy stage, but large-scale studies of tumor tissue at any stage are needed to discover robust markers of LNI. We performed a genome-wide query of copy number alterations (CNA) in 237 MIBC surgical tumor specimens from patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas who had radical cystectomy and lymphadenectomy without neoadjuvant treatment. Pathology reports were independently reviewed to confirm LNI, and copy number data was analyzed to confirm gene-level gains and losses while adjusting for tumor purity and ploidy. Using logistic regression and elastic net models, we identified the CNA most significantly associated with LNI. Multivariable logistic regression was used to describe these CNA associations while adjusting for clinical variables. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression were used to describe their association with overall survival. Gains in 26 genes were identified as having strong associations with LNI. After adjusting for age, gender, race, pathological tumor stage, histology, and number of nodes examined, gains in 22 genes on chr3p25 or chr11p11 remained significantly associated with LNI (p<0.01) and improved model discrimination over clinical variables alone (p = 0.04). They were also associated with shorter overall survival (adjusted p = 0.02). These results suggest that a simple genomic test for gains in chr3p25 and chr11p11 could inform adjuvant treatment or clinical trial decisions if validated in external cohorts. Additional studies will also be needed to determine if these CNA are detectible in biopsy tissue and can inform clinical decisions at the preoperative stage.

PloS one. 2017 Nov 15*** epublish ***

Karla J Lindquist, Thomas Sanford, Terence W Friedlander, Pamela L Paris, Sima P Porten

Department of Urology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America., Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Medical Oncology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29140994
The U.S. Embassy on Wednesday opened a tender for a $2 million survey of landmines and unexploded ordnance in eastern Cambodia.

The announcement came just days after China provided Cambodia with donations to aid its demining efforts.

According to the notice, the winning bidder or bidders will use state-of-the-art techniques to clear areas of eastern Cambodia so they can be made safe for farming, road-building, trade, and housing.

The United States has supported humanitarian demining in Cambodia for over 20 years and is committed to addressing our war-time legacy. This new tender is a continuation of those commitments as it will further aid in the cleanup of the remnants of war, U.S. Ambassador William Heidt was quoted as saying in a press release.

We are looking for the best national and international experts to help remove unexploded ordnance in the east of Cambodia.

Earlier in the month, the United States said it would end its support to the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) this year after tensions rose between Prime Minister Hun Sen and Washington over accusations the U.S. backed the countrys main opposition in an alleged plot to overthrow the government.

Heng Ratana, CMAC deputy director, could not be reached, but he has previously said that the withdrawal of U.S. aid would threaten the organizations work.
In 1980, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, one of the worlds longest-serving rulers, won an election and became president of the country. During the post-independence era, he was known for leading the revolutionary movement to end white ownership of land and striving for racial reconciliation.

In 1985, Hun Sen of Cambodia, also one of the world's longest-serving rulers, became the prime minister of Cambodia in a new government installed by Vietnam. He was credited with leading a revolutionary force that ousted the Khmer Rouge regime and achieving economic growth after the devastation of war.

Both were labeled strongmen and kept a firm grip on power.

After 37 years in power, on November 21, Mugabe, who once vowed to remain in power until the age of 100, resigned from office after a week under house arrest following a coup led by his top generals.

Thirty-seven years of rule means that no matter what leaders want and declare to their peoplesuch as their demand to rule another decadechange is unavoidable. Change is the only constant. Ear Sophal, Associate Professor of Diplomacy & World Affairs at Occidental College, said in an email.

Though both countries made international headlines in the same month. But changes are also happening in Cambodia. Hun Sen, after 32 years in power and vowing to remain for another 10 years, has dissolved his main opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), also in November.

The self-exiled former opposition party leader, Sam Rainsy, posted on his Facebook page that next years election in Cambodia also sees the departure of a strongman.

Cambodian will similarly celebrate the fall of dictator Hun Sen who has also been in power for more than 30 years. Like in Zimbabwe, the armed forces in Cambodia should side with the people and stop obeying orders from the dictator, he wrote.

Ruling Cambodian Peoples Party spokesman Sok Eysan quickly sent a message urging journalists to not compare Zimbabwe to Cambodia.

In an interview with VOA Khmer, Eysan rejected the idea of taking Zimbabwe as an example of regime change in Cambodia.

Zimbabwe and Cambodia are as different as the sky and the land. Grandpa Mugabe is now 93 years old; and as the law of nature and the fact that he may not have the ability to perform well, he is destined to resign, Eysan said, adding that people do not care how long a particular leader rules as long as they live in a peace, political stability and well-being.

The transition in Zimbabwe may not offer much in the way of lessons or inspiration for Cambodia's opposition, according to Alvin Chheng-Hin Lim, a research fellow with International Public Policy, a consultancy, and author of Cambodia and the Politics of Aesthetics. Rather than a popular uprising against autocracy, the transition was due to a conflict within the top elite of the ruling party [ZANU-PF] he added.

Prior to the coup by military intervention, Mugabe wanted his wife Grace to rule after him.

The long-time [Vice President] Mnangagwa retained the loyalty of the key party members and more importantly, the military leadership which helped him oust Grace Mugabe from power, Lim said in an email.

The legitimacy of the [Zimbabwe] government will remain in question until new elections take place that are competitive, free and fair, Sophal said. Sound familiar?

Both leaders, Hun Sen and Mugabe, have created a similar legacy, Paul Chambers, a lecturer at the College of ASEAN Community Studies, Naresuan University, in Thailand, said. They spearheaded political transitions in their countries, also stabilized their countries out of civil war.

Both were allies of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and both outlived the Soviet Union. But since the Cold War, both turned to capitalist development strategies to bankroll their authoritarian personalist regimes," he added.

Fortunately, Chambers said, Cambodia has experienced enormous economic growth while Zimbabwe was a basket case of economic underdevelopment. Yet he also warned that If Hun Sen's economic policies are unable to keep Cambodia's macro-economy buoyant, then he has a Mugabe future for sure.

Besides being notorious for keeping a tight grip on governments which have been accused of human rights violations and corruption, the commonalities of both leaders failure extends to a poor healthcare system. Mugabe and Hun Sen frequently visited the same country, Singapore, to seek medical treatment, rather than seek treatment in their respective countries.

After more than three decades in power, Hun Sen has become one of Beijings most important allies in Southeast Asia. His government can count on Chinas support for the upcoming 2018 election. With Chinas financial support, which doesnt attach conditions and pressure to value human rights and democracy, Hun Sen can safely ignore criticism from the west.

In Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa, who was sworn in as president this week, is also accused of the same pattern of human rights abuses and corruption as his predecessor.

Indeed, if you had competitive, free, and fair elections, you could replace the person in charge and would not be stuck with a dictator. Lets just hope The Crocodile doesnt rule for another 37 years and plunge the country deeper into the abyss, said Sophal.
Pakistani authorities have released a U.S.-wanted militant cleric who allegedly masterminded the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, that killed 168 people.

On Wednesday, a court in Pakistan rejected the governments plea to extend the house arrest of Hafiz Saeed for three months and ordered his release, saying the government had failed to substantiate the charges of terrorism.

Saeed was designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department, which has a $10 million reward for his capture or killing. He was released from house arrest before dawn Friday.

Saeed ran the Jamaat-ud-Dawa organization, believed to be a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group that was behind the attack in Mumbai, India.

Pakistan put Saeed and four of his aides under house arrest in Lahore in January following increased U.S. pressure on Islamabad to rein in militant groups. Saeeds aides were released earlier.

On Thursday, India condemned the decision of the Pakistani court to release Saeed from house arrest.
As the embattled Islamic State terror group has lost much of its territory and strength in Syria and Iraq, governments in North Africa fear many returning fighters from the Mideast battlegrounds could trigger instability in the region.

"The region is threatened ... with the return of foreign fighters," Algeria Foreign Minister Abdul Qader Messahel told reporters in Cairo last week.

"The signs and reports indicate that the [foreign fighters'] return will be in our region," Messahel added.

Thousands of foreign fighters

Recent reports indicate at least 5,600 foreign fighters have left the battlefield following IS defeats in Syria and Iraq. Hundreds of fighters from North African states, including Tunisia and Morocco, have already returned to their home countries, according to a recent report by the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank following the developments in the region.

North Africa has been a major source of foreign fighters for IS and other terror groups in Iraq and Syria, with thousands of fighters from the region having reportedly joined the conflict in the two troubled countries since 2012.

Analysts think that while some fighters might settle down and join the mainstream in their respective communities, others might move on to the next conflict after the one in the Middle East.

"Foreign fighters returning from ISIS is a very great concern in the West and in the Middle East and North Africa region," David Des Roches, an associate professor at the National Defense University in Washington, told VOA, using an acronym for the militant group.

"This group of radicalized people do not view themselves as defeated, but rather feel they are returning to carry on jihad on a different battlefield," Des Roches added.



Ongoing conflicts

There is also growing concern that the ongoing conflicts in several North African countries provide a fertile ground for the re-emergence of IS in the region.

In Egypt, several militant groups, including Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has pledged allegiance to IS, are controlling large swaths of the Sinai Peninsula, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel, and have established their own rule over the areas under their control.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis' local affiliates are posing a threat in the neighboring Sahel region of Africa. Last month, IS-linked militants killed four U.S. soldiers in Niger.

Libya is another location that analysts think IS might use as a breathing space and a hub from which to send fighters to neighboring countries in an effort to expand its sphere of influence.

Leaders in North African countries and analysts say the political and military crisis in Libya is providing a springboard for IS fighters moving to North Africa.

"There is every likelihood that squeezed IS fighters will seek to move to a more permissive security environment, and that would be Libya and the states of the Sahel," Jennifer Cooke, director of Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told VOA.

IS in Libya

Ismael Meraf, an Algerian analyst, told Alhurra, a U.S.-based public Arabic-language satellite TV channel that broadcasts to Middle East and North African audiences, that Libya "has become a fertile land for terrorist groups."

U.S. officials and lawmakers also have warned of IS's growing threat in Africa.

"The more we succeed on the Middle East, the more we are going to see the snakes run to Africa," U.S. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said last month following a classified briefing on the attack on U.S. troops by an IS-affiliated group in Niger.

Senator John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has warned that "there is no doubt" the fight against IS is now moving to Africa.

General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers last month that IS aspires to establish a larger presence "from Libya to Egypt's Sinai to West Africa."

U.S. Africa Command spokeswoman Robyn Mack recently told VOA that the U.S military had launched new airstrikes against IS militants in Libya.

Mack said the strikes occurred November 17 and 19 near Fuqaha "in coordination with the Libyan Government of National Accord."

Several IS militants have been reportedly killed in the airstrikes.

"We are committed to maintaining pressure on the terror network and preventing them from establishing [a] safe haven," Mack said.

Battling IS presence

IS has a presence in Libya's coastal city of Sirte. The U.S and Libyan governments have been battling the terror group to try to prevent it from establishing a hub in the war-torn country.

The military carried out about 500 airstrikes last year against the IS fighters in Sirte.

Experts, however, charge that IS is looking to establish a hub not only in Libya but also in other vulnerable countries.

Des Roches, of the National Defense University, maintains that a comprehensive strategy is needed to counter the threats posed by the returning IS fighters in Africa and elsewhere.

Other than military measures, combating IS and other militant groups in the region requires addressing other factors that enable extremist groups to expand in the region, he added.

"There is a need to create more jobs, fight corruption, and provide services and better governance in Africa," Des Roches told VOA. "To win the ideological battle, the governments should focus on teaching moderate Islam."

VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
Argentina's president said Friday that an international search would continue for a submarine carrying 44 crew members that has been lost in the South Atlantic for nine days and that the sub's disappearance would be investigated.

The Argentine navy says an explosion occurred near the time and place where the submarine went missing on November 15 as it was sailing from the extreme southern port of Ushuaia to the coastal city of Mar del Plata. That's led some family members of the crew to give up hope of a rescue.

Navy officials and outside experts also worry that even if the sub is intact but submerged, its crew may be running out of oxygen.

"The disappearance and current search of the ARA San Juan submarine has touched all Argentines. It's a difficult moment for all, but obviously, especially for the families of the 44 crew members," President Mauricio Macri said in his first public comments about the missing sub at the navy's headquarters in Buenos Aires.

"I'm here to guarantee you that we will carry on with the search, especially now that we have the support of all the international community."

More than a dozen airplanes and ships have been participating in the multinational search across 185,000 square miles (480,000 square kilometers), roughly the size of Spain.

The Argentine navy said Friday that Russia was sending an Antonov transport aircraft, and a ship in the southern Patagonian port of Comodoro Rivadavia was being adapted to carry a U.S. Navy submarine rescue chamber to the area.

The ARA San Juan, a German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine, was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refitted in 2014.

The sub was originally scheduled to arrive Monday to a navy base in Mar del Plata, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Buenos Aires. Some relatives of the crew who have gathered at the base fear that their loved ones will no longer be rescued.

"Hope is the last thing you lose. I'm waiting for a surprise, but I'm not really counting on it," Luis Tagliapietra, father of crew member Alejandro Damian Tagliapietra, 27, told The Associated Press.

"You go from denial to suffering, from optimism to pessimism," he said, holding back tears. When he found out about the explosion from his son's direct superior, he was told that there was a possibility there were no survivors.

"I asked them if they were all dead, and he said: 'Yes.' "

Some family members have denounced the navy's response to the disappearance and the condition of the 32-year-old vessel.

Although Macri said that it's not the time to point fingers at anyone, he promised a probe of the sub's disappearance.

"This demands a serious, deep investigation," Macri said. "We need to understand how a submarine that had undergone a midlife refit, and that was in perfect conditions to sail, suffered this explosion."
A code of conduct aimed at avoiding mishaps in the contested South China Sea is likely to sidestep concerns that are offensive to the chief claimant, Beijing, analysts forecast.

China and 10 Southeast Asian Nations agreed at summits in Manila this month to start negotiations on a code of conduct for the resource-rich sea, where sovereignty is contested by six governments.

Beijing claims about 90 percent of the sea from its south coast to the island of Borneo. It has alarmed rival claimants, including Taiwan and four Southeast Asian states, since 2010 with its construction of artificial islands for fighter jets and radar systems.

Other claimants also value investment and development aid from the $11.2 trillion Chinese economy, making it harder for them to speak out.

The discussion (on a code of conduct) should revolve around basically crisis prevention and crisis management, said Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the University of the Philippines. I dont think it will be very specific.

From goodwill to nonviolence

Leaders from Beijing and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed November 13 to open negotiations that will convert a framework code of conduct into a set of rules for the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea.

The go-ahead followed more than a year of building goodwill between ASEAN and China, including pledges of Chinese aid for the Philippines plus a deepening of economic cooperation in Indochina. China in turn expects no challenge to its maritime sovereignty, analysts believe.

Code of conduct negotiators will assure the document indeed doesn't have any implication on questions of sovereignty, said Oh Ei Sun, international studies instructor at Singapore Nanyang University.

So-called experts from various countries are really trying to look at it from various angles so as not to imply something disadvantageous toward them, he said.

Claimants want the code to head off clashes among a million-plus fishing boats, coast guard vessels and naval ships that use the South China Sea. About one-third of the worlds marine shipping traffic passes through the same sea.

But Vietnam and China have sparred at least three times. Sailors died in naval clashes in 1974 and 1988. Beijings placement of an oil rig sparked boat ramming in 2014.

Rehash of older documents

The code will probably rehash milder parts of existing, non-binding agreements, said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Its not going to have any law enforcement power, he added.

Among the older deals from which the code may borrow language is a China-Southeast Asia Declaration of Conduct signed in 2002, Koh said. The declaration calls for peaceful settlement of disputes, notification of military exercises and humane treatment of people in distress.

Parties may also borrow from the Code of Unplanned Encounters at Sea, a voluntary 2014 agreement followed by China and the United States, Oh said. China and the Southeast Asian bloc agreed last year to observe this code so they would improve what Beijings official Xinhua News Agency calls operational safety of naval ships and naval aircraft in air and at sea.

A third document they might consult is the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which covers rights of merchant ships, transit passage and innocent passage.

The code of conduct is expected further to enshrine use of a China-Southeast Asian nation hotline for foreign ministry use in case of maritime problems.

Code of conduct omissions

The code is likely to omit references to specific parts of the sea, especially occupied shoals, reefs and islets, analysts believe. It may also shun mentions to freedom of navigation or the use of outside dispute resolutions.

Beijing resents passage of U.S. ships through the sea and lost a world court arbitration to the Philippines in 2016 over the legal basis of its claims, which it backs with historical fishing records. Some countries worry China will declare an air defense identification zone over the sea to restrict foreign aviation.

China prefers to work things bilaterally instead through formal, international dispute resolution.

Today the maritime claimants normally protest diplomatically rather than with force over perceived sovereignty breaches. They also do not seize occupied islands from one another.

The code will probably consecrate today's reality in the South China Sea, said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. The relatively weak Southeast Asian states are unlikely to violate it, he said, putting the "onus" on China.

"The code of conduct, I think (is) de facto forcing China to recognize the existing boundaries," Chong said. "So China will play along as long as it leaves the door open for its ultimate claim of everything."

Signing by 2018

China and Southeast Asia agreed to open negotiations on the code of conduct early next year with an expected aim of signing it by the end of 2018.

China may want the code sooner than later to look like a good Asian neighbor, said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. Without a glow from the code of conduct, Huang said, attention could shift to China's internationally controversial support for Communist ally North Korea, he said.

But China has more freedom to use the sea without a code, Koh said.

In the first place, China will be always trying to play for time, Koh said. The longer it takes the more leeway China will have to do whatever it wants.
London police found no casualties Friday after investigating reports of shots fired at a busy subway station.

Police initially responded as if the incident were terror-related, but later said they "have not located any trace of any suspects, evidence of shots fired or casualties."

Given the nature of the information received, the Met responded in line with our existing operation as if the incident was terrorism, including the deployment of armed officers, the police said in a statement.

Armed and unarmed officers are on scene and working along with colleagues from British Transport Police, which said a woman sustained a "minor injury" while leaving the area.

Videos posted on social media showed a rush of people leaving the area around the Oxford Circus tube station.

In a statement, the British Transport Police said officers were called to the station after reports of gunfire on a subway platform.

The area is a crowded shopping district in the center of the city. Social media reports said people were seen running from the area.

Passengers then "self-evacuated" onto the street, causing a "significant level of panic which resulted in numerous calls from members of the public reporting gunfire," the statement said.

It added that police are still investigating the incident.

British Transport Police posted CCTV images of two men on Twitter, saying they believed that an altercation had erupted between the two men at the Oxford Circus underground station and said they would like to speak to the men, who they believe may have information about the incident and the circumstances around the incident.

The capitals transport operator, Transport for London, said the Oxford Circus and Bond Street stations, which were briefly shut because of the incident, had later reopened.

In Photos: London Subway Incident
Cambodia's crackdown on critical news media has taken a sordid turn with the publication of pictures purportedly showing a former Radio Free Asia (RFA) reporter filming and participating in pornographic videos.

The photos were posted last weekend on the websites of two pro-government news outlets, whose editors say the images were provided to them by police.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose government has already dissolved the countrys main opposition, warned Thursday that journalism that threatens the government will be targeted. He did not address the release of the compromising images.

"The royal government of Cambodia will not allow the use of freedom in anarchic and illegal means to stage a color revolution to topple the legitimate royal government," he said, invoking an accusation that is now routinely deployed against any government critic.

Fresh News, which posted the lewd images first, said an anonymous police official had unearthed the material during a raid last week on an allegedly unlicensed karaoke video filming studio set up by former RFA reporter Uon Chhin.

He and former colleague Yeang Sothearin, who also goes by the pen name Yeang Socheameta, have been in custody, accused of continuing to work for RFA after the U.S. government-funded broadcaster shut down its offices in early September citing the government's "relentless crackdown on independent voices."

The two were charged with espionage under a vaguely defined law that criminalizes passing on information that could be deemed harmful to national security to a foreign state. If found guilty they could be sentenced to up to 15 years.

RFA responds to allegations



RFA spokesperson Rohit Mahajan said in an emailed statement that the broadcaster had not had a relationship, contractual or otherwise, with the two reporters since the Phnom Penh office was shut on Sept. 12. VOA has been unable to contact Uon Chhin for a comment on the photos while he is in custody.

The photos emerged soon after the arrests. Pro-government website Swift News published uncensored versions of the photographs, though later removed them from the website. But they remain in its Facebook instant news feed.

Fresh News still has pixilated versions of the photos on its site. CEO and founder Lim Cheavutha defended his decision to publish the photos saying his decision to blur the characters genitalia showed he followed an ethical code.

"As the news outlet, I get information from the government and police and I published it by confirming from the police. It is not related to the false report but it is just what the police gave [me]," he said.

Journalists sign petition



At least 80 local journalists have thumb-printed a petition calling for the release of Sothearin, who had worked as a news editor and office coordinator, and Chhin  a widely respected and popular veteran video journalist.

The Cambodian Club of Journalists (CCJ) and the Union of Journalist Federations of Cambodia (UJFC) both have refrained from making public statements in defense of the two reporters.

As head of the UJFC, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Interior and the head of news at television network CTN, Huy Vannak is in a unique position to view these events.

Vannak, who said he also informally advises Swift News and Fresh News on content strategy, stressed he was trying to stay neutral by providing legal support rather than opinions, but recalled some impressions of his former student Uon Chhin when pressed repeatedly.

"He spoke less. He was very soft but like I said, before and now is different. Like you are confused about Pol Pot," he said, pointing out that the former Khmer Rouge leader often came across as a smiling and caring person, even as his regime implemented policies blamed for the deaths of almost 2 million people during the late 1970s. "It is very hard for me to say and to judge personality," Vannak said.

Handling leaked news



Concerning the ethics of posting the naked photos, Vannak said he did not judge personally but behind closed doors had told those involved what was right and what was wrong.

"I explained to them leaked news is a tactic but as a journalist you would consider with a high morals what story you should run and then they decided to drop their decision."

He could not provide clear guidelines as head of the UJFC to journalists about how they could avoid committing "espionage" under the vaguely worded law, but said citizens needed to know "the value and frame of your rights" and exercise awareness.

"I tried to be very clear that if you consider, they are journalists and then what grounds to defend them because RFA denied that they [are] no longer working for RFA  then who they going to work for?" said Vannak, who himself used to work for RFA.

Sothearins uncle-in-law, Lim Sim, said his nephew had stopped working for RFA before the arrest and had merely gone to the guesthouse where Chhin was apprehended to act as a witness - resulting in his own arrest.

"I dont understand the case," he said.

Editor's note: Radio Free Asia is funded by a grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America.
Cuban President Raul Castro met with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Friday amid hopes the communist-run island might be able to persuade its Asian ally to avert a showdown with the United States.

North Korea is facing unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Cuba has maintained close diplomatic ties with North Korea since 1960, but is opposed to nuclear weapons.

"In the brotherly encounter, both sides commented on the historic friendship between the two nations and talked about international topics of mutual interest," Cuban state television said on its midday broadcast.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that he had discussed with Castro last year the possibility of working together to defuse global tensions with North Korea.

"Can we pass along messages through surprising conduits?" Trudeau asked in a Q&A session after a speech.

"It was a topic of conversation when I met President Raul Castro last year. These are the kinds of things where Canada can, I think, play a role that the United States has chosen not to play, this past year."

Canada had an interest in seeking solutions, not just because of regional security but also because the flight path of possible North Korean missiles would cross its territory, Trudeau said.

'Real balance of power'

North Korea is working on developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, aiming to achieve what Ri has called "a real balance of power with the United States."

Ri met his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, this week, and the ministers denounced U.S. "unilateral and arbitrary lists and designations" that led to "coercive measures contrary to international law," according to Cuba's foreign ministry.

The ministers called for "respect for peoples' sovereignty" and the "peaceful settlement of disputes," according to a ministry statement.

President Donald Trump has increased pressure on Cuba since taking office, rolling back a detente begun by his predecessor, Barack Obama, and returning to the hostile rhetoric of the Cold War.

North Korea and Cuba are the last countries in the world to maintain Soviet-style command economies, though under Raul Castro, the Caribbean nation has taken small steps toward the more market-oriented communism of China and Vietnam.

Raul took over the presidency in 2008 from revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, his older brother, who died November 25, 2016. Cuba is marking the anniversary on Saturday with vigils and concerts.

Cuba maintains an embassy in North Korea but trades mostly with South Korea. Last year, trade with the latter was $67 million and just $9 million with the North, the government said.
Beyond the slick, Hollywood-style cinematics, the Islamic State is targeting Western recruits with videos suggesting they, too, can be heroes like Bruce Willis' character in Die Hard.

That's the conclusion of The Chicago Project on Security and Threats, which analyzed some 1,400 videos released by IS between 2013 and 2016. Researchers who watched and catalogued them all said there is more to the recruitment effort than just sophisticated videography, and it's not necessarily all about Islam.

Instead, Robert Pape, who directs the security center, said the extremist group is targeting Westerners  especially recent Muslim converts  with videos that follow, nearly step-by-step, a screenwriter's standard blueprint for heroic storytelling.

"It's the heroic screenplay journey, the same thing that's in Wonder Woman, where you have someone who is learning his or her own powers through the course of their reluctant journey to be hero," Pape said.

Heroic storytelling

The project at the University of Chicago separately has assembled a database of people who have been indicted in the United States for activities related to IS. Thirty-six percent were recent converts to Islam and did not come from established Muslim communities, according to the project. Eighty-three percent watched IS videos, the project said.

The group's success in using heroic storytelling is prompting copycats, Pape said. The research shows al-Qaida's Syria affiliate has been mimicking IS' heroic narrative approach in its own recruitment films. "We have a pattern that's emerging," Pape said.

Intelligence and law enforcement officials aren't sure the approach is all that new. They say IS has been using any method that works to recruit Westerners. Other terrorism researchers think IS' message is still firmly rooted in religious extremism.

Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks messaging by militant groups, agrees that IS makes strong, visual appeals resembling Hollywood movies and video games, making its media operation more successful than al-Qaida's. And IS videos can attract hero wannabes, she said.

"However, these features of IS media are only assets to a core message it uses to recruit," Katz said. "At the foundation of IS recruitment propaganda is not so much the promise to be a Hollywood-esque hero, but a religious hero. There is a big difference between the two."

Promise of martyrdom

When a fighter sits in front of a camera and calls for attacks, Katz said, he will likely frame it as revenge for Muslims killed or oppressed somewhere in the world. The message is designed to depict any terror attack in that nation as justified and allow the attacker to die as a martyr, she said.

The promise of religious martyrdom is powerful to anybody regardless of whether they are rich or poor, happy or unhappy, steeped in religion or not at all, she said.

Pape said he knows he's challenging conventional wisdom when he says Westerners are being coaxed to join IS ranks not because of religious beliefs, but because of the group's message of personal empowerment and Western concepts of individualism.

How else can one explain Western attackers' loose connections to Islam, or their scarce knowledge of IS's strict, conservative Sharia law, he asked. IS is embracing, not rejecting, Western culture and ideals, to mobilize Americans, he said.

"This is a journey like Clint Eastwood," Pape said, recalling Eastwood's 1970s performance in High Plains Drifter about a stranger who doles out justice in a corrupt mining town. "When Clint Eastwood goes in to save the town, he's not doing it because he loves them. He even has contempt for the people he's saving. He's saving it because he's superior," Pape said.

"That's Bruce Willis in Die Hard. That's Wonder Woman. ... Hollywood has figured out that's what puts hundreds of millions in theater seats," Pape said. "IS has figured out that's how to get Westerners."

12-step guide

Pape said the narrative in the recruitment videos targeting westerners closely tracks Chris Vogler's 12-step guide titled "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers." The book is based on a narrative identified by scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama and other storytelling.

Step No. 1 in Vogler's guide is portraying a character in his "ordinary world."



An example is a March 25, 2016, video released by al-Qaida's Syria branch about a young British man with roots in the Indian community. It starts: "Let us tell you the story of a real man ... Abu Basir, as we knew him, came from central London. He was a graduate of law and a teacher by profession."

Vogler's ninth step is about how the hero survives death, emerging from battle to begin a transformation, sometimes with a prize.



In the al-Qaida video, the Brit runs through sniper fire in battle. He then lays down his weapon and picks up a pen to start his new vocation blogging and posting Twitter messages for the cause.

'Zero to hero'

Matthew Levitt, a terrorism expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says it doesn't surprise him that IS would capitalize on what he dubs the "zero to hero" strategy because the organization is very pragmatic and accepts recruits regardless of their commitment to Islamic extremism.

Heroic aspirations are only one reason for joining the ranks of IS, he said. Criminals also seek the cover of IS to commit crimes. Others sign up because they want to belong to something.

"I've never seen a case of radicalization that was 100 percent one way or the other," Levitt said.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations recently said that South Sudans government is responsible for the countrys brutal four-year conflict, and that the U.S. should exert its influence to end the fighting. At least one analyst says he appreciates Nikki Haleys hard-hitting remarks.

The United States has a lot of leverage that it has not used previously and it really needs to happen at the moment, said Brian Adeba, deputy director of policy for the Enough Project, an activist group that has been tracking atrocities in the war.

And one of the things were saying to stop this war [is that] we really need to make sure that those who are behind it begin to feel the consequences of their actions.

That includes financial pressures on the people in charge and ensuring that theres a price to pay for perpetuating the conflict, according to Adeba.

WATCH: Nikki Haley says US Must Take Sides in South Sudan Conflict

Haleys remarks

Adeba spoke to VOAs South Sudan in Focus this week after Haley made pointed comments about South Sudans government at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington.

The government is engaged in a brutal, protracted military campaign against a fragmented opposition, the ambassador said. The divisions are tribal. Both sides are responsible for atrocities against civilians, but the government is primarily responsible for ethnically based killings and for deliberately blocking the delivery of humanitarian assistance to suffering people.

Haley told of the suffering she saw and heard about on her recent visit to a South Sudanese refugee camp in Ethiopia.

One woman told me about being gang raped. She told me about how the soldiers ripped her baby out of her arms, threw him in a fire, and then they forced her to eat the flesh of her own child. Audible gasps could be heard in the room when Haley told that story.

Truth or exaggeration?

Some South Sudanese observers doubt the truthfulness of that account. They say refugees sometimes exaggerate their stories to gain attention and receive more humanitarian aid.

I think that theres always that possibility, Adeba said. But we also want to be realistic about some of the atrocities that have been committed during this conflict. And I think personally, after having studied this conflict for a while now, that it is not out of the realm of possibility to believe that such atrocities may have occurred. Nevertheless, we need more documentation.

Adeba said human rights organizations have uncovered similar, brutal attacks on women in other parts of the country.

In one instance, in the city of Bentiu, we have heard of cases in which objects were pushed into the genital organs of females who found themselves caught up in the fighting, he told VOA. So when we say there are cases of cannibalism, it is absolutely not out of the realm of possibility.

Tame words tossed aside

Haley did not mince words when she held a brief, one-on-one meeting with President Salva Kiir in Juba.

As she was approaching the presidential palace, making her way through layers of security, Haley says she changed her mind about what she would say. She decided her prepared words were too tame for what she called a leader so bloodstained and isolated from his people.

Haley says she remains critical of Kiir, even though the president is a former rebel leader who has endured hardships in his own family.

While I could have some sympathy for his past, there is only revulsion and disgust for what he has allowed to happen and for what he has himself done to the people of his country, she said.

Now action needed

Adeba praises Haleys straightforward approach with the president, saying its important for the U.S. to flex its muscles and threaten action. But thats been done many times before, and Adeba says President Kiir knows he can get away with saying one thing and doing another.

Adeba says instead of making more threats, the U.S. should take unilateral action, as it did Sept. 7, when it imposed economic sanctions on key individuals on both sides of the conflict.

So there is the multilateral side of it and then theres the unilateral side of it. The unilateral side of it has a lot of potential because when we talk about corruption and enacting financial measures, were hitting these people in their pockets because of one vital thing that the United States has and thats the use of the U.S. dollar.

Adeba says thats where the U.S. has a lot of power and can go it alone without having to depend on multilateral efforts in the U.N. Security Council, where similar efforts have failed in the past.

Adeba also says the U.S. should use its influence to pressure all parties to take part in efforts to revitalize the peace agreement that collapsed last year. He says the process should be restructured so that the regional bloc IGAD would be monitored by another body, preferably from the U.N. or the African Union.

He says too many individual countries represented in IGAD have competing interests in South Sudan, which stymies any possibility for a real and lasting peace agreement.
The leaders of the European Union and the six Eastern Partnership countries will meet in Brussels on Friday in an effort to deepen ties between the EU and the former Soviet republics.

The summit's main event will likely be the signing of an enhanced EU partnership deal with Armenia. That pact, however, omits free trade and is less ambitious than the association agreements secured by Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Like those three countries, Armenia previously negotiated an EU Association Agreement. But Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian walked away from the deal in 2013 under pressure from Russia.

Armenia later joined the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

The EU launched the Eastern Partnership in 2009 to promote economic integration and European values in six Eastern European and South Caucasus countries.

The run-up to this year's summit has otherwise been dominated by speculation about whether authoritarian Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka would show up. Minsk said Tuesday that Foreign Minister Uladzimer Makei would lead its delegation.

In October, EU sources told RFE/RL that Lukashenka had received an invitation "without restrictions," just like the leaders of the other five Eastern Partnership states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

This was a U-turn compared with the previous four summits, when he was blocked after being hit with EU sanctions following a violent crackdown on protesters after the Belarusian presidential elections in 2010.

Most of the sanctions, including those on Lukashenka, were lifted in February 2016.

Conflicting statements

This year's summit in Brussels could also see clashes over the gathering's final declaration, according to EU diplomats familiar with the talks.

One paragraph concerning conflicts in the region has been left open after both Armenia and Azerbaijan wanted specific but conflicting statements on the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a draft text seen by RFE/RL.

The current text also fails to mention the war between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.

"The summit participants call for renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region on the basis of the principles and norms of international law," it reads.

It adds that "the resolution of the conflicts, building trust and good neighborly relations are essential to economic and social development and cooperation."

EU diplomats told RFE/RL that they wanted neutral wording in the statement and to omit any mention of specific conflicts in the Eastern Partnership countries, citing squabbles between Baku and Yerevan over the 2015 declaration that delayed the summit by several hours.

Ukraine is also likely to make a final push to secure more positive wording concerning its prospects of eventually joining the EU.

The current draft language on that topic is identical to that of the previous summit, stating that "the summit participants acknowledge the European aspirations and European choice of the partners concerned, as stated in the association agreements."

The text references a December 2016 decision by EU heads of state that included a legally binding supplement to its association agreement underscoring that Brussels will not give Kyiv the right to automatic EU membership or guarantee any EU military aid for Ukraine.

The addendum allowed the Netherlands to finally ratify the Ukraine Association Agreement earlier this year despite the fact that 61 percent of Dutch voters disapproved of the deal in a citizen-driven, nonbinding referendum held in April 2016.

The draft declaration also outlines some future EU strategies in the Eastern Partnership countries.

These include "facilitating access to local currency lending" for local small and medium-sized enterprises, supporting "increased access to high-speed broadband" and "progressing towards reduced roaming tariffs among the partner countries."
Indonesia's ongoing effort to arrest the Speaker of the House, Setya Novanto, for corruption has been playing out in headlines with melodramatic turns, from a hospital stay to a car crash to a house raid.

But beyond serving as a test for Indonesia's anti-corruption efforts, an additional consequence is the fractures the scandal threatens to expose within the Golkar Party, the country's longest-lasting party and one of its major political forces.

It was the ruling party for 26 years during and immediately after the Suharto dictatorship. Novanto was anointed the party's chairman in 2015, but was relieved of his duties Tuesday because of the corruption case against him.

Novanto has reportedly threatened to name names of other politicians within Golkar involved in the ID Card scandal. He is in the custody of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which has until November 30 to begin questioning him before getting embroiled in a pre-trial motion that Novanto has filed as a stalling measure with the South Jakarta District Court. The graft case revolves around attempted extortion from a company that has a government contract to produce electronic identification cards ("e-KTP") within Indonesia.

The new interim leader is the party's secretary general, Idrus Marham.

If Novanto's trial gets under way, the party will try to elect a new chairman. Golkar has been central to current President Joko Widodo's legislative coalition. There are concerns about cementing its leadership soon because of an intense upcoming year of elections: regional elections in June 2018, and then "unprecedented" simultaneous legislative and presidential elections 10 months later.

Suharto holdover

The modern Golkar party (short for Partai Golongan Kary, or Party of the Functional Groups) arose from an anti-Communist trade union organized by the Indonesian military in 1964. After the military's mass killings of suspected Communists and leftists in 1965 and 1966, military general Suharto took over power from the founding president Sukarno, and was officially elected president in 1968.

Suharto was unaffiliated with a party but needed one, at least nominally, for his re-election campaigns. So, he supervised the transformation of the nonprofit coalition into a political party, whose first candidates ran in legislative elections in 1971.

Golkar continued to be the dominant political party in Indonesia for the rest of the Suharto era, until his dictatorship collapsed in 1998. Until 1997, the party's candidates won 62 to74 percent of all legislative seats in every nationwide election.

The party has adapted to the democratic post-1998 era by electing its chairmen and competitively deciding its presidential candidates. But there are many more parties now than the three state-sanctioned parties of the Suharto era. In the 2009 and 2014 elections, Golkar has won less than 15 percent of the legislative seats and its presidential candidates lost in both 2004 and 2009.

In the past, Golkar has been affiliated with the paramilitary youth group called Pemuda Pancasila. Some of the party's current prominent politicians, like representative Bambang Soesatyo, came up through membership in Pemuda Pancasila.

But at present, most of the ties between the actual military and Golkar have faded, said Evan Laksmana, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

"There is no such thing as a military alliance with political parties anymore, since 1999. The Indonesian military has not and for now will not have any formal or organizational ties with political parties of any kind. The TNI [Indonesian National Armed Forces] does not engage in partisan politics in that sense," Laksmana said.

"If Golkar's electoral performance declines, it wouldn't be because of the role of retirees in their ranks," he added. "It would be because of corruption cases and performance of local Golkar party machinery and elected officials, from mayors to governors."

Crowded party landscape

Observers have pointed to leadership disputes within the party as a source of its diminishing power. The Novanto scandal likely does not help.

But modern Indonesia is also home to a large and constantly changing landscape of political parties.

The media mogul and business partner of U.S. President Donald Trump, Hary Tanoe, started his own party called Perindo last year. A former television presenter named Grace Natalie created the Indonesian Solidarity Party, which focuses on women's rights and pluralism, in 2015. One of its talents is a 21-year-old Twitter star and university student named Tsamara Amany.

Golkar's years of domination are likely over. Still, to even remain competitive in upcoming elections, the party has a formidable task to rebuild itself within a crowded political arena.

And whatever happens to his party, Novanto's political future looks bleak.

"If the South Jakarta District Court rejects his defense, it will be the final bell of his political career," said Arbi Sanit, a political scientist at the University of Indonesia. "And if he somehow wins in court, the Golkar Party will have lost many supporters."
The British daily The Guardian has reported that authorities in Iran have set a date for the trial of British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, citing the woman's husband.

Richard Ratcliffe told the newspaper that his wife will appear in court Dec. 10 to face charges of spreading propaganda.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested in Tehran in April 2016, is serving a five-year prison term for a conviction on national-security charges.

The new charges against Zaghari-Ratcliffe apparently stem from a statement made by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who told a parliamentary committee on Nov. 1 that she had been "training journalists" in Iran.

Johnson later apologized for the statement, saying it was not true and affirming that the woman had only been visiting relatives in the Islamic republic.

On Nov. 4, however, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was brought to an unscheduled court hearing, at which Johnson's comments were used as evidence for a new charge that she had been spreading "propaganda against the regime."

Richard Ratcliffe said he believed his wife was about to be released before Johnson made his remarks.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe's employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has said she was not working in Iran.

Johnson said earlier this month that he plans to travel to Tehran soon and would seek to meet with Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
The Irish government was on the verge of collapse Thursday after the party whose votes Prime Minister Leo Varadkar depends on to pass legislation said it would seek to remove the deputy prime minister in a breach of their cooperation agreement.

The crisis comes three weeks ahead of a European Union summit in which the Irish government has an effective veto on whether Britains talks on leaving the bloc progress as it determines if EU concerns about the future of the Irish border have been met.

In a row that escalated rapidly, the opposition Fianna Fail party said it would put a motion of no confidence in Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald before parliament on Tuesday over her handling of a legal case involving a police whistleblower.

That would break the three-year confidence and supply agreement that allowed Varadkars Fine Gael party to form a minority government 18 months ago.

Fianna Fail initially indicated it might withdraw its threat if Fitzgerald resigned, but Fine Gael members of parliament passed a unanimous motion of support in Fitzgerald at an emergency meeting Thursday evening.

Election likely

Asked after Fine Gaels statement whether the country was headed for an election, a senior Fianna Fail source replied: Straight towards one.

The source declined to be named as the partys frontbench was to hold an emergency meeting early Friday to decide its next move.

This is ... dangerous politically at a time when the country does not need an election, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney of Fine Gael told national Irish broadcaster RTE, in an apparent reference to the Brexit talks he had earlier described as a historic moment for the island of Ireland.

Border and Brexit

The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which will be the UKs only land frontier with the bloc after its departure, is one of three issues Brussels wants broadly solved before it decides next month on whether to move the talks onto a second phase about trade, as Britain wants.

Coveney told parliament Thursday that the government was not yet ready to allow the talks to move on to the trade issues at the Dec. 14-15 summit and needed more clarity from London.

A breakdown of the governments cooperation deal, which has worked relatively smoothly up until now between two parties that differ little on policy but have been bitter foes for decades, would likely lead to an election in December or January.

The Fianna Fail move comes after Fitzgerald admitted she was made aware of an attempt to discredit a police whistleblower in a 2015 email, but failed to act. Fine Gael say she adhered to due process.

Since Varadkars appointment as Fine Gael leader in May, his party has narrowly led Fianna Fail in opinion polls that suggest both parties would increase their support but still struggle to form anything but another minority government.
Police in northern Japan have found eight men near a boat at a seaside marina who said they were from North Korea. They appear to be fishermen whose vessel ran into trouble, rather than defectors, a police official said Friday.

The incident comes at a time of rising tension over North Koreas nuclear arms and missile programs after President Donald Trump redesignated the isolated nation a state sponsor of terrorism, allowing the United States to levy further sanctions.

Japanese police took the men into custody after a resident of Yurihonjo, a city in the prefecture of Akita, told police of the presence of individuals of unknown nationality, the official, Yoshinobu Ito, told Reuters.

The men, who said they were North Koreans, appear to be fishermen whose wooden boat, found nearby, had trouble and went adrift, Ito said. Police and authorities were now dealing with the matter, he added.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, asked if the possibility the men were spies had been ruled out, told a news conference authorities were handling the matter carefully.

Japan is studying plans to cope with a possible influx of tens of thousands of North Korean evacuees should a military or other crisis break out on the peninsula, as well as how to weed out spies and terrorists among them, a domestic newspaper said.

Last week, the Japan Coast Guard rescued three North Korean men on a capsized boat in the Sea of Japan, off central Japan.

The men said they were fishermen and were later sent home aboard a North Korean vessel. Twelve more crew went missing.

Last week a North Korean soldier dramatically defected to the South after being shot and wounded by his countrys military as he made his getaway across the border in the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone between the two countries.
Libyan officials say they are investigating a CNN television report that African migrants are being sold as slaves. Tens of thousands of migrants reach Libya each year in the hope of crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Most have given all they have to pay smugglers on the Northern African coast for sea passage. Tougher coast guard controls in recent years mean fewer boats can sail and smugglers are left with a backlog of migrants who now could be sold. VOA's Zlatica Hoke has this story.
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In 1990 then-President George H.W. Bush approved a resolution declaring November "National American Indian Heritage Month," and it's been observed ever since. VOA's Alex Yanevskyy visited the Museum of Natural History in Utah on a day when Native American heritage was being celebrated.
A landmark election that begins Sunday in Nepal is set to complete the Himalayan country's turbulent journey to democracy following the abolition of the monarchy 10 years ago.

The two-phase election is the first being held after a new constitution, adopted in 2015, turned the country into a federal republic. Polling will take place to choose a new parliament and legislatures for newly carved out states.

In a country weary of short-lived governments, the mood is swinging between hope that change may be at hand and disillusionment at the fractious politics of the last decade. It took bickering political parties nearly eight years to hammer out a constitution after the monarchy was abolished.

"There is hope that this election will institutionalize democracy and bring political stability because we have had nine prime ministers in the last 10 years," according to the director for the Center for South Asian Studies in Kathmandu, Nishchal Nath Pandey. "People hope that finally these elections will give a majority to a single political force so that the government can survive for five years."

The optimism stems from the fact that in place of scores of political parties going it on their own, two dominant alliances have emerged to contest the elections  one led by leftist parties and the other by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's centrist Nepali Congress party.

In a colorful campaign, candidates are wooing voters in every possible way  rallies have been in full swing and campaign promises have been beamed via social media and on radio to reach voters in remote villages along mountain slopes.

Those messages have been received with some skepticism.

"Lot of promises have been made by the parties, but people are not so optimistic about the fulfillment of these promises. People want small things, local roads, hospitals, education, food, employment, drinking water. Even today they are not so hopeful," said Lokraj Baral, the head of the Nepal Center for Contemporary Studies in Kathmandu.

The reason: The end of a violent civil war in 2006 and the abolition of the monarchy had raised hopes of people-centered development, but that has not happened.

Instead, the political drift of the last decade virtually brought the country to a standstill. The development agenda is stalled as economic growth last year was negative in Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries. More than two years after a devastating earthquake shattered the country, thousands of people still live in temporary shelters.

Vijay Thapa, 34, from Nepal spends the better part of the year in New Delhi, India, away from his family working as a domestic because there are no job opportunities in his village.

"I want roads in my village; food should be cheaper for poor people," Thapa said. But he has few hopes. "They have done nothing. They only work for their own benefit," he said.

Skepticism, violence

Many of the political leaders contesting the elections have been around in Nepali politics for decades and are popularly perceived as having failed to deliver.

"All these are old and tired leaders. But there is also pressure from within these political parties, specially the youth, a clamoring for change," Pandey said.

About 15 million voters will be eligible to choose the 275-member parliament. They will simultaneously choose state governments for the first time as the country brings in a federal structure.

The new constitution has divided the country into seven states, which still have to be named.

Even that process has not been smooth. Dozens of people were killed in ethnic clashes after the states were carved out with the ethnic Madhesi community saying it did not get enough territory. Although they have agreed to take part in the elections, there are fears of violence and security has been stepped up.

Political analysts say the alliance between the main group of Maoist former rebels and the opposition Communist UML party is widely expected to emerge as the winner.

The elections and its aftermath will also test Nepal's new constitution.

"Let us see how far this constitution will be stable, and how far this constitution will be able to give political stability, good governance and development," Baral said.
The equivalent of one garbage truck full of plastic waste is dumped into the worlds oceans every minute, equal to 8 million tons a year. New research suggests that 90 percent of that waste gets into the oceans through 10 major river systems.

It seems that larger rivers preferentially transport plastic and these are rivers with a large population. You could reduce river plastic loads tremendously by focusing on these 10 rivers, lead researcher Christian Schmidt of Germanys Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, told VOA.

Two of the rivers are in Africa - the Nile and the Niger  while the remaining eight are in Asia  the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Yangtze, Haihe, Pearl, Mekong and Amur.

Researchers analyzed studies that examined the plastic pollution load in rivers, and compared the figures to the quantity of waste that is not disposed of properly in each river catchment or watershed.

The results suggest reducing waste in those rivers would go a long way to tackling ocean plastic pollution.

Actually, its very simple. You have to improve waste management, particularly in developing countries with rapid economic growth. So, this is a waste management problem there. But globally, ((its)) not exclusively developing countries. Littering is the other source of river plastics, countries like Germany, says Schmidt.

The ecological consequences of oceanic plastic pollution are difficult to foresee, but scientists are clear that it is already deeply affecting marine life. So-called microplastics  found in cosmetics - are often mistaken for food. One recent study by the University of Ghent in Belgium calculated that humans eat up to 11,000 plastic fragments in their seafood each year.

The microbeads, they might be more harmful for aquatic life, but the larger pieces, over time they are brittle and form a secondary source of microplastics, according to Schmidt.

It is estimated that 5 percent of plastic is recycled effectively. Total global plastic production was 322 million tons in 2015, a figure that is expected to quadruple by 2050.

Schmidt and his colleagues hope their research offers a potential focus for cleanup programs.
The Pentagon is likely to announce in the coming days that there are about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, two U.S. officials said on Friday, as the military acknowledges that an accounting system for troops has under-reported the size of forces on the ground.

The U.S. military had earlier publicly said it had around 500 troops in Syria, mostly supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces group of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting Islamic State in the north of the country.



Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon could, as early as Monday, publicly announce that there are slightly more than 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria. They said there was always a possibility that last-minute changes in schedules could delay an announcement. That is not an increase in troop numbers, just a more accurate count, as the numbers often fluctuate.

Commanders find work-around

An accounting system, known as the Force Management Level (FML), was introduced in Iraq and Syria during former President Barack Obama's administration as a way to exert control over the military.

But the numbers do not reflect the extent of the U.S. commitment on the ground since commanders often found ways to work around the limits  sometimes bringing in forces temporarily or hiring more contractors.

The force management levels are officially at 5,262 in Iraq and 503 in Syria, but officials have privately acknowledged in the past that the real number for each country is more than the reported figure.

The Pentagon said last December that it would increase the number of authorized troops in Syria to 500, but it is not clear how long the actual number has been at around 2,000.

Special forces

Obama periodically raised FML limits to allow more troops in Iraq and Syria as the fight against Islamic State advanced. As that campaign winds down, it is unclear how many, if any, U.S. troops will remain in Syria.

Most of them are special operations forces, working to train and advise local partner forces, including providing artillery support against Islamic State militants.

One of the officials said that the actual number in Iraq is not expected to be announced because of "host nation sensitivities," referring to political sensitivities about U.S. forces in Iraq.
The Argentine navy said Thursday that a possible explosion had been heard in the ocean not long after one of its submarines went missing with 44 people aboard.

The ARA San Juan disappeared November 15, and the Argentine navy described the explosion that followed near the sub's location as "anomalous, short, violent."

The U.S. Navy and an international nuclear test-ban monitoring organization said the "hydroacoustic anomaly'' was produced just hours after the navy lost contact with the submarine.

Enrique Balbi, spokesman for the Argentine navy, said officials did not know what caused the explosion and that there was no evidence the vessel had been attacked. He said the search would continue until there was full certainty about the fate of the San Juan.

The San Juan, a 34-year-old German-built, diesel-electric submarine, had reported a battery problem on November 15 and said it was diverting to its home base at Mar del Plata, but did not send a distress signal, according to the navy.

Assuming that the submarine remained intact after the blast and settled to the ocean floor, the ship had only a seven-day supply of oxygen, which might have run out Wednesday.

The weeklong search has focused on the sub's last known position, about 320 kilometers off the Argentine coast, but has been hampered by bad weather.

Russia on Thursday became the latest country to send navy specialists and analysts to areas off the coast of Argentina to assist in the search for the San Juan.

The U.S. Navy has also sent underwater search vehicles and two undersea rescue systems to help with the effort.

The 2,000-tonne submersible uses diesel engines on the surface and battery-powered electric motors underwater. At the surface, the German-built ship's four diesels can charge the batteries.
Egyptian security officials, quoted by state-run media, say 235 people have been killed by suspected militants in an attack on a packed mosque Friday in the volatile northern Sinai Peninsula.



Frightened residents fled the center of the town of Bir al Abed, after Islamic militants fired on people both inside and outside the Rawda mosque. Scores of bodies were strewn across the mosque's carpeted floor.



A man claiming to have been inside the mosque during the attack told Arab media that militants in four-wheel drive vehicles opened fire inside the house of worship following an explosion.



Eyewitnesses also say the militants fired on ambulances as emergency personnel tried to evacuate the wounded to hospitals in nearby Arish. Egyptian media reported that several government targets also were attacked inside the town.

Egyptian government warplanes reportedly attacked terrorist targets in Sinai following the carnage at the mosque.

U.S. President Donald Trump reacted to the violence, calling it a "Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt." The president added, "The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!" in a tweet sent from the U.S. state of Florida, where he is staying over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Neighboring Israel sent condolences to Egypt following the attack. Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 and maintain close security cooperation.

Ongoing war



Egyptian Culture Minister Helmy Namnam said on Egyptian TV that the attack was "part of an ongoing war that the Muslim Brotherhood group and its allies are waging against Egypt."

Several other former government officials made similar claims. The Muslim Brotherhood denied responsibility following previous terror attacks.



Egypt's Islamic endowments minister told government media the militants are resorting to extremely brutal attacks because they are becoming desperate:

He says that attacking mosques is the last card they have to play. They have attacked churches before, claiming the victims were infidels, but now they are attacking mosques, because their previous attacks failed. He says they are proving that it is they who, in fact, are enemies of God.



Influx of militants



Arab media have reported a recent influx of Islamic militants from Iraq and Syria to parts of North Africa, including Egypt and Libya. Egyptian media have accused Qatar and Turkey of helping terrorists to flee Iraq and Syria to North Africa. Qatar and Turkey deny the accusations.

Veteran Egyptian editor and publisher Hisham Kassem recently told VOA that part of the problem is that Egyptian security forces need better training to deal with acts of terrorism.



"For years, there was talk that it was necessary to recalibrate the police force and at least part of the military to become counterterrorism forces and, unfortunately, we know of very few programs that have actually taken place to make a serious shift," Kassem said.

Egyptian media reported that President Abdel Fattah el Sisi met with top security officials, including the defense and interior ministers, immediately after the attack as security was stepped up around government buildings and key infrastructure.
The U.S. Navy has halted its search and rescue efforts for three sailors who were lost at sea Wednesday when a U.S. Navy transport plane crashed into the western Pacific Ocean.

The Navy said Thursday that eight U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft had covered nearly 1,000 square nautical miles in the two-day search for the missing sailors.

Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families, said Rear Admiral Marc Dalton, commander, Task Force 70. As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates, and I appreciate the professionalism and dedication shown by all who participated in the search efforts.

Routine mission

The Navy said the twin-propeller C2-A Greyhound aircraft plummeted into the sea about 925 kilometers southeast of Okinawa while it was on a routine mission taking passengers and cargo from a U.S. base in Japan to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.

It said the eight people were rescued about 40 minutes later and taken to the Reagan where they are reported in good condition.

There was no immediate explanation for the crash, and the Navy said the incident is being investigated.

U.S. President Donald Trump, at his oceanfront Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the Thanksgiving weekend holiday, said via Twitter that he is monitoring the situation.

Prayers for all involved, he said.

Joint exercises with Japan

The Reagan was operating in the Philippine Sea as part of joint exercises with Japans Maritime Self-Defense Force, part of 10 days of training designed to increase defensive readiness and interoperability in air and sea maneuvers between the two countries.

More than 14,000 U.S. personnel are participating in the drills, which also include the guided-missile destroyers USS Stethem, USS Chafee and USS Mustin, and a maritime patrol and reconnaissance squadron.

Fifth accident this year

Wednesdays crash was the fifth major Navy incident in Asian waters this year.

Two fatal accidents left 17 sailors dead and prompted the Defense Department to remove of eight top Navy officers from their posts, including the 7th Fleet commander.

The destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker in August off Singapore, leaving 10 U.S. sailors dead and five injured. The USS Fitzgerald, another destroyer, collided with a container ship in waters off Japan in June, killing seven sailors.

After investigations, the Navy concluded the collisions were avoidable, resulting from widespread failures by commanders and crewmembers, who did not recognize and respond quickly to the emergencies as they unfolded. The Navy has called for improved training, and increasing sleep and stress management for sailors.

Separately, in January, the USS Antietam ran aground near Yosuka, Japan, and the USS Lake Champlain collided with a South Korean fishing vessel in May.
The top lawman in Las Vegas says the gunman who killed dozens of people at a concert last month fired more than 1,100 rounds.

The newly released estimate from Sheriff Joe Lombardo offers more detail about the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Lombardo tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal he was aware of the previously unreported figure because his departments forensics lab is working with the FBI to process all ballistics evidence.

Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more on Oct. 1 after he shattered windows of his suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino and unleashed withering gunfire at the music festival below before killing himself.

Authorities have said they have not determined Paddocks motive or why he stopped shooting. Lombardo says authorities found about 4,000 unused rounds in the suite.
Oscar Pistorius prison sentence was increased to 13 years and five months by South Africas Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday, a decision that more than doubled the Olympic runners jail term for the murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

In an announcement that took a matter of minutes, Supreme Court Justice Willie Seriti said the Supreme Court upheld an appeal by prosecutors against Pistorius original six-year sentence for shooting Steenkamp multiple times in his home in 2013.

Prosecutors had called that six-year sentence shockingly lenient.

Pistorius should have been sentenced to the prescribed minimum of 15 years for murder in South Africa, Seriti said, as he delivered the verdict that was reached by a panel of five judges at the Supreme Court in the central city of Bloemfontein.

The new sentence of 13 years and five months took into account time Pistorius has served in prison and at home under house arrest, Seriti said.

Pistorius, who turned 31 Wednesday, has served over a year of his initial six-year sentence.

Pistorius killed Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of Valentines Day 2013 after shooting four times through a closed toilet cubicle door in his home. Claiming he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, he was initially convicted of manslaughter. That conviction was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court in 2015.

Fridays decision likely brings an end to a near five-year legal saga surrounding the double-amputee athlete, a multiple Paralympic champion and record-breaker who was once one of the most celebrated sportsmen in the world.

Pistorius lawyers have just one avenue open to them if they want to challenge the new sentence handed down by the Supreme Court, and that is to appeal to the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa.

Pistorius failed with an appeal to the Constitutional Court last year to challenge his murder conviction.
Wisconsin Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson, a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, doesn't look much like the renegade outsiders whom political strategist Steve Bannon says he's recruiting for his war on the Republican establishment. But Nicholson has Bannon's backing anyway, thanks to his loyalty to President Donald Trump.

As Bannon drafts his team of challengers to the old guard, the new guard is increasingly aligned not by ideology, but by its history of support for the president. Republicans who have criticized the president or been slow to embrace him are out.

One particular test for the Breitbart News chairman and former Trump White House strategist is how such Republicans reacted during the campaign to the 2005 Access Hollywood video showing Trump bragging about sexually imposing himself on women. Those who kept quiet about it or stuck with him earn Bannon's favor now, even if it means looking the other way on some policy positions and affiliations. Nicholson, for example, has backing from wealthy free-trade advocates, an awkward policy fit with Trump's economic nationalism.

"If you were never-Trump, refused to ever endorse the president or withdrew your endorsement following Access Hollywood weekend, don't even bother walking through Bannon's door," said Bannon adviser Andy Surabian.

Bannon hopes chiefly to topple Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom he has blamed for obstructing Trump's agenda, especially efforts to dismantle Barack Obama's 2010 health care law. Bannon has threatened to find a Republican primary opponent for almost every GOP senator seeking re-election in 2018.

"The United States Senate in particular has done, I think, a terrible job in supporting President Trump," Bannon told the California Republican convention last month.

In Wisconsin, state Senator Leah Vukmir is opposing Nicholson for the GOP's U.S. Senate nomination. In last year's presidential campaign, she first supported Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's short campaign before shifting to Florida Senator Marco Rubio. She helped record a pro-Trump radio ad a week before the election  perhaps too little, too late, in Bannon's eyes.

"The voters know I have been a supporter of Donald Trump," she told The Associated Press last month. "I've traveled around this state and talked to countless people who want to see the president's agenda move and are frustrated that it's not happening." She hasn't said publicly whether she supports McConnell.

Nicholson only recently swung against McConnell. He's backed by the pro-trade Club for Growth, and in 2000, spoke to the 2000 Democratic National Convention as the national president of College Democrats.

In September, he said: "I have no issues voting for Mitch McConnell."

But the following month, after meeting with Bannon, Nicholson publicly called for "new leadership."

Bannon endorsements

While Surabian said Bannon is generally "looking for candidates who support the president and his America First agenda," policy unity is not a prerequisite.

"You don't have to be perfect," Bannon told the California convention. "This is not a commoditized product like Procter & Gamble."

Nor is it a free-for-all. Some positions, such as supporting a route to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally, would be a big problem for Bannon.

Bannon thinks his nascent insurgency is already having results, thanks to the retirement announcements of two sharp critics of Trump, Republican Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona. In Tennessee, Bannon supports Representative Marcia Blackburn, a popular conservative House member bidding for the Senate. She has McConnell's backing, too.

Bannon also has endorsed former Arizona state Senator Kelli Ward, who lost her 2016 primary challenge to Senator John McCain. Republican Representative Martha McSally, who never endorsed Trump, is weighing a campaign for Flake's seat.

Bannon is also looking to unseat Republican Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, who opposed Trump last year and opposed legislation in July aimed at dismantling Obamacare.

Yet Heller's challenger, Danny Tarkanian, has supported trade treaties, specifically the Trans Pacific Partnership. Trump pulled out of the Obama-era treaty in January, a move Bannon praised.

In Montana, Bannon is supporting the state auditor, Matt Rosendale, hardly an anti-establishment figure as the former majority leader in the Montana House. But he runs without the trail of tweets left by rival Troy Downing, who last year described Trump as "not electable" and having a "tenuous relationship with the truth."

In West Virginia, Bannon is supporting Attorney General Patrick Morrisey over Representative Evan Jenkins, a Democrat who switched parties four years ago to run for Congress. Morrisey, however, is no Washington newcomer, having been a lawyer for a Washington lobbying firm and later a lawyer for the House Energy and Commerce Committee before he moved to West Virginia.
Six weeks after arriving in the United States, Hassan Abduraheem takes a seat in the back pew of Tar Wallet Baptist Church. Tucked into the woods along a country road in rural Virginia, the church holds about 50 worshippers.

On this cold November Sunday, Abduraheem and his family of eight noticeably increase the congregation's size. They do their best to follow the unfamiliar English of the old Baptist hymns, which are very familiar to their new neighbors. And they share the hymns from their former home  Sudan.

Standing in a single line in front of the altar, the family fills the church with Arabic song.

"Unbelievable," Abduraheem says repeatedly, as he describes his journey from a crowded prison cell in Sudan to a fixed-up house on the farm of his new pastor. "Unbelievable" seems like the only word that could describe the turn his life took, thanks to a Facebook post and a U.S. congressman.

Abduraheem's work as a former pastor is not outlawed in his native Sudan, but Christians are a minority in a diverse country that has suffered through multiple civil wars. According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, there has been "an escalation in the Sudanese government's persecution of Christians, since the 2011 secession of South Sudan.

Abduraheem says his work was spreading the gospel; the Sudanese government accused him of espionage, and he was detained along with two other pastors in December 2015.

"The first day when they took us to the prison, they beat us, he says softly.

WATCH: Sudanese Refugees Freed by US Congressman Find a New Life in US

Abduraheem was shifted from prison to prison. For five months, he wore the same clothes he was wearing when he was arrested. His eyes became damaged from the harsh prison light. Yet, despite constant interrogations, just two meals of beans a day and a tiny cell with barely enough room to sleep, he says the worst part of prison was not knowing.

"It was a very hard time for me, thinking of my family, because I [didn't] know anything about them, he told VOA in his first media interview in the United States.

But even after numerous delays to his trial and an eventual 12-year prison sentence, he couldn't shake a sense of faith.

"No one told me, but I had the peace that something [was] going [on] outside, Abduraheem says.

An enormous effort

Far away from Sudan, a Facebook post telling Abduraheem's story reached just the right person.

"I didn't know any better, so I got in my car and drove to the Sudanese Embassy and asked to speak with the ambassador, Representative Tom Garrett, a Republican in Virginia's 5th Congressional District, told VOA. Garrett first saw the story on the Facebook page for Voice of the Martyrs, a Christian organization whose African regional director was imprisoned with Abduraheem.

It was the first time a member of Congress had spoken to the Sudanese government in 10 years, according to Garrett's office.

After thousands of messages, hundreds of work hours and a trip to Sudan, Garrett collaborated with nongovernmental organizations to free Abduraheem in May 2017. The congressman also worked to secure humanitarian parole status to bring the pastor and his family to the United States.

"I commend the Sudanese government to the extent they were willing to acknowledge that mistakes have been made in the past, and there's a need to reassess how religious minorities are treated. That's progress, says Garrett, a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee.

It's also an opportunity to advance the relationship between the United States and Sudan, he adds.

"As a result of sanctions dating back to the nineties, Sudan is eager to distance itself from a dark past, he said in a statement.

Building a new life

Abduraheem and his family visited the congressman in Washington, D.C., last month to see where their life in the U.S. became possible. While it was their first time in the American city, it also was a new experience for their congressman.

"You can love a bill, you can believe in a bill, you can advocate on behalf of a bill, but you can't say a prayer with a bill, have dinner with a bill, shake hands with a bill. It was sort of surreal, Garrett says of meeting Abduraheem at the airport.

Five churches in Garrett's district banded together to fix up a home for the family, launching a GoFundMe page to pay for food, clothing and other expenses while the family waits for work authorizations. In the meantime, family members have been adjusting to the incredible change of leaving Sudan to build a life in America.

For them, everything is new  from discovering constant running hot water to buying winter coats for the snow they will soon see for the first time. But those immense changes are grounded by Abduraheem's certainty.

"Even though it is hard for us to leave our country, I think it is also better, Abduraheem says of his family. "I don't want them to grow there and go through a lot of difficulties like I went through it. Here, I know they can have a chance.
A family of nine Sudanese refugees, ranging in age from 8 to 84, is discovering an entirely new life in the farmlands of rural Virginia after being persecuted for their Christian faith. VOA's congressional reporter Katherine Gypson visited the family's new church to talk to the once-imprisoned pastor. In his first interview since being freed, Hassan Abduraheem talks about his ordeal, which ended after a U.S. lawmaker reached out to Khartoum.
A suicide bomb attack on a police convoy in northwestern Pakistan on Friday killed a senior officer and his guard, and wounded six others.

The early morning blast occurred in Peshawar, capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The slain officer, Additional Inspector General Ashraf Noor, of the provincial police department, was on his way to work when a suicide bomber on a motorbike hit his vehicle.

Peshawar police chief Tahir Khan said body parts of the suspected bomber have been retrieved from the site and an investigation is underway.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the violence.

Attacks on police

Separate bomb and gun attacks on police convoys this month in Pakistan have killed several top police officers. Most of the incidents have taken place in and around the southwestern city of Quetta.

The outlawed Pakistani Taliban and its allied groups have claimed responsibility for the previous violence against Pakistani security forces.

For years, Peshawar has been in the grip of militant violence mainly because it is close to Pakistans volatile semi-autonomous tribal areas border Afghanistan.

But authorities say sustained counter-militancy operations have cleared most of the tribal belt, leading to a 70 percent decline in terrorist attacks in Peshawar and surrounding areas over the past two years.
A U.S. company says it has been selling lethal weapons to Ukraine since last year, ahead of an expected decision by the Trump administration on whether to provide such weapons to Ukraine.

"We started delivering our product to Ukraine last year and we are continuing deliveries up until now," said Richard Vandiver, Chief Operating Officer at the Texas company AirTronic, USA, in an interview with VOA's Ukrainian service.

Vandiver said the sales have been limited to short-range defensive weapons, principally Precision Shoulder Fired Rocket launchers (PSRLs), which are a redesigned and updated version of the widely deployed Soviet RPG-7 anti-tank weapon. Ukraine is engaged in a struggle against Russian-trained and funded separatists in its eastern region and fears an armored assault.

"The ability to stop armored vehicles is essential for Ukraine to protect itself," said General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during the testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 26.

Vandiver told VOA the PSRL should be considered a defensive weapon because of its limited range.

"Obviously, PSRL is a lethal system, but it's a defensive lethal system," Vandiver said. "The RPG-7 has the effective range of under a thousand meters.

"As long as the weapon system stays [in government-controlled territory], it's not an offensive weapon, but if armor starts to cross the river than I would assume that the Ukrainian defense forces would employ our systems to stop the armor."

The U.S. Congress has approved $350 million in security aid for Ukraine in its most recent National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including $47 million for defensive lethal weapons. The act awaits final approval in the House of Representatives before going to President Donald Trump for his signature.

Trump is reported to be considering a recommendation received from his National Security Council this week to provide lethal weaponry to Ukraine. The weapon considered most likely to be included is the shoulder-fired Javelin anti-tank missile, which features a sophisticated self-guidance system and a range more than four times greater than the PSRL.

'De facto embargo'

Any sales of lethal weaponry to Ukraine marks a reversal of a non-binding policy implemented under the administration of former president Barack Obama.

"In the formal sense, there is no embargo on Ukraine, but you could say that there is a de facto embargo," said Michael Carpenter, senior director of the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania. "Formally speaking, [Obama] did not make a decision on sending weapons to Ukraine, so de facto that became an embargo."

Any such U.S. military sales must be licensed by the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, which says it is restricted under federal regulations from commenting on commercial sales export licensing activity.

However, the department issues a list of defense articles and services that have been authorized as direct commercial sales each year. The most recent list shows that more than $26.9 million in military sales to Ukraine were authorized in 2016, with more than $17.6 million of that having been shipped.

More than $5 million of the authorized sales comprised lethal weaponry, mainly comprising firearms and ammunition. The report does not show how much of that was actually shipped.

AirTronic, US coordination

Vandiver declined to discuss exact details of the AirTronic supply contract with Ukraine, but he emphasized that the activities are conducted in "very close coordination with the U.S. Embassy, with the U.S. State Department, with the U.S. Pentagon and with the Ukrainian government."

"It took quite a bit for us to secure authorizations that we needed, because of the sensitivity of the issue under Minsk II," Vandiver said, adding that the lethal system is not banned by the agreement. The Minsk II agreement  brokered by Germany and France in negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko in February of 2015  was aimed at limiting the fighting in the East of Ukraine, but has had only limited success.

"We are very familiar with the accords that were reached in Europe under the treaties  and we abide by those," he said. He added that AirTronic obtained an export license for the sale, "following the same application process as any defense contractor would follow."

The Ukrainian government hopes to expand its purchases of lethal weapons from the U.S. substantially, and attaches great hope to the possibility that the White House will approve financial assistance for those purchases.

The $47 million in possible lethal aid for Ukraine included in the NDAA would allow Kyiv to obtain more powerful defensive weapons, Ukraine's Ambassador to the U.S. Valery Chaly told VOA.

"We hope that the bill [NDAA], which has been already approved by Congress, will be signed by President Trump. This would allow to unlock about $50 million in lethal defense assistance for Ukraine. The decision is with the U.S. president and then we will be talking about more powerful weapons," Chaly said.

During his visit to Ukraine in August this year, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis rejected any suggestion that the provision of such weapons may be considered provocative by Russia. "Defensive weapons are not provocative unless you are an aggressor, and clearly Ukraine is not an aggressor since it is their own territory where the fighting is happening," Mattis said.

Still, some analysts doubt that the Trump administration is willing to abandon the self-imposed restriction on lethal arms sales to Ukraine.

"I remain a pessimist on this," said Carpenter, director of the Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania. However, he said, "I've long supported providing defensive arms to Ukraine. I think this is the right thing to do. It's the moral thing to do and also the strategic thing to do for the United States, because it would deter further Russia aggression."
Were feasting on the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending Nov. 25, 2017.

Its Thanksgiving week, and right on schedule, the chart sends us a tasty new title.



Number 5: Imagine Dragons "Thunder"



Lets begin in fifth place, where Imagine Dragons continues to hold with "Thunder."

This Las Vegas band made out well at the American Music Awards on November 20, when they performed with Khalid. They did a great mash-up of "Thunder" and "Young Dumb and Broke." Imagine Dragons also took home a third trophy, this time for Favorite Pop/Rock Group.

Number 4: Sam Smith "Too Good at Goodbyes"



Its a banner week for Sam Smith on the charts  he racks up his third Top Five hit in the Hot 100, as "Too Good At Goodbyes" shoots from 10th to fourth place.



Sam is also this weeks album champ, as "The Thrill Of It All" sells 237,000 album-equivalent units here in the States. Sams debut album, "In The Lonely Hour," only hit the runner-up slot in the U.S.

Number 3: Cardi B "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)"



Cardi B treads water in third place with her ex-champ "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)."

Fans are clamoring for an album, but the New York rapper says shes in no hurry. Posting November 19 on Twitter, she explained that shes feeling pressured to produce a great album  and shes taking her time to make good songs.

Number 2: Camila Cabello Featuring Young Thug 'Havana"



Camila Cabello and Young Thug continue to occupy the runner-up slot with "Havana."



MTV U.K. reports that Camila has ditched the title of her upcoming debut solo album. It will no longer be titled "The Hurting, The Healing, The Loving"  but Camilas not yet ready to reveal the new name. She says her new, happier state of mind spurred her to make the change. The new set should drop early next year.

Number 1: Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage "Rockstar"



Post Malone and 21 Savage hold the Hot 100 title for a fifth solid week with "Rockstar."

In a recent podcast interview, Post revealed that his second album "Beerbongs & Bentleys" will arrive December 1. The guest list will reportedly include Nicki Minaj, John Mayer, Ty Dolla $ign and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee.

We hope youll be our guest next week when well crown a new lineup.
An Iranian sanctions-busting case in New York threatens to further strain Turkey-U.S. relations.

The trial of Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab and Mehmet Hakan Atilla, vice president of Turkish state bank Halkbank, is due to start December 4. Ankara has slammed the case as political, but fears are growing it could have severe financial consequences for the Turkish economy.

The defendants are accused of violating the U.S.-Iran sanctions act involving billions of dollars in alleged illicit trade. The case threatens to implicate key political figures closely linked to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"Very ugly truths could emerge about the former cabinet ministers," warned political consultant Atilla Yesilada of New York-based GlobalSource Partners, an analysis service for investors. Former Finance Minister Zafer Caglayan, known to be close to Erdogan, also is under indictment.

Erdogan assails trial

The Turkish president has repeatedly attacked the pending trial. "How can a nation that legitimizes all kinds of attacks on our nation's interests, from bankers to businessmen, from arms sales to energy investments, from TV series to think tanks, be our friend?" Erdogan asked Saturday at a political rally.

"Several times the [Turkish] president has picked up on this case, so obviously this is a matter that he finds terribly important," said international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul's Kadir Has University.

Ankara claims the case is the latest attempt by the U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen to bring down Erdogan.

"They [Gulenists] are using the U.S. system to launch attacks against Turkey, and the Reza Zarrab case is part of this," Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a TV interview Monday. "It's a political case by the U.S. prosecutors. This is a very politically motivated case. This case was originally brought by the Gulenists in Turkey."

Ankara accuses Gulen of being the mastermind behind last year's failed military coup. Followers of Gulen were also accused in 2013 of trying to bring down Erdogan's government by judicial probes into alleged high-level corruption involving Zarrab and senior ministers. The government shut down the probe, claiming it was a judicial coup, and all those involved were either dismissed or arrested.

Use of previous evidence

Ankara has been infuriated by reports that New York prosecutors will use some of the evidence gathered in the 2013 probe in the current case. "The fact files collected by Gulenist prosecutors and police against the then prime minister [Erdogan] are likely to be used in the Zarrab case. Obviously, [it] rubs the government the wrong way," said international relations expert Ozel.

During a visit to Washington this month, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim reportedly lobbied hard in meetings with senior U.S. officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, for the evidence to not be allowed in the forthcoming case. Ankara argues the evidence, which includes embarrassing telephone conversations between former ministers and Erdogan, was illegally gathered and should not be admitted. Turkish prosecutors have opened an investigation into a federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Joon Kim, into how evidence was obtained for the Zarrab case.

Critics claim Ankara's lobbying fails to understand the limitation of political power in Washington.

"The executive, in accordance with the principles of the independence of the judiciary, has little influence on how this procedure will unfold, and that's something that Turkey's policymakers should take into consideration," said political scientist Cengiz Aktar.

Such lobbying by Ankara is seen as an indication, however, of how serious and potentially damaging the Zarrab case could be for Turkey's political leaders. The Zarrab case already has hit financial markets, with the Turkish lira suffering steep drops over speculation that Turkish banks could end up facing heavy fines.

More jeopardy for lira

"The [financial] markets made the connection between the Zarrab case and fines on Turkish banks, especially Halkbank," said economist Inan Demir of Nomura Bank. "If the headlines coming out of the trial are negative for Halkbank, markets will almost immediately jump to the conclusion of large fines, and that could lead to further falls on the currency."

Several European banks in recent years have been hit by multibillion-dollar penalties for violating U.S. Iranian sanctions.

A combination of political and economic factors has resulted in the Turkish lira hitting record lows this week. Financial investors and the eyes of the Turkish nation are expected to be firmly fixed on the New York courthouse when the Zarrab trial begins, the implications of which could be far reaching.

"Even if he [Erdogan] is not hit personally by these accusations, the repercussions of the Zarrab case for the Turkish economy, and therefore for Turkey's political stability and the grip of the president on the country, can really be very serious," Ozel said.
Ugandan authorities have arrested eight senior staff members of the Red Pepper national newspaper and charged them with treason.

Police raided the Kampala offices of the privately owned English-language newspaper late Tuesday and detained the journalists, whom they accused of publishing a false story the previous day.

The story, citing unnamed sources, said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was planning to overthrow Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Besides treason, the journalists were charged with "offensive communication and publication of information prejudicial to national security," police spokesman Emilian Kayima told Reuters.

Kayima couldn't say when the journalists would appear in court.

The U.S. media watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Uganda to immediately release the eight.

"Uganda is trying to intimidate Red Pepper journalists and staff into silence with arrests and raids," Angela Quintal, CPJ Africa program coordinator, said from New York. "Reporting on politics is not a crime. Journalists in Uganda must be able to report without fear of retaliation."

Local media, including Red Pepper, have reported this month on tensions between Uganda and neighboring Rwanda over a range of economic and security disputes. Uganda's Foreign Affairs Ministry has dismissed the reports as rumors and insisted relations between the two countries are untroubled.
A senior separatist official of the Ukrainian region of Luhansk says he is taking over power from regional chief Igor Plotnitsky, who said earlier in the week that a coup attempt was trying to force him out of office.

Security Minister Leonid Pasechnik said Friday that he was taking over after Plotnitsky resigned for health reasons. There was no verification of the claim from Plotnitsky.

Both men are part of a pro-Russian rebel group that has ruled Luhansk for several years but has recently been troubled by infighting.

"Today, Igor Venediktovich Plotnitsky resigned for health reasons. Multiple war wounds, the effects of blast injuries, took their toll," Pasechnik said in a video posted on pro-rebel news sites.

Earlier this week, armed men blocked the central streets of the Luhansk region's main city, also called Luhansk. Plotnitsky said it was a coup attempt by supporters of Igor Kornet, the rebel region's interior minister, whom Plotnitsky had recently fired.

Plotnitsky later said he had the situation under control.

Luhansk and the neighboring Donetsk region rebelled against rule from Ukraine's government, based in Kyiv, in 2014 and declared themselves independent.

Russian officials say they are monitoring the situation, but deny they have any influence over the rebels.
The United States has called on Pakistan to arrest and charge an Islamist cleric accused of masterminding the 2008 attacks on India's financial capital.

Pakistani authorities acting on a court order Friday freed Hafiz Saeed from nearly 11 months of house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore. The detention had stemmed from the terrorism allegations against the firebrand cleric.

Washington has been offering a $10 million reward since 2012 for information leading to Saeed's arrest and conviction.

A judicial panel hearing the cleric's appeal against his "unlawful" detention Wednesday, however, ordered authorities to free him for lack of evidence.

In a video message released by his Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Islamist charity, Saeed told supporters his freedom was vindication of his innocence.

"Praise be to God, it is a matter of great happiness for me that nothing has been proven against me which could be detrimental for me or for Pakistan. Thank God, we have been vindicated," the cleric said.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert promptly criticized Saeed's release, saying the U.S. was "deeply concerned." In a statement, she went on to say the cleric leads an organization that has been responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of Americans.

"The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes," the statement read.

The U.S. and the United Nations have both declared Saeed's JuD a global terrorist organization, calling it a front for the outlawed Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group blamed for carrying out the Mumbai carnage.

Saeed denials

Saeed has consistently denied any link to the Mumbai violence that left 166 people dead, including U.S. nationals. He has also alleged his detention was the outcome of U.S. and Indian pressure on the Pakistani government.

India blames Saeed for masterminding the Mumbai strikes and has linked resumption of normal ties with Pakistan to putting the cleric on trial. New Delhi also alleges supporters of the Pakistani cleric are assisting armed Muslim separatists in the divided Kashmir region.

Hours after his release from house arrest, the cleric addressed a massive Friday congregation of supporters at a Lahore mosque, urging that the government not engage in talks with India until the rival country withdraws its troops from Kashmir.

Saeed credited Pakistan's independent judiciary for his freedom, saying he was put under house arrest for highlighting the Indian "atrocities" against Kashmiris.

"I want Kashmir's freedom from India and this is my crime. I was arrested for it," he told worshippers, who chanted, "God is Great."

Regional tensions

Saeed's release angered India, where a Foreign Ministry spokesman said that a "self-confessed and U.N.-proscribed terrorist was being allowed to walk free and continue with his evil agenda."

A statement quoted Raveesh Kumar as alleging the cleric "was not only the mastermind, he was the prime organizer of the Mumbai terror attacks in which many innocent Indians and many people from other nationalities were killed."

The foreign ministry in Islamabad, while responding to the criticism, said the country's courts are determined to uphold rule of law and due process for all citizens of Pakistan.

"Legal processes are anchored in rule of law, not dictates of politics and posturing," stated the ministry spokesman. He reiterated that Pakistan condemns all forms of terrorism by any individual or group.

The cleric is a major irritant in Pakistan's traditionally uneasy relations with the U.S., and has developed as a main source of historically strained ties with India. New Delhi has linked resumption of peace talks with Islamabad to putting Saeed on trial for planning the Mumbai bloodshed.

Islamabad maintains that neither Washington nor New Delhi has offered any evidence substantiating their allegations.

Senior Pakistani officials in background interviews maintain that Pakistan has, under its international obligations, imposed travel restrictions on Saeed and frozen his assets and bank accounts. His arrest and successful prosecution in a court of law, however, would require solid evidence linking him to the Mumbai attacks, they maintain.

Saeed's organization, meanwhile, continues to collect financial and other donations to support its charity work around Pakistan, causing a major embarrassment for the country, officials acknowledge. They say the cleric's attempts to also associate himself with the Kashmir issue "are also not helping the cause of Kashmiris."

The divided Kashmir region has sparked two of the three wars between India and Pakistan, and continues to be the primary source of regional tensions.
The swearing in of Zimbabwes new President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa marked a new era for the country ruled by former President Robert Mugabe from independence in 1980, until his dramatic downfall.

But who is Emmerson Mnangagwa?

Mnangagwa was born in Zvishavane, the Midlands Province in 1942 and is from the Karanga sub-group of Zimbabwe's majority Shona ethnic group. In an exclusive interview with VOA Studio 7 for Zimbabwe following his 2014 appointment as Vice President, Mnangagwa described himself as a villager from Zvishavane, brought up by the revolution and continues to serve his country as a revolutionary.

To many Zimbabweans, Mnangagwa has remained largely an enigma, both loved and loathed at the same time. Asked why some Zimbabweans fear him, he said I believe that those who fear me are not honest people, they are afraid of relating to an honest person and those who love me know that my life is a straight one, an open book.

The Crocodile

Mnangagwa is referred to as Ngwena (crocodile). Asked about the origins of the nickname, Mnangagwa said, I think this came about in 1964 during the Crocodile Group. I was among that group and I am the only survivor, I think it comes from there. Other people may have varying interpretations.

During the colonial era in the 1960s, the Chinese trained Crocodile Group engaged in acts of sabotage as a form of resisting colonial rule. The moniker gained popularity as his political shrewdness has seen him survive seemingly dire situations.

Relationship with President Mugabe

In an interview with VOA Zimbabwe, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jonnie Carson described Mnangagwa as a clone of Mr. Mugabe.

This, Mnangagwa himself seemed to confirm when he released a press statement when he went into temporary exile this this month after being ousted from government. I have been very close to the President ever since (liberation war).

He added, We have avoided life threatening situations together. I even doubled up as his personal bodyguard. In return, the President has passed on to me life skills which have put me in good stead throughout my long period in government. Our relationship has over the years blossomed beyond that of master and servant but to father and son. Mnangagwa says he came face to face with Mr Mugabe in May 1964 at the Zanu-PF Congress.

Liberation War Credentials

Mr Mnangagwa joined the United National Independent Party (UNIP) led by former Zambian President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda at a very tender age. At 18 years of age he was recruited by the late Willie Musarurwa to join ZAPU and sent for military training to Tanzania and Egypt. A year later in August 1963 be broke away with some cadres to join the newly formed Zimbabwe African National Union.

In 1965 Mr Mnangagwa said in a press statement he was arrested, tortured and sentenced to death. He adds that, the death sentence was subsequently commuted on a technicality to ten years imprisonment which I served in various prisons in Zimbabwe while at the same time I advanced my education through correspondence.

After his release, he was deported back to Zambia where he completed his Law Degree. After completing his Law Degree, he says he voluntarily left Zambia to join the Liberation struggle in Mozambique in 1976 where he was assigned as the Special Assistant to Mr Mugabe.

Though former president Mugabe supported the death penalty in independent Zimbabwe, Mr Mnangagwa opposed it, I want to pronounce myself clearly that the death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights and a cold blooded and abhorrent killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice, Mr Mnangagwa said.

Zimbabwes new Constitution, enacted in 2013, abolished mandatory death sentences and limited the death penalty to cases of murder committed in aggravating circumstances. It bars death sentences for women and men aged under 21 or over 70 at the time of committing the crime.

Alleged Human Rights Abuses

As National Security Minister, Mr Mnangagwa was in charge of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), which is accused of working with the army to commit atrocities in the 1980s. At least 20,000 civilians are said to have been killed when Mugabe deployed a North Korean trained military unit, the fifth brigade in the Matebeleland and Midlands regions supposedly to hunt down dissidents.

A report by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace noted that, in the years following independence, ZANU PF sought to weaken and eventually destroy the other main independence force, ZAPU (the Zimbabwe African People's Union), led by Joshua Nkomo. Thousands of innocent civilians - mainly ethnic Ndebeles, seen as Zapu supporters - were killed before the two parties merged to form Zanu-PF in 1987.

The State controlled Chronicle newspaper reported in 1983 that Mnanagwa reportedly referred to the dissidents as cockroaches and the Fifth Brigade as DDT-a synthetic insecticide belonging to the family of organic halogen compounds, highly toxic toward a wide variety of insects as a contact poison. He is quoted as having said, Blessed are they who will follow the path of the government laws, for their days on earth will be increased? But woe unto those who will choose the path of collaboration with dissidents for we will certainly shorten their stay on earth, Mnangagwa also said.

Mnangagwa later issued a statement dismissing the story as false and malicious but without offering details. Mr Mugabe somewhat apologized calling the massacres a moment of madness.

Denying Opposition Victory?

After Mr Mugabe lost the first round of the presidential election to opposition leader and trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai in 2008, Mr Mnangagwa was alleged to have masterminded Zanu-PF's political campaign in the run off, coordinating the party's links with both army and intelligence.

More than 150 mostly opposition supporters died, 200-plus were abducted and missing, hundreds more were jailed on spurious charges, thousands beaten and tens of thousands forced from their homes. Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the presidential race. The list of the soldiers that allegedly terrorized the opposition was later leaked to VOA Studio 7 for Zimbabwe by officials who had been expelled from the party.

The Zimbabwe Independent newspaper recently noted Mr Mnangagwas role in shoring up Mr Mugabe, Mnangagwa, a former security aide and personal assistant to the president, as well as his key minister in security portfolios in government, did all the dirty operations for Mugabe. He was his political enforcer; gangland-style if needs be.

The paper adds, From crushing the opposition by systematically wiping out their support bases through demonization, intimidation, detentions, violence and torture, via Gukurahundi massacres in the 1980s, liquidating real or imagined enemies, triggering waves of violence and killings after 2000 to stealing elections; he was the Presidents henchman. Mr Mnangagwa was also probably the biggest accomplice in the Mugabe regimes misrule, economic mismanagement and corruption. He was in the mix of everything; the good, bad and ugly.

Mnangagwa supporters.

Mnangagwa is held in high esteem by the army and veterans of the liberation war. He even revealed that he was in constant contact with military leaders who took over the country last week facilitating the ouster of Mr Mugabe.

He told party supporters in Harare Tuesday that, I was in constant contact with the service chiefs throughout. I wish also to thank the manner in which our defense forces and General (Constantino) Chiwenga have managed this process very peacefully.

Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association secretary general, Victor Matemadanda did not shy away from backing Mnangagwa. We have the right to support a person we feel has the capacity to lead this country going forward, this is why we went to fight in the bush so that our people have a better life, he said.

Member of Parliament and former deputy justice minister, Fortune Chasi who worked under Mnangagwa said he is a pleasant character to work with. I found him to be a very intelligent and hardworking leader. When I worked with him he gave me a very long leash and allowed me fair play in the ministrythose that will be lucky to be in his cabinet will find working with him to be a most worthwhile experience, so long as they apply themselves. He is indeed likeable and funny person to work with and I think we are going to see results.
Zimbabweans are expressing mixed feelings about incoming President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, who will be sworn in as president of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Friday, ending 37-years of rule under now former President Robert Mugabe.

Thousands of Zimbabweans have been celebrating in the streets of the countrys cities and around the world, applauding the military that forced the resignation of President Mugabe, and facilitated the return of Mnangagwa, who had fled to South Africa after his sudden dismissal by Mr. Mugabe.

High Expectations on Mnangagwa

Several unidentified Zimbabwean citizens shared their sentiments of hope and high expectation for the incoming leader.

"We are expecting him to take care of womens issues and be in decision making and also that we have jobs, our children to have jobs, because that was a very big problem in our country."

Said another.

"I think from this point of view he (Mnangagwa) is going to correct all the wrongs which have been done by the outgoing president for the betterment of this youth."

And yet another, said he was

"I am happy for the new president, the ED (Emmerson Dambudzo) Mr. Mnangagwa for his commitment for this country and everything which was done back when the president resigned. It took us 37 years for him to be there, but we are happy it was done silently and in peace, so I am happy for the new so I am happy for the new president and I am expecting promising things that are going to happen: employment, unity and everything. I dont know his arrangement but we can wait for tomorrow, on his inauguration."

Mnangagwa is not an unfamiliar figure in Zimbabwe, as hes been part of the Zimbabwean government and ruling Zanu-PF for several decades, attaining high level positions, including justice minister and vice president.

His sudden ouster a few weeks ago, over allegations of fueling factionalism and plotting to overthrow the government, set of a sequence of events, including a military takeover, that ended in the resignation of President Mugabe.

Despite what seems to be overwhelming support for Mnangagwa as a replacement to President Mugabe, some Zimbabweans are not so quick to lend their support to a man who they say is complicit in so many of the atrocities that have occurred in Zimbabwe.

SKEPTICISM OVER MNANGAGWA'S RULE

Mnangagwa has held many high profile positions in the ruling party as well as government, including intelligence chief, justice minister and more recently, vice president.

Director Dewa Mavhinga of the Human Rights Watch Southern Africa cautions the nations against believing that Mnangagwa will be too different from Mr. Mugabe, whose departure from office, many are celebrating.

The system has not been dismantled, said Mavhinga referring to the fact that Mnangagwa and the Zanu-PF party are part of the same system in place since independence in 1980.

The infrastructure of violence that was active against citizens of Zimbabwe over the last 37 years remains intact, and on alert and standby to be deployed. The military works on orders. I believe they were given a command to be nice, to smile, for a while, but we should not make the mistake of believing that overnight this was a revolution and everything is over," said Mnangagwa.

Many Zimbabweans have embraced the once feared military, as change agents since forcing Mr. Mugabes resignation.

Zimbabwean activist Maureen Kademaunga offered similar sentiments.

"I personally still think that the struggle is not done. We have taken [Mr.] Mugabe and his unruly wife [Grace Mugabe], it's just symbolic, but Mugabe the infrastructure, Mugabe the culture, Mugabe the ideology, Mugabe the system - what I prefer to call Mugabism - is still there, said Kademaunga.

Kademaunga said Mr. Mugabes resignation and the change of leadership in government and the Zanu-PF party, do not reflect long term change.

I actually think that in the euphoria people might forget that we still have a long way to go, that it is only one man who is gone. And for me, the fact that the military actually code named this operation 'Restore legacy' and what they describe as legacy is that you must have fought in the war, you must be willing to do things our way etc. etc. So, for me the legacy they are talking about is the oppressive system that they want to maintain."

Mnangagwa indicated in his speech at the Zanu-PF headquarters after his return from South Africa, that he wanted to bring in a new era of democracy. Many say they will wait and see if he delivers on his promise.
Columnist

The following review appears in The Washington Posts 2018 Spring Dining Guide.



Kulfi on a stick with sweet noodles and a rose sabayon at Bindaas. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post)

Bindaas

(Good/Excellent)

Theres lots to like about the colorful Foggy Bottom extension of the Cleveland Park restaurant, starting with the fact that the new place is double the size. The extra room translates to a bigger adventure  an exhibition kitchen fronted with stools and a ceiling lit up with cane baskets  and a longer list of Indian street food snacks, including sliced smoked eggplant, onion and feta in a light wrap of roti, and a quartet of gingery lamb meatballs, dappled with a sauce of tomato and mace on a base of sunny saffron rice. At any given meal, the clientele, wedged into tables that are too small for everything they want to order, resembles a Benetton ad. (The World Bank is a neighbor.) The result is barely controlled chaos in what feels like a Mumbai market at prime time. Loud, in other words, but also a treat, especially if your passion is for steamed rice cakes and chicken curry, and theres not a trip to India on the horizon.

2 1/2 stars

Bindaas: 2000 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. 202-516-4326. bindaasdc.com.

Open: Lunch and dinner Sunday through Friday, dinner Saturday.

Prices: Snacks, sandwiches and small plates $2.50 to $15.

Sound check: 79 decibels / Must speak with raised voice.

Previous: Ana | Next: Bistro Aracosia

---

The following review was originally published Nov. 24, 2017.



Butternut squash uttapam is one of several meatless dishes at the second branch of Bindaas, which is now open in Foggy Bottom. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post)

A bigger stage for the best Indian street food in town

The delicious advantage the freshly minted Bindaas in Foggy Bottom has over the Indian street-food purveyor of the same name in Cleveland Park is made obvious the moment you step inside: The 100-seat spinoff, a gratifying successor to Johnny Rockets, is more than double the size of the original.

The sweep translates to a menu that goes beyond whats playing in Cleveland Park to include sandwiches and curries; more wall space for art; and an exhibition kitchen. The chefs are on show! says the leader of the pack, Vikram Sunderam, whose other responsibilities include the popular Rasika and Rasika West End restaurants.

In a glance around Bindaas, it looks as though half the World Bank, among the eaterys neighbors, has begun taking lunch and dinner here. The tables invariably find at least one order of pao (buns) on them. A toasted roll in the company of minced lamb, shot through with pureed Thai chiles, suggests a sloppy Joe by way of Mumbai. (Chopped tomato, cucumber and onion on the plate have a cooling effect on the heat.) I prefer buns to the tame roadside sandwich built with twice-fried chicken and flanked with gunpowder fries that may only hint of firepower.



Kheema pao features a toasted bun and a cooling vegetable mix to top minced lamb full of pureed Thai chiles. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post)

The tables are small. Order a few dishes at a time to prevent overcrowding or the forfeiture of a remaining bite on a plate. The meatless draws include a crisp, saucer-size steamed rice cake (uttapam) spread with minced, roasted butternut squash and a dollop of wicked cilantro-coconut chutney, as well as a pleasing curry cast with carrots, peas and caramelized onion, plus hits of mace and cardamom. The saucy curry tops a bowl of sunny yellow basmati rice.

[A seasoned hand brings a taste of Afghanistan to the Palisades]

Bindaas uses a pizza oven rather than a traditional Indian tandoor to make its pillowy naan. The hot pocket, with a light application of spinach and cottage cheese inside, is a deal of a meal  and a nice swab  for $4.

From a design perspective, the baby Bindaas trumps its sibling. Basket lights made from cane dress up the ceiling; mirrored columns come with the bonus of coat hooks; and nods to overseas include colorful prints of graffiti and clocks of the sort you see in Indian train stations. The crowds Ive encountered, day and night, make a strong case for reservations. Solo diners might consider the shelf-style seating near the host stand.



With seating for 100, the latest Bindaas can serve more than twice as many diners as the first Cleveland Park location. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post)

Carryovers from the original Bindaas include a salmon kebab draped with a creamy sauce of coconut milk and curry leaf, and the sheer, bite-size puffs filled with near-liquid avocado, yogurt and tamarind chutney, called golgappa. Typical of the chaat dispensed from food stalls and carts abroad, the delicate snack comes with a playful warning: Eat them in one bite, owner Ashok Bajaj says when he spots an order on your table.


Got Thanksgiving leftovers? Weve got ideas to use them up below. (Scott Suchman for The Washington Post)

You made it through Thanksgiving! If feasting on plates of leftovers isnt your thing, we have quite a few ideas for making the most of your turkey, potatoes and other fixings. Do you have leftover ideas of your own? Share them in the comments.

Turkey



WASHINGTON, DC - Dorie Greenspans Next-Day Turkey and Cranberry Sriracha Strata photographed in Washington, DC. (Photo by Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post). (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Dorie Greenspan's Next Day Turkey-and-Cranberry Sriracha Strata. Uses turkey, cranberry sauce and leftover bread if you've got it. This is best if you assemble it at least six hours (or up to eight or so) before baking.

Turkey Tetrazzini With Butternut Squash Sauce. A comforting pasta bake that happens to be healthful.

Turkey, Caramelized Onion and Apple Pizza. Comes together quickly with store-bought pizza dough.



WASHINGTON, DC, April 30, 2014. Pennsylvania Dutch Potpie photographed in Washington, DC. Photo by Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Pennsylvania Dutch Potpie. Another comforting choice.

Turkey Tortilla Soup. Good for using turkey leftovers, and for clearing your pantry of canned goods (enchilada sauce, chiles, chicken broth, for example).



WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 12, 2014: Southwest-Style Turkey Hash With Creamy Avocado-Cilantro Sauce. Dinnerware from Salt & Sundry. (Photo by Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post). (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post/Tableware from Salt & Sundry)

Southwest-Style Turkey Hash With Creamy Avocado-Cilantro Sauce. Because really, when is a hash a bad idea?

Turkey, White Bean and Spinach Hash. Use chopped-up cooked turkey in place of the ground.



WASHINGTON, DC - Turkey Stroganoff on Toast photographed in Washington, DC. (Photo by Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post). (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Turkey Stroganoff on Toast. Quick comfort here, with a sour cream tomato sauce amped up with smoked Spanish paprika.



WASHINGTON, DC - Herby Mushroom and Swiss Crepes photographed in Washington, DC . (Photo by Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post). (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Other ideas: Add to sandwiches (with leftover salad or cranberry sauce added to the mix, or made into a grilled cheese sandwich or panini); serve simply with a sauce drizzled over top (this 30-Minute Mole or our tuna and chickpea tonnato); mix into a frittata or omelet; use as a filling in these Herby Mushroom and Swiss Crepes (pictured above).

And of course, save those turkey bones to make Rich Turkey Stock!

Potatoes and other vegetables



WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 10: Vegetarian Shepherds Pie. (Photo by Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post)

Lentil Shepherd's Pie. A nice way to use leftover potatoes or another starchy puree (such as sweet potatoes, parsnips or cauliflower).



WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 10: Creamy Sweet Potato Soup photographed in Washington, DC. (Photo by Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup With Crispy Leeks. A good way to use up leftover sweet potatoes and chicken or turkey broth.

Pumpkin Sloppy Joes. If your sweet potatoes or other winter squash are of the savory variety, mash up leftovers and use the puree as a pumpkin replacement here. (Save the sweet casserole type for a filling in handpies.)



WASHINGTON, DC - Roasted Vegetable Hash and Eggs photographed in Washington, DC. (Photo by Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post). (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Roasted Vegetable Hash and Eggs. A reminder that almost any leftover is good topped with eggs and hot sauce.



WASHINGTON, DC - Corn and Crab Okonomiyaki photographed in Washington, DC. (Photo by Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post). (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Other ideas: Add mashed or roasted veggies to soup; use mashed potatoes or squash as the base for a pasta sauce; add roasted veggies to stir-fries or savory pancakes (pictured above); make into a potpie or casserole with a creamy homemade veloute sauce.

Stuffing and bread



WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 10: Savory Turkey Bread Pudding photographed in Washington, DC. (Photo by Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Savory Turkey and Mushroom Bread Pudding. A hearty way to use turkey and stuffing.



WASHINGTON, DC - Bell Peppers Stuffed With Lentils photographed in Washington, DC. (Photo by Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post). (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Lentil-Stuffed Bell Peppers. We're betting your leftover stuffing would make a nice filling for peppers  either as a substitute or supplement for some of the original filling in this recipe.

The Turlafel. Leftover turkey and stuffing get spiced with ginger, garlic, garam masala and a mix of herbs to create falafel-type patties. Serve them as part of a sandwich, as written, or place on a bed of greens.

John Fleer's Buttermilk Corn Bread Soup. Made to use up leftover unsweetened corn bread.



WASHINGTON, DC - Bread, Cheese and Chive Puddings photographed in Washington, DC. (Photo by Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post). (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Bread, Cheese and Chive Puddings. Use up leftover bread or rolls in this quick, custardy breakfast or brunch dish. It also uses bits of cheese and cream that you might have.



One Pan Cozy Strata_H (Renee Comet for The Washington Post)

Cozy Strata. Did challah or brioche grace your table? Here's a way to use up a few leftover slices.

Other ideas: Grease a waffle iron and stick some stuffing in it  the edges get all crisped and crackly, and you've got tasty waffles that could be topped with cranberry sauce and turkey or leftover Brussels sprouts. Cut cubes of stuffing into bite-size cubes and use them to top a casserole before baking (such as this Chicken Pot Tot Hotdish), or bake the cubes into croutons (or pan-fry) and drop them in soup.

Cranberry sauce



WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 22, 2014: Gooey Chicken, Brie and Cranberry Pies (Photo by Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post). (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Gooey Chicken, Brie and Cranberry Pies. You'll make your own butter crust, but store-bought puff pastry would make a reasonable substitute. Use cooked turkey instead of the chicken.

Turkey Salad With Cranberry Vinaigrette. Like any fruit jam, cranberry sauce makes a lovely salad dressing when thinned with oil and vinegar.



WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 16: Aunt Catherines Buckwheat-Ginger Waffles. (Photo by Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post)

Aunt Catherine's Buckwheat-Gingersnap Waffles. Excellent topped with cranberry sauce (plain or thinned with a little maple syrup). They'd also make a good vehicle for leftover turkey.



WASHINGTON, DC - Holiday Breakfast Cookies photographed in Washington, DC. (Photo by Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post). (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Holiday Breakfast Cookies. This uses any lingering whole cranberries or pureed pumpkin or sweet potatoes you might have.

Other ideas: Use as a topping for an ice cream pie or cake, or a filling for rugelach or challah rolls.
Erin Cavalier, shown in a 2014 file photo, has sued Catholic University. She claims the school violated her civil rights under Title IX. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Federal investigators found insufficient evidence to conclude that Catholic University violated a students civil rights after she reported in late 2012 that she had been raped on campus.

But the Education Departments civil rights unit determined that the university failed to uphold the rights of the accused male student, in violation of the anti-discrimination law known as Title IX.

The report from the Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, was quietly issued Oct. 31, culminating an investigation of nearly four years into an incident that involved two students, alcohol and a dispute over sexual consent. The case drew the Vaticans university in America into the national debate over how schools handle reports of sexual violence.

[From 2014: Catholic student recounts struggle after reporting a sex assault]

Catholic said it was pleased with the outcome. The findings reflect what we have consistently held: that the university responded promptly and equitably to the womans allegations, the school said this week in a written statement.

The young man was not charged with any crime, and the university cleared him in 2013 of an allegation of sexual misconduct.

The young woman in the case, Erin Cavalier, who is now 23, went public with her account in a 2014 article in The Washington Post.

Catholic was one of dozens of colleges and universities named that year when the Obama administration disclosed a list of schools under federal investigation related to sexual violence and Title IX, a 1972 law that bans sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. This year, the Trump administration has declared a shift in federal guidance on Title IX, saying it wants to work more closely with colleges to ensure the due-process rights of all students  including the accused  are protected in sexual violence cases.

Cavalier said this week she was disappointed in the outcome of the federal investigation of Catholic. The report was less than honest, she said.

[Read the OCR report]

In a footnote, the federal report said a number of students interviewed by OCR raised concerns that the universitys department of public safety could be insensitive and intimidating when questioning victims. That echoed what Cavalier described as her own experience. The report said federal investigators encouraged the university to ensure that public safety officers were trained in how trauma can affect victims of sexual harassment or sexual violence.

We are appreciative that the report included reference to the intentional and measurable steps we have taken to strengthen our resources for the prevention of and response to sexual harassment and assault, Catholic said in its statement.

In Cavaliers telling, she went on a drinking binge that night in December 2012, downing wine, tequila, vodka and beer within a short time, and becoming severely intoxicated before her encounter with the male student. She said a blood-alcohol analysis the next morning provided strong evidence that she was too incapacitated to consent to sex.

Cavalier contended that Catholic mishandled her case, overlooking key evidence about her level of intoxication and dragging out its review of the incident. She fought for several months to get a formal hearing into her claim that she had been raped.

Initially, university officials had decided that a hearing was unnecessary. Eventually, pressed by Cavalier to reconsider, they reversed that decision. The university board that reviewed the incident in October 2013 found no wrongdoing.

OCR did not find that the delays affected the fairness of the process overall for the complainant, the federal report said.

But the federal report faulted Catholic for reversing its initial decision not to hold a hearing. Federal investigators said the reversal deviated from the universitys written procedures at the time, which did not allow for an appeal. The civil rights office said the reversal appeared to have been driven by Catholics effort to be responsive to Cavaliers concerns and bring satisfactory closure for all parties.

But in doing that, the civil rights office said, the university subjected the accused to an inequitable process, in violation of Title IX. The university later rewrote its procedures to allow for appeals.

The young man, who has not been publicly identified, could not be reached for comment.

Cavalier graduated from Catholic in May 2016 with a bachelors degree in politics. In October 2016, she sued the university in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging the school violated her Title IX rights and seeking financial damages for negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. That suit, separate from her civil rights complaint, is still pending. Catholic has denied wrongdoing and is seeking to dismiss the suit.

[Catholic U. graduate alleges school was indifferent to rape report]

Despite the legal battle, Cavalier has not severed ties with her alma mater. This year, she enrolled again at the 6,000-student university in Northeast Washington. She is now a graduate student seeking a masters degree in business analysis. She is considering a career in project management consulting or marketing. I would like to just be able to do what I set out and planned to do, Cavalier said.
MARYLAND

Man found fatally shot

Police are investigating the fatal shooting of a man found in a car in Forest Heights, Md., Thursday.

Officers were called about 6 a.m. to the 100 block of Cree Drive for a report of a suspicious vehicle, according to a statement from District Heights police.

Officers found a man in the car with upper body trauma, police said.

Police have not identified the victim. Prince Georges County police and Forest Heights police are continuing to search for a suspect and motive.

 Lynh Bui

VIRGINIA

TSA: Traveler had gun

Authorities cited a Fairfax County man who attempted to board a Thursday flight at Reagan National Airport with a loaded handgun.

Shortly after 6 a.m., Transportation Security Administration officers spotted the gun in a carry-on bag during x-ray screening, the TSA said in a news release.

Airport police confiscated the .32 caliber handgun witheight bullets, and cited the McLean resident on a state weapons charge, according to the TSA.

The TSA discovered 67 loaded guns in carry-on bags the last week alone, and nearly 3,400 last year. The Metropolitan Washington Airport Authorities did not immediately return a request for additional information, including the traveler's name and whether he was able to board.

 Fenit Nirappil

Driver killed in crash

A driver died Thursday when his car slammed into the back of a tractor trailer in Fairfax County, Virginia State Police said.

State troopers responded to reports of the crash at 3:36 a.m. on the westbound lanes of Interstate 495 near the Van Dorn Street exit.

A 2013 Honda Civic ran off the road and hit a tractor-trailer stopped on the shoulder, police said.

Authorities identified the driver as Christopher S. Padilla, 30, of Alexandria. He died at the scene.

Police said the truck driver, who was not injured, had pulled over to check the rig for problems after noticing signs of mechanical issues. He returned to the driver's seat and was about to put on his seat belt when Padillas car struck, police said.

 Fenit Nirappil

Officer injured in chain reaction crash

A Prince Georges County police officer was injured Wednesday responding to an incident on the inner loop of the Capital Beltway, when a sedan clipped the police cruiser and set off a chain-reaction crash, county police said.

The collision involved four vehicles and forced authorities to close two southbound lanes of the Beltway, near Ritchie Marlboro Road.

The officer was driving with emergency lights and siren after a request for assistance from Maryland State Police about 6 p.m., said Cpl. Tyler Hunter, a county police spokesman. The police officer suffered nonlife threatening injuries.

The police cruiser was struck by a four-door sedan that caused the officer to lose control and hit a minivan and a pickup truck. A total of five adults and three juveniles from the truck and van suffered nonlife threatening injuries, Hunter said.

 Clarence Williams
George Avakian in 2009. He produced jazz musicians such as Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck and helped popularize the long-play record, the live album and liner notes. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

George Avakian, a producer and record executive who helped define the jazz canon and redefine the album, popularizing everything from long-play vinyl records to live albums and liner notes, died Nov. 22 at his home in Manhattan. He was 98.

His daughter Anahid Avakian Gregg confirmed the death to the Associated Press but did not disclose the cause.

A soft-spoken son of Armenian immigrants, Mr. Avakian was among the most impactful behind-the-scenes figures of 20th-century music, credited with popularizing a sweeping number of innovations and an astonishing variety of musicians.

At Columbia Records, where Mr. Avakian led the once-floundering pop and international division for much of the 1950s, he assembled a roster that included pianist Dave Brubeck and trumpeter Miles Davis and oversaw retrospective releases that revitalized interest in Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Bessie Smith.

He produced saxophonist Sonny Rollins's 1962 comeback hit "The Bridge"; signed rock musicians Bill Haley and the Everly Brothers to Warner Bros. Records; assembled one of the best-selling comedy albums in history, "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart" (1960); and for several years in the 1970s managed jazz and classical pianist Keith Jarrett and saxophonist Charles Lloyd.



Mr. Avakian and saxophonist Jimmy Heath in New York at a National Endowment for the Arts awards ceremony in 2011. (Charles Sykes/AP)

Mr. Avakian orchestrated the commercial success of dozens of jazz, rock and international artists, successfully betting that Davis could overcome a heroin addiction and that a teenage Johnny Mathis could become a star.

Have found phenomenal 19-year-old boy who could go all the way, Mr. Avakian wrote in an oft-cited 1955 telegram to Columbia after seeing Mathis sing at a San Francisco club. Send blank contracts.

But he was also a single-minded jazz scholar who taught one of the earliest jazz history courses and sought to elevate the music he loved as a teenager into an art form that commanded the same critical respect as classical music.

Nearly all the technical innovations he championed were adopted in the service of jazz. While studying at Yale University, he waged a letter-writing campaign to record executives, complaining about the lack of full-length jazz albums. The only records on the market were low-quality singles, heavy shellac discs known as 78s for their revolutions per minute.

Mr. Avakian eventually persuaded the label Decca to let him record an album of his own: Chicago Jazz (1940), a set of six 10-inch discs that featured guitarist Eddie Condon and is widely considered the first full-length jazz record in history.

The album also marked one of the earliest examples of liner notes, with Mr. Avakian crafting an accompanying 12-page booklet that offered listeners the wealth of information that had long eluded him as a young jazz fan, including details on the records performers and composition. The annotations became a staple of Mr. Avakians releases and would later win him a Grammy Award, for his scholarly liner notes to a 1996 Davis and Gil Evans box set that described recording sessions Mr. Avakian had originally overseen.

A young Mr. Avakian went on to connect with Columbia, whose factory was just 20 miles down the road from Yales campus, and reissue a series of Hot Jazz Classics that put old recordings by Bix Beiderbecke, Armstrong and other early jazz artists in wide release.

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The records formed the bedrock of a jazz canon Mr. Avakian spent much of his early career codifying, strolling the archives of Columbias factory and record library to seek out long-forgotten albums that soon became hits.

"When Woody Allen told us in his movie 'Manhattan' that 'Potato Head Blues' "  a classic track by Armstrong  "was one of the things that made life worthwhile, maybe it was because Mr. Avakian enabled him to hear it at an impressionable age," Wall Street Journal contributor John McDonough wrote in 1997.

As an executive at Columbia, Mr. Avakian oversaw the release of 100 long-play (LP) jazz and pop records in 1948, seizing on the new technology as a way to deliver longer musical numbers and higher-quality sound to listeners.

The albums, also known as 33s, soon became the industry standard and enabled Mr. Avakian to release classic live records such as Benny Goodman's "Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert" (1950)  groundbreaking as an early reissue, as one of the earliest live records and double albums, and as one of the first jazz records to sell more than 1 million copies.

It was followed by landmark recordings such as "Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy" (1954) and "Ambassador Satch" (1956), albums on which Mr. Avakian collaborated with his longtime hero, Armstrong, in what Mr. Avakian described as "one of the greatest privileges of my life."

I was born at the right time, he told CNN in 2001, had the right opportunity, and thank God I was able to take advantage of it.

George Mesrop Avakian was born in Armavir, Russia, on March 15, 1919. His parents were cloth traders who had fled western Persia at the start of World War I. Raised in New York, he began listening to jazz in high school, drawn to the music in part, he said, because its "strange sounds resembled the Armenian records that my parents had brought with them."

Mr. Avakian served in the Army during World War II and returned to work at Columbia Records, remaining there until 1958. The following year, Mr. Avakian collaborated with his younger brother, film editor and director Aram Avakian, on "Jazz on a Summer's Day," one of the earliest feature-length documentaries about a music festival.

Aram died in 1987. Mr. Avakians wife of 68 years, violinist Anahid Ajemian, died in 2016. They had three children. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

Mr. Avakian was one of the founders of what is now the Grammy-giving Recording Academy and contributed to recording sessions and reissues until shortly before his death.

He received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award in 2010, "a culminating honor," he said, that confirmed his "long-held belief: Live long enough, stay out of jail, and you'll never know what might happen!"
Maurice Hinchey, a 10-term congressman from New York known for pressing to protect the environment during a career that spanned from the era of the Love Canal toxic waste site to the recent debate over natural-gas fracking, died Nov. 22 at his home in Saugerties, N.Y. He was 79.

His family announced the death on Facebook and had previously said Mr. Hinchey had a rare, progressive neurological condition called frontotemporal degeneration.

Mr. Hinchey, a Democrat, retired from Congress in 2013 after 20 years there and 18 years in New Yorks State Assembly, where he developed an expertise on environmental issues.

As chair of the assemblys Environmental Conservation Committee, he led hearings into the disaster at Love Canal, a Niagara Falls neighborhood where it emerged in the 1970s that a chemical company had dumped 22,000 tons of toxic waste decades earlier.

Complaints about miscarriages, birth defects and other health problems among residents made the area a symbol of environmental catastrophe and led to federal Superfund legislation to clean up the nations abandoned waste sites.

In the 1980s, Mr. Hinchey was the main sponsor of a New York law that was the nations first aimed specifically at fighting acid rain. As a congressman, Mr. Hinchey continued to delve into environmental and energy issues, including promoting solar power, fighting a planned high-voltage power line in his district and speaking out against hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The gas-drilling technique was at one point being eyed for parts of his district before New York banned it in 2014.

Mr. Hinchey also was a longtime member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and he was involved in pushing for information about a George W. Bush-era warrantless wiretapping program that intercepted Americans international calls and emails as an anti-terrorism measure.

The champion we all longed for, he feared no giants and stood up to every bully, in politics, in business and in all of life, said Democratic state Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, who was among Mr. Hincheys first staffers in the assembly.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) described Mr. Hinchey in a statement as a tireless progressive champion for American families.

He leaves us with a legacy of leadership and a lifetime of public service, she said, that embody the best of America.

Maurice Dunlea Hinchey was born in New York on Oct. 27, 1938. He grew up in Saugerties and served in the Navy before graduating from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1968 with a bachelors degree in English. He received a masters degree in education from the school two years later.

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A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

The Washington Post contributed to this report.
Authorities cited a Fairfax County man who attempted to board a Thursday morning flight from Reagan National Airport with a loaded handgun.

It was a bad start to his Thanksgiving, as the Transportation Security Administration put it in a news release.

Shortly after 6 a.m., TSA officers spotted the gun in a carry-on bag during x-ray screening.

Airport police confiscated the .32 caliber handgun, which had eight bullets, and cited the McLean resident on a state weapons charge, according to the TSA.

Flights weren't disrupted for what's a pretty routine slip-up. The TSA discovered 67 loaded guns in carry-on bags the last week alone, and nearly 3,400 last year.

The Metropolitan Washington Airport Authorities did not immediately return a request for additional information, including the name of the gun-toting traveller and whether he was able to board his flight.
Police said a man was struck by a car and killed while crossing a road in the Adelphi area of Prince Georges County Thursday evening by two cars in succession.

The man was crossing New Hampshire Avenue at Metzerott Road when a car headed south struck him, said Cpl. Tyler Hunter, a spokesman for the Prince Georges County police. The man, already down in the road, was struck by a second vehicle that kept going, police later said on Twitter. The driver of the second vehicle, a small sedan, may not have realized what had happened, according to police.

Officers, alerted to the accident at around 7:30 p.m., found the man unresponsive and pronounced him dead at the scene.

Hunter said the driver of the car that hit the man initially remained at the scene and was cooperating with investigators, who shut down southbound lanes of New Hampshire Avenue while they collected evidence. They were attempting to determine if the man was in the crosswalk and who had the right of way when he was hit.

Police were not releasing the mans name until his family could be notified.
The child pornography case against a California doctor whose computer was searched after he submitted it to Best Buys Geek Squad for repair has been dismissed after a judge ruled that an FBI agent made several false or misleading statements or omissions . . . with reckless disregard for the truth in a search warrant affidavit.

The case against oncologist Mark Rettenmaier attracted national attention because it revealed that technicians at the Geek Squads central repair facility in Kentucky had been paid by the FBI and would tip off the FBI field office in Louisville when they spotted possible child pornography on computers. Computers taken to Best Buy stores around the country for repair are all shipped to the Kentucky facility.

[If a Best Buy technician is a paid FBI informant, are his computer searches legal?]

In May, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department seeking records "concerning the FBI's relationship with Best Buy and other computer repair facilities." The privacy group first filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI in February, after The Washington Post reported the link between Best Buy and the FBI, but the FBI declined to disclose the information.

Best Buy said that its technicians do not search customers computers seeking illicit material but that when they happen to see it while doing repair, they are obligated to report it. They do so about 100 times a year, a Best Buy spokesman said.



A Geek Squad agent fixes a computer at the groups Kentucky headquarters. (Ken James/Bloomberg News)

Geek Squad does not work for the FBI and never has, the company said in a statement in May.

[FBIs conduct in Best Buy computer case prompts judge to throw out child porn evidence]

When Rettenmaier took his HP Pavilion desktop to the Best Buy in Mission Viejo, Calif., in 2011, he consented to have it searched while being repaired to recover any lost photos. No warrant is needed for such a search.

But Rettenmaiers attorney, James D. Riddet, discovered that the FBI made payments to some of the technicians who tipped them off to pornography, often about $500, and considered them confidential human sources in internal records.

Riddet raised the issue of whether that made the Geek Squad employees de facto FBI employees  and therefore government agents who would need a search warrant.

On Rettenmaiers computer, a technician found one photo of a naked girl, believed to be 9 years old, in the unallocated space on Rettenmaiers hard drive. It did not show the girls genitalia or any sex act.

Unallocated space is where deleted data resides on a computer until it is overwritten by other data. But it often does not have metadata, such as when it was created, accessed or deleted, and because it lacks that information, courts have ruled that photos found in unallocated space cannot be proved to be possessed by the computers owner without other evidence.

Riddet argued that when the Geek Squad delved into the unallocated space, it was searching beyond standard data recovery to try to help the FBI. But U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney rejected that argument. The Geek Squad technician testified that he was simply trying to recover all the customers photos, wherever they were.

The judge noted that Best Buy warns customers that it will notify the authorities if illicit material is found. He said Rettenmaiers expectation of privacy after he gave the computer to Best Buy and repeatedly consented to data recovery services is not one that society is prepared to recognize as legitimate or reasonable.

But the FBI used the discovery of that photo to obtain a search warrant for Rettenmaiers home and other computers. When Rettenmaier returned home, his iPhone was seized. On it were hundreds of pornographic photos, federal prosecutors said.

Carney said that search was illegal because it wouldnt have been authorized if FBI agents had accurately described what was originally found on Rettenmaiers computer in Kentucky. Special Agent Cynthia Kayle falsely stated in the affidavit for the search warrant that the [child] image was child pornography, Carney said in a May hearing in federal court in Santa Ana, Calif. It was child erotica, the possession and viewing of which is not unlawful.

The judge noted that Kayle also failed to state that the image was found in the unallocated space of Rettenmaiers computer and that three separate searches of the hard drive were done to find the image. This one image of child erotica, Carney said, is simply not sufficient to search Dr. Rettenmaiers entire home, the place where the protective force of the Fourth Amendment is the most powerful.

The judge then suppressed all the evidence seized from Rettenmaiers house, including the photos on his phone.

Federal prosecutors initially filed a notice of appeal. But they missed a deadline to file their first brief and on Monday filed a motion saying that having evaluated the evidence remaining after the Courts ruling on defendants suppression motions, the government believes it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the case.

Carney then dismissed the case.

I think what this means, Riddet said, is the FBI needs to be much more careful about representations they make in search warrant affidavits and make sure they advise judges what the facts are. If they had done that in this case, I dont think the search warrant would have been issued.
Two suspects charged with killing a 16-year-old earlier this month in the Brightwood neighborhood are affiliated with a violent street gang known as STC, or Street Thug Criminals, with roots in El Salvador, according to court documents.

In addition, police said the shooting of Yoselis Regino Barrios, on Nov. 7, and the fatal shooting of a man Nov. 8 involved people from the same crew, raising the possibility of an intra-gang feud. Arrests have been made in both cases, and police are searching for another person in Barrioss slaying.

The back-to-back shootings about a mile apart along the Georgia Avenue corridor frightened residents and led to a packed community meeting at which homeowners pressed police and other D.C. officials for answers. Early on, police had raised the possibility that the violence was linked to gangs, although they were vague about particulars.

The newly filed court documents do not offer a motive for the shooting of Barrios, killed near his home in the 1300 block of Rittenhouse Street NW, or of Jonathan Vilchez, 22, fatally shot the next day inside the Lucky Corner Market in the 5400 block of Georgia Avenue NW.

[Latino gangs do havoc in Northwest Washington in early 2000s]



Yoselis Regino Barrios, 16, shown in a 2016 family photo, was fatally shot Nov. 7 in the 1300 block of Rittenhouse Street NW. (N/A/Family photo)

It was not clear if the violence involved different subsets of STC. The gang and others were notorious in the District in the late 1990s through the mid-2000s. In 2004, prosecutors sent several people from gangs, including STC, to prison after four killings caused by jealousy over a girl.

On Wednesday, police arrested Kevin Sorto, 20, of Northwest, and charged him with first-degree murder in the shooting of Barrios. The teen and a friend were shot the night of Nov. 7 in an alley behind rowhouses.

[D.C. police exploring gang links in two Northwest Washington killings]

In the arrest affidavit, police said they tracked a red car seen being driven away and interviewed a witness who said he saw Sorto live on Instagram saying, We got them [expletive] scored. On Thursday, police issued an arrest warrant for a second suspect, Victor Hernandez, 17, who is charged as an adult with first-degree murder. He was still being sought Friday afternoon.

The day after Barrios was killed, two men fired at each other in the corner store about a mile away. Vilchez was killed, and Mario Alfaro, 23, was wounded. Police have charged Alfaro with second-degree murder.

The court documents say that Sorto and Hernandez, charged with killing the teen on Rittenhouse, along with both Alfaro and Vilchez, who police say shot at each other inside the store, are all affiliated with the same street gang, known as STC.

The documents also say that Alfaro is a known associate of Sorto and Hernandez.

The documents do not mention the slain 16-year-old, Barrios, as being a member of a gang. A cousin said Barrios is not in a gang and that the family believes the gunman mistook him for someone else.

The cousin her family knows the suspects in her cousins killing and that the dispute among them involved money. She said Yoselis was not involved in any of it.

Attorneys for Sorto and Alfaro did not return calls seeking comment.
Young supporters of Virginia governor-elect Democrat Ralph Northam listen to his speech at his victory rally at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., on election night. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

As bad as the overall outcome of Virginia's recent election was for Republicans, there was one facet of the vote that raises special alarm for the party's future.

Thats the performance of young voters, who came out in historic numbers and overwhelmingly cast their ballots for the Democratic candidate for governor, Ralph Northam.

While Republicans have been wrestling with an aging demographic for some time, analysts say the unpopular actions of President Trump are pushing away a new generation.

One of the biggest challenges facing the Republican Party in Virginia and nationwide is that the Republican Party has become toxic to a lot of young voters, said Bob Holsworth, a longtime Virginia political scientist. I think Trump has exacerbated a trend that was emerging, and it has become very problematic.

Northam defeated Republican Ed Gillespie by an overall margin of 54 percent to 45 percent, as certified this week by the state Board of Elections.

Young voters  who are often among the least-engaged, especially in a nonpresidential election  had a turnout rate of 34 percent, according to an analysis of exit polling by a group at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. That's up from 26 percent in the 2013 governor's race and double the youth turnout in 2009.

And that surge of millennials was a windfall for Democrats: Sixty-nine percent of those voters supported Northam, vs. 30 percent for Gillespie.

The same trend held when measured in different ways. In precincts adjacent to college campuses, turnout was up 8 points over 2013 and Northam won 72 percent of the vote, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

In precincts not adjacent to colleges but where voters age 40 and younger make up more than 60 percent of the population, turnout was up 7 points and Northam won more than 81 percent of the vote, the VPAP analysis found.

Virginias results suggest that the rise of young voters is a serious problem for Republicans nationwide.

Recent studies by the Pew Research Center found that millennials  generally defined as those age 18 to 35 in 2016  are fast becoming the largest single bloc in the electorate. By 2020, there will be more millennial and Gen X voters than baby boomers.

And millennials have routinely polled as more left-leaning than other segments of the population.

View Graphic The latest stories and details on the 2017 Virginia general election and race for governor.

The only other statewide election this year was in New Jersey, where Democrat Phil Murphy was a prohibitive favorite for governor. Young voters didnt surge in New Jersey  turnout of 18 percent was similar to the past two governors elections there  but 73 percent of them voted for the Democrat, according to the Tufts analysis.

Young people have increasingly moved away from the Republican Party, given its perceived status as being the anti-immigrant party and not being tolerant of alternative lifestyles, said Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

[To become governor in Trumps America, Gillespie embraces culture wars]

I find even with my students who are Republican-leaning, on social or cultural issues theyre very libertarian for the most part, Rozell said. As long as the Republican Party is seen as not embracing or accepting people as they are, be they gay, transgender, immigrants and the like, thats a big turnoff to young voters these days.

The Virginia results, he said, are a wake-up call to the Republican Party about the way things are going to go for them next year in congressional races across the country.

Some Republicans get the message. David Ramadan, a former Republican delegate to the General Assembly who supported Gillespie for governor, said the youth turnout is one number that certainly has popped out. Ill summarize that with one word for the GOP: trouble.

Ramadan has long warned that his party has a problem wooing minority voters. But this election shows that its not just a minority problem, its a youth problem  and even broader than that, he added.

Those problems were accelerated this year by the Trump effect, he said.

Trump is extremely unpopular in Virginia, with a 34 percent approval rating in a recent Washington Post-Schar School poll. And his rhetoric appeared to influence Gillespie to shift his campaign toward issues of illegal immigration, Latino street gangs and support for Confederate statues.

That was a losing formula for wooing young voters, Ramadan said. Millennials care about reducing student debt, finding a comfortable job and being able to have an easy commute to work, he said.

Unless Republicans get back to mainstream issues instead of sanctuary cities and Confederate statues, were going to lose elections, he said.

Republican pollster Gene Ulm said he was most concerned about young suburbanites in the Virginia results. We basically had 300,000 people show up who dont normally vote in a gubernatorial election, he said. We won 85,000 of them and lost the other 215,000.

There was one silver lining: Exit polls show Gillespie won about 12 percent of the African American vote, higher than most recent GOP candidates.

By Ulms calculation, that would roughly translate to nearly 63,000 votes  a small number but far more than any Republican statewide candidate in recent years.

Ed Gillespie got more black votes when he lost than the last Republican governor got when he won, Ulm said, referring to former governor Bob McDonnell, who got fewer than 29,000 black votes in 2009 by his reckoning.

But the overall trend of young, white and suburban voters is a bad sign for the party going into next years congressional races, he said. That affects certainly Barbara Comstock, he said, referring to the Northern Virginia congresswoman, a Republican whose district went for Northam. But theres a lot of other districts in America where thats going to play a role, Ulm said.

There are a host of progressive and grass-roots groups aiming specifically to get a large turnout of young voters for Democratic candidates, and they were taking credit for the big showing.

At least three voter registration and mobilization groups had a presence on our campus, and there may have been more at some of the bigger campuses, said Quentin Kidd, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University in Newport News.

At Virginia Tech, in fact, the progressive group NextGen Virginia staged a petting zoo to get students to come out to vote. The group spent $3.3 million statewide and knocked on 350,000 doors as part of its efforts.

After Northams win, NextGen crowed in a letter to supporters that its clear young people and people of color made the difference in this historic election . . . If anger at Donald Trump and the GOP continues to drive turnout up through the 2018 election cycle, when young people will be the largest bloc of eligible voters, we could be looking at a progressive wave powered by millennial voters.

Kidd said evidence of the youth trends staying power can be found in the crop of new Democrats elected to the General Assembly, who are far younger  and more female  than the current legislature.

Half these new delegates are probably millennials, he said. The impact of the millennial generation on the electorate is going to be pretty profound, and Democratic candidates tend to be the beneficiary of this far more than Republicans are.
Ralph Northam, Virginias Gov.-elect (D), campaigned on one of the most liberal platforms in the commonwealths modern history before his decisive win.

With Republicans currently set to hold one-vote leads in both chambers of the General Assembly (pending litigation and recounts in the House of Delegates), hell have a much stronger negotiating hand than he may have thought while campaigning.

[Full story: Progressive policies within reach in Virginia after GOP shellacking]

Heres a look at some of his campaign promises:

$15 minimum wage

Northam joined the growing movement of Democrats who want to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Virginia abides by the federal floor, $7.25.

"I would challenge anyone out there to go try to support themselves and support their families on $7.25 an hour," Northam said during a March campaign stop. "It is impossible. You can't do it."

Asked how he would persuade the legislature to double the minimum wage, he said he would campaign against Republicans who opposed it. But in a post-election radio interview, he didnt offer a specific number when expressing support for raising the minimum wage.

Illegal immigration issues

Northam supports issuing drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants in Virginia, as well as in-state tuition for students who were brought to the country illegally as children.

View Graphic The latest stories and details on the 2017 Virginia general election and race for governor.

If a Virginia local jurisdiction declares itself a "sanctuary city"  generally meaning that they do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities  Northam said he would support a ban on sanctuary cities. That angered supporters on the left, who disrupted his Election Night victory speech.

Single-payer health care

Northam has resisted calls in his party to support a government-run, single-payer health-care system, which have been louder outside of Virginia. While 11 Democratic House of Delegates candidates expressed support for single-payer, only one was elected: Lee Carter.

Instead of single payer, Northam thinks Virginia should design a public option that would create competition and help drive down costs, Northam spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel said during the campaign.

Taxes

Northam campaigned on overhauling Virginia's tax system, but said he would leave the details up to a bipartisan commission. During a primary debate, he said raising taxes was "not realistic" in Richmond.

Northams only specific campaign tax proposal was phasing out sales taxes on groceries paid by low-income Virginians. Since his election, Northam also suggested exempting military pensions from state taxes.

Higher education

Northam's signature campaign policy proposal was offering free community college or apprenticeships to Virginians. It comes with several caveats: It's limited to those seeking training in high-demand fields including cybersecurity and early-childhood education, and would require a year of public service.

His campaign pegged the cost of this program at only $37 million, and said it would eventually pay for itself.

Campaign finance

Facing pressure during his primary campaign over taking campaign contributions from the energy giant Dominion, Northam offered to push for a ban on all corporate political giving, as well as capping campaign donations at $10,000.

Few campaign finance reform advocates see this as feasible, given how Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike benefit from corporate and large contributions.

Criminal justice

Northam wants to increase the threshold for felony grand larceny from $200, one of the lowest in the nation. He also wants to end the practice of suspending drivers licenses for failure to pay court fees, which critics says locks people into a cycle of poverty.

Northam favors legalizing medical marijuana, and decriminalizing simple possession of the drug  an idea that also has support from the Republican leader of the state Senate. Northam did not call for legalizing marijuana sales for recreational purposes, as is allowed in eight states.

Voting rights

Northam has backed a repeal of Virginias requirement that voters present identification to cast ballots, and he wants to establish same-day voter registration and no-excuse early voting. But he hasnt called for automatic voter registration, which has been a priority for progressives nationwide.

Northam also wants to standardize a process for restoring voting rights to felons who complete their sentences, building on outgoing Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe's work to restore rights to roughly 160,000.

Gun control

Northam supports a variety of gun control measures, including reinstating Virginia's "one-handgun-a-month" law limiting firearm purchases, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and requiring universal background checks for buying guns.

Confederate monuments

While Northam said in August that he would be a "vocal advocate" for relocating Confederate monuments to museums and do everything he can to remove statues at the state level, he has since softened his approach.

Now he says he wouldn't meddle with local decision-making. He touted the board of visitors at Virginia Military Institute, whose members he will appoint as governor, as an example of local decision-makers who grappled with a Confederate-era statue and chose to keep it up.

Environment

Northam has said he would support two natural gas pipeline projects set to cross through Virginia if state and federal regulators find they meet environmental and safety standards. He also says he would oppose drilling for oil and gas off Virginias coast.

Transportation

Northam supports a floor on the gas tax paid in Northern Virginia to fund road projects, which would ensure stable revenue if the price of fuel plummets.

He also says he would support a dedicated funding source for WMATA, the regional transportation agency that runs Metro, but hasn't backed the regional sales tax favored by District leaders.

Right-to-work

Northam has said he wouldnt try to repeal Virginias right-to-work law that prohibits paying union dues as a condition of employment. But Republicans pressed Northam on whether his tune would change with a Democratic legislature.

I think also we have to be realistic in Virginia, what we can get done with our current legislature. I think rather than pick fights that we perhaps cant win right now, Northam said during the campaign.

Democratic House leadership has expressed little interest in reversing the right-to-work law.


Mark S. King, right, who is HIV positive and is considered noninfectious with proper antiretrovial treatment, is seen at home with his husband, Michael Mitchell, on Nov. 22, 2017, in Baltimore. (Bill OLeary/The Washington Post)

Last year, Chris Kimmenez and his wife asked their doctors a simple question. Could Chris, who has been HIV positive since 1989 but keeps the virus in check through medication, transmit it sexually to Paula?

They were pretty sure they knew the answer. Married for more than 30 years, they had not always practiced safe sex, but Paula showed no signs of having the virus.

Their physicians were less certain. They had a conversation, and they did some research on it, Kimmenez said. They came back to us and said there may still be a risk, but were comfortable enough that unprotected sex is safe.

We knew that all along, said Kimmenez, 56, who works with ex-offenders in Philadelphia.

Simple acknowledgments like that one, spoken quietly in the privacy of doctors offices, mark the arrival of a historic moment in the history of HIV: Medical authorities are publicly agreeing that people with undetectable viral loads cannot transmit the virus that causes AIDS.

The policy change has profound implications for the way people view HIV. The change promises not just unprotected sex for couples like Kimmenez and his wife, but also reduced stigma for the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV. The policy change also offers the hope that more people will be tested and begin treatment if they are found to have the virus rather than live in denial.

There was something in me that said Im damaged and I made a mistake, and people see it and Im a danger, said Mark S. King, 56, a writer and activist who tested positive for HIV in 1985. But now, treatment has fully suppressed the virus. When I finally internalized this message . . . something suddenly lifted off of me that is hard to describe. It was almost as if someone wiped me clean. I no longer feel like this diseased pariah.



King hoists Henry the cat as another cat speeds by. (Bill OLeary/The Washington Post)

Once considered a death sentence, HIV infection can now be managed via medication, much like chronic diseases such as diabetes, and people with the virus live full lives. The rate of new infections in the United States dropped by 10 percent from 2010 to 37,600 in 2014, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fewer than 7,000 people died of HIV/AIDS that year.

In July, Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the worlds leading authorities on HIV, publicly agreed at an international conference that people with undetectable viral loads in their blood cannot transmit the virus.

On Sept. 27, the CDC followed, releasing a letter that said people who take medication daily "and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner."

The influential British medical journal the Lancet HIV endorsed the idea in an editorial this month. All told, more than 500 organizations in 67 countries now agree, according to Bruce Richman, who is leading the "Undetectable = Untransmittable" (U=U) campaign credited with beginning to change public perception of HIV transmissibility.

Like many developments in the four-decade history of HIV, this one has been slow to gain acceptance among mainstream health-care providers. Many are not aware of it or must unlearn the habit of drilling safe-sex lessons into patients, as they have been doing almost since the AIDS epidemic began. HIV-positive people also must alter deeply ingrained beliefs that nothing good can come of revealing their status.

The change in philosophy also has sparked concerns, for which there is some evidence, that more condomless sex will lead to an increase in other sexually transmitted infections. And experts acknowledge that a few people whose viral load is not truly suppressed will eventually transmit HIV to others.

Laws in many states also are out of date. Many still criminalize the failure to reveal HIV status to a sex partner, even when there is no danger of transmissibility.

But on balance, authorities said, the agreement that people with HIV can prevent sexual transmission by taking a single pill each day is nothing less than revolutionary.

Nothing is completely risk-free, Fauci said in an interview. What the community feels is that all of the good that will come from the lack of social stigmatization is worth the risk. This means a lot to them. This has a lot to do with their self-worth, their identity.

An undetectable viral load is defined as fewer than 200 copies of the virus in a milliliter of blood. Generally, people with HIV should maintain that level or a lower level for six months before beginning to consider themselves incapable of transmitting the virus sexually.

Many who faithfully take antiretroviral medication and lead healthy lifestyles can bring their viral loads considerably lower, to 50 or even 25 copies.

But progress raises other questions, said Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDCs National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. What if a person forgets to take medication for one day? What about two, or more? How long after resuming therapy should someone wait before once again considering himself or herself incapable of transmitting the virus? And what about people who go above and below the 200-copy threshold over time? Studies show that to be the case for about 10 percent of the people with HIV, Mermin said.

As yet, there are no evidence-based answers to these questions, he said. The public-health challenge now is moving from theory to implementation, he said. Many questions arise following the information that when a person with HIV has an undetectable viral load, he has effectively no risk of transmitting the virus.

In 2008, Swiss experts announced that those with undetectable levels of HIV could not transmit HIV through sex. But the world was not ready to hear the message then.

Starting in 2011, three large studies confirmed the idea, tracking more than 75,000 vaginal and anal condomless sex acts without finding a single HIV transmission to an HIV-negative partner from someone whose viral load was undetectable. The initial 2011 study was named "breakthrough of the year" by Science magazine.

Now the challenge is to get the message out to HIV-positive people, caregivers and the public. And that process has been slow.

I would tell everyone about this, friends and family and people I wanted to date, and I was coming across so much resistance, because major institutions were saying this is wrong, Richman said.

He launched U=U last year, initially a lonely and sometimes controversial campaign to let the world know something that many people with HIV had concluded for themselves. His breakthrough moment came in August 2016 when New York Citys health department signed on. Soon, other cities and organizations were joining.

Still, the message is moving mainly from people with HIV to health authorities and policymakers, rather than in the other direction, Richman said.

This is a radical challenge to the status quo and to 35 years of HIV and fear of people living with HIV, Richman said.

Brigitte Charbonneau, 71, of Ottawa, found out this year that she could not transmit the virus after 23 years of being HIV positive. I thought, My God, Ive been living with my man for 20 years, and weve been using condoms,  the retired hairdresser recalled. And I phoned him right that afternoon.

Jennifer Vaughan of Watsonville, Calif., vividly remembers the moment she learned she could not transmit the virus to her boyfriend. The mother of three tested positive in February 2016 after she became critically ill with what was finally determined to be AIDS. HIV was not among the possibilities she or her doctors considered, until a blood test revealed the virus. She thinks she was infected by a previous boyfriend with a history of intravenous drug use.

Vaughan attended a speech Richman gave and was talking with him in a parking lot outside a Starbucks.

Ill never forget him saying those words, You cant transmit the virus if youre undetectable,  the 47-year-old substitute teacher recalled. And I said, Wait, what?

It was like the sky opened. Are you kidding? Theres, like, zero risk? I dont feel like Im a threat anymore. I dont feel like Im dirty. I dont feel like Im a dangerous person.

Read more:

Age is not a condom: One in six new HIV cases are in people over 50

South African research trial sparks hope for an HIV vaccine

A cure for HIV is no longer unthinkable
NEVADA

Gunman fired 1,100 rounds at concertgoers

The top lawman in Las Vegas says the gunman who killed dozens of people at a concert last month fired more than 1,100 rounds.

Sheriff Joe Lombardo told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he was aware of the previously unreported figure because his departments forensics lab is working with the FBI to process all ballistics evidence in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more on Oct. 1 after he shattered windows of his suite on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and unleashed withering gunfire at the music festival below before killing himself.

Authorities have said they have not determined Paddocks motive or why he stopped shooting.

Lombardo says authorities found about 4,000 unused rounds in the suite.

 Associated Press

SOUTH DAKOTA

24,450 gallons of oil recovered after spill

TransCanada Corp. says it has recovered more than 24,000 gallons of oil from the site of a pipeline leak discovered last week in South Dakota.

The company said 24,450 gallons of oil had been recovered as of Wednesday. TransCanadas Keystone pipeline leaked an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil on agricultural land in Marshall County. The company says there are roughly 170 people on-site working on cleanup and remediation.

South Dakota officials dont believe the leak polluted any surface water bodies or drinking water systems. A TransCanada spokeswoman said Tuesday the cause of the leak wont be known until further investigation.

 Associated Press

U.S. Marshals warn of scam: The U.S. Marshals Service is warning of nationwide scams by individuals claiming to be marshals, court officers, or other law enforcement officials. U.S. Marshal Peter Tobin in Cincinnati said victims have lost thousands of dollars to scammers who tell them they failed to report for jury duty or committed other offenses. They often tell victims they can avoid arrest by buying a prepaid debit card and providing the card number to the caller. Tobin said U.S. Marshals would never ask for a credit, debit or gift card number or ask for funds to be wired for any purpose.

 Associated Press
A C-2A Greyhound assigned to Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 30 launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan on Nov. 17. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Eduardo Otero/Associated Press)

JAPAN

U.S., Japanese ships search for three sailors

U.S. and Japanese ships and aircraft searched in the Philippine Sea on Thursday for three sailors missing since a U.S. Navy aircraft crashed a day earlier.

Eight people were rescued about 40 minutes after the crash of the C-2A Greyhound transport aircraft Wednesday afternoon, the Navy said. They were taken aboard the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and were in good condition.

The Navy said that it had notified next of kin that the three missing sailors were whereabouts unknown but that it would delay releasing their identities publicly for three days to follow policy.

The twin-propeller plane came down about 500 nautical miles southeast of Okinawa as it was bringing passengers and cargo from Japan to the aircraft carrier, the Navy said in a statement. The cause isnt clear and the crash is being investigated, the Navy said.

The aircraft carrier was leading the search and rescue efforts along with Japans naval forces. The ships and aircraft had searched more than 320 nautical miles as of Thursday morning, the Navy said.

The Reagan was participating in a joint exercise with Japans navy when the plane crashed.

A full search mission is underway, Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said during a visit to Manama, Bahrain. The Japanese navy is helping us with many, many assets.

Japans Defense Ministry said the crash site is about 90 miles northwest of Okinotorishima, a Japanese atoll.

In Washington, the White House said President Trump had been briefed on the crash.

 Associated Press

LIBYA

Reports of migrants being sold investigated

Libyas U.N.-backed government said Thursday that it is investigating reports of African migrants being sold as slaves and promised to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Footage broadcast by CNN appearing to show African migrants being traded in Libya sparked an international outcry and protests in Europe and Africa.

There have been direct instructions issued to form an investigative committee so as to uncover the truth and to capture the wrongdoers, and those responsible, and put them before the judiciary, Libyan Interior Minister Aref al-Khodja told journalists in Tripoli.

We are now currently waiting for the results of the investigations, which I believe are coming to a close.

The CNN video showed what it said was an auction of men offered to Libyan buyers as farmhands and sold for $400, appearing to confirm earlier reports of the existence of markets for trading migrants in Libya.

 Reuters

ARGENTINA

Apparent explosion heard near submarine

An apparent explosion occurred near the time and place an Argentine submarine went missing, the countrys navy reported Thursday  an ominous development that prompted relatives of the 44 crew members to burst into tears, and some to say they had lost all hope of rescue.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the search will continue until there is certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan. He said evidence showed an anomalous event that was singular, short, violent and non-nuclear that was consistent with an explosion.

The U.S. Navy and an international nuclear test-ban monitoring organization said the hydro-acoustic anomaly was produced just hours after the navy lost contact with the submarine on Nov. 15. According to this report, there was an explosion, Balbi told reporters. We dont know what caused an explosion of these characteristics at this site on this date.

The sub was originally scheduled to arrive Monday at the Mar del Plata navy base, about 250 miles southeast of Buenos Aires. Relatives of the crew members who have gathered at the base to receive counseling broke into tears and hugged one another after they received the news.

 Associated Press

Suicide attacks kills 8 in Afghanistan: An Afghan official said a suicide attack has killed eight people and wounded 17 in the country's eastern Nangahar province. Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the bomber targeted a police commander who was recently dismissed from his job. Thursday's attack took place in the provincial capital, Jalalabad. The officer escaped unharmed but two of his children were among those killed. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Lebanon's Hariri says stability is main concern: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has told a regional banking conference that the country's stability is his primary concern. Thursday's remarks  a day after Hariri suspended his resignation  sought to assure the Arab Banking Conference in Beirut that Hariri's government would ensure Lebanon remains a top Mideast destination for finance. Hariri stunned Lebanon and the region by resigning on Nov. 4 while in Riyadh, raising fears of market panic and recession.

 From news services
A member of the Mississippi National Guard salutes the American flag during a Veterans Day ceremony in Meridian, Miss., on Nov. 11. (Paula Merritt/The Meridian Star via Associated Press)

Columnist

For two years, Frank Ourada has been supporting our troops  more literally than most.

He has connected soldiers and veterans with food pantries, temporary housing and legal advice. He haggled with an insurance company when a soldiers home flooded. He helped a suicidal veteran find treatment.

Ourada basically ran triage for military families, connecting them with whatever services they need to survive.

This position, National Guard Family Assistance Center specialist, may be Ourada's most rewarding ever. The only rival was his time as an infantry Marine, which in 2009 left him disabled.

This work is my therapy, Ourada, 30, told me.

And yet last Friday he resigned. Because the job he loved so much had left him homeless.

Ourada had his pay slashed in March, from $20.08 hourly to $13.17. He soon fell behind on mortgage payments and lost his Minnesota home. He's been crashing with friends and family since August; next week he'll move in with a buddy in Utah, where he hopes to find better-paying work.

Ouradas situation is unusually dire, but hes far from alone.

Hundreds of his colleagues around the country also had their pay cut by 25 to 50 percent in March. About a third have quit, taking their networks and collective decades of experience, in an exodus that leaves American military families at risk of falling through the cracks.

The root of the problem? A bungled government contract.

In the decades since transitioning to a more professionalized, all-volunteer force, the military has added a host of support services for the growing number of long-term military families. One was the National Guard's Family Assistance Centers.

When this programs contract was awarded in 2012, the Guard had advised companies bidding on the contract to pay wages roughly equivalent to GS-7 to GS-9 levels (about $35,000 to $56,000).

When the contract came up for bid last year, however, the Guard gave vendors different  and hazier  guidance. This time it merely instructed them to abide by the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act.

This law requires the Labor Department to set minimum wages for hundreds of specific government contract occupations. The goal is to prevent a race to the bottom  to protect workers, but also to prevent contractors from cutting corners.

Unfortunately, Family Assistance Center occupations arent in the Labor Departments existing directory of jobs. And the National Guard never asked for them to be added, as it was supposed to do.

Confusion ensued.

One bidder, Cognitive Professional Services, found a junior job title that sounded vaguely related. It then built its bid around the wage floor for that occupation.

That pay level was not only substantially less than what workers such as Ourada had been making. It was even less than what janitors earn in many states.

The strategy worked. With its rock-bottom bid price, Cognitive won the contract and cut pay. (Cognitive did not respond to requests for comment.)

Unsurprisingly, workers quit en masse. At least 135 of 399 incumbent personnel left. And given the low pay, Cognitive has struggled to retain replacements. One position has been filled and vacated three times since March and is now empty again.

Hire and train, hire and train. Its been like that for the last three or four months, says Kevin McDonnell, a Rhode Island-based supervisor whose own pay was cut in half.

This isn't the first time a lowball bid led to draconian wage cuts and mass resignations on a military family support contract. It's at least the fifth case in as many years, according to Good Jobs Nation, a worker advocacy group that filed Labor Department complaints on behalf of employees on two such contracts.

After I wrote about this problem in April, lawmakers grilled the National Guard about whether military families were getting the support they deserved. The Guard told Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) that it was undertaking a contract "review."

And then . . . nothing.

On Tuesday, I called the Guard to ask what happened. Lo and behold, that very day, it decided to modify the contract!

Cognitive sent a cryptic email to workers Wednesday saying changes to job descriptions and salaries were forthcoming. No further details. No mention of any back pay for the past eight months.

A Guard spokesman told me that a different office will handle the next bid process, which begins next month. The Labor Department will be asked to come up with minimum wage rates for these occupations, as should have happened last year.

Which sounds like an improvement. But for military families left stranded in recent months and workers such as Ourada who were shortchanged and have already moved on, its cold comfort.
Khalid Pitts is co-owner of Cork Wine Bar & Market. Roger Horowitz is co-founder of Pleasant Pops.

We know most of our customers by name. Theres Jennifer, the public-education advocate around the corner. And Ari, the full-time mom up the street. And Judith, the 80-year-old retiree who walks seven blocks to get to one of our shops. We are small-business owners in the District, proud to provide goods and services at an affordable cost. But we are also neighbors.

Which is why, when we see what happened in Puerto Rico and Florida and Texas, we grieve for all the small communities affected. We see the family shopkeepers and mechanics wiped out by the hurricanes, creating setbacks for their neighbors. And increasingly, we recognize that extreme weather, driven more and more by climate change, threatens all economic activity.

So we wonder: How can D.C. businesses and residents do our part to address our climate crisis? The answer: We need to get off carbon-based fossil fuels, the main source of climate change, as fast as possible. But we need to decarbonize our citys economy in a way that supports business growth without burdening our residents, especially the low- and moderate-income residents who are many of our neighbors.

Which is why we support a novel policy under consideration by the D.C. Council called the Climate and Community Reinvestment Act. It would require fossil-fuel companies doing business in the District to pay a fee for every ton of carbon dioxide they put into the atmosphere. The policy would then rebate the overwhelming share of the collected revenue  hundreds of millions of dollars  to D.C. households and small businesses such as ours. A recent economic study shows that this "fee-and-rebate" policy would cut carbon emissions nearly 23 percent in the city while expanding the District's economy, creating more jobs and raising the incomes of most Washington residents, especially the poor and middle class.

The pollution reductions are achieved by simply making dirty-energy suppliers pay their fair share. D.C. restaurants are not allowed to dump their trash into the street each night. But oil and gas and coal companies can dump carbon pollution into our atmosphere for free. Charging a fee of $20 per ton of pollution starting in 2019 (rising to $150 by 2032) will ensure that those fuels are gradually priced out of the D.C. market. Wind and solar and energy efficiency will prevail.

But won't rising fossil-fuel prices harm residents and businesses, especially small stores? No, not under the fee-and-rebate policy supported by a growing number of civic, labor, environmental and business groups in the city. By rebating no less than 80 percent of the carbon fee in monthly payments to all D.C. residents and tax breaks to commercial enterprises, we can protect small businesses and the overwhelming majority of residents. Indeed, under this plan, low-income residents would receive $4 in rebate payments for every $1 they pay in energy "taxes." Additionally, 20 percent of the city's total carbon fee revenue would be invested directly into a "green bank" or other programs to help residents and businesses finance solar panels or efficiency upgrades.

The Post endorsed this fee-and-rebate policy, calling it an especially thoughtful economic response to the climate crisis for the city. Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Chairman Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) have said a carbon fee is increasingly likely in the coming months. These same leaders joined Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) in pledging that the city would defy President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement by achieving Districtwide greenhouse gas reductions that match the Paris goals. A local carbon fee-and-rebate policy is the single best way to honor that pledge.

For businesspeople, the bottom line has to be a central concern, and heres the bottom line on fossil fuels: They are bad for business. We need to put a local price on carbon to make sure disastrous storms such as Harvey and Maria dont harm our customers. By embracing a fair, effective and equitable fee-and-rebate policy in the District, we can help lead the international clean-energy movement and serve as an inspiration to other jurisdictions in the country.

The D.C. Council should pass the Climate and Community Reinvestment Act as soon as possible. We cant wait any longer.
ALONG WITH the news media, social media, nongovernmental organizations and business, the contest over freedom in China also plays out at its universities. China aspires to be a superpower of higher education, but its authoritarian rulers dont like to allow the unfettered openness and inquiry that are at the core of academic freedom. President Xi Jinping, whose thinking has now been enshrined in Communist Party dogma on the level of that of Mao Zedong, insists that all sectors of society acknowledge the partys primacy. Government, military, society and schools  north, south, east and west  the party is leader of all, Mr. Xi declared at the recent 19th Party Congress.

Mr. Xi's determination to clamp down on any deviation is unfortunate for the Chinese people, locking them into an information prison, denying them details about topics such as Taiwan and Tibet. But it also impedes the work of Westerners who have flooded China in recent years, hoping to flourish with products, ideas and programs, and in some way influence China toward more openness. In fact, the open space in China is narrowing. China manages the world's largest Internet censorship; has demanded that academic publishers remove from circulation scholarly articles about sensitive topics; and has passed laws to force tech giants such as Apple and others to locate their users' data inside its borders.

Now, according to the Financial Times, China has issued regulations for the joint ventures that Western universities have formed with Chinese partners. The new rules say Communist Party secretaries must be given vice-chancellor status and sit on the board of trustees, giving party bosses a view of operations and perhaps a watchtower for those who stray from "Xi Jinping Thought." The Post's Simon Denyer reported recently that Mr. Xi insisted late last year that universities be strongholds of the party and that teachers disseminate "advanced ideology." Then, six months later, the party's anti-corruption watchdog accused 14 schools of ideological weakness. After the recent Party Congress, about 40 universities promptly set up centers for the study of Mr. Xi's newly enshrined doctrine. Must be scintillating.

Most Western universities have agreements with China designed to guarantee academic freedom, and they hold the value dear. They will be hoping that the new regulations are for show, to impress higher-ups; the mere presence of party officials on campus should surprise no one. But it will be alarming if they begin to interfere with administration or textbooks, if they pose real threats to academic freedom. The universities should not temporize if that happens. They must not help China do the dirty work of thought police and censorship.

Christopher Walker and Jessica Ludwig of the National Endowment for Democracy point out in a forthcoming study that China and Russia have poured billions of dollars into globe-spanning campaigns to undermine open societies. This is not "soft power," they note in a Foreign Affairs article, but something "sharp," a ruthless and growing competition between autocratic and democratic states. The authoritarian regimes, once crude bunglers, have fine-tuned their methods. They must be met everywhere with vigilance and, on campus, a determination to protect academic freedom.
In his Nov. 12 The Sunday Take column discussing the recent Virginia election results, "For GOP, Trump effect diminishes the ability to lead," Dan Balz made the following observation about Virginia: "Its population includes more college graduates than many states, and the proximity to the nation's capital affects attitudes about the federal government. It is not Pennsylvania or Michigan or Wisconsin, states with different electorates, as the 2016 results demonstrated." With this comment, Balz repeated the conventional wisdom that the voters' support for President Trump in those three states indicated some kind of shift in the electorate.

I disagree. The difference between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in those three states: Pennsylvania, 68,000 votes; Michigan, 10,000 votes; Wisconsin, 27,000 votes. The votes for Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein in those three states: Pennsylvania, 190,000 votes; Michigan, 223,000 votes; Wisconsin, 136,000 votes. In each of those three critical states, the pivotal voters did not turn to Trump over Clinton: they turned away from Clinton and voted instead for someone other than Trump or Clinton, probably because they thought Clinton would win anyway.

Its a mistake to interpret those states as having different electorates from Virginia; for one reason or another, they could not vote for Trump but did not want to vote for Clinton.

George Chuzi, McLean
Columnist

Amid the slithering mess of problems that emerged in 2017, the one that bothers me most is that people dont seem to know whats true anymore. Facts this year got put in quotation marks.

All the other political difficulties of the Donald Trump era are subsumed in this one. If we arent sure whats true, how can we act to make things better? If we dont know where we are on the map, how do we know which way to move? Democracy assumes a well-informed citizenry that argues about solutions  not about facts.

We can all choose our favorite examples of Americas increasing difficulty in agreeing about evidence: the disdain for science among climate-change skeptics; the refusal to believe allegations about people we like, and the overeagerness to denounce those we dont like; the way in which political polarization has spread into every area of our common life  including sports.

What should thoughtful people do about this overarching problem? Part of the answer lies with my profession, the news business. We need to work harder to make sure that we're unbiased truth-tellers, not a series of echo chambers. When every story in a newspaper or on a website or cable channel seems to be going in the same direction, that's a sign that something's wrong. That's one reason I'd like to see a return of ombudsmen, to hold news organizations more accountable.

Journalists also need new tools. We cant always vet every fact. We rely on certain trusted sources, news services such as the Associated Press or Reuters. Still, even those superbly professional fact-gatherers sometimes have trouble verifying information. Social media can help  people can upload video from their cellphones of events as they happen. But were learning that social media can be tools of deception as well as truth.

So heres an offbeat proposal: Just as the provenance of a work of art is established by art historians and auction houses, we need technological tools that will help confirm the provenance of facts.

The idea is simple: An art buyer should want to know that the painting attributed to, say, Leonardo da Vinci was in fact created by him. So specialists seek to reconstruct the chain of ownership, documenting how a work passed among collectors and galleries over the centuries. Scholars can't always establish direct links back to the artist (and such uncertainty appears to cloud the recent purchase of Leonardo's "Salvator Mundi" for $450 million). But the exercise is essential for the proper functioning of art markets.

There's even a new approach known as "digital provenance." This topic was explored at a conference this month at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. One set of panels explored "visualizing object histories," including the study of "movements of objects and people through time and space."

The Internet giants such as Google and Facebook should be tuning their systems to establish the provenance of fact. Id like to see them using machine learning to interrogate supposed facts to establish where theyve been  how they first surfaced, and how they were passed from user to user. If there are gaps in provenance  an unexplained missing link in the chain of evidence, or signs of misattribution  then those anomalies should be flagged automatically.

In this fact-provenance scheme, I hope wed be able to trace information back to the source and detect evidence of manipulation. News organizations whose track record is shown to be reliable would get weighted positively by the digital system. Such measurement of source reliability would be a tricky test, but it doesnt strike me as impossible. Google does something similar every time you type a phrase into the search box.

People could still base their decisions on dubious, unverified facts, just as a collector can still buy a painting whose provenance is suspect. But there would at least be fair warning.

We speak often of the marketplace of ideas, in the expectation that markets operate rationally and efficiently. In this framing, consumers assume that most markets arent rigged, and that tainted or unsafe products have been screened. Thats obviously a complicated problem when the commodity is information  the First Amendment lets us promote ideas without rating their safety. But the First Amendment doesnt protect fraud or libel.

We live in an information ecosystem. If it becomes polluted, all the creatures that depend on that ecosystem are at risk. We say that sunlight is the best disinfectant. But thats true only when the sun shines brightly.

Twitter: @IgnatiusPost

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A reporter reads a summary of the performance and usage over the first two days of open enrollment of the Massachusetts Health Connector website, the state's health insurance website under the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, during a briefing for reporters in Boston, Massachusetts November 17, 2014. U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday defended the transparency of his signature healthcare law, after one of the White House's advisors on the reform said the law passed, in part, because of the "stupidity" of the American voters. REUTERS/Brian Snyder (UNITED STATES - Tags: HEALTH POLITICS)

The Nov. 17 Metro article "Where are the most expensive Obamacare plans in America? Charlottesville" called appropriate attention to the plight of families in Charlottesville looking to purchase health insurance through the federal exchange. As the article highlighted, premiums are soaring because of instability the federal government introduced as part of cost-sharing reductions for insurers and the individual mandate.

But the article inaccurately cited the rates at the University of Virginia Health System as a reason for the large premium increases. First, as the only federal-exchange provider left for Charlottesville-area residents, Optima is free to increase premiums. Residents will pay these higher premiums regardless of whether they choose to receive their care at U-Va. or at Martha Jefferson Hospital, a Charlottesville community hospital that, like Optima, is owned by Sentara Healthcare. Thus, Sentara has the opportunity to benefit from these higher premiums while paying itself as a care provider. Optima accounts for less than 1 percent of the commercially insured patients cared for at U-Va.

Data also shows that Charlottesville is not a high-cost area for medical care. A Dec. 15, 2015, New York Times article showed that of the 306 hospital referral areas nationwide, Charlottesville is the 40th lowest in medical spending per Medicare beneficiary and the 85th lowest in medical spending per commercial insurance beneficiary. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data shows that the average cost per beneficiary in Charlottesville is $9,271, compared with the national average of $9,582.

There is a problem here, but its not Charlottesville or the U-Va. Health System.

Richard P. Shannon, Keswick, Va.

The writer is executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Virginia.
Columnist

Powerful men with long histories of alleged sexual harassment or assault are finally being held accountable  except one. That would be President Trump.

From movie mogul Harvey Weinstein to television host Charlie Rose to Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore to veteran Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), prominent men are accused of using their status to take advantage of women in unconscionable ways. To my knowledge, however, only one of the alleged assailants has been caught on tape bragging about his misdeeds.

"I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her," Trump said on the "Access Hollywood" tape, referring to a woman he had just spotted. "You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful  I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. . . . Grab 'em by the p----. You can do anything."

Thirteen women have gone on the record to say that is how Trump operated, according to a tally by The Post. Eight of them  who say that Trump kissed them, groped them or both, without invitation or permission  have corroboration, meaning they told other people about the incidents before going public. Similar stories told by the other five accusers are not corroborated.

Trump won the election despite the allegations, but his victory did not erase his history. Now, virtually overnight, the paradigm for thinking about and dealing with sexual harassment has changed. A kind of Judgment Day has arrived for men who thought they had gotten away with their misdeeds. Last week, Rose was one of the most lauded and respected figures in journalism. Today, he is disgraced and out of a job.



President Trump answers questions about Alabama GOP candidate Roy Moore before before leaving the White House on Nov. 21. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press)

Instances of sexual harassment are all deplorable but not all identical, and society's punishment should fit the crime. One of the major factors that should be considered is whether the perpetrator has shown a pattern of such behavior. Dozens of women who worked closely with Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) have attested that they never knew him to behave like a pig. By contrast, dozens of women have accused Weinstein of vile assaults, and New York police have reportedly launched a criminal investigation.

In Trumps case, there is a pattern. He described it himself on the tape, and the accusers corroborate his confession.

Trump is trying to tread this altered landscape lightly, at least by his own somewhat oafish standards. He did post a couple of mocking tweets last week about Franken, whom he called "Al Frankenstien," but for the most part he remained uncharacteristically silent about what looks like a major cultural shift. Trump even went so far as to change the subject, fake-sparring on Twitter with bombastic entrepreneur LaVar Ball in the rhetorical equivalent of professional wrestling.

But ultimately the impending special election in Alabama for a crucial Senate seat forced Trumps hand. Moore, the Republican nominee, is credibly accused of molesting a 14 year old and prowling the local mall for teenaged girls when he was in his 30s; he denies the molestation and creepily says he never dated a girl without her mothers permission.

Trump backed Moore's GOP opponent in the primary. He steered clear of the contest between Moore and Democrat Doug Jones until Tuesday, when he jumped in by parroting the line that Moore's supporters in Alabama have used to try to discredit the accusers: Why did they wait so long to make these charges? "I do have to say, 40 years is a long time," Trump told reporters.

No, its not, given what we know about sexual harassment. Women often fear, quite rationally, that they will not be believed  and that, in the end, they may well have their lives ruined while the powerful men who abused them go merrily on their way.

Trump did mention that most of Moores accusers are Trump voters, which sounded like a slight hedge. Surely, he realizes that by siding with Moore  clearly the net effect of his remarks  he invites a reexamination of his own alleged transgressions.

That reexamination must now begin.

If Congress is going to probe the conduct of members such as Conyers and Franken, it must also investigate the multiple, believable allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump. If they are true, the president must be censured.

The GOP leadership would be wise to realize that attitudes have changed. On this issue, to quote Bob Dylan, you dont need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

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Regarding the Nov. 21 editorial "A tax plan gut check ":

Ive got questions. With the debt increased by no less than $1.5 trillion over the next decade, what will Republicans do on those many occasions when they will have to confront increases in the debt ceiling? How low is the likelihood that they will just sign off on them? Who will get the blame (and these things always are about blame), especially when the Democrats retake the White House? And what compensating budget cuts will they righteously insist on? Will they be from Medicare or Medicaid or, perhaps, from preschool programs? What will be the increased frequency and duration of government shutdowns? Is there any dialogue about these things?

David Cohen, Arlington

Steve Pearlstein's Nov. 19 Business column, "The business lobby's chance to do right by America," about the Business Roundtable and the Republican tax proposal, made a substantial contribution to public understanding of the pitfalls of Congress's direction. By pointing out that these proposals will create either "runaway federal debt" or meaningful reductions in essential government services, he shifted the burden back to the business lobbyists who support the current tax legislation.

Mr. Pearlstein's argument is backed up with concrete data. In their work on U.S. competitiveness, Michael Porter and Jan Rivkin of the Harvard Business School found that while business leaders generally think corporate tax reform is needed, they feel equally strongly about a responsible federal budget.

A reckless gamble on tax cuts that is projected to contribute to an increase of our national debt from $20 trillion today to $33.1 trillion in the next 10 years (based on Tax Policy Center figures) is not likely to enhance business confidence and encourage leaders to make the investments necessary to elevate the growth in our economy.

Alexander Boyle, Chevy Chase

The writer, who retired as vice chairman of the Chevy Chase Bank, is a member of the Leadership Council of the Tax Policy Center.

The Nov. 21 news article "Here are the 5 key questions about the Republican tax plan" laid out the main deficiencies that endanger the plan's chance of passage, including its negative effect on many middle-class taxpayers and the fact that it would add $1.5 trillion to America's $20 trillion (and growing) debt. Whatever happened to discussion of the Simpson-Bowles plan to reduce the national debt?

Launched in 2010 by President Barack Obama, this bipartisan commission produced a plan with six major components, including discretionary spending cuts, lower income and corporate tax rates, and Social Security reform. Simpson-Bowles, if implemented, would have reduced the federal deficit by nearly $4 trillion by 2020, stabilized the growth of debt held by the public by 2014, and reduced debt 60 percent by 2023 and 40 percent by 2035 . Why not reopen consideration of the Simpson-Bowles plan instead of trying to push the deeply flawed Republican proposal through Congress?

Gary Usrey, Arlington

In her Nov. 17 op-ed, "For humans, this tax plan is going to hurt," Catherine Rampell described the two tax-reform bills in Congress. Her salient point was that the vast majority of the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts are headed to companies and are permanent. The minority of cuts go to individuals and are temporary.

GOP leaders claim that companies will invest their money to increase productivity and worker compensation. We are a demand economy, not a supply economy. We dont have middle-class buyers with cash aching for a greater supply of cars or major home upgrades, as was the case after World War II.

Most executives are not going to invest to increase supply without new demand. Instead, theyll put tax-cut money into stock buybacks and dividends  not more jobs. Those who do invest in supply without new demand are looking to cut labor costs. That suggests fewer jobs, not more.

Responsible members of the middle class are not going to make major purchases unless their standard of living is improved sustainably. But their tax cuts are temporary. That has no lasting impact on jobs.

So in all these ways to deploy tax-cut money, the impact on jobs is near zero or negative.

Walt Culver, Reston

How many middle-class Americans realize that removing deductions for property taxes and restricting mortgage-interest deductions will depress the value of their homes? In my case, the loss could easily be more than $100,000.

I resent the Republican attempt not only to increase the taxes I must pay but also to depress the value of the property I own.

It is said, Give a poor man $100 and he will spend it because he must. Give a rich man $100 and he will save it because he can. The Republican tax bills will shift money from active circulation to stagnation in interest-bearing accounts. It sounds like bad economics to me.

Melvin F. Houston, Ellicott City

Take from the poor and give to the rich. In a nutshell, that's the Republican tax bill  a reverse Robin Hood plan. This was outlined clearly in the Nov. 22 The Finance 202 blog excerpt, "To a skeptical Wall Street, GOP tax plan would just create a 'fiscal sugar high' " [Power Post], which reported that after a decade, the plan would raise taxes on those earning less than $75,000.

The only mystery remaining is this: Where is the outrage from hard-working Americans?

David Tate, Arlington
Regarding the Nov. 22 news article "Democrats see chance for a rural revival in western Pa.":

Reproaction could not be more proud of our Abortion: Not just for your mistress! billboards running in Pittsburgh, the back yard of disgraced former congressman Tim Murphy (R-Pa.).

Mr. Murphy spent years working to limit access to reproductive care and abortion, only to be discovered privately advocating the procedure for his mistress. Between this and the passionate defenses of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore emerging from supposedly pro-life leaders around the country, the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of arch-conservatives could not be on more flagrant display.

Access to abortion is a good thing, and it is critical for equality and justice for all people in this country. One in 4 women will have an abortion by the time she is 45. Mothers, daughters, sisters and, yes, mistresses.

Erin Matson, Arlington

The writer is co-director of Reproaction, a direct-action group that seeks to increase access

to abortion and advance reproductive justice.
Columnist

Since Ronald Reagan's rise to the White House in 1980, tax cuts have been the one issue that has unified all wings of the Republican Party. According to conservative legend, Reagan's massive first-term tax cuts led to his 49-state landslide victory in 1984. GOP tradition also holds that George H.W. Bush's convention declaration "Read my lips: No new taxes" pushed him toward the White House in 1988. Most Republicans are just as certain that Bush's backing off that pledge finished his political career four years later. During his one term, Bush committed the mortal sin of raising taxes to control Washington's exploding deficits. Conservatives never forgave him, but they did embrace his son a decade later for slashing taxes in 2001.

The political success that has followed past GOP tax cuts  and Bushs record as the only president to lose his reelection bid since Jimmy Carter  may be why Republican presidents have been imbued with a blinding faith in any tax-cut plans crossing their desks.

And yet most Americans oppose the "big, beautiful" tax cuts President Trump and his GOP Congress are pushing through the Senate. Perhaps that's because this is not the middle-class tax cut that Republicans say it is. The Tax Policy Center's analysis of the Senate bill concludes it will ultimately lead to tax hikes for 50 percent of Americans. Most of those negatively affected will be middle-class Americans, and it will be the wealthy who benefit the most from the Trump plan. In fact, Trump and his family stand to gain more than $1 billion if the tax plan passes. If Alan Greenspan is correct that income inequality poses one of the gravest threats to American capitalism, then this tax package takes the economy in the wrong direction.

Even if America's staggering income inequality means nothing to you, America's exploding national debt should. That debt doubled from $5.8 trillion to $11.9 trillion under Republican George W. Bush. It nearly doubled again to almost $20 trillion under Democrat Barack Obama. And it is projected to explode to $30 trillion within the next decade. With Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid's coming meltdowns making that fiscal crisis exponentially worse, real conservatives know that Washington just can't afford to add another $2 trillion to our national debt. That is exactly what will happen if the Republican bill passes.

But creating big deficits is nothing new for the GOP. Since tax cutting became the favorite pastime for Reagan's party, the Republicans' fiscal record is nothing less than shameful. During Reagan's two terms, the Gipper may have reduced the top tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent, but defense spending exploded at the same time while Medicare coverage was expanded. Reagan's policies nearly tripled the national debt. Under George W. Bush, it was more of the same. Bush slashed taxes, pushed through massive military increases to fund his Wilsonian foreign policy, and championed a $7 trillion expansion of Medicare. Again, not one difficult spending decision was made over eight years, and once again, the national debt skyrocketed under a Republican president.

Now the same conservatives who promised voters they would never again be as reckless as they were under Bush are repeating the same old cycle of big tax cuts, big spending increases and no fiscal restraint. As Maya Angelou said, when people show you who they are, believe them. And for four decades, the Republican Party has shown itself to be the party of reckless budgets, runaway deficits and exploding entitlement spending. Just because the GOP donor class is willing to overlook those glaring failures in exchange for a corporate tax cut doesn't mean other voters will be so blind. This is another Republican tax plan that helps the rich, hurts the poor, increases inequality and blows a hole in the debt. It will also lead to more GOP losses at the polls next year. To the big-money donors driving this bill, all I can say is good luck with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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THE NATION'S homicide rate has risen sharply in the past two years after a decades-long decline, and a record share of the murders, nearly three-quarters, are now committed with firearms. That has prompted some officials to endorse get-tough policies that, although politically popular, are ill-conceived and as likely to do harm as good.

Virginia is a focal point in the emerging debate over responses to the homicide spike, because candidates in the recent statewide political campaigns talked about it and because of a program implemented in Richmond in the midst of a previous surge in murders 20 years ago. That program, known as Project Exile, targeted gun criminals by diverting them from state to federal courts, where they received mandatory-minimum sentences in out-of-state prisons and were usually ineligible for bail.

In March, shortly after Jeff Sessions was confirmed as attorney general, he traveled to Richmond to call attention to the program, suggesting that reviving it would be an effective response to rising crime rates. As a candidate, President Trump also embraced the program, and since then so did Republicans Ed Gillespie and John Adams, the unsuccessful Republican candidates in Virginia for governor and attorney general, respectively. Some Democrats also are supporters, including Richmond's chief prosecutor, Michael Herring.

Project Exile, which was adopted by a number of sizable cities starting in the late 1990s, had an undeniable surface appeal. It ensured that gun crimes  for many ex-convicts and drug traffickers, especially  would be punished with minimum five-year prison terms, often far from a criminals home turf. (Hence the exile of the programs name.) Firearm-related murders plummeted dramatically after the program went into effect in Richmond in 1997. Before long, Philadelphia; Rochester, N.Y.; Denver; Camden, N.J.; Oakland, Calif.; Kansas City, Mo.; and other big cities had teamed with federal prosecutors to adopt similar approaches.

The trouble is, evidence was at best mixed on the program's efficacy  to say nothing of the social price of sending convicts to prisons hundreds of miles from their families and children. One study from the University of Chicago suggested that Richmond's murder rate would have fallen just about as fast without the program, as homicides were in decline in the late 1990s in many American cities without similar programs. In Rochester, which has retained a robust version of Project Exile for nearly 20 years, the homicide rate remains quite high  about five times higher than in New York City, which never embraced the program.

In fact, it is extremely difficult to untangle the causes of high murder rates and all but impossible to identify which of dozens of responses and factors to credit, and by how much, when murder rates fall. The programs supposed benefits look even iffier when weighed against its human costs, which are often easier to identify  children growing up without being able to visit fathers, for instance.

Mandatory-minimum sentencing regimes are despised by many judges as a one-size-fits-all approach to crime-fighting; the late chief justice William Rehnquist was among those who denounced them. Politicians looking for quick fixes in the face of rising crime rates should examine the evidence first.
The Nov. 3 Book World review "Maria Duenas cultivates an intoxicating 'Vineyard' " [Style] was misleading in its description of the term "Indiano" as derogatory.

Basic knowledge of Spain  and Latin America  tells us that Indiano, far from being demeaning, is simply the word used to portray a Spaniard who sought  and very often found  riches in the Americas. Columbus thought he had arrived in the Indies, so those who went there were Indianos.

When one travels to Spain, especially to Asturias and Cantabria, one encounters the magnificent villas or casas de indianos that were built with wealth gained in the Americas. If anything, the term Indiano is based on admiration tinged with envy.

Laura Maria Herrera, Bethesda
Joe Reilly, formerly private first class with the 101st Airborne Division, holds his cane before he and other veterans are acknowledged as part of "Salute to Service" during an NFL football game in Carson, Calif., earlier this month. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

Kimberly C. Field is a retired U.S. Army brigadier general and former deputy assistant secretary of state. She works on development and conflict transition with the consulting firm Creative Associates International.

I am a veteran. I love my tribe. This is a love letter to the military and the American people.

There is rich camaraderie formed by the shared purpose and challenge of armed service, and a solemn, and lasting, sacrifice is asked of all those we place into combat. The leaders of the military have a deep and genuine tough love for the wonderful young people they guide; they also bear the responsibility to recruit and sustain a quality all-volunteer force. All this naturally drives military leaders to amplify and emphasize the accolades of military service.

This Veterans Day, however, I was somewhat taken aback at veteran sentiment that the expression "thank you for your service" felt insincere, as well as by veterans congratulating ourselves for being among the special group who serves: the 1 percent. An elitist undercurrent keeps Americans at arm's length from important conversations about their military  and only veterans and senior military leaders can address it. I see at least six reasons why we should.

First, the military inculcates selfless service. This value is incompatible with look at me or you dont get it. The dissonance is not conducive to a healthy culture. Shy of the sacrifice of life, limb, eyesight, sanity or other disabling injury, military members may have to serve without regular public recognition. Americans have earned our trust by giving their volunteers everything we have asked for and more over these past 16 years.

Second, military service deserves honest explanation. We veterans should be explaining that service has many purposes. It offers young people a tangible demonstration of the limits of individualism and the value of serving something bigger than themselves, while also giving them skills, discipline and, for many, time to grow up. And military service offers a rare common American experience, transcending the differences of urban vs. rural, West vs. East, Democrat vs. Republican. In serving, I personally feel  most of us feel  we have received as much as we have given. Its okay to say so.

Third, glorification dumbs down patriotism. The anthem, the flag, the Fourth of July are about so much more than the military. Regardless of what you think about Colin Kaepernick's protest, the idea that it was an insult to anyone in uniform is preposterous. Our military exists only to protect the things that make America an exceptional democracy. It should never be waved about to dismiss nonviolent expression of dissent or to deflect important American conversations.

Fourth, the notion of a sacrifice supposedly borne only by an extraordinary 1 percent of Americans contributes to a false idea that everything the military does should be done. The truth of the matter is that we do not need 10 percent of Americans in uniform; if we did, I have full confidence the ranks would remain full. Instead of stressing how we are different, military leaders should say: "Our ranks are filled with folks just like you and your children; you know these people." Perhaps, then, Americans might demand to be part of the conversation about why we are in Niger.

Fifth, the perception of elitism  or worse, dismissal of those who don't serve  encourages undue deference to military leaders. Such deference leads to too much sway in matters of security policy. Military leaders are highly conservative in recommending the use of force, but military solutions are all we know. We cannot be expected to have mastered those things that diplomats, developers, economists and others provide, or to support resourcing of other organizations if it means real cuts to our own. There is continued risk of perpetuating never-ending war by crowding out those who can bring more enduring solutions to the table.

Finally, military leaders simply owe to the troops we love a more nuanced conversation about a society worth serving. Every day, about 22 veterans commit suicide. Most have not been in combat. Reasons for this devastating number include isolation and purposelessness. It might be helpful  and this is just a hypothesis  to have steady conversations with our troops about the many critical ways that citizens serve their country and find purpose in American life outside of military service.

Thank you for your service. What if, in return, we veterans found ways to acknowledge the service of the small-business owner who is indeed the strength of America? Or the service of the inner-city teacher whose job it is to turn children into contributing citizens? Or the service of the single mom behind the cash register who is working two jobs?

Yes, among other absences, I left four young sons for two years straight to serve in Afghanistan, and it was wrenching for my husband and me. My hardship was much less than others and more than some. But most of us volunteer not just out of devotion to country, but because we love the life the military offers. I would not have traded places with that cashier.

To be clear, I am not saying the military intends to drive security policy. Nor is it the source of the evident distance that has formed between itself and the rest of society. But I am saying that we have a part to play in enabling the better conversations that are needed to bridge it.

We have an obligation to temper our self-love in keeping with the service so many Americans thank us for. One place to begin is by carefully crafting our responses in the face of the publics adoration. When we are thanked for our service, let us answer: It was my privilege.
LAST WEEK, the Federal Election Commission took a rare unanimous vote to begin drafting regulations that would require greater transparency in online political advertising. The motion is a welcome sign of life from a group long paralyzed by partisanship. And it's a reminder that Russia's use of online ads to meddle in the 2016 presidential election should be a matter of concern across political parties.

It's not yet clear how much influence Kremlin-funded advertisements had in shaping the 2016 election. But a full accounting of Russian interference requires that technology companies and the government both take a hard look at how those ads were allowed to run unnoticed. Facebook, for example, has found 470 fake Russian accounts and pages that ran about 3,000 ads for a total cost of roughly $100,000. Some ads pushed political messages tied to one presidential candidate or the other, while others magnified divisive social issues such as gun rights or immigration. Facebook users had no way of knowing who had funded the ads  and because Facebook allows advertisers to target paid posts to specific cross sections of the population, many researchers and news organizations had no idea that the ads existed at all.

Facebook and Twitter have both pledged to increase the transparency of advertisements on their platforms, providing users with more information about which posts are ads and who's behind the funding. But as both companies seem to recognize, self-regulation isn't enough.

The FEC currently requires that political advertisements supporting a particular candidate include a disclaimer of the ad's funding. Yet companies such as Facebook and Google have pushed to exempt ads on their platforms from the requirement: They argued that, like bumper stickers, which the FEC also exempts, the ads were just too small for the words to fit. In 2010, the FEC allowed Google ads to link to disclaimers rather than include them. In 2011, Facebook argued that its ads shouldn't even have to include a link. When the FEC was unable to reach agreement one way or the other on Facebook's case, the company chose to allow ads without any disclaimers or links.

In the wake of the Kremlin's meddling, the big technology companies are now cautiously supportive of the FEC's opening the door to further regulation. To be sure, one rule won't solve everything. The disclaimer requirement applies only to advertisements funded by a political committee or endorsing a particular candidate  so Russian ads stirring up anger over Black Lives Matter, say, would have been exempt anyway. For that reason, Congress also has a role to play in crafting a legislative solution. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have introduced a bill to apply the same disclosure requirements used for television and radio ads to Internet ads as well.

Having broken its deadlock, the FEC should now close this loophole and craft a rule requiring some form of disclaimer for online advertisements. The committees vote is just one step, but its an important marker of progress toward increased transparency for political ads online.
A lawyer for former national security adviser Michael Flynn informed an attorney for President Trump this week that he can no longer discuss the special counsels investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, a sign that Flynn may be preparing to cooperate in the probe, people familiar with the investigation said.

The call from Flynn lawyer Robert Kelner to Trump attorney John Dowd came Wednesday evening and is a potentially ominous sign for Trump and his close associates. Before this week, Kelner had been communicating with lawyers for Trump.

The split suggests that Flynn, who has been a top target of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team, may be looking to share information with the prosecutor and his team.

The development was first reported by the New York Times.

Kelner did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

View Graphic Team Trumps ties to Russian interests

Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, said, This is not entirely unexpected.

No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president, he said, adding, Its important to remember that General Flynn received his security clearance under the previous administration.

In complex investigations, lawyers for subjects often enter into agreements that allow them to share information without waiving attorney-client privilege. Such agreements generally include provisions that require the lawyers to immediately end the arrangement if their clients begin discussions with prosecutors or if other developments pose a conflict of interest.

Even if Flynn has begun discussions with Muellers office, there is no guarantee he will ultimately reach a deal with prosecutors.

Flynn served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama before he was pushed out in 2014 amid criticism of his management style and clashes with other administration officials.

He then established a private consulting firm and gave paid speeches, work that has drawn intense scrutiny from Mueller.

In December 2015, Flynn was paid by the Russian-government-funded television network RT to attend a dinner in Moscow, where he was seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Even as he became an adviser to Trumps presidential campaign, his consulting firm was paid to promote the interests of the Turkish government. Flynn initially failed to report his payments from either engagement.

Flynn served 24 days as Trumps national security adviser, but was forced to resign after acknowledging that he had secretly discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during Trumps presidential transition in December.

Lawyers for the president and senior White House aides had been quietly speculating over the last few weeks that Flynn was under increasing pressure to cooperate because Mueller had signaled his ability to charge his son alongside the father.

Michael G. Flynn, the retired generals son, helped his father with business arrangements and served as chief of staff at his fathers consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group.

Barry Coburn, an attorney for Michael G. Flynn, declined to comment.

Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.


Humvees patrol this week along the perimeter of a $100 million U.S. drone base being built outside Agadez, in north-central Niger. (Sudarsan Raghavan/The Washington Post)

Beyond the sign reading "Military Zone," beyond the olive-green Humvees patrolling near a security tower, rows of tan tents stretch across the desert. For nearly two years, the remote, barren site has been home to several hundred U.S. troops working around the clock to turn it into a high-tech, multimillion-dollar drone base.

Mohamed Seraji doesnt like what he sees.

Dust kicked up by the construction makes the 29-year-old vendor cough. At night, the noise keeps him awake. But his biggest worry is that the facility  as well as Nigeriens like him who live in this city, just minutes away  will become a target for Islamist extremists.

The base is too close, Seraji said. If theres an attack on it, the people are exposed.

Such concerns have escalated since an ambush last month by Islamist militants that killed four U.S. and five Nigerien soldiers in the village of Tongo Tongo, along the Niger-Mali border. Agadez is in north-central Niger, more than 600 miles from that attack site, but the militants have also targeted this region in recent years.

[In the area where U.S. soldiers died in Niger, Islamist extremists have deep roots]

Now, the growing perils faced by U.S. troops here are intensifying questions about the decision to build a drone base near Agadez  the second such facility in Niger, an impoverished West African country twice the size of Texas.





Local officials and community leaders say unemployment is rising in the area, boosting crime and creating opportunities for Islamist militants to exploit the disaffected. Many Nigeriens already view U.S. and other Western forces in the country as occupiers, according to interviews here and in the capital, Niamey. At least one Western embassy recently warned its citizens about extremist groups operating in areas outside Agadez.

In April 2016, U.S. security forces here thwarted a suspected attack on their compound by a convoy of men in three pickup trucks and a semi-truck, according to a U.S. Air Force account recently made public. Air Force guards spotted the trucks racing toward the compound in the dark, stopping about 50 yards from the perimeter fence. The vehicles retreated after U.S. sharpshooters aimed lasers at them as a warning, according to the Air Force account.

Its a magnet for the terrorists, said Anastafidan el Souleymane Mohamed, a tribal elder who heads the association of traditional chiefs in Agadez, referring to the U.S. base. Who are they looking for? They are looking for Westerners.



Anastafidan el Souleymane Mohamed, a local tribal leader, is concerned that the base will make Agadez more vulnerable to infiltration by extremists. (Sudarsan Raghavan/The Washington Post)

The U.S. military began eyeing Agadez as a drone hub almost as soon as it persuaded Nigers government to permit it to fly drones from Niamey in 2013. A year later, the government approved construction of the second base.

Agadez, about 500 miles northeast of Niamey, is much closer to Saharan smuggling routes that Islamist militants use to transport arms and fighters from Libya to northern Mali. U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones have a range of about 1,150 miles.

The Air Force initially budgeted $50 million to build an airfield, living quarters and other facilities at the Agadez site, but the project has taken far longer than expected to finish. The cost has doubled to about $100 million, according to a report last year by the Intercept, an investigative media website.



A sign near the new Agadez drone base marks the boundary of the military zone. (Sudarsan Raghavan/The Washington Post)

U.S. military officials originally hoped to begin flying from Agadez by the end of 2016, but the start date has been pushed back to the latter half of 2018. U.S. officials have attributed the delays to the inherent challenges of building a new airfield and military base in such a remote region.

The project calls for paving more than 17 acres of desert to create the runway, taxiways and aircraft parking areas, according to planning documents submitted by the Air Force to Congress. While the base is intended to serve mainly as a drone hub, the runway is designed to be long enough to accommodate large C-17 transport planes. Crews have also had to install major new water, sewer and electrical lines between the base and the city.

On May 23, 2013, more than a year before the base was approved, Islamist militants staged two coordinated attacks in the area. The first targeted a Nigerien military base in Agadez, killing 23 soldiers and a civilian. The second, a suicide bombing, targeted a French-owned and -operated uranium mine in the nearby town of Arlit, killing one worker.



Nigerien soldiers pass debris left after a suicide bombing in a military barracks in Agadez on May 23, 2013. (Associated Press)

Today, the economy has worsened. The enforcement of a tough anti-migrant law has shrunk the smuggling business, a lucrative creator of jobs and currency flows in Agadez. Some uranium and gold mines have also laid off hundreds of workers, according to local officials. Robberies are up in a city where people used to leave their cars and gates unlocked at night.

The situation worries Mohamed, the tribal elder, and other community leaders. In recent years, he said, he has watched the way Islamist militants infiltrated communities along Nigers borders with Nigeria and Mali and recruited their unemployed youths.

The youth without jobs is like a bomb that can explode at any moment, Mohamed said. We fear they can be tempted to do something else to get money. It is the door that is open for the terrorists.

That door, he added, could lead to the American base. Many residents, he said, are suspicious about the U.S. military presence in Agadez. Some say the troops are here to serve their own countrys agenda; others argue the goal is to exploit Nigers mineral riches.

[Trumps Niger uproar shines light on the U.S.s murky African wars]

The people here are not informed, Mohamed said. They dont understand whats happening. To them, the base is really abnormal.



People and traffic move along a street in Agadez in April. (Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images)

At the citys central market, views were mixed. Some people didnt know a U.S. base was being built. Others said they had not seen a single American soldier.

But Zeinabou Salou, 37, a seller of traditional medicines, approved of the project. She had heard the Americans have machines to see people from the sky.

I am happy the base is here, she said. The Americans will see who gets into our territory and who leaves. This will protect us against the terrorists.

Mamadou Meduka, 37, a shop owner, disagreed. He viewed the Americans as occupiers.

It is the job of Nigers army to secure the country, not the Americans, he said.

Feltou Rhissa, the mayor of Agadez, said he is in regular contact with the base, adding that the Americans are to protect us, if something happens. He acknowledged that for most people the U.S. troops remain a mystery. But he said the U.S. military is helping local communities, restoring schools and equipping hospitals, among other projects. When the base begins running, Rhissa said, it will have a big impact on Agadez.

But Mohamed, the elder, remains unconvinced.

What we have seen in all the Arab countries is that after theres an American base, there comes trouble, Mohamed said. We fear something like that could happen to us.

Whitlock reported from Washington.

Read more

Hours before death in Niger, U.S. soldiers were targeting militants in Mali

Parts of Niger and Mali are already lawless. U.S. strategy might make it worse.

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Zimbabweans must set aside "poisoned" politics and work together to rebuild the nation and reengage the world, new President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Friday, delivering an inclusive message to an exultant crowd that packed a stadium for his inauguration.

Mnangagwa, blamed for several of the crackdowns and damaging policies of his mentor and predecessor, the ousted Robert Mugabe, also promised that democratic elections will be held on schedule in 2018 and that foreign investment will be safe in Zimbabwe, a message aimed at laying the groundwork for economic revival.

We dare not squander the moment, Mnangagwa said in a speech whose sense of promise matched the joyful mood of a nation hungry for change after Mugabes 37-year rule. The former leader resigned Tuesday after pressure from the military, former allies in the ruling party and massive street protests.

Helicopters and planes flew in formation, an artillery unit fired a 21-gun salute, honor guards with fixed bayonets high-stepped, and Zimbabwean pop star Jah Prayzah had people dancing on a day celebrating a new era in the nations history. Such an occasion had seemed almost impossible to contemplate for many Zimbabweans as the years dragged on under the 93-year-old Mugabe, who took power after the end of white minority rule in 1980.

Mugabe fired Mnangagwa, 75, as vice president Nov. 6 in a dispute over the growing presidential ambitions of Mugabes unpopular wife, Grace Mugabe. The former justice and defense minister, however, had been one of Mugabes closest confidants, raising questions about just how much change and reconciliation there will be on his watch.

The new president praised Robert Mugabe, who will remain in the country but did not attend the inauguration, for his immense contribution to Zimbabwes emergence as a nation after a guerrilla war by black nationalists. However, Mnangagwa sought to reinforce the idea of a new Zimbabwe, a refrain commonly heard in the streets of the capital.

We must work together  you, me, all of us who make up this nation, Mnangagwa said, urging the millions of Zimbabweans who have left the southern African country to contribute to their homelands reconstruction.

Mnangagwa referred to one of Mugabes signature policies, saying farmers will be compensated for the often violent land seizures starting around 2000 that drew international condemnation and sanctions, and which contributed to the countrys economic slide. It is unclear where Zimbabwe would get the funds for such compensation.

The program that saw land seized from white farmers and given to black Zimbabweans will not be reversed, but efforts to make farms more productive will be intensified, he said.

As we bear no malice towards any nation, we ask those who have punished us in the past to reconsider their economic and political sanctions against us, said the president, who remains under U.S. sanctions for his activities as Mugabes enforcer, a role that earned him the nickname Crocodile.

In a show of regional support for Zimbabwes new leader, the presidents of Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia attended the inauguration, with the crowd cheering Botswanas leader, Ian Khama, for his past calls for Mugabe to step down.
During a fretful hour Friday afternoon, Londoners braced for confirmation of yet another attack, something that has become familiar in the British capital this year. Amid rumors of gunshots, shoppers fled down Oxford Street, one of the busiest retail districts in the world on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

In the end, it appeared to be a false alarm. Londons Metropolitan Police said they could not find evidence of shots fired or casualties.

The police said that at 4:38 p.m., they received several calls reporting gunshots in the area.

"Given the nature of the info received we responded as if the incident was terrorism," the police said in a tweet. Armed officers poured into the crowded Oxford Street area in the heart of London and ordered people to take shelter.

The scenes in the ensuing hour were ones of panic. Video from Oxford Circus uploaded to social media showed pedestrians fleeing the area as armed police officers arrived. Many people jumped on Twitter and other social media sites to say that they were holed up in nearby department stores and offices.



An armed police officer ducks under police tape on Oxford Street in London on Nov. 24, 2017. (Simon Dawson/Reuters)

Emily Hooper, 39, was one of hundreds of people who work in the area whose offices were in lockdown as police scrambled to figure out what was happening.

We heard so many different stories  its quite frustrating, she said minutes after she was let out of her building. She said there were rumors of gunshots and of a truck mowing down pedestrians. Its just madness that people say that kind of stuff when its not actually happening. It fuels the frenzy and fear and stampede that follows.

After a little more than an hour of instructing Londoners to stay inside, police gave an all-clear signal.

Several attacks this year have put England's capital city on edge. In September, a homemade bomb was detonated on a subway car at the Parsons Green station, injuring nearly 30 commuters. Three vehicle attacks, one in March and two in June, left 12 people dead and dozens of others wounded.

Minutes after the police lifted the cordon around Oxford Street, normal life resumed. The parked double-decker buses started up their engines. Some storekeepers opened their shops. Thousands of people carrying shopping bags flooded back into the area to seek out Black Friday sales.

But there were still signs of the panic that gripped the area earlier. At H&M, for instance, the doors remained locked as staff swept up broken glass that covered the floor. Another store also remained closed as staff cleaned up plant vases that had been smashed. Outside, a pair of shoes was abandoned on the sidewalk.

Hooper acknowledged that the city felt jittery even before the incident Friday. But at the end of the day, she said, Londoners just get on with daily life: You just have to keep carrying on. You cant not live.

Read more:

In London, black cabs win a battle against Uber. But is the war over?

Rising alarm in Britain over Russian meddling in Brexit vote

Britain releases massive report on disparities between nations races

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Militants set off a blast and gunned down fleeing worshipers at a packed mosque in Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula on Friday, killing at least 235 people in the deadliest single assault on civilians by suspected Islamist extremists in Egypt's recent history.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which survivors described as a sophisticated, terrifying and unprecedented assault on a mosque that was frequented by Sufi Muslims: an attack planned, it appeared, to ensure that none of the worshipers survived.

Egyptian security forces have struggled for years against an Islamic State affiliate based in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of police and military personnel in an insurgency against the government of President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. The government has worked to keep that war in the shadows, preventing journalists from accessing Sinai or the towns there that have become battlegrounds, amid frequent reports of militant atrocities and heavy-handed tactics by the army.

But the dangers of the conflict were impossible to conceal Friday, as the rising death toll was announced in grim updates on state television and Egyptians mourned the largest loss of life from a militant attack in decades. It surpassed the number of dead in the downing of a Russian airliner over Sinai in 2015 that was claimed by Islamic State-linked militants.

As condolence calls poured in from world leaders, Sissi spoke on television, vowing that Egypts armed forces would respond with brute force.





"We cannot be intimidated," he said. "Our will cannot be broken." After the attack, Egypt's military carried out airstrikes in northern Sinai concentrated in mountainous areas around the mosque, according to the Reuters news agency.

Egypts militants have targeted Coptic Christian churches in the past, but strikes against mosques have been rare in recent years. Nonetheless, orthodox Sunni Muslims and militant factions consider Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam, to be heretical, and last year Egyptian Islamist militants beheaded an elderly Sufi cleric in the northern Sinai.

The exact reason for the attack on the mosque, called al-Rawda, remained unclear. That the attack occurred near the town of Bir al-Abd, an area dotted with security outposts, underscored the ability of militants to strike at the heart of government-protected zones.

The assault also had the hallmarks of a highly coordinated operation. More than two-dozen militants arrived at the mosque in several four-wheel-drive vehicles, according to officials and survivors. The attack started when one of the militants, a suicide bomber, detonated his explosives during the Friday sermon. The other militants  who fanned out around the mosque  gunned down panicked worshipers as they fled, according to Moemen Sharawy, whose relatives were at the mosque during the assault.

Two of Sharawys uncles were killed in the attack, including Fathy el-Tanany, 62, who led the call to prayer at the mosque, he said.

[Egypt struggles to make headway against Sinai militants]

Several of the militants also entered the mosque and shot worshipers inside, according to Mohamed Elhor, a journalist who lives in Bir al-Abd and helped transport injured survivors to the hospital. Elhor said that four of his relatives were killed in the attack.

The mosque had been crowded with local residents as well as people displaced by violence in other parts of the northern Sinai, said Elhor, who added that he expected the death toll to rise. One hospital had a list of 300 fatalities, he said. But other bodies also were taken to hospitals miles away. After shuttling the wounded from the mosque, my clothes were covered in blood, he said.

An injured survivor of the attack, interviewed by a local Sinai news outlet, said he saw between seven and 10 masked gunmen inside the mosque, wearing military uniforms and carrying the black flags favored by Islamic State militants. They started shooting inside the mosque, and people started falling everywhere, said the man, who was not identified in the video.

Footage of the aftermath of the assault showed dozens of bodies, covered with blankets or bloodied sheets, in rows inside the mosque. Some of the injured were ferried away in cars and in the beds of pickup trucks.

"Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt," President Trump wrote in a tweet. "The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!"

In a subsequent tweet, Trump tied the carnage to his administration's strict immigration policies. "We have to get TOUGHER AND SMARTER than ever before, and we will. Need the WALL, need the BAN! God bless the people of Egypt," he wrote. He called Sissi to offer his condolences Friday.

Egypts insurgency gathered momentum after a military coup in 2013 that ousted Mohamed Morsi, the countrys first democratically elected president and a leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

The militants have repeatedly mounted large-scale, complex attacks on security personnel. Since July 2013, at least 1,000 members of the security forces have been killed in attacks in Sinai, according to data compiled by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

The northern Sinai, a stretch of the country neglected by successive Egyptian governments, remains one of the lingering strongholds for the Islamic State as the groups self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq has all but collapsed under air and ground attacks.

Even as the government has tightened its grip on Sinai and claimed to have killed thousands of suspected jihadists, the threat from the militants has grown. In the past year, Islamic State militants have killed hundreds of security officers while broadening their attacks on Christians, killing dozens in bomb attacks on churches in Cairo, Alexandria and other parts of Egypt. The rise of another militant group, called the Hasm Movement, which has targeted judges and security officials, has further challenged Sissis government.

The bloodshed Friday raised the specter of further mass killings of civilians.

It also highlighted fears for the safety for millions of adherents of Sufi Islam in Egypt, whose practices have made them a target of Sunni militants. Last year, Islamic State militants asserted responsibility for two beheadings near Arish, including the killing of the elderly Sufi cleric, Sulaiman Abu Haraz.

The al-Rawda mosque, while closely associated with Sufis, was also linked to members of a Sinai tribe that had opposed the Islamic State militants, said Elhor, the local journalist.

The attack on the mosque was unusual because the Islamic State militants believe its not religious to blast a house of God, he said. But the militants also considered it their religious duty to kill the devious ones, like Sufis, because of their beliefs, he added.

Fahim reported from Istanbul. Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

Christian flee restive Sinai

Churches also target of militant strikes in Egypt

Militants open other fronts as Islamic State caliphate crumbles

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, shown in May, have agreed that the United States will stop providing arms to Kurdish fighters in Syria. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The Trump administration is preparing to stop supplying weapons to ethnic Kurdish fighters in Syria, the White House acknowledged Friday, a move reflecting renewed focus on furthering a political settlement to the civil war there and countering Iranian influence now that the Islamic State caliphate is largely vanquished.

Word of the policy change long sought by neighboring Turkey came Friday, not from Washington but from Ankara. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters at a news conference that President Trump had pledged to stop arming the fighters, known as the YPG, during a phone call between Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mr. Trump clearly stated that he had given clear instructions, and that the YPG wont be given arms and that this nonsense should have ended a long time ago, the Associated Press quoted Cavusoglu as saying to reporters following the call.

Initially, the administrations national security team appeared surprised by the Turks announcement and uncertain what to say about it. The State Department referred questions to the White House, and hours passed with no confirmation from the National Security Council.

In late afternoon, the White House confirmed the weapons cutoff would happen, though it provided no details on timing.



Armed fighters of the Peoples Protection Units, known as the YPG, gather in Kobane, Syria. The militia is made up of ethnic Kurds. (Ahmed Deeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Consistent with our previous policy, President Trump also informed President Erdogan of pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria, now that the battle of Raqqa is complete and we are progressing into a stabilization phase to ensure that ISIS cannot return, the White House statement said, referring to the recent liberation of the Syrian city that had served as the Islamic States de facto capital.

The decision to stop arming the Kurds will remove a major source of tension between the United States and Turkey, a NATO ally. But it is likely to further anger the Kurds, who already feel betrayed since the United States told them to hand over hard-won territory to the Syrian government.

[U.S. is trapped between its allies ambitions in Syria]

Turkey has pointed to the YPGs affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers Party  a Kurdish rebel group that has fought the Turkish state for decades  as evidence of its terrorist ties. The YPG, which formed amid the chaos of the Syrian civil war, has worked with U.S. forces to oust the Islamic State from key areas there.

The Obama administration began arming the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, because they were considered the most effective fighters against Islamic State militants.

The phone call between Trump and Erdogan followed a summit on Syria held this week in Sochi, Russia. It was attended by Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Both Russia and Iran backed the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and helped Syrian forces to rout the Islamic State.

The two powers, along with Turkey, have forged an alliance that is advancing its own peace plan, in which the United States would play little role beyond being an observer. They have said U.S. troops should leave Syria now that the Islamic States defeat appears imminent.

But a U.S. withdrawal without a peace plan well on its way would be victory for Assad, and by extension, Iran and Russia.

So U.S. officials have said they plan to keep American troops in northern Syria  and continue working with Kurdish fighters  to pressure Assad to make concessions during peace talks brokered by the United Nations in Geneva, stalemated for three years now. Were not going to just walk away right now, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week.

[U.S. moves toward open-ended presence in Syria after Islamic State is routed]

James Jeffrey, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2008 to 2010, said the decision to cease supplying weapons to the Kurds appears to reflect an evolving strategy to keep playing a productive role in Syria and weaken Iranian-backed militias and Hezbollah, both of which fought alongside Syrian forces to regain territory from the militants.

Fighting ISIS was such a priority, we had to focus on that before other things, he said, using a common acronym for the Islamic State. Now as the conventional fight is over, were trying to come up with a bigger policy. We cant do it without Turkey. Its pure geography. We have to mend fences with the Turks if we want to remain in Syria.
For more than five hours, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sat in a hearing room on Capitol Hill this month, fending off inquiries on Washingtons two favorite topics: President Trump and Russia.

But legislators spent little time asking Sessions about the dramatic and controversial changes in policy he has made since taking over the top law enforcement job in the United States nine months ago.

[Sessions again changes his account of what he knew about Trump campaigns dealings with Russians]

From his crackdown on illegal immigration to his reversal of Obama administration policies on criminal justice and policing, Sessions is methodically reshaping the Justice Department to reflect his nationalist ideology and hard-line views  moves drawing comparatively less public scrutiny than the ongoing investigations into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin.

Sessions has implemented a new charging and sentencing policy that calls for prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible, even if that might mean minority defendants face stiff, mandatory minimum penalties. He has defended the president's travel ban and tried to strip funding from cities with policies he considers too friendly toward undocumented immigrants.



Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Nov. 14. (Alex Brandon/AP)

Sessions has even adjusted the departments legal stances in cases involving voting rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in a way that advocates warn might disenfranchise poor minorities and give certain religious people a license to discriminate.

Supporters and critics say the attorney general has been among the most effective of the Cabinet secretaries  implementing Trumps conservative policy agenda even as the president publicly and privately toys with firing him over his decision to recuse himself from the Russia case.

While critics lambaste what they consider misguided changes that take the department back in time, supporters say Sessions has restored a by-the-book interpretation of federal law and taken an aggressive stance toward enforcing it.

The Attorney General is committed to rebuilding a Justice Department that respects the rule of law and separation of powers, Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said in a statement, adding, It is often our most vulnerable communities that are most impacted and victimized by the scourge of drug trafficking and the accompanying violent crime.

Immigration

In meetings with top Justice Department officials about terrorist suspects, Sessions often has a particular question: Where is the person from? When officials tell him a suspect was born and lives in the United States, he typically has a follow-up: To what country does his family trace its lineage?

While there are reasons to want to know that information, some officials familiar with the inquiries said the questions struck them as revealing that Sessions harbors an innate suspicion about people from certain ethnic and religious backgrounds.

Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said in a statement, The Attorney General asks lots of relevant questions in these classified briefings.

Sessions, unlike past attorneys general, has been especially aggressive on immigration. He served as the public face of the administrations rolling back of a program that granted a reprieve from deportation to people who had come here without documentation as children, and he directed federal prosecutors to make illegal-immigration cases a higher priority. The attorney general has long held the view that the United States should even reduce the number of those immigrating here legally.

In an interview with Breitbart News in 2015, then-Sen. Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke favorably of a 1924 law that excluded all immigrants from Asia and set strict caps on others.

When the numbers reached about this high in 1924, the president and Congress changed the policy and it slowed down immigration significantly, Sessions said. We then assimilated through 1965 and created really the solid middle class of America, with assimilated immigrants, and it was good for America.

Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Departments civil rights division in the Obama administration who now works as chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said Sessions seems to harbor an unwillingness to recognize the history of this country is rooted in immigration.

On issue after issue, its very easy to see what his worldview is of what this country is and who belongs in this country, she said, adding that his view is distinctly anti-immigrant.

Those on the other side of the aisle, however, say they welcome the changes Sessions has made at the Justice Department.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for moderating levels of immigration, said she would give the attorney general an A-plus for his work in the area, especially for his crackdown on sanctuary cities, his push to hire more immigration judges and his focus on the MS-13 gang.

He was able to hit the ground running because he has so much expertise already in immigration enforcement and related public safety issues and the constitutional issues, so hes accomplished a lot in a very short time, Vaughan said.

Prior, the Justice Department spokesman, said, Clearly having an immigration system that focuses on national security and the national interest should be a matter of importance to the nations highest law enforcement official.

Police oversight, sentencing

Questions about Sessionss attitudes toward race and nationality have swirled around him since a Republican-led Senate committee in 1986 rejected his nomination by President Ronald Reagan for a federal judgeship, amid allegations of racism. In January, his confirmation hearing to become attorney general turned bitter when, for the first time, a sitting senator, Cory Booker (D-N.J.), testified against a colleague up for a Cabinet position. Booker said he did so because of Sessionss record on civil rights.

Sessions ultimately won confirmation on a 52-to-47 vote, and he moved quickly to make the Justice Department his own. Two months into the job, he told the departments lawyers to review police oversight agreements nationwide, currying favor with officers who often resent the imposition of such pacts but upsetting those who think they are necessary to force change.

Similarly, Sessions imposed a new charging and sentencing policy that critics on both sides of the aisle have said might disproportionately affect minority communities and hit low-level drug offenders with stiff sentences.

Allies of Sessions say the policy is driven not by racial animus but by a desire to respond to increasing crime. The latest FBI crime data, for 2016, showed violent crimes were up 4.1 percent over the previous year and murders were up 8.6 percent  although crime remains at historically low levels. The Bureau of Prisons projects that  because of increased enforcement and prosecution efforts  the inmate population will increase by about 2 percent in fiscal 2018, according to a Justice Department inspector general report.

Larry Thompson, who served as deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and is a friend of Sessions, said that although he disagrees with the attorney generals charging policy, he believes Sessions was motivated by his belief that taking these violent offenders off the streets is the right way to address the public safety issues.

Civil rights, hate crimes

Sessions's moves to empower prosecutors have led to a concerted focus on hate-crimes prosecutions  a point his defenders say undercuts the notion that he is not interested in protecting the rights of minorities or other groups. Prosecutors have brought several such cases since he became attorney general and recently sent an attorney to Iowa to help the state prosecute a man who was charged with killing a gender-fluid 16-year-old high school student last year. The man was convicted of first-degree murder.

But while civil rights leaders praised his action in that case, Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the national Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that it stands in stark contrast to his overall efforts to roll back protections for transgender people.

Shortly after he became attorney general, Sessions revoked federal guidelines put in place by the Obama administration that specified that transgender students have the right to use public school restrooms that match their gender identity. In September, the Justice Department sided in a major upcoming Supreme Court case with a Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because he said it would violate his religious beliefs.

Sessions recently issued 20 principles of guidance to executive-branch agencies about how the government should respect religious freedom, including allowing religious employers to hire only those whose conduct is consistent with their beliefs. About the same time, he reversed a three-year-old Justice Department policy that protected transgender people from workplace discrimination by private employers and state and local governments.

The Justice Department has similarly rolled back Obama administration positions in court cases over voting rights.

In February, the department dropped its stance that Texas intended to discriminate when it passed its law on voter identification. And in August, it sided with Ohio in its effort to purge thousands of people from its rolls for not voting in recent elections  drawing complaints from civil liberties advocates.

At a recent congressional hearing, Sessions said the department would absolutely, resolutely defend the right of all Americans to vote, including our African American brothers and sisters.

Critics say, though, that his record shows otherwise. We are seeing a federal government that is pulling back from protecting vulnerable communities in every respect, Clarke said. That appears to be the pattern that we are seeing with this administration  an unwillingness to use their enforcement powers in ways that can come to the defense of groups who are otherwise powerless and voiceless.
The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier had been leading the search for the sailors missing since the Nov. 22 plane crash in the Pacific Ocean. (Kenneth Abbate/AFP/Getty Images)

The U.S. Navy called off its search for three sailors missing since Wednesday, when a transport plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean on its way to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.

Eight people were rescued and are in good condition, but the remaining three sailors have not been found after two days of searching, the Navy's 7th Fleet, which is based in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, said in a statement Friday.

The Reagan had been leading the search effort, joined by eight U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft.

They covered nearly 1,000 square nautical miles in the search for the sailors, who have been missing since the C-2A Greyhound crashed about halfway between Okinawa and Guam on Wednesday afternoon.

Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families, said Rear Adm. Marc Dalton, commander of Task Force 70. As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates.



The C-2A Greyhound is a twin-engine cargo plane designed to transport people and supplies to and from aircraft carriers. (Christopher Gaines/AFP/Getty Images)

The names of the sailors have not been released, as their families are still being informed.

[ U.S. 7th Fleet plane carrying 11 crashes into Pacific Ocean off Japan; 8 rescued ]

The C-2A, a twin-engine cargo plane designed to transport people and supplies to and from aircraft carriers, was on a routine flight from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in southern Japan to the Reagan, which was in the Philippine Sea for exercises.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known, and an investigation is being conducted.

It was the first time since 1973 that a Navy C2-A has been involved in a fatal crash. Then, seven people were killed when both of the aircrafts engines failed shortly after takeoff from Chania-Souda airport in Greece.

The latest crash was comes at the end of a bad year for the 7th Fleet, which had already lost 17 sailors in two separate collisions involving guided-missile destroyers.

Ten sailors were killed when the USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker near Singapore in August, and seven died when the USS Fitzgerald ran into a much heavier container ship off the coast of Japan in June.

The Navy removed the admiral in charge from his position in August, citing a loss of confidence in his ability to lead, and the Navys top admiral ordered a fleetwide review of seamanship and training in the Pacific after the McCain collision.

[ The Navy, stunned by two fatal collisions, exhausts some sailors with 100-hour workweeks ]

The Fitzgerald, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, left Yokosuka Friday, headed to Pascagoula, Miss., for repairs. The Fitzgerald was towed to deep water and over the next few days will be lifted onto the heavy lift transport vessel Transshelf to be moved to the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipbuilding facility in Mississippi for repairs and upgrades.

The McCain and Fitzgerald incidents followed a collision between another guided-missile cruiser, the USS Lake Champlain, and a South Korean fishing vessel, and an embarrassing incident when the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam ran aground in Tokyo Bay in January.

Just last week, the USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, was scraped by a Japanese tug during a towing exercise. The destroyer suffered minimal damage.

The 7th Fleet has about 50 to 70 ships assigned to it and is responsible for an area that spans 36 maritime countries and 48 million square miles in the Pacific and Indian oceans, according to the Navy.

Read more:

Deadly Navy accidents in the Pacific raise questions over a force stretched too thin

The Navy has now fired at least six amid the fallout over deadly accidents

Multiple failures by ship crews standing watch contributed to deadly collisions, Navy finds

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Three Manitobans have made it on to the Womens Executive Networks list of Canadas Most Powerful Women that was released on Thursday.

Dr. Catherine Cook  vice-dean, Indigenous health, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences; associate dean, First Nations, Metis and Inuit Health, Max Rady College of Medicine; and associate professor at the University of Manitoba. A Metis who grew up in northern Manitoba, Cook practised as a family physician in remote northern nursing stations for several years before focusing on public health practice and health administration and management. She has held numerous positions in health and academic administration and has actively engaged in board and committee membership throughout her career.

Dr. Samar Safi-Harb  professor, department of physics and astronomy, faculty of science and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Supernova Remnant Astrophysics at the University of Manitoba. Safi-Harb left a long-term NASA grant at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland to start a world-class graduate research program in astrophysics and develop the astronomy curriculum at the U of M. She is an expert in the field of supernova remnants, and under her leadership, her team has made significant breakthroughs, including discovering some of the most magnetic stars in the universe and finding evidence that the most massive stars do not always form black holes.

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files Dr. Catherine Cook

Hannah Taylor  founder of the Ladybug Foundation. Taylor started the Ladybug Foundation to help raise money and awareness for Canadas homeless when she was just eight years old. Its gone on to raise millions of dollars, and Taylor has become a sought-after youth empowerment speaker around the globe. In 2016, Taylor was the youngest Canadian to be awarded the Meritorious Service Cross. She is a third-year student at McGill University studying politics and womens issues. She was first recognized by the womens network as a Top 100 Future Leader in 2007.
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NDP health critic Andrew Swan called one-time funding cuts to personal care homes in Winnipeg another direct hit to seniors.

Personal care homes were told in July that their funding would likely be cut by a quarter of a per cent. A Winnipeg Regional Health spokeswoman said Manitoba Health approved the cut in September.

However, the news only became public this week after The Jewish Post & News reported that the Simkin Centre would be losing funding for its security services in March. That decision is meant to bring the centre in line with the other care homes overseen by the WRHA, which are responsible for funding their own security services, the spokeswoman said.

WAYNE GLOWACKI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Bethania Mennonite Personal Care Home will see funding reduced by $25,084.

Overall, the 0.25 per cent cut is expected to save the health authority more than $1 million. Thats cause for concern, Swan said.

He told reporters Thursday that he believes every personal care home already operates under staff-to-resident ratios, meaning cuts will have to come from sources other than employees.

Are they going to cut the things that make life more comfortable for Manitoba seniors? Swan said. I dont want seniors to have the cut taken out of their food budget.

The WRHA will realize the largest savings from St. Amants River Road Place, Actionmarguerite Inc. in St. Boniface and Parkview Place. River Road Place has to cut its budget by more than $82,000, while Actionmarguerite needs to find more than $56,000 in savings and Parkview Place must find more than $47,000.

Swan said its a hard pill to swallow given longtime concerns around access to care home beds. Seniors are concerned that theres a critical shortage, he said, and now they have to face cuts to existing beds.

In question period, Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen rejected that characterization, saying the government has provided increased support when it comes to health care.

He blamed problems with personal care home access on the former NDP government. He did not speak to reporters after question period Thursday.

Eleven beds opened this week at Deer Lodge Centre for patients in the special needs behavioural unit, bringing the centres total specialized beds to 32. There are currently 74 personal care home beds for those needing specialized care across the region.

In September, Goertzen announced 258 new personal care home beds were in the works, the first since the Conservative government axed plans for hundreds of similar beds months earlier.

Swan said he doesnt want the WRHA funding cut to mean personal care home residents lose access to recreational programming or outings.

According to a WRHA spokeswoman, outings and programming arent at risk.

 with files from Nick Martin

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca
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OTTAWA  The federal transport regulator is investigating the Manitoba NDPs complaint about Omnitrax abandoning its railway to Churchill, while the party says the agency should extend its probe to investigate cutbacks to service along undamaged parts of the line.

On Oct. 27, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) sent Omnitraxs Canadian head, Merv Tweed, a formal letter, kicking off a probe into whether the Denver-based company violated federal law by ending service along the Hudson Bay Railway without following the formal discontinuance process.

The probe could proceed to hearings, binding instructions or dismissal, and the agency aims to resolve the case by Feb. 27. The investigation came months after the Free Press reported the company was likely breaking federal law by not repairing its flood-damaged rail link to Churchill, a northern Manitoba town of 900 on the shore of Hudson Bay.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES The Canadian Transport Agency sent a letter to Merv Tweed, Canadian head of Omnitrax, on Oct. 27, signifying the start of an investigation into the Denver-based company.

This week, the CTA provided the Free Press with the complaint it chose, amid a dozen submitted to the agency. The agency selected a detailed complaint written by an NDP researcher, whom the party would only provide for an interview on the condition he not be named, as he is not a spokesman.

The partys complaint cites previous regulatory rulings, and a 1959 Supreme Court case that spelled out service obligations for companies that own rail lines. If they let them off the hook, it is a precedent, the NDP researcher said.

The NDP have asked the CTA to force Omnitrax to pay compensate people in Churchill and surrounding communities for their increased living costs, as well as the dozens laid off since July 2016. It also seeks $3 million in compensation for cuts to jobs in northern Manitoba.

Omnitrax has abandoned their obligations under federal, Canadian laws to maintain and operate that railroad, said MLA Tom Lindsey, the partys caucus chairman, who has been following the crisis in Churchill. Now theyre trying to walk away from all their obligations.

Meanwhile, the mayors of Thompson and The Pas say Transport Canada still hasnt reached out to them since late October, as safety and economic concerns surround Omnitrax pulling out its assets along the line.

Exactly a week after Ottawa threatened to sue Omnitrax on Oct. 13, the company phoned Thompson fuel suppliers to inform them twice-weekly freight service along the Hudson Bay Railway would be cut to once a week.

Since then, fuel suppliers have opted for deliver by truck, and suspect Omnitrax will cut back all rail service, which would require up to 250 fuel trucks per month. MP Niki Ashton has warned that will imperil safety on Highway 6 amid snow squalls.

In The Pas, Omnitrax has laid off dozens of staff, and companies have been worried about transporting goods east  though the town is still served by the CN Rail line to Winnipeg.

Energy Minister Jim Carr, a Winnipeg MP, spoke with Thompson Mayor Dennis Fenske on Oct. 31, and Transport Canada reached out to him within days.

But Fenske said Thursday hes heard nothing since then. Im not surprised. We continue to trudge on.

Jim Scott, mayor of The Pas, said hes never heard anything from the federal government.

Last week, Carr announced Fairfax, a multibillion-dollar Toronto firm, had expressed interest in helping local groups run the line and Churchill port.

Its very encouraging that there is a corporation with experience and commitment to the north, that has indicated an interest publicly to sit down with the consortium, Carr said Thursday. He referred questions about it to Transport Canada.

TC spokeswoman Melany Gauvin said that a senior Industry Canada official spoke with Fenske on Nov. 15. But the mayor said that was about economic grants to deal with the rail situation  not concerns around safety or fuel costs.

Scott said he hasnt heard anything about the takeover talks, or from Transport Canada.

I should have had a bunch of information by now, said Scott.

Both mayors believe Omnitrax targeted their communities in retaliation for Ottawas Oct. 13 legal threat. On Nov. 14, the feds have since filed a lawsuit seeking $18.8 million.

That same day, Omnitrax issued a notice it will seek arbitration under the North American Free Trade Agreement, claiming policies by Ottawa and the province intentionally sabotaged the rail lines profitability, in order to expropriate it.

Meanwhile, the NDP staffer said even though the regulator has a three-month target to resolve his complaint, it might be settled before the lawsuit and NAFTA filing.

Once these lawyers come in, these things get bogged down and theres not any solution coming anytime soon, he said.

The CTA says it received a response from Omnitrax on Nov. 20, meaning its now the NDPs turn to respond.

Lindsey said the party will consider raising the issues in Thompson and The Pas.

This railroad clearly is the lifeline, not just for Churchill, but for people along the line. Their costs have gone up exponentially when Omnitrax abandoned their legal, and moral, obligations.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

NDP complaint to Canadian Transportation Agency
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One inner-city school is so overwhelmed providing a breakfast for children its serving canned chili from the food bank, MLA Bernadette Smith said Friday.

Several schools in my constituency struggle to provide breakfast and lunch, the New Democrat from Point Douglas told the legislature. Research shows children need a healthy breakfast in the morning so they can concentrate in school.

The available funding, donations, teacher time and community and parent volunteers only go so far, Smith said.

Matthew Mead / The Associated Press Files Increasingly, schools have been providing breakfasts for children who would otherwise go to class hungry.

They have been forced to use food banks, which means the kids are eating canned chili for breakfast, she said of one school she wouldnt name.

Increasingly, schools have been providing breakfasts and sometimes lunches for kids who would otherwise go to school hungry. The program has spread from the lowest-income areas into dozens of Winnipeg School Division schools and to schools in other divisions throughout the city.

Smith called on the province to provide specific funding to help support the supplementary meal programs.

Education Minister Ian Wishart reminded Smith the NDP had been in power for 17 years without providing what shes now asking of his government.

The NDP stood quietly aside while we became the child poverty capital of Canada, Wishart said, acknowledging that it is a growing need.

It is certainly a joint responsibility. We work with the school divisions and they work with the communities.

Smith said later that the schools have asked not to be publicly identified.

Their breakfast program is underfunded. They also rely heavily on volunteers; theyre scrambling all the time, she said, adding schools have started partnering with businesses for help.

The Atlas Pawn Shop is the latest business to donate to the program, she said.

It costs about $7,000 a year to provide breakfast for 250 children in a school, and about $17,500 for lunch, she said.

Winnipeg School Division officials could not be reached Friday.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

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November is an important month. Remembrance Day was observed by Canadians from coast to coast. Now the Ukrainian-Canadian community recognizes and acknowledges the unforgotten abuse of human rights that occurred during the period of 1932-33 in Ukraine; the Holodomor (man-made famine), one of the many heinous crimes in the history of mankind.

It was during this famine (death by hunger) that millions of Mennonites and Ukrainians experienced extreme human rights violations starting in the late 1920s and early 1930s under the Stalinist dictatorship of the former Soviet Union. During that time, the Soviet state confiscated lands and property; removed religious freedoms; and imprisoned, banished and murdered many individuals, with the intention of destroying the Ukrainian nation.

This period is called the forgotten genocide in Ukraine. What is a genocide? The United Nations defined genocide in 1948 as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

supplied The Holomodor monument outside Winnipeg City Hall marks the human horror of early-1930s Ukraine.

During the early 1930s, millions of tons of wheat were dumped onto western markets while in Ukraine, men, women and children were dying of starvation at a rate of 25,000 a day. This horror was carried out in the aftermath of a political struggle between the people of Ukraine and the Soviet Russian government. The intention was to eliminate the last traces of resistance, which was non-existent, and to paralyze and terrorize the Ukrainian peasantry and destroy the way of life and dignity of a country.

The destruction of people and land during 1932-33 was a result of a planned program to exterminate the population in Ukraine, by starving the area long known as Europes breadbasket.

In the beginning, a genocidal attack was initiated on Ukrainian intellectuals, professionals, defiant workers and the church. Then, Stalin went after the small farmers whose only crimes were simply traditions of hard work, self-sufficiency, family and feelings of national consciousness. The authorities in Moscow waged a ruthless war on the farmers, seeking to eliminate them altogether.

Millions of people perished in this famine, caused not by a war or natural disasters, but by ruthless decree. Travel was restricted, censorship imposed and an entire nation began to die  swollen from hunger, on streets, on country roads, in fields, in homes, in the thousands, and hundreds of thousands, and millions, in one of the most beautiful countries in Europe.

The Holodomor of 1932-33 is viewed as a human tragedy of gigantic proportions, but it is also viewed from a political and historical context. The Russian drive during that time was to expand territorial and political domains, and the same scenario is occurring currently in eastern Ukraine.

Although the Soviet Union at that time found fertile land in Ukraine, it could not gain a foothold without the use of terror. As a result, millions of small, privately owned Mennonite farms had to be liquidated as they were counterproductive to the forced introduction of collectivization to Ukraine. Stalin made it clear that the time had come for a new reign of terror. The year 1930 brought the order of compulsory collectivization of all the land and the means of production.

The Ukrainian people were ordered to turn over their land and animals to the collective farms or be deported. This aroused tremendous opposition.

In fact, Stalin worried about the rise of an independent Ukraine, as had occurred in 1918, and was determined for this not to happen again.

From 1932 to 1933, Ukraine was the only European country that had a population decline, and in a matter of months, it was reduced to a melancholy wasteland.

This Holodomor occurred more than 80 years ago. Ukraines border has shifted, but the people have not changed; courage and spirituality have survived.

SUPPLIED IMAGE Newspaper headline describes the famine's impact in 1935.

People now remember the Holomodor not so much in bitterness or sorrow, but in grim and determined awareness that such an atrocity must never be allowed to happen again. Today, this horror is only a painful and ever-fading memory in the minds of eyewitnesses and survivors.

The Holodomor is a memory whose agony has long since been dulled by many years of obsessive remembering. For many Ukrainians in Canada, this senseless man-made famine is a very disturbing, frightening thought.

Throughout the world, and particularly in Winnipeg, museums of human rights are collaboratively continuing the Holodomor awareness campaign by educating and hosting conferences acknowledging this tragic period in world history.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights has become a landmark and an educational institution of all Canadians, focusing on human liberty and human life.

To commemorate the Holodomor of 1932-33 in Ukraine, the Ukrainian community dedicated a monument on the grounds of city hall in 1984 to acknowledge this human tragedy. Therefore, every November, Ukrainians, Mennonites and Canadians of different cultural backgrounds stand determined that this inhuman act shall not be forgotten, and that such horrors shall never be allowed to happen again.

Peter J. Manastyrsky is a member of the Ukrainian community of Winnipeg.
Reports emerged yesterday in the British press that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian industry to be prepared to divert all its efforts into war production. After Germanys formal re-militarization of its foreign policy in 2014 and Swedens reintroduction of the draft, this makes clear that, just over a century after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, countries across Europe and the world are again preparing for total war.

Putin reportedly made this remark at the Sochi summit, where he discussed the Syrian war with Turkish and Iranian officials. As he spoke, he was reviewing the Russian militarys annual Zapad military exercise, which took place in September, with Russian army staff.

Putin said, The ability of our economy to increase military production and services at a given time is one of the most important aspects of military security. To this end, all strategic and simply large-scale enterprise should be ready, regardless of ownership.

His remarks made clear that this years Zapad exercise was designed to check whether Russia could sustain the all-out mobilization of its economic resources for large-scale nuclear war. The scenario of the exercise was for strategic nuclear forces to practice firing off their missilesthe countrys largest hydrogen bombs, designed to obliterate a country who attacked Russiaamid mock foreign ground invasions and large-scale missile strikes against Russia.

In such a war, the military would take over the economy, slash production for civilian needs, and re-direct whatever industrial capacity survived mass air and missile raids towards the war effort.

Putin said, First, we checked our mobilization readiness and ability to use local resources to meet the troops requirements. Reservists were called up for this exercise, and we also tested the ability of civilian companies to transfer their vehicles and equipment to the armed forces and provide technical protection to transport communications. ... We also assessed the provision of transport and logistics services, as well as food and medicines to the army. We need to review once again the defense companies ability to quickly increase output.

Putins remarks are an urgent warning to the international working class. Global capitalism is undergoing a historic political collapse. The danger of a Third World War, rooted in the conflict between the nation-state system and the global character of economic production, is imminent and growing. What Putin announced openly at the Sochi summit is what NATO governments are doing behind the backs of the people: preparing for all-out global war directly between the major nuclear powers and, if necessary, against their own population.

The chorus of attacks on Russia in the US and European media, denouncing its alleged aggression and interference in NATO countries politics, are saturated with imperialist hypocrisy. While Russia is carrying out military exercises on its own soil, the NATO powers are encircling Russia and marching their troops up to Russias very borders.

Two weeks ago, NATO held a summit in Brussels to discuss building naval and logistical bases to transport US and European troops across the Atlantic and the European continent to fight Russia. Reviewing the summit agenda, German news magazine Der Spiegel concluded, In plain language: NATO is preparing for a possible war with Russia.

As in Russia, NATO officials are readying for such a war with plans to subordinate all social and economic life to the diktat of the banks and the military. At the Brussels summit, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made clear that NATO is also closely coordinating its war planning with the intelligence agencies, police and the banks. This planning, he said, requires a whole-of-government approach. So its important that our defense ministers make our interior, finance and transport ministers aware of military requirements.

Viewed from Moscow, US imperialisms threats of aggressive military action around the planet resemble a noose being drawn around Russia. Nor are the threats concentrated on Russias western border with Europe. Since August, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened North Korea, which borders both eastern Russia and China, with nuclear obliteration. After Trump went to Saudi Arabia in May and pressed Riyadh to take a harsh line against Iran and Syria, Russias main allies to the south in the Middle East, the region is on the verge of all-out war.

At the same time, Pentagon figures publicized earlier this week showed that US military and support personnel deployed to the Middle East suddenly surged 30 percent, to 54,325.

Humanity is being brought face to face with the disastrous political consequences of the dissolution of the USSR by the Stalinist bureaucracy over a quarter century ago, in 1991. The imperialist lies of the Cold War era, that the USSR was the source of military aggression in the world, were refuted by the imperialist onslaught that developed after its dissolution. Entire regions were devastated as the NATO powers attacked or occupied formerly Soviet-allied statesIraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syriaor isolated and economically strangled them, as in the case of North Korea.

These wars have not only cost millions of lives, but forced over 60 million people to flee their homes, creating the greatest refugee crisis since World War II.

The crisis revealed by Putins call for Russia to be prepared for total war is the outcome of these decades of brutal wars waged by the NATO powers around the world. Attempts by US imperialism to use its military might to offset its economic decline and channel outward class tensions driven by rising unemployment and social deprivation, in which Washington was abetted by its European allies, have brought the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust.

This is now publicly discussed at the highest levels of the bourgeois state. Last week, in the US Senate, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey warned that plans could be in place, right now in the White House, given to the president to launch a preemptive war against North Korea using American nuclear weapons without consulting with, informing Congress. Another senator said the White House had become an adult day care center for an uncontrollable president, who could choose to launch a nuclear war virtually anytime.

The Kremlins policy, rooted in the bankrupt Russian nationalism of the post-Soviet capitalist oligarchy, is reactionary and incapable of opposing the imperialist war drive. Unwilling and unable to appeal to anti-war sentiment in the international working class, and financially dependent on the imperialist centers, the Kremlin oscillates between trying to cut deals with the NATO powers and risking an all-out military confrontation with them. Strategists clearly expect that such a conflict would likely escalate rapidly to large-scale nuclear war threatening the very survival of humanity.

There is no way to stop the drive to war outside a politically-conscious intervention by the working class, on an international scale, in revolutionary opposition to war and to capitalism. The greatest danger in this situation is that masses of workers are not fully aware of the depth of the political crisis and the rapidly rising danger of a catastrophic war.

It is under these conditions that, amid a campaign denouncing Russia in US and European media, governments are demanding stepped-up censorship of the Internet and social media, and Google is censoring anti-war and socialist web sites, first and foremost the World Socialist Web Site. This is why the WSWS calls for building an international anti-war movement in the working class and a socialist and anti-imperialist perspective, and asks for its readers support in spreading its materials against censorship and war.
Papua New Guinea police, navy and immigration officers stormed into the Australian-operated Manus Island Detention Centre yesterday, and again this morning, attacking refugees, destroying their property and forcing them to leave the camp.

The violent incursions followed the Australian governments formal closure of the facility on October 31, after the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Supreme Court ruled last year that the centre was illegal because it denied the asylum-seekers their liberty without charge.

Throughout this month, the Liberal-National Coalition government of Malcolm Turnbull has demanded that the refugees move to so-called alternative accommodation centres on Manus Island. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has deemed those facilities unfit for human habitation.

Contractors hired by the Australian government cut water pipes and tanks at the main Manus Island centre at the beginning of November. Food shipments were also halted, in a bid to starve the refugees out. Since then, PNG immigration authorities have repeatedly destroyed make-shift water catchments constructed by the asylum-seekers.

PNG police, immigration and naval officers entered the camp this morning, forcing the remaining refugees onto buses to be transported to the alternative accommodation facilities. Footage published by Fairfax Media showed PNG offices beating prone detainees with batons, before forcing them out of the centre.

Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull hailed the evictions this morning. I am pleased to say in terms of Manus is that the reports we have is that busloads of people are leaving Manus, he stated.

During a previous attack, yesterday morning, around 50 PNG police, navy and immigration personnel forced the refugees out of their rooms, confiscated their phones, and threateningly demanded that they leave the centre within an hour. At least one officer was armed with a large bush knife. Others carried long poles.

The refugees stated on social media that they were repeatedly surrounded by the officers and physically assaulted. At least 30 of the 400 refugees who remained at the facility were forcibly transported to the alternative accommodation centres.

Walid Zazai, a detainee at the camp, wrote on social media: They are beating guys, and putting them by force on buses and trucks. They have big rods and sticks in hands. Police and immigration are doing it together.

Zazai posted footage of two unconscious refugees. One has epilepsy, and there were fears that the other had suffered a heart attack. Over the past weeks, refugees have reported a range of mental and physical health issues, for which they have received no treatment. An unknown number of refugees sustained injuries as a result of the police actions.

Zazai said that police were preventing the asylum-seekers from recording. We cant take pictures or video, he wrote. Whole area surrounded by them. When they see anyone filming they catch him, beat him and take him.

Police and immigration authorities appear to have particularly targeted refugees who have led the fight in defence of their democratic rights. A number of asylum-seekers reported that police demanded to know the whereabouts of Behrouz Boochani, an acclaimed Kurdish-Iranian journalist and refugee who has reported from the facility.

Boochani was arrested without charge by officers from PNGs mobile police squad, a unit notorious for its repression of domestic social and political opposition.

When he was released yesterday afternoon, Boochani wrote: They handcuffed me for more than two hours in a place behind the prison camp. The police commander yelled at me you are reporting against us. They pushed me several times and broke my belongings.

Significantly, Boochani reported that an officer from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) directed yesterdays raid. This punctures the repeated claims by the Australian government that they were no longer directly involved in operations on Manus Island.

Earlier this month, freelance journalist Matthew Abbott indicated that the Australian government had effective control over all police and immigration activity on Manus Island. After being blocked from travelling to the detention centre, he wrote: The Australian government put me on a watch list. Everything on Manus is controlled by the Australian government.

The collaboration between the Australian government and the Papua New Guinea authorities underscores the criminality of the border protection program defended by the entire Australian political establishment.

The PNG government of Prime Minister Peter ONeil is notorious for its use of violence against political and social opposition. Last year, PNG police, trained by AFP officers, opened fire on peaceful student protesters, wounding at least 40. In April, PNG naval personnel attacked the refugees on Manus Island with machine guns and machetes.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton backed yesterdays incursion into the detention centre, clearing the way for this mornings violent attack. Turnbull stated that the refugees should obey the law. Dutton declared he was outraged that the asylum-seekers had remained at the camp, slanderously accusing them of having trashed the facility and of living in squalor.

Within Australia, there is growing hostility to the brazen attacks on the refugees. On Wednesday, 12 former recipients of the Australian of the Year award, including prominent media personalities and leading scientists and doctors, issued an open letter to Turnbull and Labor leader Bill Shorten denouncing the oppression of the refugees as unacceptable and a breach of human rights.

The authoritarian character of the Coalition governments treatment of the refugees is also a warning to the Australian working class. Amid mounting social and political tensions within Australia, the Coalition government is using the stand-off on Manus Island to test-out police state methods that will inevitably be used against domestic political opposition.

Emergency protests in Sydney and Melbourne yesterday were met with major police mobilisations. In Sydney, several hundred protesters were prevented from marching in the CBD. They were surrounded by over 50 armed riot police.

Both Labor and the Greens have sought to posture as opponents of the Coalition governments actions. Labor has declared that the Coalition has mishandled the crisis, while the Greens have described the treatment of the refugees as a stain on the nation and a crime.

Both parties have sought to cover-up the fact that it was the Greens-backed Labor government of Julia Gillard that reopened the Manus Island centre in 2012, and decreed that the refugees there would never be permitted to enter Australia. This was in line with Labors role as the chief proponent of attacks on refugees over the past two decades, including the introduction of mandatory detention for asylum-seekers by the Keating Labor government in 1994.

The Greens defend the framework of immigration controls and border protection. The logic of this position is to support the abrogation of the right of those fleeing war and oppression to seek asylum.

This was spelled out by Greens leader Richard Di Natale at the partys national conference last weekend. Putting aside all of his partys bluster about defending the rights of refugees, Di Natale declared that the Greens would be prepared to enter future coalition governments with Labor or the Liberal-Nationals, i.e., governments that would continue and expand the illegal detention of asylum-seekers.
It is a known national embarrassment that among OECD countries, the United States ranks 30th in its maternal mortality death rates, only behind Mexico.

In 2000, the Millennium Summit of the United Nations established eight international development goals for the year 2015 that were adopted by the 191 member states. One of these goals was to decrease the maternal mortality rates globally by 75 percent.

A Lancet 2016 systematic analysis of this global effort highlighted that only 10 countries achieved the reduction in maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 75 percent in the period from 1990 to 2015. Overall, global maternal deaths did decline by 30 percent. Most of those reductions occurred after the Millennium declaration.

However, the MMR increased in 26 countries, including a 56 percent rise in the US from 16.9 deaths per 100,000 in 1990 to 24.7 deaths in 2015. Luxembourg, Canada and Greece were the other developed countries with a rise in MMR, but their overall rate is still two to three times lower by comparison. The other countries with rising MMR include many of the sub-Saharan African nations as well as islands such as Jamaica, Saint Lucia, American Samoa and Guam.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines maternal death as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of the pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.

In 2000, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) set a national goal for maternal death no higher than 3.3 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2010. In that year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an MMR rate of 13.2. Despite this national goal, the CDC reported that the US MMR had risen to 17.8 by 2009. Yet, many had argued that these reported statistics were still well below the actual magnitude. Delays in adopting the new standards for reporting maternal deaths, using nonstandard questions or having no pregnancy questions on the death certificate, made them unreliably low.

Maternal death rates are calculated by collecting the data from death certificates. These are compiled by each state and reported to the CDCs Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance system. In the US, the manner in which death certificates were filled out and their relation to pregnancy were inconsistent and did not capture the relationship of that death to a womans pregnancy.

Before 2003, only three states collected data according to the WHO criteria. Fifteen states had pregnancy questions with variable timeframes from termination of pregnancy to the death, while 32 states and Washington DC did not have pregnancy questions on their death certificates.

It was only in 2003 that the HHS secretary approved revisions to the death certificate that captured pregnancy related questions. However, only four statesNew York, Montana, Idaho and Californiaadopted these changes immediately. California elected to capture a one-year period on their death certificate versus 42 days, thereby combining both maternal and late maternal deaths. It would take another 11 years for 44 states and Washington DC to trickle in and implement these changes. Virginia was the last state to adopt the revision to the death certificate in 2017.

A damning study was published in 2016 in Obstetrics and Gynecology, titled Recent Increases in the US Maternal Mortality Rate: Disentangling Trends from Measurement Issues. The observational study analyzed vital statistics from maternal mortality data from all US states in relation to the format and year of adoption of the pregnancy question [on their state death certificate]. The CDCs National Center for Health Statistics is the official source for the reporting of MMR in the US and comparison with other nations as reviewed above. Studies conducted before 2003 had noted an under-reporting of maternal deaths in the National Vital Statistics System and are considered inaccurate. This study intended to address this discrepancy.

As the authors note, maternal deaths are rare events and therefore difficult to analyze state by state, except in the most populous. Reportedly there were 396 deaths in 2000, increasing to 856 deaths in 2014. They examined California separately because it chose to define maternal mortality within one year of pregnancy instead of 42 days per the WHO guidelines. Though Texas adopted revisions to their death certificate in 2006, they were analyzed separately because of a sharp rise in 2010 that saw maternal mortality double. The data for the other states and Washington DC were combined into four groups, according to when they initiated revisions to their death certificates.

Unadjusted data from all states regardless of revised death certificates demonstrated that US maternal mortality more than doubled from 9.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2000 to 21.5 in 2014, the study notes.

For group 1 (24 states and Washington DC) who did not have a pregnancy question on their death certificate in 2003, but had made revisions to their death certificates before 2013, the statistical modeling adjusted mortality rate provided a correction factor of 1.932. That means they adjusted for the undercounting in the years before revision such that the new MMR was calculated at 18.2 in 2000, increasing to 22.8 in 2014.

For group 2 (14 states) that had a nonstandard pregnancy question, the correction factor was 2.067, changing the MMR to 18.4 in 2000 and rising to 24.5 in 2014.

Group 3 included eight states that had not revised their death certificates as of late 2013 and could not be adjusted for their analysis. Not surprisingly their rates are lower, at 8.0 to 10.4 in the intervening years. Group 4 comprised three states that followed the WHO guidelines. Their MMR was 14.0 in 2000, rising to 19.9 by 2014.

Though Texas revised its death certificate in 2006, it was analyzed separately. Adjusted MMR for 2000 to 2010 was 17.7 to 18.6. After 2010, a sharp twofold rise was seen, jumping to 33.0 in 2011 and rising to 35.8 by 2014. The authors note that this data remains puzzling and unexplained. They write, In the absence of war, natural disaster, or severe economic upheaval, the doubling of a mortality rate within a 2-year period in a state with almost 400,000 annual births seems unlikely.

When California adopted revisions to their death certificate, their MMR doubled from 10 in 2003 to 21.5 to 2004. The state moved to implement measures that addressed postpartum hemorrhage and hypertensive disorders that contributed to the reduction in mortality as seen in the graph.

Maternal deaths revised upward

Overall, the study found that adjusted MMR for 48 states and DC was 18.8 in 2000 and rose to 23.8 by 2014, an increase of 26.6 percent. This data was based on 7,269 maternal deaths and 46,722,133 live births in the intervening years. Twenty percent of the observed increase in the unadjusted rise was the result of a real increase in maternal mortality, and 79.9 percent was the result of improved ascertainment.

It is a scandal that the richest country in the world has a chronic underfunding of the state and national vital statistics system such that accurate and reliable data cannot be obtained to enact necessary timely changes. By any standard in the financial sectors, an 80 percent disparity in such accounting would have the news media clamoring to report the event and congressional hearings would follow in days, with senators demanding answers to such negligence. But this is intentional if viewed from a socioeconomic perspective. If this were considered important, then resources would be directed to nationalizing and augmenting the woefully lacking maternal services in the US.

Four million women give birth each year in the US. Pregnancy remains the top reason for admission to the hospital. Where such statistics could garner attention and demand action, for nearly 15 years we have remained blind to this existing travesty. The US has no national review of maternal deaths.

Given the projected shortage of 8,000 to 9,000 physicians and midwives by 2023, the impending cuts to Medicare, and virtually zero interest within the two big business parties to address the crisis of maternal health care, there is little chance to correct this without a concerted effort on the part of the working class to demand accountability as part of the overall fight to replace the for-profit health care system with socialized medicine.
An Ohio woman who duct-taped her 11-year-old son to a chair while she took her other child swimming was sentenced Tuesday to up to nine months in state prison, according to multiple reports.

Susan Malysa, 33, pleaded guilty in September to one count of felony child endangering, according to WKBN. Prosecutors agreed to drop two other counts of felony child endangering against her.

A police report for Malysas June arrest obtained by PEOPLE stated she taped the boys mouth shut, and also taped his legs to the chair and his hands to each other.

According to the report, a relative who suspected Malysa might be mistreating the boy checked on him after Malysa allegedly told her she was bringing her other child to the local YMCA to swim, but that the 11-year-old wouldnt be accompanying them.

Officers arrived to find the boy cold and shaking, according to the report. The tape left red marks on his skin, and police noticed the boy had bruises on his face and neck.

Malysa was arrested at the YMCA, the report states.

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Krichbaum, addressing Malysa, said, You tell me you love this little boy. Well, I dont have to believe you. Thats not love.

Krichbaum said he will give Malysa an opportunity for judicial release after she serves 30 days of her sentence.

Prosecutors had recommended Malysa spend 60 days in county jail, according to WFMJ. But Krichbaum ignored the recommendation by sentencing her to state prison.

This is conduct that will not be tolerated in our society, and I do wish to make an example of you, in that regard, he said.

It was not immediately clear if Malysa plans to appeal her sentence.
Tamra Judge Went Black Friday Shopping for the First Time  and No One Was There

Well thats a first, all right!

Tamra Judge had an unusual time shopping on Friday morning, when she found herself at a very empty Target.

The 50-year-old Real Housewives of Orange County star was anticipating to battle the Black Friday crowds as she hit the chain store for some early morning doorbusters  the first time shes ever participated in the annual shopping craze.

Instead, Judges Target store in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, was vacant.

Hmmm not what I expected . First time ever Black Friday shopping. I was so excited ???? to fight the crowds ???? A post shared by Tamra Judge (@tamrajudge) on Nov 24, 2017 at 6:56am PST

Of course, Judges experience was very different than what many shoppers put up with as they set out to save while crossing items off their holiday shopping list. Many stores like Target opened up for a few hours on Thanksgiving evening and then reopened again early morning Friday, bringing large crowds both times.

An estimated 115 million people are expected to shop from Black Friday to CyberMonday, NBC News reported, though  for the first time ever  online holiday shopping is predicted to beat in-store sales this year.

Put a fork in me Im done ???? #stuffed #thankful #toomuchfoodtoday A post shared by Tamra Judge (@tamrajudge) on Nov 23, 2017 at 5:22pm PST

Judge didnt make it out Thursday night for shopping as she was hosting Thanksgiving in her home for the last time (shes recently purchased a new house, to which shell be renovating and relocating).

Sophia cooked for the first time and even created the menu (which included turkey, baked potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie).

Spencer and Eddie got in on the action, too: Spencer made his famous cheesecake and Eddie crafted Moscow mules.

Put a fork in me, Judge captioned on Instagram selfie after the meal on Thursday night. Im done.
Three people who pleaded guilty to killing their overdosing friend by strangling him with jumper cables were sentenced to prison Wednesday in Pennsylvania, according to multiple reports.

Preston Layfield, Tyler Mirabelli, and Amanda Wayda all pleaded guilty in August to third-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old Joshua Rose, reports WNEP.

Police said at the time of the trios arrest that Rose was suffering an overdose when the trio got into a truck with him, drove him down Interstate 81 and strangled him with jumper cables before dumping his body over an embankment in a wooded area.

Before dumping Roses body, the trio stopped for gas, putting sunglasses and a hat on Rose so he wouldnt be recognized, the AP reported.

When we look at all three of the individuals, I think its difficult to say which one was the most culpable, but Joshua Rose did not have to die. This was a senseless act and any of them could have done something different, said Lackawanna County Deputy District Attorney Mariclare Hayes, reports WNEP.

The outlet reports that Layfield strangled Rose while Mirabelli drove the truck, and that Wayda was Roses ex-girlfriend.

Joshua Rose

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WBRE reports that Layfield and Mirabelli each received a 40-year sentence, the maximum, while Wayda received 15 to 40 years.

The outlet reports that Wayda apologized in court prior to sentencing. But Roses mother, Mary Rose Pope, told the outlet, I think it lacked sincerity. I know her pretty well. I treated her like a daughter.

WBRE reports that seven of Roses family members spoke at sentencing, with some saying Roses 3-year-old son will never know his father.

PEOPLE was unable to reach attorneys for the trio, so it was not immediately clear if they planned to appeal the sentence.
MILAN  Amazon will likely have to face more than just the usual delivery frenzy in Italy during Black Friday.

According to a statement released on Thursday by the Fist-Cisl trade union, Amazons employees based in the distribution and logistic plant located in Castel San Giovanni, in Lombardy, will protest against long working hours and low salaries on Nov. 24.

Fist-Cisl general secretary Pierangelo Ranieri pointed out that the significant growth of the e-commerce business in Italy should push trade unions and companies to define a collective agreement guaranteeing employees sustainable working hours and adequate salaries.

Around 30 percent of the plants employees are expected to protest on Friday, according to Francesca Benedetti, general secretary of Fisascat-Cisl Piacenza, which announced the strike.

The trade union is also organizing a demonstration outside the Amazon plant where representatives of the labor union will be present to show their support to workers. Employees need to feel protected because they worry about the companys reactions, Benedetti said.

She also added that after a negotiation that lasted two years with Amazon, which did not take into account our requests nor did it provide any solution, it was the right time to debate issues such as health and safety conditions and revise the salaries. A public action of demand was necessary to raise awareness in the public opinion, as well.

Benedetti argued that shift work is physically and psychologically consuming. Ninety percent of the 1,800 workers at the Castel San Giovanni Amazon logistic plant have permanent contracts for a 40-hour weekly working time and an average net salary of 1,250 euros.

We asked for the introduction of variable salary that reflects production goals, thus enhancing the companys  as well as the workers  performances, said Benedetti. During its fiscal third quarter, the company showed a major jump in revenues to $43.7 billion, 34 percent higher than the corresponding period last year.

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We are focused on respecting our delivery schedule for Black Friday and the following days. We have always been committed to building a continuous dialogue, and cooperation with, our employees, said Amazon.

Amazon also said its salaries are the most competitive within the logistics business and that it provides workers with several benefits, including discounts, private health insurance and paid, four-year training programs.

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The holiday season is officially underway, which means the surge of shoppers looking to purchase gifts for loved ones has kicked off too. For some, the time of year can be a financially stressful one, especially for parents looking to get their kids favorite toy. Sometimes though, Santa comes early.

This Black Friday, a New Jersey resident who identified himself as Charlie K. headed to the Cherry Hill Toys R Us with his son. Instead of just getting his son items, Charlie paid for 60 layaway orders  adding up to 8,000 toys worth $10,000.

Through layaway programs, stores hold on to items people choose until they come back to pay for it at a later time. Because of Charlies deed, a group of Toys R Us shoppers will no longer have to wait.

The dad told CBS3 that he wanted to give back to the community that has given him so much.

Im trying to bring some happiness to people, to the community that brought happiness to me and my family, Charlie K. told CBS3. I love this community, and I am trying to provide back to it.

This is Charlie K.

While doing a segment @ToysRUs in Cherry Hill, Charlie walked in & decided to pay off all items on layaway. Over 8,000 toys!

Charlie also had everyone in the store pick 3 items for @ToysForTots_USA & paid for those too. Amazing generosity. Thank you Charlie. pic.twitter.com/GWr1pbGnVV  Pat Gallen (@PatGallenCBS3) November 24, 2017

He didnt stop at the layaway orders, either. He also had everyone in the store pick out three toys to donate to Toys for Tots, a nonprofit run by the United States Marines that donates toys to kids in need.

This time of year is often teeming with stories about good Samaritans, or as some may call them, Santas helpers. Last season, an anonymous shopper under the pseudonym Santa B paid for $46,265.59 in layaway items at a Pennsylvania Walmart.

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A woman whose layaway had been paid had $75 on her balance for an Xbox for her grandson. She recently quit her job due to surgery complications and was worried about how to pay the balance, Yahoo reported at the time.

Charlie K. said he had never before donated like he did today, so it appears theres more good people out there than one would assume. The good news? Anyone can help out. Programs like Pay Away the Layaway accepts any amount from anyone who feels compelled to donate.

Tis the season.

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Editors note: This story was originally published on Nov. 1, 2017.

On Nov. 2, 2016, Sherri Papini vanished without a trace while jogging near her Redding, California, home. Papinis disappearance sparked a massive manhunt and a $50,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts  as well as many theories about what happened to the now 35-year-old mother of two.

Papini reappeared 22 days later, on Thanksgiving morning, under mysterious circumstances. A motorist spotted Papini, who was emaciated and weighed only 87 lbs., frantically waving on the side a rural Yolo County, California, road  about 150 miles south of her home.

Papini was bound at the waist by a chain, to which her left wrist was tethered with a zip tie. Hose clamps were fixed to her ankles in what the Shasta County, California, Sheriffs Office later described as pain compliance restraints.

Papinis husband, Keith, said his wife was covered in bruises  ranging from yellow to black  because of repeated beatings. The bridge of her nose was broken and her long blond hair was chopped off. She was branded on the back of her right shoulder.

Papini said she was abducted at gunpoint and held captive by two armed Hispanic females who spoke Spanish the majority of the time.

The strange turn of events baffled police and transfixed armchair crime-watchers who have accused Papini of fabricating the abduction. But police say they have no reason to disbelieve her account.

One year later, the case still remains unsolved, event though law enforcement has received more than 600 tips and served more than 20 search warrants.

Police say they still dont know what led to her abduction, where she was taken for those 22 days and why she was kidnapped and released without an explanation.

What was the purpose? Shasta County Sheriffs Office Sgt. Brian Jackson tells PEOPLE. Why was she released? It is hard to keep somebody in captivity for 22 days. Why would somebody go to that length? Those are all types of questions we all have.

Story continues

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In late October, authorities released sketches of the two female suspects and offered a $10,000 reward for information about them. But no arrests have been made.

The police have a very tough job on this case, Joe Giacalone, a retired New York Police Department sergeant and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice tells PEOPLE.

There might never be any closure, Giacalone says. The police are stuck with a case right now that looks unsolvable.
KABUL (Reuters) - A rocket attack on an Afghan religious school killed about 20 Taliban insurgents exchanging fire with security forces, officials said on Friday, adding that no children were among the victims. The insurgents had taken shelter at the school compound in the central eastern province of Wardak, 35 km (20 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, when the air strike hit late on Wednesday, the officials said. International forces that conduct most of the air strikes across the country were not immediately available for comment. Abdul Rahman Mangal, a spokesman for the governor of Wardak, said there were no civilian casualties, adding that all the pupils had gone home before the air strike. Foreign troops have stepped up air strikes in Afghanistan in recent months as Afghan forces struggle against a resilient Taliban insurgency. The Taliban are seeking to reimpose strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster by U.S.-led troops. (Reporting by Mustafa Andalib in Ghazni; Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Amazon has been one of the strongest driving forces behind the surge of e-commerce holiday sales around Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the rest of the days leading to the end of the new year. Now, some of its workers in Europe have picked one of the biggest shopping days of the year to protest the company's practices, dubbing the day "Strike Friday" instead.

Workers at Amazon facilities across Italy and Germany are striking outside Amazon's warehouses to speak out against a wide range of company practices that they say "endanger the health of its employees," covering such areas as leadership culture and performance controls.

The protests come at a key time for Amazon in the region. On one hand, the company continues to be a juggernaut not only in the world of e-commerce and cloud services, but new developments in AI and voice interfaces -- specifically around Amazon's popular Echo hub and its Alexa interface -- are laying the groundwork for Amazon to play an even bigger role in our digital lives.

On the other hand, the company has long been scrutinised for how it handles its taxes, and in some countries the impact that it is having on local and smaller businesses. In the former case, it appears that Europe and individual countries are now starting to take action. The latter idea of Amazon affecting small and local businesses is less of a call to action these days than it was some years ago, although when and if tides turn and we see more protests against the company's other practices, this could become an issue again.

Germany is Amazon's second-biggest market globally after the U.S., and the strikes there took place in six major depots in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben and Koblenz, according to Verdi, a trade union in Germany. (And they actually first started earlier this week, and may go on through the weekend.) In Italy, workers associated with three different unions -- CGIL, CISL, and UIL -- have been striking in what appears to be only one location, in Piacenza.

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In Germany, the Verdi union wants Amazon to adopt a new framework for "Gute und gesunde Arbeit" ('good and healthy work'), potentially with some pressure from regulatory bodies behind it.

"Amazon permanently endangers the health of its employees with its way of working. High pressure to create more and more in less time, permanent performance controls and monitoring, a poor leadership culture and inadequate recovery times are health hazards in the Amazon labor process," Stefanie Nutzberger, Verdi a board member, said in a statement (originally in German). "A special collective agreement can guarantee healthy and good working conditions. We should create the necessary regulations so that employees are no longer exposed to the arbitrariness of an employer who also conducts its business at the expense of their health."

The complaints in Italy echoed this idea, too,

"Work is not a commodity," said Annamaria Furlan, the secretary general of CISL in Italy (originally in Italian). "The dignity of workers must not be trampled on. Amazon needs to open a dialogue with unions over industrial relations, employment stability and better salaries."

#BlackFriday? No!! Oggi e #StrikeFriday a #castelsangiovanni da #AmazonItalia. In ballo c'e la sacrosanta richiesta dei #lavoratori di avere un #contratto integrativo aziendale, con piu salario e piu attenzione alla salute dei lavoratori. pic.twitter.com/FTNasvLmcl  CGIL Emilia Romagna (@ERCGIL) November 24, 2017

We have contacted Amazon for a response and will update this as and when its representatives reply.

Germany last year generated over $14.2 billion in sales for Amazon, a distant second to the U.S. and its $90.3 billion of revenue, but still enough to make the it second-largest market in the world. Italy appears to be the fourth-largest market for Amazon in Europe, after Germany, the UK and France. Amazon last year earmarked an extra $550 million of investment into the country to build out its business, expand data centers and tap into an economy that is relatively underdevelopment in terms of Internet speed and online spend compared to other parts of Europe.

This article originally appeared on TechCrunch.

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A tar sands operation near Fort McMurray, Alberta, as seen in 2014. (Photo: Todd Korol/Reuters)

After a short trial lasting just a day and a half, climate activist and retiree Leonard Higgins was found guilty on Wednesday of a serious felony charge for his role in the valve turner protest last year that resulted in the brief shutdown of a tar sands pipeline in Montana.

The 65-year-old former state worker from Portland, Oregon, said hed carried out the protest to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change. Higgins and his defense team, however, were barred from referring to climate change during the trial.

Last October, Higgins was one of five climate activists who coordinated efforts to stop tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, from flowing over the Canadian-U.S. border. He cut two chains to enter a fenced enclosure in Coal Banks Landing in Montana to turn off the emergency shutoff valve on a Spectra Energy pipeline. The four other activists successfully shut off four pipelines in Minnesota, North Dakota and Washington state, thus temporarily halting the flow of Alberta tar sands oil into the U.S.

During his trial, Higgins, an activist with Climate Direct Action, told a Montana district court that his goal had not been to cause major damage to the pipeline but to raise awareness about the threat of climate change.

Its my obligation to my kids, he told the Great Falls Tribune on Tuesday.

Higgins defense attorney noted in court that Spectra had been notified about 15 minutes in advance that the valve shutdown was imminent. After turning off the valve, Higgins stayed onsite, awaiting arrest.

On Wednesday, a jury found Higgins guilty of misdemeanor trespassing and felony criminal mischief after just an hour of deliberation, reported the Corvallis Gazette-Times. The jury determined that Higgins had caused more than $1,500 in damage to Spectra Energy (recently acquired by Enbridge Inc.).

Higgins sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 2. He faces a potential maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars and fines of up to $50,000.

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Activists say the jury was not given the full picture of Higgins motivations since mentions of climate change were off-limits during his trial.

In a statement sent to HuffPost, Steve Kent, a spokesman for Climate Direct Action, explained that Higgins had hoped to present a necessity defense, which would have allowed him to argue before the jury that his action was necessary in order to prevent climate harms much more severe than the consequences of trespassing and turning the pipeline emergency valve.

However, Judge Daniel Boucher denied this motion without a hearing, saying that the energy policy of the United States is not on trial. That meant Higgins could not discuss or provide evidence of climate change in court.

As Kent noted, a Minnesota judge recently allowed a similar climate necessity defense in the trial of some of Higgins fellow valve turners.

I think its a sensible ruling that will allow the jurors to take into consideration all of the information that they really need to rule on this case properly, Marla Marcum, director of the Climate Disobedience Center, told Inside Climate News in reaction to the Minnesota judges decision.

After his conviction on Wednesday, Higgins, who is free on bail pending his sentencing, said he was disappointed and surprised by the verdict and that he intends to appeal.

Im happy for the opportunity to share why I had to shut down this pipeline, and I really appreciate the time and dedication of the jury and the judge, Higgins said outside the courthouse. I was disappointed and surprised by the verdict, but even more disappointed that I was not allowed a necessity defense, and that I wasnt allowed to talk about climate change as it related to my state of mind. When I tried to talk about why I did what I did, I was silenced.

According to the Gazette-Times, about 40 climate activists, including three of Higgins fellow valve turners, were at the courthouse on Wednesday to offer their support.

Commenting on Higgins verdict, valve turner Michael Foster, who is awaiting sentencing after being convicted on two felonies in a North Dakota court for his role in the protest, said he still feels optimistic.

We win even when we lose because we get stronger, Foster told the Gazette-Times. What did Gandhi say? First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you. And then you win.

According to Greenpeace, Albertas tar sands industry produces some of the worlds dirtiest oil  with each barrel resulting in three to four times as much greenhouse gas emissions as regular crude oil. A 2013 report by Ecofys concluded that Canadas tar sands ranked fifth among the worlds 14 largest carbon intensive projects.

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Our carbon footprint says it all.

This graph shows the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as measured at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, from 1958 to today. In September, scientists at Mauna Loa announced that C02 levels had likely surpassed the threshold of 400 parts per million permanently.

Year over year, the trend becomes more obvious.

This graphic by climate scientist Ed Hawkins shows 167 maps of temperature change from 1850 to 2016.

Spiralling global temperatures | updated to August 2016: https://t.co/rPSSxkS2mn pic.twitter.com/yMo0GNAsxk  Ed Hawkins (@ed_hawkins) September 30, 2016

2016 #Arctic sea ice minimum ties with 2007 for 2nd lowest. https://t.co/BGLZYZvGMY pic.twitter.com/vJghT6HGDc  Arctic Sea Ice News (@NSIDC_ArcticIce) September 15, 2016

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
SPRINGFIELD -- Carol Jo Fritts, president of First Neighbor Bank of Toledo, was elected as a group director of the Community Bankers Association of Illinois (CBAI) at the association's annual convention held recently in Springfield, according to a press release. In that capacity she serves on the CBAI board of directors as well as its strategic planning and special events committees.

Fritts was a licensed practical nurse and graduated from Lake Land College in Mattoon and earned a bachelor of science degree from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. She is a graduate of the Rural Partners Rural Community and Economic Development Program; the Illinois Bankers Schools in Carbondale, the Graduate School of Banking in Madison, Wisc., and the Human Resources School.

Her banking career includes serving as president and chairwoman of the board of directors of First Neighborhood Bancshares, Inc. Toledo. She has been employed at First Neighbor Bank, Toledo, for 42 years and has worked as a teller, cashier, vice president and executive vice president before becoming president and CEO.

Fritts received a Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2003 from Eastern Illinois University's School of Technology and in 2013 she received Lake Land College's Distinguished Alumni Society Award. She serves on the board of directors for the Neal Center, Inc. Rural Partners Board, Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Foundation board, Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center finance and audit committee, and Greenup Industries board.

Fritts is a member of the Toledo American Legion Auxiliary, Salem Untied Methodist Church and Conference Council on Finance and Administration Illinois Great River Conference for the United Methodist Church. She is a certified instructor for the National Rifle Association.

Fritts resides in Greenup and is the parent of one son, Max who resides in Belarus.

CBAI is a professional trade association representing 330 Illinois commercial banks and thrifts, and their 880 Illinois bank branches. Its members have nearly $80 billion in assets and employ approximately 16,000 individuals, CBAI, headquartered in Springfield, was founded in 1974 to exclusively represent and serve the community-banking profession. For more information visit www.cbai.com.
(UNITED NATIONS)  The United Nations began campaigning to end violence against women decades ago, but its effort gained little traction  until the outpouring of allegations of sexual misconduct against powerful men in Hollywood, the U.S. Congress and boardrooms put the issue on front pages and TV screens around the world.

The U.N. womens agency now hopes to capitalize on the spotlight.

This is the moment! Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the executive director of UN Women, said in an interview ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Nov. 25. It really has to come out of the woodwork.

She credits the surge of allegations to the rising power of women who now sit in boardrooms themselves and are sympathetic to women who are bringing complaints.

In the past, the story would have just been shoved under the carpet, she said. Now, she said, women are being believed more and more.

Sexual harassment, abuse and rape have been taking place as long as women have gone out to work, Mlambo-Ngcuka said. Why has it taken so long before so many women have courage to speak out?

Answering her own question, she said that besides more women being in positions of power, there are better regulations and policies, and she pointed to the increase in the bravery of the women to actually complain about the perpetrators who are otherwise powerful.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said she believes the issue has become more visible in recent years because perpetrators are facing repercussions such as lost jobs and lawsuits and also because high-profile men are being hit with allegations.

She singled out the late British entertainer Jimmy Savile, described by police in 2013 as a sexual predator who allegedly committed 214 offenses, including 34 rapes, over more than half a century, the majority against youngsters under age 18. The charges emerged after Savile died in 2011.

She also pointed to pioneering black actor Bill Cosby, once known as Americas Dad, who has been accused by more than 50 women of forced sexual contact over decades and is facing a second trial  and to Harvey Weinstein, fired from his movie company after a New York Times expose of sexual harassment and assault allegations against him that was followed by similar tales from more than 100 women. And she noted the claims against the Republicans Senate candidate in Alabama, Roy Moore, who is alleged to have gone after young girls. All three men have strenuously denied wrong-doing.

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Mlambo-Ngcuka said a staggering number of women have come forward to accuse a growing number of powerful men. She said the women have never met and they could not have concocted a story, and that makes it difficult to say that these women are lying.

The drama and the publicity of the consequences for those who have become abusers, literally in the last couple of months, is shifting away this whole concept of not being believed, she said.

In fact when people dont believe you, the spotlight is on them for daring to disbelieve a woman, she said. And I think thats a good thing.

But Mlambo-Ngcuka said women still face an uphill struggle, especially in many countries where there arent a lot of powerful women to support them. She said much more needs to be done to combat sexual misconduct and other forms of violence against women globally.

UN Women estimates 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical or sexual violence or both from an intimate partner or non-partner, though some national studies put the figure from an intimate partner as high as 70 percent.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said its time for men and boys to take much more responsibility.

This is a mans problem, she said. Most of our work on fighting against violence and other ills has been dedicated to what women can do to fight for themselves, to protect themselves.

Mlambo-Ngcuka, who is from South Africa, quoted the late Nelson Mandela as saying that when good men do not do anything where there are violations against women, there is a conspiracy against women.

The U.N. has several campaigns that involve men to promote equality, including HeForShe and Gender Champions, but she said its not enough.

She said the pace of dealing with allegations of sexual misconduct and violent acts targeting women also must be stepped up and laws in many countries need changing, including in 42 mainly Middle East, African and Latin American nations where there are no laws on domestic violence.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said every form of violence traumatizes women, whether its sexual harassment at work, domestic violence, bullying in cyberspace or being married off as a child.

The United Nations marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Wednesday because of the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the United States.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a commemoration that womens rights activists are being targeted at alarming levels, female politicians are more likely than men to encounter violence, and recent reports of sexual harassment in the workplace worldwide show how pervasive this form of sexual violence is.

He said violence against women and girls  the most visible sign of pervasive patriarchy and chauvenism  will only end when gender equality and the full empowerment of women become a reality.

Guterres also voiced support for UN Womens ongoing campaign, UNiTE to End Violence against Women by 2030, which starts with 16 days of activism to end gender-based violence. This is the first year the campaign set a target date to end violence against women.

Today we UNiTE again to say this is NOT the world we want to live in, Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

We stand with women who are finding their voice and summoning their courage to expose powerful men who prey on the less powerful, she said.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said justice for women, sanctions and accountability are critical to change behavior so that coming generations are socialized differently and know that violence against women and girls in any form is not acceptable.
The former college student accused of contaminating her roommate's personal belongings with spit and used tampons is now facing criminal mischief charges for the stomach-turning efforts she reportedly used to get her to move out.

Outside court Wednesday, 18-year-old Brianna Brochu found herself besieged by protesters, many of them calling her nasty.

Brochu, who was expelled from The University of Hartford in Connecticut, was arrested after telling her Instagram followers that she "spit" in her roommate's coconut oil and put her "toothbrush places where the sun doesn't shine." She also allegedly rubbed used tampons on her fellow student's backpack.

After the alleged two-month reign of terror, the roommate, Chennel Rowe, moved out, prompting Brochu to boast, I can finally say goodbye Jamaican Barbie."

A Facebook video recorded by Rowe, in which she declared she was getting sick and didn't know why, has now gone viral.

The case is racially tinged and the local NAACP says Brochu should be charged with a hate crime.

These are probably the most disgusting, trifling, nasty, nastiest things we've heard since we've been in civil rights, Scot X. Esdaila, state president for the Connecticut NAACP said in a statement.

Inside Edition spoke to Brochu's lawyer, Tom Stevens.

There was nothing racial that motivated this. This was two students that were placed together randomly, who didn't like each other and became roommates, and it just escalated, he said.

It is still unclear whether Brochu will be charged with a hate crime. Her next court appearance is slated for Dec. 18.

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Student, 18, Charged After Allegedly Bragging About Contaminating Roommate's Toothbrush

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Search teams are combing an area roughly the size of Spain in the search for ARA San Juan: EPA

Search and rescue teams hunting for a missing Argentinian submarine will return to a previously searched area after officials said a noise made in the South Atlantic a week ago could offer a clue to the vessel's location.

Dozens of planes and ships were searching for the ARA San Juan, with the search entering a "critical phase" as the 44 crew on board could be running low on oxygen, an Argentine navy spokesman said.

Captain Enrique Balbi later said an unusual noise was detected near where the submarine reported its last position, but he declined to say if the sound indicated an explosion or emergency on the vessel.

The "hydro-acoustic anomaly" originated around 30 miles north of the submarine's last registered position, he said, adding: "It's a noise. We don't want to speculate" what caused it.

The San Juan went missing as it was sailing from the extreme southern port of Ushuaia to the city of Mar del Plata, about 250 miles (400 kilometres) southeast of Buenos Aires.

The Argentine navy and outside experts worry oxygen for the crew would last only seven to 10 days if the sub was intact but submerged. Authorities do not know if the sub rose to the surface to replenish its oxygen supply and charge batteries, which would affect the calculation.

The German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine was scheduled to arrive on Monday at the naval base in Mar del Plata, where city residents have been dropping by with messages of support for relatives of the crew.

Around 30 boats and planes and 4,000 people from Argentina, the United States, Britain, Chile and Brazil have joined the search for the submarine.

Search teams are combing an area of some 185,000 square miles (480,000 square kilometres), which is roughly the size of Spain.

Hopes were lifted after brief satellite calls were received and when sounds were detected deep in the South Atlantic. But experts later determined that neither was from the missing sub. A US Navy aircraft later spotted flares and a life raft was found in the search area, but authorities said neither came from the missing submarine.

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The navy has said the submarine reported a battery failure before it went missing. Authorities have no specific details of the problem.

Additional reporting by agencies
Malvina Vallejos, sister of missing submariner Celso Oscar Vallejos, hangs a message for the 44 crew members of the missing submarine - AFP

Argentinas navy said on Wednesday it was investigating an unusual noise detected in the South Atlantic hours after it last communicated with a missing submarine, but refused to confirm whether it indicated an explosion.

The development came as the clock was ticking down on hopes of finding alive the 44 crew members now missing for a week despite a massive search of surface and seabed, amid fears their oxygen had run out.

The ARA San Juan would have had enough oxygen for its crew to survive underwater in the South Atlantic for seven days since its last contact, according to officials. At 0730 GMT on Wednesday, that time had elapsed.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters a "hydro-acoustic anomaly" was detected in the ocean almost three hours after the last communication with the vessel on November 15, 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of its last known position.

Asked if the noise could have been an explosion, the spokesman declined to speculate, saying only: "It has to be corroborated and looked into."

Argentinian Navy personnel on board a C130 searching for missing submarine ARA San Juan Credit: Argentinian Navy

Balbi added: "We are in a very dangerous situation, and one that is getting worse."

It was not immediately clear why the navy was only announcing the noise on Wednesday.

Poor weather

High seas and poor visibility in the South Atlantic have hampered the search since it began, around 200 miles (320 kilometers) off the Argentine coast. Waves have towered as high as six meters (20 feet).

The conditions have fed hopes that the vessel may be on the surface undetected.

Despite the mechanical problems it reported during its last contact last on Wednesday, the crew could survive indefinitely if the sub retained the ability to rise to the surface to "snort" or replenish its air.

Conditions improved on Tuesday, but the forecast for Thursday is once again poor.

The 34-year-old German-built diesel-electric submarine that was refitted between 2007 and 2014 had flagged a breakdown and said it was diverting to the navy base at Mar del Plata, where most of the crew members live.

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It didnt issue a distress call, however.

Jessica Gopar posted a moving letter to her husband, San Juan crewman Fernando Santilli, father of their one-year-old baby, on Facebook.

"Hi, Fernando. I dont know if this finds you calm or desperate. Every day here becomes harder. There are moments of hope and great distress."

"I am surrounded by family, your colleagues, acquaintances and friends, there is not moment that we do not pray for your rescue. Today has to be that day," she wrote.

National apprehension

The subs disappearance has gripped the nation, and President Mauricio Macri visited the relatives  who have endured days of false hopes  and prayed with them.

US President Donald Trump offered his support on Wednesday, tweeting: "May God be with them and the people of Argentina!"

Underwater sounds detected by two Argentine search ships were determined to originate from a sea creature, not the vessel.

Satellite signals were also determined to be false alarms.

"A light begins to shine, and then it goes out," said Maria Morales, the mother of one of the missing sailors.

"There is a curtain of smoke, we dont know anything," said Elena Alfaro, whose brother is aboard the submarine.

"It doesnt make sense that so much time has passed without anyone knowing anything," she added.

"The hours go by. Were hoping for a miracle. I dont want to bury my brother, I want him with me. I feel hell come back, but I am aware of time passing."

Argentina is leading an air-and-sea search with help from several countries including Brazil, Britain, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Peru, the United States and Uruguay.

The defence ministry said the search area could be expanded sevenfold, though it was already large.

They will come back

The incident has recalled recent submarine disasters, perhaps most prominently that of the Kursk, a Russian nuclear sub that caught fire and exploded underwater in 2000, killing all 118 on board  some instantly, others over several days.

An accident aboard a Chinese sub in 2003 killed 70 crew, apparently suffocated after what Beijing termed "mechanical problems".

Among the ARA San Juans crew is Argentinas first female navy submariner: Eliana Krawczyk, 35.

Cards, banners with slogans and placards have been strung up on the outside of the Mar del Plata bases wire fence, expressing solidarity with the families tensely waiting for any news.

"Theres a mix of feelings: pain, helplessness, at times hope," Morales said.

"The feeling is that they will come back, that we will tell ourselves today, They are back."
Mar del Plata (Argentina) (AFP) - Ten days after the missing Argentine submarine San Juan went silent, grieving relatives have begun mourning the loss of its 44 missing crew members with a religious ceremony Saturday, even though the navy has yet to declare them dead.

A religious service is set to be held at 12:30 pm (1530 GMT) outside the Mar del Plata naval base, where the submarine was based, to support grieving friends and relatives.

The navy has refused to say there is no chance of finding survivors.

But many relatives of the crew have lost hope since the navy announced Thursday that there had been an explosion on board the submarine, which experts said was likely linked to a problem with its batteries and would likely have been catastrophic.

A handful of relatives held out hope that at least some of the sailors aboard the 34-year-old submarine, which had recently been retrofitted, could be found alive.

- Frantic search continues -

The search for the San Juan "will continue day and night with help from 13 countries," navy spokesman Captain Enrique Balbi said late Friday.

Hopes were boosted by the arrival later in the day of a giant Russian Antonov transport plane bringing an underwater robot that can scour the ocean at a depth of 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) below the surface.

Separately, an army of welders worked frantically to create an opening in the stern of the Norwegian offshore supply ship Sophie Siem, owned by the Total oil company, large enough to accomodate an underwater rescue capsule sent by the US navy.

The US capsule can sink to a depth of 200 meters (660 feet) and rescue up to 16 trapped submarine sailors at a time in shifts of 20 minutes, experts said.

Depths plummet from 200 meters (650 feet) to more than 3,000 meters on the edge of the Argentine shelf.

Experts say the sub would begin to break-up once below depths of around 600 meters due to the water pressure.

- "Know the truth" -

President Mauricio Macri on Friday ordered an inquiry to "know the truth" about what happened to the San Juan.

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The submarine and was "in perfect condition," Macri told reporters at the Argentine navy headquarters.

"My commitment is with the truth," he said, adding the tragedy "will require a serious, in-depth investigation that will yield certainty about what has happened."

Argentina's navy has been fiercely criticized for its handling of the operation since first reporting on November 16 that the San Juan had not returned to base as scheduled.

"Until we have the complete information, we do not have to look for the guilty, to look for those responsible. First we have to have certainty of what happened and why it happened," said Macri.

Magistrate Marta Yanez has already begun preliminary investigations into the disaster.

She told reporters that unlike a plane, "the submarine does not have a black box. The black box is the submarine," and it would have to be recovered before the causes of the explosion could be known.

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A Tennessee towns controversial plan to ban drag shows is dead on arrival.

On Monday, the city of Portland, Tennessee, adopted a new ordinance that will treat performances by male and female impersonators like other adult businesses and entertainers, instead of an early version which defined such performances as sexually oriented.

The measure passed unanimously without discussion, USA Today reports.

Portland had come under fire from LGBTQ rights activists in recent months over two earlier drafts of the ordinance that contained controversial language in regard to drag performances. In September, city council members proposed the first draft, which was aimed at cracking down on adult-oriented businesses, defined as those that featured exotic dancers, strippers and male and female impersonators, The Tennessean reported. (Watch a news report on the early controversy above.)

That version, No. 17-59, sparked instant controversy, particularly among patrons of a popular eatery, Envy Bar & Restaurant, which hosts drag performances. It was killed off but replaced with a new proposal, No. 17-75, which was instead focused on regulating sexually-oriented businesses.

Still, businesses that hosted male and female impersonators fell under the list of those defined as sexually oriented by No. 17-75.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) quickly intervened on behalf of Elite Star Productions, which produces Envy Bar & Restaurants drag performances. Classifying the restaurants shows, which consisted of singing, dancing and comedy bits performed fully clothed, as sexually oriented was unconstitutional, ACLU attorney Mandy Strickland Floyd wrote in a Nov. 15 letter addressed to Portland Mayor Kenneth Wilber.

Floyd was quick to praise Mondays ordinance, but nonetheless said the ACLU would be monitoring its enforcement closely to ensure that the city does not attempt to inappropriately regulate our clients shows.

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We are pleased that the ordinance that passed is in line with the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech and artistic expression regardless of what someone is wearing, Floyd said in a statement posted to the ACLUs website. Our clients can now continue performing without government interference.

Echoing those sentiments was attorney Kevin Teets, who spoke on behalf of the Tennessee Equality Project and thanked the town for limiting the governments ability to regulate drag performances, according to The Tennessean.

The newly adopted ordinance recognizes not all drag performances are erotic in nature, he added.

Catch the latest in LGBTQ news by subscribing to the Queer Voices newsletter.

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This isnt Maury Povich?! Oh honey, season seven was just the beginning for Trixie, who is no doubt still painting for the check-cashing place down the street. Just like Barbie, Trixie relocated from Wisconsin to southern California, her dreams still unfolding as she competes again for the crown. No doubt her biting sense of humor will serve this comedy queen well as she dukes it out with the best of the best. Honey!

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier assured Ireland's foreign minister on Friday that the EU would defend Dublin's position in talks with Britain over the coming weeks. Barnier said on Twitter that he had updated Simon Coveney on the state of play in negotiations, in which Britain is hoping to clinch a deal with Brussels next month on a range of issues including management of the Northern Irish border in order to launch a second phase of discussions focusing on a trade accord. "Strong solidarity with Ireland," Barnier wrote. "Irish issues are EU issues." Coveney tweeted back: "Thank u @MichelBarnier reaffirming EU solidarity with Ireland on #Brexit." Facing a possible government collapse and new elections just at a crucial point in the Brexit process, the Irish government has sharpened the tone of its demands from London for detail on how the border will be kept open and unhindered. It has warned it will veto moves to trade talks if it is not satisfied. (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald, editing by Elizabeth Piper; @macdonaldrtr)
CHARLESTON -- The Womens Studies Program and the Tarble Arts Center plan the second annual Camille Compo Endowed Womens Studies Speaker Series event.

At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dr. Marne Austin, scholar of communications and gender, will present Buoys Instead of Anchors: Connecting with Each Other through Language to Go Beyond. Austin is assistant professor of communication studies at St. Marys College in Indiana. She will speak about the challenges and the importance of creating authentic connections across differences of opinion in a divided social arena.

A reception in the Tarble Arts Center Main Galleries will follow Austins talk.

Camille Compo was a founding member of Women's Studies at EIU. She began her work life at EIU in the Office of Budget and Planning and retired in 2001 as the administrative assistant to the vice president of external relations. She was an early member of the Women's Action Coalition and was involved with the first Womens History and Awareness Month.

She helped shape Womens Studies at EIU, and the visionary work of the program inspired her, in turn. Womens Studies honored Camille Compo for her many contributions to the program in 1984, designating her a Woman of Achievement.

Compo cared deeply about theology, the arts, and poetry. She appreciated fresh mint in her tea and was a strong believer in doing what is right. She enjoyed attending Tarble and Doudna events. A great supporter of EIU, she volunteered at the Neal Welcome Center from her retirement until declining health led her to cut down on her activities. Even after she moved to an assisted living community in Mattoon, she was occasionally able to attend some of the annual Womens Studies programs.

This series has been endowed by Camilles estate to honor her passion for learning and the arts and her long-time commitment to the EIU Womens Studies program. This event is free and open to the public.

For more information contact Jeannie Ludlow, coordinator of Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, at jludlow@eiu.edu, 217-581-5947 (office); or Rehema Barber, Director and Chief Curator, Tarble Arts Center, at rcbarber@eiu.edu, or 217-581-2787 (office).
Democrats are salivating at the chance to pick up a Senate seat in the Deep South. When Jeff Sessions vacated the position to become attorney general, it seemed safe to assume that his successor would be a fellow Republican. Alabama is, after all, where Donald Trump defeated Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by nearly 30 percentage points in 2016.

But now Republicans are stuck with Roy Moore, a nominee who has been accused of pursuing a number of women when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. And Democrats have a real shot at winning the Dec. 12 election with their candidate, Doug Jones  but only, they say, if the national party stays away, or at least stays quiet.

We see this as a race that Doug Jones is running. Hes running it with Alabama people, and its going to be decided by Alabama voters. Were really not looking for outside help, said Giles Perkins, an attorney who is chairman of the Jones campaign.

Theres been a significant amount of debate on the left about whether Democrats should do more to help Jones, reflecting a long-running frustration that the national party doesnt invest enough in candidates in traditionally red states.

So far, the national party hasnt thrown a bunch of money in the race. It hasnt aired TV ads. And the only big-name surrogate who has gone to Alabama to campaign for Jones is former Vice President Joe Biden  although that was more because Biden and Jones have been friends for decades rather than as part of a major push by the party.

That isnt to say that Democrats are ignoring the race. A Democratic operative said they are working behind the scenes to provide strategic support to the Jones campaign, just to make sure the Alabama staff has everything it needs to succeed.

The Democrats have been doing a lot, but focused on the fact that Doug Jones has put together a really good campaign, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who is leading the Democratic Partys campaign efforts in Senate races this cycle. So were doing what we can to support Doug Jones campaign. From day one, weve been encouraging people to help him. But I think the story of this campaign is Doug Jones has put together a great organization.

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Strategists say the party is trying to learn from its mistakes when it comes to Alabama: How does it support a viable candidate in a tough race while not going in too heavily and ruining his chances?

Democrats say one key lesson is avoiding what happened in the special election in Georgias 6th Congressional District. There, Democrat Jon Ossoff ran against Republican Karen Handel in a June election. Although the wealthy suburban district is traditionally Republican, it seemed Democrats could win there in light of Trumps unpopularity. The race garnered a significant amount of enthusiasm and funding from Democrats nationwide.

Ultimately, the money didnt matter  and potentially hurt Ossoff. Republicans successfully tied him to the national party and fear-mongered about how he would be a tool of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her liberal California politics. The race became all about Ossoff and the national Democratic Party.

Sure, it excited Democrats, but it also excited Republicans. And in a district where Republicans hold the advantage, that meant Handel won.

That same calculus is playing out in Alabamas Senate race. Republicans have an even greater advantage among that electorate. So Democrats have three main objectives:

Expand the Democratic electorate (primarily by increasing African-American turnout). Persuade some Republicans who are appalled by Moore to vote for Jones. Hope that Republicans who dont like Moore stay home on Election Day.

On the first objective, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.)  a civil rights icon who was born in Alabama  has come to the state to campaign for Jones. Jones has been campaigning in urban areas with heavy African-American populations, and hes been emphasizing his record as a U.S. attorney who prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan.

In order to persuade more mainstream Republicans to vote for him, Jones has been stressing his desire to work across the aisle and recently released TV ads with Republicans talking about why they will be pulling the lever for a Democrat on Election Day.

He is not going hard after Trump, who, after all, remains popular in Alabama.

Jones has so far been relatively quiet on the sexual misconduct allegations against Moore. Hes put out short statements and has alluded to them in an ad, but he is not focusing on them. Instead, hes trying to keep the message on kitchen table issues, such as education, jobs and health care.

Democrats are largely stepping aside and letting Republicans struggle about what to do with Moore.

Im not sure anything they can do at this point would be helpful to Doug Jones. They can just sit back and watch Roy Moores camp implode, said Elizabeth BeShears, a libertarian communications consultant in Birmingham.

When you raise awareness of the election, youre not helping yourself, she added.

In other words, theres a chance that a significant number of Republicans may just stay home on Dec. 12, which would help boost Jones.

Giving a candidate money is traditionally a function of the national party. So far, neither the Democratic National Committee nor the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has transferred funds to Jones. A handful of Democratic senators, however, have sent out email solicitations on his behalf.

And, at this point, money is not a problem for Jones: Hes reportedly been pulling in around $250,000 a day in the wake of the Moore sexual misconduct accusations.

Weve raised enough money to make this a competitive race, Perkins said. Were going to continue to reach out to people for more resources so that we can tell Dougs story and hopefully bring about a win.

Jones also is set on TV advertising. According to Politico, Jones has spent 14 times more on advertising than Moore has. And he was on the air for about a month with positive biographical spots before Moore ran any ads.

All this doesnt mean that Jones has a lock on the race. Alabama is still a Republican state, and BeShears says the fact that Jones supports abortion rights remains a non-starter for many Republicans.

I think if Roy Moore wins, itll be because of that single issue. ... It is the only thing causing a lot of Republicans pause, she said.

Abortion is an issue that Republicans have pushed in an attempt to make Jones look extreme and to tie him to the national party, daring Planned Parenthood to come to the state to campaign for him.

But so far the race has largely stayed a contest of Roy Moore versus the other guy, as BeShears put it. Moore has become known nationally because of his scandal, but Jones and his reputation have stayed more local. And thats exactly what Democrats are hoping will keep happening until Election Day.

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UPDATE: 6:00 p.m.  Issues with the credit card system at Macys stores have been resolved, a company spokesperson told HuffPost in a statement.

The delays we experienced this afternoon were due to a capacity-related issue that caused some transactions to take longer to process, the statement read. We do not anticipate any additional delays.

PREVIOUSLY:

As if Black Friday werent already stressful enough, shoppers are saying that Macys, the major department store chain, appears to be experiencing credit and debit card system problems around the United States.

While dozens of Macys shoppers on social media said they werent able to pay at all, the company downplayed the problems in a statement to HuffPost.

It is taking longer than usual to process some credit and gift cards in our stores, but we have added additional associates to the floor [and] are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, Macys statement read.

Early Friday afternoon, social media was flooded with reports from frustrated shoppers in multiple states who said they had stood in long lines only to find out they could only pay for purchases in cash. Since its common for people not to carry much cash, that meant many shoppers effectively couldnt pay at all.

A nightmare for Black Friday customers at @Macys in St. Charles, Mo. - debt and credit card systems are not working. Shoppers are getting angry!  pic.twitter.com/w2smk06uit  Rudy Harper (@RudyKCTV5) November 24, 2017

Hey @Macys just left $300 of items on counter because your credit card machines are down at State St Chicago. Can't even look up Macy's account. What. A. Joke. #macys #blackfridayfail  Meghan McCollough (@meghan_mcc) November 24, 2017

It's #blackfriday I'm in @Macys, I have $300+ items in my hand. They're only accepting cash or Macy's credit card... Let the riots begin.  Sophie Mitchell (@ShePrevails1) November 24, 2017

Consumers attempting to buy things from the Macys website or the app appeared to be experiencing similar issues.

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The @Macys app is spazzing and throwing lots of errors in checkout. Not a good day for app failure, Macy's. pic.twitter.com/v8qIXEL9La  Amanda Tenedini (@AmandaTene) November 24, 2017

Though some social media users reported that the outages were happening nationwide, the full extent of the problem was unclear. Macys responded to several customer complaints via Twitter on Friday.

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Brussels (AFP) - EU President Donald Tusk said Friday that a Brexit deal in December was possible but a "huge challenge" and gave Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May 10 days to act.

Tusk issued the ultimatum after crunch talks with May on the sidelines of a Brussels summit, which the embattled British premier described as taking place in a "very positive atmosphere".

The "absolute" deadline gives May until a meeting with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on December 4 to make sufficient progress on the key Brexit divorce issues.

Failing that, the EU leaders will refuse at their next summit on December 14-15 to unlock the next phase of the Brexit negotiations, which are supposed to cover a future trade deal and a transitional arrangement after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.

"Sufficient progress in Brexit talks at December EUCO (summit) is possible. But still a huge challenge," Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said on Twitter after his hourlong meeting with May.

"We need to see progress from UK within 10 days on all issues, including on Ireland."

An EU source told AFP the talks were "long and honest", with Tusk setting December 4 as an "absolute deadline for the UK to make additional efforts" in time for EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier to formally declare enough progress.

"PM May agreed to this timeframe," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The EU insists that Britain must tie up three thorny divorce issues -- a multibillion-euro exit bill, the Irish border and the rights of EU nationals living in Britain -- before there can be any talks on future relations.

"Particular attention was on how to ensure the support of Ireland to move to the second stage," said the source, adding that it was "still unclear" how Britain would meet Dublin's demand to avoid any return of border restrictions with British-ruled Northern Ireland.

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- 'Positive atmosphere' -

EU leaders had been hopeful that May would bring new proposals on Ireland and on the exit bill, after senior British ministers agreed earlier this week to double the offer to a reported 40 billion euros ($48 billion).

May struck a positive note despite acknowledging there were "still issues" after her meeting with Tusk on the sidelines of a summit with six former Soviet countries.

"There's been a positive atmosphere in the talks and a genuine feeling we want to move forward together," she said.

EU member states have become increasingly impatient for Britain to compromise, and are also worried that May's fragile Conservative government is unable to do so even if it wanted to.

Talks did not start for almost a year after the June 2016 Brexit referendum and since then have been virtually deadlocked, first on the exit bill, and then on Ireland as well.

In a bid to make progress, May also met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of Belgium, Denmark and Lithuania to press her case that there can be no final divorce agreement without a deal on trade.

Her hastily arranged talks with Merkel, whose status as Europe's most powerful leader has been undermined by the collapse of German coalition talks, were "very constructive", May's office said.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said on Twitter after meeting with May that "clarity on our future relations is in everyone's interest," while Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said "I have decided to be optimistic about this."

- No 'hard border' for Ireland -

The Irish government, however, has pushed the Northern Ireland border issue to the top of the agenda, insisting that Britain must provide solutions now to prevent a return of checkpoints on a frontier long plagued by sectarian tensions.

"If progress isn't made in terms of more clarity and more credibility... in a way that prevents a hard border on the island of Ireland, well then we cannot move on to phase two," Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

But Coveney acknowledged that a political crisis in Ireland over the deputy prime minister's handling of a police whistleblower case had left the government in a "precarious position".

Failure to reach a deal at the December summit would leave little time for trade talks, which the EU wants to wrap up by October to allow time for a deal to be ratified by national parliaments ahead of Brexit Day on March 29, 2019.

May said her presence at the so-called Eastern Partnership Summit with six former Soviet states showed that Britain was "unconditionally committed to maintaining Europe's security" despite Brexit.

She also took aim at Moscow, saying Europe must be "open-eyed to the actions of hostile states like Russia."
By Greg Roumeliotis and Liana B. Baker

(Reuters) - Chipmaker Broadcom Ltd is considering raising its offer to buy rival Qualcomm Inc by offering more of its own stock, following consultation with several of Qualcomm's top shareholders, according to people familiar with the matter.

While the timing of the new offer is uncertain, Broadcom's bid preparations indicate that it is planning to apply pressure on Qualcomm to engage in negotiations by offering more to its shareholders, in addition to threatening to replace its board of directors.

Broadcom's Chief Executive Hock Tan has stated he is open to launching a takeover battle and sources have previously said the company is preparing to submit a slate of directors by Qualcomm's Dec. 8 nomination deadline. Qualcomm shareholders that want the company to engage in deal talks with Broadcom will be able to vote for that slate at a March 6 shareholder meeting.

Broadcom has offered to pay $103 billion for Qualcomm, made up of $60 per share in cash and $10 per share of its own stock. Raising the offer by adding more of its shares would avoid Broadcom having to raise more debt and further pressure its credit rating, the sources said.

Qualcomm's shareholders have indicated to Broadcom they expect at least $80 per share in order for Qualcomm to be sold, the sources said. Broadcom's board has not yet decided on the level of any new offer, the sources added.

Broadcom has made several requests for a meeting with Qualcomm since it unveiled its offer on Nov. 6, the sources said. However, Qualcomm has so far rejected these meeting requests, the sources added. Broadcom had not approached Qualcomm in the weeks prior to announcing its offer, according to the sources.

The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Qualcomm and Broadcom declined to comment.

Qualcomm shares jumped after the news of the possible sweetened offer and were up more than 2 percent at $68.05 in late afternoon trading. Broadcom shares were down 0.3 percent at $275.82.

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Qualcomm invented a number of technologies underlying mobile communications and also sells chips used in cellphones and other devices. It is engaged in a patent infringement dispute with Apple Inc, and is also trying to close its $38 billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV after signing a deal in October 2016. Broadcom has indicated it is willing to acquire Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal.

NXP shares have been trading above Qualcomm's offer price, as many NXP shareholders, including hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, have been holding out for a better price. Qualcomm does not need to decide to raise its offer for NXP until that deal receives antitrust clearance from all the regulators reviewing the deal around the world.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Bill Rigby)
Madrid (AFP) - The mayor of Caracas, a staunch opponent of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, has applied for political asylum in Spain after fleeing to Madrid over the weekend, the Spanish government said Friday.

Antonio Ledezma, 62, "asked for political asylum in Spain after three years in prison and under house arrest in his country," government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo told reporters.

"He is a reference in the Venezuelan people's struggle to regain freedom and democratic normality," he added.

A lawyer by profession, Ledezma was arrested and jailed in February 2015 over allegations he was plotting to overthrow the president, and had been under house arrest since August.

He escaped to Colombia last week and then made his way to Spain.

Ledezma has said he fled Caracas because Venezuelan military and intelligence officials had informed him of a "government plan" against him, though he provided no details.

Oil-rich but cash-poor Venezuela is facing a deepening political and economic crisis as Maduro has moved to marginalise opposition forces, which control the country's legislature, and stifle independent media.
Celebrities that Ivanka Trump follows on Instagram are posting Thanksgiving messages urging her to support passage of the DREAM Act for young immigrants by December.

In September, President Donald Trump announced he would rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a policy enacted under the Obama administration that extends protections to undocumented people who were brought to the U.S. as children. The program allows the young immigrants  known as DREAMers  to study and work in the country without fear of deportation. More than 800,000 DREAMers have benefited from the program.

To draw attention to the issue, celebrities are posting personalized messages to the senior White House adviser, pressing Trump to use her influence to protect the DREAMers. Sophia Amoruso, author of #GirlBoss and founder of online shopping site Nasty Gal, started the trend in the hope that the posts appear in Trumps feed.

Dear Ivanka, the post begins. I see youre following me on Instagram. This Thanksgiving I would be grateful if you use the influence you have to advocate for a CLEAN Dream Act by December. Every day that passes without a clean Dream Act means anxiety and deportation for immigrant youth. 7,901 youth have already lost DACA and 122 more will use it each day. Thank you and Happy Holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving, Ivanka ???? #cleandreamact A post shared by Sophia Amoruso (@sophiaamoruso) on Nov 23, 2017 at 7:50am PST

Celebrities who have taken up the message include Cara Delevigne, Alexa Chung, actresses Sophia Bush and Olivia Wilde, designer Rosie Assoulin, and Audrey Gelman, founder of womens co-working space and social club The Wing.

A thanksgiving message to @ivankatrump #happyholidayseveryone A post shared by Cara Delevingne (@caradelevingne) on Nov 23, 2017 at 9:27am PST

Happy Holidays. Thank you @sophiaamoruso I pinched your graphic. ???? Merci @sarahsophief for your gentle reminders. Xx A post shared by Alexa (@alexachung) on Nov 23, 2017 at 8:23am PST

Happy thanksgiving EVERYBODY! #cleandreamactnow A post shared by rosie_assoulin (@rosie_assoulin) on Nov 23, 2017 at 8:42am PST

oh hi A post shared by Audrey Gelman (@audreygelman) on Nov 23, 2017 at 8:35am PST
Charles Manson - AFP

Charles Manson reportedly left his entire estate, including his remains, to a prison pen pal.

The murderous cult leader, who died last week aged 83, struck up a friendship with a male correspondent who first wrote to him in the 1990s, TMZ reported.

The man reportedly sent 50 unanswered letters to Manson at the California State Prison until he eventually received a reply.

Manson then talked to him by telephone and the pen pal started visiting him in jail starting in 2002.

According to a yellowing will obtained by TMZ, and dated Feb 14, 2002, Manson left all his belongings, including his clothes and money, to the pen pal.

Manson also left to the man rights to use his name and image, and control of songs he had written.

The pen pal, who TMZ did not name, also had the right to claim Manson's body within 10 days of his death, and told the news website that he intended to do so.

If he does not claim it then the killer will be cremated by the California prison system.

According to the will Manson chose specifically to disinherit his known and unknown children, former wives, all relatives, friends, and lawyers.

The pen pal said he last spoke to Manson by phone on Oct 21

The will was typed but included some scrawled handwriting, which appeared to match Manson's known style.

It included the message: "I'm not in the best spot to rest in peace."

The will was said to have been witnessed by one of Manson's fellow inmates.

Charles MansonCredit: AP

Manson spent his last 45 years in jail after sending followers known as the "Manson Family" to commit gruesome murders,

In the summer of 1969 he directed his mostly young, female followers to murder seven people in what prosecutors said was part of a plan to incite a race war.

Among the victims was actress Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski. She was stabbed 16 times by cult members.

A section of the will said Charles Manson, Prisoner B33920, wished to have his body released to the custody of the pen pal who was "my one and only executor of any services, viewings, funeral arrangements, or otherwise, in his judgment OF MY WISHES only".

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Manson also said that he was "of a sound mind".

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Beijing (AFP) - Boeing and China's first privately owned airline, Okay Airways, have finalised a $1.4-billion order for five Dreamliner jets, the two companies said on Thursday.

The purchase of the five 787-9 long-haul aircraft by the Beijing-based airline was signed off in the United States on Wednesday and announced on Thursday via the companies' official accounts on Chinese microblogging site, Weibo.

Okay Airways currently has a fleet of 26 single-corridor Boeing 737 planes, which fly to 70 destinations in China and elsewhere in Asia.

The Chinese company had signed a preliminary agreement to buy the planes back in June, when it has also made a firm order for 15 medium-sized 737 MAX planes at a catalogue price of $1.8 billion.

"We are committed to investing in our aircraft fleet in order to keep growing ahead of the market and enhancing our customers' flying experience," said Okay Airways president Li Zongling, according to China's official news agency Xinhua.

He added that the order would strengthen the airline's plans to expand into the long-haul market.

Chinese companies are on the whole profiting from the country's spectacular rate of aviation expansion, fuelled by a growing middle class and a rapidly developing tourism industry.

But competition on international routes is becoming more intense, with China's three airlines -- Air China, China Southern and China Eastern -- fighting it out to lead the sector.
Washington State Patrol troopers stop vehicles at a road block on a local highway: David Ryder/Getty Images

A couple in Washington State has sustained multiple injuries after crashing their car into a tree while having sex, police said.

The man was drunk and the woman was sitting on top of him, engaging in sexual activity, while they navigated a local highway, State Trooper Brooke Bova told The Independent. Both were naked.

The man failed to negotiate the curves in the road, Ms Bova said, and struck a tree with his car. The woman broke her pelvis and the man broke his wrist.

Their three-month-old child, properly restrained in a carseat in the back, was uninjured.

Witnesses told police they saw the couple, both in their early twenties, exit the vehicle naked. Some witnesses reported one of them fleeing the scene. Ms Bova believes the couple were scrambling to locate their clothes before police arrived.

Ive never seen anything like this, Ms Bova said.

If the man is convicted, it will be his fourth DUI in Washington State  a felony offence. He has also been charged with vehicular assault and child engagement. He was booked into Pierce County jail immediately after his release from the emergency room.

The woman has been admitted to the hospital and it is unclear whether charges will be brought against her, Ms Bova said. Authorities have not announced what will be done with the child.

A study of college students conducted by researchers at the University of South Dakota found 33 per cent of men and nine per cent of women had engaged in sexual activity while driving. None of the students surveyed had crashed their cars as a result.

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As a long time Health Alliance customer I find the recent actions of Sarah Bush to drop this insurance very disturbing. I do go to Carle for most things. But I do sometimes use the walk in and Ive had procedures done at the hospital. I use both facilities.

Dennis Pluard stated that when Sarah Bush started accepting Health Alliance the thought was that patients would continue to go to Carle for procedures that Sarah Bush could not perform and go to Sarah Bush for procedures they could perform but instead they still go elsewhere for services Sarah Bush can perform. This in turn causes Sarah Bush to lose that income. So because Health Alliance customers are not coming to Sarah Bush as much as the hospital had hoped they are going to fix it so no one with Health Alliance will go there. I dont believe enough people will change their insurance to provide Sarah Bush with the lost income from Health Alliance. Those who will change most likely already go to Sarah Bush for everything they can. So you are really not gaining anything except the loss of revenue from people like me who use both facilities and will no longer do so. Pluard said that he hopes employers will encourage people to change their insurance. Employers are not allowed to encourage their employees insurance choices.

What does this say about a hospital that is no longer going to serve the people in Coles County who do not change their insurance? It tells me that they do not care. Pluard said people do not like to change their insurance but are hoping they will want to use the local hospital. If the price for using my local hospital is to change insurance I will not be doing that. The article really makes him sound like hes a sore loser because more people with Health Alliance dont choose Sarah Bush he is going to punish everyone with Health Alliance because of it.

I did not know that Carle owned Health Alliance until I read this article. They did not steer me to choose Health Alliance. But isnt this exactly what you are doing Mr. Pluard? By your actions you are trying to steer people away from Health Alliance in order for them to still use your hospital.

Im asking those with Health Alliance who use both facilities to please not change your insurance to cater to Sarah Bush. If you have Health Alliance and go mostly to Sarah Bush then I understand that you need to change plans. In closing I am asking you Mr. Pluard to please reconsider and think about all the people of this area you are affecting. I dont want to lose my choices in medical care.

Cindy Diehl, Charleston
Damascus (AFP) - The government of war-ravaged Syria on Wednesday welcomed a deal between the presidents of its allies Russia, Iran and rebel backer Turkey to hold a peace "congress" of regime and opposition forces.

"The Syrian government welcomes the closing statement" of the meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said a foreign ministry source quoted by the official SANA news agency.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani had agreed to the summit, set to place before United Nations-backed talks in Geneva next week.

The congress would "gather representatives of different political parties, internal and external opposition" to discuss "the parameters of the future state," he said.

The Syrian foreign ministry official said Syria has "always" supported "any political action that respects its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and helps put an end to the shedding of Syrian blood".

Numerous attempts to end the war in Syria have failed.

A major stumbling block is the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, whose opponents demand his immediate departure.

A new round of United Nations-backed talks is set for November 28 in Geneva.

Anti-government protests broke out in Syria in 2011.

The government's brutal response sparked a complex civil war that has wracked swathes of the country, killed more than 330,000 and displaced millions.
One of the biggest newspapers in Detroit is calling on Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) to step down after recent revelations about sexual harassment.

Conyers, the longest-serving current member of the U.S. House of Representatives, has been an undisputed hero of the civil rights movement, a legislator of uncommon influence and power, and an aging icon, a Detroit Free Press editorial said. The newspaper contended the legacy of Conyers, whose district includes part of Detroit, will be forever marred by accusations that he made unwanted sexual advances toward female staffers.

We reach this conclusion with an incredible amount of disappointment, the newspaper said. The word hero is invoked, without much hyperbole, around Conyers name, dating not only to his initial run for Congress in the mid-1960s, but to the stalwart civil rights activism in the 1950s and early 1960s that brought him to that point ... its a tragic end to his public career. But its the appropriate consequence for the stunning subterfuge his office has indulged here, and a needed warning to other members of Congress that this can never be tolerated.

A bombshell BuzzFeed report published early Tuesday centered around one woman who said she was fired for refusing Conyers advances, and also included sworn testimony from several other former staffers detailing widespread misconduct. The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday announced it would investigated the claims, which Conyers has said he expressly and vehemently denied.

Conyers in 2015 settled the wrongful dismissal complaint for $27,111 in taxpayer money without admitting fault. The Detroit Free Press took issue with the settlement payment, which Conyers has downplayed as severance, but which the newspaper likened to hush money.

This agreement disrupted the accepted process to deal with claims against members of Congress, and leveraged taxpayer funds  without the oversight of the ethics apparatus of the body itself  to make this claim go away, the newspaper said. Thats not acceptable, on any level. And its a betrayal that breaches the most fundamental trust that exists between a public servant and the people that person represents.

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Read the full editorial here.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Donald Trump said he asked Air Force officials whether new aircraft they have ordered will perform like those he sees on the movies.

Speaking to members of the US Coast Guard on Thanksgiving Day, he claimed his administration was building up wealth to spend more on national defence and the military.

We're ordering tremendous amounts of new equipment -were at $700bn for the military, he said. The Navy, I can tell you, were ordering ships, with the Air Force, I can tell you were ordering a lot of planes, in particular the F-35 fighter jet, which is like almost like an invisible fighter."

The President and the First Lady helped serve sandwiches (AP)

Mr Trump said he asked the Air Force guys about the abilities of the plane.

They said, well, sir, you can't see it. I said but in a fight. You know, in a fight, like I watch on the movies. The fight, theyre fighting. How good is this, he added.

They say, well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it. Even if its right next to them, it can't see it. I said that helps. Thats a good thing."

Mr Trump claimed previous administrations had cut back on military spending for a number of years, to the extent that it become depleted.

Nobody has the equipment that we have. And its sad when were selling our equipment to other countries but we're not buying it ourselves, he said, speaking at a Coast Guard station in Floridas Riviera Beach, close to his Mar-a-Lago estate.

But now that's all changed. And I said, the stuff that we have is always a little bit better too. When we sell to other countries, even if they're allies you never know about an ally. An ally can turn. You're going to find that out.

But I always say make lives a little bit better. Give it that extra speed, a little bit - keep a little bit - keep about 10 per cent in the bag.Nobody has what with we have."

Mr Trump and the First Lady, Melania Trump, then helped serve sandwiches to the Coast Guard personnel.

Let's go, fellas. Come on, he said. Lets get up here. Let's get up here. Yeah. This is good stuff.

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Read the full transcript of Trump's comments:

Donald Trump: It is an honour to be here. I have to tell you, you know. The Coast Guard always respected, but if you're looking at it as a brand, there's no brand that went up more than the Coast Guard with what happened in Texas, and I would say in particular, Texas has been incredible. You saved 16,000 lives. Nobody knows that. 16,000 lives. In fact when I first heard the number, I said, you mean like 600? 500? 16,000 lives in Texas.

So as bad as that hurricane was, and that was bad one. That was a big water job, right? It kept coming in and going back they couldn't get rid of it. They'd never seen it. I guess it was the biggest water dump they've ever seen. But when you've got 16,000

[inaudible] big groups of people

[inaudible, Trump turns back around] but when you've got 16,000, that's really something. And then Florida hit. And you know that went very well, you know that went pretty well, right? The job you did in Florida. And then Puerto Rico. I really mean that, I think that there's no brand of any kind, I don't just mean a military brand, that's gone up more than the Coast Guard. Incredible people. You've done an incredible job. I love coming in here and doing this with you today. I think it's  we have to keep you very well fed. This is good stuff. It's an honour. This is the first lady, you know.

Melania Trump: Happy Thanksgiving.

Trump: We went together to Texas. We saw what you were doing. You just followed that storm, right next to that storm. You saved so many people. I still haven't figured out how people take their boats out into a hurricane. Some day you'll explain it. Jean was just telling me they actually do it to to save their boat in many cases. They're not thinking about their life. They're thinking about their boats. They go out in a boat and think think they have a wonderful boat. They've had it for years. It can weather anything and then they have 25-foot waves crashing down. And that would be the end of that. You saved a lot of people. I want to thank you. On behalf of the whole country and on behalf of us, what a job you've done. Thank you very much.

I'll also take questions. Should we leave the media here? To do the questions or should we tell the media? It's Thanksgiving. Let's let the media stay. Anybody have any questions about the country, how we're doing or any of those things? Wow. I love it when you don't. That means you're doing great. I love that. That's the greatest. The press I know doesn't have any questions. If you do, we won't take them but that's already. The press has plenty of questions.

The country's doing really well. Stock market, all time high. This is all good stuff. I just spoke to a lot of your friends in Afghanistan and Iraq. We spoke to the USS Monterey. Great ship, great missile ship. We spoke to a lot of different folks, from the Air Force, to the Army, just now, a little while ago at Mar-a-Lago. The telecommunication systems [inaudible] we go live to Iraq, live to Afghanistan, and it's really incredible. I told them, our country is doing great. You folks are fighting so hard and working so hard. It's nice that you're working for something that's really starting to work. We've cut back so much on regulation and all the waste and the all of the abuse.

The stock market on Friday hit the all-time high. The highest it's ever been, ever. In your whole long life, the stock market is higher than it's ever been. And that means your 401(k)s and all the things you have. You know whether it's, even if you're in the military. You have a country that's starting to turn. We want to have a strong country.

We want have a country where I can buy new Coast Guard cutters and not have to worry about it, alright. And that's what we're doing, we're building up wealth so we can take care of our protection. And we're ordering tremendous amounts of new equipment, we're at $700 billion for the military. And you know they were cutting back for years, they jut kept cutting, cutting cutting the military. And you got lean, to put it nicely, depleted was the word, and now it's changing.

The Navy, I can tell you, we're ordering ships, with the Air Force i can tell you we're ordering a lot of planes, in particular the F-35 fighter jet, which is like almost like an invisible fighter. I was asking the Air Force guys, I said, how good is this plane? They said, well, sir, you can't see it. I said but in a fight. You know, in a fight, like I watch on the movies. The fight, they're fighting. How good is this? They say, well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it. Even if it's right next to them, it can't see it. I said that helps. That's a good thing.

But I mean we have equipment that  nobody has the equipment that we have. And it's sad when we're selling our equipment to other countries but we're not buying it ourselves. But now that's all changed. And I said, the stuff that we have is always a little bit better too. When we sell to other countries, even if they're allies you never know about an ally. An ally can turn. You're going to find that out. But I always say make lives a little bit better. Give it that extra speed, a little bit  keep a little bit  keep about 10% in the bag. We have -- nobody has what with we have. That's what we're doing. We're really proud of the Coast Guard and I'm very proud -- I walked in today and Jean said, the day I got elected, the following morning, they were putting up the statement that I made right on your front door and I came in and the first thing I noticed, of course, I said wow, look at that. I said, did you put that up just for me because I happen to be coming here today? And you did that the first day. That tells me something. That tells me something.

Let's go, fellas. Come on. Let's get up here. Let's get up here. Yeah. This is good stuff.
Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said there was no contact "at the moment" between Ankara and the Syrian government despite both sides' opposition to Syrian Kurdish militia, in comments reported on Friday.

The Turkish leader said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad "negatively" viewed Syrian Kurdish armed groups, in an interview published in Hurriyet and Milliyet papers.

Putin met Assad earlier this week at the Black Sea resort of Sochi before a summit with Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday aimed at finding a political settlement to the Syria conflict.

Ankara has opposed Assad throughout the conflict and previously accused the Syrian leader of war crimes.

But Moscow and Iran have provided military support to help forces loyal to Assad reclaim territory in the conflict, which has raged since 2011.

Putin announced on Wednesday plans for a congress -- agreed at Sochi -- to bring together the different sides in an attempt to reinvigorate a hobbled peace process.

Erdogan said the Russian leader told him that Assad did not want the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing fighting in Syria, the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG), to take part in peace talks.

The YPG -- which the US sees as the most effective force on the ground against the Islamic State group -- controls a large part of northern Syria.

Turkey views the PYD/YPG as "terror" groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.

Erdogan has repeatedly vowed not to allow the YPG to form a "terror corridor" on its southern border.

When asked whether Turkey has initiated contact with Assad, even via mediators, Erdogan replied: "There is no such situation at the moment."

The Turkish leader told reporters on his return from Sochi that Turkey was focused on removing terror organisations when questioned about whether there was a possibility of close contact with Damascus in the future.

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"What will happen tomorrow is relevant to the circumstances then," he added, leaving the door open to future talks.

But he said it would not be right to take a "no way at all" approach to the issue.

"The doors of politics, as you are aware, are always open until the last moment," Erdogan added.
Brussels (AFP) - The EU pledged to deepen ties with six former Soviet states Friday, as part of efforts to counter Russian influence, but warned them they had no chance of joining the bloc any time soon.

EU leaders agreed a package of 20 "deliverables" with Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus to help them tackle corruption, improve the rule of law and modernise their economies.

Brussels insists its so-called Eastern Partnership with the six states is "not aimed at any country" and a joint declaration issued after the summit scrupulously avoided any mention of Russia.

But concerns are running high in Europe over the Kremlin's use of cyber tactics and misinformation to cause political destabilisation around the continent and draw former Soviet states into its embrace.

As she arrived for the summit British Prime Minister Theresa May warned that Europe needed to be on guard against "the actions of hostile states like Russia which... attempt to tear our collective strength apart".

EU President Donald Tusk fired a broadside at the Kremlin, condemning "Russia's aggression" in Ukraine after five soldiers were killed there and demanding vigilance agains hybrid threats in Europe.

He warned "we have to be very, very cautious, vigilant and also honest -- if you want to protect ourselves, if you want to help our partners from Eastern Partnership, we have to first of all be aware of threats inside the EU."

The likes of Moldova and Ukraine have urged the European Union to send a welcoming signal to their people to counter the siren call of Moscow.

Moscow regards the countries as part of its sphere of influence and has opposed them getting closer to the EU.

- '18 locked doors' -

Moldova and Ukraine argue that without a clear signal that at least in principle they could one day join the EU, their populations could turn their back on Europe and go the way of Belarus -- which lies firmly in Russia's orbit.

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But there is no appetite in the EU for eastward expansion, particularly after Dutch voters rejected the first attempt at an association accord with Ukraine in an April 2016 referendum.

"This is not an enlargement or accession summit," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said as he arrived.

A European diplomat gave an even more blunt assessment.

"Maybe they see this as the waiting room for the waiting room (for membership) but for us it's clear that before the waiting room there are 18 locked doors," the diplomat said.

Lithuania's outspoken President Dalia Grybauskaite warned Ukraine had "a long way to go" before it could be ready to join, while Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel gave a flat "no" to the EU taking on new members soon.

The final summit declaration simply acknowledges the "European aspirations and European choice" of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.

The EU hopes that focusing on concrete measures that will improve people's lives in the partner countries -- such as small business loans and reducing mobile phone roaming charges and energy costs -- will improve its popularity and see off the lure from Moscow.

- Don't mention the war -

The war rumbling on in Ukraine, which has killed 10,000 people since 2014, was conspicuously absent from the official summit agenda.

Unlike the declaration after the last Eastern Partnership summit in 2015, this time there was no mention of the conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists.

As the leaders met in Brussels, news came of five Ukrainian soldiers killed in fighting in the country's wartorn east and Kiev accused Moscow of ramping up its military presence in the region.

Tusk condemned the deaths as "just the latest proof of the tragic consequence of Russia's aggression in Ukraine", while Merkel met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on the sidelines of the summit to discuss the conflict.

The statement also made no mention of the bitter row between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, which almost flared into a full-scale war last year.

Instead it simply called for "renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region" -- a sharp contrast to the strong language in 2015, which criticised Russia's annexation of Crimea outright.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawyers for Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, have told Trump's legal team they can no longer discuss a probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, indicating Flynn may be cooperating with the investigation, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Flynn, a retired Army general, is a central figure in a federal investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into whether Trump aides colluded with Russia to boost his 2016 presidential campaign. The probe has hung over the White House since January, when U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her. Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election and Trump has said there was no collusion. Flynn's lawyer and a spokesman for Mueller declined to comment on Thursday. Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, said: "No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president." The Times reported that Flynn's lawyers had been sharing information with Trump's legal team about the Mueller investigation. Citing four unnamed people involved in the case, the newspaper reported the cooperation agreement had ended. Due to rules that aim to prevent conflicts of interest when lawyers represent clients, the move by Flynn's lawyers to stop communicating with Trump's lawyers indicated Flynn was now cooperating with Mueller, the Times said, although adding that in itself was not proof. But the development has led Trump's lawyers to believe that Flynn has begun discussions with Mueller about cooperating, according to the Times. Flynn served 24 days as Trump's national security adviser but was fired after it was discovered he had misrepresented his contacts with a Russian diplomat to Vice President Mike Pence. Mueller's inquiry is looking into Flynn's paid work as a lobbyist for a Turkish businessman in 2016, in addition to contacts between Russian officials and Flynn and other Trump associates during and after the Nov. 8 presidential election, Reuters reported in June. A lawyer for Flynn's son, Michael Flynn Jr., who worked with his father and is also being investigated by Mueller, according to a person familiar with the matter, declined to comment. (Reporting by Michelle Price in Washington; Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in West Palm Beach, Fla. and Karen Freifeld and Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Nice (France) (AFP) - A French court on Friday halted sales of two pesticides made by US chemicals giant Dow after an environmental group raised fears that the substances could be harmful to bees.

The two products, Transform and Closer, are authorised for sale in 41 countries including the United States, Canada and South Africa, according to Dow.

French health authorities gave the pesticides the green light in September, but this has been suspended following the decision Friday by a court in the southern city of Nice pending a further ruling on their legality.

Fears have been growing globally in recent years over the health of bees, which help pollinate 90 percent of major crops.

Large numbers are dying from "colony collapse disorder", a mysterious scourge blamed on mites, pesticides, virus, fungus, or some combination of these factors.

The United Nations warned last year that 40 percent of invertebrate pollinators -- particularly bees and butterflies -- risk global extinction.

Both Dow and French health agency ANSES, which approved the pesticides, have two weeks to appeal Friday's decision.

Designed for agricultural use, the sprays are intended to kill aphids and other bugs that attack plants.

But French environmental group Generations Futures charged that the active ingredient, sulfoxaflor, was a type of neonicotinoid -- a pesticide that has been partially banned in the EU since 2013.

A study published in the journal Science in October found that 75 percent of the world's honey contained traces of neonicotinoids, which act as nerve agents on bees.

Dow insisted in court that its active ingredient was not a neonicotinoid, insisting the chemical was "more respectful to biodiversity".

But judge Didier Sabroux said it was better to err on the side of caution "while uncertainties remain", adding farmers might ignore instructions to use it only sparingly.
Everybody has a Norm Kusinski story.

It usually begins with meeting the human version of Oscar the Grouch and ends with a happy bellyful of one of Kusinskis monster meat sandwiches and a promise to return for another M&N Sandwich Shop experience.

The stories have flowed this week on M&N's Facebook page following the passing of the longtime Lincoln sandwich-maker.

Norbert "Norm" J. Kusinski died last weekend. He closed his shop Nov. 14 with a note posted on the door saying he was under the weather. He never returned. Lincoln Police entered his home Sunday afternoon and found him dead.

He was believed to be 71.

He had this rough exterior, but he really was kind of a softie inside, said Pete Watters, co-owner of the Zoo Bar, which enjoyed a special relationship with M&N. Many blues musicians headed to M&N before or after gigs to enjoy one of Kusinskis Chicago-style sandwiches. He had a great heart. You had to get to know him. He didnt show that side to a lot of people.

Scott Colborn, a friend and KZUM radio personality, compared Kusinski to the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld.

Norm was a really gruff guy, Colborn said. This is a guy who grew up in Chicago, inner-city Chicago, where theyre kind of known for being gruff. But he also had this wonderful heart. He really cared about people.

Kusinski and his wife, Millie, opened M&N at 2643 Randolph St. in October 1993 after moving to Nebraska from Chicago, where Kusinski worked as manager of a plumbing supply company, to be closer to Millies family.

Millie, who worked the counter while Kusinski crafted sandwiches in the kitchen, died in 2013.

M&N specialized in Italian beef sandwiches on Gonnella rolls, a Chicago staple. They opened the store because we ate the stuff in Chicago all the time, Kusinski told the Journal Star in 2000. We noticed (Lincoln) didnt have anything like it.

In developing M&Ns menu, the Kusinskis added Los Angeles-style pastrami sandwiches to go along with the popular Chicago-style Italian beef ones, making the shop fairly unique. Kusinski even combined Italian beef and pastrami into one of the shops best-sellers. Also popular was the triple, which included Italian sausage along with Italian beef and pastrami.

"I don't think there is another place like this in the world," Kusinski told the Journal Star in 2000.

Most of M&N's sandwiches were topped with a choice of a white cheese, chopped onions and hot and/or sweet peppers.

(Kusinski affectionately challenged my manhood when I ordered my first Italian beef/pastrami combo without hot peppers. This sandwich is a spiritual experience," he told me. "With peppers on it, you would be in business.)

Kusinski also recommended his sandwiches be made juicy (soaked with au jus). Actually, he told you thats how you were going to get it -- no ifs, ands or buts.

A fire destroyed the building housing M&N in 2005. The Kusinskis used insurance money to open a new store across the street at 728 S. 27th St. From there Kusinski worked tirelessly day and night until he could work no more.

He needed his store to be open, his friend Ricky Rand said. His customers had to be fed. That was what he was all about.
By Andrea Shalal BERLIN (Reuters) - Frank-Walter Steinmeier was hardly Chancellor Angela Merkel's first choice for the largely ceremonial job of German president, but the lifelong Social Democrat may be her best hope of holding onto power amid an unprecedented political crisis. Steinmeier, 61, a two-time foreign minister, met on Tuesday with political leaders from the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) after Merkel's bid to forge a three-way coalition with those parties collapsed. On Wednesday, he will meet with Horst Seehofer, head of the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's conservatives. On Thursday, he will meet Martin Schulz, head of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the second largest in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, to urge him to reconsider his party's rejection of another "grand coalition" with Merkel's conservatives for the good of the country. Some 30 of the SPD's 153 parliamentary members questioned the rejection of such a coalition this week, the Bild newspaper reported on Wednesday. It said Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel also favored resuming the coalition that has ruled for the past four years. Merkel favors new elections over a minority government, but Steinmeier is pressing political leaders to avoid a new poll that experts say would further strengthen the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) after it moved into parliament with nearly 13 percent of the vote on Sept. 24. "The German president, who is now as powerful as seldom seen in German constitutional history, holds the reins," the Rheinische Post newspaper wrote on Tuesday. This is the first time a German president has had to get actively involved in trying to forge a new coalition government. The architects of the German constitution devised a complicated process to prevent the frequent elections that weakened the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and facilitated the rise of Adolf Hitler. But new elections are likely around April if Steinmeier cannot bring Merkel's conservatives, the Greens and FDP back to the negotiating table, or persuade his former SPD colleagues to return to government. The SPD wants a spell in opposition to rebuild after its worst election result since the 1930s. WORKING RELATIONSHIP Steinmeier, following the tradition of all previous German presidents, gave up his party membership upon taking office. But he could wield some influence with top SPD players after years in leadership roles. His first months as president were lackluster, with some commentators skeptical that the veteran political operator could emulate the success of his predecessor Joachim Gauck, a former East German pastor, in serving as Germany's moral compass. But last month Steinmeier delivered a powerful address on the anniversary of German reunification and then went to Russia to try to repair strained ties with President Vladimir Putin - the first German head of state to visit Moscow since 2010. A carpenter's son from the west German state of North-Rhine Westphalia, Steinmeier is a long-time confidante of former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Steinmeier failed to win election as chancellor in 2009, but later won plaudits from the German public for donating a kidney to his seriously ill wife. He has long experience of working with Merkel after serving as foreign minister in the first 'grand coalition' between the SPD and conservatives in 2005-09 and then resuming that role in 2013-17, when the two parties allied again. He and Merkel worked closely together on the Minsk peace agreement aimed at ending fighting in eastern Ukraine - a complex deal that required hours of negotiations with Putin and Ukrainian leaders. "I thought Minsk was his biggest accomplishment, but it may pale in comparison with the effort involved in building a functioning government in his own country," said Olaf Boehnke of the Rasmussen Global consultancy. "Merkel and Steinmeier actually have a good working relationship. And now he's in the driver's seat," Boehnke said. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
The Yellowstone supervolcano under America could erupt with terrifying power  expel up to 250 cubic miles of volcanic rock and ash at once.

The eruption could blanket large areas of America in ash  and possibly plunge Earth into a volcanic winter.

NASA has said that supervolcano eruptions are a bigger threat to life than any asteroid  but what would actually happen?

Mysterious booms are being heard around the world  and experts are baffled

Photo bought for 7 at flea market shows Billy the Kid and could be worth millions

Woman raises over $100,000 for homeless veteran who gave her his last $20 when she was stranded

Shop worker turns tables on knife-wielding robber by flashing her own blade

Notorious MS-13 gang decapitates man and cuts out his heart in Maryland

Yellowstone Volcano Observatorys Scientist-In-Charge, Dr Michael Poland, told IFLScience that the eruption would shoot a column of burning ash and lava up to 16 miles into the air.

Rumors are circulating that the super volcano in Yellowstone National Park will erupt sooner than expected. Scientists say the eruption would blanket most of the U.S. in ash, sending the earth into a volcanic ice age.

Poland said If people were present in the vicinity of the eruption, say, within a few tens to perhaps a few hundred kilometers  they would be in peril.

But the real damage woould come from volcanic fallout, which would clog roads, short out electrical grids and make millions of homes uninhabitable, Poland says.

Nearby cities such as Salt Lake City would be buried in three feet of ash, and other cities such as Los Angeles would see an inch of ash rain from the sky.

Flights would be grounded across America and the knock-on effects would be felt across the world as a volcanic winter began to bite, with years and possibly decades of cooling.

Yellowstones last super-eruption happened 631,000 years ago, and Poland says its highly unlikely to erupt now.

He says,Right now, much of Yellowstones magma body is partially solidified, and you need a lot of magma to feed a large eruption.
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If youre shipping gifts and goodies this season, the earlier you do so, the better. The pandemic-related shipping slowdowns of last spring have eased, for the most part, but an expected swell in online holiday shopping may lead to a resurgence. Deloittes annual holiday retail survey predicts that online sales will grow by 25 to 35 percent between November and January, compared with about 15 percent for the same time last year.

To get an idea of when your packages will arrive, review retailers various shipping options and expected delivery windows before checking out, and choose one that suits your timetable. Sending gifts yourself? The FedEx and UPS websites provide estimates of shipping costs and delivery dates.

You can also sign up for services such as FedEx Delivery Manager, UPS My Choice, and the U.S. Postal Services Informed Delivery, which track your shipments and may even allow you to redirect a delivery if you send a package to the wrong address. (The USPS service isnt available in all areas.)

Running late? Be aware that carriers such as FedEx are guaranteeing last-minute deliveries (even, in some cases, as late as Christmas Day), but this may carry restrictions and extra fees. Given the uncertainty of service this year, it may be wise not to rely on these options.

FedEx

For shipping within the U.S.:

Dec. 9: Last day to ship via FedEx SmartPost.

Dec. 15: Last day to ship via FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery.

Dec. 21: Last day to ship via FedEx Express Saver.

Dec. 22: Last day to ship via FedEx 2Day and FedEx 2Day A.M.

Dec. 23: Last day to ship via FedEx Standard Overnight, FedEx Priority Overnight, and FedEx First Overnight.

Dec. 25: Last day to ship via FedEx SameDay City Direct, FedEx SameDay City Priority, and FedEx SameDay.

Shipping deadlines vary for packages headed to Puerto Rico and Canada, Mexico, and other international destinations. See FedEx's 2020 Holiday Shipping Schedule page for more information.

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UPS

For shipping within the U.S.:

Dec. 15: Last day to ship UPS Ground for delivery Thursday, Dec. 24.

Dec. 21: Last day to ship UPS 3 Day Select for delivery Thursday, Dec. 24.

Dec. 22: Last day to ship UPS 2nd Day Air packages for delivery Thursday, Dec. 24.

Dec. 23: Last day to ship UPS Next Day Air for delivery Thursday, Dec. 24.

UPS warns that some packages and services may require an additional day of transit time. For a more complete assessment of how long it will take for your gift to arrive, check the UPS online shipping time and cost calculator.

For international shipping deadlines and other holiday-related information, such as pickup and delivery schedules, see the Holiday Shipping page on the UPS website.

Amazon

Amazon has yet to publish its Holiday Delivery Calendar for this year, which in years past has noted suggested deadlines for ordering items to arrive by Christmas. We'll update this story if the retailer updates its shipping estimates for this year.

However, Prime members can take advantage of Amazons usual free one- and two-day shipping in the U.S., same-day delivery on qualifying orders in some cities, and, of course, free standard shipping on any order. As some members may have noticed since the start of the pandemic, some orders may take longer to ship and experience carrier delays.

Amazon will deliver holiday orders to a self-service Hub Locker in more than 900 cities and towns, including Whole Foods, for no additional cost.

Customers can also choose to pick up packages in-store at a Hub Counter partner location, which includes staffed pickup areas inside Rite Aid, GNC, and Stage stores, as well as at Health Mart independent pharmacies. To find the closest Locker or Counter near you, check out Amazon's lookup tool.

Check Amazon's help page, Shipping Rates & Times, for more information.

Other Retailers

You'll find similar ordering and holiday gift-shipping deadline information for most major retailers online. Some examples:

Best Buy

Best Buy offers free next-day shipping on "thousands of items" available on its website, including major appliances and large TVs (51 inches and larger). The $35 minimum order amount is waived for members of its My Best Buy Elite and Elite Plus member programs.

Shoppers also have a one-hour in-store pickup option for online orders. Some locations even have contactless curbside pickup so that customers don't even have to get out of their car.

See Best Buy's shipping costs and timing page for more information regarding limitations and exceptions.

Home Depot

The chain offers free two-day shipping on "thousands of in-demand home improvement items," as well as free in-store pickup. See Home Depot's online ordering and shipping page for information about exclusions and limitations.

The home improvement store also offers same-day and next-day deliveries of certain items. Again, check Home Depot's Delivery Services page for costs and other limitations.

Target

Target offers free same-day delivery on orders of at least $35 if new online shoppers sign up for and use Shipt, a membership plan that's free for the first four weeks. (The annual membership cost after the trial period is $99 for unlimited orders of $35 and more. Or members can pay a delivery charge per same-day delivery.) However, the retailer notes that this year, due to high demand, some items have extended delivery dates.



Target also offers online shoppers in-store and curbside pickup.

Walmart

In select markets, the mass retailer offers free NextDay delivery on eligible online orders over $35. (A $6 fee applies to orders that don't meet requirements.)

For the U.S. mainland, Walmart also offers free two-day shipping. Again, orders of eligible items (identified with a "2-Day Shipping" logo) must total more than $35 and should be placed by 2 p.m. Orders shipped to Alaska, Hawaii, military mail centers, and other territories may take three days or longer. See Walmart's Free 2-Day shipping page for more information about restrictions.

And like Target, it also offers same-day, in-store pickup of most items ordered on its website, walmart.com. Certain itemssuch as those weighing 350 pounds and morearen't eligible for in-store pickup. See Walmart's Store Pickup help page for more information.

Well update this information as retailers firm up their holiday plans, so bookmark this article and check back often.
By Hugh Bronstein and Luc Cohen BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Families of the 44 crew members of a missing Argentine submarine gave up hope and went home on Friday after days of waiting at the sub's Mar del Plata naval base, saddened and angered by evidence that the vessel may have exploded. The submarine went missing nine days ago with only a one-week supply of oxygen onboard. President Mauricio Macri said the search would continue and that he expected the submarine to be located in the days ahead. He called for a "serious and deep" investigation into the incident once the search operation was complete. "This means understanding how a submarine that had received midlife maintenance and was in perfect condition to navigate apparently suffered this explosion," he said at a news conference. On Friday evening, navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said improving weather would allow for boats with underwater detection capabilities to conduct a search. They will scan an area around where a sound thought to be an explosion was detected on the morning of Nov. 15, the day the vessel sent its last signal. "The weather, thank God, is favorable in that search area for scanning and mapping the seabed," Balbi said at a news conference. Macri and Balbi both declined to comment directly on the widely held fear that the crew had died. The submarine, called the San Juan, was launched in 1983 and underwent maintenance in 2008 in Argentina. FIERCE POLITICAL DEBATE Concerns about the crew's fate have set off a fierce political debate in a society sharply divided between supporters of Macri and his free-market policies and opposition Peronists. Crew families have expressed outrage at the level of funding and maintenance of the armed forces, whose budget has gradually declined since the fall of a military dictatorship in the 1980s. That trend continued during the first half of former populist President Cristina Fernandez's administration, before a slight rebound. Military funding has remained mostly flat since Macri took office in December 2015. "When Macri arrived in the presidency the destruction of the defense system was so complete that the first task was to restore morale," Senate leader and Macri ally Federico Pinedo said in a radio interview on Friday. A group of opposition lawmakers aligned with Fernandez demanded that Defense Minister Oscar Aguad testify in Congress, and called for the creation of a congressional committee to investigate the incident. Araceli Ferreyra, a lawmaker with the leftist Evita Movement, wrote on Facebook that she was concerned about "suppression of information" by the navy early on in the search. Local news media have reported tensions between the navy and Macri's administration over lack of timely communication, which both sides have publicly denied. Marta Yanez, a federal judge from the Patagonian city of Caleta Olivia, also began an investigation into the incident at the request of the navy. 'NO HOPE' The information about the possible explosion came on Thursday from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, an international body that runs a global network of listening posts designed to check for secret atomic blasts. Those posts had detected the "violent, non-nuclear" sound. Around 30 boats and planes and 4,000 people from 13 countries including Argentina, the United States, Britain, Chile and Brazil have joined the search for the submarine, which last transmitted its location about 480 km (300 miles) from Argentina's South Atlantic coast. A Russian plane was due to arrive in Argentina on Friday night carrying search equipment capable of reaching 6,000 meters (20,000 ft) below the sea surface, Balbi said. Relatives of the crew had arrived at Mar de Plata on Monday, filled with an optimism that had all but disappeared by Friday. "At this point, the truth is I have no hope that they will come back," Maria Villareal, mother of one crew member, told local television on Friday morning. Others said they would remain at Mar del Plata. "I'm at the base and I'm going to stay until they find the submarine," Silvina Krawczyk, sister of the sub's only female officer, Eliana Maria Krawczyk, told Reuters through the WhatsApp messaging application. Some family members accused the navy of putting their loved ones at unnecessary risk by sending them out in a more than 30-year-old vessel that they suspected was not properly maintained, an accusation the navy has denied. "They killed my brother!" a man leaving the base in a car shouted out to reporters. The older man driving the car was crying. (Additional reporting by Walter Bianchi in Mar del Plata and Maximiliano Rizzi, Nicolas Misculin and Eliana Raszewski in Buenos Aires; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Rosalba O'Brien)
Malvina Vallejos, sister of missing submariner Celso Oscar Vallejos, hangs a message for the 44 crew members of the missing submarine - AFP

The search for the Argentine submarine ARA San Juan reached a critical" point on Wednesday amid fears the 44 crew members could be on their last day of oxygen, as the countrys navy said they had found no trace of the missing vessel.

Hopes had briefly been raised on Wednesday morning by reports in Argentine media that a signal and a heat patch had been detected overnight. But this turned out to be another in a succession of false alarms that have wrought days of cruel disappointment on desperate families.

Britains HMS Protector had in fact spotted three flares, Navy spokesman Captain Enrique Balbi reported, and craft equipped with sonar, infra-red and magnetic detection technology had been scrambled to the zone. But a thorough search yielded nothing, he said.

There was no type of contact with anything supposed to be the submarine, Captain Balbi explained. There had been no report of a heat patch, he said, only a sound quickly dismissed by the vessels that had detected it.

At the moment we dont have any trace" of the ARA San Juan, the spokesman said.

Argentinian Navy personnel on board a C130 searching for missing submarine ARA San Juan Credit: Argentinian Navy

He admitted that a week after the submarines disappearance following a technical fault, the situation was critical. In the worst case scenario, if the submarine has not been able to surface, its seven-day oxygen supply could now be running out.

We are continuing with this phase of search and rescue. We are in the critical part, it has reached the seventh day in terms of oxygen, supposing that for seven days it has not had the capacity to go the surface and renew the oxygen. But we are not dismissing the other options, that it could be on the surface.

More than 4,000 personnel from 12 countries are now scouring the South Atlantic search zone, braving stormy conditions with high winds and waves up to seven metres high. Britains HMS Protector is soon to be joined by the HMS Clyde, while the Royal Navy has also dispatched its elite submarine rescue team.

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The British contingent has drawn insults from far-Left figures in the country where the dispute over the Falklands remains contentious. Leaders of the Workers Party and of radical Left wing group Quebracho branded British forces pirates and occupiers on Twitter, but were widely condemned by Argentine users.

Popular anger is instead largely directed at the Argentine authorities for perceived failures in the search effort, and for lack of investment in the armed forces.

The Argentine Navy admitted only on Monday that the ARA San Juan had reported a short-circuit in its batteries before it lost contact. Family members have criticised delays in the search and alleged maintenance failures. On Wednesday a video emerged of President Maurico Macri under fire from relatives who claimed it was suicide to deploy a very old submarine. Mr Macri insisted that the sub - built in 1985 and renovated completely in 2014 - had been well maintained and that its age does not matter.

Yesterday, Elena Alfaro, sister of crew member Cristian David Ibanez, broke down at the Mar de Plata base as she spoke of her pain at the decisions that have been taken and her fears that time was running out. One cannot believe that it is ones own country that lets them die.
The Rehabilitation Center is facing having its license revoked: Hollywood Hills Rehab

The deaths of 12 people in a sweltering Florida nursing home after Hurricane Irma wiped out power to the building have been ruled as homicides, police say.

The Rehabilitation Center in Miami was evacuated on 13 September when three residents died after the homes air conditioning stopped working.

Five more died later that day before another six passed away during the weeks after the evacuation, reports the Sun Sentinel.

Two of those are no longer part of the criminal investigation after their deaths were found to be unrelated to the heat.

Who gets charged is part of the continuing investigation, said Miranda Grossman, a spokesperson for the Hollywood Police Department. We dont have a timeline of when there would be charges at this point.

A medical examiner confirmed that a dozen people aged between 57 and 99 had died of heat exposure.

Erika Navarro, granddaughter of victims Cecila Franco, 90, and Miguel Antonio Franco, 92, told the newspaper someone needed to be held accountable.

Are they going to go to jail? Are they just going to get a free pass and just pay money, and nothing else happens? she said. To me, thats more important, that people are held accountable and they actually go to jail.

Geoffrey D Smith, a lawyer for the nursing home, said in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee that staff had been closely monitoring patients for two days when the deaths started without warning.

He claimed the temperature inside the home never exceeded 27c, which would be within standards.

The Rehabilitation Center is currently shut down as state regulators attempt to have its license revoked. The home is fighting the move.

Homicide in US law encompasses everything from first degree murder to involuntary manslaughter.
Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi forces said Friday that Islamic State group fighters are withdrawing deep into the desert to escape an offensive aimed at a final defeat of the jihadists.

IS has already been driven out of all of the towns it once held, but Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said he will not proclaim victory until the jihadists have been cleared from the western desert bordering Syria.

The Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary force said its fighters had taken control of 77 villages and hamlets since the launch of the offensive on Thursday morning.

It said five jihadists had been killed south of the ancient desert city of Hatra, but otherwise IS had put up little resistance.

The Hashed said that its fighters, who are mainly recruited from Shiite militias, overran an airfield in the same area, where they discovered underground warehouses used by the jihadists.

Air support for the offensive, which also involves the army and federal police, has so far been provided exclusively by the Iraqi air force.

The US-led coalition, which has provided air support for other offensives against IS in Iraq, said it carried out no strikes on Thursday.

"We will provide strikes if we know that there is an ISIS (IS) cell, or tunnels, or something there," coalition spokesman US Colonel Ryan Dillon told AFP.

"If the requests are not coming, we won't do a strike... it's supply and demand," he said.

"And when you're in such a vast wide open desert area... there's less of a requirement for precision-guided missiles," unlike in urban areas.

At its peak in 2014, IS ruled over seven million people in a territory as large as Italy encompassing large parts of Syria and nearly a third of Iraq.

It is now being flushed out of its last desert hideouts in Iraq and under attack by Russian-backed government forces and US-backed Kurdish-led fighters in its last pockets of control in Syria.
Dublin (AFP) - Ireland's minority government was on the brink of collapse Friday after the main opposition party called a vote of no-confidence in the deputy prime minister, just weeks before a key Brexit summit in which Dublin plays a significant role.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, leader of the Fine Gael party that heads the government, has rejected calls for the resignation of his deputy Frances Fitzgerald.

But opposition leader Micheal Martin, whose Fianna Fail party props up the government, has said there would be an election if she doesn't step down.

Fitzgerald "should step aside in our view and that would avoid a general election", he told RTE public radio.

Fianna Fail has tabled a motion of no-confidence which parliament will vote on next Tuesday. Both parties have raised the prospect of an election before Christmas.

The crisis comes ahead of the key summit on December 14-15 when EU leaders -- including Varadkar -- will have to decide whether to move forward on Brexit negotiations with Britain.

Ireland has repeatedly raised concerns about the fate of the border with British-ruled Northern Ireland, one of three priority areas that must be resolved before the talks move on to trade.

- 'Enormous issue' -

After talks with Martin on Friday, Varadkar said he hoped there was still time to resolve the dispute, which relates to his deputy's past role as justice minister.

"I think we still have an opportunity over the next couple of days and the weekend to avoid a general election," the prime minister told RTE television.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney took a more combative approach, telling reporters as he arrived for an EU meeting in Brussels that Fianna Fail was "behaving recklessly".

"We have a precarious situation with the main opposition party that signed up to an agreement in the country's interest... now effectively breaching that and risking an election at a time when there are some really, really serious issues for the government to manage," he added.

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After Fine Gael lost seats in the February 2016 election, Fianna Fail agreed to support its minority government on budgets and abstain or vote against any motions of no confidence.

The crisis centres around claims that Fitzgerald, who was minister for justice between 2014 and 2016, was aware of attempts to undermine police whistleblower Maurice McCabe, who had alleged corruption and malpractice within the force.

"This is an enormous issue, it's something that is at the core to every citizen of this country," Martin told RTE radio.

Varadkar on Friday called them "trumped up charges" and repeated that he would not be seeking Fitzgerald's resignation.

Both parties have said that a vote, if necessary, should be conducted as soon as possible, with senior government figures suggesting the week of December 18.

Third party Sinn Fein has tabled a similar no-confidence motion, but outgoing party president Gerry Adams has said he will not lead the party into any snap election.

Adams has called upon Varadkar to veto an agreement between Britain and the bloc if there are no guarantees that the Irish border will remain open.

Arlene Foster, leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, on Friday accused the Irish government of using the Brexit negotiations "to put forwards their views on" Irish unification.
In recent times, its Eastern Europe and Russia which have become a hot-bed of crytpocurrency development. But on a recent trip to Tel Aviv, Israel, I took part in what might well turn out to be a historic lunch.

The lunch took place just after well-known tech investor Moshe Hogeg announced he would invest in every Israeli blockchain that approached him. That investor group, called Alignment, consisted of the Singulariteam Technology Group, together with CoinTree Capital, and BlockchainIL.

Held at Alignment's new blockchain Hub in Tel Aviv, we got to hear from an array of new companies.

Dubbed by many as Startup Nation, Tel Aviv has begun to produce a new breed of tech giants, but its now turning its hand to blockchain and crypto companies. In recent months, my mailbox has become inundated with pitches from companies claiming to be the next blockchain phenomenon, with plans to revolutionize the finance world, healthcare landscape, travel industry, you name it. The problem is, which one, if any, can deliver? However, after getting deep into the subject with the companies I met, I realized many were at least on to something. Whether they would survive or not

Heres a run-down of who I met with:

The idea of a blockchain network that works for the average person still seems far off. But Erachain wants to address that. Russian programmer Dmitrii Ermolaev, co-founder and CEO has grown it from a small operation to a distributed organization. Erachain is a decentralized blockchain platform that has incorporated European and World-Wide AML laws, potentially eliminating the need for traditional banks. It ties all coins with physical assets, reduces the cost of normal crypto transactions, and claims to eliminate anonymous transactions by verifying all users upon registration.

Its been 4 years in development and is all about creating a Proof of Stake system where verified accounts are used as nodes. The use cases are enterprise and government, where using these technologies is often a huge barrier to entry. Right now its about document management and digital signatures.

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In the future, most applications of large-scale are going to require some kind of verification platform.

This team has been involved in the Bitcoin space since 2011. After the DAO hack, founder Adam Perlow wanted to focus on making Bitcoin better, more usable and useful. He has spent the last year creating Zen Protocol, leveraging the blockchain technology and the popularity of Bitcoin to try to decentralize the financial system by building a new protocol purpose-built for finance. Zens pitch is that it allows anyone to create financial transactions, at any time, anywhere in the world using Bitcoin. Zen is designed to be open, frictionless, transparent, and completely decentralized across a Proof-of-Work Blockchain. Zen Core is implemented in the .Net stack and uses the F* functional programming language, built by Microsoft Research, to power contracts.

Perlow says: Today its very hard to enforce agreements. You put funds with the exchange and enter an agreement with a broker. But on the blockchain you dont need a trusted 3rd party. Banks have huge control and too much control over our lives.

Zen wants to bring the entire financial world onto the blockchain, connecting digital and crypto assets with fiat stocks and commodities. If we had a mechanism by which to enforce contractual obligations you wouldn't need this trusted third-party," he says.

Its global world and commerce is global but it doesnt tap into the full potential because of trust. Trust is centralized and held by banks, Visa etc. These are centralized, high on fees and the approval rate is not good for rest of the world outside of the G10. Meanwhile, Ethereurm and ripple not designed for payments. So the solution is a system built from the ground up to be payment mechanism which is instant, zero fees, reversible, and has anti-fraud mechanisms.

Founder Nir Gazit says: Bitcoin is not good for stuff, its not reversible, theres no mediation. So they are building a full stack, an exchange, a wallet, a credit card.

COTI aims to make the global economy truly global by providing instant, scalable, and secure transactions using the COTIcoin. COTI, which appropriately stands for Currency of the Internet, is aimed at incentivizing honest conduct between sellers and buyers by creating a unique behavior scoring feature on the Bitcoin sidechain. Users who achieve an honest score, meaning those vendors who ship products on time, or buyers who pay when theyre supposed to, are rewarded. The system lets both buyers and sellers see the score of another user before he or she chooses to interact with them. COTI aims to reduce high checkout abandonment rates and eliminate uncertainty while shopping online.

There are currently over 1,000 digital currencies operating on a decentralized basis, however, none can provide the services leading centralized payment providers can. By combining a centralized mediation process and a decentralized payment process, COTI says it has created a technological solution for the consumer payments sector.

Jelurida is the development company behind Nxt and Ardor blockchain platforms. It creates customized commercial versions of these platforms while continuously supporting and maintaining the decentralized public Nxt blockchain. With the upcoming Ardor platform, Jelurida will be creating custom child chains for its clients and partners as well.

Whereas many blockchain companies are still in the fundraising stage, Nxt is fully operational and trading with a market cap of over a hundred million dollars. The company, which has in the past offered functions specifically designed for crypto developers, is turning its focus to use cases which have to do with everyday life, from introducing new voting mechanisms to offering transparent international bank transfers that consumers can enjoy. Ardor is the newest blockchain platform Jelurida has been working on, and functions as sort of a Nxt 2.0. Ardor features a unique parent-child chain structure, which helps combat blockchain bloat.



Investor Moshe Hogeg has created the Alignment investment vehicle to invested purely in Israeli blockchain and crypto startups.

CrowdWiz, which is a fully decentralized crypto investment platform that lets users ditch third-party fund managers, recently began its ICO on November 20th. The company has already raised over $5 million in a public pre-sale, and plans to use the money to develop their investment platform. CrowdWiz relies on the so-called wisdom of the crowd to make funding decisions. The CEO Slavena Savcheva claims that a collective entity makes a better decision as a whole than the most intelligent person in the group alone.

CrowdWiz allows the crowd, not fund managers, banks or middlemen, to decide on how the general fund is spent. Users of CrowdWiz will use the companys cryptocurrency, the OPX token, to vote on which asset they want funds to go to. The platform then distributes based on the majority opinion of the crowd. CrowdWiz solves some of the issues associated with traditional funds today, such as high entrance costs and large fees. Savcheva wants to make the trading process fun, easy, and completely transparent using the wisdom of the crowd to decide where the money goes.

Prior to founding CrowdWiz, Savcheva was the Business Development Manager for TRADOLOGIC, one of the worlds leading FinTech software providers, where she operated and steered the firms business in Asian markets.

Orbs sits under Cointree and is based on the Spector paper written by Hebrew university researchers. It takes the blockchain and turns it into a DAG, another database structure, so it can then process many more blocks in a second. The idea is that it puts the bottleneck at the communication layer not the not the consensus layer. Since the more forks in a blockchain the less secure and slower it become, Orbs claims to be able to process a transaction at whatever speed the network is.

Alignment came about because the VC firm Singulariteam partnered with two local Israeli firms, Blockchain IL and CoinTree Capital, to form a sort of blockchain and ICO consultancy which they dubbed "Alignment." The company aims to groom and support the next blockchain unicorn coming out of Israel. The company consults, develops and funds Blockchain early-stage projects and existing companies, from inception through ICO, and later.

Startups will need to pay for the privilege, of course. Its listed clients to date include Bancor, messaging app Kik, and Stox. Of those, Bancor conducted a $153 million ICO, while Kik raised $98 million in its token sale earlier this year.

Since many people are skeptical of ICOs at the moment (especially in light of the Tezos controversy), Alignment supports blockchain companies, in a climate that's at best lukewarm towards ICOs. Moshe Hogeg, VC, Founder & Chairman of the Singulariteam, pledged Alignment would invest, without exception, in every Israeli blockchain company in 2017."

If youve been following the blockchain revolution, youve probably heard about Bancor. This company made history when it held one of the most successful ICOs (at the time it was a world record), raising over $153 million from over 10,000 participants in less than three hours. Bancor has created a market maker application that aims to facilitate trading with other digital coins. The Bancor protocol enables built-in price-discovery and a liquidity mechanism for tokens on smart contract blockchains. Bancors claims it allows anyone to create their own cryptocurrency and operate it independent of a third-party exchange. The Bancor Protocol allows for the creation of thousands of cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum blockchain, creating a interconnected asset exchange ecosystem which unlocks the long tail of user-generated tokens. Smart tokens are designed with additional functionality such as delegated account recovery and vaults to address security issues. The aim of these features is to make cryptocurrencies more accessible and to encourage mass adoption.

You may have heard the news about Stoxs ethereum based prediction market platform when Floyd Mayweather boasted he would make a $hit t$n of money  on the Stox.com ICO.

Following Mayweathers bullish words, Stox raised $33 million in an ICO last August. Stox claims users can predict and trade the outcome of events in almost any imaginable category: Finance, sports, politics and even the weather, as they might in a traditional stock market.

Unlike a lot of crypto companies which tailor their services to blockchain experts, the Stox platform is designed to accommodate, and be intuitive for mainstream audiences.

As you can see, Israel, and specifically Tel Aviv, is creating a huge force in this new world. If they play their cards right, they could well start to rival the co-called Crypto Valley in Switzerland.
Vibrantly alive and powerfully delivered, BPM (Beats Per Minute) will be Frances entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award this year -- a notice that it richly deserves.

But the film isnt only a tightly focused delineation of a relationship. Nor is it simply a historical drama or just a pivotal contribution to gay political cinema.

It is all of the above and more as it looks at the early days of ACT UP in Paris as the AIDS advocacy group takes on the government, pharmaceutical companies and each other, fighting against time for those who had been diagnosed with AIDS -- a death sentence in the early 90s.

Its directed by Robin Campillo and co-written by Philippe Mangeot, who were both members of the Paris chapter ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and based the film on their experiences.

That said, the movie isnt pure docudrama, as it begins circa 1990-91, a couple years after the Parisians imported ACT UP from New York, where it was founded in 1987. While the goals and tactics of the group are similar to those in New York, its definitely French -- starting with the debate-rooted meetings in a university lecture hall.

Thats where much of the film takes place, the activists returning there after theyve made an assault on a pharma companies office, met with government officials or marched in a gay pride parade.

Its there that we meet the groups leaders -- the fearless Sophie (Adele Haenel) and the negotiator Thibault (Antoine Reinartz), who knows the science and is the official voice at meetings with the government.

Its also where Helene (Catherine Vinatier) pushes for legal action against the government officials and pharma executives who have held up drugs that could treat her HIV-positive hemophiliac son Marco (Theophile Ray), whos the chief preparator of the fake blood the activists throw on their actions.

The romance that begins midway through the film is between Nathan (Arnaud Valois), who we see join the group in the initial scenes and is greeted with suspicion because hes not infected, and contentious firebrand Sean (Nahuel Perez Biscayart).

We watch and become involved with them -- and about a half dozen other primary group members -- over the course of more than a year, captured with gripping realism via Jeanne Lapoiries hand-held camera.

At 2 hours, 26 minutes, BPM is plenty long. But it never slows down until the final 20 minutes or so of what becomes an inevitable long goodbye for a pivotal character that had to be the way the movie ends.

Theres been some criticism of BPM, saying that it doesnt adequately explain the AIDS crisis of the early 90s for contemporary viewers.

But theres no need to know the science about the disease at the time (which was pretty rudimentary) or what Kaposis sarcoma is to get whats going on in the picture -- from the activists efforts to force the development of government programs to combat the disease to the need for new drugs.

The story of ACT UP, which has been seen in American documentaries, needed to be recounted from France as well. And it couldnt be better done than in BPM.
Rome (AFP) - Italian police on Friday launched a campaign to reduce the murder rate against women, which has remained stubbornly high despite a decline in the total number of homicides over recent years.

Entitled "This is not love", the campaign was launched on the eve of the UN-backed International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Italy recorded 149 female murder victims last year, barely changed from the 150 recorded in 2007. Femicides now account for 37 percent of the total compared to 24 percent a decade ago.

Not all killings of women are motivated by the victim's gender, but sexual assaults and domestic violence are key elements in the overall picture.

And official figures on these type of crimes represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Female victims often hesitate to file charges "for fear of being judged" or "because they are ashamed to reveal details of their intimate lives," according to a new booklet containing revised guidelines for forces dealing with crimes of violence against women.

The guidelines include new requirements for registering reports of domestic violence, designed to ensure incidents that don't necessarily lead to charges being pressed are kept on file.

"It is not enough to apply the law, we also have to assure women (making complaints) are welcomed, informed and supported in a way that enables them to escape the conditions of subservience and isolation they sometimes find themselves in," notes national police chief Franco Gabrielli.

The material to be delivered to forces around the country includes testimony from officers specialised in dealing with the victims of domestic violence.

"I'll never forget the faces of the women I've had in my office over the years, and above all their voices when they've told me they feel responsible for what has happened to them," recounts Rosaria Maida, a deputy police commissioner in Palermo, Sicily.

Instances of acid attacks by spurned lovers and other examples of violence against women are covered prominently by the Italian media and often cited as evidence of an unreconstructed macho culture in the country.

Official figures do not indicate that women are more at risk of attack in Italy than elsewhere but campaigners on the issue say this could partly reflect under-reporting of crimes linked to a culture of victim-shaming.
YouTube stepped up enforcement of its guidelines for videos aimed at children, the unit of Alphabet Incs Google said on Wednesday, responding to criticism that it has failed to protect children from adult content.

The streaming video service removed more than 50 user channels in the last week and stopped running ads on over 3.5 million videos since June, YouTube vice president Johanna Wright wrote in a blog post.

Across the board we have scaled up resources to ensure that thousands of people are working around the clock to monitor, review and make the right decisions across our ads and content policies, Wright said. These latest enforcement changes will take shape over the weeks and months ahead as we work to tackle this evolving challenge.

YouTube has become one of Googles fastest-growing operations in terms of sales by simplifying the process of distributing video online but putting in place few limits on content.

Parents, regulators, advertisers and law enforcement have become increasingly concerned about the open nature of the service. They have contended that Google must do more to banish and restrict access to inappropriate videos, whether it be propaganda from religious extremists and Russia or comedy skits that appear to show children being forcibly drowned.

Concerns about childrens videos gained new force in the last two weeks after reports in BuzzFeed and the New York Times and an online essay by British writer James Bridle pointed out questionable clips.

A forum on the Reddit internet platform dubbed ElsaGate, based on the Walt Disney Co princess, also became a repository of problematic videos.

Several forum posts Wednesday showed support for YouTubes actions while noting that vetting must expand even further.

Common Sense Media, an organization that monitors childrens content online, did not immediately respond to a request to comment about YouTubes announcement.

YouTubes Wright cited a growing trend around content on YouTube that attempts to pass as family-friendly, but is clearly not for the new efforts to remove them from YouTube.

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The company relies on review requests from users, a panel of experts and an automated computer program to help its moderators identify material possibly worth removing.

Moderators now are instructed to delete videos featuring minors that may be endangering a child, even if that was not the uploaders intent, Wright said. Videos with popular characters but containing mature themes or adult humor will be restricted to adults, she said.

In addition, commenting functionality will be disabled on any videos where comments refer to children in a sexual or predatory manner.
By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA (Reuters) - A special court with international prosecutors and judges set up to tackle alleged war crimes by ethnic Albanians against Serbs during Kosovo's 1998-99 war is ready to proceed with its first indictments, its president said in an interview. The court, which could indict or call as witnesses current officials in Pristina's government, will function under Kosovo law but operate in the Netherlands to minimize the risk of witness intimidation and judicial corruption in Kosovo. The Kosovo Specialist Chamber was set up in The Hague following U.S. and European Union pressure on the Kosovo government to confront allegations of atrocities against ethnic Serbs by Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas. The KLA rose up against then-Serbian strongman President Slobodan Milosevic, eventually winning crucial NATO air support that halted the killing and expulsion of Kosovo Albanian civilians in a brutal counter-insurgency campaign. Kosovo, with a 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority, declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and has been recognized by over 110 states, but not by Serbia or Russia. The now-disbanded KLA, which counts among its former ranks much of Kosovo's current political elite, has been dogged for years by allegations that it sold organs removed from murdered Serb prisoners on the black market. We are really fully operational," Ekaterina Trendafilova, the Bulgarian court president, said, though she did not know when the first indictments would be filed. Asked if anyone in Kosovo would have immunity, she said: "There is no immunity for anyone regardless of their position, and amnesty also cannot apply. "(We will be addressing) individual criminal responsibility not related to any organization, to any group or ethnicity." Local media and analysts speculated that some of Kosovo's top officials who held commanding positions within the KLA could face indictments or be called as witnesses. A 2011 report for the Council of Europe linked leading Kosovo figures  notably President Hashim Thaci  to gruesome crimes against Serbs, including trade in organs harvested from prisoners of war. Thaci has denied any wrongdoing. Another Hague-based court, the U.N. Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), will close down soon after delivering its last major verdict on Wednesday, convicting former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic of genocide. The ICTY, which addressed crimes mainly in the former Yugoslav republics of Bosnia and Croatia, indicted 161 people in all - including Milosevic, who died in prison during his trial - and convicted 83, more than 60 of them ethnic Serbs. (Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Ivana Sekularac and Mark Heinrich)
The Houses of Parliament in Westminster are floodlit in red light to mark #RedWednesday on Nov. 22 in London, England.

Buildings in the United Kingdom and other countries are glowing a deep red on Wednesday in honor of Christians around the globe who have been persecuted for their faith.

Londons Houses of Parliament, Westminster Cathedral and other landmark cathedrals, schools, colleges, and churches in the U.K. haveagreed to light up red as part of a weeklong initiativeto raise awareness about religious persecution.

Dozens of cathedrals and churches in the Philippinesare also participating, as well as a church in Erbil, Iraq, thatopened last year to serve Christian refugees displaced by the self-described Islamic State.

The #RedWednesday initiative was organized by the Catholic charityAid to the Church in Need (UK) and the London-based organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

This is only the second time the annual event has taken place. Along with buildings turning red, several parishes are holding vigils and solidarity services.

Participants attend a #RedWednesday event in central London.

While it is primarily focused on shining a light on persecution against Christians, #RedWednesday also seeks to highlight injustices perpetrated against other faith groups.

Neville Kyrke-Smith, national director of Aid to the Church in Need (UK), told HuffPost that his organization is calling for people to be given the right to express and live their faith.

In so many parts of the world today, people are denied work, housing, liberty or even their life because of their religious belief, he said in a statement. Aid to the Church in Need is delighted to work with CSW and others including representatives of different religious communities to stand up for faith and freedom.

Religious persecution is a violation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It happens to people of many different faiths, through arbitrary detention, unjust interrogation, enslavement, forced displacement, execution, destruction of worship spaces and other violent acts.

According to Under Caesars Sword, a global research project that studies Christian communities and violations of religious freedom, Christians face persecution from theocratic governments in Saudi Arabia and Iran, but also from Communist countries like North Korea and China. Religious nationalism in countries like India and Russia can also result in harassment of some Christians.

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Research from the Pew Research Center suggests thatChristians have been harassed in more countries than any other religious group  although this could partly be due to the widespread distribution of Christians around the world.

Aid to the Church in Need has documented a rise in oppression and violence against Christians  including in countries like Iraq, where a prayer vigil took place in honor of #RedWednesday.

The Our Lady of Perpetual Help church in Erbil, Iraq, is lit up for a #RedWednesday vigil.

Bashar Warda, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, said in a statement that he has cared for displaced Iraqi Christians for over three years. He sees the vigil at the Mother of Perpetual Help Church as a gesture of gratitude.

This act of solidarity from the U.K. in the form #RedWednesday is deeply moving to us. We want to light our Church in red in full solidarity and gratitude with our brothers and sisters around the world who continue to show how close they are to us.

Scroll down for photos from this years #RedWednesday.

The Houses of Parliament were floodlit in red to remember all those killed, kidnapped, tortured or suffering because of their religious beliefs. The #RedWednesday campaign is organized by the charity Aid to the Church in Need.

We've lit up Lambeth Palace tonight in solidarity with our brothers and sisters persecuted for their Christian faith - and with all who suffer for their peaceably held beliefs.#RedWednesdaypic.twitter.com/BUeA1JUi3G  Lambeth Palace  (@lambethpalace)November 22, 2017

The Cathedral of@StGeorgeUKStevenage is lit in red this evening in honour of#RedWednesdayraising awareness to the plight of Christians and others suffering religious persecution worldwide@acn_uk@CSW_UKpic.twitter.com/MlRrWzmN8o  CopticMediaUK (@CopticMediaUK)November 22, 2017

The Manila Cathedral in the Philippines lights up for #RedWednesday on Nov. 22.

A post shared by Gian Carlo C Austria (@giannnncarloa)on Nov 22, 2017 at 4:57am PST

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Brussels (AFP) - Leaders from the EU and six former Soviet states meet in Brussels on Friday for the latest summit aimed at deepening ties, but thorny subjects like Russian influence and the war in Ukraine are off the agenda.

The set-piece will focus on 20 "deliverables" -- plans to help Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus tackle corruption, improve the rule of law and modernise their economies.

Brussels insists its so-called Eastern Partnership with the six states is "not aimed at any country", but the likes of Moldova and Ukraine have urged the European Union to send a welcoming signal to their people to counter the siren call of Moscow.

Concerns are running high over the Kremlin's use of cyber tactics and misinformation to cause political destabilisation around Europe and draw former Soviet states into its embrace.

British Prime Minister Theresa May will warn the summit to be on guard against "the actions of hostile states like Russia which... attempt to tear our collective strength apart".

- European aspirations -

Ukraine has pushed for a clear pledge from the 28-member bloc that one day it will be allowed to join, with President Petro Poroshenko warning that closing the door to membership would validate the Kremlin's claims to "special interests" in the region.

And Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip, whose pro-EU government faces an election next year, said his people wanted Brussels to show them a "guiding star".

"It's not about the money, it's about political support," he said. "It's about feeling the political support, those positive declarations. This is the most important in winning hearts and minds."

Unless the EU gives a clear and unambiguous signal that they could at least in principle one day join, Moldova and Ukraine argue they could go the way of Belarus -- which lies firmly in Russia's orbit.

But there is little appetite in the EU for eastward expansion, particularly after Dutch voters rejected the first attempt at an association accord with Ukraine in an April 2016 referendum.

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Moreover, the war in Ukraine -- which had its roots in Moscow's opposition to Kiev signing an association agreement with the EU -- and a billion-dollar corruption scandal in Moldova has cooled some of the enthusiasm Brussels had in the early days of the Eastern Partnership.

A joint declaration to be made at the summit goes no further than acknowledging the "European aspirations and European choice" of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, according to a draft seen by AFP.

The EU hopes that focusing on concrete measures that will improve people's lives in the partner countries -- such as small business loans and reducing mobile phone roaming charges -- will improve its popularity and see off the lure from Moscow.

- Don't mention the war -

The summit is also set to shy away from discussion of any of the separatist conflicts currently rumbling on with varying degrees of intensity in the six partner states.

Unlike the declaration after the last summit in 2015, this time there will be no specific mention of the war in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists, which has killed more than 10,000 people.

Nor does the draft statement refer to the bitter row between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, which almost flared into a full-scale war last year.

Instead it simply calls for "renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region" -- a sharp contrast to the strong language in 2015, which criticised Russia's annexation of Crimea outright.

An EU official insisted the bloc was still "deeply engaged" in efforts to resolve conflicts in the former Soviet states but said the summit was not the right place to pursue them.
White nationalist Richard Spencer has been banned fro 26 European countries (AP)

A leading figure in the white nationalist movement has reportedly been banned from over two dozen European countries.

Richard Spencer is said to have been banned from entering 26 countries across Europes visa-free Schengen zone for the next five years.

The ban was introduced by Polish authorities, who apparently implemented the ban after he was due to travel to the country to speak at a far-right conference.

Sources close to Polands Foreign Ministry confirms the ban had already taken effect.

Spencer, who was previously banned from the Schengen zone for three years after he was arrested in Hungary in 2014, has vowed to fight the ban.

Spencer was previously banned after being arrested in Hungary in 2014 (AP)

He said: Im being treated like a criminal by the Polish government. Its just insane.

I havent done anything. What are they accusing me of?

Polands Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski last month described Spencer as someone who defames the Holocaust.

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Mr Waszczykowski said: He should not appear publicly, and especially not in Poland.

Spencer, 39, is president of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist think tank.

He has previously called for peaceful ethnic cleansing to halt the deconstruction of European culture and claimed to have coined the term alt-right, a movement he considers being about white identity.
Gary Culbert didn't expect to be so grateful this Thanksgiving.

He didn't expect so many people -- so many strangers -- to send him their money, or for nearly two dozen motorcycles to rumble to a stop in front of his house to give him a $1,000 check.

But he also didn't expect his arms and legs and face to be this scarred from flaming vegetable oil, and his family to be burdened with hospital bills.

The 34-year-old handyman rushed into a neighbor's house in the middle of September after a 17-year-old girl had rushed out, needing help putting out a fire on the stove.

She had been trying to make poutine -- a Canadian dish of fried potatoes, cheese curds and gravy -- when the oil in her kettle ignited. She was home alone, her father at church.

Culbert couldn't turn off the burner because the knobs were behind the flames. He tried to remove the pot, but the flames leapt, he flinched and the oil splashed.

Before the ambulance carried him to the burn unit at CHI St. Elizabeth, hed scrambled to his feet, ran home and returned with an extinguisher to douse the last of the fire.

He spent several days in the hospital, with pig skin temporarily grafted to the worst of his burns. He went back three weeks later so doctors could transplant skin from his scalp to his leg and arm.

His medical bills kept building, about $80,000 since the fire. His health insurance carried a high deductible, more than $7,000. And even after the neighboring homeowner's insurance company paid $1,000, and the man who rented the house paid another $1,000 from his own pockets, he was still short.

His mother in South Dakota launched an online fundraiser, but it had generated only $180 by the middle of November.

Then she contacted the paper. And after the Journal Star wrote about Culbert's heroism and pain Nov. 12, the donations poured in. More than 30 people gave the first day -- contributing $25 and $50 and $100 at a time, some leaving their names but most remaining anonymous.

Culbert was moved by the generosity. It feels really nice to see the response of people, the willingness to participate in helping, he said. Its a huge relief, to take some of that burden off.

Overall, more than 50 people gave more than $3,500 online, and others mailed their donations directly. And then, on Sunday, the Roughriders Motorcycle Group rolled down Culbert's street near 56th and Normal.

We raise money and we give it away, that's what we do, said Jeff Barnes, the group's president. And we ride motorcycles.

Since 1998, the Roughriders have donated more than $300,000 to Lincoln-area people and causes, Barnes said. Helping the Culbert family was an easy decision.

This story really struck our members because of what Gary did for a neighbor, he said. It was really nice to see that theres still people out there willing to help out.

More than 20 Roughriders pulled up to Culbert's house to present the check.

It brought tears to my eyes for a minute to see such a nice group of guys and their willingness to share and help out a family in the community, Culbert said.

He'd known they were coming, but it surprised his wife, Rebekah. Later, she wrote a long thank-you letter to the group, describing the fear of not initially knowing the severity of her husband's burns, her pride in being married to a man willing to risk his life for someone else, her gratitude for the community's generosity.

There is something very powerful and moving about all of you arriving on your bikes  she wrote. You handed us peace of mind, a great feeling of relief, renewed faith that we will be okay, and reminded us what humanity looks like.

The father of the girl frying potatoes was grateful, too. Hed visited Culbert in the hospital several times. He brought food. He didnt have renters insurance, so he donated $1,000. He felt grief, and appreciation, for what his neighbor went through that night, and the nights since.

I have a lot of respect for Gary, he said. We were as saddened as you can imagine.

But all of this attention, and all of this money, is a little difficult for Culbert to reconcile. After the Journal Star story appeared, his friends wondered why he hadn't said anything about his struggles.

He's just never been a beggar, he said. I'm not really one to go wanting people to bail me out.

But now, as the donations mount, he wants Lincoln to know he's grateful. Even if he will never know all of the donors who helped.

Some of the people, there's no way to personally thank them. So I just want to say a personal thank you to everybody.
Aijalon Gomes pictured with former US President Jimmy Carter after the latter intervened to bring him home from detention in North Korea: Adam Hunger/Reuters

An American whose release from a North Korean prison was negotiated by former president Jimmy Carter has burned to death in California.

Police have confirmed that a body found engulfed in flames in a dirt field in San Diego is that of Aijalon Mahil Gomes.

An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer found the former teacher on fire on Friday night and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Gomes, 38, made headlines around the world in January 2010 when he was captured by North Korean authorities after entering the country illegally through China.

He was also said to have committed an unidentified hostile act and was sentenced to eight years hard labour and fined around $600,000.

An investigation has now been launched into Mr Gomes death but police say foul play is not suspected.

The preliminary investigation indicates the death is not a homicide but rather an accidental death or a suicide, said San Diego police homicide lieutenant Todd Griffin in a statement.

A final determination cannot be made until the Medical Examiners Office completes its investigation.

The Boston native had been living in South Korea before his 2010 arrest, where he taught English and regularly attended the Every Nation Church in Seoul.

It has long been thought that Mr Gomes crossed into North Korea to act as a missionary, following in the footsteps at another worshiper from the same church.

Korean-American Robert Park entered the country one month before Mr Gomes did. He was also captured but released after being detained for six weeks.

But in a rare interview with website Charon QC in 2015, Mr Gomes said he had been inspired to enter North Korea to teach after hearing racist comments made about the country by women in South Korea.

One day while socialising with a group of Korean/American women after church one woman said, There is only one Korea  South Korea. North Koreans are not Koreans, he told Charon QC.

I was shocked and deeply hurt and offended. For me it brought up thoughts about racism, segregation and the condition of race inequality in America.

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I decided that after I taught English in the South, I would find a way to teach the children in the North as well.

According to his 2015 memoir Violence and Humanity, Mr Gomes crossed the border into North Korea by walking across a frozen stretch of the Tumen River, before being immediately apprehended.

Mr Gomes believed he was being used as a pawn by the North Koreans as tensions escalated between Washington and Pyongyang over the sinking of Cheonan, a South Korean warship.

North Korean state media KCNA threatened harsher punishment and wartime law against Mr Gomes if the Americans persisted in its hostile approach towards the sinking of the ship.

An international inquiry found that a North Korean torpedo had sunk the Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors, but Pyongyang rejected the claims and threatened war of UN sanctions were imposed.

I was disappointed and disgusted at being used as a paw or for leverage for political gain by powers-at-large, he told Charon QC.

Headlines in 2010 were also dominated by speculation as to whether Mr Carter had met with then-leader Kim Jong-il.

At the time, the countrys reclusive leader was caught up in political manoeuvres to try and secure the succession of his youngest son, and current leader, Kim Jong-un.

KCNA reported that the elder Kim had leniently granted Mr Carters request to release Mr Gomes but denied that he had been granted an audience with the leader.

Mr Carter is instead said to have met Kim Yong-nam, at the time one of Pyongyangs top officials, and Kim Gye-gwan, who was the countrys chief nuclear negotiator.

North Korean media also claimed that Mr Gomes made a suicide attempt in July 2010 while he was still in custody.

Mr Gomes confirmed these claims in the 2015 Charon QC interview saying he attributes his survival to Gods will.

With the amount of blood I lost, my less than average physique and the pain, I cant really give you a sensible account of how I survived, he said.

Mr Gomes also revealed in the interview that he experienced issues with anxiety because of the ordeal which had made him mostly a recluse.

Of course I have setbacks and frustrations. At first, absolutely no one in my family reached out to hear my story, he said.

I wouldnt say I am famous and really dont have any desire to be. I would just like to live my life peacefully and help people any way I can.

This week The New York Times reported that Mr Gomes mother Jacqueline McCarthy had confirmed to a local news station that her son had just moved to San Diego from Boston, but that she had asked for privacy as the family dealt with the death.

If the San Diego Medical Examiners Office concludes that Mr Gomes death is a suicide he will be the second American to have killed themselves after being released from a North Korean prison.

Evan Hunziker, who was the first American to be arrested by North Korea on espionage charges since the end of the Korean War, spent three months in custody in 1996 after entering the country by swimming across the Yalu River from China.

However, he committed suicide less than a month after his return, which his father attributed to a fear of going back to jail.

There are currently three Americans being detained by North Korea  Kim Dong Chul who is being held on espionage charges, Kim Sang-duk who is being held for committing hostile criminal acts, and Kim Hak-Song who is being held on suspicion of hostile acts.

However this week relations between North Korea and America reached a new boiling point after president Donald Trump decided to label the country a state sponsor of terror.

The move triggered sanctions including restrictions on US foreign assistance and a ban on defence exports and sales.

North Korea labelled is a serious provocation and violent infringement against the regime, now under the control of Kim Jong-un.
UPDATE: Nov. 25  Hughes has had to postpone his planned launch for the time being, The Washington Post reported Friday. Hughes said he was unable to obtain the required permits to launch on public land, but now plans for it to take place sometime next week on private property.

PREVIOUSLY:

A self-taught rocket engineer who claims he believes the earth is flat plans to launch himself nearly 2,000 feet in the air on a homemade steam rocket this Saturday.

Mad Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver, told The Associated Press that hell be lifting off over the California ghost town of Amboy, traveling about a mile at 500 mph, reaching 1,800 feet in altitude and then exiting via parachute.

The amateur rocket scientist has been making national headlines not just for the stunt, but for his self-professed bizarre attitude toward science, given the circumstances.

For one thing, his primary sponsor in the endeavor is reportedly a group called Research Flat Earth. Photos that Hughes has posted on Facebook show the words RESEARCH FLAT EARTH painted in large letters across the bright red rockets side.

I dont believe in science, Hughes told AP. I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But thats not science, thats just a formula. Theres no difference between science and science fiction.

His ultimate plan, he said, is to launch a rocket into space so he can see for himself whether or not the earth is flat.

While a homemade rocket built by someone who claims to not believe in science seems a little alarming, Hughes does have some experience under his belt. In 2014, he flew a manned rocket more than 1,000 feet over Winkelman, Arizona.

In 2016, he planned another launch up the side of Texas Palo Duro Canyon, but ultimately canceled after some of his last-minute tests were absolutely brutal, the Amarillo Globe-News reported at the time. He was also awarded a 2002 Guinness World Record for the longest ramp jump in a limousine.

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The Washington Post has raised the question of whether Hughes flat-eartherism may be more opportunistic than sincere, pointing out that he only converted to the philosophy after failing to come up with enough money to fund his latest project on his own. The rocket has cost about $20,000 so far, according to AP.

When Hughes first conceived of the launch, he attempted to fund it via a Kickstarter campaign that didnt mention any skepticism about science or the generally acknowledged shape of the planet.

According to Hughes website, the launch is set to take place Saturday. The event wont be open to the public, but will be available on internet [pay-per-view].

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Palo Duro Canyon was in California. Its in Texas.

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New research may point to significant gender bias regarding the consequences when female surgeons make mistakes versus their male counterparts. (Photo: Getty Images)

Female surgeons dont have it easy. They not only have to navigate all the potential downfalls that come with working in a male-dominated field, like unfair work-life balance pressures and sexual harassment, but also a new paper finds theyre punished more than their male counterparts when making the exact same mistakes.

Heather Sarsons, an economics PhD candidate and doctoral fellow in the Inequality and Social Policy program at Harvard University, conducted research that found evidence that a persons gender influences the way others interpret their ability. Specifically, Sarsonss research unveiled a pretty disturbing truth among medicines most elite practitioners: Primary care physicians (PCP) trust female surgeons abilities a lot less and give men much more room to make mistakes  with gender being the only differentiating factor.

To identify potential gender bias, Sarsons identified and matched observably similar male and female surgeons who performed the same tasks, and she compared their referral data from PCPs.

Following a bad patient outcome (a patient death), PCPs lower their beliefs about a female surgeons ability more than they do for male surgeons, she wrote in the paper. In fact, referrals from PCPs dropped by 54 percent after the bad outcome if the surgeon was female. Males only experienced a slight stagnation after a bad outcome.

Sarsons also examined what would happen if the operation was a success. She found that PCPs confidence in male surgeons spiked after a positive outcome, as their referrals would double. Female surgeons referrals after a good experience increased by only 70 percent.

These biases on part of the PCP fade over time, after theyve gotten to know the surgeon  if they make it past the threshold. However, Sarsons found the consequences of this bias to be damaging.

I find that in addition to receiving fewer referrals, women also receive less difficult procedures and less risky patients after a patient death, she wrote. This change in the types of referrals female surgeons receive affects both skill accumulation and surgeon pay. In other words, one mistake can alter a female surgeons career pay and trajectory early on, while men can make a mistake and have their trajectories fairly unscathed.

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There is no evidence to suggest male surgeons are more deserving of the preferential treatment, either. A study published in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) in October found that patients are less likely to die within a month if a female surgeon operates. The University of Toronto team looked back over 104,630 patients treated between 2007 and 2015. The risk of dying within 30 days following an operation was 12 percent less if it was performed by a woman.

We dont know the mechanism that underlies better outcomes for patients treated by female surgeons, the studys researcher Raj Satkunasivam, MD, told Yahoo. Although it might be related to delivery of care that is more congruent with guidelines, more patient-centered, and involves superior communication.

Despite this, women make up only 19 percent of all surgeons. Sarsonss research  that female surgeons still have to prove themselves so much more, with much less room for career-altering mistakes  helps to explain why this is. Hopefully with the problem out in the limelight, things can change.

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Former national security adviser Michael Flynn could be cooperating with the special counsel's investigation into Russia. (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters)

President Donald Trumps former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, may be moving to cooperate with the special counsel investigating ties between the Trump campaign and efforts by Russia to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Lawyers for Flynn have reportedly stopped sharing information about special counsel Robert Muellers ongoing probe with the White House, a move the Times notes could signal Flynns cooperation with the investigation or that he is in the process of negotiating some sort of legal deal. Flynns lawyers had been cooperating with Trumps legal team, as defense teams often do, but recently notified the White House they could no longer discuss the investigation.

Such a move isnt a definite sign Flynn is negotiating some sort of agreement. The Times report was based on information from four people familiar with the case, whose identities could not be revealed as they arent authorized to speak publicly.

Flynn resigned from the Trumps administration in February after it was revealed he misled Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States. He has long had associations with Russia and sat next to President Vladimir Putin at a dinner in Moscow in 2015.

NBC News reported this month that Muellers team had enough evidence to bring charges against Flynn and his son, Michael G. Flynn, who served as his fathers chief of staff during the campaign.

The elder Flynn had previously signaled that he would not cooperate with a Senate intelligence committee investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in May. But the Times notes he may move to work with Mueller in an effort to save his son.

His cooperation would provide insight about Trumps campaign and his early days in the White House.

Muellers probe snagged its first targets last month, when former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate, Richard Gates, were indicted on charges of conspiracy and money laundering. Both have pleaded not guilty.

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By Katharine Houreld NAIROBI (Reuters) - Hours after Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe was forced out after 37 years in power, Uganda's president, another former guerrilla in office for more than three decades, was tweeting about pay rises for civil servants and bright prospects for his army tank crews. Supporters of long-serving African leaders dismiss parallels with Zimbabwe, where Mugabe's former deputy - sacked during a power struggle with Mugabe's wife - is about to take power with military and public backing. [nL8N1NS0IR] But Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's tweets, which come amid rising anger at the 73-year-old's attempts to prolong his rule, suggest he is looking south and wondering about his own fate. "Now that the economic situation in Uganda is improving, the government will be able to look into raising of salaries of soldiers, public servants, health workers and teachers and also deal with institutional housing," Museveni tweeted on Wednesday. It was unclear what improvement he meant. Uganda's faltering economy is growing too slowly to absorb a booming population of 37 million. The number of citizens spending less than a dollar a day has surged to 27 percent, the statistics office reported in September, up from 20 percent five years ago. Museveni's office was not immediately available for comment on the tweets, but John Baptist Nambeshe, a ruling party lawmaker who opposes the president's attempts to have an age limit on his post lifted, said there was no coincidence. "The timing couldn't have been coincidental. It was to underscore his might, that probably the military is still solidly behind him, unlike in Zimbabwe," Nambeshe told Reuters. Museveni may not be alone. Several African leaders have faced popular opposition in recent years, from Togo, where thousands protested this autumn, to Gabon, where riots broke out last year after President Ali Bongo was re-elected in a disputed vote. Mugabe's fall has raised hopes among opposition politicians that other long-serving leaders will fall, but also stoked fears that those who replace them may be no better. AGING RULERS President since 1986, Museveni is among Africa's longest-serving leaders. They include Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang, president for 38 years; Cameroon's Paul Biya, president for 35 years; Congo's Denis Sassou Nguesso, president for two stints totaling 33 years. The Gnassingbe family have ruled Togo and the Bongo family have ruled Gabon for half a century, while the Kabila family have run the Democratic Republic of Congo for 20 years. Some countries allow only two presidential terms, but several have rolled back such legislation. In Cameroon, Biya scrapped term limits and cracked down on the opposition. In Congo, Nguesso jailed an opposition leader this year for protesting against removal of term limits. Franck Essi, secretary-general of the opposition Cameroon Peoples' Party, said opposition movements were closely watching events in Zimbabwe. "Leaders must put in place mechanisms for a democratic and peaceful transition that will allow new leadership. If not, sooner or later, the people who are suffocating will wake up," he said. Some places have already seen change. Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore was ousted by protests in 2014 as he tried to change the constitution and extend his decades-long rule. In January, Gambia's erratic ruler Yahya Jammeh fled after regional pressure ended his 22-year reign. Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos stepped down this year after four decades in power; his handpicked successor has pushed out some key dos Santos allies. For many nations, a Zimbabwe-style switch in the loyalties of the armed forces or a rift in the inner circle represents one of the few ways that rulers might be forced from power. Despite Zimbabwe's well-established opposition, change didn't come until Mugabe's inner circle fell out over his succession plans, and the military put him under house arrest. Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson, a top Togolese opposition official, said they had hoped for a Zimbabwean-type change of power where the military came over to their side. "We'd wanted the Togolese army to fight alongside us. We were moved seeing that Zimbabwes army and civilian population were all in the streets dancing. Thats what we want in Togo," she said. "There will be change in Zimbabwe this year and there will be in Togo too. "THEIR TURN WILL COME" A slump in commodities prices has deprived some nations of the resources they have traditionally used to muffle protests. In some cases, corruption has also emptied state coffers. In central Africa, Congo's Kabila has repeatedly postponed elections after refusing to step down at the end of his term last year, sparking deadly protests. Jean-Pierre Kambila, Kabila's deputy chief of staff, tweeted that Zimbabwe's protests were a colonial fantasy. "A fabricated demonstration dreamed up by those who do not accept the liberation of Africa. Other Mugabes will be born. Nothing to worry about," he wrote. Uganda, a key Western ally set to begin exporting its substantial oil reserves, removed term limits in 2005 to extend Museveni's rule. The east African nation has seen far less violence under Museveni than the two dictators who preceded him. But now tensions are rising as social services crumble and parliamentarians attempt to remove a constitutional age cap that would bar Museveni from standing in the next election. Police have used deadly force against protesters, and repeatedly arrested the main opposition leader. Security forces dragged parliamentarians opposing the bill out of the legislature. On Wednesday, police raided a popular newspaper, detaining eight staff. [nL8N1NS3M0] [nL8N1MV20F] Okello Oryem, Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs, dismissed any parallels with Zimbabwe, saying Mugabe's overthrow was the result of Western interference. "The intelligence services of the West have worked day and night to bring down Zimbabwe," he told Reuters. "Citizen pressure in Zimbabwe can only work if and when the army allows it." But another Ugandan opposition leader, Asuman Basalirwa, warned that national leaders who refused to step down risked plunging their countries into conflict. Military intervention to end dictatorships ultimately leads to more repression, he said, something that many feared might be in store for Zimbabwe. "It is time for the continent to democratize," he said. "Those who have not yet experienced what happened in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and now Zimbabwe should just wait for their turn because it will surely come." (additional reporting by Josiane Kouagheu in Douala, John Zodzi in Lome, Amedee Mwarabu in Kinshasa, and David Lewis in Nairobi; writing by Katharine Houreld; editing by Giles Elgood)
Recession, the alarm bell word.

That's the word that sends shivers up the back of the economy and pushes the stock market on a downward slide.

But it's a word that fits what happened to Nebraska's economy during the last quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of this year, according to new statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The data "indicates that Nebraska's economy expanded in the second quarter of 2017 after contracting for two straight quarters, which defines a technical recession," according to Vance Ginn, a senior economist at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

The ugly economic numbers: the state's gross domestic product contracted by 1.8 percent in the last quarter of 2016 and by 4.5 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Nebraska's economy grew by 1.1 percent in the second quarter of this year.

"These newly-revised numbers confirm that Nebraska experienced a technical recession in the midst of the agricultural downturn," the Platte Institute stated in drawing attention to the report this week.

And that's a big double-hit.

Meanwhile, a fresh economic indicator report from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln this week points to slowing economic growth in the state during the second quarter of the coming year, an indication that the state may spend more time in the economic woods.

Nebraska has been adversely impacted by a rising strength in the U.S. dollar, which in turn raises competitive prices for Nebraska's agricultural and manufacturing exports, according to Eric Thompson, director of the Bureau of Business Research at UNL and an associate professor of economics.

All of that triggers change in the state's so-called economic indicator, a composite of economic factors that predict economic growth six months into the future.

Meanwhile, the Open Sky Policy Institute has cautioned state government leaders to refrain from taking any significant action to revise the state budget until the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board meets again in February to reassess its state revenue forecast.

At that time, state leaders should also have a better understanding of the impact of potential federal income tax changes now being considered by Congress, OpenSky executive director Renee Fry said.

"Our revenue system is not keeping up with the needs of our state and further reducing revenue could harm our schools, public safety programs and other services that are vital to our state and its economy," Fry said.
Salim is a small boy, but his voice is commanding. His favorite song once floated above the paddy fields of Myanmars Rakhine state, heard only by a few grazing cattle and the heavens. Composed in October last year in a melodic dialect similar to Bengali, the words now fall on the rapt ears of children in the worlds largest refugee camp, reminding them why they are there.

What did the miscreants do?

How could they kill our dearest people

What did the culprits do?

Burned everyone, kneeling down

Salim thinks he is 10 years old, but he isnt sure. He learned to sing from his older brother, before he died at the hands of a Buddhist mob. The family fled, like more than half a million others, across the border into Bangladesh. They now live in a fetid camp, indefinitely, wholly supported by humanitarian aid. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, stripped of all materiality; Salims song comes across as an act of instinct, retelling a tale as it was told to him by his closest kin.

When Bangladeshs borders yielded to the mass of desperate people pouring in from Myanmar in late August, no one predicted the scale of the crisis to come. In the weeks that followed, almost the entire Rohingya population  estimated at 1.1 million inside Myanmar  sought sanctuary as homes and villages went up in flames. Every imaginable horror has been described by those who made it out alive; witnesses said soldiers slaughtered civilians, raped the women, tortured the elderly and burned children to death as they screamed for mercy.

When I set foot in Bangladesh, I started feeling better, says Mohammad Ali, a 70-year-old refugee holding an emaciated baby, clinging to the tattered grey T-shirt he has worn since he fled his village of Boli Bazar the Friday before Eid al-Adha. (This Muslim holiday is known in English as the feast of the sacrifice and marks the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham, to kill his own son if God so commanded.) A crowd of curious neighbors forms around Mohammad as he speaks in this squalid borough built in the chaotic aftermath of the exodus. This will be the birthplace of a generation of Rohingya, the persecuted Muslim minority known as Asias nowhere people. Some of the boys will become casualties of the drug trade. Some of the girls will be sold for sex and smuggled abroad. Others will suffer from an almost inevitable outbreak of infectious disease. At least here, theyre not killing us, Mohammad says.

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The U.N. and the U.S. have described the violence in Myanmar as a campaign of ethnic cleansing, while rights experts say there is evidence of genocide. The former is not an independent crime under international law, but its execution can constitute crimes against humanity. Genocide, on the other hand  defined as the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a group of people based on their nationality, ethnicity, race or faith  is the worlds most serious crime. But on the Bangladeshi side of the border, this is not a story about justice. It is a story of survival.

A burnt Rohingya village near the town of Maungsaw, Rakhine State in western Myanmar, on Nov. 12, 2017.

The sight of barefoot masses arriving on the shore can only be described as biblical. Well over 622,000 Rohingya have endured the dangerous passage from their homes in Rakhine to the relative safety of Coxs Bazar, a district of eastern Bangladesh, over the past three months  the fastest refugee movement since the Rwandan genocide. Following a fatal attack on state security forces by Rohingya insurgents on Aug. 25, the Myanmar military unleashed a campaign of terror in the states northern townships. Many fled without any belongings at all. Those who could loaded children up in baskets, the elderly on their backs, live chickens and solar panels under their arms. They ran and walked for days, sometimes weeks. Arriving dehydrated, their feet seared and swollen, soldiers shot them from behind as they fled across a border stippled with landmines. More still drowned in the Naf River, a muddy waterway separating Myanmar from the southernmost tip of Bangladesh, as overloaded fishing boats capsized while ferrying them across one final obstacle.

In the early days of the crisis, once safely across they slept on the side of a road with no shelter from rain or sun. A protected forest between two existing camps was felled to make room. In what the U.N. has labeled a critical humanitarian emergency, the refugees are now packed into makeshift shelters built from bamboo sticks and tarpaulin sheets. There is little clean water, and there are few service roads. There is no easy way to empty their latrines, which they share with some 400,000 other refugees who arrived before them. Even as more make the crossing, thousands each week until all of northern Rakhine may well be emptied, there is no more land.

Standing atop a hill in the very center of this 10 square mile encampment, flimsy huts canvass the landscape in all directions. Its a city of sorts, but devoid of all infrastructure, with a population comparable to that of Washington, D.C. Of that population, about 60% are children. A recent survey carried out by the French NGO Action Against Hunger (ACF) found that 7.5% of those children suffer from severe acute malnutrition. About 40,000 of those children are imminently at risk of starvation. The ones who are under six months old, of which there are many, are ten times as likely to die. Those who live long enough to be treated for malnutrition are still vulnerable to other things that can kill them, like diarrhea. Or cholera. Or measles. Or wild elephants.

This is basically the definition of what we call a complex crisis, says Robert Onus, the emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Bangladesh. Its not primarily a trauma response, as it is in Syria, where he last worked. Its not a cholera epidemic, where doctors are deployed to treat an illness. Its not just famine, and its not just ethnic or religious or political persecution. Its all of those things, all at the same time. If you focus too much on one thing, youre doing it at the exclusion of a whole range of others  thats the most complicated part of this, Onus says.

Almost every day brings some new and alarming revelation: This is the number of children who may starve; this is how many prepubescent girls were raped and require special care; this is the number of days before a cyclonic storm makes landfall. Each on its own distressing, the sum of those parts is an emergency so huge and horrific that few have fully grasped how bad it is, despite an early warning from the U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, that Bangladesh was dealing with a human-rights nightmare. Setting aside, for now, the residual impacts of trauma, disease and displacement on almost the entirety of an already persecuted  and to a small degree radicalizing  population, humanitarian agencies are struggling simply to keep them alive. Were still at the front end of what is about to become the largest refugee response in recent memory, says Michael Dunford, the emergency coordinator for the World Food Program in Coxs Bazar. The Bangladeshi government possibly didnt know what they were signing up for, but thank God they did.

Rohingya wade through the Naf River after having just crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, on Nov. 1, 2017.

The Rohingya are unique among the more than 65 million displaced people across the globe. Often referred to as one of the worlds most persecuted minorities, they hold the distinction of being the largest group of stateless people, and perhaps the only one that has been almost completely uprooted. They are a predominantly Sunni Muslim minority that has lived in Myanmar for centuries, and while they have belonged there since 1947, when the partition of the British Indian territories etched a line between what is now Rakhine state and what was then East Pakistan, most of them were later rendered stateless by Myanmars former military junta. Decades of nationalist propaganda, often promulgated by rogue Buddhist monks, convinced much of the population that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, signaling a Muslim incursion.

Their plight has also significantly shifted the regional narrative of democratic progress. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who spent decades under house arrest before becoming Myanmars de facto civilian leader in 2016, has seen her legacy all but destroyed as she failed to stop or even acknowledge atrocities committed on her watch. In the wake of Suu Kyis spectacular undoing, a new hero has presented herself: Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, whose portrait is now strung on every roadside throughout Coxs Bazar on vinyl campaign banners lauding the mother of humanity.

Itself a poor country and one of the worlds most densely populated, Bangladesh is home to some 163 million people in a space the size of the U.S. state of Georgia. While this overburdened country has shown remarkable generosity, compassion may fade as the country scant resources are diverted to people who arent its nationals. Bangladesh is on the verge of unprecedented crisis, Hasina told lawmakers on Nov. 15, according to the local news website Daily Star, adding that todays problem has been created by Myanmar authorities and Myanmar has to solve it.

A newly established refugee camp for Rohingya Muslims in Thaingkhali, Bangladesh, on Oct. 19, 2017.

Perhaps in anticipation of the publics eventual fatigue, the Hasina government will not recognize the Rohingya as refugees and says it wants them to return to Myanmar within 18 to 24 months. Suu Kyi has said she hopes to quickly reach a memorandum of understanding with Dhaka which would enable us to start the safe and voluntary return of all of those who have gone across the border, according to Reuters. The two governments aspire to an agreement similar to one reached in the 1990s, but humanitarian professionals are not likely to endorse this plan. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both urged caution, while U.N. officials remain unconvinced that such a swift return could be safe, dignified and voluntary. I think they might be looking with rose-tinted spectacles on this particular issue, says Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, the U.N. Senior Coordinator for emergency response in Coxs Bazar. Repatriation after this type of persecution just doesnt happen in two years.

The exodus was the fourth of its kind, and in both speed and scale it was the worst. A camp called Kutupalong was established in 1978, and swelled in the early 1990s amid another wave of violence. Other smaller camps were later formed, such as Balukhali, Leda and Nayapara, and some 3-400,000 Rohingya have been scattered across the district for decades. Those who remained in Myanmar lived in ever-deteriorating conditions; restrictions on travel, social services and employment amounted to apartheid, and worsened after deadly riots tore across the state in 2012. Security was then used as a pretext to further isolate them as aid stopped flowing, trade was discontinued and civil servants were no longer deployed to staff Muslim schools and clinics. More than 100,000 have been trapped for years in camps for the internally displaced near the state capital Sittwe, where tens of thousands became so desperate they fled on boats manned by human traffickers, many dying namelessly in the Andaman Sea.

On Oct. 9, 2016, an insurgent group calling itself Harakah al-Yaqin attacked three of the Myanmar militarys border guard posts, killing nine officers and triggering a military lockdown across the states north. Within weeks, about 90,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh with accounts of rape, torture and extrajudicial killing. The U.N. concluded that the military had likely committed crimes against humanity as it carried out a brutal counter-terrorism operation; more than half of the women interviewed said they had been sexually assaulted, and a majority of those surveyed had seen someone die.

The following month, the U.N. Human Rights Council agreed by consensus to deploy an international fact-finding mission to northern Rakhine, but the Myanmar government will not allow it access. Buckling under international pressure, Suu Kyi has promised to implement a rehabilitation plan created by the Rakhine Commission, an independent advisory board chaired by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Just hours after he presented her with his recommendations, on Aug. 25, the insurgents struck again, this time under the name Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA. The Myanmar army responded much as it had in the past, with savagery, and Suu Kyi was once again powerless to stop them.

So many people fled so fast that the entire shared border into Bangladesh was hemorrhaging human beings. About 100,000 are believed to have disappeared into villages where they had an acquaintance  undocumented, uncounted, unreached by aid. Pockets of terrain known as no mans land, beyond the fence where Myanmar ends but not yet within Bangladesh, became crowded makeshift encampments. The thousands still squatting on these dirty and desolate river banks are kept alive on rice and red lentils delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross, one of the few organizations allowed access to them. Once there, delivery is made even more complicated by additional stipulations. Forbidden from setting foot in a tributary near the village of Tambru, at exactly noon aid workers instruct refugees to create a human chain of about 40 boys and men standing in the muddy water to pass the goods from one side to the other. This is food for you and your community! yells Bal Bhujel, the Regional Economic Security Advisor for ICRC, marshaling the men into action.

Since the August attacks, aid within northern Rakhine has almost completely stopped. ICRC is the only organization allowed to enter the area of operations, where few Rohingya remain. Refugee arrivals slowed in late September, but surged again in mid-October amid what some aid workers assume is a devastating famine that could trigger a final influx. Khaleda Begum, a 50-year-old woman from Alishong village, says the few Muslims left behind are now so terrified of Buddhist vigilantes they will leave their homes for one reason and one reason only: to flee. If our boys go out on the farm, they get shot, she says while perched on the side of a paddy field near the Bangladeshi village of Anjumanpara, where she has just sat down after walking for nine days. We couldnt do anything, we just waited idly in our houses, she says. Then at midnight, they came.

Despite what they may say, Bangladeshi officials understand that the crisis will not be resolved quickly. Mohammad Abul Kalam, Joint Secretary of Bangladeshs Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, acknowledges that we may have to prepare, maybe, for the long-term, and says it is the moral obligation of the international community to stand by Bangladesh, however long it takes. Proving that commitment, Dhaka has already allocated 3,000 acres of land for refugee housing, and is weighing the U.N.s recommendation to scrap a mega camp blueprint in favor of three or four smaller sites that would be more easily serviced and could isolate sickness in the event of an outbreak.

Rohingya dry their clothes as they wait along the border after crossing the Naf River near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, on Nov. 2, 2017.

Goodwill exists in abundance, but resources are finite. The U.N. is by far the largest actor in the crisis with a $434 million emergency response plan covering all agency operations through February. But the bodys idiosyncratic funding scheme operates in six-month intervals, hindering long-term solutions. Moreover, competing catastrophes divert what aid exists, and donors must decide which lives matter most. A pledging conference held in October locked in 82% of the U.N.s budget for the crisis, but any shortfall will surely lead to suffering. Even amid what is viewed as a crisis overwhelmingly affecting children, UNICEF has only secured 34% of its $76 million funding goal for the current period.

Upon their arrival in Bangladesh, a little more than a quarter of the refugees were vaccinated for measles and rubella in a massive drive targeting children from six months to 15 years of age, and a second round of catch-up vaccinations is well underway to reach its target of 336,943 children. Beginning in mid-October, more than 700,000 cholera vaccines were administered to vulnerable refugees, the largest and fastest drive ever attempted. But in a humanitarian response, even the most solid success belies failure. While there is now enough food and shelter to keep these roughly one million inhabitants alive, and while there are more than enough latrines to accommodate them, those facilities are not maintained. If you were to make a checklist of all the ingredients for an outbreak, here you would check almost every box, says Onus, of Doctors Without Borders.

Water, sanitation and hygiene services, known in the aid world as WASH, have only been delivered to about half of those in need. Roughly 95% of refugees are already consuming contaminated water, according to the International Rescue Committee, with two thirds of supply found to contain feces. A latrine may be usable for about two months, once full an X will be scrawled on its side and a new one installed just a few feet away. Agencies such as UNICEF are working toward waste management solutions, but emptying some latrines would require physically shoveling waste into a bucket and carrying it by foot to the nearest motor road, which in some cases is six kilometers away; over hills, across rickety bamboo footbridges and through lanes overcrowded with unaccompanied toddlers who, oftentimes, arent wearing any clothes.

The world looks different after a tragedy. Surveying the scene from a hilltop on a recent afternoon, light rain begins to fall. Just a short shower is enough to turn footpaths into perilous slopes, and streams into toxic pools. Even ordinary things, like drops of water, can cause terror. We left before dark, as is the rule, followed by a chorus of bloated and half-naked children who have picked up a few words of English here and there. Their singsong refrain is familiar to most who have ever been a stranger on a visit to a refugee camp. Bye bye, the children sing to our backs as we leave. Thank you.

 With video by Helen Regan / Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh
Burma's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi agreed after a meeting with the Bangladeshi leader - REUTERS

Burma and Bangladesh signed an accord on Thursday over terms for the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh, a government official said, amid concern that Burmas powerful army could prove obstructive.

Rights groups have accused the military in mostly Buddhist Burma of carrying out mass rape and other atrocities during a counter-insurgency operation launched in late August in retaliation for attacks by Rohingya militants in Rakhine State.

On Wednesday, the United States said the military operation that drove 620,000 Rohingya to seek sanctuary in neighboring, largely Muslim Bangladesh, amounted to ethnic cleansing, echoing an accusation first leveled by top UN officials in the early days of the humanitarian crisis.

Burma - also known as Myanmar - is seeking to ease international pressure by striking an initial agreement on returns, while Dhaka wants to ensure overstretched refugee camps that have mushroomed in the Coxs Bazar region dont become permanent.

Rohingya refugees wait after crossing the Naf river from Burma into Bangladesh in Whaikhyang Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

We are ready to take them back as soon as possible after Bangladesh sends the forms back to us, Myint Kyaing, a permanent secretary at Burmas ministry of labor, immigration and population, told Reuters, referring to forms the Rohingya must complete with personal details before repatriation.

The signing took place after a meeting between Burmas civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Bangladesh foreign minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali in Naypyitaw.

Mr Kyaing said that the memorandum of understanding was based on the 1992-1993 repatriation agreement between the two countries which had been inked following a previous spasm of violence in Burma.

The forms that the refugees will have to fill include names of family members, their previous address in Burma, date of birth and a disclaimer that they are returning voluntarily, he added.

He said that based on the 1992-1993 agreement, Burma would accept those who could present identification documents issued to the Rohingya by Burma governments in the past.

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Those include the currently distributed national verification cards, as well as now-withdrawn white cards, as well as receipts the Rohingya received when returning their white cards, he said.

Diplomats and aid workers have said the key elements of the deal will be the criteria of return and the participation of the international community, such as the United Nations refugee agency, in the process.

Other important points include safeguards for the Rohingya against further violence, a path to resolving their legal status and whether they would be allowed to return to their own homes and farms.

Mr Kyaing declined to elaborate on those points.

Speaking at a military event in Dhaka, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she was calling on Burma to start taking back soon their nationals from Bangladesh.
Mysterious booms are being heard all over the world

Strange booming sounds are coming out of the sky in locations around the world  and experts are baffled as to what causes them.

Last week, residents in Alabama heard a strange boom from the sky, with police notified about a loud boom on Monday this week.

Police said the sound  described as the Bama boom  shook houses near Lochbuie.

But similar sounds have been heard around the world, from Colorado to Yorkshire, with 64 reported this year, the Daily Mail reports  and other booms were heard near Denver this month.

So far its not clear what is causing the noises.

Experts have suggested a wide range of explantions from sonic booms to meteorites to controlled detonations of military weapons.

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But the Bama boom seems to defy explanation.

Birmingham National Weather Service tweeted: Loud boom heard: we do not see anything indicating large fire/smoke on radar or satellite; nothing on USGS indicating an earthquake.

Bill Cooke, head of NASAs Meteroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, said, No one can figure out the cause.

Im kind of skeptical it could be a (meteor) because there were no reports of a fireball. There are reports of vapour trails.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday hailed his country's "fruitful cooperation" with Arab nations, as fears over Iranian influence appear to drive one-time adversaries closer together.

"Our fruitful cooperation with Arab countries is in general secret, but I am confident that relations with them will continue to mature and that this will allow us to enlarge the circle of peace," he said in a speech to mark the 44th anniversary of the death of Israel's founder David Ben Gurion.

Netanyahu insisted that peace between Israel and Arab countries would "happen in the end, because there are a lot of things going on all the time beneath the surface".

Israeli officials have repeatedly said that shared worries with Sunni Arab nations over the growing might of Shiite Iran could cause a diplomatic reconfiguration across the Middle East, where Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab neighbours to have made peace with the Jewish state.

Last week chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot declared in a rare interview with an Arab outlet that Israel was prepared to cooperate with Saudi Arabia to face Iran's plans "to control the Middle East".

This statement fuelled speculation that the two staunch US allies -- which do not have diplomatic ties -- could hash out some sort of deal to confront Tehran and the Lebanese group it backs Hezbollah.

US President Donald Trump has toughened Washington's stance against Iran with fiery rhetoric that has been applauded by both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
A barricade is set on the road leading to the truce village of Panmunjom at a South Korean military checkpoint - AFP

North Korean troops who were unable to stop one of their colleagues defecting across the border on November 13 have been replaced.

South Korean intelligence sources told Yonhap news agency that border security personnel at the Joint Security Area have been withdrawn after the most high-profile defection across the Demilitarised Zone in decades.

Intelligence officials also believe that senior officers at the post "might have undergone punishment" for letting one of their subordinates escape.

The officials added that the bridge on the North Korean side of the border that the defector crossed at high speed in a military vehicle has been closed, while additional screening procedures have been introduced for troops entering the JSA.

North Korea will certainly have been embarrassed at the footage that has emerged of the soldier's escape and the regime is likely to take measures to ensure that news of the defection does not spread.

North Korean soldiers dig a trench and plant trees in the area where, on November 13, a defector ran across the border at the Demilitarized Zone Credit: REUTERS

Given the location of the incident and the fact that it involved a border guard - one of the regime's most trusted personnel - it is also likely to step up an ongoing campaign to stop foreign television footage being smuggled into the North on memory sticks and discs.

In numbers | North Korean defectors

The United Nations Command has stated that North Korean troops clearly violated the 1953 Armistice Agreement twice during the incident. A North Korean guard crossed the Military Demarcation Line and around 30 shots were fired into the South.

The defector was hit five times and underwent emergency surgery after being airlifted to a civilian hospital in the city of Suwon, south of Seoul.

In a briefing to the media on Thursday, Dr Lee Kook-jong said the soldier has recovered sufficiently to be able to talk with hospital staff and is expected to be moved out of intensive care and into a regular ward at the weekend.

The defector has been identified by his surname, Oh, is 25 years old, and was in his eighth year as a conscript in the North Korean army.

He has told officials that he defected voluntarily after seeing South Korean television programmes and Hollywood movies, including "The Transporter" film series.
Lima (AFP) - Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, enmeshed in a corruption scandal which has shaken Latin America's political establishment, gave millions of dollars to Lima's mayor in a recall referendum, Peruvian media reported Thursday.

Susana Villaran, a leftist and the first woman to hold the mayor's post, in 2013 faced the recall vote halfway through her four-year term.

Odebrecht's former Peruvian boss Jorge Barata said that his company supported Villaran at her request, according to testimony he reportedly gave prosecutors in Brazil.

"We made the decision to support her in this process," Barata told the IDL Reporters portal, explaining that the firm had a contract with the municipality of Lima for an urban concession.

"We had a concern that the exit (of Villaran) would generate some difficulty with our contract," Barata told Brazilian prosecutors, according to the portal.

"Then we received the call from the same mayor asking for that contribution. She affirmed the need and importance of continuity," he reportedly said.

Valdemir Garreta, of another Brazilian firm, FX, told prosecutors that he received $3 million to advise Villaran, $2 million of which came from Odebrecht, El Comercio newspaper reported on Wednesday. Villaran denied to IDL that she received any money from Odebrecht for the campaign.

"The declaration Barata made before the Brazilian authorities is false," she said. Villaran emerged victorious in the recall referendum but lost her bid for re-election in 2014.

Odebrecht has admitted to paying $29 million in bribes for public works contracts in Peru. Two former Peruvian presidents, Alejandro Toledo and Ollanta Humala, already face charges for allegedly taking kickbacks from the Brazilian firm.

The scandal has ensnared politicians in several other countries including Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela.

Under investigation by the US Justice Department, Odebrecht agreed in December last year to pay a record $3.5 billion fine after admitting to paying $788 million in bribes across 12 countries to secure contracts.
Oscar Pistorius was originally sentenced to six years in prison - EPA/STR

The family of Reeva Steenmkamp said she would now be able to rest in peace after a South African court more than doubled the prison sentence for her killer, former athlete Oscar Pistorius.

The disgraced Paralympian, who turned 31 this week, was imprisoned last July. He was found guilty of murder after he shot Steenkamp on Valentines Day 2013 through a locked bathroom door, claiming he thought she was an intruder.

Mr Pistorius, who was originally found guilty for culpable homicide, was eventually convicted for murder in 2016 but subsequently handed down only six years in prison, which state prosecutors appealed. A murder conviction in South Africa carries a minimum 15-year prison sentence.

On Friday, Justice Legoabe Willie Seriti of the Supreme Court of Appeal called the six-year sentence shockingly lenient, and increased it to 13 years and five months, taking into account the time Pistorius has already served.

In their full ruling over the decision, which took Mr Seriti just a couple of minutes to announce, the Supreme Court said Pistorius "displays a lack of remorse, and does not appreciate the gravity of his actions."



Oscar Pistorius and his late model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in November 2012 Credit: LUCKY NXUMALO/AFP

A representative for the Steenkamp family said they felt justice had finally been done. She can now rest in peace, said Tania Koen, a spokesperson for the Steenkamps. They just feel that their trust in the justice system has been confirmed this morning.

"But at the same time, people must realize that people think this is the end of the road for them ... the fact is they still live with Reeva's loss every day."

State prosecutors who appealed the six-year sentence also applauded the ruling. "We believe it is in the interest of justice and we hope the family will find closure in knowing that an appropriate sentence has been handed down, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku said.

The moment Oscar Pistorius was jailed for six years

Mr Pistorius is serving his time at the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre outside the capital Pretoria, having been moved from another prison deemed less suitable for disabled inmates. He has been admitted to the hospital twice during his imprisonment, first for wrist injuries reportedly sustained during a fall and later for chest pains.

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Carl Pistorius, Oscars brother, aired his dismay over the courts decision on Twitter on Friday. Shattered. Heartbroken. Gutted, he wrote.

When another Twitter user replied that Miss Steenkamps family probably felt the same way, Mr Pistorius hit back: We have all suffered incomprehensible loss, he wrote. The death of Reeva was and still is a great loss for our family too.

Justice Seriti wrote in his decision on Friday that he found it difficult to conclude that Mr Pistorius was genuinely remorseful.

Oscar Pistorius: a timeline

The judgement found various contradictions in why Mr Pistorius said he shot multiple bullets through a closed bathroom door on February 14, 2013, after he realized there was somebody inside. It also noted that the previous court had over emphasized the personal circumstances of the respondent in formulating the original six-year sentence.

In 2016, Pistoriuss defense team argued that the Paralympic sprinter, whose legs were amputated as a baby due to a rare condition, was suffering from depression and that prison time would not be constructive.

Judge Thokozile Masipa, who handed Mr Pistorius the six-year sentence, said at the time that the punishment had to be proportionate and she had to look at the peculiar circumstances in the sensational and long-running case. I am of the view that a long term of imprisonment would not serve justice in this case, she said.

Once a national hero, the rise and fall of Mr Pistorius and the ongoing drama over his treatment under South African law have gripped South Africans over the last four years.

Miss Steenkamps murder sparked a national debate about gender violence and violent crime in South Africa. In October, Carl Pistorius threatened the family would take legal action after the release of Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer, a controversial, made-for-TV film that focused on the globally-watched trial.

Neither the Pistorius family or Steenkamp family said they were consulted in the making the film.
By Tom Westbrook and Jonathan Barrett SYDNEY (Reuters) - Papua New Guinean police cleared the remaining asylum-seekers from a shuttered Australian-run detention complex on Friday, ending a three-week protest which started with some 600 people surviving on rain water and smuggled food and supplies. Australia closed the Manus Island detention centre on Oct. 31, after it was declared illegal by a Papua New Guinea court, but the asylum seekers refused to leave to transit centres saying they feared for their safety. Despite the unsanitary conditions and lack of adequate food and fresh water, about 300 remained when Papua New Guinea police started removing people on Thursday and Friday. "The refugees are leaving the prison camp," Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani told Reuters in a text message on Friday. "We did our best to send out our voice but the government does not care." Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement on Friday that all of the asylum seekers had now departed for alternative accommodation. "Advocates should now desist from holding out false hope to these men that they will ever be brought to Australia," Dutton said. In Geneva, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR denounced the use of force by Papua New Guinean police to remove the refugees and asylum seekers and called for Australia to ensure their protection. "The beating of refugees and asylum-seekers by uniformed officers with metal poles, shown by footage released today, is both shocking and inexcusable," UNHCR said in a statement. Several refugees were "severely injured" in the raid and needed medical treatment, it added, warning of a "grave risk" of further deterioration of the situation on the island. The fate of the asylum seekers, some of whom have been detained for years and come mostly from Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Syria, remains unclear. Australia steadfastly refuses to allow them entry under its strict "sovereign borders" policy and the asylum seekers have refused to resettle in Papua New Guinea. Australia and Papua New Guinea both say the asylum seekers are now the other's responsibility, although the Australian government said it had spent A$10 million ($7.6 million) on the transit facility and it wanted the men to move there. Under Australia's "sovereign borders" policy asylum seekers trying to reach its shores by boat are intercepted and detained in either Papua New Guinea or Nauru in the South Pacific. The United Nations and human rights groups have for years criticised Australia's policy, citing human rights abuses in the offshore detention centres and called for their closure. Papua New Guinea intensified efforts to clear the Manus facility on Thursday by bringing in buses to start moving the men and cutting off routes previously used to deliver smuggled supplies, said Christian pastor Jarrod McKenna, who was at the shuttered centre earlier this week helping the refugees. Pictures sent to Reuters by an asylum-seeker showed Papua New Guinean officials wearing army fatigues inside the camp on Friday, and a video distributed by advocacy group GetUp showed police armed with sticks pulling an asylum seeker to his feet. "Buses are waiting for you, trucks are waiting for you...you will get on to them and you will move to your new location, you will not stay here," a man who identified himself as a police commander told the asylum seekers in a video posted to Facebook by Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz. Papua New Guinea immigration and police officials did not return telephone calls from Reuters to seek comment. ($1 = 1.3118 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Tom Westbrook and Jonathan Barrett in SYDNEY; and Stephanie Nebehay in GENEVA; Editing by Michael Perry and Richard Balmforth)
Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly has been a dedicated public servant throughout a more than 30-year legal career, but he soon could be serving a far larger geographic area.

Last week, President Donald Trump nominated Kelly to serve as the U.S. attorney for Nebraska. His decades-long, distinguished body of work for the people of Lincoln and Lancaster County makes him a solid choice for the position.

For those who dont know Kelly, the Republican worked his way up from a prosecutor with Lancaster County to become the chief deputy county attorney before taking over for Gary Lacey, who spent more than two decades leading the office before retiring. Kelly won nearly 63 percent of the vote when he was first elected to his current post in 2010, and he ran unopposed for a second term four years later.

Kelly told the Journal Star he was honored by the nomination, but he deferred any comment to the Department of Justice.

In recent weeks, a handful of Trumps judicial nominees  including an Omaha attorney for a federal appellate court vacancy  have been in the news over concerns about partisanship or qualifications.

Rather than being a political appointee with limited experience in a courtroom, as is sometimes charged of certain U.S. attorney appointments, Kelly represents the opposite on both counts. News of his nomination appears to have been received with nothing but praise from his fellow elected officials and others with whom hes worked.

Lancaster County Public Defender Joe Nigro, a Democrat whose office frequently tried cases opposite Kelly, called the county attorney an excellent prosecutor with a keen eye for detail. Nigro added that Kelly had backed innovative, problem-solving courts, such as drug and veterans courts that provided alternatives to incarceration.

I think Nebraska is fortunate in that way, Nigro told the Journal Star last Friday.

Nebraskas Senate delegation  which will ultimately vote on his confirmation  and Gov. Pete Ricketts also offered support for Kellys nomination. They used a variety of words to echo Nigros sentiments, such as top-notch, tenacious and talented, proven public servant and highly respected.

Youd be hard-pressed to find any disagreement with that assessment. Weve got none to offer, either.

Its unclear when Kellys nomination will go before the Senate Judiciary Committee. What is clear, however, is that Sen. Ben Sasse and his fellow lawmakers on the committee will have an accomplished nominee in their midst, one who should be confirmed to a new role where he can continue serving the citizens of Lancaster County  and the state as a whole.
By Idrees Ali

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is likely to announce in the coming days that there are about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, two U.S. officials said on Friday, as the military acknowledges that an accounting system for troops has under-reported the size of forces on the ground.

The U.S. military had earlier publicly said it had around 500 troops in Syria, mostly supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces group of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting Islamic State in the north of the country.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon could, as early as Monday, publicly announce that there are slightly more than 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria. They said there was always a possibility that last minute changes in schedules could delay an announcement.

That is not an increase in troop numbers, just a more accurate count, as the numbers often fluctuate.

An accounting system, known as the Force Management Level (FML), was introduced in Iraq and Syria during former President Barack Obamas administration as a way to exert control over the military.

But the numbers do not reflect the extent of the U.S. commitment on the ground since commanders often found ways to work around the limits - sometimes bringing in forces temporarily or hiring more contractors.

The force management levels are officially at 5,262 in Iraq and 503 in Syria, but officials have privately acknowledged in the past that the real number for each country is more than the reported figure.

The Pentagon said last December that it would increase the number of authorized troops in Syria to 500, but it is not clear how long the actual number has been at around 2,000.

Obama periodically raised FML limits to allow more troops in Iraq and Syria as the fight against Islamic State advanced.

As that campaign winds down, it is unclear how many, if any, U.S troops will remain in Syria.

Most of them are special operations forces, working to train and advise local partner forces, including providing artillery support against Islamic State militants.

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One of the officials said that the actual number in Iraq is not expected to be announced because of "host nation sensitivities," referring to political sensitivities about U.S. forces in Iraq.

In August, the Pentagon announced that there were 11,000 troops serving in Afghanistan, thousands more than it has previously stated.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has in the past expressed frustration with the FML method of counting U.S. troops in conflict zones.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Alistair Bell)
By Neil Jerome Morales

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Friday he has terminated intermittent peace talks with Maoist-led rebels and would consider them "terrorists" because hostilities had continued during negotiations.

Ending the nearly half-century long conflict with the communists, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed, was among Duterte's priorities when he took office in June last year.

Duterte said he would consider the political arm of the Maoists a "terrorist group" and was demanding that dozens of rebel leaders he freed last year in order to restart talks turn themselves in.

"I am ordering those I have released temporarily to surrender or face again punitive action," Duterte in a speech to soldiers.

"Let it not be said that I did not try to reach out to them," he said.

Duterte on Thursday signed a proclamation ending the peace talks, which started in August last year and were brokered by Norway. Talks have been intermittent since 1986.

"We find it unfortunate that their members have failed to show their sincerity and commitment in pursuing genuine and meaningful peaceful negotiations," Duterte's spokesman, Harry Roque, said in a statement late on Thursday.

In May, government negotiators cancelled a round of formal talks with the Maoist-led rebels in the Netherlands as the guerrillas stepped up attacks in the countryside.

The rebels had no choice but to intensify guerrilla warfare in rural areas, Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF), said in a statement.

The NDF, the political arm of the Maoist guerrillas, said it regretted the unilateral cancellation of talks on such vital social and economic reforms.

Government troops were advised to stay alert on the movements of the estimated 3,800 leftist guerrillas, said military spokesman Major-General Restituto Padilla.

Government forces are also battling Islamist fighters in the south of the largely Christian country, some of whom recently occupied a town for several months in the biggest battle in the Philippines since World War Two.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Robert Birsel)
President Trump addressed troops from five different branches of the military in a special Thanksgiving video call on Thursday from his Mar a Lago resort.

He thanked troops for having the tremendous courage to defend us and to defend freedom.

Addressing troops stationed in Afghanistan, the President said: Everybodys talking about the progress youve made in the last few months since I opened it up, referencing his decision earlier this year to send up to 4,000 more trips to the country  going against his campaign promise to scale back foreign commitments.

We opened it up, we said, Go ahead, were going to fight to win. Were not fighting anymore to just walk around, were fighting to win. And you people, youve really turned it around in the past three to four months like nobodys seen and they are talking about it. So thank you very much, brave, incredible fighters.

Trumps video message to American troops followed a tweet earlier Thanksgiving morning where he touted his administrations accomplishments since he was elected.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, your Country is starting to do really well, he tweeted. Jobs coming back, highest Stock Market EVER, Military getting really strong, we will build the WALL, V.A. taking care of our Vets, great Supreme Court Justice, RECORD CUT IN REGS, lowest unemployment in 17 years.!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, your Country is starting to do really well. Jobs coming back, highest Stock Market EVER, Military getting really strong, we will build the WALL, V.A. taking care of our Vets, great Supreme Court Justice, RECORD CUT IN REGS, lowest unemployment in 17 years....!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2017

Back in Mar a Lago, Trump reiterated his message to the troops, who were connected to him via teleconference. Were being talked about as an armed forces. Were really winning. We know how to win, Trump said. But we have to let you win. They werent letting you win before. They were letting you play even. Were letting you win.

He also mentioned the ongoing war against terrorism, specifically messaging ISIS. The self-declared Caliphate has been pushed out of most of its key strongholds in Syria recently, though much of the fighting has been done by Kurdish forces and Syrian government forces, with Russian assistance.

The fight against ISIS, its coming our way. Coming our way. Big, big difference. A lot of things have happened. They say weve made more progress against ISIS than they did in years of the previous administration. Thats because Im letting you do your job.
Representative Scott Taylor of Virginia says if his daughter had been among Senate candidates alleged victims, Id break his fingers and worse

Roy Moore has refused to drop out of the Senate race despite allegations of sexual misconduct. Photograph: Brynn Anderson/AP

A Republican congressman has said he would have beaten up Roy Moore, the GOP nominee for a US Senate seat in Alabama, if any of the women who have made sexual misconduct allegations against the judge had been his daughter.

The 14-year-old girl that was there, I can tell you right now if it was my daughter, Id break his face, Id break his fingers, and Id probably do a lot worse, Virginia representative Scott Taylor told CNN on Wednesday.

Taylor, a former navy Seal, said he did not feel comfortable with Moores response to the sexual misconduct allegations against him, which include the claim that he initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl in 1979, when he was 32. Moore has denied all such allegations.

All I know is what Ive seen, Taylor said. I saw the man give his interview. Me personally, I dont think it was sufficient enough.

Moores campaign  which on Wednesday confirmed the departure of its communications director, John Rogers  did not immediately return a request for comment.

The Republican party is increasingly at odds with Donald Trump over Moore and the Alabama race. On Tuesday, the president indicated that he did not accept the accusations against Moore. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and other senior Republicans have said they do.

Asked how he felt about the potential election of an alleged child molester to the Senate, the president said Moore totally denies it.

He says it didnt happen, Trump told reporters. You have to listen to him, also.

Republican leaders are concerned that win or lose in Alabama on 12 December, Moore will damage the partys brand before the 2018 midterm elections.

As Moore has refused to drop out, controversy over alleged sexual misconduct by prominent men has spread in politics to include accusations against Trump, Bill Clinton and two congressional Democrats, the Michigan representative John Conyers and Minnesota senator Al Franken.

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The Washington Post published its explosive allegations against Moore two weeks ago. Since then, other women have come forward. Moore, near-level with Democrat Doug Jones in the polls, has said he does not recall dating any young women without their mothers permission.

If you are a liberal and hate Judge Moore, apparently he groped you, his campaign told the Post last week. If you are a conservative and love Judge Moore, you know these allegations are a political farce.

In his remarks this week, Trump came close to endorsing Moore, saying: We dont need a liberal person ... a Democrat in the seat vacated by attorney general Jeff Sessions.

Speaking to CNN, Taylor suggested that though Trump supported Moores opponent, Luther Strange, in the primary, the president had probably looked at raw politics and the alternative, of course, would jeopardize his agenda in a very close Senate, where tax cut legislation is pending.

The congressman added: I think you have to listen to the women. Clearly, this isnt an isolated case now.

Taylor represents Virginias second congressional district, a competitive seat in a state that saw Democratic successes in elections this month.
By Yimou Lee

YANGON (Reuters) - Human rights groups called on Friday for international agencies to be allowed to monitor the planned repatriation of hundreds of thousands Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh to the homes they have fled from in Myanmar over the past three months.

The two governments signed a pact on Thursday settling terms for a repatriation process. They aim to start the return of Rohingya in two months in order to reduce pressure in the refugee camps that have mushroomed in the Cox's Bazar region of Bangladesh.

But rights groups have expressed doubts about Myanmar, also known as Burma, following through on the agreement, and some have called for independent observers.

"The idea that Burma will now welcome them back to their smoldering villages with open arms is laughable," said Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch.

"Instead of signing on to a public relations stunt, the international community should make it clear that there can be no returns without international monitors to ensure security, an end to the idea of putting returnees in camps, the return of land and the rebuilding of destroyed homes and villages."

More than 600,000 Rohingya sought sanctuary in Bangladesh after the military in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar launched a brutal counter insurgency across northern parts of Rakhine State following attacks by Rohingya militants on an army base and police posts on Aug. 25.

The United Nations and United States have described the military's actions as ethnic cleansing. Rights groups have accused the security forces of atrocities, including mass rape, arson and killings.

While Myanmar's civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has said repatriation of the largely stateless Muslim minority would be based on residency and would be "safe and voluntary", there were concerns that the country's autonomous military could prove obstructive.

The memorandum of understanding signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh on Thursday said a joint working group would be set up within three weeks to prepare for the return of the refugees.

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But it gave scant details about the criteria of return and of what role, if any, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, could play.

The agency believed conditions in northern Rakhine "are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns" of Rohingya and some refugees were still fleeing Myanmar, spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters.

"It is important that international standards apply, and we are ready to help," he said, adding that the UNHCR had still not seen the repatriation agreement signed by the two countries.

"It's important that people don't end up being sent back to confinement and ghettos."

Human rights monitors said other important points not addressed in the statements released separately by the two governments included the protection of Rohingya against further violence, a path to resolving their legal status and whether they would be allowed to return to their old homes.

Suu Kyi's spokesman was not immediately available for comment on Friday, and had declined to comment on these concerns when contacted by Reuters late on Thursday.

Charmain Mohamed, Amnesty International's director for refugee and migrant rights, said the United Nations and the international community "have been completely sidelined" and the talk of return was "premature" while the flow of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh continued.

China welcomed the agreement, saying it "feels gratified at the current positive progress that has been achieved", Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters, adding that situation in Rakhine "has obviously been alleviated".

Humanitarian workers say, however, that hundreds of Rohingya are arriving in Bangladesh daily, driven out of Myanmar predominantly by chaos, starvation and fear.

'CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY'

While the violence has mostly ceased, Rohingya say they have largely lost access to sources of livelihood such as their farms, fisheries and markets.

"We will go back if they don't harass us and if we can live life like the Buddhists and other ethnic groups. Our educated children should get government jobs like the others," said Sayer Hussein, 55, who arrived in Bangladesh two months ago.

Thousands of Rohingya, most of them old people, women and children, are stranded on beaches near the border, waiting for a boat to take them to Bangladesh.

Some independent estimates suggest there could still be a few hundred thousand Rohingya in Rakhine State.

Thirty-six groups, including the International Commission of Jurists and Amnesty International, called for a U.N. Human Rights Council special session on the situation in Myanmar.

Myanmar should "immediately cease all human rights violations, including crimes against humanity", the groups said in an open letter to the U.N. council.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay, Masako Iijima, Natalie Thomas and Michael Martina; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Robert Birsel)
Robert Mugabe kissing his wife and first lady Grace Mugabe during the country's 37th Independence Day - AFP

Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe was granted immunity from prosecution and assured that his safety will be protected in his home country under a deal that led to his resignation, sources close to the negotiations said on Thursday.

Mr Mugabe, who had led Zimbabwe from independence in 1980, stepped down on Tuesday after the army seized power and the ruling party turned against him. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former vice president sacked by Mr Mugabe earlier this month, is set to be sworn in as president on Friday.

A government source said Mr Mugabe, who is 93 and was the world's oldest serving head of state, told negotiators he wanted to die in Zimbabwe and had no plans to live in exile.

"It was very emotional for him and he was forceful about it," said the source, who is not authorised to speak on the details of the negotiated settlement.

"For him it was very important that he be guaranteed security to stay in the country...although that will not stop him from travelling abroad when he wants to or has to."

Mr Mugabe resigned as parliament began a process to impeach him, sparking wild celebrations in the streets. His sudden fall after 37 years in power was triggered by a battle to succeed him that pitted Mr Mnangagwa against Mr Mugabe's much younger wife Grace.

"The outgoing president is obviously aware of the public hostility to his wife, the anger in some circles about the manner in which she conducted herself and approached ZANU-PF party politics," a second source said.

"In that regard, it became necessary to also assure him that his whole family, including the wife, would be safe and secure."

Mr Mugabe had clung on to power for a week after the military intervened. He angered many Zimbabweans when he did not resign in a televised address on Sunday as many had anticipated.

The government source said the tipping point for Mr Mugabe was the realisation that he would be impeached and ousted in an undignified way. "When the process started, he then realised he had lost the party," the source said.

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Mr Mugabe will receive a retirement package that includes a pension, housing, holiday and transport allowance, health insurance, limited air travel and security.

Timeline Robert Mugabe as leader of Zimbabwe

The elderly ex-president was "rugged and drained" by events of the past week and may travel to Singapore for medical checks in the coming weeks, the source said. He had been due to leave for the Southeast Asian country in mid-November before the military put him under house arrest.

Mr Mugabe has maintained that he leads a frugal life and that he does not possess any wealth or properties outside Zimbabwe.

But last month a legal quarrel between Grace and a Belgian-based businessman over a $1.3 million diamond ring lifted a veil on the wealthy lifestyle of Mugabe and his wife, nicknamed "Gucci Grace" for her reputed dedication to shopping.

In Zimbabwe, Mr Mugabe runs a dairy business and the family has several farms while local and foreign media have reported that Grace has bought properties and luxury cars in South Africa.
Sochi (Russia) (AFP) - Russia's military plans to reduce its involvement in Syria this year as it is nearing the completion of its goals there, the General Staff chief told journalists Thursday.

"Of course, there will be a decision taken by the commander in chief and the group (working in Syria) will be decreased," said Valery Gerasimov when asked whether Russia would be scaling back its forces in Syria by the end of the year.

"When we complete our tasks, military tasks. There is only a little left," Gerasimov said.

Asked about the extent of the pull-out, Gerasimov said it would be "extensive," though it was not clear if he was also referring to this year or a later date.

He said some military will be left behind even after Moscow scales back its involvement in bombing and combat.

"We will leave the Center for Reconciliation, our two military bases (in Tartus and Hmeimim) and several necessary structures to maintain the state which has developed at this time," said Gerasimov.

Putin this week hosted a round of diplomacy meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as the leaders of Turkey and Iran as he declared the Syrian crisis was entering "a new stage" after the country "has been saved as a state."

Moscow stepped into Syria's multi-front war in September 2015, sending planes to back the Assad regime and turning the military situation around in his favour.
By Denis Pinchuk SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - A three-way summit on Wednesday between the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey could produce decisive steps toward ending the bloodshed in Syria, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said at the start of their talks. The summit, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is a rare occasion bringing together the leaders of Russia and Iran -- who back Syria's President Bashar al-Assad -- around a table with Erdogan, who has supported Assad's opponents. In opening remarks at the summit in the southern Russian resort of Sochi, Putin, Erdogan and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani spoke of an opening for peace in Syria now that Islamic State has been pushed out of its last major stronghold there. "The point we have reached is important, but not enough," Erdogan told the gathering, also attended by military commanders and foreign ministers from the three countries. "It is critical for all parties to contribute to a permanent and acceptable political solution for the people of Syria," he said. "This summit is aimed at results, I believe critical decisions will be taken." As a prelude to the summit, Putin earlier this week hosted Assad at his residence in Sochi. It was the only time the Syrian leader is known to have left Syria since his last visit to Russia, two years ago. Putin also made telephone calls in the past 24 hours to other leaders with influence in Syria, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman, as part of Moscow's drive to build an international consensus over a peace deal to end the six-year conflict. "A NEW STAGE" "We can say with certainty that we have reached a new stage, opening up the possibility to launch a real political process towards a peace deal," Putin told the gathering. "Compromises and concessions will be needed on all sides ... including (from) the Syrian government," Putin said. He said the focus of peace efforts should be the convocation of a congress bringing together all of Syria's ethnic groups. Russia has offered to host such a congress in Sochi, but attempts to agree a date have so far foundered, in part because Turkey raised objections to the presence of some Kurdish groups. Iran's Rouhani used his remarks at the summit to rail against the presence of foreign forces in Syria, an apparent reference to the United States and Tehran's arch regional rival Saudi Arabia, which alongside Turkey have backed Assad's foes. "There is no excuse for the presence of foreign troops in Syria without the approval of its legitimate government," Rouhani said. "The Syrian nation will not allow any interference of foreigners in their state affairs and will confront any move that harms Syria's integrity, independence and unity," he said. Iran's military is also present in Syria, alongside Russian troops and Hezbollah, the pro-Iran Lebanese militia. They say that does not amount to foreign interference because they are in Syria at Assad's invitation. (Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Parisa Hafezi in ANKARA; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Gareth Jones)
A sadistic predator who stabbed a City worker in the head, leaving her for dead just yards from her home, has been jailed for life.

Business analyst Qing Qing Rao, 30, has been left in a persistent vegetative state and is extremely unlikely ever to recover consciousness after the brutal attack by Barry Peacham.

Ms Rao had been married for less than six months and was walking home from work when weapons-obsessed Peacham, 26, plunged a knife into her head and then mutilated her before stealing her handbag, mobile phone and laptop computer.

She was found lying unconscious by a path in Castle Green Park in Dagenham, east London, having suffered catastrophic injuries.

Brutal  Peacham carried out a brutal attack on City worker Qing Qing Rao (Pictures: PA)

Peacham, who was found guilty of wounding with intent and robbery but cleared of attempted murder following a trial at the Old Bailey, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of nine years by Judge Anne Molyneux, who also handed him 12 years for robbery to run concurrently.

The judge said: This was a brutal, sadistic and cowardly attack on a lone female making her way home from work.

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She added: You were a predator and showed her no mercy. The violence you used went way beyond that necessary for a robbery.

She said the gratuitous sexual and sadistic violence he subjected his vulnerable victim to was particularly grave.

Sadistic predator  the judge said Peacham used violence that went way beyond that necessary for a robbery

After Peachams conviction, Detective Chief Inspector Gary Holmes from Scotland Yard said: To me this is a crime of pure evil.

On that night he has effectively ended the life of a 30-year-old lady, who was on her way home from work, in the most brutal and vicious manner, stabbing her in the head, penetrating her brain.

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He branded Peacham one of the most dangerous men I have ever dealt with during his 28-year career in the police.

Ms Raos husband Ansgar Wenzel described her as a wonderful, warm-hearted and happy girl, always friendly and happy to help anyone who needed her help.

He said: I would not miss a single day of the almost 10 years we have shared; I will always remember how she smiled and turned her head laughing on the morning of 13th February when she left for work; the goodbye kiss is one I will always cherish.

The court heard that Peacham had previous convictions dating back to 2008, when he was found guilty of possessing an offensive weapon in public. He also had convictions for attacking his girlfriend in 2012 and robbery.
By Polina Nikolskaya MOSCOW (Reuters) - Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin again failed to show up as a witness at the bribery trial of a former Russian economy minister on Wednesday, prompting the judge to order him to appear next week. Sechin, boss of Russia's biggest oil company and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, had told the court he would be unavailable for the rest of the year. He is a key witness in the trial of Alexei Ulyukayev, who was arrested last year after a late night meeting in Sechin's office. Ulyukayev faces up to 15 years in prison, accused of accepting $2 million from Sechin in return for approving the sale of a state-controlled oil company to Rosneft. Police detained him inside Rosneft headquarters shortly after Sechin handed him the cash. Ulyukayev denies the accusations and says he was framed by Sechin. His lawyers say their client cannot testify in court prior to Sechin's testimony as a witness. "All of us are here thanks to witness Sechin," Ulyukayev's lawyer Timofei Gridnev told the court after Sechin failed to appear on Wednesday. Gridnev said it was the third time Sechin had ignored a summons to appear. Judge Larisa Semyonova read out a letter from Sechin's lawyers saying he would be unable to attend for the rest of the year due to his tight schedule, but she nevertheless summoned him for next Monday. Rosneft made clear later on Wednesday that chances its boss would appear in court on Monday were rather slim. "This hunt for Sechin discredits the court. Sechin is not the accused one," Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev told Reuters. "All this shouting of Sechin's name in court and these dates are trash." Before his arrest, Ulyukayev was one of the leading figures in a faction of economic liberals who argued for less state control over the economy. Sechin is widely seen as the main champion of the opposite view, that the state should consolidate its grip, particularly over the energy sector that provides a large share of Russia's state revenue through its two biggest companies, Rosneft and Gazprom. Ulyukayev had opposed last year's sale of the medium-sized oil company Bashneft to Rosneft. But prosecutors say he signed off on the deal and then took the cash from Sechin. Sechin missed Wednesday's hearings because he is on a business trip to western Siberia, where on Tuesday he attended the opening of a new Rosneft oil field. On Wednesday, he met a regional governor and chaired a meeting with Rosneft's management in the Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiisk, Rosneft said. (Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Polina Devitt /Jeremy Gaunt)
Shoppers congregate at Macys in New York Citys Herald Square on Black Friday 2017. (Photo: AP)

Black Friday is here, and with huge masses of shoppers seeking deals in malls and big-box retailers nationwide, confrontations are expected. This years events look to be on trend, but without some of the more widespread mob violence weve seen in years past.

A Missouri teen was shot outside a mall in Columbia, Mo., receiving life-threatening injuries. According to KQFX, the unidentified 19-year-old was accidentally shot by by another man as the two sat in a car in the malls parking lot. According to police, the first man had been trying to holster the weapon when it suddenly went off.

A fistfight broke out Thursday at a mall in Alabama just before closing time. Footage of the incident shared on Facebook shows two women throwing punches as police and security step in. Police and mall management believe the dispute was personal and not over holiday deals.

The two women were treated for minor injuries by paramedics.

Mike White, general manager of the Riverchase Galleria, told Yahoo Lifestyle in a telephone interview that the fight happened 20 minutes before closing time. [Tthe fight] was not something that affected the bulk of the people who were there, said White.

The Hoover Police Department issued a statement on Facebook Friday saying the fight was of a personal nature and not over merchandise.

The police department also says it responded to calls reporting gunfire outside the mall an hour later but could find no evidence of any weapons being fired.

Aside from these two incidents, Black Friday at the Riverchase has gone smoothly this year. With crowds surging peaceably through the shops and department stores, its a further sign that the economy is on the upswing, said White.

Elsewhere in the country, footage of a tug of war over a toy car at a Walmart has surfaced:

Four men can be seen grappling over it until staff step in and break it up. Neither group ends up getting the car.

While Black Friday has become known not only for its deals and long lines but also for the dustups that inevitably happen when shopping is transformed for one day into a full-contact sport, perhaps the steady and unstoppable growth of online shopping has made deal hunting a more nonviolent pursuit.

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The deep-discount phenomenon exists not only in America. Black Friday deals were up for grabs at retailers around the globe and are marked with decorum and orderliness in places like Finland and the U.K.

Shoppers in both countries shared video footage of bargain hunters walking single file into stores in apparent parody of the free-for-all stampedes found in America.

Oh, it was terrible, writes YouTuber Toni  in the description for his video. In it, a line of shoppers calmly file into a Finnish shopping mall.

BBC reporter Frankie McCamley tweeted a video of British shoppers doing the same:

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Driverless buses will appear on some roads in Singapore from 2022 as part of plans to improve mobility in the land-scarce city-state, its transport minister said Wednesday.

Singapore has so far avoided the massive traffic jams that choke other Asian cities like Manila and Jakarta by imposing road tolls, spending massively on public transport and becoming one of the world's most expensive places to own a car.

It now plans to embrace self-driving technology to further reduce reliance on cars and improve how people get around.

Driverless buses will be deployed during off-peak traffic hours in three new suburban towns designed to accommodate the vehicles in a pilot project, said Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan.

"The autonomous vehicles will greatly enhance the accessibility and connectivity of our public transport system, particularly for the elderly families with young children and the less mobile," he said at the launch of a test centre for self-driving vehicles.

"More importantly, we can gain further insights into how we can develop new towns or refurbish existing ones for the safe mass deployment of autonomous vehicles."

Khaw said the technology will help Singapore "alleviate its tight land and manpower limits that currently constrain our land transport system" and that he hopes the city-state can become a key global player in the sector.

Singapore is asking for input from industry and research institutions on what is needed to implement the project, with industry proposals to be invited after May 2018, he said.

Around 10 local and foreign companies are currently in Singapore to test their driverless vehicle technology, Khaw said.

Some industry players believe autonomous vehicles can ply highways and busy city streets in Singapore "without any form of human intervention" in 10 years' time, he added.
Jamestown (AFP) - Coin-operated telephone boxes, a capital without a cash machine and a local shop with a wooden floor: St. Helena is Britain of yesteryear, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

"I don't think I would fit in the outside world," said Ivy Robinson, who runs the Wellington House bed and breakfast, complete with a pale blue Georgian facade, in the village-sized capital Jamestown.

The accommodation, attentively run by the fifty-something proprietor, has no internet connection just like all but one of her competitors.

Robinson makes do with a fixed-line telephone to communicate abroad and with the island's other 4,500 people.

She has not yet got a mobile phone despite St. Helena, which lies roughly halfway between Angola and Brazil, getting a mobile network two years ago.

"As the rest of the world looks chained to their iPads, we continue to watch the horizon for passing ships," said Jeremy Harris, the local director of the National Trust conservation charity.

The boats that occasionally call at the territory set the pace of life on the island, supplying the islanders' every need.

From fuel to food, furniture to medication, clothes to vehicles, the arrival of fresh cargo aboard the territory's maritime link to the outside world via Cape Town was always much anticipated.

- Vow of silence -

"When you hear the signal that the Royal Mail Ship is leaving, you think 'oh my goodness': I am in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, just thousands of miles from anywhere -- what if?" said Lisa Phillips, the island's governor.

The sense of isolation is compounded by the dearth of information about official matters on the island -- all of its elected councillors take a vow of silence to not divulge their discussions in the name of confidentiality.

But times are changing.

The island now boasts an international airport with a weekly air link to South Africa, and the governor decided in August to relax the councillors' code of conduct.

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Thanks to the new air service, 69-year-old Teddy Fowler was able to return from Britain in time for his mother's funeral on the island.

But his children, who emigrated to Britain, did not make the journey -- the flights were too expensive.

"Even with the plane, it will always be the same for us -- the Saints," he said, using the name for the islanders. "We will still be isolated."

The airport promises to be a game changer for those who fall ill, permitting aerial medical evacuations for the first time.

Some patients have died aboard the postal ship, which takes six days to reach Cape Town.

The life of a newborn has already been saved thanks to the airport, according to the governor.

But keeping the island supplied with essentials still depends on ocean-bound cargo -- as well as patience, planning and a "make do and mend" attitude.

One young "Saint" had to borrow a wedding dress for her big day after the RMS St Helena broke down.

Craig Yon, a diving instructor, waited two and a half months for a spare part for his boat.

- 'Embrace the slow pace' -

In October, St. Helena suffered a shortage of flour -- affecting the supply of everyday staples.

"When you want to cook something, and you can't find all the ingredients, you just have to cook something else," said Phillips.

Food production on the island, where exposed rockfaces are punctuated by lush forests and meadows, is mainly limited to salad, tomatoes, cucumber, pork and tuna.

"We embrace the slow place. That's the key to life on St. Helena," said Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, the curator of the French historical sites on the island where Napoleon was exiled until his death in 1821.

Two centuries on, the defeated emperor is enjoying something of a revival.

Britain's one-time arch-nemesis has become the island's foremost draw for history buffs.

"Whether we like it or not, Napoleon came here, he died here, he is part of our history now. That is a tourist attraction," said Lawson Henry, a local councillor.

Napoleon's Longwood home, where he lived behind permanently closed shutters to torment the soldiers assigned to guard him, is now open to visitors.

St. Helena is still associated with exile -- albeit for the islanders who call it home.

With no industry and underdeveloped agriculture, St. Helena's economy is struggling, with an average annual salary of just A7,280 (8,080 euros).

More than half of the population work abroad at any one time -- often with the armed forces on the Falkland Islands or "nearby" Ascension Island -- 700 miles (1,100 kilometres) away.
By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed a top Pakistani police officer and one of his guards on Friday in the city of Peshawar, police said. Additional Inspector General Ashraf Noor was leaving his home for work when the bomber rammed into his vehicle, city police chief Tahir Khan said. Noor's vehicle was engulfed in flame, killing him on the spot, Khan said. One of his five guards died in hospital, the police chief said. No group claimed responsibility. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi condemned the attack. "Our resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism can not be shaken," he said. Peshawar is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan. Both Pakistani and foreign militants have for years operated in lawless stretches of the border region, launching attacks in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Several years ago humor writer Dave Barry wrote a column describing his experience at an auto dealership. The column tells how the salesman, who had been unable to convince Barry to buy a car after several minutes of trying, went to see the sales manager. The manager says, How many times did you call him Dave? Go out and call him Dave several more times.

Judging from letters I have received from nonprofits lately, I wonder if the writers read that column or are ex-auto salespeople. Some letters mention my name four or five times. I have received two or three in which my name is mentioned 11 times!

I receive tons of begging letters because I support a number of nonprofits that have good ratings from Charity Navigator, ranging from disease research to the environment to needy families. As I understand, my $25 or $50 donation doesn't mean much to their massive budgets, so they make more money selling my name to other nonprofits.

Some of the letter-writers tell me things about myself I didn't know.

For example: Dear Emmert, Your love for the ocean is inspiring  As a leading advocate in Racine I know you understand how critical the health of the ocean is... Emmert, your last membership gift of $1 made a tremendous difference.

I probably sent a dollar for a calendar the agency sent that I decided to keep.

Or this personal note: I wish you could have been there, Emmert ... You have always answered the call. I am humbled, Emmert... Here's the good news. Emmert  I'll be blunt, Emmert. I need more help.

I learn I have compassion for abused donkeys, horses which may be slaughtered, neglected pets and endangered whatevers. Some letter-writers complain that because of climate change, melting glaciers deprive polar bears of their favorite food, baby seals. I like polar bears, but I like baby seals better. So there! (My anonymous critics on the internet will say I am not thinking of the balance of nature.)

I imagine you also receive requests to donate to Racine area drives, although the checks will be sent to New Jersey or Virginia. I also receive survey forms and requests for donations from both major political parties because I am a Racine leader in their parties.

Speaking of gift wrap, one came in handy recently when I attended my son's dog's birthday party. Ramsey, a rescue dog, is a handsome, bright either border collie or English shepherd. My supply of wrapping paper included a sheet showing yellow puppies with the words Live, Love, Wag. I used it to wrap my gift of Beggin' Bits. I don't think Ramsey saw much of the wrapping paper. My 2-year-old grandson unwrapped the gift and tossed away the paper.

Every year I receive assortments of Christmas cards from nonprofits. Again, if I like the agency, I will send a donation (yes, more than a dollar) and send those cards to friends and relatives. I won't have to buy cards this year.

And calendars. For the last two years, I have received wall calendars, sometimes two from the same agency over a period of weeks. I started receiving 2018 calendars last May. At this writing I have 55 from donkey rescuers, horse rescuers, pet rescuers, religious organizations (even from a Jewish organization, although I am not a member of that faith). I will keep a few with bold numbers and large spaces for writing appointments. The balance will go to a senior home or something like that, as will all the unused cards.

I suppose I could give calendars as presents to my family. That would take care of my Christmas shopping.

Nah. Even I am not that cheap.
Thanksgiving traffic nightmare as millions of Americans hit the road - abc7

Americas great Thanksgiving getaway is already under way and it began for some unlucky motorists with an enormous traffic jam.

ABC News shared incredible aerial footage of bumper-to-bumper traffic in Los Angeles on the 405 motorway, one of the busiest and most congested routes in the United States.

More than 50 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more over the Thanksgiving holiday, which kicked off with Donald Trump pardoning a turkey.

Aerial footage shows bumper-to-bumper traffic in Los Angeles as Americans get a head start on Thanksgiving travel. https://t.co/GAHCy45ouspic.twitter.com/lt7ClP8qb0  ABC News (@ABC) November 22, 2017

Thanksgiving kicks off the start of a busy holiday season, and more thankful Americans will travel to spend time with friends and family this year, said Bill Sutherland, senior vice president of the AAA.

A strong economy and labour market are generating rising incomes and higher consumer confidence, fuelling a strong year for the travel industry, which will continue into the holiday season.

Thousands have shared ABCs clip of the red and white traffic crawling slowly along the 405, two days before families sit down to celebrate the national holiday.

Traffic comes to a near standstill on the 405 in southern California each year in the days before Thanksgiving, prompting a strong reaction on social media.

My worst day ever was on the 405 the night before Thanksgiving. Took me over three hours to get from Marina Del Rey to Sherman Oaks; 17 total miles, commented one.

One local, who is familiar with the nightmarish traffic, posted: Seriously. This is my life everyday here in LA.

Another previously compared the footage to red and white blood cells flowing through the major arteries of the city, adding: Pretty, wouldn't want to be in it.

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Donald Trump pardons a turkey Credit: Reuters

Thanksgiving travellers have been advised to avoid traffic hotspots and check for the worst times to hit the road before starting their journey.

Thanksgiving has historically been one of the busiest holidays for road trips, and this year we could see record-level travel delays, says Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at INRIX.

Knowing when and where congestion will build can help drivers avoid the stress of sitting in traffic.
A native American tribe whose ancestors famously ate a Thanksgiving meal with the USs first European colonisers, are working to revive a forgotten language after one of their members had a series of prophetic dreams.

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which is based in and around Cape Cod in Massachusetts, have started immersion classes for youngsters to teach them the language that was lost for decades.

From having had no speakers for six generations to having 500 students attend some sort of class in the last 25 years? Its more than I could have ever expected in my lifetime, Jessie Little Doe Baird, the tribes vice chairwoman, told the Associated Press.

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Tuesday ~ November 21, 2017



The film "We Shall Remain: After the Mayflower" will be shown at the... https://t.co/h7nctUkN48  Mashpee Wampanoag (@MWTribe) November 21, 2017

The push to inject new life into a number of native American languages started to gather pace in the 1990s. Today, an estimated 550 tribes are involved in such efforts.

Ms Baird has been at the forefront of the fight to revive Wopanaotooaok, which has contributed a number of words that have become a fixture in the English language, among them pumpkin (spelled pohpukun in Wopanaotooaok), moccasin (mahkus), skunk (sukok) and powwow (pawaw).

These days, a total of 19 children from Wampanoag households are taught exclusively in Wopanaotooaok, a language that had not been spoken for at least a century.

Jessie Little Doe Baird has led efforts to revive the language (AP)

Two decades ago, Ms Baird, then in her 20s and with no formal training in linguistics, started to develop a grammar, with the help of other tribal members and experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She also used historical documents written in Wampanoag, including personal diaries, land claims and a version of the King James Bible printed in 1663.

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She said she was inspired to do so, after experiencing a series of dreams in which she saw her ancestors speaking to her in a language she could not understand - Wopanaotooaok, or Wopanaak. Her ancestors were among those who hosted a harvest celebration with the Pilgrims in 1621 that helped form the basis for the US's Thanksgiving tradition.

The writing is a little opaque, she told Yankee magazine, of her studies.

I literally cried reading this. I thought Id feel like Ive been tasked with this as my lifes work, and if this is what I have to deal with, its not going to happen.

Teresa McCarty, a cultural anthropologist and applied linguist at the University of California Los Angeles, said the tribe was unusual because it had worked to revive its language with no adults who spoke it.

Imagine learning to speak, read, and write a language that you have never heard spoken and for which no oral records exist, she said. Its a human act of brilliance, faith, courage, commitment and hope.

Before July 4, 2004, there had not been a native speaker of Wopanaotooaok for at least six generations. That was when Ms Baird gave birth to her fifth child, Mae.

The first word she she spoke to her new daughter was Kuweeqahsun, which is used to mean good morning. Its literal meaning is you are in the light.
Thousands of Amazon workers in six distribution centers throughout Germany, and one in Italy, have gone on strike during Black Friday in protest for better wages.

Around 500 workers are taking part in the one-day strike in Amazons main distribution hub in Italy. They have also decided to not do any overtime until Dec. 31, which is peak season for the online retailer.

Italian unions said in a statement, seen by Reuters, that workers were striking following a failure to negotiate bonuses with the company.

Amazons spokesperson at its Piacenza-area center told Italys Sky TG24 TV on Friday the facility was keeping our commitment to serve our clients despite the strike.

In Germany, some 2,500 workers have gone on strike in half a dozen Amazon facilities over better wages. The strike is expected to end on Saturday.

Ver.di union spokesman Thomas Voss told Associated Press that Amazon employees receive lower wages than other mail-order or retail jobs. Amazon in Germany defended its position saying it was a responsible boss. The strikes will not affect us keeping our word to our customers, as the overwhelming majority of our workers are continuing their normal work, Amazon told AP.
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp is "cautiously optimistic" about prospects for construction of its Keystone XL pipeline even after the state of Nebraska denied the company's preferred route, the leader of the oil-producing province of Alberta said on Wednesday. The comments by Premier Rachel Notley, whose government spoke with TransCanada representatives after the decision, were the first indication of the company's stance on Monday's announcement from the Nebraska Public Service Commission. TransCanada has so far said only that it will evaluate the decision. A spokesman for TransCanada, which has been trying to advance the $8 billion Alberta-Nebraska pipeline for nearly a decade, said the company took note of Notley's comments and reiterated that it will review the decision. During a conference call with media, Notley said: "They are cautiously optimistic. The new route was not an entire surprise to them." The Nebraska commission on Monday approved the pipeline, but rejected the company's preferred route in favor of a more costly alternative that would add 5 miles (8 km) of pipeline, along with an additional pumping station and related transmission lines. U.S. federal authorities and Nebraska officials have said it was unclear if the modified route required the company to apply for any additional permits. Shareholders have said they want TransCanada to push ahead with the pipeline expansion. (Reporting by Ethan Lou; Editing by David Gregorio and Phil Berlowitz)
Donald Trump: It is an honour to be here. I have to tell you, you know. The Coast Guard always respected, but if you're looking at it as a brand, there's no brand that went up more than the Coast Guard with what happened in Texas, and I would say in particular, Texas has been incredible. You saved 16,000 lives. Nobody knows that. 16,000 lives. In fact when I first heard the number, I said, you mean like 600? 500? 16,000 lives in Texas.

So as bad as that hurricane was, and that was bad one. That was a big water job, right? It kept coming in and going back they couldn't get rid of it. They'd never seen it. I guess it was the biggest water dump they've ever seen. But when you've got 16,000

[inaudible] big groups of people

[inaudible, Trump turns back around] but when you've got 16,000, that's really something. And then Florida hit. And you know that went very well, you know that went pretty well, right? The job you did in Florida. And then Puerto Rico. I really mean that, I think that there's no brand of any kind, I don't just mean a military brand, that's gone up more than the Coast Guard. Incredible people. You've done an incredible job. I love coming in here and doing this with you today. I think it's  we have to keep you very well fed. This is good stuff. It's an honour. This is the first lady, you know.

Melania Trump: Happy Thanksgiving.

Trump: We went together to Texas. We saw what you were doing. You just followed that storm, right next to that storm. You saved so many people. I still haven't figured out how people take their boats out into a hurricane. Some day you'll explain it. Jean was just telling me they actually do it to to save their boat in many cases. They're not thinking about their life. They're thinking about their boats. They go out in a boat and think think they have a wonderful boat. They've had it for years. It can weather anything and then they have 25-foot waves crashing down. And that would be the end of that. You saved a lot of people. I want to thank you. On behalf of the whole country and on behalf of us, what a job you've done. Thank you very much.

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I'll also take questions. Should we leave the media here? To do the questions or should we tell the media? It's Thanksgiving. Let's let the media stay. Anybody have any questions about the country, how we're doing or any of those things? Wow. I love it when you don't. That means you're doing great. I love that. That's the greatest. The press I know doesn't have any questions. If you do, we won't take them but that's already. The press has plenty of questions.

The country's doing really well. Stock market, all time high. This is all good stuff. I just spoke to a lot of your friends in Afghanistan and Iraq. We spoke to the USS Monterey. Great ship, great missile ship. We spoke to a lot of different folks, from the Air Force, to the Army, just now, a little while ago at Mar-a-Lago. The telecommunication systems [inaudible] we go live to Iraq, live to Afghanistan, and it's really incredible. I told them, our country is doing great. You folks are fighting so hard and working so hard. It's nice that you're working for something that's really starting to work. We've cut back so much on regulation and all the waste and the all of the abuse.

The stock market on Friday hit the all-time high. The highest it's ever been, ever. In your whole long life, the stock market is higher than it's ever been. And that means your 401(k)s and all the things you have. You know whether it's, even if you're in the military. You have a country that's starting to turn. We want to have a strong country.

We want have a country where I can buy new Coast Guard cutters and not have to worry about it, alright. And that's what we're doing, we're building up wealth so we can take care of our protection. And we're ordering tremendous amounts of new equipment, we're at $700 billion for the military. And you know they were cutting back for years, they jut kept cutting, cutting cutting the military. And you got lean, to put it nicely, depleted was the word, and now it's changing.

The Navy, I can tell you, we're ordering ships, with the Air Force i can tell you we're ordering a lot of planes, in particular the F-35 fighter jet, which is like almost like an invisible fighter. I was asking the Air Force guys, I said, how good is this plane? They said, well, sir, you can't see it. I said but in a fight. You know, in a fight, like I watch on the movies. The fight, they're fighting. How good is this? They say, well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it. Even if it's right next to them, it can't see it. I said that helps. That's a good thing.

But I mean we have equipment that  nobody has the equipment that we have. And it's sad when we're selling our equipment to other countries but we're not buying it ourselves. But now that's all changed. And I said, the stuff that we have is always a little bit better too. When we sell to other countries, even if they're allies you never know about an ally. An ally can turn. You're going to find that out. But I always say make lives a little bit better. Give it that extra speed, a little bit  keep a little bit  keep about 10% in the bag. We have -- nobody has what with we have. That's what we're doing. We're really proud of the Coast Guard and I'm very proud -- I walked in today and Jean said, the day I got elected, the following morning, they were putting up the statement that I made right on your front door and I came in and the first thing I noticed, of course, I said wow, look at that. I said, did you put that up just for me because I happen to be coming here today? And you did that the first day. That tells me something. That tells me something.

Let's go, fellas. Come on. Let's get up here. Let's get up here. Yeah. This is good stuff.
At least two Manus Island refugees collapsed as Papua New Guinea authorities entered their shuttered detention center on November 23.

Around 50 PNG police and immigration officers entered the facility on Thursday morning and gave the men an ultimatum to leave, News Australia reported. Around 40 men were forcibly moved onto buses to move them to alternative accommodation, the outlet reported.

During the operation, one of the men collapsed and had a seizure, according to a refugee in the center. Another man was seen lying on the ground, being attended to by other men.

This footage was shared by Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish journalist and refugees based on the island. He was arrested and later released during the operation.

In a tweet following his release, he alleged that he was handcuffed for more than two hours and pushed by the police. He also said the police commander yelled at him for reporting against them. In another tweet he said police beat up some of the refugees and forced them to the new prison camp in East Lorengau, Hillside Haus and West Haus.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the men on Manus Island should obey the authorities of Papua New Guinea, adding that Australia would not be pressured to take the men or change its border protection policies by the standoff. Credit: Twitter/Behrouz Boochani
The Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP)-Racine County has more than 230 volunteers contributing 16,000 hours of service annually through more than 15 agencies.

RSVP-Racine County started a new three-year cycle on April 1 that, upon its completion in 2020, will mark a 20-year association between RSVP and its sponsor, the Volunteer Center of Racine County Inc.

As federal funding has become increasingly uncertain, RSVP projects, which operate under the authority of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), are placing increasing emphasis on uniform reporting standards.

These National Performance Measures (NPMs) are designed to give lawmakers, when awarding funding levels, an accurate idea of the impact that RSVP projects have on the communities they serve, regardless of their geographic location.

NPMs are set by CNCS, as are the range of projects that they measure. All projects have outputs which track unduplicated RSVP volunteers or volunteer hours, depending upon the activity.

Selected projects report outcomes as well as outputs. Outcomes are usually derived from surveys measuring the relative satisfaction that recipients experience from RSVP volunteer projects.

These select RSVP projects will be evaluated, in part, by metrics coming from outcome-based projects. One hundred of the 230 RSVP-Racine County volunteers will serve in at least one of three work plans with definable outcomes.

ADRCs Meals on Wheels, the Dominican Sisters Senior Companion Program and the Volunteer Centers MyRIDE senior transportation program are outcome-based projects under CNCS Healthy Futures-Aging in Place project classification. The common thread running through all three projects concentrates on sustaining senior independent living.

RSVP matches volunteers who are 55 and older with assignments designed to address documented community challenges. Any volunteer program faces attrition issues; but they are especially acute for RSVP that defines its volunteers by age. Similarly, many RSVP projects also serve populations with natural attrition.
RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A senior U.S. diplomat in Brazil was shot in the foot during an attempted robbery on a highway near Rio de Janeiro, highlighting surging violence in Rio state where an economic crisis has drained public resources.

Police said in a statement on Friday that the vice consul was taken from the scene near Angra dos Reis to the Hospital Samaritano in the state capital to undergo surgery.

Press representatives at the U.S. Embassy in Brazil did not immediately respond to questions about the incident, which newspaper O Globo said happened on Thursday night.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed that "a consulate official suffered non-life-threatening injuries in an incident involving gunfire" and the case is under investigation.

The diplomat and her husband had pulled over on the side of coastal highway BR-101, which links up some of Brazil's most popular beaches, when they were approached by unidentified individuals, O Globo reported.

As the couple sped away the assailants fired two shots at their vehicle, one of which hit the diplomat's foot, Globo reported, citing the account of a federal police officer.

The attack coincides with a rising tide of violence in Rio, where Brazil's deepest recession on record, a downturn in the local oil industry and a string of political corruption scandals have paralyzed many public services and compounded social ills.

President Michel Temer has deployed thousands of army soldiers in recent months to help patrol the slums of Rio's capital, but it has had little effect on the violence.

(Reporting by Pedro Fonseca and Bruno Federowski; Writing by Brad Haynes; Editing by Richard Chang)
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday a group of experts on freedom of expression will visit Mexico at the end of November to assess the safety of journalists in the country, one of the most dangerous in the world for reporters. David Kaye, U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, and Edison Lanza, who holds the same position at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, will visit from Nov. 27 to Dec. 4 after an invitation by the government. "This visit is about the crisis the press is going through in Mexico, the exponential increase in violence," said Leopoldo Maldonado, the protection and defense program officer in Mexico at Article 19, a freedom of expression advocacy group. The visit comes as Mexico's journalists live through one of the worst waves of violence in recent history, with at least 11 reporters murdered in 2017, the same number killed in 2016. Over the past 17 years, 111 journalists have been killed in Mexico, more than one third of them under the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto. Reporters are also having to contend with other forms of intimidation. In June, activists, human-rights lawyers and journalists filed a criminal complaint after experts found that their smartphones had been infected with advanced spying software sold only to the government. The Mexican government said at the time that there was no proof it was responsible for the spying and that it condemned any attempt to violate the privacy of any person. The rights experts will travel to Mexico City and the states of Guerrero, Veracruz, Tamaulipas and Sinaloa to meet legislative, executive and judicial authorities plus journalists and representatives of civil society, the U.N. said. Reporters Without Borders ranks Mexico at 147 out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index, below Venezuela, South Sudan and Bangladesh, and one place above Russia.{https://rsf.org/en/ranking#} (Reporting by Christine Murray and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Susan Thomas)
By Magali Cervantes OVER THE SOUTH ATLANTIC (Reuters) - From the window of a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon airplane taking part in an international search for a missing Argentine submarine, the glistening vastness of the South Atlantic stretches in every direction. Yet onboard the modified Boeing 737, the nine-man crew spends much of the flight bent in silence over tracking devices. They listen to signals sent by buoys deployed on the ocean surface and watch video from the plane's heat-seeking camera on five sets of double screens at the center of the plane. More than 30 aircraft and ships from Argentina, Britain, Brazil, the United States, Chile and other countries are participating in the effort to find the ARA San Juan submarine, which disappeared on Nov. 15 with 44 crew members on board. In all, more than 4,000 personnel from 13 countries are assisting the search, scouring some 500,000 square km (193,051 square miles) of ocean - an area the size of Spain. "It's great to be able to utilize everything we have - all the training we have, the equipment we have - in order to come down here to Argentina to help find this submarine," said mission commander Lieutenant Zachary Collver, a 32-year-old pilot from Washington state. However, hopes dimmed of finding the submarine's crew alive on Thursday when Argentina's navy raised the possibility the submarine suffered an explosion, after an international agency with listening posts to check for secret atomic blasts detected an unusual signal near where the vessel went missing. Midway through its seven-hour flight, the U.S. plane changed course, picked up speed and descended toward the ocean surface. Collver alerted the crew that a satellite image had picked up "something" near the area where the submarine last reported its position, according to a Reuters witness aboard the flight on Wednesday. The plane turned south toward the Patagonian city of Puerto Madryn, after taking off from an Argentine base in Bahia Blanca, some 650 km (400 miles) south of Buenos Aires. Data analysis would later show the object was just a big rock. The episode was one of several false leads in the international search operation, which has involved more than a dozen boats but has not yet produced any solid clues about the fate of the missing vessel. But the P-8A Poseidon crew insisted they would not diminish their search efforts. "It's rewarding to know we can help out the best that we can," Collver said. It was the first time the Florida-based crew participated in an actual aerial search mission, rather than just a drill. Argentina has thanked the countries that have participated in the search. (Writing by Luc Cohen and Hugh BronsteinEditing by Jonathan Oatis)
Islamabad (AFP) - The US said it was "deeply concerned" Friday after Pakistan freed one of the suspected masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks despite months of pressure from Washington over militancy.

The statement came as firebrand cleric Hafiz Saeed, who heads the UN-listed terrorist group Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and has a $10 million US bounty on his head, led prayers and met with supporters in Lahore Friday after his midnight release.

JuD, which has operated freely across Pakistan and is popular for its charity work, is considered by the US and India to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the militant group blamed for the attack on India's financial capital.

"LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens," US State Department spokesman Heather Nauert said.

"The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes."

The $10 million bounty for Saeed first offered in 2012 still stands, Nauert added.

The court's decision to release Saeed after Islamabad failed to provide evidence against him came after US President Donald Trump in August angrily accused Pakistan of harbouring "agents of chaos" and called for a militant crackdown.

The horror of the Mumbai carnage played out on live television around the world as commandos battled the heavily armed gunmen, who arrived by sea on the evening of November 26, 2008.

It took the authorities three days to regain full control of the city, and the attacks, which killed more than 160 people, nearly brought nuclear-armed arch-enemies India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

Saeed, already designated a global terrorist by the US at the time, was later listed as one by the UN also over his alleged role in the attacks.

India expressed its fury at his freedom Thursday, with foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar accusing Pakistan of attempting to "mainstream proscribed terrorists".

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Saeed said he was fighting for independence for Pakistan and Kashmir, according to his spokesman Nadeem Awan.

"I was house arrested for talking about the rights of Kashmiris," Awan quoted the cleric as saying.

A JuD spokesman said Saeed "has no links with terrorism" and said the US comments amounted to interference in Pakistan's internal affairs.

New Delhi has long seethed at Pakistan's failure either to hand over or prosecute those accused of planning the attacks, while Islamabad has alleged that India failed to give it crucial evidence.

It is the third time that the cleric has been released by courts after Islamabad briefly detained him twice in the aftermath of the attacks in November 2008.

Saeed for decades has publicly espoused ending India's rule of the disputed Himalayan Kashmir region, with India accusing him of sending armed militants to the valley.

India and Pakistan, who rule parts of the disputed region, have fought two of their three wars over the territory, with scores of militant groups, including LeT, engaged in a decades-old armed insurgency against the Indian rule.

Addressing his supporters, Saeed blamed India for terrorist activity in Pakistan and said he was fighting for independence for Pakistan and Kashmir, according to his spokesman Nadeem Awan.

A JuD spokesman said Saeed had "no links with terrorism" and argued that the US comments amounted to interference in Pakistan's internal affairs.
Larry Nassar, the former USA gymnastic teams doctor - AFP

The US gymnastic teams doctor during the London 2012 Olympics has pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual assault after claims he abused young athletes.

Lawrence Nassar, who has since stepped down from the role, said he was horribly sorry for his crimes during a court appearance on Wednesday.

Three of Americas Fierce Five gymnastics squad that won team gold in the 2012 Olympics in the UK have publicly claimed they were abused by Nassar.

McKayla Maroney, one of the five, said last month: "It started when I was 13 years old, at one of my first National Team training camps, in Texas, and it didn't end until I left the sport.

"It happened in London before my team and I won the gold medal, and it happened before I won my silver [in vault in London].

McKayla Maroney, the US gymnast Credit: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File

Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas, who both won gold in the London games, have also made abuse claims against Nassar.

Nassar was involved with the American gymnastics team for more than three decades and worked at four separate Olympic Games.

The charges he pleaded guilty to relate to his practice at Michigan State University, where prosecutors said 125 victims have come forward alleging abuse.

Three of his victims were under 13 years old, and the others were between 13-15 years of age. He faces at least 25 years in prison.

He appeared in handcuffs in court and said he prayed for his victims. "I want them to heal. I want this community to heal," Nassar said.
Russia had leverages of pressure over Donald Trump, Israeli intelligence officials were reportedly told earlier this year by their US counterparts.

Members of Mossad, the nations foreign espionage agency, and other Israeli intelligence officials, attended a meeting at the CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia, shortly before Mr Trumps inauguration on January 20.

There, they were told by a senior US intelligence official he believed Moscow had leverage about the man set to become Americas 45th president, according to Vanity Fair.

Crooked Hillary Clinton and her team "were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information." Not fit!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2016

While the official did not provide specific details, he reportedly told Israel to be careful as it was possible sensitive material could be passed to the Russians. Months later, Mr Trump sparked widespread controversy when he revealed highly classified intelligence information during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in Washington.

Earlier this week, Vanity Fair revealed that during that meeting, at which Mr Trump called his sacked FBI Director James Comey a nut job, the President told the Russians about extremely sensitive information that revealed details of a covert Israeli operation that exposed Isis plans to create new laptop bombs and smuggle them on commercial airliners.

US reporters were barred from the meeting and the only images that documented it were taken by Russias TASS news agency.

Two experts told the magazine the operation carried out Israeli intelligence took place last winter. In the operation, two helicopters flew a team of commandos and Mossad operatives into Syria to gain information on a reported new Isis weapon.

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They landed some miles from their target and proceeded in vehicles with Syrian Army markings before bugging the Isis cell and getting back out, the magazine said.

The White House has yet to respond to the latest allegations.

At the time it was revealed that Mr Trump had talked about classified information during the meeting in May, the White House denied the President had done anything wrong.

I was in the room - it didnt happen, said Lt Gen HR McMaster, Mr Trumps national security adviser.

At no time - at no time - were intelligence sources or methods discussed, and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known.
The US will send F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a joint drill, reports said Friday, in a new show of force aimed at Pyongyang.

Six fighter jets, normally based in Okinawa, Japan, will be deployed to the South for a five-day joint military exercise, Vigilant Ace, starting December 4, local media reported.

A South Korean Air Force spokesman said an "unspecified number" of F-22s would take part in the drill.

A US Air Force spokesman declined to give details.

Local media reported that the US aircraft will engage in precision strike drills with South Korean Air Force fighter jets.

The move comes as the US pushes what President Donald Trump has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against the North's nuclear program.

Earlier this month, two B-1B US supersonic bombers overflew the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes.

This was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships in the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region for a decade.

North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainland -- which were described by the country's leader Kim Jong-Un as a gift to "American bastards".

It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test in September -- by far its most powerful yet.

Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back onto a US blacklist Pyongyang was taken off nearly a decade ago.

The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on the Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear programme.

Trump said that the terror designation and new sanctions are part of a series of moves over the next two weeks to reinforce his "maximum pressure campaign" against Kim Jong-Un's regime.

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Pyongyang condemned the listing as a "serious provocation" on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the North's sole ally, also rejected as "wrong" new US sanctions, which target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state.

Russia said Thursday that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a "PR move" that could allow the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global "catastrophe".
RACINE COUNTY  The Wisconsin Department of Transportation will host an upcoming public meeting about the proposed resurfacing of Northwestern Avenue from Highway K in Caledonia to Highway MM in Mount Pleasant.

The meeting is scheduled to take place from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday at Mount Pleasant Village Hall, 8811 Campus Drive.

According to a press release, the meeting will be an open house, with DOT representatives available to discuss the proposed project in detail. The DOT encourages property and business owners, interested residents and other stakeholders to attend the meeting.

Proposed improvements include two miles of resurfacing, signal upgrades at Newman Road and Emmertsen Road and possible right and left turn lane improvements throughout the corridor. Construction is tentatively set to begin in 2020 or 2021.

Those who are unable to attend the meeting and would like to provide feedback can contact Project Manager Cindy Flower at (262) 548-5695 or Cynthia.Flower@dot.wi.gov.
A New York woman was fatally shot this week by a hunter who believed she was a deer.

Rosemary Billquist, 43, was walking her dogs in a field in the town of Sherman on Wednesday at about 5:30 p.m. when she was suddenly shot, the Chautauqua County Sheriffs Office said.

When deputies arrived to the scene, 34-year-old Thomas B. Jadlowski told them he was the one who had pulled the trigger.

He said he thought Billquist was a deer, and fired his pistol from about 200 yards away. When he heard a scream, he ran in the direction of the sound and discovered Billquist.

Jadlowski called 911 and tried to save her by applying pressure to the bullet wound until first responders arrived. Billquist was later pronounced dead at UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa.

I will miss you and love you forever and I know you dancing in heaven with your momma and all of our friends and family that we have lost, her anguished husband, Jamie Billquist, posted to Facebook on Thursday.

No charges have been filed in the shooting, but the investigation is continuing. The sheriffs office determined that the shot was fired after sunset, which is forbidden by local law.

The Chautauqua County District Attorneys Office will determine whether to bring a criminal case against Jadlowski.

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Johan Mooij expects food supplies in Yemens capital of Sana to run out in about six weeks. Mooij is the Yemen country director for CARE, one of several dozen humanitarian groups working with the United Nations to distribute food to millions of people in Yemen.

Even before Saudi Arabia blockaded Yemen two weeks ago, the situation was deteriorating. Now, he warns of disaster. People are getting really worried, says Mooij, who is based in the capital.

Fuel is also scarce, Mooij says, so the deep water wells cannot run. The lack of clean water is raising fear of a worsening cholera epidemic that has already hit a million people. Prices for fuel have gone up 160%, he says. The price of water has doubled in the past couple days.

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen continues to worsen since the Saudi-led blockade of the country began two weeks ago. A Saudi-led coalition, supported by the U.S., has been fighting Houthi separatists in Yemen for three years, and on Nov. 5, Saudi Arabi closed air, land, and sea ports to seal off the country. United Nations officials have said that seven million people face risk of famine and called the situation catastrophic. Saudi Arabia said it would open some ports last week, but aid workers like Mooij continue to report difficulty. The U.N. has said its staff has not been able to move though Sana since the blockade. At least seven million people rely on the U.N. and other NGOs for food aid.

We feel very strongly that the U.S. is best positioned to talk with Saudi to push them to find ways to open the border, Mooij says. There are very few governments that have access to the Saudis.

A spokesperson for CARE says their humanitarian and human rights coalition has not yet received a response for a letter it sent to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Nov. 13, urging him to work to end the blockade. The eighteen other signatories of the letter included Oxfam, the International Rescue Committee and Refugees International.

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The United States bears a special responsibility to use all diplomatic means to end ongoing violations against civilians in Yemen and the recent blockade of the country, to obtain concrete commitments by all sides for unfettered humanitarian access, and to secure a ceasefire and resumption of the peace process, they wrote.

The breakdown in Yemen of respect for international law and the rapidly worsening humanitarian situation puts millions of civilian lives at risk, they warned. Four-fifths of Yemens population in need of humanitarian aid, including 7 million at imminent risk of famine.

They copied National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, and U.S. representative to the U.N. Nikki Haley.

CARE has also been working with coalition partners to meet with members of Congress.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution earlier this month stating that it had not authorized U.S. military support for the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen. But the resolution did not call to end current U.S. support, so the step was limited.

On the ground in Sana, Mooij says humanitarians will press on. We are humanitarians, so we are used to working under difficult circumstances, he says. We are on the phone, on Skype, on email, trying to get the world to understand there is a humanitarian crisis going on.
Hamas has been struggling for over a decade with creating either civilian or military infrastructures in the West Bank due to the daily pressure it is constantly under, with the IDF and Shin Bet pressuring from one end and the Palestinian Security Forces from the other.

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In fact, Hamas operatives are arrested nightly for trying to lay the groundwork for such infrastructure as well as for creating local cells in Palestinian villages and towns in the area.

Hamas's newly-appointed deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri has been tasked with constructing and directing his organization's military and civilian infrastructures in the West Bank. In his previous position, al-Arouri founded and headed Hamas's "West Bank Headquarters."

Al-Arouri during the signing of the Palestinian reconciliation agreement (Photo: EPA)

The Hamas deputy chief tasked some of the organization's representatives in Jordan, the Gulf countries and Lebanon with responsibilities relating to West Bank operations. Those representatives' main advantage is they're immune from arrest due to their geographic locations, and can orchestrate operations safely from afar.

These operations include raising and transferring funds using money changers, money laundering, and smuggling cash through passengers entering the West Bank at the Allenby Border Crossing.

Most of the people Hamas placed in the aforementioned positionssome of which were prisoners released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap and deported to other countrieswere either born or raised in the West Bank and the specific sectors they oversee.

Al-Arouri meeting Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah

By implementing this new policymuch bolstered over the past yearthose same representatives can thusly hold meetings without fear of reprisal, formulate strategies as to Hamas's West Bank operations, coordinate the policy's implantation and discuss how funds dedicated to the West Bank should be allocated.

Al-Arouri presides over all of their actions, and makes sure to be well informed of all goings-on in the West Bank despite his lofty stature and other responsibilities. His clever methodology does not end there, however, as he has commenced a policy according to which Hamas will downplay and mask his true intentions by operating charitable institutions, youth clubs and social activities not immediately synonymous with Hamas.

It is for this reason that Hamas banners or photos of its leaders are never hung in the offices of the abovementioned organizations or displayed during their activities. The people administering them are not clearly affiliated with Hamas, and yet people attending their events know Hamas provides the money and support for them, which helps win over the locals' hearts and minds.

Al-Arouri during a meeting in Iran (Photo: Reuters)

Hamas then does its absolute best to insert as much money as it can into the West Bank and then divvies it according to it needs. Families of terrorists receive funds without any return expected of them, which effectively buys their support of Hamas.

While Hamas is now investing more funds in developing civilian infrastructures to build a popular support base, it has not forsaken attemptsmostly directed from Gazato create small military bands to carry out terrorist attacks, another field under the watchful gaze of al-Arouri.
Terrorist mastermind Mohammad Zkharna was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences and an additional 40-year sentence for recruiting and operating the terrorists who carried out the attack that claimed the life of Gregory Rabinowitz in May 2009.

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The three members of the cell Zkharna operated were given life sentences for their part seven years ago.

Zkharna was convicted recently of planning the attack, recruiting the three members, operating them and instructing them on how to behave after the attack. He was also convicted of murderingalong with othersa Palestinian suspected of collaborating with Israel and of 37 other security offenses.

Victim Gregory Rabinowitz (Photo: Gadi Kabalo)

The members of the cellMahmoud Ouda, Muhammad Khaledi and Ahmed Abu Haninicame to Ashdod and tried hailing a taxi with the intention of robbing its driver. Many drivers refused to serve them, however, as they could not produce IDs.

The three were eventually able to board Rabinowitz's cab and asked him to take them to Gan Yavne. When they arrived there, they directed him to a side dirt road, and when he stopped the vehicle, they jumped him and beat him into unconsciousness. They then tied his hands and feet, placed him in the car's trunk and drove off.

Rabinowitz came to a short while later and tried untying himself, at which point the three stopped the taxi, took him out of the trunk, and Ouda began throttling him with a shoelace he tightened against his neck while his friends shoved pieces of cloth into his mouth.

Two of the terrorist group's members

The three did not relent and after a few minutes turned Rabinowitz onto his back, with one of them strangling him with his bare hands until he died. The three then covered the body with branches and cardboard boxes they found nearby and escaped.

They admitted to the crime after they were arrested and said they entered Israel illegally, randomly found Rabinowitz and murdered him after leading him to an isolated locale.

The cell's members added they killed him because he was Jewish and as revenge for the death of one of their relatives, senior Islamic Jihad terrorist Mohammad Abu Jahin, who was killed by security forces in February 2007 as he was being taken into custody.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit reiterated his objection on Thursday to recent Likud bills he says could hurt law enfrocement authorities, including one barring investigations into the affairs of a sitting prime minister and another barring police from recommending indictments.

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"The recent spate of bills over the past few days and months should worry anyone, and it certainly does me. It's a slippery slope that should bother us all," he said at a law conference at Haifa University.

AG Mandelblit said recent Likud bills were 'slippery slope' (Photo: Gil Nechushtan)

"These steps do nothing to advance governability. Quite the opposite: they cripple it. Claims made trying to find fault or raise doubts as to the validity of law enforcement authorities' considerations have no place. The people of the State Attorney's Office, under the tutelage of Shay Nitzan, administer their duties with a deep, abiding commitment to the rule of law," Mandelblit stressed.



'AGs work in harsh, hostile environment'

Former attorneys general Yitzhak Zamir and Yehuda Weinstein also attacked the proposed bills, lamenting the "harsh" and "hostile" working environment Israel's attorney general has to face.

Zamir, who served as attorney general from 1978-1968 and later served as Supreme Court justice, said Israel's gatekeepers were under pressures that may influence their performance. "The attorney general's job is now harder, because there has never been a harsher working environment towards those monitoring the government's actions and compliance with the law," he said.

"We've witnessed many blunt, crude attacks against the Supreme Court recently, mostly levied against the High Court of Justice. And against the attorney general as well from time to time. It appears a war is being waged against the gate keepers. I can do naught but hope the toxic airs won't influence the attorney general's daily functioning," Zamir added.

L-R: former chief justice Barak and former attorneys general Zamir and Weinstein (Photo: Gil Nechushtan)

Former attorney general Weinstein also joined the fray, saying, "The gatekeepers' recommendations go unheeded more and more these days."

Weinstein recalled the furor raised by the intention to appoint Yoav Galant IDF chief of staff and his conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he said there were "juridical difficulties" regarding such an appointment.

The government ended up striking down the appointment, but Weinstein said he doubted whether his stance would have been accepted today. "I'll say this cautiously: I'm not convinced statements regarding juridical difficulties would have found their mark in today's government," Weinstein said.

Former Supreme Court chief justice Aharon Barak also attended the conference and commented on investigations pending against Prime Minister Netanyahu, adding he should resign immediately if he were to be indicted.

Barak also noted that "despite the fact Basic Law: the Government only states he must resign if he is convicted, what truly matters is the court of public opinion."

"One of the biggest problems in Israel today is that when the people in power, mostly in the Knesset but also in government, ask themselves what democracy is, they think it's the rule of the majority. Majority rule, however, should not become the majority's dictatorship. There can be no democracy without human rights," the former chief justice stated.

'Trying to minimize damage to civil servants'

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who also spoke at the conference, claimed that "there would be no significant difference between things as they stand today and after the (recommendation bill) is passed."

Justice Minister Shaked said final law would 'minimize damage' to public servants (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

The justice minister was asked whether the bill was meant to terrorize the judiciary, to which she responded the legislation had to receive both her own approval and that of Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan. "Its wording will be much softened. It would be congruent with the state of things today, and police would need the attorney general's consent to make their recommendation public," Shaked said.

She also explained the law would "mostly pertain to public officials who have been forced to walk with a cloud hanging over their heads for a year or 18 months after their cases were closed. The attorney general's instructions are not being enforced today, and the bill wants to shine a light on leaks as well, putting a stop to them. Civil servants are also people, and we'll try to minimize damage done to them."
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely stressed on Thursday evening that she meant no offense to the lone soldiers from the US when she said American Jews fail to understand "the complexity of the region" and live "quite convenient lives."

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"If any of the lone soldiers in Israel were hurt because they thought I directed my comments at them, I certainly did not direct my comments at any such soldier who serves in the Israel Defense Force," Hotovely said in Hebrew in a video posted on her Facebook page.

"Among the American Jews are people who send their sons to fight in the Israeli army, and there are of course people in American history who fought in the American military," she allowed.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely

"The connection, the dialogueas is acceptable among siblings within a familyis the most important thing," Hotovely asserted. "It's okay to criticize, it's okay to give voice to pain, but it's important to remember there is one state for the Jewish people and that is Israel, and it is committed to all Jews in the world."

She maintained that "what happened over the past 24 hours does not reflect the spirit of my comments. I embrace American Jewry, call on it to have a connection with the State of Israel, and truly believe in dialogue with Diaspora Jewry and particularly with the wonderful American Jewry."

However, Hotovely doubled down on her position that "the reality of life in Israel and the reality of life in the US is very different, and that does not contradict the connection and dialogue that must take place between us and this important Jewry."

Deputy Minister Hotovely in i24NEWS interview (: i24news)

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In English, Hotovely only offered a short clarification of her comments, saying: "American Jewry is important to us, we are siblings, and siblings are allowed to have an argument within the family. Israel is home to all Jews from all denominations. I view the link between us and the American Jewry as essential. Let me make it clear: There is no argument about the loyalty of American Jews to their country. The use of partial quotes from a full interview only undermines the central message."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to distance himself from Hotovelys comments earlier on Thursday, issuing a statement against what he described as offensive remarks.

"The Jews of the Diaspora are dear to us and are an inseparable part of our people," Netanyahu said.

There is no place for such attacks, and her remarks do not reflect the position of the State of Israel, he added.
A bull loose in a china shop would likely cause less damage than Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely has in her wretched comments about American Jewry. Hotovely, who one would expect to know a thing or two about diplomacy, threw diplomacy to the wind with regards to internal relations among the Jewish people. And after all, why should she pay heed to the millions of Jews who for decades have been, and still are, a pillar of support of the Israeli national security. Besides, American Jews are not Likud voters. Most are not associated with her community and perhaps even believe that being liberal and enlightened, and opposing the occupation, are the most essential Jewish tenets; the complete opposite of Hotovely. So it's ok to freely disparage them, those quarter Jews, if not gentiles. Who needs them anyways?

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In a closed door meeting in New York, attended by prominent members of the Jewish community and members from delegations representing "Gesher", an Israeli nonprofit organization, and the Minister of Diaspora Affairs (including yours truly), President of the Reut Institute Gidi Grinstein described the relationship between Israel and American Jewry as "the perfect storm" and added that "revoking the Kotel agreement has caused a nuclear reaction from American Jews; all their frustration with Israel's attitude towards them has burst out."

(Photo: Ehud Zwigenberg)

Other American Jews, among them many youths active in various Jewish frameworks, used harsher language when describing Israel, the most common term used was "a burden." "Israel is not part of our day to day existence," said students at NYU as well as young members of GatherDC, an organization comprising about six thousand Jews who live in the American capital. "We dont really understand how Israel is connected to our Jewish identity; Israel is a tough subject so we gave up on it."

Fewer donations, less identifying

Yes, in 2017 the state of Israel has become a sort of burden to American Jews. Many dont feel any connection to it; some believe that Israel makes them look bad vis-a-vis its policies in the territories. Those whose religious identity is important to them are even more offended because of the disdainful treatment by the orthodox religious establishment that completely avoids any dialogue or meaningful connection with the Reform and Conservative communities that make up the majority of American Jews.

In short, the relationship between Israeli and American Jews is at a breaking point and the results can be seen on the ground: fewer donations, less support for Israel among Jewish students on college campuses, fewer visits to Israel and less desire to identify as a Zionist.

As usual, instead of dealing with the problem, bridging the gap and initiating dialogue that might lessen the damage and the divide, the Israeli leadership is demonstrating weakness. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu loves to attend AIPAC conferences and use the platform to churn out another faultless English speech to the sound of applause from 20 thousand Israel supporters. But when it comes to real leadership decisions Netanyahu is mainly concerned with holding on to his seat, whether the issue is the Kotel or the conversion law.

Netanyahu, who claims to know America and claims that he understands the American character, has abandoned the second largest Jewish community in the world. He has sacrificed its relationship with Israel on the altar of his political survival and his alliance with the Ultra Orthodox parties. When the head allows itself to ignore American Jewry, what will the backbench politicians say?

And sure enough, as Tzipi Hotovely confirmed Wednesday, they will mostly spew rubbish that is bound to explode with a bang and further widen the gap between American Jews and Israel. Apparently, most of us are not very concerned with this, be it out of ignorance, jealousy or just plain shallowness, but significantly, in the most open generation in Jewish history, one of the biggest crises in the history of the Jewish people is taking placebut there is no leadership to deal with it. And Hotovely has added another bulldozer to the destruction.
RACINE COUNTY  From a bike trail to more elbow room at the local juvenile detention center, two Racine County projects that received funding in the state budget are in varying stages of development.

They include the plan to increase capacity at the Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility, 1501 Albert St., and the Rails to Trails project, which extends area recreation trails.

The Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility plan will allow for increased capacity from 450 to 500 inmates, which would reduce the countys dependency on county contract beds.

State Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said RYOCF already has more than 500 beds in the facility and that Warden Pamela Wallace said the facility can accommodate as many inmates without further modifications.

On Nov. 17, RYOCF had counted 449 inmates in its care.

The budget specifies that the increased capacity will allow the department to reduce costs $300,100 for 2017-18. An additional $169,500 was allotted for RYOCFs institutional costs while the budget calculates a $469,600 savings for putting up the inmates in-house. For 2018-19, that reduction was projected to be $296,200, a $173,400 increase in institutional costs and a $469,600 savings in contracting beds.

The increase gives the (Department Of Corrections) additional flexibility to effectively manage the population of inmates in custody, said Cook via email.

But if the state decides to further expand at RYOCF, theyll have to make some additional investments.

If the population increases further, DOC would have to evaluate resource needs for security, medical care, mental health care, and other critical services, said Cook.

Rails to Trails

Another project underway will convert the Canadian Pacific Railway Corridor, a 13-mile abandoned rail corridor between Dover and Sturtevant, into a hiking and bike trail. The new trail would connect the west end of the county from trails in Burlington to trails that run through Racine all the way to Lake Michigan.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources was allotted $1 million to purchase the property in the states budget. Brigit Brown from the DNR said the department and railroad are in the process of negotiating the purchase.

The project received support from the county as well as the towns and villages along its way, including Dover, Union Grove, Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant. Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave said he is confident the trail would attract tourism and economic development.
In a climate of unprecedented seismic shifts in the Israeli-Saudi relationship, France's Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia and Paris Grand Synagogue's Rabbi Moshe Sabag met with two senior Saudi officials, Dr. Muhammad al-Issa and Khalid al-Angari.

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The meeting came on the heels of an interview given by IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot to the Saudi Elaph newspaper and combative statements on fighting Iran and Hezbollah.

L-R: France Chief Rabbi Korsia, Paris Grand Synagogue Rabbi Sabag, General Secretary al-Issa and Ambassador al-Angari

The two officials accepted Rabbi Korsia's invitation and toured the Grand Synagogue Of Paris, called "Synagogue de la Victoire" in French, as guests of Rabbis Korsia and Sabag.

Rabbi Sabag showing the Saudi officials the 200-year-old Torah scroll

Rabbi Sabag said the meeting with friendly and intimate, not official. "It moved us all, and me more than most. Saudi is considered a hostile power, a conservative Muslim state. It was interesting to meet them. Our conversation and dialogue opened new avenues in both directions," the Paris chief rabbi explained.

Rabbi Sabag (center) between the two Saudi officials

"Their visit lasted almost two hours. We showed them around the synagogue and explained the various characteristics of Judaism. It was their first time visiting a Jewish house of worship. It opened a brand new world for them to discover what Jews are like and what Jewish prayer and Jewish traditions are," he added.

Al-Issa (L) and Sabag shaking hands

The Grand Synagogue's rabbi showed the Saudi visitors a 200-year-old Torah scroll written on reddish gazelle-skin parchment. "It felt like we were making history. It was important for me to put on a new face on Saudi Arabia: not just a state sponsor of terrorism but a country that's open to all religions," Rabbi Sabag said.

When asked if he and Rabbi Korsia have been invited to visit the Saudi kingdom, Sabag replied, "Not yet, but I think we're about to. The ambassador invited me to a Paris luncheon in honor of the secretary and I was the sole rabbi at an event attended by all of the Persian Gulf and Arab states' ambassadors."
Pakistani Islamist Hafiz Saeed, seen as the mastermind of a 2008 militant assault in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai in which 166 people were killed, has been released from house arrest, his religious charity said on Friday.

Saeed has been under house arrest since January after living freely in Pakistan for many years, a sore point in Pakistan's relationship with the United States and neighbour India. A court on Wednesday ordered an end to his house arrest.

Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks in which 10 gunmen attacked targets in India's largest city, including two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and a train station in a rampage that lasted several days. The violence brought nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India to the brink of war.
Saudi Arabias powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called the Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei the new Hitler of the Middle East in an interview with the New York Times' Thomas Friedman published on Thursday, in yet another escalation of the relationship between the rival gulf nations.

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The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Shiite theocracy Iran back rival sides in wars and political crises throughout the region.

Bin Salman, who is also Saudi defense minister in the US-allied oil giant kingdom, suggested the Islamic Republics alleged expansion under Khamenei needed to be confronted.

Bin Salman (L) and Khamenei (Photos: Reuters)

But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesnt work. We dont want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East, the paper quoted him as saying.

Bin Salman (Photo: AFP)

Israel considers Iran to be its utmost threat, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly warning of the Islamic Republic's aim to establish itself in Syria, right on the border with Israel.

Khamenei (Photo: Reuters)

Netanyahu voiced this concern to Russian President Vladimir Putin, both in person and in a recent phone conversation, as the Russian leader met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his Black Sea resort in the city of Sochi on Wednesday.

Putin meeting with Khemenei (Photo: Reuters)

While the bad blood between Iran and Saudi Arabia has been growing, Israel's relationship with Saudi Arabia has been improving, with senior Saudi officials recently visiting the Paris Grand Synagogue. Despite this, bin Salman not mention Israel in the interview.

Bin Salman also refused to talk about Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who announced his resignation in Saudi Arabia and returned to Lebanon a few days later, after which his resignation was suspended. He only noted that the bottom line of the Hariri affair is that the Lebanese prime minister will not continue to provide political cover for the Lebanese government, which in actuality is controlled by Hezbollah.

Hariri and bin Salman (Photo: Reuters)

Friedman, a Jewish columnist for the New York Times, wrote that he flew to Riyadh to interview bin Salman, who also goes by MBS. He further wrote that he met bin Salman at Al-Auja Palace, north of Riyadh. Bin Salman spoke to him in English, and alongside him were Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al SaudSaudi Arabia's new ambassador to the United Statesas well as other Saudi officials.

In his conversation with Friedman, bin Salman, 32, denied allegations that the arrest of dozens of princes sent to the Ritz Hotel was part of a power struggle. "It's absurd," the crown prince replied, claiming that most of the royal family was already behind him. His stated that Saudi Arabia has suffered a great deal of corruption from the 1980s until today. He added that according to Saudi experts' calculations, about ten percent of all government spending was due to the high levels of corruption, and that over the years the government had launched several fights against corruption, all of which had failed, because they had started from the bottom up.

According to bin Salman, it will be possible to reach agreements with the detainees, who are expected to reimburse the Saudi government with no less than $100 billion.

Friedman stated that the crown prince told him, Do not write that we are reinterpreting Islamwe are restoring Islam to its originsand our biggest tools are the Prophets practices and (daily life ined) Saudi Arabia before 1979. Bin Salman stressed that in the time of the Prophet Muhammad, there were theaters, Jews and Christians in Saudi Arabia, and that the country's first judge was a woman. So the Prophet was not a Muslim? asked bin Salman, rhetorically.
Acting at the behest of his leader, Hasidic Ger Rebbe Yaakov Aryeh Alter, Ya'akov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) announced Friday he will resign as health minister on Sunday, but that he and his party would likely remain in the coalition. Litzman's pending resignation comes following his emphatic objections to road work being carried out on the Israeli train system on Shabbat, and after the High Court of Justice ordered him to serve as a full-time minister instead of continuing to serve as deputy minister.

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Litzman and UTJ have long since objected to any work being done on Shabbat. In an effort to appease them, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Haim Katz (Likud) announced he had greatly reduced train work and authorized that only essential actions be done on the train on Shabbat, to ensure rail safety. "This decision reflects full consideration for the feelings of the religious public on the one hand, and maintaining the routine of the train users on Sunday on the other," said Katz.

Whether forced by the command of the Rebbe Altman, or reflecting his own ideology, Litzman's resignation has dragged both Torah Judaism and Sephardic Haredi party Shas to a political whirlpool that none of them seem to want: despite being the one who created this crisis, Litzman has declared he is not interested in dismantling the government, which has made repeated efforts to appease its Haredi members.

Litzman and train work performed on Shabbat (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, Ido Erez)

Litzman is ostensibly alone in this campaign to either secure a complete halt to the desecration of the Shabbat or have him resign from his post of health minister. Such a move would also be a blow to Litzman, who is said to greatly enjoy his position and who has received a great deal of praise for his ministerial work.

In light of this, his declaration is believed to be a possible move on his part to placate Rebbe Altman while still remaining in the government.

Rebbe Altman

It not likely, though, that Litzman's statement will appease Altman, who will probably call a meeting of Agudat Yisrael (the largest faction in UTJ) to discuss resigning from the coalition. Such a decision would also include the resignations of three more government positionsDeputy Education Minister Meir Porush and MKs Yisrael Eichler and Menachem Eliezer Mozes. The three tend to avoid causing political shock wavesall of which will be deemed irrelevant if Rebbed Altman decies to resign, as he is the strongest and dominant factor in the Rabbinical Council.

If Agudat Yisrael decides to resign from the government, it will almost certainly spell the same fate for Degel HaTorahthe Lithuanian and smaller faction within United Torah Judaism. Degel HaTorah's leader is Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, who, while considered more of a pragmatist, is over 100 and currently in the hospital in critical condition.

Since the political union between the two Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox factions in 1992, under the United Torah Judaism party, there has been no precedent where only one of the factions withdrew from the coalition.

Litzman (C) and Gafni (R) during coalition negotiations (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

The snowball effect could then continue, with Shasthe Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party in the coalition, which normally works in complete with UTJ on matters of religion and statealso resigning. In fact, Shas leader Aryeh Deri and UTJ MK Moshe Gafni are reportedly furious with Litzman over the danger that his resignation might force both Shas to resign from the goverment.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greatly appreciates Minister Yaakov Litzman and hopes that he will not resign from the government," the Likud responded after Litzman's announcement to resign, adding that "the heads of the factions made it clear that they do not intend to leave the coalition, which would enable the formulation of an optimal solution that would preserve both the Shabbat and the public's need for safe and available transportation."

Following Litzman's announcement, the Coalition of Shabbat Equality issued their support while strongly criticizing the Israeli government for not enforcing a total day of rest on Shabbat.

The organization's Dir. Gen. Roy Lachmanovich said that "since the government's establishment, Minister Litzman has spoken for thousands of workers and business owners who lose their livelihood because they are forced to work on Shabbat against their will. He is careful to preserve Shabbat as a symbol that binds the people of Israel.

"I have no doubt that Interior Minister Deri and Chairman of the Finance Committee Gafni will not be able to stand by and remain silent, as the Shabbat continues to be run over as the official rest for the State of Israel todayand do nothing."
Egypt was hit by its deadliest ever militant attack on Friday, when gunmen opened fire and set off explosives at a mosque in the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing 305 people and wounding 128 more, state news agency MENA reported, quoting the public prosecutor.

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No group claimed responsibility for the assault but it was the deadliest yet in the region where for three years Egyptian security forces have battled an Islamic State insurgency that has killed hundreds of police and soldiers.

Following the attack, two UAVs launched by the Egyptian army destroyed 2 vehicles, killing 15 terrorists who took part in the massacre. The Arabic-language Sky News network reported that the Egyptian army was monitoring other vehicles in the area.

The scene of the massacre (Photo: MCT)

State media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of the city of El Arish.

They were shooting at people as they left the mosque, a local resident whose relatives were at the scene told Reuters. They were shooting at the ambulances too.

Arabiya news channel and some local sources said some of the worshippers were sufis who hardliners such as Islamic State regard as apostates because they revere saints and shrines, which for Islamists is tantamount to idolatry.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces commander who presents himself as a bulwark against Islamist militants in the region, convened an emergency security meeting soon after the attack, state television said.

The emergency security meeting

In a televised statement following the meeting, al-Sissi stressed that the attack "will not go unpunished" and that Egypt will persevere with its war on terrorism. The suffering of the victims was not in vain, he added, and will only "add to our insistence" to combat terrorism.

"The armed forces and the police will avenge our martyrs and restore security and stability with the utmost force," al-Sisi stated. "What is happening is an attempt to stop us from our efforts in the fight against terrorism, to destroy our efforts to stop the terrible criminal plan that aims to destroy what is left of our region."

Egypt later said it would delay the opening of the Rafah border crossing to Gaza after the attack due to security concerns. The crossing had been due to open for three days beginning on Saturday.

The mosque prior to the attack

Naftali Bennett, Israel's education minister, said after the attack that this is "a time for international unity in the war on terror wherever it presents itself: Russia, Europe, the US, Israel and the Arab Worldwe have all been hurt by terror and must unite in our battle against it."

The Tel Aviv Municipality building was illuminated by the flag of Egypt in solidarity with the victims of the attack.

Tel Aviv Municipality building, showing solidarity with Egypt (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

On twitter, US President Donald Trump denounced the Horrible and cowardly" attack, adding that the world take military action to "discredit" the extremist jihadists and their beliefs.

"Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshipers in Egypt," he wrote. "The world cannot tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!"

Following the terror blast

Militants have mostly targeted security forces in their attacks since bloodshed in the Sinai worsened after 2013 when Sisi, then an armed forces commander, led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

But jihadists have also targeted local Sinai tribes that are working with the armed forces, branding them traitors for cooperating with the army and police.

In July this year, at least 23 soldiers were killed when suicide car bombs hit two military checkpoints in the Sinai, an attack claimed by Islamic State.

Militants have tried to expand beyond the largely barren, desert Sinai Peninsula into Egypts heavily populated mainland, hitting Coptic Christian churches and pilgrims.

In May, gunmen attacked a Coptic group traveling to a monastery in southern Egypt, killing 29.
Pakistani authorities acting on a court order released a US-wanted militant Friday who allegedly founded a banned group linked to the 2008 Mumbai, India attack that killed 168 people, his spokesman and officials said.

Hafiz Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the US Justice Department and has a $10 million bounty on his head, was released before dawn after the court this week ended his detention in the eastern city of Lahore. The move outraged Indian authorities, but Saeed's spokesman Yahya Mujahid confirmed his release, calling it a "victory of truth."

"Hafiz Saeed was under house arrest on baseless allegations and jail officials came to his home last night and told him that he is now free," he said.
Trump has "broken all the rules," said former deputy Mossad head Ram Ben Barak in response to Thursday's Vanity Fair article revealing new information about the US president's revealing of top secret Mossad information to the Russians.

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"Cooperation between intel organizations is common and happens all the time," stated Ben Barak. "The minute one side tells a third party of this cooperation, it's tantamount to breaking all the rules."

Admitting he was not privy to all that transpired in Trump's meeting with the Russian officials, Ben Barak said that nevertheless, "if indeed details were revealed, it goes against understanding and could endanger intel sources. This is very serious, and it goes without saying that it would affect future cooperation."

Former deputy Mossad head Ram Ben Barak

While not diminishing from the seriousness of Trump's alleged intel sharing, former Mossad operative Gad Shimron was less willing to take the Vanity Fair report for its word. He also refuted Ben Barak's claims that sharing the minute details of such an operation with the president of a foreign country is considered "common" in the intelligence world.

"He's the president, not an operations officer," he said. "Even if Israeli intelligence shared the details of this operation and its progression with the Americanswhich is highly irregularI find it hard to believe that one of them (the American sideed) passed it on to the president.

"I find it hard to believe that someone shared this information," he added. "(When) there are operations, you report on the results, unless it was carried out in cooperation with the Americans, in which case they would know about it."

Former Mossad operative Gad Shimron

The Vanity Fair article reported that US President Donald Trump revealed to Russia that a special operations mission by the IDF elite commando unit Sayeret Matkal and the Mossad was carried out deep inside Syrian territory.

Back in June, it was revealed that Israeli cyber operators were able to penetrate a small cell of extremist bomb makers in Syria who were working to make explosives resembling laptop batteries capable of bypassing X-ray machines unnoticed.

According to Vanity Fair's report, the operationwhich took place in Februaryaimed to acquire information on new explosive technology being developed by Ibrahim al-Asiri, an al-Qaeda's chief bomb maker.

Trump's intel divulging was first made known in May, when it was reported that he had disclosed highly classified information to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak about a planned operation, plunging the White House into mayhem. A later reported stated that the intel had originally been received from Israel, and that by tipping off the Russians, Trump had allegedly put an Israeli spy's life at risk.

The meeting. R to L: Kislyak, Trump, Lavrov (Photo: EPA)

For the time being, Israel is maintaining its silence regarding Thursday's Vanity Fair report. The article did, however, state that due to Trump's indiscretion, security measures were now being upped at US airports, and that repeated warnings have been issued to travelers passing through Muslim country airports.

Shimron also posited that at the end of the day, even if Trump did pass on the information, it does not endanger the IDF and could even add to Israel's operations professional. "Things have been made public before, there are books, stories and legends about this. So here's another story that increases Israel's reputation, which is never a bad thing."
The criticism to which Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely has been subjected since making remarks in which she highlighted the fact that some, though not all , Jews in the US and the Diaspora have failed to understand the complexities of Israels challenges is not only disproportionate and unjustified, but it is a political tactic by Israels politicians designed to win back favor with liberal streams of US Jewry.

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Speaking about some Jews in the US who are critical of Israels policies, whether they be on construction in Judea and Samaria, or on military operations and responses to provocations from one enemy or another, Hotovely merely stated a fact.

I think the other issue is not understanding the complexity of the region. People that never send their children to fight for their countries. Most of the Jews dont have children serving as soldiers, going to the Marines, going to Afghanistan or to Iraq, Hotovely said.

Most of them are having quite a convenient life. They dont feel how it feels to be attacked by rockets and I think part of it is to actually experience what Israel is dealing with on a daily basis."

While these two statements triggered so much outrage, who can possibly argue with them?

Hotovely and Netanyahu (Photo: Ehud Zwigenberg)

Many Jews in the diaspora cast negative judgements on IDF soldiersboys and girlswho courageously and selflessly defend that precious country about which they so readily opine.

Those same Jews have absolutely no idea what the experience of being a soldier means, and the outrage that has ensued by uttering this simple fact can perhaps be attributed to collective guilt, rather than serious objection regarding its accuracy.

Notably absent from the media hype that followed her interview was any context. The reports deliberately isolated one quote and distorted it for the sake of the headline and whipping up the hysteria.

Hotovely was speaking in reference to the fact that a Jewish group had recently stifled free speech by stopping her from speaking at Hillel in Princeton University. She was also speaking about, as the interviewer put it, those Jews who no longer feel they have a connection with Israel on any level.

It is no coincidence that not a single one of the main online newspapers, including the one that broke the story, saw fit to mention that Hotovely also said during her interview: This is the home of all Jews from all streams. Everyone is welcome to come here to influence Israeli politics. Please come.

This was nowhere to be seen in the stories about the interview.

Most of the Jews to whom she was referringsave those who have served in the IDF or other militariescannot possibly know how it feels to lie in the freezing or almost unbearably hot field for days on end, to have a tank become your home, to face a Palestinian terrorist coming to kill you, your comrades and your fellow civiliansand may they never know.

When Hotovely declares that Jews who are sometimes particularly critical of Israeli policies or have become estranged from the country dont understand the complexity of the region or merely notes that those very same Jews have never kissed their children goodbye as they march toward an enemy craving their blood, she is merely stating a fact.

To deny it and then express rage about it reflects unmitigated arrogance.

Is it really so inconceivable that a Jew living in a country, with its vast expanses stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic, with no immediate neighbors bent on its destruction, may not understand the complex realities that haunt a country whose borders stretch from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River at their widest, with neighbors obsessed with achieving its ultimate demise?

Frankly, the fact that the Hotovely has been forced to grovel to save her political career after making these overdue remarks, is a travesty.

The din surrounding her comments could have been lowered by Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Rivlin by simply contextualizing her comments. They did not have to allow her to fall on a sword which the Kotel crisis has sharpened.

The spurious anger voiced by some politicians in the government is nothing more than a political ploy calculated to mend the fractures that have formed over religious differences between Israel and liberal streams of US Jewry.

Hotovely is simply the sacrificial lamb tossed onto the altar. Excessively castigating her, and possibly firing herthey misguidedly presumecould regain the favor for Israel of liberal US Jews. This, they believe, could extricate them from their political tribulations which have befallen them since the Kotel controversy.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

The hysteria surrounding her comments is insincere and sadly lends credence to the notion that Israel is merely a subservient mouthpiece for some US Jews who, if unpleasant truths are spoken, may take umbrage at the implication that their knowledge and understanding is imperfect.

Moreover, the opprobrium which has been levelled against Hotovely here in Israel is also illustrative of the fact that Israel too suffers from an extreme form of political correctness that defies logic.

Netanyahu should not have said her remarks do not reflect the position of the State of Israel because had he actually listened to what she had said in full, he would have surely realized thaton the contrarythey precisely reflect his governments unspoken position.

Rivlin decided to throw Hotovely out into the cold when he referred to an agreement signed two years after Israel gained independence by Ben Gurion and the American Jewish Committee President Jacob Blaustein, which sought to determine the nature of the relationship between the Jewish communities of Israel and the US.

Israel represents its citizens only, and speaks only in their name, Rivlin said as he listed what he said were some of the agreements main clauses.

It is worth noting that Hotovelys comments, in no way, undermined this principle.

American Jews are citizens of the US and the US alone has their loyalty, he went on. No side will intervene in the political decisions of the other.

Does this apply to groups like J-street? Does it apply to prominent liberal Jews who seek to defame the Israeli government and lash Israels Orthodox population for policies relating to the Kotel? Or is the obligation to comply with the principle strictly reserved for Israelis?

Should Hotovely and any other Israeli, whether in the government or not, be compelled to stay mute on an important issue that should be brought to some Jews attention while a significant number of those same Jews are freely and publicly able to censure Israelall too often unjustifiably?

In an address by Jacob Blaustein at the meeting of its th AJCs executive committee on April 29, 1950 entitled The Voice of Reason, he made two crucial comments that Rivlin failed to mention.

Rivlin and Hotovely (Photo: AFP, Motti Kimchi)

The future of American Jewry, of our children and of our children's children, is entirely linked with the future of America. We have no alternative; and we want no alternative, Blaustein said during a speech in New York.

Essentially, Hotovely was simply applying this same principle to Israel. Why American Jews, not to mention Israeli leaders, should be enraged by this is a mystery.

Finally, Rivlin, and indeed some Diaspora Jews who are prepared to persistently slam Israels domestic and military policies, would be wise to remember perhaps the most pertinent point mentioned by Blaustein in his speech about American Jewry:

We shall not assume that we know all the answers.

Hotovely should be proud of finally speaking the truth. She should be hailed, not assailed, for reminding a certain section of the Jewish Diaspora of Blausteins words. Israels leaders should be firmly backing her, and not for a moment consider sacking her.
Turkey said on Friday that US President Donald Trump told President Tayyip Erdogan he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, and that the Turkish government hoped to see that order carried out.

"Our discomfort regarding the provision of weapons to the YPG was conveyed to Mr Trump once again... Trump very clearly said he had given instructions to not provide weapons to the YPG," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara.

"We welcome the promise of not providing weapons to the YPG, and want to see it implemented practically."

Cavusoglu also said that Russia, Iran and Turkey would decide jointly who would attend Syrian peace talks. Turkey has said it would not accept the presence of YPG representatives.
The IDF and Israel Police are examining how a bullet got lodged in the side of the car of a security coordinator parked on the northern side of the northern town of Metula, opposite a Lebanese village.

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The bullet did not penetrate the hood of the car and no one was injured.

The car was parked on the northern side of the town, opposite Kafr Kila on the Lebanese side of the border.

The bullet, still lodged in the hood of Azoulay's car

Metula security coordinator David Azoulay, who's also head of the Metula local council, told Ynet that when he returned to his vehicle he discovered the bullet lodged in the hood of the car.

"It can be estimated that it was shot from a great distance because the bullet did not penetrate the hood and remained stuck in it," Azoulay said.

The council head added that the incident was very unusual and that the quiet in the town had been preserved.

As the bullet hit the hood at a downward angle, some of the town's residents posited that it was fired into the air as part of the Independence Day celebrations in Lebanon, which took place Monday, or some other celebration.

Celebratory gunfire is known to be culturally accepted in Lebanon.

The bullet hole

The bullet is a 7.62 mm caliber round, suitable for AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle and even an MAG machine gun.

The last security incident in the region took place in January of this year, when shots were fired from a vehicle on the Lebanese side towards an IDF force.
Bullying is not what it used to be.

The days of school-yard insults heard by a handful of people said once and done are no more.

In todays age of smart phones, computers, Instagram and other social media sharing, the bullying voices can and are amplified, repeated and often anonymous.

Just ask your kid.

And the results, unfortunately, can be tragic.

We dont have to look far for examples. Just this month a 14-year-old Glendale boy with ties to relatives in Union Grove committed suicide after being mocked and taunted by fellow students repeatedly at his Glendale-River Hills school.

Parents said they were unaware of the cyberbullying; so did school officials. But the evidence was there on the teens cell phone that showed Instagram posts from a group of mostly girls. One post before his death said, I hope you die. Another, after his death, said, Im glad youre gone because I dont have to look at your ugly face anymore, according to news reports.

That tragic and ugly episode squares with other news reports this month that shows an increase in suicide rates among U.S. teens between 2010 and 2015  after they had declined for two decades, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study doesnt answer the question why they went up, but it suggests that one factor could be the rise of social media use and cyberbullying.

We need to stop thinking of smartphones as harmless, said study author Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, according to an Associated Press report. Theres a tendency to say, Oh, teens are just communicating with their friends. Monitoring kids use of smartphones and social media is important and so is setting reasonable limits.

Another researcher said the immediacy, anonymity and potential for bullying gives social media a unique potential for causing harm. Parents dont really get that.

Against that backdrop, we welcome the City of Racines initiative to create an anti-bullying ordinance that targets an intentional course of conduct which is reasonably likely to intimidate, emotionally abuse, slander (or) threaten someone.

The proposal, which is modeled after similar ordinances in other Wisconsin cities and incorporates language on cyberbullying from state statutes, was sent to the City Attorneys office for drafting.

It would apply to young and old, not just teens  and it would carry potential fines of $1 to $1,000. If a teen under the age of 17 violates the ordinance, he or she could be fined, lose their drivers license, ordered to do community service or pay restitution. Under the proposed ordinance, if a parent is notified that their child has bullied someone and they dont stop their child from bullying  they could also face the same level of fines.

That has raised some eyebrows, because failing to pay a municipal forfeiture could result in a warrant for contempt  which could result in jail time. City attorneys, however, say that the courts typically allow adults to work off forfeitures by performing community service as well.

There are some issues that the City Council and its committees need to work through before final passage. But they should not underestimate the destructive nature of bullying and particularly cyberbullying on young people and the real danger that it can cost lives of youths who think their whole lives are ruined because of some transient peer nastiness. They deserve a chance to live their lives outside some insults on Instagram, Twitter or other social media.
Suspected jihadists attacked a UN peacekeeping position in northern Mali on Friday killing two peacekeepers from Niger and a Malian soldier and injuring 14 peacekeepers and a UN civilian contractor, authorities said.

The UN mission reported that at least three assailants were killed by return fire from the peacekeepers.

The mission in Mali and UN officials in New York said the assailants attacked the peacekeepers' position in Indelimane, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) west of Menaka near the border with Niger, early Friday morning.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though the Islamic State in the Sahel group is active in the region. The extremist group is believed to be behind an ambush of US forces and their local counterparts in Niger that left four Americans dead last month.

Following the attack, the UN said the Mali mission deployed three helicopters to evacuate the injured peacekeepers, 13 from Niger and one from Cambodia as well as the civilian. The UN mission's aircraft with medical teams also deployed from Kidal and Bamako to evacuate some of the wounded, the UN said.
Lebanese security forces arrested actor and director Ziad Itani on suspicion of spying for Israel.

Security forces announced that its men had followed Itani's work in Lebanon and abroad, and that he confessed to the allegations against him.

Itani was accused of monitoring senior politicians in the country and of trying to obtain information about their movements.

According to the security forces, Itani's Israeli operators asked him to "prepare the ground" for normalization with Israel in terms of public opinion in Lebanon.
The security minister of Ukraine's pro-Russian rebel region of Luhansk said on Friday he was taking over power from regional chief Igor Plotnitsky, who days earlier had said he was facing an attempted armed coup to force him out.

In a video posted on a rebel news portal in Luhansk, the security minister, Leonid Pasechnik, said he was taking over after Plotnitsky resigned for health reasons. But there was no immediate word from Plotnitsky himself.

Luhansk and the neighbouring Donetsk region rebelled against rule from Kiev in 2014 and declared themselves independent.
Syrian opposition representatives selected Nasr Hariri to head a negotiating team at an upcoming round of UN-backed peace talks in Geneva, spokesman Ahmad Ramadan told Reuters on Friday.

The decision came at a meeting in Riyadh where, a day before, Syria's main opposition stuck by its demand that President Bashar al-Assad play no role in an interim period, despite speculation that it could soften its stance because of Assad's battlefield strength.
The UN Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have condemned the deadly attack on a mosque in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in "the strongest terms" and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

The council statement called it a "heinous and cowardly terrorist attack" and reiterated that all acts of terrorism "are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation." Guterres called the attack, which killed at least 235 people, "horrific."

Security Council members, including Egypt which is serving a two-year term, "reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security."

Both the council and the secretary-general extended deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Egypt.
Gautam Buddha Airport Project: 2nd package of project to start in Feb

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) has planned to launch the second package of the Gautam Buddha Airport Project in Bhairahawa next February, considering the expected progress of the ongoing civil works by then.
ADB appoints new country director for Nepal

Mukhtor Khamudkhanov has been appointed as new Country Director for Nepal by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Back to district for elections

For Sundays vote, people are defying the cold to reach their villages in Manang district in the trans-Himalayan arid zone.
Border with China sealed for 72 hrs

Nepal-China border cro- ssings at Rasuwagadhi and Kimathanka will be closed for 72 hours from Thursday midnight, ahead of the first phase of federal parliament and provincial elections scheduled for November 26.
Distribution of Poor ID cards starts in 5 districts

The Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA) has begun issuing Poor Identity Cards to people identified as living below the poverty line, but it has not decided what benefits will be provided to the holders.
Election economics

Campaign spending pumps cash into the economy and stimulates short-term growth
Election watch

Free and fair poll observation is important exercise in a democracy
Godman held on sexual exploitation charges

Police on Thursday made public a spiritual leader, who was arrested from Dakshinkali, Kathmandu, on sexual abuse charges.
Govt decides to build Budhi Gandaki hydro project with domestic investment

The government has decided to construct the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower project with domestic investment.
IED detonated targeting Minister Thapas vehicle in Dhankuta

A group of unidentified persons hurled an improvised explosive device (IED) at Industry Minister and federal parliamentary elections candidate Sunil Bahadur Thapa at Dhankuta on Friday.
Livelihood concerns Rajapur locals more than elections

People living in rural parts of Bardiya district say they are more concerned about issues of their daily livelihood rather than the upcoming elections of the federal parliament and provincial assemblies.
Making water work

Nepal has to create a proper, data-driven framework for effective water resource management
MoHA orders arrest of top CPN leaders

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) has instructed the police administration to arrest top leaders of the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) as part of its intensified move to curb anti-election activities.
NA disposes IED planted at Koirala's publicity office

A bomb disposal team of Nepal Army on Friday disposed of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted targeting the Nepali Congress General Secretary Shashanka Koirala's election publicity office at Dumkibas in the district.
Pressure cooker bomb planted at NC election publicity office

An unidentified group has planted a pressure cooker bomb at Nepali Congress (NC)s election publicity office in Dumkauli of eastern Nawalparasi district on Friday.
Therell always be disparity, inequities

The feeling of euphoria has heightened in Nepal as the country is on the cusp of making a transition from unitary to federal system of government.
Removal of tariffs could result in gain of $9.5m for country, says report, rejecting negative hypothesis

Zimbabwe could gain about $44 million worth of new trade and a positive net trade effect of $9.5 million from the removal of import tariffs if it adopts a free trade area with China, a study by the University of Zimbabwe says.

A free trade area is an agreement between two or more trading partners to facilitate trade through the removal of all tariff and nontariff barriers.

A study by the University of Zimbabwe says that Zimbabwe will benefit greatly if it adopts a free trade area with China. Provided to China Daily

"Empirical results show that close to $44.39 million worth of new trade will be created with China, while around $34.9 million of trade will be diverted resulting in a positive net trade effect of $9.49 million for Zimbabwe.

"This implies that liberalization of trade between Zimbabwe and China will be beneficial for Zimbabwe," the study, published to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Confucius Institute at the University of Zimbabwe on Oct 12, concluded.

Conducted by two senior lecturers in the Department of Economics at UZ, Fanuel Hazvina and Albert Makochekanwa, the study sought to investigate the potential impacts of the formation and implementation of a Zimbabwe-China FTA.

Conversely, the study said that Zimbabwe could lose around $44.78 million in tariff revenue if duties were only removed from its imports from China.

It (research) noted, though, that a reciprocal tariff reduction of 100 percent by both China and Zimbabwe could lead to a rise in Zimbabwe's exports, particularly sanitary ware, tampons, nappies and nappy liners for babies, tobacco and some manufactured products.

"Overall, an FTA between Zimbabwe and China will result in positive trade effect of $9.5 million. Thus, the results from the study lead us to reject the hypothesis that an FTA between Zimbabwe and China will negatively affect Zimbabwe's economy," the study said.

The researchers said that if Zimbabwe is committed to full trade liberalization with China, it must introduce new fiscal revenue lines to compensate for the loss in tariff revenue.

This can be achieved through focusing on nontrade tax revenue sources and instituting efficient fiscal revenue collection methods.

To address potential employment losses that could result from the displacement of local production by imports from China, the study said the government could devise skills and productivity adjustment programs that facilitate the relocation of labor into sectors where production will be expanding because of the FTA.

To conduct the study, the researchers used a model based on the system of market analysis and restrictions of trade model of the World Integrated Trade Solution data retrieval system.

Zimbabwe currently grants tariff preferences under bilateral, regional and multilateral trade agreements, but it has no special trade policy with China.

China offers unilateral preferential treatment to less-developed countries and, since 2013, it has lowered duties to zero on 95 percent of tariff lines for imports from such countries.

Zimbabwe does not benefit from the Chinese preference plan for Africa.

In recent years, bilateral trade between China and Zimbabwe has witnessed rapid growth, which has seen China become Zimbabwe's key trade partner.

Chun Feng, economic and commercial counsellor with the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe, says annual bilateral trade between the two countries rose from $560 million in 2010 to $1.3 billion in 2015. The target by 2020 is $2 billion.

China and Zimbabwe trade mainly in manufactured goods. Zimbabwe's exports to China consist largely of raw materials such as tobacco, nickel, ferro chrome and cotton.

The main products imported from China to Zimbabwe are mechanical and electrical products, textiles and high-tech products.

For China Daily
1. Yes. The ordinance goes against state law and is not in the best interest of the cities.

2. Yes. At the very least, it should be amended to give police officers some discretion.

3. No. Voters approved the ordinance by large majorities; the councils cant ignore that fact.

4. No. The petition process has to be given a chance to work. Leave the ordinance alone.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say how the cities should move forward regarding the ordinance.

Vote

View Results
Local governments weighed in on the La Crosse County Premiere Resort Area Tax this month, with some issuing resolutions of support or nonsupport for the measure.

The tax, which was approved by voters in an advisory referendum in April, would add a half-percent to the sales tax at businesses considered to be tourist related. The county, which does not meet the minimum requirement for a resort tax, must seek an exception from the state legislature and has sought support from local governments.

If approved by the state, the tax would raise an estimated $6.6 million a year, of which the county plans to use $5 million for infrastructure projects. Municipalities within the county would also benefit by receiving a portion of revenues based on street mileage.

Last week the Onalaska Common Council unanimously voted to issue a resolution of non-support for the tax, which many of the council said would do more harm than good for area residents. Council member Jim Binash took aim at the tax by questioning the benefit to local taxpayers.

We as citizens are going to pay more of this tax, and you are not going to get more out of it, he said.

Council member Ron Gjertsen echoed Binashs concerns calling the tax a ghost tax.

Its obvious it is going to hurt more than it helps, he said.

While the Onalaska Common Council was quick to issue a resolution against the tax, Holmen has taken a neutral stance.

The village has no intention of passing a proclamation of support or non-support of the PRAT tax, Village Administrator Scott Heinig said.

Village President Nancy Proctor, however, is opposed to the tax. Proctor, serves as President of the Explore La Crosse board of directors. She said the group is not in favor of the tax.

I think the residents of La Crosse County are going to be the people paying the tax, she said.

The West Salem Village Board failed to reach consensus on the resort tax during an attempt to pass a resolution earlier this month. Village Administrator Teresa Schnitzler said a tie vote resulted in the failed motion and no resolution in support or otherwise was passed.

The tax would generate an estimated $35,000-$36,000 for the village annually.

West Salem Village Board member Jim Leicht, who voted against supporting the resort tax said he could see how it might work for the Wisconsin Dells where 40 percent of revenue comes from tourists, but not for La Crosse County.

I dont see La Crosse County as a destination, he said.

Leicht said the county is attempting to disguise a sales tax increase as a resort tax.

Call it what it is, he said. This is going to penalize everyone who lives here.

The Bangor Village Board considered a resolution of support during its monthly meeting Tuesday, Nov. 14.

According to Bangor Village Administrator Shelly Miller, the board quickly tabled the motion for lack of information. The tax was estimated to generate $17,000 in revenues for the village.

Bangor Village President Gary Althoff said while Bangor could benefit from additional street funding, he wasnt in favor of a plan that would tax certain businesses differently.

Miller said the village and the county need to address roads somehow.

Im still on the fence personally, Miller said, adding she didnt think many customers would notice another half percent on the sales tax.

I think people are ready to do something, she said.
Its irritating me lately that some companies are trying to get the hype from putting out weird foods without delivering the goods.

If youre like me (especially if youre like me), you get stories shared with you all the time on Facebook about some weird, limited-edition item or another. The latest was that Pringles was selling an eight-course Thanksgiving meal in a box  eight different kinds of flavored chips inspired by the holiday table, from turkey to green bean casserole to pumpkin pie.

Sounds perfect, right? But when reading the fine print of the article was it revealed that the Pringles Thanksgiving Dinner isnt available to the public, and the company sent a few copies to the media elite to try. As a man of the people (and someone who was apparently not one of those elite), I am outraged. Let my people snack!

Another trick is for a fast-food restaurant to test out a new product in one market, usually in the Midwest or the South. But theyre not really wondering what diners in Oxnard or Duluth think of their new product. Theyre wondering if articles about the product will generate buzz nationwide.

For example, you may have seen that Taco Bell was testing a Kit Kat Quesadilla, called a Chocoladilla, in some of its stores in Wisconsin, for a limited time. Except I couldnt find any Taco Bell in the Madison area that was actually serving them. And, despite dozens of national articles about it, I couldnt find a single person on Twitter or Instagram who had found it in a Wisconsin Taco Bell. Was it all a big hoaxadilla?

One thing that may be working against the notion of the Chocoladilla going nationwide is that ladilla can mean crab lice in Spanish. So chocoladilla roughly translates as chocolate crab lice. Good luck with that, marketing people.

A road trip to Milwaukee last weekend for a live taping of the My Brother, My Brother and Me comedy podcast gave me a chance to see if I could find one before the show. The timing was even more ideal since MBMBaM has a recurring feature called Munch Squad, in which the brothers dissect hilariously bad press releases from fast-food restaurants. At Sundays Milwaukee show, I learned that if you get fired from your job and publicly plead on LinkedIn for a free Whopper from Burger King, theyll send you a coupon in about six months.

So on our way into town, my intrepid road pals and I stopped at a Taco Bell on Milwaukees west side. The bad news: It did not sell Kit Kat Chocoladillas. The good news: It sold a similar dessert called a Caramel Chocoladilla.

I didnt see much media play around the Caramel Chocoladilla, although some media reports claimed that Taco Bell was also selling a Twix Chocoladilla with caramel inside. But this wasnt that.

The three of us ordered dinner and Chocoladillas, which were each only a dollar. That seemed to be the right price point for a small, flat, foil-wrapped tortilla.

I opened up the tortilla. This was a mistake. Dont do this.

Inside was a nauseating-looking mix of chocolate sauce, chocolate chips, caramel sauce, caramel chips and, for some reasons, a single piece of red bell pepper. Even weirder was that when my two companions opened theirs up, they also each had a single piece of bell pepper.

So weird! Was this the secret signature of the cook, who puts a pepper into every single thing he makes back in the kitchen as his calling card? The way legendary New York Times illustrator Al Hirschfeld would hide his daughters name Nina in almost all of his drawings?

Anyway, the Chocoladilla looked terrible opened up. Taco Bell should invent a cheese padlock or something to make sure customers can never, ever open it. Because it tasted okay, although pretty skimpy on the filling. One of my companions remarked that she wished it was filled with melted Kit Kat or Twix bars, just because it needed that cookie crunch inside to go with the chocolate and caramel.

Well, we did that, I said as we got up to leave. After 75 miles and all the build-up, the Chocoladilla was kind of a letdown. Maybe, for once, Taco Bell was right to withhold the goods from the general population.

Although let me know if you come across the Kit Kat version somewhere.
Crucifixion Elementary School Principal Doug Harpenau was apprehensive of the cold and wobbly ladder that led to the rooftop of the school last Thursday morning, but he knew he would be appreciative of the scene at the top.

Through participation in the Minnesota Department of Commerces Made in Minnesota solar incentive program and an agreement with Aquilla Solar of Wabasha, Crucifixion has become the first school in town with a solar power system on its roof.

The 152 solar panels recently installed above the schools gymnasium can produce 40 kilowatts of electricity, enough to provide around 80 percent of the schools electricity.

I was extremely happy, Harpenau said about the news the school had been accepted into the program. Last year we applied and didnt get it, and this year I said lets roll the dice again because it cant hurt.

The panels can be individually monitored and adjusted, and connect to an inverter behind the school. The inverter converts the power from the panels to an alternating current that transmits it to the electrical grid.

Crucifixion will receive a 10 percent discount on its electricity bill for the next 10 years as a result of the project, Harpenau said. After six years, the school will have the ability to purchase the panels for 10 percent of the purchase price of $13,000 from Aquilla. After 10 years, Crucifixion can purchase the solar array for $1.

Because Xcel allows schools to have up to 120 percent of their annual power offset by solar, Harpenau said Crucifixion could install a separate 30kW system in the future. The Made in Minnesota program caps installations at 40kW per system.

The installation of solar panels on a flat roof like Crucifixions starts by placing each panel onto steel mounts that are supported by cinder blocks. The entire framework relies entirely on balance, and no part of the system is physically attached to the roof.

I was expecting like three of four semis to roll in, said Harpenau, who was surprised by how simple the installation process was.

Aquilla project manager Jeff Shockoconger said that in Minnesota, a licensed electrician is required for the hookup of the panels, so the four-person crew that unloaded everything and structured the panels into place Thursday morning didnt actually plug anything in until the electric crew arrived later in the day, and both crews work together through each connection.

Its all plug and play though, really, said Shockoconger, who oversaw the installation on Thursday and will oversee the setup of the monitoring system as well.

If something goes wrong with the system, an Aquilla representative will notify the school, and if necessary, have them perform a system reset. Aquilla will also come to inspect the any potentially serious issue. Harpenau said he was inclined to work with Aquilla because they were local, and support for the panels would be close if any issue arose.

I wanted to go local, and we were lucky to find someone right around here, said Harpenau. So therefore if there is an issue, I know where they are, because they have a stake in the area.

Including Crucifixion students in the schools movement towards green energy is important, said Harpenau, and solar energy is included in the science curriculum.

Theyre learning that solar isnt just something you can put on your roof, said Harpenau. And that you dont need electricity for everything, and that solar can be used in all kinds of different units. So theyre being educated on how it all works now, and how there are much easier ways of doing it.

State incentives are fueling growth in solar power across Minnesota and Shockoconger noted that in the summer, the state generates more power from the sun than any other. However, in the winter, snow has to melt away before the sun can reach the panels, which can reduce production.
As you probably have heard, RSV is hitting early and hitting hard this year. Here at Winona Health, my fellow caregivers in Pediatrics and Family Medicine and I are fielding many questions from concerned parents and child care providers. We are always happy to be your resource!
For many, the onset of dementia plays out gradually  a forgotten name here, a missed appointment there  creeping up on families with little time to prepare. But an upcoming performance of Steering into the Skid will chronicle the progression of Alzheimers disease in just 20 minutes, leading viewers through 12 months in the life of a couple facing the strain and sorrow of memory loss.

Steering into the Skid, being presented Thursday, Dec. 7, at the Black River Beach Neighborhood Center, was written by spouses Deborah Ann Percy and Arnold Johnston of Michigan and follows fictional couple Tim and Amanda from New Years Eve through the following December. One of three short plays in The Memory Care Plays, compiled by Dr. Margaret A. Noel, Steering into the Skid is presented by the Remember Project, a St. Croix based organization founded in 2015 to create dialogue through performance.

Having this opportunity to bring this play to our community  it starts conversations, said Cheryl Neubauer, supervisor with the Aging and Disability Resource Center of La Crosse County, which is sponsoring the event through a dementia crisis grant.

Our ultimate goal is to assist community members and leaders to consider new ways to think about memory loss, said Danette McCarthy, who has portrayed Amanda in all 40 performances of Steering into the Skid. And to become aware of local resources that support families who are dealing with a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimers Disease.

The nations senior population is at an all high time, in large part due to baby boomers approaching or experiencing their sixth decade of life. Currently, 15.2 percent of the population is aged 65 or older, and 2017 statistics from the Alzheimers Association reveal one in 10 of those 65 and over, or 5.5 million Americans, have Alzheimers disease. The number of dementia related deaths jumped 89 percent from 2000 to 2014.

Alzheimers disease has no cure and cannot be prevented, and yet the disease is stigmatized, with patients embarrassed to admit their minds are failing them, families struggling with denial and caregivers overwhelmed by their compounding tasks. More than 15 million Americans provide uncompensated care for people with Alzheimers, and they are twice as likely to experience severe emotional, physical or financial stress than those tending to people with other medical conditions.

Theres so much frustration that goes along with caring for someone, Neubauer said. They tend to be very isolated. Family and friends want to help and caregivers dont want to be a burden.

Helping caregivers find respite and support is one of the main goals of the program, will be preceded by a luncheon and followed by discussion in small and large groups. Individuals impacted by dementia are encouraged to come and share their experiences, ask questions and connect with resources.

Its a real powerful experience, McCarthy says of the conversations that ensue, recalling a woman who compared dementia to a thief and a man who struggled to turn his wifes care over to a residential facility. Its a really lovely thing when people get to take their story and use it to help other people too, too ... it can help others feel more comfortable about the decisions they have to make.

McCarthy and Neubauer, who have invited local government officials to the event, stress the importance of having public officials, business owners and health care workers in attendance. As the workforce community and general population ages, it is crucial for employers to be prepared to assist their workers, for businesses to approach confused or frustrated customers compassionately and for more individuals to be trained in dementia care.

Nuebauer says there is neither enough money or memory care facilities available to serve the current affected population, with a local hospital citing a six month waiting list to see a neuropsychologist or geriatrician.

(Dementia) is an important issue and it will continue to be a growing issue, Neubauer said.

Impact tracking of counties who hosted the Remember Project has shown the program sparked an increase in requests for dementia care training and services, as well as a grassroots response to bring the play to other communities.

Ultimately, Neubauer would like to see La Crosse become a dementia-friendly community, with early access to screenings, rapid in-home assistance to give caregivers a reprieve, and state guidelines and mandatory training for memory care facilities and workers. Additionally, she feels law enforcement should be equipped to recognize and act patiently when someone is having a dementia-related crisis, and to avoid detainment when at all possible. McCarthy envisions bringing dementia into the fold of inclusive/adaptive activities and events.

Being able to walk the world with dignity is something we all want, McCarthy said. Its about helping the person have the biggest life for the longest time possible.
On the corner of Seventh and Badger streets, surrounded by the Western Technical College campus and City Hall, stands a big old yellow house. It is the last remnant of its old neighborhood and one of the oldest buildings in La Crosse.

Built and used by the Hixon family, the house was donated by the family to the La Crosse County Historical Society in 1965, and for over 50 years, we have given public tours of its remarkably intact circa 1910 interiors. These interiors reflect the wealthy lifestyle of early taste makers in local society, and their opulence and historical authenticity are what impress visitors.

But the building itself is actually quite unremarkable from an architectural standpoint. It fits into a broad style category known as vernacular, meaning that common methods of construction were used to make a house like many others, without the involvement of an architect. At best, one of the popular style books of the day would have been the builders reference point. At one time there would have many similar homes, both large and small, throughout the small frontier town.

The specific style, known as Italianate, is recognized from the houses deep eaves, supported by large ornamental brackets. Italianate homes have much less decoration than other Victorian styles, and the Hixon home maintained its simplicity of design throughout several additions.

The building reflects the story of the man who built it, Gideon Hixon, and the family he raised there. In the 1850s, many people from the east coast of the United States were moving westward, settling on the frontier in the Midwest, acting on the national conviction that it was their natural right, or Manifest Destiny, to do so.

Gideon, a young man from Massachusetts, came with his wife and her brother, and in partnership began working in the new and quickly expanding lumber business. Sarah died within the first year, but shortly after Gideon brought his sister and widowed mother to La Crosse. He needed a place for them, as well as a couple of brothers who came and went, to live. The first section of the house was begun in 1858. The last addition was made in 1900.

Between those dates Gideon remarried in 1861, to Ellen Pennell, another New Englander, and they had five sons, all born in the house. By the time of his death his lumber business had made him a very wealthy man. His sons had grown, gone into the family business and continued to increase the family wealth.

The Hixons proved themselves to be not just successful capitalists but generous civic patrons as well, funding hospitals, schools and parks. From Granddad Bluff to Riverside Park, La Crosse to this day reflects their influence.

I find it interesting that this personal generosity, and love of beauty and comfort within their home, was not combined with any need for public show. Ellen and Gideon Hixon never saw a need to replace their modest wood house with something bigger and fancier on lumber barons row, on Cass Street. Gideon was true to his New England roots and remained a practical man who did not spend money he didnt have to. In 1892, he died in the house on Seventh Street, which was surrounded by mostly modest homes in a less than prestigious part of town. His widow, Ellen, continued to live their until her death in 1913.

After that, their children kept the house as their mother had left it, until donating it to the LCHS in 1965. We have cared for it since then, and, like all old houses, it needs a lot of upkeep. Right now it needs painting; it has been 14 years since it was last done, and the exterior is looking pretty shabby from peeling paint. Estimates are coming in at nearly $25,000, so we are kicking off a campaign to Repaint Historic Hixon House on Giving Tuesday.

You can help preserve this rich legacy of local history by participating and donating to help Repaint Historic Hixon House. Its going to be a lot of money for us to raise and we need help! You can donate at our website, www.lchshistory.org, or contact our office at 145 West Ave. S., La Crosse. Phone number is 608-872-1980.

Lets make Gideon and Ellens house look good again, and take care of it for the future.
Doctors who let patients or their employers pay a monthly fee for primary care, outside of health insurance, could continue the arrangements free from insurance regulations under a proposed bill in Wisconsin.

In direct primary care, a national trend with mixed financial success, people pay $20 to $100 a month or more for unlimited primary care services, such as routine visits and lab tests.

Many of the patients carry high-deductible or catastrophic health insurance to cover major medical expenses.

The model helps patients with significant deductibles afford primary care and frees doctors from paperwork, said Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin, who is seeking sponsors for the bill, along with co-sponsor Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield.

It cuts out any government bureaucracy, or an insurance company, from being in the middle of that relationship, said Sanfelippo, head of the Assemblys health committee.

A few doctors provide direct primary care in Wisconsin. Nationally, about 3 percent of doctors surveyed by the American Academy of Family Physicians provide direct primary care.

The bill would make it clear the arrangements arent subject to state insurance regulations and dont qualify as insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act, steps that could expand the practice, Sanfelippo said.

Twenty-three states have similar laws, according to the Direct Primary Care Coalition.

In Wisconsin, the bill would also require the state Department of Health Services to set up a pilot program for direct primary care for Medicaid recipients.

Assigning Medicaid patients to specific doctors for primary care could curb emergency room spending, Sanfelippo said.

The doctors would be able to keep a better eye on those patients, he said.

Michael Heifetz, the states Medicaid director, said direct primary care can manage costs in the private sector.

As you look at it for the Medicaid program, it becomes a bit more complicated because of numerous federal requirements  minimum benefit requirements, which are, in comparison to the private sector, quite generous, Heifetz said.

Heifetz said its not clear if the federal government would approve direct primary care in Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor.

The Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians supports the bill, saying it would be especially helpful for the 15 percent of doctors in the state who are not part of large medical practices, said Larry Pheifer, executive director of the group.

It allows those that maybe are not part of large groups ... to offer different kinds of patients an opportunity to get coverage in a reasonable way, with reasonable cost, Pheifer said.

The Wisconsin Medical Society hasnt taken a position yet, said Mark Grapentine, senior vice president of government relations.

Dr. Suzanne Gehl started a direct primary care practice in Delafield in September after working for several years in a similar, employer-based model.

She charges $20 to $100 a month, depending on the patients age, to cover basic services, including some minor procedures. Patients can also buy some medications and tests not covered by the monthly fee at bargain basement prices, she said.

She plans to take on no more than 500 patients, making herself available to them by phone call, text, email, webcam or office visits lasting at least half an hour.

In traditional clinics, family medicine doctors are typically responsible for 2,000 to 3,000 patients. Gehl said that in a previous job, she had to see 12 complex patients in three hours one day.

You cannot deliver quality, comprehensive care with a schedule like that, she said. Physicians feel like theyre on a hamster wheel.

Dr. Erica Rotondo provides direct primary care through Serenity Osteopathic on Madisons West Side, according to her website and the group Direct Primary Care Frontier. Rotondo didnt return messages seeking comment.

Dr. Will Schupp provided direct primary care in Madison for a few months in 2013 before shutting down the practice, according to The Capital Times.

Schupp, who now works at a traditional family medicine practice in Iowa, blamed the demise of his direct primary care practice on the website for the Affordable Care Acts insurance exchange. The website had many problems in late 2013 before coverage on the exchange started in 2014.

Qliance Medical Management, a Seattle-based chain of direct primary care clinics that was considered a national model for the practice, closed in May after 10 years.

The company ran up against overwhelming financial difficulties, Dr. Erika Bliss, CEO and co-owner, told The Seattle Times. The health-care system is hostile to change, and it has been literally an uphill battle the whole way, Bliss said.

Gehl said Qliance may have set its rates too low.

Dr. Aaron Dunn, an SSM Health Dean Medical Group doctor in Mineral Point who also works at the Community Connections Free Clinic in Dodgeville, said direct primary care could become an important alternative to regular medical care.

It cuts the insurance payer out of the picture, Dunn said. When you do that, you reduce your overhead and you reduce health care costs.

It allows (doctors) ... to offer different kinds of patients an opportunity to get coverage in a reasonable way, with reasonable cost. Larry Pheifer, executive director, Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians
Its not often that President Donald Trumps Twitter feed is the voice of reason and compassion, but on the issue of trophy hunting it makes more sense than his own Department of Interior.

Trump put on hold the departments initial decision to reverse an Obama-era ban and allow the importation of elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia. In a tweet, Trump referred to trophy hunting as a horror show. He said he would be very hard-pressed to conclude that such hunting advances the cause of conservation, the justification for the decision.

Trump, who has publicly dissented in the past from the notorious trophy hunting of his own sons, is right. In this case, government by tweet is better than the alternative, and more in keeping with the interests of the most majestic creatures on this Earth.

The African elephant population is in historic decline, driven by the loss of habitat and poaching. Early in the 20th century, there were more than 10 million elephants. Now there are about 350,000. The killing still proceeds apace.

A 2014 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that 100,000 elephants had been killed by poachers in a three-year period from 2010 to 2012, and the Central African population had declined by 64 percent over a decade. In one orgy of destruction in 2012, poachers killed more than 300 elephants in a national park in Cameroon with AK-47s and grenades.

Trophy hunting, which is licensed and regulated, is not illegal poaching. It also isnt a reputable practice. Or it shouldnt be.

Elephants are highly intelligent and social creatures. They really do have extraordinary memories. They have families. They mourn their dead. They arent simply walking tusks waiting to be mounted on someones office wall. Gunning them down for bragging rights, or to cross an item off a bucket list, or to post a photo with a carcass on Instagram or Facebook is thoughtless and cruel.

The argument that trophy hunting is a boon to conservation is hard to credit, and a little too convenient. Why did the hunter pay tens of thousands of dollars to travel halfway around the world to kill an elephant and chop off its head? Why, for the good of elephants, of course.

To have any chance of aiding in conservation and not fueling corruption, trophy hunting has to be carefully managed. It beggars belief that the government of Zimbabwe  long ruled by a monstrous dictator, Robert Mugabe, who reportedly is resigning after a military coup  will be a responsible steward of program in behalf of animals. The government of Zimbabwe has never managed to be a responsible steward of programs related to human beings.

Trophy hunting runs counters to the global campaign against the ivory trade, which is at the root of the poaching. We have finally prevailed on the Chinese, long the worst offender on ivory, to begin to shut down its markets. It would be bizarre to turn around and say that any schmuck with money to burn and no better way to entertain himself can waltz into the U.S. with elephant tusks.

Trophy hunting is now the exception rather than rule in African countries. Botswana, with the largest population of elephants, banned hunting in 2014; Kenya prohibited it back in the 1970s. Hunting bans are hardly a magical solution to the devastation in elephant populations. Yet wildlife tourism that doesnt involve destroying a scarce and endangered resource seems a better long-term economic bet.

After the initial decision to lift the trophy ban was announced, Trump may have been moved to speak out by heart-rending images on TV of elephants getting slaughtered. If so, it was an admirable reaction. When an elephant  a creature that means no harm and is deeply affected by trauma and loss  is poisoned or gunned down for fun or profit, its worth asking, Whos really the animal?
How wonderful that Wisconsin toddlers can now hunt with guns.

They need at least .460 Weatherby Magnums, in case they encounter hippos, the animals that kill the most humans.

I have seen few hippos in 33 years here, but hippos love water and may well hide in cranberry bogs, no doubt having adapted to our winters.

Maybe they hibernate in frozen mud and emerge in the spring. Surely hippos can do the same as frogs. Besides, recoil of a .460 Weatherby Magnum can stop a runaway pickup if the brakes fail, or help get it unstuck from bog mud.

Middle school kids can graduate to the .700 Nitro Express. Elephants might be rampaging in herds after escaping the Circus World Museum.

People from backward states with no hippos and elephants still must control animals frequently escaping zoos, as well as herds of moose and bison, along with bears, especially giant polar-grizzly hybrids as the climate warms.

We should be proud and grateful that Wisconsin's leaders took this important step instead of frittering away time and taxes on such frippery as public transportation, health care, drunk driving, fair elections, education and individual rights and equality.

Henry Thibault, La Crosse
Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier

"When you shake a veteran's hand today, look them in the eye and give them a heartfelt thank you," said USAF Ret. Col. Jen Fullmer, parade grand marshal, who spoke at the event.